Izayoi's POV 

Surrounding Shuichi seemed too easy. I had a gut-wrenching feeling that something was up. Whatever this guy had planned would not be good for us. I made sure I had a tight grip on Tensoga as we waited to see what this incarnation of Naraku was going to do.

"All right you; where's Naraku?" Papa growled.

"I don't know," Shuichi replied. "All I know is that he wanted me to lure you all here."

"Why? What does Naraku want?" Mama questioned with her arrow pointed right at Shuichi.

The incarnation chuckled. "He wants what he's always dreamed of getting," Shuichi replied before looking directly at Mama with a smirk on his face. "And you, Kagome, you've made it possible for Naraku to get it."

"What?!" Mama gasped before clutching her now tightly in her hands. "What are you talking about?!"

"We'll never let Naraku get the sacred jewel!" Arrosa declared. "I'll never let him complete the ritual!"

Ritual? I thought. What ritual?

Shuichi sighed in annoyance. "Arrosa, you can't stop it now. Naraku has already made the necessary arrangements for it to commence. If only you had listened to him when you had the chance; then maybe you'd be on the winning side."

Suddenly, Shuichi's tentacles came out from his body -4 of them- and went at the four of us. We all dodged then before we could get hit but as I turned to dodge I was struck in the back of the neck by something, causing my body to be unable to move. I was frozen in place and at the mercy of Shuichi.

3rd Person's POV

When Inuyasha noticed his daughter not moving, he knew something was up. He tried to rescue her from her immobility but could not do so since Shuichi kept coming at him with his tentacles. Dang! How am I suppose to get to Izayoi? Inuyasha thought.

Shuichi had struck Izayoi when she wasn't looking and had paralyzed her by striking a certain nerve in her neck. There was no way for her to move.

Kagome and Arrosa sprang into action and fired sacred at Shuichi, who quickly dodged to avoid the oncoming attack. This gave Inuyasha the opportunity to move in and try to grab Izayoi, who was trying desperately to move her body in her own. As Inuyasha got closer, Izayoi noticed the smirking look on Shuichi's face as the half-demon for ever closer to his daughter. Oh no! Izayoi thought. It's a trap!

When Izayoi tried to speak, she found her lips unable to move, causing her to whimper. "Hold on Izayoi, I'm coming!" Inuyasha told her.

Papa stop! It's a trap!

Suddenly, Inuyasha felt a pain in his lower abdomen; he looked down to see that one of the tentacles had penetrated his lower abdomen and was sticking out the other side of it. Now he had been stabbed like this before but never had it been such an intense pain such as this. He felt like his body was on fire, like he was being poisoned or something. 

Shuichi laughed as he retracted the extra limb. Inuyasha collapsed to his knees and started coughing up blood. "What's the matter Inuyasha?" Shuichi questioned. "I expected more from the famous Inuyasha." 

Then the demon turned his attention to Izayoi, who had tears running down her face at seeing her Father in such pain. 

"Now then, I'll be leaving. And you, dear Izayoi, shall be coming with me." 

Izayoi's eyes widened with shock and Inuyasha growled as he scrunched up a handful of dirt. There was no way he was letting his daughter be taken by this creep. He stumbled to his feet and got some blood from his wound on his claws and shouted, "Blades of Blood!" sending the attack right at Shuichi. This time, the incarnation was not prepared and bared the full brute of the force of the attack. He was thrown to the ground, skidding across at such a strong force that he caused a crater to form in the place he had landed in. "No way...are you taking...my daughter..." Inuyasha panted before falling to the ground.

"Inuyasha! Izayoi!" Kagome ran over to her husband and child. She went right to her child first and tries to get her moving again. Izayoi was still paralyzed but got to moving quite a bit, taking it one step at a time. Izayoi seemed more concerned with her Father though, who was bleeding profusely from his wound. 

"M-Ma....M-Mama...." Izayoi managed to squeak out. "H-Help....P-P-Papa." 

"I know Izzy." Kagome told her daughter. She walked her over to Miroku, Sango, their kids, and Shippo, who had just arrived on scene, before running over to her husband. "Inuyasha!" 

"K-K-Kagome," Inuyasha croaked. 

"I'm here Inuyasha, you'll be okay." 

"He's in a lot of trouble," Arrosa stated, walking up to Inuyasha. "He's been poisoned very badly. We need to get him out of here, fast!" 

"But what about Shui-" Kagome turned to see that Shuichi was not in the crater anymore. He had vanished completely. 

"He got away." 

********************

The headman of the house gave a room for Arrosa to use to help reverse much of the poison that had got into Inuyasha's body when Shuichi attacked. Inuyasha wasn't happy about it, but Kagome kept telling him to have faith in Arrosa. 

While he was there, the others talked about their encounter with Shuichi; "I can't believe that Naraku has yet another incarnation." Shippo said. 

"Knowing how Naraku is, this doesn't surprise me that much," Miroku admitted. 

"This new one seems especially dangerous," Sango pointed out. 

"Yes. He took down Inuyasha so easily," Kagome added. "We need to be more careful now." 

"...I'm more concerned about what Arrosa said," Izayoi spoke up, making everyone look at her.

"What is it Izayoi?" Mochigo questioned. 

"Arrosa said she wasn't going to let Naraku complete the ritual." 

"Ritual?" Ayuma and Kayuma asked. "What ritual?" 

"I'm not sure. It has something to do with the sacred jewel though....What could it be?" 

"It's a ritual that very few people know about," Arrosa said, entering the room and surprising everyone. She walked in and sat down with the others, getting herself situated. "Kagome, Miroku, Sango, Shippo. I know you've run into a being that tried to use you all to create a sacred jewel, correct?" 

"On our journey when we were find the sacred jewel shards, yes," Miroku answered. 

"Well, what Naraku plans to do requires only one being to create the jewel and not five," Arrosa stated, stirring up the fire with a stick. She then looked at Izayoi with a stone-cold face. "And that being is you, Izayoi." 

"What?!" Everyone shouted. 

Izayoi is needed for the ritual? Why? What even is the ritual? Arrosa will explain next time! Please comment, post, and share.