Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha.
Universe: Post-Cannon
Summary: Not all wishes can come true, because no wish will ever turn out as you thought it would. Perhaps though, it will become far sweeter for it's hardships.
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Kagome learned the error or her wish. Not because of anything she herself could know, but because of where she had found herself in it’s wake. She had wished for the souls in the jewel to pass into the next world. Her thought had been that without the souls that were in the jewel it would vanish. How wrong she had been.
This world that she found herself in was odd. It held not orientation. There was no left, no right, no up, and no down. A kaleidoscope of colors surrounded her at all times. Each hue and shade colored by the powers that curled and whirled in the world around the jewel.
Kagome had worried at first. She’d fretted over the use of the jewel and the darkness that could corrupt it. Her fears had never come to be. The first power she came to recognize was Kaede’s. Her power was wizened, blank and present. It entered, keeping the wayward thoughts around it from tainting the relic. Kagome was thankful.
She had used all of her newfound power to give life and vitality back to the woman who held her in such regard. It was in this Kagome learned the true secret behind the jewel. It never gave more than it took. The power of the jewel was finite, just like every other power. It would run out eventually, if it didn’t replenish itself.
It was in this way that Kagome learned that all who held the jewel would come to meet their end because of it. She, herself, had found her end at it’s hands. Kikyou, and even the one to create it had found an end in this cursed thing.
Kagome had slowly allowed time to pass after she came to that realization. She didn’t count days, months, or even years. She counted time by the passing of aura’s across the jewel. After Kaede came Miroku. His power was calm and thoughtful. Kagome guarded Miroku and his family, drawing on his power to hide them from all things. Demons that thought to take the jewel for themselves met her own anger fueled purity. Kagome allowed no aura save Miroku’s near the jewel. At times she thought she could hear his words as he fed the jewel his power.
When Miroku’s power finally faded, she allowed the jewel to be seen. Kagome let her fury fuel the powers within the jewel. She lashed out at all beings that came near it, sure now that it was no longer the sought after relic of the lost miko. She allowed it to become a weapon against all things, a cursed relic to be locked away in the depths of a palace’s most guarded vaults.
The third of her days came with a power she’d thought long ago to have chased away. It was a wild, nearly chaotic aura that curled around the jewel. The power swirled and roused the darkest of powers within her endless home. The power stolen from Naraku and Magatsuhi while they fought over the jewel. This was the darkest of her times, for she never slept before. Now though, she curled her power around her gathering the darkness at the edge of her mind and sealed it all in.
Kagome didn’t wake from this slumber. She sealed the power away from her once love. Inuyasha was a long lived being, he would hold the jewel for centuries unless it was taken from him or he was killed. So she hid.
It wasn’t until she felt a shift that she stirred. The shift that woke her was something vibrant and violent. The power that coated the jewel, though she knew it to still be in the hanyou’s hands, was vicious and virulent. It swirled like a storm, a barely leashed violence that threatened to tear all things asunder. Yet, in its violence was a calm, a peace that pervaded its existence. Her awareness of this power forced her to reach out, to claim it for her own. Letting the fury of hate curl her power out, she had to force Inuyasha to relinquish the jewel.
---000---
Inuyasha hissed as he tossed the jewel from his chest. It had been silent in his time holding it. Miroku had always spoke of its seeming awareness, it ability to guard and protect. It never did so for him. In nearly a hundred years it was nothing more than a nightlight. “Fucking stone!”
Sesshoumaru glanced at the jewel on the ground, he wasn’t a fool. The power within the jewel reached out for him, but it didn’t wish to be used. He narrowed his eyes, he would see soon enough. It took him no more than one step to reach down and lift the jewel from the dirt. “I will take this instead.” Than he was gone.
---000---
Kagome basked in his power. Once she became aware of of just who now held the jewel she freely allowed his power it’s rein over the jewel. It never wavered, always present. In his power Kagome learned many things, and came to understand the half formed thoughts she’d developed in her time here.
Power, no matter where it came from, came with a cost.
The jewel would take its payment in time, or all at once. Her power allowed her the time to find her final place. His power, trained and fought for, brought him his station and obligation. These were things that she didn’t truly understand until Sesshoumaru.
Honor cannot be truly gained. It can be won, lost, and broken.
Kagome learned that Inuyasha didn’t fight to win his honor. Inuyasha believed with all of his might that the world owed him for the hardships of his childhood. Sesshoumaru won his honor, in the battle field and at the tables of allies. Miroku the con-man that he was, never out right lied and always blessed each home guarding it against any future intrusion.
Power is not simply a end, it is a continual conflict.
His power was the definition of this understanding. At all times his power seemed barely leashed on the edge of destruction, almost to say that a single slip would lay waste and destruction to all that would stand around him.
Kagome enjoyed her time in his care. He never called on the jewel and never let it free of his possession. This was the brightest of her days. She didn’t need to hide any of the power that the jewel held, there was no need. The rare occasion she could feel another presence around the jewel it faded as quickly as it appeared.
Not even Kagome could lie to herself, she basked in his presence. She took solace in his being and hoped that in time she may gain the control over the jewel that Midoriko once held. Kagome wished, if only for a few scant moments every century, to talk to him.
The longest of her days however, was not meant to last forever. Like all things, nothing last forever. She was shaken from her peaceful daze when she felt the sharp, nearly violent aura slither into the jewel. Kagome curled the power of the bobble around her once more, hiding it’s presence from her once love. She couldn’t go back.
“I won’t!”
---000---
Inuyasha wasn’t sure how long he’d left his brother to hold the jewel. The damn thing was a cursed relic. When he’d heard of it being housed beneath a great lords palace, sealed by monks and priests, he’d gone after it. When the jewel was in his possession again, he’d hoped that it would allow him to either become a full demon or at the very least bring Kagome back. “Give it back.” He flexed his fingers into fists, though he kept his fingers from the fang at his side.
Sesshoumaru stood quietly. His cold golden eyes bored into his half-sibling. He found no moment to speak as the jewel itself woke with a violent shudder. His hand snagging it from the knot of his sash, the thin silk cord it was tied to seeming to glow along with the stone.
Purity fed power whirled around the bobble. Each thread lashed out like a whip before they gathered close to the stone and began to take form.
“Stay away from my jewel!” Her voice took on a coral tone before it settled on a deeper timber of her once sweet tone. “There is nothing of the jewel for you! Nothing! Begone Inuyasha!” The glow faded from her skin. It left behind golden tanned skin and deep gray eyes, hair the color of the sky when there was no moon.
“Ka-” he stopped short when her power seared across his senses.
“Begone from my presence! You only wish power and nothing more. I won’t have you taint me with your greed!” Her lips curled back revealing dainty fangs, the only sign she was now more then she once was. When Inuyasha didn’t leave she allowed her power free, she allowed it to remove him.
Inuyasha hissed before lunging away from the rush of power. A scowl tore across his face before vanishing into the trees. He wouldn’t be back. There was no point.
Kagome calmed. She was sure in her own way that when her power finally settled she would be sealed once more in the jewel. Her short breaths broken by the presence she sensed behind her. “It’s good to see you again Sesshoumaru.” Kagome turned her head to smile at him. “I missed hearing other people’s voices.”
“And you Kagome.” He stared her down, the power in the jewel had already settled. Sesshoumaru could still feel her connection to the stone that once more found itself tied to his sash. He’d long forgone his armor, not for lack of conflict.
“You don’t wear your armor, why?”
“It is unnecessary for a being which no longer openly exists. We hide now, while humans grow in strength by the day.” He took a step closer. His hand brushed along her neck, “this is no mere specter.”
Kagome tipped her head to allow him this contact. She shivered as his soft skin brushed her neck. “You mean I don’t have to go back?” There was hope in her words. She would, if she had to.
“Not for now.”
Kagome’s smile beamed.
“Come, Kagome.” The name was spoken in syllables, as though he were weighing them upon his tongue and she trembled.
“Coming,” her steps not any more harried than his own as they faded into the surrounding trees.
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AN: So what do you think? I thought it was about time I started one of these since I'll be randomly posting things from now on. Not sure when, or even if, I'll be able get back onto a regular update schedule. As always please R&R, thank you.