Chapter 3:
A Hard Battle
(Opening: Owaranai Yume)
The stranger was no other than Sesshomaru.
- "Ugh, great! Just what we needed!" – shouted Gerardo irritated – "Having Lord Fluffy come right to our current location!" -
Everyone was confused about who he was talking about, but Gabriela did understand it right away and fell to the ground as she grabbed her belly, laughing loudly.
- "Who's Fluffy?" – asked Shippou.
- "That's the nickname a lot of people gave to Sesshomaru in my world. Let's just say he has quite a following, particularly among girls" – said Gerardo as the shade of a laughter began appearing on his face. With this, the others began laughing as well, knowing now why he said that. However, their fun came to an end when Sesshomaru went up to them, which got them all tense, while Gabriela and Shippou ran behind the others to hide.
- 'Damn it' – thought Sesshomaru as he looked at the fluffy part he had over his shoulder, and then he spoke to Gerardo – "How did you just call me, human? And why are you carrying Tessaiga and wearing the clothes of that useless fool Inuyasha?" -
- "That's none of your business!" – said Gerardo with more courage than he actually felt: he began trembling because he knew perfectly that Sesshomaru could kill them all easily if he wanted – "And anyway, why do you still want Tessaiga if you can't even hold it? Don't you have enough with Tokijin!?" -
- "These are matters that don't concern you, human… now hand over that sword!" – said Sesshomaru.
- "You'll have to take it away by force!" – said Gerardo, which was a grave mistake.
- "I shall comply with your wishes. You are every bit as idiotic as Inuyasha…" – said as he ran to him, enshrouded by a black aura, which made everyone around gasp in shock.
Gerardo unsheathed Tessaiga and drove it into the ground as he gripped it as hard as he could.
- "Come, please! If you won't transform, at least pull out a barrier or something!" – he thought scared.
A few seconds later, Sesshomaru was repelled by a transparent barrier that had been formed just an instant ago.
- "Hmph, so you're using the sword's barrier to protect yourself… very astute, yet that won't be enough to save you!" – said Sesshomaru as he began attacking the barrier with his sword.
- 'Shit! The barrier isn't going to last long like this… What I'm supposed to do now!?' – he thought desperate, and with the next strike of Sesshomaru's sword, the barrier was shattered.
- "This is your end" – said Sesshomaru as he used his claws to send a stream of green poison at Gerardo while he put his arms in front of himself. However, while this killed and dried away all the plants around him to the point of reducing them to ashes, it didn't have any effect on Gerardo.
- "I'm pretty lucky…" – said he breathing fast, looking at how the clothes he was wearing merely wafted a bit of poison but without any visible damage to them – "If it wasn't for the fabric of these clothes, I'd be dead by now" -
- "If my claws and poison won't be able to finish you off" – said Sesshomaru as he unsheathed Tokijin – "Then my sword shall be that which eliminates you!" -
He then began attacking him. Gerardo took Tessaiga again and began using it to parry the attacks, though he could barely block Sesshomaru's attacks, as between Tessaiga being stuck on its rusty form and the speed at which the attacks were coming, he couldn't do anything else. Finally, Sesshomaru struck Gerardo on the hand he was holding Tessaiga in, disarming him as Tessaiga flew off from his hands and drove itself into the ground behind him. He then punched Gerardo in the face, making him fall on his back at the side of where the sword was now stuck in the ground.
- "If you don't hand that sword over now" – said Sesshomaru as he came closer to the rest of the group –"I'll kill everyone here" -
- "You wouldn't dare!" – shouted Gerardo as he began sweating.
- "See it by yourself" – said Sesshomaru as he pointed to Gabriela, who had gotten paralyzed by fear.
- 'I don't care if that brat is like Rin. I just have the feeling that if I don't kill her now, I'll greatly regret it later. Besides, Rin won't have any reason to fear me since she isn't here right now' – thought Sesshomaru to then look at Gerardo with an evil smile – "I believe that girl means a lot to you..."
- "Don't even dare to touch her!" – said Sango as her Miroku, and Shippou put themselves between him and Gabriela.
- "You're insane! How can you think of killing her!?" – screamed Shippou.
- "Have you lost your mind, Sesshomaru!?" – said Miroku gripping his shakujou with both hands.
- "Don't interfere…" – said Sesshomaru. He then moved so fast that it seemed as if he had teleported around, and punched them in a way that caused them to lose consciousness. He then began walking steadily to Gabriela, as if he wanted to savor every single second of the atrocity he was about to commit.
- "No! Sango! Shippou! Miroku!" – screamed Gerardo shocked – "Sesshomaru, leave my little sister out of this!" -
- "Oh, so she is your sister?" – said Sesshomaru as he turned his head to look at Gerardo with repulsion – "This makes it even better. It'll be even more satisfactory for me to kill her then…" -
- "Damn it!" – said Gerardo lowering as he grabbed his head with his hands, desperate – "I can't do anything… I can't make Tessaiga transform… and I don't have any powers I can use to save her…" -
He punched the ground. He tried placing one of his hands over to sword to see if anything happened, but it had absolutely no effect. However, after he did so, Gerardo heard a strange voice resounding in his head…
- "I have finally found you…" -
- "What…?" – he replied to the voice – "Who are you…?" –
- "You are one of the Chosen… use it…" –
- "Chosen? What am I supposed to use?" –
- "Do it now… or she will die, as will you…" – said the voice. At that point, Gerardo felt as if something was entering his mind and as if he was in a trance, he stood up again, placed his hands over chest, closed his eyes, and began pronouncing words in a language he never had spoken or even heard before.
-"Khalt Zattyac Ochsmere Iadlast Kiabze Pawatz Zosph, Phaph Myya Zosph Phiaphz Ical!"-
(Music: The Power of the Dragon – Popolocrois Anime)
His body then began shining in a bright blue, and when the shine disappeared, he found himself wearing bright blue metallic knight armor with gray borders, whose helmet was shaped after a dragon's head and had a pair of wings sprouting from the back. The breastplate had a circular plate on its center that had a blue water droplet on it. Additionally, an iron sword and an iron shield also appeared on his hands.
- "I… I can't… believe this…" – said Gerardo as he looked down at himself.
- "Hmph, apparently you possess some abilities that I was unaware of, yet that won't change the final outcome of this" – said Sesshomaru as he turned away from Gabriela and ran up to Gerardo a full speed to slash him with Tokijin. Gerardo blocked it with his shield to then respond in kind, which made Sesshomaru evade him. They continued like this for a good while: both slashing at the opponent and avoiding the attacks of the other while they waited for a chance to attack themselves. Finally, Gerardo used the shield to block two of Sesshomaru's slashes, but it was a feint…
- "You have given a worthy fight for a simple human, but it's time to put an end to this…" – said Sesshomaru appearing behind him as he launched him an energy beam with Tokijin, striking him on the back. Gerardo screamed from the pain and placed his hand over the place where he had gotten hit.
- "Hmph, it seems that your strange armor doesn't offer much protection" – said Sesshomaru in a mocking tone as he raised his sword for the final blow, but then…
-"Nyarr Nyulase IphalRe Zosph Uira Ical Pawatz Zhoi, Oli Kialrazz Zosph Eoulss Ical! Water Cannon!"- shouted Gerardo spreading the wings of his armor to take flight, distracting Sesshomaru briefly with the wind blast he made by doing so. He then stuck his sword in the middle of the back of his shield. Both began absorbing energy, and a few seconds later, he was launching at Sesshomaru a blue energy beam shaped after a dragon's head.
Sesshomaru received some damage from that attack, but the worst part for him was that Gerardo came up to him following the energy beam's trajectory, and taking advantage he was distracted from its luminosity, he disarmed Sesshomaru by striking his hand and stabbed him with his own sword on the abdomen: apparently the sword was still charged with energy and thanks to that it could pierce his armor rather easily. Sesshomaru fell to the ground on his back, now without the black aura, and then Gerardo drew the sword back, flew a bit away from him, stepped on the ground again and fell to his knees.
- "Looks like… I won..." – he said as he gasped from exhaustion and looked at what he had done. Gabriela came walking to him looking a bit scared.
- "Gaby, are you okay?" – asked Gerardo to his sister.
- "Yeah, Gerar, but… you were amazing!" – said Gabriela smiling excitedly.
At that point, the others began waking up, and when they saw the current situation: Gabriela safe and sound, Sesshomaru unconscious with a large bleeding wound, and Gerardo wearing the dragon armor, they all could only hang their mouths open in amazement.
- "Are you all okay?" – asked Gerardo.
- "Yeah, but… how did you do this?" – asked Miroku, who still couldn't believe what he saw.
- "I really don't know" – said Gerardo. The next instant, the sword and shield began cracking, much to everyone's surprise, and shattered as if they were made from glass. The next instant, the entire armor he was wearing also cracked and shattered, and all of their shards disappeared as if they never had existed in the first place. However, this also made the wound and bruises Sesshomaru inflicted him disappear: apparently this whole event had healed them.
- "Whatever you did, it didn't last long" – said Shippo as he looked at Gerardo with curiosity.
- "Looks like you have some kind of power hidden within yourself" – said Sango as she looked at him – "Though it's very strange…" -
- "I know, and looks like I did it speaking in a language I don't even know, as I don't remember what I said when I summoned that armor and used an energy attack against him" – said Gerardo as he sat on the ground to rest a bit – "I just know I heard a voice in my head telling me to say these words…" -
- "Anyway, it doesn't look like we're going to learn more about it for now. And what should we do about him?" – interrupted Miroku as he examined Sesshomaru.
- "I think we should help him" – said Gerardo with a pitying look – "If we don't do something, he'll die…" -
- "But he's a youkai, and he also tried to kill us!" – protested Sango.
- "And many times, if I remember correctly… anyway, I've never liked seeing anyone die, no matter their species. Besides, I'm sure this would be terrible for Rin…" – said Gerardo with a sad face as he got up and walked to Sesshomaru – "Hmm… but I wonder what we can do… I'm not Tenseiga's owner, and we don't have a way of healing someone on the verge of death…" -
- "Gerar…" – said Gabriela getting closer to them – "I wanna… I ought to sing…" –
- "How can you think of doing something like that at a moment like this?" – said Gerardo in a tone that remarked this wasn't time for singing.
However, Gabriela clasped her hands in front of her heart, closed her eyes, and opened her mouth…
-"Ist Atok ShuxuaraRa Illyusea Phaph Zyoskz Atok, ShuxuaraRa Phaph Kluceia Biousakatse... Healing Light…" – as she sang, Gabriela's clothes were replaced by a very beautiful white and silver outfit similar to a kimono, filled with silver embroidery in the collar and sleeves, and white slipper-style shoes appeared in her feet, as well as white tights on her legs. A soft white light began radiating from her and spread throughout Sesshomaru's body, healing his wounds. When Gabriela finished singing, the light and the clothes vanished, leaving her dressed again in the kosode Kaede had given her, as well as her returning to being barefoot due to the tights and shoes disappearing.
When they saw that Sesshomaru was waking up, they turned their backs and began going away.
- "Wait a moment, human…" – said Sesshomaru after he stood up again and had picked up and sheathed Tokijin.
- "What do you want now?" – asked Gerardo, copying Sesshomaru's manner of speech and gaze.
- "What reason did you have to spare me?" – asked Sesshomaru unflinchingly.
- "My only reason is that I don't like unnecessary deaths" – said Gerardo.
- "I see… I can only say that I am indebted to you now" – said Sesshomaru turning around – "Maybe we shall meet again another day… but before we part ways, tell me your name…" -
- "I am Gerardo" – said him.
- "Very well… I shall remember it" – said Sesshomaru as he began walking away from them.
A while later, the group was sitting down on the grass and preparing to have lunch.
- "Well, I can't say that I'm unimpressed" – said Sango after Gerardo and Gabriela told them about his battle against Sesshomaru, as they wanted to know everything that had taken place there – "You never had any kind of training, but you still managed to defeat Sesshomaru!" –
- "Actually, I did take some karate classes long ago" – said Gerardo blushing – "And besides, it was mere luck… If it weren't for those strange powers…" –
- "Maybe, but you still showed enough cunning to take him by surprise" – said Miroku smiling – "Inuyasha could learn one or two things about battle strategies from you" –
- "Come on, it isn't such a big deal" – said Gerardo with a face as red as a ripe tomato – "So, what're we going to eat?" -
- "Well, I have some food around here…" – said Miroku as he got some food out from a bag – "I hope you like it" –
- 'And I've already got a guess where you got it from…" – thought Gerardo rolling his eyes.
Miroku got out five bowls filled with rice and a pair of hashi for each of them.
- "I don't really dislike rice, but…" – said Gerardo as he tried using the ohashi for eating, but he couldn't even grab a single grain. He sighed in exasperation – "As you can see, I'm so-so at handling a sword, but I'm a failure when it comes to using ohashi to eat" -
- "Ah, I guess you don't use them much on the west, right? Okay, let me give you a hand" – said Sango as she went to his side and began teaching him how to use them. She also did the same thing for Gabriela, who managed to learn much faster than her brother, so while it took quite a while before there were able to eat, they finally could.
- "By the way, what was all that with Sesshomaru?" – asked Miroku a bit dumbfounded.
- "Hmm, what exactly?" – asked Gerardo as he put a bit of rice in his mouth.
- "That he didn't want to continue fighting after Gabriela saved him" – said Miroku.
- "I think that he didn't want to dishonor himself by trying to kill the ones who saved his life" – said Gerardo calmly, as if he didn't mind it in the slightest.
- "But talking about a complex personality" – said Sango – "At times you were acting like Inuyasha in battle, but when you were talking to Sesshomaru, you were acting just like him" -
- "Hehe, well, I've been told that my personality has traits from both of them" – said Gerardo laughing a bit as he took another bit of rice to his mouth.
- "Oh, I see. Yet you have several other traits neither of them have" – said Miroku.
- "Well, isn't that supposed to be expected from each person?" – said Gerardo with a mysterious smile.
- "Well, you're pretty gentle and kind too" – said Sango – "Are you always like this?"
- "Honestly speaking, yeah. I'm always giving everyone a second chance…" – said Gerardo as he looked at them with a smile, but then his gaze soured up – "The only ones that won't get anything like that are traitors… to give you an example, if we were fighting youkai and I had the chance to strike the finishing blow, I could just spare its life and walk away. But if they try to attack me while I have my back turned, I'll just finish them off without any mercy" -
- "In other words, you can spare anyone or anything, but if they betray your trust, you'll annihilate them. Is that right?" – said Miroku as he continued eating.
- "Yup" – said Gabriela with a saddened face – "My bro doesn't stand that kind of things, as a few people that acted like they were his friends ended up betraying him" -
- "I see that hurt you quite a bit" – said Sango, to which Gerardo nodded in response – "No wonder you have such an attitude" -
- "But it's quite weird to find someone like you in such a violent era…" – said Shippou looking at him with his eyes of the size of platters.
- "By the way, Gaby's also quite kind and compassionate, like Kagome, but don't flatter her too much: you've already seen how spoiled she can get, and I don't want her to become more presumptuous and arrogant than she is. And as ironic as it might sound, she admires Kikyou more than Kagome" – said Gerardo as he looked at his sister in a bitter way. He ended paying a high price for saying that…
- "Sit down!" – shouted Gabriela, making his brother crash to the ground.
- "I know I deserve it, but it was still the truth!" – said Gerardo from the ground, rising a hand with the index finger extended. This made everyone laugh, excepting for Gabriela who was still pouting and enraged.
- "I just hope Kagome never learns of that if she ever gets to meet you!" – said Sango laughing.
- "By the way, going back to the topic of the powers…" – began Miroku once they stopped laughing – "Don't you find surprising that little Gabriela here could heal someone that was on the border of death the way she did?" -
- "Now you mention it, Houshi-sama," – said Sango – "That kind of healing can't be compared to anything I've seen before, not even to the youkai types that have a great regeneration ability" -
- "Well, it really left me impressed" – said Gerardo sitting up again and looking at his sister, who had finally calmed down and was now blushing – "Though it was pretty strange too… the way she used it was similar to the way I summoned that armor…" –
They then continued eating without saying anything else about these mysterious events.
Meanwhile, in the other world, Kagome and Inuyasha had spent the rest of the afternoon watching the taped episodes, which brought to them both tears from the more emotional scenes, as well as laughter and some embarrassment from the more comical ones. Mrs. Gallucci was out of the house at the moment at her job, as also was Mr. Gallucci.
- "It really wasn't bad at all. I see now why we're so popular in this world" – said Kagome smiling as she used the remote to put the VHS player in stop and shut down the TV.
- "It's true, but I'd really like trying to go back to our world" – said Inuyasha snorting – "Any ideas?" -
- "Well, let's see what we can do with the Shikon shard we have…" – said Kagome as she got it out from the flask.
They began trying all sorts of things with the fragments, such as holding it aloft, praying to it, and even using some of Kagome's own spiritual powers on it, but nothing happened.
- "Damn it, we can't go back!" – said Inuyasha desperate after seeing how all their attempts had failed.
- "But… mom, Souta, grandpa… and all our friends…" – said Kagome as she began shedding tears. She covered her eyes with her hands and began crying.
- "Kagome…" – said Inuyasha as he embraced her – "Don't worry… I'm sure we'll manage to get back somehow…" -
At that moment, the fragment began shining, and it created a sort of tunnel made of purple light in the room's window.
- "It's a gateway like that of the well!" – said Inuyasha excited – "Great! Let's get outta here!" –
- "Yeah! We can finally go back home!" – said Kagome joyfully as she wiped the tears from her eyes – "But… I think we should leave a letter to Mrs. Gallucci to explain everything to her. We can't just disappear after she took care of us" –
- "Whatever you say…" – said Inuyasha annoyed.
After Kagome wrote the letter and left it over the dining room's table, both took their belongings… or better said only belonging: Kagome's backpack, and jumped into the gateway to return to their world.
(End of Chapter)
(Ending: My Will)
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