Chapter 18:

Cracked Reflection

"We always see our worst selves. Our most vulnerable selves. We need someone else to get close enough to tell us we're wrong. Someone we trust."
― David Levithan, Naomi and Ely's No Kiss List

"Kanna," Naraku said. "It is time."

The void child gave a small nod of her head. "Yes, Naraku-sama."

"Do not fail me."

Kanna walked on without looking back. Her time had come.

Naraku watched his void incarnation leave with a small smirk on his face. He had been planning this for quite some time, but thanks to that damned Dragon, he had to adjust his plans. Now, however, it would be perfect. The spider-hanyou turned his eyes to a slightly larger replica of Kanna's mirror that hung within the confines of his personal quarters. With it he could see what Kanna saw, and as he watched the landscape pass through her eyes, he rolled a small blue orb between his fingers.

Ryura the Dragon would be out of his way soon enough.

Ryura let out a tongue curling yawn and without a free hand to cover his mouth, Tsuyoshi snorted beside him at the way Ryura looked. Night had fallen and apparently the young Lord was getting tired himself.

"That is a charming look, my Lord." The water Dragon snickered.

"Oh shut up. Not like I could help it," Ryura snapped back.

As they flew, Tsuyoshi gave another chuckle and twisted around in the air until he was flying directly above Ryura upside down. The hand that was free of his spear reached out and lightly poked Kagome's cheek with a clawed finger.

"It is hard to believe she and you were attempting to kill each other not more than six moons ago," Tsuyoshi said thoughtfully. He held a look that resembled wonder on his face.

Ryura blew a raspberry in an attempt to spit out Tsuyoshi's hair that flew into his face. "Good Kami, Tsuyoshi. Get that out of my face, I can't see where I'm going!"

Still upside down, Tsuyoshi gave him a blank look. "And pray tell, what exactly might you fly into?"

Tsuyoshi moved back around to his original position and both of them were forced to come to a screeching halt as they almost flew into the head of what looked like a giant man made from diamond or glass.

"Something like that!" Ryura yelled. "Where in the Hells did that come from!? It wasn't there a second ago!"

Being jerked from how fast Ryura had to stop mixed with how loud he was being had woken up, and oh was she ever cranky. She would take one of Souta's dirty, smelly socks in her face as a wake up call than how she just had woken up.

"Ryura..." she growled.

The Dragon Daiyoukai flicked his eyes down to Kagome and shook his head, "I didn't mean to wake you, but we have a slight problem."

"And that would be?" Kagome snapped.

"That," Tsuyoshi answered as he pointed a finger at the diamond giant.

Kagome craned her head back to look at him, only to see him pointing ahead. When her eyes fell on what he was pointing at, Kagome screeched and the two Dragons groaned.

Her screeching made the diamond giant's head slowly rotate until it was looking at them. Ryura cursed and Tsuyoshi quickly moved ahead of the other Dragon and Kagome. Despite him being floating in mid-air, he still dropped into a battle stance as if he had ground under him. Bending at the knees, his feet spread wide apart and with a quick whirl of his spear, he placed the dangerous instrument of death half-way behind him.

He was using a spear, but standing as if he was about to draw a katana.

"Kagome, I need you to slowly wrap your arms around me. I need to draw my swords," Ryura said without looking down to the Miko.

She didn't question him. Slow as she dared she circled her arms around Ryura's upper torso and held on for dear life while shutting her eyes tightly and silently telling herself not to look down. Around her she could feel Ryura's arms leave her, only to rise up, and she heard the hissing metal as Fujinga and Raijinga were drawn.

After the weight of his arms left her, Kagome couldn't stop herself from wrapping her legs around his waist to give herself an extra grip. She didn't want to fall, thank you very much. Now, if this had been any other time, Ryura would have been a sputtering, red in the face mess. Considering what was in front of him, however, his current position was the last thing on his mind.

Kagome did the possibly next worse thing to letting go. She opened her eyes and looked down. Her arms and legs unconsciously held tighter onto Ryura and she squeaked softly.

But the more she looked, the more a small figure on the ground began to look familiar. Standing at the giant's feet was a small girl with skin the color and texture of porcelain. Her hair was just as white as the yukata she wore and her feet were bare. In her hands she held a beautiful silver mirror.

"Kanna!?" the Miko whispered harshly. "What is she doing here?"

Neither Ryura nor Tsuyoshi had time to react to Kagome's whisper. The giant had perceived them as a threat and quicker than one might think, its large arm swept to the side, forcing both Daiyoukai to fly away with almost break necking speeds. Tsuyoshi and Ryura split apart from each other to hover on either side of the giant. This formation would make it harder for the giant to take them both out at the same time.

The giant struck out again, this time at Ryura once Kanna noticed who the Dragon Daiyoukai had clinging to his front. Ryura had just enough time to dodge, the giant's hand missing him and Kagome by mere inches, and he cursed loudly.

"Fuck! This thing is fast!"

"Don't use any special attacks on it! Kanna's mirror can absorb it and send it back at you!" Kagome cried out loud enough for both Daiyoukai to hear her. "I don't know what this thing is made of, but it feels like Kanna's mirror!"

"A mirror, eh? All we have to do is smash it then!" Ryura yelled. "Tsuyoshi!"

Across the way, the water Dragon gave a swift of his head and was quick to leap at the giant. His spear flew out in a flash of silver, and like Kagome had thought he would, he struck out with it like one would a katana. A large slash was left behind on the giant's shoulder, but quickly it began to nit itself together. Due to their height in the air, all of them missed the crack along Kanna's left shoulder mysteriously begin to form.

Tsuyoshi frowned and used the giant's shoulder, right where the wound had been, to propel himself out of the giant's reach.

A familiar shout floated by their ears and Kagome resisted the urge to beat her head on Ryura's armor.

"Wind Scar!"

And just like Kagome had said, the attack was absorbed and shot back down at Inuyasha, but not by Kanna. The giant itself had absorbed the Wind Scar. They heard Inuyasha curse loudly and saw his red and silver figure dart quickly out the way.

"Okay, what the fuck!?" he was heard shouting as he shot through the air, narrowly missing the Wind Scar that had been reversed on him.

"Ryura, let me down! I can help if I'm on the ground!" Kagome shouted over the rushing winds.

Ryura had been forced to quickly move out the way of the giant attempting to bat him out of the air again. Instead of answering her directly, the Dragon Daiyoukai zigzagged through the air, dodging another flying fist too big for its own good, and gently deposited Kagome on the ground. He was back up in the air in hardly any time at all.

Sango ran for Kagome, Hirakotsu held behind her in her hand and Kirara perched on her right shoulder. Miroku trotted along beside Sango and the monk held a frown on his face.

With only nods and small, tight smiles to greet each other, the three turned their gazes upwards to look at the giant and could only flinch when Inuyasha tried to use the Wind Scar again, which was absorbed and shot back at him. Inuyasha's pack and the Daiyoukai in the air were too focused on the giant to pay attention to the small chips and cracks that were forming on Kanna, still standing silently at the giant's feet.

"Inuyasha, stop doing that!" Kagome yelled. "It's Kanna, you goober!"

"Then what am I supposed to do, huh!?" the hanyou retorted as he came to land heavily close to the others.

Kagome groaned. "Anything but that! Just beat on it or something, like Ryura and Tsuyoshi are!"

The Miko pointed above them and sure enough, Ryura and Tsuyoshi were beating wildly away on the upper parts of the giants. Every now and then the two were forced to dodge the giant swinging at them, but over all, they were doing a pretty good job at keeping its attention away from those on the ground.

"I'll join the others in the air. Kirara!" Sango called. With a roar of fire, Sango was soon riding atop the fire nekomata and releasing her Hirakotsu.

Her departure caused Inuyasha to completely forget what he was going to say and with a loud sigh he stomped over to stand at Kagome's side. He slung Tessaiga upwards until it was resting on his shoulder as his free hand went to settle on his hip.

Miroku gave Kagome and Inuyasha a nod before he too joined the battle. He quickly ran around the giant's legs to stand on the opposite end. The fighting began in earnest with each of the group attacking in their own way without releasing anymore special attacks. Ryura and Tsuyoshi fiercely fought in the air alongside Sango, who was playing catch and release with her overlarge boomerang.

Miroku kept himself to the ground and lashed out at the giant's legs with the top of his oddly sharp staff. He rolled away just in time to miss the giant's foot stomping hard where he had just been. As he panted, he looked up to Kagome and Inuyasha. The two were quietly watching the fight, gauging what to do next, and looking back and forth from the giant and Kanna. Miroku whistled sharply to gain their attention, and when he had it, he held up two fingers and slowly wrapped the first around the second, combining them together.

Inuyasha's response was a large grin. He reached over and hauled Kagome onto his back without her giving much resistance. She too know what Miroku was wanting them to do.

Together the hanyou and the Miko soared through the air with the young woman clinging tightly to the back of Inuyasha's fire-rat haori. He bounced from one wall of the ravine they were in to the other until he was at the very top, and only then did he let Kagome down. When they turned to turn their eyes back to the battle, Inuyasha cursed loudly.

"Damnit! Kagome, look!" He pointed a clawed finger at the giant and Kagome's blue eyes widened.

Within its right hand the giant now held a large replica of Tessaiga that looked to be made from glass. Air was swirling around the blade's length and Kagome screamed.

"Get out the way!" Her voice was loud, piercing through the sounds of battle and alerting everyone to the same thing she and Inuyasha were watching.

Below them, Kanna looked up to the sky and with a soft voice said, "Wind Scar."

The diamond-like giant's head mimicked Kanna's, head lifting upwards to look at the same point in the sky as the void child. It raised its right arm and slashed upwards at that point in the sky, releasing four extremely large golden claw marks that sailed through the air and ripped through the clouds, lightning up the sky with a brilliant radiance that seemed to turn night into day.

The golden energy of the Wind Scar danced through the clouds much like lightning would.

As this happened Sango and Kirara shot towards the ground with the slayer holding out her hand that wasn't gripping Hirakotsu. She grabbed hold of Miroku's arm and pulled him up until he flipped around and sat behind her on Kirara's back. Ryura and Tsuyoshi backed away, hovering just over top of one of the ravine's high cliffs with their feet almost touching the edge. Ryura was preparing Fujinga as he watched the sky begin to churn and rumble.

Tsuyoshi's gaze flicked down to Kanna and he briefly saw her let go of her mirror with her right hand and raise it as high as she could into the air. The churning of the sky grew faster as she moved, yanking the water Dragon's eyes away from the small girl to the brightly glowing clouds above him.

"She is turning it into lightning, Lord Ryura!" Tsuyoshi exclaimed over the now roaring storm that was starting to form.

Ryura gave a nod. "My turn!"

He shot upwards and came to a stop right below the cloud lines and held up Raijinga.

"Dragon Thunder!" he yelled. Raijinga came to life with a crackling of electricity and with Ryura's directing its power, the sword began to combat the Wind Scar's lightning as it danced amongst the clouds.

Those same clouds without warning parted, showing nothing but clear, starry sky, and Ryura warily floated backwards away from it. What was happening now? He could only watch with a nervous curiosity as one of the stars above him began to move in quick circle.

It wasn't a star at all.

Horror filled him as the so-called star circled closer and closer to him. When he tried to move, his body wouldn't respond. He was frozen in mid-air, his eyes focused on the orb of light that was steady growing closer to his location. He couldn't look away, no matter how hard he tried.

"Inuyasha!" he roared when he found his voice. "Get Kagome out of here! Please!"

The desperation in Ryura's voice had Inuyasha on the move, despite his nagging thoughts of what the hell could be going on up there to make the Dragon sound like he did. Inuyasha ignored Kagome's protests and wrapped his left arm around her waist to pull her firmly against him. Even when she began to beat her small fists, along with her longbow, on his back, Inuyasha didn't release her.

He for once did as someone asked him to without much complaint and was dashing off with a powerful leap of his legs.

With his back now to the battle, Kagome could easily see what was happening as her group of friends started to become smaller and smaller the further away Inuyasha traveled. Her eyes found Ryura's form, her breath leaving her at what she was seeing.

The formerly thought of star was a small blue orb and it was connecting with the diamond mark on Ryura's forehead. Blue energy erupted from Ryura's body and he flung his head back and roared with the amount of power that was filling him.

"Inuyasha, we have to go back!" Kagome pleaded with the hanyou.

He roughly gave a shake of his head in response, "No way, Kagome!"

"It's the blue sphere of power!" she said in a panicked manner. "We have to help him!"

"What!?" Inuyasha screeched as he came to a sudden halt, spinning on the ball of his foot to look behind him. "Oh that's just fucking wonderful! Where the hell did that come from!?"

Inuyasha began to curse up and down until he was almost blue in the face. During his rant he had let go of Kagome, who was now running back to the scene of the battle as fast as her legs could carry her. Behind her the hanyou finally noticed that Kagome was missing and he frantically looked around until he saw her.

"Oi! K-kagome, wait up!" Inuyasha began running back the way he came until he was moving just at Kagome's side.

The Miko gave him a bright smile as thanks for not stopping her, causing Inuyasha to blush, look away, and mutter.

When he was focused again he said, "This has Naraku's stench all over it, like hell I'm going to let him get hold of that damned Dragon! We have enough to fight as it is!"

As they ran, their eyes took in the sight of the brightly glowing form of Ryura. The blue energy was growing in strength until Ryura looked like a nova in the sky. Tsuyoshi soon came to join them and without saying a word he ran along side of them on the opposite side of Kagome. He was going against his Lord's wishes of having Kagome removed from the battle, but at the moment, he knew the woman would be of more help than harm. Until this was over and Ryura was back to normal, Tsuyoshi fully planned on guarding her blind spots alongside the hanyou.

Both the men had to stop Kagome from flying off the cliff of the ravine. She had been looking up and missed the fact they were nearing the edge completely. As the three began to prepare themselves to intervene in some way, Sango and Miroku prepared themselves as well. They were now standing on the opposite cliff, both with their weapons at the ready.

None of them could see Ryura's face, which was possibly a good thing. The blood ruby red of his irises had began to bleed into the whites of his eyes, his pupils turning turquoise at the same time. His face started to elongate and the markings on his cheeks turned into terrifying, jagged lightning bolts that ran down almost to the corners of his mouth.

He gave one final roar before his body was completely engulfed by the blue energy that surrounded him, disappearing from everyone's sights until the blue energy shot high into the sky and performed a hard u-turn to shoot back down. It landed like a meteor and out of the blue flames rose an equally blue Dragon with blood red eyes.

Its body was sleek with glittering scales that formed a type of armor. Wings at least the length of a football field were spread out, reaching towards the sky and lightly scraping along the ravine's walls. The dragon held black spikes as frill that ran along the back of its neck and slightly lighter than the color of its body frill surrounded its head like a crown. On its forehead rested a blue jewel that glinted with some unseen power. Sprouting from either side of his jewel were long horns that delicately bent outwards towards the points of the horns. A long, slender tail trashed back and forth violently behind it.

The Dragon slowly began to raise its head while lightning crackled within its fanged jaws, and the giant made of glass along with Kanna were temporarily forgotten about.

"Move! He has never been in this form before and without another Dragon to guide him, and with that sphere, he has lost his mind to the power!" Tsuyoshi shouted over to the monk and youkai slayer.

He then took hold of Kagome's wrist and flung her over his shoulders, around his back, where he stopped her movements with his other hand, being mindful of the spear he still held. He gave Kagome instructions to hold on tightly and then he was off, flying right for the Dragon's head with a determined look on his face.

Tsuyoshi ignored Inuyasha's yelp, and Kagome told him to sit.

"Ryura!" both Tsuyoshi and Kagome yelled.

The Dragon's head snapped to the side and briefly the lightning in its maw flickered as if the Dragon was hesitating. This only lasted for a moment, however, before the lightning was renewed with vigor.

Before it could fire the lightning, Tsuyoshi dropped Kagome off literally on the snout of the Dragon. The Miko screamed and desperately reached out for something to hold on to. Her hand met with a slightly raised portion of the Dragon's snout and she clung to it for dear life. With the extra bit of weight on its nose, the Dragon was forced to go cross eyed in order to look at Kagome, then it growled.

The growl as deep, a rumbling that shook the ground beneath the Dragon's feet. Kagome only held on tighter.

Above her she felt a burst of youki, and when she took the chance to look up, she saw another Dragon. Just by the color of its scales she could tell it was Tsuyoshi, and while his form held no wings, he was still aloft in the air. Mist surrounded both his front and hide legs. He looked like the silver Chinese dragons of legend. Mist Dragons – except Tsuyoshi was much more than a Mist Dragon.

His body was long and thin with what seemed to be fur for frill that poked out beside its fin-like ears and traveled down the length of his body, ending in a sharp spike of fur at the very tip of his tail.

Like a snake he traveled through the air until he was close to Ryura's form, where he immediately began to wrap his long body around Ryura's, constricting him and keeping him from moving too much, or so he was hoping. He bit heavily into Ryura's left shoulder, and the blue Dragon roared with pain in response.

"Ryura, look at me!" Kagome shouted when the Dragon had taken its eyes off her to look down at Tsuyoshi own maw still clamping down tightly.

Red eyes flicked to look at her.

"That's it, just keep looking at me," Kagome said softly as if trying to calm a distraught child.

She inched her way up the Dragon's snout and used its scales to travel between the two red eyes that were somehow still managing to look at her. She slowly worked her way until she was staring directly at the sphere of power. Inside of it, hidden by the power of the sphere until now, Kagome saw the darkened form of a shard of the Shikon no Tama.

Kagome was angry now, angrier than she had ever been. She reached behind her and yanked out an arrow, then held it up while allowing her reiki to the surface. It crackled around her arrow and only when enough power had been gathered at the tip of the arrow's head, Kagome rammed the arrow as far as she could into the blue sphere of power.

Cracks began to form along the jewel's surface, crawling outwards, and from it a dark light was released. The dark light of a corrupted Shikon no Tama. Black and purple leaked towards her and Kagome quickly purified it by sticking her hand within the darkened light. As the light turned pink Kagome yanked her arrow out of the sphere and with a grace she normally didn't have, snatched the now purified shard of the Shikon no Tama out of the air.

The blue sphere of power continued to crack until it shattered and simply turned to dust and fluttered away on the wind.

Tsuyoshi watched carefully as his Lord's red eyes blinked multiple times in rapid succession. Gone was the mindless glint in his eyes, replaced by an awareness Tsuyoshi knew could only be Ryura's consciousness returning to him. He yanked his fangs out of Ryura's shoulders and unwound his body from the blue Dragon's, only to move away and hover off to the side.

The Dragon raised one of its large, clawed and scaled hands up towards it snout, and with a gently nudge of a finger-like appendage, he moved Kagome to sit on top of his head. She wrapped her arms as far as she could around one of the horns the size of the Tree of Ages trunk until she found her footing.

Ryura lowered himself onto all fours after she was steady, and turned quicker than one would imagine from the sheer size of him, to face the diamond giant and Kanna. The void child's eyes were wide, showing for the first time some small amount of emotion before their size quickly returned to normal.

"Very well," she whispered. "Wind Scar."

The giant reacted once again, and the previous fight was continued with interest. Inuyasha was jumping from the cliffs with Tessaiga drawn to his side while Miroku and Sango were positioned back on top of Kirara and heading for the giant.

"You know what to do, Kagome!" Inuyasha yelled up at her.

"Right!" she returned with a nod of her head.

Ryura kept himself still as Kagome withdrew an arrow and notched it. He could feel the purity of her powers as they lit pink just above his field of vision. Inuyasha was on the ground in front of him, Tsuyoshi hovering just over top of the hanyou, and as the Wind Scar grew closer and closer, Inuyasha's smirk became wider.

"Backlash Wave!"

Like angry tornadoes sent by Susanowo himself, the Backlash Wave ripped from the Tessaiga and was soon collecting the Wind Scar's power, greedily taking it for itself. Kagome fired her arrow then and watched it streak like a fallen star to join in with the Backlash Wave's energy. Ryura gathered lightning in his mouth and at the same time Tsuyoshi gathered water in his.

Both dragons shot their breath attacks outwards to join in with the Backlash Wave.

There was nothing stopping it now.

The Backlash Wave, empowered by so many different energies and elements, ripped into the giant, breaking and destroying it faster than the giant could heal itself. Kanna's body was soon ripped apart. Her left hand disintegrated along with her right arm. She lost her left eye as a it shattered like glass. Unable to keep a hold of her mirror, it fell to the ground, exploding into small pieces of glass and silver.

From atop Ryura's head, Kagome smiled softly down at the little girl and said, "You're free, Kanna. I hope you find peace."

The little girl for the first time in her life truly smiled. "Thank you, Kagome-sama."

Kanna was startled, however, when she felt the giant move of its own accord. As a last act of life the diamond giant began to glow brightly until the pressure it was building inside of itself became too much. It exploded like a dying star.

None of Inuyasha's group had time to react.