Naraku’s incarnation eyed them warily in turn, his leathery wings drawing to sharp-tipped points as he hovered in midair. The mottled gray armor Kagome had blasted off during their previous showdown had mostly regenerated–save for a sizable crack in the very center, approximately where her reiki-infused spear had struck. Through the gap, something faintly glimmered, Kagome gasping as she reached out with her spiritual senses.

It had been sleeping during their first encounter, but now it was awake–its lavender eyes staring back at her through the miasmic darkness of Mouryoumaru’s interior. She could see now that the chimera-like monster before them was nothing more than a shell: this creature at its center was Naraku’s true incarnation–the true architect of the barrier. And the true threat. Peering closer, she saw that the demon had the form of a silver-haired infant, its tiny pale hands curled around a bauble of deep, glowing blue.

That stone…that must be how its concealing the youki around it… Kagome surmised narrowly.

As the infant’s purple gaze narrowed at her as well, she felt a cold grip steal over her, her hand rising to her chest as dark icy fingers clenched around her heart. His heart, she realized numbly as her breath fled her lungs in a fine mist, her blood freezing to slush in her veins. The world around her fell away. All she could see before her were shadows and gore. All she could hear were the screams of her dying friends, and the laughter of her enemy…

“No…” she whimpered, hunching forward. “No!”

“Kagome,” a distant voice called out.

Warm and strong, a clawed hand at her shoulder drew her back. Trembling violently, she grasped dreamlike for her bow as she straightened, the last remnants of her nightmarish vision dispersing like ink in water at the bowstring’s resonant thrum. Her arrow arced brightly toward the hole in Mouryoumaru’s chest, shearing straight through the tentacle that rose to intercept it. A mere inch from impact, the projectile crashed against the raised red curve of a barrier, the infant’s expression gloating as her reiki fizzled out before it in a shower of harmless sparks.

Panting heavily, Kagome lowered her weapon, turning desperately to Sesshoumaru as his hand fell from her shoulder. “Mouryoumaru…he’s–Sesshoumaru, he’s nothing more than a golem! It’s what’s inside of him that’s Naraku’s actual incarnation.”

“Perceptive girl,” the golem sneered, his tentacled arm turning to crystal. “But the knowledge will do you little good.”

Entei feinted right as a flurry of poisonous shards shot toward them, Kagome setting her jaw as she readied another arrow. “You talk a big game, but in case you missed it earlier, that barrier of yours isn’t going to cut it. That’s why you’re making a break now–because you’re too weak to face us. You were hoping to have time to heal up here, lure Kouga-kun in, and take his Jewel shards, weren’t you? But even with all that,” she barreled on, her eyes glittering keenly, “you’d still never be strong enough to defeat your maker. Let alone us.”

Mouryoumaru’s expression darkened, his shoulder splitting open toward her in a noxious vortex of green. “Insolent mortal. I will melt your worthless flesh from your bones.”

Kagome dug her knees into Entei’s flanks, her hair whipping out in front of her as the equine youkai set his fiery hooves against the vortex’s pull. The radiant arrow she fired off streaked straight into the acid-green void, an eep of fright escaping her as she put up her weapon and clung to Entei instead. Just as the horse began to lose traction, Sesshoumaru suddenly appeared, lunging at the smirking golem from his unprotected, opposite side. Blazing crimson, Tessaiga blasted straight through the infant’s barrier, sending Mouryoumaru careening deep into the mountainside in an explosive crash.

Entei glided abruptly to a halt. Peeling herself up from his back, Kagome flashed the daiyoukai a sheepish grin as he flew to her side. “That shoulder vacuum is seriously no joke…”

Sesshoumaru frowned, clearly not in the mood for her attempts at levity. “This will be no short battle. You should return to the wolves.” And now his expression did turn vaguely wry. “No doubt they are already in desperate need of your assistance.”

Kagome stared at him. “You…want me to go back on my own?”

His frown returned. After a moment of heavy pause, he reached toward the sash at his side. “Take this with you.”

Her eyes widened as he pressed the sword hilt into her hands. “Tenseiga?”

“It will protect you,” he said shortly, turning away from her, toward the crumbling, cratered slope where Mouryoumaru had landed. “Now, go.”

Kagome bit her lip, gazing hesitantly at the blade he’d given her. Heart pounding, she strapped it behind her, mustering more insane courage than she ever had before as she urged Entei forward, wheeling around in front of Sesshoumaru. His golden eyes widened fractionally as she gripped the spiked edge of his chestplate.

“Sesshoumaru,” she said fiercely, “no matter what, you have to destroy him. All of him. That thing inside Mouryoumaru–that infant…” She swallowed tightly, her own chest constricting at the memory of its icy touch. “It’s Naraku’s heart. Finish it off, and it’s game over for him–I’m certain of it.”

Before the daiyoukai could reply, her mad adrenaline rush propelled her forward still, her mouth pressing swiftly to his as Entei sped her away toward the other side of the mountain.

Inuyasha © Rumiko Takahashi