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Chapter 2. Souta's Dream World
Kagome stared at her little brother with her mouth half opened, gaping in shock. They weren't hurt. Actually, whatever happened, happened quite peacefully. The blue light simply dulled away, and soon they were just in the regular old well again, unharmed, the dreaded feeling in the back of Kagome's mind finally gone. Judging from the now calm atmosphere, whatever happened was nothing. But, Kagome had other worries on her mind, they're going to be late for school.
"Listen; Souta," Kagome tutted. "That light was probably nothing. I'm going to lift you out of here, and then I'll climb out myself."
"I don't know, Kagome..." Souta looked unsurely at his older sister. "That light didn't look so good..."
Kagome frowned at her little brother but urged him to put his foot in her cradled hands after she gestured for him to climb on. Even if the light wasn't good, there was no way in hell Kagome was going to stay stuck in the bottom of the boneater's well. This place was probably crawling with old bugs and cobwebs from the mistreatment and misuse of it - it was sealed off for Kami's sake!
"Well? Do you want to get out of here, or not?"
Souta reluctantly stepped toward his sister and put one foot in her hand before reaching out above him for one of the vines that was stuck in between the rock wall of the well, and he easily began to climb his way out. Soon after Souta climbed his way to the top, Kagome started climbing just as easily as he had before she reached the lip of the well soon after her brother set foot on the floor of the shrine.
It was still dark in the wellhouse, but the doors were now closed instead of opened like Kagome had left them. She frowned. Her mother wasn't home to close the doors to the wellhouse, and the only other living person that stayed at the Sunset Shrine was Buyou, and he is their overfed orange and white cat. He isn't closing any doors.
Thinking that maybe she just thought she left the door open, Kagome started walking towards the door with her brother shuttling warily behind her. Kagome felt the tremors of his shaking - he was so close, but all she could do was roll her eyes. What's up with him? All she did was try to help him out like he asked. How grateful of her little brother.
"C'mon, Souta," she lifted her head towards the front of them with a brilliant smile on her face. "If we get out of here quick, I'm sure we'll make it to school on time!"
Souta wouldn't stop shaking though, so Kagome reached down and tugged on his hand as she walked them both outside of the building. As they reached the outdoors, they were welcomed with an overwhelming cover of darkness, with nothing but a few stars to illuminate the sky. Even then, though the air didn't feel right, at all, which caused the Higurashi siblings to look around them in alarm.
What the hell?
"K-Kagome," Souta began shakily.
"What the hell happened?" she ignored him, starting to rant. "It's still 7:30 A.M.!"
"H-hey, listen!" Souta tried again, though this time a little firmer than before as he used his free hand to grip Kagome's shoulder tightly. "This doesn't even look like our home, nee-san, you did something to the well."
That stopped Kagome in her tracks, ignoring the last part of Souta's speech, Kagome turned and looked at the wellhouse with her eyes as wide as saucers. With her sensitive eyesight it was harder to deny anything that she was told, having being gifted with a strong sense of sight. The wellhouse looked even more deserted than she's ever seen it before. It was ragged, and looked to be left untreated for the rough guessing of about a few decades.
But, that couldn't be-!
The shrine, their shrine was well enough tended to, and it was only left alone for a little under a year. Not long enough to look like it was about to collapse in on itself. Feeling shocked at the sight of the almost non-existant shrine, Kagome turned around frantically looking for something she recognized. The Goshinboku- Sacred Tree - their house, anything. She needed something to keep her grounded as she stared hauntedly over her surroundings, unconciously grasping Souta's hand tighter, making the boy wince.
"I don't think we're in Tokyo anymore, Souta," she told him with a frown.
Damn, Damn, Damn...
A man adorned in a black cloak that was opened to reveal his torso, and musculature with a black cloth tied around his neck with a silver plate ingraved in a peculiar symbol that was crossed out, and a silver beaded necklace with a charm that held his religious symbol- a cirvle with an upside down triangle in the center; on the cloak he wore, there was white outlined clouds patterns covering the material, his silver hair tinted lavender in the sun slicked back with hair gel, and his deep, blood lusting purple misty eyes glared down at the thing that dared to offend his presence as he gripped the triple bladed red and silver skythe held, it's chains lagging threatningly behind him, like a snake tensed and coiled ready to attack its prey.
A little to the left of him was another man covered in the same attire, though his cloak was completely zipped to which the cloak covered the lower half of his chin as the formation of a large bowl; his eyes were a deep dark green - though, his sclera was the color of blood red, the rest of his facial features was hidden from view in a black triangular mask that was connected to a white head dress that was held tight with the same kind of cloth that was around the other man's neck, though his was a head band, the front resembling the national symbol of a house, and the back was just a thin band, but the plate that was attached to the house-shaped part was ingraved with a different symbol that was crossed out.
He stood and watched his partner impatiently, as he began to count the seconds that ticked by- counting how long it took before their captive could have gotten away.
"Hidan..." he'd grown impatient within the passing ten seconds, his green eyes snapped to his partner's purples. "There is no time for your foolish, sacrificial ritual."
"Damn it, Kakuzu," Hidan retorted with a snarl of his own. "Have you no respect? I told you, rules are rules... Jashin-sama wants this one," he cut a malicious gaze toward the thing lying on the floor, staring up at the two of them in fear, though it seemed to be too scared to move. "To die slowly; I mustn't show mercy."
Kakuzu rolled his eyes and turned away.
"Unless you can kill the thing slowly while in a hurry, we're going to cut this mission short," he growled out at him before walking a few paces away to sit down on a nearby tree branch to watch.
"Fuck you, Kakuzu," Hidan muttered in answer, then he turned his lusty eyes back to the youkai before him with disdain clearly darkening his irises. They haven't ever fought just a flat out demon before, though they had battled with jinchuuriki, and they had recently just caught one of them, the Nibi; this was a pleasant, though unexpected, change. He welcomed it, yet he wasn't really prepared.
The thing before him was merely a mist, a dark mist. And whenever Hidan had noticed this, he realized that he couldn't use his special jutsu on the thing. But, now the mist had taken a humanoid form, though it still wasn't discernable what it was. It was ragged and covered in red-brown fur all over, it's eyes were black, with it's sclera just as black. The thing's arms were shredded off earlier by Hidan's skythe as he swiped swiftly, causing the thing to fall useless in front of him. Which brought it to how it was now, cowering in front of him with a fear unknown in its eyes. Dispicable. Hidan almost had pity on the thing. Almost.
And this wasn't even part of their mission.
Which, Hidan noted, was going to make them even later to getting back to their boss, Leader-sama, from their latest mission; killing off the human-demon hybrids, hanyous, that took up a shinobi status which were surrounding the base a few miles away, but in doing that they were lead further away to where the youkai's decendents originated - the Land of Demons. This is just fucking great, Hidan scowled.
"Time is wasted," Kakuzu spoke lowly from his branch watching his partner with narrowed eyes, not even bothering to pay attention to the thing that lain helplessly in front of Hidan. "Wasted on this thing. We're now nearly three days away from the base when we could have made it there in two."
Hidan swung his skythe out viciously, his hands grasping the tail of it - the chain, though the skythe didn't go in the direction the youkai thing thought it was going, instead of aiming for its body, it narrowly missed stabbing it in it's gut, swinging back around and aiming for the zombie-like man that was sitting in the tree.
Kakuzu seemed to have expected it to come after him though, because as the blades swung horizontally near the spot where he was sitting, he simply leapt up, letting the blade go by before landing on the branch again in a crouch, still staring impatiently at his partner.
"You're slow, Hidan."
Hidan growled threateningly. "Kakuzu, you sadistic bastard..."
Souta glanced around the wood that he dragged his sister to take refuge in, as he frowned deeply. This didn't make any sense to him. With what useful eyesight he had, he vaguely recognized the place where they had somehow ended up in. Though, he wasn't sure from where - or what. He had traveled around with his grandfather when he was younger, they didn't go to many places, just shrines and family businesses, nothing outside of Tokyo, but; Souta had a feeling that this place wasn't even in Tokyo - that he recognized this place from somewhere else, though he couldn't put his finger on it.
It wasn't from his dreams... he thinks. He isn't sure, but he has a pretty good idea this wasn't from his subconscious. Because, if this is his dream, then why is Kagome here? He never dreams of Kagome, and he's pretty sure this is real, because when he fell down that well earlier - maybe that was it! Maybe he hit his head and he was still in the bottom of the well. Good thinking, he congradulated himself. He took a calming breath before turning to Kagome.
"Okay," Souta turned to meet his sister's sapphire gaze with his own foggy ocean blue stare. "Follow my lead. This is my dream world, so if we're careful, we'll get through this."
She didn't understand what he meant by, his 'Dream World' but she dismissed that. Follow his lead? In a place where they had no clue where they were; while she's the older sibling? No way. Nuh-uh, Mr. Wise-I'm-Still-Young guy. He's only eleven and hadn't even been out as much as Kagome has. Why would she follow his lead? She didn't hesitate to tell him such either.
"Follow your lead? I'm older, Souta. In case you hadn't noticed," she shook her head, placing her hands on her hips as she bent to get eye level with the boy. But, before she could continue, Souta cut her off again.
"I recognize this place, Kagome; I'm not sure from where - but I think I have a concussion and I'm out cold right now, just follow my lead, alright?"
She blinked in shock but sighed in resignation. She'll let him 'lead' but, she'll still be the one calling the shots to make sure nothing happens to her baby brother. A smile set on her face as she nodded. "Lead the way, Oh Wise One. "