Disclaimer: Sniff… I don't own Inuyasha… my life is meaningless. Unless you read my story!
CHAPTER TWO: WHY DEMONS ARE BAD
"How much longer?" I groaned.
Rin and I had run out of things to talk about, and were now listening to music—although it was hard to hear because Sota had his songs playing in the car speakers.
"It's about five more hours, then we stop at a motel," my mom informed us.
"What?!"
"I'm sorry, guys. I really hate long car rides too."
"I feel nauseous," Rin moaned.
"Sota, could you pass Rin a bag?"
Sota and I looked at Rin in panic.
"No, I don't need it," she murmured, leaning back and closing her eyes.
"Sorry, Rin," I said quickly. "I don't mean to be a jerk."
Rin grinned weakly, eyes still closed. "So then it comes naturally?"
Sota, my mother, my grandfather and I laughed. Buyo looked up at us, wondering why we were so stupid.
After two hours, we stopped at a gas station.
"Damned gas stations," my grandpa grumbled as he got out to fill up our car with gasoline. "These places are poisonous, I swear, it'll give you all fume poisoning when you get older!"
Me and Rin exchanged a glance, amused at hearing our mom included in the people who have yet to get older.
"I'm hungry," Sota complained.
"There's a store across the street, me and Kagome could go buy something," Rin offered.
"That's very nice of you," Mom said, smiling at us. "Sota, will you tell them what you want?"
Sota grinned. "Really? Thanks, guys!"
"No problem," we replied. Anything to get out of this cramped car.
"I'll have Gatorade… and Snickers… and Snowballs!" He suggested.
"I LOVE snowballs!" Rin sighed.
"Pick one or the other, Snowballs or Snickers," our mom told Sota.
"Um… Snowballs, I guess. Do I have to?"
She didn't bother answering that question.
Rin and I jumped out of the car, racing a bit recklessly across the street and into the store.
It was a small store, with shelves of snacks and magazines, as well as a sushi bar. There were Bento lunches and dinners, and a Pocky stand.
"Pocky!" I squealed.
"The car ride is almost worth it, just for the Snowballs," Rin commented, picking out the pink, puffy balls of fat and sugar and coconut for her and Sota; our grandfather, unfortunately, is one of those people who is super-informed about nutrition, and as he almost acts like a surrogate parent we almost never get to have processed junk like this.
"Pocky's still better," I teased. I took a box of strawberry Pocky for myself and my mom to split—she likes Pocky too, I know.
"What should we get for Grandpa?" Rin asked.
"Maybe one of those old people magazines," I suggested, browsing the shelves. "Oh, look, here's some for us…"
Rin rushed over. "Does it have the latest on…?"
"Yes it does!"
"Oh my gosh!"
We both squealed together, jumping up and down until we noticed people were staring, when we stopped.
I glanced at the television hanging on the wall. It was a newscast, depicting a shrine, which was what got me interested.
"It has been just hours since last night's attempted robbery at the Tokyo Jewel Shrine, and local police have almost no leads on the perpetrators…"
"Hey isn't that the shrine we're going to?" Rin asked in surprise, a little worried.
I frowned. "Definitely seems like it… did Mom tell us what it was called?"
"And now we introduce Kaede-sama, temporary caretaker of Jewel Shrine…"
We exchanged a glance.
An old woman came onscreen.
"As far as we can tell, we believe that the target of the robbery was the Orb of Night."
"Kaede-sama, do you have any comments?" a reporter inquired.
Kaede smirked a bit—a friendly, wry smirk that made me like her a little more—but her answer was serious. "It is a very good thing that the Orb's sacred barrier was in place; if it for some reason had faltered, the Orb would have undoubtedly been stolen."
I frowned. I was sure I had heard of the Orb of Night.
"Does that sound familiar to you?" I asked Rin.
She shook her head. "No. Weird that it's our shrine."
I nodded. We resumed watching.
"Kaede-sama, if I am correct, there is a new family coming soon to take over the duty of shrine keepers," one of the people onscreen said.
Kaede nodded. "Aye, that is true."
"But then will the shrine fall out of your hands?" someone asked nervously.
"What, they don't trust us?" I joked.
"We'll show them," Rin said immediately, grinning.
"I am growing old," Kaede said sadly. "And the replacement is inevitable. But I believe I have found a family of very reliable people." She looked at the camera and smiled knowingly.
"It's like she can see is," Rin whispered.
"You don't have to whisper, she can't hear you," I reminded her.
"Oh. Right," she said awkwardly.
We watched the report for another minute, until Rin said, "We should probably hurry up, or Grandpa will think we've been attacked by demons."
"It's always the demons he's first to blame," I said, sighing. I grinned. "Just imagine: Grandpa in Tokyo."
"Just imagine us in Tokyo," Rin breathed. I looked at her, confirming that there was some measure of excitement in her voice.
"What's with the happiness?" I asked.
"I'm not happy. I just… I'm interested," she admitted.
"Okay. Why?"
"Probably for the same reasons I was interested this morning," she pointed out, grinning. Then, "We should probably start buying this stuff."
I nodded. "Yeah. Of course, we could always just run off with it. It'd be quicker."
Rin rolled her eyes at me.
We moved to the line. There was only one person in front of us, who was currently having some kind of argument with the cashier.
"I told you, I already paid for that, it's not my fault if the fucking machine doesn't know it."
Rin and I exchanged a glance at the crude language. We would curse, yes, but we didn't say things like that.
"I'm sorry, sir, but I can't let you take that unless you pay for it," the cashier replied, visibly nervous but still firm.
The man bent low. "And you think I couldn't make you let me take it?" he threatened.
The cashier rolled his eyes. "What are the benefits of killing me, sir? Weigh the pros and the cons. Of course, for one of your kind, the bloodlust might be enough to make up for the jail time…"
It was clear that this jab didn't faze the man at all. He said smoothly, "Nobody in this store would have time to call the police."
That got to the cashier, and a cold sweat broke out across his forehead. Me and Rin stared at each other, and then at the cashier, thinking maybe we should begin to back away slowly… but how could we leave the cashier like this?
The cashier noticed us for the first time, and his eyes widened as he attempted to send us a message without speaking, trying and failing to make this effort escape the notice of the scary guy in front of us.
Said scary guy immediately turned around, and upon finding two girls staring at him in utter terror, grinned and grabbed the nearest of us—who happened to be me—by the arm.
I screamed.
"Kagome!" Rin yelped. She pulled me by the arm, trying to get me away, but I was being held against the man fast. I yelled again.
"Let go of me you bastard!" I screeched, wishing I could sink my teeth into the guy's flesh, feeling the adrenaline rush through my body, making my heart pound.
The man didn't even look at me. He stared at the cashier and hissed, "Look, idiot. I'm gonna walk out of here. If you try to stop me, the bitch dies. Got it?"
My eyes widened in terror. Rin stared at me, and then began to back to the door.
I panicked. Don't leave me! Wait, no—do something! Yeah! Call the police! That one!
Rin got my message right before the guy got her arm. We squealed as he twisted both our arms painfully.
"Don't either of you fucking move, or everyone in this shitty store will regret it," he threatened.
By now everyone in the store had noticed the confrontation. I stared at them in hope, thinking they would pull out a cell phone and do the logical thing—call 911. But they didn't. Instead of coming to our rescue, the people just backed against the walls and collected their families, trying not to watch. It was clear from the way they shook and cowered that they were utterly terrified.
This guy didn't even have a gun.
Then it hit me.
Demon.
I looked up at him in complete paralysis. It was impossible to tell what kind of demon he was, and I only had a very basic knowledge of the various types. There were way too many to list, so mainly they were categorized into two main groups—the ones capable of speech and the ones not capable of speech. Within those two groups were two subgroups called Formers and Takers. "Formers" grow into their adult shape, like humans. "Takers" steal others' appearances. Some Formers can steal appearances too, but they have their own real appearance. There are many other subgroups below these, relying on appearance and ability to separate into species.
But anyone who is a shrine keeper knows the most basic rule: the most dangerous demons are the ones which look like humans.
Like this guy.
Crap.
Holding both me and Rin now, the guy began to move toward the door.
Our family! Will they see us? No, they're across the street, they might not. Someone has got to see us. But by the way all these guys reacted, doesn't seem like anybody'll be much help.
I looked to Rin. She had tears streaming down her face. I wanted to cry too, but I was too shocked at what was happening to us. The world spun around me and began to blur.
It kept blurring.
After several seconds it became a solid navy blue, and I was whipping my head around in utter astonishment, because I had gone blind.
"Rin! Rin, can you see me? Rin, please say you can see me! Are you there? Rin! RIN!"
"Shut up, kid," the guy said.
Instead I screamed.
My scream sliced the air, so loud I felt sure it could shatter glass. Everyone on the street turned to stare at us and gasp at something. But by the time the scream had faded, I was too energized to actually take note of the fact that my vision had come back.
I turned around to glare at the guy, who, I noticed, possessed a very faint blue tinge around him.
"Shut up, bastard," I hissed through my teeth, shocking myself at my courage.
Before the guy could say anything more, I whipped my free hand up and pressed it to his chest. Power surged through it, all my angst and anger at being forced to move to Tokyo, all my fear and hatred of this rude criminal demon building at the palm to explode in a rapidly spinning sphere of energy.
Before he or I knew what was happening, the guy had flown ten feet through the air and crashed against the wall of a building.
Across the street, Mrs. Higurashi, Sota, and Sota's grandfather heard the crash and jumped out of the car.
I stared at the guy, lying unconscious on the ground. Rin and I stared at each other in utter astonishment.
And then we began to cry.
Clutching on to each other's shoulders for support, we sobbed and shook as everyone on the street and in the store slowly approached us. Suddenly I realized that they were all staring at me.
For some absurd reason, I blushed.
My family was the first to break the invisible barrier between us and the crowd.
"What happened?" my mother demanded. "Are you okay? Who is that guy?"
"Are you their mother?" the cashier asked, walking hesitantly up to us.
My mom nodded, looking to him for answers.
"These girls saved all of us," he said, looking at us with both admiration and skepticism. "Don't know how the hell they did it, but the proof is lying dead on the ground."
"Actually, it was just Kagome," Rin murmured.
"No, Rin helped too," I said firmly. I turned to her. "I wouldn't have been able to do that if I didn't have you by my side."
How I did 'that' is still the question.
Rin smiled at me.
Our family gawked.
"Kagome… did you send this demon into that wall?" my grandfather finally asked.
I blushed a little deeper, uncomfortable with the attention. "I… think so. I'm still not really sure."
Rin frowned at him. "That was a demon?"
That blue tinge. Was that what that had shown? That the guy was a demon?
I looked around me. There was no one else here whose body shone that slight blue. But then again, demons were very rare in areas like this.
I looked to the guy again, noticing that now he, too, did not possess that blue aura.
Hmm… great. Now I'm hallucinating, I thought.
Give yourself a break! You just got attacked by a demon, why wouldn't you hallucinate? My inner voice argued.
Cause I'm not totally crazy!
Keep deluding yourself.
I nodded. "Yeah." I turned to my grandfather. "How did you know what he was?"
He scoffed. "You think I wouldn't know a demon when I see one? Humph." He scrutinized me. "For that matter, how did you know?"
I looked at him for a moment, wondering if I should mention the blue aura.
"I don't know," I said. "I guess I just sensed it."
He smiled proudly, to my surprise. "I knew it! You must have spiritual powers; it's the only way you could have sensed the demon."
"Not only did she sense it," a person in the crowd said timidly, "She blew it into that wall."
"Did you kill it?" Rin whispered.
"Um… I don't think so," Sota whispered even quieter.
His hands shook as he stared, transfixed with terror, at the demon, who was slowly rising to his feet.
"You'll pay for that, bitch," he hissed, preparing to attack.
"Don't call me a bitch, idiot," I whispered through my teeth.
"Well? What're you waiting for?!" Sota yelped. "Go get him, sis!"
I stared at Sota, who looked up at me with complete trust and admiration and fear.
I turned back to the demon.
"J-just leave us alone," I said, my voice shaky. It took a step closer to us and everyone shrank back.
Suddenly the demon shifted.
Now it was a gigantic, fanged flying centipede as it raced toward us, its tail colliding with a building and leaving a large dent in the wall. The crowd screamed and began to race backwards.
"It's just a Taker, then! Demon, begone!" Grandpa screeched as he whipped out a backet of purification salt, took a handful of the dust, and threw it at the demon.
It had less effect than telling the demon to please go away.
We began to run.
Suddenly I was struck with inspiration. Grabbing the rest of the purification salt, I felt that power rushing through my arm again. I whirled on the demon and hurled a handful of it at him—I smiled in triumph as it hit the creature square in the face.
The effect was instantaneous.
The creature dropped to the ground, writhing, shifting forms much too fast for any of us to catch its appearance. But before we could count to three, before anyone could scream, it disappeared with an odd crackling sound, leaving just a pile of black dust in its place.
My family and the crowd and I stood there, shocked into total immobility.
Which, if you had just a) destroyed or b)watch get destroyed a gigantic ferocious demon intent on brutally murdering you, is understandable.
