The woman who stared back at her was most certainly her. There was no doubt about that. Despite her replicated appearance she was however not a mirrored image as the woman did not move as she did. And then she spoke, and she did not speak as she did. Her voice was weighted with an old feeling sorrow that echoed in her ancient looking eyes.
"I have been mulling over our dilemma for some time now."
"Our..?"
"Yes, our. I have at last come to a resolution."
Kagome felt her brow furrow and her lips tug down as confusion bubbled up. "What are you talking about?'
"I am you and you are me. I am the part torn from our body and forced to play catch up for five hundred years. I am the part that watched the world move on as I stood still. I am the part that has grown bitter with time. And you are a conglomerate of recent memories untainted by my own feelings. You are kind and soft. You are who I wish I could be. You are who Shinobu deserves. And so I will grant him this one final boon and permit you my memories, I will fade and you will triumph. And while my memories and knowledge will be yours I will withhold the emotions attached to them. You will remain untouched, untried by my experiences. You will know them as a child knows a story, distantly and with little attachment."
She gave a melancholy sort of sigh as her eyes slid close. "All I ask of you is to give Shinobu my thanks for all that he has done… and at long last my goodbyes, my final farewells."
Kagome didn't even have a chance to answer before her mindscape became a swirl of images and sounds mashed together without any semblance of order. When she thought she might scream, thought she might break…
She awoke.