When Night Falls
Disclaimer: If you throw a rock into a crowd, and hit the owner of Inuyasha, you did not hit me. I guess when it's put that way, it's not a bad thing not to own Inuyasha, eh?
All right, I knows what you all are sayin'. Your sayin', "Hey! DT! What the (insert choice word here) took you so long?" Well, this was originally supposed to be two chapters, but then I realized, what would be chapter 19 was WAY too short, so I combined two into one super chapter! Also, that way, I finish with 20 chapters! (not including prologue). There's one chapter after this, so y'alls better hold on, it's gonna be one heeluva bumpy ride!
Reviews:
BlobOfBoredom: Excitement IS exciting... thanks.
Ninalee-chan: Heh... actually I haven't seen the movie yet. Usually for the movies I prefer to wait until the english comes out, cause I can't get the full experience in thejapanese, since I'm watchin' the subtitles more than the movie. Plus the english has both english AND japanese. I'll probably get it though if the english takes to long to come out.
Dark-Shadow-Soul-Stealer: Eh, what can I say? I'm a weird person.
Veglma: Wow! Three identical reviews! Yeah, I'm lazy too...
Mizuumi13: Well you deserved it with all the reviews you gave me!
Miroku's Pet Vixen: I know it's takin' me a while, partly 'cause I'm starting about two other stories also...
Gogglehead Lover?????????? Oh... okay! Thank you!
Chippy: Yesh... Chippy's cool! Technically, it would be "Japanese Toast"... (I can make lame jokes too!)
Crystal Promise: Yes, it is! Thank you!
-L A D Y J E S S-: Sesshomarus IS an ass... why do all the girls like that guy? (I'm ten times nicer than him, and I'm lucky if I can get a cross-eyed girl to look at me with just one o her eyes... )
Chapter 19: The End
The cold sea air of the morning whipped Sango's ponytail around behind her as Kirara bounded across thin air. Her eyes squinted in a vain attempt to see through the darkness, but they also expressed something completely different. Determination covered her features, dead set on the task ahead. A warrior must not allow her thoughts to stray from their mission. She must remain solely focused, or their abilities will waver. Emotion causes weakness, and weakness leads to defeat.
At least… that is what she'd always been taught.
Lately, she'd been finding more and more proof that the exact opposite was true. Inuyasha for example, showed his greatest skill in battle when Kagome was present, and even Sesshomaru, by no admittance of his own, could push his skills even further when his human companion was in danger. She remembered when they had met Shiori, Inuyasha was driven by his sympathy for the girl, and had managed to win in a seemingly hopeless situation. And Houshi-sama…
She was suddenly yanked out of her thoughts by an object landing heavily on her shoulder. A glance told her it was Miroku's head. Her arm twitched as she tensed for a slap, then realized that his eyes were closed, and his breath was coming in long, deep breaths. He was sleeping. A blush crept across her cheeks. He had not slept well since this whole predicament had begun, and the silence of the ocean must of lulled him to sleep. They were all tired, of course, but Miroku had been the one to bear most of the burden.
Sango sighed. She just wanted this whole thing to be over.
Inuyasha grunted as he stepped backwards, a fresh cut adorning his cheek. Sesshomaru stood, composed as always, despite the burn on his remaining good arm from being struck by the Kaze no Kizu. Regaining his footing, Inuyasha whipped the Tetsusaiga around his head.
"Kongousouha!"
Sesshomaru neatly dodged the crystal daggers before charging forward, Tenseiga pointing forwards. He lunged, but it was deflected by the width of Tetsusaiga. Inuyasha spun on his toes, and connected one of his feet with the side of Sesshomaru's head. The older sibling skidded sideways, pushed off the ground and landed once more on his feet, though not with out scraping the right side of his body. The stump of his arm began to ache again, but he ignored it. Now was not the time to feel pain. He briefly considered using… no, he couldn't use that. He would only use it if it were necessary. He preferred to defeat enemies on his own strength.
Tightening his grip on Tenseiga, he charged again, only to be caught in a stalemate with Inuyasha once more.
"Don't you know how to attack with that weapon?" he taunted, "Or is all you can do defend?"
With a grunt, he pushed forward, causing Inuyasha to fall backwards. He the grabbed the neck of Inuyasha's haori, swung him in an arc over his head, and slammed him headfirst into the ground on the other side.
"Inuyasha!" yelled Kagome, hand reaching over her shoulder to retrieve an arrow.
"Dammit, Kagome!" Inuyasha growled, jumping to his feet, then speaking in between swings of his sword. "Don't… you… dare… interfere!"
She consented, dropping her hand to her side once more, eyes nervously watching the battle in front of her play out. Sesshomaru did seem to be tiring somewhat, his movements gradually becoming more sluggish, but Inuyasha was worse off. His relentless attack was constantly pushing him to the brink of exhaustion, and any pause he took to catch his breath, Sesshomaru would use to unleash an endless barrage of attacks, forcing Inuyasha to go on the defensive, furthering his fatigue. Sesshomaru's endless taunts were of no help either.
"What's wrong Inuyasha, tired already?"
"Hell no! I'm just getting started!"
"Well, if this is you in full form, I'd hate to see you when you exhausted!"
Inuyasha growled furiously, his eyes narrowing to a point not unlike that of an enraged wolf. "What is it with you anyway? What did I ever do to you?"
"It's the path of a dog, Inuyasha. Siblings fight to establish dominance. To me, your nothing but a runt who refuses to roll over!"
"But I'm not a dog," Inuyasha shot back, "I'm half-human!"
"Which is exactly why you will loose!"
"Face it Sesshomaru, you're never getting the Tetsusaiga from me!"
"Hmph, I no longer desire the Tetsusaiga."
"What?"
"I couldn't use it anyway. Besides, the Tenseiga is now ten times more powerful then that tiny fang could ever hope to be!"
Inuyasha growled, shoving Sesshomaru back roughly.
"Fine," he spat, "wasn't planning on giving it to you anyway! Now, let's end this!"
"I'd be glad to!" With one swipe of the Tenseiga, he sent barrage of light blades hurtling in Inuyasha's direction.
"I was waiting for that, jackass! BAKURYUUHA!"
Sesshomaru's eyes widened in awe as his very own attack was sent barreling back at him, along with the twisting spirals of the Bakuryuuha. His arms instinctively shot up to cover his face in protection as the wave of energy over came him.
Kagome heard a horrible explosion as Sesshomaru was struck. Dirt and dust was sent high in the air, floating mindlessly, not in any hurry to settle back down and reveal the extent of the damage. She saw Inuyasha standing, still in his battle pose, mats of dirt sticking to his sweaty face. He was a complete mess, but the was a slight spark in his eye, showing he felt quite pleased with himself.
"Inuyasha, are you okay?"
"Fine," he grunted, wiping his cheek with the back of his hand, which only succeeded in smearing the dirt there. Then he broke into a large grin, "I guess I showed Sesshomaru, eh?"
"Do you think he's really done for?" asked Kagome as the dust settled, revealing that any presence of Sesshomaru had disappeared.
"Dunno," answered Inuyasha, brushing off his pants, "Knowing Sesshomaru, probably not. He'll be back, and in a worse mood than ever."
Kagome nodded. "Yes, we definitely haven't seen the last of him." She sighed. "Well, I guess all we can do now is pray that Miroku and Sango will be okay."
"They'll be fine. They fight well together, and besides… how hard can this thing be?"
Kagome gave him a doubtful glance, before something else caught her attention. "Hey, Inuyasha, where's Tamashii?"
The demon's body was gone.
"Houshi-sama, Houshi-sama, wake up!"
Miroku slowly opened his eyes to blurred vision, which quickly cleared as he blinked a few times. "What is it?" he moaned.
"We're here."
Sure enough, stretched out before them was an seemingly endless strip of land. Beautiful, lush, green trees graced the shore, though shadowed eerily by the clouds above. Miroku could only stare in awe. This was land virtually untouched by the hand of man. He would be one of only a handful of people to ever step here. It excited him.
Sango, however, seemed far less impressed by such sentimental ideals, and she was completely consumed in studying the land below them.
"Houshi-sama, look at the shore," she said.
Miroku did, and what he saw surprised him. Animals of every species imaginable were lined up a long the southern shore, as if trying to escape. Some of the animals began to swim, a journey impossible by anything other than birds or fish, while others merely paced along the shore, casting nervous glances behind them.
"They're trying to leave," Sango spoke.
"Yes, they know something's wrong," nodded Miroku. "Any sense of predator-prey relationships are gone, all they want is to get out. Sango, I think we may be in for a bit more than we bargained for."
"Yes," she agreed, "but there's no point in giving up now."
"Right. We must risk our lives, or doom the lives of millions."
"And two of those millions are the lives that would be risked anyway."
Miroku chuckled. "So it's really a question if we want to die painfully and save people, or if we want to die easily and kill people."
"Or die painfully and accomplish nothing at all."
"Good point," Miroku said, laughing again. The last thing they needed was to sound pessimistic at this point. "Well we don't have a choice now, let's go!"
Sango nodded, urging Kirara faster as they flew towards the center of the island.
"We need to find the center of all this," she spoke, "so keep your eyes open."
"Ah, come now, my dear Sango, have I ever given you a reason to believe I was unobservant?"
"I have no doubt that you're observant, Houshi-sama," Sango stated, "but it's what you choose to observe that worries me."
Miroku recoiled as if slapped, before letting out a laugh again. His nap had rejuvenated him, and now he felt as energetic as ever. Sango, however, was not so ecstatic, and Miroku returned to silently scanning the horizon.
They had not been flying for a particularly long time when there was a slight rumbling from the ground beneath them. A low belching sound floated to their ears, and in the distance, multiple red sparks shot up in the sky, followed by plumes of smoke. After about half a minute, the rumbling died down and no more sparks came, but darker layer of clouds remained, stretching across the sky.
"What do you think?" asked Miroku.
"I think it's worth checking out," Sango responded. "Kirara!"
The fire cat growled and adjusted it's flight towards the source of the sparks. As they flew, a mountainous figure started to emerge on the horizon, reaching ever higher as more and more of it's wide base was revealed.
"Houshi-sama, does it feel hotter to you?"
Miroku nodded. "I would think so, considering we are flying right towards a volcano…"
"Volcano?" Sango asked. She had heard about them, but she had never actually seen one in action. All she knew was that more than one village had been destroyed by them.
"Yes," nodded Miroku. "We'd best be careful."
"Right."
They approached slowly, eventually coming to a rest on one of the gradually sloping sides.
"What do we do now?" asked Sango.
Miroku shrugged. "Find an entrance, I guess. There doesn't seem to be anything out here." There was a rumble again, shaking the loose ground around their feet, causing them to struggle to stay on their feet. "And I suppose we better watch out for those, too," Miroku added as an afterthought.
They set off across the side of the mountain, eyes scanning for some sort of imperfection that might mark an entrance. Many times a layer of black ash would shift from under one of their feet, sending one of them tumbling downwards, only to be caught at the last second by the other. After many repetitions of this process, they were both covered in a fine layer of the silt.
"Dammit!" growled a frustrated Sango, "this isn't helping us any, and we're running out of time!"
"Patience, Sango," mediated Miroku, "it's a very large volcano, you can't expect to find something after an hour."
"But we don't have the time!" she shot back, "Kirara, you see anything?"
Kirara growled from up in the air. Sango understood this as a "no", and snarled, kicking a plume of ash into the air. There was silence for a second, then suddenly, they were tumbling head over heals down the mountain. Sango had inadvertently kicked loose the ash at there feet, causing them to fall in a cloud of ash. When they finally hit the ground with a dull thud, Miroku thanked Buddha the fine powder covered the mountain, for it covered any rocky outcroppings that could have split there head open without pause. Slowly, he struggled to his feet and coughed up some of the ash, which had mixed with his saliva to form a thick paste. He didn't want to think what happened if that got into his lungs.
Sango also rose to her feet, also hacking. "Dammit…" she growled again.
"Sango…"
"Dammit! Dammit! Dammit!"
"San-…"
But Sango cut him off again, "Shut up, Houshi-sama! The world is going to end in then next couple of hours, and we're out here, looking for a freaking door!"
"Listen!"
"What do we expect to find, anyway? A big 'WELCOME' sign sticking out from the side of the mountain? Why do we even try? Let's just sit down here, and tell the end to get ON WITH IT!"
"Turn around!"
"TURN AROUND? What's that supposed to help? Am I supposed to just turn around suddenly there will be this nice wooden cottage door, huh? And we'll just waltz on in, sit down and have tea with the end of the world?"
"GOD DAMMIT, SANGO!" Miroku grabbed her shoulders and spun her 180 degrees, "Turn the hell around!"
"Oh," said Sango. Right there, at the foot of the mountain, hidden by trees and brush, was semi-circular entrance, leading into a dark tunnel. A red glow was visible at the very end.
"Do you see it?" demanded Miroku.
Sango's eyes narrowed. "You're a stingy son of a bitch, you know that?"
Miroku sighed, and they headed off.
Sango's mood did seem to improve as they walked carefully through the dark passageway. The frustration of finding their way had dissipated, and a fiery anticipation of battle had replaced it. She gripped Hiraikotsu with a firm fist, not loose enough to be at complete ease, but not hard enough to be nervous. It was this that completely entranced Miroku. How she could completely transform in battle was a mystery to him. Any pain or happiness she had been feeling seemed to disappear, and it was converted to stoic determination. And yet, when the battle was over, had it ended in victory or defeat, she returned to the exact emotion she had been feeling before, as if it had never occurred.
They continued along, not bothering to break the comfortable silence around them. The red glow at the end of the tunnel grew brighter and brighter as they approached, and once they reached the end, they past through it without hesitation. The room they entered was almost impossibly large. It's was as though the entire mountain had been completely hollowed out. A single, wide beam of red light shone down from the opening in the top, and standing right in the center of the beam was…
"Tamashii!" exclaimed Miroku.
Slowly, the demon raised it's head, causing the light to sparkle off of one of his eyes. But it was different, there was no kindness held in their depths, only a maliciously blank stare.
"I'm afraid," Tamashii spoke slowly, "that I cannot allow you to interfere with my master's plans."
"What happened to you?" Miroku asked, wide-eyed.
"I saw through the bullshit."
A geyser of magma erupted from the floor, then, like a snake, redirected itself to shoot straight towards Miroku. He dodged, but it continued chasing him throughout the cavern. Sango turned her focus on Tamashii, flinging the Hiraikotsu with all her might. Oddly, Tamashii made no attempt to avoid it, and was struck directly on the left side of his face, sending him spiraling backward. The surge of magma chasing Miroku fell to the ground, before hardening into a ridge of rock snaking across the floor.
"I must say, that hurt a bit more than I would have imagined…" Tamashii said in monotone, rising to his feet. "But… you'll need to hit me harder than that."
"What's going on?" Sango asked as Miroku ran up next to her.
"I don't know," Miroku shook his head, "but something's wrong. Nobody changes this dramatically in half a day."
Sango nodded, but then they had to dart out of the way as a hail of rocks came flying at them. "You okay?" she asked Miroku.
"Yeah, but something bothers me," Miroku said, "Tamashii told me that he lost his powers over the elements when his ability to feel souls kicked in," he grunted, slicing a rock that was headed for his face in half, "but now, he has them. I think that however this happened… it wasn't of his own doing."
The hail of rocks stopped. Cautiously, Sango peeked out from behind Hiraikotsu. "Why'd he stop?"
The entire cavern began to rumble, and the ground at their feet started to crack. Entire portions of rock sank downward, revealing that they were floating directly above a large sea of magma. A rift formed between her and Miroku, and their sections of rock floated away from each other.
"It's… very hot," Sango said, taking a deep breath.
"Yes, but now's not the time to focus on that." The magma below them began to make waves, and they struggled to keep their footing on their individual rocks. Miroku grunted, "So, how do you suppose we go about this?"
Sango grinned, setting her legs to keep steady. "Like this." In a flash, she was off, wakazashi drawn as jumped from rock to rock.
Miroku remained frozen, before finally uttering "amazing", and taking off after her. As they ran, every now and then a splash of magma threatened to hit them, but they managed to avoid them, though Miroku did get a nice burn near the hem of his robe. Tamashii himself proved difficult to catch, hopping from stone to stone himself, as if carried by the wind. Not to mention the fact that any islands surrounding him would drift away to un-jumpable distances. Few times they thought that they had him, only for him to push their own rock backward with a strong jerk, nearly knocking them to the ground.
"Tamashii!" yelled Miroku, closing in, "This time I'll get you!"
"Right…" grinned the demon.
Just as Miroku was about to reach him, the two began to drift apart.
"Not this time!" Miroku yelled. With a grunt, he shoved the butt of his staff into his rock as hard as he could, pushing him forward with just enough length to land on Tamashii's own.
The island rocked dangerously, but steadied out as Miroku ran to the center, thrusting his staff forward like a spear. Tamashii step away from the strike before grabbing the shakujou. Miroku quickly rose to his feet, grasping both ends of the staff also held by Tamashii, locking them in a voiceless struggle fro dominance. Miroku pushed forward with all his might, but Tamashii's footing was true, and he did not budge an inch. Slowly, surely, Tamashii started to push back.
Sango watched helplessly over Tamashii's shoulder as Miroku struggled. The islands were to far away for her to cross, and throwing the Hiraikotsu would most likely set hers to rocking violently, and when she caught it the same would happen. She began to panic. Was there really nothing to do? Miroku was quickly losing ground, drawing closer and closer to the burning magma behind him. All she could do was watch.
"This isn't you Tamashii!" Miroku shouted, desperately trying to keep balance.
"Yes it is," growled the demon. "I was foolish before allowing myself to get caught up in emotions. Emotions are useless, they only get in the way. Master showed me this."
"Dammit, Tamashii! What about the unity?"
There was a brief pause, which Miroku took advantage of to regain his footing, but the pushing started again.
"Broken!" he growled.
And with a great shove, Miroku found himself falling backwards, right towards the magma. He seemed to be taking a painfully long time to fall. He felt the burning heat on the back of his neck as he approached, saw the look of horror on Sango's face, the emotionless slate that was Tamashii's. Something in the back of his mind told him that it wasn't happening, that it was all a dream, and the moment he touched the molten rock he would wake up to find himself back at Kaede's village. But a more logical part of his brain told him that this was it, this was the end. Everyone was going to die. Everyone. Kagome, Inuyasha, little Shippo and Kirara, Mushin, and Sango. And there was nothing he could do, so he closed his eyes.
There was a sudden yank at the front of his robes, and the falling stopped. Slowly, his eyelids betrayed him, and he found himself looking into the face of Tamashii, large tears rolling down his cheeks.
"Tamashii?" he asked, "is it you? The real you?"
Tamashii gulped, and nodded. "I… I felt your emotions… your pain… and I came to…"
Slowly, all the islands came together, once more forming a solid ground to stand on. In a flash, Sango was on him, her strong arms wrapped around his shoulders.
"You're okay?" she asked.
"Yes," he answered, slowly bringing his arms around her waist, "yes, I'm okay."
Suddenly, the ground began to shake. Miroku and Sango separated, getting into their battle stances. Tamashii merely looked around in horror.
"We're too late…" he whispered.
A great booming voice answered him. "You didn't truly believe you could beat me, did you?" It rang through the cavern, "My powers are gathered, and now my world is complete!"
The ground around them erupted in magma, and everything went black.
End Chapter 19
Well then, one more chapter to go. I bet you're wondering, how can there be another chapter when the world just ended? Well then, you'll find out won't you?