In the middle of a clearing obviously created by human activity—more precisely, by the duo of young men now facing each other—a completely uneven battle can be seen.
One side is a full-fledged army, wielding spears and swords made of fire, though strangely they all share the same appearance: golden hair and blue eyes.
On the other side, right in the center, stands a young man with white hair and amber eyes. He carries a great sword shaped like a beast's fang and wears heavily damaged red clothing.
"If you want, you can throw in the towel, Inuyasha. There's really no shame in losing to all of us. In fact, you should even feel—"
Cut in half—both his words and his body—one of the golden-haired, blue-eyed youths that make up the army is defeated by Inuyasha's sword.
That does not unsettle the others. On the contrary, they laugh at Inuyasha and begin to attack. Some throw their spears, others slash with their swords, and more than a few rush forward to fight with their fists, making it look like a human wave.
"Drop the tricks already… and fight head-on, Asahiko!"
Stepping back firmly, raising his sword and gathering all his strength into the lower half of his body, Inuyasha strikes the ground.
The ground sinks like a trampoline before chunks of earth shoot upward, destroying several Asahikos who turn into leaves. Meanwhile, the ones still standing are pierced by the shockwave as if they didn't truly exist and were nothing more than very good illusions.
"Well, I suppose that's one way to do it. An indiscriminate attack—destroy the false and the real… Really simple, but hard to pull off unless you're a musclehead."
"That was just a sample of what I'll do to you when I get my hands on you!"
Looking around at the now-cleared surroundings—except for the halted illusions and the fire weapons embedded here and there—Inuyasha remains on guard.
"Eh… okay? Oh, by the way, I wasn't hidden just because. It was to avoid losing concentration while maintaining so many fire-made weapons… and that other matter."
"Who cares? Just come out and fight!"
"So now that I'm talking to you, without controlling their shapes… boom, you know?"
Finishing his words without caring about Inuyasha's shouts and still remaining hidden, Asahiko lets out a soft "boom" with his lips, making the dog boy's hair stand on end as something terrifying happens before his eyes.
The spears and swords made of fire in front of him begin to mutate, losing their form and swelling sideways, as if they could no longer maintain their original shape… and that is exactly what happens.
Boom Boom Booooom!
It is like a full artillery barrage. The ground cracks like glass while the flames spread mercilessly around, and everything is reduced to rubble.
Yes, rubble—because Asahiko's flames still don't burn anything, but their sudden release, like pressurized air, is more than enough to recreate shockwaves, which are what actually cause the surrounding damage.
"Are you still alive, Inuyasha?"
"More than alive—furious! So die!"
"What? You? How?"
Opening his eyes in surprise—eyes embedded in the bark of a tree—Asahiko reacts slowly to Inuyasha's sword cutting toward him.
Fortunately, his transformation is based on surrounding and inflating his body with spiritual energy, so the first thing Inuyasha's blade pierces is a layer of energy.
Of course, that only stops the sword for an instant before it slices into Asahiko's flesh, making him scream and instinctively detonate the energy surrounding him out of pure survival instinct.
Boom
The explosion—more pure energy than any particular element—separates them, creating a good distance between the two and, for the first time since the second round of the fight, they see each other face to face.
"Hahaha, what was that scream, Asahiko? Aren't you— Damn it!"
Dodging on instinct the slash made of pure reddish energy, Inuyasha backs away slightly and raises Steel Fang in front of his face.
"Ahg… damn you… How dare you do this to me…"
[Yes, kill him! Let his blood bathe your sword!]
"Shut up, Souga! Do you think I don't know what I have to do?!"
Shouting at Souga, Clouded Fang, while he stops clutching the wound that crosses his left side, Asahiko resorts to anger to dull the pain coursing through his body.
It is a stupid strategy—because the wound is still there, still bleeding—but a logical one, since Asahiko is no seasoned warrior. If he focuses on the wound, he might very well start crying.
[Fine, but stop talking so much… and attack!]
Serving as a starting bell for both—because Souga spoke out loud rather than through the mental link that connects him to Asahiko—the two combatants throw themselves back into the fray.
Surprisingly, this time Asahiko is the one leading the charge and being the most aggressive. He clearly has a physical disadvantage, but he compensates for it by using his flames as distraction and guerrilla tactics.
Even with those rather "dirty" methods, Inuyasha does not lose ground. Instead, he proves to be the worst possible matchup for Asahiko. This is mainly because Inuyasha is a frontline fighter and also someone with a certain degree of mastery—not just a beast like the yokai encountered so far.
"Hahaha, just to do this you had to run away, Asahiko."
"One day I'm going to burn you alive…"
Letting the fire attacks crash against his body without resisting, as if mocking Asahiko's words, Inuyasha guides Steel Fang with his beastly instinct through the flames that fill his vision and strikes something solid.
That "solid" thing is Asahiko's sword, who is forced backward by the difference in strength. But before he can gain any real distance, the silver blur that is Inuyasha lunges at him, punching him in the right cheek and sending him flying even farther back.
That was humiliating—or at least that's how Asahiko feels in his overstimulated mind now screaming for revenge. Falling into those dangerous thoughts, he grits his teeth and brings his hand to his chest, from where a pink light begins to emanate.
"Those are the jewel fragments!"
"Well, you really are a genius, Inuyasha. You know, I've never used them, but their use is pretty easy to understand… And what does Asahiko want right now? To burn you alive!"
Growling more than speaking as he spits blood from his mouth, Asahiko takes the two fragments in his possession, and they begin to emit a dark pink light, as if being affected by his negative thoughts.
Despite those side effects, the fragments truly seem to grant his wishes, as Asahiko's golden flames begin to radiate heat, and everything previously touched by his flames starts to burn.
"Hahaha! Now get ready, Inuyasha!"
"Stop talking and come!"
"…Damn dog!"
Crossing dozens of meters with a powerful step, Asahiko swings Clouded Fang, now surrounded by flames, and strikes directly against Steel Fang. Inuyasha, already used to previous clashes, stands firm and blocks the sword—though that proves to be a mistake the very next second.
Boom
The flames surrounding Clouded Fang burst outward, exploding and burning everything the instant they make contact with Steel Fang, sending Inuyasha flying backward like a leaf in the wind.
"Ah, ah… Flaming Spear!"
Fixing his ragged breathing—apparently weakened by the continuous use of his modified flames—Asahiko shapes a large spear made of fire in his hand and hurls it toward Inuyasha.
It is a precise and deadly attack, impossible to dodge with Inuyasha falling from the sky. But fate, in communion with an arrow, has other plans. That arrow, shot from the nearby burning forest, hits the fire spear head-on, dispersing its flames and drawing both fighters' attention to its owner.
"Kikyo!"
"What do you think you're doing, Kikyo?"
Reacting in completely different ways—Inuyasha first and most excited, while Asahiko narrows his eyes—both watch Kikyo step through the flames.
She walks calmly through the fire, her new priestess attire showing no signs of damage, a long red bow in her hand. Another change besides the bow is her hair, now tied with a white ribbon and a rose in an intricate hairstyle.
"Those fragments are affecting you, Asahiko. They use your negative thoughts to twist your mind. Don't be fooled by the temporary power they give you."
"And I think you're trying to save the dog boy, Kikyo. I suppose that conversation with your sister was fruitful enough to change your thoughts."
"…Now you're acting like a child."
Sighing in a way she rarely does, Kikyo hangs her bow on her back with incredible skill and approaches Asahiko. Standing before him, looking up into his blue eyes with her deep brown ones from below—since she is 1.65 meters tall—Kikyo remains firm in the clash of wills.
In the end, Asahiko is the one who looks away first. He sheathes Clouded Fang with a "tsk" and begins extinguishing the fires by withdrawing the energy that kept them burning. Thanks to that, the poor forest stops burning, the smoke easily drifting into the sky and the heat dropping.
"Kikyo, it was all—"
"Stop shouting, Inuyasha. Kaede has already told me everything—just as Naraku planned 50 years ago for us to kill each other, how he now seeks the fragments and wishes to turn it dark again."
"So, Kikyo, you—"
"So what? Do you think this changes anything, Inuyasha? I am still dead, and you are with my reincarnation… Or will you kill Kagome to give me the soul fragment I'm missing that resides within her?"
Mocking Inuyasha, who looks like he just bit into a lemon, Kikyo shakes her head, a cold but sad smile briefly crossing her lips.
Perhaps by this point Kikyo had accepted part of the truth. Inuyasha certainly wavered between Kagome and her, but in the end his actions made it clear that little by little he was drifting farther from her side… as if the destiny that once connected them had broken.
"I…"
"There's no need to say more, Inuyasha. One action always weighs more than a thousand words, and now we both know you've chosen. Let's go, Asahiko."
"Tsk, sure."
…
Leaving Inuyasha behind almost immediately, Kikyo and Asahiko walk into the forest without saying a single word to each other. The air grows heavy, and the only sound around them is that of their footsteps.
When it seems like they will continue like this for the rest of the day, Kikyo is the first to give in.
"You need to treat your wounds, Asahiko."
"Yes, maybe later… Besides, I think I have very good natural regeneration. It's not even bleeding anymore."
Speaking without opening his mouth much, making his words come out slightly distorted, Asahiko touches his cheeks and sighs at the absence of a certain element.
"If you heal that wound on your waist yourself, your regeneration can focus on the tooth you're missing, and you won't have to talk like that."
"I'm not missing any tooth!"
"I saw it fly when Inuyasha punched you, just before you got angry."
"Fine, yes, he knocked out a tooth and ruined my beautiful smile… I'll never be able to look at myself in a mirror again. Now I'm a monster!"
Banging his head dramatically against a tree, Asahiko clenches his fists and turns toward the direction Inuyasha had been, considering whether to go back and teach him a lesson.
"I suppose you're fine now, so let's go."
"Wow, wait—where are we even going, Kikyo? Oh right, we have to go see Akemi, who was pretty worried about your sudden disappearance."
"We're going after another fragment as payment for all this. I assume you won't deny how useful they can be. As for Akemi… we'll see her later."
Forming a somewhat future-oriented plan of action—likely influenced by Kaede's words, which she had claimed no longer mattered to her—Kikyo waits for Asahiko before walking again.
Clearly, she was now ready to interfere in the plans of that being called Naraku, no longer to protect the jewel, but out of revenge for his disgusting past schemes.
… Manwhile Miroku...
"Open your eyes, Miroku! Everything you see is fake!"
"I know, Shippo... But there are times when... Hehehe."
Wiping the drool from his mouth due to his perversion, Miroku looks at the group of women blowing him kisses and him suggestive looks, before consciously falling into Asahiko's illusion.
There are times when a man has to do what a man must do... And for Miroku, that meant giving in to his basest instincts, although it can't be said that he didn't enjoy it.