Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha
In a World of Demons
Chapter 2: Saturday Nights
"…depending on what side she chooses, everything could be changed. Everything will be changed."
"And you're sure about this?"
"We've been waiting centuries for this. For the right girl to come along…"
He paused for a second, in deep thought.
"We must get her to join us." Just then he smiled evilly. "Or we will destroy her."
"So you want us to go after her then?"
"Yes, bring four of your demons and go meet her outside that store she works at. She'll be in for a nasty surprise tonight." He paused. "Make sure she is brought straight to me. Alive." He added the last part, knowing that the demons did get rough sometimes.
Inuyasha watched as the girl walked through the dark alley alone. Stupid girl, he thought, has she ever seen a horror movie? The girl in the alley almost always dies.
He saw the other men come behind her, noticing them even before she did, but that was to be expected. He had demon senses that she did not. Also he was on the roof of the building and looking down he got a better view of things.
He heard the conversation she had with the demon men. She's an even bigger idiot then I thought, with her provoking them like that, he thought. He watched as she cringed at the man's mention of rape, heard her small whisper of terror, and saw her move back against the wall. Typical girl. She could not even defend herself. Then she did something that surprised him; she began to fight back. Expecting her to be a totally failure, he was even more surprised when some of the things she did worked. Screw those self-defense classes her and the other girl had been talking about, she was doing fine enough on her own.
Inuyasha thought they had her once, but she ended up kicking the leader right where it counts and getting out of the other demon's grasp. Remind me never to tick her off, Inuyasha thought. He saw her fatal mistake though. When she saw that knife she became more afraid and her fighting back was not as good. He saw as they pulled her down to the floor and tore at her clothes. His hands gripped the edge of the roof tightly. Then realizing what he was doing he stopped. Why should he care about the girl down there? She was just another stupid human girl. Though, actually, she was more than that. There was talk about the powers that lay deep within her… no doubt why the demons had appeared to take her in the first place. Maybe it would be better if she died though. That way, neither side would have her power. That was it, he was decided. Inuyasha would let the demons do what they wanted with her, and hopefully they would kill her. It would solve a lot of people's problems.
His decision made, he was about to leave, really should have left, but Inuyasha could not take her eyes off the girl. She still thrashed around screaming for someone to save her. He felt his hands turn into fists again but stopped himself. He should not care about the stupid girl down there. It was her own fault; she should not have gone down the alley. Though something deep inside him said that they would have found her anyway so it made no difference. He debated with himself for sometime while watching the girl below him.
For some reason he did care. Maybe it was because he knew the girl from school, had seen her laugh and kid around with her friends. That big smile of hers and her shining eyes when she laughed… and then seeing her down there struggling against demons that wanted to take her innocence away. Or maybe because she had done him a favor earlier that day when she made her friends back off. He was not exactly sure why, but what he did know was that he needed to stop them.
"Oh, hell!" Inuyasha mumbled to himself as he flew off the roof and landed on the ground below neatly on all fours. He carefully got up onto his feet.
None of the men noticed him, they were too preoccupied with handling the wild girl. These demons were pathetic, but he guessed since their boss had only wanted to get one small girl he did not think he needed powerful demons to take her. Boy, was he wrong. Inuyasha would have killed the pathetic excuses for demons anyway now, if only to annoy their boss.
"You know, it's really sad that five demons can't take care of one human girl, one wimpy human girl in fact."
He saw the girl stop moving instantly. He had only a moment to wonder what was going through her head before the leader of the five stepped forward toward him.
"What's it to you?" the leader growled at him.
He got up off the girl, throwing a piece of the shirt he had just ripped off her to the ground. He approached the hanyou with lazy steps, trying to provoke the half-demon. And it was working.
"I think you should let the human girl go and let your boss go fetch her himself… unless he's too much of coward to do his own dirty work," he sneered, taking a challenging step forward.
"You're not one to talk, hanyou," the leader spat back, clearly pissed off.
He laughed bitterly at his remark. "That's all I need to take you wimps out."
Inuyasha punched him in the face before he even had time to react. The demon grunted with the force of the blow. He brought his hand up to punch him again, but he jumped out of the way fast and grabbed a knife from somewhere under his clothes where it had been concealed. The leader took aim to slash at Inuyasha but found him gone.
"What the…?" the demon muttered to himself.
He looked to each side for any sign of Inuyasha but did not see him. What he forgot to do was look behind him.
What amateurs, Inuyasha thought, while mentally rolling his eyes.
He stuck his clawed hand into the demon's back and it came out the other side. With a choked scream, the demon fell to the floor dead, dropping his weapon with a sharp clang, and began to dissolve into nothingness.
Weak too.
There was a brief silence before the other four began to charge blindly at Inuyasha. It was sad, really, how slow and easily the brainless thugs were defeated. A few dodges here and there and then a swipe with his claws and they were all ash on the floor. He supposed for a human girl, though, they were a little hard to handle. That why he was glad he was not human. They were too weak and fragile for his liking.
Inuyasha brushed the ash off his shirt easily. He was lucky that he had not got any blood on it though. He hated wasting a good shirt. He looked over where the girl had been. During the fight he had saw her trying to scurry away, but now she was frozen where she was in the middle of the alley. She stared at him with a blank, confused look on her face.
He trudged his way over to her and said firmly, "get up."
The girl did not respond which ticked him off. Why didn't she say something, anything at all? Why didn't she demand an explanation or throw herself at him, crying, or anything? Why didn't she react?
The girl slumped to the ground lying, oddly still, staring blankly up at the dark sky.
"Hey! Are you stupid or something? Get up!" he snapped, annoyed.
Which was not really being fair, he knew, because she had received quite a shock in the past half an hour of her life. She had probably lived in an oh-so perfect world and bam! all the sudden she was forced until a world of kidnap and rape and oh, yeah, demons. Though he was not positive she knew about the demon part. People usually tend to ignore what they could not explain and make up their own logical explanation for themselves.
"You… you saved me…" Kagome told him softly. He crouched down beside her laying form. She was blinking slowly over and over again as if she was having trouble seeing.
"Thank you for stating the obvious," Inuyasha said gruffly. He froze suddenly when she raised a hand up to him and placed it gently against his cheek. After a few moment he said, though slightly less harsh, "don't think much of it because—"
He did not finish his sentence when the girl went suddenly limp, her hand fell to the ground with a soft thud. She wasn't…? Was she? Inuyasha quickly checked for a pulse and found it was still there although it was weak. She had lost a lot of blood and was still losing a lot more, but she was not dead and he was relieved. Wait, why was he relieved? Didn't he just wish she was dead before? He shook himself out of it telling himself that he did not care. He was only worried because whoever the boss of those goons were would have be after him if he found out he had gotten the girl killed, but the girl was alive so he was safe. Inuyasha highly doubted the boss cared that the demons he sent out were dead.
He nudged the girl slightly but she did not wake. "Come on, girl, wake up." Still she did not respond, not that he expected her to.
The girl's shirt was hardly a shirt anymore. It was ripped and torn into a few different pieces. He noticed that the girl's bra was still together, the thugs obviously had not gotten that far yet. Then he found himself blushing wondering why he even was thinking about it. He took off his own shirt and put it on the girl awkwardly because of her limp form. He ripped off the sleeve of the arm that had gotten cut by the demon's blade, forming the material into a rather pitiful bandage for her arm, but it would slow down the bleeding. With a defeated sigh, he picked up the girl, putting one arm underneath her knees and the other wrapped behind her back, careful not bang into the wound on her right arm, though that was nearly impossible, seeing that her arm was against his chest.
"You'd better be grateful for this later," he mumbled to the unconscious body he held in his arms.
He jumped up and easily landed on the roof he had been observing her from before. He gracefully jumped from roof to roof until he reached the roof of her house sometimes later. He looked through the windows until he found one that led into a mostly pink room that reeked of the girl's scent. Thankfully, the window was open and he climbed into the room. He dropped the girl onto the bed and threw a blanket on her. Then with one last glance at the girl, he disappeared out the window.
Kagome's eyes slowly blinked open. She was laying on something soft… her bed. She groaned as she began to become conscious of her surroundings. Why did her head have to hurt so much?
Her head jumbled, she tried to remember the events of the night before. The last thing she remembered before passing out, was two golden orbs… no they weren't orbs, they had been eyes. She remembered two golden eyes looking down at her…. Had it all been a dream?
No, the throbbing of her arm and head were evidence of the reality of last night. Flashes of the night before came back to her. The men had come out of nowhere… she was struggling and had gotten nicked by the man's knife… thrashing like a wild woman on the ground… a stranger's appearance… a few minutes of stunned silence… the feel of the stranger's cheek against her hand… and the stranger's eyes watching her… then… darkness.
But how did she get back in her room? She was on top of her bed; a stray blanket had been thrown over her. Had the stranger brought her back to her house? The golden-eyed strange… why did it seem so familiar? Wait… she searched her memory and found what she was looking for. The day before… there had been a boy with silver hair and amber eyes. She had run into him in the hallway and…. Had it been the same person? But in the hallway he seemed to not give a damn who she was or what she was doing as long as she stayed out of his way. How could he be the same person who saved her? But remembering the stranger who saved her, she recalled the same silver hair and amber eyes.
She stopped further thought when she heard her mom coming down the hallway toward her room. Kagome noticed a few bloodstains on her sheets from her bleeding arm—no wonder why she felt so light-headed— and quickly covered them with the blanket. She was not sure if she mom knew if she was hurt or not. The boy might have gone through the house without her mom ever knowing and brought her to her bed without notifying anyone else in the house. That was the most likely answer, since her mom was not in her room already worrying about her.
Her mom opened the door slowly with a comforting smile on her face. She turned the lights on, but at Kagome's moan, she turned them back off. She was grateful for that, since in the dark she would not notice the other spots of blood that were all over her bed.
"Don't you have school today, Kagome?" her mother asked softly. That confirmed it though, her mom did not yet know and neither was Kagome going to tell her. "Sango's waiting downstairs for you."
"I don't fell so well," Kagome croaked. It was rather convincing too because her voice was so hoarse from all the screaming she had done the night before.
"Alright, you can stay home today. I'll go tell Sango." He mom was about to leave when she asked Kagome, "do you want her to come up to see you?"
"No!" Kagome said abruptly. Her mother seemed startled by how fast she had answered and she continued, "uh… you know, I just don't want to get her sick or anything."
Her mother accepted this answer and went to tell Sango that she was sick. It was not that Kagome did not want to see Sango, but she did not want to tell her what happened. If she came up to see her, she would notice something was wrong in an instant and then demand an explanation and this is assuming that she had not already noticed the blood on her sheets. So no seeing Sango today.
Miroku met Sango in front of the school, smiling, and then realized something was missing.
"Where's Kagome?" he asked.
"She's at home, sick with something, I don't know what," Sango said gloomily.
"Then what's with the depressed look?"
"Well, she didn't want me to come up and see her…. I guess I'm just worried, that's all."
"Yes, because we all know how deadly the flu is." He said sarcastically. He thought for a moment. "Well, actually I suppose it could—"
"Not that!" Sango cried angrily while hitting him in the back of the head. "I felt something… well, something wrong."
"So you've become a psychic now?" He asked, lifting an eyebrow at her. "I thought it was my job to feel out strange things. Speaking of feeling…"
Sango suddenly found Miroku's hand on her back and sliding down toward her rear.
"Stop it!" she yelled as she knocked his hand away.
She didn't even slap me that time, Miroku thought, this must be serious then. "Look, like I said yesterday, you are way too paranoid. Nothing has hurt her before so why should they start now?"
Miroku thought, "Look, like I said yesterday, you are way too paranoid. Nothing has hurt her before so why should they start now?""They could start hurting her at anytime! That's why were here, remember?"
"Oh, Sango," Miroku sighed, "no one's hurting her, alright? She's fine."
The bell rung and both of them began to walk into the school building, Sango comforted by Miroku's words. What they did not notice was the boy sitting on a tree branch of a tree in front of the school, observing them as they walked away
"That's what you think," Inuyasha said out loud, though no one could hear.
He silently fell to the ground and walked towards his first class.
Kagome drifted into a half-asleep, half-awake phase, not really thinking at all, until her brother had left for school and her mom had left for work. When she was sure they were gone, she sat up swiftly, and immediately regretted it. Her head ached terribly. Recalling something else from the night before, she put a hand to the back of her head and winced. There was dry blood all over the back of her head making her hair sticky and disgusting. She looked back at her pillow and found it covered with her blood.
Then she finally noticed something else. The boy had wrapped her wounded arm, rather badly, but it looked as if he had at least tried. The wound on her arm was still bleeding slightly. No wonder she was feeling so woozy, but the attack had only been, what, five, six, hours ago? Kagome also noticed that she was wearing her rescuer's shirt, minus the one sleeve he had used to wrap her arm with. She pulled the material at her chest and looked down at what lay beneath it. Her work uniform was little more than scraps of material that she was amazed were still on her. Her pants were fine, her attackers had not had time to start ripping them before the boy came along.
The first thing she did was take a shower and get all the dried blood off her. When she got all of the blood off her skin and out of her hair, she drained the now pink bath water, and put on her robe, but not before re-bandaging her wounded arm. Kagome then threw everything her blood stained, the blankets, pillow cover, etc, everything, including her rescuer's shirt, into the washing machine. She then went down to the kitchen to get some Tylenol for her pounding head.
She rethought the actions of last night and kept coming up with one odd thing, the men dissolving. People do not just dissolve into ash. She had never seen a dead body before, sure, but she knew that much. People only turned to ash after being cremated or burned, but she remembered no fire. Was her mind playing tricks on her? It was very possible since everything about last night, after getting hit in the back of the head, was fuzzy.
Kagome turned on the news, expecting to see something about five guys dead in an alley. After flipping through different news channels for an hour and finding nothing she stopped. They couldn't have not found the dead bodies, someone was bound to pass through that alley during the day, but according to what Kagome saw on the news, or rather what she didn't see, what happened to the bodies? Had they really just disappeared into ash? Somehow she could not believe that, would not believe it. There had to be a logically explanation for it. Possibly the boy had gone back and moved the bodies…? But somehow she did not believe that either.
Also, what was with the leader of the five calling the boy a hanyou? What was that about?
Too many unanswered questions filled Kagome head and she had to stop before her headache returned. One thing was certain though. She was going to school tomorrow and she was going to ask that boy about it.
Kagome climbed up the stairs to her school alone. She had called Sango the night before and told her not to wait for her that morning. Sango had seemed relieved to hear her voice, which just puzzled Kagome, but didn't like the idea of not walking without her, saying there were a lot of creeps out there. Didn't she know it! Kagome assured Sango that she was going in later and her mom was driving her. It was a lie, but Sango would have been pissed off if she found out she was walking by herself. So Sango agreed and told her she would meet her later. See? Way too over-protective.
First period had just started and all the hallways were deserted except for a few stragglers who either didn't have class, didn't care, or were still getting to their classrooms. She was hoping the boy who had saved her wasn't in the classroom yet. She wanted to talk to him away from other people, but didn't know where else to find him other than school. If he was already in the class, she would have to find a way to draw him out to talk to him.
It seemed luck was on her side because just as she turned the corner to the hallway where her class was, she saw the boy walking toward the door. She stared running toward him, her backpack forgotten on the ground.
"Hey! Hey… you!" Kagome called, finding she still didn't know his name.
He either did not hear her, which she doubted, thought she was talking to someone else, or he was just ignoring her. She was betting on the latter.
"Hey, stop! Wait up, dog-boy!" Kagome exclaimed, using her own nickname for him. She wasn't sure why, but he reminded her of a dog.
The last remark made him stop in his tracks and turn to face her, annoyance plain on his face.
"You wanted something, wench?" he asked harshly.
That made Kagome stop short a few feet away from him. Was it possible she was mistaken? Could it be someone else had saved her? But who else had silver hair? No, she was positive it was him.
When she didn't speak he continued, "are you retarded? Or do you actually have a question?"
"I…"
"You…" Inuyasha mimicked, one eyebrow raised.
"I just wanted to thank you… for saving my life."
"I don't know what you're talking about." He turned to walk away but she grabbed hold of his arm. He turned back around to see her shaking her head furiously, not looking up at him, but at the ground instead.
"No, I'm not stupid. You came…that night…and those men…"
"That's a nice story you got there." And she still hasn't figured out that her attackers were demons not men, Inuyasha thought.
"No, you're lying! I know you saved me. How many people do you know that have golden eyes and silver hair?"
"Whatever, wench. I didn't save anyone." Seeing the crestfallen look on her face he continued, "I might've beaten up a few…" he hesitated, "…men the other night, but I didn't save no one."
He began to walk away which added to Kagome's irritation. He was not even walking toward the class anymore, he was walking toward one of the school's exits instead.
"Do you at least have a name, dog-boy?"
He paused in his steps for an instant then continued walking. "Inuyasha," he told her.
"Inuyasha," Kagome breathed, then yelled at him, "don't you want to know mine?"
"Not really." Although it was a lie, he was a little curious, but only a little. But he knew she would tell him anyway. That's just how girls were. She'd tell him in five… four… three… two… one…
Silence.
"Do you often go around and save girls from dark alleys?" Kagome called after his retreating form.
He nearly fell over. That was not what he was expecting. He stopped walking and answered her question.
"No," he said cautiously while turning around, not sure where she was leading with her question.
"Oh, so I'm just special than? Why were you there that night? You just happened to come across me being attacked? And how did you know where I lived? How'd you get into my house? I'm pretty sure I locked that door before I left."
"Hey, what's with the third degree here!" he cried out as she advanced on him. He was increasingly startled by her attitude. He stopped acting like his normal brooding self as the small girl walked up to him and he became flustered by her.
Kagome, on the other hand, was bursting with unanswered questions that had bothered her all day yesterday and that morning and the only person that could give her her answers was the boy standing in front of her. The boy who saved her, also known as Inuyasha.
She poked him in the chest making him walk backwards as they talked. "I want some answers here! There's something you're not telling me—" she poked him, "—and I want to know what it is." Another poke. "Who were those men?" Poke. "Why were they after me?" Poke. "Why did they call you a hanyou?"
"Uh, so you remember that, do you?" he asked, then to himself, "damn I thought you were too out of it at the time to notice…"
"You should start answering my questions!"
"Would you stop jabbing your finger at me!" She had poked him until he was now up against the lockers in the deserted hallway. She still poked him until Inuyasha caught her finger. "Stop it already, will you?"
"Grrr…" Kagome growled.
Inuyasha seemed startled by her, yet again. Did she really just growl? He thought, I should be the one growling here. This small girl seemed full of surprises.
"Look if you want some answers, find out what your 'friends' really do on Saturday nights," Inuyasha told her. He tried to move past her but she would not let him past. Then he put his hands on her waist, startling her this time.
"W-what are you doing?" Kagome practically yelled at him, though she faltered slightly and her cheeks began turning pink.
He physically picked her up and moved her out of his way then let her go. As he began to walk away again, he called back to her, "if you still have question after that, then you can come and ask them."
As he left, Kagome sunk down against the wall, still faintly blushing, though her mind wandered. Again with the Saturday night deal. Exactly what did Miroku and Sango do on Saturday nights? If Inuyasha knew about it, she doubted they had any kind of relationship. But then what could it be? She could ask them about it, but she doubted they would answer her questions. That meant she would have to find out on her own. Why were there so many unanswered questions?
When he reached the door to the outside and was about to leave, Kagome called to him, "oh, and Inuyasha?"
He stiffened then turned to the girl, now sitting on the floor, leaning against the wall. She smiled sweetly at him, though he wasn't sure if the smile was fake or not.
"It's Kagome."
With that he left the school and if anyone had passed by him, they wold have seen a slight smile on his face.
Kagome continued to sit on the floor for the whole of first period, drowning in her own confusion and that's how Sango found her later. She picked up Kagome's bag, which had been so nicely kicked aside by the other students trampling by, and brought it to her, helping her up, off the ground. She could tell her friend was out of it so she guided her to the gym class.
The official gym class would not start until the next week, so all they had to do was sit in the gym for the entire period, doing pretty much whatever they wanted to. The school year always started on a Wednesday, giving the students three days to settle into their class, so after picking what they wanted to do on the first day, they did not have to start archery until the next day they had gym which would be sometime next week.
Some of the students took out basketballs and started playing, but Kagome and Sango sat in one of the corners, away from the action. Kagome still had not said anything since Sango found her and Sango was worried. When Miroku joined them on the floor Sango finally spoke to Kagome.
"Hmm?" Kagome said. She knew Sango had just said something, but she had not really been paying attention.
"I said, are you okay?" Sango asked, seeming really worried.
"What? Oh, I'm fine. Why would you think anything's wrong?"
"Aside from the fact that a basketball hit you on the head a while back and you didn't so much as flinch?"
"Maybe the basketball gave her brain damage," Miroku added helpfully.
She did not even bother sending him a dirty look, but continued, "Well, you didn't go to your first class either. You were just sitting out there."
"Oh, that's because I got there really late so I decided there was really no point of me going in at all," Kagome lied.
"Are you sure you're okay?"
Kagome felt a twinge of guilt. She had not told Sango what happened outside the department store or anything about the attackers at all, nor did she want to. She had not planned on telling either of them but they looked so worried…
Sango could see Kagome was lost in thought again and said sharply, "it wasn't Inuyasha, was it?"
"No!" Kagome said a little too quickly.
Sango narrowed her eyes and continued, "because I know he's in your first period class and…" she trailed off.
"Well, we were talking outside…" Kagome confided in her.
"I knew it!" Sango cut her off. "What did he say?"
"Well… ah…"
"You should stay away from him, Kagome," Sango told her vehemently.
Suddenly she was angry. "You're gone two months and your back three days and see how you're already treating me! Look, you're not my mother, so stop acting like her!" Kagome yelled at her, standing up abruptly.
Her cheeks burned red at her outburst. Her two friends looked shocked at her. Kagome stormed away, out of the gym, feeling a little ashamed of her outburst, but, wait, no, she should not be the one feeling ashamed. They were the ones that were to over-protective. To think she couldn't talk to one guy, one guy that had happened to have saved her life or at least from being kidnapped. And they were the ones keeping secrets from her. Why did she have to be the one that was ashamed?
She felt someone grab her arm as she stomped down the hall. She winced inwardly because he had grabbed onto her wounded arm. She whirled around to see Miroku and Sango not far behind him. She was fuming with anger but Miroku's words calmed her down, just like they always did.
"We're just worried about you," Miroku said gently, letting go of her arm when he was sure she would not leave. "That Inuyasha kid, he's… well, he's a punk, a troublemaker. We're your friends and we don't want to see you get hurt, that's all."
At Miroku's soft words her anger faded completely.
"Now what did Inuyasha say to you?" Miroku questioned, soothingly.
She felt her anger try to raise again, but she forced it down. She shifted nervously before answering.
"Nothing, I swear. I just was thanking him for… helping me the other day, that's all," Kagome lied. She had learned at an early age that the best lies were mostly truth. "Really, he's not such a bad guy." Though Kagome wasn't sure how much truth was in that statement. Sure he had saved her, but it took him a while to admit to that, and he did keep calling her names. There was also the rumor that he beat up the other students, but Kagome still thought he had a good heart buried somewhere inside him. "I'll see you later, alright? I think I'll spend the rest of the period in the library."
With a quick wave, they watched Kagome scamper off, but she did not seem like her normal perky self that day. Her outburst in the gym had proved that. Normally she would have kidded around with Sango, not yelled at her.
"She had a bandage on her arm," Sango told Miroku when Kagome was out of sight and hearing.
"So you noticed that too, huh?"
Sango shrugged. "It made the sleeve of her shirt look bulky. Her own bandaging work, no doubt."
"I didn't see it more as felt it when I grabbed her arm. She flinched too when I touched it."
"You have a real problem with touching people," she said sternly, though a small smile was on her face.
"Only when it comes to beautiful women." His own smile grew when he saw hers widen. Then he turned serious again. "About that bandage…"
"Inuyasha's work?"
"Probably."
Sango sighed, then glared at him. "I told you we should have killed him a long time ago."
He glared right back at her. "Are you insane? Do you want to die?"
"I thought you said he was only a half—" She stopped short when a group of girls passed by them, whispering and giggling as they passed Miroku. Sango continued, hesitantly, "only a half out of…er… a whole idiot."
When the girls were gone, Miroku gave her a look of pure pity. "Nice cover up."
"I panicked and it was the first thing that came to mind!" she snapped back. "Anyway, you said he was only a half-demon."
"He is, but he's still more powerful than some full ones we've fought before."
Sango huffed. "I'll believe it when I see it."
"Don't underestimate him. It could get you killed if you decide to fight him."
She glowered at him. "Don't you mean when we fight him?"
"No, I mean you. I'm not fighting that hanyou." She scowled at him and he continued, "if and I mean if we find evidence that it was really him hurting Kagome, then I'll go hunt him with you, but otherwise I'm not fighting him."
"Coward," she spat at him.
"But I'm a handsome coward, aren't I?"
Sango shook her head and walked back into the gym so that she could focus her energy somewhere where it could be useful, like playing basketball.
"Yes, and I also like my arms where they are, attached to my body!" he called after her.
The rest of Kagome's day was normal, the outburst not forgotten, but put aside. Sango did not seem hurt by her yelling at her so Kagome did not bring it up again. She really did not feel that she was the one that needed to apologize anyway.
The day quickly fell into night and the three of them went to see a movie, which was Miroku's idea. Sango agreed to go on one condition: that Kagome sat between them, seeing that she did not trust Miroku next to her. Miroku looked disappointed at this and said, "Now you ruined the whole plan!" With some eye rolling and giggling from the girls—though the giggling was mostly Kagome—they sat through a new movie that had opened that day.
They walked home together, talking about the movie, but during the walk home Kagome seemed edgy. At first they did not notice but she got quieter and quieter as they continued walking.
What they did not know was how frightened she was. She kept reliving the events of the night only two days ago. In every alley she thought someone would jump out at her and attack her and her friends. She did not want to put them in danger, but she figured they could handle themselves. Surely the "boss" of her five attackers was still out to get her and that knowledge made her nervous. She crept closer to Miroku and Sango, hoping desperately that they would not ask about her obvious uneasiness.
They did not ask, but they did often look over at her, concerned. What had happened to make her so jumpy? Maybe someone had tried to mug her and that was how she got the wound on her arm. That strange thought comforted Sango. She'd rather have it be a mugger than a demon. So maybe it wasn't Inuyasha. Or maybe it was Inuyasha who jumped her. Sango opened her mouth to ask but found Miroku's hand clasped over it before she could even take in a breath to start talking with. He shook his head and she mumbled some angry words at him. Kagome was too preoccupied to take notice.
They walked Kagome all the way home and it was obvious the relief on her face as she walked up her driveway. Sango offered to stay with her but she firmly declined, which troubled Sango further. Normally when Sango came back after being away, they both jumped at the chance to spend more time together. Kagome refusal had hurt her deeply.
Kagome felt another surge of guilt when she saw her best friend's crestfallen face but walked away into the safety of her house without saying a word nonetheless. If Sango stayed, she would have noticed her odd attitude and her wounded arm and she might start asking questions. At the moment, Kagome did not want to answer any questions, she had too many of her own.
Saturday morning turned into Saturday afternoon and Saturday night was approaching quickly. Kagome still did not know what to do. She wanted to find out what her two close friends did on this night, she knew that much. The question was: How? She could not ask; they'd avoid the question. So that left only one choice in her mind. She would have to follow them.
Even though she was frightened of what creatures might lurk in the shadows of the night, she was determined to go anyway. If Sango and Miroku were out there, it would be safe for her too right? Right.
Kagome changed into an all black outfit. This way she could follow them without worrying that they might see a bright pink shirt in the middle of all the darkness if Kagome had worn her normal attire. Instead of going downstairs and having to tell her mother where she was going, she climbed out her window and onto a tree that grew right next to it. Extremely convenient for escaping out of your room at night, right? She then proceeded in climbing down the branches and made a dash for Sango's house.
She must have been hiding behind the bushes in front of Sango's house for hours. And it must have definitely been past midnight. If Inuyasha was just playing with her, she was going to give him a piece of her mind on Monday. But she had also heard Sango and Miroku talk about it too so there must have been something going on.
Kagome was about to give up when she saw Miroku walk up to her house and wait for her outside. Sango came out sometime later and they gave there usually greeting, a flirtatious phrase here, a slap there, and they were down to business.
I can practically hear the Mission Impossible music, she thought dryly.
What she did notice was that neither were wearing anything people wore on a date, so scratch that idea, though Kagome had already thought that it was something other than a date. Instead, they were both wearing dark clothing. Sango's clothes were pretty much skin tight which she could tell Miroku appreciated as he walked somewhat behind her. Kagome rolled her eyes as she watched them move toward a shed in the back of Sango's yard. It was locked so she took out a key a opened it. Was Kagome seeing things, or was there a flash of blue light? Anyway, the two walked into the shed and both came out with an item that she gaped at.
Sango came out holding a huge boomerang and Miroku came out… with a staff? What the hell was going on here! They were just going to walking around town carrying an over-sized boomerang and a staff? Miroku even looked like some kind of priest from centuries ago with the strange metal staff he held. Though she doubted anyone else normal would notice since the only people out at this late a night were thugs, drug dealers, prostitutes, and those kind of people. She doubted any of those people would comment on seeing two teens walking around with weird objects in their hands looking like they had just jumped out of some time portal from the past.
She followed them as they walked farther into the town. What were they looking for? And why did they have those weird weapons? If Miroku's staff was even a weapon. Why not just beat them off anybody off with a stick or a lead pipe or something? Then Kagome stiffened. Were they going to fight someone?
They never seemed to notice that Kagome was following them though. She saw Sango point to a building, silently, and Miroku nodded. This was it! She was going to find out what they did, she just knew it.
Then she felt someone hit her over the head, hard. She slumped to the floor unconscious before she had time to even call out for help. The two demons came out of the shadows and snickered at their prize.
"Come on Manten, bring her along. Our boss will be happy to know we found her," Hiten said. He looked around to see what the girl had been following and saw with interest the two human. "And a bonus too. We'll finally be able to kill those two demon hunters everyone's looking for."
Someone was poking her over and over again. Annoying little brother, she thought, let me sleep s'more. The poking stopped and she was thankfully. Now she could go back to sleep. Someone then began to stroke her hair over and over again. It was really annoying.
Then her memories flooded in and she jerked up to a sitting position fast, which was really hard, considering the fact that her hands were bound together and so were her feet. She recalled someone knocking her unconscious. She looked around, noticing they were in an abandoned building somewhere. Kagome also saw two men around her, a skinny one and a fat one, although the fat one looked hardly human, but what was she thinking? If he was not human, what else could he be?
The round one sat down next to her. He had been the one stroking her head and she shifted away from him only to find herself closer to the other one who towered over her. He had been the one poking her with the tip of his shoe.
"So you're awake, wench," the tall, skinny one said, "I was beginning to think I had killed you."
"Still alive," Kagome grumbled, rubbing the back of her head. She was relieved that there was no blood like last time.
"I don't think I told you you could speak," the tall one said. He nodded to the other one. "Manten."
Manten moved away from the girl, sulkily. Sparks came out of each of the other man's fingertips on the one hand. He gestured toward Kagome and the spark turned into tiny lightning bolts that made their way toward Kagome. It only took an instant for the lightning to leave his hand and shock her. She yelped at the pain as all five hit her at once. The force of the blow sent her sprawling back onto the ground. The slimmer one laughed at her pain. She was getting tried of people doing that.
"Now we only have to wait for the demon hunters to arrive," he said.
"Don't fret little one, the others will be here soon," the man, Manten, told her softly as he ran a hand through her hair again.
"What are you?" Kagome said, her voice barely a whisper.
"We're demons, of course," the other, slimmer one said.
"Demons…?" Kagome said, not real believing it.
"Yes, are you sick in the head? We're demons. You know, the things that people think are evil and all have little horns and tails," the slimmer one said like he was talking to a stupid child.
"But—"
"But demons don't exist?" He laughed. "Whatever helps you sleep at night, wench. I'm shocked this is coming from you though. Everyone says that you, one little human girl, has so much power that she could upset the balance of good and evil… really the balance between the humans and demons."
"What?"
"Yes, it's said if you join us, the demons, we would have great power again. We would be in control of everything, just like it was in the old days, and all the humans would fear us, tremble at our power."
"But I can't…"
"Of course you can't. Not yet anyway. No one ever told you how to harness and use your powers. Those two were sent to protect you…"
"Those two…?" Kagome whispered, a lump developing in her throat. She had a feeling she knew what was happening. It was all coming together now.
"Now don't tell me you didn't know?" He laughed at her blank expression. "Oh, this is rich. You are such an ignorant human wench! Those two that follow you everywhere you go? Don't you think it's odd that they're always with you? That you hardly ever go anywhere without them? Those two, the boy and the girl you were following, were sent here to this town to look after you. You're just an object they have to protect from us demons. That's why they're always out together killing demons wherever they find them." He laughed once again. "And you never knew?"
Kagome shook her head slightly, making the demon laugh more.
How could she be some dumb! That's why Sango and Miroku were so over-protective of her. She was just something they needed to protect from demons. She was an item that they sheltered so she wouldn't fall into the wrong hands. It made sense now why they were so worried about her in school. They thought Inuyasha might get hold of her and hurt her. Inuyasha. His words came back to her then. Real protective "friends" you got here. And how they had both stiffened at the remark. They had been worried she would have found out and gotten mad at them and if she was mad at them, they'd have trouble doing their… their job. Why did she have to be so stupid!
She felt the tears coming and tried to force them away but it was no use. The other, larger demon continued to stroke her hair. "Don't cry. With such beautiful hair as yours, you shouldn't cry," he shushed her.
"Stop touching me!" Kagome cried out at him, turning her sorrow into anger. She was pretty sure that demon was nuts or just had a really bad obsession with hair.
That only made him stroke harder. Kagome yelped and struggled against the ropes that bound her hands and feet.
"Manten, stop it," the other demon snapped, "we don't want to damage the poor idiot. After all, she could restore our world to what it was like centuries ago. Remember, Manten? All the demons ruling over the humans and the magicks that everyone used. Humans now days are too stupid to rule over us for much longer. You're a perfect example of this, girl. She don't deserve to live so freely and carefree."
He suddenly got angry as if finally realizing his own words and slapped across the face, so hard Kagome tasted blood, which she immediately spit on the demon Manten. Manten screeched and reached for her but the other picked her up by her collar first and held her in the air, her feet dangling uselessly. The words he spat at her were words of anger.
"The human don't even remember us. They use to throw themselves at our feet in fear and now they don't even remember! Every time they see anything related to a demon they make up their own lame excuse. But with you, we will teach them the meaning of fear again."
He transferred her to his other hand, this time his hand going around her throat and he began to squeeze. Kagome gasped for air and found none. She began choking, turning a blue color.
"It's your fault, all your race's fault," he hissed at her between gritted teeth.
"Hiten, I thought you said not to damage—" Manten whined.
Hiten gave her throat one last tight squeeze and roughly threw her to the floor. Since her hands were tied behind her back, her arms could not take most of the blunt force of the fall, causing her head to bang hard against the floor. She cried out again, though she tried to muffle it, as to try not to make Hiten any angrier.
Meanwhile she was trying to figure out how she was going to get out of her dilemma. She did not want to stay with the two brother demons to bring down the whole human race, thank you very much. She could wait for Sango and Miroku to save her, but she suddenly did not want to trust them anymore. Everything she knew about them to this point was based on a lie and probably more lies on top of that. Did Sango even have a brother or a mom or did she go to some demon training camp during the summer? How was she supposed to know? She felt like she did not even know her friends anymore. They seemed like strangers to her now. All her thoughts surrounding her turned bitter. Unless it wasn't true… but how could it not be? She had heard them talking before, hints of demons her and there, but she had disregarded it. Boy, she was an idiot.
So how was she suppose to get out of the mess she got herself into? Kagome doubted Inuyasha would come to save her this time. He had probably had no idea where she was, and even if he did, she was not sure if he would come anyway. Then something struck her. One of the men who attacked her two days prior, or she guessed, they were the demons who attacked her, when using their actually title, anyway, one of the demons that had attacked her had called Inuyasha a hanyou. Did that mean… that Inuyasha was in fact a half demon? Woah, now there was a thought. It did explain why he never interacted with the other students though.
"There are demons everywhere in this town, there are demons all over the world, that disguise themselves as humans, either to lure humans into their homes so they can kill them or because some of them try to fit in. So they act like humans and after a while even think they're humans. There's even a gang of boys at your school that's really a gang of demons. Those are the lower class demons, but our blood runs thin with every century that passes. More demons give up the killing and try to fit in with the humans! It's insanity! There are hardly any pure blooded demons anymore. There are a lot of people out there who have demon blood in them and don't even know it because their ancestries never told anyone. It's disgusting really how we try to fit into your world, how we have to accommodate ourselves because the human dominate this world. But some demons can't even disguise themselves because they don't look human at all, like Manten. He can't even go out in the daylight without people screaming and running around like the idiots they are. Not that we mind a little fear, but chaos would ensue and we'd end up dead by all those guns you like to use now days with nothing accomplished." He paused looking down at her. "That's why we need you. You can change the world to what it use to be like."
There was silence for a few minutes while Kagome took in all the information that he just said. There were demons all over disguised as humans? So anyone could be a demon. The students at the school, the people she worked with, her friends, even her father could have been part demon and she would never know.
"So, wench, do you want to join us in destroying the humans?" Hiten asked to her still body on the ground.
She could not say yes, because they wouldn't believe her if she did and she just would not let herself say it, even if it would keep her hurt-free, but she could not say no either, because they would proceed to beat her until she said what they wanted to hear. So Kagome kept silent. Which turned out not to be a good choice either. She just could not win.
"Answer when I ask you a question!" Hiten yelled and proceeded in kicking her in the stomach as she twisted and cringed at every kick.
Still she did not answer. Manten pulled her up by her hair and she screamed in agony.
"NO!" she screamed, "no, I won't help you!"
So much for being silent. Hiten paused for a second then slapped her across the face again, bringing the metallic taste of blood back into her mouth. Manten dropped her on the floor and then they both decided to kick the rag doll that was Kagome.
She felt tears sting her eyes as she lost hope of anyone saving her.
"Come on, this way. I can feel a demon's presence. It's strong too," Miroku said as they both ran toward the abandoned building Miroku could feel evil vibes from.
Sango felt her breath beginning to labor but kept on running. They had already exterminated four demons that night and her adrenaline rush was beginning to fade, leaving her exhausted. She hoped the demon that they found would be killed easily because she was too tired for a long fight.
When they reached the building, Sango kicked in the door, her boomerang ready to attack. Only silence and darkness greeted them as both walked warily into the room. Suddenly bright lights were turned on, blinding the two for a few minutes. If the enemy had attacked then, they would have been easily dead, but the demons did not attack. But that was the thing with demons, they all had big egos. They loved to talk and taunt their "prey" before they attacked. That's why that had not attacked her and Miroku yet.
Sango thought she heard someone moan in pain, but it sounded distant. Was someone in here besides the demon? Or was she imagining things? Her mind could have been playing tricks on her as her energy level lowered.
A demon stepped into the room, his power crackling through the air, not so much that she could see it more like feel it. Miroku beside her went into an immediate defense position, his senses being more keen to the demon's evil aura.
Sango looked the demon over again. Her pulse sped up and her adrenaline rush came back to her. She recognized the demon from a previous meeting and remembered him as Hiten.
"Why thank you for coming," Hiten said, "I wouldn't want you to be late for your own funeral."
Then the darkness was back, making them have to readjust their eyes once again. It was as if they wanted them to know what the faces of their killer would be, but other than that, they wanted the darkness in their fighting arena.
Another demon stalked out of the shadows from the now dark room to stand next to Hiten. Manten was his name, Sango remembered. She had been the one to give Manten the scar that was on his left cheek. That had been when she was eleven and she had first arrived in this town. She had barely escaped alive that night. But now… now she was ready for them.
Forgetting to even warn Miroku about their lightning, Sango ran at them with a battle cry.
Kagome could hardly move, the pain was too much. She did not think anything was broken, but if she lived through the night, which she probably would seeing that the demons wanted her alive, she would have a hell of a lot of bruises tomorrow. She was bleeding too, but they were only minor wounds, especially compared with the wound she had gotten on her arm only days ago.
She observed Miroku and Sango as they fought the two demons. Sango seemed extremely violent, practically screaming bloody murder, as she attacked Manten. Was this the side of her Kagome had never seen before? Was she always this violent when she fought?
Sango threw her boomerang at him, but he dodged it and opened his mouth to send a huge lightning bolt her way. She had a quick choice; she could either get hit by the lightning and catch her weapon when it returned, or dodge and let the boomerang fly who knows where and not sure whether she'd be able to recover it again. She chose to get hit by his attack and grabbed her weapon as it flew back to her. She flew backward and slammed into the wall behind her with a cry when the lightning bolt hit her. Kagome cringed when she saw this, even though it hurt her to move. The lightning that Manten had flung at Sango was a lot bigger then what Hiten used to shock Kagome, and even that small shock had hurt her. She could not imagine the pain Sango was going through.
Miroku was having enough trouble on his own. His staff was not really an attack weapon, more of a defensive weapon. He had it out like you would a wooden staff, and blocked each of Hiten's attacks. Once and a while he managed to hit Hiten somewhere with the end of his staff, but at best the attack would bruise the demon. Hiten laughed at his attempt and continued to yell insults at him.
She saw Sango call out something to Miroku and he went down on the ground. Sango used her weapon and flung it first at Manten. He did not see it coming and it ended up slicing him in two, both halves of him sliding to the floor in a bloody mess. Hiten, struck with grief and anger, made his way toward Sango, and Miroku let him go. Unknown to the demon, the boomerang was making it's way back to it's owner. As Hiten ran at Sango in rage, the weapon went right through his neck, beheading him. His body spasm for a moment, then fell to the floor right next to his brother's.
And just like that the two, what she thought had been her two best friends, killed the demons.
Before she was not sure if she wanted to believe Hiten's words, but just seeing them fight, she knew it was true. They weren't really her friends. They were only in her town because they had to be, because they were told to be.
Kagome felt her vision fade like it had done days ago and she had a nagging feeling she was going to pass out again. She closed her eyes, waiting for darkness to come.
"Hey there's someone over here!" Miroku called to Sango.
They both moved to where Kagome was hardly conscious on the floor as she opened her eyes lazily to gaze upon them. She was covered in darkness but as they moved closer they began to recognize her. They saw the normally cheerful girl they both knew bound by ropes, her hands tied together, and her feet as well. Wounds and bruises were littered all over her small, frail form.
"Oh god," Miroku murmured and made what she could only assume was a sign against evil.
"Kagome!" Sango cried out and knelt beside her wounded friend. She touched Kagome's arm tentatively and Kagome jerked out of her grasp. Sango thought it was because she had hurt her by touching one of her wounds and was about to give her any apology when she heard Kagome's final words before she passed out.
"Traitors," Kagome muttered faintly.
Sango visibly paled at her comment, the blood draining from her face while Miroku's eyes widened.
And then darkness engulfed her once again.
A/N: now you got to remember Kagome was half out of it when she witnessed the first fight of this chapter so that's why their views on what happened are a little different. Not much different, but a little. It's late and I'm tired now. You know you're tired when you think confusement is a word…