Author's rantings: Well, finally I've written the next chapter... its been fourth months? I'm sorry if this chapter might not have been written that well (in fact, I felt like it would never be perfect) but I felt like I had to write something or I wouldn't continue ever again. To Ghost, thanks a lot! Your reviews have been very useful! Especially in the writing area. However, I disagree with the Genma and Soun not helping people... remember that they were invited to catch Happosia in the haunted pot chapter in the manga. The rest was very useful! Dark Rhapsody, it's true that Ranma has seen some weird things, but he can admire can't he? :P To everybody else, thanks for the reviews! They keep me going. Lastly... this new format isn't letting me do indents... anybody care to tell me how?
Ranma was standing amongst a bunch of dead youkai parts. It was quite disgusting, especially with the small white headless things squirming around the bodies – and the smell was downright horrid. To one side was a tunnel leading out. "This is weird." he muttered.
The pit had been deeper than the martial artist expected, and Ranma had to bounce across the ledges to ease the fall. He had managed to get to the bottom without too much trouble, but had looked around to see the moving lumps of flesh. Ranma waited not-so patiently for the others to climb down - though he wouldn't admit it, he was feeling nervous.
Finally, the others joined Ranma. Miroku and Sango both looked at the mass of flesh in front of them with some revulsion as they discussed the possibilities.
"Naraku must have been rearranging his body again." said the monk. He bent down to look at the dead youkai parts.
Ranma raised an eyebrow, "Rearranging his body?"
"Naraku is a being that is made up of an intensely evil heart and many, many youkai." Sango replied, "Once in while. Naraku will rearrange his body – that is get rid of the youkai parts that he deems useless and changing his body to become stronger. The change in his power last time he did this was huge."
"Heh, doesn't matter how strong he is, I'll defeat him anyway." said Ranma.
"Confident, aren't you?" Sango commented.
"In times like these, we always need hero, and that hero is probably me – and as we all know heroes always win!" Ranma said as his companions rolled their eyes, "so what should we do now?"
The ground beneath the three humans started to shake, prompting them to run again.
"We had better get out of here!" the monk replied as the trio ran down the only way out of the pit.
As the three humans ran, the mountain seemed to start shaking more and more. Ranma wondered if the place was going to crash down on him. The thought made him decide that he should have learned the breaking point technique.
They came up to a bunch of the lump of flesh which marked the dead end. The grotesque sack was angled downwards, but it seemed that the only way to keep going was to go through it. Ranma touched the mass of flesh gingerly. It was soft and warm.
"The heck with it!" Ranma swore, "Mouko Takabisha!"
The bag of meat was ripped away by the chi blast which exploded away into the cavern wall on the other side. Ranma wondered if he had overdone it a bit.
"Ahhh! Don't kill me!" came a piercing voice, startling the three humans.
"Shippo?" Sango peered down the cavern.
"Sango! Miroku!" The small fox cried "I though I was going to die!" He wailed while next to him, Kirara growled.
"Shippo! What are you and Kirara doing in here by yourselves?" Miroku asked, very worried, "Where is Inuyasha?"
"Inuyasha left me in the care of Kouga who suddenly appeared. He was impatient. Then we were attacked by a whole bunch of youkai. I almost died! Kouga ran in here to find Naraku and I didn't want to be left alone so Kirara and I followed but then the walls turned all creepy and sucked him in! I kept running until I met you people!" babbled the little fox-child.
'Who's Kouga?' Ranma wondered, 'another Youkai?'
The mountain again started to shake and Ranma reflexively jumped back onto the firmer rock grounds, his previous thoughts left unasked. Sango and Miroku, however were still standing on the loose flesh which sudden;y fell apart due to the shaking. Giving a surprised shout they helplessly fell into the bottomless pit that was below them.
"Miroku! Sango!" Ranma called out and was about to jump down to save them when Kirara jumped down, transformed and caught the two falling humans.
"Good work Kirara!" said the youkai child from the other side. The mountain again shook, "Whoa..." Shippo said before falling off as well.
Ranma watched as Shippo transformed into something that was round and pink. In fact, he now looked like a helium balloon. "I'm ok" the balloon gasped out. Seeing that Shippo was having some difficulty maintaining his form, Ranma jumped out to grab him.
Large spear-like tentacles whipped upwards, forcing Ranma to twist in mid-air to avoid being skewered. In the distance, he could hear Miroku calling out to him to be careful. Despite being hampered at first by the tentacles, Ranma found that he could grab onto them and use them to swing over to Shippo.
"Transform back, I got you!" Ranma said from one of the ledges on Shippo's side.
Complying with Ranma's orders, Shippou transformed back and let Ranma catch him in midair, as he weaved his way back to the other side of the ledge.
"Hey, isn't that Inuyasha?" Shippo suddenly gasped.
Ranma looked up to see the hanyou wrapped up by one of the tentacles, eyes closed. "Dog-boys really gotten himself into trouble hasn't he?" He commented before cupping his hands in front of his mouth, "Hey! Dog-boy! Wake up!"
It was apparently loud enough, as Inuyasha opened one eye. "Shut up, human!" He snapped back.
"You realize that you're being tied up by a massive tentacle right?"
"I thought I told you to shut up." Inuyasha looked around to see Shippo, "hey! Where's the wimpy wolf?"
"He got sucked into the mountain." It was Miroku who replied as Kirara flew and hovered next to Inuyasha.
Inuyasha struggled for a while in his bonds when suddenly he looked up.
Following the hanyou's gaze, Ranma looked up to see a face accompanied by hideous laughter. The face was long, pointed and evil. It was also the same face that he had seen in the pit before.
"So you're Naraku? You don't looks so tough."
Naraku looked down at Ranma, "Who are you? Human? It looks like you've had the bad luck to be involved."
"I'm Ranma Saotome of the Anything-Goes School of Martial Arts" The youth said proudly.
"Nevermind, you aren't worth my time right now" Naraku said before focusing his attention back to Inuyasha who was again struggling. "I don't think that you'll be able to move." He told the hanyou. "Well, I must congratulate you all for getting so far... but it is over now. Right now, you are inside my body – this entire mountain is my body right now."
"It's never over until I rip your throat out." Inuyasha growled at Naraku.
"I can't stand this anymore" said Sango as she pulled her giant boomerang out, "Hiraikotsu!"
The weapon spun about, cutting through some of the tentacles. A yellow liquid squirted out, revealing itself to be acid when it dissolved through parts of the cavern walls. More tentacles came up, and wrapped around Kirara with Miroku and Sango on it. Another aimed strait at Ranma, who quickly jumped away, now having to dodge many tentacles. However, it was too much as one snagged him by the foot and another wrapped around him fully.
"Whoa!" Ranma said, retaining his hold on Shippo.
Naraku ignored Ranma, still focusing his concentration on Inuyasha, "Ironic, isn't it, you've spent so much effort to get here, but now that you are, you can't do a thing about it."
"Once I get out of these things, I'll kill you and then get Kagome." Inuyasha snarled back.
"Yes, you do seem quite attached to that girl are you not?" Naraku said, "well, I can tell you that she is quite safe."
"You've got Kagome?" Shippo cried out.
"Shouldn't you be worrying about yourselves right now, rather than somebody else?" More tentacles came up. They were holding a man, who Ranma recognized was Bankotsu. Unlike with Inuyasha, Ranma could see that this person was dead.
Inuyasha had also recognized Bankotsu, "why is he here?"
"I need his shards, of course" Naraku replied, "he should have taken his shards and escaped, instead of returning to avenge his comrades. It's so very... human of him."
"You! Bankotsu may have been an evil villain, but he has way more honor than you will ever have!"
During the conversation, tentacles were coming out and taking some pink glowing things from Bankotsu's body and sword. The Shikon shards, Ranma guessed. He watched in a kind of sick fascination as Bankotsu's body disintegrated into sand, leaving his skeleton, which fell into the chasm down below.
"Might I remind you that it was you who killed him?" Naraku mocked as another tentacle came and took a jar of Shikon shards from Inuyasha. Taking them out, the Shikon shards floated out and suddenly, the cavern was filled with bright light.
Everybody instinctively closed their eyes. When the light subsided, Ranma looked up to see a body being created in the air. It was quite grotesque as we watched each part of the body seem to grow into existence, until finally revealing an armored man, who had Naraku's face. Above him, the original face had faded from view. Naraku looked both impressive and disgusting at the same time. Spikes on his limbs, tentacles bursting out from his back and the eye in the middle of his chest, made a mockery of what would otherwise have looked like a regally armored warrior.
A reddish ball formed around Naraku as he floated down towards his enemies. "Now what should I do with you?"
Ranma heard Miroku suddenly call out, "Inuyasha! He's much stronger now than his old body!"
The dog youkai himself growled, "You have to hide behind your shield all the time, you can't be that strong. Plus, this must also mean that you've gotten even more twisted!" His growl growing louder, Inuyasha seemed to be gathering his strength until finally bursting free of the tentacle surrounding him.
"Now to get this party going."
Unnoticed below Ranma started to glow, "Everybody's ignoring me are they? I'll show them that I always win... especially when it counts." In the back of his mind, however, he was uneasy. From what he saw, Bankotsu had not just been defeated, but actually killed. Naraku was obviously playing for keeps.
Naraku just smiled, "Fool."