Title: Nightmare
By: EVL5011
E-Mail: Omnipotentevil5011yahoo.com
AN: I don't want InuYasha to be the guy that saves the day in this story, because he usually always does. So, I've decided to have someone else destroy the Akurei.
Chapter 5: Awakening
Kagome woke up in a cold sweat and looked around, she was still inside of the small house. Was it all a bad dream? She asked herself, Kagome stood up and approached InuYasha and Sango. She tapped Sango on the back, but it appeared that she was in a deep sleep.
"Nooo…" cried Sango. Kagome looked on the floor and noticed that there was a small puddle of tears. Kagome moved away and shook InuYasha.
"Damn you Naraku…Kagome, don't die…" the hanyou also appeared to be in a deep sleep, in which he couldn't in which she couldn't wake him. The dog-demon was trembling, he appeared to be having a nightmare.
Kagome stood up and began to worry, "What's going on?" she looked around and walked outside. The next room was destroyed and the rain was pouring inside.
"Now I remember…Sango destroyed the Akurei, but why do I feel that she didn't." Kagome walked over to the spot where Sango had killed the spirit and examined the floor. "Where are its ashes?" Just as she moved back the stench of rotting corpses filled the air. Kagome turned around and was about to run back inside, when she heard the cries of many people. She froze and hesitated to turn back. Out of the corner of her eye she saw something move past her.
"InuYasha? Sango?" When nobody answered she knew that the only person or thing that could be behind her was the Akurei. Just as she was about to turn around, a bolt of lightning lit up the destroyed room. The Akurei materialized in front of her. The moans that came from within it caused her heart beat faster, she felt a cold chill run down her entire body, and she knew now that InuYasha and Sango weren't going to wake up anytime soon.
The black spirit remained perfectly still, as if it were scared of her. "Why isn't it moving?" she wondered. And then it came to her, "Of course! When I was asleep, it was repulsed when I touched it." Kagome moved towards the Akurei and reached out to touch the transparent mist. The Akurei moaned and wailed, it passed through the wall and entered the room where InuYasha and Sango were sleeping. Kagome opened the door and watched as the spirit turned into a small orb and entered into InuYasha's head.
The hanyou began to tremble and shake, "No, Kagome…I don't want to be alone…" the Akurei was inside of InuYasha's dream. Kagome ran over beside him and placed her hand on his head. Suddenly, InuYasha began to shake violently and the Akurei shot out from his head and InuYasha woke up.
"Noooo!" With sweat running down his face, he saw Kagome at his side, "Kagome, you're alive!" He hugged Kagome and heard the moans of the Akurei in the room. He immediately let her go and pretended that it was just a reflex or something. InuYasha and Kagome watched as the Akurei descended above Sango. Also, entering her mind.
Sango began to cry and toss and turn, "Kohaku…I had no choice. Please forgive me!" Kagome and InuYasha quickly moved over to Sango.
"Was that the Akurei?" InuYasha looked at Sango's face and watched as her expression constantly changed. "How do we get that thing out of her?" he asked.
"I have to place my hand on her head, for some reason that drives out the Akurei." Kagome then carefully proceeded by placing her hand on Sango's forehead, instantly her eyes opened and the evil spirit was driven out. The spirit passed through the ceiling of the small room and disappeared, leaving behind the foul smell of death.
Sango stood upright and with was frightened by what she had dreamt. The demon hunter wiped the sweat from her head and began to weep. Kagome and InuYasha comforted her and explained to her what she had experienced. After a few minutes had passed, it appeared that the Akurei was gone.
Feeling uneasy about the whole situation, InuYasha walked outside and raised his head. The large drops of rain hitting him on the face told him that he was awake. He felt relieved that what he had seen and experienced was just a nightmare. He had never known how much it would hurt to lose Kagome until now. Just as he was about to go back inside of the small house he heard the moans from the Akurei again. With lightning illuminating the dark village, he caught a glimpse of the evil entity in the distance. It appeared to stop and call out to him, with the nightmare still fresh in his memory should he dare take on the spirit by himself? The hanyou reached for tetsusaiga and darted towards the evil spirit, he shouted in anger as he approached the black entity.
Kagome and Sango became worried about InuYasha being outside alone, when they heard him shout. InuYasha's shout stopped abruptly and Sango picked up her weapon from the floor and walked outside with Kagome. The two girls noticed that InuYasha was nowhere to be seen. Concerned for his safety, they began to comb the village in hopes of finding him. They entered many of the open houses and found nothing. After a while, they came upon a section of the village that had the stench of rotting corpses.
"The Akurei must be somewhere nearby, its horrible smell is in the air." Sango cautiously entered the village with Kagome. The section of the village that they were in appeared different, as if it had just materialized out of thin air. "Kagome, do you remember seeing this part of the village?"
"No, I haven't." just as Kagome began to look at the exterior of the new houses a child's laughter was heard in front of them. "Did you hear that?" asked Kagome.
Kagome and Sango both asked if there was anyone there, but it was silent once again. Could they be hearing things, they wondered. Just as they continued looking around a black shadow ran beside them, barely brushing against Sango's arm. Startled Sango turned around and saw the shadowy figure of a child run through a wall.
"Did you see that?" asked Sango. The demon hunter was terrified, she had never seen a ghost, and she was accustomed to battling demons. Sango convinced Kagome that they should enter the small house in which the ominous shadow had passed through. The two girls walked towards the house and almost immediately the foul stench in the air grew more intense.
"The Akurei must've just entered this house, it didn't smell so badly before." Sango rubbed her arms and warmed them up a bit. The cold rain was causing her to get goose bumps all over, she even wondered if the cold rain was causing them. Sango approached the small wooden door to the house and reached for its metal handle. The second her fingers made contact with it the voices of many people echoed throughout her mind. She froze and was overwhelmed by the cries for help and Kagome knew that something was wrong.
Kagome pulled Sango's hand off of the handle, "What's wrong?" she asked. Sango remained silent and the small wooden door creaked open. Light was seen through the opening and a strange sound of someone scurrying about was too.
Sango placed her hands over her face and took a deep breath, "Lets go…"
Both girls pushed the door open and were shocked by what they saw. The bodies of the villagers were strewn about on the floor. Kagome and Sango ran towards the villagers and checked to see if any of them were alive. Sadly, none of them were, their pale skin revealed the truth. The two girls headed back outside and checked the other new houses and found the bodies of more villagers, all of them were in the same positions. Kagome and Sango returned to the house that they had entered and knelt down besides the bodies of the villagers.
"They look so peaceful." Kagome stood up and wiped a tear from her cheek. Even after all she had seen, she still felt uneasy seeing the dead.
"The Akurei must taken their souls while they slept. I wonder if the Akurei forced them to suffer in a nightmare before taking their lives." Sango looked down at the deceased and heard something in the next room.
"Why? Why? I don't want to harm any innocent people." The strange voice was heard clearly from the next room. Suddenly, a different voice was heard arguing with it, "You know that we have to, if we don't the master will force us into the miasma. Then we'll never rest." The two unknown people seemed to be locked in a long argument. "But what we're doing is wrong. We can't rest if we harm innocent people. For all we know, the master could've been the one that killed us in our sleep." From the two voices only one seemed to be the reasonable one. "The master said that InuYasha and his friends killed us with the Shikkon jewel. The jewel has strange powers, it has already increased our strength, what's to say that it couldn't have killed us?"
Kagome and Sango approached the door and listened to the two voices. The two unknown people argued back and forth. After a minute of listening to this conversation Sango had heard enough. She opened the door and exposed the two people next door. Inside of the room was the Akurei and it was hovering over InuYasha's unconscious body. The Akurei screamed with dozens of voices and moved quickly towards the two girls. Sango pushed Kagome out of the way and was pushed through the wall.
Kagome ran over to InuYasha and shook him, the hanyou was in a deep sleep, and this time she wasn't able to wake him. Kagome turned around and heard Sango battling with the Akurei. She ran back outside and watched as Sango threw her boomerang at the spirit. The large weapon passed right through it and destroyed a nearby house.
The Akurei stopped where it was and began to spin around, the red mist from before began to appear again. Sango grabbed her mask and put it around her face. Kagome on the other hand had no protection from the sleep inducing haze and moved back. Just as she walked backwards she tripped over a rock and the Akurei began to advance on her.
"Stay down!" shouted Sango. She threw her boomerang at the spirit in hopes that it would give Kagome enough time to run away. The weapon cut across the air and rain, howling towards its target. The boomerang passed right through it once more and returned to Sango.
Kagome shielded her self from the Akurei, suddenly a burst of light engulfed her entire body, and the Akurei stopped. The spirit remained still as Kagome looked up, she stood up and looked closely at the shapeless spirit. She put her hand out and touched the black spirit. It wailed and moved away from her, the spirits black shroud disappeared revealing its true form.
Terrified, Kagome ran back towards Sango and watched, as the Akurei became a solid mass. The Akurei was nothing more than the faces and upper torsos of the dead. Many of the faces were crying out in pain and some of the others had sinister smiles. The Akurei was vulnerable and Sango threw her weapon with all of her remaining strength. The frightening mass of flesh exploded into what seemed hundreds of pieces. Its remains showered the two girls and splattered onto the small houses. After the mist of blood and flesh cleared an orb of light hovered in the air.
"What is that?" asked Kagome. The two girls walked over to the sphere of light and heard a vague voice coming from within it.
"T-Thank you. We're finally free of our eternal damnation." The faint voice said. The light then separated into many smaller ones and began to ascend towards the heavens and in a strange coincidence the storm died out. The sun peeked out from the black clouds and warmed their bodies. On the ground glimmered a small shard of the Shikkon jewel. Kagome and Sango remained still as the entire village disappeared, leaving InuYasha on the wet ground. Kagome walked over to the small shard of the Shikkon jewel and picked it up. She quickly put it away with the others and walked over to InuYasha.
InuYasha opened his eyes and turned his head to the side as the sun shined onto his face. With Kagome and Sango both standing over him, they helped him up. To his surprise the village was gone, but what was left behind was a shock to the hanyou.
"What the hell? Where's the village?" He asked.
"It's gone and so is the Akurei. It seems that Naraku convinced the spirits of the dead that we were responsible for their deaths." Explained Kagome.
InuYasha looked around, five-dozen tombstones surrounded them. The large section of land was the final resting place of villagers that were once slain by Naraku while they slept. Unknown to them they were helping the very demon that had killed them in their sleep.
"So you mean to tell me that the villagers were the Akurei?" asked InuYasha. The hanyou scratched his head and walked out of the mass graveyard with Kagome and Sango.
"Yeah, it was. Ummm...InuYasha, what nightmare did the Akurei give you?" asked Kagome.
"It was nothing, I dreamt that you had gotten more annoying." InuYasha looked away from Kagome, hiding the fact that he cared for her.
They continued walking and Kagome followed closely behind InuYasha. The young girl knew that whatever InuYasha had dreamt had to be bad if he preferred to lie about it. With the long night finally over they made their way back to Lady Kaede's village. All three of them hoping that the nightmares' that they had were just that, and not a premonition of things to come.
THE END.