Chapter 3 - Explanation
As soon as the glowing aura around Kagome disappeared, she began to fall. Sesshomaru stepped up and caught her neatly; it was time to take the bait. Slinging the unconscious girl over his shoulder, he turned and faced the fallen hanyou, "Give me Tetsusaiga."
"I'll never give you Tetsusaiga you bastard! You can't even wield it!" Inu Yasha snarled, struggling to stand.
Sesshomaru's eyes flickered deliberately in the direction of the trees where the arrow had come from before forming his translucent youkai cloud, "When you're ready to hand over Tetsusaiga, you can have your human back."
"Kagome!" the voices of her friends chorused, but it was too late. Sesshomaru was already high up in the sky and he had no intentions of coming back down. As Miroku and Sango watched, Sesshomaru's shrinking figure was joined by a two-headed dragon carrying a sleeping child and Jaken the toad.
Miroku was the first to look away, "Inu Yasha…" his voice trailed off when he noticed that the silver-haired hanyou was no longer in the clearing.
"Over there," Sango directed, spotting bright red in the trees to the right. Leading the way, she, Miroku, Shippo and Kirara went to Inu Yasha's side. He was kneeling by a wounded miko's side; Kikyo.
"Inu Yasha… you must… get her back… she's… more… than just…" Kikyo's voice trailed off as the last of her strength was spent. Without warning, all of the dead souls held within her body shot out, scattering in every direction. As everyone watched, Kikyo's body shrivelled up into graveyard soil.
She was gone and there was nothing anyone could do about it.
Kagome awoke staring up at a wooden ceiling in a bed more comfortable than any she'd ever laid on before. "Where am I?" she mumbled to herself.
"You are in Sesshomaru-sama's castle," a crisp female voice informed her.
"Eh?" she hadn't expected an answer. Kagome blinked and sat up, taking in her surroundings. She was lying in a large bed with dark red sheets. In fact, almost everything in the room was a deep crimson, the curtains, the large rug; even the wood had a reddish tinge to it. Kagome ran her fingers over the silk sheets, marvelling at the richness of the material.
Casting her glance toward the door, she spotted the source of the voice. A girl who appeared to be a few years older than her stood silently watching her. She had pale skin, bright red eyes and long, matching, bright red hair that went down past her knees. She was wearing a plain, dark blue kimono. Tucking her vivid hair neatly behind her delicately pointed ears, the girl spoke again, "My name is Kiome. I have been assigned to you. If you require anything, just ask me and if possible, it will be brought promptly to you."
"Hello Kiome-san, my name's Kagome and I have no idea how I got here but I want to leave right now," an uneasy feeling was settling over Kagome. After she'd run from Inu Yasha, she'd set up camp and fallen asleep. When she awoke, Sesshomaru was there and Inu Yasha soon appeared. She had no memory of what happened after that, one minute she'd been arguing with Inu Yasha and then it was like her senses had fallen asleep for she remembered nothing but darkness.
"Sesshomaru-sama brought you here. You should be grateful that you get to stay in one of the guest rooms and that you will not have to acquaint yourself with the dungeons," Kiome admonished.
Kagome gulped, silently grateful that she'd gotten the lodgings she had. Taking a better look around the room, she noticed several more doorways. "Where do those go?" she asked gesturing to a door beside a large, redwood dresser and two other doors which stood side by side on the opposite side of the room.
Kiome easily identified the doors, turning to her right and working her way around the room, "The one by the dresser leads to my room; those other two are for your use. The one closest to you is a walk-in closet full of clothing. The other one leads to a magical hot spring for you to bathe in."
"Ah, how nice," Kagome mumbled, yawning. She lay back down on the bed and turned her back on the demoness, "I'm going back to sleep."
Before long, Kagome's breathing evened out and she had fallen back into a comfortable slumber.
Miroku had gathered Kikyo's remains into a jar and covered it respectfully. He set it in front of him while he sat leaned against a large tree. Sango, Shippo and Kirara sat around him while Inu Yasha sat a short distance away with his back to everyone.
"Now's not the time to be moping!" Shippo cried angrily at the hanyou's back, "Kagome needs us!"
Miroku silenced the kitsune with a look.
"Kikyo died fifty years ago protecting the jewel," Sango began slowly. "The evil witch Urasue brought her back against her will unknowing that her soul had already been reincarnated. The soul was ripped in two in order for both Kagome-chan and Kikyo to continue living. It is unnatural and finally Kagome-chan's soul is whole again." Sango's eyes were trained on Inu Yasha's back, "Her purpose was to protect the Shikon no Tama, and she did well but her time came fifty years ago. She fulfilled her purpose in life and you must forget about her and let her rest in peace."
Shippo stared up at Sango before turning to Miroku, "What happened to Kagome?" he asked innocently.
"Every soul is balanced; darkness and light, evil and purity. When a person feels good and wants to help others their aura and soul will glow brightly and purely. It seems as if the darkness is gone but it lingers there small and barely discernible, but it's still there. When a person is enraged and consumed with anger and hatred, the darkness grows and takes over the purity. Their soul and aura now glow with ebony light," Miroku explained. "It takes and extremely powerful person for their aura to be visible for all to see. The darkness in their soul has to be very strong for it to cause the person to go into a trance as Kagome-sama did."
"Is that why she floated?" Shippo frowned confusedly.
"She floated because Kagome-sama's soul is very pure and kind. The darkness wanted to hurt Inu Yasha but she didn't want that and she fought to keep down the darkness. The two conflicted and neither refused to give up, it must have caused her body to float," the monk shrugged.
"When Kikyo's soul was returned to Kagome-chan, she was given the power to defeat the darkness; which in the end saved Inu Yasha's life," Sango added solemnly.
"How do you know all of this anyway?" Inu Yasha enquired hollowly.
"The jewel originated from my village so all the villagers were taught of its power and the mikos that protected it," Sango replied.
"I'm a monk, it's my job to know about the soul and its two sides," Miroku put in.
"Inu Yasha we have to get Kagome-chan back, if Sesshomaru-sama kills her, who knows what could happen to the jewel? If Naraku completes the jewel, there will be no one with enough spiritual power to purify it. It could be another fifty years before another miko strong enough to harbour the jewel will come along," Sango tried her best to restrain herself and keep her voice level as she rationalized herself to Inu Yasha. They did not have time to waste on mourning.
"We have to get her back as soon as possible," Miroku agreed, his tone serious.
A/N) Woot! Another one done. (:
Hmm.. in case some of you are wondering.. I know normally when Kagome gets taken, Inu Yasha is the first to run after her, but this time since Kikyo has passed, he's taking his time.. dealing with inner turmoil. ^_^
Review!