Chapter 19: The Blood Moon Rises

Kagome's group packed up their trip to the mountain of where the village children were being kept. They only had a week to get there and in that week the blood moon would rise. Meaning that Jigoku, the female nine-headed dragon, will use it to perform the blood moon ritual to revive Yamata no Orochi, the eight-headed dragon that had terrorized a village around one hundred years ago. They couldn't let Jigoku use the children as sacrifices for the ritual to revive him. They couldn't let that happen. They just couldn't.

"Hina said it should take about a week to get there." Kagome said.

"We head there swiftly instead of on foot." Masahiro said.

"Hai!" Everyone said in union. Masahiro crouched down and let Kagome hop onto his back and Shippo stayed on Hansuke's shoulder while Akari opened her wings. When Kagome was comfortable, she nodded her head, signaling everyone that she was ready to go. Then they took off.


Masahiro was on guard duty for tonight after finding a hot spring, catching fish for dinner, and resting near the fire. He couldn't help but feel like dragons were being known as vicious monsters. His uncle, his brother, Yamata, and Jigoku were monsters. The only kind hearted dragon he knew was his mother. She treated every living creature with respect, but if they tried to harm her family or friends, she would defeat them without breaking a sweat. But now, she's dead. Masahiro's fists clenched when he thought about Shinji. He knew that his older brother was doing everything he can to spread terror in the eastern lands. Probably to Kagome's point of view, Shinji is just like this 'Naraku' she told him about. Masahiro knew that he and his pack had to stop Yamata's resurrection from happening.

"Masahiro?"

Masahiro looked towards Kagome who was sitting up in her sleeping bag, "Is something wrong?"

"I'm worried." Masahiro said.

"About Jigoku's plans?" Kagome asked.

"Hai, but now I'm mostly worried about the children. I hope we can save them in time." Masahiro said, "If Yamata no Orochi is revived, the Eastern lands will be under his rule."

"Don't worry, we'll save the children and stop Jigoku." Kagome said.

"Thank you, Kagome." Masahiro said with a small smile, "Why don't you get some more sleep? We got to head out early tomorrow."

"Hai." Kagome said as she got back into her sleeping with Shippo and Tomoe curled up next to her. She slowly closed her eyes as she got comfortable. Masahiro smiled as he watched Kagome sleep with Shippo and Tomoe. To his point of view, Kagome looked like an angel whilst she slept. He looked up at the night sky and saw the moon on its next phase. Only four days until the blood moon arrives.

I won't let you take over, Shinji! Masahiro thought as he tightened his eyes.


Three and a half days later, they finally arrived at their destination. They saw shadows of different kinds of demons reflected on the wall of the cave. Kagome knew that they had to be be quiet in order to get in. Masahiro went in first and then everyone followed him. The sounds of digging were echoing inside of the cave. They knew that the demons were still digging out Yamata's remains. Making sure that they won't be spotted, they quietly and quickly passed the guards. Hansuke soon picked up the sound of a child crying. They rushed towards the sound. When they got there, they saw a snake yōkai inside of a prison cell where all of the children were chained to the wall. The yōkai was holding a young boy by the collar of his shirt. Some of the children were crying as well. They could tell that the children were frightened.

"P-Please put him down!" The boy said as he struggled in the snake's grip.

"I don't think so, you little brat. I haven't eaten in a few days, so you'll be my snack." The snake yōkai said, slithering his tongue while holding the boy closer to him. Before the snake could open his mouth, he was slashed in half from behind. Masahiro caught the boy in his arm before he could hit the ground.

"Are you alright?" Masahiro asked, examining the boy. He wanted to make sure that the boy had no injuries.

"H-Hai." The boy said. Masahiro gently put him down. Kagome and the others rushed in and helped free the children. A few of them looked a little scared as they stared at Masahiro and his friends. They didn't understand why a bunch of demons and a human would come and save them.

"Why are you demons helping us?" The boy asked, curious.

"Your parents asked for our help." Masahiro said.

"Our parents?" The boy asked.

"Hai." Masahiro said, smiling at the boy. Then he turned to Akari, Tomoe, and Shippo.

"Akari, Tomoe, Shippo, I want you to lead the children out of the cave and take them to a safe place. Hansuke, Kagome, and I will go and try to stop Jigoku." Masahiro said.

"Hai!" Akari, Tomoe, and Shippo said in union.


After that, The two groups separated and went to their assigned tasks. Akari, Tomoe, and Shippo quietly and safely lead the children out of the cave. Masahiro, Kagome, and Hansuke went to stop Jigoku. When they got to where she was located, their eyes widened at the sight before them: the pentagram of the revival ritual. In the middle of the pentagram laid the skeleton of Yamata no Orochi. Hansuke could easily smell heavy scent of graveyard soil that was coming from Yamata's skeleton. It was an unpleasant smell. Not to mention the dark aura that surrounded it. The aura made Masahiro's skin crawl. Kagome and Hansuke shared the same thoughts.
Kagome could sense all the dark auras in the area of where the pentagram sat on the ground. She knew that they had to destroy the remains before the blood moon rises. Even though there were a few low level demons around Jigoku, there were a group of oni as well. They saw a big, wide open hole above the pentagram. There were clouds in the sky that were covering the moon. It was only a matter of time of when the blood moon would reveal itself.


"Where are the sacrifices?" Jigoku asked.

"They're gone, Jigoku-sama." A snake demon said.

"What?" Jigoku asked in a stern tone while glaring at the snake demon.

"The guard was slaughtered and the cell was empty when one of the guards were about to change shifts, Jigoku-sama." The snake demon said, nervously. Jigoku clenched her teeth together. She was beyond angry at this moment.

Why did this happened?! First, one of the prisoners escape and now all of the prisoners are gone! Someone must have snuck in here! How come I couldn't sense them? They must be able to cover their auras. I have worked too hard for this ritual to take place! There's no way I'm going to let it fail! Jigoku thought with bitterness. She was very, very angry about the missing sacrifices. She knew that the blood moon would rise any moment now. She didn't know where she could find sacrifices before it appears. Then she looked at all of the demons that stood in the room. An idea struck to her. Black flames began to form around her claws. The flames appeared in front of all of the demons in the room and started to float towards them. The demons slowly back away from the flames. They knew that Jigoku's black flames were extremely dangerous and could easily kill an entire with just one flame. The flames disappeared in front of them and they sighed in relief. But when they looked down, they noticed the symbols on the ground. Then they realized what the symbols meant: they were standing in the pentagram!

"Now let's start the ritual." Jigoku said as the blood moon appeared from behind the clouds. It's dark red glow shined through the hole of the cave and onto the pentagram that sat on the cave floor below.

"B-But Jigoku-sama, you're sacrificing your own followers?!" The demon exclaimed, nervously as he stood in the pentagram.

"The ritual didn't say that the sacrifices had to be humans." Jigoku said with a dark smile. Then she raised her arms and spread them out. Her hands began to glow in a dark shade of red as the pentagram lite up by the dark red light of the blood moon. Then she started her chant,

Call forth the darkness of his soul,

feed on the souls that are given to you,

receive their life and flesh,

under the light of the blood moon,

ARISE, YAMATA NO OROCHI!

At that moment, all of the demons that stood in the pentagram disintegrated. Their remains attached themselves to Yamata's skeleton. Muscles and nerves appeared underneath his bones. His bluish black scales covered his muscles and bones. All of his horns and claws were cleaned. When his body was fully regenerated, he opened all eight of his green reptile eyes and spread out his mighty wings. He slowly stood on all fours and when he did, he let out a mighty roar. A roar so loud that it echoed around the mountains and made a shiver go down everyone's spines.


At that moment, Kagome and her friends knew that Yamata no Orochi, the eight-headed dragon, was alive once more.