It wouldn't be long.
Because Onigumo would not fail. He could not fail. Failure was not an option; not now, when the ley lines were charged and the devices perfected and all he had to do was obtain some reiki or yōki to ignite the final portal.

He would not fail Naraku. Because… because…

Because when Naraku came to the human side and destroyed the world, Onigumo would finally be free. Naraku would rampage through the unworthy streets of New York, cleansing the world of its filth, and the crack in Onigumo's wall would finally be silent. Onigumo might even be able to strike out on his own.

Had Onigumo ever had another name?
Hitomi Kagewaki.
Yes. That had been his name.
The one his parents had named him.
The one that Naraku forbade him from using from the crack.
But Onigumo was not of the human side of the portal.
Not anymore.

He was Naraku's most faithful servant. The only one who was truly deserving of Naraku's attention. The only one to be spared what was to come.

Sometimes Onigumo thought about whether he should try to run away, like the half-breed wretch had, but…

Onigumo couldn't.
Naraku would find him.
Naraku always found him.

When Onigumo became suspicious about his parents dying in their sleep immediately after he was set to inherit their apartment, Naraku scared him so thoroughly that he never asked the question again. When he then tried to sell his dead parents' apartment, Naraku found him and punished him. When he begged for the voice to stop, pleaded that the dark dreams and sleepless nights had become unbearable, and tried to run, still Naraku coaxed him back.

Locked in the borderlands… forced to be alone in the margins… like you.

Naraku had first whispered when Hitomi—no, Onigumo was now his name—cried that the other children had chosen him last in a sports event. After the children with glasses. After the girls.

A life of solitude, save for each other.
Except…
When had Onigumo given up on people?
He couldn't remember. He didn't remember when his own name sounded alien.
All he remembered were the growls and rasps that always reached him from that crack.
The terror.

He wanted to run away from it and never hear the guttural words that emanated from the crack again. Words only he could hear. Words that… words of Naraku.

Words that spurred him to scour the world for ways to open the portal.
Words that found the Demons Among Us! book from the two quims.
Words that helped him seek out the only one of his kind who existed in New York: the half-breed.
The one with yōki that could open the gates big enough to let everything through.
The one, Naraku had told him, was no longer necessary.

Naraku had only punished Onigumo for a week after Inuyasha had run away. Because Onigumo had succeeded in making off with the rest of the devices. Devices that Naraku assured him, would be enough.

Onigumo would not fail.

The demons that had come through before Naraku were tests.
They were not meant to survive.
They were merely incarnations.

Onigumo had learned his lesson about asking questions (over and over); he knew it was dangerous to ask questions. But sometimes Hitomi still pushed to the surface. And for the last demon, the one he had been forced to overload the machine for, to avoid the witches from capturing, Hitomi had defied Onigumo, and asked the question: why was it that the demon had revealed Naraku's plan?

He had been punished far worse for asking that question than he had been for losing the half-breed.

Because Naraku had never told him that he'd taken over the demon world (indeed, he committed the cardinal sin of disbelieving Naraku). He'd shown Onigumo the borderlands in his dreams: desolate and angry. Secluded from paradise. Naraku often stranded Onigumo in endless loops of sleep in those borderlands: wandering, alone.

But Naraku had explained everything after Onigumo's punishment! Naraku needed the human world to properly invade the demon world! And there was only one thing that Naraku needed from the human world to succeed. Something that Naraku could collect for himself, without needing Onigumo's help. That when Naraku succeeded, both of them would have their revenge on the worlds who had excluded them, on both sides of the portal. The ones who had called him weirdo and freak, or crossed the street when he walked toward them. All of them deserved what was coming.

Have you completed your task?
The crack in Onigumo's wall finally whispered that night, like it did every other night. Onigumo shuddered at the sound.

Unlike all those other nights, where he had to brace for all those other punishments, tonight was different. Tonight he would not be punished!

"It works," Onigumo whispered back, and he felt the black tendrils of Naraku flood into his body.

Its invasion felt wonderful, because instead of being flooded with malice, he was flooded with glee. Naraku was happy. Happier than Onigumo had ever felt. So happy that Onigumo began to cackle. He couldn't stop! It was magnificent! He had served his master well.

Somewhere deep in the recesses of Onigumo's mind, Hitomi whimpered. There was so little of him left now that the red flags and alarm bells and cries for help had all but been silenced. He was Onigumo now, and he was going to help open the mouth of the devil.

Bring the device in here. To me.

Onigumo nodded. He had been working on it down in the basement, away from the well-to-do and the gossips of the apartment building that his deceased parents had left to him. He did not want the police bitch sniffing out anything until it was time.

He had not yet figured out how to procure the yōki or reiki he required, because the half-breed kept an annoyingly careful watch on the first witch bitch, and the cop kept an annoyingly careful watch on the second witch bitch.

But it was okay.
Naraku had a plan.
Naraku had told Onigumo that he would not fail.

So Onigumo descended the stairwell—down, down, down—into the bowels of the building. Into the secret place that only he went (because Naraku's aura pressed on that place, keeping all others out). He walked into the pipe-filled room, littered with the charred metal of his experiments (the blood and bruises had been worth it. Proof to Naraku that he was a good servant, doing everything he could to bring about Naraku's entry into the human world).

It had taken much longer than he had anticipated to make a second device. The half-breed's notes were scratches on the page, and he had taken his copy of the witches' book with him. The scraps of metal and cylinders Onigumo had recovered from the workshop were slapdash, failed experiments. Naraku had not let him relent, and it was only when he had nearly caused a fire (and nearly got caught) that Onigumo was finally allowed to sleep, with dreams of the endless emptiness of the borderlands to encourage him to work harder.

Slowly, Onigumo's experiments began to succeed. Slowly, he saw the device shudder to life. Slowly, the very same mistakes he had observed the half-breed make and solve, so had he. It was a great day when he had finally been able to turn the machine on and listen to it hum without falling apart immediately. It was a wonderful day when he was able to get the magnetic fields to point the right direction. Then finally, all that was left that needed to be done was to call to the other side of the portal, the demon side. The side that could only be called to with reiki or yōki.

Onigumo had already begun plotting to solve that issue. The taller bitch, the one who stayed with the cop, would be easier to kidnap. Because the half-breed never left the other witch alone, and because the half-breed knew his scent. Onigumo had only glimpsed inside the girl's apartment once, on the only night he knew his approach to be safe, and he saw Inuyasha was there too, protecting her.

Onigumo had scrubbed himself vigorously in the shower, scraping off the skin as he went, and used a very strong scented cologne and deodorant, so that his scent was overpowered. And Onigumo had only approached the witch bitch's apartment on the one night when Inuyasha was always preoccupied: the night when Inuyasha turned completely human. The night of the new moon. Onigumo had only happened upon the transformation once, and Naraku had told him to memorize the moon's phase on that night.

His only chance to grab either of the women would be on the night of the new moon, when Inuyasha was vulnerable. But when Onigumo suggested that they wait for the next one, that he could capture the half-breed or the witch bitch that night, Naraku had simply said, unnecessary.

Onigumo thrust the massive metallic device onto his back, then ambled over to the elevator, then he paused.

Naraku would not want him to take chances…

No one used the staircase. He would not be seen. It was safer than the elevator, even with the delay that having a large metallic device strapped to his back would cause.

Naraku would want him to take the stairs…

Onigumo stared at the 20 flights back up to where he was going and swallowed.
The punishment Naraku might exact on him would be far worse than the pain and strain of the stairs.
So he started to ascend.

His body screamed and his muscles buckled, but Onigumo would not fail. Naraku had told him to bring the device to the crack, and so he would.

Perhaps Naraku had uncovered another specimen capable of producing the yōki or reiki homing beacon.

He could feel the tears come to his eyes at his labor. His heart was exploding and he was not entirely sure that he would be able to bend forward properly again, but still, up, up, up he went. One stair at a time. One breath at a time. One heartbeat at a time.

At the seventeenth floor, Onigumo paused. What if he stopped? What if he threw the metal down the stairwell and destroyed it? What if he ran away to the wilderness of Alaska, spurning civilization and living in solitude, far away from the crack in the wall?

What if… he could be Hitomi again?
Was the solitude of that life really so scary compared to the crack?

Naraku would find him.
And his punishment would be far worse than anything he could imagine.

Hitomi was barely an echo now; it was only Onigumo.
And Onigumo would be rewarded beyond his wildest dreams if he succeeded in this. If he succeeded in allowing Naraku into the human world.

Because Onigumo was the only one worthy of this task.
Onigumo was the only one… that would be spared the wrath of Naraku.
...For the first time, Onigumo would get to be the one spared the wrath of Naraku.

One more flight to go.
He could hear the drip, drip, drip of his sweat and when he looked down, he saw that it was joined with the red taint of blood.

Naraku would be pleased that he bled to complete his task.

"Please don't do this." Onigumo heard Hitomi's voice in his head. It was nothing more than a whisper. The last glimmer of what used to fill out Onigumo's husk.

"I must," Onigumo whispered back, and he kicked open the fire doors to his floor.

Bring the device as close to me as you can.
Naraku sounded so excited that Onigumo made an extra effort to shove Hitomi's voice down as far as it would go.

Onigumo sidled up to the small crack that was filled with endless black and malice, and he dropped the device on the floor next to it.

I see that you have weakened yourself in your fervor to bring this device to me.

"Yes, m—master…" Onigumo answered, feeling the black tendrils probe him once more.

Not too broken; good. Very good. Only one thing left to do before we begin.

Onigumo nodded, then he felt a scream from inside of him.
Because, finally, one of Naraku's tendrils had touched Hitomi Kagewaki, and had extinguished him.

You have done well. Very well. Now, turn on the machine for me.

"Yes, master." There was no longer hesitation, no longer fear, no longer anything. Onigumo let his mind slip into the bliss of the feel of his master's black love. He turned on the toggles and allowed the device to hum to life.

Questions of reiki and yōki sparks did not matter.
Onigumo was one with Naraku.
Onigumo was Naraku.

Naraku had been waiting for this. So so long.
The oaf had taken far longer to succeed than Naraku had imagined he would.
And the half-breed had been far more suspicious than Naraku thought he would be.
Then Byakuya had almost ruined everything by boasting of their plans.

But that mattered not. Naraku's vessel on the human side was complete, had relinquished all to him.

There was no more Hitomi.
There was no more Onigumo.
There was only Naraku's puppet now.
And Naraku's puppet could receive his yōki.

As he watched the humming machine, he looked around the dreary apartment that his host had made his home, and Naraku smiled. Yes, he liked this world, the human world, and when the portal opened completely, he would be able to rid himself of the puppet that could only carry a small portion of his soul. He could come across wholly and completely.

Naraku found the small nozzle that Onigumo's memories indicated was where to place his finger, letting the spark of what little yōki he'd brought with him when Onigumo had sacrificed his body to be Naraku's vessel snap into the little nozzle.

When a white ring began to descend, Naraku let himself cackle.
The last portal was open. The way was clear.

Naraku comes for your judgment day! He will destroy the world—your world—as he destroyed his own. The way is open now. He will come!