InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Two Mikos ❯ Healing Hands ( Chapter 1 )

Disclaimer: Kikyo and Kagome are the creations of Rumiko Takahashi.

Healing Hands

Kikyo hated her, she knew. A clay pot made entirely of hate, living off stolen souls, hers included. But it was the small part of her soul that Kikyo held that made it possible for everything Kikyo did. You could almost blame her for Kikyo's actions. If she were a brave person, she would take back the missing part of her soul. But Kikyo had meant so much to Inu-Yasha.

Inu-Yasha.

She let Kikyo live with her stolen souls for the promise of death. Death and revenge. How very Kikyo-like of her.

"Are you done moping now, copy?"

Though she'd like to think she wasn't as bitter.

"I'm not moping. Just thinking."

"I have already taught you meditation."

"Hai, you have. Arigatou, Kikyo-sensei."

Had she always sounded so sad? She didn't think so.

"Why do you persist in using a bow as a weapon?"

Why did she use a bow? Kaede-baasan had given her one, told her that if her former incarnation was good with a bow, she should be too. Inu-Yasha didn't like her getting into his fights, so the bow let her stay back and still be helpful.

Who was she kidding? She was always losing her bow, breaking her bow, completely missing the target. It was the bow that had broken the Shikon no Tama in the first place.

"I don't know."

"I will not go into a fight with only a bow. What happens when the demon is right before you with his claws? A bow will not save you, will not protect you. You must learn to protect yourself."

{"Stay out of the way and let me protect you!"}

Letting him protect her had taught her nothing. Had gotten all of her friends killed because she was too weak to protect herself, much less them.

Lions drop their young down a cliff. Saving someone from getting hurt meant they never learned the lessons pain taught them.

"Hai, I must."

"Do you remember the power you felt in meditation? The deep pool of magic and energy that makes up your very essence?"

She had picked up on meditation quickly. It was something she seemed to have taught herself during her long baths. But never once during bath time had she thought to concentrate on her magic instead of her thoughts.

But she hadn't been surprised to find the pink wellspring of purification energy once she had been told what to look for. Deeper down inside the pool of magic was energy magenta in color, that wasn't entirely miko magic. She wasn't sure what it was, nor had Kikyo ever mentioned it. So Kagome left it alone.

"Hai."

"Instead of concentrating on using a bow to release your energy, concentrate on your hands."

Kagome tried. She did not pick it up as easily as she had meditation. But then, everything she knew about her powers was self-taught.

Hours later, Kikyo's impassive face showed none of the irritation Kagome could feel coming off of her. Briefly she wondered if Kikyo could feel her emotions. But there was nothing in her to feel. Nothing but endless pain and guilt.

Kikyo stopped in her digging for roots to look at Kagome. Wiping her knife off on her hakama, she knelt down beside Kagome and picked up her hand.

"Since this does not seem to work, I shall have to try something else." With no other word of warning, Kikyo slashed the knife across Kagome's open palm. "Your magic is in your blood. Since you obviously cannot concentrate on it within your body, perhaps you will pay more attention to it leaving your body." Kikyo stood and returned to her previous task of finding herbs.

Kagome didn't feel angry at Kikyo's actions. Any suffering she felt was rightly deserved. She had gotten all of her friends killed. She stared as the blood ran freely from the cut, down her hand, to drip to the ground.

'Your magic is in your blood.' She found the wellspring. She had never truly looked at it, but now she could see tiny rivulets of liquid power running from it out to elsewhere.

Silently, she prodded at the wellspring. Nothing happened. She turned her attention to the largest trickle of magic leaving it and prodded again. The deadening pain in her bleeding hand flared. Kagome was almost happy that she had figured something out.

Instead of poking at it again, she concentrated on more of a soft stroke, pushing the magic back into the pool, stopping its outward flow. The pain in her hand faded, and, as she continued the movement, disappeared entirely.

She looked at her hand. There was a trail of blood running down it, but the cut had disappeared without even a scar. She was a bit disappointed. The scar would have been a reminder that she had been foolish in ever thinking someone would always look out for her.

She had healed herself without anyone's help. Perhaps later she would learn to keep from receiving the pain in the first place. Then she would no longer get into so much trouble, and could truly be of help in fights.

Kneeling at her work, Kikyo's impassive face smiled a faint, soft smile at the faint use of magic she felt coming from her depressed student. The healing had begun.