Miroku sat in a meditative stance just to the side of the hole his friends were in. His head was bowed; eyes closed. Arms were loosely crossed over his chest with his precious shakujou laying on the snow in front of him. To the casual, unknowing passerby, the houshi could pass for a peaceful slumberer. But to those that knew the houshi's mind knew he was keeping vigil and scanning the area. Also doing his best to keep himself and his friend from freezing.
The folds of wide sleeves shifted as a fluffy tuft of russet hair appeared. Demon green eyes looked to the winter wasteland before curiously looking up with all the innocence of a child. A hand, smaller than a newborn human, tugged at his kimono sleeve. "Oi...Miroku..."
"Shippou, don't move." Miroku lightly ordered, eyes still closed. He could feel the youkai nearby. If it had seen their escape from the ice, and most likely heard their search for Kagome, it would bide its time and let the cold finish them off. He wouldn't let that happen.
Shippou fought a small, bored sigh and propped his head on Miroku's arms. He watched the clouds from his breath and wondered how long they'd been up here. 'Inuyasha no BAKA...' He groused. His tail was still sore and, along with his poor head, always abused by that damn hanyou! Just because he was a kid... He still didn't understand what the big deal was; making them come up here, pop his head from the tunnel for a quick check - something they were ordered to do - before heading back down. Shippou gave in to the urge to sigh and slowly shook his head. He'd NEVER figure out grown-ups.
Just as he was about to leave the warmth of Miroku's body, Inuyasha's head popped up again. "Oi Inuyasha!" Shippou barked, squirming from Miroku's embrace. "What's Kagome like?" He wondered, landing on Inuyasha's haori. His query went ignored as Inuyasha exited the hole and intently looked around. Shippou glared and resisted the urge to bite him to get his attention. "Oi!"
He ignore the rant for a few more seconds before gripping the kitsune's kimono and pulling him eye level. Shippou glared and he pinned the youkai with a bored scowl. Just as Shippou started struggling, he let go and looked to the sparse shelter, listening in satisfaction as the small body hit the ice with a quiet thump. Keen eyes and nose checked the area. The youkai was nearby, but hidden. Whether or not it was watching them he didn't know. "Oi bouzu..." He murmured, ears twitching. "Find anything?"
Miroku didn't open his eyes, but furrowed his brow in concentration. After a small bout of silence, his forehead smoothed, though his eyes remained closed. "The youkai is here. It's not moving but, it's close."
That was what he wanted to know. "Oi yuki youkai - quit hiding!" A hand pulled tessaiga from its sheath and in that fluid motion, changed it from an old, rusted sword to the shape of a sharp fang.
"Inuyasha!" Shippou gasped. Green widened in shock.
"Uresai!" He spat back, standing in wait. Tessaiga rested in front, waiting to be used. "I'm tired of all this waiting! We've wasted enough time as it is; I want to fight." Ears twitched at hearing a whisper of clothing rustle from somewhere close.
There was a low rumbling a few yards away before a sharp crack sounded. Pieces of ice shot into the air and embedded back in the ice. Soon, a face popped from the broken surface. It floated above the ice and let the snow fall from it as the groups sized each other up. After a bit, a small smile appeared on its white face. "So...you managed to survive. But none of you have the kakera." A small, smug grin appeared as ice blue eyes looked around. "Has your female companion succumbed to the elements? A pity." The smirk became larger. "She was quite lovely for a weak human. She would've made a nice ice sculpture."
The grip on tessaiga tightened as he glared across the way. The already clenched jaw tightened more as his growl became louder. Surprising the others, he sprang from the spot and jumped into the air. "TEMEE!" He shouted, the insult turning to a battle cry. Tessaiga balanced over his shoulder long enough for him to decimate the distance. The cries of Miroku and Shippou went ignored as tessaiga swung toward the ice. His blood was boiling and the insults toward Kagome infuriated him. He wasn't going to let a youkai get away with thinking it was going to defeat HIM.
"Baka." The youkai mused. The smirk never left its face. "You're going to challenge me here in my own ELEMENT?" It took a single step back and dropped into the hole as tessaiga sunk into the ice. Snow unnaturally shifted and allowed it to sink down.
He growled and pulled tessaiga up. His grip changed and plunged the tip into the hole. The smirk on his face quickly turned to a look of surprise as the sword sunk in the powder to the hilt...effectively off-balancing him. He fell to the ground with a sweatdrop, narrow eyes glaring at his scabbard.
Not too far away, a snow-white head peeked up from the hole Shippou came from and stared in calculated amusement. This would be easy. The hanyou was inexperienced on ice and it seemed the other two were by the hole for a reason. Ice blue narrowed as it sunk under the snow as if water. Those two were guarding it, perhaps the ningen wasn't dead, as it hoped. Her companions apparently succeeded their noisy search from earlier. With barely a thought, snow pushed aside for it to fly through. The youkai chuckled and focused on the power of the kakera. It was time to end this, enough time was wasted. Dawn would come soon and make it harder to freeze everything. The human was safe under the snow...at least for the moment.
He pulled the sword from the ground and stood. With a glare, he turned and watched Shippou sliding over. His anger at being so easily evaded boiled. His fists clenched. "Cowad!" He shouted, shouldering the sword. He was painfully aware of his inability of smell and hearing; some of his more prized powers. Shippou grabbed onto his bulky pant leg, but was ignored.
Shippou hesitantly peered into the sunken snow hole as if expecting their enemy to pop up any second. This wasn't a good thing, playing hide and seek with powder snow. The youkai had the advantage over their heightened senses right now. Movement in this type of snow would be muffled even more and the smell was faint. Snow didn't have a smell and this enemy was snow in that aspect.
"What do we do now?" Miroku asked, carefully making his way to the others. "If we can't see and you can't smell or hear it, how are we going to defeat it under all this? It's still around, but it seems to be moving. Though we won't know where until it shows up."
Inuyasha suddenly gasped and pinned the houshi with a glare. "The youkai is after the kakera and you left Kagome ALONE down there!?" His legs pushed off, quickly sliding him over. His gaze turned to the weight on his leg, and pulled Shippou off to deposit the fox on his shoulder with a thought. Shippou was young and his fire not very powerful, but perhaps it was the most powerful weapon they had right now. "Listen to me Shippou...your fox-fire is going to help here." He muttered, pushing off as they slowed. His ears picked up Miroku's slide as he followed. "So don't hesitate to use it!" He feared by the time they got to Kagome, it might be too late to ward off the youkai. No one could hesitate, not even Shippou who immensely cared for Kagome.
As he expected, a muted cry traveled up the tunnels. As soon as it died down, a siphon of snow shot into the air. Yards above, it stopped and immediately froze to ice. On top stood the youkai with Kagome buried to her torso in ice. She wasn't moving.
The shock knocked both hanyou and youkai back and they stopped mere inches from Miroku. The houshi's grip on his shakujou tightened in anger at seeing his friend. His jaw clenched and dark orbs burned with concern as he mentally prayed for Kagome to wake.
Shippou jumped to his feet with a cry, green also looking at Kagome. "Kagome!" Inuyasha's words flashed in his head and the kitsune blinked. Had the hanyou anticipated this?? "What do we do now?"
A cold chuckle floated on the air. "There's nothing you CAN do. I can hear your friend's heart slow. She doesn't take cold very well, does she?"
That malicious smirk enraged him even worse than before. He slammed the edge of tessaiga into the ground and stood. "Temee youkai..." He growled, gripping tessaiga in preparation to attack. "Preying on unconscious women! What's wrong? Afraid to fight me?"
The taunt didn't faze the youkai. Ice blue looked down in amusement. "Angry hanyou? Are you mad I hurt this onna?" A cruel glint hit his eyes. "Would you be more enraged if something ELSE happened to her?" The youkai stopped next to Kagome's prone form and kneeled. A three-fingered hand reached out and gripped her head, yanking it back. A small grunt came as her face showed pain. "Hmm? You're still alive?"
"Kagome!" He called. down and fight ME!" Not waiting any longer, he sprung into the air, tessaiga ready to swing.
The youkai growled and let go. Her head slumped forward as it stood and. "Hanyou!" A hand extended and ice shards broke off from the pillar, heading in his direction. He cut them to pieces and landed right next to the pillar. "Worthless half-breed!" The hand clenched and slammed on the ice platform, creating an invisible shiver. Quiet rumbling sped down to the ground, cracking ice under bare feet. The shards managed to strike him at point blank range as they flew into the air. The snow parted and he fell in with a startled cry. Not seconds after his head disappeared, another wide pillar shot up...form frozen in ice.
With a small grunt, Kagome's eyes fluttered open. With hooded eyes, she took in the scene and gave a meek gasp. With a body becoming numb by non-melting ice and a mind clouded by the need to sleep, she tried to struggle to go to Inuyasha. She found it useless and a small bout of panic over her position mixed in her mind. "Inuyasha!" She cried, shivers wracking her body.
The youkai looked from his handiwork to deep brown. "Oh? Awake even? You've more resistance than I thought." A glare at the multitude of troubles placed upon the group met the youkai. She wordlessly willed him to die as long as she could before she lost consciousness again. The youkai snorted. "Perhaps I gave you too much credit." It kneeled again, a hand extended for her hair again, when a sudden noise drew its eyes.
"Kitsune-bi!" Shippou's blue flame shot from his hands and the ice around the second pillar. Just as the hanyou said, his fire cracked the ice and was making short work of the column.
"Keep it up Shippou!" Unable to get near the ice with the fire near, also unable to get to the top of the pillar, Miroku was forced to stand by. Helpless.
The youkai's eyes widened before narrowing. That other youkai would free the hanyou unless he was stopped. "No you don't!" It shouted, raising a hand in the air. Ice broke and snow flew straight for the duo. It circled round in a whirlwind, stopping all activity. Too small to hold his own weight, the kitsune was sucked from the ground and carried in the current with a surprised cry. "Heh. Pathetic little youkai." Ice blue looked back to Kagome's slouched head. "I'll take the kakera and finish you all off." Once again, the white-skinned youkai kneeled and harshly gripped those raven locks. The other hand rose to the air...
A sharp crack sounded and a yell split the air. The pillar collapsed as a blur jumped from the center and savagely kicked the wide pillar. Both youkai and Kagome's body rocked from the shock. In the yuki youkai's shock, the snow whirlwind died, setting monk and youkai free. As Inuyasha headed back to the ground, a hand shot out and gripped Shippou's kimono as he went sailing by. The kitsune sat on his shoulder and accompanied a defiant glare with the others.
Tense silence built at the stare down. A hand gripped the hilt as his glare speared the youkai. He was going to end this and wouldn't hesitate to spring in the air and take his sword to the youkai's body if it wasn't kneeling directly next to Kagome.
The hand gripping those raven locks tightened as it jerked the neck back to a painful angle. Ice blue glared at its power being defiled. A snarl left its pointed-toothed mouth. "You should've stayed down hanyou. I was only going to take the kakera and kill you all. Now I think I'll take the kakera and freeze this girl in front of you." The hand gripping her hair pulled back even further, but she didn't flinch. Brown eyes slowly opened, looking unfocused. The kakera on her necklace shone free after being jostled and currently shone a pink hue. "Ah...shikon no kakera..." The other three-fingered hand reached down and grasped the chunk. As soon as flesh connected, pink energy crackled. The youkai yanked the hand back and cradled it. The injured trembled in pain as flesh smoked.
The three below gasped and looked on in shock. Never had they seen Kagome use the kakera as she was doing now. Keen eyes narrowed as he took in Kagome's face. There was no expression and she stared without seeing. He wondered if she was even aware of what she was doing. "Kagome!" He called, taking a small step forward. "Wake up!"
His voice bounced around the air, bringing an echo to even their tall height. It seemed she hadn't heard for her expression remained the same. After a few seconds passed, the glow died down and the kakera returned to its normal color. Her head suddenly jerked up with a rapid blink. She looked to her prison, then pinned the trio with urgent eyes. "Inuyasha...get me OUT of here!" She yelled, casting a look to her capturer just feet near her.
The youkai was staring at the injured hand in disbelief. Hearing the voice jogged eyes to brown. Ice blue narrowed to slits. "Damn human." The injured hand thrust forward and gripped her neck, squeezing. "You'll pay!" Her head threw back with a gurgle.
"Kagome!" Shippou cried out. "Inuyasha...let's go!" He dropped to the ground and stared at the hanyou. "I can help!"
Inuyasha felt a small sting of pride and nodded. He quickly picked the kitsune up by the tail, not getting a murmur of protest for once. "Do it!" He urged, throwing Shippou upward with all his strength, praying something happened with the baby youkai.
Shippou flew up a few feet from the top and hovered for a brief second. Just as he started to fall back down, he used kistune-bi the length of the tower. Miroku was quick to catch him as the pillar swiftly cracked. The crack slowly continued before the weight slid to one side and gained momentum as it fell.
Not wasting time, he jumped for the top as the youkai flew to the air for safety. Her scream split his ears as claws jammed into the ice and pried holes for her to wiggle out. It seemed to take forever, but she was finally free and he scooped up her shivering form. He pushed off the ice and landed next to the others. After setting her on her feet, he jumped in the air for the youkai and left her in Miroku's care.
The youkai snorted as tessaiga came toward him, its master fiercely glaring. "A hanyou attacking a youkai," A sneer appeared, "laughable!" A hand rose, bringing snow from all the holes created earlier. It swirled in another vortex and carried Inuyasha with it, getting a shocked cry as he desperately kept from forever losing his sword. "I'll take care of you first, you pest!" Fingers clenched to a fist and the winds went faster, bringing more snow.
"Inuyasha!" Shippou cried. His gaze tore away from the scene as he looked to Miroku. "Miroku, can't you stop it?"
Miroku shook his head, looking away from his attention to Kagome. "I can't see him anymore and using my kaazana is too risky." Dark eyes looked to his hand, cursing his helplessness.
"Isn't there ANYTHING we can do?" Shippou wailed, cursing his helplessness.
Throughout their tirade, she lay in a huddle of kimono robes with Miroku's arms trying to warm her. She blandly stared at chunks of ice littering the ground. She didn't need to see the battle above to know Inuyasha was helpless and unable to fight. The roar of wind and snow still going up told her he was incapacitated. He was disorientated and the yuki youkai had him right where it wanted him. The others were unable to use their powers so far below, not without causing horrible results. She knew it was up to her. With determination, she moved Miroku's arms from her shoulders and stood on shaky legs. "Shippou-chan..." She mumbled, teeth chattering.
"Eh? Kagome-sama!" Miroku cried, standing. "Kagome-sama you're not strong enough." His hands clutched her shoulders.
She gave him a kind look at his concern and stepped back from his grasp. Her eyes looked down with a small smile. "Shippou-chan, my bag." A hand pointed to the chunks as she looked to the one encased in ice.
He jumped to a tall piece of ice and scanned where she pointed. His eyes widened when he spotted it and leapt over, carefully melting as much ice without setting the bag on fire. He drug it over as quickly as possible.
She met him the last few steps and grabbed the bow from inside her pack. She grabbed one of the few arrows remaining in the quiver. Loosely setting the notch on her hand, she looked to the sky and found the youkai to the side of the whirlwind. Her eyes narrowed in concentration. Hearing both breathe her name in question, she aimed and let the arrow fly.
The youkai's fun was interrupted from the arrow whizzing inches from its eyes. It jerked back and whirled around, breaking hold on some of the snow. "You will die!" With a wave of its hand, some of the snow blew for the trio, blasting them with frigid air.
Her hands were shaking so much, it was hard to keep the arrow notched. Her mind thought to Inuyasha and she took a deep breath. Squinting against the snow, she could see the blur of Inuyasha's fire rat still twirling in the gale. He looked to be moving all too cooperatively and she knew the wind must've knocked him unconscious. Her anger grew and the grip harshly tightened through her shaking. "Youkai!" A small, barely distinguishable blur moved. She used that split second to aim and fire. As she let go, a mysterious power surged. She watched in wide-eyed wonder as the snow parted and the arrow aimed true...embedding itself in the youkai's arm.
"Yatta!" Both cried out, marveling at the power seen. The snow harmlessly fell to the ground as the youkai lost its grip. An anguished scream of pain sounded and echoed in the air as the whirlwind stopped. It fell to the ground with Inuyasha's limp form. He crashed into the ice and a loud CRACK split the air.
"Inuyasha!" Kagome worriedly called, trying to run to him. She dropped to his side and leaned over him, shaking a shoulder. "Inuyasha...Inuyasha!"
Hearing his name, he groaned and slit eyes open. They blinked and widened at the vision in front of him. "Ki - Kikyou?" He breathed.
"Eh?" Kagome's eye twitched and she immediately pulled back with annoyed sweatdrop. The hand holding her bow clenched and shook in irritation. "You..." She grit.
He sat up and rubbed his eyes, shaking his head to get rid of disorientation. He double-blinked and stared. "Ka - Kagome?" He met her annoyed gaze in confusion. Their stare down was cut short as he looked up with a quiet gasp, seeing the youkai clutching the pierced arm. His eyes looked on in confusion, wondered what all happened.
An enraged cry met her ears and before she could think, was standing with an arrow notched and aimed. Blood roared in her ears as the youkai yelled something and flew straight for her. She stared and felt every emotion since getting caught in the snow and let it wash over her. This youkai was the cause for all their troubles! She sensed Inuyasha stand and want to attack, but dispelled all the anger into the shot and let the arrow fly before he could.
A light traveled in its wake. The travelers all watched as it hit the enemy square in the chest. Its cry of rage became one of anguish as pink light engulfed the white body. Ice blue clouded over and the body turned to a compact cluster of snow and exploded. The arrow fell with the snow and dissolved to dust.
I am a BEGINNER Japanese learner...so if these are not 100 correct...please let me know if you care to do so. I only have a web page to learn from, a dictionary, and a few months experience to work with.
Translations: Yuki youkai-Snow youkai ningen no onna-human woman Yatta!-She did it!