Chapter 30: Fight at Kurashiki Castle
"There is a trail over here, that there is."
Inuyasha knelt next to Kenshin and studied the broken blades of grass. He sniffed once, twice, before looking up at the red haired human.
"I smell a youkai and two humans. They passed through here yesterday," he said. The hanyou saw Kenshin open his mouth and close it. The crescent moon was still present on his forehead, as were the red stripes on his cheeks. Inuyasha gave a feh and stood up. He easily towered over Kenshin.
"You smell it too though, don't you?" he asked. Kenshin stared at him a moment before he reluctantly nodded. Inuyasha wasn't surprised. If Sesshoumaru's youkai power had broken out enough that the youkai markings were visible, then why shouldn't Kenshin's normal human senses had increased as well?
It was almost as if Kenshin himself was a hanyou now. Inuyasha secretly thought of that as poetic justice for his dead brother.
"This one believes that the humans may have been Aoshi and Misao. This footprint here belongs to Misao, that it does." The two of them were currently standing outside the gates of Kurashiki. The two men turned and stared off into the distance.
"All right then," Inuyasha finally said. "Let's get going."
"Agreed."
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"How much longer Kaoru?" Yahiko asked. He, Kaoru, and Miroku were somewhere between Himeji and Okayama. Okina had lent them a pair of horses. The young boy was discovering that he really didn't care for horseback riding.
"Patience, Yahiko," Miroku said. "As both a swordsman and a monk, you must have patience."
"But I'm not a monk!"
"True, you don't have the training. But never the less, you must stop acting like Inuyasha. That could be very dangerous for my health."
Kaoru ignored them as she urged her bay horse on. She had to reach Kenshin. That was all that mattered right now. She hoped that he and Inuyasha were all right.
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Kenshin and Inuyasha stared up at the castle before them. It loomed high on a steep hill, dark and foreboding.
"This one feels...a great evil..." Kenshin said.
"Feh, that's his youkai aura. This whole place reeks of Naraku."
Inuyasha growled darkly and charged straight toward the fortress. Kenshin sighed a moment before following after him. All of his hitokiri training was yelling at the stupidity of a frontal assault. Apparently the hanyou lord wasn't one for secrecy.
"NARAKU! GET OUT HERE!" Inuyasha bellowed.
Nope, definitely not one for secrecy. Kenshin felt the strange urge to club the hanyou over the head. He didn't know if that sensation was coming from him or Sesshoumaru. Perhaps it was just a natural tendency for anyone who was around the dog eared man.
"Inuyasha!" he yelled. This was foolish, he'd thought that the hanyou had more sense than this. The smell of Naraku had caused the blood to rush tothe other man's head. Inuyasha leapt up and swung his great sword at the castle. A large wave of energy shot out from it as he cut through the windscar around the fortress.
There was a large explosion as the force of it collided with the great youkai aura around the hill. Kenshin unconsciously muttered 'Stupid fool' under his breath as he chased after the hard head hanyou. Unknown to him, his eyes were now starting to glint a golden amber hue.
The two men both jumped back as a whirlwind appeared before them. The wind slowly died down to reveal a fearsome snake youkai. Both Kenshin and Inuyasha recognized his scent instantly. He was the youkai that they had smelled with Aoshi and Misao.
"Who the hell are you supposed to be?" Inuyasha growled. "I don't have time to waste with low life weaklings like you." The snake youkai's red eyes slit at the hanyou. His long tongue flickered out as he coolly studied the pair.
"'A low life weakling' you say? How dare you, a filthy half breed, address me in such a way?"
"Heh, I'll show you a filthy half breed," Inuyasha growled. His golden eyes flickered over to Kenshin before staring coldly back at the youkai in front of them.
"Kenshin I'll take care of this weakling. Keep going." Kenshin nodded at him and sprinted on ahead. The snake youkai turned his head to follow the human and Inuyasha leapt at him. He swung the Tetsusaiga in a mighty arc and brought it down at the creature.
The youkai slithered out of the way and shot an acidic poison at the hanyou. Inuyasha managed to avoid the brunt of the attack, but a small bit of poison ate through the red fabric of his left sleeve.
Inuyasha gave a small hiss as he felt his skin burn. Damn. He dodged out of the way as the youkai lunged at him. As it twisted around him, his eyes fell on the spider marking on its back. He gave a sharp intake of breath as realization hit him. The other youkai had spider markings on their chests. This one had one on it's back.
This one had to be an incarnation of Naraku.
"Dammit," he growled. This was bad. That meant that Naraku was powerful enough now to begin making new incarnations of himself.
"Who the hell are you?" the hanyou growled. The snake hissed as it coiled around him and tightened.
"My name is Gojin half breed. You should remember it."
"Like hell I will!" Inuyasha raked his claws through the snake. His claws sliced through snake skin, but nothing else. The hanyou growled as dry pieces of shed skin blew away in the breeze. He'd gotten away.
Damn. He'd never seen a snake youkai do that before. Then again, if this one was a new incarnation...
He ran after Kenshin. They didn't have any time to lose.
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Kenshin peered around a corner. He'd been able to sneak into the castle undetected. The youkai guards hadn't even noticed the human yet. The swordsman wasn't too concerned though. This was child's play for the former Ishin Shishi. This wasn't the first time that he'd snuck into a castle. He had all the training he needed for this sort of thing.
Not to mention that he also possessed a youkai soul.
He wondered how Inuyasha was making out. If it had been any other time, Kenshin probably would have been amused over the similarities between Inuyasha and Yahiko. Come to think of it, Sanosuke probably wasn't too much different either. He'd have gone charging straight up to the castle as well.
At rare times like this, Aoshi and Saito would have been the slightly saner ones to bring along. They would have snuck in the back entrance.
He paused suddenly at a dark, burnt area on one of the corridor floors. A small pile of blackened ash lay in the middle of the dark circle. Kenshin wrinkled his nose at the horrible smell. It almost smelt like burnt flesh. He paused as his nose caught another smell underneath the other. It smelled like dirt.
Graveyard soil.
He wasn't sure where that thought came from. Kenshin didn't even know how graveyard soil would smell any different than regular soil. But for some reason, he knew that was what it was. What could it mean?
Instinct made him roll to the side as something whizzed by his head. He instintively unsheathed his sakabatou and whirled around to face his opponent.
A white baboon was standing halfway down the hall.
Kenshin stared at him. How had it snuck up so close to him? He should have noticed the youkai a long time ago.
"This one does not wish to fight," he called out. "Please, if you do not wish to be hurt, please stand aside." He was answered by an amused chuckle. Kenshin tightened his hand on his sword and stared at the youkai. Something about this one touched a hidden nerve.
"How amusing," the baboon chuckled. "That Sesshoumaru would not wish to fight. I find that greatly ironic." Kenshin stared. Who was this man? He could feel a strong, evil aura around him.
"Tell this one, are you Naraku?" he asked. The white baboon chuckled again in amusement.
"You don't remember? We had such an interesting encounter the last time we met."
So it was him. Only he of all people could be so lucky.
"Where are Aoshi and Misao?" he demanded. "What have you done with them?"
"Oh...nothing much," came the reply. Kenshin's eyes slitted dangerously at the youkai. They glinted gold as he struggled to keep the Battousai from coming out. However, with Naraku, he was tempted to let the former hitokiri run free.
"You toy with innocent people. This one can not stand idly by," Kenshin warned. He saw a smirk appear beneath the baboon mask. There was a sharp stillness in the air.
Naraku flew at him and Kenshin leapt back out of the way. His back foot came quickly forward and Kenshin's sakabatou flew out of its sheath as it sliced through the many tentacles that emerged from the other man's body. The two men paused and stared at each other. Then Naraku began to laugh again.
"This is a most interesting development," Naraku observed. "You are a mortal now, yet your skill with a blade is even more impressive than when you were a youkai. Even more curious is the fact that your sword's sharp edge is on the wrong side."
Kenshin unconsciously bared his teeth at the other man. He'd reversed his blade at the last instant to be able to cut through the pieces of flesh.
Some hidden instinct caused him to jump back. The sliced pieces of Naraku's flesh had suddenly flown toward him, in an attempt to absorb the human into his body. Kenshin wasn't sure what this meant, but he didn't want to find out. The human nimbly danced his way around the moving flesh and brought his reverse blade sword down on Naraku.
However, his blade paused a few feet above the man's head. Some hidden barrier was preventing him from touching the youkai.
"Please," Naraku said. "Do you really believe that reverse edged sword will be able to defeat me?"
Kenshin's eyes narrowed as he dropped into one of the Hiten Mitsurugi's secret stances. He carefully shifted the balance of his feet as he dropped his sword down a few fractions of an inch. Then, like lightning, he was behind Naraku and slicing down with the sakabatou.
The force of his attack actually pushed Naraku back nearly ten meters. However, the strength of his barrier held. Kenshin pressed on his attack against the barrier, until something happened that horrified him.
The sakabatou snapped.
Kenshin dropped to a crouch as half of his sword went flying at the wall. Then he rolled out of the way before Naraku could strike at him. He swore to himself. This wasn't good. Kenshin held the broken sword in front of him. The youkai barrier was too strong for his sword.
"KENSHIN! GET OUT OF THE WAY!"
Kenshin sprang out of the way as Inuyasha's windscar came hurdling out of no where. He pressed himself flat against the ground the force of the blast erupted around him. As soon as the tremors had sufficiently subsided, Kenshin was on his feet.
"Did I get him?" Inuyasha yelled. Kenshin looked around. The walls and the floor and become one huge gaping hole. The two of them were answered by the voice of Naraku echoing through the chill air.
"Perhaps another time, Inuyasha and Sesshoumaru. Our next meeting will not be so pleasant."
Inuyasha cursed as he ran up to the hole and paused at Kenshin's side. He was going to leap through the hole when he suddenly noticed the broken blade in Kenshin's hands.
"There was some kind of barrier around him," Kenshin explained. "I was able to push him back, but I couldn't break it." Inuyasha stared at it before looking up at him with a surprisingly sympathetic expression.
"I know someone who can fix that," he said. "His name's Totousai. He's a crazy, senile old bastard, but he actually does good work." Inuyasha turned then and stared out the gaping hole. He growled softly to himself.
"Naraku's gone now," he muttered. "He won't be coming back here. Damn it." Inuyasha sighed as he stared outside. Then he turned to the red haired human at his side. "I picked up your friends' scents outside,"the hanyou lord said."There's another trail that leads away from the castle. They're not here anymore." He sniffed suddenly then before turning sharply to stare down the hall.
"I know that smell! It's the smell of graveyard soil!" Kikyo had smelled like that. It was the smell of a clay body.
"What does that mean?" Kenshin questioned. Something about the expression on Inuyasha's face alarmed him. The hanyou stared off into the distance before his eyes narrowed. He leapt down through the hole and paused a moment to sniff the air. Then he began sprinting away from the castle.
"Inuyasha!" Kenshin yelled. He didn't understand this at all. What was wrong? What did that strange smell mean? He sheathed the broken pieces of the sakabatou and ran after the anxious hanyou. Kenshin paused suddenly. Kaoru, Yahiko and Miroku were following after them. He couldn't just leave them. He stared back and forth in indecision.
Kenshin finally raced after Inuyasha and yelled at him again. He saw the hanyou pause reluctantly in the distance and turn back to him. Kenshin pointed his finger into the distance.
"This one is going to find the others!" he shouted. "We'll catch up to you, that we will!"
Inuyasha raised his hand to show that he had heard. The two men nodded at each other before they each took off in separate directions.
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"Do you think we'll be safe here?" Misao asked. She, Aoshi, and the strange priestess were sitting deep in the woods. The trio had struggled on through the forest, with a few score of youkai chasing after them. Kagome had managed to kill them all with her arrows.
The three of them had then waded down through a stream in order to through off their scent.
"Are you okay?" Misao asked in concern. Kagome smiled weakly and waved her hand at her.
"I'm fine," she lied. It wasn't true of course. She needed more souls to power her clay body. "What about you two? You guys got hurt really bad."
"We're both fine, priestess," Aoshi finally said. "If not for you, then Misao would be dead and I would still be under Naraku's control." Kagome smiled at them. She had spent some time gathering medicinal herbs to treat their wounds as best as she could.
"Kagome," Sango said. "You need souls."
I know Sango, she thought. She forced herself not to speak outloud. Neither Aoshi nor Misao could hear the dead Sango. Kagome really had no idea where to find any soul collectors.
Aoshi stared at her silently before finally reaching over and placing a hand on her forehead. He drew it back in surprise.
"You're cold," he said with some alarm. Her skin had contained no warmth. Kagome sighed.
"I think you should tell them," Sango said. Kagome silently agreed and sighed again.
"I'm...dead," Kagome admitted quietly. "Naraku had a sorceress form this likeness of me out of clay and fused my soul into it. He hoped that he would be able to control me with his demonseed. But it didn't work out like he thought. I escaped."
Aoshi and Misao stared at her. The young girl gaped wordlessly at her before finally yelling.
"What do you mean you're dead? You look alive to me!" the young girl protested.
Aoshi, meanwhile, stared thoughtfully at her before reaching his hand out again. This time he pressed two of his fingers against her left wrist. He kept them there for a few long moments before looking over at the young girl.
"There is no pulse," he stated. Misao stared at him before gaping back at Kagome.
"But..but how..." she stuttered.
Kagome staggered to her feet. She held onto her bow for support as she drug herself up.
"I'll explain everything. But first...I need to find something," she said. She staggered off into the forest and began her reluctant search for the soul collectors. The two Obiwaban gave each other questioning looks before starting after the stubborn priestess.
Neither of them was sure what to make of this new development. Nor were they aware of the dog eared hanyou that was beginning to make his way in their direction.