Chapter 11- King Naraku and the Resistance
Kagome choked back a sob as she scrambled even farther back, a hand grabbing her wrist and lifting her up into the air.
"Leave her alone you big bully!" Shippo yelled, leaping onto the man's hand and biting hard. The man yelled and shook his arm, shaking Kagome and Shippo at the same time.
"STOP THIS AT ONCE!!!" a voice boomed. The man let Kagome go and she landed painfully on the ground.
Guards dressed in samurai footmen clothes surrounded her, their spears pointed straight at her, pushing her back away from the street. She could hear another guard grab Shippo. "Shippo!" Kagome shouted, jumping up and taking a step towards him. The ends of spears rose up to meet her, keeping her back from helping the poor kit who was crying out her name loudly.
"LEAVE HIM ALONE!" cried out Kagome. "HE'S JUST A LITTLE KID! HE DIDN'T DO ANYTHING. LET HIM GO!" she had no idea what she was going to do but there was no way that she was going to let them hurt Shippo.
"What's going on?!" cried a female voice from nowhere. Kagome turned her head around but didn't see anyone around her, except for the jerks who were pointing spears at her head. "Up here, idiots!"
Kagome looked up to see a women floating on a giant feather. This was a new one on her; if she didn't spend the whole day walking around a place that was based off Atlantis, looking at a completely underwater city, meeting magical creatures, and being treated like a criminal by some samurai wanna-be's—she would have been very surprised by this. The feather that she was riding on sank lower and lower until, when she was a few feet off the ground, she gently jumped down. The feather began to shrink—until—it was a normal sized feather in the woman's hand.
The woman had long dark hair that was tied up in the back of her head with a simple hair ornament. She was dressed in a blue robe with a floral pattern; with a very light and elegant armor. She also wore a pair of green beaded earrings, each bearing five beads each, and was carrying a very large fan, that she was beginning to gently fan herself.
"What's happening here?" she asked calmly as she continued to fan herself. The man with the bandaged face spoke up, "This girl is disturbing the peace!"
"Disturbing the peace?!" shouted Kagome outrage. "You almost ran me down with that demon horse, took my friend, and have giant spears being pointed at me! And you think that I'm the one that's disturbing the peace? Just let my friend go and we'll leave!" she was breathing harder than when she dealt with those thugs last night that were kicking Shippo around like a football. She promised that she was going to protect her new friend and she intended to keep it that way.
"Miss Kagura," said old bandage-face. "It's clear that she must be part of the resistance. We should put her away where she won't cause us any more trouble."
"Be quiet for once in your life Onigumo," snapped the woman who sounded deeply annoyed. "Just let the girl and the kid go and get Enti up to the palace. Naraku must be wondering what's going on by now. He's gonna be mad if that demon horse isn't there on time. And I hate to see him take it all out on you," of course she didn't sound like she would have hated it.
The guy who was holding Shippo dropped him and Shippo didn't waste any time running towards Kagome. She knelt down and he ran into her open arms.
"Kagome!" he cried.
"Are you ok, Shippo?" she asked him.
"Listen," said Kagura. "Get out of here now. I don't think that you can get of a second time."
Kagome nodded as she stood up, holding Shippo, and backed away as far as she could from the street and into the stunned looking crowd. Kagura turned towards everyone else and called out, "Don't just stand there! Get going!"
Immediately everyone started running off, returning to whatever it was that they were doing. The woman was about to walk away when she saw something on the ground and picked it up. Whatever it was she stuffed it into the sleeve of her robe and took off on the feather.
"Are you ok, Shippo?" Kagome asked him again. Shippo was sniffling slightly as he clung to Kagome. All he did was nod. They walked as far and as fast as they could from the market and didn't stop until they turned down a small alleyway with no one else around. She sat on the ground with Shippo on her lap and she began to talk very gently to him; trying to calm him down.
"Hey? You alright?" said a familiar voice. Kagome's head snapped up as she saw Kagura leaning against the side of the wall.
Kagome leapt up; "Kagura!" what did she want?
"Relax," she said. "I just came to give this back." She then pulled out from her robe the mirror that Kagome had gotten earlier. She had been so worried about Shippo that she had forgotten all about the mirror.
"Oh… tha—thank you," she stuttered taking the mirror back. "Thank you for helping us out earlier," she said.
Kagura looked from Shippo to Kagome and back again. "Don't mention it," she said turning away. "I mean it. Don't mention it. I have enough problems without people thinking I'm with the resistance." Suddenly a great gust of wind came out of nowhere. Kagome closed her eyes for a second; and when she opened them again she saw that Kagura had taken off and was up above the city.
"I'm glad that she's on our side," said Shippo.
Kagome looked at him. "Our side?" asked Kagome. "What do you mean by that?" Shippo jumped down from her arms and looked around him to see if anyone else is around. Kagome also looked around… but she couldn't see anyone. Shippo gestured for her to lean down. She got back on her knees and Shippo began to whisper into her ear.
"The resistance are the people who are serious about putting a stop to Naraku. He used to live in the city of Arachnid but he used trickery to gain power." Shippo shook his head and went on, "He tries to get people to hate others. He hopes that they would be driven to kill others; it's his same old trick. He tricks people by tricking friends into betraying each other, makes siblings fight, curses people in love. Naraku will say and do anything to get what he wants. He takes every advance of someone and once he realizes that he doesn't need them anymore he kills them."
Kagome stared at him in horror and disgust. "That—that—he…" she couldn't think of a name horrible enough to call Naraku.
Shippo nodded. "Yeah, we all feel that way. Naraku had done some pretty bad things. Naraku is a shape shifter, and he uses this to trick people into thinking that their friends and family have betrayed each other. But no one's ever seen Naraku's real face. He wears a white-furred baboon pelt that hides all but the lower half of his face. But he's really powerful; so taking him down won't be easy. That's where we come in," he said that last sentence with pride.
"You're in the resistance?" asked Kagome in a hushed tone.
Shippo looked around him again; making sure that no one else was around before telling her, "Yeah, there are a handful of people who do everything that we can to cause as much trouble for Naraku. There's gonna be a meeting of the resistance later on today, after the parade, and we are gonna talk about what we are going to do. You can come too. But you have to swear that you'll never tell anyone else about what the resistance is up too. If Naraku ever found out about what we're up to then…" he shivered at the very thought of what could happen.
"Don't worry," said Kagome. "Sounds like Naraku's the last person I'll tell anything too." She shook her head before saying, "But what does this have to do with Kagura? Is she in the resistance to?"
"Shhhhhhh…" said Shippo looking around him. "Naraku has these giant poisonous bugs called Saimyōshō. Naraku uses them to spy on his enemies, and he has Demon puppets that look just like him. He controls them from far away and can see through their eyes. So we have to be careful that we aren't being watched."
Shippo took her hand and lead her deeper down the alley speaking so quietly that Kagome had to listen very hard to keep up. "Yes, Kagura is in the resistance too. She is actually on of Naraku's creations, but he holds her heart in his hands, which means that she is bound to his service, and if she betrays him then he'll kill her."
"That's got to be one of the most disgusting things I've ever heard in my life!"
"Yeah. Naraku created her, but she hates Naraku and secretly works for the resistance to destroy him. She gets us useful information on the inside, so she's got to be careful when she's around him."
At that moment they heard a loud trumpet coming from somewhere up ahead. Shippo jumped, "The parade's starting! We need to go and watch it. I was told to keep watch and if I see anything that might be useful to the resistance I have to tell them."
Shippo lead the way back to the street in no time at all; although Kagome was more than happy to stay back in the shadows, she followed him back. After a few minutes they got back to the street where they were almost run down by a demon horse. The two of them stayed far back this time and watched the parade take place. There were armed and armored creatures that were leading the way for a chair that was being carried by the ugliest creatures that she ever saw.
They looked a little bit like humans but they had rubbery skin, canine faces, and slumping forms. They also had a bit of a greenish color to them. Shippo muttered into her ear as he leapt up onto her shoulder again, "Ghouls Subterrene, they're his favorite kind of servant. They ally themselves with whoever is strongest."
"What? Don't they have any pride?" muttered Kagome in disgust. Then an elaborate chair came right in front of their view as the ghouls subterrene walked in front of them. Kagome looked up at the chair to look at the man being carried—she couldn't see his face. He was dressed in a white baboon pelt. But Kagome could help but get a kind of chill coming from him—as though he sucked the warmth from all around him. So this was the infamous 'King' Naraku.
All around her, Kagome heard people muttering things about Naraku, all of which wasn't nice at all.
"Demon," said a man that looked like he might be a Selkie.
"Monster," said a little girl with a ponytail.
"Murderer," said an old man with white hair and a beard.
"Dictator," said a woman dressed all in blue.
"He sure doesn't have too many friends," said Kagome. She looked up at the chair again and tried to get a good look at his face. His head turned… and looked down right at her. She felt her insides turn cold—and a terrible feeling passed over her—like she was about to pass out. She staggered slightly.
"Kagome?" said Shippo worriedly as he held onto her shoulder. "Are you ok? What happened?"
"I—I'm fine, Shippo," she said. She looked back up but the chair had already passed right by them and was heading down towards the front gates. "What a jerk," said Shippo. "He gives me the creeps."
Kagome shivered. "I know the feeling," she said. She heard people around her starting to run around, starting to celebrate… glad that their dictator was gone for now. Shippo leapt down once again and said, "Come with me, Kagome. Now that Naraku is gone I can head back to headcounters. I want you to meet Miroku and Sango. They can tell you what's been happening since you left."
As soon as he said that… something came back to her… the reason she came here in the first place.
"Shippo?" Kagome asked him hesitantly. "You never did answer my question… Inuyasha… where is he? And how is he doing?"
Shippo put down his head and didn't look at her for a moment, "Inuyasha is the leader of the resistance… and a few days before you arrived… he and a few other people who are fighting Naraku… they got sent to Nalana."
