S-S: Yeah, there was a good reason why Chimaki and Suki ran into Bryni, and it wasn't just so that they could realize that Tsubaki was dead.
I don't own InuYasha. Clearly.
Down, hidden in the snow and by the blood and the metal, a lump of flesh pulsed.
Slowly, and then gaining speed, a body began to form around the twisted and distorted thing that someone had called a heart. And then Naraku was whole again. He stood up, looking at the destruction that the silly Yozeme girl had caused. It had been futile of course, there was no way that she could have killed him, but all the same, it was bothersome. At least his regeneration speed was exceptional, so it did not take him long for his body to restore itself.
His mind flickered to what that resurrected crocodile demon had been up to. Good, he had met with the twin Higures and now… was on his way to delay InuYasha. The hanyou was the biggest thorn in Naraku's side, and it would be very beneficial if InuYasha was wounded when he finally rejoined the others.
Up on the ridge, Ichida was shaking.
She saw Naraku down there, living and fine while Tsubaki was… Tsubaki was…
"We need to get InuYasha," Kagome gasped, half turning back to run for the woods, "He's the only one who can stop Naraku." She began to break out into a run, but then there was a hand on her shoulder holding her back and she was forced to stop.
Suki shook her head, "InuYasha will break out in an instant. He's probably just facing a delay. Besides… by the time you find him… it'll be too late." Her head was shrouded in her purple hair, her expression cut off from the others, but her shoulders were shaking with the tell-tale look of one who was trying very hard not to cry, "And besides…" she looked up to glare at the distant figure of Naraku, "We'll need your arrows. You're the second best shot on our team after all. Well… first best I suppose… Tsubaki… cheated."
"She deserved to be best…" Kagome murmured, reaching to her quiver of arrows. "Okay," she said quietly, "InuYasha will show. I'll just wait for him." The bitterness hit her. She always waited for InuYasha and he always waited for her. One of these days they would have to stop waiting for each other.
Ichida's clawed hands began to tighten into fists. "I'm gonna kill him…" she muttered, "Suki… get Chimaki somewhere safe. I'll buy time."
Suki's eyes widened in fear, because that had been the exact same reason that they had sent Tsubaki for and that had been so… "No Ichida!" she cried, but it was too late.
In a flash, Ichida had jumped off the cliff and was streaking towards Naraku.
She landed on the snow, her fangs bared, "Damn you Naraku!" she screamed, tensed to strike.
Naraku smirked at her. Just like the Yozeme girl, this demon too would fall. They just kept crawling out of the woodwork like roaches, "Your friend was pathetic," he said lightly, "Such a waste of talent, unable to kill or even injure me. I doubt that you'll fare better."
Ichida snarled and pulled out a small scroll with a dancing tiger on it, "You know what this is?" she asked, her body shaking from barely controlled fear. Naraku frowned. Oh he knew what that was, the Yozeme girl had pulled out a scroll just the same. That had been a spell of sorts that turned the body's metals into a weapon and killed her. How did the Kyoushin girl have one similar?
On the ridge, Suki swore, "Kagome, shoot Naraku down and look after Chimaki!" she called.
"Right!" Kagome cried, pulling out an arrow and notching it into her bow. Chimaki ducked behind Kagome as the girl drew back her bow in preparation to shoot.
Suki jumped over the edge, landing roughly on the snow covered ground near Ichida, "Ichida, don't you dare!" she screamed, running in front of her and rushing to attack Naraku. She raised her hand and threw a fireball at his, the flame burning and hissing as it flew though the air.
"And thus the leader finally arrives," Naraku said calmly, dodging the fireball with ease and stepping to the side as Suki smashed her fiery fist through thin air, "After your comrade has already died."
Suki snarled and ducked down onto the ground. Ichida flew over Suki's crouched form and slammed her fist into the ground. The ground heaved and ached, a giant crater forming around Ichida's fist, a huge chasm opening up and threatening to swallow up Naraku.
Missing the attack by a hair's breadth, Naraku jumped backwards, releasing a cloud of poison miasma. The two were a powerful force working in tandem. He was glad that he had taken out the Yozeme earlier, because if the three of them were together, then that would be a powerful force to be reckoned with. No wonder their clans had forged such a strong reputation as the most powerful clans in existence, as a group, their abilities would complement one another perfectly.
"Naraku!" Kagome screamed from the high ridge, and she released her arrow.
With a burst of purple light, the holy aura of the arrow streaked towards Naraku. The purified arrow blasted off his right arm and a good portion of his torso.
She had been aiming for his heart. He frowned, about to regenerate the wound when Suki hurled another blast of fire towards him that he had to dodge as well, only to have Ichida jumped behind him and try to punch through his head. They were getting annoying.
His armor spiked and a heavy root pierced through Ichida's shoulder, disabling her right arm. She screamed as he pulled out the root and the red blood began to stained her tan skin with crimson before it dribbled onto the ground. Wasting no time, Naraku flicked out his hand and a tendril smacked into Ichida's stomach, sending the girl flying backwards.
Suki cried out, "Ichida!" She jumped towards Naraku and began a powerful series of hits, each hand burning with white-hot flame. Just in time, his right arm regenerated and it was with little effort that he swatted the Higure girl away like the annoying fly that she was.
Suki tumbled backwards, landing heavily in the snow with a thud. When Naraku pulled back his hand, he saw that it was badly burnt. Interesting. So even just touching the Higure girl would cause severe burns. She must be able to wrap her youkai aura around herself in battle at all times, creating an elegant attack and defense at the same time. Of course, it posed no problem to Naraku.
Watching the battle with anger, Kagome notched another arrow and fired again at Naraku.
The demon glared at the pesky, annoying, aggravating miko, leaping away from the blast just in time.
The useless arrow buried itself into the snow and the holy aura dissipated.
Fallen a ways away, Ichida groaned as she tried to push herself up. She had hit the cliff at a bad angle, her back aching in a loud protest at the solid rock having banged against her bones. She pushed herself up, wincing in pain from her shoulder. Damn that Naraku. Her right arm had been her dominant one, now she was heavily weakened.
In front of her, Suki stood up, her hands beginning to glow once again.
No, Suki couldn't be in the way! Ichida had a chance to end this, end it the same way that Tsubaki had tried to.
Her hand still gripped the green scroll. "Suki!" she cried, using her teeth to bite open the string that kept the ancient spell bound, "Get out of the way!"
Suki turned around just as Ichida yanked open the scroll, "NO!" she screamed.
Ichida placed her hands on the open scroll and the inky black letters began to spread over her flesh. She gritted her teeth at the pain of her own bones beginning to transform. The scrolls were the ultimate weapon of the three clans. There were only two, the old regime had considered the Higures to be above the spells that the scrolls housed. They were a final resort weapon, transferring awesome power into the user at a price. The scrolls had to be charged with the user's own life force. Their life would be forfeit as soon as the effects wore off. She remembered seeing her grandfather face down a thousand enemies, and in the end, he became a giant tiger before his death.
Naraku's crimson eyes flashed.
He was faster than Suki. In an instant, he was in front of Ichida, and had sliced through the scroll.
A breathy gasp left Ichida, the two useless sheets of paper falling into the snow, the connection between her and the spell broken. Her life force was beginning to leak out into the air. She was going to die. She hadn't been able to use the scroll. She hadn't been able to unleash the enormous power of the spell to aide Suki. She hadn't been able to do anything.
She had failed.
Naraku's hand became incased in that strange bone that formed his armor, and he stabbed Ichida through the stomach. Blood spilled over the cliff face, her body impaled on the rock.
"Ichida!" Kagome cried, her heart leaping for her friend. Chimaki stepped backwards with a nod as Kagome grabbed another arrow and scrambled down the cliff face. Her going was slow, being only human, and she scrapped her arms and knees a thousand times in her hurry to get down there, but it didn't matter. Ichida was bleeding out and there was nothing she could do.
Suki reacted furiously, drawing Naraku's attention back to her as the two began to fight once again.
Kagome dropped down onto the ground and pulled the vicious weapon out of Ichida's gut. With a breathy gasp, Ichida fell into Kagome's shaking arms, blood staining the snow. Kagome pulled off her jacket, pressing the fabric to the wound, hoping to staunch the flow of blood with pressure. "Ichida, oh god…" she muttered, pushing down on the bloody girl, "Don't die… please don't die."
Ichida's large green eyes fluttered open unsteadily, "I'm sorry…" she muttered, "I failed."
Kagome shook her head, "No, you didn't. Don't say that." She helped Ichida to sit up, "You're a demon, you'll heal soon, this wound won't kill you. Besides, stomach wounds are always iffy. There's no sealing your fate yet." As the shaky demon sat up, Kagome wondered where she had gotten that piece of information. She had never been forced to heal people before, unless… her memories were beginning to leak back into her head. And she didn't know if that was bad or good.
Ichida leaned against the rocky wall, "No, that's not it…" she groaned in pain before she leaned against the rock, "The scroll… it was destroyed," her lazy eyes flickered to the two forms of Suki and Naraku, who were fighting a ways away, two forms that were hard to make out in how blurry they were, "Suki's still… fighting… I have to help her."
Kagome pressed down on the wound again, "You're not going to be moving for some time, Ichida, sorry," she too looked towards Suki and Naraku.
The two of them weren't evenly matched. Suki would strike or throw fire or try to scorch him and Naraku would simply move out of the way, her attacks all missing and his all hitting. He was toying with her, like she was unimportant and he could dispose of her whenever he wanted. They were going about this all the wrong way. Kagome's arrows were limited, she only had a few left, and they were the only thing that could give Naraku damage that actually made him stumble and didn't just inconvenience him for a moment.
If he could move his heart around his body, then what they needed was a large area-of-effect sort of attack. But Ichida and Suki were all very different fighters from what they needed at the moment. And when Tsubaki had… well, there had clearly been a lot of weapons, all at once, and yet Naraku had still been able to dodge and remain alive. They needed something that could pinpoint his heart or just destroy it, but it was looking more and more like the only one who had something like that was InuYasha. And he was still absent.
"InuYasha…" Kagome said in a quiet plea, "Where are you?"
Suki tried to land another strike, her blows getting more wild and more desperate as the fight dragged on.
She couldn't do anything! Her best attack combinations involved burning and those were doing nothing because of Naraku's intangibility thing that he had going on. She burned off an arm and voom… one more grew back in its place. It didn't end and her large scale fire attacks tired her quickly. She frowned and leapt forward, a whirlwind of flame forming around her hand as she struck.
Naraku effortlessly sent her flying backwards. She skidded in the snow and then straightened up, ready to get right back in there and start-
She froze as another aura approached slowly.
It couldn't be. Why would she be nearing the fight? She knew that she wasn't a fighter, she knew that Suki would always protect her and that she shouldn't get involved in the fighting. Why was she here? Suki turned around to see Chimaki slowly walking towards the center of the fighting.
Naraku saw it as well, and that same satisfied smirk settled over his features.
"Chimaki," he commanded, "Kill your sister."