OMG! It has been SOOOOO long since I've updated and I am so SOOOOOO sorry! T_T I know it is totally no excuse, but life has been entirely insane for me as I work my way towards med school. STILL! I promised I would finish this story and every time I go and look through my reviews I wanna cry over how amazing you readers are! Seriously! OMG I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH YOU ARE MY WORLD! Besides still absolutely LOVING to write my stories, there really are no words to describe the kind of inspiration you all give me. Seriously, four years ago (OMG FOUR YEARS! I WAS SIXTEEN! NOW I'M TWENTY!) I never would have dreamed this story could become THIS popular! IT IS LITERALLY THE TOP SESSHOMARU/OC FIC LIKE HOW DID THIS HAPPEN!? *HUGS YOU ALL TO DEATH*

Okay, so IMPORTANT STUFF! We are getting into the last arc of this book. Notice, I say THIS book because there is going to be a sequel. I've ALWAYS PLANNED on there being a sequel. ^_^ My struggle has simply been how to form the big climax for this last arc. Second, when this book IS finished it is going to be going through a major edit. Lol, because I look back at my stuff at the beginning of this story from four years ago and wanna cry. Face it, as much as I know you all love this story, once it's finished, it's gonna need a little extra TLC from my end.

In any case, on to the main event! YAY!
Disclaimer: I do NOT own Inuyasha, the Inuyasha plot, NOR the Inuyasha characters. I only own my own OCs Kaze Hijikata, Riko Hijikata, Ryosuke Hijikata, Toga Akatsuki, (nasty lil') Shido and any other OCs created along the way, and any part of the plot NOT a part of the Inuyasha anime or manga. This fanfic, however, is MINE and I'd like to keep it that way.

Chapter 55 - That Which Shall Return to One
With Miroku, Sango and Kagome/Deep in Mount Hakurei…
Hours had passed as the monk, taijiya, and miko continued their way deeper into the sacred mountain, each one of them worrying about a multitude of things. Kagome, at the moment, was split between a worry for Inuyasha's safety, and a chilling fear as to what would happen to her best friend. As the trio stopped to rest for a moment, the midnight-haired girl cast the spiritualist a nervous glance. It was so unnatural to see the ruby-eyed young woman so… frail looking. Kaze was always strong, always fierce with her red eyes blazing defiance at the world, as if daring it to strike her. A pained smile crossed Kagome's face. "She was always the kind of person to look you dead in the eye and yell 'Come at me!' with all she had," The young woman thought with a painful twist in her heart as she continued to observe the other girl. "I don't get it though, for I can sense her soul mending and almost sewing itself to the mountain. But why? Why now, and why this place?"

"She's so pale," Sango observed worriedly, also gazing worriedly over the spiritualists still form.

Miroku made a noise of grave agreement as he shifted the raven-haired youth a little more comfortable on his back, "She is, I know, but at least I can still feel her heart beat. Fortune is with us in that I can tell it is still strong."

"Thank goodness for small mercies at least," Kagome murmured softly before something caught her eye. "Wait, what is that?" she inquired in a confused tone as she stood and walked over towards the monk and limp form of her cousin. Rolling up the sleeves of the raven-haired girl's jacket, the miko let out a horrified gasp.

"How awful!" Sango's horror soon followed at the sight. "Wha-What happened to her!?"

Already Miroku was swiftly and gently sliding the spiritualist from his back and to the ground for examination. "Her bindings…" he breathed in a sort of morbid awe.

For the talisman bindings wrapped around Kaze's arms were slowly but surely beginning to crumble away in the tatters, and under them one could again see the horrific scars decorating the youth's skin.

"Were the scars always that bad?" the taijiya asked shakily as she gazed down at the other girl's deformities.

"No. No, they weren't," Kagome replied, eyes widening in shock as even in that very moment the scars slowly became more and more visible, gradually climbing higher and higher up the other girl's arms. "Kaze… she always said they came about when she used her energy raw, and they'd get worse every time. But this…" the miko felt a sickening lurch in her stomach at the sight.

"Some of these marks aren't from burns," Miroku suddenly cut it, expression shocked as he lifted up the spiritualist wrists, each one now having a distinct red ring around them. "These-"

"Kamis… they're rope marks," Sango gasped as another red ring formed before them around Kaze's neck.

"But why!?" Kagome practically wailed. "What's happening to her!?"

The monk grimaced, "I'm not-"

"Miroku, look behind us!" Sango suddenly called out in alarm, leaping up and snatching up Hiraikotsu. Instantly on guard, the other three swiftly followed suite. Each of them wore a shocked expression upon being greeted with the man before them. However, it was Kagome who instantly felled a terrified chill shoot up her spine.

Even fastened up in a top knot, his long, silver-hair still managed to whip around his narrow face. Chilling red eyes glittered with a twisted sense of relief as a sardonic smirk played across his features. His lanky form shuffled forward in a swaying motion, hands shoved in his pockets, and attention focused solely on the single unconscious figure in sight.

Shido's smirk twisted into a gleeful grin.

"Found you~"

With Kaze…

It was so dark.

Darkness.

Stillness.

Like a blanket of shadows slowing winding through her, gathering up the shards of her soul. Bringing them together. It was a slow process. At least, that's what it felt like to her. She felt lethargic. Like an eternity had passed by already. But… what was eternity? It was a word. Yet, it had no meaning in that moment.

But she supposed 'moment' had no meaning either, nor did meaning itself for that matter.

It was just dark. Dark and empty. Because that was an absence of both light and…

… well, who really knew anyway.

Pure has become impure.

Impure has now become pure.

Good has now become bad.

Bad has become good.

'Meaningless words,' she noted, listening as the song rang through the nothingness. 'There is no such thing.'

(She? He? It? The entity no longer could even tell. After all, it was just an existence.)

To live is to die.

To die is to live.

Pointless. Meaningless. Empty.

Fallen is the child in despair.

Rises in ruin.

No.

That was not meaningless, because there was in fact such thing as meaning. One created it for themselves. It grew from emotion. Irrational, illogical emotion, something that humans seemed to have in abundance.

Happiness.

Love.

Determination.

Defiance.

Pride.

Anger.

Hatred.

Foolishness and foolish choices, but choices none the less.

"That's right," she mused quietly.

(Yes, she. The entity knew that much now as images of the past flowed through her mind. Fragmented, cloudy, but there. There and hers.)

"Mai!" a child laughed, though his face was but a blur. "Wait up! We're gonna get in trouble!"

"Haha! Don't be silly, Taro!" the little girl laughed, silver eyes sparkling, and she could see her yukata sleeves swishing out of her peripheral vision. "The elders are just a bunch of superstitious ninnies. Now hurry up!"

It was a beginning, as the threads in the darkness continued to net up her shattered soul. What was far away was gradually becoming closer… closer…

"A taboo is a taboo!" the elderly man shouted. "If we do not appease him then the whole village will be doomed!"

"It's true, we can't afford to offend our Kami now of all times. Already we are in drought."

"Yes, exactly! Besides, she's obviously the logical choice to sacrifice, for she's but an orphan. The boy has a good loving home. Feed her to the jackals. It is for the village. The choice is only natural."

"Yes! The mountain Kami must be appeased."

Again she felt the burn of the rope around her neck.

"I refuse to die."

"I hate them."

"I won't die… not for them."

She remembered freedom… freedom for an instant. Then hands… hands grabbing, pulling, tying her wrists…

She was screaming, screaming down in the pit where they had thrown her. Screaming as the flames seared her body.

"Appease the Kami!"

"Kami, forgive us!"

"Accept our sacrifice, Kami-sama!"

The world had gone black then. It had been dark and quiet… much like now. Except then she had felt the hatred, been nothing but hatred, rage, malice. A light, had been offered. She remembered it, remembered spitting in its face and turning back around into the darkness.

Gleaming red eyes opened. She was in the middle of nowhere. But she was breathing. Her pale limbs where covered in burn marks, a ring around her neck and wrists.

No.

It wasn't nowhere.

She could see the village.

She still remembered (Remembered? The word was becoming so familiar now.) the look on their faces when she walked through, could see them as though it were yesterday as they fell to their knees begging for mercy. In that moment she (for her name was something that was no longer remembered) had picked up a katana and stalked away. For there was more than one way to end this place.

Cold red eyes peered down at the head she held dangling by its noble hair.

The head of Mount Hakurei's Kami.

Dead.

Like she was supposed to be.

"Ah, I see we have quite a promising upstart, eh? Even if you are a brat."

Gleaming red eyes turned listlessly to gaze at the tall newcomer who had sweeping dark brown hair and a stubbled, chiseled face. His gleaming red eyes took in the scene before him with a sour expression.

"What am I?" she inquired quietly.

"You're a Kami," the strange man replied in calm tone. "Just like me."

"Like you?"

"That's right. For we are those who died cursing the Kami even past our grave, our hatred for them brought us back for one purpose, and that is to kill them. We are the Kami no Satsujin-sha, and that is all."

"I just hated this Kami. That's all," the child spoke quietly.

A brief silence lapsed.

"Come with me then," the man finally sighed. "Even if you are a brat, maybe you might be spared the insanity of the life you've just chosen. We'll have to stay here for now though, for as of this moment, this mountain is your domain."

Without opposition, the child followed along behind.

Slowly, as they walked, her red eyes rose from the ground and pinned themselves on the broad back before her.

"What… What should I call you?"

For a moment, a sigh was all that answered the nameless girl.

"I have long since forgotten my birth name, just as you have yours. Nor shall either of us ever remember it again in this life. However, you may call me Toga."

With Shido/Deep in Mount Hakurei…
Shido could feel it.

The man, if he could even be called that anymore, could feel the rise and fall of this creature's power. At the moment, it was acting like the push and pull of the tide, just waiting to turn into a tsunami.

Several miles back, one would find the raven-haired woman's three comrades lying in a bleeding, broken heap on the ground. The mad man grinned, for it had been easy to overwhelm them and get to his prize. He laughed. After all, if they weren't dead yet, then they would be soon. Shido had been far too distracted by this being – one of his own blood, his ancestry – to bother too much with the others.

It would be soon.

The person this so called spiritualist had been was burning away along with her current identity. Even the youki from that mutt was surely and swiftly being purged.

Kamis, not even the spider had realized what had been in front of them all along.

The being before him was a long forgotten legacy that had been buried in the foulest corners of history. Really, Shido didn't know how something like this had even happened. After all, far before the time of even the Shikon no Tama, the miko Midoriko had supposedly sealed away the last of the Kami no Satsujin-sha. Spiritualists now a days were simply descendants of those who had had their powers sealed. That was where the madness in their so called 'divine' power came from.

But this girl…

She had clearly died as a Kami no Satsujin-sha in full glory. These beings were those who had refused the Kamis' warm embrace into the afterlife. Instead, they forcefully chose to return this this life with nothing but their own power of hatred alone, and as punishment, never again could they truly leave this world. The Kami no Satsujin-sha would be reborn again and again, with every memory of the horrors they'd committed and seen.

"Hmph," Shido chuckled wryly. "Someone must have sealed away those last lives in a misguided attempt to let her start over. Because this Kami no Satsujin-sha-"

Crimson red eyes suddenly met crimson.

"-is very much awake."

*Hides behind Toga because after returning from such a long absence I still left a damn cliffhanger* Kukukuku... Sorry not sorry ya'll! XD Weeell... There's chapter fifty-five for ya! YAY! As I'm sure you noticed, in this chapter I didn't specifically list each and everyone of my reviewers by name. I'm really REALLY sorry if that disappointed some of you, but after so long not updating there was literally WAY to many to list without making this chapter seem longer than it really was by word count. However, next chapter (which will be quite soooon ^_^) I shall again be specifically thanking each new review that appears! GAH! I love you all so much and can't wait to hear the feedback for this chapter! There are no words for how much you readers continue to inspire me! Haha! It took a lot of rewriting before I finally got this huge reveal to come out the way I wanted it to. But ohohoho... we aren't through with the surprises yet! XD See you all in the next chapter!

Rock Out!
Kira