Symbiosis
'How is she?' Naraku sent the text to Jade's phone, but knew Lucy would reply eventually. He turned back to his laptop screen and stared at the application he was debating filling out for a local pharmacy technician position.
On one hand, he had Bruce advocating for the whole, "jobs interfere with their studies and make their lives harder," side of the argument and Naraku actually agreed...to a point. He worked as a pharmacy technician throughout his undergraduate years. It was very tiring and frustrating.
On the other hand, however, Naraku missed having a steady income. Relying on scholarships, grants, sponsors, and illegal drug dealing, and hoping they didn't fall through, arguably put as much stress on him as a job did, especially with how uncertain that all was now. At least with a job, he knew he would still have a roof over his head and money to pay his bills if for some reason he held back a semester or decided to go the dull route and just take a few extra classes to receive his Master's with no thesis.
He hated failing. He thoroughly despised it. The thought of him losing what he had worked so hard to obtain nauseated him, but the thought of losing everything, including his belongings and apartment, pained him more. The transfer from Japan to the United States was difficult and a process he didn't want to waste or repeat if at all possible. Everything was perfectly planned and executed until it wasn't. Now he wasn't sure what he really had.
'Should I go back?' The thought hadn't surfaced in his mind in years. It was always a possibility and he was certain he would find a job and maintain a decent life in Japan. Except, he didn't want a decent life. He wanted a fantastic life. With enough fame and fortune, he would be above the law. No one would dare tell him no.
The other, bigger issue he had with going back to his home country was that Japan would never really accept him, either. It was slowly making its way into the modern times with more progressive views, but Japan was still a traditionalist country and he was anything but that. Naraku was often criticized for his hair by teachers and adults more often than fellow classmates. There were a few times where the principal called his mother and demanded she cut his hair to a shorter length, "just like the rest of the boys." It was the only time he remembered her defending him, and it was only to keep herself from having to spend more time with him than she wanted. She actually wanted him to have shorter hair, but didn't care enough to do anything about it.
All of those complaints were just about his hair. His tattoo and his carelessness towards traditions were bound to strike up even more confrontations and judgments from people. It ultimately came down to who he was and the person he was wasn't what Japan wanted.
His phone vibrated and he unlocked it, hoping Lucy had news. To his displeasure, it was Bruce.
'Hey, how are you holding up? I know we aren't close by any means, but you're still my student.'
"Why do you care?" Naraku asked skeptically in a whisper. He exited out of the message and returned to the application on his laptop.
'I will apply and go from there.' he decided curtly. 'Bruce doesn't have to know.'
After hitting send on the application, Naraku walked into his kitchen to grab a snack for himself and the guinea pig. He rinsed off a leaf of romaine lettuce for the pig and grabbed a granola bar for himself, biting into it as he held the lettuce leaf inside the cage to coax his pet out of hiding. It didn't take long for the gray pig to dart from under his partially-eaten cardboard box to the leaf, munching on it like it had never been fed before.
"I suppose I should name you." Naraku said, staring down at the rodent. "That would make Jade happy." What the hell should he name it? He didn't want to give in to any of Jade's awful suggestions.
When his phone vibrated in his pocket, he relinquished the lettuce leaf to the guinea pig and pulled his phone from his pocket. He saw Jade's name and froze in place as he unlocked his phone to read the message.
'She's fine, I guess? She's woken up a few times here and there to eat and drink, talks to us, and then she falls right back asleep. They think it might be some neurological bullshit. The doctor said it's called the Sleeping Beauty Syndrome or some shit? Still have to run tests and what not. But it explains her excessive sleeping, the weird trance we found her in that one day, her sleepwalking episodes, and her random bursts of anger. It's the best possible answer we've heard so far.'
Naraku frowned when he realized what sleep disorder they were insinuating. In all honesty, she fit the disorder well and had he not known better, he would have agreed it was the best possible explanation. 'Kleine-Levin Syndrome. It's extremely rare, but that doesn't mean she can't have it. I am unsurprised to hear that she is still eating.'
'How do you know all of this shit? You should be up here diagnosing her! Also, you know she'll read these texts, right?'
'Yes. Should I be concerned?'
'You sure you want her to see how worried you are? I figured you wanted to preserve your asshole reputation.'
'She doesn't deserve it.'
'Who is this? Did someone steal Naraku's phone?'
'I've reconsidered some things and my treatment of her is one of them.'
'Okaaaaay.'
'I don't expect you to understand or accept it.'
'Yeah, I'm not as forgiving as Jade. But, I will say thank you for being cooperative and what not.'
"Why?" Naraku asked aloud, stuffing the last bit of granola bar into his mouth. He tossed his phone on the couch and crossed his arms, staring at the guinea pig in frustration. "All you have to do is look cute and you're set for life."
The guinea pig ignored him as it finished its lettuce, not that Naraku expected a reply from it. His attention was drawn back to his phone, which buzzed again.
'Why don't you come visit Jade? I promise I won't stab you.'
'No.' There was no guarantee Jade would even want him there anyway. From what Bruce told him, her aunt was only a comment away from murdering him, so he could only imagine her reaction to himself.
"And you," Naraku said, pulling the dark orb from his pocket. "What did you do to me yesterday?" It was difficult to describe, but it felt like it took his emotions from him. It gave him energy - enough to the point where he didn't sleep, but he felt fine. He hadn't felt that good in months. It was slight, but he felt a pulse from within.
'And I've yet to learn of what happened to the dead cat.' He slipped the orb back into his pocket and shook his head. 'A part of me doesn't want to know.'
'Don't worry about it.' He replied in his head. Naraku stared at the orb with slight shock. Was that...him?
000000
"You know, I'm getting tired of eggs." Jade grumbled, staring at the tray of food in front of her. "I just want a candy bar."
"We don't know when you'll fall asleep and eat next, so it would make me feel better knowing you're eating something remotely nutritional." her grandmother replied softy, sitting on the bed on the other side of her tray. "Please?"
"Fiiiiiine." Jade relented, stabbing the scrambled eggs with her fork abruptly. "Why can't I have both?"
"I will think about it."
"Mamaaaaaa,"
"Your puppy eyes aren't going to move me. This is serious and I don't want to take even a small step outside of what the doctor has recommended."
"I'm sleeping a lot; I don't think that's serious."
"And you're fainting and screaming at people. You think you can go to school like this? Have jobs? Have any kind of quality life?"
That realization dug deep under Jade's skin, but she was feeling too irritable to fully acknowledge it. All she wanted was a candy bar. "No, but I'm not going to die."
Her grandmother shook her head. "You don't need to die for it to be serious."
"I think I'll take a shower." Jade replied, ending the conversation.
"A bath." Mama corrected her. "A supervised one."
"A supervi- fine! Can I choose my supervisor?"
"I'll ask the nurse. They may have a protocol-" Mama cut her sentence short when Jade began slamming her head backwards into her pillow over and over, gritting her teeth in frustration.
"How is a bath going to interfere with any of their stuff?" Jade shot heatedly.
"What's wrong, Jade? Something's bothering you."
Jade waved her hands around. "All of this is bothering me! I just want a bath and a candy bar!" She realized she was breathing hard at that moment and her grandmother had looked away and was staring off. Jade didn't know the sole reason why she was irritated; she just was. "I'm sorry, Mama."
"It's alright. I can only imagine what you're feeling. If those two things will make you feel even a little better, I'll do them."
Jade flipped through the channels on the TV while her grandmother ran the bath. Nothing of interest was on, but it was noise and it was something to look at other than the hospital room or her eyelids. Instinctively, she felt around her thighs for her phone, which was where it would have been if she had been wearing pants.
'Lucy must still have it.' she sighed. She could only imagine the onslaught her phone and social media had suffered. Lucy swore she didn't post on her accounts about it, but that didn't mean none of Jade's friends or teammates didn't.
"Hm," Jade hummed, feeling the creases on her forehead deepen as she frowned even harder. She didn't want to piss anyone off, especially if they were concerned, but the idea of thousands of messages and public posts with her name tagged in them exhausted her. Her gaze shifted from the TV, which she wasn't even staring at, and to the table beside her bed. She spotted various pink, purple, and white crystals of what she assumed were quartz arranged in a small circle around a single white candle. The wick was blackened, so it had been lit at some point. "Uuuuuh, Mama, who was casting spells?"
"Oh, Lily has been learning from Camila. She was casting a spell to improve your health." Mama called from the bathroom, raising her voice above the running water.
Jade snorted and shook her head. "How did Auntie handle this revelation?"
"About as well as you would think. I wish she wouldn't speak to them like that. I never spoke that way to her or your mother, so I don't know where she got off thinking it's a good idea."
"It must be that fiery Latina blood."
"It must be that I didn't punish their bad behavior hard enough. Alright, let's get you in there." Mama stated, walking out of the bathroom and towards Jade. She pulled her graying hair into a tight ponytail before holding her arms out for Jade.
"Cool." Jade was able to stand, but she could tell her body felt heavier. Her muscles were used to doing next to nothing now. It was still better than the last time she was in the hospital when she could barely move at all, though.
"Take your time. The water isn't going anywhere." Mama scolded, holding onto her granddaughter's arm tightly.
"You don't know that." Jade replied sarcastically, lifting her nose in the air as high as she could.
"I don't." Mama agreed, knowing that her compliance with Jade's irritability would make it harder for her to lash out.
When Jade pulled her gown off, she stepped into the water, holding onto a rail on the wall while doing so. She tensed up when she felt how unwelcomely lukewarm it was. "Mama, it's kind of cold."
"I don't want you falling asleep."
"You could've warned me." she argued, slowly kneeling down into the water.
"Why? So you could complain about it more?"
"That's fair."
After scrubbing her body, Jade started having a hard time keeping her eyes open when her grandmother began washing her hair. It had happened several times before and it always worried her because she never knew when she was going to wake up. It could have been a few hours, half a day, or an entire day - it was agonizing.
'Come on, stay awake just a little longer,' she coached herself, cupping some of the water with her hands to splash it on her face. It helped as long as the actual splash occurred; a split second.
"I'm almost done." Mama told her.
"Okay." Jade said back, her shoulders struggling to hold her upright. She could feel the fatigue spreading through her body like some sort of chill.
Her eyes opened and she was back in the hospital bed. She blinked several times, trying to adjust her eyes to the light. Jade glanced around, but she was alone in the room. A single light above her bed shone down on her. The rest of the room was dark and through the blinds, the world was even darker.
'I really wish they would bring my Xbox or something.' she complained silently, reaching for the TV remote which sat on the table beside her bed. Her thumb pressed the power button twice, but nothing was happening. She flipped it over and opened the back, inspecting the batteries. It wasn't as if she could see they were dead, so she didn't know why she was wasting her time. A powerful yawn demanded all of her attention, bringing tears to her eyes as it escaped her mouth.
The silence finally struck her. There was no beeping, no ticking, no shuffling of feet in the hallway outside the door; nothing. No light was shining from under the door, either. Fear began to seep into her body, pushing the initial confusion away. If there was a power outage, surely the hospital had generators?
Reluctantly and carefully, Jade slid out of bed and steadily approached the window, reaching out to push aside the blinds. Her eyes found the sharp, square shapes of buildings, and in the distance, wide, triangular mountains, but all lights within the city were out. Slowly, she turned back to her bed, staring at the light shining above it.
'Why is mine on?' Jade quickly walked back to her bed, leaning behind it to flip the switch. The light disappeared and Jade found herself trembling slightly from the cold, but mostly from fear. 'What is this horror movie bullshit?'
"What do I do?" she whispered. "Is this just another dream?"
If it was just a dream, then she had nothing to be afraid of...right? She crept over to the door and gently grabbed the handle, silently chanting to herself that she was just going to take a look and then go back to bed. Her arm barely pulled the door open.
Nothing. She could make out the outlines of other doors and the hallways, but no light from that point of view. Her fear subsided for a moment and she stuck her head out of the door. Nothing but darkness to her right, but to her left, there was light spilling from another room. The door was half-way open and it appeared the entire room was lit and not just a single, small light like hers.
'That's bait.' Jade told herself plainly. 'But, this is a dream, so it doesn't matter.'
She proceeded to eat those words when she heard a terrible, bloodcurdling scream. It was coming from the lit room. The screaming, while still audible, was now muffled. Jade could tell it was a man and whatever was happening to him sounded dreadful. Determination began to mix with her fear and Jade had to decide whether or not to help him or not. She left her room, knowing she would feel awful if something happened while she had the chance to help.
'This is how stupid people die in horror movies, Jade.' she scolded herself sharply. She stopped right before the door, pressing her back against the wall. The screaming had almost died down and was replaced with sobbing. Inhaling deeply, Jade peeked around the corner and saw someone bound face-down to their hospital bed. The room, the bed, the floor - all of it was different from the rest of the hospital. Then, her eyes fixated on the man face-down on the bed.
"Naraku?" she whispered when she saw the long and wavy black hair. Jade nearly ran into the room, but as she approached him, she slowed down and came to a complete stop. Her hands cupped her nose and mouth in shock.
On his back, right in the center, was a large, fresh burn wound. She could tell the wound had been treated, but it was still hard to look at. Even stranger, it resembled a spider and suddenly, his spider tattoo made complete sense to her. The Naraku she knew was obsessed with perfection and having a tattoo, while cool, seemed unusual for someone like him. Using it to cover a horrendous scar did sound like him, though.
'How am I dreaming about this? He has never told me about any of this.' Jade's hands finally lowered from her face and she clamped them together in front of her.
"C-Can you hear me?" she asked aloud. She received no response. Either he couldn't hear her or he was in such an immense amount of pain that nothing around him mattered. His breathing was heavy and interrupted with moans and whimpers - he couldn't even keep still. He was slowly writhing around, grabbing the bars of the bed, and occasionally tugging on his restraints.
'There's nothing I can do! No one's here!' Jade began to panic, looking around worriedly, but there was no one else. 'Why is he alone? He needs help!'
"Hello? Can anyone hear me?" she shouted, pausing to listen for any reaction. She heard nothing else.
He began speaking, but he was speaking Japanese, so Jade couldn't understand him. It was the same phrase, though, over and over. Jade began to repeat it under her breath, hoping to ask someone what it meant...whenever she woke up...if she would even remember.
"Kikyou," he whimpered, and then he repeated the phrase a final time before falling into a fit of crying and screaming. He was the physical embodiment of pain at that moment. Jade even pressed a hand to her chest, her heart feeling like it was being squeezed and wrenched from her chest.
'She's dead.' Despite not being able to understand his words, Jade could guess that was what was why he was acting the way he was. Sure, the burn was hard to even look at, let alone actually having the wound, but his screams and cries were mournful now. 'Was there a fire? Is that how she died?'
The door closed and Jade jumped, gasping and spinning around to find herself staring at a girl. She was younger than she was - a teenager it seemed - and for a moment, Jade wondered if it was somehow Kikyou and that she was misunderstanding everything. This girl had a different face from the one in Naraku's book, though, and her hair was long and wavy, not straight.
"Naraku?" the girl called out, looking very concerned.
Jade recognized it as his name, but it was pronounced with different inflections and an accent. She glanced back at Naraku, noticing he had gone silent. Their conversation began slowly and Jade could hear the sadness in Naraku's voice whenever he answered. She also noticed his voice sounded much younger than the one she was used to.
The girl stood her ground with Naraku, her tone unwavering as she confronted him. It took a few minutes, but the tension between the two died down. Mostly because Naraku was being quiet, but the girl seemed legitimately concerned for him. The longer Jade stared at her, the more she saw Naraku's features in her. Their hair was very similar, their facial structures were both smooth, their skin held the same tone, and when Jade moved closer to the girl, she saw that her eyes had the same strange reddish-brown color that Naraku's eyes had.
'His sister?' Jade guessed, also noticing they were close in age.
Backing up slightly, Jade turned to leave the room. Naraku seemed more at ease and the other girl was keeping him company. She pulled open the door and walked back into the dark hallway, closing the door behind her carefully.
'Is that what happened to him? How am I dreaming up his memories?' Jade swallowed hard and looked to her right. She felt her blood freeze in her veins.
The light in her hospital room was on now. Sitting in front of the doorway, staring right at her, was a smoky-gray cat. It looked rough and had missing patches of fur. Its eyes reflected a deep, dark purple color, which struck her as odd, but then she reminded herself it was a dream. When Jade took a step towards it, the cat slowly rose to its feet and sauntered into her hospital room.
'Okaaaaay.' She approached the room with more confidence. Cats weren't dangerous...she hoped. It certainly wasn't a cat she personally recognized.
"Oh." Jade couldn't gasp or even move. Her hospital room was now Bruce's lab back on campus. Walking around the room, squeezing mud-like material from plastic bags was another Jade. Her shoulders were slumped and her eyes were almost closed.
'It...really was me.' she realized. Even though she still hoped it wasn't her, the thought no longer horrified her - it just made her sad and disappointed. 'I can't watch this.' She turned to leave and stopped when she saw the roughed-up cat sitting in the doorway, staring back up at her with the purple gleam in its eyes. It was completely still; no twitching tail, no blinking, no meowing, and it didn't even look like it was breathing. It was just there, a statue, looking back at her blankly.
"Somebody, please, wake me up." Jade whispered under her breath.
000000
'He only shoved me, but there is a bruise on my chest now.' Sesshomaru reached up and lightly rubbed the exact spot. 'Jade had the strength of a seasoned male MMA fighter when she first fell ill.'
Sesshomaru approached the science building slowly. Bruce sent out an email warning them of increased ticketing behind the building, so he decided not to risk it and parked elsewhere. When he looked up, he saw a gray cat dart in front of him and then leap onto the trunk of a tree, climbing up. It briefly reminded him of the biology department's missing dead cat. There was still so much that was unknown about the night Naraku's samples were destroyed. Only a handful of people had access to the lab when the door was locked and three of them - Naraku, Bruce, and himself - weren't the ones who did it.
His hand grabbed the handle, but he froze in place when a thought crossed his mind. 'It couldn't have been Jade...could it?' Of course it was possible, but how likely was it that Jade, not only someone who called herself Naraku's friend, but also someone who personally worked on the samples with him, would do it? What would drive her to do it? 'If she lost control once, she could do it again.' His face seemed to throb at the memories of the bruises she gave him when she lost control the first time. 'As much as Bruce and Naraku don't want to admit it, she is capable of terrible things.'
"Damn." he whispered, shaking his head. He knew that screaming, wrathful animal wasn't Jade, but he couldn't deny how much it shook him.
'I need to know where Bruce stands on this.' He walked across the sidewalk and into the science building, striding straight to Bruce's office and knocking on the barely-opened door patiently.
"Yeah?" Bruce called out with a sigh.
"Professor, I have something to discuss with you."
"Oh boy." Bruce responded sarcastically. "Come in. Let's talk."
Sesshomaru pushed the door open, closing it behind him before taking a seat in the chair to the right. "Naraku knows what is wrong with Jade."
Bruce scratched his cheek and shrugged. "Her family is in direct contact with-"
"He knows why she is sick, I meant."
"I...look, that is a serious accusation and it requires proof. Is it out of the realm of possibility for him? No. But, do I think he would do it to Jade? No, I don't. He really likes her."
"Their nosebleeds-"
"Sesshomaru,"
"Their irritability, their increased strength." he pressed on. "There is no way Jade should have been able to overpower me and Naraku, surprise attack or not."
"But she did! How do you explain that? How did Naraku-"
"He drugged her. You said it yourself." Sesshomaru interrupted him calmly. Bruce's eyes widened and his mouth closed as he lowered his hand. "Your initial instinct was telling you that he drugged her. He wasn't as close to her then as he is now. I imagine his desire to be close with her stems from his guilt."
"What drugs cause someone to get stronger?"
"Many joke about it, but meth and cocaine do block inhibitors in the muscles that keep them from hurting themselves. The muscles can lift and push more than what the brain usually allows them."
Bruce exhaled loudly, closing his eyes and staying silent for just a moment. "I'm not saying that I don't believe you, I'm not saying this isn't a possibility - there is nothing I can do without undeniable proof."
"Revoke Jade's employment - start there."
"Sesshomaru, if you think she was scary when she attacked you, you should see her if you mess with her money."
"If it meant keeping her away from Naraku even for a moment, I would accept whatever wrath she sent my way. He is unstable, he is spiteful, and he is dangerous."
"I know, but Jade likes him. She will hang around him with or without her job."
"Give her reasons to not be here, then. Convince her to stay home this semester."
"I won't."
Sesshomaru grit his teeth. "So, you will do nothing?"
"My hands are tied. There isn't much I can do without giving someone the grounds to sue me or get me fired. If I fire Jade, her aunt will rain hot acid down my throat and ring the racist bell as loud as she can, which will hurt the university."
"Then have Naraku expelled."
"Boy, I can have you expelled, too."
"Then do it. Expel both of us."
"And if I do, who will Naraku take his anger out on? You? Me? Or, will he go find the only person who likes him and dump it on her because she won't fight back?"
Sesshomaru let out a disgusted exhale. Bruce was right, though he still felt like there was something more Bruce could do. "Have they diagnosed her yet?"
"They have it narrowed down to neurological issues." Bruce explained before also exhaling. "Look, I'm glad you're looking out for her, but whatever you do, don't put yourself in a position that will jeopardize you just for the sake of exposing him. Besides, there's a good chance Jade won't be returning this semester anyway."
"We assumed the same this past semester."
"She does what she wants."
'So do you.' Sesshomaru noted, looking down at his lap. 'So will I.'
Bruce held his hands out expectantly. "So, is that it?"
"I believe Jade is the one who destroyed Naraku's samples."
Bruce's mouth dropped open. "I- you- I'm sorry...what?"
"You heard me."
"And she stole a dead cat? Do you hear yourself right now?"
Sesshomaru snorted and shook his head slightly. "Your selective memory is aggravating sometimes, Bruce. Do you not remember Jade doing something else completely out of character and not remembering any of it?"
"I-" Bruce's hands landed on his desk and his terrified expression revealed the fact that it hadn't even crossed his mind. "Fuck."
"You favor her so much that you completely disregarded that entire situation. Amazing. And you're supposed to be mentoring me?"
"Shut the fuck up, Pearl Harbor." Bruce whined, now massaging his forehead. "You have brought up great circumstantial evidence, but guess what? It's circumstantial."
"Allow me to teach you something for once, Kiwi." Sesshomaru quipped, leaning forward and snatching a pencil from Bruce's cup of random writing utensils. "A single piece of circumstantial evidence for a case is weak." He twisted his hands until the pencil snapped in half, dropping the two pieces on Bruce's desk. "Even two or three pieces of circumstantial evidence are still easy to break. However-" He grabbed a handful of pencils and pens and held them together, applying the same pressure, but none of the utensils even cracked. "-the more you add, the harder it is to break that case. I believe the same goes for the scientific method." Sesshomaru finished, placing the intact utensils back into the cup.
"Cute demonstration. Thank you for breaking my pencil." Bruce stated evenly. "I still can't do much."
"Of course." Sesshomaru replied with a shrug.
After leaving Bruce's office, Sesshomaru walked down to the lab to finish reading the next paper for his project. It wasn't a difficult paper to comprehend, but his mind wandered constantly. He was still aggravated by Bruce's answers and he had to admit his uneasiness with Naraku's odd behavior. He had seen the man do worse, but there was something dark and desperate about his more recent behavior.
'I almost want to call Kagura about him, though she probably wouldn't know what to do nor would she care. No one around here knows what he's capable of except Bruce and Bruce is keeping him around for monetary purposes.' He inhaled through his nose deeply, holding the breath for a few seconds before exhaling and trying one last time to scatter his suspicions. Finally, he pushed past his thoughts and nerves and was able to read through the paper several times, each time going back to write in notes to remind himself to look into certain details further.
Time got away from Sesshomaru and when Naraku entered the lab for his turn to use the equipment, something in Sesshomaru's gut told him he should have stayed home. There was something off with Naraku's gait that caught Sesshomaru's attention. Usually, Naraku's walk was controlled, confident, but when he walked into the lab, he looked unstable, as if he had been drinking.
"Mm," Naraku raised his arms, cupped his hands together, and stretched his entire body before spinning around to face Sesshomaru. "You're still here?"
"Not for long." Sesshomaru answered, taking his question as a hint to leave. He stood and began gathering his papers and notes into a stack.
"Aw." Naraku cooed with a chuckle. "You were so interested in me the other day. What changed?"
"I remembered how twisted you are."
"Twisted? How so? I'm probably one of the most straightforward-"
"You have no problem owning up to your antics. In fact, you take pride in how much misery you can cause someone. Out of all the people you've come in contact with, Jade is the one who deserves the truth the most, but you're too selfish to let that happen. Your feelings for her make you a worse person somehow."
Naraku's arms were now crossed and his face was blank. "It's none of your business, Sesshomaru."
'Interesting. He didn't deny it this time.' Sesshomaru noted. He left his bag at his desk to walk past Naraku and towards the last portion of his notes scattered along the table. They were mostly scratch-paper for calculations, but he didn't want Naraku to see them or possess them regardless. As he grabbed them up, Naraku swiped one page from his reach and held it for a moment, acting as if he was going to keep it. Then he held it out to Sesshomaru, arching an eyebrow.
"Just like these aren't my business," Naraku said simply.
Sesshomaru reached out to grab the paper and froze when he spotted Naraku's palm. There were no cuts! It hadn't even been two days since crushing the glass rod in his hand and Sesshomaru saw the blood, so why didn't Naraku's hand have cuts? His gaze moved from Naraku's hand to his face and Naraku stared back skeptically. In a split second, Naraku glanced at his hand, then back at Sesshomaru, his expression flashing from skeptical to angry.
'Shit!' Sesshomaru jumped backwards, watching as Naraku's other hand swiped the space he had occupied a second earlier. The black-haired man lunged forward with both hands outstretched and Sesshomaru bent his knees, also lunging forward, but aiming for Naraku's legs. Using Naraku's weight and momentum against him, Sesshomaru grabbed his legs and hoisted them into the air, flipping the attacking man over his shoulders. He turned and watched as Naraku caught his fall with his hands, stopping completely in a handstand. He lowered his legs and stood up fluidly, pulling his shirt down over his stomach.
"How the hell-"
"Care to try me again?" Naraku asked with a smirk.
'Something is very wrong!' Sesshomaru darted for the door, but the long table instantly turned to block his path. It was a jump he made before, but he was prepared then, so he jumped slightly and swung his legs up while planting his hands on the surface, vaulting over it and knocking papers and pens to the floor. He broke out into a sprint when he landed on the other side, the only thing in his head was himself screaming to run!
"I think not!" Naraku laughed as he caught up. He threw his left arm out, trying to clothesline Sesshomaru.
"Fuck you!" Sesshomaru threw his hands up to push his arm away and barely succeeded as it seemed Naraku threw every ounce of force he could into the swing. Sesshomaru sidestepped to put distance between himself and Naraku. Unlike Sesshomaru, Naraku was completely calm now. He was smirking while Sesshomaru was glaring and appearing to be in complete control of himself while Sesshomaru was panting slightly.
"What was your plan? We're the only ones here." Naraku pointed out.
"Your plan isn't much better. No matter what you do to me, you'll be caught. There are cameras in the hallways, remember?"
Naraku's smirk disappeared and now he was frowning. He looked down at his waist. "What do you want now?"
Sesshomaru opened his mouth to reply, but he held his breath as Naraku crossed his arms and huffed impatiently.
"Fine." Naraku said, now looking back at Sesshomaru. "You're right. Whatever I do, I'll be caught."
"Were you just- you are out of your mind!" Sesshomaru shouted as the realization hit him. Naraku was talking to himself just then!
"At least I had a mind to leave in the first place." Naraku retorted as his infuriating smirk returned. "I will give you a minute to leave my presence before I change my mind and decide to take my chances."
'He's faster...and stronger...and he's talking to himself.' Sesshomaru's hands balled into fists. He was able to process their fight now that he wasn't running. He had no idea what was going on with Naraku and that made him extremely frightening for once.
"I'll humor you." Sesshomaru said, walking past Naraku towards his desk. He slipped on his coat and grabbed his shoulder bag. He paused and looked back at Naraku, who was staring down at the floor. Sesshomaru almost said something, but decided to live to fight another day. Naraku had always been dangerous, but Sesshomaru had never feared for his life around him before.
'What is his goal now?' He glanced behind him as he left the lab, pulling out his phone and typing in 911 just in case Naraku decided to attack.
Instantly, every source of light disappeared, including his cellphone. Sesshomaru stopped walking and glanced around, looking for any sliver of light, but it was late at night in the dead of winter in a building with barely any windows - there was no light to be found. He swiftly turned when he heard footsteps running towards him.
"Naraku! You disgusting-"
Sesshomaru felt something blunt strike the side of his head and then his body hit the floor when his legs were slept out from underneath him. As hard as he tried to keep his eyes open, to run as many thoughts through his head as possible to keep himself conscious, the last thing he remembered was the sensation of being dragged along the smooth, waxed, tile floor.
