Next one-shot.
Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha.
Enjoy! x)
'How the fuck had this happened? How had a supposedly useless group of bandits captured them? Why wasn't I there to save them, to save Kagome? Why had I gone to search for Kikyo? I have risked Kagome's life…again!'
He ran to the bandits hideout, berating himself for his actions.
'I'll find you…I promise'
When they had regained consciousness, the group, minus the inu-hanyou, found that they were in a dark, damp cell.
At irregular times, the monk, the demon-slayer, and the priestess from the future would be taken out. Shippo and Kirara would hear taunts and screams of pain. They would notice that each human would be thrown back into the cell with a series of cuts and bruises, adding up through the time they were spending there.
Sango and Kagome's eyes had become a bit more lifeless each time. There cuts were all caused by a different weapon.
Sango suffered bruises, the weapon being fists or some other blunt object but still bled. She had whip marks over her body that also made blood run freely down the length of it.
Miroku was bore wounds also made from a whip but they were short and deep.
Kagome seemed to hold the most wounds on her back, were most of the top of her school uniform was ripped away; they were lash marks and were bleeding profusely. It was easily noticeable that her wounds were also from a whip.
Their next time into the prison, the tormentors headed towards Shippo, who curled up against the wall, whimpering, trying to escape. Before the burly men could grab the kitsune; Kagome landed in front of him, protecting the fox youkai.
"I won't let you take him!" She shouted at the men.
"Fine" They looked at each other, the man in front of her gave her a lurid smile "We'll just have you then" he picked her up and threw her over her shoulder.
"No!" Sango and Miroku shouted and scrambled toward the door before it shut, locking them back in the darkness.
Then they heard screams, Kagome's screams of pain. They heard mumbling, obviously their harasser's jeering snide comments at the teen.
It went silent suddenly.
Miroku and Sango could feel something in the minimal amount of air they were given. Shippo whimpered and Kirara curled up to her mistress, hiding her head.
"Ahhhh-!"
"Kagome!" Sango shouted as she jumped to her feet, only to come crashing to her knees again from the pain.
"Sango!" Miroku reached out toward her, he could tell she was upset, as was he, but she needed the comfort more than he.
He grabbed Sango and dragged her into his lap, with his meagre strength. Shippo also curled up at Sango's stomach for comfort.
"What are they doing to her Miroku?" she gasped as she tried to take in more air.
"I don't know Sango, I don't know" He curled around her in protection.
'Where are you InuYasha? You idiot.'
'I can smell blood-everyone's blood'
Inuyasha ran east, searching for those he trusted, his family, his friends.
As he neared a cave that led under ground, a mass of demons charged his way, to which he pulled out Tessaiga and destroyed them all with a couple of his attacks. He carried on. The scents got stronger.
"Ahhhh-!"
He knew who that high-pitched voice belonged to.
"Kagome" he whispered to himself before he forced himself down the hole, trying to prepare himself for the worst.
He battled demons and bandits throughout the maze of dark tunnels.
Checking a number of cells, he followed the scent of burning flesh and the sound of whimpers.
He paused at a cell and look through the bars, seeing a small kitsune-bi lighting up in flashes, as though the energy was lost.
"Shippo?" Inuyasha whispered.
The small boy turned.
"Inuyasha!" He tried to shout, though his voice came out as a mere whisper from the crying he had been doing for the past few days. Inuyasha watched as the small kitsune became brighter as he walked to the bars.
"You've got to get us out of here Inuyasha. Everyone's hurt, I didn't know what to do." The tears started to make their way down his small dirty face.
"I'm going to Shippo, try and get everyone awake so we can move out of here."
The small boy nodded and made his way over to a purple lump, who, Inuyasha realised was Miroku, his robes had been cut into and he was curled protectively around Sango.
Inuyasha sliced the bars with his trusty Tessaiga and watched as Kirara hopped out, rubbing against Inuyasha's leg before transforming to her larger size.
Miroku came out soon after with Sango leaning heavily on him. He gave the inu-hanyou a weary smile before turning to Kirara and assisting Sango on mounting the two-tailed demon.
Inuyasha turned back to the cell, waiting for Kagome, but he heard whimpering from the kitsune again. He stepped into the cell, making his way to the two that were sat on the floor.
He shook the miko's shoulders gently, to not hurt her.
"Kagome, come on we've got to go" he spoke gently as if she'd break.
He looked her over and realised the smell of burning flesh had gotten stronger here.
He realised that the three humans had all been pretty beat up, puddles of blood collected on the floor, one right under Kagome. The hanyou pulled her forward and checked her back, seeing it was ripped open, and still pouring blood, he started to growl loudly in his chest.
This seemed to rouse the teenager, she clung to her bandaged, from the red scarf on her uniform, left upper thigh for a moment before grabbing hold of Inuyasha's fire rat haori.
"You came" she gasped; clinging onto him.
"Of course I did, now come on, get on my back we need to get out of here"
He sat in front of her and waited as she pulled herself on his offered back.
She hissed in pain when he held her legs a bit too close to the bandage, he moved his hand, and his growl erupted once again, thinking of them who did this to his friends, to Kagome.
They worked their way out. Everyone squinted away from the bright light at the end of the tunnel, but all shared meek smiles.
As they started their way over the stony clearing a demons screech interrupted their moving.
"You actually thought I would let you leave as easily as that?" A deep voice asked sarcastically.
Inuyasha gently placed Kagome on the floor, looked at her, reassuring her that he would get them out where he noticed a deep scratch on her left cheek. He turned to face the youkai that turned out to be a plant.
'This'll be a piece of piss'
The battle begun, Inuyasha found that this plant was a lot stronger than it looked, and used roots as its weapons, since there were a lot of them, they were getting pretty hard to dodge, every time he cut one root, it duplicated.
Kagome, seeing Inuyasha struggle with all the roots, was looking around for her bow.
'I know I dropped it here'
She saw it, and painfully stood up to get it.
"OVER MY DEAD BODY!" Inuyasha shouted at the plant youkai's taunts.
"As you wish" the youkai sent a vine at Inuyasha. He couldn't dodge and it was travelling too fast for him to cut down with Tetsusaiga. The vine shot around his torso and travelled straight to Kagome, who had just picked up her bow, where it penetrated though her abdomen.
Inuyasha turned on horror to see the vine rip itself from her body and back to its master.
"Kagome?" He murmured as he watched her fall to her knees.
"KAGOME!" He watched her cough blood and fall to her side.
His own wounds from the fight were already starting to heal; but he didn't bother with it or let it slow him down in his desperation to save the future born miko.
With the plant youkai distracted by watching the inu-hanyou and the miko; he forgot about the demon slayer and monk…
"HIRAIKOTSU!"
…Until it was too late.
They ran to the fallen Kagome; Inuyasha already by her side. His hands were shaking over the wound, trying to stop the blood flow.
"Get her back to Kaedes" Inuyasha mumbled as he lifted her up bridle style.
"Inuyasha, she's already lost so much blood-"
"and she'll lose more if we don't get her there! Kaede will know what to do."
Shippo sat on Inuyashas shoulder, cuddling into his neck for comfort as they sat on the roof of Kaede's hut.
Sango had been stitched and bandaged, as had Miroku, they, in turns, went to get fresh water and clean out the bloodied water.
Kaede soon came out of her hut with a solemn look, the 2 demons, hanyou and 2 humans came up to Kaede.
"She wont last the night" The miko turned towards the ground "Her blood loss is too great, and I've only just slowed it down."
"Is there nothing else we can do Kaede-sama" Miroku questioned.
"I believe there is something but it would be whether Kagome would accept herself afterwards…"
"I think her spirit is too great for her to let go so easily, she accepts anyone else as who they are, why not herself?" Sango worded carefully.
"Then I will call for him" Kaede answered. Hope reflecting in her eyes.
"Him?" Inuyasha asked, concerned for the injured teen.
Kaede ushered everyone to get to work on collecting water and herbs while she went back into the hut to call on him who would help her.
A new scent found its way to the hanyou's nose. He turned back towards the village before running there with a tearful Shippo still gripping onto his shoulder.
He watched as a man much taller than Keade, and taller than himself, bowed to the old miko and started discussing with her. Inuyasha smelled blood, the man emitted a general metallic scent. He scrunched his nose, as did Shippo, and walked up to the chatting pair.
"Ah, Inuyasha, I would like you to meet Takehiko." Keade introduced as she turned toward the approaching hanyou.
"You got here fast."
"I see you're just like your father, full of spirit" the tall man laughed
He was a few inches taller than the hanyou, well built, and had light grey eyes and long maroon coloured hair tied high at the back of his head. He wore a long brown trench coat and dark grey pants, unusual clothes, like Kagome's.
"Keh"
The man through his head back and laughed again showing a pair of long pearly fangs, before Keade interrupted him for more serious matters; he cleared his throat and looked at the miko.
"Have you informed this fine young man of your intentions?"
"Not yet, I am waiting for the others to arrive" She looked around the hut. "There you two are!"
Sango and Miroku walked towards the group, looking dejected.
"Ah, you must be Sango and Miroku, Keade has already told me about you two, I am Takehiko." He bowed to them both.
Shippo came out from under Inuyasha hair to sit on his shoulder.
"Morning sunshine!"
'This Takehiko is crazy, hasn't Keade told him? And why does he smell like blood?' Inuyasha thought, obviously suspicious of the man.
"Takehiko is here to see if he can help Kagome, if he can, he is going to try and change her, to heal her" Keade started. "Before you butt in, Takehiko isn't a demon but a-"
"Creature of sorts" Takehiko smiled.
Keade chuckled before continuing "But before he even checks Kagome, you must all understand that what he is about to do is to save Kagome's life. Not for any other purpose."
"Unless she agrees for me to train her."
"Yes, of course."
"Wait-wait…How are you going to save her? What do you get out of it?" Miroku questioned.
"I, my perverted houshi, am a vampire." He chuckled. "I can turn her into a vampire; all I get out of it is a daughter, as I will be basically adopting her by blood."
"Vampire? If you're a vampire there must be more of you, why have we never seen one before?" Sango asked.
"We are an 'elite' race. We are completely secret and don't normally leave our country, except for war and Keade of course; as she is a fine miko, even we sometimes need one we're more spiritual than religious beings."
"But Kagome would be safe, right?" Inuyasha pushed.
"If everything goes well yes" He turned to the elder miko "But you said she was a miko correct?"
Keade nodded.
"Hmm… I don't know if I can help at all. You see, turning someone vampire is not easy with a 'normal' human, my fathers before me have tried to turn miko's into a vampire, but the two sides battle so much, the individual ends up dying. If the girl can hold both sides apart it could be beneficial. It's up to you if you want me to try."
"No" Inuyasha took a step back.
"Inuyasha" Shippo murmured.
"Inuyasha, it's either she dies from blood loss, or we try it and she either lives or dies anyway." Miroku reasoned.
"I still don't like it."
"So… 5 against 1, sorry Inuyasha, we're going to try this. Keade make sure she's awake and ask her if she agrees tell her everything."
Keade returned to the hut, there was murmuring that even Inuyasha couldn't make out, she emerged and nodded.
Takehiko entered the hut, the others waited anxiously before he popped his head out and signalled that he had come in time and it would be possible, before returning, Keade followed him in with a fresh bucket of water.
Inuyasha sat at the bottom of a tree watching over the hut. Shippo came down from his shoulder and sat on his lap, he looked up at him.
"Inuyasha, why didn't you want Takehiko-sama to help Kagome?"
"Don't call him that. I don't want her to be in pain." He turned away from the kitsune.
"But Inuyasha, this could work" he sniffed "she could live Inuyasha."
"I know Shippo, I didn't get a choice anyway."
Shippo grabbed the front of his haori and leaned against him, hugging him.
Inuyasha sighed before deciding that the kitsune needed the comfort just as much as he did, and placed a hand on his small back, pulling him a bit closer.
"Inuyasha" Keade called from the entrance of the hut. "Kagome is calling for you."
Inuyasha put Shippo down before walking into the hut, Takehiko was sat next to the miko, checking her pulse, eyes and breathing every now and again.
Kagome turned toward the entrance and reached for Inuyasha. The smell of blood was overwhelming. He walked over and sat down next to her and grabbed her hand.
"It hurts Inu-" she couldn't even finish his name.
"I know, I know, you have to balance it Kagome." He looked at her, and saw the bite marks on her neck. A low growl started in his chest at the sight of the bite mark.
"Don't worry about the bite marks. They'll disappear without a scar. I'm basically adopting her, not mating her. They would be permanent then."
Inuyasha nodded and turned his attention back to the teen.
She gripped his hand and turned on her side towards him, he could feel her warm breath against his knee.
'Come on Kagome, your strong, you can do this."
What do you think?
Picture for this chapter http:/ dark-tenten . deviantart . com/art/ A-Problem-297578577
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Next one will be up when finished
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