InuYasha Fan Fiction / Crossover Fan Fiction / Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Mors Mortis Miko ❯ Tales of a Lonely Miko ( Chapter 11 )

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

Hakkai led her away from the cliff, back into the grove, and down into the valley. There he found a fallen tree under the shade of the rock face and sat her down.

“Now,” he began as he took her hand. “Why don’t you start from the beginning?”

“The beginning?” Kagome repeated languidly, her eyes on the small dragon resting about his neck. “Which beginning? The beginning of time? The beginning of this conversation? Or maybe the beginning of my time with you guys? Perhaps you’d like to start with the beginning of my life? Or beginning of womanhood? We could also start from the beginning of my adult life. The beginning of my life with Kouga. Or the beginning of my life without…?”

“Let’s try it this way,” Hakkai interrupted. “What is your name?”

Kagome smiled up at him this time, and by now, the others were lounging about within hearing distance. This was the turning point with these guys. She could either tell them the truth, or she could lie like she did with Naruto. “My name is Kagome Higurashi.”

“What are you?” Hakkai continued.

Kagome looked up into the sky. “I’m a girl, a woman really, female, young and vibrant. I’m a Virgo, a widow, a tad bit of a fanatical, and I’m also a lonely miko.”

“What’s a miko?” Goku asked.

“A shrine priestess.”

“You’re a priestess?” Gojyo called out in unconvinced clarity.

“He’s a monk and you have the nerve to question that I’m a priestess?” Kagome snapped as she turned to face him. He then had the grace to keep his mouth closed.

“So you’re a priestess?” Hakkai ventured, trying to put the conversation back on track and giving her hand a squeeze to draw her attention back to him.

“Yes.” she answered, and when it seemed that he would have to prompt her with another question, she continued. “My shrine was located in the northern mountains, a bit east of here. My shrine was a well kept secret. It had to be, because we were the keepers of an evil artifact. The Shikon No Tama, and I was it’s protector. With my touch, I could purify the evil and quiet it’s thirst for destruction. Though we tried to stay hidden from the world, those who came close enough would sense the jewel’s presence and seek it out. That’s how we got some of residents at the shrine. The jewel seekers.
Not all were hungry for power, some were just seeking refuge and retribution for deeds done to them. One was a demon exterminator by the name of Sango, whose entire tribe was murdered by an evil demon while she had been buried alive. She came seeking the jewel to avenge her family. Another was a sordid monk named Miroku. He came looking for a cure for his cursed hands. Shippo also came seeking the jewel. He was only a child, barely bigger than a bread box. He was a fox demon whose parents had been murdered by thunder demons. He came seeking the jewel to avenge his parents and retrieve his father’s pelt. And then there was Inuyasha and Kikyo. He was a hanyou seeking the jewel to become full demon, and Kikyo…was his human woman.”

Kagome now began caressing Hakkai’s hand as she stared into her lap. “They all came seeking the jewel; instead I gave them a home, consultation, and reprieve. They became my close friends and I hoped to help them all in their special needs one day, and in return they helped me protect the jewel from the demons and humans seeking it for evil purposes. Possession of the whole jewel would grant the holder any wish they desired, while only a sliver of it would increase their power tenfold. It was easy going, the demons usually came solo, or in pairs and they were easily dispatched. But then when the madness swept through, they attacked at once. They came in legions, and we were overwhelmed.”

She paused as if remembering that day. “They fell. One by one my friends fell. They were misfits, and they were warriors. They killed as many demons that day as they did in their entire lifetime. But for every demon they killed, three more would take their place. So they died, and I was left to fight the horde by myself. I held no illusions that I would live to see the next day, but I vowed to take every last one of them with me. I was hurting, I had just watched my friends die, and the only thing standing between the jewel and the demons was a very lonely miko. It was enough. I killed them all. My miko blared out and purified all those around me, and when it looked as if I would fail, I tapped into my life source. I destroyed a whole mountain full of demons. I killed them all, and then I was ready. I lay there, broken, bleeding, and drained.”

Kagome voice turned dark and bitter, while her hold on Hakkai’s hand became painful for him. It took her second to realize this. Throwing his hand into his lap, Kagome sprang up, not registering those around her as she began to drown in her past.

“But I didn’t die! Why? There was nothing left in me to survive. Yet I was doing it. It got to the point where my remaining power started healing me. I had been numb with the coming of death, but when I started to heal, I felt it. I was alone, surviving on that mountain, while my friends lay dead around me. And so I did something stupid! I used the damn jewel. I wished my friends back, and it would have worked. IT WOULD HAVE WORKED! If I had realized that I was too weak to purify the damn thing. So, when I wished for my friends back, they came back, but the evil of the jewel was now in them. It had seeped out through a crack the jewel had acquired in the battle. I was almost dead myself, so when the evil escaped, it entered me too. My remaining powers fought it as more of more of the jewels power entered me, trying to taint me, but in the end I purified it. But it changed me. I can no longer use my holy powers, I can’t die, and now…now I’m the jewel, and demons are after me.”

“What happened to your friends?” Hakkai asked her.

“They scattered. While I was fighting the jewel’s influence, they escaped. Each of my friends had their personal little quirks, and possessed by the evil of the jewel, those quirks are pushed to the front.
Because I’m the jewel, and they are the evil within the jewel, I sense them, I feel them, and I have to kill them. I forced them into this hell they’re living, and I must free them.”

“How many have you found?” Goku asked her.

“I’ve only managed to free one, Miroku. When he was alive, Miroku, enjoyed to tickle women’s flesh with his hands. He groped them. And as the monster…he was a fatal hedonist. When I killed him, I felt his gratitude. They fight me, but they want me to release them.”

“Whoa!” Goku muttered. “So what’ll happen when you get them all? What are you going to do then?”

“When it’s over?” Kagome asked as she turned to look at him before throwing her arms open wide and raising her face up to the sun. “God, I just hope I die!”

They were stunned at the sincerity in her voice.

“What? You can’t mean that.” Gojyo voiced what they all were thinking.

“Yes, I do.” she answered him seriously. “I have nothing to live for.”

“Surely there must be something.” Hakkai suggested.

“What could there be? My shrine is destroyed, my friends are dead, my husband’s dead, my ch…” she sputtered to a stop and took a deep breath. “…and the jewel is a dead piece of glass. What is
there?”

“Perhaps there is something or someone you could…”

“What? I might find friends, a love interest? Who the hell wants me? I’m damaged. The damn jewel screwed with my mind. I’m insane, but sane enough to know it. I can’t cry, I tried to kidnap a child, and I laugh at nothing. Who would want that around? I’m more trouble than I’m worth. No one knows me for what I was, I wasn’t like this. Besides, I doubt if I can truly feel anything for anyone or anything anymore. I rarely feel the urgency to go on with this task. But I can fake it. I can fake my emotions and humanity. I’ve been faking it. But I don’t want to anymore. So I just want it all to end with my death.”

“Well,” Goku started after the silence became awkward. “…we’re just going to have to change your mind.”

Kagome smiled down at him. “I wish you could.”

“Why,” he questioned triumphantly. “because deep down inside you don’t want to die?”

“No, because I would love to see what could possibly make me want to remain among the living.”

“Although I would love to continue this morbid conversation,” Sanzo interrupted. “We have to go.”

“Right. Kagome,” Hakkai called out, “Just where are you headed?”

“Me? Well, let’s see,” Kagome put her ear to the wind and listened for something the other’s couldn’t fathom. “I’m heading west.”

“Figures.” Sanzo muttered.

~_____~

“Aren’t your feet burning?”

The boys had set out walking, to give Hakuryuu a rest, Hakkai had said, and now as a part of their group, Kagome followed. They had been at it for a little over two hours and she had been constantly bombarded with questions from Gojyo and Goku with Hakkai adding his own ever now and then. She think he did it just to provoke Sanzo’s irritation, and just because it annoyed him, Kagome answered every last of their questions.

With that in mind, Kagome turned to face Gojyo, for he had been the one to ask her. Choosing her words carefully, Kagome answered him. “If you’re asking me if my bare feet are burning on the hot desert sand, when I…had just recovered from burning alive inside a death trap of a burning jeep? Then yes, my feet are burning.”

“What was that little pause?” he continued.

“Self-censoring.”

“What? Were your about to say something naughty?” Goku asked in his unnatural, creepy, dark voice.

“Not in the way you’re thinking. Just trying to keep all my thoughts from getting out.”

“Why?” Hakkai asked, not bothering to turn around to ask her, though the little dragon did. “Do you have secrets you need to keep?”

“That is possible, but it’s just mostly to save your ears from hearing what’s going in my head. It’ll ruin your lives.”

“Too late.” Sanzo muttered to himself.

“What’s the matter Pops, does my presence upset your old bones?”

“I’m barely out of my twenties!"

“Not in your mind and soul, just in this taut, young body.” she said as she bounced up behind him and slapped him on the butt.

The growl was born of pure aggravation and as the gun slid from his robes, Kagome clasped her hand around his wrist and forced it into the air. With his one arm stretched out, Kagome stepped into his embrace and kissed him on the jaw bone. “You’re old before your time.” she whispered in his ear. “Lighten up and enjoy life while you can.”

Sanzo didn’t give her statement time to sink in before he made a grab at her with his free hand. Giggling to herself, Kagome attempted to jump onto his back, but as if having second sight, Sanzo managed to flip her over his back and slam her onto the ground.

“Knowing that it won’t really hurt you....takes the meaning out of shooting you.” Sanzo growled as he pinned her down with a glare. “You’re just a waste of bullets.”

“That’s sweet.” Kagome commented from the ground as she crossed her legs and placed her hands behind her head.

The lack of a response only goaded Sanzo’s annoyance and with an aggravated sigh he began to stalk off again.

“Bored?” Hakkai asked good naturedly as he appeared by her side and offered her his hand.

“A little.” she answered as she took his hand and got up. But before letting his hand go, she held it above her head and did a dancer’s spin, and as she faced him again she curtsied just as he bowed gracefully.

“Shall we?” He asked as his thumb stroked their intertwined hands.

“We shall.” she answered with a brilliant smile, excited at having someone follow her train of thought.

With a semi-serious look on his face, Hakkai spun Kagome into his embrace before placing his hands on her waist and tossing her like a ballerina.

“Those two hit it off fast.” Goku muttered darkly as he stared after the dancing pair.

“You should have asked her to dance then.” Gojyo reprimanded him.

“Stop encouraging her!” Sanzo snapped.

“You need to find a safer hobby than harassing Sanzo.” Hakkai told her after an amused silence had passed.

“What’s he going to do…kill me?” she retorted with a smile.

“I guess not, but you might stroke him out.”

“I heard that.” Sanzo growled from his position ahead of the pack.

“Are those furs hot?” Gojyo asked her.

“Why are you so worried about me being hot?”

“Just making conversation.”

“Well then, no, I’m not. There’s enough skin exposed and I’m used to wearing furs.”

“Why did the coyote let you stay with them if you killed some of them for the fur?” Goku asked as she came to walk next to her.

“First off, I didn’t kill any coyote. They were already dead and I did the others a favor by burying the dead to keep the scavenger’s from them, so they allowed my to skin them. And second, they let
me live with them because they recognized me as injured kin.”

“Kin?" Goku inquired with a triumphant smile. "So you are a werewolf!”

“I’m not a werewolf, but I married a wolf and now I’ve got some wolf under my skin.”

“You married a wolf?” Hakkai inquired.

“Kouga." she clarified. "He was a wolf demon.”

“I thought you said you were a priestess.” Gojyo said with accusation in his voice.

“I am, doesn’t mean I can’t fall in love! Yeah, he was a demon, but I loved him and he was the only man that loved me, wanted to be with me, and didn’t…” here Kagome paused and took a breath.
“…treat me like useless scum. To just be thrown away!”

“Wow, sounds like you’ve got some baggage.” Gojyo observed. “What? So, you went to a demon because your human guy was a jerk.”

“Actually, no. The human guy who liked me, wasn’t really my type after the jewel came into play, the guy who did me wrong was a hanyou. Inuyasha.”

“The guy from your story?” Goku asked.

“Yeah.” Kagome answered with a fond smile.

“But I thought he had a woman.”

“Not when I met him. I knew him for a while before she even was an issue. They had long broken up, and he was free for me to love. And I did, loved him more than a woman could love a man. I would have died for that foul mouth, bad tempered dog. I think he loved me too, or he was just overly possessive, that’s why he and Kouga never got along. I had planned on spending the rest of my life with him after the affair with the jewel was over, hell, I planned on giving it to him so he could become full demon even though I thought he was perfect the way he was. Then she came. I thought he loved me, but I knew he had loved her. She was his first love just like he was mine. He chose her over me and broke my heart. Then Kouga came, he had been courting me even when I was with Inuyasha, and when he came again, I chose him.”

Kagome looked up after her flood of memories to find that she had an audience. She put on a brazen smile. “It all turned out for the better, I think. Love is blind and with Inuyasha I accepted being called names like stupid woman and wench. Stupid dog. Oh and I didn’t mean to bombard you guys with tales of a lonely miko pt. II.”

“It’s fine.” Hakkai answered for her.

“Yeah, Kagome.” Goku spoke up as he threw an arm around her shoulder and inconspicuously pulled her to him and away from Hakkai. “I like hearing more about you.”

“Even the sad parts, because that’s kind of what’s all I got.”

“Uh, just makes me feel closer to you.”

“And you think that’s a good thing?” she questioned soberly as she pulled away from him.

“Well isn’t it?” he asked in confusion with hurt written on his face. Kagome didn’t answer him, she didn’t even look back.

~_____~

They found a big rock.

“We might as well set down for the night.” Sanzo stated as leaned up against the large boulder to gain some rest and a reprieve from the relentless sun. “This desert doesn’t look like it’s going to cough up any town too soon and it‘s getting dark”

The others seemed to agree with him and Kagome watched with mild fascination as Hakuryuu leapt from Hakkai’s neck and landed as a jeep.

“Hmm.” she muttered. “Automotive version of Kirara.”

“What you say Kagome?” Goku hollered as he and the others emerged from a hidden trunk in the jeep with a bundle in their arms.

“I didn’t say anything.” Kagome answered with a small smile as she crept closer to the them and saw that the bundles they held were sleeping bags.

“Oh, no. It seems like we have a bit of a problem.” Hakkai observed as he counted the four sleeping bags and the five bodies.

“You can share with me, Kagome!” Goku offered with a wide smile.

“What are you teaching him?” Sanzo asked Gojyo with accusation deep in his voice.

“Me?” Gojyo called out in indignation while tossing his sleeping bag into Kagome’s unprepared arms. “He hangs out with you most of the time.”

“Where are you going to sleep?” Kagome asked him, touched by his sacrifice.

“I’m used to sleeping on hard surfaces, I’ll be fine.” He waved her off with a shrug.

“So am I.” she argued softly as she forced the bag back into his arms.

“Besides.” she interrupted before he could open his mouth. “I won’t be sleeping this night anyway.”

“Hey! That’s right!” Goku exclaimed as he hopped to her side. “It’s the second night of the full moon.”

“What goes on on the full moon?” Hakkai asked her, but it was Goku who answered.

“She runs all night to honor Kouga.”

“And the rest of the pack.” Kagome added with a small smile as she looked up at the darkening sky. “Plus, I was with Kouga and the pack too long. The moon calls to me too.”

“Right, what she said. So I guess I’ll just put this back.”

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” Sanzo asked as he pulled Goku’s sleeping bag from his grasp, keeping him from replacing it in the jeep.

“I’m going to go run with Kagome.” He complained. “She doesn’t like to be alone.”

“No, I think I’ll be fine this night.” Kagome said as she looked out into the fathomless desert.

“But…”

“No buts, unlike your girlfriend there, you need sleep.”

“But…what if she runs away and doesn’t come back?”

“Good riddance?” Sanzo offered just as Kagome burst into laughter and ran off.

~_____~

Since she wasn’t being hunted this moon, Kagome found herself chasing down any rodent or lesser predator that she sensed. She tormented the sky with her howls and she conjured dust devils as she hunted. She ran until her legs burned and her lungs concaved only to be restored as she howled. Despite fatigue she found that she could only fathom that she could continue from drawing energy from the ever present moon.

As she chased down, what appeared to be a Jackalope, her foot found a rattlesnake den and she fell hard onto the ground. She lay where she had fallen as a parade of emotions went through her mind and only a few feet away, the Jackalope stared after her in silence as it regained it’s breath. Only when it hopped away did she burst into peals of laughter. She rolled onto her back, still laughing and ignoring her broken foot, and looked up into the sky just as the first rain drop fell.

“Where’d you come from?” she exclaimed with a laugh as she climbed to her now healed feet. Raising her arms out to the sky, Kagome took a deep nose full of the stormed drenched air.

She wasn’t sure what had overcome her, but by the time the rain had reached it’s peak and she was soaked, she found herself…at peace.

She felt genuinely happy and alive. The rain on her skin soothed her aching muscles and seemed to drown her malfunctions til the only things on her mind was the rain and her happiness. She started
out with a few leaps with a spin thrown in every now and then. She lost herself in the rain, and she danced. Closing her eyes, she imagined herself dancing with a partner. She thought hard and positioned herself in the way she would if her partner was taller and broad shouldered.

She imagined him with a steady hand around her waist and her hand on his shoulder. Of course he was light on his feet, because as soon as she situated herself, she was off. She ran and leapt, and twirled. The longer she danced with her invisible partner the more substantial he became. She imagined him lifting her up, dipping her, matching her toe-to-toe. It wasn’t until her imaginary partner started to lead that she realized how crazy the whole situation was, but it was too late by then…she was having too much fun.

The hand on her waist became stronger, and their intertwined hands clenched each other whenever she was twirled. She and her imagination waltzed through the storm. One, two, three, one, two, three. She swayed her hips and they promenaded. She spun away freely and danced wildly and imagined her partner dancing around her waiting for his chance to bring her back into a more cultivated routine. She and her partner spun riotously around the desert. Dancing to the rhythm of the storm. The raindrops, the thunder, and the lightning. Orchestrated together to give Kagome peace in mind, body, and soul. Not so much the mind since she was dancing with an imaginary figure.

‘Kagome.’

She stopped just as she was about to leap. The call brought her back down to earth and her partner lost substance and was gone. The caller was closer now. She had assumed it had been Sango, calling her to her and making sure she was still in the world. Except it wasn’t as she had assumed. The caller, now closer, didn’t carry the same ambiance as did her possessed friends. This was different, this was someone else, something that wanted her for…she didn’t know.

Where her friends' presence was dark, foreboding, and malicious, the newcomer that called her was wild, ambivalent, shrouded in the otherness that surrounded the Grim Reaper.

“Death, you bastard,” she growled into the storm. “is that you fucking with me?” her answer came in the form of an aberrant chill rolling down her spine; Death. She got the feel of his being; no, it wasn’t Death that called to her.

“Something wicked, this way comes.” she whispered with a wicked smile.

She peered out into the haze, daring her caller to come forth.

“Come and get me, here I am.” she taunted, and come they did…but if it was he who called to her, she didn't know.

It started off as growl, but she thought it was the thunder, until the thunder struck back at her. Like a torpedo to her back, she fell forth and skidded across the wet desert ground. With her face buried in
water and mud, Kagome didn’t see her attacker as they flew over her head. As she came up gasping and spitting, she caught the tail end of something black and furry.

“Running from me?” she called out with a devilish grin as she felt the moon rage take her. “I am the huntress tonight! None can escape!”

She sprang to her feet and howled the hunter’s call, before she took chase. Always just a glimpse; was what she saw of her prey. Just a glimpse of black fur and a growl befit of thunder. She ran wild after her prey, she slipped and slide but she didn’t give up. She howled and growled like the wolves she loved as she chased down her phantom. As she got more into the hunt, the more agile she became. When she leapt, she practically soared. As she ran her feet seemed to rarely touch the ground. Even with the rain obscuring her view she knew where her quarry was. It lead her in circles as it tried to shake her off and it growled its' thunderous growl to frighten her, but still she came.

“I am the huntress!” She howled into the storm.

Her howl was supposed to be her own means of frightening her fiend, but as it ended, her quarry began to get ahead of her.

“NO!” she growled, enraged at the thought of losing her entertainment. She picked up the pace. Her speed almost reaching that of her lost mate’s. “Where are you going? I thought you were looking for me!”

It was gone. She knew it like she knew Sanzo was the angriest, grumpiest, monk she had ever gotten shot by. She growled in frustration as she tried to catch up, but no matter how fast she ran she
couldn’t seem to catch a glimpse of the black monstrosity. But she continued to run. That is, she continued to run up until she ran into the tree. She attempted a hit and run, but the tree had grabbed her by the arms and refused to let her go.

“Damn Foliage!” She screamed.

“What you call me?”

At the sound of the tree’s voice, Kagome halted her fight for flight and looked up through wet hair and rain to find herself staring at a wet, red-haired man with a perfect waist. “Hey, waist. What’s up?”

“Besides getting soaked and beat up on by a crazy woman? I came out to find you because our campsite is flooding and we’re just going to chance it in the jeep at finding a town or something.”

“What’s the matter?” she asked as he began pulling her back the way he had come from. “Can’t rough it?”.

“We just prefer not to.” he countered as he turned to grin at her, just in time to catch her as she slipped on the slick ground.

“Thanks, waist.” Kagome breathed with a laugh, then her eyes grew wide.

“What?” Gojyo asked in sudden anxiety. “What is it? Is something the matter?”

“You,” she gasped as she stepped closer to him. “…smell more interesting when wet.”

“Umm…thanks?”

“You 217;re welcome.” she laughed, glad to have unsettled someone. “Now come one. The campsite’s flooding and we might find a town if we ride in the jeep.”

“Didn’t I just say that?”

“Maybe, but it sounded better when I said it.”

~_____~

He saw her.

She was beautiful…so beautiful.

Dancing in the storm that was just as wild as she had become.

A wraith hidden amongst the storm.

Much like he was.

He wasn’t getting closer; he had her.

Now all he had to do was wait.