Asher took a step back. He wasn't prepared for this. His air of confidence seemed to leave him. He could feel his emotions now…but it was too soon. He'd lost the power to use the Nothing Blade. Now, he was weaponless and defenseless. He was afraid.
"Come, now. There's no need to leave now. We were just starting to have fun!" Naraku swiped at Asher, who just barely managed to jump back away from Naraku's extended claws.
What was he going to do? Anyone who might be able to help him was pinned down, and his weapon was gone. Was this it? Was this the end? Did he come this far, only to get his heart back and die in the process? He tried to take a step back, and realized he was in pain. He fell to one knee, and grasped his shoulder. He'd almost forgotten Naraku hit him. He didn't think about it as Xanthas…he didn't need to. He would have healed faster as a Nobody…he wouldn't feel it like this…but he was overwhelmed. He didn't even have the strength to dodge Naraku's next attack.
Naraku laughed. He began to glow strangely. "I'm afraid…that this is the end for you."
He pulled out something that looked like a sword, and a blast of energy shot out from it toward Asher. Asher closed his eyes. He waited for the impact.
As Asher braced himself, he felt a gust of wind, and a small amount of heat…and then he felt normal. As if nothing had happened. He opened his eyes and looked forward. He saw a figure standing in front of him, holding back the blast as it curved around them in a dome, until finally it dissipated. He smiled, and almost laughed. "It's about time you showed up, Brandon."
However, as the dust cleared, he saw that it wasn't Brandon standing in front of him. It was a girl, someone he hadn't seen before. Who…
"Something tells me," the girl said, "that this guy isn't the bad guy here."
Asher smiled when he saw the Keyblade in her hand. This must be the girl Brandon was talking about. "No, I'm not. Thank you. If you wanna know who the bad guy is, it's the ugly one."
Naraku had a look of distaste on his face. "Who are you? Why do you interfere? This is not your battle."
"It's my battle whenever there are Heartless involved, freak. That's why I got this Keyblade. I learned that real quick."
"But apparently the concept of proper grammar still eludes you."
Star scoffed. "I didn't come here for a lecture. I came here to kill whatever was bringing the Heartless into this world. Guess who it is?"
Asher frowned. "Be careful! He can regenerate!"
Star smiled. "We'll see about that."
She took a swing with the Keyblade, and removed Naraku's right arm. After a moment of concentrating, Naraku developed a look of pure terror. The arm wasn't growing back. He took a step back to rethink his strategy.
"Oh, no you don't."
Star jumped forward and cut Naraku straight down his body. The two pieces of his body fell to the ground and vanished into puffs of smoke, just like the Heartless. The Keyblade disappeared from her hand, and she turned back to Asher. She grabbed his hand and pulled him up.
"Thank you very much. I owe you my life."
Star smiled. "No problem at all. Don't worry about it. My name's Star. What's yours?"
"My name is Xa…" he paused. That wasn't his name anymore, was it? "…Asher. My name is Asher."
"Well, it's very nice to meet you, Asher."
"Star…you wouldn't happen to be the girl Brandon is looking for, would you?"
"You know Brandon?!" Star grabbed him by the shoulders.
"We met, a while ago. He seemed like a real nice guy," Asher said, flinching in pain.
Star saw that he was hurt. "Oh, I'm sorry. Here, let me get that for you."
She wrapped a few bandages around his shoulder. "So, what were you doing here, Asher? You don't look anything like those guys," she said as she pointed to Inuyasha, Kagome, Sango, and Miroku.
"It's a long story. I might tell you about it later. But I'd like to go home, now. I got what I came here for. There's nothing I can do for anyone now, really."
"What do you mean?"
"Well, I guess I'll tell you the gist of what happened. I lost my heart, and became a Nobody. Losing my heart allowed me to put more strength into my body, but now that I've gotten it back, and become whole again…I'm not that strong anymore."
Star laughed. "That's ridiculous! You got a part of yourself back! If anything, you should be STRONGER than you were when your heart was gone."
Kagome spoke up. "She's right. You were only thinking about power. Real strength comes from courage. It comes from your heart."
"A whole hell of a lot of good courage does me when I can't fight."
"Who says you can't fight?" asked Inuyasha. "If you think you can't fight, then you quit too easily. You can't go around your whole damn life giving up just because things seem hard. Sometimes you have to fight. Even if you think you can't."
He picked up a sword from the ground, still in its sheath, and threw it to Asher. When Asher caught it, he hesitated. "Thanks…but what do I do with this?"
Inuyasha looked puzzled. "What do you think you do with it? It's a sword, you idiot! You kill things with it! Damn, you're thick."
Asher looked annoyed. "I meant, does it have any special powers?"
Inuyasha shrugged. "How should I know? I'd say 'ask that guy'," he said, pointing at a corpse, "but if you did, he probably wouldn't say much. Dead people tend not to be very talkative."
Miroku stood up, now fully conscious, and brushed some dirt off from his robe. "It's not the weapon. It's not about how fast your weapon is, or how deadly. It's about how you use it. It's about the strength of your heart and of your mind, not just the strength of your arms. The weakest man in the world could kill someone with a mere dagger if he got close enough and hit him in the right spot."
Asher nodded. "All right, if you say so. Star…would you mind bringing me along with you? I kind of don't have anywhere else to go."
Star smiled, and brought out her ship. Motioning toward it, she said, "Sure. Hop in. Next stop: Wherever it wants us to go," she laughed.
Asher and Star got into the ship, and floated off into the sky.
Inuyasha let out a loud "Hm". "I still don't like him."
Kagome laughed. "You don't like anyone, Inuyasha. Just grab the Jewel Shards and let's go."
