A/N: Last chapter, hope you enjoyed it. Please leave a review, there's not a "like" button here but even if all you do is put a smiley :) that will make me very happy if you enjoyed it. Criticism, hate, flames, praise, love, requests, anything else is also welcome. Thank you for reading and check out my other fics! :))

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Kagura felt her heart racing in her chest as she and Kanna sank deeper and deeper into the depths of the lake they'd been cast into after the failed attempt to steal Kaguya-hime's soul, cursing herself for having not realized the Celestial Robe protected her from it...
But after awhile, a sharp jolt of pain wrenched in her breast, and with a startle, she realized-
It's Gone!
A purple-hued sphere formed around her and her sister, and a swirl of jyaki within it repelled the water around them. Kagura gasped and inhaled the air, panting as her lungs began to function again. Although youkai were not so easy to kill as humans and could survive being underwater or being deprived of oxygen for much longer than any mere mortal, she was, after all, a Wind Sorceress, not a Water Sorceress, or a fish.
"UUUUUWWWWWAAAAAGGGGHHHHH! NAARRAAAKKKUUU!" she shrieked in disdain as she realized what was happening, the barrier sphere swiftly drawing the two of them out of the lake as the abomination spirited away with them in tow, and she noticed that Kohaku was once again the puppet of her unholy father...
So, Naraku gave him the Cowrie Shell. And hiding his essence in the boy's jewel shard was how he came back after his fake death. The fresh spider-mark on the boy's back proved it.
"Why Kagura, aren't you happy to see me?" Naraku teased, lifting his lips to chuckle at her darkly.
"You made me think you were dead! On Purpose!" she accused, and this only made his grin widen.
"And were you overcome with grief at the thought of my passing, dear Kagura?" he mocked.
Kagura scowled and turned her head, clenching her fist and gritting her fangs against rebuking him. Her heart...
Her heart was no longer in her chest. She was his slave once again. She had tried to exchange the false freedom of his death, for the false and even lesser freedom of Kaguya-hime's spell to, apparently, freeze and silence the whole world.
"You'll pay for this," she muttered after a long moment of holding back her wrath, and Naraku only chortled and glanced back at her sister.
"Kanna, you did well, my dear eldest daughter. Despite the fact that you could not draw in Kaguya-hime's soul, you were still able to get her to use it, yes?"
"Yes," Kanna intoned blandly, as blank and unfeeling as ever, apparently unfazed by being used and nearly killed by her own creator.
It infuriated Kagura sometimes that she was that way, but pausing to narrow her eyes, Kagura cast her crimson gaze towards her sister now, not feeling up to asking Naraku himself for any answers to any of her questions.
"Why was that important, Kanna? Did something happen to her when she used your mirror? Were you able to weaken her somehow?"
"Despite their vivid color, flowers scatter. Is there one in this world who is unchanging? Crossing the deep mountain of fleeting existence, one shall not have shallow dreams, nor be deluded. Since I no longer think of reality as reality, what reason would I have to think of dreams as dreams?"
"I never know what you're talking about when you do that," Kagura sighed and shook her head, sensing that her sister was struggling to convey a message she simply could not grasp, and too frustrated to put any more effort into this whole fiasco, finding she felt suddenly drained and even harshly defeated, no longer feeling the pulse of her heart in her chest...
Kagura simply dipped her head and shrugged off her pride, vowing that one day, her freedom would not be a mere illusion...

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Kikyou watched from afar as Sesshoumaru and his entourage left the untouched Sacred Forest of the Grand Magnolia. She too knew of Bokuseno, and had suspected all along that would be the first place Sesshoumaru would go once he realized he couldn't get inside the Dream Castle, because of course he knew a thing or two about time trees after...
Kikyou snorted, amused at her own straying thoughts. After she had sealed his Little Brother to a time tree, next to a well made of another such time tree. What strange webs were woven in the tapestry of life, what delicate red threads of fate bound them all together with irony...
As her shinidamachu veered closer to spy for her, she used her unholy undead magic to peer through it's eyes at what the little girl over there was laughing about so hard and why Sesshoumaru looked so pissed.
What she saw amused her enough to draw delighted chuckles from even her. Stoic and aloof as she had become in undeath, just enough of Kagome's soul had been left behind to give her a glimmer of real feelings, and right now the humor touched what was left of the essence of her shrunken heart, and gave her a tiny measure of comfort in knowing that the child was in good hands after all-something she had doubted a bit before.
Sesshoumaru's adorable bandage was no longer on his face. Rather, it was pointedly wrapped around the front of the imp's beak, having been just large enough to securely circle about the end of his snout, and there were about seven lumps on his head tilting his little black hat sideways. Rin was letting out unfettered laughter, but also trying to comfort Jaken, riding atop the dragon with the imp, one hand on his shoulder while he cried huge streams of tears from his eyes and clenched his beak shut, her other hand covering her mouth to muffle her chuckles.
Sesshoumaru scoffed and shot a glare to the side, spying the shinidama that had drawn just close enough for him to sense. Pointedly, he stared right at it until it veered away and drifted back, then huffed and turned his head sharply, dismissing the fleeting thought of starting a fight with her. In truth, the priestess was not someone he thought of as an enemy, and nothing she had done merited another death for her today...
"Just think, Jaken-sama," Rin said brightly, snickering as she tried to cheer him up, "Lord Sesshoumaru may have wrapped it around your beak to keep you quiet, but actually he kinda gave you a present, the same thing that kept him from being affected by the time magic, right? So don't be so sad about it! I didn't even get one, and you have two now!"
Sesshoumaru's face flashed with chagrin the others didn't see as he heard the imp gulp back his tears and choke on a noise that sounded more joyful than sad.
This was going to be a long day...

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To find out how long the day was, you can go and watch episode 96, which is literally the suggested watch series order, and pretend it's the same day. Or the next day :)) if that makes more sense to you. =^.^=

There are two poems Kanna recites here, and yes, they are traditional Japanese poems, translated for your convenience. The first one is about the fleetingness of existence, but was written actually as a beautifully poetic way to arrange the Japanese hiragana alphabet before the Meiji restoration, for in this it uses each standard character exactly once. The second is a reflection of the great Saigyo, a renowned poet of the late Heian era, known especially for his waka poetry. Between Reddit, Wikipedia, and Google, you can look deeper yourself if you care to.

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Author's Footnote : Two major implications here could also be noted. Kanna's mirror, I figured, probably at this point acquired the raw power she would later reveal in refined form by summoning the Mirror Demon that ultimately she sacrificed herself to try and preserve. Secondly...Kagura's entire existence, whether consciously or subconsciously, was ultimately to be a tortured soul for Magatsuhi (the dark spirit of the Shikon Jewel) to grow in power from her rage and despair, everything about the way Naraku always kept her alive and in the dark rather than just killing or re-absorbing her for her attempts to betray or sabotauge him points to that. Just felt it was worth adding in my two cents of an opinion on that here.