(AUTHOR'S NOTE: Reviewer Pen2: This one's for you. Other notes to follow at the end...)
EPISODE SECHS: ANGELS AND DEMONS, OH MY!
"You think you can beat me?"
"Yeah! I think I can!"
"That'll be a cold day in hell! Put your money where your mouth is, bakayaro!"
"Okay, I will!"
Kagome and Inuyasha faced each other angrily over the meadow. They had one argument too many, and this was the final straw.
Inuyasha was not going to listen to Kagome's whining about exams again. Ever. And he had taken steps to ensure that she could not "sit" him, either. This was going to be decided his way, with naked steel.
Kagome, for her part, had enough of Inuyasha's constant vacillating between her and Kikyo, or his griping about just about anything that annoyed him, which was just about everything. She tightened her grip on her bow, intending to finish the job Kikyo had started.
They were no longer friends, and certainly never lovers. Now they were enemies, until one of them fell–no quarter asked, none gained.
They stared at each other across the meadow as time stood still. Slowly, Inuyasha unsheathed Tetsusaiga, making sure it reflected the sunlight so Kagome could see every inch of its lethal steel. As he did so, he stealthily let the blade travel over the palm of his left hand, causing blood to well up. He clenched his fist, then with a shout, dashed across the field at full speed, sweeping Tetsusaiga out to one side. Kagome, deciding that a good offense is the best defense, leapt forward to meet him, bow held out like a shield.
"Hijin Ketsusou!" Inuyasha yelled, and the blood from his left hand flew towards the girl, solidfying in midair into shining red blades. There was no time to dodge, and Kagome screamed as the razor-sharp edges sliced bloody furrows across her thighs and stomach. "This ends now!" Inuyasha exclaimed as he readied the sword to strike.
"That's what you think!" Kagome concentrated, her knuckles gripping the bow turning bone white as she shut out the pain of her wounds. With a cry from the bottom of her wounded heart, Kagome shot her right hand forward. Bluish-white energy roiled around her hand for a moment before it shot forward to strike Inuyasha in the chest. Taken completely by surprise, Inuyasha flew backwards, but didn't quite lose his footing, skidding to a halt. He felt the pain in his chest. "You bitch...you hurt–"
But Kagome was moving. She leapt back, nocking an arrow in midair like the miko she was born to be, and firing it in one fluid motion. It left a trail of blue fire as it crossed the space between them in an eyeblink and struck him in the chest. Inuyasha looked down and had a sense of deja vu, except for one thing–it hadn't struck him in the heart. It had, however, pissed him off. He snapped the arrow's shaft, bared his fangs at her, and raised Tetsusaiga over his head. "KAZE NO KIZU!"
Kami, that didn't kill him? Kagome wondered, but there was no time to ponder that fact as the ground shifted and rose up beneath her. She leapt to one side, just avoiding the cutting winds that would have taken a limb. In quick succession, she fired off two more arrows, but these were ordinary arrows, not charged with miko energy. It was only to buy time for her to recharge, and keep Inuyasha dodging rather than closing with that deadly blade.
Abruptly, Kagome realized that his dodges had not been entirely defensive; he had been circling, waiting for an opportunity, pressing her back into the forest where there was no room for manuever.
"An opening!" he shouted, and Tetsusaiga fell again. "KAZE NO KIZU!"
This time, Kagome had nowhere to run. She brought her hands up in a vain attempt at defense, but the wind tore the ground around her asunder, tearing at her clothes and her skin. A tree was torn in half, and one of those halves fell directly on Kagome Higurashi. When the smoke and dust had cleared, she looked down in shock and felt rather than saw that both her legs were broken and pinned under the tree. Her blouse was shredded to rags, and she was bleeding on the inside, she knew. Her vision was a reddish haze of blood and pain, but it was enough to see Inuyasha closing for the kill.
"You talk the talk, Kagome," he sneered, "but you can't walk the walk! Now you DIE!" With that, he rose up in the air, reversed Tetsusaiga, and aimed the point at Kagome's heart.
"It's not over yet, dog-boy!" Kagome grasped the only arrow to survive the fall and the Wind Scar, and as Inuyasha leapt, she swiftly nocked and fired, putting every last ounce of strength she had into the single shot. The arrowhead left a bow wave of psychic energy as it rose upward. "From hell's heart I stab at thee, you sauerkraut eating bitch!" Kagome screamed.
The arrow entered just above the first, through the old wound Kikyo's arrows had left, and deep into the heart of the hanyou. The energy sent Inuyasha flying back into the meadow, where he crashed to the ground. He tried to rise once, then fell lifeless.
"WHAAAAT?!" Asuka Langely Soryu screeched. She leapt to her feet and stabbed a Tetsusaiga-like finger at the boy who sat beside her. "You–you defeated me?! But–I was playing Inuyasha! I never lose playing Inuyasha!"
Kensuke Aida adjusted his glasses and couldn't resist a triumphant grin. "But you just did, Asuka. I admit it wasn't easy, but all those hours practicing..."
Touji Suzuhara couldn't resist either. "HA! And he beat you with Kagome, the weakest character in the game! How's those apples, Miss Perfect?"
Shinji Ikari sighed. "I told you, Asuka. Kensuke always plays Kagome. He's never lost with her."
Asuka tossed the controller on to the carpet. "Huh. Well, no wonder. He probably plays Kagome because he's hoping he can get a screenshot of her panties. More like luck of the loser, if you ask me–an otaku who's never even touched a real girl!"
Touji wasn't taking insults to his best friend lying down. He leapt to his feet, fists clenched. "Yeah, like you're one to talk, you tease! You're in love with some guy who's old enough to be your father, and who loves someone else anyway! Who's the loser now?"
There was dead silence in the room for a moment, as a red line slowly worked its way up Asuka's shoulder blades, neck, and face. Later, Kensuke would swear that her honey-blonde hair had billowed up around her and her eyes had turned blood red. She raised clawlike-fingernails, bared fanglike teeth, and looked very much like a certain hanyou who had just lost control of his youkai blood.
Rei Ayanami, who already had blood red eyes, merely looked over at the three boys. "If I were you," she said calmly, "I would begin running." The three of them needed no further encouragement and were over the sofa and heading for the door, a steaming Asuka in hot pursuit and leaving clawmarks in the door. Rei merely bent down and picked up the fallen controller, selected Kagura, and began playing.
A mile or so away, Misato Katsuragi gave a small squeak as she felt a hand on her posterior. She felt another hand alight on her shoulder and a voice in her ear: "Would you do me the honor...of bearing my child?"
"You hentai!" Misato whirled around and a pistol-shot sound of a slap echoed down the passageways of NERV headquarters. She stalked away from a staggering Ryoji Kaji.
(AUTHOR'S SUPPLEMENTAL LOG: I would have updated this sooner, but I was...err...doing research. And by the way, Kagome really is the weakest character in "Inu-Yasha Demon Tournament." I had a hell of a time getting past Miroku and Inuyasha kept kicking her miniskirted butt. Oi...)