Chapter 6: Failures
Back at the village, Inuyasha was speaking with Mekura, "I still don't understand how you could move that fast. You're human aren't you, because that seemed impossible" Inuyasha was still amazed by how fast Mekura killed the Hell-Spawn Lizard.
"If you like, I'll teach you." Replied Mekura with a smile on his face.
"No, I don't need pointers from a human." Inuyasha quickly tried to change the subject, but Mekura was disappointed by Inuyasha's response.
"Inuyasha, don't be stupid! I know as well as you do, that you're having trouble using that sword of yours" Mekura was uncertain, but he still remembered that Inuyasha was having trouble wielding tetsusaiga.
"I said no!" Inuyasha stormed away, angered by Mekura's persistence. "Like I'm going to take lessons from a human." Inuyasha mumbled to himself.
Mekura was disappointed by Inuyasha's arrogance. Standing a few feet away from him was Kagome and Sango; they had both overheard the whole conversation.
"Don't worry too much about Inuyasha, that's just the way he is. He doesn't like to admit when he needs help from someone. There's also a good chance that he's still bitter from losing to you." Replied Kagome.
Mekura thought about what Kagome told him and went after Inuyasha. He wanted to talk to him and find exactly what was bothering him. Mekura ran throughout the entire village searching for Inuyasha, but couldn't find him. Mekura stopped for a second and pulled out his black blindfold from his pocket. He covered his eyes with it and immediately his other senses took over, he smelled Inuyasha's distinct scent in the air and followed it. He finally came to a halt, a good distance away from the village, at a large tree. Inuyasha was resting on a large tree limb. Mekura removed his blindfold and called out Inuyasha's name.
Inuyasha looked down and reluctantly jumped down, "What?" he asked in a loud tone.
"Listen Inuyasha, do you have some kind of problem with what happened the other day? Because never in my life have I met a person with such issues." Asked Mekura.
Before Inuyasha could even answer, a strong scent in the air caught his attention. "Shut up for a minute!" Inuyasha began sniffing the air and looked around, "Do you smell that?" he asked.
Mekura closed his eyes and immediately smelled a strange scent in the air, "Yes, I do. It smells like…death." Mekura listened carefully and could hear the faint sound of someone approaching, "I hear two people in the distance, we should investigate. I have a bad feeling about this." Mekura opened his eyes, both of them headed towards the source of the sound.
Mekura and
Inuyasha ran through the forest and both leapt into the air instinctively. A
large group of trees were cut down all around them. Someone narrowly killed
them with a powerful attack. They both landed on the ground and searched for
the invisible attacker.
"It's that female demon…"
Mekura unsheathed his sword and listened for movement.
"Kagura, show yourself!" shouted Inuyasha. The wind sorceress stepped out from behind the trees and made her presence known.
"I thought I'd never find you two, but it seems that my new friend has some remarkable abilities after all." She laughed.
"So, there is someone else with you. I can still hear them breathing loudly, who is it? Another one of Naraku's reincarnations?" asked Inuyasha.
"No, he's not. His sole purpose is to kill you and Mekura. It seems that a demon from the underworld has great interest in both of you." She replied. "Mangala, show yourself." From behind the shadows stepped out Mangala, with his long sword in hand.
"What wretched creature is that?" asked Mekura.
"You couldn't find a better looking puppet to fight us?" asked Inuyasha, mocking Kagura's so-called friend.
"Its time for you to prove yourself Mangala." Kagura stepped back into the shadows and disappeared. She would watch the battle from a safe distance and only intervene if Mangala was defeated.
Inuyasha and Mekura were both cautious as they circled around Mangala. They had a feeling that they were up against something strong. Inuyasha made the first move as he unsheathed tetsusaiga, and took a swing at Mangala. His attack missed, Mangala ducked down and countered, and was cut across the back.
"Kuso! He's quick!" Inuyasha stumbled backwards and noticed that his back was drenched in blood. "I guess he's not one Kagura's mindless puppets after all."
Inuyasha and Mekura both attacked Mangala simultaneously, only to have their attacks blocked. The one armed enemy was extremely fast and highly intelligent, Mangala's looks were definitely deceiving. Mekura whispered a quick strategy to Inuyasha, and he nodded his head in agreement. Mekura would attack first and Inuyasha would have a split second to cut him down. Mangala remained still and looked at his two opponents, waiting for one of them to make a move.
"NOW!" Mekura ran forward and swung his razor sharp katana at Mangala, only to have it blocked. Inuyasha shadowed Mekura and swung tetsusaiga at Mangala's midsection, severing his torso.
They both moved back as Mangala slowly moved backwards, its body began to bleed profusely from the large cut, but strangely enough his torso refused fall off. As they watched something weird began to happen, the thick blood dripping on the ground appeared to move. Mangala's blood crawled onto his leg and reentered the large laceration. The fatal wound healed itself.
"You got to be kidding me?" Inuyasha attacked Mangala once more, before he would fully heal himself. Using his sharp claws, Inuyasha plunged his hand deep into Mangala's chest and felt his hand exit through the back. "I can't pull my hand out…" he thought, some strange force was holding Inuyasha's hand in.
Mekura knew that something was wrong and struck Mangala across the back. The sharp sword easily sliced through Mangala's dead flesh, but appeared unfazed by the attack. Seeing the situation they were in, Mekura placed his sword back in its scabbard and tried to pull Inuyasha's hand out.
Mangala smiled as he raised his bloody sword in the air, Mekura grabbed Mangala's fleshless wrist and held on to it. Finally, Inuyasha managed to pull his hand out. They knew that Mangala had to have a weakness, but fighting him by themselves wouldn't be the wisest choice. They both pushed the bloody human back and retreated; they would need the help of Sango, Miroku and Kagome.
They both ran out of the forest and headed into the village, without looking back. They looked for the others and explained the situation. Mekura and Inuyasha knew that they would have to keep Mangala as far away as possible from the village, one of them would have to lead it towards the river. That would be the best place to engage it, but who would do it?
"I'll do it." Inuyasha felt that he was more than capable of the responsibility.
"No, I'll do it. You go with the others." Ordered Mekura.
"Why the hell not?" asked Inuyasha. The others could only watch as the two of them argued.
"I can name a list of reasons why you shouldn't. The main reason is you'll probably try to fight it alone." Mekura pushed Inuyasha aside and walked back into the forest.
"I guess he settled that argument." Laughed Miroku.
"Shut up!" Inuyasha began walking towards the river and the others followed.
Meanwhile, back in the forest, Mekura attacked Mangala in hopes of angering it. Mangala hissed at the relentless attacks by Mekura and ran after him. Mangala cut down countless trees in hopes of killing Mekura. The two of them were a short distance away from exiting the forest. Mekura ran as fast as he could and avoided the onslaught of attacks, he was a few yards away from the exit, when something pierced him on the back. He slowed down and reached for his back, he felt something warm soaking through his shirt. He examined his hand and found it covered in blood.
He finally exited the forest and collapsed in front of the others, Kagome and Sango dragged him to safety and saw the wound on his back. Before they could do anything to help him, the trees in front of them were cut down. Mangala appeared surprised to find himself outnumbered one to four, it would have been five, Mangala held his sword and gave out a loud battle cry.
"What is that thing?" asked Miroku, who found Mangala's appearance sickening.
"D-Don't let its appearance fool you…" Mekura muttered, the demon slayer had stood back up and was ready to fight.
"Mekura, you're hurt let us deal with that thing." Pleaded Sango.
"You four can't do it alone, you need my help." Mekura searched for his blindfold and covered his eyes once more. "Lets get this over with."
The five of them launched a massive attack on Mangala, Sango threw her boomerang, Kagome shot countless arrows at it, Miroku, Inuyasha and Mekura waited for the right time before jumping into action. Kagome's countless arrows hit Mangala, but didn't appear to cause it any harm. Sango's boomerang would cut through Mangala's body, but he would immediately heal. Miroku, Inuyasha and Mekura began pounding Mangala with a series of blows and attacks, but none of their attacks seemed to harm it.
Kagome looked closely at Mangala and saw a faint light where its heart was, "What is that?" she wondered. "Is that a shikkon jewel shard? No, its glow is far different." She shouted from where she stood and let the others know of what she saw.
"That's what I felt…" Inuyasha thrust his fist into Mangala's chest once more. He moved his hand around inside of Mangala's torso and felt something metallic inside. "Miroku…Mekura, hold him down!"
Both unsure of what Inuyasha was doing, they did as he said and pinned Mangala down. They found that Mangala was far stronger than he appeared. It took both Miroku and Mekura to hold down the single arm of Mangala. Mekura grabbed his sword and plunged it into Mangala's throat, keeping him from moving around.
"Got it!" Inuyasha grabbed on tightly to the mysterious item and pulled it out with all of his might. Mangala's single eye widened, he remained still and stopped struggling with Mekura and Miroku. Mangala's body became limp, the seemingly invincible creature melted into a thick puddle of flesh and blood. The smell of rotted flesh weighed heavily in the air.
"What is that thing?" asked Kagome.
Inuyasha examined the metallic orb, upon further examination, and he found faint writing etched into it. "I don't recognize this language, do any of you know what this says?"
Miroku took the orb and couldn't make sense of it and neither could anyone else. Just as he was going to hand it back to Inuyasha, he dropped it on the ground. The metal orb gave out a powerful pulse, they all moved away from the orb and watched as it sank into the ground.
"I'm getting the feeling that Naraku couldn't have created something like that." Kagome moved behind Inuyasha, her protector.
A black spot appeared on the ground and an abnormal howling could be heard coming from within. The earth began to shake and the black spot became a vortex, the howling became louder as the vortex grew bigger. The howls were soon replaced by the cries of unseen people, they cried out in pain. What did they just do? They wondered. As they moved away from the vortex, Kagura came out from the forest. She was shocked to see Mangala defeated, but mainly curious to what was happening. Mangala's remains were pulled into the vortex, leaving nothing behind.
Almost abruptly, the cries became silent, but were replaced by something else, "Kagura…you have failed us." The wind sorceress trembled upon hearing the voice and moved away, she attempted to flee, but felt some supernatural force keeping her there.
"We are gravely disappointed Kagura…" A black shadow emerged from the spiraling vortex. It shape was continually changing with every move that it made, the one thing that gave it a certain form, were its bright red eyes. The black shadow had its sight fixed on a paralyzed Kagura. Inuyasha and the others wanted to do something, but they didn't know what they would be up against.
"I didn't fail, look there they both are." She cried. Inuyasha and the others could feel her overwhelming fear from across the vortex.
"YOU FAILED US!" shouted the specter, it seemed liked countless voices were coming from within the black shadow. The black specter lunged at Kagura and passed right through her body. She screamed in terror as it entered her body and exited through her back. The shadow turned and spoke, it ominous voice echoed, "For now you are safe, but the day you die…pray…the pain Naraku inflicts on you is nothing compared to what we can do." The black specter sank into the ground and disappeared along with the vortex.
Kagura's skin was pale, her eyes revealed a fear that no one had ever seen before. What had Inuyasha and the others just seen? A tear ran down the wind sorceresses' cheek as she pulled a small feather from her hair and fled the area.
"Doesn't that injury hurt?" asked Kagome.
"No, not anymore." Mekura replied.
"It was the same black specter from before." Miroku looked at Mekura in hopes of receiving some sort of answer.
"I know…" Mekura whispered something into Sango's ear. "We'll be back if a few hours." Mekura and Sango both began walking together. He gave no explanation to where they where going, they headed in the opposite direction of the village.
"Where are they both going?" asked Kagome.
"I'm not sure, but did you see the look on his face when that black thing appeared?" asked Inuyasha. "Let's not worry to much about them, Mekura is more than capable of defending himself."
It was still early in the evening, and Inuyasha, Kagome and Miroku both headed back to the village. They explained what they saw to Lady Kaede, she was intrigued by the black specter, and she rummaged through countless scrolls. She found one particular scroll, which gave explicit details on demons, demigods and other creatures from legends.
"What you three saw today had to be the Akujin, it exists only in the realm of the underworld. It is the most evil creature in all of my scrolls, its gives powers in exchange for a persons soul." Lady Kaede explained.
"If that thing was the Akujin, what the hell was it doing here?" Inuyasha asked in his usual manner.
"That is what I don't know." She replied. "Maybe the Akujin is seeking Mekura? The Akujin did recently appear after his sudden resurrection, did it not?"
"If that thing is really after Mekura, he's most likely in danger." Miroku said in a concerned voice.
"Should we go look for him?" asked Kagome.
"No, he'll be back. I don't think that Sango would've gone with him if they weren't coming back." Inuyasha tucked his arms into his sleeves and figured it best to wait. How long could they be gone anyways?