Tuesday, October 12, 2004

inuyasha 17
"Kikyou," Kagome hissed out through clenched teeth, feeling something dangerous curl in the pit of her stomach when her eyes finally found the undead miko standing in the shadows of the trees.

Kikyou watched her expressionlessly from the treeline, another arrow notched in her bow and pointed at the girl standing before the well, "So it is only you."

Kagome clutched at her heart when a pulse went through her painfully, doubling her almost in half as she sat abruptly on the edge of the well. The breath punched out of her lungs in a rush, but she fought the sensation, forcing her eyes to lift to the cold woman walking towards her as though she had all the time in the world.

"W-what do you want, Kikyou?" she whispered, more afraid of the unexpected heavy throb overriding her own heartbeat than the miko. This was a sensation she'd never felt before, painful and terrifying as it tingled along her spine and began to spread through her blood.

Kikyou stopped a few feet away from her, the bow and arrow held with pointed down with deceptive innocence. Her eyes narrowing as she stared at her reincarnation speculatively, "What have you done to Inuyasha?"

Kagome's face filled with confusion, "What the hell are you talking about?"

"Don't play games with me, Kagome," her expression shifted subtly to angry disapproval. "I came her because I sensed Inuyasha's aura fighting with others. I did not feel you. What have you done to him?"

"You felt him? That's impossible," she shook her head, desperately trying to focus through the throbbing in her head. "Inuyasha's asleep. In the village. There hasn't been anyone here besides me at all."

Kikyou turned her face aside for a moment, her fingers tightening on her bow, "I do not know what you think to gain by lying to me. You know you cannot win."

'Oh shit,' Kagome's muscles tensed when she felt the air thicken with menace. 'She's going to try to kill me and no one will hear us until it's too late.'

"I have wasted enough time on you," she turned back to face Kagome, her eyes cold again as she pointed the arrow at the younger woman. "If Inuyasha is not here than I do not need to worry about interruptions. You should leave him and the Shikon-no-Tama to its rightful guardian."

"Kikyou..." Kagome pulled away, shaking her head in denial, the pulse intensifying with a vengeance that again stole her breath. "You... you can't possibly mean to kill me here..." her voice trailed off as her mind grew hazy, blood pounding loudly in her ears as her vision blurred.

"There should only be one of us," Kikyou responded in the same flat tone, her face blank as she regarded the obviously struggling girl. "I was here first and you cannot even control your own energy. You don't deserve to be the guardian of something so powerful."

Kagome didn't answer, her hand sliding up to her own throat as it tightened painfully. Whimpering quietly at the pain that throbbed through her body with every pulse of the tattoo, she forced herself to look up at the miko's unchanged face.

"Inuyasha will easily forget you," the barest hint of a smile touched her lips as she released the arrow.

**

Inuyasha's eyes snapped open with a start.

He could have sworn he heard Kagome's voice, echoing a scream in his head...

Panting, he slowly became aware of his surroundings, his eyes darting madly about the dark interior of Kaede's hut. "Just a dream," he whispered, wiping a hand over his face to brush away the fine layer of sweat and forcing his taut muscles to relax. "A fucking dream."

He'd fallen asleep... Why the hell had he fallen asleep? He didn't need to sleep like humans did, so why was he suddenly so damn tired? He was starting to sleep like Shippo, he thought with momentary disgust.

Inuyasha shook off the chill sweeping through him and turned his gaze towards Kagome's scent, but he froze the moment his gaze landed on Shippo. The kitsune was alone in her bed, wrapped in the shirt Kagome had been wearing earlier.

Kagome was nowhere to be seen.

Swearing so blackly it would have made the kit run in terror had he been awake, Inuyasha leapt to his feet. Anger and fear swept through him so quickly that the sensations nearly sent him to his knees, but he didn't have time to give into that weakness.

Even more disturbing that the odd lethargy he was experiencing, was that thought that he woke when he heard Kagome's scream in his mind.

Inuyasha's blood turned to ice in his veins.

He had to find her.

**

Kagome stared dumbly at arrow protruding from her left shoulder, dimly registering the pain that swamped her along with the pain in the back of her head from where it had struck the rim of the well. Just like when the youkai had grabbed her, it was like she was looking down from outside herself, seeing the quickly spreading stain as though it was someone else. Her ears were ringing, her own heartbeat pounding through her, joined with a second pulse from the tattoo completely out of sync with her own, but slamming even louder in her ears. Her vision blurred as she lifted her disbelieving gaze to the woman aiming a third arrow at her.

The twang rang clearly in the still night air, the arrow piercing Kagome's left side just below her ribcage. The force of the attack knocked her backwards even harder than before, her head cracking painfully against the well's edge as she felt the arrow penetrate through her flesh all the way to the wood at her back.

Kagome bit her lip to hold back a soft cry as a wave of dizzying pain coursed through her body. She slumped back, lifting her right hand tentatively to touch the smooth shaft of the arrow in her side. Her eyes were wide and glistening with unshed tears as she looked up at Kikyou's unchanged expression, her mind a chaotic jumble of disbelief, pain and fear. On the heels of the pained sensation, her chin lowered to her chest, eyes drifting closed as her limbs went numb.

Behind it all, however, a spark of rage came to life. Adrenaline poured through her veins, pushing aside the pain and the fear as the two heartbeats in her ears increased their speed with the rising strength of the most basic instinct.

Survival.

The blood had soaked her entire left side, dripping steadily onto the grass beneath her as the whispers dancing in the back of her head separated and gained volume until Kagome could clearly make them out. It was a new voice, this one most definitely male, low and rumbling, and mocking her. The whispers were taunting, insulting, blocking every other sound as he whispered to her mind that she was too weak to fight the undead woman.

What could she, a mere copy of the once great miko, hope to do against the restored original guardian of the Shikon-no-Tama? Kikyou was more powerful, more beautiful that Kagome could ever hope to be. Soon Kagome would be dead and Kikyou would claim her soul, and then she would reclaim Inuyasha...

Beneath the shielding curtain of her hair, the skin beneath Kagome's eyes darkened to smoky gray, her lips pulling back off her teeth in a feral snarl.

She should just give up. Kikyou deserved to reclaim her soul and return to her old life. The miko would absorb Kagome as though she had never existed, because Kagome would never be good enough to be the guardian of the Shikon jewel. She'd been the one to shatter it in the first place after all. She would never surpass Kikyou's power. And she would never be good enough for Inuyasha. Kagome was too weak.

Kikyou walked forward calmly, her eyes on the blood that had almost completely soaked through the girl's strange clothing, "You are not strong enough to beat me, Kagome. I am the true guardian of the Shikon jewel, and you? You are only an imitation."

Kagome shifted, welcoming the pain that clawed through her at the motion, using it to fuel the flames of rage sweeping through her, more potent and deadly than anything she'd ever felt before, "No..."

Kikyou paused, the barest hint of surprise touching her features before she reached out towards the crumpled girl. With as much blood as she'd lost, she should have at least been unconscious, she thought with a displeased frown.

Kagome's hand shot out to catch Kikyou's wrist in a bruising grip, wrenching the woman forward with unnatural strength and drawing a startled gasp from the miko. Head still bowed, Kagome gritted out in a cold, nearly silent voice, "I...am not...weak..."

Kikyou was thrown backwards with a violent blast of energy, her body slamming into a tree with bone-jarring force and sliding down to the ground. Dazed, she looked across the grove with very real alarm twisting her features as she gaped at the bloody girl.

A bizarre feeling of calm rushed through Kagome as she turned her attention to the arrows pinning her to the well. With her right hand, she grasped the arrow in her shoulder, ripping it out silently and dropping it to the ground. Then her hand moved down to the arrow in her side, her left rising so she could grip the shaft in both hands.

Clutching the smooth shaft tightly, she wrenched her body forward with a grunt, freeing the tip from the wood and snapping the end off in the same motion. Kagome reached behind her, gripping the blood-slick tip and pulling the arrow through her body that way before dropping the broken remains as she had the first.

Kikyou watched it all, her mouth slightly open in shock and trepidation at what she had just seen her reincarnation do. She regained her composure quickly, wrapping herself in her shroud of indifference as she shakily rose to her feet. The indifference melted away as silence stretched between them, Kagome kneeling motionless in the grass stained darkly with her life's blood. The miko stepped forward again, demanding angrily, "How are you doing this?"

"I...am... not weak," Kagome repeated softly, her voice deepening as her hands clenched, blood dripping steadily from the three wounds. To Kikyou's amazement, she felt a flare of power around the girl, choking the air with the pure strength and rage in it.

A faint curl of orange energy chased along the blood on the ground, followed closely by a second, this one deep violet. With every new drop of blood that struck the grass, a new streamer flared upwards, the glow alternating between the two vibrant colors and lighting Kagome's features from beneath. The light threw her features into stark relief in the darkness of the night, giving her a particularly demonic appearance.

Kikyou frowned when the foreign energy she'd sensed before swamped the grove, the energy that her first drawn her out minus the feel of Inuyasha. Unbelievably, the massive energy was completely obliterating the feel of Kagome's own power. Her dark eyes darted along the ground until she found where her bow had fallen and she hurried to collect it, her gaze continually returning to the now silent girl warily. With her weapon back in hand, Kikyou quickly strung a fourth arrow and aimed at Kagome's heart. Better to get it over with now, before whatever that power was could become stronger or worse, before Inuyasha came looking for his precious little replacement for her.

Kagome's hand came up almost mechanically, absently catching the arrow before it could pierce her chest.

Kikyou sucked in a breath sharply, her eyes narrowing as her own anger grew, "This is impossible. You are weak... How are you doing this?!"

Kagome turned the arrow this way and that, studying it as though it was a something she had never seen before, her eyes still hidden under her thick bangs. She clenched the fist holding the arrow, snapping it in half carelessly before opening her hand and dropping the splintered wood.

Eyes closed, Kagome slowly rolled her body upwards in a smooth, fluid motion that was completely at odds with her battered appearance. Kagome looked peaceful, more composed than Kikyou had ever seen her.

Kagome took up a casual stance while the undead miko stared, completely transfixed by the rather abrupt transformation in the young woman. And when Kagome's eyes opened, scarlet and glowing, Kikyou sucked in a breath sharply.

A smirk twisted Kagome's lips as she lifted her left hand to absently touch the wound at her shoulder, looking down at the blood coating her fingers when she pulled the hand away, "You know... this hurts a little, you bitch."

Kikyou strung another arrow, aiming carefully as she took a step back, "You... you have been possessed."

Kagome tilted her head to one side as she regarded the tightness in the other woman's expression, "Not quite..."

Kikyou shook her head, frowning in bemusement. The girl was vibrating with the same aura as a youkai, dangerous and violent as the orange and violet energy curled around her arms and legs sporadically, "I don't know what you have done to gain this power, Kagome, but I now have more reason than ever to destroy you."

Kagome stood calmly, her bloody fingers lightly tracing over the vial of Shikon fragments at her throat while her other hand hung loosely at her side, "I will not die because of you, Kikyou."

Kikyou's eyes narrowed and her lips compressed as she took aim, "You do not have a choice."

She threw back her head and laughed, the sound hollow as it echoed through the night air. Kagome held up both hands, the violet energy flaring brightly around her hands and up her forearms, "Is that the best you can do, Kikyou?"

"I have more than enough power to purify you," the miko replied with arrogant confidence.

"I'd love to see you try," Kagome's smile filled with wicked delight as she rushed forward to attack.

**

"Dammit, Kagome, what were you thinking?" Inuyasha raced through the woods, following the wavering scent along the path to the well. "If you're trying to sneak back to your time-"

Inuyasha's voice died in his throat and he snapped to an abrupt halt when a familiar and at the moment, completely unwelcome scent filled his senses. "Kikyou?!" he choked out, shaking his head as a frisson of fear streaked through him.

Kagome had screamed in his mind and now he could smell Kikyou?

"Please be okay, Kagome," he gritted his teeth and was prepared to race forward again when yet another scent reached him.

Blood. A lot of it.

"No..." Inuyasha went still, his hands fisting at his sides as his head dropped in denial of what his nose was telling him.

Kagome's blood.

Inuyasha let out a feral snarl and raced in the direction of that scent with a speed born of terrified desperation.

**

Kagome fist cracked into Kikyou's cheek, sending the girl crashing backwards yet again. Smiling in satisfaction, she wiped at her lips with the back of her hand to clear away the blood as Kikyou pushed herself to her feet. The undead miko stood dirty and disheveled across from her, her face grim and determined.

"I can't imagine why I was ever afraid of you," Kagome sighed softly, again tilting her head to one side to regard the woman in malicious amusement.

Kikyou had a hand pressed to her chest where Kagome had landed the worst punch, grimacing at the feel of cracked ribs beneath her palm. Whatever had hold of the girl was powerful, and it was feeding off her rage, making the girl unbalanced and unpredictable. In this state, Kagome was truly dangerous to her.

She'd barely acknowledged the blasts she'd taken of Kikyou's purifying magic, but then... the foreign magic was hiding so deeply inside Kagome that it was repelling Kikyou's attempts with the natural barrier the girl seemed to have around her soul. Kagome could purify just as Kikyou could herself, and as she was quickly discovering, the more magic she used on the raging girl, the stronger the foreign magic surrounding her grew.

Kagome's bloody clothes were ripped, her hair wild, and her wounds, old and new, still steadily dripping, but she stood completely unfazed across the grove. She set her fist on the least wounded of her hips, the tip of her tongue lightly touching her upper lip, "All these fucking years..." She shook her head in annoyance, her amused expression changed into one of disgust, "You're all talk, Kikyou."

Kikyou was starting to worry. Whenever Kagome came close, she felt a pulling sensation, as though the girl's very aura was draining her energy and it was beginning to show in her labored breathing. Kagome's rage was just burning hotter, the force of her attacks incredible, and for the first time in ages, Kikyou felt a shiver of fear.

"C'mon, bitch, you want me dead so badly?" Kagome slid down into crouch that was strangely reminiscent of Inuyasha preparing to spring. "I don't intend to make death easy for you this time around. Not with the shit you've put me through."

Kikyou strung her bow again, but Kagome was faster, leaping across the space that separated them to knock the weapon aside before grabbing he woman by the throat and lifting her up above her head. Kikyou's eyes closed, her hands clutching uselessly at Kagome's bloody arm as the girl held her aloft with inhuman strength.

That was exactly how Inuyasha found them.

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