I guess I will take a moment to plug my forum in this chapter, link is in my profile. I think I will take a moment to give a shout out to anyone in Singapore reading this. Hey guys, hope you are doing well.
Chapter 20 The Chase
Near the Sunset Shrine, the other Wei came to a stop and turned around. The defeat of his second form was somewhat irritating, but nothing that he couldn't fix. If Sesshoumaru thought it was over so quickly then he was in for a rude awakening.
Wei closed his eyes and concentrated.
In the subway Sesshoumaru had just left, the blood coating the walls began to slowly connect drop by drop. As each liquid bead of crimson joined together with another, the drops seemed to quiver in excitement and began to race toward each other to create an ever enlarging pool of blood. Although it would have struck most as a highly unusual characteristic of blood, none of this was noticed on the subway platform, however, as the people gawked at the daylight streaming through the hole above them and at the various authorities clustered around the edges.
The pool of blood, obeying a silent summons, headed into the dimly lit confines of the tunnel to join with a figure striding furiously towards the train.
Shun Oguri's life was amazingly boring by anyone's standards. As a middle aged man working for a mortgage company, his life consisted of answering borrowers' questions about loan terms and arguing with title companies about the correct vesting for legal documents. That was all about to change though and not for the better.
While police and firefighters barked orders at stunned onlookers he spotted the Shining Hate lying atop some rubble. Curious as to where it came from and what it was doing there, he picked it up for examination. An undeniable power and heat emanated from the blade and the unnerving sensations sent tingles up his arm in a primitive warning of the flesh. Shun was suddenly overcome with a feeling of intense nausea and heard thousands, countless thousands of voices condemning him, damning him, howling for his evisceration. Before he could examine it any further, he felt a tapping on his shoulders.
Turning around, Shun found himself only an inch away from almond colored eyes that contained nothing but cold fury and the promise of pain. The fact that the man they belonged to was Chinese and whose clothing looked as though he had been through a war zone never quite penetrated into his mind.
"Do you hear them? Do you hear Japan's victims demanding justice? Demanding vengeance? Demanding your blood? Your death?" Wei asked, heedless of the fact that he was drawing a great many stares with his deranged questions.
"Certainly you must." Wei turned so that he could address the crowd and more importantly the policemen who were drawing their weapons. "You, all of you, owe too much to the past to be allowed to continue."
Wei ripped his sword away from the speechless man who finally realized that Wei was going to murder him and was beginning to back away as several policemen surrounded Wei and demanded that he lay down his blade. "I am here to collect what is owed; with interest."
Wei put on a mock-thoughtful expression and continued to ignore the police. "Now what do you suppose will happen next? I will give you a clue. It involves blood."
With lightning speed and inhuman strength, Wei sent his fist straight through to the other side of the man's skull, where it emerged covered in gore and blood. The onlookers started to make for the exits, but Wei wasn't finished. The police surged forward, but they would never reach Wei. Lifting the Shining Hate above him, Wei smiled as his blade glimmered and then released an expanding sphere of searing fire that instantly vaporized everyone on the subway platform.
But it didn't stop there.
The men and women above had only seconds to curse or pray to whatever they worshiped as angry red-orange lines split the pavement under them and jets of flame shot up from the cracks. A terrible groan filled the air as the ground heaved and buckled as savage fire exploded like a star beneath the surface and consumed everything in a brilliant globe of incandescence. Men and women were reduced to their constituent atoms as the fire excited their molecules and caused their bonds to rip apart. Cars, light posts, even the subway train were liquefied to glowing slag under the super heated onslaught.
The sphere of devastation continued to expand unabated and obliterated all buildings in the vicinity in a spectacular explosion of roiling plasma. When he had finished, Wei was left alone in a black and charred wasteland whose epicenter was exactly where he stood and whose surface had been effaced by a giant crater as though some gargantuan monster had torn huge clots of earth out of the landscape.
Wei inhaled deeply, savoring the charred scents around him. I probably shouldn't have indulged myself though; Sesshoumaru already has a head start. I have to make up for lost time...
Once Sesshoumaru had reached a sufficient height, he reverted to his human form. Feeling for Kagome's essence, he traced the invisible chord that connected them, running along its length to locate her. When he did sense her nearing the Sunset Shrine, his composure nearly broke as an epiphany blacker than night hit him. THE WELL! HE'S GOING BACK TO THE FEUDAL ERA!
Following on that devastating revelation, Sesshoumaru had another possibly more disturbing realization hit him as his ears picked up the sound of a monumental explosion in back of him. The other Wei is still alive...
With no time to spare, he raced towards the Shrine and its maiden.
Just like Sesshoumaru, Wei was heading at his top speed towards the shrine. The world around Wei was little more than multicolored blurs whipping by so fast that the people in the blurs might as well have been frozen in time. Fast as he was, Wei wasn't able to close the distance between himself and his opponent fast enough. Unlike Sesshoumaru, Wei had to follow a more circuitous route over building tops and bridges that left him a bit slower. He could just make out the Taiyoukai's form overhead and it was more than apparent that both their destinations were the same. Less than 2 kilometers to the shrine...must slow him...
Sesshoumaru knew that Wei was following him; his hearing easily picked up the sounds of Wei's feet crunching down on the rooftops behind him. The house for the bone eaters well was already in sight and at the speed he was traveling, Sesshoumaru would reach it and Kagome in the space of one minute. A minute whose seconds rang throughout time as a triangle of fate was drawn between the points of infinite hate, undying love, and the inescapable future.
60 seconds
The Wei already present at the well house stepped out from the shadows of the doorway
55 seconds
The pursuing Wei sliced through the air with the Shining Hate and sent a crescent of fire blazing through the reincarnate's path of descent.
50 seconds
Sesshoumaru hesitated for a moment before plunging through the inferno
45 seconds
Kagome recovered enough to raise her eyes and etch into her memory forever the sight of a silver savior emerging from roiling flames
40 seconds
Wei made the most of the split second hesitation by Sesshoumaru
35 seconds
The Taiyoukai believed for a moment that success was his
30 seconds
Kagome reached out for Sesshoumaru
25 seconds
Wei hurled the Shining Hate at Sesshouamaru
20 seconds
Sesshoumaru heard a whistling piercing the air behind him
15 seconds
Both Wei's smiled as the blade flew unerringly at their enemy's heart.
10 seconds
Sesshoumaru twisted in the air avoiding the blade
5 seconds
The Wei with Kagome caught the Shining Hate in his free hand and took aim
0 seconds
The flow of time seemed to halt for a moment as though the fates wanted to preserve that moment of hideous failure and unholy triumph forever.
Then damnation erupted from the Shining Hate and time resumed its normal flow as Sesshoumaru was hurled violently back in a ball of seething red flame that left meter wide scorch marks on the formerly pristine grounds of the shrine.
Even while the flames filled his vision, Sesshoumaru bore witness to the end of his love. The following Wei's form shimmered and imploded into a stream of blood that arced into the other Wei, splashing against his chest and then absorbing into his body. The shadows then swallowed Wei as he retreated into the well house and into the well itself as a roar split the air behind him.
