Welcome to the Land Of No Return. Muahaha. Beware, all ye who enter here…
"Ok! That's enough sitting around!" Kagome huffed to herself as she slung her arrows over her shoulder, feeling antsy to get going after all that had happened in the mountain. They had been lured there by the miasma, InuYasha and Miroku went to investigate, and who else but Kikyo showed up. The enigmatic priestess walked right past her and directly into the cave, seemingly shooting her arrow to stop the spell from absorbing InuYasha– and yet, though he was spared, Naraku was still able to absorb the Kodoku and carried the unconscious Kikyo away.
Kagome thought back on the events and shook her head angrily. "InuYasha. Stupid jerk!" She muttered to herself. She couldn't help but feel a little bit miffed that InuYasha had thrown himself into danger to try and rescue Kikyo. Once she'd been drained of her souls and fell into the Fuko spell, he had only only wanted to protect Kikyo. In fact, it was almost as if he totally forgot about her for a moment. I can't force him to think of only me when Kikyo is around. It's not like he's my boyfriend or something. Kagome froze as she considered the idea, her eyes widening. Is he?
Kagome's cheeks flushed hotly as she stormed over to where InuYasha idly sat, flapping one hand in the spring and splashing water at Shippo. He didn't even really seem to put that much effort into bullying the little fox demon, something that was one of his favorite pastimes. Shippo simply shook off the water, then blew a raspberry at the dejected hanyou and ran towards Kagome as she stood behind InuYasha.
"Um, hey. InuYasha?" She said timidly, picking Shippo up in her arms.
"What is it?" InuYasha grumbled, crossing his arms before side-eyeing her.
"Don't you think we should go and look for Kikyo?" She may have had her qualms with Kikyo, but she didn't wish the fate of being alone with Naraku on anyone.
Miroku and Sango stood aways back, intently listening in on their conversation. They observed InuYasha and Kagome with mutual bafflement, then looked at one another.
"Do you think those two have been acting rather odd lately?" Sango said lowly, covering her mouth with her hand conspicuously.
Miroku leaned over and whispered back, "Yes, they are. Let's see how InuYasha handles this one."
"Don't worry about it. I'll go find Kikyo. You guys stay here," InuYasha said stubbornly, looking away from Kagome. The young priestess ground her nails into her bow but remained silent so as to not cause a scene.
Miroku came over and nudged InuYasha in the head with his foot. "Don't be such a fool!" He scolded, and Kagome looked on in astonishment as InuYasha took the abuse.
"Did you forget? Kikyo was captured by Naraku!" Sango added in as well, and Miroku nodded in agreement, removing his foot at last so that InuYasha could rub his head angrily.
"Sango is right. Naraku isn't just your problem alone. We've all got a bone to pick with him," Miroku reminded them, and returned to Sango's side.
Kagome watched Miroku retreat and took her chance, letting Shippo run off so she could speak with InuYasha privately as the others prepared to leave."InuYasha. If you're trying to spare my feelings or something, don't," She said bluntly, taking him by surprise.
"Huh?" He backed away from her as she edged in closer to look into his eyes.
"Kikyo saved you! She risked her life to break the spell! So,that's why we should do the same. It's only fair," She reasoned. "We're a team! We should work together all as one. No sneaking around!"
InuYasha stiffened up, taking offense. "Who said I was sneaking!? I don't 'sneak' around! I told you exactly what I was doing!" He snapped back.
Miroku got their attention quickly, clapping his hands once."Shh! You two, stop bickering! We have company!" He hissed, and they all looked up to see Naraku's spying venomous wasps flying away, likely back to their master.
"Saimyōshō!" InuYasha growled, sniffing the air and picking up the pungent scent of miasma. Wherever the Saimyōshō were flying usually led them to Naraku or one of his puppets. Knowing this, they took off towards the direction the wasps were flying.
Kagome hopped onto the back of Kirara with Sango, to the demon slayer's surprise, as Kagome huddled down behind her. "Shouldn't you ride with InuYasha?" Sango asked hesitantly, watching as Kagome shook her head stubbornly.
"It's ok! Let's just go!" She squeaked out, and Sango shrugged.
Kagome exhaled deeply. Right now, I don't feel like it would be right. All of his attention is on finding Kikyo right now. Even though I said some noble things, I can't help but just be a teensy bit jealous after all...
InuYasha ran, bounding over hills and grass as quickly as he could after the Saimyōshō, but it seemed they had all but dissipated. Kikyo died because of Naraku! I can't let him take her again! He thought with determination, before looking to the side of him to see a couple of Kikyo's shinidamachū flying by. Her shinidamachū! That means she must be close by!
Miroku closed in behind him, "Watch up ahead, InuYasha!"
Inuyasha turned his head just in time to see what had Miroku concerned. "Mist?!" He wondered aloud in confusion as the shinidamachū flew directly into it.
"This could be a trap. Everyone, don't let your guard down!" The monk shouted behind him to the rest of his companions, and they hardened their eyes on the swirling mist ahead.
InuYasha leapt into the vortex, and floated down, looking around him in confusion as the mist obscured his vision and he at last landed on solid ground. "Kikyo!" He shouted, then heard a crackling din in the distance that grew in intensity as he walked closer, shielding his eyes from the smoke that was stinging them as his vision slowly adjusted. InuYasha struggled to comprehend what was going on, squinting to see where he was, though the flames were so bright they temporarily blinded him. This village, it's being attacked by something...? No! This is Kikyo's village!
He looked behind him urgently and shouted, "Watch out everyone! I'll go on ahead!" Then paused as the smoke cleared and he was able to see more of the burning remnants of the familiar village before him, the hot winds from the flames battering his robes about and blowing his hair back with its billowing embers. InuYasha raised one hand and caught an ember just to confirm that this was real, and felt it burn his palm before shriveling into white ash. How did we get here? Wait, did someone call my name? He thought, confused by hearing sudden shouts ringing out in the distance.
"It's InuYasha!"
"Let's get him!"
"He's after the Shikon Jewel!"
"He won't get away with attacking our village!"
The voices cried out angrily, and InuYasha gasped upon hearing their accusations. He was taken back to that dreadful event, fifty years ago. "No! I haven't killed anyone! Why are you saying all this–?" InuYasha began to defend himself, clenching his hand in a fist and noticing something round was clenched tightly in his hand.
He opened his palm and stared at the gleaming jewel that he recognized as the one that Kikyo expended so much effort to purify and protect. "The Shikon Jewel!" He gasped, staring at it in awed despair. "But how did I get it?" He was just as puzzled as that day in the past, lost for a moment in Naraku's skillful illusion. InuYasha shook his head and tried to free himself of the spell, seeing a flash of Kagome's face in his mind and recalling that the jewel he was holding was currently shattered into hundreds of pieces. "This isn't real!" He whispered as if to convince himself, though his confidence was waning due to how visceral this experience was. Everything around him seemed incredibly realistic, from the heat of the flames around him, to the weight of the jewel in his palm, as well as the volume of the angered shouts surrounding him.
A familiar twanging sound in the air distracted him from his silent reverie as he looked sharply to his left and an arrow flew by him, disintegrating strands of silver hair as it whipped past.
"InuYasha!" A familiar voice yelled out in a shrill tone of accusation, then the flames cleared and he saw Kikyo standing before him, though she didn't hold herself with confidence as she normally did. She was hunched over, the right shoulder of her robe drenched in blood.
"Kikyo?" He gasped, then it dawned on him.
This is that day, 50 years ago... When Kikyo and I were tricked into thinking we had betrayed one another! Have I returned to that day? The day when Kikyo shot me? The prediction came true faster than he could even blink, and he was unable to stop Kikyo from notching her arrow and pulling the bow string back with full intent to shoot him.
"Wait, Kikyo! I didn't do this! It was Narak-" Before he could speak the full name of the sorcerer casting this terrible spell, his body lurched back, and a crushing weight hit him in the chest, pinning him to the tree with her arrow. Kikyo stumbled towards him, clutching her bleeding shoulder with a sorrowful look in her eyes.
As InuYasha was pinned to the tree, he let go of the jewel and it bounced across the ground with a crystalline tinkling sound. Kikyo bent down to pick up the proof of InuYasha's betrayal.
"The Shikon Jewel... you would do all this, for such a thing?" She clutched the jewel to her chest and cried, "You betrayed me!"
Her hurt face and broken voice made his heart seize with agony all over again as if this event had happened only yesterday. He would reach out to embrace her, if only the effects of the mystical paralytic imbued in her sacred arrow didn't flow throughout his being.
No! You're wrong, Kikyo! We were both caught in Naraku's trap! I didn't betray you! InuYasha wanted to cry out to her, but it was as if his vocal chords were strangled, his tears evaporating into salt that stung his face as the flames around them still roared through the village and ate away all the structures there.
"I was so foolish, that I could even think for a moment that I could spend my life with you..." She whispered, and InuYasha felt drowsy from her sealing spell, lowering his eyelids as Kikyo embraced him.
"I won't.. let you die alone..." She uttered softly, clutching to his robes weakly as he felt her warm blood soaking into his clothing.
Kikyo… followed me in death. I know now what it is I have to do, we must go together... To the Underworld, where we belong.
Naraku watched over the scene from beyond the sanctuary of his barrier, smiling smugly as he revels in his success.
"InuYasha is tangled in a web of wooden vines that leech his soul from him, latching onto the despair that my spell has drawn out in him, from the darkest depths of his heart.
"If InuYasha cannot escape, I will take his soul. The same will go for his friends, Shippo, Miroku and Sango. All victims of my Illusory death, lying contorted as the images of their most feared memories trap them in terrified limbo. Miroku, eaten by his wind tunnel. Sango, slaughtered by Kohaku. And Shippo, left all alone with nobody there to soothe his frightened cries."
~x•X•x~
At the center of The Forest of Illusory Death was a great magnolia tree, with Kikyo's many shinidamachū circling and being repelled by the barrier around its wide, tumored trunk that kept them from tending to Kikyo. Her straight, black hair draped over Naraku's arm as he held the sleeping woman cradled to his chest. Observing the effects of his spell on his unwilling participants, Naraku chuckled in amusement from behind his baboon mask.
"All easy prey for my Spell of Illusory Death. My my, how very frail human hearts are, indeed. Sadness... Fear... Confusion... If even one of these dark roots reaches down into the darkest reservoirs of horror I've sunken into this land, it's over," He said, slowly and with a soft, grating voice that almost purred with its cruelty. The dark, empty eye sockets of his haunting mask stared out as he spoke softly enough to not wake the beautiful priestess sleeping in his grasp.
"The darkness will rise in them. And consume their souls." He looked down to Kikyo and smiled. "Yes, Kikyo. Even your beloved InuYasha is quickly ensnared by the illusions. Only- that Kagome girl, as I expected... is impervious to my spell."
~x•X•x~
There was a low, howling moan of the wind like a dying woman as it scraped and echoed through the trees, sending a chill down Kagome's spine.
"Guys...? Where'd you go?" Kagome said softly, her voice trembling. She stepped forward and heard a snapping sound as tree roots were crushed beneath her feet, the vines curling back as if in distaste of her touch.
"This is creepy... I swear these vine things are moving..." Kagome gulped, then looked back to see the vines were now all deathly still. Not a moment later, she yelped as one wrapped around her ankle, and she slashed wildly at the roots with her bow, causing them to retreat.
She walks through my tangled roots... but not one of them is able to ensnare her at all! Naraku thought bitterly as he watched the girl through the cracks in the trees.
No sooner than Naraku laid his crimson gaze upon her, Kagome sensed something nearby. It felt like a shikon jewel… yet, not. She turned her attention towards where she sensed the energy, and gasped upon seeing Naraku's position just beyond a few rows of trees. Yikes! It's Kikyo and Naraku! Kagome's heart races, and she ducks behind a tree. She saw that Kikyo seemed to be asleep, then changed her mind upon sensing a flare of familiar energy. It was Kikyo's spiritual power. Kikyo opened her eyes, and they darted directly at her, most likely sensing the jewel fragment around Kagome's neck.
Kikyo must be paralyzed. Now's my turn to save her! Naraku mustn't know I'm here! She pulled free an arrow from her quiver and aimed it. Please... hit! The young miko pleads as if she's speaking to the arrow. The arrow whips through the air with a heavy twang of her bow string, and breaks through the barrier, dispelling it easily. It strikes the baboon puppet directly in the chest, causing Kikyo to fall to the ground as Naraku's voice can be heard laughing softly.
"Good work, I knew that you would make it here by yourself." He said with a knowing laugh before the puppet guise dissolves and all that is left is the wooden golem with Naraku's long black hair tied loosely around it.
"Huh...? What does he mean? Was this a trap?" She gasps, then feels the ground beneath her being to crack in large, jagged lines. Then it opens up beneath her and Kagome falls through, screaming.
I cannot destroy her soul... but I can destroy the flesh that harbors it.
Kagome struggled to hang onto the edge of the chasm, her legs flailing to find grip as she kicked hopelessly.
"Help! Someone help me, please!" She cried, but it went unheard over the crackling of roots and the bubbling of a thick miasma at the base of the chasm, ready to eat away at her flesh.
…
The shinidamachū hissed and rammed their serpentine bodies harder against the walls of the barrier, where Kikyo now lies alone in the bows of the magnolia tree, completely drained of souls.
Naraku's voice whispers from above the shadowy copse in the tree, where two red eyes can be seen peeking out. "No one is going to come. InuYasha and the other's souls have all been ensnared by my spell of illusory death. Soon, they will all be dead. There is no one left to rescue you, Kagome. Die."
"Help! InuYasha!" Kagome struggled to hold onto the cliffside, panicking as she looked down at the bubbling acid, then her grip loosened on the chasm's edge as a figure slowly approached in the distance. She managed to reach up and grab onto a root, attempting to climb up, yet as she pulled upwards, she was met with the apathetic visage of her former life.
"Kikyo?" She questioned, confused by her sudden appearance. Something was odd about her. Wait… What is that? The presence of a jewel! Kagome gasped, sensing a jewel shard inside of Kikyo's chest.
Kikyo was simply watching her struggle, her hair loose from its ties as the wind howled through it. She held the golem puppet in her hand, looking from it, to Kagome. A red glow emanates from Kikyo and she sneers at Kagome. Though Kikyo hadn't favored Kagome previously, she was acting even more cruel than usual.
"He's using a golem puppet... Hn, how fun would it be for him to watch as well?" She sneered, before setting it down upright in the dirt. Kagome looked on in utter shock as Kikyo smiled at her.
"But.. I thought you were paralyzed?"
"I could have moved whenever I wanted to. I was simply watching... I was curious to see what Naraku intended. It seems, he also sees you as nothing but a nuisance."
Also? Does that mean Kikyo does too? Kagome thought, her large eyes wide with wonder as they met with Kikyo's that narrowed cruelly upon the sight of her heinous reincarnation.
Does this have something to do with that corrupted red jewel shard implanted in her chest? Kagome wondered. If that were the case, Kikyo was under the control of Naraku.
~x•X•x~
Flames danced into embers, fluttering away into the dark of night. Kikyo... If I'd only trusted you back then! Instead, I hated you. I didn't know that you followed me into death. I'm so sorry. InuYasha thought dreamily as he sunk further and further into the illusion, his soul being lost little by little.
There is nothing for me here now... I have nothing left to protect. Kikyo, let us go. To Hell, together. So that you won't have to be alone any longer... Goodbye, Kagome...
Kikyo's doppelganger clutched him tightly to her chest. He held her close as she latched her lips onto his, and his soul began to ooze from his body in white orbs that hummed and floated, then sunk into the artificial Kikyo. His body began to wither, then she pulled away from the husk of a person. InuYasha became one with the tree as the roots tangled around him.
Kikyo wiped her mouth with the back of her hand and smiled as a trickle of blood leaked down her chin. She marveled at her own hands as they slowly became tipped with claws, her dark brown eyes, golden yellow as she took his soul, as well as all the power held within it, then abandoned him at the scene, the shell of Kikyo walking back to her master to give him such a wonderful gift.
~x•X•x~
"Kikyo! You have to help me! Naraku has us all under his spell, you included! We have to save the others!" Kagome cried out. Kikyo only laughed at her as the cliffside crumbled, and she lost her footing, the roots she was holding onto for dear life snapping apart. Kagome screamed as she fell, then Kikyo's shinidamachū came up beneath her and caught her, wrapping around her ankles.
"Oh, thank goodness! For a second there, I thought you were going to l-let me fall!" Kagome said with a nervous chuckle, then watched helplessly as an insectoid-like youkai clasped its arms around the Shikon Jewel fragment and tore it from her neck, then brought it back to Kikyo. Kikyo took it, clutching it to her chest.
"This is mine. You are not supposed to have it, foolish girl. It's your fault that the Shikon no Tama is incomplete, and now all your friends are dying as their souls are being sucked from their bodies." Kikyo said hatefully, stepping back from the chasm.
"What? You're going to let us all die now? But, you saved InuYasha before!" She shouted, now just as frightened as she was angry.
Kikyo placed the jewel fragment around her neck as her eyes flickered crimson. "I had to let InuYasha think that there was still a chance I cared for him before we took his soul, or else the spell wouldn't have worked. You saw how easily he would risk his life for mine over yours, didn't you? Or, are you truly that much of a fool?"
Kagome began to cry, large beads of moisture falling from her eyes. Then, the shinidamachū protecting her from falling now turned to roots, and she cried out as they began to give way.
"InuYasha! Help! InuYasha, where are you?!" She screamed, but there was no answer as Kikyo watched her with an amused expression.
"He isn't coming. His soul is rotting in hell. But I'm sure you'll be seeing him soon, you can join him as he relives the day he betrayed me over and over for all eternity."
"But, Kikyo, that was all Naraku's plan to turn you two against each other, wasn't it? You have to believe me!" Kagome screamed, her voice growing even more shrill.
"I know that. That is why I decided that I cannot keep living on, watching him reenacting the way our life together was supposed to be, but with you. My soul no longer yearns to be with InuYasha as it once did. Once I'm free of you, I shall do as I please….Without your interference!" She said viciously, and with that, the Shikon Jewel turned black on her chest, and the roots holding up Kagome dried up and shattered, and she fell helplessly into the miasma, her body going underneath as if suctioned inside.
Kikyo watched with a fevered gaze, her crimson eyes aglow with fascination as the lilac hued liquid burbled, and blood mixed with the bubbling acid still echoing out her dying cries. Kagome's soul oozed out of her, and began rushing back into Kikyo, hitting her body back and forth as she regained her soul back at last.
Kagome's soul fought for survival as Kikyo fell back and writhed on the ground. Her skin glowed red and black, then lavender and white as the souls battled within her body. Kikyo closed her eyes and squeezed them shut, feeling that terrible burning feeling rising up in her chest once again.
Flashes of Kagome and InuYasha's memories together entered her mind unhindered; all the times InuYasha had chased after Kikyo and left Kagome alone to weep, and that bitterness within Kagome's heart that envied Kikyo burst free in a wash of dark purple. It flooded through her veins, all the way to her fingertips until Kikyo became still, and her skin paled, returning to its normal color. The corrupted jewel melted into her chest and sank in until only a small portion of it showed, its immediate influence causing her eyes to fly open in shock as she felt a new surge of power rise within her.
Her irises were the color of pale lilacs with red at the center, the pupils cat-like. As if sensing this transformation, she blinked in surprise. Kikyo attempted to familiarize herself with her new body, licking her now sharp, fanged teeth with a long, forked tongue. Her lips were slick and black, and as she reached to touch them, she noticed how her nails had elongated into long, red claws tipped with black. She flexed her fingers and uttered a small, demonic purr of happiness before standing up and allowing a pair of wings to burst free from her back as she took flight back to Naraku's castle.
~x•X•x~
A/N: I believe that garners a Mature content rating, so I will be changing it. Thank you to Proxy57 and Carla for the reviews. I hope that this chapter didn't dissuade you all from reading. There is much more to come!