Love Hina; Once Again
Twenty Two
The creatures boiled out of the abandoned well, howling for blood. Misshapen, warped by dark magic and darker urges the things were utterly inhuman, ripping into the turf with fang and claw. They staggered about aimlessly to start with, then quickly oriented on the defenders.
"I don't like this at all," Setsuna Coral said flatly, the archeologist hefting the bone boomerang with a experience born of instinct rather than skill. She was the reincarnation of a ancient fighter, and it seemed some of those abilities resided in her very soul.
"I've called for more help," Kagome promised, her own black hair shimmering as she drew her bow. Her eyes were narrowed intently as she aimed, watching the beasts as they neared.
Mutsumi Yohino chanted as she shook the staff, her words seemingly hurting the demons that were crawling towards them. "The more I do this kind of thing the easier it gets," she grumbled, shaking her head ruefully. "Damn it, I'm not even a Buddhist!" she complained.
Kagome hid a smile as she looked at her two new friends. A few weeks ago she had gone on a field trip to a archeological site where the demon hunter Sango's village once was, where she had met both women. She had been mildly surprised how much Setsuna resembled her comrade Sango, even as Mutsumi resembled the perverted priest Miroku. She had written it off as a coincidence at first, but when demons attacked the dig Setsuna had taken up Sango's boomerang with supernatural skill.
As the first rank of demons hit InuYasha leaped out from cover, yelling out a attack as he slashed into the creatures. Ichor flew as his silver claws ripped through inhuman flesh, sending the beasts reeling backwards. "Hah!" he smiled, white hair flowing around him as he cheerfully added, "Nice job being bait."
Setsuna grunted with effort as she threw the boomerang, the bone weapon tearing through another rank of demons as they scrambled for cover. "How many of them are there?" she growled as she caught the weapon.
"Too many?" Mutsumi answered her dryly, calmly swinging her staff to clobber a stray that got too close to them.
There was a crash and a loud thump and Kagome looked up as a group of women rushed through the trees. They hurried towards where the four of them were making a stand, the boyish looking woman taking the lead.
"What's the situation?" Kitsune demanded, wearing a heavy backpack and carrying some kind of high tech gun connected to it. Her clipped short brown hair fell into her eyes, the t-shirt and slacks she wore enhancing her boyish looks.
"The owner of the property found the boarded up well," Kagome said briskly, "she thought there might be water, so she pried the boards up."
"And broke a seal," Kitsune anticipated, nodding. "So we need to drive the youkai back inside then restore the seal?"
Setsuna blinked, mildly astonished at her matter of fact tone of voice. "You sound like you do this often," she noted, surprised, as she watched the women form a battle line along with InuYasha.
"We're professionals," Kitsune smiled, then offered her hand, "I don't think we've met?"
"Sorry," Kagome laughed, "this is Setsuna Coral, she's a archeologist who is also a reincarnation of a demon hunter."
"And this is my lecherous girlfriend Mutsumi," Setsuna said as she shook Kitsune's hand.
"Hi," Mutsumi nodded respectfully.
Kagome looked over the crew Kitsune brought, recognizing all of them from past cases they'd worked together. Motoko Aoyama and Tennyo Misaki were hefting wooden swords, while Utena Tenjou carried a shimmering fencing blade. Rei Hino was carrying talismans as the Shinto priestess chanted softly, while Anthy Himemiya stood nearby, her eyes narrowed in concentration. Finally Koalla Su hefted a similar cannon to the one Kitsune carried, while Ema Maeda chronicled the events for her website.
"All right everyone," Kitsune ordered as she aimed the canon, "let's go!"
Twin streams of destructive energy swept across the mob of demons, Kitsune and Su's bolts making them keen in anger and pain. Almost as one the warriors advanced, moving forward slow and steady. As they moved Setsuna tossed her bone boomerang, cleaving into the youkai then catching the weapon on the rebound.
Howling with fury a bunch of the monsters charged the group, but the swordsmen were ready. With the familiarity of long practice Tennyo, Utena and Motoko cut the monsters down before they could reach their friends, splattering their blades with slime.
"Humh!" Mutsumi grunted with effort as the slim woman cratered in one demon with her metal tipped staff. She kept close to Setsuna;s side, watching over her lover as they drove through the demon army to reach the well.
There was a pool of 'calm' around the well, the latest back of demons having moved out to join the group surrounding them. The warriors moved out in a circle around the well, close enough to cover each other, even as the spiritualists went to work.
With several small gestures Anthy reassembled the cover to the well, even as rose petals swirled around the young woman. "There," she sighed tiredly.
Rei examined the torn seals on the wood, all of them weathered with age. "We're going to have to change them," she said seriously, taking out seal-charms from her Miko uniform.
"Right," Kagome helped place them, the two working together much as they did when they practiced together at the shrine.
"Then you have to charge them, right?" Mutsumi asked, watching intently. This was almost living history, and as a historian she was very interested.
"WE have to charge them," Rei corrected, putting her hands over the charms.
"Hurrying would be good!" Kitsune yelled as she blasted the head off another demon then swept the swirling mass with her beam weapon.
"Iron Reaver Soul Stealer!" InuYasha cried, channeling his power through his claws to rip and tear through enemies.
Motoko used a Shinmei Ryu school attack to drive back more of them, the black haired woman panting softly in exertion. "This is worse than the last demon breakout," she noted grimly.
Rei, Kagome and Mutsumi all channeled spiritual energy into the seals, the two mikos helping guide Mutsumi in what she was doing. The youkai could feel what was happening and redoubled their efforts, trying to roll over the warriors before the seal could be complete.
Tennyo's sword was pulled from her grip, embedded in a youkai's torso. Cursing softly she kicked it away as she reached into her coat, pulling out what looked like a sword hilt. She focused her will and a energy blade issued from the hilt, with which she began cutting down demons.
"Wow," Utena muttered, slicing a demon's head off with her blade as she panted, "have you been holding out on us?"
"Family secret thing," Tennyo answered flatly.
"Got it," Motoko agreed as she cut another foe down.
The seals glowed brightly beneath their hands as the youkai howled, then all three women gasped tiredly as the barrier formed. The monsters howled their rage at being cut off from the portal they emerged from, but were also weakened by the loss. With a furious cry they tried a final, massed attack to overwhelm the group, but the women and InuYasha beat them back then began to destroy them.
"Everyone okay?" Kitsune demanded as she looked the team over.
"That was fun!" Su grinned, the dark skinned little girl practically bouncing.
Ema was leaning against the well, the young woman looking green from the slaughter. "That was...," she trailed off, unsure how to put her feelings into words.
Setsuna calmly shook the gore off her boomerang, the young woman looking deeply weary. "Does this happen to you often?" she asked tiredly.
"Third time for me," Kagome offered.
"We've had a few too," Kitsune nodded tiredly as she sent a team of Rei, Motoko and Setsuna to hunt down any stragglers.
"Incredible," Mutsumi sighed tiredly, the young woman letting her hand slip down to Rei's bottom before she moved off.
"Pervert!" Setsuna whacked her lover upside the head before Rei could do anything too lethal.
"Oww," Mutsumi winced.
"Grr," Rei made a snarling sound deep in her throat then stalked off after the others.
"Are you trying to get killed?" Kitsune asked the woman wryly. "She's scary enough, but her girlfriend is a med student..."
Mutsumi paled. "You mean they'd never find the body?" she gulped.
"Or worse," Anthy nodded gravely. The violet haired woman looked at Kagome, "Are sealed gates like this common?"
"It's beginning to look like it," Kagome admitted tiredly. She looked over to where Kitsune was guiding the clean up efforts, "Maybe I should put you guys on my speed dial."
"Are Mutsumi and I going to be on your speed dial too?" Setsuna asked, her ponytail flowing down her back. She smiled tiredly, "Because the two of us do have archeology to work on too."
"I'll try not to," Kagome shrugged eloquently, "but..."
Setsuna laughed softly, nodding her agreement. "Yeah," she admitted, "sometimes it's just not under your control."
"Let's pack up the Proton Packs," Su ordered as she and Kitsune hauled the heavy gear back to the battered Hinata Inn van.
Ema walked up to Setsuna and Mutsumi and smiled nervously. "Uhm," she said tentatively, "would either of you mind if I included you on our website?"
"You have a website?" Mutsumi asked, blinking.
"Yes," Ema used her laptop to show Mutsumi the 'Phantom Quest Corp' site as well as the pictures and youtube videos attached to it. "I got some good footage of you and Ms. Coral, too," she added, running the media player.
"That's kind of cool," Setsuna conceded as she watched a clip of her throwing the boomerang. "Can you blur our faces, though?" she asked.
"Why?" Ema sounded a touch disappointed.
"We're trying to maintain our careers as archeologists," Mutsumi reminded her gently, "movies like this would make that... difficult."
Ema blushed, realizing they were right. "I'll only use clips that don't show your faces," she promised sincerely.
"Fair enough," Setsuna agreed, nodding.
To be continued...
Notes: Setsuna and Mutsumi are both from my fanfic 'Second Lives' and are the reincarnations of Sango and Miroku from InuYasha. I thought it might be interesting to tie that fic into this one, as well as connect all this to my Arisugawa/Crystal Tokyo canon. Heh! I was banging around it being a haunted house unleashing the monsters, but a well was easier to write.