Lovely Miko, Lonely Tanuki

By YoukaiAlchemist2

Ai returns in another chapter, just for you how love this amnesiac tanuki. I don't own InuYasha, but Ai is my creation. Hope you like this chap.

Ai got up to leave the grave site. He had no clue where he would go, but he felt he had to go somewhere. It was the same kind of feeling he had on the day Sango chose Miroku over him.

"I thought I would find you here…" InuYasha said as he jumped out of a tree. He had been watching Ai for a few minutes.

"Hey," Ai managed to mumble as he walked towards the forest.

"Ai, You know what your problem is?" InuYasha asked "You care too much about the past. The only thing that matters is what you do next. Besides, some memories are best forgotten."

Ai sighed. "You mean, you want to forget what happened to her?"

The hands of time go back 100 years in Ai's mind.

Ai walked through the woods, his head hanging low. His eyes steaming with silent tears. "Why…." Ai couldn't get the question out of his mind, "Why did she choose Miroku? Why can't I remember my past? Why can't I find love?" His thoughts kept coming.
Before he realized it, he was flat on his butt. In front of him was a priestess, who he had also knocked to the ground. Ai got up, brushed off, and offered the priestess his hand. "Sorry, I wasn't paying attention," Ai told her.

"I require no help from a tanuki," the priestess stood up and began walking. Little snake-like youkai following not far behind her.

"Hold on," Ai said, holding his head as something woke up in his mind. "you look…familiar." It was fuzzy, but he had seen this priestess before. True she looked like Kagome, but the face this woman awoke in his mind was that of a child.

The priestess said nothing, but she stopped walking. "Do I remind you of someone?" Ai asked. The priestess turned and took a closer look at him.

"I think I have seen you before…long ago," the priestess paused for a minute. "What is your name?"

"I don't know" Ai admitted, "I can't remember who I am or where I come from. For the time I go by the words on my medallion "Ai no Tanuki". You may call me Ai.."

"Ai," the priestess repeated as if she remembered something. "My name is Kikyou."

Again the face of a small child, smiling sweetly, appeared in his mind. Where did he know this person from. "Kikyou," Ai said and then shook his head to get rid of the image. "May I travel with you for a while?"

Kikyou reply to him, she just turned and started walking. Ai glanced to his sides and followed her. "I know I've seen her before," Ai thought, "but where?"

Ai followed Kikyou for a few days without talking before he asked, "You said I looked familiar, so where have you seen me before?"

"I don't know," Kikyou told him, "it must have been another life."

"Oh," Ai sighed. "I was just wondering."

"You said that I, too, looked familiar," Kikyou said as she absorbed a hitodama from one of her soul collectors. "where do you think you know me from?"

"I don't know," Ai told her, "I hear your name and the face of a young girl training at a shrine come to mind."

"Perhaps…"Kikyou started.

"What?" Ai asked.

"Nothing," Kikyou sighed.

"It's something!" Ai protested. "that little girl was you wasn't it?"

"Maybe in another life…" Kikyou said as she started walking again.

"It was this life," Ai said slowly, "I remember. It was about sixty years ago…The temple…the priestesses in training…you were there…" Ai held his head. It hurt his brain to remember. "you were nice to me. You gave me food when everyone else refused. I was hurt, and you were kind to me."

Kikyou shook her head. "You were a goof."

"Did I tell you my name?" Ai demanded, "anything about my past?"

"You gave me the name you gave me earlier," Kikyou sighed, "You called yourself Ai and said that you got your injuries fighting a bandit. That's all you could remember."

"I see…" Ai sighed, "I thought I had something." "Whatever happens…I have to keep her safe," Ai thought. "I think…I think I lover her"

Ai viewed the castle he and Kikyou approached with suspicion. It was dark, foreboding, and reeked of miasma. "What is this place?" Ai asked, covering his face to guard himself against the poisonous fumes. "It feels evil."

"It is evil," Kikyou said coldly. "It belongs to Naraku, who we are going to kill."

"Naraku?" Ai asked.

"Yes. He is a hanyou who seeks the Shikon Jewel," she glared at the castle. "It's time that evil left this world." Kikyou marched on into the gasses of the and began to vanish in their smoke, with her soul collectors close behind.

Ai followed her to the gate, and there stood Naraku. He glared at Ai with hate and pain.

"You…" Naraku shouted.

"What about me?" Ai asked.

"I know you," Naraku seemed to be thinking back, "you are the one who gave me this damn scar!" Naraku showed his spider-shaped burns to Ai.

Ai fell to his knees and grabbed his head. "Wha-? What the hell!" He saw images. A bandit named Onigumo accosting him, killing people. Himself throwing a huge attack, which shaped itself into a spider. The bandit screaming and cursing…A huge battle unfolded in Ai's mind. "I- I remember…" Ai stood up, "you. You killed a whole village and laughed. You tried to kill me. I stopped you."

"Heh, this time the field is even. Both of us have youkai powers," Naraku chuckled.

Ai realized Kikyou had vanished. "Where is Kikyou?"

"Lost in my maze of poisons," Naraku laughed. "If you beat me in time, she will be able to leave. If you don't move fast enough, she will suffocate on my toxins."

Ai produced a small rod from his robes, and turned it into a big staff. "Then let's begin!" "I refuse to let her die! I REFUSE!"

100 flashed back in Ai's mind in an instant.

InuYasha placed a hand on Ai's shoulder. "You killed Naraku, Ai," he grinned. "I remember Kikyou told me before…"

Ai's eyes filled with tears again, "I know. But I didn't know of his incarnations, let alone what they would do when he died."

InuYasha, "Kagome, the others and me killed them. We avenged her Ai."

"I never told Kikyou…" Ai sighed as a tear fell down his cheek, "I never told her that I loved her…"

Sad, I know. Ai will show up again though, for those of you who are starting to get attatched to this Tanuki of Love. (Ai is an OC, for those of you who are wondering)