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Chapter 11: A Second Symbol

Derek arrived at the hospital close to 10 p.m. to offer support to Scott. He knew the wolf was probably struggling with his feelings concerning his dad almost dying, so he was surprised when it was only Melissa he saw.

"Scott went home for the night?"

"No," she shook her head. "He's on the third floor with Daria."

"Daria?" His face fell. "What happened?"

"Scott went to go check on her after his father was brought in. Her skin was… ice cold." Melissa's voice dropped to a hushed whisper. "If Scott hadn't shown up when he did…" she trailed off without finishing.

"Is she okay now; what did she say?" he strained to contain his alarm.

"She hasn't said anything. She's stabilized, but her mental functions seem to be suppressed. And… I don't know what the Oni did to Daria, but she's completely unresponsive. She won't wake up."

Time slowed for Derek. A pen dropped in slow motion at the end of the hall.

"Derek, are you all right?"

His breathing became strained. "Take me to her."

She led him to the room, and Derek broke from the sight of her motionless body.

"Derek?" Scott looked at him in surprise.

"She's been like this the whole time?"

"Yeah, her temperature is almost back to normal, but it's like she's in a coma."

"They must have gone for her after they got to you and Kira…" Derek pulled a chair beside her and clasped her hand. "I don't get it. I thought the Oni only went after people with supernatural connections."

"There's something you need to know." He heard Scott's heartbeat waver. "When I checked behind Daria's ear, it had the symbol for 'self', just like everyone else." Scott hesitated for a few seconds, "but it wasn't the only symbol."

"What?" Derek let go of Daria's hand and gently turned her head to the side to check behind her ear. And then he saw it. Two squares atop three branching strokes, over two more squares: 器. "What does it mean?"

"I have no idea, but at least we know she's not the Nogitsune."

Derek continued to study the markings. "Self - but also something else?"

"Whatever it means, I have the feeling that the reason for the symbol is connected to the reason she won't wake up."

He sat back in his chair, puzzling how Daria could be even remotely supernatural.

"You should go home, Scott. I'll watch over her tonight."

Scott grabbed a jacket off of the nearby tray table and tossed it to him. Derek recognized it instantly as the leather jacket he'd given to Daria. "She was wearing this when we found her. I know you care about her a lot more than you let on, so keep her safe." There was no accusation in Scott's voice, only simple acknowledgement of the truth.

Derek nodded. "Thank you, Scott."

Scott looked like he wanted to say something else but hesitated.

"What is it?"

"It's nothing. Thanks for keeping an eye on her tonight."

Scott left the room, and Derek was left with an unsettling feeling that there was something else Scott wasn't telling him.

He held the leather jacket in his hands and inhaled its scent deeply. It smelled like Daria, but it was also filled with fear. Clutching her hand again, he leaned back in the hospital chair, gradually drifting off to sleep beside her.

–

Derek stayed with Daria all that night and through the next day, and there was no change in her condition. Stiles had gone missing in the middle of the night, but no one had been able to find him. Then he heard the alert that Stiles' jeep had been found in front of the hospital, and he began to search for his scent.

He stood on the roof of the hospital inhaling deeply. Stiles had been here, but why? The boy's chemosignals gave off high levels of anxiety and stress. There had been an internal struggle of some kind. But why would he be struggling?

Daria had told him that Stiles wasn't himself, that something seemed off. Derek was beginning to see what she meant. Stiles had always been odd, but to have this much conflict going on inside of him, something was wrong, and Derek needed to find out what it was.

–

Hours later, Scott's mom clutched her chest in relief. Stiles had finally been found.

Thanks to a stroke of genius on her ex-husband's part, they'd found him sleepwalking in a coyote den of all places. Now that Stiles had been cleaned up and was in the hospital, Melissa wheeled him into Daria's room with the sheriff close behind, hoping that the closeness to family would help the both of them, but the moment he entered the room, Stiles stiffened.

"I-I can't be in this room."

Melissa frowned. "We thought that having you in the same room as your sister might help both of you."

"Stiles," his dad set a hand on his shoulder. "It's just Daria. What's gotten into you, son?"

"I can't be in this room. I don't- I don't want to be in this room."

"Okay, relax." She rested a hand on his back. "We can get you another room."

"Get me out of this room. I DON'T WANT TO BE IN THIS ROOM!"

She wheeled him back out, totally shocked at his behavior, but based on his recent symptoms, things lined up. The sleepwalking, the insomnia, hallucinations, irritability, impulsiveness. Every one of Stiles' symptoms matched those of his late mother before she passed away. Claudia Stilinski had been diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia, and now it looked as though her son was destined to suffer the same fate.

Stiles could be dying, and it broke Melissa's heart.

–

Derek breathed in relief when he heard the news. Everyone had been out searching for Stiles. Isaac and Allison, Lydia and Aiden, Scott and Kira, but now Stiles was safe in the hospital. Ethan joined him in the parking lot to help jumpstart the boy's jeep, which had died around the time he went missing.

"So you think he was just sleepwalking, or is there something more to it?" Ethan swung the door of his vehicle shut and handed Derek some jumper cables.

"In this town there's always something more."

"What if I told you I know something more?"

Derek detected a hint of guilt in the wolf's chemosignals, but he allowed him to continue.

"I kind of overheard… Well, I listened in on Stiles talking to Scott. How he thinks he was the one that wrote that message in the Chemistry room. The message telling Barrow to kill Kira."

Derek had heard about the incident with William Barrow from Scott. Barrow had kidnapped Scott's friend Kira Yukimura and caused the blackout all over the city. The first time Derek saw Kira, he could instantly see that she was a kitsune. The fox spirit within her cast a strong aura, easily detectable to his wolf eyes. What wasn't apparent was why Barrow needed a kitsune in the first place. It made more sense if Barrow had been the nogitsune, but he was electrocuted to death during the incident. Now Ethan was suggesting that the person the nogitsune had been possessing all along was Stiles?

"You think Stiles - skinny, defenseless Stiles… is the Nogitsune - a powerful, dark spirit?"

Ethan simply shrugged. "I'm not the only one thinking it. I'm just the only one saying it."

Derek's mind spun, unable to fully fathom how the scenario was remotely possible. And if it was true, did it have something to do with the second symbol behind Daria's ear? Was there some sort of heritage in their family that made this sort of thing more likely? Derek shook off the errant thought. Each subsequent idea budding in his mind seemed more unlikely than the last. He needed to find out the truth, and to do that, he needed to find someone who could translate the other symbol.

–

Derek stood inside the high school the next morning, Daria and Stiles weighing heavily on his thoughts. He spotted Kira, staring desolately at Scott from down the hall. He knew Scott was dealing with the same sinking realization as the rest of them, that Stiles might be the Nogitsune after all.

He approached her quietly. "He's a little preoccupied, but I can help you."

Kira glanced back in the direction where Scott had been and then back to Derek.

"Why would you want to help me?"

Daria flickered into his thoughts. "Because I need your help with this."

He pulled a scrap of paper from his pocket and showed her the second symbol from Daria's neck.

"It's kanji," she said immediately. "But I don't know what it means."

"But you know someone who does."

Her eyes widened. "Follow me."

She led them to her father's classroom, and he eyed Derek with a note of surprise.

"Mister Hale, I wasn't expecting to see you in these halls today."

Kira set the paper in her father's hand. "He needs to know what this symbol means."

His eyes narrowed. "Where did you see this?"

Derek shifted uncomfortably, unwilling to answer.

"Dad, if you know what it means, why does it matter?"

Her father let out a resigned exhale. "It's a relatively common symbol. It means 'instrument' or 'tool'."

Derek's heart stopped. "Like a tool that the Nogitsune could use?"

Mr. Yukimura shook his head. "Unlikely. It also means 'vessel'." He looked up at Derek with a serious expression. "If you found this on someone, they're a vessel of an ancient spirit - but not the Nogitsune. And the Oni would put them in a deep sleep to ensure the Nogitsune would be unable to possess them."

Kira gasped. "Is that why Stiles' sister is in a coma?"

Derek shut his eyes. "Yes."

"Dad, how can we wake her up?"

He offered an apologetic grimace. "I don't know that you can."

"Thank you, Mr. Yukimura." Derek walked slowly back into the hall. At least Daria wasn't being used by the Nogitsune, but there was no telling how long she would be trapped in her unconscious state.

"Did that help?" Kira joined him tentatively.

He gave her a sad smile. "It did. But there's one more thing I need."

"Yeah, of course."

"I want you to tell me everything that happened in the power station with William Barrow… Actually, I want you to show me."

Barrow might be dead, but there was a connection between the incident at the power station, Kira's kitsune abilities, and the Nogitsune, and Derek would discover exactly what it was. Kira followed him out of the school, and together they left for the power station.