Mirror Images
Chapter Eight: To Take Sides
::yaaaaawn:: Gar, I feel like absolute shit right now. Or shit on a stick. And I have to do my homework. I just updated yesterday (Tuesday the 25th) and so far I've gotteneight reviews, actually. This is more than usual, so I'm happy. Still stuck at home, but hopefully if I thoroughly dope myself up on Tylenol Sinus and Advil I'll be able to make it to school tomorrow. Waitcan I take both of those at the same time without going into hallucinations?
Lesson of the day, kiddies: Don't do drugs. I already learned my lesson from Dumbo and the pink elephants.
Oh yes, and Ithwel—Ithen—Iweth—screw it, Ith-person, you know who you are—brought up the point that Kagome was turning omnipotent. One of my friends also pointed out that Inuyasha was getting somewhatwell, for lack of a better word, useless. This seems to be a running problem with my stories, where the female lead turns into a demigod, practically, and it's something I'm going to work on. Don't worry, Kagome doesn't win on a one-woman team. Inuyasha gets in more shredding than an Enron accountant in this chapter.
Oh yeah—here's a bit from the original version of this story. Aidan=Kagome, Caelan=Inuyasha, Caelan is half-changeling, which means he turns full human at night and full changeling by day (he's also a dragon changeling! He turns into a dragon when he wants to! Squee!) and Aidan (her character's quite a bit different from Kagome's: she can be insensitive and has a tendency to mouth off) has just found out that he turns human at night.
It all made sense—changeling by day, human by night. Of course, I wouldn't want to be in his position myself, but it did explain some things. "So you're a human at night," I said finally, trying to sound casual. "It's not like some unforgivable sin."
He vanished into the trees again. "You don't understand. I'm weaker like this."
"You're just on the same level as any other human," I replied shortly. "If most of the continent's population can handle it, then you really shouldn't have a problem." I stood up and dusted myself off. "Are you planning on staying up there for the rest of the night? Being in a tree really doesn't help anything, and I can't learn to knife-fight on my own."
There was no response, but nevertheless, he dropped to the ground again and walked over. "You didn't get scared when you were about to be executed, you didn't get scared when I nearly killed you, you don't get scared when you find out that I'm human at night and we're that much more vulnerable—is there anything you do get scared by?"
I shrugged casually. "Clowns."
He rolled his eyes but drew his dirk anyway. "Alright, let's see how bad you are."
^^ What do you think? I like that bit myself, along with when Miroku's character first comes and the situation between him and Caelan is described as "He obviously enjoyed goading Caelan, and Caelan was being about as friendly to him as a pit of rattlesnakes."
Anyway, on with the fic. Standard disclaimer: I don't own this.
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Something wasn't quite right. Inuyasha didn't know exactly what it was, but it was definitely not right.
He'd seen neither hide nor hair of the stupid kitsune that had stolen Kagome's shard, and he'd been wandering around for near twenty minutes now. Hopefully, Kagome hadn't passed out yet, but she'd been bound and determined to go looking for the brat herself. Maybe she was having more luck than he was, but he doubted it.
Turning a corner, his nose caught the fox-demon scent as his eyes locked on something sitting on a windowsill over a bench. It looked like a small stone charm or somethinghe picked it up.
Instantly, it turned into a squat, heavy, silly-looking statue of one of the demigods. Before he could start swearing, a small hand slapped a scroll on it, and he found he couldn't lift his hands from underneath it.
"If you promise not to hit me, I'll let you go and tell you what happened to Kagome," came a high-pitched voice. Inuyasha looked up to find the little boy standing on the bench, looking like it had taken every scrap of courage he had just to say that.
"How about you let me go if I promise to make your death quick and painless, brat?" He snarled.
The kit quavered for a moment, but then he set his jaw said firmly, "My name is Shippô, not brat, and you have to promise not to hit me."
"Fine, fine, I promise!" growled Inuyasha.
Shippô removed the scroll, the statue returned to its normal size, and for his pains he was promptly swatted. Several times.
"You promised!" he wailed, nursing a bouquet of bumps on his head as the hanyou got to his feet. Unfortunately, Inuyasha wasn't done yet, seizing him by the front of his robe and hauling him to be on eye level. His eye level, which meant Shippô was dangling about five feet from the ground.
"What happened to Kagome?" The look in the half-demon prince's eyes said he wasn't in the mood to play games.
"M-Manten!" Shippô squeaked. "Manten from the Thunder Brothers! I gave the shard back to her an' Manten showed up, an' he knocked her out and just kidnapped her, five minutes ago!"
Inuyasha froze, then said threateningly, "You're lying."
"No!" Shippô twisted, trying to get free. "He did! You have to help her!"
Inuyasha let him go, heart falling. Kagomegone? He'd heard of the Thunder Brothers—they were outlaws, infamous for abducting pretty young girls. Only one had escaped and lived to tell about them, only one out of dozens, possibly hundreds. They were too well known in every country for their strength and elusiveness—no one who went to find them came back alive. And now they had Kagome, his Kagome.
Slowly he turned around and began walking back to the meeting room, only to break into a sprint as it sank in. Manten liked eating the girls, rumor said. Hitenliked something else. And Kagome was in their hands. How much time did he have before she got hurt?
He ran into Miroku on his way back and seized him by the arm, offering no explanations as he hauled him down the hallway. It was a highly unique scene: the teenage hanyou running through the palace of Tetsui, dragging a strongly protesting and bewildered monk behind him, a little boy with a foxtail bigger than he was following after, looking distressed and doing his best to keep up. In fact, when they passed Sango, she thought it was very strange and came with them too, but she didn't have to wait as long as the hapless Miroku for an explanation.
They reached the meeting room and Inuyasha released the priest as his mother looked up, confused. "The Thunder Brothers have Kagome," he said, voice taut with fury and hidden concern.
This had an immediate effect on everyone in the room but Shippô and Inuyasha; Sango paled, Miroku's eyes widened, and the blood drained out of his mother's face. "What about her magic?" Sango whispered. "Can't she hold them off until we get there?"
Lady Akiko was the one to answer, slowly shaking her head. "They mostly take girls with magic, and for one reason," she said, voice numb. She was the only one who had escaped—for her, the news had spread fast enough for Daisuke to challenge them before she was dead, allowing her to get out. "They—they've got chains, chains that block magic. They like to see girls who rely on magic be completely helpless. Her bow and arrows—"
"Are in her room," Sango finished. "But she was wearing her daggers."
"Even if they didn't take them from her, it'll take more than two daggers to fight them and live," Miroku said grimly.
There was silence, and then Inuyasha said, tone unreadable, "Sango, get Kirara. Miroku, you go with Sango. Be ready to fight. Shippô, you come with me, and we'll meet you at the drawbridge in ten minutes."
"What—"
"Don't ask questions, just do it." Picking Shippô up by the back of his furry vest, he strode out the door and down the hallway.
Miroku and Sango looked at each other, then at the doorway, and shrugged. "Give me a few minutes to armor up," Sango said, leaving.
~
Inuyasha was running down the hall once more, which seemed to be becoming something of the norm for him. Shippô was clinging to his shoulder, and after a moment, he asked tremulously, "Where are we going?"
"I'm following Kagome's scent," he replied shortly. "When I get to where she was kidnapped from, I can memorize that bastard Manten's scent, and we can track him."
Shippô nodded and held on as best he could.
~
A single, dim beam of light pierced the gloom of the cell, streaming in from a small chink in the opposite wall like a shaft of sunlight in still water. It was the only thing to alleviate the blackness. Cold stone formed the walls of my prison, slathered in dark, sticky mold that let off a dank smell that, combined with the rotten-egg stench of sulfur, made every inhalation all but painful. An iron door was on my right, with a tiny grate that was currently covered near the top. My arms and shoulders were in an agony, being twisted behind me and chained to the wall; my knees were cramping from having to kneel for an unknown length of time.
All this I noticed as my eyes slowly opened, adjusting to the darkness. The shackles of the chains chafed at my wrists as I twisted, and I flinched, trying to raise my arms a bit higher so they wouldn't be pulled on quite so much. There wasn't enough slack on the chains for me to stand or even shift into a sitting position rather than stay kneeling. Gritting my teeth, I tried to remember what had happened—there was Shippô, and thenthat monsterthe explosion, and everything had gone black.
Well, that didn't tell me much. Either Inuyasha was mad at me for getting hit in the explosion and had thrown me in the dungeons, which didn't seem likely—yes, fie on me for being in an accident! Fie! Fie!—or someone else, probably Manten, had found and kidnapped me, though for what reasons I had no idea.
In fact, I couldn't even see my cell that well: an almost complete lack of light had that kind of effect. Closing my eyes, I reached within me to summon a light, but was thrown back from my power by a shield of darkness and iron.
They'd blocked me from my magic.
I tried again, fear starting to grow in me, but to no result. My Shikon shard was hidden under my shirt again, but useless. If I couldn't use my magic, I didn't know how I was going to defend myself. My bow and arrows were back at the palace, and with my arms chained, I couldn't reach my daggers except for perhaps with some very challenging acrobatics that I most definitely could not manage. I couldn't even see if I still had them, and even if I did, I still wasn't the epitome of knife fighters. The best I'd ever done was when I'd been possessed, and since then, I hadn't gotten much better than before, partially given the fact that I'd been engaged in battles, grieving, and magical education almost every waking hour after calling down the Shikon Jewel.
I was defenseless, chained to a wall in a dungeon that smelled about as pleasant as a heap of manure, and my captor was obviously not the sunshine-and-daisies kind of person. In fact, it could very well be Naraku. I'd thought that the ride to Tuzaki, where I'd been in the miserable hole they called the cargo compartment and kneeling in my own vomit, was the low point in my life, but this was starting to rival that. No one could possibly know where I was, except maybe Shippô, and he'd probably been hit in the explosion and/or captured as well. Even if I could figure out a way to get out of the binding on my powers, where would I go? It wasn't likely that they'd go to the trouble of putting me in a cell, chaining me to a wall, and restricting my magic, only to forget to lock the door.
A patch of light appeared, voices coming through the grate, and I looked up. "This what you wanted?" That was the rumble of Manten's voice.
"Well, she's a looker, so if you don't want her, I'll take her," another voice said cheerfully, one I didn't recognize. "She looks like she'd be fun toplay with."
"More fun to eat," Manten muttered. "A little Teriyaki here, some cabbage on the side"
I blinked, astonished, and nearly burst into hysterical laughter, an indication of how truly afraid I was. My kidnappers couldn't decide whether to rape me or to eat me! Gee, which one would I choose?
"I am afraid I cannot allow you to eat her," a cold, calculated voice said, speaking for the first time. "Not yet."
I found myself having a bit of a difficult time breathing. I knew that voice. I knew it too well.
"Open the door, Hiten." There was a click, a grate, and more light spread over the cell from the doorway, though a shadow stood in the middle.
I started to shake but willed the tremors to stop: he wasn't going to get the best of me, not if I could help it. Footsteps came closer, halting right in front of me, and slowly I looked up into the eyes of Naraku.
Somehow, my old ways of insulting my current antagonist returned. "You're looking lovely," I said sarcastically. "Is that a new monkey skin?"
He threw the baboon cape aside, watching me with cold eyes, and I studied his face, trying to memorize it in case I lived through this andhappened to run into him in the market? Not likely, but I might as well anyway. "That's a pretty shade of eye shadow," I added. "You know, my friends and I all admire your classic feminine beauty."
"You talk bravely for someone in your position," he said, voice eerily devoid of any emotion. Then he leaned forward until our faces were less than a foot apart, red eyes boring into mine, a grin slowly spreading across his face. "I like that in a woman."
I couldn't lean any further away without dislocating my shoulders, so instead I settled for my standard response and spat in his face.
He didn't blink, didn't hit me, didn't react other than slowly reaching up, wiping it onto one delicate finger, and licking it off. Then he reached out with his other hand and grasped my chin, his long, sharpened nails digging into my skin. "Oh, dear Kagome," he purred. "We're going to have lots of fun."
~
The thoughts running through Inuyasha's head were none too happy as he led the band through a wasteland that had Manten and Kagome's scent, and it was no surprise. Kagome had been the first person who hadn't cared that he was an accident, a freak. She'd fought at his side without hesitation, and brought back his father when he needed him the most. She'd shown him another side to the world, one where not everyone hated him; she'd saved his life several times, asking nothing in return. She was the only person he really, truly considered a friend.
As he launched from rock to rock, fists clenching unconsciously, that annoying voice reminded him that it was appearing that he didn't quite consider her as a friend, if the way he was reacting to her kidnapping said anything.
Scowling, he brushed that aside, landing on the other side of a ravine with a thud. Sango, Miroku, and Kirara were right behind him, Shippô still riding with him, though clinging to his head this time.
Kagome's scent grew stronger, more recent, and his heart gave a lurch. He couldn't let anything happen to her, or he'd never forgive himself. He'd lost Kikyo; he wasn't going to lose Kagome. The thought of either of the Thunder Bastards laying so much as a finger on her
Distracted, he didn't see the trap until it was too late. His foot touched down on the rocky protrusion, and jaws of steel shot up, clamping onto his ankle. Luckily, his flesh was tougher than that and it had caught on the bone instead of muscle, so it didn't draw any blood, though it would have severed the leg of a human. Before he could spit out a word Shippô shouldn't have heard, a crackle caught his ear. He pulled the little fox demon free from his perch and pushed him away just in time.
Lightning snaked up the metal trap, then sizzled up, surrounding him in electricity that both burnt and froze wherever it came in contact with him. He cried out, wound in the blue-white ropes, and then it faded, leaving him gasping for breath and marked in burns on his arms and neck.
"Inuyasha!" Sango guided Kirara closer. "Are you all right?!"
"Fine," he said after a moment.
Miroku jumped down from the daemon's back as Inuyasha pulled the trap off of his foot and cautiously took it from the half-demon. "Well, nothing says welcome to our humble abode' like attempting to electrocute your visitors. Keep an eye out for more of those, Inuyasha."
He nodded, shaking himself a bit, and frowned at the rapidly healing burns on his arm. "Come on, short stuff," he barked to Shippô. The kitsune jumped back onto his head, and they took off again.
Kagome's scent took them down into a valley, the foliage long gone, the stone sides steep and marked with long, black streaks. It was more of a canyon than a valley, in fact, the way between the rock walls about fifty feet wide. Overhead, clouds were gathering, the sky beginning to darken—it was close to sunset. Inuyasha found himself glad tonight was not the night of the new moon.
They were about a mile into the canyon when Miroku said suddenly, "We're being followed."
"What?" Inuyasha stopped and turned around, to find the monk sitting on Kirara's back, eyes narrowed.
His grip tightened on his staff. "Demons. Ten, twenty, maybe more. Not very strong, but a lot of them." Miroku's eyes widened, and he added, "Not just behind us but in front, too. We're trapped."
On either side of the canyon, centipedes, snakes, mantises, spiders, hyenas, vultures, ogres, goblins—demons of almost every kind were lining up. Squeals and cries echoed from beyond a bend in the narrow way ahead of them; Inuyasha's ears caught more from behind. They were surrounded.
Sango slowly unhitched the boomerang, while Miroku's fingers moved towards the beads around his right hand. The demons began to move in.
"Hold on," Inuyasha warned Shippô, and drew the Tetsusaiga. They didn't look like a welcoming committee, that was for sure, and he didn't have the time to spare, so there was no point in wasting time waiting for them to make the first move. "Don't try to fight all of them," he called quietly to Sango and Miroku. "Just concentrate on getting out of the valley."
They nodded just as a serpent sprang at Sango. She let Hiraikotsu fly, and it cleaved the demon in half. With bloodlust in their screams, the rest charged forward.
~
I glowered at Naraku, blood slowly dripping down the side of my face from a cut on my temple. He couldn't break me. He couldn't.
"No one cares about you," he hissed, face inches from mine. "They haven't even noticed you're gone. Your grandfather and your little brother are even doing better—they aren't getting harassed, now that there isn't a witch in their house. You get everyone around you into trouble—of course they're glad you're gone."
I tried to twist away, but I was chained too tightly to move my limbs. My arms ached fiercely, being shackled over my head, but I wasn't going to give in. I took a page from Inuyasha's vocabulary book. "Eat shit and die, you bastard."
"Harsh words, Kagome." He took a step back, then another, and I momentarily closed my eyes, taking in a deep breath. Then he picked up and knife and gently fingered the razor sharp blade, taking care not to cut himself. "Harsh, and unseemly for a young lady. It seems I must teach you some courtesy." He walked over, setting the blade against the inside my right upper arm, about four inches from my elbow. "What's the magic word, Kagome?"
I responded with a rude suggestion.
"Wrong answer." The knife stabbed into my arm and I cried out, more sweat rolling down my face. It hurt even more when he slowly pulled it out. "You need to learn manners and respect, and it seems I will be the one schooling you in them." Suddenly, he switched tactics. "Why don't you join me, Kagome?"
"Well, let's see," I forced out through bleeding lips. He was going to hurt me, no matter what I said, so I refused to speak with any sort of respect. "There's the whole not evil' thing, first of all."
"Oh, do be reasonable." His voice was smooth, even soothing "In the end, what I do will help. You've got it all wrong, dear Kagome. I'm helping you and everyone else, they just don't know it yet. In the end, they'll all be thanking me. Kikyo and I had similar goals—we want to help people, not hurt them."
"You killed Kikyo," I said dizzily. At this point, I had the cut on my temple, blood coming from where I'd bitten through my lower lip, burns on my now-bare stomach—the iron he'd used had singed away the cloth, though my chest was thankfully still covered— I could hardly see out of my left eye, and two of my fingers were broken. A red streak was creeping down my side from the gash in my upper arm now. The pain was hazing everything, making it hard to think
"That's another lie they told you, Kagome," he said, voice low and sweet. "I was there, trying to keep her from being killed. It's all a misunderstanding. They wanted you turned against me so they could have the power of the Shikon Jewel for themselves."
"Whothey'?" My mind was lost, confusedwhat was he saying?
"The people who have been lying to you all along." A clammy hand was laid along my cheek. "You can make them pay, little one. They can pay for tricking you, deceiving you like they did."
"Tell mewho they are" I gasped out.
"People like Akiko and Midoriko." After a moment, he said, "People like Inuyasha."
There was a strange buzzing noise in my ears as I stared at the wall, dead eyes widening a little.
"He's the reason my father is dead."
ﾒApproached my what?!"
ﾒDon't you touch her!"
"You've lost it, haven't you? Hearing voices? Seeing the magical troll yet?"
"Screw you. I don't need your help."
"Get Kagome away from here!"
"I get it. You're going to walk in, find Kikyo, and walk out, is that it?"
"You'd better spit out where Kikyo is or I don't care who or what you are, I'll rip you in half!"
"You smell worse than she does. Maybe you're telling the truth."
"You just lit up like a burning squirrel and you expect me to believe you're not Kikyo?"
"Helied to me?"
Naraku watched the shock and horror on my face with glee. "Yes, yes he did. Many times."
"A-After all we've g-gone through t-t-tog-gether" I stammered.
"He's been lying to you all along," he said.
"You're right," I said dully. "You're right. I'll join you."
He smiled, which was even more frightening than when he was angry. "That's a good girl. You just had to hear the truth. Let her down, Hiten." The growling older brother roughly freed my arms, though they remained bound, as did my power. "We won't let you go just yet," Naraku said lightly. "You're very hurt, see, and if you go off using that magic of yours you'll just take strength away from your recovery." I nodded mutely. "Now, come outside with me. If your anyone comes to take you away from us, we can see them from a long ways away." He took my arm and steered me out onto a balcony, and I saw we were in a large castle, on the top of what could either be a small mountain or a large hill. The foliage was sparse, if there was any, and before us was spread a wasteland of barren hills and craggy peaks.
"Look!" One slender finger pointed to a canyon far below, perhaps a mile away from the base of the mountain. A cloud of dust rose from about three quarters of the way, and I blinked, confused. "Here." He handed me a spyglass, and I peered through it.
Inuyasha, Sango, Miroku and Shippô were down there, surrounded by demons and all fighting fiercely. They were outnumbered—four to thirty, it seemed—and though I had no doubt in their battle skills, even they would have a difficult time winning against so many.
"Your former friends come to steal you from me, but this is a battle that they will not come lightly from," Naraku said casually. "Any of them may die."
I handed the spyglass back to him, knowing he was watching my stony face for any hint of concern towards them. "Good."
~
Miroku covered the hole in his hand, breathing hard. Only a few demons were left, ones the others could easily defeat, but for the moment he was out of commission until the demonic energy he'd absorbed was purified from his system.
Inuyasha sliced through a weasel-lizard, then a wingless fly, and looked around for his next foe but found none. The battle was over.
"Come on," he barked, not even cleaning Tetsusaiga before he sheathed it. "We're almost out of the valley now." Shippô hopped onto his head again and Sango and Miroku mounted Kirara, and they continued on.
Five minutes later, they'd emerged, only to find their destination a little ways ahead of them. It was an elaborate castle perched on a plateau, the sides steep and barren, and getting up there without attracting attention would be a bit tricky.
Soon, though, attention was the least of their worries. "Shippô," Inuyasha said slowly, "was Kagome hurt when she was kidnapped? Bleeding?"
"No." The little fox climbed down to Inuyasha's shoulder.
Inuyasha tensed, then inhaled again.
Miroku later would describe the expression on Inuyasha's face then as KILL. KILL. KILL.' Inuyasha's fists clenched until blood stained his claws, but he didn't care. "What is it?" Miroku asked.
"Blood," he said, voice dead quiet with fury. "Naraku, and Kagome's blood. That god-damn bastard spilled Kagome's blood!" He could smell burns, sweat, fear, pain, deception His nose painted a horrifying scene from the strength and variances in her blood, showing him every wound inflicted on her, and none could be from fighting, they were all too precise.
Naraku had gotten Manten to kidnap Kagome, and then he'd tortured her.
This was beyond anything he'd done before. It had surpassed unforgivable; there was nothing he could do to Naraku that would be enough.
Voices floated down, caught in his sensitive ears. "Why, dear Kagome?" That was Naraku, his chill voice unmistakable, and the very sound made his every muscle tense in anger.
The next voice chilled his very soul—not because of the owner, but because of the tone. "Loose my chains, Lord. I want to kill them."
There was a cold laugh. "We don't want you to overexert yourself, little one. Your time will come."
"What did he do to her?" Inuyasha was drawing ever nearer to losing control. "What did that bastard do to her?"
They didn't have time to sit around and wonder about it, though. "Come on!" Crouching for a moment, he rocketed into the air, springing from narrow ledge to narrow ledge, Kirara hard on his heels. Naraku was going to pay, and pay dearly—he would make sure of it.
Then they were at the top of the plateau. A narrow strip of ground, perhaps five feet wide, ran between the castle wall and the edge of the cliff, and from a balcony three stories over their head two figures regarded them with matching icy gazes, one streaked in red.
"KKagome?" he heard Sango gasp.
"What's wrong with her?" Shippô's grip on his shoulder tightened, and he could feel him start to shake.
[AN: Woot! Seven and a half pages, and I haven't even gotten to the real fun! This chapter looks like it's going to be longer than normal!]
"Kagome?" Miroku called up to her.
"Leave this poor girl alone!" Naraku retorted. "You and your lies have hurt her enough!"
Sango shifted, her fingers tightening on the straps of Hiraikotsu as her anger mounted. "Lies?!" she demanded. "What lies?"
"Silence! Your deception ends now!"
Kagome said nothing.
"That's it." Shippô found himself dropped callously onto the ground, and then Inuyasha soared into the air again, landing on the balcony with a thump, face grim. "Better have funeral plans, Naraku," he snarled. "And someone nearby with something to scrape you up with when I'm finished."
Kagome's eyes, dull blue, were locked on him, but she still didn't speak from behind Naraku.
"Not likely," Naraku replied, voice calm. "You've plagued my poor dear for too long. Isn't that right, Kagome?"
Her mouth opened, blood drying on her chin. "Yes. Leave me alone."
Naraku turned around to face Inuyasha, his back to her. "Don't you see?" A triumphant leer spread across his face. "She is mine now."
Then he froze. His pupils narrowed to pinpricks, face paling, and he whirled around—letting Inuyasha get a clear view of the knife buried, to the hilt, in Naraku's back.
Kagome glared fiercely at him, the light back in her eyes, one of her daggers missing from its sheath.
"K-Kagome?" Naraku stammered, for once at a loss.
"Like my friends would betray me," she said, voice full of more hatred than Inuyasha thought she had in her. "Like I would turn against them. Like I would fall for your petty tricks."
"Y-You—" He began to laugh, blood showing at the corner of his mouth. "You deceived me Oh, congratulations, Kagome, you are a dear." Reaching around, he pried the knife from his back and licked the blood off. "But it'll take more than your little knife to kill me. I'm a demon."
"You bastard," Inuyasha growled, and Naraku turned to face him.
It was all the distraction Kagome needed.
She swung her heavily chained fists into the side of his head, the blow weighted by the same shackles that bound her and her power. He staggered into the balcony railing, which groaned under the strain. Kagome kicked him in the chest. It was too much for the railing, which gave way.
He plunged down the three stories, landing on the ledge of the bare land with a sickening crunch before it crumbled underneath him. In a tangle of black hair and white fur, he vanished over the edge of the cliff.
"I knew that," Kagome whispered. "I knew it would take more than that." A single tear slipped down her cheek.
Inuyasha could only stare at her for a moment. Knowing what most of her injuries were from her scent was one thing; seeing Kagome, his Kagome, in this state was another thing entirely.
Yet there was something in her look, in the way she was standing, that said she still wasn't broken.
Torture, near-execution, the shock of losing Kikyo—any of these would have destroyed anyone else. Yet here she was, still standing, bent but not broken.
Another tear fell down her cheek, followed by another, and she covered her eyes with a bloodied hand. She was sixteen, his mind argued. What kind of cruel fate put someone like her through this at just sixteen?
He tenuously put a hand on her shoulder, and she turned, burying her face in his shirt. His arms settled awkwardly around her, trying not to brush any of her wounds, and she broke down.
"H-He enjoyed it, he l-liked hurting me," she choked out. "He—he—" She couldn't continue.
"I know," Inuyasha said softly, wondering if there was any way he was going to forgive himself for allowing this to happen to her. "I'm sorry, Kagome. I'msorry."
Miroku, Sango, and Shippô landed on the rooftop nearby. "Is she going to be alright?" Miroku asked tensely.
"I don't know." He would have said more, but suddenly there was an explosion from behind him.
He lurched forward, doing his best to shield Kagome from the worst of the blast, ignoring the pain in his back. A hand seized his, and he was pulled away, holding onto Kagome tighter with his other arm.
"What the hell was that?" Miroku asked. He was the one who'd grabbed him.
"Damned if I know, but it doesn't look like it's someone who's all that fond of us." They landed on another rooftop, and he passed Kagome to Miroku. "If things get bad, you have to take her away from here."
The monk nodded as Inuyasha drew the Tetsusaiga. Hiten and Manten appeared from the smoke, Manten grinning, Hiten watching them speculatively. He was carrying a long glaive that was much more dangerous than the initial glance portrayed: it could summon lightning, a force that destroyed without prejudice. The brothers were literally the only thing standing between them and the way back.
"Looks like we've got a couple of intruders, Manten," Hiten said brightly. "What do you think we should do with them?"
"Eat them," Manten grunted.
"Sounds good. Roasted or raw?"
"Doesn't matter," the larger one said, "as long as I can have the two girls."
"Oh no, we're splitting those," Hiten insisted. "I haven't had one for a long time."
"How about we kill you and solve everything?" Sango challenged, hurling Hiraikotsu at Hiten.
He swung the glaive up to meet it and was pushed back a few feet, eyes widening in surprise. Lowering the weapon, he let the boomerang slide off, and it returned to Sango's hand, her scarlet eyes blazing. "Impressive, mortal! Quite impressive!" He raised the glaive. "My turn now."
As he charged forward, electricity began to lash around the blade until it was alight with the dancing blue-whiteness. Inuyasha stepped in front of Sango, catching the glaive on Tetsusaiga's edge, and shoved hard. Hiten was thrust back, and he grinned. "Oh, well done, half-breed! I'll have to take you lot seriously nowReady, Manten?"
The battle began in earnest. Miroku, who was still purifying the demon energy from his system from the fight in the valley, stayed with Shippô and Kagome. Inuyasha was locked in combat with Hiten, while Manten was doing his best to catch the light-footed Sango and failing miserably. Finally, instead of trying to catch her, he halted and breathed in, the ball of lightning welling up in his throat again.
"Look out, Sango!" Miroku cried.
Kirara dropped ten feet in the nick of time, just as a giant blast of electricity issued from Manten's jaws. Sango shielded her eyes, then looked around for the reptilian Thunder Brother, but he had gone.
A rumble made her turn to where Miroku was standing guard over Kagome and Shippô. Manten was there, swiping at the priest, who was doing his best to fend him off but not having much success.
She threw Hiraikotsu at him, but he heard it coming and batted it away, moving with surprising speed for such a large You\rquote re looking lovely,\rdblquote I said sarcastically. \ldblquote Is that a new monkey skin?\rdblquote \par He threw the baboon cape aside, watching me with cold eyes, and I studied his face, trying to memorize it in case I lived through this andÉhappened to run into him in the market? Not likely, but I might as well anyway. \ldblquote That\rquote s a pretty shade of eye shadow,\rdblquote I added. \ldblquote You know, my friends and I all admire your classic feminine beauty.\rdblquote \par \ldb skull, but Manten flicked him away with ease.
Inuyasha swung at Hiten, who dodged with ease, laughing. "I thought this would be more interesting, but so far you've disappointed," he mocked.
"Gee, sorry," Inuyasha snapped. "How much was Naraku paying you?"
"He wasn't," Hiten replied. "He said that when he was done with your little friend, we could have her." He grinned, licking his fangs, then glanced over at his brother. His eyebrows lifted, and he yelled, "Oy, Manten, don't kill her yet! I wanted to have some fun!"
Inuyasha whirled, only to find the other brother strangling Kagome, Miroku, Sango, and Shippô all unconscious.
Burning pain seared his shoulder, then roared all around him as the glaive's point drove into muscle and then electrocuted him. He forced his eyes open through the pain and thrust Tetsusaiga out, forcing Hiten to pull the blade out of his shoulder and fall back. "Did that hurt, half-breed?" he taunted. "I can just put you out of your misery now."
"You're going to be making that request soon," Inuyasha shot back through gritted teeth, his mind focusing on Kagome. "Don't underestimate me!"
The Tetsusaiga was flung with deadly aim, flying underneath Hiten's feet. "What the hell kind of shot was that?!" Hiten demanded indignantly.
"A perfect one," Inuyasha retorted with a grim smirk.
There was a groan behind Hiten, and he turned around, disbelieving.
Manten was speared on the Tetsusaiga, mouth open in shock. Kagome was released, stumbling as she landed and gasping for breath. There was a booming crash as Manten's body fell, almost on top of her.
"M-Manten?" Hiten's voice was no more than a whisper, but it rose. "Manten?!"
Inuyasha ran over the rooftops and seized Kagome, Miroku, and Shippô, carrying them over to where Sango was groggily sitting up, some eighty feet from Manten's corpse. Before he could return for the Tetsusaiga, though, Hiten reached his brother's side.
"Manten!" The lightning demon was screaming his brother's name, tears rolling down his face. "Manten, my brother!"
"One down, one to go," Sango breathed. "Kagome, are you alright?"
"I'm not dead, if that's what you're asking," she said dryly, eyes still on Hiten.
Then, to all their shock, the elder demon pulled out his brother's heart and bit viciously into it.
"Other than that being really, really gross, I don't think that's a good sign," Kagome said faintly.
"He's ingesting his brother's powers." Miroku had awoken and was watching the spectacle with apprehension. "Now he's going to be twice as powerful, and twice as hard to defeat." One hand automatically went to the rosary beads, but Kagome caught it.
"Don't even think about using that," she ordered, eyes steely. "You can't take any demon energy right now or you'll die."
"I don't care."
To their surprise, it was Sango to answer that. "I do. We do. If you so much as touch those beads, priest, I will throw you off the roof." They all turned to stare at her, and her face turned about five different shades of red. "Shouldn't we be concentrating on the battle?" she said plaintively.
"Good idea." Inuyasha stood just as Hiten wiped his mouth on his sleeve, eyes murderous and watching them.
"You are going to die, half-breed," he said, voice harsh. "You are going to die and I'm going to make it as slow and painful as possible."
"Fat chance," Inuyasha said, his gaze on the blade still embedded in Manten's back. He was all there was between Hiten and Kagome, but Hiten was between him and the Tetsusaiga.
Inuyasha charged at Hiten, growling, wondering how he was going to pull this off. His opponent was a full demon, twice as powerful as before, armed, and faster. He was a half demon, starting to be worn out, unarmed, and not as fast as he wished he was.
He ducked under the glaive's sweep and dragged his claws up, aiming for Hiten's eyes. If he could hit those, maybe he'd have a bit of a break
The other demon moved faster than he could follow, and a moment later something jabbed into his back. He bit back a yell and darted forward, trying to get to the Tetsusaiga.
Hiten suddenly appeared in front of him, the tip of the glaive sinking into Inuyasha's upper arm. "Going somewhere, weakling?" he asked, wrenching it free again. Lightning began to emerge from his mouth—he'd absorbed his brother's ability.
Inuyasha reflected with strange calm that he was, in fact, doomed.
Use the scabbard!
Inuyasha blinked, wondering if the pain was beginning to make him hallucinate. He could have sworn he'd just heard his father's voice.
You're not hearing things! Use the scabbard before you get roasted to death! Numbly, he pulled it from his belt and automatically held it in front of him.
The explosion was all around him, but somehow, the scabbard was acting like a rock in the middle of a stream and making it part. The blinding light died down, and Inuyasha glanced behind him to make sure Kagome and the others had made it through. They were staring at him as though he was a ghost, Kagome particularly pale, although that was probably because of her injuries.
"How did you survive that?" Hiten demanded, furious.
"Wouldn't you like to know." He had something, at least—there was a slight chance he could make it through this one. He ducked under Hiten's feet, still too far from Manten's body for his comfort, but the closer he could get, the better.
Hiten darted in front of him, blocking the way again, and cut down with the glaive. Inuyasha blocked it hastily, twisting the scabbard to try and disarm his foe, but it didn't work. Hiten was moving too fast for him to risk moving forward; if only there was a way to slow him down, somehow.
Hiraikotsu spun out of nowhere, smashing into a wheel by his ankle that Inuyasha hadn't noticed before. Immediately, his foot dropped, as if he'd been running on wires, and Inuyasha was about to take advantage of the momentary distraction when Hiten's mouth started to bulge with lightning again. This time, however, it was not aimed at him.
"Oh, crap." Sango swallowed when the lightning demon turned those burning eyes on her.
"Get my chains off," Kagome said suddenly.
"What?" Miroku looked over at her, startled.
"Help me get my chains off," she repeated urgently, "or we're going to be fried like chickens! I have an idea!"
Sango pulled a file from her sleeve and began sawing at one of the links, but it wasn't going fast enough "Hurry," Kagome urged, voice tense.
"I'm trying!" The two locks of hair on either side of her face started waving, and the hairs on the back of her neck stood straight up.
The file broke through just as Hiten spewed out the lightning. It roared towards them, unstoppable, all too reminiscent of Sesshoumaru and the attack he'd used. The rattle of the chains falling was little distraction, and then the blazing white was upon them.
When his eyes cleared, Inuyasha only found smoke where his companions had been. Golden eyes lit in fury and turned on the laughing Hiten. "How sad," he chortled. "Not even a bone left."
Inuyasha slugged him in response, the impact knocking him to the ground. "You bastard," he growled. "Damn you!"
"Oh, you actually liked the stinking humans?" Hiten asked, getting unsteadily to his feet. "I'll tell you right now, there's only one thing human males are good for, and that's making human girls. It's a shame I had to kill them, you know." He smoothly blocked Inuyasha's strike. "You know what I was going to do when I finished with you? I was going to take those two girls and show them exactly what they're good for. That girl with the boomerang—there's fun, but the other oneRowr. Oh, I was going to have so much fun with her. She looked like the kind that would fight, and man, I love that in a woman."
Before he could blink, the half-breed had seized him by the front of the robes and hurled him into the ground, headfirst. Not into the roof. Into the ground. This involved him crashing through the three floors between him and the ground, plowing through the wooden flooring on the bottom level, and slamming into the rock beneath it. In case there was any doubt as to what had just happened, Inuyasha dropped down beside him after a few seconds, the Tetsusaiga slung over his shoulder. [AN: Ithilwen—I think that's how it's spelled—this is for you. Any diehard Hiten fanswell, um, sorry.]
The next thing Hiten knew, he was flying through the air. He smashed into the wall, and the wood gave, spilling him out onto the courtyard. From out of the dust marched his death in red.
"Get up," Inuyasha ordered coldly.
Hiten slowly got to his feet and tried to raise the lightning glaive, but it was struck aside like it weighed no more than a feather, though not knocked from his hands. Something flashed, and suddenly there was a line of pain across his belly. When he touched it, his hands came up scarlet. Impossiblethe half-breed had wounded him?
"If I weren't going to kill you, I'd tell you to never touch any girl ever again," Inuyasha snarled. "I'd tell you to never think about Kagome again, but you killed her."
Hiten stumbled back, fear actually beginning to gnaw at his heart. "Y-You can't kill me," he stammered. "You're only a half-breed! I won't fall to a half-breed!"
"Funny how that works." Hiten was amazed to see the half-demon had bit his lip so hard that it had begun to bleed. Perhaps killing his companions had not been the wisest course of action
He was going to die. The boy meant to kill him, and he'd succeed. Hiten turned and ran, though part of his mind whispered it was useless.
There was a rush of air. Claws hooked into his back, pulling out chunks of flesh even as he was spun around, those same talons now digging into his shoulder, the tip of that long blade set against his chest. A low, growling voice whispered, "Burn in hell, you sonofabitch."
The Tetsusaiga rammed through armor, through flesh, through bone, and Hiten let out one last, dying gasp, and collapsed, his body turning to dust after a moment.
Inuyasha dropped to his knees, head bowed. If only he'd killed Hiten soonerIf only he hadn't even let Kagome look for Shippô on her own Now he'd lost them: he'd lost his friends, his companions, and it was his fault.
"Damn you, Hiten!" Why? Why did this always happen to him and the people he cared about?
After a moment, he resignedly stood. The only thing he could do was see if there were any bones left to return with.
He jumped slowly from rooftop to rooftop until he came to the one where the battle had been on and, wincing, made himself look at where, instead of his friends, the last time he'd checked there had been smoke; he was expecting no more than a large scorch mark.
Instead, they were all there, a little sooty but alive, in a close knot bordered by a ring of something on the ground
Kagome's hands were free, and he realized what the ring was: her chains. They'd blocked her power—of course—they wouldn't allow any form of power inside of them. She'd shielded them from the blast.
"Did you win?" Miroku asked pleasantly, looking for all the world as if he was discussing the result of a card game.
"Yeah," he said after a moment, voice perilously close to croaking, "I won."
"What's the matter?" Sango was leaning on Hiraikotsu, but appeared relatively unharmed.
"He thought we died," Shippô said impishly from Kagome's arms. "I heard him an' Hiten talking."
Shippô had heard? Oh, gods, what had he said? He'd been too angry to remember He could have said anything
A scent floated past his nose, one that he knew too well, one that, by rights, shouldn't have been there.
Something white flashed between him and his companions, and Miroku and Sango both cried out, Miroku falling to his knees, Sango staggering back and falling against Kirara. The white shape landed about twenty feet away, grinning, his fist clenched around something. "Thank you for your shards," Naraku said cheerfully. "They'll be put to good use, believe me. And it takes more than a cliff to kill me, dear Kagome. I'm a demon."
Inuyasha charged towards him, swinging the Tetsusaiga. It sliced through the man in the baboon pelt, only for him to collapse, turning to earth. The shards were thrown into the air, falling out of sight past the roof, and Kagome and Inuyasha simultaneously ran to the edge.
The true Naraku was below, floating on a cloud of white vapors. He caught the shards, examining them, then bowed to them and vanished. He'd gone, and he'd taken Miroku and Sango's shards with him.
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Okay, this chapter was longer than normal. u.u I hated writing the torture bit with Kagome, though—when he stabbed her in the arm I was like "Oh, yuck, ow, GOD I hate Naraku" The funny thing is, I was going over an old story of mine, and I have come to a sudden realization. My reaction to a mushy part: XP "Yeah, yeah, moving on" My reaction to remembering a bit of a battle scene was coming up: :D "Yay! Battle scene! Battle scene!"
This leads me to believe that Tylenol Sinus has made me more violent-minded. Don't worry, there will be IY/Kag parts, but it won't be complete sap. There are only a few more chapters after this—this chapter was the beginning of the end, as it were. In the next chapter, though, things are really going to start clearing up. Hint: what everyone believes to be true may not be strictly accurate, and the reasons for certain events and facts are going to be revealed