Author's note: And Here it is the epic climax of When Good Miko Go Bad, finally and it is soo not my fault its late I had it ready on Sunday but the sight was having issues and today has the first day I good get access to My Stories. I'd love to hear all your reactions in reviews, keep that in mind as you read.
Disclaimer: Inuyasha is in no way mine, the glorious invention of fanfiction simply allows me to make him do outrageous things that actually never happened.
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When Good Miko Go Bad
Chapter 24 Plotter Out Plotted
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A sizzle of energy was all that was left of the barrier once separating Inuyasha from the others. He charged forward and an onslaught of insignificant demons mobbed him, overwhelming the hanyou with their sheer numbers as windscar after windscar hardly made a dent.
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Across the courtyard Kagome was similarly engaged fending off dozens of low-lives with her makeshift bow and pure spirit arrows. Keeping them at bay long enough, she hoped, for Miroku and Tari to do their part. Sango too was clearing the lesser obstacles to allowing those specializing in sutras to focus on the larger threat. Tari and Miroku were both brandishing slips of paper which were all carefully torn into roughly rectangular shapes, charms and blessings written hastily in crayon. While Tari was chanting a sealing charm and erecting a barrier around the incarnation, Miroku distracted the beast with burning sutras, mixing in sutras of sealing and purification to assist the miko behind him.
All the while Shippou and Shiri watched from above them, Kiara had been instructed to keep them away from the main battle but also take out as many demons as she could from the air. Shippou sent out little bursts of fox fire allowing Shiri to throw weeping mushrooms at the enemy.
Everything was going according to plan, but that didn't mean it would necessarily stay that way, Kagome needed to remind herself as ashes rained softly around her. The large purple ogre incarnation that had crumbled the cliff and nearly killed Kagome had been rendered immobile by Tari and Miroku, who were now erecting a barrier to suppress the thing and effectively take it out of the fight. A demon with little intelligence and an arm capable of mass destruction would not bode well for either side in this enclosed space.
Despite the odds and their forged weaponry, the captives were doing remarkably well, which was exactly what didn't sit well with Kagome. Her plan, in light of the unfolding battle, now seemed completely inadequate, as if there were a giant gaping hole in the middle of it. A light bulb glowed in Kagome's mind. If she'd had a free hand she would have hit herself with it. Naraku hadn't joined the fight, granted Naraku had always used underhanded tactics; hiding away and getting others to do his dirty work, but this was so obvious; Naraku had planned on them fighting back, he'd had his demon hoards ready for that purpose and that was the reason he was nowhere near the battle itself, and if Naraku wasn't here then something more important must be going down where he was. Damn that bastard, two minds thought in sync.
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The sounds of battle traveled well, he reflected, as he watched the visual in Kanna's mirror to go with the audio echoing through the halls of his mansion. He's heard Inuyasha yell out to his beloved and relished the thought of ensuing battle. I do suppose I owe that half-breed, after all if it had not been for Inuyasha I would never have had the opportunity Kagome's unique abilities possess, even greater than those of Kikyou, the walking dead hold no true power. Though that would also follow I owe thanks to them, he shot a sidelong glance at the four miko standing on the other side of the room, as well for awakening the girl's potential.
Kagome, he thought to the girl as he watched her fight her way to the red-clad hanyou's side, your soul shall soon be mine.
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"Inuyasha!" an arrow flew past.
"Kagome!" tetsagia felled a demon.
As soon as she was within reach Inuyasha grabbed the miko's wrist pulling her briefly into a one armed embrace on the pretense of taking her out of a demon's path, just to assure himself that she was, as much as someone who'd just been shot could be, okay. "We need to find Naraku." She shouted as Inuyasha pushed her behind him.
"Where?"
Amber and brown met for an instant, "Close."
"Right, get on." Kagome effortlessly climbed on to the offered back sending an arrow through the thicket of demons to plant itself at Sango's feet. A nod from the taijiya and they were off. The familiar action of shooting over Inuyasha's shoulder came easy as did locking her knees at the exact right position around Inuyasha's waist. Inuyasha followed Kagome's instructions without hesitation, oddly glad of the nostalgic weight on his back. "How many?"
A pause as Kagome tried to sort out the trail of sensitivity that were individual jewel shards. "Too many, I can't count them all."
"Definitely Naraku." Inuyasha hissed as he picked up the pace.
"But, Inuyasha, there all three others beside his cluster." Eyes narrowing Inuyasha suppressed a growl, he'd take out Naraku and that bitch in one fowl swoop.
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Something is wrong, this is not how I had anticipated the battle; we need Naraku directly involved in the chaos if our plan is to succeed. A spark of power spilt off from the battle, veering in a twisted course that would bring it straight to the room in which four miko, a hanyou and the embodiment of the void resided. Lightly so as not to attract the hanyou's attention, Lady Deichi knocked on the minds of her sisters, entering the three minds and sending them identical messages. The girl is coming her consort is with her, be ready to use them. Three minds gave silent acknowledgement and Deichi retreated from the connection, focusing on the too powerful presence of Kagome and that dog racing closer. If it comes down to us fighting them directly the odds are not in our favor, we shall take the jewel shards and go, leaving the girl to destroy Naraku for us.
"Naraku-dono, company approaches as you no doubt are already aware, shall I have Marianne remedy the problem?" She already knew what Naraku would say and it would fit right into her plot.
"That will not be necessary, let them come."
Both miko and hanyou smiled in secret satisfaction, all things were going according to plan.
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"Left" Inuyasha veered left, the walls a blur as he passed. "stop" he skidded to a halt in surprise at the sudden change in orders, craning his neck around to try and see the girl on his back.
"Wh-" he began to shout, when a hand clamped over his mouth.
"We're close," she whispered in his ear, eyeing the next hall apprehensively.
Despite being thick as a brick wall Inuyasha lowered his own voice, "What the hell was that for Kagome?" he hissed.
She rolled her eyes as she climbed down from Inuyasha's back, "We don't need to make in any easier for them to tell we're coming, chances are they've already sensed us."
"So it shouldn't matter if they hear us coming or not." Inuyasha smirked in satisfaction at his own logic.
"No reason to announce it any more than we already have." The hanyou opened his mouth to retort but sighing heavily Kagome shook her head cutting off his argument, "Let's just get going, and quietly." She tisked. For a moment Inuyasha considered sticking his tongue out at her but thought it better to just get to the real fighting and followed after the miko as she followed the glittering trail of the shikon jewel only visible to her.
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"Sango!" the monk called passionately, fighting his way through the thicket of demons to the taijiya's side, absorbing the stream of youkai that were closing in on Sango from behind.
"Miroku!" she answered, thwacking away the demons separating them. As one they spun away from each other pressing their backs together as they always did when fighting large numbers. "Inuyasha and Kagome went to find Naraku." She yelled over the sound of battle.
If Sango had been facing Miroku she would have seen an uncannily smug smile creep onto his features. "Right. So we shall handle things here."
"You sure sound confident." Sango teased, bashing in a demon and halving another in the same swing.
A chuckle vibrated through Miroku's back and into Sango's, "Ah Sango, with you by my side my confidence never falters." Three demons disintegrated by his sutras.
Blushing, Sango put as much fierceness into her voice and her attack as she could muster to hide her embarrassment, "Don't get cocky." She advised and let hiricotsu fly.
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"Stay close."
Kagome rolled her eyes at Inuyasha's protectiveness, but was prevented from commenting by a tingling sensation in the back of her mind. Its not a shard…its… "Inuyasha behind us."
They spun in unison, readying their respective weapons, only to face, "Marianne." Kagome gasped, just as Inuyasha growled, "You lookin' for a fight?"
Smiling wistfully Marianne simply shook her head. "I have been instructed by my Lady to cloak you."
Both hanyou and miko tensed at the odd sensation of warm water trickling from the top of their heads down their torsos and along their limbs, leaving behind a vague feeling of absence, as if they themselves had lost their substance.
Their eyes snapped from Marianne onto themselves both of them had the strange appearance of being only half there, a feint blue light veiling them. But it was not what they saw that shocked them the most but what the felt; Kagome could always sense a demon's presence or aura and was especially attuned to Inuyasha's aura, as was Inuyasha to Kagome's scent and presence; it was the absence of these senses that unsettled them.
Whipping their heads around to face Marianne and demand an explanation brought another shock; the priestess was no longer there. Not even a hint of her spiritual essence remained to indicate that she had been there at all.
"…What… the hell just happened?"
Kagome thought feverously a nagging recollection edging the confines of her minds; 'With this technique I can mask the aura of anything I choose, however it is only temporary.' The memory voice explained to her months ago. "Inuyasha, we have to move now, we won't get another chance."
Though he didn't really understand what was going on the determination in Kagome's eyes was convincing enough for him. His grip on tetsaiga tightened for battle. "Which door?"
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A subtle nod to Deichi indicated that the appropriate the preparations had been completed, and the three miko surrounding her began the countdown at the same moment she did. 10, Marianne took a quarter step to the left, 9, Sister Chika rolled her shoulders, 8, Lady Hiroto shifted on her feet, 7,Dechi flexed her fingers, 6, Naraku smirked, 5, ,4, 3, tension ran through those gathered, 2, the miko held their breath…
1! Weapons were conjured, a mirror swirled to focus on a girl's face and a windscar ripped through the door, taking Naraku and everything on that side of the room with it.
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An arrow with spiritual energy flaming around it with a vengeance led the assault the windscar joining it only a breath later. The combined attack tore through the mansion, creating a gaping hole in the side of the structure. When the smoke cleared Kanna stood in the middle of the wreckage and Naraku floated in pieces within his barrier. Five bows and one sword pointed directly at him.
Naraku gave a dark chuckle, "Well this is…not unexpected." He eyed the miko who had been his temporary allies with dark humor. "You wish to take the Shikkon no tama for yourselves I presume."
"That is correct." Clipped the head miko.
"How disappointing, I had hoped you would make things less difficult. I supposed it can't be avoided though." As if feeling a great burden Naraku sighed, then switched abruptly to sound commanding, "Kanna."
The little albino incarnation nodded, holding her mirror out straighter she began to chant. Her voice was so soft it whispered like wind, an eerie chill emanating from and the mirror she held, which glowed brighter with each breath spoken. All eyes were focused on that mirror entranced and horrified by the mind freezing power spilling from the girl who embodied the void. The final echo of Kannas chant hung in the air and solidified. "Come to me oh souls who walk with the spirits."
For the length of two heart beats all was still and on the third heartbeat the light from Kanna's mirror engulfed her and shot out to the four miko of the demon temple enveloping them within it. They struggled, firing arrows at the white child but they simply went into the mirror harmlessly. Within moments three had fallen to the odd sucking tendrils of light. Inuyasha and Kagome could do nothing but watch eyes wide, while Naraku smirked in satisfaction at the display.
"How dare you." Snarled Deichi, who had been forced to her knees.
From her vantage point in the doorway Kagome's eyes widened to saucers at what she was seeing, "Inuyasha," she hissed, a single furry white triangle twitched around to show the addressed was listening, "She's stealing their souls." To Kagome's eyes it was as if the auras surrounding each priestess were being absorbed by the light from Kanna's mirror and sucked in. Deichi's soul had been weakened but not drained completely.
The light condensed and returned to the mirror from which it had come, leaving Lady Deichi clutching her chest with her left hand and gasping for air or spiritual power. "Take comfort in the fact that your powers will be put to good use." Taunted Naraku with a dark chuckle. Now on to the main event."
As Lady Deichi crumpled into an unconscious heap with a final, "You bastard," Kanna turned in a fluid semi-circle to point the mirror directly at…Kagome.
Inuyasha growled pushing the girl behind him and raising tetsagia a little higher. "So good of you both to join us, Inuyasha,…Kagome." He caressed the name sickeningly, sending a shiver down Kagome's spine. "With your power the jewel can be completed, and given new strength, after all it was Midoriki's soul that created the jewel in the first place, and your soul rivals the strength of hers, yes you will make a fine a jewel."
"You'd need hundreds of strong demon souls for that to work, and something tells me you don't plan on giving up yours." Inuyasha growled at the other hanyou, "And I don't plan on giving up Kagome either." With a steady swing of his arm Inuyasha brought down tetsagia blasting a windscar at the opposing duo.
It did nothing, not that he had expected anything more than irritating the enemy, but he had to do something other than stand there, and attacking wildly sounded like a good idea at the time and it sure made him feel better. For about half a second.
"Of course, I did not expect you to simply let her go, so you will be going with her."
It was Kagome's turn to get angry, drawing back her bow and checking the line, making sure it was straight at Naraku, "And just what do you mean by that."
So they truly are unaware of their connection. "It is simply really, with your powers and his the jewel can be strengthened to its original stat and then some. The power of two sacred jewels in one. And your souls will help create it."
"Inuyasha," his head cocked ever so slightly toward the raven haired girl behind him, "Even if he used your soul it wouldn't be enough to equal out the souls of the Elders, Marianne and me, the jewel would be to pure Naraku wouldn't be able to use it, he'd need more demon souls."
Inuyasha stiffened, "The courtyard." He snarled.
Behind him Kagome sucked in a breath, worry coloring her scent. "They'll be fine." He reassured her in a whisper, moving his lips as little as possible. In similar fashion Kagome nodded.
"Kanna." With the greasy unspoken order the light from Kanna's mirror intensified, had there been any the heat would have been unimaginable. A tugging sensation overcame them both; it was as if the mirror was trying to extract their bones taking their balance and energy in the process. Tetsagia pulsed in response, shaking in Inuyasha's grasp.
My demon blood is getting closer, Inuyasha struggled to suppress the rising demonic urges, but it was getting harder and harder to hold his sword steady yet alone wage an internal war. On the other hand, Kagome was slightly less affected, she'd experienced this type of soul sucking before; once when Urasue had drained her soul to return it Kikyou and again by Kanna herself, but this time it was different, not as if her soul were trying to leave her, but as if it were trying to suck her away with it.
Naraku watched from where he floated mutilated within his barrier, amusement and pleasure mingling on his twisted face. A vague outline of an idea formed within Kagome's mind. So you want my soul do you? The idea solidified. You can have it. With every ounce of her spiritual strength Kagome crafted an arrow forcing her will into its essence. It sparked to life flaring angrily with the power of Kagome's soul itself. Aiming directing for Kanna's mirror she released the arrow. It arched through the air for the few meters that separated them and sank into the mirror's surface from the suction and trajectory alike.
For an instant nothing happened and Kagome was convinced she had failed, when a crack split the mirror's reflective surface, fracturing the light and then the sucking of a moment ago transformed into a raging wind as orbs of light spiraled around the room before slamming themselves into the crumbled form of Lady Deichi, and another smaller orb sinking into Inuyasha.
"The mirror has overflowed." Reported Kanna flatly. "The souls have escaped."
"Feh, thanks for that Kagome," Inuyasha huffed as he steadied his arms, his limbs regaining their strength and halted their shaking. However Kagome was more drained than ever, her legs gave out. Inuyasha took a deliberate step backward to catch her with a shoulder, "Kagome" hiroksu. "Hold out a little longer Kagome." A shaky nod against his shoulder and a mutter of, "kay." were his only answers.
"Huh, this is unprecedented." Naraku eyed the half conscious miko over the inuhanyou's shoulder, "I will have to make sure not to underestimate that girl next time. Kanna." The albino stepped closer to Naraku and both of their forms began to swirl into nonexistence, a final windscar following after them.
"Damn, bastard got away again." Inuyasha moved to sheath the tetsagai but a hand slide over his stopping his movements. Spinning to look at Kagome Inuyasha tried to catch her gaze but she was looking somewhere else.
Across the room a presence was strengthening swelling to outrageous proportions; Deichi-sama was stirring.
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Power, it was like a drug the most addicting drug in existence, it grew within her chest, restoring what had been taken and reinforcing what was already there. She could feel it whipping around her tossing her clothes violently about and revealing her scaled over skin as her body adjusted to having the power of four souls within it. No it wasn't just four souls there was another power besides that of her own and her fellow miko, the taste of another uncompleted power, teasing her with its potential, a potential she had been craving for months was just beyond her reach. "Souls," Deichi struggled to her feet, "I need more souls." Her cry was loud enough that it echoed off the walls of the half demolished mansion and carried to the courtyard, where two miko exchanged worried glances.
She looked up following the sense of that teasing power, Of course it would have to be hers that troublesome wench her soul and her power, I shall take it all from her. Eyes with no irises locked onto Kagome where she leaned heavily against Inuyasha, who had one hand under Kagome's arm to steady her, the other directing a sword straight at Deichi. That cursed connection again. Deichi could see clearly now just how great an extent the bond between hanyou and miko. Unintentionally Inuyasha was giving his energy to Kagome, temporarily replacing that which she had lost, energy traveled in a circlet around them, almost as if a ribbon were connecting them, coiling around each of their wrists, but both parties involved seemed completely oblivious that there was anything unusual going on at all. So that is how she survived my arrow that half-breed was anchoring her.
"Give me your power." She shrieked. Launching herself over her fallen companions right at the pair of apprehensive warriors standing amid the wreckage of their own attacks. Inuyasha raised tetsagia but the sword did no good, Deichi extended two fingers and shot a sacred arrow directly at silver haired hanyou. It pierced his shoulder, the shoulder Kagome had been leaning on a moment ago.
Hissing in pain Inuyasha cursed, using several words that would be unsuitable for print. "Bitch." He ended, smoke billowing from his shoulder. Worry and anger met his nose, and a black head ducked under his arm, peeling away his sleeve to expose the spirit burn. "It's nothing." He winced as he tried again to push Kagome toward the relative safety of his back.
"You have meddled with my plans for the last time. You and that half breed",Inuyasha growled at the insult, "are going to die here." The combined voice of the elders plus Marianne intoned sending shivers and singles of 'wrong' down Inuyasha and Kagome's spines.
Scaly hands clamped around Kagome's neck pushing her back into the wall and away from Inuyasha before either could blink. Lady Deichi's body was unable to sustain the power of four souls simultaneously the excess leaching off her body in tendrils of bright blue smoke burning her flesh on in the process. Steam rose from where Deichi's flesh met Kagome's throat, "One step and she dies hanyou." Inuyasha froze mid-step, lowering tetsagai as much as he dared. "Now was that so hard."
Over Deichi's shoulder Kagome locked eyes with Inuyasha, he barely nodded in return. Two sets of eyes held identical looks of determination. Gathering her will power Kagome condensed her spiritual energy into her neck forcing it into Deichi with enough push to it that the elder was forced back, screeching as her hands scorched and sizzled Inuyasha swung the tetsagai prompting the elder to erect a barrier to deflect it. The tesagai pulsed red at Inuyasha's will, slicing through the barrier with only an instant of resistance. But before the blade could meet flesh Deichi let out an earsplitting scream, every ounce of light that had shown in the chamber earlier was now magnified tenfold in a pillar around Deichi shooting straight into the sky. The resulting pressure was crushing, on instinct Inuyasha dived toward Kagome bringing them both to the ground and shielding her with his own body.
The pressure increased to unbearable standards, Inuyasha thought his ears would start bleeding when Deichi's scream rose several octaves with it.
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In the courtyard seven sets of eyes widened at the blue pillar of astoundingly suffocating spiritual aura. Forcing them all to their knees. Everyone decked for cover when the pillar exploded outward, engulfing the entirety of the mansion disintegrating any demons still on the grounds. When the smoke cleared the only proof that there had ever been a mansion were the bodies and dust covering the grounds in mass quantities and the trees that were stripped of leaves leaving a strange patch of barren land where Naraku's mansion had once stood. With the power of four souls that were part demon and part priestess, the energies had leveled the mansion with one explosion.
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And there you have it folks the climax, the end, well not quite there is one more chapter in which all lose ends shall be tied, and much fluff occurs. See you in the epilogue, its already started so maybe a week. Remember to REVIEW!