AN: Won't be updating for awhile, because I've got exams all next week. But I'll be typing chapter 6 and will have it posted afterwards. The whole plot (if there is one) of this fic will reveal itself soon, it just takes quite awhile. And Silver Bright's question about fangs, well, lots of people have those pointed canines. Miroku and Kagome just called them fangs because they were paranoid that Inu-Yasha was a vampire. If you look at Avril Lavigne, she's got 'fangs'. So that kind of thing isn't so serious (or is it?). And I'm changing the summary of this because I already say how Kagome becomes a vampire hunter (don't really like saying 'slayer' because it gets all Buffy-ish) in the first chapter, so…but that's not important. Anyway, enough of my babbling. Yura makes an appearance! Kagome kicks ass! And Inu-Yasha is reminded of the past…uh, enjoy the next chapter. ^_^
The Race Against Darkness
Miroku yawned loudly as he laced up his sneakers. It was barely dawn, and around this time he was either fast asleep or trying to spy on the landlady's daughter while she was taking a shower. He didn't even know how Kagome had talked him into this. Now he was standing in front of Kagome's house while she stretched. Man I hope he comes soon…
She was doing lunges on the sidewalk. He didn't bother stretching, since he always found it hard to sit afterwards. It wasn't like he was going to survive this jogging excursion anyway, not with Kagome hyped up about beating Yura.
"Come on, Miroku, stretch!" she ordered, now raising her arms over her head. Miroku grumbled and half-heartedly bent to touch his toes. It was a bad move, since being so low to the ground made him sleepy again. He found himself closing his eyes…
Kagome stopped doing twists when she saw Miroku bent over, unmoving. It looked like he was stretching, only he'd been in the same position a minute ago. She walked over to him and heard snoring. He had fallen asleep. "Miroku! Get up!" She stomped on his toe, which made him jerk up and look around him blearily.
"Oh no, the sadist is coming too?" an annoyed voice from behind them broke through Kagome's scolding. They turned around to see Inu-Yasha decked out in jogging gear, his normal I'm-too-good-for-you expression on his face. "Miroku, you didn't mention this."
Kagome glanced at Miroku. "You invited him?"
Miroku shrugged. "Hey, it's not like I'm going to survive jogging with you. It might be a light walk in the park for you, but it's suicide for me. I thought having someone with the same level of fitness would be fun, especially after I pass out from exhaustion."
"That's so sweet," she said dryly. "I'm glad to see you took my interests at heart."
It was two weeks after the incident at Kagome's . The regionals were in another two weeks. They had both been training their behinds off, both with their teams and with Myouga. Kagome had noticed that ever since 'that night,' talking to Inu-Yasha was a lot easier. In fact, they trained together more often. Sometimes Inu-Yasha would go jogging with her, and sometimes Kagome would watch him play soccer with the other guys and critique him (in her own mean way) when he was done.
Kagome adjusted the arm bands around her wrists. Inu-Yasha's eyes caught the movement and he asked, "How's the arm doing?"
She made a face as she pulled an arm band back, revealing a tender scar. "Now people come up to me and ask me if I'm suicidal. It's going to take some serious scar treatment to remove this thing." Vampire bites were not pleasant things. Aside from hurting, they also had after effects that lasted days. It seemed to amplify the effects of the alcohol, since she'd had a week-long hangover that made Inu-Yasha and Miroku stay away from her for a few days.
"Well, it's your fault for freezing up. Next time I won't be around to save you," he said importantly. He leaned against the gate of Kagome's house and began doing some calf stretches. After a few minutes he stood up.
Her arms were folded across her chest. "I was doing fine without you. Did you not notice the big silver arrow I had jammed into his shoulder?"
His eyes narrowed. "You should have killed him right there on the spot."
"Yes, because strong vampires are so easy to kill!" she argued. "Especially vampires that are the reason for my traumatized childhood. It's not so easy, bigshot. I'm not as strong as Kikyo, and I know that!"
"No, you aren't," he agreed.
"Oh yeah, how do you know?"
He glared at her darkly. "Because I do. Now are we going jogging or not?"
Miroku groaned inwardly. Watching them argue was a lot better than jogging around the entire country, which was what Kagome's mapped out track looked like.
They started jogging in silence. Kagome kept her eyes pointed ahead of her, and so did Inu-Yasha. Miroku was between them, just in case they tried to trip each other. Ten minutes into jogging he was already tired. "Hope you guys aren't planning on going to college, because if my lungs burst and I need a transplant, I don't have any insurance and someone's gotta pay for it."
"Keep it up, Miroku," Kagome huffed. "In a few weeks you'll be all buff and a sure girl magnet."
"I already am one," he blinked, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
Miroku's agony didn't last for long, however. Just before leaving the suburbs and entering the countryside, they came across a girl dressed in a t-shirt and shorts sitting on the side of the road. "Oh, can you guys please help me?" she asked in a helpless tone. "I think I've twisted my ankle." She turned her body so that it was facing them. "Can one of you guys check?"
Miroku lifted his eyes to the sky. 'There is a god," he breathed. He lowered his head and looked at his two friends. "You guys go on ahead, I can't turn away a damsel in distress." Grinning at the girl, he knelt beside her and placed a hand on her leg. "Now what seems to be the trouble?"
Inu-Yasha scowled and opened his mouth to say something, but Kagome tugged on his shirt. There was no use stopping Miroku once a pretty girl was involved. Finally Inu-Yasha gave up and continued jogging with Kagome.
Half an hour, after walking on a dirt road and trudging up a slight hill, Kagome and Inu-Yasha stopped on top of it and took a rest. Breathing hard, Kagome drank some water from the bottle she'd brought. She looked at Inu-Yasha and noticed he didn't carry one. "For crying out loud…did you forget to bring water?"
"Hmph. I don't drink when I jog. Gives me a stitch."
"You can't jog without having water," she argued.
"Try me."
Kagome scanned the countryside. Once down the other side of the hill, the trail was winding over an uneven height of land. Then it disappeared behind a field of long grass. In the middle of the field there was a large stone, jutting out from the grass.
She caught Inu-Yasha's eyes, then flicked her gaze toward the stone. And Inu-Yasha understood. He smirked at her. Three beats passed before anything happened.
Then they both sprinted down the hill at the same time. Kagome shot down, the wind whipping around her face. The band that had been loosely holding her hair back was blown away by the wind, making it swirl around her head. They kept an even pace, at least until they reached the rolling land.
Kagome did cross-country and track; she knew how to deal with uphills and downhills. Inu-Yasha was a soccer player, and was used to playing on flat ground. The unevenness of the land made him slow down, while Kagome cleared it with ease.
In the grass, Inu-Yasha caught up by pushing past the grass. Kagome had to claw her way through. Bit by bit they headed for the stone, the finish line.
Inu-Yasha touched it first. Actually, he tripped over a raised part of the rock hidden by the grass. As he fell flat on his face, Kagome rushed past him (carefully climbing over the rock) and touched the raised stone. "Yay, I won!" she cheered.
"Na-uh!" Inu-Yasha protested. "My toe touched it first."
"Did we not agree that we had to touch the rock with our hands?" Kagome gave him her own smirk, which was a good imitation of his own.
"Ah yes, somewhere during our telepathic conversation I'm sure we discussed it," he said sarcastically. "Because it was so clear, that's right. I'm pretty sure it was whoever got to the rock first."
"You just don't want me to win!" she grumbled. "Fine, let's call it a tie because you're so whiny." She sat down on the rock and leaned against its wall. "And because I'm too thirsty to argue."
Inu-Yasha was suddenly aware of how dry his mouth was. He couldn't remember his throat ever being so parched—that was because he usually ran on a soccer field, and not around the countryside on the hottest parts of the day.
She saw his expression and smiled slyly. "You want water, right?"
He sniffed. "No way!" But as he swallowed, he realized how thick his throat felt…
"You do!" she crowed triumphantly. "If you just admit it, I might give you some. Come on, Inu-Yasha, you can't be macho all the time." She tilted her head back towards the sun. "Mm…I can just imagine some crystal cool water pouring down this dry throat of mine…"
"Okay, okay!" Inu-Yasha snapped. "Kagome, could I please—" he paused. He couldn't remember when he'd ever had to say please, not in his entire life. But she was really bugging him, and it really was hot… "Can I please have some water?"
Kagome craned her neck and looked at him, a small smile on her face. "I forgot it back there. You'll have to walk back if you want some."
"…I would so love to kill you right now…"
"Heh heh. Take a number, pal."
* * *
Finally after weeks of training, the day of the regionals arrived. Unfortunately, Inu-Yasha refused to convince the cheerleaders to make "Die, Yura, Die!" posters, so Kagome had nothing to show when the rival schools arrived on school grounds, except for a nicely timed one-finger salute aimed at her archenemy when none of the teachers were looking.
Kagome had managed to put the incident with the black-haired vampire behind her (for now) as she was concentrating on winning. Before any of the competitions started, all the athletes gathered in the gym for an orientation meeting. She wandered through the throng, searching for either Miroku or Inu-Yasha, when she bumped into someone in front of her. "Oops! Sorry—" her apology faded when she saw who it was.
Inu-Yasha didn't have any problems finding Kagome, as soon as he saw some serious battle aura sparking near the middle of the gym. A crowd was forming around the center, and Inu-Yasha, being really tall, could see the heads of two dark-haired girls. He pushed his way through the spectators until he was standing behind Kagome.
"Yura…" Kagome smiled evilly. Inu-Yasha swore that if Kagome had claws, she would have swiped them threateningly at her rival. Or at least flashed them in the light.
"Kagome…" A very curvy girl with chin length hair replied, also grinning. She kept twining a long piece of what looked like hair around her fingers. Personally Inu-Yasha thought that was really gross, since it couldn't possibly be her hair and had to be someone else's, but then it took a weird person to catch Kagome's attention anyway.
"Is this Yura?" Inu-Yasha's voice made Kagome pivot slowly and face him, the evil smile unfading. Brrrr… "Wow, I don't see what's wrong with her. She's hot."
She cocked her head to the side, as if she couldn't believe what she was hearing (she probably didn't.) "Are you serious? Do you want both your legs broken before your soccer match?"
The other girl stopped twisting the hair and ran it slowly across her bottom lip. Inu-Yasha gave an involuntary shudder. "You know this girl? Isn't she such a spaz-out?" her voice was calm, and ever so teasing, but not openly malicious even if her words were. Now he knew why she pissed Kagome off so much.
Kagome stamped her foot. "I'm not a spaz-out!" she hissed. "Listen Yura, if you think you're going to beat me again you're so wrong. I am going to fry your ass over the barbecue and feed it to your school—" she began to launch into a fairly detailed description of what more she would do to Yura's ass when Inu-Yasha reached over and clamped his hand over her mouth.
"Okay, I think the purpose of this orientation is to make friends with other people, Kagome-chan, not make more enemies." He felt Kagome squirm angrily under his grasp and grinned. He loved patronizing her, since it ticked her off so much.
Yura began twisting the hair around her hand so that it formed a band. The look of disgust on Inu-Yasha's face was inevitable (She's keeping it?!). "You'll keep her on her leash, won't you?" she asked Inu-Yasha sweetly. "And after she's tied up, come and join me in the cafeteria before the tournament. You wanted to make friends, right?" With a wink at Inu-Yasha, she turned and walked away from the circle, the crowd parting like the Red Sea for her.
"Oor suh a oosur!" Kagome's muffled voice came through Inu-Yasha's hand.
He released her. "I'm sorry, what was that?"
"I said you're such a loser! You're supposed to be on my side." Kagome whirled around and walked briskly through the crowd. "I knew you'd be a traitor. One look at her cleavage and you're a goner."
He followed her. "I wasn't looking at her cleavage, stupid. I was too busy recoiling in horror at that hair strand she kept playing with."
"Well, now you know, Yura's obsessed with long hair. She took a whole chunk of mine out last year. I don't know what else she does with it, she goes around licking it and she probably flosses with it too…" As if checking to make sure she still had her hair, Kagome brushed her hand through her raven hair.
Inu-Yasha stopped, then folded his arms with an interested smirk. "Kagome Higurashi, if I didn't know better I'd say you were jealous. A handsome hunk like me, with your gorgeous archenemy? It's enough to bust your brains."
"Hah! Don't kid yourself." Kagome turned around and glared Inu-Yasha in the eye, but she couldn't wipe the smirk off his face. With a snarl she pushed past him and headed out the door, orientation meeting forgotten.
* * *
"On your mark…get set…go!"
Flag went down, gun went off. It didn't really matter so much, since this was a long course across the hill and forest behind the school. But Kagome sprang up the moment she saw the smoke poof out from the gun. She shot ahead of the other girls, and they were soon far behind when she exited the school grounds and headed for the forest.
She was climbing her second hill when she heard soft laughter behind her. Kagome didn't dare turn her head, in case she lost her step. "Go away, Yura."
"But you sped off so fast…I was worried that you might be out of wind." Yura's silky voice only grated on Kagome's nerves and gave her more anger to fuel her. Instead of replying bitingly, she increased her speed and the distance between her and Yura, at least until they got into the forest.
Kagome picked her way through the fallen branches, still keeping an even pace. She was so focused on staying in front and staying ahead that she didn't notice the shadows that lurked behind the tree trunks, watching her every step.
Meanwhile, Inu-Yasha was playing serious ball during his opening game. In his opinion, his teammates were a bunch of incompetent giants who were only good for making new people run through the cafeteria in their jockstraps. Soccer was supposed to be for limber people, not big guys the size of barricades! Although that was probably really good for a goalie position…
"Pass, you moron!" he yelled at his other forward, who was stomping his way through the field with the ball. The forward narrowed his eyes and kicked the ball towards Inu-Yasha. It soared through the air and nearly took his head off. He cursed and began dribbling it towards the goal. He made eye contact with the goalie, who bent forward and braced himself. "You're mine, sucker," Inu-Yasha muttered, and swung his foot. The ball soared through the air, brushed against the goalie's shoulder and hit the net.
Cheers erupted from the bleachers. Inu-Yasha automatically glanced toward the sidelines for Kagome's criticism, but then he remembered she was in her own battle. Hmm…wonder how she's doing…he mused to himself as he jogged back to the middle. But it's not like I really care.
Suddenly the speakers that had been set up around school announced, "And for our cross country girls news, Kagome Higurashi and Yura Konaya are already in the middle of the forest! Those two are really matched in speed and endurance. Who will emerge the victor?"
"Hopefully Kagome…" Inu-Yasha muttered as a teammate passed him the ball to start the game. "Or training with her's gonna be so unpleasant."
* * *
She was going to win this time…she was going to win this time…
Kagome's thoughts were so driven into this one statement that she had no time to react when a figure from behind a tree jumped on her and pulled her out of the course. She had only time to gasp as more figures jumped down from treetops and grabbed her arms and her waist.
One of the figures bared its teeth—a vampire. Kagome struggled for awhile, then realized something and asked, "Why aren't you exploding?! It's daytime!"
"It's a gift Naraku-sama has bestowed on us," he answered, "So that we could capture you."
"Kagome!" Yura was running towards her. "What on earth is happening? Who are this creatures?" They turned on her and bared their fangs. Yura stopped and took a step back, screaming. "What are they?"
With Yura as a distraction, Kagome was able to wrestle free. She flipped forward, delivering a scissor kick to a vampire in front of her. "Yura, get out of here." She bent down and picked up a thick branch, which she snapped in half to make a jagged edge. Five seconds and a glowing piece of wood later, she faced the vampires.
"But—"
"Go, dammit!" A vampire lunged at her. Kagome slammed his nose with her heel, but he spun around and kicked her sideways in the ribs. As she fell forward she struck his chest with the purified wood. The crunch of leaves told her that Yura was running fast—maybe towards the finish line. Damn. Stupid vampires. They totally ruined my chances of winning first place!...They're so gonna pay.
One of them started running after Yura. After a brief second of contemplating whether she should let Yura be eaten, and deciding not to, Kagome flung the stake towards the vampire's back. It hit him right where the heart was. She felt another one run up behind her, and she elbowed him hard. He flew back and landed on the ground, and Kagome skewered him with a stick.
But these vampires, though similar to the ones who'd cornered her in the alley, were strong—perhaps Naraku had given them more powers than just being able to stay in sunlight. That reminded her, she should probably ask. "Who's Naraku?" she demanded, dodging a punch aimed at her face.
"Naraku's our master," one of them replied, trying to kick her and ending up with his leg entwined around a branch. "He has orders for us to bring you to him." A wicked smile. "He says your brother misses you."
Kagome stopped. So her black-haired vampire had a name.
This distraction allowed the vampire to deliver a sharp punch with the back of his fist. Kagome reeled back. She picked up another piece of wood and clenched it. Before it could be fully purified, another demon planted his foot into her stomach. She reeled backwards and slammed into a tree trunk. As she tried to break free, the foot dug in deeper, and the pain became stronger.
She coughed out blood. Her eyes flashed, and she lifted the now glowing piece of wood. Holding it like the handle of a sword, she dug it deep into the vampire's forehead. He screamed, and as was usual for vampires when they were impaled with a stake, exploded. But another one came, and with a relishing laugh, twisted her arm so it nearly broke.
Kagome bit her lip to keep from crying out. Already a trickle of blood was flowing down her nose. Be swift like Kikyo, she told herself, pushing herself off the tree trunk and launching herself at a vampire. You'll never get to avenge her—or your brother—if you can't defeat them now.
But Naraku must have been very strong, for the powers that he granted his minions were strong. Every time Kagome killed one there were two more to take his place. Eventually she found herself growing weaker, and unconsciously began calling for help in her mind. Or back-up.
More specifically, Inu-Yasha.
* * *
His game had ended fifteen minutes ago…they'd won, of course. Like anyone could get past their giant goalie. He moved slow, but his body took up half the goal And Inu-Yasha's playing made up for the lack of good players on the field.
As he was dousing himself with water (the cheerleaders were drooling) Miroku approached him. "Good game," he said. "Has Kagome finished her run?"
"Dunno, haven't heard the results yet." Just as he spoken, the crackle from the speakers sounded, and a voice announced, "We have a winner! Yura Konaya has just crossed the finish line for the girl's cross country race! She's a fast runner...and she's still running! Is that a record, coaches?"
Miroku winced. "Crap. I'll never hear the end of it. Come on, help me subdue her. You're much stronger than me."
"Hang on." Inu-Yasha removed his sweaty shirt (the cheerleaders were beyond drooling) and stuffed it in his duffel bag. After drying himself with a small towel, (the cheerleaders were all scrambling for a camera) he put on a clean one. "Although maybe I shouldn't have changed, since Kagome'll get it all bloody again in her rage." Mutters from the cheerleaders were in agreement that he should change right back.
They walked slowly towards the finish line of the cross country. Before they even got there, they saw a girl sprinting around. "Has anyone seen Miroku? Or a guy with long black hair?" she was asking frantically. It was Yura, and she looked extremely frantic. Her eyes scanned the area and fell on the two. She ran towards them. "Hey! I need to talk to you! Remember me?"
"Yeah, Yura," Miroku said. "Where's Kagome?"
"She got assaulted in the forest by these…these horrible creatures! I don't know what they were, but they had these big fangs that…" Yura stopped and pressed a hand to her mouth. "There were so many…I don't know if she made it. She told me to run," she added half-defensively. She dug into her shorts pocket and pulled out a few strands of hair, then cradled them against her cheek. Miroku's lip curled in disgust and he took a step back.
"Show me where," Inu-Yasha said shortly. He dug into his duffel bag and pulled out what looked like a really skinny sword.
"But I can't go back—"
"Show me where!" he shouted. Yura squeaked and began sprinting back from the direction she came from. Inu-Yasha followed, close on her heels.
He was at a distance when he saw the puff that meant a vampire had exploded. But there were so many of them, and he couldn't see Kagome at all…For some reason alarm rushed through him, and memories from before came back to haunt him.
Not again, I won't let this happen again…
He drew Tetsusaiga. The glowing sword made the vampires look up. As he ran closer, he could hear them snarling his name in surprise—and a little bit of fear. Good. Eyes wild, he sliced a random vampire in half. There was no way history would repeat itself…
"Naraku has said to dispose of you," a vampire close to him hissed. "Unless of course, you'd like to stand back and watch. You seem to be very good at that." They all laughed at his joke.
Anger rushed through him. So it was Naraku who'd been up to all this! Again! His eyes flashed angrily, and he swiped off the demon's head. They all sprang upon him. In his blind rage, he defeated them easily. Through the figures he could see girl leaning against a tree, a piece of wood in her hands glowing. So Kagome really wasn't weak…she was still strong enough to fight…like she had been…
Inu-Yasha killed most of the vampires, but there were a few who escaped. He wasn't surprised that they could run in full sunlight—Naraku had that much power that he could give to his servants. Sliding Tetsusaiga back into its sheath, he rushed toward Kagome, who'd just killed her vampire by embedding her stake into his heart. Before he reached her, she slumped towards the ground.
The first words she said was, "His name's Naraku…"
"I know. Don't talk first." Inu-Yasha surveyed the damages. Cuts and bruises lined her face, and blood trickled from her lips. Her arm hung limply at her side, and her other one rested over her stomach. She had one black eye, and her fingers had a few splinters.
He noticed that with every breath she took, she winced. "Is anything broken?" He ran his fingers lightly down her ribcage—an action which made her blush. "Any major bleeding wounds that should probably be treated now before you bleed to death?" His hand traveled up to her temple, where an ugly gash had split, and brushed her hair away from the wound. When he looked back down at her face, she was smiling. "What?"
"You're being nice to me," she said weakly.
"Feh. I'm always nice to you. I'm a nice person, that's why I save your ass all the time."
Kagome wanted to protest, but Inu-Yasha's hands roaming around her body, checking for injuries, was really messing with her brain. Hopefully he wouldn't notice the speeding heartbeat…since when did her heartbeat race, anyway? When she was doing sports, yeah, but…
She allowed herself to talk only when he was done. "Are you OK? You looked pretty murderous out there. Nothing like I've seen in training."
A shadow crossed his face. "I know Naraku. I—my sensei and I—have had a lot of trouble with him in the past. And I didn't want to see you hurt—" he stopped.
"Aww, you care about me. Aren't you the sweetest teddy bear?"
"Don't push your luck. Why couldn't they slice up your tongue or something?"
Kagome wanted to reply, but then Yura approached them. "Wow, Kagome, you got beat up bad," she commented rather intelligently.
"No kidding." Kagome's eyes fell on the 1st place ribbon that had been hurriedly pinned on Yura's shirt. "I can't believe I lost again! This sucks!" She glared witheringly at Yura. "If those vampires hadn't ambushed me I would have beaten you. You know I'm better. Why, why didn't I let them just kill you?" She continued fuming under her breath, and Inu-Yasha gave Yura a look that said maybe she should go. She did.
"Hey, where the heck are you going?!" Kagome shot to her feet, then swayed dizzily and fell backwards—on Inu-Yasha. She lifted her right foot carefully and prodded her ankle. "You forgot to mention that my ankle seems sprained," she told Inu-Yasha irritably.
He looked down. "Oh, sorry. Your ankle looks sprained."
"And your brain lacks size." Kagome pushed herself off him and took a few baby steps. "If I find a walking stick, I'll be okay." She searched around the grounds, and saw only little twigs. Then she remembered she'd had to get her wooden stakes from somewhere, and anything that could have passed for a walking stick was now ash on the ground.
Inu-Yasha, who'd also been examining the forest floor, realized what the only option was and sighed in defeat. "Fine, fine, I'll carry you. But you'd better hope you're not too heavy. I just played a big game."
"Not to fish for a sympathy vote or anything, but I just fought some really strong vampires that stayed intact in the sun." In case Inu-Yasha decided to sprint away and leave her abandoned, Kagome hopped over behind Inu-Yasha's back and placed her hands on the back of his shoulders. Surprisingly he bent down, allowing Kagome to jump up, and tucked his arms around the backs of her knees.
She winced when she hopped on, every part of her body was sore. But then she was able to wrap her arms around Inu-Yasha's neck, and he didn't seem to mind. He started walking back towards the school.
The steady rhythm that he walked in made Kagome drowsy. Before she could stop herself, her head lulled forward and dropped beside Inu-Yasha's, her chin on his shoulder.
He almost shoved her head back up, but when he saw Kagome's eyes closed, and felt her light breathing against his neck, he stopped himself. She isn't really a bad person—unconscious, that is, he added dryly. But he was thinking of something else…that Kagome had been injured because of him. Why else would Naraku's servants attack her?
Too many old memories were being brought up. He wouldn't allow them to. Even if it was Kagome, he couldn't let the past repeat itself.
