Summary: In a battle, while trying to protect Kagome and Kikyou, Inuyasha got wounded by an unlikely weapon. Will he survive the wound? What will Kagome and Kikyou do?
A/N: Since I was on a block for the past couple of weeks I have a lot of catching up to my schedule and all the outlined ideas for stories on my desktop to do, so hopefully you'll get more from me this month.
Anyway, this story got a teeny bit longer, so I'm going to post it in more swallow-able chapters.
Enjoy!
He Said All He Felt Should Be Said
1.
The swarm of Naraku's youkai was like an ocean, coming in waves, each one bigger than the previous. It was hard to see the sky through the clouds of Naraku's insects and flying lower youkai, who were trying to take down the youkai slayer riding on Kirara's back and sending her boomerang at them. Kirara was fighting with her claws and fangs. Both the slayer and the cat were drenched in sweat, but unwilling to back down.
Miroku was on the ground, sucking all the youkai he could without getting too many poisonous insects. He had been throwing his sutras at the advancing forces, but now he was out of his sacred papers and all he got was his staff and cursed hand. His brows were knitted as he was fighting back nausea and pain of sucking in too many vile beasts at once.
Near him were Kagome and Shippou. The kitsune was fighting as the last line of the miko's defense, using all his tricks to redirect attacks meant to harm his adoptive mother. Kagome was shooting her bow, sending arrow after arrow, her reiki purifying not only the hit target, but often also the youkai nearest to it. Still, she could feel the strain of using so much power and her arrows were limited. She was going to be out of them before the end of the battle.
The miko sent another arrow and watched it fly, going past the hanyou fighting in front of her and Miroku. They were often combing their attack and she knew the patterns of Inuyasha's movements well after months of battling together. There was no way for her arrow to even graze him and the hanyou was trusting her enough not to get flustered when she shot above his head.
He was too busy to even notice the arrow, swinging Tessaiga in one hand and sending waves of youki and spears of adamant at the masses of lower youkai, ogres and other youkai who were under Naraku's control. The battle was going on for a while now, the group moving steadily back and trying to find a place more suitable to defend than an empty field. The horde of youkai seemed to get a little thinner in time, but so was their strength. The wounds started to appear on their fatigued bodies as the attacking youkai were moving closer to the gang members.
Finally Kagome realized she had her last arrow in her hands and gulped. Sango and Kirara were making their way down. Blood and sweat were dripping from Kirara's pale flanks, her paws and jaws bloodied as well. One of her eyes was closed and covered by some green stuff. Sango atop of the cat youkai didn't look much better, her suit torn from one him almost all the way to her knee, revealing a pretty deep gash, her face bruised, her hands moving less steadily as she threw her boomerang yet again. As Kagome looked up to the duet she saw a huge bat-like youkai coming down at them, claws outstretched.
"Hit the mark!" the arrow flew past Kirara and embedded itself right in the center of the bat-like youkai's stomach. The beast screamed in agony and Sango and Kirara landed near Kagome in a rain of youkai guts.
"Multiply! Heart Scar!" Kagome turned her head fast at the cry of the little kitsune, who leaped from under her feet to meet a boar youkai huge as Kaede's hut charging straight at the miko. A couple dozens little foxes appeared in clouds of smoke and latched themselves to the boar's weak spots, putting acorns in its eyes and gnawing at its ears and belly. The boar reared up oh its hind legs and shook the kitsunes, poofing them out of existence. But as it opened its ugly face to roar the last remaining kitsune called forth a ball of blue fire and sent it straight in the boar's mouth. Smoke went out of the boar's ears and it fell to the ground.
"Shikon no Tama! Give it to us!" called the youkai and Kagome jumped away from her place to avoid being squished by an ogre's club. As she staggered away Miroku ran past her and hit the ogre with his staff, channeling his reiki though it. The monk was swaying on his legs, but he, as everyone else, knew that he couldn't afford a minute to rest. He couldn't use his cursed hand anymore, if he did he wouldn't be able to stay conscious long enough to do any good.
He joined Sango, Kirara and Shippou in the wide circle around Kagome, who was gnawing at her bottom lips, unable to aid them without her arrows. She looked over to Inuyasha and saw the hanyou calling forth the Wind Scar yet again. He didn't even look where he was aiming it, knowing that there were enough youkai in front of him for it to hit at least a dozen of them at once.
The air was full of the stench of youkai blood, guts and anger. They were relentless in their attacks, not noticing their fallen comrades, stamping over them in their greed to get to the jewel shards around the miko's neck. The cacophony of sounds was almost deafening, the stench of blood, guts and simply unwashed youkai could make even a human gad. The gang was fighting valiantly, but there was too many foes. And no shelter.
"Inuyasha!" Kagome called out to him. But there was nothing he could do to make their situation better, he was already doing all he could.
A snake youkai knocked Sango down and opened its maws, ready to swallow the slayer who was trying to get to her feet and raise her weapon. Miroku's cry and Kirara's roar mixed with Kagome's scream, but none of them was close enough to do anything.
Suddenly a snake-like youkai with little tiny limbs and eerie glow radiating from its slim body, flew past them and wrapped itself around the youkai, lifting it up and giving Sango enough time to stand up again. Kagome looked back and saw the one who was the newcomer's master.
Somehow she managed to look even more aloof and pristine as she approached them, her hair flowing behind her back like waterfall of black, her red and white robes in a stark contrast to the torn, dirty clothes of the fighting group. Everyone seemed to pause for a moment to take notice of her approach.
Kikyou stepped close to Kagome, undisturbed by no one. She lifted her bow and found an arrow in her quiver, then sent it at the biggest, most mean-looking youkai around them. With a howl the youkai was gone and it seemed to shake the others from their stupor. Kikyou had enough time to throw her quiver to the ground, emptying it so Kagome could pick the arrows and use her bow again. With a grateful smile the younger miko resumed fighting. There was no say why Kikyou came to aid them, but Kagome didn't care, the undead miko seemed to be on their side and that was what mattered.
The circle which had shrunk earlier, grew wider again, as everyone caught a second breath. They, as Kagome, didn't ask questions, focusing on seeing the battle through first. Their enemies were still outnumbering them and they knew their drive wouldn't last long.
Inuyasha was practically dancing around the outside of the circle, always where the most youkai were trying to breach it and get to the two mikos, always screaming profanities, pushing himself to his limits. How could he do less than this when he was a hanyou, much stronger than the weak humans behind his back who were giving their all? He was Inu no Taisho's son, even if he didn't voice that often, he was too proud to just flee. That is - if there was a safe place to flee. As it was he didn't really have any other option than to fight, to protect his friends with all he had. He didn't pay attention to his wounds, straining his ears to hear any sound over the pounding beat of his own blood rushing through his veins. His robe didn't look very soiled, but it was wet and uncomfortable, weighting him down with all the blood and other liquids it absorbed. He was frantically looking for some kind of shelter, some kind of miracle to end this battle before one of his friends got seriously wounded or worse. He had noticed all their efforts and wounds, he had noticed Kikyou's arrival, but he couldn't do anything more than swing his sword and call forth his attacks until he got hoarse.
When another Wind Scar plowed the field, eradicating a couple dozens youkai Inuyasha saw something miraculous - the land beyond them. There was end to their numbers, it seemed the gang could win this battle, if they just kept up fighting for a while longer. He called back to his friends and heard them confirming his observation, the remaining forces of the youkai were weakening, there were longer intervals between their attacks. They were fighting more one on one fights than trying to deal with two or more attacking youkai at the same time. They could make it!
And just then, when they felt hope in their hearts...
...They made a mistake.