InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ The Mysterious Little Visitor ❯ Scroll Fifteen: Fire Void ( Chapter 15 )

Disclaimer: Is this form of torture really necessary? Haven't I endured enough yet? You know that I know that you know that I know that I don't own, never will own, and don't have enough money to own is still not mine because you know that I didn't create it. Translation: Inu-Yasha belongs to Rumiko Takahashi.

A/N: Recently I've been receiving nit-picky reviews. No offense to those of you are have been excellent reviewers, but questioning my plot line-and believe me, I've studied Takahashi-sensei's style that I know how to use it well-and basically telling me I'm wrong, is not the way to make me feel all warm-n-fuzzy and want to write. I've been busy for many reasons: school, situations with/about friends, my hands have been having awful tremors recently, and I've been working on my story. Oh! Not to neglect the fact that I have yet another English teacher who dislikes me and has already humiliated my writing in front of my class. So, if I sound like a bitch, I think I have a bit of a reason to; it's hard to be cheerful everywhere else.

Other thing, Inu-Yasha's speech in the previous scroll was written by me, and also if you really analyze his character and see patterns in thoughts (and what he said afterwards) it'll seem more fitting. People can surprise you. Please, people, this story requires a lot of meditation and understanding; this is one story you have to figure out cause-and-effect things. If we work with this, the overall story will make more sense (and I'll stop wanting to rip my long hair out by the roots)..

Scroll Fifteen: Fire Void

"Inu-Yasha!"

"Kagome!"

The sounds of Sango and Miroku's voices were heavily muffled by of debris from the floor of earth and stone that was violently ruptured.

Inu-Yasha couldn't see anything but layers of sediment, and the brilliant sphere of blaze in his peripheral vision, which was plummeting swifter than he and his charges. He could see the growing distance between the Chamber of Spirit's floor and them. One of Kagome's arms circled tightly around his shoulder, while the other remained vice-like around Little Inu.

Not knowing what else to really do, the hanyou went with his instincts. He began reaching out with his claws, making a twist in the air so he was parallel with the wall, and desperately tried to drag his talons in deep enough to stop them before they were too far from the mouth of the fissure and too near to the fireball. The nails struck harshly against the multicolored bands of compressed minerals until they finally hit a softer spot where four of the five snagged.

Kagome pressed closer to Inu-Yasha, pinning Little Inu somewhat between them. She peered up through the sweat that had begun to congregate on her face up to her companion's outstretched arm. She anxiously swallowed the ball of viscera, the veracity of what could happen fully realized.

His claws were the only thing keeping them from the hellish inferno and its flares as it splintered each layer of rock, delving deeper and deeper…

Wide, golden orbs shifting from where Kagome's gaze lingered, to Inu-Yasha's straining muscles and fatigued face, Little Inu watched as bits of Hakushinmu herbs and dirt swept down, only to be consumed by the flames. Without really cogitating too hard, the dog-child was conscious of the older demon's weakened state; even if he'd had a few hours to rest, the fight with Shiokki and his full-demon transformation had to have been incredibly draining.

He reached inside his haori and withdrew a single spring of Hakushinmu. "Inu-Yasha," he called, steadily maneuvering the precious herb high enough to wave by the hanyou's cracked lips, "eat this."

Inu-Yasha glanced down before bowing his head to the white petals. Wrapping his tongue around the closest one, he brought it into his mouth and chewed. A warm energy surged his veins and the very fibers of his muscles as the sweet liquid writhed down his throat.

"Thanks, kid," he managed between labored breaths. Glancing upwards, he saw the proximity of their location and that their desired locale was further than one easy hop up. Damn…I can't make it from here…if I only I had both hands free… he thought, a fang biting into his bottom lip as he hunted for options.

"Why not drop them both and save yourself?" Tsaku's voice asked. When Inu-Yasha's head flipped to the direction from which it came, he spotted a semi-translucent form of the man. It smirked at him. "You could easily leap up there in one bound. No problems without any hindrances-and that girl and boy are what keep you from saving yourself. Come on," his leer broadened as his eyes narrowed, "drop them."

"Never…" he hissed, crushing the said pair to his chest.

"Shameful. You'd rather die along with them than save yourself…. If you'd chosen the other way, at least one of you would have survived."

"Fuck you."

Tsaku's condescending sneer didn't even waver. "Such a simpleton; your past and future show no significant change-perhaps better skilled, but not much else…. Oh, I will make a radical change in your future…. You don't know how much of a relief it is to me that-this very day-you'll pass away by my very genius, taking your human-sensitive ideals with you.

"What could have Inutaisho been thinking, taking some human whore?"

Inu-Yasha's teeth ground. "You sleazy bastard. I'd swing at you-"

"Why don't you?" he interrupted, transparent eyes sparkling in the red glow with amusement. "Go on," he drawled, the reflection of the flames dancing off the sides of hole, Tsaku's face becoming more menacing and taunting. "Hit me." He chuckled slightly as the hanyou only growled, but made no move to strike. "Foolish, half-breed. Worrying about the lives of others when you were not given equal treatment…foolhardy." The wraith flew a bit closer. "Pity you can't use that ideal to save your mortal friends, hm?"

The half-demon's eyes grew large. "What…?"

Tsaku's illusion waved his hand. "While you're dangling here like loose meat from a spit, they are about to confront my solid form in another grotto of Fire Soul. I could expect Shiokki to put up a fight, but your little companions…? Their frail human bodies will fail them, and that fox-child is merely an extra for me to slaughter.

"But, if you let go of the girl-Kagome--and young Inu-Yasha, you'll be free to save the monk and the demon slayer.." The translucent body began to fade. "Which will you be willing to sacrifice?"

Inu-Yasha blinked away the sweat that had rolled near his eyes as the heat grew more intense. There was a decision to make, a life-or-death choice, and it would be his wish who he would favor more to save from damnation.

~*~*~*~*~*~*

"Hurry, it's around this bend!" Shiokki's voice called from ahead of Sango and Miroku who sat astride Kirara.

"I'm worried about Kagome and Inu-Yasha," the demon slayer confided back to her fiancée. She kept her gaze forward, yet she longed so badly to just turn to Miroku and be comforted by the serene assurance that almost always lit his eyes.

He nodded. "I am as well. We can only hope that they find a way out of there."

Sango gripped onto the fire-cat's fur in tight fistfuls. "Since the doors to the Chamber of Spirits was destroyed, we can't go back that way to help them."

The monk stayed silent for a moment, watching the woman's backside in front of him, which was rigid with unspoken guilt. The two guardians were faint dots that Kirara seemed to have no trouble tracking, but he couldn't make out the dragon warrior very well due to the way his attire allowed him to meld into the shadows. The warming air whooshed by their faces, making Miroku's robes flap straight behind him. "That is why Shiokki and Jumiyo are going to show us another entrance, while they go and find a way to stop that fireball before it reduced the field to ashes, and the water to vapor."

"I hope Kagome and Inu-Yasha can hang on that long," whimpered Shippo, his tail bristled in worry.

"I'm sure they and Little Inu will find a way out of there," reassured the monk, yet inside, he too was waging war against doubt-the likelihood that his comrades would make it out. The odds weren't very flattering.

"Oh, but they won't," chortled Tsaku's voice.

"What?" Miroku's gaze darted around as Kirara's gait became faster and they drew nearer to the statue-like Shiokki and Jumiyo.

Standing, or rather hovering, at the mouth of the entrance of the cave they were in was the solid Tsaku, sneering down at them. "Pathetic. You have such faith in that worthless mongrel. I wouldn't even waste my spit on that bastard's feet." He hover-stepped towards them, shaking his midnight locks to and fro before holding out his right hand with an arrogant grin. "You should be more concerned about your own fate. There is no place you can escape to."

"What are you going to do, Tsaku?" questioned Shiokki, eyes livid. "You can't manipulate me any more with that smoke trick-with word spells or by any other means."

"That is true; however, Shiokki, that is as long as you do not transform into your dragon state. If you should, I will use you to kill that pretty guardian as well as the monk and the slayer."

Shiokki's eyes glowed blood-red as he set his lover to the side. "You…coward," he spat. "Fine, fight me! But leave the other two out of it. They've no part of what happened so many centuries ago."

"Oh, but they do, my simple-minded dragon," crowed Tsaku. A long beam of light streamed from his right palm, heading in both directions. "They set you free, so, therefore, they too must pay. All of you must." He curled his long, bony fingers around the light as it began to solidify into a wooden handle of some sort. From the ends of it, links of chain shot out; so many, in fact, that they dragged on the cavern floor. "Now," he said quietly before his floating feet disrupting a very fine layer of dirt until he suddenly shot forward, screaming, "DIE!"

Kirara managed to navigate her riders out of harm's way whilst Shiokki did the same. Jumiyo sat in a corner, showing obvious signs of exhaustion, yet her eyes grew wide and shined dazzlingly as she mouthed a prayer to herself.

Shiokki held his hands out to his sides, and they began to pulse fiercely as a red aura surrounded them. Something sliced through the air, making it sing in a metallic tone. There in his hands were his double kodachis, obviously enchanted as they were not rusted. He charged towards Tsaku, creating a giant arc of flame, which bowed towards the fiend when he dodged out of Shiokki's path of attack.

Tsaku's chest gained a deep, flaming gash that threatened to consume the rest of him. Gazing down at the injury, his impassive face suddenly broke out into a smirk.

"What're you smiling about?!" demanded the dragon-warrior. "You're going to die soon, and you're grinning?!"

He chuckled. "Only at the fact of how futile your efforts are." He passed his solitary hand over the flames, and the fire dispersed. "I know your attacks, Shiokki." Lowering his feet to the ground, he took a step towards the boy. "I know how you think, what you'll plan next…. I know everything about you, because you are my slave." Tsaku flinched a little, as if in pain.

"Then, what's wrong all of a sudden?"

Turning his depthless, merciless eyes on Shiokki, paying no mind to Sango and Miroku, he ground out, "Not only is the arrow that strange girl shot at me eating away like poison, the fireball having troubles breaking through the barriers of rock…."

He must be bound to it, Shiokki mentally noted.

"It would seem there is something making it inert." He glanced over at Jumiyo.

The mountain maiden sat with her right hand's ring finger and pinky down with the remaining three digits curved heavenward; her left hand cupped in front of the other palm as her lips continued to mumble unspoken words.

"So…" Tsaku's eyes narrowed in disgust, "you're creating a barrier to contain it…." Scoffing, he watched as she didn't cease her chant. "This is so much like that day, isn't it, Jumiyo? Are you going to try and seal me away?" He began to glide towards her. "I won't let you do that again…. Not when I'm so close."

Shiokki had been studying the situation, not wanting to make a move that would jeopardize his lover's life, yet when he saw the bereavement-promising gleam in Tsaku's onyx eyes; he knew that he had to react then. Leaping forward, Shiokki slashed Tsaku across the chest; using his momentum, he propelled them both away from Jumiyo. "Don't even think of hurting her!"

Sango glanced at back at Miroku. They had kept out of the fight's way, as they had many a-time with Inu-Yasha. Mainly they were waiting for some form of signal on what course of action to take.

Still, the young demon slayer thought that their enemy seemed much weaker than he should have-that it was too easy for the dragon-warrior. Does he have a secret weapon we don't know about? Or is he so tired from all those years in the smoke-stasis? Maybe Kagome's arrow really did affect him so badly…like poison…. Her brown eyes darted helplessly down the path from whence they'd come; where their friends lives hung, literally, in the balance. "Should we help Shiokki?" she queried, fighting the sound urgency that wanted to coat her voice.

Miroku, whose thoughts had been quite similar to Sango's, opened his mouth to answer, when the dragon-boy answered in his stead, forcing Tsaku backwards, "Go down the left tunnel. It will lead you outside." Shiokki kicked his former master in the stomach, only to be slit in the ribs by a barb that grew from Tsaku's remaining forearm; his weapon had been kicked away only moments earlier. The boy only showed his pain for a moment as the blood began to darken his ebony clothes even more. "Once you're outside, get to the flat land toward the summit of Fire Soul. There will be another cave. You must go through it…. From there, you will be inside. Hurry! Your friends need you! Too many things depend on you! Now go!"

"Kirara!" Sango cried, and the demon cat immediately sprang into action, leaping towards the left side of chamber, so close to the tunnel but also so close to the battlers.

"I won't allow you to do that," Tsaku hissed, breaking loose from the tangle of limbs Shiokki had gotten him into. He dove onto his double chains and swung them at the pair astride the fire-cat.

With lightning-quick reflexes, Miroku had stopped the chains from encircling him and his fiancée by allowing them to capture his staff instead. Bounding off Kirara, the monk used the abrupt movement to jounce them from Tsaku's grasp. He caught the weapon around his cursed hand, the other balancing his staff.

Kirara made a U-turn and scooped Miroku onto her backside once more; Sango grasped his upper arm and helped to steady him as they ducked into the left-hand tunnel. With a toss of her white and black head, the cat-demon tossed Shippo onto her mistress's lap. The fox- child immediately adhered to the young woman's coral-colored battle armor.

"We have to hurry, Kirara!" the little boy urged. "Or Kagome, Little Inu, and Inu-Yasha may not be able to hold on much longer…."

~*~*~*~*~

"This doesn't look good…" murmured Kagome shakily. She knew she was stating the obvious, but it was all she could really do to ease her nerves in the slightest. Giving the half-demon's shoulder a squeeze, the girl locked gazes with Inu-Yasha when he chanced a glance at her.

He didn't say anything, yet he understood that she was trying to console him, though it was quite insignificant due to their predicament. Still, the gesture was appreciated. Blinking once, Inu-Yasha allowed his amber orbs to drift back up to the orifice of their hole. For as long as they'd been hanging, he had been trying to think of some form of plan. If he had Kagome and Little Inu on his back, it wouldn't have been such a problem; it was their awkward position that was supremely throwing any ideas of his of escape off-kilter.

The aching reminder in his arm that they were holding on only by his four claws didn't make thinking up a strategy any easier.

Little Inu bit his lip, hugging the girl's waist his arm was around for a time as he glimpsed around the pit, before giving a nod for self-encouragement. "I think I can make it out of here."

"What?" Kagome peered down at the child pressed firmly betwixt her and Inu-Yasha. "Are you sure?"

"Yeah, there's a ledge over there." The boy squinted, judging the distance from where they were to the narrow outcropping of rock that was roughly fifteen feet away. "I can jump to that."

The older hanyou said after a moment of absence of voices, spare the hissing whispers of the fireball so far below them--it still continued to produce substantial heat, "Climb up on my shoulder. You should be able to get enough of a shove-off to make it over there."

"Inu-Yasha!" came Kagome's aghast voice from somewhere around his torso. "You can't seriously be thinking of letting him jump! He could miss and get himself killed!"

"Or he can hang here with us and either drop to his death or roast," he shot in return. "At least this way he has a chance to get out."

She chewed her lip, face showing how against the idea she was.

"Kagome," said Little Inu, "if I can get out, maybe it'll make it easier for Inu-Yasha to get you both out. If I'm not here, then he doesn't have to worry about hanging onto another body."

"I…" she trailed off into a sigh. "I guess we don't have much else of a choice, huh?"

"Not really."

"…Ok…."

Little Inu moved his hand up to the handkerchief loop on Kagome's blouse and used it to pull himself up. From there, he maneuvered his body so his waist was level with her chin. He continued to wriggle up carefully until he finally was seated on Inu-Yasha's shoulder. Moving even more cautiously, the young half-demon managed to stand up. He gauged his distance before pushing off, leaping widely to the thin jut of rock. His feet struck it, and Little Inu hurriedly gained his balance in addition to hand holds.

Scrambling a bit as he bounded from ridge to ridge, he heard Inu-Yasha shout after him, "When you get up there, find Miroku and Sango."

Little Inu hollered back, "I'll see if they can get us out of here."

After several more leaps, the dog-child found himself on the scorched, battered ground of the Chamber of Spirits. He glanced around, hoping that there was some form of seeable exit. Alas, Little Inu's search turned up with nothing. "Shit…" he said upon seeing the extensive damage to the chamber's main doors. It was mainly a pile of rubble sitting in the large entrance way.

He paced around in the abused patches of Hakushinmu herbs, ripping up a few more by the roots and putting them in his chest compartment as well. His head throbbed as he tried to think of a further plan. So far, that too was in twain. "Damn it!" he cried, slamming his small fist into vine-covered wall.

The feeling of hot tears, and the stinging sensation they bequeathed for being unspent, beset his bright eyes. It reminded him so much of the first time he'd encountered the group, twelve years back from his time. Did I fail…? Little Inu wondered to himself as he stared at the place where his knuckles continued to press. Have I failed twice? He'd heard so many times how his folks had met and about their journey; a great journey, full of adventure and danger and devious foes like his father's was his deepest wish.

Had he cause more trouble for them, irreversible trouble, by coming here and trying to intercept fate?

Little Inu sniffled slightly, burying his nose into the blooms of Hakushinmu on the wall-crawling vines. Breathing deeply and heavily, the child sought to remember the calming techniques he had been taught. The sweet fragrance of the blossoms clouded his mind in tandem making it clearer than it had been. The fresh scent of snow also helped to make him more serene.

Wait a minute…. Little Inu sniffed again; raising his countenance from it had been, and instead gazing heavenwards. Yes, that was snow he smelled. And if he smelled snow that meant he had a way out. "It's up there somewhere," he murmured, walking along the wall, trying to hone in on the exact source of the aroma.

A bit passed the halfway mark, it became the most intense. Little Inu wasn't sure how far up it was, but he knew the ceiling was a good twenty to thirty feet up. Grasping onto the hallowed vines, the boy started to scale upwards with a determined heart.

~*~*~*~*~*

"Why the boy?!" Shiokki harshly asked, making another slash at Tsaku.

It impacted, and the bloody nemesis collided against the wall with a sickening thump, his impending doom becoming evermore evident with each passing instant. "He is…" he coughed, blood falling thickly to the floor, "he is trouble, for us…. He will do things in this world…he is the heir of his father's legacy…."

The dragon-boy threw a kodachi to the side. "That's all?" Flying over, Shiokki seized his former master by the neck, squeezing tightly.

Tsaku's pale lips curled once more into that familiar, sickening smile. "Yes…. Kill me, Shiokki. I know that is what you wish. Know this: my spirit will pass into the fireball and I will destroy Fire Soul." With that, his body went limp and began to fade into dust and smoke. The reddish smoke swirled for a moment before diving through the layers of rock, no doubt heading for the fireball. "Their efforts are futile," it hissed. "All of you will still die."

The dragon-warrior peered over at Jumiyo. Dropping his remaining blade, he walked to her. "What do we do?"

"We will protect this place, Shiokki," her voice said, speaking directly into his mind, her lips still saying the unvoiced words of the barrier-chant. "Let us hope that those others will be able to escape before all of my energy is spent."

Nodding silently, he crouched down and enclosed her in his arms, adding his energy to hers. Together…

~*~*~*~*~*

A/N: Sorry! It's been very hectic. My pc was down for a while, and I currently don't have internet access, so I have to post at school, but my school pc doesn't like MM.org, so that's a bit of a problem. In any case, we're getting pretty close to the end. I'm not even going to guess how far away any more.

Little Inu: Shippo and I wanted to say-

Shippo: That Moonlight Shadow didn't turn us against each other. She likes us both.

Little Inu & Shippo: *big kiddy grins*

Little Inu: But I do resent being told my attitude sucks.

Shippo: That's mean!

Ja ne,

~Moonlight Shadow

e-mail: hanyou_miko_dreamer@hotmail.com