Author's note:The story is completely written! Will be posting the remaining chapters as I have the time to edit them. :) Thanks for all the feedback/encouragement along the way - y'all's comments mean more than I can say. Hope you enjoy!
Chapter Ten
Kagome pressed a trembling hand to her lips, the corners of her eyes stinging even as her chest burned with righteous fury. Next to her Sesshoumaru stood, seemingly unfazed, as he continued to stare down Hakudoushi.
"You are sorely mistaken," the daiyoukai said, "if you think Inuyasha and I to be alike in strength."
"Oh, I don't doubt that you're stronger than your brother." Hakudoushi smirked. "In fact, that's exactly what we're counting on."
At his fellow incarnation's words, Mouryoumaru advanced, the tentacles of his right arm rising as his shoulder split open in a burst of noxious green youki.
"Once Mouryoumaru has absorbed your power, we'll be one step closer to overthrowing Naraku and claiming the Shikon no Tama for ourselves."
Overthrow Naraku? Kagome's hand tensed around her bow. This was bad. Really bad.
"Sorry, Sesshoumaru. It's nothing personal," Kagura said with a frown, pulling a feather from her hair. "...Let's get going, Kohaku."
Releasing Rin, the young taijiya began to approach her.
"Not so fast."
A stream of tentacles shot out, wrapping around Kohaku and cutting Rin off mid-sprint.
"No sense in letting one of the few remaining Jewel shards just walk away," Hakudoushi jeered, Mouryoumaru's tentacles constricting tighter around Kohaku's chest.
"Kohaku-kun!" Rin screamed.
Kagura paled, grimacing. As Mouryoumaru drew the struggling taijiya back, Kagome ran forward, reaching into her quiver.
"Oh yeah?" she growled under her breath as she nocked and charged an arrow. "Think again, you freak!"
The arrow shot out from her fingers like a lightning bolt, obliterating the lower half of Mouryoumaru's right arm in an explosion of pale pink luminescence. Kohaku fell to the ground as Mouryoumaru reeled back, his agonized roar rattling the earth beneath them.
"Another miko," Hakudoushi remarked with a small smile, lowering his naginata. "Interesting."
Kohaku scrambled to his feet, lunging for Kagura's feather aircraft. Kagome watched with bated breath as they took flight—noticing a moment too late the mass of writhing flesh sweeping toward her.
She crashed to the rock below as her legs went out from underneath her, the air leaving her lungs in a painful rush. Her vision blurred as she struggled to regain her breath, a long shadow falling over the sprawl of her form. Clutching reflexively at her bow, she stared up at the tentacled limb looming above her, thinking she'd had a pretty good run, when a flash of white suddenly eclipsed her view.
"Sesshoumaru!" she panted, propping herself up on her elbows as Mouryoumaru's tree trunk of an arm descended, meeting the flat of Tokijin's virulent blue blade.
Bending slightly beneath the force of his enemy's attack, the demon lord cast her a withering glance over his shoulder. "Go."
Kagome didn't need to be told twice. She picked herself up at once, swinging her bow around before her as she crouched off to the side and took aim at Mouryoumaru's ugly, teal-striped face.
"Oi, miko."
Lowering her weapon a fraction, Kagome turned, just in time to see Hakudoushi dash past her on what appeared to be a horse made out of orange and white flame. As he wheeled in midair, her grip fell slack, her reiki fizzling to a spark.
"Forgetting something?" he said with a wicked grin, Kagome looking on in horror as Rin dangled high above, held aloft only by the collar of her yukata.
"Let her go!" Kagome demanded fiercely. "She's just a little girl—she has nothing to do with any of this!"
"Oh, but where's the fun in that?" Naraku's incarnation laughed, digging his heels into the flanks of his fiery steed. "If you want her, miko, why don't you come and get her!"
With that, he sped off, Kagome chasing after him as he galloped up the mountainside. Throwing her longbow over her shoulder, the miko half-ran, half-climbed up the steepening slope. Chips of slate rained down from the paths of her boots and fingers as she fought increasingly for purchase, her breath trailing after her in the thin air like a wisp of chimney smoke.
When she stumbled at last onto the summit of another plateau, Hakudoushi sat waiting for her as if bored, Rin now thrashing from the crook of his arm. Beneath him, his youkai mount pawed restlessly at the flinty earth, steam fuming from its flared nostrils as its blazing hooves gouged the solid stone.
"It's about time," Naraku's incarnation said, spinning his naginata above his head like a windmill blade. "I'd forgotten how slow you humans can be."
The fire horse reared as Hakudoushi charged toward her, Kagome fumbling for her bow. At the last moment, she slammed the lower limb into the ground, her reiki channeling outward in a dome and deflecting the blazing edge of his demon spear.
"Not bad," her enemy chuckled as he wheeled around to face her. "That bow you're using…could it be Kikyou's?"
Kagome's jaw clenched. Holding her shield intact, she readied her weapon.
"Not anymore," she answered, releasing the bowstring with an electric snap.
Her arrow streaked outward, shattering against a barrier that rose up around Hakudoushi and his steed. The crimson bubble warped, shimmering, as it absorbed her attack.
"Fair enough," Hakudoushi said, adjusting his grip on his naginata as the horse youkai lowered its fiery-maned head in challenge. "Let's see if it serves you better than she."
Stringing another arrow, Kagome braced herself as he raced toward her with weapon outstretched.
Focus, she told herself over the mad pounding of her heart. It's do or die!
At the last second, she dropped her barrier and channeled her undivided power into her fingertips. The arrow shot from her hand like a solar flare, smashing into Hakoudoushi's youki shield. The sphere around him burst in a shimmer of reddish-white light, and he veered to the side as Kagome followed through with a second arrow blast—almost quite literally wiping the smirk off his arrogant little face.
"Hm," he said from the air high above her, his purple eyes no longer glimmering with amusement.
As he raised his hand to his singed jawline, Rin turned abruptly in his grasp, sinking her tiny white teeth hard into his wrist. With a hiss of pain he cast her from him, Kagome watching in slow motion as the little girl plummeted toward the earth below.
"Rin-chan!" the miko cried, throwing aside her bow as she sprinted toward the falling child with a speed that no one—least of all her jaded gym teacher—would have ever believed her capable of.
She hit the ground as Rin landed in her outstretched arms, her ungodly momentum sending them both sliding across the stony plateau. As they careened over the edge, her hand struck out, seizing the brittle roots of a half-dead tree. Her boots scrabbled for a foothold against the sheer wall of rock before her. Far below, she could just make out the snow-dusted treetops skirting the mountain's base. Swallowing thickly, she tore her eyes away from the sight, Rin whimpering as she clung to the front of her coat.
"It's okay, Rin-chan," the miko managed with a smile, her toes at last finding the slimmest ledge to rest upon. "Here, see if you can grab onto one of these roots."
Timidly, the little girl reached out, her fingers curling around one dusty tendril.
"That's it!" Kagome cheered. "Keep going!"
Emboldened by this, Rin took hold of another root and began to climb, Kagome supporting her from below. Rin gasped when one of the thinner roots snapped in her hand, dark eyes looking down in terror.
"Don't worry," Kagome said with all the cheery optimism she could muster. "I've got you, okay?"
Rin nodded, resuming her ascent. As she pulled herself at last over the edge of the plateau, Kagome released a breath she hadn't even realized she'd been holding. A jaunty side ponytail jutted out over the cliff above her. Wide brown eyes peered down at her in concern as Kagome now began the treacherous task of hauling her own self up the mountainside.
Testing the weight of the root she'd been clinging to, she stepped carefully off the ledge and hoisted herself toward the withered trunk of the tree. The hollow wood groaned ominously as she climbed, her grip slipping occasionally from the sweat filming her palms. Her heart leapt as the top of the plateau finally came within reach, the fingers of her left hand hooking just over the rim of it when she felt a dark presence hurtling toward her through the air.
She swung out to the side as the scimitar blade of Hakudoushi's naginata crashed into the rock beside her. Rin scrambled back with a short cry, the last inch or so of her ponytail sheared off by his strike. Kagome grit her teeth as she swayed precariously in midair, the aged roots snapping and fraying beneath her hands from the strain. Strengthening the wooden tendrils with a desperate surge of reiki, she climbed frantically for the top.
"I was getting lonely up there, waiting for you," Hakudoushi said dryly, wrenching his weapon from the cliff side.
Kagome launched herself over the edge as he struck out again, the point of his naginata slicing through the meat of her left arm. She screamed out in pain, knees buckling and vision blurring as shouki seared through her flesh like an acid burn.
Through the haze, she could see Rin running toward her with something in her arms. Dimly, she recognized the shape of her bow.
"Here, Miko-sama!" Rin called out as she skidded to a halt before her.
"Thanks, Rin-chan," Kagome said weakly, blinking to clear her eyes as her reiki finally extinguished the demonic poison that had been setting her nerves aflame. "Now, go and hide—and don't come out until I say it's safe."
As Rin scampered away, Kagome took up her bow and turned toward Hakudoushi.
"Bold words," he said as he approached her at a canter, "for someone who is about to die."
Glaring, she attempted to raise and arm her bow, but her wounded left arm just couldn't sustain the effort. The weapon fell next to her with a clatter, and she clapped a hand over her torn and bleeding flesh, breathing hard through the throbs of pain.
Drawing up beside her, Hakudoushi leveled the point of his naginata at her with a self-satisfied smile. "It's been fun, miko, but I think it's about time to put you down. Guess you're no different from Kikyou, in the end."
"Well, you're right about one thing," Kagome ground out, feeling a bit unhinged.
Impending death could have that effect on a girl, she supposed.
"Oh?" A silver brow arched. "What's that?"
Later on she would wonder how she had ever summoned the courage—or the insanity—to do what she did, as she reached out with her blood-slicked right hand and seized hold of Hakudoushi's vile spear.
"It's over," she declared, reiki coursing down her arm and up through the weapon that connected them.
Indigo eyes widened in almost childlike surprise as her power flooded him, his right arm and part of his chest dissolving in a torrent of blinding pink light. He reeled away from her, black blood spilling from his mutilated side. With a whinnying scream, his demon horse threw him from its back and bolted into the air.
"Entei!" Hakudoushi called helplessly after it as he smacked the ground, his features crumpling in pain.
Dropping the cursed naginata, Kagome crawled over to him with arrow in hand. He stared at her as she hovered above him, a bloody smile curving his lips.
"No, miko," he rasped, the discarded naginata flying into his open palm, "now it's over."
Kagome pitched back as Hakudoushi slammed his weapon down into the earth between them, the cliffside splitting and crumbling under the force of his final blow. As the ground beneath her gave way, she lunged for the embedded naginata, her right elbow hooking around the shaft.
Her legs dangled in the frigid air, her breath coming out in desperate gusts as she struggled to maintain her grip on the spear. Shakily, she clasped her right hand with her left, blood still weeping from the gash below her shoulder. Her feet kicked out behind her, searching for any sort of leverage in the wall of rock at her back.
As the naginata began to slant beneath her weight, she gazed down to the distant plateau where Sesshoumaru was transformed and fighting still. Judging by the patches of red splotching his white fur, things didn't seem to be going particularly well.
With renewed determination, Kagome dug her heels into a rough patch of earth and pushed against it with all her strength. As her shoulder blades slid up over the edge of the cliff, a sudden wave of dark heat drew her attention.
Slowly, she turned her head to the side, meeting the simmering crimson gaze of Hakudoushi's equine ex-companion.
Oh boy, she thought in dread.
Meanwhile…
"If you want her, miko, why don't you come and get her!"
Sesshoumaru watched as the girl took off after Naraku's brat of an incarnation, heedless of the danger. Anger coursed through him at the sight. With a growl, he threw off Mouryoumaru's tentacled arm and raced to intercept her.
"Retreating so soon, Sesshoumaru-sama?" a gravelly voice called after him.
Sesshoumaru fell back as a barrage of crystal shards shot toward him, cutting him off from the girl. Shouki sizzled from a nick in his cheek.
"Or can you not help but chase after any slip of mortal flesh that crosses your view?"
Fangs bared, Sesshoumaru turned to face Mouryoumaru, Tokijin crackling with youki. "You will regret that remark."
The daiyoukai sprang forward. He would end this quickly, and then see to the miko and his ward. With a vicious slash, he released a potent kenatsu wave from Tokijin's blade, aiming precisely for the head of his foe.
As the blue sickle beam streaked toward Mouryoumaru, a set of spikes curved upward from his mottled gray armor, shielding his face and neck. Sesshoumaru's kenatsu crashed harmlessly against the spikes and dissipated in a mist of youki.
The daiyoukai frowned as his feet touched back to the ground. Mouryoumaru's spikes receded, revealing his pale, unscathed face.
"Is that the best you can do?" the creature taunted, smirking.
Taking to the air again, Sesshoumaru unleashed wave after wave of blazing youki, targeting Mouryoumaru's arms, legs, torso, and head once more in turn—to no avail. Each time he attacked, Naraku's incarnation blocked with his regenerative armor or parried with his shouki-laced appendages.
Gritting his teeth in frustration, Sesshoumaru landed. This was taking far longer than he had anticipated. He looked past Mouryoumaru, toward the ridge where the miko had ascended in pursuit of Hakudoushi. Though he could see nothing of her from his current position, he could still feel her presence, small reassurance though it was. Powerful as she appeared to be, the girl was unaccustomed to battle—and human, besides.
His grip tightened around Tokijin's hilt. He had to get to her. He had to—
"Concerned for your little pets, Sesshoumaru-sama?"
He leapt to the side as Mouryoumaru's crystallized limb barreled toward him, smashing through the rock where he had once stood. Low guttural laughter filled the air.
"Don't worry. I'm sure Hakudoushi is taking excellent care of them."
Golden eyes narrowed at Mouryoumaru. "This Sesshoumaru has grown weary of your pathetic japes."
Held level before him, Tokijin seared and rippled with azure flames of youki. As Sesshoumaru stoked it further, the flames unfurled and spread, roiling and twisting about him, his sleeves and hair billowing as his power rose to tower above them both in the form of a gigantic, blue-and-white dragon.
"Souryuuha!" he yelled, unleashing Tokijin's ultimate attack upon Mouryoumaru.
The dragon lunged, slamming his adversary back into the mountainside in a maelstrom of white-hot youki. Boulders crashed down from the summit above, dust rising in a massive cloud under the force of his assault.
As the dust settled, Sesshoumaru turned from the carnage and prepared to take flight. A cloud of youki materialized beneath his boots, propelling him into the air. He had nearly reached the top of the ridge when something foul wrapped around his ankle from below and ripped him from the sky.
He slammed hard against the wall of a neighboring cliff, his back sliding down the fractured rock as Mouryoumaru emerged from the rubble, chuckling and unharmed.
"The tales of your greatness have been exaggerated, it seems."
Sesshoumaru staggered to his feet, tearing his loosened right pauldron free. He tossed it into the dirt as Tokijin flared once more in his hand.
"So there's still some fight left in you," Mouryoumaru observed, smiling darkly. "Good."
As a jet of tentacled crystal lanced toward him, Sesshoumaru jumped up and back, pushing off from the cliff behind him. He hurtled toward Mouryoumaru at blinding speed, Tokijin bending and blazing as he forced his full power into the spent blade.
A look of shock flitted across Mouryoumaru's patchwork face. Sesshoumaru's sword hit its mark, driving him to the earth and cleaving through his armored chest. Pinning him down, Sesshoumaru wedged Tokijin further into the crack.
Then, he heard the miko scream.
His head jerked up at the sound—a cry of unmistakable pain. In his moment of distraction, his power cooled, and Tokijin splintered, snapping in two.
Cursing, Sesshoumaru dropped the hilt of his broken sword, springing back as Mouryoumaru reared. An armored claw swept out at him, and he dodged it narrowly, his furious thoughts still trained toward the plateau above.
He had been a fool to bring her here. His inane desire to keep her near him had imperiled them all. He had to put her from his mind, to focus his attention on the formidable enemy before him, and finish this.
Drawing Tessaiga from its sheath, he strode forward.
Mouryoumaru sneered at the rusty, battered blade. "You think to challenge me with that?"
Gripping the frayed hilt, Sesshoumaru willed the sword to transform in his hand. Tessaiga pulsed in recognition—yet remained the same.
Sesshoumaru glared down at the blade in irritation, imposing his will upon it once again. As Mouryoumaru launched his attack, the daiyoukai rose to counter, trusting that his father's fang would not betray him in his moment of need.
Yet even as he slashed out to deflect Mouryoumaru's barrage, Tessaiga remained dormant still. A shower of crystal rained down upon him. As the shards pierced his skin, Tenseiga thrummed at his side, shielding him from the brunt of the assault. With a clenched jaw, he returned Tessaiga to its scabbard in resignation, transforming himself in a whirlwind of pearlescent youki.
In his beast form, he loomed over his enemy, jaws gnashing as he shook his fur to dislodge the venomous splinters embedded in his flesh. His caustic blood burned as it fought to neutralize Mouryoumaru's miasma. Ears back and head lowered, Sesshoumaru stalked toward his prey, claws scoring the solid stone.
Mouryoumaru gazed up at him in lustful awe, even as he backed away. "So, this is the true power of a daiyoukai…"
With a snarl that echoed along the cliffside, Sesshoumaru pounced, his massive fangs bearing down upon the crack in Mouryoumaru's armor. To his surprise, his enemy did not even attempt to evade his attack, but remained still as his thick carapace crunched beneath the pressure of Sesshoumaru's bite.
"Such raw power," Mouryoumaru murmured silkily, Sesshoumaru growling in repulsion at his tone. "I must have it."
Mouryoumaru's shoulder plate opened in a blaze of emerald youki. Sesshoumaru paid it no heed, consumed now by his mindless need to crush, to kill. And he could feel the armor on the verge of giving way beneath his powerful jaws, the rend he had made spider-webbing through the adamant scale.
He dug his claws into the brittle earth as a force began to pull upon him, tentacles wrapping around his forelegs and neck, inundating him with poison. He started to lose traction, his youkai defenses overwhelmed at last by the virulence of Naraku's shouki. His mind clouded, his power dimmed, as he found himself being dragged ever closer to that yawning chasm of green.
As his senses began to fade, a speck of orange flecked his vision. He watched in dull fascination as it grew larger—and larger still—taking on the shape of a horse. His glazed eyes widened further when he beheld the horse's rider to be none other than that damnable miko. Even for a hallucination, this seemed absurd.
"Hey!" he heard her shout, the sound of her voice shocking him into sudden lucidity. "Get off of him, you disgusting creep!"
Mouryoumaru froze in his efforts, as transfixed upon the ludicrous sight of her as Sesshoumaru himself. She sped toward them on what could only have been Hakudoushi's youkai steed—holding aloft in her right hand what could only have been Hakudoushi's youkai weapon. Her raven hair flew wildly about her dirt-streaked face, her left arm bare and streaked with blood from a wound bound messily below her shoulder. Azure eyes narrowed, flashing fiercely as the naginata in her hand seared and split beneath the onslaught of her reiki.
His breath stilled in captivation, eyes following her until the fog of Mouryoumaru's poison eclipsed his mind at last.
Burning with panic and fury, Kagome plunged down at Mouryoumaru, driving her blazing, disintegrating spear into the crack in his chestplate. The naginata splintered, bursting in a shower of light. Mouryoumaru's armor shattered as well, falling from his body like broken chunks of clay.
He reeled back, releasing Sesshoumaru as his tentacles retreated defensively. His features twisted in a nasty snarl, the gruesome hole in his shoulder sealing shut.
"Damn you, miko," he seethed.
Kagome landed between him and Sesshoumaru, retrieving the bow slung across her back. Fighting back a wince of pain, she held the weapon before her as levelly as she could, making a show of slowly fitting the string with an arrow.
After a stare-down that lasted a small eternity, Mouryoumaru finally seemed to buy her intimidation act. Leathery wings spread out from his back as he took to the sky.
"We will meet again," he declared, dark eyes narrowing ominously as he disappeared around the mountainside.
Air whooshed from Kagome's lungs. The bow dangled loosely in her hand as she slumped forward in exhausted relief. A white muzzle turned toward her, the crimson eyes above it regarding her steadily.
"Thanks for your help, Entei-san," she said, giving the fire horse a pat as she slid down from his back like a sack of potatoes.
As her feet hit the ground, she turned toward Sesshoumaru, her brows knitting in concern. Still in dog form, he lay to one side, eyes nearly closed, tongue lolling out as he panted rapidly.
Cautiously, she approached him. "Sesshoumaru? Can you hear me…?"
His rheumy red gaze focused slightly. She reached out, brushing her fingers along the stripe on his jaw, surprised at the softness of his fur. Blue slit pupils slanted toward her.
"Er, sorry," she said, dropping her hand with a blush as he transformed, clawed fingers digging into the front of her tattered shirt.
She gasped as he dragged her toward him, glassy eyes staring into her own. His chest heaved beneath his busted armor, his mouth drawn tight in obvious pain. Kagome's throat went dry.
For a long moment he studied her face, Kagome hardly daring to breathe herself. Finally, his grip slackened, silver lashes lowering as he released her and collapsed onto his side. With a tired sigh, she sat back on her haunches.
"Hey," she said, shaking his shoulder. "We should probably get out of here before the sun goes down."
A muscle in his jaw twitched, but otherwise he didn't respond. Kagome sighed again.
A low snort drew her attention. She glanced back at Entei, following the demon horse's gaze upward, toward a distant dot on the horizon. Her senses tingled as the dot grew larger, emitting a faint, foreign aura of youki–even from this far away.
"You've got to be kidding me," Kagome groaned.