Chapter Fifty-Three
Tomorrow Never Knows
Kagome froze at the feeling of a knife at her throat, until the long months of self-defense practice with Sango kicked in. She relaxed back into Natasha's hold, letting her legs fold as if she had fainted. As soon as she'd fouled the knife's aim, she stopped her slide down the spy's body and slammed a reiki charged hand into her abdomen, pushing power through her. Nothing harmful for Natasha, she was human, after all. But the shriek outside told her she'd at least burned the connection out.
Natasha was left blinking, wondering why she had her knife and was holding Kagome. She let the girl go, surprised when she backed away from her and grabbed her bow before dashing outside. "What just happened?"
"Well, if possession is nine-tenths of the law, then you were owned, Prissy." Tony pointed out. "Now if someone would be so kind to go after my daughter, I'm just a bit stuck at the moment."
"My arrows did nothing-" Clint said as Thor cut him off with, "I'll go, I owe the little priestess a life-debt." He ran out the door as a star-bright arrow streaked through the sky.
Pepper, meanwhile, was trying to twist out of Tony's grip."What do you mean, you're stuck? Tony, this isn't the time for jokes."
"Pepper, as lovely as they are, I'd appreciate you not flashing your breasts at me. I failed to make certain allowances for inflation-"
"I'll go cover the god and the priestess," Natasha dashed out the door, happy to be quit of the lech's conversation, and jogged over to Thor and Kagome. Blessing her facility for languages, she easily joined their conversation.
Kagome scanned the building across from them, looking for the sneaky puppetmaster. "I wish you had a long-range ki-based attack, Thor-sama. Inuyasha and I could triple the damage his sword did when we combined attacks."
"Fury may frown on such in the city. The citizens here were incensed at the damage done to Manhattan despite their freedom being secured because of it. Truly, humanity puzzles me at times." He shook his head at the vagaries of the species.
"They're safe. They've never been prey, never experienced the privation of war, never sold a child to keep the rest alive though winter. I can't see anyone I've met being grateful for a small bowl of boiled barley topped with a bit of bran-pickled turnip." Kagome heaved a great sigh, wondering if her life would ever be anything close to normal. "It's no good, she's gotten away. How could they have found out about the jewel, but not know it was destroyed?"
"What if someone is manipulating them, feeding them information in order to draw you out?" Natasha watched the girl's brow furrow before she nodded. "Do you have any enemies?"
Kagome looked over to the woman, incredible sorrow etched into her face. "I thought Naraku's death and the dissolution of the jewel would end it all. There's a lot you all need to know."
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Prissy- Gone With the Wind reference. She was Scarlett's ditzy, useless handmaid. There's still some enmity between Tony and Natasha.
