The betrayal
Enjoy reading and please review and give me some critiques.
Disclaimer: Inuyasha and all its characters belong to Rumiko Takahashi. Only the plot of this story belongs to me. *Leaves house to meet Mrs. Takahashi and talk about ownerships.*
Chapter 6
Kagome's POV
And that was when it happened. An awfully loud cry sounded through the hall. Inuyasha and I immediately looked at where that scream was coming from. And what we saw left us in pure shock and with our mouths open. Kagura, right in front of the throne, facing towards us, looking down at herself. A big, dark green tentacle protruded from her stomach with Naraku standing behind her. "KAGURAAAA!"
Narrator's POV
Meanwhile Sango and Miroku had entered the room. The two little demons right on their track. The scene that played in front of them, left them with their mouths open and just staring. Sango immediately snapped out of her daze and turned to the two little demons. "Shippou, get back into the other room. Kirara, go with him. It's too dangerous here." They immediately complied and went back.
Kagura clenched her teeth and looked back up at Naraku. "Naraku, you bastard. Why are you here?" Naraku answered her with his cold low voice. "I was never really gone. I've been waiting for a long time to catch you in betrayal." Kagura let out another scream and sank to the ground. She felt her energy getting drained. "What did you do to me?" Naraku smirked evilly. "Since I know that as a demon you are capable of healing yourself fast, I gave you back your heart and injected some miasma in your body. With that you shouldn't be able to recover. And don't blame me. Blame yourself. If you hadn't betrayed me, you would've survived. And as for you, Inuyasha. Come at me with all you've got."
Inuyasha didn't need to be told this twice. "Naraku, you bastard!" He immediately leaped from his sitting position next to Kagome and launched forward. During the jump he drew the Tetsusaiga, holding it with two hands again. Naraku smiled and summoned up his pink barrier. Inuyasha didn't have the time to react and smashed his sword onto the barrier with full power. A loud and deep bell sound emerged, sending shivers down everyone's spine. Inuyasha immediately took two steps back.
"Sango, Miroku, take Kagura away from Naraku and bring her to me." Kagome had snapped out of her shocked state. She wanted to help Kagura. She was the only person alive who even could. Since Kikyou died, she was the only one with the powers to purify the miasma. That is, if it wasn't too late for the dying demon.
"Why should we? She's our enemy. She tried to kill us just moments ago." Sango trusted Kagome, but helping an enemy? She could not do this. Kagome was kind hearted, but healing an enemy just went too far.
"No, she didn't. She promised me not to kill, nor to hurt you. Now bring her here, we don't have time." "Come on, Sango." Miroku readied himself to retrieve the bleeding woman from that dangerous place near Naraku. Sango sighed and drew her katana. Then they started running towards Kagura.
"Oh no, you don't." Naraku reacted quickly and darted a tentacle towards each of the humans. Both of them took a step to the side, dodging the tentacles, and hacked them apart. "Tch." Naraku started to bomb them with tentacles. "Don't forget about me!" Inuyasha held the red Tetsusaiga in his hands and growled at Naraku. "WIND SCAR!" Naraku's mouth rose into a smirk. Then he disappeared in the clouds of dust that began to rise from the ground after being hit by the extremely strong attack. "Did I do it?"
After slashing the rest of the tentacles, Sango and Miroku used Inuyasha's distraction to save Kagura and bring her to Kagome. They laid her down in front of the cage Kagome still was in. Only now Kagome realized the danger Kagura was in. An enormous hole loomed through the woman's chest and it was bleeding hard. At the sight, Kagome normally would have thrown up. But this was an emergency and her friend dying, so she didn't even spend one thought to the unattractive sight. Kagome placed her hands just above the hole, emitting her priestess powers to purify the miasma. The poisonous gas poured out very slowly and turned into beautiful violet light. "Kagura, don't you dare dying on us. I will not forgive you if you do." Tears started to well up in the girl's eyes and flow down her cheek. "Sango, try to stop her bleeding. I can only purify the miasma but I can't heal a wound." Sango sighed and took off one of her shoulder plates, taking out a small box. "Kaede gave me this. She told me only to use it for extreme emergencies. And I'm not happy to use it for helping an enemy. But since you are so desperate on helping her, Kagome, I will help her too. Kagura, this is going to burn." She talked calmly with a slightly angry tone. Sango opened the box and dipped two fingers into it. When she pulled them out, her fingers were covered in a green cream. "Miroku, hold her down." Then she started to smear the it right onto the hole. Kagura started to scream. "What the hell is this? This hurts even more than being stabbed." She struggled and tried to escape from the burning pain inside her stomach all the while screaming full-throated. Miroku had troubles holding her down. "I told you to hold her down, Miroku." Sango had raised her voice now, too. "Take your staff if you can't do it with your hands." Miroku placed his hands on Kagura's shoulders and pushed her down with all her might. Sango continued to spread the lotion on the wound. Once the cream was on the wound, it was immediately drawn into the dark red flesh making sizzling noises and black steam arose. The places where Sango put the cream, the wound immediately dried out, stopping the bleeding.
Meanwhile the cloud of dust had dissipated. And what Inuyasha saw didn't please him. Naraku remained in his place in front of the throne, completely unharmed. The craters which accrued from the wind scar led around Naraku into the wall behind him. And to top it off, the barrier around him was not pink but blue. A light blue similar to the colour of the sky. Inuyasha was surprised. If not even his red Tetsusaiga could break that barrier, then what could? "What is this? Why's your barrier blue, Naraku?" Naraku chuckled evilly. "This, Inuyasha, is the barrier of the sky dragon Kumaji. It was made by his magic. Combined with little particles of his scales, this barrier is impenetrable." "Don't make me laugh. I always managed to destroy your barriers. And I will do so again! ADAMANT BARRAGE!" Inuyasha's Tetsusaiga became diamond again and started to shoot out shards of diamonds aiming for Naraku. But the bullets didn't hold their path. The closer they got to the blue barrier, the more they got pushed away. The diamond shards ended up missing Naraku with more than one meter distance and crashed into the wall around the throne. "What?" Naraku chuckled again. "Kumaji is able to manipulate the air. So what do you think happened, Inuyasha? None of your attacks will hit me. And even if they would, the barrier would hold them of." "Dammit! Curse you, Naraku!"
As Inuyasha was fighting Naraku, the other three were still trying to heal Kagura. Sango had run out of cream, but Kagura was still bleeding. The lotion only sufficed for half the hole to dry out. Kagura finally calmed down, but coughed and spit a lot of blood. "Stop it, you guys. Don't waste your precious power on someone like me. For me, every hope is lost. With wounds like that, no one could survive." "Stop talking, Kagura. It only takes you more of your life." Kagome's tears were flowing in streams. She couldn't bear the thought of losing a new found friend so fast. "Kagome. These are probably my last words." "NO! Kagura, no! You'll survive. I won't let you die here." Kagura smiled. "Thanks, Kagome. I appreciate your kindness. But the end is closing in. Although I wanted to see HIM one more time. Just once. And still. I have to leave here. Forever. But at least I'm free now. I can be free. I can finally become the wind itself." Then she closed her eyes and her head tilted to the side, face towards Kagome, smiling.
Kagome's POV
She was happy. I could see it. And even so, I was sad to no end. The pain of losing a friend. I had never felt it before. And I was glad I didn't. It was horrible. This emptiness in my heart. It was like a part of my heart just broke away. Something was missing. My lung felt dry. It got hard for me to breathe. With each breath of air I breathed faster. I needed to fill my lungs with oxygen. I had enough oxygen, but I didn't feel like that. My breathing got erratic. I was right on the verge of fainting. "…GOME! Kagome, what's wrong? Talk to us!" It was Sango. I could see her. Although my eyes were filled with tears, I could make out Sango's form. But I couldn't answer. I wanted to speak, but not one word got past my lips. I wanted to tell her that everything was okay, even though it wasn't. I didn't want her to be concerned about me. I gave up to try and answer her so I could continue to fight the urge to just close my eyes and drift off into the land of dreams. "Inuyasha." Huh? Did I just say that? I let my head sink down. "Inuyasha." It really was me. But I didn't want that. I didn't want to disturb him in fighting Naraku. "Inuyasha, she's calling for you." It was Sango this time. Stop it. He couldn't just stop fighting. Naraku would attack us. "Inuyasha, we'll hold him off for as long as possible. Take some time to speak with Kagome." "Alright. Thanks, you guys." No! Inuyasha, just leave me.
"Kagome, are you okay?" Did I look like I was okay? My mouth didn't do what I wanted it to do, I was not far from fainting and Kagura died. I'm not okay. "Inuyasha." Again. My mouth went independent again. "What is it, Kagome?" "Inuyasha." "I'm listening." He took both of my hands in his, looking at me concerned. Behind Inuyasha I could see The others struggling in fighting off those tentacles of Naraku's. "Kill him. Destroy him. Annihilate him. Erase his very existence from this planet!" What? Did I just say that? No. I would never say something like that. I'm not the person to say or even think about something like that. But now it hit me. This emptiness in my heart was replaced by hatred. Hatred for Naraku. The man who killed Kagura. My friend.
Inuyasha looked at me with a shocked expression. He was just as surprised as I was from my words. "Kagome. Don't let yourself get engulfed by darkness and hatred. If you do, you'll never get out of it. And I don't want this to happen to you. I don't want anything bad happen to you. I was planning on killing him anyways. So don't worry. Everything will be okay." His words. They felt so… calming. I felt my breathing getting even again and slowing down. I knew, that if Inuyasha was here, there would be no problems. Everything would be okay. I felt the control over my body returning to me. "Thanks Inuyasha. I'm okay now. So give it your very best." I started to emit my priestess powers through my hands and let them flow into his hands. "Kagome, what are you…?" "I'm sure my purification powers will help you in breaking that nasty barrier of his. Use them wisely. I'll cheer you on." I smiled at him, trying to give him some motivation. And seemingly, it worked. He leaped up and took off towards Naraku.
I looked back to Kagura. She was still smiling. Somehow it didn't seem like she was dead. She looked like she was sleeping and had a beautiful dream. I brushed my hand over her peaceful face and removed a strand of hair. "Did you hear, Kagura? Everything will be alright. We'll defeat Naraku and then give you a proper funeral." I smiled and a single tear rolled down my cheek. "We'll never forget you."
Narrator's POV
Inuyasha joined Miroku and Sango to help them with defeating Naraku. He drew his Tetsusaiga and started to slice tentacles. "Miroku, get behind Naraku as much as possible. And as soon as I fire my wind scar, use your wind tunnel to pull it into Naraku's direction. " "What? Why? Aren't you aiming for him?" "I'm not. His barrier would push my attack off anyways. Now just do it." "What about the Saimyousho?" "Forget about them! This is our only chance." Miroku hesitated. He knew it was dangerous to absorb too much of those things, he would die. And if it would be in here, everyone else would die too. Although his wind tunnel could take some more of the poisonous insects, if he thought like that every time, sometime it couldn't take anymore. "Fine. But you better know what you're doing, Inuyasha." Miroku started running to Naraku's side, readying himself for the dangerous plan.
Inuyasha let his Tetsusaiga get red and took an attacking stance. "You ready, Miroku?" "Yes. Let's do this!" Naraku smirked again. "Inuyasha, it doesn't matter what you're scheming. You will not break this barrier." "We'll see about that!" Inuyasha made an elegant motion, taking the sword above his head. He let Kagome's priestess powers flow into his Tetsusaiga. A pink light enfolded Inuyasha. The light began to travel through and over his body to the broadsword held over his head. As soon as it arrived at the weapon, it started to swirl around it wildly. The already red Tetsusaiga looked stunningly beautiful with the pink light covering it. And then it started.
Inuyasha let his arms fall down for using the wind scar. He saw his own and Naraku's demonic aura and looked for the place they clashed. As soon as he found it, he let the pink glowing red Tetsusaiga swing down, giving the power of his arms into the slash. The Tetsusaiga cut through the wind scar and shot out the energy wave capable of killing a hundred demons in a single sweep. This time, the energy wave didn't glow yellow, but pink instead. And now, time seemed to freeze.
Kagome excitedly looked at the scene happening outside of her cage. Sango had placed herself next to Kagome's cage and in front of Kagura protective. She didn't want to get in the way of the two cooperating men. Inuyasha only just fired the attack. He still was at the ground with the Tetsusaiga and was lifting his head to see what was happening with his plan. The attack aiming for Naraku was going to his left, apparently missing its target. Miroku was standing to Naraku's right, untangling his best weapon in his hand and opening his fist. Naraku still didn't attempt to move even one single inch and still smiled evilly.
And the next few seconds happened so fast, Kagome couldn't really get hold of them. Miroku had opened his fist and removed the beads. The wind tunnel started to suck in every loose thing in its path. The wind scar changed its direction and went for Naraku. At the same time Naraku released his beelike insects. All of them immediately went for the everything devouring hole. Miroku didn't care about them and continued to draw the wind scar in his direction. Then it impacted. Due to Miroku changing the direction of the energy slashes they didn't impact on the same time. The first wave didn't have an effect on the wind barrier. Naraku felt himself safe behind his barrier and began to smile again. Then the second one impacted. This time the shield didn't do what it should have done. The energy left a big hole in the barrier, making a passage for the third wave. Said one immediately broke the barrier apart, colliding with Naraku himself. The face of the evil half demon turned to an expression of shock and horror just before he got torn to shreds. He let out an angered growl. "Curse you, Inuyasha!" Then he released a cloud of miasma and disappeared together with it. The only thing staying there was a small blue jewel. It fell on the ground from where Naraku's chest was before.
Immense relief washed over the others. They won. They really did it. Miroku closed his hand again and tangled the beads around his arm. Then he sank to the ground. "Miroku!" Sango ran over to him worriedly, afraid that his wind tunnel was not much before breaking. "Miroku, are you alright?" Miroku smiled and wrapped his arms around her. "Don't worry, Sango, my dear. Everything is alright as long as you are alive." Sango was completely startled and her face flushed a hundred different shades of red. "What? Uhm… ah… I… Miroku…" She gave up the try to speak and enjoyed the hug. Until the monk's hand wandered down, that is. "PERVERT!" She slapped him across his face, leaving a red print of her hand on his face.
Kagome smiled at the 'flirting' love birds. But she couldn't really smile for long, because she was still down from Kagura's death. And also she was still locked inside this death cage. She still had to tell Inuyasha how the cage worked and hope that he would find the right keypad. Kagome was ripped out of her thoughts when Inuyasha came to her. "Everything okay?" Kagome met his gaze and answered in a low voice. "Yes, I'm fine." "Okay, now let's get you out of there." "Inuyasha, wait. Don't act without thinking. If you try to destroy the keypad, the cage will immediately crush me." Inuyasha stopped in his attempt to do an iron reaver soul stealer, frightened of the thought. "And how can I free you?" "You have to get the key. It's inside a little drawer inside the throne. You can open it by pressing the jewel on the engraved picture on the throne. But if you get it, the iron bars will start moving towards me." Inuyasha was clearly confused. "And how can I save you then?" "As soon as you get the key, there will appear twenty keypads all over the cage. And only one can open the cage. If you fail an attempt to open the cage, the bars accelerate." Just as Kagome, Inuyasha didn't like this. The chance that she would die was too high. "You have time to open fifteen out of twenty keypads. That's what Kagura told me." "That's way too risky. Isn't there any other way?" "Well, there may be…?" She made a short pause. "But I don't like it." "What is it? I'll do anything!" "Kagura. If you get the key with her hand, maybe the trap won't activate. She told me, that if she, Kanna or Naraku would open the hidden drawer, the trap wouldn't activate." Inuyasha immediately Stood up with a fleeting "I'll try." "Inuyasha!" He stopped in his track and looked at her. "Handle her with care, please." He turned away from Kagome to Kagura. It was a horrible sight. She lay on the ground, not breathing anymore and a hole through her stomach. Beneath her an immensely big puddle of blood, some of it already dried out. Her clothes were stained with the blood shed from her stomach. Inuyasha ignored Kagura's terrible state and carefully lifted her up on his arms.
He had seen terrible and disgusting things in his life which were much worse than this. "Miroku, lend me a hand here." Inuyasha had reached the throne and couldn't take Kagura's hand to open the drawer. Miroku left from Sango's side and joined Inuyasha at the throne. Then he carefully took the woman's hand and pressed the jewel on the engraving with her finger. And right beneath it, a drawer came out of the throne. Inuyasha set Kagura down on the throne and took the key. Then he went back to Kagome to get her out of the cage. Inuyasha put the key inside the lock and turned it. The lock clicked and sprung open. "Seems like it worked." Inuyasha took away the keypad and opened the door. As soon as the door was opened, Kagome flung her arms around her saviour and hugged him tight. "Thank you, Inuyasha." Kagome was whispering in a low voice. But with Inuyasha's sensitive dog ears, he could hear her loud and clear. "I'm so glad you came for me." Small tears formed in the corner of her eyes. "Idiot. Why would I leave you behind?" "I thought that, maybe, I had angered you too much. I thought you'd hate me after what I did back then. I was so afraid." "Kagome. I would never ever in my entire life let you get hurt or killed. You are important to me. My closest friend I ever had." "Inuyasha…" Kagome looked into Inuyasha's face and saw the seriousness in it, before leaning into his chest again and starting to sob to her heart's content. Inuyasha held her tight and slowly stroked her back comforting her.
Miroku and Sango looked at each other smiling. They knew that the other two needed their quiet moment with each other. Nothing else to do, they started getting ready to go back home again. But then, Miroku remembered something. He walked to the point Naraku was standing the time he got defeated. He bent down and picked up the jewel laying there. He turned to look at Sango and showed her the jewel. "What do you think this is? Sango took it in her hand and looked at it. "Maybe it's got something to do with that sky dragon Naraku was talking about?"
Meanwhile Inuyasha and Kagome had stood up and joined the others. "What's that?" Inuyasha looked at the jewel in Sango's hand. "That, my dear friends is the jewel of the sky dragon Kumaji. It is the source of its power." Everyone turned their head at Inuyasha. And on his shoulder sat a flee. "Myoga? When did you get here? You waited until the danger was gone, didn't you?" The tiny flee sweat dropped and tried to talk himself out of the situation. "What are you talking about? I was here the whole time." "Yeah, of course. Anyways, what did you say about that thing?" Myoga, relieved he was off the hook, continued talking about the jewel. "Right. As I said, the jewel is the power source of Kumaji. Now that it's been taken away from him, he's probably dead. The jewel holds the extreme power of the sky. Master Inuyasha, you can probably use it to further strengthen your Tetsusaiga. Please, draw your sword and try placing it at the handle of the sword." Inuyasha did as he was told and drew the majestic broadsword. Sango handed him the jewel. Inuyasha took it and held it at the end of his weapon. The jewel glowed in a bright blue light, making everyone in the group close their eyes. When the light subsided, they opened their eyes and looked at the handle of the sword. The blue jewel had merged with the Tetsusaiga, leaving it with a new design. The golden cap at the end of the handle had grown a little crater on top of it. Inside, there was the sky jewel. The blade took the form of the dragon scaled Tetsusaiga, but instead of green, it was blue.
"Whoa! A new dragon scaled Tetsusaiga?" Inuyasha was fascinated. "What can I do with it?" He looked at Myoga, waiting for an answer. "Up until now, the Tetsusaiga was a completely offensive weapon. However, with the jewel of the sky dragon, you can evoke an extremely strong barrier with the ability to drive off projectiles aiming for you. Try calling it out with 'wind barrier'" Inuyasha looked at him questioning. "You said you were here the entire time, right?" Myoga got confused. "Yes?" "Then why didn't you just say I can build the same barrier Naraku just did?" Myoga sweat dropped again. "Uhm… I have an important appointment, so I'm going now." Myoga rushed off, taking the biggest jumps he could. Inuyasha clenched a fist. "That flee! I'm going to kill him one day." He shrugged it off and tried out the new gained ability of Tetsusaiga. "Wind Barrier!" The Tetsusaiga glowed in a blue light and built up the barrier in front of the half demon and the sword. The barrier had a beautiful blue colour similar to the sky. The barrier had the form of a giant dragon wing. "Wow. It's beautiful." Kagome was stunned by the beauty of the barrier. "This is awesome. Now I don't even have to dodge or slash Naraku's nasty tentacles." "Inuyasha, I agree that this is great, but we should get going now." It was Miroku who interrupted them. "I think we wasted too much time here." Sango agreed with Miroku. "Miroku is right. Kaede is probably worrying about us." "Wait. Inuyasha, could you carry Kagura? I want to take her with us and give her a funeral." Kagome had a very sad look on her face as she looked at the demon woman still sitting on the throne. Inuyasha saw just how much his best friend suffered, so he didn't decline her wish. "Fine. If that's what you want." He went to the throne and heaved Kagura up on his arms. Then they all went back into the other room. "Kirara, Shippou, let's go." Shippou sprung up from his sitting position. "Finally. This took you long enough, Inu…" Shippou immediately shut up when he saw the dead woman in Inuyasha's arms. "Sorry. Let's go." Then they all stepped into the portal again to go back to their time.
Though Kagome didn't forget about the fact that this was their basement, she didn't want to worry the others more. She would just go back after they held the funeral for Kagura to check on her family. So she kept quiet and continued walking through the tunnel.