Divine Intervention.

A/N: So. First chappy. This is “Divine Intervention.” Basically, Kagome has told Inuyasha that she’s not really just your average time-traveling schoolgirl who kicks butt and takes demon names, but that she’s actually the goddess of time sent to the physical world to make sure history runs smoothly. If you read “Reincarnation,” which was the predecessor to this story, then you already know that her real name is Kimiko, but Inuyasha sometimes has a hard time breaking his habit of knowing her as Kagome. So… she remains Kagome in this one.

Whoo. And this one’ll have a different feel to it, so I’ll have to concoct a whole new soundtrack. Yay me.

Here we go.
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Chapter One: Distracting Enough.

I was once a being of power. I was stronger than most others my age, though not as strong as the elders. However, I already knew that, if I played my cards right, I could end up one some day. An elder Kami… wouldn’t that be something? Of course, that’d be a little strange to have an elder named Kimiko. There are several spirits, all over each of the seven planes of existence… but only the elders are known by name in the physical world. The world of humans, hanyou, and youkai.

Before I could become one of them, the elders said that I needed to prove myself strong enough, worthy enough. They assigned me the task of building a history for the physical world. It seemed like a simple enough task; I mean, my name, Kimiko, means “child of history.” I controlled time.

I started off as Midoriko, a simple priestess that helped heal the wounded. Soon, as I had planned it, war began amongst the youkai and the humans, and I, as Midoriko, joined in the fighting and became a real soldier.

That was when I ran into another spirit for the first time since my arrival in the physical world. His name was Kaji, and he had been created by Izanami as well. He was like my brother in that way, I guess. We looked out for each other on the field, and Kaji taught me how to master my powers in the physical world. He also taught me the art of pretending to be human.

It was a bit of a challenge at first. I had to numb myself, to mute myself. I had to change my eye color, which was very unusual for that region. My eyes were a bright blue, which was symbolic of my level of power as a goddess. Kaji’s were a crimson red. The colors are linked to the colors of a burning flame; the coolest parts are yellows and oranges and reds. The hottest are the blues, purples, and whites. As a blue flame, I was a step down from the elders. Kaji was a couple levels under me, but he knew a little more about living among mortals than I did.

Gotta say, I caught on quick.

It didn’t stop someone from figuring out what I really was. A demon, a monstrous dragon of all things, had found me out. He felt that if he devoured me, he would be as powerful as a god.

Bullshit. Not if I could help it, anyway.

I fought him and his minions off, but it wore me off pretty quickly in my human form. I couldn’t defeat them like that. So I changed, and I pulled purity into the physical plane from my reserves in the other planes. It killed the demon and his lackeys, but it left a residue over the physical plane. I couldn’t just stick it back into my reserve of power; it’s easier to bring it into the physical world than to take it back out. So I did the only thing I knew to do.

I bound it, contained it within a small, glass orb. It wasn’t exactly a jewel, but that’s what the humans decided to call it. So it became the Jewel of Four Souls, or Shikon no Tama, although it only took about a tenth of my own soul to create it. It would have taken four human souls to create. Now that’s some serious power.

I knew I had to protect it from humans and youkai who got the wrong idea. I knew that mortals were made to be an impure species; there were some Kami who never got used to doing the right thing. Life needs to be balanced; that’s the first thing they teach you in Kami elementary.

No such thing, really; only a metaphor. But you get the idea. The ole “good versus evil” thing.

So I took off with the Jewel, hiding out in small villages, using names and identities that I really never spent much time creating. Every now and then, after spending a few years in one village, I’d disappear from it and reappear in another one with a new name I just yanked out of my ass. No one was ever the wiser. I don’t even remember most of those names I used.

I remember one, though. Kikyo.

I had grown lonely during my time spent appearing, vanishing, and reappearing in totally new places as totally new people. The only one to help me through it was a girl I had picked up from one of the villages. Her mother had died during childbirth, and the girl had no one else. I took her with me when I went to a new village, and I raised her as my sister, telling her that our mother had died when she was born. I called her Kaede. She was small, sweet, simple girl, and I gave her the best life that I could, taught her plenty that she would need to know. I even gave her a little bit of a healing touch; I knew the elders wouldn’t mind. Honestly, I’d grown very attached to the girl, and I wanted her to live a long, full, happy life.

Sadly, thanks to that asshole hanyou, I never got to see my Kaede grow up and become a woman. When he came into the picture, I was blindsided.

Of course, it wasn’t immediate. At first, he seemed like just another predator after my Jewel, the cursed thing I had given birth to as Midoriko. I dispatched him fairly easily; for a hanyou, he had very little strength. Looking back on it, knowing what I know now, it surprises me that he couldn’t hurt me very easily. I’m not so sure whether that was his physical limitations, or just him actually using his head and his heart in conjunction with each other.

He just kept coming back. At first, it bothered me a little that he was so persistent. But, after a while, I honestly had to admit to myself that I enjoyed his company. He felt that I should be afraid of him. I almost laughed in his face at that.

We had barely talked before this day. It was a sunset, and we sat together, watching it from a grassy plain. The wind blew softly, and I watched his long, silver hair wave with it. Wind is a way of the elders to give little hints, I found out later. If I had thought about it, I’d have noticed that the wind seemed to be encouraging him to do something. But he turned his head and watched me with those large eyes that glimmered like gold in the fastly dimming light.

“My name is Inuyasha,” he told me.

I didn’t smile. “Mine is Kikyo.”

Even though I’d been telling people my name was Kikyo for several years at that point, it felt strange to lie to this man. Actually, he was only fifteen; a boy to humans, a pup to youkai. I felt… connected to him somehow. And the connection only grew over the next few weeks.

I’ll keep this short. You obviously know already what happened.

I fell for him. Quick and stupid. Love is like falling from a high peak; wonderful and peaceful and a rush, but you always hit the ground below. And it’s always painful.

When he attacked me, I didn’t even think about the poor sap lying in that cave, that Onigumo. He was as good as dead, I’d thought. Even with my power, I could not heal him. In my eyes, he was a goner.

I died thinking that I had been betrayed. And, yes, I was angry, but I was more angry with myself for being stupid enough to love him. He’d distracted me from doing what was meant to do; because of that little stunt I’d thought he’d pulled with the Jewel, I’d had to hide it and leave my physical body in that plane to bleed out and die. It was embarrassing for me to lose a physical body. I waited patiently, letting myself reform my power and my purity, building up strength. I waited for 500 years. I created a new life, a new persona; a schoolgirl named Higurashi Kagome. Her family had already been created; Kagome just needed to be.

I inserted myself into their lives, giving them memories of their Kagome. Things worked out well, especially when I used my well to “accidentally” fall into the feudal era. I had to grab the Jewel. But some damn thing attacked me as soon I slipped it out of its hidey hole, and I couldn’t beat it in Miko form.

That’s when HE woke.

The betrayal still stung. I had to look up into his smug face, his demanding eyes, and ask for his help. He complied, happy to kill a fellow demon and be free of the curse.

Funny thing, though; I’d meant to kill him…

You know the story from there. We went on our missions, met up with Shippo, Sango, and Miroku. We met Sesshomaru, Myouga, Jaken, Rin. We met Naraku. Inuyasha and I learned of the true nature of our deaths, but I had to hide my knowledge of this the best I could.

I became attached to these mortals, but I still couldn’t bring myself to trust them with my big secret. I knew they couldn’t handle it.

Soon after we defeated Naraku, Inuyasha and I couldn’t hold anything back anymore, though. We had to admit to each other that we were completely, uncontrollably in love. And in lust. After literally CENTURIES of trying to talk myself out of loving him, I was right back where I started.

We made love for the first time the night Naraku died. In the branches of the Goshinboku. It was my first time, physical and ethereal. The branch accidentally caught fire, and it rained and stormed for the rest of the night.

I told Inuyasha the truth in the morning. He was shocked, and he avoided me for about a day. When he returned, he told me breathlessly that he couldn’t live without me, and he couldn’t blame me for not trusting him, after what happened with us before.

It just gets better from there; as if Inuyasha alone wasn’t distracting enough, we had to have a family, didn’t we?
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A/N: Wow, I’m tired. This is just the first chapter of many, and this will be the only one in Kagome’s POV. This was just to explain how the whole thing started.

Stay Tuned:

Chapter Two: Catch Fire, Babe