"Listen well, Kaede. Take the Shikon-no-tama and burn it with my body, so that it will never pass into the hands of evil again…"

Kikyou fell. Kaede watched her body slump onto a pool of her own blood. The Shikon-no-tama rolled out of her failing grasp, hitting the ground with a ring. The following silence was deafening. The wind kept blowing, the fires in the distance kept burning. Inuyasha was pinned onto the goshinboku and Kikyou lay dying below. In a moment's time, Kaede would be all alone.

She took the Shikon-no-tama into her small hands. Beneath its smooth surface was an eternal tempest of dark violet and bright pink. Within the jewel, Midoriko and the Demon of Demons continued a battle that lasted three hundred years, but right now, Kaede felt as though she was the one caught in the youkai's fangs.

How could Midoriko make the sacrifice of her own soul to defeat the youkai, Kaede didn't know. Because she couldn't. She knew she had to burn the jewel, but she wavered.

Nothing is stopping you, Child.

Do it. Wish for it. You know now there is no real justice in the world. The only justice is power.

And that power is before you. Use it. The gods have forsaken you, but you can be the new god!

There was a light. The Shikon-no-tama started glowing. Kaede dropped it with a gasp, unsure what had happened…

No, that was a lie. She knew what she had wished for – to undo her sister's death.

The jewel crumbled to specks that flew into the wound on her sister's shoulder, filling it, closing it with inclusions of pink-violet rock. When the shimmering stopped, Kaede edged towards her sister. This wasn't what she had expected. Why wasn't her sister opening her eyes? There was dread in her heart as she touched her sister with a shaking hand.

"Oneesama?"

There was warmth in her sister's body, but no response. There would be no response for another fifty years, for the Shikon had given precisely what Kaede had wished for, no less, no more. Kikyou was alive, and would live forever, for time had ceased to pass for her.

A Different Journey

The story of Inuyasha, and the miko he loved who had survived death

Chapter 1

"What's happening!?" Higurashi Kagome screamed when something pulled her into the well on the grounds of her family shrine. What she thought would've been a short fall turned out to be a very long one, and the whirling darkness was starting to make her dizzy. Why would anybody dig a well so deep it could store enough water to last a lifetime!? No, that shouldn't be the question to ask now. There was no way even her cat could survive a fall like this! She was so going to die. But she was only fifteen! She still hadn't had her first kiss, goddamnit!

She felt wind rebound off something beneath her, signalling the fall was soon to end. Squeezing her eyes, hugging her knees, she prepared for death, only to hit her butt hard, but not so hard as to kill her. She opened her eyes and blinked. The sky above the well was a clear blue. If she stood up, she'd be able to see it unobscured.

That didn't make sense. She was sure she had fallen for a good two, three minutes. The well couldn't have been this shallow.

She decided it didn't matter. It wasn't as though she had wished the well was deeper. At this height, it was easy to climb out, but instead of finding the buildings of her family home, she found forest.

Oh, and this was a real forest indeed. Greens stretched in every direction for as far as her eyes could see. This wasn't right. She couldn't be in Tokyo. Think of all the real estate that could be developed in a place like this! Impossible that anybody would lay to waste so much land. She must have been somehow drugged and kidnapped and taken to – she had no idea – the middle of rural Nagano or something…

But something else challenged her theory. She blinked twice to make sure she wasn't seeing things. Nope. There it was, a dead body, bound to a tree by vines and…an arrow!? A cosplaying boy hung from a goddamn tree by an arrow!? This was too surreal. She couldn't even get herself to be afraid.

Ah, this must be a dream.

See? That tree was the goshinboku behind her house! Knew it looked a bit familiar. Must be her brain coming up with a fantastical story from her jumbled memories. Now let's see where she got the idea of a…boy cosplaying as a medieval…wolf-man? Kagome came up to the silver-haired cosplayer who was apparently not so dead. The ears atop his head tweaked. Ah…they were dog ears! Cute!

"Kikyou!"

Shocked by the sudden scream from the woken cosplayer, Kagome stumbled back, hit a tree root, and fell again on her butt. Her butt certainly took some abuse today. It hurt. While she rubbed the spot that she was certain would bruise soon, the boy glared at her, struggling against the vines that bound him.

"Kikyou, why did you betray me?" he screamed some more. Wait. Kikyou? That was a strange name to dream of. Kagome didn't know anyone by the name of Kikyou.

"Who…what are you?" she asked.

"What am I? I knew it! You looked down on me as a hanyou-"

"What hanyou? I don't know what you're talking about. This is a dream, right?"

"You wish this is a dream, because just you wait till I get my claws off these vines and I am ripping you to shreds!"

Kagome didn't care if this were a dream anymore. She was getting out of here. This dog-boy cosplayer with an arrow fetish was not only crazy, but dangerous. She ran back towards the well, only to be stopped by a fifty-feet-long centipede that had just emerged from it. On one end, it had a naked woman's torso and four arms. Four! Okay, so dog-boy cosplayer wasn't the scariest one around here. Kagome found herself running back towards him when the giant centipede started chasing her, all the while screaming, "Shikon-no-tama!" What Shikon? What Tama? Kagome wasn't a cat, so she ain't no Tama. There was no time to explain though. The centipede was catching up with her. It lunged at her and all she could do was to jump to try to avoid its bite, but to no avail – it caught her side and something bright and round fell out of her body, rolling to the ground.

"The Shikon-no-tama?" The dog-boy cosplayer recognized the object. "Pick it up and run! You can't let the centipede have it-"

Too late. The centipede demon had swallowed the jewel and transformed in front of Kagome's eyes with a roar of wicked laughter. It turned more gigantic, if that was even possible, and its skin became hard and black as char. It was giving off some sort of aura – an aura that turned the skies dark and the winds into a gale. The ground cracked beneath them.

"What are you spacing out for? Shoot it down!" Dog-boy cosplayer kept yelling at Kagome.

"Shoot what?"

"Don't you have your bow?"

"What bow? You mean, like, a bow that shoots arrows? I'm not a cosplayer like you, so why would I have a bow?"

Dog-boy cosplayer finally seemed to have understood something about their situation. "You are not Kikyou."

"Well, of course. Do I look like a bellflower to you?"

Dog-boy cosplayer looked from Kagome to the giant centipede that was now towering before them, drooling. "You better be related to her anyway, because if you can't free me from this…stupid…curse, then we're as good as dead."

"You're telling me to free you?" Kagome couldn't be more shocked. "You said like a minute ago that you wanted to rip me to shreds!"

"That is if you were Kikyou, but you aren't, because you are standing there like an idiot. Kikyou ain't no idiot! She would've already killed that oversized bug by now!"

Kagome didn't know what to think, but the dog-boy was right that if they didn't do something, they would be the centipede's next meal. Just thinking about it brought shivers down Kagome's spine. She reluctantly climbed atop the tangle of vines and reached for the arrow on the dog-boy's chest.

"I'm guessing I just have to pull this arrow out or something, right?"

"Obviously! Gosh, you're so dumb I can't believe I mistook you for Kikyou."

"Can you decide if you hate this Kikyou person or you adore her? Because that way you speak of her is giving me whiplash."

Kagome finally tugged the arrow out of the dog-boy's chest. A bright light blinded her for a second, followed by the boy's cry.

"Sankontessou!"

The dog-boy's hands were no ordinary hands, but claws, and they easily sliced through all the vines in one slash. Freed, he laughed long and loud, a malicious grin forming on his mouth. The centipede turned away from Kagome for him instead, but he just jumped away from the spot the centipede demolished and ran his claws down its length. With a painful cry the centipede split in two and crashed onto the ground.

"All mine now. All mine," the dog-boy said when he reached for the pink-violet jewel that fell out the centipede's corpse. He was too slow though. A crow dived from the trees' shade and swept the jewel into its beak. "Not so quick!" he yelled, clawing at it, but the crow had flown too high to be reached.

He ran after it, Kagome following him. "Where the hell are you going?" she asked.

"Where else? After the jewel of course!"

"Why do you care so much about that marble? Because it could transform the centipede?"

"The centipede was weak so the jewel did it no good, but I am much stronger. Why am I telling you this anyway!?"

They came out of the forest and now ran across a field where mud houses huddled against its slope. The crow grew as it flew, becoming the size of an airplane that could seat three hundred. It turned around and flapped its wings, the wind that came was so forceful even the dog-boy was pushed back by its might. He gritted his teeth and dug his nails into his palm, drawing blood.

"Hijinkessou!" he yelled, his blood transforming to crescent blades that he threw at the crow. The crow was hit by them and ripped apart, but the pieces flew back towards where the jewel was embedded, regenerating the body. "Girl, I need you to shoot it down!" he said to Kagome.

"I said, I don't have a bow, and I don't know how to shoot!"

The dog-bog made a tch-ing sound before he ran towards where two hunters stood staring at the crow overhead. He kicked one in the stomach and stole his bow and arrows, running back to Kagome with them.

"Here. Shoot."

"What?"

"I will keep it occupied, but you need to shoot it down. Do that miko thing."

Kagome had no idea what that "miko thing" might be, but she had got to at least try, right? That crow looked like it would swallow them in a heartbeat. The dog-boy ran towards it and unleashed more blood blades. The crow batted back at them with its demonic wind. Kagome tried to remember how the actors did it in Taiga dramas and somehow managed to pull both arrow and bowstring back. She shot.

The arrow flew like a deflated balloon and hit the ground three feet from where she stood.

"What the hell was that? I could've thrown the goddamn arrow farther than your so-called shot with my bare fucking hands!"

"You should be glad it flew at all! I told you, I have never used a bow in my life!"

"You're so fucking useless!" The dog-boy seemed to have given up on her, leaping forward to attack the crow directly. "Just stay the fuck out of my way!"

He attacked, but the crow evaded. He did catch one of its feet and sliced it right off with his claw. Remembering how the body parts flew back to the crow when it regenerated, Kagome ran to catch the crow's foot.

"What the hell are you doing now?" Dog-boy shouted at her.

"Just watch!"

Kagome took off the ribbon from her uniform and used it to tie the crow's foot to an arrow. She fit the arrow onto her bow and shot. Again, the arrow flew well off its target, but instead of a downward trajectory that should find ground, it swerved upwards in an arc that defied gravity, hitting the crow right where its body glowed from the jewel's light.

The crow blasted apart, but it wasn't the only thing to shatter. There was a crystalline ring as the steel arrowhead found glass. The Shikon-no-tama cracked, splintered, exploded into millions of fragments that shot into every corner of the nation. Kagome watched in awe. It was like fireworks.

Elsewhere, in a clean but mostly empty room, the only occupant moved after a slumber that should've lasted an eternity. Her soul pulsed to the Shikon's power, and her eyes opened for the first time in fifty years.

End of Chapter - reviews appreciated

A/N: This is the 2018 revised version of this story. Aside from changes to the writing style, major plot changes have also been made. Hope this reads more smoothly than the original version. This story's main pairing is InuKik, and they are the protagonists of this story. Kagome will continue to play a major role as one of the members of InuKik's party, along with Miroku, Sango, Shippou, Kirara, and occasionally Kouga. This is not a Kagome-bashing fic.

Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha. The character and the series belong to Takahashi Rumiko-sensei and respective owners. This work is written solely for the enjoyment of myself and other fans of the original series. No profit has been made off this work.