Chapter 35: Kikyō, Captured by Naraku
Standing proudly among the foreboding shadows of a darkened sky, was the Phantom Castle of the despicable demon, Naraku...
Suddenly, several orbs of light shone, belonging to Souls being carried by the demons known as Shinidamachū to the awaiting priestess, Kikyō, who was now secluded inside one of the sections of the castle.
Unfortunately, they would fail in their mission, when each one is blocked away by a barrier...
Meanwhile, Kikyō was laying on a futon bed, as Naraku approaches her:
"I have erected a barrier. Those servants of yours may not enter."
...Kikyō's eyes open, but she remains silent. Naraku then comes to her side and says,
"Without those Souls of the dead, you remain helpless...(Whisper) Kikyō. What could you be thinking? There in the mountain, where the magic was broken, the demons whom were to create my new body. Inuyasha stumbled onto the scene, lured by the miasma, and begun to do battle with the one who would win...But then, you appeared. Your arrows have the power to break the spell of whichever one you choose...And yet, if you wanted to prevent that unholy fusion, you would've aimed straight at the demon. The demon would disintegrate, and the spell would be easily broken...But before the one complete, were you trying to see what laid beyond?"
"And there you were...(Glance) Your disguise is fine...Onigumo."
"...Heh, Onigumo. Now that brings me back. Fifty years ago, you saved me, took pity on me, and sheltered that fugitive in a cave. Onigumo offered his body to the demons, and they latched onto his evil Soul. And thus was born Naraku."
Said demon then pulls out a jewel fragment, which Kikyō recognizes instantly:
"That's..."
"Yes, indeed. The very thing you gave your life to erase from this world. A shard of the Shikon-no-Tama."
"They say that it was your desire which had brought you to kill me."
"...Discussing it with someone who is no more than a collection of Dead Souls is unseemly. But the search for the remaining fragments frustrates me."
Naraku then rises to a stand, and opens the barrier-cast window, allowing one Shinidamachū to enter...His eyes flash red, and he destroys the demon, leaving the Soul at his mercy to corrupt with the tainted shard:
(Shoom...Ping)
The Soul shifts from a silver-blue to red...
"That girl who is so like yet unlike you...A battle between those who can purify evil...If you yearn for this world, I bid you: Go after her."
Time Skip
Come the next day, we find the Inuyasha team resting by the riverside, having since left the mountain of miasma...
Sango (with Kilala in her lap), Miroku and Shippo were sitting in their own little group, discussing the latest behaviours of Inuyasha and Coraline:
"Well, Miroku? Wouldn't you say that those two have been acting strange?"
"Yep."
Speaking of those two, we see that Coraline was trying to talk with Inuyasha, who was sitting cross-legged close to the water with his cheek resting on his fist:
"Um...Inuyasha? Inuyasha."
"What?"
"Inuyasha, come on. We need to go and rescue Kikyō. It's only been since yesterday that the bastard Naraku took her, so they can't be that far away..."
"Hmph...I'll save her on my own."
(Bonk)
"Guh!"
Miroku suddenly comes over and lightly kicks Inuyasha on the noggin:
"Stop being such a stubborn fool." He shoves Inuyasha face-first into the ground and adds,
"You forgot who it was that kidnapped Kikyō. I want my own revenge: I wouldn't even have this hole in my right hand if it wasn't for Naraku."
Sango joins in:
"He's an enemy to all of us, remember?" Even Shippo adds his two-cents:
"What makes you so special?"
Coraline kneels down in front of Inuyasha while placing a hand on his arm, and says gently but sternly,
"Look, every one of us now understands what occurred between you and Kikyō those years ago, Inuyasha. But this doesn't mean you have to go it alone like a total loner."
Inuyasha springs up and retorts,
"I ain't a loner, okay?! I never once identified as one in my life!"
Suddenly, Miroku calls aloud,
"Inuyasha! Over there!"
He turns around, and sees a group of the Shinidamachū gliding though the sky!
"It's Kikyō's Soul-Gatherers!"
Coraline concludes,
"Guess this means she's closer by than we expected." Inuyasha turns to her and asks,
"You coming?"
"Always."
With that, everyone begins rushing to follow the Shinidamachū and hopefully to where the Kikyō was, with Inuyasha (carrying Coraline) and Miroku taking the lead on foot, while Sango and Shippo rode on Kilala.
As they continued their trek, Coraline found herself wondering,
...Should I even be this close to Inuyasha right now? I mean, considering where his mind is at the moment...
She shakes her head, and tells herself sternly,
No, it's fine: We're friends, and friends are always there for one another no matter what.
I promised myself I'd be there for Inuyasha every step of the way, and I meant it.
Besides...I want to help her. Kikyō deserves peace...
As Coraline reaffirmed herself of her personal morals, Inuyasha's mind was also thinking about the priestess:
Kikyō died because of him. I will not let Naraku have her!
As they kept moving, Sango sees that the group of Shinidamachū was getting larger:
"Look, more gatherers!"
Unfortunately, these next round of the soul-gatherers were not as they appeared...
(Buzz...)
"Hang on...something's off..."
Coraline uses her Aura Sight, and saw a different shape in place of the demon:
"(Gasp) Oh damn. These aren't Shinidamachū, they're the Insects of Hell!"
Sango hears her, and signals Kilala higher, before leaping off and using her sword:
(Slash)
And just as Coraline warned, the soul-gathering demons are in fact revealed as Naraku's poisonous wasps!
"Look out, it's a trap!"
But it was too late: Everyone suddenly passes through a misty fog, and the area darkens, foreshadowing the danger that was about to show itself...
Inuyasha's POV
As I ran into the fog, a light flashes, and I see a weird orange glow in the distance:
What is that up there?
I leap forward, trying to see it better:
I can't...
But when I got there:
(Fwoom)
"Huh?"
I wound leaping atop a gateway, and I look around to see a huge fire spreading everywhere...
Where am I?
"Hey, Coraline, got any idea where-Huh?"
I turn to see, that Coraline was not on my back anymore!
"Guh! Coraline? Coraline, where are you?! Coraline!"
Damn! Where did she go?! Wait...did that fog make her disappear?
I then see black shadow figures hidden in the flames, who shout,
"That's him, the one who attacked us!" "Inuyasha! It's Inuyasha!"
"This place...I-I don't know where..."
(Rattle...)
"Huh?"
I look down to my hand, and see,
"...It can't be. The Shikon-no-Tama!"
"Inuyasha!"
I then hear a familiar voice, and before I could react:
(Twok)
(TOK)
"GYAH!"
I was shot off the gateway, by an arrow...! I fall to the ground, with the Shikon-no-Tama falling a few feet in front of me...I look up at my attacker with shock:
"Ki...Kikyō..."
I suddenly remember what this was:
"Of course. This is fifty years ago: The day that Kikyō killed me! And this is the village that I attacked so I could steal the Shikon-no-Tama."
I look up at her and try to explain:
"Kikyō, wait! It was all just a trap! Don't do it!" She does not hear me, and readies her next arrow:
"Kikyō, no!"
I ask myself in confusion and disbelief,
"Is this Hell? Is it a dream?! How did I get here?!"
Miroku's POV
I am now walking through a darkened part of the forest, trying to figure out what's going on:
"Inuyasha and the others, gone...Mm, and the wind has started to pick up..."
It's so close...Too close.
I raise my cursed hand to myself, wondering if that was the source...Suddenly:
(Shatter)
"Gah!"
The prayer beads break, and my Wind Tunnel activates, but with a strength that was uncontrollable!
"Uh! U-uh...Agh, ah!"
It's, pulling me in!
Shippo's POV
It's only me and Kilala now, as the others have all mysteriously vanished. I notice that she looked tense, so I try to ease her worry:
"Look, Kilala, see, there's nobody behind us. What's wrong? Why are you so-"
(Shift)
"Auh-whah!"
Suddenly, Kilala fades away, and I fall to the ground:
"Ohhh..."
I get up, and look around scared and confused:
"What? Where'd Kilala go?"
I then see some familiar silhouettes in the distance:
"Ah! Coraline, Sango, wait up!"
But just as I run to catch up, they, along with Inuyasha and Miroku, vanish too! Except the weird thing was...
"They all left their clothes!"
I pick up one of Coraline's shirts, and ask aloud,
"Where'd everybody go? If here's where there clothes are, where'd the rest of them go?! Inuyasha! Miroku! Coraline! Sango!"
Aw man, what the heck is happening?!
Sango's POV
Once we all got into the fog, I found myself all alone. I'm now rushing through the area, trying to find everyone...only to stumble upon a stream of red...
Suddenly, the whole area begins glowing red! I take off Hiraikotsu, and when I stepped forward, I come across the most horrible sight:
"(Gasp)"
Inuyasha and Miroku, on the ground, both dead!
I then feel a presence behind me, and I turn to see, a bone sickle...
(SLASH, SLASH)
"UH!"
Ko-ha-ku?!
No POV
As these mysterious albeit horrible circumstances were occurring, we then see Naraku and Kikyō, sitting in a tree with a Spirit Shield surrounding them from the fog as well as the Shinidamachū...
"The evil spell of illusory death. The Soul is such a fragile thing: Sadness, Fear, Confusion...if even slightest doubt exist, and is touched by the creepers in this world, that Soul will be consumed by the dark..."
In which case, what was really going on was that everyone had become ensnared by mysterious creeper roots, and are experiencing visions of their darkest fears...
Well, almost everyone...Somehow, Coraline has been left untouched by the spell, and was trying to find everyone:
"Something's wrong. I can't sense anyone near...Hm?"
She then felt a tap on her foot, and sees the creeping vines:
"What in the world...What are these?"
Her eyes flash blue, and she gasps when she senses,
"...Darkness..."
Her eyes narrow, before she reaches for her combat knife:
(Slash, slash)
Coraline cuts down at the vines, causing them to back off...Unbeknownst to her, Naraku was watching:
"Perhaps because she has the jewel shards, that girl alone is unaffected..." He then looks down at the resting priestess:
"She will be the only one to make it here. The stage has been set for you."
...Kikyō opens her eyes:
"Aren't you the clever one."
(...SLASH)
Suddenly, she cuts away Naraku's head, revealing he to be a demon puppet...
The second one is subsequently cut in half, back at Naraku's castle:
(Topple...)
"...So she's destroyed the golem. How dare she defy me."
Meanwhile, Kikyō burns the demon puppet figurine away, destroying the demon puppet altogether...
Coraline's POV
I have no idea what those vines were, but I have a bad feeling Inuyasha and the others may be experiencing their power...
I continue on, cautious of my movements incase more of those creeping vines come to attack me again...When I reach the next clearing, I found someone familiar, but not who I was expecting:
"...Kikyō."
...She's okay.
Despite the situation, I found myself smiling in relief that she wasn't harmed. I then begin rushing to her:
"Kikyō, I'm glad you're alright!"
...What I didn't realize, however, is what her mood was regarding seeing me:
(Pull...)
I slow down to a stop a few feet away from the tree, looking at her with confusion:
"...Kikyō?"
(...Twok)
(Slash, TOK)
"UH!"
...Next thing I knew, she shot her arrow towards me, grazing my cheek, her arrow landing in the ground behind me...!
...Kikyō...
If things weren't crazy enough, the ground where the arrow landed opened up, and I lost my footing, falling backwards into a gaping hole!
"Aaaaah!"
Lucky for me, I managed to grab onto a root to stop my fall...but, I lost my own bow and quiver...
"(Pant, pant...) Wh-What the hell...?"
As I hung on for dear life, Kikyō came to the edge of the hole, staring at me with a cold look:
"...Kikyō, why?"
"Naraku finds himself frightened of you. He tries to control me with the Shikon-no-Tama, hoping that I would be turned against you."
...She didn't kill me, but, she shot threateningly at me...What is she thinking?
Suddenly, the real Shinidamachū come, and wrap around my waist, lifting me out of the hole...I looked towards the priestess, and notice the shard in question...and yet:
"...I can see that it's not corrupting you. The shard, I mean."
"Surely the priestess who wants to guard over the Sacred Jewel of the Four Souls, has not fallen so low as to be controlled by a mere shard?"
"(Narrows eyes) Well there's certainly no need to be so arrogant about it."
I watch as she places a hand over her chest, instantly purifying the shard within her...Then, before I could react fast enough, Kikyō reaches out to my neck, and yanks off my shard of the jewel!
"Uh!"
Next thing I knew, the Shinidamachū float away, only to be replaced by the creeping vines...As I'm pulled down to the depths below, the thought running frantically through my head was,
...Kikyō...how could you-Why would you do this?!
Inuyasha's POV
I stare at the priestess before me in shock...when suddenly, she cringes, and falls to her knees!
"Kikyō!"
I then see, the mortal wound that killed her those years ago...I bring her into her arms, as her bow and arrow burn with the rest of the area...
She came to me in her pain...all alone.
"Kikyō, you'll never be alone again...I swear it. I will always protect you."
...Just as I made that promise, the fire is gone, and the scene becomes dark, with she and I under one light, and another empty area lit up...
What? But I don't...You mean, there's someone else that I need to protect?
...Who, though? Who's this other person that I need to protect?
...A figure with long red hair appears, and turns to me with a small smile...I recognized her instantly:
"...Coraline."
I pull back a bit frantically from Kikyō:
"Of course! How the heck could I have-?! (Glare) Where's Coraline?! Tell me!"
"Inuyasha!"
She shoves away from me, and I hear her voice echo:
"Is she more important to you then I am?"
I then see, her body shifting into bark, vines where her arms are supposed to be...
(Fwoom)
"Grrh! It's all been an illusion, hasn't it?"
I take out Tessaiga, and cut away at the illusionary flames, stopping the trick instantly! Just as I return to reality, I hear someone yelling:
"Miroku!"
I leap over to where he yelled from, and see him trapped in a set of creepers, whimpering...
He must be trapped in his own illusion!
Another set of vines begins shooting out to finish him off, but I wasn't gonna let that happen:
"Miroku!"
(SLASH)
I cut them away, before using my claws to hack off the ones around his cursed hand...Now that he was free, I lift him up, asking,
"Hey, you okay?"
"M-My arm...the Wind T-Tunnel..."
He's scared...really scared.
I decided to use a bit of physical force to wake him up:
"Wake up! Snap out if it!"
(Slap)
...It seemed to have worked, for he wasn't stuttering or shaking anymore:
"It was swallowing up my entire body..."
"It's those tree roots. Quick: Find Sango and Shippo! Betcha anything that they're under the same spell that got you and me. I gotta go find Coraline."
(Leap)
"Coraline! Where are you?!"
Small Time Skip, No POV
As Inuyasha searched for Coraline, calling out her name, she was lying on a pile of the creepers inside the deep hole, unconscious from the drag down...Hearing the half-demon, she suddenly stirs awake:
"I-Inu...yasha?"
It was then that he finally found her, and leaped down into the hole:
"Coraline."
He gently lifted her to a stand:
"Those roots caused some kind-of an illusion. Seems like you got away from it, though..."
...Coraline looks up at Inuyasha, her eyes suggesting otherwise, but refrained from telling him so, deciding to just nod. They leap out of the hole, and when Coraline looked forward, she cringed, seeing the one person she didn't want to see right now...
Inuyasha looks at her confusingly, before turning to see,
"Kikyō!"
He then sees the shards in her hand:
"Those are Coraline's jewel shards!" He turns to the redhead in surprise:
"...Coraline..."
She only breathed in and out fearfully in response...Inuyasha snaps back up to Kikyō with a heated glare:
"You did it! Don't tell me it was you!"
"What's wrong, Inuyasha? Tell me, why is it that I sense you are unhappy to know that I am well?"
"Answer me! Just what did you do to her?!"
"I tried to kill her. Just what do you plan to do about it? Will you kill me?"
Inuyasha growls angrily in response...Kikyō's face shifts from indifference to a cold smile:
"Tell me: When Naraku had you under his spell, what was it you thought about?"
She then laughs, and asks,
"Now, could you have said that if you had planned to kill me?"
The Shinidamachū gather, and surround the priestess, before floating away into the sky...Kikyō sends Inuyasha this last message:
"Embracing death together. Now that's a day I'll wait for..."
With that, she was gone...
After a moment passes, Inuyasha turns to Coraline to ask her seriously,
"Coraline, tell me: What did she do to you?"
"...She took the Shikon-no-Tama shard from me...I couldn't get it back from her fast enough..."
"That's not what I'm asking! Did Kikyō really try to-"
"Then don't ask me!"
Inuyasha was taken aback by her response:
"...Coraline."
She then says in a pained voice,
"...I dunno if it was her true intent...But, I don't want to think about it..."
It was then that Miroku arrived on scene, with an unconscious Sango, Shippo and Kilala on his back:
"So, uh...Are you two finished talking?"
Coraline's POV
To Kikyō...my life, has no meaning...
I couldn't tell Inuyasha the truth about what really happened while I was in that hole...Not while I'm still trying to stabilize myself on what happened...
The Illusionary Death...Pain, Suffering, Fear...It put us all on the edge, including me...I saw, into my own heart...
In there, I saw...Inuyasha and Kikyō, in a lover's embrace...
But that wasn't what truly rattled me: The vision suddenly shifted, and there was fire...
There was a twin bang, and...I saw, them both on the ground, bullet wounds in their chests!
...It was then...I, went back to the day my Father died...His body, was spotlighted beside Inuyasha and Kikyō...
Then, the scar on my left shoulder reopened anew...
I was on the ground, bleeding out...but, instead of getting up, I was frozen...
It was then, he showed up, gun raised over me...
"(Knuckle crack) Bishop..."
Naraku's Castle, No POV
As Coraline's mind wandered in thought over what her heart carried, Naraku sits in his castle, deep in thought...
(...Step, step, step, step)
It was then that Kikyō came:
"You're careless, Naraku."
"So, Kikyō..."
"Once your puppet is broken, you see nothing. Remember that. Your petty feats of sorcery cannot affect me."
Naraku glares at the priestess...
"As for the barrier surrounding this castle, the one you erected to keep out Inuyasha, that was easy enough for me to break."
She then looks down at the jewel shard she took from Coraline...before tossing it and the one she was given by Naraku to him...!
"You wanted it, didn't you? I leave it to you to stand guard over. After all, who needs its power more than you, and you do need it, don't you? (Frown) Demon Naraku...or is it...(Smirk) Half-demon Naraku?"
Something inside Naraku stirs...
"A mere half-demon, I, Naraku?"
"True, you disguised yourself well, but you're still that fugitive human. And the blood of what you once were cannot be erased...You seek the Shikon-no-Tama to become a full-fledged demon, do you not?"
"...If so, why give me the shards? Am I not the one you seek to avenge your death fifty years ago?"
Kikyō lets out a short laugh and replies,
"It was only my body that died. I may have left it behind me that day, but with this new one, I am even stronger. I don't trust that you would understand. I am returning to the temple. I will neither run, nor hide. Send a messenger if you need me."
With that, Kikyō departs the castle, leaving Naraku by himself...
Suddenly, he shucks off his robe:
It's appeared again...
What does he mean? Well, apparently, he may have gained a new body, but the spider burn from last time, still remains...
No matter how often I change flesh...the burn marks of the fugitive Onigumo will not leave my back.
Meanwhile, Kikyō stands among the tall grass billowing in the wind, far off from the phantom castle...
Go, Naraku. Gather the shards of the jewel.
And once you've gathered them all, then I will send you to Hell.
...I am free to hate. My Soul is so much freer than it was then...
Free to hate...Free to love...