(Edited 29 September 2020)
Dying to Live
Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha.
Three sips bind two,
Their friends and family
Unaware of time.
Except four more 'round
The alter stand, with two who,
Uninvited, come.
:::
Like many children all around the world, who have been dragged to the events of extended family members that they rarely if ever saw, Mami and Kazuya Inoue begged their mother to let them leave their table to go and play in the yard outside the party tent. At last, when she couldn't take the whining anymore, which didn't take too long, she waved them away so she could continue commiserating with a young mother from the Ito side of the family she hadn't met before. You see, Mami and Kazuya's mama had continued to explain to the other baby's mama, their papa had to work that weekend, and so they had driven by themselves the two hours there— to her late second cousin's wife's home in Tokyo. Yes, the family relationship was rather distant, but she and her cousin Taisuke (the bride's father) had been very close as children.
That also meant, though, that when their 7-month-old, baby sister got cranky about "that whiny flute" – as their mama described it— during the wedding ceremony, Mama Inoue was the only one there to comfort the baby. The music had reached its screechy climax, as their Big Cousin Kagome and "the gloom" – as Mami had called the tall unfamiliar man on the stage – exchanged their cups of sake. At that moment, it was apparently just too much for one baby's patience: suddenly their little sister's already flushed, little face crumpled in a look of deepest displeasure. "Damned traditional music," Kazuya had heard their mama say under her breath, as she had quickly jumped out of her seat. Just four-and-a-half years old, Kazuya knew that when their baby sister got that look, their mama had mere seconds to escape the room before an explosion of wailing would erupt, and people started staring. Having resigned himself to their mama's constant preoccupation with the baby months ago, Kazuya just settled back in his chair to suck the thumb of one of his hands and hold onto the cord of Mami's new silk purse with the other.
Outside the warmth of the reception tent now, Mami was in charge. Six-years-old since before Christmas, Mami was older and reminded her little brother frequently that she was a big girl now and that he had better listen to everything she said, especially when they played games she had invented. In today's game Mami was a beautiful and brave lady warrior, and they were on a journey to a faraway castle.
"Okay, so we're gonna go the castle now, and you're gonna be my horse, Kazuya," Mami said as she twirled around, so the pink sleeves of her flowered hakama floated up.
Kazuya popped his thumb out of his mouth to answer, "But I don't wanna be the horse."
"Aw, come on, Kazuya, how's the lady warrior supposed to the travel through the haunted forest, then?" Mami asked.
Kazuya thought for a moment. "I dunno, but I don't wanna be the horse," he replied, absently leaning into the gigantic trunk of the oldest tree in the yard. Unthinkingly, he began digging the toe of his left shoe into the dirt near the spot where one of the ancient roots disappeared into the ground.
"Okay, okay! Fine!" Mami said, grabbing his wrist. "Just stop doing that. You know what Mommy said—if we get any mud on our new shoes, we won't get any of Cousin Kagome's wedding cake—an' I wanna know if it's chocolate or vanilla inside! So come on, you can be the lady warrior's fearless sidekick."
Tugging on the reigns of their imaginary horses, they ducked under the low fence surrounding the Tree of Ages and took off across the yard, carefully jumping over or dodging around potential areas of mud and ice where the thin layer of last night's snow had already melted. The journey through the "Haunted Forest" went smoothly until they reached the tall fence at the far end of the property, and Mami decided that the lady warrior and her sidekick should enter into the thickest, scariest part of the woods.
"Let's take the horses over there! Behind those bushes!" Mami declared, pointing at a thick line of shrubs that had grown up beside the tall fence.
Making all the decisions, Mami always got a head-start, so Kazuya loped after her. Having seen where she'd cut through between the shrubs, he scooted under the low branches without getting his grey-green hakama pants caught on the twigs—too much. He was just sweeping a few pieces of mulch and snow off his knees when he looked up to find that they were not alone in the thickest part of the "Haunted Forest".
Mami already had her pretend-sword stick raised and pointed at the stranger. Then dramatically quoting a line from one of their favorite animated fantasy shows—the one that came on at 10 a.m. every Saturday morning—she asked him, "Are you the noto-rorius Monster of the Haunted Forest? The one that we've been seeking?"
As her fearless sidekick, Kazuya decided that it was an excellent moment to pop his thumb in back his mouth for good measure.
:
Kagome's happy laughter tinkled like bells, as he threw her down on her bed and crawled over her. His legs straddled her hips where he knelt and his hands pressed down into the mattress above her head. Grinning back at her, he felt freer and happier than he had ever felt in his whole life. Today, they were married: he was her husband, and she was his wife, and no one could take that from them. In front of all their friends and her family, he had been just like any other man and she like any other woman, and their love had finally been accepted, even cheered on and encouraged. At the thought of it, he wanted shout and whoop that he had done it – he had married Kagome Higurashi!
He also wished he could just stand up, lock her bedroom door, come back to her bed and proceed to undress and kiss every inch of his new wife until finally they made love for the rest of the day. Hell, why not the rest of the night, too? he thought, feeling like he could do anything now as he buried his face in the space beneath her jaw bone.
"Ah, Inuyasha!" she squealed and giggled again before curling up beneath him and rolling over to put the tender spot on her neck out of the reach of hungry his mouth. It was a useless maneuver, though, because he immediately dove in and began teasing the same place on the other side of her neck. "Ugh," she sort of moaned, and he guessed it might otherwise have been a sigh, accept that judging by the way her muscles relaxed beneath his body, she was enjoying herself much too much. "I'm just supposed to be changing," she weakly reminded him. "And as much as I don't want to—" she started to say before he pulled her body up against his and began to the grace the back of her neck with kisses as well. It was with great effort, that she finally finished her sentence: "—but we really need to go back and thank everybody for coming."
"We can't thank them tomorrow…or next week?" he said, with a rough voice and a smirk between kisses.
"Uh, well, if they could all actually stay in the tent that long, I would agree to that," she replied, loving hot the press of his nether regions against hers, "but since they can't, I think we better do it today."
Finally pulling back, he met her dark eyes and planted a last gentle kiss on her lips. "Okay," he sighed, "Besides, I am grateful to your whole family for letting me have you as my bride today, so I suppose it would be the right thing to go down and meet and thank them. But can I at least help you change your clothes first, my treasured wife?" he concluded, savoring the use of the intimate address. At the same time, he tugged rakishly on the narrow belt around the waist of the simple white under-kimono she now wore. She had bought it to go under the rented wedding kimono. "Though, frankly, I don't know why you need to change, you look gorgeous enough to me in what you're already wearing."
She lifted her head and kissed him yet again for the compliment; she wasn't about to do anything to discourage his recent and much more frequent use of such niceties, as she had at one time expected that their relationship would be forever marked by an extreme paucity of them. Then, she responded playfully, "Yes, my charming husband, but only if you promise to actually help me put the second dress on after we get this one off."
:
When at long last—but only after a good deal more romantic interference—Kagome had on the modern-style dress that she had selected for the reception party, the newlyweds descended the narrow staircase that led from the bedrooms upstairs. The dress was made entirely of a large-knit, snow white, country lace that ended in three-quarter length sleeves at the arms and just above the knees at the legs. She wore her new sable stole draped over her shoulders since the dress wasn't particularly warm, but Kagome liked it because it was stylish, and she thought the material had a romantic feel. Inuyasha—although having protested against the dress for not being warm enough—liked it despite himself because he had gotten to watch her roll every inch of the matching, slightly shimmery sheer stockings up each of her bare legs and then imagine how he was going to tear them off of her later. No sooner, had they both stepped off the bottom step when they were met by Grandpa Higurashi and another man Kagome recognized only vaguely and Inuyasha, not at all.
"Kagome, Inuyasha, we were just beginning to wonder what became of you two! Kagome, you remember your Uncle Kentaro, don't you?" her grandfather asked, sounding uncharacteristically stiff and motioning to the man standing behind him.
Kagome mainly remembered her uncle (although he wasn't precisely her uncle, that's what they'd always called him) because he was the kind of relative you only met once or twice in your life, possibly at a wedding or a funeral, but still heard quite a lot about. She mentally reviewed all that she recalled about him.
About three years after her father died, the family received a late night call with news that her grandfather's youngest sister, Nanako, had passed away suddenly of a heart attack. Kagome could have been no more than ten years old at the time. She remembered the sadness that her grandfather had seemed to wear around like a coat, one that he had worn for a long time after her father died and then appeared to have figuratively taken out of storage again with the passing of his little sister. Her mother had helped Grandpa and Great-aunt Nanako's children with the funeral arrangements. Then, three days before the ceremony, the will was read, and her grandfather's sister's wishes were heard.
In life, Great-aunt Nanako, had apparently one worry that trumped all others: her only son, Kentaro. This had been the case from the day young Ken returned home from senior high school graduation, announced that he was going into business with some close friends, unbuttoned and threw away his plain school uniform jacket to reveal an intricate chest tattoo, and packed up a few prized possessions from his room. That same evening he left his boyhood home for good, and from that point forward it became wildly known throughout the family that Ken had fallen in with "the wrong sort."
The one silver lining had been that less than two years before Kagome and Souta's father had died, Ken had had the wherewithal to renounce all his claims to anything having to do with the ancient Higurashi family shrine. As a result, when Kagome and Souta's father died, the future inheritance and proprietorship of the shrine passed not to Ken, Grandpa Higurashi's next eldest and closest male kin, but to Souta. This had not been a problem for anyone, at least legally, when it unfortunately came to pass, but her son's renunciation of his heritage had only served to make Nanako worry even more about his future. Thus, when her last will and testament were revealed, her final wish of her brother had been to look after her youngest child and only boy.
Once a year, for every year after that, their grandfather visited their Uncle Ken. The main thing Kagome always noted about these annual visits was that her grandfather was always anxious for at least a few days before and after. He always went by himself and had very little and non-specific news to report back about their uncle other than that he was well and still "in the business."
"You can just call me, Ken, though," Uncle Ken said now standing behind Grandpa in the foyer of their home. Looking a little like a much rougher, less well-aged, and rather tackily dressed version of her father as Kagome remembered him, he smiled and nodded to both Kagome and Inuyasha.
"Mm," Grandpa grunted, finding the introductions at an end. "Uncle Ken has something he wants to give you on the occasion of your marriage. Shall we step into my study for a moment?" he asked, still sounding overly formal.
Together, the four of them filed into the little room where Grandpa took care of any business pertaining to the shrine and often spent his afternoons reading or in deep study of the history of important Shinto rituals. Once they had all taken their places, Grandpa behind his large, dark-wood desk; Inuyasha and Kagome in chairs side-by-side on the other side of the desk; and Uncle Ken, leaning very casually with his thigh against the end of the desk, Uncle Ken handed Inuyasha a big, brown envelope.
Curious, Kagome helped her new husband unwind the cord holding it shut and together they pulled the documents from inside. Once they'd removed everything, incredibly, in their laps lay a birth certificate; a booklet for citizens registered in the national pension; a valid driver's license; and a little red book, the cover of which was stamped with a golden chrysanthemum and the words "JAPAN PASSPORT" in Japanese and English. All of them bore either or both Inuyasha's name and a photo that was obviously recent, although Kagome didn't recognize it at all. Still completely boggled by how these documents could have even come to be in the first place, Kagome just kept thinking to herself for some reason, Who in their right mind would issue Inuyasha a driver's license?
The answer was soon explained. "Look, I just wanna say," Uncle Ken began, "I know that your grandpa is too fine a man to have ever really said much about me in either a negative or a positive way, but I figure you must know I haven't been the most reputable member of the family, Kagome. But y'know what, your grandpa's always been there for me, year after year, so when he came to me an' let me know that your groom needed some papers—and by the way, he didn't tell me much about why, so don't worry about it— I told him I would do anything I could for you and yours, and that's a promise," Uncle Ken pronounced, crossing his heart with a silver ringed finger. "And that goes for if you ever need any other papers for any of your other friends from up north, too."
Kagome was still flabbergasted. Inuyasha still wasn't entirely sure what all this was about but, realizing that the documents were apparently pretty important, he managed to formulate a polite "thank you".
"But how? I don't understand how you got them," Kagome said without thinking, as she held the passport photo page up to the light to get a better look at the security designs; they appeared genuine. Then feeling a bit sheepish upon further reflection, she added, "I hope it wasn't too difficult…"
"Nah," Uncle Ken replied with a casual wave of his hand, "let's just say when you've got friends in high places—especially highly political places and, even better they've got a particular interest in 'repatriating' Kunashiri citizens to Japan—it's not that hard.
"I don't wanna be a braggart, though," her uncle continued. "When I showed your grandpa the finished documents the other day, I found out that you two are staying at one of the resorts downtown for the next couple nights. That's all well and good, but I said, 'Aren't they taking any honeymoon trip to try out the new docs?' And when your grandpa said, 'No,' I thought, "No way, we can't have that!' So I've got one more surprise for the happy couple," Uncle Ken finished, as he pulled another narrow envelope with a blue and white design from the inside pocket of his plaid blazer and handed it to Kagome. She had just leaned back toward Inuyasha and opened the folded paper when her uncle proudly announced, "Two tickets to Okinawa, all expenses paid! It might be a little cold there at night this time of year, but you should still go and spend a week or two in my beachfront condo."
Kagome hardly knew what to say. "Uncle Ken, thank you so much! This is so amazing!" she cried, not believing how things were coming together for them so much smoother and quicker than she could have ever hoped. And we're even going to have a real honeymoon, she thought excitedly before adding, "I'm sure we'll have a great time!"
:
"Mooommm! Mama! Mommy!" Mami called as she and Kazuya slipped back inside the tent and ran up to the big round table where their mother still sat with another lady talking and watching their baby sister play with a pair of napkin rings.
"Yes, yes, what is it, my dears?" Mrs. Inoue asked, distractedly trying to keep one of the metal rings from going into her littlest's mouth, as the baby had just discovered that it might make a good thing to chew on.
As the older sister, Mami was the one to speak for both of them, so with a deep breath and leaning against their mother's leg she began to explain: "Wellllll, me and Kazuya just thought you should know that we-were-playing-warriors-in-the-yard, 'n'-we-we're-uh-like-riding-our-horses-into-the-Haunted-Forest, and-then-um-we-saw-these-big-bushes, and-and-then-there-was-like-this-uh—guy, who's-sorta-like-the-Monster-of-the-Haunted-Forest-and-he-doesn't-talk-much-but-he's-got-like, reallyyyy, reallyyyyy, lonnnnnng-dark-grey-hair-like-a-girl's-'n'-skin-like-a-ghost's-'n'-one-bloody-red-eye-that-makes-him-look-like-an-evil-wizard, annnnd… well, me and Kazuya just thought you should know about it."
"Um, okay, that's nice, dear," Mrs. Inoue replied shortly, having finally pried both napkin rings from her other daughter's chubby, little fingers and taken her back into her arms. "But try not to say 'like' so much when you're talking, dear—and Kazuya, stop sucking your thumb like that: it's not polite—anyway, I'm glad you two got a chance to run around outside for a bit, because your cousin Kagome and her husband are back from taking photos, so I think dinner's going to start soon."
Suddenly, all thought of the "Monster of the Haunted Forest" was immediately forgotten: "Does that mean they're gonna cut the cake soon?" Mami asked excitedly, her eyes all a-glitter.
"Yes," answered Mrs. Inoue, but first, why don't you and your brother go try to catch one of the people carrying trays to see if you get us some appetizers, alright?"
As the children scampered off in hopes of possibly finding octopus-shaped hot dog au d'oeuvres, Mrs. Inoue heaved a sigh. "Kids today seem to have such active imaginations. Sometimes, I really wonder about letting them watch TV."
:
After Kagome finished an extremely abbreviated explanation to Inuyasha of Uncle Ken and his gifts, with a promise to tell more later, they returned to the party. Having eaten dinner, cut the cake, and received several rounds of toasts from friends and family, Kagome and Inuyasha went to the platform a bit above the moveable, polished wood dance floor to accept congratulations from more of Kagome's relatives. After receiving perfume inundated hugs and stiff, manly bows from yet another pair of elderly relatives from her mother's side, Inuyasha couldn't help but wonder just how many relatives he and Kagome could possibly have. Sensing that her new husband, who had only ever known two of his own relatives, total, before that day, might be feeling a little overwhelmed by the endless stream of family meet-and-greets, gave him a short description of champagne and asked him to bring some back for her. Just as she sent him off wearing a look of obvious relief, Kagome suddenly whipped around as her mother gasped, "OH MY-!"
Immediately, thinking something had to be wrong given the stunned tone of her mother's voice, she instead found her just beaming at a woman with slightly familiar features. The lady, who was obviously a relative judging by her appearance, was holding a fussy looking baby and was flanked by two more children, a boy and a slightly older girl. "Oh my goodness, Suzu-chan!" Mrs. Higurashi squealed again, "It's so good that you could make it! Kagome, this is your father's little –second, right?— Cousin Misuzu – he told me one time that he and Misuzu practically grew up playing together at his Aunt Eiko's house," Mrs. Higurashi explained drawing her daughter over. "And, Misuzu, this must be Mami and Kazuya – you two are getting so big! And this little one," Mrs. Higurashi said, taking the baby's hand, "I had no idea you and Yuuta had another baby!"
"Mm, well to be honest, it was a bit of a surprise for us too," Mrs. Inoue sighed as she handed the baby into Mrs. Higurashi's open arms. As the two women were soon deep in the process of catching up on all that had happened since they last met, Kagome decided to talk to her little (Second? Third? Was there such a thing? She wasn't really sure…) cousins. Having complimented Mami's new pink and black hakama outfit and learned that the chocolate wedding cake had received her small relatives' approval, she turned to Kazuya, who appeared to be busy sucking his thumb and taking in his surroundings.
"Kazuya's the shy one," Mami explained as Kagome bent down and picked up the skinny little boy who reminded her of Souta at the same age.
"That's okay," Kagome said with a smile to Kazuya. "So are you having fun at my wedding, Kazuya-kun?" she asked sweetly, to which the little boy nodded distractedly as he continued surveying the room from the improved vantage point of being in her arms. It struck her that it was almost as if he was looking for something in the crowd inside the huge heated tent. Then, he leaned forward suddenly, thumb still in his mouth and his eyes fixed on a specific point.
"Kazuya-kun, what is it you see?" Kagome chuckled, trying to follow the path of his vision, when he pointed his little finger in the precise direction and plucking his thumb from his mouth, clearly answered, "The man."
:
There was no missing the man who stood alone at the right edge of the empty dance floor. His unusually erect posture and his too-long, slate grey hair that fell loose like silken curtains around his face and past his shoulders made him appear much taller than the rest of her guests, immediately setting him apart from everyone else in her vision. Who is that? Kagome's thoughts began to rush. His hair is way too long for him to be from this time, but we didn't invite anyone else! It has to be someone we know, but why can't I recognize him at all? It was just as she began to squint to get a better look at his face, that she realized his most dismaying feature: he was literally glaring across the empty dance floor.
Her pulse suddenly kicked up another notch as she tried to trace the man's line of vision across the crowded room. Oh my God, what – or who – is he staring at!? her mind cried out, as the sensation of danger given off by the stranger suddenly began to soak in.
It then happened so fast that she could barely even process it. The man with the long, grey hair suddenly entered into the open space of the dance floor. His advance could only be described as lethal as he strode with the feral focus of a predator closing in on its prey at the end of a long hunt. His fast and sure strides would have gotten him across the vacant, exposed area in the middle of the room almost totally unnoticed, if a young anxious looking waiter hadn't chosen to cut across the space at the same moment. The stranger had one hand closed around a long bamboo canister that he'd slid off of his shoulder, and Kagome's breath stopped as he raised the other palm with nearly choreographed assurance to the server's chest, deftly blocking the youth from entering his determined path. Unfortunately for the stranger, the shocked young waiter hardly possessed the same grace. The ice-bucketed bottle of wine and glasses he carried on a tray above his head cascaded toward the floor, ending finally in an icy smash and clatter of crystal and metal.
While everyone else's notice whipped to the embarrassed waiter, who dove to pick up bits of glass in the middle of the empty dance floor, Kagome had finally found who the stranger was after; the target was apparently just about to conclude a trip to the punch bowl on the left side of the room, when the commotion from the dance floor caused him to look up. In that instant, by the look on Miroku's face – something like weary resignation— she realized that he was the one who knew the stranger. The man was getting close to Miroku. Kagome held her breath, not at all sure what she was looking at, when the plastic cups of punch dropped out of her friend's hands, and he turned to bolt. A flash of action from the stranger brought her eye back to him, and she realized that he must have discarded the bamboo tube under a table or something. Cutting through the line of tables and guests, he now barreled toward the beverage table with his hand on the hilt of a long sword, prone to be unsheathed. Thankfully, Miroku was almost already half way out the tent flap leading to the yard, though, so that his attacker was forced to make a messy correction that caused him to make a painful collision into the corner of the table. Glass, ice, and silverware sent up a rattling cry, as the stranger crumpled slightly before rebounding and finally rounding the table end in a slightly off-balance but quickly recovering canter out the same exit.
Finally, over the barked orders of the head waiter, who was attending to the mess on the dance floor, the sound of glass smashing against the floor somewhere else in the room marked the end of the chain reaction.
:
The whole thing could only have lasted mere seconds. "Ugh, glass, right in the middle of the dance floor," she heard her father's cousin complain beside her.
Stunned, Kagome simply stood for a moment with Kazuya still in her arms. Oh my God, did no one else see it? A glance at Kazuya's face told her that he had, as he kept looking curiously at the leftward exit. She might have dropped him, if the bright little boy hadn't already been prepared to leap out of her arms, when suddenly she realized that she needed to do something.
She paused only a second to look around the room for Inuyasha. Finding him nowhere, she felt a little foolish as she realized, If I noticed that, he definitely did. She must have looked strange, though, because she heard her mother say, "Kagome?" right before she turned and hurried off the platform and out of the tent.
Outside the sun was almost down past the houses, so that the yard was cast in shades of muted grey, brown, and white beneath a line of bright gold that reflected weakly down from the tops of their neighbors' houses. Still, she felt somehow blinded by the dim outdoor light and frigid air. Having pushed her way through the narrow opening between the heavy tent flaps with tiny safety windows that were designed to keep heat inside the massive party tent, she paused for a moment breathe and collect her thoughts; however, the misty little cloud of breath exiting her mouth in the cold February air had barely escaped her before someone cried, "Kagome!"
Her head swimming, with almost a physical need to find Inuyasha and Miroku in whatever order would help save her friend's life the most, she looked frantically back and forth for the person calling her. Then, from the ground beside the tent entrance, Yuka grabbed her wrist and pulled her down. "Thank God you're here!" she cried out, a look of distress in her eyes. "Did you see who just ran out of the tent before you? Who the hell was that?!"
"You mean—did you see where they went?" Kagome asked, trying to cut to the chase as quickly as possible. She had to help Miroku.
Yuka didn't answer, but only kept gripping Kagome's arm as she stayed crouched close to the ground in her beautiful, wide-legged burgundy trousers and cashmere sweater. Kagome suddenly noticed something dark and wet had run down and stained the dramatic drapes of her friends matching dark silver cowl neckline. "We were just coming back from the house when the first one almost ran into us," Yuka continued, "And then the second one came running after him with this big-big—sword! So Hojo—so stupid!— tried to—"
"What? Who did you say?" Kagome practically shouted at her friend.
At that moment someone behind Yuka moaned. The young man's voice came out sounding pained and weirdly muffled, "Uhn… oh… no… Yuka, is that Kagome?"
"Oh my God, that is Hojo, isn't it? What is he even doing here?" Kagome cried, trying to lean around her friend, but all she could see of the young man was that his hands were horribly bloody as they covered his face, and even more blood looked to be on his striped tie and grey dress shirt; yet, Kagome felt sick as she immediately recognized, the soft, dark brown mop of hair that was definitely Hojo's. Kagome's mind raced: "What happened to him? Can't you stop the bleeding?" she demanded, but in her mind, it wasn't Hojo's blood she saw anymore: Oh, God! I can't believe this-this monster stabbed Hojo! How could I let this happen? When Inuyasha and I find him, and I'll kill him for doing this to my friends!
"Well, he just—" Yuka started to stutter, when the tent flaps parted again.
"Kohaku, stop holding onto me like I'm going to break!" she heard Sango bark at her brother before she discovered Kagome on the ground with Yuka. "Kagome, what's going on? Kohaku and I were just sitting inside at one of the tables waiting for Miroku to bring us some drinks, when a bunch of stuff looked like it happened up where you were. I got distracted by whatever happened on the dance floor, although I couldn't see it, but Kohaku says he saw some guy with long hair suddenly chase after Miroku through this exit. Did you see what happened?"
"Uh, well sorta…" Kagome didn't know what to say. She also needed to find out what was happening and why she hadn't seen Inuyasha yet. Still, she couldn't just tell her friend that a crazed man with sword was after her husband and then run away.
"Oh by the hells!" Too late: "What happened to him? Was it that guy who was after Miroku?!" Sango gasped, finally seeing Hojo.
Again, there was no time to answer, as someone else exited the tent: "Kagome, is everything okay? Mom just told me to go find you to see if everything's okay," Souta said.
This must be some kind of nightmare or somebody's idea of a bad joke, Kagome thought to herself, deciding that she couldn't afford to waste another minute explaining the situation to anyone else. They needed action and right now.
Kagome glanced around at the ground and now saw a few feet away where large drops of Hojo's blood had stained the patchy snow and grass where the stranger had run into him with the sword. Messy footprints cut across each other all around the spot, but then up the side of the slope, away from the easier path taken by the rest of the guests between the house and the tent, she noticed where at least two people had run in the same direction.
"Souta come with me to the house," Kagome ordered and stood up. "Sango and Kohaku, you stay here with Yuka. Try to make Hojo comfortable, tell my mother to call 119 immediately, and don't let anyone go anywhere near the house. Kohaku, make sure you keep an eye out in case anything else unusual happens."
"Right," Kohaku answered obediently.
"But he's—" Yuka tried to speak.
"KAGOME!" Sango stormed, tears starting to creep into her voice. "If Miroku's up there, I should be with you! YOU-YOU CAN'T LEAVE ME HERE LIKE THIS! KAGOMMMMMMMEEEEE!"
:::
Note 1: Ta-da! Another chapter done! I've been thinking about this chapter and the coming ones for such a long time, that there have been so many details for these scenes struggling to jump out of my head. It's so fun to finally sit down and arrange all the pieces together! I hope you all are also enjoying my original characters like Mami, Kazuya, Mrs. Inoue, and Uncle Ken. I don't want to make the mistake of inundating you with OCs, but they've been living and interacting with the original cast in my head for so long that I realize they've become cemented into the plot. They'll most likely make a re-appearance later ;)
Note 2: By the way, just a reminder about Kunashiri Island (since it's been a while since I first introduced it), the place Inuyasha, Kagome, and co. are using as a cover for their origins: a mostly rocky, thinly populated island positioned off the coast of Hokkaido and in between Japan and Russia, Kunashiri's main trade is fishing. Since the end of WWII, Russia and Japan have disagreed about to whom the island belongs. With it currently governed by Russia and still claimed by Japan, it's easy enough to imagine that someone might be extremely eager to claim its residents as legal citizens…