Dying to Live

Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha.

Inside the village hall, the people tossed back and forth against each other. On every side where the crowd was closest to the wall, the villagers were struggling to get as far back as possible from where the wolves threatened to enter. From where Sesshomaru got battered around in roughly the center of the room beside Tsukiko and her brother, they could not see that the wolves' claws and the tips of their nasty maws had become visible in places around the base of the walls. The din in the room had picked up over the last several minutes, but the loudest sound remained the snarls of the untold number of beasts outside followed by the panicked trumpeting of the horses next door in the stables. Fear really set in though as it was becoming evident that the terrorized horses were kicking against the walls. On the far side of the room where the last of the livestock were being held, several old men struggled to hold the maddened, emaciated cow in place.

Women and children all around the room were crying now and even a few of the older boys. The former Lord of the West could no longer distinguish the sound of Rin's crying from the rest. It infuriated him that his sense of smell was so weak now. Before, he was certain he would have been able to pick the scent of her tears out over that of others. He certainly would have been able to sense what exactly attacked the walls at this very moment... and actually do something about it.

Damn it to all the Hells! Sesshomaru cursed inwardly, gritting his teeth. This was ridiculous, he - the once great Sesshomaru - was powerless to move because of how many bodies were packed in around him. This was his fault: clearly turning mortal had rotted his brain too. How could he not have foreseen this? He should have been closer to Rin so that he couldn't have lost her.

Much like Sesshomaru, everyone in the room was distracted, fearing for their lives. No one noticed the limp form of the highway trader's daughter, her gaze transfixed upon the flickering flame of the sole torch secured in place by a sconce upon the wall.

"B-burn t-them, h-haveta, haveta b-burn'em... all, b-burn..." the shakey words rattled off her lips. The barely intelligible whisper was drowned out by the chaos cresting all around the addled, unnoticed girl.

:

Miroku looked up at the empty, black, night sky, as cold sweat poured down his face. Urging his exhausted, spasming diaphragm, he fought to draw another breath deep down into his belly. Sango, wherever you are out there, I have to keep building ki. I have to force these monsters back. These people will die if I don't. Please forgive me, my love. Please give me strength, he prayed and closed his eyes, as he felt the power building within his tired frame. His sweaty fingers struggled to clutch his staff and hold it up to block the beasts that would come springing at his face any moment. He had just hit them with another spray of sutras, but the effect would not last long.

"BROTHER-IN-LAW!" came the familiar cry.

Miroku's eyes snapped open just as the deadly flash of steel flicked through the air before him.

Phhhhlttt –

Chilling, black demonic blood that wreaked of death splashed across the monk's face. A second later, Kohaku followed the path of his chained kusarigama where it sliced across the nasty faces of the demonic wolves. Spinning and leaping over the beasts with dancer-like agility, Kohaku skidded to a stop shoulder-to-shoulder with Miroku. With a sharp yank, the flying sickle obediently soared back into the young demon slayer's hands.

"Brother-in-law, thank the kami you are still alive!" Kohaku exclaimed. "If I let anything happen to you, Sister would surely kill me."

Improbable though it was, a weak smile made it onto Miroku's lips. "A bit longer and that might've been the case," he sighed gratefully. His morale bolstered by the addition of Kohaku's support, the monk straightened up a bit. He readied his staff in defense alongside Kohaku's kusarigama, both their blades still dripping with the dark, evil-looking blood.

"Kohaku, I'm afraid I might have bitten more off than we can chew this time," Miroku admitted, as he and Kohaku brandished their weapons in an attempt to scare back the wolves. Thankfully, a few of the dumb beasts seemed uncertain for the moment about the arrival of Kohaku and his ranged weapon, which the demon slayer tossed out in front of their faces again with a lightning-fast flick of his wrist. "Did you see how Hachi and Kirara are doing on your way here?"

Kohaku clench his teeth but grinned a bit while giving the kusarigama another dangerous looking toss in the direction of the wolves. A few seemed to be getting bold and were not shrinking back from the blade as much as before. "They weren't doing much better, but Shippo's with them now, and we found two more friends on our excursion – two of the Wolf Demon Kouga's pack-mates, Ginta and Hakkaku – they are helping on the other side now."

"Ginta and Hakkaku?" Miroku repeated questioningly. "What are they doing here? Is Kouga with them?"

Sango's brother's face turned serious, as he searched for an answer to Miroku's question. "No, they... lost Kouga. It's a bit of a story, but I think it has to do with what's happening here."

Miroku grimaced. That could explain some things for sure about the number of rogue demon wolves here. Obviously, Kouga would be well-aware of something on this scale in the wolf demon community. The fact that he wouldn't be here trying to control the situation was a clear cause for concern now that Miroku considered it.

"I'll have to tell you more later," Kohaku bit out. He worked to drag the flying blade of his sickle-like weapon across the hackles of one of the wolves that narrowly missed catching the weapon in its mouth like a dog trying to snatch a bone. The blade savagely tore across the cadaverous flesh of the beast, but the weapon's abuse was ceasing to impress the gaggle of monsters. They were starting to close in on the two men once again, blood-lust glittering in their purple eyes. "What are we going to do now, Brother-in-Law?" he asked as the weapon returned to his grasp.

With a few moments to rest and breathe, Miroku felt like he could think again. If they could not fight the wolves back... only one other option remained.

"They're after lifeforce!" Miroku shouted, and in a split second reaction, he swung the blade end of his staff around. The silver spike drove cleanly down into the shoulder of a brave wolf that leapt, snapping its fangs at his legs. The beast whined, and the blade pulled clean of the magically smoking flesh. Stumbling back, the wolf writhed and crashed into its mates, which snarled and bit angrily at it. "And they're not smart," Miroku breathed.

They're not smart... They just want what's in front of them. Power, if we had another source of power... He thought to himself.

Miroku had not been using the ki techniques long. Loss of the kazaana had spurred his study of the art that had first emanated from the Continent. He knew from practice that with proper breathing and intention, he could produce spikes in his life-energy that could wax and be unleashed with potent results. How much power could one build up within their body without having to release it though? Was it even safe?

He would have to find out.

"Kohaku, I think I may have a way to draw a number of the wolves away from here, but I will need to be able to get away from the village hall and have a few isolated minutes to build up as much energy as possible. If I can get around the south side of the building, I can also draw Kirara over to help me," Miroku explained, withdrawing more sutras from his collar.

The young demon slayer's brows furrowed in worry at the sounds of his brother-in-law's plan. Behind him the strained screams and threatening sounds of the horses' hooves battering the stable walls reminded him that time was running short to make a better strategy though. He nodded his understanding. "I can get you there," Kohaku replied.

The monk concentrated on opening his nasal passages and pictured the intake pathways of his body yielding to draw in the deepest, longest breath he could. Set with unshakable focus, in his mind's eye, he saw the air flowing slowly and steadily inside of himself. Simultaneously, he dashed a handful of the sutras down upon the heads of the wolves almost at his and Kohaku's feet.

The sutras flared with blue ethereal flames bigger than he had ever seen before. The religious enchantments were obviously empowered by the huge amount of energy surging into Miroku's body at that moment, but he could not stop to admire it now. Stepping over the temporarily thwarted bodies of the beasts, he strode forward still pulling in the longest breath of air he had ever dared to draw. As Miroku had hoped, the wolves at the back of the throng scrambled over the downed bodies to chase after him.

Sensing that this had to be part of the plan, Kohaku followed Miroku. Walking backward after the monk, he dared the wolves to leap at his brother-in-law's back, flicking his kusarigama this-way-and-that in threatening motions. The wolves were clearly transfixed, as a majority of them pulled away from the village hall, practically climbing over one another to follow in Miroku's wake. Still, Kohaku's teeth clenched fearfully, as he recognized the hungry look in the creatures' eyes.

The wolves feared his kusarigama, but the saliva running like thick, shining pieces of yarn from their mouths and onto the dirt beneath them betrayed them.

The monsters had come to follow had lost interest in the villagers, but now they wanted something else: they wanted to devour his brother-in-law.

Gods, this is what he had planned? Kohaku panicked to himself. It was suicidal, but it was too late. They had committed to this.

They now approached the southerly angle of the building where they could see Kirara, Hachi, Shippo, Ginta and Hakkaku fighting more of the wolves. They had been having a harder time, as more of the beasts and their pack leader massed here.

"Miroku!?" Shippou now called to them in shock. The kitsune and the others on this side of the hall had not failed to notice the shifting of the tide, as some of the wolves there had also begun to turn away from the hall. They now saw that it was their friends somehow drawing them away.

"W-what are they doing?" Hachi stuttered, slack-jawed as the wolves around them began automatically turning their attention on the monk in the distance.

:

Long and slow, Miroku inhaled as he had done in training. He'd never tried to slow it down quite like this. With each stride away from the village, each step putting him that much closer to the edge of the village and out into the dark forest, he forced himself to draw in air. The sensation edged down past every vertebrae in this spine. The joints crackled all the way down until he felt the stirring activation of his hip joints. He fought the mounting fear, as his skin tightened painfully across his back causing his consciousness scream at him to claw at his restricted chest. Yet, he couldn't let the breath go.

I will hold on. I will hold on. I will hold on –, he superimposed the mantra over all the other screaming desires of his body.

And right there, Miroku stopped, on the border where consciousness threatened to cross over into unconsciousness. He turned to face the wolves that had begun to follow in his footsteps away from the village hall.

They weren't all following yet, but soon enough, they would be.

If a geomancer had been in their presence at that moment, they would have been able to clearly trace in the dirt beneath their feet the supersonic tremors that were coalescing and rippling off of the Buddhist. So palpable was the radiation of energy that it palpitated the pebbles and dust on the ground, minute but powerfully recognizable indications that something truly formidable was mounting.

Barely able to suffocate the well-spring of otherworldly energy flooding his everything, Miroku's fingers shook, and he capped the bladed end of his staff. He willed his two trembling hands, which almost felt disembodied to him in the haze taking over his mind, to grip the shaft of his weapon. Raising it parallel in front his body, Miroku lifted it high. Then, unable to last another moment, he plunged the base of the staff toward the earth below.

:

Why is he out there like that? Shippou asked himself, as he righted himself from having just round-house kicked away another one of the demonic wolves. He ignored the horrible animal's screeching whines, as he heard Hachi stuttering a similar question aloud from behind. Straining his super-human vision on this insidiously dark night, Shippou found the strained look on Kohaku's face, as he alternatingly swiped back the wolves that had begun to leap from both sides in Miroku's direction.

Initially imperceptible, Shippou's skin slowly began to crawl beneath his flesh until his glamorized hand flew to his chest. His heart started to beat wildly. What is happening? he gasped and felt an uncontrollable vacuum-like draw coming from the direction of the monk and the young demon slayer.

Startled, Shippou lost all focus on what he had been doing, and looked around to find Hachi pressing his paws to his twisted up eyes; Ginta and Hakkaku clutched their heads; and Kirara winced with her ears fully flattened to her head. The demonic wolves had dropped to the ground around them, cowering with intense curiosity and snuffling all around uncontrollably. They also tried to sense what was happening around them with their strongest ability, their sense of smell.

The sensation was overwhelming as Shippou felt it building within him like a geyser surging toward the surface. It was something vaguely familiar also but not, like an overpowering perfume or being stuck in a silo with too much over-ripened fruit and no access to fresh air – aromas that could have been otherwise good if not amplified to the umpteenth degree.

Shippou's mind reeled, and forcing himself to focus, he caught it.

Miroku?

His eyes widened. His attention snapped to where the monk stood a few hundred paces away. It was Miroku's life-force. The kitsune could not recognize it at first. The reverberation hit him so suddenly like a tidal wave, and now his demonic senses were drowning in it.

How is he-The thought collapsed in Shippou's mind instantaneously as he registered his friend's guttural scream. The monk thrust his staff into the Earth where he stood.

:

Kirara flinched as the effects of the energy source building from her master's mate first reached her. Being that she had trained to serve demon slayers for centuries, her senses were fine tuned. She had easily identified Miroku as the source, though his life-force was so amplified it almost hurt to feel it. As Miroku's staff collided with the ground, only half a second passed before the energy wave crashed forth from the monk in all directions like a seismic eruption. Involuntarily, Kirara's muscles tightened all over her body, even her pupils in her huge eyes like pools of red hot lava dilated from the sensation. The strength of the burst nauseated the cat demon momentarily. Chills struck off like a match lighting down her spine, and she fought off the urge to fall deeper into the delicious surge of energy flooding her instincts before-

KIRARA! The vocalization of his spirit broke like an aftershock across the cat demon's perception.

:

Pure ecstacy. As Miroku screamed forth the release of the energy that had been scaling in his body, it blew out, practically scorching every orifice of the monk's physical and ethereal structure. The only feeling he could associate it with was the formidable sense of release he felt whenever he lost himself crescendoing into the delectable body of his beloved wife. Honestly, it wasn't even comparable though, as the catalyst that Miroku had just created was so obviously on another plane of existence.

Though it didn't work that differently.

Which was something that Miroku hadn't really counted on: as quickly as the adrenaline spiked through his veins, it dissipated intensely right after.

Clutching his staff where it had rooted to the ground, the Buddhist looked up in time to see dozens of demonic wolf eyes flickering in his general direction. Right before the world before his eyes began to warp. And spin.

Oh hells, he thought to himself as Kohaku's shouting turned dull in his ears.

Fuck, it must've worked though, right? The monk forced a last lucid thought before a muffled roaring filled his head and soft, warm, comforting fur pressed against his face and palms.

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Note: ArizonaBay – Thank you so much as well for remembering this story through all this time! I am working to try to do it justice after all this time now, realizing that I may have changed a lot as a writer too. Hope you enjoy reading the new chapters as much I am enjoying writing them!

Thank you for the several of you who followed and/or favorited! (One of you even did both!)

Your recognition means so much, dear readers. Peace, Origamikungfu.