"..." Normal chat.
ABC Thought.
- You and I reunite in the faraway dream -
Chapter 45
After standing outside the cave watching a white haired male figure bursts out of Naraku's back and flies off into the air, carrying other demon body parts together with it. Byakuya walks inside and asks the man holding a black Shikon no Tama in his hand.
"Naraku, is that a new detachment?"
"Not exactly, it's the dark will of the youkai that's been sealed within the jewel for many years."
The reason Naraku seeks for Magatsuhi's help is because his instinct is telling him that Sora is not trust-able. After achieving her long lost weapon, the Kitsune overpowers Naraku so much that he fears she will turn her fangs against him at any moment as she pleases.
"More importantly, have you checked out the place I've told you to?"
Up till now Naraku still haven't discovered any proper way to control that sneaky woman. Therefore he decides to make a final bet on Kasenada, who he's trying to get in touch with to gain some secret info about the Kyuubi no Kitsune in order to subdue her.
"Yes, exactly as you stated. Lying under that area was indeed Kasenada's grave..."
*Flashback*
"T-This is..."
Byakuya's surprised to find out Kasenada's grave location is no where else but the the Magnolia field from before.
Does Sora know anything about it? Is there any coincidence behind this or she's hiding something from us?
Despite having come to this place for a second time, he has yet to feel any strange aura or anything suspicious.
Could it be that what Naraku had gotten was a false information? Or because he hadn't pushed the right button to active its power?
After wandering around for a while to find some clues, Byakuya spots a huge white Sakura tree, residing alone on an isle in the middle of the pond of this Magnolia field and flies there to check. Once reaching to the feet of the Sakura tree, he notices an old, nameless headstone which is lying just underneath and covered with layers of white flower petals.
"A grave? Could this be Kasenada's grave?!"
Subconsciously, Byakuya rests his hand onto the tree body and in instant, it reacts to his touch by bursting out into blue electricity and burns Byakuya's hand.
"Ouch! What the heck?!"
All of sudden the water surface shines up a giant blue circle which is craving in ancient symbols, covering almost the whole area and before even knowing what is going on. Byakuya feels his life energy is being drained away rapidly and he's immediately brought down to his knees.
Despite being protected by Naraku's power, Byakuya's body is still affected by the the magical seal and turns paralyzed almost completely. His mind starts going haywire once it's getting harder to breathe.
What? Even my barrier is not working against it?! Just how powerful can this Kasenada guy be?!
Not going to let himself die pointlessly in some unknown place. Byakuya uses up what's remaining of his power to activate the white lotus technique to teleport himself out of the hell hole.
*End flashback*
"Just as you have predicted, the source of Kasenada's spiritual power must be coming from the preserved body under the ground. That's why there is a barrier there to protect it."
Byakuya sighs, recalling to his critical situation back then and shudders.
"I doubt that monk is going to agree sharing the same conversation with us. And if you're thinking about destroying that place, we definitely need Sora's power to do so."
From the start Naraku wouldn't be expecting for the ancient monk to corporate right away since he's already sided with Inuyasha and Kagome. Now realizing that Kasenada's powerful enough to almost killed his incarnation alone. Naraku has no choice but to eliminate him in case of any possible threats.
"Any idea of where she is right now?"
Therefore he asks Byakuya for the Kitsune's location but only to earn a shrug from him. "Not a clue."
Days later.
After wasting so much time and effort, Byakuya finally be able pinpoint her location and drags her to Kasenada's grave without a single explanation, much to the Sora's irritation.
"Where are you trying to lead me to?"
Already floating in the air for a while now and still being clueless about their destination, she asks Byakuya but only to receive the same answer from him.
"No time to talk, let's hurry before Sesshomaru sees us."
Hearing him mention the silver haired Inu Daiyoukai, her pointy ears start to twitch in curiosity.
"So what if he see us?"
"Well...How do I say this...It's complicated?"
His voice trails off, recalling to that frightening moment when Sesshomaru gains a new sword and wipes his thousand youkai army away within a split of second.
Of course, he cannot tell her anything about that since her ego will only end up driving Sora into picking a fight with Sesshomaru. Therefore completely ruins Naraku's plan, which he is doing his best not to mess up right now.
"I don't know what you are getting at but that guy is right over there."
Sora says and Byakuya shifts his head to look at where is she pointing at, his heart skips a beat once seeing Sesshomaru's following their tails from behind not too far away.
"Oh crap!"
From the start Naraku has predicted this to happen and has ordered Magatsuhi to capture Rin to slow him down. Yet it seems that this time, even his perfect strategy isn't working against Sesshomaru's limitless persistence.
At the mountainous area.
Kagome and Inuyasha are watching Kohaku and Sango happy reunion after the boy's being revived by Kikyou's light, Kasenada's spirit appears right beside Kagome and speaks up.
"My deepest apologize for disturbing, Kagome-sama. But I must ask for you and Inuyasha to leave now."
Due to his sudden appearance, the girl flinches in surprise. "K-Kasenada-sama?! Wait, leaving you say? To where?"
"It's time for us to end the Kyuubi no Kitsune's fate once and for all."
Although not fully understand how they will be able to do confront her and when her spiritual power is being sealed, Kagome hesitates.
"But what about Miroku-san and Sango-chan? And I cannot use my power right now because Magatsuhi has sealed it up."
"Please worry not. I have already prepared what is needed for this battle."
Kasenada assures her and she feels an absolute confident in his tone. Perhaps he has figured out a solution that doesn't need the use of her spiritual power.
"We will be fine on our own, Kagome-chan. Go and save her."
Holding Kohaku in her arms, Sango tells her. And Kohaku also agrees. Hoping that the action of sealing up the Kyuubi no Kisune will finally bring an ease to the lord's heart.
"Yes. Please help Sesshomaru-sama in my stead, Kagome onee-sama."
Meanwhile Inuyasha's excited to know that they can now fight that annoying Kitsune for real this time.
"Then what are we waiting for?! Let's go!"
He urges Kagome to get on his back and Kasenada flies up ahead of them/
"I shall lead us the way"
At the Magnolia field.
The moment they land on the ground, Sora halts her footsteps and demands a proper explanation from him.
"Why are we here?"
Byakuya groans and has no choice but to speak so that the Kitsune would move.
"This is where Kasenada's grave is located that contains the source of his spiritual power. And we're here to destroy it."
"Kasenada's grave?! Where did you get that info from?"
Sora's eyes widened after hearing his announcement.
Therefore Byakuya starts telling her about Naraku mysterious encounter some days ago with an old man spirit, who claimed to be one of Kasenada's students in the past and told him that he, together with the other monks had buried Kasenada here when he died. After that whenever visiting his grave, they would notice a great amount of spiritual energy residing within it...
"I can confirm that everything is true because I've checked it myself."
After listening to his story, Sora shakes her head in disbelief.
"No, you're wrong. This is..."
Just then Sesshomaru arrives to the scene and causes Byakuya to back away in fear. As Sesshomaru drawing out that newly overpowered sword of his, Sora follows by manifesting her Naginata out of thin air. While standing from behind, Byakuya is desperately trying to pull her mind back to a more importantly matter.
"We are not here to fight with him! You need to come with me to that Sakura tree first!"
As they're about to clash their weapons, there is a shout coming from afar. Turning around they see Inuyasha and Kagome also arrive to the Magnolia field to confront Sora. Having Kasenada's spirit reveal himself right beside them as well.
Seeing her old enemy, Sora's killing aura intensifies greatly. "Finally decide to show yourself up, huh? Kasenada"
"It's been so many years since our last met, hasn't it? Konohana?"
Completely opposite to the Kyuubi no Kitsune's aggressive reaction, Kasenada steps up and smiles gently. Hearing her name coming out from that man's lips once again after so many centuries, she tighten her grips onto the Naginata.
"Don't you dare calling my name so freely with that filthy mouth!"
She charges forward to slice at him. However Kasenada vanishes after the contact and reappears behind her.
"Neither your claws nor weapon can hurt me. Konohana."
Figures that they're in the disadvantage, Byakuya urges her.
"Hurry! We have to get rid of Kasenada's grave to negate his power before it's too late!"
"It's useless, Byakuya... Because that grave under the white Sakura tree doesn't belong to him."
"What?!"
Not waiting for Byakuya to ask, Kasenada explains that he possesses no grave because his body had been cremated a long time ago. Therefore the reason that no one can sees or senses the barrier as it is cast to be hidden and can only be activated when he is here, under his will.
"Before leaving this world, I chose this beautiful place to set up a barrier in order to imprison the Kyuubi no Kitsune if she had a chance to break free"
Watching the calm water surface in the distant, Kasenada takes a deep breath to enjoy the gentle scent in the air. However his overly comfortable behavior irritates Konohana even more.
"Choosing? Cut the crap. You put a damn seal in this place because you was fully aware that I would be coming here frequently. Even using Haru's grave as a tool to serve for your dirty scheme! That rotten personality of yours still hadn't changed one bit even after turning into a pitiful ghost."
"Then that old man's spirit and the the barrier activated when I was here... Could it be?!"
Gruadually figures out that he's become a pawn to accomplish the monk's scheme, Byakua gasps in disbielief and Kasenada adds.
"Indeed, I've made you into thinking that my grave was protected here. For one purpose was to lure Konohana into this place."
"But why waiting till now to do so when you could just activate the barrier to trap her from the start when she got here?"
Only then Kasenada reveals that even with Inuyasha and Kagome abilities combined to mine, we still weren't strong enough to hold Sora down. However after witnessing Sesshomaru awakening his true power some days ago, the Bakusaiga, he knows that they will able to with his help.
"That's why I have to act first before Konohana can realize any of this and escapes out of the western land."
After listening to his strategy, Konohana to almost bursts into laughter.
"Run away? Hah! Did you seriously underestimate me that much? I'm not going anywhere just because a puppy receives its new toy. Such a waste of effort."
However Kasenada sees through her lies easily.
"You are about to leave soon, because you don't want this Magnolia field to be tainted in both youkai and ningen blood. I'm sure Haru will be very depressed if that happens."
Only then she flinches. Her expression darkened.
"Uhm... Who is Haru?"
Somewhat lost within their conversation, Kagome asks Kasenada about this mysterious person they keep mentioning of and before he can respond. Konohana yells for him to stop.
"Shut up! Stop acting like you knew and cared about Haru! It would never deny the fact that it was you who had killed him!"
"Killed?!"
Kagome's shocked when seeing Kasenada being blamed for an unforgivable act from the past. Not denying his guilt, Kasenada speaks up.
"Yes, I was at fault. But answer me, Konohana! Was murdering everyone back then would resolve anything?!"
"Do not accuse me for destruction when it's truly you who had brought misfortune upon yourselves in the first place!"
"Why did it if you knew that wouldn't be able to bring Haru back to life and creating even more hatred between human and youkai!?"
"I don't care even if Haru cannot be revived! You filthy human shall pay for what you have done to us!"
Konohana screams one last time before transforming into her true Daiyoukai form.
Having waiting for her to do so, Kasenada activates the barrier to cover the entire area and casts a teleportation spell under Byakuya's feet to bring him outside of the Magnolia field.
"H-Hey!"
Then Inuyasha notices something changes in his muscles.
"Weird, my body feels so light and full of energy."
And Kagome nods, sensing a great amount of spiritual power flowing in both of her hands. "Me too. How strange."
Suddenly being able to hold Tessaiga up with one hand just like Sesshomaru does, Inuyasha gasps in awe and starts swinging it around, still not believing his own eyes.
Therefore, Kasenada explains to them that this is only a temporary effect you receive when standing inside the barrier. Not only does it helps boosting their stamina, but also enhancing their recovery ability when being injured.
"However once the barrier is gone, everyone will have to return to your previous state."
Burning up with enthusiasm for the big fight and seeing that Sesshomaru is rushing toward to Konohana with Bakusaiga in his hand, Inuyasha calls out to Kagome standing beside him.
"Hey, Kagome. Fet ready!" and she nods, quickly gets onto his back and holds firmly to her bow. "Let's us go!"