The second part is an obscure reference to Inuyasha. Recognize the 'Inu'? The majority may, but if you aren't familiar with this word it is the romanji for dog. If romanji means nothing to you, think of Japan. There, you've got it! ANyhow, since I have next to no true knowledge of the Japanese language, I found myself referring to my handy dandy English-Japanese dictionary. A quick look at dog also provided useless nonsense, but then the interesting tidbit - I went to look up lost for no real reason. Random, eh? Most interesting, however, because under 'lost' I found 'maigo no inu'. Lost Dog. Now you know even more! Or less.

Ironically, at least in the anime, Kagome does eventually get sick, and her friends decide to visit because A.) she isn't diagnosed with some off-the-wall disease (merely a cold) and B.) they feel slightly guilty about not insisting diligently to see her at other times.

Minor spoiler alert: For example, why does she appear to be so conflicted if she is supposedly sustained on the hatred she died with for Inuyasha, deep because her love had been deep? Why did she willingly give Naraku the shards of the Shikon no Tama? What exactly is she doing? What are the extent of her powers and her new, clay body? How long will said body hold up? Will she ever succeed in taking Inuyasha to hell with her, or was that only a one-time event? What is this, "Your life is mine," crud floating around out there? You get the general idea. Unless some answers appear 'magically', Kikyou will keep 'magically' surviving to walk on.

Proof: When Inuyasha decides that everything is too dangerous, and that he cannot bear to lose another woman. He more or less tricks Kagome, and pushes her into the well while taking the jewel shards away from her. She returns to her time, but cannot come back to his. Inuyasha, on the other hand, is most likely able to pass through the well because of his affiliation with Kagome. To be specific, the nenju beads. They are intrinsically linked to Kagome, and so Inuyasha is able to come forward to the time in which Kagome's powers have been activated, and he stays in tune with the times because Kagome is in tune with the times. There is a constant year, day, month difference between the two times. If this were to be disrupted, that would most likely bode ill for all involved.

Inuyasha can of course return to his time because it is his time. Kagome apparently only needs to come near to the Shikon no Tama, which recognizes her spiritual 'mark', so to speak, and allows the time-well to function as it normally does for the reborn miko.

There is also a possibility that, as disgusting as this may seem, that the 'thing' is actually a tail of Sesshoumaru's that was cut off when he was younger. Perhaps even the tail of one of his parents, and thus genetically linked to him. This could account for the 'things' role as a support, weapon, and drape during the run of the series. I'd favor it being of his mother, and the Tensaiga being a reminder of Sesshoumaru and Inuyasha's father.

Imagine that every day of your life you have woken up to have toast with strawberry jam in the morning. You've heard mention of other types of jam, but please! Strawberry jam's the only thing that makes sense on your toast. Then the magical day comes when your eating breakfast with a buddy, and they whip out the blackberry jam. Maybe, just maybe, you'll try the blackberry jam - Perhaps because you haven't before, perhaps because it is different. You may or may not like blackberry jam, but suddenly you realize just how many jams there are to try with your toast. Maybe even some other things that no one else ever tried putting on toast - Like ketchup. Some might not work, yes, but then again some might.

And somewhere along the way, maybe you lose your affinity for strawberry jam. It happens.

So after that long, confusing, and partially relevant jam-fest, it gets back around to the fact that seeing anything over-written causes you to lose a bit of your liking for said subject.

Alternate couplings in Inuyasha are more enjoyable to many because they require more effort to write. Inu/Kag is a pretty much set-up situation - others are not. Therefore, reading a well put-together AP is immensely more enjoyable than a run-of-the-mill sappy Inu/Kag special to some.

Go on. Try some other jams. ^__~

As we all know (^__~), the jewel represents the four souls that must be in balance for a 'perfectly good' soul of sorts. Created by Midoriko as she was being absorbed by the youkai(demon)-conglomeration by entraping the collective soul of the youkai and her own in her heart. Thus was the Shikon no Tama born, and thus did the eternal battle for dominance inside the jewel commence.

For years before and after Kikyou came to possess the jewel, quite a while after its creation, Midoriko had held the upper hand. The purifying power of Kikyou helped Midoriko's soul suppress the collective youkai soul, and allowed for the seperate youki's (demonic soul energy) of each youkai that made the monster that tried to off Midoriko to be individually cleansed.

The youkai were becoming restless, however, and rebellious. They looked for any way to save themselves, entrapped in the jewel as they were forever-more, and to suppress Midoriko in turn. There is a balance that must be kept, so it is without fail that the youkai could begin to overpower Midoriko's soul, who in turn drew on more of Kikyou's 'mystical' reserves to prevent them from gaining control.

However, Kikyou had begun to have doubts about continuing on as she had been. She was growing tired of this endless battle, and as she fell in love for the first (and final) time her mind began to turn toward a 'premature' ending. Her power was then tempered and in ways not as pure as it should have been for the purpose she used it for, which weakens the defense that Midoriko's soul could raise against the constantly attacking youkai. The youkai's youki attracts others of their kind, always sending out 'signals' that appeal to the power-hungry and dark in every heart (human or youkai). Eventually as Kikyou's doubts and mental focus fade, the trapped youkai's rebell, and the constant influx of outside youkai, and their respective youki, striving for the jewel cumulate and Naraku's deception was pulled off successfully.

When a youkai begins to absorb the jewel, the youki gives it power and spreads throughout the youkai's body, suppressing Midoriko's soul as she no longer can draw off of a miko. There is then a cycle of youkai feeding trapped youkai new youki in turn for their higher, older, and more powerful youki. It is quite likely the first shard Kagome found was highly infused with Midoriko's soul, which manuevered the shard it was contained in as a high majority to meet up with the high powers Kagome holds latent.

These shards can work off of humans because Midoriko's soul is in them, and the soul of the man who possessed a twisted longing for Midoriko when she lived. Backward processes would appear to have the ki (human soul energy) mutated by the youki, while keeping the person alive (if dead) and lending them a sort of screwy power because of the awkward conversion of youki into tainted ki using the human's dark portion of their heart and their own ki meeting up with the man and Midoriko's.