InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Mating Season ❯ Let the bodies hit the floor ( Chapter 58 )
[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]
By: SplendentGoddess 
Anime/Manga: InuYasha Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Romance / Hentai / Drama / Adventure | Type: Other | Uploaded On: 09.18.2006 | Updated On: 07.31.2008 | Pages: 4 | Words: 5.4K | Visits: 10.6K | Status: Completed
Anime/Manga: InuYasha Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Romance / Hentai / Drama / Adventure | Type: Other | Uploaded On: 09.18.2006 | Updated On: 07.31.2008 | Pages: 4 | Words: 5.4K | Visits: 10.6K | Status: Completed
Blanket Disclaimer:
Inuyasha, and the characters therein, are the property of Rumiko Takahashi. I am in no way affiliated with Takahashi, or VIZ Productions.
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Chapter 58 - Let the bodies hit the floor
Clutching her bow, Kagome crouched upon Kirara, hugging herself to her feline companion’s form, as she flew faster than Inuyasha could run. But even at the nekomata’s top speed, it would take them over two hours to reach the West. Head lowered, Kagome shielded herself from the wind whipping past her, but that did nothing to cease the flow of her tears, which were falling for a much different reason.
“I know he’s okay…he’s got to be okay…”
She clutched her bow tighter.
Being left to her own devices during the time it would take to reach him was quickly putting her in dour spirits.
Finding herself unable to do anything else then, she closed her eyes, and she prayed. She prayed to any gods that would listen that all not be lost by the time she reached them. She prayed that she had the strength within herself to do whatever it was that would be needed of her once she got there. And she prayed that when this was all said and done, Inuyasha would yell at her for disobeying him, for it would mean that he was alive and well.
So lost was she in her train of thought that she failed to recognize the scents that were gradually becoming reachable to her nose, but Kagome was pulled rather forcefully from her prayers upon hearing the roar that suddenly escaped the very beast she rode upon.
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It took a lot to make Sesshoumaru tire, but Daikomaru was managing to succeed. He cursed himself and his weakness, knowing he had never surpassed his father in power as had been his ambition. If he’d only accomplished that goal, he would not now be having such difficulties. But facing off against an opponent stronger than himself was not something he was a stranger to, and if he could win against the Panther tribe, then he could win here. It was only a matter of time.
Another pulse from below caught his attention, and Sesshoumaru smirked despite his uncertainty, at the humorous look of confusion that had quickly replaced the tiger’s previously smug expression.
Time was of the essence.
If anyone had been standing on the battlefield in that moment, they would have seen the body of their younger Lord lying in a pool of his own blood, the multiple wounds upon his body that was its cause, slowly closing as the strength of its youki increased. To gaze into his lifeless eyes in that moment would have been cause for alarm, until you noticed the shallowest of breaths escape from his one functioning lung. Another pulse rushed through him then, and slowly, his eyes darkened, matching the liquid in which he bathed. His crimson gaze remained unseeing for one, two, three more breaths, then suddenly, with another pulse, jagged purple stripes appeared on his cheeks. But not only his cheeks, not this time. This time, stripes also appeared on his wrists, and on his hips.
Then a previously motionless triangular ear twitched, and twitched again, honing in on the barks and snarls of the inu-youkai fighting for his life above him. His heart beat faster.
Alpha…(thump) Brother…(thump) Danger… (thump)
If anyone had been standing on the battlefield in that moment, they would have been staring blankly at an empty pool of blood.
Sesshoumaru hastened his approach, improving his technique, and in faking right - which one would presume to be the side he favored - he suddenly dodged left, successfully chomping down on the clawed hand that had swiped for him.
Daikomaru hissed in agony, as Sesshoumaru’s numerous bites were slowly starting to build up a level of poison even his immense body would have difficulty handling.
Sesshoumaru smirked down at the burn marks he’d left behind, much of Daikomaru’s right front paw successfully reduced to cat-jerky. Of course, that only proved to anger his opponent further. The Western Taiyoukai was just getting ready to strike again, when a cry of pain escaped his enemy’s throat, and smirking, he looked down to see that the transformed version of his younger brother had successfully ripped open one of Daikomaru’s knees.
Daikomaru moved to retaliate, but the hanyou was already gone, his taunting cry of “Looking for me?” being heard mere moments before his claws slashed through Daikomaru’s entire arm from the elbow down, nearly severing the wrist that was already thoroughly damaged thanks to Sesshoumaru’s poison.
Not feeling the desire to face off against two enemies at once, Daikomaru quickly weighed his options, and found the hanyou to currently be the more pressing matter at hand. He had to eliminate him, without hesitation. Focusing all of his attacks at the half-breed, however, would leave him open and vulnerable to an attack from the three-legged flea bag still hovering near by, so quickly, he mustered as much of his youki as he could in a single breath, huffing deeply, before quickly spitting a massive ball of energy in Sesshoumaru’s direction.
Said Taiyoukai’s eyes widened in surprise, and slight worry, at the realization that the blast heading straight for him was much larger than any previous attack Daikomaru had sent at them. It hit him dead on, and absorbing the blast, he found, was enough of a strain to revert his transformation.
That was not good.
Injured, and once again in his humanoid form, Sesshoumaru fell a good thousand feet to the earth below. Upon impact, he tried to stagger to his feet as quickly as possible, which, despite who he was, was not very fast at all, under the circumstances. When he managed to lift his head, it was done just in time to see another blast heading his way, but that one never hit.
Or more accurately, it never hit him, as the blast successfully struck the area it had been intended to strike, but Sesshoumaru himself simply no longer occupied the same space as that location.
Shaking his disorientation free, he glanced up, startled to find himself gazing into the concerned crimson eyes of his transformed brother.
“Alpha okay?” the hanyou-turned-youkai asked him, his voice husky and much lower in octave that normal.
Sesshoumaru stared in surprise for a moment, unblinkingly. The last time he’d encountered his brother, in his transformed state, they had been enemies, and he hadn’t honestly known if that side of him would recognize the recent truce between them or not. Not only had his youkai side recognized that Sesshoumaru was not his enemy, however, it had recognized him as his alpha. That was most certainly a surprise, albeit a pleasant one.
“Yes.” he answered him finally, reaching up to place his hand upon the shoulder of the youkai who crouched down before him, seeking conformation as he asked him in return “Beta okay?”
“I’m fine.” Youkai-Inuyasha answered, then sneering, as he twisted his gaze toward their enemy (who was currently stunned as well) he barked out a laugh “But our enemy is dead.” and with that, Inuyasha once again took to the skies, leaping as high as he could, being sure to slash some manner of flesh on his way back down, before promptly jumping once more.
“You are still nothing but a mere hanyou!” said enemy shouted at last, over his shock at realizing said hanyou was, currently, full youkai.
Daikomaru successfully batted Inuyasha away, but only to have the hanyou-turned-youkai come back once more, like an annoying little Chihuahua. Only this ankle biter actually bit, as well as clawed.
Sesshoumaru wished he could rise again, rise and battle alongside his brother, but he was truly injured, though he did well to not show it. But he was as how Rin had originally found him, his youki nearly depleted. He had done good to distract their enemy while Inuyasha recuperated, so now, he grimaced at the realization that it was his turn to rest, while his brother fought in his stead. The idea would never appeal to him.
Daikomaru, whose youki was also weakening in strength, spat ball after ball towards the hanyou whelp, only to have each one effortlessly evaded. He was simply too small a target to aim for properly. It was like trying to throw a stone at a fly. However, be that as it may, it was also true that said fly, while it may be annoying, and may deliver painful bites, was truthfully relatively harmless, which was also the case in that situation, unfortunately. While Inuyasha was successfully ripping out fairly decent sized pieces of flesh, Daikomaru’s status and power level endowed him with remarkably quick regenerative abilities. The wounds Sesshoumaru had inflicted would take much longer to heal, as they were acidic in nature, but the scratches delivered by Inuyasha’s claws were sealing nearly as quickly as he produced them.
Daikomaru made a stupid mistake then, swinging too closely to the hanyou, who instead of dodging the energy blast from his claws, leapt towards his hand, and successfully launched himself up his arm, as a result. Daikomaru hissed loudly in pain, as he reached up to clutch the wound Inuyasha had made in his throat. Blood poured down like a waterfall, Youkai-Inuyasha hitching a ride on its way towards the earth below, and it was quite an impressive sight to see, even if the wound was not a life-threatening one. While still clutching his wound with one paw/hand, Daikomaru swiped once more at Inuyasha with the other, that time successfully knocking the tiny youkai back a few hundred feet, as he slowly skidded to a stop upon his back. Daikomaru roared then, a mighty, fearsome roar, that had Inuyasha been neko, he would have recognized as a challenge that basically translated as
“I challenge anyone to say I am not the clear victor of this battle!”
What nobody was expecting was to hear Daikomaru’s roar returned, in an answer the Tora Lord understood as meaning
“You shall never be victorious!”
“What…?” Sesshoumaru asked himself, as he gazed the skies, catching a tiny dot on the horizon that was quickly growing in size, until he realized what he was seeing was his brother’s mate, upon a nekomata.
She followed him… he realized slowly, then permitting the smallest of smiles to grace his bloodied appearance, he released a sigh of relief, as he thought Daikomaru, you are finished.
Kagome could not suppress the gasp that escaped her as her eyes caught sight of what laid before her on the once tranquil landscape outside the castle gates.
The fallen bodies of soldiers and lesser youkai were literally everywhere, the stench so overwhelming that she wondered how on Earth she hadn’t noticed it before then. Much of the field was ablaze, or blackened, revealing where a fire had already since burned out. Quickly scanning the area below, Kagome took notice that she did not see enough bodies to account for all of Sesshoumaru’s soldiers, so hopefully, not everyone was slain. She could not miss, of course, the gigantic tiger youkai, who was gazing directly at her, hate blazing in his eyes. She gulped.
Seeing him swipe in her direction, Kagome was confused for only about a second as to why he had apparently taken a swing at her when she was obviously too far away. Her answer came in the form of crescent blades of youki heading straight for her at an alarming rate. She hadn’t even the time necessary to draw her bow, so doing the only thing she could think of, she quickly erected a barrier around herself and Kirara, instructing her youkai steed to remain very still, so as not to come into contact with the barrier that was quite purifying. The duo stared in silent horror as the blast encompassed them, Kagome being forced to shield her eyes from the blinding light, but thankfully, after the moment had passed, she realized…she still existed.
She was also quite tired, so quickly switching to her weapons of choice, she dropped her barrier, and had Kirara fly as close and as fast as she dared, as Kagome let loose shot after shot, firing her arrows in rapid succession. There was still no sign of Sesshoumaru or Inuyasha, but their blood permeated the area, and that realization fueled her anger, and her arrows.
What is this? the Eastern Taiyoukai wondered nervously. I do not sense the jewel in her presence…is this power truly her own?
Daikomaru successfully stopped each arrow, releasing a blast of youki large enough to engulf its purifying effects before it would reach his person, but the distraction successfully prevented him from being able to do anything else, so it was during that fiasco that he found himself suddenly reeling from the pain of having deep gashes disband much of his left thigh.
The surprised shriek of Inuyasha’s name from Kagome’s lips was the next sound to encompass the lands, and Sesshoumaru gazed up from his spot of relative (though likely temporary) safety, with a sympathetic brow.
Oh no! I knew it!
Kagome tried not to panic, but seeing her husband, in his transformed state, sent her heart plummeting into the bottom of her stomach. His fire-rat robes were in tatters, but one almost wouldn’t notice, because anywhere where there was exposed skin, there was also exposed wounds, filling in the gaps of red in his wardrobe. In reality, he was nearly topless, his entire chest exposed, with strips of cloth hanging around his back, and his hakama were slashed across the legs, shortening their length to nearly capri style. It was the type of outfit you would expect to see someone adorning who had been stranded on an island for several years.
He doesn’t feel pain when he’s like that… she reminded herself, and the notion scared her beyond words.
Fortunately, for her, Kirara was on the ball at the moment, successfully dodging Daikomaru’s latest attack, otherwise she would have been a goner in her distraction.
Shaking her head in realization of her close call, Kagome vowed not to lose her focus, now more than ever.
For Inuyasha she thought, as she pulled a stunt only seen in the movies, firing two arrows at once. They were both easily deflected.
Inuyasha took another swipe of their enemy then, and in a way, she was very thankful for it, because together, they were proving to be more of a hindrance to their foe than if they were fighting him one at a time. But she had to do something about his transformation, though, she realized, when she saw yet more blood spill forth, that came from her dear hanyou’s body, and not the tiger’s. He was in classic transformation mode, she realized, his very being, his sole purpose in life, to sate the bloodlust running through his veins. He would not stop until he saw his enemy fall, or died trying, and regrettably, she realized that with whom he was up against, the odds were it would be the later.
It’s kill or be killed she agreed to herself, silently telling her mate that she supported him, even though she still knew she had to do something to help him, as well.
“Daikomaru!” she shouted suddenly, successfully catching everyone’s attention. “You shall not live to see morning!” she cried, as she ignored her last two arrows, sending out a blast of purification directly from her hands that was so strong, Kirara shook with nervousness at feeling its presence so close to her aura. But she trusted Kagome, and would not let her down, as her human rider commanded her to fly even closer to the overgrown tiger.
Daikomaru quickly sent out a blast of his own to counter the miko’s, their two energies colliding with a flash that, for an instant, illuminated the land as if it were day.
“Kagome!” Inuyasha bellowed then, and she was surprised to hear the clarity of his voice, as she gazed down to catch his image, red eyes blazing, hair wild, body tattered and torn, and…striped…
That’s new…
“I ordered you to stay behind bitch!” he growled, just before getting his face slammed into the unforgiving earth, successfully dodging the fireball that soared over his head in his distraction.
“You’re welcome!” she shouted back, clutching her chest. That had been too close. “Hate me later, let’s finish this!” she called down to him next.
He glared daggers at her as he rose to his feet, and she shivered from the intensity of his gaze. She had sat him with the sole intention of pushing him from the path of their enemy’s attack, but she had honestly expected the action to reverse his transformation, as well, and it unsettled her to see that it hadn’t. She wasn’t surprised, however, that he had recognized her in his current state. Just as Sesshoumaru had also believed, he only had one transformed persona, that simply fed upon the lust of whatever purpose brought it about, be it bloodshed, or otherwise. But even so, that beast would recognize the bitch who had mated with him so frequently, that was a given. She grimaced as he popped and stretched his body, realigning it. Through their bond she was privy to all the pain he was apparently blocking out at the moment, and her heart sank once more and the realization of just how injured he truly was. She needed to find a way to reverse his transformation, but she didn’t think he would be too pleased with her after she did it.
“Fine!” he ground out suddenly, snapping her from her thoughts, “If you must stay.” he acknowledged, “Stay out of my way!” he bellowed, as he once again lunged for his enemy, succeeding in getting himself knocked back a few paces, merely to lunge forward once more.
“Miko…”
Hearing Sesshoumaru’s voice drew Kagome’s attention once more to the barren field below her, and suddenly, she spotted him, laying amongst the ruins.
“Kirara! Take me down, hurry!”
Daikomaru currently occupied with a relentless Inuyasha, Kirara quickly landed and Kagome, upon dismounting, rushed towards the seemingly resting form of her mate’s elder brother.
“Are you okay?!” she asked him frantically.
“That should not be your concern.” he answered her evasively, speaking again before she could argue. “Inuyasha cannot fell this enemy with his claws. If proceedings do not change, his eventual failure is inevitable.”
“What can I do?” she asked softly, almost in tears. It was already apparent that her powers were not strong enough on their own, either.
“The only way to win this battle is with Tetsusaiga.” Sesshoumaru answered her simply.
“Where is it?” she asked, and following his line of vision as he slowly turned his head, in what appeared to be severe pain from even that simplest of movements, she discovered the legendary blade, thoroughly impaled through the chard remains of a tree.
I pulled the sword once, I can do it again… Kagome told herself as she got up and ran towards the tree with all her strength. Come on, good ol’ Excalibur legend, don’t fail me now.
Inuyasha, having already seemingly forgotten that his mate was even present, tormented his enemy with chastising taunts for his failure in not yet having successfully killed him. He was unaware of the continued damage he inflicted upon himself in his relentless battling, or how close he was, in fact, to granting his enemy’s success.
Daikomaru, sensing his enemy was finally reaching his limits, decided to end the charade, quickly swiping at him with all his strength, the crescent blades sent forth from his claws rushing towards their target, as the hanyou heedlessly lunged towards the attack, releasing one of his own. Both attacks struck true, but while Daikomaru received a rather nasty, and deep gouge, only along his forearm, Inuyasha, in turn, was now brandishing a rather fatal looking wound across his entire chest. Even so, it wasn’t necessarily so bad that Inuyasha could not recover, but then, once more, yet again, he lunged.
Kagome cringed as she found that the heat from the recent fire still permeated Tetsusaiga’s hilt, successfully burning her hands somewhat as she wrapped them around it, attempting to pull the blade free. A sudden, horrible, blood-curdling cry whipped her attention around as she stared in terror at what she saw before her. Inuyasha was once again pushed back by Daikomaru’s attack, only that time, the hanyou-turned-youkai remained motionless where he fell.
“No!” she cried, suddenly drawing the sword almost effortlessly. Without giving herself any time to even ponder that happenstance, she rushed forward, just in time to see another energy ball being spat out towards her husband.
“No!” she shouted again, with much more panic, flailing her hand in Inuyasha’s direction as she ran, as if the action would aid her in reaching him any faster. Daikomaru’s blast hit, and she cringed, but was amazed when she saw that the blast had been deflected
The youki subsiding, she realized she’d erected a barrier around Inuyasha. How did she do that?
I didn’t know I could make a barrier… that I wasn’t within…
Almost as if hearing an echo of his suppressed thoughts within her head, she recalled words he’d said to her once before, over her questions regarding how it was that, especially when their passion was strongest, that they could feel each other so intensely. What he’d said was
“Baka, we’re bonded. I’m in you and you’re in me.”
Inuyasha… she thought simply, having finally reached her destination, to see his unconscious form, still in youkai-mode, lying unmoving upon the bloodied ground.
Collapsing to her knees beside him, she could feel the pulse of his youkai side running through him, attempting to heal the immense damage his body had suffered. His only battle now was against death, as his blood fought to keep him alive. It made what little youkai blood she had boil at the sight of him lying defeated. Laying Tetsusaiga beside him, she came to a very sudden decision.
“Kirara!” Kagome ordered, the neko appearing by her side in an instant. “Get Sesshoumaru to safety.”
“Miko…” he began to protest behind her, but she whipped around, cutting him off.
“You will leave!” she barked in Inu, surprising the Taiyoukai.
Her mastery of the Inu language did not surprise him as much, however, as it did to see her eyes briefly flash to red, before shifting back to their natural shade.
“Be victorious.” he stated solemnly, as he pulled himself haphazardly upon Kirara’s back, permitting the creature to fly him to safety, per the miko’s request. It was unlike him to run from battle, but when he found he could hardly even stand, he relented that the task of defeating their enemy was simply no longer his own. He knew the miko had it within herself, if she permitted all of her instincts to guide her.
“Inuyasha, wake up…” Kagome implored gently, reaching out and brushing her knuckles softly across his cheek.
“Wench, you will not succeed.” These words did not come from her mate, but their enemy.
Time seemed to slow down then, as the world lost all sound, all smell, feeling nothing but the pounding of her heart within her chest, the bloodshed all around her somehow making her numb, yet furious, all at the same time. She looked up then, and seemingly realized that she hadn’t seen Daikomaru from that angle before. She did not fear him.
When I was shrunken little, the Peach Man appeared around this height… she thought absently, recalling how she hadn’t been afraid then, either.
“You are mistaken.” she stated quietly, knowing damn well he could hear her. “It is you who shall fail.” Gently, she smoothed a stray hair back from Inuyasha’s face, before retracting her hand, and slowly stood up.
A sudden dark, menacing laugh, echoed over the battlefield, and she gazed up unimpressed at the Taiyoukai that literally towered over her.
“Foolish wench, your hanyou mate is spent, and you, while you may be strong, your powers alone are not enough to defeat me.”
“This may be true…” she answered slowly, “But that doesn’t mean I’m about to give up!” she suddenly bellowed, unaware that she was quoting her mate.
Quickly, she grabbed her bow, and reaching behind her, drew an arrow. She had two left, and damn it all, she was going to make them count.
Letting the projectile fly, she smiled at how brightly it shown. She’d put much more of a wallop into that one, and Daikomaru actually gasped in mild surprise at its strength as he concentrated on knocking it from the sky before it reached him. So, needless to say, it came as a great surprise to him, when the second arrow Kagome had fired mere seconds afterward, concealed by the glow of the first, struck true, and pierced his chest. While it was true that size wise, the Youkai Lord would have pulled an ordinary arrow from his flesh as though it were nothing more than a mere splinter, Kagome’s arrows were anything but ordinary.
Cries of pain could be heard, but when she dared raise her eyes to meet his sinister ones once more, she cringed at the look of death promised in his stare. He had a huge burn mark visible on his chest, much wider than the width of the arrow itself, but while she had succeeded in scarring his body, she had also succeeded in fueling his anger.
“That was foolish!” he yelled, as he spat a large fireball in her direction, and for once, Kagome found she agreed with him. She was out of arrows… How could she possibly defeat him now?
Lunging back down towards Inuyasha, she threw her body on top of his, and threw her barrier up, just before the inferno hit. She might possibly have enough strength within herself to purify Lord Daikomaru, were it that task alone that she faced, but the beast in question had great powers of his own, and despite the fact that Kagome could tell that Sesshoumaru and Inuyasha had successfully injured him, he was still plenty strong enough to defend against her attacks. How could her powers even reach him, when he kept deflecting each one of her strikes? Clutching her belly, she also realized she wasn’t at her full strength, a good portion of her powers going into protecting her baby. For a moment, as the fire burned all around her, she permitted herself to lie still, and cry.
“Inuyasha…I need your help…”
She gasped as she felt a pulse rush through her, and turning, she quickly realized that it came from the sword by her side. Gazing back up at her mate, she noticed his stripes were gone, his claws shorter in length…he was his hanyou-self again.
“Ka…gome…” he managed to wheeze out. “Gomen…couldn’t…protect…” and with that, he lost consciousness once more.
Feeling another pulse come from the seemingly innocent blade at their side, she gazed down lovingly at her mate, knowing that somehow, he would hear her.
“You always protect me. It’s my turn…to protect you, to protect…us…” She rubbed her belly once more, feeling a new pulse chime within herself in time with the blade that she slowly, uncertainly, reached for.
Picking Tetsusaiga up, she gaped in wonder as the blade transformed for her, appearing in all its glory. Inuyasha was protecting her, with his blood, with his fang. Tetsusaiga was a sword of protection, after all, forged from the very heritage that ran through her veins. A wave of confidence rushed through her then, as she felt her mate’s aura encompass her own.
Daikomaru laughed at the blaze he saw upon the ground, thinking that surely, neither of them had survived. He felt a twinge of fear in the deepest pits of his youkai instinct when he saw what suddenly walked forth.
Kagome, seemingly unaffected by the flames, slowly emerged from within the protection of the barrier she left remaining behind her.
Daikomaru could not miss the transformed inu fang she clutched in her hand, nor the feelings of youki mixed with miko powers that surrounded her. She appeared, according to his senses, to be the strongest miko he’d ever come across, surpassing even that of Midoriko in that moment, yet her purity was seemingly marred by the crimson glow of her eyes, stating the fury of her youkai blood, as well.
“The only way to win this battle is with Tetsusaiga.” Sesshoumaru’s words echoed in her head.
“This. Ends. Now.” Her voice was deeper, and seemingly not her own.
In that moment, the dawn breached behind her, the sky beginning to lighten from the darkest of hells that had been that night. Her hair fanned around her in a breeze only she could feel, as she gazed upon Tetsusaiga slowly, concentrating on the swirls of energy she could sense churning around the fang.
“T-This…” Daikomaru stuttered in shock, “This cannot be!”
Kagome held the sword straight out at her side, swirls of energy visibly increasing in strength, as her hair blew more wildly, her eyes shown more fiercely… The sun peaked behind her, silhouetting her form, casting her in shadow, Daikomaru able to make out nothing of her features but the crimson pierce of her gaze.
Time froze. He could feel her youkai blood pulse within her in time with her blade. The swirls of kaze no kizu fluctuated, as waves of energy seemed to emerge from her very being, mixing with those around the sword, as the blade darkened, glowing purple, like her arrows. Then she swung.
“JOHREI NO KAZE!”
Inuyasha, and the characters therein, are the property of Rumiko Takahashi. I am in no way affiliated with Takahashi, or VIZ Productions.
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Chapter 58 - Let the bodies hit the floor
Clutching her bow, Kagome crouched upon Kirara, hugging herself to her feline companion’s form, as she flew faster than Inuyasha could run. But even at the nekomata’s top speed, it would take them over two hours to reach the West. Head lowered, Kagome shielded herself from the wind whipping past her, but that did nothing to cease the flow of her tears, which were falling for a much different reason.
“I know he’s okay…he’s got to be okay…”
She clutched her bow tighter.
Being left to her own devices during the time it would take to reach him was quickly putting her in dour spirits.
Finding herself unable to do anything else then, she closed her eyes, and she prayed. She prayed to any gods that would listen that all not be lost by the time she reached them. She prayed that she had the strength within herself to do whatever it was that would be needed of her once she got there. And she prayed that when this was all said and done, Inuyasha would yell at her for disobeying him, for it would mean that he was alive and well.
So lost was she in her train of thought that she failed to recognize the scents that were gradually becoming reachable to her nose, but Kagome was pulled rather forcefully from her prayers upon hearing the roar that suddenly escaped the very beast she rode upon.
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It took a lot to make Sesshoumaru tire, but Daikomaru was managing to succeed. He cursed himself and his weakness, knowing he had never surpassed his father in power as had been his ambition. If he’d only accomplished that goal, he would not now be having such difficulties. But facing off against an opponent stronger than himself was not something he was a stranger to, and if he could win against the Panther tribe, then he could win here. It was only a matter of time.
Another pulse from below caught his attention, and Sesshoumaru smirked despite his uncertainty, at the humorous look of confusion that had quickly replaced the tiger’s previously smug expression.
Time was of the essence.
If anyone had been standing on the battlefield in that moment, they would have seen the body of their younger Lord lying in a pool of his own blood, the multiple wounds upon his body that was its cause, slowly closing as the strength of its youki increased. To gaze into his lifeless eyes in that moment would have been cause for alarm, until you noticed the shallowest of breaths escape from his one functioning lung. Another pulse rushed through him then, and slowly, his eyes darkened, matching the liquid in which he bathed. His crimson gaze remained unseeing for one, two, three more breaths, then suddenly, with another pulse, jagged purple stripes appeared on his cheeks. But not only his cheeks, not this time. This time, stripes also appeared on his wrists, and on his hips.
Then a previously motionless triangular ear twitched, and twitched again, honing in on the barks and snarls of the inu-youkai fighting for his life above him. His heart beat faster.
Alpha…(thump) Brother…(thump) Danger… (thump)
If anyone had been standing on the battlefield in that moment, they would have been staring blankly at an empty pool of blood.
Sesshoumaru hastened his approach, improving his technique, and in faking right - which one would presume to be the side he favored - he suddenly dodged left, successfully chomping down on the clawed hand that had swiped for him.
Daikomaru hissed in agony, as Sesshoumaru’s numerous bites were slowly starting to build up a level of poison even his immense body would have difficulty handling.
Sesshoumaru smirked down at the burn marks he’d left behind, much of Daikomaru’s right front paw successfully reduced to cat-jerky. Of course, that only proved to anger his opponent further. The Western Taiyoukai was just getting ready to strike again, when a cry of pain escaped his enemy’s throat, and smirking, he looked down to see that the transformed version of his younger brother had successfully ripped open one of Daikomaru’s knees.
Daikomaru moved to retaliate, but the hanyou was already gone, his taunting cry of “Looking for me?” being heard mere moments before his claws slashed through Daikomaru’s entire arm from the elbow down, nearly severing the wrist that was already thoroughly damaged thanks to Sesshoumaru’s poison.
Not feeling the desire to face off against two enemies at once, Daikomaru quickly weighed his options, and found the hanyou to currently be the more pressing matter at hand. He had to eliminate him, without hesitation. Focusing all of his attacks at the half-breed, however, would leave him open and vulnerable to an attack from the three-legged flea bag still hovering near by, so quickly, he mustered as much of his youki as he could in a single breath, huffing deeply, before quickly spitting a massive ball of energy in Sesshoumaru’s direction.
Said Taiyoukai’s eyes widened in surprise, and slight worry, at the realization that the blast heading straight for him was much larger than any previous attack Daikomaru had sent at them. It hit him dead on, and absorbing the blast, he found, was enough of a strain to revert his transformation.
That was not good.
Injured, and once again in his humanoid form, Sesshoumaru fell a good thousand feet to the earth below. Upon impact, he tried to stagger to his feet as quickly as possible, which, despite who he was, was not very fast at all, under the circumstances. When he managed to lift his head, it was done just in time to see another blast heading his way, but that one never hit.
Or more accurately, it never hit him, as the blast successfully struck the area it had been intended to strike, but Sesshoumaru himself simply no longer occupied the same space as that location.
Shaking his disorientation free, he glanced up, startled to find himself gazing into the concerned crimson eyes of his transformed brother.
“Alpha okay?” the hanyou-turned-youkai asked him, his voice husky and much lower in octave that normal.
Sesshoumaru stared in surprise for a moment, unblinkingly. The last time he’d encountered his brother, in his transformed state, they had been enemies, and he hadn’t honestly known if that side of him would recognize the recent truce between them or not. Not only had his youkai side recognized that Sesshoumaru was not his enemy, however, it had recognized him as his alpha. That was most certainly a surprise, albeit a pleasant one.
“Yes.” he answered him finally, reaching up to place his hand upon the shoulder of the youkai who crouched down before him, seeking conformation as he asked him in return “Beta okay?”
“I’m fine.” Youkai-Inuyasha answered, then sneering, as he twisted his gaze toward their enemy (who was currently stunned as well) he barked out a laugh “But our enemy is dead.” and with that, Inuyasha once again took to the skies, leaping as high as he could, being sure to slash some manner of flesh on his way back down, before promptly jumping once more.
“You are still nothing but a mere hanyou!” said enemy shouted at last, over his shock at realizing said hanyou was, currently, full youkai.
Daikomaru successfully batted Inuyasha away, but only to have the hanyou-turned-youkai come back once more, like an annoying little Chihuahua. Only this ankle biter actually bit, as well as clawed.
Sesshoumaru wished he could rise again, rise and battle alongside his brother, but he was truly injured, though he did well to not show it. But he was as how Rin had originally found him, his youki nearly depleted. He had done good to distract their enemy while Inuyasha recuperated, so now, he grimaced at the realization that it was his turn to rest, while his brother fought in his stead. The idea would never appeal to him.
Daikomaru, whose youki was also weakening in strength, spat ball after ball towards the hanyou whelp, only to have each one effortlessly evaded. He was simply too small a target to aim for properly. It was like trying to throw a stone at a fly. However, be that as it may, it was also true that said fly, while it may be annoying, and may deliver painful bites, was truthfully relatively harmless, which was also the case in that situation, unfortunately. While Inuyasha was successfully ripping out fairly decent sized pieces of flesh, Daikomaru’s status and power level endowed him with remarkably quick regenerative abilities. The wounds Sesshoumaru had inflicted would take much longer to heal, as they were acidic in nature, but the scratches delivered by Inuyasha’s claws were sealing nearly as quickly as he produced them.
Daikomaru made a stupid mistake then, swinging too closely to the hanyou, who instead of dodging the energy blast from his claws, leapt towards his hand, and successfully launched himself up his arm, as a result. Daikomaru hissed loudly in pain, as he reached up to clutch the wound Inuyasha had made in his throat. Blood poured down like a waterfall, Youkai-Inuyasha hitching a ride on its way towards the earth below, and it was quite an impressive sight to see, even if the wound was not a life-threatening one. While still clutching his wound with one paw/hand, Daikomaru swiped once more at Inuyasha with the other, that time successfully knocking the tiny youkai back a few hundred feet, as he slowly skidded to a stop upon his back. Daikomaru roared then, a mighty, fearsome roar, that had Inuyasha been neko, he would have recognized as a challenge that basically translated as
“I challenge anyone to say I am not the clear victor of this battle!”
What nobody was expecting was to hear Daikomaru’s roar returned, in an answer the Tora Lord understood as meaning
“You shall never be victorious!”
“What…?” Sesshoumaru asked himself, as he gazed the skies, catching a tiny dot on the horizon that was quickly growing in size, until he realized what he was seeing was his brother’s mate, upon a nekomata.
She followed him… he realized slowly, then permitting the smallest of smiles to grace his bloodied appearance, he released a sigh of relief, as he thought Daikomaru, you are finished.
Kagome could not suppress the gasp that escaped her as her eyes caught sight of what laid before her on the once tranquil landscape outside the castle gates.
The fallen bodies of soldiers and lesser youkai were literally everywhere, the stench so overwhelming that she wondered how on Earth she hadn’t noticed it before then. Much of the field was ablaze, or blackened, revealing where a fire had already since burned out. Quickly scanning the area below, Kagome took notice that she did not see enough bodies to account for all of Sesshoumaru’s soldiers, so hopefully, not everyone was slain. She could not miss, of course, the gigantic tiger youkai, who was gazing directly at her, hate blazing in his eyes. She gulped.
Seeing him swipe in her direction, Kagome was confused for only about a second as to why he had apparently taken a swing at her when she was obviously too far away. Her answer came in the form of crescent blades of youki heading straight for her at an alarming rate. She hadn’t even the time necessary to draw her bow, so doing the only thing she could think of, she quickly erected a barrier around herself and Kirara, instructing her youkai steed to remain very still, so as not to come into contact with the barrier that was quite purifying. The duo stared in silent horror as the blast encompassed them, Kagome being forced to shield her eyes from the blinding light, but thankfully, after the moment had passed, she realized…she still existed.
She was also quite tired, so quickly switching to her weapons of choice, she dropped her barrier, and had Kirara fly as close and as fast as she dared, as Kagome let loose shot after shot, firing her arrows in rapid succession. There was still no sign of Sesshoumaru or Inuyasha, but their blood permeated the area, and that realization fueled her anger, and her arrows.
What is this? the Eastern Taiyoukai wondered nervously. I do not sense the jewel in her presence…is this power truly her own?
Daikomaru successfully stopped each arrow, releasing a blast of youki large enough to engulf its purifying effects before it would reach his person, but the distraction successfully prevented him from being able to do anything else, so it was during that fiasco that he found himself suddenly reeling from the pain of having deep gashes disband much of his left thigh.
The surprised shriek of Inuyasha’s name from Kagome’s lips was the next sound to encompass the lands, and Sesshoumaru gazed up from his spot of relative (though likely temporary) safety, with a sympathetic brow.
Oh no! I knew it!
Kagome tried not to panic, but seeing her husband, in his transformed state, sent her heart plummeting into the bottom of her stomach. His fire-rat robes were in tatters, but one almost wouldn’t notice, because anywhere where there was exposed skin, there was also exposed wounds, filling in the gaps of red in his wardrobe. In reality, he was nearly topless, his entire chest exposed, with strips of cloth hanging around his back, and his hakama were slashed across the legs, shortening their length to nearly capri style. It was the type of outfit you would expect to see someone adorning who had been stranded on an island for several years.
He doesn’t feel pain when he’s like that… she reminded herself, and the notion scared her beyond words.
Fortunately, for her, Kirara was on the ball at the moment, successfully dodging Daikomaru’s latest attack, otherwise she would have been a goner in her distraction.
Shaking her head in realization of her close call, Kagome vowed not to lose her focus, now more than ever.
For Inuyasha she thought, as she pulled a stunt only seen in the movies, firing two arrows at once. They were both easily deflected.
Inuyasha took another swipe of their enemy then, and in a way, she was very thankful for it, because together, they were proving to be more of a hindrance to their foe than if they were fighting him one at a time. But she had to do something about his transformation, though, she realized, when she saw yet more blood spill forth, that came from her dear hanyou’s body, and not the tiger’s. He was in classic transformation mode, she realized, his very being, his sole purpose in life, to sate the bloodlust running through his veins. He would not stop until he saw his enemy fall, or died trying, and regrettably, she realized that with whom he was up against, the odds were it would be the later.
It’s kill or be killed she agreed to herself, silently telling her mate that she supported him, even though she still knew she had to do something to help him, as well.
“Daikomaru!” she shouted suddenly, successfully catching everyone’s attention. “You shall not live to see morning!” she cried, as she ignored her last two arrows, sending out a blast of purification directly from her hands that was so strong, Kirara shook with nervousness at feeling its presence so close to her aura. But she trusted Kagome, and would not let her down, as her human rider commanded her to fly even closer to the overgrown tiger.
Daikomaru quickly sent out a blast of his own to counter the miko’s, their two energies colliding with a flash that, for an instant, illuminated the land as if it were day.
“Kagome!” Inuyasha bellowed then, and she was surprised to hear the clarity of his voice, as she gazed down to catch his image, red eyes blazing, hair wild, body tattered and torn, and…striped…
That’s new…
“I ordered you to stay behind bitch!” he growled, just before getting his face slammed into the unforgiving earth, successfully dodging the fireball that soared over his head in his distraction.
“You’re welcome!” she shouted back, clutching her chest. That had been too close. “Hate me later, let’s finish this!” she called down to him next.
He glared daggers at her as he rose to his feet, and she shivered from the intensity of his gaze. She had sat him with the sole intention of pushing him from the path of their enemy’s attack, but she had honestly expected the action to reverse his transformation, as well, and it unsettled her to see that it hadn’t. She wasn’t surprised, however, that he had recognized her in his current state. Just as Sesshoumaru had also believed, he only had one transformed persona, that simply fed upon the lust of whatever purpose brought it about, be it bloodshed, or otherwise. But even so, that beast would recognize the bitch who had mated with him so frequently, that was a given. She grimaced as he popped and stretched his body, realigning it. Through their bond she was privy to all the pain he was apparently blocking out at the moment, and her heart sank once more and the realization of just how injured he truly was. She needed to find a way to reverse his transformation, but she didn’t think he would be too pleased with her after she did it.
“Fine!” he ground out suddenly, snapping her from her thoughts, “If you must stay.” he acknowledged, “Stay out of my way!” he bellowed, as he once again lunged for his enemy, succeeding in getting himself knocked back a few paces, merely to lunge forward once more.
“Miko…”
Hearing Sesshoumaru’s voice drew Kagome’s attention once more to the barren field below her, and suddenly, she spotted him, laying amongst the ruins.
“Kirara! Take me down, hurry!”
Daikomaru currently occupied with a relentless Inuyasha, Kirara quickly landed and Kagome, upon dismounting, rushed towards the seemingly resting form of her mate’s elder brother.
“Are you okay?!” she asked him frantically.
“That should not be your concern.” he answered her evasively, speaking again before she could argue. “Inuyasha cannot fell this enemy with his claws. If proceedings do not change, his eventual failure is inevitable.”
“What can I do?” she asked softly, almost in tears. It was already apparent that her powers were not strong enough on their own, either.
“The only way to win this battle is with Tetsusaiga.” Sesshoumaru answered her simply.
“Where is it?” she asked, and following his line of vision as he slowly turned his head, in what appeared to be severe pain from even that simplest of movements, she discovered the legendary blade, thoroughly impaled through the chard remains of a tree.
I pulled the sword once, I can do it again… Kagome told herself as she got up and ran towards the tree with all her strength. Come on, good ol’ Excalibur legend, don’t fail me now.
Inuyasha, having already seemingly forgotten that his mate was even present, tormented his enemy with chastising taunts for his failure in not yet having successfully killed him. He was unaware of the continued damage he inflicted upon himself in his relentless battling, or how close he was, in fact, to granting his enemy’s success.
Daikomaru, sensing his enemy was finally reaching his limits, decided to end the charade, quickly swiping at him with all his strength, the crescent blades sent forth from his claws rushing towards their target, as the hanyou heedlessly lunged towards the attack, releasing one of his own. Both attacks struck true, but while Daikomaru received a rather nasty, and deep gouge, only along his forearm, Inuyasha, in turn, was now brandishing a rather fatal looking wound across his entire chest. Even so, it wasn’t necessarily so bad that Inuyasha could not recover, but then, once more, yet again, he lunged.
Kagome cringed as she found that the heat from the recent fire still permeated Tetsusaiga’s hilt, successfully burning her hands somewhat as she wrapped them around it, attempting to pull the blade free. A sudden, horrible, blood-curdling cry whipped her attention around as she stared in terror at what she saw before her. Inuyasha was once again pushed back by Daikomaru’s attack, only that time, the hanyou-turned-youkai remained motionless where he fell.
“No!” she cried, suddenly drawing the sword almost effortlessly. Without giving herself any time to even ponder that happenstance, she rushed forward, just in time to see another energy ball being spat out towards her husband.
“No!” she shouted again, with much more panic, flailing her hand in Inuyasha’s direction as she ran, as if the action would aid her in reaching him any faster. Daikomaru’s blast hit, and she cringed, but was amazed when she saw that the blast had been deflected
The youki subsiding, she realized she’d erected a barrier around Inuyasha. How did she do that?
I didn’t know I could make a barrier… that I wasn’t within…
Almost as if hearing an echo of his suppressed thoughts within her head, she recalled words he’d said to her once before, over her questions regarding how it was that, especially when their passion was strongest, that they could feel each other so intensely. What he’d said was
“Baka, we’re bonded. I’m in you and you’re in me.”
Inuyasha… she thought simply, having finally reached her destination, to see his unconscious form, still in youkai-mode, lying unmoving upon the bloodied ground.
Collapsing to her knees beside him, she could feel the pulse of his youkai side running through him, attempting to heal the immense damage his body had suffered. His only battle now was against death, as his blood fought to keep him alive. It made what little youkai blood she had boil at the sight of him lying defeated. Laying Tetsusaiga beside him, she came to a very sudden decision.
“Kirara!” Kagome ordered, the neko appearing by her side in an instant. “Get Sesshoumaru to safety.”
“Miko…” he began to protest behind her, but she whipped around, cutting him off.
“You will leave!” she barked in Inu, surprising the Taiyoukai.
Her mastery of the Inu language did not surprise him as much, however, as it did to see her eyes briefly flash to red, before shifting back to their natural shade.
“Be victorious.” he stated solemnly, as he pulled himself haphazardly upon Kirara’s back, permitting the creature to fly him to safety, per the miko’s request. It was unlike him to run from battle, but when he found he could hardly even stand, he relented that the task of defeating their enemy was simply no longer his own. He knew the miko had it within herself, if she permitted all of her instincts to guide her.
“Inuyasha, wake up…” Kagome implored gently, reaching out and brushing her knuckles softly across his cheek.
“Wench, you will not succeed.” These words did not come from her mate, but their enemy.
Time seemed to slow down then, as the world lost all sound, all smell, feeling nothing but the pounding of her heart within her chest, the bloodshed all around her somehow making her numb, yet furious, all at the same time. She looked up then, and seemingly realized that she hadn’t seen Daikomaru from that angle before. She did not fear him.
When I was shrunken little, the Peach Man appeared around this height… she thought absently, recalling how she hadn’t been afraid then, either.
“You are mistaken.” she stated quietly, knowing damn well he could hear her. “It is you who shall fail.” Gently, she smoothed a stray hair back from Inuyasha’s face, before retracting her hand, and slowly stood up.
A sudden dark, menacing laugh, echoed over the battlefield, and she gazed up unimpressed at the Taiyoukai that literally towered over her.
“Foolish wench, your hanyou mate is spent, and you, while you may be strong, your powers alone are not enough to defeat me.”
“This may be true…” she answered slowly, “But that doesn’t mean I’m about to give up!” she suddenly bellowed, unaware that she was quoting her mate.
Quickly, she grabbed her bow, and reaching behind her, drew an arrow. She had two left, and damn it all, she was going to make them count.
Letting the projectile fly, she smiled at how brightly it shown. She’d put much more of a wallop into that one, and Daikomaru actually gasped in mild surprise at its strength as he concentrated on knocking it from the sky before it reached him. So, needless to say, it came as a great surprise to him, when the second arrow Kagome had fired mere seconds afterward, concealed by the glow of the first, struck true, and pierced his chest. While it was true that size wise, the Youkai Lord would have pulled an ordinary arrow from his flesh as though it were nothing more than a mere splinter, Kagome’s arrows were anything but ordinary.
Cries of pain could be heard, but when she dared raise her eyes to meet his sinister ones once more, she cringed at the look of death promised in his stare. He had a huge burn mark visible on his chest, much wider than the width of the arrow itself, but while she had succeeded in scarring his body, she had also succeeded in fueling his anger.
“That was foolish!” he yelled, as he spat a large fireball in her direction, and for once, Kagome found she agreed with him. She was out of arrows… How could she possibly defeat him now?
Lunging back down towards Inuyasha, she threw her body on top of his, and threw her barrier up, just before the inferno hit. She might possibly have enough strength within herself to purify Lord Daikomaru, were it that task alone that she faced, but the beast in question had great powers of his own, and despite the fact that Kagome could tell that Sesshoumaru and Inuyasha had successfully injured him, he was still plenty strong enough to defend against her attacks. How could her powers even reach him, when he kept deflecting each one of her strikes? Clutching her belly, she also realized she wasn’t at her full strength, a good portion of her powers going into protecting her baby. For a moment, as the fire burned all around her, she permitted herself to lie still, and cry.
“Inuyasha…I need your help…”
She gasped as she felt a pulse rush through her, and turning, she quickly realized that it came from the sword by her side. Gazing back up at her mate, she noticed his stripes were gone, his claws shorter in length…he was his hanyou-self again.
“Ka…gome…” he managed to wheeze out. “Gomen…couldn’t…protect…” and with that, he lost consciousness once more.
Feeling another pulse come from the seemingly innocent blade at their side, she gazed down lovingly at her mate, knowing that somehow, he would hear her.
“You always protect me. It’s my turn…to protect you, to protect…us…” She rubbed her belly once more, feeling a new pulse chime within herself in time with the blade that she slowly, uncertainly, reached for.
Picking Tetsusaiga up, she gaped in wonder as the blade transformed for her, appearing in all its glory. Inuyasha was protecting her, with his blood, with his fang. Tetsusaiga was a sword of protection, after all, forged from the very heritage that ran through her veins. A wave of confidence rushed through her then, as she felt her mate’s aura encompass her own.
Daikomaru laughed at the blaze he saw upon the ground, thinking that surely, neither of them had survived. He felt a twinge of fear in the deepest pits of his youkai instinct when he saw what suddenly walked forth.
Kagome, seemingly unaffected by the flames, slowly emerged from within the protection of the barrier she left remaining behind her.
Daikomaru could not miss the transformed inu fang she clutched in her hand, nor the feelings of youki mixed with miko powers that surrounded her. She appeared, according to his senses, to be the strongest miko he’d ever come across, surpassing even that of Midoriko in that moment, yet her purity was seemingly marred by the crimson glow of her eyes, stating the fury of her youkai blood, as well.
“The only way to win this battle is with Tetsusaiga.” Sesshoumaru’s words echoed in her head.
“This. Ends. Now.” Her voice was deeper, and seemingly not her own.
In that moment, the dawn breached behind her, the sky beginning to lighten from the darkest of hells that had been that night. Her hair fanned around her in a breeze only she could feel, as she gazed upon Tetsusaiga slowly, concentrating on the swirls of energy she could sense churning around the fang.
“T-This…” Daikomaru stuttered in shock, “This cannot be!”
Kagome held the sword straight out at her side, swirls of energy visibly increasing in strength, as her hair blew more wildly, her eyes shown more fiercely… The sun peaked behind her, silhouetting her form, casting her in shadow, Daikomaru able to make out nothing of her features but the crimson pierce of her gaze.
Time froze. He could feel her youkai blood pulse within her in time with her blade. The swirls of kaze no kizu fluctuated, as waves of energy seemed to emerge from her very being, mixing with those around the sword, as the blade darkened, glowing purple, like her arrows. Then she swung.
“JOHREI NO KAZE!”