Kagome stared down at the whispy see through appendages that were now her own. Her form was not yet finished, being transparent and ghostlike as it was but she could still use it to see him. Years ago she had mastered the ability to rise above the waters edge, now she could show herself to him. She could be something more than faceless energy and show him what she had done. He had no need to despair anylonger. Her plan had worked!
By her thoughts she was sure he should be comeing that day. He had started only coming once a year, she was alright with that. He thought she was dead, he couldn't dwell on her forever. But now she would see him, she only had to wait. She had waited and bided for so long, what was a few more hours. Soon she felt the vibrations through the earth signaling footsteps. It had to be him, she knew. He was the only one who ever came. She shot forward through the water towards the familiar shore. The celestial garb that had followed her since the day it was dropped into the lake flitted eerily about her form.
An old woman hobbled along the path to the lake she knew her former guardian would be near today. Fifty one years ago Kagome had died and Sesshoumaru stopped visiting Inuyasha's village altogether. Her friends never knew how she died, just that she had passed on. Being old as she was now and knowing the end of her days were near Rin merely wished to see her lord one more time before she went. She smiled as she reached the bank of the crystal clear leake and settled on the stand to wait. No wonder her lord had started coming here so often, the scenery was indeed beautiful.
The old stared out over the water for quite some time before something entered her peripheral vision. She jumped in surprise and turned to see a nude woman standing ankle deep in the water, a blue sheer cloth fleeting eerily in an unnatural breeze around her. She was caught in the saddened ice-blue eyes of the beautiful creature, she could only describe it as Tenshi.
"Who.. Who are you?", she gasped out.
The girl merely smiled sadly while holding her cupped hands between her breasts. "You're not him", she said quietly.
The old woman shook her head, obviously not a 'him'.
"What are you doing here?", the tenshi asked as she stepped forward onto the sand. The old woman had just noticed why she hadn't heard the girl's approach. She wasn't solid, she left no footprints on the sand or ripples on the water while she passed and the forest could be seen through her skin.
"I came to see my lord", the old woman replied still in awe.
Kagome thought over her answer for a moment. What would the woman be doing here? Sesshoumaru was the only one who came to visit regularly, though he was a lord. She looked into the old woman's brown eyes and suddenly realised who she was.
"Rin?"
Rin looked back at the girl before her, suddenly the similarity of the blue eyes and jet black flowing hair struck her. "L.. Lady Kagome?", she ventured hesitantly, "Are you a ghost?"
The Tenshi shook her head with a sad smile as she kneeled down in front of Rin to be closer to her. "No", she affirmed, "I'm still alive. Just... stuck here for a while?", she sighed. "It's hard to explain, but I wanted to be with your lord forever. I no longer possess a mortal body."
Rin listened, still stunned into silence at the revelation that the Lady Kagome was still alive after all this time. When she could finally speak she could only state the obvious, "They all think you're gone... My Lord never told us how but we were all told you were dead...", she trailed off uncertainly.
Kagome nodded, "That was my mistake. I didn't think to tell anyone what happened after he left, being so upset as I was. I regret that now. Though, if you are curious, my mortal body was drowned."
Rin winced at the bluntness of the statement. Though, after living with the fact for fifty-one years one must get used to the facts.
They sat in silence together for a long while after that, both staring out calmly at the lake. After so long there's almost too much to talk about to speak, so they both took the little bit of eachothers presence the other had to give. As the sun was getting well past it's zenith in the sky Kagome broke the silence.
"You have grown old..", she stated obviously. She recieved a nod and a wistful smile from the old woman at her side.
Thoughts and memories of a young girl following a taciturn youkai and tempering his cold heart into something warm. The caring, fatherly expressions flitting across a normally stoic face flashed through her mind's eye. A thought struck her.
"He didn't want to leave you.", another nod, "Do you want to be with him again? To follow him again. He has been alone all this time...", she finished with a sad sigh.
"I am old and my time is coming...", the gravely voice of an old woman reminded her.
"I made my own immortal body, would you not let me attempt to take away the age that has wrought yours? If I succeeded you could be a child again, grow with him. With us if I am able. Will you let me try?"
Aged brown eyes gazed speculatively at the young looking woman beside her. The sad powder blue eyes struck her, they looked so lonely. Stunned into silence once again, not only by the inhuman eyes staring at her but by the feel of the desperately alone aura clinging to her own small human one. She nodded as she shed a single tear for all of the sacrifices of the Shikon Miko.
Rin's eyes closed as she felt the warm aura that was Kagome against her face. The see through hands hovered over her cheeks. A warmth engulfed her body and she felt the effects of age slowly leave her body. Her old bent bones began to straighten, the aches and creaks in her joints dissapeared, the wrinkles folded into her skin from many years of rhythmic movements dissapeared as she regained her youth. With her eyes still held lightly closed she did not see how the once crisp image of the Shikon Miko blurred and faded to that of a ruined watercolor painting.
She winced as the once warm sensations of her body regressing warped. She could feel things being taken now, memories slowly slipping away and became obscure, strength of a young body fading to that of a babe's, and the powerful young aura faded into the small one of a newborn.
Kagome looked over the child cradled in the clothes she arrived in. She used the weight of her aura to push the cloth closer around her form to keep the child warm before taking in her own state. At least she still had an image, she thought, as she looked down at her now misty, peach tinted appendages. She didn't regret giving what she had. She slowly backed into the water, much of her energy was taken and she needed to rest before she saw Sesshoumaru again.
OOO
Sesshoumaru stood off to the side of the well traveled human road. The same place he had last seen her alive. He looked sadly at the now well worn path from the road into the forest to the lake he had dubbed as 'Kagome's'. His decision pained him but he would not go this year.
Fifty years he had despaired with out her now. If he had stayed with her and she lived she would have passed by now as well. So it should be only fitting that he stop dwelling on her now right? He felt a twinge where his heart was as he turned from his path back to his way home, his imp retainer staring disbelievingly at him from where he stood at the begining of the path.
He could see the old imp's frowning expression in his mind as he heard the small whisper, "You shouldn't go milord." Jaken could never speak out with any vehemence against his Lord's actions, but he just had this feeling that now wasn't the time for him to leave.
The demon clad in white never stopped walking away into the forest away from Kagome's lake.
OOO
Kagome watched the sky from her resting place in the lake as she waited for the familiar caress of his aura against her own. The sun continued it's slow descent from the skies to the horizon undeterred. She waited silently, and waited, and waited... Soon the sky stained with hues of purple and orange stared back at her.
She questioned herself sadly for the hundredth time since she left Rin on the bank. Why wasn't he here yet? Finally the answer she had been pushing back and denying crawled forward into her concsious thought. He isn't coming.
She ascended to the sandy bank of the lake once again. He wasn't coming but she still had to get rin somewhere safe. She reached down with ghostly limbs and used the strength of her aura to hold the tiny child against her. She stepped onto the path Sesshoumaru usually took through the forest. She hoped to find someone to take care of the child she couldn't fulfill her promise to.
OOO
Jaken sat against the tree he always sat against when they usually came to visit Lady Kagome. Even if his Lord left he couldn't bring himself to not pay his respects to the Shikon Miko. He stared up at the fading light in the sky, soon to be replaced by soft burning of other solar system's suns. His bulbous ochre eyes glazed over with sadness as he thought of his Lord's lost happiness.
He turned his head down to stare at the dirt at his feet. His eyes drifted closed as he clutched his staff to his chest. So many things had gone well for a short while, but then they all went wrong again.
Starting as he felt the prick of a powerful aura against his own he stood and started looking around for the source. He gasped and his limbs quivered as he saw the ghostly figure floating down the path from the lake towards him. The blue cloth clutched close to it's chest hid it's prescious package.
Jaken's entire body shook with trepidation as he watched the form come closer. His eyes misted with tears as he was struck with a stark feeling of familiarity that he couldn't quite place. Momentarily breaking from his daze he dropped his staff and darted forward just as the image fell to the ground and he caught it's carefully cradled package. He was lost to his daze again as he met the sorrow filled but relieved shocking blue eyes.
The world had fallen silent around the three figures. Tiny tears slid over Jaken's cheek and down his beaklike nose as an aura wrapped around him and passed along the feeling of gratitude. He finally looked down at the package he so carefully cradled and gasped as a bemused chocolate gaze looked back at him before the tiny child giggled.
As if the sound started the world moving again he heard the far off whisper on the wind of 'Thank you' before he watched the peach colored, blue-eyed image of the tenshi dissipate and drift away like a fog hanging low to the ground. He momentarily thought of following but before he could move the fog was gone back towards the lake and out of his reach. He moved to sit on the ground next to his discarded staff and he cradled the babe in his lap awkwardly as he continued to cry silently and rock back and forth. He couldn't tell why or what he was crying for but he still couldn't stop.
Sesshoumaru found them there late into the night, the imp still rocking back and forth. He wondered where the child had come from and why it had delayed his retainer. Kneeling down next to the near catatonic imp he took in the child's scent. His eyes hooded in confusion as he picked the child up in his arms. She smelled of Rin and the lingering scent of old human clung to the kimono she was wrapped in, as well as the faint scent of clean water and Kagome.
"What sorcery is this?", he whispered to himself as he carefully touched the child's sleeping face. As much as it could be a cruel trick Sesshoumaru couldn't shake the urge to care for the child and keep it. His retainer finally speaking prompted to look at the imp in wonder.
"Tenshi, milord. Tenshi." He followed the imp's dazed gaze down the worn path to the lake. He then stood with the child in his arms and turned back towards home. If tenshi saw fit to give him a memory of his lost happiness he would not be so foolish as to throw it away again. He and his loyal retainer walked silently through the moonlit forest, their entourage once again happily weighed down by a third member.
If they had stayed they would have heard the saddened wails of a lost Tenshi, left alone once again after making a great sacrifice. [Chapter 4] Fifty Years Later
Kagome stared down at the whispy see through appendages that were now her own. Her form was not yet finished, being transparent and ghostlike as it was but she could still use it to see him. Years ago she had mastered the ability to rise above the waters edge, now she could show herself to him. She could be something more than faceless energy and show him what she had done. He had no need to despair anylonger. Her plan had worked!
By her thoughts she was sure he should be comeing that day. He had started only coming once a year, she was alright with that. He thought she was dead, he couldn't dwell on her forever. But now she would see him, she only had to wait. She had waited and bided for so long, what was a few more hours. Soon she felt the vibrations through the earth signaling footsteps. It had to be him, she knew. He was the only one who ever came. She shot forward through the water towards the familiar shore. The celestial garb that had followed her since the day it was dropped into the lake flitted eerily about her form.
An old woman hobbled along the path to the lake she knew her former guardian would be near today. Fifty one years ago Kagome had died and Sesshoumaru stopped visiting Inuyasha's village altogether. Her friends never knew how she died, just that she had passed on. Being old as she was now and knowing the end of her days were near Rin merely wished to see her lord one more time before she went. She smiled as she reached the bank of the crystal clear leake and settled on the stand to wait. No wonder her lord had started coming here so often, the scenery was indeed beautiful.
The old stared out over the water for quite some time before something entered her peripheral vision. She jumped in surprise and turned to see a nude woman standing ankle deep in the water, a blue sheer cloth fleeting eerily in an unnatural breeze around her. She was caught in the saddened ice-blue eyes of the beautiful creature, she could only describe it as Tenshi.
"Who.. Who are you?", she gasped out.
The girl merely smiled sadly while holding her cupped hands between her breasts. "You're not him", she said quietly.
The old woman shook her head, obviously not a 'him'.
"What are you doing here?", the tenshi asked as she stepped forward onto the sand. The old woman had just noticed why she hadn't heard the girl's approach. She wasn't solid, she left no footprints on the sand or ripples on the water while she passed and the forest could be seen through her skin.
"I came to see my lord", the old woman replied still in awe.
Kagome thought over her answer for a moment. What would the woman be doing here? Sesshoumaru was the only one who came to visit regularly, though he was a lord. She looked into the old woman's brown eyes and suddenly realised who she was.
"Rin?"
Rin looked back at the girl before her, suddenly the similarity of the blue eyes and jet black flowing hair struck her. "L.. Lady Kagome?", she ventured hesitantly, "Are you a ghost?"
The Tenshi shook her head with a sad smile as she kneeled down in front of Rin to be closer to her. "No", she affirmed, "I'm still alive. Just... stuck here for a while?", she sighed. "It's hard to explain, but I wanted to be with your lord forever. I no longer possess a mortal body."
Rin listened, still stunned into silence at the revelation that the Lady Kagome was still alive after all this time. When she could finally speak she could only state the obvious, "They all think you're gone... My Lord never told us how but we were all told you were dead...", she trailed off uncertainly.
Kagome nodded, "That was my mistake. I didn't think to tell anyone what happened after he left, being so upset as I was. I regret that now. Though, if you are curious, my mortal body was drowned."
Rin winced at the bluntness of the statement. Though, after living with the fact for fifty-one years one must get used to the facts.
They sat in silence together for a long while after that, both staring out calmly at the lake. After so long there's almost too much to talk about to speak, so they both took the little bit of eachothers presence the other had to give. As the sun was getting well past it's zenith in the sky Kagome broke the silence.
"You have grown old..", she stated obviously. She recieved a nod and a wistful smile from the old woman at her side.
Thoughts and memories of a young girl following a taciturn youkai and tempering his cold heart into something warm. The caring, fatherly expressions flitting across a normally stoic face flashed through her mind's eye. A thought struck her.
"He didn't want to leave you.", another nod, "Do you want to be with him again? To follow him again. He has been alone all this time...", she finished with a sad sigh.
"I am old and my time is coming...", the gravely voice of an old woman reminded her.
"I made my own immortal body, would you not let me attempt to take away the age that has wrought yours? If I succeeded you could be a child again, grow with him. With us if I am able. Will you let me try?"
Aged brown eyes gazed speculatively at the young looking woman beside her. The sad powder blue eyes struck her, they looked so lonely. Stunned into silence once again, not only by the inhuman eyes staring at her but by the feel of the desperately alone aura clinging to her own small human one. She nodded as she shed a single tear for all of the sacrifices of the Shikon Miko.
Rin's eyes closed as she felt the warm aura that was Kagome against her face. The see through hands hovered over her cheeks. A warmth engulfed her body and she felt the effects of age slowly leave her body. Her old bent bones began to straighten, the aches and creaks in her joints dissapeared, the wrinkles folded into her skin from many years of rhythmic movements dissapeared as she regained her youth. With her eyes still held lightly closed she did not see how the once crisp image of the Shikon Miko blurred and faded to that of a ruined watercolor painting.
She winced as the once warm sensations of her body regressing warped. She could feel things being taken now, memories slowly slipping away and became obscure, strength of a young body fading to that of a babe's, and the powerful young aura faded into the small one of a newborn.
Kagome looked over the child cradled in the clothes she arrived in. She used the weight of her aura to push the cloth closer around her form to keep the child warm before taking in her own state. At least she still had an image, she thought, as she looked down at her now misty, peach tinted appendages. She didn't regret giving what she had. She slowly backed into the water, much of her energy was taken and she needed to rest before she saw Sesshoumaru again.
OOO
Sesshoumaru stood off to the side of the well traveled human road. The same place he had last seen her alive. He looked sadly at the now well worn path from the road into the forest to the lake he had dubbed as 'Kagome's'. His decision pained him but he would not go this year.
Fifty years he had despaired with out her now. If he had stayed with her and she lived she would have passed by now as well. So it should be only fitting that he stop dwelling on her now right? He felt a twinge where his heart was as he turned from his path back to his way home, his imp retainer staring disbelievingly at him from where he stood at the begining of the path.
He could see the old imp's frowning expression in his mind as he heard the small whisper, "You shouldn't go milord." Jaken could never speak out with any vehemence against his Lord's actions, but he just had this feeling that now wasn't the time for him to leave.
The demon clad in white never stopped walking away into the forest away from Kagome's lake.
OOO
Kagome watched the sky from her resting place in the lake as she waited for the familiar caress of his aura against her own. The sun continued it's slow descent from the skies to the horizon undeterred. She waited silently, and waited, and waited... Soon the sky stained with hues of purple and orange stared back at her.
She questioned herself sadly for the hundredth time since she left Rin on the bank. Why wasn't he here yet? Finally the answer she had been pushing back and denying crawled forward into her concsious thought. He isn't coming.
She ascended to the sandy bank of the lake once again. He wasn't coming but she still had to get rin somewhere safe. She reached down with ghostly limbs and used the strength of her aura to hold the tiny child against her. She stepped onto the path Sesshoumaru usually took through the forest. She hoped to find someone to take care of the child she couldn't fulfill her promise to.
OOO
Jaken sat against the tree he always sat against when they usually came to visit Lady Kagome. Even if his Lord left he couldn't bring himself to not pay his respects to the Shikon Miko. He stared up at the fading light in the sky, soon to be replaced by soft burning of other solar system's suns. His bulbous ochre eyes glazed over with sadness as he thought of his Lord's lost happiness.
He turned his head down to stare at the dirt at his feet. His eyes drifted closed as he clutched his staff to his chest. So many things had gone well for a short while, but then they all went wrong again.
Starting as he felt the prick of a powerful aura against his own he stood and started looking around for the source. He gasped and his limbs quivered as he saw the ghostly figure floating down the path from the lake towards him. The blue cloth clutched close to it's chest hid it's prescious package.
Jaken's entire body shook with trepidation as he watched the form come closer. His eyes misted with tears as he was struck with a stark feeling of familiarity that he couldn't quite place. Momentarily breaking from his daze he dropped his staff and darted forward just as the image fell to the ground and he caught it's carefully cradled package. He was lost to his daze again as he met the sorrow filled but relieved shocking blue eyes.
The world had fallen silent around the three figures. Tiny tears slid over Jaken's cheek and down his beaklike nose as an aura wrapped around him and passed along the feeling of gratitude. He finally looked down at the package he so carefully cradled and gasped as a bemused chocolate gaze looked back at him before the tiny child giggled.
As if the sound started the world moving again he heard the far off whisper on the wind of 'Thank you' before he watched the peach colored, blue-eyed image of the tenshi dissipate and drift away like a fog hanging low to the ground. He momentarily thought of following but before he could move the fog was gone back towards the lake and out of his reach. He moved to sit on the ground next to his discarded staff and he cradled the babe in his lap awkwardly as he continued to cry silently and rock back and forth. He couldn't tell why or what he was crying for but he still couldn't stop.
Sesshoumaru found them there late into the night, the imp still rocking back and forth. He wondered where the child had come from and why it had delayed his retainer. Kneeling down next to the near catatonic imp he took in the child's scent. His eyes hooded in confusion as he picked the child up in his arms. She smelled of Rin and the lingering scent of old human clung to the kimono she was wrapped in, as well as the faint scent of clean water and Kagome.
"What sorcery is this?", he whispered to himself as he carefully touched the child's sleeping face. As much as it could be a cruel trick Sesshoumaru couldn't shake the urge to care for the child and keep it. His retainer finally speaking prompted to look at the imp in wonder.
"Tenshi, milord. Tenshi." He followed the imp's dazed gaze down the worn path to the lake. He then stood with the child in his arms and turned back towards home. If tenshi saw fit to give him a memory of his lost happiness he would not be so foolish as to throw it away again. He and his loyal retainer walked silently through the moonlit forest, their entourage once again happily weighed down by a third member.
If they had stayed they would have heard the saddened wails of a lost Tenshi, left alone once again after making a great sacrifice.