A/N: Hello all! Sorry to take so long getting this chapter out! I wanted this chapter to be totally perfect. It contains my first ever real battle scene, (the one with the camera and the rock was not serious, so it does not really count) so I wanted it to be one that would blow you all away. (Mind you, you're still gonna have to find a way back here to leave a review if you do by some chance get blown away.) I worked so hard on this! I wrote it on paper, had it beta-ed, typed it up, and had it beta-ed again. Anyways, surprisingly, I don't have much to say here, so lets move on, shall we?
WORD OF THE DAY
Epiphany- a divine revelation or realization, what is revealed.
Why am I teaching you vocabulary? Simple. Throughout this chapter, there will be many epiphanies. Things where you go, "Wait, what about this?" Or, "hey, where is that?" and then later go, "Oh, I get it now!" Or, "Oh, so that's what happened to that." I simply thought I would warn you.
Disclaimer: I wanted to think of something witty, but it's past mid-night. I just don't own InuYasha, all right?
Sorry, no review responses this time, too tired...
The Show-Stopping Number
As the sun peeked over the mountains they had left behind them, InuYasha and Kagome entered the clearing. "So, this is the spot in the tape, right?" asked Kagome. InuYasha nodded his assent. He unsheathed the Tetsusaiga. The fang glowed.
"All right," said InuYasha, "it's show time." As he readied his stance, the Tetsusaiga turned red, seething with the power of the bat demon's barrier. InuYasha charged at the invisible wall. "Wind Scar!" The wall faded away and the castle came into view. Unfortunately for them, along with the castle, Kagura was waiting just inside the barrier.
"I'm surprised you made it this far, but it was a waste of your time," she chided. "Too bad for you!" She jumped into her battle stance.
"Wait!" shouted Kagome..
InuYasha smirked "We're not gonna fight you just yet. Tell Naraku that we have a proposition to make. However, we need him out here, with the sacred jewel."
Kagura turned to the saimyosho that flitted mindlessly about behind her. "Well?" she asked them. "What are you waiting for? You heard him, go tell Naraku!"
(Meanwhile, Inside the Castle)
Naraku grinned malevolently as he looked into Kanna's mirror. 'So' he thought 'they have a proposition to make, do they? Lets just see what their foolish idea is.' He looked at the large portion of the sacred jewel which he held in his hand, then squeezed it tightly. Upon reopening his palm, the jewel had obtained a purplish-greenish type of glow. Slowly, it seeped up the aura of whatever had been around it, and faded back to its original color. As he put on his infamous baboon pelt, Naraku chuckled evilly.
(Back outside the castle)
No sooner had Kagura finished ordering the saimyosho around did Naraku appear before the group. "Kagura, do not be so impatient. You forget Kanna's mirror." Kagura growled softly in annoyance at Naraku's arrogance.
'I hate him' she thought. 'I hate him, I hate him, I hate him!'
"So, Inuyasha, you say you have a proposition. And what might that be, pray tell?"
"This..." said Miroku as he stepped out of the surrounding foliage, wheeling a projector. The tree he had been standing behind made sound effects and promptly transformed into a projector screen.
"Heh, not bad Shippou," said InuYasha.
"Thanks!" the projector screen replied, happy for the rare compliment. Miroku aimed the projector at Shippou and pressed play. Kagome smiled, remembering what she had gone through to get that projector.
Flashback (A/N: Whooo! Time travel... eheh, ok, not really, I'm just gonna go now.)
Kagome clasped her hands together in front of her face as she begged her friends. "Please! I really need to borrow some money! I need a movie projector, it's really important!"
"Why?" asked Yuka. Kagome sweat-dropped. 'How on earth am I going to explain this to them?' she thought. Luckily, Eri came to the rescue.
"But Kagome, it would take months for us to save up enough money to buy one, even with all of our cash combined!"
"It's hopeless..." said Ayumi. Kagome sighed in disappointment and frustration.
"Unless..." said Eri.
"What!" Kagome exclaimed. She needed that projector!
"Well... we could steal it..." Everybody sweat-dropped.
"But that's illegal!" cried Yuka. In turn, she received some stares from the other people eating at WacDonalds (A/N: If you look at the sign on the restaurant in the episode "Two hearts, One mind" that is what it says, so I am going with that.)
"Well... then we'll leave an IOU," said Ayumi. "It could work. I mean, that way, it's not really stealing, just... borrowing." The next day, they had all gone to the movie theater, and picked the lock on the projector room.
(Down in the theater)
Movie screen: Oh Marian! I- static black
Viewer1: Booo!
Viewer 2: Hiss!
Viewer 3: Hey!
Viewer 4: What gives!
Viewer 5: Fire! We're all gonna die!
Viewers 1, 2, 3, and 4: OO
(Back in the projector room)
Kagome sweat-dropped as she looked out at the audience. "Pst! Kagome! Hurry up! This thing weighs a ton!" whispered Yuka.
"I know, it's killing me!" whispered Ayumi
"What are we whispering for?" whispered Eri.
"One second!" Kagome responded. She quickly scrawled the letters IOU on a piece of paper and put it where the projector had been. "All right! Lets go!" She said. The four of them had escaped through the fire exit.
End Flashback (A/N: Whoo! More time travel! Readers: Shut up!)
She sighed. Kagome still owed the movie theater a huge explanation. Her thoughts were cut short, when the video stopped rolling. Kagura smirked, suppressing her laughter, but Naraku grimaced. "Where did you get that?" he asked furiously. InuYasha ignored the question.
"Here's the deal," he said. "You give us your piece of the jewel, and we don't show this to all of Japan. Sound fair enough?"
Naraku smirked. "As if you could actually show this to all of Japan. How? Will you seek out every living being in the country and show them? Don't make me laugh!"
"Wrong!" Sango interjected as she emerged from behind two bushes. "This is how." She bent back the two bushes allowing, a view of a triangular object covered in a white cloth. She yanked the cloth off of the object to reveal not one object, but instead, two mirrors, tilted towards each other at a 35 angle.
Naraku stared at the mirrors dumbly. "How would mirrors show this to people? I sense no power coming from them," he said.
"You see, Naraku," InuYasha replied, "these aren't the only mirrors. They're part of a system of mirrors. When the projector is aimed at them, those mirrors will reflect the image into two other sets of mirrors, and son and so on, until the image reaches a white cloth that we've had hung in the middle of every settlement, human or demon, in Japan."
Naraku frowned. "You're bluffing," he stated. His hair whipped against his face in a sudden burst of wind. When the wind subsided...
"They're not," said Kouga, stepping out of his whirlwind. The row of trees behind Kouga fell to the ground with a crash.
"We helped," said Ayame as she gestured to the legions of wolf demons that had come with her from up in the mountains. Even Naraku could not figure out how he had failed to notice the mass demons that had been behind the trees.
"So, Wolf-boy, you finally decided to show up," said InuYasha.
"Hey!" Kouga defended. "We had a lot farther to travel than you did!"
"Enough!" interrupted Miroku, tired of their quarreling already. "So, Naraku, what will you chose, hand over the Jewel, or lose your reputation throughout all of Japan?"
(Back with Sesshomaru)
Sesshomaru: Remembers video A ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! Rolls on floor laughing
(With the Inu-tachi)
Naraku sighed. "Fine, I'll just kill you and get it back afterwards." He held the jewel out to them.
"Kagome, is that the Jewel?" asked InuYasha.
"Uh-huh," came Kagome's quiet reply. She slowly approached the jewel, and reached out to grab it when-
Ping...
Out of nowhere an arrow went flying just in front of Kagome's hand, barely skimming it. Everyone turned to look in the direction from which the arrow had come. "K-Kikyo..." Kagome breathed in shock.
"You fool!" Kikyo yelled. "What are you doing! Do you wish to die as I have!" Kagome gasped.
"Wha-What are you talking about?" she asked.
"Kagome," said Kikyo, "concentrate on its aura." Kagome slowly nodded her head, and closed her eyes warily.
'I feel it...' She thought 'The aura of the sacred jewel' Her eyes snapped open. 'It's tainted!' (A/N: Now, were this a TV show, this is the part where they'd cut to commercials. Lucky for you, this isn't a TV show.)
At Kagome's revelation, Kikyo gave one of here rare smiles. "Don't worry," she said, "I'll take care of it." Kagome had never seen Kikyo smile before. It was amazing. That one smile meant so much to her though there was no reason for it to mean a thing. Yet the smile seemed to be one of praise, like the way a mother looks at her daughter when she has done something well. Praise from Kikyo should have had no meaning for Kagome, however, perhaps it was simply that the less one praises someone, the more it means when they actually do.
Kikyo walked up to the jewel, and took it from Naraku's hands. Her entire body began to glow.
"K-Kikyo! What are you doing!" asked InuYasha. Though he no longer loved her in the way he had once before, she was still like family to him.
"Consider this my way... of making amends," she said. Her body absorbed the poisoned rapidly, and she sank to her knees in pain. "Goodbye…" she breathed, disintegrating into dust.
"Thank you," said Kagome, to the place where Kikyo had been just moments before. She bent forward and picked up the jewel.
Naraku was furious and humiliated. He'd underestimated Kikyo. It seemed that that wretch had, had a heart after all. How pitiful. None the less, there was nothing he could do about it now. 'Nothing...' he thought, 'but kill them all.'
"Heh, even with the jewel, you are still no match for me," Naraku boasted.
"Oh yeah?" said InuYasha "Well we'll just see about that!" InuYasha charged at Naraku, sword poised to strike.
"Is that really the best you can do?" asked Naraku, as he disappeared from the spot InuYasha was heading to, and reappeared right behind him.
OOO
"Charge!" yelled one of the wolf demons.
"Dance of blades!" shouted Kagura, mercilessly slaughtering them as she had done to their comrades once before. Kouga sank to his knees at the sight, his eyes wide.
(Flashback)
Kouga walked through the castle gates, finding his comrades sliced in half and hacked into pieces. All of them were covered in their own blood and dirt. The stench made him want to vomit.
(End Flashback)
"Kouga!" Ayame yelled, rushing up to his side. He turned to look at her.
"I wonder... Is this what it looked like? That day when they died? Back at Naraku's castle?" It seemed that for the first time in his life, Kouga was actually showing his fear. Ayame looked back at him in shock. Well, that only lasted for a moment. Ayame slapped Kouga across the cheek.
"Snap out of it!" she yelled. "That's the reason we're here in the first place. Now are you going to sit here and let her kill you do, or are you going to do something about it!" Kouga smiled, his confidence was back.
"Hah, it'll take more than the likes of her to kill me," he said, rushing off to fight. Ayame smiled after him.
"Good," she said. "That's what I thought." Then, Ayame rushed to join him.
Kouga sprinted up to the wind sorceress, dodging her wind with lighting speed and uncanny precision. The moment he got close enough, he threw a punch at her with all of his might. It was a second to late though, and she flipped her fan at him, throwing him into a near by tree.
"Haha!" Kagura laughed wickedly." Did you honestly think that you could- - Ugh!" Kagura fell forward.
"Did we honestly think that we could what?" Ayame asked smugly, pulling her hand out of the woman's gut, and allowing her body to fall the remaining distance to the dirt below. Kouga stared at Ayame in shock. "Come on, lets go." She said, reaching out her hand that wasn't covered in blood and dirt to help him up. He smirked and allowed her to pull him up.
"Right behind you," he replied as she rushed to rejoin the battle. "Right behind you."
As Kagura lay dying on the cold, hard ground, one last thought slipped through her mind. 'Perhaps, the wind was not meant to share its freedom with me, after all...' Then she passed into an unending state of unconsciousness.
OOO
"Kagome!" Sango yelled. Kagome turned around just in time to shoot a minor demon that was charging at her from behind.
"Thanks, Sango!" she yelled back to her friend. Miroku turned his attention from his female comrades to the one who was currently battling Naraku himself. Miroku, Kagome, Sango, Ayame, Kouga, and even Shippou, were all busy battling with the countless minor demons that had been released from Naraku's castle, and Naraku's miasma the moment the fighting had begun.
But InuYasha, Miroku realized, recognized the minor demons, not as any sort of danger to his friends, he knew they could handle themselves, but as a distraction from Naraku himself. Unfortunately, the distraction was working. Well... Sort of. Every time InuYasha got close enough to Naraku to hack him to bits, Naraku would release another demon from his miasma to block the attack.
Miroku twirled his staff in front of him, successfully destroying the last demon within a five-foot radius. With a matter of seconds to decide what to do before he had to battle the minor demons again, Miroku did the only thing he could think of. He leveled out the playing field.
"Wind-Tunnel!" he shouted, digging his heels into the dirt to brace himself as he released the power of his winds on Naraku. The moment Naraku realized he was being pulled aside, he released his poison insects. Miroku closed his wind tunnel and resumed fighting the minor demons. He smirked. It hadn't been much a distraction, but it had been enough.
'Thanks Miroku,' thought InuYasha. 'I owe you one.' InuYasha slammed his sword down in front of Naraku, invoking the Wind Scar. Thanks to the Wind Tunnel, his reaction time was off by a fraction of a second. It hadn't been much, but it was enough.
The demonic energy of the point where the auras collide exploded forth from the sword in a radiant display of blue and yellow light. The strength of ones will, if strong enough, has the ability to give power or strength to anything a person sets their mind too. Perhaps it was because InuYasha's hatred of Naraku was so deep, perhaps it was because he had the love and caring of his friends on his side, maybe it was simply because he had a cause worth fighting for.
But whatever the reason, the strength of that blast from his one single sword, was so bright, that for weeks following the battle, rumors of a blinding flash of light coming from the direction of Japan were being told around the world. The strength of the light had blinded anyone who looked directly at it for weeks. Naraku's body desinagrated into dust. As the miasma that had surrounded the battle field faded from existence, InuYasha looked up into the sky, a true smile gracing his lips. "It's finally over."
A/N: Well, it looks much shorter now that I post it online, but it was over seven pages long, and I was really pround of how it turned out. There is one issue I wish to address however. My Beta reader was begging me to bring Kagura back to life. Well, to be honest, I never planned to kill off so many chracters this chapter. I meant for Kagura to stay alive, and I meant for Kikyo to make a brief cameo appearance and the just leave without saying goodbye, like always. (ok, she doesn't always do that but you get the idea.) However, as those of you who actually write fanfiction know all too well, plans change when you write, and I feel that this fits my story well. So please, when reviewing, I dont mind if you let me know how you felt when I killed off the characters, or what you would have done differently, in fact i enjoy it, but dont make an entire review say HOW COULD YOU KILL OFF SO AND SO HOW DARE YOU THEY RULE AND I'M GOING TO MURDER YOU IF YOU DONT BRING THEM BACK BECAUSE I'M A HOMOCIDAL FREAK OF NATURE AND YOU MUST DIE! I really would not like that. I write my stories my way, and I dont want you threatening me to change them. Wow, now that I read this note it seems really pointless and stupid... well then, to give it some meaning... if you actually read this really long note, say fruit bat at the end of your review (you dont have to get why i say to say fruit bat, its an inside joke with someone who doesn't even read my stories. XD) ...just to see who actually reads this stuff, you know?
TTYL! (hopefully sooner than later, but I'm not making any promises that I'm not sure if I can keep)
YuniX-2