InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Children of Light ❯ Chapter 25 ( Chapter 25 )

Chapter 25

 

“Are we ready?” Miroku glanced around at the little circle of friends surrounding him.

 

It had been an emotional day, to say the least. After Kagome had finally come face to face with the truth of her feelings, they had spent the better part of the afternoon talking about everything that had happened 500 years ago. It was odd, but with Kagome's release, had come a new understanding for each of them. A new sense of strength, a new sense of hope. Just as the entity of light had told them, the truth had lit their way, allowing them to see in the darkness, and because they had come upon the realization themselves, because they had earned that understanding, it had made the truth that much more powerful.

 

Of course, two important things had happened that afternoon.

 

The first being that Kagome had finally come to accept the fact that she did not fail anyone. That she was not responsible for their failure. They had realized that their greatest fault in fighting Naraku was that they hadn't worked together, as a team. They had allowed their pride to get in the way, determined that they would be able to take down Naraku themselves, to keep their loved ones from harm. In the end, it was what had killed them, combined with the doubt they each shared in their own abilities.

 

They had been shocked to learn, in turn, that Kagome had been having trouble using her Miko powers in battle. Inu Yasha had not been impressed to learn that little tidbit. But Miroku had wisely observed that it had most likely been Kagome's deep rooted fear of failure that she wouldn't come through when needed, that had most likely stunted her from using her abilities in battle. After all, she had been able to use them before and afterwards. She had blamed herself and her powers for the loss of the final battle. It was no wonder her soul didn't feel confident using them in similar situations. How could she, when she had doubted so strongly in herself and her skills? That had led them into the second, most important thing they had discovered.

 

They knew how to repair the weapons.

 

They all knew that Inu Yasha was the `un-fallen' that strangers and entities alike seemed to be speaking about. But why was he the un-fallen? What had he done at the end that was so different? He had faced the same battle with them. The answer came from a seriously blushing hanyou.

 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~ Flashback~*~*~*~*~*~*~

 

“Okay Inu Yasha. Shoot.” Miroku sat back against the couch as he crossed a leg up on his knee, getting comfortable for the story that was sure to come. He wasn't expecting the tomato impression Inu Yasha had graced them all with when they had finally settled down to uncover the rest of the mystery.

 

“Shoot what?” Inu Yasha had his arms crossed over his chest, looking at a particularly interesting spot on the wall by the kitchen.

 

“Inu Yasha, you know what he's talking about.” Kagome chided him gently. “Now come one, we've all had to tell. Now it's your turn. What were you thinking about at the end? What were you feeling?”

 

By now it had become blatantly clear to everyone that the common thread Miroku, Sango and Kagome shared, was that at the end, each of them had doubted. Each of them had reached out in anger, in hate. They had given up. But not Inu Yasha it seemed.

 

Inu Yasha grumbled quietly under his breath as he willed the redness to fade from his cheeks. He steeled himself for the task ahead by reminding himself that this was for a greater cause. This was to help bring down Naraku. Someone he felt he'd rather face right at that moment, in a hopeless battle, then have to confess what he was about to confess now.

 

“Inu Yasha?” Kagome called to him gently. Letting him know that whatever he was going to say, it was all right.

 

He sighed as he ran a clawed hand through his hair. “I was fighting with Naraku. I think Sango had just lost Hiraikotsu, it's a little hard to remember, it all happened so fast. I can remember the sound of her yelling. After all, Sango's got a set of lungs.” Everyone chuckled softly at the joke being made at Sango's expense. She didn't seem to mind until she saw that knowing look in Miroku's face as he winked at her. It had taken all her strength not to kick him upside the head.

 

“I had just killed that stupid Oni demon. I was facing down Naraku. I didn't know where anyone was, but I just prayed for you guys to be okay. Naraku was talking shit. I can't really remember what he was saying, you know, the same shit he always said. That he was going to destroy us all, that he was going to kill me and that he had finally won. I refused to listen. I think it was probably the first time my stubbornness came in handy I guess.” He grinned at the thought. Just let Kagome try and rag on him for his stubborn pig-headed ways after this!

 

“I don't remember exactly what I was thinking, but I know I didn't believe anything he was saying to me. He called me names, told me how worthless and useless I was, you know, the usual shit. But for the first time in my life, I didn't buy it. If I had learned anything being with Kagome and you guys all that time, was that I was worth more then I use to give myself credit for.” Everyone nodded in agreement. It had taken Inu Yasha long enough to realize that about himself. But it had been hard for him, growing up the way he had.

 

“Kagome taught me that I was loved and cherished for who I was. Miroku and Sango, you guys showed me that I had friends that trusted me, that lay their life in my hands, without question, without ever doubting in me. I thought about that, I guess, as I was facing him down. I thought about how much you had all given to me, and how I knew I couldn't let Naraku take that away from any of us. I had to protect that. I had to keep it safe for everyone.” Inu Yasha's eyes began to mist over with emotion as he struggled to maintain his composure.

 

“I think it was those memories that I held onto, that gave me strength. I told Naraku that either in that life or the next, I would take him down and keep my loved ones safe. I saw all your faces, even Shippou, Kirara, Kouga, Sesshoumaru, everyone. A thousand moments danced in my mind. Good ones, bad ones, funny ones, embarrassing ones. All of them, I held them to me as I struck out at him, knowing that, that was what I was fighting for. I was fighting for all of you, for everything you had given me and there was no way I was letting you down. That's when he shot poisonous fumes at me laced with Miko energy, Kikyou's I assume, and then it all started going dark.”

 

Inu Yasha sat quietly as he watched his friends' reactions. It had been less embarrassing to express himself then he thought it would be. Part of him had wanted to tell them, so that he could in some way, express to them what they actually did mean to him. It was hard for Inu Yasha to express himself, but this had given him the perfect opportunity to do just that, without feeling like he was getting soft.

 

Everyone sat in stunned silence as they digested his revelation. This was also the first time that Inu Yasha had shared with any of them how Naraku had managed to take him down at the end, and it was a shocker! Miko energized poisonous fumes! What demon, half-breed or otherwise, could go up against that? But more startling yet was the revelation that at the end, stubborn, pig-headed, emotionally guarded Inu Yasha, had been the soft, loving and sentimental one.

 

Inu Yasha knew what they were all thinking and it made him grin with private pride. Out of all of them, they had expected him to be the least likely to fight a battle with love in his heart. He was the rough and tough one after all. And it was love that had kept his spirit true at the end. His complete love and devotion to his friends. He had never once doubted in himself, because he had never doubted in them. While they had been thinking of anger, despair, sorrow and defeat, he had faced down Naraku with one thought on his mind.

 

“I'm going to win this, for them.”

 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~ End Flashback~*~*~*~*~*~*~

 

“It's now or never right?” Inu Yasha looked towards the monk that was laying the broken weapons carefully on the space they had cleared in front of the big screen TV. They had pushed the couch, chairs and table aside to make more room.

 

“Okay, what exactly do we need to do?” Kagome was wringing her fingers in her hand, feeling uncontrollably anxious. This was it. They would know in a few moments if they had successfully taken the next step towards finally bringing down Naraku.

 

Miroku scratched at his head. “I think we just lay them together and the spell should activate.”

 

Everyone huddled around the floor. There in the center, lay the three broken weapons, looking like nothing more then a pile of kindling. The weapons that had been the physical representation of their spirits, of their strength. The same weapons that had broken when their own spirits had been consumed by their own darkness.

 

Sango nodded. “Sounds good. Let's do it.”

 

“Uh…I did.” Miroku looked sheepishly up at his expectant friends.

 

“What do you mean monk? You can't have done it, nothing's happening!”

 

“Inu Yasha, I've laid the weapons out. They're all together, but, well look for yourself, nothings happening.”

 

Everyone looked down at the weapons. They had been positioned in sort of a semi circle. The broken bow with its quiver of arrows, a monk's staff, and a ridiculously large boomerang. Seeing their weapons laid out that way pulled at each of their hearts. How many battles had they been in? How many times had these very weapons saved the lives of loved ones and strangers alike? Too many to count. Then to see them, broken, forgotten, it seemed a cruel fate indeed.

 

“We must be doing something wrong.” Kagome muttered under her breath.

 

“Of course we are!” Sango's voice lit up with joy, as she gently smacked her forehead with her hand. “Inu Yasha, get the Tetsusaiga. That's the key to all of this. You're the un-fallen. Yours is the weapon that should break the spell!”

 

Inu Yasha shot Miroku a dirty glare.

 

“What?” He grinned. “I can't think of everything, can I?”

 

Inu Yasha snorted as he rose to retrieve the Tetsusaiga that had been lying on his lazy boy recliner.

 

“Okay, what should I do with it?” He squatted down next to the weapons.

 

“Try putting it here, near the bottom, and then step back.” Miroku grinned as he pointed to the opposite end of the half circle they had formed with their weapons. The way they were positioned, the Tetsusaiga sat beneath the broken weapons on the floor.

 

“Here goes nothing.” Inu Yasha laid the sword on the ground and quickly scooted back.

 

Everyone held their breath in anticipation as they watched the weapons. They kept watching until the only sound vibrating through the whole apartment was the soft ticking of Inu Yasha's wall clock.

 

“Grrr! This is stupid! It's not working!” Inu Yasha bit in frustration.

 

“It doesn't make any sense.” Miroku's bewildered voice echoed everyone's thoughts.

 

“There's obviously something else that we're missing.” Sango had scooted towards the weapons again as Kagome looked over her shoulder as they tried to determine what the missing puzzle piece was.

 

“What did that stranger say again, about the weapons?” Kagome asked to no one in particular as she stared mystified down at the odd pile of objects on the floor.

 

Inu Yasha came up beside her and sat next to the Tetsusaiga. “He said something about when the final piece is in place, when the circle is completed, the un-fallen will reach out the fallen, and the spell will activate.”

 

“Well, that doesn't make any sense then. We've got the weapons in a circle, more or less, and the Tetsusaiga is there.” Miroku stood on the side of the circle where he could have better access to the broken weapons.

 

“Maybe we should make a better circle,” Sango offered, “you know, get them all touching so that it looks more like a circle or something.”

 

“It's worth a try I guess.” Miroku leaned down to reposition the three broken weapons first so that they were all touching each other in some way. It did help to make the circle seem more like a circle, sort of.

 

“Hey, Inu, move the Tetsusaiga right to the bottom of all three, so it closes up the circle.” Miroku directed. He had never felt overly comfortable handling the mysterious weapon.

 

Inu Yasha reached a hand over and slid the Tetsusaiga against the weapons. They were now all touching.

 

Inu Yasha sighed. “This is stupid Miroku, it's not working.”

 

Everyone sighed in exasperation.

 

“It just doesn't make any sense.” Miroku reached down a hand to lay it gently against one of the broken pieces of his staff, as he thought about what it would mean to him to be able to have his treasured weapon at his side again.

 

As if mirroring his same thoughts, Sango and Kagome both instinctively reached out to touch the shattered pieces of their own weapons. All of them secretly praying for some divine intervention. Each of them remembering how confident they had felt running into battle, their weapons at their side.

 

Inu Yasha could clearly read the disappointment in their faces. “Don't worry you guys, we'll figure it out,” he smiled as he continued to rest his fingertips at the base of his sword, “we always do.”

 

Miroku, Sango and Kagome smiled as they nodded at his reassuring words. They knew he was right. They would figure this out, one way or another. After all, they had each other.

 

A blinding, brilliant light exploding from the center of the floor cuts the conversation short, as it hurtles the four friends that had been crouched around the weapons, into different directions.

 

“What the?” Inu Yasha watched wide-eyed as a hot white light continued to explode from the Tetsusaiga. It pulsed several times, like a heartbeat trying to kick-start itself back to life, when the Tetsusaiga suddenly transformed itself to its true form and a wild white energy began pouring simultaneously into each of the weapons. Unseen to Inu Yasha, who was absorbed in the spectacle before him, was a trail of light that poured from the Tetsusaiga's hilt that crawled its way over and absorbed itself into Inu Yasha's aura.

 

Slowly, all four weapons rose and hovered over the carpeted floor, as they continued to glow brightly. Inu Yasha turned to locate the others when he sensed movement around him, and noticed that Kagome, Miroku and Sango were standing now, their bodies stretched tall and taught on the very edges of their toes as their heads hung all the way back against their shoulders, their wide eyes starring up into the ceiling. A brilliant light began to explode from the center of each of their chests' with such intensity that Inu Yasha had to cover his eyes to keep from being blinded. The light from each of their centers shot into their respective weapons and Inu Yasha understood immediately what was happening.

 

Their now healed souls were empowering the weapons. Their weapons had broken when a part of their spirits had broken in the last battle. That thread of their spirit, however, had finally been mended with the realization of their own doubts. With the truth, had come the power to stand against that doubt, to purge it from their souls. And as their spirits re-forged anew, so did the physical representation of their spirits. Inu Yasha looked on, wide-eyed, as the light eventually began to fade and his three friends fell carefully and unconsciously to the floor.

 

There in the center of the room lay a Miko's bow that hummed with a brilliant blue light before fading back into the bow. A monk's staff that glowed an ethereal purplish hue for a moment, and a large boomerang that crackled with a white, goldish light, before fading back into the weapon.

 

Where once there was nothing but a pile of old, broken kindling, lay newly forged weapons that hummed and vibrated with a new life and power of their own.

 

Inu Yasha grinned as the energy of the newly forged weapons pulsated within the room. “Oh this is going to be fun.”