Chapter 127: Jekyll Finally Kills Hyde
Picture a low-sloping, two-tine waterfall billowing through sharp cuts of pale gray stone, the left side holding the tall face of a cliff, while the other opened to the edge of a forest section, bushels of leaves growing at the tips of branches belonging to beech trees fighting for space between crevices wherever their roots could extend...
Floating around in circles in front of a cave entrance carved into the cliff wall, was Lumos the Will O' Wisp, broadcasting his soft, high-pitched moans for his allies to hear...
The first piece of the group to arrive, was Besa, Shippo and Hakkaku aboard Kilala, the former still hanging onto Kōga's unconscious and injured form, while the latte awoke halfway through the air travel from the battle area.
Just as they land on the hard ground in front of the cave's mouth, Inuyasha arrives, carrying Coraline on his back over and down a tall rock protrusion before hopping over some stepping stones peeking out from the rushing blue.
Then came Freeman and Ginta, the former's coco skin emanating a transparent rainbow sheen courtesy of his Seven Light shard granting him a temporary enhancement of strength and speed. Once they settled with the rest, the wolf demon with silver-blue irises would set himself down from his mate's back, a grateful if slightly embarrassed smile on his face.
"Uh, thanks for the lift."
"Hey, don't mention it. You'd've done the same if it were the other way around."
Pivoting his gaze to his brother, Freeman then says,
"Besa, turn Kōga's torso to me, and you get his legs."
"(Nod) Right."
The twins were soon gently carting the unconscious wolf demon with long black hair into the cave, his two best friends following after them with anxious expressions reserved for their leader. Watching them all head inside while sliding down to her own two feet from the dog demon's back, Coraline wonders aloud with a small frown,
"Will he really be alright? I mean, I know demons generally have a faster healing time, but still...Kōga did take some heavy damage from Renkotsu and Ginkotsu's attacks..."
Lumos comes to hover near her ear, moaning a little in a mix of his own brand of concern for the wolf demon and comfort to quiet his human partner's anxieties...Scoffing a little, Inuyasha replies,
"I wouldn't waste too much worry over him. The mangy wolf's not that easy to kill, mostly thanks to those jewel shards in his scrawny legs."
"Mm, that's true, I guess...Speaking of, with all the times you've talked about doing it, I'm, a little surprised you didn't try to relieve him of the jewel fragments."
Shippo, he still sitting atop the twin-tail cat demon's back, chimes in his own opinion.
"Yeah, I am too, to be honest."
"Tuh, do I look like the type to take advantage of a guy who can't even defend himself? Spare me."
The young woman with mid-back long red hair would easily read between the lines of the dog demon's response, smiling softly for the fact that despite the surface tension and distaste he and the wolf demon display towards one another, secretly, Inuyasha and Kōga were slowly growing a mutual respect and trust as both rivals and allies in the ongoing war that tied a great many together...
Now while this group may have found a safe haven from the metaphoric storm brewing on Mount Hakurei for a short time, those dark clouds had released more than one lightning bolt to challenge the peace of the village set at the foot of the perilous peak of rock. Suikotsu's more dark and blood-lusting persona had reached high enough levels of domineering control over the singular body that even while using the appearance of 'the saintly doctor', none were safe from his wrath, as evident by the senseless slaughter of the village elder and his men.
...Yet, just as Suikotsu was about to add the innocent orphaned children to his kill tally, his motor functions were suddenly paralyzed by a strong inner force, suggesting that his more kind identity, may still be alive...
But whether that theory is true or false will have to remain unknown for a while longer.
(Buuuuzzzzzzz...)
A single Saimyōshō arrives to deliver a message to the two zombies, warning them of a force heading their way to get payback for an earlier attack.
"Suikotsu! Sesshomaru's coming!"
Rin, who was still being held by the back of her kimono in Jakotsu's right hand, becomes hopeful of a possible rescue.
"Really?"
"Kill the kids later. Right now, we need to lure Sesshomaru into the barrier."
With his frustrations only beginning to settle, Suikotsu retracts his life-threatening position and replies with bite in his voice while looking at his metal claws,
"Yes!...I know."
...We move now to the very edge of Mount Hakurei's foot, where the subject dog demon was currently approaching, his efforts concentrated on tracking down the two mercenary zombies who dared to try and pull an ambush on him while also making off with his youngest ward.
(...Bzzzt)
And just as before, he would be met with some resistance from the growing strength of the holy barrier...But Sesshomaru wasn't about to let such stop his travels this time.
I found them...They're just up ahead.
As he continued forward, Jaken struggles to catch up on his own feet after barely regaining enough strength to move by himself.
"Ah, hah, wait for me, my lord. Guh, hah..."
(Bzzzt)
"Gaaaaaah!"
He of course would be met with a more substantial repel by the mountain's purifying energies, his body getting singed but avoiding full-on obliteration...Once he got his breath back and wasn't cringing from his new injuries, Jaken calls in warning to his master,
"Lord Sesshomaru, it's a trap! That's why they've abducted Rin, hah, so they can lure you into the barrier! Don't go any further!"
(Bzzzt)
"Dauh! Huaaah!"
The imp shields his irises, expecting the worst when the sacred barrier shocks against Sesshomaru's body again...but would become a little flabbergasted, when he sees the other walk onward into the misty fog without so much as a flinch.
"...Huh? Lord Sesshomaru! (Trip) Doh!"
Lifting his face from the ground, Jaken stares on ahead where his master vanished with a gaping mouth of awe and disbelief.
Doesn't he feel anything? Am I the only one feeling sick?
Feeling inspired by the dog demon's physical resolve, the imp forms a determined expression and exclaims while rising to a stand again,
"If he can handle it, I can! I can do anything once I put my mind to it!"
He makes a run for the direction that Sesshomaru disappeared to...
(Bzzzzt)
"Gaaauh!"
But the imp's stubborn determination would unfortunately not be enough to help him pass through the energies of the sacred barrier, leaving him to go flying backwards to the ground again, his yellow eyes spinning on axis as he dizzily corrects himself.
Th-Then again, maybe not...
By this time, Suikotsu and Jakotsu had left the home situated at the farthest point of the mountain foot village with their young hostage, leaving Chiyo and Yuuta to pick up the broken pieces left in the form of the scattered, bleeding bodies and shattered trust in the once gentle doctor...
They and the other orphan children then sense another source of life approaching, and look up to see our priestess unlawfully called back from the land of the dead slowly making her way over to them, using her bow as a crutch as the holy energies of these lands mercilessly take their toll on her own grip to the living earth.
"Huh?" "It's Lady Kikyō...!"
Smiling softly and weakly, the woman with long, black ebony hair tied back with the modern-day elastic gifted to her by another greets the young faces.
"Children. I'm glad to see you safe."
...After assessing the damage, however, Kikyō would conclude that the word 'safe' only applied to more physical matters...
"I'm too late...Suikotsu did this, didn't he?"
Chiyo nodded his head with a regretfully sad expression, and Yuuta mutters with a sad frown,
"I don't understand...The doctor came back looking so kind."
"He's changed, though...inside."
The priestess nods, understanding what the young girl and boy were referring to, and turns her brown irises towards the distant mountain, glaring a little in thought.
...Mount Hakurei no longer has any effect on Suikotsu, which means, the Shikon-no-Tama shard has become more tainted.
Softening her gaze a bit to reflect a more neutral front, she then asks another woman from beyond,
Rosiagnes...what is your take on this development?
"Well, as me reincard and one of her kin had already sussed out before, the heathen's mentality expresses a more complex issue than seen on the surface. To put it in a way we women of the older world can comprehend, his Darkness has nearly devoured all of his Light...which may be this Suikotsu's very undoing in the end."
How so?
"Recall that despite what society may speculate, no being in existence can ever truly live without one side or the other. Light, Shadow...they must grow together with understanding, work together mutually and respect eachother's place within the Soul. If they clash like the dichotomous forces they are not...dire, perilous consequences will ensue for the one caught in the middle."
That grim philosophy would carry on the winds upward bound Mount Hakurei, as said subject of the topic led his feminine mercenary brother up a path cutting into the side of the rock face, he now carrying the despondent Rin under his arm. Pausing to look back where they walked, Jakotsu remarks,
"He's not following. I guess the barrier's too strong for even Sesshomaru to make it this far."
"Huh, I wouldn't say so."
Sounding a noise of confusion, he turns to follow Suikotsu's gaze forward towards a cliff ledge several feet above they...and spots Sesshomaru's figure through the dying fog! Rin's demeanor would brighten considerably as she casts a grateful smile towards the dog demon.
"Lord Sesshomaru, you've come!"
He does not sound a reply, of course, but if one looked closely, they would see his molten amber irises soften the slightest upon seeing that the young girl was alive and well...
"He cut us off."
Jakotsu curses after Suikotsu,
"Damn the wretch. (Glares at Sesshomaru) You're a demon yet the barrier isn't affecting you."
Watching the tall dog demon draw Tokijin, he would pull out his Jakotsutō blade to thrust in a first attack.
"Then maybe this will!"
But the multi-bladed sword would only connect with rock as Sesshomaru leaps to dodge a few offensive-driven swings, blocking the third...but not without taking a cut across his singular arm near the wrist! Rin was shocked to see that her lord actually took damage:
"My lord, you're wounded!"
Chuckling, Jakotsu smirks and comments with a smug tone,
"I thought so. You're skills have been dulled by the barrier."
Kikyō's POV
Given the present situation, on top of Rosiagnes's words regarding the consequence of allowing one's spirit to be overpowered by one over the other, I knew that I had to leave fast to catch up with Suikotsu, to find out if all hope for him was truly lost, as well as escape from these growing energies of Mount Hakurei's barrier. I boarded a horse whose owner was among those recently killed, and the young ones gather to me, confused and still innocent to much bigger crisis...
"You must leave the village at once, children, at least for a little while."
"Lady Kikyō..."
"We have nowhere to go."
"Listen well: if you stay here any longer, misfortunes are sure to befall you."
I do not explain any further, and nudged the mare to get going, riding fast across the plains along the edge of the forest...As I galloped on, I found myself recalling Bankotsu's words from our short meeting.
(Flash)
"I know one thing, Kikyō: Dead people like you and I will probably share the same fate...Let's just both enjoy the time we have here on earth."
"I have no interest in those so-called other worlds. I do as I please with no fear of the Afterlife."
(Flash)
...If only I was able to find joy that lasted longer than short-lived...
Perhaps then my heart would not quiver in thinking of dying once more.
No POV
We catch up now with the demon slayer and monk from our main group of heroic travelers, as they wander about the cave they discovered within the valley of the sacred mountain, using a torch to light their way...
"Look, Miroku."
"What is it? You see something over there?"
"Is it possible that we may have gotten lost? This is the same path we just took."
...There's a two second pause before the monk replies,
"Is that so?"
Pivoting her head from the spot she was staring that which tipped her as a landmark, the woman with long, banged dark brown hair remarks,
"The faster we turn around, the easier it'll be to backtrack."
"Perhaps. This cave is incredible. It's almost like a maze in here."
That wasn't the answer Sango was hoping for:
"Hmph. Now I get it...You don't know the way outta here, do you?"
"What about you? Can you lead us to the outside?"
"Kah, I was just following you; I didn't think I'd have to remember the way!"
"There you go again, always blaming others!"
...Realizing that arguing was going to do squat except prolonging eachother's frustrations, the pair sigh deeply before resolving to continue walking down the pathways until a viable exit presented itself...
"Nothing here..."
...
...
Soon enough, they come across a glowing silhouette of ghostly green in the next shadowed length of the path up ahead, before it vanishes from sight. Sango asks Miroku on alert,
"You saw that just now too?"
"I did."
...The figure reappears in the deeper part of the cave, the glow now confirmed to be a luminous cloak covering most of their body...Watching them go further in, the young monk comments,
"It's almost as if it wants us to follow it..." Sango speculates,
"It may be some kind of trap..."
"I don't sense any demonic aura. (Slight smile) Besides, you know how the old saying goes, Sango: 'nothing ventured, nothing gained'."
As they begin trailing after their new lead in the strange goings-on of this mountain, we zoom in on the glowing figure...and find it to be noneother than Kohaku!
I can't let those two go any further...Please, just follow me...
Shifting to the outside of Mount Hakurei's inner sanctums, we return to that area opening into the valley, where Sesshomaru was facing off against Jakotsu while Suikotsu held Rin under his arm as leverage. As soon as her big brown irises caught the drop of blood trickling from her lord's arm, she immediately began struggling for freedom.
"Aaauuh, Lord Sesshomaru!"
But she would stop as soon as a section of sharp metal claws pointed threateningly at her person.
"Be quiet."
Meanwhile, Jakotsu comments on the dog demon's perseverance.
"Your pride is truly astounding...especially since you can barely even stand, all thanks to the barrier!"
He then thrusts Jakotsutō at Sesshomaru, who uses Tokijin to wrap the multi-bladed sword around his own, before harshly tossing it and their wielder up and over his own body! The feminine male barely had enough time to prep himself for the flip, before struggling to leap in a backwards somersault to dodge the counterattack, landing in a one-knee kneeling position...
That, wretch. Hah, hah, acting like he's perfectly fine when he's not.
He's gradually trying to move away from the barrier, though...which means it is hard on him.
"Hey, Suikotsu, make sure you don't move away from the mountain!"
"I don't need to be reminded, Jakotsu. You just concentrate on ridding the menace. Make it fast 'cause I'm just itching to slaughter this brat."
The zombie with dual personalities aims his claws closer to Rin's neck, she letting out a quiet cry as he thought back to that moment in the village.
I couldn't kill those village kids 'cause the doctor interfered...
"This time, I'll do it for certain."
Frightened, the young girl whisper-yells,
"Help, Lord Sesshomaru...!"
Jakotsu jeers at the dog demon,
"Don't do anything funny...One wrong move and the kid is dead, you got that?"
Another intense pause comes to pass along the breeze, and the feminine zombie forms his ruby lips into a snide smirk as he took a step forward at the ready for round two.
"It's funny. It's just a matter of time when you think about it."
"Is that what you think? Hah."
Watching Jakotsu raise his blade...Sesshomaru hms with a small smirk of his own, causing the former to get bristled.
"Why you arrogant wretch, what's so damn funny?! You're hardly in any position to be laughing!"
Jakotsutō is thrust forward...and in response, the dog demon charges forward, while also shooting Tokijin on a straight course behind him, much to the zombie's shock!
He threw his sword away!
(...TOK)
The demon blade lands right into Suikotsu's left breast...at the same time Sesshomaru's mokomoko-sama is damaged by the blades of Jakotsutō, he ignoring the sting of the injuries...
(SHOOM)
"Aaaauuuuuuuuh!"
So he could drive his singular hand right into the feminine male's chest! Blood pours from Jakotsu, and he lets out several grimaced winces, his face falling against the fur of his opponent, just as Suikotsu fell to his knees from the penetration by Tokijin...Rin shoves herself away out of the zombie's arm, before hurrying to run towards her savior.
"Lord Sesshoma-Ugh!"
...Unfortunately, the metal-clawed male wasn't through yet courtesy of the Shikon-no-Tama fragment keeping him rooted to this world, and reaches out to pin the young girl face-down on the ground, his lips forming a sadistic, pained smile.
"You're not going anywhere."
He wouldn't be the only one: Jakotsu was still technically alive as well since his jewel shards remained, and he struggles to move himself off of Sesshomaru while commenting,
"R-Rgh...Up close like this, you really are attractive. Keh-heheheh, nice try, but we cannot be slain like normal mortals."
Pulling Tokijin out his chest and tossing it aside, Suikotsu inquires,
"Whaddo you think? I've waited long enough...I'm gonna kill her now. That idiot doctor...he's too scared to come out 'cause of my injury."
Rin gasps as the zombie's jewel shards emit that black sheen in time with his fellow mercenary brother's...
"It's incredible. This urge to kill is overwhelming..."
He raises his weapon high, and Sesshomaru broke away from Jakotsu to rush in and stop the former.
"You fool! It's too late to save her!"
"Now die!"
(...TOK)
"Uh!"
...Unfortunately for Suikotsu, another force would put the breaks to his assault, in the form of a Sacred Arrow striking him straight in his neck where his tainted jewel shard laid!...That arrow, was released from Kikyō's own bow, she arriving in the area just in time to save Rin from that horrible fate.
Suikotsu...The light from your Shikon-no-Tama shard is tainted black...
You are no longer.
His body falls flat on his back, and Rin wastes no time in reaching her lord's side.
"Lord Sesshomaru!"
Settling herself down from her horse, the priestess weakly makes her way down to the group with a few stumbles kept in check with using her bow as a crutch again. Jakotsu forms a hostile, and somewhat fearful expression:
"Gh! That dead priestess again...She scares me more than anyone."
He decides to hide himself for the time being...Kikyō walks past Sesshomaru and Rin, and kneels beside Suikotsu, who pivots his head towards her...a softer, sadder smile on his face.
"...Lady Kikyō, it's you."
"Uh!...Doctor Suikotsu."
"At last...I have, returned..."
We see that the jewel shard was glowing that pink fuchsia light again, indicating that for this moment at least, Suikotsu would be dying as a good man rather than a killer...Turning his head so his vision was cast to the twinkling lights high in the skies, the mentally-suffering zombie laments over what had happened to his more dormant persona.
"The tainted dark light blocked my way...I couldn't become myself..."
The undead woman with alabaster skin and ebony black hair wonders to herself, conflicted,
Did my Sacred Arrow purify the shard?
...What do I do with him now? Must I kill him?
"Whether ye do or not, the heathen's fate is already sealed, I'm afraid, priestess."
Uh!...Already sealed?
"Aye...His expression says it all, what road he wishes to travel now..."
Rosiagnes's predictions would be made plain with the following plea made by the man in question.
"...Lady Kikyō?"
"Hm?"
"...Please remove the Shikon-no-Tama shard from my neck...Do that for me...then it will all be over. I can rest in peace...My last wish...is, to be released."
"...You're certain? Do you choose death?"
"I'm certain."
Suikotsu blinks, his eyes shining slightly as his mind floods with long forgotten memories.
"I finally remember what happened...I died before, long ago in the past."
Flashback
"Pu~re has become impure,
I~mpure has now become pure..."
We find ourselves overlooking the grounds of a village being burned to the brink, that deceitfully innocent song acting as a warning of things to come...
"When I was alive before, I was, tormented by uncertainty...I-I didn't know what was right, or, what was wrong."
Zooming in on the wooden debris of one destroyed home, we revisit the scene where the physician side of Suikotsu with the nervous heart of a saint tried to save the life of a young girl who was but a stone's throw away from taking Death's inviting hand.
"I can save her. I know I can save her!"
One man who was still alive tries to plead the other to flee and not be a hero.
"Doctor, it's too late for that child! Just let her die and let's get out of here!"
"Don't be ridiculous! There's still hope!"
"But the samurai are heading this way! They'll kill us!"
No threat to his own being was going to stop Suikotsu, firm in his faith.
"Flee if you want, but I'm going to save this child...!"
...But as we'll recall...
(SLICE)
The little girl will have been slaughtered before the physician's eyes, which is revealed now to have been the fault of a mercenary samurai stabbing her with his sword!
"Hauh!...You, killed her. Why?! How could you do that?!"
"I put her out of her misery. You should be grateful."
Suikotsu could only stare with horror as the blade is pulled out of the little chest, irises fixed onto the crimson dripping from the steel...
"Just following our lord's instructions. He instructed us to kill every last person in the village."
With that in the wind, the mercenary prepares to advance on the physician, who falls and crawls back with terror at the male's sneer.
"No, stay back!"
Out of defensive reflex, the latter quickly grabs one of his surgical knifes, and just as the former raises his sword to strike...
(SLASH)
Suikotsu beats him with his own attack, cutting deeply into the torso! Blood spills with the winced outcry of the mercenary, red spattering onto the shell-shocked doctor, watching as the other falls hard on the ground face-up...
"I, was a physician, who had sworn to save people's lives..."
...The knife drops.
"And yet, I had killed someone with my own hands..."
Suikotsu joins afterward, falling to his knees, bug-eyed with fear over the action he had just performed, his body shaking with hitched breaths as he gazes down at his bloodstained hands...
"Looking back, I was probably harder on myself than anyone else might've been. I couldn't forgive myself...I didn't know what to do."
Rather, he knew no other way to react than let out a yell of anguish to ring through the smoke-filled air, before burying his face into his palms to sob...
"That's, when it happened. When I, heard the voice."
"Why don't you stop acting the part of the saint? You're not interested in helping people!"
Freezing for a second to the sound of a deeper, deadlier projection of his own vocals, 'Suikotsu the Physician' darts his head up from his hands to look around, finding no one but himself...He would soon dart to his feet upon hearing the voice get louder, his imagination manifesting an image of his other self, the 'Suikotsu of the Shichinintai'.
"Deep inside, you want to kill. You're just itching to kill and kill!"
"...Suddenly, it became clear to me: the person who was speaking was me. Myself."
Time passes, and we would soon pay witness to the killer mercenary those back in the day would know as Suikotsu, he showing no remorse or mercy to those he murdered with his metal claws.
"An incredible evil lurked in my heart...and that evil, made me kill over, and over again..."
...In the aftermath of one violent raid, he would meet the faces of the young leader of the Shichinintai and his feminine brother.
"Not long afterward, I met Bankotsu, and joined the Band of Seven, and murder became second nature to me."
End of Flashback
"I've done some horrible things...My dark side has killed so many...and during it all, the doctor in me wasn't able to stop the senseless brutality. No matter how many lives I saved...no matter how hard I tried to make a difference...my soul has no hope of being redeemed."
Kikyō felt her heart go out to the struggling man, understanding his contradictions through her own hardships.
"...Doctor Suikotsu. You are not alone in your turmoil: Good and Evil coexist in all men who walk the earth. You must not give into the dark side."
Just as I myself, was close to being swallowed by my own bitter side of the Soul...
Even with the truth in the priestess's words, Suikotsu was sure that he was a lost cause.
"You're wrong, Lady Kikyō...I would likely do it all again if I were able to...I couldn't stop myself...The mere, thought is unbearable...!"
She, Sesshomaru and Rin stare with pity at the dying man, whose eyes fill with tears as he mutters his dying wish once more.
"Please, I beg of you, Lady Kikyō...remove the jewel shard and release my tormented soul."
"Doctor Suikotsu..."
"...Please do this for me...I beg of you."
Not wanting him to suffer any longer, the undead woman raises a hand to fulfill Suikotsu's request...but stopped herself as her thoughts echo with both Bankotsu's philosophy, and Rosiagnes's metaphor.
"I know one thing, Kikyō: Dead people like you and I will probably share the same fate..."
"...the end is not an abyss...but another way of saying, the beginning."
With these words in mind...she attempts to reach towards the dying mercenary's neck again, hesitant...
(Thrust, TOK)
"Uh...!"
But just then, the blades of Jakotsutō come flying in to hack at Suikotsu's flesh, ripping away the Shikon-no-Tama shard and causing it to fly through the air...into Jakotsu's waiting hand.
"Hmph. (Smirk) I'll take this as a memento."
He turns to rush back, while Kikyō focuses her eyes on where the jewel shard was taken from.
"Doctor Suikotsu...!"
"And so it ends. It's finally over..."
...Suikotsu smiles...and his body glows faintly as the flesh rots away, leaving Rin to gasp with a look of shock as the mercenary of dual identities is reduced to an armoured skeleton...! Jakotsu wastes no time in running out of the area, knowing there was no battle to be had here anymore.
"Ha! Farewell, losers!"
But the others could care less whether the zombie got away or not, attention focused on the degrading wisp of dead skin dust leaving the worn skull of the man formerly known as Suikotsu...Kikyō's face contorts to express a stony sadness, closing her deep brown irises to mentally pray for the zombie's reentry into the afterlife.
...Suikotsu...may you rest in peace.
After a moment, Rin would approach the older woman to thank her for the well-timed rescue.
"Excuse me, priestess? Thank you so much for saving my life."
Smiling a little, Kikyō replies in a soft tone,
"You're welcome. I'm glad you're not hurt. You must have been scared."
The young girl with bushy black hair styled with a tiny pigtail on her right side nods, but then casts a sad expression to the new skeleton laying on the valley floor.
"At times, he was frightening...but other times..."
She then senses Sesshomaru beginning to part from the area, and quickly bows to the priestess before rushing to catch up.
"Goodbye!"
Kikyō watches the two leave for a minute...before residing to her own agenda.
I too must leave this place...before the Souls within me helping to root my own fade, and I'm left unable to move.
...As she started her slow trek back to her horse, Sesshomaru pauses to glance back at the woman's form.
Hm...The priestess who bound Inuyasha to a tree...
She's just like the others: reeking of bones and graveyard soil.
...Perhaps she was given a glimpse of her own fate.
"Lord Sesshomaru?"
"...We must leave, Rin."
The dog demon walks on again, and his young ward simply replies,
"Coming," they leaving on their way to where he last left Jaken...
Time Skip
Morning light would soon to come to stream over the lands of Mount Hakurei, and we climb up the tall stab of rock to an exit from the winding paths within, where Kohaku would stop at after leading Sango and Miroku astray. He removes his cloak, which upon kissing the sun rays loses its luminous green, and looks back where he came where the slayer and monk would soon come from with a rather, conflicted expression.
I wish they would leave. I don't want to fight them.
"...Kohaku."
"Uh!"
He turns around to meet eyes with Kanna the Void Demon, who tells him,
"Stop them...They mustn't escape."
Despite the rising confusion in his heart courtesy of the spiritual battle within his very Soul, Kohaku knew he couldn't afford hesitance in his current affairs.
"(...Nod) Right."
...
A little while later, he and the incarnation would be gone, leaving his sister and Miroku to step-climb out of the cave to gaze outward to the sunrise...Looking back where they just came out from, Sango concludes,
"We must've spent the entire night trying to find our way out of the cave."
The monk wonders while peering back himself,
"I can't seem to figure out that apparition. Why would it have done that?"
He would receive his answer in but a few seconds, when Sango spots the green cloak Kohaku accidentally (or purposely) left behind. Reaching to gingerly pick it up into one of her hands, she mutters in surprise,
"This cape...Don't tell me..."
"What do you think it is?"
The brunette woman doesn't answer aloud, thinking observantly,
This cape is made from phosphorescent moss. Demon Slayers use it for night raids...
Her irises shine with a shivering realization:
Kohaku is here.
"...Sango?"
Quickly rising to her feet, the slayer informs the monk with a serious tone,
"We must hurry, Miroku," before they both cast their irises to the towering peak above...
As for the bulk of our main group of brave travelers, we would find them settled inside and near the mouth of the cave by the low-sloping waterfall, recuperating from escaping the area where Kōga fought in a vicious battle against Ginkotsu and Renkotsu.
The wolf demon himself was still unconscious, propped up in a laying position against a smooth protrusion of stone with the Brownlee twins, Ginta and Hakkaku keeping a vigil over his condition.
"...Will you guys be able to help Kōga? With your crystals, I mean."
Freeman and Besa hm in confusion from Hakkaku's question...before smiling softly and replying,
"We'll do our best,"
"But most of the healing needs to be done by Kōga to avoid a possible development of dependency, so we'll only go as far as the first scabbing."
Nodding in understanding, Ginta chides,
"Do what you think is best...Just please, don't let him die."
Softening his face into a sympathetically assuring smile, Freeman reaches to squeeze his mate's shoulder, muttering,
"We won't. Kōga's not leaving this earth today."
He then turns to face the unconscious wolf demon, and hovers his wrist with the bracelet holding the prism-coloured shard of crystal over the latter's torso, Besa's joining overtop.
(Sheen...)
"Ready, bro?"
(Sheen...)
"Always, brother."
...Then outside near the entrance, we find Inuyasha and Coraline sitting together on the edge of a small cliff dipping down with the winding blue, his arm around her waist and she leaning into his side, their gazes cast away from the current situation for this moment. Shippo and Kilala watched them from a few feet higher up, the former questioning in a whisper,
"...Wonder what they're thinking about?"
The twin-tail cat demon only mewed in response, no more sure than the young kit...Focusing on the young couple, we see that their irises were each narrowed into distasteful glares, fixated on the distant, pretty picture that was Mount Hakurei for this new morning.
Nrh, weather's too nice around here.
Coraline's mental comment would be a little more hateful.
...What a loathsome place.
Unbeknownst to her, Kikyō, whom had exited the valley where Suikotsu's skeleton now laid and was now distancing herself from the mountain, pauses her steps when she hears a faint, telepathic echo...and smiles bitterly.
"Heh."
I couldn't agree with you more...Soul Sister.