InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Buffy the Youkai Slayer ❯ A Matter of Faith ( Chapter 25 )

Author's Note: Sorry for the delay between chapters, everyone. Life's been really hectic lately, and I haven't had as much writing time as usual. Thank you for all the reviews--they really make my day!

25. A Matter of Faith

Tokyo, the present day

It was dark at the bottom of the Bone-eater's Well. The gloom smelled of musty earth overlaid with a faint, harsh, smoky stink like smoldering lacquerware. The circle of blue sky at the well's mouth had vanished, replaced by faint lines of indirect light filtering through cracks in what looked like planking.

All this meant that the Portal Key had actually worked. Naraku had arrived in the home realm of his rival for the Shikon-no-Tama, the strangely-dressed girl named Kagome.

Of course it worked, said the smug voice of Arashthoth the Gatekeeper. With this well serving as your destination-focus. Did I not say it would? The demon that Naraku had absorbed grown disturbingly insolent of late, realizing that Naraku needed his knowledge.

But not for much longer, thought Naraku. Arashthoth's time was growing short. He had only few secrets left to share, and when those were exhausted, the Gatekeeper would be...disposable.

Naraku spied the long ladder leading upwards from the uneven dirt floor of the well, and smiled. How very convenient--and careless--of the girl. Why, it was practically an invitation!

He rucked up the hem of his kimono, tucking it into his belt, and began to climb. Given the narrow circumference of the stone-lined shaft, he had found it more practical to travel through the portal using his human form.

As he neared the top of the ladder, Naraku felt the prickling sensation of power nearby. Someone was there, and they might be dangerous to him. He would kill them before they knew he was a threat. In his dangerously weakened state, he could not afford to wait and see if the presence was friend or foe.

He reached up to push the well-cover aside, only to be greeted with an unexpected blast of purifying power as the seals pasted to the thick planks reacted to his youki.

Naraku fell through the darkness, his component youkai screaming in pain, and hit the hard-packed earth of the well's bottom with a humiliating thump.

Rising to his feet, he glared up through the darkness. I will make her beg for death before I kill her!

His youkai components agreed, hungering after sweet girl-flesh to speed the healing of their wounds. Feed us! they implored. We grow weak! We need meat and blood!

Soon, he promised them. Very soon.

By all rights, Kagome should have been killed by the first wave of insect-youkai he had sent through the portal. And yet, inexplicably alive and uninjured, she and her friends had launched an assault on his castle not three days ago. None of the youkai he had sent to kill her had returned. Even Kagura had not been able to stop her.

As a result he, Naraku, had been wounded and forced to flee. His retreat rankled, and it had stirred up the rebellious components within his captive youkai.

And so, he had decided to travel to her realm himself, and dispose of her when she arrived, alone and unsuspecting. Kagome would be all-but-helpless on this side of the well, without her allies--or that interfering hanyou, Inuyasha--to come to her aid.

Naraku would avenge his injuries and at the same time rob his rivals of their precious miko, leaving them unable to sense the fragments of the jewel--or purify them. Safe from his enemies here, he would recover from his wounds and build himself a stronger body using the native youkai of this realm.

But first, he had to get out of this well. It was humiliating to be trapped like this.

His component youkai shifted uneasily as his rage penetrated their consciousness, and with an effort, he tried to calm himself.

Steeling himself against the pain, Naraku climbed the ladder again and, keeping his hand a cautious finger's-breadth from actually touching the underside of the well-cover, stretched out his senses and probed the devices sealing him in.

The spells had been woven by someone both powerful and well-trained. Each loop and whirl of the intricate calligraphy glowed painfully to his youkai senses, the very ink infused with the maker's force of will.

Yet no one stood guard here. Could it be that they underestimated him, and were relying solely on these scrolls to bar his passage?

Naraku smiled despite the unpleasant proximity of the sealing spells, and began tracing the strands and knots of power to their source.

What had been woven could also be unmade, given enough time.

* * *

Hours passed as he patiently unknotted, one by one, the searing strands of mystical energy that held him captive in the well. His youkai grumbled restively all the while, forcing Naraku to share the acid taste of their discontent. The most powerful youkai in all the islands of Japan, and yet here he was, forced to perch on a ladder in an old stone well while he worked to free himself.

Finally, he felt the last of the restraints loosen and dissolve, and the scrolls become mere paper once again. He braced his palms against the rough planks and heaved. The wood tore loose from the thin metal pegs fastening the cover to the rim of the well, and flew to one side.

In an instant, Naraku was standing on the ground next to the well. He was inside a building--or what remained of a building. Most of the walls had been shattered, and the sides of the building stood open to the late afternoon light. The damage looked recent, he thought, noticing the pale scars in the otherwise-weathered wooden pillars supporting the roof.

So, it appeared that his scouts had made it out of the well, at least. But had happened to them then? Had they simply abandoned their mission, and fled to gorge themselves on this realm's delights?

The sun hung low in the western sky, orange-colored and hazy. The burning smell was stronger out here, though Naraku could see no smoke from cooking fires anywhere nearby.

He found himself on the grounds of a shrine that looked similar to the one that had housed the Shikon-no-Tama. Was the location of the Bone-eater's Well a sacred spot in both realms, then?

Looking around, he saw that the shrine's precinct was surrounded by a grove of trees, beyond which rose a multitude of square buildings set with glittering windows. The air was filled with a variety of low growls and constant rumbling, as if something prowled restlessly beyond the shrine, though Naraku detected no youkai auras in the immediate vicinity.

The only living things he could sense were birds, an entire flock of them, hopping and twittering in the branches of a single ancient tree that stood in the center of the courtyard next to the well-house.

Feed us! demanded his youkai. He paused in his contemplation of the odder structures beyond the grove, and released a cloud of miasma. In a moment, half the flock lay dying all around him.

I give you permission to eat. Disappointment at the tiny prey gave way to ravening hunger. Greedy arms and tentacles erupted from beneath Naraku's robe, reaching for the birds. Naraku himself was hungry, but he could wait until he encountered more fitting prey.

Then Naraku spied a large dwelling set behind the shrine's main hall on an upper terrace. He moved in that direction, ignoring the protests of those of those of his youkai who had not yet eaten.

Dwellings meant people. People meant...food. And the house would make the perfect location from which to ambush Kagome when she finally returned to her realm. Perhaps he ought to artistically arrange a corpse or two to greet her as she came home. Terror would sweeten her blood...

He ascended the worn stone steps leading from one terrace to the next, and was halfway across the shrine's main courtyard when the sound of footsteps crunching on the raked gravel alerted him from his musings.

For a moment, an old man holding a broom stood gaping comically at Naraku.

Naraku smiled coldly at him, knowing that he appeared to be nothing more than a youth dressed in rich clothing, long, unbound black hair flowing over his shoulders. It was a conveniently deceptive appearance.

Then the old man, who was most likely the shrine's caretaker, reached into his loose shirt and swiftly withdrew a packet of ofuda.

"Who are you?" He brandished the inscribed papers at Naraku. "Are you human?"

Bracing himself for a powerful blast of mystical energy, Naraku was pleasantly surprised to sense only the feeblest trickle of power from the old man. This one had not sealed the well, then.

Naraku laughed and lashed out, sweeping the human aside as inconsequential. The papers fluttered to the ground like crippled birds, and Naraku heard the faint, delicious sound of bones breaking as the old man fell heavily against the base of a stone lantern.

He moved forward swiftly, all of his parts focused intently on his victim. His mouth watered as he imagined the rich taste of marrow laced with salty blood seeping from a shattered skeleton.His youkai clamored for their share.

He heard a girl shout, followed immediately by a heavy twang. Something hit him in the chest, hard. He stumbled backward, and glanced down to see a heavy crossbow bolt embedded in his chest.

Grimacing, he ripped it out, ignoring the pain, and his torn flesh resealed itself almost instantly.

He looked for his opponent, and saw her, standing on the steps of the shrine's Hall of Worship. She was a dark-haired foreigner, dressed in the same tight clothing as the golden-haired youkai-taijya who had attacked him in his castle.

As he tossed aside the bolt, she drew a long, straight sword and leapt from the stairs. Landing lightly near the center of the courtyard, she approached him, sword held at the ready.

Naraku paused, frowning as he saw a swirl of youki surrounding her. It was weak, but it should not have been present at all on a mere human.

The other foreign youkai-taijya had also possessed it, but in stronger measure. And he had seen it present around Kohaku's sister, as well. Very strange.

But then he didn't have time to ponder the puzzle further. The girl attacked, her sword a copper-colored blur in the light of the setting sun.

Naraku instantly fashioned a weapon of youkai bone, stronger than steel, and countered her attack, blocking each of her blows. He swept a swift tentacle under her feet, and set her crashing heavily to the graveled ground, but before he could finish her off, another twang sounded, and aa second bolt slammed into his forearm.

The girl rolled away and regained her feet. Still holding the sword, her eyes narrowed in concentration, she circled him. Naraku kept one eye on her, but looked for his other opponent.

There was a young Japanese man, also wearing the strange tight clothing, standing at the gate that separated the shrine from the dwelling.

"Demon," he called, calmly loading a fresh bolt into his weapon. "Where is Higurashi Kagome? And where are the others--Inuyasha, and the taijya Summers-san?"

The girl attacked again, and Naraku drove her back. He laughed. "Dead."

Not that the truth mattered. Nothing could save these two insolent humans now.

* * *

"This place stinks of Naraku," Inuyasha snarled, as they left the shattered remains of the well-house behind.

Then they heard indistinct shouting, and the ringing clash of a metal blade striking something.

"Grandpa!" Kagome gave a muffled cry.

In an instant, Kouga and Inuyasha were gone. The baseball cap that Inuyasha had been wearing tumbled to the ground and rolled away as he bounded through the shrine in Kouga's wake.

"Houshi-sama, take care of Shippou and Kagome-chan!" ordered Sango, hurriedly unslinging Hiraikotsu and stripping off her robe to reveal the youkai-skin armor beneath.

"I'm coming, too!" Kagome said. Her face was pale, her forehead beaded with sweat, but her expression was fierce.

"Will you give Kagome a weapon?" Miroku asked.

Buffy untied her naginata from the frame of her backpack. She took her sword and tossed it to Kagome. "Here--you know how to use this?"

"I'll figure it out," Kagome said, a determined set to her mouth. "If Naraku hurt my Grandpa, I'll make him pay!"

Buffy hefted her naginata. "Pointy end goes in the other guy," she advised, only half-joking. "We'll try not to finish Naraku off before you guys get there, okay?"

"We'll be right behind you," Miroku assured her. He settled the butt of his staff into the ground and raised his evil hand. "I have a score to settle with Naraku."

Buffy looked over at Sango. "Ready?"

The other Slayer nodded. Together, they sprinted in the direction that Inuyasha and Kouga had taken.

* * *

Damn that wimpy wolf. Putting those shards in his legs is cheating, Inuyasha thought as he tried to keep up with his rival. No way was he going to let Kouga get all the credit for saving Kagome's home from Naraku!

Naraku! Inuyasha felt a pang, perilously close to fear, as he saw how close the enemy had gotten to Kagome's house. That bastard was in human guise, and being held at bay by Kagome's friend Minamide Koji and a foreign girl Inuyasha didn't recognize.

He leaped over the last set of stairs, drawing Tetsusaiga. As always, his sword transformed sluggishly in Kagome's realm, but it transformed, humming with demonic energies.

Kouga was already in the thick of the fight, kicking away Naraku's sword-wielding arm as it swept down toward the girl.

Show-off! Inuyasha thought in disgust. Not that a few fancy punches could compete with his Kaze-no-Kizu. Weak as it was here, it could still hurt Naraku.

Then, the smell of fresh blood distracted him. Inuayasha came to a skidding halt as he saw Kagome's grandfather sprawled in the shadow of a stone lantern.

He threw himself to his knees at the old man's side, and snarled. That fucking bastard hurt Kagome's grandpa!

Still breathing. Inuyasha reached out and put his clawed hand on the old man's neck. Now, where's his heartbe--

In the next instant, something speared him in the back. He heard the thin shriek as the fabric of his armor was pierced, and then a vast, hot pain that shoved him face-down into the ground. It was like Kagome's fucking osuwari command, only it hurt a lot more. Wha--?

Something heavy landed in the small of his back and sat on him, pinning his hips down. His nose was filled with an unfamiliar female scent. What the hell? At the same time, his attacker grabbed the hair at the back of his head, and yanked, painfully forcing his head up.

A blade, cold and sharp, drew a line of fire across his throat, but Minamide yelled something in a strange tongue, and the blade stilled abruptly, though the pressure on his hair didn't ease.

"What's the matter, Inu-koro?" Inuyasha heard Kouga taunting. "One little girl too much for you to handle? No wonder you couldn't protect Kagome!"

And he realized that Kouga wasn't going to help him. That fucking wolf is probably hoping I'll get killed so he can make Kagome his woman!

* * *

And the first thing that Buffy saw when she reached the fight was...Faith?

What the hell is she doing here?

Kouga was circling around Naraku, kicking and punching in a blur of arms and legs. Koji stood off to one side, firing a steady stream of crossbow bolts at the tall, writhing mass of limbs and tentacles that was Naraku.

And Faith...Faith was straddling Inuyasha, and had him by the hair, with a long knife against his throat. "Hey, B., how's it hanging?"

Wow. She manages to make even fighting demons look kind of...dirty.

"Great," said Buffy, in English, fighting the urge to roll her eyes. Of all the Slayers on the planet, why her? "I see Koji brought reinforcements."

Faith grinned at her. "Caught this one trying to choke grandpa, but Koji won't let me kill him. You dating this demon, or something?"

Inuyasha growled and tried to take advantage of Faith's momentary distraction to heave her off his back. But she just twisted his long silver hair around her wrist, forcing his head up further, into a painful angle.

Buffy ignored the other Slayer's jibe. "Faith, let go of him," she said. "He's a friend of the Higurashi family, and he's helping us."

Inuyasha yelled to Buffy in Japanese, "Tell that bitch to get off me before I break her legs!"

"And you're making him really cranky," added Buffy.

"Oh, yeah. Sorry about that," Faith said, easing up on his hair. She patted his head, and Buffy cringed when she saw the murderous expression on Inuyasha's face. "Cute ears."

"Faith," Buffy said, in a warning tone.

"Okay, okay!" Faith climbed off Inuyasha with a slow roll of her hips.

"What the hell was that for?" Inuyasha sprang to his feet, Tetsusaiga in his hand.

Faith took a step backward. For a long moment, the two of them glared at each other.

"It was a mistake, Inuyasha. She thought you were--" Then Buffy saw the large bloodstain surrounding the large gashes in the back and the front of his red robes. "Oh my God! Are you all right?"

He shrugged. "I've been worse. You tell that one--" he jerked his chin in Faith's direction. "--to stay the fuck away from me. Or I'll kill her."

Then he was charging Naraku, though moving more slowly than usual. Buffy noticed that he had one hand pressed to his stomach. Crap.Kagome's gonna kill me for this.

"Faith, what the hell did you do to him?" Buffy demanded, switching back to English. "He's one of the good guys. In fact, anyone who's not him--" she pointed at Naraku, who had sprouted tentacles and other appendages. "You don't slay. Capisce?"

"Sorry." Faith shrugged, looking distinctly unapologetic. "Hey, if it looks like a demon, I hit first, ask questions later. You live longer that way." She lifted her red-stained sword. "Now, B., you said I could hit this guy, right?"