Chapter 135: Soul Bond, Immortalized
Continuing from the last scene, we rejoin Inuyasha, Coraline and Shippo as the two latter ride atop the back of the former, following the slimy cocoon-trapped wolf demon, Kōga, in a downward trajectory within the crumbling walls of Mount Hakurei's central sanctum. Following after them in their own group of four was Freeman, Besa, Ginta and Hakkaku, the two humans cloaked in that transparent rainbow glow courtesy of their Seven Light Crystals so they had some form of protection against the acidic compound spewing from some of the cracks in the stone flesh...
The dog demon in red does get close to grabbing Kōga once, but would be forced to draw back his hand when another tendril fragment gets close to hitting his appendage. Watching her wolf demon friend's vulnerable form dive deeper and deeper into the dark abyss tugged at Coraline's heartstrings.
Kōga...
Inuyasha curses and hurries to land atop a more stable, protruding part of the pit's wall, the twins and two wolf demons slide to a halt on the opposite side atop another cliff-like edge.
"Hah, hah, damn, this place is cracking up fast!"
"We gotta get a move on before we're buried alive."
"But then...Kōga..."
Matching frowns of conflict form on their faces, unsure of what to do...
"Inuyasha, Coraline, everyone!"
Eyes turn above and lock onto where Miroku's call came from, he riding with Sango on board a fully-formed Kilala. As she worked to use her Hiraikotsu as a shield above their heads, the demon slayer calls in a muffle from behind her filter mask,
"We have to get out of here quickly or the miasma will kill us!"
Sensing the torrent of emotions wracking within the fellow redhead since her Aura Powers started spiking, Shippo gently but firmly tries to coax,
"Coraline...I know how you feel, but there's nothing more we can do for Kōga. We have to give up on saving him."
Sucking in a breath between her teeth, the girl with glowing dark arctic blue eyes mutters forcefully,
"I...I know."
He, wouldn't want all his comrades dying in a crazy attempt to rescue him...
Still. This is a really unfair way of going out from the world for a demon warrior...
"Who says we all gotta give up?"
"Huh?"
Expressions of surprise focus onto the young male with bright jade green irises surrounded by dark brown and short, coarse black hair, whom had been formulating a plan with the other three in his proximity in the short time Miroku, Sango and Kilala caught up. His own face reflected a burning determination to not quit on a friend just yet.
"We can still go after Kōga, me, Besa, Ginta and Hakkaku. The rest of you, get the heck outta here while you still can!"
"What?!" "No!"
"Are you outta your minds?!"
"This place is falling apart at the seams, not to mention the miasma-"
Besa interrupts the young monk with the calm argument of,
"Will not effect us so long as our crystals remain shining. Meanwhile, Hakakku and Ginta have demon immunity; they'll be strong enough to combat the poisonous air for a while even without our help. Plus, I highly doubt they're going to abandon their pack leader so fast, (turns to them) right?"
The wolf demon with the blond Mohawk and black-brown irises nods firmly.
"Right!"
The other with silver-blue irises and short, blue-grey/black hair follows with his own reply of,
"Absolutely! We've already lost too many tribe members to that bastard Naraku! To lose our leader without at least trying to save him...It's unthinkable."
The rest of the group stares at the four in amazement for their dedication to the appending, noble and somewhat foolhardy task...
"Someone needs to go after Naraku, and another needs to prevent the loss of another good soul! It's as simple as that! Now go, all of you!"
"...Bros..."
Coraline felt her eyes well up a little at the thought of separating from her kin at such a dire hour, but swallows her tears and nods in agreement with the logic.
"...Okay, you're right. Do it, guys, but please...be careful."
Smiling, Freeman and Besa reply,
"We will,"
"And don't worry. We'll come out of the mountain alive, Cora...That's a promise."
The latter brother with black cornrowed hair turns to lock his own dark forest green irises ringed by dark brown with Inuyasha's amber.
"Inuyasha...please take care of our sister like you always do."
"Besa...(Small smirk) I will, and you and the others better walk out with that scrawny wolf, or you'll be hearing from me."
"Heh, I don't doubt that...Now then."
The young human male casts his attention to the pit below, along with the other three men in his proximity.
"Let's go!"
"Right!"
They all jump as one, and the quadruplet of bodies sink into the darkness, while the dog demon and twin-tail cat demon start carting everyone else upward out of the mountain's insides. Watching as the four auras shrink and disappear from aboard her boyfriend/intended's back, Coraline thinks to herself,
Please god...let there not be any deaths on our side today.
Kikyō's POV
As soon as the very grounds of this once pure-aired mountain began to rumble and I sensed the exponential rise of dark energy, I knew that something had changed in favour of that wicked demon.
Is this evil presence Naraku?...Still. I sense something different in it.
The evil has become potent and thick enough that I could not sense the auras of my allies, not even Coraline's soul, which considering how strong the energies were before was in itself strange and foreboding...
That's when the shaking became more powerful, making me narrow my irises on alert.
Mount Hakurei is disintegrating...!
"Aye, he comes, that black-hearted devil of these lands. Take heed, priestess, take heed!"
I shall, Rosiagnes.
...
The tip of the mountain splits down the middle a few ways, and opens to release a stream of miasma as thick as smoke, with a large orb of dark pink light acting as lead, like a falling star. I knew instantly whom was projecting such aura, but kept calm even as the orb came barreling down the side of the crumbling mountain, the impact sending a shockwave through the ground and cracking it around me...
As soon as it settled but a few yards away, I would be greeted by the sight of my newly-reformed enemy, his arrogant smirk and chuckle as memorable as before.
"...Naraku."
"Ah, Kikyō...we meet again."
Ginta's POV
Hang in there, Kōga; we're coming!
The drop down into the pit of this unstable mountain didn't take as long as I expected it to be, and the four of us - my mate included - would soon be near the bottom...if you could even call it a bottom.
Covering my mouth with a cough, I exclaim,
"A whole pool of poison!"
The others weren't feeling any better off than I was, stifling their own coughs of discomfort from the increase of these nauseating fumes.
"Mus-(cough), be a byproduct of Naraku's transformation..."
"Aw man...if he fell in that..."
"Wait, there!"
Following Freeman's point, we spot the one slimy cocoon that Kōga was trapped in!
"There he is!" "Kōga!"
"I got this!"
Besa starts diving down faster than the rest of us, quickly pulling out his sickles to hack open the gross prison.
"Haaaa-ah!"
(SLICE-SLICE, sploosh)
Two strokes was all it took to break open the sac, and Kōga would be free...I quickly drag Freeman over towards the wall in our trajectory downward so I could use my claws to grip the rock while he held onto me, and while we hung over yonder, Hakkaku landed atop that piece of hardened tentacle with Besa to help carry our unconscious friend...
"How is he; is Kōga alright?!"
Besa calls back to me,
"He's unconscious and has some burns on his skin from the poison, but other than that, he'll live if we get him out of here!"
And the sooner the better. Naraku must have tried to absorb Kōga to get his jewel shards...Damn him.
Freeman and I hurry to follow after Hakkaku and Besa up out of this abyssal pit, using the falling pieces of the mountain to clamber out as fast as our legs could carry us. I hear a strangled cough emit from Kōga, he being carried with his arms around our friends' shoulders and his shoulders having their arms, and spot him vomiting up a bit of that slimy stuff, making my own stomach churn a little.
Ugh, poor Kōga...
"Glad to see you're still alive, man."
"B...Besa?...Hakkaku..."
My more active friend smiles and nods at him, and once he was more awake, Kōga then asks frantically,
"Naraku! What happened to Naraku?!"
Freeman and I answer as we jump up ahead of the three,
"He's back with a body stronger than ever!"
"The others are making chase after him, and we need to catch up!"
...
After several minutes of real intense climbing, we'd reach a little more than halfway towards the top of the shaft...However.
"Dammit, where's the exit?!"
I exclaim after my mate,
"Oh no!...Don't tell me we're too late!"
Kōga berates our loud thoughts with the scold of,
"Gauh, you idiots! Don't you know the way out?!"
Besa argues back as he and Hakkaku dodge one rock while hopping off another,
"We do, but the main exits have been blocked off already! So the only way we're getting out is through the top...if that hasn't already been sealed too."
"You gotta be kiddin' me!...This is so not how I pictured goin' out, so you all better work hard to make sure it doesn't come true!"
Hearing the strong belief in our abilities behind the aggravation made us smile and smirk a little, and Freeman calls back,
"No worries, man! This mountain's not gonna be any of our graves today!"
He then pulls out his long hammer, and swings it against a huge rock heading our way, smashing it to pieces.
"Now's our chance; let's motor!"
Summoning every ounce of strength in our legs, we make our biggest leap upward yet...and finally reach this sunny opening in the top of the mountain!
"Yeah!" "Alright!"
"Outside, here we come!"
A few minutes earlier, Inuyasha's POV
My friends, lover and I managed to reach near the top of this godforsaken shaft while two (or I guess I should say four) of our own dove down deeper to rescue Kōga, assuming he was still alive...But that's when we ran into another problem.
"It's no use! All the openings are already sealed!"
I call back to Sango as I moved to temporarily settle on another projected part of the crumbling wall,
"You gotta be kidding me!"
No way...No way we're dying like this!
Shippo cries,
"Isn't there any way out?!"
"(Ghostly moan)"
"Huh?"
Looking up, we all spot that little orb Lumos circling over the center point of the shaft.
Hang on...that must be the weak point!
Miroku must've caught onto what I was thinking too, and reaches to remove those beads from his cursed hand.
"It's too early to give up! If there's no exit, we'll just have to make one!"
Sensing what was about to come to pass, the Will O' Wisp hurries down our way so he wouldn't be drawn into oblivion...
"Wind Tunnel!"
(Whoooooooosssssshhhhhhhh...)
Once he sucked down most of the rock, we'd get a wide enough opening for an escape route.
"Alright, Miroku!"
I turn to the kid and ask,
"Shippo, can ya take us out on your balloon form?"
"I'm on it!"
He hops off of me for the air and transforms in a puff of smoke to his larger form.
"Hurry!"
Keeping Coraline on my back, I jump on top of Shippo so he could fly us out of here right behind Kilala...
We're all soon high up in the air and flying away from the collapsing mountain.
Man, to think that used to be a holy place, and now...
Shippo then brings up the people of our extended pack that haven't come out of Hakurei yet.
"Where are the guys? Anybody see them yet?"
"Maybe they didn't make it out in time..."
My intended scolds the monk for his quick judgement.
"No way! They will get out of the mountain with Kōga; I know they will!...My brothers don't keel over that fast, and Ginta and Hakkaku are tougher than they give themselves credit for."
I wrap my arm around her in comfort, also sure that those four, the twins in particular, wouldn't die saving that wimpy wolf.
Freeman, Besa...you better come outta there with the others soon.
No POV
As everyone of our main group plus more hurries to make their escape from the destruction of the once proud mountain, the priestess wandering these lands with death stalking her continues to stand face-to-face with the stronger evil that has plagued these lands for far too long...
"Naraku. What is the meaning of your appearance?"
His smirk does not waver, and answers in a way like he was talking about the simplest topic to date,
"Isn't it obvious? This is my new, rejuvenated body."
Kikyō's glaring dark brown irises don't flinch, not buying what the demon was selling.
"Don't make me laugh. Do you think my eyes can't see the truth? You may look formidable, but such finery is nothing but a facade. You escaped to Mount Hakurei, and went so far as to put up a Sacred Barrier. What were you after?!"
Naraku's face contorts into a sneer:
"Ha. So you noticed, did you? How very astute."
And I suspect based on the earlier stare, that strange woman with the strong soul may have detected something as well...
"Just before the mountain collapsed, your incarnation, Kagura, left with something in her possession..."
Drawing an arrow against the string of her bow at ready, Kikyō demands,
"Tell me: what is your purpose?!"
...
By this time, the part of the group whom escaped Mount Hakurei first had reached a cliff overlooking the crumbling mountain. Inuyasha, Coraline and Shippo - he back in his normal form - were the ones actually standing on the ground, while Miroku and Sango hovered above on Kilala, Lumos floating inbetween. They were all waiting with bated breath for the other missing five to meet up, praying they hadn't perished...
That's when the woman with red hair sensed it.
(Pulse...)
"Uh! The shards..."
Everyone turns to look at her as she adds,
"I sense the two shards in Kōga's possession!...And...(Wide smile) Yes! His and the other four's auras!"
...Peering into the dust protruding from the collapsing rock, we see Freeman and Ginta leap out from one side, and Besa and Hakkaku - still holding onto the injured wolf demon leader - on the other!
"There they are!"
Shippo cheers after Coraline,
"They made it!"
Hearing their shouts, the twins look up to see the forms waiting for them on the cliff.
"Uh! Sis!" "Inuyasha, Shippo!"
...But what they should've paid attention to was the slabs of giant stone still falling around them and the three wolf demons! Sango calls down to them,
"Watch out!"
Thinking quickly, Kōga snaps his heels down to push off another sinking boulder, pulling the two friends by his sides to do the same.
"Come on!"
"Whoa!" "Uh!"
Thanks to the jewel shards in the one wolf demon's legs, they all got enough momentum to hop the rest of the way, with Freeman and Ginta just barely making chase in a similar route.
"Almost there!"
"Just one, more...JUMP!"
The very grounds surrounding the mountain area shake like a crashed cymbal as the last of Hakurei falls apart as if it were a tower of blocks knocked down by a toddler...and the five escaping humans and wolf demons slide safety onto the surface of the cliff...
"Bros, guys!"
Coraline runs over to meet them, engulfing her brothers in a group hug oozing in relief.
"Oh thank god, you're alright!"
"Cora...!" "Easy, easy!"
Squeezing eachother tight, the redhead pulls back a little to display her happy smile towards the wolf demons as well.
"And Kōga, Ginta, Hakkaku...I'm really glad to see you guys are okay too."
They just nod back with smiles of their own, around the time Shippo comes scampering over to hop atop Freeman's shoulder.
"That was amazing! You and Besa are like, the humans that defy demon logic or something!"
"Haha, I dunno about that, little dude, but I like your confidence."
"...So you made it alive after all, did you?"
"Hm?"
Eyes turn to Inuyasha as he walks over, who says with his own little smirk,
"Never doubted it for a second. That bastard's out of his mind if he thinks he can bury us all like a bunch of old bones...And, I do mean all of us."
His amber irises lock with Kōga's deep blue:
"Much as it almost kicks me to say this...you've become a valued sort of, friend if good rival...Kōga."
To say that the wolf demon with long black hair was surprised by such a comment from the half dog demon would be an understatement. He wasn't able to respond at first other than gaping...but then manages to quirk back with his own wry smirk,
"Tch, yeah, I, guess the feelin's mutual. But don't think too much on it, mutt."
"I won't if you won't, wolf."
The rest of the group standing atop the cliff stares between the two with amazement at the sign of growth, Shippo quietly commenting,
"Wow...I think this is the first time they haven't insulted eachother out of pettiness."
...
If only all good feelings like this could last.
Turning back to the area below, the air between Kikyō and Naraku couldn't be thicker with the deadliest of tension. The former finally releases that one arrow to go streaming past the right side latter's head, missing him by a hair!...She then draws out another while saying to him,
"I'll ask you just one more time...Naraku, tell me what your true purpose here is!"
"I'm surprised...Did you come all this way and go to all this trouble to ask me such a simple matter?"
The priestess's brown irises narrow:
"I'm the one who's asking the questions."
Chuckling, the demonic entity obliges, if a little cryptically.
"Round and round goes the spinning wheel, spinning and weaving a red thread of fate. Meeting Ransetsu, or should I say, Kansuke, was no coincidence."
Kikyo's eyes widen...
"It was all according to my plan."
"...You mean..."
"I merely took advantage of his desire in finding a place to die. It was all so simple: I put rumours into that dying man's head about the sacred grounds of Mount Hakurei, and thus set him on your path. Now do you understand? Hehahaha, you did not come here of your own accord. I lured you here!"
The priestess could not make a reply other than narrowing her irises with a grunt of anger...
"I have often heard you humans refer to this as fate or destiny."
She then recalls her time down the dark roads, back when her soul was only half of what it was, a bitter and forlorn half at that.
Once the threads of destiny become tangled, they cannot be undone...
Then came the memory of first heading for the direction of the once peacefully-standing Mount Hakurei.
To walk down this path once more, only confirms my cursed destiny...
While Kikyō may hold to these beliefs with seriousness, Naraku's reaction to such a school of thought was of a mocking scorn.
"Only the weak utter such nonsense. It is different for the truly powerful: they create this so-called destiny or fate with their own hands!"
For some reason, that statement caused the priestess to think about that day which reshaped her stance in the physical world a second time, when a certain young woman took a tremendous risk to mend that which was severed.
...Coraline...
An image of the questionable demon from another plain flashes before her vision, along with a snippet of his crazy laughter, causing a shiver to run down her spine and her skin to tingle in reaction...Shaking herself free from such thoughts, Kikyō replies calmly if a bit stiffly,
"Ugh, you're the one speaking nonsense...Naraku."
The demon with long black hair and red irises does not miss that fleeting moment of distraction in his enemy, and his smirk widens a touch.
"Oh yes. You were interested in finding out about my true aim."
...
A moment of silence drapes the grounds, until the evil speaks again.
"You wish to know? Then I shall tell you..."
Naraku raises his right arm, lengthening that one spike on his demon bone armour.
"You shall learn my purpose, what it is I need to accomplish at Mount Hakurei. (Grin) Here's your answer."
(...Slash-SNAP-SLASH)
"UH!"
A blade of fuchsia purple energy is released from the bone spike, destroying Kikyō's bow and arrow like they were merely twin toothpicks, before cutting into her right shoulder! She is too shocked to fully register...the pain she feels, as her blood seeps forth from the wound, wrapping the few escaping borrowed souls of the dead in a streaming river of red!
Naraku laughs cruelly, remarking with sadistic pleasure,
"What misery this must be for you, given the gift of a new body of flesh by the hands of an odd demon and the foolish sacrifice of that young swordswoman, only for it to be cut down by my own hand once more. Tell me, how does it feel to bleed from that same shoulder?"
Falling to her knees, the priestess growls out in anger while holding a hand over her injury,
"I curse you...Naraku...!"
Wait...how could he have known about...
"Oh yes, I know that body of yours has traces of demonic origin thanks to that ritual Coraline performed with that being from elsewhere...You underestimate me, Kikyō. Did you not believe I would have some form of eyes even in my absence?"
(Flash)
Returning to way back when, in that southeastern crater within the Forest of Inuyasha, just as everyone of this event gathers and the priestess draws an arrow at the demon partially responsible for the trouble...we zoom in on a crevice of one of the large boulders surrounding the landmark.
...Peering from within, is a single Saimyōshō!
(Flash)
"I admit, I was not impressed with his insults to my person...but his other comments were quite amusing, especially the ones regarding humans with guilt-ridden hearts...You must have felt quite retched when your soul was completed again, didn't you?"
Kikyo clenches her teeth, avoiding her enemy's stare for a second...
"Yet even with your, 'light and darkness' together again, your arrogance barely wavered...You still came here feeling self-assured, so certain that would not be able to kill you. You believed that as long as I had the heart of that worthless human, that pathetic bandit Onigumo who loved you with all of his being...you believed I wouldn't harm you. (Raises his right hand) I feel nothing, even after wounding you so. No remorse nor sadness."
Looking at Naraku again, the priestess wonders,
Does that mean that his heart no longer beats inside you?...I see!
That's what Kagura had in her possession: his human heart!
This realization only made her stomach knot up, adding to the pain in her bleeding shoulder, before attention would be drawn forward and behind her when Naraku steps closer to her immobile person.
"The bottom of this crevice is filled with my miasma. Your 'human' flesh will be devoured by the poison in a matter of seconds."
The demon's hand contorts and shifts so that the fingers had elongated into branch-like claws...
"Kikyo...this, will be your burial ground!"
(...SLASH)
(Flash)
A piece of the past comes rising within the victim's mind, in the form of that heartfelt moment by the pier in the Goshinboku Village more than fifty years ago...
No! Why are these memories coming back to me now?!
(Flash)
(SHOOM)
"AAUUH!"
Naraku's claws pierce straight through the priestess's chest, ripping through her robes and flesh, and releasing a torrent of blood, missing her heart and lungs by millimeters, yet was just as potent all the same!...The weaponized appendages retract as her body tumbles backwards into the small canyon, and in her state, Kikyō found herself receiving more flashbacks of her life before and after her demise, the first ones being filled with her moments with Inuyasha...before being overtaken by images of her and Coraline together...
Only one of their names echoes in her mind...and would receive that faint call in their own.
(Pulse...)
"Uh!"
...Kikyō...?
(Flash)
An image of Kikyō's struck body by Naraku's hand...
(Flash)
Uh!...No...NO!
(Pulse, pulse, pulse...)
A veil of dark arctic blue energy cloaks over Coraline's body, much to the concern of her loved ones.
"Uh! Coraline?" "Cora!"
"Sis, what's wrong?!" "Coraline!"
"What's goin' on? Say something, dammit!"
She herself wasn't sure of what was transpiring, but was focused on one thing.
This...can't...be...happening...!
(Sheen...)
"This be where I step in, reincard."
Ro-si-ag-nes...?
"Shh, rest, child...Allow me into your spirit, and I shan't fail ye."
(...SHEEN)
Her body is then overwhelmed by the light completely, the shine blinding the surrounding crowd.
"Agh!" "Rgh!" "Whah!"
"Auh!" "Whuh?!"
...When the light dies down, it would be Inuyasha who focuses back first, only to bulge his amber irises when he got a gander at the new vision before him.
What, in, the, hell...?!
The young woman known as Coraline Croft, was no longer standing before him. Instead, we see a different female, standing about a foot taller than the one before, with skin the shade of toasted ivory that seemed to carry an unearthly glow, deep red hair that reached to the end of her back in waterfall curls, and wore clothing depicting of a checkered fall red, forest green and midnight blue dress (the top left plain with the second dominant colour), a leather belt where the sheathed ShatterSoul Sword now rested, and brown leather shoes...
The only similarity the dog demon seemed to recognize, was the two-tone irises of lapis and sapphire blue, the white of her eyes clouded by veins dark arctic rather than the whole completely shining that shade.
"C...Coraline...?"
The redheaded woman in the strange garments does not heed the bated whisper of Inuyasha, instead focusing her vision far away from this vantage, to where another's body was plummeting.
A river of poison? Bah, how cumbersome of that land-dwelling devil...
"Ní bhuaigh sé..."
Eyes from the people surrounding this new woman widen with confusion from the foreign tongue expelled...yet something about the tone clicked a gear within Besa's mind.
Wait...that accent...Irish!
Before he could make his guess of identity aloud, the woman with lengthy waterfall curls crosses her arms into a mock cross shape before bellowing out in a strong voice,
"Daingniú!"
The ring of energy previously around her body seeps into a singular point just above her heart, before shooting forth and expanding into a ghostly shape mirroring that infamous bird said to die in a great blaze and be reborn from its own ashes!
"Whoa...!" "What is that?!"
"Is that...a phoenix...?"
The bird-shaped projection of energy lets out a screech, flying fast to its destination, they being Kikyō's falling body, crashing forth to envelop the priestess in a bright glow of icy blue energy just before she drops into the river of miasma!
...
Back atop that cliff, the woman occupying Coraline's place lets out a few sounds of discomfort, dropping to one knee while fighting to hold her position with her arms.
Must...hold...fast...
"K...Ki-ky-ō..."
Hearing the rough-accented pronunciation of the priestess's name shot a feeling of red alert into Inuyasha's skull.
Frowning with some concern but mostly edginess towards this stranger, he crouches down to her level to try and inquire,
"Who are you, and how do you know Kikyō?...Where's Coraline?!...Answer me!"
The woman does not respond with words, only grimacing before glancing over at the dog demon to meet his eyes...They stare for a moment, before the former wordlessly gestures to Lumos, whom had remained strangely quiet during this new turn in events. The Will O' Wisp immediately heeds her silent order, and flies to touch the top of her head...
(Vwooop)
And just like that, the two were gone in a flash of sapphire light, much to everyone's dismay!
"Huh?!" "She's gone!"
"Coraline!"
"Wait...was that even Cora?"
"What the heck is going on...?!"
The rising confusion only made Inuyasha's teeter towards worry.
Something's wrong...Coraline-no...That wasn't her, but, someone posing within her...
He turns his head in the direction where that phoenix-shaped burst of energy fled to, narrowing his amber irises while muttering in conclusion,
"Whatever's happening...that bird-thing went to the source."
With that, the dog demon quickly gets up and starts running off to where he think the woman went, ignoring the calls of protest from his allies...
Meanwhile, back at the area where Kikyō was stricken down by the heartless Naraku, the demon himself had formed a frown of slight discontent, retracting his clawed hand while narrowing his red irises towards where he saw that blur of icy blue light previously.
What in the hell was that light?...Wait...I know that power.
"That was a sliver of the strange energy that courses through the soul of that red-haired lass."
...Could it have been a last attempt from that young woman to save Kikyō?
A sneer forms on his lips:
"Ha. A foolhardy attempt, indeed. Nothing can withstand my miasma...You have meet your death, Kikyō. Now do you understand? At last, the new body I desired for so long is mine."
...A set of footsteps come up behind him.
"I must say, you took extraordinary steps to killing one mere woman, Naraku."
Turning around, the fiendish demon would meet the eyes of yet another enemy of his.
"Sesshomaru..."
Jaken, who was standing on the dog demon's left, narrows his big yellow eyes in anger.
He shows Lord Sesshomaru such a lack of respect! He's grown too full of himself!
"Jaken, listen to me: stay well back."
The imp looks at his master with a small gape of surprise, before residing with moving away a respectful distance...
"I never expected you to be following me as well, Sesshomaru. So you find me that interesting, do you?"
That comment from Naraku would reel Jaken back in for a moment, so he could shout angrily with a fist raised,
"Silence! You are the one who keeps meddling in our affairs, so we merely-"
Sesshomaru cuts in with a harsher direct of,
"I said back away, Jaken."
The imp scrambles away, and the dog demon turns attention back on the enemy.
"Since you've emerged from your barrier, I assume you're capable of producing a significant amount of power."
Naraku shifts his stance so he was fully facing Sesshomaru, and a breeze of hazy air blows through the space between them, before the former taunts,
"Why don't you see for yourself?"
The dog demon's only functioning hand moves to grip the hilt of Tokijin, and another moment of silence passes...before he sends a wave of his sword's aura straight at Naraku, the impact strong enough to hack his body to pieces!
"Got 'im!"
...But Jaken would be eating his words, when he sees the chuckling evil demon's head and a silver of his shoulders was still in tact, encased within a dark fuchsia barrier!
"Guh! He's laughing?!"
"Sesshomaru. I shall now reverse the power of your sword and fire it back at you!"
An orb of the Tokijin's aura appears through a part of the barrier, before blasting straight at the previous offender!
Jaken squawks in panic and rushes behind his master, who uses his sword to block the counterattack...However.
"Lord Sesshomaru is being pushed back!"
The dog demon focuses on getting enough ground, before rushing forward and bringing Tokijin down on Naraku's head!
(SLASH)
...Was it the end?
"Ha! It's useless! I will never die!"
Unfortunately, Naraku wasn't even close to being through, already reforming his body from the pieces flying to meet his head! A tornado of miasma whirls around him when he gets as far as the head and torso, which would carry his cackling form out of the area and into the sky to disappear...
Such impudence...You merely wished to test the powers of your new body against me.
Knowing his enemy was long gone, Sesshomaru sheathes Tokijin...just as his younger half-brother arrives.
"...Sesshomaru."
"Inuyasha. Still alive, are you?"
"What're you doin' here?"
"It seems that Naraku's main interest was not you."
Sesshomaru's gaze falls on the broken remains of Kikyō's bow.
"But rather his real objective, was to kill that woman."
Inuyasha follows his own stare to where his older half-brother was looking...and would widen his eyes when he saw the shattered weapon.
"Kikyō's bow...No...Kikyō..."
He rushes over to lift one of the pieces, not believing what he saw...
What happened?...Did Naraku kill Kikyō?...No! It can't be!
"Naraku cannot kill me...not as long as he has Onigumo's heart, the heart which cares for me."
...
Amber irises turn to the rushing river of poison within the crevice, searching for a sign that maybe the truth wasn't staring him in the face...He then catches sight of a shred of fabric from Kikyō's haori, being circled by a single Shinidamachū.
"A Soul Collector..."
What really caught his attention, is that the fabric was glowing faintly with the light from the ghostly phoenix entity released earlier.
That glow...from the bird-shaped energy...
A breeze catches the cloth, and causes it to float upward off the rock and flutters into the miasma, with the Shinidamachū following after it like a faithful guard, perishing in a burn of blue flame...Grimacing, Inuyasha whispers regrettably as his grip on the one half of the broken bow tightens,
"I failed you again...my, friend...I wasn't there for you, when you died alone."
...Wait...Is this why Coraline was acting strange a moment ago?
...And that woman. The one who rose in place of her...She's not here.
Where? Where is she?!
Jaken peers down at the river himself, commenting with a sleeve over his nose,
"This miasma is terrible...There's no way she could survive it..."
He then notices that his master was leaving, and hurries to catch up.
"Lord Sesshomaru!"
"...Hold on, Sesshomaru!"
He stops to Inuyasha's call, and turns to look at his glaring form.
"F...Forget, Kikyō, for a moment...Was Coraline here, or a woman that looks similar? Did you see her appear?"
...Sesshomaru does not reply, and turns around to resume walking, prompting the younger dog demon to reach for his Tessaiga while shouting,
"Answer me! Was, she, here?!"
"...I should be amazed that you have long since pushed your old feelings for that priestess away, yet I am astonished by the level of distraction your intended mate is causing you."
"Huh?"
The elder dog demon stops again to add,
"I have not seen your wayward human, though it is fair to say she's alive and nearby...Meanwhile, the person responsible for killing Kikyō, was Naraku...and you...you're the one who didn't save her. Inuyasha...blame yourself."
Inuyasha only growls a little, but relaxes his stance slightly while removing his hand off the hilt of his sword...
"Rather than take your anger out on me, I suggest gathering your woman before going after Naraku."
Jaken nods in agreement with his master:
"Exactly."
And with that, both demons continue their way out of the area, disappearing into the dusty fog...leaving Inuyasha to drop on one knee while clenching a fist in helpless anger and worry.
"Grh...Kikyō...forgive me...Coraline...Coraline, where are you?"
"...Inuyasha!"
His ears twitch to the sound of Miroku calling for him, he and everyone else finally arriving to his proximity...He stands up without a word, and that was when Besa notices the broken bow.
"Uh!...Inuyasha...Is, Kikyō...Did Naraku..."
"...Yeah...Naraku wasn't after me...He wanted Kikyō...He wanted to take her life."
Everyone tenses, but then the dog demon mutters,
"But...that, isn't my main concern right now."
"It's not?"
"No..."
He finally turns around to face everyone, his amber irises burning with frustration and concern.
"Coraline...she's not here, and I have no idea where she could be. (Grit) I...I can't sense her; I can't sense my intended!"
Seeing the dog demon looking so vulnerable regarding a loved one, actually made Kōga feel a little sorry for him, his face contorting with a light pity.
Poor mutt. He just lost a friend, and his intended's nowhere to be found...
Where could Coraline have gotten to?
"(Ghostly moan)"
"Huh?"
The wolf demon's ears then pick up on the sound of a familiar wind-whispered call, and turns around to see a certain creature that dwells in abundance on foreign grounds.
"Hey, isn't that...?"
Everyone else looks over to where his vision was directed, and would widen their own eyes at seeing,
"Hey, that's-"
"It's Lumos!"
"Whoa..." "Where'd he come from?"
Inuyasha would react faster than the rest, hurrying over to the Will O' Wisp with impatient agitation burning in his eyes and covering an overwhelming ache of worry.
"Lumos!...You left with her, right?...Do you know where Coraline is?"
The white-blue orbed entity doesn't answer with words, but bounces up and down frantically before flying back the way he came from, prompting the dog demon to make chase.
"Uh! Wait!"
...
Soon, everyone was jogging along the riverbank of the miasma further downstream the crevice starting point, trying to keep up with the speeding Will O' Wisp.
"Hah, hah, man, Lumos is sure fast when he wants to be!"
Crinkling his nose, Ginta replies back to Freeman,
"Ugh, it wasn't hitting me as bad before, but this miasma's more putrid than some of the others I've come across."
Hakkaku comments in a bitter afterthought,
"Probably has to do with how strong that freak Naraku's gotten...Wonder where he went now?"
Miroku would reply from in front of him and between Kōga and the Kilala-riding Sango,
"We can figure that out after we find Coraline...Uh! There!"
Everyone screeches to a halt, with Inuyasha and Shippo up front, when they spot a female figure standing a few yards ahead within the eerie mist cast over these grounds...
"Coraline?! Is that you?!"
"Coraline!"
The figure does not respond to either demon...at least, not in a language they understood.
"...An bhfuil tú cairde nó foes?"
"Huh?"
The group of ten form expressions of puzzlement from the rough-sounding syllables, and Kōga would mutter,
"Anybody got a clue what that load of gibberish was?"
"...I think I do."
Eyes fall on Besa's form, who steps forward so he was standing on the young fox demon's right (Inuyasha being on the left), before adding,
"Guys...I don't think that person is Cora, or at least the Cora we know."
"Whaddo you mean?"
"What are you saying, Besa?"
He answers Inuyasha and Sango's questions by replying,
"I'll let you know after I ask her," before calling out with a bit of space between his pronunciations,
"Ex-cuse me!...Is, your, name, Rosiagnes?"
"...Aye!"
The figure steps out from the mist, revealed as the woman with deep red waterfall-curled hair in the strange checkered, thick-material dress of red, green and blue. Her expression was calm and somewhat stoic, her facial features reflecting an age beyond her youth.
"Is mise Rosiagnes. Ye allies de mo reincard?"
"Uhm, aye?...Aye. We, allies."
Shippo looks at the young man with espresso skin with amazement shining in his bright green irises.
"Whoa! Can you really understand what she's saying?!"
"Uh, not exactly, but I can sort of derive from context based on one or two words since they're in the English language too. She's wondering if we're friends of her 'reincard'...which, I'm almost sure means reincarnation."
Now that words caught the young monk's attention.
"Reincarnation?...Wait! That must mean-"
Sango finishes for him,
"That woman is Coraline's ancestor!?"
Jaws belonging to the wolf demons and Freeman would drop in shock, while Inuyasha froze up.
Coraline's...ancestor...?
...
Nighttime would soon fall, and somewhere within the thick branches of the forest, sat Kagura as she gazed at the bundle she had been forced to cart out of the crumbling mountain.
Damn that Naraku, making me take care of this thing...
"...Kikyō is dead."
She looks down at the creature with surprise at their statement, they revealed to be a baby of sorts with pale skin, short lilac hair and dull purple eyes.
"Huh? What did you say?"
The infant merely smiles...and repeats,
"Kikyō is dead, and Naraku killed her."
List of Irish to English Translations used in this chapter:
1) Ní bhuaigh sé - He shan't win
2) Daingniú - Fortification
3) An bhfuil tú cairde nó foes? - Are ye friends or foes?
4) Is mise Rosiagnes. Ye allies de mo reincard? - I am Rosiagnes. Ye allies of me reincard?