Edit 6.12.13: The rating of this story had to be changed to MA due to some content in Chapter 44. After recieving several complaints, I've decided to add this note at the beginning of the story - There are no explicit sex scenes in this work. The rating is due to one sexually suggestive sentence in Chapter 44, and to graphic violence in future chapters. The majority of the story falls more in the T range. ^_^
Edit 1.06.14: As I have continued to get complaints about the rating, let me clarify - the rating was changed to MA at the request of the site mods, in order to bring the fic in compliance with site policies. If you don't feel the story warrants an MA rating, the ones to approach about that are the mods, not I. :)
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A change of the wind
May toss a ship upon rocks
Or to safe harbor
-l-
Kagome stood in the clearing by the Bone Eater’s Well, the Shikon Jewel in her hands. It was whole. Complete.
Unblemished.
So much had led to this moment, and yet she still didn’t feel ready. She didn’t know what would happen next. Would the well close? And which side would she be on when it did?
She’d said goodbye to both of her families, just to be sure.
She raised her eyes from the softly glowing orb cupped in her hands, unaware of how she looked in the moment – a priestess of power and purity, the Shikon Miko, with eyes like the sky. Wind blew through the clearing, bending the grass and pulling at Kagome’s red hakama.
She looked to Inuyasha. He gave her an encouraging nod, his hand on the hilt of Tetsusaiga.
He was still certain then. The wish should be hers.
She turned from him, scanning the faces of the rest of her friends. Miroku smiled, meeting this newest change just as he faced everything else. Sango looked on with quiet acceptance, her shoulders tensed. Shippou was in her arms, green eyes filled with tears. He was afraid of losing Kagome most of all.
Even Sesshoumaru had seen fit to attend. He stood further back, just in front of the trees, his eyes focused on Kagome.
He probably wanted to be sure the jewel was properly disposed of. Kagome blushed under his scrutiny, but nodded to him politely.
He gave no sign of having noticed.
Searing all of their faces into her mind, just in case it was the last time she would see them, Kagome took a deep breath and looked back to the jewel.
An unselfish wish.
She had spent days thinking about it, and had come up with only one thing.
I wish for everyone who was harmed by the jewel, and the battle to control it, to find peace and happiness, in this life and the next.
It seemed like a pure wish. After all, Kagome would have never met her friends in the Feudal Era without the jewel’s intervention.
For her, it was a blessing. An often times painful one…
But a blessing none the less.
She watched as the jewel grew brighter and brighter, until she couldn’t bear to look at it. It left her hands, flying into the air.
The was a sound like thunder, and then hundreds, maybe even a thousand pink lights streaked through the sky. For a horrible moment, Kagome thought the jewel had shattered again.
But then she felt it. The spirits of Midoriko and the youkai she had been trapped with within the jewel for all these years. They ghosted by Kagome’s skin.
Free.
Thank you, came a whisper inside her head.
Yes, thank you, came another, this one in her heart.
The spirits danced around her, unseen but clearly felt. And then they slipped away, finally to rest.
All except one.
It laughed along her skin, a wicked, mischievous bubbling.
And then it filled Kagome’s nose and mouth as she inhaled, forcing her lips into an odd laugh.
Wish granted, was said with a silent chuckle as the spirit settled in her throat.
The consciousness faded, but the power remained.
-l-
Inuyasha saw Kikyo, after the jewel flashed with light. And she was Kikyo again – warm and loving. She smiled her small smile, and granted him forgiveness.
“Live for us both now,” she said, as she faded into mist.
When she vanished, Inuyasha knew it wasn’t to go to hell.
-l-
Miroku’s father clapped him on the back, his spectral hand somehow warm.
“You did it, boy. You broke the curse.”
Miroku flexed his hands, both of them bare. There was no longer a Wind Tunnel to bind with beads.
“Is that her? The one you’ve told me about in your prayers?”
Miroku looked to Sango, and nodded.
“She will give you many fine children!”
Together, they leered.
-l-
Sango spoke with her family again. She assured the spirits before her that she had avenged them, and that the village would be rebuilt, in time. She would not let their ways be forgotten.
With a sidelong look to the monk and a blush, she also promised that their line would not end with her.
-l-
Sesshoumaru heard his father’s howl at his back, an undulating dog song that sang of pride in two sons. He told himself he was above needing such childish reassurance, even as he stood straighter, contentment flooding him.
There was a flash and a tingle, a sudden rush of youki that he could not control, and then Sesshoumaru bent over double, blood flying to pepper his sleeve as bone and sinew jutted from his shoulder.
There was much pain in the rapid growth of the limb he had lost. But as Sesshoumaru raised his newly restored fingers, green poison glinting at the ends of his claws, his face reflected only dark pleasure.
-l-
Kagome choked on something beyond the physical, her hands on her throat as her heart pounded.
Was her death the price of her wish? Was the end of her adventure to be so very final?
Deaf and blind, she staggered, falling to her knees. There was pain in her spine. She groaned, ripping at her hakama.
Until the lights of her wish faded, and the spirits stirred by the jewel returned from whence they came, Kagome writhed upon the ground, a keening cry in the back of her throat.
Finally the pain lessened. Tentatively, Kagome climbed to her feet.
All eyes were on her.
“What?” she asked weakly, feeling odd in her own skin.
She looked down at her hands to see them tipped with delicate claws. The wind blew her hair in her face. She pushed at it, only to find that the strands were bright red.
A chill went through her, a tremble of fear. Something swished behind her.
Shippou launched himself into her arms just as she turned and found three tails protruding from the back of her hakama.
Three red tails.
She was a kitsune.
“Damn, Kagome! What the hell kind of wish did you make?” Inuyasha demanded, starting toward her.
Then her world went mad.