InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Fateful Night ❯ Twilight of Sorrow ( Chapter 7 )

Disclaimer: Alas I have yet to be dragged into an alternate dimension or time so I still do not own Inuyasha.

Beginning A/N: Hee hee hee Sorry about the confusing A/N in the last chapter. Umm….silly Orion forgot that the Kikyo story is in this chapter so……hum well apply A/N from chapter 6 to chapter 7. SORRY!

Chapter 7
Twilight of Sorrow

Kaede sighed sadly as she drew her eyes away from the swinging door. The crackling fire danced before her as she stared silently at its heart. Faded memories flowed over her exposing old, nearly forgotten wounds.

A snapping log brought with it the sound of remembered mourning as a small girl knelt before a blazing pyre weeping. Loss and pain consumed the tiny form as she crouched in the dirt.

She was alone…forever alone with no family and only partially trained. The burden of her new found position of village Miko held her to the damp earth as the ashes of her mentor…her teacher…her sister and only family softly drifted down on her.

Staring up at the flaming alter where her sister's body was being consumed Kaede was startled when a hand wiped a tear from her fire warmed cheek.

"Kaede sama what's wrong?"

Blinking the little girl looked around, finding no one she turned back to the pyre, quickly being consumed by an ever shrinking fire.
"Kaede sama are you ok?"

Shaking her head Kaede looked at the small cooking fire in front of her. Confused she glared quizzically at the small black pot hanging above the softly snapping flames. A hand on her shoulder startled her out of her confusion as she glanced to her left.

Miroku steadied the aged Miko as she slowly came back to herself, when the glassy look of pain faded from Kaede's eyes he asked again, "Kaede sama are you ok?"

Kaede blinked owlishly at the monk and then shook her head slightly.

"Aye aye Miroku I'm fine thank ye." She whispered and turned to regard the small group gathered in her small hut. Miroku was settling himself next to Sango who eyed him carefully before turning her attention back to Kaede.

Kouga had moved from his place by the door and was now sitting in a position of guard over the still sleeping Kagome. Kaede arched an eyebrow as she watched the wolf youkai gently lean forward and dab the sweat off the sleeping woman's brow.

She was even more surprised to see the western lord Sesshomaru sitting cross legged and eyes closed, in the spot recently vacated by Kouga.

"Kaede sama, why do you call Kagome, Kikiyo?" the taijiya Sango asked softly.

With a sigh the old Miko looked back into the fire and focused on memories from over 50 years ago.

"Kikyo was my older sister, she was a very powerful Miko who protected this village and guarded the Shikon no Tama."

The mention of the shikon no tama brought a choir of gasps from the group and a silent nod from Sesshomaru.

"Kaede sama where is the shikon no tama now?" Miroku asked raising to his knees and griping his right hand tightly around the sutra beads that were ever wrapped around that wrist and hand.

"Do you have it here? Does your sister still have it? Where is she?"

"Miroku calm your self." The Miko quietly soothed, as Sango placed her hand on the monks shoulder comforting the agitated houshi. "If I had the shikon no tama I would have given it to yer group long ago.

To your question of whether my sister still has it. Yes and no. Before my sister died of the wounds she told me Inuyasha had inflicted upon her she instructed me to burn the shikon no tama with her.

She wanted to take the Jewel with her to the other world to that no other youkai would ever be able to use it like Inuyasha had wanted to."

"You destroyed the Jewel?!"

"Inuyasha killed your sister?"

"You said yes and no."

Miroku, Sango and Kouga all said at the same time. Blinking at their anxious faces Kaede sighed deeply. "No, No and yes." At there confused looks Kaede chuckled sadly.

"Miroku the jewel is in this world again and now that it is Naraku will be more intent than ever to find it. Inuyasha was not the one who killed my sister although for nearly 20 years that is what I believed.

Naraku was behind Kikyo's death and Inuyasha's sealing in his quest for the Jewel. The Jewel was destroyed with my sister's body allowing her to fulfill her duty and keep it from evil even at the cost of her own life, but as I said it is now in this world again.

I felt the presence of the jewel late last night during the storm, which is why I erected the barrier."

"We found Kagome after that storm!" Kouga exclaimed.

"Yes? Well I would believe considering she is the reincarnation of my sister she will be closely tied to the shikon no tama. My sister was given the task of protecting the jewel because of her power.

Kagome has that same power and something more. I can feel her power even now and to my other sight she shines like the morning sun."

"Kaede, you said Kikyo told you Inuyasha was the one who killed her. Why?" Kouga asked.

Looking back at the youkai Kaede watched for a moment as the wolf gently folded a thin blanket around the sleeping Kagome. "Aye, well that is a bit of a story. Kikyo was duty bound first to this village and second to be the protector of the Shikon no Tama, but she was very young for her position and like all young girls she longed for love." Kaede began.

"She befriended Inuyasha when he began stalking the village looking for the shikon no tama he wanted its power to turn himself into a full youkai." At her comment Sesshomaru sniffed quietly.

Looking over at the western lord Kaede continued. "Why she didn't kill him like so many other youkai before him I've never been able to tell."

"Probably because she could tell Inuyasha was not truly evil." Miroku offered.

"Perhaps, but in any case as the seasons passed they spent more and more time together. Inuyasha even began helping my sister defend the village from the youkai the came hunting the Jewel.

Then in the winter Inuyasha disappeared without a word. My sister was heart broken, she wandered around the village for weeks unresponsive only coming to life when an youkai attacked.

At that time she would become infuriated and her aura could be seen by all around her flickering with red and blue flames. The entire village was worried about her being consumed by her sorrow for the loss of Inuyasha.

One night during an attack she was so controlled by her rage and lust for the kill that she failed to notice a small group of youkai that slipped past her. They killed three children, and had me and a group of my friends surrounded.

She was too far away to reach us in time and she had long given up her bow in favor of fighting youkai with her bare hands. Just before the youkai attacked a man on a black horse thundered out of the forest.

He rode straight at us and in a flash of light drew his katana and killed the youkai. Kikyo rushed to us and as she gathered us into her arms the man lifted the bodies of the three slain children and offered to help dig their graves.

My sister was devastated by their loss and gratefully accepted his help. As the man was digging the children's graves he asked my sister where the warriors of the village where and why they hadn't helped her in the fight against the youkai.

I immediately jumped to my sister's defense telling the man that there were no warriors in our farming village and that my sister was the greatest Miko in the world and able to defend us all by herself.

Upon hearing that, he offered to stay though the winter and help protect the village. Kikiyo accepted his help and the man moved into our hut.

During the rest of the winter the man helped to defend he village and slowly brought a smile back to my sister's face. He would bring her small tied bundles of ever green or a package of nuts, even an eagle feather which he braded into her hair.

Throughout the winter the man courted my sister, he took her on walks and even traveled to a larger village to buy her a bolt of kimono cloth. Slowly Kikyo began to forget about Inuyasha and to believe that her love for a hanyou was wrong as a Miko.

Occasionally I would hear the two of them talking and the man would always subtly hint at the possibility that Inuyasha may have lain a glamour on my sister to make her love him. Slowly my sister's sadness over Inuyasha's absence turned to hate. As a child I never understood what he meant all I knew was that Inuyasha had made my sister cry and this man made her smile.

With the first bouquet of spring flowers the man asked my sister for her hand in marriage and offered to be her partner for life against the youkai. Kikyo accepted his proposal and just as the two embraced Inuyasha landed in the clearing before our hut.

Seeing the two of them Inuyasha became enraged and began ranting about Kikyo sending him on a quest, and how could her love which she had pledged to be undying not even last the 4 months that he had been searching for her dowry?

The man pushed my sister behind him sword drawn, when Inuyasha had appeared and as the hanyou paused too enraged to continue he began to threaten the inu. Telling him that a Miko would never marry a hanyou and how he had misinterpreted the kindness of my sister's heart in letting such a cur live, as love.

Then he told him to leave the village unless he wanted to die. At that Inuyasha advanced on the man ready to tear his throat out, but Kikiyo stepped in front of him and told him to leave.

I remember the pain in his eyes as Inuyasha turned to leave they looked just like Kikyo's had before the man had come that winter. Then he bounded into the trees and disappeared again.

Later that week, my sister received a note form Inuyasha asking her to meet him in the forest so that he could say his goodbyes. She was gone less than an hour when suddenly Inuyasha appeared and attacked the village.

He destroyed the temple where the jewel was kept and was racing out of the village with the jewel when Kikyo returned and with her arrow she sealed him to the god tree.

The last thing I saw in his eyes before they closed was betrayal as he looked at Kikyo for the last time. As the village and I rushed to her side she collapsed in to her fiancé's arms.

She was bleeding from a massive wound in her side, the man yelled at her to use the jewel to heal herself. She refused and he began to grow angry telling her that the hanyou deserved to die for what he had done to her and that she needed to heal herself.

With her final words Kikyo denounced her fiancé and demanded that the shikon no tama be burned with her body. As she died in his arms the man growled in disgust and dropped her body to the ground calling her weak for dieing when she had the power to prevent it and walked off." With a sigh Kaede wiped the tears that had begun to flow down her face.

"That night we sent my sister to the heavens along with the shikon no tama. I haven't seen the man since and I hope he never returns to this village" she continued glancing back at the slumbering Kagome.

"Kaede-sama, why have you not mentioned this man's name?" Miroku questioned quietly fearing he knew the answer (can anyone guess).

"Miroku houshi the man was Naraku. I found out many years later that it was Naraku disguised as Inuyasha that sent the note to my sister and it was he who wounded her so viciously that day in the forest.

He wanted her to believe that her first love had tried to kill her and that his only reason for wooing her was to put her off guard long enough to steal the shikon no tama. He wanted her to hate Inuyasha.

It was also Naraku who came to Inuyasha in the form of my sister and gave him a test of his love as a quest to find many precious items of power as a dowry for her hand in marriage."

"But Inuyasha wasn't dead, I mean he's alive now." Sango burst out, confused by the twisting events in her friends' pasts.

"Yes he is alive now. Kikyo only sealed him with her arrow instead of purifying him. I believe deep in her heart she still loved him and her subconscious knew that there was something wrong about what was happening.

Eight years ago the arrow that pinned the hanyou to the God tree vanished and Inuyasha was released. He came stumbling into the village and collapsed on my door step looking for Kikyo.

As I was treating his fever I told him all that I had learned over the last 50 years about Naraku and how he had manipulated the lovers for his own gain. That is when Inuyasha vowed revenge on Naraku and took up his journey to find the demon."

As Kaede finished her story the group became very quiet for a while as thoughts of the past consumed them. They were saddened by the events surrounding the Miko and their hanyou friend.

From his place by the door Sesshomaru heard Inuyasha walk away form the hut as the old Miko grew silent. Shaking his head silently at his brother's actions the western lord noticed the girl Kagome close her eyes as a tear slid down her face and into her midnight hair.

Amused that the woman had been awake unknown to the group, Sesshomaru wondered what she was thinking about her pervious incarnation.

Ending A/N: Sigh why must editing be such a pain? Sigh by the time I get all of the chapters up on this site I'll be so frustrated I won't want to write! Waaaaaaaaa. Plus I still can't read all my reviews. I can see that I have 6 (only 6? Bursts into tears) but I can only read the first 4. Sigh please still review. Sad `orion