InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ An Arrow Not Burning ❯ Fight ( Chapter 4 )

Inuyasha stared at his doppelganger. The other had his appearance down exactly. He was smirking. The voice didn't quite sound like him, and there was a faint but definite stench which the real hanyo was certain did not emanate from him. But the entity could certainly fool humans in this form, and had. His throat vibrated with a growl. This demon had used this shape to trick and nearly kill Kikyo. He had used this shape to trick the villages into thinking that Inuyasha had attacked and killed them. That he had killed an innocent little girl. His growl grew louder, as his ears flattened, and his anger flared. Gripping his left arm, he dug his claws into the arrow wound, not feeling pain as the tips dug deep, seeking blood.

"You are not Inuyasha." The cool, dispassionate voice came from behind him, along with the creaking of a drawn bow. "Who are you, and why did you try to trick us?"

The laugh was half-sneer. "Why, isn't it obvious, little miko?" he jeered, setting the Shikon No Tama to swinging. "Isn't the Shikon No Tama so much lovelier, now that your bitter hatred, and the death of those stupid villages, has darkened it?" Inuyasha heard Kikyo's sharp intake of breath. "I admit, I underestimated the hanyo--just think how more lovely it would be now, if he had stolen the jewel as I intended, then been killed by you when he tried to escape. On the other hand, what you attempted to do might have been even better--imagine the despair it would have to absorb, when you realized that you had killed your entirely innocent lover."

"Bastard!" Inuyasha unleashed his rage, leaping forward, bloodied right hand slashing out and down. "Hijinkessou!"

Drops of blood sprayed out from his claws, transforming into dozens of glowing-red, razor-sharp, curved blades. The shape-shifter started to move, but the blades were too fast and the distance too short. The blades were small, just starting to expand, but their size made no difference to their sharpness. They slammed into the demon's right chest, shoulder, and arm. The arm fell, torn apart by the blades. The shapeshifter staggered, mouth opening in shock and perhaps something more.

And then a demon swarm exploded from the shoulder and chest wounds, directly into Inuyasha's path. Less than a length behind his blades, the hanyo had no chance to avoid the swarm. Left arm raised to protect his face, right fingers arched at full extension as he slashed wildly before him, the hanyo disappeared into the biting, clawing, shrieking maelstrom. Eyes narrowed to slits, snarling as his claws hewed a partial path through the swarm, Inuyasha kept his focus on a single goal. He slammed bodily into the other demon, taking them both over the rail, and not really noticing, as he reached for the only thing that, at that moment, mattered.

Kikyo had little more time to react than Inuyasha as the swarm exploded in her direction. There was no time for thought, only for the skills imposed by arduous training. Her arrow purified the leading edge of the swarm. The next moment, the still-vibrating bow became the focus of her barrier. The demonic swarm, only slightly lessened by Inuyasha's frantic defense, and with no opportunity to change their own momentum, slammed straight into her shield. Kikyo was hammered to her knees by the assault of dozens of demons against her protection, both hands clinging to her bow as she fought to keep the barrier strong. The swarm shrieked and writhed as the individuals impacted the shield and disintegrated. Some on the outer perimeter of the swarm managed to avoid the barrier, but not many.

The swarm faded, its remnant survivors fleeing, their small minds intent only on escape and survival. Drained, Kikyo fought to stay conscious. She coughed and gasped for air, feeling the darkness of eternity dragging at her. No! she thought at that. She could not die, not yet. She had a jewel to recover. A thief and murderer to kill. And a beloved to save. If she could. Inuyasha.

Bracing her good shoulder against the wall of the shrine, the miko forced herself to her feet. Arm shaking, she fumbled for a fresh arrow, managing somehow to pull it out and lay it against the bow. Using the wall for support, she forced her feet to move. One step, two, three--

Something fell over her head. Startled, she lost her concentration and crumpled to her knees. "Damn it!" said a voice. "Kikyo! Don't give in! Not yet! I got the jewel back!"

Jewel? Kikyo looked down and saw the Shikon No Tama resting on her chest, glinting dully. For a moment, she thought she heard a voice whispering in her mind; an urge to take the jewel in her hand, to wish for her life. With a mental shudder, she thrust the temptation aside. She could not use the jewel as it was. Not for her own purposes, her own selfishness. She had sworn to purify and protect the jewel. Seeking to end the need for her duty was one thing, but to betray it was another.

There were worse fates than dying.

Nevertheless, whether from the jewel or somewhere else, Kikyo found small measure of strength returning. She managed to raise her head. And nearly lost it again, as she saw what crouched before her.

Golden eyes stared out from a mask of blood. From the eyebrows up, his face and part of his scalp had been scoured down to the bone in places. Both ears were gone. Looking down, she saw that the swarm had finished what she had begun, reducing his clothes to shredded rags. He was still almost as covered with red as he ever had been, but the red this time came from his blood, from the dozens--hundreds--of cuts and bites covering his body. His left arm hung limp, one bone of the forearm almost entirely clean of flesh, the last finger of his hand little better. Her soul ached for the realization of the pain he must be feeling. She wanted to cry, wanted to beg forgiveness for the injuries she had dealt him, that had surely decreased his ability to defend against the swarm. But there was no time for such emotions. Not for her, not for him.

"'Yasha, listen to me," she whispered quickly. "That demon--he's not, not fully. A human called demons to devour his soul, thinking to gain power. Only way to kill, find the human heart, destroy it..."

He looked puzzled. "Which may not be where you think," she elaborated.

His eyes widened in understanding, then narrowed. "Can you find it?"

She hesitated. "I don't know. I-- " Inuyasha whirled, blood-streaked hair whipping across her face as he lashed out with his good hand. Bits of tentacle and claw went flying off the porch. Her view blocked by Inuyasha's back, Kikyo could sense that the demon had returned to the porch.

"You're going to have to do better than that, red-eyes," sneered the hanyou. "I'm not exactly deaf yet."

"No?" The merge-demon's feigned lightness of voice was not reflected in his demonic aura, which was dark with rage and hatred. "At least your appearance is improved, without those ridiculous dog-ears, little hanyo."

Inuyasha growled, tensing, as if preparing to attack. "Not yet," Kikyo breathed. "'Yasha..."

His growl grew a moment, then faded. He nodded, shifting his stance slightly. Then, without warning, he slashed outwards once again. "Hijinkessou!"

She had neither position nor opportunity to watch the second blast of blood-claws go flying down the shrine's porch towards their opponent. The yell was barely out of his mouth when Inuyasha jumped back and sideways, pulled her against his chest with his right hand under her left armpit, and brought both of them to their feet. Kikyo gasped, her head spinning for a long moment. When she could see again, she was was being supported by a combination of the wall, Inuyasha's upper left arm around her back, and the fist of his right hand, gently pressing her chest just below the jewel. From between his fingers jutted the feathered bases of three arrows. The growl in his throat was just barely audible, and his head was turned away from her.

Kikyo told her cold, tired, aching body that it had to keep moving for just a bit longer. Willing her legs to remain steady, her arm not to tremble, she brought up the bow. Plucking the arrows one at a time from his hold, she placed the first two into the grasp of the last two fingers of her bow hand. Taking the last arrow, she made herself straighten up, away from her support. She placed the final arrow against the bow and the bowstring. Inuyasha eased away from her, turning to face forward, and moving sideways enough to give her a clear shot--and a clear view.

The merge-demon no longer looked like Inuyasha. He no longer was laughing. Red eyes--the red of dried blood--glared at them from beneath long, black hair. The destroyed right arm had been replaced by an amorphous, writhing blob, from which several claw tipped tentacles depended. Two pairs of spider-like limbs had erupted from his back.

"It doesn't matter how you try to protect the miko, hanyo," he said, after a moment. "Unless she uses the jewel, she's going to die."

"He knows that." Kikyo found her voice cool and expressionless. She drew back on the bow, not yet to full extension. "Onigumo."

The merge-demon started, his eyes widening. "What? You--I am not Onigumo! I am Naraku, and I am your death, woman!"

She met his furious gaze calmly. "You may claim the name 'Naraku' now, half-demon," she told him. "But I know what you are. Only a desperate and foolish human would believe he could obtain power by being consumed by a demon swarm. Only one human in this region was that desperate, that foolish. The burned, crippled bandit that I took pity on, to whom I thought I was being merciful, by giving him shelter and care. You, Onigumo."

The red eyes blazed. "Very clever, little miko. Onigumo did call on us to consume him. And he was a fool, to think we would give him what he thought he wanted. And now, Onigumo is gone, and everything that has happened is your fault. Because of your weakness. Your pity. Your love for a despicable hanyo. You're a failure, miko. A dead failure."

Kikyo considered the sneering demon, and realized that all she felt was a quiet, unshakable calm. The knowledge of whom she faced, the understanding of what had happened, had drained the anger, the bitterness, the hatred. She loved Inuyasha, and he loved her, but in this last moment, she was what she was ‰ÛÒ miko. Trained to protect her kind.

She smiled. A small, quiet smile. "No one lives without making mistakes, half-demon. It may have been a mistake to think it was more merciful to help a broken bandit live, rather than give him to the daimyo for justice and death. But it was not weakness. Nor was my love." She drew back the bow a bit further. "Onigumo, if you hear me, know this. I forgive you your lust for me, your desire for the jewel. May you find peace in your death."

The merge-demon staggered as something screamed in rage and hate. Poisonous light surged just below his ribs, a mixture of bilious yellow and green. Features emerged, as out of a mist: a human face, its visage marked with savage burns and twisted with savage emotions. "Curse you!" it spat, as Naraku stared down in shock. "If you hadn't loved a dirty hanyo rather than a human! If you had let me have the jewel, it wouldn't have come to this! They used me!"

"I did not make your choices for you, Onigumo," she replied calmly. "From the choices you made to steal and murder, to the choice to seek power by offering your soul to demons, they were your choices. I can give you nothing, Onigumo, except my hope that, somehow, you find peace." She drew back her bow to its fullest extension, and fired.

Naraku leapt, as she anticipated, but more quickly as she had guessed. Her shot took him in the left leg. He screamed as power in her arrow disintegrated that limb. More demons burst outward as the merge was weakened, but a much smaller swarm than the first. She sntached her second arrow to the string. Inuyasha, who had leapt as soon as the arrow passed him, yelled out his battle cry, golden, eldritch claws slashing out to shred those whose path took them closest to Kikyo. Reaching the apex of his leap above Naraku, Inuyasha lifted his arm to deliver a slashing, downward blow that would rip the other demon apart.

Two tentacles flashed out with blazing--and desperate--speed. Inuyasha dodged, but he lacked the speed in the air that he had on the ground. The first tentacle wrapped itself around his crippled arm and jerked hard. The hanyo yelped in pain, twisting as he re-oriented his strike. Claws exploded through the first tentacle, and it fell into dissolving pieces. But the second tentacle, its end sheathed in demonic chitin and needle-sharp, slammed into his belly and rammed out his back in a shower of blood.

Kikyo froze. Inuyasha seemed to crumple in mid-air, then started to fall. More tentacles lashed out to wrap around his legs and good arm. Naraku fell back, taking his weight on his four spider arms. He brought the limp form down in front of him, held up by his tentacles.

And then he laughed. "So tell me, Kikyo. Would you rather I tear Inuyasha apart before you, and then wait for you to die? Or shall I let him watch you die, before I string him up in a web and see how much poison it takes to kill him?