Title: Led Down the Primrose Path
Author: landofthekwt
Rating: PG-13
Prompt: Search (The Wilted Rose Week 19)
Word Count 558
Genre: High anxiety
Universe: Canon (Volume 23)
Warning None
Summary: Kikyou is lured to Mount Hakurei
She had always been in control. In her first life and in her present existence. Even her love for Inuyasha had been controlled. Never touching. Never having. Always the proper miko. She would only give herself to him when he was human. When the jewel was gone. When she was no longer a miko. Each step of the journey had been planned. Unfortunately for Naraku knew of her plans and had used her own plan to destroy them both.
Now she was at a last. Naraku was gone. His castle was deserted. No sign nor scent of him remained. Neither she nor her soul collectors could find any sign of him or his aura anywhere. Unlike Inuyasha, Kikyou had always known where he was. She had no fear of him because she had him under her scrutiny at all times.
But now she was at a loss. Not knowing where he was gnawed at her. No matter where she looked she could not find him. She sought out every evil aura that she could find, but he was not there. No matter how hard and how far she searched he had vanished. His absence did not bode well. It could only mean that he had hidden himself from her so that he could prepare something for her. She did not fear her own death Death was something she knew intimately.
What she feared was not knowing what was to come. She feared not being in control. For her plan to succeed she had to know where Naraku was so that she could send him to hell when he obtained all of the Shikon Jewel. She shrugged off her fears. The dirt from Onigumo's cave made her invulnerable to his attacks. He could never kill her so long as the heart of Onigumo, the man who loved her enough to sell his soul to have her, beat within his chest.
In her search she had come across a dying man who asked her to take his topknot to the shrine founded by to absolve him of his crimes. Although she did not know the man or where the shrine might be located, she had taken on this task. Somehow the whole story that the criminal told had seemed so familiar. But she was a compassionate miko and she could never refuse one who asked her to relieve his suffering.
Her search had not been in vain. She stared at the sacred mountain. There at the base of the mountain in the center of a lake was the shrine founded by the saint. She felt uneasy. Her goal was in sight why should she feel such a sense of foreboding
Her search had led her here. But she had a feeling that she had been led here. Who had led her? What did they want? Why was she here? So many questions. So few answers. She had been taken away from search for Naraku by granted the last wish of the criminal for absolution.
She had been reluctant to set aside her own mission to destroy Naraku, but she was first and foremost a miko, a servant of the kami. Her duty to them always came first. No matter what fear or doubts she might have, she would do her duty to the end even if it killed her.