Black thunder rolled against her senses. Ominous and oppressive in its sweep.

Tenseiga…it was of no further use to me.

Kagome slammed the door aside. Blood stained the front of her white haori, dripped from the knife clutched in her shaking fist. Her fingers clamped around the naked blade. Red drops rained down to pit the dust like tears.

A heat shimmer rose before her. A golden haze. In it she saw Inuyasha’s mournful look reflected.

Those girls…

She stumbled forward. Her body burned, slick with sweat.

…when I look at them, I see you.

Broken laughter tumbled from her lips. Huddled together outside the shed, the priestesses stared at her in mute horror. Kagome staggered past them, toward the steps. Empty laughter trailed from her still.

“All this time…”

I have only ever loved you.

“…All this time, it was me. It was all because of me…”

The knife slipped from her bloodless hand. Clattered wetly against the stones. Kagome’s fevered head swam. She stumbled again. Clutched at a jutting branch. A startled crow shrilled at her. Sharp black eyes seized her own.

You and Sesshoumaru…

Pain lanced like talons through her skull. Dark stormclouds boiled in her mind’s eye.

…you deserve one another.

How she made it down the steps she would never know. Her sight kept tunneling. Her mind drew dark blanks.

A nimbus of red eclipsed her.

But now she was standing on the shores of the lake.

Now she was standing there—and a vision was before her.

A living nightmare.

Glowing above the lake was a dragon. The dragon. But it couldn’t be—

That dragon was dead. She had killed it herself.

This was its twin, glaring back at her with its golden eyes. Jade-scaled and sinuous, the dragon undulated above the water’s misted surface. An aura surrounded it. But that aura was green.

Green, Kagome remembered with a jolt.

Green—

Not silver.

No, Kagome thought. No, it can’t be.

Gutted, she stared. From atop the dragon’s back, Hirokin met her eye, and smiled.

The dragon roared, the sound deafening. Clapping her hands to her ears, Kagome reeled away. A high ringing pierced her skull. She pitched over, retching. Sank to her knees. Shuddering, heaving, she crawled to her horse, who was rearing and screaming like mad. His mouth foamed. His huge eyes rolled, white with terror.

With shaking hands, she scrabbled for Tessaiga. Ripped it loose from its bindings. From its frayed sheath the blade whined free. The dull sword was dark in her hands, flecked here and there with spots of rust.

“Show me!” she wailed, gripping the blunt, battered blade. “Show me it wasn’t green—show me!”

Beneath the force of her will, the dark blade cleared. Kagome peered down into it, stared so hard into the sword and its memories her eyes began to sear.

In the blade she beheld another vision—

She saw herself, outside of herself, ensnared on the shores of another lake. Tangled in the black, claw-like branches of a dead tree. Her white haori shredded, laced with blood. She saw Inuyasha, shouting, trying to cut her free. She saw the mad frantic light in her eyes, like the horse’s. The blind unknowing fear. The fatal desperation.

She heard, muffled and distorted, as if through deep water, the sound of her voice shrieking out, “No! STOP! Let me go—LET ME GO!”

She saw the dragon, rushing toward them. She saw the spray of the broken lake.

She saw the dragon’s youki—

She saw that it was green.

But the flash that beheaded Inuyasha was not.

It was not.

It was not…

Only against the red of the sun was it silvered. Scalding tears streamed from Kagome’s eyes. Rose-colored light bled from her, silvered now by the same setting sun.

“It was the dragon,” she whimpered, anyway. “It was the dragon who killed him. It was…it was…it was…show me that it was. Please…”

Tessaiga gleamed. The vision cleared.

In the mirrored flat of its blade, she saw only herself.

---

Inuyasha © Rumiko Takahashi

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