A/N: Well... this took much longer than I expected. I've decided to alter how I post stories to prevent long running cliff-hangers like this in the future. Read my notes at the bottom if you'd like to know details.
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Chapter 11: Miroku To The Rescue
By Kenkaya
Inuyasha relaxed his stance, incredulous over the fact he was actually grateful to see the pervert… though he would kiss Sesshoumaru and give up cursing before ever admitting it. Behind him, Kagome sighed in relief.
"Miroku… thank goodness!"
"Bringing in backup now?" Hiten spat, lifting himself awkwardly from the ground. "Damn cowards… two on one, three on one… makes no difference to me. I'll take out the lot of you!"
"Coward?!" Inuyasha snarled, turning back to face Hiten. The accusation stung his carefully constructed pride. Throughout his life, Inuyasha hadn't won every single fight, but he always faced them head on. He never ran away. Fists clenched dangerously tight and a berserker's haze tainting his vision, he lunged forward.
"Sankontessou!"
He struck before his opponent had time to react properly. Hiten sucked in a startled breath as he stumbled back, blood dripping from a set of gashes the entire length of his good arm. In the background, Miroku let out an appreciative whistle.
"There's no 'fair' in real combat… that's the hard truth," Inuyasha said with controlled calm, almost as if reciting a long ago memorized lesson. "Sneak attacks and reinforcements are just battle tactics. A coward's someone who gives in to fear and backs off from a fight."
The youkai took a calculated step forward. Hiten scrambled backwards instinctively, eyes transfixed on Inuyasha's bloodstained claws.
"How much of a coward are you, Hiten?"
Hiten bristled at those words, but wounded pride wasn't enough to override fear for his life. Both of his arms were out of commission; he stood no chance against the white-haired freak now.
"Figures trash like you never heard of a strategic retreat," he said in an attempt to have the last word. A familiar flash of white flickered across his peripheral vision, and Hiten knew he was screwed either way.
"I'll be back for you two… this isn't over!"
The mutant thug then turned tail and ran. Using his running start, he slid up electric currents alongside a concrete building and out of sight. The remaining alley occupants didn't allow themselves to feel full relief until the tingling sensation of body static finally dissipated.
"Well… it looks like we're all in the clear for now," Miroku deadpanned, smiling disarmingly at Kagome and a battle-scuffed Inuyasha. "So, who wants to tell me what that was all about?"
"Well," Kagome began, before pausing and turning to her companion for support. Neither of them were in a proper emotional state to explain the last several hours. Inuyasha was still releasing an unconscious low growl, and his gaze kept darting back towards Hiten's escape route.
"It's kind of a long story," she finished lamely.
"I see," Miroku responded, his tone letting her know that he understood their need for time. "I guess it's a good thing I showed up when I did, then."
"Speaking of that…"
"What are you doing here, anyway?" Inuyasha interrupted the girl brusquely. Kagome fumed, though he had asked the same question she was about to. Annoyance provided a nice distraction from the other intense emotions threatening to consume her, especially now that the adrenaline rush was starting to peter out.
"Ah! I was on my way home from the store," Miroku gestured toward the grocery bags stacked in the front basket of his motorcycle. "Mushin got drunk this afternoon and forgot to do the shopping again."
"So it was just luck," Inuyasha affirmed, relaxing his posture as he accepted the mutant's answer.
"Dumb luck," Miroku quipped back lightheartedly.
"Why you…"
"Guys!" Kagome stepped between the two in question. "Cut it out already! I've had enough fighting for today." Guilt over those words immediately deflated Inuyasha's aggression. "Miroku, even if it was luck… thank you."
"Oh, there's no thanks necessary, but you're welcome anyway."
"Ow! Yeah… you were a good distraction," the youkai grumbled after Kagome elbowed him. Both mutants fell silent, seeming to know that this was the closest he would get to a "thank you" on the matter.
"Well," Miroku broke the awkward silence. "I need to get home and cook dinner. If you want, you can use my place to clean up so your mother doesn't worry."
Tears welled in Kagome's eyes and she suddenly lost the ability to speak. She turned her head away, unable to deal with emotions over the whole day's events crashing down all at once; again. Inuyasha, now significantly calmed, noticed her turmoil.
"We… we can't go back tonight," he said, wishing he had more skill being tactful.
"Ah… in that case, perhaps the two of you would like to join me for dinner?" Miroku asked, clearly possessing more of the skill Inuyasha lacked. "I have plenty of food and Mushin is use to unexpected guests showing up overnight."
"Alright," the youkai responded, looking to Kagome as he said it. Normally, he would be loath to accept charity from someone he barely knew (extreme cases notwithstanding), but she needed food and shelter. Miroku was her friend- she trusted him, so he would too.
"S… sounds good," she said, finally finding her voice.
As the three left the dim alley (Miroku walking his bike while Inuyasha pretended not to stare at it curiously), yellow streetlight reflected off a small object hidden beneath a pile of garbage behind them. In the heat of battle, no one had noticed the pink sphere fly out of Kagome's body when Hiten shocked her. No one saw it roll away, until it finally stopped under an overflowing dumpster. No one knew it was there.
In the now deserted alley, the Shikon no Tama sparkled inconspicuously.
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"Here we are! Home sweet home!" Miroku declared in sing-song.
Inuyasha examined the small second floor apartment: so different from the well-kept, two-story house he had lived in for the past week. The living room was cramped and messy, with half-full boxes and piles of random junk stacked against the walls. Shocked eyes moved on to the DVD cases displaying questionable content and old newspapers littering the floor. Smack in the center of chaos was a beat-up futon folded into a makeshift couch. The youkai finished his inspection with a glance to the left: a tiny space that barely qualified as a kitchenette, and to the right: a closed door that (presumably) led to the bedroom.
"In case it wasn't obvious enough, Miroku lives in a stereotypical bachelor pad," Kagome stage-whispered to Inuyasha.
"What are you talking about? Sango helped me clean up the other day," Miroku said, looking around puzzled.
"I don't want to know what this place looked like before, do I?"
"No… probably not. We found a sticky blob behind the T.V. that I'm pretty sure wiggled back when Sango poked it with the broom handle."
"Ew!"
Inuyasha's ears twitched at the shrill exclamation. Inwardly, he debated whether grabbing Kagome and just spending the night on the street was a better option. He may have grown up wild in the woods, but at least dirt didn't mysteriously manifest life (unless a youkai or spirit possessed it. He was about to pose this theory to Miroku, but stopped himself as it brought up another thought he'd been meaning to discuss privately with Kagome).
"So what should we eat?" Miroku asked, abruptly changing the subject. He began digging through the bags he'd placed on a fold-out table in front of the kitchenette. "I have beef… I can make a stir-fry with onions, bell pepper, and miso marinade… there's chicken… I can whip that up with some curry, cashews, and rice… tofu if you want to go meatless tonight…"
"Whoa, whoa! Wait," Kagome interrupted. "You can cook!?"
"Of course," Miroku gestured around the apartment in explanation. "I do have some self-preservation instincts. Would you trust anything Mushin cooked?"
"Point," Kagome conceded.
"So, do you have an opinion on dinner, Inuyasha?" Miroku asked, snapping the youkai in question back to reality.
"Huh? Oh… nothing spicy," he responded, remembering an embarrassing moment with Souta and curry powder a couple days ago.
"Alright, stir-fry it is!"
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Miroku did indeed prove his skill in the kitchen and dinner was a surprisingly enjoyable affair.
The second they sat down, Mushin emerged from the dark bedroom wearing a purple bathrobe: face still alcohol-flushed and scratching his bulging potbelly. He helped himself shamelessly to Miroku's incredible cooking. The old man was friendly enough, keeping up conversation without asking intrusive questions, despite the fact Inuyasha's ears were uncovered.
"Nice 'ta see ya again, Kagome! Been too long… would'da been nicer if ya brought 'nother girlfriend 'stead though…"
"Who the Hell is this geezer?!" Inuyasha slammed the lacquered rice bowl down as he stood, considering whether or not to brave the streets once again.
"True as that may be," Miroku intervened, "Inuyasha is still my guest. Try not to rile him up too much, Mushin."
"Bah! You're no fun!" the old man grumbled as he seated himself carefully on a hard, plastic chair. "Ever since ya settled down with that girl… not that I mind much. Sango's a good girl an' she cleans the place for free! Damn annoying when she throws out my favorite porn though… keep an eye on 'er next time, boy!"
"I try," said boy sighed woefully. "I try…"
"You're fighting a losing battle there, Miroku!" Kagome laughed. Inuyasha sat down and resumed eating, placated by her laughter.
"Huh? I thought ya had some sorta compromise?" Mushin mumbled around a mouthful of beef.
"We do," Miroku confirmed, much to Kagome's shock.
"What? How the heck did you pull that off?"
"Well," the mutant boy took bite and swallowed thoughtfully. "Sango got tired of my 'it's just a fantasy, not reality' speech, so she told me she was okay with it as long as I took that philosophy to heart… in the literal sense."
"Meaning?" even Inuyasha was (shamefully) curious by this point.
"It's okay as long as the ladies aren't real! Anime hentai is perfectly acceptable!"
There was a moment of stunned silence, and then-
"Nice save, m' boy!" Mushin crowed, jumping up to pat his foster son on the back.
"Now I see where he gets it," Inuyasha shook his head and turned to face a sweat-dropping Kagome. "You have weird taste in friends."
"Tell me about it," she rolled her eyes. They continued to eat, and conversation went on in much the same vein, until the subject of sleeping arrangements came up.
"The futon in the living room might fit two," Miroku informed them. "But I'm not sure how comfortable you two are with sharing a bed…"
"The wall's fine with me," Inuyasha replied before Kagome could. "I wouldn't want to sleep on a bed you shared with your girlfriend, anyway."
"Inuyasha!" she gasped, mortified. The embarrassed girl immediately apologized, though the look she gave Miroku was one that pleaded for reassurance.
"Don't worry," he assured her. "And frankly, Inuyasha, I must admit I'm a bit insulted by your… insinuations. To think I would sully the honor of the woman I love…"
"You seemed perfectly comfortable doing it in front of an audience!" the youkai snapped while Mushin hooted in the background.
"Ah, don't worry yer pretty littl' head," the old man managed through a few residual chuckles. He sent a genuine smile in Kagome's direction. "I taught my boy well… ogling's one thing, but ya don't mess aroun' with nice respectable girls like Sango… 'less you're gonna do right by her an' make it permanent. She sleeps out 'ere and Miroku's in the room with me when she's over. Like he's gonna be tonight."
"Wow," the girl whistled as her youkai companion stared, dumbfounded. "You just made your perverted habits sound noble… how is that possible?"
"Hey, just because we're perverts, doesn't mean we can't have morals, too," Miroku defended dramatically. He got an eye roll and two choked laughs for his effort.
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Kagome tossed and turned that night; partially in an attempt to find at least one comfortable spot on the lumpy futon, but mostly because her mind simply refused to shut up. Thoughts and emotions repressed for hours (or, in some cases, months) grew bold in the dark. She couldn't ignore them there. Especially not while lying alone in a foreign bed, nothing to distract her but the mental maelstrom she was trying to quash.
"Oi, quit making so much noise."
The girl turned towards the shadowed blob against the opposite wall, thin sheet twisting aggravatingly around her. Well, she wasn't technically alone here, despite her over-dramatic brain's phrasing. Not that it mattered much. She still couldn't sleep and Inuyasha was hardly to blame for that.
"Sorry," she mumbled half-heartedly. Kagome really did feel bad, even if she didn't have the energy to emote it; keeping someone else up with her sudden insomnia attack wasn't exactly fair. I was the one who dragged him along in this mess too.
"Wasn't asleep yet, anyway," the youkai snorted, shifting noisily himself.
"Is it the new surroundings?" Kagome was making pointless small talk and she knew it, but at least it provided the distraction she desperately needed.
"No, never really had much of a home… sleeping for a week straight in the same place was weirder for me then this."
"You didn't," she sucked in a nervous breath. Because, even after a week under the same roof, the young mutant realized she knew next to nothing about Inuyasha's past. Not for lack of wondering (she did speculate), but she had been afraid of prying too deep- of driving him away. Now, they were stuck with each other. Inuyasha didn't know enough to survive on his own in the modern world and she needed emotional support. Her fear dissipated; there was no point holding back anymore. "Not even when you were a kid? Weren't there any youkai communities to live in?"
"Are you kidding?" he laughed bitterly. "There were a few… groups, but I wasn't welcome in any of 'um. Speaking of youkai, I've been sitting on a few questions," the abrupt change of subject nearly gave her mood whiplash.
"Yeah?"
"What happened to them?" he paused briefly in the wake of that wham question. "I didn't see or smell any when we were out, and your history book didn't mention them either. You always talk about us like we're just old stories… even when I'm standing right in front of you. So what happened?"
"I… I don't know," Kagome whispered into the stifling dark. "I mean… obviously you're here so that means they… sorry, your kind existed at some point, and Jiichan thought you were real… thought spirits and magic of all kinds were still around even… but, most people don't believe in youkai anymore. I didn't really either. Guess I figured your remains were just from some poor boy with birth defects who was mistaken for a youkai by superstitious villagers and killed… or something along those lines. Maybe even an early precursor to the mutant strain."
"You figured what?!"
"I wasn't trying to be offensive," she placated unsuccessfully. He just huffed in response. "I just... youkai weren't real so I had to think up another, more logical explanation for why we had a mummified boy with dog ears at our shrine. It made more sense at the time!"
"So, now that you know youkai are real," he snarled, clearly still upset over her faux pas. "What do you think happened to them all?"
"That's a very good question."
Quiet returned to the room as they both pondered that inexplicable absence. Inuyasha was mainly curious, and slightly nostalgic for a threat he was at least familiar with. Dealing with mutant powers wasn't too different from handling youkai attacks, but it still felt like something out of his worst nightmares: like the passionate hatred of the weak humans from his childhood combined with the deadly power of usually apathetic (or base animalistic) youkai. Sesshoumaru had been the only one who felt any intense negative emotions toward him. And, speaking of the devil, if youkai were truly gone did that mean his brother was as well? The displaced boy wasn't quite sure how he felt about that.
Kagome, meanwhile, was in a state of immense guilt. How could she be so callous? These were Inuyasha's people (his kin) and yet she still talked about them like figments of a fairytale- to his face even! If the tables were turned, if she was transported to a strange world where mutants were dismissed as ignorant superstitions, how would she fare? Alone as she felt now, the girl imagined her anguish paled in comparison to the youkai's loneliness. What right did she have feeling sorry for herself in light of that?
"I'm sorry… for everything," she said, only vaguely aware she'd spoken that thought out loud.
"The Hell are you going on about now, woman?" he rolled unseen eyes at her dark head of hair, contrasting vividly against the white pillow with his superior night vision.
"I… I didn't think," Kagome tried to articulate. "I woke you up, brought you into a future where you're all alone, and said things to you without thinking. It's all my fault… and I'm sorry."
Another tense moment of silence cleared the air. Inuyasha could only stare in awe at this girl: who brought a stranger in need under her roof, gave everything she could, and then blamed herself for everything she couldn't. He never was able to stand the sight of women's tears (not since his mother…), yet he had almost seen enough of Kagome's in the past week to rival those of his childhood. All because of him. Inuyasha inhaled deeply, a shaky determined breath, and opened his mouth to put an end to it.
"No, it's not. I've always been alone, Kagome… only thing's that changed is the scenery."
"But at least you had other youkai, members of your own kind to take comfort in back then," she clung to her guilt like a Mu-onna to a lost child. "I had no right walking all over…"
"Neither one or the other…"
"What?" the young mutant sat up in a rustle of bed sheets, startled by Inuyasha's queer interruption.
"My father was a lord among youkai: powerful and feared. That was all the humans cared about… and they hated me for it. But the youkai, they only saw my human mother, weak and easy prey."
"Human… your mother was human?"
"Hanyou," he spat the term like a foul curse. His companion creased her brow quizzically at the new term, completely unaware of just how difficult that admission was for Inuyasha. "Half of each but not enough to be accepted by either. I realized early on that I would have to fight, to carve my own place in the world if I wanted to survive in it. But, even after all that, I was still alone…"
Inuyasha met her night-blind human eyes with his own. Kagome swore she saw a flash of florescent yellow through the dark, illuminated by moonlight and window-diffused streetlamps.
"All that happened way before you were born, so don't you dare go blaming yourself for that too!"
"I'm," she bit her lip on another apology. "I didn't know. That must have been hard…"
"Feh," he shrugged it off with the practiced ease of someone who 'wasn't-over-it' but didn't have the luxury of brooding. "I got by… and so will you."
"Yeah… guess we're in similar boats now," she mused, thinking of places, options- and a unique school Miroku talked about where everyone (mutant, human, or runaway in search of home) was welcome. She couldn't bring herself to visit before, caught in a median delusion of life somehow working its way back to 'normal.' That silly hope was irreparably shattered now. The lost hanyou boy she'd taken under-wing apparently learned that lesson at a much earlier age.
I have no home now… and Inuyasha never had one to begin with. What a sad pair we make.
"We'll find a place, Inuyasha," Kagome finally said, already planning to broach the infamous subject of 'Kaede-sensei' over breakfast. Her fists clenched the pale sheet in determined "I promise you, we'll both find a place in this world where we don't have to be alone."
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Hiten's screams were endless, painfully jabbing against every eardrum in the underground room. Even Kanna, their resident robotic sociopath, winced at the volume.
The smell was worse; acrid, almost cloying, like meat cooked just a tad too long with a touch of burnt hair and cloth to remind them all this was a person burning. Of course, his bloodcurdling screams already hit that fact home with the subtlety of an anvil, but the stench added an extra level of revulsion to the experience.
To Kagura's right, Kouga failed to suppress a fit of coughs: his lungs more sensitive than hers to the pungent haze of smoke trapped beneath concrete ceiling blocks. In the wake of Hiten's torture, no one else seemed to notice. Nothing broke their macabre vigil until, during a brief lull, the soft giggles of a sadistic young recruit named Yura became audible from the leftmost corner. The elfin woman exchanged a bitch-be-crazy look with her air-deprived friend as Manten's replacement continued to watch the horror play out with rapt fascination, her red-violet eyes wide in a morbid facsimile of childish wonder. The girl's reaction was only slightly less disturbing than Kanna's usual detachment.
"I… I promise… I promise!" Hiten choked out between wet gurgles, probably no longer aware of or concerned over what he was promising as long as the pain stopped. Kagura adverted her gaze to the smooth grey ground for a split second, raising it before Naraku caught her and decided to punish her inattention as well. She hated this part. Hated seeing someone stripped of all dignity past the point of caring. Even a spineless cretin like Hiten.
"You promise?" the demon who pulled all their strings chuckled menacingly. He leaned over the broken body below him, long black curls tumbling over silk-robed shoulders in a way that creepily reminded Kagura of skittering spider legs. "You promise not to fail me again? To never disobey the hand that feeds you?"
A sickening crack sounded, followed by a stuttered shriek.
"Or perhaps you promise to take responsibility for the outcome of this mission? To avenge your brother and get me what I want in one fell swoop. You? A useless boy with an even more useless hand!"
A bare foot came down on said hand and his victim, mercifully, passed out.
"Get this thing out of my sight!" Naraku snapped with a dismissive hand wave. Kouga moved forward dutifully to comply while Yura cooed appreciatively. Kagura just felt nauseous. "When he wakes, tell him to report to Kagura… I'll give him two days to get in working condition."
"Sir?" the older woman questioned. "Forgive my… impudence, but the boy's severely wounded. I don't know if he'll be able to stand, let alone work in time for the mission."
"Then tell the brat his fate depends on the outcome of this mission," Naraku smirked and pinned her in place with his soulless black eyes. Those eyes, she shuttered, looked right through you and reminded even the dullest of idiots that this was a being who felt nothing; who could kill you or shake your hand without the slightest change in expression. "That should add an extra spring to his step, don't you think?"
Yura's girlish giggle echoed through the shadowy basement in response, just as the dawning sun crested the horizon above.
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TBC...
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A/N: So, I've always outlined this fic in story arcs. There are only two more chapters (plus epilogue) left for this one. I already have the next story arc planned out at six chapters (plus prologue and epilogue) and a rough outline for a third arc as well. In between these story arcs, I'll be posting sets of short Interlude chapters where character interaction/relationships will be expanded on and backstory I didn't have time to address during the story will be told. I'll continue to post this arc chapter by chapter and the Interludes will be the same since they're pretty short, but I will wait until after the next story arc is done to start posting it. That way nobody is left with nasty cliffhangers like last chapter's for however long it takes for me to get a chapter done. I've also found I'm more motivated to write multi-chapter stories when I sit on earlier chapters. Thanks for your patience and readership!
