Title: Sisters
Part of: Inuyasha no konto
Theme: Unromantic Relationship
Word Count: 1101
Disclaimer: Any characters within these shorts are the creative property of Rumiko Takahashi. They are being used for non-profit recreation.
--
Sisters
Between
sisters, often, the child's cry never dies down. "Never leave
me," it says; "do not abandon me."
- Louise
Bernikow
--
"Sister?" Her quiet voice was filled with fear as she hurried out of the hut they shared. She glanced back to make sure that she had not overlooked her sister's mat; she trembled and ran forward at the sight of the empty hut. She was alone. "Sister Kikyou?"
Her small feet were undersized and caused her to stumble as she ran toward the shrine. Kikyou had not been in their hut with the dawning of the sun. If not there, she would certainly be in the shrine, watching over the Shikon no Tama.
It had only been a short while since she had been entrusted with the duty of protecting the jewel and Kikyou had quickly adapted, spending much of her time praying for its purification. However she had never left for the shrine without tending to her sister first.
The young girl's heart pounded as horrific images ran through her imaginative mind. Her parents had been lost to disease the winter before. Had Kikyou finally suffered the same fate?
She continued to race forward, stopping only when she met with a strong barrier that surrounded the shrine. In her panic, she tried to use her limited spiritual powers to break through. The barrier refused to move.
"Sister!" She beat her small fists against the barrier in a rhythm to her yells. "Sister Kikyou!"
She didn't notice when the barrier faded so, when it did, she fell forward landing in the dirt.
Kikyou appeared at the shrine's entrance, her priestess garb adding to her aura of powerfulness. She stared down upon her younger sister. "Kaede. Why aren't you back at the hut?"
Kaede pulled herself up from the ground and launched herself at Kikyou's legs. She nuzzled against the coarse fabric, leaving a dirt imprint upon it's folds. "Oh, Sister. I thought you had left me. I thought I was all alone," she cried, refusing to lessen her hold. As long as she held onto Kikyou, she was safe. She was not alone.
Kikyou attempted to separate herself from her sister. When she couldn't, she wrapped her arms around Kaede and squeezed. "Don't worry, little sister. As long as I am here, you shall never be alone. And I shall always be here." She soothingly smoothed down her sister's hair. It was a gesture she remembered from their mother and she knew it would help to calm Kaede; after all, such a gesture had calmed her when she was younger. "I promise."
Hidden in the folds of Kikyou's red hakama, her dark eyes shone in admiration of her older sister believing every word she told her. Kikyou had always been there for her. She always would be.
---
"Sister?" She was older now; a full three summers had passed since she and Kikyou were left alone together. Well, not entirely alone. Though she tried to deny it, and told not a soul, Kaede knew. Kikyou, the pure, sweet, powerful miko, had been deceived into believing she had fallen in love. "Sister Kikyou?"
Her feet had matured, lending her an agility that sent her barreling towards the forest. That wretched half-demon, the monster that stole her sister's heart, had betrayed Kikyou by stealing the Shikon no Tama.
Her heart thumped against her small frame but she refused to slow down. If the half-demon had been able to breech the shrine something must have befallen her sister. Kikyou, even under the half-breed's spells, would never let him touch the jewel.
She squinted, her right eye hidden behind a fresh bandage, at a figure standing at the edge of the forest. Clothed in the garb of a priestess, the figure held out a bow. As Kaede watched, she let loose an arrow, an arrow that found its home buried in the chest of an inu-hanyou. Kikyou had pinned her lover against the old God Tree.
The shock at her sister's action faded into horror when Kikyou collapsed, reclaiming the stolen jewel.
Kaede rushed forward. "Sister Kikyou!" she cried, drowning out her sister's labored breaths. Kikyou had been hurt. The flow of blood that pooled around her fallen frame was enough to indicate that she the wound would be fatal.
Kikyou opened her eyes wide and tried, in vain, to calm her younger sister. She did not do so with words, for sisters do not need to communicate with words. Her very gaze told Kaede how sorry she was.
"Take the jewel and burn it with my body," Kikyou instructed, using her last breaths to see to her duty. There was nothing else she could do.
Kaede took the jewel, slick with Kikyou's spilt blood, from her sister and held it close to her chest. She nodded once, accepting the task. But hidden within that nod was another acceptance. She accepted her sister's apology.
Her left eye clouded over with tears at the sight of the young maiden's limp form. Kikyou said she would always be there. Her sister lied.
---
"Sister?" It had been fifty years since she burned Kikyou's body yet there the young maiden was, alive. Her eye narrowed in confusion and she reached for her bow. The aura surrounding the girl was as powerful as Kikyou's aura had ever been and it held no hint of death nor the afterlife. "Sister Kikyou?"
Her old feet shuffled forward, treading the familiar path that she had walked for the past sixty years. She headed towards the village center and paused at the edge of the mat. The villagers, always wary of strangers – and this girl in her short kimono with an alien accent certainly was strange – had bound the woman and placed her in the center for Kaede's inspection.
Kaede's heart beat at an increased rate but she showed no surprise at the maiden's appearance. Instead, she threw herbs at the girl and tried to banish any spirits that might be at fault for this deception.
Nothing happened. If anything, the girl just looked annoyed. Kaede's heart slowed to its normal rate. Kikyou never looked annoyed. This was not Kikyou.
Against her better judgment, yet in favor of her curiosity, she brought the girl into the hut she once shared with her sister. It was not much longer that she discovered that this girl – Kagome – was Kikyou reborn. The Shikon no Tama that burst from her body verified Kaede's suspicions. The jewel had returned.
Her left eye closed in understanding, shutting out the sight of the confused young maiden in strange attire. Kikyou said she would always be there. In a way, Kikyou had ultimately kept her promise. Kikyou had returned.