While Inuyasha and Kouga took on the two incarnations, Sango stood a wary guard over Miroku and the others. Now that the monk's injuries had been tended to, at least on a basic level, she did not intend to be caught unawares again. She would keep him and Kagome safe from any surprise attacks Juuroumaru or Kageroumaru might throw their way. Kouga's presence evened the odds a bit, but Sango worried they were far from in the clear. Inuyasha was still wounded from earlier and still could not wield the Tessaiga with anywhere near his normal skill. And on top of that, these newest incarnations were fast.
"Inuyasha's hitting nothing but air," Shippou observed, a worried tremor in his voice.
"That's because the Tessaiga is heavier than he's used to," Kagome told him. Her voice dropped to a sad murmur as she added, "And he's wounded, too."
With a mighty heave, Inuyasha got the Tessaiga over his head and brought it down in a powerful sweep. But he was still too slow. Juuroumaru evaded the blade easily and, to add insult to injury, landed atop the broad side of the blade before racing down its length to tackle Inuyasha. The hanyou grunted and went down, nearly losing his grip on the Tessaiga as Juuroumaru bit into his shoulder.
Kagome cried out in horror as Inuyasha's blood flowed from this latest wound.
Locked in his own fight with Kageroumaru, Kouga glanced back and was clearly not impressed by what he saw. "What's the matter, dog breath? Can't you even figure out how to handle that youkai?"
Goaded on by Kouga's taunting, Inuyasha finally fought back. He gave up trying to use the Tessaiga to free himself and settled for punching Juuroumaru away. When he made it back to his feet, he snapped, "Don't kid yourself, you wimpy wolf! You haven't caught Kageroumaru, either!"
"It might go better for them if they would stop fighting each other and focus on their real enemies," Miroku observed. A glance told Sango he wasn't even watching the fight, but was leaning back against a tree, his eyes closed. She hated to see him suffer, knowing there was nothing more she could do until after the enemy was defeated.
The only thing she could do right now was keep him calm and keep an eye on the fight, so she started describing it to him: Kageroumaru going on the offensive against Kouga, and giving the wolf youkai a serious challenge in terms of speed; Kouga working swiftly to turn the tables before finally pummeling the youkai so hard it left a crater in the dirt. "Got him!" she cheered.
But her excitement was short lived. Kageroumaru had not been smashed into pulp as she had hoped. He had merely gone underground again. And, just like last time, he burst out again with his whole body shaped into a sharp spear aimed directly at Inuyasha. It wasn't a direct hit this time, but it did send Inuyasha reeling straight into Juuroumaru's path. And Juuroumaru wasted no time, slashing at Inuyasha, his fingers coming away coated in the hanyou's blood.
Inuyasha had by now lost a frightening amount of blood, even for a half-youkai. His clothes were turning a dark, unsettling red from the undiminished flow. Yet Juuroumaru continued to press the attack. Back and back and back he forced the hanyou until Inuyasha slammed into a large tree.
Kouga, meanwhile, made a valiant effort to catch Kageroumaru. Yet every time it seemed he might get close, the youkai vanished into the earth, only to emerge somewhere else and take Kouga completely by surprise. The first few times this happened, Kouga was able to get out of the way before Kageroumaru could land an attack, but it was only a matter of time: Kageroumaru burst out of the ground right at Kouga's feet, slashing a deep gash into the wolf youkai's leg as he went past.
With both Inuyasha and Kouga injured and the battle turned quite suddenly in his favor, Kageroumaru became much cockier. "Shall I eat this girl's liver, then?" he asked, eying Kagome. His face showed so little expression that it was hard to read him, but it was obvious now that he really did want to devour Kagome. He was almost too fast to follow as he made straight for the helpless girl. "I'll eat her up, bones and all!"
Kouga didn't make it in time, as Juuroumaru moved in to harry him, but Inuyasha did. Wielding the Tessaiga as if it weighed nothing at all, he fended off Kageroumaru's attack and severed the youkai's blade-arm in the process.
Watching him fight, Sango couldn't help but feel a little awed. It was as if the sword were suddenly weightless and his injuries had spontaneously healed.
"Inuyasha is wielding the Tessaiga one-handed again," Sango reported. Had she not seen it for herself, it would have been difficult to believe. He had been struggling with the sword ever since Toutousai repaired it, and he made no effort to hide it.
"Has the sword somehow gotten lighter?" Miroku asked.
She couldn't see any reason why it would have. "I don't think so. Maybe he's just being more reckless than usual, or maybe it's the blood loss…"
Miroku sank back against the tree with a slight groan. "He is an idiot, after all."
Inuyasha froze. "Who's an idiot?" he demanded.
"He heard that, huh?"
"Don't distract him," Sango urged.
Kageroumaru had already taken advantage of the momentary distraction, disappearing into the ground yet again. Inuyasha cursed, but took advantage of the time this delay provided to see to Kagome. "Are you okay?" he asked.
"Look at yourself," she told him, sounding more than a little horrified. "Those wounds are terrible!"
"Kouga's been injured, too!" Shippou added.
Inuyasha shook his head. "That jerk's useless anyway."
"Will you be okay, Inuyasha?" Kagome asked. "Please be careful…"
It seemed Inuyasha had had enough of being worried over. "Bah, don't you know how tough I am? Don't lump me in with that wimpy wolf!"
Kouga, meanwhile, had engaged Juuroumaru, buying time for the rest of them. Inuyasha might not like him, but he was more than carrying his weight in this fight. It would have been over long ago if Juuroumaru and Kageroumaru were able to go after Inuyasha at the same time.
Yet when Inuyasha turned and made to join the fight alongside Kouga, the Tessaiga abruptly—and obviously—became heavy again. He almost lost his grip on it as the blade smashed into the ground.
"What the," Sango murmured.
"As I thought," Miroku said. "In the moment when he wanted to protect Kagome with his whole heart, the sword became lighter. But now that he's helping Kouga…"
Now that he was helping Kouga, which he was doing grudgingly and not because he wanted to, the sword had become heavy again. This was what Toutousai had hinted at, and this was what Inuyasha would have to learn to harness if he wanted to use the sword to its fullest potential again. There might be hope for that yet… but it was still a very faint hope. Sango knew they could not count on him fully harnessing the sword's power during this fight. That would only come later, if he survived.
"Even if the sword has become lighter again, if the battle goes on much longer, Inuyasha's body will give out," she said.
"They could get the edge if they could just keep Kageroumaru from going underground," Miroku pointed out.
"So the way to stop him is to prevent him from going underground," she realized aloud. And her arsenal contained a potent poison meant for just such an occasion. She withdrew the container of poison from its compartment beneath her shoulder armor, mind racing. Her poison might be exactly what they needed, but if she had no way to deliver it… But she did have a way to deliver it, if the monk would cooperate. "Houshi-sama, I need to borrow your staff."
He handed it over without hesitation. "You've got a plan, then?"
She nodded as she accepted the staff, and began to carefully apply the poison to the end. "This won't last long, but it should force Kageroumaru out of the ground for a while. If we're lucky, it'll slow him down, too."
She threw the staff into the middle of the clearing and was pleased to see the poisoned end sink nearly a handsbreadth into the ground. What had once been ordinary brown soil began to turn a dark red, as if blood had been poured over the earth: the poison doing its work, spreading through the earth like miasma through air, just as it was intended to do. All that remained to be seen was whether Kageroumaru would walk into the trap.
A moment later, she had her answer. The youkai erupted out of the ground in a cloud of poisoned earth, leaping to safety among the branches overhead.
"Get Kageroumaru!" she shouted to Inuyasha and Kouga, hoping one of them at least would have the sense to listen. "The poison should've slowed him down some!"
Kageroumaru hissed a curse as Kouga moved to intercept from one side while Inuyasha blocked his retreat on the other. For that one moment she thought they might actually be victorious, but none of them had counted on Juuroumaru. He charged in to defend his brother, delivering a blow so hard that Inuyasha went tumbling straight into Kouga, and therefore providing an escape route for Kageroumaru.
Worse, Kouga immediately started yelling at Inuyasha again before concluding with a damning, "Don't worry, Kagome. I'll take care of the rest myself."
Sango sighed, realizing that any contribution she had hoped to make was now hopelessly squandered. She had provided the perfect opening, and now they were right back where they had started: Inuyasha and Kouga at odds, Juuroumaru waiting for an attack, and Kageroumaru nowhere to be seen.
That last part was especially concerning, considering what had happened to Inuyasha when he first emerged. Where could he be? With so many trees around and the ground torn up from all the fighting, there was really no telling where he could be.
And unfortunately, Kouga took that to mean he could be ignored for the moment. "While Kageroumaru's not around, I'll take care of this other youkai," he said, fixing his sights firmly on Juuroumaru. As he rushed into what was surely a trap, even Inuyasha could sense the danger.
"Kouga, you idiot, turn back!"
But it was too late.