InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Stolen Soul ❯ Take My Hand ( Chapter 1 )

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

Author's Notes: This story is set vaguely after volume 16 of the manga, so that should give you an idea of where we are in the larger story. Kikyo has already killed the monk who discovered she was devouring souls in order to stay "alive." Kikyo has taunted and dismissed Kagome (and described her as Kikyo and Naraku's "greatest nuisance"). She has paralyzed Kagome so she had to watch Kikyo kiss Inu-Yasha right in front of her. She has tried to drag Inu-Yasha into hell (again, while Kagome was forced to watch). She has tried to kill Kagome (and then lied about it to Inu-Yasha). And she has stolen the jewel and given it to Naraku.

As you may have guessed based on the description above, this story will not portray Kikyo very sympathetically. So, if you are particularly fond of the dead miko, you most likely won't enjoy this story and should probably look for other fic more to your taste. I have some sympathy for Kikyo, but not a lot.

Oh, also, though I have seen some of the anime, I am primarily familiar with Inu-Yasha through the Viz-translated manga, so I will be using spellings and terminology as they appear in the books.

Japanese Terms Used in this Chapter
hanyou -- a half-demon, such as Inu-Yasha, who has one demon parent and one human parent
miko -- a shrine maiden or priestess at a Shinto shrine -- mikos are unmarried and expected to remain chaste to keep their powers strong -- Kikyo was a miko before her death

Disclaimer: These characters don't belong to me. This fic, however, is mine. Please don't take it without my permission.





Deep in the darkness of the forest, two women of magic conversed in a wretched hut far beyond the hearing of any village.

"You are certain that this is the spell, old woman?"

"Yes. You must grind the herbs and spread them upon your skin. When your skin touches another, the spell will take effect."

The miko remained silent a long moment, gazing out at the night. "Very well," she said coldly, without turning to look at the hag. "Then you have your payment. Money is meaningless to me. Take it." And with those words, the miko cast a handful of copper coins upon the floor and walked silently from the hut.

The old woman called after her, "The spell shall only work if your power is great!"

Without turning to acknowledge this warning, the miko answered only, "My power was never in question."


Several miles away, Inu-Yasha sat high in a tree, his long white hair flowing in the night breeze while he watched over his traveling companions who slept around the fire below. They'd traveled far that day, and everyone was tired. The others had fallen asleep quickly, but Inu-Yasha himself had not found rest so easily.

As he looked out at the darkened forest, Inu-Yasha suddenly caught a glimpse of something flowing and writhing between the trees. Soul skimmers! Two of Kikyo's servant demons glowed between the trees, seeming to beckon for Inu-Yasha to follow them, and of course he did.

Kagome lay quietly awake in her sleeping bag near the fire, watching his red-and-white form vanish into the forest to follow Kikyo's harbingers. Of course he would go to her. He always does .

Inu-Yasha didn't return for hours, until the coming sunrise was beginning to slightly lighten the midnight blue of the sky, but Kagome was still awake to see him leap once more into a nearby tree and gaze moodily out at the sky as it brightened.

Did he see Kikyo? Is he thinking about her right now? Did she try to suck him into hell again?

Does he still love her, in spite of everything?

Unable to silence the thoughts that plagued her, Kagome restlessly tossed and turned for a long time before she finally fell asleep.

Glancing down at the girl when her breathing finally evened out, Inu-Yasha sighed, and his eyes were sad. He had not been able to find Kikyo in the forest, but by leaving to follow the soul skimmers he knew he had hurt Kagome again.

How long could it go on like this?




The next day, Kagome's eyes were deeply shadowed and she was clearly exhausted from lack of sleep, trudging clumsily along behind her companions as they continued on in search of any news about jewel shards. Inu-Yasha, too, was more distant than usual. When Kagome stumbled out of tiredness, he took her pack and carried it himself, but he otherwise seemed lost in thought. He's thinking about Kikyo, of course, sighed Kagome to herself. No matter what she does, he still loves her. Even after she tried to kill me!

Casting concerned glances at Kagome as the day wore on, Sango at length suggested that they stop to camp near a hot spring, knowing that bathing would give her an excuse to get the girl alone to talk. Though the suggestion meant they would not travel as far as they otherwise might before nightfall, Inu-Yasha did not object. Sango and Miroku exchanged a confused, concerned glance.

What was going on with these two?

When the girls left with their bathing materials, Inu-Yasha immediately leapt into a tree and ignored Miroku's attempts to engage him in conversation. But Sango had better luck at the hot spring.

"So Kikyo was nearby last night?" Sango was more concerned with finding out what was bothering her friend than she was with bathing. The two girls sat in water up to their shoulders, their dark hair floating along the surface of the water as they faced each other.

"It just hurts so much when he goes to her," Kagome admitted with tears in her eyes. "Especially when all she wants to do is take him to hell. How can he still love her when she wants to kill him?"

Sango gently touched her friend's shoulder to offer comfort. "Inu-Yasha is difficult to understand. But I think perhaps he believes that he deserves to die with her. He seems to feel responsible for her death, despite all we have learned of Naraku."

They were both quiet for a long time, the only sound coming from the wind in the trees and the gentle lapping of the water.

"Sango," Kagome said softly, "I've kept something from Inu-Yasha. Something about Kikyo." Kagome's eyes were wide and vulnerable, her face clearly showing her torn emotions about whether to share or keep her secret.

"What is it, Kagome?" Sango asked gently, not wanting to discourage the girl when it looked as if she might finally explain what was causing her so much pain. "You know that I will keep your secret if you wish, though if this is something that affects the safety of the group, you should perhaps tell Inu-Yasha."

Kagome looked down at the water, moving her hands slowly below the surface in an effort to gather her thoughts and courage. Without looking at Sango, she admitted quietly, "It doesn't affect the safety of the group. Just me."

"It affects your safety, Kagome?" Sango asked, suddenly much more concerned, now that a threat had been acknowledged. "What has happened?"

Kagome lifted her head and looked apologetically into Sango's eyes, for she felt guilty that she had kept such a secret from her friend. "Kikyo tried to kill me once."

Sango's eyes grew wide and worried. "Kikyo tried to kill you? When? Why have you not told Inu-Yasha?"

Kagome looked away again, this time out at the forest that surrounded them, and she sighed softly. "It was when she stole the jewel. She was trying to kill me ... but then Inu-Yasha showed up. Kikyo lied and said she'd only been taking the shards ... and when Inu-Yasha asked me what had happened ... I just felt like I would be tattling on her if I told him the truth."

"So did you lie to him?" Sango asked in surprise. Kagome was normally honest to a fault, and lying seemed very unlike her.

Kagome shook her head. "I didn't lie. I just ... didn't tell him. He never asked again."

Both girls were quiet in thought for a long moment, and then Kagome added very quietly, "And it just hurts so bad to know that he loves her, even after she tried to kill me."

"But he doesn't know, Kagome!" Sango insisted in the hanyou's defense.

Smiling sadly, Kagome replied, "I really don't think it would make any difference."




Later that evening, they had all finished dinner and were relaxing in the twilight when suddenly Shippo asked, "Kagome, are you really Kikyo's reincarnation?"

Everyone turned to stare at Shippo, their eyes wide and their faces showing varying expressions of shock. Inu-Yasha looked murderous, whereas Miroku looked mostly amused. Kagome and Sango both looked concerned about an imminent explosion from a certain hanyou.

"What?" the little fox demon asked defensively. "I'm just curious." He'd heard part of the girls' conversation at the hot spring ... luckily not enough to frighten him for Kagome's safety, but still enough to set his young mind racing with questions.

Growling a warning, Inu-Yasha extended his clawed hands toward Shippo, who yelped and leapt onto Kagome's shoulder for protection, sticking his tongue out at Inu-Yasha from his safe perch. Inu-Yasha turned his back grumpily.

While Kagome's slightly shaking hands pulled her sleeping bag and some food from her knapsack, Shippo asked more quietly, "If she's you, then how come you're so nice and she's so mean?"

But Inu-Yasha's sensitive ears caught the kit's words, and he whipped his head around to shoot the fox-child a dark glare. With a muttered curse, the hanyou strode from the clearing and into the forest, beyond his companions' sight, giving no indication of when he might return, or whether he planned to join them for dinner. For all Kagome knew, he could have leapt high into the trees and traveled miles away by now.

With a sigh, Kagome petted Shippo's head and chided gently, "You know how much it bothers him to hear anyone talk about Kikyo, Shippo. That wasn't very kind of you."

"But no one ever tells me anything, and it's all really confusing! I don't understand!" Shippo's big blue eyes were filling with tears.

Kagome pulled the kit into her lap and stroked his fur soothingly. At the mention of Kikyo, her own feelings had been thrown once again into turmoil, as well, though she hid it better than Inu-Yasha. But then, of course, she was only Kikyo's replacement, while Inu-Yasha was actually still in love with the miko.

Kagome's eyes were filled with sorrow as she watched the trees where Inu-Yasha had vanished only moments before. "I don't really understand it all, either, Shippo."


It was several minutes after Inu-Yasha's abrupt departure that Kagome noticed two soul skimmers twining between the trees in the near distance. Was that where Inu-Yasha had gone, to meet with Kikyo again? Was she even now drawing him down into hell?

Standing, Kagome said, "Sango, stay with Shippo? I'll be right back." Behind her, Sango opened her mouth as if to speak, but Kagome simply walked away toward the soul skimmers. Something seemed to be pulling at her, drawing her forward, compelling her to follow the strange insect-like demons she had come to dislike so much because of what they signified: Kikyo.

When her feet led her just beyond sight of the camp and her friends, Kagome saw Kikyo waiting among the trees, glowing faintly and looking both serene and sad, as always. And so beautiful. Even Kagome could see how lovely she was, though it sent a shamed pang of jealousy through her heart.

"Kikyo, where is Inu-Yasha?" Kagome asked determinedly, trying to hide her other emotions behind her very real concern for him.

But the miko only smiled very slightly and said coolly, "It is not Inu-Yasha whom I seek."

Kagome tilted her head in confusion, shifting her weight from one foot to the other. Not looking for Inu-Yasha? But then why would Kikyo be here?

"It is you," Kikyo explained as if to a small child. "I have come to this place seeking you ."

Kagome's eyes narrowed with suspicion. "Why?" she demanded. "Why are you looking for me? And where is Inu-Yasha? What have you done with him?" What is Kikyo hiding? Something isn't right here. Where is Inu-Yasha? Why would she be looking for me ? Something seriously strange is going on!

Shaking her elegant head slightly, sending her long black hair cascading into waves of shimmering movement, Kikyo replied impassively, "I have done nothing to the hanyou. I have come to speak with you, for it seems that you do not understand your own place in these events."

This caught Kagome's attention, and she peered at the other woman with a combination of curiosity and caution. "What do you mean ... 'my place in these events'?"

Kikyo beckoned gracefully, urging the girl closer to her before continuing. "I know that you are aware of Inu-Yasha's love for me. Yet you follow him about, perhaps in the hope that his heart shall alter its course. Why do you hurt yourself so?"

This was not what Kagome had been expecting to hear, and the anger left her in a rush, almost as if she had been punched in the stomach. Okay, so Kikyo was being mean ... but the reason it hurt so much was because she was sort of telling the truth, too. Kagome bit her lip and proudly tried not to let Kikyo see the pain her words had caused.

"He has sworn to protect me, to avenge me, and to remain by my side even in hell. He wished to spend his life with me, to raise children, to be my human husband, and was only prevented from making me his bride by the evil of Naraku. Were it not for Naraku, Inu-Yasha and I would have been long married and produced a family. This was what he wished, and what he now grieves."

Kagome could no longer meet Kikyo's eyes. Had the dead miko come here only to point out how very little Kagome meant to Inu-Yasha? She could have saved her breath, because Kagome was all too aware. Kikyo got avowals of eternal love ... and Kagome was lucky to get the occasional comment that she smelled good. And even then it was only when Inu-Yasha was delirious.

"There is little doubt," continued Kikyo, watching the girl carefully and noticing with grim satisfaction the weakening of her aura, "that if he were given the choice, Inu-Yasha would wish for me to be alive and human, instead of you. He would wish for me to be by his side, instead of you. If banishing you would allow him to be with me, I have little doubt that you would have been long ago discarded."

Kagome's head was lowered now, her hair hanging forward to hide her face as tears streamed freely from her eyes. Had Kikyo come only to taunt her? It was so cruel! Or is she going to try to kill me again? But why all the torture first? And why do I feel so ... sluggish? Almost like I can't move away. And why doesn't that bother me? It's like I'm in a dream. What's going on here?

"But we share the same soul, girl, and I feel your pain. Come, take my hand, for in many ways we are one." Kagome slowly lifted her head, surprised. After wounding her so effectively with her words, why would the miko ask such a thing?

Kikyo continued, her voice low and soothing, "It is not I who spurns you, after all, but Inu-Yasha himself. I am not your enemy, girl. Take my hand, and know my true heart."

Still feeling suspicious, Kagome hesitated, but her aura had been weakened by her pain, and she found herself helplessly moving toward Kikyo as if drawn by some force she could not resist. Her feet carried her forward almost of their own volition, and her eyes were dreamy and confused as they watched that beautiful, serene face. Soon, Kagome stood only inches away from the priestess.

"Take my hand, child," urged Kikyo. "Take my hand and know."

Kagome's hand lifted slowly from her side, extending out toward Kikyo's body. Kikyo too extended a graceful, delicate hand. And when their palms touched, a flash of light blinded them both, filling the forest as if it were day.

And in the center of that flash of light, Kagome screamed and collapsed to the ground.


Sango and Miroku arrived only seconds after the light flash, and were horrified to see Kagome lying senseless upon the ground with Kikyo looming over her.

"What did you do to her?" shouted Sango, pulling forward her boomerang with every intention of attacking the miko regardless of what danger Kikyo's powers might present. Kagome was Sango's friend, and no one had the right to hurt her! Inu-Yasha might have been so blinded as to let Kikyo endanger Kagome, but Sango felt no hesitation where the miko was concerned. She stood ready for battle.

Miroku ran to kneel at Kagome's side and was frightened to find her aura so weakened and disturbed. "I know not what has happened here this night," he spoke firmly, "but Lady Kagome is in need of care and we must take her away." Turning to glare up at Kikyo, he added threateningly, "If you make any effort to harm her further, or to impede us in our passage, we shall spare no effort in destroying you."

Kikyo watched them with strangely emotional eyes filled with panicked fear and confusion. But the others did not see, and if they had seen they would certainly not have understood.

"Leave this place, miko!" hissed Sango angrily, moving to join Miroku at the unconscious Kagome's side. "Leave and do not return unless you wish to die for a second time."

Miroku and Sango lifted Kagome between them and carried her back toward the campsite, ignoring the undead miko who lingered behind.

"You guys?" she whispered as they walked away. "What's going on?"

But when a wild-eyed Sango began to turn back with her boomerang raised, the soul skimmers returned of a sudden to rescue their mistress, twining themselves around her and lifting her into the air to remove her from danger.

And through the eyes of Kikyo, flying through the air in the grip of the soul skimmers, a bewildered Kagome watched her friends walk away below her ... carrying the person they called "Kagome."

The person who looked like her ... but wasn't.