Chapter 26

What's Coming to You

Kagome wondered for years what she would do the next time she was face to face with the monster that destroyed her life. The fantasies varied anywhere from purifying him on the spot to wetting herself on the floor.

For how long she'd nurtured the possibilities, it left the reality far worse than she could ever dream.

"What?" Naraku crooned from his seat. "Nothing to say? Afterall, it's been so long since we last saw each-other."

"When Sango's village was in flames," Kagome bit out, her gaze hardening.

Naraku sighed as if the memory gave him nothing but pleasure. "Yes," he mused. "The taijiya village was quite a sight that night. Fire blazing to the clouds, death all about."

"It was hell on earth," Kagome snapped.

"Of course," Naraku said, the black tendril about her ankle tightening with a painful pulse. "Did you expect any less?"

"Why are you doing this?" Kagome demanded, furious tears stinging the corners of her eyes. "Why won't you just give up? I will never give you what you want."

The chuckle that left Naraku's lips raised every hair on Kagome's neck. "Sweet child, do you really think you matter? You have no idea."

Kagome felt sweat start to gather on her brow despite the chill in her blood. What?

"My search for the Jewel started long before you ever existed," Naraku continued as he suddenly jerked Kagome forward, her back scraping against the wooden floor. "Decades of plans and waiting have brought me to this moment. And, you will not stop me simply out of a foolish denial of the truth."

"Truth?" Kagome demanded as her fingers clawed madly at the floor. "What truth? That you will do anything to get it? That life means nothing to you? That you have made my life hell because I happen to be born with it?"

"Poor human," Naraku crooned. "Life is so simple for you, so easy to be selfish over. You have no grasp of how finite you really are."

"Finite?" Kagome gasped indignantly, her temper firing a burning tingle in her hands as she grasped fragments of broken wood in her palm.

"Your lives are barely a blink of the eye," Naraku said. "Power is wasted on you. While I have been patient for over a generation, you were born nothing more than a vessel; made solely to be broken and emptied."

"Break this, you asshole!" Kagome shouted moments before her reiki flared, encasing the wooden shards in her grip in holy glowing light.

The darts shot from her hand, piercing the thrashing darkness beneath Naraku's cloak. With a shriek of pain, he shrank back, releasing his grip on her.

"I've done nothing but run from you," Kagome ground out as she rose to her feet, the other shards biting into her palm. "For years, I played your sick game and let myself be hunted like prey. Well, I'm done running."

"Are you?" Naraku replied as he straightened.

"Yes," Kagome snapped, tightening her grip on her remaining shards. "It's time you feel fear for once."

"Well then, let's see what you've learned."

Without warning, Kagome felt the dark aura of his miasma creeping across the floor. It saturated the space, lunged upwards to the ceiling. Clasping her throat, Kagome choked through the filthy air.

No! She couldn't lose like this. Not now, not this quickly.

"Just as I thought," Naraku mused, releasing more of his toxic gas. "Weak and afraid."

"I'm not…..afraid….." Kagome gasped, the shards dropping to the floor as she struggled to cover her mouth and nose.

"Then, you are foolish," Naraku stated. "Let's finish this game."

"I couldn't agree more!"

The sudden shout was Kagome's only warning before the door across the room wrenched open, revealing the hellish whirlwind she'd seen before. Whatever terror she felt at its display in the open air was magnified as the crack of wood filled her ears.

Miroku stood at the entrance, palm directed at Naraku's hunched form as the hellish miasma was sucked swiftly from the room.

"What the matter, Naraku?" Miroku called over the thundering din. "Surprised to see me?"

"Hasn't your line died yet?" Naraku growled in cold fury as he smashed one of his dark tendrils into the smooth-planked floor, sending broken debris hurtling towards the portal.

"Humans are harder to kill than you think," Miroku countered, anchoring his feet against the force of the attack. "Too bad you've made too many your enemies."

"Enemies?" Naraku crooned with a laugh. "Please, you two are as little a challenge as that pathetic Alpha was."

Kagome stiffened as she clutched the nearby wall, trying to force her lungs to move through the unforgiving draft. He couldn't mean….

"Koga is none of your concern, now," Miroku stated, his eyes hardening at their edges.

"If he isn't rotting already, he will be no-one's concern soon enough," Naraku answered, a cold smirk stretching across his face. "The wound I gave him was saturated with my miasma. It will eat him from the inside out. Just as it's already starting with you, isn't it?"

Kagome snapped her gaze over to Miroku, gasping in horror when she spotted just what Naraku was talking about. Though it was hard to spot through the wind, the black veins running up Miroku's arm was unavoidable, as well as the sheer pain across his face.

"Miroku!" Kagome shouted, terror gripping her heart at the familiarity of the scene before her.

"You must be feeling great pain, monk," Naraku crooned, some of his tendrils anchoring him to the floor. "Death is practically singing in your ear yet you persist. Keep this up and there will be no chance of your recovering.
'Unless, that is your aim. Tell me, are you ready to die if it takes me with you? Will you poison yourself until I am gone from this world? Let's see who falters first."

And, like that, Naraku released the floor and lunged towards the center of the whirlwind. For all intents and purposes, it looked like Naraku was running to his death. However, Kagome knew he would never do such a thing. Naraku valued his life way too much.

So, when she spotted a barbed tendril snaking its way out behind him and preparing to strike the closer he got, Kagome grabbed the first thing she could find and heaved it with all she had towards it.

Pure reiki energy exploded against Naraku's back, knocking him forward with a yell of agony. However, the wave was enough to push Miroku to the floor as well, cutting off his cursed weapon.

As the wind died, Kagome sucked air greedily into her lungs. However, Miroku's prone form had her racing to him.

"Miroku? Miroku!" she cried as she tried to make him wake. Unfortunately, the hoshi lay still, dark veins webbing down his arm from his hand.

No!

"Miroku, please, you have to wake up!" Kagome cried as she shook him sharply. "I can't kill you too. Please, Miroku."

"How many?" Naraku groaned, causing Kagome to stiffen and slowly look over her shoulder to the large but limping figure sliding across the floor. "How many must suffer and die from your foolishness? The Taijiya village? The Ookami den? Endless shrines? Your own village?"

Terror tightened Kagome's fingers on Miroku's shoulders.

"You wouldn't," she gritted out.

Naraku's chuckle was strained but no less cold. "I've ripped apart every hole you've hidden in. Do you really think the place you were born is beyond me?"

"I'll stop you," Kagome declared, eyes flashing. "I won't let you do it."

"Like you wouldn't let me demolish the Taijiya clan? Or, destroy the Ookami den?" Naraku countered as he started to limp closer. "Or, finish their Alpha?"

"You didn't kill Koga!" Kagome shouted in furious rebellion. "I healed him myself. Purified your filth from him."

This caused Naraku to pause, giving Kagome a moment of satisfaction. However, his laugh grew more menacing and in volume.

"Then, you are right," he crooned. "I didn't kill him. You did."

"What?"

"Have you forgotten that I was never one to leave anything to chance," Naraku stated. "For the Alpha to die was to be the merciful end of him. But, now, that he will live, he will beg his precious ancestors to kill him."

No! "What have you done?" Kagome demanded, quickly putting Miroku on the floor and standing to face Naraku.

"The ookami have always valued one thing," Naraku continued, black blood dribbling onto the floor. "Numbers. Murder one of their own and your life is forfeit, no-matter what."

"Koga would never do that," Kagome countered, eyes flashing.

"Whether he did or not is beside the point," Naraku stated. "What matters is what the others believe he did."

Kagome's hands started to shake as she stared at Naraku's pleased smile. "….What?"

"A body will be found," Naraku pressed, coming closer. "Covered in wounds made from his own claws. He will be tried, stripped of his power, dishonored, and executed. He will swear someone else made the kill to frame him, marking him a coward to them as well.
'Yes, Kagome. You will have done him a cruel service, indeed."

"No," Kagome breathed, her face falling in numbing horror.

"It would have been kinder to just let him die from his wounds," Naraku continued. "At least then, he'd have died in battle."

"No," Kagome breathed, tears gathering in her eyes. "Koga…."

"This is what your stubbornness has brought," Naraku stated, his shadow starting to fall across her front. "This insistent fight you can't win. Let us both admit this has gone on long enough and bring it to an end. Afterall, you can't continue this way."

"You're right," Kagome whispered, a stray tear running down her cheek. "I can't."

Naraku smiled with a sickening satisfaction as he slowly lifted his hand towards her. However, before he could touch her, Kagome's own shot out to latch firmly about his wrist.

"So, I won't," Kagome spat out right before reiki burst from her palm with a blind fury, severing the hand from Naraku's arm.

Naraku remained still as Kagome took a step towards him, reiki pulsing within her in furious waves.

"How?" he asked stunned.

"You've brought nothing but pain and suffering since I first saw you," Kagome ground out as she took another step towards him. "Ruined and tortured anyone who'd given me the slightest kindness.
'And, now, you're going to get exactly what you deserve!"