InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Loss of Self, Discovery of Truth ❯ Alliances ( Chapter 9 )

Chapter 9: Alliances

Kagura looked away from the images Kanna showed her in the mirror. She could feel the trace hope she held to attain freedom slipping away at seeing this weakened version of Sesshoumaru. She had been so confident that he would be the one to help her escape her imprisonment.

“You've not shown this to Naraku?” Kagura asked again. Kanna shook her head, though she wouldn't say so, Kagura knew that Kanna would like to be free. However, given the nature of her being she was incapable of emotion. What would happen if she were to be attacked by Naraku's latest? Would she become a young child of innocence? Or would she become a hollow shell like the young demon-slayer boy, Kohaku?

“Very well, you did not see me,” Kagura informed Kanna. She reached up into her hair to pull out a feather, transforming it into a larger object so that she might sail the winds of the sky.

It didn't take long to find the forest clearing where the former demon lord, the odd miko with the scandalous clothing, and the annoying wolf prince waited. The former two looked surprised at her approach, while Sesshoumaru had an odd expression upon his face. It looked like smug satisfaction.

“You may now concede my superiority,” Sesshoumaru said to Kagome and Kouga. However, they both ignored him.

“Superiority?” Kagura asked, arching her brow as she stepped off her feather and approached the three. “I see, even in your less than impressive condition your arrogance remains.”

“How did you know to find us?” Kagome asked Kagura before Sesshoumaru could instigate a battle of wits with the wind witch. She reached over and placed a hand over Kouga's forearm when he began to crack his knuckles. “Calm down,” she whispered.

“I am resourceful,” Kagura answered. Her gaze traveled over Sesshoumaru from head to toe, eyes softening. “I thought for certain you would die in that field.” Her voice inflected slightly with emotion before both it and her eyes became coldly flat, “You certainly looked dead.”

“I will accept your offer at an alliance,” Sesshoumaru explained. He couldn't help but examine Kagura in a different light. She was a powerful opponent, but given his current state she was physically superior to him and it irked him. He didn't care for the way she appraised him, the look in her eyes, too similar to Naraku's in his opinion, seemed to show emotions he'd never noticed before.

She began to laugh. “How will you be of any assistance to me now?”

The muscles in Kouga's arms tensed and he jerked out of Kagome's grasp. He ended up holding Kagura by the neck, her eyes bulging from the unexpected strangle hold. “Kouga! What are you doing?” Kagome cried. She made to spring after him, but Sesshoumaru grabbed her arm and restrained her from interfering.

“Listen here, you wind witch, you're a murderer. But right now you have a chance to redeem yourself from your atrocities while gaining freedom from that tyrant Naraku. Either you help us, or I keep squeezing.”

Kagura gasped for breath, silently cursing herself for not having her fan out in anticipation of an attack. She underestimated her opponents, a deadly mistake. “Fine,” she agreed. Kouga released her and stepped back. “Fine,” she repeated.

“So where do we find the demon that took Sesshoumaru's heritage?” Kagome asked. “And if we defeat it will we be able to return Sesshoumaru and Inuyasha to normal?”

“It is a parasitic demon,” Kagura said. “I don't know if you kill the demon that what it stole will be returned.”

“But it might,” Kouga insisted.

She turned her gaze to him, hand going up to rub her bruised throat. “It might,” Kagura agreed.

“That is enough,” Sesshoumaru decided. He didn't like the sharp feeling in his gut, it was a strange mixture of what he recognized as hope, fear, and excitement. “Take us to him.”

Kagura began to laugh. “And then what? You barely survived the first time. What makes you think you'd last a second?” She then turned to Kouga and Kagome. “And you two would surely die.”

“You look alive to me and I'm sure you've been around it,” Kouga argued.

“That's because I wasn't a target.”

“Then make certain that we are not targets,” Sesshoumaru ordered in a frustrated growl, earning a wide-eyed surprised look from Kagura.

“You really are human, aren't you?” she mused. “Very well, I'll take you. But I can only carry one on my feather.”

There was an uncomfortable silence to pass over the group. Kagome looked at Sesshoumaru, he looked at Kagome, Kouga looked at Kagome, Kagome looked at Kouga. Then they all turned to look at Kagura. “I'm not going to kidnap any of you.”

Kouga wrapped his arm around Kagome's waist. “I'll bring Kagome, just in case you decide you'd rather deliver her to Naraku.” He glanced over at Sesshoumaru, a smug smile on his face. “It was your idea to form an alliance with her.”

Sesshoumaru worked hard to ignore the feelings of annoyance growing within him, but he couldn't quite suppress the narrow eyed look he sent Kouga. If he was in his true form he wouldn't be taking orders from a scrawny wolf pup nor would he have to rely on one of his enemies. He would have taken the miko himself and defeated Naraku and then let her do her thing with the jewel shards. Then he could rule his lands without worrying about nuisance lower demons reeking havoc in order to attain shards for power.

Kagura caused her feather to enlarge and gestured for Sesshoumaru to join her. He was about to when Kagome pulled away from Kouga and took hold of his arm. “Excuse us a moment,” she said with a bright smile directed towards the others.

She could hear Kouga and Kagura arguing heatedly while she dragged Sesshoumaru behind a copse of trees a few yards off. Kagome began to whisper urgently, hoping that the other demons wouldn't be able to over-hear. “Are you sure about this? I mean, we can't really trust her, you realize that, right?”

“I am as good as dead in this current state,” Sesshoumaru answered wearily. He was growing fatigued of his whole situation. “I cannot rule my lands like this, nor do I care for these human emotions.” He looked away from her then, eyes unfocused and directed towards the West, towards his lands.

Kagome surprised him then. She reached up, and gently placed her hand upon his jaw, redirecting his eyes to look at her. “Then I will do everything within my power to restore you.”

Why should it matter that she was willing to help him? He never needed help before. “Kagome,” he whispered, voice choked with emotions and confusion. She moved her hand away from his jaw and covered his mouth with it, offering him a small smile of encouragement.

“Come, let's go. Kouga is very fast and will be able to keep up with Kagura's speeds. We're very lucky he found us.” Then she walked away, and Sesshoumaru watched as Kouga lifted her into his arms. He could admit he was feeling both jealous and inadequate. He was ready to be back to himself, the dream he had of a child with both his and her features came back to mind, but he firmly pushed it to the back of his head.

He joined Kagura on her feather. “You might want to hang on,” she warned him seconds before shooting off into the sky. His solitary hand grasped the feather tightly. He looked below them to the earth rushing away with great speed and was relieved to see the cloud of dust and leaves that represented the wolf prince and Kagome.

“It's here,” Kagura announced bringing her feather down back to the earth.

“Where is Naraku?” Sesshoumaru asked, suddenly uneasy. Obviously this plan was not well thought out. He became angry at both Kagome and Kouga for allowing him to enter into such foolish action. His inferior human brain didn't bother to think to the possibility that Naraku would be waiting for him and it would be a trap. He was only interested in the demon parasite.

“He is putting himself together tonight.”

And after a huge sigh of relief Sesshoumaru looked up at the moon to see it was the time of month that Naraku was at his weakest and generally went into seclusion. Kouga and Kagome showed up a moment later.

“It's already half dead,” Kagura explained as she lead the way towards a large barrier. “It would be more useful if you had the hanyou's sword that breaks barriers.”

Sesshoumaru looked up and down at the barrier with the reddish glow and could feel his hopes diminish. Beyond the barrier he could see the large insect like demon that had attacked him and was surprised to see it looked dead. “How did it become weakened?” he asked starting to reach his hand towards the barrier.

Kagome caught his wrist an inch away from the barrier. “It is thick with miasma. Don't touch it,” she warned.

He turned to glare at her, annoyed at her interference. “What are you doing?”

“She just saved you from being poisoned,” Kagura explained.

Kouga paced along the edges of the barrier. He pulled his much neglected sword from its sheath and pushed it through the barrier, it came back with smoke sizzling off the blade. “Yeah, I don't think we'll be passing through this.”

“The miko can destroy it,” Kagura offered. All eyes turned to Kagome.

“Me?”

“Your purification powers,” Sesshoumaru said thoughtfully. He suddenly felt hopeful; he had faith in Kagome's abilities even if she didn't. “I have seen you do it before. Concentrate,” he encouraged.

Three pairs of eyes blinked at Sesshoumaru. Kagure leaned towards Kouga and whispered in his ear. “Has he been like this the whole time?”

“Like what?”

“Emotional?”

Kouga shrugged and sheathed his sword. He turned towards Kagome with a grin. “He's right; you can do it if you concentrate.”

“All right,” Kagome agreed determined. She held out an arrow and placed the tip of it in the barrier as she concentrated with all her might. The arrow began to glow pink and Kouga and Kagura stepped away from the purifying power while Sesshoumaru watched as the barrier began to visible weaken.

Then it was gone. Kagome stood there panting from the effort and smiled. “Now we go kill a demon.”

“Sesshoumaru has to do it,” Kagura warned.

“Why? If it's dead, it's dead. What does it matter who kills it?” Kouga argued.

He was never answered because at that moment the large insect-like demon began to approach them, stumbling on its remaining legs. “Where is its weak point?” Sesshoumaru shouted after having jumped out of the way of the creature's lumbering attack.

“It's belly!” Kagura shouted as she mounted her feather and flew away.

“Traitor!” Kouga shouted at the retreating figure as he ran towards Kagome and scooped her out of the way of a flailing leg.

“It's fine!” Sesshoumaru roared pulling out the sword he had obtained during his time as a human. It was a clumsy metal weapon compared to his true weapons, but given his lack of demonic energy he couldn't fight with those arms.

He rolled out of the way of another attacking insect limb only to see that limb sizzle in pink smoke as Kagome's purification arrow struck it. “Go!” she shouted.

Sesshoumaru wasted no time, though he disliked how his heart hammered in his chest as his adrenalin levels grew. He was then under the belly of the beast and slammed up the sword with all his might. The blow would have been harder if he had been able to use two hands, but even with his human strength he was able to pierce the soft underbelly.

The demon's insides began to spill and covered Sesshoumaru head to toe. He stumbled away from the crumbling parasitic demon before collapsing. The last thing he heard was Kagome's frantic shouts of his name.

“Sesshoumaru!!”

oooooOOOOOoooooOOOOOooooo

“Why am I pinned to a tree?”

“Inuyasha!” Shippo shouted latching onto the half-demon's red-clad leg. “You're you!”

“Keh. Of course I'm me, who else would I be?” Inuyasha asked annoyed. He glanced around to see his friends Miroku and Sango and then his eyes landed on Kikyo. “Kikyo? Why are you here? Where's Kagome? Where's Sesshoumaru?”

“You don't remember?” Shippo asked while everyone else in silent shock at having seen their friend returned to them. “You went crazy after you were attacked by that demon.”

“What are you talking about?” Inuyasha asked confused.

Miroku grasped hold of Inuyasha's shoulder, a large grin spread across his face. “They must have defeated the demon.” He reached for the arrow, but he was quickly reminded that his holy powers weren't strong enough to defeat those of Kikyo. He turned towards the undead miko. “You can release him now.”

Sango pulled out her bone-boomerang and flashed them an apologetic look. “Just in case,” she explained.

After Kikyo released Inuyasha she remained silent. Inuyasha rubbed his sore shoulder. “So where are they?”

“They ran into the forest, you were trying to kill them,” Miroku explained.

“Why would I try to kill them?”

“Kouga was searching for them to offer aid,” Kikyo explained.

“That flee-infested wolf?” Inuyasha demanded, glaring at Miroku for answers.

The monk raised his hand palms outward in peace. Or more accurately, Kazanna facing outward, prayer beads jingling. “Obviously they were able to win the battle and restore you both to your natural forms.”

Inuyasha looked down at his hands, seeing the remains of stripes disappearing. Glimpses of fragmented memories returned to him of trying to kill his friends. He began to chuckle. “Good riddance, I didn't like having a human version of the Great Sesshoumaru-sama tagging along.”

He looked up, his golden eyes fierce with determination as he look from one friend to another, his gaze lingering on Kikyo. “Well let's go find them!”