The scent of blood filled the air as I ran; it was a mix of Inuyasha's and Kouga's blood as well as the blood of the demon, Naraku. As I approached the scent I saw no castle, this troubled me. I quickly came to an opening in the woods and saw Inuyasha standing with the Tetsaiga almost alone if not for Kagome and the others behind him at a distance and Kouga who was charging at strange looking demon woman with a fan. He jumped to attack but somehow he flew away, as if carried by the wind. Both the demon woman and Kouga were pretty bloodied.
"Inuyasha!" I shouted as I approached him. I stopped when I was by his side.
"Where the hell have you been!" He yelled.
"I'm here now so what does it matter?" I asked. "Who is that, she smells like Naraku."
"Kagura, one of Naraku's incarnations. She has the power to control the wind and even the dead." Miroku explained as he and the others approached us. "We've fought her before and she's even killed some of Kouga's comrades in a fight long ago."
"Explains why he's so pissed." I said. "So let's let him fight Kagura, so we can go find Naraku."
"She's right; we can't be wasting time here." Inuyasha agreed. "Got that wolf! We're leaving her to you!" Inuyasha shouted as Kouga was pushed back by Kagura's dance of blades.
"Oh no you don't mutt! I'm taking down Naraku!" Kouga shouted back completely distracted. What a fool. Kagura smirked at this, pulled a feather out of her hair, and flew up into the sky on it.
"This fight is pointless, seeing as we all want the same thing. If you truly can…go and destroy Naraku! I shall see you all at the castle." She shouted as she flew away.
"What the hell just happened?" I asked. "She just gave up…for no reason at all…and told you to kill her master…?"
"I'm not sure, I think for now we can trust her…somewhat. At least it seems she won't attack again. I believe we should continue on." Miroku shouted; he had already headed off as had everyone else. I just let it go and followed. As we headed on we were suddenly stopped by a barrier.
"This is it, Naraku's castle." Inuyasha said.
"So hurry up and break the damned barrier mutt!" Kouga shouted angering Inuyasha, who complied. The Tetsaiga turned red; something I'd never seen before and he swung it at nothing in front of us. As he did so a crack appeared in the air and the scene in front us changed to a huge castle; Naraku's castle. I tried to ignore all the strangeness and focus on the fight we were about to rush into; leaving my thoughts of Sesshomaru behind as well. We rushed toward the castle, once we finally got inside the miasma surrounded thickly around us and a voice echoed in the air.
"So you all have finally come. Shiori, I see you have returned as well. I see that you failed in killing Inuyasha and the others." Naraku said.
"As if I would do your bidding, Naraku! If you're so powerful why don't you take us all on yourself instead of hiding in the shadows?"
"Kukuku…Then how about a piece of myself?" He asked menacingly. A light came through the shadows. It was light from a mirror, holding the mirror was a young demon girl all dressed in white. Next to her was a young human boy holding a chain scythe, Kagura, and behind them was demon man with long black hair, Naraku. The miasma faded near them and behind them was thousands of demons and Saimyosho. "Kanna, Kagura, Kohaku, kill them."
The demons charged at us, which was child's play for me. No one else seemed to have an issue with the small fry either. After killing off several demons I saw that Inuyasha and Kouga were fighting the little girl and Kagura, while Sango and Miroku were fighting the boy. Kagome, Shippo, and Kirara were still fighting off some small demons together. I looked toward the prize, however. Naraku, who was simply watching from a distance, seemed to be wide open. I charged at him dodging or killing off any demon in my way. I sifted through the two fights, barely noticed by anyone I might add. I leapt into the air preparing to strike and just as I was about to hit him, I myself was struck by something. I hit the ground, hard. I sat right up to see what had happened. A new demon was in front of Naraku, it looked like a giant dragon or snake like demon. He had huge horns on his skull, green scales, and a long snake-like body, and his eyes were like piercing daggers. This annoyed me greatly, this decoy. Naraku however, smiled, he was amused by his appearance. The dragon's body shifted to lie around Naraku.
"Drakon, I want you to kill the woman." Naraku told him. "When you are done, I shall set you and your family free." It seemed I was not the only one Naraku chose to use. I pitied the dragon, but seeing as he was standing in my way of killing Naraku, he had to die.
"You swear to release them?" Drakon asked. Naraku nodded slightly in reply. "Then you've got a deal, Naraku." Drakon seemed to hiss his words. He sprang quickly at me, his mouth wide open, trying to devour me in one bite. I jumped out of the way just in time; I was not expecting such a large dragon to move so fast. He sprung again before I could strike at him myself. This time he cut open my right arm with his claws after barley missing me with his teeth. Oh, did I wish I had my swords with me. I fell to the ground dropping to my knees as soon as I landed. I closed my eyes and concentrated, unlike before I wasn't angry. Now I could control my power, for it could be the only way to take on an enemy such as this when I had nothing but my claws. I opened my eyes and sprang backwards away from the dragon as he attacked again.
Black flames surrounded my entire body, and I felt my body shift strangely into its true form. Although to me the process took a few minutes, in reality it was less than a second. I burst through the flames, giving out a loud ground shaking howl. Drakon stared me down, amused, but also on guard. I pushed off the ground as hard as I could and used my senses to attack at his most vital spot, his throat. I bit down hard, feeling the warm blood splatter out and all over me. I held him until his body when limp, even a few minutes after, making sure he was good and dead. I dropped him and howled; I felt sorry for killing him. He was simply Naraku's pawn; he even had a family waiting for him. Unfortunately now was not the time to think about this, I had to find Naraku. I searched through the miasma, with my now very powerful eyes, and growled angrily with frustration.
I could not know that Naraku was long gone; he used Drakon, Kagura, Kanna and Kohaku as diversions. Of course, I knew what that meant. I had been tricked. How foolish I felt, being deceived by a demon like him. I gave an immensely loud howl in my anger. This seemed to scare Kagome and the others, who could barely see the fight. They did not know what was making the ruckus. I heard Inuyasha and the others close by. I rushed to them; luckily they all seemed to be safe. Kanna, Kagura, and Kohaku were long gone as well. Inuyasha saw me and held the Tetsaiga to my face, right in front of my muzzle. Looking as I was, a giant black wolf demon just about as tall as the castle, it was understandable that he was afraid for the lives of Kagome and the others. I snorted, and sat down, which confused the hell out of Inuyasha. I laughed and shifted back into my human-like form. This seemed to confuse Inuyasha even more so.
"Uhh…" He began, but Miroku interrupted.
"Where's Naraku? Were you able to defeat him?" Miroku asked.
"No, he sent a dragon after me using the time it took me to kill it to escape." I explained.
"Damn, we were so close!" Inuyasha shouted infuriated. I looked around, other than several scrapes, cuts, and bruises, no one was badly hurt.
"So now, what do we do?" I asked. No one answered me.
"Well, I don't know about you mutt but I'm going to find Naraku!" Kouga shouted. Honestly, I had forgotten he was even with us. Inuyasha didn't seem to care about Kouga's claims this time though. So, Kouga ran off, forming that whirlwind again. Good riddance.
"Kohaku…" Sango whispered under her breath. Only Inuyasha and I heard her. Out of the corner of my eye I could see tears in her eyes. This made me curious, but I knew now was not the time to question her. After awhile we started walking, to where, I had no idea. I started ignoring them all again as we walked. Then again, I really didn't need to. No one really spoke, other than maybe Shippo and Kagome once in awhile. As night fell we set up camp, Kagome and I cooked dinner. Inuyasha had found and killed a wild pig for us. No one made much conversation at dinner either. Well, until Inuyasha finally got to ask his question.
"Shiori," he started, "how did you transform like that today?" He asked.
"Well," I said after swallowing my food, "I have enough demon blood in me that I can transform into a giant wolf. My entire family can do it." I explained.
"No, not how you transformed at Naraku's castle." He corrected me. "I was talking about when we were in the forest."
"Oh…" I said, now noticing everyone was staring at me, all thinking the same thing. "Inuyasha, have you ever lost control, of your demon powers?" I asked. He grimaced and I watched Kagome flinch beside me. "I'll take that as a yes. Well, as you lose control, so can I unfortunately. Being more than a half demon makes it even more uncontrollable because I have more demon blood in me fighting off the little human blood in me. Sometimes when I get really mad, that happens to me."
"When I transformed, I lost all of myself. I didn't know what I was doing. I killed a bunch of human men once, it scared me. All those things I did, it scared the crap outta me. What if I had gone after Kagome, or Miroku and Sango, or Shippo?" Inuyasha said. I wasn't sure if he was talking to me or himself. "Do you know, is there a way for me to be all demon, but not like that?"
"Yes, I do actually, and one day I'll show it to you." I said smiling. He looked at me strangely but ignored me. "Anyway, Sango, are you feeling okay?" I asked still looking straight ahead towards Inuyasha. She was startled that I had spoken to her; she sort of jumped when I said her name.
"Yes, I'm fine." She said. She was not convincing in any way though.
"If you don't mind me asking, why were you crying today?" I asked still not looking at her directly; I was staring at the fire now. She didn't answer at first, but finally she explained.
"The boy, at Naraku's castle, he is my younger brother, Kohaku." She said slowly. This actually shocked me, though I barely showed it. How cruel it was for her brother to go along with Naraku. To even fight his own sister! "Kohaku was killed due to Naraku's trickery. My whole village was wiped out, and then Naraku revived Kohaku with a jewel shard. That same shard that now keeps him alive, but it also keeps him under Naraku's control." Just like me. This is even worse than what I'd previously assumed. Naraku is using Sango's brother to torment her. Poor Sango, she had to fight her own brother today. "I just couldn't bear to see him like that."
"I understand Sango." I told her, finally looking right at her. "I could never deal with that as well as you are. You're so very strong Sango, inside and out." I can't believe how sentimental I was being, but still it was the truth.
"Thank you." Sango replied. I smiled at her and we all finished dinner in silence. Then we all got some well deserved sleep. For in the morning we would head off toward the next village for clues as to where Naraku could have gone.