Chapter 5: This Cursed Right Hand
Sango stared at the boy who, had by now, turned to face them and was now scowling at Kagome. She was amazed at how similar the boy before her was in both character and likeness to Inuyasha. Turning back to Kagome she voiced something which she had been thinking since seeing the boy.
"Are...Are you certain? I can't help but to sense a certain dark aura about him..."
Kagome turned momentarily away from her friend, not quite ready to tell her about Naraku just yet. Stubbornly, she replied, "I sense nothing."
Sango wasn't so sure, but she decided to allow her friend to live on in ignorance for just a while longer, knowing full well that what she wanted and needed to believe right now had nothing to do with dark auras.
Kagome left Sango's side in favor of Ian's. She smiled kindly at him and took hold of his arm, leading him in the direction of Miroku. Smiling again at her hentai houshi friend, she introduced him to Ian.
"Ian, this is Miroku. Miroku, this is Ian."
Ian took hold of a puzzled Miroku's hand and shook it, and said politely, "Nice to meet you."
Miroku turned to Kagome, a puzzled look on his face. He mouthed to her, 'What is he doing?' Kagome just smiled and mouthed back, 'It's called a handshake. It's a form of greeting, just go with it.' Miroku just shrugged and proceeded to perform the same gesture to Ian.
"Nice to meet you to- ahh! Aaarghh! Waaaugh!" Their hands joined and their skin made contact, Miroku was just about to return the greeting, when a stabbing pain made its way from his palm and shot all the way up his arm. Screaming in agony, he looked quickly at the place in his palm where the wind tunnel had previously been, his eyes widening in horror. There, in the center of his palm, was a small, black hole, growing quickly in size and power. Miroku was at a loss for words and just stared in pure terror, for the return of the wind tunnel could only mean one thing, and it did not bode well. Still wincing, he looked quickly at Ian who had released his hand with lighting speed when Miroku had begun to cry out in pain.
Ian, still confused, attempted to move forward to assist the man in anyway possible. This effort, however, proved to be fruitless indeed. As Ian approached closer to Miroku, Miroku felt another wave of excruciating pain course through his arm.
"Don't touch me!"
Ian stumbled to a halt. He smiled and reached out to Miroku saying, "Come on Miroku, surely-" Again, their skin made contact.
"Stay away!"
With his free arm, Miroku slapped away Ian's eager helping hand. Ian looked on in puzzlement first at Miroku, then himself.
"I-Ian? Wha-What are you?" said Miroku through gasps of pain.
Looking down at his own hands, Ian simply stared at them in shock and horror, the same question ringing throughout his mind. What had he done? What was he, really? He looked to Kagome, fearful and questioning, as if it were she and only she who could resolve the predicament. She stared back, horror, concern, sadness, and confusion written all over her face. And yet, she did not move. Something inside her seemed to be telling her that if she stopped moving, time itself would also stop, therefore preventing the horribly inevitable. But time did not seem to be following the same theory. She stood there and watched helplessly as her beloved fell to the ground and began to writhe with unimaginable pain.
He called out to her, but her feet were adhered to the ground as if by some otherworldly force. So, she stood there and watched as the consciousness of the man she had loved was pushed back to the farthest reach of his own mind, temporarily imprisoned within himself.
In a moment, the whole scene was over. He rose again from the ground, his hair and eyes once again darkened. Finally, she found herself able to move, but only to collapse to her knees onto the ground. Sango quickly approached and enveloped her trembling friend in a comforting embrace. The embrace was not permitted to last long, however, for Naraku decided to make his move swiftly.
Miroku, who had by now sealed off the wind tunnel with a rosary he kept on him at all times, was beginning to back away from the man whom he assumed to be Ian.
"Ian! What's the matter with you? What are you-?"
Naraku chuckled cruelly. "Not Ian, my dear, foolish houshi." Again, he chuckled. "Any other guesses?"
Miroku gasped with stunned horror, not wanting to believe what was standing before his very eyes.
"...Naraku! But how did you-"
'That maniacal laughter is beginning to become quite annoying, ' thought Miroku through his frustration and fear.
"All in good time, houshi. But first," with a sudden movement Naraku reached out and took hold of Miroku's right hand, bringing it up to eye level and carefully facing it away from himself and towards Sango and Kagome. "Allow me to survey my handiwork."
Miroku could only watch, horrorstruck and unable to wrench himself from Naraku's grasp as Naraku removed the protective rosary sealing the wind tunnel, as Sango and Kagome, without anything to secure themselves to, were sucked closer and closer towards the void which had returned once again to his cursed right hand.