InuYasha Fan Fiction / Crossover Fan Fiction / Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Mors Mortis Miko ❯ Prologue ( Prologue )

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]

The day she was kissed by Death was the day her world ended. She had been stupid, her body spasming in pain, and now she was left alone to die, and kneeling amidst the battlefield, a hopeless, broken soul, she thought of the events that lead to this tragedy.

She guessed it started 3 years ago when Inuyasha had made his choice. He had chosen her; Kikyo. And though it pained her, she had accepted his choice, and even tolerated the dead priestess when she joined the group. Even if the two couldn’t stand to be near each other for a long period of time, they had a silent understanding of each other. But she had been okay, if not entirely happy. But all that changed when Kouga had come courting again, nearly choking on his tongue when she had said yes. She hadn't even expected herself to accept, she guessed Kikyo had been affecting her more than she thought.

She would have smiled at the memory of how ecstatic the wolf prince had been. She would have, if it didn’t hurt so much. He had taken her away, the next day, to his mountain keep, and in a few short weeks they were mated. She didn’t love the prince as much as she loved the hanyou, he knew it, she knew, everyone knew it, but she loved him enough so that they were happy together.

Their mating had put a yielding on shard hunting. She was now the alpha female of the wolves and she had duties to fulfill that her mate was to roguish, rough, and insensitive to handle. Like keeping the peace between them, other clans, species, protecting the keep while he was away, and keeping the Lords of the lands at bay. If things were to get too vigorous, then he could step in with his kick butt attitude, and then she would console things over with her charm. Their mating had also given her a bit of his wolf stamina. So she wasn’t such a liability to her clan and friends anymore.

Jewel hunting was put on a complete stop when she had gotten pregnant though. Of course her friends would stop by and catch up, give her the unpurified jewels they had scrounged up, for Kikyo was incapable of doing such, and just keeping her company. These were done in short company by Inuyasha and Kikyo. Although he had made his choice, he was still jealous. She just never knew the extent of it.

The happiest day of her life happened the day Atreyu was born. Atreyu, her beautiful baby boy. He had his father's eyes, her thick hair, minus the tail part, and both of their personalities. Quick temperered and so full of joy…that is…he was.

She couldn’t remember exactly what had happened, maybe she had left to fetch water, went out hunting, or maybe someone had put her under a spell, but all she remembered was finding the dead wolf bodies, claw marks, broken arrows, and arcs caused by a familiar magical sword. From what it looked like, they had been attacked suddenly and without warning, Kouga had tried to protect their child, but he couldn’t stop a purifying arrow. And their defenseless, infant child…she never got to say goodbye. She would never get to hear him say ‘mama’.

She had gone into a sort of hibernation that day: the only thing working her body was her hunger for revenge.

Those months went by so fast, before…this happened. She had been so stupid.

She hadn't noticed what they were doing when she found them. She hadn't taken in account about where they were. All she saw were Inuyasha, Kikyo, and her dead family. Rage. Rage made you blind. Inuyasha was near an inch away from death, when Naraku, mockingly, told her he had been the one to kill her family. Then she had snapped out it, but it was too late. The damage had been done. Looking around at the devastation she had caused, her resolve snapped.

She broke down and cried, she raged, she rampaged, she went into shock.

She hadn’t killed Sango, Miroku and the others, but she might as well have. She had killed Inuyahsa; they were left to fight Naraku and his horde alone. She had kept Inuyasha busy, and she had neglected to come their aide when they called her name.

With a fury beyond her control, she had taken the evil hanyou, and his remaining cronies, down. Spending up the last of her power. Draining herself dry like a sponge. She felt it when her life's energy began to diminish, but she kept on until there was nothing left.

It was late, and at too high a price, but Kagome had finally avenged them. She fell to her knees, her wounds and exhaustion finally weighing down on her. She had killed her friends, but she didn't mourn them, she'd apologize to them personally on the other side. There was no way she was going to live, so she sat, devoid of life, and waited for death.

But it never came. She waited and waited, but she made no move to leave. It wasn't until the numbness that she had been pleasuring in began to fade did she finally collaspe and cry. She was still alive, all alone to grieve for the rest of her life, while they remained dead, to haunt her thoughts.

The jewel.

She stopped crying and sat up. She still had the jewel. She could fix it, fix everything, and return things to normal.

The jewel, it was the cause of this all. She would finally put it to rest; she would make a wish and bring her friends back.

She had made a mistake.

She made her wish and the jewel backfired, sending her soaring. She thought she had lost consciousness, she wasn’t sure. All she knew was that the next time she opened her eyes; her friends were standing around her, but they were all wrong.

They were wrong.

They stood around her smiling, but their features were shrouded in a constant darkness that wreaked of evil. Their pungent smell stung her nose, but she couldn't move as they stared her down. Nothing was visible on them except their eyes and their wicked smiles. They said nothing as they stared, accusingly, mockingly at her, and suddenly, with a sound as loud as thunder they shot into the air, and disappeared with a bright, blinding light. Leaving her alone once again. And that's when death decided to come.

And so now she sat, a shell of the woman she had once been, at the feet of Death, the jewel clasped in his bony grip.

“For the crimes you have committed against me,” he said, speaking from the grotesque skull beneath the cloak.

“You have hereby forfeited your life to me, from whom you shall receive your punishment.”

“Why?” she croaked softly, her voice cracking with the effort, and then more strongly. “Isn’t losing my child and mate suffice enough! Why must I suffer more? Why can't I just die?”

“Because!” he roared, his free arm suddenly striking out and gripping her tightly by her torn, bloody collar and lifting her off her feet. She hadn't been expecting such a strong grip to be coming from such a bony hand. “You were the jewel’s protector; you neglected to purify it before making your selfish wish.”

“It wasn’t selfish; I gave them their life back!" She yelled in her defense.

“You took their peace!” he yelled louder. "You made that wish for yourself! You didn’t want to be alone, so you robbed them of their peace with a tainted jewel! And now the evil of the jewel has them! That’s why! That’s why you’re being punished!”

She said nothing as her tears flowed down her face. He nodded at her renouncement. He lowered his hood and grabbed her head gently, forcing her to look at him. She should have been shocked by what she saw, but she wasn’t.

Instead of the skull, that she had caught glimpses of through the cloak, she met the eyes of a man with wavy black hair with streaks of gray, but the young look of his face didn't match the oldness of his aura, but his blackened eyes did. His eyes looked as old as dirt. Other than that his features were indistinct, she wouldn’t have called him handsome, nor would she have called him homely…he just….was.

“For your crimes,” he started, and she would have thought his words gentle if not for the angered, hard look in his eyes. “…for your debt you owe to me. You will travel in the In-Between by the shadow of the new moon, and you will capture and return, the souls you stole from my grasp, back to me.”

“…return to them how?” she asked, fearing, and knowing what he meant.

“Kill them...” He told her simply, and before she could adjust, he kissed her on the forehead.

The gesture confused her and she was wondering how to respond when something inside her cracked. She couldn’t hear it, nor could she feel it, but she knew.

“Or risk losing your sanity.” He finished in a pacifying tone as he slowly released her. As he backed away from her and pulled his hood back up, the skin and hair melted away, revealing the skull once more.

“What if I can’t?” she whispered, looking at the ground. “What if I fail? What if I don’t survive?”

She could hear the smile in his voice as he answered. “I will not allow it.” And then he was gone, simply faded away and she was once again left alone…alone…except for the jewel.

~____~

The weeks to come before the new moon were mainly a blur to her. She spent them sitting and waiting. Sometimes, she would find herself smiling at nothing. She would snap back into reality the moment she did, but only to find herself at it again as time passed. On the umpteenth occasion, she just let herself go on. At least she was happy, even if she didn’t know what for.

In that time, she kept the jewel on the chain around her neck. Whether its powers lay dormant, or it was dead inside, she didn’t know, but she knew she felt nothing from within the jewel. She only kept it for remembrance…and the fact that she threw it in the river and almost drowned trying to go after it.

It seemed that she was still its protector, and it had a hold over her.

Figured.

The night of the new moon was finally upon her, and she found herself anxious with excitement. The sun disappeared behind the trees and night was finally in full bloom.

It took her a moment to notice the pull: the sudden wind that manifested, pulling her towards a rip in the air. The doorway to the In-Between.

The rip widened, and the force of the black abyss beyond it almost sent her falling on her face, but she held her ground.

Although the inside of the portal was black, the powerful corona around it was pallid, it gave off no light.
The smile found its way onto her face, she didn’t try to stop it, she just let it blossom. And so smiling broadly, she gripped the jewel around her neck and jumped into the void.

If she was to call the portal anything, it would be disorienting. Although it had been black when she jumped into it, the inside was anything but. The in-between was exactly how it sounded. It was a corridor in between two endless rows of doorways, much the same as the one she had just entered. It wasn’t as dark as she thought it would be, it was white, but it wasn’t blinding. Above her stood endless white, below her, individual pieces of gray slate floated about three feet apart from each other and further apart from the doorways. In between each doorway and piece of slate the endless white continued, making it seem as if she floated on and in nothing. Which she was.
She floated about for a millisecond before an unknown force sent her hurtling down the corridor. She was going at a break neck speed, and though she should have been afraid, she found that she could care less. Even when one of the doors suddenly jumped into her path, she didn't flinch.

It opened into darkness and she knew that it was her destination, the force that had been pulling her all along. The force that pulled her in was suddenly gone as she came out the other end at a fast and dangerous pace, but luckily she was only 10 feet from the ground.

She landed on her hand, immediately feeling bones and tendons breaking. She cried out in pain as she finally came to a halt, her hurt hand lying underneath her. Cradling her injury, she slowly and painfully got up to survey the lands around her.

Nothing too strange. The sky was still blue and the grass was still green. She just might be able to survive here. Just as this thought went through her head, something else did as well. Her name. Something had whispered her name in the wind. Something angry and evil. One of her friends.

Turning her head in the general direction the thought had come from; she took a step in their direction and stumbled. She braced herself for pain to shoot up her arm but it never did. Infact, it was barely sore now, and she could move it. And as she focused on it, she could feel the bones and tendons repairing themselves as she stood there.

When she could feel no more movement, she rotated her hand experimentally. Nothing. No pain or soreness at all.

She found herself smiling again.

She just might win this after all.