Travelling by foot wasn't the quickest means, but over the terrain they travelled it was the most practical. Thick roots and rocky grounds sought to slow their progress, as Inuyasha and the others continued north to find the Dark Witch and, hopefully, some answers on how Ryukoytsei could be defeated. It was not easy going. Sleeping on roots and rocks, being jostled by soldiers and teased and ridiculed for not knowing how to soldier on the way they did. Inuyasha was a frequent target of their light-hearted torment. But he put up with their jostling and their rough-housing. In an odd way, it seemed to mean they were welcoming him as part of their little band.
The only exception was their captain, Bankotsu.
He never let Inuyasha out of his sight, and whenever the white-haired hanyou turned to look, he seemed to be glaring his way. He hated him, Inuyasha realized. What he was, what he represented.
Well, the feeling was mutual, Inuyasha thought with a snarl.
And then there was Kikyo. Always following at a fair distance, never close enough to trouble them, yet equally never out of Inuyasha's sight. She never joined their campfires, never spoke a word, only watched from afar with her gaze that saw far too much. It was unnerving, yet at the same time comforting to know she watched over them as they ventured ever deeper into danger and the unknown.
Inuyasha plopped down the fish he'd caught in the river, tossing it down by the fire. It was a mighty haul indeed, nearly three hand spans long.
"You really are a fisherman," Sango said with a grin, grateful to have a meal.
"You should've seen my father," Inuyasha replied, already working to skin and gut his catch.
But Bankotsu, evidently, would have none of this friendly little dinner. There was work to be done. "Inuyasha... bring your weapon," he said, inclining in his head over to a nearby clearing. His tone brooked no argument, but the hanyou growled all the same as he did as he was bade. Kohaku eagerly snatched up the fish and continued his work preparing it while Inuyashsa belted on his sword and stood before Bankotsu.
"Have you ever handled a sword before?" Bankotsu asked, picking up one of his fellow's blades, not the big, unsightly thing he'd been seen handling earlier.
"Never needed to," Inuyasha replied.
"Left foot forward," he instructed.
Inuyasha followed his instructions. The stance felt... natural, somehow.
"Your motions should be fluid..." Bankotsu explained, demonstrating as he spoke. "The weapon... is a part of you. Like the stinger on a scorpion. Stay focused. Know what surrounds you. Keep your balance at all times. If you fall..." he punctuated this last lesson with a sweeping foot, knocking Inuyasha on his back. "... you die."
Snarling, the white-haired hanyou climbed back to his feet. The other soldiers and hunters were laughing at his performance, which pushed him to fight better. And it was a damn good thing too, because Bankotsu's next blow would've taken his head off if he hadn't blocked. The air came alive with the clang-clang of metal on metal, the two of them striking and parrying with dizzying speed. For his part, instinct quickly seized hold of Inuyasha's arms and legs, carrying him through the strikes until the sword swung in his hand as easily as it did in Bankotsu's, blocking and parrying every last blow.
Catching one strike meant to sever his head from his shoulders, Inuyasha knocked the sword aside with enough force to send the blade out of Bankotsu's hands, burying it up to the hilt in a tree nearby. Snarling, he moved to finish off the arrogant captain... then paused... and realized what he was doing. He looked at the sword in his hand like it was a serpent ready to strike.
Bankotsu, however, seemed pleased with his performance, despite how close the tip was to his throat. He pushed it away easily. "There's definitely demon blood in you. Good. Be sure to bring it," he remarked, taking back the weapon from Inuyasha and sheathing the blade. "End of lesson.
Inuyasha could only glare at his retreating back, wishing desperately he could bury a sword up to the hilt in it. But Bankotsu knew what he was doing, and Inuyasha barely had a clue. They needed his leadership if they hoped to finish the mission.
Didn't mean he had to like it.
The next day, Inuyasha greeted the dawn early, unable to sleep well. Bad dreams continued to prey at his mind. Wandering afar in search of food for his comrades, he stumbled into a forest glade. In the center of which was a strange glow. Curious, he tried to find the source. As he approached closer, Inuyasha saw the glow was centered on a sword jammed into the earth tip first.
It looked like a beat up piece of junk, impossibly old, yet it glowed with impossible brilliant light. Reaching down, Inuyasha picked it up, and watched in awe as the blade transformed in his grasp, growing many times in size and impossibly sharp, curved like the fang of a great beast, yet weighing no more than a feather. He gave it a gentle swing, finding it well balanced despite its size. He could lift it with a single hand alone.
"A gift," Bankotsu said, stepping out from behind the nearby tree. He'd been following Inuyasha again. "Forged in the Heavens."
"Why?" asked the hanyou, unable to comprehend their reasoning. Were the demon lords trying to aid him? Some of them, at least?
"Just accept it," Bankotsu advised.
Inuyasha shook his head, wanting nothing to do with the demon lords that had caused him and his family such grief. "I can do this as a man. The sword is yours." He tossed it casually to Banktosu, who easily caught it by the hilt. As he did, the luster faded and the enormous blade faded away like dew in the morning light, leaving behind only a broken, rusty blade that you couldn't kill a mouse with.
Shaking his head at his cities savior and his stubbornness, Bankotsu took the broken blade with him. Like Inuyasha, he didn't like it, but they were going to need it before this was over. His instincts told him so, and he'd been a soldier far too long to ignore his instincts.
Unable to bear the company of the soldiers at the moment, Inuyasha went in search of Kikyo, whom he could at least trust to be... well, maybe non-judgmental wasn't the right word, since she still had the delusion he was some kind of savior of mankind. But if nothing else she was more... approachable.
She was relatively easy to find. The scent of death followed her everywhere.
He found her in a nearby clearing, approaching a tiny two-tailed white cat with black markings. It mewed up at her as Inuyasha watched, smirking. Who would have guessed the priestess could have such a connection with small animals?
But if that sight caused him some disbelief, the next thing he saw truly astonished him.
The tiny cat burst into flame, making Inuyasha recoil in shock... then charge forward to pull Kikyo from the conflagration... only to see her standing calmly as the flames dissipated, revealing the cat once more. Only it had grown. What once had been no bigger than a common housecat now towered bigger than any mountain lion Inuyasha had ever seen or heard of. Bigger than a horse, even, with shaggy white fur and sabertoothed fangs that were bigger than knives. It looked positively feral, yet Kikyo showed absolutely no fear of it.
"What... is it?" he asked, approaching slowly. The great beast seemed to growl, but then Inuyasha realized it was purring as Kikyo stroked under its great chin.
"Kirara," the dark-haired woman replied. "One of the very last of the Great Demon Cats. They say no man has ever ridden her."
Inuyasha could well believe it, though he'd be lying if he didn't want to try. He dared to look the great cat right in her eye, and saw something. Something fierce and untamable. And he felt a kinship there.
"It's a message... they're watching us," Kikyo said, flicking her gaze skywards. The Demon Lords. Instantly Inuyasha was wary again, backing away from Kirara. Another gift... and another trap. He didn't need their pity. He could manage well enough on his own.
"Help!"
Head snapping up at the cry, Inuyasha recognized it dimly as one of the soldiers in their band, calling for aid. They were under attack. He drew his sword and was in motion in seconds, even as Kirara ignited her paws and leapt into the air, galloping across the open sky and into the distance. Kikyo sighed, sensing trouble afoot, and followed Inuyasha at a calm, sedate pace. Hers was not to battle, but to guide.
Although she sense before this was over, she would have to let Inuyasha find his own path.
Inuyasha sprinted through the trees like a red-shaped blur, feet pounding, arms at his sides. Finally, he caught sight of the soldier in question. The youngest of their group, Suikotsu, who'd only just been made a soldier. He looked terrified, though of what Inuyasha could not see.
"Help me!"
Those were his final words as something huge and hideous pounced, and tore the poor soldier in two. Suikotsu did not even have enough time to scream before he was ripped in half horizontally.
Inuyasha skidded to a halt as the thing that had done it turned to face him. It looked almost like a man, but misshapen and wicked, bearing a single curved horn on its right brow and cold yellow eyes. It was dressed in some sort of red armor, and held a wicked sword tightly in his hand. But that was not what caused his blood to chill, his heart to stop in terror. No, it was what the beast said next.
"You reek of your fathers stench!" snarled the horned visage. For it was Takemaru, the former King and now servant of Naraku.
Before Inuyasha could react, the snarling monster came charging at him, his boot slamming into the hanyous gut and knocking him off the ridge where they stood, sending him tumbling down the hill. Takemaru wasted no time in pursing, charging down the hill as if it was a gentle slope instead of a near vertical drop, howling like a madman.
He landed with enough force to send rocks flying everywhere, burying his blade in the ground, but thankfully Inuyasha had rolled out of the way seconds before he could be impaled to the earth like some sort of butterfly.
Inuyasha went for his own sword, but Takemaru swatted it out of his hands like it was nothing, then grabbed his wrist. Without warning the possessed man bared his jaws and sunk his vicious teeth into Inuyasha's wrist, nearly tearing his hand entirely off.
By now the other soldiers had finally reached them, and Inuyasha yanked his hand free as arrows peppered Takemaru's back, not even making him flinch. He spat hanyou blood from his mouth as he turned to face his new attackers.
Bankotsu swung his mighty sword in a wide arc, cleaving through a tree and intent to cut Takemaru in half, but the mighty beast blocked with Tokijin and the blow bounced off like the captain had struck a mountain. Takemaru wasted no time in making a counter attack, lashing out at Kyokotsu as the taller man tried to fend off his blows with his great sword.
Mukotsu threw down some gas pellets, hoping to blind the beastly man or throw him off guard as Ginkotsu and Kyokotsu charged it. Renkotsu continued to try and impale it with arrows but the beast man knocked them out of the sky with his sword, grabbing Kyokotsu by the wrist before his own blade could hit, then using him to knock Ginoktsu away, sending them both crashing to the ground. A lashing whip blade cut over Takemaru's head as he ducked Jakotsu's followed up attack, but it seemed that enough of them were forcing him to fight on the defensive, but he quickly swatted the whip sword out of the sky, kicked over Ginkotsu and then grabbed up Inuyasha by his head. His hand squeezed, applying intense pressure, clearly intent to cave in the hanyou's skull.
He didn't get that chance.
A three foot long blade swung through the air, hitting him right at the wrist, severing his rotten hand from his foul body as Takemaru faltered. The other soldiers converged on him to finish him off, but if hoping to find him weakened by his lost limb, they found themselves woefully wrong. Takemaru shrugged off their attacks and then roared like a lion, making them all cringe back fearfully.
Then, abruptly, he turned on his heel and took off.
"Who the hell was that?" Jakotsu asked, jogging up to Inuyasha's side.
"I dunno... let's go ask him," growled Inuyasha, his voice promising pain.
Unnoticed by all, the dismembered hand laying on the ground behind them began to twitch and writhe.
Pursuing Takemaru over the hills, the soldiers quickly lost ground, all save for Inuyasha, who pursued him relentlessly. But even he managed to lose sight of their quarry amidst the stone ruins just over the rise. Plenty of broken rocks and over-turned columns gave their enemy lots of places to hide.
"Get back here!" Ginkotsu yelled, stomping up beside Inuyasha and ready for some good ol' revenge.
Sango and Kohaku hung back at one particular rock, spotting a black liquid on it that fizzled and hissed. Curious, Kohaku held out a knife to test the substance... and was rewarded with the edge being melted clean off. Acid blood.
"Follow the blood," Bankotsu ordered, spotting similar spots of it everywhere. "If we can follow it we can..."
Erupting out of the ground, spraying sand and chunks of rock everywhere, great scorpions the size of horses emerged from the earth, snapping pinchers and lashing out with poisonous tails. The soldiers fell back in the face of this new menace, and Takemaru used it to slip away. Augmented by a higher class of demonic blood, the monstrous scorpions shared in Narakus hatred of men, and they sprang forward to attack the soldiers, the hunters, and especially Inuyasha.
Renkotsu knocked an arrow and fired, while Bankotsu and Inuyasha both charged the lead scorpion, trying to knock aside its deadly claws and avoid its stinging tail while their comrade went for its soft eyes and underbelly. Sango and Kohaku engaged another one, the former sending her mighty boomerang slicing through the air to cut its tail clean off while Kohaku ducked and dodged under pinchers almost as big as he was. The remainder of the band engaged a final scorpion charging towards them, knocking aside columns like toothpicks and smashing into Mukotsu and Ginkotsu hard enough to knock them off their feet.
Kyokotsu grabbed the scorpion's tail in his mighty arms, trying to pin it down by sheer strength alone, but the beast thrashed and writhed in his grip, struggling to free itself. He was flung off his feet and flat on his stomach. Before Kyokotsu could rise up again, a viciously barbed tail sink itself in his back so hard the tip erupted out of his belly. He was dead before the venom even had a chance to do its work. Freed, the same beast went after the hanyou and the remaining soldiers, knocking Bankotsu and Jakotsu aside and grabbing up Inuyasha in its mighty claw. Growling, he tried to bring his blade to bear, but the hide was too thick to cut. The scorpion scarcely felt his attacks as its hideous stinger, dripping green ichor, rose up...
Inuyasha looked up, sure he was about to see his final sight...
... when an arrow of light streaked through the air, impaling the scorpion's stinger and causing it to erupt in a ball of light. The flesh literally dissolved half of the tail as the beast roared in pain, and Inuyasha glanced up to see who his savior was.
It was Kikyo, perched on a nearby hilltop, her bow still twanging from when she'd fired her arrow. She gave a cool little nod, her expression still utterly calm as she notched another arrow.
With the sacred arrows and some back-up from the demon hunters, the tide began to turn against the monstrous scorpions. Kohaku slid underneath one to slice at its vulnerable under-belly as Sango deflected its stinger and claws with her enormous boomerang. Seeing another of the soldiers in trouble, she leapt backwards and hurled her weapon through the air, knocking a stinger off-course before it could impale Mukotsu. Not that it saved him long, as the beast stumbled from the blow, crashing towards him. Mukotsu was crushed under the beasts weight before he could even utter a final cry of horror, but he bought enough time for Bankotsu to retrieve his sword and leap onto the scorpion's back. With a mighty heave he buried the weapon up to the hilt in the scorpion's back, the tip erupting out its gut as it twitched, screeched horrible, and expired.
More demonic scorpions crawled over the rocky hillside to encircle their little group, and these ones were even bigger than before. This next brood towered nearly as high a two story building. Bankotsu quickly gathered the remaining survivors in a tight group to defend against them.
"How many is it?"
"Two?! No, three!"
"Two more!" Kohaku said, pointing.
"Good grief, they've gotten even bigger!" Renkotsu said, notching another arrow and wishing it was something larger as well, like a ballistae bolt. Or, while he was wastefully wishing, a thunderbolt.
Bankotsu quickly took stock of their dead. Counting himself, the 'honor guard' had shrunk to a mere Band of Three, the hanyou was still with them, the two hunters were on their feet, if a bit roughed up. They wouldn't last much longer against foes like this, but none the less they would make their stand here.
Inuyasha gave a roar, ready to charge, and the scorpions began to swarm in... and then abruptly stopped.
No, they hadn't stopped. They were being... pulled? A strange wind had picked up, growing in power every second, as Inuyasha watched in awe. The soldiers dug in their heels as the air sucked up the scorpions, so mighty it lifted them clean off the ground, drawing them towards a single point... a man in black and purple robes, standing on the nearby ridge. As they watched, unable to quite comprehend, the scorpions were literally sucked into a point on his left palm, engulfed in a black void. With most of the demonic spawn defeated, he slung a prayer bead over his wrist and the wind suddenly died down to nothing, vanishing as if it had never been.
Nor was he the only the only one who'd arrived. There were many of them, all wearing the robes of priests and priestesses. Two more of the entourage, a pair of priestesses in red and blue robes, completed a pacifying spell that rendered the remaining scorpions docile. They sank to their multitude of legs before the gathered humans in deference.
"What are they?" breathed Jakotsu, sinking to his knees in relief.
"Priests," Bankotsu replied, identifying them immediately. "I've fought alongside priests before. In the legion. They wander the desert, destroying demons and purifying their bones to drive them off."
"Enemies?"
"Idiots," he replied. "Or so I always thought."
"Well... right now someone should go thank them," Inuyasha said, about to march over and do that, as well as get some answers.
He made it exactly three paces... before collapsing onto his knees. His elbow burned like hellfire where Takemaru had bit him. Swiftly moving to his side, Kikyo saw the damage was already starting to happen, the venom spreading through his body at a rapid pace.
"What is it?" asked Bankotsu, recoiling from the look of blackened veins. Within seconds it had spread up the hanyou's entire arm and didn't appear to be stopping anytime soon.
"Venom from Naraku," Kikyo identified instantly.
"Then you need to pray," Bankotsu said, kneeling beside Inuyasha. "Pray to Inutaisho for strength."
He just snarled at the suggestion. "Never."
"Pray to your damned father," Bankotsu growled. He wouldn't let all this be in vain.
"NO!"
Inuyasha would rather die than accept any help from the arrogant demon lord. Problem was, right now, those were exactly his two choices, as he writhed about on the ground in utter agony, the venom working ever closer to his still-beating heart.
Intent to silence it forever.
Authors Notes:
And again, more parallels, a sword only useful in the hands of the hero, a mount that flies through the air. Just ad I couldn't let Sango ride Kirara as well.