Notes:
As usual, thanks to my kind reviewers for your support. For some reason this chapter came across as choppy and bland, no matter how much editing I did. Hopefully I'm the only one who thinks so but I assure you even if it is, there will be better chapters to follow, so hang in there!
slant-eyes03: yes, the story is complete on my computer. In fact, the chapter below is the only one I hadn't finished because I am very poor at writing action scenes and chose to put it off until the end. The lemony part is between… ha ha -- it's a secret. But I think you can guess. :-)
tsunami-chan(): glad you liked that part; I'm not entirely sure where it came from but that was the picture I wanted to paint.
Disclaimers in chapter one.
Releasing Your Heart: Completion of the Shikon-no-Tama
by arisu-the-pink
"SANKON TETSUSOU!"
Inuyasha slashed, and another demon was demolished as easily as one night squash a gnat. He wiped his hands on his haori and looked at the miko now standing beside him.
"The crow didn't have any shards," she finally announced after a scan of the clearing. "Its power came from somewhere else. Possibly Naraku."
"A puppet," Sango sighed. She moved back to where she'd been sitting before the crow attacked, soon followed by the others. Inuyasha jumped up into his watch point -- a gnarled but stately oak hanging over them.
"We will have to obtain more of the shards before attacking him," Miroku was saying as Inuyasha closed his eyes. The hanyou had stretched himself on one of the upper branches, ready to rest after their day's long walk. Below him around the campfire Sango, Miroku, and Kikyou were now discussing strategy for the upcoming battle. Naraku's defeat was near.
Sango peered thoughtfully into the jumping flames. "If we go after his attachments, Naraku will likely come after us regardless. Then what?"
"We will fight him," Kikyou answered simply. "That battle is fated, whether we go to him or he comes to us. Having more or less shards will not affect him as much as you suggest," she directed to the monk.
"Naraku's power comes as much from the demons he's absorbed as from the magic of the jewel," Sango agreed. "Having shards of our own will give him that much more incentive to surprise attack, not to mention any other demons we pass."
Shippou shivered next to Kirara. Naraku was one scary hanyou. The little fox didn't want to meet him again, although he would never leave his friends. They were the only family he had.
Even Kikyou, he thought to himself. She's not so bad, even if she never laughs. Actually, the only ones who do laugh are Sango, Miroku and me. When Kikyou and Inuyasha are gone, then it's almost like old times. I wonder what they do when they go off on their own...
"Shippou!" Sango tapped the kitsune lightly, handing him a small fish-kabob, "you need to eat more, you've been growing taller these last few months."
Standing proudly, Shippou stuck out his chest. "I'm gonna be big and strong like Inuyasha. Wonder what Kagome would say if she saw me now!"
Miroku took in a sharp breath, sharing a glance with Sango and then peering up into the tree above them. It was the first time anyone had spoken her name in Inuyasha's presence in almost a year.
There was no response among the leaves. Sango sighed in quiet relief. Perhaps they'd overestimated his feelings for the girl. Maybe he truly had moved on. "I'm sure she would be proud of you, Shippou."
Kikyou continued to stare into the fire, missing the entire exchange. Her mind was focused: Naraku had to be defeated.
As the fire died down, the humans and smaller demons drifted off into a much-needed rest. Inuyasha crept from his branch and stalked quickly off into the night, the dim light of the full moon guiding him toward an empty cliff. Once reaching a comfortable place among the grasses, he pulled a small rectangular object from his haori, placing it in front of him.
The book was pink, slightly worn and dog-eared on several pages. He sniffed the air around it. It still bore her scent. Inuyasha opened to the first page, carefully, as though it were the holiest of texts.
...he never seems to be afraid of anything.
The words were inscribed with a feminine hand.
... Even when Mama thought a burglar had broken into our house, he charged right in and took his katana from the office. There was no burgler, but if there had been, Daddy would have scared him away. He always protected us, and I really miss him a lot.
Inuyasha closed his eyes and let his hand rest on the diary. Kagome never spoke of her father before. He'd almost wondered if she had one. She did, and she missed him. Inuyasha read the story of his life and death several times already on nights like this one. Lonely nights, when he missed her voice and wished he could see her face just one more time. When the world around him lay silent and sleep refused to take him.
Why do I still keep thinking about her? he mused to himself, finally opening his eyes to the clear, star-filled sky above. I did what I had to do -- I kept my promise to Kikyou. It feels wrong, holding on to this piece of Kagome. I should be with Kikyou now, sleeping by her side. We should be planning our future together.
A gust of wind swept past him, for once carrying no evil scents. Inuyasha relished the moment of calm. Kagome and I would fight all the time. She was infuriating, stupid, and childish. Kikyou is a true woman. She knows how to heal wounds, has a sense of responsibility and is very good with a bow. Kagome could barely target a tree if it was two feet in front of her. A small chuckle escaped his throat at the image of the young woman stamping her feet beside a fallen arrow. She would always try, though, and she made us laugh. We never laugh anymore.
He picked up the book, flipping toward the back pages.
I know father would worry about me in Sengoku Jidai. He always said I was too headstrong and would end up hurt, but I think he'd be proud of my spirit. I hope one day I meet a man just like him.
"I would have liked to know Kagome's father," Inuyasha realized aloud. "He sounds like a great person. For a human, anyway."
The nightingales ceased chirping, and soon the sun would begin to rise in the eastern sky. Inuyasha tucked the secret book back into his haori and dashed toward camp, praying no one had noticed his absence.
* * * *
"EEK!" Shippou flashed past Sango and attached himself to Kirara's tail, grabbing on for dear life. The taijiya jumped out and blocked the blades that were aimed at the kitsune. "Shippou, are you ok?" she tossed over her shoulder as she scanned the trees for his attacker.
He nodded fervently, heaving in giant breaths. "I think it was Kagura! Didn't Miroku take her down earlier?"
Sango frowned, "yes, but if Naraku gave her a shard, that wouldn't mean anything."
Another flash, blocked again by hiraikotsu. "Kirara, take us up!" She hopped onto the demon cat's back and ascended toward the stormy sky. "Shippou, can you see houshi-sama or Inuyasha?"
"Miroku is down there, holding off some strange tentacle-thing. I think he's okay, but I don't see Inu--"
A flash of lightning cut off his sentence and threw the trio back several feet in the air. Kirara lost altitude before regaining her composure.
"There!" Sango pointed toward the porch of the castle not far from Miroku's position and Kirara swept in to join him.
Another tentacle shot out and grabbed the inu-hanyou's right arm, preventing him from slashing with Tetsusaiga.
"Hiraikotsu!" The giant boomerang sliced through the offending appendage, and Inuyasha's arm dropped quickly from the release.
"Thanks!" he shot back to his savior before raising the sword again and coming down on another tentacle. "You're gonna regret that, bastard!"
"You're " -- jump -- "welcome!" Sango evaded a more human-looking limb and jumped backward to retrieve her weapon. She scanned the area again to see Miroku running toward her.
"Sango! You're all right!"
She nodded. "I don't think that tentacle-monster is a puppet, houshi-sama."
"Naraku himself?" He didn't need an answer, the jaki coming off the creature was intense. "What happened to Kikyou?"
"She lost her quiver of arrows when Kagura first attacked. She is trying to retrieve them."
No sooner had Sango spoken when an arrow sizzled past their heads and implanted itself into a bubbling blob in the castle's doorway. Thunder rumbled above them as if the storm were an extension of their enemy himself, echoing his pain.
"Kikyou!" Shippou's relief distracted him from the insects that were now descending upon him. He shrieked, "kitsune bi!" and surrounded himself with the blue flames of foxfire. The creatures collided with the barrier and fell to the ground.
"Inuyasha!" Kikyou came to stand behind the embattled hanyou and prepared another arrow. "On my count, let's join together!" She pulled back on the purifying arrow and located her target.
"One…"
Inuyasha backed off into attack stance.
"Two…"
He raised Tetsusaiga --
"THREE!"
-- and let fly "BAKURYUUHA!" as another arrow sailed alongside. The two attacks met their objective in tandem, the arrow piercing Naraku's barrier and the blade's force slicing a deep gash into the purple mass beyond.
The others took advantage of the opening Kikyou and Inuyasha had created. Miroku sent ofuda flying toward the various swinging tentacles before stabbing them with his staff while Sango hacked away with a katana. Naraku, still reeling from the arrow and fang joint attack, could not regrow the lost tentacles. His bulbous body crashed to the ground.
Shippou wanted in. "Kitsune bi!" His fox-fire lit around Naraku, enraging the evil hanyou further.
Inuyasha smirked. "Even a baby kit is stronger than you, Naraku. Might as well give up now!"
The human head of Naraku emerged, cackling. "I'll heal, half-breed, but you won't." He reared back on the lump of demon flesh that was his body and prepared to ooze jaki.
Now was her best chance. Kikyou pulled yet a third arrow from her sling and notched it. She had to take him down before he regenerated and that wouldn't take too long. Without the flailing tentacles, the miko could just barely sense the near-complete Shikon-no-Tama in the beast's center. She aimed the arrow.
Kikyou realized that hitting the sacred jewel would likely result in the same disaster her reincarnation had caused -- sending pieces flying all over the clearing. As long as he spread himself, Naraku would easily reabsorb them. She had a theory, and not long to debate testing it.
"Kikyou, what are you doing?!" Inuyasha watched as she yanked her Shikon-no-kakera from around her neck and wrapped the string around the arrow. "You're not going to send that bastard the rest of our shards?"
She ignored him, and used all her strength to pull back on the bow. Please be right, she prayed silently and let the arrow fly.
The shards met their destination with a bright flash of light. Instead of shattering, the pieces clung to their mates and formed a luminescent whole with rays of cutting energy emitting from the center. The entire mass -- glass orb, Naraku's head, and the giant purple blob surrounding it all -- rose from the castle porch into the sky and trembled. Then, all at once, the blob oozed and steamed away leaving only bones and a human head. Naraku howled. His bones circled around the Shikon-no-Tama like a morbid mobile over a zombie's crib before a crack of lightning intercepted it, and shattered what was left of Naraku.
* * * *
The thunder abated, rain stopped falling, and it was as though the earth itself heaved a deep breath of relief. Sango gazed toward Miroku, Miroku looked at Inuyasha, Inuyasha glanced at Shippou, and Shippou stared at the eyeball lying mere inches from his feet.
"Is he gone?"
Kikyou squinted her eyes, roaming over the scene with intent. There it was: the Shikon-no-Tama. She walked steadily toward it and grasped it into her palm. Despite its triumph over Naraku's jaki, the jewel was so heavily tainted that it remained black as night. Just holding it wasn't enough; extra measures would be needed, but it would be purified. "I have the jewel," she answered them. "Naraku is dead."
