Author's Note: I do not own Inuyasha or anything affiliated with it. The rights to it belong solely to their respective owners.
The latest chapter has come! Glad to see that so many of you enjoyed this previous one. I hope that this lives up to your standards as well. So now, let it begin, along with the latest replies!
Wings of Hope: Thank you. I actually was coming up with the thing as I wrote it, so I'm glad it turned out so well.
Greymon Leader Batx Flashpoint: Yeah, Naraku could have been the poster child for humans and demons aren't that different. But than again, if he had I doubt the series would have ever happened.
Guest: That will become a recurring source of humor, yes.
12345678910: Your are most welcome, and thank you for the kind words. And yes, I do plan to add in the movies. The first one will occur sometime between when Inuyasha learns the Backlash Wave and the Red Tetsusaiga.
Elfen Children: Yes, it is indeed Kagura. On the matter of Tenbatsu, he's got something else up his sleeve that will be revealed before too long. As for Chuck coming after me... Bruce Lee! Take these nunchaku and DESTROY!
Carlisle Fan 22: Indeed. Out of all of Naraku's incarnations my top two are Kanna (don't know why) followed by Kagura. Though Yume and Mei are not bonded yet- first, they have to get the instructions for the ritual from Tenbatsu.
Cutepuppy01: I see what you mean. And don't worry, Yume's hatred for Koga will lessen as time goes by. Her protectiveness of Rin and how much Koga will naturally irritate her will just make it a slow process.
And Mickol93: Glad that you liked it. And I shall do a Code Lyoko story. However, if you're interested I'd like to bounce some ideas off of you and get some feedback. If you are interested, where might I contact you?
And now, let us begin!
Ch.21 A Bloody Trap
At the Wolf Demon Tribe's Home...
Ginta was patrolling the waterfall and the tribal grounds with another wolf, having been put on the same shift as Hakkaku. Once he came back around to the front, he called "This side is all clear!" When he heard no response though, he looked around for Hakkaku. He spotted him... sleeping next to a rock and with his spear next to him. Ginta stared. "That guy...!" he muttered, before he suddenly got an idea.
Moving so quietly that not even a wolf could hear him, he crept up right behind the Mohawk-wearing demon. Then, he yelled as loud as he could "THE ENEMY!" As expected, Hakkaku snapped awake and shot to his feet, waving his spear around. "Huh? Who is it? Is it the Birds of Paradise?!" he shouted, Then with a small tap from Ginta, he lost his footing and fell over the cliff, into the water below.
Ginta laughed. "What are you talking about, Hakkaku? The Birds of Paradise are all dead. remember? Though you did look pretty nice flying through the air just now," he commented. Hakkaku emerged from the water and climbed onto its bank, glaring. "That was a dirty trick, Ginta!" he called irritably. But Ginta merely laughed again. "That's what you get for sleeping on the job!" he replied. Hakkaku growled, but then he noticed something that distracted him.
A group of Wolf Demons, looking similar to them but with darker clothing, were approaching the den. "Who are they?" he asked. Ginta told him "They're out brothers from the northern branch of the Tribe." He was correct, and once the Northern Wolf Demons made it inside the cave, they were given an audience with Koga. The first and lead demon said "We've learned that there's a human in possession of a massive Sacred Jewel Shard." The second one added "He's apparently the lord of some castle. This is no joke!"
The first one nodded. "Let's combine our forces- northern and western tribes together. Then we'll storm the castle and take the Shards, divvying them amongst us equally," he proposed. "Well, Koga? Hat do you say?" the second one asked. Koga sat back and closed his eyes. "Sorry, but I'm not interested," he told them. The second blinked. "What? Why?!" he nearly shouted. "I have something else that I have to do first," Koga replied. The first one grunted. "I see. Well, no sense in forcing in the issue," he said, standing.
The second demon leaned closer to him, whispering "Do you see his arm? He looks injured." The first one looked at Koga's arm, and he saw the wound that had been inflicted by the Birds of Paradise. Nodding, the northern Wolf Demons left the cave. Once they were gone the regular tribe members approached Koga. "Koga, do you are you sure about turning this down?" one asked. Another added "If we don't join them, the northern Tribe will end up with all the Shards!" Koga snorted. "Let them go. It doesn't matter," he stated.
But his comrades were no easily dissuaded. "Well, I can't let it go! I'm going with them!" one declared. A third Wolf Demon added "Me, too!" Koga looked away, arms still crossed. "Go ahead. If you want to go, I won't stop you," he told them. That was all they needed to hear, and a small group of Wolf Demons began walking towards the exit. "We're going to join the northern Tribe! Anyone who want's a piece of the Sacred Jewel, come with us!" they called.
More than a few of the other Wolf Demons rose up and joined them, though there were also a good number that chose to stay. When things had settled back down, Koga tried to move his injured arm and winced. "Damn...!" he muttered. He thought back to hat moment with the Birds of Paradise. How she had tried to use a spear to keep its mouth open, but the but had merely snapped it and also caught his arm between its teeth. Then it taunted him about how is going to take his whole arm and the Shard inside with it. He had managed to kick a few teeth out a break free, but not without losing the Shard.
'I never expected for that damn turkey to take my Shard. I'll get it back soon enough though. But first comes that mutt!' he thought, flashing back to when Inuyasha had obliterated the Birds of Paradise with the Wind Scar. He hadn't thought that Inuyasha would be capable of destroying it in one swing. Inuyasha... Koga wouldn't be satisfied until he wring-ed his neck with his bare hands. Coming back to the present, his arm throbbed in pain, and he sighed. 'This isn't healing as fast as I'd hoped it would,' he thought.
Several miles from there, Inuyasha and the gang we traveling through a forest, having left Kaede's village a day ago. As they walked, Kagome said "I can sense it. The Sacred Jewel Shard is coming from that direction," she said, pointing forward. "So this demon is supposed to take the form of a giant bear?" Mitchel asked. Sango nodded. "That's the story anyway. Originally, it was just a small, mischievous cub ruining the fields. But then it Suddenly grew to enormous proportions, and began attacking the villagers," she explained.
Inuyasha snorted with something that sounded like irritation. Picking up on it, I simply asked "What's got your panties in a twist?" Inuyasha looked back. "Because! It's important we hunt down all the Sacred Jewel Shards that Kagome senses, right? So why I am looking around for a bear when I could be hunting a wolf?!" he shouted. Kagome frowned, knowing what he meant. She was proven right when he continued "We already know that Koga has two Sacred Jewels Shards jammed in his skinny little hairy legs. I'd feel more like fighting if I was picking up the scent of wolf instead of bear."
Miroku smiled slightly. "So you're saying that butchering Koga is your first priority?" he asked, to which Inuyasha nodded. Shippo sighed. "What do you expect? He's got himself convinced he's Inuyasha's rival in love," he pointed out. A tic mark appeared on Inuyasha's brow at that, and a second later there was a loud thump. A large bump appeared on Shippo's forehead and he cried out in pain, falling off Miroku. Inuyasha also had his fist raised.
Literally fuming, Shippo shouted "What did you do that for?!" "Inuyasha! No hitting my son!" I said, punching the half-demon in the back of the head. A bump identical to that of Shippo's appeared, but when he turned around he saw Mei standing in front of me, wings spread and glaring at him. Inuyasha glared back for a moment before relenting. Behind him, Miroku knelt down next to Shippo and whispered "Shippo, don't bug Inuyasha or you'll only feel his fist."
Just then there was rustling in the bushes around us, before several shapes burst from them. I instantly went on guard, and Shippo called "Bears!" But then it turned out to be a pack of mercenaries, and I lowered my swords. "No, it's just a group of ordinary thieves," Miroku replied. The mercenary closest to him glared. "Who the hell are you callin' 'ordinary'?! And from the looks of you, you ain't got any money! So just leave us the women and we'll call it even!" he yelled.
I growled at what he was implying, which was punctuated by several of them other mercenaries smirking suggestively. But before I could light these guys up like a set of firecrackers though, I sensed a demonic aura getting closer. Sango must have also sensed it, as she pulled her Hiraikotsu off her back. The mercenaries noticed, and shouted "Hey! What are you doing?!" Sango ignored them in favor of Kaname calling "I can sense it! It's coming closer!" Kagome added "And it's got a Jewel Shard!"
Suddenly the ground itself began shaking, and the sound of several crashing trees was heard. Birds rose into the sky in fear, and there was another crash. From the wood and uprooted tree suddenly shot out from behind the mercenaries, who quickly moved out of the way. Sango swung her Hiraikotsu and split the tree in two vertically, letting the two halves fall to either side of us. The mercenaries ran past us, all of their bravado forgotten as they turned tail and fled.
There was a deep roar before a truly massive bear, at least ten stories in height, rose over the trees. It saw us and growled menacingly, before lumbering forward. Kagome looked closely, before spotting a pink gleam on its forehead. "The Sacred Jewel is there! In its forehead!" she called. Inuyasha smirked. "Well, he'll make one hell of bear rug," he said, before leaping into the air and drawing Tetsusaiga. I swung my blade and sent out a blast of lightning, while Mei took the air before spreading her wings and firing a flurry of Feather Bombs. They exploded all over its body and the bear roared, before its right leg went stiff from the voltage of my attack.
Inuyasha slashed the bear across the throat and it fell back, bleeding heavily from all the attacks. But then Inuyasha's ears picked up a buzzing as he landed back on the ground. "Saimyosho!" Inuyasha called, spotting a cloud of the poisonous insects. "Inuyasha, look!" Miroku called, and he did. The Saimyosho began swarming around the massive bear and enveloping it, stinging the beast countless times while completely covering it, trying to find the Shard.
Eventually, one of them got lucky and pulled it out of the bear's forehead. Inuyasha growled. "They're getting it!" he exclaimed. The bear fell to the ground and growled weakly, before it began to dissolve into bones. Their prize taken, the insects flew back into the sky and away. They still remained visible though, and I narrowed my eyes. "Is this a trap?" Miroku asked. "Probably. Naraku wants us to follow," Michiru said. Inuyasha scoffed. "Fine by me. And this time, he won't get away!" he declared, and the rest of them agreed.
The clouds rumbled ominously over the castle, making some of them weaker-willed Wolf Demons fidget. But the rest of them were undisturbed. The lead wolf that had spoken to Koga said "This is it... The castle with the Sacred Jewel Shards," he said, before looking back at the assembled forces. "When the castle guards appear, pay them no mind! Just kill them all!" he ordered. "YEAH!" the rest of the demons called, shaking their spears and/or other weapons. They charged at the front gate and burst through, running into an open courtyard.
But to their surprise, there weren't any guards around. One them noticed, and said "What's going on? You'd have thought they had someone keeping watch." Then another pointed at the main building. "There's someone there!" he called. Behind a screen they could see the outline of a woman, the same one in the Kagura dancer robes as before. "There! Get her!" the lead wolf called, and they threw there spears. The screen was ripped and torn apart, revealing her to them. However, she didn't even flinch.
Instead, the woman held up her fan and flicked it open, before swinging it at the Wolf Demons. To their surprise a truly massive gale of wind blasted at them, knocking most of them off her feet. Then she swung again, and this time they were picked up into the air, swirling around in a spiral. The woman smiled. "Huh. Such small fry," she commented, walking down the steps to the remaining demons. They charged at her, and she said "I'll make this... your last dance."
Then she swung her fan again, and this time the wind manifested into glowing blades. They flew towards the wolf and sliced through, obliterating them and filling the air with screams of pain. One of them was unable to move as a blade flew right towards him... and blood flew into the air.
A while later it was nighttime. Ginta and Hakkaku were out patrolling again, though time it was Hakkaku who went around, flanked by two wolves. He yawned in tiredness, but when he reached the front he saw Ginta lying on a rock. Snoring. Hakkaku smirked and the wolves whined, before he shushed them. He began creeping towards Ginta, ready to deal some just retribution. But then the wolves started growling. "Quiet!" he whispered, but then he caught a shape out of the corner of his eyes.
Turning to look, he caught sight of one of the Wolf Demons that had left and shouted in shock. Ginta snapped to his feet, wide awake and with his spear in hand. "What's going on?!" he called. Stirred by the shouting, more of the demons emerged from the cave, surrounding the one who returned. They looked in shock at his injury- he looked like someone had taken a sword and sliced him from hip to shoulder across his chest, and went right through his entire body.
"Didn't he go with the northern Tribe? What's he doing here?" one asked. "Yeah..." another replied. Koga rushed to the front, worried. "Hey, what's wrong? Did something happen?" he asked. The Wolf Demon weakly raised his hand. "I was only... able... to get one..." he said, placing what he was holding in Koga's palm. He looked at it, and gasped. "A Sacred Jewel Shard? You got one?" he said. The Wolf Demon nodded. "Koga... Hurry... to the castle. If you don't... everyone... will be slaughtered," he warned.
Koga's eyes widened and he nodded, before taking the Shard and speeding off. With Koga gone Ginta and Hakkaku took charge. "Hey, let's get you back inside," Hakkaku told the Wolf Demon. "How in the wold did you make it back with injuries like that?" Ginta asked, patting him gently on the shoulder. Suddenly the Wolf Demon let out a cry of pain, and foam burst from his cut. His body literally fell apart into two, showing that the cut really did slice him through.
The two pieces fell to the ground and the various other Wolf-Demons shouted in shock. "He's dead!" Ginta said. At the same time, Koga was racing towards the castle as fast as he could go. Holding up the Jewel Shard given to him, he called "A Sacred Jewel Shard. I'm using it!" Then he stabbed the shard into his right arm, where he had lost the previous one, and kept running.
At the same time, we followed the poisonous insects to Naraku's castle. Crashing through the front door and into the courtyard, Inuyasha yelled "Naraku!" We followed, only for us all to stop in horrified shock. "Wh-What is all this?" Inuyasha said. Spread out through the courtyard were countless bodies, all of them looking like they had been sliced into. I looked around at the carnage. "These guys... they're all Wolf Demons," I said. "So they are. But why would they be here at Naraku's castle?" Miroku thought aloud. I shrugged my shoulders, not having any idea.
Inside the castle, the woman from before smiled and raised her fan. Swinging it, a light gust appeared which spilled into the courtyard. The corpses suddenly began twitching, before rising with almost zombie-like motions. Shippo shouted and jumped onto my shoulder. "What?! They're still alive!" he called. Michiru and Kaname shook their heads though. "No, that can't be. Our Shikigami can't sense any energy coming from them. No life at all," Kaname said. I groaned, drawing my swords. "Great! So now they're like zombies," I said.
The zombie-Wolf Demons trudged towards us swung at us. I blocked an attack before slicing its head off. However, even while the head rolled away the rest of the body tried to continue swinging at me. Inuyasha sliced on in half as the waist, but the top half tried crawling towards him. Kagome blasted one with an arrow and disintegrated it completely, while Sango swung her Hiraikotsu and cut through several of them. However, they didn't stop, and kept coming. Miroku set two of them afire with Sacred Sutras, though it was only one they had been burnt to ashes that they stopped.
One of them tried to grab Shippo, but he jumped over it and pulled out what looked like several comical bombs. "Take this! Wheel of Fire!" he called, lighting them and throwing the bombs into the horde of corpses. A chain of three explosion went off that blasted the parts off so some of them, and sent other flying. But except for the one that had been blown into enough pieces, they still came. Michiru and Kaname both cast raging flames and set several of them afire, but like with the others it was only once they were ash that they stopped.
Miroku grunted. "Even if you cut them up, they still revive. Only those we completely destroy stop!" he called. The woman in the castle chuckled. "Of course. Cut off an arm, a leg, it won't matter. And if you chop off their heads, they simply keep going. This is my Dance of the Dead," she said. Then she blinked, and her smile grew slightly. "Oh? Already here? I had wanted this to last a little longer. Oh well," she said. Then she moved her fan again.
Outside, all the remaining corpses rose into the air as if on strings, and flew at Inuyasha. He tried slashing at them, but they surrounded him and covered him in a dog-pile. "What the-?" he began. Inside, the woman closed her hand and flicked it, and the corpses covering Inuyasha all exploded, bursting into a shower of gore and blood that rained down on Inuyasha. Said half-demon looked at the blood on his hands. "What's going on?" he thought aloud.
The other corpses collapsed like their strings had been cut, and I blinked. What in the world was going on?" Just then though, Koga reached the castle and jumped onto the wall. Immediately he took in the sight of his butchered brethren, gasping horror. Then he noticed the bloodied form of Inuyasha standing right in the center, Tetsusaiga drawn. Putting two and two together, his eyes narrowed with rage and his entire form began shaking. "Inuyasha!" he roared.
We all looked in the direction of his voice, and I called "Koga?!" But he ignored me, staring at Inuyasha. "Inuyasha! Tell me! How dare you slaughter my comrades?" he demanded. Inuyasha scoffed. "Look, you mangy wolf. These guys were dead before we even got here," he said gruffly. But Koga growled. "Liar! Look at you; you're covered head to toe in their blood!" he roared hatefully. Inuyasha looked down at said blood, coming to his own conclusion.
"Dammit, this was all a trap!' he thought. But then I called "Koga, listen! We came here looking for a demon named Naraku. When we got here, they were all dead. Then they started moving and-" But then Koga cut me off. "Yume, don't try and protect this beast! Already dead? I'm not buying it!" he said. I sighed, looking up at him. "Damn fool won't listen," I said. Miroku said "It looks like Naraku's managed to pull us into another trap. We followed the Saimyosho here to this castle. I'm willing to bet that the Wolf Demons were also lured here as well. And then they were killed."
Sango added on "And so Koga arrived to save them. Just in time to find Inuyasha covered in their blood." Michiru nodded. "Now he thinks that Inuyasha is their killer, and he'll stop at nothing at get revenge," he said. I nodded and looked on worriedly. We had to find a way to get the blockhead to see the truth.
But how?
That ends this chapter! Can Inuyasha and the others make Koga see the truth? At what cost? The next chapter tells!
Please review! If you flame me Bruce Lee will smash you with his nunchaku. (I'm just kidding... or am I?)