Chapter 55: She Was Back
The group watched with humor as Dekuyume once more spent the trip back to the exterminators village walking and writing out sutra on a clipboard. Once there, the herbs were removed from the cart and either stored or used to begin the detoxification process. Jinenji was introduced to the other non-humans who lived in the exterminator village by Kirara, and Dekuyume once more found herself speaking with Kiki. She had originally intended to trade spices and salt from the future for a covered cart and horse, but when she mentioned what she meant to do with it, Kiki had just stared in surprise at the sheaf of sutra Dekuyume had waived at her in her explanation. "You can make a cart safe from yōkai attacks? Could anyone use this?" Dekuyume nods then shows her the large sheet she had worked on, this one would take the chi a person offered it, and convert it into the right frequency of magic needed to keep the other sutra powered up. That way everyone could do it if needed, even take turns.
Kiki looks at her in surprise, "I was under the impression that mastering ones spirit energy made it much more difficult to sense and master their chi." Dekuyume smiles, "A near miss on the way back made everyone aware that we needed to do a little cultural exchange, so before we head out again, we will spend a day be pretending to be each other's species. So we will all be exterminators for a day or so. While that won't be long enough for everyone to sense their chi, it will give everyone a good basis to start from." Kiki grins, imagining the fun and embarrassment her children are going to go through. Kiki herself had been rescued from another destroyed village when she was young, and the differences between her birth village and the exterminator village had been staggering. She could only imagine how completely different species might make that even more intense.
"I am glad my children get to experience this, so few yōkai are willing to share, and outside of these walls, even fewer humans are willing to learn…" Kiki hesitates a moment but offers anyways, "You may have one of the carts and a horse, if you are willing to perform the same enchantment on the other two carts the village uses to transport goods." The bargain is struck, and the group remains at the exterminator village for two weeks while Dekuyume prepares the other carts, and shows everyone how to operate the seal array.
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-O-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
From within the depths of a mountain Naraku stirred restlessly. It was quite boring, but he wasn't going to get anywhere without minions, and he couldn't make any minions until he had more mass to work with. He was only going to be able to do a soul compression once, it would behoove him to gather more souls to add to his matrix before he did so. However... ruby eyes focus on the gossiping yōkai as they are lured deeper and deeper into the mountain, where he is using the native magic to work as a crucible.
A small dragon yōkai nods, "Yeah, I heard it from my cousin who occasionally does transportation work for the Lord of the West. Apparently an old flea yōkai showed up at the palace wailing about a priestess turning the Lords half-breed brother into a human. Get this, the priestess claims to be the reincarnation of Midoriko, but I don't believe it. I heard from Keikichi who heard it from Wutan who heard it from Omoi who has lived in Inuyasha's forest for centuries, that the priestess is a nearly perfect replica of Kikyō at that age, smells the same, and power tastes the same too, and she had the Shikon no Tama inside of her before Mukade-sama got it out. She has to be the reincarnation of Kikyō, there is just no way she's Midoriko's. She can't be all that great if she got the smack down from a demon that just barely had the strength to crawl out of her grave. Me and some guys were planning on getting together and teaching her a lesson she won't forget…."
This was the third yōkai that he had heard whispering Kikyō's name. He takes a deep breath and sighs, the collective struggling against Onigumo's desperate thrashing. They would wait. If the rumors were true… If the rumors were true, this time Kikyō would be his. If only to silence Onigumo's caterwauling.
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-O-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
After the most instructional, embarrassing, confusing and awkward week of their lives, one that had been interspersed with exhaustion, exasperation and exclamation; and rounded out with compassion and understanding, they were finally ready to leave the relative safety of the forest surrounding the exterminator village. Just in time too, suspicious things were happening at a mountain a few days travel away. Countless villages around the mountain had been attacked by yōkai of more than one species. What was most disturbing; every village had borne the brunt of the yōkai passing through, from every direction towards the mountain, but no one had any troubles with yōkai leaving the mountain. Because there were none.
With no further idea where Naraku was hiding or hints as to the whereabouts of the flying yōkai that had made off with the other piece of the Shikon, they agreed to help in the preliminary investigation. They, and two other exterminator groups were to head out, there would be no combat, not even if they happened upon a village in the middle of being attacked. This was strictly for observational purposes, by all accounts there should be thousands of yōkai in the mountain. Engaging a single yōkai in combat could easily stir the whole nest, causing an army to rise from the dark depths.
The trip there was made in near silence. Not even their newly acquired heavily enchanted cart, with its insides so much bigger than its outsides, managed to draw much conversation. Truly, the longest conversation the whole way there was explaining how the design carved into the center of the cart could be used to supply extra power to the cart's holy sutra in case of attack. Dekuyume figured that everyone was just nervous due to the sheer number of yōkai they were heading towards. Unfortunately, she supposed that telling them that they would be faced with Naraku instead would not ease any of their worries. Even if there were millions of salivating, rabid yōkai in the place they were going, the very fact that Naraku was there would mean that Kagome-chan and anyone who traveled with her would be safe. Because it was her.
Darkened red eyes gaze up at the mountain as the cart is forced to leave the road. There were no cart paths into the mountain, only around. They would be in for a bumpy ride, though, not a very long one. Dekuyume glances over at Kagome who puts her school books away and meets her gaze with determination. "Let's see how good your yōkai sensing is Imouto. Lead us to where they are gathered."
Only three hours up the mountain, and already even those with no tracking skills could tell that they were headed in the right direction. The damaged foliage, and discarded mostly-eaten carcasses gave proof to the passing of the yōkai who had gone before them. Stepping out of the cart as they hid it in one of the few undisturbed patches of trees, Dekuyume whispered her goodbyes to the children, and asked them to behave for Jinenji, who nodded in response to her words.
The group spit up then, with Sango and Kohaku going to meet with the other exterminator groups, following some secret signal that only they were privy too, while Kagome and Inuyasha scouted out the area surrounding the cart in wider and wider circles. Dekuyume waived both groups off, and headed into the underbrush alone. She knew very well what would happen here, and she would not, could not interfere until just the last moment. Naraku had to be forced to acknowledge that Kagome-chan was indeed Kikyō's reincarnation, else when they gained another piece of the Shikon, he would destroy them all.
Dekuyume made it to the upper reaches of the mountain just as the sun set, and it only took a few minutes to find a good place to rest. The mountain was actually an extinct volcano. The inside had collapsed, leaving the mountain nearly hollow inside, with multiple openings where the lava tubes once carried its lifeblood out, and a massive opening at the top, to let the starry heavens gaze in at the slaughter below. Because of its previous existence, the land here was uniquely suited to forging the yōkai Naraku had lured there with the Shikon's siren song into much stronger yōkai for him to easily adsorb. Her position gave her an easy view of the caldera where Kagome and Inuyasha would be brought when they fell into the crumbling ruins of an old lava tube and the place where Naraku was currently watching the yōkai slaughter and combine.
It took only an hour and a half after the sun set for everything to come to a head. She could see it easily in his eyes. The heart wrenching yearning the moment Naraku spotted Kagome, and the fury when he noticed a human Inuyasha at her side. The fury that rose but could never eclipse his yearning, and the chaos that stirred in his heart because of it. She knew it well… Dekuyume sighs as Inuyasha runs his mouth, luring the last yōkai into a fight. Luckily for the boy who charged in without considering the fact that there may be consequences, as a human the spell Naraku had cast would not cause him to merge with the yōkai in the crucible.
Dekuyume sighed in relief as realization spread across Naraku's face in the wake of a sacred arrow. Kagome standing on top of a small boulder, fires another to protect Inuyasha as he is thrown back by the yōkai's attack. Naraku's consternation as he realizes that Kagome is wearing exterminator armor is equally apparent. She could only grin as she spotted Kagome jerking her head up to stare into Naraku's hiding place, but the smile slowly wiped off her face at the expression on his.
She had not anticipated this… How much it would hurt. To know intimately how desperately he wanted her, and know that he would not get her… not in any form he would expect, and not for a long, long time. She closes her eyes, unwilling or perhaps unable to watch as he adsorbs his prize, decides that Inuyasha is not worth considering in any measure, and that Kagome would be going back to his stolen castle with him. She draws an arrow by feel, only opening her eyes to check her aim as his tentacles lash out, reaching for Kagome.
She releases the arrow as Kagome pulls up a dome barrier around herself and Inuyasha who she was healing, nearly an inch thick. Dekuyume is probably the only one who knows that Naraku flinches more from the pain of her rejection than the barrier as it repels him, or the arrow that tears his tentacles asunder before piercing his hand. Slowly, his eyes rise up from the woman he has loved since before his Becoming, to spot another priestess of so little merit that she could not be seen clearly through the corona of power emitted by Kikyō's reincarnation. Dismissing Dekuyume as unimportant, his eyes are quickly drawn back to Kagome, it was Kikyō reborn. She was back, in power and heart she was so much stronger than before… this woman named Kagome… He easily ignores Inuyasha's shouting to meet Kagome's eyes steadily, reading the emotions on her face just as easily as he had Kikyō… and no more available to him than she was the first time.
With a dark smirk, and a nod to her, he turns and leaves. There was no reason for him to stay here anymore. Her power in the caldera had already broken the enchantment and purified the land. He would not be able to use it again, what little mass and soul he still desired could easily be acquired one on one in person. He grits his teeth against the onslaught of Onigumo's emotions, demanding that they turn around and risk Kagome's wrath so that they could throw themselves at her feet and beg for forgiveness for all the wrongs they have made against her. The collective overthrows that suicidal demand. There was a tree yōkai with time sorcery he had been meaning to adsorb…
