Chapter 38:
When Arisa continued to study the demons and was thinking of how to escape, Kagome and Miroku had arrived and they immediately fought the demons. She then let them handle most of them as they were quite a few, but then, she felt a massive dark aura approaching them, and it made her instantly go outside. There, she saw a swarm of demons rushing over to them.
"Sango!" she shouted as she hastily went inside to call for her.
"What's wrong, Arisa-chan?"
"We need to help Kagome and Miroku battle the demons! There are more of them coming…!"
"What!?"
Fearing that Miroku would use his Wind Tunnel again recklessly, Sango leaped out of her seat and instructed Kohaku to stay inside. The little boy only nodded, and watched the two ladies go out of the house.
"Sango, go to where Miroku and Kagome are! I'll take care of things here." Arisa suggested as they both positioned themselves to fight.
"But are you sure?"
"Yes! You have to stop Miroku from using his Wind Tunnel. There may be saimyosho included in those incoming demons; considering that Naraku is involved."
"Okay, please be careful."
"I will."
Arisa prepared herself, and began chanting the five cuts.
"Rin!To!Kyo!Sha!Kai!"
A wide wave of light consumed most of the demons in the area, including some of those still from the sky who went ahead on attacking them. She happened to see what composed the swarm of demons above, and she was right: there were saimyosho flying with them.
She continued to perform the five cuts, and Sango was able to reach Miroku and Kagome. They saw how Arisa's attacks were helpful to them, and that gave them more courage.
"Now you don't have to use your Wind Tunnel." Sango consoled, and Miroku nodded.
"I suppose so."
Arisa later joined them, and together, the four of them worked as a team: Sango's hiraikotsu continuously slicing groups of demons, Miroku launching his sacred sutras to the surrounding demons, Kagome shooting her arrows to the demons above, and Arisa with her onmyoji skills.
After some time, they were finally able to defeat what seemed to be a never-ending attack of demons. Synchronously, the four of them vulnerably sat on the ground.
"That was tiring…!" Kagome commented as she relaxed and let go of her bow.
"I didn't know Naraku hoarded this many demons in his estate…" Arisa said, feeling disgusted.
"You're really doing great as an onmyoji." Kagome remarked, smiling.
Arisa felt embarrassed, her cheeks heating up. "N-not really…I still have a long way to go. I get tired easily after a few consecutive shots…"
"I know you'll get the hang of it soon." Kagome reassured, and Arisa smiled at her.
"We should go to where Inuyasha is." Miroku suggested, standing up.
"Right. Arisa, are you coming?" Kagome asked.
Arisa thought for a while before answering. "I think I will. I have a hunch that Sesshomaru's there already."
"Then that's settled! I'll go and fetch Kohaku first." Sango said, and went to get her little brother.
Kohaku absentmindedly followed them, and was silent the whole time even if Sango was asking him questions. All of them started to notice his odd behavior, and so they had to stay alert.
Taking the chance where Inuyasha was brooding over Sesshomaru's status, Naraku quickly entangled Inuyasha as well, and now he was struggling to get out from it.
"You really don't realize how weak you are, Inuyasha." Naraku sneered as he gave him a devilish chuckle.
"Shut up!"
"You... a powerless, pitiable half-demon." He continued to taunt, and Inuyasha fell silent, his expression becoming grim.
"What's the matter, Inuyasha? Finally accepting how weak you are?"
"Keep blabbering nonsense and I'll rip your entire body apart."
"Really? Let me see you—"
But before Naraku could finish his sentence, Inuyasha broke out of his trap in a fit of rage, and lashed his Wind Scar onto him at point-blank range which took Naraku by surprise. His strike loosened Naraku's grasp, and it was enough for Sesshomaru to burst through and escape from the cocoon he made.
Inuyasha, and most especially Jaken, were relieved to see Sesshomaru unharmed and just like that; the two brothers joined forces and engaged a ferocious battle with Naraku. The battle turned into their favor, and they were able to inflict serious damages on Naraku.
Arisa, together with Kagome, Sango, Miroku, Shippo and Kohaku were able to get into Naraku's castle in time, and saw how gravely injured Naraku was. But aside from that, they saw Inuyasha and Sesshomaru, arguing over who gets to kill Naraku.
"Move, Inuyasha. I will be the one to take Naraku's life." Sesshomaru bluntly said, as he prepared to take out his Tokijin.
"Are you kidding me? Naraku is my sworn enemy and so I'm going to kill him!" Inuyasha quickly protested.
Their companions looked at them with bored and ashamed expressions.
Seriously, at a time like this!?
Arisa thought, but then she noticed that Naraku was attempting to get away while they were squabbling.
At that exact moment, Arisa decided to apply the verse cuts, which Kaede said that it was good for demons like Naraku. She quickly tried her hardest to concentrate and extract more power from within herself before the despicable Naraku could flee. However, she was losing her focus already; and just settled with what she was able to harness on that very short period of time.
"Jin, Retsu,Zai,Zen!"
Arisa chanted out loud, which garnered all of their attention - even the brothers who were busy arguing.
While Sesshomaru was actually relieved to see Arisa doing fine and surprised to see her cast a spell, he also noticed that Naraku was getting away; and it angered him.
"You will not escape me." He said vindictively, and he started transforming into his full dog-demon form. But before he could completely do so, Arisa's enchantment had already been hurled towards Naraku; and it distracted him.
However, as soon as Arisa did the verse cuts, she immediately fell unconscious due to her drained strength and energy from their earlier battle, including her recent attack.
The bright yet heavy swish of light that Arisa released barely touched Naraku, because only a small part of him was hit. But that part had quickly vanished, and he couldn't get it back to himself. He scowled at the attack and before he disappeared into a swirl of miasma, he saw Arisa on the ground with Kohaku coincidentally beside her.
"Kohaku! Get rid of that woman!" Naraku ordered desperately with his disembodied voice, and it was enough for him to gain control of Kohaku again. He had the sacred jewel shard he embedded onto him to thank for.
Sesshomaru quickly knew who Naraku was referring to and set his eyes to where Arisa was supposed to be, but he was a second too late. Kohaku had already carried Arisa over his shoulder, dashing into the forest.
That damned lowlife.
Sesshomaru cussed as he rapidly departed to rescue Arisa without hesitation.
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