Update (October 2020): Chapter edited and lengthened!
Chapter 35: The Despairing Delusions of Death's Memory
Chinese violet and rose gray clouds of miasma haze the air as our viewpoint takes us back to a familiar castle structure which holds no true physical place on these lands. As we'll recall, this continuously-changing location belongs to the despicable entity named Naraku, who successfully recreated a working body thanks to an enhanced version of the spell known as Fuko. Worse still, he's managed to steal away the woman whom he previously believed to be dead, the priestess Kikyō...
Zooming in on the castle now, we watch a few of the mysterious Shinidamachū demons attempt to transport departed souls to their mistress to help sustain her presence...Unfortunately, they would fail in their mission, each one blocked and sent away by a barrier...
Kikyō herself is seen laying atop a futon bed within one of the rooms, remaining as calm as ever despite the growing danger...
Naraku soon enters, informing his captive of what he's done to ensure she can't just get up and leave.
"I have erected a barrier. Those servants of yours may not enter...Without your souls of the dead, you remain helpless."
The evil entity disguised as a young lord comes to kneel by her side.
"Kikyō...what can you be thinking? There in the mountain, before the magic was broken, the demons were sealed within to create my new body. Inuyasha stumbled onto the scene, lured by the miasma, and begun to do battle with the one who would win...But then, you appeared...Your arrows have the power to break the spell of whichever one you choose...and yet, if you wanted to prevent that unholy fusion, you would've aimed straight at the demon. The demon would disintegrate, and the spell would be easily broken...But before the one became complete, were you trying to see what laid beyond?"
"And there you were. (Glance) Your disguise is fine...Onigumo."
A bitter smile curves onto Naraku's lips at hearing the familiar address.
"...Heh, Onigumo. Now that brings me back...Fifty years ago, you saved and took pity on a hapless crook, and sheltered him in a cave...Onigumo would soon offer his useless body to the demons, and they latched onto his evil soul...Thus was born Naraku."
Said demon then pulls out a crystalline fragment, which Kikyō recognizes instantly.
"That's...!"
"Yes, indeed. The very thing you gave your life to erase from this world...A shard of the Shikon-no-Tama."
"They say that it was your desire which had brought you to kill me."
"...Discussing it with someone who is no more than a collection of dead souls is unseemly. But the search for the remaining fragments frustrates me."
Naraku rises to a stand, and wanders over to open a window, dispelling the barrier long enough for one Shinidamachū to enter...His eyes flash red, and he destroys the demon, leaving the soul at his mercy to corrupt with the tainted shard.
(Shoom...ping)
The small spirit shifts from a silver blue to an amaranth red...
"That girl who is so alike yet unlike you. A battle between those who can purify evil...If you yearn for this world, I bid you: go after her."
...
...
Hours come and go into the next day, and we find the Inuyasha team resting by a riverside, having since left the devastated mountain of miasma...Sango (who had Kilala laying in her lap), Miroku and Shippō were sitting in their own little group, discussing the latest behaviour patterns of their other two companions.
"Well, Miroku? Wouldn't you say that those two have been acting strange?"
"Yep."
The fox demon nods in agreement, and panning over to the topics of conversation, we see the other redhead attempting to talk with the silverette, he sitting cross-legged close to the water with his cheek resting on his fist.
"Um...Inuyasha?...Inuyasha."
"What?"
"...We need t' go and rescue Kikyō. Naraku had only jus' took her the other day, so d'ey can't be that far away."
"Hmph...I'll save her on my own."
(Bonk)
"Guh!"
The young monk suddenly comes over and lightly kicks Inuyasha on the noggin.
"Stop being such a stubborn fool."
He takes his action further by shoving the half-demon into the ground face-first.
"You forgot who it was that kidnapped Kikyō. I want my own revenge. I wouldn't even have this hole in my right hand if it wasn't for Naraku."
Sango joins in, knowing where Miroku was going with his words.
"He's an enemy to all of us, remember?"
Even Shippō adds his two-cents:
"What makes you so special?"
Smiling helplessly at her friends for trying to bring back the teamwork dynamic, Coraline then kneels down in front of Inuyasha and places a hand on his arm to get his attention as he sits up again, her tone and expression set soft but stern.
"Look, every one o' us by now understands the intensity of wha' occurred between you and Kikyō those years ago. But this doesn' give yeu the excuse to go it alone like a total loner."
Inuyasha springs up and retorts in an insulted manner,
"I ain't a loner, okay?! I never once identified as one in my life!"
"...Inuyasha! Over there!"
He turns around to where the monk was looking, and spots a group of the Shinidamachū gliding though the sky!
"It's Kikyō's Soul Gatherers!"
Coraline concludes,
"Guess this means she's closer by than we expected."
"(Turn) You coming?"
"Always."
With that, everyone hurries to follow the Shinidamachū and hopefully figure out where Kikyō was. Inuyasha opted for carrying Coraline as he and Miroku take the lead on foot, while Sango and Shippō rode on Kilala's true form...Yet as they continue their trek, the girl from the modern era found herself wondering,
...Should I even be this close to Inuyasha righ' now?
I mean, considering where his mind is a' the moment...
She then shakes her head, reminding herself,
No...it's fine. We're friends, and friends are always there for one anoth'a no matter what...
I promised m'self I'd be there for Inuyasha every step of the way, and I meant it.
...Besides...I want to help h'r...Kikyō deserves peace.
At the same time Coraline was reaffirming her personal morals, Inuyasha's mind also drifted over to the priestess.
Kikyō died because of him. I will not let Naraku have her!
...Sango then notices that the group of Shinidamachū was getting larger.
"Look, more gatherers!"
(...Buzz...)
"Hang on...somethin's off..."
Using her Aura Sight, the young Croft would then see a different shape in place of the demon through the ice blue-tinted spectrum.
"Guh! Oh, damn...These aren't th' Shinidamachū; they're the Saimyōshō!"
The slayer hears the warning, and signals Kilala higher into the air before leaping off and using her sword.
(...Slash)
The cut of steel reveals the true nature of this small demonic horde.
"Look out; it's a trap!"
But it was too late: everyone suddenly passes through a misty fog, and the area darkens, foreshadowing the danger that was about to show itself...
Inuyasha's POV
As I ran into the fog, catching Sango's last warning two seconds too late, a light flashes, and I see a weird orange glow in the distance.
What is that up there?
I leap forward, trying to see it better.
I can't...
...But when I got there...
(Fwoom)
"Huh?"
I wound up leaping atop a gateway, and I look around to see a huge fire spreading everywhere...
Where am I?
"Hey, Coraline, got any idea where-...Huh?!"
That's when I notice I no longer have that strange girl on my back!
"Guh! Coraline?...Coraline, where are you?! Coraline!"
Damn! Where did she go?!
...Wait...did that fog make her disappear?
I then see black shadow figures hidden in the flames, who shout,
"That's him, the one who attacked us!"
"Inuyasha! It's Inuyasha!"
...Those voices...Why do they seem, familiar...?
"This place...I-I don't know where...Huh?"
I then feel something in my claws, and look down to my hand to see,
"...It can't be! The Shikon-no-Tama!"
"Inuyasha!"
(...Twok, TOK)
"GYAH!"
I'm then shot off the gateway by an arrow...I fall to the ground hard, with the Shikon-no-Tama falling a few feet in front of me...I look up at my attacker with shock.
"Ki...Kikyō...!"
And that's when I remember what this was.
"Of course. This is fifty years ago: the day that Kikyō killed me! And this is the village that I attacked so I could steal the Shikon-no-Tama."
Despite knowing deep in the back of my head that there's nothing I can really do to change what's already come to pass...I look up at her and try to explain,
"Kikyō, wait! It was all just a trap! Don't do it!"
She does not hear me, and readies her next arrow...
"Kikyō, no!"
I ask myself in confusion and disbelief,
"Is this Hell? Is it a dream?! How did I get here?!"
Miroku's POV
After rushing into the heavily-misty area, I would quickly find myself wandering alone in a darkened part of the forest, trying to figure out what's going on.
"Inuyasha and the others, gone...Mm, and the wind has started to pick up..."
It's so close...Too close!
I raise my cursed hand to myself, wondering if that was the source...
(Shatter)
"Gah!"
Suddenly, the prayer beads sealing my Wind Tunnel break, and the cursed power is unleashed, but with a strength that was uncontrollable!
"Uh! U-uh...Agh, aah!"
It's, pulling me in!
Shippō's POV
It's only me and Kilala now, as the others have all mysteriously vanished after we touched the thick fog covering this area...I notice that she looked tense, so I try to ease her worries.
"Look, Kilala, see, there's nobody behind us. What's wrong? Why are you so-"
(Shift)
"Auh-whah!"
Suddenly, Kilala fades away, and I fall to the ground.
"Ohhh..."
I get up, and look around scared and confused by her abrupt disappearance.
"What? Where'd Kilala go?"
How could she've just vanished?...Hm?
I then see some familiar silhouettes in the distance.
"Ah! Coraline, Sango, wait up!"
...But just as I run to catch up, they - along with Inuyasha and Miroku - vanish too!...Except the weird thing was...
"They all left their clothes!"
I pick up one of Coraline's shirts, and ask aloud in disbelief,
"Where'd everybody go? If here's where there clothes are, where'd the rest of them go?! Inuyasha! Miroku! Coraline! Sango!"
Aw man, what the heck is happening?!
Sango's POV
Once we all got into the fog, I found myself all alone...I'm now rushing through this darkened area, trying to find everyone...only to stumble upon a stream of red...
Suddenly, the whole area begins glowing red! I take off Hiraikotsu...and when I stepped forward, I come across the most horrible sight.
"Hh!"
Inuyasha and Miroku, on the ground, both dead!...I then feel a presence behind me, and turn to see, the sickle of a kusarigama...
(SLASH, SLASH)
"UH!"
Ko-ha-ku?!
No POV
As these mysterious albeit horrible circumstances were occurring, Naraku and Kikyō are seen sitting in a tree with a Spirit Shield surrounding them from the fog as well as the Shinidamachū...
"The evil spell of Illusionary Death. The soul is such a fragile thing: Sadness, Fear, Confusion...If even slightest doubt exists, and is touched by the creepers in this world, that soul will be consumed by the dark."
In which case, what was really going on is that everyone had become ensnared by mysterious creeper roots, and are experiencing visions of their darkest fears...
Well, almost everyone. Somehow, Coraline has been left untouched by the spell, and was trying to find everyone.
"...Somethin's wrong. I can't sense anyone near...Hm?"
She feels a tap on her foot, and sees the creeping vines.
"Wha' in the world...What are these?"
Her eyes cloud over with her mysterious power, and she gasps when she senses,
"...Darkness..."
Her eyes narrow, and she reaches down for her combat knife...
(Slash, slash)
Coraline cuts down at the vines, causing them to back off so she can continue her way.
Bett'r keep an eye ou' for more...
Unbeknownst to her, Naraku was watching the redhead with interest.
"Perhaps because she has the jewel shards, that girl alone is unaffected..."
He looks down at the resting priestess.
"She will be the only one to make it here. The stage has been set for you."
...Kikyō opens her eyes.
"Aren't you the clever one."
(SLASH)
She then cuts away Naraku's head, revealing him as a mere demon puppet...
The second one is subsequently cut in half back at his castle.
(Topple...)
"...So she's destroyed the golem. How dare she defy me."
Back in the forest, Kikyō burns the demon puppet figurine away, destroying the sorcery altogether.
Coraline's POV
I have no idea wha' those vines were, but I have a bad feelin' Inuyasha and the others may be experiencin' their power.
I continue on through the area, cautious of my movements incase more of those creeping vines came to attack me again...When I reach the next clearing, I find someone familiar, but not who I was expecting.
"...Kikyō."
She's okay...!
Despite the situation, I found myself smiling in relief that she wasn't harmed. I begin rushing to greet her:
"Kikyō! I'm glad yo'r alright!"
...What I didn't realize, however, was her mood regarding seeing me is the near-opposite, at least not until I saw her drawing an arrow and pointing it at me...I slow down to a stop a few feet away from the tree, looking at her with confusion.
"...Kikyō?"
(Twok, slash, TOK)
"UH!"
She shot her ammo so it grazes my cheek before kissing the ground behind me...
Wh-Why in th' world did she-?!
If things weren't crazy enough, the ground where the arrow landed opens up, and I lose my footing, falling backwards into a gaping hole!
"Aaaaah!"
Luckily, I manage to grab onto a root to stop my fall...but, I lost my own bow and quiver...
"Hah, hah, curse i' all...!"
As I hung on for dear life, Kikyō came to the edge of the hole, staring at me with a cold expression. I could only look back with betrayal etching my face, feeling just as culled by the priestess as Inuyasha likely has been for the last while.
"...Kikyō, why?"
"Naraku finds himself frightened of you. He tries to control me with the Shikon-no-Tama, hoping that I would be turned against you."
...She didn' kill me...but, she shot threa'ningly at me.
What is she thinking?
Suddenly, three of the real Shinidamachū come and wrap around my waist, lifting me out of the hole...I looked towards the priestess, and notice the shard in question...and yet,
"I can see tha' it's not corruptin' you. The shard, I mean."
"Surely the priestess who wants to guard over the Sacred Jewel of the Four Souls, has not fallen so low as to be controlled by a mere shard?"
"(Narrows eyes) Well d'ere's certainly no need t' be so arrogant about it."
I watch as she places a hand over her chest, instantly purifying the shard within her...Then, before I could react fast enough, Kikyō reaches out to my neck and yanks off my larger shard of the jewel!
"Uh-h!"
No!
Next thing I knew, the Shinidamachū float away, only to be replaced by the creeping vines...As I'm pulled down to the depths below, the thought running frantically through my head was,
...Kikyō...how could you-Why would y' do this?!
Inuyasha's POV
I stare at the priestess before me in shock...when suddenly, she cringes and falls to her knees!
"Kikyō!"
...I then see the mortal wound that killed her those years ago...I bring her into her arms as her bow and arrow burn away with the rest of the area.
She came to me in her pain...all alone.
"Kikyō, you'll never be alone again...I swear it. I will always protect you."
...Just as I make such a proclamation, the fire disappears, and the scene becomes dark, with she and I under one light and another empty area lit up.
What? But I don't...You mean, there's someone else that I need to protect?
Who, though? Who's this other person that I need to protect?
...A figure with long red hair appears, and turns to me with a small smile...I recognized her instantly.
"Coraline..."
I pull back a bit frantically from Kikyō.
"Of course! How the heck could I have-?! (Glare) Where's Coraline?! Tell me!"
"Inuyasha!"
She shoves herself away from me, and I hear her voice echo with a familiar set of words.
"Is she more important to you then I am?"
...Hold on...
Her body then transforms into bark, with vines where her arms are supposed to be...
(Fwoom)
"Grrh! It's all been an illusion, hasn't it?"
I take out Tessaiga and cut away at the illusionary flames, stopping the trick instantly...Just as I return to reality, I hear someone else familiar but real yelling.
"Miroku!"
I hurry over to where his outcry echoed from, and see him trapped in a set of creepers, whimpering.
He must be trapped in his own illusion!
Another set of vines begins shooting out to finish him off, but I wasn't gonna let that happen.
"Miroku!"
(SLASH)
I cut them away, then use my claws to hack off the ones around his cursed hand...Now that he was free, I lift him up while asking,
"Hey, you okay?"
"M-My arm...the Wind T-Tunnel..."
He's scared...really scared.
I decided to use a bit of physical force to wake him up.
"Wake up! Snap out if it!"
(Slap)
...It seemed to have worked, for he wasn't stuttering or shaking anymore.
"It was swallowing up my entire body..."
"It's those tree roots. Quick, find Sango and Shippō! Betcha anything that they're under the same spell that got you and me. I gotta go find Coraline."
(Leap)
"Coraline! Where are you?!"
I can't even begin to imagine whatever horrors are threatening to consume her right now...
No POV
As Inuyasha continues his frantic search for Coraline, his outcries of her name bouncing through the air, we head back to the deep hole she was left in, lying atop a pile of creeping vines, unconscious and lost in her own delusions.
"Ngh...R-Rh..."
No...No...No!
"-aline!...Coraline!"
Hearing the half-demon, she suddenly stirs awake.
"Hh! I-Inu...yasha?"
Half a minute passes before he finally arrives, looking down to see the redhead's dazed form.
"Coraline."
He jumps into the hole and gently lifts her to a stand.
"Those roots caused some kind-of an illusion. Seems like you got away from it, though..."
...Coraline looks up at her friend, her eyes suggesting otherwise, but refrains from telling him so...They leap out of the hole, and upon looking forward, she cringes, seeing the one person she didn't want to see right now. Inuyasha looks at her confusingly, before turning to see,
"Kikyō...!"
He then sees the large shard in her hand.
"...That's Coraline's jewel shard!"
He turns to mutter the redhead's name in surprise, while she could only breathe in and out fearfully as a response to the unspoken question...Inuyasha snaps his attention back on Kikyō with a heated glare.
"You did it! Don't tell me it was you!"
"What's wrong, Inuyasha? Tell me, why is it that I sense you are unhappy to know that I am well?"
"Answer me! Just what did you do to her?!"
"I tried to kill her...Just what do you plan to do about it? Will you kill me?"
Inuyasha growls angrily in response...Kikyō's face then shifts from indifference to a cold smile.
"Tell me, when Naraku had you under his spell, what was it you thought about?"
...She then laughs, already knowing the answer without him telling her.
"Now, could you have said that if you had planned to kill me?"
The Shinidamachū surround the priestess, before they all float away into the sky...
"Embracing death together. Now that's a day I'll wait for."
With that, Kikyō is gone...After a moment of silence, Inuyasha turns to ask the other woman seriously,
"Coraline, tell me: what did she do to you?"
"...She took th' Shikon-no-Tama piece from me...I, I couldn' ge' it back from her fast enough."
"That's not what I'm asking! Did Kikyō really try to-"
"Stop! Don' say it, dammi'!"
Inuyasha is taken aback by her emotional exclaim.
"...Coraline."
She then says in a pained tone,
"...I dunno if it was her true inten'...bu' I don't want to think about i'."
It was then that Miroku arrives with an unconscious Sango, Shippō and Kilala on his back, oblivious to the full discord of events.
"So, uh...are you two finished talking?"
Coraline's POV
To Kikyō...my life, has no meaning...
I couldn't tell Inuyasha the truth about what really happened while I was in that hole...Not while I'm still trying to stabilize myself over what I was forced to experience.
The Illusionary Death. Pain, Sufferin', Fear...It pinned us all in place...including me...
I saw, into me own heart. In there...
(Flash)
Inuyasha and Kikyō, were in a lover's embrace...
But, that wasn' what truly rattled me.
The vision suddenly shift'd, and d'ere was fire...so much fire...
Two gunshots rang, and I saw...I saw, both of 'em on the ground, bullet wounds in their chests!
...I was then back in the day my Fath'r died, his body, was spotlighted beside Inuyasha and Kikyō...
Then the scar on my left shoulder reopened anew. I dropped to the ground, bleedin' ou'...
But instead of getting up, I was frozen...helpless to when he showed up, gun raised to shoo' me dead.
(Bang)
(Flash)
My knuckles crack under the pressure of that mixed memory and delusion, the perpetrator's name hissed under my breath. I fight to keep any sort of tears from forming, my eyes desperately soaking in the real image of my friends...one friend in particular, alive and well.
...He can't reach th'm. I know he can't...
But, what if he can?
No POV
As Coraline's mind wanders over the probability of reality versus the illusions of fear, Naraku sits in his castle, deep in thought over the unpredictability the resurrected miko was beginning to display...
"You're careless, Naraku."
He turns to see her standing in the doorway.
"So, Kikyō..."
"Once your puppet is broken, you see nothing. Remember that. Your petty feats of sorcery cannot affect me."
He glares hard at the priestess...
"As for the barrier surrounding this castle, the one you erected to keep out Inuyasha, that was easy enough for me to break."
She then looks down at the jewel shard she took from Coraline...before tossing it and the one she was given by Naraku to him!
"You wanted it, didn't you? I leave it to you to stand guard over. After all, who needs its power more than you, and you do need it, don't you? (Frown) Demon Naraku...or is it, (smirk) Half-demon Naraku?"
Something inside the evil entity stirs.
"...A mere half-demon, I, Naraku?"
"True, you disguised yourself well, but you're still that fugitive human, and the blood of what you once were cannot be erased...You seek the Shikon-no-Tama to become a full-fledged demon, do you not?"
"...If so, why give me the shards? Am I not the one you seek to avenge your death fifty years ago?"
Kikyō lets out a short laugh and replies,
"It was only my body that died. I may have left it behind me that day, but with this new one, I am even stronger. I don't trust that you would understand...I am returning to the temple. I will neither run, nor hide. Send a messenger if you need me."
With that, the priestess departs the castle, leaving Naraku by himself...Suddenly, he shucks off the upper pieces of his kimono.
It's appeared again...
What does he mean? Well, despite having a new body, that same spider-shaped scar still remains on his back, forever marring his skin...and his arrogant pride.
No matter how often I change flesh...the burn marks of the fugitive Onigumo will not leave my back.
Leaving the villain to brood, we catch up with Kikyō as she stands among the tall grass billowing in the wind, far off from the phantom castle...
Go, Naraku. Gather the shards of the jewel...
And once you've gathered them all, then I will send you to Hell.
She makes her way out for wherever the lands may take her, reveling in her newfound freedom.
...I am free to hate. My soul is so much freer than it was back when.
Free to hate...Free, to love.