Chapter 20

Sai and the rest of the group awoke early that morning. They had hoped to get out of the village without drawing too much attention. However, they had no such luck. The village leader had been waiting outside the inn for them to get up. He insisted that they stay and have breakfast with the entire village that morning. None of them could really refuse this show of hospitality, so they stayed. It wasn't long before breakfast was ready. The entire village ate together. Everyone seemed to want to know how the group had slain the demon. Sai and the rest did their best to avoid actually answering the question, however, since the demon was still alive and was the emperor of all things. Eventually, people seemed to give up and find other things to talk about. The woman that had made Sai's kimono even found her to ask her how she liked it. Sai told her that it was wonderful. It turned out that the kimono was very similar to her father's Robe of the Fire Rat. Her new kimono was essentially just a normal kimono that had been soaked in a special solution made from the flower that was pictured on the cloth. The flower gave the kimono armor-like qualities and made it fire-proof. Most amazingly, the kimono could regenerate itself when cut. Sai thanked the woman for her generosity. After breakfast, the group agreed that it was time to leave the village and keep traveling West. They said their goodbyes and headed on their way.

Conversation was good. They had a lot to talk about with all that had happened recently. Suddenly, Sai stopped.

"What is it Sai?" Umi asked, "What's up?"

"I smell demons." Sai said, "Lots of them."

"Where?" Kaze asked, confused, "I can't sense anything."

"They're flying in the clouds above us." Sai said, "But I don't think that they're interested in us."

"Well what do they want." Akage asked.

"No idea." Sai told him.

"Should we follow them?" Nami asked.

"They have the same properties of Konton. Sai can smell them, but they don't give off an aura." Kaze pointed out, "We have to go after them."

"Kaze, that obviously means that it's a trap. Konton obviously wants Sai. He knows that we won't be able to kill her and that he can control her in her demon state since his aura completely overpowers hers." Umi explained.

"DAMMIT!" Sai screamed, startling the group, "I'm not going to be a handicap! If these demons can lead us to Konton, trap or not I want to follow them. He may have gotten me once, but I won't fall for it again. I will kill him." The group was stunned into silence for a moment. Nami was the first to break the silence.

"Sai, you're not a handicap. You're our friend and we protect our friends." She said.

"Nami's right." Akage continued, "Besides, we aren't strong enough to take him on yet and if he couldn't succeed with you, then he would try it on me. I'm a half-demon too remember and I'm nowhere near as strong as you are." Sai didn't know what to say. She turned to Kaze. He walked to her and took her hand into his.

"Sai, I love you. It's selfish, I know, but I can't put you through that again and risk losing you." Kaze told her, gazing into her eyes, "But I promise, we will kill that bastard. No one does that to us and can hope to get away with it."

"K-k-Kaze..." Sai stammered. She couldn't speak. Words just wouldn't come out. Her friends loved her, her man loved her, and wanted to protect her. Then a wave of realization hit her. The scent of the demons had stopped traveling away from them. Now it was growing stronger, closer to them. Kaze saw the change in Sai's face.

"Sai, what's wrong?" He asked, face full of concern.

"The demons changed course." Sai said, "They're coming for us now."

"Dammit!" Umi cursed, "The bastard must be watching us. He must have figured out that we weren't planning to follow him and now he's sent the demons after us." At that moment, thousands of demons burst forth from a cloud. They all seemed to be lesser demons, but the sheer number of them would make this a hard fight.

"You guys ready?" Sai asked, drawing her swords.

"Always." Came Kaze's reply.

"Well then," Sai said, turning towards the demon horde, "DRAGON RIFT!" The attack hit the lead group of demons and completely obliterated them. However, there was a problem. Even though she'd killed perhaps 500 demons, there were still thousands coming at them.

"Damn." Sai cursed, "How are we supposed to fight all of them?" Nami was the one to respond.

"I have no-" She started as the thought hit her. "Sai! Use Shinseina Kiba!"

"What?" Sai called back.

"A priestess' blade can create a purifying wind right? That will knock all of these demons out of the sky. Then they'll be much easier to fight!"

"Nami, you're a genius!" Sai said, sheathing her demon swords and summoning her sacred blade. It really was a genius idea and Sai was kicking herself for not thinking of it earlier. She raised the blade above her head and began to spin it above her head. A massive wind infused with spiritual energy appeared immediately above her head. Sai let this wind grow to epic proportions before releasing it at the demons. The wind ravaged the demon ranks, purifying the air around them. Many were killed by this assault, but most simply fell out of the sky and crashed into the ground. Now they could fight the horde on their own terms, though Sai would have to use her Shinseina Kiba in order to keep the air purified and the demons grounded. The thing was, though, Sai was just as good with this sword as she was with her demon blades.

"DRAGON STRIKE!" Sai screamed out. Sesshomaru had taught her this one. The technique did not come from the sword itself, but used the sword as a medium for energy to be strengthened and released. A massive dragon of spiritual energy appeared. Lightning of the same energy struck from the sky and waves of it struck from the ground amongst the demon horde. The dragon then crashed into the center of the army, causing a massive explosion. More than half of the army was completely eradicated by the attack.

"Sai that was amazing!" Kaze said to her.

"Yeah, but I can't do it again." Sai said out of breath. She was sweating and was having trouble staying upright. "That took a lot out of me," She raised her sword, "but that's not important. Let's kill these bastards!" She charged into the fray with the rest of the group following close behind. It wasn't long before Sai was exhausted to the point of nearly passing out. Her moves were getting sluggish and sloppy. She had released too much power in her first attack and was using up what she had left very quickly. After a few more minutes of fighting, she could no longer keep the sword going and had to dismiss it. Then she went unconscious.

Nami saw Sai hit the ground. She didn't know what was wrong, but she knew that Sai was in trouble.

"Hiraikotsu!" Nami yelled as she threw the weapon to kill the demons trying to take advantage of Sai in her vulnerable state. The weapon easy cut the demons into pieces and Nami caught it on her way over to Sai. She saw that Sai was unconscious.

"Dammit." Nami thought to herself, "Sai, why'd you push yourself so far?" Nami threw Sai over her shoulder and drew her sword. She began to fight her way to the edge of the army of demons. Kaze noticed the two and immediately ran over to help. They got outside of the horde of demons and set Sai down.

"What happened?" Kaze asked.

"Sai used up too much power." Nami explained, "There's no way that she could have finished this fight after that Dragon Strike."

"Dammit." Kaze cursed, "Nami, go back out and help Akage and Umi. They're surrounded and need help. I'll stay here with Sai." Nami nodded and charged back into the fray.

"Sai, why'd you have to push yourself so hard?" Kaze said to himself. Sai's eyelids cracked open.

"Just had to worry you a bit." She said smiling weakly.

"Sai you're alright!" Kaze said hugging her tightly.

"Yeah I'm fine." She said, pushing him away, "Now you've gotta go help the others."

"But... What about you?" Kaze asked.

"I'll be fine." She assured him, "Now those demons are going to be able to fly again soon and the they'll run away. You need to be there to support them until then." Kaze nodded and stood up to leave, but then stopped.

"You sure you're going to okay?" He asked. Sai's only response was to smile and blow him a kiss. Kaze smiled back and then headed to Akage and the others. Sai watched him go, hoping that he'd be alright.

"What?!" Umi yelled out when Nami had finished telling her what had happened. She wrenched one of her blades out of a demon. "Sai passed out at a time like this?!"

"Like I said, she exhausted herself." Nami said as she threw her Hiraikotsu into the horde, "Sai killed a few thousand demons in one strike and then kept fighting. I'd say she did pretty well."

"I know." Umi said, sighing, "It's just that we could really use her help right now. There are still at least a thousand demons left."

"DUCK!" Akage yelled at the two. They did just as a bolt of lightning flashed over them and took out a group that had been about to attack them from behind.

"Thanks Akage." Nami called out as she swung her weapon in a wide semicircle, cutting many demons in half, "Umi we have to cut her some slack. We can take these guys. I mean, Akage is handling a few hundred on his own right now."

"Yeah I just don't know how much longer that's going to last." Umi said doubtfully. Kaze came running up from behind.

"We won't have to for much longer. The air is slowly being defiled again. That means then demons will be able to fly again. Sai thinks that they'll run away after that." He explained.

"Well I guess that's a good thing," Nami began, "but why aren't you with Sai?"

"She woke up and told me to come here." Kaze said, "I didn't want to leave, but she made me."

"If she's awake she'll be fine!" Akage yelled at him. A burst of flame left his body, engulfing the fifty demons that had surrounded him.

"Damn that's sexy." Nami said, staring at him.

"Keep in your pants sis." Umi said sarcastically, lopping the heads off the three demons in front of her. Nami rolled her eyes and went back to fighting. It continued like that for another fifteen minutes. After a while, though, the demons began to take flight and flee the battle. Sai had been right. These demons were scared and didn't want to die. They were all gone within minutes. Kaze and the rest of the group ran over to where Sai was.

"You guys are alright." She said weakly when they got to her. Her claws were covered in blood. She'd obviously had to fight off some demons that had strayed from the main battle.

"Don't worry about us." Kaze said, "I want to know how you are."

"I'm fine." She said before passing out again.

"Dammit!" Kaze cursed, "We need to get her out of here!"

"On it." Akage said. He summoned a massive bird of fire. "Let's put her on here and fly back to that village."

"Good idea." Nami said, "They'll treat Sai there." Kaze nodded and picked Sai up and put her on the bird. The rest of group followed and the bird shot into the air.

They arrived back at the village after only a short flight. It was clear that Akage was pushing himself to maintain this. He landed the bird just outside the village. Kaze picked Sai up and jumped off. He ran into the village and was met by the village leader.

"What's wrong? What has happened to her?" The man asked, clearly worried.

"We ran into an army of demons." Kaze explained, "We slew all of them, but Sai exerted too much energy." The man immediately called some people that were watching nearby to get the doctor of the village. He then turned back to Kaze.

"We need to get her looked at." The village leader said, "I'm not sure what we'll be able to do, but we have to try. We owe you that much. Follow me." The group followed him, Kaze still carrying Sai. He led them to a house near the edge of the village. The doctor was waiting inside.

"Come, put her down on the bedding." The doctor said. Kaze did. "Now what happened?" Kaze explained everything that had happened since they'd left the village up until that point.

"I see." The doctor said, thinking, "Likely, what she needs most is rest, but I'm going to need to check for injury. She looks far too pale." Kaze saw that he was right. He hadn't noticed in the chaos, but Sai was much paler than usual. The doctor continued talking.

"We must get her kimono off. Will one of you girls do this please?"

"I'll do it." Umi said. The doctor and the rest of the guys left the room. Umi began removing Sai'd kimono. Nami helped her get it off faster. They saw the blood before they finished getting the kimono off. There was a lot of it coming from wounds to her right shoulder and her left leg. She'd also been slashed across the stomach. They called for the doctor frantically. He ran in immediately, followed by Kaze. Both of them saw the blood at the same time.

"Damn." The doctor cursed, "The blood can't soak through the kimono, though, if it weren't for that kimono, she'd probably be dead. I need to get to work right away." He called for help and several attendants ran into the room. Work on Sai began immediately. Kaze stood by speechless. His mind had gone blank. Sai was hurt, bleeding out. She was in pain and he hadn't protected her. He fell to his knees, defeated.

"Hey Kaze." Akage said gently, kneeling down to face him, "Let's get out of here. You and I both need to rest."

"No." Kaze said immediately, "I can't leave her, not again."

"Kaze, we can't do anything for her." Akage told him, "We'll just get in the way. You need rest, so we can be there for her later." Kaze nodded. Akage helped him up and led him to where the two had stayed last time. Work on Sai continued well into the night. Her wounds were severe, but her half-demon nature allowed her body to take a lot more damage than a normal human. The doctor finally finished as the sun started to peak over the horizon. Sai was sound asleep and it looked like she was going to be alright. He called for Kaze, who was already awake. Kaze was to be there for Sai when she awoke, meanwhile all the people that had worked on Sai all night, including Nami and Umi, were going to get some sleep. Kaze was okay with that. This time, at least, he was going to be there for her.