Yu Yu Hakusho Fan Fiction / InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ One for the Ages ❯ Chapter Seventeen: The Long Road Home ( Chapter 17 )

One for the Ages

By Gan Xingba

Chapter Seventeen: The Long Road Home

 

The trek to the temple had been long, but it was an easy hike aside from the final mile up the mountain where the temple sat. It had been the normal affair in terms of conversation, aside from Sango acting slightly more reserved than normal and Shippou asking Kurama twice as many questions as normal as the young fox demon took advantage of his last day with his newfound idol. When they finally did arrive at the top of the mountain, they broke out a light lunch before beginning the ceremony, the specifics of which were still unknown to anyone since Yusuke had kept the instructions safely preserved in the small silver amulet that had been tucked inconspicuously under his shirt for the entire journey. It was at this point where Kagome decided to try and figure out what had been bothering Sango.

 

“Hey, what's up?” she greeted the demon slayer as she sat down beside her with her lunch. “You've been kinda' quiet, is everything all right?”

 

“Huh? Oh, I'm fine,” replied Sango unconvincingly as she realized she was being addressed. “I'm just a little tired, that's all.”

 

`It must be pretty bad if she still doesn't want to talk about it,' thought Kagome, not fooled for a second by the routine. `I wonder what it could be? She seemed perfectly fine last night…'

 

“All right, but if you do ever have something on your mind, I'm the one to talk to. I have experience in social stuff,” she said, pressing the matter ever so slightly. “I mean, you can't expect any of those guys to understand girl issues. Remember when I had to explain periods to Inuyasha?”

 

This at least got Sango to smile as they recalled the incident, which not surprisingly had involved a record amount of “sits”. The rest of their lunch was filled with similar memories of men, mostly Inuyasha and Miroku, doing what they considered rather comically stupid things when they were confronted with various “girl issues”. Of course, in most of these incidents, the men really had no idea that what they were doing was inappropriate and were thoroughly confused as to why they had been slapped, “sat”, or hit with a giant boomerang, although Miroku always knew exactly what he was doing when he tried to grope Sango's butt.

 

“Actually, Kagome, when I said I was just tired, I wasn't being entirely honest with you…” began Sango after they had stopped laughing at a particularly amusing encounter Miroku had with a beautiful woman who happened to be married to a renowned martial artist. “It's…well…”

 

“Hey, you two,” called Yusuke from over by the large stone archway in front of the temple. “It's time to start the ceremony thing now.”

 

`You couldn't wait just one more minute?' thought Kagome irritably, and rose from here seat on the ground with Sango.

 

“So, what exactly do I have to do?” asked Kagome when she had walked over to Yusuke and the others, the former of which was struggling to open the silver amulet that contained the instructions for the spell.

 

“Hold on just a second…” replied the boy, as he tried every possible method to open the amulet with absolutely no success.

 

“Allow me to see it,” requested Kurama, with a knowing smile.

 

Yusuke handed the amulet over to his teammate with a grumble, although he was clearly not expecting Kurama to do any better. However, much to Yusuke's chagrin, Kurama managed to open the amulet with minimal effort and handed the tightly rolled scroll over to Kagome.

 

“I loosened it up for ya',” mumbled Yusuke as Kagome unraveled the scroll, which turned out to be so long that it hit the ground when Kagome held it up.

 

“Wow that looks long…” voiced Kuwabara.

 

“Yeah…but that's mostly because it starts out with a full length essay called “Why Koenma is Awesome”, complete with visual aids…” Kagome said, eyebrow raised skeptically. “The actual spell doesn't seem that complicated, but I should read it over a few more times just to be sure I know how it works…”

 

After a minute or so of rereading over the useful part of the scroll a few times, Kagome rolled it back up and exchanged the scroll for the mostly complete Sacred Jewel that Yusuke was still in possession of. She then walked over towards the stone archway, her eyes scanning the tiles in front of it. At last, she found what she was looking for, a tile several rows in front of the gateway that had an intricate circular emblem in the middle of it. Conveniently, there was a shallow indentation in the center of the emblem that the jewel fit into easily as Kagome placed it there.

 

Everyone remained silent as Kagome then proceeded to kneel in front of the engraved tile facing the archway and closed her eyes in concentration. Even Yusuke remained silent, not having any desire whatsoever for Kagome to screw up the spell and send them to the beginning of time. A few minutes after Kagome began the spell, though, the silence became involuntary as the Sacred Jewel began to glow with a beautiful violet light. Slowly, the lines of the emblem it was placed in began to glow in a similar manner, and then two lines of the light began to creep across the temple floor from the emblem, each one headed towards a pillar of the stone archway.

 

The lines moved slowly, but eventually, they did at last reach the archway, and the moment they did so, its surface became engulfed with what looked like purple streams of electricity, and everyone knew that within seconds, a portal would be created, and the Spirit Detectives would leave this time forever. At least, that was what they thought would happen. So occupied were they with the spectacle that was before them, that they had not realized that they were not alone in the temple.

 

At that moment, when the comrades in arms were all staring in awe at the archway, Naraku burst into the temple grounds in his human form, his white baboon skin cloak whipping about as he dashed towards where Kagome knelt. Naraku could not have chosen a more perfect moment to act, for even Hiei with his Jagan Eye and his unmatched speed was in no position to act against him. As such, he made it unopposed to the Sacred Jewel, and snatched it from its place in the emblem.

 

Immediately, the currents around the archway ceased existing, and the emblem and the two paths connected to it stopped glowing. The Sacred Jewel, however, glowed with as much intensity as ever as Naraku clutched it in his hand. Sensing that something had gone wrong, Kagome opened her eyes, gasping and trying desperately to crawl backwards upon seeing the demon before her. Fortunately, Inuyasha acted before Naraku could strike out at her, and leaped forward towards his nemesis, so concerned about moving quickly that he didn't even bother to unsheathe his sword and tried to strike with his claws.

 

Naraku easily leapt away from the attack, a landing on the bough of a nearby tree with a wicked smile on his face. One would think that someone as wise as Naraku would know better than to stay long when he was greatly outnumbered by a group that had so recently defeated him, but something about the jewel in his hand gave him confidence enough to stay.

 

“I don't know what it is that you have done to the Shikon Jewel, but I must say I approve,” he said mockingly as everyone spread out and put themselves into a fighting position. “I daresay that it feels more powerful then it has ever been.”

 

Kurama, discerning that Naraku's pleasure about the jewel's condition meant that it would be wise to defeat him quickly, was the first to act. In one smooth motion, he removed a rose from his hair, transforming it into its whip form and lashing it towards Naraku. The distance that separated the fox demon from Naraku was great enough that it allowed Naraku to easily leap away to another perch as his former one was cut in two by the attack.

 

“Ah, the meddlesome fox, I shall test the jewel's new power on you first,” declared Naraku, and held the jewel out towards his assailant.

 

Then, to the shock of everyone, a blast of purple energy burst forth from the still glowing jewel with incredible speed. Kurama, caught completely off guard by this new maneuver, reacted too slowly, and by the time he had started to try and avoid the blast, it had engulfed him completely, at which point everyone was momentarily blinded by a bright flash of light. When the light died down, to the terrible shock of all save Naraku, there was not a single trace of Kurama remaining.

 

Perhaps because his thought process was much simpler than anyone else's at the moment, consisting of realizing Kurama was gone and that it was Naraku's fault, but Kuwabara recovered from the shock the quickest. His voice sounded animalistic as he activated his Spirit Sword and charged Naraku with a righteous fury. Naraku's grin looked almost insane as he pointed the Shikon Jewel towards Kuwabara and fired another blast of energy from it. Kuwabara, however, was prepared, and swung his Spirit Sword at the oncoming attack. Much to his dismay, the blade of energy simply passed right through it, and all he could manage to do was open his eyes wide in reaction as he too disappeared in a blinding flash.

 

Moments after Kuwabara had charged Naraku, Hiei had sprung into action, and the time it had taken Naraku to eliminate the boy had allowed the fire demon to get behind him, sword unsheathed. For once, however, Hiei was not fast enough, and the horizontal cut he made with his katana merely cut a gash down Naraku's left arm, the one that was not holding the jewel. Realizing he could not hit Hiei, Naraku smiled with barbaric satisfaction at the demon as he pointed the jewel not towards Hiei, but towards Sango, who remained fastened to the ground with shock like her other comrades.

 

Gritting his teeth as he realized what Naraku was doing, Hiei abruptly changed course tearing through the air towards Sango even as Naraku fired another blast towards the stunned demon slayer. Time seemed to slow down as Hiei raced the deadly attack towards Sango in a competition that would decide her fate. For this brief moment, Hiei didn't care that he was letting Naraku use his emotions against him, even if he had fought with all his might to acknowledge that those specific emotions had ever existed. All that mattered to him in this moment was that he got to Sango first. As fortune would have it, he did arrive first, ramming into Sango's shoulder with his own, throwing her through the air to safety, and for the tiniest fraction of a second, a small, almost undetectable hint of relief could be seen on his face. Then, like Kurama and Kuwabara before him, he vanished from the world in a flash of light.

 

“What power! What absolute power!” cackled Naraku manically from the trees. “With this new power, I shall kill all you of you! At last, I shall have absolute victory!”

 

Everyone was horror stricken, too shocked to do anything but gape at the demon that likely represented their impending doom. Everyone, that is, save Yusuke Urameshi, who was staring at the ground and shaking uncontrollably with his fists clenched in an anger he had never felt before.

 

“You…bastard…” he whispered hoarsely before looking up towards Naraku with a look on his face that was so full of rage that it seemed almost inhuman and began to yell with a voice of the same nature. “YOU BASTARD! I'LL KILL YOU! I'LL SEND YOU STRAIGHT TO HELL!”

 

As he roared his furious declaration, a burst of blue light erupted from him like an explosion, and it licked the sky like a towering inferno, only growing in intensity with each passing moment. So high was his spirit energy and so terrifying was the sight that it was now Naraku who was frozen with fear. Every instinct told him to run, but his body would not obey.

 

“DIE, YOU MONSTER!” yelled Yusuke, positioning his hands into position for his signature attack. “SPIRIT GUN!”

 

Suddenly, the swirling energy around him was all pulled in towards a single glowing point in from of the index finger that was pointed towards Naraku like it was being drawn in towards a black hole, and just as suddenly it rushed out towards the targeted demon in the form of a gigantic beam of destructive blue energy. Naraku managed to gain control of himself enough to hold the Sacred Jewel out between him and the oncoming attack, and for a moment the power of the Jewel struggled against it. However, even the Sacred Jewel could not withstand such an assault, and in a brilliant burst of purple light, it shattered once more, its shards scattering about the land like purple comets.

 

Though it was weakened by the struggle, Yusuke's attack still had plenty of remaining energy, and it continued forward, slamming into Naraku with terrible force. Still, it did not stop, tearing through trees and earth before finally colliding with the face of a mountain off in the distance and ending with a massive explosion that took a good chunk out of the mountainside.

 

“Gotcha'…” said Yusuke weakly, and then fell to his knees as his eyes began to overflow with salty tears.

 

A jewel shard had somehow managed to fall right at the boy's feet, and he picked it up in his hand, clenching his fist around it like he was trying to crush it. Seeing someone like Yusuke, who was always all smiles, break down like this was distressing, and no one really knew how to react. Surprisingly, it was Inuyasha who walked over to his side, placing a clawed hand on his shoulder.

 

“Ya' got him, kid,” he said quietly. “It's over.”

 

“What does that even matter?” spat Yusuke wrenching his shoulder away and slamming his fist into the ground, creating a small crater. “It was too late…they're gone…damn it!

 

“Yusuke w-” began Kagome, moving beside Inuyasha to try and comfort the boy before being cut off by Yusuke's other fist slamming into the ground in similar fashion.

 

“Shut up! Just shut up!” the boy snapped, quickly rising to his feet and trying to wipe away his tears. “If it weren't for you, we wouldn't have even come here! They're dead because of you, so you can just go to hell!”

 

With that Yusuke shoved the jewel shard he had found into his pocket and stormed off down the path leading up to the temple, not bothering to let Kagome respond. Kagome too had been feeling a terrible loss from the tragedy that had just occurred, and Yusuke's vicious accusation had been all it had take for her to bury her head into Inuyasha's shoulder and weep, with Shippou, who was clinging teary eyed onto her skirt, immediately adding his own sobs to hers.

 

“Don't listen to him Kagome,” said Inuyasha, finding that watching Kagome cry like this was painful to watch. “It's not your fault at all. He was going to blame the first thing he saw.”

 

“B-but…the spell…” she managed to stutter in between sobs. “I must have…m-must have done it wrong. It wasn't `sposed to do that…”

 

“Don't be foolish, it looked like it was working just fine,” assured Miroku as he helped Sango up off the ground, for once not even considering attempting to grab her posterior. “Naraku just interrupted it, there was nothing you could do.”

 

“It happened so suddenly…” said Sango gravely, petting Kirara's head as the small feline rubbed against her legs worriedly. “It's hard to believe that it actually happened.”

 

“Well, Yusuke's probably headed towards Kaede's village now,” said Inuyasha. “We should head back and keep an eye on him.”

 

Everyone who wasn't crying nodded in concurrence, and they began a sad march down the mountain after the last Spirit Detective.

 

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Fortunately, they arrived back at Kaede's village to find that nothing had been destroyed in anger by Yusuke, and Inuyasha was still able to smell him in the area. Reasoning that he needed some time alone, they had decided to leave him in peace and try and set about their usual activities. Kagome and Sango had gone to clean themselves up, and Kaede had been kind enough to take Shippou on a walk to try and distract the young fox demon from the events of the day. This left Inuyasha and Miroku, who had enough decency to throw off his normal perverted behavior, sitting alone in Kaede's hut.

 

“Inuyasha, there is something that has been bothering me…” said the monk clutching his right wrist in his other hand and looking down at his tainted right hand. “I do not think that Naraku is dead.”

 

“What? That's not possible,” replied Inuyasha in surprise. “Nothing could have survived that blast!”

 

“Believe it or not it is the truth, because my Wind Tunnel is not gone,” countered Miroku solemnly.

 

At this Inuyasha grimaced and gazed into the fire in the middle of the hut. Miroku's curse would cease to exist the moment that Naraku died, so if the Wind Tunnel was not gone, then Naraku had to be alive. Somehow, Naraku had once again managed to cheat death.

 

“Tell Kagome or Sango if you must, but don't let Yusuke know,” continued the monk. “If he thinks that he has at least avenged his friends, then he may be able to recover from their loss with time.”

 

“Right, that makes sense,” the half-demon agreed. “And we'd better not tell Shippou either, the little guy can have trouble keeping a secret. What about the jewel, though? If Naraku's alive, we'll need to find the shards again before he can.”

 

“Well, Yusuke found one at the temple, and Kaede gave Kagome one that landed near the village, so at least we have a head start on him thanks to good fortune,” answered Miroku, though both he and Inuyasha cringed after realizing that “good fortune” was a poor choice of words.

 

With nothing more to discuss, the pair fell into a glum silence, with only the crackling of the fire making a sound. Hey remained this way until Kagome and Sango entered the hut. Kagome had stopped crying hours ago, but neither of them bore an expression any better than the other two occupants of the hut. Just as Kagome was sitting down though, her gaze suddenly rested on a corner of the hut that housed one jug of sake.

 

“Weren't there three jugs of sake when we were here last time?” she asked, her voice fraught with worry.

 

“Aren't they still…” said Miroku as he followed Kagome's gaze and then noticed the lonely sake jug. “Oh no...”

 

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Yusuke took another swig from the sake jug in his right hand as he stared at the well Kagome used to travel through time from his seat on the grass. It looked like any other well one might find in feudal Japan, save the shattered pieces of an empty sake jug that rested at its base. To Yusuke's disappointment, the jug had failed to do any damage to the well when he had thrown it, but then again it had been empty, and it was poorly thrown due to Yusuke's considerable lack of coordination due to his having drank the entire jug.

 

Being the junior high punk that he was, Yusuke was had tried alcohol before, but it had only been once, and had been nothing more than some cheap beer he had stolen from a grocery store. The sake he was drinking now was far stronger, and his body was putting up a poor resistance to the alcohol, yet, like many in situations of despair, he continued to drink anyway.

 

“Stupid well…” he mumbled with considerable slurring as he took yet another swig. “This `zall yer fault. If you `aint here, then Kagome `aint here, then I `aint here. You suck, stupid ass well.”

 

“I thought I smelled vermin,” came an emotionless and imperious voice from behind Yusuke, who turned himself around to face the speaker considerable difficulty.

 

The person speaking was Sesshomaru, who stood at least fifty yards away. It appeared that he either judged it unsafe for his entourage to be there, or simply wanted to spare Rin the vision of him killed a human boy, for he was alone with Yusuke in the clearing. Yusuke, however, saw no less than half a dozen one armed demons staring at with the utmost contempt.

 

“Hey, iz the one armed mascara man,” said Yusuke, grinning stupidly as he cocked his head to the side. “I din't know you had a bunch of twins…wait…is it twins, or is there `nother word fer that when there's more then two…?”

 

“You're…inebriated,” stated Sesshomaru, grimacing in disgust.

 

“I dunno what that word is…but I'm drunk if thas wha' ya' mean,” replied Yusuke, taking a last swig from the sake jug before dropping it and stumbling to his feat. “Why're ya' here anyway? Ya' said ya' `aint comin' back `cause I kicked your ass.”

 

“I said I would not return if I lost. I did not lose that day,” answered Sesshomaru sharply. “In fact, I have returned for the very purpose of finishing you off.”

 

“'Zat so? `Cause I'll kick yer ass right now, mascara man,” said Yusuke, stumbling a little as he showed Sesshomaru the middle finger on his right hand. “Bring it on, wuss.”

 

Sesshomaru needed no further invitation, and he quickly dashed forward and slammed his fist into Yusuke's gut, causing the boy to double over in pain. As he fell towards the ground, however, Sesshomaru stopped his fall by grabbing hold of his hair and then kneeing him in the face. Yusuke was sent sprawling backwards, his head slamming into the base of the well and denting the wood frame. In an instant, Sesshomaru dashed over to him and placed his hand on his throat, holding him up over the well.

 

“Go on, do your worst,” challenged Yusuke as he stared at Sesshomaru and smirked. “You can't take nothin' from me `cause I got nothin' left.”

 

“You seek death?” asked Sesshomaru, who had noticed that Yusuke had not even attempted to put up a drunken defense.

 

“Dun' ask stupid questions, stupid,” the drunk Spirit Detective replied, still smirking.

 

“Sesshomaru, put him down!” ordered Inuyasha as he arrived on the scene, leaping up a few meters from the well and letting Kagome off of his back.

 

“As you wish, dear brother,” responded Sesshomaru, and gazing straight at his kin, let go of Yusuke.

 

However, when Yusuke fell into the well, he did not feel himself slam into the ground as had thought he would. Instead, he was surrounded by a strange light and felt as though he was floating for several moments. When the light faded, he was indeed lying at the bottom of a well, but when he looked up, there was a roof above him. He crawled into one of the corners of the well, and curled up, suddenly feeling very sleepy. Before he passed out, he saw the floor of the well glow and heard Kagome calling his name. He also heard his own voice, weak and haggard.

 

“I wanna' go home,” he said. “I just wanna' go home…”