InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Naraku's Halloween ❯ who will kill Naraku? ( Chapter 3 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

Chapter 3

Who will kill Naraku?

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Kikyo looks up from the herbs she was gathering in the forest. ‘Something is happening in the spirit world. Ghosts are gathering. Power is building.’ She thinks.

She summons her insects to her. “Carry me.” She points off in a direction. “I need to go there.”

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Kagura and Naraku, on her feather, land next to a fire-burned ruined building.

“Here, sir?” Kagura glances around. The hairs on the back of her neck are rising. There is something about this place which is causing goose bumps to crawl down her spine.

“Yes.” Naraku steps off the feather and looks around, getting his bearings. “There.” He points off to one side of the building.

Naraku glances around, ‘Power is building. Massive power.’ He thinks. His eyes narrow, ‘I’m not going to have time to get fancy.’

“Use your powers and animated the bodies that should be there.” Naraku orders.

Kagura gestures in that direction.

Bones wiggle out of the ground and join together. Two skeletons are formed. An adult skeleton and a child skeleton. A couple of bones are missing from each skeleton, and some of the bones broken and jagged. “Something ate the bodies, sir.” Kagura explains.

“Wolves, probably. I heard some wolf cries as I left.” Naraku smiles, “Have the small one come here, Kagura.”

He grabs the shards from around his neck. “Now to destroy it, totally.”

Magical power builds within the shards . . .

The ghost boy stands next to his skeleton in broad daylight.
Beside him stand more ghosts. Next to them floats an even greater number of ghosts.

Ghosts appear surrounding Kagura and Naraku.

As one voice they yell, “DIE! NARAKU!”

“Shield!” Naraku yells and the shards form a force field around him.

Kagura jumps next him in time to be covered by the field as well.

A glowing dome forms around Naraku and Kagura.

Multicolored rainbows of power strike the force field. Sparks fly.

“Those attacks are aimed at our souls, Kagura. They mean to destroy us totally.” Naraku says in a low voice.

Kagura looks around. All she can see are ghosts. They are attacking the dome, trying to destroy it and destroy Naraku. She can feel the hate flow from the ghosts.

Her eyes narrow, ‘I remember that one. One of Kouga’s wolves.’ She looks around again. ‘They are not going to be satisfied with just his death.’ She thinks. She shivers.

Naraku using his free hand points to the skeleton of the ghost boy. It collapsed outside the dome when Kagura entered the dome. “I need to get to that. Once I do that, I can win.”

The dome shrinks.

Naraku looks at the shards, ‘Even against the power of the shards, they are winning. If I don’t do something, the dome will collapse. And . . . They will enjoy ripping my soul into bits.’

“But I cannot hold the shield and do what I need to do with the boy at the same time.” Naraku says.

Kagura swallows hard and says the hardest words she’ll ever say, “How I can I help, sir?”
“Hold the shards and keep the dome up.” Naraku says, “We’ll walk over to the body.”

“And?”

Naraku swallows hard. “And I’ll do what I need to do to live.”

He looks at Kagura in the eyes and slowly extends his hand with the shards in it.

Kagura nods and slowly takes the shards from Naraku.

The dome shrinks.

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“Naraku!” Kagome yells and she stands up in fright inside Keade’s hut. She puts her hands to her ears, trying to block out sounds that only she can hear. She’s falls over backward.

“Kagome!” Inu-yasha yells as he grabs her, she’s collapsed.

“The ghosts of the dead are yelling for his death.” She whispers through the pain. “I can hear their cries of triumph. They’ve trapped him.”

“Who?” Miroku asks.

“What?” Sango asks.

“The ghosts of all the ones Naraku has killed.” Kagome shivers. “They have joined together to kill him.”

“They can’t kill the bastard! I’m going to!” Inu-yasha yells!

“Unless something changes, He’s dead.” Kagome says in a dead certain voice.

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Kagura falls to her knees, tears streams from her eyes. “The pain . . . The hate . . . ”

“Fight it, Kagura. If you don’t, we die.” Naraku says.

Naraku glares at an old crone standing next to the ghostly boy. ‘Now I know. All the ghosts of those I’ve killed have joined together. They are using the boy and the promise to him to attack me.’

The old crone glares back. ‘I remember her. I killed her early on, to get her magical books, scrolls and items. I wonder how long it’s taken her to organize this.’ Naraku thinks.

Through gritted teeth Kagura moans. She closes her eyes and her fist whitens around the shard. “I’m not going to lose to someone that I’ve already killed once.” She puts her other hand on the ground to steady herself.

Kagura slowly rises. “Let’s go.” She whispers through the pain.

They both walk over to the boy’s skeleton.

As they walk to the skeleton, Naraku picks up a piece of tile that was part of the roof of the building. Now it is just a piece of trash that occupies the site. He brushes off the dirt and grime. ‘This will do.’ He thinks. He pulls out his ink and brush set with his other hand.

They both reach the skeleton. Naraku bends down and prepares the ink.

The dome shrinks.

Kagura collapses to her knees. “I, I don’t know how much longer.”

“Don’t think that. You must survive for at least a few more minutes.” Naraku says.

He pulls out some incense that was in his robes. ‘I had this for disguising the smell of the dead when it gets too bad.’ He thinks, ‘but it’ll do for this.’ He also takes out some paper.

Naraku starts to dig next to the skeleton. His arms change to help him dig faster.

He digs a shallow hole in the dirt. Naraku glances around and he locates the ghost boy.

Naraku swallows and nods in his direction. He gently picks up and he carefully places the skeleton in the shallow hole. He covers the shallow grave.

The dome shrinks.

Kagura collapses onto her back.

The dome stabilizes only a meter off the ground.

Naraku crawls as he takes the piece of tile and writes on it. “I don’t know what you were called, boy. But, when a person dies, they are given a new name. This is yours, now.” He says.

He rips the paper into two. He writes his name on one strip. He reaches over to Kagura with the other strip. He puts it on the ground next to her. He places the brush in the hand that is not holding the shards. “Write your name. Now!” He yells.

Kagura grimaces, but her hand moves and the brush meets the paper.

‘A child’s handwriting. But it’ll do.’ Naraku thinks as he takes the paper from her.

Naraku places the tile, with the writing on it at the head of the grave. He places the two strips of paper on either side of the tile.

He finds a rock and places the incense on it. A glance and the incense ignites.

He takes a deep breath. ‘It’s this or die.’ He thinks.

Naraku, closes his eyes, claps his hands together and prays for good things to happen to the soul of the son he just buried.

He opens his eyes and locates the ghostly boy that started this.
The boy looks at Naraku, looks at the grave and the grave stone. .

He nods his head yes, he’s accepted the name.


“NO! LET US DESTROY NARAKU!” a great cry erupts from the surrounding ghosts.

The ghostly boy smiles as he fades away. His plan worked and he can be reborn now.

Naraku smiles. ‘Without him, without that stupid promise to get through my personal shields,’ he thinks as he looks around.

The dome expands.

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“No . . . ” Kagome moans.

“What is it?” Inu-yasha demands.

“They’ve lost the focus. The one thing that tied them together and allowed them to act as one.” Kagome whispers.

“Naraku wins.”

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‘Once I fulled my promise, the ghostly boy was no longer tied to the earth and with his leaving, the other ghosts do not have a channel through my defenses.’ He thinks.

He reaches over to Kagura and takes the shards back.

The dome expands greatly.

“Now. I’m in command.” Naraku grins as he stands up. “Now to send you to the deepest, darkest pits of hell.”

Bolts of black lightning streak from the shards. They hit the old crone ghost, the one that was standing next to the boy. She vanishes, with only a soul wrenching cry of pain as proof the ghost was there.

Kagura shakes herself and she tries to sit up. She looks at the hand that held the shards. Her palm is burned through. She can see the bones in her hand. ‘I can heal that. But the pain.’ She thinks.

She looks at Naraku, a question in her eyes.

“Once he became my son, then I could bury him properly. Anybody that could throw a temper tantrum like he did, could not be a good boy.”

She collapses unconscious.

The other ghosts vanish and scatter to escape Naraku’s wrath.

Naraku looks around. All the ghosts have vanished.

He collapses to his knees. “Never.” He sucks in a deep breath. “Never have I come so close to death.”

‘I’m going to rest up before I wake her up. If she sees me when I’m this weak, who knows what she might do.’ He thinks as he looks as Kagura.

He says to himself, “Hmmm. She saved my life. Perhaps the rumors I’ve heard about her are wrong.”

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Later . . .

Kagura and Naraku vanish into the distance.

Kikyo steps out from the shadows. ‘The battle occurred here.’ She thinks.

She walks over and sees the newly dug grave. Her mouth twitches as she reads the name. ‘I wonder what the story is behind that.’

“Ghosts.” She says as she looks around. “That’s why I use only girl child souls. Their parents are still alive, so they don’t know those souls are gone. And, even if, they knew, well, girl children are not important enough to get mad about.”

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The end.

For your information the ghost boy’s new name: Gishi Makai. (Adopted child of Hell very loose translation)

I never said the ghostly boy was a good boy . . . a ghostly grin . . .

Adoption was very common in Japan. Families even adopted the dead persons. (Once the imperial family adopted a dead noble, and named him an emperor. Oddly enough, the noble in life was a rebel. He attempted to declare himself emperor, and was exiled. He died in exile. Kyoto, the capital city, then had a couple of natural disasters. IT was decided that his ghost was haunting Kyoto. So, to appease the ghost, the imperial family adopted him and named him Emperor.)

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An optional scene from the fist draft of this story. I decided against it, and added the old crone in the story. If you, the reader like it, that’s great, if you don’t like it, ignore it.

Kanna lowers her mirror. No expression is on her face.

‘Kagura didn’t turn on Naraku.’ She thinks. ‘My plan counted on that. And I never thought the Naraku would lower himself to pray for the boy.’

‘Next time . . . I wouldn’t make those mistakes.’ She thinks.

‘All that time wasted, finding the boy, convincing him to agree to the plan, organizing the ghosts. Torturing the astrologer so he would say the right thing in front of Naraku. Even allowing myself to attacked in front of Naraku to divert his attention. Wasted.’

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Thank you for reading
jeff shelton