InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ The Flower Girl ❯ Deceit ( Chapter 14 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

Disclaimer: I do not own the characters of Inuyasha.

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"Why did you come to me, Kikyou?"

Kagome was alone at the goshinboku, thinking over what Sesshoumaru had told her last night. She couldn't get his words out of her mind for some reason, and she'd - once again - been so caught up in her thoughts that she hadn't noticed the danger literally advancing on her.

Now, she stood staring at her former incarnation - or what was left of her, with concern. What could she be after?

"I bring news of Naraku, nothing more, girl." Kikyou looked at her steadily for a few moments, then her lip curled just slightly. "Do you still fear me, child?"

Kagome considered the woman before her for several minutes in silence, then finally shook her head.

"No, I don't fear you. I pity you, though." She noted the angry look that crossed the older woman's face, and shook her head again. "You have become the very thing that you fought to protect others against when you still lived - and you're too blinded by hatred to see it." She sighed. "If you had news of Naraku, why didn't you just tell Inuyasha last night?"

Kikyou looked taken aback for a moment, then shot her a suspicious look. "How did you know he was with me last night?"

"Because I was here, of course," she said, steadily. "But that doesn't answer the question, Kikyou."

The woman looked away for a moment, obviously trying to gather herself, then looked back, a scowl decorating her face.

"I do not need to explain myself to a reincarnation like you - I am the original, and the better."

"Tell me, undead one, how you are the original, when the soul you both have carried was borne by others before you? What would you say to one of them should they be brought back in the manner you were?"

Both women turned in surprise, Kikyou's face taking on a sullen cast as she took in his words - and Kagome's eyes widened in wonder.

Why didn't I ever think of that?

"No answer? Interesting - but not surprising. I am curious - what is this information on Naraku that you could not pass on to Inuyasha last night?" Sesshoumaru's regard was steady, and Kikyou was unnerved - visibly.

"N-naraku's insects have been seen heading east - towards the wolf clans. It is my guess that he is going after the shards carried by the wolf prince." With that, she turned, her glowing servants wrapping around her and lifting her away from the two people watching.

Kagome shook her head as she watched the elder miko disappear. She didn't like what they were hearing - if Naraku really was heading that way, it was for something else - Koga wasn't in the east right now.

But Kikyou wouldn't have known that.

Sesshoumaru had been silent since the last question he'd asked, and Kagome couldn't help but glance over at him - and wonder what he'd been doing out here to begin with.

And then she remembered what he'd said to Kikyou.

With those words, he'd erased much of her inferiority complex when it came to the older woman. Because he was right - she wasn't the original form that had housed their soul - she was a reincarnation, too.

Her attention was jerked back to him when he moved forward, and beckoned her closer. Curiously, she came up to him, and followed his gaze to a haze laying over a small part of the ground where Kikyou had been standing. As Kagome reached it, that haze coalesced into a small flower...

Kagome stared at it for several minutes, considering what it meant - and where it had appeared. This wasn't the first time something like this had happened to her - she thought about flowers a lot, and her miko powers had tapped into that, using the imagery many times to warn her of things to come.

Sesshoumaru stared down at the flower, bemused. Although I should not be, he thought, with an internal sigh.

"Well, miko? What flower is it and what does it mean?"

"Mock orange... and it means deceit," she said slowly.

A raised brow, and then a huff from the daiyoukai. "It seems to me that is a fitting flower to represent the undead one. Come, woman - we should return to the others, they are about ready to leave."

He took one last glance at the flower as Kagome nodded, then turned and moved away.

Deceit, indeed.

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A/N: Wonder what Kikyou's up to now? Methinks its another attempt to get Kagome away from Inuyasha. Oh well... and the whole reincarnation thing is something that I have always wondered about - Kikyou's a copy of the form before her just as much as Kagome is - and that makes the undead one a hypocrite.

Amber