Author's note: Many thanks to herbaltaes who has helped me editing this chapter!

ABC Thought

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Chapter 19

Meanwhile, at one of Naraku's bases.

Naraku has been watching the progress through Kanna's mirror. Fascinating to see Sesshomaru is walking right into his trap without a single doubt. Then he smirks at the sight of the two Inu youkai brothers being cornered together with their team mates into a circle, like little rabbits waiting to be eaten by predators.

Back in the basement.

"I think I can break the centipede's shells with my arrow."

Therefore Kagome suggests a cooperation play to the giant bugs instead of mindlessly attacking them, "but only for a bit, enough for you to hit the inside to kill it."

Sensing the uncertainty in her voice, Inuyasha yells back, "You think?!"

Sango appears to favor this plan of hers, "If we manage to take down those bugs, then Reiko and Midori shouldn't be a problem."

"And after that we can all focus on Azusa," Miroku adds.

"Yeah, but first…What are we going to do with THAT?"

Shiomi points at the swamp of hatchlings and huge, nearly hatched sack of eggs ahead of her, as Sango holds up her giant boomerang and starts giving instructions.

"Kirara, Shiomi, Miroku and will keep those hatchlings in check while Kagome, Inuyasha and Sesshomaru handle the centipedes. Like it or not, Sesshoumaru, you have no choice but to cooperate with us!"

The silver haired lord huffs in response to Sango's instructions, which is enough for us to know that he will -unwillingly- join forces.

"Sound like a plan!"

Unlike Kagome, who follows her instruction with no objection, Inuyasha groans at the uncalled-for teamwork with his bastard of a brother, "Feh! I don't need his help to destroy these weaklings!"

No one seems to care about his feeling right now when being stuck in a life and death situation as Miroku responds back dully, "But we do, so suck it up and do as you're told."

Shippou jumps onto Shiomi's left shoulder and declares, "I can give us a hand too, by using my Kitsunebi to distract them!" (Kitsunebi: Fox fire)

And once hearing Inuyasha yells *Let's go!*

We part way into different directions. Just as planned, Kagome, Inuyasha and Sesshomaru get to the front where the centipedes and Azusa are, while the rest move to the back to face an army of baby spiders and huge bees.

Kagome begins shooting multiple arrows at the red centipede body, hoping for the shell to crack as Inuyasha distracts Midori by jumping around and hitting randomly. Nearby, Sesshomaru is confronting both the black centipedes and Reiko on his own up in the air.

"Give it up, little pests…You stand no chance against me."

Watching them struggle, Azusa bursts out in laughter.

"Shut your face! I'm going to slice your ugly self in half once I'm done with your pets!"

Inuyasha summons powerful energy waves at the centipede and yet it doesn't feel a thing, "Shit!"

Right beside them, Sesshomaru's and Reiko's fight is still going on.

Dodging Sesshomaru's sword lines, Reiko giggles. Finding it would be a waste to kill him when they haven't had a chance to know more about each other.

"How about we get out of here and have some fun together when things are done?"

Sadly, the silver haired youkai doesn't bother with her sweet invitations and proceed firing blue energy at her. She evaded it by hiding behind the black centipede a split of second before that attack wipes her head off.

"Oh my, that startled me…"

Meanwhile at their back, the situation isn't any better for Sango, Miroku and Kirara either.

"I can't tear them off!"

Shiomi yelps when one of the spider threads gets to her arm. To prevent herself from being pulled over, she digs her feet deep into the ground to keep balance.

"There's no end to them!"

Seeing more bees and spiders coming out of their nests, Shippou groans.

"Look out! They are crawling on the roof!"

Notices half of them have reached up to the ceiling, Sango warns us while Miroku's seen channeling something with his staff after endless attempts to destroy the spiders with his talismans.

Suddenly Sango tosses an object over to Shiomi.

"Here, Sora-chan!"

After catching it on the air, she realizes that it's a medium-length sword.

"That is my Wakizashi! Try using it to kill the bugs!"

No more wasting time with all the futile struggling, Shiomi frees herself by cutting off the threads on her arm. Then awkwardly swinging the sword around to swat any bug in sight.

Damn, I have not wielded a single sword ever in my life and this thing is pretty heavy too…

Suddenly a small energy barrier appears and surrounds the area where Shiomi, Sango, Shippou and Miroku are fighting, protecting them from the youkai attacks, much to Shiomi's confusion.

"What? Where is this thing coming from?"

Shippou jumps in joy to see that those spiders can no longer reach him, "This is Miroku's barrier!"

"I'm sorry but in order to maintain the barrier, I have to keep channeling... Sango, I'm leaving the rest to you!"

Therefore Miroku tells her about his condition and she nods, ordering the two-tails cat beside her to strengthen their forces. "It's okay, I got it! Come on Kirara, let's finish this!"

On the other side, Inuyasha curses after getting whacked onto the ground by Midori and she sighs in disappointment.

"Is that all you got, Inu youkai? How disappointing."

In instant he gets back on his feet and leaps up again to swing his sword. "What are you blabbing about?! This is just a warm up!"

Kagome keeps on firing more arrows at the centipede's lower body, where it's supposed weak spot is, yet what she has gotten till now are some small scratches and the girl gradually getting impatience. Come on, break already!

"Crack…!"

A miraculous sound suddenly comes out from its body and Kagome immediately spots a tiny shell falling off, revealing a vulnerable spot to hit. Yes! It works!

"Inuyasha! Over there!"

She fires her arrow again and alerts Inuyasha for a combined attack, "Quick! Use your Kaze no Kizu on my arrow!"

Only waiting for those words, Inuyasha summons the powerful waves toward to where the energy is flying at and successfully damages the red centipede's weak spot, making the crack to turn bigger.

Feeling the sharp pain from below, the centipede tumbles and becomes even more furious.

"Good! That thing finally reacts!"

Inuyasha smirks and rushes toward to the bug's sensitive spot to unleash every skill and anger he has on it.

"Take this! And This! You f*cking bastard!"

Okay! Only one left! Kagome walks over to Sesshomaru's side for aid and there, she hears a terrifying scream coming from above.

Then the body of a woman drops onto the ground just a few inches away from her. Turning out to be a heavily injured Reiko, who has gotten hit by Sesshomaru's sword through their battle in the air. She snarls at him while holding onto her wound, backing away the moment Sesshomaru lands down before her.

"A lowly youkai like you is no match for I, Sesshomaru,"

He delivers the final strike at Reiko's head, ruthlessly ending her life in a second.

"What are you waiting for?"

Sesshomaru shoots a questioning look at Kagome and she flinches, quickly holds up her bow and aims at the black centipede's side to shoot. Soon the hard shell is started to crack and reveals its soft spot for Sesshomaru to attack.

Meanwhile Sango, Miroku, Shippou and Shiomi, have managed to keep the hatchlings in control thanks to Sango destroying the eggs, preventing them from hatching.

Witnessing her kind being burnt down alive one after another, Midori curses and launches herself at Inuyasha but stopped in mid-way by Kagome's arrow.

Getting irritated by the girl's nasty appearance, Inuyasha sends powerful energy waves at her and sweeps Midori away into dust. "Heh! That'll teach ya!"

Having had enough of a beating, the centipedes start to merge with each other, turning themselves into even a bigger centipede, causing everyone to gasp in shock.

"What?! Those two combined?!"

Only then Azusa steps into the battle. Gesturing her hands to the centipede to fire a large amount of shouki from its mouth toward them.

"No doubt about it! This is definitely Naraku's shouki!"

Catching that familiar nasty scent in the air, Inuyasha growls as everyone quickly backs off further to the back to avoid getting poisoned. However the Shouki still reaches to us no matter how far they get since this area is a room with no window or opening to help the poisonous gas escape.

So hard to breath! I cough into my sleeve, trying to hold my breath in. But to no avail since some of it had already gotten into my lungs and causing my vision to blur.

"I'll purify it!"

Kagome who is standing inside Miroku's barrier, shoots an arrow at the cloud up ahead to clear it up.

"Quit wasting your arrows! The shouki is going to fill up the whole place again as long as this thing is still alive!"

Inuyasha stops her and leaps up to in the air to use his skill against the centipede.

"I'm gonna to slice you in half, ugly bug!"

Azusa stops him midway by releasing a long white thread from below to catch him, "Not a chance!"

Taknig the chance that Inuyasha has turned his attention to Azusa, the centipede slams its giant body at him and leaves the guy to stuck under its weight. "Arg! Get offa me! Damn it!"

While the centipede is distracted, Sesshomaru flies up and fires a blue energy blast at Azusa to kill her. However, his attack is instantly blocked and reflected back by her barrier.

"Fuck!" Inuyasha curses, trying to get away, yet can't even move a muscle. Therefore Sango rides Kirara to his side to help pulling himself out but failed.

"Not good, this thing is too heavy!"

Then Kagome rushes over to them to explain that despite the centipedes have combined, its weak spot is still visible so all they have to do now is to hit that place again to destroy it completely.

"Let's do it that way then!"

Sango and Inuyasha both nod at each other and prepare for another attack.

"Just follow my arrow and you will be able to reach its soft spot!"

Before anyone can act, the centipede goes rampage again and hits the whole group by surprise. Crashing its body all over the place and breaking Miroku's barrier, sending everyone flying toward to the hard wall nearby.

"Kagome! You guys alright?!"

Still being stuck, Inuyasha can only shout to check on their safety. He then sighs in relief once seeing Kagome's holding onto her bow to stand up. "Y-yeah, we're-"

Suddenly they hear Miroku's distressed calls, and notice that Shiomi is lying stiff on the ground nearby.

"Senpai!"

Hearing Kagome's voice calling for her, she cried out feebly in response. Before shutting her eyes tightly and slowly loosening her grip on the Wakizashi. Figures that her body is not strong enough to handle both Shouki and the assault, Sango hands Miroku her face mask.

"Here, give this to her. It should keep her alive."

"Will she be okay?" Shippou asks him and Miroku shakes his head.

"I don't know but there is one thing for sure that if we don't finish this battle fast, we're all going to die."

Another loud crash happens, drawing everyone's attention back to the battlefield. There, they see that shouki is starting to clear out, revealing a huge centipede lying on the floor, groaning in pain.

Inuyasha has successfully freed himself from the centipede's weight. Meanwhile, Sesshomaru's standing in the air and cracking his fingers, staring down at it with an irritated expression on his face.

Turns out it's him who has knocked the youkai off its feet with his bare hands.

"Kagome! Show me this damn bug's weak spot! I'm going to kill it!"

Now that the centipede is vulnerable, Inuyasha calls for her aid and Kagome shoots her arrows at its stomach, where the crack's hidden from the beginning and he swings his sword, aiming at that particular spot.

"Kaze no Kizu!"

Together with Kagome's arrow, they tear the centipede in half as it let out a horrible scream before completely fading into dust.

"Nice! The shouki is disappearing! Way to go, Inuyasha!"

As source of the poison mist is gone, Shippou jumps in joy as Inuyasha turns to Azusa. Pointing Tessaiga, which has turned crimson red, at her, he prepares for his final attack.

"Just you watch, I'm going to cut through that fucking barrier of yours!"

Inuyasha releases another Kaze no Kizu at her. However, the barrier was still as good as new.

"Red Tessaiga isn't working?!"

Despite numerous attacks, none of them can break through the purple barrier to reach the spider inside. And Kagome begins to panic as all of her arrows were nullified the moment they touch the shield.

"We can't hurt her at all!"

Notices one of the spider youkai's long legs at the side is aiming for Kagome's head, Inuyasha dashes to her spot and drags Kagome away before both of them got hit.

"Fufufu…What are you going to do now, hmm?"

Laughing at their futile efforts, Azusa cruelly taunts them.

Damn it! Is there really no way to defeat her?!

All of the sudden, Shiomi snaps her eyes open and stands up on her own. Ripping off the face mask and tosses it aside. Much to the surprise of Sango, Miroku and Shippou.

"Wow, Sora-chan's well already?!"

Awed by her quick recovery, Shippou attempts to approach her to check. However, Miroku has noticed something is strange about the girl and stops him. Those are youkai's eyes!

"What? What happened?!"

Curious, Kagome shifts her head back. Shocked to see that Shiomi is awake, and swiftly walking passes her toward to the front line. What's going on?! Right now, I can feel a strong youkai energy within her!

From above, Sesshomaru's attention has been drawn to Shiomi as he watches her moves cautiously. Is she trying to…

"Oh? What do we have here…Are you volunteering to die, little girl?"

Seeing a weak human girl approaching, Azusa mocks her, giggling slightly. Then Shiomi leaps up into mid-air and punches the giant spider's barrier, only to be blocked by the shield. Though it doesn't stop her from striking again.

"Fool, do you actually think that you can break my barrier with those tiny arms of yours?"

The smirk on Azusa's face dies off once there's crack on the barrier's surface. "…What?!"

She's breaking it?!

They all stand there watching her continously punching at the shield, causing the crack to enlarge and eventually smashing the barrier into pieces.

"My barrier! How dare you, little wench!"

Livid at the fact that a mere human has broken her barrier, Azusa tries to grab the girl with her legs, but Shiomi jumps away and lands onto the ground in front of everyone. However due to the strong impact from earlier, both of Shiomi's arms are broken. Yet she doesn't look like she's in pain.

Sesshomaru has also stepped down from the air, to stand in front of Shiomi to cover her. Meanwhile Kagome is completely lost for words after witnessing Shiomi's insane strength.

Is this the youkai power that she's spoke of? Incredible!

"Disappear! All of you!"

Azusa charges at them as in final act of desperation and Kagome fires her arrow straight at Azusa's head, Inuyasha joining in with Kaze no Kizu and Sesshomaru's energy wave.

The three attacks attach to Kagome's arrow, combining and turn Azusa along with the Saimyosho nests into dust, wiping them off the face of the earth. Standing from the back, Shippou and the others watch the scene in awe. Once the smoke is clear, Kagome jumps in joy to find that the area where Azusa stood before is now only a huge wall of fire.

"We did it!"

After making sure that everyone is safe, Miroku rushes to check on Chiyo, who is lying on the floor lifelessly in the corner.

"Did she make it?!"

Sango asks and he shakes his head. Watching Chiyo's skin disintegrates at his touch. "No, the poison got her…"

"Poor Chiyo, how could Azusa do this to an innocent person…?"

Kagome comments by the Chiyo's remains while Inuyasha crosses his arms, acting as if what Azusa did was no surprise to him. "What would you expect from that damn spider anyway? Her personality is pretty much rotten to the bones."

"…Shiomi."

Sesshomaru sheathes his sword and turns to her, who is standing alone in the middle of the room. His call also draws Kagome's attention back to her.

That's right, senpai's still…!

Right now Shiomi isn't responding to anything around her and keeps staring down at her feet. Curious, Kagome decides to approach to check on her.

"Senpai…Are you okay?"

She then glances at Kagome, before raising her battered right arm up to strike her. In a flash, Inuyasha dashes to Kagome and takes her away from those deadly claws, injuring his left shoulder in the process.

"You bitch! I'm gonna kick some senses back into ya!"

Angered that his shoulder's damaged, Inuyasha charges at her with Tessaiga in his hands.

"No one shall lay a finger on her."

And Sesshoumaru demands, holding Tojikin firmly against his brother, blocking him. This causes the former to finally erupt. "Fuck! Didn't you see what she did?! If I'm not doing something now, she's probably going to kill all of us!"

Despite Inuyasha's warnings, Sesshomaru remains unmoved, even giving off a pure killing intent toward the Hanyou in front of him.

"Fine! I'm just gonna have to slay you both!"

"Inuyasha! Don't!"

Just as Inuyasha is about to jump into a fight, Kagome's stops him, much to his irritation. "Are you still defending her?! Have you gone out of your mind?!"

"I'm sure it wasn't on purpose. Please, Inuyasha…Senpai's not our enemy, so put your sword down."

Therefore Kagome explains that because Shiomi isn't herself at the moment. She can't identify between friend and foe.

After a bit of hesitation, Inuyasha puts back his sword and turns away. "Whatever! Let her kill everyone for all I care!"

Sighing in relief that Inuyasha finally agrees with her, Kagome then begins to bargain with Sesshomaru. Hoping that he will give her the permission to pass.

"Sesshomaru, there's a possibility that senpai will return to normal if you let me talk to her."

Surprisingly their negotiation turns out to be much easier than she has expected, as Sesshomaru steps aside to make way for Kagome without raising a single question.

Taking a long breath to calm herself, Kagome carefully approaches Shiomi again.

"Shiomi-senpai, it's me, Higurashi Kagome. Your kouhai from junior high."

There's a long silence between them, until Shiomi speaks up. "Kagome…?"

Much to Kagome's delight, she slowly shifts her head back to look at her.

"That's right, it's Kagome! Senpai, have you remembered?!"

Therefore Kagome approaches, aiming for a happy reunion hug in mind. Instead the latter grabs her neck and lifts her up onto the air. Gasping for air, Kagome holds tight onto Shiomi's arm. Struggling to get away from her strong grip.

"Kagome!"

Everyone rushes to her side to help, while Inuyasha's already ready with Tessaiga in his hands.

"Bitch! I'm gonna cut your arm off!"

Once again, Sesshomaru blocks his way.

"Fuck! Get outta my way!"

This time Inuyasha doesn't back down and they both engage in a deadly sword fight.

"Come on, we have to stop her!"

Taking the chance that Sesshomaru is distracted, Miroku yells over the loud clashing of swords.

However, a giant blue energy wave passes right before them from the side and they jump out of the way in different directions in order to avoid it. Since Azusa is dead, the barrier protecting the Okiya is gone and as a result, Sesshomaru's attack has created a big hole in the wall and an emergency entrance to the outside world.

"That was close."

Miroku sighs in relief while Sango glares at Sesshomaru.

"What's with him?! We were only trying to help!"

Shippou's face turns pale as he flops down onto the floor, almost having a heart attack.

"W-Well… He wasn't kidding about not letting anyone touch her… That's for sure!"

All of the sudden, Shiomi loses her grip on Kagome's throat and they both collapses onto the ground. Rubbing her butt painfully, Kagome crawls over to Shiomi to wake her up.

"Senpai, are you okay?"

Hearing their cries, Sesshomaru rushes to Shiomi's side and leaves Inuyasha in the dust. Squatting down next to her, Sesshoumaru's expression softens once realizing that she's asleep and recovering.

As Kagome's about to check on Shiomi's condition, Sesshomaru has taken her away into his arm and walks off to retrieve her backpack. Preparing to leave the area.

"Please! Let Senpai stay with me for a couple of days! Perhaps I will be able to find out what is wrong!"

Kagome offers her help. Yet he refuses. "She's none of your concern."

Not going to stay for any more redundant conversations, Sesshomaru takes off and disappears into the clouds above. Much to Kagome's irritation.

"What so worry about? They're none of our business anyway"

On the other hand, Inuyasha strangely agrees with his brother's idea.

Sighing in defeat, Kagome looks at the horizon that Sesshoumaru and Shiomi disappeared into.

"Well he definitely isn't but she is! I really want to help Senpai... I really do."

Once everything is settled down, Shippou asks them. "So, what should we do now? There are no survivors."

"Let's us bury Chiyo first. About this place, we will report back to the others and let them decide what to do with it."

Back to Rin and Jaken's spot.

Catching the sight of his lord up on the air, Jaken and Rin rush over to greet him.

"Sesshomaru-sama, welcome back!"

When Sesshomaru lands onto the grass, he tosses Shiomi's backpack to Jaken, hitting his face. Noticing that the leather pouch is still untouched he raises his non-existent eyebrows at Shiomi in question.

"No Naginata? Then what the heck has she been doing?"

While Rin's more concerned for the girl in his arm than the absence of the Naginata.

"Sesshomaru-sama, is she okay?"

"She's sleeping."

Angered for wasting his precious time again over some trivial things, Jaken starts nagging.

"This imbecile girl! Making us wait for the whole day for nothing! Hmph! I bet she used buying a weapon as an excuse for her to go out and have fun! Even having Sesshomaru-sama to-Huh…?"

However he freezes once seeing Sesshomaru sits down under a tree while still holding Shiomi in his arm.

"Eh? Onee-chan is going to sleep on Sesshomaru-sama's lap tonight?"

"Wha-What?! There's no way that will happen!"

Jaken drops the backpack out of shock, trying to delude himself into thinking that the sight in front of him right now was a lie.

Although it's not like doing it would be able change the painful truth staring straight at him as Rin points at the two under the tree. "It sure does look like it will though."