Mastering Chemistry

by BillytheBee

Obtaining a higher education in Chemistry is a grueling process. It becomes nearly impossible when the Master's student of a research lab is chaotic and masochistic. Naraku is used to new lab assistants running away, but the new one shrugs most of his torments away. His harassing ways turn darker once he dives deeper into his research and he's dragging the new assistant with him.

39. Refusal and Denial

Refusal and Denial

AN - Thank you to my readers. This story has certainly gone on longer than I originally planned, but no matter how frustrated I become with it, it still ends up being fun overall. I hope you feel the same.

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The descent into darkness was much easier now. It took months of practice and luckily when he was institutionalized, he was left alone to practice for hours a day unless he had to attend a therapy session or a meeting with his lawyer, detectives, or agents. Unfortunately, despite having way more freedom in the apartment, he still felt trapped and he certainly didn't feel like he really belonged there. Jade did everything she could, more than she should have, but he could still sense her wariness of him. Sango was being more accommodating than he ever thought possible, but she was always watching him, waiting for him to fuck up so she could have a reason to tell Jade she told her so. Kagome was the one of the three he interacted with the least and it was not on his end. She actively avoided him. He understood.

Around him, countless balls of faint, white light floated. He was tempted to grab onto a few to take a ride through someone else's memory, but he resisted this time. Every light was a fragment of a random person's memory. He had yet to come across the same person twice nor had he come across anyone familiar. Living someone else's life, even for just a few minutes, was how he kept himself sane in the institution. It was also how he began to learn about himself and the disaster of a person he had become. He already knew he was, but seeing the sheer magnitude was a wake-up call. The fact that he was once proud of it was a whole other barrel of bullshit he didn't want to open yet.

'The lower I sink, the older the memories become,' he remembered, resisting the urge to grab another light that hovered within his reach. His eyes searched for another color of light - purple. He saw a faint glow of it the last time he was here, but Jade had pulled him from his slumber in an attempt to engage him in some hobbies. He knew she meant well, but he hoped she wouldn't do it again this time.

There it finally was. Naraku was uncertain of how much time had passed, but he could see the purple glow now. He could only guess that it was connected with the orb.

'Interesting.' Naraku thought when he finally entered the purple light and was now seeing balls of black shadow instead of white. 'I would bet those are connected to the orb.'

His instincts screamed at him to wake up and not touch the tainted shadows, but for once, it wasn't just his curiosity that motivated him to stay, but also his desire to find a way to make it all stop so that he and Jade could finally move on. For that to happen, he had to know. His hand reached for the nearest one and touched it. It flared red and so did the innumerous others around him.

'Shit!' Naraku braced himself and his mind was treated to an onslaught of countless memories flooding him at once. They flashed by in seconds, giving him brief glimpses of scenes of a forest, of being suspended underwater, of a laboratory where Naraku recognized his mother tongue before the next scene flashed and showed him people running, screaming as they were attacked, but he could not see by what because it was from the perspective of the attacker. So many more memories came and went that he tried to shut his mind off from trying to comprehend all of them, but then he saw Jade crying, pleading with him, but it was unfamiliar to him. As far as he knew, that never happened.

"I wondered when I would find you here," The calm voice was his and immediately he was floating in darkness once again. In front of him was his clone - the one with red eyes. "I figured you would have tried this much sooner."

"Ah, if it isn't the Shikon no Tama," Naraku replied. The Other Naraku snorted lightly. "I thought Jade had you locked away."

"Hm. You pests are actually intelligent sometimes." The Other Naraku suddenly looked irritated. "She has. However, even she cannot sever my link to this. It is all I am able to do while locked away in my little prison."

"I can actually sympathize," he admitted. "Is there a reason some of them are linked and some are not?"

"The ones that are linked are ones experienced by extensions, so those of us connected can see them all and operate as a unit."

"I see."

"Are you also looking for one in particular or are you simply browsing?"

"Browsing. Good luck finding the one you want."

"Yes, well, I am far more efficient at this than you. Besides, I am certain it is no longer here and instead resides within Jade's mind."

"What makes you think that?" Naraku asked, now clenching his hands. He knew he couldn't unravel her from this mess, but if she had something they wanted, it meant she was still a target. Why could they not focus on him instead?

"She mentioned having a dream about something that happened centuries ago. It was something I never showed her and never would show her because it might give her ideas and unsurprisingly, it did. She is smart." the Other Naraku said with clear disdain.

'She is terribly smart. I wonder what she saw.'

"And, thanks to you, I wish for her to talk to me even though I hate her. How do you deal with these conflicting feelings?"

"You are asking the wrong person if you want help navigating feelings." Naraku retorted with a chuckle. He cared not for its plight. He hoped it would suffer for eternity. "Even if it did give her ideas, she is harmless. She cannot and will not do anything about it unless she is forced to."

"She will be forced to. I have no say in this matter. My progenitor is unhappy to learn that an extension-" He pointed to himself. "-is able to operate outside its control. Jade's blood is the catalyst and she cannot exist, even in memory."

Naraku could not hold back the anger. "She has not done anything!"

"Her blood can be weaponized. This happened before and we were forced into dormancy for centuries. Time does not mean much to us, but any delay in our plans is quite annoying. We do not allow our problems to grow if we can stop them."

"Jade is not your concern. I am."

The Other Naraku let out a laugh. "Please. If I am ever freed from my prison, you belong to me."

"No, I do not."

"We shall see. I cannot be held back forever." the Other Naraku countered. "I imagine you will need me sooner rather than later."

"Is there something I need to know about in the near future?"

The Other Naraku looked away and one corner of his mouth turned upward. "No."

"You do me a disservice when you lie so transparently. Regardless, I will cross that bridge when I reach it."

"Oh, so even you have your doubts?"

"I am not stupid. I know this isn't over and I know that I will be forced to act. I also know that my life is likely limited now."

"It does not have to be. Release me, recruit Jade, and we might have a fighting chance."

"I will not have you making things worse. Jade is terrified of me enough without you."

"Is that really my fault?" he asked slyly.

Naraku clenched his teeth. "You did not help."

The Other Naraku rolled his eyes and let out a long, exasperated breath. "As much as I despise her, I need her. My progenitor wishes to reabsorb me as I am now a threat and I do not care much for that idea. Jade's blood is quite essential to my survival, so I have no reason to discard her."

"I will not allow you to weaponize her!"

"We may have no other choice."

"There has to be another way. It cannot rest solely on Jade."

His doppelganger rolled his eyes dramatically and let out a groan of contempt. "She will not be allowed to roam freely as long as I am contained."

"Are there no other people with blood similar to hers?"

"Perhaps. It seems rather rare, whatever it is."

"So, even you do not know?"

"No. We tried to investigate the last one who had similar blood." He shifted around and shook his head. "It did not go well."

"Did that person have a similar personality, by any chance?"

"Not really. A few similar traits here and there, but overall, they are different. I have my theories, of course, but as of now, no confirmations. Regardless, no matter how much you protest, no matter what you do, no matter how much Jade pretends it is not her problem anymore, she will be in danger."

Even the orb had noticed Jade's distinct lack of acknowledgement of the situation? That didn't bode well. Anytime he tried to bring it up with her, she would listen, but ultimately would wave his concerns away and change the subject. He didn't blame her, but he didn't want her to be blindsided because she preferred to shove her head in the sand.

"It matters not to me. Sooner or later, this world will be remade into something better. If you were smart, you would listen to me and I might refrain from doing so until after you die."

"This world is fucked enough without your help, thank you."

"We preserve what we take and give it a new purpose. That makes us less destructive than you."

"How amusing," Naraku said abruptly with a smirk.

"What?"

"The cognitive dissonance that you just demonstrated is impressive. You speak of the absorbing and preservation process as if it's nothing and describe it as better than destruction, and yet you don't wish to be reabsorbed, preserved, and repurposed within your originator. Why is that, I wonder?"

The Other Naraku looked irritated, but he said nothing and disappeared from Naraku's sight. He decided it was best to wake up now. Though he still didn't know as much as he wanted, he still received more information than he aimed for. He had no hopes for changing the mind of the Other Naraku, but all he needed to do was plant a seed of doubt to possibly change something in his favor. Would the seed grow and sprout? Unlikely, but it was planted, which meant something was possible. Naraku had accomplished plenty with less of a chance of success than that, so it was no hassle for him either way.

His eyes opened and he was back in Jade's room, stretched out on her bed. He remained still and quiet, waiting for his mind to collect itself. The scurrying and bickering of the two guinea pigs on the other side of the room caught his attention first. When he moved slightly to see what they were upset about, he saw it was all over a bed. Even though there were two others exactly like it in the cage, they both thought this particular one was the chosen one of beds and that they must have it.

After a few minutes of quiet, minus the guinea pig bed wars, Naraku glanced at the clock beside the bed and saw that it was past midnight, and yet he hadn't heard Jade come home from work. There had been a few times where she stayed late to hang out with her other friends, but she hadn't mentioned doing that this time. Silently, he argued with himself on whether or not to check to see if she just passed out in her uniform on the couch. Finally, he decided to check, and quietly opened the door. He saw a single lamp was on and Jade was sitting on the couch, arms wrapped around her knees and face hidden. His chest tightened when he heard a faint sob.

'Why is she crying?' he wondered, walking out of her room. He moved slowly, not wanting to scare her, but he didn't want to get close to her and scare her that way, either. Once he entered the living room, he stopped.

"Jade," he called out.

"Yeah?" she answered, remaining still. He could tell she was trying to mask her voice to sound fine.

"Is something wrong?"

"No. I just have a headache."

'Liar.' Naraku approached her and knelt down in front of her, looking up at her arms.

"Do you need something to help?"

"It's alright. I think once I sleep, it'll go away."

"Will you actually sleep tonight?"

A few moments of silence passed between them before Jade finally held her head up to look at him. She studied him before tears welled up in her eyes once more, but she seemed to be fighting them.

"I…don't know. I'm out of beer and Koga didn't have weed tonight."

"Am I the reason you cannot sleep?"

"Huh? N-No, you-"

"Jade, you can be honest with me. I won't be angry."

Her hesitation was enough of an answer, but he waited patiently for her to compose herself. She squeezed her eyes shut. "I can't get the images of you trying to strangle me out of my head!" she said while grimacing. "I know it wasn't really you, and nothing even really happened, but it still scared me!"

'Is that where the memory of her crying and pleading came from?' It was a brief glimpse, but it was branded into his mind like he was there. Well, in a way, he was. Jade was usually aloof even when she was happy. Right now in front of him, she was restraining her expressions despite her distress. In that vision, though, she looked utterly terrified and it was actually making him feel nauseous.

"First, I do not agree with you that nothing really happened that night. You were almost killed and even in the face of danger, you risked yourself to help me. I can never thank you enough for that. Something happened and it was because of your bravery and quick thinking."

"I'm not really brave." Her breathing was erratic and tears were now flowing down her face, but something in her expression had changed. She didn't look as tense anymore. Her eyes remained locked with his.

"You would stand at the gates of Hell and ask for the Devil's lettuce." he insisted in a serious tone, smirking only when she finally broke free from her tears and giggled. "Second, if my presence bothers you to the point that you cannot sleep without drugs and alcohol, then perhaps we need to reevaluate our plan. I can leave and find-"

"No, no, no! I couldn't live with myself! I don't want that! I'm not scared of you!"

"I don't believe you." Naraku said, smiling briefly. "You should be scared of me. I have given you every possible reason to be."

"I'm not, though. I swear."

"You might not be as scared as you were, but you still are. I see it in your body language, your face, it explains why you've been so offbeat with me, and I heard Sango mention that you slept mostly fine until I came to live here, so I am inclined to believe that you are scared of me to some degree."

"I still don't want you to be homeless. I'll get over it."

"I have been before, so I know what I need to do to-"

"No." she insisted stubbornly, tears drying up completely.

"Alright. If that is truly what you want, then I am willing to keep trying. I do think it's time that you have your bed back. Allow me to sleep out here and you can lock your door."

"That's not…I don't think having my bed back would do much."

"You never know. The mind is a fickle thing."

"Yeah, you're not wrong." Jade dried her face with her sleeve. "I was having sleeping issues before you came here. They just got worse. It isn't like they came out of nowhere."

His eyes closed as he let out a sigh. Was she still trying to protect his feelings or was she telling the truth? Either way, it was clear she wasn't sleepy at that moment. "Would you like some tea?"

"Uh, sure."

Naraku boiled water and brewed some tea as Jade backwards in a chair at the table, watching him quietly. She would occasionally check her phone, but mostly kept her eyes on him. She didn't look upset or bored, but he couldn't quite tell what was going on in her head.

He used honey to sweeten the tea a bit. 'I suppose I could ask her.'

"Come outside with me," she said when he handed her a cup. He motioned for her to lead the way. They sat together on the bench on the patio and began to sip away. Jade chuckled playfully. "Why do you always make the best tea?"

"Hm? Do I?"

"To me, yeah."

"Your chili pepper tea is much better than this."

"Really?"

"Yes. I like it better than anything I've ever made."

"Whaaaat?" She stared at him incredulously. "Are you serious?"

"Mhm. There are many things you can do better."

"I knew you liked it, but not that much. Also, doubt. You're way more talented."

"Mmm," he hummed in disagreement while swallowing a drink of tea. "Your talents outweigh mine."

"Maybe we're good at things the other isn't, so combined, we create a cool, perfect, talented person."

"Combined? Do you mean like a Power Rangers Megazord, a cursed love-child, or us polymerizing into some Eldritch horror creature that has both of our faces, speaks with both of our voices, has four arms - I'm sure you get my drift,"

Her mouth had dropped open as she stared at him without blinking the entire time. She was smiling, too, so she was at the very least amused. She disguised a laugh as a cough and cleared her throat. "Bruh, I don't know if I should start with the fact that you know about Power Rangers or-"

"You mean the, "Sūpā Sentai Shirīzu?"" he asked with an exaggerated Japanese accent.

"Haha, yeah, that!"

"It was a popular series in Japan that was also made in Japan and I was born and raised in Japan, so the odds are that I, at the very least, have heard of them. I did watch it."

"Ah, that makes sense. Okay, the cursed love-child bit-"

"I had to think of three different ways for us to combine to make my joke better. Now that you're forcing me to explain it, it's less funny."

"Nope. It's still funny."

"But less so."

"Still a nope. I think it's funnier making you explain it. So, is the cursed love-child a girl or boy?"

"I don't know," he said with a shrug. "A girl, I suppose."

"Awww, does that mean you would want a daughter?"

"I don't want children, but sure?"

"Most guys, or at least the ones I know, want sons. They don't want to deal with girls' periods or whenever they start dating or girl stuff."

"Most men are idiots." he quipped, glancing at her. "Speaking from experience,"

"I'll say this much - dealing with you has been a ride, but at the very least, I don't have to deal with sexual harassment from you. Somehow, that shit is more obnoxious than ninety percent of what you've done to me."

That made Naraku balk. Frowning, he stared at her intensely. "Really?"

"Yeeeeeeeeees!" she said, her voice raw with irritation. She leaned back and stared up at the ceiling. "Dude, I can't explain how annoying it is - scary, sometimes."

"Is it because you're a woman in a gaming community?"

"Yeah. Back before I started streaming, I just played without a microphone because any time anyone online found out I was a chick, my inbox was assaulted with, "Wanna fuck?" and the occasional dick pic. Once I came into the spotlight, it got so bad. I was fifteen when I first made a name for myself at competitions and that was a fucking mess to deal with. I handled it, that's what I do, but I made sure I was with someone at all times at competitions. It's part of the reason I made The Pack with Koga - make a safe community. When I became a member, I couldn't have my own social media accounts for a while. I branched them off the main accounts so that the guys could just delete all the gross shit before I saw it. We made funny videos out of some of the shit, but a lot of it was terrible. I've seen Koga cry three times in all the years I've known him - once was his father dying, another was his dog dying, and the last was him having to tell me about this one specific dude who was stalking me and the shit he was saying, as well as sending us pictures of my apartment, of my car, of me in public - we eventually had enough evidence to get police involved. Unfortunately, other stalkers are a bit smarter and don't give as much evidence to slam a restraining order on them. That doesn't include the normal stuff in chatrooms or online that are still gross, but aren't as alarming. It's always sexual in nature and it's always annoying. No matter how good at games I am, I'm still just a piece of meat to many."

"I assumed you had to deal with it, but I didn't think it was that bad. Whenever I've been online, I only see people who love you."

"We pay mods to sweep through that shit. We have quite a few of them to keep it clean. They do a great job."

"I see." Naraku said. He opened his mouth to be a smart-ass and make a sexually-charged joke, but he turned away and swallowed his comment immediately. Why would his mind betray him like that?

"Go on, what is it?" she asked.

"I was going to make a joke, but it was inappropriate."

"How many times have I made sex jokes towards you?"

"Yes, but I didn't just finish telling you a story about all the sexual harassment I've suffered through."

"I can take jokes, dude. Hit me."

"I was just going to offer to eat you out to make you feel better - nothing wild."

"Hahaha! Come on, you can do better than that! How else are we going to create our cursed love-child if you don't do better?"

"We don't have to create it tonight."

"Yoooou are ridiculous." She leaned forward, placing her empty cup on the small table in front of them. "Also, you already sound like a better fuck-buddy than my exes, so you've got that going for you."

"That bad?"

"Uh-huh."

"Shameful. Reciprocating in bed isn't difficult. Even I figured it out."

"By researching?"

"That and experimenting,"

"Sooooo…can I ask who? I don't want details of the sex; just who interested you."

"Kikyou was my first and we did it a handful of times. It was fine. I did it for her. She seemed to be struggling for a connection with someone and I was the only one, so I figured it would not kill me. My…next partner…you're either going to be amused or disgusted - likely both. I'm not sure you can handle it."

Her smile widened and despite it being the middle of the night, nearby street lamps gave off enough light that he could see her eyes light up at the thought of a challenge. "Try me."

"Sesshomaru's mother."

Her shocked expression and loud gasp made him snort, but he withheld laughter before knowing her true opinion. His smirk made his feelings very obvious, though. Rocking back and forth, Jade reeled herself back in and turned back to him.

"Get the fuck out! No, you didn't! You didn't!" Her voice was muffled as she held her hand over her mouth.

"I did. Multiple times." he said simply. "I was eighteen, by the way."

"Naraku, you're joking," She nearly squealed as she held back either a scream or laughter.

"I am completely serious," he said firmly.

"Ayooooooo, I thought you were joking when you said that back in the lab! Is that why he fucking hates you with the white-hot intensity of a thousand suns?"

"It made it worse. We hated each other long before that happened. I don't believe he dated my sister to spite me, but he did attempt to rub it in my face regardless. So, I one-upped him."

"Bruuuuuh," Jade was covering her face with both hands. She was laughing and shaking her head, too. "You didn't describe anything to him, did you?"

"No. He called me a disgusting liar, so I took a picture of him from her home during one of our couplings and gave it to him the next day to erase any doubts he may have had in his head." he explained before sipping away the rest of his tea.

"That's mad disrespectful! Hahaha!"

"That was the point." Naraku grinned again, placing his empty cup on the table next to hers. "My next partner was when I first arrived in the United States. I could understand English, but I could not quite speak it fluently yet, so finding a job was difficult. I had a scholarship for my classes, but not one for housing. An older woman, a professor, who could speak Japanese and English helped me navigate my way into a job and my own apartment."

"Wait," Jade sat forward, her smile gone. "She took advantage of you?"

That made him recoil. "Hm? No, I agreed to it."

"Was it your idea?"

"No."

"So, you were in a new country, could barely speak the language, had little money, and this older woman who works at the university you're aiming for offered you a home and food while you get established, but demanded sex as payment?"

"Uh," Naraku looked away, rubbing his mouth with his fingers. "Well, when you put it that way, it sounds…questionable."

"Is that what happened? Really?" she asked, looking very worried.

"Yes, but I did agree to it."

"What other options did you have?"

"I could have tried something else. I could have said no."

"But you would have been homeless,"

"It wasn't the first time."

"Dude," she said sadly. "I'm sorry."

His heart was now pounding in his chest. "It's fine. Really." he insisted, hating that she went from laughter to feeling bad for him. There was no reason to feel bad for him.

"It isn't. That's such an awful position to be in. If I had met you sooner, I would've helped, and I wouldn't have made you sell yourself."

A smile appeared on his face. He tried to force it away, but it refused him. Why? It made him uncomfortable, so why did his body insist? Still, he reached over and placed his hand on her shoulder. "I know you would have. If I ever get the chance, I will repay you."

"You don't have to."

"I want to."

Jade nodded and placed her hand on his, pulling it from her shoulder. She raised her other hand and made a fist. Naraku made a fist as well and bumped hers. Next, she opened her fist and met his gaze expectantly. Staring back, he tilted his head in confusion. She wiggled her open hand, so he opened his, allowing her to lightly slap his palm, and then the back of his hand with hers. Naraku lowered his hand with his palm up, smirking. She grabbed his wrist with her other hand to prevent him from pulling it away at the last second, giving him a low-five. Their hands switched places and Naraku did the same to her. She curled her fingers around his, shook their hands, released his hand and snapped her fingers. Naraku snapped lightly after her.

"We need to work on our secret friendship handshake." she said. "I still can't believe you clapped his mom's cheeks.

A laugh escaped his mouth as he nodded. "All I can say is that Sesshomaru is definitely his mother's son."

"So, you were banging him metaphorically?"

"Abso-fucking-lutely. If his father had still been alive, I would have fucked him until he called me, "Daddy," too."

"Too? Naraku, no," Jade leaned forward. "Did she-"

"Yes."

"Nooooooooooo! Holy shit!" She fell into a fit of laughter that lasted for a few minutes. Every time she reached a point where she was regaining composure, something else made her snort and continue laughing. Finally, she was able to speak, though she was panting. "In all my years, none of my friends have had any stories that came close to how fucked up that is! It's actually impressive! Are you sure you don't like sex?"

"It can be pleasurable to me, but I do not actively seek it out. The destruction to Sesshomaru's psyche was definitely more of a turn-on than anything else." Naraku then changed his tone to mock the other white-haired man's cadence. "I fucked your twin sister, Naraku, and she loved it. Has anyone ever loved you?" He grinned and shook his head, returning to his normal voice. "No, but I fucked your mother, Sesshomaru, and she loved it and never once mentioned you to me. Did she ever love you?"

Jade groaned like she was in pain. "Bruh. That's rough. I can see why he wants to murder you. Did she know about the beef between you two?"

"Not to my knowledge. If she did, she never told me."

"That's fucking nuts, dude. You're insane."

"Hey, my therapist insisted on never using that word…but yes." He rubbed his hands together nervously. "You haven't mentioned him to me, by the way."

The exhale she let out was heavy and angry. She stared at her lap and shrugged.

"He blamed me, said he never wanted to speak to me again-"

"Blamed you?" Naraku repeated incredulously. "You saved him- us! You saved all of us!"

"I mean, he blamed you, but said I'm just as bad. He thinks I'm under your spell or some shit like that. I get where he's coming from, but he was an ass about it. I wasn't going to argue with him. I just let him go."

"You did?" Hearing that actually shocked him. Their current friendship was a testament to Jade's tolerance for her friends' bullshit. Her criteria was now even more confusing.

"Yeah. He made it clear I was the bane of his existence. He wouldn't let me say anything, so I didn't."

"I know that wasn't easy for you."

She shrugged in response. Silence rose between them. It wasn't tense; they just had nothing else to say. Jade crossed her legs and anxiously massaged her hands in her lap. Her head jerked up and she stood swiftly.

"Oh! I forgot! There's a box of your stuff in my trunk! It was covered with a blanket, so I kind of forgot it was in there until I saw it earlier. Sorry! I'll go get it!"

"N-No, it can wait."

"I'll be back!"

"Wait, wait," he said quickly. Jade froze in place and looked at him. He stood up and flashed her a smile. "Do you want to take the faster route?"

"Faster?"

"I can levitate you over the railing."

"Fuuuuuck yeah!" she sang excitedly, standing at the rail.

Inhaling deeply, he held both arms out, mimicking lifting her with them. She floated upward slowly and then giggled as he lowered her to the ground. She lightly jogged to her car and he leaned against the rails to wait for her. She came jogging back within a few seconds and Naraku lifted her back onto the patio. He checked his nose for blood. Much to his pleasure, there wasn't any.

'Good. My practicing is paying off.'

"Let's go back inside." he suggested, picking up both cups. He strode into the kitchen and placed the cups in the sink. When he turned around, Jade was standing next to the dining table with her arms wrapped around a box that had a few flowers and Japanese kanji scribbled on it. The world around him disappeared. The box and Jade were all he could see.

'It's…Kikyou's box.'

"I wasn't sure what all to grab. I focused on clothes, the books that you wrote and illustrated, your paperwork, and then I saw this one and- are you okay?"

Naraku was lightly biting his knuckles on one hand, tears blurring his vision. When his attorney told him the agents had raided his apartment, he tried to negotiate to keep Kikyou's box, but they claimed it wasn't among the items they saw. He bitterly accepted the fact he would never see her pictures or her handwriting ever again. Seeing them in his mind wasn't enough, but he couldn't do anything about it.

"Uh, Naraku?"

"It's fine. I'm fine." he said, approaching her cautiously. "Are you real? Are you sure you aren't some benevolent spirit who has attached herself to me for some fucking reason?"

"Did I keep the right box?"

"You did." He smiled, opening the box after she placed it on the table. The first thing he grabbed was the thin stack of pictures. He held them out to Jade and she took them slowly. "I- These are-" His throat closed and he lowered and turned his head to hide his tears.

"Oh! Is this Kikyou?" Jade asked. He could only nod. "Aw, look at you trying to be an asshole and she's just ignoring it. That's cute."

That made him laugh, but it made him lose control of the tears. They slid down his cheek and he wiped them away desperately. Clearing his throat, he tried to speak again. "You…do that, too."

"Yup. Sure do. Seems to be effective." She was studying each picture. He suspected Jade was acting nonchalant for his sake.

"This is her diary." he continued, reaching into the box and pulling out the blue book. "I stole it after she died because I suspected she wrote about certain events that her parents would disown her for."

"I'm sure she would appreciate you being a real homie. If I kept a diary, I'd hope someone got to it before Mama did. She wouldn't be surprised, but would probably at least shake her head and ask where she went wrong raising me."

"Honestly, I think she would have preferred her parents finding out. She resented them, so it would have been her final act of defiance against them."

"Oh. Strict?"

"Very."

"Well, I'm glad I saved it. Sorry that I forgot about it. If I had known - I never looked inside it."

"That does not matter to me. All that matters is that I have it back. I had resigned myself to accepting it was gone forever. "

"Ah, I still feel bad." She gently placed the pictures back in the box. "You can store it in my closet, too. I'd offer my car again, but I'll forget about it, apparently."

"Thank you, Jade. I already knew I could never repay you, but now? I am your slave if you will it."

"I'm good." she said, holding up a hand. "Maybe you can buy me a drink or four sometime."

"Eating you out is still on the table."

Snorting and clamping her mouth shut, Jade bent forward with both hands clasped over her mouth to muffle her sounds as she tried not to laugh. If Sango or Kagome happened to be awake, they probably would've assumed she was either choking or crying. Jade straightened up and grinned. "Fuck you." she said under her breath, voice quivering as she tried to maintain composure.

"Later. Will you humor me and try sleeping in your bed while I stay out here?" he asked, placing Kikyou's diary back in the box and closing the lid.

"Fiiiiiiine." she replied alongside an exaggerated eye roll. She didn't put up any resistance and when Naraku handed her the box, she carried it delicately back to her room.

Naraku turned out the light and reclined on the couch, waiting for Jade to come back out and complain about her inability to sleep. She didn't come back. He didn't see her again until the next day.

---

000000

Jade stood next to Naraku as he watched a game of basketball. They were waiting for their belly dancing class to begin and waiting for Sango to join them as she was meeting them right after her shift.

'I wonder what he's thinking.' Jade thought, glancing up at her taller friend. His arms were crossed and his attention seemed extremely focused on the game in front of him.

"Fuck!" one player shouted impatiently, turning to run back down the court as the ball was turned over to the other team. Another player ran the ball up to the net for a lay up, but the ball hit the rim and bounced off. That player also cursed loudly. His teammate caught the rebound, shot it, and even though it looked like it was about to fall into the net, it didn't. It bounced out. The ball was caught by the other team, so everyone ran back down the court to the other end. Another lay up was attempted and another miss resulted.

"What the fuck is wrong with us today?" a player joked with a forced laugh. The ball was shot again and it hit the rim and went flying out of bounds. The players all groaned and cursed, making jokes with one another, but their irritation was palpable.

"Is the ball deflated or some shit?" one man called out. Naraku chuckled at that.

'Oooh, that's what he's doing.' she realized, smiling. She almost told him to stop, but other than their clear annoyance, it was harmless on his end and wasn't the hill to die on. At least he wasn't bouncing it off their faces.

"Sorry, guys! Last-minute emergency!" Sango called out, running up to them. Her coral pink sweatpants were so bright, Jade could hear them.

"It's all good. We still have a few minutes." Jade said to her. Then, she raised her hand to jokingly shade her eyes. "Are those new pants?"

"Yeah! Why?"

"They're bright as fuck, man! Turn them down!"

"Get over it, Ebony Dark'ness."

"Oof, you got me. I never should've told you about that."

"Fuuuuuuuuuuuuck! Has anyone scored a point yet? Goddamn!" an annoyed player wailed. Naraku chuckled once more. Sango arched an eyebrow and pointed at him.

Jade shrugged. "He's doing things."

"Ah." Sango's mouth stretched into a shark-like grin. "Messing with me this morning wasn't enough for you?"

"No." Naraku answered candidly.

"What did he do?"

"I was putting away the clean dishes and he struck up a conversation with me! I thought he wanted to talk, but he just wanted to distract me! Every time I wasn't looking, he would take something from a cabinet or drawer and add it back to the pile!"

He began snickering during her explanation. So did Jade. Sango's mouth dropped open when Jade began laughing out loud.

"Sorry! It's actually funny!" she laughed.

"I don't know why I'm shocked. You have a terrible sense of humor sometimes." her friend remarked defeatedly. She glanced at her phone and held it up. "We should get to class so we can get a good spot and stretch."

They weren't the first ones to enter the room, but they weren't the last either. Three women were stretching and chatting lightly. Their heads snapped in their direction like predators that caught a whiff of prey. It actually made Jade a bit uncomfortable. Their faces lit up with smiles and they began whispering fiercely to each other. She decided not to comment on it.

"Alright, Naraku, do you have any last minute suggestions or tips?" Sango asked aloud, taking off her jacket and revealing a black sports bra, fantastic abs, and cut shoulders and arms.

"You might have to place your hands on the parts you're trying to move while keeping everything else still. It helps your brain identify and isolate. It will come naturally after a while." he began, also losing his jacket and showing his black tank top, broad shoulders, and cut arms that rivaled Sango's. He had been working hard on regaining his muscle mass and it was paying off. Reaching up to stretch, he closed his eyes. "When you move, make it controlled and graceful. Trying to power through it will make it look robotic instead of fluid."

"I've seen belly dancers do robotic movements, though." Sango pointed out.

"Yes, but most beginner classes want you to be softer," He bent down to grab his water bottle. He took a few steps back and placed the bottle on his head. The women across the room began murmuring to the point Jade heard them, but couldn't make out their exact words.

"You should be able to balance an object on top of your head. For that to happen, you must not only isolate, but control and soften your movements." He began walking towards them, popping his hips with each step. His torso and neck didn't move and somehow, it appeared as though his body weighed nothing and was drifting forward. The bottle remained on his head. The water inside barely swished around. "If you use more force-" He stepped forward normally and caught the bottle after it slid from his head. "-it will fall off because the increased energy will travel through the rest of your body."

"Makes sense." Sango said. "That was a cute demonstration."

"Yeah, super cute." Jade added quickly.

"My pleasure."

Sango helped Jade stretch, commenting on every pop her joints made. Jade was aware her body creaked like a haunted house, but now that it was being pointed out, it seemed worse. She saw the other women pointing and whispering to one another, glancing in their direction. They had ceased their own stretches minutes ago.

"It looks like they've got a crush." Sango said under her breath when she and Jade bent forward to touch the floor.

"Oh yeah, they're definitely interested." she replied. "I feel underdressed compared to them. They've got colorful pantaloons, pretty bras, and jingly bits everywhere; I'm in a T-shirt and shorts."

"I offered for you to borrow my pink shirt." her friend reminded her as they straightened upward.

"My torso is bigger than yours. I don't think it would've worked." Jade replied. Sango stepped closer to compare. Sure enough, Jade's torso was noticeably longer and her shoulders were broader.

"Yeah, you're right. Sorry."

"I have a fan club." Naraku said in a low voice. More women had entered the room to prepare for class. Their ages, sizes, and races varied. The one thing they had in common were eyes for Naraku. It was almost cartoonish how much they stared at him and whispered to one another.

"Hey!" a voice chirped loudly, causing Jade to jump a bit. One of the original three women had approached, the coins on her bright blue hip scarf ringing with every movement, and she was ready to shoot her shot. Jade commended her silently for her bravery.

Either Naraku had legitimately not heard her or he was purposely acting like he had no idea she existed until she was right in front of him. His gaze finally met hers. Jade pretended to stretch to make it look like she was minding her own business. She saw Sango immediately take a stretching pose as well.

"Sorry! I saw you balance the bottle earlier. I take it this isn't your first class?" she continued, nervously flipping her dark brown braid behind her shoulder.

"No." he answered. It was such a plain, blunt response. The fact that he offered no additional information was especially painful to witness. Most people would strike up a conversation. Not him.

"Are you a professional?"

"No."

'Fucking hell, Naraku. Just be nice.' Jade thought to herself. Part of her wanted to intervene not only because she felt bad for the woman, but because it was just uncomfortable to witness. The darker part of her wanted it to go on for comedic reasons. She reminded herself to take a different stretching position to continue her charade of totally-not-listening-with-baited-breath.

"Well, the three of us have been taking classes for a few years . We really like the instructor. We're always glad to see new faces, especially handsome ones."

'Oh, lady, I'm so sorry.'

"That is incredibly nice of you." he replied sweetly. Jade almost fell over from the whiplash his tone gave her. "Jade, did you hear that? She thinks you're handsome."

First, she snorted from trying to hold in her laughter. Then, she just let it out and rounded on him, her hands placed on her hips defiantly. She couldn't let that one go quietly. "You've got jokes now?"

"Jade, Jade," he began with a soft, condescending voice. "Learn to take a compliment."

"I'll compliment the shit out of you later." Jade warned while smiling. She decided to keep out. He was trying to drag her into it to help him. He could squirm on his own.

He cooed suggestively and made his body tremble. "What a spicy Mexican she is."

'There he is - the actual Naraku. I've kind of missed him.'

"Anyway, we do appreciate the warm welcome. I am sure we will have a great time." he said with the most attractive smile she had ever seen him pull off. It was incredible how easily he turned it on.

"Oh, uh, yeah! Just let us know if you need anything!" The woman must have finally taken the hint. She waved to him and turned around to rejoin her friends, but not without casting a side-glance of slight disgust towards Jade first.

'Oh boy, high school shit, huh?' She shook her head and decided to ignore it.

"Every fucking time. Every fucking class." Naraku sang with irritation under his breath.

"We should get you an outfit like theirs for next class." Jade suggested with a smile.

"Yeah! Let's braid his hair and put little bells in it!" Sango agreed.

"Why wait?" Naraku grabbed the bottom of the front of his shirt, pulling it up and tucking it into the collar, turning his tank top into a make-shift bra. Then, he pulled his black sweatpants down lower until they were one tug away from revealing his junk to Jade and Sango, both of whom had seen it already, and all the other women in the room who desperately wanted to join that club. Sango and Jade began giggling, but he didn't stop. He pulled his white hair from the messy bun and deftly began weaving his mane into a single braid. "Jade, hand me your keys."

"Okay." She handed them over immediately. He wove his hair through the key ring and tied the braid at the bottom.

"I will have to shake my head a bit harder to get the desired jingling effect-" He did just that, her keys ringing softly. "-but I can make it work."

"Fucking amazing." Jade already had her phone out, snapping pictures of him. He was gracious enough to pose for her in a few of them. He was absolutely being a smart-ass, but Jade couldn't deny how attractive he was at that moment. Naraku was the perfect mix of masculinity and femininity.

"Am I pretty, Sango?" he asked, performing sharp hip shimmies briefly. His sweatpants clung to him loyally, much to Jade's surprise.

"Sure." Sango's smile was almost a grimace, likely thinking the same thing as Jade.

The instructor was a soft-spoken woman in her forties or fifties named Elena. To Jade's personal surprise, she was Hispanic, too. She had the darker skin tone that Jade's grandmother had, but she had a body shape similar to Jade's - straight as a board. Elena, however, had a leaner body, which was expected. Jade's had become squishy in the recent months and as much as she tried to pretend it didn't bother her, it still did at the end of the day.

They began class with simple hip locks and isolation of the hips. Elena demonstrated beginner level movements first, then intermediate, and finally, advanced. She set a timer on her watch and encouraged everyone to practice with friends or by themselves if they preferred. Turning around, Jade prepared herself to practice with Sango and Naraku, but most of the women in the room also wanted to practice with Naraku. A few of them squeezed by Jade, just short of shoving her aside had she not moved away on her own.

"Should I start punching?" Sango asked her jokingly, but the flash of irritation in her expression told Jade that she might have been serious.

"I came here with my friends, so I will be practicing with them." Naraku raised his voice over the others while still retaining an even, respectful tone. The women reluctantly backed away, which was a relief.

Jade and Sango strategically placed themselves between Naraku and the rest of the class, almost backing him into the back corner of the room. Sango picked up on the isolation and locks quickly. She was even able to do shimmies. On the other hand, Jade's movements were slower and she had to keep her hands on her hips to train her brain to move them and nothing else. It wasn't as terrible as Jade feared, though. It could be worked with.

"Is everything going okay over here?" Elena asked as she walked over to them. "Things got a little weird there."

"Yeah, we're fine." Jade said to her, focused on her hip locks.

"Good, good! You're the second man I've ever had in my classes in my entire career. The other one received the same, uh, welcoming committee."

"It has been every experience of mine. It isn't easy being pretty." Naraku answered dryly.

"Oh, so you know what you're doing! Good! Haha, well, I'm sorry! I didn't have a chance to stop it like I should have. I hope it doesn't keep you away."

"My two bodyguards are enough to keep me coming back."

"Could you be anymore full of yourself?" Sango asked with soft exasperation.

"Yes." he answered plainly.

"Don't give him any bright ideas, Sango."

"Alright, well, if any of you have any questions or issues, please let me know. I hope you guys end up enjoying the class!" Elena pressed her palms together, bowing. Naraku returned the gesture and the instructor strode away to check on another group.

"Jade, shimmy." Naraku ordered softly.

"I'm not very good at it."

"That does not matter."

"Fiiiiine." Jade took a moment to fix her posture and tell her brain to move her hips only. She was able to maintain speed for just a few seconds before stopping and rubbing her stomach. "That kind of hurt my abs."

"That is a solid start. The pain is normal and will subside as you build muscle."

'How old are these bitches?' Jade thought to herself when she heard the three women snicker and murmur to one another. She didn't have to hear exactly what they said to know they were making fun of her.

"The Giggle Groupies are trying my patience." Sango said, staring at the women with a stern face that probably sent shivers through their ancestors' bodies. They took her seriously and turned away to mind their own business. One of the women took a drink from her bottle. All the water splashed out onto her face and chest, making her gasp and curse at herself.

Snorting, Jade pushed Naraku's arm playfully. He looked rather amused and proud of himself.

"If you ever do that to me, I'm going to snap your dick off." Sango warned him in a low voice.

"Are you going to preserve it or make a mold of it for purposes unknown?"

"I hate you."

His response was to balance on one leg and shimmy his hips aggressively. The rest of him remained still as stone.

'I'll get there.' Jade promised herself.

---

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Jade signed onto The Pack's various social media accounts on her laptop and began checking the poll results from their fans. They usually asked their fans which video games they would like The Pack to play for them and they would get so many requests. It was difficult to please everyone and themselves.

The bathroom door opened and Naraku stepped out dressed in black jeans. He had a blue towel wrapped around his neck that he used with both hands to squeeze excess water from his hair. He turned into the kitchen and Jade caught a glimpse of his spider tattoo before his long hair was dropped from the towel.

"Where are the other two?" Naraku asked, filling a glass with water.

"They went to the spring festival thing downtown with their boyfriends." Jade answered, still recording the polls' results onto her phone.

"Are you going to stream?" He placed the glass on the dining table after chugging the water from it.

Jade shook her head. "Not tonight."

"Did you not want to go?"

"Hm? Kind of, but I have to get some work done."

"Can it not wait one more night?"

"Uh," A smile pulled on her lips. "Do you want to go?"

"Maybe." He looked the other way, trying to act neutral. His gaze shifted to her to see if she was still watching him. When he saw she was, he sighed. "I'm restless. Staying in the apartment almost every day is driving me insane."

"Okay. We can go. This can wait."

"I still have to dry my hair." he told her, quickly walking back to the bathroom to do just that.

Jade took the opportunity to change clothes in her room. She decided to wear her nicer clothes for once. Even though she had only been to one session of belly dancing, Naraku and Sango hounded her to practice every day since and she was feeling a bit better about herself. She slipped on a tighter pair of blue jeans and a fitted green T-shirt. To help with any possible regrets, she wore an oversized gray jacket and left it open. She returned to the living room to wait for Naraku.

"Oh, wow." she murmured when he walked out of her room. He kept the black jeans on, had a blue, long-sleeved button up shirt on, but left it open to reveal a black undershirt. Blue had always been his color and even now with his white hair, he still owned it. Purple was a close second, but if she had to dress him, blue was her first choice.

"Hm?"

"Ready?" Jade asked, standing up quickly and pretending wasn't just admiring him. He nodded.

Jade sent Sango and Kagome a text to let them know she and Naraku were on their way. They both replied with expected jokes about Jade and Naraku dating since it was a date for them and then told her where they would meet once they finished their plans.

The spring festival was bigger than the one she saw the previous year. The main road and several side streets had been closed off from traffic so that food trucks, vendors, and people could celebrate safely. Pastel colors, flowers, bees, and butterflies were the main aesthetics decorating the street, trucks, and trailers. On the east side of the festival, there was a pier that stood out over a small lake. It was where their friends wanted to meet.

"Hungry?" Jade asked Naraku. He nodded and followed her to the food trucks. Without speaking a word, they pointed and shook their heads until they settled on one they both could agree on - Asian cuisine. Once they received their food, they found a table to sit at so they could eat comfortably.

A group of people who were around their ages were slowly walking by, excitedly talking over one another about the newest episode of an anime they were fans of. Out of the six people in the group, five of them were wearing a jacket or shirt with anime characters on it. Jade side-eyed Naraku, holding back a smirk when she saw his annoyed expression. One jacket in particular was light gray, matching the color of pages from a manga, and all over it were images of different anime girls making various orgasm faces.

In a low voice while pointing at it, Jade made her move. "Ooooh, look at that piece of your culture right there."

"From the bottom of my heart, go fuck yourself." he recited calmly. His tone almost sounded loving and it sent Jade into a fit of spiteful giggles.

"Come ooooon,"

"It's incredibly obnoxious." Naraku said mildly, wiping his hands with napkins. "Although, it has nothing on the Dream of the Fisherman's Wife. That is a true piece of my culture."

"I don't follow."

His gaze finally found her and a mischievous smirk pulled up on his lips. "Humor me. Look it up."

Jade did exactly that and was met with a traditional Japanese painting of a woman receiving oral sex from an octopus. Her mouth dropped open at the sheer absurdity of it and from the fact that someone committed their time and skills to painting it. "Do I want to know how you know about this?"

"It's a relatively famous piece of artwork. Most of Japan knows of it."

"I mean, it's really good artwork, but damn. You guys definitely seem to have fun. America on its best day is straight-up vanilla compared to this."

"We are actually just as sexually repressed as the United States, if not more. That painting is from an era where society was far less judgmental about sex. We were fine until the white people came over, basically, so it's kind of your fault."

"Ay, I'm not white, so I ain't do shit and neither did my ancestors."

"You are partially caucasian, no?"

"A quarter-ish." she answered, wiggling her hand to show it was just an approximate guess.

"Then you can take a quarter-ish of the blame," he replied snidely while mirroring her hand movement with his.

"Yooooou bitch," she sang dryly.

"I love it when you talk dirty to me."

"Alriiiiiight! You win!" she said with false irritation.

When they finished their food, they walked around quietly, observing the merchandise different vendors offered. One vendor had various prizes for those who could guess the correct number of jellybeans in whatever jars he had prepared. He was a large, bald man with hairy, muscular arms. He also wore a T-shirt with a cute, cartoon bee on it. His smile widened when he saw the two friends approach.

"Aha! You want to give it a try?" the burly man asked excitedly.

"Sure!" Jade said with a shrug. He bent down and picked up a large glass jar filled with jellybeans of every color.

"Closest guess without going over gets to choose a prize from the wall of stuff behind me!"

Jade went the route of staring at it and trying to guess just based on whatever her brain could comprehend. Naraku, on the other hand, leaned closer to it, using a finger to trace a single vertical path from top to bottom. Then, he did the same horizontally, left to right. Standing tall, he looked at Jade expectedly. She could already tell she lost.

"Alright! You ready?" the man asked them.

Jade smiled at Naraku. "I sure am! Naraku, you go first!"

"Two-hundred seventy-eight," he said.

"Two-hundred ninety-nine," she blurted quickly.

"There are two-hundred eighty-four jellybeans! The good-sir was closest!"

"Oh? I was six short? I've lost my edge." Naraku remarked dryly.

"Shut up."

"Which prize do you want?" the man asked, stepping aside to let Naraku look.

Her tall friend glanced at her. "Which one?"

"Huh? You won. You choose."

The burly man laughed. "Good man! Asking his lady!"

'Will it ever stop?' Jade thought as she closed her eyes. 'I guess I can't be mad if they don't know.'

"I'll take the one at the top in the second column."

"Here you go! Happy spring! You guys have a good night!"

"You too!" Jade replied as she walked away. Naraku caught up with her and offered her the prize. She took it without fighting him. It was a gray and red chibi werewolf. It had a familiar logo on the tag. "Oh shit, it's a Pokemon plushie! Nice! Let's see what his name is - Lycanroc? Midnight form? Never heard of him. I need to catch up on Pokemon. I miss playing it."

"You played the games, I assume?"

"Oh yeah! Competition-level player. I also played them because I liked them. I just haven't had much time to catch up." she explained. She held the Lycanroc up as if it was a sacred child. "I love him and I'm going to start playing again and raise the most bullshit-loaded Lycanroc ever."

"I expect no less."

Eventually, they ran into Sango, Kagome, Miroku, and Inuyasha on the pier. All but Inuyasha appeared happy to see her and Naraku. Inuyasha seemed to have held a grudge ever since she mildly insulted him months ago and she was sure his older brother only made her look worse in his eyes. So, she did her best to avoid eye contact with him.

"Oh, did you win the jellybean challenge?" Kagome asked, poking the Lycanroc plushie Jade had cradled against her body.

"He did." she answered. She regretted it when Sango and Kagome cooed teasingly.

"He won it for you?" Kagome continued, smiling widely.

"He won and just gave it to me. You guys are really reaching here."

"Are we?" Sango asked.

"Yes!" Jade and Naraku said simultaneously. They looked at one another briefly.

"Oh, Sango, let's go try the water guns really quick! Before we do anything else!" Miroku suggested excitedly.

"Sure! We'll be back in a few!" Sango said, taking off with Miroku.

"Okay!" Jade responded.

"Wait a second," Inuyasha announced, stepping forward and pointing at Jade. "You're the one who fucked my brother over on earning his degree here!"

Staring at his finger, Jade cleared her throat. "I kept your brother out of prison."

"Look, I barely like the bastard, but he worked hard and you took it away from him!"

"Inuyasha!" Kagome snapped heatedly. Her white-haired boyfriend immediately pulled his hand back and stood stiffly at attention.

"What? I don't like that she's out having fun-"

"Shut up." Naraku interrupted him, stepping forward and showcasing his larger stature against Inuyasha's. "I assume Sesshomaru didn't tell you that I have no qualms about beating a child half to death, did he?"

"I'm a grown man!"

"That will not change the outcome."

"Hey, how about we just chill?" Jade suggested, placing her arm in front of Naraku. He reluctantly backed away.

"You don't know anything, so you need to clam up!" Kagome said to Inuyasha angrily, poking him in the chest. "She saved Sesshomaru's life and she kept him from getting caught up in the legal system! He's a bitter asshole! He always has been! So, why are you taking his side?"

"I don't know." he grumbled, crossing his arms.

"Since you don't even know why you're mad, do you want to shut up?" she asked sharply. Inuyasha mumbled something under his breath, but he walked away without a fight. He got four steps away before he tripped and fell.

"Shit!" Inuyasha hissed, slowly pushing himself up onto his hands and knees. While Kagome made sure her boyfriend was okay, Jade looked up at Naraku. He was watching the couple intently.

"Jade, I'm sorry." Kagome said.

"It's fine." Jade lied, forcing a smile and a nod.

"We're going to go for a quick walk, cool off, and then come back!"

Wandering towards the edge of the pier, Jade stared out at the water. She cradled the plushie in her arms as she leaned on the railing. Naraku stood beside her with his back facing the water.

"Do you want me to trip him again?"

"No."

"He was wrong. You know that."

"I know. Still sucks." She huffed. "I did everything I could. I had to recite shit over and over so that my story was consistent. I had to just say nothing at some points and look like a fucking idiot."

"I know."

"I guess I don't have to explain it to you."

"I don't mind listening."

"I'm good."

"Heeeeey, Kagome told me what happened, so I wanted to come check on you." Sango announced as she walked up. She whispered for Miroku to go elsewhere before continuing. "Do you want me to punch Inuyasha?"

"No." Jade grumbled, not moving from her position.

"Yes." Naraku chirped. He chuckled when Jade held her middle finger up at him.

"Do you want a beer?" her other friend inquired tauntingly.

"Yeah, but I'm driving."

Naraku poked her arm. "I can still drive."

Without giving it a second thought, Jade reached into her pocket and held her keys out to him. He took them and placed them in his pocket.

"Here's some money. Can you grab one for her?" Sango asked Naraku, pulling cash from her pocket.

"Sure."

When he was far enough away, Sango leaned on the rail, moving closer to Jade. "He's being quite compliant tonight. Jade, I can tell you're really upset."

"I'll get over it."

"Alright. Is Naraku on his best behavior?"

"Yeah, he is." she responded, wiggling the plushie in her friend's face. Sango giggled and took it from Jade to examine it.

"It's cute." Sango said. She read the tag and nodded. "Pokemon is out of control, but it's still cute, and it's a wolf just like your favorite character on that one game. It goes with your whole image."

"Mhm." Jade straightened her posture, feeling better. As soon as she acknowledged it, she heard Inuyasha's voice as he bickered with Kagome as they got closer, and the resentment came back.

"She can get over it! I'm not apologizing!" he snapped.

Jade rolled her eyes, turning around to confront him only to see no one at all. Sango, Kagome, the crowd celebrating the festival - all the people had disappeared.

"No," she whispered, turning her head, desperately looking for anyone. "Fuck! Fuck!"

The moonlight began to turn purple. Jade looked up and watched the silver-white crescent turned into an orb. It was slowly being swallowed by the darker color. She glanced around and was still the only person. She couldn't shake the feeling of being watched despite that. Her heart began pounding against her chest.

"Sango! Naraku! Someone wake me up!" she yelled, now panting.

---

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A scream ripped Naraku's attention from the menu. His head snapped in the direction and he saw a crowd gathering towards the area Jade and Sango were waiting. Coldness filled his body, freezing him in place for a moment. More voices began to raise frantically.

"Fuck!" he almost shouted, breaking out into a sprint.

'Please, be a false alarm! Be my paranoia! Please!' He wasn't sure who or what he was begging, but he repeated it in his head as he forced his way through the crowd. He saw Sango standing in front of Jade with her hands on Jade's shoulders. The rest of her friends were shocked into silence, watching as Sango tried to wake Jade.

"Jade! Jade!" Sango screamed, shaking her slightly. When she saw Naraku, she grabbed his shirt harshly and pulled him closer. "Help her!"

Jade's entire body was rigid as she stood motionless. There were slight twitches in her hands and head, but she remained unnaturally stiff otherwise. The worst part were her eyes; they had rolled up into her head. This was a different trance than he had seen her trapped in before.

"I…can't." Naraku said, pressing his hand against her cheek lightly. Her skin was hot now.

"Try something!"

"What would you have me d-"

Another scream cut him off, but before he could even turn to see who or why, an arm hooked around his neck and pulled him to the ground with a force that was intended to severely hurt. It did momentarily, but Naraku's recovery time helped him throw his arms up to block a fist to the face.

"What the f-" Sango tried to help him, but another assailant shoved her to the ground. A second fist struck him in the stomach, eliciting a shout of shock and pain from him. When he moved his arms, he saw the man attacking him pulling his fist back for another cheap shot. He interrupted him by kicking him in the head and knocking him over. He noticed the attacker was dressed in jeans and a white button-up, as if he had been there to have fun, not assault people.

"What's this guy's fucking problem?" Inuyasha snapped, kicking the man who attacked Sango in the rib cage while he was on all fours. Miroku did the same, but the man didn't seem affected by it. He was dressed similarly to the other.

"He looks like he's in some kind of trance, too!" Miroku pointed out. The man he was kicking instantly jumped to his feet, catching Miroku across the face with his forearm. Inuyasha responded by punching the man in the face. It physically moved him, but the pain apparently didn't register. He threw his entire body into hitting Inuyasha in the face with his elbow.

"Hey, dude, he's coming back!" someone from the crowd shouted. Naraku turned his head and saw the man who attacked him charging at him. It was at that moment that he noticed the man's eyes were rolled up, too! He stepped to the side and kicked the man's leg from underneath him, sending him falling to the ground. As he pushed himself up, Naraku grabbed him by the throat with one hand, using his powers to keep his arms down. There would be no escaping and no third chances.

'He looks familiar.' Naraku studied his face rapidly, trying to remember where he had seen him before. 'I will figure it out later.' Using his hand and powers, he squeezed until the man's airway was closed. Within a few seconds, his twitching began to lessen until it stopped all together and his body slumped in his grip. Naraku released him, letting him topple over onto his side, and turned to deal with the other man.

Unsurprisingly, Inuyasha and Miroku were standing with Kagome, bruises on their faces already forming. Inuyasha even had a bloody lip. They were watching Sango choke the second man with a rear triangle leg-hold. The hold rendered his tolerance to pain almost useless since he still needed air to function. Once he was unconscious, she let him go and untangled herself from him.

"Here," Naraku offered his hand to her. She took it with no hesitation and he pulled her to her feet.

"Thanks." she said, trying to catch her breath. They stared at one another, then turned to Jade. She was still stuck in her trance. Their eyes met again and it seemed they had the same idea.

"It might work," he suggested.

"I don't- be gentle!" she replied worriedly.

Nodding, Naraku positioned himself behind Jade and wrapped one arm around her neck, locking it in place by tucking it under his other arm. He rested his free hand on the back of her head. He steadied his breathing first, telling himself this was necessary to help her. Slowly, he added more pressure until he was fully flexed, pushing her head forward and cutting off her air supply. It only took a few seconds for her to collapse. His hold kept her from falling. Wrapping one arm around her stomach, he carefully lowered her until she was laying on her side. Naraku pulled her phone from her pocket and opened one of her eyes, shining her phone's flashlight into it. He did the same with the other eye.

"Is she still under?" Sango asked, kneeling down in front of her and gently stroking her friend's head.

"Her eyes are not rolled up anymore and they are properly responding to light, so those are good signs." he said, turning off the flashlight and slipping her phone into his pocket.

"What…the fuck…just happened?" she asked him with barely-restrained anger, motioning to the still-unconscious men.

"I don't know." he said, exhaling forcefully. "I have an idea, but I don't know if it's correct."

"What? Tell me."

"She went into a trance and not too long after that, they attacked. From my experience, the extensions of the jewel are connected. When she fell into the trance, it told them where to find her."

"You think they were after her, not us?"

"We were obstacles; she was the target. It's very possible those two were going about their days, but have been infected recently, and they just happened to be the two closest extensions to her, so they responded to the call."

"Don't you count?"

"Simply put, I'm my own extension."

"Can you do that with Jade?"

"Before she imprisoned my jewel, she was an extension of that one. Now that it's immobilized, the original jewel is able to take over now."

Shaking her head, Sango cursed under breath before looking back at him with pure fury. "You're a monster! Nothing you do will absolve you of this! I don't care what Jade thinks!"

"This is something we agree on," he replied with a genuine smile. It was true. Her expression softened, as if she regretted what she said, but she didn't say anything else. She just continued to stroke Jade's head.

Paramedics and officers reached the scene within minutes. Many people were telling their stories, showing their videos, and pointing at different areas. The man who attacked Naraku had apparently been walking around with his wife before he suddenly bolted from her side. That was what she was telling the police officers when they were checking her husband's vitals. Naraku perked up when he heard her state he was a professor at the university.

'Yes! He was one of the biology professors! That is why he's familiar to me. That also explains his possible exposure.' Naraku tried to hear about the second man's story, but the crowd had become quite loud.

"Hey, you need to stay still!" Sango shouted. Naraku turned and saw Jade sitting up, shaking her head.

"No, I'm good. I'm good." she insisted.

"Let them check you first!"

"I don't want to go to the hospital. I just want to go home."

Her desires were ignored. Sango and Kagome flagged down paramedics who finally saw them through the crowd. Jade looked mildly annoyed as the paramedics checked her vitals and asked her various questions to test her cognitive abilities. It did seem as though nothing happened. She was coherent, her reflexes were responsive, and her personality was intact.

"Where's my Lycanroc?" Jade asked suddenly.

"What?" The older paramedic sounded confused. She turned to look at Sango, but Naraku was already glancing around. He hadn't even remembered it existed until she mentioned it.

"Oh! Found it!" Kagome called out, pulling it from a group of bushes. It apparently fell into them during the fight. She handed it to Jade, who held it in her lap and looked less annoyed as she answered the remainder of the paramedics' questions.

"Well, she's fully coherent and sound of mind as far as we can assess." the older paramedic said as she stood up. Her partner was packing up their equipment.

"She was in a trance that we had to choke her out of!" Sango argued.

"I'm not going!" Jade declared, remaining in her sitting position.

"She doesn't have to. We can't make her in her current condition. She knows that if it happens again, we strongly recommend she go to the emergency room." The paramedics gave Jade a few tips and told her to feel better before they walked away. Only then did Jade stand up. She was a little shaky, but not alarmingly so.

"Ugh! Damn it, Jade!"

"Sango, let it go. You know how she is." Kagome said.

"How do we know she won't flip out like those men did? Like she did when that asshole poisoned her!" her angry friend spat, pointing at Naraku boldly.

"We've trusted her this long!" Kagome yelled back, finally showing irritation towards Sango. Inuyasha and Miroku intervened between them.

Miroku placed his hands on Sango's shoulders. "Come stay with me tonight. I think we need-"

"I shouldn't have to leave my home because I don't feel safe."

"Just for the night! You were thinking about it anyway!"

Kagome started to yell at Sango, even angrier than before. It actually made Naraku flinch a bit. He looked over at Jade. She was standing away from them, as if she was a nameless onlooker, the plushie hugged in her arms. Finally, their eyes met. With a slight tilt of her head, she motioned for Naraku to follow her.

"Do you still have my keys?" she asked once they reached the parking lot.

"I do. I have your phone, too."

"It's probably best that you drive."

"Alright."

When they were inside her car, she asked for her phone and he gave it to her. "Are you cool with going to a hotel tonight?"

"I-If that is what you want,"

"No, what do you want?"

"I want nothing. Sleeping in a hotel tonight is fine."

Naraku drove around aimlessly for an hour until she decided on which hotel she wanted to pay for. Once she did, he drove straight to it. He offered to do the talking, which she agreed to.

"Well, it's a nice view of the city." Jade said once they reached the room.

"Jade,"

"Do you want a drink?"

"Jade!" Naraku snapped. He regretted it when he saw the tears in her eyes. He didn't mean to sound so cross, but she was going to deflect and ignore it and he couldn't let her do that. "What happened?"

"I don't know. It just happened."

"No, I need you to be a little more precise."

"Why?"

"We should figure out what happened so we can prevent it."

"How?"

He was not clairvoyant, but he could still see where the conversation was heading. He was going to suggest working on figuring out what happened and she was going to fight him on it and blame him for all of it. The blame was not what bothered him. He accepted it. However, he wanted to fix it and that would require her to give him information to work with, which cycled back to the issue of Jade not wanting to talk about it with anyone.

"Forget I said anything. It isn't my place." he relented after a brief silence.

"If you have an idea, then I'm listening."

"I don't, actually."

"Oh." She looked down. "Okay."

"Do you need the bathroom right now?"

"I'm good." she answered, climbing onto the bed closest to the window.

'I'm not.' he admitted to himself as he shut the door. Splashing cold water from the sink onto his face washed off the edge of his frustration, but it still burned within him. He was frustrated with Sango. He understood she just witnessed something traumatic, but she let her anger for him take over and dumped it onto Jade. He was frustrated with Jade because she wouldn't talk to him! She wouldn't talk to anyone and then would wonder why she was such a crying mess as of late. He was frustrated with Inuyasha because something told him that his obnoxious and pointless comments to Jade about Sesshomaru blaming her is what made her vulnerable to the jewel's manipulations. If that was how his variation of the jewel worked, then it was probably similar to how the original operated. Most of all, he was angry with himself. It was his fault. All because he wanted to see what would happen if someone ingested the mystery fluid. He wanted to scream, but Jade would hear it and he didn't want to upset her further.

His body temperature must have raised, because he felt overheated. He took off both of his shirts, but left his pants on. Pacing the bathroom slowly, he performed breathing exercises to calm himself and help him focus. It was taking longer than he liked, but he shoved that thought from his mind to prevent it from irritating him further. It was working - that's all that mattered.

Something must have happened while he was decompressing because Jade was pacing the room, staring at her phone and typing urgently. She was anxious. He could even see the trembling in her hands from a distance.

"Are you fucking- I'm going to fucking lose it!" she spat, throwing her hands down and looking over at him.

"What?"

Letting out a long, exaggerated breath of rage, she returned to her furious typing. "I don't know what Sango wants from me!"

Naraku couldn't hold back the groan of irritation at the mention of the woman's name as he sat on the bed closest to the bathroom. "What does she want now?"

"I don't fucking know! She went on a whole fucking rant about being worried that I'm going to flip out at the apartment, so Miroku offers for her to stay with him like she wanted and that's a hard pass! I go elsewhere and let her have the apartment without either of us and now she's concerned about me being alone with you!"

"I am not even going to ask why and entertain her answer."

"You know why."

"She isn't wrong, but I think I have made my intentions clear."

"Why isn't she concerned that I'm going to beat you to death?"

"She would love that. Her only regret would be not seeing it happen with her own eyes."

"But what does she want? Does she think me being alone is a good idea right now? If I can't be at the apartment with everyone, I can't be with just you, and I can't be alone, what are my options?"

"The hospital."

The loud breath of frustration and the look of angry exasperation Jade gave at that moment were actually amusing. The situation was far from it, but seeing her losing her patience made him feel better about losing his. He didn't dare smile, though.

"I'm not fucking going!" she grumbled defiantly through gritted teeth, furiously typing again. "The fuck are they going to do? Observe me overnight, charge my insurance at least ten grand and then be like, "Aight, vitals and blood are good! No issues here! Check in with your primary care provider! Time for discharge!" Just fucking kill me at that point, goddamn!"

"I like you alive."

"Then keep my ass out of the hospital."

"Deal."

"Whyyyyyyyyyy do you want to know where I aaaaaaaaaam? I'm dangerouuuuuus!" Jade sang heatedly. Then she poked her screen.

Naraku arched his brow. "Did you just send that as a voice message?"

"Yes!"

"As much as I support it, I'm not sure it will make things better."

"I don't want to make things better! She's pissing me off, so I'm returning the favor!"

"Fair enough."

"We've talked and talked, she tells me she's going to try harder not to do this-"

"Look," Naraku interrupted, holding up a hand to stop her. "This isn't me disagreeing with you. I just want to give you some perspective."

The look she gave him was a mixture of disbelief and anger. "This should be a fucking treat - Naraku attempting to empathize."

Ignoring her remark, he continued. "It was not an easy experience to watch, let alone be forced to participate in. She was terrified."

His words seemed to clear the angry storm in her mind. Her expression softened a bit and she frowned. "What happened?"

"You were unresponsive, stiff as a board, eyes rolled up into your head," he began, watching as she closed her eyes and pressed her hand to her forehead. "I heard her scream and found her trying to break you from the trance. She told me to help you and I told her I wasn't sure I could. Before we even had a chance to try anything, two men attacked us. They were also in a trance, but they were physically aggressive whereas you were stationary. One of them is a biology professor from our science building. I had to choke him out and Sango did the same with the other. We both figured that might help you, so I did it to you and it appears to have worked…this time."

"I still don't understand why she's so angry. Scared? I understand."

"Sometimes, fear manifests as anger. She made sure to remind me that this was my fault, so I suspect her anger with me was aimed at you inappropriately. I do not believe she did it intentionally."

"Was it really that bad?"

He nodded earnestly.

She shuffled over to him and sat next to him. "I see what you mean. She's still being too much for me. Sorry for mocking you just now. You did a good job."

"Th-Thank…you. It might be best to disengage for the evening. I suspect the reason you were targeted in the first place was because you were emotionally compromised."

"Y-Yeah. You're probably right." she murmured. Her phone's screen lit up and Koga's name appeared. "Oh, fuck. This…can't be good."

"Maybe he is calling you for a shift?"

"I don't think so." she whispered. She answered and placed the call on speaker. "Hey, what's up?"

"Jade, are you alright? What's going on?" he asked quickly.

"Yeah. Um, what have you heard?"

"You…haven't been online in the past couple of hours have you?"

"N-No."

"Whatever happened at the festival, there's at least eight different videos of it, and you're clearly in them. A few of them zoomed up on your face and you were fucking trippin'. It's all over Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Reddit - there's no way we can keep up with it."

"Fuck." Jade groaned. "Fuck!"

"Are you alright? Are you safe?"

"Yeah, I'm okay now."

"I'm not going to ask for an explanation right now. I'm sure you're tired. The Pack isn't going to make any statements right now. We're going to play it neutral, but you know you're going to have to address this. It's getting so much attention and it's only going to get worse."

"I know."

"Take your time, but please, don't ignore it."

"I won't."

"Let me know if you need anything. You know we've got you."

"Thank you, Koga."

The phone call ended and Jade sat still and quiet for a minute. Then, she began pulling up her social media. Naraku placed his hand over the screen, making her look at him and frown.

"Not tonight. You need to rest right now."

"I just need to see how bad it is."

"You have suffered enough. Let it go for tonight."

For a moment, he saw defiance in her expression, but it was quickly replaced by fatigue. She gave her phone to him and walked over to the other bed, curling up on it. In her arms, she clutched the Lycanroc plushie.

Naraku followed her lead, turning out the lights and stretching out on his back. It took little effort to doze off. A loud crack of thunder seared through his slumber and mind, overwhelming all of his senses instantly.

"Fuck!" he shouted, jolting upward. He was no longer on the bed in the hotel room. Instead, he was in a wood cabin. The scent of incense filled his nostrils and thankfully, the cabin was dark. A few candles kept it dimly lit, but instead of being spread around, they were clustered together against the wall. Hanging on the wall above the candles was a painting of a serpentine dragon. Its white scales stood out against the aged, tan scroll it had been painted on.

'It's a shrine.'

"I have finally found you." a feminine voice stated from behind him. She was speaking his native language. Naraku turned and saw a young woman dressed in traditional white and red miko robes step inside from the rain. She removed the straw coat and hat before walking over to the candles and lowering herself on her knees. When she turned to him, he felt faint. She bore a striking resemblance to Kikyou. If she had lived to adulthood, he imagined she would look like this woman. In return, her eyes fixated on him and for a fleeting moment, she looked angry, but she stretched her lips into a gentle smile. "My apologies for staring. You look like someone I once knew. I am Midoriko. I serve this shrine. Or, I used to."

'She lived over five-hundred years ago, but she's speaking to me directly right now? That is not possible.' Naraku was certain the look on his face was ridiculous. He even lightly shook his head to see if it would reveal reality, but he remained in the dimly lit shrine, sitting in front of a long-dead priestess.

"This…is not a memory," he spoke slowly.

A corner of her mouth turned up knowingly. "No. I am no wandering spirit nor am I a phantom of your mind, either."

His mouth fell open and he gasped when his mind pieced the information together. He was mistaken. She was not a long-dead priestess.

"You still live."