Continuing Tales

The Wind and the Mountain

A InuYasha Story
by Mearasama

Part 15 of 60

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Still

War is a series of catastrophes which result in victory.
~ Albert Pike


Naraku's mind reeled from the unexpected attack. He stared in disbelief at the small woman before him, her body enveloped in a pink glow as her miko powers surged and swirled around her. But it was the look in Kagome's eyes that gave him pause. No longer did he see the fear and grief that she displayed over the past few weeks. Gone was the waif-like girl from before, and in her place stood a fearless woman with resolute determination and a wealth of strength that was suddenly focused directly on him. Naraku blinked in disbelief as a vision of Kikyo flickered in and out of his mind.

Kagome stood a few dozen feet away breathing heavily. She watched with interest as Naraku's emotions went from stunned disbelief to white hot anger. Thus far her attacks had been powerful but restrained due to Katsuro's practiced control with her abilities. It was apparent to all who could sense spiritual pressure that this latest attack was different. The control she had over herself was tenuous at best, making any coming confrontations reckless and chaotic.

'Ok girl, just keep it up and maybe get yourself out of this mess,' she thought with no small amount of satisfaction.

Naraku's mind was buzzing with questions. One in particular kept asserting itself. 'How is she able to use her powers while wearing the crown?' He glanced in the direction of Katsuro and saw the youkai cornered between Sesshomaru and the young taiji-ya.

'Damn,' Naraku thought darkly as he looked down at the hole in his chest. 'That bastard is worthless.' He considered the miko standing before him so defiantly. Their gaze held a moment before she too looked over at Katsuro. Due to the binding spell, she could sense that he was in danger since she could feel his emotions spiking high enough to spill over the barriers he had set between her mind and his.

Within the blink of an eye, Sesshomaru leaped directly over Sango and landed with his sword against Katsuro's throat, the chain looped innocently around the blade.

'No one but Sesshomaru could ever move that fast,' Kagome thought in awe before she felt Naraku's youki spike violently.

'How dare she attack me and then turn her attention away as if I am no threat!' he thought as rage overtook his mind.

He struck out with several tentacles, intent on killing her right where she stood. He watched in delight as her gaze was brought back around and the fire in her eyes died out, leaving behind only icy fear.


Sesshomaru's deep voice was low as he murmured the last words that Katsuro would ever hear.

"This is Tokijin, forged from the fang of Goshinki."

Katsuro's eyes widened as sudden realization hit with the force of a hurricane. Sesshomaru allowed a rare smile to cross his face a moment before he fell back into his customary placid expression.

"Noooo!" Katsuro's hissing voice wailed as a crunching sound was quickly followed by a loud snap.

The chain slid from his neck to rest against the hilt of Tokijin.

Everyone in the garden felt Kagome's spiritual aura increase exponentially within seconds of the chain being severed. Sesshomaru gritted his teeth as her powers rose up to spark against his own dominant aura.

Katsuro looked over Sesshomaru's shoulder to see Kagome being attacked by Naraku. His eyes never left her as Sesshomaru sank his claws into the lizard youkai's neck and released a substantial amount of poison. The effect was immediate as the poison began dissolving the lizard youkai's neck and throat from the inside out.

He collapsed to his knees, one hand still gripping Sesshomaru's long sleeve. Thoughts of Kagome and the lost triumph he had hoped to achieve were all that consumed his mind as he slipped into the blackness of death.


Sesshomaru watched with interest as the youkai named Katsuro chose to die looking at the miko. The lizard youkai sank to his knees and then fell to the ground, his upper body barely distinguishable as Sesshomaru's poison continued to work even after death.

Turning, he pulled out a small red silk pouch given to him by Hoshi. He slipped the black stone and broken chain into the pouch and tied it to his obie next to Tensaiga. His mind drifted back over what Hoshi had told him before leaving the House of the Moon.

'Take this and place the necklace inside. It will control the black stone's energy so that they can't interfere with each other. Until the spell can be released properly, nothing can happen to either stone, nor can you remove the Crown from the Miko's head.

Sesshomaru said nothing as he took the soft silk bag.

Hoshi sighed as if defeated, the strain of worry and regret fully evident for the first time since Rin had been poisoned.

'Just bring her here safely and I'll deal with the rest.' Hoshi looked down and murmured more to herself than to Sesshomaru. 'How many more times will I have to fix one of her messes?'

With that, the dark sorceress turned and walked back into the castle, leaving the young lord to stand in the gloomy darkness of predawn pondering her curious statement. The empty courtyard spread out before him in the murky morning light. He resisted the urge to look at the glittering sky that seemed to have so much to say about his present situation.

Sesshomaru left the House of the Moon and departed the Western Lands in search of the last thing he wanted.

Another human.

Sesshomaru blinked away the memory and refocused on the commotion in front of him just in time to see Naraku wrap a tentacle around Kagome's neck.


Kagome felt the moment the binding spell released. The powers of the stone rushed up and over her, overwhelming her senses. Until that moment, she had no idea just how much Katsuro had been holding back from her. Spirit energy began erratically flowing out of her, creating a tempest that affected everything and everyone in the garden. The air crackled around her like she was a tiny thunderstorm pulsing with electricity. She felt as though she were being ripped apart as the power of a hundred mikos cascaded and tumbled throughout her body and soul.

'Kikyo! Help me. How do I control this?' Kagome thought frantically as her knees began to buckle under the pressure. Faintness took over as the older Miko fought her way to the surface.

'Kagome! Focus. Breathe. Think about your powers coming from your core. I'll hold back as much as I can, but you have to focus and kill Naraku…NOW!'

Kikyo's voice sounded as if it were coming from a wind tunnel, the sound roaring with a deafening thunder. She felt the pressure in her body lessen slightly, then more and more until it felt almost as it had before. Things were different all of the sudden. The enormous spirit power stretched every fiber in her body until she felt like she would break. It seemed as if her flesh was woven out of thread, and if just one string snagged she would completely unravel.

As her senses came back from the brink, she realized that InuYasha and Miroku were engaged in protecting her from Naraku's deadly tentacles.

"Oh no you don't!" InuYasha yelled as a rotting tentacle tried to drive itself through Kagome's chest. InuYasha hacked and chopped away at anything that came near her all the while dealing with the uncomfortable spiritual energy that was erratically rolling off Kagome.

He was worried about her, knowing that something was wrong but unable to help while Naraku was attacking. She was on her knees, hands flat on the ground. Thick black hair cascaded over her shoulders, shielding her tightly closed eyes. The grimace on her face spoke of the intense pain she was feeling.

InuYasha wasn't sure what was happening to Kagome, but he did know that if he killed Naraku, it would stop. It had to.

One tentacle sped past him and just before it reached Kagome, Miroku jumped forward to block it with his staff. Several sutras followed and cleared the area directly around Kagome's prone form. The two continued fighting side by side, neither observing the lone tentacle that crept along the ground, hiding among the severed limbs and broken debris. A heartbeat later Naraku had Kagome around the neck, quickly cutting off the air from her lungs as he lifted her more than ten feet into the air.

"Kagome!" InuYasha yelled as he disentangled himself from several of Naraku's tentacles and jumped into the air, sword raised high above his head. He was just about to reach her when two appendages the size of tree trunks drove into his side and slammed his body to the ground at Naraku's feet.

Kagome's vision began to darken around the edges as she clawed frantically at the limb squeezing her neck. A flash of white blinked in and out of view a moment before the pressure around her neck released and she was tumbling to the ground.

Sesshomaru twisted in the air, but before he was able to grab her, Naraku released hundreds of demons to flood the garden, effectively distracting him. In between thrusts he looked down and saw that she was slowly crawling to her feet. He turned to the demons surrounding him and Tokijin flared to life. 'This is becoming rather boring,' Sesshomaru thought as he spun his poison whip in a large circle, taking out more than twenty demons. Sesshomaru looked around and sighed, 'Boring indeed.'

Meanwhile, Kagome was gasping for air and spitting out grass and leaves. The fall had knocked the air out of her but left her otherwise uninjured. Pulling herself up to her knees, she looked around to discover that the garden was swarming with demons. They were mostly attacking her friends but a few seemed to have finally noticed her. She braced herself for their attack when through the milling demons and blowing debris she caught sight of the one thing that had haunted her dreams for more than 4 years.

InuYasha was lying at Naraku's feet, Tessaiga buried in the ground a few feet away. Naraku held his sword aloft, the tip pointed directly at InuYasha's heart. The look on the hanyou's face was full of anticipation and delight. As his arm began to descend, Kagome's own body seemed to react without thought. Before Naraku's sword had descended even a few inches, Kagome had regained her feet and was running full speed at the pair.

Kagome couldn't take her eyes off the tip of the sword as her body once again began to glow with a pale pink light, creating a barrier that purified all demons she came into contact with. Pushing her exhausted body to run as fast as she could, it was with heartbreak and panic that she realized no matter how quickly she moved, it would never be enough.

'I'm not going to make it,' she thought desperately as a similar emotion flared from Kikyo.

The tip of his sword was almost there. In a moment InuYasha was going to die if she didn't do something.

'I need an arrow!' she thought desperately.

'No you don't, Kagome.' A voice softly spoke to her from deep in her mind. But this time it wasn't Kikyo's voice. Kagome had no time to wonder as Naraku's blade closed in on InuYasha's chest.

"Nooooo!" she wailed sliding to a stop, arms lifting in front of her and toward Naraku.

Flaring brilliantly, white light erupted a moment before turning pink. She brought her other hand up to brace against the power coursing through her. The force of this blast was unlike all that came before, pushing against her even as her attack advanced. Her feet skidded along the ground while she struggled to remain upright as her hand burned with holy power.

The blast vaguely took the shape of an arrow just before impact. Naraku's attention was pulled away from InuYasha a moment before Kagome's holy powers rushed up to consume him. The hanyou's body ripped apart and scattered across the now barren garden while his sword was sent spinning away harmlessly to land along the wall of the garden next to the castle.

Kagome staggered a moment on wobbly legs before she sank to her knees. Her eyes remained on InuYasha's still form until he finally stirred and slowly sat up. An instant later, Kagome toppled over to lie in the thick circle of grass left behind by the healing powers of her own spiritual barrier. The rest of the garden looked like a barren wasteland except for the mighty tree in the center, which somehow survived.

Sesshomaru landed a few feet from Kagome but remained at a distance as InuYasha, Shippo, and Kirara converged to check on their friend. Their frantic and worried voices calling out as they fretted over her unconscious form.

Sesshomaru looked to the side and saw the monk and Taiji-ya crouching down to look at something on the ground. He quickly dismissed them and looked back at the Miko.

'Can they not feel she is only sleeping?' he thought blandly. He wiped Tokijin clean and slid it back into place next to Tensaiga.

'I will never understand these simple beings.'


After Katsuro was killed, Sango had worked her way back toward Kagome, trying to assist InuYasha and Miroku beat back the tentacles that were attacking her. She had watched in wonder as her gentle friend sent a spiritual blast at Naraku that would have made the strongest miko shudder in awe. The force was so great that it tore his body apart in a matter of seconds, sending debris and flesh to all corners of the garden. One such piece of his armor had landed at Sango's feet with a sickly thud. She almost kicked it away but something caught her eye. Crouching down, she started to brush away bits of flesh and leather to reveal a softly glowing object.

"Miroku? Is this what I think it is?" Sango asked incredulously.

Miroku hunched down next to her and placed a hand on her bottom, his tone sweetly crooning. "Why yes Sango, I do believe it is".

SMACK!

"Not right now you perve, this is important!" Sango replied through clenched teeth.

"So what you are saying is that we can continue this later?" He was already reaching a hand forward.

SMACK!

Two perfect handprints marked each cheek as he looked down to the small object in Sango's hand. His eyes widened as he realized just what he was looking at.

"Why yes Sango, I do believe that is exactly what you think it is."

The Wind and the Mountain

A InuYasha Story
by Mearasama

Part 15 of 60

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