Downfall
…
Horde
What with being overrun by lesser demons, Kagome barely noticed the barrier coming down; she was too busy chopping up anything that came within the reach of her blade. One wound was generally enough for these lesser youkai as Dokuseiga's poison dissolved their bodies away with astonishing speed.
Kagome had also recently worked out how to channel her holy powers through the fang, so after a while her opponents simply turned to ash. The Sesshoumaru-like sword-spirit stood proudly at her shoulder, eyes gleaming with the thrill of battle.
Kouga fought alongside her, his irrepressible good humour restored despite the increasingly large waves of demons attacking them.
Search
Not long after the barrier vanished the wolf prince decided that now was a good time to find Naraku. Kagome did not precisely agree, but she did want to find Sango, Miroku and Inuyasha. So the sword-wielding miko begged a lift off Kirara and chased after Kouga with Shippo, leaving poor Ginta and Hakkaku in the dust.
After a while Kouga lets Kagome lead, since she can sense Naraku's shikon shards and he can't.
Devoured
As they enter the mountain Kagome notices that the ground under their feet is pulsing green, making Inutaisho uneasy. Worried about what is going on, she urges Kirara to run faster.
Then the floor eats Kouga.
Kagome is horrified, but presses on regardless. Shippo is as nervous as the Dog General, but sits tight on Kirara's back as Kagome gets off and runs onwards, the firecat at her heels, following the feel of the shikon shards embedded in Kouga's legs.
Ominous
In the big room full of weird white globs Kagome, Shippo and Kirara find Sango and Miroku. Neither nonk nor demon slayer seem particularly worse for wear, but they haven't seen Inuyasha either.
The temporally displaced miko knows that everything is due to go wrong about now: Inutaisho is tense and twitching and Dokuseiga has that look Sesshoumaru gets when someone is trying and failing to catch him unawares.
The earthquake arrives right on time, as do the tentacles, so Kagome doesn't panic until she sees Inuyasha down there, wrapped up and unconcious.
Aid
On hearing Kagome's voice shout his name the hanyou wakes up and promptly tells the miko off for coming after him. Since this is Inuyasha-speak for 'I don't want you getting hurt' Kagome lets him rant, instead trying to free him from the tentacles holding him in place.
Then she hears Naraku's laughter.
Villain
Naraku arrives on the scene and promptly gloats, going into an arrogant and self-glorifying monologue and pinning Kagome and Shippo in place with yet more tentacles.
Then he 'eats' what remains of Bankotsu's body and the shikon shards that were animating the Shichinintai, which pisses off Inuyasha. The hanyou growls that the leader of the band of seven was a worthy and honourable opponent -despite being a mercenary corpse- and deserved better.
Naraku ignores him, his attention on the jewel shards, then the evil hanyou's body reforms.
Argh, cliffhanger! Everything is coming to a head now the 'seven man army' is dust once more.
EDIT: In light of people being unable to access this chapter, I'm reposting it.