Chapter 24: Retrace: Resolve
"No…" Alice's quite, defeated voice echoed in Inuyasha's ears as he stared in shock as the girl slowly faded away from his vision.
"Alice!" Sango and Kagome's voice yelled out while all Inuyasha could do was bite down on his lower lip in frustration. Thoughts of the group's last encounter with Naraku in the castle flashed through Inuyasha's mind as he worried for Alice's safety for a brief moment.
Baka, she can defend herself pretty well now Inuyasha told himself before another thought popped up. But after that big a fall she'd be knocked, after all she's only human. And if this is true than she'd be defenseless against any attack or ambush Naraku has…
Shaking his head to banish the thought from his head, Inuyasha stood up and faced the rest of the group. "Let's go, we need to find Alice before one of those dead Samurai or Naraku do first," Miroku instructed as he looked at the spot where Alice disappeared.
"Yes, but it won't be easy seeing as Naraku placed a barrier around the spot," Sango pointed out as her gaze traced Miroku's to the gaping hole behind Inuyasha, "We'll have to find a way down to the spot where she is and hopefully not get lost in the process."
"Well then, let's get going," Inuyasha spoke up, impatient to go and find Alice. The sooner we start moving, the better. As Inuyasha took the lead through the hallway, he tried to catch the heathery scent of Alice but only smelled the rusty, old scent of the castle boards beneath him.
A sudden creak from the unstable boards near him alerted Inuyasha to another presence in front of the group as he came to a silent halt, motioning to the others to keep quite so they could stay hidden.
The smell of dead and decaying flesh instantly swept up Inuyasha's sensitive nose as he cringed in disgust. True he had smelt a scent similar to this but that person's scent was much more appealing to him than the current scent drifting about the castle.
Another creak from the floor jerked Inuyasha back to his senses as he peered around the corner to see a group of corpses walking in and out of the other rooms in the hallway. What the…? Inuyasha thought before seeing the group move towards the room he and his companions were in.
In a flash, Inuyasha grabbed Kagome, who muffled a quiet squeak of surprise, and jumped over to a screen located in the corner of the room, placing Kagome behind him while unsheathing his Tessaiga. Seeing Miroku and Sango hiding behind another screen on the opposite side of the room allowed Inuyasha to relax a little before spotting a lone figure in the middle of the room.
Shippo, baka what're you doing? Inuyasha thought as he glared over at the tiny kitsune while Kagome whispered urgently, "Shippo, over here!"
Once golden eyes met teal ones, Shippo let out a small sigh of relief before jumping over to the spot Inuyasha and Kagome were. But just as the kitsune was about to reach them, a cold, unforgiving hand flashed out and grabbed the fox's fluffy tail.
"Shippo!" Kagome called out as Inuyasha jumped from his hiding spot to confront the corpse.
"Let him go," Inuyasha growled while holding up the Tessaiga.
Backed by Miroku and Sango, Inuyasha was confident that they would win the fight, but much to everyone's amazement, the corpse merely looked around the group, as if looking for something, before dropping the scared kitsune to the ground.
Inuyasha stared in confusion as Shippo jumped into Kagome's hands as the corpse turned and walked away.
"Kagome! Kagome!" Shippo cried as he hugged his adoptive mother, tears forming at his eyes.
"It's alright Shippo, you're okay," Kagome soothed as she rocked him back and forth.
"What was that all about?" Sango asked, lowering her Hirakotsu, "Why did that dead Samurai catch Shippo only to let him go moments later?"
"Good question," Miroku stated before continuing, "It seemed to me like the dead Samurai was using Shippo as bait to get us out in the open."
"But then why did it let him go when we came out?" Kagome asked, with a glance over to Miroku.
"Maybe it's because the Samurai wasn't looking for any of us, but a specific person in particular…" Miroku started with a worried look towards the door the Samurai exited.
"They must be looking for Alice!" Sango answered as Miroku's gaze was followed by four other worried glances.
"We must find her before they do," Miroku said while looking back at the group.
"But where do we start? I mean this castle is huge," Kagome pointed out with a wave of her hand.
"The castle tower," Inuyasha spoke up, sheathing his Tessaiga.
"Huh?" Kagome responded with a confused look towards Inuyasha.
"Keh, where else would that reckless baka go if she was on her own?" Inuyasha continued with a glance towards everyone, who slowly nodded in agreement.
"Well then let's go already, no use in staying here," Inuyasha finished with a step towards the door. With everyone following closely, the group swiftly made their way through the castle and within moments was heading up the tower's stairs.
"Hey Inuyasha? Can you scent Alice yet?" Kagome asked, breaking the silence that enshrouded the group.
Inuyasha shook his head, so far the now familiar heathery scent wasn't in the direction they were going; however, Inuyasha could faintly pick up what he thought was the scent leading up the stairs but it was stale, probably days old.
This somewhat bothered the hanyou, seeing as his scent from his last visit here was even staler than the scent. Why is Alice's scent fresher than anyone else's? She couldn't have come back here without one of us knowing… Inuyasha thought, trying to untangle the thoughts so it would become clearer.
Shaking his head, Inuyasha decided to leave the thought until later when they reunited with Alice. Looking up, the familiar fancy, yellow walls sparked a flash of anger through Inuyasha as he growled; knowing his most hated enemy was near.
Picking up his pace, Inuyasha practically dashed into the room they saw Naraku in last, unsheathing his sword in the process. A few muffled foots steps quickly followed him into the room and soon the whole group was fanned out, ready for battle.
"It looks like Naraku isn't in here," Miroku observed, lowering his hand that held a batch of sutras.
"Damn, and it doesn't look like Alice is here either," Sango put in disappointedly.
"What now? Do we wait here for Alice to come, or do we go and find her?" Shippo asked.
"Keh, that's easy. We'll wait here for a bit and if she doesn't show then we'll go and find her," Inuyasha growled, sheathing his Tessaiga.
Everyone nodded and began inspecting the room for any unwanted guests. Inuyasha was about to join in the search when a faint noise caught in his ears. What was that? Inuyasha thought as he turned around to face the direction the noise came from.
"Inuyasha?" Kagome called from the other side of the room, curiosity glowing in her warm chocolate eyes. Ignoring her, Inuyasha attempted to take a step towards the door, only to have a figure collide with him in the doorway.
Inuyasha blinked in surprise as the figure quickly took a step back before snapping, "Hey watch where…"
Inuyasha smirked; staring up at him with surprised ice blue eyes was a slightly embarrassed Alice.
"Inuyasha! There you are!" Alice exclaimed happily, "It's good to see that you're all safe seeing as this place is crawling with demons. I was starting to get worried about you guys when you didn't show up."
Inuyasha was about to reply to the black haired girl when her scent, mingled with another familiar yet aggravating scent caught his nose. What's he doing here? Inuyasha narrowed his eyes and looked over Alice, waiting for the scented person to show.
Meanwhile, Kagome replied, "I'm glad you're okay too! After seeing you fall like that we were all worried."
"Yeah, the further we went, the more corpses we encountered," Sango put in.
"But why were they only going after you and us?" Shippo asked Alice.
Tilting an ear to stay in the conversation, Inuyasha heard Alice respond, "I don't know. But their efforts weren't very good, but maybe that's was because there were three of us."
"Huh, three of you? What do you mean?" Kagome asked while Inuyasha diverted his gaze so it rested on Alice questioningly.
Alice, in turn, looked towards Inuyasha and the group before casually pointing behind her. Following her finger, Inuyasha immediately narrowed his eyes at the sight of his elder brother Sesshomaru standing behind the girl.
"Yeah, these guys were traveling with me and helped me find my way here," Alice explained like it was common sense.
"Sesshomaru! What're you doing here?" Inuyasha growled, glaring at his brother.
Inuyasha held his ground, waiting for Sesshomaru to answer him, ignoring the confused look on Alice's face, accompanied by an innocent question of, "Do you know Sesshomaru or something?"
Looking down at Alice, Inuyasha heard Kagome answer, "Know him? He's Inuyasha's older brother!"
"Brother?" a look of realization flashed through Alice's blue eyes as Inuyasha frowned at the mention of the relationship between him and his brother.
A short moment of silence followed before Inuyasha picked up the slight sound of steps and looked up to see Sesshomaru standing in between him and Alice.
The emotionless look in his eyes made Inuyasha's blood boil but he remained silent as Sesshomaru spoke, "So Inuyasha, this girl is one of your companions?"
"Yeah, what's it to you?" Inuyasha growled.
Sesshomaru slightly narrowed his eyes for a mere second, quickly enough that no one else but Inuyasha's sharp eyes could catch the action. "Alice, this is where we part," Sesshomaru continued as another wave of anger raged through Inuyasha at his brother ignoring his question.
"Yeah, I guess so. Safe travels then," Alice replied as Sesshomaru glanced back at the girl. Inuyasha narrowed his eyes, was that regret he heard in Alice's voice?
"Let's go Jaken," Sesshomaru's voice cut through Inuyasha's thoughts as he saw his brother turn to leave.
"Where are you going off to?" Inuyasha demanded, growling angrily as Sesshomaru merely walked by him and into the other room.
"Oi! Wait a second Sesshomaru!" Inuyasha yelled after him but frowned when he realized that he was too late.
"Now that we're all together, we'd better get going too," Miroku's voice snapped Inuyasha's gaze back to the others.
"Knowing Sesshomaru, he's probably after Naraku too," Shippo stated while Alice walked by Inuyasha in the direction of where Sesshomaru disappeared to.
Slightly narrowing his eyes, Inuyasha wondered if the girl felt something towards his brother. Keh, she wouldn't be that stupid. Sesshomaru cares for no one, anyone could tell that after spending just a few minutes with him.
"Yeah, you're right; I mean why else would he be here? Let's get going then," Alice spoke up as Inuyasha shook his head slightly to clear his mind from the thoughts.
"I won't let him get to Naraku before me, he's going to go down by my sword," Inuyasha growled under his breath.
Following slightly behind Alice, Inuyasha turned the corner to see a somewhat pleasing sight.
"Sesshomaru!" Inuyasha's voice mingled with Alice's as the two stared at Inuyasha's brother. Sesshomaru was surrounded by a whole swarm of dead Samurai, which were ruthlessly attempting to harm his brother.
"Look at all the corpses! There's so many of them!" Kagome's voice stated in surprise from behind as Sango's added "Yeah, and they're all attacking Sesshomaru."
"We should go ahead while Sesshomaru deals with them," Miroku offered as Inuyasha took Miroku's offer and continued forward smirking at his brother in triumph.
Serves him right Inuyasha thought bitterly as he called out, "Too bad Sesshomaru, looks like we'll be going on ahead of you!"
Not bothering to see his brother's reaction, Inuyasha dashed into the next room, abruptly halting at the familiar sight of red armor.
"Yukimara!" Shippo called out, echoing Inuyasha's disbelief.
"Indeed it is Yukimara," Miroku added while Inuyasha narrowed his eyes at the man.
I can smell the scent of death from him, which means he didn't survive his encounter with Naraku… It's not surprising but…
Inuyasha's thoughts were cut short at the cold, frustrated voice coming from Alice filled his ears, "Looks like Naraku is nowhere to be found."
Disbelief and rage flowed through Inuyasha, after smelling the air to see that what Alice said was true. He growled, "What? Naraku's not here?"
A sudden movement alerted Inuyasha's attention towards the dead Yukimara taking a step towards their direction.
"Be careful everyone, here he comes," Sango warned as Miroku put in, "There's a demonic aura coming off of Yukimara. Naraku must be using his corpse to control the others."
At the mention of Naraku's name, Inuyasha bit down on his lip in anger at the more than likely true fact that he was the cause of all this. Unsheathing his Tessaiga, Inuyasha was about to confront Yukimara when Kagome's voice stopped him, "But we can't just attack him, he saved our lives back then."
"Exactly, that's why Naraku used him as the source of the spell since he knew that regardless of the fact that Yukimara is a walking dead we wouldn't be able to kill him," Miroku agreed angrily as Shippo added, "Stupid Naraku! Playing tricks and cheating as usual."
Inuyasha frowned, one side of him was saying kill Yukimara, since he was dead already but the other side said for him to not kill the man who saved them in their previous encounter. Damn! Inuyasha tightened his grip on Tessaiga's handle in frustration.
"I see, then there's no other option huh?" Alice's quiet voice echoed through the silence.
At the haunted note in her voice, Inuyasha turned to see Alice's eyes covered by her jet black bangs that were once snow white. What is she talking about? Inuyasha thought as he saw Kagome take a step towards Alice while saying in a concerned tone that mirrored the group's reaction, "Alice?"
Inuyasha's eyes widened in surprise as Alice whipped out her sword, which immediately glowed with blue fire. Even the startled gasp from Kagome couldn't tear Inuyasha's gaze from the girl as she swiftly brought her head up, the salty scent of tears located at the corners of her eyes drifted into Inuyasha's nose as he took a slight step back in surprise.
In a flash, Alice raced by Inuyasha, sword poised for attack. Inuyasha couldn't believe what he was seeing as he jerked around to see Alice running towards Yukimara. She couldn't be…! Realization slammed into the group as a chorus of yells desperately tried to halt Alice's attack.
Inuyasha took a step forward to try and cut Alice off, but after seeing her nimbly dodge Yukimara's attack and render him unarmed Inuyasha felt like time around him slowed down so that he was going less than half his normal speed. Gasps of surprise and horror filled Inuyasha's ears as he stared helplessly at the sight of Alice pulling back her sword for the final blow.
Don't do it! Inuyasha thought, but he soon realized that no matter how fast he ran now, he wouldn't be able to stop Alice's attack. Damn! Inuyasha closed his eyes in frustration, willing that he would somehow make it in time.
The scent of blood almost instantly hit Inuyasha's nose as he came to a gradual halt, three feet away from Alice, who after a few seconds pulled her sword back towards her. Blood trickled down the black blade and all Inuyasha could do was stare in shock at what Alice had just done. He didn't know what to think of her actions.
The slow decent Yukimara's body made to the ground made Inuyasha jerk forward to catch the body but Alice beat him to it. The loud clang of her sword as it hit the ground was a distant noise to Inuyasha as he saw Alice crumble to her knees, holding onto the now lifeless body of Yukimara.
Sobs from Alice as she buried her head into Yukimara's shoulder sliced through the shocked silence that enshrouded the room.
"Yukimara, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry," Alice's distraught voice whispered loud enough for everyone in the room to hear it clearly.
Inuyasha looked on in frustration that he couldn't stop her in time, but the light sound of footsteps alerted his gaze to Kagome who walked towards him. When she stood right next to him, Kagome gave Inuyasha a sad and worried glance that made Inuyasha's heart break at the sight of her once so happy eyes being filled with sadness.
A bright light diverted the two's gaze to where Alice knelt. A closer look revealed to Inuyasha that the light was coming from Yukimara's body and before he even had the chance to wonder what it was, the light engulfed Alice for a few moments before drifting up and ultimately disappearing.
Inuyasha stared at the light in awe and a wave of understanding hit him as he realized the light was Yukimara's soul.
"Alice?" Shippo's voice seemed to pierce through the kneeling girl as she flinched at the sound of the kitsune's timid voice.
After lowering her head in an attempt to avoid the other's gaze Alice spoke in a low, sad tone, "I had to do it. If I didn't Naraku would've won and Yukimara's soul would be trapped forever."
A wave of sympathy washed over Inuyasha as he realized that Alice's actions weren't committed by her totally willingly, and were indeed the only option she had.
"I see, so if the corpse is destroyed then the soul will be freed," Miroku's voice stated from behind as Inuyasha narrowed his eyes in anger.
How dare Naraku do this? How low could he possibly go? Inuyasha thought while growling, "Damn that Naraku! I'll never forgive him for this!"
The sight of Kagome moving towards Alice sparked a flame of worry in Inuyasha's heart as he wondered whether or not Alice was stable enough to approach.
To Inuyasha's relief, Alice did nothing as Kagome held out a cloth to the girl while murmuring, "Here."
When Alice turned her face so Inuyasha could see it his eyes widened. Blood was spattered around her left eye, right cheek, and all over her once clean kimono. Seeing Alice smile warmed Inuyasha for a moment as she gratefully took Kagome's cloth as wiped her face.
"I've had just about enough of Naraku!" Shippo's growl rung through the quiet room as Inuyasha narrowed his eyes in agreement.
The group watched in silence as Alice laid Yukimara's body down on the floor and began to pray. She was shortly joined by Miroku and Kagome while Sango and Inuyasha kept watch for any other threat that could be lurking in the shadows.
A low buzzing sound caught Inuyasha's ears as he jerked around to spot its source.
"A Saimyosho!" Sango confirmed Inuyasha's sight as he growled, barely able to control his temper, "Damn, it must've seen the whole thing." Which means Naraku was watching us the whole time and we never noticed.
A sound from behind him made Inuyasha look back to see Alice grab her sword and run past him.
Don't start this again. Inuyasha thought as he stepped forward to stop her, but her enraged yell caused him to halt and let her continue on.
If she and I are as similar as everyone says than she needs this to work out some of that anger and pain. But much to Inuyasha's horror, a spine chilling crack was heard before the floor under Alice's feet disappeared. No! Inuyasha thought as he raced towards Alice I won't let this happen again!
But before Inuyasha could take one step, a flash of silver crossed his vision. After blinking Inuyasha recognized his brother's figure, his only hand holding Alice's arm thus keeping her from falling. Within moments, his brother pulled Alice up until she stood next to him.
While Alice tried to catch her breath, Inuyasha could only stare in annoyance and surprise at Sesshomaru's actions, which made no sense to him whatsoever. The fading of the buzzing of the Saimyosho brought Inuyasha's gaze to the disappointing site of it flying away through a small hole in the roof. Damn.
"It looks like it's headed towards Ayame Village," the small, annoying voice of Jaken sounded from near the door of the room.
Ayame Village? Inuyasha thought as he heard Sesshomaru speak, "If Naraku isn't here than there is no reason for us to stick around. Let's go Jaken."
With a glance over at Inuyasha, Sesshomaru left the room, his younger brother's gaze boring into the spot he had vanished from.
"Alice, are you okay?" Kagome's kind but concerned voice asked as she walked by Inuyasha and laid a gentle hand on Alice's shoulder.
Alice merely flicked her sword and returned it to its place in her kimono's obi before replying, "Yeah. Let's get going. If Sesshomaru is right, then Naraku should be somewhere near Ayame Village."
Though her voice was stronger than before, Inuyasha could sense that the turmoil that raged through Alice's body before was still there, no way she could recover that quickly, and Inuyasha's eyes met Miroku's purple ones and both Sango and Kagome's chocolate ones.
The moment all of their eyes met a silent agreement passed through each person, this would be the last time that Naraku would ever hurt any of the people they held dear. A nod from each one of them sealed the resolve as they turned to follow Alice out of the room and castle.
But Inuyasha stayed where he was for a moment, narrowing his eyes. Images from when Alice was just about to attack Yukimara flashed through his mind.
Narrowing his eyes to mere slits, Inuyasha bit his lower lip. What was that? Just as Alice's head whipped up, Inuyasha was almost dead certain of what he saw. Her normally ice blue eyes were stained the same red as his enemy Naraku and they glowed with almost the same hatred.
Warning: Epic Fail DDx
Inuyasha is sooo hard to write for DDx But I had to try working with him, it was bound to come around eventually... But you can count I probably won't do another Retrace with him V.v""
But thank you soo much Dreamhare for the review!
It really helped~
Well due to my busy schedule the next chapter won't be up for a while, but I will still work on it! And sorry people for the delay with this chapter, again my busy schedule gives me little free time V.v""
Please read and review~
