Chapter 18-Only Hope
"InuYasha, You are mine. Not hers. She is a mortal used for my purpose, and now she has fallibly served it. So I wish her gone. Don't you understand? Your passion for her-or shall I say, the part of me inside of her- will only live as long as she does. With her gone you are loosed of the small chain to live to which you are voluntarily enslaved. Free yourself. I am the key and the fire to destroy, but you must use me for your own elation, for I am but a tool- a strong tool-the one you must use to kill Kagome."
Kill Kagome? This was a condition never factored into InuYasha's imagined equation.
"InuYasha!" Kagome cried.
"Kagome…I…" InuYasha began, but then realized that he was letting his human side-his weakness conquer his strong spirit, "I'm not as weak as you think." And with that InuYasha looked to Kikyou, "What must I do?"
"Take my bow and my arrow and pierce it through her heart. Thus her spiritual soul will be vanquished and returned to me."
InuYasha took the bow and the arrow and walked towards Kagome. Her eyes were swollen with tears while her hair was matted over parts of her face, and her eyebrows were formed into a scowl-She had never looked more lovely to him (You see, that's the thing with men like him. He thinks he wants someone strong, but he's incredibly seduced by feminine fragility.).And then he realized; death didn't conquer life, nor did it begin a living eternity. It would only begin a monotonous fantasy-nor an eternal reality. Such emotions as this are not able to be felt after death.
"Don't die like a sap on your knees. Stand up, girl." He said in a characteristic tone (which wasn't exactly suitable for the event at hand).
Once she did, InuYasha pulled aside her tear-drenched hair and whispered in her ear, "I hate you."
Kagome felt every nerve go numb. Hate. Had she ever before been hated? She used the last of her waning energy for sobbing.
"What the earth are you crying for, you didn't even let me finish!" He scolded, while grabbing her hair so tightly that his lips were touching her ear, "I hate you; but I chose you, and I will not revoke any decision I make." And then he addressed Kikyou, "I wish that this never happened. That we had never been fooled; that we still loved…but the truth is neither of us do-and you can't; for you're dead. And if I'm dead too I can't feel for you. I'll just be with you, and I don't see the sense in that."
"InuYasha, you had revoked your right for choice when you came back to me! Choice? You have no choice. You will die!" Kikyou roared in anger and called to her bow, which soared through the air and into her hands. "Now die!" She commanded with the aiming of an arrow.
"How sorry I am to interrupt-really I am. But this right has been reserved for myself." Sesshoumaru stepped from the shadows.
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"Exactly." Miroku confirmed.
"It's not working." Shippo stated from under the shade of a nearby tree. Miroku and Sango had been praying, chanting, and touching the time tree for hours but to no avail.
Sango and Miroku both agreed the plan had failed, and they went to sit by Shippo in the shade.
"What ever are we going to do?" Shippo whined.
"This was not a part of the original plan." Sango admitted.
"Shippo, where is your counter self, whom you defeated previously?" Miroku inquired.
"Ionno. Why?"
"It's just odd that he was not stronger in his own time, that's all." Miroku answered, "and it would serve us well to know if perhaps your slyness might have salvaged a piece of the jewel shard before your future self was captured."
"Mhm," Shippo considered the proposition, "And what would you give my future self?"
"Well, what would your future self want." Miroku inquired with an enlightened smile creeping to either side of his cheeks.
"Probably to be ensured life. I mean, if you're going to fix the past so that this time would have never existed I would like to know that I won't just disappear with it." Shippo answered.
"Sango," Miroku chuckled, "I realize why you lost your inhibition control on a previous occasion."
"Oh?"
"Shippo is still playing tricks. I don't believe this is our Shippo."
"Wow, you're observant!" Noted Shippo a bit sarcastically. For yes, Miroku was correct. This was the future Shippo, who won the battle and pretended to be the past Shippo. Why? Simply for means of survival.
"Why would you do such a thing?" Sango asked.
"Well, first of all, I don't wish to be stuck in Sesshoumaru's cell and so I much rather be here with you and I was afraid that if I told you I was not the Shippo of your time then you wouldn't accept me. I missed you so much!" Shippo cried and jumped into Miroku's not expectant arms.
"But what has happened to the Shippo we know?" Sango asked.
"Oh, well, since I am the only survivor of this time both identities cannot live in the same time so he just went back to where he should be."
"You mean, just like you disappeared and went to the future when you came to our time with Kagome, the other Shippo did the same and just went back." Miroku interpreted.
"Yep." Shippo confirmed, "and you guys didn't do that cause in this time you're dead. Kagome didn't either, but of course, she's the major factor of this whole equation and so an exception to all logical explanations."
"can you contact Shippo?" Sango asked.
"You see! You do treat me weird. I AM SHIPPO!"
"She means the one without your experiences."
"If I could have I would have already! Gee, how stupid do you think I am?"
"So it's official. Our only hope lies in Kagome." Sango sighed.
