Journey of the Heart: Chapter 8 - Alliance
DISCLAIMER: Inuyasha and his companions are not mine to own. Also, Inuyasha isn't having the best day, so he has been cursing a bit. It is nothing too extreme in my opinion, but be warned!
-ooo-oooooo-ooo-
"Kaze...pant...no...gasp...Kizu!" a very winded Inuyasha rasped as a wave of scarlet energy burned the already hazy sky as it cut a swath through the swirling debris and dust toward the invisible barrier. Just as it had every other time, the energy was unapologetically repelled by the unaffected shielding that protected the mouth of the cave.
Inuyasha's breathing had become noticeably labored after completing the massive slew of attacks. His arm muscles were already past the burning that began after the first twenty or so assaults. Now they hung numbly from his throbbing body. The activated Tetsusaiga remained in his swollen hands through sheer force of will as his amber eyes burned with determination.
Mustering a reserve of strength that should have been depleted long ago by the still wounded hanyou, he launched himself forward for another deadly sweep of the barrier-crushing blade.
"Inuyasha, STOP!" The impassioned but strained voice of Sango met his sensitive hearing halting him from unleashing the wind scar once again.
"Keh! Damnit, woman! I am trying to get to Naraku and Kagome! I don't need you breaking my concentration!" he barked venomously in her direction as he subconsciously propped his body against the sword that he planted firmly into the earth.
"Inuyasha, be reasonable! You never gave your body adequate time to heal from your injuries last night when you were in human form. You have been pushing your strength to its limits for hours now, and all you have succeeded in doing is cutting a crater in front of the force field." Sango searched his eyes for some sign that she was reaching him, but his expression reflected only stubbornness.
"Yes, Inuyasha." Miroku agreed before the hanyou could shout again. "You are so tired you cannot even stand without leaning on something. Even if you are able to break through that barrier how are you going to fight Naraku in your current state?"
"KEH! You don't think I can fight that worthless bastard?" Inuyasha's face was reddened with rage, appearing only a few shades lighter than his haori.
"It is not that. We only..." Miroku began but was cut off by the unanticipated sound of approaching footsteps upon the crunchy fallen autumn foliage.
"They only want you to stop acting like a fool," an icy voice finished for the wide-eyed monk.
"Kikyo..."
-ooo-oooooo-ooo-
Kagome choked against the sob rising in her throat. Kouga's hostile reaction had caught her off guard, initiating a slew of questions, doubts, and insecurities that all fought for her attention.
'What did I say that was so wrong?' she thought with a combination of anger and dejection. 'I do keep bringing up Inuyasha around him,' she admitted to herself sadly, but immediately followed with indignation. 'But he was, no, IS a big part of my life, and Kouga is going to have to get used to that if he and I are going to...to what? Why is it getting harder to imagine my life without Kouga in it somehow?'
Kagome stared off into the empty skyline where the wolf demon she sought to understand had disappeared just moments ago. The air was still thick and hazy with the dust his powerful legs had disturbed in his haste to depart.
'He said he would come back. Kami, I hope he comes back.'
Kagome wasn't given any more time to ponder her recent drama as she became ensnared by insect like arms from behind. She immediately thrashed against her unseen assailant in hopes of being released, but the spindly fingers from four separate arms only pinched her soft skin more tightly.
There was no time and precious little air flow with which to scream for help, and considering the way Kouga had taken off, it was exceedingly unlikely he was still within earshot. From her vulnerable position all she could see of her attacker were the long, reptilian fingers with serrated nails that came to a sharp point. Small beads of crimson appeared upon her arms and stained her white school uniform shirt where additional hands bruised her waist.
Kagome knew she had to act quickly. It was a struggle just to keep her eyes open as she desperately tried to suck in enough air to stay conscious. With blind luck she launched her head backward, striking an unprotected neck. The impact caused her would be captor to momentarily choke and loosen its crushing grip upon her abused body.
She crashed against the unforgiving ground in a huddled pile. Kagome wanted to run, but her legs felt stiff and immobile. Sharply drawing a deep breath, her panicky hazel eyes drank in the terrifying sight before her.
The monster she faced was only about three feet taller than her, and its build was gaunt and almost malnourished. Still, its visage inspired a new spike of horror within her already shaken frame. Gray skin was tightly stretched over a bony frame consisting of four disproportionately long arms and a segmented torso with countless hook-like legs attached to an extended tail ending in a jagged spike.
But it was not the grotesque body or the strange, elongated head with razor sharp teeth that made Kagome's blood freeze in her veins. Its eyes held her transfixed. They were large and bright scarlet and filled with malice, but the true catalyst for the paralyzing fear that enveloped the young miko was the way those eyes looked just like a certain hanyou's when in his youkai state.
The trance didn't last long.
The monster's massive tail swung easily through the air and crashed just in front of Kagome. Chunks of earth sprayed against her face and caught in her tangled locks. This gave her the literal "slap in the face" she needed to come back to her senses. Pushing off her feet, she launched her body backwards and then rolled to the side as the powerful tail landed again.
Once on her feet, Kagome lost no time in putting distance between herself and it or him or whatever. She just wanted to be far away; she didn't have time to discern a gender for the nightmare chasing her.
She wanted Kouga to come back and scoop her up and use his amazing speed to get her out of harm's way. She wanted Inuyasha to be there to make some arrogant comment about how he was going to slay the beast before unleashing the wind scar.
Rock bit into her calf as the hard shelled tail collided with the ground and sent another wave of debris flying. She stumbled slightly, but managed to stay on her feet and only lost a little of her already dwindling lead.
She wasn't picky. She would take Sango, Miroku, Sesshoumaru, or even Kikyo. Anyone who could slay the demon upon her heels would have been a welcome sight. As her lungs burned with exertion she reconsidered her last thought. 'Well, maybe not Kikyo.'
-ooo-oooooo-ooo-
"Kikyo..." Inuyasha breathed the dead miko's name again. His actions had taken a decidedly repetitive slant lately with his numerous unsuccessful attempts at destroying Naraku's barrier and now his inability to form new and different words. Despite the irony of the situation, the dreadful emotions he conveyed through that one word were not lost upon the audience.
It was finally Miroku who chose to break the pattern by speaking. "What brings you here?"
"The same thing that brings you," she replied evenly.
"What business do you have with Naraku?" asked a distrustful Sango. She had watched her best friend shed many tears over the painful love triangle she was trapped in with the unemotional woman adorned in white and red priestess robes.
The demon slayer was less willing than most to feel at ease in Kikyo's presence. She knew the story of a miko who protected the shikon no tama and fell in love with a misguided hanyou. She was familiar with the tragic ending where Naraku tricked the star-crossed couple into fighting one another. The miko died and the hanyou was sealed to a tree for fifty years.
The problem Sango had was not with the miko in the story. She was evidently a strong woman with convictions and even compassion who led a difficult life full of uncertainty and loneliness. She was also elder sister of someone the exterminator respected greatly, and perhaps more impressively, she bore the soul that was reincarnated into the person she had come to think of as a sister.
However, the frosty woman who held herself in a decidedly aloof manner before them was not the woman from the fairytale she had been told. She seemed to be another manipulation of Naraku's who consisted of dust and remains and found nourishment only upon the captured souls of others to maintain her mockery of an existence.
At least that is the way Sango saw things. From the look in Inuyasha's eyes it was clear he was looking directly into the past, and he was not the least bit pleased with the suspicious tone in the slayer's voice.
"This doesn't involve you!" he snarled at his travel companion.
Sango kept her eyes trained on the dead miko and said nothing to her angry teammate. Despite her reservations, she understood his position all too well. Somewhere within the cave they were attempting to enter they would no doubt find a young dark haired boy with an innocent face welding deadly scythes in the service of the twisted hanyou.
Tiring of the melodrama unfolding before her, Kikyo spoke again, "You will never penetrate the barrier using that attack alone."
"Keh," was his only response, but it lacked the jagged edge it normally held.
Kikyo walked forward to inspect the transparent boundary that protected the cave's inner sanctum. She maneuvered the broken earth before it with grace that defied the senses. She ran her long fingers over the force that held them back without invoking the shock wave that had sent a human Inuyasha spiraling backward.
Once she was satisfied with her findings, she spoke without facing the group of onlookers who were intent on her every movement. "Initiate the wind scar as I release a charged arrow, and it will dissolve."
"How do you know that?" Sango questioned, unable to stay out of the discussion and ignoring the warning glance from the irritated hanyou.
"Unlike some who possess holy powers, I know how to use mine effectively."
A calming hand on Sango's shoulder was the only thing that held her in place after the implied insult to the missing Kagome. She turned to see the serene eyes of Miroku wordlessly asking her to let it go.
Instead, it was Inuyasha who took the comment to heart and reprimanded the undead woman. He moved closer to her form of cool, pale skin framed by flowing ebony hair, loosely tied behind her. She was so much like another miko and yet starkly unique. "You won't talk that way about Kagome again. Understood?"
Her lifeless obsidian eyes stared back in response. Removing an arrow from her quiver, she prepared to attack the barrier and quietly waited for Inuyasha to do the same.
-ooo-oooooo-ooo-
The first thing she felt was her knee scraping against a rough rock deeply embedded in the forest floor. Then the palms of her hands slid across the coarse ground, tearing at her skin and leaving dirty trails of crimson marring her flesh.
But it wasn't until she tried to push herself back up and continue running that she realized her ankle was injured. Putting pressure on the wound sent searing pain rocketing through her leg, landing her back into the dirt where her cheek made a sharp impact, earning additional scratches.
Before she could come up with a new plan of escape she felt the monster looming over her prone figure. It crouched low over her heaving form which was gasping for breath and struggling against fatigue and pain. She could feel its sickly hot breath breezing across her skin which carried the pungent odor of its breath.
Its deadly claws were only inches away from her vulnerable throat when she once more thought of all the people in her life that would be able to save her from the creature. Then it dawned on her that she was one of them.
She was a miko, after all. She was the protector of the shikon no tama, a powerful jewel people and youkai alike had fought and died to possess. She had battled alongside a monk, a youkai exterminator, and a skilled hanyou on countless occasions. She was not some helpless girl who would be easily dispatched by some random predator!
Throwing both feet upward, she made contact with the monster's chest, managing to knock the wind out of its lungs momentarily. There was a heavy cost to her damaged ankle, but it gave her the time she needed to roll out of its grip.
Looking around wildly for some kind of weapon she could use in lieu of an arrow, she managed to find a fallen tree branch she hadn't noticed before. In a stroke of luck, it was long and straight with few offshoots, and one end had even broken off into a point. There was no miraculous bow handy, but she had managed some terrific feats of power already in the strange, new world, and she held her breath in hopes that she was about to perform another.
As the angry attacker barreled in her direction Kagome waited with her makeshift weapon tightly gripped in her right hand as she propped herself up into a reclined position. When its familiar, red eyes came dangerously close, she thrust the stick upward hoping to pierce the neck she had discovered weakness in earlier.
Her aim was true, and a pink glow surrounded her entire body as it was jammed deep into scaly flesh. The creature did not dissipate as she had silently wished, rather it reared up and thrashed wildly until one of its many arms managed to remove the intrusion and cast it out.
Not wanting to have anything more to do with the girl beneath him, he turned to leave, but not before sending a crushing sweep of its massive tail against her motionless body. The force of the swing sent Kagome skidding across the ground, stopping only when her stomach made contact with a sturdy tree wrapping her damaged body around it as though she were a limp rag.
Her thick eyelashes slowly came together as the world around her faded from sight.
-ooo-oooooo-ooo-
"It begins," Kagura said cryptically to coiled figure behind her. "I thought that fool, Inuyasha was going to kill himself with that sword of his and never make it this far."
There was no reply to her statements, nor did she expect to receive one. Yellow hued eyes glistened in the faint light streaming through the cavernous corridor they were perched in.
Not wanting to tip her hand to her fellow detachment she continued her thoughts silently. 'It is a good thing the miko came along when she did. Although, I don't know how they can work along side her. She even makes me uneasy, and I am the embodiment of the wind.'
The giant being at her back released a hissing sound that reverberated off the stone walls, causing an echo.
"They will arrive shortly. Just be patient," she advised without so much as a glance over her shoulder to acknowledge her companion. In truth, if the dead miko made her feel uneasy, the being looming behind her made her downright uncomfortable, but she was not about to admit to such emotions.
Naraku had assigned her a task and she would see it through till the end because he held her heart, but the last laugh would be hers as she choked the life out of his withered, beaten form.
-ooo-oooooo-ooo-
Kouga dropped out of his lightning fast gallop that had taken him a seemingly safe distance from the object of his inner turmoil. Even with his natural youkai speed being enhanced by the jewel shards housed in his powerful legs the wolf demon had to take a moment to catch his breath from the level of exertion he had poured into his impromptu jaunt.
Even with the distance between them her rich eyes haunted his thoughts. There she was on the verge of tears as he snapped at her with a list of grievances that were all beyond her control. 'Some protector I have turned out to be. I can't even keep her safe from myself. How many people am I going to let down?'
The proud youkai prince needed to maintain control. His pack depended upon him, and he couldn't afford himself the luxury of doubt, but recent events had triggered painful memories that begged for closure.
His mind pulled up images of his parents on the day he lost them forever. His mother's jade eyes shined warmly at him as he bounded off. It was the last time he would ever see her.
Kouga shook his head in an attempt to erase the memory, or at least pause it from continuing its morbid playback. He had lived with their deaths most of his life, shouldering the brunt of responsibility from such a tender age.
Before he could block it out his mind flickered to the day he lost most of his clan at the hands of the wind witch, Kagura. It was just another failure on his part that he couldn't take back or fix no matter how intent he was on bringing them justice by killing Naraku.
His head spun from the memories, but one question rose to the surface. Why was he reliving all of this now?
A sharp chill flashed through Kouga's resting body. Without a moment's hesitation, he sped back in Kagome's direction. As he plowed through the forest, he couldn't shake the eerie feeling that something was tragically wrong.
He only hoped he wouldn't be too late again.
-ooo-oooooo-ooo-
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I realize there was no Kagome/Kouga interaction in this chapter, but there needed to be set up! Anyway, hope you all enjoyed. Please review. It means a lot to me. Thanks!
FF Reviewers: Angel6582 (Sorry for the fluff-less chapter this time around. I hope you like it anyway. And I hope you are feeling better!), Nichole Hibiki (I want to show a deeper side of Kouga, but I don't want his action to stray too far out of character in the process, and I figured there was only so much indignation he could stand before his pride got the best of him. And yes, both parents died. At least they did in my version of the world), SilverMoons BlackWings (Now you know, but if you want a better look it is right behind you!), strawberrykiwi017 (Fair enough, thanks for giving it a try and reviewing), nunofyorbiz (Does this count?), Kagome Jane (Arigato!), sakurablossomskxk (Blush I am extremely flattered, thank you), SailorKagome (Thanks so much, I love getting your reviews!), Ookami no Anubis (The process has already begun, unless you mean in the biblical sense. ahem we shall see :)), Icing Flower (Wow, and I thought I had left some long reviews. I really loved getting this one. I have actually read jeffs' fic. I hadn't really thought about it, but in a sense there are some similarities. Well, at least in the way that I forming a bond between an alternate pairing by separating them from everyone else and having them rely on each other to get back safely. And don't think I missed that little jab about how consistent he was with updates, missy:) Just kidding, he was amazing about that, and if I could be, I would be. Gomen! I love that you keep a record of quotable quotes and I'm extremely flattered that I earned a record number! As to the rest of your questions, only time will tell. And feel free to go overboard anytime!), Black-rose23 (Better late than never! Not the spider demon, the mysteries continue...), Fairia13 (Who rocks? Oh, that's right, FAIRIA13! Has everyone been reading her work? NO! Go do it now! Enjoy! And Fair, thanks for all your help and support and feedback on this story!), InuYashaFan28 (I understandno reason to apologizeI thank you for your review), Otaku Mom (I saw your e-mail on Amy's listserv, and then I saw your review. You are very true to your word! I'm glad you see a glimmer of hope for this pairing), Chaos-and-Serenity (Okay, not only did you leave me a stellar review for this story, but you reviewed Death, Love, and Choices! Sooooo few people reviewed that so I was really excited to see your thoughts! Thank you, thank you, thank you!), and BelleDayNight (Yea! You managed to read the chapter. And yes, more episodes are coming!)
AFF Reviewers: CheshireAngel (I know, I am just overwhelmingly compelled to write cliffhangers. But at least I always update...eventually), Jasmine Fields (He certainly can be dense at times, but who isn't? I definitely always thought there was a lot more too him than you got to see on the surface), lost child (Thank you very much), and last but not least, Nikolyta (You are too cool, girl. Thanks for reading and reviewing!)
MM Reviewers: You all make me sad :(
Kouga's Den Readers: Feel free to e-mail me reviews at wastedthoughts (remove spaces).