Dawn came with a heavy stillness that weighed down upon the curled form on the ground, as Kikyo began to gently stir. A pale hand came to her chest, where she clutched it painfully, remembering the burning ache that still lingered from Naraku.
I shall relieve the burning within your veins. He had promised this, and yet, he had only burned her once again, punishing her mercilessly. Kikyo grunted, getting up onto her knees from the mossy sod where she had slept the night before.
Kikyo reached for her long bow, using it to aid herself in standing. She felt an odd sensation in her chest as she looked down, and saw the black malignancy inside swarming, then trickling back into her veins. The malignant forces inside of her were relieving her pain and making her unnaturally strong, but not strong enough to resist Naraku, it seemed.
She found it odd he had not come after her, and when she turned, she saw only lush, green forest around her. The castle, as it would seem, had completely vanished, leaving her there. Where it had sat, the ground was black, and barren. The sky had now returned to it's natural state, becoming dusky grey, with the first rays of sunlight making red gashes in the clouds.
Am I... free? Kikyo wondered, stepping out into the clearing and looking all around. There was nothing, no sign of Naraku's path, the castle seemed but an illusion now, drawn back into the rolling black storm clouds that travelled wherever Naraku appeared.
"Thank you.." She whispered, and stared at the horizon as the sun slowly began to rise, her long black hair moving, and dancing with the cool dewy breeze.
Kikyo moved her arms out, allowing her robe to flutter on the breeze, before lowering her face, and turning away from the direction where she could faintly sense he had gone. She didn't wish to follow him, and he was telling her, she didn't have to, but as she walked, she felt a slight pull from within, as Kagome yearned to run in the other direction, after InuYasha. Kikyo grimaced, and forced herself forward with her bow, gritting her teeth. InuYasha... InuYasha needs help.. Kikyo... He's trapped inside Naraku! Kagome's mournful voice cried from within, but Kikyo only bared her teeth and growled at the sound, her pupils lengthening with her anger, lilac blooming into red. "Shut up, girl!" She snarled, shaking her head, burying her hands into her long black strands.
"I killed you, you have no more body! And soon, you will be gone from me! I will make your soul be QUIET!" Kikyo hissed at her, her fangs showing, making Kagome recede back for the moment.
"I'm sorry." The girl made a small, pitiful peep back, and Kikyo huffed, shaking off the annoyance rattling around in her brain, as the sun rose, bathing her back with red luminescence, as she closed her scarlet lidded eyes, and made a feline chattering as her back arched, and her black, whiplike tail ripped from her garments, the forked prong at the end, slicing through the air, as her wings tore free, and she quickly took flight, stirring up the maple leaves, and flying quickly over the forest, a flash of black and red.
No-one shall have influence over my soul! Now that I have regained my spirit, I shall do with it, what I Desire!
Travelling with the Lord of The Western lands, was as expected; a long and arduous journey for a small kitsune fox boy, as Shippo found, and one that didn't allow for rest stops! As far as he knew, the daiyoukai didn't sleep! He had slept fitfully, bouncing on the back of Ah-Un's saddle, as he could just barely discern the blur of white, as Sesshomaru lept from rock to rock, and as he drifted off, he could have sworn he saw him levitating atop a sparkling, red, nimbus cloud of sorts, but that had to be just a fantasy. The little kitsune had seen fox fire, sure, but was there such a thing as... dog fire?
"You, little one! Wake up!" Jaken snapped, nudging Shippo from where he slept on Ah-Un's saddle. Shippo came out of his childish thoughts, rubbing his ginger mane. "We stopped?" Shippo proclaimed, hopeful, but not seeing Sesshomaru anywhere.
"Yes, M'lord has gone ahead to scope out the area."
Shippo's tiny nose twitched, and he looked around for the source of a tempting aroma.
"Huh? What smells good?" Shippo questioned, still rubbing the sleepiness out of his bright green eyes.
"Your breakfast!" Jaken huffed, his large yellow eyes narrowing as he turned, and walked towards the dying coals of a fire, where a cooked rabbit was roasted on a stick.
"I woke up to this on my lap this morning, which was quite unpleasant, you know! I at least had the decency to cook it, though." The imp growled, picking up the stick and thrusting it towards Shippo.
"Thanks!" He chirped, then licked his lips eagerly, and took it. Shippo chewed for a moment, gulping it down as if he hadn't eaten in days.
"Well, my pack typically ate meat raw, but this is just as good. I'm sick of fish!" Shippo spat, then seemed melancholy as he remembered how Kagome used to cook him said fish.
" Be grateful, brat! I've never recieved such kind treatment from M'lord, and I've been his faithful servant for many years! Lord Sesshomaru may as well be a cat demon, for his aloof attitude, and this nasty little 'gift'!" Jaken snorted under his breath, making Shippo's eyes widen from over the meat.
" You should know, Lord Sesshomaru is highly dangerous! You'd be wise not to get on his bad side!" Jaken whispered sharply, then Shippo jumped as a rock flew at the demon's head, knocking him out cold for a moment.
"I heard that, Jaken." Sesshomaru said, as he came over the ridge. Jaken got up quickly, and immediately took to grovelling at his feet.
"I apologize! M'lord, what have you seen over the lands?"
Sesshomaru mused on this, looking back a moment at the dark thunderheads off far in the distance.
"He is traveling quickly. Why, I do not know." He said, and perched deftly on a rock. Jaken looked out over towards the sky, and tried to squint to see Naraku's castle.
"A travelling castle? How is such a thing even possible?" He snorted, shaking his head as he plopped back on the ground. Shippo nibbled the last remnants of the rabbit off the spit, then set it in the fire, receding back with his small hands on his lap.
"W-well, from what I know... This Naraku, he cannot be killed. InuYasha cut his head clean off, and he survived. He was able to rebuild his body using a Fuko spell." He said anxiously, putting together the knowledge he had gathered in order to attempt to help in whatever way he could.
"Fuko... poison magic. So he is a master of the Kodoku technique. Coalescing pitiful masses of lowly demons to feed his body." Sesshomaru scowled, feeling disgusted. He flexed his claws, and stood quickly. "We're moving." He stated curtly, and returned his chase after the castle. Jaken huffed, his shoulders slumped. Shippo looked on in wonder, as the imp motioned for him to get up, pulling on Ah-Un's reigns to move the beast as well.
"It may be a few days journey, I'm afraid." Jaken stated, and hefted Shippo up onto the saddle once again.
The malignant miasma in the air left in it's path, desolation and death wherever Naraku's castle laid waste upon the forest, until at last it came to a slow, hidden within the masses of storm clouds. It settled at last, atop a vast field of flowers, which withered upon the settling of the massive structure. The barrier that kept it afloat, suddenly broke apart, disintegrating. Miasma rushed out from the broken barrier, and spilled out across the blackened grass, making it curl, killing anything it touched.
Through the barred windows, it was dim within the castle, but what could be seen was an unsettling sight. Blood was spilt across the floorboards, mangled limbs and prone bodies of the retainers who had once served Kagewaki lie mutilated. A curled form struggled on the floor, behind a curtain of black tendrils, Naraku's pale skin stretched and strained, pushing and struggling to force out InuYasha. The half-demon's face could be seen, as if gasping for his breath beneath a wall of flesh, before being quickly sucked back up. Naraku seethed out his agony and frustration, his fingers making divots in he floorboards.
"This new body is now no good! The half-demon has only served to weaken me, but I cannot seem to separate myself from him, his youkai is intertwined with his spirit, and I cannot take his youkai, without also sucking in his pitiful human half, the half that also ... loves Kikyo!"
Doesn't feel good, eh? Having someone's claws clutching your heart? I won't let go until you're dead. Just try and push me out.
"You aren't very wise, InuYasha. What's to say I won't slaughter your precious Kikyo right before your eyes?" Naraku sneered, clutching his chest, an agonized expression twisting his regal features.
Because she is also precious to you, Naraku. I know of all your treachery to try and pit her and I against eachother so that you could have her all to yourself.
InuYasha's voice whispered back, and Naraku snickered lowly, "My, my, aren't we the insightful one. You forget, Kikyo is still connected to me with the corrupted shard buried deep in her bosom, sealed with a kiss. I can hurt her, I can kill her if I so choose, and you cannot stop me." Naraku seethed, and then his eyes glowed red, making Kikyo suffer from where he was.
No! Stop it, Naraku! InuYasha screamed, desperately pushing against the barriers of Naraku's fathomless abyss, as Naraku chuckled, giddy by the power this gave him over InuYasha, momentarily forgetting how this hurt Kikyo in his sadistic elation. Some small voice in him cried out as well, making InuYasha turn sharply in the darkness.
Whose there?! He questioned, the the hairs on the back of his neck prickling from the dark entity hidden in the chambers of Naraku's blackened heart, trapped within the wall.
I am... I have always been here... InuYasha. The voice said softly, curling with Naraku's shared enmity for InuYasha.
"Be quiet!" Naraku snarled, and plunged his fingers into his own chest, making InuYasha's soul leap back, as the bloody claws scraped around inside the chamber, missing him and the other, before pulling back, the hole quickly closing.
Naraku pulled his bloody fingers out of his chest, covered with dark ichor, and laughed shakedly, violently whipping the blood from his fingers. Blades of blood flew out, and slashed the privacy byōbu surrounding him, making a red gash in the grey cloth covered in black and red maple leaves.
Naraku stared through the gash, his crimson eyes becoming solemn as he stared through the opening, towards the window, where the blinds rattled from the thunder still crashing outside. Naraku inhaled sharply, closing his eyes, and the thunder stopped as an image, brightly lit, appeared in his mind.
Kikyo. The three voices of his conciousness spoke at once, as an image of Kikyo appeared. Naraku's brows creased in the center, as the images played out before him.
The image of Kikyo, lit by soft candlelight, as she carefully tended to Onigumo's wounds, a small smile on her face as she worked. Onigumo took a rattling breath, hissing as she dabbed ointment onto his scar tissue.
"How can you smile, when you look at me...? You are so... pretty. I'm disgusting... my wounds, no matter how well you tend to them, I am slowly rotting. You need not care for me, leave me be." He whispered, and Kikyo reached for the bowl of ointment, dipping her long fingers in, and swirling the substance around his bared chest, the exposed tissue grown brown at the very edges like spoiled meat, perhaps still good to eat... But no longer sweet.
"I smile, because today is another day. Can you hear the birds outside, Onigumo...? Don't you hear the lovely songs they make?" She said softly, and he listened, a tear rolling down his raw flesh, from his bulbous eye where the outer flesh had been melted away.
I came to love her, kind Kikyo...
I lay like that, many days. She had always come back for me, her and the little girl. If not her, then the little girl. Then, just the little girl... And how I wished to wring her spiteful neck.
She wasn't coming back.
...Lady Kikyo. When will she come back for me? A hollow voice rattled, as the wounded bandit in the cave struggled to see out to the bright sunny world beyond the limits of his convalescing place, his deathbed.
She won't come back. She's left with InuYasha. She loves... the half-demon boy.
Naraku felt a deep hurt within his body, where the hole in his chest still leaked with his miasma, the poison mingled with blood. It stuttered to close, quivering as his three consciousnesses were now aware of this pain, and sharing in it.
No... It wasn't like that! Kikyo wouldn't abandon anyone. She did come to care for me, very much. But Kikyo cared for everyone. InuYasha sighed with resignation, responding to the disembodied voice. She may have loved me, and I her... But Kikyo was never truly all mine to claim. She was dedicated to her work, to the point of exhaustion. I'm sure it took a toll on her, in those last few months, she took comfort in my presence, and I... her. I simply didn't want to be away from Kikyo. She was the first human, who looked at me like I was any other person.
InuYasha whispered softly, looking back at his memories. Flashes of a happier time flashed through Naraku's mind, of the precious time when Kikyo and InuYasha were in love. Cherry blossoms falling, wind sweeping her raven hair up in the breeze, as she laughed, and looked up at InuYasha, perched in a tree. Heavy snowflakes cascading down, as snow covers the roofs of all the huts in the village. Kikyo walks past, snowy shoulders kept warm with hay, InuYasha still watching her. Sunset setting on still waters, as a red daubed figure stands on the docks. Kikyo steps off the boat, and looses her footing, falling into him. She looks up, her dark brown eyes meetng amber pools like honey. InuYasha embraces her tightly.
Yes... I loved her. InuYasha sighs, and Naraku is silent, sweat dripping from his temples, as his pupils are expanded, looking to somewhere far off in the distance. At last, he is alone in his thoughts once again, dipping his head down to his chest, and laughing softly.
"I now know what to do... I thank you." He said, grinning, and stood, as the blood grew cold on the floorboards.
"If I cannot kill either of you, I will find a way to be rid of you, one way or another. I will not be victim to those who allow the pathetic trappings of the human heart to control them. I, Naraku, do not love Kikyo. " He seethed, and his eyes grew red once again, as one hand flew up to his chest, and a splatter was heard, beads of blood pelting the decorative byōbu screen.