Chapter IX:

Final Battle

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Within the high, fortified walls of the demon-slayers' village, the townspeople made ready for war. Archers took up their positions on the upper catwalk, bowls of oil and quivers of cloth-wrapped arrows beside them. Farmers were called back from their flocks and fields. Men and women alike donned protective armor, some wearing clothing made from the hide and bones of demonic creatures. Swords and pole-arms were sharpened, and the air rang with the sound of whetstones and freshly-honed steel. Children too young to fight were herded to the far end of town, just inside the wall overlooking a sheer cliff, as far as possible from the one avenue by which Sounga's army could approach the village.

Old Kaoru, the village elder, watched all this in silence, a dozen thoughts pinwheeling through his mind. It was true that Sounga had tried to destroy their village before - in his own lifetime, Kaoru had witnessed an assault by one of the great Demon's soulless legions, and had helped drive back the tide of evil creatures. This time, the odds were stacked almost completely against the demon-slayers. Though their fortress-town occupied the high ground and could only be approached from one side, the army now creeping its way toward them was made up of tens of thousands of undead soldiers, according to his lookouts.

And there was Sounga himself to consider. The crimson-skinned demonic warlord had been sighted earlier that morning, riding an enormous corpse-dragon as he commanded his army through will alone. If even one fourth of the tales about the Great Demon were true, he could best any man alive. His enchanted sword, forged from one of his own fangs, could not only raise an army of corpses on a whim, but could also create blasts of pure dark energy, and could even open portals to the underworld itself, where Sounga sent the souls of all his victims, no matter how pure of heart they might be. With such power at his command, the Great Demon possessed more destructive capability than the entire legion that went before him.

Faced with such overwhelming odds, Kaoru would normally have instructed his people to flee, to find some safe haven where they could rebuild and start anew. With Sounga's forces arrayed in a wide arc across the countryside, however, escape was impossible; they would be surrounded and overwhelmed before they could make an end-run around the far edge of the Great Demon's battle formation. Their only chance for survival was to exterminate Sounga's troops and hope that they could inflict sufficient losses for the Great Demon to decide that their little village wasn't worth the trouble it would take to destroy it. Otherwise, even with all their advantages, every man, woman and child would be slain and "recruited" into Sounga's hellish legion of the living dead.

Which was why Kaoru had ordered several barrels of oil to be held in reserve along with the children. Only fire could truly destroy the undead - or render a corpse so completely useless that Sounga could not resurrect it. If things went badly enough, Kaoru and his people had long ago agreed that it would be better to burn and join their ancestors in the afterlife than to let the Great Demon use their bodies as his tools and cast their spirits into the underworld.

Kaoru could only pray that it would never come to that.

In the small barracks that had been built for apprentice warriors, Hiromitsu put on his own armor. Like the two mystic swords sheathed at his waist, most of it had been forged in the workshop of Totosai, the old fire-demon who had helped him escape Sounga's mountain citadel only four weeks earlier. The breastplate, torso armor and boots he wore over his black and blue-padded bodysuit were made of fine steel, which Hiromitsu had painted a glossy black. He wore light, durable demon-bone forearm plates, with black stripes painted on them much like the blue stripes on Hiromitsu's skin. To protect his shoulders, Hiro also wore a set of spiked, overlapping steel plates. Because of the bitterly cold weather, he was also wearing a white fur cloak which seemed to have been made from some sort of two-tailed animal. At his waist hung the two magic swords Totosai had made from two of Hiro's own canine teeth, the Tenseiga and the Tetsusaiga.

All around him, the other apprentices were also preparing for the upcoming battle. Unlike Hiro, whose supernatural strength allowed him to wear heavier plate armor without hampering his mobility, most of the others wore only their black, form-fitting bodysuits, the colors of the plates reflecting each student's weapon of choice. Those with red plates wore sais sheathed at their waists; blue-padded warriors carried one or more swords; orange pads designated archers; brown pads denoted pikemen and spear-carriers; and pink pads announced that any warrior wearing them was proficient in the use of the hiraikotsu, an amazing, unique edged weapon made from the rib of a giant demon, which - when properly thrown - would actually spin through the air on its own, shredding anything in its path before returning to its wielder. All wore fur-lined cloaks for winter combat, worn loose around the neck and across their shoulders to keep their arms free and allow ease of movement.

As they finished dressing and arming themselves, the apprentices went running out to the practice field in the center of town, where all those who could fight, young and old, man and woman, were gathering together. As he reached the field, Hiro caught sight of Midoriko, now clad in pink-padded garb and wearing her own white cloak, holding the carrying-strap of an enormous hiraikotsu in her right hand. It was just about the only time in the last several weeks that he didn't see her carrying her baby brother in her other arm; Masuo had probably been sent to the rear with the other children.

After several minutes, Old Kaoru approached the front of the assembly, flanked by his two sons, wearing his own heavy gold-plated armor and leaning on a war-hammer rather than his usual walking stick. The elderly man made his way to a raised platform. "My brothers and sisters," he began, "we stand together here in the face of a terrible enemy. For centuries, we and our ancestors have fought the Great Demon and his minions; this is not the first time our lives, our loved ones, our friends and our families have been threatened, but perhaps we can make this the last." He paused for a moment, then began again. "Our lookouts have informed me that, just this morning, the Great Demon Sounga himself was sighted among the host arrayed about our village." Kaoru waited for the murmurs of fear and surprise to quiet. "I know the tales which have been spread bout the Great Demon, and I can tell you that many of them are probably true. However, we and our forebears have dedicated ourseves to combatting the forces of darkness for generations, and whatever strange or terrible powers Sounga may posess, we must remember that even the Great Demon is just like any other monster. He has limits, he has weaknesses, and his only driving force is greed and selfish ambition. You and I, however, fight not only for ourselves, but for those we love, for our homes, and for the freedom of the oppressed people throughout this land. Our driving force is love and compassion, and our weapons are courage and determination - things that the Great Demon himself cannot even comprehend, even for all his vaunted power and arcane knowledge."

Old Kaoru lifted his war-hammer high into the air, the morning sunlight glinting off its golden finish. "Now, my people, let us stand together, and I promise you that, if we are united, we will give that heartless monster Sounga a beating that he won't soon forget!" Everyone cheered, and Hiro found himself joining in. Somehow, despite the overwhelming odds they were facing, Old Kaoru's speech had done something to raise everybody's spirits. As they all headed for the main gate, he came up beside Midoriko, his long, wild white hair flying out behind him as he ran to keep up. "Midoriko!" he called out. "Be careful out there! I know you and the other hiraikotsu-throwers are going to be part of the first wave. If you start getting worn-out, just fall back and let me and the others handle those soldiers." "Don't worry, I know the plan!" Midoriko answered back. "Archers first, then hiraikotsu's, then close-range fighting. Just don't bite off more than you can chew like last time, Hiro."

Midoriko stopped short right in front of him. "Oh, that reminds me - if you won't cut that hair of yours, at least wear this." She pulled out a short leather thong, then pulled Hiro's long hair into a single ponytail and tied it in place. "There!" she said. "Now you won't have to worry about getting that stuff in your eyes." Hiro blushed a bit as he stammered, "Um, uh, um, thanks, Midoriko. It'll remind me of you." Midoriko smiled. "Really? Well, maybe this will help, too..." So saying, she brought Hiro's face down to her level and, before the boy knew what was going on, they were sharing the first real kiss that either one had ever experienced. As they pulled apart, Hiro could only stare at her openmouthed, as Midoriko put a hand to her mouth, torn between laughter and crying. "Hiro, I ... oh, wow! That was ..."

"Amazing?" Hiro supplied.

"Yeah, amazing!" Midoriko answered, and then the two of them turned back to the throng of people headed out through the gate.

Sounga watched the humans' preparations with interest. As their warriors came out through the gate, brandishing weapons of every conceivable description, he also noted the archers taking up positions above them on a catwalk that seemed to run around the top of the town walls. Even from over half a mile away, seated on the back of his monstrous undead dragon mount, Sounga could see that almost half of the archers and warriors were teenagers, and could nearly smell the mingled fear and excitement rolling off them all. Pathetic, he thought. Is this really the best those mortals have to offer? It's embarassing that such a motley band of humans could have beaten back my troops once, let alone four times.

Then he caught sight of the boy Hiromitsu, and suddenly Sounga felt a stab of - surely not fear! - but some sort of unpleasant emotion that he couldn't recall having experienced before, and that he immediately knew he didn't want to feel again. When the runt had been lying on Sounga's throne room floor, he had seen that Hiromitsu had been tall - and as skinny as a string bean, if memory served - but now, clad in armor, wearing a cloak of dazzlingly white fur, his face set in an expression of pure, undaunted determination, he looked less like a boy; he looked like a threat.

Sounga gave a grim, mirthless smile. He knew just how to handle threats...

"ATTACK!" he roared. "Kill them all! Kill their men, kill their women, kill their children! Leave nothing living in this village!" And, if you can, rip that miserable little dog-demon to shreds, he added silently.

"NO! You can't! They're just protecting themselves! Those people haven't done anything to you! Please, don't do this!" Saeko cried, chained to the wooden rack behind Sounga. Despite the mental beating he had given her earlier, the blind seer, now minus her left arm, seemed to have recovered somewhat.

"Shut your mouth, girl," snapped Sounga, "unless you want to know how it feels to swallow a mouthful of barbed hooks."

"Do your worst, you monster!" she shot back. "When Hiromitsu destroys you, you won't be able to hurt me or anybody ever again."

"Oh, be quiet," Sounga grumbled. Despite his earlier threat, his mental resources were stretched almost to their limit just controlling his army of living dead. He wasn't even sure that he could invade the girl's mind at the moment, not that he would let her know it. For now, lacking the ability to actually inflict suffering on Saeko, he would have to resort to threats and bluffing to keep the young girl in her place.

Of course, he thought to himself, once this battle is over, I'll be free to wring out her mind like a damp rag. That should shut her up...

Pacified, Sounga returned his full attention to the battle, sending a silent command to his own corpse-archers in the front lines...

As close-range fighters, Hiromitsu and Totosai were among the third row of warriors standing in front of the main gate, behind the pikemen and the elite hiraikotsu-wielders. Looking over the shoulder of the man in front of him, Hiro saw Sounga's army start moving forward, the entire horriffic legion moving like a single black mass, and felt the blood begin rushing from his face. 'Ohboy,' he thought to himself, 'here they come...'

"Archers!" Kaoru's voice came loud and clear from the middle of the third row, high and reedy but still full of vigor. "Stand ready! Once those monsters reach the bottom of the hill, ignite your arrows and let them loose. You must give the rest of us cover as-- "

"LOOK OUT!" a cry rang out from somewhere on the archers' catwalk, and suddenly the air was filled with arrows - not the flaming ones the villagers would use against Sounga's undead minions, but steel-tipped projectiles fired from the bows of the living dead, whose superhuman strength obviously gave them greater range than anybody had anticipated. Cries of pain and alarm sounded as some of them found their marks and hit the unprotected defenders.

"Everyone, get down now!" Kaoru shouted. "Do not panic! Remain alert! The plan will still work! Archers, be ready!"

"Hiraikotsu!" someone shouted, and suddenly the air was filled not only with the whistling of black arrows in flight, but also the hurricane-like roar of an enormous hiraikotsu spinning through the air - not toward the still-distant undead, but high into the air, straight into the cloud of arrows falling like rain on the seemingly helpless warriors. Within seconds, the boomerang-shaped weapon had torn a huge gap in the swarm, as those arrows not directly in its whirling, shredding flight path were knocked off-course by the wind of its passage, dropping short or at odd angles, sparing countless lives. Amazed, Hiro looked up as the hiraikotsu returned to its owner - and realized that it had been thrown by none other than Midoriko!

Instantly grasping the implications of Midoriko's unorthodox move, the other hiraikotsu-wielders began tossing their own weapons at staggered intervals, so that no fewer than four of the giant weapons were in the air any one time. Soon, although the air over their heads was still black with flying wood and metal, most of that wood was no more than harmless splinters, and the deflected metal arrowheads were about as deadly as a rain of pebbles, inflicting a few minor cuts as they came down, but nothing worse. A loud cheer went up as the defenders stood back up, once again ready for battle.

"Archers, fire now!" Old Kaoru's voice came again, and Hiro realized that the first wave of Sounga's troops had already reached the bottom of the hill, and was now within range of the villagers' own marksmen. As hiraikotsu's tore apart the flights of arrows intended for the defenders, Kaoru's own archers aimed high and let loose with their own salvo of projectiles wrapped with flaming rags, soaring overhead like a low-flying meteor shower and straight into the enemy formation, setting the undead soldiers' rotten flesh on fire. In the space of about ten seconds, over three hundred of Sounga's troops had been reduced to ash, their battle lines in ruins, their few remaining archers barely able to avoid incineration, much less keep up anything but a trickle of arrows.

The cry of jubilation that had begun with Midoriko's brilliant attack became a roar of victory as the remnants of Sounga's front lines fell back to join the second wave. The demon-slayers had just won the first round, and as the second wave of undead reached the foot of the hill on which their fortified village stood, the archers shifted their aim farther away, hitting the incoming legion right in the middle of their formation, cutting off the rear half of the second wave with an almost solid wall of fire. Some, of course, ran straight into the inferno before Sounga, distracted as he was, could issue a mental command for them to stop, catching themselves on fire and compounding the problem for those behind them.

Although cut off from reinforcements for the time being, the forward half of the second wave seemed unaffected by their sudden isolation. Lacking fear or free will, the living dead simply kept marching at the same steady, deliberate pace they had started with. Weapons at the ready, they trudged up the slope toward the waiting villagers. Raising his war-hammer high into the air, Kaoru cried out, "CHARGE!" and the demon-slayers began marching, then broke into a run down the hill. As the two armies raced toward each other, hiraikotsu's flew from their wielders' hands and ripped into the undead soldiers, tearing them into bits of twisted metal plate and chunks of blue-black, foul-smelling flesh. When the distance had decreased enough that the giant flying weapons were becoming unwieldy, their owners dropped them one-by-one and fell back between the pikemen and spear-carriers to join the swordsmen, drawing the swords sheathed at their waists for close-range fighting.

For the second time, Hiromitsu and Midoriko found themselves running side-by-side, this time with swords drawn. Hiro gave his old friend a grin full of sparkling white teeth, and Midoriko was struck by how his shining golden eyes and blue-striped cheeks made the strange boy look like some sort of wild animal. She had always known that her tall, white-haired friend was different, a boy with a human heart and feelings, but stronger and faster than any human could ever be. Rather than frightening her, Hiro's seeming invulnerability had always made her feel safe whenever they were together. No matter what the world threw at them, she and the other children had always been able to count on Hiromitsu in tight spots, and she had always done her best to be there when he needed her support.

"Ready?" Hiro asked, grinning like a Cheshire cat. "Ready as I'll ever be. How about you?" "Are you kidding? After all that time in a dungeon, I've been dying to give these creeps a little payback!" "Then let's go!" Midoriko said, brandishing her shortsword. The two of them joined the rest of the demon-slayers in a battle cry, charging down the slope.

And then Hiro leaped right over the heads of the line of pikemen in front of him. Old Kaoru was well aware of Hiromitsu's supernatural powers, and of the two magic swords that Totosai had made from the young man's fanglike canine teeth. So the village elder had given Hiro a very simple job:

Do as much damage as possible.

Now twenty feet ahead of the other warriors and barely fifteen feet from the closest undead trooper, Hiro did as Totosai had instructed him, channeling as much of his positive life energy into the Tenseiga as the sword would take, making its long, elegant blade glow blue-white and crackle like a bolt of lightning in his hand. He thought of all his friends, of all the people who were counting on him to do what no one else could. Then he drew back the shining blade of the Tenseiga and cried:

"DRAGON STRIKE!"

Half a mile away, still seated on the back of his enormous dragon-mount, Sounga gasped, clutching his head. Without warning, something had made him suddenly lose mental contact with nearly a hundred of his warriors, and whatever had done it had left his head ringing like a struck gong. Certainly, he had lost a fair number of troops to the demon-slayers and their marksmen, but those had been acceptable, anticipated losses, and none of them had hurt nearly this much. Blinking in surprise, Sounga looked over toward the battlefront.

And saw a flash of blue-white light, already dissipating as he watched.

What in the seventh circle of Hell...? Sounga thought, just before another jolt hit the Great Demon like a dagger between his crimson eyes.

"AARRGGHHHH!" Sounga cried and switched his perception so that he was looking through the eyes of one of his frontline soldiers. What he saw nearly chilled his molten-brimstone blood; about halfway up the hill on which the demon-slayers' village sat, a semicircle roughly thirty feet across had been blasted out of Sounga's legion of living dead. And standing in the middle of that semicircle, a glowing sword clutched in his hands, was Hiromitsu!

"What's wrong, Your Highness?" Saeko said mockingly from behind him. "Don't tell me a couple of humans and a boy demon are actually beating you?"

"SHUT YOUR MOUTH!" Sounga's tattooed face contorted into an expresion of inhuman rage. To hell with sending his troops against this runt! After the pain he had just experienced, Sounga's patience had run out; he was not about to subject himself to any more mental anguish just to soften up a boy who was clearly his inferior to begin with.

The Great Demon tugged hard on his mount's greasy mane, and the partially-decomposed beast lifted off toward the battlefront.

Hiromitsu swung his sword again, and more of Sounga's corpse-soldiers vanished in a nimbus of blue lightning. Even after all the weeks of practice he had put in, Hiromitsu was still amazed to realize just how powerful the Tenseiga was - and to think, it was the weaker of his two swords! With each Dragon Strike, at least a hundred living dead were vaporized instantly. Even though he knew that the sword was drawing on his own life energy, and that he wouldn't be able to keep this up indefinitely, Hiro was having the time of his life. Finally, here was his chance to get back at Sounga for the months of beatings he had given Hiromitsu, and to avenge the deaths of his friends' parents.

"Try this on for size, you soulless creeps! DRAGON STRIKE!" Heading downhill, Hiro let loose another attack as he ran, carving another crescent-shaped chunk out of the formation. "Come on, everybody!" he called back to the others, "These guys are just a bunch of pushovers!" From behind him came a fierce battle cry, and soon Hiromitsu found himself at the head of a column of three hundred determined demon-slayers. As their archers continued laying down covering fire from the town wall, they pressed forward, driving deep into the thick of Sounga's army, with Hiro clearing a path through the living dead while Midoriko and the others fended off anything that tried to attack them from the side.

Suddenly, a mighty wind hit the demon-slayers. About a hundred feet ahead, the walking dead began thinning out, creating a clearing right in the middle of the third wave. Then an enormous corpse-dragon set itself down, filling the air with the stench of its putrid flesh. And, mixed with that odor, Hiromitsu suddenly recognized another: rage, blood, and a strong undercurrent of raw evil.

"It's Sounga!" he shouted to the others, baring his teeth and bringing the Tenseiga up into a defensive position, his free hand on the hilt of the Tetsusaiga. Now he could see the Great Demon seated on the back of his undead beast, black cloak billowing in the wind, and seated behind him ...

"SAEKO!" All rational thought departed as Hiro caught sight of the pale young girl tied to a wooden rack behind Sounga, now missing her left arm. When he had been at his lowest, chained in Sounga's dungeon, it had been Saeko who had helped Hiro to keep his spirits up, bringing him food, and finally freeing him and Totosai, even though she herself could never be truly free of Sounga's power. And now, seeing her like this, wounded and helpless, Hiro felt two very distinct emotions occupying his heart: devotion to a girl who was probably one of the two best friends he had ever had, and a burning anger toward Sounga, the one who had inflicted so much suffering on them both.

Sounga dismounted, standing beside his monstrous steed, which still had Saeko's rack attached to it with a heavy iron chain. "Hear me, dog-demon!" he called, addressing Hiromitsu personally. "I have come to settle matters between us once and for all. Defeat me in single combat, and you may yet save Saeko and your other human friends. If you lose, or if you refuse my challenge, I will be forced to slaughter the lot of you." With his keen eyes, Hiro could make out Sounga's sneer even at this distance. "So, boy," the Great Demon said, "will you accept? Or do you intend to stand there with your tail between your legs?"

"In case you're blind, I don't have a tail, I'm not a dog, and I'm right here, you monster!" Without thinking, Hiro bounded up and over the heads of the troopers in front of him, covering the distance between himself and the Great Demon in seconds, landing in the open circle in front of Sounga's dragon-mount. "You want me so bad? Well, here I am, so let Saeko and the others go!" Keeping the Tenseiga in his right hand, Hiro drew the enormous Tetsusaiga from its sheath with his left, holding the two magic swords crossed in front of him, his teeth bared in a display that would have sent any human running in terror.

Sounga merely shrugged. "As you wish," he said. There was an audible click as Saeko's manacles unlocked themselves, and the blind girl tumbled from the dragon's back and onto the ground. His thoughts of battling Sounga shelved for the moment, Hiro ran over to Saeko, laying the heavy Tetsusaiga on the ground so that he could help her sit up.

"H-hiro ... Hiromitsu?" Saeko asked weakly.

Hiro just grinned at the sound of her voice. "Yeah, it's me! I've come to rescue you!"

Saeko's blind eyes went wide. "Hiro, no! It's a trap! Sounga was using me as bait to--" Then the young girl gasped, as though from a sudden pain.

"Saeko? What's wrong!"

Saeko slumped forward, laying her head on Hiromitsu's shoulder. She shut her emerald-green eyes, but cold tears trickled down from them anyway. "It's ... It's all right, Hiromitsu. I'm glad I got to hear your voice one last time."

"Huh! What do you mean, 'last time'? Saeko!"

Instead of answering, Saeko gave a sigh, wrapping her remaining arm around Hiro's neck.

And crumbled into dust in his arms.

For a moment, Hiromitsu could only kneel there, jaw slack, wide-eyed with shock, what little remained of Saeko's body clinging to the front of his blue-padded outfit, now no more than common dirt. "N-n-no," he stammered, as though saying the word would undo what had just happened, as though he could negate the fact that Saeko was gone. "No! NOOOOO!"

"Pathetic," a voice said from behind him, and Hiromitsu turned to see Sounga standing behind him, a look of disdain on his tattooed red face. "All that wasted emotion over a mortal. Your compassion truly is your weakness, boy."

Hiromitsu's face twisted into an expression of pure, unadulterated hatred. "You ... you bastard! What the hell did you do to her?"

"I merely took back the power I had used to keep her soul and body together. Now her physical form is no more, and her spirit has passed to the underworld."

"You're lying! Saeko was a good person. You can't send a good soul to Hell!"

"Fool! I myself came from the netherworld over three centuries ago. Do you really believe that it is beyond my power to reverse the process for my enemies?"

"No! Let her go right now!"

Sounga leered at Hiromitsu. "Do not presume to give me commands, boy. Saeko was an annoyance to me, and now she will pay for her insolence - as will your friends! EXTERMINATE THEM!" he cried to his troops, and all at once, the entire army of living dead charged past Hiromitsu toward the other demon-slayers.

"NOOO!" Hiro cried, turning back toward his friends - just as a sudden impact hit him in the back, laying him out flat on his stomach. As he pushed himself back up onto his knees, Hiro saw Sounga's minions closing in around Midoriko and the others. Furious, he spun around to face Sounga, now standing with his sword drawn beside his mount, grinning wickedly at the boy.

"You said you'd let them go!" Hiro shouted.

"Yes ... and you were foolish enough to believe me. Did you honestly expect me to honor a promise made to a weakling such as yourself?"

"You ... you lying BASTARD!"

"Do not concern yourself with them, boy. You have your own problems to contend with." At this, the corpse-dragon beside Sounga gave a roar, and its long, serpentine neck lashed out toward him, its reptilian maw opened wide. Hiro jumped backward, barely avoiding a bite that would have snapped him in two. Then he gritted his teeth, hefted the Tenseiga, and hit the monster with a Dragon Strike. To his shock, the blue energy bolt simply glanced off the dragon's thick hide. Though an undead creature, this horriffic thing was clearly tougher than any of Sounga's other minions; no wonder the Great Demon had chosen to hide himself behind it.

Clenching his teeth, Hiro sheathed the Tenseiga and drew out the enormous Tetsusaiga - nearly falling forward as the sword expanded to its full size - and swung it at the corpse-dragon. "WIND SCAR!" he cried, and a blast of golden energy shot forth from the giant blade ...

And missed the dragon by about thirty feet.

The undead monster swung its neck around to follow the Wind Scar as it blew by, blinked once, then turned back to Hiromitsu and roared.

Uh-oh, Hiro thought, Suddenly, this is looking a lot harder than I thought it would be...

Surrounded on all sides, facing overwhelming odds, suddenly cut off from all support, the demon-slayers had to retreat back to the main gate, as Sounga's army pushed them back up the hill. Occasionally, someone would scream, and Sounga's forces would increase by one as another defender fell and was resurrected as one of the living dead, purged of his or her soul, turning on the very people whom they had once called friends, neighbors and family.

It was all Midoriko could do to defend herself, parrying the blows coming at her from at least a half-dozen living dead who had all decided to pick her as their target. Although only fire could truly destroy the undead, decapitating them or chopping off limbs did slow them down, so Midoriko focused on blocking blows and cutting off heads. At one point, she found herself fighting beside Totosai, the old fire-demon who had helped Hiro escape the dungeon of Sounga's citadel, waving a long-handled hammer to swat away the living dead in a wide arc. "Hey, old man," she called over the din of battle, "can't you breathe fire on these guys or something?"

"What? In case you haven't noticed, young lady, I don't have nearly enough firepower to get rid of all those undead! I'm saving my strength for an emergency."

If this doesn't qualify as an emergency, Midoriko thought to herself, I don't think I want to know what does!

Hiro dodged again as Sounga's corpse-dragon lashed out with its long neck, taking a bite out of the air he had just occupied. It had occurred to him to wonder why the creature didn't just breathe fire and burn him to a crisp, but the answer was obvious: with a body made of rotten flesh, the dragon itself was as flammable as an oil slick.

Wait! Flammable! That's it! While his swords created blasts of his life energy rather than real fire, they were still made of metal - which meant that they could also create sparks! When the monster lashed out at him again, Hiro struck the Tenseiga's blade against the Tetsusaiga, sending a burst of sparks at the long, greasy mane of grey fur that ran along the dragon's neck. Instantly, the undead beast reared back and screamed as its face caught fire, followed shortly by the rest of its body. Even as it burned, the monster made one last attempt to destroy Hiromitsu, reaching for him with its jaws. This time, though, with most of its muscles burned away, the creature was much slower, and Hiro leaped aside easily, then used the Tetsusaiga's giant blade to slice right through its flaming neck, severing the monster's head. The creature's almost fleshless skull fell to the ground with one last hiss, and its body took a single, faltering sidestep before it collapsed, now no more than a heap of burning fat and ashes.

"Well, Your Highness," Hiro called out, breathing heavily, "it looks like you're all out of puppets to hide behind. Ready to give up yet?"

"Hardly." The Great Demon stepped through the burning ruin that had been his mount, the flames parting around him as though he was surrounded by some invisible bubble. "While I must admit that your ingenuity is commendable, you have nowhere near the power required to challenge me."

"Really? Weren't you the one who thought it was my destiny to destroy you?"

Sounga scowled. "An image of you might have destroyed me in Saeko's so-called 'prophecy', but trust me, boy, I will crush you, and once I do, I will have beaten even Fate itself!"

"You're so full of it!" Hiro said. "You think you can take on the whole Universe? Why would you even want to, anyway?"

"For power, you ignorant runt!" Sounga snarled. "Power enough to do whatever I wish. Power to unmake entire worlds, or to make their inhabitants bow down at my feet. Power to have or take anything I wish. Enough power that no one will ever be able to hold me accountable to any law or standard."

"So, the only reason you kill people is to get more power? You've spent three hundred years making life miserable for everybody, just for your own sick gratification?"

"Of course!"

Hiro had to smile. "Jeez, and you call me pathetic!"

Sounga's mouth went slack. "What did you say?"

"I said that you're the one who's pathetic! You're so focused on becoming powerful that you don't care about anyone else. You've got no friends, you bully everybody, and someday you're going to pick a fight with someone who's more powerful than you are. You're screwed already, and you don't even know it!"

"You ... you dare mock me! Me, the Great Demon Sounga, God of Darkness, ruler of the eastern islands?"

"Yeah, I dare mock you, and I think you're a bully, a jerk, and a coward! You spend all your time getting power over other people, and all you've got to show for it are a bunch of smelly corpses and a lousy temper. You're no god - you're just a big, ugly creep!"

"SILENCE!" Sounga roared, and Hiromitsu felt as though an invisible hand had just socked him in the gut, hard enough to send him flying backward, landing on his seat as Sounga charged forward, his demon blade burning with a fierce pink light. Hiro barely had time to get to his feet and bring the Tenseiga up into a defensive block before Sounga hit him at full tilt, sending the boy stumbling, off-balance. Then another blast of psychic energy hit Hiromitsu like a punch in the face, and the world seemed to turn grey around him as the young demon sailed through the air, once again landing on his back.

Fighting to stay conscious, Hiro leaned on the Tetsusaiga as he tried to stand back up, keeping a wary eye on Sounga as the Great Demon strode imperiously forward, his free hand held palm-outward before him. "Now, DIE!" Sounga snarled, and while his psychic blast was invisible, Hiromitsu could see the grass part and dirt fly as it closed the distance between them. "You first! WIND SCAR!" Hiro shouted, yanking the Tetsusaiga out of the ground and channeling as much of his energy through it as he dared without blacking out, focusing as hard as he could on the surge of energy coming toward him, willing the bolt of golden energy to hit its mark. The Wind Scar left the blade of the Tetsusaiga ...

And this time, Hiromitsu didn't miss.

The two forces met barely ten feet from where Hiro was kneeling. There was a sound like a thunderclap, and the force of their collision was enough to make a five-foot-wide crater and create deep cracks in the ground. Hiro barely managed to stay upright as the shockwave hit him. Sounga's barrier seemed to take the edge off the concussion, and bits of rock and dirt bounced harmlessly off it, but even so, his expression seemed to have shifted from blind rage to surprise.

How could he have deflected that attack? wondered Sounga. Then surprise gave way to anger once again, and Sounga let loose with another blast, letting his rage boil out of his body and rush toward the boy in a flood that would have blown any human to chunks of bloody flesh. Hiro, however, wasn't about to wait for Sounga's attack to reach him. Bringing the Tetsusaiga up over his head, he cried, "BACKLASH WAVE!" and brought the giant blade down, striking the ground and unleashing the sword's second special attack, a whirling vortex of energy, like a cyclone on its side, roaring toward Sounga. The Backlash Wave met Sounga's attack roughly halfway between them ... then sucked it up, redirected it, and slammed into Sounga's barrier with even more power than Hiromitsu had originally put into it.

Sounga stumbled back a step as his barrier collapsed, shielding his face with his sword arm, then turned back to face Hiromitsu. The time for fun and games was over; now he was going to end this contest once and for all. With a roar of utter fury, he charged Hiromitsu as the boy was still struggling to stand, raining a flurry of blows down upon him. Though he could barely stay on his feet, Hiro tried desperately to use the Tenseiga to parry Sounga's strikes, dragging the heavy Tetsusaiga as he beat a shuffling, stumbling retreat. Then Sounga made a deep cut in his left shoulder.

Then his side.

And then his leg.

Moaning with pain, Hiromitsu fell backward, barely able to hold back Sounga's blade as the Great Demon tried to cut his throat. Their faces barely six inches apart, the Tenseiga pinned beneath Sounga's sword just beneath Hiro's chin, his weakened left hand unable to lift the Tetsusaiga, the two warriors looked into one another's eyes.

"It's over, boy," Sounga said. "You could not save Saeko, you cannot save your friends, and now, you cannot even save yourself! Now, die!"

As the Great Demon's sword edged ever closer to his throat, Hiromitsu shut his eyes. He wasn't afraid of death; he had gone into battle knowing that he might be killed, either by Sounga or his army of living dead. What troubled him most was that he had failed his friends. If he died now, Midoriko, Totosai, and all his other friends would be killed, along with hundreds of other innocent people.

If he died now...

"Midoriko..."

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Author's Notes/ "Bonus Material"

-Character Design

At the start of the ninth chapter, we see a lot of familiar motifs. The demon-slayers are dressed in black, form-fitting jumpsuits, and those with hiraikotsu's have pink pads - a costume that will one day become very familiar to Inuyasha fans as Sango's outfit of choice.

Hiro, too, is becoming more and more like the Great Dog-Demon we see in "Swords". Though he's still wearing a blue-padded bodysuit similar to that of the other demon-slayers, he's also got his spiked shoulder plates, striped body armor, and his two-tailed white cloak. Finally, thanks to Midoriko, his wild white hair gets tied back into a long ponytail, very nearly completing his physical transformation.

-Plot Development

There's a lot going on in this chapter. Of course, the big, climactic battle starts. We also see Hiro and Midoriko kiss for the first time. Saeko dies, and Hiro and Sounga's mutual hatred jumps to a whole new level. Midoriko's prowess as a young warrior impresses the other demon-slayers, which will have a big impact in future stories.

-Fight Choreography

The initial setup is a bit like the battle of Helm's Deep in "Lord of the Rings": a huge army of evil monsters trying to attack and overwhelm a small but well-entrenched group of defenders. Once Hiromitsu starts blasting away with his Dragon Strikes, though, it's the demon-slayers who go on the offensive, at least briefly. This illustrates just how much Hiro has improved during his months of practice, and how much power he now has thanks to his two new swords.

Once Sounga shows up and challenges Hiro to a one-on-one match, the character of the battle changes completely. While Hiro is tied up fighting Sounga, the demon-slayers are forced back on the defensive. Meanwhile, Hiro tries to match Sounga strength-for-strength, fueled by anger after Saeko dies in his arms, but finds that he is once again outmatched. Each time Hiro manages to survive one kind of attack, Sounga simply ups the ante, from hiding behind a monster to psychic blasts to intense swordfighting. Clearly, Hiro has to rely on more than just his own rage to beat Sounga.

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