InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ The Presence of Autumn ❯ The Hanyous Battle ( Chapter 5 )

Disclaimer: Inuyasha? *checks for Feds* Yeah, I own that. *crosses fingers behind back*

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Yay! I got a review! I'm so happy! *does the happy dance* See how happy I am? Many thanks to Twilight Myst for being my first reviewer. You rock!

Okay, now that I'm done being a buffoon (for now), on with the chapter!

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Chapter 5: The Hanyous Battle

Inuyasha decided that enough was enough. He leapt from the foliage and swept Tetsusaiga from its sheath. It flashed into full form and he leapt into the air to rain Hell down upon his foe. Before he slashed into the baboon pelt, Naraku turned and shouted at the female, "Run! Return to my fortress! Don't let them catch you at any cost, kill them all if you have to!"

The collar around her neck flashed that poisonous purple-black again and she was on her feet and running like the wind.

The Tetsusaiga ripped the baboon pelt into oblivion but Inuyasha didn't even give it a second thought. He called to Kagome and the others. "We have to catch her! Check Naraku's puppet quickly then follow me. Shippou, with me!"

"Right!" The little kitsune shouted as he latched on to the back of Inuyasha's haori. Inuyasha took off after the female. The flight was very difficult; she was exceedingly fast, and Inuyasha was almost positive that she should be outrunning him.

"Shippou, use your powers to slow her down!" Inuyasha told the fox-kit. "Illusions, Fox Fire, I don't care what, just do something!"

"I have to be able to see her!" Shippou said. He clambered up to Inuyasha's shoulder where he held on tight, straining his eyes to catch a glimpse of the female. They could both hear her crashing through the undergrowth ahead of them. She was hard to spot because the colors of her clothing made her blend into the forest so well. Ahead, Inuyasha caught a glimpse of her as she crashed headfirst into a tree, slamming her shoulder against it hard. He caught her grunt of pain as Shippou spotted her and threw one of his magic leaves. The leaf zipped through the air and stuck to a tree ahead of her and suddenly the tree seemed to swell so that it was many feet wide.

She skidded to a halt and scrambled to change directions and go around. Her hesitation cost her precious ground.

Shippou freed one of his hands and called out, "Fox Fire!"

A ball of blue and green flames leapt from his tiny outstretched hand and streaked through the air, exploding around her in a hemisphere of undulating light. She hit the wall of the hemisphere and was thrown back in a jolt of electricity. She fell to the ground writhing and it was enough time for Inuyasha to catch up entirely.

He hit the ground next to the dome of blue and green light and drew Tetsusaiga again, just incase he needed it. The female was trying to rise to her feet again, but her legs didn't seem to be capable of supporting her weight; they trembled and gave and deposited her on the forest floor again. Her breathing was almost a pant, ragged and too fast, and she was an absolute mess. There were blood and dirt stains all over her clothes, her hair and tail were matted and filthy and her body was far too thin.

Even in her disheveled, filthy state the air around her was laced with her heady intoxicating scent, though it was tainted with blood and fear and exhaustion. Inuyasha did his best to ignore it and when he spoke his voice was unnecessarily rough, rougher than he had intended it to be, anyway.

"Who are you and what is your business with Naraku?"

Inuyasha had heard many responses to his questions in his life. People had screamed at him in fear, in rage, in hatred, people had shot arrows at him or attacked him with swords, people had even laughed at him. They'd laughed coldly, cruelly, mockingly, even light-heartedly. But he had never heard someone laugh the way this female did now; her laugh was half-way between a sigh and a sob and completely devoid of any hope. Her shoulders shook violently, not from her laughter, but from her muscles trembling with fatigue. She shook her head in defeat and lifted it barely enough to make eye contact with him through the shield of Fox Fire. The one eye that locked on his was hypnotically green and glazed over with fear and desperation and self-loathing. Inuyasha perceived one thing about her in that instant; she fully expected to die soon, and to be followed by anyone and everyone who knew her.

Despite himself, Inuyasha felt pity for her form in his gut. He sheathed Tetsusaiga and sank to his knees on the ground next to the shield. Shippou released his jacket and hopped to the ground next to him. He looked at her and he looked at Inuyasha and he hoped that everything would be okay.

The confusion on her face was almost a relief by comparison to her earlier one of desolate surrender. She didn't understand why he wasn't preparing to kill her.

Inuyasha took a deep breath, ignoring her scent and calming his racing heart. "Tell me your name."

Once she had calmed down a bit more she swallowed once and spoke. "I am Akiko." She breathed for a few more moments and pushed her self upright a little bit more with perilously trembling arms, locking him with both of her eyes, brilliant emerald in the mask of grime and blood that obscured the rest of her face.

"What were you doing with Naraku?"

She gave that pathetic laugh of no hope. It was bitter and dry and empty. "I am his prisoner." She whispered.

"You seem pretty free to me." Inuyasha commented.

Her laugh this time was a startlingly loud bark. She bared her fangs in a grimace that appeared startlingly white and clean in her otherwise filthy face. "Ha! I am as much his prisoner in the open world as I would be chained to a wall in his dungeon." Her shoulders slumped and her elbows quivered ominously, she had to lock them to keep herself from collapsing face first in the dirt. When she spoke again her voice had returned to its former disconsolate whisper. "He has my mother, brother and sister. I have to obey his wishes for them to live. He… compels me with this foul collar."

Impulsively Shippou took a few steps closer to the edge of his field. "I'm sorry." He said. His bushy little tail drooped.

Akiko smiled at him sadly.

The others joined them then. Sango, Miroku, and Kagome were riding on the back of Kirara as she descended through the trees to alight in a flash of gold and orange flame. Her riders slid from her back and she shrank back to her tiny travel size, leaping into Sango's arms. Kagome cautiously approached and joined Inuyasha and Shippou at the edge of the blue-green dome.

Akiko surveyed them all with desperate eyes. "Let me go. Please." She pleaded. "I have to go to him."

Inuyasha closed his eyes and shook his head slightly. "We can't do that."

Her head dropped in defeat.

A moment later her head lifted again and Inuyasha could immediately tell that something wasn't right. The exhaustion appeared to be gone from her body entirely. She was tensed and ready to spring like a coil wound too tight. And her eyes… Her eyes were glowing that unwholesome shade of purpley-black. When she spoke her voice wasn't hers.

"Inuyasha." She hissed, baring her fangs and smirking. "You should release me. I can cause you more pain then you could ever begin to even conceive of. I have somewhere to be."

Recognizing the foul voice Inuyasha shook his head firmly. "I don't think so, Naraku. She won't be going anywhere. I won't let you keep her prisoner."

She hissed and spat her words. "I'll rape and murder her mother! I'll eviscerate her siblings! I'll massacre her village, down to the last weeping child. Release her or they all die."

"I won't let you get the jewel shards she has, and she has a lot of them." Inuyasha said.

She hunched her shoulders and prepared to spring. "Then know that you have killed them."

There was the impact of thunder in the air but without sound. The Fox Fire dome blew apart like a sheet of wet paper and she leapt straight at him, eyes flashing purpley-black, claws extended and teeth snapping. He rolled with the impact, pulling her with him to the ground and they brawled that way for a few moments, she snarling and punching hard, he trying to avoid her claws and teeth and hold her without hurting her too badly at the same time. The thing that got him in the end though was the tail he'd forgotten she had. She got it between them and cracked it like a whip against his middle, flinging him through the air and causing him to crash into a tree.

Struggling to his feet he saw Miroku about to unleash his Kazaana. Sango was holding Akiko off with the broad edge of the Hiraikotsu and Kagome was drawing one of her arrows.

"Don't hurt her!" He yelled.

Startled, Miroku and Kagome turned to look at him.

"She's a victim!" He said as he leapt back into the fight. As Akiko attacked Sango relentlessly Inuyasha dove into the fray once more, slamming into the snarling hanyou and carrying her to the ground. She ended up on the top this time and pulled back her fist to slam into his head, snarling like a rabid mongrel.

Just before she made that move Kagome fired one of her holy arrows. It sheared through the air and struck the black collar studded with pink gemstones that encircled her neck; pieces of the Shikon no Tama. The collar erupted in crackling pink energy that consumed both its wearer and the other hanyou she was sitting on. They both screamed in agony, the power of the tainted shards searing their every fiber until, quite abruptly, Akiko went limp as a marionette with no strings and collapsed on top of Inuyasha as a dead weight.

The collar smoked from the release of energy, rising from her neck in acrid wisps. Feeling like he'd been roasted alive, Inuyasha sat up and checked the body of the girl who had collapsed on him for a pulse. At first he couldn't find one, so he put his ear to her chest; it was there, but it was as faint as the beating of a butterfly's wings. He gently pushed her off of him and sat up the rest of the way as the others came over to join him.

"Inuyasha, are you alright?" Kagome demanded as she dropped to her knees beside him. Tears were standing in her eyes and she smelled of fear and sorrow. "I didn't know that would happen, I swear. You're okay, right?"

"I'm fine." Inuyasha informed her hoarsely. He struggled to his feet and inspected his person, fully expecting to be lightly blackened around the edges and smoking. As he moved, tendrils of smoke rose from his body. "Man, that sucked."

"Why did you prevent us from harming her?" Sango asked, latching her Hiraikotsu onto her back once more.

"It wasn't her that was fighting us." He explained. "Naraku was using her like one of his puppets. He possessed her and acted through her."

On the ground, Kagome shuddered. "Poor girl. And he did it using that collar."

"Yeah." Inuyasha nodded as he stooped to gather the jewel shards.

"She's in rough shape." Kagome said, pity in her voice. Determination came into her expression then. "Kirara, transform please. Inuyasha, help me put her on Kirara's back."

"What?! Why?" Inuyasha demanded.

Kagome frowned at him. "We're the ones who beat her up and it wasn't even her fault. The least we can do is tend to her injuries and get her cleaned up, put a decent meal in her. She looks like she hasn't eaten in weeks. Now, help me!"

"Feh!" Inuyasha huffed and turned on his heel, fully intending to walk away.

"Inuyasha, if you don't help me I swear I'll `S' you until you reach America!" Her voice was quiet, but the threat was very real.

He stopped and turned to face her again, reading the truth in her eyes before sighing and coming back over to her. He squatted down and lifted Akiko, holding her to his chest like a slumbering child. She was pale as snow under all the dirt and blood and he found himself hoping ferverently that she would live. She weighed very little and he supposed it truly had been a long time since she last ate. But instead of placing her on Kirara's back where there would be nothing to hold her on and running the risk that she would fall off and receive further injury, he decided to carry her himself. They could travel faster that way; Kirara carrying the humans, and he carrying Akiko.

"C'mon, let's go." He said. Again, his voice was rough. His throat felt slightly constricted, and he felt almost a little dizzy; her unbelievably delicious scent clogged his mind.

Looking askance at him, Miroku climbed up on Kirara before giving Sango a hand to sit in front of him. Kagome came over as well, a small frown marring her face as she looked at him. She climbed on behind Miroku and caught Shippou when he jumped into her arms. They took off, moving quickly, and left the forest.

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(A/N) So, what's up with Inuyasha? And why the bejabbers does Akiko smell so bloody great? I like the weirdness of how important scents would be to demons, which is why I'm making it so annoyingly prominent in the story. I have an idea about why that should be affecting Inuyasha so much, but I'd love to hear your ideas, too. … That's a hint that says `Review and tell me what you think!'." Thank you all! Ja ne!