Resinous Commiphora: Sorry about the whole 'two weeks without a new chapter' thing. I just forgot to mention that I would be busy... so there. Anyway, uh... I can't think of anything else to say. Oh wait! Some of you have been asking what Resinous Commiphora means, so you must want to know, right? Well, I'm not telling. It doesn't have a special meaning or anything, though. I was just trying to figure out what I should put as my pen-name, and spotted some random words on a website I was reading. They sounded interesting together, so I used them. Meaningless names are kind of an inside joke I have with myself. Anyway, Enjoy this slightly-longer-than-usual chapter of Lady Infinity!

Lady Infinity…Chapter Eleven

Hiatus For One

They landed in a remote area close to Kagome's house. Immediately, Inuyasha's cell phone rang. He pulled it out of his pocket, "Wow, I forgot I had this thing on me." He answered, "Hello?"

Kagome couldn't quite make out what the person on the other end was saying, but she could tell he was angry. "Who is it," she inquired.

Inuyasha held up his finger and silenced her. "Sesshoma-" he was interrupted by another string of loud words. "Sesshomaru, listen!" The phone went silent, "We didn't trash the house! Someone broke in. Kagome and I barely escaped with our lives."

Kagome strained to catch what Sesshomaru said in reply… and failed.

"Uh huh," Inuyasha looked nervous; he tugged at his shirt collar with his free hand. "Yeah, we were both very upset afterwards." He paused and listened, then, "No, I didn't call the police."

Kagome and Inuyasha both jumped as Sesshomaru began yelling again. Inuyasha held the phone away from his ear until it became quiet. "I was in shock! It was scary being chased around by a band of thugs with guns!"

Funny how one man turned into a band of thugs.

Inuyasha continued, "We just went to some park and sat out the night. I completely forgot about my cell phone until it you called just now." He listened to something, then, "No, I'm not lying. You can even ask Kagome. She was there too, remember."

After a few more words, Inuyasha muttered a goodbye into the phone and hung up. He slipped the cell back into his pocket and turned to Kagome, "Well, you just heard our story. Make sure you tell the same thing to your parents, too, and the police, if they question you."

"My parents…" Kagome's face changed instantly, "My parents! They must be worried to death! Inuyasha, we have to go to my house right now."

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Kagome opened the front door of her house and stepped inside; Inuyasha following close behind. She was greeted by the frantic cries of her mother. "Kagome, oh Kagome, where have you been?"

Kagome's hugged her mother and began the story she and Inuyasha had agreed upon, "Well, I was…"

"No, it's ok, we'll talk later. Right now just let me hold you."

Inuyasha closed the door quietly behind him and stood there (awkwardly) for some time before Kagome's father and brother appeared and opened conversation once more.

Sota began, "Kagome, you're home! Mom and Dad wouldn't tell me where you went. Why are you so dirty?"

"Hush, Sota," Kagome's father interrupted, "Let's just be glad Kagome's home for now. I'm sure everything will come out eventually."

Unsatisfied, Sota began questioning Inuyasha, "Inuyasha, why are you here?"

"I was with Kagome,"

"Why were you with Kagome, did you kidnap her?"

Inuyasha managed to hold back his laughter, but couldn't hold back a smile. "No, of course not, why would I kidnap Kagome?"

"I don't know, because you love her?"

Inuyasha's face turned bright red. Luckily, nobody heard what Sota said (he'd kinda mumbled it); even more luckily, nobody saw Inuyasha's reaction. Even Sota had turned back towards Kagome just after he finished his sentence.

Inuyasha regained his composure just as Kagome's mother regained her senses and invited him to stay and have breakfast with them.

"Sure, I'll stay." Inuyasha secretly wanted to leave, but knew Kagome would be more comfortable if he didn't.

----------

Inuyasha ran up and opened the door; a little bell went off somewhere. He stood aside and let Kagome enter first. "Thank you, Inuyasha," she said.

"No problem," he replied.

The girl behind the counter heard the bell go off and automatically greeted them, "Welcome to Murphy's Slurpy Coffee! Oh, Inuyasha and Kagome, it's you. I haven't seen you in a few days."

"Yeah," Inuyasha answered her, "We've been busy." They walked up to the counter. Inuyasha studied the menu posted on the wall while Kagome chatted with Sango.

"Sango, did you hear about the tornado at our school last week?" It had been almost a week since then; Kagome's leg was healing nicely (it didn't look like a mummy anymore).

Sango's interest was immediately aroused. "I heard about that. There was furniture raining down on your volleyball game, right?"

"Watermelons, too, and wine glasses," Inuyasha interjected. "By the way, I'll have a mint-chocolate cappuccino, please."

"Sure," Sango began preparing it immediately. She was good at her job, so she could talk while she worked. "You know, I was near your school around the time the tornado hit."

"Really," Kagome and Inuyasha both said in unison, both thinking the same thing.

"Yeah, really, but I didn't see anything."

Good, that means she didn't see me fighting that guy. Kagome could see that Inuyasha was relieved, too. "You must have just missed it," she said.

Sango handed Inuyasha his cappuccino. There was so much whipped cream, Kagome almost made a joke, but decided against it.

"I guess I did."

"Did what," Kagome asked.

"Missed it, duh," Sango smiled, "Aren't you paying attention?"

"Yes, I am. I was just entranced by Inuyasha's cappuccino. Could I have one, too?"

"Sure," Sango began making another. "You know, something else interesting happened to me on the day that tornado hit. Right near your school, actually."

Kagome and Inuyasha looked at each other. If Sango knew, they would have a problem: Sango was a bit of a gossip.

Sango's smile grew larger, "I met someone. He'd just been beat up by a group of thugs, and I rescued him."

"Wow, no kidding!" She studied Sango's face again, "They must have been pretty weak if you beat them all up without getting a scratch." She turned towards Inuyasha, "What is it!?" He'd been nudging her leg with his foot; it was annoying.

Inuyasha looked at the counter, "Nothing. Forget it."

Sango continued, "Anyway, I was just going to tell you: The punks were already gone when I got there. I was going to go after them, but he didn't remember how they looked. It all happened so fast, all he'd been able to do was rip a mask off of one of them (they were wearing masks; how cowardly is that?)."

Kagome looked at Inuyasha; she knew what he'd been trying to tell her. The man Sango saved was the same masked man that I beat up: The one with the powers! That's how he got away so fast! "What happened to him," Kagome asked, trying to sound innocent.

"That's the good part," Sango handed Kagome her cappuccino, which, if it was possible, had more whipped cream than Inuyasha's.

Silence.

"…Yes?" Inuyasha asked.

Sango grinned very wide, "He's living in my apartment!"

"What!?" Kagome and Inuyasha erupted simultaneously (again).

She frowned, "Hold on a second until I tell you the whole story!"

Kagome sipped her cappuccino, Inuyasha threw his empty coffee cup away; they were both silent.

"Ok, this is what happened: I was supposed to just help him to the bus station, because he didn't want to go to the hospital. The trip to the bus station was not fun, but we finally got there… and found out that the next bus wasn't going to arrive for an hour or something." She paused to take a breath and continued, "Anyway, since we were both tired, I offered to just let him come to my apartment to rest since it was closer than the next nearest bus station."

"Why didn't you just call an ambulance," Inuyasha wondered aloud.

Sango put her hands on her hips, "Because, to tell the truth, he was kind of good looking, so I wanted to take a few shots of him."

"Oh," Inuyasha said; Kagome nodded in agreement. They both understood now.

Sango believed herself to be a prodigy photographer. She also believed that if she took at least one picture of anything she felt even the slightest urge to take a picture of, she would eventually become famous. Sometimes this urge was fun, like when she just had to have a picture of a pigeon one day and chased it all around the park while Kagome and Inuyasha looked on and laughed. Sometimes, however, it was not fun, like when she was convinced that she would never be famous unless she got a photo of an oncoming train; that was certainly not a fun memory for Inuyasha, who had had to pull her out of the way when she forgot where she was. Obviously then, she would even allow a total stranger into her apartment just to snap a few portraits of him if she felt she had to.

Sango picked up where she left off, "Anyway, the trip to my apartment building was harder-he was pretty beat up-but we finally got there… only to find the elevator out of order."

Kagome opened her mouth in disbelief, "That's some bad luck! How long did you have to wait for the elevator repairman to come out and fix it?" She tossed her empty cup at the garbage can and missed.

As she walked over to retrieve it and dispose of it properly, Sango answered her question, "Well here's the thing: At this point, we were both pretty angry at the world; we weren't about to give up because of a few flights of stairs."

A few flights? Kagome looked at Inuyasha: They both knew that Sango's apartment was on the 20th floor.

Sango sensed what they were thinking, "You guys weren't there. We were so pumped up, we were going to get to my apartment if it was the last thing we did." She sighed, slumped down onto the counter, and rested her head on her hand, "We almost made it, too."

Inuyasha broke in, "What do you mean, 'almost'?"

"Let me finish," Sango sounded angry, probably because she was still mad that they had been defeated by the stairs. "We were about to reach the 19th floor landing when Miroku-that's his name, by the way-lost his footing and fell!"

"No! Is he okay?" Kagome leaned in closer to hear the conclusion.

"He just fell down that one flight of stairs, which was really lucky. What wasn't lucky was that he broke both his legs."

Kagome let out a small "ah!" Inuyasha made a face, "That's horrible," he said.

"Isn't it?" Sango was smiling. "It's good for me, though. I convinced him that I thought it was my fault and that I wouldn't be able to live if he didn't let me take care of him while he healed. As a result, I've been taking pictures of him every day since then!" She clapped her hands, as if she expected them to congratulate her on taking him hostage.

Kagome thought for a second about how to approach the subject she wanted to approach, but was beat to the punch by Inuyasha.

"Do you think the guy's dangerous? I mean, does he do anything weird?" He tried to sound concerned for her safety.

"Oh no, heavens no! He's done nothing but lie on my couch, watch my TV, and talk to me when I start up a conversation. I don't think he's dangerous at all."

Kagome picked up where Inuyasha left off, "Does he have any quirks at all, like does he mumble to himself or… uh… steal things?"

Sango seemed to ponder this for a second, then replied, "I don't think he has any quirks. There was this one time that I could have sworn I put a newspaper on the table next to him before I went to the bathroom, but when I got back it was gone. Is that weird? Oh my God, you think he stole my newspaper?"

They said nothing; she laughed.

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"The forecast for tomorrow is… high of… seventy-three… sunny… winds from the northwest at… five… miles per hour. Tune in for your next local forecast in… ten… minutes."

The robotic voice on the television was annoying, so he changed the channel.

"You don't mean…" The woman on the screen walked toward a man in an orange tie. "You… you ate her!? Oh my God, NOOO!" The woman attempted to flee, but the door was locked. She screamed as the man walked towards her.

He changed the channel; horror was not his thing.

"Oh Jessica, oh Jessica, how I long to caress your sweet, sweet face." The man on the television reached out and touched the picture he was holding. There was a close-up of the picture, which was of an ugly woman with ugly teeth and ugly hair.

"Oh God, what the heck is up with that?" He changed the channel again. "Isn't there anything on?" He flipped the channel a few more times, and stopped on a show that looked-at least a little-like it might turn out to be-at least slightly-interesting.

"Observe as the zebra attempts to flee the cheetah."

He observed.

"Observe as the cheetah rips out the zebra's jugular and feast's on its… flesh…?"

He observed again, though the narrator's sudden change of voice made him wonder if this was a commercial.

"Uh, there appears to be something wrong with this footage. George, you'd better come see this."

What the heck? How did this end up on TV? Someone's fired.

Another man's voice could now be heard, "What is that? That wasn't there when we shot this footage!"

Miroku could now see what George and the narrator were talking about. As the cheetah feasted upon the zebra, what looked to be a small man (he wasn't quite sure) was sneaking up behind the cheetah.

There were many voices speaking now, the original narrator's lost among them. Miroku concentrated on the TV as the little… whatever it was drew closer and closer to the kill site. Now there was a close-up of the scene. Miroku could hear the surprise in the voices of the narrators (if you could still call them that).

There was a clear shot of the thing that was creeping up on the cheetah and its meal, and Miroku still couldn't tell what it was. It almost looked to him like some kind of goblin… thing. A voice began yelling over the others on the TV, it appeared to belong to a supervisor, because everyone else grew quiet. "Nancy, I want you to find out who was on site that day and bring them in for questioning. Bob, make a copy of this and have it on my desk in an hour. Everyone else, get back to work!"

All at once, the screen went black. After a few seconds, it popped back to what looked like a newsroom. A well-dressed man sitting at a desk addressed the camera, "And there you have it. This tape was only released to this news program, thanks to a disgruntled employee who believed it was being covered up. What was that creature on the video tape? We have with us now an expert who thinks he knows." The reporter turned to his right as the camera zoomed out, revealing an extremely overweight woman wearing tiny, black glasses. "Dr. Rita Coppley, you say you know what this is?"

"Yes, Heath, I do. It's a… well, I'm not exactly sure how to pronounce this, but here, read it for yourself."

Reporter Heath looked off to one side, "I'm sorry, I thought Dr. Coppley came up with this herself?" Someone spoke back at him from off-camera. Miroku couldn't make out what he said. "Oh, I see. Ok, can we get a shot of this book for the viewers at home?"

A page from some book now appeared on-screen. On it was a picture of a creature that looked exactly like the one from the video. Under it was written "GURRGHL"

Heath spoke up, "Wow, that looks exactly like the creature we just saw. And I'm not sure I can pronounce that, either. Is it 'Girl'? Oh, I see. It's 'Gurgle', thank you, Steve." The video went back to Heath sitting at his desk, alone now. "Everyone give a big hand to Steve, our resident linguist. Where would we be without him?" He looked around. "It seems Dr. Coppley has left. Yes." Turning back to the camera, "Well, we here at World News Center are trying to get the extended tape of that creature to show to you, our viewers, so please stay tuned for updates."

The camera stayed on Reporter Heath's face for a few more seconds, then cut to a commercial.

Miroku turned off the TV. His heart was beating fast. He was almost positive he had seen that creature somewhere before. "Was it in a dream?" He thought so, maybe. He wished he could look more up online, but, sadly, the girl he was staying with was a technophobe or something: She didn't have a computer.

He shifted his legs around, "Ouch, stupid broken legs." took a sip from a glass of water he had next to him, and closed his eyes, hoping he would somehow be able to sleep for a few hours. Staying in this apartment was boring as Hell. He regretted ever having agreed to it.

He dreamed about the creature. It was his waitress at a restaurant he was at. He was confused in his dream, because he was convinced (in his dream, at least) that the creature was male. It set his order, steak surprise with a side of asparagus, down on the table with a clang, then picked it up and set it down again with another clang, and another, and another…

He woke up.

He heard the clang again, which was apparently caused by something knocking against the window. God, I hate it when dreams tie in things like that. He rubbed his eyes and looked over, expecting to see window washers or a crazy bird… not what he actually did see, which was the waitress from his dream; only this wasn't a dream. It was really there, outside the 20th floor window.

Smiling at him.