If they do Mount Azusa as if does done in the manga, it is really about Kagome. Kikyou is as good as dead when she is injected with the miasma which Naraku obtained by reabsorbing his human heart which he had left at Mount Azusa since only humans can feel the hate necessary to destroy Kikyou. The real purpose of Mt. Azusa is not to save Kikyou. She is alrady dead. The test is whether Kagome is willing to overcome her hatred of Kikyou which is based on her feeling of inferiority to Kikyou. It is only when she faces the Kikyou which she has created and destroys by asserting her equal status to Kikyou that she is able to get the bow which she uses to insert the light inside the jewel which will eventually destroy. It is her willingness to get the bow for Kikyou that saves Kikyou's soul. The difference between the pool and this episode is that Kagome said since she
was the only one who could save Kikyou she did so. To save Kikyou's soul at Mt. Azusa she actually has to willing to save Kikyou personally not Everyman at the pool.