CHAPTER 33

Luckily, Isha had recovered from that blow to the abdomen enough to gather up her sword and deflect Kagura's attack.

"Oh," Kagura sounded disappointed. "I had thought you'd bled out."

"Feh, like that mangy wolf could do any real damage to me."

That's what she said, but as she was holding her sword in her left hand while her right hung limply to the side, it was obvious – to Souta, at least – that his earlier guess that her arm was broken again was correct.

"Hm," Kagura observed Isha's defiant stance. "Are you sure you want to fight me, injured such as you are?" Whether she was only referring to the large bloody wound in Isha's chest, or she had also noticed Isha's peculiarly limp arm was unclear.

Isha did not answer Kagura's question, but rather growled, "I don't like the way you framed me. And I don't like how you set that flea-bitten muff on me. But most of all," she raised her voice, "I really hate how you stink just like Naraku!" She jumped and attempted to swing at Kagura with tetsusaiga.

"Oh, what a fine little nose you have!" Kagura made a swoop with her fan, somehow repelling Isha and her sword.

"She's not as strong as she usually is," Shippo observed.

Souta nodded. "And that must've been this Kagura's plan right from the beginning." He began to feel sick again as he considered Isha's assertion that Kagura had the same smell as Naraku. As he understood it, every single person must have their own individual smell. The only exception he could recall, at least according to Isha, was that he and Tsuta apparently smelled the same. Of course Souta, with his human nose, thought everyone smelled mostly the same – give or take some perfume or body odor here and there – and then there was Isha admitting that Tsuta as he was now didn't smell exactly the same as Souta.

Still, it seemed to Souta that might be an important clue – if Souta and Tsuta smelled mostly the same, and Souta was the reincarnation of Tsuta… then Kagura and Naraku, might they be in a similar situation?

Kagura raised her fan high above her head. "I am a wind witch. The powers of the air are mine to command." She made a circle in the air, and instantly, countless little twisters appeared throughout the grounds.

Isha was managing fairly well to hop out of the way of the tornadoes. Akiga, still battered, bleeding, and immobile, was not so lucky. Souta spotted her being pushed around by the randomly roving tornadoes, and his sympathetic heart took over once again. He dashed across the grounds, narrowly swerving away from the twisters, before reaching the impression in which Akiga was laying helplessly.

"Come on!" Souta pulled on Akiga's arm. He was attempting to at least help her to her feet, but she proved to be extremely heavy. It didn't help that Akiga was making no effort to stand up on her own.

"Why are you doing this?" she said dully. "I nearly killed your friend, you know."

This was true, and something Souta may have considered more if he hadn't been so emotionally driven at the time. "Yeah, well, that was just because she was going easy on you because she knew you were being tricked!" This was not true. "And… and I know she wouldn't be so angry at me for helping a person in need!" This was even less true.

Shippo, who had dashed after Souta, asked, "Did you hit your head? Are you sure you're talking about the same person?"

Kagura, who had apparently been watching this unfold, said, "It's no use trying to help the wolf. The false shard in her arm is spreading poison vapors all through her body. And once those vapors reach her heart, she'll be dead. And," she glanced at Akiga, "it shouldn't be long now."

The false shard pulsed. Souta reached out a hand. He figured he could just pluck the shard out, purifying it the way he'd been able to with true shards in the past. But the shard pulsed harder, and an aura like a cloud of lightning puffed out and repelled Souta's hand. The demonic energy was too strong for him.

"Well, this is boring," Kagura drawled. "Let us continue!" She made another motion with her fan, and the tornadoes grew larger and began traveling faster and more wildly. Eventually, the tornadoes stopped being visible to the naked eye, and all Souta could see was dust and earth flying all through the air.

As Isha attempted to dodge what can best be described now as an inescapable wind storm, Shippo and Souta both wondered why she didn't attempt at all to summon the Wind Scar. But as Isha finally settled on a patch of land, and stood her ground against the wind, Souta was hopeful that she might now unleash her ultimate attack.

This was one of several reasons it was very startling when Isha called out, "Souta! Shoot me with your arrow!"

Shippo and Souta stared at Isha in disbelief; Akiga would have as well if she'd been able to lift her head. "What… what?!" Souta yelled back. "Are you crazy?!"

Kagura chuckled softly. "If you want to end it so badly, then let me help you!" She made a circle with her fan again, renewing the tornadoes. But the tornadoes, this time, focused their efforts on attacking only Isha, and the other three were left windswept but mostly alone.

"Souta!" Isha yelled again. "Don't think about it, just do it!"

She didn't sound suicidal or desperate, just determined. Souta reasoned that Isha must have some sort of plan. Not that it wasn't like her to crazily jump into something like this, but she seemed confident enough. And, Souta supposed as he readied his bow, it did seem like the alternative to possibly killing her with the arrow would just be Kagura killing her with the tornadoes. He let loose an arrow.

She dodged, so the arrow flew right over her shoulder and across the field. Isha would have to explain later what had actually happened – that with all of Kagura's wind whirling around, she couldn't find the opening for the Wind Scar. She remembered how, on an earlier occasion, Souta's arrow had managed to slice through Naraku's miasma, and correctly guessed that the arrow would be able to do the same with Kagura's wind. Of course it worked, and the air sliced open enough for Isha to see the Scar.

She took a mighty swing, as Souta and the other were actually able to see. The ground was ravaged, and Kagura was hit, much to her surprise. Her clothes flew off in tatters, but, amazingly, she remained standing, with only a long cut on her torso to show for the attack.

Without a word, Kagura only turned and began running off, bringing her hand up to her hair.

Hagane – who had emerged from the castle with Kannon just seconds earlier – took off in pursuit of Kagura, along with Isha.

Kagura was just far enough ahead, though, that they weren't able to catch up before she pulled a feather from her hair. And with a gust of wind, the feather grew to the size of a small canoe, and Kagura climbed aboard. As she and the feather, joined by a swarm of Naraku's venom wasps that much also have come from the castle, rose into the air, her back became completely visible to the group on the ground. The sight was rather chilling. On her back was a large, red scar in the shape of a spider – exactly like the one they had seen previously on Naraku's back.

As everyone looked on, dumbfounded, Kagura gave a parting call. "Since it seems we are both barely able to stand, I saw we call this a draw for today!" She and the wasps flew speedily into the horizon. As soon as they were out of sight, the castle began to dissolve, rather like a lifting fog.

Souta had no time to dwell on the revelation that the castle had been an illusion this whole time, as he noticed with alarm that Isha had collapsed to her knees. As he rant to her side, it became clearer that she was mostly all right – just tired. And angry.

"That spider on her back… I know it's the same as the one on Naraku's!"

"And you said they smell the same, too, right?" Souta said, more for the benefit of Hagane and Kannon than for anyone else.

Kannon narrowed her eyes. "We know Naraku is capable of changing his form. Perhaps this wind witch is simply his newest self?"

Souta shook his head. "It couldn't be. She acted like she'd never seen any of us before. If that was Naraku, what would be the point in pretending he… she? didn't know who we were?"

"A fair point. I think it's clear, at least, that her plan was to have Akiga and Inuyasha fight until one of them was dead, and attack whoever was left standing, knowing they would be injured and tired at that point."

Hagane folded his arms. "That's playing dirty."

"Sure. But her goal was Akiga's shikon shards, I would bet. And it would seem anything is fair game when it comes to the shikon jewel."

The four taller people looked over at the impression where Akiga still lay. Shippo had gone over to check on her. "Her arm's turning purple. The poison from the fake shard must be spreading pretty quickly."

Souta recalled Kagura's earlier explanation about the shard. "She'll die soon if we can't figure out something to do."

Isha twitched in irritation. "So?! One less stupid rival to deal with, and two more shikon shards for us! I don't see the problem here!"

Souta, who had earlier had a similar thought for a brief moment, nonetheless glared at Isha at this coldhearted comment. "We can't just let her die! And anyway, it's not her fault she was tricked by Naraku! You know what that's like." As Souta held gaze with Isha, he tried to decide if that had been a low blow or a brilliant move on his part. Perhaps it was both.

Isha eventually tore her own stubborn face away and stood up, wobbling somewhat. "Fine. We won't let her die." She stooped over to where Akiga continued to lay, motionless. She drew tetsusaiga one-handed and lifted the sword high above her head.

Alarmed, Souta jumped out and shouted, "What are you doing?!"

"I'm going to cut off her arm, fake shard and all."

"That's your solution to sparing her life?" Souta said, exasperated, as he joined Isha, Akiga, and Shippo.

Shippo nodded sagely. "There's no other option. After all, if the poison vapor is too much for you to pull out…"

"Oh!" Souta snapped and ran off, returning shortly with an arrow in hand. He knelt next to Akiga, and explained. "If my arrow can slice through Naraku's poison miasma, then maybe it can be of some help here?"

Isha lowered her sword, somewhat reluctantly. "Well, if it doesn't work, I guess things can't get any worse for her anyway." She half-shrugged.

Souta also shrugged, quickly dug his arrow into the spot where the false jewel was. Akiga groaned in pain, but Souta only dug in deeper. The shard pulsed one last time, before popping straight up into the air and then rolling onto the ground.

The color in Akiga's arm quickly turned back to normal. And it seemed the shard had mostly been the source of her pain, as she quickly hopped backwards into a crouching position, and growled, "Looks like you gave up your chance to kill me."

Isha clenched and raised her sword again. "Oh, but since you're feeling better now, I can kill you with a clear conscience!"

Akiga jumped even further backwards, fully out of range of Isha's swing. "You're right, it'd be no fun for me to win against a wounded little puppy! You just wait for next time!"

Isha took a few angry steps forward, shouting, "You're one to talk!" But Akiga had sped off into the distance, apparently much less injured than she had seemed.

Having no further business on the now Naraku-less grounds, and wanting to patch up Isha – but most of all, wanting to get away from the field of corpses and body parts – the group set off back to the direction they'd been heading earlier.

They found a small, abandoned hut in an empty field. It was really too small for the five of them to sleep comfortably together, but Souta was glad to sleep inside – even if it was snug.

The two groups exchanged information. First, Hagane and Kannon relayed what they had learned from the fake Naraku in the castle – that he had spread a rumor that the lord of that "castle" had a massive hoard of shikon jewels in an effort to lure out the wolf demon tribe. This in turn had caused Akiga to follow, and of course everyone had already been told why Akiga had been lured there. They also explained that the fake Narakue's true purpose for being inside the castle was just to keep Kannon and Hagane busy inside with him, so they wouldn't interfere in the Akiga-Isha-Kagura battle.

Then the other three – well, mostly just Souta – explained what had happened outside, on their end. Souta was tired, and still felt a bit nauseous, and would rather not have been the one to explain. But he was the one patching up Isha's abdominal wound. And although she held up her haori in a way so as not to reveal more of her torso than necessary, Souta still felt very much flustered at the prospect of touching her bare stomach – even with the gaping, bloody wound in it. So, as it was, he took the duty of telling the story of the day's events to keep his mind off the naked flesh beneath his fingertips – raw and bloody as it was.

Mercifully, Kannon came up with an interesting theory just as Isha was about done being patched up. Kannon theorized that perhaps, rather than being Naraku with a different face, Kagura was just some part of Naraku.

"But… how?" was the only thing anyone had to say.

"Naraku is comprised of many different demons, remember? If several demons can combine to become one, then couldn't it be possible that the one could split into several more demons?"

Isha adjusted her top and said, "Like he just shoved out some of the demons and made a new one?"

"That would explain it – if Kagura's her own, new demon made out of spare, um, Naraku parts, why she didn't recognize us but still smelled like Naraku." Souta was pleased to have an explanation, and was also happy to find his nausea was finally starting to let up.

"I don't think so," Isha argued. "If Naraku was able to create his own, I don't know, offspring as powerful and capable as this Kagura, why wait? Why would he have only started to do so now?"

Hagane – who, as usual, left most of the talking to the others – said, "Maybe he couldn't until now."

"Meaning… he must've gotten more powerful, somehow." A strange feeling grew once again in Souta's stomach, although he couldn't tell if it was foreboding or if his nausea was just returning. Perhaps both.

OoO

What a cliffhanger? Does Souta have a stomach virus?! TUNE IN NEXT WEEK TO FIND OUT. If he was a woman I'd immediately jump the conclusion that he must be pregnant despite there so far being no sexual intercourse in this story. Hmmm did my use of "so far" imply there might be some later on? TUNE IN NEXT WEEK TO FIND OUT. (Disclaimer: I will not explain next week. Probably.)

I really hate writing tetsusaiga/tessaiga so I usually don't. Is this the first appearance of "Feh"? I swear, you see it used so much in fanfiction but he never really said it much in the manga. Right? I also love that in fanfiction, there'll be some common phrase or action that happens all the time in like every fanfiction, and then you read the manga or whatever that the fanfiction's based on and the character says that phrase once. If you really wanna know a secret… I don't read much fanfiction! I mostly just riff on horrendously awful Twilight and Harry Potter fanfics and write this thing. And then read real books. Of course I have mad respect for fanfiction authors. Writing things is hard. But just, I hate reading things on LCD screens. Huge letters. Many breaks. Ugh. Tthat's part of why I never proofread these chapters anymore. (The other reason? Laziness.)

Also it's been 7 years and I'm still amazed not only that I've been writing this thing for this long, but that it's as long as it is and people are STILL reading it. Like, that's amazing on its own, and also I'm just amazed that people are still so into Inuyasha. I don't know, it seemed like it hit its peak popularity before I even started writing this, so it's weird that like 10 years later people are still actively seeking out fanfics for it. And… writing fanfics for it.

Also I realized holy crap it's actually past the seventh anniversary of the first chapter going up. I was going to try to think of something special to do for it. But I didn't. Also sorry, I know I was like "I'll make sure to write more chapters before I go on vacation!" and then that didn't happen.

So, the "demon" arc is coming up! How fun. I've been working with how to deal with, well, in canon, Inuyasha's shirt just rips off at one point, so he's shirtless for many scenes. But, Inuyasha's a lady in this story! So, do I alter it so her top stays on? (After all, Inuyasha's hakama is always fine, why can't her haori escape huge damage?) Or do I not alter it and have a topless young lady running around? (It's not like I have to worry about aggravating the tv censors, since this is written word). Or do I just not even mention it at all, as I have intentionally done with many other things in this story that I didn't want to bother with? At this rate we may find out in January or February! I'm sorry. ;_;

Personally I love that the one major change between this and canon Inuyasha is Souta's hormones just flipping out randomly. We already have canon Kagome's emotions going all over the place, but here we have Souta trying to keep an erection from happening while putting gauze on a gaping wound, because, even though it's a wound and it's gross, he's still touching bare flesh. Incidentally, there was also bear flesh in that other chapter. Coincidence? Yes. Anyway, as my mind goes to weird places sometimes, so does Souta's.