She shouldn't have cared.
One week ago, Kagome met a very hot man at a bar. Kagome had convinced said very hot man to come home with her. And that same very hot man had fucked her well enough that all the dry spell cobwebs were good and shaken out.
It was normal to catch feelings for a guy like that. Yash was bar-none the most attractive man that Kagome had ever slept with. And although the feeling that he was hiding something never completely went away, the earnest way that he touched her and kissed her and just looked at her bounced around in her mind, a never-ending loop of distraction and fantasy.
Yash had even asked for her number before he left. Kagome had given it to him. The real one. And when she said goodbye, it was with the hope of seeing Yash again, rather than a thank you salute to the man who'd given her a great dicking then disappeared into the night to never be seen again (like most of the rest had).
But, that was a week ago. A long, long, long week.
Yash never called her, never texted her, just… ghosted. And for some reason, something felt extremely wrong about that. Like her soul was trying to tell her that something special had happened, that Yash was destined to be someone special in her life.
She couldn't convince herself that he had banged her, then ditched her, because she couldn't shake the sense that she would see him again.
"You're distracted again." Kikyō's soft voice interrupted Kagome's dark mood. "Stop looking at your phone every thirty seconds."
"I'm fine," Kagome growled. She was tired of hearing it.
And it wasn't like she was looking at her phone all the time, just… a lot of it.
"Here I was showing you a fucking demon trap and you're all 'tap tap tap' and 'pout pout pout'," Kagura snarled. "A demon trap, Kagome! You're so distracted right now that Sango is a better audience."
"Hey!" Sango called from the edge of the room, where she was peeling an apple with a knife. "Remember house rules?"
"Yeah, yeah, yeah… If we are going to use your basement, we have to stop making fun of you," Kagura parroted. "I know. But tell me how much you care about this stuff?"
"I mean, I care. Demon traps to trap demons, which are real. And the new blaster packs can store reiki, which is real," Sango grumbled. "But can it take the hair I found from the crime scene and tell me who set a demon loose? No."
The hair that Sango had found was also silver, settling the white-haired vs silver-haired man, and adding exponentially to Kagome's distraction.
"I don't think you're gonna need hair to find these guys," Kikyō frowned. "They have been making portal devices and lighting up the skies of New York now for months." All the women looked in the corner, where Kagura's adapted device sat. "They're not done yet."
"It's been what—three weeks?—since the last one. Maybe they stopped?" Kagome offered. Though she too thought that it was wishful thinking. (And to be honest, she sort of hoped they hadn't. Just that… she could catch them next time.)
But it had been a quiet three weeks.
Well, a quiet two, plus one week.
(Kagome really needed to stop thinking about Yash.)
"Did we really set them back that much through the cunning use of 'taking their device'?" Kagura mused. "I mean, I won't say that thing isn't complex, but… I'd think they would have a replacement up and off the ground already, at least, if they were me…"
"Not everyone is you, Gu," Kikyō giggled.
If Kagome wasn't so preoccupied with feeling sorry for herself, she would have doubled over laughing at the fact that Kikyō was not only using cutesy nicknames, but was giggling. Kikyō didn't giggle. Well, until Kikyō met Kagura, that was. Or, apparently, Gu.
"It's pretty smart. And something about it has been bothering me," Kagura mused. "Its injector is the reverse of ours, as if it is taking in some other sort of energy." Kagura grabbed the little metal cone that had come off the device. "It was tuned for yōki, not reiki." As she pressed her finger into the tip, she turned her eyes toward Kagome. "Do you think that it means the person who's making these things is… demonic?"
The same thought had been dancing around in Kagome's mind too, though the notion upended a lot of her assumptions. Demons were supposed to be mindless beasts that kept crawling through the portal. The idea that there was a demon running around New York, making portals and bringing newer and uglier demons into the human world, sent shivers down Kagome's spine. It would mean that not all demons were mindless.
The man with the silver hair.
She thought about the descriptions both Kagura and Sango had given of him. And… of that night in the park, with the flash of silver. And how Yash had put his hand on hers and said, "I believe you."
Kagome really needed to stop thinking about Yash.
61st and 5th. Bring the Demon Hunters. HURRY
Kagome's phone pinged from an unknown number.
"What?" Kagome looked down at the text. "Shit."
"You okay?" The question was from Sango.
"61st and 5th. Summoning the Hunters. Says to hurry." Kagome held up her phone for the others to investigate.
"Ohhhh." Kagura looked entirely too excited about a random text coming from a random number.
"What if this is a trap?" Sango narrowed her eyes—ever the voice of reason.
"We walk straight into it," Kagome answered. "And does it matter? The last time one of those things opened, something climbed out and tried to kill people."
"I… I guess it doesn't," Sango sighed. "I just… I don't like feeling like we're going in unprepared."
"I'm not sure whoever it was has any idea what happened the past three weeks." Kikyō strapped the reiki pack on her back. "We've upgraded everything to the point it doesn't even compare to last time."
"Dude, we figured out how to store reiki! It's not just our two witches gettin' suited up to zap some things; it's all of us," Kagura declared, throwing the reiki pack on her back; she then leaned down and grabbed the rectangular metallic contraption at her feet—the demon trap. "And if there's a demon, I wanna catch it."
"You sure that thing is gonna work?" Kikyō called as all of the women followed Kagura out to her van.
"Nope!.. Nothing like beta testing in the field!" Kagura called back, throwing the pack and the trap into the trunk. "So, 61st and 5th, you say?"
"Yeah…" Kagome said, staring down at the unknown New York number on her phone.
"God, that close to the park, really?" Kagura scowled. "Oi Sango. Can you get us any of that sweet sweet police-can-park-anywhere energy?"
"No," Sango growled back. "So stop asking."
"Looks like we could park at the Pierre," Kagome offered. "It's literally on the intersection."
"How about we get there, and then we make decisions about parking?" Sango suggested. "Kagome—you said you didn't recognize the number?"
"No." Kagome kept daydreaming that maybe Yash had found her book, and had read it. And saw something weird by magical chance and had texted her to save the day.
She really needed to stop thinking about Yash.
"How long until we get there?" Kikyō asked.
"Depending on if I break any laws…" Kagura murmured. "around 20 minutes… But Sango, uh, don't look at my speedometer."
"Nothing on the web yet." Kagome spoke as she furiously searched everything she could for "weird black hole new york" "demon new york." (Google searches, she noted, that were now turning up more and more legitimate news sites…)
"So, seriously. What if this is a trap?" Sango was uneasily fumbling a long leather sheath strapped to her side: a holster.
"You brought a gun?" Kagome pointed at where Sango was touching.
"And my badge," Sango answered. "I'm nowhere near as 'oooh let's charge the Alamo' as you all are because Kagome got a random text from a random number." She then unsnapped the snap over her holster. "I am prepared. In case this is a trap."
Sango's hand on her gun was the first time Kagome really truly considered what she was doing, what she might be walking into. Could someone have really wanted to hurt them? Could the silver-haired man really have found her number and texted her as a lure?
Why was Kagome's mind so certain that this was not the case?
"It's a good thing we have you," Kagome finally said, placing a hand on Sango's shoulder. "And… I really really hope that you don't have to use your gun."
"I hope you're right," Sango answered gravely, then turned to look out the window as the concrete whizzed by under the wheels of Kagura's van.
No one paid attention to the speedometer at Kagura's request. And no one discussed the way they were jostled and jolted from sharp swerves, or the screeching of brakes, or even the enthusiastic honking of horns that accompanied their ride.
"Kagome, do you think that text was for real? Are we about to fight another demon?" Kikyō turned her head from the front seat as Kagura cursed the red light to experience several unpleasant sexual acts.
"I don't know," Kagome answered honestly. "But for some reason, I think we are."
Finally, blessedly, the van came to a stop.
"Well—shit, this never happens!" Kagura exclaimed. "Dude just pulled out of a metered spot. I can park. Uh… don't comment on my parallel parking skills."
No one paid attention to the scraping sounds or the loud swear words that Kagura exclaimed either.
As soon as the van was parked, the women piled out the door, their reiki blasters strapped to their backs. It was late afternoon, and it was overcast, so Kagome reckoned it would not be that difficult to find a glowy white ring with a black hole inside of it.
"Which…" Kagome looked from building to building.
"Grab my hand." Kikyō walked up next to her. "You remember that weird feeling we got when the last one opened?..." Kagome let her hand slide into Kikyō's. "I'd bet we're going to feel that again."
"That… yeah." Kagome looked gratefully over to her friend.
The two of them let their reiki connect, and Kagome simply… observed. It was minute, but something was calling to her. She concentrated on the feeling of unease, and began to focus in on it. She could feel Kikyō turn too, in exactly the same direction as she did. There was something faint, but distinctive, starting to materialize. As if it were the bud of an electric flower emerging and getting ready to bloom. When Kagome opened her eyes, she was facing the Pierre.
"Something's in there," Kagome whispered, and she and Kikyō advanced on the hotel.
Sango jogged to join both the women, then they pushed open the door, and entered the Pierre's ornate lobby. Kagome scanned again with her reiki. Whatever it was triggering her was coming from the far left corner of the building, from behind the door marked "Employees Only." Kagome nodded in its direction and the women started walking purposefully toward it.
"I'll join you in a minute," Sango whispered, then pulled out her badge. "I promised I wouldn't do this, but… if you two both have pricks to your spidey sense, I… don't want to be stuck sweet talking some obnoxious security guard to get access to where we need to go." Sango nodded back at Kagura as well.
"We really are a terrible influence on her," Kagura whispered, but even she was far more subdued than usual. She turned to Kikyō and Kagome. "You—you really feel something?"
Kagome didn't know how to describe it. Like the last portal, every step closer she came to the source of the spike made her want to both keep advancing and to run away. But, something else was tickling at her reiki, something comforting. Something familiar. It was much fainter than the first, but it grounded her against the tumultuous energy of the second.
Kagome pushed through the Employees Only door, focusing all her concentration on finding the source of energy that was lashing at her. She was either getting closer, or it was growing, or both.
"It's below us," Kikyō whispered, "But how do we get there?"
"There!" Kagura pointed to a set of double doors and a sign with the words "Stairs" prominently displayed.
"Should we wait for Sango?" Kagome asked as they stopped directly in front of the doorway, opening it, and looking at the utilitarian concrete stairs.
"Wait for me to what?" Sango's voice echoed through the stairwell, surprising them all. "By the way, we're clear. The front desk person was a little daft and a lot a flirt, and seems to think that we're ghost hunters of some sort. So I sort of just went with it."
If the sense of foreboding was not pressing on Kagome's chest, she would've giggled.
Kagome reconnected her reiki with Kikyō's, and they both reached out at the same time, trying to locate exactly how far below them the source was, which had further increased in intensity. At least its growing power was making that easier.
"All the way to the bottom, I reckon," Kikyō said, and Kagome confirmed, so they descended the three stories into the sub-basement of the Pierre.
"I'm going to take a wild guess that they will be in the boiler room?" Sango groaned as they opened the double doors into the unfinished hallway in the bottom of the hotel.
"Well, wherever they are, they are off to the left," Kikyō whispered, and they all started hurrying their pace.
Something about the energy was changing, morphing.
"Did you feel that too?" Kikyō asked, and when Kagome nodded, she continued. "I imagine that we were feeling the machine warm up, and just now, the thing is starting to… activate."
"Ooooo, awesome!" Kagura's energy had come back. "Time to test this baby out then!" Without slowing their pace, Kagura turned the three toggles on the demon trap on, and it started to make a pleasant humming noise. "You should probably do the same… lock and load, ladies..."
All four of them turned the toggles on their reiki blasters, listening to each reverse cyclotron engine begin to purr. Something about the energy Kagome and Kikyō were sensing changed coincident to ignition of the machines. Some third flavor of energy had joined the first two.
"Wait. What the hell is…" Kagome looked at Kikyō, who shared the same puzzled look she did. Because, whatever that energy was, it seemed to be moving. Toward them. Quickly.
It was nearly overwhelming, the feel of it. So much more intense than the purple scaled demon that massacred a New York street before Kagome and Kikyō blew it up. But, the flavor of the thing was the same.
"Yōki," Kikyō cried. "Coming at us really really fast. Get back!"
Kikyō grabbed at Kagura, forcing the trap out of her hand. And Kikyō had done it just in time. Because not moments later, a white ring materialized directly over the contraption, surrounding both boundless blackness and… a demon.
Their hair was long and black, held in a high ponytail, and their eyes were nearly indigo. Their skin was sickly pale, and they had blood red lips and pointed ears. They sat in the middle of the blackness as if they were floating in a bubble, and wore a bright and colorful outfit that looked out of a Kurosawa movie or a feudal anime; strung to their back was a katana with a hilt that included a glowing red jewel. Upon seeing the women, the demon opened their mouth into a wide and menacing grin.
This person might have seemed innocuous to any passers by, but the energy about them was so dark and menacing that Kagome felt like their aura was attempting to suffocate her. She was close to throwing up from the feeling.
"Time to bag a demon ladies!" Kagura called, and both she and Sango had already wrapped their fingers around the triggers of their reiki blasters, and were pointing them at the ringed demon, unaffected by its yōki.
Kagome let a little whip of her own reiki out and laced her fingers around the trigger of her own blaster, swatting the demon's aura away.
She could fight this thing, she would fight this thing!
When she looked at Kikyō, she recognized that they shared the same grimace. Then she felt Kikyō's reiki connect with hers. They were both going to take this thing out. Together. And they were going to do it right now.
"Okay! All we need to do is use the reiki in our blasters to rope this dude and guide them gently into the trap. You all ready?" Kagura instructed, but before she could say anymore, the thing opened its mouth and began to speak.
"Sapere aude…" The creature began to shout in a language that Kagome didn't understand, though it sounded… Italian?
"God this thing sounds like he's summoning the dead!" Kagura shouted over the demon's utterings. "Now, on the count of three, let's rope him!"
"...Alea iacta est…"
"One… two…"
"Naraku venit…"
"Three!"
All four of them activated their blasters together at the same moment that the trap opened, creating four ropes of pink and magenta light to lasso the demon's bubble. Then they all began guiding their nets of light down toward the trap. For an instant, the demon looked utterly bemused, then it bared its fangs and it began lashing at the ropes, which were getting harder and harder to control.
"...te perdere mundi!.."
"It's fighting us…" Kikyō scowled. "Let's see if it can take some extra juice!"
Then a wild grin came over her face, and the stream coming from her blaster turned brighter, laced now with the deep magenta of her own reiki. Kagome nodded and grinned, then followed suit, channeling her reiki into the stream, letting it intermingle with the reiki from the blaster, and strengthening the rope that was now binding the demon.
"...iam via aperta est!.."
They were so close; the demon's bubble was actually touching the mouth of the trap now, and it was no longer able to resist.
They were going to catch the demon!
Then suddenly, a blastwave of energy smacked into Kagome and Kikyō so hard that they were thrown backward and onto the floor just as a blinding white light assailed them all. Causing their vision to go blurry.
When they all regained their bearings, they looked to the point where they'd almost caught the demon, to see that both it and the trap had been incinerated.
"Well, fuck," Kagura huffed, and they all stared completely dumbfounded at the smoking hulk of their almost-success.
What none of them knew was that the silver-haired man watched from the boiler room, and listened to the Latin that the demon was speaking. And knew, finally, just how much danger both the demon world and the human world were in.