Please, check out my first ORIGINAL NOVEL! The Breaking of Poisonwood by Paradise Avenger. (Summary: People were dead. When Skye Davis bought me at a slave auction as a birthday present for his brother, I had no idea what my new life was going to be like, but I had never expected this. It all started when Venus de Luna was killed and I was to take her place, to become the new savior… Then, bad things happened and some people died. In the heart of the earth, we discovered the ancient being that Frank Davis had found and created and used to his advantage. The Poisonwood—)
I don't know about the rest of you, but when Kagura and Kanna died in the Final Act, I cried. I really liked them! And they died so epically and depressingly! (I cried when I thought Kohaku died too, though. And when Kikyo died all eighteen times. Maybe I'm just a big fat softy…)
X X X
Naraku had finally realized.
Though Kagura and Kanna were his strongest shades and the best to send into battle against Inuyasha and his gang because those softhearted fools were loathe to hurt the pair, he had to stop sending them out into battle. He was able to control Kagura with his hands on her heart and by dangling her freedom in front of her. Oh, he knew she hated him and would sacrifice anything to be rid of him, but she was too useful to destroy just yet. Kanna was nothingness so she would never outright disobey him though somewhere deep inside, he knew she was doing it in some subtle way.
So, armed with this new revelation, he created a new shade from his body and set the beast out on the country with only one simple order—destroy Inuyasha and his friends and retrieve the shards of the jewel that Kagome carried. He knew that this shade would either succeed and do as he asked or Inuyasha's group would destroy it. If that happened, he still had Kagura and Kanna to set on the fools. If the new beast succeeded, he could destroy both Kagura and Kanna.
Either way, it was a win-win situation.
…
The half-demon Inuyasha's strides were smooth and even, practiced, his hands supporting the weight of the human he carried easily as he ran. Kagome Higurashi had almost fallen asleep on his back, the heat of his body and the baking sun lulling her into a content doze. Comfortable, Inuyasha adjusted her weight so that her head could rest on his shoulder and she could sleep soundly. Nothing was going on anyway and she had been up most of the night searching for jewel shards with him.
Sango, Miroku, Shippo, and Kirara had elected to stay behind while Kagome and Inuyasha had another go at finding some jewel shards. There hadn't been any activity in over a month. Even Naraku was quiet so there wasn't much point in everyone tagging along. The expedition was doomed to be fruitless, as Shippo had put it before Inuyasha whacked him. So the others had gone home to the Village of the Demon Slayers, Sango's home, to rest and recuperate. (Well, for about two hours before Sango set everyone to work trying to fix up the ruined village.) When Kagome returned to her era, they either stayed in Kaede's village or returned to Sango's. It was kind of a second home to the group, a home away from home so to speak. Pretty soon, the village would be fixed up again.
Suddenly, Kagome's body tensed in his arms and her head shot up, dark hair flying.
"What is it?" Inuyasha asked her.
"I sense a Shikon shard! It's approaching fast, from the east!"
"Fast? Is it Kouga?"
Kagome shook her head. "No, it's just a single shard and it feels tainted, like Naraku."
"Is it…?" He wasn't sure he wanted to ask. Without Sango, how could they ever hope to bring the kid back alive? "Is it Kohaku?"
Kagome shook her head again. "I don't think so."
"Then what is it?" Inuyasha demanded.
"I… I don't know. I can't tell," Kagome confessed.
"Keh. I'm sure we'll find out soon enough."
She nodded and bit her lower lip. Her skin was crawling. Something very bad and very dangerous was coming their way.
A few tense minutes passed without a sign of attack but Kagome could feel the jewel shard growing closer and closer, darker and darker. Inuyasha felt her tense, her knees tightening around his hips and her fingers digging into his shoulders. His demon blood hummed. She was afraid—truly afraid—and the demon inside him was rising to the surface. He would protect Kagome where he had always failed Kikyo, where he had failed his mother, where he had failed himself. He glanced over his shoulder at her, taking in her white-pale face and worried eyes. What did she sense?
Kagome sucked in a sharp breath and Inuyasha turned his golden eyes back to the countryside before them.
It didn't matter why she was suddenly so afraid, he decided as he ran. Miroku, Sango, Kirara, Shippo, and Kagome where the only people important in his life anymore. They were all the family he had and would ever have. They protected him on the night of the new moon and he would protect them to the end of time or until his body was torn to shreds. Naraku wouldn't hurt the people he cared about any longer, not even Kikyo who had died once already. He was done letting that filthy monster hurt them! If he and his Tetsusaiga had anything to say about it, this would be Naraku's last shot at killing them. Instead, Naraku would die.
Suddenly, Kagome shouted a warning and the hillside exploded in a shower of dust and rubble.
Inuyasha only just managed to avoid the attacking demon because of Kagome's warning. He released her legs, shouting for her to hold on tight, and drew his sword. Instantly, the demonic fangs of his father and himself transformed into the weapon to protect humans. He brandished it, Kagome clinging to him.
"Where's the shard?"
She let out a strangled cry as the dust cleared.
Inuyasha whirled back to face the demon and the sword almost clattered from his hand. Before them, approaching with slow deliberation and a hideous grin, were Miroku and Sango except their bodies were melded together in the center by Kirara, her face twisted in a snarl, fire coming from her mouth. Sango lifted her heavy Hiraikotsu, let out an ugly laugh, and hurled it. The weapon slammed into Inuyasha full on because he wasn't prepared.
Kagome was thrown away from him, her body smashing into the rock and dropping painfully. She lay, choking and wheezing, for a moment before struggling onto her knees and notching an arrow in her bow. She hadn't seen where Inuyasha had been launched so for now, she was alone, but she knew he would come back to help her.
The conjoined bodies of Miroku, Sango, and Kirara weren't getting along so well. Sango was pushing Miroku, strange sounds coming out of her mouth, as she tried to get over to where Kagome had fallen, but Miroku was trying to go in the opposite direction, presumably after Inuyasha. Kirara was snarling at them both, not appreciating her body being pulled this way and that.
"Stop!" Kagome shouted at them.
They all turned to face her and she choked. These were her friends! How could she ever fight and hurt them? It was clear something terrible had happened to land them in this state, but what? Was Naraku behind it all?
Sango lifted her Hiraikotsu, preparing to throw.
Kagome knew that if that weapon hit her, her body would shatter into a million pieces, but she couldn't shoot Sango. What could she do? A sob escaped her and she began to lower her bow. She could only pray that Sango would suddenly come to her senses and stop this madness.
"Kagome!" Inuyasha's shout rang through the air. "Shoot her!"
Out of habit, Kagome tightened her grip on the bow. "But… it's Sango!"
"It's not! It's one of Naraku's shades!"
Kagome clenched her jaw, seeing Inuyasha appear like a red beacon on the edge of the cliff above her. How dare Naraku do this to them! Use and image of their friends! With a shout of rage, she let her arrow fly. The bright purifying light engulfed the demon and it blew apart, splattering blood and guts everywhere. For a moment, Kagome feared that Inuyasha had been wrong. What if that had been Sango, Miroku, and Kirara?
"Inuyasha," she sobbed.
He slid down the cliff to her. "Are you alright?"
She nodded. "But…"
He sensed her worry. "It wasn't them. They were reeking of Naraku's body."
She sniffled, wiped her eyes, and stood up. Inuyasha wrapped his arm around her waist, supporting her. She was bleeding all over from when the explosion had thrown her into the cliff. Humans were so fragile, so frail, so precious. Her life could be over in an instant and he might not be able to save her.
"Kagome," he said softly.
Then, suddenly, all the demolished flesh that had been Naraku's latest trick shot back into a hideous bloody mess and began to take shape again. Inuyasha stepped in front of Kagome and brandished his Testusaiga. This thing—this shade of Naraku—would not hurt her! But the flesh morphed first into Kikyo, his chest split open by Naraku's miasma, reaching out and pleading for him. When he lifted his weapon anyway, it quickly took on a new shape.
Kagome!
"Inuyasha, please… please, don't hurt me. You promised to protect me… always…" Kagome pleaded and reached out to him imploringly.
"Kagome," he whispered.
The real Kagome grabbed the back of his kimono and yanked. "Inuyasha," she said firmly. "Don't be stupid."
He narrowed his eyes at Naraku's shade.
God, she looked so real and even acted like Kagome would. She was even backing away from him with her palms raised, as she had once before from him. A single tear ran down her pale cheek. "Please, Inuyasha, you don't want to hurt me," she begged him.
The sword drooped in his hands.
"Inuyasha!" Kagome kicked him. "She's not real!"
This time, before he could be swayed again, he swung the Tetsusaiga. The fanning claws of wind and power destroyed the ground and raced towards the fake Kagome. For a moment, she just stood there, crying, but when the attack didn't stop, the shade did something strange. She leaped towards them, her face splitting opening in a hideous maw of teeth that looked sickeningly familiar. Was that Goshinki's mouth? Inuyasha yanked the sword back, but it was too late. That mouth grabbed Testusaiga and pulled it from his hands. With a single toss of the head, the rusty sword was thrown up over the ridge.
A yelp escaped him, his eyes desperately following the sword.
Then, the shade was upon them. Claws dug into Inuyasha's abdomen, clenched into his bones so that Kagome heard them breaking, and hurled him into the cliff behind. She heard his body break again, his blood splattering on the rock, and then he fell like a stone to the ground and didn't move again.
"Inuyasha!" she screamed.
Kagome had notched an arrow and let it fly immediately, but the shade allowed part of its body to be eaten and destroyed by the arrow, flopping uselessly on the ground before rejoining the central mass. Then, it changed its shape once again. This time, Inuyasha towered over her, grinning cruelly.
Kagome's heart skipped a beat.
This was what Naraku had done to Kikyo and Inuyasha fifty years ago, tricking and toying with them borrowing the forms of the other.
It was no wonder he was using it once again because the human heart was so soft. Kagome could bring herself to shoot her own shape and that of her friends under Inuyasha's direction and assurance, but she would never be able to shoot Inuyasha. Her bow began to lower almost of its own accord, the arrow clattering to the ground. His name escaped her mouth and the shade grinned meanly at her, mouth cracking open into a maw of demonic teeth.
This wasn't Inuyasha!
This was a shade of Naraku!
She lifted her bow, pulling back on the string and grabbing for the fallen arrow, but it was already too late. Claws raked into her shoulder, stabbing through and rending her muscles apart. A scream of anguish escaped her as the shade of Inuyasha tore her apart. Then, her body was thrown. She landed on Inuyasha's body and her blood splattered on him as the force sent her tumbling a few more feet. She slammed to a stop against the cliff's stone wall and clutched her wound, gasping in agony.
The shade licked its claws of her blood and smiled. "Tasty," he snarled.
Kagome couldn't even notch and arrow. Her shoulder was too badly damaged and Inuyasha showed no signs of getting up to save her. The blood around his body was expanding and the Tetsusaiga was nowhere to be seen. Miroku, Sango, Shippo, and Kirara were far away in the Village of the Demon Slayers. No one would be coming to save them. Trembling, she waited for death.
X X X
There's a million and one ways to spell everything in Inuyasha so I don't want to hear about anything being misspelled or not spelled the way you like it or not spelled the way you're used to seeing it. Just get over it. Go complain to Rumiko Takahashi and the translators that give out nine million spellings for everything.
Questions, comments, concerns?
