InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Walk of Destiny ❯ Starlight, Star Bright ( Chapter 7 )

~ Disclaimer: Inuyasha à not mine

Choice of Destiny à mine

Walk of Destiny à mine

Walk of Destiny

By angelwings1

Edited by Kelli G

Using the post as leverage, Kagome swung her feet over the fence. The Kashi River glittered in the background. Her wild black mane trailed behind, unhindered by scarf or ribbon. With a childish smile, the woman dropped her weight onto her sandals. She pushed off immediately, refusing to slow down.

Just a quarter mile left to run.

Lips puckered as worn air rushed from the miko's round cheeks.

Staring at a ceiling for six days was all she had done. No one would allow her to leave Kaede's hut. Her injuries had reopened because she had journeyed to the stream the first night and stirred up a panic. They had gone so far as to seal the room with prayer scrolls.

There was no word, however.

Everyone was on his or her toes waiting for the second round with the demon lord to start. Their expectations, fortunately, began to flounder by day three. Whatever had causedSesshoumaru to come down so unexpectedly on the miko had also hidden him away.

But Kagome wasn't worried.

Inuyasha was always nearby. Their late night talk didn't erase the huge guilt that pressed against his heart, nor his fear of his brother's return. The hanyou spent most of his free time patrolling the edge of the village, but did come every so often to help pass the miko's prison time.

Hours stretched as they sat enjoying her last packets of ramen. They spoke of trivial things, avoiding all subjects floating around their late night talk. As always, the subject of their relationship was an uncomfortable one. Naturally, the rest of the family came regularly to join them between errands. Everyone was busy, even with the calm.

The wooden footbridge creaked merrily beneath her sandals. She still had an eighth of a mile left.

Kagome knew they were trying to keep her under close watch. No one knew if Sesshoumaru would return, and if he did Kagome had no chance of defending herself. Their motives for locking her up were understood, but by day three, cabin fever had set in.

The empty hours between visitors had dragged by, and soon each second was like an hour. Even simply practicing her fighting skills had overexerted the miko, sending her into a high fever on the third night. Twenty-four hours later her temperature had dropped, but she was firmly restricted to the mat.

Two days she watched the ceiling, slowly tormenting herself with counting the rings in the wood grain. After two hours of numb counting, she caved in and began to silently ponder over what should be done once she was feeling better.

When she was officially well, she would declare her decision to become Kaede's successor. Then her real training would begin. Unable to dedicate her life to school, Kagome decided she would dedicate herself to becoming a good priestess.

Kagome knelt respectfully in the prayer room, her family the only audience, as Kaede placed a wrinkled hand on the child's ebony head. The soft hint of incense sailed lazily through the room, a part in the ritual. The elder's good eye sparkled behind her down turned nose.

It was time to begin.

"Are you ready to dedicate your life to the priest hood?"Kaede's words were practiced, engraved from her lessons as a child.

Taking a deep breath, the girl surrendered. "Yes."

"Are you prepared to defend this village with your life?"

Kagome gave a slight nod, eyes closed. "Yes."

"Will you walk the path of taima, demon expulsion, only if proven necessary?"

"Yes."

"Will you follow the laws of the priestess?"

"Yes."

"To be helpful to others, and in the world at large, through deeds of service without thought of rewards?"

"Yes."

"To pray that the country may flourish and that other people may also live in peace and prosperity?"

"Yes."

"To be grateful for the blessings of life; and to be diligent in the observance of the rites, applying oneself to them with sincerity, brightness, and a pure heart?"

"Yes."

The words hung there for several heartbeats, their weight clinging to the girl.

"So be it," Kaede said firmly, her hand sweeping down the maiden's soft cheek and forcing Kagome to look at the elder. There was dedication within her young,faithful brown eyes. Kaede could not doubt the strength and maturity in the girl. Grinning, the old priestess crossed her arms behind her back.

"You shall be my student, Higurashi Kagome, and take my place as village priestess and leader upon my death. Stand and accept your position at my side."

Kagome smiled as a fuzzy sensation lifted the heavy load from her shoulders. Her entire body was light and airy as she went to standbeside her caretaker.

The village leader then turned to the small group of watchers, her regal authority respected bytheir attentive silence. "I charge you as the witnesses of this ritual. I have chosen you all specifically,to be her advisors in her time of need and her supporters; but remember, when she takes my place, her word is law, as is mine here. I was the one to choose her as my successor, and that is because I have faith in her, as you should when the day comes that you must follow her."

They each gave a small nod, their eyes alight with respect and joy.

Kaede eagerly hugged the taller miko. "In time the villagers will hear about this day and they, too, will support you, Kagome."

The time traveler's long arms clutched the elder to her, as tears threatened to escape. "I pray that I never fail you, or this village."

She didn't expect it to be easy, but she was eager to start. Kaede had always placed unwavering faith in her. Kagome, however, felt that Kaede's faithwas too blind. Kaede believed in her, but why? The elderly priestess appeared to know something, or at least suspect some hidden secret.

And Kagome wanted to know what.

So here she was, two weeks after she first woke, running through the fields of summer crops. The young miko spotted the finish line up ahead. Smiling broadly, the girl slowed to a stop under the God Tree. The June sun snuck through the branches,splattering the forest floor.

Panting, the woman collapsed to her knees and hands. After a few worn breaths, she pulled the weight off her palms and wrapped her fingers together in prayer. She closed her eyes and began the daily ritual that followed her run.

'Hello, again, God Tree. I come to ask once more for your guidance and your blessing.

'I have been through hard days, as you have probably seen, but I have been graced with strength and determination. Sadly, I am still afraid. What I ask of you now, dear God Tree, is to tell me if what I am doing is right. Give me some sign that all will be well.'

Biting her lip, Kagome fearfully opened one eye. A soft breeze slipped through the branches, shuffling the sunspots, and an unseen bird chirped nearby. Her other brown eye opened with a confused scowl.

Nothing.

Her shoulders dropped. 'Darn. I was hoping for something in writing. It would be a lot easier to understand.'

Laughing, she stood, her face radiating with mirth. Combing her black bangs with her fingers, the woman started towards the village,ready to begin her lessons.

The air was hot, evident of the seasons turning. Kagome squinted against the midday sun. Her grandmother's hut was a black tower against the light. The time traveler swallowed. Kaede planned a new lesson today, one that would challenge her to their very brink of sanity, so the elder said, and Kagome would be a liar if she said she wasn't nervous.

Her brown eyes darted to the left as she followed the curve in the dirt path. A pile of wooden planks was sprawled in the nearby tallgrass, a small stone well protruding from the mess. Singsong voices lifted over the sound of pounding metal. Rock columns poked out over the short forest, like remains from ancient history.

'History unfolding,' Kagome corrected herself.

Kagome picked up the pace, starting a trot along the unfinished brick fence. "Sango?"

'Might as well visit her before lunch.'

"Sango?" Kagome yelled louder, trying to talk over the hammers.

The woman in question walked out from under the main arch, the small cat demon at her heels. "Kagome?"

"Good day," the miko greeted, rolling out the ache in her shoulders. "How are you doing today?"

The huntress quickly brushed away the layer of dust clinging to her pink kimono. "I'm doing well. Actually,I was hoping you would come by before we headed to lunch."

Wrapping an arm around her sister's slim shoulders, the huntress immediately led the miko into her yard. The two quickly passed the workers and the musky construction. Kagome frownedas she noticed a wooden footpath leaving the back of the unfinished house. The short path ended at a large square foundation. A floor and twenty supporting beams were erected.

'They're putting up a second house.'

Kagome glanced at the woman who was crushing her. Sango's face was beaming even as she bit her lip. The huntress pulled her sister up to the second house, pushing her chest out proudly.

"I've decided something, Kagome." The huntress spoke with a little spring in her voice. The miko carefully studied her sister.

Sango's face was brilliant with her white teeth. "I am going to follow my father's trade and start a dojo."

Hot shivers ran up the miko's back as she whirled. "What?!"

Kagome grabbed Sango's arms, staring up into the twinkling face of the warrior.

"I'm doing it," the crazed fighter whispered. "I'm going to follow the way of my father. I'm going to teach the style of demon exterminators to others, just like he did."

'Follow in the steps of your family.'

A small twinge of jealousy flared in her chest, but the miko quickly stomped it out. It was time to be rejoicing with her friend, not festering over regrets. Kagome forced out a smile. "Congratulations."

"Thanks," the woman replied, staring at the fruit of her labors. The dojo floor, though sprayed with mud and grass, was a sleek redwood, holding a vibrant energy for the day it would one day find use.

"It's strange," Sango whispered in the hot day. "I never realized I wanted to follow in my father's steps."

The huntress let go of her sister and followed a patchwork of round stones leading into the backyard. Kagome trailed behind her small yellow cat, listening quietly. "I never considered opening a dojo, once my village was destroyed. I never actually considered anything, except gaining revenge and retrieving my brother. The demise of my village consumed my every thought, and I could not see past the storm clouds of their deaths. Now, with my goals accomplished and the sky clear, I realize I still have a life to live."

'As do I.'

Slowly walking through the thicket of green grass, the two maidens entered the home of a large cherry blossom tree. Kagomewonderedhow she had missed seeing the tree from the fence. The construction must have blocked her view of the velvety pink paradise. The rosy umbrella hung over them as a sanctuary from the dusty heat. Sango tenderly plucked a blossom from a low branch, showing her back to the miko. "I never considered the day after Naraku's death. All that mattered was defeating him; what else was I supposed to worry about?"

Kagome nodded silently. 'I never wanted to consider the day after I completed the jewel. I knew I had to face it in the end, but I didn't want to make a decision.'

"When I thought about following my father's legacy, I knew instantly it was what I wanted." She spoke calmly. She knew exactly what she wanted. It was so easy for her.

'I wish it was that way for me.'

"For so long, I've never dreamed of anything other than demon slaying, so when I thought about starting a dojo, I knew I was destined for it."

Kagome froze as the warmth was stolen from her blood. The small word, though innocently spoken, stole all movement from her limbs.'Destiny.'

'Is there actually something so certain? Destiny told me that true destiny is determined by the critical choices we make in our lives.'

Her body convulsed upon an unsaid command. 'Destiny said the critical choices we make. That means it is not a single choice that decides our future, but all of them combined. So my choice to be a priestess weighs just as heavily as my choice to stay in the Feudal Era . . . Oh, crap.'

The soundless velvet air drew the huntress's attention to the miko. Trained eyes studied the woman, watching the deep tension ripple through the miko's shoulders. Even with Kagome's decision made, the words were bringing a fight to her heart, which wasn't what the huntress wanted.

Sango slumped. 'Maybe its unfair of me to shove all of this on her.'

Kagome blinked awake, realizing she was caught. "Please continue."

The new vigor was forced, but it rested Sango's worry, allowing her to speak again. "Not to mention that starting the dojo allows me to stay close to Kohaku."

'He needs that.'

"Even before I can consider myself a teacher,I need to remember I'm a sister first."

It was more of a statement and less of a reminder. Kagome nodded. "He's been shaken since Naraku died."

Sango fell heavily next to her friend. "I don't know what else to do, but stand by him. He won't touch his sickle, and training won't happen until he believes again that he deserves to be an exterminator."

Picking up her cat, Sango willed back her tears. "I don't know what else to do. Each day I pray that his guilt will release him, and plead with him to speak to me, but he barricades himself with invisible walls. I try and try to tear them away, but he only burrows deeper, away from my reach."

Kilala wiggled out of the fighter's arms and settled onto her shoulders.

Kagome sighed wearily. "All you can do is wait. I know it's cruel, even torturous, to say, but you can only do so much. He will live with this for years and no simple words will relieve his guilt. Even if we can forgive him, Kohaku cannot forgive himself. He needs to see, and believe, that he was not responsible."

"But how?" Sango pleaded, showing empty hands. "I don't know how to show him when he is blind to me."

She didn't know what to do. Even though she was past twenty, she didn't have all the answers. It frightened her.

Years ago, whenever she hadn't known the answer, she had gone to her father. Of course, she had been five then, and had thought he would always be there to answer the questions she could not.

Now she could only grab at the wind.

Kagome swallowed her sister into a hug, tucking the huntress under her chin. "Do what you can. Tell him, in all honesty, why you don't blame him."

Cold tears seeped through the layers of robes, sending a shiver through the priestess. "From what I know about little brothers, I know they look up to their sisters. He'll listen. He's had faith in what you said before. Maybe, just maybe, he'll see what you see."

Burrowing deeper into fiber walls, Sango wished she could once again feel the security of her father's arms and hear his strong voice whisper that everything would be all right.

Sango pressed her face into the time traveler's neck. "Are you sure, Kagome?"

The miko paused. 'Am I sure?'

She didn't want to give the wrong answer, especially when Sango was so desperate for one. What if she was wrong?

'What if I'm right?'

There was a sniffle. "Kagome?"

'Do you believe you're right?'

Kagome took a deep breath. "I'm sure, Sango."

The warrior's vice grip went slack, and Sango inhaled deeply. "Thank you."

Pulling her sister back to show an encouraging smile, Kagome got to her feet. "Now why don't we head over to Kaede's hut? Everyone is probably waiting on us, or worse, eating our share."

Sango bashfully rubbed her cheeks, slightly ashamed of how she had broken down. "I'm sorry."

The miko shook her head. "Don't apologize. I probably would have done the same thing. You can't hold that much in for long."

The huntress gave a wry look. "Really?"

She couldn't hold back the quiet laugh. "Definitely."

Able to forget their troubles again, the two maidens headed out of the yard, smiles warm and wide on their young faces. Walking down the main road towards the hillside's stairway, they eagerly hurried to their daily meeting. It had become tradition to eat lunch together, as a family. No one had actually asked for everyone to sit and eat together, but still, each of them had shown up at the elder's home, expecting it. They had eaten as a group for the last four years. They weren't about to quit any time soon.

"You never speak about your father, Kagome," the huntress suddenly asked out of the blue. "Why is that?"

'Father . . .'

Kagome started up the stone steps without slowing down. The memory of finding his yellowed picture in the attic crossed her mind. She had been six and had stared at his clean-cut face, wondering who he was to be hugging her mother.

'Where do I begin?'

Ignoring the dull pang that remembering brought, the miko spoke easilyabout the man she never knew. "I never met my father. My mother says he was with us until I was three, but I don't remember. I only know his face from a picture hiding in my mother's desk."

Sango watched her sister carefully, concerned this was a bad subject to talk about. However, the miko showed no sign of discomfort as she continued. "My mother doesn't really talk about it, but she said he died shortly after my third birthday. Never said how, but claimed it was due to his job. I think he was part of the military."

Kilala meowed sweetly in her ear as the huntress scowled. "She never told you."

"It's hard for her," the girl replied feebly. "My parents were deeply in love, and losing him was hard, as my grandfather told me. She was not the same for a long time, especially when she realized she was pregnant weeks after his death. I can barely remember her happy back then. Grandfather said the day Souta was born, something clicked inside her heart, and suddenly she was able to smile again. From there, she dedicated her life to us, calling us her 'stars in the night'."

"You're my little stars. Whenever I become sad, for any reason, I think of you and your brother, and suddenly I can smile. It's just like the stars in the sky. Everything is so dark at night, but there they are, twinkling, bright and beautiful, untouched by the blackness surrounding them. It's like someone's holding them out to us so we won't feel so alone and afraid in the dark."

Kagome walked over the final step, and stood in the open yard. "I wish I had met him. I used to grow angry when my mom wouldn't tell me about him. I would yell at her, saying 'How can I live without knowing my father?'"

Out in the middle of the bare courtyard, it felt as if she stood on a pedestal, naked for the world to see. Kagome wrapped her robes tighter around her. "It took me a couple of years, but I realized I could live without knowing. On my mom's eighth wedding anniversary she locked herself in her room. I listened to her cry for hours. I don't remember where my grandfather or Souta were, but it was just mom and I at home. I listened through the door as she talked to him. I had trouble understanding her at some points, but she was telling him how much she missed him and wished he were there. She even thanked him for leaving two stars for her to cherish, and prayed that we would bear with her silence. It wasn't time to tell us about him. We would know one day, when she thought it was right."

Kagome grinned weakly at her sibling, and glanced back at the ground. "Parents have a strange way of knowing what's best, and we children always believe they're wrong, but that night I would have done anything to stop her from crying. So, I decided I would never ask about my father again, and I have kept to my word. Even though now I will never know my father, it no longer seems important."

She stared into the fighter's eyes. Every time she told the story of her father, she got the regular apologetic pity look. This surely would be no different.

The warrior couldn't believe the miko could brush off her father so easily. Kagome lived off of the bonds of friendship and family. It wasn't normal for the miko to just let such an important person slip from her life.

But what could you say? The priestess stood tall and rigid, eyes pointedly waiting for the warrior's reaction. Sango shifted to her other foot.

Wouldn't she have done the same thing, if she had been in her place? Sango had at least known her mother before the woman had died at a demon's hand.

When Kagome got no response, the miko gave up on waiting and headed towards the front door. The easy dismissal rattled the huntress.

'She just wants to let it go. I guess it would be hard to talk about, but still . . .'

Immediately the warrior trotted after her sister, tossing aside the awkward situation. Maybe it was best to let it go for now.

"Hello, everyone!" Kagome greeted merrily as she entered the main room, already forgetting their talk. She needed to forget about him, or she wouldn't be strong enough to keep going.

Entering together, the two girls couldn't hold back the warm lift in their hearts.

"Kagome! Sango!" Shippo welcomed them excitedly, a large bowl of stew juggled in his lap. Inuyasha's face was hidden behind his own mangled dinner. Miroku, Kohaku, and Kaede sat nearby, their meals already half done.

"Ye are a bit late today, ladies," the elder remarked as she shoveled out a couple more dinners. "What kept ye?"

Accepting the delicious-smelling bowls, the two girls settled down in their regular spots, between the monk and the hanyou. Kagome stirred her meal eagerly. "We were just talking and lost track of the time."

As usual, Shippo scurried over into his foster-mother's lap, mirroring the image of Sango and Kilala next to them. Without breaking away from her meal, the miko looped her elbow around the kit. However, when she tried to spoon herself a mouthful of stew, her arm came up short. Kagome easily traded hands, but her eyes stayed on the little fox. 'He's getting bigger.'

Polishing off his own helping of stew, Shippo turned up his face to see his mother. "Kagome, guess what I found out?"

"What, Shippo?" the miko replied between mouthfuls.

"I ran across some tracks in the forest," the little fox chattered. "The demons are migrating again."

The hanyou automatically jerked, his ears twitching. "What did you say, Shippo?"

Everyone pulled his or her faces from their dinners. If something could pull Inuyasha away from his meal so suddenly, then it usually meant it was important. Shippo smiled broadly, enjoying the attention. "I found tracks in your forest. A large group of demons are heading northeast, and not just one kind of demon. There were at least a dozen different tracks."

Inuyasha's generic frown sunk further.

"That's not right," the hanyou mumbled. "They don't migrate at this time of the year. Are you sure about this, Shippo?"

The kit jutted out his lip, annoyed that they would even doubt him. "Of course. Most of them I recognized from what my dad taught me. They were fresh, too. Couldn't have been a few hours old."

"Where?"

"Near the west end of the village, on the edge of the forest." Shippo pointed to emphasize. "Didn't you see the demons earlier when you were scouting? There were quite a large number of tracks."

Inuyasha shook his head. "I didn't go by there earlier. This morning I was on the opposite end, by the river."

Kagome's hand froze; the spoon was halfway in her open mouth. 'The river . . . this morning . . .'

She rolled her eyes as she swallowed the mouthful forcefully. 'I told him I was healed up, but he's still been following me around, keeping an eye on me. I'm not a glass doll, darn it! Mind, my hands are still sore, but my palms are healed.'

Glancing up, she caught the hanyou staring at her. Inuyasha flustered and quickly turned his head. Kagome smiled. 'Well, it is darn cute of him.'

Miroku crossed his arms. "Now that you mention it, I heard word of the demons moving about back at home."

"Back home?" Sango asked while sharing a bit of stew with Kilala

The monk nodded. "I've been keeping in contact with my caretaker and Hachi, discussing a few things. Anyways, the carrier mentioned the demons were coming out more often. Then in the letter, Mushin explained that the hills are getting restless. The stronger demons have been appearing. None of the truly dangerous demons have been seen, but still, it's made a few villages concerned."

Kagome frowned. "Sesshoumaru attacks me, and now we've got demons getting riled up. Maybe it's time we looked into this."

"But where would we start?" Sango commented wearily. "We're dealing with demons here, and where Miroku lives. There is a lot of distance between the two areas. Plus one of the Blood Four Lords is acting strange. I think there's something really big brewing."

"I agree," Kaede replied in her familiar wisdom. "Demons aren't easily disrupted. I sense darkness on the edge of this."

Kagome leaned back. 'Sesshoumaru came after me. Could I somehow be connected to all this? Could my staying in the past throw off some sort of order in the Feudal Era?'

"But I do believe this adventure will come to us," the elder priestess continued quietly. "Ye all have been traveling for years. It's time ye all set down roots and began your lives. Ye cannot believe ye alone can change the world. Ye have lives to live. Do not run at the smallest whiff of foul odor."

The young audience glanced at each other, the heavy words sinking in. Four years of defending people had gotten them seeking out trouble. What if it was nothing?

What if it was everything?

Every shadow slithered along the ground, following the two red and white figures. The sun rolled behind the trees, drawing out the night. She wasn't worried though; their lessons were always at dusk.

However, tonight was growing stretched, tightening with the seconds ticking away.

Hiking through the gold wilderness, the time traveler cowardly wanted to run. The heaviness of the air came from more than the heat. Lying at the end of the path was a hidden mystery of her destiny. The thought made her skin crawl.

A brutal wind blew down against them, as if speaking some omen of their destination. Kagome fought to tame her hair in a white ribbon as the blaring air flung her mane into an angry tangle.

'I've spent the last week learning about herbs, prayer rituals, medicine, history, and nursing methods. You would think being from the future that I would know enough to skip some of the lessons she taught me. I was a history major with a minor in nursing, after all. I know so much that the Feudal Era doesn't; yet I still have to sit and learn everything they know.

'I don't have the luxury of a hospital or the convenience of a drugstore. I can't even tell how high someone's temperature is without a thermometer!

'I have to sit and learn how to live in the past. How do you heal an infected wound without penicillin? It's harder than I thought to live in the past, even with the knowledge I have.'

"Here is a good spot," Kaede spoke through the blur of wind. "We should get started before it gets dark."

The miko glanced over the scene, a small, empty space between the trees. There was a spotlight of golden spray spread out over the short floor.

It was a Kodak spot.

Kagome nodded obediently and sat in the grass, crossing her legs in the usual Indian style. 'I wonder what Kaede could possibly teach me that could be so revolutionary to my destiny.'

"We shall begin a new lesson today," the old woman began, arms heldregally behind her back as she stood over her student. "Ye have learned a great deal of history from your time, and a wide range of medicine from years of fighting. I've taught ye much of the advance teachings in herbs and nursing methods this last week, but I have yet to teach you about the abilities of a miko.'

Kagome scratched an invisible itch on her leg. 'She makes it sound like the world is going to end.'

The elder stared at the yellow sky, quietly drawing out the suspense with annoying length. With the sun glancing off the elder's face, a halo surrounded the village leader. Kagome stared up, feeling small at the old woman's feet.

"Now ye understand mikos are women with powerful abilities. Some would call it magic, but it is far from it, my child." She looked dead into the girl's eyes.

'Why does it feel like she's telling me some dark secret?'

"I want ye to understand how deep this decision is," Kaede continued, her voice strangely quiet. "Becoming a miko was never a choice, Kagome. It was a fulfillment of destiny."

Goosebumps dotted every inch of Kagome's body at the mere word. "What do you mean exactly, Kaede?"

Kagome waited as the elder stared softly at her. "Mikos are born with their powers; they never come into them. Some believe that mikos are born from an ancestral line, that they get their powers from their families, per se`, but there have been a few whose parents lacked such.

"They are born at random, some beneath holy families, but they were all born to be priestesses. What each girl did with their abilities was a choice they made, and determined the strength of their powers."

The student frowned. "Determined how?"

Kaede reached into her robe and pulled out a worn scroll. "I have spent my life training myself to be a miko. Most priestesses train under a mature miko. I was Kikyo's student. When my sister passed away I was forced to continue my training alone, with my own weak skills. I was too young to take control of the village according to Kikyo's wishes, so I left to seek out council from other mikos. None were willing to take me as their apprentice, however. Most of the women I met were either not prepared for a student or already had one. So, I was sent away, with only some worn scrolls as my teachers."

Her wrinkled hand stretched out to the time traveler, offering the battered wooden cylinder. "Thisis one of my journals from when I was in the mountains, training."

Kagome slowly reached for the item, sensing the enormity that lay within its wraps. Her fingers wrapped around the cold wood. Pulling her feet underneath her to kneel, the youth stared at the item in her two hands.

Carefully unrolling the scrolls, her brown eyes trailed over the ancient Japanese writing:

'Why was Kikyo so powerful? I have spent years traveling away from the village, and found many mikos that held a weaker aura than my sister. But why? What makes a miko powerful?

'What made the miko with the Shikon Jewel so powerful? What allowed her to create a jewel with such strength?

'Mikos are predestined, my sister said. Is their level of strength also predetermined? I don't believe that. I have slowly been growing in my powers, but I was not always here, nor was Kikyo so powerful when she was my age.'

Kagome glanced up at the old woman. She was staring at the ground, remembering. Again the girl turned back to the black ink's story.

'The Jewel of Four Souls…the heart of the most powerful miko to ever walk the earth, Midoriko. Her powers were transferred into the jewel as it left her body. If anyone obtains a portion of the Shikon Jewel, they are given a surge of her strength. But for one to use the true strength of the jewel they must have Arami Tama [Courage], Nikimi Tama [Friendship], Fushigi Tama [Wisdom], and Sakimi Tama [Love]. 'Could this be what brings a miko's strength-the purity in friendship, courage, wisdom, and love? My sister was extremely wise, held an unbreakable courage, and had deep friendships with the people of the village. But why was she weaker than Midoriko? Was it because she loved a hanyou? A demon? Could her tainted love have weakened her holy strength?'

Kagome covered her sore heart as she thought about him with Kikyo. 'Could loving a demon be wrong? No! It can't be that way! I love him and the jewel worked when I used it…didn't it?'

'If someone does not possess these qualities, the jewel rejects the user and brings them to a horrible end. Could her death be a result of her lack in purity?

'Did she stray from the path of miko when she fell for a hanyou? Is that why she feared their relationship? Because she was straying from the true path?'

'What does this mean?!' Kagome recoiled from the journal. 'Inuyasha strengthens me! He doesn't make me weak!'

'All I know is that a miko's power comes from those four souls. To be a strong miko I must possess purity in life and these four tamas. I have the courage, the wisdom, and the friendship, but I lack in love. I have reached the late years of my life, and with my wrinkled body I can no longer offer such a love, thus I shall never reach the level of my sister. Nor will I ever be as strong as Midoriko.'

Kagome flung the scroll aside, pressing her palms against the dirt. 'I won't believe I am straying from the path of a miko by loving a demon.'

The elder's wrinkled handpicked up the scroll, letting it hang open. "I wrote this just fifteen years short of your arrival in the Feudal Era. I had returned two years before I had written this, and taken my position as the village's priestess. I was late in my years by the time I had returned to the village, but I had sharpened my abilities by that time."

Kagome stared at the ground, desperately wishing she could stop the down-spiraling motion of her heart. "This can't be true."

She flung up her eyes. "It can't!"

Kaede looked away, a weary sigh escaping her. "I do not know if it is or not."

"Then why did you show it to me?" the young womanwhimpered. "Why do you make me doubt the one thing I was so sure of?"

'Why can't I love him and be happy?'

The last shades of gold began to fade from the clearing, a dreadful end to the short lesson. Kaede faced her student, bitter at stealing away a bit of her happiness. "Ye were destined to be a miko, Kagome. I knew from the first day we met that ye would come to be a miko, and I was blessed to be your teacher. But I also knew ye were just as powerful, if not more so, than my sister, Kikyo, even with both of ye loving a demon."

Kaede clenched the frail paper. "I don't understand. A demon is considered to be impure, and should clash with the purity of a miko. Yet even with ye love for Inuyasha ye appear to be stronger than even I."

Kagome stared incredulously at her teacher. "What are you saying?"

"I wish I knew, child." The woman spoke uneasily. She was supposed to be the teacher. She was supposed to know the answer.

She looked into her student's begging eyes. "This is the last lesson I can give ye, Kagome. I have taught ye so little, but I believe this is all I must teach ye."

The time traveler shook her head. "Kaede, I don't understand. We've only been working together for a little over a week. I barely know anything about healing, leading, and rituals. I don't even understand how to use my miko powers!"

Tears dribbled shamefully down her flushed cheeks. She felt ultimately cheated at that moment, kneeling before the woman, pleading to have more than a broken sermon.

Walking stiffly, the elder placed her hand on the child's head, wanting so desperately to give everything she asked. "I am only an old woman, Kagome. I am no miracle teacher that explains everything to ye. I do not want ye to follow my path and believe it is right because I said so. I want ye to find your own path to being a good miko."

The child panicked, refusing to believe she was being left to fend for herself. She lunged out and grabbed the withdrawing hand of her teacher. "Surely there is more for you to tell me! This cannot be all you can teach me."

Kaede willfully hung back. "It is all I can teach ye, child."

"But why?" the girl whispered in defeat, her hand slipping off the elder's wrist. "Please, at least give me that."

'You just can't abandon me like this.'

The elder closed off the world as she spoke a silent prayer to anyone who might listen. Kagome patiently waited. She had nothing to rush her away at the moment. She was willing to wait a week if she knew she would get a proper answer.

Gradually, the elder knelt. Bringing herself to the level of her student, the priestess placed a light hand on the time traveler's shoulder. Kagome's fidgeting stopped instantly when she saw the old woman's gaze. Her eye was hazy, swollen with a sad emotion.

'She wants to tell me,' Kagome determined after several lengthy minutes. 'But why can't she?'

"Know I do this for your own good, child. Many mikos have followed the way of their teachers and have fallen from the true path of purity. I have given ye lessons of material things because these are things that ye need to know to live in this time period, but your walk as a miko is different. It is something only ye can do. I could teach the way I took, but ye will walk your own way regardless. Mikos are taught to expel demons, and there have been people who thought I was wrong for sheltering a hanyou. I did what I did because I believed in something outside of a miko's teaching. You cannot blindly believe in what someone tells ye. I want ye to believe not because it is I who speaks these things, but because you truly believe."

Kagome watched quietly as her grandmother bowed her head. "I want ye to learn the way I did, by your own means. I shall be your advisor and teacher when needed, but ye must decide the right path in the end."

'This isn't fair.'

"How am I to know the right path without you telling me which path to avoid?" the girl whispered.

She smiled. "Ye know all ye need to know, Kagome. Ye know that mikos hold a life of protecting others and walking a pure path while guiding others as well. Do what ye believe is right and have no regrets."

Kagome listened silently as her eyes grew wide. A slow revelation unfolded in her heart. "I understand, Kaede. I understand you want me to figure out for myself what is right without being given the answers. You want me to experience the truth, not be told it."

Kaede was proud that day as she stood over her first and only student, knowing in her heart she had given the greatest lesson she could ever teach. "I trust ye, Kagome. I know ye will see the wolf within the sheep."

'Else when you are gone, how will I ever find them on my own?'

Exchanging welcome smiles, the two got to their feet, the elder's joints protesting loudly. Kagome froze as she reached a stand. Kaede waited patiently when she noticed the abrupt helplessness in her student's face.

"What about my powers?" Kagome floundered. "Won't you show me how to yield them?"

"No," the elder shook her gray head. "Mikos can only learn that on their own. I can never explain to ye how to yield something ye alone can feel."

Kagome slumped and gave a small nod. 'I figured as much. It is something you teach yourself. No one told me how to shoot arrows filled with my purity. I just…did it.'

The woman pulled away from her grandchild. "Let us return now. The stars are already dotting the sky."

Kagome blinked and quickly looked up. The sky was only a light blue, but there were at least a dozen white specks glittering above their heads.

Bringing her eyes back down, the girl noticed her mentor was already walking away. She wanted to follow and go to her warm bed, but she felt a need to ask another question. "Kaede?"

The priestess stopped, and looked over her shoulder. "Yes, Kagome?"

"I must know one thing," she said."If you never meant to teach me more than rituals and medicine, why did you ever take me in as a student?"

Kaede turned back around, hiding her face. "I thought it was the right thing to do."

Even after hours of training and emotional stress, the young time traveler had no desire to sleep. Everyone else, minus a patrolling hanyou, had been tucked away in his or her dream worlds for the last two hours. Kagome had paced and had even begun to do target practice, but she couldn't force herself to the comfortable, waiting bed inside.

The seven embedded arrows glared back at the miko as she threw down her bow. 'You would think,after a day like this, that I would be the first one asleep!'

Kagome released a shaky growl and leaned against the back of Kaede's hut. "I just can't get my mind to clear."

Her lesson with Kaede had been repeating in her head since dinner. The tangled mystery of miko powers needed to be unraveled, but she didn't know where to start.

She strangled her hair. 'Need to empty my head.'

Kagome closed her eyes and exhaled slowly. "Empty skies, clear water, only the sound of a soft breeze passing by."

The miko snapped to attention. "I sound like a bad therapy CD."

Pushing away from the wall, the woman strode over to her bow. Lifting the weapon, she carefully twirled it like a baton. Stopping the spin to carefully study her bow, Kagome frowned. "Somehow my bow channels my powers into an arrow."

Next she looked at her hand. "I also was able to pull my powers directly into my hands."

She shook her head. "How, though? It's not like I told them to channel into my arrows or hands. Besides, when I attacked Lady Centipede, I never knew I had miko powers."

She stared back at the victim tree, scrutinizing the feathered arrows. "When I shot off these, my powers never lit up in them. They're dead."

She strode forward and gently tapped one of the spears. "There's a clue I'm missing here, somewhere."

Kagome hung her head. 'Okay, think carefully about this. Let's go back. Every time I'm in danger my powers automatically electrify, but somehow,when I was fighting Sesshoumaru the other day, I couldn't get my miko powers to work. Why?

'Did I hold back? Could my powers somehow be intertwined with my subconscious? Did I deep down not want to hurt Sesshoumaru?

'No. That just doesn't seem right. I tried to force out my powers, but they wouldn't listen like when Kikyo used hers. There's something I'm missing.'

Kagome crossed her arms. 'The Shikon Jewel was the embodiment of a miko's powers. It worked through the wishes of the possessor. Could all miko powers work the same way?

The thought was slightly far-fetched, mind you, but it made sense. Whenever she had fought against demons she had always silently desired to protect herself and others by killing the demon. Her powers had never failed, then. When other demons would use the jewel shards, their wishes would come true, as well. Demons wanted to be stronger, and through the possession of the jewel, their powers grew by at least five-fold.

Could it be so simple?

Could a wish be the key?

The jewel had worked for both good and evil wishes, and there had been powerful mikos both dark and pure.

'Were mikos graced with the power of wishes? Is that why the first mikos valued purity so strongly, because they possessed a power that held no end?'

What about when she had fought against Sesshoumaru? Why hadn't it worked then? She had tried to defend herself, but she wasn't even able to bring out a fraction of what she had. Maybe it had been because she had wished to die.

'I wished to die, so my powers didn't defend me. Could that be right?'

Naraku had wielded the Shikon to do his bidding.Kikyo used her powers to manipulate Inuyasha into her hands. Mikos and demons alike had used the power of mikos for their own selfish gains.

What was a wish?

A desire? A want?

It clicked just in the right places.

'Why would life grant us such a dangerous weapon? With the power of wishes anything could happen! Naraku surely proved what type of risk was involved.'

Wait.

'Naraku always thought the Shikon Jewel was most beautiful when it was filled with malice, but when Midoriko used her powers out of the good of her heart to protect people from demons, the jewel responded more powerfully than ever.

'Just like when I used it for Inuyasha's happiness.'

A true unselfish wish was the only way to use the miko powers properly. Selfish desires backfired. Use the powers for the wrong reason and a terrible end would follow.

Kikyo died when she tried to force Inuyasha to change human.

Naraku fell when he tried to rule over people.

Demons dropped left and right when they fought for their own gain.

Yet, she was here,alive and happy.

Gradually she raised her head, and looked up into the sky's vastness. Was that the answer?

'Mikos followed the path of purity and righteousness so they could properly use their powers. A miko's strength comes from the true virtues of her heart.'

She was so utterly small in the universe, a speck in a sky full of stars. Cold and alone, Kagome wrapped her arms around herself. "What now?"

Her words were spoken to no one. For surely there was no one to listen.

"What do I do now that I know?"

And yet she stood, expecting a response.

'Can I do this? Am I strong enough to bear the weight of this gift?'

She was a mortal girl, born with weak shoulders. The universe was not meant for her to carry, but standing there, she could sense the heaviness, the responsibility that lay in her powers.

She was alone and helpless. No one could share this burden.

Kagome sucked in a deep breath. 'God give me strength.'

Maybe she was onlyone priestess protecting a small village, but with all that was sparking around her...

Sesshoumaru…

The demons…

Destiny…

She could sense a new storm coming up behind her, waiting to tear her down. 'Destiny…Why did you ever come to me? Why am I so important?'

Suddenly, the hair on the back of her neck stood up. Someone was here, watching her. 'Destiny?'

Her eyes snapped onto the tall, white figure standing in the middle of the back yard. Her mouth went dry. She swallowed before gasping his name. "Sesshoumaru!"