Well, here's chapter 22…I did pretty much nothing today, my friend stayed the night last night, but we just sat around and played Pokemon Sapphire on my computer all day today…so yeah, we had a worthwhile day (sarcasm) ^_^. Well, you probably don't really care about that, so here's the next part of the story (after some review responses!).
Inuyasha: You made a small typo in your thing too, it's Tetsuaiga, not Tetsuiaga; but anyways, both spellings are technically inaccurate: Inuyasha's sword is pronounced Tessaiga, and spelled accordingly in roman letters, because there's the character for Te, then a small character for tsu (which causes the consonant in the following character to double; i.e. if I wrote Ta-little tsu-te, it would be Tatte, not Tatsute). I did make a typo last chapter, but I spell it Tetsuaiga for two reasons: first off, I think it looks cooler that way; second, most of the fan-fictions spell it that way and I didn't want to get a bunch of reviews saying, "Isn't it Tetsuaiga, not Tessaiga?".
Anonymous: No problem; they probably will fight Naraku alone (or, at the very least, I'll have Miroku and Sango knocked out somehow; I've already got the ending pretty much planned/written out, and it works better without Sango/Miroku/Shippou in there…but I can't give away too much, no can I? ^_^)
Kagome: Thanks a lot for the praise (holds hand behind head and grins); I wasn't sure if people thought I was doing better or not, hahaha…oh well, now I know thanks to you ^_^.
Waltraud: Yes, I agree…she DOES sit Inuyasha too much sometimes (I think that those sit-necklaces should have a built-in thing where it doesn't work if Kagome's just sitting him because she's angry); case in point where Inuyasha says, "Kagome's small hearted sometimes," then Kagome sits him about seven or eight times in a row, not even bothering to take a breath…
Lindy*girl: Yeah, I was wondering what people thought about it…I liked it, I didn't even bother to go back and read it until about three hours ago and I found out that it did fit together pretty well…subconscious genius, I guess (lol; j/p).
I don't own Inuyasha; I do, however, own several very cool posters of him…and this fan-fic: can't forget about that!
Chapter Twenty-Two
A vile mass of flesh rests upon the floor as a dull chuckle cuts through the dry, dusty air of the basement; green, viscous flesh attached to the wall seemingly rots away, littered with the remains of what were once—what? Demons? Humans?
A grunt shatters the brief silence as a human face grins, feeling a struggle waging within him—the battle is already lost. What he wants to stay, stays; what he wants to go, goes; and with a laugh and one final push, the head, legs, and arms of an ogre fall to the floor with a combination of a sickening splat and a bone-chilling thud.
Yellow eyes bulge out of a green skull as it struggles to breathe, blood spilling from it as it is cut off from its life support…severed arm having a life of its own, still attached to Naraku, it crawls on slime-slicked fingers, clasping its hand around the oni's vile head, and it begins to squeeze, blood spilling from between the fingers of its own hand as it tries desperately to cling to life…and then the skull is crushed, ooze and blood spilling across the floor as Naraku smirks grimly at his own entertainment, for his mind is elsewhere…
His mind is close to a hundred miles away, paying no heed to the mountain ranges, fields, forests, and rivers separating him from his thoughts…his thoughts are focused on two individuals, two individuals lost inside their own thoughts, paying no heed to the mind that interposes itself upon them…not that they could do anything about it, should they realize it—such was the power of the nearly-completed Shikon no Tama.
"That Hanyou has been the thorn in my side for quite some time…," Naraku spoke calmly to himself, disgusting sacs of flesh pulsing around him as his still-injured body sought to rejuvenate itself from the barrage of claws, fangs, Toukijin, and Tetsuaiga it had endured—it had been almost two months since that encounter with Inuyasha and Sesshoumaru, but such was the fury in their attacks that his body had not been able to regenerate properly yet—the tainted powers of the Shikon no Tama were waning in their use for regenerative purposes, and the wounds inflicted by the Kaze no Kizu and the Toukijin's might were immune to its effects.
"He's been drawing closer to here…even with all my illusions, fallbacks, allies, and armies, he's been drawing closer…a whole army of youkai, slaughtered by he and Kikyo's reincarnation," he spat the last two words, burning upon his tongue as Onigumo's soul still strove to rise up inside him. "It's time I tried a more…direct…approach."
A small grin, saturated with malice, split his stone-solid features as he began devising a plan…seeded with the same malice as one fifty years in the past; shattering the trust between the two…hitting them at their weakest point…embroiling then in hate, rage, and betrayal, until finally…well, we know the end to this tale, don't we?
'But it will be different this time…' Naraku laughed lightly, remembering the power that had almost been his through absorbing Sesshoumaru…a light taste still lingered in his body, hungering for more, craving the power that would make him unstoppable. 'Sesshoumaru is involved this time…he could be a dangerous adversary, or…with certain manipulations of that half-breed…an unwitting ally…'
Dark gears twisted, turned, in Naraku's head as the nightmare unfolded inside his own mind; imagined it coming into fruition; and smiled…
'There is no chance of error,' he thought, smiling at the thought. 'It is exactly as it was fifty years ago, with nothing different but a change of girls…'
--Meanwhile—
"Kaede-baasan, Miroku-sama's…"
WHACK!
"::Sigh:: Unconscious again…," Shippou groaned, shaking his head dejectedly as he looked over the two stricken warriors. With no more than a week having gone into their recovery, they were making rapid progress—Miroku was well enough to recognize two the two gropable areas of the female persona; Sango well enough to defend against lechers, though not well enough to wield the Hiraikotsu. It never boded well, however: as soon as Sango had hit Miroku, he was either knocked out or soon fell back into feverish sleep; likewise Sango, exhausting her meager reserves of energy, would fall back into unconsciousness.
Shippou sighed, perfect match for one of Inuyasha's as he stared at the two, unconscious once more while he took the cold towels, wrung out the excess water, and mopped the sweat off their foreheads as he tried to keep their fevers down. Shippou had been the primary caretaker of Sango and Miroku over the past week, seeing as how Kaede-baasan and Kirara had been called upon numerous times to help defend the village against the upsurge of youkai and oni in the area.
He didn't begrudge Kaede, Kirara, Sango, or even Miroku of this: a child at heart, adult in most ways of thought, he knew that he was the only logical choice for their care: he couldn't fight that well, as of yet, though he'd noticed (with great pride) that his powers had been growing as of late; his Kitsune-bi, once no more than an annoyance to the weakest of youkai, was now a worthy tactic should he find himself faced with a standard-strength demon (and he had, once having to protect Miroku and Sango from several youkai that had snuck in through the villages defenses; he could rest assured they would not be returning, as he had seen their ashes blaze in the wake of his Kitsune-bi); his illusions were becoming easier to handle and stronger in their ability to convince.
Bu newfound powers were worthless here, playing the part of nurse and doctor to the two as they slipped in and out of feverish dreams about events long past; dreams and nightmares playing inside their heads in equal measure; thoughts of each other paining them as they both knew they were powerless to help the other in their moment of need.
Shippou stared out the window, looking towards the waning moon as he tried to rub the stench of vomit, rancid and acidic to his youkai nose, from the smell of the tatami on the floor, as he thought,
'Hurry back, Kagome…,' and, as an afterthought, he added, 'You too, Inuyasha.'
Yawning deeply, the young cub closed his eyes gently, leaning against the warmth of Sango, sliding into a place devoid of death and despair; war and pain…the dreams of a child.
Well, a little shorter than normal, but hey, give me a break: it's almost one in the morning, I was almost completely out of ideas when I started, and I just felt that was a good place to end this chapter…the yawn I imagined Shippou giving in this chapter made me yawn myself, lol.
Well, here's chapter twenty-two…it should push me to somewhere around 32,500/33,000 words; I'm really trying to hit 100,000 words with this fan-fic, but I don't think it's going to happen; unless I can make Naraku's plan really long and contrived/think of a way to have him slowly mess with them, then I won't be able to do it…although, as always happens, I'm getting ideas as I write the ending to this chapter.
And to whoever wanted Shippou to make an appearance (sorry, my internet's going really slow right now and I don't feel like waiting 10 minutes to go through two webpages…gomen nasai…), surprise! Here you go!
Well, I think I got somewhere around ten reviews today; oh well, still good! I enjoyed reading them, and I enjoy responding to them too; so please read and review, I'm only about ten or twelve away from hitting two hundred! ^_^
Jaa, mata ashita!