InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Empty Hands ❯ Empty Hands ( Chapter 1 )

Empty Hands

"The Shikon No Tama...didn't grant your real wish, did it?"

Naruku stiffened, his eyes going wide in shock. This woman..

Fury.

Memory.

With the superior senses of his new self, the hanyo born of the demon swarm and the crippled bandit Onigumo heard the arrow slam through the other hanyo's heart and into the tree, heard the grunt of exhaled breath, heard the crystalline clatter as the jewel on its necklace dropped from clawed hands to the ground. He felt the hanyo's youki fade and vanish, and laughed silently in glee. Now, the final step. She was only human. She was dying. No human wanted to die. She was already ruined as a priestess: her hurt and her rage and her hate for Inuyasha and his 'betrayal' had soaked into the Shikon No Tama, darkening it into beauty from its former pallid dullness. Now, her anger, her desire to live, would drive her to claim the jewel, to use it to save her life. Her selfishness would darken the jewel further. And then, ah, then! He would confront her with the truth, and laugh as her horror and her guilt and her despair blackened the Shikon No Tama. And, then, he would claim her and claim the jewel, fulfilling the desires of his blackened, human soul, while his youkai soul reached greedily for the promise of power--

And then, he felt the pulse as the jewel's darkness faded--

--As Kikyo died.

His human heart screamed silently in shock and denial. He staggered. Recovering, he tried to ignore the shock, reminding himself that the Shikon No Tama was the real prize--what mattered the loss of a mortal woman to torment? Willing his thoughts to focus only on the Shikon No Tama, he started forward. With hanyo and miko both dead, there were no real obstacles to his goal. The puny humans gathering around the fallen miko could not possibly prevent his capture of the jewel. He would have the jewel, and the power, and the stunned human heart in him could be simply destroyed, for it had now outlived its purpose--

His body was not moving.

He struggled, but his muscles were locked. Shock and near-panic held him for an immeasurable moment, but then, somehow, he understood.

The Shikon No Tama was not going to fulfill his wish.

It was fulfilling another's.

He was helpless, as the humans carried the miko's body away. He could do nothing, as the smoke rose and the fire consumed the wood, the body, and the jewel. He felt the presence of the Shikon No Tama fade, as the soul of Kikyo took it with her to the other world. And as the fading power released him, he could only stand in the growing dusk, and stare at his empty hands. The hands that held no miko, no Shikon no Tama. His hands were empty even of her blood.

As empty as his soul.