They emerged into the starlight, breathing sighs of relief as the cold night air washed over their faces.

"We finally made it," Bon heaved, dusting off his pants, "Who knows how long we were climbing, though. It might already be too late!"

There was no telling how long they had been crawling through the winding path of tunnels Kono-hana had led them through. Logan looked up at the sky, but there was only a veil of deep blue sky spattered with a spray of stars. It was pretty, but no help as to telling them what time it was.. He scanned the forest, shivering slightly, not sure what he was looking for.

"Hey - look there," he pointed to a large section of forest where the trees had been laid bare, smoke still curling off blackened limbs, "Could that be Rin's handiwork?"

"The demon child?" Masaki asked, voice quivering a little in fear.

Bon's eyes were wide, "Shima, Konekomaru...all the others..."

"I'm sure they're fine," Logan tried to sound comforting, hoping the feeling got across. He wasn't too good at this sympathy thing, "Those are some tough kids."

"If that pointy-eared idiot hurt anyone, I'm gonna beat the shit outta him! Come on!" Bon clenched his fists and started stomping his way up the path, fuming.

"Where are you going?"

"To the shrine! If Iha-naga is going to use Yukio to perform the sacrifices, it'll go down at the shrine. And if we want to help Kono-hana reclaim the mountain, that will the best place to do it."

"He's right. If Iha-naga waits until sunrise to perform the sacrifices, we still may have time to reach the summit. We're fairly far up the mountain already."

"Why would she wait until sunrise?"

"Some think there is powerful energy in the rising of the sun. If Iha-naga is trying to gain power, it would be to her advantage to wait until sunrise," Masaki answered, already starting to walk up the slope, away from Logan. Bon was already out of earshot, fueled by his anger.

Logan took one more glance at the scorched forest, feeling uneasy. He knew the kid had juice, but seeing just the extent of his destructive power brought their situation into perspective. He remembered Rin's eager expression when they had been talking earlier - it was hard to think a goofball like that could really pose this much danger.

He had felt a connection to the kid - misunderstood, feared, shunned by normal humans. The Wolverine was the animal side of Logan, the raging beast that could tear someone apart and not bat an eye. He had always feared that side of himself to some extent. He didn't want to be an animal. He hadn't asked for this, even though it made him powerful. He thought he had understood what Rin was feeling, but maybe he had only just begun to relate. If he had this kind of fearful power, Logan would question his very humanity. It made him think of Jean, and what she had become - the Phoenix. The thing that hadn't quite been Jean, the woman he loved. She hadn't deserved to die, she hadn't asked for her fate. The power had just been too much, too overwhelming.

The immortal one, you are the only one who can defeat Iha-naga.

What did the goddess mean by that? He slid his claws out and looked down at the deadly blades. Was he going to have to stick these claws in someone else's chest, someone who didn't deserve to die?

Bon was shouting at Logan to catch up. He was angry - but he wasn't even thinking of killing Rin. He was going to beat the shit out of him, like an older brother getting even. His eyes shifted to the priest, Masaki. Surely killing Rin had crossed his mind. He didn't even call the kid by his name, he called him the demon child. Is that what Rin was used to being called? A demon, an evil monster that everyone hated and feared?

What was he doing? None of this was his concern - he had one reason for being here. Getting Yukio and getting out. If what Suguro and the priest said was true, everything would be going down at the shrine. That meant Yukio would be there.

"Shut up, will you? I'm coming," he called back, sliding his claws back into his fists and turning his back to the smoking trees, eyes fixed on the path ahead.

Luckily, for some inexplicable reason, Iha-naga hadn't used the heart fragment to take control of Shiemi and Izumo's familiars. Without them, they would be in real trouble. As it was, everyone was fighting their hardest to keep the demons at bay. Okumura was expertly and precisely gunning down any demons that drew too close. Still, it wasn't enough. Iha-naga seemed to have sicced every demon in the forest on their small group. Every demon, that is, except Rin.

Yukio looked towards the mountain, wondering what his Iha-naga was up to now. She had Yukio, so she could begin the sacrifice. But the mountain looked strangely calm - why hadn't she acted?

Almost as if he were reading his mind, Konekomaru spoke, "Iha-naga could be waiting until sunrise to begin the sacrifice, couldn't she?"

Okumura inwardly berated himself for not thinking of it himself. Performing the ceremony at dawn would give Iha-naga even more power - but, if that were the case, it bought them a little more time to act.

"We need to get to the mountain shrine," he stated.

"Okay, great. How are we going to do that? Even if we weren't being attacked by demons, it takes hours to climb Fujisan!" Shima cried.

Yukio clenched his jaw, spinning around and tossing a holy water grenade into a cluster of demons. Shima was right - it would take too long to hike to the mountain and climb to its peak. Plus, they were hardly dressed for a mountain ascent. Still -they didn't have much of a choice.

And if they stayed here much longer, there wouldn't be much of them left. The demons were closing in.

He still couldn't figure out why Shiemi's greenman hadn't succumbed to the power of the heart fragment. In fact, none of the greenmen in the forest had seemed affected by the malignant force. Perhaps it had something to do with their strong connection to the forest? Either way, he would have to trust them despite his lack of information. Desperate times called for desperate measures.

"Shiemi - I need your help," he called.

"Yuki! What do I do?"

He eyed the mountain once again, then the expanse of forest separating them from the peak.

"We need to get to the mountain. Do you think Nii-chan can communicate with the Kodama in the forest? Maybe they can help us."

He knew it was a long shot, but he doubted the tree spirits enjoyed Iha-naga's occupation of their forest. Especially since she had just torched a good portion of their kin. They might just be willing to help them, especially if they knew they were going to try and defeat the goddess.

Not, not try. They had to defeat her.