Ice and Snow, Mind and Heart

Chapter 34: Old Scars

Yuki lunged at the vision as Kagome cried: "Yuki?!"

"Winter Blaze!"

Yuki swung her swords, slicing at the vision, and both Kagome and Inuyasha's eyes went wide as – suddenly – the memory of Yuki moved, darting out of the way of the attack while the rest of the vision vanished.

"What the hell?" Inuyasha began, when suddenly the memory Yuki started to grow and change.

The group gasped, except Yuki as she landed beside the only other person who wasn't surprised by the turn of events.

"As you expected." Sesshomaru noted, and Yuki nodded grimly.

"You understood." She stated, not needing to question it, but he answered anyway.

"Hn."

"What is that?" Sango demanded as they watched the vision-Yuki morph and shift, as though unable to decide what to change into.

"The doll that was posing as my mother earlier." Yuki explained stonily as the others started. "It was linked to me, somehow, and could access my memories to shape itself to look like my mother as I liked to think of her. I realized that to show us my memories, it must still be linked to me."

"And it's the reason we're trapped here." Inuyasha realized. "This isn't just Kanna's mirror dimension."

"We're trapped in a bubble." Kagome also understood.

"That's also why the Wind Scar didn't work." Miroku noted. "None of our attacks can work, because Yuki knows all of them."

"So that reflection doll knows all of them, too and just absorbs it." Sango added, while Yuki's jaw tightened.

"You were hoping I wouldn't figure it out." She growled at the shape-shifting doll/demon. "That I'd be so tortured by my memories that I wouldn't be able to focus and think. But that's where you made your mistake."

Her blue eyes flashed, switching from dark blue to their light blue as her hair turned white, and she snarled: "I've had one hundred and fifty years to live with my past, and I've had all that time to prioritize it."

Her energy swirled around her as she prepared to attack once more, done with messing around. Inuyasha also lifted his Tetsusaiga, over 100 years of fighting alongside Yuki enabling him to see where she was going with this.

"And let me tell you!" Yuki shouted. "My dead mother is way down on my list of priorities! Taking Naraku down, however? That's high up there!"

The doll/demon screamed in anger before flying at Yuki. It was slowly reshaping itself as it threw itself at Yuki, trying to overcome her, but Yuki stood her ground.

Lifting her swords, she shouted: "Arctic Storm!"

Ice blades flew out in a deadly storm towards the reflection doll, and Inuyasha quickly began, intending to join their attacks: "Wind Sc-!"

He broke off, eyes widening in shock as the reflection doll suddenly changed into the image of Izayoi. Yuki's eyes also widened before she narrowed them in fury, and she shouted: "Inuya-!"

Before she could finish, suddenly, Sesshomaru was leaping forward, his Tokijin unsheathed.

'When did he-?' Yuki wondered, but then disregarded it as Sesshomaru threw his attack at the doll.

"Dragon Strike!"

The blue energy clashed with Yuki's combining into a powerful ball of light that had never been seen before, just before it hit the doll.