InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ The Soul Within ❯ To Learn ( Chapter 4 )

A/N: Yea! I finally finished my chapter outlines! That means that I can avoid the evil, invisible force called writers block. AND I know exactly how many chapters I am going to do…20.

 

You may have noticed that I named my existing chapters. I think it gives the story some more…personality, I guess.

 

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The Soul Within

Chapter Four

 

“A…spell?” Kagome echoed in disbelief.

 

Sango nodded. “It's a really long story but the spell sums it up pretty well…that is, if you can analyze poetry.”

 

“I'm not - ” Kagome began, but Sango held her hand up.

 

“Its okay, my mother already translated it to me a long time ago...before she died.”

 

Kagome looked at Sango in shock. “Oh Sango, I'm so sorry,” she said sadly. Kagome knew what it was like to lose a mother at a young age. She had been ten when her mother was slain by a youkai.

 

Sango gave her a tiny smile. “It's okay, I've learned to deal with it.” She quickly changed the subject. “Anyway, I'll tell you the entire story now.”

 

She took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. Off by heart, she said the first stanza of the poem.

 

“Thy heart is filled,

With darkness and hate.

Thy two qualities,

Shall lead to this fate.”

 

“Almost fifty years ago, when I wasn't even born yet, a young miko came to this castle. She was fatally injured and she asked the guards at the front of the castle for help, or at the very least, a place to die peacefully,” Sango began. “The guards took pity on her and led her inside the castle grounds. As they neared the castle healer, they came across the hanyou named Inuyasha.”

 

“Who is Inuyasha?” Kagome asked. “Didn't you say that was the name of the youkai out there?” Kagome pointed to the door.

 

Sango smiled. “That is much farther ahead in the story, but yes. The Inuyasha in the story is the Inuyasha that you encountered earlier. Right now he's a youkai, but in this stage of the story he is a hanyou.” Kagome nodded and motioned for Sango to continue.

 

“Inuyasha was the ruler of the castle. His father had died from severe wound the same day that Inuyasha was born and his mother was killed five years later. Villagers had killed her and an old miko had tried to purify Inuyasha because he was a hanyou.”

 

Kagome started to tear up. How awful it must have been for Inuyasha to lose both of his parents when he was so young.

 

Sango was still talking. “Inuyasha had been very close to his mother and her death molded him into an angry and bitter young man. He never allowed anyone to get close to him and he despised humans.”

 

“Inuyasha left the castle right after his mother's death and nobody believed that he'd ever return. However, on his eighteenth birthday, he returned and took his place as the ruler of this castle. I don't know why he returned but I think it was because his mother had always wanted her son to take her place when she died. I also think that he wanted to rule over humans…so that he could be above them for once.”

 

“How does this connect to the wounded miko?” Kagome asked.

 

“I'm getting there. The miko and the two guards came across Inuyasha, who demanded to know who she was. The guards explained her request to Inuyasha and he flatly denied her treatment, ordering the guards to throw her into a nearby river. Inuyasha hated humans in general but mikos…he loathed them with a passion.”

 

Kagome remembered the words that Inuyasha had said when he had tried to kill her. “You…die!” Had he tried to kill her merely because she was a miko?

 

“The miko was hurt worse than the guards had originally thought; she died right there in the hallway. However, Inuyasha's men obeyed Inuyasha's command and threw her body into the river…they thought that was the end of it.”

 

“They couldn't have been more wrong. Later that night, the very same guards saw a woman approaching the castle. As she came closer, the guards' eyes widened in shock. It was the dead miko that they had thrown into the river hours earlier.”

 

Kagome shivered. “Creepy…” she mumbled, as she felt Miroku tighten the bandage on her arm. He had stopped for a few minutes to listen to Sango talk.

 

Sango nodded in agreement. “That's only the beginning. The miko walked forward with her eyes narrowed and her shoulders squared. She coolly told the guards to let her into the castle grounds but they fearfully denied her.” Sango shook her head. “I had never heard of a miko that killed humans but I guess that there's a first time for everything.”

 

Kagome gasped but Sango kept speaking. “The miko kept walking, killing any human that tried to stop her…until she finally saw Inuyasha again.”

 

“What did she do?” Kagome breathed.

 

Sango shook her head. “She laid a spell that would forever change Inuyasha and everyone around him. The first stanza of the spell explains why she did it; his heart was filled with so much hatred and darkness.”

 

“But…how did she come back to life?” Kagome asked.

 

“I wish I knew.” Kagome nodded in understanding and became quiet once more. “The next two stanzas of the spell kind of go together,” Sango said as she delivered the next part of the spell.

 

“Thy purest of spheres,

With untainted light,

Blackens in evil,

Come fifty year's night.

 

Thy collar of beads,

Splits thou in this way.

A human by night,

A youkai by day.”

 

“My mother told me that this part describes Inuyasha's curse. As the miko recited this part of the spell, she summoned a pink sphere out of nowhere which was the purest of all spheres…the Shikon no Tama. However…this tiny ball would become black with evil after fifty years…that is the amount of time that Inuyasha had to break the spell.”

 

“The miko also created a rosary that flew toward Inuyasha's neck. The rosary had the power to split Inuyasha's two sides in half. He would be a youkai during the day and a human during the night.”

 

“This is so confusing,” Kagome murmured, rubbing her temples with her forefingers.

 

Sango chuckled in sympathy. “It'll all come together near the end.” Kagome nodded and Sango finished saying the spell.

 

“Return to hanyou,

Purify thy jewel,

Before the last shard,

Becomes dark and cool.

 

To remove thy spell,

Listen to thy fact.

Remove thy collar,

With the purest act.”

 

“Basically, this part says that the Shikon no Tama is going to turn completely black after the spell has been active for fifty years. Each year, one blackened shard of the jewel will fall off until the jewel is completely blackened and broken. Inuyasha has to find a way to remove the rosary before that happens. Apparently, the only way to do that is to purify the jewel with the “purest act.”

 

“What is the purest act?” Kagome asked curiously.

 

Sango smiled grimly. “That's what makes the spell so hard to break. If we knew what the purest act was, we could've purified the jewel a long time ago.”

 

Kagome nodded. “How do you, Miroku and Shippo come into this?”

 

Sango paused. “I'm not entirely sure. All I know is that my parent's, Miroku's and Shippo's were all servants at this castle. Well-paid servants, but still servants. I think that when the miko put a spell on Inuyasha, it affected everyone around him. Principally, Me, Miroku, Shippo and the few other people in this castle are forced to stay inside and sleep during the day to avoid Inuyasha- ”

 

“Why?”

 

“When Inuyasha is a youkai, he can't tell the difference between friend or foe…he'll just kill anyone on sight.”

 

For some reason, that made Kagome feel better. She was glad to know that he wasn't attacking her for anything that she had done.

 

“And the other condition is that we have to stay within a 100-foot-radius of the castle.”

 

Kagome was shocked. “What do you do for food and water?”

 

Sango laughed at her expression. “You'd be surprised at how many wild animals there are around here. And remember I told you that there is a river nearby?” Kagome nodded. “Anyway, did you understand everything I said?”

 

Kagome looked thoughtful. “I think so. In a nutshell, Inuyasha made a miko angry, the miko put a spell on him that split his hanyou sides. He is human during the night and youkai during the day. The way to remove this spell is to remove the rosary. He can remove the rosary by purifying the jewel with the purest act and he must do this before his fifty years are up.”

 

Sango nodded in approval. “Yes.”

 

Wow, he doesn't have much time left to break the spell…

 

So…who was this miko?” Kagome asked. It was a rhetorical question but Sango answered by walking over to the far corner of the room, grabbing something and returning to Kagome's side.

 

She handed it to Kagome…it was a sketchbook. “My mother said that she would never forget the woman's face. She was a talented artist and she was able to draw the miko's face from memory. It's on the last page.”

 

Sango studied Kagome carefully and then looked a Shippo who had been quietly listening the entire time (he was probably so quiet because he was used to sleeping during the day). “You're right, Shippo. Kagome does look like her.”

 

Kagome turned to the back of the sketchbook, looked at the woman in the picture and gasped.

 

The long, silky-looking, black hair tied in a white ribbon…the pale skin…the cool, dark eyes...

 

The miko that had cursed Inuyasha nearly fifty years ago was…Kikyo.