InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ The Edge of Resistance ❯ The Siege ( Chapter 30 )

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

Author’s notes:
OK, I know it’s been too long since I’ve updated but, to make up for it, here are TWO chapters, and quite long chapters too.

To recap, if you don’t want to go back and re-read anything, when we left off Inuyasha et al were heading toward the Hyouden, having just been reunited and having just met Shinme. Kagome and Sesshoumaru had a little tiff, until Ayame’s ghost sent them a not-so-subtle message to knock it off, and Tamotsu returned to tell them they better get their shit together because a boatload of enemies were marching their way. So…three, two, one…GO!


The Edge of Resistance
Book Two: The Dissidents

“Whatever course you decide upon, there is always someone to tell you that you are wrong. There are always difficulties arising which tempt you to believe that your critics are right. To map out a course of action and follow it to an end requires courage.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

“What now?” Kagome asked.

Jaken looked from her to his lord, nervously shifting his staff from one hand to the other and shuffling his feet in the soft iris petals.

“I think we should send her away,” Tamotsu told his cousin.

“What?” Kagome started. “Do you mean me?”

Sesshoumaru considered it.

“No,” he said after a moment. “The risk is too great.”

“Unless we all go,” Tamotsu suggested.

“I will not abandon my home to be overrun by rats,” Sesshoumaru answered.

“I had a feeling you’d say something like that,” Tamotsu said.

He turned to Kikyou.

“What do you think?”

She was silent for a moment, then drew a deep breath before answering.

“It is too perilous to send only some of us, or one of us, away,” she agreed. “And if Naraku is behind this threat, it is my feeling that we have to face it. We cannot begin running from him already. If he is powerful enough to conquer the Hyouden, then there is nothing for it anyway.”

“I completely agree,” Jaken put in emphatically.

“Alright then,” Tamotsu said, “we all stay and fight together. It’s not as hopeless as it seems. The Karauma are already attacking them.”

“What?” Jaken exclaimed. “Shinme-sama is out there?”

“Yep. Least, she was this morning. I’ve also heard rumors that someone else has been fighting them, off to the north, and they might follow them. I don’t know who they are, only that they are led by two captains…demons of some sort.”

Jaken’s heart fluttered then grew still, and he looked to his master. But Sesshoumaru’s expression did not change. Jaken turned back to the others.

“Well,” he snapped, “what are you standing around gawking for? Rin, get inside. You two, you’ve been practicing your aim, haven’t you?”

Kagome nodded.

“There are bows and arrows in the old shed on the west side of the courtyard. Start bringing them up.”

They stared at him.

“Move, damn you!” he shouted and banged his staff on the ground.

“Alright, alright,” Kagome said, putting up her hands. “Don’t hurt anyone. We’re going.”

Rin went into the house, Kagome and Kikyou moved off to the outer buildings, and Tamotsu and Sesshoumaru were already on the terrace overhead. Jaken looked around and moved closer to Kohaku.

“I saw what you did to the men that came here before,” he said in a low voice.

A momentary look of panic overtook Kohaku’s features.

“Listen!” Jaken hissed, seizing his arm. “These won’t be men. They’ll be monsters, understand? Thoughtless, heartless monsters. I don’t need to tell you, do I? If they came from Naraku, you know what they’ll be like.”

Kohaku paled, but nodded.

“Then show them no mercy,” Jaken said. “You know you will get none, nor will those women, if we fail.”

Kohaku’s eyes widened and Jaken watched an old pain gather in a pool behind them. A light flickered, and the look was gone, replaced with an implacable stillness.

I’m glad he’s on my side, he thought, but all he said was, “Help them get those arrows.”

“Yes, Jaken-sama.”

The young man turned and ran out of the gardens.

Jaken stood still and alone for a long moment, trying to feel through the ground, through his feet, through his bones, the first evidence of the enemy’s march, but the valley was still as quiet as any winter morning and nothing unusual could yet be heard or seen, except for the lavender flower petals that covered everything.

He went into the house and found Rin sitting on a low bench in the kitchen, fidgeting her hands.

“What are you doing sitting around?” he demanded. “Can’t you think of any way to be useful?”

Rin’s look was stricken.

“What do you want me to do?”

He waved her off in disgust.

“Oh, forget it,” he said. “Just get somewhere out of the way.”

Rin jumped to her feet and reached out, grabbing his sleeve.

“No, wait, Jaken-sama,” she cried. “Please, give me something to do, anything.”

Jaken rubbed his chin. “Well…”

“Anything!” she repeated.

“I’m thinking!” he barked at her.

He snapped his fingers.

“Ah! There are planks of the wood in the cellar. Start bringing them up. We’ll board up the doors and windows.”

She nodded and ran from the room.

“Get Kohaku to help you when he comes back from helping those mikos!” he called after her.

“Do I have to think of everything around here?” he muttered to the empty room.

***

A blanket of dark clouds made it difficult to guess at what time of day it was. In the bustle of activity, with everyone scurrying about the house in hopes of saving it, it was impossible to believe in what had occurred between her and Sesshoumaru only that morning.

Kagome helped Kikyou haul arrows in heavy bundles into the house, through the kitchen door, into the main gallery and up the stairs to the north facing terrace. They piled them there in stacks against the wall. For a long time the task seemed endless but, with Kohaku’s help, the stock in the shed slowly dwindled. When the last bundle was added to the pile, Kagome estimated that they had almost a thousand. She looked at the hoard and sighed, rubbing her forehead.

“I don’t know why we spent so much time and energy getting them all,” she mourned. “I’ll never be able to shoot even close to half of these.”

“We will do our best,” Kikyou said. “It is better to have too many than too few.”

She turned to go back into the house.

“Where are you going?” Kagome asked her.

“Rin-san, Kohaku-san, and Jakan-sama are barricading the windows and doors.”

Kagome sighed again and her shoulders drooped.

“You do not have to help,” Kikyou said.

“No, I’ll help.”

“That can wait. You will come with me.”

Kagome jumped and spun about to see Sesshoumaru standing behind her on the terrace.

“Where did you come from?” she demanded in a squeaky voice.

“This way,” he said, and walked inside.

She cast a glance at Kikyou, but her returning look was unconcerned. Kagome could not think of a way to refuse without starting another argument. Despite the day’s turn of events and the somewhat mysterious change in Sesshoumaru’s demeanor, she still felt the precariousness of her position. She followed him to the kitchen, where he indicated that she was to sit on the low bench near the fire. She sank on to it, grateful for the excuse to rest.

Sesshoumaru said nothing, but retrieved several items from one of the many recesses in the wood-paneled walls. He sat on the floor in front of her and took her right hand. It took every ounce of her will to not scream and jerk her hand away.

He turned it over, examining the wound that he himself had made just that morning.

“Oh,” she said in a confused fluster. “It’s alright. I can barely feel it.”

He gave her a grumpy look, and she could not be sure if she had offended him by lying, or by implying that he was unable to hurt her.

He removed the lid from a small, earthenware pot and dipped his slender fingers into it. He applied a large amount of a thick, translucent grease to the hand and arm. Kagome bit her lip and squeezed her eyes shut.

Don’t scream, don’t scream, don’t scream, don’t scream!

“What is that?” she asked, trying to keep her voice even and casual.

“It will suppress the pain so as to better allow you to shoot.”

Kagome felt her arm grow warm, almost hot, then strangely numb.

“That’s amazing!” she couldn’t help exclaiming.

She held the arm up and examined it as though he had attached a new one. He interrupted her study by taking the arm again and wrapping it in a long strip of thick, white cloth.

The air in the kitchen was warm, almost suffocating, and uncomfortably silent.

“You may keep the jar, and reapply as needed,” he said, releasing her.

“Thank you,” she murmured.

He turned to leave the room, and Kagome looked out the window towards the sea.

“Sesshoumaru.”

She spoke so quietly she was not sure he’d hear her, but he stopped.

“Thank you, for everything.”

He did not answer, did not turn to look at her, but he stood quite still for some time, as if undecided and frozen in place. The next minute that came and went, in that quiet and warm dark, dragged out like honey from a spoon, and Kagome waited in agony, not moving her eyes, wishing for it be over. Then he was gone. She took a deep breath and looked around the empty room, blinking back tears.

She had practically lived in this room for over three months. In every corner she saw the ghost of a memory. Small and silent meals and frequent, long drinks of sake, all cast their shadows on the low table. Their bedding had been folded and put away against the far wall, probably by Jaken. Kagome remembered waking up from her temporary death on the floor of the baths, and Tamotsu carrying her to this room. She remembered sitting beside Rin as she slept, recovering from her own ordeal. She recalled, through Kikyou’s shared memory, the voice of Death.

A wise decision, General.

She shuddered. Now she was preparing to fight to the death to defend Sesshoumaru’s house. Sesshoumaru’s house!

Who am I? What have I become?

She did not know if she should laugh or cry, so she did neither. She put the little jar into a pocket of the dark blue hakama she wore, which Rin had brought out of an old cedar box and Kikyou had taken in for her. She found a strip of cloth in a corner, where Kikyou kept such things, and she tied back her hair. The Hiraikotsu leaned in the corner, and she wondered if Kohaku would choose to fight with it. For a moment she was tempted to ask him to stay in the house with Rin but, no, that would not be…appropriate. He was a man now, she had to remind herself, and had every right to fight.

Let’s not waste our time thinking how that’s not fair.

***

It was mid-afternoon, and no one had stopped moving and no one had eaten. Kohaku paused only for a second now and again in his work, tilting his head and straining his ears to attempt to detect the march of feet, the thud of fists against chests, or the chant of low and hateful voices. As of yet, the only sounds he heard were of the bustle inside the house.

He was alone in an upstairs room, finishing the work of blocking the windows, when he heard a soft mewing sound behind him. He turned and saw Kirara, sitting in her diminutive state, her scarlet eyes wide and questioning.

He completed the work, putting the last board in place, then bent to pick her up.

“Hi, Kirara,” he said. “How are you feeling?”

She looked at him, from her perch in his hands, and lashed her tail.

“Are you ready to fight?”

She growled.

Kohaku was about to respond when he felt a peculiar, shaking sensation through his feet, as if a colossal man stalked the upstairs hallway with heavy strides. Kirara growled again.

“Not a moment too soon,” Kohaku murmured. “I think they’re almost here.”

Still carrying the demon cat, Kohaku went down the hall to the double-door entrance and to the terrace. He walked out into the cold air and stood by the ledge. Jaken stood to his right, holding his staff with one hand, and with the other lifting himself to see over the stone balustrade. To Kohaku’s left stood Kagome, then Kikyou. Sesshoumaru and Tamotsu stood next to Jaken, and Rin stood at the end, beside Tamotsu.

The seven of them gazed out across the plains and the black line of enemies coming toward them, pushing across the Fields of Eternal Snow like a slow tidal wave of mud. Kohaku could see that they were many, and, though he knew that Sesshoumaru and Tamotsu could make a more accurate estimation, he did not ask them for it.

“There’s an awful lot of them,” Rin murmured.

“It will make no difference,” Jaken declared. “They will break on this house like glass on the rocks.”

No one said anything.

“You humans should try to eat something,” Jaken said. “You’re weak enough without fainting from hunger in the middle of battle.”

“I think that’s a good idea,” Rin said. “I’m very hungry.”

“I will make us something,” Kikyou said.

They left, but Kohaku lingered behind.

“Will it really be alright, Jaken-sama?”

“I don’t know, boy,” Jaken sighed. “Hope you are prepared to die.”

Kohaku looked out again towards the tide of the enemy.

“I’ve been dead before,” he murmured. “There are worse things. Take it from me.”

He followed the others into the house, and did not notice Jaken’s shudder.

***

Unlike the other three humans in the Hyouden, Rin had no trouble eating. In spite of everything, she remained her usual impenetrable self, incapable of conceiving of a world where her lord could be defeated. Her only worry was that, through some mistake or oversight, someone else would be allowed to die. She did not doubt for a moment that Sesshoumaru would defend her, and she was fairly certain that he would defend everyone else in the house. It was possible however, even in her mind, that he might become so occupied in the coming fight that someone would be lost accidentally.

She was still thinking over this possibility when she collided with Sesshoumaru himself in the hall as she headed back to the terrace.

“Oh!” she exclaimed, rubbing her nose. “I am so sorry, Sesshoumaru-sama! I wasn’t paying attention.”

“Rin,” his sharp voice made her jump. “Come.”

She did not hesitate to follow him into an upstairs room, one she had never before had occasion to enter. It was larger than most of the other second story rooms, with dark, ancient furnishings. Sesshoumaru went to a heavy, mahogany chest and opened it.

“Come here,” he said.

She went and stood behind him. When he turned he was carrying something a folded cloth or garment. He knelt to the floor in front of her, much to her astonishment.

“My lord,” she started to lower herself.

“No, keep straight.”

He unfurled the fabric and she saw it was a short kimono, bearing on the shoulder the same crest he wore.

“Remove your haori.”

She obeyed, untying the anemone embroidered jacket and letting it fall from her shoulders to the flow. He wrapped the new garment around her, adjusting it and belting it tight. Over this, he helped her into black hakama. They were ridiculously too large, but he folded them to fit. Rin cooperated with the maneuvers, almost numb with bewilderment. After she wriggled her way back into her haori, he offered her a knife. It was long and thin, with a slight curve at the tip. The handle was made of ivory and decorated with a carving of white anemones. She took it with fingers that felt cold and hollow.

“You are a member of this house,” he told her. “Do not allow yourself to be killed by any hand but your own. Do you understand?”

Rin swallowed hard and nodded. She stared down at the knife in her hand, unable to lift her face.

He put the crook of one finger under her chin. It was the first time she could remember him touching her when she was not sick, injured, or in serious danger.

“Rin,” he looked into her eyes. “Do you understand?”

She took a deep breath and bowed her head.

“I understand, my lord.”

“You are aware that there is a room in the cellar, which may be reached by going through the baths. The walls and ceiling are stone of the mountain. There is a supply of food and water. You will go there and barricade the door until you hear my voice ordering you out.”

“Yes, my lord,” she touched her forehead to the floor again. “Do you want me to go now?”

“When I tell you to.”

“Yes, my lord.”

He turned to leave, but stopped for a moment in the door.

“And Rin, I am always with you, even if you cannot hear my voice.”

Speechless, Rin just stared at his back until she could no longer see it. She looked down at the knife in her trembling fingers.

I’ve been just guessing at all these riddles. I don’t really know…It’s all too big for me!

***

Tamotsu instructed both of them to keep in the house and out of sight until the attack was under way.

“I’m going to try to stay hidden at first, maybe attack them from another location when they’re not expecting it,” he said to them. “I want them to get right to the door, thinking Sesshoumaru is alone.”

“I think you have a tendency for the dramatic,” Kikyou said to him.

He shrugged. “Nobody’s perfect.”

Kagome gave up on eating any more and began picking up all the plates. She dropped them into the trough by the window.

“I wish it were all over,” she said quietly.

“So do I,” Rin agreed.

Everyone had noticed the girl’s change in clothing when she came back into the kitchen, but no one commented on it.

“I’m off then,” Tamotsu said.

He kissed Rin on the forehead, patted Kohaku on the shoulder, and Kagome on the behind. She swung at him, but he dodged it easily, grinning. He did not touch Kikyou, only waved his hand and said,

“Be good, girl!”

He went out through the ground floor gallery and Kagome heard him go through the front door. He rang the brass bell once and was gone.

“I wish it were all over,” Kagome said again.

“I don’t care what Tamotsu says,” Jaken growled. “I’m going up to my lord. I can’t stand waiting in here.”

Kagome thought to call after him, to inform him that it did not matter anyway, that he was too short for the enemy to see over the terrace rail, but he was gone before she could. She returned to her contemplation of the lead-colored sky.

The din of the enemy voices and feet began to drift into the window on a faint breeze. Kagome reminded herself that to Kirara, Jaken, Tamotsu, and Sesshoumaru, the noise was far louder, and she was struck with a sudden and strange notion, that though death came to such as these perhaps later, it came louder, that the price for the longevity was to hear the very faint patter of the footfalls of death.

No one said it was easy.

***

As they made their way through the forested foothills, the sun began to sink behind the trees, and only a few pallid rays reached them. They shivered, dreading the nightfall. The pace of the army was excruciating.

Matters worsened when the sun disappeared altogether behind a dark bank of clouds that made a sudden appearance over the horizon. Anxiety already hung in the air when Inuyasha raised his face and sniffed the cold breeze.

“We'll have snow before too long,” he announced.

“Great,” Miroku grunted.

“I wish it was all over,” Shippou complained.

“I'm not so sure you should wish for that,” Kagura said.

Inuyasha stopped and held up one hand.

“What is it?” Miroku whispered.

“I smell people up ahead,” he answered.

“You mean…people people?”

Inuyasha gave him a sour look.

“You trying to say that demons aren't really people?”

“Don't be a jackass,” Miroku retorted. “You know what I mean.”

“Whatever. Yes, people people.”

“What should we do?” Sango asked.

Inuyasha turned to Shinme. The queen of the horse demons had declared she would march with them up until the first attack began, then she would rejoin her warriors. When Shippou asked her if she needed to communicate their plan to her army, she had only given him a pitying smile.

“Do you know who they are?” Inuyasha asked her.

She shook her head.

“Alright,” Inuyasha said, looking around. “Everyone hold back for a few minutes and I'll go check it out.”

“I’ll go with you,” Miroku said.

To his credit, Inuyasha did not argue this time. The two of them pushed forward through a tangle of dead, winter brush, while Sango and the others spread word to the men and wolf demons behind them to halt their march. It took only a few minutes to get close enough to hear voices and make out individuals. The two of them hid behind a sprawling cypress.

Some short distance ahead was a small clearing, which came to an abrupt end at the edge of a cliff overlooking the sea. A throng of people stood and sat on the dead grass, all men and all armed. Miroku estimated that there were several hundred at least.

“Should we introduce ourselves?”

“And if they want to fight?” Inuyasha asked. “We got enough problems with the spider monsters without taking on these jerks too.”

“Why would they fight us?”

“I don’t know. Why are they here at all?”

“Maybe they want to fight Tsuchigumo as well?”

Inuyasha hesitated.

“Maybe.”

He did not sound convinced.

“Let's just try to get closer and maybe we can make out who they are and what they're doing here,” Miroku said.

This was accomplished, but it took a frustrating amount of time because they had to tread with painstaking care through the dry grass and branches. When at last they had positioned themselves closer, but still concealed, they discovered they were near a group of men who had a fortunate inclination to chatter.

“I don't like this,” one of them hissed. “If you were from these parts, like me, you'd know that that dog is no one to be trifled with.”

“What, Sesshoumaru?” one of them said.

“Shh!” the first man hissed again. “Don't even say the name!”

“Oh, relax!” the second man said. “We're not even gonna have to fight him. He'll be mincemeat before we even get there.”

“If you knew half of what I knew about him, you wouldn't say that.”

“Look, I grant you that he's a powerful demon, but even he can’t stand up to that many  Tsuchigumo.”

“Yeah sure, but what's to stop them for taking their turn on us, when they're done?”

“You know perfectly well who will stop them. We have our orders, and they have theirs.”

“For all the good it'll do us,” the first man muttered.

“Oh, shut up. I'm tired of listening to your bellyaching.”

Inuyasha motioned to Miroku with his head, and the two of them made their way back to others.

“What took you so long?” Shippou demanded. “I was just about to go after you.”

“We had to be careful not be heard,” Miroku answered.

“Bad news,” Inuyasha announced. “Our way is blocked by an encampment of human soldiers. It sounds like they might be working for Naraku.”

“What?” Sango exclaimed. “How do you know that?”

“Well, I mean, assuming that the Tsuchigumo are connected with him. They're here to lend them a hand.”

“So...we will have to fight our way through?” Nobunaga asked.

“It's not that easy,” Inuyasha grumbled, rubbing his neck.

“Inuyasha does not fight humans,” Miroku explained, “if he can help it.”

“A noble sentiment,” Nobunaga said, “but I don't know how he can help it, unless we are going to stop here and call it day, or turn back, or go to these men and ask nicely that they let us through.”

“I have an idea,” Kagura said.

They all turned to her.

“The rest of you go on through the woods, and stay as far from them as you can.”

“That won't work,” Inuyasha interrupted. “There's not enough room and they'll definitely notice us.”

“Let me finish,” she said impatiently. “The rest of you go on ahead, and Shippou and I will stay behind to distract them.”

“Distract them?” Shippou asked.

“Yeah. We'd be perfect for the job because they've probably already heard of us and will know us right away as enemies. I have a few ideas.”

“Do you think you could try not to massacre them?” Inuyasha asked her.

“You are touchingly concerned over people who want you dead,” she said.

“Welcome to the beautiful complexity of my mind,” he said. “Answer the question.”

“If my plan works,” she said, “I won't have to kill a single one.”

“And if it doesn't?”

“A sea of blood,” she opened her arms and threw her head back, laughing maniacally. “The ground 'neath my feet shall be soaked in the crimson flood of mine enemy!”
He glared at her.

“Well, what do you want me to say, Inuyasha?” she asked. “Everything is going to be fine, no matter what? I can't give you that. I can only do my best.”

“We have no time to lose,” Shinme interjected. “If this is the best plan we have, then we must move forward, quickly and decidedly!”

“You go on ahead,” Shippou said to the rest, already moving away. “We’ll catch up.”

Without waiting for an answer, he and Kagura turned away and hurried through the trees, disappearing into the growing gloom of twilight.

“Wait!” Inuyasha called after him.

Miroku grabbed his robe.

“Let him go,” he said. “We just have to trust him.”

“But… what are they going to do?” he demanded.

A few moments later, a shocking detonation rumbled in the ground, rattling their teeth and shaking needles from the pine trees.

“What was that?” Sango cried.

Shouts of dismay could be heard in the distance, and the sound of people yelling and running in disarray.

“I think that was our signal,” Miroku said. “Let’s go. Now!”

Everyone turned to run ahead along the edge of the woods that hugged the cliff. Miroku stayed behind directing the rest of the soldiers to hurry and stay in single file as much as possible. After perhaps ten minutes had passed, he noticed a growing warmth in the air that seemed out of place in the winter woods. The sky that he could see through the trees was streaked with red and orange, and it was in the wrong direction to be sunset.

“Fire! Fire!” the shouts rang out all around him, and the men began to run.

“Be careful!” he warned them. “Keep going! Don’t panic!”

Another detonation quaked the ground, following by more panicked cries.

“What the hell are they doing?” he muttered.

Inuyasha, Sango, and the others led the men and wolf demons away from the encampment as quickly as they could, bringing them close to the edge of the sea, then looping back again into the foothills. It was slower going than Inuyasha would have liked because the ground was uneven and covered almost everywhere with gravel and large, sharp rocks.

After some time, however, when the eastern sky behind them had turned a sooty red and black, they came out of the dense cover. The line of firs ceased all at once at the edge of an embankment that marked the end of the foothills. Below them, the land sloped gently to meet the valley, where to the right they could see an oxbow bend in the shallow river. To their left the Hyouden towered over the fields. The valley was several miles wide and filled with the enemy.

“Well, there it is, at last,” Sango said.

“Yep,” Inuyasha looked across the expanse. “We’ve come a long way to see it.”

Nobunaga, red-faced and breathless, caught up to them.

“I hope the girls are safe,” he worried, “and weren’t caught by those men back there.”

Inuyasha shook his head.

“I didn’t smell them anywhere,” he said. “I’m sure the wolf demons got them out.”

“We did!”

The wolf demons that had been employed to get the girls to safety were approaching them, coming along the line of trees from the south. The one who had spoken was gray-headed, though otherwise he looked as young as Kouga.

“They are at the Hyouden,” he said. “We left them at the front gate. I didn’t see Sesshoumaru-sama anywhere—they should be alright, for now.”

In the valley below the enemy had advanced to within about a hundred feet of the house and stopped. The stone wall of the Hyouden that faced north was tall and sheer, jutting out of the hills like a fang. The windows on that side of the house were at least two stories up, but Inuyasha could see that they were still boarded, as was the one narrow door on that side of the house.

“Is that your brother there?” Nobunaga asked.

He pointed to a stone terrace that extended out from the north facing wall, about forty feet from the ground.

“Yeah, the one on the left. The little guy is his servant, Jaken.”

“OK, let me make sure I am not mistaken.” Nobunaga said. “You mean the toad demon is not your brother, right?”

Inuyasha was about to retort when he sensed Shippou’s return and turned to see the young fox demon joining them, flanked by Kagura, wearing a tight grin on his face.

“What did you do?” Inuyasha asked him suspiciously.

They both suddenly burst into peals of laughter, crying and holding their sides.

“What the hell is the matter with you two?” Inuyasha exclaimed.

“Kagura…Kagura had a great idea,” Shippou gasped for air, and wiped tears from his eyes. “She set off a few of those big firecrackers that Totosai gave us, then, while they were all confused and running around, I turned myself into a…into a…ah…what would you say it was?”

Kagura laughed.

“I have no idea. I’ve never seen anything like it. Maybe…an ogre, crossed with a dragon, crossed with a bear?”

The two of them collapsed again.

“You should’ve seen their faces,” Shippou managed to wheeze.

“They’re probably still running!” Kagura gloated.

“Shippou,” Sango chided him.

“What?” his eyes widened in innocence. “I didn’t hurt them, not really, not permanently. If they’re working with Naraku, they deserved worse.”

“What about the fire?” Inuyasha asked them, annoyed.

“Oh, that just happened because of the firecrackers, I guess,” Shippou shrugged. “Everything is so dry. The snow will help put it out.”

“Right,” Miroku groaned. “The snow.”

“So do we have a plan here?” Nobunaga cut in.

Shippou straightened and took a deep breath, his face suddenly serious as he looked down on the valley.

“Let me go in first.”

“Are you crazy?”

“Inuyasha, do you have to argue with me about everything?”

Inuyasha put a finger on his chin in a display of serious consideration.

“Now that you mention it,” he said, “it’s one of my most important responsibilities.”

“What did you have in mind, Shippou-sama?” Nobunaga asked.

“I just want to be the first to say hello,” he answered. “I’ll fly low over them, let them start to think that they have more than Sesshoumaru to deal with.”

“What’s the point in that?” Inuyasha demanded.

“It’s called style, Inuyasha,” Shippou answered with a superior little sniff. “You wouldn’t understand.”

Several nearby wolf demons snickered.

“You little—

“Why don’t we work out a signal?” Nobunaga interrupted again. “Do you still have any of those firecrackers?”

“A few, why?”

“Go ahead and do your fly-over, then set one off somewhere near the front line. That will distract them and we’ll come running at their side.”

“Sounds like a plan to me,” the fox demon said. “Everyone else wait here.”

“Give us about thirty minutes,” Nobunaga told him.

Shippou nodded and in half a second he was gone.

Inuyasha stared after him for a moment, then shook his head.

“Miroku,” he said, “I want you and Sango to go to the house. Go the way the wolf demons came.”

“What do you mean? Why?” Sango asked.

“Do you really think you can do that much here?” he asked.

“Nobunaga is here,” she pointed out. “There are plenty of humans preparing to fight.”

“That’s different.”

“I don’t see how.”

He looked her in the eye.

“Listen, I don’t feel right about those girls being in that houses alone. Won’t you go?”

Sango and Miroku exchanged a long look.

“Alright Inuyasha,” Miroku said. “We’ll go now then. Be careful.”

“You too,” Inuyasha told them. “Make sure you stay out of Sesshoumaru’s way as much as you can.”

They nodded and departed, making their way through the trees and down the hill with slow care.

Inuyasha turned to watch Shippou’s wings beat in heavy, regular strokes over the fields, a black and ominous shape set against the sunset. Shinme put a hand on his shoulder.

“I will depart now,” she told him. “I will slip past the enemy to rejoin my kin, who have pulled back and are waiting for me on the west side of the river. When I hear the explosion, I will attack from the west as you do from the east. In this way, we can bring the most confusion and damage to our enemy.”

Inuyasha nodded.

“Good luck,” he said.

“I believe fortune is on our side tonight, Inuyasha, son of Ichiro the Great.”

She gave one little wave, then she vanished in a blur, and he could see no trace of her, though he thought he heard the faint thunder of horse hooves.

Minutes dragged by, and he put his hand on his sword hilt, somewhat unconsciously, and looked over the teeming mob below. He was beginning to work out the first moves in his mind when the electrifying presence of a powerful demon rang in his ears like a scream. It felt as though it was about to drop out of the sky onto their heads. One moment, he sensed the wolf demons pick up their ears, and he heard Kagura take in a sharp breath, and in the next he felt a blast of energy, like a small sun, came down right beside him.

Inuyasha drew his sword and the weapon responded immediately, transforming into the formidable steel fang of his father. The edge of it clanged against another sword. Over the singing of the blades he heard a few cries of dismay from nearby and saw Sesshoumaru standing on the other side of the steel.

Inuyasha hesitated.

“I thought you were Sesshoumaru,” he said to the newcomer. “You sure look like him.”

The stranger was tall and slender, with a wild mane of white hair. His wore plain, even threadbare clothing that was open and loose at the chest, despite the cold. The sword in his hand was a simple blade, battered and notched and rusted in a few places, with a hilt that had been mended and re-mended many times. Inuyasha was struck with the notion that this demon was what Sesshoumaru would have been, had he gone insane in his youth and associated from then on only with wild dogs and squirrels.

“Who are you?” the stranger demanded. “Why are you here? Are you with the Tsuchigumo?”

Inuyasha scowled and pushed on the stranger’s blade, disengaging from him and taking a step back, answering,

“Inuyasha. To fight. Hell no.”

The stranger’s eyes widened, and for a moment he gaped at him openly. Then he collected himself and shook his head, sheathing his sword.

“Is it my fate to find every one of you people,” he demanded, “wandering around the wild like lost donkeys?”

“What?” Inuyasha spluttered.

“Where are the others?” the dog demon asked, looking around.

“What others?”

“You know, Sango, Miroku, Shippou.”

Inuyasha stared at him.

“And you are…?” Kagura asked him.

The dog demon noticed her for the first time. He eyed her up and down and grinned, then moved closer to her, edging past the fuming Inuyasha.

“Well,” he said. “Aren’t you a pretty little thing?”

Kagura was speechless.

He bowed to her in a florid display.

“My name is Tamotsu,” he declared. “I am cousin to Sesshoumaru, Lord of the West, and am his only living relative.”

“Well that’s just plain not true,” Inuyasha muttered.

“Oh, right,” Tamotsu laughed. “I meant, the only one he would own.”

Inuyasha rolled his eyes.

“Are you here to fight us or not?”

“Does it look like I want to fight you?” Tamotsu responded. “I just thought I’d attack from here. I guess you had the same idea.”

“We’re waiting on a signal from Shippou,” Kagura told him, pointing to the sky.

He followed her hand with his eyes.

“That’s Shippou?” he asked in amazement.

“Yeah, that’s him,” Inuyasha growled.

“I thought he was a fox demon.”

“He’s in disguise.”

Having decided that the weird version of Sesshoumaru was not an immediate threat, Inuyasha turned his back on him to concentrate on the work ahead.

“But,” the dog demon went on, “Kagome told me that he was just a little guy.”

“He grew,” Inuyasha muttered absently.

Kagura, however, a little quicker on her feet, grabbed the Tamotsu’s kimono immediately.

“What did you say?” she whispered, her face white.

“I said,” he answered with exaggerated diction, “But Kagome told me that he was a just a little guy.”

Inuyasha’s heart and blood and brain all froze for a thrilling, terrifying, towering second. He took a step back, reaching out his hand, as if to find support. Nobunaga had the presence of mind to take hold of it.

“Steady now,” the young samurai said. “Steady.”

“Where is she?” Kagura shook Tamotsu’s robe, less rough than frantic. “Where is she?”

With unruffled calm, the dog demon pointed at the house.

“In there,” he said.

Inuyasha had knelt to the ground, lowering his head. Kagura walked to the edge of the escarpment, looking over the Hyouden.

“Inuyasha!” she cried. “Shouldn’t we go?”

“No,” he muttered, his head still bowed.

“What? But I…”

She took another step and he grabbed her wrist.

“We still have a fight here,” he said, standing up. “It’s just more important now to win it.”

She looked at him for a long moment, then nodded.

“Right,” she exhaled a long breath. “You are right.”

“How long do you think we have before Shippou signals us?” Inuyasha asked Nobunaga.

“About fifteen minutes, maybe less.”

Inuyasha nodded, then turned back to Tamotsu.

“Tell us as much as you can.”

***

Sesshoumaru stood on his balcony as the rabble completed its slow crawl across the fields. They moved in blocks, each containing twenty rows of twenty demons, the same black, hairy, spindly things he had been exterminating in small bands for the past three months. At the head of each company, an ogre, or something of that sort, rode on a beast of burden twice the size of an cow, which looked somewhat like a donkey crossed with a tiger. Behind each ogre, one or two of the Tsuchigumo carried drums which they beat at a steady pace, as if reminding the rest of them how to march along.

Right foot, left foot. Right foot, left foot.

At last, as the sun was sinking behind the western hills, the enemy arrived at some imaginary line where they decided to stop, about a hundred feet from the walls. Sesshoumaru noticed the shadow of a large bird circling over their heads, and he wondered if he should kill it first. It did not take long, however, to see that this strange creature was no friend to the Tsuchigumo. Some of them even tried to throw spears and knives at it, but the bird flew far too high and they only succeeded in hurting themselves or others when the weapons fell back to the earth.

An exceptionally large ogre, on an exceptionally large steed, rode to the head of the force and dismounted. He put himself a few yards before his men and turned, silencing them with one hand.

“Well?” he called up.

His voice was like gravel, and Jaken, who was peering over the edge, could not believe that such a misshapen creature was capable of speech.

He was met with nothing but the soft sigh of a cold wind, the only sound to be heard over the desolate valley.

“We have come to engage the might of the one named Sesshoumaru,” the ogre continued. “He who has the temerity to call himself Lord of the West.”

Silence.

“I see no lord here,” he answered, spitting on the ground. “Only one stray mongrel hiding in a hovel.”

Jaken grit his teeth. He pulled himself up over the balustrade, ready to retort, when the entire terrace was shaken so violently that he stumbled back again. He looked up and saw that the enormous bird had landed, its brown wings drumming in the air and its claws screeching on the stone rail like knives. A few crumbs of the granite fell to the ground. The bird looked down at the ogre and screamed at him through a golden beak that was curved, sharp, and vicious.

“So, is this your house then?” the ogre demanded. “You little fox brat!”

Jaken stared at the raptor in stupefaction.

“It couldn’t be!” he gasped.

“Haven’t you had enough?” the ogre went on. “Did we not teach you a lesson by the river?”

Sesshoumaru studied the bird. He was sure he had never seen it before, but it felt familiar, and a startling suspicion was beginning to dawn on him. He watched the air around it shimmered like a puddle of oil in summer, until a young fox demon was in its place, perched with balance and ease on the ledge. He wore a golden vest of fur over a plain, white kimono, which was tucked into blue hakama. His thick and wavy hair was flaming red and, left loose in the cold wind, it floated about his face almost as though he were under water. He turned his head and looked into Sesshoumaru’s face with eyes as green as summer grass, and Sesshoumaru had no more doubt.

“Yo!” he said, smiling. “Sesshoumaru-sama. I hope you are well. I’ve been meaning to come visit you for a while but, well, you know how it is.”

“Shippou, wasn’t it?” Sesshoumaru replied calmly.

“I’m flattered that you remember.”

“Why are you here?”

“I hope you don’t mind,” the kitsune replied with casual good nature, “but you see, I really hate these guys. I owe them some licks, so…here I am!”

“I have no business with you today!” the ogre shouted. “Take that wind-sorceress slut of yours and go, while you still can!”

“Does he mean Kagura?” Jaken exclaimed.

“Yeah,” Shippou muttered, his expression darkening, “he means Kagura, and it’s the last thing he’ll ever say.”

He reached into his vest and withdrew something round that could fit into his fist. It looked almost like an acorn. Shippou cast a quick glance up into the trees that lined the eastern escarpment and, in one motion, he twisted the object and threw it at the feet of the captain ogre.

It exploded on impact. The force knocked Jaken back on his feet and he came up coughing and swearing and brushing dirt off his clothes. He climbed back to his spot to look out again, but where the ogre had stood he saw a black spot in the center of a bare patch of dirt surrounded by a ring of the flower petals.

A moment of stark silence followed, then the collection of Tsuchigumo screamed and beat their chest, and began running toward the walls. A second clamor rose to the east, and Jaken and Sesshoumaru saw a small army of humans and wolf demons pouring down the embankment, shouting and lifting weapons. The Tsuchigumo seemed to flinch in surprise and the captains scrambled to reorder their soldiers to meet the new attack. To the west, Sesshoumaru could see that the hordes of Karauma had circled around and doubled back on the Tsuchigumo’s western flank in a fresh assault. All of this happened in the space of two breaths, and Sesshoumaru wondered who had seen fit to put so much planning into his defense without consulting him.

He could sense that Tamotsu was somewhere in the fray, and there were others that were familiar, but the sense of them drowned in the screaming blood.

Then he saw it. Two minutes after the kitsune had obliterated the enemy captain, a terrific force tore through the ranks of the Tsuchigumo like lightning rending a dead tree, sending splinters of the enemy in all directions.

“That…that was the Tessaiga, wasn’t it?” Jaken’s voice was almost sick.

“Oh yeah,” Shippou laughed. “Inuyasha’s here.”

The kitsune began to transform again, lifted himself from the balcony and spreading his arms.

“Better hurry,” he said to Sesshoumaru, “or there won’t be any left for you.”

The bird flew away from the house and over the fray, screaming again.

Sesshoumaru sighed, drawing his sword.

“Tell Rin I have ordered her to hide,” he said to Jaken, “and tell the mikos to come out, if they intend to be of any use.”

He was gone before he could hear Jaken’s acquiescence. As Jaken turned to go into the house, he felt the first snowflake brush against his cheek.

The women were still in the kitchen, but they jumped to their feet, bows in hand, as soon as they saw him.

“You’d better bundle up,” he said. “The snow has started.”

“Great,” Kagome groaned. “What else is going to happen today?”

She caught Jaken looking at her.

“What?” she asked him.

“Ah…nothing, it’s nothing.”

He turned to Rin. “Sesshoumaru-sama said you are to hide.”

Rin got to her feet immediately.

“You cannot wear all that,” Kikyou was saying to Kagome. “You will not be able to shoot.”

Kagome had pulled on a second, or third, haori.

“But…”

“Just take the sleeves off,” Jaken told her. “No one cares about those clothes.”

Rin picked up a small knife from the table.

“Here, let me help you.”

She tore off most of Kagome’s sleeves, leaving only one layer on her arms, not counting the bandages Sesshoumaru had put on her.

“Thank you, Rin-chan,” Kagome put her hand on the girl’s arm, but did not look her in the eye. “Be careful, OK?”

Rin nodded, smiling. “Don’t worry, Kagome-chan. Sesshoumaru-sama will take care of everything.”

In the space of two heartbeats, Rin found herself standing in the kitchen alone. Checking for the eleventh time that she still had the dagger Sesshoumaru had given her, she picked up some dried plums, wrapped in bay leaves, and put the package in her pocket. Outside, the faint stir of the approaching enemy had been transformed into a roar that drowned out the sounds of gulls and ocean waves.

I should have said…but now there’s no time.

***

The woods at the edge of the escarpment thinned as they got closer to the smell of salt air. A wide, dirt path wound from the trees to the front door of the Hyouden. The front of the house faced a short expanse of lawn before ending at the edge of a high cliff, overlooking the sea. Unlike the north side, which was carved from the mountainside and towered over the valley of the river, the main entrance on the south side made the house appear small and modest. Ten feet from the door stood a tall red gate with a silver moon painted over the arch. A wrought iron ring was attached to one beam of this gate and a brass bell hung from it by a long rope.

Sango and Miroku approached with caution. By now, they could hear the clamor of fighting on the other side of the house. Hoping that Sesshoumaru would be too occupied to notice them, they made their way to the door, intent on walking in without knocking or announcing themselves, when they saw with a start that Higurashi and the girls were still outside. The four of them were huddled against the gate, trying in vain to protect themselves from the cold wind.

“What are you doing out here?” Miroku asked them. “Why didn’t you go inside?”

Higurashi shook her head.

“I don’t want to go in there,” she answered.

“Everyone says that a dangerous demon lives here, and that he hates humans,” Yuka said. “I’d rather take my chances and stay out here.”

“That would be very foolish,” Miroku answered. “Sesshoumaru is a possible threat, while the Tsuchigumo are a definite one.”

They appeared unconvinced.

“There is nothing to stop the Tsuchigumo from coming around to this side of the house,” Miroku went on, “except for the people fighting them, who may lose.”

“If they lose, does it matter?” Yuka asked pointedly. “Won’t we be dead no matter what?”

“The point is not to give up,” Miroku answered, “but to keep trying to live. We will protect you as long as possible. You must come inside.”

The four of them looked at each other, then Higurashi rose to her feet.

“Come on,” she said to the others, “at least it’ll be warmer in there.”

Higurashi looked up as she passed the threshold. A small moon was painted in gold above the door. She shuddered.

Last night I dreamt I went to the Hyouden again.

***

Rin opened the door to the main gallery of the house, and received the shock of her life to see someone she did not recognize standing on the other side. She only had time to see that it was a young man with short dark hair before she slammed the door closed again and jumped back, heart pounding. Her mind raced through the possibilities, and concluded that it must be someone like the men who came here before, like the one who had tried to drown her.

How clever of the enemy, to distract her lord with a horde of demons, only to send in small humans he would probably not notice!

Rin searched around the room for another way out, but there were only two. One was the door that led to the gardens, and it was of course barricaded. And anyway, it led only to the heart of the battle. The other was the window through which she could drop down to the lawn in front of the house, and perhaps make her way to safety, but it was also boarded shut.

I’m trapped! I should have left sooner! What should I do? What should I do?

What would Sesshoumaru-sama do? Sesshoumaru-sama would not be afraid. He would stand ready with his blade. She took out her small dagger and held it low, thinking she might be able to disembowel the intruder before he got his hands on her.

***

Miroku flinched away from the door with a startled exclamation.

“What is it?” Sango demanded. “What happened?”

“It was a woman,” he answered. “She opened the door, then closed it again when she saw me.”

“A woman? A human?”

“I only saw her for a second, but I think so.”

“What should we do?” Yuka asked.

“I’m not sure,” Sango answered. “I have a strange feeling, ever since we came in here…actually, as soon as I laid eyes on the house.”

She feel silent.

“It must be Rin,” Miroku said at last.

“Rin?”

“Who else would be here?” he pointed out. “It’s been a long time since I’ve seen her, and I did not get a long look at her. She probably did not recognize me either.”

“You could be right.”

He pulled on the door. It did not take them more than a moment's glance to understand that the room served as the kitchen. It was a deep, low-beamed room with shelves tucked into one wall and a large fire pit in the center. The wall to the left had a window, and the far wall had a door, but both were blocked. A young woman stood fixing them with a stare. She was as slender as a sapling and her straight hair, as black as obsidian, reached halfway to her waist. She brandished a long knife with a curved tip.

“Stay back!” she shouted.

“Rin-chan?” Sango exclaimed.

The girl lowered the knife and her eyes widened. She looked them up and down several times.

“Sango-chan! Miroku-sama!”

Rin put the knife down on the wooden table and rushed toward them, leaping over a bench and several piles of blankets. She threw her arms around the two of them.

“I can't believe it!” she cried. “I just can't believe it! What are you doing here?”

“It’s wonderful to see you again,” Miroku laughed. “You’ve grown.”

“We’re looking for a place to hide,” Sango told her. “For us, and for our friends.”

She indicated Higurashi, Eri, Ayumi, and Yuka. Rin looked them over.

“They're just humans, right?”

Sango nodded.

“Well, Sesshoumaru-sama does not really like strangers in his house, but...”

“Rin-chan,” Higurashi stepped forward, bowing. “We are no strangers. I know we have never met, but I recognized you as soon as I laid eyes on you.”

Rin looked at her with a blank expression, shaking her head.

“I'm sorry, but I…”

Higurashi bowed again.

“I am the Seeress,” she said. “As you are the Bearer.”

Rin's eyes widened again.

“Oh,” she whispered. “I see.”

“Rin-chan?” Sango looked at her. “Does that mean anything to you?”

Rin nodded slowly.

“Yes, I am the Bearer. I bear Kagura's heart.”

The others stared at her in amazement.

“What?” Miroku laughed again. “I'm sorry, I don't think I understood you.”

Rin looked around the room impatiently.

“It's a long story and I don't have time,” she answered. “My lord gave me strict instructions, and I've taken too long to carry them out as it is.”

“Your lord?” Miroku rubbed the back of his neck. “Right. Sesshoumaru-sama.”

“He sent word for me to go to the room downstairs to hide.”

“Downstairs?”

“Yes, in the cellar. It's dug into the mountain rock and Sesshoumaru-sama ordered me to hide there. I must go now.”

“May we go with you?”

“Follow me,” Rin nodded. “I think…I think we have a lot to talk about anyway.”

“Wait!” Sango shouted.

Everyone stopped and turned back.

“I can’t wait,” Rin fretted.

Sango pointed her finger to a corner, and Miroku gasped.

“What is it?” Higurashi asked.

“That’s the Hiraikotsu!” Miroku exclaimed. “We lost it that day…on the Plateau.”

“How did it get here?”

“Tamotsu-sama found it,” Rin answered. “The day…that same day, of the explosion.”

“Are we so near to it?” Sango asked her.

“I’m not sure,” Rin said. “I’ve never seen it. But I did see the dust and smoke from here.”

“Who is Tamotsu?” Higurashi asked.

“Sesshoumaru-sama’s cousin,” Rin shook her head. “Listen, I really have to go.”

“That’s what I’ve been feeling,” Sango murmured to herself. “It was the Hiraikotsu, calling to me.”

“What do you mean?” Yuka asked. “It called you?”

“The Hiraikotsu is made of demon bones,” Miroku explained. “It has something of a…presence, and it is attached to Sango.”

Sango, meanwhile, was walking towards it, reaching out her hand. When they touched, both the girl and the bone boomerang trembled. A low hum zinged through the air in a short flash.

“I know, I know,” the young woman whispered.

She lifted the tremendous weapon above her head and brought it down again. The elbow of it went into the floor with a punctuated crack.

“I can still lift it, Miroku,” she said, looking him in the eyes.

He was silent for a moment, then he sighed and went to her, pulling her into an embrace. She put her arms around him, grabbing his shoulders, and she lifted her face. He clasped his lips onto hers fiercely. The others, except Rin, blushed and averted their eyes. Sango pulled away and took a deep breath, and when she spoke, her voice was like steel.

“One more thing before you go,” she said to Rin. “Is there somewhere in this house where I might find some cloths that I could borrow?”

“In the upstairs rooms, there are some trunks of cloths that no one cares about,” Rin answered. “Go up the stairs and turn to the left.”

“Thank you.”

Sango stayed with them until they got to the stairs where, with one last squeeze of his hand, she went up while Miroku went down.

Rin led them down the stairs, which ended at a dirt floor in a hall of stone walls. They went straight into the dark tunnels. Rin stopped once and went into a room, and when she reemerged moments later she was carrying a lighted torch.

“This way,” she said. “Hurry!”

They went through a set of doors that, unlike the rest of the doors in the house, did not slide but swung open. Stepping into a room with a stone floor they were hit with the smell of damp rock and they could hear the sounds of trickling water. Rin’s torch threw shimmering shadows on the walls.

When Miroku walked into the room, he found himself standing near several steaming pools. He blinked, and the light shimmered and somehow shifted. The edges of the water, of the walls and floors, of the women around him, slid away in a blur. He blinked again.

Someone was in the water, a man. He was holding someone down. Miroku saw a fan of jet black hair floating above a struggling figure. From behind him he heard someone shout, in fear, or rage, or despair. His stomach lurched and for a second he thought he’d throw up. A figure appeared in front of him, and Miroku could not understand where they had come from, until he realized that they had just ran through him.

It was Sesshoumaru. He had his sword drawn. The man saw him and tried to run away.

Miroku cried out and closed his eyes. Beads of sweat formed on his forehead.

He heard someone crying, wailing, and, looking for the sound, he saw a woman holding someone, and Sesshoumaru standing over her. When she lifted her face, he saw that it was ravaged with weeping, and a shock ran through his spine when he recognized her.

“They killed her, Sesshoumaru,” Kikyou sobbed. “They think we’re the monsters now.”

Miroku looked at the body she was holding. It was Kagome, limp and lifeless, eyes bulging, naked, and with a knife between her shoulder blades. He screamed and shut his eyes.

“Miroku-sama! Miroku-sama!” someone was calling him.

He opened his eyes again, terrified of what he’d see, but there was only Rin looking at him, holding her torch.

“Miroku-sama! What is the matter?”

He looked around, blinking back tears, and shook his head dumbly.

“Come on,” she said, taking his hand. “The others have gone in. We must go too!”

He let her pull him into a room where lit torches hung on the walls. There were wooden crates piled in one corner. Miroku stumbled to one of the walls and lowered himself to the floor.

“Are you alright?” Higurashi knelt beside him, putting a hand on his shoulder. “I heard you call out.”

Miroku could not answer. He was devastated by the certainly of that vision. It was no illusion, no sickness of the brain, though goodness knows he would have it coming. He had not just seen it; he had felt it. The agony and wrath of that memory was etched into the stone walls.

“Rin-san,” he whispered.

She came to him and knelt beside Higurashi.

“You said there was a lot we had to talk about. I think you’re right. I’m listening.”

***

Kagome emerged into the cold air and took only one brief glance at the battle below. If she studied it, if she let it sink in how outnumbered they were, how horrible were the beasts that were set upon them, she would run back into the house in stark terror and never come out. She’d probably die in there, in flames and ruin.

That may happen anyway.

But at least she’d take out as many enemies as she could. She was determined to do so, not just because they probably came from Naraku, but because she’d go to any lengths to avoid dying with that insufferable Sesshoumaru having all the proof he needed that she was truly useless.

She put an arrow against the rest on her bow and drew.

Now she had no choice but to look, to find a target. The field below was a blur of bodies and dust. Here and there she saw, and felt, the release of a tremendous demonic energy, and assumed it was Tamotsu or Sesshoumaru.

“Imouto,” Kikyou said. “Look!”

“What is it?”

“Allies, apparently.”

Kagome lowered her bow.

“You’re right,” she said, moving closer to the edge. “Who are they?”

“It looks like some are human.”

“Where did they come from?”

“I also sense other demons.”

“Are they…are they good demons?”

Kikyou looked amused.

“They are fighting our enemy, if that is what you mean.”

“I hardly know how to aim at anything,” Kagome fretted.

“Do you see those large ogres?” Kikyou pointed.

“Yes.”

“Tamotsu-sama said that they were the leaders. They make the best targets. Aim for them.”

“I’ll try,” Kagome said doubtfully.

“You may try, if you wish,” Kikyou said, quite seriously. “I intend to kill them.”

Kagome snorted, even as she drew the string of her weapon. That was such a Kikyou thing to say.

She found one ogre, closer to the house. He seemed to be considering breaking away from a segment of his minions to attempt the wall.

“Elbow, grip, slant,” she whispered.

The string hummed, the arrow whistled, the ogre died. His body disintegrated as her purification energy drowned him.

“Hey, I did it!”  she exclaimed, delighted. “Did you see that?”

“That was wonderful,” Kikyou commented, after releasing her fifth shot. “Just do that, five hundred more times.”

Kagome sighed and set a stem against the arrow rest again.

“One thing, however,” Kikyou said. “You need to control how much of your power that you release. It is not needful to use so much to kill one minor demon. You will tire sooner.”

“You never taught me how to do that!” Kagome accused.

“Now is a good time to practice.”

Kagome was about to disagree when a cold shadow passed swiftly over them. Kikyou changed her stance and pointed her arrow to the sky. Kagome looked up and saw something large circling the air above the battle.

“What is that?” she exclaimed, squinting at it.

It was difficult to see in the snowy twilight, but due to the creature's shape, and the piercing, metallic sound it made when it screamed, Kagome concluded that it was some kind of bird.

“I think it is a bird demon,” Kikyou said, following it with the deadly tip of her arrow.

“Wait,” Kagome stopped her. “Look at it!”

The creature screamed again, then dove to the ground. Its powerful talons grabbed at least half a dozen spider demons, making an ugly, spurting, crunching sound that Kagome could hear from over a hundred feet away. Most of them were killed instantly by the piercing claws. Dead or not, they were dropped from a great height onto the heads of their comrades.

“I think it’s on our side,” Kagome said, feeling a little sick.

Kikyou shrugged and turned her arrow against the ground enemies again. This time, when she released, the arrow went into the army without hitting one creature, and Kagome thought she had missed. But the arrow went through their ranks like a poisonous viper, exuding a purifying wave that took out at least twenty Tsuchigumo at once.

“Show off,” Kagome grumbled, setting another arrow.

***

Nobunaga lopped off a spider demon’s head and thanked the gods that Nazuna was somewhere far away and safe. A grasping, clawing hand grabbed his wrist and he cut it off without looking at it. He was surrounded by wolf demons and spider demons, and he wondered how in the hell he ended up in such a situation. He remembered meeting Inuyasha and Kagome on that spring morning so many years ago.

If I had known then what I know now, I would have run far, far away.

He knew that was not at all true. Speaking of Inuyasha, where was that half-demon anyway?

He removed his sword from a monster’s lung (at least, he assumed the lungs were there), just in time to spring away and dodge the fall of a massive club. A red-eyed oni stood over him, grinning and slobbering. The club came down again and Nobunaga stepped aside calmly. The force stirred his hair, but he stood still. Instead of swinging to the side, which would have been smart, the demon lifted his weapon high above his head, which was not. Without hesitation, Nobunaga slid his blade into the demon’s gut and tore it open. It roared with rage and pain and fell back.

There were so many of these nasty things, but they were so dumb.

“Watch out, Nobunaga!”

He heard a voice come from somewhere, and he turned. Several spider demons had focused on him and he saw that he was alone. He prepared for his first strike, which he hoped would kill at least two of them, when a force of wind almost knocked him down. He saw a confusion of dust, feathers, and blood. The bird—Shippou, he reminded himself—crashed into the monsters and tore most of them apart. He was high in the air again on a strong wind in less than a moment.

“Thank you!” Nobunaga called after him.

***

Taroumaru got lost somewhere between the river, the mountains, and the end of the world. Left alone at the tender age of fourteen to fend for himself, he assumed he was grown, was all the man he needed to be, because he needed to be.

Back when it was still raining, he set out into the broken country, bereft of his heritage and a lord in name only. He stole to eat, killed to survive, and sometimes to show mercy. Somewhere in the mud he experienced his first woman—a young, pallid thing with little life in her. She was gone when he woke and he said to himself that he was glad, in that gritty, dog-eat-dog, stand alone way he thought he was supposed to. In truth, he was crushed.

He said to himself that his own sword was the only wife he needed.

The follies of youth remain even when the joys of it are stolen away.

He fought bravely at the riverside where he first met Shippou and Kagura, and continued fighting a rearguard action all the way to the caverns. When the call to march to battle again came, Taroumaru followed without hesitation. He ran down the escarpment into the Fields of Eternal Snow with a roar of defiance.

He lasted about twenty minutes, and that was only because he could not get away any faster. There were just too many of them. Monsters, nightmarish shadows, pressed in from all directions. The ferocity of the wolf demons frightened him, even though he knew they were supposed to be on his side. He saw himself stranded in an ocean of demon blood and demon hatred.

What am I doing here?

How did I get here?

Taroumaru broke away and finally got to the other side of the large house. Here, the din of the chaos and death faded somewhat, and he could hear the pitiful call of gulls. He hid himself under a low, dense cypress which grew against the front wall, and wondered what he would say when someone found him there.

He eyed the sword that lay discarded on the ground beside him. It was not as long, not as bright and keen, as it seemed six months ago. He considered how he might wound himself in a way that was convincing but the least painful.

The follies of youth remain.

***

Inuyasha believed that the tide of the battle had turned decidedly in their favor. The humans and wolf demons were taking out a fair number of the monsters, but between the (rather surprising) brutality of Shippou, the relentlessness of Kagura’s tearing wind, and the sheer overwhelming force of the three dog demons, they were decimating whole regiments of the enemy. The fields of eternal snow were trampled in a mire of blood and mud and the flower petals could hardly be seen anywhere anymore. The stench of it was unbelievable. Every now and then his sharp ears picked up the last cry of a dying human, or wolf demon, and he allowed his heart one second of agony before moving on. He released the Wind Scar so many times it had become a part of his body, as though he were merely striking out with his fist. He sent it tearing through the enemy again.

The shake of the ground warned him, and he turned to see the blade of an oversized sword coming down on his head. He dodged it and made ready to swing again.

“Watch your head, Inuyasha!”

Inuyasha ducked without thinking, and he heard a sound he had not heard in many months: the unmistakable whirr of the Hiraikotsu singing in the air. He straightened in time to see the ogre’s two halves twitching on the ground and Sango catching her weapon above her head.

“Where the hell did you find that?” he asked, walking to her.

She was panting and flushed, and Inuyasha thought to himself that it must be difficult for her to handle that weapon after all this time, but he did not say it. She was also wearing different clothing, dark and tight, like her old demon-slayer outfit.

“It was in the house,” she answered, puffing. “Can you believe it?”

“At this point, I can believe anything,” Inuyasha answered, resting his sword on his shoulder for a moment. “Where’s Miroku?”

“He stayed in the house with the girls, and with Rin.”

Inuyasha's immediate thought was to wonder whether it was a good idea to leave that perverted monk with so many females, but he did not say that either. Sango lifted her weapon and flung it into a crowd of Tsuchigumo bearing down on them. After it had sliced through them, sending them flying in pieces, she caught it again.

“Nice work,” Inuyasha grunted, before continuing his own.

***

The fighting was not difficult. It was mystifying why anyone would send such a force against him. They had made a show of being threatening, coming to the gates in ordered regiments with oni captains he had never seen before, but they were still the mindless mob they had always been, and killing them was like brushing ants off his shoulder. Sesshoumaru killed a dozen with one swing of his sword. A strange light broke his concentration for a second, until he realized it was a sacred arrow, sent by one of the mikos to kill something not too far from him.

A rather large ogre, somewhat like the captain that had been the first to die, came and stood in the spot where he had just annihilated a handful of Tsuchigumo. It looked at him and grinned. Sesshoumaru watched with dull disinterest as it opened its mouth. At first, it seemed to be yawning, but the mouth opened so wide that it lost the shape of its head. Out of this gaping maw, the ogre regurgitated a viscous, inky liquid. The substance formed first into little pebbles, shiny and black, and then into a dozen Tsuchigumo, who hit the ground running.

“How tiresome,” he commented, before killing the ogre.

***

Kagura twirled her staff in her hand like a fire dancer. She was almost enjoying this, she had to admit, though each death of a human or a wolf demon filled her with an indignant outrage. Their loses were not terrible, considering how badly they were outnumbered, but to Kagura, each death of an ally was a tiny victory for Naraku. Although they had not proven it, she had come to assume that the Tsuchigumo were a creation of her former master. But even if they were not, it would make no difference because anything she lost, at any time, was a victory for that monster, as far as she was concerned. Anything that hurt her, anything that so much as bothered her, was a manifestation of him in her mind. In her heart she believed that, should a thousand years pass after his death, it would always be so.

Even as she killed the vermin around her, she wondered if she were as free as she thought.

What if he made me so that I could not be? Maybe it’s a built-in failure?

Her thoughts scattered when she felt a sizzle of heat and electricity so close to her head that she covered an ear, thinking it had been burned. She noticed the arrow in time to see it sink into the forehead of an ogre that was near her. Kagura scolded herself viciously that she had let the thing get that close to her because she was not focusing. If not for that arrow, she might have been killed, or at least hurt.

“Arrow?” she whispered.

Kagura turned and looked up. On the ledge that overlooked the northern field, where she had seen Sesshoumaru just hours before, she saw Kagome, standing with her bow drawn. Her hair was tied back and the ponytail whipped in the cold wind. She was wearing a dark kimono and hakama, except that the sleeves were white. Kagura could see, even from this distance, that she had white bandages wrapped around her hands and arms.

The girl shot again, and the arrow whistled through the air, hitting something Kagura did not see. She realized that the miko had not knowingly saved her, had not seen her at all, but was only shooting at the largest targets in her range. She reminded herself that Kagome was human, and her vision in the growing dark and snow must be limited. The moon was full, but the snow clouds blocked most of its light.

Kagura knew that Inuyasha must already be aware that Kagome was up there. She marveled to herself that he was able to focus on fighting. After all, it had been at least half a year!

“To hell with it,” she muttered. “I’m not as strong as him.”

Kagura lifted herself into the air, left the fighting behind, and landed on the stone balustrade behind Kagome. She was so close she could smell her. She could also smell the build and release of purifying powers, which was something like a swell of boiling water, pure but dangerous. Kagura did not announce herself. The idea of being this close to her after all this time left her breathless. The last time she had seen her, she was running into certain death in Naraku’s arms; she was trying to save her!

Kagura felt a peculiar tightening in her throat and her eyes blurred.

What is this feeling?

“Kagome! Look out!”

Kagura flinched, barely in time to dodge the arrow that buzzed in front of her nose. Gasping, she jumped back and threw up her arms.

“Don’t shoot!”

Kagome turned in fearful surprise, shoving her ponytail out of her eyes. She stopped and stared, her mouth falling open.

“Oh my god,” she gasped in a strangled voice.

She looked into Kagura’s eyes.

“Kagome…” Kagura whispered.

Kagome seemed unable to move or say anything. Kagura glanced sideways and noticed Kikyou for the first time. After an initial start, she said:

“Long time no see. Kinda thought you were dead.”

“I got better,” Kikyou responded.

Kagura stared at her, then shook her head.

“Whatever.” She turned back to Kagome. “She's here with you?”

“Yes,” Kagome answered, her face still shocked. “She's been taking care of me.”

“That's sweet. I can just imagine how warm and fuzzy Inuyasha will be to hear it.”

“Inuyasha!” Kagome exclaimed. “Have you seen him?”

“What, are you blind?” Kagura pointed to the battle. “He's out there fighting.”

Kagome whipped her head around. She leaned over the edge.

“I don't see him,” she cried, panicked.

“Well, there's so much going on. But believe me, he's out there.”

Kagome turned back to her.

“Have you been with him this whole time?”

“Not at all. I did not see him until a few days ago.”

“Oh,” Kagome murmured, looking back over the field.

Kikyou shot another arrow.

“How can you be so calm?” Kagome demanded. “Didn't you hear her? Inuyasha is here!”

“I have known he was here,” Kikyou replied without looking at her.

“What?”

“I am quite amazed that you did not sense him. He is not only here, but he is fighting, most vigorously, releasing a great deal of his demonic energy. I would sense it if I were miles away, let alone being right here on top of him.”

“Why didn't you say anything?”

“Because I wished to avoid this conversation,” Kikyou said. “We do not have the luxury to indulge in sentiment. When the enemy is vanquished, we may rejoice in all our reunions.”

“You haven't changed a bit,” Kagura commented.

“She's changed a lot,” Kagome said, with some heat.

“Either way,” Kagura shrugged. “She is right.”

Kagura stood on the narrow railing, looking down at them.

“I'd like nothing better to throw myself at your feet,” she said to Kagome. “But the other miko is right. I should get back.”

Just then, they heard the shrill cry of the bird again. They looked out and saw that it was struggling to stay in the air. Its great wings clawed at the air, shuddering and folding inward.

“I think it's been hit!” Kagome cried. “It's injured.”

The blood drained from Kagura’s face as the bird plummeted to the ground.
“No!” she shouted.

She was gone the next instant. Kagome had not seen her move. It was not that Kagura was fast. She was beside her one moment, and somewhere else the next.

“The bird has transformed,” Kikyou said.

Kagome saw that Kagura was carrying away a body. She could tell nothing about it, except that the person was wounded. In another instant, Kagura had returned, reappearing where she had been before. She knelt on the stone floor of the terrace, holding up the body of a young man. He wore a white kimono and blue hakama, stained everywhere with dark blood, and his mass of hair was the reddest Kagome had ever seen. A long spear was lodged in his shoulder, and it shuddered and quivered when he breathed.

“Oh no,” Kagura cried. “No, no, no, no, no.”

She turned to Kikyou.

“Should I take the spear out?”

Kikyou shook her head. “I really have no idea.”

“We should get Sesshoumaru,” Kagome suggested. “He knows more about healing demons than we do.”

“He is somewhat preoccupied at the moment,” Kikyou said. “Getting to him will not be easy.”

“There is no need.”

Sesshoumaru was standing over them. Kagura looked up at him, her eyes desperate.

“I see you are doing well for yourself,” he said to her.

Kagura could not answer.

“I saw the wounding when it happened, and you carrying the kitsune here,” he said.

Kagome's mind was a tempest of confusion. The reintroduction of Kagura, the knowledge of Inuyasha being near, raced through her mind like a terrific avalanche down a mountainside, but the word “kitsune” pulled her neck back as if on a chain. She knelt beside Kagura and pushed the demon's hair away from his face. A moment or two passed, but it felt like an hour to her. She dimly heard other voices. Kagura was saying something in a high-pitched, urgent tone. The deep voice of Sesshoumaru vibrated in her chest. Kagome did not hear what they said. She only heard the well of agony building in her, like a kettle before it boiled. Her chest opened and released it. Kagome screamed. She sobbed and clung to the wounded fox demon.

“Shippou!” she cried. “Shippou! No, it can't be. Oh please, no. Shippou!”

He was slipping from her grip. She held tighter, but could not resist whatever force was taking him away. No, someone was pulling her away. Then she could hear a voice besides her own, and the world came back from the suffocating landslide.

“Kagome, it will be alright,” someone was saying. “It is just his shoulder. Sesshoumaru will fix it.”

Kagome could not answer in any coherent way. A weight on her chest crushed her and she found herself breathing rapidly, never feeling that she could get enough air.

“Kagome, damn it, there is no time for this now.”

Kagome tried to get away from whatever was holding her, tried to get back to Shippou. She saw that Sesshoumaru was pinning the kitsune down with his foot while taking hold of the spear with one hand. She struggled again. How could he be so rough? Didn't he know this was just a kid? He's a baby!

“He is not a baby,” Kikyou told her, and she realized she had been shouting.

Kagome did not answer and she continued to struggle to get free. Kikyou turned her around roughly and slapped her across the face. She stood very still, holding her cheek.

“Enough!” Kikyou hissed.

Her face was only an inch or two from her own.

“There are still enemies before the gate,” she went on. “There are still people out there dying. Do not forget, for one moment, that this siege is happening because of you.”

Kagome looked up at her, stunned far more by those words than by the blow.

“Naraku sent this enemy here because of you. He either knows that you are here, or he does not want Sesshoumaru to help you.”

“That's not my fault!” Kagome protested.

“Of course it is not,” Kikyou answered. “But the least you could do is kill as many as you can.”

She shoved the bow back into her hands.

“Now, cease this sniveling at once and get back to work.”

Kagome glared at her, but she took the bow. Out of the corner of her eye, she caught the gaze of Sesshoumaru.

“If she is unable to fight, it is not important,” he said, looking away. “The threat is of no real consequence.”

The look Kagome gave him was venomous. It was bad enough that he refused to admit he needed any help at all, but he had just insinuated that she was useless, and that the death of the humans and wolf demons before his gate was insignificant.

“What about them?” Kikyou pointed to the north.

Kagome turned and saw large, dark shapes, ambling toward them through the snow. They were larger than any moving thing she had ever seen. Through the pale moonlight and the falling snow, she could only see the outline of them. They were similar to oxen, but each the size of a large house.

“What is it?” Kagura asked from where she still knelt, holding Shippou.

“I don't know, some kind of demon,” Kagome answered. “Nothing that large could be natural to Japan.”

Sesshoumaru eyed the monsters for a few moments, then he was gone in a quick breath.

“Kagura...what is it?” Shippou croaked.

Kagome's attention was pulled again.

“Shippou!” she cried, rushing back to his side.

“It's nothing,” Kagura answered him. “Don't worry about it.”
“You're lying,” he laughed, then coughed.

“Shippou...” Kagome whispered.

His eyes rolled to the side, then widened. He lifted himself on his elbows.

“Don't strain yourself!” Kagura exclaimed.

“Is that...?” he whispered. “It's you.”

“Yes...yes, it's me.”

“Kagome,” he whispered. “I...I can't...”

He gasped and grabbed his shoulder.

“Please, Shippou-chan, please relax,” Kagome put her hands on his shoulders.

He let himself fall back into Kagura’s arms again, then he reached out and took a strand of Kagome's hair, pulling it through his fingers.

“I waited so long to see you again,” he sighed. “And now I think I've gone and gotten myself killed.”

“You're not dying,” Kagome said.

Large tears rolled down her cheeks.

They all felt the growing rumble in the ground.

“What is that?” Shippou tried to look around again. “Kagura?”

“I'm going to take you in the house, then I'll take care of it. Don't worry.”

“No, no I can fight.”

Before they could stop him he managed to get to his feet, and he stood there, swaying and looking around with wide eyes. Kagome realized that he was losing his grip on reality.

“Shippou, please, let me take care of you, for once,” Kagura begged him.

Kagome suddenly remembered her visions during the rains, before she awoke in the Hyouden. She saw the two of them standing in the rain, surrounded by all the ruin of that day.

“The two of you have been together all this time,” she said.

Kagura looked startled, then she nodded.

Jaken came out onto the balcony again, though Kagome had not noticed him leave. He did not say anything, but went straight to the young fox demon and put his hand over his mouth. Shippou started for a moment, then his eyes closed and he collapsed again into Kagura.

“What did you do?” Kagome almost screeched at the little toad demon.

“It won't hurt him,” he shouted back. “It just made him sleep. He can't fight, and we don't have time to argue with him.”

He cast aside a piece of cloth and then looked at Kagura.

“Take him inside. If I were you, I'd put him in the cellar, down two floors. It's the safest place.”

Kagura gaped at him. “I...I...” she stumbled.

“What the hell is the matter with you?” he snapped.

Then he waved a hand over them.

“If you don't care if he lives or dies, it's nothing to me,” he shrugged.

Kagura lifted the wounded fox demon and ran into the house. Jaken went to the railing and peered over it onto the battle below.

“I'm going down there,” he said to no one in particular.

“Down there?” Kagome exclaimed. “You can't!”

“I can and I will,” he said. “I can't stay in this house anymore. I think things have taken a turn for the worse.”

He pointed out to the field. The moon washed the land in white, and they could see the struggling hordes, and the bodies of the slain, and on the edge of the battle those large shapes were coming closer. They moved like elephants, and they had picked up their pace. A line of them charged across the river, which was to them a mere puddle, and their feet crushed foe and ally alike.

“This is bad,” Kagome said.

“I will go below as well,” Kikyou said.

“What?” Jaken started. “Are you crazy?”

“I will need more power to take those things down,” she answered. “I need to be closer. I do not wish to wait until they are on top of the house.”

“Now you listen here,” Jaken stamped his feet. “My lord will protect this house just fine. But he's gone to a lot of trouble to keep you people alive.”

No one paid any attention to him. Kikyou grabbed an extra quiver and she filled it, slinging two full ones over her shoulder.

“Wait, Kikyou,” Kagome started. “I don't think that's a good idea. I should at least go with you.”

“Absolutely out of the question,” the other miko turned to her. “Stay here, and continue to do what you can.”

“But—

“Imouto,” Kikyou's tone was dangerous, “if you do not obey I will knock you unconscious and lay you next to your fox demon.”

Kagome swallowed hard and took a step back.

“That is better,” Kikyou said. “Inuyasha would never forgive me if something happened to you.”

In the next minute she disappeared into the house, with Jaken running behind her. Kagome looked around and realized she was alone. Her mind whirled with images and voices and desperate hopes and fears, so much that her head felt swollen, a feeling exacerbated by the biting cold. She picked up more arrows, and her numb fingers were small and hollow, like the bones of a bird.

She thought of all the struggles of her friends, the ones that were fighting now and the fighting that must have gone before. And if Inuyasha and Shippou are here, there's a good chance Miroku and Sango are near as well, probably fighting for all they were worth.

“I can't let them down.”

Kagome drew her bow again. Below she saw flames incinerate a spider demon, and she realized that Jaken was fighting them off with his staff, close to the back door. As an ogre got close, she released the string and watched the arrow land in its forehead with a thud. It screamed once, before disintegrating into the pure light. Jaken shot one glance over his shoulder, nodded, and returned to his work.

Kagome drew her bow again.

***

It took about twenty minutes to go around the house. After leaving the front door, Kikyou turned to the left and went up a narrow path into the trees. Even over the clamor of the battle on the other side of the house, she could hear the pounding of the waves on the rocks below. Making her way through the forest, she came out on the north side, where the ridge ended. Below her feet the ground sloped down into the fields. The hill was a mess of trampled mud and mire, but most of the land still gleamed white. She felt the release of Inuyasha's energy again, and it was shockingly close.

She looked up at the brilliant full moon peeking through the cloud cover for a moment, though the snow still did not stop.

The thing to do, she decided, was to get down the slope as quickly as possible without being seen. She would have to fight, but it was too dangerous to be out in the open alone. The last of the titanic demons were crossing the river. Several had been slain already, probably by Sesshoumaru and his cousin, and their huge bodies lay in the field like mountains.

Kikyou stepped out on the incline, and the snow slipped out from under her foot treacherously. She grabbed for a pine branch to balance herself. This was going to be tricky.

Somewhere behind her, a twig snapped, and Kikyou froze as she felt the enormous pressure of a multitude of demons on her back. She cursed her inattentive foolishness. She had assumed that all of the enemy were in the valley below, and now she had let them sneak right up on her. She turned, building herself up for a release of as much purifying energy as she could. She would take out a good number of them before they got her.

Lucky for her, and for at least two dozen wolf demons, Kikyou realized her mistake before it was too late. She pulled herself in again and let out a slow breath, putting her back against a tree.

“Hey,” a gruff voice came from nearby.

She saw a young-looking wolf demon standing no more than six feet away. He was looking at her with curiosity and confusion. His brown hair was gathered at the back of his head, and furs covered his arms, legs, and shoulders. His eyes were a fierce blue that returned the moonlight.

“You are Kouga, I believe,” she breathed another sigh of relief.

“Yeah,” he answered slowly. “If I didn't know better, I'd swear you were Kikyou. But she's—

“Dead, or…undead, yes I know,” Kikyou said. “I am Kikyou, and I am not dead, or undead. It is a long story.”

“I just bet it is.”

“Why are you here?”

“I came with reinforcements,” he answered, jabbing his thumb over his shoulder to indicate the few hundred wolf demons filling up the woods. “To help out Inuyasha and them.”

He peered at her, pursing his lips.

“You do know that he's down there, don't you?”

“I know it,” she replied. “We have not met, as of yet. We have been preoccupied.”

“Right. So, what are you doing up here?”

“I came out of the house, and then this way. I was trying to get to the fighting. I mean to destroy those large, ox-like demons.”

He looked perplexed, then came to the edge himself and peered over. He swore under his breath.

“What are they? Where did they come from?”

“I do not know. Several have been slain, but they are many. And I think it is difficult, even for the dog demons here, to destroy them.”

“You mean Sesshoumaru and Inuyasha?”

“And one other,” she said. “Tamtosu-sama, Sesshoumaru-sama's cousin.”

“How do you know so much about it?” he peered at her. “You said you came from the house? You mean Sesshoumaru's house?”

“I do not see another house anywhere,” she answered.

He rolled his eyes. “I can see why you and Inuyasha get along so well.”

She inclined her head.

“You are going to the battle,” she said. “Will you carry me down this slope?”

He hesitated.

“I don't know. If I take you into danger, and something happens, Inuyasha will never let me hear the end of it. That is, assuming you are who you say you are.”

“I will go,” she told him. “I was merely asking for you to make it easier.”

He sighed. “Now you sound like Kagome.”

Kikyou did not say anything, though she threw one sidelong glance at the Hyouden.

“OK, there's no time to argue,” he said. “Come stand next to me. We're just about to announce our presence.”

Not knowing what he meant, Kikyou looked around. She saw lines of wolf demons on each side of her advance to the edge of the escarpment. They were lifting ivory hunting horns to their mouths.

“Is that wise?” she asked quickly.

“I will not skulk into battle,” the young wolf demon puffed up his chest.

Kikyou thought, but did not dare say, how he was exactly as Kagome described him.

“Alright men, on three,” he shouted.

“Oh,” he added as an aside to Kikyou, “and I'd cover my ears, if I were you.”

Kikyou followed the suggestion without hesitation.

***

The number of arrows raining down on the battle had dropped noticeably. Inuyasha managed one glance over his shoulder. It was enough to see that Kagome was still there, concentrating her aim on the field close to her. He did not see Kikyou. Where had she gone? Was she injured?

She could be injured, he reminded himself. Really injured, not the snapping or cracking of the clay vessel that used to hold her collected souls. No, this would real bone breaking, real blood let loose, pumped by a beating heart. He still could not grasp the whole idea for more than a second without trying to shake it off as impossible. But that weird dog demon had had no reason to lie to him.

What did it all mean? Who was powerful enough to do that?

He had asked, but the dog demon, Tamotsu, as he called himself, did not know, though he implied that both Kikyou and Kagome had come to accept it as something they would never understand, perhaps were not supposed to understand.

He tried to sense her, but he could not feel anything over the thunder of Sesshoumaru, and he could not smell anything but blood.

“Inuyasha! Pay attention!”

Inuyasha did not bother looking around. In the next breath he jumped clear by a good fifty feet. One of those large, ox-like monsters strode past him, mammoth feet trampling everything in its path. This did not surprise him. What did was that the warning had come from Sesshoumaru. The dog demon went over his head and come down with his sword, splitting the giant monster almost in two. There was a roar, a wail, a gale of wails, and it was gone.

“Hey!” Inuyasha called to him.

Sesshoumaru gave him one disdainful look.

“If you had rather chatter than make yourself useful, I suggest that you leave.”

“Are you saying you want my help?”

Sesshoumaru turned his back on him.

“Hey, I'm talking to you! I know all about—

“Whatever you think you know,” Sesshoumaru cut him off, “is nothing to me. I have other matters to attend.”

“It takes a lot to kill these things,” Inuyasha said. “Even for you.”

But Sesshoumaru was already gone.

“Yep,” Inuyasha muttered to himself. “Still a jerk.”

***

An unexpected break came. The Hiraikotsu came back to her after tearing through a group of demons. Throwing it had become difficult; catching it was agony. But when it was secure in her hand again, resting on her shoulder, she noticed that she was clear. The few enemies that were anywhere near her were occupied with fighting others. Sango let the weapon rest as she panted, her breath steaming in the freezing air and her hair damp, both from snow and from sweat. Her father had once said that his girl had the strength to pull down a horse by its ears, if she wanted to. Now she wanted to cry from the pain of lifting, throwing, and catching the giant bone boomerang.

A snapping, snarling noise jerked her attention back to the ground and without hesitating she pulled the knife from her belt and stabbed at something. It sank with a sickening sound into the open mouth of a Tsuchigumo. Sango pulled back her hand, covered in black, slimy blood, and she brutally bit back the urge to vomit.

“Miroku,” she murmured, pulling up the boomerang again. “I want to go home.”

Her arm stopped in place. She could not lift it over her head. The muscles screamed and locked in place, like petulant children. She sighed and dropped to one knee, the Hiraikotsu leaning over her back.

It would not be long now. At any moment an enemy would see her, kneeling with her head bowed in the snow. They would kill her certainly, but would it be fast? Would they eat her? The men in her village used to try to scare her when she was child with stories of man-eating monsters. The worst ones, they said, ate your heart first.

Did she have a heart to eat?

Sango closed her eyes, and saw her father's face.

I'm coming to join you now, you and Kohaku.

She could never think of Kohaku without thinking of Naraku, and an old, festering hatred came boiling to the surface.

No, no I won't die with that. I’ll go back…back to the start.

She listened to her pounding heart, and somewhere in the rhythm she could hear the sound of Miroku sighing himself to sleep, like the sound of all the springs that have come and gone before her. Sango sank as if under water, surrounded by muffled and distant sounds that could not reach her. Her overheated body felt swollen in the cold air. She burned in spite of the snow and the biting air, as if she sat stranded in a baking desert under the July sun.

There’s no end to that desert I cross. I guess I really knew it all along.

A man's voice called her name.

“Sango! Nee-san!”

Nee-san?

Sango lifted her head and tried to peer through her matted hair. She heard the sound of clinking and scraping metal. Someone pulled on her, and she rose to stand on shaking feet.

“Nee-san, are you alright?”

Sango looked up into Kohaku's face. His eyes were intent, and concerned, and he looked...oh, he looked so much older.

“Come on,” he said. “I'll get you out of here.”

“Kohaku-kun?” she whispered.

“Yes, it's me,” he struggled to lift her and the boomerang. “I didn't know you were here, until I ran into Inuyasha. He said you were fighting.”

Sango listened with a numbed abstraction.

“He said everyone thought I was dead,” he went on. “But it's not true, Nee-san, Naraku lied.”

Sango reached out and brushed his brow with her fingertips.

“This is a dream,” she said.

“I hope not,” he smiled at her. “I hope you'd have better dreams than this.”

As they hobbled along, Kohaku struggling to support his sister and the weapon, they heard a blaring blast of noise from behind them.

“What was that?” Sango mumbled.

“I’m not sure,” he answered. “It sounded like…hunting horns.”

Kohaku stopped walking so that he could look around.

“Is it a new enemy?” she asked.

At first he did not respond, but then they started to move again.

“No,” he said, puffing as he pulled her. “There are more wolf demons coming.”

Sango smiled in spite of her dazed and disordered pain.

“That’s good.”

***

Kagura carried Shippou down the stairs to the first floor. Not knowing where she was, she kept going straight and found herself in the entrance gallery. To her utter shock, she could still make out the scorch marks on the wall where Jaken, defending Rin, had attacked her more than six months ago. It felt like centuries ago.

“Holy shit,” she muttered.

She heard a sudden and resounding cascade of deep blasts from outside. It was somehow musical; then it was gone.

“What was that?” she whispered to no one.

No one answered so she shook it off, turned around, and went back into the hall. Finding the stairs that went down, she took them into the cellar, almost tripping and dropping the wounded kitsune. The hall was bare and empty, with a packed dirt floor. It smelled damp and old. She turned from left to right, and back again.

Which way?

A slight scent caught her nose, barely perceptible over the scent of Shippou’s blood. She had to concentrate to make it out, but finally realized that it was Miroku. She turned to the left. Following the smell, she passed several closed rooms and came to a set of double doors. It was fortunate that they opened inward; she was able to kick her way in while still holding him.

It was almost pitch black inside, and she could only navigate by following the scent of the humans and steering clear of the hot water. When she came to another door, she kicked it several times. It was made of metal.

“Hello? Miroku? Are you in there?”

No response.

“Hello? I need help. Open up!”

A young woman’s voice answered, and Kagura’s held her breath when she realized it was Rin.

“Sesshoumaru-sama told me not to open the door to anyone but him.”

“Rin…Rin-san,” she said, “please. It’s Shippou. He’s hurt. Please let me in. I won’t hurt you, I promise.”

A few moments of tense silence followed, then the sound of metal scraping on stone, and the heavy doors groaned and creaked on their hinges. Kagura pushed her way in.

“What happened?” Miroku asked.

Kagura lowered Shippou to the ground.

“He was stabbed in the shoulder,” she responded. “In his other form.”

Miroku put a hand on the young demon’s neck. Then exhaled in relief.

“He’s still breathing.”

“He’s just knocked out right now. Jaken did something to make him sleep. I need you to keep him here.”

“Don’t worry,” Miroku told her. “We’ll protect him.”

“From himself, mind you,” she answered. “If he wakes up, don’t you let him out of this room.”

“Don’t worry,” he said again.

Kagura was about to leave when she saw Rin for the first time.

“You’re looking well,” the young woman said, “all things considered.”

“I…you see, I…” Kagura stumbled, then bit her lip, frustrated. “I…I must go back.”

“I have your heart,” Rin called after her.

Kagura froze in her tracks.

“Kagome had it when we found her, that day. She was unconscious for a long time, so I kept it. I still have it. Do you want it?”

Kagura shuddered.

“Rin…” she whispered.

Her throat was dry. She could not turn around and look at her again.

“No, you keep it, for now. Keep it safe.”

Kagura fled the room, into the cellar hall, and was climbing the stairs in two breaths. Now that she knew how to get to the front door, she ran through the main gallery and almost collided with someone.

“It’s you!”

It was a man’s voice. Kagura looked up into Kohaku’s face. He was staring at her with wild, confused eyes. She saw that he was struggling to carry the bone boomerang and to hold up his sister at the same time.

“Wha…what?” Kagura gasped, almost laughing. “What are you doing here?”

“I live here,” the young man answered. “Sort of.”

“He says he’s been here, for a long time,” Sango murmured.

Kagura was still for a moment, then she closed her eyes.

“I might have known that Naraku was lying,” she said. “But Kohaku, how did you get away from him?”

“It was Kikyou-sama,” he answered. “She saved me. We traveled together for a while, then we came here. We got here right after the rains ended.”

“What are you doing now?”

“I’m trying to get my sister to safety,” he panted. “She’s been fighting, and she’s exhausted.”

Looking at the demon slayer, that seemed an understatement. She could barely hold up her head. Kagura looked around, exasperated and torn. Finally, she sighed and reached for the  Hiraikotsu.

“Damn, this thing is heavy! Follow me. I know where to go.”

***

“Where do you want to go?”

Kouga yelled over the wind as he tore down the slope like a tornado. Kikyou clung to his shoulders in pure terror, biting back the urge to scream. He came to a sudden stop, his feet sliding on the snow, mud, blood, and grass. She tried to catch her breath.

“I need to get closer to those beasts,” she answered, making damn sure her voice was steady.

“Can you shoot while on my back?”

“I...I am not sure,” she said. “I have never done that.”

“Kagome does it all the time.”

“I am not Kagome.”

“Believe me,” he replied. “I know.”

“I really do not see how I can without falling,” she admitted.

“Don't be ridiculous,” he told her. “You won't fall unless I want you to.”

Kikyou relaxed her grip on his shoulders and straightened somewhat.

“Very well,” she said. “Get as close as you can.”

“You got it.”

They were off again. Kikyou reached for an arrow, but her head swam as the world zipped by at an impossible speed and she felt sick. She closed her eyes. She did not need to have them open to get the arrow, place it, and draw the bow.

“Tell me when we are there!” she shouted.

He cast one nervous look over his shoulder.

“Are you going to shoot that thing with your eyes closed?” he demanded. “I have comrades here, you know.”

“You carry, I shoot. Is that acceptable to you?”

“Fine,” he answered. “We're already there.”

He stopped. Kikyou opened her eyes. The monster was bearing down on them like a black tidal wave.

“If you're going to do something,” he urged, “now's the time.”

Kikyou fired. The arrow flew through the air and landed in the beast's right cheek. Though it looked like a tiny needle in its bulk, the monster screamed in pain and fury. It bent its head down to the ground, snapping the offending thing off, and kept going.

“You hurt it, at least,” Kouga jumped away.

“That was not what I intended,” she said. “I have to get closer.”

“I can't get you closer without getting on top of it.”

She did not answer, but he seemed to understand the silence.

“Are you out of your mind?” he exclaimed.

“That is not unlikely,” she answered. “Can you do it?”

He looked up at the monster. It had not changed its course after the attack, but had gained speed.

“Hold on,” he shouted.

He ran after it, his feet touching the ground for a second or two, then he was in the air, and Kikyou had to close her eyes again. She felt a jolt of impact and saw that he was trying to stay on the thing's back. She peered over the side and estimated that they were about fifteen or twenty feet in the air. She took another arrow from one of her quivers.

“I have to stab it by hand,” she said. “You will need to get away.”

“Oh hell no,” he answered.

“If you do not, you will die.”

“You're pretty confident.”

She struggled. “Let me down.”
“You'll never be able to stay on this thing,” he shouted. “I can barely keep us on. There's nothing to hold on to.”

Kikyou tried to release herself, but found that she could not. When he said she would not fall unless he wanted her to, he was not kidding.

“We do not have time for this,” she muttered.

She concentrated her thought and touched his neck with one finger. An angry jolt traveled down his spine.

“Ow!” he exclaimed.

He landed on his face on the monster’s back, and Kikyou rolled forward. The skin was smooth and tough, like old leather. One of her legs fell over the side and her hips started to follow it. Kikyou grunted as she strained to hold on.

“Kikyou!” Kouga yelled as he tried to balance himself.

She gripped the arrow in a tight fist and jammed it into the hide as hard as she could, just behind the left ear. The monster screamed again and began to run faster. It was now in a blind panic. The rose-colored glow of its death spread out like a flush of disease. It roared, a huge sound but still panicked and pitiful. Kikyou felt almost sorry for the thing.

“Alright!” Kouga shouted. “Let go!”

“Not yet!” she yelled back. “Get away!”

In the end, Kouga had no choice. The destruction of the miko's power washed over the monster and reached his feet. He could feel the threat growing closer like the licking flames of a fire. Just as he  leaped away he saw her reach behind her back for another arrow, keeping the other hand on the first one and her feet wedged into the monster's shoulder. She stabbed again.

Now the demise spread faster, and the monster bellowed once more. Then its gigantic legs disappeared and the body crashed into the ground. Kikyou fell away and was lucky enough to roll out from under it. The last thing to go were the tusks. They landed in the snow and melted away with a lingering sigh.

Kikyou stood up and dusted herself off. She turned around to see Sesshoumaru looking down at her with a curious expression.

“Sesshoumaru-sama,” she bowed her head.

“Kikyou,” he replied.

Kouga stalked up to her, shaking his fist. His face was livid, whether with fright or fury she could not tell.

“You...you...that's the...how...”

“Can you take me to another one?” she asked.

He blinked.

“Even Kagome wouldn't do something that insane!”

“As I said before, I am not Kagome.”

Kouga stared at her, then abruptly ducked and lifted her up over his shoulder.

“I cannot shoot like this!”

He did not answer. He hesitated for a moment or two, turning around a few times. Then he was airborne again. In a few heartbeats, she found herself on the ground.

“Ow!” she grunted as she landed on her bottom, oddly reminded of Tamotsu doing the same thing to her, months ago.

“You take her!” Kouga shouted. “That bitch is crazy!”

A figure stood over her, their shadow distinct in the bright moonlight, and Kikyou looked up. It was Inuyasha.

[End of Chapter 29]

[Next chapter: All Hell Breaks Loose]