A Dragon's Fang, a Human's Heart

by The Legendary Dragon Reaper

A human with the power of a demon. To many such an idea sounds ludicrous, does it not? Well he's here to prove them wrong. He will journey across time with the love of his life on his journey as he fights for friendship, for honor, for life, and above all, for love. Rewrite of the Rise of a Warrior: Inuyasha.

33. The Fifth Fang

(The Fifth Fang)

"When the ten Fangs of Ryuhogo reunite after thousands of years, the Dragon Guardian shall at last fulfill his destiny and rid this world of the Jewel that has caused so much suffering, and begin a new era for all."

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The sun was shining over the skies of Feudal Japan, but not everything was calm.

'Fuck, how in the hell did things turn out like this?' Inuyasha forced himself to suppress a snarl as he and the others looked around the castle, or what was left of it anyway "Fucking Naraku had to get away didn't he? The castle looks abandoned, so he's probably not gonna come back to it."

"I'm afraid that you may be correct about that." Miroku noted grimly "After you and Tatsu were able to break through his demonic barrier, Naraku would have to move on or else risk the chance of being attacked again, and if your battle with him was anything to go by, he's in no condition to defend himself."

"He just had to fucking get away didn't he? And Naraku is probably vulnerable enough right now for me to kill him to! DAMMIT!" he slammed his fist into a nearby wall in order to let out some of the frustration he was feeling "We were so close!"

"Calm yourself Inuyasha. I know how you feel, we all feel the same way, but losing our tempers is not going to change the situation. As frustrating as it might be, the fact is that there isn't much we can do right now, so the best we can do is make sure we're prepared for whatever might come next."

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Meanwhile, 500 years in the future…

'You know, when you have to fight an ancient demon princess from the moon in order to save the world, you find that reading about the Tale of the Bamboo Cutter for a report is underwhelming to a ridiculous degree.' Tatsu breathed a sight as he handed in his report 'Add that to the list of reasons why cliffnotes are a godsend. Seriously though, the fight with Kaguya made reading the book so underwhelming that I fell asleep after like ten pages. In all honesty, that's not really new to me either. Ever since Kagome and I started travelling to the Feudal Era, everything I have to do in history seems so underwhelming. Speaking of which, I still have to wonder if it was the right call for us to come back when we did. I feel kind of bad about leaving the others behind, especially given what we went through only like three days ago, but Miroku wasn't far off from the truth when he said there wasn't really anything we could do right now, and if any kind of really strong demon does pop up, they can handle it. Plus if anything about Naraku comes up or they find a lead on where to find him, Inuyasha will just come to take us back. Still though, I can't shake this feeling in my gut that something is about to happen. Something big.'

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Meanwhile, 500 years in the past…

"God dammit…" Inuyasha let out a growl as he and Shippo looked down the well "What the hell is taking those two so long? I thought they said they weren't gonna be too long this time."

"Well Kagome said they would be at least two or three days." Shippo pointed out, only to end up getting smacked upside the head "Ow! What was that for?"

"For pissing me off by not keeping your trap shut."

"Keep in mind Inuyasha, patience is a virtue." this was when Miroku and Sango came up to him to try and calm him down.

"And what the hell is your problem? You should be as pissed off as I am!"

"We are Inuyasha, but keep in mind that it's not as though we only started searching for Naraku a few days ago." Sango pointed out "Besides, I think you could use some rest, especially after all the battles we've been in lately."

"What the fuck are you going on about Sango? In case you forgot, I'm nothing like the rest of you pathetic weakling humans, and a little battle here and there isn't gonna kill me."

"Maybe you are more durable than regular humans, but that doesn't make you invincible. You still need rest and time to recover. Besides, like Miroku said, without any proper leads we can use to track Naraku, we're at a loss. The only thing we can do now is make sure we're ready for the next time we find him, and that's what Tatsu and Kagome are doing over there."

"...Fine, I'll give them until tomorrow but if they're not back by then, then I'm going over there and dragging them back here."

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Meanwhile, with a certain undead priestess…

'It is rather strange…' Kikyo frowned in thought as she received a message from one of her soul collectors "I understand. The demonic aura Naraku emanates remains hidden and as elusive as it was before. I've been having my soul collectors search for a trace of the miasma that he radiates, but there is not even a hint of his barrier. How is it that miasma as strong and potent as his has been hidden so effectively?'

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Meanwhile, with the wind sorceress and the puppet…

At the same time, Kagura was fleeing across the skies, her and Kohaku riding atop one of her giant feathers, thinking about how she was ordered by Naraku to take Kohaku's jewel shard from his lifeless corpse, but when he was ordered to kill Rin he hesitated.

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Meanwhile, 500 years in the future…

"Okay that one's a bust, how about this?" by this point, school had come to an end, and Tatsu and the rest of his group (which consisted of Kagome, Arashi and Raidou had relocated to the school library, surrounded by at least a dozen books on each side "No wait that one's not it, all of it is in Spanish." and so he tossed that one aside, causing it to land on Raidou's face."

"So refresh my memory." clearly not amused, Raidou tossed that book away and promptly turned his attention back to Tatsu "What exactly are we doing here again? I thought you said your older brother had hid his computer working on deciphering the map to the next Fang."

"He does, but the information he's been able to collect so far isn't making much sense to him, or any at all."

"Yeah, you're teling me." Kagome gestured to the textbook he was holding in his hand "I don't even think this is Japanese or Chinese, or any language. Seriously, I've never seen anything like this before."

"That's because you're holding it upside down."

"...I knew that."

"No you didn't. Anyway, not every ancient text has been digitized, so Kazuma suggested that we might be able to find some answers here that we can't find on the internet."

"Uh huh. Sound hypothesis, at least in theory."

"You're out of here aren't you?"

"I have other things to take care. Go ahead and call me when the computer figures it out, and this time I'll make sure I leave my phone on."

"Yeah about that, let me give you a quick heads up." Arashi glanced up at him "There should be a few messages from me on there when you turn it on."

"How many?"

"Don't bother with most of them, just listen to the last… three of them."

"Uh huh. Out of curiosity and a little bit of dread, what are the chances of those three being one long one that got divided into three?"

"About 50/50." Tatsu told him without looking up from one of the textbooks.

"Duly noted. Do what you have to do, and I'll see you later." and so Raidou gave a simple wave and took off.

"And now back to trying to translate whatever the hell this is."

"What exactly are you looking at anyway?" asked Kagome.

"I found this one book that contains like two chapters on the Fangs of Ryuhogo, which should be a good thing. Unfortunately it turns out all of it is in Dutch, but I was able to find a Dutch to French dictionary and a French to English dictionary, though I can't ready through them as fast as an anthromorphic platypus in a fedora."

"...Is that a Phineas and Ferb reference?"

"Yep."

"Just checking. Anyway, maybe you guys should head back to the apartment and see if your super genius brother's computer has come up with anything else on the Fangs."

"Uh huh. Be real with me Kags, you're just trying to get rid of us aren't you?"

"No, but in all fairness we have a huge math test coming up in the next few days and not all of us have mega genius older brothers with an IQ of over 400 to help us study." it was then that her bag fell off the table and crashed onto the floor, causing a small bottle to fall out, which just so happened to contain a few jewel shards "But some of us apparently have magic jewel shards just lying around in their backpack. Crap, I forgot to take them out when I got home."

"Don't worry about it, I can drop those off back at the shrine for you."

"You sure about that?"

"Yeah I was heading in that direction anyway, I figured I'd grab a milkshake and then head back home to see if the computer has anything. You coming Arashi?"

"Fuck yes." Arashi didn't waste a second as he grabbed his bag "I haven't had a good milkshake from Hiroki's in ages. We going for the usual?"

"Yep, strawberry for you and a chocolate/ peanut butter swirl for me."

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Unfortunatley, things were about to take a turn for the worst.

With a white flash, Raidou materialized in his underground den with the dragon statue and row of candles, the Fangs hanging freely around his neck "Just a little bit longer, and destiny will at last be within my grasp."

"There is only one destiny in lie for you, traitorous scum."

"Wha-" Raidou's gaze snapped to the right just in time for him to crank his neck to the side and dodge a volley of shuriken being hurled at him, missing him but being precise enough to cut the strings of his necklace with the Fangs, leaving it and them to fall to the ground 'Shit, they figured it out!' he made to reach for them, only to be stopped by a hand grabbing him by the hair and yanking him backwards, and he let out a low snarl "So you know."

"Of course we know boy." as it tutrns out, it was the lead soldier of the Yakuza holding him, with several more soldiers surrounding him "Did you believe we would be foolish enough to by your deception forever? You deceived us, manipulated us for your own gain. You disgraced the honor of the Yakuza, and now you shall die as a disgrace!" he threw Raidou to the ground and drew a sword as he moved to finish him.

Raidou rolled out of the way and aimed a barrage of punches and kicks at the leader, though he was only able to land a palm strike to the chest.

The leader recovered in time to grab Raidou's wrist and deal him a kick to the chest, sending him hurtling into a column behind him.

Raidou shook off this attack, charged at the leader and landed a roundhouse kick at his face, then leapt above him and attempted to land a smash attack to the head.

The leader caught both of Raidou's wrists and slammed him into the ground, stomping on his back in anger, with several others doing the same "Do you take us for fools? You lied to us, manipulated us, used us as if we were your puppets while you amassed power that did not belong to you! That ends today you wretched filth, because those who live without honor shall die without honor."

"A statement I could not agree with more."

From his place pinned to the ground, a bloody and beaten Raidou lifted his head as much as he could, his expression turning to one of shock, anger and hatred "Shin…?"

Sure enough, from within the darkness emerged none other than Shin himself, clad in the typical kimono of the Guardian, but holding the samurai helmet in one of his arms, as he turned to the leader, his expression unnervingly calm "Tell me, do you have the Fangs?"

"Yes my lord, we have them right here." the leader gave Raidou one more kick to the face for good measure (failing to notice Shin's eyes narrow as he did this), reached down for the Fangs and got down on one knee "And now the Fangs are returned to their rightful owner. Please use them to change the world, and use their power in any way you see fit."

"...On one hand, you have served me well." Shin slowly accepted the Fangs, attached them to a new set of string and placed it around his neck "On the other hand…" he snapped his fingers, and the leader of the Yakuza went up in flames, being reduced to ash before he even had the chance to scream. With the leader gone, Shin turned to the remaining soldiers "I had believed I made myself perfectly clear when I stated that the boy was not to be harmed in any way. Any of you dare defy my orders again, and you will suffer the same fate as that one, only yours will not be so mercifully quick. Do I make myself clear?"

"Y-Yes my lord!" the soldiers all started bowing to him in fear.

"Good. Now get out of my sight, and tend to his injuries." that prompted the remaining soldiers to rush off to carry out his orders, and he knelt down in front of Raidou's prone form "I believe you and I have many things to discuss, but before anything else, we shall pay a visit to your new friends, such as the Kamikaze boy. There is much to be done this day."

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Meanwhile, with the love interest…

'Great, even after he reveals his secret to us he seems so smug about it.' Kagome found herself in brooding as she continued studying in the library alone, though she was beginning to get frustrated as she did so "Call me when the computer figures it out he says, well I can think of a few things I want to call him." she threw her math textbook to the side.

"Having a rough time with math again?"

Kagome glanced up and looked over to see Ayumi coming up to her "No, just Raidou kind of getting under my skin. Maybe I'm getting too worked up over this though, and I don't think I can concentrate."

"And Raidou and the others already left?"

"Doing research on the Fangs in their own way."

"Well maybe this will help. I was doing some research of my own for a history report awhile back, when I came across this." she opened up the textbook she was holding and pointed to a certain page, specifically a page with a picture containint a figure that looked nearly identical to Guardian, complete with the kimono, samurai helmet and Fangs "See?"

"...No. Way. NO WAY!" that little outburst earned a series of shushes from everyone else, causing her to blush and sit back down, but her excitement didn't falter "Hang on a second, let me check something." she grabbed a nearby map and looked it over for a few minutes, before she broke out into a wide grin "Take that Raidou Asakura, computers and whatever. This is some old school girl power for the win!" she was met with several shushes again.

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Meanwhile, with the main protagonist…

"Wait wait stop, hold on a second." by this point, Tatsu (now clad in his typical blue martial arts gi) and Arashi were making their way across the grounds of the Higurashi shrine, two milkshakes in hand "It almost sounds like you're being serious about this."

"To be completely honest dude, I am being serious." Arashi gave a shrug "This next Fang we're going after is the last one right?"

"As far as I know."

"If these things are as crazy powerful as we think they are then maybe… maybe it's for the best if we don't find them."

"I have to find the last Fang, if I don't then who knows who will. For all we know, there might be another Naraku out there looking for it even as we speak."

"I get that man, but there is one other thing to think about. The tests themselves."

"You think anyone else wouldn't be able to pass them?"

"Probably a 50/50 chance of that if I had to guess, but that's not my point. The last time we went to one of those temples and triggered the test, it almost wiped out the planet. How do we know that isn't gonna happen again? I'm just trying to look at this realistically Tatsu… maybe it's for the best if we don't find the last Fang."

"...Come on, we can get into her room through the window." Tatsu summoned an earth pillar beneath his feet and rose up until he was high enough to reach Kagome's window.

"You sure it's okay for us to go in like this?"

"It's not a big deal, her family won a trip to a hot spring, they're not gonna be back for a few days or so." he grabbed Arashi by the arm and pulled him up to him as he slid open the window to Kagome's room, and the two of them leapt in "Look man I get what you're saying, but there's too much at stake to not find the thing. First of all, you already know about me figuring out what my dad was onto with these things so I won't bother repeating it. Second, Naraku's gonna show up again at some point more powerful than ever, and I'm gonna need to be ready for it. Third, in all fairness your track record lately hasn't exactly spoken for itself."

"What the fuck does- You're talking about Raidou aren't you?"

"To be fair, a few months ago you thought Raidou was related to some kind of bigshot in the criminal underworld and didn't want us to have anything to do with him, and now you're more or less his biggest fan."

"Alright alright, I said and did a bunch of stupid things so sue me, and if you even think about bringing up that whole Nigerian prince thing again-"

"Forget it, that joke got old almost as fast as Ghost Nappa." Tatsu rolled his eyes as he set down the bottle of jewel shards on Kagome's desk, then he removed the Fangs from around his neck and breathed a deep sigh "I still find it kind of hard to believe how much things have changed in the past six months. Before all this started the only things I was focused on were training, trying to win over Kagome and helping my brother get laid. And now…"

"And now you're a superhero. No better still, you're the protagonist of your own Isekai. You're a hero man."

"Or maybe I'm just a guy who doesn't give up. There's not that much of a difference when you think about it. But still, for the past six months my life has been focusing on travelling back and forth in time by about 500 years, finding Naraku and the shards of the jewel, and putting together the pieces of the puzzle my dad left behind."

"It's not like the old days where we could binge Avatar for days on end without a care in the world."

"We still do that."

"Yeah but we've got other stuff to worry about at the same time."

"True. Seriously though, things have changed so much lately, and even more changes are still to come. It all starts with the last Fang."

"Figuring out what your dad was onto?"

"Yeah, but even more than that. I made a promise to myself that I intend to keep, and once I find the last Fang… I'm gonna tell Kagome that I love her."

"...Seriously?" Arashi's jaw more or less dropped as he heard this "You mean you're finally gonna go through with it?"

"Yep, I just have to get the last Fang and survive whatever batshit insane test the originals had come up with for us. We've still gotta track down the last Fang first, and god only knows how long that's gonna take us." it was then that he heard his phone ringing and picked up "Hey Kags, we're just dropping off the jewel shards in your room now."

"Forget about that right now, you need to hear this! I think I found it!"

"You're gonna have to be more specific."

"Okay look, you might have to check back with a few things with the map you found from that temple in Russia, but I think the last Fang is hidden in Southeast Asia. To be more specific, I think it's hidden on the tallest mountain in the world, at Mount Everest!"

"...Kags, when was the last time I told you how awesome you are?"

"About three days ago."

"Well that streak is officially over, because you're awesome. Alright, we'll take care of things here and then probably just go grab some pizza and watch a movie. We can go after the Fang once the rest of your family gets back. And listen, once all that's over… I've got something else I want to talk to you about. It's something I've been wanting to talk to you about for a really long time actually."

"Yeah… Yeah that sounds good. Alright, see you later."

"See ya." and then he hung up and turned back to Arashi "Look take my word for it, I can tell you now that everything is gonna work out the way it's supposed to."

"Yeah you'd better be right about that or-" Arashi cut himself short as he looked out the window, and then he froze "Um, dude?"

"...Close it."

"What?"

"Close it now!" Tatsu slid the window shut a split second before a volley of shuriken slammed into the glass, but harmlessly bounced off the glass, and he breathed a quick sigh of relief as he slid the curtains shut "Too close for my liking."

"When in the fuck did these people get ninja-proof glass?"

"That was the first thing I did with my powers after I got the second Fang, I figured it was the best way to make sure Kagome didn't get woken up in the middle of the night by another fire truck ramming through her window."

"Huh. Nice. So what about those guys, are we dealing with evil ninjas now?"

"Not ninjas, I think those are some of the Yakuza guys we met during that whole gang war thing that one time."

"Whatever, so what the hell are we supposed to do?"

"Well one thing is for sure, there isn't a chance in hell I'm letting these guys get their hands on these things." he picked up the jewel shards and the Fangs, and he subsequently threw them under the bed "I don't suppose you brought any of that programmable matter gear Kazuma was working on?"

"No, he took all of it to that big press conference he's got today."

"Fuck, I guess we have to do it the old fashioned way. The only thing I've got on me is one of those "Gender equality" whetstones you gave me, but I guess it's gonna have to work." he then pulled the whetstone in question out of his pocket and threw it in the face of a Yakuza soldier that was climbing in through the window, knocking him to the ground "There's more of them waiting out there for us."

"Yeah I know, I can sense 17 out there and more are showing up by the second. What do you think we should do?"

"Head down through the house and hit the alarm Kazuma installed in the kitchen, we'll say there was some kind of break in since it's pretty much true."

"You sure you shouldn't bring your Fangs with you?"

"I'll come back for them later, right now we need to move!" and so the two of them bolted out of the room, through the upstairs hallway and down the stairs, then rushed over into the kitchen, only to see more of them entering through the windows in an attempt to corner Tatsu, but was able to maneuver around them, only for three of them to cornern him with after a moment "Well this could've gone better. If only I thought to have backup."

"Roadhouse!" this was when Arashi slid underneath the legs of one of them and kicked him into a wall, knocking him out cold, and then he slammed a palm onto the alarm in the wall, leaving it to start blaring "Oh wait, he did."

"Pretty sure that's not how the reference goes, but thanks for the save. Alright we hit the alarm, now let's get the hell out of here."

"Way ahead of you." and so the two of them bolted out of the kitchen and out of the house entirely, but when they attempted to rush across the grounds they stopped to find a large army of Yakuza soldiers waiting for them, along with a few helicopters "So… explain to me again, how exactly is everything gonna turn out okay?"

"I'll let you know when I have an answer." Tatsu glanced back to see the other Yakuza soldiers show up behind them "Though it might take awhile."

This was when the doorway to the helicopter opened, and out stepped the persona of Guardian, clad in the typical kimono with a samurai helmet, a single katana strapped to his side "At least we meet in person."

'Yep, it's definitely gonna take awhile.' Tatsu glanced behind Guardian to see the unconscious form of Raidou slumped against the wall of the helicopter, and his gaze hardened 'And it just got that much worse.'

Guardian continued walking forward, and stopped when he was directly in front of Tatsu "I can see it in your eyes. You, Tatsu Kamikaze, you have the same fire in your spirit that your father once held." that made Tatsu freeze in place.

"...What do you know about my dad?"

"I hope for all of our sakes, I hope that your intellect and resolve match his as well."

"What the hell do you know about my father?!"

"I know enough, much more than you realize actually. How much you know however, that will depend on the outcome of today's events" Guardian then turned his attention to the other Yakuza soldiers holding them "I want the rest of you to put these two boys in the chopper, and I want them unharmed."

"Don't think I'm going without a fight asshole!" Arashi elbowed the Yakuza solder holding him in the ribs and attempted to pounce at Guardian, only to be grabbed by several more soldiers and dragged into the chopper, with Tatsu being dragged in shortly after. As they were forced into the chopper, Arashi shot a pissed off glare at Tatsu "What was that you were saying about my track record with those things?"

"...Shut up." was all Tatsu could say.

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Meanwhile, 500 years in the past (but a few minutes beforehand)…

"I see." Kaede frowned in thought as she sat in her hut with Shippo and Inuyasha for company, and she continued stirring the pot in front of her "So the monk has gone to woo Sango again, has she?"

"That has to be it." Shippo gave a shrug "Kagome told me that's what Sango's been secretly waiting for all this time, whatever that means." and then he noticed the look Inuyasha was giving him "What?"

"...You turn into another Miroku, I'm killing you on the spot." was all Inuyasha said.

"What does that mean?"

"I mean what I said."

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Meanwhile, with a certain Demon Slayer…

'So that's how it is then…' Sango sat on a hillside outside overlooking the village, Kirara nestled into her lap, musing over the recent change in events 'Naraku disappeared without a trace, and he took Kohaku with him. Kohaku my brother.'

"Care for some company?"

Sango glanced over to see Miroku sit down next to her "I'm not in the mood for any of that right now Miroku."

"No no, none of that right now. I can only imagine just how worried you must be about your brother right now."

"How could I not be? In all honesty, he's all that I really have left of my village. Well that is to say, him and Kirara here."

"I understand how you feel. Such a thing is easier said than done, but you don't have to worry yourself too much about it."

"What do you mean?"

"I cam imagine just what it is you're going through, but as I've learned in recent times, the burdens we bare may be heavy, but we don't have to bare them alone." Miroku breathed a sigh as he pulled himself to his feet "Well I assume that you likely wish to be alone, I just wanted to give you something to think about."

"You mean… that's it?"

"What do you mean?"

"It's just that I've come to know what you're like, I thought after encouraging me like that you would try and be a lecher towards me."

"Oh. Well my dear Sango, here's the thing…" he knelt down next to her and put a hand on her chest "You should've told me sooner if that was what you wanted." he was met with a loud and hard smack across the face.

"Okay there it is, I knew that was missing."

Kirara simply let out a tiny meow glanced down at Miroku's twitching form, but then a sudden loud booming noise rang through her ears 'Explosion? Where? Mistress and the pervert can't hear it, so it must be far… that way!' and so she suddenly took off in the direction of the nearby forest.

"Kirara wait!" Sango didn't waste a moment in rushing after her, with Miroku's bruised form following her "Oh please don't let this be another mind control spell."

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A few minutes of running later…

'Loud booming noise, coming from… here?' after a few minutes of running, Kirara came to a stop in front of the Sacred Tree, her mind racing as she peered up at it 'No loud booming noise, but are those… voices?' she took a few steps closer, and then she suddenly started to hear almost everything that was happening.

"So… explain to me again, how exactly is everything gonna turn out okay?" came the first voice, one was that was unfamiliar to her.

"I'll let you know when I have an answer. Though it might take awhile." came the second voice, one she recognized as Tatsu.

"At least we meet in person." a third voice, another one that was unfamiliar to her "I can see it in your eyes. You Tatsu Kamikaze, you have the same fire in your spirit that your father once held."

"...What do you know about my dad?"

"I hope for all of our sakes, I hope that your intellect and resolve match his as well."

"What the hell do you know about my father?!"

"I know enough, much more than you realize actually. How much you know however, that will depend on the outcome of today's events. I want the rest of you to put these two boys in the chopper, and I want them unharmed." then came the loud booming noise again, but it stopped after a moment, and then silence.

Kirara paused for a moment, taking in all of this information 'Fang Wielder is in trouble… Fang Wielder and Priestess have enemy in their time… Is new enemy after Fangs? Dragon Man and First Mistress… I promised to protect the Fangs and wielders… Forgive me mistress, but they need me I need to go.' and with that thought solidified along with her resolve, she took to the air and flew through the forest until she came across the clearing with the well, and she jumped right into the well without hesitation.

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Meanwhile, 500 years in the future…

Raidou let out a soft groan as he slowly opened his eyes, then after a moment they snapped open and he started flailing and struggling "What the- Where did- I'll shove my foot up your-"

"Nice to know you're so mellow when you wake up." Tatsu commented dryly "Oh and welcome back to the land of the living by the way."

"Shit, he dragged the two of you into this? This day just keeps getting better and better by the minute."

"Yeah but we're okay too, so don't worry." Arashi told him "What about you, these bastards didn't hurt you did they?"

"I'm covered in bruises and poorly-done bandages."

"Ask a stupid question." Tatsu commented dryly "But seriously Raidou, what the hell happened with you and these guys? Who's this new Guardian, how did he get your Fangs, and why the hell did he come after you?"

"...Fuck, I was hoping it would never have to come to this."

"You gonna elaborate?"

"I am. The truth is… this new Guardian is the original Guardian, and my uncle Shin."

"...Oh."

"Are you fucking kidding me?!" Arashi bolted to his feet "This is exactly what I was talking about back when we first met!"

"Arashi."

"Don't you remember it?"

"I said that Raidou's uncle was a suspected criminal, that he was supposed to be the leader of a branch of the Yakuza! Oh shit the journalistic big shots were right on the money, and so were the guys from the Saisei for that matter!"

"Okay, can one of you muzzle him for us?"

"See this is the power of investigative reporting when you put it into action and-" Arashi was cut off by one of the Yakuza soldiers slapping a muzzle over his mouth.

"Thank you. Raidou that doesn't make sense, if he's the original Guardian then how did you end up with the Fangs, and where the hell has he been all this time?"

"Because I usurped him." Raidou told him flatly "Not long before I met you, I stole the Fangs from him and started posing as Guardian to control his faction of the Yakuza, and I kept him imprisoned since then. Apparently I didn't do a good enough job, they found him and freed him, and they ambushed me when I got back after I left you earlier."

"So then… you were lying to us about that even after the whole thing about revealing our secrets to each other?"

"Yes. I was."

"But why usurp him in the first place? What was the point of stealing the Guardian mantle instead of just letting him-"

"Letting him keep that power for himself? I wasn't about to let that happen. Not after all the things he's done."

Tatsu's gaze softened slightly as he studied Raidou for a moment "This is about more than just the mantle and the Fangs isn't it?"

"Yes. I despise that man with every fiber of my being. That man, my uncle by blood and nothing more than that, is so obsessed with the Fangs and his control over the Yakuza that he spent years cramming various types of martial arts training down my throat. I mean granted the results are worth it, I think it's safe to say that the training and skill are fairly easy to put to good use. But just the training wasn't enough for Shin. I was always uneasy about him, I only trusted in him when I was young because my mother asked me to. I never knew my biological father, I never met him and my mother never told me anything about him, and I never bothered to ask her about someone I never knew. But my mother struggled to support the two of us on her own, so when I was 8 we moved in with my uncle Shin to support us. My mother always said that she wanted to pass on the Fangs in her possession to me when I came of age, but Shin obviously didn't give a damn about what she wanted. I could feel the hunger for strength and power in him, and it drove him to pursue greater heights, and this eventually lead to him forming his own faction of the Yakuza, and developing an organization of followers." he gestured to the various Yakuza soldiers sitting by them "He was so consumed by it, nothing would stop him. My mother tried to stop him on the path he was on, to try and talk him out of it." he grited his teeth and looked down at his feet as tears began brimming in his eyes "I'll never forget that day when I was 9, I'll always view it as the worst day of my life."

"What happened?"

"It was… It was the day that my mother was taken from me. I rushed to our home and found him standing there… The things I saw were more than enough to show me what happened. He had blood on his hands. Her blood on his hands. And the Fangs she kept with her, he wore them around his neck like fucking trophies!" he clenched his fists tied behind his back to the point where blood began trickling down his hands "That was the moment that I realized who and what he really was… he wasn't a man. He was a monster in human skin. I swore that one day I would make him pay for taking my mother from me."

"Raidou…"

"You probably wanna know why I kept him in a cell like that don't you?" Raidou was met with silence, and he let out a bitter chuckle "To this day, I'm not entirely sure why I didn't just turn him over to the police, shut down his branch of the Yakuza altogether, and maybe a few of the others along with it. Maybe it was out of grief. Maybe it was because I had something to prove to him. Maybe I just wanted to see the look on his face when I found the other Fangs and used them to change the world without him. Or maybe… maybe I was afraid of what would happen if I got rid of him."

"What do you mean?"

"I hate him with every fiber of my being, but even so… After I lost my mother, he was my only living blood relative, he was all that I had, and now… I lost everything. I lost the Fangs, I lost anyone that cared about me. I'm all alone now."

"...No you're not." that voice caused Raidou's head to snap up to see Tatsu giving him a small, sad smile "You're only as alone as you let yourself be, and as others let you be. You're not alone at all Raidou, because you still have your friends in us. Me and Arashi, my brother and Akira, Moya and Ayumi. All of us are your friends, because that's what friends are, people that will never turn their backs on you even when you screw up. That's what friends are for. Whatever happens, we're not gonna just up and abandon you."

"Are… Are you serious?"

"You know damn well I don't joke about this stuff. You're my friend, you're our friend, and that's never going to change. Assuming we all survive this."

"Survive what? Where exactly are we right now?"

"If I had to guess, I'd say that we're in the airspace around the Himilayas by now."

"The Himilayas?"

"That's where the temple for the fifth Fang is."

"You told him where the last Fang is?!"

"He was holding a fire blast to Arashi's face, I didn't have a choice."

"Why didn't you just fight back and- You don't have your Fangs do you?"

"They attacked us while we were dropping the things off at Kagome's house, I hid them so they wouldn't get their hands on them."

"...Fuck, this just keeps getting better."

"Oh just wait, we haven't seen what kind of Guardian the next temple has."

"The time for idle chat is over." this was when Shin made his way into the room, his gaze hard and unflinching "Untie the boys."

"I take it that means we're here."

"You are correct. The time has come for the fifth and final Fangs to be claimed, and for their power to belong to the Guardians. Set it down near the summit." Shin made the call, which prompted the chopper to land on the snowy surface of the mountain, and he made his way out onto the snowy grounds.

It was only a moment later that Tatsu and the others (now all clad in heavy coats) were forced out of the chopper as well "So where is the temple?"

"Use more than your eyes child. A wise man once said that when you base your expectations only on what you see, you blind yourself to the possibilities of a new reality." he held up the necklace he wore containing his set of the first four Fangs, causing the top of the mountain to open up, revealing the temple carved into the side of it "Case and point."

"Fair enough. Anyway the last set of Fangs is inside, now let me and my friends go."

"I'm not as foolish as you would like to believe. I have spent years studying the Fangs and know more about them than even my nephew does. I am well aware of the tests and the guardians of each of the Fangs."

"So what, you plan to use us to get the Fangs for you?"

"You are only half correct. I fully intend to retrieve the Fangs myself, though I shall not take on such a task alone. Whatever dangers lie in the temple, you shall face them by my side. Do this, and one of the Fangs shall belong to you, and you and your friends will be returned to your homes unharmed."

"Interesting prospect. What if I say no?"

"Refuse me offer…" he held up a hand to Arashi, his palm surging with demonic energy "Then your friend will pay the price."

'Shit, he had to go there didn't he?'

"Don't do it Tatsu, don't bow down to this fucker!" Arashi yelled at him "Don't give this bastard the satisfaction of making you squirm! Oh yeah, and don't let him get all five Fangs either, cause that would be bad."

"Way to keep your priorities in order." Tatsu glanced back at Raidou "So what do you think, will he do it?"

"Without hesitation." was all Raidou said.

"Do I have a choice in the matter?"

"Not with his life at stake."

"Figures." Tatsu glanced back over at Shin "If I help you go through with this, you guarantee that he won't be harmed and you'll bring us home?"

"Believe what you will about me, but I am a man of my word." Shin told him flatly "The true question remains, will you cooperate?"

"Keep your hands off my friends and we'll see."

"Very well then. Come with me, and together we shall face our destiny." and so Shin made his way towards the entrance of the temple, with Tatsu slowly following behind him.

'Dammit, at this rate I'm gonna have to hope for some kind of miracle.'

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Meanwhile, at Higurashi shrine…

"No Mrs Higurashi, I promise you everything's fine." by this point, Ayumi was in the living room of the Higurashi household, talking on the phone "Yes the alarm in your house was triggered earlier, but Kagome wasn't here when it happened. She was at the library with me. We think there was some kind of burglary, but the police have him in custody. She's just answering a few questions with one of the officers, and she'll call you later. Okay, goodbye." she hung up and breathed a deep sigh 'Thank you Mrs Higurashi, for being such a calm woman.'

"How did it go with my mom?" this was when Kagome made her way into the room, looking rather distraught.

"I told her about what happened and said you'd call her later. How did things go with the police outside?"

"I already took care of them, the same with the fire department and the media. They jump at just about every chance they get, and according to grandpa they've been practically stalking us for months now."

"Probably because the last time you guys were on the news, an evil demon mask came to life and started eating people and slammed a fire truck into your house."

"...Oh yeah, I forgot about that."

"Yeah. So what else did you find?"

"Only a few things that make it clear how bad this is." she held up two things in her hands: the bottle with the jewel shards, and Tatsu's necklace with the Fangs on them.

"Oh no, he left his Fangs behind?"

"I found them hidden under my bed with the jewel shards, he'd never hide them like that unless this was something really bad. I don't get it though, what could've happened?"

"Perhaps I can shed some light on this subject."

"What the-" Kagome jumped and she and Ayumi whipped around to see the glowing seethrough figure of Ryuhogo appear before them "What did you- How did you-"

"Please, allow me to explain things to both of you." Ryuhogo was quick to try and calm them down, and he gave a small smile "It seems Tatsu wasn't exaggerating about your beauty in the slightest."

"What do you-" Kagome froze, then calmed herself, if only slightly "You know Tatsu… does that mean you're… Ryuhogo?"

"Correct, and I was wondering when I would finally have the chance to meet you face to face Miss Higurashi. I only wish it were under better circumstances."

"I… I guess the feeling is mutual."

"So Kagome, is this…" Ayumi trailed off, just as dumbstruck as Kagome was, perhaps even moreso.

"Yeah, he's more or less Tatsu's spirit guide."

"That is one way to describe my current role in his development, and not entirely inaccurate either for that matter." Ryuhogo gave a shrug, but then he turned serious again "It seems that we have a crisis on our hands."

"I kind of noticed. Do you have any idea what happened?"

"As a matter of fact I do, and I'm ashamed to say it's a crisis that I had a substantial part of setting into motion." he led the two of them outside, and with a wave of his hands he unleashed a series of blue lights that froze both of them in place 'Mental projection and the transference of knowledge, a useful ability to have, though it can make one rather complacent. Perhaps it was for the best I didn't include that ability with any of the original five Fangs.'

"Wait what?!" after a few moments, Kagome snapped out of her stupor in a mix of shock and horror, with Ayumi more or less the same "So Tatsu and Arashi got kidnapped by some other guy posing as Guardian and taken away by a helicopter?"

"That is the short version, yes."

"But then… if they got taken away by air, then what the heck am I supposed to do?" she started grabbing her hair in frustration "I have to do something!"

"I am not objecting to that, but you do not have to do it alone." Ryuhogo gave a small knowing smile as he glanced in the direction of the well house "I was hoping that would turn out to work in your favor."

"What do you mean?" Kagome glanced over at the well house, and her jaw dropped at the sight of a little two-tailed cat demon making her way out of the well house "Kirara?!"

"Wait a minute." Ayumi finally broke her silence, studying Kirara for a moment "You mean this is the fire cat that you told me about?"

"Yeah that's her, the two-tailed fire cat demon that travels with Sango."

"Like I thought, and it's… it's so cute!" Ayumi didn't hesitate in scooping Kirara into her arms and cuddling her for a moment.

"Yeah, that's about how I reacted too the first time I saw her. But how did she get here? I always thought that aside from Tatsu and me, Inuyasha was the only one that was able to go through the well."

"I don't really understand it myself, and I will admit that it was a bit of a gamble to be sure, but it seems that it paid off quite well." Ryuhogo gave a small smile as he set a hand on Kiara's head and started petting her head, causing her to purr slightly "In any case though Miss Higurashi, it seems that your problem has been solved."

"What do you-" Kagome cut herself short as the realization dawned on her "So then, you think I can use Kirara to go help Tatsu and the others?"

"I believe it's safe to say that given the current situation, it's the only real option you have to go with at the moment."

"...I can't really argue with that. Just give me one minute, I need to make sure that I'm ready for this." and so she rushed back into the house.

"She's quite the eager and energetic sort."

"She's always been like that." Ayumi gave a small smile "So cheerful and energetic and ready to tackle any kind of obstacle that comes her way, she's been like that for as long as I've known her."

"I know that feeling all too well, Midoriko was the same way. She was actually the original mistress to Kirara."

"Really? How did she end up with her?"

"From what she told me, she found Kirara when she was just a newborn, injured and alone in the sight of a bloody battle. She took her in and nursed her back to health, and apparently she took a liking to her. I can understand why of course. It was strange and a bit hard to explain, but she always seemed to have a way of drawing in people around her. It's a unique trait, but not one I haven't seen numerous times since then."

"You mean with Kagome?"

"Traces of it with her, but mainly with Tatsu. As he fights and just goes through he life, he draws in those around him. Even among other wielders of the Fangs, he is… unique."

"That's probably the nicest way to describe him sometimes." this was when Kagome made her way out of the house, now clad in a fresh new priestess kimono, her Seishin Rozu sword in one hand, her bow in the other, and a quiver of arrows strapped to her back "But there's a lot of ways to describe him, and that's why I fell in love with him. And now I'm gonna go do everything in my power to save him and the others."

"Of that I have no doubt. Unfortunately there's little more I can do to help you now, so I wish you the best of luck." Ryuhogo gave both girls a small smile and a simple nod, and then he vanished in a white flash.

"Okay, sword, bow, quiver fully loaded, I think I'm ready. Kirara, what about you?"

Kirara gave a small meow, which then transitioned into a roar as she was engulfed in flames and transitioned into her giant form.

"I'll take that as a yes." Kagome then glanced over at Ayumi "I guess I'm gonna have to get going now."

"I guess so." Ayumi breathed a sigh and gave a small sad smile "I guess it was too much to hope that it was always going to be as simple for us as school, boys and fast food."

"I sort of resigned myself to it by this point, but you don't have to worry. I'm gonna come back from this, all of us will."

"I know, it's just…" Ayumi was suddenly enveloped in a tight hug.

"I promise you I'm gonna come back, all of us." Kagome gave her a quick squeeze on the shoulders, and with one last reassuring smile she jumped onto Kirara's back, gave a simple nod, and then they took off into the skies. As they did, she glanced down at Kirara "Thank you for doing this Kirara, I really owe you one for this. We just need to stop by Tatsu's apartment to pick something up, and then it's off to Mount Everest. I'm coming Tatsu, please just hang on until I get there.'

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Meanwhile, at the fifth temple…

'Well this is it, I guess it's now or never.' Tatsu gritted his teeth as he followed Shin into the fifth temple, taking in his surroundings "Pretty straightforward like the others before it, for starters this one has the kanji written on the floor."

"A clue to the meaning of the test no doubt." Shin glanced down at the kanji "This one translates to sacrifice."

"That's not ominous in the slightest."

"Spare me the sarcasm."

"You have your ways of dealing with stress, I have mine."

"Fair enough. Take notice of the pedestals." the two of them split up to check out the pedestals that sat on opposite sides of the room "These are more than likely the mechanisms needed to activate the test."

"This one is left handed."

"So is this one, and given how far apart they are, it's likely that two people are needed in order to activate it."

"There is another concern to think about. Take a look up there." Tatsu gestured to something that drew a lot of attention from everyone present, specifically of an enormous dragon statue carved into the far wall of the temple "If I had to guess, then I think we just found the guardian of the fifth set of Fangs."

"Apparently so, and we have the Chinese to thank for that."

"In what way exactly?"

"This was a gift from what would come to be known as the Chines, their attempt at creating a homage, a tribute to Ryuhogo himself, in his true form as a dragon demon."

"Uh huh." Tatsu's expression hardened, then dulled 'Okay, it's official. Throwing away and hiding the Fangs to keep them out of enemy hands seems like a good idea in principle, but in reality, not one of my better choices. On one hand, if I help this guy activate the test then it's gonna come to life and eat me, this Shin guy and probably the others. On the other hand, it's not really an option to not activate it. He's got Arashi and Raidou in a figurative chokehold, at least four dozen Yakuza soldiers, and his own set of Fangs. As much as I hate it, I don't think I have a choice in the matter.'

"Holy hell, take a look at that." Arashi looked up in awe at the sight of the dragon statue lining the back wall, and then he glanced back to see the various Yakuza soldiers starting to tremble and back away in fear, and so he seized a chance "Yeah that's one hell of a big one, though it's not really anything worth writing home about, at least in comparison to getting possessed by a big fire monster. Still though, if I were you guys then there isn't a chance in hell I'd let them go through with activating the test, because with every test there's a guardian like the fire monster that possessed me. Seriously though, I've seen all of them. Haunted statues with numbers bigger than the Walking Dead, giant robots like something out of Transformers or Power Rangers, then the fire monster I mentioned before, if there's a reference there then I'll probably figure it out later, and now a giant fucking dragon?! Take it from a voice of experience guys, when that thing comes to life it's gonna go on a rampage like Attack on Titan, and then it's gonna eat every last one of you, again like Attack on Titan."

'Well it's kind of nice to know being in a life threatening situation doesn't change him in the slightest.' Raidou could only roll his eyes as he glanced over at the Yakuza soldiers that were giving him dirty looks "I tried to warn all of you what would happen if you took the muzzle off of him."

"Yeah well, I'm glad they didn't listen to you. In the meantime, you and I are gonna be off in the corner over there, while the rest of these idiots get eaten." and so Arashi grabbed Raidou and promptly dragged him away to a corner of the entryway.

"Even if the face of death, he never even flinches." Shin watched this little exchange take place from his place at one of the pedestols, and he let a small smile spread across his face 'Well Raidou, it seems that you chose your friends wisely, and I'm sure your mother would be pleased to see that.'

"You know if you're going to the trouble of blackmailing me with the lives of my friends, the least you can do is stay focused on the task at hand." Tatsu pointed out dryly.

"Here I thought that you would wish to prevent me from claiming all five Fangs."

"You're keeping my best friend at a metaphorical gun point, keeping him alive is the only thing I really care about right now. The bottom line is that you have your priorities, I have mine."

"Fair enough. On three, both of us shall place our hands on the mechanisms simultaneously and begin the test. One…"

"Two…"

"Three!" the two of them placed their hands on the pedestals, which prompted them to suddenly start glowing, though nothing seemed to happen "What is this?"

"Give it a second, they have a delayed reaction." Tatsu was answered in the form of the dragon statue suddenly beginning to move, its eyes glowing crimson as it broke off from its place on the wall and started moving, and then it disappeared into the chasm below "Um… okay, so I guess that happened."

"And it's about to get worse." Arashi jerked a thumb back to where the doorway to the temple was beginning to seal itself shut "Well boys, looks like it's dinner time, and guess what assholes are gonna be on the menu." and that was enough to prompt the dozens of Yakuza soldiers to take off running in fear for their lives, and he shot a glance at Raidou "You know what, they probably have the right idea."

"Self preservation is stronger in many than in others." Shin suddenly blitzed in front of the two of them and grabbed both of them by their collars.

"What the hell are you doing?"

"I'm well aware of what my nephew told you about me."

"And?"

"Believe about me what you will, but I am a man of my word and I intend to keep it, even if it means I have to sell my soul to the devil."

"Yeah here's the thing about that… You know my mom is a reporter right?"

"And?"

"And even though she's hardly ever even around, there's one important lesson I've learned from her over the years that sticks out… reporters and journalists never fail to seize an opportunity when it presents itself!" Arashi grabbed Shin by the hair with one hand and used his other hand to snatch the Fangs from around his neck, leaving everyone present jaw dropped, then dealt him a knee to the jaw that sent Shin stumbling back a fair distance, and Arashi tumbling to the ground a few feet away "Huh. you know I'll be honest, I didn't expect that to work."

"Don't waste time pondering it, give it to one of us!" Raidou barked at him.

"Yeah yeah, just give me a second." Arashi was about to rush over to Tatsu, only to stop when he noticed the dragon guardian rising up behind him "Oh… Oh shit."

"Don't just stand there you idiot, move!" Raidou tried to rush towards him, with Tatsu doing the same.

"Um… I don't suppose there's any chance I'll be able to outrun this thing?"

"None whatsoever." Shin suddenly leapt down and pushed Arashi out of the way as the dragon hurtled forward, leaving himself to be devoured in an instant.

"Did… Did he just sacrifice himself to save me?"

"No time for processing, just fucking move it already!" Tatsu grabed Arashi by the arm and pulled him out of the way of the next lunge by the guardian "I think it's after the Fangs, just throw them over here!

"But if I give you the Fangs then it will come after you too!"

"Yeah but the difference is I'll be able to shoot it in the mouth!"

"In the mouth… wait a second, that's it!" Arashi grinned, and then in a move truly worthy of facepalming, he threw the Fangs into the guardian's mouth, leaving them to be swallowed whole in an instant.

"...Arashi?" Raidou turned to face him, his face and tone deadly calm.

"Yeah?"

"WHAT IN THE FLYING EVERLASTING NAME OF FUCK DID YOU JUST DO?!"

"It wanted the Fangs, I figured it might leave us alone now." Arashi looked up to see the dragon guardian retreat up the walls of the temple and snarl at them "Or maybe not."

"If we survive this, expect me to bash your head into a concrete wall. A lot."

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Meanwhile, with the main heroine…

'Okay, that little pitstop is taken care of.' Kagome glanced down at the two swords she held in her free hand, then tucked them into her robe as much as she could and grabbed hold of a patch of fur on Kirara's back as they flew over the skies of Japan, eventually seeing nothing but the blue waters of the Pacific Ocean 'Good thing too, Tatsu almost never fights without his swords, and I'll make sure he doesn't have to today. I really do owe you one for this Kirara, I don't know what I would do in a situation like this without your help. I have to ask though, and I probably should've thought of this before we left… Do you know how to get to Mount Everest?" she was answered with a loud annoyed growl from Kirara "Hey cut me some slack, today has been really stressful!"

"Fortunately for all of us then, she does know the way, which is the good news."

Kagome glanced over to see the apparition of Ryuhogo flying next to her "Okay seriously, how do you keep doing that?"

"You live for as long as I have Miss Higurashi, and you tend to acquire a variety of abilities that are incredibly convenient for you, and incredibly irritating to others. Tatsu has proven himself to fall into both of these categories."

"I side with him, you kind of startled me. Anyway, you said that Kirara does know how to get me to Mount Everest?"

"Yes she does, and as I said, that is the good news."

"Which means there's bad news."

"Only as far as your journey is concerned. Even with Kirara taking you there as fast as she's able to fly, it will still take you at least 6 hours to reach the Himilayas."

"What?! You've gotta be kidding me!"

"Unfortunatley, I am not. Even as fast as Kirara is able to take you, the fact is that the journey itself is over 3,000 miles."

"But Tatsu and the others cold be dying for all I know, there has to be a faster way!"

"Well since you asked…" Ryuhogo's calm expression twisted into a grin "There is one way that you could decrease the time needed for the journey, and it just so happens you have it in your robes right there."

"What do you mean?" Kagome looked down, and then the realization dawned on her "You mean the Fangs? But I thought Tatsu and Raidou were the only ones who could wield them!"

"Not necessarily. I actually told Tatsu about this some time ago, after the incident with that Sage in Togenkyo. The power of the Fangs isn't awakened for a wielder by bloodlines or any specific physical traits, it's a matter of worthiness of character. When I first created the Fangs, I placed an enchantment on them, just in case anyone who was unworthy were to come to possess them."

'And the enchantment does what?'

"The strength one possesses inside, the strength of one's character, and the strength within one's heart. These are what is considered when deciding if one is worthy to wield the power of the Fangs. Beings like Tokajin and Kaguya had none of these qualities, and as such he was unworthy to wield such power. But getting back to the original topic, giving Kirara the power of the Fangs would allow you to cross the distance between here and the Himilayas within an hour."

"If only I had known that sooner. Now that I think about it, that thought goes through my head at least once a week now." Kagome let out a sigh as she reached into her robe and pulled out the necklace with the Fangs attached to it. She then placed them around Kirara's neck, and after a moment Kirara suddenly perked up and burst forward at a much greater speed, which got to the point where Kagome was struggling to hang onto her "Okay okay, this is good, it kind of hurts but we're definitely going a lot faster. And you said that this would get me there in an hour?"

"Even less actually, which works all the best for us."

"Yeah, there's no way I'm gonna stand by and do nothing while Tatsu and the others are risking their lives for these Fangs. I made a promise both to him and myself that I was going to stand by him in any way I could, and that's what I intend to do. And then once this is over… maybe I can tell him how I feel." Kagome gave a smile full of resolve and determination as they saw a white mountain range appear in the distance.

"As admirable as that is, it's not what I was referring to."

"What did you mean then?"

"I mean that Tatsu and his friends had been taken by the one known as Shin Asakura. Not only does he have the other half of the four Fangs that Tatsu carries, he also possesses a large group of highly trained soldiers that follow his every command."

"You're talking about the Yakuza right?"

"I believe that is the name of the organization, yes."

"Well in that case…" Kagome glanced down at Kirara, then tightened her grip on her bow as she grabbed an arrow with her free hand "I guess I'd better get ready for a fight."

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Meanwhile, outside the temple…

By this point, the remaining Yakuza soldiers had gathered at the landing sight outside the temple, and they were growing restless at the sight of the mountain shaking "What is going on?"

"The entire mountain has become unstable." one of the soldiers told the others "We have to leave now, or risk being buried alive!"

"But what about Master Shin? He's trapped inside with those children and that beast!"

"Master Shin is able to take care of himself, we can return for him after the dragon has devoured the boys and he has claimed the fifth Fang!" they prepared to board the helicopters, only to stop in their tracks when one of them was suddenly engulfed in a ball of flames "What the-?!"

As it turns out, Kagome floating above the temple on Kirara's back, a single arrow locked and loaded, and she glanced down at Kirara "Remember that we don't want to hurt them, we're not in this to be savages." she was met with a simple nod "Okay good." she gave a simple nod, and that prompted Kirara to start unleashing another barrage of flames aimed at the ground.

"Get us in the air, we have to leave now!" the Yakuza soldiers quickly boarded the last remaining helicopter and started to take off, only for this to fail as a large fireball shot through the rotors before it could get more than a few feet off the ground, though the last one was able to make it into the air and attempted to shoot Kagome and Kirara down.

Kagome cringed and attempted to brace herself, only to relax slightly when she saw a shield made of water appear in front of them "Oh, so that was your doing Kirara. I guess wearing the Fangs gave you all of their powers along with your own. Hang on, maybe I can take down their chopper without hurting them." she locked and loaded a single arrow, taking a deep breath and gritting her teeth as she did so 'Remember, stay calm and focus, and remember what it is you're fighting for!' and so she fired the arrow, hitting the rotors of the helicopter and blowing them clean off, sending it crashing to the ground, leaving the soldiers to take off running away in terror as fast as they could, but she fired another arrow at one of them and pinned him to the snowy surface of the side of the mountain, and then she got off Kirara, landed on the ground with a thud, and slowly walked toward him "Where are they?"

"You waste your time and efforts priestess." the Yakuza soldier gave a smirk hidden beneath the mask he wore "You are far too late to save them."

"If you really think that, then you clearly don't know anything about Tatsu. He's a fighter and a survivor, and whatever guardian is protecting the last Fang will never be enough to stop him when he puts his mind to something. Now Where. Are. They?" she gripped the hilt of her sword and drew it from its sheath for emphasis, which caused the soldier's confident facade to vanish.

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Meanwhile, inside the temple…

"Shit, get down!" Tatsu tackled Raidou to the ground just in time to avoid the dragon's claw about to slam down on them, and then the two of them took off running "I don't suppose you two have any suggestions right now?"

"Maybe not a suggestion, but I've got an observation for you." Arashi told him from his place hiding in the entryway to the temple"As in it's coming back, so run like hell!"

"I couldn't told you that!"

"Next time make an observation that's actually useful!" Raidou barked as he bolted into the entryway, only to glance back and see Tatsu lagging behind a little bit "Dammit Tatsu stop wasting time, move it!"

"What the hell do you think I'm doing?!" Tatsu leapt into entryway and hit the ground with a loud thud, just a split second before the dragon crashed into it, only to find that it couldn't fit, which prompted it to retreat "That was way too close, you guys okay?"

"There is absolutely nothing about this situation that could count as okay."

"Well we're not dead."

"...Okay one thing about it, but who knows how long it's gonna last at this rate."

"Which raises the question." Arashi helped Tatsu to his feet, then glanced in between the two of them "Does anyone have a plan to get us out of this?"

"You mean have we come up with one since you let the dragon eat the other set of Fangs? Not at the moment no."

"Hey, it seemed like a good idea at the time."

"I don't see you wracking your brain for some kind of backup plan!"

"It's kind of hard to come up with a plan when you're running for your life!"

"Will you two shut up and give it a rest?" Tatsu was quick to shut them up "We have to figure out how to pass this test if we wanna make it out alive. The kanji on the floor read sacrifice, maybe it wants some kind of offering, now stop and think." he was almost immediately met with the sight of the dragon ramming its face into the entryway multiple times in order to widen it enough to get through.

"I don't suppose any of us can come up with a solid survival plan and execute it within the next three minutes?" Arashi was met with no response "Tatsu?"

"...It's okay, it's gonna turn out okay Arashi. I promised you that before, and you know I don't go back on my word." Tatsu motioned for them to back up as the dragon made another lunge for them, though now they were backed up against the wall and its mouth was only a few inches away from them.

"We're not gonna make it out of this are we?"

"We are, don't say this. I'm gonna get us out of this, and I'll do it in the only way that I can given the situation." he prepared to bolt out of their hiding place, only to stop at the feeling of someone tugging on the back of his gi, which turned out to be none other than Raidou "Okay what the hell are you doing?"

"I'm doing the only thing I can do." Raidou shoved Tatsu aside and bolted out of their hiding place himself and tried to attract the attention of the dragon "You want a sacrifice, well you're about to get him."

"Raidou what the hell are you-"

"Shut up and stay back, I'm doing this so the two of you can get out away!" Raidou bolted over to the edge of the platform he was on, and he turned around to find the dragon staring him down with a hungry look in its eyes 'So this is it then… This is how my story comes to an end… Dying while trying to claim my destiny… At least, what I thought was my destiny… That was what you had always told me mother… I love you more than anything in the world, and I carry part of you with me always, but now… now I think you were wrong. Even with the power of the Fangs, I was nothing. I was alone. I had always been alone, ever since I lost you. I've spent my entire life up to this point training until my bones cracked and obsessing over the Fangs, and in the end what did it get me before now? It left me feeling nothing but broken and hollow. I had never even realized what it was before I had something I never even thought about… Before I had friends, and maybe a girlfriend in Ayumi. Shame I'm never gonna figure that out. But now with Tatsu, Ayumi and all of the others, for the first time since you died I felt happy, and for the first time in my entire life I felt… I felt content. I had friends, people that I could trust and count on, and in the end what did I do? I put them in jeopardy because of my own arrogance and pride. After this, I doubt they will ever trust me again. In all honesty, this is the only thing I could do to atone for my mistakes.' he glanced over at the others, and he gave a small smile as he prepared to brace himself for when the dragon would lunge at him, only to falter when he noticed the entire temple beginning to shake violently, and a single arrow landed in front of the dragon, unleashing a burst of energy that caused it to roar in agony, and then a beam of energy that sent it hurtling back and crashing into the wall of the temple "Um… what?"

"Looks like the cavalry has arrived." Tatsu made his way out of the hiding place, a calm smirk spreading across his face "I mean granted it's not the cavalry I was expecting, or anyone could've expected for that matter, but I'm not complaining."

"Sorry I took so long." this was when Kagome landed on the ground, got off Kirara's back, rushed towards Tatsu and pulled him into a hug "You'd never believe the day I've had."

"I spent the past few hours trying to avoid getting eaten by a giant stone dragon, I doubt it would be that much of a stretch. Also, how in the name of hell did Kirara get through the well?"

"I have no idea, but I'm not complaining. Thanks for the save."

"I swore I was gonna stand by you in any way I could." Kagome gave him her typical bright and warm smile as she handed him his necklace with the Fangs attached to it, as well as his two twin swords.

"I found your Fangs and your swords in my room, you put them under my bed knowing that I would find them."

"I had to think fast to keep the Yakuza guys from getting their hands on them, that was the first thing that popped into my head. I'm sure as hell glad you found it though." Tatsu breathed a sigh as he placed the Fangs around his neck and swords on his back, ripping off the coat he wore as he did so.

"Whatever the reason was, I'm glad you did it, and I'm glad I found them too. Keeping your swords and Fangs with me, I promised I was going to get them back to you. It might have been more for my own piece of mind, but I figured that if I made that promise to myself, then I know I'd be able to see you again."

"Kagome… Hey listen, when this whole thing is over and we finally get back home, and then we can finally get a minute to calm down, I have something I want to talk to you about. It's actually something I've been wanting to talk to you about for awhile."

"I think that pretty much goes both ways by this point. And let me tell you now Tatsu, no matter what happens here and now or in the future, this whole ride we've been on together, I would never want to change it for the world, not a single second of it."

"I feel the same way, and…" Tatsu was cut off by Kagome pressing her lips against his cheek, which prompted him to gently cup her cheek with one hand, and then the two of them closed their eyes as their lips finally connected. After a moment, their kiss broke apart, and he let out a chuckle "Wow, remind to almost get eaten by a giant dragon more often."

"I'd rather you didn't make a habit out of that." Kagome rolled her eyes as she quickly mounted herself on Kirara's back "Are you ready for this?"

"I've been ready for this for way longer than you know. Go ahead and get the others out of here, I can handle things from- Kags get down!" he pushed the two of them out of the way, only to get swatted back, though he managed to rebound and propel himself into the air with a single burst of flames, then landed on an earth platform he summoned "I'm okay!"

"Good, because this thing won't be in a second!" Kagome drew her sword and unleashed a burst of spiritual energy from the blade, sending it hurtling into the side of the dragon and causing it to howl in pain "Don't even think about trying to tell me to run, because I won't."

"I figured it was worth a shot. Sea God's Shield!" Tatsu glanced over to see the dragon unleash an energy blast from its mouth, and he summoned a water shield to defend himself, only for the dragon to unleash another one in Kagome's direction "Kagome!"

"I'm on it! Kirara take us up!" Kagome made the call, which prompted Kirara to fly up to avoid the blast, then hurtle forward towards the dragon, which allowed Kagome to land a strike of her sword on the dragon's face, cutting through one of its eyes and earning another pained howl as a result "If it's a fight you want dragon, then go ahead and fight us!"

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Meanwhile, with the powerless ones…

"This was… unexpected to say the least." Raidou looked on as Tatsu and Kagome teamed up on the dragon guardian, and then he glanced over to see Arashi standing next to him with a massive shit-eating grin plastered across his face "What the hell are you doing?"

"What do you think?" Arashi glanced over at him as his grin got even wider "You know what this look is about right?"

"I'm assuming you're about to tell me that you somehow got high while we were fighting for our lives."

"No not that. I left all my special brownies back in Japan. Tatsu and Kagome just kissed."

"Yeah, and?"

"Do you have any idea how excruciatingly long I had to wait to see that happen? Nine mother fucking years, I've spent nine fucking years waiting for these two to get together and now my dream is becoming a reality! Do you have any idea what that's like?"

"That depends, have you ever heard of asking a stupid question? Nevermind, this discussion can wait until we survive this. Right now let's let them handle this." he grabbed Arashi by the back of the shirt and dragged him out of the way of the battle.

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Meanwhile, with the battle itself…

'Come on, concentrate and hit the mark!' Kagome gritted her teeth as she tried to aim a Sacred Arrow, only for the continuous attacks from the dragon to force Kirara to go on the evasive, which made it hard to aim 'This isn't good, at this rate my attacks will never hit him, and I only have so many arrows with me, so I can't afford to waste them.'

"Blazing Spear Storm!" this was when Tatsu burst back into the air and unleashed a barrage of iron spears from his fingertips, which Kirara subsequently coated in flames with a blast of fire from her mouth, the combination attack slamming into the dragon and causing it to recoil and stagger back a short distance "You know for someone who claims to hate fighting, you've gotten pretty good at it over the past six months."

"That's only because I've had a good teacher, but thanks. The only question is, how exactly do we stop this thing for good?"

"The hell if I know, I thought you were here to save me."

"I saved you from being eaten, that doesn't mean I have all the answers!" the two of them looked up to see the dragon recover from the earlier attack, its eyes glowing red "I'm pretty sure that's not a good sign."

"No doubt about that, get behind me and don't move. Dragon BURST!" Tatsu quickly motioned for Kagome and Kirara to get behind him, and he unleashed an azure wave of demonic energy just in time to counter the blast of flames from the dragon, the explosion caused by the collision sending both of them staggering backwards a considerable distance.

"Tatsu!"

"I'm okay, just stay back!" gritting his teeth, Tatsu covered his body in iron dragon scales and used a fire blast to propel himself up to the dragon to stop its charge in mid air "Fine then ugly, if it's fire you want then it's fire you're gonna get! Fire Dragon ROAR!" he breathed out an enormous stream of flames, hitting the dragon directly in the snout and causing it to recoil while he was sent hurtling to the ground.

Fortunately, Kagome and Kirara were able to rush in to save him, and the former caught him and hoisted him onto Kirara's back "Are you okay?"

"More frustrated than hurt right now. This isn't getting us anywhere, right now we have to focus on getting Arashi and Raidou out of here."

"But how do we-" Kagome was cut off by the dragon ramming into them and sending the three of them sprawling to the ground, in the direction of Arashi and Raidou "Oh god no… Please no, anything but that…"

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Meanwhile, with the two in the line of fire…

"Um, dude?" Arashi glanced over at Raidou as he tried to pry the doors to the temple open "I think we've got bigger problems right now."

"Yeah I kind of figured that out." Raidou glanced back at the dragon as it eyed them both, and then backed up to charge at them "Looks like this is it."

"Be honest, we're gonna die now aren't we?"

"I can say with absolute honesty, even if my track record evidently isn't the best with that, at the very least, you will survive this."

"What the hell do you-"

"For what it's worth, I'm sorry." Raidou shoved Arashi out of the way before he had a chance to argue, giving a small smile as he did so 'Looks like I was right though… having friends isn't the worst thing in the world after all.' that was the last thought he had time to process before the dragon hurtled towards him, engulfing him and hurtling straight through the temple wall.

"Raidou!" it should without saying that Arashi was horrified by the sight of Raidou's sacrifice and apparent death "Oh god no… this isn't happening… this just isn't happening…"

"ARASHI!" this was when Tatsu came bursting forward at full speed, Kagome following behind him on Kirara's back "Arashi don't just stand there, run like hell!"

"R-Right." Arashi managed to snap out of his stupor enough to follow them out of the temple on foot, bolting out into the snowy surface of the mountain summit "What's it doing?"

"I don't know and I don't care, I'm not gonna let it eat anyone else! Get back, I'm blasting this thing to hell!" Tatsu motioned for them to get back as he got into the stance for the Dragon Cannon.

"Tatsu wait!" Kagome grabbed him by the arm to stop him "Don't fire it!"

"Why not?"

"Look at it." she gestured to where the dragon stood frozen in place "It just stopped, and I can't sense anything coming from it. What do you think is going on?"

"...Sacrifice." Tatsu exited his stance as the realization dawned on him.

"What's that?"

"The kanji on the floor, every temple so far has had one, and each one acted as a hint for passing the test. This one read sacrifice."

"So you're saying…"

"Raidou passed the test when he sacrificed himself to save Arashi."

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Meanwhile, with the supposedly deceased Guardian…

Raidou let out a groan as he hit the ground with a loud thud, his mind racing 'This is… Am I still alive? I don't get it, I was sure that when I pushed Arashi out of the way and the dragon came at me, I… Dammit, how did I not figure it out? Sacrifice, that was the theme of the test!' he glanced over to see a large blue crystal standing a few feet away from him, and he slowly walked towards it and found that it contained a yellow-colored Fang sitting inside of it "This is it… This is the last Fang…" he slowly reached in and grabbed it, but as he stared at it in his hand, a feeling of dread came over him "This is… There's only one Fang… Oh god, don't tell me…"

"You are correct child."

Raidou's gaze snapped to the side and he saw Shin sitting before him in a meditative stance, the Fangs hanging around his neck "You're still alive? I was hoping the dragon would've killed you earlier."

"You haven't been shy with your feelings towards me, but it matters little now." Shin slowly pulled himself to his feet as his body began to surge with demonic energy "For the destiny left by our ancestors has at last been fulfilled."

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Meanwhile, outside the dragon…

"Yeah, and now he's gone… because he saved me." Arashi sat down on the snowy ground and buried his face his hands in shame, with Kirara nuzzling up against him to comfort him "You were right about him Tatsu, you were right the whole time."

"About what exactly?" asked Tatsu, his tone grim.

"You never doubted him even from the start. You always had faith in him, you always trusted him without a second thought, and you never had any doubts. And me? I accused him of being related to a criminal mastermind and basically thought he was one himself, and I only ended up befriending him because you told me to. I gave him way more grief than he deserved, and now he's gone… because he saved me." Arashi gritted his teeth as he punched the snowy grounds beneath his feet "If I had the chance to do it over again, I'd trust him like you did."

"As much as I'd like to take the chance to enjoy that, there's no time for it."

"Yeah well it's not like we-" Arashi cut himself short, his gaze snapping forward as he saw a figure emerge from the mouth of the dragon "No fucking way… Raidou?"

Sure enough, Raidou came stumbling out of the mouth of the dragon, gripping something in one of his hands "Hey."

"Dude you're alive, we thought you were-"

"So did I, but we can talk about that later. Right now you guys need to get the hell out of here before he-" Raidou was cut off by the dragon guardian suddenly being blown to bits in the midst of a powerful explosion, and then he tackled Arashi and Kagome to the ground as another blast came hurtling out of the remains aimed at Tatsu, moving faster than any of them were able to react,only for Kirara to suddenly jump in the way of the attack and take the blast herself, the force sending her hurtling back and crashing to the ground, staining it red with her blood.

"KIRARA!" Kagome and the others could only look on in horror at the sight of Kirara being so greviously wounded, and she was quick to rush to her side.

"Dammit, I was too late."

"What the hell was that?" Tatsu looked between where Kagome was cradling Kirara's bloody form and the smoking crater standing before them 'I didn't even see that attack coming, it came at us in an instant, there was no time to react! What in the hell are we dealing with?'

"I take no joy in such actions." the smoke cleared to reveal Shin standing in the middle of the large crater, five Fangs hanging around his neck, his expression remorseful "I never intended for the demon feline to be injured. I simply intended to attack you to observe the increase in power I gained from the fifth Fang."

"You just shot down an innocent animal and you think a simple "I'm sorry" is gonna make it okay again?"

"I never said such a thing, because I know it will not."

"Smart man. Dammit, I can't even sense power but I can tell that he's an absolute monster compared to before.' Tatsu gritted his teeth furiously, sweat dripping down his face as a cold breeze swept through the air 'At this rate, I doubt I'll be able to do anything.'

"Don't be a hypocrite." this was when Raidou got his attention "You once told me that no matter how bad things get or how hopeless it seems, the most important thing is to stay calm. That's what you need to do right now."

"...Yeah, yeah you're right." Tatsu paused, taking a few breaths as he did so, and his body relaxed considerably "Thanks for that Raidou, I just need to stay calm and maybe I can figure out some kind of weakness of his."

"If it helps, I have something that can level the playing field." he held out his hand to Tatsu and displayed what he was holding "This is the last Fang, the Fang of the Thunder Lily. If the name is anything to go by, it grants the user manipulation and resistance to lightning and anything with electrical properties."

"I don't have time to meditate or train with it, but it'll have to do." Tatsu fastened the Fang to his necklace, and his body began to surge with demonic energy "Yeah this is the real deal, there's no doubt about it. Thanks for the gift, I really am grateful for you and the others helping me with this today, but leave this to me, I can take care of it now."

"As much as I want to say not a chance in hell, I don't think I really have a choice. Just promise me one thing."

"And that is?"

"Bring him down for good." and so Raidou rushed off to join the others, his mind racing as he did so 'I can feel it brushing against my skin, with five Fangs he's so much more powerful now than he was before, that it's hard to believe he's the same person. But as much as I hate this, the fact is that he's the only person who can stop Shin now.'

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Meanwhile, with the two Guardians…

'Thank you guys, for doing what you could to protect me today. But now it's time for me to do what I do best, and protect all of you.' Tatsu took a few breaths to calm himself, and then he turned his attention towards Shin as he drew his twin katanas "You know that I can't let you leave without a fight after what you just did."

"I never expected anything less." Shin drew his own katana and dropped into a stance "I can see it in your eyes, the spirit of the dragon lies within you as well. You are disciplined and have been well trained, but what you lack is vision. Do you know what my intentions are?"

"If what Raidou has told me is anything to go by, use the Fangs to make yourself look like some kind of conqueror."

"I don't intend to conquer, I intend to preserve. I want to lead the world into a brighter future, to guide it and help it strive for something greater than what it is now."

"So you claim. All I know right now is that one of my friends is lying in a bloody crater thanks to you, and I can't and won't let that go unanswered."

"I imagined as such. If it's a battle that you wish for then it's a battle you shall receive, but know that I don't intend to hold back."

"I'd be insulted if you did." and then the battle began as the two of them started rushing across the mountain and clashing with each other, Tatsu's twin swords against Shin's own katana. They broke off from his clash when Tatsu aimed one of his swords and thrusted it at Shin's side.

Shin stopped the sword from advancing using his own and leapt back onto the side of the mountain to gain some distance.

"Iron Spear Storm!" Tatsu covered himself in a set of iron dragon scales and fired a barrage of iron spears from his fingertips.

Shin blitzed across the cliffside and dodged every attack, and once he saw Tatsu blitz in front of him and bring down his blades, he leapt off the mountainside towards him, their swords clashing once again, only for his blade to begin to crack 'He's able to pierce through my draconic steel already, evidently he's more proficient than I had expected.'

"Iron GAUNTLET!" seeing Shin's sword beginning to crack, Tatsu spun around and detail him an iron-enhanced knife-hand attack that sent him hurtling along the cliffside.

Shin was quick to recover and dodged the next barrage of attacks from his twin swords, and as he coated his own body in metal he caught one of the blades and hurled it aside, taking Tatsu with it as a result "Coating your own body in metallic scales to act as defense and increase your physical power, an interesting and creative concept. I wonder…" he promptly coated his own body in metallic dragon scales, and his grin widened "Yes, this will do quite nicely." to that end, he blitzed over to Tatsu and dealt him a fierce kick to the jaw that sent him hurtling along the side of the mountain.

Tatsu was able to stop himself with a burst of flames and wiped the blood from his lip "You do realize you just stole one of my techniques, it took me a month to learn that one and you just did it in seconds."

"I spent half of a year trapped in a cell, and as such I had a great deal of time to meditate on each of the Fangs and their properties. It's a shame I haven't had time to meditate on this last Fang, but I suppose it will have to do. Even without meditating on this fifth Fang, having it present still amplifies the powers of the previous four as well. Observe. Howl of the Phoenix!" Shin cupped his hands on each side of his mouth and unleashed a large ball of orange-colored flames.

'Shit!' thinking fast, Tatsu used a burst of energy from his foot to propel himself to the side to avoid the fireball, though one of his legs ended up being scorched in the process, burning the scales off of that leg in the process, but he gritted his teeth and charged at Shin as he prepared another Iron Gauntlet.

Shin stopped the iron-enhaned attack with both hands, being pushed back a short distance as he did so "A frontal attack, a rather reckless move given your enemy."

"And that's why it always helps to have an ace in the hole. Ryuken!" Tatsu's body surged with an azure aura for a few seconds as he unleashed a rapid barrage of punches, one of them landing on Shin's jaw, giving Tatsu the chance to grab him by the arm and hurl him into the side of the mountain, and then he charged in for a follow up attack.

Shin suddenly blitzed out of view in a white flash via the Dragon Warp, and in a split second he blitzed behind Tatsu, and he stretched out one hand as his palm began surging with energy "From the power of the Fang of the Iron Heart, I intend to end this battle! Dragon BURST!" he stuck out his hand and unleashed an azure wave of demonic energy.

"Sea Dragon's ROAR!" Tatsu summoned a large water dragon to counter the Dragon Burst, the force of the collision resulting in a powerful explosion that sent both of them skidding away from each other, and Tatsu was sent hurtling up the side of the mountain, only stopping when he used a set of iron chains to latch onto the side of it 'This is insane, every move I have he can counter or copy it like it's nothing, and he's just as powerful as I am, not to mention years of experience and understanding of each of the Fangs and what they can do, and god only knows what he plans to do with them. I will say that for some kind of criminal mastermind, you're pretty impressive in a fight, so I have to respect that."

"And your mastery of the Fangs is remarkable for one at such a young age. You've mastered the power of four Fangs in such a short amount of time, but now your journey is at an end, for now you are about to witness the power of the Thunder Lily! Thunder Stream!" Shin slammed one hand into the ground and sent a current of electricity hurtling upwards towards him.

Tatsu quickly found himself forced on the evasive, leaping across the side of the mountain to avoid being electrocuted while using his chains to anchor himself, and once he found a solid area to find some footing he let go of the chains and slammed both hands into the ground "Terra Shield! Sea God's Shield!" he summoned a wall of earth in front of him, and then a shield made of water in front of the earth wall, which proved to be enough to disrupt the current and result in another powerful explosion.

'What will his next move be?'

"Fire Dragon IRON FIST!" Tatsu blitzed next to Shin via the Dragon Warp and managed to uppercut him with a fist coated in flames, the collision leaving Shin with burns across his jaw and sending him tumbling backwards.

Shin managed to stop himself by summoning a large earth platform beneath his feet, and he summoned some ice onto his face to cool the burns "Attempting to use the Dragon Warp to attack from my blindspot, an cunning maneuver."

"You still sound pretty confident in yourself."

"And rightly so. Don't get me wrong, your power is impressive and this is the greatest battle I've come to experience in many years, but the outcome is inevitable. I will defeat you and claim your set of Fangs for myself."

"You know I'm not gonna let that happen."

"I imagined it was inevitable, it always has been. Cryogenic Spear Brigade!" Shin waved both of his hands and summoned a large barrage of spears made of ice, sending them hurtling upwards at a rapid speed.

Tatsu didn't hesitate as he leapt out of the way of each spear, using a series of fire blasts to propel himself in various directions to avoid the oncoming ice spears until he found himself cornered on the side of the mountain with the spears hurtling towards him in all directions 'Can't go forward, can't go left or right, no chance of dodging it, I guess the only thing to do is try and block it. Iron Dragon Shield! Terra Shield!" he summoned another set of iron scales along his body and slammed his arms together to form a metal shield, and then he summoned an earth shield in front of that, which the ice spears broke through, but failed to penetrate the iron shield "Is that all you've got old man?"

"Far from it! Blade of Poseidon!" Shin burst through an opening in the ice spears with a large trident made of water hurtling above him, and he hurled it forward.

"Don't count me out yet either! Ryuken! Fire Dragon ROAR!" Tatsu's Ryuken aura burst back into life as he breathed out an enormous stream of flames, burtning through the trident in mere seconds and causing it to evaporate into a cloud of steam, in which he saw Shin charge through and attempt to land another attack, but he stopped it, resutling in the two of them entering a power struggle "You said something about leading the world to a brighter future. What exactly did you mean by that?"

"It's the purpose of the Fangs, and the purpose of the Guardian who wields them. The Fangs are meant to be used to make the world a better place. I know just how much it needs it."

"Go ahead and enlighten me."

"Listen well boy, because this is a lesson you would need to learn eventually. I've travelled all over this world in search of the Fangs, and seen more than a few atrocities in that time. I've come across war, sickness, death, slaughter and many other horrors. You cannot endure hells such as these without being changed by them, and what makes it worse is that you wish to help but you are unable to do anything, even with all of the power you possess. With the power of these Fangs I can change that, and I can ensure that the atrocities of the past never repeat themselves. With the power of these Fangs I can bring order to the chaos of this world."

"Not gonna happen, you can forget it." Tatsu gritted his teeth as he began pushing back in their power struggle "I told Raidou this before, and I'm telling you now. I'm all for using the power of these Fangs to help people, but in the case of being propositioned by some kind of madman that wants to use them to take over the world and see it as saving it, you can count me out."

"Then you lack vision. I will use their power to end hunger, close the hole in the Ozone layer, remove global warming, anything the world needs in order to thrive."

"And at the end of the day, then what?"

"At the end of the day in question, then I will finally be able to rest and watch as the sun rises on a grateful new world, one able to flourish and thrive under my guidance and leadership."

"Sounds like you've put a lot of thought into this."

"I have, and I know one important lesson you must take into consideration. If you wish to change the world, you have to be the kind of person who can make the difficult choices, because they are what require the strongest of wills."

'...Dear god, this man has a Thanos complex. If you're really dead set on conquering the world with the Fangs, then you know I'm gonna do everything in my power to stop you, just like I am already."

"Of course I know that, I've known that for years. From the moment I set things into motion, from the day you first claimed your Fang of the Iron Heart, this confrontation between you and I was inevitable."

"What the hell does that mean-" Tatsu froze and his grip on Shin loosened as the horrible realization dawned on him "You mean… the day of that car accident, when I lost my dad… You mean that was you?"

"Of course Kuroga gave you the Fang of the Iron Heart in order to protect you, such is the heart of the parent that lies within him."

Tatsu gave no response to this, he just lost his grip as his swords fell to the ground, while he was sent flying back by a surge of demonic energy.

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Meanwhile, on another part of the mountain…

"Oh shit." Arashi glanced over to see the explosion ringing in the distance "So on a scale of 1 to 10, how bad is that?"

"It depends on which side you're hoping to win." Raidou told him flatly "The two of them are completely evenly matched in just about every way, but Shin has years of experience that work in his favor."

"You say that like Tatsu's not gonna win. He's never let us down before, and he sure as hell isn't gonna let us down now. You should know that by now."

'I hope you're right about that, I really do.' Raidou breathed a sigh, then turned his gaze over to where Kagome sat off to the side, holding Kirara's form in her arms "How is she?"

"Well I… I have good news and bad news." Kagome wiped away her tears as she turned to face them "The good news is that the damage she took from that blast wasn't fatal. I was able to fix most of her injuries with my Healing Hand."

"I see. You said most of her injuries."

"Yeah, that's the bad news. She'll live for sure, but… that blast she got hit with did leave at last one lasting bit of damage." she held up Kirara's wounded form, revealing the blood-colored stump where one of her front legs used to be, causing both of them to cringe "I tried everything I could, but no amount of healing powers of mine can fix this. How am I gonna tell Sango about this?"

"I think we need to be less focused on that right now, and more focused on that." he pointed at the explosion ringing in the distance.

"Yeah, that's a fair point. Tatsu, you'd better not die on me or I'm never gonna forgive you. None of us will.'

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Meanwhile, on the other side of the mountain…

"I knew it was always going to end this way, but I take no joy in it." Shin breathed a sigh as he slowly walked toward Tatsu's burnt and bloody form lying in the snow, and he grabbed him by the front of the gi "My entire life has been leading up to this moment. Having one Fang in my possession was enough power to set me on this path I've walked, but with the power of all five Fangs in my possession, that journey has now reached its next stage. Now I have power that is unmatched by any force in this world, the next step in my journey is to lead the world into a glorious new age, and the only thing that stands between me and that… is you. I take no joy in this, but know that the world will survive. The people you love will survive and thrive, and so will the rest of the world, and take solace in that." he coated his free hand in metal dragon scales and let a fist fly forward to end it.

This was stopped when Tatsu suddenly caught the fist with one hand, his eyes blazing as his body was suddenly surrounded as he used his other hand to place his swords back in their sheaths "I would take comfort in that, but if there's one thing I've learned over the years that stuck with me, it's that the most important goal of a warrior in battle is to come home alive. In other words, you don't die for the people you care about. You live for them, and that's what I intend to do!" the blue energy surged with even greater potency, the force of which sending Shin skidding backwards "Body don't fail me now."

"What exactly are you planing to do?"

"The only thing I can do right now to get the edge over you, it might destroy my body but I still say it's better than dying." Tatsu gritted his teeth as his blue aura surged even higher, his body beginning to surge with electricity.

'Is that the power of the Thunder Lily? No it's different, that's bioelectricity. Just how much power is he trying to generate? But that blue aura he's generating… don't tell me…'

"Ryuken… times… THREE!" Tatsu let out a primal roar as his blue aura surged even higher, doing so with such intensity that it shattered the ground beneath him, and then he launched himself forward and slammed his fist into Shin's gut, sending him flying from the force of the impact.

"Your power has increased substantially no doubt, but don't think such a thing will be enough for you to defeat me! Dragon's SUN!" Shin rebounded on the side of the mountain and fired a large crimson ball of flames from both hands.

Tatsu calmly held out one hand and unleashed a powerful surge of energy that evaporated the flames in an instant "I think it's about time to take this to the final round, I'm more than ready for it. How about you?"

'Evidently what he's saying is far from a bluff, with this technique his power has increased to an entirely different level. I can see that you learned much from the creatore of these Fangs, there's no doubt that he sees something special in you."

"You know about that?"

"I have encountered the spirit of Ryuhogo myself during meditation, but only once. He told me that if I intended to take the path I am on now, then I must see it through to the end. It has been a long and hard one, filled with strife and anguish, but at last it's reached its end. I have the power to see my destiny through to the end, and now it's merely a matter of implementing-"

"Fire Dragon TALON!" Tatsu cut Shin off when he blitzed in front, his legs coated in flames, and slammed it into his face, sending him hurtling along the mountainside "I've had just about enough of megalomaniacal sociopaths and their goddamn monologues. Just come on and give me your best shot already, I'm sick of listening to your preaching. If you want me to grovel at your feet like you're some kind of messiah, you're gonna have to do it by force."

"I can't afford any more obstacles in my way boy, this battle ends now!" Shin bolted to his feet and immediately fired a Dragon Burst from one hand.

Tatsu used a fire blast to push himself out of the way of the Dragon Burst, leaving it to carve into the side of the mountain.

Shin blitzed in front of Tatsu and dealt him a solid kick to the face, sending him hurtling along the side of the mountain.

Tatsu circled around the top of the mountain at blinding speed until he met up with Shin again, the two of them trading barrages of even blows until Tatsu found an opening and dealt Shin a roundhouse kick to the face.

Shin recovered from the blow after a few seconds and countered Tatsu's attack by covering his body in iron scales instantaneously, kicking him in the chest to send him hurtling away, and then followed up with a burst of energy from one hand that carved into the mountainside.

Tatsu leapt over the burst of energy and charged at Shin, attempting to deal him a rapid barrage of punches and kicks, but this ended when he grabbed Shin by the hair and slammed him into the ground, pinning him and leaving him in a small crater "What's the matter? The power of the so-called savior of this world isn't looking so wondrous now!"

"You should be careful not to allow pretentious and arrogant tendencies to overcome you, or else they shall become your undoing!" Shin freed one of his hands just enough to slam his palm into the ground, unleashing a burst of molten energy that sent Tatsu flying, setting him free and melting the snow in the area surrounding them.

Tatsu was sent flying by the burst of molten energy, but he managed to recover just in time to counter Shin's next attack, their fists colliding in a powerful burst of demonic energy.

The clash came to an end when Shin broke off from it and buried his fist in Tatsu's get, then dealt him a sharp blow to the face that sent him tumbling to the ground in a scorched heap "You have fought with great valiance, but this battle was never going to end another way." he gripped the remnants of his katana and channeled some energy into it, creating an energy blade to replace the one that had been destroyed "This battle is one that I shal never forget." he moved in to finish it, only to stop when he noticed Tatsu's hand twitch "Are you-" he didn't get a chance to finish that sentence, mainly because he was coughing up too much blood.

As it turns out, Tatsu was up on one knee holding one of his katanas, one of his Fangs connected to the hilt of the sword, the blade surging with electricity, and he had stabbed Shin with it directly in the abdomen, leaving him stunned by the impact "Like I always say, if you can't win through power, then you have to win through creativity."

"Evidently…" Shin spat out some more blood as he gripped the blade piercing him, his gaze growing hard "This wound will not stop me, it will do little more than slow me down. I hold in my possession the greatest power this world has ever known, I may be slowed down but it will not prevent me from reaching my goals. I merely need to defeat you in the here and now, and then no one will be able to stand in my way. I simply do what needs to be done."

"That didn't stop you from blowing my dad's car to hell." Tatsu let out a snarl, his expression growing hard and his anger showing through "With both him and me inside of it."

"I take no joy in such actions… but I've come too far to turn back now. Everything I do is for the sake of turning this world into a new utopia, one where the atrocities committed in the past will never again be repeated."

"I wouldn't be too sure about that little pipedream of yours. You should know damn well that whenver a would be conquere or savior or whatever you call it shows up, there's always gonna be people who rebel against them. It's happened all throughout history."

"Of course I am aware of such things, but the dictators and tyrants of the past wished for little more than to gain power for themselves, but I fully intend to do what I must for the sake of the world and its people as a whole. I can bring about an end to all poverty, hunger, war, famine and all that ailes the people, and create a peace for the world that can never be sullied."

"And all they have to do in exchange for that is grovel at your feet like you're some kind of self righteous messiah."

"I don't intend to conquer the world, I intend to lead it into the bold and glorious new era of which I speak." Shin gripped the katana piercing him with both hands, unleashing another surge of demonic energy that shattered the blade, freeing him and forcing Tatsu to retreat "I have had to make many sacrifices to come as far as I have, and I am fully aware that I have much blood on my hands. I have also committed many sins, so many I doubt I could ever fully atone, but what I do is for the sake of ensuring that even greater sins committed throughout history may never be repeated. That is the true duty of the Guardian who wields the Fangs."

"You have an answer for everything don't you?"

"It's as I told you before, everything I do, irredemable as they might be, is for the good of this world and all who live in it. Ryuken!" Shin unleashed a burst of energy, his own body being engulfed in a blue aura "You are not the only one who has learned of the secret techniques of the Fangs. All I have to do is defeat you here and now, and the path to creating a new world free of strife will reveal itself!"

"Not as long as I'm still breathing!" Tatsu's third-level Ryuken aura surged higher, the two of them clashing once again, creating a powerful collision of

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Meanwhile, with the others…

'This is unbelievable…' Raidou and the others looked on in awe at the sight of the battle raging above them 'I know the legends said that the five Fangs being united would have the power to change the world, but the two of them are taking it to an entirely different level.'

"This is fucking insane…" Arashi was pretty much jaw-dropped at the sight "No wonder these things got so hyped up before."

"Saying that they were hyped is a gross distortion of things, but you do have a point. Tatsu is so much more powerful now than he was before, that it's almost hard to believe that he's still the same person."

"You think he's gonna be able to beat this guy soon?"

"I figured you would have some more faith in your best friend. Tatsu is going to defeat him, so stop asking questions like that. Yeah right, like I have room to judge. I've never actually seen anyone manage to defeat Shin in a fight, with or without the Fangs, and Tatsu is obviously pushing himself way past his limits. There's no telling how much longer he's gonna be able to keep this up.'

"No I get that, of course he's gonna win. It's like I told you before, he's never let us down before and he's not gonna start now. The only problem is, we're fucking freezing up here waiting for him to finish it. Seriously, how have we not frozen before now?"

"You can thank these for that." he gestured to the coats they wore "If it wasn't for these we might actually be dead right now, and the fire cat being here probably doesn't hurt either."

"Her name is Kirara for the record." Kagome pulled herself back to her feet, Kirara still lying unconscious in her arms as she handed her to Raidou "And I hate to ask, but would you mind holding onto her?"

"As long as she doesn't to claw my face off, not that I don't deserve it right now, but what are you gonna be doing?"

"The only thing I can. Tatsu is out there fighting for his life, not just to survive, but to protect all of us, and here we are stuck on the sidelines."

"I don't have my set of Fangs with me, and Arashi doesn't have any sort of powers."

"Maybe you two have reasons for not being able to fight, but I have my spiritual powers, not to mention my sword and bow, so what's my excuse? I don't have an excuse. I made a promise both to Tatsu and myself that I would stand by him, and that's not going to change. Whatever happens here and now or in the future, I'm not going to turn my back on him or run away. I'm going to go up there, and I'm gonna do whatever I can."

"As much as I hate to say it, you're right." Arashi took a few steps forward and reached into the coat he was wearing, revealing a grappling hook "The two of us can't do anything to help directly, but at the very least I can help you get up there."

"Thanks Arashi, now both of you stay here. Tatsu and I are gonna win and be back to get you guys before you know it." and so with a deep breath, holding her sword and bow in the same hand, Kagome used the grappling hook to start her way up the mountain.

"Don't you fucking dare die on me Kags, or else I'm never letting you live it down."

"Her involvement could actually be a huge advantage in this fight." Raidou poined out.

"How do you figure?"

"Keep in mind that the Fangs are demonic in origin, and Kagome has spiritual powers, a massive amount of spiritual powers for that matter-"

"Which are basically Kryptonite to anything involving demonic energy."

"I'm assuming that's an anime reference-"

"Comic book reference."

"-and I'm just gonna assume that you're right about that, which means that if she and Tatsu can combine their powers, Shin doesn't stand a chance. By the way, where exactly were you keeping that grappling hook this whole time?"

"If you knew the answer to that, you wouldn't want to be within 5 feet of it."

"...You unsettle me in more than a few ways."

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Meanwhile, with the battle of Guardians…

"What happened to all that talk about saving the world from itself?!" Tatsu's Ryuken aura surged even higher as he continued his assault against Shin "I thought you wanted to lead the world into a glorious new age, but you can't even keep up with a pissed off 15 year old!"

"I will save this world from itself, I've come too far to turn back now!" Shin's azure Ryuken aura surged even higher as he attempted to launch a counterattak, only to be met with a Sea Dragon's Roar aimed at his face that sent him tumbling backwards, leaving him to crash to the ground in a bloody heap.

"Enough is enough Shin, you're never gonna hurt my family again! I'm ending this fight right here and right now!" Tatsu pulled himself back to his feet and quickly dropped into a stance, his aura surging as he cupped his hands in front of him "Iron Heart… Divine Quake… Great Glacier… Lotus Flame… Thunder Lily…"

"I can't afford to lose this battle, not after having come so far!" Shin's own Ryuken aura surged as he charged forward in a rage.

When these forces of power unite, the true might of the Fangs of Ryuhogo shall at least be unleashed! Dragon CANNON!" Tatsu let out a primal roar as he unleashed a Ryuken-enhanced Dragon Cannon, the golden-colored energy wave hurtling forward and engulfing Shin in the powerful explosion that followed.

It was only seconds later that Shin stumbled out of a sizeable crater, covered in burns and blood pouring from his wounds, his iron dragon scales having been blown away by the blast, his teeth grinding furiously from the pain "I won't… I can't let it… end like this…"

"You don't have a choice, this ends now you bastard!" Tatsu used the Dragon Warp to blitz in front of Shin and attempted to him with a fully-powered Sea Dragon's Roar, only for the attack to evaporate almost as quickly as it had appeared, and his Ryuken aura vanished as his muscles began convulging 'Dammit this is bad, so much for working through the pain. I guess my body wasn't able to keep up the third level of the Ryuken any longer, and now… Oh good fucking god it hurts! I don't think I have much more in me, if this drags out for too much longer then I'll be as good as dead!'

"You have fought valiantly, but this outcome was inevitable. Thunder SURGE!" Shin was quick to brace himself as he grabbed Tatsu by the face with one hand, and with the other hand he unleashed a powerful surge of electricity, causing Tatsu to cough up a considerable amount of blood as he was sent tumbling backwards in a heap "You needn't worry about your companions and loved ones, I give you my word that they shall not be harmed, so long as they do not stand in my way. You have fought this battle with honor, and as such you shall die with honor." he raised his katana with the energy blade and brought it down, or tried to at least.

As it turns out, Kagome was the one who stopped his advance using her own sword, the blade surging with spiritual energy "I doubt any of the others will object when I say that you've already done more than enough to hurt him, and there's no way I'm letting you take one more step near him."

"Oh yes, the priestess-in-training of the Higurashi shrine. I'll likely be punished for daring to raise a sword to a being of such purity and status, but I cannot affort to let anyone else stand in my way." Shin gritted his teeth as he unleashed another Dragon Burst.

Kagome used a burst of energy from her sword to purify the Dragon Burst, then retreated a short distance away and fired a Sacred Arrow at him.

Despite being badly injured and weakened, Shin was able to maneuver his way around the Sacred Arrow and the energy it was emitting, and he attempted to cut her down with his own sword.

Kagome weaved her way around Shin's sword and used it to deal him a series of slashes across his chest and torso, drawing blood from the wounds and leaving significant burns across his chest from the spiritual energy her blade was emittin,g ripping his kimono to shreds, revealing the large scars that covered his torso, leaving horrified by the sight "What have you been doing to yourself?"

"These wounds…" Shin took a moment recover from her attacks and spat out some blood "They are… a small price to pay… For bringing a new era to the world…" he blitzed forward and quickly dealt Kagome a roundhouse kick that sent her staggering backwards, and then he charged forward with his next attack.

"Sea God's Shield!" a water shield suddenly appeared in front of Kagome to block Shin's next attack, courtesy of Tatsu as he rushed forward at a moderate pace "Trying to kill me is one thing, I'm a lot more used to it by now than I should be, but raising a sword against her is pretty much the same as signing your own death warrant, at least in my eyes."

"Perhaps, but I cannot afford to die by your hands, not today at least. I've come too far and made too many sacrifices now, and even if I must fight alone, I will succeed where my ancestors have failed and use the power of these Fangs to bring about a brighter future!"

"And that right there is your problem." Kagome shot another arrow through the water shield and hit Shin square in the chest with it, the surge of spiritual energy sending him hurtling backwards with even greater burns across his body "A very wise person that I deeply care about and admire once told me that when a person has something they want to protect, they can tap into a level of power they knew even knew existed. None of us can be truly strong on our own, but when we combine our powers and spirits and fight as one, that's when we become truly strong, and that's something you don't understand! Believing in each other, helping each other to grow stronger in body and mind, that's what helps us grow as warriors, fighters or whatever you want to call it, but overall it helps us grow as people!" she charged at him with her sword draw, the blade emitting an even greater amount of spiritual power, her blade clashing against Shin's energy katana once more.

"She's right, she's right about all of it." Tatsu gritted his teeth as he drew his remaining katana from its sheath on his back and charged into the fray himself, launching a barrage of slashes right by Kagome's side "She said it herself, when we pool our powers together we can do anything, especially when we have something we want to protect with all the strength we have! Besides, even aside from that you act as if you can just solve all of the world's problems in the blink of an eye if you have the Fangs with you, but you can't."

"That's where you're wrong, with the power of the Fangs I can do anything!" Shin let out a roar and unleashed another Dragon Burst.

"Kagome!"

"On it!" Kagome used her Seishin Rozu to cut through the Dragon Burst, which allowed both her and Tatsu to go back on the offensive "Let's go!"

"Right!" and so Tatsu led the charge with Kagome following right behind him, unleashing yet another barrage of slashes from his sword "This it it Shin, this ends here and now!"

"On that we can agree." Shin stopped Tatsu's sword with his own and unleashed a quick burst of demonic energy to send him hurtling backwards, though he was left coughing up a large amount of blood as a result "No… I've come so far… I can't fail now!" he prepared to charge forward to finish Tatsu with one final attack.

Fortunately, Kagome was able to bar his way with her own sword "I'm not letting you anywhere near him, I swore that I would protect him and that's what I'm gonna do!" she batted the katana out of Shin's hand with a burst of spiritual power, and with a mighty scream she gave one final stroke of her sword, slashing Shin up the torso and unleashing a blinding burst of spiritual energy that sent both of them flying backwards. Kagome opened her eyes after a moment, and she cast a quick glance over to see Tatsu lying next to her "Hey."

"Hey." he spat out some blood to the side and gave her a small smile "You okay?"

"Yeah I think so, but what about you?"

"That depends, you want the absolute honest answer?"

"Yeah."

"It hurts like hell." he let out a pained groan, which cause her to sight.

"Just give me a minute." she got up onto her knees and formed a series of hand seals "Rin. Pyo. Toh. Sha. Kai. Jin. Retsu. Zai. Zen." she placed her hands down on his shoulders as her hands began glowing with healing energy.

After about a moment passed, Tatsu pulled himself back to his feet, then helped Kagome onto her feet, and started doing a little bit of stretching "I usually enjoy fighting my own battles, but thanks for the save. If you hadn't shown up when you did, there's a pretty fair chance I wouldn't be here right now."

"I said that I was gonna stand by you and protect you like you've always protected me, and if you never go back on your word then why should I?"

"Fair point I guess." the two of them locked eyes, both of them blushing slightly, before he then brought up another topic "Okay I think we've got some stuff to talk about, but first we've got one more thing to deal with." and so he slowly made his way forward, Kagome following after him.

As the smoke cleared, Shin was revealed to be lying on his back in a crater, the remains of his sword by his side, a bloody stump where his left arm used to be, and he slowly lifted his gaze as much as he could to lock eyes with them "Utilizing the demonic power of the Fangs to such a degree… and combining it with spiritual power… It truly is miraculous…"

"It's what happens when you choose to surround yourself with good people. I have my dad to thank for teaching me that, before I lost him."

"You mean before I killed him."

"You said it, not me." Tatsu gripped his katana as he took a few steps forward.

"Tatsu wait." Kagome gently gripped his hand to stop him "What are you talking about?"

"He said it right to my faceduring earlier in the fight. That car accident that killed my dad when I was 6? Turns out he was the one that caused it." this left Kagome slightly pale "Yeah I know, it left me in kind of a stupor too."

"So then he… You don't have to…"

"I know, but let me say this okay?" Tatsu tightened the grip on his katana as he took another step forward, eyeing Shin intensely, his expression unreadable "I'm sure you know exactly what I'm thinking right now, given the fact that you took my father from me, forever. You took the most important person in the world from me, I lost him for no reason at all other than your own greed, self-righteous arrogance and lust for power. Any normal person wouldn't hesitate in jumping at the chance to get revenge. Here I have you now, helpless and cornered like a rat, and there really is only one thing stopping me, but it wouldn't be enough. I could run you through with my sword in an instant… but I won't."

"What?" Shin lifted his head slightly to look him in the eye "You would let me live, knowing of my actions?"

"I would. I could kill you for killing my dad, but I know that it's not going to do anything to change what happened. What's worse, if I did then I'd be no different from you for taking him from me. My father always said that we can choose the kind of people we want to me. I made the choice to walk away, to be better, to be someone that my father could be proud of. These Fangs I wear around my neck don't define who I am, and neither do you or anyone really. I get to make the choice for myself, in the hear and now. I can be like you, or like my father. I can be a savior, or a protector." he placed his sword back in its sheath "I don't know about you, but I think the choice is pretty obvious."

Seeing that, Kagome breathed a sigh of relief as she sheathed her sword "That's a relief, sorry I doubted you for a second."

"Better for you to be prepared for the worst and for it to not happen than for it to happen and you be totally unprepared."

"I guess so. For what it's worth, I think your dad would be really proud if he could see the way you've turned out."

"That means a lot coming from you. Anyway let's go, we've gotta grab Arashi and Raidou and get the hell out of here before we freeze to death." he put an arm around her waist and was about to flash away from the scene, only to stop when something caught his attention.

As it turns out, that something was Shin picking himself up, using what little energy he had left to cauterize the wound on his arm "You show honor in battle… but in the end you choose to follow the path compassion over the path of honor… I can imagine your father would certainly approve… if he were able to see… what transpired here today…"

"Watch what you say about my father, you're talking as if he's still alive when you know damn well you're the one that killed him." Tatsu's voice was hard and he didn't bother turning around to face him.

"I never claimed that I killed him." Shin spat out some blood "Because I didn't."

"...What?" Tatsu slowly turned around to face Shin, his expression unreadable and his bangs covering his eyes.

"I did cause the accident that day yes, but I never spilt his blood. I took him with me so that I could acquire the information he had about the Fangs of Ryuhogo."

"So then, you mean he's…"

"Alive yes, your father still draws breath. That information is my gift to you, for your victory this day. I know that he would be proud of you if he could see you today." Shin looked down the side of the mountain where Raidou stood, glaring up at him with hatred in his eyes, and Shin's own face fell 'Perhaps the day will come soon when I can atone for my sins, and beg for forgiveness.' and with that final thought passing through his mind, he was engulfed in a white flash and vanished from the scene.

'He's… alive? All this time I thought…'

"Tatsu?" Kagome gently gripped his arm.

"...Come on, let's go." his voice was soft and void of any emotion "Let's get the others and go home."

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Morning came, and the sun was rising on another day.

"I'LL WRECK YOUR ENTIRE FUCKING WORLD!" Arashi bolted upright, only to look around and find himself in a familiar room "Uh… okay, the lack of imminent danger is a good thing but kind of confusing."

"Maybe for you, but it's a relief for the rest of us." this was when Moya made her way into the room with a tray in hand "You've been asleep for at least 10 hours."

"So then, Tatsu got us home- ACHOO!" he let out a loud sneeze, and then several more that followed.

"That's what I'm assuming happened. Apparently you passed out at some point before you all got here, and you were running a fever, but it seems to have broken now, at least if the screaming was anything to go by." she gently placed a hand to his forehead "Yep you're good on that front, but you still caught a nasty cold so I figured I'd let you rest and eat before I started asking for an explanation of what happened to all of you."

"What about the others, are they-"

"They're fine, all of them are, at least physically. Kagome gave me her version of the story, but I could tell there were a few things she didn't know all the details of, and Tatsu and Raidou… I could tell that both of them just wanted to be left alone for awhile."

"That… sounds about right." Arashi let out a sigh as he laid back down on the bed "And what about Kazuma, how did he take the news?"

"He was pretty much the same way, wanted to take some time to think to himself. So I have to ask, what do all of you plan to do now?"

"Hard to say. If what Shin said is true and Mr Kuroga really is still alive, then I guess the only thing to do is get him back."

"And how do you plan to do that?"

"The only way we really can. By finding Shin."

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Meanwhile, with the Guardian in question…

'How did it come to this?' with a white flash, Shin materialized inside the fifth temple via the Dragon Warp, a set of bandages now covering the bloody stump connected to his left shoulder, his mind drifting as he gazed up at the dragon statue 'Mother, father… sister… I thought that this was my destiny, but look at me now… Even with the power of all five Fangs, I have nothing but countless sins and atrocities to show for it.' gritting his teeth, he grabbed the Fangs hanging around his neck and threw the necklace aside, and that's when it happened.

The Fangs removed themselves from the thread of the necklace and floated high into the air, a light shining around them as a hologram of the Earth materialized from them, five more figures appearing along with the hologram in question.

'What is this… What does…' Shin studied the hologram in silence for a moment, until the realization dawned on him 'There were ten Fangs? The original Guardians had ten sets of Fangs instead of five. That means that there are five more out there… and their power will soon belong to me.'

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Meanwhile, with the now former Guardian…

At the same time, Raidou sat at a certain spot overlooking the city, his mind drifting to certain recent events 'How did things turn out like this?'

"Raidou?"

Raidou glanced over to see Ayumi making her way towards him "Oh it's just you."

"I thought you might be up here, you did say yourself that this is one of your favorite spots in the city after all, that you like to come here so you can clear your head. I saw Kagome and the others earlier, I'm glad they're okay, and you too of course."

"Someone has to be."

Ayumi frowned slightly when she heard this "What do you mean?"

"You know exactly what I mean. This entire mess was because of me."

"They don't see it that, none of us do."

"Well I do, and look at what it got me. The Yakuza has pretty much cast me out, I wouldn't even be surprised if they came to kill me for deceiving them, and I lost my Fangs too. I can't be the Guardian without the Fangs. Without those Fangs… I've lost everything."

"I wouldn't say that." Ayumi reached into the pocket of the jacket she wore and pulled something out that caught Raidou's attention "These are Tatsu's set of Fangs, he left them with Kagome a while ago and I asked her if I could borrow them. If you and Tatsu tried to split them between the two of you-"

"It's not even just that." he gritted his teeth and covered his face with one hand "Whether I have the power of the Fangs or not, there's still them to consider. After this, there's no chance they'd ever trust me again."

"Do you really believe that? They're not savages or monsters or anything of that sort. I told you that none of them blame you, this doesn't change anything about how they see you."

"Maybe not you or Tatsu, but I can feel it. Maybe it's for the best if I just leave and don't come back, not like I have any more value to them anyway. It's not like I have anything going for me now anyway-" he was cut off by a stinging pain hurtling across his face that stopped him in the middle of his sentence.

As it turns out, Ayumi had slapped him across the face, a mix of hurt and anger evident in her eyes "Do you truly believe that nonsense? Do you really think that we would be better off if you died, that the things you've done for us have no value? Did you forget that you saved Kagome's life, and those of the others, on at least two occasions? Did you forget about that, or did you just not care?"

"Ayumi…"

"I ignored how my father feels about you, considering he gives his death glare to just about everyone he comes across, because I knew that you were a good person. I had hoped that you would be able to see a life for yourself beyond what you thought was your destiny, even if I had to make you see it for yourself. You are more than your destiny Raidou, I know because I've seen the real you. You're kind and you're gentle, and you care about people. I won't give up on you, and neither will the others, so why should you give up on yourself?"

Raidou said nothing, he just gritted his teeth and clenched his fists as he thought back to the moments that she was referring to:

Exhibit A:

"Well that was interesting if nothing else, so I take it this is what you wanted?"

"Thanks to you, I really owe you one for helping us out back there, and I'm really sorry you ended up getting pulled into this."

"Yeah, I'm not even gonna bother asking what that was all about. You've got your skeletons in the closet and I've got mine, so we'll leave it at that. We're not normal teenagers and I don't think we want to be, so we should stick together right?"

"Very true."

Exhibit B:

"Look man, Tatsu is my best friend, he has been since we were four. My dad died in a fire when I was about 8, and my mom is way too focused on being a reporter and the like so she isn't around that often. Ever since then I've found myself clinging to Tatsu and his family like glue, and along the way they somewhat became my second family, and I never want anything to happen to hurt any of them, especially him, so it leads to me kind of getting overprotective. I don't want to risk losing him as a friend either, and I know how he's getting close to you and how much he trusts you, so I was just hoping that maybe we could put everything behind us and maybe try being friends ourselves. Even if it means we end up flunking history."

Exhibit C:

"It's okay. I know you have your secrets, and I know you don't have that much experience with opening up to people. But that doesn't matter, because right now I know all I need to know about you. I know that you're a good person, you're kind and you're gentle, and you want to help people. That's enough for me."

"Huh. You're… taking this surprisingly well."

"I try to see things from the perspective of others whenever I can. But even so, if you wouldn't mind spending some more time together?"

"...To be completely honest with you, I don't think I would mind that."

Exhibit D:

"Just tell me something… you knew who I really was this whole time, you knew that I was lying to you, and you still trusted me so easily? Why?"

"It's really not that hard to understand. The first time we met you agreed to help me with a task left behind by my dead father, you went out of your way to save me and Kagome during that whole incident with the demon mask the very same day you met us, you went with us to the temple and protected Arashi from those demon statues-"

"I may have knocked him out to keep him from seeing that I had a set of Fangs myself."

"But you still protected him either way, so I'm willing to overlook that. You went out of your way to protect Arashi during that whole mess with the Yakuza, which I'm fairly sure ended with you bringing down an entire criminal organization so I'm not gonna ask about the details of that right now. Moving on from that, you protected the city from being buried in a blizzard during that incident beforehand. You protected Ayumi from those lizard creatures despite wanting to keep your secret, and just today you helped Kagome save all of humanity from being wiped out."

"And got hung up on in what was likely the most stressful moment of my life."

"Not gonna let that one go are you? Anyway to answer your question, it's really not that hard to understand. Even if you kept that secret from us, and maybe a few others, you gave me plenty of reasons to trust you, and never a reason not to."

Exhibit E:

"You probably wanna know why I kept him in a cell like that don't you? To this day, I'm not entirely sure why I didn't just turn him over to the police, shut down his branch of the Yakuza altogether, and maybe a few of the others along with it. Maybe it was out of grief. Maybe it was because I had something to prove to him. Maybe I just wanted to see the look on his face when I found the other Fangs and used them to change the world without him. Or maybe… maybe I was afraid of what would happen if I got rid of him."

"What do you mean?"

"I hate him with every fiber of my being, but even so… After I lost my mother, he was my only living blood relative, he was all that I had, and now… I lost everything. I lost the Fangs, I lost anyone that cared about me. I'm all alone now."

"...No you're not. You're only as alone as you let yourself be, and as others let you be. You're not alone at all Raidou, because you still have your friends in us. Me and Arashi, my brother and Akira, Moya and Ayumi. All of us are your friends, because that's what friends are, people that will never turn their backs on you even when you screw up. That's what friends are for. Whatever happens, we're not gonna just up and abandon you."

"Are… Are you serious?"

"You know damn well I don't joke about this stuff. You're my friend, you're our friend, and that's never going to change. Assuming we all survive this."

As these memories flashed through his mind, Raidou looked back up at Ayumi, and tears started streaming down his face "I… I'm sorry… I just…"

"I know." Ayumi pulled him into a gentle hug "Remember, we can choose the kind of people that we want to be. You can make the choice to be something more than what you were told was your density."

Raidou continued to cry it out for a few more minutes, before he freed himself of the embrace and gently took the Fangs from her "It's not like I have much choice anyway, my set of Fangs are gone. These don't belong to me. All this time I thought that these Fangs were my destiny, mainly because my mother told me that they were, but she's wrong. Even with the power of all five Fangs literally in the palm of my hand, and it hasn't changed a thing. And in all honesty… they don't even seem that important anymore."

"Are you sure?"

"Very rarely am I ever this sure." so he simply threw the Fangs aside, and that was when it happened, as in the Fangs removed themselves from the thread of the necklace and floated high into the air, a light shining around them as a hologram of the Earth materialized from them, five more figures appearing along with the hologram in question "This is…"

"What is it?"

"There were… There were ten sets of Fangs. The original Guardians had ten sets of Fangs, making it 20 in total. That means that there are five more sets of Fangs out there, five more temples and five more tests." he glanced over at Ayumi "I guess this means I have a lot more of a reason to stick around, in addition to some of the others."

"Well whatever happens, just know that you're not alone, and as long as you stay with us, you will never have to be alone again."

"I'll be sure to remember that." the two of them slowly turned towards each other, and within a matter of moments their eyes closed, and their lips touched.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Meanwhile, with the current Guardian…

'I could never have imagined such a thing.' with a single flame in one hand, Shin slowly made his way down a long set of stairs, his mind drifting with every step he took 'Ryuhogo could not have made such a mistake, so he must have intentionally concealed such a fact. He must have done so to keep anyone foolish or unworthy from finding them.' he stopped when he came across a doorway at the bottom of the stairway, and he opened it and made his way inside, revealing a large and dark cell lit by only a few candles.

Inside the cell sat a lone figure clad in a simple robe, with shaggy brown hair and a pair of glasses framing his face, and he looked up from the book he was reading "What are you doing here?"

"I met the boy known as Tatsu, along with his friends." this caused the figure to freeze "I'm sure you would be interested to know, that he turned out to be a fine young man. You would be proud if you could see him in person, and if fortune smiles favorably upon us, then that day will come soon."

"That doesn't answer my question. What are you doing here?"

"I would seem that I was… misinformed in regards to some key details regarding the Fangs. In short, it would seem that I require your services once more… Kuroga."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Meanwhile, with the main protagonist…

Tatsu (now clad in regular attire consisting of a quarter zip and jeans) let out a sigh as he stared up at the Sacred Tree in front of him 'This does not help anywhere near as much as I had hoped it would.'

"Is the tree helping?"

Tatsu glanced over to see Kagome make her way out of the wellhouse "Not as much as I hoped it would. How are you holding up?"

"I think we've all been better, but I've definitely been worse. The only thing is that it's just now sinking in that I literally cut a guy's arm off, and the blood isn't coming out of my clothes."

"Yeah I've been there a few times myself, it takes some getting used to. So how did things go over there?"

"About as well as I expected, so bad. Sango broke down crying when I handed Kirara to her, and she wouldn't even look at me as I left. I didn't bother explaining any of what happened to the others just yet."

"Probably for the best, let things cool down a little bit before you do. Sango would probably be too upset to listen anyway, not that I can blame her."

"Me neither." Kagome came up alongside him and gently gripped his hand "Tell me though, are you okay?"

"I… I really don't know. I don't know what to think. What if Shin lied about my dad still being alive just to get me to let him go?"

"But what if he didn't? That's what you're thinking about right?" she gently tightened her hold on his hand "I can't say for certain what's going to come of what Shin said, but I can tell you for a fact that whatever happens, you won't have to face it alone."

"I know, and it's not over yet." he pulled out his phone from his pocket "I just got a pretty interesting text from Raidou a little while ago. To make a long story short, he discovered that there are actually 10 sets of Fangs, not 5."

"...What?!"

"Yeah I know, so that's a thing. Looks like our work isn't done yet" Tatsu breathed a sigh as he sat down on the bench near the tree, with Kagome sitting down next to him "So putting aside everything else, this means that there are five more sets of Fangs out there for you to find."

"That's how it's looking at least, but that means five more Fangs that make me even more powerful, and with Naraku still out there I think we're gonna need it."

"You're probably gonna get pretty busy."

"You say that like we aren't already."

"And I doubt you're gonna want me around for that, it's not like I can do much anyway."

"Oh come on, not that old swan song again. Kagome, in the past month alone, you've killed a dark priestess, ripped through dozens of demons, if not hundreds of them, saved the world from being annihilated by a series of volcanic eruptions, saved Rin from Kohaku and then stopped him from being killed by Sesshomaru, and today alone you saved our lives twice. Kagome, there are so many things in my life that I would never have been able to do without you. I don't know what's going to come next, and frankly I don't care. All I do know is that whatever it is, I want you to be there by my side, because… I love you Kagome. I really and truly love you."

"I wouldn't want to be anywhere else. Whatever happens now or in the future, I'm going to stay by your side, because… I love you too Tatsu, I love you with every fiber of my being."

"Kagome…" with their feelings finally out in the open, Tatsu pulled Kagome closer to him and gently wrapped his arms around her waist as she leaned into his chest, before their eyes closed, and at long last, their lips met in a gentle and loving kiss. This lasted for only a moment, before they broke away "Huh. If that's the kind of reward I should expect for facing off against and defeating a madman with a Thanos complex, then remind me to do that more often."

"Yeah no kidding, that was… breathtaking."

"That's one way to describe it. So what now then? You wanna go for a ride, see what the future has waiting for us?"

"The two of us together? I wouldn't have it any other way."

"Well okay then." Tatsu gave his signature grin as he hoisted Kagome up into his arms bridal style, and then he took off running 'I think it's safe to say that as far as today goes, absolutely nothing the way I thought it would, which is the understatement of the fucking century. But it isn't all bad I guess. I've got all five Fangs now, five more to track down at some point, I've got some truly amazing people looking out for me, and I finally told Kagome I love her, and she feels the same way, which is a huge bonus. In all honesty, it doesn't get much better than that.'

A/N:

I'm going to be honest with all of you. Out of all of the chapters I write out for this story, this is the one I'm looking forward to the most. This chapter not only marks the halfway point of this story, but it's also one hell of a mindblower. Many clashing plot points come to ahead, as a powerful enemy reveals himself to our heroes in the modern era, secrets are revealed, tears are shed, blood is shed, and it all ends with a series of heartfelt confessions, and a new relationship is sealed with a kiss, which symbolizes not just the start of the next half of their journey, but a new beginning for all of them as well.

Yeah that's right, Shin is the main bad guy for Tatsu and his group, at least as far as the Modern Era goes. He caused the car accident that supposedly killed Tatsu's father Kuroga, and later revealed that he just kidnapped him for the knowledge and information he has on the Fangs of Ryuhogo. Of course Tatsu and the others are unsure of whether or not this is true, but that's a plot point that's going to be solved later on. Though he ended up being defeated by the combined onslaught from Tatsu and Kagome, and he lost an arm in the process, he ended up getting away with Raidou's half of the Fangs of Ryuhogo. This won't be the last time our heroes have to cross paths with him either, but that's a story for another day.

I knew going into this story that when the time came to track down the fifth fang, I would have Tatsu, Arashi and Raidou be captured by Shin and the forces of his Yakuza faction, and Kagome would be the one to save them. The only problem was figuring out how I was going to go about it. Considering they were taken away by air to Mount Everest, I needed her to get help from a character that could fly. At first I thought about having Sesshomaru be the one to help her, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized that idea wouldn't work out very well. Then I realized that there was someone else that could help Kagome, someone that has a connection to Ryuhogo, at least in this fic: Kirara. Thanks to the connection she shares with Midoriko and Ryuhogo, I think she would be able to pass through the well. She was just never given a reason to. She does in this fic though, as she comes to Kagome's aid to help her save Tatsu and the others, but not without having to pay a price, as she loses a leg from Shin's attack. I feel bad about doing that to her, but every decision has consequences, whether they be good or bad.

On a more positive note, something good did come out of the hell our heroes had gone through today. After returning to Japan, Tatsu and Kagome have a very heartfelt conversation, in which they confess their feelings to each other, share their first kiss, and start a relationship. I knew from the start that I would have them become a couple much sooner than Inuyasha and Kagome did in canon, and I think this is the best time for them to do it.

On a related note, there's something I should confess to all of you. Now that I've finally gotten to this chapter (which is more or less the halfway point of the entire story), this story is going to be going on hiatus for the time being. Don't get me wrong, I still love doing this story and I haven't lost my drive or anything, it's just that now that I've gotten so far, after spending several months straight working on this story and barely glancing at my others, I want to take the time to work on my other stories.