Ice and Snow, Mind and Heart

Chapter 73: Magatsuhi

"You must escape!" Jaken cried from his spot further back, watching the fight. "Yuki! Lord Sesshomaru, if you were to lose your right arm, you would no longer be able to fight!"

But there was no way out of the fight without running away. And not only did that seem unlikely to succeed given this strange demon's speed, but Sesshomaru would never choose such an option. He snarled as he dodged another poisonous tentacle, when a sharp cry drew his attention.

Yuki had blocked one attack, but it had taken both her swords, crossed before her face, to keep the poison from reaching her. And that had left one clawed-tentacle free.

Yuki's own quick reflexes had prevented it from killing her, but the claw had sliced her side. More than the wound it had left, the pain from the poison as it burnt her had caused her to let out the cry of pain that had caught Sesshomaru's attention.

Yuki staggered as she landed on her feet and Sesshomaru's eyes narrowed. He snarled, but Naraku's incarnation just laughed.

"Oh, did that hurt?" He mocked before his eyes gleamed with amusement. "How about you try this, then?"

The demon suddenly launched a jet of miasma at them, and Sesshomaru instantly leapt over to block the poison as best as he could with his own poison whip.

But there was only so much he could do against the sheer intensity of this demon's poisonous fumes, and Yuki gasped as the miasma began to invade her senses. And a familiar dull thump pounded through her entire body.

"Oh no, Yuki!" Rin cried in fear, while Kohaku shouted, "Yuki, hang on!"

"Let's see how long you can hold out, half-demon." The demon smirked as he watched Sesshomaru slash through the last remnants of the miasma. "You've inhaled enough I think that it should be starting to affect you."

Yuki snarled back, but it was much more feral than her usual growls. Sesshomaru's eyes tightened as Yuki clutched her chest, trying to keep her pounding heart from forcing too much adrenaline through her body.

She could feel the dull thump, one she'd felt in the path to the Netherworld, and she didn't want to relive that. Especially since if it happened here, in the world of the living, she was doomed.

"Hehehe..." The demon sniggered as he watched Yuki fight herself while Sesshomaru stood before her almost protectively. "How interesting-"

Sesshomaru lashed out, sending a poison whip at the demon, but the incarnation dodged quickly. Sesshomaru lunged after the demon, incensed and intent on killing him, but the demon laughed as he released his claw-tentacles once more.

Sesshomaru was forced to dodge, avoiding the poisonous claws that threatened to cut off his one arm, and Jaken squealed: "Oh no!"

The incarnation laughed manically, but he was interrupted as someone shouted: "Leave them alone!"

A sickle whacked into the incarnation's temple with a dull thud, plunging into the skin, and Sesshomaru glanced up sharply.

'Fool!' Sesshomaru thought with a growl as Kohaku leapt at the incarnation, determined to help and convinced the demon couldn't touch him and Kikyo's light if he was Naraku's incarnation.

But Sesshomaru knew better, and he watched as the incarnation extended his right hand, the appendage morphing into several tentacles like his left arm had. Kohaku gasped as the tentacles wrapped around his body and held him tightly in one place, before his eyes almost popped out of his head as he felt another claw touch the shard in the back of his neck.

"My... my shard!" He gasped as he felt it becoming defiled.

Sesshomaru launched himself quickly towards the boy, his arm extended to save the human child after his foolishness, but Sesshomaru grunted as three smaller claws shot out and right through his hand and forearm.