Ayame carefully opened her eyes. She was in a rocky gorge, and Kouga was lying on the ground near her. From somewhere further she could hear footsteps.
"Kouga?" She asked and touched his arm. "Kouga! Wake up!"
"Mmh..." Kouga mumbled and opened his eyes.
He seemed to be shocked when he saw Ayame touching his arm, and sat up quickly. That made Ayame a bit angry, but then she started to be worried. Where they were, and what about the others?
"What happened?" Kouga asked.
"I don't know. There was that blast... and now we're here." Ayame answered.
The footsteps turned louder. Kouga and Ayame stood up, and then from behind the rocks came a very, very big figure, which both of them could recognize.
"You!" Kouga cried out angrily.
"That Kyokotsu called guy?" Ayame shouted.
Kyokotsu laughed evil, growling laugh. "At last I will be able to kill you, you stupid wolf! Last time we met I was weak because I needed a Shikon shard but now I'm alive again!"
"He doesn't have a Shikon shard, so how he is alive?" Ayame asked.
"How in the heck could I know?" Kouga grunted, then turned towards Kyokotsu. "Last time I beat you. And you'd better get ready to lose, 'cause I'm going to defeat you right now!"
Kyokotsu roared and then attacked towards Kouga and Ayame. They sidestepped, but Kyokotsu continued fighting Kouga, until he was tired and wounded. Then Kyokotsu's target seemed to be Ayame. He continued hitting towards her, and she didn't have much time to avoid the blows.
"Get the heck out of there Ayame and go somewhere safe!" Kouga yelled.
"And how on Earth am I going to get there?" Ayame yelled back.
Then Kyokotsu get her onto his hand, holding so tight that it almost made her lost consciousness. She screamed, and Kouga jumped immediately towards Kyokotsu.
"Let her go you monster!"
"Only over my dead body!" Kyokotsu yelled back.
"I am your opponent! Why are you hitting Ayame?" Kouga yelled.
Kouga was standing on a shelf of a rock now, a bit above Kyokotsu, who was still holding Ayame. It was starting to be hard for her to breathe. He knew he had to be quick.
"So that I would cause more pain for you!" Kyokotsu answered.
"What?" Ayame managed to ask.
"That's right! I'll make you watch when I kill your damned girlfriend and then I'm going to kill you very slowly!" Kyokotsu laughed madly.
"Man this guy is crazy!" Kouga mumbled, and attacked when Kyokotsu was laughing.
"Fool!" He grunted and swung his hand, making Kouga crush against the rocks.
"Kouga!" Ayame yelled.
Kouga stood up, his lip bleeding, and said: "Don't hurt Ayame. I was your opponent in the beginning. If you want to kill somebody, then kill me. But please, let Ayame go."
Ayame was confused. Usually Kouga wasn't that kind of person. Usually he fought and didn't try to give his life for someone. Usually he didn't even care about Ayame!
"Fine then!" Kyokotsu said and dropped Ayame onto the ground. "Get ready to die, wolf guy!"
"Kouga! No!" Ayame yelled, trying to run towards Kouga.
Right when Kyokotsu was near enough to kill Kouga, the wolf youkai jumped towards him and split his head onto two pieces. Then Kyokotsu's body started to vanish, and Kouga fell onto his knees.
"Are you okay?" Ayame asked worryingly and kneeled next to him.
"This could be worse." Kouga just answered and stood up. "Look, the ground is changing!"
The rocks slowly vanished, and instead of them they saw the same place where they had been earlier.
"It was an illusion." Ayame said.
"C'mon. We've got to find the others." Kouga said and started to walk away, Ayame following him.
Next chapter: Dead forest