Kagome and Sesshoumaru starring in... by Tsubasa Kya

Chapter one: What the lake hides

Chapter one: What the lake hides

She had tried to capture his heart, and failed. She didn't know why--the aspect of loving him and dying on him later was a burden she didn't really want to place on him. However, if he was willing to go to Hell with Kikyou, she had been hopeful that he would prefer to join her instead.

Kagome wasn't stupid. She could see he still loved Kikyou dearly and Kagome could only be "little more than just a friend". Kagome sighed, looking at the reflection that stared back at her on the surface of the water. The other woman's face was streaked with tears. 'No wonder he likes Kikyou more than you.' A cold and traitorous voice whispered devilishly in her mind. 'She doesn't cry for every little thing that comes along!'

That's not true. I don't either. Kagome denied, splashing the offending reflection. But she knew the voice was right. Kikyou truly was better than Kagome. Kagome just couldn't deny this fact anymore.

Stripping off her grimy school outfit, she waded out to the drop off point in the lake. She couldn't have cared less if there were lechers around, Miroku included. At least someone would enjoy the way she looked just for being her. It wouldn't be like Inuyasha, who seemed to enjoy only the fact that she looked like her previous incarnation.

She dove in, thinking some more. It seemed that thinking was something she just couldn't escape these days. There were inexplicable things happening. Things were happening like they needed to. Still, the one carrying the burden was Kagome, not Kikyou. Kikyou might share a piece of her soul--or was it the other way around?--but that didn't make Kagome any less of herself.

Why had she been pulled into the well? That mistress centipede was all at fault! If it had not pulled Kagome into the well, then by now Kagome could have happily been the girlfriend of Hojou or someone equally nice. That Sasuke boy was rather cute, she thought, picturing him from her last visit to school.

But no, of course her life wouldn't be so simple. She had to be pulled down a well where she found a cute half-breed dog demon with the most adorable ears she had ever seen, she had to tweak those ears upon first sight of them, and then to top it all off, she had to fall in love with the owner of said ears.

Damn it! She swore in her mind. Why do the gods love to torture me? I want so much to be with Inuyasha. To make him happy. But despite that, I know my death is impending so it's only good that he doesn't return my feelings, I suppose.

Ah yes, to be gifted with the power of a prophecy that she had to fulfill--the joys of being herself. At times, she almost wished she were Kikyou. At least Kikyou was dead so had no requirements to fulfill like the living did. It was a wonderful life that she lived.

She swam down to the bottom of the lake, fish skirting away from her as she did so. After years in the feudal era, her eyes had adjusted to being open under water, so it no longer burned as much to have them open. She could see where she was going. She swam until she could touch the sand at the bottom.

As soon as she was at the bottom, she maneuvered so her feet were touching the sand and began to scrub herself clean of the blood that coated her body. Demon slaying was a rather messy profession, she thought ironically. Sango usually smelled like demon blood and poison, making Kagome urge the other girl to bathe often. Kagome would never say Sango smelled bad, but she couldn't honestly say that the other girl smelled like a petunia either.

Kagome felt the sand under her feet and took a step, only to feel a sharp poke in the bottom of her foot. She looked down, still holding her breath, and saw red filtering into the water, lifting her foot to examine the damage. There was something shiny at the bottom of the water that she had stepped on.

Bending down, she picked it up, along with a stone and a bunch of sand. Needing air, she shot towards the surface, breaking free in time to gasp in a huge lungful of oxygen. Treading water, she allowed her stinging foot the release it wanted. It was pulsing, the blood exiting the small cut. She was glad it was only small. Wounds on her feet weren't the best thing around.

She found she had picked up a rather smooth bone from the bottom of the lake along with what looked to be an intricately done bracelet. Dropping the bone into the water again, she stared at the bracelet, beaded water dripping down her face. It had designs of leaves and flowers extending from it, yet was covered in algae and slightly tarnished.

She was positive it was a magical item, so soon found herself guilt-tripping herself into taking it. Yes, she was desecrating the dead by taking it. But it would be worse to leave it because someone else would take the magical item and they would probably use it for bad things. Even if she had no clue what those bad things could possibly be.

Swimming to the shore, Inuyasha being pressed from her mind, she hopped on one foot towards her pack. She didn't want to get sand and dirt into the wound. She stuffed the item in her pack to examine later and dried off, intent to going home. Home was where her mother was. Home was where she could argue with her brother, or get annoyed at her grandfather for telling his stories non-stop.

Home was not where she would get berated for... whatever she had recently done "unlike Kikyou".

It had been four years since the first time she came through the well. She'd gone home through the well when she needed to for school and for supplies and seeing her family, but those trips got fewer and farther apart. It was time she took up a normal 'home visit' schedule. Could she really live in the past anyway? Despite she might like Inuyasha, if she managed to pull through and live after the whole hunt was over, she had a life to continue at home.