InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Forgotten ❯ Wings of Starlight ( Chapter 17 )

Disclaimer:  I don’t own Inuyasha, Sesshomaru or anyone else from the hit anime/manga series.  Rumiko Takahashi does.  I do own all OC’s and plot from this story.   179 years Before the Search for the Jewel Shards   Chapter Seventeen:  On Wings of Starlight   The legend said the enzeru came to our world by soaring through the space between the stars on their wings alone.  No magic vessels carried them or sheltered them in that empty void.  I had always wondered how true that really was for each time I attempted to fly to the stars the air became too thin for me to continue the climb or even breathe. -Sesshomaru   Naomi and Kenmaru rose to their feet, blinking spots from their eyes.  “What was that?” whispered Kenmaru.   Naomi rubbed her violet eyes and gazed in the direction the light came from.  Every one of her senses tingled and her skin crawled.  The breeze twisted her waist-long hair and a sensation crept into her ears, a sound that carried terror and horrifying silence.  Death rode the wind and the trees trembled, blood was in the air.  Beneath her bare feet the earth shivered.   “A celestial attack,” she whispered.   “A what?” gasped the young dog demon, staring at Naomi.   Naomi didn’t listen; she ran forward and leapt into the air, her wings spreading outward.  ‘That came from the castle, I just know it!’   “Wait!  Naomi!” yelled Kenmaru, following the dragoness into the sky.   **********   On the castle grounds, demons, instincts screaming impending death, leapt forward to avoid it, many in vain.  At the moment of impact, Taiyoukousen’s daughter, knowing escape to be impossible, threw her child, Himawari, at the trees beyond the grounds before she disintegrated into dust.  Himawari’s sun-gold eyes widened and she screamed for her mother before landing among the trees.  The branches shivered and the first layer of the trees’ leaves crinkled in the light.  Then the moment of destruction was over.  The young girl crawled back toward the edge of the trees and gaped.   Only empty, bare ground lay where once a mighty castle stood.  Not even a crater existed to stand as testimony to its end.  There was simply nothing there.   *******   Sesshomaru circled in stunned silence.  The castle and everyone in it had been erased.  Never before had the dog lord seen celestial power used on such a scale.  He had had no idea that it could destroy so completely, leaving no markings upon the earth.   He pulled his gaze away from the barren field and focused on Noriko.  Her brothers were swooping toward him.  ‘Damn you!’ he thought, ‘Curse you ‘til the end of time, Noriko.  I’ll drag you to Hell myself!’  With powerful strokes of his wings, the demon lord charged the woman.  He raised his hands; claws curved and ready to shred; golden eyes locked onto his target.   He’d forgotten about her brothers.  One grabbed at his legs, dragging him down.  Sesshomaru snarled, folded his wings and bent over to slash at his assailant’s face.  The one brother let go, avoiding being blinded by the furious dog lord.  Sesshomaru spread his wing to rise only to have another land squarely on his back.  They were driving him toward the ground where it would be easier to pin him.   Folding his wings again, Sesshomaru swung his legs forward while he reached up to grip the lower legs of the new attacker.  He pulled the other dog demon down until he could grip a wing then dug his claws in.  His hold firm, Sesshomaru flared his wings, gritting his teeth, pain zipping through his shoulders at the strain, arresting his fall.  It was only momentary, his opponent’s wing tore free from socket and flesh and the dog demon screamed the rest of the way to earth, twirling crazily with only one wing to slow his descent.   A howl of rage tore through the wind as another dove at him.  Sesshomaru threw his captured wing at the diving demon’s face then barreled rolled away.  The remaining three were on him in seconds.  One grabbed the base of both his wings and hissed, “Really do you need these anymore?”  Unable to maneuver, Sesshomaru growled and waited for the inevitable as a foot was jammed between his shoulder blades.   A shrieking roar froze the blood of all who heard it.  Then a second weight landed on him, a scream died into a gurgle, and the iron stench of blood filled the air before both weights vanished and Sesshomaru was free.   “Kenmaru!  What in blazes are you doing?” screeched Noriko.  Sesshomaru turned in time to see Noriko’s youngest brother send one of the older ones flying toward the ground with a powerful kick.   A flash of lavender drew his attention.  Sesshomaru’s jaw dropped in shock at the sight of his beautiful and delicate daughter slashing, spitting and snarling at a third opponent who clearly only desired to be away from her.  Blood dripped from her mouth, eyes glowed demonic red and turquoise, and the front of her silk kimono was stained crimson.  At that moment, she was the most terrifying sight he had ever beheld.   With her own battle cry flying free, Noriko dove toward the nightmarish vision, her face a mask of rage.  Naomi dropped away, locks of hair sliced free by the bitch’s passing claws.  She paused before continue her assault to look around and flinched.  Noriko was winging her way back up and her two surviving brothers were collecting themselves not far off, but that wasn’t the problem.  A new arrival was approaching; someone Naomi didn’t know.  The only thing she did recognize was the stranger’s status as a celestial demon.   “What now?” asked Kenmaru between gasps; he’d spotted the demon as well.   Naomi looked to her father as he glided closer and was amazed he was still airborne.  His eyes were nearly sealed shut from swelling and blood continued to ooze from various wounds across his body including a shallow cut above his right eye, a sure sign of spiritual fatigue.  Spiritual fatigue, a state when a demon’s power had become so weak it couldn’t even close the most superficial of wounds, and for demons spiritual strength was tied directly to physical strength.  Though, she and Kenmaru were still fresh and Noriko was down to two brothers both wounded and all having expending a great deal of energy; the arrival of the unknown celestial and Sesshomaru’s fatigued state kept the situation from being in their favor.   It was time to withdraw.   “We’re leaving,” she stated and took hold of her father.  She took no comfort when her father simply folded his wings without protest.   The new celestial arced toward them at the same time as Noriko and her brothers.   No choice, I’ll have to use that technique if we’re to have any shot of getting away now, thought Naomi.  “Kenmaru!  Take hold of my father now!”   The man stared at her in alarm for only a moment then did as he was told.  She bent her wing joints at 60 degree angles as did Kenmaru, both keeping themselves and the exhausted Sesshomaru aloft with their auras only.  White light enfolded them and, just as Noriko and the others reached them, the three shot forward, a mere streak of light to mark their passing.   *****   “What was that?!” squawked Noriko’s brother.  The demoness herself stared in frustrated surprise.   “Well, that was unexpected,” a silky voice sang from behind them.  The trio turned.  A female dog hanyou with ebony hair and scarlet eyes and outfit glided up to them, her expression bemused.   “You’re telling me,” muttered the other brother.   “I was referring to your inability to handle Sesshomaru, actually,” the hanyou said, swooping past them.  “Not their method of escape.  Then again I could also be referring to your inability to follow them.  Don’t you know how to become light?”  She arced back toward them, her scarlet eyes penetrating Noriko’s sapphire ones.  “I do remember expressing a desire to handle Sesshomaru myself, but you convinced Kuromakaze that you could take him.  That you could keep Sesshomaru out of the conflict.  That you could control him.”   Noriko glared at the hanyou woman.  “Stay out of this, Yamibi.  I can still catch him.”  She flew past the half-breed, her brothers following.  “Focus all your celestial energy onto the surface of your skin, then just glide forward,” she instructed.  Light gathered around her and her brothers, Noriko focused on the faint traces of celestial energy left behind by the trio, then they were gone, the glowing after image the only lingering sign of their existence.   Yamibi stared at them, frowning.  That incompetent fool!  I knew she had messed up the moment that light blinded the heavens.  Sesshomaru may be a minor player, but Kuromakaze wanted him removed from the game immediately.  If she had just killed him…  She turned away.  Maybe Noriko was less useful then she had initially thought.   *****   Naomi sensed the pursuit.  Whenever she became light she always felt strange, as if she stood apart from everything around her.  As if she were no longer part of the world; as if she stood outside time itself.  When Kenmaru did it with her, it felt like threads were being tangled, the celestial auras pushing them aside and the close proximity of the two separate auras causing the strands to clash and twine together.  For this reason she had stopped using the technique.  The sensation of entangled fates made her uneasy.  She and Kenmaru were sharing auras in order to bear Sesshomaru.  The feeling of tangling time was coming from behind her, another celestial aura.   So she knew how to do it, too.  She was merely surprised by our knowledge.  We need to find a way to scatter our trail or else they’ll simply follow us until we stop.   Through the veil of light surrounding them, Naomi could see flashes of water and land.  Disorienting, the first time she had done it she had gotten lost.  It took several attempts before she realized she could be anywhere in the world within seconds and only a sense of place and time would allow her to control her destination.  With pursuit confirmed stopping anywhere would be disastrous.   As long as I go forward they will always be behind me.  Maybe I should go up then down.  Go up high enough and down will become tricky, possibly fatal…   Without a word, she shifted her aura and Kenmaru followed her lead.  They pierced the blue sky and night descended.  In that moment, she felt a wave of exhaustion.  They were in the void beyond the sky, the place where sun, moon and stars hung effortlessly.  The exponential increase in the drain came from the burden of keeping the three alive in a place where life was not welcomed.  Now, a new sensation past through her.  The warped threads caused by the clashing of auras had vanished.  Not because she had lost her pursuers but because there were no threads to warp.   In her shock she stopped.  The light continued to cling to them but they were no longer moving.  Seconds later Noriko was upon them. _____________________________________________________________________ _________   My deepest apologies!  I can’t believe how long it had been since I updated.  I finally got one of those netbooks and I’m now able to write during my down time at work.   Okay, the use of names from now on is to designate important characters.  If the character is just some thug, like Noriko’s brothers then I’m not wasting time and effort to create names for them.  If the character has some meaning in life or death then I’ll give them a name.  So you’ll be seeing Hiwatari again.   Also I had planned to have a huge chase scene where the group flies all over the solar system but that is hard to express properly in writing.  So you’ll just have to create the scene in your own  minds.   Chapter 18:  Sanshaku no Hinansho   The solitary mountain fortress.  Built to withstand any attacks including celestial, the sanctuary has had little purpose in the recent millennia due to expanding territory that created a secure core safe from the wars of the outside world.  With the valleys burning it becomes the one refuge for the day’s survivors and the one messenger for all those who have not learned of the unleashed horror.