Ginkotsu crept slowly up to the village outskirts and scanned the area. The entire village was on fire and people were running around frantically to try to escape with their lives. His gaze turned left, to Sekka. He frowned. "How do we know that this isn't a trap?" Sekka said nothing. She didn't have to. Ginkotsu could see it in her eyes. He saw fear and anger. "Right then..."

"I agree with Ginkotsu," Renkotsu whispered to Bankotsu. "How can we trust this ice witch?"

(I heard that! ... what a sweet thing to say.)

"Well," Bankotsu whispered back, "We can't, really. But we're gonna have to for now." He joined his brothers' glares at the village in ruin. They were too late to save more than half of the population, but they were not going to give up just yet.

"The thing is," Renkotsu muttered, "Why did Sekka just outright decide to help us?" He looked at her and saw that the fear had left her. It was just anger now. No, not anger. Rage...

Meanwhile, Kouga and Kagura were still staring Naraku down. He had just killed Frostbyte and taken some shards from her. They both knew what he was after now: Kouga's. Standing in front of Kagura, Kouga drew his sword and pointed it at Naraku. "Bastard," he shouted. "What do you think you're going to accomplish?"

"Ku ku ku," Naraku chuckled, "I know that you know the answer to that." He looked at his puppet that was hovering over Frostbyte's body. "If I did that to my comrade, just think what I'm gonna do to you." He smiled very sadistically at Kouga and showed them the Shikon Jewel. Both of them gasped at its sight. "The fool Mukotsu," he explained, "I tricked him into giving it to me. I promised him a pleasing body in exchange for it and his friends' lives. Can you believe it? He actually accepted." He chuckled again. "Things are coming along exactly as I had planned."

"You're planning on betraying KooriKisaki, aren't you..." Kagura muttered. Her father nodded.

"And I think I'm doing a smashing job if I do say so myself." His smiled faded. "Four more shards and then it's complete. I know only where two are. Therefore I need some time to look for the others." He cracked his knuckles and his wicked smile returned. "So I'm afraid I'll hafta make this as quick as possible."

Kouga smirked. "Fine by me." He was just about to lunge at his enemy when Kagura stopped him.

"Kouga," she uttered, taking his hand, "I don't think this is such a good idea."

"Aww," Naraku teased. "Isn't that sweet? I had no idea that you had feelings for each other." His expression turned confused. "I always thought you two hated each other."

"Well," Kagura growled, "If you had paid more attention to your kids, then maybe you'd know..."

"Don't try to lay any guilt trips on me," Naraku snapped, "That boat won't sail." He looked back over to his puppet. "Let's get this over with," he whispered. The puppet dashed towards its enemies and lashed its tentacles furiously at them. Kouga and Kagura jumped back, dodging the attacks, and returned one of their own. The puppet fell to the ground in pieces.

"Sure don't make 'em like you used to," Kagura smirked.

"Sure don't make 'em like you used to," Naraku said in a mocking tone of voice. "You should respect your elders, young lady."

"Fuck that," Kagura smiled. "Kouga? Let's take him down."

Naraku's insidious smile returned yet again.

Meanwhile, back at the black angel citadel, the battle was starting to get very tiring for everyone. Shippou had collapsed due to exhaustion, forcing the kids to make a decision: one had to leave the battle and take care of him. "I will do it," Kanna said. Kohaku and Hakudoushi nodded, then she took Shippou in her arms and carried him off. A pair of black angels swooped at her, but met with Kohaku and Hakudoushi's attacks.

"Akizuki," Waruyoku smiled, "So this is your new boyfriend, huh?"

Juuroumaru looked at him confused. "What does he mean by-" He was interrupted by Akizuki's scream of frustration as she leapt to Waruyoku and began an attack. "Ya, that works too." He formed his hand into a claw and helped her out. Both of them swiped at Waruyoku continuously, but he kept backing away. Then he folded his wings in front of him and flapped them, sending out a volley of razor sharp feather blades. Akizuki tried to dodge them, but couldn't get out of the line of fire in time. Fortunately for her, Juuroumaru was fast. He leapt in front of her and blocked all the blades. When the uplifted snow had settled he looked at her and smiled. "You gonna take that from his loser?" She looked into his eyes and smiled.

"Fuck no!"

She folded her wings in front of her and sent out her own volley of blades at Waruyoku. He scoffed and simple stood out of the way. Of course what he failed to realize was that Juuroumaru was standing right beside him when he landed. Juuroumaru smiled, bared his fangs, and slashed at Waruyoku with his claws, slicing a gash down his chest. He fell to the ground in pain. "Damn it," he gasped. "I'm not going to be beaten buy these punks..." He raised his wings into the air. They started to glow with a bright white light. He started yelling Dragonball Z style and let fly all his feathers. A wall of blades sprang out from him in all directions.

Juuroumaru grabbed Akizuki and ran from the wall of blades that was following them. Some angels, white and black, perished as the wall moved past them. He spotted a ditch in the ground and leapt into it. The wall moved past. "You okay?" he panted.

"That was so cool!" she shouted excitedly, embracing him. He was unprepared for the hug, and lost his balance, falling backwards, and brought Akizuki down with him. She looked at his face, which was bright red, and couldn't help but laughing. Unfortunately, their good time was cut short due to a surprise attack buy a black angel. Juuroumaru slashed at it with his claws, ripping it to pieces. And upon closer inspection, they realized that it was Waruyoku. "That was cool too," Akizuki smiled.

Owaranai ame... Dakishimeta... Yoru ga asa wo mukaeru... Kokoro wa mada nureta mama...

Kouga stabbed at Naraku with his sword repeatedly, but the evil demon kept dodging the attacks. He leapt back and landed on the branch of one of the trees that surrounded them and laughed. Several puppet tentacles sliced upwards through the ground, almost cutting Kouga's legs, but he sensed it coming and was able to dodge them. Kagura flicked open her fan and aimed a barrage of wind blades at Naraku. They flew towards the tree, and chopped it up into tiny splinters. They unfortunately missed their real target though. Naraku had landed on another tree branch.

"Ku ku ku," he laughed. "I must say, Kagura, your aim has gotten worse." A tentacle sprang up from behind her and swatted her legs, causing her to loose her balance. But Kouga caught her.

"You okay?" he asked. She nodded, and then they both turned to Naraku. "We hafta stop him!" Naraku laughed. "Well it's good you find this amusing..."

"It is indeed, wolf-boy," Naraku grinned. "It's a real shame I can't let this last longer. I really am having fun, but I have places to be, things to do, people to kill... You know how it is."

Kouga leapt up and flung his sword at Naraku. It pierced him, and caused him to loose his balance. Kouga then slashed at him with his claws. Naraku was in pieces before either of them even hit the ground. Kouga landed and looked at the heap that was once Naraku and smiled. "That wasn't so hard," he chuckled.

"No, it wasn't."

Kouga looked over at Kagura. Naraku had her in his clutches. "Fool!" he exclaimed, "That was just a puppet also! I wouldn't let you get the better of me that easily." He glanced down at Kagura. "You're a bothersome girl, you know that? I think I should just do away with you now."

"NO!" Kouga dashed towards them and stuck his claws right through Naraku's chest. Kagura pulled away and was just about to use her fan to blow him away, when one more tentacle jetted from the ground and ripped her fan up. It then tripped her and a few more sprang up and held her down. Kouga looked back at her and tried to pull free from Naraku, but he couldn't.

"Idiot," Naraku laughed as Kouga struggled to rip his arm out of his chest, "You fell right into my trap, like I knew you would." He grabbed Kouga's free arm and bent it in a way that arms should not be bent. The bone cracked and Kouga let out a yelp of pain. "You could have just given me the shards," he teased. "This would have save all of us the trouble."

"Bastard," Kouga stuttered.

Naraku frowned and thrust his own hand through Kouga's chest. Two tentacles came from the ground and ripped the Shikon shards from his legs, and then disappeared back into the ground. "I always get what I want," he smiled wickedly. "No matter what." His arm then ripped a huge gash up from Kouga's chest to his shoulder. He hung buy his arm that was still stuck in Naraku's chest, but not for much longer. Naraku transformed his arms into blades and sliced off the bothersome wolf-boy's arm, freeing him. Kagura saw the whole thing, but the tentacles would not let her move. "And now," Naraku continued, "With my labors finished, I bid you adieu." The tentacles loosened from Kagura as Naraku made his escape on a cloud of miasma.

Kagura crawled over to Kouga's mutilated body and she held him in her arms. "Kouga," she stuttered, "I'm so sorry..."

"Don't... apologize," Kouga gasped. "If anything... I'm sorry I couldn't protect you..." He looked up into her tear filled eyes. "Kagura... I love you..."

"Kouga," she cried, "Don't say your goodbyes yet..."

"Kagura... promise me... you'll keep living..." he smiled. "You will keep on ... keeping on ... right?"

"I promise," she whispered.

"One... more thing," Kouga gasped. "I want... to apologize... for our past... All the times... we fought..."

"You don't need to apologize," Kagura said, still crying.

Kouga smiled again. "Kagura... it... really does give me... great joy to... to die in your arms..." He closed his eyes, took in his last breath, and that was it. Kouga was dead.