A great combination of InuYasha and Buffy the Vampire Slayer,
the two demonic shows we thought couldn't mix. (Tim Seltzer, seltzer@seltzerbooks.com) Disclaimer: Don't own the shows, don't plan on trying to,
none use this fic without permission.
Author's Notes: This is an edited and
corrected version of the story originally posted to
Fanfiction.net January - March, 2004. The content is still
essentially the same as the first version, but I fixed some
consistency glitches, typos, and Japanese usage errors.
This story takes place after the second
Inuyasha film, "Castle Beyond the Looking Glass," (after Episode
74 in the series), and after the Buffy series finale. Contains
spoilers for events that happen in all seasons of Buffy, through
the beginning of the final season of Angel, Inuyasha episodes
1-74, and the second Inuyasha film.
Naraku's castle, late 16th-century Japan
"Are you sure it's okay to leave Kouga-kun to
fight that...woman...by himself?" Kagome threw an anxious glance
over her shoulder as she followed Inuyasha to the nearest
building.
He grunted. "Eh, worry about yourself, Kagome.
Kouga's youkai. They're hard to kill--even if Kagura does kick
his wimpy ass."
Inuyasha's tone sounded like he was actually
hoping that might happen.
He inserted his bare toes into the slit
between the nearest doors, and slid them open with a violent
kick. The screech of warped wood moving along the track sounded
like a scream, and Kagome flinched.
Inuyasha noticed, and gave her a disgusted
look. But he said only: "Sense anything?"
Kagome gripped her bow more tightly. Taking a
deep breath, she listened for traces of the Shikon-no-Tama. It
wasn't exactly listening, since her ears weren't involved, but
that was how she thought of her sensitivity to the jewel's
presence.
Sure enough, she felt the familiar crawling
sensation, like beetles moving over the surface of her mind.
"It's strong," she told Inuyasha. "Like there
are a lot of shards somewhere ahead...or maybe just one big
shard."
Like the one Kikyou stole from me, she
thought, but did not say out loud.
Kagome still couldn't understand why the
undead priestess had given it to Naraku--those shards of the
shattered jewel had taken months to collect, and at frequent
risk to all of their lives. Losing them--ironically enough, to
the jewel's former guardian--had been a serious blow to Kagome's
hopes.
In more ways than one.
Kagome still didn't know if she hated or
pitied the pathetic remnant of the woman who had been her former
incarnation. She certainly wished for everyone's
sake--especially, Inuyasha's--that Kikyou had not been
resurrected. Wandering the earth in a body made of bones and
earth from her grave, forced to devour the souls of dead girls,
animated only by her hatred and a small portion of the soul she
shared with Kagome...Kikyou had truly suffered a fate worse than
death.
You may have laid claim Inuyasha's life for
your own, thought Kagome. But I will make him happy,
if I can. Because he is my friend...and because I love him.
As if sensing her train of thought, Inuyasha's
ears twitched. "Well, what are you waiting for?"
"Nothing."
Trying to distract herself from her thoughts
of Kikyou, Kagome looked back at the courtyard. She saw
Kouga-kun jump nimbly out of the way of Kagura's blows, and
noticed that his legs were bleeding. Her own arm twinged in
sympathy.
It wasn't a deep cut, but it stung, and her
sleeve was pasted to her skin with her stiffening blood. I'll
never get that stain out, she thought. Mama will have
to buy a new blouse. Again.
Kagura was definitely moving more slowly now,
and her formerly cool demeanor had been replaced by something
more frantic. She was fighting for her life, and she seemed to
know it.
Inuyasha's ears twitched again. His profile
looked irritated. Kagome tore her eyes from the fight, and
hastily followed him inside.
A couple of steps into the dim corridor, and
she bumped into him. He had come to a halt, and was sniffing the
air suspiciously.
She stayed close behind him, using his robes
as a shield. "What is it?" she whispered.
"Miasma--don't breathe too deeply."
"Mmm," she managed, taking the shallowest
possible breath. Now what?
It was youkai miasma...did that mean could she
purify it?
It's worth a try. She reached back to her
quiver, and nocked an arrow to her bow. She moved around
Inuyasha, drew, aimed down the corridor, and called on her
power.
The arrow blazed brightly as it sped through
the dimness, and she saw the thick, dark clouds of poisonous gas
ignite briefly and dissipate.
Inuyasha looked sideways at her, and gave her
a half-smile. It was the closest he ever came to praising her.
"Which direction?"
Kagome concentrated again. "It's--it's hard to
say. I feel shards all around, but the strongest feeling is
coming from over there." She pointed down the corridor.
He strode forward, holding the transformed
Tetsusaiga at the ready. In the shadow of the huge, crescent
blade, Kagome drew another arrow from her quiver, and placed
against her bowstring. Her heart was pounding, as it always did
just before a fight.
As she trotted along in Inuyasha's wake, she
noticed that the chambers and corridors were littered with
skeletal and, worse yet, partially-decayed human remains. They
were all men, their skulls still wearing helmets, pieces of
armor and discarded weapons strewn around their bodies. Most of
the corpses had been dismembered, and many looked...gnawed upon.
Kagome swallowed, hard, trying to keep from
throwing up. It wasn't just the sight of death. In her travels
with Inuyasha, she had seen a lot of horrible
things--battlefields, plundered villages, and all sorts of
monsters. But the smell in this place was indescribable, like
the worst kind of outhouse mingled with rotting meat.
She came to a halt, cold sweat prickling her
face, hands, and underarms. Dizzy, her hand clamped over her
mouth, she stared at the floor in front of her.
There was something really disturbing about
seeing just a single human arm, still partly clothed and
clutching a katana...with large, ragged bites taken out of it.
She lost her battle with her nausea. Turning
to the wall--which was, mercifully, corpse-free--she retched and
brought up the contents of her stomach. When she finally
finished heaving, her throat was burning, and tears were running
down her face.
Kagome took deep, sobbing breaths, trying to
get herself under control again. She was deep in enemy
territory--she couldn't afford to fall apart now. Gradually, she
became aware that Inuyasha was patting her shoulder.
"I'm sorry," she whispered, trying to wipe at
her eyes. She desperately wanted to rinse her mouth out with
water, but all of their supplies were back at the edge of the
forest with the bicycles.
She was glad she had sent Shippou to guard
their gear--she had been scared to death for him after the
near-miss with Kagura. At least he had something to do that
would allow him to save face while keeping him away from danger.
"Keh." Inuyasha looked away, but he slipped
his arm around her shoulders and gave her a brief, one-armed
hug. "You ready to go on?"
Kagome nodded, and started walking again. This
time, she tried breathing through her mouth, hoping to filter
out most of the stink.
They passed more bodies. "Do you think an army
attacked this castle? That they were trying to defeat Naraku?"
she asked.
Inuyasha shook his head. "Those guys all died
at different times," he muttered. "Naraku--or that bitch
Kagura--probably lured them here in small groups as food for the
youkai."
"Youkai eat...people? All youkai?" Kagome felt
like throwing up again. Even Kouga?
Inuyasha grimaced. "Eh, well, it's not exactly
cannibalism, you know. And humans are weak. Easy prey."
A shadow crossed his face, and Kagome longed
to ask him what he was remembering. But she kept silent,
uncertain whether she wanted to spare his feelings...or hers.
He caught her questioning look, anyway, and
her face grew hot.
"I never did," he said, roughly, answering her
unasked question. His gaze was fixed on the corridor ahead, and
his mouth was pulled into a grim line. "I stole food from
humans, and I robbed a few, but I never got...hungry enough."
"Oh." Not for the first time, Kagome wondered
what his life had been like after his mother died. It was not
something he had ever discussed directly with her-- she had
gleaned hints from other hanyou, but he had never offered
details. She reached up, and laid a hand on his shoulder.
He kept walking, and she kept pace with him.
After a few more paces, a new awareness registered in her mind.
"Up ahead. It's moving."
He stopped.
"Which side?" There were doors to the right
and left of them. Kagome concentrated.
"Left." She pointed.
This time, Inuyasha didn't bother to slide
open the door. He simply destroyed it with a single blow from
Tetsusaiga, and stormed into the chamber.
Cautiously, Kagome followed him in.
It was dim, but she caught a glimpse of the
white baboon-skin cloak favored by Naraku's puppets. A blur of
something dark and thick, then Inuyasha went hurtling backwards
in a flash of silver hair, taking what remained of the door with
him as he flew into the corridor and smashed into the opposite
wall.
"Inuyasha!" Kagome raised her bow, but it was
too late. She didn't see the huge, oily tentacle until it had
already whipped itself around her waist.
She felt herself swept up into the air. She
had time for one startled shriek before something hard smashed
into her back.
She lost the next few moments.
Her next awareness was that she was still
being held captive by the tentacle. And that her back and chest
hurt. A lot.
Kagome took a deep breath--or tried to--and
heard herself moan. She had a salty, coppery taste in her mouth,
and her vision was blurry.
Am I dying? Nothing else could possibly
hurt this much.
Mama, I'm sorry.
But she was still clutching her bow, and the
arrow she had nocked. And she could still feel the precious vial
of Shikon shards around her neck.
"Kagome!" She heard Inuyasha's anguished howl
an instant before she saw Tetsusaiga's flame-wreathed blade
flash in the gloom ahead of her.
"Inu...yasha," she whispered.
Or tried to. It really hurt too much to do
anything but take the shallowest breaths, and the appendage
squeezing her waist felt like it was going to crush her in
another minute.
She wriggled her fingers, moving the arrow out
of the way, and let the bow drop. Then, clutching the shaft of
the arrow, she closed her eyes, and tried to call on her power.
It was difficult--the radiating pain in her
chest and side raised a barrier to the cool fire. But she had to
reach it.
Please, she prayed, though to what she
didn't know. Please--I need to reach you!
The fire responded, sluggishly at first. Then
it poured into her, dissipating the pain just like it had
dissipated the miasma earlier.
With a yell, Kagome raised her arrow, and
stabbed it into the dark, shining skin of the thing wrapped
around her waist.
A bright flare, the stink of burning flesh,
and then, a shriek. She fell, but only for a moment.
Then, abruptly, another tentacle caught her,
this time squarely around her ribs.
The agony this time tore a scream from
Kagome's throat. Her grasp on her power slackened, driven back
by the bright-speckled pain clouding her head.
Now she saw Inuyasha.
He was on the far side of the room from her,
hacking away at the creature's tentacles in an enraged frenzy,
yelling obscenities all the while. And the youkai that held her
hostage was laughing.
It was enormous, reeking of the power bestowed
by a tainted shard of the Shikon-no-Tama, and as quickly as it
lost limbs, they regenerated.
Kagome marshaled the remaining feeble trickle
of her power, and stabbed the creature again with her arrow.
This time, it allowed her to fall all the way
to the cold, hard, stone floor before it took her captive again.
Kagome was bleeding.
Shit.
Inuyasha could smell her injury--and the
metallic scent of her pain--even over the foul stench of the
thing Naraku had sent to ambush them.
She hung, limply, in the grasp of the huge
youkai. The baboon-skin cloak that concealed the
bastard's...head, for a lack of better term...had fallen away,
revealing a dark, bulbous mass, split by an opening lined with
rows upon rows of sharp, triangular teeth.
And Inuyasha, try as he might, wasn't getting
any closer to her. He hacked at everything within reach, using
all of his strength, and still, the tentacles kept coming,
keeping him pinned down near the doorway.
On the opposite side of the room from her.
He growled his frustration, and swung harder.
If only he could use Kaze-no-Kizu! That would finish off this
piece-of-shit youkai in one blow.
And probably collapse the castle's walls.
Inuyasha glanced up at the thick beams that supported the tile
roof, and growled again. Fuck. I'd probably kill Kagome,
too.
His inattention cost him.
In an instant, Tetsusaiga was ripped from his
grasp, and sent flying across the room.
Inuyasha cursed, as much at himself as at the
creature he was fighting, and flexed his fingers.
No sword? Fine. He'd just have to rescue
Kagome the old-fashioned way.
"SANKONTESSOU!" he yelled, gathering his legs
beneath him, and leapt upwards, outwards.
He felt the deeply satisfying sensation of his
claws ripping through his opponent's cold flesh before he
landed. Behind him, the tentacles regenerated, thanks to the
powers of the fucking jewel shard, but he was closer to Kagome
now.
Close enough to see that there was fresh blood
trickling from the corner of her mouth. Maybe she'd just bitten
her tongue. Maybe.
Or maybe...
"SANKONTESSOU!"
This time, he nearly made to her side before
the tentacles whipped around his arms and his legs, immobilizing
him.
The thing chuckled, Naraku's voice oddly
distorted by the creature's bulk--and that mouth. "She has the
shards. I'll eat her first, hanyou. And then I'll eat you. I
hear dog meat tastes good--almost as good as a miko's flesh."
"You pathetic son of a whore!" Inuyasha drew
on all this strength, trying to toss off the creature's grip on
him, but he could barely move his limbs.
The tentacles holding Kagome began to move her
briskly towards those gleaming teeth.
And Tetsusaiga lay in the far corner of the
chamber, its power gone for now. Just an old, rusty sword.
She was going to die. They were both going to
die, devoured by one of Naraku's loathsome avatars.
"NO!" Unbound by Testusaiga's absence, he felt
his youkai blood rising.
His transformation hurt as his demon half took
over his body, warping its fabric to serve its purposes. But
this time, he welcomed it. He was going to save himself.
He was going to save Kagome.
If he didn't kill her, first.
Her blood suddenly smelled delicious to him.
Injured prey. Fresh meat.
No! Inuyasha struggled to control his
transformation, to keep his hanyou self in control of his demon
body. I can't! Not Kagome!
"Inuyasha!" Her eyes were finally open, though
dull. "Inuyasha, don't!" She braced her hands against the
tentacle holding her captive, and looked at him.
The part of his mind that was still the hanyou
Inuyasha felt ashamed that she saw him like this, all scarlet
eyes and teeth...a monster.
He had been able to control himself before,
but it seemed as though the beast within grew stronger every
time he released it.
And she hadn't been bleeding last time. Hadn't
smelled quite so much like food.
But what choice did he have? If he didn't
allow the inu-youkai free rein, neither of them would survive.
Kagome was still looking at him. Not fear
but...worry? About to be eaten by something with more teeth than
anything needed, and she was worried about him?
He felt the ghostly imprint of her lips
pressed against his, a memory from the last time that the
inu-youkai had tried to take over.
The tide of transformation ripping through him
faltered. Hesitated.
"Kagome." It was partly a plea for
understanding, partly a plea for forgiveness.
She turned her glance at the monster. They
were very close now to that gaping maw. Her expression shifted
from worry to sudden determination...and anger.
"Kagome!" He had never felt so helpless. He
managed to wrench one arm free from the tentacles holding him
captive, and used his claws to slash at every bit of flesh
within reach.
"I am not going to be your lunch!" she shouted
at the creature as she reached into her blouse and fished up the
vial of Shikon shards.
Her hands closed around the vial, cupping it,
She closed her eyes.
And then, she was glowing, pulsing with the
same power that infused her arrows.
The tentacle holding her torso rippled
uneasily.
"Get away from me!" she shrieked, and a bubble
of power expanded outward from her, purifying everything it
touched.
The tentacles holding her captive withered
instantly, dissolving into slimy black puddles. Then the ring of
light touched the creature's main body, and it began to bubble,
steaming and sizzling as it vaporized.
An instant later, only its Shikon-no-Tama
shard remained, the sharp edges glittering in the midst of a
sticky dark pool on the floor..
Kagome's power reached Inuyasha, washing over
him like cool water. He felt the inu-youkai retreat, and the
burning sensation of its transformation vanished, along with the
pain of his injuries. At the same moment, the tentacles holding
his limbs captive vanished, and he fell to the flagstones with a
thump.
It hurt a lot more than it usually did. And
his senses felt strangely dulled. Almost as if...
He looked down, at his hand. It looked
wrong...the claws replaced by short nails. No!
His gut twisting, he ran his tongue over his
fangs, only to encounter the dull, even edge of human teeth. Oh,
no.
He grabbed at his hair, and saw the long, dark
strands in his fist. Oh, shit, no!
Human. He was human. She had purified him,
too.
Shitshitshitshit. How was he going to
find and kill Naraku if he was a fucking human?
A wave of frustrated anger moved through him.
All these weeks of searching, and they'd finally found Naraku's
hiding place. And now he was helpless...or just as good as
helpless. With no way of knowing when--or even whether--it would
wear off, the way that his New Moon transformation from hanyou
to human wore off at dawn.
Dammit, Kagome! How could you do this to
me?
He sat up, rubbing his bruised back, and
glared over at her, ready to give her a piece of his mind.
And felt his stomach drop as he saw her
sprawled gracelessly on the floor of the chamber, surrounded by
puddles of black goo. His anger vanished, replaced by panic.
Oh, gods, Kagome, please don't be dead!
Oblivious to everything else, Inuyasha rose
and staggered over to her. He had just enough presence of mind
to grab the tainted shard from its sticky surroundings as he
passed the large, darkened patch that had been its head.
"Kagome..." Inuyasha sank to the floor and
frantically gathered her in his arms, cradling her in his lap.
He felt so...weak. And he hated it.
It's my fault she got hurt. I wasn't fast
enough. Or strong enough. Or good enough. Not fucking good
enough.
He hadn't been fast enough, or strong enough
to save his mother, either. Or Kikyou.
His dulled human senses couldn't smell how
badly Kagome was injured, but he saw the blood soaking her
sleeve, and felt how cool and clammy her face and hands were.
Maybe it was just the lack of light in this damned gloomy place,
but she looked...grayish. Not good.
But he could see her pulse at the base of her
throat. He let out his breath in a long whoosh.
Alive. Thank the gods. Alive.
Overcome with emotion, he bent his head and
allowed himself to touch his mouth to the tender space just
above her collarbone, assuring himself that her pulse was real,
and not just his wishful thinking.
Relief flooded through him as her heartbeat,
strong and steady, fluttered against his lips.
Maybe he wouldn't be able to kill Naraku this
time, but she was still alive.
