Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction / InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Wishing Well ❯ Beginning of Penance ( Chapter 29 )

Wishing Well

Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha. Even my toenails are on loan. Don't sue me.

Plead: Review! O^_^O

Kouga closed the cave exit off with a large rock then hid the entrance with the surrounding foliage. The cave had been an old storehouse for the wolf tribe, but it had long since been abandoned. It started as a narrow hole between the roots of a huge overgrown tree stump, eventually opening up into a cozy, cool, and dry underground cavern. The tree was within shouting distance of the meadow where his shrine stood, well within his spiritual boundaries.

'That should keep her safe for now,' he thought as he raced back to the shrine. 'My senses tell me I'm needed back at the shrine now, and I bet Kami-sama had something to do with that.'

Back at the shrine, Kouga flopped to the ground to await the deity's presence, idly scanning the surroundings. He mused about his past, reflecting on different battles and celebrations. As his thoughts drew closer to the present, he realized that Inuyasha had visited the shrine not once, not twice, but four times. It had gotten to the point where Kouga actually missed the half-breed.

'What the hell?' he snarled as the thought crossed his mind. 'When did I become such a sap? Where'd all these baka emotions come from? I need to stop this, I'm a youkai prince!'

Try as he might, Kouga still could not forget the hanyou and his cohorts. None of the others who had come to pay their respects were quite as interesting at the moment.

'The monk, he's…uhm…errr…kuso…Miroku! I thought he was supposed to be a pure human, but he has youki. I could have sworn his eyes were violet sometimes. And I thought he was much older at first, but now I don't think any one of them is older than 20. I wonder what happened to his hand…it's still covered by wrappings even though he should have lost the Kazaana when Naraku died. Hrm.

Then there's Gohan. I really don't know who the fuck he is, but he's the son of Son Goku, and from the rumors I picked up in the afterlife, he and his warriors…Z senshi I think that Jeice-guy said, are practically demi-gods. The things I've heard…and the fact that King Enma made me a cross-dimensional conduit for Son Goku to talk to his son… Gohan's family must be really influential! He smells like a hanyou too. Like the world needs more of them.

Inuyasha…hn. Let's nip any thoughts about that baka in the bud.'

A breeze filled the area with the scent of summer, wiping away the smell of holy incense. Kouga didn't need his acute senses to warn him that Kami had arrived. He knelt low to the ground; head bent respectfully, his back to the shrine.

"Aa, Kouga, you can look up now."

Kouga, who thoroughly expected to be (literally) blown away by the beauty of Kami's holy face, was very disturbed by the sight of a wrinkled green humanoid with blunt fangs and antennae. The figure supported itself on a tall staff, and looked rather frail for the Protector of the World position.

"Kami-sama?" the wolf youkai asked timidly.

"Hmm? Oh, my appearance? Don't let it fool you, this body still has a couple of kicks left in it."

The youkai blushed slightly as he heard his secret thoughts answered. Kami chuckled inwardly for a few moments at the pup's embarrassment, and then continued.

"I called you here because my advisors thought I should give you some more details concerning your current charge. Sit up, young one, you should be comfortable, for this is a relatively long tale."

"Thank you, Your Holiness."

While the wolf prince got comfortable, Kami took the time to review Kikyou's life. He fondly remembered the day he first talked to her through her dreams. She was a beautiful, pure-minded young child then, a child who instinctively knew that she was different from her peers. It was the start of a lonely existence for her as she trained her miko skills for her ultimate task. It had hurt Kami's heart to see her in so much pain years later, and he had planned for her to have a peaceful rest in the afterlife. However, someone had interfered in that plan by carefully and secretively altering the strings of Choice and Fate, bringing her back to life and blocking her from Kami's voice. It didn't help that he had been more focused on the alternate dimension that held the Z-senshi when the crime had taken place. A certain taciturn Namek was projecting him into a large time-space paradox created by the Great Kai, which allowed him to work feverishly in order to set things right and catch the evildoer who had started the mess. He shook his head ruefully as he recounted Piccolo's reaction to this news.

~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ Flashback ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~

"Trust you to get it all screwed up. Hurry up and finish fixing whatever shit you muddled up, I'm sure Dende can hold down the fort better than you could have."

"I wasn't asking for permission, Piccolo."

"I couldn't care less what you were trying to do by telling me about your mistake, just hurry up and fix it."

"Oh my, could it be that my grumpy evil alter-ego will possibly miss me while I'm gone?"

"Hell no. Shit, it's bad enough that Nail's in my head, but at least he could kick an apple without slipping a disk."

"I'll take that as a compliment, but don't drag me into this quarrel!" piped an overly cheerful voice.

"Good, shut it. I just need your ki, you shriveled old cucumber, so hurry up and bring it back. Besides, I got a bad feeling about this whole mess, especially since you've got to fix some crap in the same dimension that Gohan disappeared to."

"As you wish, Piccolo. Now, this is what I need you to do…"

~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ Flashback ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~

However, the projection took a great deal of energy, and Piccolo was waning fast. Furthermore, Dende was calling him constantly, saying that he needed to talk to the former Guardian very urgently. He needed someone in this dimension to take the place of Kikyou's mentor while he went back for a short period.

Sensing that Kouga was ready and impatiently waiting, he turned back to the expectant youkai.

"This miko's story really begins about 52 years ago. Then, she was the protector of the Shikon no Tama. Her name was…"

"Kikyou?! This is the same miko that sealed Inuyasha, the same woman that he was two-timing Kagome with?!" Kouga blurted out, shocked by that simple fact.

"Yes, the very same. I know that you may not have had a good look at her during the years leading up to Naraku's defeat, but as you can clearly see now, Kagome bears a striking similarity to her. This is because Kagome is, supposedly, the direct reincarnation of this miko. However, someone or something broke the natural laws and brought her back to life…more like reanimated her body. The entity didn't do it directly, of course, it used a youkai to do that. Anyhow, that simple act is what pushed Naraku's defeat back by at least a year.

Shortly before her death, she fell in love with the hanyou, or rather, his apparently carefree life. She had grown weary of looking after the jewel, and she longed to be free of her burden and do anything that she wished. Inuyasha adored her as the first human to show him some form of kindness since his mother's death, even though she was badgering him to become something other than what he is. They thought that they could be happy if only they could get rid of her burden and his heritage."

Kouga nodded absent-mindedly as his thoughts began to whirl.

'No wonder Inuyasha couldn't decide between her and Kagome. How do you choose between the original person, who was the first to show you any affection, and her reincarnation, who loves you yet leaves you alone every few days?'

Kami continued.

"Naraku used their relationship to get the Shikon no Tama, then tried to fill their hearts with hatred in an attempt to corrupt the power within the gem and kill his closest rivals. Unfortunately, Kikyou succumbed to the trick. Our only fortune is that she had the presence of mind to burn the jewel with her body. That is one of the factors that allowed this era to enjoy 50 years of peace.

At any rate, when the entity brought her back to life, it made sure that Kagome would be able to reclaim most of her soul, leaving only that bitter hatred, which it amplified with its own loathing. Kikyou was glad to be alive, doing whatever she wanted, whenever she wanted to. That's when she broke the rules. She continued to feed off of the hatred, stealing souls, consorting with youkai, helping the enemy, confusing allies, and generally making herself the entity's willing tool.

Fortunately, the entity could not flush out all of Kikyou's former affections for Inuyasha, which meant that she tended to help Inuyasha, to the entity's annoyance. When Inuyasha and his pack killed Naraku, the entity left her, draining most of the hatred out. She then gave up as she became more aware of the severity of her actions and the aberrance of her existence. Her soul is now where it should be. However, I have done some investigation into the activities of this entity, and I have found that she was not his only victim. It tried to use you too."

"Nani!?!?" the wolf youkai croaked, confused beyond belief. "What the hell would it want me for?"

The former Guardian smirked.

"You are one of the few people to constantly battle Inuyasha and survive. For some reason, the entity needs someone who is capable of hating and killing Inuyasha. Did you think that it was mere coincidence that those boars infected you and no one else in the pack? Didn't you find it strange that your usually reliable sense of danger didn't warn you that that particular prey was extremely dangerous?"

The wolf was shocked. Now that he had (ample) time to think about the circumstances surrounding his infection and eventual death, he realized that his sixth sense had always warned him away from contagiously sick prey, yet it didn't even tingle during that hunt, not even when all of his other senses told him the boars were mad.

"That makes no sense! Me? I mean there're two entire species against Inuyasha because he's a hanyou. Why use me? This entity or whatever it is could've chosen a much stronger agent. Why not his half-brother, he's more powerful than I am, he'd have been perfect!"

Kami turned around and smiled at the young princeling.

"Yes, he is, but he was an obvious target. I had planted a little protective element with him to prevent any tampering."

"Protective element?"

"A human girl. Suffice it to say that Sesshoumaru was unassailable, forcing the entity to go after you, the only unguarded person strong enough to threaten Inuyasha, yet weak enough to be destroyed when the entity was finished. You took the entity by surprise when you not only resisted your dislike of the hanyou, but also used him to kill yourself. While noble, it was an unnecessary sacrifice that could have been avoided if I had been here. I hope you can forgive me for not protecting you. You would be alive now if I had not been so worried about another dimension."

'What do you say when a god apologizes to you?' Kouga wondered, trying to find a suitable way to respond. The deity didn't give him a chance to answer as he went on with his tale.

"I had a number of safeguards planned based on the possibility of Naraku's existence, safeguarding almost all of the youkai royal family, however, I made no account for you, an unplanned inheritor to a forgotten title. That was my mistake, and I intend to correct it, before this entity can gain another foothold in the Wolf Clan. However, I have been hard-pressed to find a suitable guardian for you. Until now."

Kouga's sixth sense flared up violently, almost visibly shaking the youkai in warning. He just knew that he wouldn't like Kami's next words.

"Do you remember the wind-user Kagura?"