One Note: I changed the timing of this story from summer to fall. Not that drastic, but thought you might want to know. I'll go back and fix the timing that was said in the last chapter later.
Fragmentation
Chapter Four- Her Name
Kagome rushed back toward her group and Miroku let the barrier drop, but she was surprised to find only Miroku and Shippo there. About to inquire about the rest of their group's whereabouts as they ran toward the scream, Miroku answered before she could.
"Inuyasha felt a demon's presence before and left to go find out about it, and Sango went after him with Kirara," the monk informed her.
Well, that explained why Inuyasha didn't go rushing out of the bushes to drag her away from Yusuke. She found herself wondering just what Yusuke's reaction would be if he saw the dog demon taking her away. Would he be scared? Nah, that didn't seem his style, but would he believe his eyes or ignore the dog ears? In this day and age, people tended to ignore what they couldn't explain or make up a logical mundane explanation of something supernatural. But people were idiots.
Realization hit her. "Wait, so if the demon had taken the bait, Inuyasha had already deserted me, along with Sango and Kirara. Oh, that makes me feel safe," she said dryly. When Miroku didn't respond, she looked over to him to see a thoughtful look on his face. "What's with that look?"
"That's the same guy I saw you with before," he said while breaking out into a slow, evil smile, referring to Yusuke, "I'm trying to decide if you're stalking him, or he's stalking you."
Kagome blushed pink, and she wasn't even sure why she was blushing. Okay, she kind of knew, but still.
She moved closer to Miroku as they ran, but he smartly didn't let her get too close, knowing a possible slap was on the way. "No one's stalking anyone!" she said firmly.
He laughed and they would have continued talking, or more likely friendly arguing, but seeing blood spread across the trees and grass in front of them stopped the three of them, literally. They stopped running and looked around, seeing two mangled bodies and the rest of their group in its center.
Kagome walked cautiously over to Inuyasha, watching where she stepped since she didn't want to step in the bloody grass and have it soak into her shoes. Somehow she so did not want to walk around with the squishy feeling of blood-soaked socks. Can anyone say, yuck?
The hanyou was, too, splattered in blood, but didn't seem to care or notice much. Sango was relatively clean with a few splatters of the thick liquid on her, as well as a few specks on her face. Kirara had jumped onto Sango's shoulder to keep from having to walk in the grass. The small demon seemed the most concerned with the mess. Even though a youkai, she was still a cat and cats did liked their cleanness.
"What happened?" Miroku asked.
"The demon," Inuyasha said, jerking his head toward one of the mangled bodies, "he managed to kill the guy before we got here."
That was it, just a statement, no guilt or remorse for the guy. But how could they feel remorse for them when they saw it constantly, especially Inuyasha who had been dealing with it a long time before the rest. It was different if they knew the person, but perfect strangers…. Kagome still managed to be sympathetic, but even her pity for the victims was fading with each new body she saw. She couldn't save everyone in the world, none of them could, but they'd try to save as many as they could while searching for the jewel.
"I could have sworn it was a woman who screamed," Kagome commented. Then again, in those moments of terror, some males could get just as high a range as a woman could when they screamed.
"The demon had victims," Sango told her, "we sensed the demon's presence and followed it to the baseball field and there was a woman dead when we got there, a few seconds after the scream. It ran when it saw us and found another victim here which slowed it down until we caught up to the demon again." She sighed heavily. "Too late to save the man though."
Inuyasha peered down at the demon. "The demon splattered the human's blood all over me and threw the body at me, trying to distract me," Inuyasha grumbled, then smiled (and not a nice smile) when he said the next part. "But the its blood is all over now too." He looked back to the demon's dead body. "There should be a jewel shard or two… somewhere."
The demon's body was torn apart and was a mess all over the ground. The demon must have really ticked Inuyasha off if he had been so harsh on it. Kagome's face blanched at the prospect of having to search for the shards through all the gore.
"We should check to see if there are any people around that are just wounded by the demon," Miroku said.
Sango nodded and along with Miroku and Inuyasha, began walking toward where they had first seen the demon, the same place where the woman's lifeless body lay. Sango turned back to Kagome with an inquiring look when she didn't follow.
"I'll catch up after I get the shards," Kagome told them.
"And I'll stay with Kagome," Shippo chipped in.
The rest left while Kagome moved closer to the demon's body, which held the shards somewhere inside. She grimly rolled up her sleeves, wishing she had gloves.
This was so not going to be a fun job.
"We've arrived too late," Kurama said.
The woman lay on the grass, her neck looking like it had first been bitten and then crushed with blood all over her neck, shoulders, and the bottom of her face. The blood looked a red-black color in the dark of the night, almost unreal, like it shouldn't be real blood but fake like they use in movies. The woman herself looked like she could have been sleeping if it had not been for the blood and how her body had a stillness only the dead could manage.
Yusuke cursed under his breath. Maybe if he hadn't dallied with the girl… but no, he would have had a slime chance of saving her since he wouldn't have known where to go anyway. And even then the demon had already had his grip on the girl and would have killed her if they came near, most probably.
"Incoming demon and fast," Kurama announced suddenly.
A figure was suddenly seen from above, blocking out the moon's light that fell on them for just a second before the demon landed just to the left of the woman's body. The demon—or more correct, hanyou—was crouched down with one hand to the ground, steadying him and the other resting leisurely on his knee. Silver hair flowed down his back with white dog ears atop his head. His piercing amber eyes narrowed as they watched them.
"Who the hell are you?" the hanyou asked.
"We could ask you the same question," Yusuke responded.
Two more figures, humans, a man and a woman, ran out of the trees and on to the field, stopping when they came to either side of the hanyou, eyeing the other group with curiosity and cautiousness.
The hanyou began to stand up straight and Yusuke and his friends watched his movement carefully, ready to use their weapons at any moment.
"Now it's time for justice," Kuwabara said.
The hanyou looked confused. "Justice? For wha—" he began but abruptly stopped, seeing the dead woman from the corner of his eye. "I didn't touch that woman!" he said, annoyed that they'd accuse him of her death.
"Yeah, sure," Yusuke responded.
"You're covered in human blood," Kurama reasoned. His arms were limp at his sides, but he knew that if the demon attacked he'd be able to get hold of his rose whip before he struck.
Inuyasha looked down at his shirt, splattered with human blood, his own, and the other demon's. Right now, he didn't look the part of the good guy. Still, it angered him that they would just accuse him.
"I didn't kill any humans," Inuyasha growled more fiercely. His hand went to the hilt of his sword than thought better of it. He didn't need a weapon to fend off some measly humans… though he didn't really want to kill them either. He hadn't wanted to fight them at first, for that matter, but the one with that jet-black hair had pissed him off.
Sango looked to Miroku and murmured so that no one else could hear but him (and probably Inuyasha, but he was too preoccupied with the offending humans), "this could be trouble…"
"You can keep denying it, but it won't stop being true," Yusuke told the hanyou.
Inuyasha growled once more as he suddenly sprung into an attack, but Yusuke was ready for it. He moved quickly out of the way, surprising the hanyou with his inhuman speed, and managed a hard punch in the hanyou's face, making him stagger back.
They continued to exchange blows and Kuwabara joined the fry. When Miroku began to join in as well, a whip with… thorns?… snapped at his feet. What kind of whip has thorns? Miroku thought as he jumped back, avoiding the attack. The first was a warning, but now the redhead was trying to hit him. Though it didn't seem like he was trying to land a fatal blow as he kept cracking his weapon and the monk jumped back or used his staff to protect himself.
Seeing how their fight seemed unfairly matched, Sango took a step forward only to have a black blur drop down in front of her. Sango almost took a step back in surprise.
"You! What're you doing here!" Sango asked the short demon.
Hiei removed his hands from where they rested almost leisurely in his pockets and took out his sword. "We have a fight to finish."
Sango's face became serious. "And I don't have time for this, I have to help my friends." She turned to go help Miroku in his fight when Hiei was suddenly in her way only a few feet away. She frowned. Not that she really expected him to just leave because she said a few words, but it would have been nice.
"You're mine to fight," he informed her.
"Well aren't you a possessive one." She took out the sword by her side quickly and took a swipe at him. He was a few feet away in a second, just out of her reach. She would have used her hiraikotsu, but with his speed and small body, he'd be hard to hit. Her sword would have to be good enough, with a little help, that is. "Last time our fight was unevenly matched. This time I have my secret weapon." Sango looked to Kirara and pet the little youkai on her shoulder then looked back to Hiei, smiling slightly.
He sneered. "You expect me to be afraid of your little pet demon?"
Kirara jumped down, transforming as she did. Her multiple tail moved from side to side as she hissed at the fire demon. He held out his sword in a ready position, prepared to strike her down if she decided to pounce. Kirara bent her front legs, but instead of pouncing, she let Sango climb on. She then sprung up the second Sango was on and the two took off the ground.
Sango continued to fight with Hiei, using Kirara's speed to be able to attack quickly, but flew higher when he tried to counter. No matter how fast, he couldn't fly… but she found out quickly that he could jump pretty damn high.
Miroku, meanwhile, was having trouble fighting Kurama and his fast whip. The monk got hold of one of his wards, however, and threw it at Kurama. It surprised the kitsune at first, but in the end he jumped to avoid it. Still, the small paper attached onto his arm. Suddenly, the kitsune's arm with the whip went completely numb and he found he couldn't move it. He looked at the monk with surprise.
"I'm impressed that it didn't paralyze your whole body. You must be strong for it only to effect your arm," Miroku commented.
You'd be surprise how strong, Kurama thought. He took no time in switching the rose whip to his other hand, though he would be slower with the less dominant arm. Again, he started to attack Miroku, but he was ready to counterattack with his staff.
He heard his name from above. "Miroku!" He looked up to see Sango tumbling downward toward the ground at an alarming rate and her landing wouldn't be pretty. Kirara was unable to get to her as Hiei kept the cat demon busy, which left it up to him. Miroku dropped his staff and caught her awkwardly, then abruptly turned with her in his arms. The whip sliced into his back as he shielded her from the attack. He cried out in pain.
"Miroku," she said with widened eyes.
"Looks like I caught a falling angel," he joked lightly as he set her down.
She heard the whish of the whip as it was pulled back once more and pushed Miroku out of the way while she jumped back. The whip struck the ground between them, where they had been standing moments ago. If that wasn't enough, Hiei abruptly appeared in front of her and attacked. Two demons against two humans, how fair was that?
She ran to her sword that had dropped to the ground only a few feet away, turning as soon as she got it to defend herself against Hiei's sword. He had made her lose her balance on Kirara and fall (whether intentionally or not, she didn't know), but even despite that, she climbed back on Kirara when she came close enough to the ground.
"Why do you keep attacking me?" she asked.
"Sadly, you seem the most worthy opponent here," he told her as his sword clashed with hers. He looked to Miroku for a second. "He's just a human with a few pathetic spells." A glance at Inuyasha. "And then there's the half-blooded dog demon, who looks too weak to hardly fight those two." Sango looked over to see Inuyasha still fighting Yusuke and Kuwabara.
"I heard that, shorty," Inuyasha called to him, annoyed.
"Hey, I get to make fun of him, not you," Kuwabara said.
Inuyasha avoided being punched by Kuwabara, while kicking Yusuke in the stomach simultaneously. Yusuke, however, grabbed onto his leg and twisted it, making Inuyasha lose balance and fall face first into the ground. It was worse than one of Kagome's sit commands. Inuyasha jumped back to his feet.
"That's it!" Inuyasha yelled, taking out his Tetsusaiga. "Wind—" he began.
Hearing this, Miroku's yelled to his ally before he could continue, "let's not destroy the whole park, shall we?"
He grumbled about it, but put his sword away. It was then that they heard the scream.
"Inuyasha!"
Kagome, the hanyou thought He looked to his friends, about to say "time to go" or something along those lines, but they got the message without having to be told. Sango went close enough to the ground and held a hand out to Miroku, who used it to hoist himself onto Kirara behind her, his arms wrapped around her waist to keep himself on. The three went high into the sky, making it impossible for the others to reach the two.
"I'll meet you back home," Inuyasha called to them from the ground.
"But—" Sango started to protest. If Kagome was in trouble…
"Go," he commanded.
Not too happy about it, they went even higher, disappearing into the cloudy sky. Inuyasha avoided the attacks and ran into the tree area and away from the field, heading toward Kagome.
"Hey, don't run away, you coward!" Yusuke called after him, but he was already gone.
"Fox Fire," Shippo yelled and toasted the already decapitated demon, but still it twitched.
Kagome took another step back, ushering Shippo back in addition to herself. She already had the two jewel fragments it possessed, then how was it regenerating itself?
Her arms searched blindly for some sort of weapon. Her guess was it wouldn't be too happy when it was all back together again and would want to attack something. And what do you know, it had a nearly defenseless human girl and young kitsune all ready for the eating. Oh, goody.
"Inuyasha!" she yelled as the other arm connected to the shoulder. The arm connected to the shoulder, the hand connected to the arm, a few missing fingers to the hand. It kind of reminded her of the skeleton song, the foot bone connected to the leg bone, the leg bone connected to the—why was she thinking of songs at a time like this?
Kagome grabbed a thick branch and readied it in her hands, prepared to take a swing at the demon if it stood up completely. She wasn't good at baseball, but she could use the branch like a bat and hit the demon.
Kagome heard more than saw Shippo suddenly snapped his fingers. She didn't want to look away from the demon for a second. "I remember this kind of demon, the only way to kill them is a stab through the heart," the little kitsune informed her.
"So Inuyasha managed to decapitate nearly this entire demon but never stabbed him through," Kagome muttered to herself, then in a normal voice to Shippo, "and how do you suppose we do that? All I have is a branch and somehow I don't think I'm strong enough to get that through the bone and penetrate the heart."
Sure, in the movies and television that made it look so simple to stab someone in the heart, but really you had to go through the bone, which was hard if you don't have the force it do it.
The hand that was still unattached to the body, suddenly grabbed her ankle and pulled, making Kagome fall to the ground with a yelp and dragged her across the blood-covered ground. Shippo grabbed one of her arms, trying to pull her back, but he was too little to make a difference and wound up getting pulled with her.
Luckily, that's when Inuyasha arrived on the scene. Shippo quickly told him what to do and Inuyasha used his sword to stab the demon through the heart. Kagome got up slowly to her feet, not liking the feel of cold blood all over her back. She was about to thank Inuyasha, but he didn't give her the time.
"No time to talk," he told her (which she thought kind of defeated the purpose, since he did talk to say he didn't have the time to). He grabbed her swiftly in his arms, while Shippo jumped onto his back, just as the other group ran into the clearing.
Before she could get a good look at any of them, puzzled at who they were, Inuyasha was already moving swiftly, leaving them in his dust."Damn it, we just missed him," Yusuke said, after watching the hanyou disappear.
"Who was that girl he took? Another victim?" Kuwabara asked, ready to go after them. Yusuke pulled him back. They'd never be able to keep track of the demon and they were worn already from the fight.
Kurama shook her head. "She called from him, remember? Inuyasha…"
"So that's this hanyou's name?" Yusuke asked, committing the name to memory.
"I suppose so," Kurama responded. "I didn't recognize the girl, though I hardly caught a glimpse of her, only a bit of black hair."
"Which describes millions of people in the world," Yusuke said dryly.
Kuwabara abruptly looked around the surroundings. "Was it just me, or was the twerp here too?"
"Hiei was here and then left once they ran," Kurama said with a thoughtful look on his face. He came, fought the girl, and left just like that. They could've used his speed to take down the escaping hanyou, but he hadn't seemed interested in the others at all…. Curious behavior on his part.
The rest took the time to look at the surroundings and the two bodies on the ground. Definitely not a sight for children, unless they wanted to have nightmares.
"Look at all this blood everywhere," Yusuke commented, disgusted with what the hanyou had done and gotten away with. Next time they met… let's just say the hanyou would pay.
Botan crouched down near one of the bodies, inspecting it. Yusuke had forgotten she was there for a moment, seeing as how she hadn't taken part in the fight. "This one isn't human." She looked up at the others. "It's a demon."
That stumped them. Why would he kill another demon? Unless it had something he wanted… but then why kill the human too? Just for fun?
"He did mention how he didn't kill the humans. It's possible this demon was the culprit," Kurama told them.
"Yeah, right. I don't believe that," Yusuke said.
Botan shook her head. "I'm going to take these human souls back to Spirit World and see what I can find out." She materialized her oar. "I'll be back later with information."
"Ow, Sango, be gentle," Miroku said as he winced.
"Be quiet you, big baby," she told him, "I'm only doing what you asked."
The sounds of shuffling around in the other room made Kagome wary. "If I come out of my room now will I be interrupting something I'd rather not see?" Kagome called from her bedroom.
"No," Sango said while Miroku said "Yes" at the same time. Sango hit him lightly over the head and called to Kagome, "Miroku just has wishful thinking." Kagome opened the door slowly and peeked out, as though not believing them. Sango shook her head. "Miroku has perverted your mind."
Kagome crossed her arms with a smile as she stood in the doorway. "And don't tell me he hasn't done the same for you after three years together." She moved into the room and sat down on the couch, removing her wet hair from the towel it was wrapped in. It was a hell of a job getting her clothes and herself free of all the blood.
"Just doing my job," Miroku responded with a grin. Sango slapped on another towel soaked with warm water on one of the wounds he had received from the whip. Miroku hissed in pain.
The monk sat down in the chair though backwards so that his legs straddled the back of it and his arms folded over the top, his head resting on his arms. Meanwhile Sango stood behind him, treating the wounds.
"A few of these wounds have a few thorns in them," she commented as she pulled another out. "Though I guess you're lucky he hardly broke the skin when he could have made you bleed at lot more."
"They weren't trying to kill us," Miroku said thoughtfully.
"Speak for yourself," Inuyasha retorted as he came into the girls' apartment, slamming the door behind him. In no way was he in a good mood. Who were they to accuse him of killing just because he was a demon? "Those two humans looked ready to kill me when they attacked."
"I agree with Inuyasha," Sango concurred, "that fire demon wasn't too friendly." Although he wasn't unfriendly either. He did let me go the other night when he could have killed me… she thought to herself.
"I saw his speed, Sango, if he wanted you dead, he probably could have killed you easily. They were reluctant to kill us humans, but didn't care about Inuyasha."
"What's your point?" Inuyasha asked, annoyed.
"That maybe they aren't too different from us. They didn't want to kill humans, but didn't mind killing demons to protect people," Miroku concluded.
"I suppose it's possible," Sango said doubtfully. It didn't fit in the demon's case. Why would he be fighting to protect humans when he didn't seem to like them that much? Though it could be possible he wasn't even part of the group, only having come to finish what they started.
"Feh, I don't believe that at all. They were just playing with us until they decided to kill us," Inuyasha told them.
Kagome had been only listening, not having been there when the fight took place. She covered a yawn with her hand. "Maybe we should keep discussing this tomorrow," she said sleepily.
The rest nodded their agreement, worn out from the fight. The two guys left to their own apartment and Kagome gathered the sleeping Shippo in her arms, who had long since passed out on the couch. She also took the top lying near him, one of his illusion tricks that he had tried to use on Inuyasha's head earlier and put it in her coat pocket to remember to give it back later if he promised not to use it on Inuyasha again. With a goodnight to Sango, Kagome went into her room and fell asleep not too long after her head hit the pillow.
Koenma looked at the four members of his team, though surprised that they were all present. He hadn't thought Hiei would come, but there he was leaning against the wall, as far away from Kuwabara as he could get. The other three sat in chairs in front of his desk, while Botan stood beside him.
"Why did you want us all here?" Yusuke asked impatiently, "you don't call us to Spirit World much."
"I was watching your fight last night with the hanyou," Koenma began.
"Yeah, we were there too, so what?" Yusuke inquired while Koenma glared. Why did he never let him finish? He could've picked a nice, polite boy to be Spirit Detective, but, no, he gets stuck with the loud mouth, back talking boy.
Koenma's screen suddenly appeared and there was a large picture of Inuyasha on it, splattered in blood, which meant it was probably a picture from the night before.
"The hanyou looks pretty powerful and we don't know how much power he may holds, especially in that sword of his." The picture suddenly changed and instead of the hanyou, the two humans appeared. They were two separate pictures, but shared the screen so that they were next to each other. The first one was of the woman riding the cat demon, while the second was of the man fending off one of Kurama's attacks, pictures also from their fight. Hiei looked at the picture intently. Koenma continued, "these two are humans, but that's all I can tell you. There are no files that we can find on either of them, not even their names. Neither can be much older than twenty, yet we can't come up with any files." He sighed.
"Why would a demon want humans around?" Kuwabara questioned, "those two could fight, but he could have found stronger demons."
"They might be addicted to demons, would do anything for them," Kurama informed him, "some demons use humans for… sexual pleasure, among other things. The humans become addicted and completely loyal to the demon. They are mostly like slaves after that." When everyone just looked at him, he realized what it must have sounded like and said quickly, "not that I know from experience…"
A dropping pin could've been heard in the room.
"Right, I'd like to change the subject now," Yusuke commented.
"The woman… she's a demon slayer, that's all I know," Hiei mentioned. For some reason he didn't like the idea of the demon slayer being a sexual partner for the demon.
Koenma looked his way. "And how do you know that?"
"Because she told me," Hiei responded, meeting his eyes.
"So she slays other demons for her 'master', what of it?" Yusuke questioned. The subject was already annoying him.
"There's also the matter of the other demon. Botan, what about the two that were killed? What did they see?" Kurama inquired.
"Neither of them saw their attacker," Botan told them with a sigh, "they were both attacked and killed from behind. Other than that, they were both very touchy with the subject, which is expected of course. The woman broke into hysteria just talking about it."
"Which leaves us with the hanyou could be innocent…" Kurama concluded while Yusuke snorted, "or the two could have been working together and the hanyou killed the other for whatever reason. Or possibly he just killed the demon to make to it seem like the full-blood demon had been the killer."
"We have records of that demon living in the park… but he's always been peaceful before, which leaves us with Kurama's last two possibilities," Koenma said.
"And the last woman that was with the hanyou? What about her?" the kitsune asked.
"I did find a file on her. If we get her, we might be able to get to the demon," the Prince of Spirit World answered.
"What's the girl's name so we can find her and question her?" Yusuke inquired impatiently. It was early in the morning and they had fought until late last night. All he wanted to do was crawl back into his bed and sleep.
Another picture appeared, this one of the hanyou taking away the girl. Koenma zoomed in closer to what they could see of her face.
Yusuke could feel the blood draining out of his face.
"Kagome Higurashi."
AN: Blah. So what'd you think? Good, bad, what the hell was I thinking when I wrote it? Review with opinions or whatnot.
