Inuyasha X
Chapter 6
"Following the trail to Naraku's castle"
By MEGAMANX411

Everyone woke up early the next morning to continue their journey. Kagome noticed that Zero was holding Iris' hand, and was kneeling beside her.

"Zero?" she stammered.

Zero quickly stopped what he was doing and stood up.

"What?" he asked in a gruff voice.

Kagome looked at Zero, and kind of rolled her eyes, as if she were struggling to think of something to ask. Finally, she forced out a question.

"Do you want to...bring Iris back?" she asked meekly.

Zero looked down to the ground, and clenched his fist.

"I want to, but I don't think I should if she was like the way she was last night," he replied.

Kagome looked slightly confused.

"What do you mean?" she asked.

Zero looked past Kagome, and sighed.

"The Iris I know..just wants to live peacefully, in a world for reploids," he muttered quietly.

Kagome became curious at that statement.

"Is she...afraid of humans?" she asked.

Zero nodded slowly. It took him awhile to answer, because it seemed as though saying it was painful.

"Yes," he replied finally. "Many reploids are. That's one of the reasons they go maverick," he said in a saddened tone.

Kagome looked down to her feet.

"That's...horrible" she said quietly.

Sango then came rushing by.

"Kagome! Zero!" she shouted. "Let's get moving!"

Along the way, Zero continued the conversation.

"So," he began, "how could I bring her back?"

Kagome shrugged.

"Well, maybe there's something that could generate energy that we could use?" she said in a pleasant tone.

Zero shook his head.

"Not likely in this era," he said, sounding a bit sulky.

Miroku then came up alongside of Zero.

"I say we should wait until Zero returns to his home," he suggested. "That way, she can not be manipulated further."

Zero just sighed and closed his eyes.

"...I suppose that's a good idea. Let's keep going..." he muttered.

They continued along the pathway, and once again, they saw a whirlwind come from behind. Zero looked completely unimpressed this time around.

"Koga, I belive?" he asked, sounding almost bored.

Koga smirked and then did a typical anime shrug.

"You remembered my name, I'm impressed!" he said.

Zero rolled his eyes.

"You're impressed easily..." he shot back. "What do you want?"

Koga decided to stop beating around the bush and come out with it.

"I just came to see Kagome," he said proudly, "and I've been following Naraku's scent."

Miroku cocked an eyebrow.

"Do you mean that you can smell Naraku?" he asked.

Sango tilted her head for a moment in thought.

"Do you think that means the barrier around his castle is weakening?" she inquired.

Kagome didn't seem to think that this was right.

"But wait," she interrupted. "Something doesn't seem right about this."

Inuyasha shrugged and smiled.

"Who cares?" he said. "We can finally get revenge on that bastard!"

Sango tried to think of a better idea, but couldn't come up with much.

"This may be a trap, but how can we resist this offer?" she said. "It probably won't happen again."

The group came to Naraku's castle, and were stopped just before the barrier, by two familiar faces.

Zero's face hardened with disgust.

"Vile."

He spat the name like a curse. Inuyasha followed suit when he saw the other individual.

"Kagura," he said in a low tone.

Kagura stood there with an evil smile, with her fan in hand. Vile, on the other hand, was in the cockpit of a large mechanical suit, with two spiked fists. It was absolutely gargantuan.

Vile gave a typical villain-like sadistic smile.

"Well, well, it's nice to see you again. And my ride armor Goliath is eager to destroy you!" he announced with pride.

Kagura turned to her partner.

"Please Vile...there is no need, I can kill them myself" she said in an arrogant manner.

Koga, still extremely enraged by the loss of his comrades, look at Kagura with disgust.

"You're arrogance will be your downfall, wench!" he shouted.

Zero whispered to the group closely.

"Be wary of Vile's armor," he warned. "It's incredibly strong."

Inuyasha replied with a warning of his own.

"Be careful of Kagura too."

Kagura used her fan to summon up a rain of sharpened wind blasts, but Zero managed to deflect them with an electrically charged stab, Raijingeki. Vile butted in and rammed against Zero with his ride armor. Inuyasha struck the ride armor in the back, slicing it with his Tetsusaiga. However, it was far from falling. Kagura tried to follow up with a whirlwind attack to blow everyone away, but Kagome used a sacred arrow to pierce the attack. Inuyasha then began to prepare his attack. Vile tried to grab him, but Zero came in with a rising flame slash, Ryuenjin.

Vile doubled back, and then picked up Miroku. At the mean time, Koga was trying to kick at Kagura with all his might, but could scarcely land a punch. Miroku tried to batt away with his staff, but it was useless. Sango came in and used her weapon to try and hit Vile, but he guarded against the attack, then used his stun weapon to freeze her in place. Zero then jumped up to use a Kuuenbu on Vile, but Kagura used a wind attack. Inuyasha took note of the demonic winds surrounding Kagura.

Hm, he thought. It's not likely that I can use the Backlash Wave against Kagura, because she could manipulate the wind. But maybe...?

Inuyasha raised his Tetsusaiga high, and charged in. He ran in front of Vile, who was trying to brush Inuyasha aside with a punch from his mech suit, while Kagura was trying to blast him away with winds. Inuyasha blocked one of Kagura's wind blasts, and deflected it towards Vile. Vile used his shoulder cannon to try and intercept the blast, but the blasts collided and entered a power struggle. In that instant, Inuyasha manipulated that demon wind to use his Backlash Wave, and the resulting attack from Inuyasha completely ripped Vile's ride armor to pieces. The attack didn't do much damage to Vile himself, because he managed to escape the wreckage in the nick of time, and Kagura was more intimidated than injured.

Kagura looked entirely annoyed.

"Enough of this!" she yelled. Kagura escaped, leaving Vile there.

As she rode away on her oversized feather, she looked down at Vile with a grimace. Vile was getting angry. She stranded him there! Vile looked at his escaping comrade, and his face tightened.

"Damn you coward!" he shouted.

When Vile was distracted, Zero slashed at Vile. He fell over, holding his chest. Vile slowly stood up and spoke.

"I may be defeated Zero..." he wheezed. "And I may die. But I won't rest until you're dead...."

Vile then expired from the deep wound in his chest, his life force gone. But would he return? No one could really tell for sure. Only Vile's threat remained.

Zero looked up past his defeated nemesis.

"We must be nearing both Sigma and Naraku if we ran into those two...." he observed.

Kagome looked a little frightened.

"Who knows what they could be up to?" she said.

And so, Zero, Inuyasha, Kagome, Sango, Koga, Miroku, Shippo, and Kilala (with Iris on her back), proceeded on towards Naraku's castle.

Back in the castle...

Naraku nodded to Sigma.

"So Sigma, this plan of yours is working? You don't mind that you just lost this 'Vile'?" he asked curiously.

Sigma shook his head casually.

"Not at all," he said. "Besides, I don't need him now. And aside from this new body I've got, there'ssomething else I can use, and they're bringing it for me."

Naraku smiled.

"The sacred jewel."

Sigma nodded in confirmation.

"I can use it...but I'm referring to something else."