Kagome frowned, perplexed. Caught off guard, she slackened her hold—on Hirokin and the drawn arrow both.

“At last,” he rasped out, slicking a hand through his disheveled hair as he panted and leered, “I am convinced.”

Kagome stared hard at him—at the abominable lust that contorted his features, that deranged his demonic aura. Here on the brink of death, he was unmistakably, horribly aroused. These daiyoukai, Kagome thought as her brows drew together, they’re all so fucking demented.

“You’re really an ugly, twisted creature, aren’t you?” she wondered aloud.

Hirokin’s breathing only staggered that much more at her open contempt. His youki seethed with perverse elation. No doubt if he could manage to pick himself up off the ground, he’d be ragingly erect.

It was disturbing, to say the least.

“Kagome…” he murmured. His silvery lids dipped seductively. His voice was so decadent, so velvety and steeped in dark invitation that Kagome felt her stomach clench against her will. “I will serve you.”

The miko suppressed a shiver. Swallowing, she held her ground as he pushed himself to a supplicating kneel. Flowing around her, his youki enveloped her tamely, demurely. Intoxicatingly cool, and so subtly tempting…

Abruptly, Kagome found herself struggling not to murder him all over again.

“Enough of that now,” she said, banishing his suggestive overtures with a wave of reiki. “Pull yourself together, and get to work. I won’t ask you again.”

Heedless, Hirokin reached toward her. “Let me kiss you, my lady,” he begged her lowly. “Just the filthy hem of your coarse human robe.”

Kagome glowered, giving his hand a stinging lash. “Absolutely not.”

“How cruel you are,” he said with a wretched little smile, his furled fingers smoking. “How perfectly cruel.”

“Hirokin…” she spoke through gritted teeth. “You’re wasting time.”

“I shall add you to my pantheon,” he babbled silkily on, as if to himself. “And debase myself in your name.”

Kagome’s nails bit into her palms. “Stop speaking nonsense!”

“How I have hated you. But now I think I might love you best.”

“Hirokin!” Kagome growled, going red in the face as her finger slashed out behind her. “Put out those fucking fires before I string you up by the gills!”

The demon prince sighed. Languidly, he drew himself to his feet. His eyes glinted at her, feverishly bright.

“Is this what you would have of me, Kagome-sama? Very well…”

Into the high mists he faded back, his eyes two glowing slits of pure, scintillating blue. A chuckle like thunder rolled through the canyon, rattling chips of slate and sending loose stones careening into the fog. Kagome drew back as the mists thickened and warped, freezing the air in her lungs. Taking cover behind the trunk of a tree, she peered out at the towering form which coiled back on itself again and again, before rearing up and lurching past her—the flash of pale icy scales gleaming silver-red in the light of the rising sun.

The whole river seemed to flow after Hirokin in a raging torrent. Digging her nails into the bark for purchase, Kagome braced herself as the waters crashed downhill in a sweeping train. Dragging herself up, she stumbled forward just in time to see Hirokin’s draconic figure roar past her barrier, his demonic tide breaking over it in a downpour that extinguished the flames in a plume of steaming smoke.

Kagome’s breath caught in her chest at the sight. Hope swelled within her so strongly it hurt. As the steam cleared and the sun continued to rise, tears sprang to her eyes. In the new light of dawn, she looked out over the city of Edo, and found it reduced to a smoldering ruin.

Inuyasha © Rumiko Takahashi

Might tweak this a bit more, but hope y’all enjoyed! <3