He was human. A weight that made his steps slower and his movements less agile was upon him. He hated this night, but it seemed fitting. A moon just like this was above him when he found her, and that same moon would help him out again. They changed clothes and selected weapons. With the cover of the night, he stepped outside the tunnel and into a sewer. The smell was a minor annoyance, and Sango was another. She was just standing there. He dealt with the one he could.
"Hurry and follow the plan", he said. She snapped out of it and walked away from him. She was supposed to ask questions and inform him of any clues. They would recover the asset in silence, and in the morning they would travel away from the safe house and into the compound. Easy enough. But the situation with Miroku was already distracting her.
.
Sota and Shippo were following Kohaku at a distance. They wanted to help Kagome with expenses and Kohaku always brought money back so they asked him for a job, only he refused to tell them anything. That's why, int this very night, they were headed to the warehouse where Kagura was hiding.
"You need to tell me why I feel drawn to this place. Every day I come here but I don't know why and every day you give me stuff but why? Why are you helping me?" Said Kohaku.
"Dear little human, the real question is why are you still helping me? We reset your memory to forget about us even so, you come back instead of looking for your actual family. Why? Feeling guilty?" Kagura said with little interest.
"Those aren't genuine memories... nightmares, just nightmares!" he screamed
"Itty bitty children, they commit the most horrendous crimes but still want a pleasant fairy tale to forget them"
"STOP," Kohaku said while pulling on his earlobes
Kagura smiled and that smile turn into a laugh when the other two boys entered.
"Stop monster, leave Kohaku alone!" said Sota echoed by Shippo. They both stood up in front of the boy who was still twisting his head to get rid of horrific images.
"I think I'll keep you three here. We have set the web, now we wait for the fly," she said.
Sota and Shippo looked at each other, but Kohaku was still trashing on the floor. They decided to calm him first and then attempt to escape. As they whispered things to calm him, Kagura watched perched up high from the floor. From that point, she could watch anyone who entered the building.
.
Sango asked around for newcomers and found out that money could really buy everything because in a few hours she had clues about her living arrangements. She supplied the information to Inuyasha, who was at the other side of The Fringe asking for the children. He agreed to meet her in the spot where Kagome was supposed to be, and he ordered her to avoid contact. She did as she was told and went to the bar the people told her about. It turned out to not be a bar but a street with mismatched. Chairs and broken tables. The atmosphere wasn't merry, but the drinks were flowing. That was the only thing that this place had in common with any bar she knew.
When Inuyasha informed her he was a block away, she acted. Against his instructions, she talked to her because Kagome was in the middle of a romantic proposition and it would be terrible if Inuyasha caught her like that. Upon hearing her name, Kagome turned and sighed, getting closer to Sango and ignoring her customers, Kagome said.
"Is he near?"
Sango nodded.
"Great, just great"
"Good to see you too," said Sango with a timid smile.
Kagome looked flustered. She apologized and offered Sango a drink.
They took a table at the makeshift bar and Sango noted the bar looked worse in close inspection. Tables tainted and crooked chairs that moved with little provocation.
She spoke.
"My boss is going to explain everything to you, but we came for a reason. You and your children are in danger," said Sango.
"You know that none of them are really my children. I mean, don't get me wrong, they are my family but they are very capable, not like children at all. They are fighting the fight right now, out there," Kagome said and pointed in a direction.
"What do you mean?" said Sango but was interrupted by Kagome's gasp
"The new moon," she whispered as a black hair young man seated himself next to Sango.
"So, what are we doing in this dump?" he said.
Sango looked at the floor and Kagome lifted her chin "I work here, and I can say with extreme confidence that you and your brother suck at giving these people what they need, if this place is the way it is, is because of you two".
It appalled Inuyasha. She had turned into an anarchist. They had very few outspoken enemies and fewer outspoken subjects. "Speak of this to no one," said Inuyasha to Sango with a locked jaw. If Sesshomaru were to hear about this, all that -Kagome is family- sentiment would be over.
"Riiight, just sweep over the rug the complaints of your subjects why don't you," Kagome replied. Heads were beginning to turn in their direction and Inuyasha gave a big fake laugh to turn this whole bit into a joke. Still, the people stared. A man, in particular, was moments away to stand up and defend her. He tried to look menacing, to no effect. He hated the human nights.
"We have to go, now," he said and Sango was standing up, but Kagome crossed her hands in her chest.
"Don't be difficult," he said, but Kagome only laughed
"I am happy here, so I will go nowhere else"
With these words, the man stood up but walked to an old yokai and after a brief exchange Kemari came to the table
"If you are looking to steal this young woman from my business, I'm afraid you won't succeed. Kagome I'll give you twice as much as he is offering".
Sango smiled and took most of her money out on the table. Kemari took a second to look at Kagome's face and then swiftly rushed them to the street. "I won't return it so don't come back," she said while gesturing for them to leave and went back to tend the bar. The man that ratted him out was looking disappointed.
"That was really disconcerting," said Kagome, but Inuyasha was smiling
She became angry when she saw him smile.
"You only wasted my time and efforts. I'm sure I can find a situation as good as this one or even better. Maybe I'll become a yokai mistress. I hear there's good money in it and I have had offers, you know," she said in a rush to push the words out. Her head felt hot, and she was about to cry. Inuyasha grimaced, and Sango watched all of this, waiting to intervene and keep Inuyasha in check.
"You have things to tell to her right?" Sango said with a big smile that did not suit the situation.
Inuyasha was visibly attempting to be less angry, and she gave them space.
"I know where she lives. I'll look around and start packing. She has to take her stuff with us"
Inuyasha gave a small nod, and she went on
He was fuming. She was a defector and on top of it all; she wanted to be a prostitute. "I can pay you if you need the money so badly," he said, angry at her, and fully ignoring Sango's advice. This wasn't anything like the reunion he wanted to have.
"Maybe if Koga was the one who came for me instead of you," she said and he did something that would be a growl in his normal body, but was a cough in his human state.
Maybe it was time to try Sango's way, after all. He was only making this worse, as usual, and he really wanted to change. "That's a really low blow Kagome, it hurts me to even hear about some fucker trying to talk to you, imagine kissing you or…" he couldn't complete the sentence but she understood.
It was always like this. If he gave her hell, she would step up and gave it right back. But when he opened up she followed too. And right now, she was taken aback by his sincerity. He always avoided sentimental stuff. She decided to be truthful, too.
"Yeah sorry, of course, I will not do that, it's just really difficult to find a good deal, and Kemari and I had a good one. I worked, and she gave me a roof to sleep. It was honest work. I just hate to tell the boys that we are going back to sleeping in the rain and sharing meals," she said, deflated.
That's when Inuyasha noticed. She had lost a lot of weight, so much that she was no longer attractive, but sickly. 'Was it a month? A few months? How could she get like this in such a short time?' "I'll take care of you Kagome, I'll take care of all of you," he said, and she only looked skeptical. How bad things were between them. She no longer believed the most basic thing he could do for her.
"I'm waiting on them actually, they are three hours late," she said.
"Waiting on your brother and Shippo?" he asked
"Yes, and another boy, too. I am helping a child called Kohaku who… well… is dead"
Inuyasha's eyes grew. He was confused but returned to his intentions. "I want to be with you and take care of you, you need me right now and if you don't want to go through the same shit with me, I understand. We can pause my fucking feelings. I will do anything to keep you safe. We used to be friends and I want to help you for that reason, for everything."
Kagome looked at his amber eyes and smiled. He was giving her the option to choose, and that was big. She always knew that he considered her to be property. If anything, he had changed a bit. Still, she remained silent. He continued.
"Let me help you. Please, just let me keep you safe. I'm going to fucking kill myself if anything happens to you and I could have prevented it. Naraku is serious about you, he is looking for you and I dont know what he would o to you if he founds you. Please let me help, just let me help," he begged.
She felt some things that he left unsaid and finally nodded.
.
"I don't think that Sota or Shippo know the truth but… this child is only walking because he has a fragment of the pearl in his back, it is so small that I can hardly feel it but I can see its glow, even right now, that's why I know where they are. In this dark night, that faint glow is very noticeable to me," she said while looking straight in one direction.
"If I weren't this useless sack of meat, I'm sure that I would feel it too," said Inuyasha, and Kagome's eyebrows touched.
"Yokais are attracted to power, and the greater we are, the most fine-tuned we are with it, just as Sesshomaru could smell your power. We have encountered fragments and he can feel the pearl, just as I do, maybe better," he said.
Half an hour had gone by and he could not believe his luck. She accepted his help, and he owed everything to his sincerity, to Sango for suggesting it and to his gut for making the advice real. So when Kagome suggested going to them, he knew he was going to give his permission. If they were going to take Kagome with the boys to a safe place, they would have to get to them right away.
.
Sota, Shippo and Kohaku were severely wounded. As Kohaku calmed down they tried to escape but Kagura attacked them with her Dance of Blades and they were bleeding and some unable to walk. This worked better than ropes, in her opinion, and it would draw the mother faster if the children were hurt. At midnight, that's what happened.
Since Inuyasha was mortal, they left him in hiding and promised to come back for him with everyone else. He accepted, only to avoid a fight, but he was right behind them. Kagome just wanted to see that the boys were okay and spent little thought on the aftermath. The glow was visible inside a warehouse, and when she entered, her entire world spun. Blood and broken bodies greeted her. Before she could speak to them, a voice behind her made her whole body alert and wary.
"You have come for them, as I knew you would, give up and I'll let them live, try to fight me and I'll kill them, either one is fine by me".
"Why are you doing this, who are you?" asked Sango but was immediately distracted by a boy who was trashing on the floor, in agony. "No… It can't be," she whispered and kneeling to look into the face of a brother she no longer believed alive.
Her shock was so great that she stood immobilized for a while.
Kagome didn't understand this but truly didn't need to. Her whole reason to wake up and work another day was being threatened. She surrendered.
"Ok, I'll go with you, just let me heal them and we'll go," she said and when Kagura stayed silent, she advanced on the boys and began healing them one by one, leaving Kohaku last, because Sango was holding him fiercely.
"Sango, let go," she said, but there was no response. "She hurt him, let go," said Kagome and that did it. Sango remembered Kagome's words about a boy who was already dead, so she screamed and cried, for this was unjust. She had lost her brother once, and fate was putting her through it again. Sango remembered her lost family, killed by the evil within her own brother, but here, with the boy in question in front of her, she didn't waver. She wanted him to live. So she stood up and Kagome helped him.
Inuyasha heard Sango's screams and knew that something was wrong. Rushing to the sound, he watched as Kagura, the yokai who nearly killed him, was calling for Kagome. And she was complying with the request. At first glance, he saw that the cubs in her care were covered in blood. The keen instincts he had as a full yokai would have told him that the blood was dry and they were fine. Right now he was worried. As Kagura threw blades at him, he didn't have the speed t stop them, so he took the full blow.
"We are not expecting more guests, I hope," said a mocking Kagura
"Just take me, hurry," said Kagome with tears in her eyes, and Kagura noticed the powerful emotion behind them.
Coming down from the heights for the first time, Kagura took Inuyasha by his black hair and inspect him. Before she could make up who he was, Kagome tried to run, to attract her attention elsewhere. It worked.
"I thought you were compassionate and self-sacrificing Kagome, but not all of us live up to our reputations" Kagura grabbed her, and Kagome stood still. This was suspicious for the yokai, who had the instincts of a predator.
"I change my mind, better to kill the loose ends," Kagura said and producing the blades that she used in her attacks, she contained them and they reformed, still as deadly sharp blades but with purple smoke and an evil aura around them. She had made miasma blades and was throwing them at Inuyasha and company.
Kagome could not stand this so she positions herself in front of the blades and at the moment of attack, creating a barrier that holds the miasma-covered blades away from the people she cares about. Kagura repeated the process 3 times and by the final fourth, Kagome was exhausted. She wasn't used to fighting with her powers, not used to using them nearly as much. She knew that the battle would be lost.
Inuyasha watched but couldn't do much, he felt his power coming back for the new moon was ending, but there were hours away, still, he remained human so he waited his turn. Taking his sword out, he prepared himself to attack. As soon as the sun hit the sky, he would attack. This turned out to be a very bad move on his part. Kagura noticed the sword and put two and two together.
"Ahhhh how cute, the halfbreed is a vulnerable human today. Let's finish what we started," she said and with a switch on the wind, Kagome flew out of the way and Kagura attacked Inuyasha. The first attack was a miss, but the second hit the mark. It pushed him back and his middle section hurt like hell. She had done the same thing as the last time, and he was dying just as much as the last time. Sango finally reacted and came to his side. The next attack was immediate, but by the time it took to transform her usual blades into miasma blades, Kagome stood in front of the blast, taking the hit to her body instead of Inuyasha.
Time felt slow to her. Kagome heard Sango, Sota, Shippo, and Inuyasha cry out for her and felt Kagura by her side. She was speaking about Inuyasha's secret. Kagura was taunting her with it. Laughing at the boy who was laughed at by everyone for this very reason. When she threatened to tell Naraku about it, Kagome purified the bitch. Spots of light came through Kagura's skin and she imploded in a ball of light. The blades that were stuck to Kagome's body glowed pink and disappeared. Her wounds and the wounds of everyone around her glowed as well. It was an impressive explosion of raw power. Her eyes were the last thing that glowed and as everything around her turned pitch black, her powers run out. The contrast made the darkness appear darker and in the middle of the confusion and screaming lay Kagome, unconscious.