Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha. I give all my thanks to Rumiko Takahashi for bringing that extraordinary story to life! You rock!

A/N: Hey everyone! Sorry about the late update! Here's the chapter, read and REVIEW!

CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT: WORDS OF POWER

Slowly, agonizingly slowly, I turned around to face Naraku.

And jumped.

Naraku laughed that horrible, friendly laugh, and said, "I'm sorry, did I scare you?"

I sucked in a breath. In. Out. In. Out. That's right, good job, Kagome! You figured out how to breathe!

Considering as Naraku was now mere inches away from me, I thought it was my right to be proud.

"Sorry," I said nervously. "You were just closer than I thought you were. Um… what did you want to talk to me about? Sir?"

Naraku smiled slightly, sitting on a desk. After a second of hesitation I sat down as well… partly because it seemed like he was giving me permission, and also because I was worried that I was about to faint flat on my face.

"There's no reason to be so nervous," Naraku said… almost bemused. Bemused. He seemed… bemused.

But how could he be bemused when he knew perfectly well why I was nervous?!

I had to concentrate on breathing again, but when I got my breath back, I had a few seconds for my mind to explore a corridor it had never ventured down before. And when I opened the door, a door so far away, all the way down the end of the corridor… I saw something I had never noticed before.

Naraku.

My eyes widened, because I finally remembered the name Kaede had told me, when she was talking about the Orb of Night, the Sacred Jewel… and the evil mastermind half demon that had coveted it.

Naraku.

NARAKU?!

It was all I could do not to scream like an idiot.

"Miss Higurashi," Naraku purred, "I just want to have a little friendly talk. Teacher to student. That's it. Is this not a good time? Do you need to be somewhere soon?"

Mute, I shook my head.

Naraku smiled, and I wondered what he would have done if I'd told him that actually, yes, I needed to get the heck out of their as fast as my legs would carry me. But I didn't want to know the answer to that question… and that's why I hadn't told him what I desperately wanted to.

"Good," Naraku said. "Then let's just talk for a few minutes, and then you can be on your way." Shifting slightly, he leaned in a little. And I found myself too transfixed by his face to look away. I was paralyzed… and completely helpless.

"Miss Higurashi, you seem to be a very… unique girl." When I said nothing he continued, "And I can't tell you how pleased I am to have you in my class." He grinned slightly and said, voice low as if he were telling me some joke that he shouldn't, "And I'm sure you'll be pleased that you're in my class if you ever meet the other science teachers."

I didn't laugh. I couldn't laugh… even if I had found that remotely funny, I couldn't have laughed.

Because that was the moment when I realized that I was completely paralyzed.

And not just metaphorically.

I tried to scream, but I couldn't open my mouth. All I could do was sit, eyes on Naraku's face, somehow managing to keep on living even when I felt like I couldn't breathe… somehow managing to survive the terrifying pressure with which his massive demonic aura crushed me….

"I want us to be friends. I want you to excel, Miss Higurashi, like I know you can."

I'm sure I'd be excelling a lot more if I wasn't COMPLETELY TERRIFIED of him….

"Do you think we could be friends, Higurashi? Would you be all right with that? I see you're friends with Mr. Hakudoshi… that's good. You seem to know whom to ally yourself with. A valuable trait. And he is quite brilliant… but you, Higurashi. You could be so much more than he ever could. And that involves… so much more than… doing a… simple… assignment…"

Was it just me, or was his voice… changing?

Was it just me, or was his voice morphing into the voice of another? A silky, tenor voice, a voice which could lull me to sleep, a voice which whispered deceit into my very mind… a voice which was just a voice, a voice which did not need a body to terrify me… a voice which was all too familiar, and which I SHOULD NOT BE HEARING HERE….

"Kagome…"

I knew that voice.

Suddenly I felt that I could speak again. "What… how are you here?" I demanded. But my voice trembled too much to sound firm enough to be a demand.

The voice laughed lightly. "Don't sound so sad to see… oh, I'm sorry, to hear me. Did you really think you could evade me, Kagome? After all you know about me, did you think a simple Expulsion Pulse would banish me forever?"

My eyes widened, and despite my fear, despite Kaede's warnings, I found myself responding to it.

"It's too far from the shrine," I said. My voice cracked. "You shouldn't be able to be here. Kaede told me—you need the energy from the Orb of Night to sustain you. You shouldn't be able to be here!"

My voice rose to a scream, jumping several decibels in volume, and I could feel a wave of hysteria building up in my throat.

I could hear a smile in the voice's voice when it said, "We can't have you screaming, can we?"

I could only shake in fear.

Don't speak to it, I told myself. Don't speak to it, don't speak to it, don't say a word… don't… just stay quiet, it'll go away… LISTEN TO KAEDE, for once in your life…!

Listen to her. Listen to her when she says that it can control me if I talk to it.

Listen to her when she says it can control me.

And as if a rock had dropped in my stomach, my eyes widened. It was ALREADY CONTROLLING ME.

And the first order of it's reign had been not to scream.

NO! NO, NO, NO!!!

"There's no point, Kagome," the voice said almost apologetically. "Just go along with it, okay? If you don't put up much resistance, I might not hurt you after we get the Orb of Night."

I had spoken for too long. I knew that, and I tried so hard not to speak anymore… but I couldn't. It had me just where it wanted me, and we both knew it.

"Stop saying my name," I growled. "Why do you have to call me Kagome every other second?!"

"Well, Kagome, a bright girl like you should be able to figure it out for yourself."

"Stop it! Go away!" Body shaking, I leapt to my feet and grabbed Naraku by the shoulders. "Naraku! MR. NARAKU! What are you doing?! Where are you? Can you hear me?" I sobbed hollowly. "PLEASE!"

Please. Anybody.

I stared at Naraku's face, shaking him vigorously, willing him to come to his senses, willing for the voice to disappear and Naraku to look at me and smile in that horrible, friendly way and give me a detention for not having my homework… even for Naraku to brainwash me. Even that would be better than this.

"Go away," I whispered. "Please."

I could feel the strength draining from my body, just like I could see that wherever Naraku was right now, whatever he was seeing, he wasn't seeing anything out of those blank, foggy eyes.

It was just me, the voice, and Naraku's body. And for all that me and Naraku could do, it might as well have been the voice and a few of its henchmen.

Although one of its henchmen happens to be terrified.

"Kagome…"

Don't speak to it. Don't listen to it. Don't hear it.

Block it out.

"Kagome, you're not deaf, I know you can hear me…"

Block it out.

"Kagome…"

My breath caught in my throat.

"Kagome…"

I was choking, I was choking on an oxygen-less atmosphere and I couldn't breathe. I was falling, I was falling through a growing darkness and I couldn't see….

"KAGOME…"

I was dying… and speech was my air.

I needed to breathe.

"KAGOME!"

Finally… a voice I wanted to hear.

"INUYASHAAAAAA!" I screamed his name to my heart's content, all self-restraint obliterated, my fear of the voice suddenly overcome by a surge of hope.

"Don't speak to him, Kagome," the voice ordered. I was a henchmen, I was powerless against it, we all knew it… it knew it. But despite that knowledge, even I could tell that the voice had lost its casualness.

"Go away!" I sobbed, my restraint lost, my strength gone. "LEAVE ME ALONE!"

"KAGOME!" Inuyasha called again… why was it that he only seemed to say my name when he was angry or worried for my life?! Why should my name sound so horrid coming from his voice? Was that why he never called me Kagome? Because whenever he did, it would sound like… this?

Like agony.

"Don't speak to him, Kagome," the voice threatened. And then I felt the slightest brush of a finger on my waist.

"Don't touch me," I growled.

"Kagome, don't be difficult."

"STOP SAYING MY NAME!"

There was a silence.

Then, "…what did I say about yelling, Kagome?"

"What the hell are you talking about?!" Inuyasha's voice. And I wanted so badly to answer him, to tell him I wasn't talking to him, to tell him to please come, to never stop calling my name or else I might forget it's mine at all….

My eyes opened wide. And with as much effort as if I were to pull apart concrete bars, I opened my mouth and screamed.

"INUYASHA, HELP—"

"I'M COMING, WENCH! JUST HOLD ON!"

But how long would it take him to reach us?

"Kagome…" that wasn't Inuyasha's voice. "Didn't you hear what I just said?"

Of course I had heard. And I had disobeyed. Only I knew that that would be the last time I disobeyed, for my strength was spent.

Tears welled up in my eyes. "I did," I whispered.

I heard triumph in its voice when it said, "Good. Then do as I say."

Inuyasha burst through the classroom door. And I began to sob from the overwhelming force of my relief.

Because I had been about to say, "I will."

"Kagome!" Inuyasha yelled, eyes lighting up with unconcealed relief when he saw my face. "I heard you yell—your scent—I found—I thought…" Inuyasha stopped suddenly, quirking his head to one side, in such a dog-like way that I probably would have laughed if I hadn't been so terrified. "Oi, wench," Inuyasha finally said. "What were you screaming about? What the hell… what's wrong? Where's…"

He looked around the room, looking utterly bewildered, until his eyes landed on Naraku.

"What the hell…" Inuyasha stared at me, and I opened my mouth to answer him, waiting for the voice to touch my neck and tell me not to speak. And I knew that when it did, my mouth would close… because I had no more energy left to resist.

But it didn't say a word.

For a second I couldn't breathe, for fear that if I moved just the slightest bit, it would come back, that it would awaken from whatever sleep it had fallen into. But it was silent… and I was just as silent.

What if I had lost my voice permanently? What if I could never speak again?

I had the strangest, most frightening thought, then. What if when I opened my mouth to say his name… it was not my voice which floated out, but its voice, the voice?

What if it lurked inside me, waiting for me to speak so I could unleash it on Inuyasha?

"Oi. Wench. What's wrong? You were screaming like crazy, I thought you were being attacked or something… where's the demon? Tell me there's a demon, wench. Cause if I just sprinted down here from the other side of the school only to find out you just got a detention or something…." Inuyasha glared at me. But I didn't speak.

Slowly his face turned into a frown… his ears twitched. And then he strode right up to me and grabbed my shoulders, holding me in front of him while his eyes pierced my face. "Did you lose your voice or something? What's wrong with you? Usually you can't shut your mouth for the love of all the world."

My eyes narrowed… and another tear dripped down my cheek, because he was right. I couldn't shut my mouth for the love of all the world. Not against the voice.

"W-wench? What are you doing? Are you—why the hell are you crying?!"

"Kagome!" another voice called… a male voice.

I sighed. I should have known that if Inuyasha could hear my distress with his demon hearing, then Koga would too.

Maybe we'd have an audience soon.

"Kagome, what's wrong? What happened? I heard you crying…" Koga inhaled sharply and hissed, "What the hell are you doing here, mutt?" He rushed to my side, knocking Inuyasha's hands away from my shoulders. "Kagome, did he hurt you? Kagome? Kagome, will you please speak? Kagome! Kagome, what did he do to you?"

"I didn't do a fucking thing to her, wolf shit!" Inuyasha growled. "So lay off, and get your hands off of her."

"Well then what happened to her?" Koga glanced at Naraku. "And what's wrong with him?"

"I don't know," Inuyasha snapped irritably. "I just got over here and found them like this. Oh, that's right, because I got here BEFORE YOU."

"Well obviously you haven't done anything to help, mutt!"

Inuyasha looked about ready to kill. And I had a feeling that if I didn't do something soon, he might do it, too.

"KAGOME!"

I could only look up at Rin as she raced into the room, flying into me, flinging her arms around me. "Kagome!" she yelped, stepping back to look up at my face. "Kagome, what happened? I saw Inuyasha running down the hall, and Koga, and me and Sango and Miroku followed them and we heard you screaming and we thought you were hurt!" She took a deep breath, and suddenly seemed to realize that I hadn't said a word. "Kagome? Are you okay?"

"Kagome!"

"Kagome!"

Sure enough, Sango and Miroku were here, too. So now I had a little crowd of friends all around me, almost choking me with their bodies, and all perfectly ready to beat the truth out of me.

It would be like beating the truth out of a mute. But it'd still probably hurt.

"Oi, stop crowding her!" Inuyasha snapped. "Everyone back up a step, okay?"

Rin, to all our surprise, glared at him. "She may be your friend, but she's my best friend and sister. So you back up a step."

Sango and Miroku stared at her. Even I stared at her.

Rin was talking back to Inuyasha.

Inuyasha grimaced. "Keh," he said. He looked away from her, away from me… away from all of us. And it began to occur to me that something about her words had hit him hard in the gut.

Though for the life of me, I had no idea what it was.

But Inuyasha, being Inuyasha, didn't listen to Rin… although he did back up just a little, to give me some breathing room. But he seemed determined to be the leader of the interrogation.

"Wench. What happened? What's wrong with Naraku? What did he do?"

Would he want me to answer all those questions… if he really knew the truth? If he knew that at the word of a bodiless voice, I would steal the Orb of Night… or kill him… without a second's hesitation?

If he knew my fears, would he want so badly for me to speak?

I opened and closed my mouth like a fish out of water. And for all my composure, I might as well have been one.

"Kagome, tell us what happened," Sango ordered, voice low. "Look, everyone knows Naraku's a freak, okay? If he did anything weird, we'll believe you." She grinned. "You know, chalking it up a little bit couldn't hurt, either…."

Miroku smiled at me. "Kagome, we're on your side."

Rin bit her lip and whispered, "I need you, Kagome. I need you to be okay."

"Kagome…" Koga took my hands in his, "Please, Kagome. Just speak. You can trust us."

"You sure as hell can't trust him," Inuyasha growled, slapping Koga's hands away. He almost seemed to debate with himself for a second, and then he put his hands abruptly on my upper arms. "Wench…" Inuyasha growled threateningly, "If you don't say something right this fucking second, I'm going to go get my sword and run it through Koga's head."

"Hey! I resent that."

"Well, she knows I wouldn't run it through anyone else's head!"

There was a dead beat of silence while I considered my options. I could remain silent for the rest of my life. I could drift through the years, day to day, never speaking a word. I'd get used to it eventually. And then if the voice ever came back… I'd be ready for it. I wouldn't need to speak to it. I would ignore it, and eventually… it would ignore me.

Minus the fact that Koga would have a gaping hole in his skull, the idea of muting myself was beginning to sound extremely appealing.

"Inuyasha."

He barely looked at Sango. "What?"

Even I was surprised by his response. Not by the word, not by the way his eyes never left mine… but by the pain which his voice betrayed.

By the fear which flared up in his golden eyes.

"I have an idea."

Inuyasha went extremely still, his hands frozen and rock-like on my arms. "Then say it, for god's sake!"

Sango rolled her eyes at his impatience… but then she saw it. She saw what I had seen, she saw the pain… she saw the fear.

And her eyes softened.

"Inuyasha, you're the one who's always been able to get her riled up," Sango said quickly, as if fearing he would interrupt her before she could finish. "I know you can say something to make her talk. Just say something… say something she can't ignore."

It made sense, really. It was a pretty good idea. But if they had any inkling of the storms thundering in my mind, she would have known that it could never work.

"Like what?" Inuyasha hissed. "What the hell are you talking about?"

"You know better than I do!"

Inuyasha grimaced, swallowed, and glared at me. His face tensed and he hissed with exertion, as if trying to fight off some unseen force, some horrible, brutal attacker which targeted only him… and then suddenly he relaxed. "I… I know what to do," he muttered… and looked at me, and seemed to let go, seemed to lose all his self-restraint, to let his fear and pain overcome him. And I saw one thing in his eyes before they began to turn red.

That thing was trust.

That was when I knew that I didn't have a choice at all.

"Don't you dare."

Rin, Sango, Miroku, and Koga all breathed sighs of relief, while Inuyasha and I looked into each other's eyes. In his eyes, the amber began to overtake the red. And I smiled.

"Keh," Inuyasha said, stepping away from me a little, removing his hands from my shoulders. "Don't be so smiley, wench. If that hadn't gotten you to talk, I'd have been pissed."

I took a deep breath, teaching myself again to breathe, and trying to suppress the overwhelming fear which pressed against me from all sides. "Well," I said, "I talked. So you don't have to be pissed." But then I blinked, realizing something. "Inuyasha, how did you make that happen?"

His eyes darkened and he looked away from me, folding his arms across his chest. Inuyasha muttered, "I didn't have to try, wench."

And I knew what he meant. I knew that he had felt the transformation coming on, felt it on the horizon, beginning to overcome his mind… and he had released the last strand of self control he had managed to hold on to. In the hopes that I might care enough to speak, enough to stop him.

When I realized just how much faith that must have required, when I realized that Inuyasha, the one who hardly trusted anyone, had put that faith in me, to SAVE me, I could only stare at him in awe.

Rin looked earnestly at me. "What happened, Kagome?"

I felt all their eyes on me. And I knew I couldn't put it off any longer.

I'd begun talking already. And if the voice wanted to take me over, it could. It was too late.

So I opened my mouth to tell them what had happened… and Naraku sat up.

I jumped nearly a mile in the air, holding onto whoever happened to be near me almost automatically, holding on to them for dear life, as Naraku rubbed his eyes and looked around him.

And swiftly stood.

"What… happened, here?" he said finally, as if confused to find himself here at all. His eyes focused on me. "Miss Higurashi? Could you tell me what your friends are doing here? And are we finished with our discussion?"

I gaped at him… and was suddenly too afraid to speak.

"Yeah, you're finished all right," Inuyasha growled. "Come on, Kagome."

I felt myself being pulled out of the room, with all my friends around me, with all my friends supporting me… protecting me.

I felt myself walking down the hall, but I barely saw the walls.

I felt my mouth moving as I told them everything that had happened, but I didn't hear the words. I barely heard or saw anything. It was like moving in a dream, living blind and deaf and lost, knowing only that you are moving… but not where you are or to where you are going.

There was one thing, though, that I did notice.

And that was Inuyasha's face. That was the way his hand tensed on my shoulder as he and Sango pushed me down the hallway… that was the way his eyes hardened into cold amber stone.

That was the way he looked like he wanted to find the voice, grab its invisible body, and rip its invisible throat out.

Very, very slowly.

A/N: Okay, that is it! I have a few things to say now... first, to the probably many people who are wondering how long this story is going to be and when certain people are going to get together, I have absolutely no idea! My stuff tends to run on the long side, so... well... I hope you have patience and will not get bored before the end! Now, I will give out my thanks before I give you guys some bad news. So I thank the following people a billion times over: beautiful-surreal, xXthenextbookwormXx, Animeroxs Rin-Sess and Inu-Kag, k, Daichilover, BGuate224, SuperHarryPotterNerd, Tomatosoup inc., Skittle Dog, lilmama, ai, ILoveInuyasha4Eva, ally, bear lover, mika, and LunaP! I love you guys, all of you, and of course the rest of my readers even though you AREN'T REVIEWING :P. So please don't take it personally and please don't hate me too much when I say I may have some trouble updating over the next week or so! :(. That's not definite. Who knows, it might end up being pretty normal. But it also might not. See, for one thing I'm in a show and opening night is in six days, so rehearsals are really crazy and unfortunately they plus homework cut into my writing time a lot. Plus my bio final project is coming up soon, and I have a big test I need to study for this weekend and… ERGH! I'm feeling nauseous just thinking about it. Anyway, well, I hope you guys liked the chapter! PLEASE REVIEW! For my regulars, my wonderful, faithful reviewers, please continue to do so, I love hearing your input!! And I encourage all new readers/reviewers to review, too! It would make me very happy and give me extra encouragement to write and update, which I'm really going to need as I have a feeling next week I am going to be absolutely exhausted if my fatigue right now is any clue! So please, review, guys, and I'll hopefully see you again in a few days!