Chapter 4 : Demons

"Hey Mom, You're probably asleep, but I wanted to let you know I'm on my way home. I'll see you soon, Love you." Kagome finished the voicemail, hung up the phone, and slipped it back in her pocket. Maybe she should have mentioned that she had missed the last bus of the night and needed a ride home, but if her mom was asleep, it wouldn't have mattered anyway.

Kagome could use the walk home to think anyway. It had been such a rough day with so much new information that she didn't know how her brain was still functioning properly. She had woken up this morning with a hangover, but also a confidence that she knew the world she lived in. As the day progressed the oddities she noticed in the crowds seemed to become more and more pronounced.

Was she going crazy or was she seeing demons?

Demons.

Everytime she thought that word there was a flicker in her chest. Like her heart gave an extra beat in recognition. Kagome had grown up hearing stories of demons and mikos and the fierce battles they waged for dominance. The shrine she lived on even had their own legend surrounding a sacred tree on the property. Yet the demons in the old folktales had been ruthless, evil, power-hungry monsters. Even if demons were real, even if they lived in Tokyo, wouldn't everyone know? Wouldn't it be hard to hide?

When in the restaurant tonight Kagome had waited on tables that had fantastical people at them. Her third family of the night consisted of a gold-skinned couple and a small child. The father had gray hair and green eyes and the mother had impossibly sharp teeth and white stripes across her bright skin. The toddler was maybe around three years old and very obviously took after her mother. Kagome could remember refilling their water glasses at least ten times and smiling at the happy child every time.

The biggest shock to Kagome was seeing her coworker Kasumi with twin fox tails protruding from under her skirt. Her ears were pointed at the tips and her hair was a surprising golden brown. Kagome had to work on not staring at everything, but she couldn't help herself. She had known Kasumi for months and had previously only seen strangers in this way.

If Kagome hadn't been so lost in thought she might have heard the sound of footsteps behind her. She might have recognized the prickling sensation creeping up the back of her neck before a hand reached out to grab her. But she didn't and was roughly pushed against the brick wall, her head cracking painfully against it.

"Mmm, pretty girl. I knew I smelled something tasty down this way." The man, if he could be called that, shoved his face up against Kagome's. He brushed his nose up her neck to the side of her face inhaling as he went. "I know I shouldn't, but you smell too good to resist." His tongue lashed out and traced the path his nose left.

His green eyes glowed in the near darkness, they were impossibly wide and set too far apart to be human. His face was inches away from her yet his tongue was still pressed to Kagome's flesh. His skin looked dry and slightly scaly with a yellow tint to it where the streetlamp hit it. Kagome could feel the indentions his fingers were leaving on her upper arms, if she wasn't convinced that she was going to be eaten alive she would've been concerned about the bruises.

Frantically Kagome dug through the pouch in her purse searching for her mace without taking her eyes off of this crazy guy in front of her. Of course on the day she opened her eyes to the idea of otherworldly beings she would be attacked by one. Her heart was beating in a frenzy, almost painfully so. Kagome pulled her hand up with the items in her grasp, unfortunately the mace wasn't one of them.

"Aw pretty lady, I doubt your scraps of paper can stop me." The demon's eyes darkened in anticipation as his mouth unhinged to expose his sharp fangs that dripped in saliva.

Kagome threw the papers in her hands at his face with a scream. Terror filled her veins with ice, but that was quickly followed with a singeing heat that flowed out through her fingertips. With a pink glow the sutras that had been clenched in her hands attached themselves to the demon's face and open mouth.

A piercing, unholy scream echoed through the night lifting above the streets and to the rooftops where a silver-haired half demon looked out into the night. His ears twitched at the sound and he turned to better isolate where it had come from. Inuyasha didn't usually patrol this area on his way home, but Sesshomaru had asked him to take extra time to look out for that power source that had come this way hours ago.

When a flare of purifying energy followed up the scream Inuyasha leapt from one roof to another in the direction of the energy. Faintly he could feel a demonic energy under the pure one and he grumbled under his breath. Miko/demon paperwork had always been his least favorite reports to draw up.

Inuyasha could feel the strength increasing in the pure energy and knew he was close. He managed to drop into the alleyway as a thin figure pushed back against what appeared to be a lizard demon. The fists of the young woman were glowing a pale pink as well as the sutras still plastered to the demon's face.

"Don't you fucking touch me!" The woman was breathing heavily, but Inuyasha couldn't tell if it was because of her anger or all the energy she had expelled. The lizard demon was lying motionless in front of the miko. His face was nothing more than a charred husk and Inuyasha was almost positive that he was dead.

Stepping forward, Inuyasha pulled out his phone to call in reinforcements. He was sure he could handle a rogue miko, but the peace between demonkind and the Spirituals was still tentative at best. It was better to call their ranks to deal with any problems including humans of any sort. Demonslaying had calmed in the last few hundred years as more and more of the bloodthirsty demons either were killed or tried better to cover their tracks. As long as demons kept themselves in the shadows or glamoured to hide from humankind the monks and mikos were content to let them be. It was only when a demon went rogue and started murdering people that they stepped in to stop them.

The sound of footsteps caused the woman to turn towards Inuyasha, her eyes flashing angrily and the pink glow around her growing along with her fear. She pulled up her hands in a defensive position, almost as if she was going to fight her way through him too. It was the glow against her face that made him pause. It was her.

Kagome.

Inuyasha felt his breath hitch in his throat at the realization that he was staring at the woman who had been occupying his thoughts all day. The contrast between the sweet-looking girl this morning and the bold warrior he saw at this moment was like night and day. He took another step forward into what light was being cast through the alley so that she could see him better, to know that he wasn't a threat to her.

He could tell when recognition hit her. Her arms fell to her sides and the anger faded from her face. The spiritual aura dissipated from her hands until Inuyasha could no longer sense it at all. She pulled in a shaky breath and her voice let out in a breathy whisper.

"It's you."

Inuyasha took a few more steps closer to her but kept his distance. He tried to look as non-threatening as possible not only because she could purify him into the next world, but so he could get a closer look at her. She was still breathing heavily from the energy she expended, but she didn't look any worse for wear. Her hair had tendrils pulled from the bun it was secured in and they surrounded her face in wisps. Her brown eyes were wide with shock initially, but then they narrowed in suspicion.

"Are you a demon?" The question startled Inuyasha. How could a miko of her caliber ask such a question? Especially one who could so easily see through the powerful illusion that cloaked Inuyasha's true form?

His hesitation to answer led her to close the gap between them.

"You are a demon aren't you? There are really demons here. I thought I was going crazy. When I saw you this morning I thought you are cosplaying, but who the hell cosplays at eight in the morning? Are your ears real? They look so soft." As if to punctuate the word soft she raised her arms and gripped both of Inuyasha's ears in her hands. Her touch was tender as she rubbed his ears and he felt a jolt of electricity that shot straight to his groin that made him jerk right out of her grasp.

"W-what the fuck are you doing?!" Inuyasha growled out at her. He hoped that the shadows hid the blush from her human eyes. No one had touched his ears since his mother had passed and he surely wasn't going to allow this human girl to fondle them.

"Oh, I'm sorry."

At least she has the decency to look as embarrassed as I feel.

Kagome hadn't stepped away from him when she let go of his ears. She barely stood a few inches from him and her scent was now surrounding them. Inuyasha took a deep breath before he responded, trying to satisfy a curiosity he had since their chance meeting only hours before. Although the memory had faded with time Inuyasha could still remember that Kikyo had smelled like tall grass and fresh rain. The girl in front of him however held the fragrance of fresh strawberries and sunshine, like a summer breeze in a field of wildflowers. One breath wasn't enough for him though and Inuyasha took another deep breath before he spoke next. Layering over her natural scent was the smell of her blood and he could see the red trickle of liquid at her hairline by her forehead.

"Did he attack you?" Inuyasha nodded toward the body of the demon in the alley. Kagome brought a hand up to swipe at her cheek and neck where Inuyasha could see there was a trail of saliva. He could feel anger bubbling up within him at this low level demon scum who dared make a claim upon this girl.

"He pulled me into the alley and I hit my head on the wall. I-I think he was going to eat me?" Kagome's voice was soft, such a contrast from the marathon of words she had spoken before. "I didn't know what to do, I was so scared. I don't know what happened. One minute I'm holding my grandpa's sutras and the next everything turned pink and he was burning up. Did I….Was it me that did that?" She glanced back at the body before looking directly into Inuyasha's eyes.

He could see the sincerity in her deep brown eyes. So she really didn't mean to kill the demon. From everything she said, it sounded as if she didn't know that demons exist let alone that she had the spiritual power to purify them. This changed everything. Who was this woman who looked so much like the priestess Inuyasha had loved so long ago?

Inuyasha was torn between following procedure and hiding this woman from the demon authorities. She probably wouldn't get in too much trouble if the dead demon had attacked her first, but she killed him and the demon council didn't look kindly on mikos who dispensed justice without trial. In fact the demon council didn't look kindly on spirituals at all. Especially the powerful ones. And a powerful miko who had no knowledge or control was someone they might try to do away with under the radar.

"You need to get out of here." Inuyasha pulled a business card from his pocket. "The demon authorities will be here soon and they can't find you here. They'll take you into custody and I won't be able to help you." He felt how soft her fingers were when her hand brushed his to take the card.

"I don't understand."

"Just go. They'll be here soon." Inuyasha pushed her arm out of his grasp toward the entrance of the alleyway, hoping both that she would follow his direction, but also that she would stay.

Kagome walked away from him and cast a long look over her shoulder before she disappeared from his sight. Inuyasha could hear her footsteps gathering speed and he knew that she was running off in the other direction. He took another deep breath of her scent before turning to the charred corpse in the alley. He already knew the story he would put in his report and hoped that it would be enough to cast a shadow over Kagome.

Bing

An unfamiliar alert popped up on Inuyasha's phone. He quickly recognized it as the app Shippo uploaded earlier in the day. It was reading off the last known location of the power source they were hunting. Apparently the power had surged powerfully once again barely a few minutes ago. In the exact location Inuyasha was currently standing in.

Inuyasha looked out into the direction Kagome had run off to.

Kagome was the power source.