Categories > Anime/Manga > Inuyasha > The Hidden Evil Design
Chapter 7: The Separate Challenges
0 reviewsInuyasha and his friends have eluded Naraku's grip time and time again... but this time, the tides may turn on our group... in the form of a strange game... what is it? What exactly is that demon ...
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Here is Chapter 7! (cheers all around) (crickets)
Note: Just to clear some things up... in case any of you are wondering, Inuyasha is the only one right now that is in a different world! The others are still "in reality", so to speak. More to come later, however!
One more thing: a warning to sensitive readers... this chapter contains gruesome imagery, and those of you who don't like this sort of thing probably should not read it... but if you are tough (and I know most of you are), then I know you can do it!
Chapter 7 - The Separate Challenges
"Inuyasha," Yura said, pleasantly enough, "I know how confused you are, and I hope to ease that difficult and painful feeling by at least letting you know where it is you are now. Would you like to know?"
He knew she was playing with him, but the funny thing was... he did not realize it until the very last minute.
"Okay, I'll let you talk... I guess it's the least I can do since I don't even know where the hell I am or how I got here." He then waited.
Yura's reaction to that statement took Inuyasha a little by surprise, but he held in whatever he was going to say next with great effort; the girl was beet-red in the face and laughing her freakin' little head off.
The sound was like a thousand bells ringing all at once, and the pierce of it all made his ears ache and feel like they were going to burst.
When it went on for as long as he could stand it, he finally yelled, "Okay, shut up! I don't see what's so funny, but I would appreciate it if you would just talk to me now!" He was so angry for a moment that his hand strayed to his sword hilt; Yura's manic laughter ceased at once.
"That's better," Inuyasha continued, "now just talk to me, all right? I want to know where I am, how I got here and what I can do to get out. Because I know I was doing something before I got here."
Yura's annoying laughter may have stopped, but now the silence that followed his words was so thick and heavy that he kind of wished she would set off again. She did not, however. Her purple eyes remained locked on Tessaiga.
He followed her gaze, and his own gold-colored eyes settled on his sword, as well.
"What's wrong? It's just a sword... it can't do anything..." But he did not finish. A voice echoed around the forest that they were now in. It was a girl's voice... at least, he thought it was... until it showed itself.
"Well, if it isn't Inuyasha! It's been forever since I saw you last... how have you been?"
Both Yura and Inuyasha's eyes darted around the woods about them, but they detected nothing.
"Oh, don't worry about finding me," the voice continued, and the hanyou thought he caught a little sense of amusement in that voice, as if it were playing with them, showing off whatever immense and grand power it apparently had.
Inuyasha looked at Yura, still holding her comb, and although he did not notice it before, he now felt something snaking along his robe sleeve. He grabbed in the direction he felt it, and was surprised to find that it felt like really tough hair, almost like a taut wire.
"Yura," the voice said now, and the girl snapped to attention, "you know what you have to do now, don't you?"
For a moment, she looked extremely confused, but then she nodded. She lifted the red comb she had kept by her side practically the whole time, and waved it once.
Abruptly, the (hair?) on Inuyasha's sleeve tightened, and suddenly it felt like strands of the stuff was all over his body. He gave a start, but was too slow to pull them all away; the thing was... he could not see any of it.
"What the hell are you up to?" Inuyasha demanded. Yura's only response was laughter, but it was not prolonged this time; it was merely short and sweet, the kind that said you will die in a matter of seconds.
"This is idiocy!" the hanyou shrieked, grabbing at every strand he could find. "Even if I can't even see this damned stuff, that kind of power doesn't need to be had to drag you around!"
Yura grinned, and suddenly she was pulled up into the air, most likely by the hair. Though he could not see it now, there were huge, towering clumps of hair all around the forest; they had been there, silent, when he had fallen into this strange world, and only now were they beginning to stir. Yura was presently standing on a long, thick rope of it that extended from the bough of one giant oak tree to one about fifty feet in the opposite direction. And from there, she attacked.
Inuyasha frantically reached for any strand of the hair he could locate, and, gathering it all together in his clenched fist, pulled at it with all his might. He expected Yura's smile to flicker and then vanish just like a blown light bulb, but it did the complete opposite; it did flicker, but then it grew even wider, until her face looked almost grotesque from all the pulling she was doing to it; her teeth gleamed a bright white that he could see even from his position on the forest floor.
"Sorry to disappoint you, little doggy," Yura cooed, "but the hair grows."
Inuyasha did not care what that meant... he just wanted out of this stranglehold before he really did get strangled. If he died like this, by something he couldn't even see, then that he would regret forever.
When she seen that he wasn't going to respond, Yura flung out her hands, and even more strands burst from her body, positively covering the hapless hanyou on the ground.
Inuyasha stared in shock, at the place where he thought most likely the hair now was.
"What did you just do?" he yelled up to her, but she just continued to wave her hands toward him, and every time they made a complete arc close to where he stood, he felt the bonds on his body tighten further.
"Soon, little doggy," Yura said softly, "that hair that you most unfortunately cannot see will take your life."
_-_-_
"No, Father! Stop!"
A little boy runs as fast as he can toward a man a few hundred feet in front of him. The man is standing in the middle of a large yard that surrounds a temple, and is being enveloped by a huge white light.
"No!" the boy screams, and rushes over to the man, but is pulled back by an older man, with white hair and rosy cheeks, as if he had just been drinking a few moments before.
"You can't save him, boy! Besides, if you go any closer to him, you'll also be drawn in!" the older monk says in a voice just barely over a whisper, directly into the young man's ears. And, indeed, a strong force seemed to be emanating from the man before them, like a tornado's wind, threatening to pull anything in that stepped close.
The boy is wearing a blue robe, similar to the ones monks wear; he is an apprentice to the man holding him firmly back... while his father was being consumed before his very eyes.
"No, Mushin-sama! He can still be saved, I know it!" The boy tears at Mushin's grip, but cannot get free; the old man may have been a drunk, but he knew how to use his strength when the time came.
But he knew, even as he struggled, that it was too late to save him.
The young Miroku watches as, with one final burst of light, the crater where his father stood slowly materialized... all that was left of his dear father.
"No!!" Miroku screams. "Father!!"
Mushin's efforts were successful, as he now finally let the boy go, who runs over to the spot where his father met his untimely demise.
Once he arrives at the spot, he kneels down and weeps.
_-_-_
"Miroku-sama?" a voice called suddenly, and the monk woke up with a start, his father's name still screaming in his head, sweat pouring down his face and breathing as if he had just run a mile.
Once his heart had stopped pounding fifty miles an hour, he looked and noticed that Kagome-sama was looking him almost directly in the face; he gave a little yelp.
"Kagome-sama! You are all right?!" the monk exclaimed, his shock and fear from his vivid dream replaced by instant relief at seeing his friend okay again.
She nodded, and her face seemed to be definitely clear of any ills that had befallen it before, prior to and following her collapse from that "curse."
"I think I am all better, now, Miroku-sama," she said softly, eyes glistening with sudden tears of happiness; she didn't really know why she was getting so emotional, but there you are.
Miroku was overjoyed.
"I am so glad to hear that! Where is Shippou? I'll bet he's really glad to know you are all better, as well!"
Kagome-sama's smile flickered a little bit, but she hitched it back just as quickly as it had faltered.
"What's wrong? Don't you want to know what happened to me?" Strangely, she was no longer smiling, and it seemed as if his question about Shippou had ticked her off in some way.
"Shippou-chan went to gather some more wood for our fire," she continued, getting comfortable again (presumably from where she had rested earlier) on a bed of fresh green pine needles; Miroku had just realized that they were no longer in the meadow that they had stopped in before; they now seemed to be in the thick of a great forest. Insects chirped and buzzed all around them. The monk did a double-take.
"What in the world..." he began, mouth agape and staring at their surroundings. Just a little to their left was a small, pleasant brook, running clearly and smoothly toward a deeper part of the woods; it sparkled and gleamed from the sun shining through the tops of all kinds of trees; it was as if every single tree in the world was in this forest.
"...is this place...?" Miroku finished his question. "I do not remember being here before I fell asleep."
He looked at Kagome-sama, who was now staring, transfixed, it appeared, at the little brook next to them, churning sluggishly onward. If Miroku had been looking carefully into the water, then he would have seen, in the reflection, a most peculiar expression on the young priestess's face; an expression of pure joy... and crazed frenzy... an expression that never used to be on her face until now.
_-_-_
Laughter.
"Who's there?" Sango cried out, her voice echoing through the long hallway before her; candles set in wooden brackets about ten feet apart glimmered on the walls.
The laughter came again... an unending sound... reverberating throughout the long corridor, and through the demon slayer's mind.
The girl clutched her head and screamed... a piercing sound even louder than the voice she was now used to hearing; pain ripped through her head; it felt like someone was taking a sharp knife to her head and slowly splitting it open.
If you want pain, I can give it to you! the voice admonished. Here! There was a blast of sudden icy wind, a bright flash of white lightning-like light... and suddenly... before her... Sango seen all of her friends; they were merely shadows at first, but slowly they came into focus.
Slumped against a wall, an arrow piercing directly through her chest, was Kagome-chan. Her eyes were blank and they looked like they hadn't seen the sun in years; they looked almost milky, as if she were blind. A small trickle of blood came from her mouth and settled down her chin, to drip on to her clothing she always wore to school in her world.
Sango screamed louder, the pain worsening every second she glanced at her fallen friend.
But she couldn't help but see, and the force that drove her to do those horrible deeds made her stare at the opposite wall, where Inuyasha lay slumped in a similar fashion to Kagome-chan. His ears were all drooped, as a real dog's would when it is saddened, his golden eyes were shut, and his hair looked all tousled and uneven, the first time Sango had ever seen it that way; it was always so neat and cared for. Apart from his appearance, there appeared to be nothing physically wrong with him... that is... until she looked behind him. On the back of his head, shadowed at first because of the dimness in the hallway, despite the numerous candles glowing everywhere, was a gigantic gouge, most likely made by something that had smashed with all of its might into the back of his skull. The flesh was ripped open, blood seeping onto the floor, to reveal a part of his brain; Sango managed to hold back vomiting all over the ground when she seen that it was pulsating slightly, almost as if it were alive.
"NO!!" the taijiya shrieked, tearing at her hair and whipping out her katana without even realizing it. Before she knew it, she had it pointed at her own throat. She would have probably involuntarily grabbed Hiraikotsu, but that was lost to her for the time being.
Before this thing made her see any more of these gruesome images, Sango had to do something to stop it. What she was seeing had to be illusions, she knew, because they had appeared all at once, seemingly from nowhere... or had they been there the whole time, and she hadn't known it?
Her hand shook so badly that she almost dropped her sword, but she kept as tight a grip on it as she possibly could manage.
For a while, there was silence in the hallway, broken only by Sango's rapid breathing and the fierce pounding of her own heart. Then the strange voice spoke again, and it startled her so much that she almost dropped the katana again.
Killing yourself won't help matters... you know that, don't you? You'll just go to hell, and be in an even worse situation than you are in right now! Plus... even if you do not kill yourself, do you think what you are now doing can stop me?
That possibility had run through her mind already, and she was prepared to face the consequences if that was what it took to rid this horror from her.
You are such a fool, the voice mocked. Perhaps I have not taught you enough of a lesson.
Without warning, as if an invisible hand were squeezing her sword arm tightly, Sango felt so much pressure being applied that she felt all of her arm go entirely numb. She gave a small whimper of pain and felt her clenched hand open to reveal the katana, which clanged loudly to the floor.
Instantly, the pressure lessened, and she could feel her arm again, but it wasn't over yet...
Not seen merely a minute ago, along with the deceased figures of Inuyasha and Kagome-chan appeared Shippou-chan, along with Kirara, whom Sango just realized was not with her.
She spun around, searching, but the long hallway extended seemingly for miles in both directions, door less, windowless, and candle-filled.
"Kirara?!" Sango shouted, cupping her hands over her mouth for resonance. There was no sound except for her breathing and heart, and the soft laughter of the voice.
All of your friends are lost to you, Sango-chan... haven't you yet realized that?
It couldn't be true; it couldn't!
"Do you mean to tell me that these dead replicas of my friends are real? That this isn't some sort of dream?"
The voice laughed again. You got it.
"No!" Sango yelled, and the laughter ceased, leaving the same prior sounds again. "Do you think you can trick me like this? I have dealt with demons all of my life, practically, having grown up in a demon slaying village! Do you think I haven't seen this kind of illusion before?"
The voice was silent for a moment, until it said, An illusion, is it?
"Yes, an illusion!" Sango shot back. "Naraku has played games similar to this before! In his Illusory Death attack, my friends and I were all reduced to these same situations, seeing all those we care about dead, or seeing our greatest allies betray us... in other words, we were all given a glimpse into our own hearts, and to see the darkness within!"
The voice laughed again, and suddenly, before her, a figure stepped out of the shadows.
With a strange ringing sound, the flash of bright, white light appeared again, this time fifty times brighter than the last, and the girl shielded her eyes against the sudden glare.
"Very good, Sango. I daresay you are getting a little more clever." The voice was now different, and oddly familiar.
Sango gasped. Standing before her was none other than Naraku.
_-_-_
"Damn you, Yura!" Inuyasha yelled, struggling against the bonds of invisible hair that now had him caught.
"What is there to be damned?" Yura replied. "I am a demon, so of course I am damned! You are only saying that because you don't like to admit you're weak, and you also know that you are soon going to die!" She giggled, and the sound made the hanyou more infuriated than ever.
"I'm going to kill you!" he rasped, feeling the hair work its way up toward his neck, where it would surely end his life.
Yura continued to chortle.
"You use such empty threats, Inuyasha! I always knew they would someday be your undoing! And here I am correct, aren't I?"
He continued to struggle against the hair, but no matter how much he did, it did no good; it just kept getting tighter.
This needs to be thought out rationally, here, or else I really am going to die! he thought, and proceeded to try and remember.
He stopped struggling, went limp, and lowered his head; it might have been his imagination, but he thought that the hair had either slowed its course up his body, decreasing its constriction, or that it had stopped completely. Perhaps Yura thought he was now dead.
Better to let her keep thinking that, Inuyasha thought hurriedly. He started to think.
His mind seemed to have been emptied of all his previous memories the moment he landed in this strange world, and he was going to admit it was a strange world, because why would someone he had previously defeated come back again, this time different in some way?
He thought and thought, but it felt as if a huge layer of fog had descended over his brain, blocking out anything he attempted to recall.
"Are you dead yet, Inuyasha? I think you are, because of the way that you now look!" She laughed again, the sound hateful, and almost causing him to spring up and prove her newest prediction totally out of the water. Dead, was he?
Suddenly, he did remember something, but it was very faint...
A girl is climbing on a giant tower of hair, covered with skulls. The puppeteer behind all of the length of hair, a young woman with a red bow in her hair, appears at the top and screams at the girl below her; the sound is filled with rage and hatred.
"Stop pulling my hair!" she yells, using a bright red comb she held in one hand to raise the huge tower of hair, pulling the hapless young girl with it.
Moments pass, and then...
"Inuyasha, that red skull! I think there's something in it!" the young girl states.
...
"What red skull?" Inuyasha said softly, but it was enough for Yura to hear, for she yelled with as much rage as she had in that memory just now.
"I knew you were not dead yet!" she screamed, flinging up the comb. Instantly, the hair tightened again, and Inuyasha knew that he had been correct, before. Yura had thought him dead, and thus had lowered her comb, decreasing the pressure the hair was having on him.
The time between the end of the memory and Yura's frantic shout gave Inuyasha all the time he needed to rip free of most of the hair and grab his sword, which he pulled out of its sheathe with a flourish.
With a huge flash of brilliance, Tessaiga emerged in its true form, looking more than ever like a giant fang, gleaming from the sun catching it above.
"NO!" Yura yelled, and frantically tried to engulf him in the hair again, but the hanyou was back in business, now... if not quite.
Aiming his unbelievable weapon at the girl floating (or so it seemed to him) in the air, he whipped it back, and yelled "Kaze no Kizu!" Even though many of his memories were gone, that phrase still had some meaning to him, and he used it now.
Yura yelled in frustration, and... pulling the comb in close to her, all the hair that had bound Inuyasha left him and covered the girl, lifting her up into the air before the empowered strike could make contact with her; it instead blasted into a nearby hickory tree, smashing it to bits.
"Dammit!" Inuyasha cursed, watching the cocoon of hair make its escape (of course, he only saw Yura floating away, seeing as though he himself could not see the hair). "How did she escape? Was my aim not enough?"
Before he could try again, the girl was long gone.
_-_-_
"Damn you, Naraku! What do you want? Was it you doing this all this time, or what?"
Her sworn enemy, dressed once again in his baboon pelt, laughed nefariously.
"Sango, do you really think I took the time to appear before you now for absolutely no reason at all? You should be thankful; I usually do not take so much time out of my busy schedule to meet personally with my enemies like this. I have something for you."
And to the complete surprise of Sango, Naraku reached behind him, and extracted Hiraikotsu from some hidden place where she could not see it.
"I know you are overjoyed to see your weapon again, Sango. I can tell by the expression on your face. You did really well just now. I am impressed. I have Hiraikotsu here with me. Would you like it back?"
_-_-_
TBC
Note: Just so you all know, the next chapter will be a little comedy segment, not really following the story or anything, but it will encompass the characters of Jaken, Rin, Sesshomaru and others. See you in Chapter 8!
Note: Just to clear some things up... in case any of you are wondering, Inuyasha is the only one right now that is in a different world! The others are still "in reality", so to speak. More to come later, however!
One more thing: a warning to sensitive readers... this chapter contains gruesome imagery, and those of you who don't like this sort of thing probably should not read it... but if you are tough (and I know most of you are), then I know you can do it!
Chapter 7 - The Separate Challenges
"Inuyasha," Yura said, pleasantly enough, "I know how confused you are, and I hope to ease that difficult and painful feeling by at least letting you know where it is you are now. Would you like to know?"
He knew she was playing with him, but the funny thing was... he did not realize it until the very last minute.
"Okay, I'll let you talk... I guess it's the least I can do since I don't even know where the hell I am or how I got here." He then waited.
Yura's reaction to that statement took Inuyasha a little by surprise, but he held in whatever he was going to say next with great effort; the girl was beet-red in the face and laughing her freakin' little head off.
The sound was like a thousand bells ringing all at once, and the pierce of it all made his ears ache and feel like they were going to burst.
When it went on for as long as he could stand it, he finally yelled, "Okay, shut up! I don't see what's so funny, but I would appreciate it if you would just talk to me now!" He was so angry for a moment that his hand strayed to his sword hilt; Yura's manic laughter ceased at once.
"That's better," Inuyasha continued, "now just talk to me, all right? I want to know where I am, how I got here and what I can do to get out. Because I know I was doing something before I got here."
Yura's annoying laughter may have stopped, but now the silence that followed his words was so thick and heavy that he kind of wished she would set off again. She did not, however. Her purple eyes remained locked on Tessaiga.
He followed her gaze, and his own gold-colored eyes settled on his sword, as well.
"What's wrong? It's just a sword... it can't do anything..." But he did not finish. A voice echoed around the forest that they were now in. It was a girl's voice... at least, he thought it was... until it showed itself.
"Well, if it isn't Inuyasha! It's been forever since I saw you last... how have you been?"
Both Yura and Inuyasha's eyes darted around the woods about them, but they detected nothing.
"Oh, don't worry about finding me," the voice continued, and the hanyou thought he caught a little sense of amusement in that voice, as if it were playing with them, showing off whatever immense and grand power it apparently had.
Inuyasha looked at Yura, still holding her comb, and although he did not notice it before, he now felt something snaking along his robe sleeve. He grabbed in the direction he felt it, and was surprised to find that it felt like really tough hair, almost like a taut wire.
"Yura," the voice said now, and the girl snapped to attention, "you know what you have to do now, don't you?"
For a moment, she looked extremely confused, but then she nodded. She lifted the red comb she had kept by her side practically the whole time, and waved it once.
Abruptly, the (hair?) on Inuyasha's sleeve tightened, and suddenly it felt like strands of the stuff was all over his body. He gave a start, but was too slow to pull them all away; the thing was... he could not see any of it.
"What the hell are you up to?" Inuyasha demanded. Yura's only response was laughter, but it was not prolonged this time; it was merely short and sweet, the kind that said you will die in a matter of seconds.
"This is idiocy!" the hanyou shrieked, grabbing at every strand he could find. "Even if I can't even see this damned stuff, that kind of power doesn't need to be had to drag you around!"
Yura grinned, and suddenly she was pulled up into the air, most likely by the hair. Though he could not see it now, there were huge, towering clumps of hair all around the forest; they had been there, silent, when he had fallen into this strange world, and only now were they beginning to stir. Yura was presently standing on a long, thick rope of it that extended from the bough of one giant oak tree to one about fifty feet in the opposite direction. And from there, she attacked.
Inuyasha frantically reached for any strand of the hair he could locate, and, gathering it all together in his clenched fist, pulled at it with all his might. He expected Yura's smile to flicker and then vanish just like a blown light bulb, but it did the complete opposite; it did flicker, but then it grew even wider, until her face looked almost grotesque from all the pulling she was doing to it; her teeth gleamed a bright white that he could see even from his position on the forest floor.
"Sorry to disappoint you, little doggy," Yura cooed, "but the hair grows."
Inuyasha did not care what that meant... he just wanted out of this stranglehold before he really did get strangled. If he died like this, by something he couldn't even see, then that he would regret forever.
When she seen that he wasn't going to respond, Yura flung out her hands, and even more strands burst from her body, positively covering the hapless hanyou on the ground.
Inuyasha stared in shock, at the place where he thought most likely the hair now was.
"What did you just do?" he yelled up to her, but she just continued to wave her hands toward him, and every time they made a complete arc close to where he stood, he felt the bonds on his body tighten further.
"Soon, little doggy," Yura said softly, "that hair that you most unfortunately cannot see will take your life."
_-_-_
"No, Father! Stop!"
A little boy runs as fast as he can toward a man a few hundred feet in front of him. The man is standing in the middle of a large yard that surrounds a temple, and is being enveloped by a huge white light.
"No!" the boy screams, and rushes over to the man, but is pulled back by an older man, with white hair and rosy cheeks, as if he had just been drinking a few moments before.
"You can't save him, boy! Besides, if you go any closer to him, you'll also be drawn in!" the older monk says in a voice just barely over a whisper, directly into the young man's ears. And, indeed, a strong force seemed to be emanating from the man before them, like a tornado's wind, threatening to pull anything in that stepped close.
The boy is wearing a blue robe, similar to the ones monks wear; he is an apprentice to the man holding him firmly back... while his father was being consumed before his very eyes.
"No, Mushin-sama! He can still be saved, I know it!" The boy tears at Mushin's grip, but cannot get free; the old man may have been a drunk, but he knew how to use his strength when the time came.
But he knew, even as he struggled, that it was too late to save him.
The young Miroku watches as, with one final burst of light, the crater where his father stood slowly materialized... all that was left of his dear father.
"No!!" Miroku screams. "Father!!"
Mushin's efforts were successful, as he now finally let the boy go, who runs over to the spot where his father met his untimely demise.
Once he arrives at the spot, he kneels down and weeps.
_-_-_
"Miroku-sama?" a voice called suddenly, and the monk woke up with a start, his father's name still screaming in his head, sweat pouring down his face and breathing as if he had just run a mile.
Once his heart had stopped pounding fifty miles an hour, he looked and noticed that Kagome-sama was looking him almost directly in the face; he gave a little yelp.
"Kagome-sama! You are all right?!" the monk exclaimed, his shock and fear from his vivid dream replaced by instant relief at seeing his friend okay again.
She nodded, and her face seemed to be definitely clear of any ills that had befallen it before, prior to and following her collapse from that "curse."
"I think I am all better, now, Miroku-sama," she said softly, eyes glistening with sudden tears of happiness; she didn't really know why she was getting so emotional, but there you are.
Miroku was overjoyed.
"I am so glad to hear that! Where is Shippou? I'll bet he's really glad to know you are all better, as well!"
Kagome-sama's smile flickered a little bit, but she hitched it back just as quickly as it had faltered.
"What's wrong? Don't you want to know what happened to me?" Strangely, she was no longer smiling, and it seemed as if his question about Shippou had ticked her off in some way.
"Shippou-chan went to gather some more wood for our fire," she continued, getting comfortable again (presumably from where she had rested earlier) on a bed of fresh green pine needles; Miroku had just realized that they were no longer in the meadow that they had stopped in before; they now seemed to be in the thick of a great forest. Insects chirped and buzzed all around them. The monk did a double-take.
"What in the world..." he began, mouth agape and staring at their surroundings. Just a little to their left was a small, pleasant brook, running clearly and smoothly toward a deeper part of the woods; it sparkled and gleamed from the sun shining through the tops of all kinds of trees; it was as if every single tree in the world was in this forest.
"...is this place...?" Miroku finished his question. "I do not remember being here before I fell asleep."
He looked at Kagome-sama, who was now staring, transfixed, it appeared, at the little brook next to them, churning sluggishly onward. If Miroku had been looking carefully into the water, then he would have seen, in the reflection, a most peculiar expression on the young priestess's face; an expression of pure joy... and crazed frenzy... an expression that never used to be on her face until now.
_-_-_
Laughter.
"Who's there?" Sango cried out, her voice echoing through the long hallway before her; candles set in wooden brackets about ten feet apart glimmered on the walls.
The laughter came again... an unending sound... reverberating throughout the long corridor, and through the demon slayer's mind.
The girl clutched her head and screamed... a piercing sound even louder than the voice she was now used to hearing; pain ripped through her head; it felt like someone was taking a sharp knife to her head and slowly splitting it open.
If you want pain, I can give it to you! the voice admonished. Here! There was a blast of sudden icy wind, a bright flash of white lightning-like light... and suddenly... before her... Sango seen all of her friends; they were merely shadows at first, but slowly they came into focus.
Slumped against a wall, an arrow piercing directly through her chest, was Kagome-chan. Her eyes were blank and they looked like they hadn't seen the sun in years; they looked almost milky, as if she were blind. A small trickle of blood came from her mouth and settled down her chin, to drip on to her clothing she always wore to school in her world.
Sango screamed louder, the pain worsening every second she glanced at her fallen friend.
But she couldn't help but see, and the force that drove her to do those horrible deeds made her stare at the opposite wall, where Inuyasha lay slumped in a similar fashion to Kagome-chan. His ears were all drooped, as a real dog's would when it is saddened, his golden eyes were shut, and his hair looked all tousled and uneven, the first time Sango had ever seen it that way; it was always so neat and cared for. Apart from his appearance, there appeared to be nothing physically wrong with him... that is... until she looked behind him. On the back of his head, shadowed at first because of the dimness in the hallway, despite the numerous candles glowing everywhere, was a gigantic gouge, most likely made by something that had smashed with all of its might into the back of his skull. The flesh was ripped open, blood seeping onto the floor, to reveal a part of his brain; Sango managed to hold back vomiting all over the ground when she seen that it was pulsating slightly, almost as if it were alive.
"NO!!" the taijiya shrieked, tearing at her hair and whipping out her katana without even realizing it. Before she knew it, she had it pointed at her own throat. She would have probably involuntarily grabbed Hiraikotsu, but that was lost to her for the time being.
Before this thing made her see any more of these gruesome images, Sango had to do something to stop it. What she was seeing had to be illusions, she knew, because they had appeared all at once, seemingly from nowhere... or had they been there the whole time, and she hadn't known it?
Her hand shook so badly that she almost dropped her sword, but she kept as tight a grip on it as she possibly could manage.
For a while, there was silence in the hallway, broken only by Sango's rapid breathing and the fierce pounding of her own heart. Then the strange voice spoke again, and it startled her so much that she almost dropped the katana again.
Killing yourself won't help matters... you know that, don't you? You'll just go to hell, and be in an even worse situation than you are in right now! Plus... even if you do not kill yourself, do you think what you are now doing can stop me?
That possibility had run through her mind already, and she was prepared to face the consequences if that was what it took to rid this horror from her.
You are such a fool, the voice mocked. Perhaps I have not taught you enough of a lesson.
Without warning, as if an invisible hand were squeezing her sword arm tightly, Sango felt so much pressure being applied that she felt all of her arm go entirely numb. She gave a small whimper of pain and felt her clenched hand open to reveal the katana, which clanged loudly to the floor.
Instantly, the pressure lessened, and she could feel her arm again, but it wasn't over yet...
Not seen merely a minute ago, along with the deceased figures of Inuyasha and Kagome-chan appeared Shippou-chan, along with Kirara, whom Sango just realized was not with her.
She spun around, searching, but the long hallway extended seemingly for miles in both directions, door less, windowless, and candle-filled.
"Kirara?!" Sango shouted, cupping her hands over her mouth for resonance. There was no sound except for her breathing and heart, and the soft laughter of the voice.
All of your friends are lost to you, Sango-chan... haven't you yet realized that?
It couldn't be true; it couldn't!
"Do you mean to tell me that these dead replicas of my friends are real? That this isn't some sort of dream?"
The voice laughed again. You got it.
"No!" Sango yelled, and the laughter ceased, leaving the same prior sounds again. "Do you think you can trick me like this? I have dealt with demons all of my life, practically, having grown up in a demon slaying village! Do you think I haven't seen this kind of illusion before?"
The voice was silent for a moment, until it said, An illusion, is it?
"Yes, an illusion!" Sango shot back. "Naraku has played games similar to this before! In his Illusory Death attack, my friends and I were all reduced to these same situations, seeing all those we care about dead, or seeing our greatest allies betray us... in other words, we were all given a glimpse into our own hearts, and to see the darkness within!"
The voice laughed again, and suddenly, before her, a figure stepped out of the shadows.
With a strange ringing sound, the flash of bright, white light appeared again, this time fifty times brighter than the last, and the girl shielded her eyes against the sudden glare.
"Very good, Sango. I daresay you are getting a little more clever." The voice was now different, and oddly familiar.
Sango gasped. Standing before her was none other than Naraku.
_-_-_
"Damn you, Yura!" Inuyasha yelled, struggling against the bonds of invisible hair that now had him caught.
"What is there to be damned?" Yura replied. "I am a demon, so of course I am damned! You are only saying that because you don't like to admit you're weak, and you also know that you are soon going to die!" She giggled, and the sound made the hanyou more infuriated than ever.
"I'm going to kill you!" he rasped, feeling the hair work its way up toward his neck, where it would surely end his life.
Yura continued to chortle.
"You use such empty threats, Inuyasha! I always knew they would someday be your undoing! And here I am correct, aren't I?"
He continued to struggle against the hair, but no matter how much he did, it did no good; it just kept getting tighter.
This needs to be thought out rationally, here, or else I really am going to die! he thought, and proceeded to try and remember.
He stopped struggling, went limp, and lowered his head; it might have been his imagination, but he thought that the hair had either slowed its course up his body, decreasing its constriction, or that it had stopped completely. Perhaps Yura thought he was now dead.
Better to let her keep thinking that, Inuyasha thought hurriedly. He started to think.
His mind seemed to have been emptied of all his previous memories the moment he landed in this strange world, and he was going to admit it was a strange world, because why would someone he had previously defeated come back again, this time different in some way?
He thought and thought, but it felt as if a huge layer of fog had descended over his brain, blocking out anything he attempted to recall.
"Are you dead yet, Inuyasha? I think you are, because of the way that you now look!" She laughed again, the sound hateful, and almost causing him to spring up and prove her newest prediction totally out of the water. Dead, was he?
Suddenly, he did remember something, but it was very faint...
A girl is climbing on a giant tower of hair, covered with skulls. The puppeteer behind all of the length of hair, a young woman with a red bow in her hair, appears at the top and screams at the girl below her; the sound is filled with rage and hatred.
"Stop pulling my hair!" she yells, using a bright red comb she held in one hand to raise the huge tower of hair, pulling the hapless young girl with it.
Moments pass, and then...
"Inuyasha, that red skull! I think there's something in it!" the young girl states.
...
"What red skull?" Inuyasha said softly, but it was enough for Yura to hear, for she yelled with as much rage as she had in that memory just now.
"I knew you were not dead yet!" she screamed, flinging up the comb. Instantly, the hair tightened again, and Inuyasha knew that he had been correct, before. Yura had thought him dead, and thus had lowered her comb, decreasing the pressure the hair was having on him.
The time between the end of the memory and Yura's frantic shout gave Inuyasha all the time he needed to rip free of most of the hair and grab his sword, which he pulled out of its sheathe with a flourish.
With a huge flash of brilliance, Tessaiga emerged in its true form, looking more than ever like a giant fang, gleaming from the sun catching it above.
"NO!" Yura yelled, and frantically tried to engulf him in the hair again, but the hanyou was back in business, now... if not quite.
Aiming his unbelievable weapon at the girl floating (or so it seemed to him) in the air, he whipped it back, and yelled "Kaze no Kizu!" Even though many of his memories were gone, that phrase still had some meaning to him, and he used it now.
Yura yelled in frustration, and... pulling the comb in close to her, all the hair that had bound Inuyasha left him and covered the girl, lifting her up into the air before the empowered strike could make contact with her; it instead blasted into a nearby hickory tree, smashing it to bits.
"Dammit!" Inuyasha cursed, watching the cocoon of hair make its escape (of course, he only saw Yura floating away, seeing as though he himself could not see the hair). "How did she escape? Was my aim not enough?"
Before he could try again, the girl was long gone.
_-_-_
"Damn you, Naraku! What do you want? Was it you doing this all this time, or what?"
Her sworn enemy, dressed once again in his baboon pelt, laughed nefariously.
"Sango, do you really think I took the time to appear before you now for absolutely no reason at all? You should be thankful; I usually do not take so much time out of my busy schedule to meet personally with my enemies like this. I have something for you."
And to the complete surprise of Sango, Naraku reached behind him, and extracted Hiraikotsu from some hidden place where she could not see it.
"I know you are overjoyed to see your weapon again, Sango. I can tell by the expression on your face. You did really well just now. I am impressed. I have Hiraikotsu here with me. Would you like it back?"
_-_-_
TBC
Note: Just so you all know, the next chapter will be a little comedy segment, not really following the story or anything, but it will encompass the characters of Jaken, Rin, Sesshomaru and others. See you in Chapter 8!
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