"Kagome, what's wrong?" Sango asked worriedly, kneeling next to the sobbing girl. They were alone in InuYasha's Forest, and Kagome had just suddenly broke down in the middle of fighting a cow demon. InuYasha and Miroku had gone to finish the demon off, while Sango had stayed to comfort Kagome, and try to help her through whatever trouble she was having. "I still can't stop thinking about Kikyo," Kagome sobbed. "What?" Sango hadn't anticipated Kikyo's death to be the problem. She was expecting that she and InuYasha had been in a fight or something, or Miroku had done something lecherous, or even something had happened in her time that was bothering her. "Sango, this may sound crazy, but when Kikyo died, I think a part of me died with her." Kagome said. "Ever since that day, after she said to be happy with InuYasha for her, I've felt like there's a huge void in my heart." Sango decided that it might be a good idea to investigate this a little. "What part of your heart feels like a void?" she asked. "I don't really know, I just know that when Kikyo died again, since I'm her reincarnation or something, it's like I died too. Sometimes I feel cold-hearted and ruthless, as if purged of all my emotions. After that I get overly emotional, like just now. It's tearing me apart, Sango, it really is. I'm so confused!" Sango thought a moment. "Kagome," she started. "Yes?" Kagome asked. "You know, there is a remote shrine somewhere in Japan, the Shrine of Wisdom. I'm sure that if we could locate this shrine, we could find the answer to your problem." Kagome smiled. "Thank you, Sango." she said.
Just then, InuYasha and Miroku returned; InuYasha running, Miroku on Kirara. "Kagome, are you all right?" InuYasha asked worriedly. "Yes, I'm fine," she said, "thanks for asking." "You had us worried there," Miroku said. "Well, Sango helped me a lot. No need to worry about me now!" she said brightly back. Everyone was shocked. Kagome was at least ten times as peppy as usual! This was a bizarre contrast to the sobbing, depressed girl that Kagome had been ten minutes ago. They didn't know how to continue the conversation. "Well, uh, we got the Shikon no Tama shard," Miroku said awkwardly, showing them the shard. Kagome suddenly gasped. For some reason, she had a strange feeling that the Shikon no Tama was connected to the void in her heart. "Miroku, where are the other shards of the jewel?" she asked, her voiced rushed since she wanted to try and find answers as soon as she could. "They're right here, but why?" Sango answered in place of Miroku, holding the Jewel of Four Souls. Kagome nearly grabbed them from Sango. "K-Kagome?" Sango stammered, shocked by what was happening. Kagome didn't answer, she merely stared at the Jewel of Four souls. "This Jewel...I think this Jewel is somehow connected to the void." she said finally, her voice merely a whisper. "Void? What are you talking about?" InuYasha asked, his face showing a mix of confusion and worry. "Well, you see--" Sango started, but InuYasha interrupted her. "No time for that, look up there!" he yelled, pointing to the sky. The others raised their heads to the sky to see something flying down at breakneck speeds right towards them.
They all scrambled out of the way, but they hadn't needed to do so, because the something landed gracefully before them. This seemed strange, since it seemed that a giant black bat had landed. Someone slipped off of it's back as gracefully as this creature had landed: A cloaked figure, whose clothing matched the color of the bat. The figure looked Kagome straight in the eye, and said "You are Kagome, reincarnation of Kikyo?" in an eerily rough voice. "Y-yes, but why?" Kagome said. "I am a messenger of the Netherworld, the afterlife. I have come bearing a message for you from Kikyo." with no further words, they dropped a scroll into Kagome's hand, then bowed and left. The message was confusing, and Kagome could not quite understand what it meant after reading it four times over:
i Higurashi Kagome-
I write this to you as neither friend nor enemy, for although we were allies in that battle we still must be considered neutral. I write this mostly in the interest of InuYasha, and so without further interruption I must say this one thing to you:
Do NOT search for the final shard of the Shikon no Tama! /i
"What is she talking about?" Shippo asked over Kagome's shoulder. "Stop collecting the Jewel? What for?" Sango asked. "If you ask me, she's just trying to stick a wrench into something," Miroku said skeptically. "Heh. She should know better than to even bother to try and stop me from doing that." InuYasha snorted. "Maybe we should listen to her," Kagome said slowly. "Are you crazy?" the others exclaimed in unison. "We're going to complete the Shikon no Tama no matter what!" InuYasha stated stubbornly. Kagome sighed. "Maybe you're right," she said.
A week later, the group was traveling by Kagome's direction to the final shard of the Shikon no Tama. It was the shard located in Kohaku's back. The group met up with him, and then had to stop and think. He had not yet been totally released of Naraku's hold, however they could not remove the shard and kill him, Sango was the one against that the most. They decided that another method would have to be found. This thought process took them the better part of an hour sitting with Kohaku, but the solution that they had hoped for could not be found. The reason for this was that their thought session was interrupted by what looked like a giant Buddha. The Buddha made the decision for them quickly, a tongue like a frog's flying out of its mouth and grabbing the shard on Kohaku's back.
"Kohaku!" Sango screamed, catching her younger brother as he fell, unconscious, to the ground. She did not know if he was alive or dead; she was afraid to find out. "You bastard!" InuYasha yelled, drawing his Tetsusaiga and rushing towards the Buddha. With one clean swipe, he cut the tongue, which was still slightly protruding from the enemy's mouth. Kagome caught it, then held it in one palm and the rest of the Shikon no Tama in the other while Miroku quickly finished the demon off with his Wind Tunnel. The battle finished already, they rushed to Sango's side, who was holding Kohaku. To everyone's amazement, he was breathing! "He's still alive, even without the shard!" Sango cried joyously. "And we have the final shard to the Shikon Jewel," Kagome said, "InuYasha, would you like to do it?" InuYasha nodded. Slowly, he took the two pieces of the jewel, and put them together in the palm of his hand. A bright pink light emitted from his closed hand, brightening until it was blinding. When the light dimmed, there was the Sacred Jewel, looking as good as new. "Fools, you should have listened to Kikyo!" a voice said behind them, and they turned to see what seemed to be a void talking to them. The void sucked in the Jewel, then spat it out again. It somehow managed to get InuYasha right in the heart. The force was so much that it went right through him, staining the Jewel blood red. Suddenly, it seemed as though all hell had broken loose. The land started dying, Kohaku stopped breathing, Miroku's wind tunnel seemed to go haywire, everything was starting to go awry. "What's happening?" Kagome screamed, holding InuYasha's now bleeding and unconscious form. The void spoke. "Kagome, reincarnation of Kikyo, it is time that you fulfill your destiny. It was prewritten that the Shikon no Tama would cause the balance of the world to go awry, and that you alone would save it." Kagome was confused. "What are you talking about?" she yelled over the hailstorm that had just started, despite the fact that it was summer. A scroll in an ornate case came from the void, landing at Kagome's feet. "Everything will be explained here," the void said, then disappeared.
It was that night, at Kaede's hut, that Kagome made her decision. Because the Shikon no Tama had been completed, everything had gone haywire. Sango was in deep depression, Miroku was in constant danger of his Wind Tunnel even more so now than before, Shippo now had respiratory problems, and InuYasha was still unconscious. The one she loved was now on the path to Death's door, and it was her fault for not fighting against it. Quietly, while everyone was asleep, she opened the scroll and read:
i Upon the creation of the world, the great spirit Kamikamiya decided that there should be those among the mortals that should secretly govern the land for him. Using his immense spiritual power, he created a sacred relic, an iridescent green orb, the Miko no Tama. Known as the Orb of Priestesses (A/N: actually, miko means shrine maiden, but close enough to me) or the Orb of Spirits, this Jewel gave immortality to young maidens born on the new moon of each month. Soon, the ones that were destined to become Kamikamiya's high officials were all born and baptized into immortality, and so the Jewel lost much of its spiritual power and turned into a dull object. One day, one of the high officials of Kamikamiya, Midoriko, sacrificed her own immortality to seal some of the most powerful demons into the Shikon no Tama. She had not yet learned of her immortality, and so unnecessarily died, this causing the shattering of the Miko no Tama. Years later, her reincarnation suffered a similar fate of premature death. This cycle is to repeat itself until one is brave enough to stop it. The one that breaks this curse must find the high officials of Kamikamiya, and retrieve from them the sacred relics that hold existing pieces of the jewel. /i
Below that story was a diagram. It was a circular diagram, of sorts, and reminded Kagome of drawing an atom. The nucleus part, the center, was labeled 'Kamikamiya'. The first shell, or circle around it, was named 'Elemental'. Surrounding that was 'Emotions', and surrounding that was 'Hidden'. The title said 'Map of Mikos', so Kagome guessed that meant that there were different types of mikos that had to be found. "I guess this is all up to me," she said quietly, and it was then that she realized what she had to do, right then and there, if she wanted to follow this ritual. Tears springing to her eyes, she put the scroll into its case and put that into her backpack, making sure she also had plenty of food, water, and medicinal items for the journey she was about to begin. The note of farewell was splotched with her tears, as she told her friends that she had to leave to go on a journey, and go alone. She said she was sorry, and would miss them all horribly, then signed it with her name. Kagome almost did an unspoken goodbye and left right then bow, quiver, backpack and all, but she almost tripped over InuYasha, who was sleeping at the door. She looked down at him, then knelt and kissed him, gently, on the lips. "Goodbye, InuYasha," she said quietly, and the fact that she was leaving him behind made the tears start to gush, and she ran from the hut, starting on the new journey that she was fated to do.
((Sorry, I know this chapter wasn't the greatest, but it was a transition chapter starting a story out of the ashes of a story, and this is the first time I've done something like that...the next chapters will be a lot better, I promise!))