Chapter 4 – Anger
As a light miasma clouded the rising sun, the battle had already begun.
It didn't take long before Naraku eliminated the weak guards that were accompanying Chikara. The ox demon was killed by receiving a root straight in his heart. As for the dragonfly demon, he didn't have much luck either and suffered while a bunch of the white baboon's limbs were crushing his bones into dust.
Inuyasha gasped, his mind racing, he was quick enough to think about Koga's defenceless position: "Chikara! Protect Koga!" he yelled, pulling Tetsusaiga out of its sheath. He knew of her impenetrable energy shields, so he thought she was the most reliable individual for the dangerous situation.
The goddess nodded once and hurriedly closed the distance between her and the wolf demon; quickly looking around, she spotted the small fox demon, giving him a signal to come too. She smiled reassuringly at Koga as he looked at her straight in the eyes, seeing her intentions.
The pregnant demon was terrified at the idea of getting hurt; a small feeling of panic invaded him and he clutched one of Chikara's large sleeves, his breath becoming uneven. He didn't like being an easy target, especially for Naraku. 'Heck, I don't like being weak at all…' he said to himself.
The goddess closed her eyes as soon as Shippo was beside them, ignoring the wolf demon's bout of fear and concentrated on accumulating energy instead. 'This will help him to calm down.' She took a deep breath: "Power of the Sun, please give me strength to give someone a strong shelter." She spun her staff in the air and planted forcefully its bottom into the forest ground, so it was standing on its own.
The gang sighed of relief when the moon and sun sceptre pulsated twice and created a large sphere of orange light, surrounding the ageless woman and the two demons. Chikara frowned, a slightly wicked smile forming on her lips; the half-spider demon can't do anything to hurt Koga, Shippo or herself at that moment. Maybe she was rather weak on the offensive, but her defences were close to unbreakable.
The demon's roots calmed for a while; the shield had captured his attention. "Well well, what do we have here? My, what a precious treasure you are protecting…" Naraku sneered. "I guess someone has been busy…" He analysed the energy shield. "You think this cheap magic trick will hold me off?" He plunged a root toward it: "Let's see about that!"
Shippo yipped and jumped onto Koga's shoulder, grabbing it to ensure he wouldn't fall. The poor fox demon was trembling, so the wolf demon took him in his arms to soothe the poor child.
Thankfully, the sphere wasn't affected by Naraku's attacks; there were only ripples on the shield's surface from the demon's assault. Chikara growled: "You won't hurt him, you bastard!!!" Her fist curled. Even though Naraku couldn't attain them, it was still annoying to receive his blows.
Chikara noticed how Shippo had trouble containing his fears and how it was affecting Koga. 'Shippo, calm down, you are scaring Koga and it's not good for him' she thought for herself; she wanted to tell the fox demon telepathically, but she did not have any time to lose explaining how she could talk in people's mind to the small demon.
"Hiraikotsu!" Sango tried to cut through the moving limbs as Miroku did his best to stop them with his monk staff. Of course, he couldn't do much because of the presence of Naraku's hell bees. Not being able to use his wind tunnel was becoming a classic; he cursed under his breath. Kirara roared and attacked the roots too and at the same time, protecting Sango.
"Don't worry Miroku, we'll get through this, like every time" Sango tried to cheer him up.
The monk nodded at his friend's encouragements. "Yes." He turned toward Inuyasha and yelled: "Protect Kagome, Sango and I will take care of the roots."
From the other side of the battle, the half-demon grumbled: "If he thinks I'm gonna let him have all the fun, he's damn wrong about that…" Tetsusaiga was already out of its sheath and Inuyasha was blocking the roots coming in his and Kagome's direction.
Kagome, from behind Inuyasha, shot an arrow at Naraku's puppet. The arrow damaged a lot the baboon, but the roots came toward the injury, closing the hole.
"It's regenerating itself with the aid of the roots!" Sango gasped. This was going to be a long battle.
"Thanks, but-" Inuyasha cut a root coming toward him, "I think-" he dodged another, "we already noticed that!" he said, with sarcasm in his voice, making sure Sango had heard him.
Kagome frowned beside the half-demon: "Inuyasha, it's not the time for this stuff" she warned him.
The half-demon growled, showing he didn't care. At the moment, his mind was concentrated more on his mate than anything else and he didn't care much about Sango's feelings.
Far from them on the battle ground, Chikara was trying her hardest to make the defence sphere not falter. She knew the moment it would weaken, even for a second, Naraku would take advantage of it. She didn't want to break her promise to protect Koga. She shot a quick glance behind her; Koga was still terrified. His body didn't let it show, but his eyes were saying everything. "Hold on, Koga. Stay close to me and everything is going to be alright."
He nodded slowly, like he didn't want to bother her. He looked at Inuyasha and wished his lover wouldn't get hurt because he wouldn't forgive himself if Inuyasha died. 'Come on Koga, you know Inuyasha is stronger than this' he tried to convince himself. He petted Shippo's hair nervously, hoping it would calm himself down.
Back to Kagome, it was evident she was boiling with anger; she wanted to help defeat Naraku, to protect Koga. She knew though, that hiding behind Inuyasha wasn't going to help the others.
The modern girl looked in Sango and Miroku's direction; they were not really efficient and fatigue was starting to show on their face. Kagome was getting worried about their safety. She decided to approach Inuyasha, determined to do something and whispered in his ear: "Listen, I want you to create a diversion so I can shot an arrow through Naraku's heart… it works everytime."
Inuyasha turned to face Kagome, with a sour expression on his face; he didn't like the plan. His eyes narrowed; but, if Kagome thought it was going to work, there's no point to try to stop her when her mind was set. The half-demon growled slightly to show his disagreement: "Okay, when I'll jump toward the puppet with Tetsusaiga, you'll be able to act." He sighed deeply.
She was about to say something, but he cut her: "Do it quick… and be careful."
Kagome nodded and, before jumping into the action, she sent a look at the goddess and the pregnant wolf demon. 'Guard him well, Chikara.' The young woman felt an energy rush, pushing power through her long legs.
At the same moment, the said goddess looked at the running half-demon. 'What is he doing?! Kagome is left unprotected… Wait' she saw the modern priestess taking her bow and quiver, ready for action, while running. A bout of panic invaded Chikara; she would have yelled at Kagome to not do it, but she kept silent because she knew Naraku would try something and the young girl could get hurt.
Chikara could only frown at the scene. "She's insane. I have to find a way to stop her…" she said to herself, but Koga heard what she had said and thought the same.
"I hope she knows what she's doing" he murmured.
The goddess didn't bother to answer as she was praying the bad feeling in the back of her mind would go. Her eyes darted to Naraku's puppet; he didn't seem to want to stop its attacks on the energy shield and on the others.
The baboon seemed to enjoy this battle: "Do you honestly think you can kill me with those puny attacks?" he chuckled darkly.
As Kagome ran around Naraku, making sure she would be ready when Inuyasha gave her the signal, she quickly eyed the battle. She hoped her attack would at least help the half-demon to damage the baboon or even better, give him a chance to kill it.
Sango gave another swing of her Hiraikotsu to destroy the invading roots. Breath was running out and exhaustion was starting to show. Kirara growled, seeing Sango's distress.
The demon slayer looked in Miroku's direction; he wasn't looking great himself.
The monk took a few seconds to look around, and spotted Kagome behind Naraku. His eyes widened at the comprehension of the objectives the young priestess had. 'No! What is she going to do?!'
Seeing Miroku's horrified facial expression, the demon slayer looked in the direction which her friend was staring at and was shocked herself at the modern girl's goal; her bow and arrow were ready. Sango immediately thought to stop her from doing an almost suicidal act.
Despite the demon slayer's best intentions, she yelled at Kagome to stop, but she had forgotten that if the other girl had heard, Naraku also had.
Almost instantly, the evil half-demon started to grow roots in Kagome's direction, cackling at the demon slayer's fatal error.
Inuyasha who was about to attack Naraku, giving at the same time Kagome the signal to shoot, immediately abandoned the first goal. He started to run toward her, cutting through thick layers of roots Naraku was growing to block Inuyasha's way.
The small but pointy root was approaching Kagome; Inuyasha was running. They were racing to get to the girl first. Unfortunately, the time it took everyone to gasp, the Naraku's weapon passed through the young women's shoulder, making a disgusting sound.
Kagome shrilled loudly and was forced to the ground because of the strength of the attack.
Once Inuyasha was by her side, she started mumbling something about her wound not being very significant and that Naraku was more important than herself, that she would survive.
Inuyasha frowned and called her stupid: "Look at your shoulder, it's pouring blood all over you." The moment he paused, another root was fraying its way to Kagome again. The dog demon destroyed it into ashes with the aid of Tetsusaiga. He looked around and stopped at Chikara, who was looking at him from afar: "Chikara! Come and heal Kagome, quick!"
The goddess saw immediately worry in Kagome's eyes. She knew the young woman would live through that wound, if Naraku was going to be beaten soon, that is. But if Inuyasha wanted her to heal Kagome's injury, which meant he wouldn't change his stubborn mind, she would have to let go of the protective shield around herself, Koga and Shippo. She cringed at the thought of leaving them unprotected.
Chikara sighed and talked to the half dog demon through telepathy: 'But Inuyasha, what about Koga? If I come for Kagome, my shield will have to be taken off as I need my sceptre to heal someone. Your mate will be open to danger!'
At first, the dog demon was surprised at hearing voices in his head, but the second he understood the message, he replied to Chikara: 'As soon as I run toward you, you come here.' He looked at the puppet; it didn't seem to notice what they were planning. He sighed in relief.
The goddess nodded and took off her outer kimono, ready to fly off. She had her hand on her sceptre, ready to release the energy shield. She breathed deeply; anxiety was building. 'What if Koga gets hurt?' she asked herself. She was frowning as the roots were not stopping their attacks. 'I have to be fast, or else…'
The pregnant demon beside her was startled by the sudden change of behaviour of the blond goddess. "Chikara, what's wrong? What are you doing?!"
She turned to him.
He looked into her blue eyes and gasped at the confusion and uncertainty in them.
"Do not worry, my friend" was all the ageless woman answered. Herself didn't even know if their tactic would work; she could only pray.
Inuyasha looked quickly at Kagome beside him: "Don't ya worry, Chikara's coming."
"No, Inuyasha! Don't do it. I'm going to survive" the young priestess said, lying on the ground, clutching her shoulder.
'Chikara' the half-demon called.
Then the said goddess pulled her staff from the forest ground; the energy protecting them vanished. She stretched out her white bird wings and crouched to gather air under them.
She jumped into the air; Inuyasha was running the fastest he could.
Chikara set herself near Kagome and the half-demon was at his lover's side to protect him. The goddess immediately spun her staff, and made it float in the air. She brought her hands to eye level, palm toward the sky: "Power of the Sun! Lend me your strength to heal this girl!" Orange energy glowed form her hands as she continued with some chanting.
Sango and Miroku came over to shield the two women from the attacks of Naraku's puppet. The demon slayer looked at Kagome's wound, which was slowly closing; she winced at the idea of receiving such a blow.
From the other part of the battleground, Inuyasha was with Shippo and Koga. Would he had been alone with his pregnant lover, he would have taken the wolf in his arms to reassure him. Shippo jumped on Inuyasha's shoulder and hanged on tight: "Inuyasha, can't you kill Naraku's puppet?" At that moment Inuyasha placed himself in front of Koga to block a few roots sent to hurt his lover. He looked straight ahead and answered Shippo: "Can't ya see I'm already busy?!"
Shippo jumped off, frustrated from the half-demon's harsh answer.
"Inuyasha, on your right!" Koga yelled.
The half-demon cut through another despised root. He looked over at Chikara; he hoped Kagome's injury would close soon.
A roar was heard.
"Kirara!!!" Sango cried.
The cat demon reverted back to her domestic cat size. Sango dashed to retrieve her.
Chikara saw this and concentrated more on her task. Pouring more energy helped to heal the injury, but still, it was too slow for her liking. "Come on, faster. Faster!" she whispered angrily. She looked around and felt anxiety rising. Every one was weary and wanted this battle to finish.
Inuyasha was starting to get angry at the entire situation; he was worried about Koga and Kagome's safety.
Still in front of his lover, he was fighting the invading roots. What he forgot was that roots could come from any direction.
Kagome's bleeding injury finally closed. Chikara sighed; she was weak, but at least, she wouldn't lose more blood.
"Thank you, Chikara" the young woman said, softly. She smiled.
The goddess knew the girl was already recovering her strengths. "Stay calm, and you'll be-"
Chikara didn't have time to finish her short sentence that another cry was heard.
Everyone turned in the source of the sound's direction; it was Koga. He was impaled through the stomach to a tree behind Inuyasha. A root had made itself unnoticeable from Inuyasha's hearing, thus making a surprise attack on the wolf demon.
Chikara was screaming from horror; Inuyasha saw red.
Koga had a horrified expression on his face. Everything started to spin around him. The pain although, was unfelt, as it had happened too quickly for his brain to register what happened.
Inuyasha was in the same situation; he was too stunned to react. Shippo was trying to knock some sense into the dog demon by pulling on his pants' leg.
Kagome yelled through a wearied voice: "Inuyasha, do something!!!" She looked at Chikara: "Quick, you must tend to his wounds" she said.
The half-demon regained a bit of sense.
The goddess nodded and, while Naraku was laughing like the bastard he was, she was fraying angrily her way through a new cohort of roots. She bashed every single one who would dare to be in her way. Her usual happy Sun form was acting more like her cold Moon one.
Inuyasha jumped to the tree and cut the main limb that was pinning his lover to it with Tetsusaiga. He caught the falling demon and brought him gently to the ground. Blood was staining Inuyasha's fire rat coat, but he couldn't care less; Koga was losing too much of the crimson liquid of life. "Please hang on, Koga" the half-demon said angrily. He shot a glance at the large hole in the wolf's stomach. His eyes widened: 'The pup!!!' How could he have let this happen? He was so mad, he could have split a mountain in two. The half-demon sensed the goddess approaching in a fury. As he looked up, he could almost see the anger surrounding her small body.
As soon as she reached the two canine demons, Chikara immediately was at the pregnant demon's side. She winced at Koga's injury; she would need a lot of time and energy to heal this one.
In Inuyasha's arms, the wolf's breath was laboured.
The dog demon put a shaking hand on her arm, his eyes covered by his bangs: "Take Koga away from here, the fastest you can. Go and hide. Don't turn around once."
Everyone was breathing heavily from stress and exhaustion. Chikara let a single tear glide on her cheek. She nodded, without giving a verbal answer. She breathed deeply, regaining some strength through a surge of adrenaline.
Inuyasha gave carefully the wounded demon to the goddess. She brought her wings in front of her to create a like-shield. She started to run, not looking back. She prayed they would be able to escape.
It seemed Naraku had intended for something else to happen. He shot roots in Chikara and Koga's direction; the limbs were racing toward them.
Chikara saw this and stopped running.
For a second, everyone was puzzled at that move and wanted to make her continue. Inuyasha started to run toward them.
The goddess put her sceptre in front of her and said: "Oh no you don't! Burn!!!" As soon as the roots touched the staff, they burned into ashes. Then, she took a few seconds to take her moon and sun necklace from around her neck to put it around Koga's.
The pendant reacted as soon as it touched the wounded demon. It glowed and at that moment, to everyone's surprise, both the goddess and demon disappeared from sight.
Naraku's puppet stopped the attacks, confused at what happened.
Kagome and Inuyasha took the opportunity to strike. Kagome launched a sacred arrow at the baboon. It hit the heart, weakening it, and then Inuyasha threw a Wind Scar in its direction to complete the attack. The puppet started to disintegrate and soon a wooden statuette fell to the ground, a single demon hair attached to it.
Sango ran to Kagome, to see if the girl was fine.
"I'm okay, just a bit light-headed, that's all" she said, with a small smile. Miroku took the wooden figure in his hand and observed it.
Inuyasha was still fuming and worried, although the battle was finally over.
"What's wrong, Inuyasha?" the young priestess asked.
"Chikara disappeared… but to where?" Miroku asked, destroying the statuette with his remaining strength.
Kagome tried to stand up on shaky legs: "We must find her! Koga was badly wounded… maybe the pup-"
"Don't say this!" Inuyasha cut her. "I'll go. You guys get back inside the hut to recover." He turned to the modern girl: "Don't worry Kagome, I'll be back with them."
The concerned woman nodded, although she wasn't happy with his decision. "Okay, but be careful…promise?"
He put a hand on her shoulder and turned around to run into the forest surrounding them. 'I won't be able to find Chikara because she doesn't have a scent, but Koga has one…' he thought.
The rest of the gang retreated to the small hut.
Miroku looked at the sky. The sun was now visible with the disappearing miasma that came with Naraku's puppet; it was now shining in the sky. Such a beautiful day for such a horrible event…
Yup, I'm alive. Sorry for the delay...haven't updated since October I think lol. I'll try to write the next chapter as fast as I can... yeah right pfft. This chapter was hard to write. I tried to make it the most detailed I could so that's why I had a hard time. I don't like much these scenes.
Have a Happy New Year everyone!!!... and please leave some reviews!