Complete the Circle
Chapter Thirty-Seven: The Lost Shikon Shards
"So, how did it turn out?" asked the sea star youkai, entering the room after her master.
"It is as I suspected," he said, shedding his disguise. "He has the Shikon shard. As to where he hides it remains a mystery to me."
"I did as you commanded," she said, flopping down on a nearby chair. "Hayashi's region is going to have a little surprise tomorrow…"
She sat there, bored, as the math teacher continued to explain incomprehensible formulas to the class. She fingered the Shikon shard around her neck lightly, letting her mind drift. She had decided to wear the shard ever since Shippou had told her what had happened in the afternoon. She hoped that it was true that youkai could no longer sense the shard, but she didn't trust the fact completely, so decided to keep the shard with her at all times. That way, she could keep an eye on the shard, and prevent her family from encountering any possible danger that might have occurred had the shard still been locked in her drawer.
"Higurashi, please answer the question," the math teacher said sternly, jarring her from her thoughts. She started to panic, trying to figure out a way out of the situation. How was she supposed to answer the question if she wasn't listening?
"Well?" the teacher asked, narrowing her eyes at her.
"Err… 13?" she asked, taking a wild guess.
"That is…correct," the teacher said, "Next time please look like you're paying attention, otherwise I will be inclined to think you are daydreaming."
"Hai," Kagome said nervously, thanking her good luck. Suddenly, the lights in the room started flickering, and the sunlight flooding into the room disappeared.
"What's going on?" someone asked.
"Maybe there's a storm!"
"Does that mean we can go home?"
"Don't be ridiculous," the teacher said, trying to restore order to the classroom. "I'm going to call the office to find out what's happening. Please be silent for a moment." At that moment, all the lights in the classroom went out and the classroom fell into silence.
"Will the phone still work if the lights are out?" someone asked the teacher.
"Of course. They run on different lines," the teacher answered, dialing the number to the main office. The teacher held the phone to her ears, waiting patiently for someone on the other end to pick it up. Finally someone picked it up.
"Yes…" the teacher responded to the person on the other line. "I understand. But… All right. No. No. Fine. Yes, I'll dismiss them."
She turned to the students, worried. She hung up and still frowning, announced, "It seems like you can all go home early today. Some technical difficulties has occurred with the electric company, so the school will be having a black out for quite some time."
The students started cheering at the prospect of having no more school, but Kagome started to frown.
"That doesn't mean that I'm not giving you any homework," she said, effectively getting the class to quiet down and start grumbling. "Since you have the rest of the day to work on your homework, do problems 1 to 112 on pages 566 and 567. The extra practice will be good for you."
"No!" the students started complaining. "We can't do our homework because the lights will probably be out at home too!" Many people agreed with this theory, so at last, the teacher decided not to give them any homework.
"But you better study your notes!" the teacher called out after them as they left the room. Kagome stepped outside and waited as Inuyasha and the others caught up to her.
"Something strange is going on," Miroku said as the four started walking towards Kagome's home. "There have been too many holidays this week."
"Yeah. Don't know why we didn't have school on Monday," Inuyasha said. "Not that I'm complaining or anything."
Kagome had a strange feeling as if something evil was near her, but she couldn't quite pinpoint where it was coming from. She wondered whether or not the cloudy weather was affecting her judgment, but doubted it. By instinct, she moved closer to Inuyasha, seeking his comforting presence. As she moved closer, she could feel the Shikon shards pulsing slightly, and she wondered what was causing it. Could it be Inuyasha?
Suddenly, they saw Shippou being dragged away by Aki towards the mountain, and they quickly ran after him, their fear for the boy's safety rising.
"Shippou-chan!" Kagome shouted to the crying little boy, who was struggling to free himself of his captor.
"Kagome!" he shouted, trying to transform into something that would give him enough power to break free from Aki's arms.
"Stupid boy," she said scornfully. "Do you know nothing of sea stars? We operate on a vascular system, and though there is no water surrounding us, we use the air as a substitute. You can never possibly break free of a sea star."
Kagome gritted her teeth as she ran after Shippou, sensing that the others were following her. The youkai was right. She had studied how sea stars opened clams to eat them, and knew that in a battle for endurance, the sea star always won.
"Shippou, turn yourself into a heavy rock!" Inuyasha suggested, catching up to Kagome and starting to pass her.
Shippou transformed himself into the biggest rock they had ever seen, but Aki just started using the suction cups on her palms to start breaking the rock apart. Shippou cried in pain, and quickly transformed back, allowing Aki to take him to the vicinity of the mountain, disappearing in the thick woods. The group followed him, but as soon as they entered the woods, they lost sight of the two, and no clues led them to the whereabouts of Shippou.
"Shippou-chan!" Kagome called out, her panic rising for her kidnapped friend. What did they want with Shippou? Was it because of the Shikon shard in his hand that caused him to be a target? Was his disappearance her fault?
By the time they had wandered deep into the forest searching for Shippou, the sun was about to set, causing them to increase their pace.
"What if that Shippou was just an illusion?" asked Sango as she looked at the woods increasing in darkness. The other three stopped in their tracks.
"What if Sango is right?" Miroku pondered out loud, putting his senses on alert. "Perhaps this is just a scheme to get us out of human eyes so that they can kill us."
"How very right you are," the familiar female voice rang out from the top of the tree.
"Aki!" Inuyasha spat, his expression filled with anger.
"Come down here and fight us!" Sango dared, but they all knew that they were in no condition to fight. They didn't even have their weapons.
"Oh, you won't have the privilege of fighting me this time," she laughed. "Instead, you can fight this low level youkai. I'm sure he's still more than you can handle." A sea urchin appeared from the depths of the woods, and Aki left, laughing into the coming night.
"So it was all an illusion," Miroku said. "But for what ultimate purpose?"
"Talk later," Inuyasha grumbled. "How are we supposed to fight now?"
"Why is it that Naraku keeps on sending sea animals to fight us?" asked Sango while looking around for anything that could serve as a weapon.
"Maybe we should retreat," Kagome suggested tentatively. "We don't have any weapons to fight with."
At that moment, a monk's staff, an exterminator's boomerang, a miko's bow and arrows, and a sword fell from the sky.
"I don't want you running away without even trying to have some fun," the sea star youkai smiled. "This should aid you pathetic lot."
Before they could respond, the sea urchin started shooting spikes of poison at them. Sango quickly picked up Hiraikotsu and used it to block the poisonous needles. The rest of them quickly picked up their weapons, and no sooner had they done so did the youkai start attacking again.
"I heard that one of you managed to cut Aki-nee-chan," the youkai said. "If I kill you, then I'll be seen in better light in front of the others."
"Get real!" Inuyasha yelled. The youkai brushed his violet spiky hair behind him, looking casually at Inuyasha.
"I've heard of you," the youkai sneered. "Hayashi's grandson who cannot kill to save his life."
"Kitsune-bi!"
The youkai dodged quickly to the side as a blue flame flew towards him, singeing his hair.
"Shippou-chan!" Kagome said in surprise. "What are you doing here?"
"I knew something was wrong when you didn't return immediately from school," Shippou said. "So I transformed myself and sniffed you out."
"Having one more person isn't going to help you much," the youkai said. He concentrated the poison into his hand and blasted the orb of venom towards the group. Inuyasha cut at the orb with his sword, dissipating the toxic power, but melting his sword into a twisted mess.
"Great," Inuyasha said sarcastically as he threw the wasted blade away. "If that lousy blade couldn't stand against such a low level attack, how was it supposed to kill this guy?"
Kagome notched an arrow into her bow and let the purifying arrow fly, only to have it swerve off course in the last minute, hitting the tree behind the youkai.
"Trying to kill me?" the youkai asked, smiling in amusement. "Let's see how you deal with this!"
Spikes started to rain down upon them, and it was all they could do to just avoid getting themselves skewered on the toxic needles.
"You don't have time to be dancing with the ningen," the youkai laughed cruelly. "I've poisoned your entire family this morning. If you want them to live, you better defeat me, and you better defeat me fast."
Kagome felt inexplicable anger flow out from Inuyasha, and a moment later, he had punched the youkai so hard that the youkai was knocked off his feet.
"Dispel the poison now," he said in a calm, low voice.
"Wouldn't that be nice?" the youkai grinned sarcastically as he slipped quickly away from Inuyasha, running towards Kagome. "I think I'll poison this friend of yours. I wonder how you'll react to that?" Kagome didn't have time to dodge and she felt the orb of poison knock her backwards, causing her to collide with someone. She felt the poison being purified, but was horrified when she noticed the Shikon shard around her neck break off from its chain.
"Kagome are you—" Inuyasha asked.
"The Shikon shard!" Kagome said frantically, trying to catch it before the youkai took it. Inuyasha grabbed the shard, but hissed in pain as he came in contact with it.
"Inuyasha?" asked Kagome worriedly as he quickly dropped the shard. She noticed that the shard had become slightly larger.
"The Shikon shard!" the youkai said in wonder. "Aki-nee-chan will give me a great reward if I give that to her."
"Over my dead body, bastard," Inuyasha said, though his brow was covered with sweat from his painful contact with the shard.
"Hiraikotsu!" Sango shouted as she let the boomerang fly in the youkai's moment of distraction. But the youkai evaded the attack.
"Sango, lead him away, and I'll use my power," Miroku said, putting a hand on the prayer beads.
"I don't think so," Aki said, seemingly to appear from nowhere. She was accompanied by many Saimyoushou. "Musashino, I would defeat this youkai quickly if I were you. You're family is already suffering from the effects of his poison."
"Why do you want him to defeat that youkai so badly anyway?" Kagome demanded.
"Do you think this is about defeating youkai, little girl?" the female youkai asked scornfully. "I could care less if he lost or not."
"Kagome, watch out!" Shippou warned as a large spike flew through the air. Kagome ducked, screaming as she felt the spike nick her neck.
"The poison doesn't affect her," the youkai said in wonder.
"Defeat them already," Aki said. "This is getting boring."
"Hai," he said as Aki once again disappeared from the battlefield. "Time to die, kiddies." A spike protruded from his arm and he slashed at Kagome. Kagome had nothing to protect her except her bow, so she blocked the spike with her bow, snapping her only weapon in half.
"This makes things easier," he said, "Now you can't purify me whenever you want."
"Kagome-chan!" Sango shouted as she swung Hiraikotsu at the youkai, forcing him to move.
"Don't worry, we'll handle this," said Miroku as he ran after Sango.
"They won't be able to defeat him fast enough," Inuyasha said worriedly. Kagome looked at the Shikon shard in her hand and wondered…
"Inuyasha, you have the Shikon shards in you," she said quickly, ignoring his confused expression. "It seems that if you come in contact with the Shikon shard, the rest of it comes out." Kagome gulped nervously at her suggestion. Would taking the Shikon shards out of Inuyasha kill him? "If we can get the Shikon shards out, maybe we can give the shards to Shippou to power him up to defeat the youkai."
"Kagome, are you sure I'm even going to be powerful enough?" asked Shippou fearfully.
"Do it," Inuyasha said quickly. Kagome knew that he would do anything to save his family, but she wondered if she was doing the right thing. She moved to place the Shikon shard in Inuyasha's hand, but even before she did it, the shards started pulsing.
"Kagome, what does this mean?" asked Shippou as he looked at his own shard, which seemed to be pulsing like a heartbeat. Suddenly Inuyasha collapsed on the ground, holding his chest as if something was trying to wrench his heart out.
"Inuyasha!" Kagome said worriedly, kneeling down next to him, trying to move the shards away from him. But all the shards kept pulsing in tune with each other, as if the shards were calling to one another, beckoning to the others to return and complete the jewel.
Kagome noticed the shard in her hand grow bigger and bigger, but with each increase in size, Inuyasha seemed to be in more and more pain, and finally she couldn't stand it anymore.
"Stop it! Stop it!" she screamed, trying to pound the shards in her hand apart. If I break it, maybe it'll all stop. Maybe its acting this way because it wants to reunite, but if it means Inuyasha's life, I'll scatter these stupid shards to the ends of the earth myself if I have to.
She realized that she loved him.
She loved him as he was. She didn't require him to return to his past self. She didn't require anything of him. She just wanted him to live. She wanted to stay forever by his side, even if he could not love her in this life also.
She wanted him to be.
Suddenly a flash came from the Shikon shard and she felt the pulsing stop. She looked at the Shikon shard, her hand shaking in her nervousness. The shard was nearly complete. Only a few shards were missing, and Kagome knew that Shippou had one of the shards. Suddenly she felt the shards snatched out of her hands.
"Thank you for this lovely gift," his low voice rang out, silencing the battle between the sea urchin youkai and Sango and Miroku.
"Naraku," Sango said angrily, her voice bitter.
"Naraku-sama, I—" the youkai started. Naraku killed him mercilessly, not once looking at the youkai. The youkai had not been strong enough to serve under him.
"Musashino," he smiled, sending shivers down Kagome's spine. "In your weakened condition, how well do you think you will fare against my spell? Especially without the aid of your Shikon shards?"
"You bastard. Are you looking to die?" Inuyasha said, forcing the words out. Kagome could tell that he was still feeling the remnants of his previous pain.
"Let us see if you can still say those words after this spell," Naraku said with dark humor, making a strange symbol with his hand. Kagome saw Inuyasha go rigid, and she started to feel a terrible power come forth from him.
"Inuyasha?" she asked in fear and dread.
"Use this well," Naraku said, throwing a sword down to Inuyasha. He caught it easily with one hand, his eyes still shaded from Kagome's view.
"Kagome, move away from him," Miroku said, sensing that the spell was probably working. A moment later, Inuyasha unsheathed the sword in one smooth motion and sliced at Kagome.
"Kyaa!" Kagome screamed, tripping over a root, which probably saved her from being beheaded.
"Inuyasha!" Shippou shouted, trying to get his friend to awaken from the spell. The only response he got was a vicious attack from the sword, which he was barely able to avoid.
"Hiraikotsu!" Sango let the giant boomerang launch at Inuyasha, hoping to knock him out. He used the sword to knock the boomerang back.
"Kagome, move to our side," Miroku said, running towards Inuyasha with his staff ready to subdue him. Inuyasha's blank, unfocused eyes narrowed dangerously at Miroku, and he raised his sword in front of him with one arm as if welcoming the former monk's attack.
The staff and sword clashed against each other, and Miroku could feel the staff vibrating from the blow, though Inuyasha seemed to not have noticed anything wrong with his sword. Suddenly Inuyasha issued forth a series of attacks that tried to penetrate Miroku's defense, and Miroku was left breathless after the attack.
Damn it. If this continues, I won't last long enough to even see the sun rise again, he thought.
"Inuyasha, please wake up!" Kagome shouted, hoping that her voice would reach him. But his mind was gone, unlike the previous times. This time, he was bent on killing them, and nothing would deter him from his mission.
Inuyasha suddenly slashed at Miroku, causing the staff to be knocked out of his hands. He continued his attack without any regard to his enemy's weapon, forcing Miroku to unleash his air void to protect himself in a reflexive move.
Miroku quickly closed the air void, but he needn't have bothered. Inuyasha had leapt far away from Miroku as soon as his hands had rested on the prayer beads, and was now trying to attack the person closest to him: Kagome.
Kagome saw Inuyasha running towards her, but she couldn't move. She didn't know if it was fear that drove her to be unable to move, or if it was the sheer eeriness that she was experiencing as she saw the one she loved coming to kill her. Her thoughts ran faster than they had ever gone in those few moments as she wondered how Inuyasha had felt when Kikyo had gone to kill him; how he had felt when she had been under the influence of the evil miko and tried to shoot him.
The blade was barely a hair's breadth away when a whip of light deflected the attack. Kagome turned and saw Sesshoumaru, who was looking with some emotion that may have resembled sadness on his face.
"Sesshoumaru," Kagome said, but she knew that he knew what was happening.
"Inuyasha!" Inuyasha's mother cried, dragging herself towards them, trying to reach her son. Kagome realized that both adults were still weak from before, and wondered if Inuyasha would awaken because of his family's presence.
Inuyasha didn't even look confused as he started to attack Sesshoumaru, his blade ringing against Sesshoumaru's whip. Their battle seemed like some surreal ribbon dance, each evading the other's attack gracefully.
Sesshoumaru brought the whip to wrap around Inuyasha's sword, hoping to end the battle there, but Inuyasha yanked viciously at the sword, and when he couldn't get it free, rushed at Sesshoumaru and punched him in the face, then swinging the blade around and cutting the arm that had regenerated after five hundred years.
Sesshoumaru pulled away and could feel the blood dripping down his arm, his wound closing a few seconds after the cut had been delivered. He didn't have time to rest long, for Inuyasha started attacking him again.
But even though Inuyasha was using his full power, Sesshoumaru still restrained himself. He would not kill Musashino by using his full potential, but nevertheless, in his weakened condition, he was finding it more and more difficult to subdue the spell that controlled Musashino.
Musashino swung the sword at Sesshoumaru's neck, forcing Sesshoumaru to attack in order to defend. He could hear and smell the blood as the whip cut into Musashino's right leg. Musashino just frowned, but ignored his wound and started attacking again.
As he fought Musashino, he slowly led the boy away from the others, hoping that he would attack only him, thus sparing the lives of others. But his real reason for leading him away was so that his mother wouldn't see her two sons cutting each other up. It was clear to him that the nature of the spell would never let go of its hold on Musashino unless Musashino was dead. He fervently hoped that he didn't have to resort to such a measure, but he was beginning to lose hope of ever seeing Musashino return to himself again.
So, once again I am on a mission to kill my brother, Sesshoumaru thought with his trained calmness as Inuyasha succeeded in injuring him.
Sesshoumaru started using his whip to its full potential, hoping to cut Musashino enough to cause him to lose consciousness. Musashino responded by blocking some of the blows with his sword, but seeming to be unable to feel pain. Sesshoumaru could see numerous cuts all over Musashino, and it looked like he was suffering from blood loss, but still he stood, the spell holding him from stopping.
Musashino attacked again, his movements slightly slower this time. Sesshoumaru used his whip to once again wrap around the sword, yanking the sword from its path, but unable to force Musashino to let go of it. And with the sword still trapped by the whip, Musashino continued to attack.
Sesshoumaru yanked the sword so that the blade sank in slightly to his armor, not injuring him, while he used the other hand to drill through Musashino's body, just as he had done to Inuyasha all those years ago. He could feel the blood splatter down at his feet, as Musashino slowly closed his eyes, the power that had been powering him escaping. Sesshoumaru heard the clatter of the sword as Musashino let go of it, and he retrieved his whip into his hand, supporting Musashino from falling.
He picked him up like a child, the blood seeping into the sleeves of his kimono. He was so light. He felt exactly as he did all those years ago, and it left him to wonder if he had ever really changed. Sesshoumaru started up the path to where the others were, blocking all emotions from his face as he heard the constant dripping of Musashino's blood.
They would think him emotionless, but that didn't concern him. To seem emotionless was so much easier… He didn't know how to describe what he was feeling now. He didn't know how to describe this terrible wrenching of his heart as if someone was squeezing his very soul. He couldn't describe this numbness that he felt as he carried his brother, or perhaps not his brother at all, to the one that was his mother, and yet not his mother. No one would ever understand his pain, and they would never understand why he did it.
He walked to the clearing where the others had gathered, and he felt reluctant to present this limp body to them. He held his baby brother close to him and felt the skin becoming cooler with each passing second. He knew what he had done.
He let the night throw his figure into shadows, obscuring his face from the pale moonlit faces of the others. Guilt rode upon guilt, and he felt that he could never forgive himself.
Author's Note: Did you know that when I first started to write this I thought it was only going to be fifteen chapters long? Boy, was I wrong! And something else was supposed to happen in this chapter, but now I have to put it in the next chapter. Argh! What's wrong with me???
Thanks to all those people who wrote such nice comments about this story. As always, criticism is welcome! (And remember to tell me if the story starts becoming like pokemon.)