XXVI
Sui Generis
Kouga hears a thousand things that beg a thousand questions in Kameko's single sentence, but she is right. There is no time for answers; not now. The silence that so disturbs him is being broken by caws and cries. There is stench on the wind, and a foul presence, tainted youki...and fainter still, a presence he knows, pulsing in rhythm with the shards he possesses himself – shikon no tama.
The leader is coming.
From Kameko's few words and the scattered bits of remains he passed on his way up he has put together a few truths. An attack, which Ginta and Hakkaku had been hard pressed to defend against; an attack against which they had received the aid of Kagome's power. Why and how would have to wait until later; for now, the weight of defending the den had fallen on him, and him alone.
He clenches his fists and turns to face outward, looks upward and sees the oncoming ranks of his foes. A score of harpies like the one that had attacked him on the way to Edo, and in front of them a single one that stood out in its strangeness, two torsos, two heads, four arms, one monstrous body – and a sharp, tingling presence of shikon no tama.
In a flash, Kouga is gone from the ledge in front of the den, flying through the air on wings born of nothing but speed. He crosses in front of the first half dozen of his foes and surprises them with his presence mid-air; there is an expression of anger, real fury, on the face of the leader twins, and Kouga smirks to see it – whatever Kagome did, it must've hurt them badly- and then reaches out with the claws of his right hand and rakes them across the air.
Youki flashes outward from his fingertips and streaks across the sky like pale blue lightning. The odor of charred flesh and burned feathers oozes into the air, and six bodies fall in piece to the ground. The group of attackers appears completely surprised by the swift attack that has hit them; they are used to a certain invulnerability that comes from attacking from the sky, but Kouga is among them, beside them, wounding the almost at will.
Before even the twin leaders have made up their minds about what is going on, another six foes fall before Kouga's strength. Claws penetrate and leave gaping wounds. Youki smolders on torn flesh. Now a dozen harpies are on the ground, most of them dead and the rest wounded enough that there will be no flight for them, no escaping.
Koua lands beside them, and the scrabbling few give him no trouble at all.
A roar of rage comes from the mouth of Jigoku; beside his brother, Jaaku screeches commands to the few who remain, stronger than the others that Kouga has destroyed but no match for his power, no match for his rage. With strong, powerful leaps he makes his way back into the air, propelling himself from the treetops, from the side of the mountain, from one body, bleeding black blood as it falls, to another.
Below him, though he does not see it, being distracted with his own activity, Ginta and Hakkaku are beginning to wake. Memory comes to them slowly of the last few moments before consciousness crashed down into the darkness, bringing them with it – memory of battle, and blood, and the threat of being overwhelmed, being pushed back -
And then the memory of light.
"Kagome-onee-chan! Where did she -"
"Kagome-onee-chan! What happened to -"
The words burst out of them in unison; startled, they turn and look at each other, and then jump to their feet. It is a sign of their devotion to Kouga that their immediate though is of her, but the moment they turn they can see her, propped still between Kameko's great paws, and in the next moment they turn their eyes upward, their attention called by the sounds of battle.
Ginta sends a cry aloft, and waves when Kouga turns to look down at him, but the distraction has not come at the best of moments.
Ginta only sees blood, not black but red, and his cry of greeting becomes a cry of horror.
A/N: Tada! The chapter of June 30th: presenting...a cliff hanger! This chapter's title, "Sui Generis" means "in a class of its own"! A reviewer asked; these chapter titles (and the title of the tale) are in Latin, a language I dearly love, dead though it may be. Much thanks to my reviewers, especially Someone's Desire who went on a mad spree a few hours ago and reviewed every single chapter! (this is much appreciated and quite encouraging!) So! Onward tomorrow (or later today, in fact).
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