InuYasha Fan Fiction / Trigun Fan Fiction ❯ Miko ❯ Her World ( Chapter 2 )

MIKO

By L.O. a.k.a. azn_otaku

Crossover: InuYasha and Trigun

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A/N: Wow, hello all! Poo, I am experiencing the typical epidemic known as the "Writer's Block". It seems that I have re-opened my creativity for "Sunshine", only to block it off for "Miko". Not to worry folks, I'm sure it'll pass in due time. Meanwhile, enjoy this chapter!

Safire Ranmako: Thanks for enjoying this! I hope I don't ruin my already good reputation with any bad chapters.

Larania: Yep! Knives is going to be in here more! Read on and you'll see him in this chapter!

Coral Skipper: I'm glad that you weren't saying that this particular fic sucked. It's nice to know. And I'm glad that this is a good crossover. I thought that since there weren't many Trigun xovers out there that seemed to cover a more serious plot, I would try to create one!

Thanks for reviewing!

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"......" Dialogue

[.......] Thoughts

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Chapter Two: Her World

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She had looked at him for such a long time. Kikyou could not understand how one so young as her reincarnation could have such wisdom in her eyes. She could not understand how the girl could look at her lover's brother with such sad eyes.

Sesshoumaru had only stood there, as if transfixed by Kagome.

Kikyou smiled softly before touching the windowsill of the house. The black bits broke off with her gentle touch, her hand flinched slightly before settling down peacefully upon the forlorn wood. Deep eyes watched with unseeing orbs of grey as light washed the worn bark down to a smooth side. Her long black locks fell over a pale face like silk threads, floating almost heavenly with the wind that was beginning to pick up. Her eyes never left the bark, she recalled the last moments before she began her quiet existence as Kagome's protector, her loyal friend.

It took a little while for her to track down the spirit she had sensed. She had not been worried, only slightly curious. It did not matter whether or not InuYasha was still alive, she would have only been disappointed to know that it had not been her to bring him to death. The monk and the taijiya were merely expendables in her quest for revenge. She had begun down a beaten path into InuYasha forest when she heard the sound of labored breathing. The smell of blood was heavy in the air as her steps became the softest of whispers in an attempt to sneak upon whatever was in the brush. The sense of her reincarnation became just a tad stronger, although still weak. And she could feel three other souls that seemed to be vaguely familiar....

Her eyes were so tired, it hurt to watch them. Kikyou almost frowned when she remembered Kagome's face. There was a smile that did not seem to be happy. Nor did it seem to be sad or angry. There was a nothingness to her soul that was unnatural. It unnerved her to see her reincarnation in such a way that reminded her of herself. But, unlike Kagome, she was half dead. The girl should not have looked that way, so pale and frail. Her skin carried a grey tint with the smell of ashes burning surrounding the air. She limped out of a worn well, struggling to climb over the edge with much difficulty. It had been odd to feel, for the very first time, the urge to help the girl. She had debated for a few minutes whether or not she should have gone over and pull the girl up from her misery.

But there had been the three other souls she had sensed.

One was Sesshoumaru. She had remembered meeting him long ago, and recalled that he was the brother of InuYasha. At his side were two little sidekicks, the young girl Rin and that horrid toad, Jaken. Jaken had been staring at the struggle of Kagome's with disgust, while Rin looked on with interest. It had been no surprise to her when she realized what the two were doing. But Sesshoumaru...

She had expected him to walk away, or finish the girl off at the very least. Being the cold demon he was, Kikyou would have not expected less. She watched him in case he did decide to dispose of her reincarnation, slightly curious as to why he still stood there. His boa blew in the wind with a slight flick of the tail, long white hair following not far behind. Her eyes traced the patterns upon his clothing, the worn marks driven deep into his armor. His eyes were not the blood red that normally came about as a sign of attack or anger. They were hooded, watching the every move of the girl from the future who had noticed him.

Kikyou remembered.

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The sun was hot and he was even hotter. How could humans even THINK to live under this kind of weather?! He supposed that is was another one of their good points, being able to survive in this damn heat.

Knives was getting very irritated.

There was an abandoned ship nearby, perhaps he should go sit under it. At least then he'd had some shade. It had been a few hours since he had left the last town, it would be a little while before he could settle down. His social skills were not exactly perfect and the fact that he blew up at that waitress was a fact to be seen. How did his brother do it, to have patience with such creatures? He had learned that they were almost equal to the plants, but that did not make him want to like the fools. He knew he still had a lot of work ahead of him.

[Vash...you had always been the softie.]

His eyes wandered the slights cracks in the dry earth, tracing paths with icy blue orbs. The sun beat down upon the land unmercifully. It was a good thing his hair was cropped so short, he didn't know if he could have withstood the heat with hair like that Thompson girl. But, she supposed that those Insurance girls were used to this heat. They had lived all their lives this way, unknowing to the joys of the Earth. Although he had never visited that marble of blue, Rem had often taken him and his brother to that room with flowers and animals and lush green grass. That had been at the time when he was nice, naïve. He had been young then, not noticing the way a few of the crew members on that main ship had stared at him in terror. He thought that...if he had had a few good friends then everything would be alright.

[It was sad.]

He had been weak, this he now knew. All this time, he had thought Vash to be the crybaby....to be the soft one. But, Vash had withstood the abuse of the few who had hated their very existence, and fought to give them life. His vivacious brother had scarred his entire body just to give the humans a chance. At times, Knives could only stare at his twin in wonder and awe. It was as if...Vash knew that his sibling would soon learn what he himself had seen many years ago.

[How...ironic...]

Something caught his eye, a glint of metal in the sun. It was probably just a piece from the ship that had broken off somehow. But...out of curiosity and unwillingness to go out into the heat once again, Knives stooped from his perch on the ship to dig his hand through the crack in the dirt. This metal shone brightly, different from the dull sheen of the old abandoned ship. He grasped at what felt like a small chain. The thin links slipped out of his hands a few times before he started to growl out of frustration. Flopping down on his knees, he dropped his rucksack beside him and dug a tiny hole in the ground, widening the split in the soil. Making sure his fingers held the chain tightly, he yanked gently, but firmly, upwards.

The gleaming object popped out of the earth as if overjoyed to see the light of the sky once more. Knives accidentally let go of whatever it was he had obtained and it fell in a sweeping arc several feet away from him. What had made him so eager to go through all this trouble to fetch a hunk of worthless metal?

Sighing, Knives stood up and scratched his head. He needed to get going. Swinging his pack over his shoulder, he bent over to grab the treasure he had caught and began walking again, back out into the sweltering sun. It seemed that the fiery sphere high in the sky could not tell him from the humans it normally tortured, sadistically bursting forth to hit him with a wave of hotness.

Yet another reason Vash would have to prove to his brother once and for all that they were not unlike these silly mortals.

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"Civilization at last! I swear, you are deliberately trying my patience." Meryl turned to glare at the tall blonde next to her, her eyes narrowing in annoyance.

"What do you mean?" Vash grinned nervously as he inched away.

"Oh Sempai, Mr. Vash only lost his way!"

"EXACTLY! Do you realize we had been walking in the hot sun for TEN HOURS?!" Meryl sighed and rubbed her forehead, leaving a streak of dirt, "Why couldn't you have just asked the bus driver for directions? I'm sure he had said that the next town was only a few iles away!"

They did not notice that everyone in the town seemed to be slowly backing away from the newcomers, as if they were the very plague themselves. Children held a look of terror as they raced off and found the closest door to hide in. People began ushering one another into empty buildings. Perhaps if the three travelers found the town empty...they would turn around....

"Sempai? Why is everyone running away?"

At Millie's question, the public increased their need to hide. Even if it was a hopeless wish now, they sincerely thought that if the wanderers got the message, they would leave without a hitch. It was bad enough that there were outsiders in the town...did they have to be such WEIRD outsiders?

"Eh? Running....away?" Vash and Meryl stopped their arguing to take heed to Millie's words.

Indeed, it was as if the entire town were frightened to death. Eyes peeked through shutters and men hid their families behind them. The town square was deserted, the silence only punctuated by whispers. Meryl looked about nervously as she caught several giving her odd glares. Had she done anything wrong? Unless these folks despised minor bickering, she didn't see any problem with her.

"Hello there! Eh? What's wrong?" Vash bent down to wave at a little boy who had been the walking down the road when he saw the tall Stampede. His little green eyes widened in shock, his head jerking back. Opening his mouth, he clamped a hand to his head and mouth at the exact same time...as if hiding his appearance....

"O-Outsiders..." His voice gave a tiny squeak.

"Sugoi! Is that a costume? How can you make such realistic looking ears?!" Millie looked as happy as a clam as she pointed at the head of the youngster. If he could have paled even more, Meryl was positive that he would have. His other hand went up to his head as if to hide the little cat ears popping up from a bed of dark hair. With both palms flat on his head, the three could see tiny fangs poking out from his mouth. They gleamed in the sunlight, shining like white ivory. It had to be a costume. Those things couldn't be real....

"KASHI! OVER HERE!"

All four pair of eyes in the middle of the town square looked up into one of the nearby doorways, where a group of young boys motioned rapidly towards the one in front of Vash. They had gathered enough courage, after awhile, to run up and take "Kashi" by the arm. Two ran him back into what appeared to be a general store while the leader glared at the three with his small hands balled up into defensive fists. He crouched, tiny mouth set into a deep frown much too spiteful for one so supposedly innocent. A baggy cap was flopped messily on top of his head, the brim covering one of his eyes in what was meant to be a dangerous look. He would have looked comical, if it weren't for the fact that his hatred seemed so real.

"Get out of here! We don't want none of you outsiders! GO!" His voice had not hit puberty, but the fierceness was unmistakable. Meryl held out a hand, her mind was so confused. Why did everyone run?

Why did this little boy look at her with such fear and anger that even she felt it through her skin and bone?

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It was getting to be near dusk, she needed to get back to the base. No doubt her master would punish her for coming in far later than normal. This had been a simple mission, he knew for a fact that she would not have had trouble with it. Her opponent had only been a mere girl, what was there to expect? She was to kill the female and get back "home" as quickly as possible.

[What am I?]

This question bounced around in her mind. It was not bitter, not guilty. Just a slightly curious tone used mainly by the young who had no clue as to what the real world was. She assumed that she did not know herself. Even though her body had been alive for countless years, she knew deep within her that her soul had not yet awakened. Perhaps it was alive when she had been born, perhaps not. All she knew, now, was that she was as dead as the young woman she had just murdered.

[Sad.]

Her eyes were cold as she sat upon the bed in the young girl's room. It was a very nice room, filled with miscellaneous objects that brought on a feeling of warmth and fuzziness. She supposed that if she had lived a normal life, her room would look much like this one. She wondered vaguely what a stuffed animal felt like, how it could bring comfort to the largest of fears. These questions normally stuck within her after a trip, after she had been out to see normal life for once. Her room consisted of nothing but a tall cylinder which was her bed, and a bare metal room. There was the oxygen tank next to her sleeping quarters, and she had a shelf in the far corner with her training outfit for when her master let her out.

She was only let out once a month. That was when she would be taken to another bare metal room and her body would automatically go into training mode. As her "bed" was so much like a cryogenic sleep tube, it was as if she had never been put to sleep at all whenever she woke up fully. Her body remained the exact same as it had when she had walked back in.

Oh yes. There was always one more thing that decorated her dorm. Normally a rack stood up against the tank, a bag of chemicals slowly dripping into her veins. Her master never trusted her enough to let her out for food. She was required to feed by a tube which inserted itself in her arm. She did not remember the last time she had tasted anything. If her taste buds had died while she had been in her tank, she would not have been very surprised.

[My room.]

Why couldn't she have a life like this girl? She could pretend that she had never killed, she could pretend that she was in fact, the very girl that her arrow had gone through. The family might not know. Her appearance could be so much like the woman in her picture.

Taking a ragged teddy bear and hugging it awkwardly to her body, she wondered how one was supposed to hold such a soft object. Her fingers squeezed the large feet, digging fingernails into fuzz. The limbs were flexible, her arms grew as tight as they could, as if trying to meld the animal into her own body. Why couldn't she have the comfort that this girl had?

It was late. Her master would surely punish her now. Besides, she was getting that gnawing feeling in her stomach which told her that it was time to use her IV once again.

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Knives frowned, his head resting upon his knapsack. At night, the skies were clear and the stars bright. This was the time he felt the most peaceful, when he could just lie underneath the moon and stare up at the gigantic hole Vash had made upon an already cratered surface. But tonight was not a night for quiet contemplation

[Damn locket.]

He had been mildly curious when he had first obtained this confound piece of jewelry. There were not many necklaces around like this. Most females preferred the fancier type of trinket, the kind with lots and lots of beads or jewels. This was, unlike anything he had seen before. It was a simple golden chain. Upon it hung an oval shaped locket, the latch secured firmly in place. Thin engravings were delicately carved upon the surface, a type of design that fascinated Knives. He did not know of anyone so skilled as to create such an intricate work of art. The old people of Earth had perfected the technique of jewelry design, but unfortunately that art form had not survived in Gunsmoke. Most knew that the bigger the jewel, the better.

The only thing wrong with this was the fact that the locket was locked.

He didn't mean locked as in a key lock, he meant as in crusted with age. The goddamn necklace was covered in dirt almost as hard as rock. If he didn't want to ruin the locket while still trying to open it, he would have to go about very slowly to chip away at the protective cover. All he could see now was half of the design on the front and back of the oval. There were parts of a letter that he could recognize, perhaps the initials of someone? Until he could take the time to uncover the grime carefully, he would have to wait to see what lay inside this unusual piece of work.

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She had rough marking all over her legs and between the shreds of her clothing. That green skirt and white blouse she normally wore was ripped into pieces as though she had been pulled back from trying to escape something. As she steadied herself upon the ground in the forest, she clutched at her chest. Her normally vibrant eyes were dull with a steady pain that no doubt came from her entire body. Coarse wounds snakes along what used to be perfectly smooth skin, dirt smeared across her cheek as well as the rest of her body.

Kikyou had not remembered her reincarnation to look so sad.

[It was as if...she knew we would be there.]

The dead miko sat under the tree she had been protecting, her eyes far off into the sky. Nowadays there wasn't much she could do except watch the world heal itself from the scars that the humans had marked into the very soil. She liked to remember what it had been like in the few days before Kagome had left her, for that was when she had found a true friend. Even in her days alive had she not found someone who understood her as well as that bubbly female. And who better to know herself other than the girl she had been reincarnated as?

But, that day....Kagome had not looked happy. She stared straight ahead at Sesshoumaru and his little cronies, only one of them looking pleased at the appearance of the girl. Kikyou had now stood out into the clearing, her eyes upon Kagome and sensing the every move of Sesshoumaru. If anything happened...she held a hand back to prepare for attack. Time seemed to stop for a moment, as if to allow the small group to regain its bearings.

Slowly, Kikyou had been so amazed at the determination within Kagome's face, the girl made her way towards the taller youkai. She grasped at her chest once more, but this time to snatch at a small hardened sphere half that dangled upon a chain on her neck. Her foot dragged upon the ground and she tripped, her body falling as if she could not control her movements. She fell with a thud and a wince. But still...her struggle to get to InuYasha's sibling would not be set back.

It was only a few short moments before the two met, face to face.

A tired smile.

Shaking hands.

A flash of movement.

Kikyou buried her face in her hands from where she sat underneath the Go-Shinboku tree. Although her emotions rarely showed, she could not help but attempt to remember what had happened. It had all happened so fast.

Kagome had entrusted the jewel she had worked so hard to obtain...in Sesshoumaru's hands. Kikyou had not been sure whether or not the girl had lost her mind. She did not seem so mentally ill at the time. Her only response to the widened eyes of Sesshoumaru was the faint upwards turn of her pale lips. It was as if saying that she trusted her life, or what was the rest of it, in the cold demon's hands.

There had been something that had leapt out of the well before Kagome's gave the group there a terrified look. She tried to run for it but whatever had blurred past was now clamping onto Kagome with a vicious grip. The two had leapt down the well again in a matter of seconds.

That was the last she had seen of the girl.

Of course, one would say that those few moments were not enough to gain such fierce loyalty. They would be proven wrong. Something within Kikyou had stirred that day. She had thought all emotion but hatred and cunning to be lost within Kagome, her other self. She had thought that the girl had taken so much of her soul away that she was left with nothing but a dry earthen husk. She had not been expecting to feel a drop of hot wet liquid fall from her eyes. The trail was slow and steady as her fingers shakily wiped a tear away. Her soul had been brought back, if only briefly, by the girl whom she had thought meant nothing to her.

It was an odd feeling, to say the least.

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A/N: Yeah, this was a little shorter of a chapter than the last one. Like I said, typical writer's block. That and the stress of finals coming up. I haven't had much time to write seeing as I need to finish up all my extra homework and get to some extra studying. But anyways, I hope I'll be able to get over this annoying block to write something really great for next time!

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JAPANESE DICTIONARY

Taijiya - demon slayer

Sempai - a term of respect, something you would probably call a boss, or a leader, or an upperclassman in school

Sugoi - cool!

Kashi - Oak. This boy isn't really a major character. I just need a random name that I picked out.

Miko - priestess

Youkai - demon

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