The Other Half by ForestKarma
Chapter One
Kagome looked around her uncertainly. The feeling that she was being watched simply wouldn't leave her. But it was impossible, wasn't it... No one knew where she was going. No one knew that she had been contacted by the most feared assassin the world had ever known. No one knew about their bond, their relationship...
Kagome looked around again, but the streets were utterly silent. It was as if the whole world was asleep. This thought chilled her, but she did not know why. She continued padding softly along the alleyway toward the park. It wasn't much further, but the wind was starting to pick up, and she pulled her jacket more tightly around her small frame.
The streetlights cast portions of the street into the light, but they looked strangely distorted. Her instinct was to shy away from them, but to anyone who did happen to be watching, this would look suspicious. She knew that no one was watching, but it was a precosion. Just in case...
~*~*~*~
Naraku's eyes followed the young woman. She walked through the streetlights, giving him a view of her face, althought he already knew what she looked like. Her face fascinated him, it always had. It was a carbon copy of another face...
This girl, Kagome, was going to meet the assasin. He knew this, and it made his blood run cold and hot at the same time. The pair of them fascinated him. The assasin... Cold, deadly, beautiful... Able to kill with so much ease and with no feeling of guilt. Kagome, the teacher, the friend... Kind, gentle, warm, loving... beautiful... Seemingly unable to cause harm and full of guilt at the actions of the assasin... Her other half.
The strangest part of it all was that he saw a little of Kagome in the assasin and a little of the assasin in Kagome. It was hard to spot, but he saw the flicker of warmth in the assasin's eyes on occasion. And Kagome... He could see the flicker in her eyes. She was probably capable of more than she let on to anyone, even herself.
This whole melodrama was something he watched with intense interest. Something he had involved himself in. It was like a great play in which he was an actor and also the audience.
The other actors were Kagome... The assasin... And, of course, the FBI agent. Naraku wasn't entirely sure why he had decided to let the agent play a part in all of this, but he knew that he belonged. Naraku himself had called him to inform him of the meeting. In all truth, Naraku could not stand the man and loathed him with all of his being. But still, he belonged there, for he was a part of the unfolding tale and had been a part from the beginning.
Naraku continued to creep carefully along the rooftops, tailing the worried girl.
For him, this had begun many, many years ago, when he still used that terrible name that his terrible parents had given to him. Onigumo... The boy who had been tormented for so long by the world around him. The boy who would have died of sadness and the wounds inflicted on him by others if it were not for the care of one girl...
But he was Onigumo no longer. He had grown into someone else, or rather, something. Naraku. The puppetmaster, the spider lord, the observer and the hidden actor...
He had reappeared in the story of the two haves when he had seen Kagome Higurashi on the street and thought that she was the woman he had known so long ago. He had followed her home and discovered that she was not in fact the woman he had known, but she was inextricably bound to that woman. He had discovered their bond and it fascinated him...
The agent, Kagome, the assasin... Naraku suddenly wondered why he thought of her that way. Why not just use her name? He smiled as he whispered it very softly into the darkness.
~*~*~*~
Sesshoumaru crept quitely through the streets, following the girl ahead of him. He had been at the office, having a rather normal day, when the call had come... The man's voice had been very, very strange, clearly through a filter so it could not be recognized. Is this FBI special agent Sesshoumaru Ikashi?
Yes, he had answered.
In that case, I wish to inform you that Kagome Higurashi is meeting the assasin tonight at Hiknos Park. Much as I despise you, you have a right to be there.
Who are you and how do you know this? he had asked.
A cold laugh. I am simply one who is fascinated by the two halves...
Strange indeed, but apparently correct. Kagome Higurashi had left her home at one fourty two in the morning and had proceeded to walk down the street toward Hiknos Park.
Sesshoumaru was thrilled that he was going to see them meet after so long. He really wanted all this to be over, and he detested the assasin. Kagome, however, was a different story. Something about her pulled at him, made him curious. He hated that feeling, but he knew he could not erase it.
However, he knew that Kagome was, in a way, an accomplice. Sesshoumaru knew what few others knew, and what Kagome herself thought to be information shared by only her and the assasin. He knew about Kagome's relationship to that bitch... Her relationship to the assasin who had killed so many.
Maybe, however, he could cover it up. The assasin could go to jail, or die (He considered this a much better option), and then Kagome would be free of her. Then, perhaps, he could finally take what the assasin's influence had always denied him. Kagome....
~*~*~*~
Kagome stepped quietly into the park and saw the benches she had seen so many times before. It was strange, really: She loved walking through this park, but now it filled her with a deep sense of dread and forboding. She didn't want to be here, but she could no more refuse to come than she could stop the world from turning.
She stood facing east, her sign a clear indication to the woman she knew was watching. A sign that she had felt the creeping fingers of a stalker in her soul but that there was no reason to suspect it was anything more than fear.
Kagome stood like that for five minutes and then turned toward the trees at the edge of this part of the park. From behind the largest one she saw her appear, like an apparition, long, dark hair unmoved by the increasing winds. The woman who looked so much like her. Her other half...
"Kikyo," she said softly.
The woman stepped towards her, her usually cold face lit with a strangely warm smile. "Kagome."
Kagome stared at Kikyo. Her nightmare, her twin sister, her friend, her enemy, her other half.
The warmth in the smile touched Kagome, but she feared the woman standing before her. She feared Kikyo... She knew, of course, that her twin sister would never harm her, but the mere fact that she existed, and that she chose to do what she did, shook Kagome to the very core of her being. It frightened her so much that Kikyo could be warm sometimes, like her. Even more frightening was the fact that she could feel a little bit of Kikyo's icy soul within her own chest. She could see Kikyo in her own eyes...
Kagome looked down at the ground. "Kikyo, what do you want from me?"
"I wanted to tell you that in two weeks I will contact you again, and you will come with me."
Kagome's head snapped up, anger, confusion, and fear in her eyes. "What?! What are you talking about?"
"I'm saying that I need you, and you need me. You are in danger without me," Kikyo said calmly, but her smile had vanished. Being warm was very rarly natural for her, and Kikyo never acted any way except whatever way was natural.
"I'm in danger with you," Kagome protested, her voice on the edge of panic.
"Sister," Kikyo whispered, placing a hand on her shoulder. "Please, listen to me."
Kagome looked up at her sister like a lost child.
"Kagome, we should not be apart. I need you and you need me. You are my other half, and I will not let you be kept from me."
Kagome looked up at her in confusion for another moment... Kikyo was not acting like herself... Why would Kikyo suddenly want them together? Kagome's face suddenly began to harden. Where Kagome went was Kagome's choice alone. "Sister, you know I'm here if you ever decide to change, but I'm not going with you as you are now. Why do you suddenly want me to?"
"To protect you. There are two people who pose a threat to you."
"Who?"
"The first is Onigumo, or Naraku."
Kagome looked at her sister in confusion. "Who's that?"
"He is someone I helped long ago. Now, I fear, he has taken a strange interest in our matters and out meetings. I don't want him to have a chance to hurt you or take you away from me."
~*~*~*~
Naraku listened to the words. Her fear was well placed. He could not deny the strange desires he had to let Kagome know of his presense... To talk to her, to touch her. To hurt her? Maybe, maybe not.
Perhaps it would be prudent of him to take Kagome from Kikyo while he still could. He knew Kikyo could hide her so well that he would never find her. If he had Kagome, not only would she be with him, but Kikyo would seek him out, looking for her other half...
A plan began to swirl in the deep, dark recesses of his mind.
~*~*~*~
"Who's the other person?"
"Sesshoumaru Ikashi."
A strange expression came across Kagome's face. "The FBI agent who's looking for you?"
"Yes."
"Why do you think I'm in danger from him?"
"I fear he wants to take you away..."
Kagome stared, her face a mask of confusion. "That's absurd."
"Kagome, listen to me-" Suddenly she stopped speaking and turned sharply towards the trees. A small branch had cracked. "I must go, but I'll be back in two weeks. You're coming with me, Kagome."
"No," Kagome said firmly, her mind made up. "I'm not."
"Yes, you are. I'm not letting Naraku or Sesshoumaru take you."
"Listen to me, Kikyo-"
But Kikyo had turned and fled into the darkness.
Kagome sank to her knees, her mind a swirling mass of fear, confusion, and anger...
~*~*~*~
Sesshoumaru could not move. He was rooted to the spot. He had watched their meeting, waiting for the proper moment to make his presense known. Then Kikyo had heard something and had fled into the darkness. But it didn't matter. She would be back in two weeks. To take Kagome...
The thought that the assasin wanted to take Kagome away made his blood boil with anger. That horrible woman would go to jail or die. She would not take Kagome. Not while he still drew breath.
He didn't know what he should do now. Kikyo couldn't take Kagome, but he couldn't take her into custody. Then she might be exposed as the assasin's twin. Also, Kikyo might then disappear. This was all far too complicated.
All he was sure about was that he would not let Kikyo escape, and he could not let her take Kagome. Kagome meant something to him, although he wasn't entirely sure what. He had to find a way to catch or kill Kikyo and to take Kagome.