InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ The Edge of Resistance ❯ All Hell Breaks Loose ( Chapter 31 )

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

The Edge of Resistance
Book Two: The Dissidents

“Come on everybody,
time to deliver.”
-Red Hot Chili Peppers

Satou Akira was a common man. He had a common face, wore common cloths, ate common food, and bore a common name. He was meant to live out his life in quiet obscurity, like his father before him and all the fathers that came before that. Until he was fifteen years old, he did not know that he had always lived in the shadow of a demon. On the night before his wedding, his father gave him all the advice he thought he would need. Among other things, he told him he would be fine so long as he did not cross paths with the Great Dog Demon.

That was how Akira learned that his family and neighbors dwelt on lands claimed as territory of the Hyouden. It did not amount to much, his father told him, because this demon was so great, so powerful, that he did not take any notice of them.

“So long as you keep your head down, nothing bad will happen. The demon does not love us, but it will not allow invaders. So be grateful.”

That turned out to be a false prophecy. Satou Akira’s wife and children were dead, either killed by Tsuchigumo or hounded into a miserable expiration by endless rains, by starvation and sickness. When the two demons, Shippou-sama and Kagura-sama, came through his village he followed them because of the quiet anger eating him alive from the inside, like a parasite.

At least they were doing something, not like that useless dog demon. Some great lord!

Away from his home, on the roads that were drying and cracking in the harsh winter air, Akira forgot what they all looked like.

He was meant to live out his life in quiet obscurity, like his father before him and all the fathers that came before that. Until he was twenty-one years old, he did not understand how untrue that would be. He died under a pile of bodies, a weeping wound across his chest and the thunder of horses in his ears. He lay there for some time, thinking only about breathing, watching the blood cover his hands.

It’s not much after all. Guess that’s all I have to give. That’s all I owe.

***

From within the dark and quiet cavern under the Hyouden, it sounded like a thunderstorm raged outside. A herd of horses thundered in the sky; menacing giants tossed lightening to the ground.

Sango fell into a deep sleep as soon as Kohaku lowered her to the floor. Miroku greeted his brother-in-law with all the surprised joy that his wife had been too exhausted or too confused to express. He thanked him again and again for bringing her back.

Kagura let the Hiraikotsu lean against the wall.

“Why did you even let her go out?” she demanded.

“Let?” Miroku laughed a little. “You do not know Sango, Kagura.”

He returned to the study of his wife’s face. Her breathing was not labored, but he was grieved that she could not rejoice in her reunion with her only living relative. Did she even know that Kagome was near? He sat next to her with his back to the wall, putting his arm around her and laying her head on his shoulder.

“Will she be alright?” Higurashi asked him.

“I think so,” he answered. “She’s not wounded, just exhausted. Though she would not admit it, she has still not fully recovered from the Plateau.”

He looked back to Kagura.

“Have you seen her?” he asked.

“Who?”

He gave her an impatient, annoyed look.

“Oh. Yeah, I saw her. She’s upstairs on that terrace, killing things with arrows.”

“Do you mean Kagome?” Yuka asked, her face suddenly intent.

Kagura nodded.

The Girls were sitting cross-legged in a cluster together on the floor. They still wore all the furs that the wolf demon tribe gave them, and Miroku was struck with the rather comical notion that they resembled a flock of fledgling birds. He did not choose to share the thought.

“You know she’s here?” Kagura asked.

“Rin-san told us,” Miroku said.

Kagura threw one glance at the young woman who sat on the floor with her knees tucked under her chin, but looked away again, quickly.

“I can still fight,” she said. “I must go out again.”

She stopped for an instant to touch Shippou’s hair, and then she was gone.

“Higurashi-san,” Yuka whispered. “This is bad. It’s taking too long. By the sound of it, it’s getting worse.”

“Sesshoumaru-sama will win,” Rin insisted, not looking up.

Yuka ignored her.

“Do you know something?” she asked Kagome’s mother. “You seem pretty calm, considering that Kagome is out there.”

“Especially considering,” Eri added, “that, according to this girl, she already died once.”

Once they were secured in the room, Rin, at Miroku’s insistence, recounted everything she could remember since the day of the Plateau. She did not go into details about Kagome’s injuries from that day, and Miroku suspected that she was sparing Higurashi regarding that. She could not avoid the subject of the first attack on the Hyouden, however, when her lord had been away and human men came to the house. Miroku described the vision that had overwhelmed him when he entered the baths with such vivid detail, and questioned her with such compelling force, that she had no choice but to explain it.

The revelation did not have the expected impact on Higurashi. She had remained quiet throughout the whole tale.

“I already knew that,” she said in response to Eri.

“What?” Yuka turned on her.

“I already knew it. It was in the Oracles.”

“How can that be?” Yuka asked. “She died, and you didn’t say anything? You said you didn’t even know she was here until today.”

Higurashi sighed and put aside the paper she was studying. In spite of Yuka’s insistence that she looked unperturbed, Miroku thought that her face was pale and drawn. The thin skin under her eyes was a dusty gray.

“I knew Kagome died,” she explained. “I knew that Sesshoumaru had something to do with reviving her. But the Oracles are not that specific. Geographical location usually means nothing to them. Until I was here, I did not know where all this happened.

“I see,” Miroku murmured.

“I know who is here,” she continued. “I know Sesshoumaru was separated from his mother, in some profound way, because of Kagome’s death. I know what will happen, if the enemy is defeated. I know the choices we will have to face.”

“But you don’t know what choices will be made, or whether or not we will win?” Miroku asked her.

She shook her head.

“I don't understand,” Eri admitted. “I thought prophecies and oracles foretold the future.”

Higurashi was about to answer, when Ayumi spoke up.

“Haven’t you ever read a fantasy novel?” she asked. “You can’t know everything that’s going to happen. There’d be no story.”

“This is not a story,” Yuka said with some heat. “It’s very real.”

The girl shrugged and looked away. Miroku was surprised that she had spoken at all. Ever since he had first met the group of them, she had been the quietest, usually only speaking when it was required.

“I will try to explain it as best as I can,” Higurashi told them. “In the first place, there are rules and limitations.”

“Rules?” Kohaku asked her. “Who made them?”

“I don’t know,” she said.

“Maybe the Outsiders?” he suggested.

Several people in the room turned to him “Who?”

Kohaku told them what he knew of the interactions Kikyou and Kagome had had with the Outsiders.

“Sesshoumaru-sama met them as well, but I don’t know anything about that. He’s not very talkative.”

“Interesting,” Miroku murmured, his eyes deep in thought.

“I’ve never heard of them,” Higurashi said. “But perhaps they are the ones passing instructions on to Midoriko-sama. I am sure she is the one who hid the Oracles in the texts that I found.”

Their attention was diverted for a moment when Sango shifted and sighed, but she did not wake.

“I do not know who made the rules, exactly,” Higurashi went on. “I don’t even know what they are, except that there are two sides. Anything that we know, our enemy knows as well.”

“That’s inconvenient,” Miroku commented.

“I know that he must be alone, where we are many.”

“Wait,” he interrupted her. “What does that mean?”

“Naraku must be alone,” she repeated.

“But he isn’t,” he argued. “Not only does he make incarnations to do his bidding, but I feel certain that he made the Tsuchigumo, and who knows what else. He has allies.”

“Before the end, our numbers will be the same, more or less” Higurashi said. “But that won’t matter. The true responsibility on his side will be his alone.”

“But, we share ours?”

“Yes. We are many. In addition to the allies we have, and that we will gain, there are twelve individuals who are destined to carry…a presence.”

“A presence?” Yuka asked. “What does that mean?”

“That is the best I can explain it. They are called the Twelve, or the Council, in the Oracles. They have a second presence that moves with them, that exists in the same place that they do. It is this presence that I, and I think Shinme-sama, can see.”

“That is how you knew who I was?” Rin asked her.

“Yes. You are the Bearer. Though, it may be more accurate to say that the Bearer is you.”

Rin’s brow furrowed.

“This is very complex,” Miroku said. “Much more complex than I ever thought it would be. It used to be so…”

“So simple,” Kohaku murmured. “Naraku was a very bad guy. Everyone was trying to destroy him, mostly for revenge.”

“Exactly,” Miroku said. “It was personal. It was all about retaliation, or hatred and jealousy. This isn’t personal at all. It’s…cosmic.”

“It has not changed,” Higurashi argued. “You are only now discovering the truth.”

“Why now?”

“Because now is when it happens,” she shrugged, “which brings me to my second point. Even though we cannot know everything that will happen, we have guideposts, things that we do know will happen, and sometimes we even know when. The timing is important. The Oracles call them ‘Chances’.”

“Chances?” Miroku repeated. “Do you have an example?”

“The most recent was the Plateau,” she answered.

Miroku grimaced involuntarily.

“That day was a Chance,” she explained. “The Oracles knew what and when, but they did not know how it would end. That is the chance part. How a Chance ends will dictate the things that follow.”

“Wait, you’re saying that you knew the Plateau would happen?” he asked, incredulous.

“No, of course not,” she answered. “If I had known, I would never have let Kagome go back through that well, no matter what anyone said, even if I had to chain her to her room.”

“But…”

“I did not discover the Oracles until afterward, when I read about it as something that had already happened.”

“What is the point of putting something into a prophecy that no one sees until after it’s happened?” Yuka asked.

“I don’t know,” Higurashi shrugged. “I can tell you that my discovery of the Oracles was an event that depended on the Plateau Chance. Without it, I never would have read them.”

“What were the possibilities on the Plateau?” Miroku asked her. “Do they at least give that?”

“They do. They said that either Kagome would free Kagura-san, or she would die.”

Miroku stared at her, then took a deep breath.

“So you already knew, before we did, that Kagome-sama was alive, and that Kagura was free.”

Higurashi nodded.

“Just like I knew that Kikyou-sama was as alive as you or I,” she said. “Though, I did not know that she was here in this house.”

“But you didn’t say anything about her to Inuyasha.”

“To be truthful, I was not sure who she was,” Higurashi answered. “I only knew her by her Oracle name, the Wanderer. Only after hearing her story did I put a given name to her. Even then…”

She hesitated.

“Even then, I was not certain until Kohaku-san told you that she was the one who broke him away from Naraku. I knew that the Wanderer had freed the Golden-Hearted, and of course I knew he was the Golden-Hearted just by looking at him.”

“But not before?”

“That is correct.”

“When is the next Chance?” Eri asked.

“That would be right now,” Higurashi answered, “this siege.”

“I do not like the sound of that,” Miroku said. “That means we don’t know what will happen.”

Kohaku shrugged. “I never thought that you could know.”

“I suppose that’s true.”

“But wait, that means we know the possibilities, right?” he asked Higurashi.

She shrugged.

“Yes, but they aren't difficult to discern. We'll either win or lose.”

“And losing means everyone will die, including us,” Yuka said.

“The Oracles do not really go into that much detail, but I think it's safe to assume.”

“Maybe I should go out there,” Eri said.

“What?” Higurashi started.

“We could use the house to set up a sort of triage. There must be wounded.”

“I think we should stay here,” Rin said.

“I agree,” Higurashi said. “When it’s over, we can offer our assistance.”

“But that may be too late for some people,” Eri argued. “It’s customary to treat the injured during battle.”

“It is not customary for us to be here at all,” Yuka countered. “It is not customary to be near a battle, especially one involving demons. We should stay far away. We shouldn’t even be this close.”

Feeling outnumbered, Eri backed down.

Kohaku stood up.

“I guess I should go back out though,” he said, adjusting the chain of his sickle weapon.

“Absolutely not,” Miroku even put out a foot to stop him from walking to the door.

“But…I can still fight!”

“Then you can stay and defend us, if it comes to that,” Miroku told him.

“But…”

“No,” his tone was firm. “I am your oldest relative now. I forbid it.”

Kohaku gave him a startled look, then sat down again on the other side of his sister.

“Yes, Houshi-sama,” he murmured.

“You don’t have to call me that,” Miroku told him.

They were silent for a few moments.

“Then…Nii-san?”

Miroku gave a small smile. “That’s fine.”

A quiet fell over them. Miroku listened to his wife’s breathing, to the drip of water somewhere in the rocks, to the shuffle of Yuka’s feet as she paced back and forth in the dark, to the storm of violence outside pounding on the walls. Knowing that the end of it all was only a few, precious heartbeats away could not fully repress his happiness. Sango was here, still breathing, exhausted but still strong, not knowing that her brother’s heart was beating a few, precious inches away from her own insurmountable heart, not knowing that the end was only a few, precious heartbeats away, not knowing how lovely she was. But still…

Was it all worth it? I think it was.

***

Inuyasha stood over her, resting his sword on his shoulder and one hand on his hip. For a moment he just looked at her. Then he shook his head.

“Well,” he said, “you’re a sight, that’s for sure.”

Kikyou got to her feet.

“You do not seem surprised.”

“That weird dog demon told me everything this morning.”

“Tamotsu-sama?” Kikyou was startled. “And you believed him?”

“Why would he lie about something like that?” Inuyasha asked. “I thought he might be mistaken, or just plain crazy, but now that I see you…”

“Then you know that she is here,” Kikyou said.

“Uh,” Inuyasha glanced up at the Hyouden. “Yeah, I see her. I don’t know what’s more unbelievable. That the two of you are together, that you’re here…I don’t know.”

“Inuyasha, you must understand, I—

Something grabbed her shoulder and pulled. Inuyasha lifted his sword with a startled oath, but the thing was gone in an instant of rosy light.

“You never did need protection,” Inuyasha said to her, lowering his sword again.

“I need less now, I think,” she said with a small smile. “I am more powerful when Kagome is near.”

“Is that right?”

“I suppose now is the not the time for such a discussion,” she said. “I do not need protection, but I could use your assistance.”

A few minutes later, Inuyasha was running through the battlefield, or rather, over it, with Kikyou clinging to his back. He dodged enemies, and occasionally allies. Kikyou looked ahead and saved them in a split second.

“Look out!” she shouted.

He pulled back so suddenly that they teetered and almost fell. A wall of demon energy flared in front of them like a forest fire, blasting everything in its path. Kikyou knew enough by now to know that it was Sesshoumaru. She glanced to her side and saw that he had aimed for one of the ox demons. Looking to the other side she could see that it had been a successful attack. Inuyasha kept running.

“Sorry,” he said over his shoulder. “I’m a bit distracted.”

Kikyou did not know what to say, so she said nothing. It was impossible to be certain if her own heart was pounding because of the danger or because…

…because Inuyasha is here. I can feel his warmth, and he can feel mine. Does he know?

“Are you ready?” he shouted.

She looked up and saw that they were closing in on one of the oversized beasts.

“Yes.”

I am sorry. I am still just trying to think of the right words to say.

***

Sesshoumaru was beginning to get annoyed. The ushi-oni advanced now in rows. Due to their sheer bulk, he could only kill one at a time, and not quick enough to prevent them from gaining more of the field. He noticed that at least two had been taken down by the older miko and Inuyasha. He threw one glance over his shoulder to confirm that the younger miko was still on the terrace.

She was, and she was still firing arrows. He could not smell it from this distance, but he guessed that, even with the bandages, her fingers must be bleeding by now. A swell of disgust rolled up in his gut. He wished he had the time to go order her back inside the house. The very idea of her blood spent in his service; it was unbearable. He would end up having to fall on his sword for the shame of it all.

Where did I go wrong?

Sesshoumaru reached out and grabbed a neck, a wiry, hairy, black thing, and he squeezed it. The Tsuchigumo made a puny, wheezing sound as it died, drowning in its own blood.

I will live with it.

***

At first he thought it was not so bad. The puncture in his right shoulder stopped bleeding, the pain eased, and he could still swing his sword. But soon a haze began to overtake his vision and his stomach lurched as if the world tilted up and down. Nobunaga was forced to lean on the hilt of his sword to keep from falling. An unbearable exhaustion washed over him and demolished his strength. The pain in his arm returned stronger than ever.

Nobunaga swayed on his feet and the sounds of the battle around him receded down a long tunnel. He stumbled away, the point of his sword leaving a line in the snow, here and there spotted with blood. He collided with something and groaned, lifting his head and expecting to see another ogre.

It was just the house. Nobunaga kept walking, dragging his sword in his left hand and following the wall with his right. He struggled up a rocky slope until he reached the corner, and turning it, he kept going. As he followed the wall south, he began to hear the sounds of the sea. He stumbled on, sometimes stopping for a moment to lean on the wall.

The din of war faded, replaced with the pounding of the surf and the lonely call of gulls. He rounded another corner and saw a small entrance yard with a red gate. He stopped there at the corner and sat down on the cold ground, with his back against the Hyouden, and propped his sword up between his knees. On this side of the house, the snow had not fallen so heavily and there were few tracks, and much of the ground was still covered in the soft flower petals. Despite the cold, Nobunaga felt warm and heavy with a numb sleepiness. His head drooped and nodded, and he thought he heard Nazuna’s laughter.

It’s just a dream.

He jolted awake. It was not laughter after all, but a stifled sobbing, and it was not a dream. He looked around and at first saw nothing but the cold façade of the house and the lonely, red gate. A dense cypress grew against the wall a few feet away and it stood out in the snow, bold and green. The sound was coming from there, and he peered into the branches.

A dark shape huddled in the shelter of the tree. Nobunaga gripped his sword and wondered if the Tsuchigumo had already seen him. Whatever it was did not respond, did not seem to notice his presence. He thought it was turned away from him.

Taking care to be quiet, Nobunaga got to his feet again. His head swimming, he fought to keep his stomach from coming out of his mouth. A strange light danced around his eyes and he waved it aside, like a mischievous sprite.

Someone near him whispered.

“She is the mesh that pulls the points out from the sun.”

“Sun?” he mumbled. “There’s no sun.”

Whatever or whoever hid in the shade of the tree apparently heard him. The noise stopped and Nobunaga could hear their sharp intake of breath. The dark and indistinct shape whipped around its head and he heard the snow crunching beneath it.

“Who’s there?” it cried.

To Nobunaga, the voice was harsh and hoarse.

Can Tsuchigumo talk?

Just because he’d never heard them do so, did not mean that they were not capable of it. After all, what had they to ever say to him?

The roaring in his ears was not the sea after all, but the thunder of a crowd of people. They were angry, or maybe scared, maybe even terrified. He was not surrounded by trees anymore but tall, blurring forms which leaned over him, crowding him, pushing him.

“The demon will kill us, Nobunaga,” they cried in guttural, broken voices. “Save us!”

The dark form came out from the shadows swinging its arms out toward him. It said something, but he did not hear. Nobunaga swung his sword with a mad yell. The figure fell back on the ground and there was a cry of anguish and fear. Nobunaga raised his sword again.

“Please, don’t!”

This time the words reached his ears. Nobunaga stopped, and the cold began to finally chase away his fever. The swelling shapes around him receded and faded. Nobunaga looked down at the boy sprawled at his feet. He was holding his arms over his head, and there was a large, bloody gash on one forearm, and blood flowing from a cut on his forehead into his eyes. He was young, certainly no more than fifteen.

Nobunaga gasped, and fell to his knees.

“Oh, the gods save me.”

The boy screamed and tried to scurry back.

“Leave me alone!”

Nobunaga dropped his sword, and reached out.

“No, no, wait!”

The boy screamed again.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to hurt you, I swear!”

The boy hesitated, but when he looked up, his eyes were still terrified.

“Wh…why did you?”

“I…I was wounded, and feverish, and I thought you were a spider monster,” Nobunaga told him. “I’m sorry.”

The boy slowly lowered his arms.

“Let me help you,” Nobunaga said. “I can help stop the bleeding.”

He looked around.

“Come,” he held out his hand. “We can go into the trees and hide, and I’ll take a look at those wounds. It’ll be safer over there.”

The boy looked around, doubtful.

“I’ll look after you,” Nobunaga said. “I promise.”

The boy let Nobunaga help him to his feet.

“What’s your name?” he asked him. “Mine is Nobunaga.”

“Taroumaru,” the kid answered.

“Taroumaru?” Nobunaga laughed. “That’s a mouthful, isn’t it?”

“My big sisters used to call me just Ta-chan.”

“Well, how about Ta-kun? Is that OK?”

“Um, sure.”

“Good. Now, how’d you get here? You’re pretty young to be mixed up in this.”

“I’m a grown man!” Taroumaru exclaimed, indignant.

“Really? How old are you?”

“I’m fourteen and a half.”

“Maybe that is full grown by some people’s standards.”

“Oh yeah? Well, how old are you?”

“Over twenty,” Nobunaga answered.

“That’s not that much more.”
Nobunaga reached out and helped him over some of the sharp rocks at the edge of the forest.

“Believe me,” he said, “it’s enough.”

***

Fukushima went into the battle with no small degree of hopelessness. Even with the help of the horse demons and the wolf demons that were still with them, they were bleakly outnumbered. To know that there was nothing in the world to turn back and run to made it easier to raise his sword and run down that hill anyway.

Things turned around for a time when more wolf demons arrived. He was still near the hill, on the east side of the Hyouden, when he heard the ringing blast of their horns and looked up to see a horde of them pouring down the slope, screaming with hatred. For a moment he meant to turn and run himself. It did not seem possible that these fierce demons, with their wild, yellow eyes, could discriminate in their targets.

But the wolf demons killed only Tsuchigumo, and lots of them. Fukushima looked around and saw that the mass of spider monsters had thinned noticeably. The wolf demons and the horse demons pushed against them until their numbers were squeezed between their ranks. Many of the human men, who were exhausted, or even wounded, fell back toward the house or the woods in relief.

Another low rumble vibrated the ground, and at first Fukushima thought more wolf demons had arrived, but the sound came from the wrong direction and never rose or fell, but held steady. Fukushima looked up and saw a line of large stones on the northern edge of the field. He squinted at them.

They were moving. As they got closer, he understood that the distance was playing tricks with his eyes. They were not stones, but living beasts, with heads like oxen and bodies at least two stories tall. Their feet were not cloven hooves but flat and round, as though they walked on sawed tree trunks. They grunted and groaned along, shoulders almost touching, so that the men and demons, including the Tsuchigumo, had to scramble to get out of the way.

Fukushima sighed and cast one hopeless look up at the full moon sinking lower into the hills. He estimated that only an hour or two remained until dawn. The tide turned once again.

The choir of his conscience mocked him.

Show us how you’re not afraid to die.

***

I cannot accept this. I cannot accept that she will be taken from me. I must do something!

Higurashi sat so still that it was hard to tell she was breathing, but behind her eyes a prodigious imagination lashed her into despair. She counted off her options.

Going out of the room, out of the house, to retrieve her daughter would be fruitless. The only way that Kagome would die here today was if they lost to the besieging forces, in which case they would all die anyway.

She considered the option of trying to reach Ichiro or even Midoriko. She had no knowledge of how to do so, since they had always contacted her first.

What if she did go get Kagome? What if she took her far away, as fast as she could? There must be some back way out of this place. She would return with her to the well, back to their safe and demonless home, back to Souta.

As always, when she thought of her son, Higurashi wanted to scream. She even moved her hand to support her own weight, meaning to get up off the floor of this dark cave of a cellar and go straight to her daughter.

She heard a familiar voice, and by now she knew better than to look around for the speaker.

“I wouldn’t.”

“Ichiro-sama?”

“ So, you’ve learned my name.”

“Can’t you help me!” she begged. “I can’t, I can’t just do nothing.”

“I’m afraid that’s what you have to do,” he told her. “You are the Oracle, not a warrior. You have no choice but to wait.”

“But—

“No one said it would be easy.”

“She’s my daughter! You don’t understand!”

“I? I don’t understand?”

His voice was no longer smooth and impassive.

“The separation you feel from your children is but a moment’s thought compared to the separation I endured long ago, from my children and from my mate.”

Higurashi could say nothing.

“I endured it as part of my task, and you will endure this now. Do not leave this room until I tell you to. Remember, you yourself said the timing of the Chance is important.”

Higurashi remained silent, and heard nothing else. She could feel that his awareness was gone.

“Higurashi-san?” Yuka asked her. “Are you alright?”

“I don’t know if it’s possible to be alright,” she answered, lowering her head. “I don’t know if it will ever be alright again.”

Yuka sat down next to her in silence. She sat close enough that their shoulders were touching.

“I believe,” she said after some time, “after all, that we’re going to be alright.”

Higurashi looked up at her, surprised. The girl smiled, though the expression was tight and uncomfortable.

“It’s like Ayumi said,” she went on. “It’s like a story. We’re the good guys, and I think we’re going to win.”

Higurashi laughed through her tears, a small and short sound.

***

“Inuyasha!” Kikyou shouted. “Something is wrong!”

“What?” Inuyasha skidded to a stop.

“Look!”

Inuyasha looked in the direction she pointed. He saw only more lines of the ushi-oni advancing across the valley.

“Do you see that one there?” she asked. “Look behind it!”

“It looks like just another one,” he said, peering into the distance. “They’ve been marching like that all night.”

“It looks like another ushi-oni,” she said. “But I do not think it is. I think it is a trick…an illusion.”

“An illusion?” he said. “Why?”

“I am not sure. We must get closer.”

“OK. Hold on.”

They ran in that direction, taking great strides in the air over the heads of enemies and allies. The cold air howled in Kikyou’s ears.

She sensed it a half second before Inuyasha shouted.

“Watch out!”

They went straight down with a terrific force, and the impact with the ground knocked the air out of her. She fell back and rolled away from Inuyasha, landing face down. She tried to stand up, but found that something was holding her down.

“What is this?” she shouted.

“More of their tricks,” Inuyasha growled.

He was only a few feet away and she saw that he was also crouching under the pull of white, sticky nets. They were surrounded by a ring of ogres who continuously belched more Tsuchigumo, who busied themselves spitting the nets over them. Inuyasha clawed at them, having little effect.

“This crap doesn’t cut!” he shouted.

“Inuyasha,” Kikyou called back, “protect yourself!”

Inuyasha did not hesitate. He flattened himself on the ground and covered his head.

Kikyou was angry. She propped herself up on her elbows and grabbed one of the lines and yanked it. The spider demon at the other end lurched forward and bared its fangs at her. She looked into the soulless, insect eyes.

“This is the end for you.”

A bright blush of light flared out from her fingertips and down the net, spreading through each net it touched. The blaze ignited a series of monsters like a string of firecrackers. The ogres backed away in doubt.

Kikyou got to her feet and began retrieving the arrows that had fallen from the quivers in their tumble. Inuyasha was brushing the remaining webs from his sleeves and shoulders.

“You are not hurt?” she asked him.

“Singed a little,” he answered. “No big deal.”

Kikyou aimed an arrow at the throng around them.

“Wait!” Inuyasha stopped her. “You’ll hit wolf and horse demons.”

“Damn,” she muttered.

He knelt in front of her. “Let’s go, that thing is getting closer.”

As they ran, Kouga fell in beside them.

“What are you guys doing?”

“We’re trying to take more of these things down,” Inuyasha answered.

“I think there is something strange about one of them, at least one of them,” Kikyou told him. “They are trying to get something past us.”

“Which ones?” he asked.

“Straight ahead.”

Kouga scanned the horizon in a brief moment.

“Alright,” he said, “I’ll go on and take ‘em out then. No need to worry about it, dog-breath!”

He spun away in a cyclone of dust and snow.

“Hey!” Inuyasha shouted after him. “You’ll get yourself killed, you puny wolf!”

“I doubt he can hear you,” Kikyou told him.

Inuyasha grunted.

“He is his own person,” she said. “There is no need for you to worry about him.”

“I’m not worried about the likes of him,” Inuyasha protested. “It’s just that…if he gets killed, Kagome will be all pissed off, and sad, and she’ll mope for weeks.”

“I see.”

Inuyasha did not say anything else.

They continued pushing in that direction, but were interrupted again, this time by another ogre. Kikyou saw straight away that he was different from the others. He was bigger, for one thing. When he roared at them, his jaw almost touched the ground, exposing his sharp, boar-like tusks that were half as tall as she was. He also clutched a weapon, something few of the enemy had, though it was only a staff.

“Let me down.”

Inuyasha obeyed and immediately drew his sword. Kikyou, however, had already aimed her bow and in the next moment released the arrow. The ogre’s staff passed before his face in an impossibly quick movement and the arrow disappeared. It was not deflected or even absorbed; it simply vanished. The monster growled at them and Kikyou took a step back.

Inuyasha lowered his sword and the electric energy of the Tessaiga buzzed in the air and vibrated his hands. The winds around him changed direction. The sword responded to his call as it always did, but now there was a sullen undertone to it, and he thought it was still angry over the Plateau.

Inuyasha released the Wind Scar in one stroke. The energy tore its path in the dirt toward the ogre, and then it was gone. In one moment, Kikyou felt the threatening presence of a demonic attack, and then she felt nothing, as if it had never happened.

“What the hell is going on?” he demanded.

Kikyou noticed a glimmer in the air in front of the ogre’s staff.

“It is similar to what is around that one ushi-oni,” she said. “It is some kind of spell, I think. He can avoid these attacks. We must think of something else.”

Inuyasha glanced towards the advancing line of ushi-oni.

“That means Kouga could be having some trouble.”

The large ogre roared again and took a few, heavy steps toward them.

“Keep trying to hit it,” Inuyasha said to her.

Kikyou reached over her shoulder and counted her remaining arrows. There were not many, and she could not afford to lose them into some kind of oblivion.

She shot again, and Inuyasha ran around the beast and swung his sword down on its shoulder. Once again the ogre swung the staff and the air swallowed it. With surprising agility, it leapt out of the way of Inuyasha’s attack. His sword hit the ground with a thud and small ring of metal.

Kikyou shot again, and it all played out exactly as before, except that this time Inuyasha tried to swing for the monster’s legs and cut them out from under it, but the beast leapt in the air just as the staff wasted another arrow.

The ogre turned quickly and swung the staff at Inuyasha. Kikyou drew a sharp breath, but the hanyou dodged it. He leapt away and settled in a crouch between her and the demon.

“Look at your left sleeve,” Kikyou whispered to him.

Inuyasha glanced down and saw that a large piece of the sleeve was missing. The cloth was not tattered or torn; the cut was as clean as if the missing piece had never existed.

“This is bad,” he muttered.

She glanced to the north again. The ushi-oni were much closer.

“Perhaps we should make a run for it,” she suggested. “I am more concerned with those things.”

He shook his head, not taking his eyes off the ogre.

“No. I can’t have this asshole going through the army, making people disappear into hell knows what.”

The ogre took a step forward. A rumbling sound came from his chest, and Kikyou realized he was laughing at them.

“I have an idea,” she said, “but I need you to get out of the way.”

“If I move away for one second,” he answered, not moving, “he’ll kill you the next.”

“No, he will not. You must trust me. I will count to five. The very second I say ‘five’, you must get away, without fail. You must trust me!”

He was silent, and the ogre took another step, grinning.

“Inuyasha!”

“Alright! Start counting already.”

Kikyou knelt to the ground and closed her eyes. The noise around her had become deafening. She hoped that nothing would get too close to her, but in another moment or two, it would not matter.

Kikyou took a deep breath. The seconds crawled by, each one ticked off by a flash of a memory, a face, a smell, a sound. She heard her father chopping the heads off fish on the long table outside their hut. She smelled her mother’s hands, like warm bread. She saw Kaede’s little face smiling.

“Onee-san!”

Kikyou reached for that little spot within her chest, the one that started as a smoldering flame, but then became ash after her first death and now…now…

She heard Kagome’s heart beating.

Kikyou clapped her hands together with a smart rap.

This is it!

“Five!”

Inuyasha flew away, leaping high into the air. He drew his sword and looked back. If the ogre went for Kikyou, maybe he could kill it while it was distracted.

Before his next breath, Kikyou put her palms down on the ground. A wave of light pushed out from her in a circle, like a stone dropped in a pond. The ogre screamed and half-turned, but it was too late. He began to disintegrate, starting with his feet. Inuyasha watched in sick fascination until only the eyes and mouth remained, wide and horrified. They vanished. The wave continued for a few seconds, killing several ogres and a multitude of Tsuchigumo, before dissipating into a faint sigh. On the edge of that field of destruction, several demons lay groaning or screaming, half dissolved. Inuyasha scanned the field for any injured confederate demons, but saw none.

He returned to Kikyou. She stood in the center of the destruction, with wide eyes and glowing cheeks, snow meshed in her long, black hair and her hakama covered in mud up to her knees.

“It actually worked!” she exulted.

He stared at her. He could not remember the last time he had seen her grin that way.

“You mean you weren’t sure?” he asked, incredulous.

“The theory was sound,” she shrugged. “But one can never be sure until you try it.”

Inuyasha sputtered, waving his arms.

“Come now, Inuyasha,” she said. “There is still work to be done.”

“Kouga was right,” he threw up his hands. “You are crazy.”

“If I am, I have every cause to be,” she replied.

She settled herself on his back again, clutching his shoulders.

***

There were two things his father had said to him that Sesshoumaru never understood.

The first was that life was only worth living if one had something to fight for outside of oneself.

The second was that humans were the lucky ones.

As he looked over the field and the river valley, he saw many corpses. Most were Tsuchigumo, but many were human. What did he mean by it? His father had not explained it or, if he had, Sesshoumaru took no note of it. His father often spoke foolishness. He lived and died a fool, none greater.

From some out-of-the-way, hidden place in his mind, a voice rose to take him to task for this notion.

Oh really? And just who are you to judge? Look at the mess you’ve made of things. I don’t recall any enemies charging the gates of the Hyouden when he was here.

“They have not broken the walls,” he muttered to himself in a voice too low to be heard by anyone else.

Not yet. Besides, you forget those men.

No, he had not forgotten, never could forget the sight of Kagome lying pallid and lifeless on the floor of the baths in a pool of her own blood.

Blood, he reminded himself, that she was spilling again, even now, as she fought the enemy before his gate. There were moments when he fancied he could smell it, even so many dozens and dozens of yards away, even over the snow, mud, and sticky, ghastly mix of demon and human blood that was all around him. In fact, though he did not comprehend it, because he avoided comprehending it, Kagome had not left his senses since she stood before him, declaring, I do my best, but I’m made of mistakes.

Sesshoumaru rent his foes with more violence than was necessary.

He saw in the distance the advancement of another line of ushi-oni. They moved from the northern edge of the hills, pushing their way across the plains toward the river like possessed boulders. Their gray and mammoth bodies swayed on their deadly feet and sometimes it seemed their own heads were too great for them to lift, because their tusks would gouge the earth like the plows of mythic giants.

They were so impossibly large, where the devil could they originate? Now that he took a moment to consider it, it was a confounding mystery. Despite their size, not one could be seen descending from the hills and valleys to the north, nor was there any sign of dust and commotion that would certainly accompany such a march. It was as if they were springing from the ground like seedlings in a flowerbed, fully grown and all in a row.

Sesshoumaru left the battle behind and took to the sky.  Pointing himself northwards, he sped like a comet against the night, landing behind the line of ushi-oni in moments. From here, the sounds of battle changed somewhat. Instead of the clash of men and demons, the sounds of swords and axes and pain, the sound of the ushi-oni’s feet drowned out everything else. The shadowy hills rose behind him as he turned to see his house, rising above the raging plains like a white star above a storm.

A gleam of an unnatural light in the corner of his field of vision brought his attention round again. He turned and saw a small, colorless person standing a few yards away. She appeared as nothing more than a small child, with white hair and black eyes, holding a mirror to her chest. She wore a white kimono and her feet were shod only in sandals despite the deepening snow. He recognized her.

“You are a minion of Naraku,” he said. It was not a question.

Her eyes listed in his direction, but otherwise she did not respond. He was about to speak again, when he was checked by a strange, foreign sensation. At first, it appeared that she stood alone, but then he saw that there was something beside her. The space was empty, at first glance, but the air shimmered slightly. It reminded him of the air in the Hyouden when he had seen the Outsiders.

The sensation, which he had never before experienced, grew in strength. It was almost as though something he could not see pushed against him.

“You will be trampled,” she said with a languid voice.

Anyone else most assuredly would have been, but Sesshoumaru was gone in a fraction of a second, floating again in the air. He watched as several of the ushi-oni appeared before her as if from thin air. They were miniature versions, which hit the ground running like a few mice but, in the time it took them to pass beneath his feet, they grew to the same mammoth size as their predecessors.

“I see,” he said.

She did not look at him.

Sesshoumaru released the poisonous string from his hand, lashing it out, meaning to decapitate her, but the glowing whip disappeared when it should have touched her, and reappeared again when he brought it back.

She released three more monsters.

Sesshoumaru did not change expression and unleashed his sword on her the very next moment.

He did manage to kill those three ushi-oni before they distended to their intended magnitude, and the malignant energy of Tokijin kept going. The girl, with a slight movement of her wrist, caught the power in the mirror. It did not shatter, but glowed like a small sun, swelled, and grew dark. Sesshoumaru was already considering his next move, when she turned her eyes on him.

Sesshoumaru landed on his feet and held his ground, though his blood splattered the snow.

“You must know what I will never let you leave here alive,” he said.

He had only barely dodged a mortal wound when his own deadly threat was thrown back at him by the mirror.

“My life is not the one which should concern you,” she murmured. “Neither is your own.”

“I agree,” he said. “You are the one who should be concerned.”

“My existence if of no consequence.”

“We seem to be getting along rather well,” he commented.

She pointed toward the house.

“You are too late,” she whispered. “It is happening. She will die.”

Sesshoumaru’s boiling blood suddenly ran freezing cold.

He turned and saw the fatal mistake she portended. A line of ushi-oni, advancing across the river, broke apart, making a large gap in their ranks. In this opening there appeared, as from nothing, another monster, much larger than the others, pulling behind him some great engine of wood and metal. Dozens of ogres were scurrying over it and around it like ants, busy in some hasty, urgent chore.

Sesshoumaru was already in the air, he saw an attack released by Inuyasha, tearing towards the contraption, but it was, as she had said, too late. The engine released its energy. It was so terrible that it rent itself to pieces, killing everything around it. The boulder it hurled into the air was almost as large as one of the ushi-oni, and it hurtled towards the Hyouden with calamitous speed, aimed with deadly precision at the north terrace.

He knew he would not make it in time.

He did not. The rock collided with the house like a moon pulled into its planet. There was no telling where it came to a stop, somewhere in the house, in the yard on the other side, or clear into the sea. The terrace was gone completely, and a large section of the second floor was now exposed to the wind, snow, and the insensible stars. Beams, stones, and roof tiles cascaded into the basin. The noise was deafening.

Humans and demons fled the devastation in panic as the heavy cloud of dust and rain of debris filled the valley, then a deathly silence fell over all the lands of the Hyouden. The armies stood stock still, their quakes to their souls by the total destruction.

Still in the air, Sesshoumaru gazed at the ruins of his former home.

“It is only a thing,” he murmured.

His clandestine heart shrank from the sheet of ice he paved over it. Sounds began to rise above the silence and Tsuchigumo poured over the fallen walls into the open rooms and hallways. He heard a wail of despair come from Jaken who, bloody and exhausted from fighting, knelt in the snow, wringing his hands. Raucous and malicious laughter came from somewhere nearby.

“The dog days are over!” something shouted.

Sesshoumaru turned his head and saw one of the ogre captains standing over his servant, leering and laughing, and making ready to deliver a final blow. Jaken cringed, but lacked the command over his limbs to escape. Sesshoumaru lifted his hand and decapitated the beast with one stroke.

Jaken looked up at him. Sesshoumaru only half expected the typical torrent of congratulations, praises, and appreciations, so he was not disappointed. His servant could only stare at him, biting his lip savagely.

“Sesshoumaru-sama,” he whispered. “What do we do now?”

“We continue to fight.”

“But…” his lip trembled again, and he swallowed hard. “But, Ka… Kagome was up there!”

“Stand up, Jaken,” Sesshoumaru hissed.

Jaken stood on his shaking legs.

“Yes, my lord.”

Nearby, Inuyasha, still carrying Kikyou on his back, came to a skidding stop in the snow. Kagura, Kouga, and Shinme also arrived. They stood for a moment, staring at the ruins.

Kikyou disengaged herself from Inuyasha and ran towards it.

“Wait!” Inuyasha yelled at her. “Come back!”

She did not heed him.

Sesshoumaru caught up to her in a heartbeat and took hold of her arm.

“What are you doing?” she demanded, turning on him with flashing, shining eyes. “Let go of me!”

“I am not to be commanded by you,” he answered coldly.

Inuyasha took her away from Sesshoumaru without looking at him.

“Kikyou, calm down. That place is crawling with Tsuchigumo now, and the walls will fall in on you.”

“That is all the more reason we have to hurry!” she shouted.

“What are you going to do?” Kagura asked her. “Do you have a plan?”

“I do not have time to explain. I apologize.”

Inuyasha jerked his hands away. Sesshoumaru saw that his palms were scalded.

“Do not forget, you are all demons. Do not try to stop me again,” she threatened.

She turned and ran toward the house.

Inuyasha looked at his brother.

“I will not stop her a second time,” Sesshoumaru said. “If she wishes to throw her life away, it is not my affair.”

Inuyasha stared at him, then looked back to Kikyou.

“Wait!” he called again.

“Stay back, Inuyasha,” she answered, already clambering over the debris.

“You’re gonna get yourself killed, damn it!” he shouted angrily.

He shook his head, as if to wake from a dream.

“Why are you doing this?” he cried.

Jaken, holding an injured shoulder, stood beside him.

“No one is more single-minded than that woman,” he said. “She believes that Naraku cannot be defeated without Kagome.”

Kikyou stopped and turned around. She was standing on a hill of stone crumbs and wood splinters.

“I know that is the case, Jaken-sama,” she said. “And so do you.”

Jaken looked away.

“Kagome saved me,” Kikyou went on. “She is the reason I am standing here.”

With that, she turned her back on them and bowed her head. From where they stood, the group of demons could feel her collect and build her powers.

“What are you going to do?” Kagura called.

“I am going to purify the whole damn building and everything in it,” she answered. “Then we will be able to find her.”

Kagura gaped at her.

“Wait! You can’t! Shippou’s still in there!”

She lunged toward the wreckage heap where Kikyou stood, but the wave of purifying light was already pouring out, over the stone rubble and torn lumber, over the remains of glass and rice paper, furniture and crockery. Inuyasha grabbed Kagura’s wrist.

“Stay back!”

The light washed over the rest of the building, flushing over the sections that were still standing. Like an undammed river, it kept going.

“Shit!” Inuyasha shouted. “It’s too strong. Get out of the way!”

Sesshoumaru simply elevated himself a few feet off the ground, holding onto to the neck of Jaken’s haori. The little demon, dangling from his master’s hand, watched in horrified fascination as the soul of the priestess passed under his feet.

The other demons were obliged to flee. The Karauma were the first to escape, pulling back across the river in a unified movement. Kouga, Kagura, and Inuyasha fell back amongst the wolf demons, urging them to escape into the hills.

The light spread on and on. The glow of it was like a dawn breaking from the center of the earth. The wolf demons watched it from their perches in trees and on high, rocky crags of the escarpment. The humans did not need to flee, nor had any wish to. The sensation overtook them and they gazed at the radiance that wrapped around them like a blanket, filling them with thoughts, with smells and sensations, of every kind of goodness and comfort.

The Tsuchigumo had no idea what was happening. If they had any thought at all, it was glee at the apparent despair and flight of their foes. They did not perceive their danger until it was too late. Spider demons, ogres, and even ushi-oni, fell victim to Kikyou’s rage and desperation.

Kagura watched the completeness of the destruction with a heavy dread. In her head she heard the memory of his singing voice.

Love, love, love is all you need.

Like the tide of the ocean, the miko’s power ebbed forth, covered the valley, and then fell back again, drawing back to her and fading away.

The humans looked around in mute wonder. There were few enemies left now, only those near the river, and on the other side of it, survived. After a moment of shocked silence, the wolf demons and horse demons fell on them and tore them to pieces. The humans saw this and rejoiced.

“We have been delivered!” they exclaimed. “The gods smile on us once more!”

Kagura, however, was in no mood to celebrate. She sped down out of the hills and across the field like a shot arrow, taking Kikyou by the neck.

“You killed him!” she shouted at her.

Kikyou, spent and exhausted, could not defend herself.

“I regret it,” she gasped. “But I had to!”

“Why?” Kagura cried. “Kagome is already dead! I saw her standing on that terrace. She could not possibly have survived that. You killed him for no reason!”

She shook Kikyou with some violence, weeping and raging.

“Please!” Kikyou shouted, clawing at Kagura’s hands. “She is not dead! I can feel her!”

Kagura stopped, suppressing her sobs. Sesshoumaru and Inuyasha turned to stare at the miko, and Jaken gasped.

“What?” Kagura said.

Kikyou nodded.

“I can hear her heart beating, even now,” she said. “And I could not possibly have just done that, if she were not near. Kagome makes me stronger. Please, let me go. I am sorry!”

Kagura released her.

“I believe you,” she said quietly. “I know you think you had to, and I don’t even blame you.”

She looked into Kikyou’s eyes with a stare as hard as iron.

“But if Shippou is dead, I will still kill you.”

Jaken scurried up the pile of rubble.

“Time for that later,” he said. “You can hear her heart beating? Then where is it?”

***

When Shippou regained consciousness in the cellar of the Hyouden, he found that most of the strength of his bones and heart had gone away, leaked out of his body like sweat. In that dark, damp place, listening to the sounds of war, the past six months seemed ages and ages in the past, and he felt his insides shrink and cringe back into a helpless child.

Propped against the cold, stone wall, he opened his eyes and rolled his head back and forth. Someone was sitting close to him, with a cool hand on his forehead and cheek, and he thought at first that it was Sango. But this person was a bit too slight, and her hair and clothing were different. He tried to focus his eyes.

“Rin?” he murmured.

She smiled at him, and it was like a flash of soft spring.

“You’ve gotten older,” he said.

“Yes, that happens,” she answered. “Are you feeling better?”

“I feel weak,” he admitted. “And my head hurts, and my shoulder.”

“You lost a lot of blood,” she told him. “Miroku-sama and I treated your shoulder as best as we could. We put your arm in a sling, so try to not move it. As for your head…”

“Right. It’s whatever that rat, Jaken, did to me.”

“I’m sure he had a good reason.”

Shippou snorted and tried to get up.

“No, don’t,” she tried to hold him down. “Please, rest a little more.”

“I’ve sat here long enough,” he answered, trying to mask the shaking in his voice. “I have to get back out there. I have to…have to keep it together.”

“Miroku-sama,” she called. “He’s trying to get up.”

Shippou heard a rush of feet and felt more hands on him.

“For goodness sake,” the monk complained. “Just sit down.”

“No, no, I need to go.”

Shippou’s limbs felt as weak as a kitten’s, but he continued to struggle.

“You’re not going anywhere,” Miroku told him sternly. “You’re just making it harder on everyone else.”

Shippou fell back against the wall.

“Fine,” he said.

Someone settled in the spot next to him. He turned his head and saw that it was Sango. The light from the torches gleamed on her black locks. She was smiling at him, but he thought her face was pale and drawn.

“That’s better,” she said. “We’ll just rest here together a little while.”
A lump formed in his throat, and Shippou let his head lie on her shoulder.

“Shippou-ch— Shippou-kun,” she said. “Did you see? Kohaku is here!”

“What?” he exclaimed, looking around.

“Hi, Shippou-san!”

The boy leaned forward from where he was sitting, on the other side of his sister.

Shippou stared at him in amazement.

“I can’t believe it!” he said. “I thought you were…uh…”

“Dead?” Kohaku laughed. “Yes, I get that a lot lately.”

“Apparently,” Sango said, “Naraku lied to Kagura about that.”

“That figures,” Shippou said. “Well, at any rate, it’s good to see you. I know you’re happy, Sango.”

She smiled and nodded.

Shippou wondered if the young man had all his memories back, if Naraku still had any power over him, but he could not think of any decent way to ask. Rin sat down on the other side of him and he saw that Higurashi was sitting quietly on the other side of her. The Girls were sitting in a sort of circle, nearby.

The expression of one of them caught his eye. He could not remember her name, but she had a wealth of soft, wavy hair and a pretty face with creamy skin and regular features. She had always been the quietest, but now she sat as still and stiff as a statue. She did not seem to care what was happening around her. When she absently brushed her hair aside, even in the dim torch light Shippou saw she was missing a finger on her left hand. The injury looked recent.

Shippou listened to the drip of water from somewhere in the dark, and to the muffled sounds of fighting—a thunder of feet, weapons clashing, men and demons screaming and dying. Even though he knew it to be foolish, he strained his ears to catch some sound of Kagura.

“Shippou-kun,” Sango spoke. “I want to hear more about you and Kagura.”

Shippou was disquieted, as though she had heard his thoughts.

“What do you mean?”

“The two of you…seem really close. I’m just curious.”

“It’s not like that,” Shippou said hastily, blushing.

“You’re not close?”

“No, I mean, well, of course, but it’s just that…” he trailed off lamely and then fell silent.

“I only wanted to hear more about it,” Sango said. “It isn’t that I think anything is wrong, but you have to admit, to the rest of us, it is surprising.”

“Why should it be surprising?” Shippou responded, a little defensive.

“Shippou-kun, be reasonable. We have not been with you through all these months. It may seem perfectly normal to you, but…the last time we saw Kagura…”

“She is not like that anymore,” he insisted. “She—

“I am not trying to upset you. But, dearest, people do not change overnight.”

“Yeah well, she didn’t change overnight,” Shippou answered. “But she always wanted to get away from Naraku, and when Kagome made that happen, it did change her. I mean…”

He struggled with the words and thoughts, and his own exhaustion.

“At first, she was still…alien…harsh and hardhearted,” he went on. “In some ways, she still is.”

Miroku and the others perked up their ears with keen interest.

“But she is also loyal, protective, and sometimes even tender,” he said, blushing again.

Sango gazed at him, but said nothing.

“Not to mention,” he laughed, “hopelessly clueless about things that are obvious to most people. You wouldn’t believe some of the things I’ve had to explain to her. She’s been with me all this time. Even in the early parts of the Rains, when we were both sick and crazy. She could have run off, especially when she got her powers back, but she didn’t. And I know now she never will. Kagura will never be away from me. No power on earth will be able to take her away.”

He blushed even more, but he stopped caring. He laughed again.

“I guess it does sound crazy, after all.”

“No,” Sango murmured. “Not really.”

“I am just relieved that you were not alone all this time,” Miroku said.

Shippou was about to say something else, when he was interrupted by the most shocking clamor of noise. The floor beneath them quaked and he heard some sort of enormous crash, the split of wood and the scrape and rumble of falling stone.

“What was that?” Eri exclaimed, after the worst of it settled.

“I have no idea,” Miroku answered. “But I don’t think it was good.”

“It sounded like something crushed the house,” Shippou said.

“Yes. I am not sure how, but I think the house has been breached.”

“What should we do?” Sango whispered.

“Maybe we should leave after all,” Miroku answered.

The trembling of the house had only just subsided.

“Why?” Rin cried, alarmed.

“If the house has been taken,” he said, “the enemy will come in here, and we will be trapped.”

“But if we go out there—

“Our chances are next to nothing anyway,” he said, “but now that it comes to it, I don’t much care for the idea of being trapped in here like a rabbit in a hole.”

“I’ve wanted to leave as soon as I woke up in here,” Shippou declared, getting to his feet. “Let’s—”

He stopped again. They heard the rush of many feet running on the floors above them.

“It’s too late,” Yuka cried. “They’re in here!”

“We must get out!” Miroku said again, his voice edged a little with panic.

During this debate, Higurashi had said nothing. Shippou looked at her, thinking to seek her support. Her face was grave, but he was perturbed by the impression that she was listening to something he could not hear. Then her eyes widened, and she started to her feet, taking down a torch from the wall.

“Now!” her voice cracked like a whip. “We must leave this second!”

They did not hesitate. Yuka grabbed a rusty spear from a corner and gripped it until her knuckles turned white. Eri huddled behind her, trembling and ashen-faced. The third girl—Ayumi, Shippou remembered now—went along with others with a blank, placid expression.

Miroku threw aside the bolt and pushed open the door. As they went out, the light from their torches reflected off the pools of water and danced on the rock walls. Rin held her knife, low at her hip. Miroku held his staff out in front of him and muttered prayers under his breath. Kohaku, his scythe gleaming in the orange light, put his hand on Sango’s shoulder. She tightened her grip on the Hiraikotsu.

They left the baths and turned left, going towards the center stairs. They did not get far before they ran into the first Tsuchigumo. The narrow passage prevented very many from coming at them at once, but it also made it impossible for Sango to throw the Hiraikotsu. Miroku's staff glowed as if it was molten metal, imbued with the power of his prayers, and he swung it with expert precision. Shippou, still weakened, was able to at least wound a few of them with his foxfire.

One spider monster got past them and clawed at Eri with a multitude of black, grasping fingers. She screamed, pushing and slapping at the hands, then the monster fell at her feet, gurgling on its own blood. Eri blinked and looked up at Yuka, pulling the spear from its throat. Another monster fell a second later with Rin standing over it, clutching her bloody knife.

In this way, they pushed forward slowly, cringing as their feet stepped on soft, sinewy bodies in the near darkness.

When at last they got to the stairs, they found no stairs at all, only a twisted heap of stone and wood. Miroku looked up and saw that he could peer into sections of the ground and second floors. The darkness was as bad as the cellar. Dawn was not yet breaking, and the uproar of dust made it difficult to see more than a few feet in front of their noses.

In this space, at least, Sango and Kohaku could move more freely, and they came forward from the darkness with no small amount of violence, hacking at anything that moved.

Shippou looked around. His kimono and neck were still covered in blood, but he was able to move the shoulder joint again.

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

He ran past his friends and up the pile of rubble, leaping over a gap to land on an outcrop of floor that used to be the hallway. He stood still for a moment, sniffing the air and straining his ears to listen.

“I think this is the only way out,” he called down to them. “You’ll have to jump across, then edge along to that door down there.”

Miroku and others caught up to him, though it was more difficult, especially for Higurashi and the Girls, to clear the gap. More Tsuchigumo were coming from the north side of the house and closing in on them. At last, they stood on the other side of the small chasm.

“We have to keep moving,” Miroku said.

“We'll never get out of here!” Yuka wailed.

“Will you please stop that!” he snapped at her. “It's not helping!”

“Come on!” Sango said. “We can get to the front door if we keep going.”

They turned and started for the one clear space in the hall. To get to it, they had to crawl over more shattered wooden beams, to a section of floor that was only a foot or so wide. Miroku and Kohaku helped the Girls climb to the spot and urged them to the ledge. Just as they were all standing on the slender shelf the floor, which had been the landing near the stairs, collapsed into the downstairs gallery, sending up more dust.

Yuka clung to the wall like a rock climber, peering over one shoulder down into the cellar hallway they had passed through only a few minutes before.

“Son of bitch,” she muttered. “This is crazy!”

“Keep going!” Sango said. “You see that doorway to the right? That's where we have to go.”

Shippou was already ahead of them and Yuka and Higurashi began inching their way in that direction. A plank of the floor gave way under Yuka and one foot fell away for a terrifying instant. The wood clattered on the ground.

“I gotcha!” Shippou said, putting his hand on her back.

Yuka pressed as much against the wall as she could, breathing hard and squeezing her eyes shut.

“Come on,” Higurashi urged her. “You have to keep going.”
Meanwhile, the Tsuchigumo were still trying to get to them, but as they lacked power of flight, they could only take stupid and blind leaps at them, usually landing in a crippled, twisted heap in the cellar.

“Shippou?” Sango called from the rear. “Can you fly?”

“I don't think so,” he called back. “My shoulder is better, but not so much, not yet.”

“I think you have to Shippou!” her voice was urgent.

He turned his head, his nose brushing against the wall.

“What do you—?

He stopped, his mouth hanging open.

From the north side of the house, a crimson blush was spreading across the walls and floors and rubble with some speed. He could already see Tsuchigumo withering in its wake, but this destruction was not particular. It would kill any demon it touched.

“Holy shit!” he shouted.

“Shippou!” Sango cried.

It was getting closer. The glow reached the wall under Rin’s hands and she marveled that it made her feel somehow comforted, even in the present circumstances.

“You have to fly!” Miroku yelled. “Now!”

“I...I can't!”

“What is it?” Yuka cried. “What's going on?”
“You have to!” Miroku shouted. “Now!”

Shippou did not believe for one second that he could successfully transform, but as the flush passed over Yuka, panic and instinct took over, and he pushed away from the wall. His senses reeled as he turned in the air, wondering if the cellar was subject to the same threat and if he would die anyway when he hit the ground.

He landed on something soft. Letting out an explosive breath, Shippou groped with his hands and found he was clinging to fur.

Kohaku laughed.

“Once again, right on time, Kirara!” he shouted.

“Kirara?” Sango looked up in amazement.

They could see that Shippou was safely on the back of the large cat demon, floating in midair, a good two feet between them and any surface that was being purified.

“Thank the gods,” Miroku breathed out.

“What is that?” Yuka asked.

“We'll explain everything when we get out of here,” Miroku told her. “We have to keep moving.”

They continued inching their way toward the door. Shippou meanwhile, sighed and laid his head on Kirara's neck.

“Hi, Kirara,” he murmured. “It's damn good to see you again.”

The cat made a small, soft noise in her throat, and then they were moving through the air toward the door.

“Wait!” Shippou shouted, pulling a little on Kirara's fur.

The demon cat stopped still and looked over her shoulder at him.

“What is it?” Miroku called back to him.

He and Yuka had already made it to the doorway, and he was helping Higurashi into the small space.

“I...I'm not sure,” Shippou answered.

He looked back over his shoulder and tried to peer into the dusty chaos.

“I smell something,” he went on. “You guys go ahead and get out of here. Kirara and I will catch up. We'll be alright.”

Eri and Ayumi were standing safely beside Higurashi, trying in vain to knock the dust out of their clothes and hair, while Miroku helped his wife to the ledge. Kohaku and Rin followed.

“You knew Kirara was here?” Sango asked her brother.

“Yes,” he answered. “She saved me and Kikyou-sama, back when it was still raining. And she brought us here.”

Sango bit her lip. “I see,” she said quietly.

“I'm sorry, Nee-chan,” he put his hand on her arm. “With everything going on, I didn't think to tell you.”

“No, it's alright. There is a lot going on.”

“Speaking of which,” Yuka said pointedly.

“Yes, we must keep going,” Miroku herded them away from the collapsed hallway. “More of the house will fall in, I think. The front door is just beyond here.”

On Kirara's back, Shippou returned the way they had come, to the chasm that used to be the main stairs of the house. The Tsuchigumo were all gone, wiped out without a trace and without mercy.

It must have been Kikyou, he thought.

“Kirara,” he leaned forward, whispering. “Do you smell it too? It's faint, in all this dust, but I thought...”

Kirara rumbled in her chest and lifted her head, agreeing with him. They moved up over the debris, dodging pieces of wood that hung loose here and there, some surrendering once and for all to the devastation and raining down around them. To his left, he could see the light of breaking dawn, and guessed the opening made by whatever hit the house was in that direction.

“Hello?” he called. “Is anyone in here?”

Shippou's sharp ears caught a muffled grunt, of pain or discomfort, and some scraping and shuffling noises.

“Kirara, go towards that.”

“Hello?” he called again as they moved through the air with slow caution.

“Help! I need help!”

Such a wave a relief washed over him that for a moment he felt dizzy.

“It's Kagome!” he shouted. “Hurry!”

They moved faster now, heedless of the threat of falling timbers and stones. Shippou peered into the dust and at last discerned some movement in a high corner on the south side of the house.

“Kagome!” he shouted. “Hold on!”

She was clinging to a large, wooden elbow, which might have been part of the second story floor or the staircase landing. It had broken away from its rightful position and swung across the high gallery to the wall opposite the terrace. Kagome held on to this precarious structure, trying to keep her legs propped against the wall so as not to drag it down. Shippou could see that she was battered and bruised, but not seriously injured. She gingerly turned her head, looking for the source of the voice, and her eyes widened when she saw them.

“Thank goodness you're alright,” he said as he pulled her to him. “When I saw what happened up here, I feared the worst.”

For a minute, Kagome did not say anything, only clung to him, and he could feel her pounding heart. He marveled at her tiny frame, which trembled now like a leaf, and he was once again astounded how much he'd grown.

“It very nearly was the worst,” she said at last.

Her voice was shaking, and she could not stop her arms and legs from trembling. He thought her cheeks were alarmingly pale.

“I was so thirsty, I couldn't stand it anymore. I thought...surely it would be alright if I just went down to the kitchen to grab a bit of water.”

“Kirara, go toward that opening we saw,” Shippou said. “That'll be the fastest way out.”

In his heart, Shippou was afraid to bring Kagome face to face with Sango and Miroku, and worse, with her mother and friends, all at once. In her present condition, he half-believed she would faint on the spot.

They came out the large opening recently made in the north side of the Hyouden, and because of the dust still in the air and accumulating in Kirara's eyes, they collided with someone. Shippou could see that the person was not very tall, and he was afraid it was a Tsuchigumo. Kirara, however, did not seem all that alarmed. Rubbing his eyes, he finally saw that it was Jaken, now clambering to his feet and dusting himself off.

“What the—” the little toad demon started, then stopped, looking at them.

“Hey,” he called back over his shoulder. “It's alright. She's right here.”

Kirara carried Shippou and Kagome down from the house, and Shippou saw that the fields were covered in the gray light of dawn, dim, as it was still cloudy and lightly snowing. He also saw that the fields were cleared of any moving enemy, and he choked back tears.

“It's finally over!” he whispered.

Both he and Kagome were pulled off the demon cat at the same time, by different persons. Kikyou took Kagome into a fierce embrace, and then held her at arm's length, examining her.

“I see cuts and bruises,” she said, “but nothing too bad.”

“No, I think I'm alright,” Kagome answered, sniffing.

Shippou, meanwhile, was pulled into an equally fierce embrace by Kagura.

“I just knew you were dead,” she cried, clinging to him.

“I'm not. I'm fine,” he said, struggling to breath. “My shoulder still hurts though.”

“Oh!” she released him. “Sorry!”

“What about you?” he asked her. “You're not hurt?”

She shook her head.

“How many do you think we lost?” he asked, lowering his voice.

“At least half.”

He hung his head. Kagura drew nearer to him and did the same, so that their cheeks were almost touching.

“I guess we could say that half were spared,” he murmured.

Kikyou took out a scrap of cloth from her hakama and wiped away blood that was drying under the Kagome's nose.

“I do not know how you survived that,” she said, “but you always seem to get out of the most impossible scrapes.”

“She does have a unique genius for it,” Sesshoumaru agreed.

Kagome looked over Kikyou's shoulder at him, startled.

“Is it over?” she asked.

“The enemy is vanished,” he answered.

She was silent for a few moments, while Kikyou continued her examination.

“Sess...Sesshoumaru-sama,” she said at last. “I'm really sorry, about your house, I mean.”

“Do not speak foolishness,” he answered without looking at her. “It was not your doing, nor does it matter anyway. It is just a thing.”

Shippou raised his head and looked beyond them at Inuyasha. The half-demon stood mere feet away, behind Kagome's back, watching the scene with an intent but mysterious expression. It occurred to Shippou that the idiot feared being overcome with unseemly emotion, and would prefer to reunite with Kagome somewhere more private.

I can't believe he's still so immature!

“Hey Kagome,” Shippou said. “It looks like you got a good bump on the head. Let's make sure you didn't rattle anything in your skull too badly.”

Kikyou gave him a startled look.

“Can you follow my finger?” he asked, waving the appendage back and forth.

Kagome obeyed.

“Good. Now, I want you to just repeat some words back to me. Say 'Hiraikotsu'.”

“Hiraikotsu.”

“Goo d. Say 'foxfire'.”

“Foxfire.”

“Good. Say 'sit'.”

Shippou had the pleasure of hearing Inuyasha's dismayed realization, before Kagome formed the word and put it in the air without hesitating.

“Sit.”

“AAAHHH!”

Shippou was the next one to fell to the ground, only he was holding his sides. Kikyou looked over her shoulder at the prostate Inuyasha in astonishment. Jaken rolled his eyes.

Inuyasha lifted himself from the hanyou-shaped hole in the ground.

“Shippou! You little jerk!”

Kagome spun on her heels. When her eyes locked on Inuyasha, Shippou saw her expression and almost felt guilty. It was as though six months of pain and grief and all the joy possible in the world washed over her at once. He thought she would faint after all. Instead, she checked herself, and cast a furtive glance out of the corner of her eye at Kikyou.

“Do not be an ass,” Kikyou told her. “Go on.”

Kagome sprang forward like a released coil and collided with Inuyasha just as he had managed to get to his feet, knocking him down again.

“Inuyasha! Inuyasha! Inuyasha!” she wailed.

“OK. OK. It's OK.”

He put his arms around her shoulders and let her weep on his chest.

“I'm...I'm...so...so...sorry!” she blubbered, gasping for breath. “It was all my fault. What happened that day. And the Rains! All that time apart. They way we all suffered. All of it. It was all because of me!”

“What?” Inuyasha laughed, pushing aside her wet hair. “What are you blathering about?”

“And now look what's happened to your father's house! And that's my fault too! And Sesshoumaru's sword and...Oh, Inuyasha! I really made a mess of everything!”

She was hysterical now, weeping in uncontrollable, racking sobs. It wounded Shippou deeply to see her in this state, but he was glad now he had not brought her to her mother and the others. She would consider their suffering as additional black marks against her soul.

“Sesshoumaru's sword?” Inuyasha's brow furrowed. “What the hell are you talking about?”

But she could only weep and cling to him. He looked to his brother, but Sesshoumaru seemed offended that this scene was taking place in his presence, and he refused to look at any of them.

Kikyou came and stood over them.

“Higurashi Kagome,” she said in a stern, cold voice. “Stop this, right now.”

Kagome raised her ravaged face, startled.

“Come on, stand up.”

Kagome staggered to her feet, wiping her cheeks. Even Inuyasha did not dare disobey the  order, though it was not directed at him.

“You are the Everlasting Light,” Kikyou said. “The Everlasting Light does not cry. The Beloved does not blubber. The Commander most certainly does not snivel.”

Kagome stared at her. “But—”

“You are walking the path of your fate, as we all must do. To try to take on blame for that is the height of foolishness. Do you think your lot is so much more pitiable than that of the rest of us? That you deserve more sympathy?”

“No! I didn't say that at all.”

“Then stop crying and lift your head.”

Kagome hastily wiped away the rest of her tears and took a deep breath.

“Yes ma'am,” she said.

Inuyasha blinked at her.

“What?” she asked.

He shook his head.

“Nothing.”

“And Kagome, one more thing.”

Kagura ran up behind her and took her hand.

“Don't forget what you have done that is good. I would not be standing here, if not for you. At least, I hope you think that is good.”

Kagome's eyes widened and she threw her arms around her. Kagura looked dismayed for a moment, then bit her lip.

“I am glad you are here,” Kagome told her. “And thank you, for taking care of Shippou-chan.”

Kagura pulled away laughing.

“No. He took care of me.”

“That is true for me also, you know,” Kikyou put in. “I would not be here, if not for you.”

“Come to think of it, that goes for me too,” Inuyasha added.

“Same here,” Shippou raised his hand, grinning.

“I think you can add me to that group!”

Shippou looked around and laughed to see Kouga striding towards them. When Kagome saw him, she gave a squeal of delight and flew into his arms. The wolf demon laughed and returned the embrace, lifting her off the ground in a giant bear hug that made her wince.

“Hi, Kagome-chan,” he said. “It's good to see you, and that you're not hurt. I guess that dog demon has been taking decent care of you.”

“Ah,” Kagome hesitated, pulling back and glancing at Sesshoumaru. “Yeah.”

“Where's your—

“Ah, ah, easy there,” Shippou cut in.

Kouga blinked.

“What?” Kagome looked back and forth at them. “My what?”

Kikyou looked at Inuyasha. “What does he mean?”

“Ah,” Inuyasha's eyes shifted. “See, here's the thing...”

“What's the big deal?” Kagura asked Shippou. “Wouldn't she want to know?”

Shippou motioned to her to be quiet. “Shush!”

“OK,” Kagome put her hands on her hips. “What is going on?”

Shippou hurried to her side, taking her hand.

“Let's just try and relax. We can talk about that stuff later.”

He waved his hand dismissively.

“Why don't we just go inside and get something nice and hot to—”

He stopped. Sesshoumaru was standing at the foot of the bisected Hyouden with his back to them, where his kitchen garden used to be, gazing up at the shambles.

“Oh. Right.”

“Shippou,” Kagome's voice was firm. “Tell me right now—”

She stopped and her face drained of color.

“Kagome, what's the matter?”

Shippou glanced nervously over his shoulder, thinking that Higurashi had made an appearance after all, but he did not see her or the others.

Kagome sagged to her knees and Kikyou ran to prop her up.

“What is it?” she asked her. “Are you hurt?”

Kagome gasped and squeezed her eyes shut.

Kikyou looked up at Inuyasha.

“Perhaps she was injured more than we thought,” she said.

He nodded, his expression concerned.

Without warning, Kagome released a high pitched, blood curdling scream, clutching her right arm. Kikyou paled at that sound. Shippou felt the hair rise on the back of his neck. Even Sesshoumaru turned around in alarm.

Shippou caught a movement out of the corner of his eye and saw a tall man approaching them. He had long, white hair, and Shippou saw straight away that he was a dog demon. The leader of the horse demons, Shinme, followed close behind him.

“What the hell was that?” the stranger cried, rushing to Kagome.

“I am not sure,” Kikyou murmured. “She just collapsed. She is in pain, but I cannot see why.”

“Who are you?” Shippou asked him.

“That's Tamotsu,” Kagura told him. “He's Sesshoumaru's cousin.”

“Eh? When did you meet him?”

But Kagura’s attention was too fixed on Kagome to answer him.

Kagome, meanwhile, panted and gasped on her knees, switching between clutching her arm and clawing her stiff, seizing fingers into the dirt.

“Kagome, is it the arm?” Tamotsu leaned over her.

She managed to nod, but she could not focus her eyes on him. Tears streamed down her face. Kikyou tore the sleeve away from her right arm, and unwound the strands of bandages. The ones standing around Kagome gasped or flinched in horror. Some of them had not yet seen the terrible scar she had born since that last day of the short summer, and now it was more dreadful to behold, because it flamed on her arm like a river of lava. It glowed a sickly, dark purple and the skin around it throbbed and swelled, as if it was trying to reject the mark.

“Oh, save us,” Kikyou whispered.

“What is it?” someone cried. “What's wrong with her?”

Shippou recognized Higurashi as she ran, almost slid, down the slope and rushed toward them.

“Who are you?” Kikyou demanded.

“I'm her mother,” the woman answered, falling to her knees beside them.

“Her what?” Kikyou exclaimed.

“Wait, what?” Tamotsu looked at her.

“Did she say mother?” Jaken asked.

“Yeah, that's Kagome's mother,” Inuyasha told them. “That's what we didn't really want to say before.”

“I thought it would be too much for her,” Shippou said.

“What is the matter with her?” Higurashi asked again.

Her voice was shrill as she leaned over her writhing daughter. Shippou saw that the other Girls, along with Sango, Miroku, Kohaku, and Rin, had caught up to them.

“Well, the gang's all here,” he murmured.

Kagome cried out again, and his attention was yanked back to her.

“We have to do something,” Inuyasha said.

“But what?” Kikyou cried. “I have no knowledge of what is causing this.”

“Inu...yasha...” Kagome gasped.

“What?” Inuyasha leaned over her. “What's happening to you?”

“Cut it off...please.”

“What?” he flinched back.

“Please.”

“Kagome, stop it,” Kikyou said. “I will help you, I promise.”

“It hurts...so bad.”

“What's causing it?” Higurashi cried.

“I already said that I do not know,” Kikyou answered.

“What is that mark? Where did it come from?”

“Well…” Kikyou looked away.

“Oh, right.”

Shippou saw the shadow of grief pass over the woman’s features, and she put her hand on her daughter's forehead.

“I already know about that,” she said.

“Mama?” Kagome blinked at her.

“Yes, Kagome, my darling, I'm here.”

Kagome gasped and writhed in pain, shaking her head. Shippou did not believe she understood.

Sesshoumaru came and stood over them.

“What is the matter with her?” he demanded.

“Once again,” Kikyou sighed. “I do not know.”

“This scar is a connection between my daughter and her enemy,” Higurashi told her.

“What do you mean?”

“She means that Naraku is here,” Sesshoumaru answered, putting his hand on the hilt of his sword.

Inuyasha jumped to his feet. Kouga snarled and scanned the surrounding hills. Everyone else stood on a sudden, wary alert, gripping their weapons. Tamotsu, looking around, seemed to notice all the newcomers for the first time.

“Hey,” he smiled, sliding up next to Sango. “You're a new face. A new, pretty face.”

Sango regarded him with startled suspicion.

“And you are?”

“The name is Tamotsu,” he answered, taking her hand and caressing it. “But you can call me whatever you like.”

Sango blinked, but Miroku firmly took her hand away.

“And you can call her married,” he declared, “if you like, and even if you don't.”

“Ah, I see,” Tamotsu shrugged. “Too bad.”

“Do you people mind?” Inuyasha demanded. “Didn’t you hear the part about Naraku?”

“Miko,” Sesshoumaru said.

Kikyou looked up.

“There is a container in that girl’s clothes, I believe.”

She began to search through Kagome’s clothing, as the girl continued to writhe with pain.

“Please do something,” Higurashi lamented. “I can’t stand this.”

“What is that?” Kagome gasped, her eyes searching but not seeing. “I don’t understand.”

Kikyou ignored her. At last she pulled from her hakama a very small earthenware pot, which had been wrapped in a scrap of white cloth.

“There is medicine in it,” Sesshoumaru said, stilling scanning the surrounding area and holding his sword. “It may dull the pain.”

Kikyou opened it and Shippou saw that it appeared empty, but when Kikyou drew back her fingers, they were coated with thick oil, almost like tree sap, but without any color. Without hesitating, she slathered it liberally on Kagome’s arm. Almost at once, she began to take deeper, regular breaths, and her seizing lessened.

Kagome opened her eyes and sat up, holding the arm.

“Thank you, nee-chan,” she said, taking a deep breath.

Shippou sighed with relief, but even under these circumstances, he was somewhat shocked by her way of addressing Kikyou. One glance at Inuyasha’s face told him that he was thinking the same thing.

“Is that better?” Kikyou asked her.

Kagome nodded.

“It still aches,” she said, “but it’s much better.”

She started to get to her feet.

“You know,” she said, standing. “I must have been hallucinating. I could have sworn my mother was here.”

Higurashi reached out and took her daughter’s arm.

“Kagome.”

Kagome’s eyes went wide and she let out a cry of fright, taking several steps back.

“What?” she cried. “What is this?”

Shippou gestured to Yuka to stay back, giving her the hardest look he could manage.

Sesshoumaru stepped between Kagome and her mother.

“Now is not the time,” he said coldly.

She stared at him. “Wh…what?” she stammered.

“Listen!” he hissed. “There is reason to think that Naraku is near, and you may be the only one able to sense him.”

“What?” Kagome blinked, darting her eyes back and forth.

Sesshoumaru looked disgusted and turned away.

“I think the scar is proof that he is here,” Higurashi said. “But he is not supposed to be.”

He turned on her. Higurashi looked up into the face of the General for the first time. She did not shrink away.

“My goodness,” she murmured. “You really do look like your father.”

His eyebrows lifted a tiny fraction.

“I have no doubt,” he said, “that your story will be fascinating. But in the meantime, I believe that dealing with the most serious threat should be our first priority. Do you not agree?”

“Yes, my lord,” she answered.

“You were saying, you had certain pertinent knowledge.”

“Well, I am the Seeress,” she laughed a little nervously.

“Of course you are.”

“What?” Kagome cried again.

“I can vouch for her my lord,” Shinme bowed. “She is who she says she is.”

Sesshoumaru glanced down at his servant.

“Well, that’s good enough for me,” the little demon shrugged, though his eyes were dazed.

“If Naraku is nearby,” Kikyou put in, “he is hiding his presence, perhaps in the same way those Tsuchigumo do.”

“Which brings us back to this girl,” Sesshoumaru returned his attention to Kagome.

It occurred to Shippou that, having apparently lived with her for six months, he ought to have learned her name.

Kagome could only stare at him, then back to her mother, then to Inuyasha, then to Sesshoumaru again.

Higurashi took her daughter by the shoulders and turned her around again, so that they stood only inches apart.

“My dearest,” she said. “Do you remember the dreams you had, before you woke up in the Hyouden?”

“How…?”

“ThatR 17;s not important, Kagome. Do you remember when you spoke to Midoriko?”

Kagome nodded, her eyes still wide and frightened.

“Then you know that we are near the end now. You know that fate is hurtling towards the conclusion.”

Kagome nodded again.

“Naraku knows this as well, and will do everything to circumvent it, to bend it to his own will. He sent a demon through the well, Kagome. He wanted to find you, or someone you cared about in order to manipulate you. Do you understand?”

“Yes,” she whispered.

“The demon got through. I don’t know how, and it doesn’t matter. When he did, he found me and three others, and brought us through to here.”

Shippou could see that Kagome was already trying to work out in her mind who the others could be.

“Yuka, Eri, and Ayumi are here with me. We got away from the demon and Kouga found us in the wilderness, and now we are here.”

Kagome’s cheeks turned as white as the snow falling around them. She shook her head.

“Kagome, listen to me,” her mother urged her. “Put aside incredulity. Remember all the remarkable things that have happened since that day. Remember all the signs you’ve seen, and you’ll find you are not as surprised as you think.”

Kagome’s eyes grew distant, a slight furrow appeared between her brows, and she chewed her lower lip.

“Your mother is right,” Miroku took her other hand. “We must put aside the confusion and face our most urgent threats.”

Kagome looked up at him, her mouth quivering.

“It’s good to see you again, Kagome-sama,” he whispered.

Shippou watched Sesshoumaru walk up behind her and, by instinct, he almost cried out to warn her. Then he remembered.

He’s our ally now.

Sort of.

I think.

Sesshoumaru took hold of Kagome’s wrist and pulled her back toward him. She stared up at him and Shippou believed she did not really comprehend what was happening. Sesshoumaru pulled her so near that the wind lifted his hair around her face.

“The things you need to ask, to tell, it must wait,” he said. “You must focus, if you mean to save the people who are here. Remember, they are here for you!”

Kagome did not answer. Shippou fidgeted his hands and shifted his feet, torn between waiting to see what would happen next, and making a dash for Kagome and carrying her away. He glanced at Inuyasha, and caught the half-demon casting a questioning look at his old lover. Kikyou seemed determined not to look at him.

What does she know?

“Take a deep breath,” Sesshoumaru continued, “and close your eyes. Remove everything else from your mind.”

Kagome closed her eyes.

“You remember well what Naraku feels like,” he said. “He is hiding himself from us, but he cannot hide from you. Push your thoughts outward and reach across the land and sky. Feel for him.”

Kagome kept her eyes closed, and was silent. Shippou, Sesshoumaru, Kikyou and Higurashi watched her, while the others kept their eyes on the hills and clouds for a sign of their worst enemy.

Kagome opened her eyes. She looked up at Sesshoumaru for a moment, and then took her hand away. She walked toward Kikyou, her eyes no longer clouded with confusion, but clear, grim and determined.

“What did you feel?” Kikyou asked her. “Anything?”

But Kagome did not answer. She took from Kikyou her bow and one arrow, and she walked a few paces away, aimed at the sky, and shot.

Shippou heard a strangled gasp from somewhere nearby and saw Yuka holding her hand over her mouth and staring up at the sky, where Kagome’s shining arrow had shot like a red star.

Then another sound grabbed Shippou’s attention and he recognized it immediately. The smug and insufferable chuckle of his enemy came down on him from the clouds, and from a long line of painful memories.

Naraku appeared in a man-like form, his long black hair fanning out in the cold, snowy air, and he hovered over them, smiling.

“Clever girl,” he murmured. “I’ve missed you.”

“The feeling is not mutual,” Kagome responded.

Naraku only narrowed his eyes a fraction. Kagome gasped and grabbed her arm again.

“You worthless excuse for a life,” Kikyou shouted at him. “Leave her alone!”

“Do you not think, my lovely Kikyou,” he said, “that you have too much to lose now, to be here shouting at me in the snow?”

She did not answer, but held Kagome closer. Inuyasha stepped in front of them, holding up his sword.

“You maybe want to get this over with?” he called up to the demon. “I’m not really in the mood for chatting.”

“Are you sure you should be so hasty,” Naraku cooed. “There are, after all, so many breakable things about.”

He looked meaningfully at Higurashi and the Girls, and Rin.

Inuyasha was about to retort when there was a smart clack, like the slamming of a door, and then there was nothing there. Shippou was sure that the flesh and blood demon had been there, but now there was no trace of him.

Just as quickly, Naraku reappeared some small distance away, a mere foot or two in front of Kagura. Shippou inhaled a sharp breath and his heart pounded in his ears.

“Hello, my pet,” he purred, looking down at her. “You’ve been well, I trust?”

He reached out a cold, white hand, as if to take her chin or cheek. Kagura stood frozen, her eyes wide and her face bloodless. Her immobilized limbs trembled, but she could not react.

But Shippou could. His blood boiling, he sprang forward, tearing Rin’s knife from her fist. It happened so quickly that no one could be sure what they had seen. Naraku took in a deep breath and drew his hand away. Several fingers landed on the ground, splattering black blood that hissed and sizzled in the snow.

Shippou stood between Kagura and the enemy,  one arm still in the sling, the other hand holding the bloody knife.

“Get back!” he shouted.

“That was very foolish,” Naraku hissed, shaking his hand.

The fingers slowly reappeared.

“I can cut them off as fast as you can grow them!” Shippou told him.

Naraku laughed.

“So, the little fox brat has grown large,” he said. “Too fast, it seems. You have outgrown your brain.”

“She doesn’t belong to you anymore,” Shippou said.

“Oh? And I suppose she belongs to you?”

“She belongs to herself,” Shippou answered. “And I will cut you again if you touch her!”

Naraku laughed again, but his eyes were cold and mirthless.

“What are you waiting for?” Shippou asked him. “You’re so sure you’re so much better than the rest of us, certainly me, so what you are you waiting for?”

Naraku glared at him.

“The real truth about it is,” Shippou went on, “you’re a coward. It doesn’t matter how strong you make your body, or how many minions you spawn like vermin, your heart is a shriveled shadow of what beats in the chest of anyone here. You were born a coward, and you will die a coward. And if you try to touch Kagura, you will die right here, like the worm you are.”

Naraku gnashed his teeth, hatred gleaming in his eye. He did not answer, and Shippou did not see him move. The world went black in an instant, a noxious, burning odor filled his nostrils, and he felt a crushing weight press in all around him. Unable to breath, he tried to stab the knife at anything he could, but the casement around him was as immovable as stone. He heard a wet, tearing sound and knew that the wound in his shoulder had opened again. With a silent scream, Shippou lost consciousness.

“Shippou!”

Kagura’s agonized cry rang out across the snowy valley. She looked around and picked up a discarded ogre club and flew toward the mass of black demon flesh that had swallowed Shippou, mad with desperation.

“Kagura!” Inuyasha shouted. “Get back!”

She would have ignored him, but even in her crazed state she felt the building electricity of Tessaiga in the air. She flung herself to the ground and rolled away as he unleashed the Wind Scar, severing the connecting tissue between Naraku and what everyone hoped was still Shippou.

Naraku pulled himself a short distant away and almost immediately the encasing flesh fell apart, revealing a limp and unresponsive kitsune sprawled on the ground. With a low cry, Kagome ran toward him, and Kagura heard Naraku chuckle.

“No! Wait!” Inuyasha shouted.

She was almost to him when Sesshoumaru wrapped his arm around her waist and carried her away again. The black flesh on the ground jumped and twitched, like shiny pebbles on the skin of a drum.

Sesshoumaru pushed Kagome away toward Kikyou, who took the girl by the wrist.

“I would thank you to be a little more prudent,” Kikyou said to her. “You have caused me enough anxiety today.”

“But…Shippou!” Kagome shouted, reaching out her hand.

Naraku, however, had forgotten the kitsune. His lure had failed and, more to the point, Sesshoumaru stood now, holding his sword, looking up at him with a calm, unwavering expression.

Another mass of grasping and writhing flesh flew at the dog demon, but he brushed it aside with a tiny flick of his wrist and it scuttled away across the snow in the direction of the river.  He took one step toward his enemy.

Naraku tried again, but when the same thing happened, he began backing away.

“You will not escape,” Sesshoumaru did not take his eyes from him.

Naraku hesitated, licking his lips.

“Sesshoumaru-sama,” he began. “Do not let us be rash. We have no real quarrel, nothing that cannot be put aside. We have common enemies still, I believe. You have an excellent opportunity here to kill that half demon brother of yours and I will not impede you. Do not waste it!”

“The kit was correct,” Sesshoumaru replied, stepping forward again. “You are a worm.”

“Sessho—

He was interrupted by Sesshoumaru’s sword slashing him across the chest.

“Enough talking,” the dog demon said. “You send vermin to my door, and you think I would stand by and let you do battle with these, while ignoring me?”

Naraku vanished again, but when he reappeared on the other side of the field, Sesshoumaru was already there, and his sword slid through him like water, from shoulder to rib cage.

Naraku fell back and landed some distance away, holding his wound, which spurted blood. It was already beginning to regenerate new flesh over the opening, when Sesshoumaru hit him again. The impact rang out across the fields like two iron bells colliding.  CLANG! CLANG! as Sesshoumaru slammed into his enemy with relentless blows. Then Kagura saw the two of them separated once more, and this time Naraku was holding his side.

“Your attacks are fierce,” he said. “But they are still useless. I can recover from anything you do.”

Sesshoumaru said the last thing he would say to his enemy that day.

“This ends now.”

His eyes flashed as a bright red sheen spread over them, and his hair flew away from his face.

“Crap!” Kagome shouted. “Everyone, get back! Inuyasha, get Shippou!”

Inuyasha hurried to the fox demon’s side and picked him up over his shoulder, as Kagome herded Kagura, Kikyou, and her mother, back toward the part of the house that was still standing. Kouga and Inuyasha went as well, but stayed out in front, on the edge of the fray. Miroku and Sango pulled and pushed Rin and Kohaku as far back against the wall and away from the fighting as possible.

Inuyasha fidgeted with the sword in his hand. The sun had long risen by this point, but it was a pale ghost of a light behind the low bank of clouds. A warm gust of wind sped across the winter valley.

“What is it?” Higurashi cried. “What’s going on?”

“Sesshoumaru is changing form,” Kagome told her.

Tamotsu backed away as well, though he stood near Inuyasha and Kouga with his sword drawn.

“Well, well,” he said. “Haven’t seen that in a while. Things are about to get nasty, I take it.”

“That worthless half demon will be sorry he showed his face today,” Jaken declared.

Another warm gale swept over them and it carried a rushing roar, which reminded Kagome of a train. The ground shook, and when she looked up again she saw the great dog demon—an impossibly large hound, covered in thick, white fur, with red eyes and fangs the size of swords, which dripped poison.

When the Girls saw him, Eri and Ayumi screamed in terror and hid their faces, cringing as close against the wall as they could. Yuka seemed transfixed. She clung to her friends in a distracted, bemused way. Higurashi held onto Kagome with one hand, and gestured to them with the other.

“Come on,” she called. “Come here.”

They hesitated, not wanting, hardly daring, to move. One by one, they crawled along the remainder wall, in the mud, until they got to her. The three of them huddled close to her and Kagome. Kagome looked over her mother at her oldest friend.

“Yuka-chan?”

“Yeah,” Yuka shivered. “It’s me.”

“Oh my god,” Kagome said, her voice thick. “Yuka…I’m so sorry.”

“We can talk it about later,” the girl answered. “Assuming we’re still alive.”

Kikyou stood beside them, watching the two demons fighting in the field. Sango, Miroku, Kohaku were nearer to Kouga, Inuyasha, and Tamotsu, and Kagome knew them well enough to know that they were tensed and ready to fight. Sango’s cheeks were still livid and her expression strained, but she held Hiraikotsu at the ready. Rin stood behind Kohaku, clasping her hands over her chest and not taking her eyes from her lord. Jaken stood next to her, holding the Staff of Two Heads with white knuckles, his face intent. Kagura knelt on the ground next to Kagome, holding Shippou.

“How is he?” Kagome asker her, her voice a little shrill.

“I think he’ll be alright,” she told her. “He’s just unconscious.”

Kagura looked over at Higurashi as she huddled on the ground with the four girls clustered around her.

“Is this it?” she asked her, trying to keep her voice down. “Will it, can it, end today?”

Higurashi looked her in the eye and shook her head.

“What do you mean, Mama?” Kagome asked her.

Yuka also dared to raise her head to look at her.

“I do not know all that may happen today, but I know for sure that today is not Naraku’s last day on Earth.”

“If what the Seeress says is true,” Kikyou said to Inuyasha, “do you think we should stop it?”

“I don’t see how,” Inuyasha said.

The struggle was well beyond any of them by now. They could see the blazing white form of the large dog, sometimes lunging, sometimes pinning something down, and sometimes flying back. He battled with something large and black, with many limbs, but no certain shape that they could see. The ground shook and great chunks of dirt, grass, mud, rocks, and snow flew in all directions. The field began to blacken with blood, but Inuyasha perceived that the area was also becoming tainted with miasma.

“Aren’t you going to fight?” Kouga asked Inuyasha.

“Aren’t you?”

Kouga did not answer, though he seemed torn. Inuyasha shrugged.

“If I just flew into it, I’d probably make things worse,” he said. “Besides, if what Higurashi says is true, why should I waste my time? I just want it to be over so we can get on with whatever we’re supposed to do.”

Kouga stared at him.

“What?” Inuyasha asked him.

The wolf demon shook his head and looked away.

“You’ve changed,” he said.

Inuyasha cast a glance over his shoulder at Higurashi and the Girls, and Kagome, who huddled against the stone wall. Then he looked at Kikyou.

“Probably,” he muttered.

“We have to do something,” Kikyou told him. “We cannot just wait it out. This valley will fill with miasma.”

“What does that mean?” Yuka asked.

“Naraku’s flesh and insides are poisonous,” Kagome told her. “It’s like a fume that leaks out of him. It will kill the humans in the area if it goes on for too long.”

“Perfect.”

“I will carry you all away myself before that happens,” Kouga told her.

“We can’t leave,” Higurashi said.

“What?” Inuyasha turned around.

“We can’t leave,” she repeated. “At least not any member of the Twelve. We have to stay here until the end.”

“When is the end?” Miroku asked her.

“I don’t know. I’ll know when we get there.”

“Perfect,” he echoed Yuka.

“That means we could get the Girls away,” Kouga said. “Right?”

“Yes,” she answered. “But you can’t take them.”

He looked around.

“Damn. Where are Ginta and Hakkuka?”

“They’re probably up in the hills,” Inuyasha said.

“Damn,” he repeated.

“That brings us back to the original point,” Kikyou said to Inuyasha. “We have to do something.”

“I’m not one of the Twelve, right?” Tamotsu asked Higurashi.

“No,” she answered.

“Let me take these girls away then,” he said.

“No,” Inuyasha answered. “I’ll need your help to stop that crazy bastard before he kills all of us.”

“And by ‘crazy bastard’, you mean…”

“Both of them.”

Tamotsu looked out at the titanic, chaotic fray, which seemed to be crumbling the mountains and changing the course of the river. Inuyasha estimated that they were about half a league away.

Tamotsu shook his head, his expression wry.

“I don’t know,” he said. “Sesshoumaru will never forgive me if I interfere.”

“So he’ll hate you,” Inuyasha shrugged. “Who cares? He hates everybody.”

“Except me,” Rin spoke up from somewhere behind him.

“Except Rin,” he said. “Now, are we going to go out or not?”

“I’ll go too,” Kouga said.

“No, I want you to stay here,” Inuyasha told him.

“Well, see, the thing is, I don’t much care what you want.”

“Damn,” Inuyasha sighed. “I forgot what a stupid pain in the ass you were.”

“Say what, mutt-face?”

“I want you to stay behind in case we can’t stop it, in case it all goes to hell and someone has to try to get everyone away. It’ll be almost hopeless with just you to take care of them, but I guess it’s better than nothing.”

Kouga puffed himself up and bristled.

“See here, dog,” he said. “I’ll get every last one of them away, far better than you could do.”

“Fine. Then do it.”

He looked at Tamotsu.

“Are you ready?”

“As much as I’ll ever be,” the dog demon answered.

Swords in hand, they advanced on the field. After they were out of earshot, Tamotsu spoke to him.

“You realize that this is hopeless, right?”

Inuyasha grunted.

“Not really,” he said. “It may seem so, but I know that it’s not gonna end today, so why worry about it?”

Tamotsu suddenly laughed and slapped him on the shoulder.

“You do a spirit good,” he said. “In any case, it’s been good fighting with you, however briefly.”

Inuyasha gave him a surprised look.

“What?”

“It’s just…weird,” he said. “You look like Sesshoumaru, but the resemblance ends there.”

The dog demon smiled.

***

In the back of his mind, Sesshoumaru knew that he would not kill Naraku, not because he was unable to, but because it simply would not be allowed to happen. If he were somehow successful, if he cheated fate, someone, perhaps the Others, would just turn over a page in some interminable and inscrutable ledger, and then they would all be back at the beginning.

His insides shuddered at the thought of such a risk, but he would not stop attacking. Every blow, every cut, was a satisfying and soothing balm to six months of frustration and confusion. If all he could accomplish was battering the loathsome vermin until someone came and pulled them apart, that was just fine.

The pull came soon, or so it seemed to him. He was about to deliver another strike when he found himself standing close to his house again. Naraku stood in front him, and both of them had returned to their customary state. Sesshoumaru eyed his enemy, trying to discern some sign that Naraku had somehow brought about the translocation and transformation, but the look in his eyes told Sesshoumaru that Naraku had no more notion of it then he did. He cast a quick glance out of the corner of his eye.

Inuyasha and Tamotsu stood with swords drawn, only about a dozen feet away. The rest of the merry band of misfits stood or sat at the foot of the remaining north wall, most of them huddling and cringing from fear and cold.

“How’d they get back here?” he heard Inuyasha ask.

“How did we get back here?” Tamotsu responded.

Naraku drew himself up, and Sesshoumaru recognized the signs that he was once again transforming his flesh. Sesshoumaru pointed his mind, flesh, and soul in the same direction, pulling it all like a coil.

He heard Jaken scream from somewhere behind him.

“Rin! What are you doing? Stop!”

Sesshoumaru heard the rush of small feet hurrying across the mud and snow, then someone else quickly following. From the direction of the house he saw Rin running towards him, and Tamotsu reaching out, meaning to grab her as she ran past him. It was clear that she aimed to put herself between the monster and her lord.

“Tamotsu,” Sesshoumaru said, unperturbed. “Stop. Let her go.”

“Are you crazy?” Kagome shouted at him.

Rin reached her destination, and she stood in the center of Hell without flinching. At first, she did not look at any of them. Sesshoumaru stepped back.

“That is not Rin,” he said.

Rin seemed to grow tall, though not so much in height as in presence. Her skin glowed white and her eyes flamed like little eclipsed suns.

“Oh no,” Jaken cried. “Not again!”

“What’s going on?” Kagome asked him.

“Everyone stay back,” Tamotsu shouted, also taking a few retreating steps.

Naraku, meanwhile, had appeared amused when he saw the petite girl standing before him, but as the ghostly light overtook her, he paled himself, and the gleam of smug triumph fled from his eyes. He stared at the girl as if hypnotized, as the dark of her hair drained away, like blood from a slaughtered animal.

Then Rin was no longer there at all.

“You!” Naraku spat.

Chiyoko stood where Rin had stood a moment before, though Sesshoumaru could still discern the shadow of the girl encased in his mother. The dog demoness smiled and lifted one hand. In it, she clutched the short blade he had given Rin earlier that day, and which Shippou had already used to cut their enemy.

“You have been a very bad boy,” she chided.

Her rosebud mouth smiled, but her golden eyes were hard and cold.

“You have no power here!” he shouted at her.

Despite his words, Naraku backed away, and his face betrayed his doubt.

She ignored him.

“You broke the rules,” she went on. “The minions you could send, but your only approved goal was to retrieve the slave you once lost. And you were not permitted to come yourself.”

“I do not answer to you, bitch,” he snarled.

“That is of no moment,” she answered. “I am empowered to enforce all rules, and to punish all rule breakers. Now, GO!”

She slashed at the air with her knife and, though they were yards apart, Naraku lurched back, and a burning gash appearing across his cheek.

“Your power here has ended for today,” she said. “You forfeit, and the Motherless will never be yours. GO!”

She cut him again.

“GO!”

Bleeding and raging, Naraku spat on the ground in front of her, cast a last baleful glare at Kagura, and in one thunderclap of cold wind, he was gone.

It had long ceased snowing, but now the morning sun broke through the dispersing cloud bank. The Fields of Eternal Snow held its breath there on the precipice of uncertainty. Sesshoumaru looked around at the silent, melancholy fields of the slain, at the cold shambles of his house, at his empire of air.

Kagome left her mother’s side and stood between Inuyasha and Sesshoumaru, watching the lord of the West.

He will do one of two things…

The others began to comprehend that the threat had spared them for the day. Kagura, shaking and limping again, returned her attention to Shippou, who had only just regained consciousness and sat up, blinking in bewilderment. The rest of them inched away from the house toward Sesshoumaru and Rin-Chiyoko, with curious astonishment. Chiyoko turned back to him, her expression soft and gentle.

“My only son,” she said, reaching out her hands.

Sesshoumaru did not move. After a moment of silence, he opened his mouth to speak, then hesitated again.

“There is no time,” she told him. “My presence here is facilitated by the Bearer, but it is a burden. There is a cost to her.”

“Then you must leave, now,” he said without hesitating.

She smiled.

“I am glad that you said that.”

She placed her hands across her heart.

“Still, I wish I could…”

She trailed off and she glanced to the side.

Panting and breathless, Higurashi ran past her daughter and Inuyasha to where they stood and bowed her head to Chiyoko. Chiyoko stood very still, but her eyes betrayed a desperate hunger.

“You…you spoke with him last,” she said. “Did he…was he…?

“He seemed well,” Higurashi said. “Or, at least, not unwell.”

Chiyoko exhaled a shuddering breath.

“I cannot stay to guide you,” she said. “I had hoped to, but I took much from the Bearer to drive away the Enemy. Someone else will have to stand in for me.”

“Who?” Higurashi asked.

“She is already here. Indeed, she has always been here.”

She pointed towards the snowy, trampled fields. Sesshoumaru saw the wolf demoness standing a short distance away, as solid and vibrantly colored as she was in life. Still, he saw the dark outline that surrounded her and knew that she was still dead.

“Ayame?” Kouga gasped.

“The Sacred Iris will help you from here,” Chiyoko said. “I must go now.”

The paleness drained from Rin as her color had done before. Black spread from the roots of her hair to the tips, as though an artist brushed it with ink. She sighed and sagged to her knees, dropping the knife. Kagome reached out for her immediately, but Sesshoumaru waved her aside.

“Sesshoumaru-sama?” the girl murmured drowsily.

“I am here,” he answered.

She lifted her heavy head.

“I sort of remember it this time,” she said. “Why do you think she uses me?”

Sesshoumaru looked down into the girl’s heart-shaped face. Her eyes were her own deep brown again, wide and soft like a doe’s. Her hair returned to its normal shade of ebony, except for one lock near her right temple, which was now as brilliant as a patch of snow in the moonlight on the peak of a dark mountain.

“Sesshoumaru-sama?”

Sesshoumaru bent and lifted the girl into his arms, as if she was a babe, and he let her head rest on his shoulder.

Rin’s eyes widened and fill with tears, then her little fists curled in his hair. Higurashi and Kagome backed away from them and rejoined the others, some distance apart.

“Do you think he realizes that he has two arms now?” Inuyasha asked Kagome.

Kagome could not answer. She looked past the pair at the ghost of the wolf demoness, who stood watching the scene with a gentle expression. A movement drew her attention away again, and she saw Jaken running toward Sesshoumaru and Rin, leaving his staff behind. When he got to them, it seemed he had reached his only goal, but Kagome saw one pale hand appear from behind Rin’s hair and rest for a brief moment on the little demon’s shoulder. Even from where she stood, Kagome could see the mystified wonder in Jaken’s eyes, and understood that he did not dare move or even look up for fear of breaking some spell. She tore her eyes away.

A new serenity allowed Kagome to take it all in for the first time. Her limbs shook with exhaustion after a night of fighting, but all the terror, dread, and confusion, the agony of guilt, which possessed her since the siege began—

No, since long before that.

It dissipated like the snowy clouds above them. She looked around at the people who had shared the long road since the Jewel was shattered, those who had cared for her since the Plateau, and those that had known her all her life, only now seeing her for all that she was.

There was going to be a lot of talking over the next few days.

Kagome took Inuyasha’s hand and brought him to where Miroku and Sango stood, then she turned and beckoned to Shippou. The young fox demon stumbled towards them, clambering over the fallen rocks and wood and trying to balance with one arm. Kagura reached out to assist him, but he waved her off, giving her a smile.

The five of them clustered together, with the addition of Kirara perched on Sango’s shoulder. They put their heads down and threw their arms around each other’s necks. Kagura, Higurashi, Kouga, Tamotsu, and the Girls, looked on, but did not interfere.

After some time passed this way, everyone looked up and saw that Ayame stood now among them, shining and vivid, like a pillar of spring in that winter morning.

“The Days of the Short Sun have ended,” she said. “The Days of the Long Sun have begun.”

[End of Chapter 30, ending the “dissidents” period]

[End of Book Two]

[Continue the story in “The Days of the Long Sun”, book three of The Edge of Resistance.]


Author’s notes:
So this chapter was stupid long, right? If you think so, feel free to say it in the reviews/comments.

Well, it’s taken a long time to get this far. I don’t even like to think how long. I want to sincerely thank anyone who has read this much. EoR means a great deal to me. I carry the story with me constantly, even now that the original series is something of a distant memory to me.

These last chapters of Book Two have been the most difficult, by far, because we are building an almost impossibly large cast. It’s challenging to keep everyone straight, to know what everyone is doing or saying at any one time. Keeping everything straight when we had so many characters scattered and separate was difficult as well, but I think this is more so. Anyway, because of the complicated nature of the story, I would like to offer the reader a few tidbits that I’ve put together.

The first is a timeline. I actually relied on this heavily while writing most of Book One and pretty much all of Book Two. It details what happens on each day since the beginning of the story, so you can see how it all fits together. Just copy and paste the location below into your web browser.

http://lalieth.deviantart.com/gallery/40157923

T here is also some related artwork in this location…doodles I’ve done over the years.

Lastly, I would like to talk about music. There are songs and poems that are original to the story, like the ones sung by Kohaku, Nazuna, and Ayame (as a ghost). There’ll be more to come, and at some point I’ll compile them all somewhere.

But the story and most of the characters also have “theme” songs, music which inspired me to write certain chapters or scenes, or which I just listened to regularly while writing. I hope you plug some into YouTube, if you don’t know them already.

The theme of Book One, and really of the whole story, is “Love, Reign O’er Me”. Originally performed by The Who, I usually listen to the Pearl Jam version. Verses of the song were repeated by most of the main characters at one time or another, usually during their worst, craziest moments during the Rains. It represents the bond between them that remains, even when they don’t realize it.

Another important song is “I’m An Animal”, by Neko Case. One line from this song became a common thread that connects all the protagonists in the story, though I consider it Chiyoko’s personal theme.

I listened to “Winter” by The Rolling Stones over and over while writing the earlier chapters of Book Two, when the characters are mostly separated and wandering in the harsh cold.

Some others:
“Chasing Cars” by Snow Patrol. Totally Shippou and Kagura!
“Brendan’s Death Song” by Red Hot Chili Peppers. Ichiro’s song.
“Dog Days are Over” by Florence + the Machine. Kagome’s song.
“The Cave” by Mumford and Sons. Kagura’s song.
“This Tornado Loves You” by Neko Case. Kouga’s song.

Other songs that inspired me:
“Furnace Room Lullaby” by Neko Case
“The Scientist” by Coldplay (though I prefer the Willie Nelson version).
“Off He Goes” and “Come Back” by Pearl Jam
“The Chain” by Fleetwood Mac
“Weeks Go By Like Days” by My Morning Jacket
“Where the Streets Have No Name” and “All I Want is You” by U2
“Wish You Were Here” by Pink Floyd
“Digital Ghost” and “Lust” by Tori Amos
“Iris” and “Lightning Crashes” by Live
“Maps” by Yeah Yeah Yeahs
“No One’s Gonna Love You” and “Funeral” by Band of Horses.