Byaku mustered all of her strength and challenged Kagome's barrier with hiraikotsu. Almost half of the boomerang was able to cross the field, but energy soon began to gather and force the boomering out. It returned, with over twice the speed, but Byaku reacted quickly and caught it.
She had been trying to break through for a long time now, and it was beginning to take a toll on her body. Closing her eyes for a fleeting moment of rest, she becalmed and began thinking that strength alone would not break through the barrier.
She used one of her father's talisman charms, but this time, her thoughts were different. She placed the charm on hiraikotsu, and this time focused more on her spiritual energy than her physical strength. "Father, give me strength," she said as she let the weapon fly, with almost no effort as if it were moving on its own. An opening appeared in the barrier, and refilled after Byaku had entered, but she did not know because she saw only ahead.
She assumed she was running straight forward; however, it was hard to tell because of all the fog. She slowed herself down, in order to calm herself again, and was able to hear the sounds of a battle nearby. Almost magically, a space within the fog seemed to reveal itself. The scene was like an arena, with Kiara facing a black butterfly at the centre of the ring, and Byaku and Kagome facing each other from the ends.
Kiara appeared to have a slight advantage in her battle with the black butterfly. Byaku trusted that her faithful companion could hold her own, and decided to focus her attention to Kagome, the one controlling the butterfly and the one she promised to reclaim.
Byaku ran a straight course at her. The black butterfly threatened to interfere, but Kiara ferociously emerged at the scene and batted it away. Byaku thought about using hiraikotsu, but again she was afraid of hurting the girl, who was both the enemy to be defeated and the girl from the photo to be saved.
She tried using only fists and kicks but Kagome dodged every single attempt with expresionless eyes, that seemed to look in only one direction. She said nothing, her body revealed no change, and with seemingly no effort or emotion she evaded all of the attacks. Byaku had neither made progress nor distracted her enough to obstruct her control of the butterfly.
She finally landed a punch, but Kagome did not react, as though she had felt no pain, and returned the blow. The kuro miko did not actually require contact to deal any damage, instead she opened her palm and stopped it just short of Byaku's chest. For a split second nothing happened, and then a burst of energy was released with much more force than any physical attack Byaku had ever experienced.
The situation suddenly changed. Byaku was no longer holding back in fear of hurting, she was using all of her strength to defend herself in fear of being hurt. She tried to use words, reminding her of the family that was waiting for her, but she replied she had forgotten such important things.
Feeling pressure, Byaku was forced to use hiraikotsu, but Kagome simply caught it with one hand. Gripping it lightly, dark magic entrapped the boomerang, and under the kuro miko's will it attacked its true owner. Byaku blocked it, straining her wrists. With amazing speed, Kagome had already appeared behind her and aimed another attack at her back, once again without physical contact.
She tried her father's charms, but Kagome's appear shredded through them and curved toward Byaku. It nearly hit her, but she was able to raise her right hand in front of her body and block the arrow. It pierced through wrist, but did not hit any vital spots. The pain was not too much; however, an odd feeling suddenly overcame her, as dark energy spread from the arrow's intrusion and invaded her arm, threatening to take over her body.
She gripped her arm tightly, desperately trying to calm herself, but she was sweating now as the darkness continued to spread, faster than before. Her entire right arm, from shoulder to fingertips was longer under her own control. The arrow disintegrated, and the arm, acting upon Kagome's will, groped through Byaku's pouch of battle equipment, and clenched all of her charms. They burned and decayed into a dark mist.
"Now there is magic left that you can fight me with," Kagome told her ghastly.
Her right arm had other ideas, as it forcefully gripped her other arm, and tried to release the seal on her kazanna. Byaku with all of her will to stop, but she knew the kazanna was the only way to defeat Kagome and save herself. Her arm was simply acting upon that thought.
Suddenly, she remembered, she did have one more option. The grandfather had given her one of his useless talisman charms, and although Byaku did not think they would be of any use, she was forced to humour the eccentric old man and politely accept the archaic tools of spiritual magic. She was willing to try, in this situation.
Without her arms, Byaku was able to place her last charm in her mouth, and gather her energy, sending a prayer as the talisman flew from her mouth. Kagome fired an arrow at it, but with incredible luck, there was a sudden gust of wind, allowing the charm to evade the arrow. Kagome erected a barrier. The charm made contact with the barrier, causing a great explosion.
Byaku faintly remembered the grandfather instructing her how to use the charm. It was when they were first planning to leave, and although they were eager to leave they were forced to listen to his incessant rumblings. They were a burden then, but now, she began to believe that his knowledge was real.
The charm was forged from a piece of testuaiga's scabbard. She had no idea what kind of sword tesusaiga was. The charm contained the same two functions as the scabbard: first, to hold the sword's power, and second, to call forth the sword's power.
A sword fell from the sky, like a shining ray answering to a prayer; however, Byaku was disappointed to see that it was the same rusty sword from the hanyou. Nevertheless, she felt new determination grow within her, and with her right arm, she managed to grasp its tattered hilt.
The dark energy disappeared from her arm, and the sword began to react violently. Suddenly, it exploded, blowing wind in every direction. Both Byaku and Kagome were lifted into the air by the sudden storm, but Kiara was able to catch them and take them to a safe area.
When the storm ended, Byaku realized that the fog had disappeared, and that Kagome was crying.
Shihai tried to run from Naraku, but in the fog he could not see in which direction he was going. Everywhere he turned, somehow he still always seemed to see Naraku waiting for him. He was breathing quicker than before, even though he had not been running for long.
"You have skills that no other man possesses," Naraku said coaxingly. "You must put them to good use. The winds is at your fingertips."
"I have no desire to control the wind," he retorted. "The wind is a monster."
"You really think that nothing good can come out of your mastery of the wind? With only a little more training, you will be able to free Byaku from the kazanna curse. You know don't you, that the curse will eventually be her grave. Don't you want to save her?"
"You're lying!"
"I'm not lying. You know this is reality."
"No!"
With a strong refusal, a sudden burst of wind formed, obliterating Naraku. Shihai breathed uncertainly, unsure of what had happened. Naraku was gone, so he was safe, he believed, although the fog still instilled fear. Naraku's echoing laugh returned, but in the fog, Shihai could not see the source.
From the still impure shard, Naraku began to grow. "That was most excellent," he applauded Shihai. "It is truly terrifying, the power you are capable of."
"It can't be."
"You saw it, didn't you. That was your power. Just fantasize the boundless accomplishments of that power."
Naraku extended a branch, and slowly began to pull Shihai toward him, who was neither moving nor resisting. "That's a good boy," he chuckled, as Shihai was drawn closer and closer.
An arrow, cut through the fog and destroyed Naraku, and purified the shard as well. Naraku angrily realized that it was a purification arrow, that only a miko, a true holy priestess was capable of.
Kiara, with Kagome, Byaku, and a reserved area for the shaken Shihai. He tried to laugh it off, but Byaku could tell there was something strange about him; however, the most important thing at the moment was returning Kagome to her family. A path could now be seen through the fog, as thought it had always been there.
There were tears and hugs, and long, long speeches by the grandpa, like a ceremony. Finally, after endless thankyous, Byaku, Shihai, and Kiara were finally able to return through the well and unfortunately miss that night's oden dinner. Kagome's mother returned to the kitchen to set the table, and for once the grandfather was not complaining, and instead was on the phone.
Before returning inside, Kagome kneeled in front of the great tree, goshinboku, where Inuyasha was imprisoned. "I'm sorry," she began, though she knew an apology was meaningless at this point, and she didn't really know what she was going to say. Inuyasha was fighting with Naraku, when she launched that arrow. She wanted to help him, even though she knew he was fighting to protect Kikyo, and when she fired that arrow, there was jealousy, and something not quite right in her heart. The shikon no tama exploded into shards again, but Inuyasha was directly involved and gravely injured. Although he protested, she forced him to return to her home so she could treat him. Kikyo came too. She treated Inuyasha instead, and he didn't even complain. They spent a lot of time together.
Eventually, the shard, in Kagome's hands, became tainted, and one of Naraku's puppets emerged, and taught her in the ways of the kuro miko. She left her family, and sealed Inuyasha to the tree. Kikyo managed to purify the shard, but Kagome had already disappeared. Kikyo returned to her own time, knowing that her quest to defeat Naraku had not yet ended.
Kagome cried, apologizing over and over again, in front of the sealed Inuyasha. She tried to touch him, but the arrow's barrier prevented her. She wondered if this was her fair punishment. She apologized for all the times she hurt him, for all the times she was jealous of Kikyo, and among other things, for all the times she had said "sit."
The word caused a reaction with the rosary seal; the arrow disappeared. He went berserk, but stopped when he saw that Kagome was crying, tears of happiness.
That night, it was a truly fabulous oden dinner. There were six at the dining table. Their cat Buoya who usually was a sloth all day long, had come to the feast. Souta had managed to get a day off from work. Kagome jubilantly hogged all of the oden for herself, and her mother promised her that they'd have it many times again, as it was her favourite food. Her grandpa complained loudly, even though it really was the happiest day of his life.