Inuyasha Regashi chapter 32: Father vs Son; A Duel to the Death
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"Now that he is out of the way, it won't take much energy to get rid of you...all I need to do choke you to death!"
Kagome desperately gasped for air. She became lightheaded from lack of oxygen. She tried to dig her nails into his hands, but to no avail.
She began to see dark spots before her eyes. She could only hear the booming echo of his triumphant laugh, but cut short with a splashing sound. She felt something hot and wet on her face and the grip on her neck loosen. She regained the sight back to her eyes and saw an agonized expression on Bankotsu's face. She looked up at his chest to see his still beating heart outside of his chest, grasped by a clawed hand. And behind him was a familiar set of triangular ears.
'Inuyasha?!'
The clawed hand quickly retracted and Bankotsu's slowly fell to the ground beside her.
"Inuyasha?! You...you..." Kagome stuttered. But then, she realized that it was not Inuyasha who had killed Bankotsu...
"I-I-Itaru...Is that you?"
The teenage boy stood hunching over with his head down, still holding Bankotsu's heart in his hand. Kagome slowly stood up and walked towards her future son.
"Itaru...you...you saved me...thank you..." Kagome said shyly.
Itaru didn't make a sound.
Inuyasha opened his eyes and saw Kagome and Itaru facing each other, Bankotsu on the ground between them.
'Itaru...? Did he do that...?' Inuyasha thought. Then he took a good look at his son and realized something.
"Hold on a minute! There is something peculiar about his scent! It smells like he is a...FULL DEMON!" Inuyasha tried to pry his body off of the wall, but his stomach was hurting badly.
"Itaru, how did you escape? Did you see your father's body? Is he okay?" Kagome said, now a few feet away from him.
inside of Itaru's mind there was a sinister whisper: 'kill her...kill her and bring me her flesh...'
itaru let out a low growl and lifted up his head to reveal blood red eyes with greed irises and two jagged purple stripes on the side of his face.
"Itaru!" Kagome gasped. She started going faster towards him. "What's the matter, Itaru? why are you transformed?!" then she looked closer and saw that there were dragon scales all over his neck and on the right side of his arm.
"Ryukoushi's dragon scales! Oh no! Not him too!"
Suddenly, without warning Itaru charged at Kagome. She screamed and braced for impact. An impact that never came. She heard a loud crashing sound and opened her eyes to see that Inuyasha had tackled Itaru and was wrestling him to the ground.
"Inuyasha! Don't touch him! He has the scales too!" Kagome shouted.
Inuyasha ignored her and punched itaru square in the jaw. Itaru clawed and kicked his father and eventually threw him off of him.
"Inuyasha! Itaru!" Kagome called out to them. Itaru charged back at his father and their claws clashed in a bitter frenzy.
"I can't use the tetsusaiga, that will only make the dragon scales grow faster! But how am I supposed to get rid of them?! I can't kill him!" Inuyasha thought.
Itaru slashed at Inuyasha's torso and made a big gash in his fire rat robe.
"COME ON. ITARU! SNAP OUT OF IT! YOU CANT LET RYUKOUSHI CONTROL YOUR MIND AND FORGET ABOUT ALL OF US!" Inuyasha yelled to his son.
Itaru roared and shook his head. He tried to draw sutasaiga, but the sword burned his hand and he dropped it.
'No...Now sutasaiga is rejecting him...has his heart really become that of a full demon?'
He threw sutasaiga aside and charged at Inuyasha again. Inuyasha kept ducking and dodging his attacks. But Inuyasha did not know how long he could keep up with his assault, for with every jump he took, ever move he made, he could feel the dragon scales on his arms and back spreading little by little.
Kagome stood dumbfounded, unsure of what to do. 'If I try to get close to him, I could get infected with the dragon scales, or Itaru could hurt me. But if I use a sacred arrow, I could dispel the dragon scales, but I could also kill him in the process!"
Itaru did not slow down in his assault to Inuyasha. But Inuyasha was starting to get tired.
"ITARU! YOU HAVE TO STOP! LISTEN TO-" Itaru cut him off by tackling him and busting through the wall that reached all the way to the outside. The sky was much darker than before.
'Damn you, Ryukoushi! Distracting me by making me fight my son! You devious bastard! You are just as bad as Naraku himself!' while Inuyasha was preoccupied with his thoughts, Itaru bit him in the arm, causing Inuyasha to yell loudly. "INUYASHA!" Kagome shouted.
Itaru took a large chunk out of his arm and stepped back chewing on his flesh. "Tasty..." he hissed.
'Is this really my son? It smells like him, looks like him, and even has his aura...has Ryukoushi truly taken over his body?!' Inuyasha thought, holding his profusely bleeding arm.
Kagome jumped up to help Inuyasha, but Inuyasha yelled to her to stay away.
"Don't Kagome! At this point, we don't know what he is capable of doing!" Inuyasha warned. Kagome stepped back cautiously. Itaru turned his head towards her and smiled an evil, bloodstained smile that sent chills down her spine.
'Oh Itaru…' Kagome thought. Then without warning, Itaru charged at Kagome with lightning speed.
"KAGOME!" Inuyasha shouted.
Inuyasha ran after Itaru, but Itaru was too fast for him.
"KAGOME! GET DOWN!" Inuyasha shouted to her.
Kagome was too frozen by fear to move. Before she could make a second thought, Itaru was on top of her, preparing to use his razor sharp claws on her.
"ITARU! STOP IT! CAN YOU HEAR ME, ITARU!? ITS ME!" Kagome tried to reason with him.
Itaru seemed to understand what she was saying, but shook his head and posed to strike again.
"ITARU! ITS ME, YOUR MOTHER! DON'T YOU REMEMBER WHO YOU ARE?!" Kagome pleaded.
Itaru growled, but did not move.
"Don't you remember the stars?! How we used to go outside and pick out our own?! Don't you remember all the memories you shared with us!? Don't you remember your lullaby that your father taught us!? Don't you remember anything?!"
Itaru's eyes softened. The marks on the side of his face began to fade.
'It's working!' Kagome thought.
"There, Itaru…it's alright." Kagome said as she put her hand up to his face. He had a dazed look on his face; he was calm and made no motions. But then in his mind, a whisper came once more: WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?! KILL HER! KILL HER AND BRING HER FLESH TO ME!"
Itaru's face scrunched up in a ferocious scowl. He posed again to strike her. Inuyasha ran over to them as fast as he could.
"ITARU NOOO!"
His claws were nearly upon her until suddenly, she heard a familiar whizzing sound. Kagome looked up to see that a sacred arrow had hit Itaru in the neck. Where the arrow had pierced his neck, the dragon scales turned white and fell off. Itaru fell to the side, still paralyzed by shock.
"Who in the world fired that arrow?!" Inuyasha thought aloud.
They turned in the direction in which it came. Standing in the hole that Inuyasha and Itaru had created earlier, *Kagome stood leaning against the hellhound, Haji.
"K-k-Kagome!" Inuyasha exclaimed
'did I really fire that arrow?!' Kagome thought.
"Inuyasha! Get the tetsusaiga quickly!" *Kagome commanded.
"Okay…" Inuyasha said. He drew the tetsusaiga from its sheath as he was told.
"Now! Use the backlash wave on Itaru!" *Kagome said.
"WHAT?!"" Both Inuyasha and Kagome shouted.
"Just do it! Do it quickly!"
"ARE YOU CRAZY!? I CANT USE THE BACKLASH WAVE ON ITARU! HE ISNT USING A DEMONIC ATTACK AND NOT TO MENTION IT WOULD KILL HIM!" Inuyasha yelled to *Kagome.
"He's right!" Kagome affirmed.
"You don't understand right now! Just use the backlash wave and Itaru will be fine!" *Kagome said.
Itaru moaned and slowly got up.
"Itaru!" Kagome cried. She went over to the boy who was clutching the arrow in his neck.
"Itaru, are you alright?" Kagome asked.
Inuyasha smiled and said, "See? He doesn't need all that! He's just fine!" Inuyasha said.
"You don't understand you idiot! Use the backlash wave now!" *Kagome shouted to them again.
"What are you talking about?!" Kagome said. She turned to Itaru again and patted him on the back.
"Now, show them you're okay Itaru!" Kagome said hopefully.
However, Itaru was not feeling well at all. Itaru's body was extremely hot. His eyes were wide with an unknown pain, he clutched his chest as it rose and fell with ragged breaths.
"Itaru! What's wrong?" Kagome said.
"My chest! I feel like I'm burning up! GAAAAAH!" Itaru cried and started panting. His panting grew worse and worse until he started convulsing and crying out in pain.
"IT BURNS! IM BURNING! IM ON FIRE! AAAAAAHHHHHH!"
Itaru started scratching his chest fervently, trying to alleviate some sort of pain. His eyes rolled to the back of his head and he began to foam at the mouth.
"Itaru..." Kagome whispered in shock and fear at what was happening before her very eyes.
"Now do you see?! His demonic powers are being eaten away by the spiritual powers of the arrow and that of his own nature! If you don't act quickly, Itaru WILL DIE! *Kagome said.
Inuyasha stood in a shocked daze, trying to process what was happening.
"INUYASHA!" *Kagome shouted.
Kagome looked over to see Inuyasha, and saw tears in his eyes. He looked over to Kagome with desperate, confused eyes. Kagome felt his emotion and fear of killing his own son. Kagome woefully remembered what Myoga said two days ago,
"Eventually, the purifying qualities of their human blood will eradicate the demon blood, and when that happens their hearts will simply stop beating…"
But there seemed to be no other option. Even if Inuyasha did kill him, he would be putting him out of his misery. Kagome realized this and simply nodded to him.
Inuyasha breathed a heavy sigh and picked up the tetsusaiga. He concentrated his energy and saw the outflow of Itaru's demonic aura.
'Is this what I'm supposed to use to fuel the backlash wave?' Inuyasha thought.
Then with a renewed sense of confidence, Inuyasha raised his tetsusaiga and aimed it at Itaru.
"Alright! Here goes nothing! BACK LASH WAVE!"
A swirl of energy tore through the air and right at its target. But instead of tearing Itaru into little pieces, the swirl of demonic energy hit him square in the chest and was flung high into the air.
The boy fell with a loud thud to the ground.
"ITARU!" Kagome cried as she ran over to him. She checked his vitals and saw that he was just unconscious.
"He's okay...Inuyasha, how did you do that?!" Kagome asked.
"I...I don't know...all I saw was Itaru's demonic aura surging out of him and I used that to create the backlash wave..."
"What you just did was simply one of Tetsusaiga's restoring properties..." said *Inuyasha/Kagome.
"What do you mean?" Inuyasha asked.
"As you might already know, tenseiga and tetsusaiga were once one sword. After the two split, tetsusaiga retained a small fraction of tenseiga's healing properties. This is how it works..." *Inuyasha/Kagome said, crouching over Itaru.
"All half demons are different. Some half demons may have more demonic powers than others, depending on the parents. In you, Inuyasha is the blood of a very powerful demon; so naturally, your demonic nature will be more powerful. If the situation ever arises where you lose control of your demonic blood, you cannot revert back without some outside assistance..." *Inuyasha/Kagome explained.
"So that's why when I say the si...I mean, S-I-T, Inuyasha turns back to normal!" Kagome said.
Inuyasha scowled at the memories of having to be brought back from a demonic rampage by one of Kagome's 'Sit' commands.
"That's right. However, Itaru, Meimei and other mixed breeds are different. In itaru and Meimei, the ratio of demonic and human blood is equal in potency. Making the inner struggle for power between the different blood types even more troublesome. That being said, the two blood types keep each other in check. If Itaru becomes a full demon, the spiritual properties of his human blood will fight to regain control of his body...but the downside of that is, since I am no ordinary human, the spiritual properties in my blood are twice as powerful. In Itaru, this is very dangerous. For when itaru becomes a full demon and his human blood rises up to take back control of his body, his human blood risks eradicating his demonic blood completely."
The two gasped and looked to the unconscious boy in the middle of them.
"And that's where the tetsusaiga comes in. the tetsusaiga uses the demonic aura that is being pushed out of Itaru's body as the second ingredient to make the backlash wave. That combined with inuyasha's demonic energy is just enough to restore the balance."
There was a moments silence between them all.
"So, do you understand all of that?" *Kagome asked.
"Yeah...but if all that is true, why did you need to shoot him in the neck with a sacred arrow?" Inuyasha asked.
"Oh, that was to get rid of the dragon scales...and speaking of which, you might want to get those off of you yourself." *Kagome said.
"Y-Y-YOU'RE NOT GOING TO SHOOT ME WITH A SACRED ARROW ARE YOU?!" Inuyasha said, scrambling away in panic.
"Oh heavens no. I intend to use a much gentler method..." *Kagome said.
"Phew! Haha! That's a relief! I thought I would have to go through that whole Kikyo fiasco all over again!" Inuyasha said.
Kagome rolled her eyes at the mention of her rival's name.
"Nope. Not at all." *Kagome assured.
"Okay...soo...now what?" Inuyasha said.
"I just need you to do one thing for me..." *Kagome asked, standing in front of Inuyasha with a wide grin on her face.
"What's that?" Inuyasha said.
"STRIP." *Kagome said simply.
Both Kagome and Inuyasha were completely dumbfounded with confusion written on both of their faces.
"...come again...?" Inuyasha choked.
"Take your clothes off. We need to make sure all of the dragon scales are gone!" *Kagome said.
"Uhhhhh..." Inuyasha breathed.
"Just do it." *Inuyasha/Kagome said.
"Fine fine!" Inuyasha said, and began to take off his fire rat robe. Kagome had no idea what she was witnessing and simply stared.
"WOULD YOU TURN AROUND ALREADY?!" Inuyasha yelled to Kagome. Kagome let out a little squeak and quickly averted her eyes.
"I don't see why you're making this such a big fat deal. You already know what's going to happen to you both, so get used to seeing each other." *Kagome said, placing her hands on the patches of dragon scales that were scattered across his body. Where she placed her hands, the dragon scales would fall right off.
"BUT WE ARE NOT MARRIED RIGHT NOW. SO WE'RE GONNA CARRY ON AS IF WE DONT KNOW A THING!" Inuyasha hissed through his teeth. He was completely naked and his face was redder than his kimono.
*Kagome simply giggled to herself.
"ARE YOU ALMOST DONE?! THIS IS GETTING MORE AND MORE UNCOMFORTABLE!" Inuyasha said.
"Almost, dear...oops! Sorry, that one slipped out!" *Kagome said coyly.
Kagome sighed for a moment and retreated into her thoughts.
'Thank goodness Itaru is okay now...but I wonder how everyone else is? Have they made it to the top yet?'
~*0*~
Jaken and Shippo ran up the stairs to find the relic that controlled the climate inside of the dragon demon's lair: the kaji no Ishi. It seemed as if they had been running forever.
"How in the world are we supposed to find this stupid thing!? We've been running forever!" Shippo panted.
"How am I supposed to know where it is?! I'm just as lost as you!" Jaken squawked.
"Awww! We'll never find it at this pace!" Shippo cried.
"Oh would you quit your blubbering!" Jaken shouted. When they both looked ahead, they came to a three pronged fork in their path.
"AND NOW THIS! HOW ARE WE SUPPOSED TO KNOW WHICH DOOR IS THE RIGHT DOOR!" Shippo shouted out of frustration.
"Have no fear little one! I, master Jaken, have a solution!" Jaken said proudly.
"Oh do you?" asked Shippo sarcastically.
"Behold! The staff of two heads!" Jaken declared as he stood his staff up straight.
"What are you doing?! There is nothing to burn, you idiot!" Shippo said.
"Oh ho ho! Shows how much you know, child! What you see here is no ordinary staff. It has the capabilities to create fire, yes, but its main purpose is to find holy and sacred relics! Why, how do you think we found Lord Sesshomaru's tetsusaiga?" Jaken said.
"Don't you mean Inuyasha's tetsusaiga?" Shippo said.
"SILENCE! IT WAS DESTINED FOR LORD SESSHOMARU! IT ALWAYS HAS AND IT ALWAYS WILL BE!" Jaken squawked, "Now back to what I was saying...this legendary staff will show us where the kaji no ishi is located!"
"Great idea! But one question..." Shippo began.
"And what is that?" Jaken asked.
"WHY DID YOU TELL US ABOUT THAT BEFORE?!" Shippo shouted.
"I WAS USING IT AS A FINAL OPTION! THIS IS A VERY DELICATE INSTRUMENT! I CANT GO AROUND USING IT ANY OLD WAY!" Jaken shouted back.
"Yeah right...you didn't think of it until just now, I know it!" Shippo said.
"Hmph!" Jaken grunted. He grasped the staff and put it in the middle of the forked path.
"Now, mighty staff! Show us the way in which we should go! Reveal to us the kaji no ishi!"
The staff began to levitate and floated forward with the old man's head facing forward. Then, it turned a complete 360 degrees and started to float out into the dark space beyond the path.
"WAIT WAIT! WHERE ARE YOU GOING!?" Jaken called after the staff.
"It's going out into the darkness!" Shippo said.
"Well, we can't just let it go! Follow that staff!" Jaken commanded.
Shippo transformed into his bubble form and followed the staff. The staff hovered quite a distance away from the stairs and soon they disappeared.
"H-h-hey Jaken...are you sure we can trust your staff?" Shippo stuttered.
"OF COURSE WE CAN! IT HAS NEVER FAILED!" Jaken said.
They both noticed that the staff slowed down. And in front of it appeared a small floating island in the middle of the abysmal darkness.
"Hey! What is that up ahead?" Shippo asked.
"It's the kaji no ishi I'm sure of it!" Jaken shouted.
"Yes! Let's get closer and switch 'em!" Shippo said.
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YAAAY! Making a lot of progress! It won't be long at all guys!
KEEP THOSE REVIEWS COMING!