Well, this may or may not get done tonight (this was started right after I finished my review responses; I'm trying to be a non-evil author and give people what they want to read: more Inuyasha stuff that has not/probably will not happen!); if not, oh well: I'm sleepy, and you'll all find out tomorrow ^_^.
BWA HA HA HA! Thirty thousand words will be met and passed with this chapter…whoa, I did thirty thousand words in about three weeks? Man, it doesn't feel like it's been that long, but here it is: exactly a month since I posted the first chapter of this story…if I continue at this rate, I'll break 100,000 words in less than two months…5w33t! ^_^.
Inuyasha: I just wrote that fight scene out of the blue to Anonymous; I felt that if I couldn't get it updated last night, then I may as well offer some compensation; it's not part of my story, and probably never will be.
BurningBritelyOne: Yes, Adam Sandler is the smartest man alive…I love that movie so much; my favorite, however, is Happy Gilmore (I've literally memorized that movie word-for-word I've seen it so many times). Anger Management was pretty good; not as funny as I thought it would be, however (Jack Nicholas is funnier than Adam Sandler in this movie…)…I'll only say two words: Monk Monastery…lol.
As for Kagome's eyes, they are brown in the anime, but I've seen them blue in the manga, and since I think that blue is such a soulful color for someone's eyes I decided to use that color.
Anonymous: That was just a random fight scene that I felt like writing; will probably never have any tie-ins to my current story.
Blue-Saiyan-Angel: Hahaha, it's never monotonous when people want to read more of my story; I take it as praise, I just find it funny because it's kind of redundant, seeing as I update anyway (note that I'm not telling people to stop ^_^)
Youkai Chick Supreme: Yeah, I do like Disturbed; I haven't heard all of their new CD, but I love Prayer and Liberate off their new album and all the songs off of The Sickness; I also love Linkin Park, hahaha.
Quick Japanese translation: "Ikimashou" is "Let's go"; ex: you'd say, "Let's go to the theater!" (Eigakan e Ikimashou!).
I don't own him, so please don't sue me; I can't control him, Inuyasha's not my anime…(lol, sing to the tune of Godsmack's "Straight Out of Line"…no, I don't own Godsmack either).
Chapter Twenty-One
A whistling shriek from the Tetsuaiga spliced the air as Inuyasha brought it down from heavens above to cleave through the skull of a faceless demon as it launched itself at him; a shriek went up from the vile thing before it vanished into a vile powder, but long before that Inuyasha had whirled around and cleft another monstrosity's head off.
'Damnit, where the hell are all these coming from?' Inuyasha growled, nearly gasping for breath as he stared at the onrushing wall of demons, cleaving several more strokes; he attempted to hew a final demon, but his stroke fell short, and Inuyasha suddenly found himself prey to flailing claws…
"Inuyasha!" Kagome shouted, feeling as though arms were about to fall off, blisters from so many arrows fired burning with pain as a bright purple soul arrow blazed forth, reducing the demon to nothing more than hunks of viscous gobs of flesh, splattering all over the clearing. Not even bothering to say thanks (to do so would be foolhardy in the wake of their current situation), Inuyasha whirled around; holding his Tetsuaiga steady, trying to focus the winds through the hail of enemies, he finally decided enough was enough.
"Kaze no Kizu!" He roared, radiant destruction blazing forth from the sword, destroying some, wounding others, as it cleft through their ranks; not a fully powered attack, but enough to open a brief window of time to prepare a more powerful attack…
Rage channeled through his body, fueled by his exhaustion as it found its form in the swirling winds that now engulfed the Tetsuaiga; transmuting it into blood red, crimson light shining out as he raised it above his head. Hurricane gales wrapped around he and Kagome as he raised the sword, and with an earth-shattering scream of, "KAZE NO KIZU!!!", the crimson Tetsuaiga unleashed it's roar; blue electricity melded with yellow power as it lanced out of the sword, no less than five score of the minor youkai met their ends at the hands of this attack.
Without another word, Inuyasha grabbed Kagome; her last shot went erratic, but still wounded one of the larger demons, as Inuyasha clutched her to his chest and yelled, "Kagome! Ikimashou!" Running through the huge rift in their minor army, fending off those that were well enough to attack, he leapt into the closest tree available and set Kagome down; she seemed to understand what he was doing, even as she stood in the tree shakily and began unloading her quiver as quickly as possible at those that were drawing uncomfortably close.
Meanwhile, on the ground, Inuyasha had the same idea: hot rage had iced into cold fury at the legions of Naraku's minions by this time, but anger is still anger, whatever its form. The Tetsuaiga drew this fury into itself…thawed it; purified it; and finally expounded upon it; the crimson hue once more snaked its way up the sword, Inuyasha grinning at the foolish youkai as they rushed towards him, purple stabs of light lancing down as Kagome launched arrow after arrow.
"KAZE NO KIZU!!!"
For the final time that day, the Wound of the Wind streamed forth from the Tetsuaiga; it was no longer a mere attack of several claw-mark streams of energy, however: energy burst forth in a tidal wave of energy. It burned the trees; flash-fried the dead matter on the forest floor; and finally reached its intended target with a final surge of energy. The cries of a thousand youkai merged fluidly into one long, drawn-out scream as the Tetsuaiga's power overwhelmed them…then nothing, bodies incinerated in a flash.
Panting for breath, Inuyasha rested for the first time in almost two hours, Kagome not much better off; they'd run into this virtual army almost two hours ago, and had fought tooth and nail, sword and arrow, side by side; sometimes fleeing, mostly fighting.
Ignoring his present state of exhaustion, Inuyasha stood up, using the Tetsuaiga as a walking cane to hold him up. Energy fading from him, he allowed it to transform into its lighter, easier-to-carry standard form as he stepped tiredly towards the tree where he had left Kagome.
Limping slightly (he hadn't been able to stop all the demons, after all), he stood beneath the tree he had left Kagome in. Adrenaline fading from him, he barely had the strength to stand, let alone leap back into the tree, as he called up to Kagome,
"Oi, Kagome!"
Kagome looked down, blue eyes showing as much fatigue as Inuyasha was feeling, and called, "Hai, Inuyasha?"
"Come on, jump down; they're all taken care of."
She nodded sullenly, then lowered herself gently, tiredly, down from the tree and fell the remaining five feet into Inuyasha's waiting arms, being caught by him (and nearly falling forward in the process), she attempted to free herself from his grasp and stand up so they could begin their trek 'home', but was thwarted in that attempt when he surprised her with a short, sweet embrace. Before she could say anything, however—even so much as a, "What?"—he had released her, and without a word mentioning the hug, he said,
"Climb on my back; you're tired enough as it is." Kagome sought to protest, something along the lines of, 'I can't ask you to carry me, you're tired enough already!', but was cut off by Inuyasha as he said, "I don't care what you have to say, you're not walking back to camp; get on."
Kagome tried to protest once more, but a weary glare from Inuyasha silenced her as she sleepily nodded her head, then allowed herself to be loaded onto his back, sleep stealing silently over her as she rested her head on his shoulder, idly twining her fingers in his hair in her half-conscious state.
--Later—
Kagome's face was as red as fire, matching Inuyasha's as he tended to her wounds as quickly (and as gently) as possible with some magic elixir from the future out of her first aid kid. There were one or two deep cuts on Kagome's back, and she was peppered with small slashes and cuts, and in order to reach all of them, Inuyasha had requested her to remove her shirt.
That didn't go over too well with Kagome, and, after being sat by Kagome, she agreed to let him tend the wounds on her back. Berating himself mentally for allowing her to be injured (he was supposed to protect her, not allow youkai to injure her!) and trying to stop the blush on his face from going absolutely critical, he occupied both he and Kagome's thoughts with something he'd realized since they'd first began their long battle.
"You do know what this means, don't you?" Inuyasha questioned, gently rubbing on a clear cream into one of the most serious wounds she had incurred, a three-inch-long, quarter-inch deep cut parallel to her spine.
Taken off-guard by the sudden question, but recovering quickly, Kagome responded, "Of course I do; all these demons rising up, especially this many?"
"Good. It means we're finally getting closer to Naraku; can't you feel the submerged jaki in the air? Those weak demons couldn't cause it; only Naraku or another one of his blasted incarnations could do it, and it would have to be something as powerful as Goshinki to cause this much of a disturbance," he growled, blush almost forgotten as he began to massage the medicine into Kagome's skin.
"Un…," Kagome agreed, focusing more on the pleasure of Inuyasha's hands working free the pent-up tension in her back than on the depressing reality that Naraku was still out there. She closed her eyes, and thought to herself, 'Now I know how my Inuyasha feels whenever someone rubs his ears…' with a small smirk on her face, until her eyes flew open as she realized what she'd just called him. 'Wait a second…since when is he my Inuyasha?'
'Since the kiss, baka…' A voice, a perfect replica of Inuyasha, sounded in her head as it brought back a memory of that night; a night of fortune, of possibility fulfilled, a night of realization…
"The sooner we find that bastard, the better—he wants to defile the Shikon no Tama? I'll defile it with his own blood…there, done!" He growled, lost in the throes of his hatred towards Naraku as he lowered Kagome's shirt…and was pleasantly surprised as Kagome leaned herself back into him, grabbed his arms, and laid them around her waist.
"Uh, Kagome, I'm…," he started, then shook his head and thought, 'What the hell am I doing?' as he settled in for some peaceful time with Kagome, arms wrapped around her waist as he held her fast to him; inhaling her scent, feeling her warmth, and just enjoying…her.
Well, here's chapter 21: I was starting to run out of ideas, but guess what: I didn't! Go me!
Well, in other things, I was listening to music and I discovered two songs that perfectly characterize Inuyasha, both on the new Linkin Park CD, Meteora: Somewhere I Belong is the first, and Easier To Run is the second (both songs rule; Easier to Run is my favorite song on the album). They're so obvious (and the fact that I've listened to the whole CD a bunch of times) that I'm surprised I didn't see them earlier…
Well, I hope you liked this chapter; I coupled fighting and romance together, so it's got something for everybody…please review and tell me what you think in your reviews.
One final note: with this chapter, I have officially broken the 30,000 word mark now, and I feel good about myself: in a total of about 3 weeks I've gotten 181 reviews (as of last count), written 30,000 words, and gotten better at writing on a deadline. I'd like to thank everyone who reviewed and encouraged me to continue, and who still continues to do so; and, as always, if you have any threats on my life/comments/things I could fix/fight scene requests/romance scene requests/anything in particular, just post it in your review!
Jaa, mata ashita!