An orange-colored flash rises into the dark skies, while remnants of the flames stick to nearby trees and leave them glowing like Christmas trees.
"Moon Shape:Crescent Gibbous".
Falling from the sky in an extremely slow, almost feather-like manner, Asahiko lifts the fan of feathers and cuts downward.
What is unleashed with his simple gesture is a massive slash, easily exceeding twenty meters in height and advancing with mind-boggling speed for its size.
"Dance of the blades!"
The surrounding wind twists under Kagura's will as her fan-like movements guide the hurricane winds to form an equally large slash.
Just like the first time her attacks didn't result in an explosion, instead Kagura's wind guided Asahiko's flames and scattered them to the surroundings.
"I had already forgotten about that, truly a beautiful and incredible technique.... Ahh, too bad you had to imitate my style."
"As self-centered as all demons, but I can gladly accept those compliments."
"Now that we're more at ease, where are you taking me? Not to exaggerate, but if I want to I can be back in a few minutes of running."
Sitting down on a tree branch and signaling her to take a seat next to me, which she obviously ignores, I start talking to Kagura who hovers in the air.
"You certainly could, but this fake pearl is truly important."
"Fake pearl?"
"What are you saying, this one is totally real and important."
Why that suggestive look, is the pearl she has fake yet important? But why would she give me that information, she's not going to gain anything by telling me such a thing.
I seem to remember at our first meeting she was overflowing with hatred towards demons, perhaps not against all of them, but a much more specific and particular one.
"I see, you have a final destination marked out and you can only choose the path you take to get there."
"Smart, much smarter than Inuyasha... Dance of the blades."
"Lunar form:Full moon."
*Booooom!*
...Elsewhere...
"Black hole!"
Removing the seal holding the curse in his hand under control, Miroku points the suction forward, devouring all the flaming spikes coming towards him.
"Nasty nuisance, alone."
"Hiraikotsu!"
Before she can continue speaking against poor Miroku, Ruri is interrupted by Sango's huge boomerang coming straight for her head.
The danger posed by that boomerang to Ruri is minimal, so much so that she stops it by driving the tip of her spear into the center of the boomerang.
Clearly pleased with her overwhelming victory, a smile spreads across Ruri's face, though it disappears when a flaming paw hits her directly and sends her flying.
"Well done, Kirara."
"Don't let your guard down, Sango. She may be weak, but her technique can be lethal."
"I understand, Your Excellency, but she can't seem to control it... It's almost as if it doesn't belong to her."
Both are experts in fighting supernatural beings, Sango being a demon exterminator and Miroku an experienced monk, they may be overshadowed by Inuyasha, but in the end they too have a lot to give.
"Kill them, I'm going to kill them!"
Along with the piercing scream coming from deep in the forest, dozens or maybe hundreds of flaming crescents fly from the depths and hurl themselves towards them.
Obviously it was idiotic to try to resist that, so Miroku uses his black hole to devour a portion of them and create an opening in the hedge. Taking advantage of that opening, Sango rides Kirara and grabs Miroku to escape through that very spot.
*Boom* *Boom* *Boom* *Boom* *Boom*
Cloud after cloud of dust, dirt, wood chips and rock rise into the night sky, while the green forest that once existed here has passed into history.
The destruction was certainly astounding, though not strong enough to destroy the barrier protecting the dark priestess and keeping them out of the place.
"Well done, Sango. How many presences have appeared!"
"Five, twelve, twenty. Your Excellency, they already exceed thirty and counting!"
Raising the tone of her voice due to surprise, Sango points downwards, the place where a large number of scorpions begin to gather. This is a clear sign that Hari is interfering in the fight, all in aid of her sister.
The scorpions do not remain static as they think, but begin to spew venom from their stingers enclosing Sango and Miroku more and more.
"Have you noticed, Your Excellency? They are all the same and follow the same pattern of movements."
"That is to say she doesn't control them directly, otherwise it would be much harder to miss them. I seem to recall that you had something in store for such cases, Sango."
"That's right, Your Excellency, though I need a little time to get the combination right."
Guiding Kirara to dodge everything that will be thrown at them, Sango seems to have a plan to take down these minions and put an end to this stalemate.
...A little further….
"I don't think they can stand much longer against my little ones. They may need to."
Not caring in the least about Hari's crude attempt to divide her attention from the combat, Kikyo easily dodges the razor sharp petals, then steadies the bow diagonally and releases the arrow she already had at the ready.
It was as if Kikyo had foreseen Hari's next moves, as her arrow moved stylishly through the air and hit him directly in the hand, causing her to have to drop one of her dual swords.
"Did you really think that would work, demon? I see your previous defeat was no coincidence."
Taunting Hari with that particular style she has when dealing with Naraku or anything related to him, Kikyo keeps an immovable smile on her face, making Hari more and more enraged.
"I'm going to... I'm going to... Hahahaha, I see what you're trying, but it won't work."
Holding back her desire to unleash her anger and completely tear Kikyo apart, Hari calms her ragged breathing and then approaches the edge of the barrier.
Kikyo was never really interested in Hari's complete and utter defeat, only from start to finish she wanted to enter the barrier, even more so now that she knows she is part of some plan of Naraku's.
"I guess there was still something left inside that head, but not too much if you keep interfering."
"I really can't believe a priestess is saying that, really ours is the dark one or... Damn!"
"Too bad, but you've said more than enough. Seeing as how there are Inuyasha's friends, the dark priestess and that strange pearl... Tsubaki, I guess?"
Revealing the mystery at a mind-blowing speed, Kikyo links all the things that have happened and easily seems to come to a very plausible conclusion.
Hari on the other hand was cursing all over the place, clearly Kikyo had played with her emotions to get her to talk about more. The saddest thing is that she realized it, but she had already spilled all the soup and now she can't do anything about it.