Cursing, Sesshoumaru dropped the hilt of his broken sword, springing back as Mouryoumaru reared. An armored claw swept out at him, and he dodged it narrowly, his furious thoughts still trained toward the plateau above.

He had been a fool to bring her here. His inane desire to keep her near him had imperiled them all. He had to put her from his mind, to focus his attention on the formidable enemy before him, and finish this.

Drawing Tessaiga from its sheath, he strode forward.

Mouryoumaru sneered at the rusty, battered blade. “You think to challenge me with that?”

Gripping the frayed hilt, Sesshoumaru willed the sword to transform in his hand. Tessaiga pulsed in recognition—yet remained the same.

Sesshoumaru glared down at the blade in irritation, imposing his will upon it once again. As Mouryoumaru launched his attack, the daiyoukai rose to counter, trusting that his father’s fang would not betray him in his moment of need.

Yet even as he slashed out to deflect Mouryoumaru’s barrage, Tessaiga remained dormant still. A shower of crystal rained down upon him. As the shards pierced his skin, Tenseiga thrummed at his side, shielding him from the brunt of the assault. With a clenched jaw, he returned Tessaiga to its scabbard in resignation, transforming himself in a whirlwind of pearlescent youki.

In his beast form, he loomed over his enemy, jaws gnashing as he shook his fur to dislodge the venomous splinters embedded in his flesh. His caustic blood burned as it fought to neutralize Mouryoumaru’s miasma. Ears back and head lowered, Sesshoumaru stalked toward his prey, claws scoring the solid stone.

Mouryoumaru gazed up at him in lustful awe, even as he backed away. “So, this is the true power of a daiyoukai…”

With a snarl that echoed along the cliffside, Sesshoumaru pounced, his massive fangs bearing down upon the crack in Mouryoumaru’s armor. To his surprise, his enemy did not even attempt to evade his attack, but remained still as his thick carapace crunched beneath the pressure of Sesshoumaru’s bite.

“Such raw power,” Mouryoumaru murmured silkily, Sesshoumaru growling in repulsion at his tone. “I must have it.”

Mouryoumaru’s shoulder plate opened in a blaze of emerald youki. Sesshoumaru paid it no heed, consumed now by his mindless need to crush, to kill. And he could feel the armor on the verge of giving way beneath his powerful jaws, the rend he had made spider-webbing through the adamant scale.

He dug his claws into the brittle earth as a force began to pull upon him, tentacles wrapping around his forelegs and neck, inundating him with poison. He started to lose traction, his youkai defenses overwhelmed at last by the virulence of Naraku’s shouki. His mind clouded, his power dimmed, as he found himself being dragged ever closer to that yawning chasm of green.

As his senses began to fade, a speck of orange flecked his vision. He watched in dull fascination as it grew larger—and larger still—taking on the shape of a horse. His glazed eyes widened further when he beheld the horse’s rider to be none other than that damnable miko. Even for a hallucination, this seemed absurd.

“Hey!” he heard her shout, the sound of her voice shocking him into sudden lucidity. “Get off of him, you disgusting creep!”

Mouryoumaru froze in his efforts, as transfixed upon the ludicrous sight of her as he. She sped toward them on what could only have been Hakudoushi’s youkai steed—holding aloft in her right hand what could only have been Hakudoushi’s youkai weapon. Her hair flew wildly about her dirt-streaked face, her left arm bare and streaked with blood from a wound bound messily below her shoulder. Azure eyes narrowed, flashing fiercely as the naginata in her hand seared and split beneath the onslaught of her reiki.

His breath stilled in captivation, eyes following her until the fog of Mouryoumaru’s poison eclipsed his mind at last.

Inuyasha © Rumiko Takahashi