I know this is taboo, but I will be switching between POVS in the middle of this chapter.

Chapter 5: Kikyo and Inuyasha into the Miasma

Keara's POV

"' Raining demon parts,' was it? How odd." Miroku repeats. We're all positioned in front of four middle-aged men, in the center of a courtyard. Miroku is the only one sitting on the porch, taking it all in, while the rest of us stand listening to the tale that the leader of the men has told us. He's a thicker man, wearing different shades of purple, and is barefooted.

While they were walking the fields earlier today, a dark storm brewed from the mountains and came over their village. It began to rain, but not water, but blood, and then demon parts fell upon them.

"It was awful, and not just that! It completely ruined all of our fields." One of the other men in the back says.

"If only it were just the fields. The old, the young, the weak…so many have become sickened." States the leader.

"I should think so…I'm definitely detecting an evil presence in this area. Leave it to me." Miroku says, standing up from his spot confidently.

And now, we are on our way.

We head for the mountain the leader pointed out for us. The sky above it reeks of a purple and black mist that encircles the open cavern at the top. We follow Miroku, given he was the one that decided we'd go on this journey.

"Here we come to save the day again." Inuyasha grumbles, "Do we have time for this? What about Naraku, huh? Or doesn't he matter anymore?"

"Sure he matters. But Keara's blast did him some damage. Even Naraku would be down for a while after something like that. Besides, I've already accepted payment for services rendered so…" Miroku pauses to pull out a string of coins that he didn't have before. He must have talked to the leader of the village before we left.

"The paying part of it doesn't usually come until afterward! You haven't done anything yet!" Inuyasha roars.

"If you wait you'll get cheated on the tip." Miroku smiles brilliantly, shoving the coins back into the pocket of his long black sleeve.

"You taking bribes?" Inuyasha yells.

"Not bribes, tithes," Miroku replies.

Sango steps forward, her eyes set on the mountain ahead of us. The sky in the horizon beyond the mountain is a mixture of pinks and purples, but the colors are moving as if alive. I come to stand next to her, my hands gripping the yellow backpack Kagome has provided us that carries all our supplies. She glances at me with a very serious expression on her face. "The miasma. I think it's at the base of that mountain. I was just wondering if someone other than Naraku could produce such poison."

"Someone other than Naraku?" Miroku chimes in.

Inuyasha's POV

The miasma gets thicker the higher up the trail we get, snuffing the life out of the plants within its reach. I smirk. The miasma isn't affecting me.

I lead the way up the trail, Miroku close behind me with the girls and Shippo on top of Kirara's back.

"The poison even killed the grass…" Sango mutters, observing the landscape surrounding us.

"We're almost there," I assure them. Up ahead I can smell the main source of the miasma the closer we come to a door frame in the mountain. "Whatever's going on here, I don't like it." Something feels off. Wrong.

The closer we come to the door, the stronger that feeling gets. It's a thickness that takes over my throat, making it hard to swallow.

Behind me, Sango begins to cough. I snap my eyes in her direction just in time to see her fall off of Kirara's side. Keara immediately responds by leaping off of Kirara and knees beside Sango.

"You're still sick." Keara frowns.

I scowl. Not everyone needs to come with. The two of them can stay behind. "It's just a demon hunt. No sense in dragging everyone along. Sango, Keara, you stay here. Miroku, you coming?"

Miroku kneels in front of Shippo, "You seem resistant to the poison, Shippo. Will you look after things?"

"Leave it to me! But promise you'll be careful. That miasma is pretty strong." Shippo's look of concern is almost touching, but I want to kill whatever is corrupting this mountain.

"Wait!" Keara scoots the backpack around her arms and pulls it in front of her. She opens the bag and rummages through it. I walk over to her, eyeing the bag from over her shoulder.

She pulls out a black rod-looking thing, flicks a switch on it and a light comes off of one end.

"What is that?" I ask.

"A flashlight. I know you can see in the dark, Inuyasha, but Miroku may need it." Keara lifts the flashlight to me, and I take it. She's right after all, as much as I'd hate to admit it.

"Come on, monk."

I lead the way through the doorway with Miroku close at my side, but once in, I can already tell it's going to be hard for us to maneuver through the thickens of the darkness. I grab ahold of Miroku's wrist with my free hand to guide him. We walk like this for a few minutes, at first in complete silence, and then the sound of battle can be heard far into the mountain.

"We must be really close by now…" I mumble.

The weight of Miroku shifts downwards, and when I glance at him, I see he's fallen onto his knees. He starts coughing much as Sango had earlier. He must be getting affected by the poison.

"Aw, c'mon! You said you could handle it! What's wrong? Suck it up!"

"It's just that I have to go a bit slower. Without my training… I wouldn't be able to do it at all." Miroku heaves.

The sound of battle gets louder, along with the sound of splashing. Up ahead, I can see the opening to the middle of the cave where light shines toward us.

"Something's there. Let's go." I say.

Miroku slowly comes to stand and follows behind me at a much slower pace.

When we reach the opening, it's an immediate drop to a purple liquid down below. Within the liquid are the body parts – of demons. A whirlpool kicks in, in the center of the pit, flushing the demon parts into its depths. Suddenly, out of the whirlpool a gigantic demon stands and roars. It's an ugly demon, with red eyes and horns on top of its green head. Another demon stands from the purple liquid, a blue creature with red eyes.

The blue demon rushes at the green and catches him with his teeth on his left shoulder. They begin a dance of clawing, biting, and fighting in the middle of the cavern.

"Why are they fighting?" I ask, kneeling in the shadows so as not to be seen. Miroku comes to my side, kneeling as well.

"There must have been a battle…hundreds of them fighting, killing, dying. The losers' bodies were thrown into here…what's left of their bodies, that is." Miroku says.

"But…there's gotta be a reason."

The green demon grabs a hold of the blue demon's head and twists. The sound of a loud snapping echoes throughout the cavern, and the blue demon goes limp. The green demon drops its body into the shallows and when he does, the liquid foams, and rushes into the green demon's body. The green demon transforms, and the extra body parts of the previous demon and of the others that have been disposed of, form onto his body. Spikes shoot out of his back, and an extra head forms at the pit of his belly.

"The last one standing gets to keep all the parts!" Miroku says with shock.

The green demon growls loudly and looks up at the cavern's ceiling, where a large opening to the outside can be seen.

"I'm still here…the promise was that the final winner would leave this place alive…why have I not yet moved on?" The demon roars.

"Oh no…That means he…" Miroku stutters next to me.

"Unless I'm not yet the final winner?"

The very look the demon gives me sets me ablaze. "Not yet, you're not!" I hiss.

"Stop! Wait!" Miroku says at my side, gripping my left shoulder to stop me from leaping down into the cavern.

"Let go!" I shoulder him off and make the plunge. Midair, I unleash the Tetsusaiga, it transforms with ease in my hand, and I swing it above my head to slash downwards at the demon. "You fight me!"

Keara's POV

The smell of miasma stings my nose, and the cloud of purple sinking from the top of the mountain blurs the sky, covering the light above.

"They're taking too long, let's go," Sango pressures. She's been demanding we leave the moment the boys disappeared beyond the door but she's needed to rest so I've been denying her. Her hands clench into fists at her sides and she lifts herself off the rock she sat upon, her legs beneath her wobbling.

"You know you're too weak to go. You'll die in there." I start over to her, gently resting a hand on her lower back as she bends forward. Luckily for her, she's wearing the mask that prevents her from getting harmed by poison but she still is sweating profusely.

Something catches my attention from behind Sango. Snapping my head up to investigate I notice a white and red figure come out of the fog behind us. I recognize that head of black long hair and lifeless brown eyes. It's Kikyo.

Kikyo comes to our side, barely acknowledging Sango and narrowing her eyes at me. "So, Inuyasha's inside."

Without hearing my answer, Kikyo passes by and heads for the entrance of the mountain. Frowning, I know what I need to do now. If Kikyo goes in, there is a chance Inuyasha will get distracted and in the end, get hurt. I can't let that happen. I glance down at Sango, whose legs slowly give out under her. She slips from my hands to the ground.

"Will you be okay, by yourself?" I ask. It's a stupid question, of course, she won't, but she's safer than Inuyasha is.

"You're gonna follow her?"

"I have to. If I don't…." I sigh, just imagining the harm from both the emotional pain of seeing Kikyo and the physical he may obtain, on Inuyasha's face.

"Was that woman?" Sango starts to ask but doesn't finish. The expression on her face screams that she already knows the answer but she patiently waits for my reply.

"Yeah. If she's here, I'm sure it can't be good." Dropping the yellow bag beside Sango, I shoulder my sword onto my back. I have yet to practice with it and have mostly used it as a spear, but it's the only physical weapon I have other than my blast.

"Take Kirara, and please, be careful."

"I will, thanks."

Slowly, I begin for the cave, my eyes watching Sango. She nods to me reassuringly. Kirara runs up to my side and as she does, I burst into the cave.

Not even a quarter way through, I start to hear the sound of fighting and grunting. My heart paces in my chest and when I reach to feel the beating against my rib cage I feel the Shikon jewel and my necklace break from around my neck.

My eyes widen, never had to worry about my necklace breaking before. I search around the darkness for the faint glow of purple the jewel emanates. I spot it a few feet behind me, I walk over and kneel to grab it. My hand hovers over the jewel and a spark of something familiar sets fire in me. I glance around.

Up above, through the ceiling of the cave, I can see another purple glow coming from high above in the direction we were running towards. Another jewel. Shit. This one isn't calling me for some reason.

I snatch our jewel and shove it into my red pant pocket and rush onward with Kirara close to my side.

We enter a large cavern with miasma mist rising from a purple liquid down below at the base of the mountain. A gigantic, hideous monster with a head on its waist and spikes adorning its back, is fighting Inuyasha. Kirara meows and leaps into the cavern but not before Miroku, who is but a few feet ahead of me, catches her by her tail.

"Good catch," I huff as I approach Miroku.

"There's deadly sorcery at work here, and Inuyasha's about to be part of the experiment, if we don't stop him!"

"I sensed the jewel," I mutter. Miroku coughs heavily next to me, and I pat his upper back to help get the mist out of him.

"The miasma's too powerful…and we both know what that means, Naraku is involved," Miroku barely whispers.

The large demon roars, "the woman is not human, she will become a part of me!"

I am not sure what the demon means by this so I follow his eyesight down to the base of the mountain, where on a rock, Kikyo lies unconscious. My blood boils. Why the hell is she here? She's become useless the moment she entered this place, causing problems for all of us.

"You keep that filthy hand off of her!" Inuyasha swings down his blade and cuts off the demon's arm which reaches for Kikyo's limp form. The limb doesn't stay cut for too long. The demon's skin bubbles up where the flesh has been cut and a new arm replaces the destroyed one.

Inuyasha leaps for Kikyo but the demon intercepts him with his newly built arm, throwing Inuyasha back against the wall from the blast the demon's hand makes against the wall of the mountain. The mountain shakes, forcing me down to my knees.

"Inuyasha, no! Stay calm!" Miroku demands.

"No, I will not 'stay calm.' I am going to protect Kikyo!" Inuyasha snaps his head in our direction, our eyes locking onto one another. He pauses, his eyes softening for a second and I wonder – what emotion does he see on my face?

I feel hurt….And angry. Hurt that he'd still protect her after she's tried killing him twice. Angry that she's even gotten herself involved in something she doesn't need to be in.

The demon races forward at Inuyasha, forcing the half-demon to look back up and defend himself from the incoming creature. Inuyasha slashes at the demon, his sword cutting into the demon's chest. It's when I realize, he won't stop fighting until Kikyo is safe. He is in danger until she is out of the way.

Grumbling to myself, I slide down the incline to the boulder Kikyo lies on and as I do, her eyes spring open. Was she faking it this entire time?

"Good you're conscious. Can you stand?" I reach down to help her up. She slaps my hand away and stands on her own.

"By coming here, you risk Inuyasha's losing you forever."

What the hell?

"Excuse me? You're not helping either!"

She glances back at me with a muted face and I glare back up at her. I don't know what Inuyasha finds so appealing about this woman other than her looks. Her attitude sure doesn't seem attractive.

Grunting, grumbling, and slashing can all be heard at once in the background of our fixed stare. She breaks away, pulls forward her bow, strings an arrow, and shoots. The arrow collides with Tetsusaiga and then flings up towards the hole in the ceiling of the cave, a purple light trailing behind it.

A heavy wind bursts from the liquid below, floating up the limbs of demons that had sunken to the bottom. The wind sucks everything up toward the hole in the ceiling, and it starts pulling at me too.

I grab a hold of anything I can, rocks that break and fly above, to a boulder on top of the boulder that I wrap my arms around as tightly as I can.

"The spell is broken, the miasma gone!" I hear Miroku shouts in the background.

My fingers start to slip from their crossed position, my arms growing weak and soon I am being thrown up into the air away from the boulder I once was on. I close my eyes tightly, afraid of seeing myself being sucked up into the demon that hovers above the mountain. My body slams against the entwining limbs of the demon. Something snatches my left wrist, and I am suddenly slung back and forth.

Opening my eyes, I see Inuyasha lying there against the same limbs, my wrist in his grip.

"Keara! Are you all right?" Inuyasha shouts above the chaos of wind and whipping.

He looks distraught, worried even. Is it for me?

I nod slowly, looking over my shoulder at Kikyo who is, again, unconscious and being sucked in with the same limbs.

"What about Kikyo?"

Inuyasha growls under his breath, I just barely hear him beyond all the chaos. He climbs up the limbs beside me, helping me turn so I can face the oncoming creature up ahead. We're being pulled into a white blur at the top of the mountain. I can't make out the shape of the figure, only that it is bent down and absorbing everything including the live demon, miasma, and us.

Inuyasha wraps his arms around me, shielding me from loose bits of flesh that slam against us. When we're about to be sucked in, he pushes us off the main intertwined limb and lands not too far away from the creature.

I can see now, that the white blur is a cape of a baboon's flesh and long black wavy hair flows around it. It's Naraku. He smiles wickedly at us when our eyes meet his, and finally, the last bit of the demons are absorbed.

A white orb forms around Naraku's, now naked, body, and blasts from his shape. Wind thrusts against us. We bend over and cover our faces from pebbles and rocks that fly at us from the blast.

"You destroyed his body, remember? He needed a body, so he had those demons kill each other and combine to make a new one!" Inuyasha shouts.

"The mountain mist lured you. You took the bait, and I cast my spell. You could have joined me in here, Inuyasha, if only you'd had the courage." Naraku looks down beside him, where Kikyo lies motionless. "So this is the woman, who restored me to life. I might not have had this body at all, if not for her."

"She didn't do it for you, you scum! She did it for Inuyasha!" I hiss. The words taste vile when they come out of my mouth. I didn't want to defend her, but I couldn't let Naraku, of all idiots, think so selfishly.

Naraku kneels and picks up Kikyo into his glowing arms, holding her close to his chest as he examines her face. "And yet I still know her to be the foolish woman who followed you in death fifty years ago."

Inuyasha unsheathes Tetsusaiga and rushes at Naraku in full speed. "You! Don't you dare touch her!"

But when the sword comes down to collide with Naraku's skull, something like electricity stops him. The impact of the electricity and Inuyasha's sword makes an explosion that bursts miasma muck and smoke, throwing Inuyasha back towards me. He comes to land perfectly but not without covering his face from the poison.

We both look back to where Naraku was, but he no longer is there. Up high in the sky, almost too far for us to see, is a dark purple cloud flying off in the distance.

"How dare he!" Inuyasha shouts, "how dare he!"