Good Will Hunting

by Kyen

~ Moon Phase 3 ~ Hunting the Huntress

            “There is nothing here!” Inuyasha wailed. He had spent half the day tracking footprints and the smell of old blood, but all came to dead end. Now they were virtually lost.

            “It’s been two weeks now,” Miroku pointed out. “They could be leagues from here by now.”

            “Miroku’s right,” Sango admitted. “Even Kirara can’t pick up anything. Face it, there’s not way we can pick up the track.”

            “But if we don’t keep looking then Inuyasha dies,” Kagome said.

            “And we’re supposed to be sad about that?” Shippou demanded. He was instantly pummeled by Inuyasha, who then got ‘sat’ by Kagome and in the end it solved nothing.

            “Come on guys,” Kagome said with a resigned sigh. “Let’s just walk father the way the tracks went. We’ll probably find something soon.” They all agreed and began to trudge down the muddy path through the woods.

            “How long has it been now?” Inuyasha asked Kagome.

            “Three days,” Kagome sighed. “Admit it! We don’t knew where the Huntress is, we won’t find her, and you’ll die!”

            Sad to say, the others felt the same. For three days they had wandered southward, away from the mountains. For three days they had come up dry, except for a small pond, where Inuyasha picked up the faint smell of rose petals…and Sesshomaru. The pace had picked up and they had covered several leagues in one day, but Inuyasha soon lost the trail and now they were wandering aimlessly once more through the massive forest.

            Little did they know, they had actually come very close to their intended target, but it is very hard to trap a Huntress.

            “A half hanou has appeared who travels with four others, one small demon, a cat demon, and three humans, one a monk and one an exterminator. The other is obviously completely useless,” Xiang Yao reported later that morning after observing their visitors. Their pace had been slow, for Rin’s sake, but now it seemed they had paid. “I think they’re after me under threat of my foster mother, Ieo.”

            “Did you say half hanou?” Sesshomaru asked, sipping his tea.

            “Yeah,” Xiang Yao shrugged. “They call him Inuyasha, if I have been hearing correctly.”

            “Oh, trust me, you have,” Jakken assured her. “But why would they search for you?”

            “Seems the village is loath to let me go so easily,” Xiang Yao chuckled. “Sesshomaru, do I have permission to have a little fun with them?” Sesshomaru thought on it and then grinned wickedly, nodding. Xiang Yao chuckled devilishly and swung into the trees, her weapons at her side.

            “She has to be somewhere!” Kagome cried. “She has to be! We have to find her!”

            “And who are you looking for?” a voice asked. Kagome spun to face a woman sitting on a tree limb, her silver and black hair waving in the wind, red and blue eyes watching her with curiosity. Wait: red and blue eyes? That was her!

            “You’re the Huntress!” Kagome cried.

            “Don’t tell me, you’ve come on orders from my dear mother,” she said, leaning back as if amused.

            “Kagome, have you found anything?” a male asked, popping out of the bushes.

            “You’re the monk who has an obsession with the exterminator,” the woman in the tree, the Huntress, said with obvious amusement. She thought this all a great joke, Kagome realized.

            “How dare you!” Miroku howled and spun is staff into a offensive position. The Huntress merely laughed and crossed her legs, relaxing even further.

            “Miroku, what’s wrong?” Inuyasha called, jumping through the trees into the little clearing the same time as Sango, Kirara, and Shippou. “Who’s she?” he pointed to the woman in the tree.

            “Inuyasha, she’s the Huntress!” Kagome cried.

            “Don’t get your hopes up to soon,” the Huntress suddenly spoke, her face still smiling as she rose to a standing position. “I know why you’re here, and I know Ieo is watching you.”

            “Then you know you have to go back, or else Inuyasha…,” Kagome trailed off, not wanting to say it.

            “Dies?” the Huntress pressed. “You believe that little tale Ieo told you about the powder?”

            “Tale?” they all echoed.

            “She says the after affect kills the person who it is used on with a word,” the Huntress said, looking at her nails with obvious boredom. “All a lie. The worst that powder will do is give your half hanou friend a cold.”

            “What?” they all cried. “She duped us!”

            “Perceptive, aren’t we?” the Huntress said sweetly. “Took you a good while though to find me, so, why not play a game?”

            “A game?” Inuyasha asked, flexing his fingers. “What kind of game do you want to play?”

            The Huntress smiled, “A hunting game.” Kagome gulped.

            “A hunting game?” Inuyasha echoed.

            “Why, yes,” the Huntress smiled.

            Inuyasha clenched his fist and ground his teeth. He should have known she would try something like this to try and get away from them. Ieo had said she was one of the best, and by her posture and obvious confidence, Inuyasha believed it. It was not an arrogant confidence, but a confidence placed by watching and learning. Inuyasha had no doubts the Huntress was as good as her reputation proclaimed.

            “It’s simple,” the Huntress began, but she paused and jumped to the ground, a wicked smile on her lips. She glowed faintly and suddenly more of her began to appear, splitting from her body and then the copies. She, which meant all of them, looked up and laughed, “Just find the real me!”

            Sango frowned, “I have heard of this technique. High-level demons use it sometimes in battles to confused enemies. How she knows how to use it I have no clue.”

            “Ready?” all the Huntresses asked. “Good, now come and get me!”

            With that every one of the Huntresses leapt into the air and drew a weapon. There were about twenty-four of her and each one attacked at the same time. Sango dove to the side, barely missing being sliced by a chain blade. She rose stiffly from the rough ride and found herself surrounded by six of the Huntresses.

            Methodically they each attacked, driving her back and keeping close rang so her Bone Boomerang became utterly useless, and they kept up the assault constantly so she couldn’t use Doku-fun on them either. Sango dodged and whirled, finally getting an opening to draw her blade, but it cost her. One of the Huntresses leapt up from behind her and swung its chain blade. Sango gritted her teeth and shut her eyes, waiting for the pain to hit…it never came.

            Sango opened one eye and watched with utter astonishment as the chain blade swung right through her. The Huntress was still smiling through and the others began an assault, but everything passed through her. That was it!

            “Everyone! The fakes are merely shadows!” she called. “They can’t hurt you! Their weapons go right through!” She heard a profound sigh of relief from everyone, but her own sigh did not come from relief, but rather the sweet pain of sweeping into dark oblivion.

            “Oops, she figured out to much,” the real Huntress giggled and leapt up to another group so no one suspected anything.

            Miroku was in much the same situation as Sango had been and didn’t notice her go down due to his was preoccupied with another six of the Huntresses, only Sango’s theory proved wrong. Miroku had found one of the Huntresses whose blade was very real indeed, and she was coming in fast. It was all he could do to keep her at bay with his staff and using his Kazaana was too dangerous.

            Miroku dodged and whirled like a seasoned fighter, but the Huntress was by far the better. As he came up to block an attack, her blade suddenly switched directions and slid under his staff and sliced across his cheek. The blade then reversed again and the hilt slammed down between his eyes and he fell into darkness, a lovely bruise forming where she had smacked him. The real Huntress once more laughed and bounded away to one of the last two remaining groups.

            Kagome was the next target, and Shippou with her. Kagome was running out of arrows by the time Sango called out what they were. The stupid Huntresses kept dodging and scaring her and Shippou. Kagome dropped her guard, letting the images swing through her. Shippou, not so confident, cowered in the bushes, guarded by three of the Huntresses.

            “Stop this game!” cried Kagome. “Enough of this!”

            “But it’s so much fun!” all the Huntresses cackled and swung their chain blades.

            “Ha! I know they’ll just pass right through me!” Kagome challenged.

            “Yes, you and yours think that,” the Huntresses cackled and Kagome gasped as blood splattered on the grass, dribbling down her arm and hand to pool at her feet.

            “But…,” Kagome dropped to her knees and saw a pair of feet in her vision range. She looked into the eyes of the Huntress, glittering with pleasure. “They’re just shadows.”

            “That they are,” she smiled, “but I’m not.” Kagome’s eyes widened as she suddenly realized how the Huntress had hunted. Kagome reeled back as the Huntress’s foot connected with her face and went into the darkness. The Huntress smiled and turned to Inuyasha, summoning her other shadows with her, “Now, let’s see how long the pup will hold up.”

            It was all Inuyasha could do to keep his sanity as the six Huntresses continuously weaved and wrapped in and about themselves, creating a swirling chain that Inuyasha knew he couldn’t penetrate. Not daring to draw Tetsuaiga on account all might attack and even Inuyasha had his doubts about how well he would come out of that, so he kept his muscles ready as they swirled, laughing in his face.

            Inuyasha’s face brightened considerably when he heard Sango’s announcement and began to lash out with his Sankon Tetsusou attack, but they merely passed through the shadows as their attacks passed through him. A hopeless, useless, pointless battle against shadows. His confidence dimmed slightly when he saw Sango and Miroku fall, and it plummeted when Kagome went down. This Huntress was as good as any demon was at the hunt.

            He suddenly realized all twenty-three of the blasted shadows and the single real Huntress had moved in and the chain they had formed stopped swirling. They all lined up with ranks of six in a circle around him four layers deep. Only one was the real Huntress, and she was going to be nearly impossible to discern from the shadows.

            Without warning, three layers jumped, one higher then the other, and all four lashed out with chain blades. Inuyasha steeled himself for it, and was surprised to find that it was not a chain blade that hit him, but rather a whip. He felt his feet pulled out from under him and then knew the pain that came with hitting a tree. The Huntress knew what she was doing. All the shadows and the real one turned and lashed out with chain blades once more. The real one caught Inuyasha and scraped across his chest, leaving a gash that bled his life’s blood, and a good deal of it.

            Laughter rose from all of them and they brandished either blades or chain blades once more. Inuyasha tried to desperately to see who the real one was. Suddenly, half of them jumped and lunged in and the other half jumped in the air. Inuyasha took it all in with a glance –

            “Hijin Ketsusou!” he screamed, ripping blood from his body and throwing the blades produced by it in the air.

            A laugh echoed through the air and the shadows disappeared, leaving the real Huntress twirling her chain blade before him, a smile on her lips…and deadly smile, but one of approval. “Do tell, how did a half hanou like you figure who the real me was?”

            “Simple,” Inuyasha snarled. “You’re the only one with blood on her blade.”

            The Huntress cackled her laughter, “I applaud you! Very impressive!” Suddenly, her laughter died and she turned her back as a small girl’s scream racked through the air. She turned to Inuyasha and smiled, but it was a tight smile now, “I’ll come back to finish this later. Do wait for me.” With that, she jumped and disappeared into the brush.

            Inuyasha sighed and grunted as he struggled to rise. “Shippou, care for them,” he groaned and limped away, after the Huntress and towards the scream.

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