InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Small Moments ❯ Into the Fray ( Chapter 14 )
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By: ladygriddlebone 
The Inu-tachi fight their first real battle together and emerge victorious, if a little soggy.
Anime/Manga: InuYasha Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Drama / Romance / Angst | Type: Continuation | Uploaded On: 04.25.2010 | Pages: 2 | Words: 2.8K | Visits: 658 | Status: Completed
The Inu-tachi fight their first real battle together and emerge victorious, if a little soggy.
Anime/Manga: InuYasha Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Drama / Romance / Angst | Type: Continuation | Uploaded On: 04.25.2010 | Pages: 2 | Words: 2.8K | Visits: 658 | Status: Completed
Sango was feeling significantly less than pleased as Kirara took to the air. This situation was no good at all. She was sitting in her usual place, just behind the thick mane of fur along Kirara's shoulders, with Houshi-sama behind her. He had one arm around her waist to keep from falling - something she had reluctantly agreed to after his second near-fall - and kept the Suijin tucked safely against him with the other, lest she be swept away by the rushing air. Both of their weapons, which seemed suddenly to be ungainly and large, were pinned across her lap. If they were going to fly into battle again, she would have to find a better way to do it; this way, she was unable to strike quickly with her weapon, and there was the very real possibility that she might knock Houshi-sama off his place if she tried.
The last time she had flown with another person like this, it had been with Kohaku, before... when there had been less need for haste, or weaponry. Kohaku, her little brother, who had died because she had realized too late what was going on. Why was she thinking of Kohaku now? Because two other little boys could lose their lives if she screwed up, and because countless other children already had been killed by this creature.
Sango steeled her resolve, setting aside the painful memories so she could focus on the task at hand. There would be time for remembering, for mourning, later, but right now her friends were in danger and she could not take the chance that her hesitation might cost them their lives.
The monk leaned closer to her, asking, "Sango, is something the matter?"
She guided Kirara into a steep, banked dive, both because it shut him up and saved her having to answer the question and because she had seen something out of place near the Suijin's shrine. There was something large in the water, and it did not look friendly.
"Did you see that?" she asked, almost shouting to be heard over the wind.
"It's Inuyasha," Houshi-sama said. She saw suddenly that he was right. The hanyou was battling with a monster that looked like it had once been the impostor Suijin.
"Then we'll take the Suijin to Kagome," Sango decided aloud, shifting her knees to indicate to Kirara that they should change direction and approach from behind. If the creature decided to attack them right now, they were in no position to fight back, so it was best to avoid being seen. A quick look back told her that it had grabbed a hold of Inuyasha and dived beneath the lake, but there was no sense taking chances. They were almost to their destination anyway.
She had feared, in an offhanded, back-of-the-mind way, what their landing would bring. Necessity had dictated that she bring the monk with her this way, but he had already more than demonstrated that he did not always have his priorities straightened out. She was not looking forward to having to straighten them out for him again.
But when they landed on one of the mansion's porches, he did not do whatever lecherous thing it was she had been afraid he might; instead he withdrew discretely, obviously glad to be back on solid ground, even if it was leading them straight into battle.
"Here," she said, offering his shakujou. If they were going to have to fight, he would need it.
He took it with a nod of thanks, and they set off down the porch to where Kagome and two small boys were watching the battle.
"Kagome-chan!" Sango shouted when they were close enough.
Houshi-sama rushed ahead. "Are you okay?"
Sango saw immediately why he asked. Kagome was a mess. Her expression held a mixture of fear and horror; she was worried about Inuyasha. All that was visible of the battle was a swirling vortex and a stream of bubbles. If Inuyasha had been underwater all this time... no wonder Kagome was worried. He might be a half-demon, but he needed to breathe or he would die.
"Your friend is down there?" the Suijin asked. "Please put me down, Houshi."
Houshi-sama did as she asked, and she removed one of her sparkling pearl earrings, tossing it into the lake and ordering the waters to part. Sango felt a shiver go up her spine as the waters did as the Suijin ordered, parting to reveal the battle that had been going on below. The impostor Suijin had transformed into a creature that seemed more snake and less man, and was gripping Inuyasha tightly in its tail. But as the waters rolled back to reveal the fight, it craned its head upward, taking note of the interlopers.
"Get back," Sango urged, "It's seen us."
Kagome and the boys moved out of the way just in time. The impostor Suijin surged upward, its halberd at the ready. It struck the wooden platform they were standing on, right where Kagome had been kneeling a moment before, and the wood dissolved into bubbling foam.
"You!" the impostor said, its expression decidedly unpleasant, even for such an ugly creature. Sango scowled, and hauled Hiraikotsu into a defensive stance. "You lot have been interfering all night. It stops now!"
"Really, now?" Houshi-sama asked.
"We have the real Suijin-sama," Sango said, "who will -"
"Who's asleep!" Kagome supplied, her voice high-pitched and irate. She was right. The tiny woman was sound asleep in the palm of Kagome's hand, snoring quietly. "It looks like she used up all of her power," Kagome added, her tone much calmer.
"Already?" Sango sighed, wondering why they had gone to all the trouble of rescuing the real Suijin if she had so little power.
"That being the case, we'll just exterminate you instead," Houshi-sama said to the impostor, a little too pleasantly for Sango's taste. He charged forward, his staff ready to strike. Sango hoped that he actually had any spiritual power, or else this could quickly turn into a suicidal move, but she followed him anyway. What else could she do? She could not just stand by and let the impostor Suijin - whatever it was: demon, spirit, or god - kill all of these people.
The impostor grinned. "We'll see about that. As long as I have this halberd -" It cut off as it toppled backward, suddenly off balance.
"Hey, bastard!" Inuyasha shouted from below, where he had dug his claws into the impostor's scaly back, "Don't forget about me! I'm not done with you yet!" The impostor rose up again, slithering ever higher into the air, completely disregarding the hanyou and everyone else as it headed skyward.
Seizing her opportunity, Sango called for Kirara and leapt onto the cat's back as she transformed. They had long ago practiced this sort of maneuver until it was second nature for both of them. They needed to get up in the air - someone had to cut the thing's head off or the situation would quickly get out of hand. As they whipped past Inuyasha, she shouted a warning, "Draw back! I'll get him." Catching sight of the hanyou's glare from the corner of one eye, she felt compelled to add, "The only way to contain a demon like this is to cut off the head!"
Kirara snarled; Sango recognized the signal and turned her attention ahead. The impostor Suijin was not even paying attention to her - its gaze was focused up and ahead. It was giving her the perfect chance to strike, and she was not about to let that chance get away.
She gave a battle cry and hurled her weapon straight at it. Despite the stab of pain from her still-healing back, her aim was true. Unfortunately, the impostor was ready for the attack, and knocked her weapon aside with its halberd. Sango grimaced as she caught it, which was no easy task, considering it was now covered in bubbles. She was lucky it had not dissolved like the pier.
As if deciding she was no threat, the impostor Suijin turned its attention back to the sky. "I will show you the true power of the holy halberd!" it announced, raising the weapon toward the clouds. Thick storm clouds rolled in at its command, plunging the area into near total darkness. For a moment, it caught Sango off guard, and she felt fear pull at her heart. It was dangerous to fly in complete darkness like this. But... the impostor had turned its back to her again, and she could still make out its silhouette against the advancing clouds.
She threw her weapon again, this time without the battle cry, but the impostor Suijin blocked the attack again, and this time he seemed significantly less than pleased.
Lightning flashed.
"Futile," the impostor proclaimed. This time when he swung the halberd, great spouts of water appeared out of nowhere and rushed toward Sango. She barely had time to gasp in a last breath before she was hurled forcibly from Kirara's back and was tumbling through the air, with impostor Suijin charging straight for her, its halberd ready to strike.
This was not going according to plan. It would have been simple, if not for that halberd... She did not want to think about what would happen if the impostor used its power on a human.
And then Inuyasha was there, knocking the impostor off course, and trying to wrestle the halberd out of its grip. And Kirara was there, too, having recovered from the water spout attack. Sango managed to turn herself over in midair; Kirara was there to catch her, and not a moment too soon. They raced back upward and into the fray. Sango did not even mind that she had lost her Hiraikotsu somewhere - it was obvious that she could not land a blow with the weapon anyway.
"Inuyasha!" she shouted. "How did you get up here?"
"I climbed," he snarled, still trying to get the halberd away from the impostor Suijin, "while you were playing decoy."
"Decoy?!"
She did not have time to be angry because the next thing she knew, Inuyasha had ripped the halberd out of the creature's grip, and taken its arm with it. Her eyes went wide with surprise; she had not realized that Inuyasha was quite that strong.
"Damn you!" the impostor Suijin yelled, its voice shifting into a hiss as it transformed.
"Without the halberd, he's really just a snake..." Sango mused, half to herself and half to Kirara. She watched for a moment as Inuyasha and the snake plunged downward, and then snapped out of it. "Kirara, we need to find Hiraikotsu!" Inuyasha might have been able to rip the thing's arm off, but she sincerely doubted he would be able to remove the head from the body. Not while he was clinging to it like that, and trying to keep it from regaining the halberd. She would have to be the one to strike.
With rain pouring down by the bucketful and the waterspouts still swirling dangerously, finding her weapon was no easy task, much less recovering it. She counted herself lucky that Hiraikotsu was designed to float in water, rather than sink.
She had only just pulled it from the roiling water when the snake, mangled and bloody, burst writhing from the water. Inuyasha must still be fighting the thing... underwater again. Did that hanyou never learn? She hefted the Hiraikotsu over her shoulder and threw it again; with the snake distracted by Inuyasha's attacks, it was unable to dodge hers, and the Hiraikotsu cut the tail clean off.
Her weapon bobbed to the surface amidst deathly quiet. There was no sign of activity from beneath the water. What had happened? Had she aimed poorly and managed to strike Inuyasha as well? There was blood in the water, but she could not tell if it belonged only to the snake...
Suddenly the creature burst from the water again, head first this time. If it had looked beaten before, it certainly did now. Its lower jaw had been peeled back, leaking blood and gore even as it flew. Having failed to retrieve the halberd, it made no attempt to attack Sango, even though she was close to where it had emerged, moving right past almost as if it did not see her... or its focus was elsewhere. "It's... running away?"
An instant later, too late, she realized its intent. "It's heading toward the village!"
There was no sign of Inuyasha, but she could not risk taking the time to look for him while the snake attacked the village. "Come on, Kirara," she urged as they raced after the snake, "Inuyasha can take care of himself. We've got to take care of this."
She pulled Kirara up short when she caught sight of something ahead: Houshi-sama was waiting with two of the real Suijin's fish servants. He must have guessed that the snake would try something if he was unable to recover the halberd's power. Suddenly, she remembered a whispered warning Kagome had given her: when Miroku uses the weapon in his hand, the kazaana, get out of the way. She had only heard passing mention of this secret weapon of his, and had little idea of how it actually worked, but she had a feeling he was about to use it now.
And he did. He pulled away the beads that he normally kept wrapped around his right hand and arm, and opened what could only be described as a vortex... like a whirlpool in the air, sucking in everything that came close, including the entirety of the giant snake. Her heart pounding as the wind rushed around her, Sango was glad she'd remembered Kagome's warning and stayed out of the way. That would be a horrible way to die...
"Sango!" Houshi-sama's voice startled her.
"Ah, yes?"
"Any word of Inuyasha?"
She guided Kirara closer and lower so it would be easier to talk. "No," she said, shaking her head. "I lost sight of him a while ago... If I'd known you were going to catch the snake before it could get to the village, I'd have looked for him..."
"He's too stubborn to drown, anyway."
She smiled a little at that. "You're probably right." She hesitated a moment, awkwardly. "Uh... want a lift?"
He looked surprised; she was a little surprised, herself. She had not really meant to offer - she was still quite angry with him, after all - but it was growing light and, after a battle like that, she guessed he was as tired as she. It would be unkind of her to make him swim back to the Suijin's mansion when they could fly.
"Of course," he said, as if the question had not been awkward at all.
She slung Hiraikotsu across her back and offered him a hand even though Kirara had by now drifted low enough that it would have been easy to climb aboard unaided. Still... if she held his hand to help him up, she knew where that hand, at least, was. That way she could be a bit more certain that he was not going to take advantage of her kind gesture.
The clouds parted suddenly, bathing the lake in the warm golden light of dawn. Sango breathed a sigh of relief that turned into a yawn. Houshi-sama slumped against her, perhaps dozing off himself, his arms looped loosely around her waist - a position that was, in her mind, and in spite of the fact that her weapon was keeping them safely separated, entirely too intimate. She would definitely have to lay down some ground rules if they were going to fly together in the future. But that could wait until she'd had a chance to get into some warm, dry clothes.
And, she decided as another yawn crept over her, until she'd had a well-deserved nap.
The last time she had flown with another person like this, it had been with Kohaku, before... when there had been less need for haste, or weaponry. Kohaku, her little brother, who had died because she had realized too late what was going on. Why was she thinking of Kohaku now? Because two other little boys could lose their lives if she screwed up, and because countless other children already had been killed by this creature.
Sango steeled her resolve, setting aside the painful memories so she could focus on the task at hand. There would be time for remembering, for mourning, later, but right now her friends were in danger and she could not take the chance that her hesitation might cost them their lives.
The monk leaned closer to her, asking, "Sango, is something the matter?"
She guided Kirara into a steep, banked dive, both because it shut him up and saved her having to answer the question and because she had seen something out of place near the Suijin's shrine. There was something large in the water, and it did not look friendly.
"Did you see that?" she asked, almost shouting to be heard over the wind.
"It's Inuyasha," Houshi-sama said. She saw suddenly that he was right. The hanyou was battling with a monster that looked like it had once been the impostor Suijin.
"Then we'll take the Suijin to Kagome," Sango decided aloud, shifting her knees to indicate to Kirara that they should change direction and approach from behind. If the creature decided to attack them right now, they were in no position to fight back, so it was best to avoid being seen. A quick look back told her that it had grabbed a hold of Inuyasha and dived beneath the lake, but there was no sense taking chances. They were almost to their destination anyway.
She had feared, in an offhanded, back-of-the-mind way, what their landing would bring. Necessity had dictated that she bring the monk with her this way, but he had already more than demonstrated that he did not always have his priorities straightened out. She was not looking forward to having to straighten them out for him again.
But when they landed on one of the mansion's porches, he did not do whatever lecherous thing it was she had been afraid he might; instead he withdrew discretely, obviously glad to be back on solid ground, even if it was leading them straight into battle.
"Here," she said, offering his shakujou. If they were going to have to fight, he would need it.
He took it with a nod of thanks, and they set off down the porch to where Kagome and two small boys were watching the battle.
"Kagome-chan!" Sango shouted when they were close enough.
Houshi-sama rushed ahead. "Are you okay?"
Sango saw immediately why he asked. Kagome was a mess. Her expression held a mixture of fear and horror; she was worried about Inuyasha. All that was visible of the battle was a swirling vortex and a stream of bubbles. If Inuyasha had been underwater all this time... no wonder Kagome was worried. He might be a half-demon, but he needed to breathe or he would die.
"Your friend is down there?" the Suijin asked. "Please put me down, Houshi."
Houshi-sama did as she asked, and she removed one of her sparkling pearl earrings, tossing it into the lake and ordering the waters to part. Sango felt a shiver go up her spine as the waters did as the Suijin ordered, parting to reveal the battle that had been going on below. The impostor Suijin had transformed into a creature that seemed more snake and less man, and was gripping Inuyasha tightly in its tail. But as the waters rolled back to reveal the fight, it craned its head upward, taking note of the interlopers.
"Get back," Sango urged, "It's seen us."
Kagome and the boys moved out of the way just in time. The impostor Suijin surged upward, its halberd at the ready. It struck the wooden platform they were standing on, right where Kagome had been kneeling a moment before, and the wood dissolved into bubbling foam.
"You!" the impostor said, its expression decidedly unpleasant, even for such an ugly creature. Sango scowled, and hauled Hiraikotsu into a defensive stance. "You lot have been interfering all night. It stops now!"
"Really, now?" Houshi-sama asked.
"We have the real Suijin-sama," Sango said, "who will -"
"Who's asleep!" Kagome supplied, her voice high-pitched and irate. She was right. The tiny woman was sound asleep in the palm of Kagome's hand, snoring quietly. "It looks like she used up all of her power," Kagome added, her tone much calmer.
"Already?" Sango sighed, wondering why they had gone to all the trouble of rescuing the real Suijin if she had so little power.
"That being the case, we'll just exterminate you instead," Houshi-sama said to the impostor, a little too pleasantly for Sango's taste. He charged forward, his staff ready to strike. Sango hoped that he actually had any spiritual power, or else this could quickly turn into a suicidal move, but she followed him anyway. What else could she do? She could not just stand by and let the impostor Suijin - whatever it was: demon, spirit, or god - kill all of these people.
The impostor grinned. "We'll see about that. As long as I have this halberd -" It cut off as it toppled backward, suddenly off balance.
"Hey, bastard!" Inuyasha shouted from below, where he had dug his claws into the impostor's scaly back, "Don't forget about me! I'm not done with you yet!" The impostor rose up again, slithering ever higher into the air, completely disregarding the hanyou and everyone else as it headed skyward.
Seizing her opportunity, Sango called for Kirara and leapt onto the cat's back as she transformed. They had long ago practiced this sort of maneuver until it was second nature for both of them. They needed to get up in the air - someone had to cut the thing's head off or the situation would quickly get out of hand. As they whipped past Inuyasha, she shouted a warning, "Draw back! I'll get him." Catching sight of the hanyou's glare from the corner of one eye, she felt compelled to add, "The only way to contain a demon like this is to cut off the head!"
Kirara snarled; Sango recognized the signal and turned her attention ahead. The impostor Suijin was not even paying attention to her - its gaze was focused up and ahead. It was giving her the perfect chance to strike, and she was not about to let that chance get away.
She gave a battle cry and hurled her weapon straight at it. Despite the stab of pain from her still-healing back, her aim was true. Unfortunately, the impostor was ready for the attack, and knocked her weapon aside with its halberd. Sango grimaced as she caught it, which was no easy task, considering it was now covered in bubbles. She was lucky it had not dissolved like the pier.
As if deciding she was no threat, the impostor Suijin turned its attention back to the sky. "I will show you the true power of the holy halberd!" it announced, raising the weapon toward the clouds. Thick storm clouds rolled in at its command, plunging the area into near total darkness. For a moment, it caught Sango off guard, and she felt fear pull at her heart. It was dangerous to fly in complete darkness like this. But... the impostor had turned its back to her again, and she could still make out its silhouette against the advancing clouds.
She threw her weapon again, this time without the battle cry, but the impostor Suijin blocked the attack again, and this time he seemed significantly less than pleased.
Lightning flashed.
"Futile," the impostor proclaimed. This time when he swung the halberd, great spouts of water appeared out of nowhere and rushed toward Sango. She barely had time to gasp in a last breath before she was hurled forcibly from Kirara's back and was tumbling through the air, with impostor Suijin charging straight for her, its halberd ready to strike.
This was not going according to plan. It would have been simple, if not for that halberd... She did not want to think about what would happen if the impostor used its power on a human.
And then Inuyasha was there, knocking the impostor off course, and trying to wrestle the halberd out of its grip. And Kirara was there, too, having recovered from the water spout attack. Sango managed to turn herself over in midair; Kirara was there to catch her, and not a moment too soon. They raced back upward and into the fray. Sango did not even mind that she had lost her Hiraikotsu somewhere - it was obvious that she could not land a blow with the weapon anyway.
"Inuyasha!" she shouted. "How did you get up here?"
"I climbed," he snarled, still trying to get the halberd away from the impostor Suijin, "while you were playing decoy."
"Decoy?!"
She did not have time to be angry because the next thing she knew, Inuyasha had ripped the halberd out of the creature's grip, and taken its arm with it. Her eyes went wide with surprise; she had not realized that Inuyasha was quite that strong.
"Damn you!" the impostor Suijin yelled, its voice shifting into a hiss as it transformed.
"Without the halberd, he's really just a snake..." Sango mused, half to herself and half to Kirara. She watched for a moment as Inuyasha and the snake plunged downward, and then snapped out of it. "Kirara, we need to find Hiraikotsu!" Inuyasha might have been able to rip the thing's arm off, but she sincerely doubted he would be able to remove the head from the body. Not while he was clinging to it like that, and trying to keep it from regaining the halberd. She would have to be the one to strike.
With rain pouring down by the bucketful and the waterspouts still swirling dangerously, finding her weapon was no easy task, much less recovering it. She counted herself lucky that Hiraikotsu was designed to float in water, rather than sink.
She had only just pulled it from the roiling water when the snake, mangled and bloody, burst writhing from the water. Inuyasha must still be fighting the thing... underwater again. Did that hanyou never learn? She hefted the Hiraikotsu over her shoulder and threw it again; with the snake distracted by Inuyasha's attacks, it was unable to dodge hers, and the Hiraikotsu cut the tail clean off.
Her weapon bobbed to the surface amidst deathly quiet. There was no sign of activity from beneath the water. What had happened? Had she aimed poorly and managed to strike Inuyasha as well? There was blood in the water, but she could not tell if it belonged only to the snake...
Suddenly the creature burst from the water again, head first this time. If it had looked beaten before, it certainly did now. Its lower jaw had been peeled back, leaking blood and gore even as it flew. Having failed to retrieve the halberd, it made no attempt to attack Sango, even though she was close to where it had emerged, moving right past almost as if it did not see her... or its focus was elsewhere. "It's... running away?"
An instant later, too late, she realized its intent. "It's heading toward the village!"
There was no sign of Inuyasha, but she could not risk taking the time to look for him while the snake attacked the village. "Come on, Kirara," she urged as they raced after the snake, "Inuyasha can take care of himself. We've got to take care of this."
She pulled Kirara up short when she caught sight of something ahead: Houshi-sama was waiting with two of the real Suijin's fish servants. He must have guessed that the snake would try something if he was unable to recover the halberd's power. Suddenly, she remembered a whispered warning Kagome had given her: when Miroku uses the weapon in his hand, the kazaana, get out of the way. She had only heard passing mention of this secret weapon of his, and had little idea of how it actually worked, but she had a feeling he was about to use it now.
And he did. He pulled away the beads that he normally kept wrapped around his right hand and arm, and opened what could only be described as a vortex... like a whirlpool in the air, sucking in everything that came close, including the entirety of the giant snake. Her heart pounding as the wind rushed around her, Sango was glad she'd remembered Kagome's warning and stayed out of the way. That would be a horrible way to die...
"Sango!" Houshi-sama's voice startled her.
"Ah, yes?"
"Any word of Inuyasha?"
She guided Kirara closer and lower so it would be easier to talk. "No," she said, shaking her head. "I lost sight of him a while ago... If I'd known you were going to catch the snake before it could get to the village, I'd have looked for him..."
"He's too stubborn to drown, anyway."
She smiled a little at that. "You're probably right." She hesitated a moment, awkwardly. "Uh... want a lift?"
He looked surprised; she was a little surprised, herself. She had not really meant to offer - she was still quite angry with him, after all - but it was growing light and, after a battle like that, she guessed he was as tired as she. It would be unkind of her to make him swim back to the Suijin's mansion when they could fly.
"Of course," he said, as if the question had not been awkward at all.
She slung Hiraikotsu across her back and offered him a hand even though Kirara had by now drifted low enough that it would have been easy to climb aboard unaided. Still... if she held his hand to help him up, she knew where that hand, at least, was. That way she could be a bit more certain that he was not going to take advantage of her kind gesture.
The clouds parted suddenly, bathing the lake in the warm golden light of dawn. Sango breathed a sigh of relief that turned into a yawn. Houshi-sama slumped against her, perhaps dozing off himself, his arms looped loosely around her waist - a position that was, in her mind, and in spite of the fact that her weapon was keeping them safely separated, entirely too intimate. She would definitely have to lay down some ground rules if they were going to fly together in the future. But that could wait until she'd had a chance to get into some warm, dry clothes.
And, she decided as another yawn crept over her, until she'd had a well-deserved nap.