Disclaimer: Inuyasha belongs to Takahashi Rumiko et al., not me. I just borrow them to have some fun.

A/N: Raijin helped me very much with this chapter. At first, she didn't understand anything at all, so I had to rewrite and add some things so it's quite obvious what I mean. I hope. You also have to thank her that I didn't leave off at another cliffhanger, after only two pages, because that's exactly what I'd planned to do. I've come to like cliffies. Raijin suggested that I should mention more often that Sesshoumaru is quite naked in this chapter, with lots of skin out in the open. Okay, so to all fangirls among us: He is quite naked in this chapter, though I didn't write it down, aight?

And I've done some research: In order to find out how it feels to be in Sesshoumaru's fur, I've tried to fold a paper crane, only using my right hand. It's not easy, believe me.

Most of this chapter was written around 1 am, so no wonder it's odd.

Chapter X – Ashes and Rags

In a swift arc, Naraku brought the blade of his new sword before my eyes and held it there for me to see. Coincidentally though, I saw the reflection of Kagome's eyes on the shining steel.

"I decided to call it Sesshoumaru," Naraku said in a conversational tone. "It fits, what do you think? Made from your fang. The Killing Perfection." He obviously enjoyed the sound of it, because he repeated it several times. Without shifting the blade, he stepped closer to me. I was still staring at the reflection of Kagome's eyes on the cold steel surface. Naraku's aura was so powerful that it started burning away my armour and clothes. A faint smell of burned hair reached my nose – my own hair, as I might add. I could feel the skin of my face slowly turning red and blistering. If he did not consume me soon, I would probably lose my eye to the insufferable heat that he was radiating. He was too powerful even for me, the great Lord of the Western Lands… but all I saw were Kagome's eyes, and I could not take my gaze off them, even as I was choking on the smell and the pain of my body slowly burning up.

Then there it was – so fast, that a human would not have noticed – perhaps even a demon would have missed it but for me, who was looking for it desperately. The pupils turned from slits to rounds and back again. If there was hope, would I dare to grasp the chance to save us? Would I even want to? Even if it meant losing Kagome and seeing all my plans crumble to dust?

I kept looking, and waited. A long strand of white hair fell on the floor beside me, but I did not flinch, did not blink, not daring to take my gaze away from the blade that was reflecting Kagome's eyes… If there was even a hint of a chance to return Kagome to her previous state, I had to take it… and when the right moment came, I uttered a command, and the necklace released her and fell down into the folds of Kagome's kimono.

Naraku seemed to finally notice the odd silence I was keeping and stopped talking. He was not able to see the fine strands of Kagome's soul that were re-entering her body as her nails went back to their human form and her face returned to her soft, human features within the blink of an eye. The change burned all injury, all scars from her body, even the mark that I had made on her back.

Thinking that she would cast off my name from her skin so easily, I felt a very short bout of rage, which I used to shift my weight and kick Naraku away from me and Kagome, burning my foot in the process. I thought I heard a bone break, but who could say with Naraku? If his leg was broken, he did not let it bother him too much. As I looked at him again, from what I hoped to be a safe distance, he smiled and lifted the sword. No more words were exchanged between us, as we clashed high up in the air, his hands and body burning away my clothes and skin as if it were rice paper, my claws trying to go through his baboon pelt.

I cannot remember much of it, only the regret that I was not able to transform into the Great Dog, because of my missing arm. On the ground, Kagome regained her consciousness and power, and stood up to look at the bodies of her friends scattered around her. When Naraku saw her, in her human form, he landed. I followed and stepped between them, acting as a barrier.

While he was tearing away at me, roasting my hands and arms, but still only playing with me, tiring me, so I would not resist when he consumed me, I felt Kagome approaching from the back. I could not see her, but the heat of her power was scorching my back, just like Naraku's was burning my face and chest.

I was caught in a furnace, burning up between two power-crazed opponents. I knew she did not notice me, the power in her calling to the jewel in Naraku, trying to get to him through me.

This was the point where I must have passed out for a short time, because when I woke up, Kagome and Naraku were standing a little way away from me, staring at each other in threatening silence. They stood there with weapons in their hands at ready, waiting for the other to strike. I found I was leaning on my half brother's body, and was surprised to hear his faint heartbeat. The wound that Kagura had torn into his neck had almost closed, but he could not speak; his vocal cords must still be damaged. A demon must be thankful even for small blessings, I thought. The demon healing did not work as fast as it would have for a full demon, but it worked nevertheless. With his eyes, he motioned to his sword and then to the place where Kagome was standing.

With my burning hand, I touched the hilt – only to draw it away very fast. The sword did not accept me even now, in the moment of greatest need. Inuyasha closed his eyes and made a weak attempt at standing up, but gave up quickly. I tried to touch the sword again with the tattered remains of my sleeve wrapped around my hand, but it did not work. Silly thing.

The air pressure suddenly rose to an almost unbearable extent. Inuyasha winced as his ears were pressed to his head hard. Breathing became difficult. Kagome suddenly had an arrow pointed at Naraku, who, with an elegant slash of his right hand painted a red hot arc into the air and released all his demons at once. The wave of power swept Kagome off her feet, and she flew back and landed on me, knocking the air out of my lungs. This time she did notice that she was touching me and kept her powers in check, so I only felt her presence in the warmth of her body and the small prickling along my burning skin that was already starting to heal.

The air went dark above us with thousands of bodies, eyes and teeth. The demons closed in around us once again, and this time I was not certain we could fend them off. Kagome looked around us and saw Inuyasha's sword.

"Can you not take the sword, my lord?" I shook my hand. She shifted and fiddled with her clothes, as if a bee had flown into her sleeve. A second later, her hand emerged from under the silk, a thin, pale line of glittering metal coiling around her fingers…

There was no time for discussion, no time for unnecessary words. We both knew that the sword would not be touched by a full demon, no matter how perilous the situation and how just the cause. Kagome put her arms around my shoulders, embracing me. She closed her eyes, and leaned into me. I could smell her sweat, the silk of her dress; hear her breath and Inuyasha's. She pressed her face lightly against the burning skin of my face. Behind her, through a small opening in the wall of demons, I could see Naraku's self-assured smile. He was quite confident that he was on the winning side today… I hoped he was wrong. I had a taste of blood in my mouth, I'd bitten my own tongue; I was nervous and almost afraid, but I knew this was no moment for hesitation, or worse – pride.

And then Kagome closed the necklace around my neck and turned around to face the threat. The world turned white around me.

The spell in the necklace is very simple, yet very strong. The person wearing the necklace will be transformed, slowly and painfully, into the very thing that he or she had received the necklace from. They will not be able to leave that person, or hurt them. The necklace is not a gift, not jewellery; it is a weapon. If I had given it to a demon female, she would not have transformed, but would have been unable to hurt or leave me. Kagome, being a human, started to change. When I released the spell, its workings were reversed within moments.

The necklace works for everybody.

I felt it. I knew it was just the beginning, this numb, uncomfortable feeling of need to be as close to Kagome as possible. The pain had not kicked in yet; I still had time before it took my vision and concentration. I wondered if she had had this need to crawl beneath my skin when she was wearing the necklace. She tried to move away from my lap, but I held on to her. She wriggled to get to Inuyasha's sword with her foot. When she had it, she looked me in the eyes, took a deep breath, pried my hand from her back and pressed the hilt of Tetsusaiga into my palm. We rose to our feet, looking only at each other.

The sword accepted me. There was reluctance, hesitation, even anger, but it seemed to sense the tiny seed of humanity that had been planted in me, and it stayed calm in my hand.

The Wind Scar came upon the demons like a thunderstorm. Truly, a sword that could kill a hundred demons with one strike. I felt a wild surge of power as I slashed at demons, defending Kagome. I felt elated, my swords were nothing like Tetsusaiga, only soft, weak shadows of the ideal killing instrument that I held in my hand now. The sword went through them easily, my advance was unstoppable. No pain could touch me, no wound stop me, as long I had this sword in my hand and Kagome by my side.

In the following silence, the demons were withdrawn back into Naraku's body. I did not see his face, but I like to think that he looked shaken; in his hand, he held the sword that had been made from my fang. I advanced toward him when he came to me. I remember wanting to attack the glowing figure like a wild dog, rip his heart out right through his chest, tearing his ribs apart in the process… until I came too close to him and was reminded of several points that made me wonder if Inuyasha's sword did not have exactly the wrong kind of influence on me.

"You cannot go against this sword, Lord Sesshoumaru," Naraku's voice whispered in my ear, although he was standing several meters away in front of me. "You might have given her back her powers, but she will never be able to touch and purify the jewel, because I already have it – and you know that even if you defeat me, she will leave you… you have no reason to fight, and no reason to live either. You have no strength left, no power. You look like a beggar, burnt and in rags. The sword you are holding is the inferior weapon that you stole – thief – from your inferior brother… and the necklace around your neck will bring you the shame of humanity… You are nothing… come to me."

I took another step closer to him, the sword still raised, but only because the sword demanded to be held this way, not because my body wanted to hold it like that. I never heard the sound of the arrow passing close by my ear. The pain woke me up, and the arrow found its target and tore a large hole in the white pelt. Another followed. Kagome was shooting purifying arrows from somewhere behind me.

With cold anger, I walked over to my enemy and started slicing through his defences, killing each and every demon that stood between me and the human within Naraku. He fought with everything he had, sending wave after wave of miasma. The demon healing had stopped when Kagome had put the necklace around my neck, and soon I was in so much pain that I could not have stopped fighting Naraku even if I wanted. My clothes were stained in blood. Finally, everything stopped, and I had time to look up.

Before me, there was a man. He was fairly small, perhaps as tall as Kagome. He was looking at me with greedy eyes in a face that was burned so much that I was wondering how it did not fall apart a long time ago. Without a word, I raised the sword to end his miserable existence… but the sword stopped in mid-air and refused to strike. Tetsusaiga, of course, would not hurt humans. By then, transformation pain and battle wounds caught up with me. My hand was suddenly too weak to hold a sword. It fell to the ground.

This battle proved to be not only devastating for my garden and grounds, but also for my dignity, for, to my shame, I have to admit, when I heard Kagome's footsteps approaching me from behind, I passed out yet again.