~~My god, could it be?! IT IS!! It's an update!!!!!!!
~~To my loyal readers, I present this final chapter to you.
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Hojo chuckled darkly at the enraged hanyou, pulling Kagome a little closer to his chest. She gasped and tried vainly to push away from him, but his arms were like steel beams that held her in place. Hojo's breath moved across the nape of her neck as he moved her in front of him, still holding her against his chest.
Inuyasha tensed for a moment, his eyes narrowing even more. "Using a woman as a shield. . . how like a snake," he snarled, baring his teeth. "Only snakes and wolves are that cowardly."
Hojo went rigid beside Kagome, and his breathing quickened ever so slightly. Still, he smiled at Inuyasha, although the smile was more plastered on his face now, more artificial. He spoke between clenched teeth, only his lips moving. "I am not a lowly snake, little dog," he growled, his lips curling back from his gums. "I am a king among snakes, one of the most powerful ever to be born! How else could I have survived so many years since my birth?"
Inuyasha snorted though his nose and brought up the Tetsusaiga. "Feh, enough talking, reptile. Let Kagome go and fight me like a man!"
Hojo's chest rumbled against Kagome's, and she suddenly realized that he was trying his best not to laugh. "A man?" Hojo scoffed, "If I were to fight like a man, I would be human. I am so much more pure than a human, more pure and powerful than a little puppy like you! What can a hanyou do against me? You are out of your league!"
Hojo flung out one hand almost casually and Inuyasha was thrown backwards in a surge of demonic energy. He cried out for a moment, then twisted his body in midair and landed back in the gale of energy. He shoved the Tetsusaiga into the ground to slow his skid but still ended up almost twenty feet away from where he had originally had stood. The gale died around him, and he knelt behind the Tetsusaiga, breathing hard.
Hojo laughed and raised the hand again. The demonic gale burst forth from his outstretched hand, and Inuyasha smirked, ducking behind his sword. The wind parted around the blade like water around rocks, blowing down trees and sending park benches flying.
"Is that all you've got, you snake?" Inuyasha yelled as he stood up to face the wind again.
Kagome's blood ran cold as she saw Hojo's lips curl into a sadistic smirk. Inuyasha always made that smirk right before he killed his energy. It was the smirk that knows when your enemy has made a fatal mistake. "Inuyasha, run!" she screamed into the wind, reaching for him.
Inuyasha glanced over at her, unable to hear her words for the rushing winds, and started to reply when he felt two sharp pricks in his legs. He cried out as identical pains shot up his legs, and he fell to his knees. He held onto the Tetsusaiga for dear life now, trying not to be blown away by the demonic gale, and glanced back at his legs.
His shocked face beheld twin cobras attached to his legs, pumping their venom into his veins. He kicked weakly at them, but more cobras began popping up from the ground. They seemed unaffected by the winds as they slithered up his body, sinking fangs into his torso and arms. The venom coursed through his veins, already blurring his vision, but he still tried to shake them off until he finally fell. His hands slipped from the hilt of Tetsusaiga, and the hanyou went flying into the gale. The Tetsusaiga followed him, morphing back into its old rusted form as it plunged into the ground near an old park bench.
Hojo burst out laughing now, his mirth bouncing off Kagome's aura of shock and despair. She stared, unable to move, as the gale became a sphere around Inuyasha, holding him in place as more and more snakes began to appear and cover him. She could see him screaming, but the sounds were all ripped away by the churning winds. He kept reaching for her, kept screaming her name, but she could not hear him.
Hojo's eyes had gone black and hard, and Kagome realized that she had never seen him blink. How could I have been so stupid? she groaned in her mind. How could I have been so blind to the fact that he was a demon? How could he lie to me all this time?
The sheer audacity of someone she was friends with turning out to be a demon ignited a small flame in Kagome's heart. As she watched Inuyasha's twitching body be covered with snakes, the flame grew to a white-hot blaze that reflected in her tear-filled eyes. Several viens popped in her head as she pushed against Hojo's chest again.
How DARE he lie to me all this time! She pushed harder, and felt the fire moving down her arms.
How DARE he try to kidnap me! Hojo's laughter died, and he glanced down at her, wondering at the strange power he felt.
How DARE he hurt my Inuyasha!! With a cry of rage, she laid both of her palms flat against Hojo's chest and released that white-hot fire from her body. Her own miko powers surged to the surface of her skin, leeching onto his chest as she screamed, wordless, in rage. The fire poured over him, igniting his human-like skin with blue-white flames that danced along his arms and chest. Hojo screamed and dropped her as his skin began to peel back from his body. His clothes were incinerated, and he collapsed into a fiery heap, screaming in pain.
Kagome ignored him, running towards the sphere of demonic energy that had enveloped her hanyou. His body had stopped twitching by now, and his body was lost in a sea of writhing snakes. Several turned and hissed at her as she raised a hand to the swirling wind. She screamed and jerked her arm back as the wind actually cut into the flesh of her hand. She fell to her knees, screaming Inuyasha's name. Tears, unbidden, began to fall from her eyes.
Inuyasha's nose twitched slightly as he took in a breath of air. All around him, he could smell the leathery scent of the snakes, and the familiar scent of the wind. His nose twitched again, and his pain-filled mind hesitated on a new, faint scent. Under all the leather and the wind and the blood, Inuyasha's keen nose detected the faint scent of salty tears somewhere nearby.
Tears. . . Kago. . .me's. . . tears. . .
He groaned slightly, his eyes fluttering open. The world, which had been a blissfully silent hum a moment ago, crashed in around Inuyasha's mind. The sounds of the roaring wind and the soft sucking sounds of the snakes writhing around him assailed his poor ears, and the blood all around him clouded his eyes, but he heard only Kagome screaming his name, could only see her tear-streaked face. Everything else was irrelevant. Kagome was in pain, and he was just sitting here! That was all that mattered to him.
"Kagome!" he yelled, his voice strong with his anxiety and fear for her. "Kagome, get the Tetsusaiga!"
Kagome could see his lips moving, but the sound of the wind tore the words from his mouth and sent them spinning into oblivion instead of her ears. However, the years of watching him talk and scream and yell were not wasted on Kagome. She read his lips perfectly and knew what he wanted. She was on her feet and running for the Tetsusaig before her mind even registered what she was doing. Wrenching the blade from the ground, she whirled back to see Hojo standing between her and Inuyasha.
His skin was black and blistered from the fire, and his eyes glared at nothing but her. She had looked into the souls of demons before, but Hojo's eyes were different. He looked at her like Inuyasha looked at Naraku. Inuyasha's eyes were fearsome things when looking at the one who had killed the woman he loved all that time ago. His eyes saw only Naraku's death when he looked at the evil hanyou, and knew that Naraku would die by Inuyasha's hands. The same look was in Hojo's eyes, and he was looking straight at her.
Kagome was frozen in place, her terror warring with her need to save Inuyasha. Hojo took a step towards her, skin falling off his body in flakes. She retreated a step, bile rising in her throat.
"I loved you, Kagome," Hojo hissed through strange, fleshless lips. "I wanted us to be together forever, and hunt down the shards together. We could have been so wonderful together. But you had to choose this. . . this. . . vermin over me! How could you?"
Kagome's eyes hardened as she glared at her one-time suitor. "My heart belongs to someone who is willing to protect it. Protect it because he loves it, not because he has use for it! I despise you!"
She raised the Tetsusaiga over her head as Hojo's body began to grow. It seemed to break all the bones in his body, or make them evaporate. His torso flattened and grew to almost ten feet long, his legs melding into his body to form a long cylinder. His arms remained, keeping his body in a push-up position. Kagome's eyes widened in fear and shock as Hojo reared up and his back split open and fanned out to form the cobra's hood around his head. He hissed menacingly at Kagome, sporting fangs and a long tongue that flicked between the protruding fangs.
Her breath came in small pants between her dry lips as she stared at the man she had once danced with. It was almost too much for her mind to bear, but she could still see Inuyasha, imprisoned in the demonic energy, screaming her name behind Hojo. Her eys narrowed as she set her jaw and stood ready. "You want to kill me, scale-butt? Come on, then!"
Inuyasha screamed as Hojo launched himself into the air, diving towards Kagome. He kicked, bit, and scratched at the snakes that were surrounding him, furiously trying to get to Kagome to save her like he always did. But he was too late, and the snakes were too numerous. He watched, helplessly, as Hojo collided with Kagome, sending them both flying backwards.
Kagome felt the fangs bite into her shoulder, and felt the strong arms crush her against the scaly body. Still, her mind focused on one solid movement of her arms. She whipped the Tetsusaiga over Hojo's head, and sent it screaming towards the imprisoned hanyou. The blade sliced through the winds and through the snakes to land almost perfectly within Inuyasha's reach.
Inuyasha's fist closed around the hilt, sending the blade into its true form almost immediately. As it grew, it slashed through the swirling winds, breaking the hold on him. With another deft movement, he severed the heads of the snakes from their bodies and sent them tumbling down onto the soft ground. He landed easily among them, shaking like the dog he was to clear the heads from his body.
He was already charging towards Hojo when the snake lifted its head from Kagome's body, his lipless mouth red and dripping with her blood. The sight of that and the two bleeding punctures in Kagome's chest sent Inuyasha over the edge into rage. He leaped into the air, bringing the Tetsusaiga down towards Hojo's sluggish body.
"KAZE NO KIZU!" he screamed, flinging out the power from his blade.
The power cleaved into Hojo's body, hacking it to pieces that dropped around Kagome's still form. His hand landed near her, his eyes still wide with shock. "Was this what she meant? Was this the person she meant who would protect her heart?"
"I will protect everything about her," Inuyasha growled as he shoved the blade into Hojo's skull, killing him instantly.
Kagome smiled at him, a trickle of blood spilling from the side of her mouth, as he knelt beside her. "Inuyasha," she murmured, "I knew you would get him."
Inuyasha grabbed her, moving the cloth of her tattered dress aside to see the wound. The two bleeding puncture wounds on her chest were already beginning to turn yellow with the venom. Unable to think of anything else, Inuyasha closed his mouth around the wound and sucked hard, letting the vile liquid spill into his mouth. He spit several times, ignoring Kagome's feeble protests. He finally covered her mouth with one hand to keep her from sitting him, and continued to suck out the poison.
Kagome's vision began to clear the longer Inuyasha sucked poison from the wound. Her hand closed gently around his head, holding him against her. He chuckled into her flesh as her drew away, spitting the last bit of poison onto the ground. He wiped his mouth on his sleeve and closed his arms around her, rocking gently.
"Next time we're in danger, please don't try to be me, Kagome," he murmured softly into her hair. "Leave the heroics up to me."
She smiled softly as she laid her head against his chest. "Then don't get caught next time, idiot," she whispered.
Inuyasha laughed as he lifted her up in his arms and leapt into the trees towards her house. "Maybe you'll invite me to the next dance, Kagome. Your choice in men is bad."
Kagome's eyes, which had been sliding closed, snapped open and she glared at Inuyasha as he ran along the tree branches. "WHAT? You idiot, my choice in men is just fine!"
"Is not!"
"Is too!"
"Is not, is not, is NOT!"
"Don't make me say it, Inuyasha!!!!!!"
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~~Wow, I finally updated! About time, eh? Well, it's all done now. The story is finished, and I'm not going to make another chapter. *waves goodbye as her story is lost in the myriad of other Inuyasha stories*
~~I hope you all have enjoyed this story, and will read more of my stories later. Special thanks to all my reviewers and followers of this story and my authoress career!!