Higuka by Vernal Equinox

Chaos

Chaos. Everything was happening at once. She did not even notice as her back was almost sliced open as she ran. She jumped to the ground an inch away from being symmetrically cut in half. Everyone was fighting, there was no end. Swords, arrows, magic, and even plain wooden sticks, everything and anything was used as a weapon. There was such a grand number of dead bodies the ground was red. Pieces of unidentifiable things were strewn all blanketing the hard-bitten ground. The words sense and sanity had lost all meaning. Instincts were running wild and vigilance was thrown away. Carelessness was destroying everything. The village could barely be distinguished amongst the other debris. She found what she was looking for: the little girl cowering with fear blazing in her little eyes. The child stood next to the smoldering remains of what used to be a house. She was clutching a piece of silken cloth for dear life and her eyes skimming over the battlefield in an almost schizophrenic state. Kagome grabbed her quickly and gave the girl a shock, but she had no time to explain.

Scanning over the immediate area as she sprinted, she saw a large pile of systematically placed boulders. "Here, now, stay," she managed to breathe. The child looked up to her with anxiety. Kagome faced her and tried to put on a calm face, "Now really, don't worry. Everything will be fine," she said reassuringly. "But you need to stay here, you don't want SesshouMaru to worry, do you?" She made sure not to flinch at the demon lord's name and smiled for the sake of the girl.

"Rin worried! Will SesshouMaru-sama be okay?" the girl sniffled in reply.

"Of course! Come on now, SesshouMaru is strong, he'll be fine." The girl still looked at her worried. "I promise."

Rin broke into a smile, "Okay!" Kagome made Rin put her head down and then headed back to the battlefield. Rin did as she was told and stayed behind the rock She looked convinced by Kagome's words and set her mind on being with her SesshouMaru-sama again by the end of the day. She did not like it when he fought like that, but she trusted Kagome. She stayed low to the ground so that the evil demons could not see her from the war zone. She fiddled with the silk in her hands and wished for SesshouMaru to come to her soon. Kagome thought absentmindedly to herself, brushing a lock of shimmering black hair away from her eyes. The battle had been going on all day since before the crack of dawn. Now the sun was slowly descending behind the lush green mountains in the distant East. Their group, though small, had the upper hand against Naraku's forces, but only barely. Naraku kept sending in more and more demons to fight. Their small group was getting tired and it showed. Inu-yasha had long since stopped charging at the enemy and now was content with standing his ground. Even SesshouMaru was slowing down from a daylong battle, one he did not even want to be part of.

Kagome regarded the battlefield. There was Inu-yasha on the right, valiantly slicing at three demons at once. Nothing was stopping him. The energy of his determination was so great it almost sprung from his body. He had already mastered the Tetsusaiga but was afraid to use its full power. He did not want to hurt Shippou or Kirara in the process. Kagome secretly thought that he did not want to hurt SesshouMaru either, although this he flatly denied. Over on the left was the infamous half-brother SesshouMaru with a heap of decaying flesh scattered around his legs. He was brandishing his sword Toukijin and destroying multiple foes with one blow. His eyes were red with demon aggression and his claws were dripping his well known acid. Ironically, SesshouMaru was the most innocent. He was the one forced into this battle. The others had wanted, needed, this fight. Miroku to end his horrible curse, Sango to avenge her family, Inu-yasha for his true love, Shippou for his parents, and even Kaede for her sister. But SesshouMaru, the best fighter among them all, he alone had not wanted part of this. He had not searched for the Jewel, he had not even wanted to be associated in the slightest with it. But of course he was forced into the mess, the chaos, him and that little girl, Rin. The anger of being forced to allow her to see such bloodshed burned in his eyes. Quite honestly Kagome felt sorry for him. He wasn't as bad as Inu-yasha made him, he couldn't be. He cared for and more importantly cared about Rin, a small human child. Plus, Jaken was still alive, and counting the times she had heard him threaten Jaken's life, he must care about the green demon to some small degree.

In the center was Miroku, sucking in demons, trees, rocks, and everything else in sight. His entire body shock from the pain rocking through him. He needed to stop, needed to rest before his Air Void cracked. He grimaced as a large object hit his Air Void. He could not tell what it was, he could not see anything. The screaming pains of his hand and was so great. He could not feel anything aside from the pain and the anger. Miroku was convinced to not die, he would not let Naraku's curse kill him. He would get Naraku, for his grandfather, for his father, and for himself.

Sango was near him wacking away with her boomerang. Her face was serious and pained. She was reliving the death of her father and brother, especially her brother. Now was her chance to avenge him against Naraku. Her entire body shook with determination. She could not think straight. All she saw was red; red of blood, violence, and anger. She did not even see Kagome running around. Dead and dying creatures were all around her. The not-quite dead were yelling in her ears but she could not hear them over the pounding her head. Kirara was soaring over the ground combating the other larger demons striking from above. Kirara had always been in this fight since the days of Midoriko. She had been there to help out the great Miko, and now she was here to help the great Miko reborn. Kaede was to the left of them splicing the air with sharp arrows. She was struggling. Her arthritic hands were stinging and shaking. She was running out of arrows and did not see any nearby. Her already bad vision was blurring with everything going on around her. Even Shippou was fighting, pushing demons back with his kitsune-bi. He had improved tremendously over the two years that the group had been traveling, although he had not grown much. Kagome thought. She ran over to him, grabbed him and set him down with Rin. She did not have much time to explain but she knew, however, that the little fox was stubborn and would need a good reason not to fight.

"Shippou, SesshouMaru says to watch her or he will kill you. I guarantee you he was serious," Kagome lied straight-faced. Shippou looked at her, glanced at SesshouMaru's form in the background, remembered the reputation of the great Lord's wrath, and quickly looked at the ground nodding his head in submission. "Good, now stay here, I'm going." And with that, she stalked back.

Her anger fueled her energy. She fingered the large Shikon shard around her neck and concentrated. Then she saw the sparkle in the far-off West. She darted like lightning through the war zone and finally saw the other chunk. All the shards had been collected, but by two parties, not one. There stood Naraku, beaming with pride and arrogance, completely unmarked. He grinned maniacally at the battle around him as he stood aloof from the violence. This is how he always fought, letting the others do the dirty work for him. She had to get that other half now or the chaos would never end. How she knew this she was not sure, but the fact rang clear in her mind. She saw the majestic Jewel dangling in the folds of Naraku's outfit. "Just one arrow, just one arrow, just one arrow..." she mumbled to herself as she strung her bow. She saw SesshouMaru running over with his sword above his head. As he brought the sword down near Naraku the evil villain turned to his direction.

Naraku just managed to block SesshouMaru's attack when he felt a piercing pain in his back. His eyes widened in shock as he slumped to the ground. SesshouMaru himself was paralyzed as he gazed upon the figure of Kagome. She stood in a slight clearing with no blood around her. Her hair was whipping behind her back as energy was flying all around her. Her eyes were glazed with anger and defiance, yet there was compassion, love, and concern shining through as well. With a split second of hesitation she had changed her mind. She had gone for his back, the Spider mark, instead of the location of the shard. It had worked and the shard came to her by itself. The completed Shikon no Tama was hovering in front of her, showering her form with a startling bright light. Kagome looked around her at the battle. Most were still fighting but some were slowly looking up in her direction. She saw SesshouMaru's frozen stare with Inu-Yasha obliviously slashing away in the background.

Then she turned her gaze to the Jewel in front of her. Innocent curiosity mingled with hardened experience as she turned all attention to it. She heard it hum to her in her body, a secret melody meant only for her. She could not hear it with her ears but she knew it was calling to her. She reached to grasp it. As her index finger grazed it the world vanished in white energy.