A/N - Please be warned, this chapter contains graphic detail and attempted rape. Do not read if you're triggered by these things.
o.O.o
At some point, they had stopped running around and trying to tackle each other in favor of trying to find the various hairpins and accessories their roughhousing had dislodged. Covered in mud from head to toe, Kagome was too happy to worry overly much about the consequences even though the wary sense of wrongness still made her uncomfortable, but it was easy to forget while playing with Izayoi.
"Fuiasu is gonna be so mad if we don't find all those hair accessors," she laughed. Crouching before a bed of tulips, she grinned. "It was so worth it though."
Izayoi had to agree. While she was not nearly so inclined to play in the dirt and mud as Kagome seemed to be, it was certainly a nice change of pace. "We'll be writing lines for hours," she agreed, though there was no worry in her voice.
"If lines are the worst she gives us, I'll be surprised." Another laugh, and she held a hand up victoriously. "Ah ha! Four down, two more to go." Bringing the small clip closer for inspection, she rubbed it before tucking into the little pouch dangling from her wrist. "Why do they make us wear all this stuff anyway?" she wondered, and resumed looking through the flower beds. "It's not like we've got anyone to impress…"
But Izayoi was not listening. Her eyes were fixed on a point over Kagome's shoulder. Suddenly cold, Kagome hesitated for only a second before looking.
There was someone watching them.
He stood there at the threshold where the family gardens led out into a public area. He did not move, or talk, or even flare his yōki to intimidate them. He simply watched and in that stillness was the greatest threat either child had yet faced.
"Kagome," Izayoi breathed, and her hand was shaking as she tugged the other girl up to stand. "Kagome there are two more of them."
Kagome did not want to take her eyes off the one she'd already seen. There was something primal about not letting him out of her sight. "Where are they?" she whispered, and her hands shook too.
"One on the roof. One behind us, coming out of Sesshoumaru-sama's quarters." In her voice was a quiet plea, a note of fear that was exactly what these three males wanted.
Finally, Kagome broke eye contact with the first watcher and looked around to take stock of the situation herself. They were surrounded. She moved to take a step towards her own rooms, the open doors back lit by the candles and brazier still burning inside—cheery and warm, a stark contrast to what they faced here in the rain and dark—but she saw some kind of red mist floating along the floors before it spelled off the porch and was drowned in the rain. There was still plenty of whatever it was inside though. "We can't go that way," she mumbled, and stopped Izayoi from moving any further.
"We aren't warriors, Kagome. We can't win in a fight against them." And it was true. They were no warriors; they could not win. Their training consisted almost entirely of hand to hand self-defense, techniques meant to thrust an opponent away so they could escape and while Kagome had been taking sword lessons almost as long as Sesshoumaru, she was by no means adept. Especially not against three. Izayoi was even worse, only paying half a mind in the weapons lessons.
Distantly, Kagome heard howls as lightning thrashed in the sky but they were too far away to distinguish. When she looked back at the watchers, fear struck her cold to find they were not where she had spotted them earlier. "They're gone," she said, and spun to look for them while trying to keep Izayoi behind her.
"Where did they go?" breathed the other girl, scanning the ever-approaching darkness with her frail human eyes but the rain and missing sun with the approach of night made it impossible for her to see more than a few feet away. "What do we do?"
"Run!" breathed Kagome, and dragged Izayoi with her as she made a mad dash for the now empty threshold to the public gardens. She knew they could not outrun the monsters sent to kill them, she knew they were being toyed with, but all she needed was one guard and at least Izayoi could be whisked away.
They should have stayed in the family gardens.
Lightning flashed across the dark again, illuminating oddly shaped things in the public gardens. It wasn't until they were about to pass one that Kagome realized what it was. Guards, impaled on spears, their faces death masks of pain and rage and despair. There was at least a dozen of them, maybe more—too many for even Kagome's feral blue eyes to count in the dark.
Izayoi vomited and Kagome was crying, neither girl able to go forward. Here was the help they had sought, well beyond their reach.
And suddenly the watchers were there.
Kagome tried to pull Izayoi close, but was too slow. Cold hands locked around her upper arms and pulled her away from the other girl even as another of the watchers grabbed a fistful of Izayoi's hair and dragged her several feet away. "No! Izayoi!" she screamed, kicking and squirming, trying to break free of her captor and in the panic that was overwhelming her, forgetting everything she had learned.
"Kagome!" Izayoi cried, and reached out to try and crawl back to her friend, but a kick to the stomach sent her rolling through the muddy grass even further away. Groaning, she curled into herself and tried to stand all in the same motion but was shoved back down and trapped under a heavy male frame. When big, cold hands started to rip away the layers of her kimono, Izayoi wailed out in fear and panic.
It was that sound, that feral, desolate cry of pain that reminded Kagome she didn't needweapons to kill these youkai. Even half trained and with slipping control, she could purify them. Sobbing, her breaths ripped out in harsh pants, she called on the purity that coursed through her veins and exploded with bright, pink energy. She could feel the burn inside of her, the base knowledge of what she was capable of and for a moment, all she could hear or feel or see was that purity.
But when the light faded, all was as it had been. The male holding Izayoi down paused in his pursuits of Izayoi to turn and grin at her and in the darkness between flashes of lightning, she saw his veins flash an ominous purple against his pale skin.
Her powers had not worked.
Even the male holding her was unfazed as he shoved her to the ground and held her there, his hands tracing along hips that had barely begun to curve before he used his claws and shredded the delicate material of her kimono. And she sobbed as the fear set in and she heard Izayoi's voice calling her name over and over again in the rain.
She felt claws graze the insides of her thighs as her face was pressed into the dirt. Whimpering, she kicked back with everything she had and felt her bare foot swipe against his knee. It wasn't enough though as a fist slammed into her side—but in doing that he had to let go of one of her hands and she grasped the first thing her fingers curled around: a rock.
Sobbing, she twisted in the mud so she was half on her side and slammed that rock into his face—but it did nothing, he felt nothing. It was as if he was made of stone, he was so unfazed. "What are you?" she whispered, still squirming to try and get free even as he grabbed hold of the hand that held the rock and twisted it harshly, forcing her to cry out and drop it.
"I am no one," he breathed, and yanked at the shoulders of her kimono. "I am nothing. And I have come to purify you."
Kagome could still hear Izayoi's sobbing, though the sounds were mixed with grunts and cries as she struggled with her own attacker. Each sound was a stab of guilt as she struggled to escape and help the other girl. His hands were hot suddenly on her skin as he exposed more and more of her and it was a struggle not to stop fighting as despair threatened to overwhelm her.
So when blood exploded over her and covered her face and mostly bare body, she was not the only one held frozen at the sight.
o.O.o
Word Count - 1457