Chapter Four
Reality. The crushing weight of reality bore down on her, as Kagome suddenly realized that whatever was happening to her; it was real. The world around her seemed to slow as she struggled to comprehend the enormity of it; she was, whether she liked it or not, in the middle of a very real battle, fighting equally real demons.
Real demons; she felt dazed at the thought, demons were creatures of fairytales and legends, yet here they were, living and dying by her blade. It was as if a haze had been lifted from her eyes. The shock of everything that had happened to her had finally burned out of her system and she realized that she was in very real danger.
She waited for panic to come, waited for the hysterics she knew a normal person would succumb to upon this realization. They did not come, all she felt was the warriors calm her instructors had instilled within her through years of training. Maybe after she finished the battle she would panic, but not right now. Right now, her life was in danger, and she was going to do something about it. Kagome decided this was a good thing.
She lay about with her katana, decapitating, eviscerating and generally mutilating any demon that got in her way. So focused was she on the fight that she was startled when the priestess at her back came to a stop.
They had reached the center of the village. The source of the green light was now apparent; a great circle of green light lay on the ground, the edge was comprised of kanji writing out dark spells, piercing the night with their awful glow. Shafts of light shot through the night, writing out the evil lettering on the clouds above.
It was the figure in the center that caught Kagomes' attention, however. What appeared to be a little girl of twelve stood poised in the center, face down turned, as if in concentration. She felt wrong somehow; Kagome could not put her finger on it, but she knew somehow that the girl was not human. She could feel the waves of fear emanating from her, the same waves that she had been feeling since her arrival in the woods. This girl was the source of them.
Kagome tried to rush at the girl, to cut down the source of evil, but was stopped abruptly as green lightning crackled before her. And try as she might, Kagome could not step over the barrier the spells had written into the ground.
Kagome turned to the miko, hoping for some guidance on the matter, only to see the other woman standing stock still, eyes wide in a look of absolute shock.
"Kiaede." The word slipped from the mikos mouth as if she were dropping her weapon. It was the sound of a person's last defense in the world slipping away. It was the sound of a heart breaking.
The seething mass around them froze, seemingly rooted to the spot.
The little girls head snapped up, revealing the face of torment itself. And up from inside the depths of that face a dark light shown, casting her face into rigid shadows. Kagome could only see one of her eyes; and in that eye was a sickly yellow light, the personification of hate and suffering.
"You!" in that single word was conveyed a depth of anger and sadness that Kagome had never seen before, and hoped to never again. The girl had leveled a finger at the priestess, a wretched snarl contorting her features.
The priestess stood motionless, every line of her body seeming to scream of absolute despair; Kagome wanted to weep for her, so deep was the emotion coursing through the woman's body.
"Sister Kikyo." the girl spoke with a sneer, her glowing eye piecing them with a gaze of pure contempt. Then a flicker of confusion crossed over her face, and the girls' eye flicked from Kagome to the priestess, who Kagome now knew was called Kikyo.
In that flicker of indecisiveness Kikyo had her bow in hand and was aiming for the demon girl.
"What have you done to Kiaede?" the mikos voice shook slightly, but her aim did not waver.
"Done? I haven't done anything sister; I am Kiaede."
"You're not Kiaede, you're a demon." Kikyo spat with fury.
"I am Kiaede! And because of you, I am a demon as well!" the girl roared.
"No." disbelief was laced through the mikos word, edged with the despairing knowledge that it was the truth.
"Are you are not aware of the consequences of your failure fifty years ago, after you allowed Inuyasha to take the jewel?" Kiaede spoke fiercely; hate oozing from every pore on her body. Kikyo shook her head, deliberate denial written over her features; she did not want to believe anything that the evil thing before them was saying.
"No? Then let me refresh your memory." It was awful to hear, and Kagome did not want to know the story, for it must have taken an act of the most heinous nature to rend a human soul into the fragmented mockery that stood before her. But despite Kagomes' silent wishes, the demon went on.
"When you failed, Inuyasha came here; his eyes were red with madness and the villagers thought he was here to finish us off, but no, he had something much worse in mind."
"He defiled the ground in the worst ways imaginable, twisting it till it was as evil as he, and then he turned on the villagers, ripping their very souls from their bodies and leaving mindless husks behind. He was about to do the same to me when he paused, he told me I had power and strength, and that I could use that power to become even stronger. The little girl I was then struggled and refused, attempting to make him kill her instead of what he had done to the villagers. Inuyasha laughed and then sunk his claws into her body, touching her soul but not taking it, twisting it into a mockery of its former self."
"Do you know what a terrible thing it was that he did?" she asked Kikyo, the priestess nodded numbly. Kiaedes' face twisted with rage.
"No you don't! You could never know what happened that day, the despicable acts visited upon the innocent girl by the claws of evil! I am evil!" the girl looked as if she where ready to attack them, poised to spring, but the priestess did nothing.
Silent tears coursed down the mikos cheeks, seeming to sparkle with blue light. She dropped her bow, and slowly she began to move forward, body shaking with suppressed sobs. Kagome waited for the barrier to stop her, to crackle with that awful light and impede her way, but it did not. Kagome watched in awe as the priestesses tears fell to the ground, swirling with a pure radiant light, falling onto the corrupted place were the spells of evil created the barrier.
As each tear fell, the kanji were washed away in splashes of shining color, bringing purity to a place that had rested so long in the darkness. And then Kikyo was inside the barrier, walking towards Kiaede blindly as her grief drove her onwards.
Kagome expected Kiaede to attack, to spring upon Kikyo and rend her limb from limb, but she did not. She watched with her single yellow eye, waiting as Kikyo advanced, and flinching with pain as each of the priestesses' tears touched the ground.
"Why do you not fight?" Kagome heard herself whisper. The glaring yellow eye turned on her, sending icy chills down her spine.
"Because I am an abomination." That single statement held such a weight that Kagome saw the heart of the demon; underneath all the hate and pain and suffering, was a lonely little girl who had lost her sister. And then Kikyo was before her; tears streaming tracks of light along her face, holding her arms out to the demon.
There was a moment of indecision, a flicker of fear across Kiaedes face, before she fell into her sisters' embrace, and together they cried; the anguish of the years separating them and the pain of betrayal flowing out in a river of grief, as two sisters reunited at last.
In between her tears, Kiaede struggled to speak;
"It is too late to save me, sister." Kikyo smoothed the child demons' hair and spoke softly;
"I know."
"Then release me." Silently Kikyo nodded; already her tears were cutting pearlesent tracks through the girls face, making it shine with a new light. Kikyo began to shimmer with purity, and then the girl in her arms shone with blinding light, making Kagome throw up her arms to protect her eyes. When she brought down her arms, Kiaede was no longer there. A silver orb hung in the air a moment, radiating a shining joy that made Kagome feel glad. And on the night wind Kagome thought she heard the words;
"Thank you." before the sphere ascended into the clouds, the heavy thunder heads parting in its wake.
The radiant moonlight shone down on Kagome and Kikyo through the parted clouds, and before here eyes, Kagome watched as the lettering on the ground grew fainter and fainter, until the circle of tainted ground was purified entirely.
And in the middle of the lost village, amidst the ashes of demons destroyed by their masters' death, Kikyo lay upon the ground and wept.
AN/ until I receive positive reviews I will not be posting the next chapter, So start typing.