April 12

I got tired when I was writing yesterday but to continue our story…

After we escaped the panther demons, we traveled to Hideyoshi's palace and arrived there the next day. The place was actually quite beautiful, despite being a little foreboding.

"She's here," Sesshomaru said.

"I can smell her too," Inuyasha replied.

"There should be a way to sneak in. That way we can grab Rin and take down Hideyoshi as easily as…what are you doing?!"

Although Sesshomaru's strategy was methodical, Inuyasha was never one for subtlety. He charged at the building with his sword drawn. "Hideyoshi, you're going to pay for this!"

He smashed through the wall of the palace with a loud bang. The room was full of demons and Hideyoshi, a tall guy with long black hair wearing regal robes sat in a chair at the center of them with an amused smirk on his face.

"Alright Hideyoshi, what the hell have you done with Rin?!"

Sesshomaru entered afterward looking absolutely furious that Inuyasha hadn't listened to his plan.

"You imbecile!" Jaken exclaimed. "What's the matter with you, charging in here like some kind of barbarian?!"

In spite of the ruined plan, Sesshomaru now seemed to be focused on the enemy in front of us. "Hideyoshi," he said with malice in his voice. "We meet again."

"The great Lord Sesshomaru," Hideyoshi said jovially. "I knew you'd come as soon as the child went missing. And you've brought your brother along with you, how exciting. I get a two for one deal and get to take down both sons of the great dog demon at one time."

"Bastard!" Inuyasha said. "Just tell us where Rin is so we can get this over with!"

"I'm afraid you're too late," Hideyoshi's eyes sparkled with even more amusement. "She's not here."

Sesshomaru was so angry his eyes turned red. In the blink of an eye, he flew over to Hideyoshi and pinned him up against the wall with bakusaiga pressed to his neck. "Where is she?!"

Hideyoshi just chuckled and then vanished in a plume of smoke. That's when the demons in the room turned on us. As Hideyoshi's henchmen, I guess they were given the orders to destroy us and they intended to do just that. The three of us fought the demons as they came at us. There were so many of them, it was like we were fighting an endless storm of them. But something began to seem a little off to me. This was almost too convenient. I also wondered where Hideyoshi went and what was happening to Rin while we were fighting.

"Inuyasha, Sesshomaru, we have to get out of here and find Rin," I said as we continued to fight the demons. "Hideyoshi is just using this as a distraction."

"You're right, Kagome," Inuyasha said as he cut down one more demon. He pulled me onto his back and Sesshomaru blasted through the nearest exit. We ended up running down a corridor but the demons were still following us. Inuyasha used the wind scar and the demons coming behind us were obliterated. "Where now?" he said to Sesshomaru.

"I don't know. We'll figure something out."

Suddenly a demon appeared in front of us. "Wait!" it exclaimed as all of us raised our weapons. "I know where you can find the girl."

"Then you'd better talk really fast or you're going to lose your head," Inuyasha said.

"Take this secret passage," the demon said. It moved away the stone wall on our right and revealed a door. Then it opened the door and showed a dark passageway. "Just go until you reach the end of the hallway. The girl is being kept on the other side."

"Thank you so much!" I said.

We went down the passageway and sure enough, found a door on the other side. When we went through it, the room we were in was much more menacing than the one in the palace. It was lit by torches and Hideyoshi was there. Rin was also there behind him trapped within a glowing orb.

"Lord Sesshomaru!" she exclaimed when she saw us.

"So you've figured it out," Hideyoshi said with the amused look on his face.

"Let her go," Sesshomaru said. The level of anger in his voice was so formidable that he didn't have to raise his voice for it to be terrifying.

"You can just surrender quietly, Sesshomaru," Hideyoshi said. "Give up your position to me and I will let the girl go and let you and your brother live."

"Not a chance!"

"Suit yourself. I will destroy both sons of the great dog demon and I will be the ruler of the western lands once and for all!"

He charged at us and Sesshomaru and Inuyasha sprang into action. Hideyoshi wielded a long, black sword that I could sense was dripping with demonic energy. He was quite a formidable match for both Sesshomaru and Inuyasha. The problem was, Sesshomaru and Inuyasha were working more against each other than working together to defeat him. Each didn't want the other to outdo them and would push each other aside to fight Hideyoshi themselves. All it ended up doing was give Hideyoshi the upper hand and Sesshomaru and Inuyasha ended up receiving some nasty blows from him.

I could have jumped in but I figured that while Hideyoshi was distracted, I could save Rin.

Jaken was in the corner watching the fight in fear. "Oh no, this is so horrible! My Lord Sesshomaru will never be able to defeat this guy."

I grabbed his arm. "Come with me, Jaken."

"Where are we going?"

"Shh! We're going to rescue Rin." We snuck quietly around the battle to the orb in the back of the room where Rin was being kept. She looked tired and worn like she hadn't slept in days and watched the fight fearfully.

"Hey Rin," I said when we got close to her.

"Kagome, Jaken!" she said happily.

"We're going to get you out of here," I said. The orb was made out of some kind of demonic barrier. I was sure that I could break it using my spiritual powers. Sure enough, when I shot my arrow at it, the orb disappeared and Rin fell to the floor.

She jumped into my arms and hugged me. "Thank you, Kagome!" she cried into my shoulder.

"We're going to get you out of here."

"What about Lord Sesshomaru and Inuyasha?"

I glanced over at them still fighting Hideyoshi. "They'll be fine. I'll come back for them if I need to."

My plan was to sneak Rin and Jaken out of the corridor where we came from. However, we didn't get very far before Hideyoshi noticed we were trying to escape.

"Going so soon?" he said as he sent a blast from his sword at us.

"Kagome!" Inuyasha shouted.

"Rin!" Sesshomaru said at the same time.

In a flash, the two of them were by our side. Inuyasha grabbed me and pulled me out of Hideyoshi's line of fire and Sesshomaru did the same to Rin. Jaken grabbed onto Sesshomaru's fluff for dear life at the last second.

Once we landed on the ground, Inuyasha hugged me. "Are you okay, baby?"

"Yes," I kissed him. "Thank you, love."

Hideyoshi's laugh echoed throughout the room. "You two are just like your father, showing affection for humans. That was his downfall and it's sure to be yours as well."

"You two have to work together," I said to Inuyasha and Sesshomaru. "He's too powerful, you'll never be able to stop him if you keep fighting against each other." I hoped this would give them the motivation they needed to at least try to work together in this fight. Otherwise, we were never going to get out of here.

Inuyasha and Sesshomaru exchanged a look of mutual understanding and then charged back into the fight against Hideyoshi together.

Rin, Jaken, and I watched from the corner as the fight went on. Instead of shoving each other out of the way and trying to one-up each other, they coordinated their attacks. Inuyasha and Sesshomaru were both incredibly powerful on their own and sure enough, when they worked together they were a real force to be reckoned with.

Sure enough, Hideyoshi wasn't expecting so much power from them and visibly became more nervous as the fight went on. With each blow from them, he became weaker. Then, with Inuyasha's adamant barrage and one final blow with bakusaiga, Hideyoshi was dead.

Once it was over, Rin ran over to Sesshomaru and jumped into his arms. "Lord Sesshomaru!" She started to cry into his chest. "Thank you so much for coming for me!"

Sesshomaru hugged her back tightly. "I'll always come for you, Rin. I promise."

"What a beautiful reunion!" Jaken sobbed.

Inuyasha sheathed his sword as he came over to me. "Are you okay?"

"I should be asking you." I noticed blood on his hand. I lifted his sleeve and found a cut on it.

"It's just a scratch. I'm fine." He lifted my chin and kissed me. Then he turned to Sesshomaru and Rin. "Let's get out of here, you two!"