Chapter Four

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A few minutes earlier…

Kagome didn't know quite what she'd been expecting from the famous GCP rooftop garden, some trees and flowers in decorative pots perhaps, but it certainly wasn't the paradise that met her eyes. Had she not known otherwise, she would have thought she'd stepped into the Tokyo National Arboretum. Gorgeously landscaped and carefully manicured lawns of lush looking dark green grass rolled away from the small glass room that housed the elevator in one corner of the roof. Every plant, every path, every bench, water feature, sculpture, building, every single aspect of the garden had been considered from every conceivable angle to make it as aesthetically pleasing as possible.

Moved to the depths of her Japanese soul, Kagome gently pushed open the glass door and stepped out into the warm night air. It was quiet; quieter than she'd have thought possible for the rooftop of a Discotheque in downtown Tokyo. The wind rushing between the buildings covered the noise of traffic down on the busy streets of Shinjuku, and it was almost as though she were in a secluded garden in the country. She breathed in a deep cleansing breath and tried to shake off the sense of dread that had been sliding up and down her spine all night. Not all demons were heartless, bloodthirsty, sadistic villains. Kagome new that. But something about the demonic aura just…

"I won't think about it." She whispered to herself. She bounced on the balls of her feet and shook out her arms. The air was warm and comfortable as she made her way along one of the paths through the lush garden, appreciating flowers and streams and bridges as she went.

She was so absorbed in enjoying the many virtues the garden had to offer that the sound of a foot scraping across gravel startled her severely. She spun and tried to see the small glass-walled building that housed the elevator, but the path she was on had wandered past too many curves and the line of sight was obscured by foliage.

"Hello?" Kagome called tentatively. She could feel her heart beating in her throat. Beginning to feel silly for getting so scared and wondering if she'd imagined it, Kagome called out once more. "Is anyone there?"

"We're right here, Sugar."

Kagome spun with a gasp and backed up several steps. Standing just behind her had been a young man with a Mohawk of dark green hair that fell to one side and partially obscured one of his brilliant scarlet eyes. Ranged behind him were four more guys, all with dark smirks on their faces. Kagome clenched her teeth, trying to remember her defense and magic training, but her undeniable sense of terror was winning. All five of them were youkai…

"Leave me alone." Her voice came out breathy and shaky, the exact opposite of what she'd aimed for.

"Oh, now that's not very nice." The red-eyed leader said. He glanced back at his fellows and smiled at her. "We just followed you up here so we could talk. We couldn't hardly help ourselves since you look so pretty."

Kagome swallowed to try and work some moisture into her mouth. "I don't want to talk to you. Please leave me alone." Slightly better, but now it sounded whiney and scared. She grimaced at her own lack of control and backed away another step.

Red-eyes shook his head and tsk'd her, taking a step to make up for the one she'd taken. "No manners. You're going to hurt our feelings if you don't act a bit nicer." He took another step towards her, pushing her towards the outside wall of the Garden. "I'd expect a priestess to have better manners. What are you doing at a Youkai club, Miko?"

Kagome didn't know what to say so she didn't say anything. She glanced over her shoulder to see how far she was from the elevator enclosure and try to judge whether she could make a run for it. When she glanced back, Red-eyes was standing less than a foot from her. She gasped again and tried to stumble back, but her foot caught on something and she lost her balance. Before she could work to restore it Red-eyes reached out and grabbed her about the waist, pulling her body hard up against him. If she wasn't so terrified she would have blushed. In the next second he pushed her up against a nearby tree, pinning her there with his knee thrust between her thighs and his arm hard around her waist, hand gripping her bottom.

"Pay attention now, Sugar." He breathed. "Don't look away or you might miss something important. You're sooo gorgeous. You're going to entertain me and my friends for the rest of the night. I'm certain you'll make sure we have a good time, won't you?" With his free hand he caressed the side of her face and down her neck, tangling his fingers in the gold chain that held her protective kanji. "And then, after we've had our fun, you're going to treat us to dinner."

Kagome couldn't think past the raw terror. They were going to rape her. They were going to rape her and then, when that was done, they planned to eat her. She was scrambling inside her mind for her power but it was like trying to pick up a pin on the ground in the dead of winter. She couldn't feel it properly, couldn't get a grip.

In desperation, as Red-eyes was leaning in towards her face, she did what she'd been told never ever to do. Finally grasping her power inside her mind she dropped all the barriers she kept around it. She didn't try to control the power she put out, didn't direct it… It burst out of her in a wave of pure white light, and a concussion of air like an explosion, though there was no sound to it.

Red-eyes released her like a hot iron and fell over backwards with a strangled scream of rage and pain. Kagome's burst of Holy power had partially purified him: the arm he'd had around her was gone and in its place was a mess of gore, extending down his side and across his thigh, basically everywhere he'd been touching her. He shrieked and rolled on the ground for several moments while Kagome tried to keep herself from passing out. Releasing her power all at once like that felt terrible.

"Bitch!" Red-eyes spat as he staggered to his feet. "Forget fucking you! I'm just going to tear you to p-" He stopped when he got a good look at her again.

Kagome gasped in horror when her eyes settled on the broken remains of her necklace lying in pieces on the ground. She knew what he was seeing, what he was feeling. She was illuminated with a soft pink glow that shone through her skin from inside her body. Without the magic of her necklace to restrict it, the power of the Shikon no Tama was radiating through her, literally a beacon of supernatural power to everyone who could sense it. Using the breath of air that her most recent gasp had brought her, Kagome did the only thing that seemed likely to do any good at the moment. She screamed.

"Shut the fuck up, Bitch!" Red-eyes yelled. He took an unbalanced step towards her, dripping dark blood and gore from his ruined purified arm. "Yozu, beat her up a little bit!"

"Yes boss!" Yozu stepped forward. Kagome didn't notice anything about him except his nasty expression. She shrieked again as she dodged to one side to avoid his fist. She rolled across the grass and fetched up against the base of the wall that surrounded the edge of the roof. There didn't seem to be anywhere to go. Red-eye's four thugs were standing around her in a semi circle smiling ugly smiles. Kagome tried to reach for her power again but couldn't find it inside the overwhelming force of the Shikon no Tama. This time it was like trying to find a particular molecule of water in a roiling whirlpool; there was too much chaos inside her body.

"You're going to regret purifying me before the end, Miko." Red-eyes growled.

Kagome couldn't do anything. She couldn't even close her eyes. Because of that she was able to see the red and white streak that smashed into Yozu as he took a step forward to attack her. She couldn't make sense of what she was seeing, though. In the next instant one of the other henchmen flung some kind of demonic power at her in the form of a whip. She felt it rasp along her thigh and arm and suddenly found her body thrown out into space. Her instincts kicked in and drove her to reach for the nearest object, something, anything, with which to save herself from falling. Her fingers scrabbled over chain link fencing and somehow she found a firm grip on it. Adrenalin locked her fingers closed through the links of the fence like a vice and she felt her shoulder jarred in its socket at her body weight. She didn't have to look to know the void was beneath her, but couldn't help looking anyway. The ground was a dizzying ten stories below with nothing between her and it but empty space. Another scream worked its way out of her clenched throat and she brought her other arm up to secure a grip on the fencing.

"Kagome!"

Kagome twisted her head at the sound of her name. Eri's cousin was kneeling at the edge of a ragged hole in the side of the wall that surrounded the roof-top garden. Sango, her name was. "Kagome, hold on!"

"Sango, help me!" Kagome shrieked. Over Sango's shoulder she could see a red and white blur crashing violently into her attackers. Sango's brother, Inuyasha. The young man she'd danced with just minutes ago. Was it really just minutes? It seemed hours, days…

"Miroku's getting something so we can reach you." Sango yelled. "Please, Kagome, just hold on."

Kagome tried to tighten her grip on the fence but she could feel the fatigue in her arms, her fingers screaming in protest. Miroku was back then, extending a ladder across the gap between the broken wall and the jagged distorted fence from which Kagome hung. "Grab the ladder, Kagome, we can pull you in!"

"My grip is slipping!" Kagome cried. She released the fence from her once hand and reached for the ladder, but there was never any way the fingers of one hand could hold her whole body weight for that long. She tried to grab the ladder, her fingers just brushed it before her other hand just couldn't hold on any more.

Her fingers gave and slipped free of the fence. Weightlessness buoyed her stomach up into her throat as she began to fall. Through the sickening falling sensation and the overwhelming certainty that she was going to splatter on the ground, Kagome cried out to her one last hope.

"INUYASHAAAAA!!!"

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(A/N) - I know it's a little short this time by comparisson to the other chapters in this story, but this just seemed like the natural stopping point.

Hello again! I've posted one chapter (two including this one) since returning from my EXTENDED hiatus. Writing fan fiction just ceased to be a priority for a while. Too many other things going on in life, y'know? But I decided to start nibbling at these stories again when I have the time, though between Chemistry, Japanese, and the art history of Ancient Rome as courses for the semester it may not be very often. I'll do my best!

Ja matta!

~Malkharah (Marukara if you want the Japanese pronunciation... God I love my Japanese class.)