Chapter One: Chance Meeting
“This world does not need two of us, Kagome. And I choose to live.”
Those words rang through Kagome’s head as she fell, a chunk from the edge of the cliff still clenched in her closed hand. Angry tears fell furiously from her tightly-shut eyes, floating upwards in a thin stream, following the wind. Oh how she wished she could fly too. Then perhaps she wouldn’t even be in this mess in the first place.
She knew the end was coming. It was so close that she could almost tangibly feel it. Her arms were braced firmly against her chest but she knew it was no use. The cliff was just too high; the river below too fierce with rapids and sharp rocks.
There was no way that she could survive this. She was just one simple human, after all. The young miko reflected on what had just occurred on that cliff. It wasn’t as if she wanted that to be one of her last thoughts but she couldn’t help it! Those words had implanted themselves so strongly in her mind.
- - - - -
Kagome sat underneath the shade of the many trees surrounding her in the clearing. Her arms were crossed across her chest and an unhappy frown was on her face. She lifted her head to survey the clearing, her mood worsening as the seconds ticked by.
There was her best friend, Sango, lying beside the houshi, Miroku, in the shade of another tree. The kitsune, Shippou, was also asleep; exhausted from all of the traveling they had been doing lately. It seemed like the search for the Shikon no Tama had become particularly important lately, and stubborn as he was, Inuyasha had stressed the significance in rushing to find the rest of the shards before it was too late.
This had, of course, resulted in the rest of them becoming much too tired to continue on. Exhaustion was not the reason, however, for their sudden break. To Inuyasha, his traveling companions on the brink of passing out was clearly not reason enough to stop. No, but once he caught sight of several Shinidamachuu flying through the sky he had demanded that they stop for a “break” as he had put it but they all knew that he was eager to go off in search of the resurrected miko, Kikyou.
The instant that they had found a suitable place to stop he had given the hasty excuse of “going for a walk” and disappeared. God, was that guy a self-centered jerk sometimes. He always acted on impulse, without much thought to what anyone else felt.
And thus here they were. Kagome, unable to sleep, had settled for brooding in silence and waiting none-too-eagerly for Inuyasha’s return. Who knew how long that would take though.
The miko released a heavy sigh, wanting nothing more than to just go home and take a real rest for once. She knew that Inuyasha would never allow her to leave at such an “important time” unfortunately. Honestly, her patience was really beginning to run thin. Even for someone as kind and pure-hearted as Kagome was capable of getting fed up and no matter what way she approached the subject, she was beginning to realize that the love and loyalty she felt for the hanyou was beginning to fade.
Her bitter thoughts were interrupted when she saw one of Kikyou’s soul collectors circle the clearing overhead. That was strange. She had presumed that Inuyasha had found his undead miko lover already and she knew that if that were the case, the soul collectors would not be acting as they were now.
Curiosity got the better of her as it circled several more times before moving slowly away from the clearing. Kagome got to her feet, realizing that it seemed to want her to follow. Her encounters with Kikyou never seemed to end well, as the girl made no effort to hide her utter contempt for her reincarnation.
This could only end badly, it seemed, but what if she really needed help? That had occurred in the past before and Kagome was not one to take chances. No matter how badly her past life had treated her, she was not one to leave an injured soul without doing all she could to help first.
She trudged through the forest, wincing internally as her ankles were scratched by the various plantlife scattered across the forest floor. Eventually she reached the end of the forest, where she found Kikyou waiting for her, a look of cold expectation on her face.
“So you came,” she said and Kagome simply nodded, a delicate frown forming on her face.
“What do you want, Kikyou?” she asked hesitantly, taking a few uneasy steps forward towards the other miko. She didn’t have time to react as Kikyou lifted her bow and fired an arrow at her. With a shocked gasp, Kagome stumbled backwards and fell to the ground as the arrow lodged itself into her shoulder.
Kikyou stepped forward, eyes narrowed in an icy glare as she looked down at her reincarnation, disdain clear on her face. “To eliminate an unnecessary existence.”
Kagome gritted her teeth as she pulled out the arrow. She winced at the sickening sight of her blood coating her hands. Forcing herself to her feet, she lifted her face to meet her past life’s cold glare with an angry one of her own.
“What is your problem?! I’ve never done anything wrong to you! In fact, all I’ve done is help you. I even saved your life! Why are you so desperate to get rid of me?” she said, clenching her hand over her shoulder wound to try and slow the bleeding. She was so busy trying to figure this whole situation out to notice that she was presently standing dangerously-close to the edge of the cliff.
The stoic miko shrugged. “As I stated, your existence is unnecessary. I am the original, and with you gone my soul can finally return to its proper owner,” she replied calmly, taking a step towards her reincarnation before continuing, “You are a mere hindrance to Inuyasha and I. It is time that you disappeared.”
Kagome gaped at the miko, appalled by her words. She really shouldn’t be surprised, though. Since the beginning she had been like this. That didn’t make her words any less infuriating.
“You and I are not the same person, Kikyou! I am Kagome, you hear me? Ka-go-me! You are not just ‘the original’ that can take away my soul as you see fit!” she retorted, voice rising several pitches as her anger grew. “And a hindrance? You must be joking! If I wasn’t here then you would still be dead!” Or at least, more so than she already was, being the walking mass of graveyard soil and clay that she was.
“Besides, you and I both know that you are the one that Inuyasha cares most about. Not me!” she ranted, eyes blazing with outrage. It hurt to admit it, but she knew that it was true. No matter how close they appeared to be, she never seemed to be good enough to stand up to the Kikyou in Inuyasha’s heart. That fact alone hurt ten times more than the wound she had received only moments ago.
The futuristic miko knew deep down that her words were not going to do her any good. Her past life was perhaps even more stubborn than herself when it came to sticking to her beliefs. Her arguments never seemed to even phase the other girl no matter how much truth there was to them and that was apparent now once again. Kikyou’s face showed that she was not impressed.
She raised her bow to the defenseless miko, preparing to fire again. “That is the key, Kagome,” Kikyou said, spitting out the girl’s name as though it were poison in her mouth, “You still hold a place in Inuyasha’s heart and that alone is reason enough for me to dispose of you. I will be the one to heal his heart. I will not allow you to take my place. Now prepare to die.”
Though she was prepared to end her reincarnation’s life with her own hands, apparently fate had different plans. Just as Kikyou was about to release her arrow, the rocks supporting the wounded miko’s weight gave out and crumbled beneath her feet.
Screaming, Kagome reached out, trying to grasp anything that could keep her alive. Her hands scrambled to hang onto the edge of the new cliffside. Kikyou loomed over her, eyes narrowed.
“I don’t understand what you’re saying, Kikyou! You don’t have to do this!” Kagome gasped, feeling her grip loosening against her will. The stoic beauty took a step forward and, without a trace of remorse in her eyes, unlatched her grip from the cliff.
With a cold smirk, she gave her last parting words. “This world does not need two of us, Kagome. And I choose to live.”
And then, Kagome was falling.
- - - - -
So here she was, free falling to her death. She could hear the rush of the river before she actually fell into it. Was this really it? Was this the end?
The frightened miko opened her eyes one last time to look up at the sky as she plummeted further and further away from it. Oh, how she was going to miss it. She closed her eyes as she felt the spraying of the rapids touch her skin. She was so close now.
Her only choice by now was to accept death as it came to her. So she closed her eyes and thought one last time about her friends and family.
She would miss them.
- - - - -
All was quiet except for the quiet rush of the slow-flowing river. The soft pitter-patter of a child’s feet against the sun-warmed rocks on the riverbank broke the silence suddenly as a young girl emerged from between several trees.
“Hm?” she looked curiously to the riverbank, realizing quickly that she was not alone. There was something there. What could it be? She crept closer cautiously, her curiosity getting the best of her. Could it be? It looked like a person!
As she got closer, she came to the realization that she recognized the motionless form. “Kagome-sama?” she whispered, kneeling next to the miko. They had met only several times before. She recalled that she was the traveling companion of Sesshoumaru-sama’s half-brother, Inuyasha.
Spotting the growing pool of blood underneath the girl, Rin’s eyes widened in shock and she jumped to her feet in an instant. She sprinted as fast as her child’s legs could carry her to the area where her group had stopped momentarily, screaming at the top of her lungs.
“Sesshoumaru-sama!” she shrieked, “Rin needs help!” In her panic she had reverted back to her childish speaking patterns. She was improving, but in moments such at these, she was quick to forget the lessons on speech etiquette. After not speaking for such a long time, her speech had been limited but now she was able to refer to herself in first person as was proper. This was not the time to worry about etiquette, however, and her main concern was of the possibly-dead miko she had found by the riverbank.
Said demon lord lifted his head, gaze flickering to the little girl for a second before he rose to his feet, eyes narrowing. “Cease your shrieking, Rin, and explain,” he said. Rin motioned for him to follow her and he reluctantly walked through the forest until they reached the river.
“Rin does not know if she is dead but there is a lot of blood,” the little girl gasped, pointing to Kagome urgently. The great daiyoukai looked past the human girl to the motionless form behind her and took several steps forward, expressionless.
“So it is the hanyou’s miko, hm?” he murmured, bending down slowly and pressing two clawed fingers against the girl’s wrist to check for a pulse before letting his eyes stray to her chest, which was moving ever so slightly up and down. Her pulse was very faint, but it was there.
“She is alive,” he said to the frantic Rin who had been prancing around in fits of nervousness until the good news sunk in.
“Are we going to take her with us, Sesshoumaru-sama? Can we? We can’t just let her die, right?” the girl said, eyeing the miko worriedly.
Sesshoumaru simply studied the miko’s form, checking for signs of how she could have possibly gotten there in the first place. Her entire body was soaked from head to toe so she must have fallen into the river at some point. There also appeared to be a wound on her left shoulder; from what, he could not tell without closer inspection. That, and she was covered in bruises, cuts, and scratches all over.
All in all, she would survive.
“Get her out of the water if you wish for her to live,” he said, looking down at the girl with only mild interest. Rin nodded and proceeded to pull the girl out of the river, using all of the strength she could muster. Luckily, the sun was still high in the sky so she would be dry in no time.
“Rin will go look for something to stop the bleeding!” the little girl announced before disappearing into the forest.
With a sigh, the great demon lord sat on the ground beside the unconscious girl, eyes narrowed in suspicion. For now, he would allow her to live. Several questions arose in his inquisitive mind as he sat there, waiting for Rin’s return. One question, in particular stuck out, and he found himself asking them aloud, though he knew he would get no immediate response:
“Now… how did you come to be here, little miko?”