Light of My Life
Light of My Life
Title: Light of My Life
Author: kazeko
Series: Inuyasha
Rating: R
Archive: Sesshoumaru/Kagome
Characters: Sesshoumaru/Kagome, Inuyasha/Koyama, Sango/Miroku
Summary: A powerful prophecy brings mortal enemies together, but prejudice may well tear them apart and spell the end of all inuyoukai.
Disclaimer: No ownership.
Chapter 14: To Fight as One
A sudden crash and a roar from the nekomata jerked the miko awake, Kagome struggling to get to the window and see what caused the noise. Sesshoumaru growled as Inuyasha threw the curtain aside, dumping their clothes on the floor.
"Naraku," the hanyou hissed, the word tinged with fear. "He picked tonight of all nights. Fucking bastard." Inuyasha was gone, rushing off to the second hut after Satori and Koyama, desperate to protect the children. Sesshoumaru growled and silenced his mating urge, watching the red slowly fade from his body. As soon as he was calm enough, he pulled free of Kagome and grabbed his clothes, dressing in a haste that was unbecoming a lord. No matter. His family was in danger.
Kagome finished before him, handing Sesshoumaru his armor and swords as she lifted her bow. "I will not let Naraku ruin this," she whispered, rage in her blue eyes. Before her lover was finished, she was gone, heading toward the sound of battle.
Sesshoumaru leapt out the window, eyes tinged with red at the sight of the ruined hut before him. Koyama was in inu form, her red fur bristling as she kept Naraku at bay, knowing that she was not powerful enough to close with the hanyou. Sango, Miroku, Kirara, and Satori were battling Naraku's minions, trying to draw them away from the children as Kagome ran to check on them. The three coyote sisters had stepped to one side, changing into their true forms and letting off an ear-splitting howl, calling any of their people who could hear. Kouga was also calling his pack, knowing that some of his wolves were nearby and could fight.
A shrill scream cut through the din of battle, and Sesshoumaru felt his blood run cold. Kagome and Inuyasha were kneeling over a small form near Kagura, a miko shield holding the kazi at bay. Sesshoumaru joined them in an instant, sword drawn, fear filling him for the first time in his life at the sight. Kichiromaru had wandered away from the scant protection of his sister's pack, and Kagura had attacked him. The small boy was covered in deep gashes, blood leaking from his mouth, eyes struggling to stay open. From her position behind the miko, Kaori chocked on a sob, one hand reaching for her little brother.
"He didn't listen," she whispered. "I told him to stay back."
Sesshoumaru dropped his sword, lifting his bleeding son, his eyes tinted red. For the first time in his life, he had no idea what to do, how to save his son. He touched Tenseiga, but the sword pulsed angrily, refusing to answer him. Kichiro's breathing was erratic, blood leaking from his mouth, and he could not even open his eyes to look at his father.
Kagome reached out and touched Kichiro, eyes locking with Sesshoumaru's. "Your sword won't help you," she whispered, somehow knowing of the rejection. "Let me try."
"Your healing powers can't help, Kagome," Inuyasha whispered sadly. The littlest pup, the one he had named, the scrap of fur that barely survived the attack on its mother, was going to become another victim of Naraku's evil. "He's a youkai. Your miko powers will purify him before they heal."
"I didn't purify Kaori when I nursed her," Kagome pointed out, never breaking eye contact with her lover. "I've healed some of their minor scratches before. Let me try."
Sesshoumaru nodded and handed the pup to Kagome, watching as her powers surrounded the boy. Her miko shield wavered and failed as her concentration shifted, and Inuyasha jumped forward, holding the Tetsusaiga's sheath in front of the small group to protect them. Kouga and three of his warriors leapt at Kagura as she moved to attack, preventing her from interrupting. Kagome held Kichiro closer to her body, aura pulsing erratically, eyes squeezed shut in pain as she tried desperately to merge her powers with the boy's and heal his wounds. For a frightening moment, it seemed that Inuyasha was correct, that Kagome's power could only purify youkai, but a pulse of reiki exploded outward from the pair as Kichiro's eyes flew open.
Kagome fell as Kichiromaru jumped from her arms, Sesshoumaru's strong arm catching her. She pulled herself onto shaky feet, glancing at Kichiro as Rin enveloped the pup in a fierce hug and his siblings gathered around him protectively. Kagome's gaze turned to Naraku, the evil hanyou floating above the group and laughing at Koyama's attempts to reach him. "It's time for him to be destroyed," Kagome whispered, her power pulsing from her clenched fists. She turned to Inuyasha and touched his shoulder, glancing up at the hidden moon. "Inuyasha, you have to stay here and protect the pups."
The hanyou-turned-human started to protest. "I can fight! I'm not so weak in this form! And that moon will be back in a few minutes."
"A few minutes is all this battle may last," Kagome countered, "and the children are not strong enough to protect themselves. The Tetsusaiga's sheath can protect you all while we take care of Naraku. Please, Inuyasha, stay here to protect them."
Inuyasha sighed and glared up at his brother with dark human eyes. "Don't let her get hurt," he growled. As Sesshoumaru turned to follow Kagome back into battle, Inuyasha grabbed his hand. "Your Tokijin isn't strong enough to get past Naraku's barrier. You need a stronger sword."
"There is no stronger sword for this Sesshoumaru to wield."
"Yeah there is." The human took a deep breath, gathering his resolve, and glanced at the sword in his hand. "Did you ever wonder why Father could carry Tetsusaiga but you can not even touch the fang?"
"Because it belonged to him, of course."
"I don't think so. He created this sword to protect humans, and he knew that you would use it to destroy him if you could wield it as you were at the time of his death."
"Totosai forged the blade so that only a youkai with human blood can touch it, and only in defense of a human." Where was his brother going with this conversation, and when had he learned to think so deeply about the sword?
"Then Father would not have been able to wield it. He had no human blood, but still the sword never rejected him. The 'human blood' part was to get you to stop trying to steal the sword since you would use it to kill the humans Father loved. Your pride in your purity and your hatred of humans would keep you from questioning the condition. But I think that the sword has an aura that responds to emotions, such as the desire to protect the weaker humans that lets it transform. So perhaps Totosai forged Tetsusaiga to only be wielded by those with human in their hearts."
Sesshoumaru stared at Inuyasha, partly in stunned disbelief and partly in amazement that his half-brother had come to such a conclusion. "You loved humans because of your mother," he realized, trying to come to terms with the argument, "and of course Father was notorious for his human lovers."
"You have a human lover, Sesshoumaru," Inuyasha whispered. "You should be able to use the Tetsusaiga to protect her now."
"You would let me use your sword?"
"I think Father would want it that way." Inuyasha pointed the hilt of the sword toward Sesshoumaru, smirking at his brother. "The sheath will still protect your children, but the sword cannot transform for me and it can break through Naraku's barrier."
Sesshoumaru held out his hand, palm inches from the sword. "Tetsusaiga, fang of my father, help me defeat this evil and protect my Kagome." He closed his fingers around the hilt and drew the sword.
Across the battlefield, Kagome and her friends watched the youkai draw the sword, amazed that he was not being rejected, more amazed that Inuyasha was allowing it. Standing at Inuyasha's feet, six pups and one kit saw the great warrior youkai they wanted to grow up to be. Kagura backed off from her battle with the wolves to watch in wonder as the Lord of the West held Tetsusaiga above his head, the wind blowing around him and the lesser youkai Naraku controlled backing away from him. Kohaku, in the middle of a battle with the coyotes Senmei and her sister had called, found that he was unwilling to confront the empowered youkai lord, no matter that Naraku's thoughts were ordering him to do just that. Satori looked over at her son and smiled, knowing that he was coming into his full power at last.
Sesshoumaru moved as soon as he held the sword, sensing its power, knowing its desire to destroy any evil that threatened the human he loved. Like its sister sword the Tenseiga, the Tetsusaiga whispered to him, pulsing in the back of his mind, telling him how to use certain powers and how to break through Naraku's barrier. It seemed to say that it had a power it had never revealed to Inuyasha, a power that could break through Naraku's unnaturally strong defenses in one swing. As he ran toward the hanyou, he felt his other sword pulse a greeting, Tetsusaiga pulsing back. They had missed each other in the past two hundred or so years, it seemed.
Naraku at last realized that Kohaku was not going to obey him and attack the youkai, so he seized onto Plan B. As Sesshoumaru neared the hanyou, Naraku sent his tentacles in many different directions, attacking every enemy he could see, eyes trained on one in particular. Miroku, Sango, Satori, and Koyama found themselves forced into defensive stances, jumping away from tentacles and away from each other. The coyotes, Kouga, and the wolves rushed to their defense, leaving one small miko alone on the edge of the battlefield. Sesshoumaru froze as Kagome screamed, jerked through Naraku's barrier by one of his poisoned tentacles, closing her hands around her precious shards.
The smaller battles stalled as all eyes turned to Kagome, Sesshoumaru standing outside Naraku's barrier with Tetsusaiga raised, unsure what to do. Kirara mewed, stepping toward the trio, wanting to help but knowing that she could not. "Kagome," Sango whispered, lowering her hiraikotsu.
"Sesshoumaru?"
The youkai lord didn't move, only his eyes acknowledging his receipt of Kagome's thoughts. He could sense her fear, carefully controlled beneath a mask of determination as she hung in Naraku's grasp. His maniacal laugh filled the air as he waved his tentacles about, his shield impenetrable once more. In Sesshoumaru's hand, the Tetsusaiga begged to be used.
"Sesshoumaru, you told me that I had to be ready to fight, that I had to be strong enough to purify Naraku. It seems now that I have no choice, but I need to be inside his barrier."
"Miko, you are." Sesshoumaru's mental voice was not as controlled, as cold as his physical one, and Kagome could feel his worry for her.
"No. He has two barriers. The one you see is the outer one. I can feel a second, inner invisible barrier between me and him. His tentacles are not a part of him in that his inner barrier does not protect them, which is why we've been able to destroy his tentacles before. But the Tetsusaiga should feel the second barrier and be able to penetrate both."
"Kagome, it could hurt you."
"Just scratch him. Break his barrier long enough for me to touch him. Then I can purify his ass back to hell where he belongs."
"You are brave, little one. Tetsusaiga will promise not to harm you." Sesshoumaru closed his eyes and focused his thoughts on the sword in his hand. Tetsusaiga pulsed once, and Sesshoumaru tightened his control. It would not hurt Kagome. "Protect," he whispered. "It is what you were designed for."
The sword stopped resisting Sesshoumaru, contracting its aura into a single point, its light fading away. The youkai lord filled the sword with his power, combining the two for its ultimate barrier-shattering power. Naraku laughed, taunting the lord, assuming that the inu was losing control of the sword, but Sesshoumaru ignored him. He raised the sword, readying himself, eyes locking with Kagome's, as he prepared to unleash the Tetsusaiga's ultimate barrier-breaking attack. He swung the sword down in a mighty arc, whispering one word, eyes gleaming in triumph as the golden crescent flew toward the hanyou.
"Shatter."
Naraku's eyes widened as the burst of golden power flew through his outer shield, the pieces of it falling away like pink glass, and continued toward him. He threw up an arm to protect himself, but the golden power met his chest, a great screeching sound filling the abandoned village as his inner barrier also fell away. Before he had time to erect another, before the hanyou even had time to think, Kagome shoved her hand into his chest, blue eyes glowing as her fingers wrapped around his piece of the Shikon Jewel.
Naraku turned his dark gaze upon the human in his grasp. "You think to take that from me? Pathetic human; you cannot defeat me!!" He laughed as he raised another tentacle, pointed straight at Kagome's heart, but a quick Wind Scar sliced it off before it could move. Silently thanking Sesshoumaru for his help, Kagome poured all of her miko power into her hand. As she had with Sesshoumaru, Kagome searched for a memory to focus her anger on, an urge to purify, and she locked onto the image of Kikyo, one of the undead, a ghost because of this hanyou. He had been a man once, enamored of a woman who could never love him, as Kagome once had desired Inuyasha. For a split second, she felt pity for the monster who had once been human, for the amalgamation of youkai parts that moved and talked like a man, and she felt her powers flow forth.
"Cast off this evil," she whispered, eyes closing. "Be whole once more."
As Kagome's power filled Naraku, as she felt the darkness leaving the Shikon shards he carried, she felt a sharp pain in her side. The scar from the Shikon no Tama was pulsing, reminding her of her mission, reminding her to focus. She pulled her attention back to the present, back to the evils Naraku had committed, back to the lives the hunt for the Shikon shards had destroyed, and her powers contracted, focusing on Naraku's shriveling form. With a soul-shattering screech, Naraku was fully purified, falling to the ground in a pile of black powdery ash.
Kagome screamed as she began to fall, knowing that landing from such a height would probably break something, grunting as Sesshoumaru swooped in and caught her in his arms. With a smile at her rescuer, Kagome held out the nearly-complete Shikon no tama, glowing pink once more. With a sigh, the miko fainted, her strength depleted with her power. Landing beside his half-brother and pups, Sesshoumaru shifted Kagome's slight weight into one arm and handed Tetsusaiga to Inuyasha with the other. As Inuyasha took his sword, the blackness finally moved away from the full moon, and his hanyou features returned.
"Feh. Just in time for the fight to already be over."
TBC
