IYFF Drabble 50: Incense
Title: Chains of Crimson Darkness
Author: marishaten
Word count: 494
Prompt: Incense
Universe: Canon
Rating: T
Warnings: None
Summary: Attack, defend or surrender?
A/N: Follows Possessed.
Inuyasha jumped back. Even without the ghost’s warning, he could have clearly read the signs of possession. A bead of sweat trickled down the side of his face.
Tessaiga glowed in the dark, thrumming, impatient to be drawn. The youki of the dark thing possessing Kagome was calling out to it. An exorcising sword. Probably, if he drew it, it would absorb the dark thing by itself.
Allowing that would also destroy Kagome.
He put all thoughts of the sword out of his mind. His survival instinct was strong, but not at the cost of causing harm to his beloved woman.
Out of the corner of an eye, he saw that Kagome was blinking. Streams of tears were running down her cheek - the last remnant of her humanity? Or the vile trickery of the dark? In either case, she had chosen her weapon well. He was powerless against her tears.
In that instant, Inuyasha gave up all thought of offence or defence.
“If you want to draw blood, Kagome, better start with mine.”
Kagome extended her hands; her nails lengthened into pointed talons. With a shout that contorted her beautiful face beyond recognition, she charged forth, swinging her claws at him. In his mind, he saw Miroku’s face. The monk would be waiting for him…waiting for Kagome to return, for their battle against Naraku to resume.
Unconsciously, the thought told him that he needed to move, and although he had no intention of doing so, his body reacted on its own. Without thinking, he defended himself, and fell to the ground.
Kagome stopped in surprise. Inuyasha tried to clear his mind. He could not let his body’s automatic self-defence mechanism to cause injury to the girl. Spreading out his hands on both sides, he fully exposed his neck and chest to her.
One hand curled around an object that lay upon the ground. Inuyasha cast a glance at it. It was an incense burner in the style of ancient temple artistry. So that was the holy object. Inuyasha idly wondered where Houki had found the object and why she kept it inside the cavern. A movement above him alerted him once more to the danger at hand.
This time, Inuyasha wondered if he was doing to right thing to embrace death inside this underground chamber, abandoning his war against Naraku and the shikon jewel.
‘Kikyou can continue what we started.’ He reasoned with himself.
Something more important than his battle was at stake. At that moment, he did not care about the fate of the shikon jewel either. He looked up into Kagome’s crimson eyes that betrayed no emotion, not even the faintest recognition of him.
Inuyasha felt like laughing.
Kagome bore down on him, and without any hesitation, thrust with her claws.
‘Miroku, I’m sorry…’
He was bracing for the searing pain that never came.
The hand thrust, and there was a dull sound. A freezing wind touched the tip of his nose.