Miroku stroked the gentle girl's head. He could literally kill himself for doing this to her and he might would have if it wouldn't have left her even more alone. He knew there was no escape. No creature had ever returned from his void. So he promised himself that he would spend the rest of his days trying to ease Kagome's pain. They set in silence for hours with her still in his embrace. Finally he felt compelled to speak. "I am sorry," was his simple heartfelt statement.
"It isn't your fault, "she told him trying to offer him comfort. "We all knew that this day would come. I am just glad that you don't have to be alone."
Leave it to her to be so selfless. She was now hopelessly lost, but she was glad that he was not facing this alone. Only Lady Kagome could hold no anger at him for sharing his fate with her. "But, Inuyasha" he began.
She quickly cut him off and said in a voice that left no doubt she was crying "he has Sango to think of. He will throw himself into making sure that she survives. It will give him purpose and keep him sane."
Miroku thought that his friend just may be right. It was no secret that Kagome and Sango thought of each other as sisters, and thus he would not fail Kagome by letting her sister fade away.
It had been a week. One whole week since they had been gone. Sango and Inuyasha went through the actions of being alive with none of the feelings that should come along with it. It was on a night when they were setting on a hill together in silence that Sango saw them, and judging by the look on Inuyasha's face he saw them too. Soul collectors; Kikyo was near. Finally Sango did feel something; anger, as she watched her friend get up to go meet the dead priestess. "She is not half the woman Kagome is," Sango hissed.
"I know that," Inuyasha defended. "But there is something that I have to ask her." Without offering anymore of an explanation he left her.
It took him no time at all to follow the scent of graveyard soil and find Kikyo. Before she could even speak Inuyasha blurted out "has it returned to you?"
Kikyo seemed to look perplexed which told Inuyasha that it had not. "Has what returned, "she asked?
"The other piece of your soul," he offered in explanation.
"What has happened to my reincarnation," she asked. Inuyasha was surprised that she seemed almost concerned. He explained to her what had happened and she seemed to take a moment to consider it before she replied. "She may be gone but she is not dead. You now have no reason to remain here Inuyasha fulfill your promise and come with me."
Even though it would have released him from his pain Inuyasha shook his head. "I have to wait for her; to see if she can find her way back."
Kikyo seemed to have genuine pity in her voice as she told him "she may indeed come back, but it will probably not be until five hundred years in the future. Inuyasha she will not remember you. And if she does manage to survive and be returned to her rightful time she will not be the same. No one can emerge from a void unchanged. She will be as lacking in emotion as your brother."
"You don't know her," Inuyasha defended. "You could not do it Kikyo, but your soul has grown stronger with time. I will not give up on her."
Knowing she would not win this battle Kikyo looked into his eyes. "I will leave this world tonight. Naraku is gone now and I grow weary of having to walk where I do not belong."
"I will stay with you until you are gone," Inuyasha told her feeling he owed her that. He held the woman he had once loved and watched as her body changed into a thousand blue lights and flew away into the night. Once he would have wept; he thought to himself. But now he knew what real pain was, and the loss of Kikyo paled in comparison. He watched the last blue light fly away before hurrying to return to Sango's side.
"Well did you have a good time," Sango asked?
"She is gone Sango," Inuyasha said to her. "I had to go," he went on sensing his friend's anger. "She had answers that I needed. Sango, Kagome is not dead. Kikyo didn't receive the rest of their soul."
Instantly Sango's anger faded replaced by hope. "Then Miroku is still alive too," she exclaimed. "This is great Inuyasha. We can get them back."
Looking at his friend he didn't have the heart to tell her that they wouldn't get then back until five hundred years in the future. He would live to feel the embrace of his love again, but Sango would not.