Chapter 4: There Beneath

Kagome watched through the passenger window as the hanyō lifted the payphone receiver off its cradle and began punching a number into the keypad. How he'd managed to find a payphone in such a tiny town was miraculous, but there it was, on the street corner outside the local grocery store. It was uncovered—apparently the town hadn't wanted to spring for a booth—so Kagome could hear the gravelly baritone of his voice even if she couldn't pick up most of the words. He was facing the car as he spoke into the receiver, though he wasn't looking directly at her.

She didn't have to wonder why he'd hunted so diligently for a payphone: they were always safer than cell phones if anonymity was the goal.

She did wonder who was on the other end of the line, though. And what the odds were that it was Naraku, despite the hanyō's earlier denials. Kagome sighed, momentarily fogging the window and obscuring her view of him.

After his declaration that he was taking her "somewhere safe," Kagome had only been able to stare at him in silence. It was like he'd struck her dumb, dislanguaged her. Unsure of exactly what she'd expected him to say, she only knew for certain that "safe" didn't even make the list. Liar, she'd wanted to say as her throat had tightened with an emotion she couldn't name, liar! There is no "safe" anymore. In that tense moment of silence, he'd held her gaze for seconds that felt as though they spanned hours, before finally returning his attention to the road. They hadn't looked at each other or spoken in more than monosyllables since.

They'd been driving for maybe two hours when they stumbled into this tiny town. It looked extremely rural: little more than scattered, isolated homes loosely clustered around a stretch of road and a few small businesses. Kagome hadn't been able to catch the town's name as they'd driven in. She was fairly certain that they were somewhere northwest of Ōsaki, but it had been hard to keep track of road signs after they'd left the expressway more than an hour ago. The hanyō had very quickly steered them onto surface streets and backroads—roads that got narrower and more isolated the longer they drove. Given the density of the trees and the curving lines of hills on the horizon, Kagome figured they could be in a national park, or just on the outskirts of one.

And it was starting to get dark, daylight softening and dimming as the sun began its descent behind the hills. Once it was truly dark, it would be that much harder to catch road signs, to keep track of where he was taking her.

Tension invaded her muscles again, stiffening her back and shoulders, making her neck ache. The thought of being ghosted away to an unknown location…. For a moment, all she wanted to do was scream; bitterness and fear in equal measure blistered her insides, clawed at her throat.

She refocused on the window. He was still on the phone, listening more than talking now. He was frowning, eyebrows slanted in harsh lines, pinching the skin between his eyes. His free hand rested in the pocket of his jeans, but even from this distance Kagome could see that he'd balled it into a fist.

Apparently he didn't much like whatever he was hearing. And maybe that would keep him distracted.

Kagome gave an exploratory tug on her wrists, still tied behind her back. Despite the weirdly elastic material of the rope, it had very little give. He'd tied it quite firmly. She tugged and squirmed, twisted and wriggled her arms for a few long moments before giving it up as wasted effort. She couldn't squander time like that. Her window of opportunity was small and it was rapidly closing.

She glanced over her shoulder at the yellow duffel lying on the back seat of her car. Her pistol was in there. It was loaded, though she couldn't remember how many rounds it still had. Kagome had never thought of her car as spacious, but suddenly the distance between the front and back seats seemed insurmountable. To reach the duffel she'd have to worm her way out of the passenger seat and drape herself across the small console separating the front seats. She'd have to get her arms on the other side of the console. And even if she managed to do that without drawing the hanyō's attention, she wasn't sure how far she could stretch her arms behind her. She hadn't been able to test their range of motion yet, but the awkward angle at which they were tied made it feel like she wouldn't be able to move them more than a few inches in any direction.

And assuming she could even reach it, there was still the question of how, exactly, she'd be able to use her pistol with her arms tied behind her back.

Okay, that was probably out.

Groaning under her breath, Kagome shot a glance towards the man still standing at the payphone. He'd turned his body slightly, so that he wasn't directly facing the car anymore (though a mere turn of his head would put it back in line of sight). Kagome began squirming in earnest, twisting her back towards the passenger door, bound hands seeking and finding the seat belt buckle. A few more shimmies and twists, and she had the seat belt undone and free of her torso.

Scooting closer to the passenger door, Kagome lifted her hands up as far as she could—it immediately sent sharp pain through her elbows, which were unwilling to bend very far—and sighed in relief when her fingers grazed the door handle.

Running away had utterly failed her so far, but what other options did she have? And what was she supposed to do—let him take her wherever he wanted? Make it easy for him?

Like hell.

Maybe, if she was slow and quiet enough, she could ease herself out of the car and slip away before he noticed. Maybe she could run into that grocery store, or towards a nearby house, and scream for help? Cause a ruckus and force him to back off for a little while, give her some time to form a better plan.

Taking a deep breath, Kagome firmed her grip on the door handle and pulled.

It made a hollow clicking sound, and didn't budge.

She tried again, yanking harder this time. Same result.

The car wasn't locked, she could see that by the upward position of the lock on the driver's side door.

She struggled with the handle for another moment… then sucked in a sharp breath.

That bastard. He'd turned on the child locks.

Kagome nearly did scream then.

A quick staccato rap against the passenger window had her jolting in her seat, upper body twisting to look behind her.

The silver-haired hanyō stood on the other side of the door, looking at her with an arched eyebrow, the corners of his mouth quirking up in an expression that was decidedly smug.

Kagome scowled at him.

"You think I'm stupid?" he asked, tone amused but with a hint of vague annoyance, as though she really had insulted his intelligence. His voice was only slightly muffled by the window separating them. "Think I couldn't hear you yanking on that door?" He pointed a finger up at his inhuman ears.

Huh. So he had yōkai speed, strength, and hearing. She wondered what other enhanced abilities he had up his sleeve.

He walked to the driver's side door, opened it, and fiddled with a button on the interior side. Then he straightened, slammed the door closed, and rounded the hood of the car towards the passenger side. Before she could process what he was doing, he'd yanked open the passenger door. Kagome—still leaning most of her weight back from her earlier escape attempt—lost her balance and tipped backwards out of the car with a shriek.

Two arms caught her around the waist before she hit the ground. For a moment she was looking directly up into amused golden eyes, that infuriating smirk curling his lips. Then he effortlessly lifted her weight and set her down on her feet with her back facing him.

She opened her mouth to ask what in the hell he was playing at… but his hands jerking at the rope binding her wrists startled her body into stillness.

He must have noticed, because he said, "Don't get too excited. It's just a bathroom break. We'll be driving for a long time yet, and I don't plan on stopping again until…" He paused, muttered a quiet tch, then continued, "Might as well get some food while we're here too."

The rope loosened and slipped off her wrists. Kagome couldn't contain the sigh of pure relief that escaped her, the discomfort in her elbows and forearms immediately lessening. She rotated her wrists, encouraging proper circulation, and eased her arms to her sides.

Before she could move any more than that, he turned her, curled his arm around her shoulders, and drew her into his side. His grip—fingers clasped around the bicep of one arm, her other arm pressed between their bodies—was tight, and not especially comfortable, but she supposed that was the point. Both her arms were pretty effectively pinned against her sides.

"All right, sweetheart," he said, flashing her a warning look, "you know the drill. And no cheap body blows this time." His upper lip lifted enough to show off some fang. Another warning. "It's in both of our best interests to keep our heads down and move quickly."

Before she could react to that, he pushed her towards the grocery store.

::

::

An hour later, Kagome once again sat in the passenger seat of her car, staring down at the pre-prepared bento box sitting in her lap.

Her captor had been much more vigilant on this outing, watching her like a hawk and keeping her pinned to his side. He'd marched her straight to the back of the little grocery store, where a single-user public restroom was available. He'd gone inside the bathroom with her long enough to ensure there were no other exits from the room—then he'd barked at her to do her business and be quick about it, before planting himself outside the door. She could hear the tap-tap-tapping of his foot against the linoleum floor the entire time she was in there.

She'd never taken longer to pee in her entire life. Just to piss him off. She'd also used the opportunity to wipe the dried blood off her neck, and clean the cut he'd given her with hot water and soap.

After that, he'd re-pinned her against his side and walked them through the pre-prepared foods aisle of the store, grabbing things apparently at random: bentos, onigiri, shrink-wrapped sandwiches. At the checkout counter, the old lady manning the register had smiled at them in that indulgent, knowing way that suggested she wanted to make a comment about young people who couldn't keep their hands off each other.

Kagome's jaw had clenched until it ached. It hadn't even given her any satisfaction when she'd noticed that the hanyō seemed just as irritated by the old lady's presumption.

When they'd left the store, he'd practically thrown her into the car in his impatience to go.

So there they were, back in the car, driving along a narrow, twisting backroad in the gray dusk of evening. It would be true dark very soon. She still wasn't entirely sure where they were, even though she'd been keeping an eye out for road signs. The only improvement in her circumstances was that her arms were no longer tied—though he'd made sure to tell her that if she gave him any trouble, he'd pull over and tie her up again in a heartbeat.

Wiggling the fingers of her left hand, Kagome reached towards the door handle and gave it another pull. Just to see.

The door remained shut.

The man sitting next to her shot her a deadpan look, his unspoken "What'd you think, idiot?" loud and clear in his expression.

Kagome shrugged at him and opened the bento box.

"So," she said, keeping her tone light and offhand as she scanned the contents of the bento, "how was your chat with Naraku?"

She watched him from the corner of her eye, and noticed his face tighten, the clench of his prominent jaw.

"This is the last time I'll say this," he growled, the sound surprisingly quiet in the enclosed space, but menacing enough to raise the hair on Kagome's arms, "I don't work for Naraku. Don't ever compare me to him again."

She felt a small twinge of recognition—a spark of belief—deep in her belly. She resisted it. Shifting in her seat, Kagome angled herself to face him more directly. "Then who do you work for?"

The growl continued, but something in its tone altered. He sounded more irritated than angry when he replied, "I don't work for anyone."

From the way his shoulders had tensed, Kagome could tell he hadn't liked that suggestion. She rolled her eyes. "Fine, who do you work with, then?"

"You make it sound like I'm part of some agency or organization. Some kind of human bullshit. I'm not." This time he shrugged, a fatalistic motion. His eyes flashed at her, even in the gray dim light.

She stared at him, at a complete loss. Was he toying with her? That spark of recognition in her gut said no, but how could she possibly believe that?

She shook her head, and didn't even try to hide her bafflement when she asked, "Who are you?"

He paused for a beat. Then his lips twitched. "My name's Inuyasha."

"That's not what I meant," she said, eyes narrowing. "Like I care about your name."

"Then say what you mean."

She crossed her arms over her chest. "Will you answer honestly if I do?"

That surprised him. He actually turned his head to look at her, their eyes meeting and holding for another tense collection of seconds that felt so much longer.

When his gaze returned to the windshield, he fidgeted in his seat. Perhaps a sign of discomfort? Finally, he said in a carefully neutral tone, "I'll answer what I can. But the truth is… there's still a lot that I'm in the dark on."

Kagome took a moment to digest that. He didn't sound like he was lying, but… that didn't necessarily mean anything.

"Where are you taking me?"

"I wasn't lying when I said we were going somewhere safe," he answered. "It's the safest place I know in this part of the country. An old country house west of the Waga River. Not too far from Ōmagari."

Sure, that was helpful. Kagome shook her head. "That tells me almost nothing."

He snorted. "Sure it does. Now you know where we're going."

"Um, not really. An old house in the middle of nowhere? I feel so much better now."

"Not my fault your question was stupid. Pick a better one next time."

That smug little… "Why are you taking me there?"

He hesitated. After several long moments, he reached over, used three fingers to scoop a clump of rice from her bento box, and stuffed it in his mouth.

Kagome made a displeased sound in the back of her throat. "Quit stalling. And keep your fingers out of my food!"

His lips twitched again, and he said with his mouth still full, "Technically it's my food. I paid for it."

She sighed, moved her gaze to the windshield. "Are you going to answer the question, or not?"

He took another moment to chew and swallow the rice. Then another moment to consider his answer. Eventually, he said, "If I hadn't grabbed you when I did, you would've been caught by one of Naraku's hunters within the hour."

Kagome's whole body tensed. Slowly, she turned her head back to stare at the man. Inuyasha, he'd called himself.

He didn't return her gaze, but as if sensing her eyes on him, he offered, "Do you know how many of Naraku's people are right on your tail? They have been for awhile. But today…" He grimaced. "Today was close."

"H-how…" her voice sounded gritty, strangled. She cleared her throat, then tried again, "How do you know?"

"I ran into them." Gold eyes flashed her way. "Fought two of them off yesterday. But the third… he got away from me." Another grimace, accompanied by an annoyed curl of his lip. "He's one of Naraku's more formidable hunters. I tracked him to that Fukushima suburb. Lost the trail there, but," his eyes met hers again, "found you, instead."

Her breath caught in her throat.

"Why…" Kagome was barely aware of her own mouth moving, so focused was she on those golden eyes, "why do you care if Naraku catches me? How do you even know about me? Why… why bother to take me somewhere safe?"

Somehow his eyes darkened, turned a deep, rich amber. He opened his mouth.

Something heavy slammed onto the hood of the car with a booming, metallic crunch.

The car spun. It spun so fast Kagome squeezed her eyes shut against the sheer chaos of motion. She heard Inuyasha swear, felt her body jerk painfully against the seat belt as he slammed the brakes—but too late. Her car swerved off the asphalt, tilted dangerously on its left wheels… and with another sickening crunch it rolled.

Reality bled into more chaos. Kagome couldn't tell up from down, left from right, could hardly understand where her body even was, somehow both suspended and plummeting at the same time. She registered the angry shriek of metal scraping against rocky terrain as the car skidded on its roof. She felt the horrifying jolt as it rolled a second time, landing once again on its wheels. She heard the shatter of glass, felt stinging pain on her face.

And then it stopped. Everything went suddenly, impossibly still.

Then a man's voice—a stranger's voice. "Well, well… here you are, at last."