Competition

Ilyo turned at the sound of the voice. He immediately recognized who it was and his face split into a wide grin. "Quit bullshitting yourself. You know as well as I do that there's no way you could beat me, little girl." The speaker suddenly appeared and Kagome gasped.

It was undoubtedly a woman, but she looked incredibly strange. She was only about four feet tall, and she had dark purple hair, worn long, down past her waist. She was inhumanly beautiful, with delicate features and turquoise eyes, very feminine and petite, but Kagome sensed immense power within her. Kagome's curiosity was quickly replaced with a very different emotion however, when the strange woman threw herself into Ilyo's arms.

Ilyo held the woman close for a minute, then pulled back to take a closer look at her face. "Well, Spirah, you haven't aged a day."

She smiled up at him. "You, Ilyo, have aged many days. What did you do to your hair? It used to be so long. Now it's so short. And why are you still associating with that trash." She indicated Icthalur.

The dragon demon hissed loudly at her and shook his head. "Nice to see you to, Spirah. I notice you haven't been killed yet." Icthalur then muttered lightly under his breath, "Unfortunately."

Kagome heard this and smirked slightly. She instinctively didn't like this new woman, and she was glad someone else felt the same way.

Ilyo, meanwhile, had set down Spirah and was talking animatedly with her. Kagome only heard parts of the conversation, but she deduced that Spirah had heard about Ilyo being in this time, and she had felt his power while he had been fighting Kuttsoh-turas. She had then felt the power of the completed Shikon Jewel, and had figured that Ilyo had something to do with it. She had come to investigate.

Spirah suddenly seemed to notice Kagome. She turned to her and smiled. "I hope that you will excuse my little joke. I just saw how worried everybody looked and wanted to know how you would all react to a death threat." She giggled and turned back to Ilyo.

Kagome, meanwhile, turned to look at Icthalur. She could tell by the look of anger and hatred in his eyes that the only thing stopping him from ripping out Spirah's throat was Ilyo's presence. He suddenly turned and stalked off. Kagome shot a poisonous glance at Spirah and then followed Icthalur. She caught up with him and called his name. He whirled around when he heard her.

"Who is she? What is she? Where does Ilyo know her from?" Kagome spat out her questions in a harsh voice, causing Icthalur to smile knowingly. He figured that he might as well tell Kagome.

"They are old friends," he began, "back from when we were all very young. One day, Ilyo and I were mock battling. At the time, although we were young, we were still very powerful. Our power drew the attention of a creature that happened to live in a nearby sea. It was Spirah. She is a Sea Dragon demon. As far as I can tell, she is the only one of her kind; she's the only one I've ever encountered at any rate. Anyways, she grew interested in Ilyo, and over time, began to grow closer to him. He pushed me out, and grew closer to her. But I was not fooled. Her intentions were clear to me. She knew that we were to fight for the lordship. She was allying herself with who she judged to be the most powerful candidate. I never liked her. Ilyo, although he did enjoy her company, slowly began to realize what she truly had in mind. The next thing I knew, she was gone and he barely ever spoke of her again. I've only seen her once or twice in the last thousand years. Something happened to drive them apart."

Icthalur smiled at the memory of being told by Ilyo that Spirah would not be coming around anymore. Then, he noticed the look on Kagome's face. "Do not fear Kagome. Ilyo is completely smitten with you; I can tell. Spirah cannot do anything about that, as hard as she may try." Icthalur watched the look of jealousy fade from Kagome's face.

She gave a slight smile at his reassurance, but then her face changed to exhibit a worried look. "Should we go after Sesshomaru? If Inuyasha has become as powerful as Ilyo said, he will probably destroy Sesshomaru easily."

Icthalur nodded at her wisdom and nodded. He leapt into the air, looking down at Kagome expectantly. She tried to concentrate and then jumped into the air. To her immense delight, she remained floating in the air, exactly as Icthalur was. She smiled happily at Icthalur and he motioned for her to follow him.

They flew for less than fifteen minutes before Kagome felt an immense amount of demonic energy emitting from a rich looking hotel. She looked down and immediately saw Sesshomaru, in his humanoid form, exchanging words with Inuyasha. They were on the roof. Icthalur had noticed as well, and he quickly landed on the roof, moving to stand behind Sesshomaru. Kagome did likewise.

Sesshomaru didn't even notice, he was so focused on his little brother. Kagome listened to their words.

"You think to rule over my lands. Don't make me laugh. You are nothing but a pathetic half breed whose only way to gain power was to betray the trust of your so-called friends."

Inuyasha shrugged nonchalantly. "What I plan to do is my affair and no one else's. What were you planning to do anyways? It must be clear to you that my power now surpasses your own."

Sesshomaru growled menacingly. "Do you care to test that theory?" he inquired. With that, Sesshomaru sprung at Inuyasha, Tokijin drawn. Inuyasha laughed and easily evaded the attack. Again and again, Sesshomaru attempted to strike down his little brother, but it was all in vain. All he managed to do was knick Inuyasha's cheek, forcing a thin line of blood to appear.

Grinning, Inuyasha wiped the blood off of his face and shook his head. "Now it is my turn." In one smooth motion, Inuyasha drew Tetsusaiga from its sheath and jumped at Sesshomaru. Before he could reach Sesshomaru however, his body was jerked to a sudden stop. He looked down in surprise at the thing that had stopped him. It was a clawed hand, and it had passed right through his back and was now protruding from his stomach.

Icthalur shook Inuyasha from his hand and stepped back as the half-demon fell to the ground with a gasp of pain. He knew that there was no way such a simple injury had killed Inuyasha and he was correct.

After a minute, Inuyasha jumped back to his feet. "Were you expecting that to kill me? Please, give me some fucking credit!" Inuyasha suddenly disappeared, only to reappear directly behind Icthalur. The half-demon attempted to bring the Tetsusaiga crashing down on Icthalur's skull, but once again, he was halted.

This time, Icthalur had caught the sword by the blade. Inuyasha looked surprised, but he continued trying to force the sword down on its intended target. Icthalur quickly realized that the jewel had granted Inuyasha great physical strength. He was forced to gather his power just to push the blade back. Luckily, the sudden explosion of power alerted someone else to the situation.

Back at Sesshomaru's castle, Ilyo and Spirah had been talking. They started walking the grounds as they reminisced. Suddenly, Spirah gasped. "Oh no! I've lost my ring. Can you help me find it?"

Ilyo nodded, turned around and began to scan the ground. He immediately spotted the ring shining up at him from its place on the ground. As he bent to retrieve it, he suddenly felt the immense power of Icthalur flare up. This caused him to whirl around. He was greeted by the sight of Spirah standing behind him, a dagger held high in her hand, prepared to plunge it down into his unsuspecting back.

Ilyo quickly jerked the weapon from her hands. Now that she had been caught, Spirah's nerve appeared to have deserted her. She immediately broke down in tears and started sobbing. "It's not my fault; Inuyasha forced me to do it. He found out about our past relationship and wanted me to use our friendship to get close enough to kill you. He threatened to destroy me if I didn't agree to do it." She was a pitiful sight, lying on the ground, her small body wracked by huge sobs.

Ilyo leaned closer. She looked up happily as he gathered her into his arms, but her elation quickly morphed to horror as he started speaking.

"Do you think I'm stupid, bitch?" he asked softly. "I could smell him on you as soon as you arrived. And don't feed me your bullshit lies about being forced to help him. Although, to your credit, I believe one thing you said. I believe that he came to you, and you didn't search him out. I don't believe that you would really look to ally yourself with an obviously evil person, but if he came to you, and he had enough power, then you would help him. It's all about the power with you. That's why you left me. When I told you about my plan to give the lordship to Icthalur, to avoid killing him you realized that I would never be the Lord, so you abandoned me. Well, this time, you bet on the wrong horse, you fucking traitor. If you think Inuyasha is strong enough to defeat me, you must be more stupid than I thought. But don't worry; you won't be around long enough to witness his death."

With those final words, Ilyo thrust his huge clawed hand through her chest and grabbed a hold of her heart. Her eyes opened wide, pain radiating from them as he jerked roughly and yanked Spirah's still-beating heart right out of her chest.

Ilyo showed no emotion as dropped the corpse to the ground and rose to his feet. He stared unblinkingly at his former friend's body for a moment and then turned and flew off.

Meanwhile, back on the roof, Kagome was watching as Icthalur attempted to reverse Inuyasha's sword. Suddenly, she felt an immense power coming towards them at great speed. She recognized Ilyo's aura, and began to scan the sky as she waited impatiently for him to arrive. Then, she remembered Spirah, and she silently wished that the woman had remained behind. She was quite happy when Ilyo arrived alone. Her happiness changed to curiosity when she smelled Spirah's scent on Ilyo. Then, she noticed the slight trace of blood on his hands.

Ilyo, however, paid no attention to Kagome. Instead, he walked right up to Inuyasha and wrapped his hand around the blade of the Tetsusaiga. Ilyo yanked the sword from Inuyasha's grasp and before everyone's shocked eyes, he calmly snapped the sword into two pieces and dropped them to the ground. Inuyasha growled in anger and pulled back his fist to strike Ilyo, but he was beaten to the punch, literally.

Ilyo smashed his fist into Inuyasha's chest, sending him flying through the air. The half-demon landed hard on the other side of the roof. He was about to jump to his feet, but Ilyo sped to him and planted his huge foot on Inuyasha chest, effectively pinning him down.

"How did you find out about Spirah?" Ilyo growled, anger making his voice turn guttural. "Who has been telling you about my past?"

Inuyasha looked surprised. "She told you that I tracked her down? She must really like you, because the way I threatened her would have convinced the bravest person alive to do what I told them to. Where is she, anyways?"

Ilyo grinned at Inuyasha's question. "She's dead, idiot. Did you really think that I would fall for such as stupid ploy?" Inuyasha looked shocked that his plan had been so easily figured out. But he did not speak. He merely smirked up at Ilyo and then disappeared from beneath his foot.

Everyone looked around to see where Inuyasha would appear, but nothing happened. Then, his voice was heard.

"You think that I can be beaten so easily, you are horribly mistaken. But don't worry; you have one more day to find and destroy me, but after that, I'm returning to the Feudal Era, and the rest of you will be stuck in the time period forever."

A dark chuckle rang out and echoed around the roof for a moment before fading away, leaving nothing but silence behind.