Title: …only human.
By: EVL5011
E-mail: omnipotentevil5011yahoo.com
AN: This chapter varies a bit in how it ends. I had lined up two different outcomes and this would be the extended version. I had a dilemma, it was my time constraints, if I had enough I would write this outcome. And if I didn't it would've ended the way it did earlier.
Chapter 3: Trial by fire
Sango ran up to Mekura and noticed the large piece of lumber sticking from his chest. She turned back and watched as the Hell-Spawn Lizard pulled the sword from his throat. Sango broke the protruding piece of wood and pulled the unconscious hunter off the destroyed structure.
With blood dripping from his chest Sango shook the hunter in hopes of waking him, "Mekura, wake up!" she whispered.
Mekura opened his unseeing eyes and placed his hand on Sango's wrist, "Are you alright?" he asked in a weak voice. Although he had lost a lot of blood, he faced in the direction of the Hell-Spawn Lizard, "Get to safety, I'll deal with that abomination." Mekura gently pushed Sango to the side and unsheathed his large katana sword.
Meanwhile…InuYasha found himself laying on the scorched earth, the two lizard-men he hadn't killed were standing over him with their weapons in hand.
"So little dog-demon you thought that you could kill our brother and flee from us?" smiled the lizard-demon.
With tetsusaiga next to him, InuYasha examined his dismal situation and reached for his sword. The two lizards swung their enormous maces and missed the hanyou. Their heavy weapons smashed into the hard earth creating a large crater.
InuYasha rolled out of the way with tetsusaiga in hand and narrowly escaped the large maces. He swung his bloodstained sword and cut across the two lizard-demons guts. One of them stumbled backwards and fell to his knees, causing the earth to shake. Suddenly, the fallen lizards eyes widened as a small metal object exploded from his mouth. Many of the lizards' razor-sharp teeth shattered and were sent flying forward. The remaining demon turned around, while clutching his large wound, and noticed his brethren burst into ash.
With a surprised look on his face InuYasha saw Kagome and Miroku in the distance, "Where the hell have you two been?!" yelled InuYasha. He then realized that now was the time to strike the unsuspecting demon. With tetsusaiga on his shoulder, he ran behind the last demon and sliced him in two. The remaining beast fell apart, revealing all of his frail organs to the whole world.
"Where's Sango and Mekura?" asked Miroku. While they were fending off the remaining demons they had completely forgotten about them.
"Kuso! They're behind that wall of fire!" InuYasha ran up to the wall of fire and began to sweat profusely. Just as he was about to jump through the flames Miroku pulled him back.
"InuYasha wait! That isn't any ordinary fire, its fire created and strengthened by the Shikkon jewel shard." Miroku walked as close as he possibly could to the barrier and pulled out a small piece of paper. The monk threw the paper at the barrier and watched as the fire appeared to ripple like a pool of water. Almost immediately the barrier of fire parted slightly giving them enough time to run inside and assist Sango and Mekura. Once they were inside they found Mekura battling the Hell-Spawn Lizard alongside with Sango.
"You stupid little man, I'll tear your head off and drink your blood from your neck!" Shouted the furious demon as he repelled every attack that Sango and Mekura tried.
With his severe hemorrhaging, Mekura leapt into the air and came down behind the large demon. He quickly drew his katana and cut both the demons legs. Mekura was beginning to tire and the large demon flailed his tail at him. The strong demon knocked Mekura down on the ground and blocked Sango's attacks.
"While don't you two just give up? You can't possibly expect to beat me!" smirked the Hell-Spawn demon. Unknown to the arrogant demon InuYasha was running straight towards him. The Hell-Spawn Lizard sensed something behind him and turned around blocking InuYasha's attack. "I see your friends don't want you to die alone, that's fine by me. I just have to kill you all!" The Hell-Spawn Lizard swung his flaming sword and struck InuYasha's ribs, "Hahahaa…stupid mutt, did you really think that you were going to catch me off guard? Lets make this more interesting!" The lizard thrust his sword into the ground and the earth began to shake once more. The ground split and molten lava spewed out from the ground. Fire and brimstone shot out of the cracks and were launched into the air.
Mekura and Sango regrouped with the others and put some distance between them and the lizard demon. Sango retrieved her boomerang from the ground and threw it at the lizard, forcing him to back off. With the fire barrier blocking their escape they had no choice but to destroy the demon.
"I've had enough of this kuso! Get out of the way!" InuYasha wiped the sweat from his brow and moved forward. He gradually advanced on the Hell-Spawn Lizard.
"Stop! You'd be stupid to think that you can fight him alone!" shouted Mekura. With his heavy blood lose Mekura chased after InuYasha with his sword in hand, "Stupid hanyou! Why do you have to be so bull-headed?" thought Mekura. "Kagome, I need your archery skills. Can you fire some arrows at the lizard?" asked Mekura.
Kagome nodded her head and fired multiple arrows at the large demon. Miroku felt left out and shadowed Mekura's every move. That only left Sango, who stayed behind with Kagome just in case.
InuYasha jumped at the Hell-Spawn Lizard and began slashing away at him, too bad the demon blocked whatever the young dog-demon could deliver. Mekura and Miroku appeared in the midst of the fray and jumped in to help InuYasha.
"Get behind me!" shouted Miroku. The monk held his hand out and waited for InuYasha and Mekura to take cover behind him.
"Come on! Get behind Miroku! He's going to use his Wind Tunnel on the Hell-Spawn Lizard." InuYasha grabbed Mekura by the arm and pulled him away from the seemingly invincible demon.
Once the two were safely behind Miroku, the young monk removed the prayer beads and unleashed the powerful Wind Tunnel in hopes that it would suck in demon. The Hell-Spawn Lizard felt the violent winds beginning to pull him towards the void in Miroku's hand. The large demon thrust his sword into the ground and held on tight.
With a sinister grin on his face the Hell-Spawn Lizard began to foam at the mouth, "Poison vile!" a thick green liquid shot forth from the lizards mouth and entered into Miroku's Wind Tunnel. The young monk closed his hand and collapsed as the deadly poison entered his blood stream.
"Damn it! Mekura get Miroku out of here!" ordered InuYasha. The hanyou faced Mekura and noticed that his face was filled with an unexplainable anger. "Didn't you hear me? What's wrong with you?"
Mekura then whispered, "It was him…" and squeezed the handle on his katana.
"What the hell are you talking about?" asked InuYasha.
"He's the one that took stole my eyesight." Without further explanation the slayer walked forward and began to attack the Hell-Spawn Lizard. The young slayer didn't even give the large lizard time to pull his sword out of the ground. He moved at a blinding speed, one that even shocked InuYasha as he watched. Mekura became a blur as the large demon attempted to repel him. Large cuts almost magically appeared on the demons body as Mekura circled him, cutting him countless times with every pass.
Sango and Kagome both ran up to InuYasha and Miroku and watched as the large demon stumbled backwards. Kagome and InuYasha picked up Miroku from the ground and administered some medicinal herbs from Jinenji's garden.
Sango held her weapon in hand and was frozen by Mekura's attacks, "He moves so fluid, how can he continue to fight with all of his injuries?" She asked. Sango looked on the ground beneath Mekura and noticed blood dripping from his body, "He's still bleeding?"
"What?" asked InuYasha. The hanyou looked in Mekura's direction and almost became hypnotized by his graceful movements. He then took notice of the obvious, "He won't last much longer at the rate he's moving. We have to help him."
"No, let me. I'll help him, you and Kagome tend to Miroku." Sango placed her boomerang on her back and unsheathed her katana. She darted towards the Hell-Spawn Lizard and jumped into the conflict.
The Hell-Spawn Lizard flailed his arms and tail in a desperate attempt to defend himself against Mekura. His effort eventually paid off and he managed to strike Mekura with his massive arm. Mekura collapsed onto the ground and was picked up by the huge lizard. The Hell-Spawn Lizard held Mekura in his powerful grip and began to crush the mortally injured hunter.
"Let him go!" shouted Sango as she severed the lizards hand clean off with her sword. She watched as Mekura fell to the ground and spit out a massive amount of blood.
The Hell-Spawn Lizard sneered at Sango and jumped back with his remaining hand pointed at Sango, "Die foolish woman!" a large ball of fire appeared from his hand and shot towards her.
Sango closed her eyes and felt the intense heat of the fireball surround her entire body. The heat dissipated and she opened her eye's to find Mekura standing in front of her. He had taken the full force of the attack and shielded Sango from certain death.
"Strike him down, before he recovers from his attack!" shouted Mekura before collapsing onto the ground.
Sango and InuYasha both ran at the Hell-Spawn Lizard and simultaneously swung their swords. Sango cut the Hell-Spawn Lizards legs clean off, disabling him from escaping. InuYasha swung tetsusaiga upwards and sliced the demon from his hip up to his neck. The attack killed the demon instantly, the lizards cocky smile turned sour as one of Kagome's arrows found itself lodged in his left eye. The demon exploded into a bright blue light and burst into ashes, leaving behind the shard of the Shikkon jewel.
The barrier of fire disappeared and the fire and lava covering the earth was absorbed back into the soil. The village lay in ruin, the charred bodies of the dead and lizards covered the ground. The smell was overwhelming and the dark clouds overhead parted revealing the afternoon sun. Even Miroku made a miraculous recovery and got back on his feet, he only felt nauseous, but was strong enough to walk on his own.
"Mekura!" Sango dropped her sword on the ground and knelt down beside him. His blood drenched the thin protective armor and black clothing that he wore.
Mekura opened his eyes at the sound of his new friends around him, "What's wrong? He didn't escape did he?"
"No, he didn't. The demon is dead. Thanks to you." InuYasha smiled with a worried look on his face.
"Then what's wrong? Why are you just standing over me?" asked Mekura. The hunter placed his hand on his chest and felt it get wet with blood, "Oh, that's why you're all standing over me. Don't worry too much about my well being, it was inevitable. Even I have a my limits, you shouldn't worry about a blind man." Just as Mekura finished reassuring InuYasha and the gang that he was fine, a loud buzzing was heard not to far away.
"The jewel shard!" shouted Kagome, she quickly turned around and ran over to the pile of dust and retrieved the Shikkon jewel shard and put it away with the other shards.
"InuYasha, it seems that Naraku's flying insects are somewhere nearby, they must've sensed the Shikkon jewel shard." Miroku searched the blue skies and catch sight of a large horde of Naraku's poisonous insects, "Let us make haste and retrieve the jewel shard and leave this place."
Mekura stood up from the ground and sheathed his bloodstained katana, "Who is this Naraku you speak of?" asked Mekura. "Is he an enemy of yours? If he is I feel I have to help you, after all that you four have done for me, it's the least that I can do." Mekura scanned the skies listening to estimate the distance between them and the flying insects.
"Sorry, but you're in no condition to fight today, especially someone like Naraku. You need time to heal from your injuries, after all you're not invincible." Replied Miroku.
"For once I completely agree with Miroku." Commented InuYasha, with that said InuYasha carried Mekura on his back and they fled the area.
After InuYasha and the gang got a good distance away…back at the village, Kagura entered the destroyed village and looked around. The bodies of the dead lizard demons were scattered all over the ground, and the air with still heavy with the stench of fire and brimstone.
Kagura pointed in different directions and the flying insects searched in those directions, "It seems that someone has beaten us to the jewel shard." Kagura walked around and found the all too familiar arrows that Kagome would use. The arrows still had a vague aura of purifying magic around them, "If Kagome was here, InuYasha and the others couldn't have gotten far." The wind sorceress pulled out a small feather from her hair and it quickly turned large. She leapt onto the feather and flew high into the heavens along with her insect escorts.
AN: After much deliberation, thought and a few unbiased opinions. It was brought to my attention that I ended the story too quickly. So, I've decided to keep the Mekura character alive and let him develop more of a relationship with Sango, since she and Miroku haven't gotten involved yet.