If anyone asked Kikyō about the past few weeks, while she would never admit what she was doing to anyone, she would admit that she was having fun. More fun than she had had in… a decade. It was unsettling, and it was exciting. Here she was, at this very moment, about to break into a building to go hang out on the roof and… wait for something.
Kikyō had tried to remain skeptical, had tried to walk away from the folly, but dammit, she couldn't. First, it was Kagura wandering into Kagome's and Kikyō's argument and… doing things to her, and now… it was Sango seeking them out because she'd also witnessed an event. And both of them had talked about the importance of the book. The book Kikyō had never wanted published was now—apparently—a book that was being used to open portals to the demon world (maybe), a book that had physical theories that in practice worked (Kagura had proven that in spades) and… a book that ultimately had brought Kikyō together with some amazing women.
She hadn't realized how much she missed talking to women until she had women to talk to. The physics department… well, there was a reason they kept claiming she was a diversity hire, because in their small department, she was the only woman. And truth be told, she really did seem to have been brought in as an 'oh shit we have no women in our physics department, look there's one!' hire. It meant that no matter how competent she was, no one respected her. No matter what her accomplishments were and how much hard work she put in, she would never be respected. It was exhausting.
So being here, goofing off with Kagome like they were back in college, talking about good sci-fi books with Sango, and, well everything with Kagura, Kikyō really did see the rancid fish bowl she had gotten herself stuck in being a tenure-track faculty in her specific department. Although the field of physics in general was mostly the same when it came to women. That, at least, was what she kept telling Kagura.
Kagura…
Kikyō didn't know what to say, what to think, of the petite woman who wore jade earrings and threw her hair up into a sloppy bun that always looked perfectly put together. And there was the whole 'definitely not a Best Buy counter brain' part of Kagura. So when she finally revealed that she was a non-traditional physics student at Columbia, Kikyō hadn't so much as blinked in surprise. Because, she'd come to understand the depth of Kagura's competence.
Kagura was smart in the way that Kikyō's most talented instrumentation colleagues were smart. She had a knack for picking up the theory and just closing her eyes and picturing the machine that could make the theory come to life. It was… intoxicating. It kept Kikyō up at night, thinking about what she and Kagura would do next in the lab. Would they build the trap she'd theorized that could grab whatever it was from the portal? Or would they make further progress on creating the devices that opened the portals?
Kikyō never quite knew what the two of them would get up to, but she found herself spending every possible hour she had available with Kagura… in Sango's basement. And, well… Kikyō was starting to feel things. Things she hadn't fully come to terms with. Things… that had been stifled for too long in her life.
Things… that maybe, just maybe, Kagura felt too. Because Kagura always seemed to know how to provoke those feelings. They were things that Kagome used to provoke too, in college. Feelings Kikyō had tried too hard to ignore or to run away from. Maybe that was why she'd broken her ties with Kagome so easily on her way to grad school? Because… she hadn't been ready to talk about it, and Kagome, it was clear, would not have returned her feelings even if she had said something. Was this also true of Kagura?
Kagura was weird, and invigorating.
And maybe that was why Kikyō had stayed around this wild goose chase so long.
Because it felt great to have someone who turned her theories into reality. Someone who pushed her buttons and winked when she'd successfully gotten a rise. Someone who… who… made it okay to feel the things she felt. Just as Kagome all those years ago made it okay to believe all the things Kikyō believed.
And who knew? Maybe there was some silver-haired guy and the stalker from Lord of the Rings running around and opening portals, after all. It wasn't outside the realm of possibility. Kagome had obtained video, Kagura had recorded video, and Sango, a cop, came to them having witnessed something astoundingly similar.
But Kikyō wanted to experience it for herself. She'd said it was all because she wanted to believe, but the honest truth was, she wanted to be a part of it.
That was why she was rolling a slightly unstable miniature Van de Graaff generator down the street. One that could channel reiki into the electrical current that it output. It was a stroke of genius on Kagura's part. Even as Kikyō was still a bit… skeptical of whether or not they were going to get to use the inventions on actual demons, she had come this far, hadn't she?
Kagome's lockpick friend, Miroku, led them into an alleyway behind their target building and began to work on the double-doors there.
"This building took a while to… solve," Miroku said as he pulled a small satchel out of the messenger bag he was holding. "You know how to pick 'em, Higurashi…"
"So do you," Kagome winked back, causing them both to chuckle.
Kikyō looked back and saw Sango had turned away, her eyes in the opposite direction from what Miroku was doing, but she flinched every time there was a clang or clunk coming from his toolset.
"Not easy, huh?" Kikyō walked over to Sango.
"No." Sango crossed her arms protectively over her body. "Not easy."
"But… you really really believe that these portals are opening?" Kikyō asked gently.
"I do," Sango sighed, "because the alternative is… that I can no longer believe what I see."
"I… really didn't think that I would be here," Kikyō admitted. "The book was… two daydreamers avoiding their homework. And now, here we are, because Kagome is an asshole who published without my permission."
"Yeah, that was a bitch move," Sango said, "but at least she doesn't call you Madonna."
Kikyō caught herself just before she started chuckling. "And at least she doesn't tell me I don't deserve to be here."
"It's amazing how much that counts for," Sango sighed. "It makes you overlook things like… well… whatever-the-hell that dumbass over there is doing."
When Kikyō saw the blush on Sango's cheeks; she wanted to ask about it, but she refrained.
"It's either going to be a whimper or a bang," Kikyō said instead. "And… I really really want to find out which one it's going to be."
As if the universe heard Kikyō's words, there was a jangle of a chain hitting the ground, followed by a clatter of doors being opened.
"In or out?" Miroku cooed; Kagome and Kagura were already through the doors and into the WPIX building.
"In!" Kikyō called back, and tugged on the travel suitcase with the reiki blaster, happy to see that Sango was right behind her.
They weaved through corridors branched with bare piping, until they came to a single freight elevator.
"We can get about 2 floors from the roof in this. After that, I hope you're prepared to lug," Miroku said, and they all piled in. "It's a pretty straight shot from where we get out to the roof access. This part of the building is opposite the studio, so should be relatively uncrowded."
Kikyō gulped. She had sort of pictured breaking into a—well… an abandoned building, not one that was running 24 hours a day 7 days a week. WPIX seemed like an utterly boneheaded building to set up shop in and try to open a portal to another world. It made her wonder. What if they'd gotten the address wrong? What if… what if Sango had found nothing more than an errant piece of paper?
But it was too late. They were in this now. They would see it through. And hopefully, if they got caught, they wouldn't be added to an FBI watchlist.
Thankfully Miroku was competent at his job, and got them to the stairwell that led up to the roof without anyone noticing. As they closed the door quietly behind them, they all began to climb.
"Motherfucker." The swear words came from Kagura. "This thing wasn't bad when it was strapped to my back, but holy hell… lugging it up the stairs is… unhhhhhhhh…"
"I'll take it." Sango jogged up past Kikyō and grabbed the suitcase, then started climbing two stairs at a time.
Kikyō tried to follow suit, but the damn thing really was heavy.
"Here, let me help." Kagura's warm caramel eyes met Kikyō's. "I'll grab the wheels and we do this together?"
"Y—yeah," Kikyō exhaled, "thanks."
"You're welcome." Kagura smiled a smile that lit up her whole face.
Shit.
Kikyō liked Kagura.
Like liked Kagura.
In that way that made her insides squirm and her thoughts all turn to Kagura's ruby red lipstick and her impish smiles. To… to… other things. And… given the way that Kagura looked at her, she was hopeful that the feeling was mutual.
The last flight of stairs became much easier with Kagura's help, and by the time they'd made it, Miroku already had the door open to the roof.
"I leave you to it," Miroku said as Kikyō and Kagura finally made it onto the gravel that coated the unfinished roof of the TV station. "Always a pleasure, Kagome, and nice to meet you all… especially you, Sango."
Miroku winked and disappeared down the stairwell. Sango's returned look of disgust at Miroku made Kikyō smile. Miroku could have been Sango's foil, but instead, somehow, he was the final hurdle for her to clear in order to accept the "law-adjacent" path that they were all now walking.
"Set up here?" Kagome pointed to the corner of the roof; it was out of the line of sight of the stairs and an antenna blocked them from some of the taller buildings' windows.
"Sounds good!" Kagura bounded past Kikyō to the spot, lugging the suitcase with her.
In the time between leaving Sango's house and sitting on the roof, the sun had retreated below the horizon, leaving the sky the dull purple that always came between sunset and nightfall. Channel 11 was broadcasting the evening news, and the four women got to work.
Kagura grabbed at Kagome's messenger bag and pulled out a small device that looked like an ammeter with two long antennae sticking out: sort of like an old school cell phone. As Kikyō looked at it, she wondered: Could it do what they thought it could? It seemed so small, so diminutive, and yet, if Kikyō's theories had been right, and Kagura's build faithful, they would be able to detect and triangulate the origin of the portal.
It was… exciting!
But it depended on one thing…
"So, Kagome. We're up here. Do we just… wait?" Kikyō asked.
If they had the wrong location, if their devices didn't work, if whoever was opening portals turned tail, if it was not real, they'd broken into and entered a building, and deposited highly dangerous equipment on the roof. It would mean, at the very least, a criminal record.
"That's the plan," Kagome answered. "But, I brought snacks and I brought cards!"
She rustled through her pack, first grabbing a deck of playing cards, then she pulled out four individual bags of carrots with hummus, and celery with peanut butter topped with raisins, as if she was the den mother of a Girl Scout troop. It was so entirely Kagome.
"Gin rummy?" Kagura suggested; it was unsurprising how quickly she was all-in. "But… after I get the packs set up."
Kikyō set to work in lugging the two machines out of their travel suitcases, then connected the batteries into the packs (carefully). The metallic cylinders, with their nylon straps that hung over each side, and the hoses that channeled the electric fields coming from the solenoids within, started to hum steadily. Given how many different ways they'd failed, how many ways they'd broken or collapsed or overheated or burned their wearers, it was amazing how smoothly they were operating now.
"We have about 8 hours before these things need a recharge," Kagura said. "So… rummy time?"
"You can play," Sango said, her eyes constantly scanning the roof, over the ledge, and toward the stairwell. "I'm happy just… keeping watch."
Happy, Kikyō thought.
As she looked at Sango, she saw the sparkle in her eyes. Kikyō realized that here she was, sitting on the roof of a building that she'd broken into, playing cards with friends, and waiting on the off-chance that someone was going to use her theories to set demons loose on New York. Her, a physicist, who was not supposed to believe in the supernatural, was happy.
"Gin!" Kagura slapped her cards down on the gravel. "Hey! Sango! Join us, we could play hearts."
"Maybe next time," Sango smiled, her eyes still scanning everything around her.
Kagura paused only briefly before accepting Sango's answer, and the card games continued. Kagura seemed to either be blessed with unnatural luck or unnatural skill. They laughed, and sometimes were able to drag Sango out of her sentry duty to share a joke or an anecdote (who knew Sango loved smoking meat?!). It was the weirdest place to have a card game, waiting for the most unlikely event to occur, while breaking the law in the most mundane way. If it came to it, Kikyō would be content to sit there all night playing cards and waiting for something that wasn't going to happen.
Then, everything changed.
There was a beep.
A beep that caused every woman to jump out of her skin and stare.
The ammeter that Kagura had brought, had begun lighting up.
"Um. Has—has it ever done this before?" Kikyō probed, watching as the bars on the meter began to fill.
"N-n-no…" Kagura answered, her eyes wide with both apprehension and excitement. "Holy fuck, is this happening?"
The moment that the hair on the back of Kikyō's neck started to stand on end, she gave up the notion that whatever was happening was a malfunction. The moment that the reiki inside of her started swirling and pulling her toward the edge of the roof, Kikyō knew that not only had Kagura's and Sango's stories been real, but that they were in the right place. She was about to witness the next portal opening.
"Do you feel it too?" Kagome had stood up, grabbing Kikyō's by her shoulders.
"Yes." Kikyō put her hand on Kagome's, and both of them looked at the same point on the roof.
Whatever it was, it was calling to both of their reiki.
"Kikyō, Kagome—suit up!" Kagura shouted, lugging the two humming 'reiki blasters' toward them. "For real this time."
"S-something sure is real," Kagome exhaled.
"Hell yeah it is!" Kagura squealed, and pulled a camera out of her pocket. It had a little mesh cage around it, which Kikyō recognized as a Faraday cage. "You two—get those things on your back. Whatever is happening is happening fast. The field meter is… it's still increasing!"
"What the hell does that mean?" Sango called, helping Kagome strap into her blaster.
"I have absolutely no idea," Kagura answered. "Other than that the magnetic field is changing really really fast."
"This is the first measurement we're getting of this, right?" Kikyō asked, then braced for the weight of the blaster as Sango strapped her in.
"Yes… so I don't yet know what it means." Kagura's voice carried an edge of worry to it.
There was some unknown energy that seemed to emanate from the opposite corner of the roof that felt like it was squeezing Kikyō, as if her reiki was suffocating from its presence. She didn't want to go over to that corner. She didn't want to try to understand what was happening, but she had to. Kikyō looked over at Kagome: her eyebrows were knit even as her eyes were wide. And it looked like she was trying to swallow down bile or tears—Kikyō could not tell which.
"Together?" Kikyō asked, and held out her hand to her friend.
"Together," Kagome confirmed, and took Kikyō's hand.
They walked hand-in-hand to the place that was beckoning their reiki, and they waited. Every second that went by, Kikyō felt something change. Her reiki swirled and crashed against her skin as if it were preparing for battle, and her and Kagome's hands were glowing pink.
There was a brilliant flash of red light pulsed above their heads, leaving Kikyō feeling like a wave of static had thrashed her body. Kikyō turned her attention back to the corner of the roof, where a small white bead of light had risen out of the gravel on the roof. Kikyō didn't need to ask if this was the source of whatever was causing her reiki to go haywire, because she was having to actively suppress it from trying to slap at the bead, which was now luminous enough that Kikyō was forced to squint. The ball of light was actually a ring, with a point of black in the center, expanding out as the rest of the electric white did. It looked like a solar eclipse, a shadow surrounded by a halo. The ring kept floating lazily upward.
"Are you having trouble controlling… too?" Kikyō breathed.
"Y-yeah," Kagome answered back; they were still holding hands.
Whatever the portal was—and it was a portal!—was leaving Kikyō with a queasiness she'd never experienced before. It left tingles through her body, and caused her reiki to flare out of her and try to attack the ring, which was now far above their heads.
"Guys, you may want to get your hands on the blaster. I think whatever nightmare is planning on coming out of the other side of that thing is on its way," Kagura commanded, and Kikyō could hear the worry in her voice.
Kikyō looked back at Kagura's wide caramel eyes, recognizing for the first time something she'd never seen before: fear. As much as she was excited, Kagura was also frightened.
"We've got your back Kagura!" Kikyō called, and as soon as she said it, her reiki focused around her, coiling like a snake ready to strike on her command.
It was real, all of it!
The theories and the devices and the address and the portals. Everything Kikyō kept doubting was there, in front of her, climbing higher into the sky as it got bigger. The ring itself looked like trapped lightning, and was brightening by the second; the lightless black it surrounded was becoming darker.
Then, at the bottom of the electrified ring, something appeared.
"You see it too, right?" Sango shrieked; a scaled lavender hand with three long fingers tipped with black claws was holding the blinding edge of the ring.
"We're all seeing it," Kagome answered, and finally she let Kikyō's hand go. "You ready to… catch ourselves a demon?"
"Y-yes…" Kikyō agreed, and put her hand on the trigger. "Time to be demon hunters."
Kikyō's heart pumped out of her chest, and her reiki stormed just below the surface, ready to explode the second that she commanded it to. But she was focused; all she could see in that moment was the purple clawed hand that was grasping at the air between the black hole and their world. Then, another hand emerged from the hole. The creature's movements were becoming less frenetic, as if it was starting to gain its bearings.
Then the hands were joined by long knobby ivory horns, which curved gently inward, as if a great purple ibex was climbing out of the portal. Then Kikyō saw the demon's eyes, which were blood red and glowed against the blackness that the creature was climbing out of. It wasn't the way they glowed against the dark that sent a chill through Kikyō's body; it was the malice that she read in them. Her reiki crashed around her protectively, as the creature's head popped completely out, sitting atop a scaled neck with a gleaming white mane. The demon then smiled, baring teeth the same color of its horns, sharp and shark-like: meant to cut, meant to tear, meant to destroy.
"Holy shit," Kagome whispered next to her, and for the first time, Kikyō felt a gentle brush of Kagome's reiki against hers. Both of them knew the demon in front of them was something to fear.
With a great Godzilla roar, the beast lunged out of the black hole, revealing an enormous muscled torso lined with the same shimmering lavender scales that were on his head, and bowed legs. The demon landed on the roof with a loud crunch, then slowly began advancing on the two women, its predatory grin growing wider. Kikyō hit the button on her reiki blaster without thinking, sending a jet of fluorescent magenta light toward the demon. She caught one of its legs, which caused it to howl, stumbling backward at the sting that Kikyō's reiki had caused it. But that was clearly the word: Kikyō's reiki blast stung the demon…
I need to inject more reiki, Kikyō realized, then saw a light pink stream from Kagome's reiki blaster slash at the demon's torso. It did a bit more damage than Kikyō's jet, leaving a smoking black marr across the demon's scaly skin.
"Hey!" Sango's cry diverted Kikyō and Kagome's attention, and they saw their friend streak toward the stairwell.
"Watch the demon! Eyes on the demon!" Kagura screamed, but by the time they'd turned their attention back to the portal (and the giant Lucifer-looking demon), it was gone. "Fuck, it jumped!"
Kikyō took off with Kagome toward where the demon was last standing, ignoring the weight of the blaster on her back, ignoring the throbbing adrenaline that was rushing through her, ignoring the rivers of reiki that were streaming from both her and Kagome.
When they reached the edge of the roof, they didn't need to ask themselves where the demon had gone; the screams of people and the blaring of car alarms told them what they needed to know. The demon was smashing cars as it lumbered down the street, sending people scattering in all directions. But as Kikyō squinted, she realized that although most had escaped, at least one or two people were not so lucky. The fucking demon was hurting people.
"What do we do?" Kagome screeched.
"U-uh…" Kagura stuttered, staring over the edge of the roof.
"Aim down," Kikyō said, breathing as deeply as she could. "But only when you're sure that everything inside of you is pooled and ready to go. Because I only think we are going to have one shot."
Kikyō looked down, and realized that the demon was closing in on a man with a limp, who was running as fast as he could; its stalking posture told Kikyō that the demon was playing with him, as if it had found the weakest of the herd and was delighting in the hunt.
"Take my hand," Kagome said. "I… I'd feel better if we were connected."
"Good thing you're left-handed," Kikyō giggled, and took Kagome's right hand in her left.
Then with a few more breaths, Kikyō meditated, feeling the power that was crashing into her in torrents build in her trigger hand, getting stronger, and becoming nearly unbearable to contain.
"Ready?" Kikyō uttered, the only words she thought she could say as she aimed the nozzle at the prowling purple demon.
"Ready," Kagome said.
Both women aimed their nozzles as well as they could and pressed their triggers, injecting every last bit of reiki they possessed into the electric current that blasted out of the solenoids. The resultant geyser of their reiki intertwined together, a brilliant lighting bolt of magenta and light pink, honing in on the demon: missiles of protective energy set to destroy the destroyer. The moment their reiki stream made contact with it, the demon exploded, throwing lavender, silver, and red-spattered body parts across 2nd Ave.
"Sh—shit," Kikyō whispered.
"Shit…" Kagome agreed.
Never in their tests had their reiki lit up the sky like that. Never when they'd played their games had they watched it home in on the danger. And never had it appeared to combine forces and eliminate a threat.
"Fuck yeah! Look at what we did!" Kagura danced around the two. "Eat that you fucking demon! Teach you to fuck with New York."
Before either knew it, Kagura had launched herself between them, throwing an arm around each one. Then, completely unexpectedly, Kagura planted a wet juicy kiss on Kikyō's cheek, before turning to Kagome, a bright grin on her face.
"Want one too?" Kagura asked.
"Gross, NO!" Kagome said. "Who knows where your lips have been?!"
Somehow, Kagome's exasperation at the threat of Kagura's kiss was what finally broke the trance, and the women fell onto the roof in uncontrollable fits of laughter.
They'd stopped a demon.
They'd stopped a demon!
"I got the whole thing on video. My Faraday mesh worked perfectly! Even when that giant monster came through and blasted the electronics!" Kagura squealed. "We got it and we killed it and now it's dead and we have video!"
Kikyō whooped, followed by Kagome, then by Kagura.
They'd broken into a building and set up camp on the roof, then confronted a demon and won. Demons were real! And Kikyō's theories were real! It was… it was amazing!
"Uh… guys?" Sango's voice broke them out of their celebration; her eyes were wide and she was holding something bulky and metallic. "We have a problem."
"What now?" Kagome narrowed her eyes, and all looked at the device Sango had raised aloft.
"First, that thing probably killed people," Sango enunciated, "and second… we were seen."
"By who?" Kikyō asked.
"I think…" Sango answered, hoisting the machine up, "by the people who opened the portal… and made this."