Chapter 1: The Wind Dies Out Forever

The sun was just rising over the mountain of Ryuukoytsusei, and Inuyasha was lying in pain on the mountain base. The great battle that had just occurred was able to tire out even Inuyasha, and he slowly tried to get up, but did not succeed. He had a giant gash on his left arm where Ryuukoytsusei had struck with his tail, and had a dangerously large hole in his abdomen area where Ryuukoytsusei had repeatedly rammed his head.

The dust had just settled, and the skies were clear of all signs of a rainy day. Kagome, Sango, Shippo, and Miroku had just landed on the ground after watching the fight atop Totosai's flying cow. Totosai, himself, was standing next to the group, scouting the landscape to find Inuyasha.

The mountains were not very high, and the task of finding Inuyasha should not have been such trouble, but as low as the mountains were, their maze-like shape could conceal a person very easily. Hidden in a crevice on the base of the mountain, Inuyasha attempted to call out Kagome's name, in hope that she would hear. Unfortunately, his weakened voice and the deepness of the crevice prevented his cries for help to reach the group's ears.

"Where could he be?" Sango asked while looking for Inuyasha by a grassy field next to the mountain, shading her eyes from the sun.

"He must be close, I mean, how far could he have gone? He was fighting Ryuukoytsusei right up ahead." Miroku said.

"You fool! Do you think a demon like Ryuukoytsusei would have just taken a blow sitting down? Of course not! He must have struck Inuyasha right before Tetsusaiga pierced his heart, sending Inuyasha soaring somewhere in the mountain," Totosai explained.

"Totosai, your right!" Kagome exclaimed. "There is the Tetsusaiga right now! Do you see it stuck in Ryuukoytsusei?"

"Of course I'm right, Kagome." Totosai said confidently. "Inuyasha must have just penetrated Ryuukoytsusei's skin right before he was struck by him!"

Sure enough, the Tetsusaiga was stuck directly in the heart of the ferocious dragon, pinning him to the mountainside. The brilliant and powerful Tetsusaiga looked more beautiful than it ever has, still transformed into its larger size, gleaming in the sun's light. The group approached the sword, and without hesitation, Totosai jumped on his flying cow and flew to the Tetsusaiga, hoping to hold his precious creation.

"Ah, my Tetsusaiga, looking more wonderful than ever. I shall now accept Inuyasha to be your rightful owner after watching his wonderful display when using you in battle today. I hope you shall enjoy being in the company of Inuyasha."

"What is he doing up there?" Shippo wondered. "Totosai, are you going to bring down Tetsusaiga or what?"

Totosai jumped in surprise, being knocked out of his emotional daydream by Shippo's loud yelling.

"Shut up, will you!" Totosai yelled. "I'm coming." Then, Totosai wrapped his hands around the Tetsusaiga and, expecting this task to require no effort at all, pulled the Tetsusaiga. Surprisingly, the sword did not budge.

Again, Totosai attempted to pull the sword out of the mountainside, but failed once more. Out of breath, Totosai descended back to the ground.

"Totosai, what happened?" Where's the Tetsusaiga?" Miroku interrogated.

After catching his breath and regaining his composure, Totosai replied, "The darn thing won't budge! I pulled as hard as I could and it won't even wiggle a little bit. It is completely stuck in that mountain."

"Maybe Inuyasha can take it out of the mountain," Kagome suggested.

"Of course he can!" Shippo excitedly exclaimed, "but first we have to find him."

With that, the group headed to the path that was conveniently located a few feet to the right of them, and headed into the maze that was the mountain of Ryuukoytsusei.

"Wait, Totosai." Sango said. "Your cow flies, does he not?"

"Yes, the only cow with the blessed ability. Are you thinking what I'm thinking, Sango?"

"I'll take Kirara, and you take your cow. Let's see if we can find Inuyasha in the air. Kirara! Let's go!"

Sango and Totosai, both riding on their flight-blessed animals, took to the sky, hoping to find Inuyasha in the mountains. Looking down at the mountains, they saw numerous caves and crevices, but not Inuyasha.

After a thorough search of the mountain maze and the mountaintops, they concluded that Inuyasha must be in one of the caves or crevices and headed back to the rest of the group.

"We couldn't find Inuyasha, but at least we have a lead on his location. We have to search every crevice and cave in this horrid mountain maze." Sango disappointedly told the group.

"Well, looks like we're back to our original plan," Miroku said with a heavy sigh, "so let's head off into this maze." That was the last word spoken among the group, and they walked down the path into the maze in search for Inuyasha.

As soon as the group was out of sight, Kagura comes out of hiding behind a boulder, throws her feather into the air and hops on to fly to report what she saw and heard to Naraku. 'How could Inuyasha survive that last blow from Ryuukoytsusei?' She thought to herself. 'That was the dragon's final blow. It was meant to be a desperation attack. There is no way Inuyasha should be breathing right now!'

In about a half-hour, Kagura landed in the courtyard of Naraku's castle and headed for the front door. The buildings seemed old and abandoned, but were the home to one of the most evil demons of all time.

Naraku, the despicable demon who never sullies his own hands, always has his cheap tricks and hordes of demons and incarnations to hide behind. His main goal is to eliminate Inuyasha from this earth and to collect all the shards of the Shikon jewel to use for his own evil desires.

Kagura opened the door to the castle and walked inside, only to see Naraku staring out the back window of the castle. He always seemed to be in that spot, staring out the window. Nobody knows what he does there. Maybe he daydreams about the jewel, or plans his next trick against Inuyasha, but one cannot be too sure of what he really is doing.

Naraku realized Kagura's arrival, but did not turn his head to look at her. His facial expression was unemotional, and he seemed to be in deep thought.

"Naraku! Ryuukoytsusei has failed to slay Inuyasha." Kagura reported. "You said he was our best chance, so now what?"

"Kagura, do not fret. I will think of something. By the way, where are Inuyasha's friends now?"

"They went to search for Inuyasha in the mountains. Why do you ask?"

"Ah, perfect. Kagura, do you not see our opportunity here? Inuyasha is wounded somewhere in the mountains while his friends are searching for him alone. We can attack his friends because they are not in Inuyasha's protection."

"Naraku, you never fail to please me." Kagura said, an evil smirk spreading across her face.

Elsewhere, back at Ryuukoytsusei's mountain, Kagome, Sango, Miroku, Shippo, and Totosai continue their search for Inuyasha. They have been walking in the "maze" of the mountain for about an hour, hitting dead ends and making wrong turns when their was a fork in the road.

"Inuyasha! Where are you?" Shippo and Kagome would scream about every five minutes, in hope of an answer from Inuyasha. Of course, there was no answer, as Inuyasha was still lying unconscious on the mountain base on the other side of the mountain.

He now looked even worse than before, his blood quickly spilling out of both the gash in his left arm and the hole in his stomach. If this excessive bleeding kept up, Inuyasha could die.

Riding on her giant feather, Kagura quickly approached the mountain. She planned to attack the group, kill them all, and then proceed by finding Inuyasha herself. Once she found him, she was to bring him to Naraku. This would be easy to her since he was so badly injured.

"Ah, there is the mountain now," Kagura said with a smirk as she spotted the huge dragon pinned to the mountainside. Her feather seemed to increase in speed, as Kagura was eager to kill. Now that she was at the mountain of Ryuukoytsusei, all that was left for her to do was to find the unsuspecting group and enjoy the easy kills.

She flew over the maze and looked below her, searching for any signs of people.

"Inuyasha! Inuyasha! Please answer me!" Kagome screamed into the mountains, now desperate that the dog-demon would answer her calls. Unfortunately, Kagome's calls for Inuyasha did not help Inuyasha find them as she planned, but instead helped Kagura find them. Kagura pinpointed Kagome's position and landed in front of them wearing her familiar and menacing smile.

"Kagura!" Miroku grimaced at the wind sorceress, remembering his last encounter with her and her sister, Kanna, at Koharu's hut. He remembered how she carelessly controlled the innocent villagers and held their lives in her hands like it was no big deal at all. He remembered how she and Kanna controlled Koharu and pitted him against her. He remembered all the hate he feels towards this woman, and reached for his rosary beads, planning to use his wind tunnel. He unwrapped the beads from his hand, and opened his right hand, revealing the cursed hole in his palm.

"Wind tunnel!" Miroku called out his attack and hoped to devour Kagura and seal her forever in the black hole in his right hand.

"You fool!" Kagura yelled. "Do you really think that I, wind sorceress Kagura, would be sucked in by your wind tunnel? Need I not remind you that I control all wind. Your attack is useless against me!" In a whirlwind of rage, Kagura unleashed her attack with the flick of her wrist, her fan sending out blades of wind.

The attack struck Miroku directly in the hand and chest, nearly cutting off his wrist and nearly missing his heart. The blades sent him flying backwards into a rock wall, rendering him unconscious.

"This next one will finish you!" she said, raising her arm to prepare for another wave of her deadly fan. Unfortunately for Kagura, she seemed to underestimate Sango and Kagome, who were both ready to defend their friend.

Before Kagura could send out her second wave of her Blades of Fury, Sango yelled out her war cry and heaved her boomerang towards Kagura. The wind sorceress had noticed the boomerang coming, but it was to late for her to evade it, and she was struck with Sango's precious weapon, the Hiraikotsu.

"Yes, direct hit!" Sango exclaimed as the Hiraikotsu returned to her.

"Too bad you couldn't finish the job!" came a voice from under the pile of rocks the Hiraikotsu had hit Kagura into. About a second later, blades of wind broke the pile of rocks open and eventually hit Sango. Kagura's attack sent Sango into the same rock wall as Miroku, and now both Sango and Miroku were unconscious, leaving only Kagome, Shippo and Totosai left.

This time, Totosai was the one to attack spitting fire at Kagura. Of course, Kagura's wind easily extinguished Totosai's flames and sent him soaring into his flying cow.

"Little girl, are you going to join your friends?" Kagura said, looking at Kagome. "Why don't you sit next to them unconscious on that rock wall?" She then fired her Blades of Fury at Kagome who managed to pull off a last-second shot of her arrow at Kagura. The arrow did not hit Kagura, but nearly protected Kagome from Kagura's attack.

However, one blade managed to penetrate Kagome's sacred arrow's barrier and hit Kagome's shoulder, cutting her. Seeing the blood, Kagome screamed at the top of her lungs, but managed to get another arrow ready for a shot despite the excruciating pain. She released the string of her bow, sending yet another sacred arrow towards Kagura, who stood her ground, watching the arrow get closer to her without a sign of any fear at all.

Kagura easily sidestepped the arrow and watched it stick to the mountainside behind her. Kagome let out a gasp of fear, knowing that she could not fight Kagura by herself.

"So, Kagome, now do you realize that you are no match for me?" Don't try to fight back, just accept your death!" Kagura said, readying another attack from her deadly fan.

Elsewhere, deep in a crevice, Inuyasha awakens to hear the screams of Kagome, but is too weak to get up and defend her. He is desperate to help, but can do nothing. He doesn't have his sword and is too wounded to fight in his current state.

"I have to…help…Kagome," he said, every word he spoke giving him sharp pains in his stomach. Knowing that he could do nothing, a familiar sensation came over Inuyasha. A sensation that he was desperate to live, or desperate to save Kagome in this case. His eyes turned that familiar red color, and the purple streaks crossed his face. It seemed that the whole crevice had just lit up.

Inuyasha now had the strength he did not have before. He now had the desire to kill, the desire to rip flesh with his claws. Inuyasha had transformed into his pure-demon state! He easily jumped out of the crevice, and followed his nose to the scent of Naraku.

"Kagome! No!" Shippo cried, biting the leg of Kagura, desperately trying to save his friend.

"Get off of me, you vermin!" Kagura demanded, shaking her leg to get rid of Shippo. He could no longer hold on, and his grip was loosening. With one last shake of her leg, Shippo finally let go of her leg and went sprawling across the ground, laying motionless at the far end of the path.

"Now, to finish you, Kagome!" She raised her arm once more, in a second attempt to end Kagome's life. As she was about to swing her fan towards Kagome, Kagura felt her back seem to rip open. She looked over her shoulder at her back, and four parallel gashes were streaked across her back, blood gushing out of each gash.

She looked over to her left only to see Inuyasha's blood-soaked claws, and that was her last sight. Inuyasha leaped in the air claws ready for another slash, and he ripped at the wide-eyed Kagura, ending her life. Kagura's face was cut into four different pieces, as was her legs and chest, and Kagura's body parts seemed to decorate the face of the mountain, her blood now the soil's beverage. The terror of Kagura has finally ended, but Kagome lay on the ground, traumatized of what just happened.

Inuyasha stood there, obviously enjoying the kill in his pure-demon form, a smile from ear to ear. Still hungry for more killing, he turned and stared at Kagome.