InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ He's My Girl ❯ Cracks in the Mirror ( Chapter 22 )
[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]
By: Karaumea 
Anime/Manga: InuYasha Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Romance / Hentai / Comedy | Type: Alternate Universe | Uploaded On: 01.28.2012 | Pages: 6 | Words: 8.2K | Visits: 756 | Status: Work In Progress
Anime/Manga: InuYasha Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Romance / Hentai / Comedy | Type: Alternate Universe | Uploaded On: 01.28.2012 | Pages: 6 | Words: 8.2K | Visits: 756 | Status: Work In Progress
Disclaimer: We only use the Inuyasha characters for our own devious purposes. They will be returned (mostly) unharmed when we are done. Inuyasha is the property of Rumiko Takahashi, and we make no profit from playing with and/or tormenting her characters.
Naraku had his back turned to Takeshi, who was lying on the ground. The mafia boss was gesturing to a grassy field just a little south of their position.
Takeshi tried to focus his eyes. He could barely make out the form of a small woman, hogtied and seemingly lifeless.
“Your little girl is just over there. But you can’t do anything about it, can you, Detective Higurashi?” gloated Naraku as he laughed.
The dark hanyou surveyed the scene with a sneering command. He held out his arms wide and turned around. It was as if he was the ruler of all he surveyed and he had deemed his twisted plans were culminating nicely.
All Takeshi could hear was the man’s hollow mirth echoing throughout the island.
Anger coursed through the policeman’s bloodstream and adrenaline quickened. What had once been a bleary image before him somehow morphed and sharpened. Now he could clearly see Naraku and Kanna’s pulsating mirror.
Above all, Takeshi was a father, and it was his daughter’s soul that was trapped within the mirror’s confines. He really didn’t care if his own life would be forfeit, but he would rather be bound to hell for eternity than to know that Rin had lost her priceless soul to this heartless creature.
He didn’t have the strength left to actually stand on his own two feet but he was able to kneel before the man that he had been trying to take down for the past three years of his life. He used one hand to grip the pistol while his other shaky hand tried to steady his aim.
Naraku’s back was still to him. The mafia boss had apparently decided that he was no longer a threat. His mistake...
How he had managed to even get on his knees astonished him. But it was his fury that was fueling him. Takeshi had only one target in mind as he pulled the trigger.
Crack!
A loud shot rang in Takeshi’s ears as iridescent white energy spewed forth from his gun erupting against Kanna’s mirror.
At the exact same moment, he saw Kagome and Inuyasha lunging toward Rin.
He tried to scream and to yell at them to stay away. He wanted to let them know that Naraku had set up a bomb to explode if anyone tried to rescue his daughter. But just as the words fluttered to his lips, a detonation erupted where his daughter had once sat.
Smoke and dust filled his vision, clouding the last image he had of his daughters and Inuyasha. The smell of burnt earth was intermixed with salty sea air.
No! Not my daughters! Not Rin! Not Kagome!
Everything that happened next was a blur. Naraku’s maniacal laughs somehow chortled to a stop. The mafia boss turned around to see that Kanna’s mirror was cracked. Naraku’s brown eyes morphed into horror as he saw the thin lines within the silvered mirror start to fissure like an iceberg that was breaking apart. As the fractures widened, white started to stream out of the gaps. Soon, a torrential wind blew backwards out of the mirror. Rifts of ghostly mirages slipped away from the mirror’s confines, whispering joy at the end of their imprisonment.
The white energy flew past Naraku; his ebony hair whipped like tendrils against his ashen face. Next to him, Kanna’s small body was cracking like her mirror. Her very skin fractured, first as thin lines and then into pieces that broke away from her body, like shards of a pottery breaking into a ruin.
The mafia boss looked on with sickened horror as the demon girl he had grown to trust as his most reliable defense literally crumbled at his feet. He couldn’t help but to step back, as if the broken pieces of her body and mirror could somehow desecrate his already blackened soul.
A small silvery wisp drew itself back into Takeshi’s frame, and dizziness engulfed him. However, he really didn’t care that he had released the jailed souls of his daughter, Toga and himself. His two daughters were both dead, both taken from him in a brief second of time. Emptiness ripped through his heart, and anger coursed through his soul. He tried his best to hold onto his consciousness. Black dots flickered around the edges of his vision, but he pulled from his inner strength and tried to hold on. He wasn’t going to pass from this world without taking Naraku down with him.
The dark hanyou turned to look with dread behind him at the two men that he had thought were defeated.
Toga was starting to stir, and color was returning to him. His skin had once been pale gray, but was now flushed.
Next to the dog demon, Takeshi was lying down and groaning. It was as if he had too much to drink and was now waking up in the morning, nursing a hangover.
The mafia boss noticed the gun in Takeshi’s hand. He also knew that once the priest charged up the pistol with his purification powers, the mafia boss would look like the pile of ash beside him.
Naraku’s legs suddenly made a decision for him, and he was rapidly running away from the two scenes of destruction. If he could only get to his boat in time… Once he got to the water, his scent would be hidden by salty waves. He only hoped that the band of seven were waiting for him there. He would need them not only for protection, but to drive the boat back to Japan.
Nothing was all he had now.
Rin was gone.
If he had only been a few seconds earlier, he could have at least shielded Rin from the blast that exploded right under her body--her fragile human body.
He looked at the ground and gazed into nothingness. Icy numbness enveloped his entire body as he shook his head. Perhaps, he could deny what he had seen. Perhaps he could pretend that nothing was wrong, that he had actually managed to get to Rin in time and that his brother had not managed to set off a trap that had exploded all around them.
Sesshoumaru was certain that the blast had killed both Rin and Kagome. After all, they were mere humans. But, his pig-headed brother was another matter. That bastard would certainly survive; he might be without an arm or leg, but he’d live. Nothing short of a decapitation would kill a hanyou.
The dog demon flexed his claws; green poison dripped from the ends of his talons. He was itching to slam his fist into Inuyasha’s guts. The imbecile had managed to destroy the one thing he truly loved and cherished, and he was going to pay for it.
He tried to not think about what had just happened to Rin. How he would never see her face smiling up at him again, how he would never smell her lovely scent of clear waterfalls, how he would never make love to her again...
Sesshoumaru turned his head to the misty heavens above him and howled. A keening noise was heard over the secluded valley as his pain echoed against the rocks.
He had never felt a loss so complete before, a loss that ripped at his insides. Part of him wanted to tear out his own heart so that it wouldn’t hurt so much. It felt like an icy spear had been shoved into his heart and that he was bleeding both hot blood and prickling cold water. His chest was tight, and his breath stuttered in his lungs.
The other part of him wanted to hold Rin’s body in his arms, but he knew that the blast had denied him that one last right.
Warm trickles crept down his cheeks and dripped off of his chin. Sesshoumaru wiped off the offending moisture. Luckily, there was no one there to witness his emotional outburst.
“Oi! Sesshoumaru!”
A grimace of pain and murder erupted on the dog demon’s face. His bastard brother had the gumption to try to talk to him after he had so recklessly killed his mate!
A cold sneer was on his lips as he flexed his claws in preparation for gutting his younger sibling.
Sesshoumaru rose from his crouch, prepared to lash out at his brother and take him down.
He was unprepared to see his smirking brother, with the Tessaiga held high above him and an iridescent red bubble surrounding him and two other forms. Another glance showed him that Kagome was clinging tight to Rin; his mate was passed out in the miko’s arms.
Confusion must have pervaded his features.
“Blade barrier, you emo bastard,” intoned Inuyasha with a cocky smile.
It took a few seconds for the disoriented dog demon to take in the scene in front of him. The dusty cloud that had obscured his vision had since cleared. There was still a gaping hole ripped from the earth in front of him. What had once been a grassy clearing was now splattered with fresh chunks of wet earth and sand.
In the middle of the chasm was a glimmering red sphere that contained a smirking hanyou, a miko and his mate. Rin was breathing in Kagome’s arms as if nothing had happened.
Sesshoumaru knew that the Tessaiga had many signature attacks, but he had never thought that his ignoramus of a brother would ever have the ability to command the blade in such a manner. For once in Inuyasha’s life, the idiot had managed to do something right.
Rin was not dead.
She was alive.
In less than a moment, the dog demon was at the edge of the pulsing barrier. Sesshoumaru all but commanded his younger brother, “Lower the shield, Inuyasha.”
Inuyasha’s grin fell into a disgruntled frown as he lowered his arms, and the bubble surrounding the trio shimmered before dissipating into the air.
The dog demon heard Rin’s soft sigh as she moved in her sister’s arms.
He moved quicker than the human could track. Within seconds, the rope that had bound the girl had fallen at his feet and he had Rin clutched to his breast.
His head shook rapidly back and forth. He had come so close to losing her. But here she was, warm and soft in his arms. He swore to never let her out of his sight again.
He could hear Inuyasha’s irritating voice as he held Rin in his arms. “Oi, Kagome, is that tears on his face?”
“Inuyasha, let them have a moment of peace,” murmured the miko as she drew the hanyou away.
“But, this is a historical moment. He never cries!” protested his brother as Kagome led Inuyasha away, tugging at his arm.
“Hush, Inu...” said the miko, but her tone was now sultry.
Sesshoumaru tried to not hear his brother lip-smacking his girlfriend.
“Sess?” Rin’s strained and timid voice pulled him out of his reverie. He pulled her body back and looked down at her confused countenance. “Where am I? Wait, I was at the club... Was I drugged?”
The small woman in his arms looked up in horror at his face. “Sesshoumaru, you’ve been crying...” Small hands reached up to cup his chin, and his tears fell against her palm. Rin’s pained eyes looked up at the man she loved. Questions pervaded her features, but she knew enough not to ask, at least not right now. In her entire life, she had never seen him cry before.
She pulled his face closer to hers. His salty lips met her raw, chapped ones. Sesshoumaru drew her in even tighter and breathed into her. For a mere moment, he had wondered if this was real, but her warm lips were against his, her chest was sweetly encircled by his own.
She was real. She was here. She was safe.
His world was right again.
He sniffed and the scent of charred soil and sand assaulted his senses. Suddenly he remembered the moments before darkness overtook him.
Rin! Kagome!
Rin had been trussed up like a pig and then slaughtered like one as well. The ring of the explosion that had ended her life and her sister’s echoed in his mind, reverberating in a deafening crescendo.
No, my baby girls...
He grabbed his own hair and tugged. If it had only been him instead. If he had only let Naraku know that he was still around, perhaps then his children would have been spared. He tried to keep the tears from building up, but they seeped into his eyes, making his vision blurry.
“Takeshi...”
Detective Higurashi had all but forgotten his comrade, Toga Takahashi, the dog demon. The man groaned and put his hands in front of his eyes, as if the sun was too bright for him to see despite the fog.
“What the hell happened, Takeshi?” grunted Toga as he tried to make out the misty island that surrounded him.
“My daughters, Rin...Kagome,” choked the detective. “They’re gone...”
The dog demon immediately stopped his questioning to focus on the scents around him. Toga took several tentative sniffs.
“What do you mean ‘They’re gone,’ Takeshi? I can smell them,” asked Toga in confusion.
The dog demon tried to get to his feet, but he stumbled like a drunk. Takeshi was a little more limber and poised. Despite the weariness that had settled into his bones, he still managed to get up and stumble back to the cliff where he had last seen his children before the explosion had destroyed his view.
Takeshi was never very comfortable with seeing his daughter being affectionate with Sesshoumaru. He knew that the two had consummated things before they were even wed, and it still rankled him. But for once, it didn’t bother him that he was seeing Sesshoumaru kiss his daughter. From the look of the splattering of earth all around the duo, the dog demon must have rescued Rin just in time. And for that, he would be eternally grateful.
A few meters away from Rin was Kagome with Inuyasha. Takeshi’s earlier happiness was mildly quelled by seeing his younger daughter passionately kissing Inuyasha. He shook his head. As much as he wished that the Takahashi brothers would keep their hands to themselves, for once he was too elated to change them into eunuchs.
He couldn’t help himself as he cried out, “Rin! Kagome!” In his excitement, he had forgotten that both Rin and Kagome were still under the impression that he was dead.
Rin seemed to be utterly startled as she looked up the cliff-face to see her presumed dead father gazing down at her with both longing and love clearly marked on his features. Her face drained of color; it was as if she was looking at an apparition.
“Dad?” Both Rin and Takeshi turned to see Kagome looking up at her father with a stupefied expression on her face.
However, Kagome seemed the quickest at putting the discordant events together. “What? You’re alive!? Did Naraku have you all this time?”
“Keh. He’s been hiding out for the past two years,” answered Inuyasha with a knowing smirk.
Kagome’s eyes narrowed and her lips drew into a tight line.
The smile that was on Inuyasha’s lips froze. Kagome advanced upon him with a look of unmitigated anger. If this had been in the bedroom, Inuyasha would have considered himself a lucky guy. But since they were fully clothed and her father wasn’t too far away, he now felt trapped. Shit!
“You knew that my father was alive and never bothered to tell me?” screamed Kagome as she moved within centimeters of Inuyasha’s face.
“I-I fo-forgot. And with the bracelet and Rin’s kidnapping, I had no time to...” stuttered Inuyasha.
“Don’t you tell me that you had NO time to tell me my father was alive! Baka!”
Inuyasha’s ears dipped down like a scolded puppy as he started to back away from the miko. Redness flamed in her cheeks and forehead. Her eyes widened, and her fingers jabbed at his chest.
Takeshi was not about to be bothered by inconsequential details. The fact that he had not told his two girls that he was alive escaped his thoughts. All he knew was that his daughters were dead and now they were alive.
He yelled at the groggy Toga to take him down the cliff and the dog demon complied.
Soon, the elated dad joined the two couples at the chasm at the bottom of the cliff.
Rin at first looked in wonder at her father before stumbling out of Sesshoumaru’s grasp to make her way to her Dad.
Takeshi drew her to him with open arms and hugged the smaller girl.
“Rin. Rin,” he murmured like a prayer. After squeezing her tighter he pulled away to look at her. He placed a hand on either side of her face and gazed at her with unconditional love.
The petite girl blinked and hugged her father back a warm smile on her face. “Dad, what happened? Why are you here?”
Soon another girl joined their midst. “Daddy?” asked Kagome. She had ended her tirade against Inuyasha and moved to join her sibling and father. The miko put her arms around both of them and drew them to her.
Takeshi smiled down at Kagome. He was greeted with tear filled coffee eyes and a watery smile.
The younger girl sniffed and wiped her nose with her long, white sleeve. When she looked back up at her father, adoration turned into concern, which quickly morphed into indignation.
“Why is it that Inuyasha knew you were alive, but you never told us?” asked the girl with eyes filled with fury.
Rin drew back in shock. “Inuyasha? What?” She turned around puzzled, before seeing the hanyou looking at them sheepishly. “What? He knew?” The smaller girl pointed her finger at Inuyasha and then whirled around to glare at her Dad.
Words erupted from Rin that were so loud that they seemed incongruent to her small frame. “You told HIM and not us?”
Kagome went from jabbing Inuyasha to poking at her Dad. Rin was still yelling and Kagome was just starting to warm up with her new rant.
Another man would have been overwhelmed with two Higurashi girls yelling at him. But all Takeshi could do was to throw his head back and laugh. “It’s good to be back with you girls,” he exclaimed. “It’s good to be home again.”
His statement caught the girls in mid-sentence; anger that was on their lips seemed to dissipate into the air. Kagome caught her trembling lip with her teeth and Rin appeared on the verge of tears. With another strangled cry, both girls wailed out their Dad’s name, and hugged him as if they would never let him go.
Kouga chose this very moment to run up to the gathered group. Confusion suffused his features as he looked at Kagome and a girl that he could only assume was Rin, clutching some man he had never seen before.
“Oi. Did I miss something?” asked the wolf demon.
His private yacht was in a secluded cove; it had been secured there as a get-away vehicle weeks beforehand. It had lost the subtle marking of scent that a dog demon like Sesshoumaru could trace. It was an almost fool-proof means of escape.
“Start damn you...” muttered someone ahead of him. Sputters of an engine crested and fell as he drew closer. He could smell the fumes of gasoline and smoke. So much for losing all traces of scents that could be tracked...
He ran into the watery cave, finding his yacht and Renkotsu near the engine, attempting to start the motor. The bald man wearing mercenary armor had his back to him.
“You won’t be able to start the engine without my help,” intoned Naraku as he slithered forward.
The bald man whipped his head around. Two oblong purple tattoos ran down the sides of his face from just above his eyes to his jawline. It almost looked like two purple flames were creeping up each side of his visage. His eyes narrowed.
“Making sure that none of us leave if you didn’t survive, Naraku?” asked the man with barely concealed annoyance.
Naraku chuckled. “Now, now Renkotsu... I was only making sure that none of you tried to escape without me. Apparently, my foresight paid off,” the mafia boss paused while surveying the scene. Weapons were piled into the boat. Renkotsu even had an ‘over-the-shoulder’ grenade launcher ready. Considering the stench of the gas fumes, he had actually been trying to get away from the island for quite some time.
The dark hanyou smirked as he made his way to the front of the boat and the steering wheel. “Now remember, Renkotsu. We’re in this together. This boat won’t start without me, and we won’t get away without a diversion.”
Renkotsu’s eyes narrowed, and his lips twitched. He was trying hard not to frown. It was difficult to read his boss. You seldom knew if a small infraction might cost you your life and certainly trying to escape an island with the only boat in the vicinity could be grounds for death. However, he knew that he would need Naraku’s help to escape. Certainly, that was what the dark hanyou had planned all along. Unless he was saved, none of them would survive. The mercenary should have realized earlier why the boat wouldn’t start, even with the keys in the ignition.
A small, shaky smile grew on Renkotsu’s face. Sometimes, it was better to lie down with the devil than to take chances with the unknown.
Naraku’s lips twitched with a thin grin as he brought out a few wooden golems from the glove compartment in the front of the boat. Each small wooden figure had a wisp of black hair tied to it. Using his own magic along with voodoo he had perfected, he was able to give his own abilities to the creatures. It should be just enough to allow them to disappear into the sea. If they managed to get to North Korea, he knew that his business associates could be convinced to help them get back to Japan.
However, the main problem was evading a dog demon who could fly and who had a sharp nose. He had to get as far away from the island as possible in a very short time. The sea air would quickly obscure their trail, as only water could do, but only if he could delay their pursuers…
“Rin-chan...Kagome-chan...I’m so sorry,” murmured Takeshi into their long, dark hair. He held them and tried to breathe in their presence for a few more precious moments. However, he knew that Naraku’s trail could turn cold far too quickly if there was a delay.
The policeman hugged his daughters one last time before turning his face to Toga. He noticed that the dog demon was pale and waxen, however the man obviously enjoyed seeing his good friend finally being reunited with his daughters. The edges of Toga’s lips curved upward as he looked at the trio.
“Toga can you trace Naraku’s scent?” inquired the detective without preamble.
The dog demon’s smile widened, and fangs peeked out over his lips. “Do Shinto priests wear funny hats?”
Takeshi grinned back at his friend. “Point taken.” He thumbed the sky as if he was a hitchhiker. “Lead the way.”
Toga’s body quickly bulged and morphed. Gray hair leapt from his frame, and soon, a gargantuan canine appeared where a silver-haired man once stood.
Not wanting any delays, Takeshi scrambled onto the dog demon’s back, clutching tufts of silver fur as he made his way up the crouching demon.
Kagome tapped on Inuyasha’s shoulder. Her brown eyes looked up at him with a knowing smile, as she hitched her quiver of arrows securely to her back. The hanyou sighed as he took off his robes of the fire rat and secured the loose jacket around her shoulders. Then, he squatted to the ground in front of her and held out his hands to his side so that he could clutch his girl to his body.
Sesshoumaru looked at his brother and his girlfriend running off into the thick of the action and then turned to Rin, who was grinning up at him from his side. The young woman’s eyes sparkled in merriment as she held up both of her hands to the taller lord.
The dog demon’s thin eyebrow twitched in discomfort. A slight tic seemed to develop at he edge of his clenched jaw. He seemed at war with himself until his golden eyes stopped their struggle and alighted on Rin’s smiling chocolate orbs.
Without further delay, Sesshoumaru looked up and then his face stretched out into a snout. His body lengthened and fur erupted over his long form. Then the large dog lowered his pink nose to the petite woman in front of him. With a grin, the smaller girl climbed past the bridge of his nose, before settling just behind his floppy, silvered ears. With Rin on his back, the dog demon sped off after his companions.
The scent trail led the group to a small beachhead. Drifting fog meandered past their vision, and waves lapped against the sand and rock. Toga spearheaded the group in his dog demon form, cautiously moving forward.
There was no warning as a series of explosions started to burst around the group. Flashes of light erupted around them, pushing the fog away. The smell of black smoke and burnt seaweed permeated the salty air.
Through the thick smoke, Inuyasha could make out wavering forms and black tentacles that undulated in the gray-mist.
Inuyasha sniffed, “Naraku...” He let Kagome drop off his back and readied his Tessaiga. He made sure that his body was directly in front of Kagome. She was wearing his robe of the fire rat, but he still wasn’t going to risk her safety.
“Stay behind me, Kagome,” Inuyasha ordered as he gripped the hilt of his sword.
The miko behind him steadied her breath while cocking an arrow to her bow. Inuyasha’s larger form blocked everything but the path of her arrow.
Next to them, two huge silvered dogs trampled down on the sand dunes. Sesshoumaru snarled above them in his dog form and then rushed forward. Toga stopped quickly to drop off Takeshi next to Kagome before he lumbered forward, his large canine jaw open, frothing with anticipation.
Kouga followed quickly behind the two dog demons, his speed throwing his form into the enshrouding mists.
Inuyasha’s body tensed as his demon senses told him that an attack was nigh. Suddenly, large, black tentacles tried to shoot past him in order to kill the two priests beside the hanyou. He used the sharp edge of his blade to sever the dark appendages while grabbing his girl and her father close to his chest and leaping high over the sandbanks.
The creature he was fighting howled as purple fluid oozed from its wounds, but it managed to send more arms out in an attempt to spear its victims.
A silvered blade flashed in the air, cutting the offending tentacles off. By this time, Detective Higurashi and Kagome felt safe enough to ignore the attacks and to start their own offensive.
As a team, father and daughter stood tall, side-by-side on an embankment close to the gray-green sea. On one side was a detective in a black trench coat, and on the other, a miko in white and red robes. Both held out their weapons with steady arms. The detective’s pistol glowed like a white-hot poker, while Kagome’s arrow flickered with shimmering flames.
Their combined aim honed in on the dark youkai aura that enshrouded the area. Without even seeing their target, they fired into the mist, their sixth sense guiding them. Sparks of light erupted within the cloudy banks, followed by a horrendous chorus of inhuman screams.
Toga and Sesshoumaru had already sprinted into the haze, their demonic, glowing red eyes seeing far more than human eyes ever could. Within the smoke and misty sea air were hundreds of writhing black forms, tentacles waving in the air like seaweed within the ocean current.
Rin was still held tight against Sesshoumaru’s back; her eyes were wide with fear as she looked down to see huge canine maws bite into the writhing black forms, ripping the flesh apart.
Toga took the flank while Sesshoumaru stayed behind to finish up the work that his father had started. Fighting demons was always dangerous, but the father was doing his best to make sure that the son would not place Rin at any unnecessary risk.
Kagome notched another arrow, her bowstring pulled taut. “Dad, what are these things?” she asked while gesturing with her arrow toward the inky forms wavering in the mist.
“Golems,” answered Takeshi with absolute surety as he charged up another gunshot with his spiritual powers. “Naraku visited the Caribbean and learned some voodoo. He found a way to make copies of himself via magic. What we are attacking is not him. I am quite sure that this is a diversion while the coward is trying escape.”
“Fucking diversion!” snorted Inuyasha as he felled another round of tentacles that were trying to overtake their position. “We can’t possibly find him with this shit stopping us.”
Kagome and Takeshi fired another volley together, a white cannon of light shooting into the mist before exploding in a menagerie of wrought flesh and viscous purple liquid.
The silver Tessaiga flashed again, leaving quivering black tentacles and dark blood oozing at their feet. For the briefest of moments there was an oppressive silence, save the growls and roars of the dog demons ripping their enemy apart.
Then suddenly, a roar of a boating engine could be heard shooting away from the din of the battle; it was loud enough for even a human to hear.
“Fuck! He’s getting away!” screamed Inuyasha. Gasoline and burnt fuel tainted the salty sea air. His first impulse was to chase after the boat. His body had leaned forward in the direction of the departing craft, but he felt something behind him tugging at his heart, pulling him back.
Inuyasha turned in misery to face his miko. “Kagome,” he pleaded. “I need to go after Naraku, but I don’t want to...”
“Go,” commanded Detective Takeshi. “I can protect my own flesh and blood.”
Indecision played on Inuyasha’s face as his eyes bounced back and forth between Kagome and the battle that was raging around them. “I...”
Kagome stepped forward, letting her bow drop to her side. She kissed his cheek. “I’ll be right here, waiting for you when you get back.” His girl moved back to her father, who then stood defensively in front of his daughter.
Inuyasha nodded, looking Takeshi in the eye. The older man returned the gesture before the hanyou bounded off; each leap was so powerful that it almost looked like he was flying.
Explosions echoed behind as Inuyasha left the area, but he kept his eyes firmly in front of him, trusting Kagome’s Dad to keep his daughter safe. He quickly tracked a speedboat that was cresting over the small waves near the shoreline, trying to escape the island.
“No fucking escape for you, asshole,” yelled the hanyou as he jumped again, giving him a birds-eye view of the boat.
Just as Inuyasha made out two figures on the boat, he also noticed a gleam of metal and a large cylinder over the shoulder of one of the figures. Smoke erupted from the back of the over-the-shoulder rocket launcher, and fire and metal spewed out of the front. It was zooming toward him.
“Shit!” Inuyasha didn’t have anytime to think. His sword was held firmly in his hands and all he knew was that he needed protection against the incoming onslaught. His Tessaiga glowed ruby-red, and just as the rocket was about to take him to the afterlife, a claret colored sphere formed around the hanyou.
Inuyasha flinched instinctively, his arms covering his face, as the rocket blasted around him in a cacophonous array of sound, light and rent metal.
He was barely able to pull in a shuddered breath before the forces of gravity started to pull him down into the unforgiving ocean. “Fuck!”
The hanyou was in a free-fall. He was expecting the jarring feeling of hitting the water’s surface. So he was very surprised to feel the momentum of a rollercoaster ride, the sensation of falling down an incline and then suddenly being wrenched back upward into another crest.
It took only a second for Inuyasha to get his bearings before he noticed that the red barrier encircling him was now in the jaws of a dog demon. The hanyou could feel the familiar aura of his father surrounding him.
A large silvered dog ran over the sea with a red ball in his maw, looking like a playful puppy that wanted to play fetch.
“Keh! Thanks, Dad,” Inuyasha muttered as he tried to get a bearing on what was happening. Before he could get his equilibrium, the large dog threw the ball into the air. Inuyasha free-fell one more time before letting the barrier go, to fall onto the huge creature’s back.
He gripped the rough silver fur with one hand and held out his Tessaiga with the other.
“Take me closer to the boat, I want to belt out a Wind Scar.”
The dog below him barked in agreement, maneuvering the two of them so that Inuyasha would have a clear view of the boat below them.
Within the confines of the boat, Renkoutsu was getting ready to shoot off another rocket. The mercenary was trying to quickly shove a large missile into the launcher. Naraku was at the steering wheel, blatantly ignoring his comrade who was doing his best to keep the demons off of their trail.
“Not this time fucker!” screamed Inuyasha as he brought up his Tessaiga high over his head. Images of a girl with the eyes of a doe drifted into his mind and then an even stronger desire to protect erupted from his frame. Energy coalesced and then spread along his sword. He drew the Tessaiga down in a graceful arc.
“Wind Scar!”
It was almost as if white lightening had exploded from the giant fang. The crackling energy converged on the small speedboat below them. Neither the boat, nor Renkotsu ever had a chance of survival.
Naraku morphed into a black octopus-like creature and slithered into the sea, mere moments before the boat splintered into fragments of wood, plastic, metal, and exploding gasoline.
Spewed oil and gas stained the water, and the ripped up remains of the boat bobbed in the open sea.
“Shit, where is he?” questioned Inuyasha as he tugged on his father’s floppy ears in an attempt to move closer to where Naraku had disappeared.
The huge canine made several passes over the water, but all Inuyasha could see was the wreckage and swirling gray-green.
Seconds drew into minutes while the pair searched the sea’s surface. An eerie calmness seemed to settle over the seascape as they tried to make out Naraku’s form.
As the dog demon sprinted across the waves one last time, huge blackened tentacles erupted from the sea, looking like an ancient leviathan that had emerged from a watery grave.
Slick, ebony appendages shot out of the ocean waves to seek the hanyou on the dog demon’s back.
Inuyasha was barely able to hold his Tessaiga firmly in his grip before he was pulled down into the deep waters. A tentacle wrapped around his throat, another trying to rip his sword from his grasp and another firmly wrapped around his waist.
Bubbles gurgled from his throat as Inuyasha thrashed about in the larger demon’s grasp. He felt like a sailor of old, swallowed up by a great sea creature, and just like the ancient mariners, he was being dragged down into the watery depths.
The light from the surface seemed farther and farther away with each passing second. Naraku was moving like an octopus; his tentacled form was completely at home in the sea. His enormous arms expanded and contracted with the sea waves, propelling the two of them to greater and greater oceanic depths.
Inuyasha pulled against the tentacle that was choking him, but it wouldn’t let go of its prey. If he could only free his sword enough to swing...
He was feeling light headed as they moved with even swifter speeds toward the bottom of the ocean. The hanyou was starting to see blackened spots appear before his eyes as he tried to hang onto consciousness.
Using his one free hand to claw against the tentacle that held his sword arm fast, he was able to slice through it.
Inky blood gushed out of the wound and into the darkened waters. He felt his arm grow slack and then he managed to shake the tentacle from it.
Even though his mind had started to grow heavy with sleep, he drew up his sword one last time and gurgled out a ‘Wind Scar’ that was directed at the leviathan directly below him.
As the sudden onslaught of energy exploded under him, he could feel the force pushing him back up to the surface while the creature below him was shredded into rent flesh and blood.
Just as the hanyou felt his final moments of consciousness slip away from his grasp, a huge maw caught him in the water’s depths, tugging him upward and bringing him away from his premature watery grave and Naraku’s final resting place.
Suddenly, water no longer surrounded him and air made its way into his aching lungs. He heaved up some seawater before gasping for breath.
“Thanks...Dad,” Inuyasha managed to say as he patted the back of the huge creature that was taking him back to the shoreline.
Inuyasha felt weak as he clutched onto his father’s mane. The dog demon quickly loped to the shoreline, attempting to rejoin their companions in battle.
Though he wasn’t fully present, Inuyasha did notice that it was far too silent for what was once a large battle. With the death of Naraku, the dark hanyou’s golems had withered away into nothing. Inuyasha raised a weary head from his father’s back to gaze at the misty beach.
Rin was clambering down Sesshoumaru’s back, her feet hitting the wet sand. Then his brother’s form began to morph, his long snout shrinking back into a human face, his fur receding until only smooth skin and a white kimono covered his body.
As Toga landed, Inuyasha also managed to drag his exhausted body off of his Dad’s canine form. Once his feet hit the soil and he saw Kagome’s bright face smiling at him, he knew that everything was going to be all right.
He struggled to keep upright as he walked over to Kagome. All he needed was to hold her in his arms and smell her skin and hair. He needed a physical verification for what his eyes were telling him.
Just as he neared the miko, Takeshi shoved her aside. For a brief second, the detective’s body occupied the same space that Kagome’s had once been. At that instant, the remnants of one of Naraku’s golems exploded; its force rocked the beachhead, and shrapnel blasted everywhere.
Inuyasha’s eyes could only track the form of the detective as the man flew backward into the air, as if a huge sumo wrestler had picked up the man’s body and thrown it aside. Blood flew from the man’s mouth as he arched in the air, leaving a bloody trail that followed him until he hit the wet sand with a resounding smack.
“No!” screamed Kagome. The girl tried to turn around and reach for her father, but Inuyasha caught her in his arms, holding her fast to his chest. Her arms flailed about as she tried to reach for something that was too far away for her to grasp. “Let me go!” she screamed as she thrashed in Inuyasha’s embrace.
Inuyasha sniffed his girlfriend’s hair, bringing her bouquet into his nose and lungs. He needed her scent to ground him. Hugging her was as much for him as it was for her. He barely heard Rin wailing in the background as well, yelling at Sesshoumaru to let her go.
Eventually, Kagome stopped thrashing. Her screams became wails and then sobs. Her body started to still. Then she was no longer hitting him or asking Inuyasha to let her go. Now she was clutching his wet kosode, his red robe of the fire rat still on her shoulders.
Inuyasha was grateful for not only Takeshi’s sacrifice, but for his robes that had protected her from the explosion.
His miko became lax in his arms and her tears were now intermixed with the salty water that permeated his clothes. Now his arms were no longer holding her to him, instead they were propping her up. Kagome’s knees had almost given out, and she swayed within his steady embrace.
Neither Inuyasha nor Kagome noticed her Dad sit up and take a ragged breath.
“Dammit! This was my favorite coat!” moaned Takeshi as he looked down at the shredded remains of his black trench coat.
Kagome gasped in her boyfriend’s arms and looked at her father with wide-eyes. Inuyasha peered down to see silvered metal bars peeking out from rent black fabric that encircled the man’s torso. The whole time the detective had been wearing a bullet proof vest. The vest was obviously no longer any good, but it had managed to keep the wearer in one piece.
“Shit! I broke some ribs!” Takeshi moaned as he clutched at his sides. Then his brown eyes took in the scene around him. His girls had tears in their eyes and each daughter was held by one of the Takahashi brothers.
The man’s eyes narrowed as he spoke to the surprised crowd. “Get your hands off my girls!” Takeshi commanded before he passed out on the beachhead.
Authors’ Notes:
#1: Ai would like to thank Sgt. Giselle who told her a few harrowing tales of his tours in Iraq and Afghanistan over Christmas break. The scene in this chapter with Detective Takeshi and his flak jacket come directly from Sgt. Giselle’s description of what happened to him in Iraq. Sgt. Giselle was thrown 6 feet into the air when rifle fire hit his body armor, he broke five ribs and the actual bullet didn’t fully pierce his jacket, but intruded enough to leave a scar and bloodied his chest.
#2: We’re sorry that this chapter took so long to write. But we hope that we are forgiven when the epilogue shows up in a week or two...or maybe even less if we get some thoughtful reviews...
#3: Is Ai the only one who thinks that Naraku really looks like a squid/octopus demon (rather than a spider demon)?
#4: Ai and Kara would like to thank Ananova for nominating ‘He’s My Girl’ for Best Comedy with the Inuyasha Fan Guild.
Converting /tmp/phptoxYB2 to /dev/stdout
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Warnings: Foul language and plenty of violence.
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Special thanks to our awesome betas: SplendentGoddess and King Baka
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Written by Ai Kisugi with edits by Karaumea
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Chapter 22: Cracks in the MirrorWarnings: Foul language and plenty of violence.
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Special thanks to our awesome betas: SplendentGoddess and King Baka
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Written by Ai Kisugi with edits by Karaumea
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Naraku had his back turned to Takeshi, who was lying on the ground. The mafia boss was gesturing to a grassy field just a little south of their position.
Takeshi tried to focus his eyes. He could barely make out the form of a small woman, hogtied and seemingly lifeless.
“Your little girl is just over there. But you can’t do anything about it, can you, Detective Higurashi?” gloated Naraku as he laughed.
The dark hanyou surveyed the scene with a sneering command. He held out his arms wide and turned around. It was as if he was the ruler of all he surveyed and he had deemed his twisted plans were culminating nicely.
All Takeshi could hear was the man’s hollow mirth echoing throughout the island.
Anger coursed through the policeman’s bloodstream and adrenaline quickened. What had once been a bleary image before him somehow morphed and sharpened. Now he could clearly see Naraku and Kanna’s pulsating mirror.
Above all, Takeshi was a father, and it was his daughter’s soul that was trapped within the mirror’s confines. He really didn’t care if his own life would be forfeit, but he would rather be bound to hell for eternity than to know that Rin had lost her priceless soul to this heartless creature.
He didn’t have the strength left to actually stand on his own two feet but he was able to kneel before the man that he had been trying to take down for the past three years of his life. He used one hand to grip the pistol while his other shaky hand tried to steady his aim.
Naraku’s back was still to him. The mafia boss had apparently decided that he was no longer a threat. His mistake...
How he had managed to even get on his knees astonished him. But it was his fury that was fueling him. Takeshi had only one target in mind as he pulled the trigger.
Crack!
A loud shot rang in Takeshi’s ears as iridescent white energy spewed forth from his gun erupting against Kanna’s mirror.
At the exact same moment, he saw Kagome and Inuyasha lunging toward Rin.
He tried to scream and to yell at them to stay away. He wanted to let them know that Naraku had set up a bomb to explode if anyone tried to rescue his daughter. But just as the words fluttered to his lips, a detonation erupted where his daughter had once sat.
Smoke and dust filled his vision, clouding the last image he had of his daughters and Inuyasha. The smell of burnt earth was intermixed with salty sea air.
No! Not my daughters! Not Rin! Not Kagome!
Everything that happened next was a blur. Naraku’s maniacal laughs somehow chortled to a stop. The mafia boss turned around to see that Kanna’s mirror was cracked. Naraku’s brown eyes morphed into horror as he saw the thin lines within the silvered mirror start to fissure like an iceberg that was breaking apart. As the fractures widened, white started to stream out of the gaps. Soon, a torrential wind blew backwards out of the mirror. Rifts of ghostly mirages slipped away from the mirror’s confines, whispering joy at the end of their imprisonment.
The white energy flew past Naraku; his ebony hair whipped like tendrils against his ashen face. Next to him, Kanna’s small body was cracking like her mirror. Her very skin fractured, first as thin lines and then into pieces that broke away from her body, like shards of a pottery breaking into a ruin.
The mafia boss looked on with sickened horror as the demon girl he had grown to trust as his most reliable defense literally crumbled at his feet. He couldn’t help but to step back, as if the broken pieces of her body and mirror could somehow desecrate his already blackened soul.
A small silvery wisp drew itself back into Takeshi’s frame, and dizziness engulfed him. However, he really didn’t care that he had released the jailed souls of his daughter, Toga and himself. His two daughters were both dead, both taken from him in a brief second of time. Emptiness ripped through his heart, and anger coursed through his soul. He tried his best to hold onto his consciousness. Black dots flickered around the edges of his vision, but he pulled from his inner strength and tried to hold on. He wasn’t going to pass from this world without taking Naraku down with him.
The dark hanyou turned to look with dread behind him at the two men that he had thought were defeated.
Toga was starting to stir, and color was returning to him. His skin had once been pale gray, but was now flushed.
Next to the dog demon, Takeshi was lying down and groaning. It was as if he had too much to drink and was now waking up in the morning, nursing a hangover.
The mafia boss noticed the gun in Takeshi’s hand. He also knew that once the priest charged up the pistol with his purification powers, the mafia boss would look like the pile of ash beside him.
Naraku’s legs suddenly made a decision for him, and he was rapidly running away from the two scenes of destruction. If he could only get to his boat in time… Once he got to the water, his scent would be hidden by salty waves. He only hoped that the band of seven were waiting for him there. He would need them not only for protection, but to drive the boat back to Japan.
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Sesshoumaru looked with an abject gaze at the dust and dirt swirling around him. His eyes were glazed over as he stared into nothing.Nothing was all he had now.
Rin was gone.
If he had only been a few seconds earlier, he could have at least shielded Rin from the blast that exploded right under her body--her fragile human body.
He looked at the ground and gazed into nothingness. Icy numbness enveloped his entire body as he shook his head. Perhaps, he could deny what he had seen. Perhaps he could pretend that nothing was wrong, that he had actually managed to get to Rin in time and that his brother had not managed to set off a trap that had exploded all around them.
Sesshoumaru was certain that the blast had killed both Rin and Kagome. After all, they were mere humans. But, his pig-headed brother was another matter. That bastard would certainly survive; he might be without an arm or leg, but he’d live. Nothing short of a decapitation would kill a hanyou.
The dog demon flexed his claws; green poison dripped from the ends of his talons. He was itching to slam his fist into Inuyasha’s guts. The imbecile had managed to destroy the one thing he truly loved and cherished, and he was going to pay for it.
He tried to not think about what had just happened to Rin. How he would never see her face smiling up at him again, how he would never smell her lovely scent of clear waterfalls, how he would never make love to her again...
Sesshoumaru turned his head to the misty heavens above him and howled. A keening noise was heard over the secluded valley as his pain echoed against the rocks.
He had never felt a loss so complete before, a loss that ripped at his insides. Part of him wanted to tear out his own heart so that it wouldn’t hurt so much. It felt like an icy spear had been shoved into his heart and that he was bleeding both hot blood and prickling cold water. His chest was tight, and his breath stuttered in his lungs.
The other part of him wanted to hold Rin’s body in his arms, but he knew that the blast had denied him that one last right.
Warm trickles crept down his cheeks and dripped off of his chin. Sesshoumaru wiped off the offending moisture. Luckily, there was no one there to witness his emotional outburst.
“Oi! Sesshoumaru!”
A grimace of pain and murder erupted on the dog demon’s face. His bastard brother had the gumption to try to talk to him after he had so recklessly killed his mate!
A cold sneer was on his lips as he flexed his claws in preparation for gutting his younger sibling.
Sesshoumaru rose from his crouch, prepared to lash out at his brother and take him down.
He was unprepared to see his smirking brother, with the Tessaiga held high above him and an iridescent red bubble surrounding him and two other forms. Another glance showed him that Kagome was clinging tight to Rin; his mate was passed out in the miko’s arms.
Confusion must have pervaded his features.
“Blade barrier, you emo bastard,” intoned Inuyasha with a cocky smile.
It took a few seconds for the disoriented dog demon to take in the scene in front of him. The dusty cloud that had obscured his vision had since cleared. There was still a gaping hole ripped from the earth in front of him. What had once been a grassy clearing was now splattered with fresh chunks of wet earth and sand.
In the middle of the chasm was a glimmering red sphere that contained a smirking hanyou, a miko and his mate. Rin was breathing in Kagome’s arms as if nothing had happened.
Sesshoumaru knew that the Tessaiga had many signature attacks, but he had never thought that his ignoramus of a brother would ever have the ability to command the blade in such a manner. For once in Inuyasha’s life, the idiot had managed to do something right.
Rin was not dead.
She was alive.
In less than a moment, the dog demon was at the edge of the pulsing barrier. Sesshoumaru all but commanded his younger brother, “Lower the shield, Inuyasha.”
Inuyasha’s grin fell into a disgruntled frown as he lowered his arms, and the bubble surrounding the trio shimmered before dissipating into the air.
The dog demon heard Rin’s soft sigh as she moved in her sister’s arms.
He moved quicker than the human could track. Within seconds, the rope that had bound the girl had fallen at his feet and he had Rin clutched to his breast.
His head shook rapidly back and forth. He had come so close to losing her. But here she was, warm and soft in his arms. He swore to never let her out of his sight again.
He could hear Inuyasha’s irritating voice as he held Rin in his arms. “Oi, Kagome, is that tears on his face?”
“Inuyasha, let them have a moment of peace,” murmured the miko as she drew the hanyou away.
“But, this is a historical moment. He never cries!” protested his brother as Kagome led Inuyasha away, tugging at his arm.
“Hush, Inu...” said the miko, but her tone was now sultry.
Sesshoumaru tried to not hear his brother lip-smacking his girlfriend.
“Sess?” Rin’s strained and timid voice pulled him out of his reverie. He pulled her body back and looked down at her confused countenance. “Where am I? Wait, I was at the club... Was I drugged?”
The small woman in his arms looked up in horror at his face. “Sesshoumaru, you’ve been crying...” Small hands reached up to cup his chin, and his tears fell against her palm. Rin’s pained eyes looked up at the man she loved. Questions pervaded her features, but she knew enough not to ask, at least not right now. In her entire life, she had never seen him cry before.
She pulled his face closer to hers. His salty lips met her raw, chapped ones. Sesshoumaru drew her in even tighter and breathed into her. For a mere moment, he had wondered if this was real, but her warm lips were against his, her chest was sweetly encircled by his own.
She was real. She was here. She was safe.
His world was right again.
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Takeshi looked up to see a steel gray sky and drifts of clouds. For a moment, he felt serene as he laid on the grass, but slowly, his senses started to return to him. There was the lingering smell of something burnt in the air and something salty, like the sea.He sniffed and the scent of charred soil and sand assaulted his senses. Suddenly he remembered the moments before darkness overtook him.
Rin! Kagome!
Rin had been trussed up like a pig and then slaughtered like one as well. The ring of the explosion that had ended her life and her sister’s echoed in his mind, reverberating in a deafening crescendo.
No, my baby girls...
He grabbed his own hair and tugged. If it had only been him instead. If he had only let Naraku know that he was still around, perhaps then his children would have been spared. He tried to keep the tears from building up, but they seeped into his eyes, making his vision blurry.
“Takeshi...”
Detective Higurashi had all but forgotten his comrade, Toga Takahashi, the dog demon. The man groaned and put his hands in front of his eyes, as if the sun was too bright for him to see despite the fog.
“What the hell happened, Takeshi?” grunted Toga as he tried to make out the misty island that surrounded him.
“My daughters, Rin...Kagome,” choked the detective. “They’re gone...”
The dog demon immediately stopped his questioning to focus on the scents around him. Toga took several tentative sniffs.
“What do you mean ‘They’re gone,’ Takeshi? I can smell them,” asked Toga in confusion.
The dog demon tried to get to his feet, but he stumbled like a drunk. Takeshi was a little more limber and poised. Despite the weariness that had settled into his bones, he still managed to get up and stumble back to the cliff where he had last seen his children before the explosion had destroyed his view.
Takeshi was never very comfortable with seeing his daughter being affectionate with Sesshoumaru. He knew that the two had consummated things before they were even wed, and it still rankled him. But for once, it didn’t bother him that he was seeing Sesshoumaru kiss his daughter. From the look of the splattering of earth all around the duo, the dog demon must have rescued Rin just in time. And for that, he would be eternally grateful.
A few meters away from Rin was Kagome with Inuyasha. Takeshi’s earlier happiness was mildly quelled by seeing his younger daughter passionately kissing Inuyasha. He shook his head. As much as he wished that the Takahashi brothers would keep their hands to themselves, for once he was too elated to change them into eunuchs.
He couldn’t help himself as he cried out, “Rin! Kagome!” In his excitement, he had forgotten that both Rin and Kagome were still under the impression that he was dead.
Rin seemed to be utterly startled as she looked up the cliff-face to see her presumed dead father gazing down at her with both longing and love clearly marked on his features. Her face drained of color; it was as if she was looking at an apparition.
“Dad?” Both Rin and Takeshi turned to see Kagome looking up at her father with a stupefied expression on her face.
However, Kagome seemed the quickest at putting the discordant events together. “What? You’re alive!? Did Naraku have you all this time?”
“Keh. He’s been hiding out for the past two years,” answered Inuyasha with a knowing smirk.
Kagome’s eyes narrowed and her lips drew into a tight line.
The smile that was on Inuyasha’s lips froze. Kagome advanced upon him with a look of unmitigated anger. If this had been in the bedroom, Inuyasha would have considered himself a lucky guy. But since they were fully clothed and her father wasn’t too far away, he now felt trapped. Shit!
“You knew that my father was alive and never bothered to tell me?” screamed Kagome as she moved within centimeters of Inuyasha’s face.
“I-I fo-forgot. And with the bracelet and Rin’s kidnapping, I had no time to...” stuttered Inuyasha.
“Don’t you tell me that you had NO time to tell me my father was alive! Baka!”
Inuyasha’s ears dipped down like a scolded puppy as he started to back away from the miko. Redness flamed in her cheeks and forehead. Her eyes widened, and her fingers jabbed at his chest.
Takeshi was not about to be bothered by inconsequential details. The fact that he had not told his two girls that he was alive escaped his thoughts. All he knew was that his daughters were dead and now they were alive.
He yelled at the groggy Toga to take him down the cliff and the dog demon complied.
Soon, the elated dad joined the two couples at the chasm at the bottom of the cliff.
Rin at first looked in wonder at her father before stumbling out of Sesshoumaru’s grasp to make her way to her Dad.
Takeshi drew her to him with open arms and hugged the smaller girl.
“Rin. Rin,” he murmured like a prayer. After squeezing her tighter he pulled away to look at her. He placed a hand on either side of her face and gazed at her with unconditional love.
The petite girl blinked and hugged her father back a warm smile on her face. “Dad, what happened? Why are you here?”
Soon another girl joined their midst. “Daddy?” asked Kagome. She had ended her tirade against Inuyasha and moved to join her sibling and father. The miko put her arms around both of them and drew them to her.
Takeshi smiled down at Kagome. He was greeted with tear filled coffee eyes and a watery smile.
The younger girl sniffed and wiped her nose with her long, white sleeve. When she looked back up at her father, adoration turned into concern, which quickly morphed into indignation.
“Why is it that Inuyasha knew you were alive, but you never told us?” asked the girl with eyes filled with fury.
Rin drew back in shock. “Inuyasha? What?” She turned around puzzled, before seeing the hanyou looking at them sheepishly. “What? He knew?” The smaller girl pointed her finger at Inuyasha and then whirled around to glare at her Dad.
Words erupted from Rin that were so loud that they seemed incongruent to her small frame. “You told HIM and not us?”
Kagome went from jabbing Inuyasha to poking at her Dad. Rin was still yelling and Kagome was just starting to warm up with her new rant.
Another man would have been overwhelmed with two Higurashi girls yelling at him. But all Takeshi could do was to throw his head back and laugh. “It’s good to be back with you girls,” he exclaimed. “It’s good to be home again.”
His statement caught the girls in mid-sentence; anger that was on their lips seemed to dissipate into the air. Kagome caught her trembling lip with her teeth and Rin appeared on the verge of tears. With another strangled cry, both girls wailed out their Dad’s name, and hugged him as if they would never let him go.
Kouga chose this very moment to run up to the gathered group. Confusion suffused his features as he looked at Kagome and a girl that he could only assume was Rin, clutching some man he had never seen before.
“Oi. Did I miss something?” asked the wolf demon.
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Naraku’s breath was heaving as he jogged along the misty gray shoreline. His feet squelched into the wet sand, and his legs ached with the effort of running on such a difficult surface.His private yacht was in a secluded cove; it had been secured there as a get-away vehicle weeks beforehand. It had lost the subtle marking of scent that a dog demon like Sesshoumaru could trace. It was an almost fool-proof means of escape.
“Start damn you...” muttered someone ahead of him. Sputters of an engine crested and fell as he drew closer. He could smell the fumes of gasoline and smoke. So much for losing all traces of scents that could be tracked...
He ran into the watery cave, finding his yacht and Renkotsu near the engine, attempting to start the motor. The bald man wearing mercenary armor had his back to him.
“You won’t be able to start the engine without my help,” intoned Naraku as he slithered forward.
The bald man whipped his head around. Two oblong purple tattoos ran down the sides of his face from just above his eyes to his jawline. It almost looked like two purple flames were creeping up each side of his visage. His eyes narrowed.
“Making sure that none of us leave if you didn’t survive, Naraku?” asked the man with barely concealed annoyance.
Naraku chuckled. “Now, now Renkotsu... I was only making sure that none of you tried to escape without me. Apparently, my foresight paid off,” the mafia boss paused while surveying the scene. Weapons were piled into the boat. Renkotsu even had an ‘over-the-shoulder’ grenade launcher ready. Considering the stench of the gas fumes, he had actually been trying to get away from the island for quite some time.
The dark hanyou smirked as he made his way to the front of the boat and the steering wheel. “Now remember, Renkotsu. We’re in this together. This boat won’t start without me, and we won’t get away without a diversion.”
Renkotsu’s eyes narrowed, and his lips twitched. He was trying hard not to frown. It was difficult to read his boss. You seldom knew if a small infraction might cost you your life and certainly trying to escape an island with the only boat in the vicinity could be grounds for death. However, he knew that he would need Naraku’s help to escape. Certainly, that was what the dark hanyou had planned all along. Unless he was saved, none of them would survive. The mercenary should have realized earlier why the boat wouldn’t start, even with the keys in the ignition.
A small, shaky smile grew on Renkotsu’s face. Sometimes, it was better to lie down with the devil than to take chances with the unknown.
Naraku’s lips twitched with a thin grin as he brought out a few wooden golems from the glove compartment in the front of the boat. Each small wooden figure had a wisp of black hair tied to it. Using his own magic along with voodoo he had perfected, he was able to give his own abilities to the creatures. It should be just enough to allow them to disappear into the sea. If they managed to get to North Korea, he knew that his business associates could be convinced to help them get back to Japan.
However, the main problem was evading a dog demon who could fly and who had a sharp nose. He had to get as far away from the island as possible in a very short time. The sea air would quickly obscure their trail, as only water could do, but only if he could delay their pursuers…
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Takeshi held his daughters closely, squeezing their small frames into his bulkier one. It had been so long since he had been in their presence. He had been trailing Kagome and Rin, but he hadn’t been able to touch them or hear their voices up close. He smelled the tang of their salty tears and pulled them even closer.“Rin-chan...Kagome-chan...I’m so sorry,” murmured Takeshi into their long, dark hair. He held them and tried to breathe in their presence for a few more precious moments. However, he knew that Naraku’s trail could turn cold far too quickly if there was a delay.
The policeman hugged his daughters one last time before turning his face to Toga. He noticed that the dog demon was pale and waxen, however the man obviously enjoyed seeing his good friend finally being reunited with his daughters. The edges of Toga’s lips curved upward as he looked at the trio.
“Toga can you trace Naraku’s scent?” inquired the detective without preamble.
The dog demon’s smile widened, and fangs peeked out over his lips. “Do Shinto priests wear funny hats?”
Takeshi grinned back at his friend. “Point taken.” He thumbed the sky as if he was a hitchhiker. “Lead the way.”
Toga’s body quickly bulged and morphed. Gray hair leapt from his frame, and soon, a gargantuan canine appeared where a silver-haired man once stood.
Not wanting any delays, Takeshi scrambled onto the dog demon’s back, clutching tufts of silver fur as he made his way up the crouching demon.
Kagome tapped on Inuyasha’s shoulder. Her brown eyes looked up at him with a knowing smile, as she hitched her quiver of arrows securely to her back. The hanyou sighed as he took off his robes of the fire rat and secured the loose jacket around her shoulders. Then, he squatted to the ground in front of her and held out his hands to his side so that he could clutch his girl to his body.
Sesshoumaru looked at his brother and his girlfriend running off into the thick of the action and then turned to Rin, who was grinning up at him from his side. The young woman’s eyes sparkled in merriment as she held up both of her hands to the taller lord.
The dog demon’s thin eyebrow twitched in discomfort. A slight tic seemed to develop at he edge of his clenched jaw. He seemed at war with himself until his golden eyes stopped their struggle and alighted on Rin’s smiling chocolate orbs.
Without further delay, Sesshoumaru looked up and then his face stretched out into a snout. His body lengthened and fur erupted over his long form. Then the large dog lowered his pink nose to the petite woman in front of him. With a grin, the smaller girl climbed past the bridge of his nose, before settling just behind his floppy, silvered ears. With Rin on his back, the dog demon sped off after his companions.
The scent trail led the group to a small beachhead. Drifting fog meandered past their vision, and waves lapped against the sand and rock. Toga spearheaded the group in his dog demon form, cautiously moving forward.
There was no warning as a series of explosions started to burst around the group. Flashes of light erupted around them, pushing the fog away. The smell of black smoke and burnt seaweed permeated the salty air.
Through the thick smoke, Inuyasha could make out wavering forms and black tentacles that undulated in the gray-mist.
Inuyasha sniffed, “Naraku...” He let Kagome drop off his back and readied his Tessaiga. He made sure that his body was directly in front of Kagome. She was wearing his robe of the fire rat, but he still wasn’t going to risk her safety.
“Stay behind me, Kagome,” Inuyasha ordered as he gripped the hilt of his sword.
The miko behind him steadied her breath while cocking an arrow to her bow. Inuyasha’s larger form blocked everything but the path of her arrow.
Next to them, two huge silvered dogs trampled down on the sand dunes. Sesshoumaru snarled above them in his dog form and then rushed forward. Toga stopped quickly to drop off Takeshi next to Kagome before he lumbered forward, his large canine jaw open, frothing with anticipation.
Kouga followed quickly behind the two dog demons, his speed throwing his form into the enshrouding mists.
Inuyasha’s body tensed as his demon senses told him that an attack was nigh. Suddenly, large, black tentacles tried to shoot past him in order to kill the two priests beside the hanyou. He used the sharp edge of his blade to sever the dark appendages while grabbing his girl and her father close to his chest and leaping high over the sandbanks.
The creature he was fighting howled as purple fluid oozed from its wounds, but it managed to send more arms out in an attempt to spear its victims.
A silvered blade flashed in the air, cutting the offending tentacles off. By this time, Detective Higurashi and Kagome felt safe enough to ignore the attacks and to start their own offensive.
As a team, father and daughter stood tall, side-by-side on an embankment close to the gray-green sea. On one side was a detective in a black trench coat, and on the other, a miko in white and red robes. Both held out their weapons with steady arms. The detective’s pistol glowed like a white-hot poker, while Kagome’s arrow flickered with shimmering flames.
Their combined aim honed in on the dark youkai aura that enshrouded the area. Without even seeing their target, they fired into the mist, their sixth sense guiding them. Sparks of light erupted within the cloudy banks, followed by a horrendous chorus of inhuman screams.
Toga and Sesshoumaru had already sprinted into the haze, their demonic, glowing red eyes seeing far more than human eyes ever could. Within the smoke and misty sea air were hundreds of writhing black forms, tentacles waving in the air like seaweed within the ocean current.
Rin was still held tight against Sesshoumaru’s back; her eyes were wide with fear as she looked down to see huge canine maws bite into the writhing black forms, ripping the flesh apart.
Toga took the flank while Sesshoumaru stayed behind to finish up the work that his father had started. Fighting demons was always dangerous, but the father was doing his best to make sure that the son would not place Rin at any unnecessary risk.
Kagome notched another arrow, her bowstring pulled taut. “Dad, what are these things?” she asked while gesturing with her arrow toward the inky forms wavering in the mist.
“Golems,” answered Takeshi with absolute surety as he charged up another gunshot with his spiritual powers. “Naraku visited the Caribbean and learned some voodoo. He found a way to make copies of himself via magic. What we are attacking is not him. I am quite sure that this is a diversion while the coward is trying escape.”
“Fucking diversion!” snorted Inuyasha as he felled another round of tentacles that were trying to overtake their position. “We can’t possibly find him with this shit stopping us.”
Kagome and Takeshi fired another volley together, a white cannon of light shooting into the mist before exploding in a menagerie of wrought flesh and viscous purple liquid.
The silver Tessaiga flashed again, leaving quivering black tentacles and dark blood oozing at their feet. For the briefest of moments there was an oppressive silence, save the growls and roars of the dog demons ripping their enemy apart.
Then suddenly, a roar of a boating engine could be heard shooting away from the din of the battle; it was loud enough for even a human to hear.
“Fuck! He’s getting away!” screamed Inuyasha. Gasoline and burnt fuel tainted the salty sea air. His first impulse was to chase after the boat. His body had leaned forward in the direction of the departing craft, but he felt something behind him tugging at his heart, pulling him back.
Inuyasha turned in misery to face his miko. “Kagome,” he pleaded. “I need to go after Naraku, but I don’t want to...”
“Go,” commanded Detective Takeshi. “I can protect my own flesh and blood.”
Indecision played on Inuyasha’s face as his eyes bounced back and forth between Kagome and the battle that was raging around them. “I...”
Kagome stepped forward, letting her bow drop to her side. She kissed his cheek. “I’ll be right here, waiting for you when you get back.” His girl moved back to her father, who then stood defensively in front of his daughter.
Inuyasha nodded, looking Takeshi in the eye. The older man returned the gesture before the hanyou bounded off; each leap was so powerful that it almost looked like he was flying.
Explosions echoed behind as Inuyasha left the area, but he kept his eyes firmly in front of him, trusting Kagome’s Dad to keep his daughter safe. He quickly tracked a speedboat that was cresting over the small waves near the shoreline, trying to escape the island.
“No fucking escape for you, asshole,” yelled the hanyou as he jumped again, giving him a birds-eye view of the boat.
Just as Inuyasha made out two figures on the boat, he also noticed a gleam of metal and a large cylinder over the shoulder of one of the figures. Smoke erupted from the back of the over-the-shoulder rocket launcher, and fire and metal spewed out of the front. It was zooming toward him.
“Shit!” Inuyasha didn’t have anytime to think. His sword was held firmly in his hands and all he knew was that he needed protection against the incoming onslaught. His Tessaiga glowed ruby-red, and just as the rocket was about to take him to the afterlife, a claret colored sphere formed around the hanyou.
Inuyasha flinched instinctively, his arms covering his face, as the rocket blasted around him in a cacophonous array of sound, light and rent metal.
He was barely able to pull in a shuddered breath before the forces of gravity started to pull him down into the unforgiving ocean. “Fuck!”
The hanyou was in a free-fall. He was expecting the jarring feeling of hitting the water’s surface. So he was very surprised to feel the momentum of a rollercoaster ride, the sensation of falling down an incline and then suddenly being wrenched back upward into another crest.
It took only a second for Inuyasha to get his bearings before he noticed that the red barrier encircling him was now in the jaws of a dog demon. The hanyou could feel the familiar aura of his father surrounding him.
A large silvered dog ran over the sea with a red ball in his maw, looking like a playful puppy that wanted to play fetch.
“Keh! Thanks, Dad,” Inuyasha muttered as he tried to get a bearing on what was happening. Before he could get his equilibrium, the large dog threw the ball into the air. Inuyasha free-fell one more time before letting the barrier go, to fall onto the huge creature’s back.
He gripped the rough silver fur with one hand and held out his Tessaiga with the other.
“Take me closer to the boat, I want to belt out a Wind Scar.”
The dog below him barked in agreement, maneuvering the two of them so that Inuyasha would have a clear view of the boat below them.
Within the confines of the boat, Renkoutsu was getting ready to shoot off another rocket. The mercenary was trying to quickly shove a large missile into the launcher. Naraku was at the steering wheel, blatantly ignoring his comrade who was doing his best to keep the demons off of their trail.
“Not this time fucker!” screamed Inuyasha as he brought up his Tessaiga high over his head. Images of a girl with the eyes of a doe drifted into his mind and then an even stronger desire to protect erupted from his frame. Energy coalesced and then spread along his sword. He drew the Tessaiga down in a graceful arc.
“Wind Scar!”
It was almost as if white lightening had exploded from the giant fang. The crackling energy converged on the small speedboat below them. Neither the boat, nor Renkotsu ever had a chance of survival.
Naraku morphed into a black octopus-like creature and slithered into the sea, mere moments before the boat splintered into fragments of wood, plastic, metal, and exploding gasoline.
Spewed oil and gas stained the water, and the ripped up remains of the boat bobbed in the open sea.
“Shit, where is he?” questioned Inuyasha as he tugged on his father’s floppy ears in an attempt to move closer to where Naraku had disappeared.
The huge canine made several passes over the water, but all Inuyasha could see was the wreckage and swirling gray-green.
Seconds drew into minutes while the pair searched the sea’s surface. An eerie calmness seemed to settle over the seascape as they tried to make out Naraku’s form.
As the dog demon sprinted across the waves one last time, huge blackened tentacles erupted from the sea, looking like an ancient leviathan that had emerged from a watery grave.
Slick, ebony appendages shot out of the ocean waves to seek the hanyou on the dog demon’s back.
Inuyasha was barely able to hold his Tessaiga firmly in his grip before he was pulled down into the deep waters. A tentacle wrapped around his throat, another trying to rip his sword from his grasp and another firmly wrapped around his waist.
Bubbles gurgled from his throat as Inuyasha thrashed about in the larger demon’s grasp. He felt like a sailor of old, swallowed up by a great sea creature, and just like the ancient mariners, he was being dragged down into the watery depths.
The light from the surface seemed farther and farther away with each passing second. Naraku was moving like an octopus; his tentacled form was completely at home in the sea. His enormous arms expanded and contracted with the sea waves, propelling the two of them to greater and greater oceanic depths.
Inuyasha pulled against the tentacle that was choking him, but it wouldn’t let go of its prey. If he could only free his sword enough to swing...
He was feeling light headed as they moved with even swifter speeds toward the bottom of the ocean. The hanyou was starting to see blackened spots appear before his eyes as he tried to hang onto consciousness.
Using his one free hand to claw against the tentacle that held his sword arm fast, he was able to slice through it.
Inky blood gushed out of the wound and into the darkened waters. He felt his arm grow slack and then he managed to shake the tentacle from it.
Even though his mind had started to grow heavy with sleep, he drew up his sword one last time and gurgled out a ‘Wind Scar’ that was directed at the leviathan directly below him.
As the sudden onslaught of energy exploded under him, he could feel the force pushing him back up to the surface while the creature below him was shredded into rent flesh and blood.
Just as the hanyou felt his final moments of consciousness slip away from his grasp, a huge maw caught him in the water’s depths, tugging him upward and bringing him away from his premature watery grave and Naraku’s final resting place.
Suddenly, water no longer surrounded him and air made its way into his aching lungs. He heaved up some seawater before gasping for breath.
“Thanks...Dad,” Inuyasha managed to say as he patted the back of the huge creature that was taking him back to the shoreline.
Inuyasha felt weak as he clutched onto his father’s mane. The dog demon quickly loped to the shoreline, attempting to rejoin their companions in battle.
Though he wasn’t fully present, Inuyasha did notice that it was far too silent for what was once a large battle. With the death of Naraku, the dark hanyou’s golems had withered away into nothing. Inuyasha raised a weary head from his father’s back to gaze at the misty beach.
Rin was clambering down Sesshoumaru’s back, her feet hitting the wet sand. Then his brother’s form began to morph, his long snout shrinking back into a human face, his fur receding until only smooth skin and a white kimono covered his body.
As Toga landed, Inuyasha also managed to drag his exhausted body off of his Dad’s canine form. Once his feet hit the soil and he saw Kagome’s bright face smiling at him, he knew that everything was going to be all right.
He struggled to keep upright as he walked over to Kagome. All he needed was to hold her in his arms and smell her skin and hair. He needed a physical verification for what his eyes were telling him.
Just as he neared the miko, Takeshi shoved her aside. For a brief second, the detective’s body occupied the same space that Kagome’s had once been. At that instant, the remnants of one of Naraku’s golems exploded; its force rocked the beachhead, and shrapnel blasted everywhere.
Inuyasha’s eyes could only track the form of the detective as the man flew backward into the air, as if a huge sumo wrestler had picked up the man’s body and thrown it aside. Blood flew from the man’s mouth as he arched in the air, leaving a bloody trail that followed him until he hit the wet sand with a resounding smack.
“No!” screamed Kagome. The girl tried to turn around and reach for her father, but Inuyasha caught her in his arms, holding her fast to his chest. Her arms flailed about as she tried to reach for something that was too far away for her to grasp. “Let me go!” she screamed as she thrashed in Inuyasha’s embrace.
Inuyasha sniffed his girlfriend’s hair, bringing her bouquet into his nose and lungs. He needed her scent to ground him. Hugging her was as much for him as it was for her. He barely heard Rin wailing in the background as well, yelling at Sesshoumaru to let her go.
Eventually, Kagome stopped thrashing. Her screams became wails and then sobs. Her body started to still. Then she was no longer hitting him or asking Inuyasha to let her go. Now she was clutching his wet kosode, his red robe of the fire rat still on her shoulders.
Inuyasha was grateful for not only Takeshi’s sacrifice, but for his robes that had protected her from the explosion.
His miko became lax in his arms and her tears were now intermixed with the salty water that permeated his clothes. Now his arms were no longer holding her to him, instead they were propping her up. Kagome’s knees had almost given out, and she swayed within his steady embrace.
Neither Inuyasha nor Kagome noticed her Dad sit up and take a ragged breath.
“Dammit! This was my favorite coat!” moaned Takeshi as he looked down at the shredded remains of his black trench coat.
Kagome gasped in her boyfriend’s arms and looked at her father with wide-eyes. Inuyasha peered down to see silvered metal bars peeking out from rent black fabric that encircled the man’s torso. The whole time the detective had been wearing a bullet proof vest. The vest was obviously no longer any good, but it had managed to keep the wearer in one piece.
“Shit! I broke some ribs!” Takeshi moaned as he clutched at his sides. Then his brown eyes took in the scene around him. His girls had tears in their eyes and each daughter was held by one of the Takahashi brothers.
The man’s eyes narrowed as he spoke to the surprised crowd. “Get your hands off my girls!” Takeshi commanded before he passed out on the beachhead.
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Thoughtful, constructive reviews are appreciated and are what spurs us on to write more and to post chapters at a quicker pace. :-)
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Next Chapter: The epilogue and what sort of mischief can Inuyasha and Kouga get into with gender-changing bracelets...? (It is already written, we’re just going to give our betas a little longer to edit it. We actually had the epilogue finished before this chapter was done. Ai actually started it six months ago!)Thoughtful, constructive reviews are appreciated and are what spurs us on to write more and to post chapters at a quicker pace. :-)
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Authors’ Notes:
#1: Ai would like to thank Sgt. Giselle who told her a few harrowing tales of his tours in Iraq and Afghanistan over Christmas break. The scene in this chapter with Detective Takeshi and his flak jacket come directly from Sgt. Giselle’s description of what happened to him in Iraq. Sgt. Giselle was thrown 6 feet into the air when rifle fire hit his body armor, he broke five ribs and the actual bullet didn’t fully pierce his jacket, but intruded enough to leave a scar and bloodied his chest.
#2: We’re sorry that this chapter took so long to write. But we hope that we are forgiven when the epilogue shows up in a week or two...or maybe even less if we get some thoughtful reviews...
#3: Is Ai the only one who thinks that Naraku really looks like a squid/octopus demon (rather than a spider demon)?
#4: Ai and Kara would like to thank Ananova for nominating ‘He’s My Girl’ for Best Comedy with the Inuyasha Fan Guild.
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