dell dell 3 69 2001-10-05T19:27:00Z 2001-10-09T20:34:00Z 1 312 1783 UW Madison 14 3 2189 9.4402 Author's notes: Whew! This chapter took me so long because it was just one huge fight scene with not much of anything else. I'm sorry if people got tired of waiting and finally just gave up, but I hope I can get the next chapter out much sooner than this one took. And to all of the people who reviewed:
Thank You! Thank You! Thank You So Much!
Disclaimer: Right. No own. Takahashi do. Okay.
Journeys Through the Well
Akane and Serpents and Curses, Oh My!
"Ssssso tell me, where isss the priessstesss who guardsss the jewel? Then mayhapssss I sssshall eat you with no pain."
The demon's eyes glowed an unearthly red and it let its jaw open to reveal a large mouth full of sharp teeth, with two incisors which curled over the creatures lower lips. Its long sinouous body curled among the undergrowth and disappeared into shadows. But what made its horror more terrifying than anything Akane had ever seen before, were the multitudes of long human limbs which sprouted all along its snake-like body. Each arm was a pale fleshy pink, with small scales that glinted in the sunlight like a dusting of sprinkles. But the finger were tipped with sharp black claws which left no doubt in Akane's mind that this demon could leave a gaping wound in a person. But the crowning of this grotesque show was the long pure black hair which flowed like silk and drapped coquetishly along the branches, and from which emitted some of the most horrifying screeches and cries ever heard. The reality seemed to warp and flow crazily around where strands of the hair rested.
Akane took a step back, her heart pounded loudly in her ears. Never had she seen anything more . . . demon-like. The foes she'd had to deal with up till Saffron had been human at least, even if they were Jusenkyo-cursed.
Then it finally clicked in her mind.
Jusenkyo!
She abandoned her idea of running away. Instead she pushed Maya away from her, whispering fiercely, "Maya! When I say go, I want you to run! Do you understand me? Run as fast as you can back to the village and get Ranma! Do you understand?!"
Swallowing the large lump in her throat Maya tried to speak, but a croak came out instead. So she buried her face against Akane's leg and nodded.
"Good," Akane gave the trembling girl a pat on her head and tried to hide her own nervousness. She swallowed several times to dispel the terror rising in her throat, "Okay. Then go!"
She gave the small girl a gentle shove and flared her aura as big as possible, temporarily hiding the escape of the little girl.
The demon hissed in surprise, but quickly recovered. It leaped at the dark silhouette in the center of the bright aura, stretching its jaws to the limit. It closed its mouth with a triumphant snap, but jerked back when it felt nothing between its teeth. Feeling its head suddenly rushing towards the ground, the snake-like demon jerked its body trying to throw the person off.
But Akane had already leapt off its head before the demon could react. She landed softly among the dry leaves which littered the forest floor and was promptly tripped as Jusenkyo whipped its long body under her legs. Rolling with the fall, Akane placed her hands on the ground on either side of her head and pushed off while kicking her legs at the same time. This caused her to flip back upright, but as soon as her feet touched the ground, she backflipped away. She heard the snap as the snake demon closed its jaws in the space she had occupied.
Working on the momentum she had gained, Akane went into a series of flips and cartwheels until she had landed on the branch of a tall tree. She stumbled a bit before reaching out to steady herself on the trunk, then looked at the silent demon, who had stayed in its position the whole time, trying to guage how much power this human actually had.
They stood there for a moment. The demon confident in its ability to win, but unwilling to put to waste too much time and energy. The blue-haired human scared but determined to survive.
Akane clenched trembling fists and hoped the demon couldn't see how much her legs were shaking under her long dress. She knew she couldn't surprise the demon anymore, so she had to draw the fight out until Ranma came, or run and hoped it wasn't as fast as she was. Akane frowned. There weren't a lot of options, but she was a martial artist!
"WHAT?! You mean she hasn't returned yet?!"
Kasumi nodded, "Thats right, Ryoga. I havent seen her since this morning when she went out with Ranma in such a rush. I do wish they would hurry up back home, they will be so hungry by dinnertime."
"B-but, I just got back from Kyoto with tea cakes for Akane-san. . . ."
"Well I can put those in her room," smiling cheerfully, Kasumi gently accepted the gift from Ryoga's limp hand, "Don't worry, I'm sure she will be back before dinner time. In the meantime, you can stay here."
Ryogas expression immediately changed from streaming tears to teary eyes of gratitude. "Really? You mean that?!"
"Mm-hm." Kasumi smiled widely, glad she had made someone a little happier that day.
"THANK-YOU, KASUMI-SAN!"
"Quite alright. Just follow me to the living room." Kasumi looked at Ryoga's receding back, "Um, Ryoga-kun? This way."
Ryoga turned back with an embarrassed blush and followed the eldest Tendo daughter with only two more redirections to the living room.
Once again, the pig-tailed youth had his hands up in the air, wondering why these things always happened to him. He sighed and glanced to his left. He met the baleful glare of one ghost-haired dog-demon. So he looked over his shoulder, only to catch the distrustful brown orbs of one obnoxious village archer. Shojinya raised a dark brow and tightened his hold on the bow warningly. Ranma sighed silently again, then finally directed his attention to his right, finally managing to get a sympathetic smile in return. He gave a half-hearted attempt at a smile, trying to keep worry for one uncute tomboy from showing on his face, then glanced down at the snoring brown bundle in the younger priestess' arms.
He leaned towards her, whispering, "Hey, is he alright?"
Kagome smiled fondly at Shippo's sleeping form. "I think he will be."
Inu-Yasha snorted from the other side, "I would think so. He's making enough noise to scare off every animal within the area."
Ranma shrugged and went back to mindlessly staring at the path in front of him, as the elder priestess, Kaede, led the way. From time to time, he could feel the strange demon boy's eyes on him, staring curiously. Finally, after a few minutes of this, Ranma turned to him, "What is it?"
Immediately, Inu-Yasha adopted a defensive position, one arm up and a large frown on his face, "What?"
"You were staring at me," Ranma looked down at the shorter boy with a neutral expression, taking note of the defensiveness the boy showed.
"So what?"
Shrugging again, Ranma went back to staring down the path.
"Well . . ." Inu-Yasha began hesitantly.
"Hm. . . ?"
"Well . . ." the ghost-haired youth turned away to look at the forest, finding a particular patch extremely intresting, "Well, I was just wondering. Are you human or demon?"
"Look," Ranma tilted his head upwards in frustration, "I already told you. I. Am. A. Human. Being."
"But you smell like a demon!"
Ranma sniffed experimenatally at himself. Well, he did smell a little musty from his morning jog, and he wasn't quite sure how a demon smelled exactly, but he was pretty sure he didn't smell like one!
"I think you're confused, dog-boy."
Inu-Yasha growled, "My nose does not lie!"
"I didn't say it did, and if that's all," Ranma went back to staring at Kaede's back to signify the end of the conversation.
"But you smell like a human too."
"Huh?"
"Did you give your soul to a demon lord for your powers?"
"No way! What the hell are you thinking?! That's so . . . that's so . . ." Ranma fumbled around for a word to describe his outrage, "cheap! Only a fool and a weakling would ever do anything like that!
"But you're so powerful!" Kagome exclaimed, "The only people I've seen with that kind of aura, were priests or priestesses or possessed people."
"Huh. Well I ain't no holy person, and I sure ain't possessed either."
Inu-Yasha was frowning heavily now, "So explain to me how you can be almost as fast as a demon?!"
"Practice."
". . . Is that it? Practice?"
"Yep."
Inu-Yasha had a dumb-founded expression on his face. There was no way. No way! It was impossible! No mere human could practice becoming fast enough to compete with a demon! Even for those rare humans with large spirits, like Kagome and she was a priestess, it would take years before they could become even half as fast as he was himself. Inu-Yasha shook his head. This human couldn't have seen more than eighteen summers! It was impossible!
"I don't believe you. You stink of a demon and you have powers that are beyond normal. This can only mean a demon has enhanced or given you whatever skills you have."
"Are you saying I'm weak?" Ranma growled.
The dog demon was smirking, "Whatever you say. . . ."
"I'll show you weak," Ranma brought up his fists ready to pound that annoying smirk away, but the sharp tip of an arrow against his cheek reminded him of his predicament.
"I be not doing that if I be ye." Shojinya glared down the length of the arrow at the pig-tailed youth. Ranma sighed and lowered his fists.
"Inu-Yasha! Don't make me . . ." Kagome threatened from the other side
The ghost-haired boy merely snorted, but he didn't say anymore.
They walked in tense silence until Inu-Yasha's ears perked imperceptively. Then he whipped around as the sounds of something came crashing through the underbrush.
At the sound of Ukyo's voice at the gate, the eldest Tendo daughter walked out into the courtyard from dusting the house down. She smiled cheerfully at the other girl's equally cheerful countenance and welcomed her in, "Hello Ukyo-san. I'm sorry but Ranma and Akane haven't come back yet."
At this bit of news, the long-haired chef frowned worriedly. The peace all day, except for the early morning routine, had been quite unnerving. There had been no reports of sudden outbreaks of fighting or incidents of unknown panty raids or explosions as property damage was racked up by super martial-artists. It was now getting on to the late afternoon and no one had seen neither Akane nor Ranma. Ranma, for sure, would have at least been home, or at the Nekohanten for lunch, since she hadn't seen him all day. She sincerely hoped it wasn't the latter or there would be hell to pay.
"Well, Kasumi-san, didn't he come back for lunch at all?"
"Why no," her eyes were large and innocent, "I thought maybe he'd eaten at your restaurant."
"Nooo," Ukyo twirled a lock of brown hair around her finger, then unconsciously rubbed the handle of her combat spatula. She smiled for the elder woman's benefit and gave a quick bow, "I'm sorry to have disturb you, Kasumi-san. I think I might know where he is."
"Are you leaving now? Wouldn't you like some tea first?"
"Thank-you, but I really must be going. Thanks again for your help." She waved and would have kept walking if she hadn't bumped into a wall of muscled chest. She bounced back with a small gasp, steadying herself with her weapon before glaring at the clumsy oaf.
"Watch it!" she snapped. She blinked in surprise when she saw who it was, "Ryoga?"
"Ukyo! Oh good!" he sighed with relief. "I caught you in time. Maybe I could come with you?"
She glared at him suspiciously, "Why? You're not going to start a fight with Ran-chan are you?"
"Why not?! That no-good cross-dressing pervert deserves it! I oughtta pound him on principle!
NotthatIwill!" he added hastily when he caught the murderous glint in the chef's brown eyes.
Narrowing her eyes, Ukyo considered bopping him for a moment longer, then deciding that the fanged boy was too heavy to drag around, she relaxed her grip on the handle of the giant spatula. She gave a small sniff and nodded her head stiffly, then started down the street. Ryoga bowed and thanked Kasumi quickly before continuing down the street also. In the opposite direction.
There was a cloud of dust as the brown-haired chef rushed by Kasumi and whapped the lost boy on head with her spatula.
CLANG! "IDIOT! THIS WAY! THIS WAY!" They came by the bemused Tendo daughter again. This time with Ukyo dragging the dizzy Ryoga.
Inu-Yasha crouched low for a moment, then disappeared into the underbrush suddenly. There was a bit of rustling then a loud shout and another higher-pitched crying. The rest of the group waited tensely. Kaede and Shojinya had drawn their bows, and Kagome, burdened with Shippo's sleeping form, had to back away to stay as far away from the battle as possible. Ranma dropped into a defensive stance, his eyes scanning the surrounding forest for anything which would be out of place and straining for any more sounds from the underbrush.
After a few moments there was a rustling and Inu-Yasha stepped out carrying a bundle under his arm. He looked disgruntled and his hair was slightly out of place. The bundle began emitting high-pitched screeches which had Inu-Yasha's sensitive ears ringing. He held the struggling bundle out at arm's length and looked to Kagome for help. The rest of the group looked at the half-demon in varying degrees of amusement and confusion, none of them trying to help.
"Quiet!" he snapped at the crying bundle, ears ringing and unsure of what to do. Unfortunately this only caused the child to cry even harder.
"Maya?" Shojinya finally spoke up.
The little girl turned towards the sound of the voice, her teary eyes widening, "Oniichan! Oniichan!" She reached desparately out for the elder boy and Inu-Yasha gratefully handed her over.
Shojinya hugged the small child protectively, soothing her with hushed whispers, but she kept crying and hiccuping uncontrollably.
"Maya? Maya, what happened?"
After a few minutes of halting speech interspersed with sobs, the group managed to get the full story out of the hyterical girl. Ranma wasted no time. He ran from the group ignoring the shouts and warnings they sent his way. Fast on his heels, Inu-Yasha also came along and Ranma scowled, "What the hell do you think you're doing?"
"Feh! You think I'll let some evil demon get by me without a proper beating?" He glared at the martial artist, "And do you think I'll trust you not to run off?"
"Fine! Just don't get in my way when I'm beating the thing up."
"Human, I think it is you who should stay out of my way."
Jusenkyo hissed and gave a small twitch. A prickling on the back of her neck galvanized Akane into action.
She leapt straight up and let the snake demon's tail pass underneath her before she stomped on it. Hard.
The demon gave a shriek of pain and thrashed wildly for a moment, knocking Akane off its tail.
Akane just held her hands over her ears. That shriek had hurt. She looked up slowly as the ringing in her head subsided, but had to leap away quickly when a section of the demons body came at her with the arms grasping and clawing.
"Vile thing!" Jusenkyo leapt over her head only to bring its body slamming down on the nearly deaf Akane, who made a desparate leap to the right, then suddenly to the left when she found her way blocked by another section of the demons body. There was sudden shooting pain in her left arm and Akane looked down to find long bloody gashes along her forearm, the sleeves hanging off in tatters. During that brief moment of distraction, another arm grabbed her dress and tugged like a fisherman reeling in the catch.
"Ungh!" Akane tried to push the arms away, but they just dug into her flesh lacerating her arms and then latching onto various parts of her clothes. She was pulled and shoved until they'd had her immobilised against the dry, cold body. Akane couldn't control her trembling as Jusenkyo slowly bobbed its head before her, considering the strange human girl who had managed to injure it.
"Wench, be happy you are being eaten. I could give you a far worssssse fate." It opened its jaws wide and gave a little hiss. When the short-haired girl gave a little scream and whipped her head away, it chuckled with delight. The pain had been worth the expression of terror and pain on the human's face. Jusenkyo flicked its tongue several times, smelling the rich scent of freshly spilled human blood, and incidently, flicked at Akane's face with the slippery tongue. She began trembling even more.
She whimpered as she felt those dry slithering hands grasp or brush against her bare skin. She could do nothing else but think of how horribly dead the body felt against her back, and how she wanted nothing more than to shut her eyes and curl up. But as Jusenkyo moved in even closer to enjoy the torture it was giving, Akane's terror finally snapped. Tense muscle which had been unwilling to obey her desparate pleas to move suddenly relaxed and Jusenkyo was left to support the full weight of Akane's limp body.
The demon pulled back sharply and was taken completely off-guard.
"WHY YOOOUUU . . ." Akanes enraged scream made the serpentine demon jerk back in surprise, then it jerked back some more as Akane braced against its body and pulled forward.
It took a moment for the demon to register that its prey was trying to escape. It blinked, then blinked again for good measure. Then it smiled. "Heh-heh. Foolissssh human. Do you think you can esssscape me? For that, I, Jussssenkyo, sssshall punissssh you sssseverely!"
"I," Tug, "Don't," Wrench, "Think," SCHLAP! "SO!!!" There was a sickening sound of tearing flesh followed by a moment of silence.
An unholy shriek of pain and anger ripped through the silent forest. It made the trees shake in what could have passed as fear and had previously hidden woodland creatures scuttling out of hiding to run in terror. Akane landed on the ground with a painful thump, then curled into a fetal position, trying to lessen the pain in her ears.
"YOU!" The demon came at her with incredible speed, jaws wide and red eyes glowing with fury and pain. Its hair whipped back in tangles and it reached two arms out, anticipating the soft flesh of this despicable human.
The demon flew at her for an unbearably long time. Its grimacing visage filled Akane's vision, its horror could not be told. The pale skin stretched too tight over the skull, causing deep shadows under the cheekbones and left the eyeballs to pop out grotesquely. She could only stare, eyes wide with fright and look up at scarlet eyes. Eyes that pierced her soul and stole her breath so that she couldn't even utter a small scream. Akane sat there frozen, breathless, and unable to even look away from her terrible, inevitable death.
"BASTARD! GET AWAY FROM HER!"
A blur slammed into the demon's head, knocking it away. Its head flew to the side and its body followed, crashing hard into the trees.
"Akane? Akane?!"
Akane stared up wonderingly at the pig-tailed youth, "R-Ranma?" She grabbed the surprised youth in a bone crunching hug, "Oh, Ranma! I was so scared!" She began to tremble as the fear kept coursing through her and the stress finally caught up. "It's horrible. Th-the thing! What is it? What is it?" Ranma said nothing as she trailed off into panting. "Kami-sama, it's horrible! It wanted to eat us and then it wanted the priestess, but I . . . but I . . ." He didn't know what to say or what to do. They crouched there for a moment, Ranma giving neither encouragement nor rejection; Akane quickly pulling herself together with prideful determination. She kept her face lowered against his shoulder, trying to calm her trembling arms, trying to show her jerk of a fiancé that she wasn't weak, but the shaking wouldn't stop. The acrid smell of the demon's breath still fumed into her face and she wanted to hold onto anyone, anything that was alive. Right now she wanted warmth to take away the memory of the dry, dead body.
She took one more deep breath, inhaling the subtle scent of Ranma, then pushed away to face the demon again, not him a chance to see her face.
"Akane. . . ."
"I'm fine," she took another steadying breath, "I'm fine."
He nodded curtly, noticing the demon begin to rise, "Okay, stay back. Let me handle this, Akane."
"No. I'm a martial artist too . . ."
"Akane, don't be so stubborn!"
". . . and I need to beat it, Ranma," she looked over her shoulder at the pig-tailed youth. Her eyes were unreadable, "It's evil, Ranma. I have to beat it because it is the duty of a martial artist and because I can't let it hurt Maya." Her eyes hardened with determination, "I'll admit I can't defeat it alone, but don't make me leave the fight. It threatened Maya and I can't forgive that!"
"Akane—"
There was a soft shish as metal cleared a scabbard and a voice intruded, "I don't care how much you two want to fight. You should get back to the others and let me take care of this. Humans have no business in a demon battle."
The two humans looked at Inu-Yasha's rusty katana skeptically. Akane spoke up before Ranma could respond, "Um, I don't think that's going to be much help against something like this."
The half-demon boy smirked, "Just get back, human."
"No way!" two voices chorused. They glanced at each other briefly, then turned back to the ghost-haired youth, "I'm a martial artist, I'm fighting, too!"
They faced each other again to bristle a bit, but didn't get a chance to launch into another argument as the demon drew itself up to tower over the three.
"Impudent mongrelssss! I ssshall kill you ssslowly!"
"Ha! I'd like to see you try!" Again two voices chorused and Ranma and Inu-Yasha glared at each other before turning their attention back to the multi-limbed demon.
It opened its mouth. Everyone dropped into defensive positions, tensely awaiting the attack.
"Will you get out of here, Akane?!"
"No!"
A sphere of watery light slowly exited the serpent's mouth and hovered for a moment before its face. The three youths pulled their defenses in tighter, adrenaline pumping their hearts to more than a hundred beats per minute. Then the sphere broke apart with a brilliant flash like a supernova and bright pinpoints of light shot at the three combatants. Momentarily blinded, all three youths had to rely solely on their other senses. For a few seconds, hearing and the sense of shifting winds against their skin became the critical senses to dodge the various projectiles.
Ranma and Akane leapt back, while trying to dodge the knife-sharp pellets crazily. Inu-Yasha held his ground. Bringing his rusted katana up in a wide arc, he felt the transformation as a surge of energy jolting his hand and shooting through his body. The radiant gleam of the fang sliced through the projectiles, causing a sharp artificial wind to cut through towards the exposed head of the demon.
Jusenkyo hissed, but ducked underneath the cutting attack to charge rapidly towards Inu-Yasha, who held the fang before him, awaiting the demon's charge. The half-demon smirked, "You are too predictable, demon."
"Am I?"
"Eh?"
Jusenkyo suddenly jerked to the side, heading straight for Ranma. Inu-Yasha growled, leaping after the head, "Your fight is with me!"
A force slammed into his stomach like a boulder had been thrown at him. The breath was driven from his body and it was only a nearby, friendly tree that stopped his sliding rush away from the battle. He crunched into the tree painfully and it was only his demon heritage that saved him from slipping into unconsciousness. Lying there for a moment, he tried desperately to breath, but it seemed like his lungs would not draw in air. He sucked desparately like a fish on land, but nothing happened. Finally, after an eternity, he was able to gasp and clutch his side as he struggled to one knee. He blearily stared down at his wet clothes and wondered what kind of attack it had been for him to be unable to see or detect it.
Meanwhile, Ranma leapt over the demon's oncoming charge, intending to stomp it into the ground, but it reared up quickly, catching him in a vise-like grip with its first four arms. Blood ran down his arms from the black nails that dug into his flesh and Jusenkyo opened its mouth intending to bite off this human's head.
"I don't think so!" Ranma braced both legs against the serpent, then kicked the jaw approaching him rapidly. He heard a satisfying snap as the demon's head was thrown back and its grip loosened. Using the demon's arms to push off, he grabbed the head and twisted so that he could come back around and deliver a good kick against the demon's back. "Katsu Tenshin Amaguriken revised! (Chestnuts Flying from an Open Fire)"
"Look out!" Ranma glanced over his shoulder instinctively. A section of the demon's body flew at him, the arms ready to gouge out pieces of his tender flesh, but a blur crashed into it, driving the threat away from the martial artist.
"Akane!" Ranma let go off the head and sprang away, but not before delivering another hard kick that incidently helped him spring away. He joined the female martial artist on the ground, standing protectively before her, "I thought I told you to get out of here!"
"And I thought I told you, NO!"
"Will you shut up and listen to me for once?!" Exasperation made his voice sharp, and he flinched when he felt the cold flow of air on his back from Akane's aura.
But when she spoke, her voice was eerily calm, "No."
There was no more room for conversation when the serpent shot at them with insane speed, looking only slightly injured from Ranma's treatment. Ranma dodged. He'd intended to rebound off a tree and deliver another lightning kick along with a few chops for good measure, but a glance in his fiancee's direction had his heartrate going up. Landing on the ground instead, he braced himself against the ground, trying to stop long enough to change directions and save the stupid tomboy before she got herself hurt. He cursed as he finally slid to a halt and sprang for the blue-haired girl, desparate to reach her before the demon could gobble her up. But Akane was glowing a brilliant blue and there was the determined, almost stubborn look, in her eye that signaled that she would not be swayed.
Her arms swept up into the air in a very familiar action. Ranma cursed mentally, not wasting breath to tell his fiancée that it was pointless. She waited until the demon was right before her, before bringing her arms down with all the force she could muster. The brightly glowing mallet in her hands smashed into the demon's skull, slowing it down significantly, but unfortunately, not enough to actually stop the monster's momentum. Jusenkyo slammed into Akane with the force of a freight train. She was thrown back a few meters before crashing into a tree. Her limp body slid down slowly and didn't move.
"AKANE!" Ranma tried to dash to his unconscious fiancée, but the demon rose shakily. It held its head dizzily, but was, by no means, out of the fight yet.
"Desssspicable woman! I ssshall kill you!" With that it turned towards Akane's unconscious body, the strange hair seeming to move ahead in anticipation.
"STOP!" Ranma ran towards the demon, but the several arms seemed to wave sharply and a cold force slammed into him. Ranma flew back, skidding to a halt several meters away. He gasped, then finding that he couldn't draw any breath, started panting shallowly. When he'd caught his breath, he looked down at his soaked form, to find two prominent features sticking out from his chest.
Jusenkyo continued towards Akane, the black wisps of hair curling and reaching eagarly for her form. The cries and wails almost seemed to sing with satisfaction as they touched her still form, their song a subtly grotesque imitation of the happiness. Sick, corrupted happiness. They wrapped the female martial artist up lovingly in their murky strands, making her shiver and moan unconsciously. With the horrible strands swirling around her head, Akane finally disappeared beneath the midnight darkness.
"NOO!"
Before the Ranma could do anything, there was a large flash from the other side of the demon. Junsenkyo shrieked. The very air seemed to shimmer and the trees shook as if quaking in terror. Ranma covered his ears. The pain was unbelievable! It felt like a nail was being pounded into his head!
From the other side, Inu-Yasha fell down, his sensitive ears amplifying the sound to an excruciating level. His sword fell slowly from his limp hands as the shriek continued. The serpentine demon stared maliciously at Inu-Yasha as it continued the painful sound. Black ichor dribbled excessively from the stumps of its right side, but already the large wound was healing over and as it did, the screech died out. It jerked its head and something flew from its mass of writhing hair.
"AKANE!" Ranma rushed to the dark lump.
Inu-Yasha shook his head dizzily, wondering when Kagome would stop telling him to "Sit!". He struggled to one knee, blindly searching for his sword, cursing the unceasing ringing in his head and the bluriness of his vision. He felt something coming at him then and rolled out of the way desperately. A moment later the large body of Jusenkyo came flying by at incredible speed. Inu-Yasha rushed to his fallen sword. He had to reach twice for the three blades, which kept moving crazily before him, before he managed to get the right one. He squeezed his eyes shut, trying to rid himself of the ringing and the bluriness in his eyes. Just as the ringing in his head cleared, he heared the soft twang of three arrows being released, then the sharp whistle as the arrows flew through the air to thunk into their target solidly. Jusenkyo hissed and shook Ranma off briefly to stare at the newcomers. It stared down the flinty point of three nocked arrows.
"Stay where you are, or we'll shoot!"
It paused a moment, then spat furiously, "Puny humansss. I wassss sssssurprisssed, but I won't make the ssssame missstake again!" With that it turned and rushed off.
"MONSTER!" Inu-Yasha made as if to go after him, "I'M NOT FINISHED WITH YOU YET!" but Kagome walked up to the dog-eared boy and papped his shoulder strongly. He keeled over easily.
"Idiot. You just had two fights today! At least recover!" She shook her head and glanced over at Ranma. "Oh! I'm terribly sorry, miss, to have gotten you involved." When the red-head didn't answer, only continued to stare at something on the ground, Kagome walked over. When she saw the form, she gasped softly, "Is that . . . is that a dragon?!"
"No," the red-head replied, she looked up at Kagome with familiar blue eyes, "I think that's Akane. . . ."