A/N: It's a little unnerving just how much more people used to leave reviews twenty years ago when I started writing here...
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The day carried on into night as usual, and nothing noteworthy happened in between; the next two days also found them all following much the same routines, but that third night Sesshoumaru glanced at Jaken and nodded, and he and Ah-Un took off for their little turnabout errand.
Now the plan had begun. In about a day Jaken would return, signalling distress just as the sun was about to set, and Sesshouaru would leave off a ways to hide and observe the execution of their plan. Shippou had even smiled and given him a single Hidden Cloud charm, should he wish to mask himself so he could be near without being sensed, which he tucked into a sleeve just in case, although he wasn't sure he'd need it. And, he admitted to himself, not sure I can even figure out how to Use it myself...
Besides that though, the night and next day went as usual, and the sun dipped lower in the sky and Inuyasha felt his senses slipping into a dullness that he always detested. Miroku and Sango finally spilled the plan to Rin and Kohaku, so as not to alarm them; Kohaku agreed that his part in the plan would be very simple, that he would make to protect the village and especially Rin and his nieces and nephews of course, and leave the others to stage their little fight. Miroku and Sango would make to be ready to evacuate the village if the fight got a little too close for comfort; of course Shippou would cast his illusion at a distance so they would go to meet it, but just in case in the course of events it became a problem, they would stand by to solve it swiftly. Kirara would of course stay with them for a little while until the time when it was her cue to offer help. Inuyasha would at first suffer hiding at the behest of Kaede presumably, but would eventually appear to grow frustrated and take Kirara to run and help Shippou as the mock battle devolved, so as not to make anything too apparent from the outset; and of course they would all act very surprised, very alarmed at the arrival of this new foe...Sesshoumaru, Jaken, and Ah-Un would be out across the way far enough to be unseen and unfelt, but near enough to observe from a distance with their keen eyesight, just at the tops of the canopy, not out in open air where they'd be easy to spot, but with their heads just peering through the treetops.
Everything was worked out perfectly, all things were set to fall into place. Shippou had prepared a stationary illusion which he could then activate from a great distance on his casual patrol the night previous; he'd gone almost three miles away for this so it could be seen on the approach as if coming from far lands. They would let it get to about one mile away before going to meet it and of course head for the barren area a little over half a mile from the village, where there wasn't much to destroy save a few swaths of shrubbery and the like. All these things were determined, and finally they were ready.
"Mi'Looorrrd!" Jaken screeched from high overhead, and Ah-Un barrelled towards them, visibly slowing down to curb any turbulence his speed might cause as he drew near. Jaken leaped from his back and bolted towards Sesshoumaru, who hearing him, shot up from where he sat and was outside in a flash.
Kagura's eyes flashed with worry, and she sensed nothing amiss, for in truth the dog taiyoukai had learned a bit about how the houshi-no-tama energy had flecked his powers with just a tiny bit of that ability to conceal things other youkai couldn't, and his plot gave her no twinge of warning from his heart to hers. Thanh Long knew this was because his pure intention, to help her reveal her true form, made it possible for him to access this tiny piece of magic left behind by the fox, but he didn't feel the need to say anything about it.
"What's wrong?" he asked as the imp came to a skidding halt before him.
"The Southern Border patrol reports a possible breach. Signs of Phoenix infiltration were found. Zusaku has shot an arrow through the armor of your defenses, Lord Sesshoumaru, and if we don't get there swiftly, we may be too late!"
"Damn!" Sesshoumaru hissed, and by now, the sun was creeping further down the horizon, and the others in Kaede's hut had emptied out to see what the ruckus was. Sesshoumaru flicked a nervous glance at the sky, then with a shockingly convincing look of worry on his face, he turned to his brother and spoke with much chagrin, "Little Brother, I...if you but ask me to, I shall stay until the morn-"
"Nah, it sounds pretty important," Inuyasha shook his head, "Go, go, you have bigger problems to worry about. Nothing ever happens anymore anyways, I don't know why I still can't sleep right. Besides, everyone else is here."
"Are you quite sure?" Sesshoumaru paused as if uneasy; this was all part of the act, of course, and was very convincing. Of course if some sort of something bad were truly about to happen, he'd be apprehensive first, as if he sensed the danger in letting his guard down.
"Come on, are you serious? I've got enough bodyguards," Inuyasha insisted, "go, go, before somebody sets one of your towns on fire, really!"
"You're the best little brother," Sesshoumaru gave him a very swift hug, then he and Jaken leaped onto Ah-Un's back and tore off, heading South as per the direction from whence Jaken had wisely arrived upon deciding what he'd say.
"Perfect," Sesshoumaru winked at the imp after they were out of earshot.
"You were most convincing as well, m'Lord," Jaken grinned, and Ah-Un chuffed and snorted, and Sesshoumaru scratched behind both ears, still ever mindful to give his Friends their due attentions.
"Well, that's unsettling," Kagura murmured, and Inuyasha sighed in agreement.
"Yeah, well, the pressures of rulership and all that," he shrugged, then felt the old familiar anxiety hit him as the sun's last blaze of red slipped out of sight, and with it, his strength, as he rapidly felt his ears itch and shift and slide down his head into human ears.
"Something feels wrong," Kagura murmured, looking off in the direction where Sesshoumaru had gone.
Behind her back, Inuyasha, Shippou, and Kaede all shared a slight hint of a look of mischief. It's already That Convincing? Good, good...
About two hours passed, and finally Shippou felt ready. Stretching out casually and standing up to head out for a patrol, he made his way along the usual path at the usual pace, so as not to raise suspicion, and flicked his finger in the direction of his distant spell, a gesture unnoticed by any save himself. The illusion activated, and in the far distance a small cloud of fogginess began to form...
It floated higher and higher and grew larger and larger, billowing up ominously as if a real fire had broken out; it rose into the sky in a pillar of thick blackness as if burning fresh pitch-tar, and Shippou called to the others after it seemed sufficiently alarming in size.
"Hey, guys," Shippou went back to the hut, gesturing to them, "you gotta come out here and see this. There's a fire nearby, like, pretty close to us. I think maybe we should check it out," he said as they went outside to look at the smoke rising.
"So let's get going already," Inuyasha huffed, and Shippou scowled at him and crossed his arms.
"Oh no Inuyasha, You're not going anywhere tonight! You can't use Tetsusaiga right now, you don't even have fangs and claws right now. You stay right here! Now that I think about it, Kagura, you make sure he doesn't do anything stupid. I'll check it out. Whatever it is, if something's wrong over there I'm sure I can manage it. Might just be a forest fire."
"Looks awful black for a forest fire," Inuyasha muttered, crossing his own arms, disgruntled at being told to stay put.
"Hey, relax, Inuyasha. I'm not a little kid anymore, okay? With Sou'unga in my hands-"
"And me at your shoulder," Saya piped up.
"-and Saya on my shoulder, I don't think there's much of anything out there that can kill me too easily. If I have to run, I'll know it. I promise," he said reassuringly, and Inuyasha bit his lip for a moment and scowled.
"Yeah, yeah, okay. Still look like a runt to me, but I know, I know. I shouldn't worry so much," he said begrudgingly.
"I'll be back before you know it," Shippou smiled, and took off towards the smoke.
Kagura paused, feeling a bit of heaviness settle about her like an unknown tension. Something felt Wrong.
"Inuyasha, Kaede," Kagura said softly, "you should brace yourselves. Something feels Wrong."
"Hmm," Inuyasha hummed convincingly.
"What troubles ye, Kagura?" Kaede asked, sounding very concerned.
"It's the night of the new moon, the one time of Inuyasha's weakness, and suddenly Jaken hears news of Southern infiltration, the one thing that would guarantee Sesshoumaru would have to address it himself these days. Now on the very same night, a black smoke fire nearby so that one of us would have to go investigate. Far enough away, but too close to miss. Convenient, isn't it?" she frowned, then added, "I may not have lived a very long life while I was beholden to serve Naraku, but it was a time full of devious schemes. And this feels like those."
"Aye, ye be not wrong," Kaede agreed, her tone perfectly ominous. "Mayhap these are not coincidences after all."
"Kagura's right," Inuyasha bristled, "it's definitely a setup."
"Now the real question," Kagura murmured, "is this. What is the target, and what were they planning on accomplishing? If they had planned to go after Sesshoumaru, there wouldn't be much reason to set a fire near here once he had left. So it must be...you, or Shippou, most likely, with those famous swords of yours that some youkai might want to steal?"
"Sounds logical," Inuyasha agreed, then gripping the dormant Tetsusaiga at his side, "but they won't get Tetsusaiga, even if I am human right now. They'd have to be awful damn uppity..."
But his voice carried the undercurrent of worry, and she gestured towards the hut urgently at the two of them, both humans now.
"Go, get inside and guard yourselves. I will go to the top of the hill and see if I can tell what's going on with the fire Shippou went to investigate, but don't get slack. Keep very alert, maybe even seal yourselves in a barrier," she advised.
They nodded at her in affirmation and went inside the hut.
Then they smiled at each other and winked once inside, and sat down to have a bit of tea.
Kagura walked up to the top of the high side of the hill in the direction of the pillar of smoke, watching a cloud begin to form above it.
Something, indeed, was creating this smoke, she realized; it smelled wrong, and was thick and black, because it was a smoke caused by an herbal fire. She could almost taste the different herbs and spices used by taijiya to induce volatile reactions in youkai; she had spent so much time around Miroku and Sango and their children and Kohaku and even Rin and Kaede and Jinenji, she'd absorbed the scents into memory swiftly. And this made her frown deeply, for it could only mean one thing...their enemy had intimate knowledge of youkai slaying methods.
Turning back about to run down the hill, Kagura raced into Miroku and Sango's house, waking them with urgent nudges.
"Sango, Miroku! I need you to wake up now," she whispered, trying not to wake the children but desperate to wake the parents.
"Ka-Kagura?" Sango blinked herself awake, and Miroku groaned, flopping over with his eyes still closed.
"It's urgent, there's trouble past the hill. Someone is burning taijiya poisons meant to harm youkai. It's a setup, and I need two spare masks, one for Shippou. He went to investigate the smoke himself, but I'm not sure how well he can tolerate it when he's nearer."
By now, hearing those words, the two sat up and blinked rapidly, then got to their feet and obliged.
"Well, if what you say is true, then we should prepare ourselves to keep the village safe," Miroku glanced at Sango, "should we go to help safeguard Inuyasha, seeing as Kagura is going to be with Shippou?"
"Yes, that would be wise," Sango agreed, and Kagura nodded, but then paused.
"Who will keep the children from being distressed if they wake up? Or get them to safety if necessary?"
"Oh, we'll wake up Kohaku too, don't worry," Sango said, then pressed two masks into her hands and urged, "put one on and take the other to Shippou in a hurry now, we'll be dressed and ready in minutes but you need not wait for us. We'll protect Inuyasha."
"Thank you," Kagura nodded, then ran outside and plucked the peacock feather from her hair, casting herself upon it into the sky and flying swiftly towards the pillar of smoke, attaching the mask as she gained altitude.
Sango and Miroku smiled at each other, stretching out for a few minutes, just a few before they started to get fully dressed and go wake up Kohaku for his role. Kirara had already been awake, and shook her fur and meowed, pleased that all was going well, but worried that they all were not paying attention to the fact that Kagura sensed something they did not. But nobody there at the moment who spoke in youkai cat, so they were not aware that she had tried to convey this, and having no other recourse, Kirara simply found herself following the plan as it was.
"Even better than planned," Inuyasha grinned as Sango and Miroku and Kirara arrived, "you're already here, makes the next step faster."
"Indeed," Miroku yawned, then looked at the cups, "are those-"
"Aye, I brewed ye both a fresh cup as I saw Kagura run down the hill to wake ye. I believe she has recognized the poison he burns."
"Yes, exactly so. She is rather clever, don't you think?" Sango smiled, and they all nodded, pleased with themselves for going so smoothly thus far, all was just exactly so as it should be and they were confident this was going to work brilliantly.
Kagura flew swiftly and caught up to Shippou fast, and he stood about a hundred yards off from the smoke, covering his face with his sleeve and coughing and wheezing, and she landed and gave him the mask quickly.
"Oh, thanks, Kagura," Shippou sighed in relief, blinking his watery eyes rapidly, "but let's get a little ways off yet, it's powerful stuff."
"Shippou, something is terribly wrong here. This all feels too coincidental. Inuyasha is only weak this one night of the new moon, and all of a sudden Jaken gets news that he has to bring directly to Sesshoumaru, about Southern invasion-the only thing that would guarantee he'd have to handle it himself. And then this smoke from burning taijiya poison, drawing us over here away from the others on the same night...it's a scheme, I feel it in my bones. Naraku concocted devious plots all day and night. This was planned, Shippou."
"I'm sure you're right," Shippou agreed, his face forming into a frown as he looked at the piller of smoke, eyes narrowing, "and speaking of diversions, do you see what I see?"
Kagura looked at the column of smoke as the plumes began to twist and reform and take shape and then become shapeless again; then the fire suddenly went out, and the smoke sucked up into the sky, and the cloud that formed afterwards looked large and angry in the way thunderheads looked large and angry. Kagura watched with a deepening scowl as she observed this strange phenomenon, then looked back at Shippou.
"We can't bring the fight to the village, but we may have been lured away from the village to make Inuyasha vulnerable. We have to draw this thing close enough to be able to keep an eye on the town at the bottom of the hill, just in case they're trying to start commotion there."
"You're not wrong," Shippou nodded, and she whisked them up into her feather and flew to be at the same level of the central region of the smoke, deigning to shout at it as it twisted and writhed unnaturally.
"Hey, ugly! You with the foul stench! You want a piece of youkai, do you?" Kagura lowered her mask to call it, and the smoke formed something alike a ghost of a face, and that face made an expression like a scowl, and it moved towards them.
"Good," she huffed, turning the feather about to fly away swiftly, "now we dance."
Shippou smiled, pleased at how well this was going. Of course she seemed to be headed just where they'd wanted to go anyways, as it was the most logical place to try and minimize the damage while still being in sight of the village. Everything was going according to plan...
Kagura set down in the rather barren area, then turned to face the smoke as Shippou drew Sou'unga from Saya's sheath.
"Let's do this," he said confidently, shifting his stance as Kagura readied her fan.
Shippou had yet to have ventured to actually ask Sou'unga to teach him any great special techniques yet; in truth he was a bit fearful of what kind of damage he could unleash, even though Sou'unga assured him that he would only let out the power necessary. But so far in his limited travels since acquiring the sword, Shippou hadn't really Needed to use those powers, and so had little to do but unleash a small, mild miniature version of the one technique he'd seen used before, the Gokuryuuha.
So settling on testing that, he raised Sou'unga into the air as a purple-green swirl with tiny magenta flecks grew above him, about the size of his fist before he swung and directed a small tornado swiftly towards the illusion-empowered smoke.
The illusion laughed at him deeply and simply swallowed up the Gokuryuuha, seeming to grow in size slightly as it chuckled.
"Tasty," it boomed out, and Kagura scowled and looked over at Shippou, wary now.
"Wait, Shippou. It seemed to feed on that energy," she huffed, "you can't use the powers of Gokuryuuha against it."
"Huh, that's odd, but I think you're right. It seemed to grow," Shippou furrowed his brow, then looking at Sou'unga's blade, "hey, what's that all about, Sou'unga? What kind of monster feeds on your Gokuryuuha?"
%-Something which is immune to Nether energy, or is from the Nether itself, might be able to use my power as fuel,% Sou'unga said vaguely but with the slightest twinge of believeable hesitation, he added, %-I believe the Wind Sorceress is wise to caution against it further.%
"This isn't good," Saya moaned, and Kagura silently agreed, shifting her stance.
"Shippou, if you can do nothing here, maybe you should-"
"Oh, I'm not helpless. I just got this sword, spent my whole life before now without it, and I never use it in my Youjuijitsu Exams. I have more than just one trick up my sleeve, Kagura," he assured her, sheathing Sou'unga and drawing himself up with a smile, then added, "so, you mentioned there was a dance we were to attend?"
She smiled and flicked her fan.
"Dance of Blades!"
This seemed to slightly perturb the smoke, which made a hissing noise amidst it's thundering as it reformed swiftly from the slices her wind blades had ripped through it.
"That seemed to affect it a little bit," Shippou pointed out keenly, "so, it's immune to Nether energy, but not your wind. Looks like we'll have to be careful about our strategy...if it's immune to the Nether energy or even feeds on it, I don't know if it can actually die. If you hurt it too much you might just enrage it though..."
"Well, we wouldn't want to be too hasty," she muttered, hating to agree with that logic, but agree she did.
"Hurt," the cloud growled as it's face finally reappeared, now glaring down at Kagura, "You, hurt. Hurt me."
"Yes, yes I did," she called up to it, huffing as she shouted to carry her voice across the distance, "and I'll do it again if you press me further, you foul thing! I don't know what you are or who summoned you, but I'll HURT You More if you keep it up, you understand?"
"Hungry," the cloud protested, repeating itself, "Hungry. Tasty," it looked down at Shippou now, seeming as if it were staring right at the orb on Sou'unga's hilt upon his back, "Want Tasty. Hungry!"
"I don't think it's a good idea to feed something that only speaks two words at a time," Shippou huffed, looking at Kagura, "do you?"
"Not at all," she agreed, opening her fan a bit wider, defensive now as it roiled above them.
"Want! Hungry!" it shook the very air with it's voice now, and branches swayed with the power of the reverberations, and suddenly, a streak of smoke flew from it's cloud and straight for Shippou.
"Shit!" Shippou dodged narrowly and rolled to the side, leaping to his feet with a snarl, "that was too close..."
"HHHUNNNGGGRRRRYYYYY!" the voice roared so loud that the ground now shook, and the forest animals panicked, and the villagers heard this and all began to peer outside their houses, worried (for in order to be believable, they'd told none of the rest of them, so as not to spoil it, and they knew they would have to make up for it later, for sure, but after all they were all friends).
"That's the cue," Sango smirked, and Inuyasha nodded, hopping onto Kirara's back and taking a long one-second head start before Miroku and Sango rushed out after him, knowing they were within view of Kagura's watchful eye.
"Inuyasha, don't be stupid!" Miroku called, running at breakneck speed for a human, but nowhere near fast enough to catch Kirara.
"You stay back and keep the village safe!"
"Are you CRAZY?!" Sango yelled, "Kirara, what are you doing?!"
"Shippou already used Tetsusaiga before," Inuyasha called over his shoulder, "I'll deliver it to him, since Sou'unga isn't working. If this thing is weak to her wind, maybe he needs the WindScar!"
"Well then HURRY THE FUCK UP!" Miroku and Sango yelled together, and Kirara blazed her way swiftly up the hill towards them.
Having yelled all this across the distance, the two youkai fighting now mere hundreds of yards away, watching the scene unfold, hearing the words spoken, now looked at each other and nodded.
"He's not wrong," Shippou admitted, "Sorry Sou'unga, this isn't your show tonight."
%-I am not offended,% Sou'unga said dismissively.
It took less than a minute for Inuyasha to arrive on Kirara's back, and he rushed over to hand Shippou Tetsusaiga, smiling.
"Here, I figure you could use this," he snorted, then turned to nod to Kagura, "thanks for showing me the solution, Kagura. If you two use wind techniques together, you should make short wo-"
Even though he had known it was going to happen soon, in his stall sentence naturally, as Kagura was too distracted to see the smoke fly from the cloud and hit him in the chest, Inuyasha still felt the panic of any creature suddenly unable to breathe, and his eyes narrowed, and his hand went to his throat, and he doubled over as if punched in the gut.
"Tasty," the cloud above said as Inuyasha felt the smoke filling his lungs, felt it start to seep out of his mouth and nose and grow, felt the taijiya herbs start to suffocate him-for even as a human he was not Immune to their effects, of course, just didn't react nearly as violently as he would have in his hanyou form...
He fell to the ground and started to curl up into a ball, actually pretty much unable to help himself, but trying not to be too undignified about it.
Shippou and Kagura both rushed to his side.
"Inuyasha! Inuyasha!" they both tried, as anybody would not be thinking first, to just sort of shake him; but swiftly realizing that would do nothing at all, they gave each other A Look, then both glared up at the sky.
"Let him go, you wretched thing!" Kagura shrieked, flinging another Dance of Blades through him.
"Hurt, Hurt!" it snarled, but as the blades hit the smoke in Inuyasha's lungs lessened, and he coughed and hacked and started to feel his head spin round and round and round...but he could feel a subtle shift in the flow of air, and he could get just enough to actually be able to breathe a little bit, filtered through the kitsune's magic, and somehow that made the smoke bearable to breathe for just a few seconds; this must have been what the kitsune was talking about when he tried to explain illusion density using some of the strange terms from the textbooks out of Kagome's era, like "barometric pressure" for an interesting one...
Inuyasha's mind loopy from the oxgen deprivation, he gasped in a few sharp breaths and panted on the ground; Kagura turned to look at him, realizing her strike had lessened the hold this thing had on her friend, and quickly fired another attack.
"Hurt! HHHUUURRRTTT!" the cloud suddenly darkened even blacker than before, and billowed even larger, and reformed much faster now, and grew an expression far more wroth, and two glowing red eyes appeared in the much more well-defined face now as it dropped lower to thunder all the things around it with a fury. "YOOU! HURT ME! ME! HURT! YYYOOOOOUUUUU!"
And the thick black smoke in Inuyasha's lungs grew exponentially, heavy and dark and began to spill out of his mouth and nose so fast and so thick that a small cloud immediately began to form around him; Kagura screamed in outrage then, spitting venomous words herself.
"Thrice-Damned IMPOTENT son of a WHORE MIST!"
The cloud scowled at her, seeming to be more aware of the Tone than the Words themselves, and repeated itself again.
"You. Hurt. Me. Me. Hurt. You," it boomed, and the wildlife began to vacate even their dens and leave from all the rattling, and the village was now being evacuated just because it was way more terrifying than Miroku and Sango thought it would be. And also, everyone would owe them all for having to wake up the children, and deal with their nightmares that would surely follow in the weeks to come, which they had failed to think of beforehand and now regretted having missed that one detail. Oh and not just Their Children, but the Whole Fucking Village.
"We really failed to think this part through," Miroku muttered.
"Aye, 'tis not something we expected to have to do, but nor did we really know how convincing Shippou would have to be."
"I mean, I get it? It's really only just a Little Bit overdone...but really? Right on the hill? In the SKY? Where All of the village is going to see and hear that thing shaking the ground for half a mile?" Sango huffed, "I mean, I'm impressed but...annoyed. Very. Annoyed."
"Well, we shall only have to hope this works as planned. If we achieve the goal, everyone else will be far more understanding..."
"And if we don't?"
"Oh we're gonna owe so many people," Miroku moaned, and Sango moaned, and Kaede sighed...
.
"Wow, would you look at that, Lord Sesshoumaru?" Jaken allowed himself to marvel, and Sesshoumaru grinned as well, and Ah-Un chuffed.
"Indeed, he has grown into a Taiyoukai Kitsune. He could actually use that smoke technique in regular battles to incapacitate his foes...I think that's probably where he got this idea from, to be honest."
"Inuyasha actually seems to be quite debilitated, despite being in his human form and less affected by youkai-targeted poisons."
"Oh, he's going to take it all out of my hide, I'm sure of it," Sesshoumaru snickered, his sick sense of humor sometimes getting the better of him despite the recent change of heart. After all, Shippou was controlling this illusion, it wasn't like Inuyasha was going to actually die or anything, he wasn't in any real danger. As a human right now, Inuyasha's body would not have such violent reactions to the mix of taijiya poisons. For the other thing was that, in order to make it all believable, and Fair, Shippou had decided that if Kagura was to be the ultimate savior of the day, he himself would have to fight the smoke suffocation as well. Not as Much as Inuyasha because he still needed to be able to maintain the illusion, but enough to at least get a heavy dose of his own medicine, and suffer what he put Inuyasha through.
So, this having been part of the plan, Sesshoumaru didn't feel panic at watching Inuyasha laying on the ground, but rather almost a sort of amusement, and anticipation of his wife's ultimate moment of triumph, praying for everyone's sake that this worked.
Oh, because if it didn't...Inuyasha would put Sou'unga to shame with what he'd do to Sesshoumaru after this if it didn't work.
"M'Lord, if-"
"No."
"I didn't even-"
"When you start with 'if' in the middle of something like this, I don't want to hear it."
"Ah, I understand," Jaken said with a quiet nod, wisely shutting his beak.
I do too.
They don't want to jynx it.
If we think it to each other, does that count as speaking?
Is our thinking the same as their speaking?
Perhaps we best not put it in words.
Perhaps you are right, brother.
Let us merely watch and admire.
Yes, this is the wisest choice.
Inuyasha now writhed on the ground, starting to feel the shutdown from lack of air, mind woozy and delirious, body spasming, convulsing...
Shippou knew, and Inuyasha knew, from their lifetime of experiences and fights and nearly drowning, just how long after a person stopped moving they could go before they really made it Final. There was a short window just after the lungs gave up that if you did this thing from one of Kagome's old textbooks called 'resuscitation' you could bring them out of it by pushing on their lungs for them, or in severe cases, even breathing for them through the mouth. Or sometimes, notwithstanding proper procedure, you could swat their back, or turn them upside down, probably, they wagered. They weren't actually too worried, because even as a human Inuyasha's recovery from things like passing out was usually swifter than the average man.
"Kagura, use your stronger technique, the little tornado one," Shippou grasped Tetsusaiga, which transformed into the smaller, lighter version as he'd weilded it before when helping Sesshoumaru, "and I'll use the Tetsusaiga's own WindScar to follow it up to that Thing."
"Got it," she agreed, flicking out her fan, "Dance of Dragon!"
Shippou wondered that he hadn't recalled that the whole time they'd all been talking about all sorts of dragons, but that, of course, was what it had always been called, and some part of his mind noted that subconsciously as he swung Tetsusaiga.
"WindScar!" he unleashed, for he could of course, after having his experiences with Tetsusaiga, use a regular WindScar without his HeartScar, and thus he did so, merging it rather beautifully into her winds as she hurled them up into the smoke.
It roared and the black smoke fled from Inuyasha's lungs, a huge set of holes blasted into the cloud as it wisped and drew itself slowly into smaller pockets, reforming much less rapidly than before.
Inuyasha wheezed hard and took huge breaths of air, panting hard, and Kagura rushed to him, kneeling at his side.
"You have to go back to the village, now!" she gestured, and flicking out a spare feather she kept behind her primary battle peacock feather, she lifted him away and down to the village, and Miroku and Sango hurried him away with the others.
"Swift thinking, Kagura," Shippou nodded, then gripped Tetsusaiga more firmly, "shall we do that again?"
"HHUUUUURRRRRRRRRRTTTTTTTT!" the air around them crackled and sizzled and popped with bursts of ball lightning, little grenade-like booms and explosions of light inspired by descriptions of flashbangs and crafted beyond the concept of his old firebombs. These perfectly stood in for the perceived powers of a cloud of smoke youkai, and Kagura didn't question them.
"Shit, it's getting stronger somehow," Shippou hissed, "is it because I added the WindScar?"
"So you mean to say it feeds on both Nether energy AND the wind? But then how are My attacks hurting it?" Kagura frowned.
"I don't think it's the wind, it might be...it might be the jyaki, but not the wind itself. Our attack seemed to hurt it a lot but now it's stronger than it was before we hit it. So the Wind hurt it a lot. You were just using your Dance of Blades before, right?"
"Hmm, right," Kagura agreed, "I don't have to involve jyaki in my winds, which is how I was always able to negate the WindScar. Yes, this beast must feed on jyaki. I see."
"Even Tetsusaiga would feed it," Shippou scowled, "and I don't think I have any non-jyaki spells that might work on immaterial clouds."
"Then I guess this must be my duty," Kagura said, resolved, facing the apparition, "seeing as my attacks are the only ones that seem to hurt it without giving it more power."
"I'll bait it with the swords, and you keep attacking it, see if you can find some point of weakness. Maybe the red eyes, maybe the big mouth or the left ear, wherever it seems to suffer the most," Shippou said, hopping on Kirara's back as she nodded and plucked the peacock feather.
Shippou took the right, Kagura took the left. Brandishing Tetsusaiga, Shippou dove as if to attack the cloud, drawing it's attention.
"Hey, you! Lookie lookie, tasty tasty," he teased, and then Kirara veered wide as the illusion turned to begin to follow them, having seen that they were close and looked very-
"TASTY!"
Kagura struck from the side, aiming for one giant red eye.
"Dance of Dragon!" her twisters focused as they barrelled out from the cast of her fan, striking it squarely in the middle of the eye.
"HHHUUURRRRTTTT! HUUUUURRRRTTT!" it cried, and a noise like wooden barrels being dropped from great heights smashing onto hard rock was as the noise of tumbling and tearing amidst the cloudform; and it screamed and thundered and boomed, "HURT ME, HURT YOU! HURT ME HURT YOU!"
And now a dozen spikes of pure black cloudform shot from the large mass out towards Shippou and Kirara, and Kirara dodged one, but knowing the plan, deliberately placed Shippou into the path of the other just above it-which she normally would have also dodged for a passenger.
Shippou gasped and felt his own illusion take hold of his senses, and putting his mind into a sort of "sanctuary mode" he had learned in his extensive Youjuijitsu training, meant for stillness among other things, he trusted his body to keep him roused just enough to make this all work just right, and by breathing less deeply and reacting without fear, he could act out the volatile effects and then still himself while he was yet still actually conscious, and thus give her time to "save" them all by finally defeating the illusion.
It was indeed convincing. Kagura redoubled her efforts as the smoke began to build up in the kitsune's lungs as it had with Inuyasha, and he being a youkai, seemed to react more swiftly and violently. Kirara swiftly landed and shifted to slide him off to the ground, then stayed at his side. Kagura, feeling a rage build up within her, turned to face the thing before her, knuckles whitened by her grip on her battle fan.
"You despicable being," she summoned up her strength, "Dance of Dragon!" and aimed for the other eye.
"HHHUUUUURRRTTTT!" it made a sort of thrashing motion in the sky, and fog rolled off the kitsune as he choked on the smoke, feeling his own mind getting woozy as he forced himself through his training to take small shallow breaths and relax into a deeper state...
"Shippou! Dammit, you fucking asshole!" she shrieked, and floating up on her feather, she drew closer as it reformed again, only now it seemed to have a slight problem rearranging part of it's face near the glowing red eyes, so that it almost seemed to have something like a scar over it's eye now. Kagura noticed this, and would have thought about it longer, but Shippou was choking now, convulsing, body wracked with spasms, and the cloudform screamed at her wrathfully.
"HUUURRRRTTTT HURRRTTT HUUUURRRRTTTT! HURT YOOOUUU!"
Shippou's body began to flail like a fish out of water, and tears sprung to Kagura's eyes, and she tore her gaze from him as her chest felt a strange thing, a swelling, a rapid pulse so fast it was a thrum...
And her eyes went from a deep fushia to a dark blood-red, and her jyaki jumped tenfold, and her fangs grew long, and her claws grew even longer, and her fingers started to shift into different positions, and her ribbons loosened from her hair...
"I'LL KILL YOU!" her voice suddenly merged into the scream of a powerful predator...
As a glow of fuschia enveloped her, the cloudform boomed out a noise merely made up of thunder and roaring loudness; when Kagura emerged from the tornado of her own jyaki, she was regal, astounding, hovering in midair, at last, At Last in her True Form.
For Kagura was compelled then to use all of her power to kill this thing that was about to kill her friend, and thus without thought, she had indeed summoned her greatest form, most suited to the task, and with a mighty flap, flap, flap, flap, of her powerful wings, she screeched the warcry of the Owashi, the Great Eagle, and her wings created powerful blasts of twisters wrapped about each other in spheres, and these rent the illusion in twain, and the fox gasped for air, finally released from this task, finally successful, although with all those many poisons in his system, he certainly didn't Feel like a big hero right now, well of course he was happy for Kagura and glad it worked...
"Oh, I'm gonna hurl," Shippou, green in the face, rolled over and emptied his stomach, unable to hold it as the dizziness rushed him once he was able to breathe.
.
"She's beautiful," Sesshoumaru gasped, and a tear almost, Almost fell from his eye, but he caught it first on his sleeve.
"Are we to return immediately, m'Lord?"
"Uh, well. We never decided that, did we? Should we wait a little longer then?"
"To see what happens to them when she finds out, without knowing we're around? Yes, but of course," Jaken agreed with a chuckle.
.
Stunned by her own true form as it finally, finally hit her what she had done, Kagura landed her massive bird self next to Shippou and Kirara and folded her wings behind her, being perhaps eighteen feet long down her spine from beak to base of tail, and also having a long, stout, beautiful set of tail feathers maybe seven feet long or so.
She stood around fourteen feet at her crown-to put it simply, she was roughly the size where she would have fit a regular barn as a chicken fits in it's nest. She was not nearly as big as Sesshoumaru in his true form, but her size was indeed formidable, fully at least twice or perhaps thrice as large in body as Ah-Un, if you ignored the disparity in their tails.
"K-Kagura," Shippou gasped after a long break to empty his stomach, cursing himself for having to think of all those details, "you've done it at last. You revealed your true form. That's so awesome," he smiled, genuinely but also a bit weakly, his stomach still roiling.
Kagura flapped her wings and tried to speak, but only Eagle noises came out. She paused, then slowly, she felt her new tongue, her new beak, and her new vocal cords.
"I...thraink...wrreee...shwaauld...bree...carrefwual," she tried valiantly to get her new beak to speak.
"Why should we be careful? You defeated it, Kagura," Shippou turned his head apologetically, hacking up some more of the spices, although by now he was just dry heaving, "oh wow, this stuff is awful. Terrible, awful, dreadful stuff. Why do I do this to myself?" he muttered.
At first Kagura didn't catch that last statement, and Shippou didn't catch himself saying it, so she began to answer his first question now.
"Brreee...caws...there...wras...a plaan. Hoo-oo-" she stopped, embarrassed, "hoo-oo-ooo..." as the air whooshed out over her sound, she now realized that this voice wanted to coo at that exhalation and she'd have to adjust, "hwwuuevver set this up," her speech loosened now, her mind having found her tongue and begun to work it's magic, "wrill still be hiiiding. That clowd, too-oo stuuupid to be behind this."
"Kagura, I think I should tell you," Shippou wheezed, climbing to his feet and clutching Kirara's fur tight as he braced himself to tell her the truth now that the plan had succeeded, "about all of this-" and he fell into a violent fit of coughing, unable to continue for a minute.
Kagura shook her head at him and spoke again, already swiftly used to her bird beak, finding fluency without much trouble at all.
"You're pretty messed up, Shippou. You've been poisoned, and I'm mostly just surpsrised it wasn't worse. You need to go where the others are and find a place to rest. You'll be no good to anyone if you can't even lift a sword, you're too sick," she urged, "Kirara, take him away," she insisted, and Kirara hesitated, not sure if the plan was to let her keep thinking...
"Kagura," Shippou wheezed and coughed, eyes full of tears from taijiya spices, "you don't have to...worry anymore...it was..."
"What are you saying, Shippou? Why aren't you worried?" she paused, then peered down at him, sensing something else which made her uncertain.
"It was...it was to get you...to reveal...your true...form," Shippou coughed out finally, offering a weak smile, "it worked."
Slowly, it dawned on Kagura. Of Course that was why only her attacks affected it...it had been Shippou's illusion all along.
"If that hadn't worked," she began with a slightly indignant huff, "I should have been very, very cross with you. All of you were in on it?"
"Not the...villagers...just...us," Shippou gagged, then clutching his mouth, he turned his head and wretched up a bit of bile along with a sickly groan, "oh, oh...mercy, Kagura, pity me," he pleaded, his stomach squealing and gurgling in protest as the poison messed with him.
"I suppose," Kagura did indeed feel pity for him just a bit more than she was perturbed, seeing, after all, that it had finally unlocked her true form and she was overjoyed by that, "I will forgive you, just this one transgression," she smiled, and gently leaning down with her large beak, she helped nudge him onto Kirara's back as the cat flew him very, very slowly back to the village, and she, enjoying her new form immensely, decided to remain as thus and flew very, very slowly behind them until Kirara coasted down to deliver the fox to Kaede...
"Well, she took that rather well, m'Lord. Shall we go to her now?"
"I think it's time," Sesshoumaru smiled, levitating out from the treetops to go to her, Ah-Un and Jaken trailing behind.
Miroku and Sango got many a hard glare from the rest of the villagers, but once they saw Kagura in her true form cresting over the ridge, most of them relented; a few grumpy curses and their own vows to repay this great debt were enough to settle the slightly angry mob back into returning to their homes for the rest of the evening, and they reconvened with Inuyasha, who had spent his time with Kaede and her powerful herbal tea that had helped to swiftly clear his lungs of that foul concoction he'd endured, but not his stomach yet.
"Kagura," Sesshoumaru whispered, seeing her true form in all it's glory before him, "you're incredible."
"You devil, you were in on this too? And I had really thought you were gone!" she squawked at him at first in disbelief, but then, the sheer happiness of having her new form to show off overtook her, and she flapped her wings and smiled, "how do I look?"
"Magnificent," he breathed, and he meant it too. And that made her smile even more.
"You all put on this great big show just for me," she realized, flattered and a little amazed.
"Well, actually...most of the villagers didn't actually know...well, Miroku and Sango are sorting that out right now I'm sure...and my poor brother let us all take advantage of the opportunity afforded by his night of weakness, and I am sure to owe him..."
"Oh, the poor boy," she chuckled, then extending her wings outwards slightly, "shall I bring you to him?"
"You want me to ride on your back?"
"Well, it wouldn't be the first time you've ridden me, not technically."
Grinning devilishly at that cool remark, he obligingly floated down and straddled her back, and she turned a slow circle and made to land in front of Kaede's house, Ah-Un and Jaken following them.
"You owe me," Inuyasha declared as soon as Sesshoumaru entered, and the taiyoukai dipped his head in a nod of acknowledgment.
"Oh, I know. Trust me. It was worth it," he smiled, gesturing outside the door, "see how glorious she is, little brother?"
Inuyasha peered out at her and smiled, seeing his brother's joy, and despite the misery of the poison, he did feel a little better.
"Well, at least you'll be able to tell yourself how much it was worth it when I'm boxing your ears until they ring."
"Hey, you stop threatening my Wife in there!" Kagura cawed, hearing him, and he chuckled, as did the rest.
"Uuunnnn..." Shippou got up, swooned, and hung his head out the window, barely clutching the sill long enough to haul himself up in time.
"EEeeewwww," Inuyasha started to feel his own gut roil too, curling his nose, "Shippou, you're too cruel. It would have been fine as just regular old smoke y'know..."
"I'll remember...next time," Shippou managed from the window.
"No next time. Never again," Inuyasha groaned.
"Ye have suffered only what ye knew ye would bring to thyselves."
"Stuff it, old hag," Inuyasha moaned.
"Go, go," Shippou moaned after a moment, putting one arm behind him with weak and wobbly waves of his arm, gesturing them outwards, "we're sick, you're happy, go frolic. Leave us. Shut up go away. Bye."
"Never have I had such true-"
"Shut up go away bye," Inuyasha parroted Shippou's words, and they chuckled and got The Hint. Everyone else left besides Inuyasha, Shippou, Kaede, and of course Tetsusaiga and Sou'unga and Saya being with their weilders, they were present too, but remained respectfully quiet.
However, great plans always went awry, and this time was no exception...
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I hope at least one person out there is reading this XD