Dissident Hope

If you were to ask the youkai how the war began, they would say that five centuries ago a miko called Kikyou slew the younger son of the ruler of all youkai known only as the Inu no Taishou. They would tell you that she hunted him down without provocation and in doing so broke the treaty that had stood for more than a millennia.

The treaty was formed by the first great miko Midoriko and the Inu no Taisho himself. He was a great leader and the most powerful youkai ever to walk the earth, and she marked the beginning of a line of spiritual humans who had power enough to equal of any youkai and who were granted the long life of youkai as well. Both had the forethought to see that if a lasting agreement for peace was not brokered, it could lead to the destruction of both their kinds.

No youkai was to attack or to kill any human without provocation, and in turn no one with spiritual powers was allowed to use them against a youkai without the same. As a result, it was not long before lower youkai, those incapable of higher level thought, were all but extinct, and humans and youkai lived together peaceably.

On the other hand, if you were to ask a spiritual human about the beginning of the war, you would be told that a hanyou called InuYasha tricked the miko into believing he cared for her to steal a precious artifact, and she was forced to slay him for attacking her village.

As for me, I don’t know what to believe anymore.

I am Kagome, direct descendent of both Kikyou and Midoriko, guardian of the jewel, and slayer of youkai. I didn’t ask for any of these things but they came to me just the same. I grew up hearing the tale of the tragic priestess Kikyou who gave her heart to a treacherous hanyou, groomed from birth to despise youkai, to destroy them. I was taught the nature of their evil, and for nearly fifty years I believed it all.

Now I have uncovered information that leads me to believe that all is not as it seems, that the war we are fighting has been for nothing. I can’t be certain yet, however, but I am going to find out the whole truth, and maybe, just maybe I can end this war once and for all.