Like Father
Chapter Nine:
The Battle
She leapt out of the well in one giant jump and landed on the ground beside the large hole among the rubble. Cautiously she looked about herself. It was abandoned here. This side of the city had been evacuated with all the recent earthquakes. Nearly all the buildings around this area had been turned to rubble by the random inexplicable earthquakes. All that was left of the Higurashi family shrine was a large pile of splintered wood, split stones, twisted metal, and broken trinkets.
The entire city was covered by an eternal night, illuminated by an eerie indigo light.
The darkness was waiting for her.
"So, niece, my tracking abilities are not that tarnished after all." Said a voice that was not Sesshoumaru's, however Sesshoumaru stood there, surveying Kiara with his usually amber eyes now a glowing red. He had aged quite a bit, now appearing as a demon in his human form around the age of thirty, wearing a strange suit made of foreign fabric, with his long white hair reaching some inches past his shoulders now tied back. "I take it that hole in the ground is all that's left of the legendary Bone-Eaters Well your mother once used to travel between the feudal era and modern time. Hm, but it isn't modern time, anymore, is it? Now is the Dark Era, where I rule all, and all that's left of your family is about to be destroyed."
Kiara's amber eyes narrowed on Sesshoumaru as she drew her sword.
"Stop possessing people, you cowardice vapor… Leave my uncle and face me!" She growled, pointing her sword at him.
The possessed Sesshoumaru laughed callously at this.
"Your uncle will die either way. He's been under the effects of my poison for quite some time. He won't live much longer, whether I leave his body or not. So I may as well use it a bit longer, at least until I've defeated you. I suggest this time you fight back, unless you would like to die a coward. Or you could turn and run once more. I will catch you once more. Your precious pet, Kirara, is not here to distract me this time while you make your escape."
"You didn't…" She breathed.
"Kill Kirara? Yes, I did. Quite the annoying beast she was. But why don't we make this interesting? You see this sword your uncle carries?" The possessed Sesshoumaru took the said sword, still in its scabbard, from his belt and threw it between Kiara and he. "It is Tenseiga, the sword of healing. I already know your uncle has told you about it. Undoubtedly it will work for you, with your damned kind heart. Defeat me, and the sword is yours. But until then…" he gave a wave of his hand and a dark-violet dome appeared over the sword.
A barrier…"Can't have you cheating, you know." Said the possessed Sesshoumaru with a dark chuckle. "Shall we get started, then?"
I don't want to die…"Why do you want me dead so badly? What have I ever done to you?"
"You, done to me? Nothing. It was your father I have a grudge against. It's only too bad he was murdered before he could watch his daughter die. But then, when you join him in Hell where he undoubtedly rests with his beloved Kikyou, you may tell him."
"My mother was Kagome, not Kikyou."
"Aw, but it was Kikyou who injured him so badly out of hate for once killing her."
"Naraku killed Kikyou and framed my father. Her hate was wasted on my father. My mother told me all of what she knew of it. Naraku ordered Kikyou to kill my father. Naraku is to blame for all of my pain. I will not rest in Hell until you – the darkness – has been bested."
"A vapor cannot be housed anywhere. I simply disappear."
"You are the miasma Naraku cursed this earth with. You are the last breath he sighed before my father killed him. I will finish what he could not live to fulfill."
"Brave words, but your doubt at your own words and your fear reeks up what little air is left to be breathable on this planet. Now enough talk. I have allowed you to stall long enough." With that the possessed Sesshoumaru disappeared and reappeared in front of Kiara.
Before she could blink he struck her chest with a fisted clawed hand.
Kiara flew back many feet, then hit a pile of rubble and was buried beneath it.
"Hm. You're even more pathetic than last time. At least you were quick enough to turn and run away before."
Shakily Kiara stood from the pile of ruins and raised Tetsusaiga with an arm that trembled. A large gash dripping blood went over her right eye, partially blinding her. Cuts and scrapes littered the rest of what was visible of her body.
I just have to concentrate… use my nose. I don't need to see, I just need to smell…
"You won't defeat me that easily!" She yelled, charging toward the possessed Sesshoumaru.
Before she was even near reaching him he had disappeared, and abruptly she was kicked forward. As she fell toward the dirt she managed a half-turn and struck out with the transformed blade. The second it touched something solid that something solid was gone and an evil chuckling resounded as Kiara's shoulder hit the ground hard and she skidded forward many feet.
"My, so you've learned to fight back, niece?"
She coughed as she struggled back to her feet. "I'm not your niece. Sesshoumaru is my uncle, not a nasty vapor like you." She growled menacingly as she regained her breath.
Suddenly he was in front of her, but this time Kiara was ready and swung out at him just as he made to grab her neck with his poisonous claws. But then abruptly his eyes changed from a glowing red to their usual amber and Sesshoumaru stopped mid-grab. Seeing the change in his eyes, Kiara forced the blade into the ground so as not to strike her uncle.
His eyes were wide.
"Run, Kiara!" He shouted, despite that they were only a foot apart.
Kiara lifted her blade from the dry, rough, soil and leapt back some feet from him, brandishing her blade as tears pooled in her eyes, her tears mixing with the blood trickling from the gash across her left eye as they seeped down her cheeks and coursed down her neck under her collar, or fell from her chin to mingle with the soil. "Cruel bastard! How dare you use my uncle against me?" She cried angrily.
Once again Sesshoumaru's eyes dilated to a glowing red as his face split into a malicious smile.
"You're pathetic! If I had known it was going to be this much fun torturing you I would have possessed Sesshoumaru from the beginning!" He said enthusiastically in a sneeringly insensitive tone of voice. "So how does it feel, Kiara? I've never loved anyone, so I wouldn't know what it's like fighting someone I love being possessed by an evil vapor."
"Bastard! Like you would ever know love, even if it came up and inhaled you! I might be losing an uncle, but at least I won't be losing him to you!"
Where the two demon energies collide, the key to unlocking Tetsusaiga's unyielding force. There's where I need to cut. I can sense it… our energies. Uncle's demon-energy's scent is becoming clearer… It must be because my vision is so blurry that my other senses are becoming stronger. My demon-energy's scent isn't very strong, nowhere near as strong as uncle's… he's full demon, I'm only a quarter… plus he's being possessed… But once the darkness leaves uncle, how am I supposed to get rid of it?
Kiara's hardened gaze wanders over to the Tenseiga covered by a violet-domed barrier.
Uncle said he once helped beat Naraku using that sword… Could I really use it? Could I use it to dissipate the darkness?
"Uh-uh-uh. Pay attention to the prize."
She bit back a yell as the possessed Sesshoumaru struck her and she flew back another few yards, nearly losing her grasp on her Tetsusaiga's hilt.
Weakly, she got back to her feet, using Tetsusaiga's transformed blade as a levy.
"I won't lose, you dastardly miasma," she growled as she lifted the sword once more.
Rapidly the white blade darkened to red, and the possessed Sesshoumaru looked on in mild surprise at this.
"I'll admit you have your ways of surprising me. I would never have guessed a lowly quarter-demon, such as your self, would be capable to wield the ancient blade. If I hadn't seen it repaired before you fled previously, it would puzzle me now how the sword came to be fixed. But I supposed the old demon sword master, Toutousai, finally did find an apprentice that didn't turn evil on him and repaired it for you – using one of your own fangs, no less. Being able to see into your uncle's memories, quite useful, I own. However, Red Tetsusaiga will not aide you anymore than normal Tetsusaiga would. Your father might have taught you some things about it in the past, but you still cannot wield such power."
"There are many differences between you and I, you murderous vapor. Firstly, I am clever, and I didn't have to steal memories from victims to be so. Secondly, I don't dwell on the past, not while there is still such evil as you lurking on this earth. You look at me as you see my father in a memory. Let me warn you, I am not my father. And thirdly, I am not evil, and I will not lose. Red Tetsusaiga!" The call resound from her lips as she raised the large crimson blade above her head then slammed it down into the ground with almighty force. "Wind Scar!"
The ground tore up and shook with the force of the blade.
A brilliant light engulfed the possessed Sesshoumaru, who let out a horrendous yell of anguish as he was slowly torn apart by it. And then the light slowly dispersed into the eternal night that seemed to swallow the entire planet, and a defeated Sesshoumaru, some large parts of his body missing, lay defeated among the rubble.
His eyes were closed in peaceful death and Kiara had to suppress the urge to rush toward him and embrace his lifeless body and cry into what was left of his clothes, which had been reduced to no more than tattered rags.
A voice that was not feminine but not manly seemed to resonate all about her as Kiara fought not to collapse where she stood, from both physical and emotional pain. The voice seemed to be laughing as it spoke.
"Congratulations. You've just murdered your uncle, the last of your bloodline, after you, that is. Did it feel as good as you had hoped?"
Kiara ran forward and sprinted through the violet miasma that seemed to hang over the lifeless Sesshoumaru's corpse. It burned and sizzled as it touched her skin, but she ignored it. With a forced effort she skidded to a halt and raised the crimson-bladed Tetsusaiga, and then she let it fall.
The blade smashed into the small violet-dome barrier that was keeping her from Tenseiga. Energy crackled menacingly around the crimson blade, and then abruptly the barrier vanished.
Without wasting a breath Kiara seized Tenseiga, unsheathed it, and held both swords, Tenseiga and Tetsusaiga, at the ready. Gradually Tenseiga began to transform to become its brother-blade's twin, and a nasty smile came to her lips.