Written by Lottie

Rated G for everyone

36 Years prior to Otherworld

The girl crumpled in front of it, exhausted, injured and now crying, sobs shaking her entire body. It was too late. Izayoi was dead. But what about Isabo and Nami? What about InuYasha? She ran through the ruins of the village to a fresh graveyard, searching the headstones for the names she dreaded to see.

Her father had said they were escaping the bandits. He was wrong. They’d driven right into them. She and Zhen had run into the forest, run from their parent’s screams. They kept running even when there were no more screams. Then the arrows had come.

Kikyo slumped over again at the end of the line of graves. Their names weren’t there. But what had happened to them? Had Isabo escaped, and InuYasha with her? Or had the bandits captured her?

She wanted to scream, with the arrows sticking from her shoulder. But Zhen pushed her down and hissed, “Lie still! Pretend to be dead! They’ll ignore you if they think you’re dead!” Then he ran down the forest path, yelling and screaming. The bandits had followed him. They didn’t notice her.

Kikyo saw someone digging a fresh grave, a little way away. She staggered over to him. “What happened?” she called out weakly. “Where is everybody?”

She didn’t know how long she lay there before the bandits walked past her again, laughing and making jokes about “the hunt”. She risked a glance up and noticed that one of them was juggling three bloodstained balls. Zhen had gotten them for his birthday. He wouldn’t have let them just take them.

She buried her face in her arms and cried and cried.

The man looked on her with pity. “All dead or captured,” he said, waving at the graves. “They took the headman’s daughter, Nami, and many other girls. And they captured a Unicorn. Did ya’ know that Isabo was a Unicorn! Who knew, eh?”

“What about InuYasha?” Kikyo asked, gazing at the fresh grave he was digging.

The man wrinkled his nose. “The Hanyou?” he asked, and spat into the grave. “Haven’t seen the little creature since Izayoi’s death. Probably long gone by now.”

Both of them were alone now.

26 years prior to Otherworld

“It’s the least we can do for you, miko-sama,” the man said, beaming. “That Demon would’ve killed us all if t’weren’t for you!”

Kikyo pulled out a bag of beads and poured them into the box. Then she carefully placed a much smaller bag on top without emptying the contents, but she could feel their shape. Smooth but sharp, like claws. She sighed sadly as she closed the lid.

Ten years now, and nothing. She had been wandering the border between Otherworld and Demon World, looking for any sign at all of her best friend, but found nothing. What she had found was innate holy talent. Several village mikos that she’d met had commented on her power, so increased by her solitude.

“If you learned t’use them powers,” one old women had commented, “ye’d be a force t’be reckoned with against any Demon!”

So Kikyo had learned to use her power. And now she found herself fighting Demons.

“There are so many villages that are unprotected,” she said, looking over the mountains.

“The Dog Demon clan used to protect us,” the man said sadly, “even though we aren’t in Demon World, but now there’s only one of ‘em left and he don’t have time for us.”

Kikyo had to agree. She remembered the few times she’d seen Sesshomaru, InuYasha’s half-brother and only surviving full Dog Demon. He’d made it clear that he considered Humans beneath him.

“And Otherworld doesn’t even have the power to protect its own borders?” she questioned.

“Well, they might soon,” the craftsman said, standing to tidy his tools. “I hear they’re sending out more Wolf patrols, and Princess Aara’s bound a third Demon, so they say.”

Kikyo sighed and stood to leave. Even with the Wolf patrols, there were so many remote mountain villages, on both sides of the border, that the patrols never came near. She wondered if they ever would.

“She’ll need a hundred to protect every village on the border,” she said. “Thank you, anyway. I’ll probably come by again someday.”

The man smiled. “Until them, we’ll jest have you protecting us, eh?” he joked as he waved her off.

Alone on the forest oath, in the gloom of the pre-dawn, she remembered a childish first kiss, her faint smile seen only by the paling sky.

3 years prior to Otherworld

“What are you, now?” Kikyo asked quietly, turning it around in her fingers. It felt like it had power. She shrugged and tucked it into her kimono. A piece of some Demon treasure, perhaps? She’d ask if anyone had heard of it at the next village.

As she crested the hill, she noted that she was fairly deep into Demon World now. The aura seeping from the ground was darker. And some of the people in the village below looked old. Humans aged quicker in Demon World. She could feel the odd pull that always assaulted her whenever she crossed the border between Demon World and Otherworld, a sense of time moving slightly faster. She was nearly forty now. If she had stayed in Otherworld all the time, she’d probably still look sixteen, but continuous forays into Demon World made her look nineteen. Not a huge difference, she knew, but she also knew that the years would build up. She probably wouldn’t live the centuries that Humans in Otherworld did, but she wasn’t about to forsake these villages. Tucked into forests and hills, her patrol had become everywhere that the official patrols were not. People needed her. No one thought about what she wanted or needed.

It was a mining village. People were pulling rare rocks and gems from the ground, but always stopped to give her a quick bow as she passed. She noticed people rebuilding a few huts on the edge of town. Ah.

The man turned to look at her and his face split into a broad grin. “Miko-sama!” He cried. “A youkai attacked. Can you help us?”

Kikyo smiled. Everyone knew that a miko could help... “Of course,” she said. “Can you tell me precisely what happened?”

“Do you know what type of stone this is?” she asked, pulling it out of her kimono.

The headman took it and turned it back and forth, examining it. “It’s not normal stone,” he said at last. “This looks like Demon Jewel. There are stories that there was a miko in Otherworld protecting one called the Shikon No Tama, but she died not long ago and the jewel broke and scattered everywhere. It was a very powerful jewel, they say.”

He handed the shard back to Kikyo. “Not the kind of thing for us mortals. You’d best protect it, miko-sama.”

“I will,” Kikyo promised. Then she noticed the small white stones lying on the table behind him. “May I enquire what kind of stone you mine?” she asked.

The headman passed her a small pearl of stone, about the size of a prayer bead. “They’re opals,” he said. “They’re rather special. Hold it up to the light.”

She did so, and gasped to see the different colors dancing in it. Kikyo looked at the bead.

"It's black, " she said with disappointment.

"Hold it up to the sunlight," her mother said.

The young girl did as requested and the dark stone lighted to a translucent color.

"It's an onyx gemstone," her mother said. “These stones would make wonderful prayer beads,” she murmured.

“Every stone has a partner, a Yin and a Yang. These look like the Yin to Onyx.”

The headman turned back to the table and scooped up three more opals. “We only find ones so small every once in a while,” he said apologetically, “but when we do we’ll be happy to set them aside for you if you want them.”

“That would be wonderful,” she said, scooping up the beads. “Thank you.”

“Yin and Yang stones, in the same rosary, can make it very powerful,” Kay said.

What if they’re in two separate rosaries? Kikyo wondered, thinking of the magatama claws. If she made the rosary, maybe she could find out what happened to InuYasha. But who knew how long it would take the village to mine enough?

One Year after Otherworld Eleven

Kikyo smiled and thanked him as she took the three opals. It had taken decades for enough opals to be mined. In that time, Aara had had, at various times, up to six males. Wolf patrols went everywhere in Otherworld, and Bat and Fox patrols were now flooding through Demon World. Traveling between isolated villages had left Kikyo with no knowledge of Otherworld politics. But her route had slowly become shorter, as both Otherworld and the Dog clan’s power grew enough to protect the villages. She was now wandering between less than ten isolated villages, and the number was shrinking quickly. Even as she left the mining village that night, Bat Demons landed in the town square. They no longer needed her. She turned and walked into Otherworld.

She walked into the heart of the forest, where there was an old shrine, and stopped inside. She knelt on the floor before a crumbling old table and pulled out the cherry-wood box. She carefully opened the creaking lid.

First she set aside the bag of magatama claws. Then she slowly sifted through the beads in the box, digging out the opals, piling the shining white stones on the crumbling tale. Finally, pulling out a length of silk cord, she set to work. The task took her all night. She was so good at making rosaries that her hands moved without thought. Instead, she remembered. She remembered her best friend, and poured the memories into the rosary.

She remembered three-player games of Kemari, just her and InuYasha and Nami. She remembered when she and InuYasha had gone fishing because Nami was sick and they’d heard that eating fish made you feel better. She remembered how she’d gone up to that lonely little hut on the hill, every day, and InuYasha had always been sitting outside, waiting for her.

She remembered a childish kiss goodbye.

Then dawn broke and she was finished. She slipped the rosary and lay down to sleep, childhood memories that were all she’d held dear for so long spinning in her head.

Aara burst into the room, her eyes wild, and instantly ran to him. “InuYasha!” she cried. “Thank the gods you’re okay!”

“I’m here,” InuYasha muttered, the dream leaving his mind with Aara’s plight. “I’m not leaving…”

He shifted Aara slightly in his arms so the magatama claws on his rosary wouldn’t scratch her.

Kikyo awoke suddenly. The dream had been so real, as if she was a child again, playing with InuYasha. And then it had abruptly stopped. But now she felt… a pull, something tugging her towards the centre of Otherworld. She set off down the path, away from Demon World.

Two Months Later

He shook off that thought and fiddled with his rosary as he stared at the moon. He never took it off, and almost never wore anything but the fire-rat haori. They were all he had to remember his mother and best friend by.

Kikyo began feeling an odd presence as she approached the village. It was Shikon shards, lots of them. She’d picked up several in Demon World, but she’d never felt this many in one place before.

“You have Shikon shards, don’t you?” she said, looking Kikyo over. “I’m sorry, I thought it was a Demon for a second, but if you’re a miko then they’re safe. I’m Kagome, by the way,” she said with a smile.

“I’m Kikyo,” Kikyo said, by way of introduction. She looked at the village. “I’m looking for Otherworld’s Castle. Am I near it?”

Kikyo hesitated. Her rosary was calling for the Castle, so InuYasha's rosary must be there too, but she couldn’t shake the fear that he’d have forgotten her, or was dead and it was merely his rosary and not him at the Castle, or maybe he had a mate.

She shook herself mentally. He was her best friend, not her boyfriend!

But you’ve been alone so long and he was the only person you want to remember because he’s still alive, some inner voice whispered.

He’s the only person you know and you keep thinking about that goodbye kiss…

“Sure,” Kikyo said, following Kagome to her home. “I’ll stay.”

The Next Morning

Kouta ran up to him, yelling, “Hi, InuYasha!”

InuYasha grinned and handed over the present. “Happy Birthday, kid,” he said, perking up his ears to hear footsteps coming for the door. “This is from the Princess…”

He trailed off as a woman dressed as a miko stopped in Kagome’s doorway, staring at him in absolute shock. Her scent blew to him in the wind. It was familiar…

“Kikyo?” he said, amazement washing over him. She was older now, of course, her scent had subtly altered, but it wasn’t too different…

Even as he thought that, she pulled, from under her kimono, a rosary with five magatama claws just like his, the beads white instead of black.

“I don’t believe it,” he muttered. “I thought you must have died by now…”

“I thought the bandits had killed you!” she said. “When I found Izayoi’s grave…” She pulled back and wiped her eyes. “And what happened to Isabo and Nami?"

“It’s a long story,” he said, heading for the house.

That night, Kikyo found herself in one of the beautiful guest rooms in the Castle. Isabo and Nami had both cried to see her, and she had cried after hearing what they had gone through. But Isabo had Shinjou, and Nami still had her daughter. They weren’t alone. And neither was she, now, but it felt like she was. She should be happy. InuYasha was.

He was bound. She slowly pulled off the opal necklace. She’d felt something holding him back in her dreams, and that’s what it was. If she continued with this stone magic, InuYasha's bond could very well break. She had no reason to do that. She could see him for real now, not just when she slept. He was her best friend, and that was enough. It had to be. In her lonely decades of walking and fighting, she’d fallen in love with a precious memory. They were best friends, and they were never meant to be anything more.

She poured the beads from the cherry box into a small bowl on her bedside table, and put the opal rosary in the box. She held the box tight for a minute, pouring all those old memories and misplaced feeling into it, the closed the lid and pushed it under the bed.

He was her best friend, and he was happy. That had to be enough.