Once Rin had said her goodbyes to her friends in the village, they set off back to Sesshomaru's castle, speeding along in the sky. Kikyo held Rin close to her as they rode along the clouds, Rin squealing with delight as they flew past lakes and forests. Sesshomaru in turn kept a precautionary grip on Kikyo's waist. Sesshomaru began to descend once his castle had come into view.
Kikyo saw her waiting as they came closer to the castle, her distinctive silver hair being whipped around by a steady breeze. Lady Sora was waiting for them in the garden.
Any shred of familiarity or softness had been completely erased from Lady Sora's demeanour. The demoness stood sharply and rigidly, as if she had been carved from stone.
They alighted before Lady Sora, who looked like she was going to burst with frustration. Sesshomaru's grip on Kikyo's waist became tighter, and his eyes blazed with some unknown anger. Rin stared at the demoness in awe, eyeing Lady Sora's bejewelled, crimson kimono.
Kikyo leaned down and whispered in Rin's ear. "That's Sesshomaru's mother, she doesn't look very happy does she? Why don't you go and find Jaken? I'm sure he'll want to know that you're here," Kikyo said to the girl kindly.
Rin kissed Kikyo's cheek before she ran off into the castle, a gesture that was so sincerely sweet, Kikyo had to swallow the tears that threatened to spring up into her eyes. Kikyo was not keen on speaking to Lady Sora, even though she had been kind to her at their last meeting, but it was awkward. Kikyo had witnessed the demoness stumbling round her own palace, and Kikyo was unsure of what Lady Sora had seen at her own ill-fated banquet…Kikyo would die of shame if Lady Sora had seen Kikyo and Sesshomaru on the pagoda.
Still, she was intrigued, wondering what Lady Sora would say. Kikyo had the impression that the demoness rarely left her palace. Whatever it was that she wanted, it must be important.
Unable to resist, Kikyo sidled next to Sesshomaru, who stood staring at his mother coldly. "Why are you here mother?"
Lady Sora looked furious, more animated than ever before. "Did you know that I've been standing here waiting for you for over an hour?" the demoness said with poorly contained rage. Her silver eyebrows were drawn into a tight, furrowed line.
Sesshomaru did not seem to be moved by his mother's plight of having to wait. "Then you should have left your message with Jaken and taken your leave," Sesshomaru said unsympathetically. Kikyo glanced up at Sesshomaru shrewdly, he was only being slightly more rude than usual, but nuances to his face and speech spoke volumes with Sesshomaru. Sesshomaru must be angry with his mother, but why?
"My reason for coming is too dire to be left with some incompetent toad! My meido stone is missing," Sora said dramatically.
Sesshomaru did not even bother to reply, he merely continued to glare at his mother. Kikyo cleared her throat awkwardly. "A meido stone? You mean an object connected to the underworld?" Kikyo asked, filling the tense silence.
Lady Sora seemed reluctant to engage Kikyo in conversation, she gave her son a sullen, resentful look.
"That is correct, spectre. It is my most prized possession and is by far the most valuable object in my entire palace. I have summoned back and searched every demon that attended my banquet, but none of them had the stone, or knew where it was."
"So, you believe your own son has stolen from you?" Sesshomaru said with a hint of sarcasm.
"Of course not! But need to know if you have seen it. You have more enemies than me, my son. The banquet was a disaster, I have thrown a hundred banquets and never seen anything like what happened. Our celebration was ruined by that tampered wine."
Kikyo addressed Sesshomaru with concern. "I wonder if Hokai has anything to do with this? I strongly suspect he had some part in the poisoning of the banquet…but why would Hokai want a stone that is attached to the underworld?" Kikyo said in a worried voice.
Kikyo had no evidence to back up her belief that Hokai was behind all of this, only a feeling of dread that had crept up to her shoulders. They had not laid eyes on Hokai, Tsumetai or Mikata since they tried to trap them under that barrier. The three of them had been disturbingly quiet ever since.
Kikyo supposed another demon could have taken the meido, as she could not see how it would help Hokai in the war against them. But a thread of worry laced itself into Kikyo's heart. She did not like these strange, clandestine events…
"Perhaps, mother, you should ask Subarashi about your missing necklace. For you seemed to have spent a great deal of time with him," Sesshomaru said scathingly, before marching into his castle with a swish of silver hair.
Lady Sora watched him go, wholly stunned. Kikyo watched him go as well, but with less surprise and more feelings of awkwardness. She was not a fool, she understood the implications of what Sesshomaru had said. Something was going on between Sesshomaru's mother and this Subarashi: And Sesshomaru was not happy about it.
"You- spectre. I have something for you. Next time you come to my palace try not to leave your clothes all over the place," Lady Sora said. With a wave of her claw Kikyo's priestess robes and bow lay between them on the floor. Kikyo picked up her belongings warily, wondering whether she should thank the demoness, or whether her thanks would antagonise the lady.
Lady Sora turned to leave. "You should talk to him. A meido stone in the hands of some unknown demon…I cannot think of anything more dangerous," Sora warned haughtily, a golden eye fixed on Kikyo.
Kikyo pressed her bundle of priestess clothes against her chest. "I know, I'll speak to Sesshomaru about this…But perhaps the stone is just lost," Kikyo said in a reassuring voice.
"My grounds have been searched high and low. I will scour them again, of course...I hope the stone is only lost," Sora said, her form glowing as she rapidly transformed into an angry ball of light. "For all our sakes, I hope this is so."
At Naraku's request, they moved from the eastern lands up to the north. Tsumetai was taken aback when Naraku suggested that they bypass Tsumetai's crystal, snow-edged palace and instead head for a small, desolate island off of the north coast, called Kukoyoseki Isle.
"I know the north better than you would expect, Tsumetai. When I was alive, I invaded one of the northern mountain tops, a mountain call Mount Hakurei. My amalgamation of demon body parts engulfed the mountain whole until it was destroyed," Naraku explained as they reached the bitterly cold coast of the mainland.
Autumn was being buffeted out of the way by the first steps of winter, and the wind grew colder and colder by the day. But the sea between them and Kukoyoseki Isle was knife cold, but not frozen. Tsumetai had created a roughly hewn bridge made of ice to reach the isle, and the group began to cross, heading for Kokuyokseki's dark shore.
"You came into my lands and collapsed one of my mountains?" Tsumetai said furiously, his blue hair dancing in the frantic wind. He glared at the back of Naraku's dark head.
"Yes. this was some years ago though. Before you removed all of those troublesome humans."
The four navigated the ice bridge, followed by a seemingly endless line of spiders and demons following. Naraku had wasted no time in calling every single spider to him from Wicker Hollow, making himself an army of five hundred strong.
Not only that, some of the neighbouring spider clans: Laceweb and the Silk Hunt clans had also joined them. These clans had deduced that Naraku had returned from the grave through the webs of gossip, and so had joined his spidery procession. After all, every clan and their members remembered his cleverness, ruthlessness and power. Surely if they joined him, they could share in the spoils of his victories.
Mikata and Tsumetai, slightly unnerved by the army of spiders that had now congregated on them, had brought their own armies with them, but they now seemed small in comparison to the endless throng of pincers and eight eyes.
Kukoyoseki Isle was known as the obsidian isle. This was because underneath the white beaches and dogwood trees, a labyrinth of several large onyx caves was hidden underneath. A central peak on the island led into these caves.
The horde of demons, led by Naraku, swarmed down one by one into the most gargantuan cave on the isle. Ripples of onyx formed the cave walls and stalactites jutted like broken teeth from the wavering ceiling. The cave was vast with several tunnels leading into each other, a dark maze in which it would be easy to get lost.
Mikata walked into the mouth of the cave sullenly behind Tsumetai, looking pugnacious. "And why have we moved into this wet, dreary cave?"
Hokai tutted behind her, the hairs on his legs vibrating and quivering. Unlike Mikata, he was delighted with the new residence. "Isn't it obvious? So we can steer clear of Sesshomaru whilst we make our plans of domination!"
"There are thousands of islands surrounding Japan. There is no better place to keep hidden than to choose one of them. The salt sea will dampen Sesshomaru's keen nose," Naraku said silkily as he observed the cave.
Naraku set his mob of spiders to work on making the cave more liveable for demons of a humanoid disposition. Hokai wondered about this. They were spiders- this cave was already habitable for them. And why, after being given a perfectly fine, strong and fresh spider's body, did Naraku choose to morph his body into that of a human?
Hokai was aware that when his brother left the hollow, thus banishing himself, that he had merged his soul with a human and hundreds of other demons besides. But Hokai had always assumed that his brothers true, acidic personality would burn its way through all of the rest.
The spiders firstly carved onyx chairs using their steel-like pincers for their three, two legged masters. Naraku took the first chair, staring at Mikata and Tsumetai with a calculating gaze. Tsumetai stared back with cool grey eyes, looking annoyed. The four of them surveyed each other in the stygian shadows.
"I want to ask you a question, Naraku. When I risked my neck to save you- because apparently you are this infamously evil demon- why weren't you stuck in the worst part of hell? If you were so evil, so dangerous, surely you'd have been sent straight to to the bottom of the pot?" Tsumetai questioned sneeringly as he sat in his hard, onyx chair. Mikata followed suite.
Naraku's eyes glittered like malevolent rubies. "How astute of you. You are quite right, initially I was bound to endure the worst part of hell. Before that fate befell me, the death judges of hell had to give me the opportunity to plead my case. The judges believed that I was addicted to the shikon jewel, they surmised that my feelings for Kikyo mixed with the manipulation of the jewel, caused me to commit my unspeakable acts…so they were more lienient than I had anticipated, and allowed me to merely be chopped up continuously as punishment. I was condemned to spend five hundred years being cut into pieces- until you turned up and sprang me from my prison," Naraku said comfortably, swathed in his white baboon pelt.
"Your lucky break, brother," Hokai said approvingly, creeping up to his brother's side. Tsumetai looked unhappy and unconvinced, as did Mikata.
Tsumetai continued his questions with persistence. "When you had the shikon jewel, it sounds like you were a formidable foe. Once. Now, the jewel is gone and you are nothing more than a mediocre demon," Tsumetai stated jeeringly. Hokai stiffened at the insult. Tsumetai did not know why he was trying to bait Naraku into a fight. The dark haired demon before him was all too similar in demonic power to Hokai. A middle class demon to be sure. He would be a high threat to the average human, could best a demon slayer perhaps. But compared to his and Mikata's power, Naraku was weak, weak, weak!
Despite his burning criticisms, Naraku was stalwart in his serenity. He continued to appear calm and was smiling, a reaction that infuriated Tsumetai further.
"My cunning and knowledge of dark magic are my assets. Reason enough for you to drag me out of hell in order to assist you," Naraku replied slyly.
This response seemed to rile Mikata, who stood up from her chair and went to stand by Tsumetai, her arms folded and a malicious look on her face. "Well, if you are of no use to us, we can easily shove you back where you belong."
Naraku raised an eyebrow at this, still looking unconcerned and insolent. Sensing a brewing fight, Hokai cast his bulky body between Naraku and Mikata. "Stop arguing, all of you! Lets just bring my brother up to speed and kill that wretched dog. Sesshomaru is the enemy here, an enemy that is probably hunting us as we speak," Hokai hissed impatiently.
Hokai told Naraku that Tsumetai had invaded Sesshomaru's lands, and that the struggle had a cataclysmic effect on the demons and humans in the area. Tsumetai interrupted early, describing endless battles with Sesshomaru and how he had at one point managed to riddle the dog with numerous frosted-open cuts. But then Kikyo had reappeared and purified the damage done. They explained their other attacks and schemes from the point, up to the banquet and the stolen meido. Naraku listened, a smirk lifting to his mouth occasionally.
"So, all this time and effort fighting and you still can't defeat the dog. I'm disappointed in you Hokai," Naraku said, staring off at the stalagmites around them. In the distant tunnels, spiders and other demons hauled in supplies, weapons and food. Some of the spiders had began to carve the tunnels, creating doorways.
Mikata growled irritably and her pale fingers twitched towards the daggers at her hip, like she was resisting the temptation to cut Naraku down."That's the whole point of you being here, to figure out how we can kill him and the priestess." Even in the dark of the cave, the red star on mikata's forehead shone with a glowing crimson light.
Naraku looked at the trio superciliously, his white face stark against the ebony of his hair and the shadows of the cave. "Perhaps you should have evaluated your own information first. Your story holds the details of how to move forward and crush Sesshomaru. You have told me Tsumetai, that Sesshomaru was at his weakest when you cut him with your frosted attacks."
Tsumetai nodded, but struggled to see the point. "Yes, a feat that took ages to achieve, every cut was hard won. And he has Kikyo now, she can easily purify the wounds. How would that serve us?"
Naraku laughed softly. "I shall give you a clue. When Sesshomaru is fighting an enemy he fights with a single, narrow minded focus. So…You need to set the right scene," Naraku said. He opened his cleaned fist to reveal the meido stone, the pearls attached to it spilling through his fingers.
Hokai frowned, he had not given Naraku the meido stone, his brother had taken it…
"What do you mean, set the scene?" Tsumetai said slowly, his steel grey eyes fixed on Naraku and the dangling meido.
"I shall tell you. But first you need to answer a question of mine. Tsumetai and Mikata - the two of you borrow each others power as you please. How do you do this?" Naraku asked casually. He sounded casual, but Hokai noticed the intensity of his brother's gaze. This was information that Naraku wanted very much.
Mikata, who had dropped some of her natural aggression now that she realised Naraku had a plan, stared at Naraku greedily and flipped her ruby red curls. "We completed a ritual, an old blood ritual."
"Tell me about it," Naraku said glibly. Mikata opened her mouth to reply, but Tsumetai cut across her.
"Why are you so interested in that?" he said suspiciously.
"If you want my help, I need to know everything you can do and how. Plans are made from drawing in the details."
Tsumetai did not reply, sizing Naraku up. Mikata sighed at the northern lord's reluctance. "Like i said, it's a blood ritual, we pierced our wrists with a sprig of holly and drank a drop of each other's blood. We completed the movements of the sealing Kuji spell."
"How interesting. A spell lost to time, rediscovered again…" Naraku said with gleaming eyes.
A strange silence fell between them all, and Hokai would practically hear the cogs in Naraku's head whirring.
"Don't keep us in suspense Naraku, tell us what plan you have spun together," Hokai asked, his eight eyes sparkling excitedly. Naraku smiled, a truly evil smirk that seemed to twist his handsome face into something truly demonic, an echoing horror of Kagewake's human face.
"We will unleash hell...using this," Naraku held up the meido stone in his long fingered hand. The three demons stared at the necklace in bafflement.
"...I don't understand. You mean, open another gate into the underworld?" Hokai asked slowly, his pincers clicking in confusion.
Naraku nodded. "Yes. We will need to open the gate to hell at the right moment. Kikyo …Sesshomaru and Inuyasha are the threats that we must focus on."
Mikata and Tsumetai, so intrigued by this radical plan, stopped looking unimpressed. They sat down on their newly carved onyx chairs and pondered any potential downsides. Tsumetai pinched the top of his sharp nose. "When we rescued you from hell Naraku, I could feel a strong presence trying to pursue us. Enma, the lord of hell, he followed us."
Naraku's gaze had drifted upwards to ward the glistening stalactites above their heads. The stalactites were sharp like pointed teeth. "Enma is the embodiment of judgement and justice in the underworld. He is an entity that cannot leave hell. And we will not be entering, we can summon the demons of hell we need from the mouth of the gate. Death will attack the western lands and we will use the chaos to our advantage…If we strike Kikyo, Inuyasha and Sesshomaru when they are naturally separated, the demons of hell and Tsumetai can strike at Sesshomaru. If separated, Sesshomaru will be distracted and worried about his missing loved ones. It will make him vulnerable. Tsumetai can then adopt the frosted attacks he used on the dog before, then when he is nearly cut to pieces, we will close the gate to the underworld and join you to make the final killing blow."
Hokai slowly paced around the roughly hewn table, thinking hard. Using the meido again to defeat Sesshomaru had never crossed his mind. But then, he knew he would have no hope of controlling hell's creatures. Did Naraku intend to control the demons of hell, or was his plan merely to let the residents of hell loose? Where would he be in this grand scheme?
"If Tsumetai will be waiting to attack Sesshomaru…what will Mikata and I be doing?" Hokai asked curiously as he lumbered around the table.
"Mikata will be with me, keeping the portal open. I will need a portion of her power to summon one…particular demon, a very special demon I intend to set upon Kikyo," Naraku explained. The demons around the table grinned and tittered at his words.
Mikata looked delighted at this news, she actually smiled, showing her fang like canines. "What demon will you set on that bitch?!"
Naraku smiled shallowly. "You'll See. Hokai, you will harry Inuyasha and his villagers, burn the village to the ground and kill anyone who gets in your way. Keep Inuyasha preoccupied so he stays away from his brother, we do not want the two dogs reuniting and fighting against us. If the dogs are kept apart, they will fall."
Mikata looked like she was raring to go, flexing her claws in anticipation. "Divide the fool and then conquer them! When are we doing this?" she asked urgently.
Naraku stood up and hovered at the side of the table, he secured the meido in some hidden pocket within his baboon pelt. "Not now, we need to wait until our enemies are lulled into a false sense of security. Only then will they grow lax and wander apart," Naraku said as he traced his fingers in a circular motion in the air. Where his fingers had trailed a dark cut off glass materialised- until a foggy looking, jagged mirror was formed.
Naraku clutched the dark glass before him, staring at the misty surface intently. "Show her to me…Show me the priestess," Naraku commanded the dark surface before him. Slowly the nebulous face of the mirror shifted…Until it showed Kikyo's pale features and dark, sparkling eyes. Hokai watched his brother's expression closely, but Naraku's face was blank.
For several long moments they watched Naraku staring at the form of Kikyo in the mirror.
"So, we spy on them and wait. How many hell demons are you planning to unleash? I don't want those underworld creatures making their way east or north," Tsumetai said a little dubiously. He did not love the thought of hell demons spilling over Japan's countryside, could they be controlled once they were let loose? Like Mikata, he was impressed with Naraku's plan and had no intention of raising any further objections. But there was a sliver of doubt there, it sounded like a number of things could go wrong with this plan.
Naraku's gaze lingered on Kikyo as he gave his answer: "Thousands. Thousands will be unleashed."