Chapter 12
For hundreds of miles throughout Great Britain all that could be seen was abandoned, smoldering ruins of what used to be booming cities and peaceful suburban land. Muggles, wizards, and demons fled the country leaving it even more desolate. The beast had moved as if it were a plague, destroying anything that came into its path almost purposelessly and mindlessly. But what the humans could not see, what wizards could not see, was that there was a purpose. The Beast was not stupid; it was simply drawing out the only thing that posed a threat to it: the parallel soul.
The mass of withering tentacles that the world pronounced as the Beast was not in fact its true form. Its true form lay dormant inside the accumulation; holding the real power that was Naraku and Voldemort at their finest. But this form was unable to be released until a union of sorts occurred—information that even the Beast was unaware of.
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Kagome had surprisingly done well in accepting Inuyasha's many children and different lifestyles; which had proven to the ones that knew her before that she had indeed grown up.
Her relationship with Inuyasha was slow at the moment; although it was only five years for her, it had been nearly five hundred for him, so they hadn't done much more than talk, make out and some light groping—not that they could afford to do more due to the their current situation with the Beast. The initial kiss was still etched in her mind; the moment she felt his lips on her's every heart-fluttering, stomach-twisting, knee-weakening sensation she used to get at the mere sight of him returned full throttle. Despite their separation, the feelings she had locked inside herself for him only seemed to grow in his absence. She knew she loved him; this sure as hell wasn't any kind of crush. But what was even better was that he loved her too—there wasn't any Kikyo around to cause confusion and he was no longer a pubertal adolescent. He loved her more than any woman he ever married or any woman he ever had children with; his youkai told him so. He loved her enough to take her as a mate and she knew it...but that was where the problem lay.
"I can't," he would always say when she brought it up. "You know I want to more than anything else; my youkai is screaming for me to. But I just can't. Not until the Beast is killed and things are peaceful again."
"I don't want to wait that long!" It was how she always started her argument.
"If I die, you would die shortly after! I can't take you as my mate knowing that the chances of me surviving this right now are at a very low percentage."
The same reason every time, and she would give the same answer.
"I don't care if I die! You think I want to live without you after getting you back in my life? I will not loose you again!"
But matters of the heart were over shadowed by the ones terrorizing the world. The entire human population was buzzing with distress. Schools and businesses were shutting down left and right; people were being drafted for military purposes—though now in the twenty first century women were being called in too. Muggles were probably the most overwhelmed out of everyone for it was a recent slap in the face to see an entire hidden society of magic uprooted from under their noses.
Situations had soon gone from bad to worse. The world was in chaos; if it wasn't bad enough that wizards were exposed now there were suddenly demons running rampant all over England—helping to further empty the land. It wouldn't be long before the terror escaped the island. This had confused Harry immensely, for as a guardian of hell he knew that the demons were not escaping by way of a forced opening. The only conclusion he could draw from this was that one of the other guardians letting them out willingly.
The answer to that came quickly enough within the day it was broadcasted.
"Potter!"
Harry walked into the home office where Inuyasha was standing over the desk, a diet coke in his hand and a scowl on his face.
"Hey," Harry said brightly, hopping up and taking the can out of the angry hanyou's clutch, "you found my drink!"
Inuyasha, if anything, looked angrier and pointed to the desk where wet rings on the many papers were prominent.
"What have I told you about using my post-its as a coaster? Look! Look at that! It erases my notes!"
"I'm sorry!" Harry said frowning, "But I don't want to put it on the wood so it seemed like the next best thing."
"No! Don't do it! BAD! I should stick your nose in this and—and slap you!"
"Slap me!" Harry challenged, putting his drink back on the table, "Go ahead—"
Bridget walked in the room.
"—Slap me!"
Bridget walked out of the room.
"It's not what you think honey," Inuyasha called out lazily.
"I don't want to know!" Her voice called back. Inuyasha sighed and shook his head.
"Ever since I kissed you..."
"Please," Harry said with raised hands, "Let's not bring that up."
Inuyasha pouted, "I thought it was a nice kiss."
"Shut up," Harry sighed, "Now what do you want? I know you didn't call me in here to talk about post it notes...wait a minute...these aren't notes! These are doodles!"
Inuyasha grinned, "Don't be jealous of my ninja drawing skills. Actually, I just wanted an excuse to yell a lot."
"Why you—"
"—moving on," Inuyasha cut off Harry before he could get riled up further, "I think I have some most tragic news."
"What?"
"Um...I'm not a guardian of hell anymore."
"WHAT?" Harry yelled, praying the man was joking.
"Yeah..." Inuyasha said gravely, "see why I wanted to yell?"
"Inuyasha!" Harry cried angrily, "Shut up and stop joking around. Why aren't you the guardian anymore? Did your gate fall again?"
"No," Inuyasha sighed and sat down, "I'm pretty sure Nar—the Beast took over it. That would explain why demons are pouring out all over the world now; he's letting them out. That and I haven't been able to open the gate since I felt the bond sever."
"So you're telling me the Beast overtook your gate today," Harry recapped, trying to stay calm and not let the panic that was bubbling up inside him take over.
"Harry..." Inuyasha began, "I know you were a bit of a special case...but do you know the standard procedure for taking the guardianship of a gate?"
"Um...no?"
"Either you kill the former guardian or they pass it on to you willingly."
"Are you trying to tell me," Harry began slowly in a dangerously low voice, "that the Beast has had control over the seventh gate ever since you were killed?"
"I've only been alive for a couple of days," Inuyasha said weakly in his defense.
"And you didn't think to tell me?" Harry growled vehemently.
"I've been stressing over it in my mind."
Harry quieted for a moment to pet one of Inuyasha's puppy ears; rubbing the soft, satiny appendages always helped to calm him down. He could understand how his friends from the wizarding world became so frustrated with him for bottling things up.
"You're going to give yourself a brain tumor. Tell me these things, ok?"
"Yes mom," Inuyasha muttered, relaxing into the touch. The only people who were allowed to touch his ears who weren't related to him were Harry and Kagome; and neither of them took that privilege for granted.
"Am I interrupting something?" an amused voice at the doorway asked. The two men looked up to see Kagome standing there, looking pretty with her long hair up in a messy bun that littered her shoulders with loose tendrils. She had chosen to put college on hiatus for the time being (no doubt it would be closed soon anyway) in favor of staying with Inuyasha.
"Yes bitch," Inuyasha growled, rolling over to her on the wheeled chair he was sitting in and pulling her into his lap. She giggled and tickled his ear a little.
"I think I'm going to name these..."
If there was one change she absolutely loved with her more mature hanyou, it was that he didn't mind her petting his ears.
"Back to the drawing board..." Harry said, "We need the book and we need to get you back in control of that gate—then we can kick his ass."
"Well I can't get the gate unless I kill the Beastie," Inuyasha said, "So basically our priority is to get the book back; figure out what spell they used to combine, and see if we can reverse it."
"Alright then we have a plan!" Harry grinned, "Finally."
Kagome frowned at this.
"Do either of you even know where the book is?"
"No," he two men answered simply.
Kagome moaned and buried her head into Inuyasha's neck.
"We're really screwed on this one aren't we?"
"Yup," the duel voices replied.
"Will you two stop doing that?"
"Sorry."
"Arrgh!" Kagome cried, throwing her hands up in frustration. She had half a mind to personally wipe the identical smirks on the two demi-demon's faces when a quiet knock was heard from the frame of the doorway.
"Um..." Alaina said awkwardly, holding up a phone. While she was glad her father had found his mate, she still found it somewhat weird to see him so involved with a woman—she certainly couldn't recall a time when he looked at her mother in such a way. "It's for you dad."
Inuyasha slid out from under Kagome while turning human in the process. Talking on the phone was much easier when one's ears were on the side of the head. Kagome watched him leave the room, still fascinated with how he managed that at will. Inuyasha plucked the phone from his daughter's hands with a saucy grin and pranced into the kitchen.
"Hello?"
"Hello Inuyasha."
"Ah!" Inuyasha said pleasantly into the receiver, recognizing the sultry, feminine voice, "Kagura. To what do I owe the pleasure?"
"I think I have a pretty good idea where that book you need is..."
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Score, book finding time! We'll have some Inu/Harry vs. beastie action next chapter.
Thanks so much for the reviews! I've gotten some really good ones that help me fight that nasty writers block, so thanks guys!