Illusion

Chapter 2: Face To Face
A/N: Oni Gumo who is now reincarnated as Muso finally comes face to face with Kikyo. When he sees her face all of the memories of his past life as Oni Gumo come flooding back to him. Will he be able to handle knowing that it was he who caused the death of the very woman he was in love with all those years ago? And will you people PLEASE start leaving reviews if you read my story? It’s not nice to sneak read! I still do not own Inuyasha, but I’m temporarily borrowing him for this story! Enjoy!

Thick black lashes fluttered open to reveal a pair of tired cerulean blue eyes as the first rays of dawn crept into the cave. Pushing himself to his feet with a low grunt he glanced around the cave. A little farther back inside the cave he made out the remains of a fire pit and then saw a bed made of straw and soft brown fur pelts. Trudging towards the bed of fur pelts and straw he smirked thinking of how he had slept on the cold hard floor not knowing that the bed had been here. His cerulean eyes shifted to the right of the bed and they fell upon a small white cotton bag.

Crouching down he carefully opened the bag and discovered a pair of midnight blue colored hakama and a simple white inner haori. Seeing that he had no other choices to choose from and he couldn’t very well walk the countryside naked he opted to wear the clothes he had found. Once dressed he decided it was time to get moving if he was going to get some answers as to who he was. Stepping out into the still cool morning air he began heading down a small dirt path away from the cave that he had slept in just a few hours earlier. The grass was still partially damp from the droplets of dew that had formedrnigrnight to coat it.

His cerulean eyes darted from the path ahead of him to the thickly wooded forest that was on either side of him. ‘Why don’t I remember who I am? What happened to me? And what was that strange palace that I woke up in front of?’ He walked down the dirt path for what seemed like forever until he came to an old and abandoned looking stone shrine. Padding up the worn stone steps to the shrine he glanced around cautiously to make sure that no one would take him by surprise. Pushing open the heavy wooden door of the shrine he peered inside carefully before stepping into the building.

Walking deeper into the old shrine he noticed there were no priests or priestesses anywhere to be found. Stopping at a fountain that was up on a small stone platform he stared at his reflection in the still water. He was staring so hard at his reflection that he had not heard the priestess enter the shrine behind him. The dark haired woman padded lightly up behind the man holding a basket that was filled to the brim with many different types of healing herbs. “Are you lost?”

The man whirled around rather quickly his cerulean eyes wide with surprise. “Who are you?” The raven haired woman smiled at him but it was not a very warm smile.

“Calm down, I mean you no harm. My name is Kikyo, what’s your name?”

“I….I…. I don’t know.” She arched a thin eyebrow in confusion.

“You don’t know?”

“No, I don’t know who I am!” Kikyo gently placed the basket of herbs down on the ground and slowly approached the troubled man.

“It’s alright, don’t get angry. I’m here to help you. Are you hungry?”

“Yes.” His cerulean eyes studied her intently as she moved to open the door that was on the left of them. ‘This woman, she seems so familiar to me, but why? Do I know her? No it can’t be possible, I’ve never met this woman before in my life!’

“Come in here and I’ll make us some stew.” Nodding he followed the dark haired woman into the smaller room of the shrine. Watching her as she placed a black pot over a fire pit he sat down on the floor across from her. She placed water, some spices, some meat and then some vegetables into the pot to let it begin to cook.

Soon the small room was filled with the wonderful smell of the stew that she had put together over the fire pit. She glanced up at him and gave him another lackluster smile. He watched her closely still trying to figure out why she felt so strangely familiar to him. “So tell me, where are you traveling to?”

“I’m not sure really.”

“Oh I see. Well where are you headed?”

“Of that I’m not certain of either.” Kikyo frowned at his answers to her questions, as they were all short and not very revealing as to who he could be.

“So you say that you don’t know who you are?”

“Yes that’s right. What of it?”

“Nothing, I’m merely trying to help.”

“Forgive my rudeness I’m simply angry because I don’t know who I am or where I belong.”

“Well perhaps I can help you figure that out?” He nodded at her a small smile forming on his lips. Kikyo stirred the stew once more before gathering two wooden bowls and spooning some of it into each of them. Handing a bowl to her guest first she then took the second one for herself. They ate mostly in silence until Kikyo cleared her throat to break the uneasy silence that had permeated the small room. “Where did you come from?”

“I already told you I don’t know.”

“No I meant what direction were you traveling from?”

“Oh, well I woke up in front of a large black granite palace back towards the east.”

“A black granite palace you say?”

“Yes, why do you ask?”

“Was there anything peculiar about this palace?”

“Yes, it was shrouded in a thick blackish purple cloud of miasma.” Kikyo’s brown eyes grew wide as she tried to hide her shock. “Do you know who lives in that palace?”

“Yes, the demon that lives there goes by the name of Naraku.” His cerulean eyes widened as he took another bite of the stew.

“This Naraku, do you know him well?”

“I know him quite well indeed and you must know him as well if you woke up outside of his palace. Tell me, do you remember anything at all?”

“Well I’ve been having visions of many different people and places but they don’t seem to make any sense.” Kikyo nodded as she untied the obi of her simple brown cloak that she had been wearing to shield herself from the slight chill of the morning air. He watched as she shrugged out of the cloak to reveal her simple red and white priestess robes underneath it.

His cerulean blue eyes grew wide when they in in the red and white robes that the dark haired maiden was wearing. When she looked up at him with those dull snglyngly lifeless brown eyes and smiled something inside of him snapped. “It’s you!”

Staring at him in confusion she opened her mouth to speak but was cut off by him almost instantly. is yis you, I’ve finally found out who you are! Kikyo, my Kikyo!” He placed the bowl of stew down on the floor beside him and stood abruptly.

“What are you talking about? I’m not yours, I belong to nobody! You speak as if you know me!” Walking over to where she now stood he grabbed her right arm and pulled her to him firmly.

“But you’re wrong Kikyo, I do know you! Don’t you remember?”

“Remember what?”

“I was a thief and you took me in because you felt pity towards me.”

“A thief you say?”

“Yes that’s right, a thief.”

“And why would I harbor a thief?”

“Because you felt pity for me because I had been in a terrible accident that had left nearly my entire body burned.” Her cold brown eyes seemed to soften briefly before returning to their normally icy state. “Kikyo, do you remember a the small cave that you kept me in near your old village?”

“Yes I know the one that you speak of, it’s just a mile’s walk from the outskirts of my old village.”

“Yes, yes that’s the cave that you cared for me in while I was injured!”

“I rber,ber, however I also remember things ending rather badly between us as well.”

“Yes I did not handle things very well between us Kikyo and for that I am truly sorry.”

“Do you remember a half demon man by the name of Inuyasha?”

“Inuyasha, he was the silver haired dog eared man that followed you around all the time.”

“Yes that’s him.”

“Yes Kikyo, I remember the hanyou that followed you around like nothing more than a lost puppy. He was in love with you yes?”

“Yes, Inuyasha and I were in love with each other even though it broke every vow I had made as a priestess. I was cared for him so deeply that I even offered him the chance to use the Shikon jewel to become completely human so that we could spend our lives together.”

“Ah yes, the Shikon jewel.”

“You have heard of it then?”

“There isn’t a person or demon alive who has not heard of the Shikon jewel and it’s great powers.”

“It’s cursed, it brings nothing but misery to the people who seek it.”

“You seem to speak from experience Kikyo?”

“Yes the jewel has caused me more suffering than it has joy.”

“I have known great suffering as well.”

“And what kind of suffering might you have known?”

“I was in love with a woman who did not even know I was in love with her. She was much to concerned with the half demon man who held her heart.”

“You were in love with me?”

“Yes so much in fact that one evening after you left the cave I called out to the demons asking them to feed on my flesh and bestow me with their strength so that I might have the opportunity to possess the one woman that I desired more than anything in the world.”

“So you sought to make a pact with demons?”

“Yes I offered my body up to the demons in exchange for their strength. I did it all in hopes of attaining your love Kikyo.” Kikyo stared at him with wide brown eyes.

“What happened the night that you made the pact with the demons?”

“Many strong demons flocked to the cave and descended upon my burned and broken body. They began to quickly devour my body and then I was merged into one entire new being as their bodies all came together as well.”

“So the demons merged with your body?”

“Yes but it did not go as I had planned, the demons that had merged together to form my new and very powerful body completely took over control of my body.” His cerulean eyes darted up to glance into Kikyo’s eyes and she saw a flicker of what looked like sheer terror reflecting in the two pools of sapphire.

“What’s the matter? You look as if you’ve just seen a ghost.” His hands came up to cover his face as a memory that had been pusway way down into the very depths of his heart suddenly resurfaced. Closing his eyes he was suddenly running through a field of tall swaying grass just as the sun was setting on the horizon. As he ran through the field coming closer to the middle of it he saw Kikyo standing with her back turned to him. Raising his right hand that was newly adorned with razor sharp claws he brought it down quickly.

His entire body flinched when the painful memory of him inflicting the fatal injury to the very woman he had sold his soul to be with flashed in his mind. Tearing his hands away from his deathly pale face his pools of sapphire snapped open abruptly. “Oh Kami it was me the whole time! It was me!”

“What are you talking about?”

“I did it! I destroyed the one thing that I loved the most in the entire world!”

“Listen to me, you’re not making any sense! Now tell me what you’re talking about!” He grabbed Kikyo and pulled her into a crushing embrace.

“Kikyo, I did it, it was me!”

“What did you do?”

“I killed your fir fifty years ago!”

“No, no you didn’t kill me. Inuyasha betrayed me because he made me think he wanted to use the jewel to become human. Instead he wanted the jewel to become a full blooded demon, so he killed me to take it.”

“No Kikyo, that’s not true! That’s what Naraku wanted you to believe! He took the form of Inuyasha and attacked you tearing into your flesh with his claws and leaving behind an injury that would later be the cause of your death. It was me Kikyo, I am responsible for your death.”

“You don’t even know me! How can you be responsible for such a thing?”

“Because I was the thief Oni Gumo and I gave my body to the demons and became Naraku. Naraku’s mind was stronger than my own so he was able to control me completely, which caused me to murder you.”

“So you’re Oni Gumo?”

“Well I was, but that name no longer holds any meaning for me.”

“Well then you are Naraku now?”

“No I am not Naraku, we are two separate beings. Just call me Muso because I do not wish to be called Oni Gumo and I will not be called Naraku.”

“Muso, it wasn’t really you that killed me over fifty years ago, it was Naraku. I don’t blame you for my death.”

“No but you blame Inuyasha, and he is innocent. If you must blame someone then blame me, for it was my body that Naraku inhabited.” Kikyo put her hands on either side of Muso’s face and he found that there was no warmth to her touch at all.

“Muso I forgive you for what happened that day because you weren’t in control and had nothing to do with what Naraku did.” He pushed Kikyo out of his embrace and glared at her sharply.

“How the hell can you be so forgiving? I murdered you over fifty years ago!”

“Please Muso, just let it go!” Kikyo tried to grasp his hand but he shied away from her touch.

“Please don’t touch me! I just need to be alone right now Kikyo, please?” She nodded and watched with sad brown eyes as Muso walked out of the shrine to go and sit beneath a tall tree that was just a few feet away from the shrine. ‘All this time I have been the one responsible for Kikyo’s death! I killed the woman that I sacrificed my body and soul for! I’m nothing but a monster! Why doesn’t Kikyo curse my name and tell me that I belong in hell? Why does she have to be so kind and forgiving? I don’t deserve her forgiveness!’

Kikyo stood in the doorway of the shrine and watched Muso as he sat beneath the tree digesting the fact that he had been the one who had killed Kikyo all those years ago. She silently began to pray for his wounded soul to find a way to begin to heal itself. ‘ Kami please help Muso to stop blaming himself for my death! It wasn’t his fault, he was only put in such a desperate position because he felt there was no other way he could gain my love.’ Bowing her head to look at the ground she began trying to blink back the tears that were trying to slip out of the corners of her dark chocolate pools. Now was not the time to let Muso see her crying because it would only serve to make him feel more guilty than he already felt.