The Love Spell: A Sesshomaru x Kagome Fanfiction

Chapter 14: It's as easy as 1, 2, 3 (Part 2)

~Phase 2: Find Naraku~

It's dark.

"Inuyasha!"

It's really dark.

"Miroku, Sango!"

So dark, Kagome fears she has gone blind.

"...Sesshomaru?" The whispered name was a plea of the most desperate nature. Kagome's heart was like an erratic drum beat in the all too quiet room. Where were her friends? The last memory the miko had was feeling a sinking sensation in her stomach before the stairs gave way and her and her friends fell down into a sea of darkness.

"You guys?" Kagome groaned as she tried to pick her battered body up off the floor. She must have hit the ground hard because she felt like a walking bruise. Even her voice sounded beaten as she kept calling for her friends while moving through the black emptiness in front of her. Fear was her only companion for what seemed like hours before a faint flickering of light caught her eye. Moving her sore body even faster, Kagome called out in joy as she recognized that faded pink light. Yes, in this instance, she was even happy to run into Kikyo.

"Kikyo!" Kagome panted as she sighed in relief before screaming.

"Gyah!" When the dead miko turned around, her reiki flame illuminated Kikyo's stone cold face and made her look like a ghoul.

"Why are you screaming, Miko Kagome?" The monotone voice funny enough helped settle Kagome's frazzled nerves as it was familiar, but shit. If they were back in her time Kagome would have encouraged Kikyo to audition for horror movies. She'd make a hell of a Sadako.

"Ah, well..." She couldn't just say her face was scary, could she? Best not. "I'm sorry, I thought I saw something behind you." Kikyo's glassy stare glanced behind her and then back to the futuristic miko.

"I see nothing nor sense anything."

"Ah, yeah." Kagome awkwardly coughed. "My bad, the dark has me paranoid." Still, Kikyo emotionlessly stared at Kagome with an unfathomable expression.

"If the dark is what ails you, why not illuminate the way with your reiki?" There was no inflection in the statement but Kagome instinctively knew Kikyo was judging her, but this time the young miko probably deserved it. She was so scared that she forgot her reiki was as good as or better than any flashlight.

"Um, I didn't want to give away my location if the enemy was near." Kagome mumbled her pathetic excuse as she, too, lit a single reiki flame in her hand--one much more powerful than Kikyo's.

Now that Kagome could see better, she took the time to assess their surroundings (and ignore the blank/judging face of the dead miko beside her).

They were alone in a narrow, stone corridor. The ground was cold and wet like they were in some underground cave and when Kagome looked up she couldn't see the ceiling. How far down did they fall?

As Kagome looked around the empty space, Kikyo stayed silent. In her head, she was wondering what it was about the simple creature before her that made Kagome so much better than her? Why was it that everyone felt drawn to her, wanted to protect her, and believed in her? Why was she so weak yet so strong in her own way? Why, no matter what she went through or struggled against, did no darkness succeed in dimming her light?

The bitterness in Kikyo's empty heart was palpable, but for some reason she no longer felt any hatred. Kagome wasn't her, like she originally thought, and by thinking of the girl as a separate being Kikyo learned to accept the young miko's existence. She learned not too long ago that it was her constant comparison to Kagome that made her so filled with hatred and self-loathing. Now, she was content to just be Kikyo until her mission has ended and she accompanied Naraku back to hell. This was no longer her world. It belonged to creatures of light, creatures like Kagome.