It was easy to follow the saimyoushou swarm. Clustered tightly together, they blackened the sky in a thick blob that undulated grotesquely over the forest.

Before long, they altered course to head toward a sprawling castle complex that emerged from among the trees. As one, the insects disappeared below the trees, apparently heading into the castle. Kirara raced after them through the air; below, Inuyasha carried Kagome on his back as he ran to keep up. They couldn't afford to let the wasps get away now.

"That's Naraku's castle," Sango gasped. Miroku could only imagine what painful memories might be stirred by the sight of this place. It was, after all, the place where she had seen the rest of her kin killed, and its likeness was where her brother had tried to kill her at Naraku's behest.

Kirara slowed and dropped lower as they approached the castle. Miroku dismounted as soon as they were low enough—and moving slowly enough—to do so safely, happy just to be back on solid ground. Sango followed suit, and their friends caught up a moment later.

Any happiness Miroku might have felt melted away when he realized what he was looking at. The castle's yard was filled with bodies. Bloody ones.

A great battle had been fought here… or a great slaughter had occurred. Many of the bodies were dressed in armor and furs. Others were not even human. They were distinctly canine.

"What the—" Inuyasha murmured.

"Wolves?" Kagome asked.

"Then these must be members of the wolf youkai tribe," Sango murmured. Even though these same wolves had in all likelihood quite recently been their enemies, she looked stricken. Was she remembering what had befallen her own family in this very place?

But it was worse, even, than that. The wolves had all been slain, which meant there was likely to be a powerful enemy nearby. More immediately, the dead wolves were beginning to move. As one, they pushed themselves upright and climbed to unsteady feet to stagger toward their enemies.

"They're alive?" Kagome exclaimed.

"No," Inuyasha corrected, slashing at the nearest wolf with his claws. The wolf reeled back with deep gashes in its neck, but only came back at them. "They're definitely corpses. They reek of blood!"

After that Miroku could not spare any thought for the rest of the group. The dead wolves had closed in, apparently attempting to cut him and Sango off from the others. He put his back to Kirara and Sango, hoping they would do the same, and set to work on any of the wolves that dared get too close. They were undeterred by his staff, no matter how hard he struck them. Even the ones he knocked down simply got back up and continued their approach.

"This is stupid!" he heard Inuyasha snarl over the sounds of battle. "They just keep getting back up!"

"What do you think, Houshi-sama?" Sango asked, sounding grim.

"Nothing comes to mind that is likely to work against something that's already dead," he admitted. He blocked a particularly powerful strike from a clawed youkai arm, the force reverberating alarmingly through his staff. Perhaps he had overestimated his ability to keep these creatures at bay.

"Same here," came the response from Sango. "The best I can think of—" she paused, and something crunched sickeningly beneath the hiraikotsu "—is how we might delay them in order to escape. But if they were to follow…"

Before she could finish speaking, the wolves all collapsed to the ground, becoming inert once more. It was as if they had never risen from the dead at all.

"What?" she concluded.

They both whirled as an all-too-familiar voice called out, "Inuyasha!"

It was Kouga, the leader of the wolf youkai tribe, and he was furious. It must seem obvious to him that Inuyasha was responsible for the wholesale slaughter in the yard. "You bastard," he went on. He was visibly trembling. "This is too cruel, even for you."

"Not that you'll believe me, but your friends had already been killed when I got here," Inuyasha told him. The hanyou sounded remarkably compassionate.

"Don't lie to me—you're covered in their blood!" Kouga snapped. He launched himself at Inuyasha, claws first. Judging from the look on his face, there would be no negotiating with him. Not that Miroku could really blame him. He had only Inuyasha's word about their innocence, and no reason to believe them.

Perhaps if Kagome interceded… but Inuyasha was already shoving her back, out of the way, so he could draw the Tessaiga and meet Kouga's attack. He raced toward his enemy, only to pull back at the last second. Just in time, apparently, for Kouga's fist struck the ground where he'd been standing with enough force to send up a cloud of dust.

"He's become more powerful than before?" Kagome asked.

Miroku was less sure of that. Rage, too, might have given Kouga an edge in this fight. With so many of his people dead, apparently at Inuyasha's hands, there was no telling what he might do.

"Kouga, you bastard, you've found another Shikon shard, haven't you?" the hanyou snarled.

"Well, you did steal one of my old ones," Kouga replied, baring his teeth. "Though this one seems to work better, anyway." He threw himself relentlessly back into the fight, never mind that Inuyasha had the Tessaiga to hand and would likely use the wind scar without a second thought.

"That shard," Kagome murmured, her eyes locked on the battle. "It gives off a dark and tainted light."

"What are you saying?" Miroku asked.

"I… I don't think that's a Shikon shard."

Not a Shikon shard? What else could it be? Yet when Kouga's fist collided with the Tessaiga, it didn't just knock the blade from Inuyasha's grip. It also reduced the blade to its ordinary, rusted state. And Kouga didn't stop there, closing relentlessly to strike Inuyasha down with one enormously powerful punch to the face.

Sango shifted, gripping the hiraikotsu's strap hard, as if she were thinking of joining the fray herself. Miroku moved to stop her. Inuyasha could handle Kouga for a least a little while longer. And in the meantime… between the obvious set up, the saimyoushou, and the apparently false jewel shard, this whole mess was starting to reek of Naraku. If Inuyasha could keep Kouga occupied long enough, perhaps the rest of them could ferret out the real culprit.

Kagome, however, had other priorities. "Kouga, stop! Hear us out!" she pleaded.

"Don't defend that guy, Kagome!"

"This is a trap," she insisted. "Somebody else killed your friends. You have to believe me!"

By now it was obvious that Kouga was past the point of listening, even to Kagome. "Shut up!"

"Give it a rest, Kagome," Inuyasha said, sounding entirely and oddly reasonable. "There's no way he's going to understand. The only way out of this is if I beat him."

"Oh no," Kagome murmured. Miroku could only sigh at the antics of hanyou and wolf youkai as the two went right back to pummeling each other. Their eagerness to fight each other certainly wasn't helping the situation, though if his guess was right they might at least serve as a useful distraction.

"What should we do, Houshi-sama?" Sango asked, watching the fray with what looked like dismay. "Do we back him up?"

"He'll manage. He's still well enough to deal with a slugging match like this," he decided. His gaze fell on the main building of the castle, which still emanated a powerful evil aura, and made his decision. "Besides, the one who was controlling those corpses should be somewhere nearby. Let's go see if we can find them."