It was a sunny morning, and Lord Sesshomaru's group was passing through the scrublands. Hotaru had never truly appreciated how diverse the landscape of Japan was until she had to walk through it. When riding in Haruka's car, or taking the train on a class trip, Hotaru had always thought the stretches of land between cities were kind of boring. Sure, there were mountains and forests and stuff, but everything outside the window blurred together in a line as flat and straight as the road. On foot, she was aware of every single dip and incline in the terrain. More than once she twisted her ankle when a stone shifted unexpectedly underfoot. She released just how quickly the ground under her feet could turn from marshy wetlands to dense underbrush to rocky slopes. She should have never taken sidewalks for granted.
Today A-Un had taken pity on her and Rin. When the ground turned particularly rocky and rough, he stopped in front of them and allowed them to clammer onto his back. Hotaru appreciated the break more than she could say. I am going to find you so many berries tonight. She silently promised the demon.
Hotaru's thoughts were distracted as she felt an unusual presence up ahead.
"Stop." She called out. A-Un followed her order so suddenly that Jaken bumped into his hind legs.
"Hey! What's the big idea?" Jaken started complaining. "Since when do you think it's your job to give the orders around here?"
Lord Sesshomaru turned to look at her.
"What is it?" He asked.
"There's something up ahead." Hotaru said. "It feels weird...like...a void. Something that shouldn't exist. I can't explain it. But I don't like it."
Lord Sesshomaru seemed to contemplate this information. Hotaru was beginning to get the impression that he actually did respect her instincts.
"Jaken, take the children and return to the woods."
"But, milord! Is it wise to go alone when you don't even know what you are walking into?" Jaken objected. "You might need my assistance…" Jaken cut off after Lord Sesshomaru shot him a look. The imp gulped nervously. "I mean, of course, milord!"
Lord Sesshomaru strode forward a few paces before he stopped to speak once more.
"Oh, and Jaken, if anything happens to them. I will kill you."
Jaken dramatically dropped to the ground with panic. With that, Lord Sesshomaru flew on ahead.
"Stop being dramatic!" Hotaru told Jaken. She pulled on A-Un's reigns, leading him back the way they came. They made it a few meters before Jaken sprang to his feet and chased after them, shouting for them to wait up.
"We passed a lake not too long ago. Let's go back there." Kohaku said.
They wandered back in the direction they had come for a while. They found the lake with little difficulty. It was located in a small valley. Rin let out a cry of happiness when she saw all the flowers. She spent a fair amount of time picking handful after handful. Then she sat down and braided the stems into crowns. Everyone got a flower crown; Rin, Kohaku, Hotaru, Ah and Un, even Jaken, though he did try quite hard to avoid his fate, going so far as climbing a tree to escape. Kohaku knocked him down with the chain of his weapon.
Around noon, Kohaku went off to hunt for them. Hotaru started a fire. While Rin fished in the lake. They ate their lunch of roasted fish and pheasant. Then they started skipping rocks on the surface of the lake. Rin could get a stone to go up to four skips, though she usually only managed two or three. Kohaku's rocks consistently made it to the other side of the lake. Hotaru was very proud of herself when she managed to get her stones to skip even once. Most of hers sank right to the bottom.
"It's in the wrist." said Kohaku, "Flick your wrist at the very last second."
Hotaru was in the middle of pulling back her arm, so she could try his advice, when goosebumps ran across her skin. She dropped the rock in her hand. She recognised a horrible aura quickly approaching.
"Naraku's coming!" Hotaru said.
Kohaku's eyes shot wide open. Jaken scrambled to his feet. Hotaru transformed.
Her hand had just closed around her glaive when she was hit from behind. Something long and sharp had pierced her straight through her abdomen. The world froze for a second. Her ears were ringing in shock. She looked down to see what appeared to be a tree branch protruding from her stomach. Blood was starting to spread across the white of her uniform. Luckily, adrenaline prevented her from feeling the full extent of the injury. Rin screamed. A dreadful laugh surrounded them.
"My, you are quite perceptive, aren't you?"
Hotaru pulled herself away from the branch, much rougher than she should have. She was undoubtedly causing massive amounts of internal damage. Blood poured from the wound.
Stay calm. She told herself. Step one: heal yourself before you bleed to death.
She put her hand over the injury and focused. She felt her flesh knit itself back together. She would be fine, but it never boded well to get injured this early in a fight. She couldn't let herself be caught off guard again.
"Get to A-Un!" Hotaru ordered. Naraku was already coming in for another attack. "Silent Wall!"
The attack crackled against her barrier and bounced back at the demon. Kohaku, Rin, and Jaken had managed to get onto A-Un's back.
"Hotaru, come on!" Kohaku shouted.
"Death Ribbon Revolution!"
She launched her attack at Naraku: thousands of ribbons, moving so fast they became razor sharp whips, tore the demon to shreds. Hotaru ran to join her friends on A-Un. Kohaku helped pull her up.
"Are you alright?" He asked, his eyes heavy with concern.
"I've had worse."
Jaken gawked at her.
"But, he tore right through you! How are you walking?"
"You should be glad I am, imp." Hotaru snapped. Adrenaline and pain dissolved any patience she had ever had with the tiny demon. "Didn't Lord Sesshomaru charge you with watching out for us? If I die, you die."
Jaken's eyes grew wide in panic.
Naraku laughed again. Hotaru turned to see the demon piecing himself back together like a macabre jigsaw puzzle.
"Now this is unexpected." He jeered. "A human who can heal like a demon."
"Pressure Crush!" A crescent shaped wave of energy released from Hotaru's blade and flattened Naraku.
"Go, A-Un!" Kohaku shouted.
A-Un cried out and took to the sky. They raced out of the clearing. Miasma spread out and followed them. The heavy fog of death made it difficult to see Naraku trailing closely behind, so Hotaru had to react by intuition alone. Attack after attack came for them. Naraku could make tentacles shoot from his body with incredible speed. Hotaru deflected them over and over again. She cut through the ones that came up too fast for her to use her Silent Wall. She sent her own attacks back at their pursuer. All she seemed to be doing was slowing him down, and only barely.
"It's no use!" She told the others. "No matter what I do he just keeps coming back!"
"We have to get back to Lord Sesshomaru!" Rin said.
Hotaru knew Rin was right, but as far as she could tell, they were headed in the complete opposite direction of where Lord Sesshomaru had gone. Naraku's miasma was catching up to them quickly.
A-Un charged deeper into the forest. If he had been hoping to lose Naraku in the trees, his attempt was sorely misguided. It became harder for Hotaru to fight back when she constantly had to duck to avoid branches.
Hotaru was casting shield after shield, attack after attack. Her glaive grew colder and colder with each attack. Her gloves began to freeze to it. The cold burned her hands. This had never happened before.
Don't panic! She tried to tell herself. You're using too much energy.
This was always the point in a fight when Haruka or Michiru or Setsuna would get her out.
She was alone.
A tentacle shot out of the miasma and wrapped around one of A-Un's legs. The four passengers were thrown off of his back.
Hotaru hit the ground in a shoulder roll, allowing her to spring to her feet with little delay. She saw Naraku's face through the fog.
"Death Drive Break!"
She sent one final blade of her energy at him, ripping him apart. This provided him with a temporary inconvenience. She was panting now. Her entire body felt like it was on pins and needles. The pain in her hands was now excruciating as the handle of her glave's temperature somehow dropped even lower. She felt blood run down from her nose.
She looked around and located Kohaku through the fog. He was on his knees clutching the back of his neck in pain.
The miasma...his jewel shard is corrupted. He can't move.
Hotaru spotted Rin a few meters away. She looked disoriented but unharmed. Jaken was already rushing toward Rin. A-Uh was getting to his feet nearby.
"Jaken, take Rin and A-Un and run!" Hotaru ordered.
"But..." Rin started to protest.
"GO!" Shouted Hotaru, "I'll hold him off as long as I can."
"Come on, Rin!" Jaken urged.
Hotaru didn't turn to see if they followed her orders, she knew they did. If there was one thing she trusted Jaken with, it was keeping Rin as far from danger as he possibly could.
"Go with them, Hotaru! Run away!" Kohaku told her, his voice sounded strained. She knew he must be struggling to fight off possession.
"He'll kill you if I leave." Hotaru protested.
"He'll make me kill you if you stay!"
"I don't die so easily." Hotaru glared at the demon in front of her. "You're strong, Kohaku, but it will take someone much stronger than you to kill me."
Naraku laughed. The sound twisted Hotaru's stomach.
"Aren't you brave. Shall we test your confidence? Your blood can be added to the blood which already stains Kohaku's hands." Naraku's voice was smooth. It had a hypnotic, almost calming effect. Hotaru easily understood how this man could manipulate and control people so easily.
"Run, Hotaru!" Kohaku shouted. The desperation in his voice told her that he wouldn't be able to continue fighting the possession off for very much longer.
Hotaru stood strong. Naraku wouldn't go in for the kill if he thought there was a game that he could play. She knew what she was asking of Kohaku. Fighting off this kind of possession was excruciating. It was soul-ripping pain. He wouldn't be able to bear it much longer.
Hotaru, herself, was on her last leg. She was doing all she could just to keep herself from shaking. She was lightheaded. Her muscles were completely locked up. Even if she wanted to run, she would have been able to. Her hands were frozen to her glaive. Something dark pulsed inside her. She was tapping into parts of her power that were only meant for the most desperate of circumstances. She could taste blood.
"Hotaru, please! RUN!"
She doubted she would be able to run if she tried.
Am I going to die here? No, I should have a month at least. And I haven't destroyed the Shikon Jewel. What happens if I fail?
One thing was certain, she would not die running away.
"I'm not running! I promised that I wouldn't let you die alone." She reminded Kohaku. "If you die today, it's not going to be because I abandoned you."
"How very touching." Naraku taunted. "You can be waiting for Kohaku in the afterlife."
"NO!" Kohaku shouted. Something in his voice told her that he had broken. He wasn't strong enough to fight anymore.
Hotaru turned around just in time to see Kohaku's weapon flying towards her. She didn't have the energy to dodge.
The blade found its mark just above her diaphragm, between the first and second ribs on her right side. That there was no pain at first. The world had stopped moving. Time had stopped. She saw Kohaku's horrified face. She could see his weapon lodge deep in her chest, but she couldn't feel it. She couldn't hear anything except a loud ringing in her ears. She was suspended in a state of shock. Shock was okay. Shock was peaceful. Shock would protect her from pain.
The shock didn't last long.
The weapon was pulled back, ripping out a chunk of flesh and muscle as it exited her body. Then the pain came. Sharp and blinding. She heard Kohaku scream her name, but she couldn't respond. Her knees buckled.
I can't heal it... She realized in horror as blood filled her lungs. She was out of energy, and out of time. She coughed, flooding her mouth with a thick, iron taste.
Her head was spinning.
She looked up at Kohaku. Their eyes locked. His face was frozen in terror.
She could hear Naraku laugh behind her, but it seemed far away.
Everything seemed far away.
She gripped the handle of her weapon to try and keep herself upright, but she was sliding down.
Blackness started to encroach on her vision. She was going to die.
She had lied before. Kohaku was more than capable of killing her. Without the energy to heal herself, anyone could kill her.
She had failed at her mission. She wouldn't get the chance to destroy the Shikon Jewel. What would happen then? Would her future even exist?
Kohaku cried her name again.
Kohaku.
If she died now, Naraku would kill Kohaku. The last thing he would know before he died was that he once again killed someone he cared about. She couldn't let that happen.
Fear, pain, and adrenaline overwhelmed her. Her body's self-preservation instinct tapped into the very core of Saturn's power, and used the last of her energy to send an unrefined wave of pure destruction towards Naraku. And then everything went black and she was falling.
Author's note: Hey all. Hope you enjoyed this chapter. Please leave me a review to let me know what you think. Also, has anyone else seen that there is going to be a new Inuyasha series? Super excited to hear more about that.
Hope you're all healthy.
Update: I watched the first episode of Yashahime! I loved it!