I will be the first one to admit that I had a lot of trouble finding a balance between humor and horror in this chapter. I have way too much fun writing bickering.
Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha.
Opacity
Siblings
Inuyasha was relentless.
"No," he objected for the fifth time, his hackles rising. The girls refused to back down even though he was clearly serious—looming over them, his arms crossed over his chest, his feet braced against the cement as if he expected a physical fight. "We're not splitting up."
"I don't—" Sango snarled, but Kagome cut her off by grabbing her shoulder and tugging the brunette away from the half-demon.
"We're not asking your permission, Inuyasha," Kagome explained, her voice far quieter and more level than Sango's. "We're telling you that we're leaving."
"I really don't like this," Miroku muttered. He stood several feet away from the group, trying to stay out of the argument. With a sigh, he ran a hand through his shaggy hair. "But you two need to do what you think is best."
Feeling betrayed, Inuyasha turned on him. "What'd you just say? We can't let them go after—after—whatever the hell it is all on their own!"
"You're worried," Kagome guessed, too exhausted to smile even though this thought made her feel a little flutter in her stomach. "Which is sweet, but you guys can't come with us. You've got some rampaging moth man thing killing people here. While you guys handle this situation, we'll go check on Kohaku."
"My brother wouldn't have called if it wasn't serious," Sango added quickly. Her hoarse voice quieted Inuyasha down, and he turned to study Sango with a frown.
"That's what worries me. What if it's too serious?"
There was a moment of silence. Sango's hand was wrapped around her cell phone, her fingers shaking. Less than twenty minutes earlier, she had gotten a panicked call from her younger brother, Kohaku. It had lasted less than thirty seconds, but the boy's fearful voice had been enough to send Sango over the edge.
Unfortunately, the gang was already hunting a monster. Sango couldn't ignore her brother's call for help, and Kagome couldn't let her best friend go anywhere without backup. That left only one solution—the group had to split up.
Naturally, the men, who still considered Sango and Kagome the weakest—and okay, sure, that was true since they had been hunting for only two months, knew far less, and Kagome still couldn't get a handle on her powers—became overprotective. Why couldn't it wait one or two more days until after the moth demon had been killed? Or why couldn't they split up differently, with either Miroku or Inuyasha joining Sango while the other stayed behind with Kagome?
"Kohaku may not be my brother, but he's still important to me," Kagome had protested when they tried that argument, more than a little defensive. "And Souta's his roommate at college. If Kohaku's in trouble, there's a chance my brother is, too."
It wasn't out of the question. Kagome couldn't get Souta or their mother, who lived nearby, on the phone. Mrs. Higurashi took care of Kohaku, which had been one of the only reasons Sango had felt okay with leaving her brother behind at college. First, when she moved into the city with Kagome, and then again when they joined Inuyasha and Miroku.
Now, the women turned on the hunters, the room almost suffocating with the brewing argument.
"If anything happens to Kohaku—"
"Sango," Kagome interrupted, grabbing her friend's hand and squeezing it reassuringly. "He's okay. And we'll make sure he stays okay."
The brunette dropped her eyes to the ground, hiding the emotions swirling inside of her from the group. Up until then, her anger, worry, and fear had been overpowering. "Get your stuff, Kagome, we're leaving."
Inuyasha opened his mouth—possibly to relent, possibly to protest again—but Miroku shook his head sharply at the half-demon. "We'll finish things up here, and then join you," Miroku told the girls, making the final decision himself. "Be careful."
"Yeah, you, too," Kagome responded, taking her duffel bag by the strap and hooking it over one shoulder. The women had bundled up and packed a few things all while arguing. After all, girls are good at multi-tasking. "We'll see you soon, right?"
There was only the slightest hesitation before Inuyasha nodded. "Right."
"Seriously, don't do anything stupid," Kagome joked weakly, her light-hearted tone forced.
"I think that's something you should worry about," Inuyasha retorted, poking her in the forehead with a smirk.
Kagome's eyes crossed as she focused on the claw, and with a timid smile, she reached up and grabbed his hand with both of her own. Pulling it down, she gently pressed his fingers open and—fighting to ignore the fact that Miroku was watching them with a goofy, almost proud look on his face—pressed her lips to his palm.
"You're blushing," Miroku accused Inuyasha with a gleeful chuckle. "I can't believe you're blushing!"
With an embarrassed laugh, Kagome followed Sango out the door, shutting the motel up behind her. It was time to head home.
"Can't you go any faster?" Sango demanded, squirming in her seat. Her nose was pressed to the window, and her eyes scoured everything they passed. The place was empty and looked gloomy in the wee hours of the morning.
The car they'd rented in the city where they left Inuyasha and Miroku wasn't exactly top-of-the-line. It had just entered the outskirts of the college town both girls called home. The university dominated the area. If a citizen wasn't a student, they worked at the school or in one of the local businesses that catered exclusively to college kids. There were a few suburbs and a small downtown-like area where the Higurashi shrine could be found. The shrine had been in the area for almost two centuries, far longer than the university itself.
"I'm already way over the speed limit," Kagome muttered, glancing at the speedometer. Still, she pressed harder on the gas pedal. "God, it's deserted."
"I noticed," Sango said, her eyes sweeping the neighborhood. Normally, there were groups of college students prowling the town at all hours. At least, that was how it had been when they'd been in school.
Sango and Kagome were freshmen together at the university. Kagome had grown up on the shrine with her mother, grandfather, and brother and was used to life in a college town, but Sango was a city girl through and through. They'd been roommates that first year in the dorms. They probably would have been roommates all throughout college, but the accident happened the summer after they first met.
Sango's father, a police lieutenant, was shot and killed while on duty. Since Sango and Kohaku had no other living relatives—their father's brother, a firefighter and a detective, had died in a burning building and a car chase respectively—Kohaku had been sent to live with his older sister. The siblings moved into an apartment off campus, and Sango received enough financial aid to both support Kohaku and continue her education.
During that first year after the accident, Mrs. Higurashi had been a godsend.
Kohaku and Souta were only two years apart, and the boys became best friends fast. All of them became a kind of extended, dysfunctional family. Even though Kohaku was a junior and Souta was a freshman, the boys shared a dorm on campus. The only rule was that they had to check in with Mrs. Higurashi for Sunday dinner every week. Up until the girls joined the hunters, Sango and Kagome would come in from the city at least once a month for a visit.
Because of the hunting, it had been over two months since the last time they visited, back when Kagome was still a nurse and Sango still waited tables.
"Should we go to the shrine first?" Sango asked uncertainly, feeling restless. Her guns were hidden in a holster under her jacket, but she could feel their weight against her sides.
Kagome shook her head immediately, biting her lip. "Let's go straight to the dorms. If this turns out to be a false alarm, I don't want to scare Mama—"
Suddenly, Kagome stomped on the brakes, tires squealing. Sango jerked against her seatbelt, and she knew there'd be a bruise within hours. "What was that for?" the brunette demanded, rubbing her collarbone with a wince. When she looked at the street, she saw exactly what had scared Kagome.
An oak tree the size of a semi-truck stretched across the road, crushing at least two cars. The massive branches stretched out to one side, hiding the remains of what used to be a house. On the other side of the trunk, they could see police lights flashing, but there weren't any sirens. Creepily, there were no people.
"What happened?" Kagome asked—rhetorically, of course, since Sango knew as much as she did. She put the car in park and undid her seatbelt.
They left the car running and climbed out, unsure whether it would be safer to go around the branches or through the roots. Finally, Sango took the lead; she found a way to climb over the roots. Once across, the girls stood gaping at the scene. There were abandoned cars as far as they could see down the street—many of which were flipped over. At least three more old trees looked like they had been torn right out of the ground by a giant hand.
"Oh, my god," Sango whispered, her eyes wide. "What could have done this?"
"A tornado, maybe," Kagome answered in an unsure tone, bracing herself against the tree. "Where is everybody?"
Sango didn't answer, too busy thinking about the phone call from her brother six hours earlier. There had been a lot of screaming in the background, and Kohaku—her shy, serious, quiet brother—had been shouting. Before the call had been cut off, Sango had heard something about 'wind' and 'people dying,' but it had been a jumbled mess. A loud roaring sound ripped through the speaker right before it was replaced by a dial tone. Could Kohaku have been calling about a tornado?
"Can you imagine?" Kagome asked quietly. "Being asleep when a tornado comes tearing through your roof…"
"Call Inuyasha. Give him an update," Sango suggested, already turning back toward the car, more anxious than ever to find her brother.
It took less than a minute for Kagome to realize she had no signal. "Whatever happened, it took out the reception tower," she explained, joining Sango in the car. "We're going to have to find another way to the university—unless you want to walk, that is."
"We can't," Sango reminded her. "We might need our weapons, and we can't exactly walk through the streets with a giant boomerang and a crossbow."
"I guess you're right," Kagome agreed. She looked around at the deserted street, the flashing lights of the empty police cars, the abandoned houses. "Something's not right here."
"Obviously, but we won't know anything for sure until we ask some people about what happened," Sango pointed out practically, squeezing her hands into fists in her lap. "Let's keep going."
Checking her mirrors, Kagome carefully turned the car around and retreated several blocks. It took over ten minutes before she found a side road that was a clear enough to drive down. Still, all the neighborhoods were empty and filled with debris, and she was starting to feel her stomach clench with nervousness. Where the hell had nine thousand people disappeared to?
The sun was above the horizon by the time the girls reached the campus, and Kagome drove carefully through a park around back. She turned off the headlights and eased the car around the last bend in the road.
The university looked deserted.
"Where is everyone?" Kagome asked again, still not believing her eyes. If it had been Souta who had called, whose panicked voice had urged her to come home and help him, Kagome was sure she would have been freaking out. As it stood, she had to keep it together for Sango's sake. "Let's head inside," she suggested, turning the car off.
"Take your gun," Sango reminded her while buttoning her coat over her holster. If she needed the pistols quickly, she would be in trouble, but walking around a college campus with a gun sounded like an incredibly stupid idea. "Remember where the car is," Sango muttered, glancing around at the empty lawn. "If we need our other things, we need to know where it is."
"Got it," Kagome said, tucking the gun into the back of her jeans like she'd seen Inuyasha do. (Of course, she checked to make sure the safety was on first.) Immediately, she shivered at the feel of cold metal on the bare skin of her lower back. How come Inuyasha never shivered? "Okay! So, the boys are in…"
"Delta Hall," Sango finished for her, pointing at a building in the distance. "Second floor."
"Right," she responded, stuffing her hands in her pockets. "Let's do this."
Walking across their old school grounds was more than a little weird. Sango kept looking over her shoulder, expecting a monster or demon to leap out from behind one of the old oak trees, but no matter how far they walked, there still wasn't a single soul. She couldn't decide which was creepier—not knowing where everyone was or if there had been a mass grave waiting for them. Even though the town had been littered with upside-down cars and ripped-out trees, the university itself looked mostly untouched. That is, until they reached the student center at the heart of campus.
There was blood everywhere.
A car jutted through the front doors, still smoking. All of the windows were smashed open, and one corner of the building was nothing but a crumbled pile. There were no people.
"Still think it was a tornado?"
Kagome shook her head slowly, eyes wide with shock.
"Why is there blood but no bodies?" Sango asked, taking a step toward the wreckage. Before she could go far, Kagome reached out and snagged her by the elbow.
"We are not going over there! Sango—obviously a lot people died here, but I don't see any corpses. You know what that means. Zom—"
Sango cut her off immediately. "Kagome, we already dealt with a zombie. Kikyou, remember? And she was more or less harmless. You know, except for the sending you to hell thing, which was technically Urasue."
"Inuyasha and Miroku told us themselves that zombies get violent when threatened."
"So… zombies uprooted a bunch of trees and drove a car through the front of a building?"
Kagome hesitated before hanging her head in defeat. "Okay, fine. What's your theory?"
Before Sango could answer, they heard a shout in the distance. The voice was tiny, obviously far away and possibly high up. Kagome and Sango shared a curious look before scrutinizing the campus, trying to figure out where the person was yelling from.
"Someone's calling for help," Sango realized, straining her ears. "I think it's in the direction we were already going."
"Let's stop pretending like this is normal," Kagome mumbled, reaching for her gun. She flipped off the safety and positioned her hands just like she'd been taught. In the winter air, against the cool metal, her fingers were freezing. "We might as well accept this is another stupid monster thing."
With a weak chuckle, Sango retrieved one of her own pistols. "Can't catch a break, can we?"
"If Inuyasha were here, he'd throw some insult our way about how it's our own fault for being here."
"Ah, well, it's true, isn't it?" Sango answered grimly, taking the lead once again and starting down the sidewalk. "Clearly we haven't learned our lesson yet."
"Good thing we're at a college then, huh?"
The shouting was getting louder as they moved toward the outskirts of campus. Soon, there was another sound that Sango couldn't quite pinpoint: a rhythmic thumping, like a giant speaker pounding with music. Rounding a corner, Sango realized they'd reached the dormitories.
"Oh, my…"
"Crap," Sango said, finishing Kagome's hushed exclamation. She narrowed her eyes, her grip tightening on her gun. "I guess we found everybody."
At the base of the closest building, hundreds of people—at least, things that used to be people—were charging head-first into the brick. Corpses (as in bloody bodies of dead students), some missing limbs while others were just sliced up like they'd been through a cheese grater, were throwing themselves at the wall as if they were trying to break it down. Waiting in the wings were more, maybe a thousand of them, standing in a silent crowd. The assault was happening in waves, which explained the rhythmic thumping Sango had noticed. A line of twenty or so corpses would line up before charging all together at the wall. Huge gusts of wind pushed at their backs, almost as if guiding them into the wall.
"I told you it was zombies," Kagome whispered, taking in the sight with wide eyes. "Why are they trying to get into—?"
"Up here!" someone shouted, grabbing their attention. It had to be the same person as earlier.
Kagome and Sango both looked up, noticing that the windows of the top two floors of the dormitory had faces pressed against them. Living, breathing faces of living, breathing students who had managed to barricade themselves in the building. Hanging out of one of the windows was—
"Kohaku!" Sango screamed, waving her arms over her head.
"Sis!" the boy shouted back, grinning from ear to ear. "I knew you'd come."
"What's going on?" Sango yelled, pointing at the crowd of dead bodies to make sure he knew what she was referring to. (Personally, Kagome thought it was a little redundant; what else could she have meant?) So far, it was like the corpses hadn't noticed the girls; they kept up their kamikaze-like assault on the building.
"This crazy wind storm hit the town yesterday, tearing up trees and knocking down houses. Then a woman showed up on campus, and it was like she was the one controlling the wind. She killed a ton of people," Kohaku explained loudly, leaning as far out of the building as he could. Some students standing behind him gripped his clothes, making sure he didn't tumble out the window in his enthusiasm.
"A woman?" Kagome repeated, waving a little to get his attention. "What woman?"
"I don't know—real pretty with red eyes. It was like she could throw wind at people; it was cutting them up. We escaped into Delta Hall and locked ourselves in. There's maybe two hundred of us in here… She tried to knock it down, but I guess Delta's too strong for her."
"So… zombies?" Sango shouted, indicating the corpses again.
"Dunno," Kohaku answered honestly, shrugging. Even from that far away, it was obvious to the girls that he was exhausted. He must have been awake all night shouting for help. "The woman sent 'em here."
"Where are Mama and Souta?"
"Right here, Kagome! Well, I am, anyway," Souta answered, shoving his way past the other students and popping his head out from around Kohaku. "You know, considering what's going on, you guys don't look very freaked out—and are those guns?"
Kagome turned to Sango with a roll of her eyes. "Zombies are trying to eat him and all his classmates, and he's worried that I have a gun."
"I still don't think they're zombies," Sango muttered, studying the crowd of corpses nearby. "Plus, look, some of those bodies don't even have heads, and they're still running around. Somebody's controlling them."
"The woman Kohaku mentioned. Okay, so we have to take them out a different way," Kagome concluded thoughtfully, eyeing her gun and deciding it was probably useless. "How about we set them on fire?"
"That or chop them up, maybe."
"I am very concerned," Kohaku interrupted from his vantage point four floors up, "by the fact that you two are so calm. Kagome, you once fainted because a spider fell on your head."
"That was ages ago!"
"It was three months ago," Souta corrected his sister, frowning down at them. "Our easy-going attitude can be explained by the fact that we've been under siege by dead bodies for almost seven hours, and we're probably in a state of shock. What the heck is up with you two?"
"Don't be a smartass, Souta," Kagome snapped. "We're, uhm, we're totally freaking out over this, too. But we're staying strong because… because we have to save our little brothers!"
"Liars," Souta accused, sticking his tongue out at them. "I'm telling Mom!"
"Okay, you got us," Sango countered. "We're monster hunters. This is completely normal for us now."
Both boys deteriorated into laughter, their exhaustion and shock having made them semi-delirious. Souta was right—after watching hundreds if not thousands of fellow students be slaughtered by a red-eyed woman, after being locked in a building with dead bodies throwing themselves at a brick wall for seven hours, after seeing your sister come to the rescue carrying a gun…
"They've snapped," Kagome decided in a hushed voice. Then, she cupped her hands around her mouth and shouted, "Hey, Souta! Where's Mama?"
There was a beat of charged silence before Souta broke eye contact. "I don't know. Cell towers and power lines are down because of the—the storm or whatever. I can't get a hold of her."
"Me neither," Kagome told him, her concern softening the bluntness of this statement. Souta's stiff upper lip (a sure sign he was fighting to maintain his cool) started to tremble, so Kagome forged ahead before her little brother had any time to break down. "Okay, here's the plan: obviously, these things want something that's inside Delta Hall, so you guys stay in there. Sango and I will find a way to get rid of them while they're distracted."
"Hiraikotsu?" Sango asked, thoroughly confusing everyone else listening in on the conversation.
Kagome nodded firmly. "And something to start a fire. I'm thinking gasoline and…"
"How about a Molotov cocktail?" Kohaku suggested, once again interrupting the girls. His jaw was set, and Kagome realized just how much alike he and Sango were. Give either one of them a challenge, and they met it head-on. In fact, the more Kagome thought about it, the surer she was that Kohaku was the one who had herded his fellow students into the dormitory and locked the building up to keep them all safe. Not that she doubted Souta, but it just seemed like something Sango would have done, and therefore, something of which Kohaku was capable.
"Good idea!" Kagome agreed with a grin. "Do you guys have supplies in there?"
"What do we need?" Souta asked, jostling Kohaku for a better position at the window. Framed way up there, Kagome and Sango were struck with just how exceptional their little brothers were—tired, scared, and still so eager to help out.
"Matches or a lighter and some bottles of flammable liquid, like alcohol," Kohaku explained knowledgably, patting down his pockets as if expecting to find all these supplies on him.
"Think you guys can find a lighter and some alcohol?" Sango called up to them.
Kohaku and Souta shared a look before glancing behind themselves at the other students. "Uhm, no offense, Sango, but this is a college dorm. Of course there's alcohol and fire in here," Souta retorted.
"Smartass," Kagome repeated, this time affectionately. "You guys get going on that, and we'll be right back."
With some waves and calls of farewell-slash-encouragement, Kagome and Sango took off back across campus. They needed to get to the car and fast since that was where they'd left Hiraikotsu. In hind sight, it would have been fine if they had carried the boomerang with them when they first started exploring, but they hadn't known that back when they first arrived.
"The boys are handling this pretty well," Sango commented, only slightly out of breath as they jogged past the destroyed student center.
"Yeah, and I took it well when I first met Inuyasha and Miroku and set Naraku's dusty corpse on fire," Kagome reminded her, trailing behind by several feet, huffing and puffing as she tried to keep up. It wasn't that she was in worse shape than Sango (okay, maybe she was), but she was several inches shorter—thus, her stride wasn't as long. "It's the adrenaline. As soon as we resolve the situation, they'll probably cry like babies."
"Not Kohaku," Sango argued, smiling a little as she thought about her brother. "He's way too tough for that."
"Just like big sis," Kagome teased, grabbing the stitch in her side as they pulled up alongside the car. She tried to catch her breath as Sango unlocked the rental and retrieved Hiraikotsu from the backseat.
With a grunt like a tennis player delivering a serve, Sango hefted the giant boomerang over her shoulder and braced it against her back, showing only a little strain. "We're definitely not running back," she muttered and adjusted her grip so that her arm wouldn't shake with the weight. "When this is over, I'm definitely going to hit the gym."
"What if we just drive across campus?" Kagome suggested as Sango started back in the direction they had just come from.
The brunette paused, thought it over, and then shrugged. "Careful there, Kagome," Sango teased her best friend, fishing the car keys back out of her pocket. "People are going to start thinking you're the brains of this team instead of me."
"Well, I'm certainly not the brawn," Kagome joked right back, helping Sango shove the boomerang into the backseat.
They piled back in and turned the nose of the car in the direction of the dorms. It took time to navigate the walkways—meant for a crowd of students, not a car—and the student center disaster was a pain to get around, but they made it back to Kohaku and Souta quicker than they would have if they had walked. Stepping out of the car, Kagome noticed that there were even more corpses gathered at the base of the building than before.
"People from downtown and the suburbs," Sango said when she realized what Kagome was staring at. "There's that old man that runs the convenience store off campus, see?"
"Yeah." Kagome nodded grimly, her eyes sweeping over the assembled faces. There were several people she vaguely recognized—people who had visited the shrine periodically when she was little, local business owners, even an old professor. Everyone was obviously long dead with ashy skin and crusted, dark blood. Although no two people had the same injury in the same place, they all looked sliced up. "I don't see Mama."
"That's good," Sango pointed out supportively, squeezing Kagome's shoulder. "Are you going to be able to do this? Get rid of these things, I mean."
Without hesitation, Kagome nodded firmly. "I'll be fine. It's not like they're alive or anything anymore."
"Alright. Ready to see my new trick?" Sango asked, bracing herself against the sidewalk. Without waiting for Kagome to reply, she adjusted her grip on Hiraikotsu. Swinging it as far back as she could, Sango quickly untwisted her body, hurling the boomerang at the crowd. It tore through the air, flying right through the corpses. Like a hot knife through butter, Hiraikotsu carved through the crowd, clearing a path before curling around at the far end. On its way back, it took out another column of the dead, splattering remains against the buildings, the sidewalk, and the other bodies.
Holding her hands out, Sango caught the boomerang and allowed the momentum to drag her backwards. She forced her body into a spin, bringing Hiraikotsu right back around to where it started, barely stumbling at all.
Immediately following this display, Kagome applauded, jumping up and down with excitement. There was a cheer from the students watching from Delta Hall, as well. "That was great! Oh, my god! No wonder Miroku's been all moony-eyed over you since he saw you do that—Sango, that was badass."
"I'm always badass," Sango countered smugly, flicking her bangs out of her eyes. "Now I'm just badass with a giant boomerang."
"No way!" Souta shouted, elbowing past some of the other spectators until he was once again at the forefront of the crowd at the windows. "That was awesome!"
"Sango, you're going to teach me that, right?" Kohaku asked, grinning down at them. His entire face was lit up with pride. "Do it again!"
And so she did. One, two, three times more, mowing down dozens of reanimated corpses with each throw. Every time she took out some of the ones assaulting the building, untouched ones in the waiting crowd would replace them. By the time she'd cut their numbers down by half, Sango was panting heavily, perspiring under her many layers of winter clothing.
"This is harder than it looks," she confided in a low voice, not wanting Kohaku to hear her admit any weakness. "I don't know how much longer I can keep this up."
Wanting to know how many were left, Kagome's eyes swept over the crowd several times. There had to be another five hundred, and more were trickling out of the park with every passing minute. "Rest for a minute," she told Sango before turning to the building. "Hey, guys! You got those Molotovs?"
"Ready and waiting," Souta confirmed with a gleeful grin that concerned Kagome. (Really, she was forgetting how excited she had been two months earlier when Miroku had sent her into an attic with a flask of gasoline and some matches, wasn't she?) To prove his point, he held out a bottle of what looked suspiciously like whiskey and wiggled it around; a strip of fabric was jutting out of the top. "Want us to light one and throw it down into the crowd?"
Kagome nodded before assessing the corpses again. "Down there! Back where they're in that thick group by the corner of the building. Figure out who has the best arm and give it a good throw!"
After some hushed conferring between the boys and some of their classmates, Kohaku took the Molotov from Souta. He disappeared from view but reappeared less than a minute later at a window further away.
"Don't rush it!" Sango coached, still panting from her earlier exertions. "And don't forget to follow through with the toss!"
"Just like dad taught us, right?" Kohaku shouted back, his voice much softer now that he was farther away. Kagome hoped he was talking about tossing baseballs with his father, not Molotovs.
"Right," Sango confirmed with a nod, grinning at her brother.
A hush fell over the (living) crowd as Kohaku took aim. Finally, he lit the fabric with a lighter and, with a shout, threw it into the mass of bodies below. The bottle shattered on impact, throwing flames everywhere. A fire quickly engulfed two dozen or more corpses. They didn't even react, just stood there and allowed themselves to burn to the ground.
Everyone cheered again, even Kagome, but Sango stayed serious.
"They're not fighting back," she commented, her expression troubled. "We've been lucky, but what if that woman shows up?"
"Then we'll deal with her then," Kagome replied, unconcerned.
"Or you'll deal with me now."
Kagome closed her eyes, horrified and already guessing at what she would find when she turned around. With a deep breath, she forced herself to do it, coming face to face (or rather, face to neck since the woman was several inches taller) with a red-eyed demoness. "Crap," Kagome muttered, sensing that Sango, who was behind her, had started to retreat.
Looking almost… amused, the demon smirked at Kagome and shook her head slowly, dismissively. "I knew all I'd have to do was wait, but he just had to be impatient and make me waste my talents on this crowd of weaklings."
"Huh?" Kagome mumbled intelligently, stumbling back a step to put some distance between her and this new threat. She realized vaguely and in the back of her mind that the rhythmic thumping of corpses throwing themselves against the brick of Delta Hall had stopped. The master had returned. Her dead neighbors had turned into a massive audience to the brewing fight.
"Nothing, never mind," the woman remarked, flicking her eyes to something over Kagome's shoulder. With a grin, she wagged a finger—tipped with a long, pointed, red nail—and tsk'ed at Sango. "I wouldn't do that if I were you."
Kagome quickly looked behind her, noticing that Sango had frozen, her hand half under her jacket reaching for a gun. "You can't blame a girl for trying," the brunette joked stiffly, grinning at the demoness.
Scoffing, the woman waved her hand, snapping open a fan that the girls hadn't noticed before. Actually laughing, she waved it in Sango's direction.
The conjured wind barely brushed past Kagome but still managed to throw her backwards. Meanwhile, the real target, Sango, was tossed into the brick wall. Her head smacked against the surface and, groaning, she collapsed on the sidewalk. Hiraikotsu spun away from her, landing at the feet of the now-unmoving crowd of corpses.
"Ouch!" Kagome snapped angrily, rubbing her bruised tailbone. She could hear Sango's moan, which at least meant the brunette was still alive. "What is wrong with you?"
"Sango!" Kohaku screamed, reappearing at the window above the fight. He was leaning so far out that Souta had to grab him to make sure they didn't both fall out of the building. "Sango, are you okay?"
"You!" the demoness roared, pointing at the window, the dirtiest look possible on her face. Her nose actually wrinkled as if she'd smelled something rotten. "Human boy!"
"Me?" Kohaku and Souta replied simultaneously.
"My name is Kagura, and I have come to kill you," she announced, snapping her fan open and shut in irritation.
"Wait, which one of us?" Souta asked, his eyebrows quirked in confusion.
"You!"
"…Me?" he answered again, pointing at himself.
With an exasperated sigh, Kagura pursed her lips. "Yes, you."
Souta grinned weakly. "Oh. Sweet?"
"Now is really not the time to be a smartass," Kagome suggested, struggling to her feet while shooting her little brother a dirty look. "So… you trashed a town, killed hundreds—"
"Thousands," Kagura interrupted with a smirk (and an expression that Kagome couldn't quite pin down).
"Thousands of people, and then sent their corpses to attack a dorm because you wanted to kill Souta," Kagome clarified, crossing her arms over her chest and looking more than a little angry. "Why?"
"Because you're his big sister," Kagura explained, folding her own arms stubbornly against her chest, mirroring Kagome's stance. "Obviously."
"No, not obviously," Kagome countered in bewilderment. "Why are you trying to kill my little brother?"
Kagura blinked and tilted her head to the side, furrowing her brow as though she thought the answer was clear. "Naraku told me to."
As expected, the name caused Kagome to swallow—hard—to force her fear back down. "Do you do everything Naraku tells you to do?"
"I do now," the demoness muttered, not sounding exactly pleased with the situation. "He brought me with him from hell when he freed himself."
"So…" Kagome pursed her lips thoughtfully. "You're his… minion?"
"I am no one's minion," Kagura snapped immediately, jabbing her fan in Kagome's direction. The small gust of wind that materialized was strong enough to shove Kagome several feet.
Struggling to keep upright, Kagome glanced at the dorm, remembering how many lives were hanging in the balance. "Look, I'm not exactly in a position to say we can forgive and forget all this, but what do you say we both just walk away? Or do we really have to fight?"
"I'm not scared of either of you," Kagura pointed out snappishly, tossing her head. "You're just two human women who've gotten lucky a few times with a few weak demons."
"We haven't lost yet," Sango growled, hoisting herself to her feet. A small trickle of blood trailed from the corner of her mouth, and she brushed it away impatiently. "Kagome here took down Naraku all by herself."
Kagura considered this, walking around them in a predatory circle. The girls noticed that even if she hadn't been barefoot and wearing a blood-red kimono, she never would have passed for human in a crowd. Her eyes alone screamed, 'Demonic!', and her ears were pointed like Sesshoumaru's. "She killed Naraku when he was nothing more than an angry spirit. Now, he's some demonic spawn hybrid that tore itself out of hell and is really angry. It's a little different."
"I'm surrounded by smartasses," Kagome grumbled. Louder, she said, "I really don't want to fight you."
"Are you sure about that? I just destroyed your hometown and tried to murder your little brother."
Weighing her options, Kagome glanced up at the dorm windows again. Souta smiled weakly down at her. Even though he had to be confused, even though he had to be wondering who Naraku was and what this woman was, he still managed to smile.
"Hey," he said jokingly, "I'm willing to let this go if you are."
Thankful, Kagome grinned back up at him. "You're such a little trooper."
"Smartass," he called down affectionately.
"Oh, god, this is disgustingly chipper," Kagura interrupted, rolling her eyes skyward. "Have you decided yet? Are you going to fight back, or do I get to kill you the easy way?"
If it was a perfect world, it would be right at this moment when Inuyasha and Miroku would appear, coming to their rescue. Kagome even allowed herself to imagine it, the half-demon bursting out of nowhere, falling from the sky with his rusty old sword swinging at Kagura's neck. And Miroku, cool as could be, stepping from around a corner and shooting at the demoness with the steadiest hand anyone had ever seen.
But that wasn't what happened.
Instead, Kohaku screamed, "Look out!" and gave the girls just enough time to jump backwards as he hurled a Molotov down at the demon's head.
Screaming in rage, Kagura flipped open her fan and threw a blade of wind at the sky, slicing through the bottle. Midair, the flaming alcohol shot across the sky, raining down on the pavement.
"Oh, god, oh, god," Kagome shouted, pulling her hood up over her hair as she ran for cover. Sango lurched in the opposite direction, ducking under a tree that quickly went up in flames. Cursing, Sango rolled back out from underneath, running for Hiraikotsu instead.
"Sorry!" Kokahu shouted sheepishly.
"Dude, when we go monster hunting, you're so not my back-up," Souta snapped.
"No monster hunting!" Kagome scolded, planting her fists on her hips.
Kagura, her eyes murderous, shook her head incredulously. "How have you not died yet?" she demanded angrily, pointing at Kagome and then Sango. "You two are entirely untrained, easily distracted, and undeniably human. This is ridiculous."
"No need to be so rude," Kagome growled, turning her flashing eyes from her brother to the demoness. "If I had my crossbow, you'd be dead by now."
"I sincerely doubt that," Kagura retorted, reaching up and fishing something out of her elaborate hairdo. When her hand reappeared, the girls were dumbfounded to see she was holding a feather between her thumb and forefinger. Tossing it into the air, the feather expanded until it was the size of a canoe and floated gently to the ground. The demoness mounted it and then settled into a relaxed, cross-legged position. "Killing you two now would be far too easy," she announced darkly. "I'll just have to do it later when you can present me with a real challenge."
She rose into the air, the feather rocking on the breeze. As Kagura soared higher into the sky, row after row of the corpses—who Kagome and Sango had forgotten about—fell to the ground, no longer held aloft by whatever magic she had been using.
"She's flying on a giant feather," Sango muttered, limping over to Kagome by using Hiraikotsu as a makeshift crutch. "I think that might be the weirdest thing we've seen so far."
"I agree," Kagome mumbled, slumping into Sango's shoulder so that the girls were supporting each other. "What now?"
"Damage control," the brunette said, watching as the students—those who were not still gaping at the quickly departing demoness—moved away from the windows. They would be exiting the building soon. "We don't know how many people are dead and how many were just hiding. There are all these bodies to bury and buildings to rebuild and…"
"Giant trees to drag off the streets? Students to convince they aren't crazy?" Kagome added, watching as everyone filed out of Delta Hall, led by Kohaku and Souta. "Uncomfortable stories to explain to little brothers?"
"Yeah. That, too."
It wasn't until evening that Inuyasha and Miroku showed up on Mrs. Higurashi's doorstep.
After they rang the doorbell, Kagome's mother opened the door to find two very tired, very concerned young men waiting for her. Their clothes were dusty and torn, Miroku had a cut on one cheek, and Inuyasha's hat was barely hanging on to the point where Mrs. Higurashi could see one of his adorable little ears.
"Kagome!" she called back into the house. "You've got company!"
And then when Kagome walked up behind her mother, Inuyasha surprised everyone by yanking her into a hug, wrapping his arms around her shoulders and waist as tightly as he could and holding her until he could feel her heartbeat through his jacket.
"Thank god," the half-demon whispered into her hair.
"Hi, Inuyasha," Kagome said, her voice muffled since her face was pressed into his chest. "Hi, Miroku," she added, even though she couldn't see the other hunter.
"Good evening, Mrs. Higurashi," Miroku greeted politely, stepping into the house beside the still-embracing Inuyasha and Kagome. "It's a pleasure to meet you."
"Oh! You, too, dear," the mother fluttered, ushering him further inside and shutting the door. "Sango and the boys are in the living room."
"Boys?" Inuyasha echoed, apparently remembering himself. He then shoved Kagome away from him so quickly that she stumbled, trying to find her balance. Quickly, Inuyasha reached out and grabbed her by the elbow, steadying her with a guilty wince.
"Souta and Kohaku," Kagome clarified, straightening her shirt in embarrassment. Her cheeks were bright pink from the unexpected display of affection, and she tried to ignore her mother (and Miroku's) giggling. "Our brothers."
"The moth demon has been dispatched," Miroku reported with a mock salute as the group followed Mrs. Higurashi into the living room. "And it was clear to Inuyasha and I as soon as we arrived that this sleepy little town had its own dangers to deal with."
"Kagura the demoness," Sango piped up. She was curled up in an armchair, a cup of hot chocolate nestled in her lap. Souta and Kohaku were collapsed on the couch, both looking wide awake—if not a little deranged after their first supernatural experience.
"I could smell her," Inuyasha snarled, his eyes flicking toward the doorway as if he expected Kagura to walk through it at any second. "How many people did she manage to kill?"
Sango and Kagome glanced at one another, frowning. "By our estimation," Sango began before trailing off, flicking her eyes downward with a frown.
"Out of nine thousand residents, I'd say at least six thousand are gone," Kagome finished unhappily. "Most of those were students."
"Sesshoumaru's cleaning crew showed up right after Kagura left," Sango explained. "They're helping us with damage control. I'm sure you saw the roadblocks—they said they had to quarantine the town until everything was cleaned up and everyone who witnessed anything was taken care of." The brunette hesitated, but she knew she had to ask. Turning to Miroku, she questioned him quietly, "What did they mean, 'taken care of'?"
"They'll either convince the witnesses that what they saw was not actually what they saw, or they will convince the witnesses to keep their mouths shut," Miroku explained with a half-smile. "Sesshoumaru has enough money and power to make that happen, even to a town with three thousand survivors."
Something finally took root in Inuyasha's mind, and he turned a dark look on Sango. "You said that Kagura left. You didn't kill her?"
"We tried," Kohaku piped up, drawing the hunters' attention. Between Miroku's dark, steady gaze and Inuyasha's gold eyes, the shy boy had to fight to keep talking. "Sort of, anyway. Kagura took off before there could be a real fight. She said it wasn't enough of a challenge."
"What I don't get is how Kagura was here," Miroku murmured thoughtfully, taking a seat on the couch between the two boys. They scrambled to get out of his way, but he didn't seem to notice. "I thought Sesshoumaru killed her years ago."
There was silence before Kagome joked weakly, "Wait, you mean Sesshoumaru actually got his own hands dirty for once?"
"Sent that bitch to hell when I was still a pup," Inuyasha confirmed. Then, with a wince in Mrs. Higurashi's direction, he promptly apologized. "Sorry, ma'am, I didn't mean to use that kind of language."
"Oh, of course you did," Mrs. Higurashi told him dismissively. "We're all adults here. I understand."
"So?" Miroku prompted, looking to Kagome and Sango as he tried to steer the conversation back on track.
"Naraku brought her with him when he escaped," Kagome explained. "That's why she was here. He sent her after Souta to draw me out or get even with me or something."
"I can't believe I'm saying this," Sango began, shaking her head, "but I wish he'd come right out and attack you directly. This was a low blow, going after your family like that."
"We made it alright," Mrs. Higurashi reminded them all gently. "Clearly that woman failed. This shrine protected me, Kagome's grandfather, and all our neighbors who fled here. And look at Kohaku and Souta—they managed to save almost two hundred of their classmates. The Higurashis are a tough bunch."
Kohaku, realizing that she'd included him when she said 'Higurashis,' smiled at Kagome's mother. "So, now what?"
"So, now nothing," Inuyasha retorted, reaching out and ruffling both boys' hair. It was such a friendly gesture that Miroku stared at his best friend with obvious surprise. "At least for you guys. We need to take care of this by kicking a little ass."
"But now it's personal!" Souta protested, trying to leap to his feet. Inuyasha pinned him down with a hand on his shoulder.
"Leave it to me," Inuyasha suggested with a roguish grin.
A beat passed, and then Souta beamed up at the half-demon.
"Unbelievable!" Kagome interrupted, gaping at the scene. "I save your sorry butt, and you're looking at him like he's the hero?"
"I am the hero," Inuyasha retorted cockily. "I just happened to miss this one fight."
"Excuse—!"
"Settle down, kids!" Mrs. Higurashi butted in, remarkably chipper for a woman who had just seen her hometown nearly destroyed. (Well, Kagome had to get her optimism and resiliency from somewhere, right?) "Let's have some dinner, and I can officially meet you young men. I feel like there is a lot we need to discuss about the last two months."