'...'- thoughts
"..."- speaking



'It's been three years since I was resurrected...' I wonder as I walk through the forest. 'And more than a year since Naraku's defeat... So why am I still bound to this world of the living...?' Suddenly I stop, hiding behind a tree when I see HIM with HER. 'I can't deny it...' I think to myself. 'He is my obsession... The only one who ever understood me and my feelings of loneliness... and now he's with that other woman, my reincarnated self...' I sigh as I watch them, and eventually notice that she is showing early signs of pregnancy. No doubt pregnant with HIS child. I hear him talking to her as she tries to chase after the young fox demon in their group. "Kagome, don't exert yourself...! You'll hurt the pup." he says with concern. "I'm alright... Don't worry so much!" she replies happily, then kisses him on the cheek. I sigh again as I hear them laughing, and can't help but feel jealous. 'If we hadn't been decieved... and if I hadn't died, he would have been with me... not her...' I smile however, when I remember one of my favorite tender moments of us together.

=Flashback=

As I'm getting out of the boat, I feel myself trip and start to fall. But I never reach the floor. Instead Inuyasha caught me, and I can only stare, as I find myself lost in his pools of gold. Without thinking about what I'm doing, I stand on my tip toes and place a gentle kiss on his lips. He surprises me by kissing back, then breaks away and pulls me close. It is then he tells me, "I'll become human... for you... I have no second thoughts..." (A/N- I dunno if he really says that, but I do know that they kiss during this scene... )

=End Flashback=

I find myself thinking of this girl he has chosen to be his life's mate. 'She truly would do anything to keep him safe and happy... she even offered to give up her soul to me if that was what he wished...' I often check in on him and and his friends, but let my presence be unknown. I have watched as they've changed. Even that perverse monk, when he proposed to the demon exterminator. And then I think of myself, and become sad. 'I always stay the same... day after day, and year after year... but there is nothing I can do about it...' I start to watch them again, and find that I'm strangely not bitter towards this "Kagome." A small smile spreads on my lips, one of happiness, and I look away from them as I realize this feeling I have not felt since I was alive. "I may not be with him... but my soul is, and always will be... inside that girl..." I say to myself. "And it makes me glad to know he's smiling... even if it's not for me, because it shows he was able to do what I was not... To move on..." I look towards them for the last time. "I wish you happiness... happiness I never knew..." I whisper softly. "Good luck... to both of you..." I feel myself rising and slowly disappearing. I watch with a faint smile as I slowly return to the Earth as ash. 'This was why I couldn't pass on... because I couldn't release my past... Inuyasha...' I think as I close my eyes, never to open them again. 'But now I can... Knowing all is well...'

Suddenly she is gone, no more than a memory of the past, her scent fading on the wind. She has found peace with herself and those around her, and can now truly rest...

Inuyasha's nose quirks for a second, before looking to the sky as Kagome chases their adoptive son. A sad but tender smile touches his lips. 'Goodbye Kikyo... I'm glad you found your peace.'

The End.