In the Wake of What Follows

Chapter Thirty-Three: Miasma

Yana and Kido both come up in the morning, bags packed for an extended stay. Kurama had no estimates for how long it might take before Kuwabara and Terra could return. "If all goes well, just the day," he said when they were making plans, "but in my experience it is best to calculate for unseen complications as much as one is able."

Daisuke had frowned when Terra asked him to take over leading the morning runs. He was clearly proud to have been singled out, but Terra knew that the students would be worrying over their teachers' absences.

Yana and Kido weren't much of fighters despite their history being troublemakers when they were the kids' ages. But, as territory users and psychics who studied with Genkai, they had enough knowledge to lead meditations. And, with Yana's unique gift, he had enough knowledge to adjust fighting forms easily, even if he couldn't replicate them unless taking on another person's visage. It would be good for the kids to focus on basics again. And if anyone dared to act out, Kido made for a perfect detention enforcer.

Although, Terra doubted it. Most of the kids who had been with them that past summer respected Yukina too much to be difficult and were likely to keep the newer ones in line. If anything, she was more worried that Hachi and Ryota would over-police out of some misguided sense of duty, and fall back into some delinquent hierarchy behavior. But Terra trusted Hitomi to deal with them in that case.

Then, with a deep breath and a swift cut of Kuwabara's dimension sword, they forged an easy way back to demon world and followed Kurama. It was a long hike that Kurama surely would have run if he didn't insist Terra and Kuwabara save their energies.

They hadn't gotten much information the night before. Or, rather, Kurama didn't have much information to share. Terra understood when she saw it. It was exactly as Kurama described. A vast swath of miasma, drifting deeper into the makai. Kurama had guessed it was growing, and the larger it became the further from the human world it fell, its targets shifting as its location changed.

The weight of it, even at a distance, was enough to halt Terra in her tracks. Kuwabara only stumbled a few more paces before joining Terra in terror and awe.

"Whoa."

Terra nodded in silent agreement. "What-"

What is it? What caused it? What would happen if they got too close? What happened to the missing people?

What was Terra supposed to do about it?

"I don't know, Kurama," Kuwabara hedge, already taking a subconscious step back. "I'm a good curse break and decent at setting up wards, but this is… this is what Genkai's Spirit Wave is for. Shouldn't Urameshi..?"

"We tried that," Kurama said with a rye twist of his lips. "It worked enough to allow us close to it."

Terra shuddered to think what the miasma felt like before Yusuke cleansed it. "From what I know of that technique, that doesn't sound right."

Kurama nodded. "You would be correct. Genkai's technique should have destroyed any and all dark energy."

"Do we know why it didn't!?" Kuwabara's voice went reedy at the news.

"By my estimate, either Yusuke's demonic energy has altered the effectiveness or design of the Spirit Wave, or despite the heavy darkness of this miasma cloud, it is not inherently evil."

"That's not evil?" Kuwabara shuddered. "Then what the hell is it?"

"Void," Terra muttered. "Void and chaos."

There was a question at the core of the monk's philosophy on Mt. Mashu. Are we sources or are we conduits? Yamamoto believed that we have energy in ourselves, but we may channel and harness either good or evil.

Yusuke had blocked some aspects of this miasma, but he hadn't purged the energy. It feels dark and heavy, but only because it is channeling everything it comes in contact with.

"The Spirit Wave took away the darkness, but we're in demon world," Terra said, unable to look away from the miasma. "It just absorbed more demonic energy right away, and so much demonic energy is…"

"Yes," Kurama nodded, following Terra's speculation. "We are not the most kind creatures. It is quite possible you are correct."

Kuwabara scratched at his chin. Stubble had started to grow in thick. He had said, a couple of days ago, that he wanted to look more mature now that he was in charge of a bunch of kids. "So, what are we supposed to do?"

As they ventured closer, where Yusuke was waiting for them, Kurama went over his ideas on how to tackle this force. While they were still able to near it without the miasma sucking them in, Kuwabara may be able to cut it open with his dimension sword. Like breaking into a territory. Kurama believed the only way to expel the cloud was from the inside, the way Hercules finally won against the Hydra. Yusuke could try the Spirit Wave again, but he didn't want to rely on a technique that hadn't fully succeeded last time.

Kuwabara and Terra both had skills in cleansing, but Kuwabara's were largely reliant on paper wards and similar items he could imbue protective properties into. Terra, on the other hand, was a natural destroyer of demonic energy and had learned a number of different cleansing ritual dances while at Mt. Mashu.

Together, if all went well, they would be able to disperse this energy cloud into the relatively harmless atmosphere of the Makai.

"What if it doesn't work?" Kuwabara asked.

Yusuke was close enough to hear them by that point. He sneered at the miasma. "We get the hell outta dodge, hopefully with all limbs attached, and try to sink it away from civilization. And if there's some worse part of demon world that none of us has ever reached, it's there problem now."

"However," Kurama frowned, "this may be the lowest it can go. Let's hope that future doesn't come to pass."

They took a few moments to ready themselves. This was not a job to run in without thinking over first. But, eventually, there was nothing to do but to act.

Kuwabara's dimension sword gleamed in a brilliant twist of orange and yellow light. It cut through the cloud with little resistance, but did nothing to disrupt the power of the miasma itself. Kuwabara held the rift open with his sword and Yusuke dashed in with the Spirit Wave charged and ready. When the blue light blasted from the center, crackling like lightning inside a storm cloud, Terra was able to breathe a bit easier. It hadn't absolved the problem, but a weight had been lifted.

Terra ran in, Yusuke passing her with a stern nod. It was a carefully blank face, hiding worry. Terra had tried to mask her own look much the same.

Then, she began to dance.

This couldn't be rushed. The beats of each movement were almost as important as the positions themselves. To rush could mean to not properly charge the cleansing. To stagger or hesitate could mean to succumb.

Terra swept a leg. Flicked a wrist. The charms that capped her naginata tinkled like bells. Something of the dance was working. Terra could feel the miasma sizzle and pop against her skin. The air was clearer, for a moment.

Then, like white blood cells attacking a foreign virus, the cloud swirled tighter against her. The resplendence of Kuwabara's sword sputtered out. Terra heard her name called as if underwater. Her friends couldn't reach her.

Terra pushed her energy as far from her as she could, a cocoon of acid for the miasma to touch. The darkness still swallowed her further. Pressure from all sides. Crushing. Terra fought to move, to continue the dance. She couldn't focus. She couldn't think. She couldn't -

Frozen, like a dead eyed statue, Terra was trapped. The only miracle was that they could still see her. That the miasma had spirited her away into the folds of its dark cloud like so many previous.

The boys stared in horror. "Get Hiei."

Yusuke ran faster than he had ever pushed himself before.

A/N: Sorry that this is a super short chapter. I might do some shorter chapters as I lead up to the ending so that you can get them sooner