Do you feel it Sango? The feeling of death creeping in?" Zanshin asked as he slowly strangled her to death on the old wooden table. "Well don't go dying too fast on me. I've waited years for this moment and I intend to relish every second!"
From her position on the table, Sango desperately gurgled and flailed her limbs, looking for any means possible to save her life. Zanshin appeared to have all the control and leverage he needed to keep this going to his intended conclusion, but Sango was determined to find some way to avoid her fate. Then, out of the corner of her eye, she saw it. An old rusty hammer lying on the table. It was just a few feet away from her right arm, but she knew under her current condition, she would need the perfect opportunity get ahold of it.
It came a few seconds later when Zanshin leaned in closer. Sango's struggling had gotten weaker as his death grip around her throat had taken it's toll and now he appeared to believe she was no longer capable of resistance. As he leaned in, perhaps hoping to catch a good look at the expression on her face as she took her last breath, Sango suddenly sprang to life, pulling her right leg back and then thrusting it forward into his face. With all the leverage he had over her, her kick wasn't strong enough to have much effect, but it was enough to get him to let go of her neck and stumble back a few steps. Then Sango made her move, grabbing the nearby hammer and hurling it into Zanshin's face as hard as she could.
The impact was devastating. Had Zanshin been human, it probably would have killed him on the spot. The hammer blow practically dented his skull, causing him to stop dead in his tracks and drop like a stone.
As Zanshin hit the floor, Sango quickly sat up on the table and started gratefully sucking in air. Although her precise hammer throw had bought her some precious time, she knew it wouldn't be enough. "I've got to get to my weapons." Sango thought to herself."Hopefully that hit will keep him down at least long enough to find them."
But it was already too late. Sango's eyes grew wide with shock as she saw Zanshin rise to his feet, standing up mere seconds after receiving the hardest hit of the fight so far. He was now sporting a massive visible headwound, but still looked relatively unhindered. Not only that, he was actually smiling! "My god! What on earth do I have to-"
"Nice job Sango. You got me good that time!" Zanshin told her. Then he grabbed ahold of Sango, lifted her off the table, and threw her all the way across the room.
Sango let out a horrified scream as she sailed through the air, traveling at least 20 feet before slamming into a wall and falling back on solid ground. From there she desperately tried to recover, rolling on the ground and moaning as Zanshin watched in amusement. "So, strangulation wasn't enough for you, was it?" Zanshin asked as he picked up a wooden board that had been knocked over earlier in the fight. "I guess you'd prefer I beat the life out of you! Well I'll be happy to oblige, Sango. I'm going to break every bone in your fucking body, and I'll be sure to save your neck for last!"
Zanshin emphasized his point by striking the wooden board against the ground as he walked over to Sango. His walk was slow and methodical, as if he was in total control and still didn't see Sango as a serious threat.
As Sango slowly rose to her feet, she noticed something: Her sword. The familiar blade was lying in the shadows a mere 10 yards away at most, but in her miserable condition, it might as well have been on the moon. "There's no way I can get to it before he reaches me." Sango realized. "Before I try to retrieve it, I'll need to take him down unarmed."
No one was more aware then Sango of how unlikely this seemed. Zanshin had already beaten her senseless while she still had her weapons. But she knew this was her only chance. "He thinks I'm no match for him under under these conditions. Well I'd better do my best to convince him that's true!"
Sango started to stagger and sway as she stood up, doing her best to give the impression that she barely had the ability to move, let alone fight. In reality, this was probably going to be the case if this fight went on much longer. Her vision was already blurring and her whole body felt numb. But at this moment, she knew she still had the ability to keep going. All she had to do was convince Zanshin otherwise.
Perhaps due to how close it was to being accurate, Sango's ruse appeared to work. Zanshin continued to walk over to her slow and deliberate, not bothering to keep his guard up. When he finally reached her, he seemed assured that his victory was at hand.
"This is it, Sango. It's time you learned the real meaning of pain," said Zanshin boastfully. The he raised the wooden board up and swung it directly at her face.
But it never came close. As soon as he started, Sango quickly ducked under the swing while simultaneously kicking Zanshing's feet out from under him with a spinning leg sweep. Zanshin quickly snapped back up, only to receive a massive blow to the head from the wooden board, which was now in Sango's hands. Sango smashed it into his skull twice more before slamming it down on his shoulder bone, breaking the piece of wood in half and knocking Zanshin down on his knees.
Now Sango was in control. "You want to talk about pain? I'll show you some fucking pain!" She shouted as she decked him in the face with a downward left-hand punch and followed with a right hook.
"TAKE THIS FREAK!"
With a final shout of rage, Sango drilled Zanshin with a spinning back kick, this one the hardest she had unleashed so far, once again planting her armored boot into the center of Zanshin's face. The blow instantly knocked Zanshin flat on his back, and this time he didn't get back up.
"I downed him! I really downed him!" Sango though as she stood over his prone body for a few seconds, panting with fatigue. Zanshin still showed signs of life, but for the moment, he seemed completely out of the fight "Now's my chance. I need to get a weapon before it's too late"
Sango's sword was still lying a mere dozen or so yards away, but getting to it was still a chore. The pain and weariness of her long battle had robbed her of the ability to walk straight, much less run. The best should could manage was a clumsy rapid shuffle, forcing herself forward with every step in a frantic attempt to regain her weapon before Zanshin recovered.
Suddenly Sango heard movement behind her, followed by the sound of approaching footsteps. Clearly, Zanshin was back on his feet and pursuing, though from the uneven sound of his steps on the ground, it appeared he was hardly in much better shape then her.
"W-where do y-you think you're going Sango?" He sputtered out as he stumbled after her. "I'm not done with y-you yet." For the first time in the entire fight, Zanshin was showing a clear sign of weakening. But that provided little comfort to Sango, who was still certain he would be more then capable of killing her if he caught up.
"Just gotta keep going." Sango told herself, not even bothering to turn around to see how close Zanshin was. Instead, she devoted all her effort into covering the last few yards between her and her only hope of survival. Zanshin was clearly gaining on her, and she could hear his footsteps closing in. "Almost there. Just a few more steps..."
Zanshin and Sango reached their destinations almost simultaneously. As Sango's fingers closed around the hilt of her weapon, Zanshin grabbed her by the shoulder and spun her around to face him with his right hand, while pulling back his left for a finishing blow. But Sango turned out to be just a little bit quicker. Before he could launch the attack, Sango instinctively thrust her sword at him, aiming directly for his heart. Her aim was off by a bit, but she still plunged the blade through his left shoulder joint just inches above her intended target, causing him to cry out in pain with a shout that boomed through the entire area.
"This is it Zanshin!" Sango shouted in triumph. "I'm going to rip you apart!"
Even in his state of agony, Zanshin was still defiant. "Y-you think this is going s-stop me?" He asked while his hands shot up to the sword handle in an attempt to pull it out.
"Maybe not, but lets see what happeneds when I cleave through heart!"
Sango clamped both hands around the hilt of her blade and pulled down with all her might, doing all she could to cut through the final few inches of his body between her sword and a victory strike.
"NEVER!"
Sango's plans were brought to an abrupt halt as Zanshin took his right hand off the sword hilt and quickly wrapped it around her throat. With superhuman power, his one good arm slowly lifted her off the ground and once again hurled her into the air, this time almost straight up with a vertical throw. Sango barely had to time to regret how easy it was for him to toss her light, nimble body around before her head smacked against the ceiling and she plunged to the floor, smashing through the nearby wooden table on the way down.
Zanshin stared at his handiwork for a second to take everything in. Sango lay sprawled on the ground amid the wrecked table, her arms outstretched and her eyes closed, showing no sign of consciousness. "Gotcha now bitch!"Zanshin thought to himself. "No mere human could recover from that any time soon."
However the situation was hardly much better for Zanshin. At that moment, he was overcome by pain and collapsed onto his side, with blood pouring from his shoulder wound and pooling up around him. For the first time since his initial encounter with Sango years ago, Zanshin felt completely drained and had to fight off the urge to pass out himself. His body was wracked with injury and Sango's sword was still impaled through his body just centimeters above his heart. He knew had to carefully remove it before he could take further action, as even the slightest movement could be fatal as long as it was there.
Doing all he could to ignore his pain and fatigue, Zanshin slowly rose to his knees, took hold of the sword hilt, and began carefully pulling it out of his body. This action only increased the bleeding and pain he was going through, and it was hard to resist the temptation to simply rip it out as fast as he could. But he knew it had to be done carefully and calmly, no matter how painful it felt.
"This is all that remains." Zasnhin thought as he cautiously pulled the sword out. Sango is out and this is the last thing between me and her demise! This is my final challenge! Just a few more minutes of agony to endure for something I've been waiting for years. It's just a shame Sango won't be able to see it coming..."
"Damn you foul demons! Go back to your graves!" Shouted an exhausted Miroku as he slammed his staff into one of them, sending it stumbling off balance into a cauldron full of unidentifiable brew. He had spent the last several minutes fighting off the endless swarm of demon drones and his progress was less then promising. Severed body parts and corpses littered the floor around his feet, but now it had gotten to the point where he barely had enough strength left to lift his weapon, and seemingly nothing he did could slow them down.
His foes seemed to have no intelligence or skill whatsoever, only some primitive built-in urge to kill him, and no amount of beating or mutilation could deter them. Cutting off their arms didn't stop them attacking with their teeth, while cutting off their legs only caused them to come after him by dragging themselves across the floor. Even decapitation didn't stop them, as their bodies still seemed to have the ability to detect his presence without sight.
Two more demons lunged at Miroku with their bare hands, attempting to strangle him to death. Miroku was barely able to duck out of their grasp before planting his last two attack sutras on their bodies, causing them to disintegrate to dust in a violent flash of light. Still surrounded by the mindless demon hoard, Miroku realized his situation was getting dire. They still had him surrounded from every angle, and the only weapon he had left was his staff, a most impractical tool for his current situation. At this point, Miroku would have given anything for the presence of Sango's Hiraikotsu or Inuyasha's Tetsaiga, both of which could have easily cleaved through the entire hoard within seconds. But he no such assets, only a thin metal staff that had was almost too tired to hold.
Smiling slightly, Miroku realized the situation was quite similar to one he had faced recently, thinking back to himself among the hoard of plant demons, fighting to hold them back single handedly after Inuyasha was wounded. But this time there would be no companions to come to his aid. He only had one other card to play, something he had been hoping he wouldn't have to use: His wind tunnel.
Looking up at the rapidly advancing hoard, Miroku quickly realized he had no other options. The Wind Tunnel was his only chance for survival against the demons now, and he simply had to risk sucking up all the foul potions and brews in the laboratory along with them. With the demons rapidly closing in, Miroku thought of Sango as he reached for the seal on his right hand.
"If I die in the process, at least I can prevent all these demons from getting to her..."
But he never got the chance to find out. Before he had time to remove the seal from his Wind Tunnel, he was stopped by a most unexpected sound: A loud animal roar that echoed throughout the entire lab. Miroku (and even several of the demons) quickly turned to the source of the noise to discover it came from Kirara. A blazing, full-sized, enraged Kirara standing in front of the staircase leading down the lower level.
Apparently infuriated at the swarming attack on her companion, Kirara wasted no time charging into battle. The effect was immediate and decisive. In a matter of seconds, Kirara began cleaving through the demon hoard like a mobile buzz saw, rapidly tearing the surrounding demons apart with her razor sharp teeth and flaming claws. Gore and body parts flew through the air as Kirara ripped into her assailants, while the flames from her demonic claws burned their bodies to ashes, finally giving them a permanent death from which could not recover.
Battered, mutilated, and spread out around Miroku, the demon swarm had no chance against Kirara's furious onslaught, which was soon joined in by a re-energized Miroku. In under a minute, she and Miroku had reduced the entire hoard to a small handful of stragglers who posed no immediate threat.
"Great job Kirara!" Miroku shouted in joy as he rushed to her side. "You really turned the tide...but I think you got a little carried away."
Surprised at this statement, Kirara surveyed the area to see what he was referring too, which soon became clear. The entire laboratory was engulfed in flames. Fire from the burning demon corpses had quickly spread throughout wooden structure, while additionally being fed by racks and cauldrons of flammable liquids and potions scattered around there area. Kirara turned back to Miroku with an apologetic look on her face and gave a depressed-sounding meow, which in her full sized state, seemed almost comical.
"Don't worry Kirara, I'm still grateful for your assistance," Miroku assured her while rapidly trying to plan their next move. "I was hoping to torch this building anyway, just not with us in it."
Quickly looking around, Miroku saw the path to the stairs leading up to the top floor was still unobstructed by flames. "Kirara, this place is going to burn down in a matter of minutes. I'm going after Sango. You stay here and finish off the remaining demons. Don't let any of them follow me up!"
Kirara gave him a look of disapproval, showing she clearly wanted to go with him after her mistress. "I understand you want to come with me, but you need to finish things here. If Zanshin's on the top floor, I can't be dealing with him while worrying about these monstrosities coming after me from behind. Once you've killed off the last of them, come and join us and we'll all escape together. I'll do everything I can to help Sango, and we'll get through this Kirara, you have my word."
With that, Miroku took off to the staircase as fast as he could, doing his best to overcome the fatigue from his recent battles and the heat from the fire that was rapidly becoming unbearable. Once he reached the stairs, he began his ascent as rapidly as possible, while praying desperately that he wasn't too late to come to Sango's aid.
"Almost there...just a little bit more." Zanshin thought to himself. Through slow and methodical action, he was almost finished extracting the sword from his body. Just a few more seconds and the last obstacle between him and Sango would be removed. He had noticed Sango was starting to show signs of life. She was now softly moaning and making slight movements. But it was no matter. Her eyes were still closed and she still apeared incapable of even the slightest resistance.
Suddenly Zanshin became aware of a new presence in the area. "Fire! My laboratory burns!". Sure enough, the entire room was filling up with smoke, while flames from the lower level had already begun to dance around the floor. Clearly the time for slow deliberate action was gone. Forcing himself not to think about the consequences of losing his lab, Zanshin focuses all his efforts on one final pull. With a final shriek of pain, he wrenched the Taijiya sword from his body, pulling it free as a large amount of blood spurted out of the wound with it.
Zanshin had successfully extracted the sword from his body without rupturing his heart, but what now? A quick assessment of the area revealed the fire in his lab was out of control and nothing could be done to contain it. In a moment, it would be nothing but ashes. He pondered leaving as quickly as possible, allowing the flames to finish off Sango for him. Considering the extent of his wounds, that would seem to be the best option, but he almost instantly rejected it.
"No, I must be sure the cursed slayer won't get away! I have to see her death with my own eyes."
In a state of misery he had not experienced in years, Zanshin painfully pulled himself to his feet and slowly shuffled over to Sango, clutching her sword in his one good arm. Blood continued to spill from his injured left shoulder, marking a trail on the ground as he headed over to fallen slayer, determined to put an end to their years-long rivalry once and for all.
Meanwhile, amid the wreckage of the table, Sango had managed to regain consciousness, but just barely so. Through her blurred vision, she could hardly make out the figure of Zanshin approaching, but knew full well what would happen once he arrived. Desperately she tried to react, but could manage only the slightest movement of her limbs. It seemed like she really had given this fight all she had. "A pity then, that it wasn't enough. Well, at least I gave him one hell of a thrashing. Maybe the others can finish the job..."
Despite his battered condition, Zanshin managed a smile as he closed the final gap between him and Sango. "This is it!" He thought as he raised the sword up with both hands for the final blow. I'm really going to resolve this for good...
"Sango! Where are you? We need to get out of here now!"
Zanshin turned in surprised response to Miroku's frantic shouts as he charged up the stairs to the top level, causing him to stop dead in his tracks. A moment later, Miroku appeared through the thick smoke surrounding the stairwell and made a split second assessment of the situation, seeing Sango lying prone amid the wrecked wooden table and Zanshin standing a few feet away brandishing her own sword.
"ZANSHIN! YOUR TIME HAS COME!"
The sight of Sango laying battered and beaten at Zanshin's feet caused Miroku to fly into an uncontrollable rage, and he charged at Zanshin with a burst of strength even Miroku didn't realize he had. Zanshin had never seen anything like this from a mere human, and barely had time to raise the sword in his hand to block the monk's initial blow.
"I'LL KILL YOU!" Miroku bellowed in rage as he continued to rain down blow after blow with his staff, giving Zanshin no time to counter "I'LL RIP YOUR FUCKING HEAD OFF!"
From her position on the ground, Sango watched the events play out through her blurred vision, amazed at what was occurring. "Miroku! I was right. I knew I could count on him when our lives are on the line," though she still found herself surprised by the fury of his actions.
Zanshin desperately backpedaled in response, doing all he could to block the incoming staff swings with the sword in his hand. But he could find no way to effectively retort. His battle with Sango had left him too badly wounded to be a match for the exhausted, but still mostly able-bodied Miroku. Eventually he found himself backed up against a wall, with the flames of the fire rapidly closing in around him.
Seeing he now had the leverage he needed for a huge advantage, Miroku kept up his attack. A hard strike from his staff sent the sword flying out of Zanshin's hands, and he followed it up with a massive blow into the demon lord's skull. The impacted sent him crashing through the crumbling wall and out of the structure into thin air, where he let out a horrible scream as he plunged to the earth outside.
A fall from such a great height, and addition to all the previous injuries he had received, would have killed nearly any man. But Zanshin was no man, and his demon endurance enabled him to persevere, if only through the most basic motor skills.
Weakly pulling himself up, Zanshin looked up at his laboratory building in flames. With the fight over, he now had the time to consider the results. His laboratory was gone, as was his assistant and his demon army. Over a year of resource gathering and hard work was lost. Now had would have to spend countless more months working as Naraku's lackey until a new laboratory was established. "Of course, that's only if Naraku needs me for that long. At any time, he could decide I'm no longer necessary, and I know full well what that means."
Zanshin angrily cursed his fate and tried to contain his rage. "It's all their fault. That damn monk and his slayer whore!" That had destroyed his laboratory and done the unthinkable: They had made him flee from mere humans! Him! Zanshin! The greatest demon warrior the nation had ever known!
Still, Zanshin knew this was his only option now. His injuries were simply too much for him to keep going. He had to retreat, regroup, and calmly prepare for his next move, which was all too clear.
"Rasta, my loyal servant!" Zanshin shouted to the surrounding woodlands as he stumbled away from the burning building, doing all he could to put as much distance between him and it as possible. "Come to me!"
Within seconds, Zanshin was joined by his dragon servant, Rasta, the very same dragon he had used to fly to the abandoned village. Knowing that Rasta's fire based attacks could not be used in the lab without risking burning it down (as had ultimately occurred), Zanshin had decided to leave him in the woodlands in the unlikely event he needed a rapid escape, which had also turned out to be the case. As he watched the demonic dragon fly to his location, he took some consolidation that at least his wise advance planning had allowed him to avoid complete catastrophe.
As soon as Rasta was close enough, Zanshin weakly pulled himself into a mounted position, infuriated by how difficult it was to perform such a basic task. Once he was onboard, he had Rasta take off and steered him to his pre-determined location. Taking into account the lessons of his first encounter with Sango's slayer team, Zanshin had set up a reserve lair to serve as a special "safe house" to take refuge in case such an event were to ever occur again. His lifetime of experience with necromancy and magic used to create demons had given him special knowledge and skills for regenerating his own body, and the "safe house" contained all the supplies and herb needed to do the job.
In a matter of hours he would be completely recovered and back at full strength, Zanshin thought as Rasta flew him through the clouds to his destination. And then it would begin: His hunt. "The hunters will be my pray! I'll kill them no matter how long it takes or where they go. Their unspeakable offenses against me will be repaid tenfold."
His other long term goals now meant nothing. This was his task, indeed his sole purpose in life, and he would do whatever it took to see it carried out to the end.
Miroku watched in disappointment from the hole in the wall as Zanshin mounted his dragon servant and flew off into the sky. There was nothing that could be done about it now. The fall from the building had created too much distance for his Wind Tunnel to be effective, and now he had his own problems to deal with, namely that he and Sango were now trapped in a burning building.
"Farewell Zanshin," Miroku thought as he rushed over to Sango, who was struggling unsuccessfully to sit up. "I guess we'll have to settle this another time."
"Sango! Are you okay? We need to leave now!"
"M-Miroku?" Sango asked weakly. She was still in a daze and could hardly comprehend how things had just played out. "D-Did you get him?"
"Well I gave him one heck of beating," Miroku explained as he set down his staff and knelt down next to Sango to perform a split second examination, checking her over for broken bones or other crippling injuries. "But I'm afraid he's not quite out of the picture yet"
"Dammit! I almost-almost had him," Sango replied in muffled frustration. "Y-you should have seen it. I was so close-"
Finding no major injuries on Sango, Miroku quickly started looking for an escape route, while doing his best to keep her spirits up and prevent her from knowing how grim their situation was.
"I know, I saw how bad he looked when I got up here. You did good, Sango. Real good. We'll get him later. But first we've got to go. I'll get us out of here, I promise."
With that, Miroku lifted Sango off the ground and threw her over his shoulder, while grabbing his staff with his free hand. The flames were rapidly closing in around the wrecked table and they couldn't linger there any longer. However, upon picking her up, he was horrified to discover the stairwell to the lower levels was no longer a viable escape option. It was completely covered in flames and debris, making passage through it impossible
Frantically looking around for new means of escape, he could find only one. The hole in the wall created by Zanshin. Though falling all the way to the ground was certainly not an appealing option, at the moment is seemed like the only alternative to burning to death or suffocating. And with the flames rapidly spreading throughout the room, that was going to be the outcome in a minute at most.
Panting heavily, Miroku hauled Sango over to the ruined wall and prepared to jump out.
"Sorry Sango, but this looks like we'll have to jump. I'll try to absorb as much of the impact as possible..."
But right at that moment, a new option appeared. An option named Kirara, who smashed through floorboards from the lower level and landed right next to the stunned Miroku, ready to fly them away.
"Kirara!" Miroku exclaimed as he quickly draped Sango's limp body over her back. "Great timing as always! Now just let me collect Sango's weapons and we'll be on our way." Though he knew taking the time to retrieve Sango's weapons would waste precious seconds, he had a feeling his long term safety would be better served by taking the risk. Sango would never forgive him if he left her precious Hiraikotsu behind.
Fortunately, a weapon as conspicuous as a giant boomerang was fairly easy to find and it had not yet been surrounded by the ever increasing fire. Miroku quickly retrieved it along with Sango's sword, and even managed to find her broken arm blade on his way back to Kirara. Now with everything on board, he climbed onto Kirara behind Sango. "Alright Kirara, we've got what we need, now let us depart!"
Kirara needed no additional encouragement. At once she took off and headed for the hole in the wall created by Zanshin. Miroku suddenly realized the hole wasn't big enough for combined size of Kirara and her riders, but it would have to do. Ducking his head down and covering Sango's body with his own to provide whatever protection he could, he could only wait as Kirara smashed through the wall and broke free to the outside world. Several small specks of flaming debris rained down on Miroku's tattered robe, causing it to catch fire, but quick action from him managed to stamp it out before it could spread.
They had done it. Against all odds they had made it out of the laboratory, and not a moment too soon. A mere seconds after going airborne, Miroku looked back to see the entire rotten structure collapse into a burning wreck.
"Outstanding Kirara!" Shouted Miroku. "You really came through for us. Now find us a good place to make camp in the woods. Preferably somewhere with a good source of water. I've got to take care of Sango...and I could use a bit of recuperation myself."
As Kirara flew off above the woodlands searching for a suitable area, Sango began to stir. "Mirokkuuu...W-what happened? D-did we make it?"
"We sure did Sango! Everything's going to be fine. Zanshin's lab is gone now. He can't make anymore demons. We saved Tazumi all on our own."
"B-but Zanshinnnn...W-we have to go after Zanshin," Sango responded weakly. Despite being barely conscious, she seemed as determined to go after Zanshin as she was when the hunt began.
"We'll get him later. Now we need a break," replied Miroku as he started to gently rub her back, hoping it would help ease her pain. "Just relax and get some rest. You've earned it. I promise I can handle being in command for a little while."
Even Sango realized she was in no position to argue. Instead she simply responded with a weak smile. "Suuure, Miroku. Anything y-you saaayy...j-just don't gooo hunting him withouttt meeee."
With that, Sango closed her eyes and slumped forward against Kirara, settling peacefully into her soft fur as the last remnants of consciousness drifted away.
Author's note: Well I hope you all enjoyed this one, since it was by far the most difficult chapter to write since #6. In fact, I think it was tougher, since this had just as much action, plus the added challenge of having to write different events with different characters going on around the same time. Still I had a lot of fun with this and, I'd really like to hear your insight on how it turned out. I've gotten over 60 reviews already and I really appreciate each one. Keep em coming and I'll be happy to respond to them all. They are what keeps my motivation going :)