It was a small silver blade, no bigger than a penknife. Kagome recognized it even in her shock for the delicate floral patterns of moonstone that inlaid its gleaming edge. An edge which had never dulled in the years since it had been gifted to Rin by Sesshoumaru, on the day she became a miko’s apprentice.

An edge which had opened Ren’s throat with the same deft ease it had sliced through countless herb stems and silk stitching threads.

His light eyes were as wide as Kagome’s as he sank to his knees, clapping a hand in vain to stanch that spurting jet of red. But it poured out of him nevertheless, streaming over and between the seams of his fingers. Fixing upon Rin, his keen gazed dulled. His pale lips parted in hopeless appeal. Across the hem of her skirt, his bloody hand trailed without catching, as he fell away and collapsed twitching at her feet.

Standing over him, the girl breathed heavily, wretchedly. Bitter tear tracks streaked her blood-spattered face. Only when he was finally still did she lower the arm she’d used to slash him from behind. The dripping knife hung listless in her pale dainty fingers. Down into his dark empty gaze her own eyes stared on, huge and unblinking and teeming with dread. Bordering on hysteria.

“Rin-chan…” Kagome said slowly, carefully, as she began to rise. “Rin-chan, give me the knife.”

The girl’s eyes snapped to her, full of sudden fear. In her panic, Rin stumbled back a step, clutching the bloody little blade to her chest with both hands. But it didn’t cut her in the slightest.

“Ren…” she whimpered, her voice breaking as her quivering gaze held Kagome’s. “He w-wouldn’t stop…I-I tried…I tried to s-stop him but…”

“Shh, Rin-chan, it’s okay.” Padding over, Kagome gathered the trembling girl to her chest. “You did the right thing—do you hear me? He wasn’t going to stop. You saved me, Rin-chan—you saved my life.”

Between pitiful, anguished sobs Rin gasped out, “…I-I think…I think I’m going to be sick…”

Kagome stepped back. As Rin bent over and dryly retched, Kagome soothed a hand over her bowed neck and shoulders. Gods what a mess, the miko thought miserably, as the sound of battle raged on below them.

A small stirring nearby brought her back to the present. Kagome’s eyes strayed behind her in question.

“…Kanako-chan?!” she exclaimed, hurrying over.

Sluggishly, the waif blinked up at her, moaning as Kagome helped her to sit upright against the wall. The bleeding at her temple had frozen in a dark crusted fall. The purple shadow of a bruise haloed the gash already.

Prodding gingerly at the knot in her scalp, Kagome murmured, “There might be a slight fracture, but it’s nothing too serious. You got off lucky, Kanako-chan. That vase you smashed into took the brunt of the blow.” Sighing, Kagome shook her head. “Such a crazy thing to do, attacking an armed man head-on…”

“Kagome-sama…you are safe…”

The miko smiled ruefully. “Can’t argue with that—I guess I owe you one, huh? Though I still think you acted like a lunatic back there.”

“Is he…?”

“…Yeah,” Kagome said, her voice lowering as she glanced aside at Rin, who had risen to her feet and now stood with her arm braced against the broken door’s frame. “…He’s dead.”

Something in Rin’s rigid posture made Kagome vaguely alarmed. With the press of a hand, she urged Kanako to lie still and rest. Rising from her crouch, the miko crossed over to her apprentice.

“Rin-chan?”

Kagome’s words didn’t seem to register. As if in a daze, Rin wandered forward into the next room—or what remained of it anyway. Stepping after her, past the mangled screen, Kagome emerged into a space largely demolished. A chunk of wall and roof had been ripped asunder, as though gigantic jaws had bitten right through it.

Less than a foot from where Kagome stood, the floor dropped off into a dark jagged fall. From here within the castle, she surveyed the greying landscape as clearly as if she were standing outside. And the sight that met her eyes made her draw in a sharp breath of horror.

“Edo,” Rin cried faintly through the ashen hand she’d pressed to her lips. “Oh gods, no…”

Riotously, the fires of battle had spread, growing into a conflagration that raged as far as the eye could see. In the distance, the rosy surface of Kagome’s barrier glowed orange from the reflected heat. And within its supposed arc of protection—

The night winds had carried those fiery sparks straight inside. Desiccated by rains that had tarried far too long, the town had become a tinderbox waiting to ignite. The great wooden walls that had been raised to protect Edo now encaged it in a ring of seething flame.

Kagome’s stomach seemed to plummet straight through the chasm at her feet. All those people she’d thought she’d spared from harm…

All those people were trapped in there like mice in a burning cage.

Inuyasha © Rumiko Takahashi