"Granny Kaede, this girl, she…"
"Enough. No need to panic—she isn't a bad sort. As for why she went into the Inuyasha Forest, let me question her slowly."
Kaede loosened Kagome's bindings.
Kagome stood, rubbing her reddened wrists with a distinctly sour look.
People of the Warring States era were brutally rough.
There was no concept of pity or chivalry at all.
At the same time, they feared monsters in disguise.
Just as the crowd was about to disperse, a graceful figure stepped in from outside.
She wore white robes,
a veil over her face.
Though her features were concealed, the aura rolling off her took one's breath away.
Kagome couldn't help exclaiming, "Is she… a fairy?"
Though the dim divine glow was restrained,
it was nothing an ordinary human could compare to.
Kaede snatched up the bow at her side, tensing. "Halt. Who are you? Why have you entered our village?"
"I… am called Kikyo."
What?
Kikyo!
Everyone froze at the name.
Kaede was struck dumb on the spot.
Then she snapped, angered, "What joke is this—my sister—"
The veil lifted.
A familiar face appeared before them.
Kikyo.
It was truly Sister Kikyo.
And yet she was not quite the same as Kaede's memory:
for the woman before them smiled with a beauty the former Kikyo had never shown.
"Impossible—what kind of demon are you? My sister died, what, fifty years ago!"
"I've come from another time and space. Don't be alarmed. Would you like me to demonstrate the Arrow of Purification?"
Kikyo lifted a finger.
Purple, demon-cleaving power gathered mid-air,
then streaked toward the Inuyasha Forest,
reducing a hundred-foot demon within to ash.
Seeing Kikyo's face left Kagome momentarily stupefied.
She recovered quickly.
It was already clear she wasn't in her own time; of course she wanted to go home.
After that display,
Kaede chose to believe Kikyo for the time being. But to avoid a panic, she decided to take the two to her house.
Watching their visitor move through the lanes with all the familiarity of a longtime resident,
Kaede believed eight-tenths of Kikyo's story already.
How else would she know the way home?
Inside,
Kagome blurted, "Did you come to help me get back to modern times? I really don't want to stay here another minute."
People here were savage.
And there were monsters.
It was hell.
Kikyo ignored her and looked at her aging sister, sighing. "We of this era have borne too much. Let me heal your eyes."
Her fingertips passed lightly across Kaede's furrowed brow.
Warmth poured into Kaede's empty sockets.
"What… what's happening?"
She tugged down her eye patch.
The eyes blinded for fifty years—
had been restored!
Kagome stood there, slack with astonishment.
Was this… magic?
"In the true timeline, you too were injured by a demon and lost your sight," Kikyo said. "Then you received God's grace. Not only were your eyes restored, we sisters also asked to undo the original tragedy."
She didn't wait for Kaede to ask.
She explained it herself.
"So, Sister… you traveled here from another time and space?"
"Yes. As for Kagome—she's the reincarnation of my soul in this world. The Shikon Jewel I carried was the opportunity for reincarnation."
Kikyo stretched her hand toward Kagome.
A soft pink jewel rose out of Kagome's body into her palm.
The moment the Shikon Jewel touched Kikyo,
it thrashed frantically,
even beginning to spill miasma.
It had recognized the aura of annihilation in her.
"Hmph. In my previous life, I could purify you. Do you think a mere aggregation of grudges can compare with my God?"
A terrible radiance lanced through the Shikon Jewel,
erasing the spirits within.
Only Midoriko's soul was drawn free.
Midoriko was extremely weak at the moment.
Kikyo sealed her temporarily into a jade pendant.
When she returned to the God-Realm,
she would release her.
The two women—one old, one young—were both silenced by Kikyo.
Kaede was shaken by her sister's terrifying power.
Kagome was terrified by the malice seething inside the jewel.
After tidying away those matters, Kikyo said to Kagome, "There are things you don't get to decide by wanting them. As the reincarnation of my soul,
you're clever and lucky. Now that you've come to this era, stay at my side—I'll teach you divine arts.
Otherwise, be prepared to face endless demons. I… once I finish the task at hand, I'll prepare to send you back to your original time and space."
A small lie did no harm.
The time tunnel in the Bone-Eater's Well
had already been sealed by her.
Without Kikyo's permission, Kagome going back to the modern day was a fool's dream.
God had taken an interest in her.
There would be no getting away.
"Then I can't go back to modern times… Can't I just climb back up the well?"
"You can try."
At that, Kagome yanked the door open and bolted.
She'd stop caring about anything else.
If there was a chance, she had to try.
After the silly girl left,
Kaede, seated across from Kikyo, said, "You came for her, didn't you?"
"I didn't expect that after living several decades, your wits would sharpen. Back then, you were so dense you couldn't even manage a charm."
"You're one to talk. I didn't expect the 'other-world' version of my sister could coax a girl so smoothly—and be so talkative."
"That's because of God. Without God… there would be no me now."
"So… what about Inuyasha?"
"You mean the dog-demon in the forest? Sorry. I don't know him."
Kaede went cold all over at those words.
The two, once deeply in love, did not even know each other,
and Kikyo's tone was as indifferent as if she were speaking of a stranger.
What had happened in that time and space?
Kikyo turned, smiled at her sister, and said, "Don't be so frightened. I'll leave soon. Do you want to come back with me? Cultivating divine arts could restore your youth."
"No. I've lived my life. I can't accept another time and space."
Kaede shook her head.
So long as her sister could be happy,
as for Inuyasha, let him sleep.
Alas—fated, yet unable to be together after all.
…
After a long while,
Kagome trudged back from the forest, tired as a dead dog.
She'd been in school too long; meeting monsters again like this—
it was a miracle she hadn't collapsed from hunger.
Still, the attempt had settled things for her.
At the Bone-Eater's Well, there was no going back. Kagome suspected it was because the Shikon Jewel had been purified—
but so what?
The situation didn't bend for anyone.
Take it one step at a time.
"Excuse me—how do I learn spells? Since you're taking me with you, teach me some way to protect myself."
"Very well. We'll start with the basics."
Kikyo smiled. She was now a Nine-Star Goddess.
Teaching Kagome would be child's play.
They stayed in Maple Village for three days.
Then set off for the Demon-Slayer Village.
Facing Kikyo, who drifted among the clouds, Kagome's lingering resentment blew away like dust.
"Are we immortals? I didn't think I'd ever get to fly!"
"No. This is only a flying technique. As long as you cultivate the meditation I've taught you, flying on your own won't be difficult."
"Oh—then I'll work hard."
Kagome stood beside Kikyo; from a distance, the two looked like twins.
For convenience,
she'd swapped her short skirt for a shrine maiden's robes.
The stockade was just as memory held—
only larger.
When the villagers below saw figures flying through mist and cloud,
they were astonished.
Sango's father readied his weapon and barked orders to the men.
"Be alert. If they attack, defend yourselves well."
"Yes, Father."
Armored in tight-fitting gear, Sango answered firmly.
The two descended before the stockade.
Once the patriarch saw that the newcomers were like twins, he was a little dumbstruck.
He hastily dismissed his men, stepped forward, and asked, "May I ask who you are?"
"We are goddesses under the Eternal God, traveling the world," Kikyo said calmly. "Patriarch, you should have heard my name. I am Kikyo. Once, your grandfather gave me the Shikon Jewel."
With that introduction,
Sango's father understood.
The woman hadn't died—she'd ascended to serve the gods.
Seeing as she was passing through,
she wanted to take a look—
and while at it, find women with strong spiritual power to serve the gods.
Sango's father was a perceptive man.
He knew Kikyo's might.
He only hoped she would leave some inheritance behind.
So he sent for his daughter and quietly asked for her thoughts.
In this era, human life was hard.
Serving the gods beat suffering in the village.
Kagome, for her part, smiled on the surface, but grumbled inwardly. That "God" was absolutely not up to anything serious.
He said he was seeking a goddess.
In truth, he was obviously expanding his harem.
Still, she didn't dare say it aloud. Kikyo's power could shake the heavens, and Kagome had seen a god's true body herself.
A little griping in her heart—
no open disrespect.
Kikyo studied Sango's eyes, smiled, and said, "This girl is good. I'll take her. And here—pass on your script method; it will make slaying demons much easier in the future."
"Then thank you, Lady Kikyo."
"Mm. No need."
Sango stood to the side, silent the whole time, but her eyes kept measuring the goddess.
When her father finished speaking with Kikyo,
she stepped forward. "Since you're a goddess, could you… show us something?"
"Sango!"
"Father, we can't just believe her because she says a word. That won't do."
Sango spoke stubbornly.
Kikyo smiled and asked, "What would you consider a demonstration? Will this suffice?"
She flicked a finger.
Beside the stockade, earth split open into a trench a kilometer long.
Sango's father ran to look.
The ditch was three meters wide, and the bottom could not be seen.
The forest on either side had suffered heavy damage.