InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Anusti, A Tale of the Shikon no Tama ❯ Full Demon ( Chapter 13 )

ANUSTI, A TALE OF THE SHIKON NO TAMA

 

Chapter 13-Full Demon

 

Naraku stood over the rotting mess that looked like it once had been a demon. He ignored the group as if they weren't even there. His horrible insects hovered all around him, their wings buzzing. The jewel shard, which had once been glowing, was now black. The group tensed up. They were tired and hungry, but those thoughts were quickly forgotten as their hated rival stood before them. Inuyasha hated him because he had stolen their jewel shards, Miroku hated him because of the accursed hole in his hand, Sango hated him for killing everyone in her village and possessing her brother, and Anusti hated him for killing her close friend (and for other reasons unknown). Inuyasha had his hand on the tilt of Tessaiga, and was growling in anger. It became deadly silent.

 

“Bastard!” Inuyasha yelled. Naraku lifted his head and the shard in his palm.

 

“Ah Inuyasha,” he looked at the group and stiffened his gaze on Anusti. He grinned. He began and completely ignored the rest of the group. “Anusti, I can see you have slumped even lower and joined this group.”

 

Anusti remained still. She could feel her demonic anger growing, flowing through her veins, but she could also feel the poison reacting to her anger. She was too weak now to raise her sword and charge, so she merely clenched her fists. She tried not to show weakness.

 

“Naraku.” She murmured.

 

She wanted to take Hotaru and remove Naraku's wretched head. No, she wanted to use her bear hands, show him what pain truly was. But she knew killing this clone would do nothing to help her, merely make her more weak and vulnerable. She shook her head, she knew to just stop thinking, her eyes began to glow red.

 

“You can not control yourself, half-breed, and you are weak.” He chuckled. “Just as you were 50 years ago.” Anusti raised her head, still clenching her fists. “It's your fault he's dead Anusti, and you know it.”

 

“How dare you.” Her words were a hiss more then anything. She knew everyone was staring at her, wondering who Naraku was talking about.

 

“How dare I, Anusti?” He grinned from behind the mask. “The powers that you possess aren't meant for you, they were meant for me! I am the one who killed the Phoenix! Not you! You are not worthy of such power!” Naraku's word hit Anusti like a tornado. She breathed in heavily, smoke puffed from her nostrils.

 

“You speak lies Naraku! I will not let them take hold of me! I have known very well since the moment I was given these powers that they were definitely not for you! I do not even believe myself that they were meant for me! Besides, Naraku,” She calmed down a bit. “The only reason you had even a chance of harming, and eventually killing him was because your own powers were out of control.”

 

As the two argued, Kagome looked from Anusti to the clone. She had known the Phoenix?! That explained her uneasiness of the stories Kaede told. She had been the on to absorb his power, but that means Naraku was the one to kill the Phoenix, who she somehow knew was once Anusti's close friend. The look of shock on everyone's face showed they were surprised as well. Inuyasha became inpatient. He pulled Tessaiga forward and it transformed.

 

“Naraku, your own over confidence in yourself is your weakness! And through all of that, you still are a coward! Come out and fight me for real!” Anusti grumbled, and then breathed in deeply, trying to collect herself.

 

“I am the coward, Anusti? It was you who ran away those years ago, and you don't have the strength to fight me!”

 

“Alright! Enough talk!” Inuyasha yelled impatiently. He charged Naraku. “Die!” He yelled as he cut the baboon costume in half, the broken totem fell to the ground. Inuyasha frantically searched for the shard, but he was too late. High in the sky Naraku's insects flew away, with the shard in their grasp.

 

Inuyasha yelled in anger, but he had no time to pout, because many of the insects had stayed behind to attack them. The group ran into to action, except for Anusti. She paused for a moment.

 

“Shit!” She murmured, as her demonic blood began to take hold. She looked through glowing red eyes, trying to separate friend from foe. She could not. She could feel her claws, horns, and fangs growing slightly longer. She brought one of her legs forward. The spark in the back of her throat was clicking, waiting for that flammable air to come up, and leave in fire. Her last sane thought was that she'd probably kill herself because of what she was about to do, or make herself a moving target. She barely managed to warn them as she barreled forward into the fray.

 

“MOVE!” She yelled in a voice deeper then her normally one. She bolted in front of Miroku, who was luckily not using his wind tunnel (because the insects are poisoness), for she would have been sucked up. She did not wield her sword, but instead roared like that of a huge, wild dragon. She opened her mouth wide and breathed out spirals and balls of fire, not caring who it hit. The insects began to flee, knowing that they lost. Anusti stood, breathing fire after them, and flapping her wings wildly, then turned to her companions.

 

She grinned evilly and took a step towards them. Inuyasha stood in front of Kagome.

 

“Her eyes.” Sango muttered. Anusti took another step.

 

“Don't come any closer!” Inuyasha yelled, hefting his sword. He knew he would have a problem if she attacked.

 

Anusti took another step. Saying something in her odd language. Miharu suddenly flew down from nowhere and hovered just more then two meters from Anusti. She chirped loudly at Anusti. Anusti looked at the hawk and spoke in the foreign hiss. Miharu called back loudly as if they were arguing. Anusti began to shake. She closed her eyes tightly and shook her head violently, then fell to one knee, and collapsed.

 

The group stood, just looking at her for a moment. Her breathing was ragged and smoke still puffed from her wheezing nostrils. They had to do something; they couldn't just leave her here. They had pulled Anusti onto Kirara's back and had left the temple. After they had set up camp in a clearing in the middle of the woods, they tried to figure out what to do with her. None of them had any idea how to treat a dragon demon, or how she would be when she woke up.

 

`Would she attack them?' Kagome had wondered long into the night. They had decided to at least stay near her.

 

By morning, Anusti hadn't woken up. They had to keep moving, so Anusti was put back onto Kirara's back, with someone watching her the whole time. By mid-evening, they had gone quite a distance. Suddenly Kirara began to become uneasy.

 

“What is I Kirara?” Sango asked, looking warily at the cat demon. Kirara stared into the distance. Everyone followed her view.

 

In the very far distance, there was a mountain. A thick, black fog surrounding its top, and swirled down to almost its base. Kagome stood with her mouth open.

 

“There's a jewel shard up there.”

 

“Great.” Inuyasha muttered. “Well, if there is one up there, that's were we'll go.” And they continued forward.

 

How many shards were left, they didn't know. But there were only two, maybe three of them left; they hoped they could reach the shard before someone else did.

 

After setting up camp two nights later at the base of the mountain, the group began to eat. They had traveled long and hard all day, and needed rest. Anusti still hadn't woken up, but at least now her breathing was regular.

 

“You think she'll ever wake up?” Miroku asked as they sat eating.

 

Kagome looked back at the sleeping half-dragon. They had propped her up against a tree, and Miharu hadn't left her side since. “I don't know.”

What none of them knew was that Anusti was stirring in her sleep. She was dreaming. She could hear words. Words in her head. Her hand crumpled into a fist as her own thoughts flowed threw her unconscious mind. Death. Despair. Pain. That was all her life had been. But it hadn't. She had felt other things. Strength. Happiness. Life. Love. Love for her parents, for her old demonic and human friends, for… him. Her past was rushing back to her. She remembered her childhood.

 

She hadn't even known she was a half-demon, until her 15th year of life. After her mother died when she was ten, and she had joined a group of traveling nomads. When she finally met her true father, who she never knew was a great dragon lord. When she began to grow fangs, and claws, and have an uncanny ability to speak dragon-tongue, a language she was never taught. She remembered those fling lessons her father gave her, which she found useless, considering she had no wings at the time, but did not tell him, for she respected him so. She remembered him disappearing on her 18th birthday. And she remembered those long years of solitude.

 

These thoughts passed threw her head so fast, that she thought she was dying. Thoughts seem to come to her quickly when she was having a near-death experience. Maybe this time, she wouldn't wake up. She tried to open her eyes, tried to escape the blackness of unconsciousness.

 

Then she saw it, light! It was light!

 

Her eye opened slightly as she awoke. It was not light out, but dark, although, the moon was bright. She opened both her eyes and looked around. Everyone was sleeping. She couldn't move. She could hear soft breathing above her.

 

`Miharu.' She thought. `So I am alive.' Then she saw it, but she didn't want to believe it. Blinking in disbelief, her eyes moved up to mountain's side, up to the thick fog at the top.

“No.” She grumbled. Her voice had come back from sheer disbelief. “Why? Why here? Anywhere but here.” She could feel her blood pumping.

 

How long had she been asleep? Two, three days? She couldn't tell. But it had been long enough for the poison to dull, and for them to reach… here. Why were they even near this place? The could be only one reason, a jewel shard.

 

`Maybe I should just stay here.' She thought, looking up into the fog. `No, then Naoki will definitely kill them. That damn fog ogre. Fiinikkusu should have killed him when we had the chance.' Anusti lowered her head and closed her eyes. `No, he was protecting me.'

 

Caught up in her own thoughts, Anusti didn't see the sun rise, or her companions awake.

Anusti struggled to rise. That was when Miharu noticed her. She chirped quietly and landed on the ground in front of the dragon.

 

“Good to see you too, Miharu.” She pulled herself up and walked towards her companions, slowly. Sheer determination would keep her alive. She looked up at the mountain one last time.

 

“Anusti!” Kagome was the first one to notice her.

 

`Another day,' Anusti thought, as she smiled and walked towards them. `Another danger.'