“…Rin-chan? Rin-chan, can you hear me?”

A fine tremor ran through the young priestess, as her dark eyes refocused slowly from her transcendent spell. “Kagome-chan, I…I was gone for so long.”

Kagome shook her head. “No more than half an hour or so.”

Rin hugged her arms around her. Shivering still, she frowned. “Is that all? But it didn’t feel that way. It felt like ages, rushing past me. And then…”

“You went back to the beginning this time?” Kagome guessed.

Rin looked up at her, worry lines etched into her brow. “I think…maybe. I’m not sure. I’m not sure what I was seeing. It wasn’t anything like the world I know, and she—she wasn’t even human…”

As Rin trailed off, deeply troubled, a chill, ghostly wind swept across the barren hilltop, ruffling through their clothes and tugging at the bindings of their hair. Kagome reached out. Brushing Rin’s tousled bangs from her eyes, she placed her hand atop the fingers Rin held furled at the knee.

“What was her name, do you remember?”

“Rei,” Rin replied, after a moment. “That was her name.”

Kagome smiled slightly. “That was your name, Rin-chan—your first name.”

“But, how can that be?” Rin’s gaze was searching. Desperate. “How could that person have ever been me?”

Kagome looked off, her eyes lifting to the grey, churning skies. “Do you know the story, of how us mikos came to be?”

“In ancient times,” Rin answered, “the gods took pity on the plight of man. They bestowed their holy powers on the ones they deemed worthy, and those became the monks and mikos of today.”

Kagome nodded. “That’s true, in a sense—but it’s not the whole story. There was more to it than that.” Her eyes slid back to her apprentice’s. “Humans were the last beings the gods created in their image. The frailest in form, but the greatest in spiritual potential—because mortal souls alone reincarnate through the ages, gaining wisdom and approaching enlightenment with each life they live.”

“But because they were so weak,” Rin muttered, her expression faraway, “they were terrorized by the youkai and other beings who sought to claim the earth the gods had made for them. They died too young, too quickly, unable to achieve the spiritual growth our creator had intended—that was why we had to intervene…”

“We?” Kagome said. Her lips crooked furtively as Rin’s eyes went wide. “So, you do remember.”

“I…” Rin faltered, paling.

“We were the ones who took pity on mankind—who saw the divine plan the gods had in store and sacrificed our own immortality to further it. Of our own free will, we entered the karmic cycle, and as our souls passed through life after life, we protected humankind with our spiritual power. Some of that power transferred through our blood descendants as well, and in this way, man became strong enough to resist slaughter, to further his own destiny. Because of Kai and her followers—because of us.”

“Kai…” Rin whispered, her eyes tracing Kagome’s face before settling upon her own azure gaze. “Yes, I remember now…”

Kagome’s smile was tight. Of course, there was more to the story, even still. That Kai had come to lament this decision, that part of what had fueled it had been her love for a mortal man who had perished before her eyes, who would do so time and again—

That Kai had longed before death to escape the agony of such a fate, to return to her former self…

Well, that hardly seemed worth mentioning now.

“All souls are immortal,” Kagome concluded softly, holding Rin’s eye. “But as I’ve said before, you’re like me, Rin-chan. You have an immortal’s soul.”

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Inuyasha © Rumiko Takahashi