Chapter 125: Dogs & Wolves Bearing Their Teeth - Battles at the Mountain Base
Returning to our story just shortly after Miroku and Sango leave for the deeper region of Mount Hakurei to find out just what the source of its immensely powerful barrier truly was, we now catch up with another team on the hunt for the remaining Shichinintai, and to a lesser extent, the madman half-demon responsible for their revival...
"Hah, hah, hah, hah, hah, hah, hah..."
Rushing out of the misty fog on a path situated up the other side of this vastly tall mountain, was Kōga of the Wolf Demon Tribe, leading along some of his pack in a sprint to try and find some sort of weak point in the sacred barrier he could get into.
"Hah, hah...How 'bout here?!"
He slams his right side towards the deeper rocky parts of the valley, but was once again blocked off by the purifying energies protecting this nature structure, much to his rising frustration.
"Damn it! Not here either...!"
...As he pauses to catch his breath while keeping his glaring eyes directed to what continued to elude his reach, we cut back down a little bit of the path to see his comrades Ginta and Hakkaku rushing to catch up with a bit more puff in their breaths.
"What's, Kōga's, problem?! He never, listens to, anyone!"
The wolf demon with short grey hair dyed an onyx black on top replies with a sigh,
"Nope. Once he makes up his mind, that's it..."
"Auh! There he is, up ahead! Kōga, wait up, would ya?!"
He with the long black ponytail and sea blue irises pivots his head to look at the other two fellow wolf demons with annoyance at their speed average.
"You're slow, as usual. What took you so long?"
Hakkaku and Ginta stop to gulp in some air while replying back a bit incredulously (the former more so than the latter),
"You gotta, be kidding me!"
"It's not that, we're too slow. You're too, fast...!"
Kōga seemingly puts those words into thought...before his friends would speak up again, feeling rather deflated by the lack of progress.
"...What do ya say we call it quits, Kōga?"
"We've been searching around the mountain for days now, and we still haven't found a way to get past the barrier."
Though a bit deadpanned from exhaustion, the wolf demon with the gray-white Mohawk hair managed to look at towards Mount Hakurei with a flash of fear in his eyes.
"Besides, this place is givin' me the creeps..."
Ginta was a bit more concerned over his leader's physical health.
"It can't be easy on you hitting that barrier over and over again."
"Come on, Kōga, whadda you say?"
"Let's just, give up, least for now, okay?"
These attempts of persuasion did not sit well with the addressed, his sea blue irises blazing.
"Shut your trap!"
The other two flinch back from his burst of anger, as Kōga adds fiercely while pointing towards the mountain valley,
"The Band of Seven is definitely in there! And I'm gonna bust through this barrier...out of pride."
...Unbeknownst to the wild canine pack, two of the said undead mercenaries were close by, watching them from inside the fog.
"Ge-heh-heh-heeesh..."
"Hehnhn, well well, Ginkotsu. It seems they can't see us from behind here after all."
The mecha-zombie lets out another robotic chuckle, while Renkotsu went into thought over the abilities of this massive barrier.
This barrier is turning out to be very convenient...Hm, it's quite sickening, but why not take advantage of it?
He shifts his focus to ordering the following of his fellow brother:
"Alright, Ginkotsu: First, go for the legs. I want you to blow both of his legs off."
Said zombie agrees with a laugh, and aims his twin cannons towards the wolf demons, just as the argument reaches its end...
"Aw come on, Kōga, at least think about it!"
"I've had enough of you two quitters! The Band of Seven are hiding in there! So how 'bout this? I'm gonna find them all and kill them myself!"
This was where Renkotsu made his presence known vocally:
"Ooooo, we're scared."
They - the wolf demons - dart their heads towards the inner mountain valley, but see nothing...
(BOOM)
Ginkotsu's cannons fire, and the blast hits the wolves and wolf demons hard, throwing Kōga back hard to one side while the rest fell backwards another way...!
...The mecha-zombie comes rumbling out of the barrier's visionary block point shortly after with the fire-user standing atop his side, the latter glancing down at the growling Kōga with a scoff.
"Dauh! I thought I told you to blow his legs off."
Ginkotsu makes a sound on the lines of 'I tried!', before the targeted wolf demon barks back,
"Well, ya didn't!"
...We check back now with Inuyasha and company on the other side of Mount Hakurei, they all now sitting around at the base ledge awaiting the return of their demon slayer and monk companions.
Coraline was sitting closely to the dog demon with her legs laying towards the right side, he having his right leg propped up to rest his arm on, while the twins sat with their backs against one another adjacent to the first two, Freeman holding Shippo in his lap while Besa held onto Kilala, and Lumos was hovering slowly around all their proximity in a lazy circle like a cotton ball on a gentle breeze...
Now one would find it reasonable to wonder if after all this time, Inuyasha had developed a stronger sense of patience, right?...However, judging from the subtle fast-paced rise and fall of his thumping leg and grunted growls bubbling quietly from his throat, we can easily say such thoughts will continue to be left to the imagination...
"Haaah, Inuyasha?"
Not averting his amber irises from the rocky floor, he grunts to the redheaded woman,
"What?"
Puffing out another breath of air with an exasperated smile, Coraline reaches over to place a palm on his shoulder while chiding,
"Getting worked up before anything even happens won't help. Relax, and everything will come to your favour."
"What makes ya think I'm worked up?"
"...Well, your bouncing leg's a clear-enough indicator."
Moving her hand from the dog demon's shoulder to push said thumping appendage down, the young woman with two-tone blue irises suddenly plops herself into his lap!
"Guh!"
"Which is why I'm gonna si-guh, I mean, seat myself on you to make it stop."
...Inuyasha just stares at the girl with an expression that said 'you're serious, aren't you?', before he lets out a sigh of light irritation and wraps an arm around her waist to pull her to his chest, secretly glad for a physical distraction...
"I wonder if they're okay..."
Eyes and ears fall onto Shippo's form, as he continues his thoughts aloud while propping himself up a little in the middle of Freeman's crossed legs.
"I just wonder if Sango and Miroku are gonna be okay on their own."
"Kuh, one thing's for sure, they're alot more dependable than you are."
The fox demon would glare at Inuyasha for both the mild insult and his ignorance on what the former was really referring to.
"Idiot. I wasn't suggesting we couldn't trust them."
"Okay, then what is it that you're all worried about?"
...A light crimson dusts Shippo's face as he replies vaguely and in embarrassment,
"Uh, ya know, this and that, and, this..."
Though most of the smaller group was confused by the fox child's answer, Freeman caught onto the finer details fairly quickly while barely holding down a snicker.
Heh, oh yeah, there's plenty that could happen when you've got two adults isolated and, 'pent up'...
Though given the nature of this freaky mountain, there's no way to Sunday that's gonna go any further than the ole college try.
Moving to the first section of the long, winding path leading up Mount Hakurei, we test both probabilities on the unofficial couple of subject...
"I wonder how far this goes. There's no demonic aura or anything out of the ordinary up here. Hm..."
Sango lead the way up as she replies to Miroku,
"We wouldn't have thought to check this place out if it hadn't been for what happened on Hijiri Island."
"We have to be careful to keep on our guard, Sango."
She pivots her head to look at the monk's cerulean irises with her brown.
"I agree."
The slayer then continues her walk, giving Miroku that enticing (to him) view of her, backside...
"Remember, keep on your guard..."
A naughty smirk appears on his face, and with his cursed hand stretched out straight for the prize, he once again tries to grope the poor unsuspecting young woman...
However, the male with short black hair tied back into a rat's tail would stop right in his tracks, when he felt an overwhelming ache in his chest.
"Gh!"
Rgh, I can't believe this: Just one lecherous thought and I'm feeling sick to my stomach...
Urh, the barrier of Mount Hakurei is strong indeed to have such an effect on me.
Not feeling the monk's presence close behind her, Sango pauses to look back in confusion.
"Wha'd you stop for?"
He quickly straightens and replies to her with an awkward smile,
"Ah-yuh, nevermind me, just, stumbled a bit. Ah-heheh..."
"Mm?...Well, watch your step, then."
With that, the young woman with long brown hair tied back into a high ponytail starts the walk for both of them again, not seeing the sigh of relief Miroku releases for not having his folly in being indecent found out...for the time being...
Returning now to the wolf demon group on the other side of Mount Hakurei, Kōga continues to snarl at mercenary brothers Renkotsu and Ginkotsu as both sides move to ready themselves for the appending battle, while Ginta and Hakkaku stayed behind the boulder they were knocked behind in the first blast from the mecha-zombie's cannons.
"Whoa...!" "Where'd they come from?"
Standing up, the leading wolf demon says to his enemies,
"So you were hiding behind the barrier."
The fire-user replies almost smugly,
"Yes indeed, we certainly were. We've been right in front of you this whole time."
Ginkotsu grunts out a chuckle, but Kōga didn't feel discouraged:
"Tuh, guess our search around the mountain wasn't in vain after all. I'm surprised you showed yourselves, though."
Renkotsu lets out his own close-mouthed chuckle:
"I suppose you would be. Would you like to know why we did so? Because of your Shikon-no-Tama shards!"
(Ka-Boom)
Another cannon shot is fired from the mecha-zombie's arsenal, and Kōga barely jumps out of the way in time...only to feel his knees buckle in some pain upon landing.
"Gh!"
Rh, this is trouble: He got my legs on the very first shot! I gotta put an end to this, fast.
"Kōga, you okay?!"
He gestures a halting hand towards his friends and warns them to stay clear of the battle.
"Stay back, you two!"
"S-Sure, okay!"
Ducking down closer to the ground behind the protruding rock, Ginta wonders with worry,
"Think he even stands a chance against that metal monster? That thing's deadly!"
Hakkaku couldn't provide a comforting answer, nowhere anymore confident than the other was, and both look towards Ginkotsu with terror in their eyes...Meanwhile, the wolf demon currently fighting the two zombies was glaring them over with frustrated thought burning in his sea blue irises.
Those two are just like Kyokotsu, resurrected through the power of the Shikon-no-Tama shards.
And if I can just take the jewels away...
He recalls what happened to said Shichinintai member when the shard in their forehead was yanked out...
"I'll get you..."
Kōga charges forward in a sprint:
"I'll send you back to the grave!"
"Pull back now, Ginkotsu."
The massive zombie of undead flesh and metalwork heeds his brother's command, and rolls backwards to the inside of the mountain barrier, much to the wolf demon's confusion.
"Huh? What?! You're takin' off?!"
"It's not what it looks like."
"Wha-?!"
"We're still going to destroy you, but from a safe distance."
...With the zombie brother duo now out of the line of sights, attack and defense was going to become much harder for Kōga. This only made Hakkaku and Ginta's hearts quiver even faster:
"Look, they vanished...!"
Swallowing down his nerves and fighting to stop himself from shaking, the wolf demon with short hair and silver-blue irises glares ahead with uncertainty.
Now what?
He and other are then forced to duck and cover from an onslaught of dust and rock when blasts from Ginkotsu's cannon come to greet the wolf demon stuck under the bullseye! Hakkaku exclaims,
"He's done for! How can he fight an enemy he can't even see?!"
Ducking down to dodge another wave of rock dust and upturned ground, Ginta thinks to himself,
There isn't much of a choice here: We need to retreat and come up with another plan, or we're gonna get blasted to pieces!
"Kōga, let's get outta here; we're sitting ducks!"
Unfortunately for the more sensible-thinking male, his friend and pack leader was stubborn.
"We're not going anywhere!"
I knew what I was getting into, but now what? They're deadly!
Continuing to hop to and fro out of the way of the incoming cannon blasts, he decides on a course of action.
"I have to find a way to lure them out of the barrier!"
...On a less stressing note, we quickly check back with Miroku as he continued his um, 'mission', to lay fingers on Sango's posterior, which as you can imagine with the repelling energies of the mountain barrier, would remain next-to-impossible.
"I'm a, bigger man than this...No, barrier's gonna, stop, me...!"
The monk does get close at one point...but that was when the slayer turns around to ask,
"What exactly are you doing back there?"
...There's an awkward two-second pause, before Miroku quickly straightens and replies,
"Who, uh, me? Nothing; nothing at all, ah-heheh..."
Sango hms in suspicion, but pivots around to keep going, giving the monk clearance to let out a more agitated sigh...
Kōga's POV
The more I kept dodging those cannon blasts, the more my temper would continue to rise...
"Damn it all to hell, I'm not getting anywhere with them!"
...But my problems would only continue to grow, when suddenly, these metal threads of fire came shooting down at me!
"Those threads are steel!"
If I get snared by those things, I'll be an easy dragging target for the barrier!
"Dodge this!"
I lean out of the way of another shot of those flaming threads, but Renkotsu kept the attacks coming.
"You can't last forever!"
Cocky bastard...!
What I should've figured out, mind you, was that the higher that I went in my leaps to dodge the steel strands, the more vulnerable I would become to another blast from that Ginkotsu freak!
(Ka-Boom)
"Gauh!"
I went sliding into the rocky ground hard...but as I moved to lift myself up, that's when an idea came to me.
That's it!
Grinning to myself, I stood back onto my feet...but did not move an inch further than that, waiting for the next blast.
I'll show these bastards just who exactly they're messing with...
...Two shots are fired into the air, that broke apart into multiple bomb strikes to hit the ground!
I wasn't afraid, of course: I wanted something like this to happen.
All according to plan.
I let out a mock yell of pain...before allowing myself to camouflage within the upturned rubble...
Now I just gotta wait for them to come to me...
...
...
I soon hear the sound of that hunk of metal and flesh Ginkotsu rolling towards me, stopping just a foot or two away...There's another pause, before I listen as Renkotsu remarks,
"He must've been blown to bits."
You wish.
"Not so lucky!"
I made my move, and burst out of the rubble to land behind the two freaks in front of barrier, much to Renkotsu's surprise.
"You're alive!"
Smirking, I call over,
"You sure fell for my plan. (Holds out arms) You're not goin' back behind the barrier now!"
"...Heh, it's a little early to be congratulating yourself."
That, was not the answer I expected:
"Whadda you mean?"
"Well you see, we have no need to escape from you, little man. You're the one who can't get away...And besides, how much harm can a wounded wolf do to us?"
I gasp as it hits me:
He knows about my legs!
"Finish him off, Ginkotsu!"
As the mass zombie starts turning around, I think to myself in a grumble,
Guess I'll just have to keep goin' 'til somethin' sticks.
"Right."
Charging forward and dodging a shot of flames spewed from Renkotsu's mouth, I leap up high with a fist raised.
"I don't think so! We'll see who the real fool is!"
I wasn't able to dodge the next blast of fire, but that wasn't my main focus right now.
They have to be somewhere in his body, but where?!
Deciding the bastard's chest was a good-enough guess, I fight my way through the flames to claw at his torso!
"Grrrraah!"
(SLASH)
I got him between the area above the heart and near the shoulder, but no jewel shards came out.
Damn. Must've just missed...Still, I saw the shock on his face as I struck, so those shards must be somewhere around that general area.
Renkotsu falls off of Ginkotsu and collapses with a wince from his new wound...and that's when things got real weird.
"Ren-kot-su..."
I whirled my head to look at the head of the metal zombie freak with shock.
"What did you just say?"
I didn't expect this creep to actually have the ability of speech...!
I hop back to the ground, and Ginkotsu turns himself to my direction, fury burning in his eyes.
"How, dare, you! Damn you to hell!"
He then tries to fire at me, but one of the cannons malfunctions halfway through the blast, just as I had hoped.
"I stuffed the cannon with the armour that I ripped off."
"Geeeesh..."
"Huh? No way!"
The smoke dissipates, revealing that the freak was still standing, even if a little damaged from my sabotage!
"You shouldn't still be alive...!"
Must be that jewel shard's doing...
Renkotsu curses at me as he moved up in a kneel, just as Ginkotsu turns to look at the other with a chuckle.
I dunno what expression he gave, but based on the fire-breather's shock, it can't be good.
"You're really going to use those, Ginkotsu?"
Use, what?
That's when the hunk of metal and flesh began rumbling:
"Huh? Now what's goin' on?"
Next thing I knew, his body transforms so that it was displaying a whole barrage of guns and cannons, some designed in ways I never imagined possible!
...For the first time in a long while...I actually felt scared out of my wits.
Wh-What the hell?!
...But once he fired them all at once, I managed to shake most of my fears off when I realized that his heavy arsenal had one fatal flaw: Limited targeting. In which case, jumping out of the way of the shots was fairly easy.
"Nice guns, bad aim!"
Ginkotsu looks up at me in shock as I add,
"I'm right over here!"
I then lunge at him with a fist raised, which he would respond to by launching his own torso out from that mechanical mass he called a body, flying past me before shooting some of those steel threads to wrap around my wrist and waist! He then tries to shoot me down, but I stubbornly dodged him:
"Wh-! Why you...!"
Grabbing the threads, I use them to help me jump upward onto his shoulders to twist my legs around his neck!
"I've has just about enough of you!"
Tugging downward, I force the two of us to go crashing into the ground, his head taking most of the blow...I hear Renkotsu exclaim Ginkotsu's name under his breath, and I turn to smirk-glare at him while remarking,
"Keh, looks like you're the last one."
...Little did I know that the menace of flesh, bone and metal wasn't through yet.
"Rrrrrh...I, will not, allow Ren-kotsu, to be killed..."
"(Whirls around) What?!"
And the last thing I remember, was some sort of sparkle that emanated from Ginkotsu's neck...before he self-destructed, taking all in the vicinity with him.
(Ka-BOOM)
No POV
It would be around the time that the explosion's impact collided with all the bodies in the area...that two people on the other side of the mountain would sense something amiss.
"Hm?!" "Mh!"
Inuyasha found himself gently setting Coraline on the ground as he got up to his feet, expression serious and worrisome.
"Inuyasha?...What's wrong?"
He does not reply, staring down a path that would lead to the area where the wolf demons and undead mercenaries would be...
Meanwhile, Freeman's body had gone rigid, feeling a stinging vibration emit from the jade bracelet given to him by his 'special someone' sitting above his Seven Light shard.
W-What was...Something's wrong. I can feel it.
...Ginta...
"Brother...?...What is it?"
He doesn't reply to Besa, instead looking upward to lock his bottle green irises with the dog demon's amber...before they both nodded firmly in silent understanding. Inuyasha then finally spoke:
"Let's go."
Not understanding the trouble, Coraline asks him,
"What? Where to?"
He merely grabbed her arm and tugged her to her feet:
"Never mind where. Just come."
Sensing that the dog demon wasn't going to provide a straight answer, Shippo tries to ask Freeman instead.
"What's going on? Where are we going, Freeman?"
Placing the fox kit on his shoulder as he quickly got to his feet, the young man with short, coarse black hair replies,
"To help some others who hopefully haven't been hurt bad."
"Huh?"
"You'll understand when we get there."
With that, Inuyasha leads the way down the mountain path that led to the other side, the twins rushing behind him as the cornrow-haired male thought to himself with a worry brow,
I'm already getting a bad feeling about this...
"This is it...I've gotcha now! You're practically in my hands...!"
On a-um, another note not quite as endangering, Miroku was still as determined as a mule to complete his goal in, ahem, groping Sango, summoning up all the strength in his muscles to will himself forward.
"I can, do this...I, will, get, her...!"
...Bu~t for the third time in a row, the energies of the Mount Hakurei Sacred Barrier overpowered his lecherous tendencies, freezing him on the spot, much to his disappointment.
"Hauh! This, can't be, happening..."
Sighing to herself, the slayer stops her walk once again to turn around and find out what the heck the monk was up to.
"Okay, I'm ready for an explanation."
...All poor Miroku could do was stare at the woman before him in horror for a moment, before laughing sheepishly, in no way willing to reveal his ridiculous efforts...
Anyway, moving along, we catch up with two of the other undead members of the Shichinintai in a dense forest of hulking oaks and tall wild grass somewhere near the mountain valley, they being Jakotsu and Suikotsu. The former was currently reminding the latter of what not to do in a stern and annoyed tone.
"I really mean it, Suikotsu. Don't go turning into a good guy on me in the middle of battle, okay?"
"Quit your nagging. Isn't that why we're moving away from the barrier, to avoid its influence?...Grrh, damn that do-good doctor, showing up whenever he has the chance. After all I've done to suppress him too."
They pause in the middle of the thin stalks of greenery:
"Glad you feel that way...Alright, let's get this plan underway, then."
"Hmph. Say no more."
With that, both zombies part in different directions, prepping for what we can easily guess to be some sort of ambush...
Extending our view just outside the trees to one end of a cliff connected to a bridge that led to another that opened to the mountain valley, we find Sesshomaru, Rin and Jaken standing on the latter side, the dog demon looking out into the distance, waiting for something...
A short moment passes, before he senses the appending arrival.
"They're coming."
He then flies off, much to the imp's confusion:
"Hauh?! Lord Sesshomaru!"
The dog demon continues his travel towards the cliff that bordered the tall trunks of green...before he finds himself using his claws to block Jakotsu's snake-like sword!
Jaken gaped and Rin exclaims,
"What is that?!"
The multi-bladed sword retracts, and rising from the cover of a bush, was the feminine male himself...Sesshomaru would speak first:
"Are you Naraku's follower?"
"Hehah, how perceptive of you."
...
...
Leaving them, we return to the area that witnessed the end of the battle between Renkotsu, Ginkotsu and Kōga, as the fire-user slowly limped his way back into the barrier of Mount Hakurei, the new scar on his shoulder from the wolf demon's claws still stinging with pain.
"Hah...hah...hah...Grh!"
Wincing, he then opens his palm to look at the jewel shard now in his possession, thanks to the sacrifice of another.
"...Gin-kotsu..."
As it turned out, the mecha-zombie had thrown his Shikon-no-Tama shard towards his fellow mercenary brother just as he invoked his last resort, the energy protecting the fire-user from total annihilation...!
...Looking at the sparkling sliver of pink fuchsia now, Renkotsu felt all the more determined to live and seek vengeance for Ginkotsu.
"Hah, hah, I refuse to die here...Not in a place like this...Ne-ver...! Ah-uhhhhh..."
Unfortunately for him, his struggle towards the safety of the sacred barrier had robbed him of the last of his strength, and he would collapse on his back in exhaustion...
By this time, the other dog demon that dressed in red was nearing the area closer to where the battle ended moments ago, carting Coraline on his back while Freeman and Besa ran fast behind him holding Shippo and Kilala respectively, and Lumos lit the way through the misty fog.
"Inuyasha, I thought we were going to wait for Miroku and Sango!"
He reasons with his confused lover,
"Waiting around for Miroku and Sango isn't gonna get us anywhere!"
This place reeks of an explosion. Not only that, but blood...the blood of a wolf demon.
Inuyasha pivots his head slightly to the right, noting the worry and seriousness now occupying the one twin's face.
And there's no mistaking the anxiousness on Freeman's face: Something must have happened to his mate, and he sensed it.
The group eventually comes across the aftermath of the battle end, the upturned ground strewn with various broken parts of the once proud mecha-zombie...And kneeling by one pile of rubble, were Ginta and Hakkaku, both injured but thankfully still alive, occupying anguished, teary expressions. Upon sensing arrivals, they turn to see,
"Inuyasha, it's you...and Coraline, Freeman, Besa..."
Feeling a large wave of relief in seeing his lover was okay, Freeman rushed over and embraced Ginta.
"Oh thank god, you and Hakkaku are alright...But, wait, Kōga...Where's he; Ginta, what the heck happened?"
Struggling to avoid breaking into a sob, the wolf demon with silver-blue irises replies a bit hoarsely as he buried his face into the human male's shoulder,
"K-Kōga...he was, struck."
Coraline asks,
"Struck? What do you mean-"
She would be interrupted by the frantic moaning of her Will O' Wisp companion, as he flew around and around in a dizzying circle above...Kōga, who was buried under a piece of metal that used to make up Ginkotsu's torso!
"Auh! Oh no...!"
Hakkaku and Ginta explain with tears in their eyes,
"His, legs were injured in the attack..."
"He wasn't able to get away...!"
Freeman stroked the latter wolf demon's hair to try and comfort them as best he could, thinking to himself with a grim frown,
Damn that conniving Ginkotsu, he just had to end the battle in a bang...
Shippo wonders quietly with a sad frown,
"He isn't, dead, is he?"
"...No."
Eyes turn on Coraline, who was now overlooking Kōga with her dark ice blue-clouded irises.
"...His Aura is weak, but it's not fading from the body...He's far from dead."
"Coraline..."
She cancels her Aura Sight before turning to her brother with the cornrowed hair.
"Besa, could I get a hand? I get the metal, you him?"
"Uh...sure..."
The two teens move to their respected positions, with Besa kneeling down to wrap his arms under the grievously-injured wolf demon's underarms, pulling him out from under the metal as Coraline worked to lift and shove it over some.
"Hrrr-gah...!"
Once that was accomplished, the redheaded woman then knelt down near the unconscious demon male with a scowl to say,
"Oi, wolf boy! If you can hear me, wake the hell up! You're a demon, for cripes sake; you wouldn't be taken down by a zombie of all things that easily! And near a place like this?! Come on, that's just weak!"
The other males gaze at Coraline with surprise at her scolding, and gritting his canines slightly, Inuyasha then calls out,
"She's right! Quit lyin' around and get up!"
The twins, Ginta and Hakkaku follow afterward, but not quite as harshly as the first two did.
"Kōga?!" "Come on, man, wake up!"
"Say something!"
"Kōga!"
...
...
And to everyone's relief (more for some than others), the wolf demon stirs awake, opening a single blue iris weakly! Coraline mutters his name softly, while he quietly cursed,
"D-Damn...That one, got away on me..."
Besa chides with a small smile,
"Glad to see you're still hanging around, my friend," and the other two wolf demons broke into relieved tears.
"Kōga!"
Even Inuyasha showed faint signs of relief that his rival wasn't meeting death's door anytime soon.
"Huh, so ya did survive..."
Freeman says to the weakened wolf demon while placing a friendly hand on his,
"Don'tcha worry about a thing; you're gonna be alright."
"...Glad to know, and, sorry, for making you and your siblings worried."
"Eh, don't be. These things can't be helped. (Smirk-glare) If you did die, on the other hand, you'd be hearing from my hammer."
"Heh, noted."
Ginta threw his head back and used his arm to shield his tears as he and Hakkaku then say in wobbly tones,
"You're alright...What a relief...!"
"Kōga...!"
That would be their last exclaim, before both wolf demons collapse onto one another in exhaustion, the former's head falling onto Freeman's lap, much to his mild surprise.
"Uh...(Smile) Mm..."
Rest up, Ginta...I've got your back now, and your friends too.
His brother overlooks the injuries and fatigue written on all three of the wolf demon's bodies, and shakes his head with a concerned smile.
"Poor guys, they really got pushed under the wire...(Small frown) I wonder, if this means we'll be seeing more of our allies soon."
Coraline hms, and turns her gaze to the misty peaks above:
Well, I know Kikyō won't be able to approach this far, unfortunately...But if Kōga and the guys could...maybe...
Maybe another certain dog demon and his little group are nearby. Can't really call them friends, but, they're far from being enemies.
Inuyasha's amber irises cast to the higher planes of Mount Hakurei as well, not bothering to keep his own thoughts quiet.
"Band of Seven...more importantly, Naraku: Be afraid, 'cause I'm comin' for ya."