7:45 PM. It was pitch black outside. The perfect time to burglarize somebody else's house.
The three burglars, Hiroshi, Tanaka, and Takeshi, walked around the target house, a black ski mask pulled over the face of each. They had surveyed the house a day before, and as far as they knew, there were no security systems, so any opening they could find was fair game. At last, they finally happened upon the old, musty shrine.
"Jackpot," Takeshi whispered happily as they proceeded inside. They looked at the items lying around: dried-up relics, family heirlooms, "demon remains," but nothing of real value.
"Hey, guys, come over here," Tanaka said as he motioned for the other two to come over. "I found the donations box."
"Perfect," Hiroshi silently cheered as he walked over to the wooden box customary for all family shrines. "Let's see what's inside." He shined his flashlight in the donations box, and it was... completely empty.
"Dammit, they must have emptied it already."
"Well, this is just some dirty old shrine. It was probably a given that there wasn't going to be much to steal in here. Let's get inside the house and see what's in there." And with that, the three were out of the shrine, back around the house, and at the front door. They were careful picking the lock, and they got in without making any sound whatsoever.
The lights were off inside the house, so they figured that the residents must have been out shopping or whatever else, but the important part was that they weren't there. They went straight to work, grabbing anything of value they could find and quietly hauling it back out to the delivery truck they had parked in the back alley closest to the house. Televisions, paintings, furniture, silverware, they took anything they could get their hands on. After hauling everything from the ground level away, they started to go for the stairs when they heard the sound of an animal's padded paws brushing the ground and advancing towards them. They all froze, afraid of what they might see when they turned to look at it.
"When did they get a dog?"
"I don't know, maybe just today."
The burglars all turned to look into the demonic eyes of their bloody demise... and instead found themselves staring into the eyes of a timid little housecat. It sat down, pawed its face a bit, mewed, then turned around and walked away.
"Phew... that was WAY too close. Now then..."
They began to climb the stairs when they noticed something. A little sliver of light, shining from underneath one of the doors.
Somebody was still in the house.
"Crap!" Tanaka angrily hissed. "How could we have missed that?"
"The curtains are pulled shut in that room. What little light might've gotten past them would be hard to see. Dammit... she's going to find us when she leaves the room."
"Hehehe... then we'll just have to make it so that doesn't become a problem, won't we?" Tanaka whispered, a smile on his face. With that, he went back outside to get something from the van while the other two released the hammers on their pistols and snuck up to the room, ready to surprise the unlucky person on the other end of the door.
"Huh?"
Kagome suddenly sat up in her chair, wiped the little trail of drool away from the corner of her mouth and rubbed her eyes a bit. "Aw man... how long have I been asleep?" She briefly recalled the events of the night: after taking a quick bubble bath, she got dressed in a long-sleeved, black t-shirt and a tan skirt, said goodbye to mom, grandpa and Souta, who all had manners of their own to take care of, then sat down at her desk and cracked her geometry textbook open. Finals were tomorrow, and if she did well enough on them, maybe she could undo the damage that escapade after escapade to the feudal era had done to her grades. She had first opened the book up about 5:00, had poured over it a good deal, then checked the clock, which read 6:17, and drifted off. She checked the clock now: 7:54. The heat from her miniature lamp had caused the top of her face to sweat a little. The room was cold as well, so Kagome's exposed legs and feet had grown significantly cold. The skirt was a bad choice for the brisk autumn night; she thought to herself how much more comfortable she would be in a good pair of pants, or even a pair of her wool thigh-high stockings.
Maybe I'll slip a pair on after I get something to drink, she thought to herself as she stood up and walked downstairs to pour herself a cold glass of milk. She grabbed the glass and turned to go back up the stairs, but instead decided to lean against the counter and drink it. "My eyes need a break anyways," she muttered to herself as she sipped from the glass and stared out the window. After finishing the milk, she put the glass into the sink, washed it out a bit, and started walking back upstairs when she turned around and looked at the front door.
"Wait a minute... didn't mom and dad lock the door when they left?"
Suddenly a gloved hand clamped down hard over Kagome's mouth. She started to scream and thrash around, but she felt a cold metal object press against her temple and heard the hammer of a gun clicking next to her ear, so she stood completely still.
"I think that's enough of that. Now be a good little girl and I'll let you keep your brains, okay? Just nod and say uh-huh."
"Mm-hm." Kagome knew better than to argue with a man that had a gun, so she just did what he commanded and walked with him as he led her back into her room.
"Now get on your knees." She did so, and about this time another burglar came into the room, a few coils of rope in hand.
"Well, I got the rope. And I see you caught her already. Good," he said as he grabbed one of the coils with his other hand and tugged on it, making a nice straining noise. He walked over, pinned Kagome's arms into a pair of L-shapes, then started wrapping the rope around her arms, pulling it nice and taut as he did so and finally knotting it up where they met. He went on to grab both of her ankles, pull then in front of her and hold them together, tightly lashing both of them together as well. He wrapped two more coils around the top and bottom of her knees, then the last two above and below her breasts. "Now we just need a gag and we're all set. Keep her here." And he was back downstairs immediately.
"I'm going to take my hand off your mouth now, but if you scream, I'll shoot you without even thinking about it. Got it?"
"Mm-hm."
He pulled his hand away from her mouth and she began to speak.
"Ah... please, you don't need to gag me. You don't even need to tie me up. Just let me go, I promise I won't do anything."
"Oh, like I haven't heard that one before. Just shut up and take it and we'll all be happy, alright?"
"Alright..."
The second burglar was back in the room, a roll of duct tape in hand, and he wound some around both of Kagome's hands. He then proceeded to pull off another strip and lay it over her eyes.
"Now then... say 'ah.'"
Kagome, not saying anything else, just opened her mouth and felt a dry, balled-up cotton rag being crammed into her mouth, then a piece of tape pressed over her lips and smeared over both her cheeks by a pair of unseen hands.
"Mmph..."
"Alright, she isn't going anywhere now. Just put her off to the side and we'll see what we can find in here." Kagome could suddenly feel herself being lifted up and thrown onto her bed, out of the way of the three men as they ransacked her room.
"Desk lamp... that's definitely worth something, even used... stuffed animals... yeah, these'll go for a lot... television, we'll get the bed later... now in the bag, we have hairspray, a comb, school crap, snacks, nothing worth taking back... wait, what's this?" Kagome hoped they weren't looking at what she thought they were, but a jangling like crystal against glass confirmed her fears.
"Ohohohoho, look at these. Real pretty, aren't they?"
"Yeah, and black, too. I've never seen something like this, they have to be worth a lot."
"Well, I guess we'll just go check, then."
No! They found the tainted jewel shards!
Over the course of her recent travels, Kagome had collected a good deal of sacred jewel shards, and a few of them were tainted by demonic presence, but she never got the chance to purify them. And now they were in the clutches of three strangers, three strangers that could be greatly affected by them.
"MMM!" Immediately, Kagome was climbing out of the bed and hopping towards the sound of the now-frenzied voices of the three robbers. It didn't matter if she got killed now, but she had to keep them from walking away with the jewel shards. Following the jingling sound the burglar made as he ran with jewel shards in hand, she jumped and headbutted him right in the stomach, knocking him over and causing him to drop the vial with the tainted shards inside. She reached down to grab it, but with her hands wrapped in duct tape, she just couldn't get a grip on it. A foot stomped down next to her head, and she knew she was in trouble.
"See, this is why I kept you tied up. I just KNEW you were going to pull something like this. They always do, and it's really bothersome. But I can fix that." Yet again, Kagome felt herself being hoisted up off of her feet, carried a distance, then flung, but this time hard, rigid floor broke her fall instead of her soft, bouncy bed and her backside distinctly noted the difference.
"MMPH!"
"There, now maybe you'll stay out of our way." And with that, she heard the door close, the lock engage, and the burglars walk away with the tainted jewel shards.
"MMF! MMMMMMMF! MMM!" Kagome yelled as she kicked the door repeatedly, trying to make her way out of the closet and stop the men from exposing themselves to the shards, but the only thing she succeeded in doing was getting them to laugh quietly as they walked out the door, a fresh steal in hand.
"Man, for once, I think we finally scored it big time."
"I've never seen anything like this. If nothing else, I'm sure some jeweler could make them into some nice, overpriced earrings."
As the three burglars drove away, they examined the best of their ill-gotten gains, the strange crystals in the glass vial that the little twerp in the house was collecting.
"Now let's not get TOO excited. I mean, for all we know, it could just be some funny-looking minerals that she collected. I mean, remember that last house we robbed, where that kid collected a bunch of old brass arcade tokens? We got laughed out of the place when we tried to cash them in."
"I dunno... never seen anything like these. And I HAVE studied minerals before. Here, let's take them out and get a closer look."
The cork was a little stubborn, it took some yanking (and the assistance of a pocketknife) to get out, but finally it came off and the three little, dark shards tumbled out of the vial and into the burglars' hands. Takeshi held it up and examined it while Hiroshi shined the flashlight on it.
"Hmm... wow, this is certainly different from your run-of-the-mill mineral. It certainly has some interesting characteristics. And look at this." He pointed to the beam of light coming out of the other end of the jewel. It was purple, a nice, dark, purple, and there were little trails of black mist rising from its sides. "I've never seen any other kind of mineral do this. It has to be rare in some form or fashion."
"So... we can get a lot of money for this?"
"Very possibly, yes."
"Well, then let's go turn them in and see what we can get for them."
Three jewels, three burglars. It divided up perfectly. They each stood in the back of the idling delivery truck they had hotwired earlier, staring at their individual gains.
"Hmm... that little girl was kind of a looker, and we already had her nicely bundled up... maybe we should've taken her with us? Y'know, see how much a girl like her would go for on the market?"
"No, if we did that, the entire Tokyo police force would probably be on us, and kidnapping is a much more serious crime than simple burglary. Besides, we have the crystals."
"Yeah, but speaking of the crystal, I've been feeling really dizzy since I picked mine up," Hiroshi said as he stumbled back and leaned against the wall of the truck.
"Yeah... me too, now that you mention it."
"Crap... maybe the crystals have some sort of poison painted over them."
"Maybe the crystals themselves are poisonous."
Suddenly, Takeshi fell to his knees, lightly groaning and clutching his forehead in his hands. "G-guys... my head... my head is burning up. Wha... what's going on?" He started to make a choking, gurgling noise and held his head up to the sky. The other two could suddenly see the pair of large, tubular fangs poking out of his gums and the long, forked tongue sticking out of his windpipe as his eyes began to roll behind his head.
Tanaka was the next to make a horrible transformation. He stood, shaking wildly and looking terrified, as eight hairy legs burst from both of his sides. A pair of lumps formed on his gut and grew outward until a pair of brown, dripping fangs poked through his shirt and began rubbing together, chewing away at shirt and flesh, trying to free the head they belonged to from its cramped little prison.
Hiroshi stood back and watched all this happen, waiting for his own demon to gnaw through his body, but his fate was a different one. Instead, he fell to the ground, standing on all fours, and instead of the concentrated pain of something pushing through him, he felt a different pain, this one in his entire being. He could feel his bones shifting shape and length, hair poking out all over his skin, and his two front teeth slowly extending downward. The rest of his teeth began receding and sharpening, and he watched as both of his hands slowly became... rat paws.
The three shards feel to the ground, white once more, and the three burglars were helpless as their bodies were surrendered to the demons that inhabited the three tainted shards.
Kagome continued to tug at the ropes, searching for any weak point or slack that she could use to her advantage. Her arms were covered in light ropeburns and her bare legs even more so, and her forehead grew damp with perspiration, but she kept on struggling, trying to get free so she could stop the evil that the robbers had unwillingly unleashed. Maybe if she got out fast enough, nothing will have happened and all she would have to do would be to take back the stuff that they stole and put it back around the house.
But that was IF she got out fast enough.
Her hands were clenched into fists and cocooned in duct tape, but even if they weren't, she'd still be clenching them at this point. She cursed her bonds, the ropes around her arms and legs, the duct tape around her hands, her mouth, her eyes-wait. Her eyes.
She didn't know why she didn't notice it before, but Kagome suddenly realized that the makeshift blindfold she was wearing was beginning to peel away from her eyes. She was thinking about why this was, then she realized that the sweat from the heat of the lamp was wearing away at the rubber-based adhesive on the tape. So eventually, the tape would peel away, and she would be able to see the room around her. But until that time came, she would have to keep struggling, because if she could get out of the ropes, she wouldn't even need the blindfold to fray away. And besides, if she could work up some more sweat, she would accelerate the process a bit.
Mr. Izumi stumbled out of the bar, reeking of beer and completely unable to stand straight on his feet. He laughed to himself as he stumbled along and loudly hummed drinking songs to himself. He finally tripped over his own feet and landed face down in a rancid water puddle in the middle of a deserted alley.
"Hehehe... I fell."
He got up, brushed the water off of himself, and leaned up against a wall when he saw something moving by... slithering, even.
"Huh? Wuzzat?" He walked over to examine it, but there was nothing there. "Hehe... I'm so drunk right now. Hahahahahahaha..." Just then he heard something, something talking to him.
"Psssssssst... I'm over here." As if the snake-like hiss wasn't scary-sounding enough, the voice had a menacing quality to it. "I see you're drunk right now. That's good." Mr. Izumi turned around and found himself staring into a pair of blood red, reptilian-looking eyes. "It means that you're just ripe for the picking. So vulnerable and easy to kill..."
"Yes, and by the looks of things, you won't be missed when we devour you whole." This voice was high-pitched and shrill, with a loud squeaking sound accompanying every syllable.
"We really need some food after being trapped in those damned Shikon jewel shards for so long," said another voice, this one deep, accompanied by clacking, and right next to Mr. Izumi's ear.
"AAAAAAH! Wha... what are you?"
"Isn't it obvious? We are ancient demons that were trapped inside Shikon jewel shards."
"Yes, but now that we're out, we plan to wreak vengeance on the wretched humans for trapping us."
"And it seems that you are our first catch."
Mr. Izumi turned on his heel and started to run, but with the amount of alcohol circulating through his system he was barely able to stay on his feet, let alone run, and he stumbled and fell flat on his face.
"Aw, isn't that cute? He tried to run."
"Yes, it's so entertaining to watch."
"Well, looks like we'd better start eating now, before he gets much further away." The three dark shapes were immediately upon Mr. Izumi, tearing their fangs into his skin. It turned out that around this part of Tokyo, at 8:03, getting attacked by three demons was very inconvenient for Mr. Izumi, because nobody was around to hear his screams for help, or the sounds of his flesh being torn away by the ravenous demons.
By the time the demons were done, not even little spatters of blood were left over.
"Mmph!" Finally!
The stubborn strip finally peeled away the last inch, fully exposing Kagome's right eye. Now was the time to assess the situation and figure out what she could possibly use to get free. She briefly peered around the closet. Other than a bunch of coats, some shoes, and a few forgotten toys, however, there wasn't anything of much use. But then...
Kagome's eyes lit up as she saw the discarded pair of scissors, lying on the ground. Now she was glad she had worked so hard to get the blindfold off, and even more glad that she had neglected to put socks on tonight. She pushed her feet out towards the scissors until her toes touched against the handle, brought her left big toe up, grabbed the thumbhole with it, and dragged the scissors across the floor. All it took was a little repositioning of herself and the scissors were right beside her mummified hands. She started to wring her hands, trying to work up enough sweat to slip her hands out of the duct tape cocoons, when, after a few minutes, she heard somebody come in.
Oh no, they're back! Maybe they decided to take me with them! Suddenly, Kagome was in a frenzy to get out of her ropes. She didn't know why they wanted her, but it was obviously not just to apologize and give the stuff they stole back. The footsteps made their way to the door and Kagome started thrashing around, trying to catch a handful of fibers on the slightly-opened scissors and cut them, weakening the rope enough for her to pull the ropes apart herself and fight off the burglar as she crawled away. The lock disengaged. Kagome looked at the door, whimpering, as the knob began to turn and the door quickly swung open.
"Hey Kagome, what the hell are you doing?" Kagome suddenly found herself looking up at Inuyasha, his usual annoyed look on his face.
"Hmmmf!"
"What the-tied up again? I swear, it is impossible to keep you out of trouble." Inuyasha walked over and ungagged Kagome, painfully yanking the duct tape off her mouth and pulling out the rag, disgustingly whipping his hand around as her spit dripped onto his fingers.
"Aaaaah... Inuyasha, cut me loose! We have to hurry!"
"Uh, okay," he said, slightly confused as he cut the ropes away. "Why?"
"A couple of guys broke in and stole the tainted jewel shards! They might have been affected by them by now!"
"What? Hmm... thought I smelled something funny when I got here, and not just the rancid air. Come on." Inuyasha pulled open Kagome's window, climbed out, and jumped in front of the house.
"Inuyasha! Wait! At least walk downstairs, don't just jump around like that in public! Oh, brother..." Kagome sighed as she started to pull the tape around her hands away with her teeth.
"So, you're ready?"
"Yep."
"And you're sure you don't want to put your tabi on before we get going?"
"We've already wasted enough time as is. Besides, these work fine." In a hurry to get going, Kagome had jumped into a pair of low-heeled pumps and ran out the door.
"Alright, if you say so. Hold on!" And Inuyasha was up in the air, jumping across the rooftops and sniffing around for any demonic scent he could detect. "You got anything, Kagome?"
"Yeah... it's far away, so it's harder for me to pick up, but there's definitely some demonic presence over there." She pointed Northeast. Inuyasha changed direction accordingly.
"Yeah... now that you mention it, I kind of smell them now that we're downwind of them."
They went for about a mile, then stopped in a dirty, little back alley.
"Damn... this place just reeks of demonic presence. Where are the-"
"Let us save you the trouble." Something in the shadows of the alley began to move, accompanied by the sounds of something heavy being dragged and something like giant fingernails scraping across the asphault.
"Who's there?!" Inuyasha yelled as he pulled Tetsuiga out and assumed a fighting stance.
"My, my... impatient, are we?"
"Yes, we'll have to fix that."
The first demon slithered out of the shadows. Except for the piercing blood-red eyes, it closely resembled a giant reticulated python.
"Oh look, a half-demon and a priestess." The second demon, a huge tarantula with a pair of huge, dripping fangs that moved as its mouth and eight eyes that looked like deep purple gems, revealed itself.
"Mmm... promises to be a delectable meal." This demon appeared to be a rat at first glance, but getting a closer look showed that it also had some human-like characteristics, such as its shape of face and paws, which vaguely resembled human hands and feet.
Kagome, horrified by what she saw, stumbled back. "What... what happened? Where are the burglars?"
"Oh, those pitiful humans we emerged through? They're dead. The two that they used were ripped to pieces as they ate their way out, but as for me... I only made some slight changes to my new host." The rat cackled, a high-pitched, evil cackle.
"You bastards!" Inuyasha yelled as he jumped at the snake, swinging Tetsuiga downwards. The snake simply retaliated by moving its body and slapping Inuyasha away with its tail.
"Inuyasha!" Kagome yelled fearfully as he smashed into a wall.
"Hehe.. what a joke. I'm going to enjoy eating him. But first..." The snake turned towards Kagome and ran its forked tongue over its lips.
"What? But I thought I was going to get her!" the rat whined.
"You're only getting table scraps. From both of them," the tarantula sternly said. "You made a pig of yourself when we were eating that drunkard before. But I'll take the majority of the mutt over there-AAH!"
Kagome's arrow hit its target, and the tarantula reeled back in pain. All three looked at her, staring solemnly at them. "Nobody's eating anybody. Not while I'm around."
"You bitch... I'll kill you for that!"
"No, you take the dog demon," the snake commanded, then turned to the rat. "And you go along too. You can eat whatever you can get."
"Hurray!" the rat cheered as it scuttled along with the tarantula, advancing on Inuyasha.
"Now, then..." the snake began to advance on Kagome, who slowly backed up into the alley.
"Stay back!" Kagome screamed as she launched an arrow at the snake, but she took no time to aim and it zinged right by the snake's head.
"Whoops... you probably should have taken the time to aim." The snake laughed as it began to circle around Kagome.
"Wait... no! Stop!" The snake pulled itself tight as it wrapped more and more around Kagome's body. She tried to say more, but the air was being crushed out of her lungs, so what would be frantic protests came out as weak chokes.
"Comfortable? Thought not."
"Kagome!" Inuyasha yelled as he held an arm out, an arm that was immediately bitten by the rat.
"I... Inu..." Kagome's eyes, half-closed, shut and her head fell back against the snake.
"Ah, there we go. Unconscious." The python stretched its mouth out and began to stretch it over Kagome's head. It lowered itself further and further over Kagome's body, and then...
"IRON REAVER SOUL STEALER!"
Inuyasha's claws easily sliced through the snake's neck and he hit the ground. The snake gargled something unintelligible and its body unwrapped from Kagome's torso as its head fell to the ground, the part where the neck had been cut falling down around her shins. Inuyasha ran over, scooped Kagome up and started lightly shaking her.
"Kagome? Kagome, wake up."
The demons began to advance closer, their mouths each drooling.
"Wake up, Kagome. Please."
The tarantula and the rat walked off to each side, showing who would eat whom.
"Kagome, wake up! Come on, we've got to run away!"
The two demons began to get threateningly close.
"HEY, YOU STUPID GIRL, WAKE UP ALREADY!"
Kagome's eyes slowly opened. "Inu...yasha?"
Inuyasha jumped away just as the two demons snapped at him. He flew over the both of them, landed on the sidewalk, and softly set Kagome on her feet.
"I'll take on the tarantula. You get the rat." He leaped at the tarantula, held Tetsuiga above his head, and prepared his attack. "WIND SCAR!" The blast of energy decimated the overgrown spider, not even leaving a little charred blood behind.
Kagome's senses finally snapped back and she nocked an arrow, aiming it at the grotesque rat thing that slowly lumbered towards her, when she noticed the thing looked sad.
"Please... don't shoot me," the thing said. Kagome recognized not the voice of the demon, but instead one of the burglars speaking to her. "Help me... please... this thing has taken over my body..." Kagome slackened the string on her bow and brought it down.
"But... what can I do about it?"
"Just... don't kill me. Please. The only reason I steal... is because... my family... is so poor... even with the money my wife brings in... they can barely afford to feed themselves. Just... help me."
Kagome stared at the thing, a look of pity in her eyes.
"All right. I'll help you."
And with that, she shot the demon right in the head. Its eyes began to roll behind its head as it fell to the ground, dying. "But... why..."
Inuyasha fell to the ground behind Kagome, soaked in blood, both the demons' and his own. "So it's dead?"
"Yeah... I just wish there was something I could do for that poor man."
"Kagome..." Inuyasha put his hand on her shoulder. "You did all that you could."
"I guess..." It was silent for a moment, but this silence was broken by the sound of the Higurashi family car speeding by the alley. The look on Kagome's face changed from one of remorse to one of fear.
"Oh no... they're going home... Inuyasha, you have to get me home before they do!" Kagome yelled frantically, shaking Inuyasha.
"Ah! Kagome, get off! All right, all right, I'll take you home now. Just calm down."
"...Swear it was this long when they finally cleaned it up, and his parents had to scrub the carpet for 20 minutes!"
"That's... wonderful, Souta, but I should... wait a second..." Mrs. Higurashi looked at the couch, which was now pushed up against a wall. "Wasn't that in the center of the room when we left?" She walked upstairs to Kagome's room, opened the door, and looked inside, finding Kagome with her nose still in her textbook.
"Oh, hi mom."
"Did... did you move the couch while we were gone?"
"Oh... um, yeah, I did! I was, um... cleaning up!" Kagome sat with a smile on her face, waiting for her mother's reaction and fearing the worst.
"Well, that was nice of you, dear." She walked into the room. "It makes me very happy to see that you're helping out around the house, even when you're studying."
Phew... that was close. Kagome looked off to the side and silently sighed in relief, but her relief was short-lived.
"Wait... what's this? Kagome, why is your mouth red like that?"
Oh no! Inuyasha, you brutish idiot, you pulled the tape off too hard and left a rash! Now I'm done for!
"Oh, I see. You must've fallen asleep." Mrs. Higurashi pointed out a tin of sugar-free mints on Kagome's desk, very similar in shape to the rectangular mark left on Kagome's face by the gag, as well as a line of drool running down its top.
"Oh yeah, almost forgot about that... ended up taking a little catnap on my desk. Hehehe..."
"Well, I guess it would probably be a good idea for you to go to bed now, then. Besides, it's late."
"Yeah, I am a bit tired. Alright, goodnight mom," Kagome called as Mrs. Higurashi walked out. As the door closed, Kagome clomped her book shut and hung her head, embarrased.
I haven't gotten any studying done all day...