Alpha by Lyra

Victorious

Drabble Collection Alpha

CXXVII

Prompt From Priestess Skye’s Bi-Weekly Challenge

Victorious

With a lunge, Inuyasha threw himself toward Naraku, claws flexing, and slashed four deep and narrow gashes across his chest. He was surprised to actually hear Naraku’s cry of pain, but not displeased; the sound added depth to the battle, made it real.

Almost immediately, Naraku moved, the skin writhing on his flesh, transforming, growing. Bereft of the power of the shikon no tama, Naraku was left with only the shapeshifting abilities that were native to him and a deadly miasma. In death, he could no longer summon dark power; dark power had consumed him – Hell owned him.

It was a concession to the power of the Inu no Taisho, his influence even after death, which had allowed Naraku to enter this place. If he had been thinking, Naraku would have recognized that Inuyasha’s father would not summon someone to teach his son – only to then destroy him.

But as it had in life, vengeance overpowered him; Naraku could not stand in the face of his own feelings, his own fury – never mind Inuyasha’s.

Even as he moved, Inuyasha was already after him, faster than Naraku could hope to flee, reaching out with claws sharpened by a near-visible presence of youki.

In the face of this enemy, restored beyond all hope or hate, Inuyasha was fighting at a personal peak. He sought weak points with flashing eyes that hovered between red and gold, though he found himself fighting against a sea of roiling flesh – against a mass of tentacles thick and seeking, strong and instantly binding when they touched against his ankles, his thighs, his waist -

Inuyasha struggled against ropes of sickening muscle that tightened around him, crushing, oozing indigo miasma that infected the heaving breaths he could barely take.

“Maybe it is you who will die, Inuyasha! Do you feel that burning in your chest, burning in your blood?”

Inuyasha twisted, reaching for a clean breath, for an inch of space. He screamed, yowling even without air – and then there was light. Crimson and glowing, it rose from his skin in a palpable aura of power that shredded aside the encircling tentacles and gouged out bloody gouts of flesh.

There, in the bloody darkness, Inuyasha found for the first time a leash of his own will strong enough to restrain the gaping bloodlust of the Inu inside him. Power flowed in him like the ocean’s currents, undeniable, immovable, swelling and overcoming as the waves.

In the throes of a rage made more deadly by its focus, Inuyasha grappled with his bare hands against the core of Naraku’s shifting flesh, ignoring the threads of miasma in the air and the tentacles that pulled against his limbs.

Naraku’s attacks became more desperate, faster, but against the strength of the beast inside Inuyasha, chained to a single purpose, all his mockery and tricks were useless. Hanyou that he was, Inuyasha had been born to a power that Naraku at his height could barely confront. Even without Tetsusaiga to push that energy to a cutting edge, its very presence was devastating, a burning weight that consumed from all directions.

Flares of black energy, spikes of darkness, drove against the rush of Inuyasha’s youki, but such was the difference of strength between them that Inuyasha did not even feel his foe’s resistance.

He had been right, in his realizations – his power would never rival his brother’s, not in immensity, not in intensity – but it was more than enough to squash Naraku’s hopes for vengeful destruction. As the red light grew, the pulsing bits of Naraku that had been shed and discarded across the void began to smoke and writhe, then turned to dust.

Black ash blew from nowhere to nowhere. Naraku seemed to shrivel under the pressure, his changes flowing away, dispersing, condensing -

In a humanoid shape at last, pinned to his knees with Inuyasha’s claws at his throat, Naraku struggled and spat but could not get free. Furious light stilled him; Inuyasha’s claws dug deep into his throat, his belly, and rent his body apart.

The flowing blood was black and viscous, darker than the miasma and twice as poisonous. Inuyasha leapt away from the flow, and stood with a snarl of victory on his face.

The first time, Kagome’s light had ended Naraku’s life. In death, the bastard was drowning in his own darkness.

Slowly, as Naraku choked on his own spilling life, the red light faded into a crimson glow that clung to Inuyasha’s eyes and skin, and then vanished. With a rumbling growl, he moved as if to approach his fallen foe, but his father’s voice stopped him.

“Feel better?”

Inuyasha stretched, cracked his neck, and let out a long breath.

“Yeah. A little. Not about anything important, but – that was...relaxing.”

His father laughed.

“You are my son, indeed. I must be honest, Inuyasha, there was more than amusement to my purpose; I wanted to reduce your frustration before we moved on. You were not only angry at your enemy.”

It was not a question, and Inuyasha let out another breath.

“No. I’m angry...I’m angry at myself. And you. Even though that’s got nothing to do with anything. And -”

“You are wrong, Inuyasha. Tell me why you are angry with me.”

The Inu no Taisho’s eyes had grown dark and intense. Inuyasha fidgeted, crossed his arms, looked away.

“I don’t – I don’t really feel like – it’s none of your business, okay?”

“No. Why are you angry with me? Speak, Inuyasha! Tell me your grievance!”

There was a flash of fury from his son.

“You died! You died and left us alone! Me, and mother! You died, and she...she just...folded up and faded away like a flower.”

And then Inuyasha shook himself, and looked up at his father with red renewed in his eyes.

“You died, and it’s all your fault! Everything!”

His father did not deny it.

~~~~

A/N: 1000 words! Ah...and so Inuyasha prepares to venture forth with his father...and we, dear readers, return to Kagome and Sesshomaru, who stand poised on the brink of something terrible and wonderful. Onward, and such things!

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