InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ The Bearers of the Shards ❯ The Trap Is Sprung ( Chapter 9 )

{#} {#} {#} THE BEARERS OF THE SHARDS {#} {#} {#}

{#} {#} Chapter 9: The Trap Is Sprung {#} {#}

When at last the raging Inu Youkai had carved himself a bloody path to the Temple, the Wise were waiting for him. They stood silently upon the Temple stair, like a series of identical gray statues. Were it not for the brightness of their hard, cold eyes it would seem their faces had been carved from granite.

A last line of warriors formed between the demon and his prey. They braced themselves against spears held upright, hoping merely to gouge the white demon's paws at best. Snarling, the demon lowered its head. From his gaping jaws dripped foul purple saliva, from which there arose a vapor so thick the figures of the humans on the ground below were temporarily obscured by it.

The warriors' deaths were not easy.

The Wise watched, silent and dispassionate.

Then the fierce visage of the Inu Youkai burst through the veil of poisoned fumes. He did not pause to orient himself but flew at his enemies without hesitation. He knew from past experience that the Wise would allow him no time for strategy.

True to his memories, as he fell upon them there was a sudden rush as of wind, and their demon souls were all around him. Sesshoumaru remembered this chill, this ice in his very bones, from years ago, when a young demon lord stood alone and afraid on the field of battle. He didn't banish these memories, but instead allowed them to fuel the fires of his rage, laying about him with claw and fang.

Many Wise fell with Sesshoumaru's first assault, mowed down and slashed into bloody pulp by his blows. Three-legged though he was, he was lightning-quick and made all the stronger by the shard he carried.

But the ice in his bones grew unbearable, like a flame set alight yet cold as the grave. From behind the Wise ranks of Greater Youkai arose, and his heart froze at the sight of them. These were Sesshoumaru's kinsmen, his family. These were the first warriors to protect the Tatesei, before that Line became consumed by its own darkness.

The sight of them filled him with darkness of his own. He was infinitely glad that his father was not among them. His father's spirit was free.

The souls of the Greater Youkai slashed at him from every angle, and Sesshoumaru began to bleed. The souls of these demons were so powerful that, amplified by the spells of the Wise, they gained substance with which to fight. Roaring, Sesshoumaru plowed through their midst. Though they struck him mercilessly, he refused to attack them. He did not know if such a thing was even possible---to damage a ghost---but nevertheless he didn't try. These were faces he knew.

Instead he plunged forward and crashed full force into the Temple.

`If I can destroy this place, and the bones that bind them to this life, then they will be free,' he reasoned. `The Wise may die after, but first the souls. . .'

As the first bone pillars began to crack beneath his massive weight, the Greater Youkai spirits flew at him in a fury. His heaving sides now ran red with blood, yet again and again he lunged at the Temple.

Despite the strong will driving him toward his vengeance, however, Sesshoumaru was becoming increasingly aware of the fierce, biting cold that crept through his flesh at the touch of the souls. The shard within him pulsed, holding it at bay as he steeled himself against the pain.

`I have faced this before,' he thought angrily, `and lived. And I did then what I intended to do. I WILL survive THIS. . .'

{#} {#} {#}

The Wise had not broken form when the Inu Youkai attacked, despite the heavy losses that it had cost them. The souls of their comrades would serve them still, even though death had claimed them. Their chanting rose in intensity, reverberating through the air so that it seemed a host of a thousand men stood there rather than a hundred.

The souls of the dead sorcerers, bound by magic to their fellows, rose upward. Yet they could not complete their ascent, and sank earthward again, wailing. Those nearest them altered the spells that they called, and soon the ghostly forms of the dead Wise reformed beside their living comrades. Their voices had a strange, echoing quality---somehow purer than those of the living and no less powerful.

"Still he comes!" one sorcerer said to gray-eyed Reikotsu in wonderment. "He cares nothing for his own life!"

Reikotsu stood apart from the others, watching silently. The sorcerer who addressed him had broken rank to see why he stood apart.

"It is the shard," Reikotsu murmured, not sparing the other man a glance. His cold gaze was riveted upon the awesome form of the white demon above him. "The sacred jewel shard that he carries protects him from the souls' deadly chill."

The other sorcerer followed Reikotsu's gaze with narrowed eyes.

"He is so strong," the man commented. "But his strength must surely be leaving him; his blood is raining down on us!" The sorcerer paused, and then his eyes widened in realization of something. "What? All those years ago. . . He was the one who. . .?"

Reikotsu glanced over at his fellow with interest.

"Yes?" he inquired.

The other sorcerer shook his head, frowning a little at his superior.

"We must take the shard soon," he insisted. "He's destroying the Temple."

Reikotsu smiled a little, returning his gaze to the raging demon above.

"No," he said softly. "Not yet."

The other sorcerer's eyes widened.

"Master, why?" he demanded. "We cannot afford to waste any time!"

Reikotsu's smile deepened.

"Because more shards are coming. And all the players have not yet arrived."

`And the more of the Wise that Sesshoumaru destroys,' he thought to himself, `the fewer contenders there will be. . .'

{#} {#} {#}

Inuyasha landed on a rooftop near the Temple and perched there a moment, assessing the situation. Ahead of him a battle was raging between his brother and the Wise. The sight temporarily rendered him stunned and speechless. He shifted into a crouching position, careful not to dislodge Kagome, whom he was still carrying.

"What are those things?" Kagome asked into his ear.

Inuyasha was still carrying her, but he wasn't sure he wanted to carry her into this. . .

"They're the souls of demons," he told her. "The Wise trapped them. They're attacking Sesshoumaru." He laid Tetsusaiga across his knees, balancing it there. "Kagome, where's his shard located?" he asked grimly.

"Um. . ." She hesitated before answering. "You don't have to fight him, Inuyasha."

"WHAT?!" he exclaimed, turning around so fast that Kagome fell of his back and landed on the roof on her rump. The roof was slanted, and she had a rather bumpy slide downward until Inuyasha stopped her with one outstretched hand. "Hey, YOU were the one who told me I have to stop him!"

Kagome's most immediate response was a swift slap in the face. Inuyasha rubbed at the red mark while she righted herself. He was about to launch into a very lengthy string of swear words when he reflected that the outstretched hand might have caught her in a rather importune place.

"Eh---?" he began, fearing the worst, but Kagome seemed to have gotten it out of her system with the slap.

"I meant that you don't need to fight him," she explained. "Because he's already dying."

"What? Really?" Inuyasha turned to watch the battle. He didn't seem overly upset about this. "How can you tell?"

"Well," Kagome began, rather reluctantly, "it's not just that he's bleeding a lot. I can see the kehai of the demon souls attacking. Every time they sort of. . .pass through him. . .the kehai gets stronger. And his gets weaker."

"He must be fucking determined to destroy the Temple," Inuyasha remarked. "We know from his last little Tetsusaiga-fetching visit that he isn't one to go risking his life. Fucking coward." This, of course, referred to the incident where Sesshoumaru gave up and left Inuyasha alone once the hanyou had regained possession of Tetsusaiga.

"Uh. . .his poison doesn't seem to be killing the Wise," Kagome murmured. "Inuyasha, if he dies they're going to take his shard. We have to stop them."

"Have to---?" Inuyasha's mood was borderline frustration. "Kagome, do you REALIZE that while we're `RESCUING' him he could fucking SQUASH us?" He added in low murderous tones, "And he'd probably ENJOY it, too. . ." He looked up from his dark mutterings. "Just tell me where the shard is. So when he finally croaks I can get it before they do."

Kagome glanced up at the towering Inu Youkai and the massive specters around him.

"Er. . .it's in his rear end," she answered, rather apologetically.

Inuyasha nodded, then realized belatedly what she'd just said.

"Tell me you're kidding," he told her, glaring at her. "'Cause the odds are pretty slim of that happening twice."

Kagome shrugged, looking embarrassed. After all, it was Sesshoumaru's rear end that they were discussing.

"I'm NOT joking, Inuyasha," she insisted.

They had a bit of a staring contest for a minute, but finally it was Inuyasha who blanched and looked away.

"I'm NOT getting THIS shard," he told her, in a hollow, dead sort of way.

Apparently he drew the shard-fetching line at the rear ends of male siblings. These, apparently, were more offensive than purple spiders'.

"Good," Kagome replied, pulling a face. "So stop wasting time and get down there."

He stood up, then prepared to leap from the roof to the ground.

"Hey, wait a sec!" Kagome protested. "What about ME?"

Inuyasha turned and glared at her.

"YOU'RE staying RIGHT HERE," he commanded, jabbing a clawed finger in her direction. "Since I'm not getting a shard, I don't need you! So stay here and keep out of sight, okay?"

Without further ado, he leaped from the building. Kagome watched him land in a crouched position, one hand still holding Tetsusaiga ready.

"Be careful," she whispered.

{#} {#} {#}

Frantically, Shippou pulled Asano down the dark, narrow side-streets.

"Y'know, once we reach the palace Inuyasha will help us," the Kitsune told his comrade, who had gone very quiet. "So you can stop worrying."

Save for the initial directions of how to get to the palace, Asano had said very little since Shippou's mention of Inuyasha.

They reached the palace grounds without mishap, but when they came within sight of the building that served as the king's audience hall, both children stopped in their tracks.

"What. . .?" Shippou began, confused. "Inuyasha said he was coming here to protect your father. He didn't say he was going to WRECK the place. . ."

"Father!" Asano cried suddenly, and took off at once, racing toward the ruins of the building.

They lay in a broken heap. The whole place seemed to have crashed inward, as if hammered by a giant's fist.

"Yaburenumaru," Asano said softly, coming to stand in front of it.

Shippou caught up with him.

"You think he did this?" the Kitsune asked, wide-eyed. "Then he can't have done it long ago, because the sun's only just risen. He hasn't been in demon form that LONG."

"FATHER!" Asano yelled, cupping his hands to his mouth. "IF YOU CAN HEAR, ANSWER ME! IT IS ASANO, YOUR SON!"

They stood there a moment, waiting, but no answer came.

"Maybe he's fled with Inuyasha?" Shippou suggested hopefully. "Maybe if we hurry we can catch up with them!"

Asano swallowed and shook his head. For a moment, he looked as if he was going to cry, but instead he took a deep breath and said, "Let's go. If he can't answer we'll never find him under all this."

Shippou nodded. "But where will we go, then?"

The prince grabbed him by the shoulder and pointed at somewhere beyond the ruined heap.

"We'll take the Last Road," he answered. "It's a secret, known only to the king and his heir."

Shippou shook off his arm.

"NO WAY!" he barked. "I'm too YOUNG to commit suicide!"

"That's not what I meant!" Asano explained, looking flustered. "It's a tunnel, leading under the lake. If the city is under attack and the walls are breached, then the royal family is to flee using this passage."

"But if the WHOLE royal family is supposed to escape, why only tell the king and his heir?" Shippou wanted to know.

Asano seemed a bit embarrassed.

"Well, the king and his heir certainly won't be the ones to stage a revolt from within the city, will they?" he asked.

Shippou gave him a rather cynical look.

"So demons aren't the ONLY ones you people don't trust, huh?"

The two of them hurried through the palace grounds, to a far room overlooking the water. There Asano slid aside the screen facing east and led Shippou down a small staircase beyond it. It led down into a small alcove set at water level, so that it appeared to be under the lake. Then they slide aside a large marble slab and ducked into the dark mouth of the tunnel.

Asano slid the slab closed behind them.

"Hey!" Shippou exclaimed. "Just how long will we have to walk in the dark? I can't see a THING here."

"You're a Kitsune," the prince reminded him. "Conjure something up."

"Oh, right," Shippou replied sheepishly. "FOXFIRE."

A small but very bright ball of green flame materialized, hovering just over the Kitsune's tiny palm. Ahead of him he could see the long, black path that lay ahead of them. There were no torches along it to light the way---given the humidity beneath the lake, there would be too much smoke. The walls were stone covered in slimy moss; the air was warm and fetid.

Shippou and Asano started walking briskly. It was apparent that neither of them wished to linger here.

After they had been traveling for what seemed like ages, Shippou asked, "How much longer, d'you think? This place reeks!" In fact, it reminded the Kitsune acutely of the swampland they had traversed at the beginning of the journey to Reiyama.

"Be patient," Asano told him firmly, though the authority in his voice sounded very much like an act to cover up his nervousness. "It can't be much farther. The idea of the tunnel was to get the royal family out of the city as fast as possible. So it can't be much longer."

The greenish glow of Shippou's foxfire revealed the prince's wide-eyed, rather frightened gaze, which was fixed upon the darkness ahead.

After another long period of silence, Asano asked, "Do you hear something?"

Shippou stopped walking to listen. He tilted his head to one side as if to cock one pointy ear. There was a sound nearby. It sounded like something was making a light tapping noise, but there were long spaces between the taps. The spaces seemed to last about five seconds.

"Where is it coming from?" Shippou asked Asano. "Can you tell?"

The prince didn't answer, listening with a frown.

Each tap echoed through the tunnel, so that it was impossible to identify its location.

Then there was one final tap, and no more came after. A bit of moss fell from the ceiling, landing on the stone floor between the prince and the Kitsune. Both of them slowly turned their faces upward.

"Uh. . ." Shippou began.

The two of them turned back toward the direction of the exit and took off at a run.

{#} {#} {#}

"DIE, YOU CREEPY BASTARDS!"

For a moment the chanting of the Wise faltered as every head turned to see the source of this outburst. The dead, of course, continued, ghostly lips moving to form words of necromancy as they stood in rank with their living comrades.

The living were treated to the spectacle of one very irate hanyou flying towards them, wielding a very large, glowing sword and bellowing obscenities.

He landed in their midst and began laying about him with his sword. The blade seemed to be enchanted---its very kenatsu slashed through layers of gray cloth and thick leather armor to hew apart the vulnerable flesh beneath.

Under the assault of this new foe, the Wise fell back toward the Temple, where the massive form of the Inu Youkai thrashed and snarled.

"Reikotsu-sama! We MUST call the others!"

The gray-eyed sorcerer turned toward his comrade, wearing no readable expression.

"The. . .others," he repeated slowly. "Yes, to keep us from being pushed back into the white demon's path. Do it."

Reikotsu's attention was drawn toward the building across the way, where the girl hid behind a pillar on the roof.

"Now the trap is sprung," he murmured, more to himself than his comrade. "The time has come to take the shards. . ."

"Master," the other sorcerer persisted. "The risk? What of the RISK?"

Reikotsu shook his head, fixing his subordinate with an imperious stare. He didn't care about `the risk' any more.

He broke rank and vanished from view into the cloud of poisoned vapor rising from the ground.

{#} {#} {#}

Kagome knelt atop the roof, hiding behind a stone column. She peered around the bottom of the pillar, watching the battle below worriedly. She could see Sesshoumaru outlined in ghostly green light, surrounded the spirits of his kin. His strength seemed to have waned, because he had stopped attempting to smash more of the Temple and now seemed to be fighting merely to stay standing. But her sense of the shard within Sesshoumaru had grown even stronger than it had been at the palace, and she was not sure he would die so easily.

She couldn't see Inuyasha below, but she could track his progress by watching for flashes of Tetsusaiga's kenatsu through the screen of vapor. Beyond the vapor, Kagome also thought she saw the vague forms of the Wise, only these seemed to glow and shift in and out of focus. She surmised that these were the dead ones.

From what she could see, the attention of the Wise was utterly focused on repelling the two Inu Youkai to preserve themselves and their Temple. All other Tatesei had cleared the area, for obvious reasons.

Thus it came as a complete and total surprise to Kagome when a long, thin hand clamped itself across her mouth. It happened so fast that screaming never occurred to her. Another arm clamped itself around her wounded arm, pinning it behind her back. She stiffened with pain, whimpering. Her free arm flailed about, only making contact with the gray silk of Reikotsu's robes. She had never seen him coming.

"Kagome, isn't it?" he breathed into her ear. "So glad to see you. . ."

Kagome's eyes widened. The hand removed itself from her mouth, but still she didn't scream. Inuyasha would never hear her over the racket Sesshoumaru was making.

`But. . .why didn't I sense this BEFORE?' she thought, fearfully. `The shard he carries. . . The kehai from Sesshoumaru's shard must have been too strong for me to notice THIS one. . .'

The long, thin fingers splayed across her collar bone, entangling themselves in the chain around her throat. Then the hand tightened convulsively into a fist and wrenched the chain until it broke. Kagome's attacker seemed to take some time pocketing the shards, but he still did not release her.

"You have the shards," she told him, thinking quickly. "Now let me go."

"Oh no," he purred in her ear. Kagome felt the blade's kiss at her throat even though she could not see it. "No, because I am going to finish this." The knife moved just a little, not enough to scratch her but just enough for her to feel the sharpness. "The `Wise' will destroy Inuyasha and Sesshoumaru. The monk is all but dead." He paused, thoughtfully. "And if I am not mistaken, the prince and the fox-child will soon be taken care of as well."

`He's caught us so easily,' Kagome thought, horrified. `We never had a CHANCE of realizing. . .'

His lips curved into a thin, cruel smile as he bent nearer. His embrace was close as a lover's, save for the bone knife that he held at her throat.

"You wear her face, but you haven't her wisdom," he murmured. "She would have known. But you are not the same. And the passions of the Inu Youkai Clan burn so much brighter than reason. Sesshoumaru and that despicable brother of his were blinded by vengeance from the very beginning. Or perhaps Inuyasha was merely blinded by stupidity. . ."

He ran the back of his hand down the side of her cheek, with sickening tenderness.

"Don't TOUCH me!" Kagome cried, struggling against the confines of his vise-like grip.

With her free arm, she managed to draw an arrow from her quiver, which still hung over one shoulder even though her bow had been lost. Before he could stop her, she clenched the hand that held it into a fist, and drove it backward with all her might.

There was a sudden, brilliant flash of light, and then suddenly she was free of him. Kagome whipped around to see that he had staggered backward about five feet, alarm registering in his eyes.

In his violet eyes, burning through the face of Reikotsu the sorcerer.

"Don't come near me again," Kagome warned him. "I'm not a miko, but my arrows can still hurt you."

Naraku clutched at his side, where her arrow had struck. Yet he began to laugh---a low, cold laugh that sent chills down her spine.

"Foolish child," he told her. "You think I'll die so easily? This is but a kugutsu---a puppet!"

"I can drive you out of that body," Kagome answered. Her face was set into a fierce and beautiful determination. Had Inuyasha seen it at this moment, he would have been unnerved by her sudden eerie resemblance to Kikyou. "I'll stab you if you come near and make you leave him. From just one cut your eyes have become your own and not his."

"I think not," Naraku said, the smile leaving Reikotsu's face. "The gray-eyed one's soul fled when your dear monk struck him with his own spell. This body is mine now; I've taken a liking to it. You're wounded and you can't hold a bow. Your arrow won't touch me again."

He began advancing toward her, wearing human flesh yet moving more fluidly than any mortal could have. Heart slamming in her chest, Kagome retreated, then realized that she was being pushed toward the edge of the roof. A bit of loose tile crumbled away beneath her foot and fell earthward behind her.

'What NOW?' Kagome thought, her brain frantically searching for an answer. None came. There was no way out of this.

"You see. . .I need not touch you to kill you," Naraku told her in a voice low and hateful.

Kagome took a deep breath; felt it fill her chest with strength.

'It's strength I need now,' she thought. 'To do this. . .'

She took a slow and measured step toward him, as if into his dark embrace. Then she clenched her fist around the arrow in her hand and rushed at him with all her strength. Naraku's eyes flashed the cruel glitter of a hawk sighting prey. Reikotsu's face twisted into a fierce grin, a death's head grimace, and before the arrow's head ever reached him, he caught her and flung her from him, from the roof.

Hard.

{#} {#} {#}

Inuyasha lay about him with such ferocious swiftness that at times he wondered if Tetsusaiga had not become an extension of his arm. His father's murderers fell before him, hewn down by his sword. Yet in the midst of this righteous rage there was the knowledge of what it was he must do. The demon in him urged him forth to destruction. Yet the human in him drew him instead toward Sesshoumaru, toward the shard that he must protect, and he did not give in as his brother had.

So through the ranks of the Wise he moved, cutting himself a path to the heart of the Temple. Into the crumbling, darkened halls he plunged, through men and spirits, whose chill froze his very blood.

'The shard,' Inuyasha thought desperately, feeling his body weaken with every soul that touched him. 'Must reach the shard. . .'

He did not smell Naraku, because here his brother's kehai was too strong and overpowered all else.

{#} {#} {#}

In the midst of the collapsing Temple, Sesshoumaru's head bent earthward, drooping lower with every assault, and the assaults came at him relentlessly from all sides. He no longer fought; he could scarcely move. The ground beneath him was stained crimson with his blood. The air around him was frozen with the killing cold of the Tatesei sorcery.

He raised his head one last time, to see the last of them come at him. It was a face familiar to him---a face very much like his own. A soul like his, yet bound and enslaved to do the bidding of men.

'So,' Sesshoumaru thought, as he began to fall, 'the last Inu Youkai goes to join those gone before. He dies on his feet, like a true Lord of the West.'

He was transforming back to his two-legged form---falling all the faster for it---and his hair streamed around his face, blinding him as the stone floor rushed up to meet him. Yet he was not afraid. He let loose what he knew to be his last breath in a soft, calm exhalation.

"At last. . ." he breathed.

Then he struck stone, and all the world went cold.

{#} {#} {#}

At the outskirts of the Temple, in an empty, darkened room left untouched by Sesshoumaru's rampage, Miroku awoke with a gasp. For a moment, he could not move, shuddering and clasping his shoulders tightly. Then the images of the dead rolled away from him, and he realized that he was alone and unharmed. His head ached fiercely, but otherwise his limbs seemed to function normally, so he pushed himself to his feet and peered out into the hall.

There was no one there, though it was by no means silent. He could hear the inexorable chanting of the Wise outside, the wails of spirits, and a great cracking as of stone breaking. It sounded as if something massive was attacking the Temple.

"Yaburenumaru?" he muttered, puzzled. "What on earth is happening?"

Miroku strode down the hall toward the Temple door. Upon reaching it he slid it aside and found himself looking out onto a rather hellish scene of destruction, necromancy and gore.

He sighed. Some days it just didn't pay to get out of bed.

He was about to attempt a surprise attack on those Wise nearest him (who hadn't noticed him yet) when he sensed something else nearby.

'Naraku?' he thought, very much surprised. 'Here?'

Miroku plunged through the ranks of the Wise, much like Inuyasha had, laying about him with his staff. Yet the souls of the dead, while chilling him to the bone, did not weaken him, and he managed to break through. The plunge through the clouds of poisoned vapor rising from the viscous purple stuff on the ground was something else entirely. He had to use three oufudas for that. The Wise sent demon souls howling after him, but these neither struck him nor passed through him.

The first thing Miroku saw upon passing through the vapor was one of the Wise standing on the roof across the way. Then he saw the man catch hold of Kagome and throw her into the air as if she weighed no more than a feather.

There was a dark, sickly kehai about the man, unlike the sinister green aura about the Wise.

"LADY KAGOME!" Miroku cried, running toward them as fast as he could.

He could see the whites of her eyes as she fell---and her nice white undergarments, too, though he supposed that at this point that was irrelevant.

He lunged forward and caught her, just before she hit the ground. The impact flung them both down, though, and for a moment all he could do was lie there until the stars cleared from his vision.

Then Miroku heard Kagome gasp and felt her move off of him. He thought this strange because he hadn't even groped her yet. But then he looked up and understood. Somehow the gray-eyed sorcerer had made the long jump from the roof to the ground, and now he loomed over them wearing an expression of intense disgust.

"How fortunate," the man remarked. "Now I can kill you both at once."

{END OF CHAPTER 9}

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