Cursed Touch
By Rurouni Star
Well. I could be doing other things than writing. But that
would be cruel what with last chapter's blaring signal:
PLOT TWISTS AHEAD! FYI: this fic is
getting fairly close to finished. Which means I'll be once
again free to work wonders with ALAP. Yay.
Chapter 10 – Culmination
"The secret of a good life is to have the right loyalties and to hold them in the right scale of values."
-Norman Thomas
Despite the fact that he was outnumbered, Naraku did not seem concerned at the moment. His attention was focused elsewhere, dismissing their presence completely. There was nothing he could have done that would have made Kouga more angry, excepting perhaps to kill Kagome; which was impossible now.
But he found with despair that he could barely stand, let alone attack the abomination before him. He'd lost the shards. He'd lost Kagome. And now he'd lost revenge.
The wolf refused to look at the pale white Kagome. He didn't think he could bear it again.
"K-Kagome…" Shippo mourned, swallowing another sob. Apparently, the fox had no such problems with staring at the gruesome sight.
"No matter," Naraku's voice cut into his musings. "He is wounded – he won't even be so much of a challenge as these fools."
Wait.
Was that… uncertainty?
From Naraku?
A spark of hope lit itself in Kouga's chest. The half demon had to be talking about the priest. Holy power had nothing to do with physical well-being and Naraku knew it. That was why he was afraid.
That was why he had killed Kagome.
So with a last grim determination, Kouga waited for the opportune moment.
**
The glow seemed to appear out of nowhere, a tiny spot of unearthly light on the horizon of darkness. The puppet stopped momentarily in surprise as the snake-like being curled around it in its path. The unearthly keening of the dead gave them all pause.
The shinidamachuu had a chosen way; it knew where to go. The glint called out to it, as its mistress stroked its mind and showed it where to go…
Sango's scream of anger did not give it pause as it wound its way to the boy's body. Neither did the cruel laughter from the puppet make it hesitate. The soul-stealer's grasping legs took hold of the Shikon shard and pulled.
The light burned more brightly as it was extracted; the boy's last breath went unnoticed as the shinidamachuu disappeared once more into nothingness.
**
"Two more," Kikyo said distractedly as her demon appeared before her. "And we know where those are."
Naraku paused in his unrelenting gaze toward the door to look at her. "Where, exactly?" the hanyou asked in a half surprised, half amused voice.
Kikyo tossed the shard to him. "One would be on her body," she said, her eyes flicking toward Kagome. "And the other…"
Both were now looking toward the door.
"The poor fool has no chance," Kikyo murmured. Naraku seemed to agree with her – a tentacle snaked out to pull a tiny shard from the corpse and join it with the others in his hand.
"You're doomed," Kouga shot out weakly. "Even if we die… no one can master the full Shikon no Tama. It will consume you."
The hanyou merely chuckled.
He was unprepared when a muffled scream of anger came from the door. It consisted of one word.
"Kazaana!"
Naraku pulled back almost instinctively in preparation, the before unseen hell bees zipping upward between the floor cracks.
But…
No black wind came.
Instead, during the confusion, a single ofuda pierced through the cloud of hellbees, angled clearly for the hanyou's head. A hiss burst from Naraku's mouth as a blue fire sprung from the seemingly flimsy paper to lick at his body.
"The last shard is on the monk," Kikyo informed Naraku coolly, even as the ofuda crumbled to nothing.
Miroku glared at her momentarily from his place in the doorway before dodging the sudden barrage of tentacles. The monk was in pain as he destroyed them; that much was apparent. But he dared not stop to let the pounding in his chest die down. The tentacles, on the other hand, kept regrowing.
Kikyo narrowed her eyes in concentration. The shard… was…
The pure light of an uncorrupted Shikon shard glinted from the priest's staff. Of course, she reasoned, it would almost have to be there for him to cut through Naraku's extremities so easily.
"M-Miroku!" Shippo cried. "Kagome's-"
"Don't say it!" he interrupted angrily, but his voice was weak. The monk's eyes were wet with denial. "She's not… she can't…" Blood blossomed through his robes, soaking the thick material just above his heart, making him stumble; his staff kept moving even as he found himself leaning against the wall.
Kouga took the opportunity to tear at the vine-like appendages that held him – but his claws scraped uselessly, as though the pliable material beneath his fingers was made of metal instead of skin. He growled furiously, pulling harder, his claws peeling backward from the effort… the pain went unnoticed as crimson dribbled down his hands.
The defiant yowl of a cat broke through the air; Kirara, too, was struggling with her bonds, hissing and spitting furiously. The firecat seemed to be having better luck, for some reason – her claws sawed through the tentacles, albeit with some effort. In a few seconds, the cat was free once more, pushing beneath the tangle of pulsing flesh to tear at Kouga's restraints.
A feline cry later, they were both unconscious; Shippo's cry rang out soon after.
Meanwhile, the monk's strikes seemed to come with effort, though they came in spite of the spreading puddle of red on the floor beneath him. His lips parted in a snarl of concentration, an attempt to ignore the mounting pain.
Naraku laughed.
"I could wipe you out so easily, Houshi," the hanyou gloated, his voice tinged with the drunkenness of victory. "You make so little progress, merely against the little power I've leveled at you." Almost as though to prove his point, the regenerating limbs that Miroku had barely held back at so great a cost darted past the whirling staff to strike him through the shoulder.
He bit his lip to hold in the scream of pain that had caught in his throat.
"You want to look at her, Houshi?" Naraku continued. "You want to see her?"
Miroku coughed violently, the word caught inside him. No! Don't-
"I thought that was the case," the hanyou said with amusement. "I know you've been dying to make sure…"
"Damn you," the priest managed, a choke between words. "I'll kill you-"
"Come now," Naraku said in a friendly tone, still twisting the thing in his shoulder. "If she couldn't do it, you're certainly not going to."
Miroku opened his eyes painfully, trying to take hold of his mind again. But what he saw stopped all thinking.
Her chalk-white face inches from his, her neck hanging limply like a broken puppet… Kagome's raven hair brushed his face as her corpse fell into his arms.
"No…" he whispered, disbelieving.
**
The puppet turned back with a smile. "And so you die, one by one…"
A sob wracked the woman before it as she collapsed completely. Perhaps she tried to force out a threat, but if so, it was quickly washed away by tears.
Sango found herself unable to move, unable to speak as the full impact of the situation hit her.
He was dead.
Kohaku was dead.
He wasn't going to come back to her now, he couldn't smile again or fight with her or live with her when she settled down…
Another incredulous whimper escaped her, and she tried to gulp in air again to fill the hole in her heart. But she couldn't breathe; the only thing she could do was let out another desperate sob.
The world faded from view… it didn't matter anymore. She couldn't see anything but the last shuddering breath of her brother…
"As amusing as it is to see you on your knees before me, I'd like to end this pointless battle before dawn," the voice told her, amused.
It moved again as though nothing had happened, descending toward the helplessly crying woman as she grieved…
…and stopped as a blood-curdling growl rent the air.
A form that had not been there before had taken a place in front of the demon hunter.
In the darkness of the night, the eyes glowed a deep red…
"Naraku," the demon's voice hissed. "You want it over?"
The puppet drew back involuntarily, a frown on Naraku's face. Inuyasha cracked his knuckles, drawing attention to the fact that his sword was no longer visible… and that his claws had lengthened into wicked looking points. Another sob from the taijiya caused his arm to twitch in anticipation, his eyes narrowing to slits.
Naraku's puppet snorted. "Whatever you call yourself, you're nothing but a half-"
The crack of flesh and bone rent the air, cutting off the rest of the statement.
Blood washed over his claws in a smooth wave, the potent scent filling his nose.
More.
A sob.
His knuckles tightened.
I need to kill more.
But the discomforting crying was beginning to push back the red haze… the vulnerable human behind him was assaulting the barrier around his mind, the part of him that called for blood. Her desperate cries were pushing something upon him, something uncomfortable…
It hit him as the cloud of red disappeared completely.
Guilt.
"Sango!" Inuyasha called, panicked. He turned abruptly, the dark desires forgotten. Almost immediately, he was wrapping an arm beneath her stomach, helping her gingerly to sit up. The woman sagged against him, unable to respond any other way.
"I'm sorry," he moaned. "I'm sorry… I wasn't fast enough…"
Her only response was to fall against him helplessly, bleeding and aggrieved.
His shaking hand tangled in her hair, holding her closer as she cried. "I'm so sorry, Sango…"
Slowly, her hands came up to fist in his haori despite the blood. "It…" She choked for breath. "It wasn't your f-fault…"
The hanyou glanced uneasily ahead of them, wondering what had happened to Kagome. He couldn't shake the feeling that it had not gone well…
But he couldn't move Sango. She was too badly injured. In fact, he would have to bandage her very soon or run the risk of her death.
"Go," the taijiya whispered. "Just go."
But…
Kagome had people to take care of her, loathe as he was to admit it.
Sango had no one.
"No," he said quietly. "I'm staying." What kind of person would leave her alone and dying with her brother's corpse?
She gave in too easily, her limbs shaking. He realized then that he would have to start helping her immediately.
"I'll take care of you," the hanyou said, not without embarrassment. "But you can't die on me…"
**
"You believe it now, don't you?"
Miroku choked, hugging her tighter. The pounding heat in his wounds had somehow transferred to his face… something wet was following the curve of his cheek, running down to fall to her face…
"Kagome," he whimpered. "No. You can't- I won't let you-"
"Too late," Naraku said in a morbidly amused voice. "I'm afraid she's beyond a miraculous recovery."
Unobtrusively, a part of him slithered toward the priest's staff, snatching the shard from it. Miroku failed to notice as he pressed himself closer to her, willing his heat to warm her chilly skin. "I was supposed to die," he told her. "You can't… not before me. It's wrong!"
The shard joined the others in the half demon's hand. Naraku closed his fingers over it as an unearthly black light emanated from the pieces…
"Kago-" The whispered name was cut off hopelessly. He lowered his head in despair.
"Wonderful," Naraku said with a smile. "You've done me a great service, priest. Without you, of course, she would never have come so willingly…"
Miroku's hands tightened on the girl's arms.
"And of course, she wouldn't have been as ridiculously easy to manipulate. After all, that dog doesn't have a curse that needs lifting before a certain time…"
The monk felt fire in his eyes as the devilish hanyou continued. "I must attribute all of these happenings entirely to you, I suppose. As loathe as I am to share credit for the victory-"
"Shut up."
Naraku raised a brow. "Angry?"
Miroku set Kagome down gently and rose, trembling. "Unbearably."
"And you're going to try to kill me?"
"Yes."
The half demon's lips quirked. "With the whole Shikon no Tama in my possession?"
The monk's right hand tightened imperceptibly. "Yes."
Kikyo's brow perked, and she rose, bow in hand.
"I'm afraid I can't allow you to do that," she said quietly.
Miroku directed his glare at her. "Stay out of this," he snarled. "You've done quite enough. If you continue helping Naraku, Inuyasha or no, I will suck you into this wind tunnel." His fingers clutched at the beads around his forearm, tugging warningly.
Naraku chuckled. "If you open the Kazaana, the bees will surely kill you." At Miroku's cold hard face, he smirked and amended the statement. "You will also suck in your only chance of resurrecting her." At this, he held the Shikon no Tama out with a devious smile at the priest's trembling jaw.
"Helping Naraku… was it?"
Both turned to look at Kikyo. She smiled coldly.
"I think you have made a mistake, Houshi-sama."
She brought her bow fully into her hands, an arrow nocked and drawn.
"I mean to kill him."