CHAPTER NINETEEN

x.

Inuyasha took a deep breath as the buzzing grew louder. Miroku started to loosen the rosary on his wrist, but he didn't actually take it off. Unless they were all about to die, Inuyasha knew that Miroku wouldn't try to suck in those wasps.

I wish I could use both my hands, he thought angrily. He glanced over at Sango and Kagome. Both girls were staring up at the trees, listening to the buzzing.

Then suddenly a swarm of dark dots erupted from the treetops and began descending toward them. "They're coming!" Shippo quavered. Inuyasha just grimaced -- he had never seen so many of the hell-wasps at one time.

"Sango," Miroku said suddenly. "Your weapon went right through the illusions before. Try it now."

Sango hefted her boomerang and threw it. It whizzed through the air, slashing through the swarm of wasps -- and knocking several to bits. It spun back to her, and she caught it out of the air. "They're real!" she shouted.

"Excellent," Inuyasha grimaced. He raised Tetsusaiga -- and felt something ram into his elbow. "Watch it, Shippo!"

"I wasn't doing anything," Shippo called from Kagome's shoulder.

"Huh? Then what the hell--"

Inuyasha was never able to finish the sentence. Another tiny object smacked the side of his neck. Then another hit his back. Suddenly the demon wasps were all around them, swarming over their clothes and faces. Inuyasha clawed the wasps out of his eyes, hearing Kagome shrieking somewhere nearby. Shippo was roasting as many a possible with foxfire, but he was howling too.

In the middle of the madness, Miroku shouted, "Head for the river! Into the water!" Then he seized Sango's hand and dragged her along, swatting wasps away from her face and hair. The swarming insects made it hard for him to see where he was going, but he could hear the rush of water over the harsh buzzing. The ground was getting softer under his feet -- and suddenly he splashed into ankle-deep water.

"Take a deep breath!" he said, and dragged Sango down into the water. The wasps clinging to their bodies floated up to the surface as the monk and demonslayer dove down into the greenish depths, glancing up at the murky sunlight above them.

When Miroku began to feel dizzy, he slowly rose to the surface and peered up. The wasps were gone.

Sango surfaced beside him. "Where... did they go?" she gasped.

"I'm not sure," Miroku said. "You didn't get stung, did you Sango?"

"No. You?"

"No." Miroku's face grew grimmer. "They must have been a diversion, to get us off our guard."

"But why?" Sango asked. Then a thought struck her. "Where are Inuyasha and Kagome? Didn't they run to the river with us?"

x.

When Inuyasha was done, all that remained of the wasps were a few shattered wings clinging to the grass. Breathing hard, he sheathed Tetsusaiga. The Wind Scar had neatly destroyed all of those damned pests, but they had distracted him when he didn't need it.

"Kagome, let's-" he started to say. Then he stopped.

Kagome was gone.

She had been just a few feet away from him a minute before, before Miroku and Sango had run off to the river. Inuyasha had tried to follow, but Kagome's wild screams had stopped him. Just when had the screaming stopped? He tried to remember, but the whole thing had been one nightmarish blur.

"Kagome!" he shouted, racing across the field in all direction. "Kagome?" With a catch in his breath, he plunged into the forest of illusion, determined not to come back out until he had found her.

TO BE CONTINUED