As the last of Naraku drifted off glittering into the ether, Kagome sank to her knees.

It’s over, she thought, closing her eyes with a sigh that welled up from the very bottom of her soul.

When she opened her eyes again, she saw the Shikon no Tama lying before her. Dark amethyst in color, it brightened to the faintest rose as she curled her fingers around it, studying the tiny chink marring its otherwise flawless surface.

A bittersweet smile pulled at her lips, her heart twinging as she thought of Sesshoumaru. Only one piece left to find. 

Pushing to her feet with a wince, she walked over to the disintegrating edge of the roof beneath her. With Naraku’s death, the phantom castle was slowly coming apart at the seams, Kagome’s eyes widening in alarm as the beasts of the Void drifted in through the fallen barrier.

In the courtyard below, her friends were still locked in ferocious battle with two of these monsters. Stranded and weaponless atop the tower, Kagome looked on in a panic as the purified Jewel in her hand began to pulse and glow.

“Midoriko-sama…?” Kagome whispered as she held the blazing Jewel up to her heart, pink-tinged light pouring from it in waves.

Rapidly, the radiance spread out, enclosing the whole castle in an orb of rosy brilliance. The demons of the Void vaporized as they crashed against its shimmering exterior, the ones within dissolving in a purifying mist as a bright, vaguely feminine figure streaked past, cutting each demon down with a blinding flash.

“Kagome-chan!”

Tucking the Jewel into her haori, the young miko glanced down, smiling in relief at the sight of her friends sailing up toward her. Toppling down from Kirara onto the fading roof, Sango tackled Kagome in a tired, tearful hug.

“Oh, Kagome-chan,” the taijiya cried. “You’re safe…”

“Sango-chan,” Kagome greeted tremulously back, her own tears glimmering in the dark fabric of Sango’s armor.

“And Naraku?” the taijiya asked, her voice lifting with hope as she drew slightly away. “Is he truly…?”

“Gone,” Miroku answered with a serene smile, letting the rosary fall free from his sealed right palm as he swept Sango and Kagome both up in a surprisingly chaste embrace. “At last.”

Laughing in weepy joy, Kagome embraced him and the rest of her comrades in turn—even Jakken, who only made a cursory attempt to prise her off, his ugly blush making her smile that much broader. Wiping at the corners of her eyes, Kagome lifted her gaze to the glimmering barrier above them—and to the swirls of spectral ash darkening the purple sky, as Naraku’s stronghold continued to slowly dismantle beneath them.

“We need to get out of here,” she said, turning back to the others. “This place is crumbling into the Void as we speak.”

“Can you open the portal, Kagome-san?” Miroku asked.

Kagome shook her head. “No—only Kanna could, but Naraku killed her when she let you guys in.”

Padding a short distance across the roof, Kagome frowned in thought as she knelt down before the shattered remains of Kanna’s mirror. While the rest of the demoness’s body had fallen to dust, these pieces had remained. Fitting the jagged edges back together again, Kagome could sense something—not youki, exactly, but a presence just the same.

A thin thread of white light gleamed in the crack of the mirror, fusing the shards together. Stepping back in surprise, Kagome watched as the mirror rose shakily into the air, an image taking shape in its reflective surface.

“It’s the village!” the Sango exclaimed, pointing up toward the sky.

High above the center of the castle courtyard, a portal appeared, the familiar outline of Edo village visible through it. As Sango and Miroku leapt atop Kirara, Kagome scrambled up into Ah-Un’s saddle behind Jakken and Kohaku, whispering a soft “Thank You” toward the mirror behind them.

Soaring into the purple sky, Kagome and her friends slipped out of the Void through the center of the portal and returned home to the world of men.

Inuyasha © Rumiko Takahashi