Title Waiting At the Temple

Author landofthekwt

Rating K

Prompt What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us." by Ralph Waldo Emerson (ib4y)

Warning none

Summary Kikyou waits at the temple for the day when she can destroy Naraku and the Jewel

She waited at the temple. Waiting for the day when she could destroy Naraku and the Jewel. She knew where he was, but it would serve no purpose to confront him until he had the entire Jewel.

Only then could purify him together with the Jewel. Until then all she could do was watch and wait,.

He knew where she was. She had told him when she left his castle where he could find her. He came to watch her every day. She knew the moment he appeared and the moment he left. His obsession with her was plain for all to see. If he wished to amuse himself, she would amuse herself watching him watching her.

She did not delude herself about her future. When he was gone, her reason for remaining in the world would vanish. She would return to the world of the dead her soul disappearing forever from the world. That was her fate and she had long ago accepted that there was no future for her in the world of the living.

She could tease him about his constant visits to the village knowing that he could do nothing to harm her. Inside him was the heart of the wild thief Onigumo who loved her. Naraku might pretend to be a youkai and hate her, but she knew what he was and how he felt.

He was a hanyou and loved her despite his own desire to kill her because of Onigumo.

It seemed as if the two of them would never get past their past together. To him she would always be the kind miko who had taken him. To her he would always be that pitiable thief who would never be able to move beyond his love for despite his inability to move and act on his feelings.

They both knew what had happened. Naraku had taken over Onigumo's body and killed her. Hardly the outcome Onigumo had wanted. For his bargain he had ended up with neither the Jewel nor Kikyou. Instead, he had been submerged with Naraku. His only consolation was that Naraku had not ended up with the Jewel.

Now Onigumo had a second chance at love. Naraku could not help but love her with the same obsessive love that Onigumo had once felt for her. So long that heart beat within Naraku he could not harm a head of her head. He could bluster and threaten all he wanted, but he could not bring himself to kill her.

And so she waited in the village. While she waited, she performed the duties that a shrine maiden of the temple would perform. She treated the sick and the wounded. The war brought more and more to her doorstep. When she was alive, she would have taken great satisfaction in the good she was doing, but not now.

Now she had only one purpose in life. Only one goal. It was not treating the sick. It was not helping the wounded. Her only duty was to cast the Jewel and Naraku from this world. When that was done, she would be gone. What happened in the past with Inuyasha and Naraku was irrelevant.

She did not want to kill Naraku for revenge. It was simply her duty. She had been the Guardian of the Shikon Jewel and had died protecting the Jewel. Now her duty was to banish the Jewel and its creation, Naraku from the world. Everything else was secondary to that purpose

If it meant Narakau would become more powerful so be it. She could not even protect Inuyasha from him. All she could do is warn him. Inuyasha and Onigumo were her past. Men who had loved her and died for her. Inuyasha might still an obligation to her, but in the end she was not his and neither of them could save the other. Onigumo might have loved her once, but now his love was merely her shield until she could kill Naraku and banish the Jewel.

Until that day she would fulfill her duties to the temple. Not that she needed them. She just needed a place to be until she killed Naraku and banished the Jewel. The temple was familiar. Being a miko was what she had been. It was not what she was now, but it was as good a place as any to pass the time until she completed her duty and could rest for eternity.