Inuyasha:The third sword

Inside the cave used as an extraction mine, the air is stifling, the darkness is barely kept away by the torches and the monotonous movement of the diggers makes everything look even more terrifying.

Walking at a safe distance from those senseless "Zombies", Asahiko and Kikyo look sideways with a bit of wariness towards them. 

"He did touch them, will they notice?"

"You're bored already, don't answer me, it's a very obvious thing to do."

Reacting even faster than Asahiko, she fixes her black hair behind her ear and self-responds to herself. By the looks of it Kikyo was already very used to his erratic behavior. 

"Do you think I'm a child, Kikyo... Tsk, it was just a very reasonable doubt of mine."

"Originating from boredom."

"Totally!"

Easily accepting that she's right despite having wanted to deny it beforehand, Asahiko doesn't take his eyes off those "Zombies" walking evenly around the center of the cave. 

"Ahem, can I come out at once?"

"Oh boy, look if it isn't good old Saya... You finally deigned to speak."

Keeping one hand on the hilt of Clouded Fang, Asahiko replies to Saya, but still, he does not fail to keep it imprisoned inside the scabbard. 

"Young Asahiko, you must understand that I did not go around ignoring you, I was keeping Clouded Fang under control. Ryukotsusei's soul is very powerful, it is a danger that it will be totally devoured all of a sudden."

"Bah, stop beating around the bush, you only didn't want to show up because I was asking you if those two had any connection to Inuyasha."

Dismissing Saya's words as pure blather, Asahiko still lets it out of the pod. Finally able to take a breath of fresh air, Saya takes an exaggerated puff and then strokes his long silver beard. 

"Revenge is no good, it only kills the heart and poisons it."

"Kikyo, what do you say?"

Turning in the same spot, Asahiko stares at Kikyo looking for support rather than an answer. 

"Nothing is better than sweet revenge."

"Kyaa, is it hot in here, or is it just me imagining things?"

Grasping the edge of her clothing, Asahiko begins to shake it in search of creating a draft, just as if there was a lot of heat. 

"Clearly you're imagining it."

"I don't know... What a great mystery~"

Prodding Kikyo's side with her elbow, Asahiko maintains a "Come on, one last helping hand" expression, but Kikyo simply swats her arm away. 

"If they were going to call me for this, they would have told me."

"Hey, what do you mean, Saya?"

Taking a wise old man's stance, Saya strokes his beard and readies himself to speak, though strangely he seems to have moved closer to Clouded Fang. 

"Asahiko, you are an attacker who doesn't really want to attack. Almost like a guerrilla attack, I try, but I don't."

"Saya..."

"Meanwhile Miss Kikyo is like a walled city. Strong and impenetrable, but with a clear gate to enter through. So…"

It was much faster than human eyes could grasp, but two hands reached out towards Saya in an attempt to silence him, though he quickly became incorporeal and entered the interior of Clouded Fang. 

"Saya... Come out now, Saya. You're going to have to come out at some point, you're either going to want to eat or protect Inuyasha."

"Calm down, Asahiko, I have a way to purify cursed objects... Just wait."

Speaking with a cold and lethal smile on her lips, Kikyo stops Asahiko, who was waving the sword around. 

If he had played it to one of them, he would have had the support of the other, since he is always competing. But no, he went after both of them head on, when Asahiko is a staunch naysayer and Kikyo in this matter is going the same way. 

"Looks like we already have a plan, we take care of this and then we flush him out."

"We purify it."

"Hahaha, let's calm down a little bit... Okay, it'll be put to a vote or something."

...Christopher/Asahiko pov….

The path to the depths of the cave became darker and darker, suffocating and seemed to invoke in people a feeling of terror. 

Not that I could feel it, but even those "Zombies" started to walk slower and more carefully, as if they did not want to awaken a certain "Thing".

Disregarding those minor things, both Kikyo and I continued to advance through the tunnel, until we finally reached a large subway cavern and managed to see our target. 

"What... what the hell is that?"

"Something that's neither alive nor dead, a creature that shouldn't be able to be here."

The exaggerating thing I'm good at, I'll take it, but that thing... Ugly is an understatement. It was clearly a worm, but half of its body was a continually moving fusion of flesh and blood, while the other half "Alive" seems to be slowly being corroded by the red. 

Even with the slow but clear advance of the red zone, something supernatural seems to prevent it from advancing any further than necessary, probably the shard. Another thing to note is its huge body, easily about 10 meters long.

"Yes... Clearly that creature is not normal. Can you feel where the shard is located, Kikyo?"

"Inside its belly, in the area it keeps leaning against the ground. I'll take the dead side and you take the live side."

"Okay, let's get started~"

Finishing speaking with the elongation of my words, he jumped towards the creature's right side and with an easy swing of the fan, clear openings are marked on its "Alive" side. 

From the wounds no substantial amount of blood flows out, but rather quickly the blood coagulates and the wound closes in a moment. 

*roar*.

First came the loud sound wave, which interrupted my movements and forced me to retreat backwards. But that wasn't all, as he worm brings his upper part backwards and spits out a kind of green/reddish slime full of iron chunks that melts the rocky ground.

"I already have your attention, isn't it time for you to enter the fray?" 

"It's useless, you can't kill something obviously dead."

Perhaps noticing my "It's a joke, because it's not funny" face, Kikyo shoots an arrow directly into the "Dead" part of the creature. 

It was surprisingly effective, causing a chain reaction to take place and a large chunk of flesh to be ripped off. The thing is, that chunk of flesh is quickly supplanted by another, returning the whole situation to its beginnings. 

"Okay, so we just keep ripping chunks out of it until it can't regenerate anymore? Kind of tedious, but we can do it."

Delivering a possible solution, he jumped off the ground avoiding the sweep the worm made and with a kick to its "Alive" side sent it into the wall. Yes, the creature is incredibly weak, it only has that pesky regeneration ability in its favor. 

"Turn it over, I'm going to rip off the piece where the shard is and be done with it."

"And how am I going to do that? I'm not touching that red thing. It's actually kind of grossing me out."

Pointing my finger at the constantly writhing "Dead" area, I see the acceptance of my words in Kikyo's eyes. 

"Grab it on the normal side, or make an explosion under it. I don't know, just turn him over."

"There are times a man's gotta do, what a man's gotta do."

It was ten minutes of the least memorable of my life, it all comes down to creating explosions under the worm and letting Kikyo shoot him in the air. Yes, it turned out to be quite anticlimactic at the end of this adventure. 

"We've got the shard, we've killed the worm, let's call this whole thing a wrap."

Clapping my hands reassuringly, I bring this chapter to a close. 

"Not yet, the swords that were created here are still circulating."

"And why should that concern us, it seems quite normal to me. Think about it, there is everything around here. Evil spirits, sealed monsters, man-eating beings... Adding some cursed swords doesn't make a difference."

"What worries me is that the negative emotions of those killed by those swords, will be used to amplify their connection to the afterlife and summon another monster."

Oh my goodness... This has now become a chain mission. As I recall Maramasa swords were highly prized even by the shogun, although that was more around 1600... What year are we in?. 

No, no, that doesn't matter, just go with the flow. Well more exactly the supply lines coming out of here, then we can start looking. 

"Are you sure, no, you're the expert on this... Fine, whatever, let's do it."

Sighing at being dragged into this problem, I just accept the situation as it came to me. Why refuse this interesting, ahem, problematic situation.