InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Nigatsu no Hoshi (Stars of February) ❯ Hateshi no Hari, and the Megami Ningen ( Chapter 14 )

Suteki: thank you to everyone that replied regarding the `filler chapter', I was surprised at how fast I got answers and suggestions. So, due to popular demand, the lemons are a comin! Not this chapter most likely, but next chapter for sure ;) so, once again, thank you for your great support with the story, and hope you continue to enjoy!!

Shizuka: yaayyyyy! Lemons!! Lol, you all have really been a great help to us, we cant stress that enough. We'd also like to thank all our close friends that have supported us through this whole endeavor, **sniffle** we feel so loved! Lol.

Suteki: oh yeah, don't mind the title. I know its completely in Japanese, but you'll find out what it means as you read the chapter. Oh, and NO there isn't any list of the vocab at the bottom, so ha! There's no way you can cheat, it's a surprise! Lol.

Chapter 13: Hateshi no Hari, and the Megami Ningen

Kagome turned to face the glowing red aura behind her. As she settled her eyes on it, she glared as it began to produce random imagges of inuyasha and Kikyou. She stepped towards it with a determined look on her face, although she really had no clue what to do. She walked up to it, and stood within a couple of feet from the blood red light. It continued to show her images of inuyasha and Kikyou, some she had been unfortunate to have witnessed, some she didn't recognize. None the less, she was trying her hardest to block them out. But no matter how strong her endeavor was, they still hurt her deep inside. She reached a clawed hand out to touch the light, in some desperate attempt to make the images stop; she didn't know how touching it would help, but she was going to break any moment.

As her hand touched the outer rays of it, one final image was projected merely inches from her face, front row seats, and tears quickly filled in her shocked eyes…it was inuyasha and Kikyou…making love?! `No, no, no…this isn't real! He would never do that to me! No…inuyasha…' the pain was finally enough for her as she began to retreat slowly from the image. She backed up a few feet from it, and then stood still, just staring. `no kagome! You know that these are only tricks to make you hurt to the point of uncontrollable rage…but…but why would my own soul want to put me through this? This isn't fair!'

She was now royally pissed, even if it was at herself…or part of herself, she didn't care. "STOP IT!!!!!" she screamed at the top of her lungs as the inuyasha in the vision cried out Kikyou's name in the passion the two were sharing. She was about to lunge herself back at the glowing personification of her soul, when she felt something come to life behind her. Before she could even turn to face it, a bluish-purple blur rushed past her, colliding with the crimson light.

She stared in horror as her two souls fought together. At every attack the lights made at each other, a short shot of pain would thrash at her spine. She had to stop them, it was now or never, she had to put an end to this, somehow. She fell to her knees as the two collided violently again. She lay there panting, crying, and confused. She had no idea what to do, `if I don't do something soon…they'll kill me.' With that last desperate thought, she forced herself to stand, and rushed with all her strength over to the two beings.

She reached out her hand, thrust it deep within the chaos of the souls, and grabbed at the air. She held her hand there for a moment and clenched her hand to the point where her knuckles turned white and her nails drew blood from her palm, and uttered a silent plea, `please…stop this insanity!!' she opened her eyes from the prayer, and looked to her hand. The lights had stopped all movement when she grabbed onto them, but now they began to move again. They began to glow brightly, and then shot out to form a ring around their host. Then, just as quickly, they were sucked into the girls clutches. But before the glowing ceased, she noticed two small amounts of light infront of her, one crimson the other amethyst. They formed into the miko and youkai forms of herself and opened their eyes to look at her. They both showed no expression on their features, but kagome caught a glimmer of something in both pairs of familiar eyes. She couldn't quite name it, hope? Thankfulness? Relief? She was usually good at reading others eyes, but not her own. Then, as if shielding themselves, they closed their eyes and without a word, the beings both dissipated into the darkness.

Kagome wasn't sure what had just happened, `did it work???' she wondered. She noticed that the energy she had felt from the two auras had not left, but felt closer than ever. That's when she noticed something glimmering in-between her fingers. She slowly opened her sore hand, and gasped in shock at what she found.

"Its…its beautiful…" she said aloud. In her palm laid some kind of…crystal. That was the only way she could describe it. it was completely different from the shikon no tama. It wasn't a perfect sphere, and its color was drastically different. It glowed with several colors, the main being jade. She held it closer to look at the detail, there were traces of a fiery red, deep purple, and pale yellow. It was shaped almost like a star, having four large points, and then little ones in-between. In its entirety, it was only about an inch and a half in height, and maybe 3/4s of an inch in width. It was like nothing she had ever seen before, it looked so majestic.

"This cant be…my souls can it?" she said in an exhausted yet curious tone. All of a sudden, she felt her world spin, and the image of the crystal and her hand began to swim infront of her. Before she knew it, the ground began to get a little too close, and then all was black.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

During Kagome's revelations, Katasuki, and an over-frantic Sango carried her back to the hut where they watched her cringe and whimper in her sleep. They were all beginning to get worried, even the well-composed Katasuki was beginning to sweat.

"Katasuki what do we do! She's been out for hours now, and she has a terrible fever!" Sango yelled at the older woman.

"if we lose her, I'll slit your throat damn wench! Why would you make her fight like that if you knew that it wasn't good for her!" the angry hanyou raged.

The fox leaned over the fallen inu youkai and placed a cold moist cloth to her forehead. "Lord Inuyasha, Sango-Chan…you are not helping her by yelling like this. You need to calm yourselves, she's waking up." She said calmly. In an instant Sango, inuyasha, and shippou were all hovering over kagome as she sighed one last time and then started to stir.

Kagome fluttered her eyes open, and instantly felt very cramp. "hi" she said, her voice sounding a little hoarse. As the others stepped back to give her some room to breath, she took in her surroundings and noticed that she was in her home. "how long have a been out?" she asked, not even trying to get up.

"About 6 hours straight my dear," Katasuki replied, causing Kagome's eyes to widen for a second, "wow, it only felt like half an hour to me."

Everyone blinked, `how could she know? She was unconscious; time should have stood still for her. Huh.' "What do you mean kagome? What happened while you were out?"

Kagome immediately met eyes with the worried Sango and gave her a sorrowful and confused look. "Why do you ask?" she said in almost a whisper. "You were having fits while you slept, like you were having a nightmare. We thought something might have been terribly wrong."

Kagome just stared at her closed fists, `was it a dream? It felt so real…' she continued to stare at her hands, and the silence was making everyone else in the room very antsy. `there's only one to find out, and sitting here stunned is not it.' she reluctantly started to open both of her hands slowly. She gasped as her eyes focused on her right palm, followed by the astonished gasps of the rest of the small room.

"Where'd you find that kagome? Its pretty!" cried the excited kit. "Yes kagome-Chan. I've never seen you with that before, did you find it before we battled?" kagome continued to gawk at the small crystal in her hand, along with everyone else. Everyone except Katasuki of course, who just smiled knowingly.

"You did it kagome, I knew you could. Still, your power is amazing and immeasurable to complete an act such as this." Kagome only moved her gaze up to the older shrine maiden, her mouth now hanging open a bit. "What the hell are you talking about? Stop speaking in tongues wench!"

Ignoring inuyasha, Katasuki knelt beside kagome. "tell us kagome, what did you see while you were unconscious?" kagome gulped, not knowing where to start, she still wasn't sure what happened herself.

"Well…umm… I woke up in the blackest dark I've ever experienced, and was all alone at first. Then…I saw my youki, and it started trying to make me angry by conjuring up images infront of me…" she paused trying to force the images out of her mind after thinking of them again. "Images? What kind of images?" asked Miroku. "Id rather not say," she replied as she turned a guilty look up to inuyasha who was listening intently. `How could I have ever let those lies get to me? I'm sorry inuyasha…' He raised an eyebrow when he saw the look in her eyes, and was about to ask what was wrong with her when she continued. "And then it transformed itself into…I don't know, another me I guess you could say, but it was like this bloodthirsty demon, and it continued to tell me lies and show me things until it almost ripped away my sanity. I almost fell into its trap, but I realized what it was trying to do at the last moment, and fought it off."

She paused to let it all sink into her as reality, also giving the others a chance to catch up with what she was telling them. "Then, I saw my miko chi, and it tried to help me and reassure me that everything I was seeing was a lie. Then, it transformed into the…the pure miko form of me I guess. Midoriko also appeared to me, and told me that I was the reincarnation of her and the jewel, so I now had her added power with me." She paused again as she caught her breath. It wasn't really making any sense to her, so she could only imagine what the others were thinking. `they probably think I'm insane, talking to all my different personalities in my head. Ha!'

"she also told me that my two auras were battling, the youki for dominance and recognition, I think is what she said. I had no idea how I was supposed to restore balance, but I decided to start with the youki since it was the one that was being uncooperative. When I tried to take hold of it…it showed me one last vision…" her voice cracked as she finished her sentence, and couldn't help but blush at remembering the false manifestation she had seen, half in modesty, the other in anger. She wasn't angry because she thought what she saw might have been true, but she was mad at herself for being effected by it so badly, and at another part of herself that would have used something like that against herself.

She tried to regain herself before she continued, but she didn't even notice the stray tear that had easily slid from the corner of one eye. This however didn't go unnoticed by the present hanyou who was quickly kneeling infront of her, wiping away the tear with his thumb before it reached her chin. "Whatever you saw kagome, it wasn't true and I think you know that. Its alright, we're all here with you now, you can just forget what ever you saw." She looked at him questioningly at first, `its almost like he knows what I saw…it feels a little awkward being this close to him after what I saw,' then she blushed again as she remember ed the kiss she had shared with him in her vision. "tha-thank you, inuyasha." She said as she managed to catch her daze and smile at him reassuringly. "I'm okay, really."

"Good, I hate seeing women cry," `especially you,' he added to himself as he sat down a couple of feet infront of her Indian style. He waved a hand at her when she only stared, "continue now, please. We are all wondering where the hell that little thing came from."

"Oh yes! Well…after I saw the last image, I screamed at it and then my miko half attacked it without warning! As they fought, I could feel it tearing me up from the inside, so I grabbed at them. They stopped fighting, and then they both were pulled into my hand, and when I opened it, this was all that was left of them." She said holding the crystal up to the sunlight that shone through the doorway. "I still don't really know what it is though. Before anything else could happen, I woke up here."

"That's quite a story kagome-sama. Sounds like you must have been pretty overwhelmed by something like that. I agree with Katasuki, for one to be able to retreat into their own mind and be able to interact with ones own soul. The individual must possess immense amounts of holy power and concentration. The gem is a mystery to me though, I feel its holy light radiating from it, almost like the shikon, but it still has its own glow."

Sango, who had been holding back tears almost the whole time kagome was relating her story, was overcome with stress and anxiety for her friend. "Oh kagome-Chan!" she said as she dropped to the ground to tightly embrace the younger girl, "I'm so sorry kagome-Chan. It must have been a terrifying experience, and you were all alone. Its all my fault!"

"Sango! Sango-Chan, its alright. It wasn't your fault, I was supposed to do this. I think that whatever I did, stopped my souls turmoil, and this crystal is the result of that."

"Hateshi no Hari." Everyone's heads turned to face Katasuki as she spoke. "The what?" asked everyone except kagome. "The Hateshi no Hari…The Crystal of Fate! I remember now, my grandfather used to tell me the legend of the gem, but it was just a myth I thought, even my grandfather said it was only a fairy tale. A mysterious jewel that could allow one to see through the eyes of fate, and even to change the course of destiny."

"Well my dear kagome, that so called myth is lying in the palm of your very hand. A jewel that controls all of destiny, holding such power it can change even the twisted course of ones fate. That is right."

"But why…why is it given to me?" kagome asked, once again confused.

"It was not `given' to you kagome. You created it. The object you are holding is the crystallized form of your very aura. Inside, your miko and youkai chi can reside in peace. It houses them in a form that allows them to be equal. Your own powers keep them in check, to make sure neither has dominance. Since you hold them in your hand, you are their MASTER, not only a `host'. You are the prophesied one that has always possessed the strange power over time and fate. You came back to the past, to complete a destiny that you were denied. That doesn't sound special to you? How many others have you known, or even heard of in legends that had this power?"

She thought for a moment, "ha! I HAVE heard of one person of legend, `The Megami Ningen', (Mortal Goddess) a human girl so pure, she had somehow attained certain powers of the gods, and could control time and fate, as well as other supernatural abilities." She stopped when Katasuki grinned again, and then rose a clawed finger to point at her. "Sound familiar anyone? That Ningen Goddess is you, Lady Kagome."

Everyone's eyes went wide. "Kagome's a goddess!?" yelled Sango. Katasuki laughed, "Not really Sango, but she does have such strong spiritual abilities that she might as well be one. `A human that even the gods themselves envied thus despised. Constantly the victim of the cruelty of fate, but eventually grew too powerful to even be held captive by its shackles forever.' I think that is how the legend worded it."

Kagome looked from Katasuki, to the Hateshi, to inuyasha, to the others, and then back at her hands. "Wow, to think that I would have become the heroine of my own childhood bedtime story. Ha, I could only imagine what Souta would say if he found out, he always loved the story when he was a toddler." She smiled as she reminisced about her brother, and her own childhood. Her own, worry free and blissful life of years long passed.

Everyone was still silent as they tried to process everything they had learned within the last half hour or so. Kagome began rubbing the gem with her fingers as it shined with its own inner light, Sango watched with one arm still around kagome, Miroku was in deep thought as was Katasuki and shippou. Inuyasha was the one to first come out and break the now peaceful silence.

"I don't get it,…" he said with a totally serious look on his face.

Miroku and shippou both met eyes and then tried to hold back a laugh, but soon found it was no use. Miroku started to bust up uncontrollably and slap the floor with his hand, while shippou rolled across the floor holding his sides in pain. "Inuyasha…oh boy, that was funny." Miroku said in a moment of regained composure, but he quickly lost it when he looked up to see a look of complete confusion on his friends face. "Ohhhhh…you sure do know how to ruin completely serious moments don't you yash?" cried shippou through tears from laughing. "The tension over whelms him shippou, he doesn't know how to be serious, hurts his poor little brain." Miroku said as he sat up to pat inuyasha on the head.

Inuyasha "feh'd", smacked Miroku in the forehead causing him to role backwards, and then turned to stare a hole through the wall with his hands tucked inside his haori, as he blushed from embarrassment. Soon the girls couldn't hold it in any longer and clutched onto each other as the reseeded into violent giggles and squeaky cackles, not being able to hold back even though they knew it would upset inuyasha even further.

Once everyone was done, they all sighed in unison from laughing so hard. Kagome felt happier than she had in weeks, she felt at peace. She was with her friends, having a good time. Her stupid souls weren't fighting anymore, and decided not to worry about what would happen after this. She was just going to lay back and enjoy life with her new family. `If I control destiny, I will make sure nothing will disrupt our happiness from this point on…' she thought with a beaming smile on her face as she watched shippou tickle inuyasha to get the sour look off his face. Inuyasha couldn't help but start laughing, and soon started to tickle the young one back. He caught Kagome's gaze, and then gave her a goofy grin as shippou tackled him to the ground. `I'll make sure neither of us ever experience another betrayal of fate again. I can finally be happy with you…inuyasha…'

Suteki: yay! Cute! I had to lighten the mood at the end, it was all too serious for me, lol. The more I explained the gem and stuff, the more confused I got, lol. Hope you liked it! And once again, thanks for all the excellent help.

Shizuka: next chapter, the group has lived in complete serenity for the past three weeks. But, of course the fun never ceases when your bunkin with a dog demon/miko of legend, who still happens to be a hormone raged teen. ;p

Suteki: I'm sorry, but I'm in Las Vegas this weekend for the supercross, so I wont be able to write the chapter till next week…ahh! I feel so bad. Well, that gives you plenty of time for you all to wallow in anticipation of the next chapter (LEMON). So, till then, ja ne!

VEGAS YOUJI, VEGAS!!!! (Vegas baby, Vegas) lol