Chapter 43: It Gets Worse
"Three... two... one!"
A loud boomechoed as dirt and turf flit into the air and Kagome jumped back from the pink flash of light that had shot from her own hand. Beside her, Inu-Yasha shielded her in his arms almost instinctively, only to have her begin to laugh and hug him around his shoulders.
x
It was a bit past 8 o'clock at night and the two teens stood in their backyard near the large dead tree against the side of the house, eyeing the crater Kagome had created. They had been outside, practicing with Kagome's spiritual energies for about two hours since they had returned home from Sessho-Maru's place. It had taken quite a while for Kagome to be able to shoot off an energy blast like she had when Sessho-Maru had been triggering her. She had managed four so far, very small and very weak,but this last one had been the strongest of all of them yet. It was a little difficult using Inu-Yasha opposed to his brother: the older youkai's energy was much more violent, and Inu-Yasha's barely felt like an attack.
x
Kagome looked at her crater (which was probably about the size of a football) with pride.
"So! I can blow chunks of dirt into the air: this isn't too bad," she said proudly.
"It's pretty cool," Inu-Yasha agreed.
The girl grinned and then plopped down, cross-legged on the ground beside the hole, running her fingers through the dirt.
"Pretty cool?" Kagome laughed, "It's freaking amazing!"
She shook her head.
"I can still barely believe it."
Inu-Yasha sat beside her as she leaned back, supporting herself on her palms. She was quiet, contented for a moment, looking up at the tiny sliver of moon amongst the stars above.
"I can hear bats," she said after a while, quiet awe in her voice, "They're talking about the wind, and the bugs, and the trees."
She shook her head again.
"I can't believe I went my whole life without these little voices. And now, I can't believe I can hear them."
She tilted her head and smiled at Inu-Yasha.
"You're so lucky to have been tapped into this your whole life," she said.
The boy merely smiled shyly as a response, his ears drooping backwards just a little.
"Do you think there are a lot of other people like me?" she asked.
"Yeah, definitely," Inu-Yasha said, "I've heard that people with powers like yours usually have them dormant unless there are demons around, which... well..."
He pointed to himself and Kagome grinned.
"I see," she said.
"You said they started when that dog-ghost gave you a "gift"? Well, he's a demon, right?" the hanyou said, "So, maybe he just sort of jump-started you. That would kind of make sense."
Kagome nodded, and he continued,
"I've heard that, because demons are so powerful, humans had to get these sort of powers or we would have killed them all. Or something like that."
"Would you really have?" Kagome asked, surprised, "But all the youkai I've met have been pretty nice."
"Dunno, it's just what I've heard from older youkai, like the ones that Sessho-Maru knows," he explained, "I guess things were pretty different a long time ago."
Kagome nodded solemnly.
"I guess that's why Tsuyomaru seemed so... wild, and stuff, when I knew him," she said.
She had to hold back a bout of sadness and she took a deep breath; the hanyou patted her shoulder reassuringly. She took a deep breath and forced a smile, and then scooted around to face him better.
"Show me what you do with your claws," she said.
He responded with a look of confusion and she laughed and took one of his hands in hers, squeezing his palm as she stared at his nails.
"You know, the power things that you can do," she insisted.
The boy seemed a bit surprised, but then automatically, his fingertips began to glow a gold so bright that it illuminated both of them. Kagome breathed in in awe and stared, mesmerized, into the light until it dimmed down to nothing. She blinked in the dark and then looked up to Inu-Yasha, who smiled back at her with a mixture of pride and uncertainty.
"Still not scared?" he asked.
Kagome frowned and bonked him on the head with her fist. He jerked back a bit and then began to laugh quietly, rubbing his brow with his palm, saying,
"Okay, okay!"
"What does it do?" she asked.
"What?"
"That glow thing, does it do anything special? I remember you could shoot the red one. Does the gold one do anything?"
Inu-Yasha scratched his head.
"Well, I find it lets me break things better," he said.
Kagome giggled.
"Break things? Like what?"
"Rocks."
"Rocks?"
"Yeah."
"You can cut rocks with your nails?"
"Sure."
"Wow."
She looked at him with her eyes all but sparkling with awe and he couldn't help but laugh, and he patted her playfully on the head.
"You're weird," he joked.
He hopped to his feet, dodging a whack to his side, and grinned a bit smugly as he stretched his arms up above his head. Kagome frowned jokingly at him and pushed herself up with her palms.
"More training?" she asked eagerly.
Inu-Yasha's ears tilted towards her as he gave her a look of puzzlement.
"What? No," he said, "You should take a break."
The girl looked back at him with a cow-eyed stare, as if he had just began to speak in some sort of gibberish language.
"What? But why?" she asked a bit sharply.
He smiled at her almost as if with sympathy and patted her shoulder.
"Kagome, think about it. Today is the first time you've ever consciously tried to use your powers," he said, though she looked back at him a bit indignantly and asked,
"So?"
"So," the hanyou replied, seeming amused, "You'll just tire yourself out and end up fainting again. What do you think you are? A superhero?"
Kagome's face flushed a bit and she raised her pointer finger and opened her mouth as if to protest, but when Inu-Yasha merely raised his eyebrows in response, she drooped and nodded.
"I'm such a sissy," she whined.
"No, Kagome, you're just a human, and you need to pace yourself," he said reassuringly.
He nudged her with his elbow and pointed to the house.
"C'mon, inside, I'll make you some soup or something. You're probably hungry."
Kagome was surprised. She hadn't realized, but she was rather hungry. She nodded, blushing just a little: she was embarrassed that the boy knew more about her condition than she did. He had done it before, even when he hadn't been able to see. However, when he grinned at her, she found herself immediately smiling in return.
"Fine, you're right," she agreed.
"I know," he replied smugly.
She whacked his shoulder and he retorted by flicking her forehead and then vanishing towards the house at a speed she couldn't even follow with her eyes. She whirled, startled, and saw him near the backdoor, waiting for her as he slid it open and beckoned her inside in a surprisingly chivalrous manner. Smiling, she trotted over the threshold and he stepped inside behind her, wiping his bare feet on the carpet as he closed the door behind them.
x
In the living room before them, Koga sat on the couch, perched on the arm and hunched over the digital camera they had purchased, looking strangely similar to some sort of buzzard. Kagome walked to the sofa and sat down on it with a cheerful air about her, forcibly ignoring the lightheadedness she felt as she turned to him and asked,
"So Wolfy, how is the everlasting struggle with technology?"
"Well," he said, holding the camera up in the air and squinting as Inu-Yasha vaulted over the back of the couch to sit beside Kagome, "I got it to rewind the tape!"
He smiled and looked rather proud of himself. Inu-Yasha clapped slow and sarcastically, though he had the hints of a genuine grin on his lips before he said,
"I guess that's what we get for leaving the forest hermit in charge of the technology, ne?"
Kagome elbowed him and he nudged her back, and Koga frowned jokingly but then nodded, saying,
"It's true."
He passed the camera to Kagome and though she smiled, suddenly, she lurched forward: so suddenly, in fact, that she nearly toppled face-first to the floor. However, Inu-Yasha reached to her shoulder and pulled her to him in a quick motion, frowning in what must have looked like pure irritation; he was, in fact, more concerned than irritated, though he wished Kagome had heeded his warnings a little more closely. Koga reacted with a split-second delay of complete shock and then demanded,
"Kagome, are you okay?"
"She's unconscious," Inu-Yasha grumped.
"What?"
"She fainted."
The hanyou rolled his eyes.
"I warned her. She never listens."
He took the sliding camera from her lap and placed it to the side.
"From the spiritual training?" Koga demanded, frowning, "You shouldn't have let her push herself so far."
Inu-Yasha scoffed out a "feh" as he lifted Kagome up and into his arms.
"Wait, where are you going?" the wolf barked.
"I'm going to put her on her bed," he said, looking at the wolf with a glare that said he was annoyed with all the questions, "Problem?"
Koga drew back a little and shook his head.
"Good."
Inu-Yasha cracked a bit of a smile and then continued on his way, carrying Kagome up the stairs.
x
Inu-Yasha placed the girl on her bed carefully and turned to leave, to get her a glass of water, only to see Koga there with just what he was seeking. The wolf offered him the glass and Inu-Yasha hid his surprise with a pleased, "thanks," and took it to set it down on the end table beside Kagome's bed. He looked down at her fondly for a moment but placed a hand to his brow and breathed out a heavy sigh.
"Crazy girl," he grumbled.
"So, what exactly happened?" Koga inquired, frowning a little.
"Oh," Inu-Yasha said, turning to him, dropping his hand and looking back at the boy with a tired and worried expression, "She pushed herself too hard with the..."
He waved his hands as if trying to pull a word he couldn't find from the air.
"...Zappy zappy?" Koga asked.
"Yeah that," Inu-Yasha agreed, "Nothing more complicated than that... I hope."
He looked back at Kagome, his brow furrowed with worry.
"I'll grab some ibuprofen," Koga suggested.
He left the room and Inu-Yasha sat on the bed beside Kagome and laid a hand against her forehead. Within less than a second, however, her eyes shot open and her gaze darted around as if in panic for just a second before she sat bolt upright. Inu-Yasha began to say her name in surprise, but she simply squeaked, "Bathroom!"
Before the hanyou could even ask her what was wrong she rushed from the room and was out of sight, the sound of the bathroom door slamming behind her echoing through the house. Inu-Yasha winced and got up to follow immediately, grabbing the glass of water on the way, but stopped outside the bathroom door to the sound of the girl retching.
x
He rapped his knuckles on the door and asked,
"Hey, you okay?"
"Fine. Fine. Just nauseous," Kagome replied weakly.
He heard her cough again and rolled his eyes, opened the door only to see her sitting on her knees in front of the toilet, looking ill but seeming not to have been so. The hanyou sat on his knees beside her on the cold tile floor and looked at her with concern. She looked both embarrassed and ill, her face red, breathing heavily. Inu-Yasha's ears drooped and edged closer to her and brushed her hair from her face, and as she took a deep breath he handed her the glass of water. She didn't drink at first; just held the cool glass in her hands and rocked back and forth gently.
"Oh man, I feel terrible..." she mumbled.
"Need to puke?" Inu-Yasha asked.
She shook her head and before she really replied, Koga was in the doorway behind them, barking,
"Oh my god, Kags, are you okay?"
She laughed weakly and nodded. Inu-Yasha looked at the youkai, who looked quite upset, but he held two small red pills in his hand. Inu-Yasha held out his hand and Koga tossed the pills. Inu-Yasha caught them and then passed them to Kagome. She looked surprised but then took them and downed them with a tentative sip of water.
"I'm okay," she insisted, "It's just... the fainting. That's what it was. Right?"
She tried to stand but her knees were wobbly. Inu-Yasha got to his feet and held her up and Koga moved in closer as if ready to catch her just in case.
"Thanks guys," she said, looking between the two, "I appreciate it."
"Yeah, whatever, let's get you back to bed," Inu-Yasha said, bonking her head very gently, "Unless you have to throw up."
"I don't have to throw up, I'm okay now," she insisted.
However, she proceeded to shoo the demons from the room and closed the door behind them.
The boys looked at each other with confusion, but Inu-Yasha soon shrugged as they heard the sink faucet starting to run.
"I guess we should give her a minute," he said, though his ears pressed back to the sharp sound of the shower starting as well, and corrected, "Maybe a few minutes."
Koga looked worried, but he nodded and, looking between the hanyou and the door, shrugged and headed back down the stairs. Inu-Yasha paused for just a second and then followed, but headed into the kitchen.
x
After searching the cupboards, he found a can of simple chicken soup and emptied it into a pot on the stove. He turned the heat on under the pot and then sat down at the kitchen table with a tired sigh. He felt bad for Kagome, though despite that he was a bit proud of her. She had come a long way since he had met her, though she still had a long way to go. Her powers startled him a bit, though he was unwilling to say so: he had never seen a human's spiritual powers used before. He was also well aware of what they could do to someone like him. As he turned to check the soup over his shoulder, he smirked a little to himself, his ears folding back as he realized that he must be feeling like she did about his abilities. He felt a little embarrassed.
x
After a little while, he got up to check the soup. In the other room, he heard, Koga call,
"I want some soup, can I have some soup?"
"Fine," he said, "Come get it."
"Aw, I have to get up?"
"Yes."
"Can't you bring it over?"
Inu-Yasha rolled his eyes and looked around the open doorway only to see Koga, trying to hold the camera up and away from two raccoons that had crawled onto his legs. The hanyou's eyebrows shot upwards immediately.
"You didn't think mentioning raccoons in the house would have helped your case?" he asked.
"I thought it was normal or something," the wolf replied as the fatter of the two stretched higher, his little black hand grasping for the camera.
Inu-Yasha shook his head, wondering how they kept getting into the house and turned only to see Buyo leaning over the pot of soup curiously.
"Don't you shed in that," he warned, and Buyo looked up with a shy grin and backed up a few steps.
"Sorry," he said, "Smelled good though."
He hopped away to avoid the hanyou taking the pot off the heat and switching off the stove.
"Cat food time?"he asked.
Inu-Yasha made a sort of frustrated huffing sound and pulled a can of cat food from the fridge and dumped its contents into a shallow dish, which the cat promptly buried his face into.
"Soup?" Koga whined from the other room.
"Come get it," Inu-Yasha said
He heard the wolf let out a groan of disappointment, and after just a second heard the sound of the shower stop as well. Inu-Yasha snickered a little but then abandoned the pot to check on Kagome. He saw her emerge from the bathroom, scrubbing damp hair with a towel and he intercepted her at the doorway to her room. She yelped with surprise and then whacked his chest, saying,
"Don't do that!"
"Well sorry," he said sarcastically, "How are you feeling?"
Kagome sighed and lowered her towel, grasping it in her hands in a sort of uncomfortable way as she eyed the floor.
"Still crappy. You can't feel that?"
"Vague emotions only," he explained.
She turned her gaze on him and smiled just a little, saying,
"I'm jealous."
"I don't even know how it happened, I think it was some aura malfunction thing," he said, "Never mind. I made soup. You should have some."
Kagome titled her head and frowned as if thinking very, very deeply about the situation.
"Yeah, I guess," she decided.
He nodded approvingly and followed as she headed down the stairs.
x
In the kitchen they found Koga, a raccoon on his shoulder, with a bowl of soup in his hands and another few on the counter with raccoons slurping at them.
"Where did they come from?" Kagome asked, startled.
"Attic?" the wolf suggested, shrugging one shoulder.
Inu-Yasha rolled his eyes and poured Kagome a bowl quickly and passed it to her. She smiled gratefully and began to eat, thought she proceeded slowly; she still wasn't feeling quite right. She hoped Inu-Yasha wouldn't notice, but she could see him watching her closely from the corner of her eye. She wondered if he could feel illness like he could feel her emotions, despite what he had said. She didn't know if he could sense it or not; demons confused her quite a bit.
x
Inu-Yasha kept his eye on her a bit discretely for the rest of the night until she slunk off to lie on her bed, still feeling almost as if a flu was coming on. She didn't like it at all, but she couldn't help but feel it was worth it. She couldn't help but want to keep trying with her spiritual powers. It was so deeply satisfying to produce something tangible; something she had never imagined being able to do at all. However, it certainly wasn't helping her sleep. Uncomfortable, sickened and cold, Kagome rolled around on her bed in the darkness of her room, her ears trained on the telltale steps of Koga downstairs and the animal sounds and chatter from outside. She groaned and put a pillow over her head, and tried to huddle in her blankets.
x
In the room beside hers, Inu-Yasha lay on his own bed with a table-lamp on nearby, peering cautiously at Kagome's photo album once more as he kept his ears trained on her. Her lack of sleep disturbed him a bit, though he knew there wasn't much he could do, and he didn't want to intrude on her space unless she felt like she wanted him around, especially with how sick she was feeling. He listened to Koga rummage around on the floor below; humming to himself some catchy pop song that had been on the radio all week as he played with the camera, and Buyo, once again. He was amused by how easily preoccupied the wolf was. He sometimes wished he was like that; he was bored much too easily.
x
He looked through the last few pages of the photo album once more, pouring over the family images. He didn't know why, but he really liked them. Though the unknown man puzzled him, the pictures of such a family was a sort of comforting thing to see. He knew no such pictures of him existed. He sighed despite himself, a little envious, turning away from the book towards the door as he heard Kagome's feet in the hallway outside. Within seconds, Kagome stumbled in the room, yawning, and then flopped down on top of Inu-Yasha, causing him to grunt with surprise.
"Whatcha doing?" she asked, flailing her limbs around in attempts to steady herself.
Alarmed, not wanting her to fall, he grabbed her with one hand to keep her on the bed and passed her the photo album with the other.
"Just... looking."
Kagome took it with surprise and then rolled off him to the empty mattress on his right, sitting up with the book in her lap. She opened it curiously and cringed upon seeing a grimy old photo of a much younger version of herself, looking painfully tired.
"Ah, why you looking at this? It's so embarrassing," she whined.
He sat up and flipped a few pages for her to the one strange family photo he had seen a few days prior. He tapped the picture of the man.
"Who's that?"
Kagome inclined her head, tapping the photo with her fingernail several times, a deep frown on her face as if she were trying to grasp a faint memory that wouldn't quite come into the light. After a while, she confessed,
"I really don't know."
"He doesn't look familiar to you?" he asked.
"He does, a little," she admitted, "Why?"
The hanyou shrugged. He was a little reluctant to admit his theory. He was afraid that it would make him sound ridiculous. Kagome turned her confused gaze on him now as if trying to probe his mind, but he merely lay back again and folded his arms casually behind his head. The girl pouted a bit, but then turned her attention back on the photo. Inu-Yasha watched her stare at the photo for a little while longer, taking note as she unconsciously, and very gently, brushed her fingertips over the photo before closing the album. She sighed very quietly and the hanyou raised his brows and sat up a bit more, asking,
"Everything okay?"
"Oh, yeah, just... thinking," she said.
She leaned forward and flopped over Inu-Yasha to place the book carefully on the floor and the sat back to curl up on the bed, pulling one of the disheveled blankets over herself.
"Cold?" he asked.
"I still feel all woogy," she complained.
"Woogy?" he repeated, trying not to laugh at her, "Okay."
He patted her head lazily and she grumbled and struggled in the blanket to elbow him, remaining fairly and awkwardly unsuccessful. He laughed and was about to sit up, thinking maybe she might like a bit more room, but she latched onto him almost immediately, forcing him to flop back onto the bed with a grunt.
"Don't go, stay here: you're warm," Kagome insisted.
Inu-Yasha was a little surprised. He nodded and said, "Fine," though he was happy to stay. He felt quite content, actually, as she cuddled up against his side, and carried a secret pride within himself.
"Love you," she whispered to him.
A small smile passed across his face and he dipped down to kiss her forehead lightly as a response. She giggled quietly and then lay, flopping her arms across his chest. She was there for a while as the hanyou lay awake, staring up at the ceiling with little on his mind until, to his surprise, the girl grumbled a bit incoherently and then slid herself on top of him and slumped, lazy and cat-like. Startled, Inu-Yasha held onto her tightly, worried that she might fall, but she, on the other hand seemed completely relaxed.
x
Kagome lay on his chest, her eyes closed, though despite her stillness she remained awake. Her mind was very tired and it was a relief to relax. After just a little while, she felt the arm that was steadying her loosen just a little and a second hand rest on her head. Clawed fingers traced through her hair in a very absent and gentle way; Inu-Yasha must have assumed that she was asleep. Far too lazy and comfortable to move, she lay there, drifting in and out of a drowsy unconsciousness until her mind snapped back to the sound of a very quiet tune. She was surprised: Inu-Yasha was humming. She didn't recognize the song. It was strange, almost foreign, and a little sad, but pretty. She hadn't realized that he was able to carry a tune, but then again she supposed that it made sense: he had expressed that he used to play an instrument or two when he was younger.
"What song is that?" she mumbled tiredly.
Her eyes opened just a crack and she tilted her head to look at him. He was blushing just a little but his expression was rather still as if he had been in thought until she had interrupted him.
"Dunno, really. Something my mom used to sing to me," he admitted, "Just sort of came to mind."
"Will you sing it to me?" Kagome asked half-jokingly.
Inu-Yasha grinned just a little.
"No. I don't remember the words anyway."
She stuck her tongue out at him but she smiled and closed her eyes again.
"It's pretty."
Inu-Yasha scoffed quietly though couldn't help a blush from passing over his face as the girl snuggled up closer to him. He found himself running his claws through her hair again, and then, quietly, he muttered,
"I hope you don't mind."
"What?"
"Never mind."
Kagome smiled sleepily.
"Tell me more about demons," she said.
Inu-Yasha's ears perked with surprise and he inclined his head.
"What do you want to know?" he asked.
"Anything."
The hanyou shifted a bit, unsure of what to say. Before he had to come up with something, thankfully, Kagome asked,
"Can you do what people say you can? Like, possessions and stuff."
"Um, I think so," Inu-Yasha said, "I've heard of it happening, but it was mostly, like... way back when demons still ate people."
"Oh, gross," Kagome said.
"Don't get nightmares," Inu-Yasha joked.
"I won't. Can you do that?" she wondered.
"I don't think so," he replied, "Never tried. Wouldn't want to."
"Interesting," Kagome said.
"We also have spit that kinda disinfects stuff. Sometimes. I mean, Sessho-Maru can do some really weird stuff. He can spit acid or... poison, or whatever."
"Ooh, that isweird!" Kagome agreed, laughing just a little.
She flopped to his side again and curled up, still trying to fight off the chill she felt. After a few moments of quiet and as she realized she was drifting in and out of consciousness, she sleepily mumbled out, "goodnight".
x
Inu-Yasha patted her head as a response, but kept his eye on her worriedly despite the fact that she seemed pleasantly asleep. He frowned a little and his ears folded back a bit. He noticed he was starting to feel a little ill himself. This puzzled him, as he had no real reason to, unless it was the presence of Kagome's spiritual energies. He hadn't anticipated that it would actually effect him, and in a way it sort of annoyed him that it did. He had sort of thought that because of how close he was with Kagome that her energies wouldn't damage him; maybe 'hoped' would be a better word for it. It was a silly thought, he supposed, like hoping to be impervious to a favourite cat's claws. Sighing, he hunkered down in the bed a bit and relaxed, finally.
oOoOoOoO
It was around 1 in the morning when Kagome was roused from her sleep by a sort of ill feeling deep in her gut. Her eyes cracked open in the dark of the room and she cast her gaze around cautiously before sitting up. Inu-Yasha's profile stood out just a little to her side and as she moved, he let out a snorfing sound and rolled to the side a bit. Suddenly very aware of the creaking of the bed, Kagome bit her lip and, very, very slowly slid herself out of the blankets and off the bed. The cool air on her body out of the blankets sent an extra chill shooting through her and she almost immediately put her arms around herself.
x
Feeling a desperate need for water, the girl crept down the hallway in the dark, and then stuck a hand out towards the wall to guide herself to the bathroom. Once she found it, she turned on only the shower light to illuminate her way and blinked sleepily, cringing, into the light. Even though it was dim, it still felt to bright for her. She sighed and took the empty glass from the counter near the soap and put it under the faucet. Still wincing in the light, she turned it off again and blinked, readjusting to the dark. She went back to her glass and groped around in the dark until she found both it and the handle to turn the water on. She brushed her hair away from her face and turned the faucet on just a little, to keep the sound low for her sleeping demon friends and began to fill her cup. She stood in the dark for a little while until the glass was full and she raised it to drink, trying to keep the turning of her stomach in check. However, through the glass, she noticed a bit of movement reflected from behind her. She felt herself go rigid and, very cautiously, she lowered the glass and stood very still. After a second, she took a deep breath and turned off the water.
Probably just Buyo,she thought, trying to reassure herself
She placed the glass down and turned to head back to the room, though she didn't make it far as what had looked to be only a shadow lashed out and struck her neck.
How-?she thought in shock as she simultaneously and involuntarily let out a feeble shriek as she collapsed to the ground.
Her mind seemed to freeze and she neither could nor would move as she blanked out, a familiar yelp and a body falling down the stairs echoing in her mind before she was aware no longer.
oOoOoOoO
It was a raid. It had to be. In the dark of his room, Koga gulped deeply, unable to make his body move. The sounds of his friends left him paralyzed with fear.
x
When his door flew open to show him twin strange, green lights glowing from the face of a living shadow, it was all he could do to draw back towards the window. It wasn't a way to escape, really, not one he had thought of. It was too late, anyhow. He heard a bang and it was like ice went through his blood from his head down and felt a very odd . He heard a crash and the shrill sound of breaking glass sprinkling around him, and darkness clouded his vision very quickly.
x
WIthin moments, he wrenched himself upright, gasping desperately. He tried to stand, only to realize that he was on four paws, sitting on cold concrete in a pool of blood, his tawny fur died copper-brown all over his right side. He blinked heavily and shook his head, feeling a dull pain on the right side of his head. An odd clinking noise caught his attention and he followed it with his eyes only to see, to his shock, a gory bullet rolling across the floor. It bumped into an unfamiliar cardboard box and, after a moment of utter confusion, he cast his panicked gaze around the dark room he was in. He could see a silver car, piles of boxes and tools lined up on a disused wooden table. The unfamiliarity shocked him and he jumped upright, backing up, only to see an awkward, wolfsized hole in the wall behind the car and a streak of blood along the ground from it, a morbid trail that lead from outside to his own paws. Koga gulped deeply, only now noticing how stone dry his tongue felt.
How long have I been here?he wondered, terrified.
He followed the trail quickly and shoved his head through the hole only to have his eyes assaulted by flashing red lights. He squinted through the brightness and his jaw dropped to see Kagome's house, an upper storey window shattered, with three police cars in front of it. A frightened and tired looking human couple stood, talking nervously with an almost equally nervous looking officer. Koga cast his gaze around, his eyes wide.
Kagome? Inu-Yasha?
He let out an involuntary whimper and then forced himself back through the hole he had obviously come through, ignoring the mess he had left a neighbour's garage in. He shook his fur and looked around frantically, and then lifted his nose to the wind. The scent of blood and gunpowder was bitter and rank, almost overpowering the scents of his friends. Gulping again, he rushed to the road and put his nose to the ground.
Where are they? Where are they?
x
"Koga?"
Koga's head jerked up to the sound of his name. Through the flashing lights, he saw a skittish form sprinting through the grass. He squinted and Buyo darted, almost a blur, out from under a police car and ran, his fur bristling, into Koga's front legs, trembling.
"Buyo?" he demanded, "What happened? Where are the others?"
"Taken... Taken," he said, shuddering.
"When?"
Buyo looked up at him with wide, terrified eyes, and his jaws parted in a sort of desperate pant before his gaze shifted and his brow furrowed just a little as he repeated,
"When? Not more than seven minutes ago."
"I have to find them," Koga said, trying to stop his voice from sounding too choked.
"Wait," Buyo said, "Come with me."
"Buyo, there's no time," he started to say, but Buyo hissed loudly, shocking the youkai.
"Just do it, this is important," he insisted, "Can you even smell them? Demon or not, you can't track them through all this mess."
Koga's mouth opened as if to debate, but his ears pressed back and he felt his chest tighten and he almost wanted to howl with sorrow, though the cat nuzzled his legs again and then nudged him and jerked his head back towards the house. Koga gulped and nodded and Buyo scampered away, giving the house a wide berth as he headed towards the backyard. The youkai followed him very cautiously as they ducked out of the light as he tried to swallow his fear; he couldn't believe any of this was happening. He sucked in a gulp of air shakily and watched as Buyo rushed to what seemed to be a large and still form in the bushes near the back door of the house. Koga hurried, dipping back into darkness just as the light in the house was turned on.
x
When he arrived, however, he had to hold in a loud yelp of shock when what he saw in the bush was a young man, red haired, facedown in the dirt.
"What is this?" he demanded.
"I broke his neck jumping off the roof," Buyo whispered, "Now that I know what they wanted, I almost wish I could say I did it on purpose."
He hissed, his ears pressing back and his lip curling a bit. He walked over the corpse, turning the head a little as he passed, and put a paw down on the spreadeagled left hand, using his other paw to bat at a black and pristine watch around the wrist. Koga tried to ignore the sense of familiarity at the sight of the human's face. It set a deep dread pounding inside him, knowing that he had seen this person before. He couldn't recall where, but he knew he had seen him. He bared his fangs, but then turned his attention back to the cat.
"What are you doing?" Koga asked quietly.
"It's a GPS, it was keeping track of the truck they brought before it got here," Buyo said, intently batting at the face of the watch, and then frustratedly yowled, "God damn it!"
"Shhh!" Koga hushed, his ears pressing back.
"These fuckers took my Kagome,"he snarled.
"In the truck?"
"Yes, in the truck! I couldn't catch... I couldn't..."
Koga sighed and touched his nose gently to the cat's neck and nudged him away and then, hunkering down in the bushes at low as he could, he reassumed his regular form. Though he didn't notice, Buyo gawked at the blood that stained his skin and clothes, and he popped the face of the watch using his fingers to see that it was displaying a sort of screen that was indeed tracking a moving object. Koga's heart leapt and immediately, he took the watch from the body and attached it to his own wrist.
"Are you okay?"Buyo asked.
"Fine," Koga said, hushed,.
"You have a hole in your head."
"I know. Quiet."
Buyo looked up at him, staring with quiet, disturbed wonder and he whispered,
"Please, save them."
Koga nodded and, cringing, reassumed the form of a wolf, sure to keep the GPS watch tight on his forearm. Buyo's ears drooped and he crossed the body once more and nuzzled against Koga shakily; fearfully.
"I'm going," he said.
Buyo sniffed plaintively and nodded, backing away from the wolf. Koga forced a smile and then, double-checking the GPS, set off at a run, darting around the house and down the road as fast as his legs could carry him, giving a figurative "fuck you" to the notion of remaining inconspicuous.
x
Koga felt an eternity of the absolutely worst case scenarios looping through his brain like the most unappealing of metaphysical visions as he ran, ignoring all but the tracker on the GPS and his own, desperate attempts to pull the scent of his friends from the veritable swamp that was the smells of Tokyo; the effort was utterly futile. It wasn't until he was forced into the open by the progression of highway that he realized he had to stop.
x
It hadn't been until then that he realized he was crying. On the side of the road, he collapsed back onto his haunches, his vision blurring in the headlights of passing cars. Panting with such gulps as if he were drowning in the air, Koga tried desperately to steady himself. He knew he would be no use to his friends in such a state, but his body was cold and shaking as if pulled from ice and it was hard to breathe. His paws were bloody below him, his head ached and his body begged for water. He had no time, however, and before long forced himself to run again, keeping to the side of the highway with all his thoughts focussed on a single, overriding urge to defend.
x
A long trip soon had all notions of the city begin to disappear as the trail ran into a southern mountainous area, the foliage getting denser and denser. Koga again began to feel a deep sense of dread as darkness began to creep in upon him and the relative quiet of the forest set in to replace the thunder of the city. He could hear no truck. He could hear no vehicles of any kind out on this deep forest road. It was utterly chilling to him, especially because so little of the forest was making noise. He slowed to a trot down the center of the road, perking his ears and lifting his nose. Each second he stood seemed to drag on for far too long, and he knew he needed to hurry; it hadn't really occurred to him until that moment that his friends could all ready be dead. His chest tightened painfully and he tried not to think of it.
x
A strange humming caught his attention, but it was so far away that he didn't know whether it was significant or not, but, as the wind shifted ever so slightly, a faint waft of diesel teased him. He wasn't sure what to think, but it was his first discernible lead and it was reassuring. He bent his head to double-check the tracking on the truck, only to find that it was much closer than he could have hoped: within just a few miles. The news left him feeling refreshed despite everything and he took off at a sprint again, back paws hitting the pavement behind with such force that it left it cracked.
x
As he delved deeper, he found himself being lead off road, the first hints of his friends's scents guiding him along with a strange, unnerving metallic smell and a sickly sweet smell like stomach medicine mixed with expired marshmallows. The worry he held was building and making him feel ill, though his anger was also welling up inside.
I'm not letting you destroy my family. Not again.
He ducked quickly into the brush , squinting against the low bracken whipping against his face. His eyes began to water to the point where he had to stop. Snorting, he came to a stumbling halt and brushed his eyes with his paws, and then, checking the GPS quickly, looked around. The device told him that the truck had to be somewhere close.
x
Keeping low, he sped across the forest floor until he saw the trees give way to what, at first, appeared to be a metal wall. The wolf crouched down and came to a standstill, looking through the brush at what, as he came closer, stood out as very out of place; almost surreal. A large building, cold grey and windowless, spread off into the woods. Obviously out of its element and not caring a shred, it spread out towering lines of barbed wire fencing around its perimeter. The maw of spikes stabbed upwards at the sky and out at the surrounding trees, exuding a sickening sense of aggression and confidence in one. Koga shuddered at the sight, but more so at the scent. The metal of this place smelled like the dead.
x
Careful, Koga looked around the perimeter just a little, seeing a barred gate and the back end of a large, black truck. He slunk back just a bit and raised a paw, looking at the tracking device. His heart leapt to his throat when he seemed to be sitting almost exactly on top of the blinking dot. He was breathing very heavily now, his heart pounding his his chest so terribly that he was afraid he would break down in tears. He tried to calm himself, furrowing his brow a little and panting more purposefully, trying to cool himself down. He let his eyes roam around the perimeter fence, picking out the small cameras along the outside wall.
"Okay," he whispered aloud, trying to reassure himself.
He braced himself, tried to calm his breathing, and then hunkered down until his belly was barely above the forest floor and began to prowl through brush. He was suspicious about the fence: he knew it was covered in barbed wire at the top; that wouldn't be a problem. He was worried, however, that they might be implementing a similar demon-detecting technology that he had experienced at Kagome's house. He edged just a little closer to the fence and sniffed delicately. Though the place had the metallic, rotten stink of death about it, he couldn't discern much else. He tentatively approached the fence, though still hiding in the cover of bushes. He knew he would recognize the feeling of his aura being read and tampered with, and even though he was quite close to the building now, he felt nothing strange except for his own fear. He took a deep breath and hurried a little farther back into the woods.
oOoOoOoO
Ooh god, I feel sick.
As light hit Kagome's eyelids, she winced a little. Her thoughts flopped around fuzzily for just a second before she remembered her bathroom. She felt no pain, but her blood turned to ice almost instinctively and her thoughts replayed the sharp cry Inu-Yasha had made before she had heard him fall down the stairs. It only took a few seconds for Kagome to realize what had happened. She held in her utter, gut-wrenching panic and tried to steady her breath, listening as two sets of feet walked around the tiled floor. She was on the verge of tears; she could only assume that Inu-Yasha had been taken, and she had no idea what had become of Koga.
x
Very, very carefully, Kagome allowed her eyes to open just a crack. She could see through blurred eyes just a vague image of a tall, thin woman with a very downturned and serious face, dressed like a nurse, in a sterile, white room at the foot of her bed. It looked like a hospital room, including the white curtain around two sides of her bed, but it didn't smell like one. It smelled like blood.
"So," the 'nurse' said, speaking obviously to the other person Kagome couldn't yet see, "Is it ready yet?"
"30 seconds," the other woman said, "Good thing she's still out. This isn't going to be pleasant."
Kagome heard a nail flicking glass and a cart with wheels squeaking across the floor. Kagome's heart began to pound and, unsure of what else to do, she let out a groan and shifted in her bed, pretending to wake up. She noticed the woman at the foot of her bed freeze and remedy her grumpy expression to one of falsified kindness. Kagome let her eyes open all the way and she blinked heavily and looked around, croaking out,
"What happened? Where am I?"
She sat up, cringing in real discomfort as her head throbbed, and she put her hand to her brow. The woman approached her, her eyes wide and wearing a very strange smile.
"It's a miracle," she breathed, "Honey, welcome back. Do you know how long you've been out?"
Innocently, Kagome shook her head and the woman donned a look of pity and rested a hand on her shoulder cautiously. Kagome felt a twinge of pain as she did so, a muscle ache as if she had been stung by something. The girl's mind automatically went to an unknown injection, just as the woman said,
"You've been in a coma for six months."
Kagome raised one eyebrow sarcastically, but then almost immediately corrected herself, becoming wide-eyed and quivery.
"H-How?" she asked.
"It was a car accident," the woman replied sincerely.
"Where's my mom?" she asked quietly.
"I don't know, honey, but I could have someone call her?" the nurse asked.
Kagome nodded stiffly and watched as the woman turned to leave. The girl was puzzled and almost wanted to laugh: had that woman actually thought that what she had said was plausible? She paused in her bed, trying to figure out what she should do. She bit her lip and then checked her right shoulder. She cringed to see a pinprick of red in a patch of bruised, swollen skin.
What is this? What did they do?she wondered, worry welling up inside her.
She scooted forward on the bed and peered around the room cautiously. She saw there was a white wall to her right, and that the woman who had talked to her was standing, mostly concealed around the corner and whispering very, very quietly to someone else. She heard the sound of wheels again, approaching this time and she immediately sat back in the bed, trying to look dazed and groggy as a second woman, younger and dressed in a similar fashion, came up to the bed with a metal trolley covered in instruments much like one might see at a dentist's office. There were also three needles, cotton swabs, and a plastic container of unidentified pills. Kagome eyed them suspiciously and the woman smiled at her.
"Hello there," she said, "I've just got some things here: some antibodies for you."
She grabbed a needle containing a suspect liquid from the trolley and a cotton swab, and daintily approached Kagome's right side.
"Will you pull up your sleeve for me?" she asked.
Kagome wasn't sure what to do, though she knew immediately that she should not let whatever that substance was into her body. She shifted away, just slightly, though before she could say anything, the other woman grabbed her closest wrist roughly and pulled her back.
x
Kagome reacted before she even had time to think, or even time to consider what she was doing. As if on its own accord, her other hand clasped tightly onto the wrist holding the needle and she launched herself forward through the curtain, knocking the nurse to the ground in a flailing, screaming girl wrenched the needle away and, sitting on the woman's torso, pointed the needle squarely at her throat. The woman looked back up in horror and footsteps rushed back into the room as the grumpy-faced woman rushed back in and gasped at the sight.
"Wait-!" she said, though was cut off as Kagome, her mind racing, demanded,
"What's in this?"
"Don't- Don't," the woman below her begged.
"You were going to kill me! I heard you! Don't play stupid. What's in this? What did you do to me?"
The two nurses looked at each other.
"That's, uh-"
"Anesthetic," the standing woman voiced, "To numb you. For the change."
"The change?" Kagome repeated.
When neither wanted to answer her, clearly, Kagome moved the needle closer to the woman's throat. She didn't actually intended kill her, no matter her anger, no matter what these people had been going to do to her, but they didn't know that. The threat seemed to work, and the woman to the side said, very shrilly and hurriedly,
"We injected you with a... a serum to awaken your latent demonic traits so that... disposing of you would be "no strings attached".
Kagome felt a deep sense of shock and offence, and she wondered what latent demonic traits they were talking about. Frustrated and trying desperately to hide her fear, Kagome nodded at the other needle on the tray.
"That?" she asked, and both women nodded.
Kagome's gaze lingered on the needle, almost entranced, but this was an immediate mistake, as the woman under her shoved her up and off. Kagome shrieked as she felt the needle scratch against the skin of the other woman as she toppled backwards, banging her head on the side of the bed. The nurse scrambled to her feet, though stumbled across the curtain on the floor as the other tried to assist her. Kagome was up on her feet faster than she could have imagined and, frantically pushing the closest person to her, sent the two flying the short distance to the wall across from them. Kagome was shocked as they crumpled to the floor and the one who had actually hit the wall slumped and didn't get back up. The closest woman groaned and began to stand, though Kagome, her heart racing, rushed to her and grabbed her arm.
"Sorry lady," she said quickly, and pushed the needle into her shoulder.
The woman yelped and let out half of a curse word before she slumped, unconscious to the floor. Kagome took a deep, shaking breath and the needle dropped from her trembling fingers and, after a few, painful seconds, Kagome slumped to her knees, her body shaking with quiet sobs. Panic rushed through her and she held her head as she curled up and cried with terror and an overwhelming sense of hopelessness. Her worry for her friends made her entire body ache.
x
It took Kagome, crying quietly to herself, several minutes before she was able to gather her wits and shoved herself to her feet. She sniffed deeply and rubbed at her wet and itchy eyes with the back of her hand. She cast her gaze around the room, and, seeing little, not even a door, she walked with heavy legs around the corner she had seen the women talking behind earlier. What she saw stunned her. There was what looked to be a counter, made of metal and coated with buttons, probably about two meters across underneath a large, blue screen of data mounted in the wall. To the right of that was another counter, laden with strange vials and medical equipment.
x
Staring for just a moment, the thought of cameras suddenly occurred to Kagome and her heart sank. She looked to the ceiling, and to her surprise, saw nothing. Curious, wiping her eyes again, Kagome traipsed back across the room, minding the unconscious people, and inspected the ceiling and walls closely. There were no cameras that she could find, which struck her with an intense sense of relief. She returned to the giant computer and looked at it with curiosity, and then mulled over the weird medical things, unsure of what they were. There were odd, wicked-looking blades lined up along the table, as well as more unknown drugs. Kagome shuddered, not wanting to think what these people might have wanted to do to her before they intended to kill her. She then returned to the computer and laid her fingers along the keyboard, and tried typing something in, only to have a window asking for a password appear. Kagome sighed.
If only I could use this, she thought, frowning, Maybe I could see where they're keeping them. Oh god, I hope they're okay.
Kagome took a deep breath as another panicked shudder passed through her body.
If they didn't kill me, some "disposable" person yet, they can't have killed Inu-Yasha. No way, never. But Koga... Koga... oh god, I hope they didn't get Koga.
She took a deep breath, nodding as if to reassure herself, and then paced passed the computer on its left side, only to see a white door that blended quite well with the wall. The girl's heart leapt and she immediately reached for the door handle, only to find that it was locked.
x
Kagome rolled her eyes at her own stupidity: of course it was locked. Frustrated, the girl punched the door, startling herself with the loud noise, but making herself even more surprised to see that she had dented the door, just a little. Shocked, she looked at her hand. It looked a little swollen, but other than that, it seemed perfectly normal. Cautiously, Kagome tried again, punching the door as hard as she could. The door caved in just a little under her fist, and the girl pulled back, staring in shock at her hand.
"No way..." she breathed.
It dawned on her just a moment later what must've happened. She was stricken with rage, a sense of violation and disgust that her body had been so altered. The injection had changed whatever Tsuyomaru had done to her; warped it into something visible and incorrect. Despite the anger, though, she couldn't help but allow her mind to go to a very dangerous place. What if she injected herself with more of the serum? What would happen? She was all ready stronger than she should be, could more of the serum give her enough strength to escape this place, and find her friends?
x
Immediately, she denied herself, telling herself that she was unequivocally insane.
I have no idea what that stuff will do to my body. I could become a crazy monster or something!
She bit her lip and rubbed her forehead, unsure of what to do. Her eyes traced to the needle on the tray that she had seen earlier.
But how else will I get out?
She cringed and then turned and took the needle up off the tray. She stared at the strange, grey liquid sloshing inside and gulped involuntarily.
You're going to regret this,she told herself sternly.
She bit her lip again and then, carefully, her hands starting to shake a bit, she pulled up her right sleeve. Kagome stood, frozen, for a moment, and then took a very deep breath before plunging the needle into her skin. She was right. She regretted it immediately.
x
Kagome was instantly hit with extreme nausea and her arm began to itch and burn. She cried out in pain and watched, shocked, as her right hand began to swell almost to the point where Kagome couldn't hold it up properly. The girl collapsed back against the wall, breathing heavily and watching, transfixed, as the muscles all up her hand and arm began to bulge. She gasped with pain as her fingers began to lengthen and the nails at the end of each grew thick and black and long, like the claws of a bird. Kagome clutched her arm, wincing in pain, panting and trying to gulp back tears as the muscles continued to swell and the skin darkened. She felt her shoulder bulging and heard a tear in the back of shirt. Her mind was rushing with various, panicked curse words and she dropped to her knees, her purpling, clawed talon slamming to the ground, the claws actively breaking through the tiles with a loud splintering sound that made her wince. The pain subsided after just a moment and Kagome finally relaxed the dragon-arm, lifting it to look at it. She cringed and flexed the fingers and despite how completely foreign it looked, it was still undoubtedly hers.
"Oh god," she breathed.
She felt sick to her stomach as she touched the purple skin on her arm and felt scales, and then took a deep breath to steady herself. She forced herself to her feet and clenched her fist, though it actually threw her just a little off balance. She grasped the control panel with her talons to steady herself and took another deep breath.
"Okay," she said, trying to reassure herself.
She wanted to faint, or rather, to wake up from fainting again, in her own bed. Having this be real made her mind ache.
"Okay," she insisted again.
She ran her fingers over her arm again and took a deep, shaky breath.
"Well, at least it was only my arm," she told herself.
She didn't really believe it. Again nausea took her, and before she could help it, she was sick on the floor. Disgusted and breathing heavily, she stumbled back, coughing and watery eyed, she wiped her face on the back of her hand awkwardly and then hurried to the small sink in the counter amongst the pointed instruments. She cleaned herself up carefully, taking extra long to wash her right hand due to its size. As she did, she traced her fingers over the scales. The strangeness of it disturbed her, and she hoped to god it was reversible.
x
Her mind then went to Inu-Yasha and tears pricked in her eyes. She had no idea of his whereabouts; she didn't even know how big the place was. Again, she went to the computer and tried typing something with her human hand as a password, she tried "youki", "youkai", and "hanyou 153": the only words she knew in relation to what was going on at all. Nothing worked. She let out an incoherent whine in frustration and paced in front of the panel.
What could I do? she wondered, I'm no good with computers. Would spiritual powers help? No, that's stupid. What about demon powers? So my right arm is stronger now, what the heck am I gonna do? Smash it? Stupid!
She grasped her face in her hands and sighed despairingly.
Think, Kagome! Can't you remember anything anyone tells you? What can demons do?
She paced again when a sudden, dangerous thought shot through her. She looked at the computer with wide eyes.
What about possession? Could a demon possess a computer?
She raised her demon arm and looked at it curiously and then, very carefully, put it on the computer.
Tsuyomaru, please, I need your help, she prayed, I don't know what to do. This arm is yours, isn't it? Please, help me!
She closed her eyes and concentrated very hard, like she did with her spiritual blasts, trying to force the demon in the arm to work. She felt nothing for a while except a slight change in energy flow, and she was about to give up when, to her utter shock, by it's own accord the demon arm locked its claws into the computer panel. Kagome was so startled by this that her eyes shot open only to see a black fog ebb from the scales, and before she could even cry out, she felt her consciousness take a very strange turn and her vision faded from the real world to some sort of immense data stream. She wanted to laugh aloud.
Did it actually work?she wondered.
Though she could make neither heads nor tails of what she was seeing, the rushing numbers and symbols before her seemed to switch their flow and colour based on her thoughts. This reassured her.
Okay, she thought, steadying herself, I need to change the password.
The figures flashes and spun, rippling into a shape almost like a box one would type a password into. The figures in the box changed to Kagome's thoughts at a speed her eyes couldn't even begin to follow until she focused her energies. The word then came to "buyo" and stayed, before becoming a set of asterisks.
x
Kagome could hardly believe this was working.
Okay, now I need a layout.
She forced the password again and the stream of data reappeared, opening and shutting what seemed like hundreds of files until it displayed a long and relatively detailed map of the building. It was too much, however, and Kagome fell back onto the floor almost immediately. Her eyes now saw the exterior of the computer and her head hurt with such a headache equivalent to "brain freeze" and it was almost unbearable. She cried out unwillingly and clutched her head, scrunching her eyes shut. It took almost a full five minutes to subside, but when it did Kagome couldn't help a laugh from bubbling up inside her. The layout was now ingrained into her brain. She didn't know how it had happened, but she was so grateful for it.
x
Forcing herself to her feet again, she looked at the computer once more. It seemed usable despite the claw holes in it. Cautiously, she typed in the password by hand and found her way into the system once more. She grinned a little. She curiously clicked around the strangely static desktop until she found what appeared to be security files. She clicked through each one, just in case of something useful, until she found something that appeared to be related to the door locks. There were a few different codes involved, but she found one that related to the door locks of what were labeled as "cells".
A cell... Like, a prison? I guess that's where they'd keep a demon in a place like this,she thought, feeling very worried again.
She bypassed several security checks all with her same password until she reached a number screen, asking her to reassign a code. A bit confused, but hoping it was what she thought it was, Kagome typed in her locker number and a bright yellow box appeared to tell her the change was approved. Kagome's heart leapt.
Well, this is going well. What else can I find?
She searched through for only a few more minutes before, to her shock, her arm began to ebb dark energy once again.
"Hey!" she said in alarm, "What-?"
Again, the arm moved on its own and stabbed itself deep into the computer again, causing Kagome to squeal and curse in fright. Above her, she saw the computer screen flicker and distort, the background looking as if it had somehow been ripped, and the text icons on the desktop become distorted with illegible names. A sort of face appeared, vague and shadowy in a flashing spark of erroring data, and though it frightened Kagome, she could vaguely recognize it. She drew back and looked at her demon arm with surprise and a sort of growing affection.
Thank you, Tsuyomaru.
Not wanting to waste another instant, Kagome went to the locked door to the room. She drew back her arm and then slammed it, sending it flying off its hinges with a huge crash. The girl was taken aback but then smiled to herself just a little.
x
Above her, lights began to flicker as if a grid in the ceiling was having issues, and when Kagome poked her head from the room, she saw and heard no people. Cautious nonetheless, she hurried from the room and concentrated on the map in her head. She grinned a little to herself. She knew the doors. She knew their were emergency metal plates to seal off building segments. Most of all, she knew the cameras, and she knew where she had to start searching.
oOoOoOoO
Inu-Yasha was tired. Well, not really tired, but he couldn't think of another word to describe the sensation he was feeling. A very strong unwillingness to move. He wasn't sure if he liked it or not. He supposed not. He frowned a little. This apathy didn't feel right.
Where am I, anyway?he wondered.
He couldn't seem to remember. He remembered bed. And then...
Kagome?he wondered.
He had heard something. What was it? Where was it?
x
Worry shook him and he cast his gaze around him, realizing that, despite the fact that he had been looking around himself for over twenty minutes, the area around him was utterly dark.
Why didn't I notice?he wondered.
It was a strange and imposing blackness that wouldn't clear, no matter how many times he blinked. He could only assume that the room he was in had no lights, or he was blind again. He felt a jolt of annoyance, though not much else at this realization. It was a strange sensation. He tapped his index finger in a bored sort of way on the hard surface below him, only to hear a sudden and hurried shuffling of feet. He cast his gaze towards it without a thought despite the darkness and tried to sit up, only to find that his movement was hindered by something. Unsure of what was happening, he tried again, only to hear the sounds of voices loudly and hurriedly demanding things of one another. His mind wouldn't register their words, almost as if they were speaking a foreign language, and he felt a sudden pressure on right arm. Simply reacting, he raised his arm upwards quickly. He heard a snapping sound and then felt his fist connect with something that simply rushed away from him at his contact. More sounds assaulted him and the scent of blood pricked in his nostrils. He sat up, finally, hearing more voices and within an instant, he was surprised to feel a hand at his throat. His arm shot forward of its own accord and he felt something give way before him with a disconcerting gurgling sound.
x
His mind blanked for what felt like only a second, his brain only snapping back into proper thought when he felt the back of his head clunk into a wall and he let out an involuntary, "oof". All was silent now except for the faint clinking of metal when he shifted his weight. The scent of blood was rank now, and when he pulled forward just a little, he found that he was stuck to the wall.
Strange,he thought with a frown.
He turned his head though still was unable to see a thing.
Very strange.
He heard a strange wailing in the far distance and a sort of pounding in his chest that wasn't his own confused him for just a moment before his thoughts jumped to the name Kagome. Confusion took him again and he tried to stand, but couldn't even get off the ground.
Oh shit, he thought urgently, Kagome? Kagome... Where is she; what's going on?
He felt his heart begin to pound and he closed his eyes and took a deep breath, concentrating very hard on where he could feel some of what she did.
x
She was scared. So scared it made his eyes water a little. But she was also hopeful. She had a weird sort of confidence about her that he didn't understand. He took a deep breath to steady himself. He felt weak, and his stomach was starting to churn unpleasantly.
I'll give myself a few minutes to recuperate from... whatever this is. Then I'll find her. I have to.
oOoOoOoO
Kagome was pressed up tightly to a wall when she heard the alarms beginning faintly in a distant hallway, starting as just a vague, wailing echo. She stood now is a very bright white and sterile hallway. No doors were along its lengths, but she knew there was a dark and spheroid camera positioned just around the corner from where she hid. She doubted she had triggered the alarm, but nonetheless, her heart began to pound and her thoughts began to rush, wondering in a very panicked way if she had been discovered. She took a very deep breath to steady her nerves, but the distant yet sudden sound of hurried footsteps sent her pulse into a frenzy again. Voiced from the end of the hall were too far and the echo made it hard to discern words, but the people sounded rushed, annoyed, and one even a little frightened. As they drew closer, Kagome realized that they were definitely heading in her direction and she rushed back the way she had come and hid around another corner.
x
After a few moments, she spied four people, three men and a woman, garbed in pristine white clothing, emerge near her previous hiding spot.
"Hurry up, this is getting ridiculous," the woman said.
Kagome braced herself against the wall, though the group headed the other direction for a while until they stopped at a rather unsuspecting door. The tallest of the men banged on it with his fist a few times before it opened and a short woman holding a mug in one hand peeked out.
"Come on, we all need to head to the J Wing," the man said sharply.
"J? Why?" the woman asked.
"One of the things started going nuts," another man said, a bit panicked, "Killed a whole team."
"The task force is being called back, it'll be a little while, but they're sealing all this off," said the tall man as the woman with the mug put a hand to her face in shock.
"Okay, I'll get my team," she said after a moment.
Kagome saw the woman duck back in and the group hurried inside with her. The girl took a very deep breath again, only now realizing that she hadn't been breathing at all, and then, looking around, began to sprint the way the people had come.
x
Inu-Yasha? she wondered.
She had a suspicious feeling it was him causing the trouble. Seemed like a very Inu-Yashathing to do.
Be all right, okay?she prayed.
x
Down the hall just a little, she found a computer terminal sticking from the wall near a metal plate that ran all along the floor, ceiling, and walls in a shiny band.
This must be how things are sealed.
With her human hand, Kagome hurriedly accessed the terminal and entered her password. As she was searching for the options, however, her head jerked up to the sudden sound of hard footsteps before her and her blood froze. She jumped to see a man round the corner. He was dressed like the others and his face was flushed, and he took one look at her and his jaw dropped.
"Hey!" he shouted very loudly and Kagome couldn't help but yelp.
The man charged her, pulling an object awkwardly from his coat but the girl didn't even see it; she activated the wall block and the metal shot out of the walls and interlocked. Kagome heard a thud as the man ran straight into it. She let out a wavering and relieved "Hah!", only to topple back onto the ground as her legs gave out. She grunted and put her hands to her legs. She was a bit startled; she hadn't realized how much she had been shaking. She jumped as she heard banging on the other side of the door and a faint male voice shouting through it. She got to her feet quickly and banged back with her demon hand, effectively stopping the noise, at least for now. Hurriedly, she accessed the terminal again and tapped at the keys hurriedly and, typing in her door code, told the computer to seal whatever walls were within its range. It complied readily and Kagome felt a small sense of relief as she heard the distant, clanging echoes of metal panels closing off.
x
She took a deep breath and closed her eyes, trying to remember the layout of the building as clearly as she could. She knew that it was huge, and she new she had started from a strange medical area.
I took two rights, a left, another right and two lefts, she listed, trying to trace the route on the map in her mind, Damn it, this place is like a labyrinth.
It was difficult not to confuse herself, but she eventually found her place, marking it by the fact that the wall terminal she had found corresponded to the one on the map. What seemed to be the prisoner area was still a ways away, however. She opened her eyes to reality and bit her lip nervously. She needed to hurry, knowing now that soldiers were on their way.
I'll keep sealing the way behind me, she thought, And I'll follow the alarms.
oOoOoOoO
In reality, Kagome was completely unaware of the chaos she was causing. Outside, just beyond the gate, Koga watched as workers were being herded by what looked like military personnel towards some vans as quiet and wailing alarms sounded at regular intervals from within the building. His ears drooped and and, one paw at a time, edged just a little closer to the ominous building. He wondered if one of his friends were the cause of this ruckus. He could picture Inu-Yasha causing such a stir; after seeing him take on the men who had kidnapped Kagome's neighbour, he wouldn't really be surprised. The hanyou seemed to be quite the shit-disturber. In a way, this gave him a little hope, but it also made him very anxious. If things were happening inside, his friends could be in even more danger than before. He bared his teeth a little bit and flattened himself to the ground. He needed to get inside. He tried desperately to think of some way to dodge the cameras.
x
Above the panicked chatter, alarms, clutter and forest sounds, Koga's right ear raised to another distant sound. It took him a moment to identify it as the grumbling engine of a truck.
Oh great, another... wait!
His ears perked up and his eyes widened.
Idea!
Trying to contain himself, he stepped backwards into the brush until he was completely shielded from view, and then whirled on his heels and sprinting back along the shoddy dirt road that lead back the way he had come.
x
As he suspected, after just a few minutes, he spied a dark truck heading up towards the compound. Determined, he sped past it and turned on a dime to fall in line directly behind it. He eyed the latched back container carefully. If he could get inside, he could sneak past the fence easily. He grinned to himself just a little, and after a moment's consideration, lowered his shoulders and ran under the back of the truck. It was a bit risky, but it would be much harder to get caught this way. Keeping pace easily, he found the center of the rear container, but only then realized he had no way of breaking in from this angle. Frowning, he sped ahead, weaving out between the wheels of the truck. He hurried up the road a bit and, skidding to a halt, immediately dropped to the ground and lay on his back between the oncoming tires.
x
He cringed, closing his eyes halfway and his heart began to pound as the rumble of the truck approached too quickly for comfort. He raised his neck a little and couldn't suppress a gasp as he felt the vehicle rush over him as if stealing his air. Acting very quickly, he raised up and grasped one of the many tubes on the underside of the container in his jaws and felt himself whisked away. Ignoring the whistling in his ears, he scrabbled to get all four paws grasping the underside of the truck. Getting stead as fast as he could, he released the pipe from his jaws and, forcing a burst of energy from his body, he reverted to his normal body. Grasping tightly with his left arm, he pulled back his right and plunged it into the metal above him. It gave way easily and, after a few more strikes, Koga struggled to pull himself up through the hole he had made.
x
He emerged into utter darkness and he had to blink around to adjust his eyes as he panted and tried to calm his racing heart. What he saw around him was fairly unremarkable at first: just some hard plastic and metal containers and cases of various sizes. As the truck bounced along, he knew he only had about two minutes before they were back at his their destination.
I may as well screw around with their stuff,he decided.
Curiously, he looked inside one of the smaller cases to his right. Upon opening it, however, he saw a series of large, strange looking bullets packed in together. It took Koga a moment to recognize it, but when he did he cringed involuntarily and could almost hear a ringing in his head once more. Frustrated, he tore the bullets from their case and threw them to the floor, crushing at least two into unusable metal beneath his feet.
x
By the time he felt the truck beginning to slow, most of the shipment of specialized bullets had been tossed out the hole in the container to the road below. However, Koga had replaced the cases exactly as he had found them. He hoped it would trick someone. As the truck came to a stop, he crouched near the hole, keeping very silent as he heard the gate being cranked back and the sound of the alarms ebbing in once more. He braced himself, ready to leap from the truck again, and then wondered if being a wolf would be better for now. He was getting tired, and changing forms was hard on the body, but he felt like it might be the only way. He found it much easier to be sneaky as a wolf. Taking a deep breath, he once again forced energy to overcome him as he dropped to all fours again.
x
The truck began to move again, slowly, and he felt it turn and then, after just a few moments, park. He breathed a sigh of relief and, cautiously, stuck his head out of the hole to see what there was beyond the truck, if he could see anything at all.
x
Koga spied the side of the building on one side and more tires on the other. He heard the door open and the feet of a man thud out in heavy boots onto the dirt. He could smell the lingering scent of a cigarette. He winced a little and watched the vague shadows of the feet move past the side of the truck and then away. Instantly, Koga slid back outside and onto the ground silently, and then edged up towards the front of the truck to peek out and get a better assessment of his surroundings.
x
The wolf quickly found that he was back near another row of vans, just beyond the ones he had seen initially. He could see a person in a sort of camouflage gear leading some others, more confused and frightened looking, towards the vans. Koga backed up a bit. It was too dark for human eyes to see him, he was quite sure, but he needed to be careful nonetheless.
x
He watched the people for a little while longer, noticing quickly that, despite the apparent emergency, people who seemed to work in the building were still being let in. This gave the wolf a sort of risky idea.
Would it even work? Oh god, that's so silly...
He sighed. He didn't have many options.
x
Quietly ducking back to hide behind the truck, tucked in the shadows, he watched another group of people heading towards the vans. As Koga waited for an opportunity to strike, he found himself uncommonly lucky. A man, tallish, with black hair and glasses, garbed in a labcoat of sorts, veered away from the group, pulling a cigarette out of his pants pockets. He headed towards Koga, who ducked slightly out of the way as the man concealed himself behind a van and the truck to light up. He paused, eyeing the man up and down.
I guess we look similar enough,he decided.
The youkai found himself able to edge up very close behind this man without being seen nor heard. He grinned a little, and then, leapt.
x
His paws connected with the man's shoulders and before he could even cry out, he was on the ground, his face in the dirt as his head clunked down on the ground. Koga gave the man's head a quick but heavy whack, and then lowered an ear to him. He was unconscious.
Oh hells yes,he thought triumphantly.
Careful with his fangs, he grabbed the man and dragged him under the truck.
x
Koga had to change slowly now, for fear of being noticed, but once he reassumed his normal body, he took the man's coat, shoes, and all that he carried with him, including an identification card, wallet, glasses, and even the cigarette carton and lighter. A bit reluctantly, Koga even used his claws to cut his hair to a shorter length the match this man's, though he tried to brush it over the tips of his ears. Quickly, he glanced over the I.D. card before putting it in his pocket. He was now Tanaka Hibiki, a technician of some sort.
x
Once he felt confident enough, and very carefully, Koga emerged from under the truck and brushed the dirt from himself, trying to hide his dirty slacks and brushing his bangs in front of the wound to his forehead. He walked towards the front door slowly, stiffly at first, but then took a deep breath to try to relax and put on his stolen glasses.
Just act like you belong,he told himself.
He tried to act relaxed even though he felt like his heart was going to beat out of his chest, especially as he approached the armed guard in front of the door. As he got closer, the man squinted at him expectantly and raised and clicked on a small flashlight. Koga grimaced but flashed the card he had taken. The guard lowered the light and nodded, not even looking at the piece of I.D. After all, who would expect a demon to steal a worker's clothes a la Indiana Jones?
"Didn't you just come out here?" he asked.
Koga stalled for a second, his blood feeling as if it had frozen, but then he quickly replied,
"Yeah, just came out for a smoke."
The guard nodded and then looked behind him to touch an object to a strange panel next to the door. It beeped and flashed, and Koga heard a series of locks click. The guard opened the door and, with a sense of utter panic, urgency, and triumph, Koga strode inside.
oOoOoOoO
Things were quiet. To say they were too quiet would be rather cliché, but in all honesty, past the consistent, intervalled alarms, she heard nothing else. No doors opened, no footsteps followed her; no strange noises reached her. She supposed whatever evacuation was going on, people weren't here anymore. At least, that was how it seemed.
x
Kagome was highly on edge, even so. Her mutated arm was starting to bother her, feeling heavy, and making her shoulder ache. She had to slow and propped herself against the wall to her right, resting the demon arm against it. She took a few deep breaths but tried to be quiet, listening carefully. She knew she was now nearly at the prisoner section of the building, and she had certainly closed all the panels she could behind her. She didn't know if other people were still inside the scattered rooms (offices, maybe) that she had passed, but she suspected not due to what was apparently a partial evacuation.
x
By the time Kagome arrived at what she knew to be the prisoner's wing, she could barely hear the alarms anymore. Not that they weren't blaring, but their rhythmic, periodic nature made them very easy to block out. A wall of metal bars stood in her path, but the door through had been left open. Carefully, Kagome edged through and then looked down the hallway. She didn't know why, but this place chilled her. It felt cold here, or colder, at least, than the rest. The chill on her bare feet was starkly uncomfortable and her body trembled, her right arm beginning to throb with pain all over again. Kagome tried not to look at it, but clenched her fist tightly and hurried down the hall. She saw doors, heavy and metal, and windowless, unlike any she had ever seen. They were strangely ominous; had a sense of finality to them that made her very uneasy.
x
Kagome supposed she would have to look in all the rooms. Cautious, she approached the closest door only to see it was locked with a numerical pad. She frowned and carefully typed in her locker number, hoping her code changing had worked. She heard a click: it had.
x
She hurriedly pushed into the room and stalled to look around. The room was silent and sterile, and very dark save for a sort of grey light ebbing in from a tinted window (probably a two-way mirror, now that she thought about it) that made up most of the right wall. A long counter in front of a control panel lined with computers and hosting a small array of spinning office chairs were just in front of the aforementioned window. There was also another very heavy, locked door at the other end of the room. It didn't look like anyone had been in there in a while.
x
Cautiously, Kagome tiptoed through the room and looked carefully through the window. The sight made her feel sick. Though there was nothing in it, the window looked into a room that looked as if it came from a horror film. The walls, once white, were stained in smears and blotches of a sort of dirty red, and the walls and floors were torn; ripped into by frantic and bloody claws. Kagome almost couldn't keep her concentration and she had to take a step back and breathe deeply. She felt a sort of strange itch and pressure in the back of her mind, almost like words or a thought she couldn't discern. She wanted to leave, but she couldn't bring herself to. She bit her lip and tore her eyes away from the room, and hesitantly edged to the locked door.
x
Again, Kagome unlocked the door with her code and put her hand on the door handle. It was freezing, and Kagome stalled, a sudden terror taking her. She heard the whisper again and she whipped around, her eyes wide. There was no one. She froze and shuddered a bit.
Ghosts? she wondered, It's... oh, hell, it's more than possible. Especially because something terrible must have happened here.
She took a deep breath and put her hand on the door handle again.
"I'm so sorry," she whispered aloud, "If you're there. I mean..."
She felt a little strange talking out loud, but it also somehow felt right.
"I want..." she continued, "I want you to be free. I'm sorry you were trapped for so long."
Carefully, Kagome opened the door just a crack. Air wooshed out with a hiss and she winced, but then all was quiet and a sort of tension felt gone, as if the room around her was sighing in relief. The pressure on her head was gone as well. Kagome trembled a little, but then nodded to herself, breathing out,
"Okay."
She left the room in a hurry. She felt a chill run down her body as she realized she would have to check all the rooms until she found Inu-Yasha. She wasn't anxious to see something like she just had again.
oOoOoOoO
Koga was frozen. His body wouldn't move and all his extremities felt cold. He cast his gaze swiftly around the room he now stood in, filled with mingling, tense, and worried humans.
x
Before him was what looked like had once been a wide, open hallway, was now sealed into a room by a thick metal panel with only four doors leading from the area. A few men stood at the metal panel, at a small terminal as if trying to activate it, quite unsuccessfully. Other than that, the room almost appears like the waiting area at an airport, with rows of chairs that had been set up as a makeshift waiting area, Koga assumed, for the vans to take these people away.
x
Trying to steady himself, Koga took a deep breath and forced himself to relax a little, and then began to walk in a seemingly aimless direction as he checked the room for anything that might help him. No one even really gave him more than a glance, everyone preoccupied with their own worries. Koga wasn't really sure what had happened, but judging by the murmurs, it seemed like a "prisoner" had caused a major problem. He suspected it had to be a youkai, for the level of unease that were happening.
Then a partial evacuation would make sense,he thought.
Cautiously, Koga peeked into one of extra rooms, but before he could look around, he felt a hand on his shoulder. The youkai nearly jumped out of his skin and he whirled to see a man, short hair and a bit stubbly, probably in his thirties, looking at him with curiosity.
"Hey, you, you're Tanaka, right? The new camera expert?" he asked.
Koga froze for just a moment, but then rubbed the back of his head and nodded, saying brightly,
"Yeah, that's me. Sorry, you're-?"
"Higa. Sorry," the man replied, offering a hand to Koga.
Koga shook Higa's hand, trying his best not to seem trepidatious.
"We've only met the once, I think," the man said.
"Yeah, probably," Koga agreed shyly, "I'm... Yeah, I'm new. Lots of new faces, you know how it is."
Higa nodded and then jerked his thumb over his shoulder towards a door at the opposite end of the room.
"I have a weird phenomena I'd like you to take a look at," he explained, "I think the senior technician's all ready been sent out, so..."
He raised is eyebrows and Koga paused and then nodded readily.
"Right, sure. I'll take a look," he said, "Lead the way."
oOoOoOoO
Kagome was quick. She hurried through rooms on each side of the hallway, though she didn't find anything near as disturbing as the first room, she could still see bloodstains in almost every place she checked. Worry beat in her heart, increasing with every room she found that was empty.
x
The prisoner wing snaked around a few corners and though Kagome was started to feel disheartened, she soon saw something that was strangely reassuring. Around the second corner, in front of a door near to the middle, she spotted a puddle of brown liquid. The girl rushed to it and squatted to the floor to inspect it. It smelled like coffee. Carefully, she dipped a claw into it to find that it was lukewarm.
Recent,she thought, excited.
She jumped to her feet, though immediately regretted it as her heel slipped in the coffee and she stumbled forward, slamming into the door. In attempts to catch herself, she reached out both hands but her uncontrolled strength slammed the door off its hinges. She landed flat on her chest with a yelp and she lay there for a minute, sort of shocked, and then, carefully, she got to her feet.
x
Hesitantly, Kagome looked room to find a control panel and desk in a dark observation room, almost exactly like the other rooms she had been in, with the same door at the end of the room and with a two-way mirror looking in on a very strange and haunting thing. Kagome's eyes were wide and she looked through into a weird prison room, her heart thudding in her chest. There was blood all over the floor and walls of this room; not dry blood this time, however, it looked rather fresh. A solid, flat platform like an operating table with metal restraints torn from their brackets, with bright blood smeared across its slick steel surface. On the opposite end of the room, there was a figure, humanoid, sitting rather casually despite the fact that it was chained to the wall via wrists, ankles, and neck. Its entire body, from head to toe, was covered in thick metal plating, silver and blue and seeming very cold and sterile with the exception of the blood-spatter on the arms and chest. No face; no features could be discerned at all. Kagome gulped, feeling instantly terrible for whatever creature this was. She hoped to god it was Inu-Yasha for the sake of finding him, but she also hoped that it wasn't: being enclosed in something like that would drive him into a panic attack, and she hated to think of him so trapped as this creature was. Kagome bit her lip and cast a glance around the room. There were no notes or writings of any kind, so the girl left and immediately rushed to the prison cell door. She punched in her reset passcode quickly and rushed into the room as soon as she heard the click of the lock.
x
Upon entering the room, she shut the door tightly behind her and then looked towards the trapped and bloodied warrior against the wall. There was no movement and Kagome's heart sunk. She hoped desperately that it wasn't dead. Carefully, trying to ignore her bare feet through the gore, the girl approached the creature. She tried testing its aura in the air, though it was very muted. It felt a bit familiar though, but Kagome tried not to get her hopes up.
"Hello?" she asked hesitantly.
For the first time, the armoured person moved; just a little. It relaxed and leaned its head back towards the wall. As she got closer, the armoured head looked at her unseeingly and she gulped and knelt before it, her eyes pointedly skimming over the helmet and the separate metal bands clasped around the lower half of its face.
"Inu... Yasha?" she asked cautiously.
She hoped it was him. It certainly felt like him. Either way, she would free this trapped person, though it was an extra relief to hear Inu-Yasha's voice, in a very subdued way, say, "mmhh?"
x
As if only now realizing he couldn't speak, in a sort of startled way, he raised one shackled hand towards his face, though couldn't quite reach and let out a sharp "hmm!" as if suddenly understanding what was going on. Kagome let out a choked laugh of relief and, despite everything wrapped the encased boy in a tight embrace around his neck and shoulders. Even through the armour she could almost feel his heartbeat flutter and he held her in return, snorting out a laugh. Kagome sniffed and pulled back, but grasped his head and pulled it forward to inspect the bindings, saying,
"Don't worry, I'll have you free really soon."
"Mmm-hmm," he replied with surprisingly little worry sounding in his voice.
This, however, worried Kagome. She frowned a little. In this predicament, she wouldn't have expected him to be calm at all. Pushing it aside, she looked across the back of his head, finding that the bands binding his jaw were held by a simple metal clasp. With her human hand, she undid it easily and simply pulled them away from him. He straightened almost immediately and Kagome gasped to see a trail of blood down the left side of his face, though he seemed rather jubilant.
"Inu-Yasha, oh... holy shit, are you okay?" she demanded.
Not replying at first, he ducked towards her at the length of the chains binding him and kissed her gently and then smiled and tiredly rested his forehead against hers.
"Yeah, I'm fine," he replied, "I'm blind again though."
His voice seemed to falter for just a moment, and Kagome's heart went out to him immediately. His mouth pulled into a small, embarrassed smile and he took her very lightly at the waist, just with the tips of his fingers. She leaned closer and kissed the tip of his nose affectionately.
"You do realize you're pretty much covered in weird body armour, right?" she asked.
Inu-Yasha was taken aback and pulled back as if in surprise, but his expression was nearly unreadable until he replied with,
"Well damn, that explains a lot. Is it on my head too?"
"Yeah."
"Well... damn."
He laughed a little, obviously immensely relieved, and Kagome, despite her concern, smiled and carefully pulled her hand from his as she reached around the back of his head with both hands. She hooked the huge claws of her right hand into a crease in the metal and, very carefully, she lifted the strange helmet up and off his head.
x
Through the dark, a huge amount of light suddenly pooled into Inu-Yasha's vision and he squinted ahead through bleary eyes until, to his utter relief, he saw Kagome before him, depositing a strange, metal helmet behind her. He grinned at her widely, unable to contain a massive amount of joy just at the sight of her. He couldn't even put into words the worry nor the jubilation he felt. However her eyes were filled with concern and she leaned in closer to him, putting one hand to the back of his head. She cringed as she looked at him and then put her arms around his head to hug him close. He felt a bit puzzled by her expression and was startled still.
x
He couldn't have known, but Kagome's distress was clear; he had several, long gash marks on the side of his face as if he had gotten on the wrong side of a lawnmower and one of his now slightly drooping dog-ears had a small, circular metal tag stuck into it. They had also cut his hair up to his neck.
"Oh god..." she whispered, hushed, but was suddenly startled by the feeling of his arms around her lower back.
She pulled back a little, only to see the hanyou grinning at her.
"Thanks, sweetheart," before he ducked forward to kiss her rather enthusiastically.
Kagome's mind reeled with confusion and as the boy pulled back, smiling, she stared at him and asked,
"Are you sure you're okay?"
"Absolutely," he replied.
"You just called me sweetheart," she said blankly.
"Yeah, I did," the boy replied.
He smiled brightly and Kagome could merely incline her head questioningly.
"Did they... do something to you?" she muttered after a moment.
"Well, yeah, they definitely put me on drugs, and I'm completely unsure what they were trying to do apart from that, but I'm pretty sure I killed them or something like that."
Kagome looked aghast though the boy merely grinned back at her and she sighed and hugged him close once more. He seemed ecstatic about this and he wrapped his shackled arms around her more tightly, nuzzling against her head and letting out an uncharacteristic giggle.
"Oh god, how can you say you're okay?" she wondered worriedly.
"I'm really high," he volunteered, though after a moment of silence a small amount of clarity returned to the hanyou and he sighed and lifted Kagome's face with his hand very gently, touching his nose against hers before saying, "Don't worry about me. When I think about it, I may be a bit wonky when I'm like this, but can you imagine how ginormous my freak out would have been otherwise?"
Kagome bit her lip and even though her eyes were watering, she lifted a hand to stroke his ears. His face flushed and he gave her another, very careful, kiss. After he pulled away a little, Kagome finally gave in to a small smile, causing him to beam.
"Okay, you ridiculous bastard, let me try to get you free," she insisted.
The boy bobbed his head in a nod and released Kagome, but then said,
"Wait, let me look at this."
Kagome nodded and watched as Inu-Yasha raised his wrist to inspect the shackle, only to find that he couldn't raise his arm to the appropriate height. Frowning, he tried to lower his head to it and, once again, found himself caught by the chains. Pouting grumpily, he cast his gaze around the room and Kagome watched him with confusion. Abruptly, his ears perked and he pointed across the room to a switch behind a glass case.
"There," he said, "Flick the switch."
Kagome stood and strode across the room and flipped up the box and flicked the switch from the up position to the down one. She heard a metal clanking and when she looked over to Inu-Yasha to see the chains binding him against the wall begin to lengthen as if fed through the wall.
"Ooh," Kagome said understandingly.
She returned to him and squatted before him as he let out a sigh of relief and stretched out his legs. He then raised the shackle on his left wrist to look at it. Squinting, he used a finger to push what little skin he could access around the metal down and put his face close to it.
"What are you looking for?" Kagome asked.
The hanyou didn't answer at first, but then held up his wrist to her, his ears perking.
"See the white?" he asked, and Kagome looked, tilting her head, and nodded, and he continued, "It's a sutra. They have people with the spiritual powers who work here and they sealed these."
Kagome was shocked.
"How do you know that?" she asked.
"Vague flashbacks from last time," he explained, "Basically means I can't use demon stuff to get them off."
"Oh, okay," Kagome said, "Well, let me try to help."
She took a hold on the shackle around his right wrist as he looked, a bit confused, at the armour that covered his body and then to the shackle.
"Oh, no, that won't work," he said seriously, "You have to break the chains off."
"The chains?" Kagome repeated, frowning with puzzlement.
"Yeah, yeah, they've got me with these before so I remember how they work," he said quickly, "The metal... um... the... circle ones?"
"Shackles?"
"Yeah, that's right! Those ones, they're sort of bound to me so I can ever really break them off, but you could, I mean, with spiritual powers and stuff, but it could take maybe a day, but whatever, it isn't important. The chains are what is draining my super demon strength so I'm all useless and stuff."
His ears drooped a bit and he made an expression resembling that of a child who had been denied a cookie. Kagome smiled fondly and patted his ears reassuringly. His face automatically lightened.
"Well, don't worry, I'll at least break the chains for now," Kagome said.
x
Taking his hand again, she moved his arm around until she found where the links attached to the shackle and she began to work at it with her demon hand. Like with some of the objects she had found prior, she found that touching the chain made her feel significantly weaker. Inu-Yasha watched her periodically pry at it curiously, only now seeming to register the change in her right arm.
"Your arm looks different," he commented.
"No shit," she laughed as she managed to yank the first chain away with a harsh cracking sound.
The hanyou smiled widely and turned his gaze back onto her arm. Before he could ask, Kagome said,
"You know how we sort of established that Tsuyomaru sort of gave me some demon something-or-other? Well, they injected me with something in the other room that made it go haywire."
"Oh no, poor Kagome!" the hanyou said, alarmed.
"Don't worry... it's come in handy," she said tiredly.
Inu-Yasha stared at her blankly and then began to laugh loudly.
"What?" she demanded as she shoved him a little to begin working on the chain attached to the metal band around his neck.
"Pun! Pun!" he cheered.
Kagome stared at him blankly and, after catching on, couldn't help a snicker as well.
"Okay, okay, just calm down and let me do this or we'll be stuck here for hours," she said.
Inu-Yasha shut his mouth and nodded vigourously. As Kagome worked, she could see him desperately trying to keep a straight face and trying to keep silent so as not to distract her, but as she was working on the second last chain, the one around his left leg, he couldn't keep quiet anymore and blurted,
"Did I ever tell you you're really beautiful?"
Kagome paused and looked up at him, startled, unaware of a bright red blush creeping across her face.
"No," she replied blankly.
The boy looked disappointed.
"Oh..." he said dejectedly, but then perked up and stated, "Well, I'm stupid. I should have told you that. I should tell you that more often."
Kagome began to laugh quietly and shook her head, saying, "I'm a mess..."
"No, no, you're just perfect," the hanyou replied brightly.
"You're high," Kagome laughed.
Inu-Yasha frowned a little and poked her in the forehead hard enough for her to wobble backwards a bit.
"Hey!" she exclaimed, but Inu-Yasha dipped his head and stared into her eyes intently.
"Kagome, just because I'm hopped up on drugs doesn't make it not true," he insisted.
Red stained the girl's face but she finally finished breaking the chains away. Before she could even let him know that everything was okay again, he grabbed her under the arms, lifted her up and sat her in his lap with a grin on his face.
"That's much better," he said.
He nuzzled against her cheek and she laughed and wrapped her human arm around his shoulders.
"Okay, you hyperactive nincompoop, this isn't really a safe place to be doing this," she said.
x
Inu-Yasha suddenly looked very startled and he jumped to his feet, still holding Kagome close. She yelped and grasped to him tightly with her other arm as well as he gazed purposefully around the room. It was then, however, that he saw the mirrored-window across the room. Curiously, he approached it, staring, wide-eyed, at himself. He inclined his head and said,
"Well, shit, they messed up my head pretty bad!"
"It's not that bad," Kagome assured him.
He tilted his head, looking at the metal stub in his ear and he bit his lip, for the first time feeling a bit of agitation; the foreign object attached to his body made his stomach turn a little.
"And they cut my hair," he said a bit absently, "Do you know what this means?"
"What?" Kagome asked a bit blankly.
"Hoodies until it grows back," he stated, "Why else do you think I keep my hair so long? Gotta hide the fact I don't have people ears."
"How long will that be?"
"Give me a few days."
He shot her a grin and Kagome couldn't help but feel reassured. She took just a moment thinking of how interesting it was to hear his justification for his long hair: she had never really thought about it before. She poked him and he looked at her with surprise, and she pointed to the floor. He put her down immediately and she grasped him by the shoulders, looking over the armour carefully.
"We should really try to get this off you," she said.
"Oh? You don't think it'd be useful?" The hanyou asked, surprised.
"Well, if they put it on you there must be something wrong with it, don't you think?" she asked, inclining her head.
His eyes seemed as big as saucers with shock and he nodded readily, saying, "You're right, you're right!" hurriedly. His fingers immediately went to the side of his armour, but his gauntletted fingers were too thick and he scraped at the seam in the metal in vain, and then looked to Kagome hopefully. She wasn't sure what to do, especially having limited control of the strength of her demon arm. She put a crooked, purple forefinger under her chin as if in thought and Inu-Yasha continued to look at her with hope. After a moment, she held her finger up with an "ah-ha!" and she grabbed his right hand with her normal one and then, very carefully, she found the tiny opening between the wrist shackle and the metal gauntlet and hooked two of her thick, black claws under the metal. She intended to at least break the armour, but she pulled back a little too hard. Her nails ripped through it and the top plate went flying back and slammed into the wall and was stuck as both teenagers ducked and winced.
"Oops!" Kagome said loudly.
Inu-Yasha looked at the torn armour and then to Kagome's expression of embarrassment, and began to laugh loudly. She blushed and he raised his hand, licking a small cut left by the girl's claws, and then finally was able pry the gauntlet away and drop it to the floor. He raised his hand, however, to find his claws clipped short, and, frowning at his nails, they almost immediately grew back to regular length. He grinned widely and then was easily able to remove the other gauntlet and then went to the seams in the armour again.
"I sure hope I'm not naked under this," he joked.
Kagome's face flushed but she couldn't hold back a giggle. Inu-Yasha grinned at her and finally managed to scrape open the seam of the armour and, after prying for just a second, he split it in half and threw the chestpiece to the floor. Though his body wasn't hugely damaged, there were some gashes along his arms, and there was blood stains through a grey, sleeveless t-shirt that he was garbed in.
"Not naked!" he said triumphantly.
He gave Kagome the thumbs-up, but immediately put his hand to his brow as a bout of dizziness took him.
x
Kagome gasped and tried to steady him as he lurched and tried to prop himself up against the mirror.
"Are you okay?" she demanded.
"My brain," he whispered, frowning as if confused, "It... feels like scrambled eggs."
Kagome smiled sympathetically and put a hand to his forehead.
"You wanna sit down?" she asked.
"Yes, but I won't, I... I... shit," he grumbled, and then shook his head as if trying to shake water from his hair, "No, goddamn it, stay in reality!"
He took a deep breath and frowned deeply.
"I can do it," he told himself.
He stood up straight and then proceeded to pull the rest of the armour off his body, leaving only the cheap grey t-shirt, slacks, and the shackles on his limbs and neck. He looked at himself and his ears drooped and he looked to Kagome almost pathetically, saying,
"They took all my stuff! ...Eww, one of them saw me naked if they took my clothes!"
"Don't feel too bad, it happened to me too," Kagome volunteered.
To her surprise, a look of utter rage crossed the hanyou's face and he snarled immediately.
"I'll kill them! Who looked at you? I will kill them," he barked.
The girl laughed and patted him on the shoulder reassuringly, shaking her head, and his expression softened and he let out a deep sigh.
"You're braver than I've given you credit for," he told her quietly.
"I think I agree," she said with a snicker.
He took her mutated hand in both of his, feeling the scales carefully.
"Does it hurt?" he asked.
"Not anymore," she replied.
She slipped it away from him gently, but he almost immediately took her other one, closing his eyes, his body swaying a little as his ears drooped backwards. He drew in a breath that trembled with him as if he was just really starting to realize what was going on. After a moment of quiet, he asked,
"How... How long have we been here?"
His voice was a little lower; a little more gravely than before. Trying to hide the fear in his voice, not entirely successfully.
"I don't know," Kagome admitted, "Could be hours. Could be days."
He nodded a bit and opened his eyes, he expression a sort of pained grimace.
x
Inu-Yasha felt sick. His mind still felt lethargic and heavy, but his growing awareness of this was starting to have his stomach turn and a wave of frustration encompass him. He couldn't afford to make any mistakes here: not this time. Again, he leaned in and kissed Kagome on the forehead softly.
I'm so sorry.
A sort of sorrow took him and his throat tensed, and when Kagome looked up at him with worry with her big, soft brown eyes, he felt like he had let her down in the most massive of ways. He gulped and she took his hand, jerking her head at the door.
"Come on," she said, "I still haven't found Koga. And I heard some people say that soldiers were coming soon."
Inu-Yasha nodded and consciously forced his expression into one of what he hoped was intense neutrality.
"Let's hurry," he grunted.
oOoOoOoO
Deeper into the building, in a dark room illuminated by computer monitors, Higa pulled up a second chair to the screens and Koga sat and stared at them with a mixture of awe and shock. On the center screen was an odd playback, distorted for the most part, of a girl. Though the girl had a right arm that was obviously that of a dragon youkai, she looked otherwise human.
"Look," Higa said.
He reached for a control remote near the center monitor and pulled it back, and then hit the "play" button. Koga had to keep himself from gasping, and was suddenly very glad for the darkness and the awkward monitor lighting, because he was certain the colour completely drained from his face.
x
At first Koga had simply wanted to get away. He had watched for vents all along the path as Higa lead him to their destination, past strange, malfunctioning computers with the faces of demons shadowed in their backgrounds as if they were haunting them. There was one in this room, above, but Koga was now thoroughly intrigued, and terrified, to see that the distorted image was clearly (at least to him), Kagome.
Beside him, the human crossed his arms and looked at the playback, now on repeat as Kagome ran down a hallway, frowning deeply.
"That distortion," he said finally, "I noticed it when I was doing rounds earlier. Ever seen anything like it before?"
Koga leaned in closer to the image, his eyes wide, and he adjusted the glasses on his face that weren't helping him at all. He knew exactly what he was seeing. Though the average human eye couldn't detect such a thing, he could see that, for a few frames at the start of the footage, Kagome was fairly clear, but within milliseconds, the strange arm she had contracted a muscle, and an aura pulse made the camera malfunction quite badly.
"What did they do to her?" he asked.
The question slipped out before he even had time to filter, and Higa looked at him, confused, saying,
"Routine injection gone wrong, looks like," he said, "Why? They didn't tell you what you were getting into, or what?"
Koga winced and leaned back in his chair, unresponsive, and the other man looked at him with raised eyebrows.
"Any ideas?" he asked.
"Um... not... really," Koga lied, a bit pathetically.
Higa got to his feet, frowning a bit in contemplation and Koga stood as well. The man stared at the replay and shook his head.
"We can't get anything on her," he admitted, "I've looked through stuff for the last half hour. Nothing usable, and she's somehow managed to seal most of the emergency barriers."
Koga looked at Higa in surprise, unable to stop a swell of pride. Again, the man shook his head.
"Clever bitch," he said.
Koga felt a rush of anger and, before he could stop himself, his fist met the man's jaw and Higa crumpled to the floor.
"That's my sister you're talking about," Koga snarled, but then looked down at the felled man and gulped deeply.
Discarding the white coat and glasses, Koga quickly disappeared into the vent above, with an "Oh, shit!", kicking over the monitors as we went.
A/N: Hello to all readers! I just wanted to thank everyone so much for reading and/or sticking with this story after so much time and slow updates (for which I have good excuses, but I sincerely apologize anyway). So, thank you, thank you everyone! Also, I've had a few questions about fanart. I would be absolutely honoured if someone decided to draw fanart of this story, and I would love to see it.
Also also, because I know it will come up and since this isn't really a spoiler, no, I have not jumped the shark and turned Kagome into a demon.
As always, suggestions for future events and critiques are greatly encouraged and appreciated, and please feel free to correct any atrocious spelling/grammar things that come up, of which there are probably quite a few due to my main writing time being between 1 and 3 in the morning (though I have tried my best to proofread, I do still miss some things because of how much I've stared at this text). Thanks again for reading!
