Chapter 34: Broken Pride
Not long after Hige burst into the cave, Inutaishou, Sesshomaru come in after in their true forms. "I smell Izayoi and Rin in here father." Sesshomaru said to his father as they both transform back into their humanoid states. Inutaishou nods and looks up to the cage in the air. "They're up there." Inutaishou said to him. Sesshomaru is about to go to the cage, but Kirara does the job. "We'll get them out." Sango declares as she and Miroku, with Inuyasha still unconscious go flying to the cage. Miroku turns around his shoulder. "Inuyasha. Wake up. Can't you smell Kagome's in here?" He shook his friend.
Kagome turns around to see Kirara coming towards the cage. "Sango. Miroku." She said happily until she sees Inuyasha's position. "Inuyasha? What happened to him?" Kagome asks Sango as the cat demon gets closer to the cage and tries to pick the lock. "I'm not sure myself. But according to his dad, Inuyasha's pride is broken." She responds as she gets something out of metal and gets into the keyhole. "What do you mean his pride is broken?" She asks Miroku instead so that she didn't distract Sango's concentration. "He's been this way since you were abducted. He hasn't come out of his state since." Miroku answers in a sad voice. Kagome leans as much as she could to get a good look of Inuyasha. "Inuyasha. Can you hear me?" She calls out to him.
Little did any of them know, the cage rattles and got bigger. The bars break off and then traps Kiara and her riders into the cage. Immediately after getting in, new bars cover up the once opened part. "Oh no." Sango said shockingly. Kirara decides to shrink down so that everyone else have room to move around.
Kagome crawls to Inuyasha. She shakes him. "Inuyasha, you have to wake up. Please." She begs as she lets her tears fall out of her eyes. Ai watches hopelessly to see how her daughter is trying her best to get Inuyasha back onto his feet. A female voice moans gets her attention. She turns around to see it's Izayoi coming too. "oh Izayoi are you okay?" Ai asks as she helps Izayoi sit up. Izayoi weakly nods. "Yeah, but I'm worried about Rin." She turns to see the girl still out cold. Kagome turns to see Izayoi okay. "Who's Rin?" She asks Izayoi.
Izayoi smiles a little. "Rin is Sesshomaru's mate. If I were to know any better. We're the bait." She explains the situation. Kagome nods. "It does make sense. For a mad man to get anything he wants, he wants to use us that is very important to our loved as the bait to lure the main objectives to appear." She tells them and turns back to Inuyasha with his bangs over his eyes. "What could possibly be wrong with his pride?" She asks her friends.
Miroku looks down to his friend and pressed his hand onto his forehead. Concentrating on his aura he sense the disturbance coming off of his friend's body. "It appears that he's in his inner turmoil." He said to them as he comes out his meditated look. "Inner Turmoil?" Kagome asks him. Miroku sighs, "As in, he's fighting within himself." Kagome is down right scared. "What can I do to help him out?" She asks him.
Izayoi crawls to her. "I believe you have to get into his mind to snap him out." Kagome looks up to her. "How can I do it?" She asks Inuyasha's mother. Izayoi looks down to her son. "It's hard to say, but I think a scent of your blood should snap him out." She suggested Kagome. Kagome looks down onto her hand. "It's worth a shot." She agrees and bites hard enough to break out her skin to allow her own blood to spill out. Despite the blood coming out of herself, Kagome holds in her painful cry.
Inside Inuyasha's Subconscious:
Inuyasha finds himself in a forest. "Inuyasha, what do you think you're doing here?" A voice asks him. Inuyasha looks around to see that he's not the one who's in the forest. "Who are you!?" He demands the voice that spoke to him. "I'm you." The voice answers as the other person appears in front of him. Inuyasha widens his eyes to person is in deed himself. But there's two of them. One as a human. The other a demon.
The human difference is that his hair is jet black and his ears are behind his pigtails of the side of his head. His eyes are wooden brown color.
The demon one doesn't look any different from Inuyasha. The only thing to tell them apart is the features of the demon's face. His eyes are ruby red with teal irises. His cheeks are striped with purple jagged patterns. His fangs overlap his lower lip to make him look very frightening. His hands have long claws instead of fingernails. "What has gotten into you?" The demon asks Inuyasha.
Inuyasha raises his brow. "What are you talking about?" He crosses his arms. "You really don't know what's going on, do you?" The human asks him in disbelief. Inuyasha controls his eyes between the human and the demon in front of him. "Know what?" He asks the two.
The demon shows an annoyed look. "Oh my god, how dense you are really? Have it ever occurred to you that your pride is broken?" Inuyasha doesn't seem to get it at all. "What pride?" He asks them. Human groans. "How ignorant. Your pride is broken is because you believe you failed to protect Kagome from Naraku's clutches."
Inuyasha widens his golden eyes, "I what?" He screams to them. The human and demon look at each other. "You fucking failed protecting Kagome. Your Mate!" The demon shouts back to hm. Inuyasha looks down in shame. "This is what you look like in the real world, Inuyasha. Your pride is to protect Kagome, and you failed. You're in an unconscious state. You're unaware that you've been carried to a cave where Kagome, her family, your mother and your sister in-law are caged in to be bait to lure you into a trap." The human tells him as he projects a screen to show what's been happening out of his mind.
Inuyasha gasps as he sees that the human is telling the true and can clearly see that his father and brother battling Naraku. He looks into the cage to see his family and friends are in the cage. The only that is absolutely terrifying is Kagome knowing the truth on how your passed away. Not only that she's crying over his body thinking he's dead. He also sees her biting herself to drop some of her blood out of her body to wake him up with the scent of her own blood. "As you can see she's trying to get through to you with her blood." The demon explains the scene. "INUYASHA!" Kagome screams from somewhere.
"She calling out to you. You need to go to her. And this time, don't doubt yourself when you're protecting the people you love." Both the human and demon speak as they disperse into lights and merge into Inuyasha's body.
Outside Inuyasha's Mind
"Inuyasha please, you have to wake up please." She sobs as she lays onto his body. Miroku, Sango, Ai and Izayoi crawl back to see what will happen. They widen their eyes to see Inuyasha's hand flinch and weakly and wraps it around Kagome's body. "I'm here, Kagome. You've nothing to worry about." Inuyasha murmurs to her. He even smells Kagome's blood. Seeing that Kagome isn't paying attention to it, he takes her injured hand with his other hand and licks it. Despite the taste of red liquid from her, his saliva heals it immediately.
Everyone smiles in relief. Naraku growls, "That bitch managed to break my spell." He narrows his eyes with fury and hatred. He then grins as he spills out tentacles to destroy the cage. "Damn you." He shouts as he is about to make contact. "I'm your opponent." Inutaishou barks furiously as he stands in his way as he clashes one of the tentacles. Inuyasha chuckles, "It's good thing dad's holding his off." He supports his weight with Kagome in his arms. He leans against the wall of the cage. He looks out to see his dad fighting Naraku. But he doesn't see Sesshomaru. "Where's Sesshomaru?" He asks his mother. Izayoi shrugs her shoulders. "He must've gone off after Menomaru." A female voice answers him. Everyone in the cage turn to the source and can see it's Rin who spoke. "He was talking about going after him." She tell them with worry.
Kagome can sense that Rin is scared, just by the expression on his face. "How long have you known about Sesshomaru going after Menomaru?" Kagome asks Rin as she crawls on the cage floor. Rin sighs, "Since the day he and I became mates." She answers Kagome's question. Kagome widens her eyes. "He and I have been mates for about 10 years. And this is the only secret he has kept from me." Rin explains to the group.