Miasma swirled around the base of the mountain, rocks tumbling away as Naoe and Sango made the steep ascent. Their legs burned, puffs of mist escaped their mouths with each breath as the temperature dropped. The samurai glanced to his companion's face for any clues to her emotional state; but since the death of Kirara, Sango had closed herself off. Her eyebrows were knit, her expression determined, though Naoe knew that she must be even more anxious than himself at the prospect of what lay ahead.
Why hadn't Miroku waited for them?
The second he could, the monk tore away from Naoe and Sango; they hadn't been able to catch up. The rock slide at the base of the mountain had certainly slowed them down, they had been forced to circle around it and find another way up.
Miroku would have made it this far by now, but certainly he hadn't taken Ronuku on alone, had he? Fear plagued their steps, they pushed themselves upwards as fast as possible, hoping to arrive in time to prevent disaster. Once they cleared a large boulder, the edge of a tree line appeared, the slope beyond disappearing into the noxious clouds.
"It can't be much further," Sango said as she vaulted forward.
Naoe replied to her remark with short, quick huffs as they pushed forward, his exhausted body crying out in aching protests. As they drew closer to their target, the weight of each step continued to build. He focused on pushing forward through his pain, allowing it to distract him from his troubled thoughts. He buried the memories in his mind that reminded him of how easily Kohana slayed Sesshomaru, of what that would mean for Sango and himself once they met up with Ronuku…
Their escalating pathway slowly began to level to a terrain where the trees began to spread out further and the samurai looked to Sango, giving a nod. He shivered, a sickness festered in his body, sensing the intensity of the energy and power the connection Ronuku and Kohana gave off.
"Careful now!" He called out to Sango, trying to keep his words short as his eyes strained to see through the cloaking miasma.
As they made their way through the cloaked darkness, a figure suddenly loomed ahead in the distance.
"Sango, look ahead!" Naoe huffed, "We may have caught up to the Miroku after all!" His voice reflected optimism, hoping that his exhaustion hadn't given way to delusion.
Sango nodded to Naoe, but clutched her Hiraikotsu a little tighter. As they spied the figure ahead in the miasma she slowed her run and crept forward. Her movements were rigid, every muscle and nerve prepared to strike out with her weapon should something attack. The miasma clouded the identity of the figure, but as they drew closer they could tell by the outline that it was a male.
"Miroku..." Sango hesitantly whispered when they drew nearer, "Miroku are you there?"
The figure regarded Sango's question with silence, hardly shifting his stance as the two crept closer. The dark figure stood stall, his head hanging as if he was observing something on the ground opposite the direction of them.
Naoe unsheathed his blade, his senses on alert as he strained his eyes to try and understand what the form ahead of them was doing. Another figure, hazy through the miasma began to become visible. Motionless, lying at the first man's feet, Naoe's fears of what they were discovering compelled the samurai to catch up to the slayer's side.
"S-sango, wait. I don't bel-" A low light came into view with their next steps, stretching out from the standing figure and illuminating the immediate through the heavy miasma. The light emanating from Ronuku's thread to Kohana betrayed his identity to the two warriors; his empty eyes observing the lifeless form at his feet.
Miroku's body.
Blood pooled around the monk's throat, his lifeless gaze blankly staring off into the distance. Thick scarlet drops dribbled from Ronuku's blade.
"G-gods…" Naoe's face went pale at the discovery, nearly losing grip on his sword as he struggled for a response.
He heard Sango's startled gasp, the slayer's mouth agape in horror.
Ronuku's figure, this tall looming madman, was a stranger. This shadowy eyed beast wore his face, but without his easygoing grin or laughter in his eyes it was nothing more than a mask. The cold gray man before them seemed nothing more than stone.
And Miroku lay helplessly at his feet.
Naoe once more glanced to Sango and saw the moment when her steel façade cracked. The taijiya trembled, no doubt remembering the last family member she had seen commit such a heinous act, and her Hiraikotsu nearly fell from her hands.
"R-ronuku," Sango croaked, "Ronuku, no...no!"
Naoe had fought in countless battles. He had survived countless massacres and knew the misery of facing bloody hours on the battlefield. Still, the horrors he had witnessed could not nearly measure to the anguish and pain he heard in the taijiya's voice as they stared at Miroku's bloody corpse lying at Ronuku's feet.
Nothing in the immediate area or between the two men suggested there had been a struggle, or a fight.
This was murder.
Naoe found it hard to swallow. Looking up to Ronuku's face, he noticed the possessed man had turned at Sango's cries, though there was no recognition in his expression. With his eyes dark, and his skin holding no color, Ronuku looked more like demons they had just previously been fighting than his own past incarnation.
Naoe had never looked into the face of another man and felt such dread.
His hope for saving his friend and pupil began to quickly shrink, but the samurai forced himself to push those thoughts away as he slowly raised a palm towards the grey man. He had to try.
"Ronuk-" He barely managed the man's name before Ronuku's gaze caught sight of his unsheathed weapon. Blackened eyes narrowed, the younger of the two incarnations shot forward towards his teacher, swinging the blade down at him with demonic might.
Before Naoe could react, Sango's Hiraikotsu suddenly flew up in front of him, the bone weapon taking the brunt of the possessed man's attack as though it were a shield.
"Ronuku," Sango cried, tears cascading down her cheeks, "Ronuku, stop it!"
Her strained pleas fell on deaf ears, the force behind the initial strike unrelenting against the slayer's defensive stance. Ronuku's newly acquired strength allowed him to advance further on the two, forcing the taijiya back several steps before withdrawing his blade without warning, revealing a nick on the surface of the boomerang. Naoe brandished his blade, firm in his resolve to try keep further tragedy from occurring.
"Ronuku, whatever is hand is forcing you to do this…You must fight it!" He hurriedly shouted, charging forward to collide blades with Ronuku. The possessed man blocked the blow with a single hand behind his sword. Naoe pulled back, following in succession with several strikes that were all met with his pupil's blade.
Mentally shuffling through tactics, the more experienced swordsman pulled back and lowered the angle of his blade. Ronuku shot forward, swinging his blade down just as he had anticipated. Naoe knew he couldn't match the strength of one of his pupil's swings head on, but he didn't have to. He only had to clash for a moment before he could slide to the inside of Ronuku's own blade in the hopes of disarming him.
Ronuku closed the gap almost immediately, but just as Naoe tossed his blade upward, a burst of light caught his eyes. The blades collided but resisted only a moment before Naoe's arms shot upwards unexpectedly. The bright flame that engulfed Ronuku's sword sliced clean through the opposing blade.
Ronuku's momentum carried him forward, his strength nearly too much to control as his blade lodged itself in the ground before him. The black veined man tugged on his katana, but struggled a moment, having used too much force in the initial swing to be able to free it from the earth it had settled into.
Naoe stumbled forward but the swordsman caught himself before hitting the ground. Turning sharply, he saw Sango charging towards Ronuku with her Hiraikotsu raised to attack…
...Only to let it fall to her side at the last second. Naoe cried out in shock, his face going pale as Sango raced forward and grabbed Ronuku's wrists, holding to him, pushing with all her might to keep him from freeing the sword.
"Ronuku," Sango pleaded, "Ronuku please, you have to hear me!"
"S-sango! What do you think you're doing, get back!" Naoe shouted, lifting his blade in preparation but his brows furrowed at the lightened weight of his now half-sized weapon.
Ronuku had turned his attention from the fixed blade to face Sango's pleas. His face remained stern, no emotions betraying any hint of the man that had previously inhabited the same body. He looked down at their arms as she spoke, registering her close proximity and her attempt to keep him still. He looked away, back towards his sword.
"Ronuku, no," she pleaded again, looking straight into his gray and blackened face, "I need to you to stop, you don't want to do this, I need you...our children need you! Ronuku, you're a father now! Please, for their sake, you have to break free!"
Just as he was to return to freeing the katana from the ground, her words demanded his attention. Suddenly, Ronuku's gaze was back to his wife and though his expression remained unchanged his eyes gave the faintest flicker with her words.
Children.
Father.
The muscles in his arm released their tension, fingers uncurling from the handle slowly as the grey man seemed to struggle to comprehend what was happening.
Naoe knew he wasn't going to get another shot.
I'm sorry, Sango, He thought, darting forward with all the might his exhausted body could muster. The samurai cried out swinging what remained of his blade down at Ronuku's shoulder. The warrior's shout alerted Ronuku instantly, and jerked himself from Sango's grasp. Facing his attacker, Ronuku caught Naoe's wrists, and without much effort the possessed man twisted and ripped the weapon from its owner.
Glaring as his attacker, Ronuku turned the broken blade on his mentor and swung down across Naoe's chest. White hot pain flared in the samurai, his voice choked as Ronuku kicked Naoe back before turning on Sango. Without hesitation Ronuku swung the improvised substitution for his own blade up at the Taijiya, their close proximity leaving little time for her to react.
Sango's shriek of pure agony raced through the sky. Wincing, Naoe forced himself up and his blood ran cold in his veins when he saw her.
Her gloved hands were clenched on her face, blinded by pain her feet tumbled across the grass as though she registered nothing but white hot torment. Panting heavily, her body trembling in shock, she pulled her gloves away from her face. Wincing, she ground her teeth and forced her eyes open.
Naoe momentarily lost his breath witnessing her agony. The left side of Sango's face was coated in blood, a jagged wound slicing across her left eye which remained shut. She glanced up at Ronuku, tears forming in her functional eye as what little hope had remained in her heart was struck down by agony and fear.
Overhead the darkness swirled, the air growing thicker with each second. Nearby the roar of demons echoed through the trees, their hunger and malice permeating the clearing.
"Ronuku," a silky voice slunk across the trees, a whispered echo prodding quietly from above, "This woman causes you confusion and pain. There's no need to endure her torment, she is nothing to you…kill them. Kill them, and you shall find peace."
Ronuku clutched his head, shaking it side to side as though the shake the voice from his mind. The bushi glanced at the darkened tree line, the treetops shaking with the malevolent presence of the demons just beyond the clearing.
The wind blew and the voice continued whispering until Ronuku stopped fighting. He lowered his gaze to the ground. With furrowed brows Ronuku leapt towards the edge of the clearing and pressed the tips of his fingers to the center of his forehead, his body suddenly pulsating.
He glanced up at the trees.
His eyes narrowed as the dark energy poured out of them.
The evil energy that consumed the battlefield made the air heavy, an atmosphere of imposing doom lingering over the field as Ronuku stood fixed in place, still as a statue as he shut his eyes firmly, and his chest expanded with a deep breath as he began to call on the demons that surrounded them.
Struggling, Naoe managed to force himself up to his feet. Though Ronuku's attack on Sango was what had quite possibly spared him, the samurai felt nothing but guilt in seeing the blood pouring from the wound that now decorated her distraught face. Seeing that the opposition was now focused elsewhere, Naoe winced and forced his body to go to the Taijiya.
"Sango..." He panted, reading the pain in her face. "Sango, I'm sorry..." He glanced nervously back to her husband before the tree line suddenly shook and dread filled him once more.
Dots of red glowed as they floated nearer and nearer, the low rumble of a small army of demons making the ground seem to shake as they approached the two warriors.