InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Kikyo's lonely journey ❯ Kikyo resurrected ( Chapter 20 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

Disclaimer: Most of the characters in this story are the actual work of Rumiko Takahashi. I do not own them in any way.

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"Kagome! Answer me Kagome!" called Kikyo through their link, but the schoolgirl stubbornly refused to answer.

It had happened a while back. Something had shaken up the girl pretty bad and when she had tried to find out what, she had discovered that her thoughts did not reach the schoolgirl anymore. Knowing something important had happened but not knowing what it was about as annoying as watching Kuro hum lightly as she worked.

The creature had brought her here a few minutes ago. She had not said a single word, but the miko could have sworn that she had seen disappointment in her captor's eyes when she had entered her cell. Right now, Kuro was laying the final touch to her trap. From what Kikyo could make out, it was an elaborate weave of purification and youkai energy all braided together so that none of the two contradicting powers touched themselves. The whole thing seemed fragile though, it looked as if the slightest touch would send the whole thing tumbling away.

"There, only one thing left to complete my trap," announced Kuro, looking distinctly satisfied with herself.

"I didn't know you had the soul of an artist," taunted Kikyo from her position beside the throne.

Surprisingly enough, instead of getting angry, Kuro merely chuckled darkly. "You can laugh all you want now Kikyo... pretty soon, you'll be crying," replied the creature.

With that said, Kuro hoisted the miko to her feet and dragged her toward the trap. The creature then pushed her straight into the weaves and Kikyo felt them coil around her, holding her upward and spread-eagled. What's more, as soon as the coiling was finished, all traces of the thin threads of power holding her in place vanished completely.

"May I inquire as to the purpose of this particular arrangement?" questioned Kikyo, confused.

"This is because you are the trigger to my trap. The moment someone touches you the thing goes off," explained Kuro with a devious smirk on his features.

"And what is this trap supposed to do? Explode in a myriad of colors?" continued the miko undeterred.

"I shall let you discover along with your friends everything that my trap has to offer," answered the creature darkly. "Now then, time to shut you up. I wouldn't want you warning your friends of what's awaiting them now do we."

A few seconds later, the miko found herself bound and gagged, facing the door. Once more she tried to contact Kagome through their link but nothing worked. She could feel the connection, but something was preventing the other girl from hearing her. Something... that caused the bound miko to feel an emotion she did not feel often: fear.

"Kagome! You have to answer me! KAGOME!" she thought furiously... but the link remained stubbornly silent.

Perched on Kirara's back Sango finally emerged from the pit where Susune had fallen only to be met with the expectant gaze of her friends. She could not meet them though as her search had proved to be mostly fruitless.

"The pit... narrows down after a while. Kirara and I... couldn't go through," she said quietly. "This... is all we could find," she added while showing a blue shoulder guard that had obviously belonged to their fallen friend.

"Susune..." whispered Shippo.

"She was... brave until the end," added Miroku solemnly.

"Damnit! After surviving through so much... why did she have to die on us now!?" exclaimed Kagome angrily.

The only one who didn't say a word was Inuyasha. He merely stared at the ground in complete silence for a while, his arms crossed over his chest. After a while, he simply let them drop before heading away, his face expressionless.

"Inuyasha?" called the schoolgirl hesitantly.

"Are you all finished with your moping around?" he launched irritably. "Unless you forgot, we have a bastard to kill!"

Everyone stared at the hanyou in uncertainty for a few seconds before they all stood up and began to follow after him, their features hardened in cold determination. If Kuro had thought that the death of one of their members would actually weaken them, then he was greatly mistaken. Right now, they were all stronger than ever, their pain and anger had just given them a power that went far beyond anything the creature could have imagined.

"You'll pay Kuro! Even if it's the last thing I ever do, I'll see you dead!" promised the hanyou, knowing full well that similar thoughts were racing through his friends' head.

None of them knew exactly how long they wandered through the maze of corridors that was Kuro's castle, but eventually their methodical searching produced results as Inuyasha's nose picked up Kikyo's scent. Encouraged by their discovery, the group hastened their advance until they winded up facing a richly decorated door.

"She's in there," announced Inuyasha grimly while drawing his Tessaiga.

"Then let's go. It's time to show Kuro what it means to mess with us," growled Sango, hefting her hiraikotsu off her shoulder.

Nodding his assent, Inuyasha raised his weapon high above his head and he lowered it with all his might against the obstacle. The door exploded inward in a shower of splinters, allowing the group to see something rather peculiar. Kikyo was standing in the middle of the room, spread-eagled and gagged, as if held by an invisible force.

"What the hell?" exclaimed Inuyasha in confusion.

"This sure is strange," commented Miroku while carefully peering into the room.

Carefully, they all filed in to the room, being careful to watch every corner for signs of a trap, but they could not see anything out of the ordinary. "This isn't right," murmured Kagome uneasily. "Kuro couldn't possibly be handing us Kikyo like this."

As they made their slow and careful way to the bound miko, the feeling only increased. The schoolgirl just knew that something was deadly wrong here and yet, she couldn't figure out what exactly. That was when a thought hit her. She hadn't heard Kikyo in a while. Focusing inward, she realized that she had been so focused on her own emotions that it had bottled up their link. Mentally reaching for it, she reopened it and recoiled in shock as Kikyo's reply came through, loud and clear.

"IT'S A TRAP!!!!" screamed the undead miko in her head.

Shifting her attention to Inuyasha, she watched in horror as the hanyou extended his hand in order to remove the cloth gagging the bound woman. Everything seemed to slow down as the schoolgirl's thought process accelerated a thousand fold. Reacting instinctively, Kagome summoned up her powers just as Inuyasha's hand touched the bound miko in front of him.

At this moment, the entire room seemed to come alive. Hundred of precisely weaved threads of purification and youkai powers snapped and immediately began converging toward the unsuspected group. Kuro's cruel laugher filled the room when the trap sprung, knowing that there was no possible escape now.

"Watch Kikyo! Watch as your friends slowly get torn apart by the threads I weaved into this room!" exclaimed the creature victoriously.

However his mirth was short lived because just as the threads of power were about to reach the group, a pink shield suddenly sprung up out of nowhere, effectively protecting everyone from harm. The spherical barrier remained stationary for a few seconds before it suddenly exploded outward, destroying the creature's carefully laid-out trap and dispelling the invisibility spell Kuro had wrapped around himself in the process.

"This girl... protected everyone from my trap?" thought the creature when she noticed Kagome's extended arms and slightly panting form.

"I told you not to underestimate my friends Nesumi," replied Kikyo once everything had settled down.

Finding herself suddenly facing a very angry and vengeful group, the creature couldn't help but take a step back. "First the demon puppet... and now this," growled Inuyasha menacingly. "I'VE HAD ENOUGH OF THESE PETTY TRAPS! I'LL MAKE YOU PAY FOR WHAT YOU DID TO SUSUNE!" screamed the hanyou before launching himself at the creature.

"So the hanyou mourns the death of his fallen comrade, how pitiful!" taunted Kuro while nimbly dodging Tessaiga's blow.

"I'm going to make you eat those words you asshole!" snapped Inuyasha, launching yet another attack.

Words. One of the most dangerous thing a person can use. One sentence can make a heart swell with happiness, bring warmth to a person's soul, bring a smile to a face. And at the same time, one tiny sentence can crush someone's expectations, shatter his heart, cause tears to fall down someone's face. In this particular case, those two sentences spoken in the heat of battle had a devastating effect on someone who was currently being hoisted to safety by Kagome. Someone who was paralyzed, who could not move her body by even an inch... but someone who could still hear clearly nonetheless: Kikyo.

"Kagome..." she whispered pleadingly, not daring to believe that what she had heard was true. "Kuro... he's... lying right?"

Only silence greeted her words, as if the schoolgirl had not heard her words, as if the miko had not spoken loud enough for the girl carrying her to hear. "Kagome..." she repeated a bit louder this time.

This time the girl did hear because she turned a tear-stained face to her. "I'm... sorry Kikyo," answered Kagome, her voice barely above a murmur.

Three words, three small words and the undead miko felt her whole universe crumbled away. Memories began flashing before her eyes.

"Kikyo-sama, your hand is cold!"

Pain squeezed her chest.

"Will you take me in as your apprentice?"

Agony made her close her eyes to prevent tears from spilling out.

"I want to stay with you!!!"

Her soul and her heart shattered into hundreds of shards, leaving only desolation behind.

"I want to fight!"

Something exploded inside Kikyo and she let out a blood-curdling scream filled with anguish and despair. And suddenly, she felt power flood through her. More power than she could imagine. A power that changed her, altered her, a power that answered to her pain and anguish... and her desire for revenge. She could feel the darkness inside her grow and grow until it swallowed her whole. Dimly she realized that she was not the only one screaming in the room, beside her Kagome was bent over on the ground, holding her chest to cover a glowing black sphere.

She knew then that the shikon jewel had sensed her negative emotions through the link she shared with the schoolgirl and was somehow answering to it, using her own darkness to taint itself. But she couldn't do anything to stop what was happening. Learning that Susune was dead was the last straw holding her sanity in place. She didn't care what happened to her anymore, she wanted Nesumi dead... and to hell with what happened to her.

"Kikyo-sama... will killing the one responsible for my death bring me back to life?"

"Susune..." she mused, the maelstrom of emotions abruptly stopping.

"Do you think that I want you to blindingly seek revenge or to try your utmost to be happy... even without me?"

"You'd want me... to be happy Susune. That's all you've ever wanted right? All this time you've spent with me... and all you ever wanted was to see me smile... and I was too stupid to see it," she said, fresh tears coming to her face.

In Kagome's chest, the blackness of the jewel suddenly dissolved away, replaced by a pink brighter than it had ever been before. The agonizing pain also vanished, replaced by a pleasant warmth.

"I'll try Susune... I promise you I'll try my hardest to be happy. But Kuro is a creature I inadvertently created. Just like Naraku was born out of desire for me, Kuro was born out of hatred for me. I cannot allow him to run free any longer... that is why I must make this wish Susune. So that I may take him out forever... I wish to become a human again!" she wished solemnly.

Abruptly, the glow inside Kagome's chest shifted from pink to pure, blinding white. The bodies of the schoolgirl and the undead miko started rising in the air slowly as the jewel's powers answered Kikyo's wish. In the room, everyone stood rooted to the spot at the unexpected display. The two girls then rotated until they were face to face and, as if the whole thing wasn't strange enough, something even stranger started happening.

Everything started with the apparition of a strange thread of light linking Kikyo and the schoolgirl together. Then, out of the schoolgirl's body, a ghostly form began to emerge, as if pulled by an unknown force. The progression was slow, but inch by inch, the shape became easier to make out. Everyone jerked in surprise when, a few seconds later, they were able to make out the semi-transparent form of Kagome.

"What the hell's going on? What's the jewel trying to do to Kagome?" exclaimed Inuyasha in both surprise and concern.

"It looks as if Kagome-sama's soul is being pulled out of her body by the jewel's powers," answered Miroku in awe.

"WHAT!?" instantly shot back the hanyou. "She'll die if her soul is taken out of her body! We have to stop it!"

However, before he could jump in, Sango interrupted him.

"Wait Inuyasha, look," stopped the demon slayer.

Indeed, something new was now happening. Kagome's soul had been mostly taken out of her body by now, and they could all see that another shape was beginning to be pulled out of the schoolgirl's ghostly form.

"What the..." trailed off the hanyou.

"Another soul?" questioned the monk in confusion.

Everyone looked at each other in utter bafflement before understanding crashed on them all at the same time.

"Kikyo!" they all exclaimed at once.

And right they were. The form that was almost completely separated was indeed that of Kikyo. It looked distinctly paler than Kagome's however, as if it was somewhat incomplete.

"That's right," mused Miroku. "Kagome-sama only had part of Kikyo-sama's soul. The rest was affixed to her clay body."

He didn't have time to muse too much on this though because at this moment, the separation completed itself. It looked as if a spring had just decided to uncoil. As soon as the two ghostly forms had become separate, they instantly slammed into their respective body, causing the two girls to recoil violently.

The moment it happened, Kikyo opened her mouth, suddenly finding herself in desperate need of air... and unable to breathe. She struggled, desperately bringing her hands to her throat in an effort to make her lungs work, but it was to no avail. Luckily for her, the jewel was not finished. It started pulsing in a slow and regular rhythm and with each pulse, the miko felt something pound in her chest.

Finally, with one last and blinding pulse, the jewel went silent and Kikyo was finally able to draw in a breath. It produced a dry and wheezing sound that was most likely sickening to hear, but to her, it was the most incredible sensation in the world. She was so lost up in her own world that she didn't even noticed when she touched the ground. It took her long minutes to get her breathing under control, but eventually, she managed to recover.

Looking up, she was almost immediately confronted with the dumbfounded expression of her friends who had obviously no idea what had just happened. She almost laughed at their faces, but then her eyes met Kuro's and her gaze instantly turned to iron.

Pushing herself to her feet, she watched with some degree of amusement the creature take one step back in surprise.

"How is this possible? How can you move?" he questioned in complete bafflement.

"The shikon jewel granted my wish Nesumi. I am no longer a walking dead in need of souls to survive. I am now fully human again," she answered in a tone so cold that the very air in the room seemed to freeze over.

"So you're human again eh? Well it just means that I get to kill you along with everyone else," answered the creature, her surprise fading, replaced with the usual coolness.

"YOUR FIGHT IS WITH ME!!!!" snapped the miko so sharply that everyone jerked.

"You want to fight me... alone?" answered Kuro in disbelief.

"I'm tired of you trying to harm the people I care about! The time has come to see which one of us is the best!" replied Kikyo frostily.

"So you actually think you have a chance against me? Amusing, let's see what this new body of yours is capable of," mocked Kuro.

And so, the battle began.