Hey all,
Words cannot properly express how sorry I am that I took so long to update. I'm a full six months late! Ah! Thanks for the reviews, and enjoy. I don't own Inuyasha.
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Bitten
By Rio Grande
Chapter Nine: The Demon Bounty Hunters
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Kagome supposed that, as a federal agent of the Demon FBI, she was, most likely, obligated to do a bit more then stand in place and gawk when a female trespasser broke through her client's window whilst riding atop a feather ...... however, it seemed she was incapable of doing much else at the moment. As a new member to the colorful and ravingly random demon community, the humble college student and yet to become accustomed to such sights.
Lucky for Kagome, Kouga seemed far less incapacitated than she.
"HEY! Bitch! What do you think you're doing?" the lord of the house roared importantly, straightening his posture and letting a low growl seep from between clenched fangs.
The woman slowly rose from her seated position on the her mode of transportation, her movements apparently addled somewhat by the heavy, expensive looking kimono she wore. Most of her face was covered by a large, ornate fan she had spread opened in front of her, but her glowing, red demon eyes were still apparent and piercing. Her short dark hair was held back by jeweled clips and feather laced hair ties. Two matching feather earrings trailed down to her shoulders on either side of her face, which was framed by matching pointed ears. She seemed eerily familiar to a still stunned miko .......
"Greetings, Young Master Kouga and Lady Kagome ..." she purred in a formal tone, regarding the two stupefied people lazily, as though her arrival was not a thing to worry over at all. Then, in an almost too casual fashion, she continued: "My name is Kagura of the Wind, and I have been sent by my master to kill you both today."
"WHAT?" Kagome and Kouga squawked in unison, staring incredulously at the beautiful demon. She began to giggle maliciously from behind her fan before abruptly snapping it closed, and bringing the contraption in a swooping gesture around to her left ear, still clutching it delicately between her index and middle finger with her right hand. As Kagome was finally given a full view of Kagura's face, it occurred to her just where she had seen this odd demon before.
"It – it's you!" Kagome cried, bringing a hand to her mouth in shock. "You were at the sushi restaurant yesterday!" She recalled her overwhelming fear at the thought of letting Keiko talk to this woman last night, and took comfort in the fact that she hadn't, actually, been freaking out – she had been dead on with her suspicion that there was more to this demoness in particular than meets the eye.
Another thought became startlingly clear to Kagome as she remembered her later panic on the way home, dashing down the streets and half crazed with fear as she felt an evil presence in the back of her mind, accompanied by a maniacal laugh and a pair of taunting, luminescent red eyes.
"You've been following me!" the twenty year old accused.
"She has?" Kouga asked, his brow furrowing with confusion.
"Why yes, I have," Kagura assured the young wolf prince. "But don't you worry Kouga, Kagome hasn't been getting all of my attention. I have been keeping my eye on you as well. And after some time of observing you and your kind, I'd say I have a pretty good idea of how to best kill you."
This seemed to be the last straw for the terribly irate and confused wolf youkai, and he cracked his knuckles threateningly at Kagura's daring last statement.
"The hell you do!" he responded, an intense anger burning in his eyes at the thought that this witch had been spying on he and probably his clan for some time without their knowing. With the blink of an eye he was starting forward, looking as though he meant to do serious harm to Kagura, or at least teach her not to mess with the youkai wolf clan.
"Kouga, wait!" Kagome cried after Kouga, making a futile gesture to hold him back as he easily moved faster than her arms could keep up with, racing towards Kagura with no further hesitance.
"Silly wolf ..." Kagura cooed, letting the fan that had remained aloft through out her disturbing speech come crashing down in front of her in one powerful motion, softly speaking the words: "The Wind Blade's Dance!"
And then it fully dawned on Kagome just how much shit she was in as about a dozen, blade shape pockets of hair came swooping towards she had Kouga, evidently created by Kagura's fan and some sort of wind magic. Kouga made a startled noise in the back of his throat and had to stop his charging in favor of expertly dodging all of the unprecedented attacks, only letting one through to slice him along his left arm.
Kagome cried out in fear and dove to the ground, covering her head until the attack had passed.
'This is bad this is bad this is bad ...' she repeated to herself in a nervous litany as she rose up from the marble floor just enough to grab her semi-automatic from the holster on her thigh. She regarded the mean, silver looking gun in her hand cautiously for a moment before sighing and clicking off the safety.
Meanwhile, Kouga had sank to his knees in a protective stance as he regarded his arm, which was now sluggishly bleeding through his polo tee-shirt from the his fresh wound. He clutched the gash tightly and then glared at Kagura once more, a new gleam in his dark eyes. This woman was apparently far more dangerous than he had first presumed.
"Oi, you – just who IS this master of yours?" he inquired guardedly. Kagura grinned knowingly at the prince, sensing that he was singing a new tune now that he knew she was a Wind Witch and meant serious business.
"Why, Naraku of course." Kagura replied, in a statement that was almost identical to the one Yura of the Hair had said nearly a week ago. Kagome rolled her eyes knowingly and rose up a bit so she could more properly aim her weapon. So this witch worked for Naraku – big fucking surprise.
"Naraku!" Kouga gasped, this all being quite a new concept for him, where it was more of a daily routine for Kagome, really. "So I am being hunted! Well, it ends here." He rose fully to his feet once more. "Do not underestimate me, witch! The Wolf Prince is a formidable opponent."
"Oh, I'm sure you are," Kagura replied in all seriousness. "You're just not quite as good as I am ...."
Kouga looked as though he would have liked to say something in response to THAT as well, and Kagome had just decided she had a pretty good shot at the seemingly open Kagura, when the door to the room burst open and three frantic looking wolf demons tumbled into the large room.
"Master Kouga!" They all cried in unison, quickly assessing the scene. Threatening demon surrounded by shattered window glass, emitting bad vibes and staring hungrily at their wounded leader while his human guard fiddled with a gun in the background. Hm.
"Look OUT!" Kouga and Kagome hollered desperately in response. But it was too late.
With the blink of an eye, Kagura made another intricate slashing motion with her cursed fan, and more sling blade shaped wind pockets were flying at the surprised wolf guards. The second two wolves seemed to have enough time to smoothly roll out of harms way ... but the first guard was left defenseless, and was quickly slashed to pieces by the powerful attack.
"Toku!" Kouga roared with fury, as one of his clansmen collapsed to the floor in a bloody mess, never to rise again.
"Oh God ..." Kagome murmured, shuddering and looking away.
"You're going to pay, bitch!" Kouga cried, leaping to his feet with his two guards standing behind him, starting forward once more with a purpose to his step.
"No Kouga, let me handle this!" Kagome cried out, realizing her attempts at keeping the 'potential victim' from entering the fray were futile even as she said this. She had a feeling, though, that she couldn't take on this witch alone. Where was Inuyasha? "I'll just have to handle this myself, or at least until Inuyasha senses something is wrong ..." she thought to herself, aiming the gun once more, and desperately praying that her miko powers were sending Inuyasha some truly ear shattering distress signals right about then. "Dammit! Kouga get out of the way – I don't want to shoot you!"
"Let me dispose of her, Kagome!" Kouga called back to the miko, addressing her familiarly. "This bitch killed my clan brother – she's my prey now!"
"But it just doesn't WORK that way!" Kagome muttered, sighing and jogging closer to the fray, hoping to catch Kagura when she was away from the three frenzied fighters. She seemed to have gotten Kouga and his two guards into quite a state.
The fight appeared to be terribly uneven. Although Kouga had inordinate amounts of speed, and all of the wolves were inhumanly strong – Kagura's endless barrage of devastating wind attacks weren't giving them many openings. It looked as though every punch the wolves tried to score could be countered by a flick of Kagura's delicate wrist, and already all three demons were bleeding heavily from various wounds on their bodies.
"You two are small fries!" Kagura declared boldly, regarding the two wolf guards. With one strong jab she attacked the guard on the left of Kouga, and he wasn't fast enough to avoid the super-sized wind blade she created. The clansmen was torn almost completely in half, and fell to the floor without so much as a cry of protest, his mismatched blue eyes still wide with surprise.
"Shino!" Kouga and the last remaining guard growled with fury. Kagura chortled gleefully and skipped backwards, apparently unaffected.
"That's IT!" Kagome cried, seeing an opening as Kouga and his comrade stood over their dead friend in a moment of complete shock. She tried very hard to keep at least one eye open as she took aim at Kagura and pulled the trigger of her gun, firing upon a live person for the first time ever. Three piercing shots rang out through the room, drawing everyone's attention to the small girl.
"Hey!" Kagura bit out furiously as she barely had time to whip open her fan in defense. One of Kagome's shots hit the wall just behind Kagura, and the other two were deflected off her fan, ricocheting onto other parts of the room.
"Don't move! The next shot WILL hit you!" Kagome threatened, deciding she would sound a whole lot more intimidating if it wasn't so very obvious to all that her knees were shaking rather violently.
"Oh, so you weren't really planing to hit me the first time?" Kagura inquired slyly. Kagome looked a bit nervous, realizing that Kagura understood just how bad her aim currently was, but didn't have any remaining time to dwell upon this thought as Kagura raised her fan into the air once more. "Die, miko!"
"Ahh!" Kagome shrieked, desperately hurling herself out of harms way as Kagura performed a terrific diving motion with the fan that caused the marble floor beneath her to begin to break up. The blast continued on towards Kagome through the erupting floor, hitting a couch and violently throwing it across the room and out a still un-broken window, that promptly shattered after the couch was tossed through it.
"Ugh!" the girl gasped as the blast made the floor below her toss her through the air in a tumultuous bucking motion, directly into a large wooden book case. She felt her head crack against it painfully and briefly saw a blinding white color in front of her eyes before the attack ended.
"Kagome!" Kouga shouted worriedly at the miko, his cry both a statement and a question.
"I'm okay!" Kagome replied, shakily getting to her feet and wiping away the trickle of blood coming from her mouth. She had bitten her tongue when she was slammed against the bookcase. "She didn't get me ..."
"No ...... but 'next time I WILL hit you.'" Kagura purred tauntingly, bringing her fan up for round two.
"No way!" Kouga barked, hurling himself at Kagura with this last remaining, but no less determined, guard. "I will protect my home and destroy you!"
"You keep saying that!" Kagura laughed as the two wolves tried to confuse her by zigzagging to a fro in a round about route to their prey. "But you have yet to successfully do either!" With that she leapt into the air, and a great gust of wind filled the room, seeming to momentarily hold her aloft. She used this time to look down upon the shocked demons, and use this distraction to her benefit. Four consecutive wind blades were shot out at the guard demon, and he didn't seem to have the speed Kouga had been gifted with to avoid them all.
"Ari..." Kouga groaned resignedly, coming near his clansmen as he quickly met his gory end thanks to a deep, life-snuffing blow across his torso.
"I – I tried M-master Kougaaa ......." the wolf rasped before letting his head loll to the side listlessly.
"Well, three down ... two to go!" Kagura exclaimed joyously. "The Wind Blade's Dance!"
"No!" Kouga had the sense to leap well out of harms way, showing adroitness and cunning that his friends hadn't as all of Kagura's attacks missed this time and slammed into nearby walls. It amazed Kagome that Kouga was still able to move so gracefully after receiving so much damage.
'Well, he is a full youkai – and a prince at that. He must be pretty powerful.' she reflected, stealthily crawling around the side of the room and trying to find a place to stand where Kagura wouldn't notice her attack. If she could just get a shot or two in, she knew the witch would go down – these were blessed, silver bullets after all ...... 'But Kagura looks so unscathed after all of this fighting, I wonder if these will even be enough.'
"I'd say it's about time we wrapped things up, don't you?" Kagura asked, staring at Kouga as she spoke while Kagome crouched down sneakily in the area behind her, cocking her gun. "You look like you'll be the easiest to maim!" With that Kagura spun around, shocking Kagome into stillness with the abrupt movement she made. How had she known she was behind her?
"No!" Kouga roared, watching as Kagura prepared to launch an attack he knew Kagome could not hope to dodge this time.
"Eek!" Kagome added, realizing her plan had backfired on her and covering her face with her hands in an utterly futile defensive motion. Kagura had just begun to swing her arm around for the death blow when a new voice broke through the haze of blood and fury hanging thickly in the room.
"STOP!"
No sooner was this one word uttered than an altogether blinding flash of light came careening forward, slashing resolutely in front of Kagome and effectively incinerating all of the wind attacks. It was the transformed Tetsusaiga.
"Inuyasha!" Kagome gasped in total relief, looking up at the FBI agent who was now standing in his usual pose – a protective stance in front of her, sword held firmly in both hands, a threatening snarl coming from his mouth.
"The killing stops here Kagura!" he declared boldly. Kagura looked mildly shocked for a second, her pure red eyes wide with surprise, but she quickly schooled her expression into a much more relaxed state.
"We will see." she murmured, snapping her decoratively colored fan open in front of her face once more and smirking.
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"The kitchens are this way – I am under the impression that you are here to help with the minor piping problems we have been experiencing with the sinks, although I must say I never considered this an issue we would need to hire outsiders to help us with. The staff of the wolf demon compound is more than prepared to take care of issues like this ... your assistance here is really quite unnecessary Still, if it's what the master wants......."
Inuyasha had no idea how he had been left with the all-important, stuffy and blatantly rude servant 'Mr.' Tsuyame while Kagome was lead on a grand tour of the wolf mansion by the horny wolf prince himself, however he got the distinct impression it was just God expressing once more how much he really disliked Inuyasha. Inuyasha wished there was some way to show God that the feeling was mutual.
'I don't know why Kagome has to be alone with that stuck up Prince ...... that wasn't the plan! That wasn't how we said things were going to go this morning at headquarters!' Inuyasha thought furiously, realizing somewhere, far, far back in his mind that the fact that everything was not going according to plan wasn't really why he did not want Kagome alone with the sly Kouga for any extended period of time.
"So, we're headin' to the ....... kitchens." Inuyasha replied in his well practiced, slow drawl, keeping his eyes shaded with his cap lest the servant see the barely checked fury bubbling beneath his calm expression for what it really was.
"Yes, that is what I just said," Mr. Tsuyame sighed irritably, regarding Inuyasha as a simpleton. Inuyasha idly cracked his knuckles as though readying himself for some nonexistent battle.
Inuyasha didn't think it would be very productive to get stuck in the kitchens, since he doubted Naraku would be interested in food were he to come upon the wolf mansion, and quickly tried to find a way out of spending his time doing miscellaneous chores around the compound under the hawk-like watch of Mr. Tsuyame.
"Uh, hey partner, how 'bout ah take a look at some of the rooms that'll be used for the ball later this week. Ah am goin' to be doin' most of the manual preparation for that party, so, uh, maybe that would be the thing to do firs' ......." Inuyasha suggested with what he hoped was a genial smile. Mr. Tsuyame stared at Inuyasha flatly.
"That's fine I suppose Mr, uh," Mr. Tsuyame glanced at Inuyasha's name tag briefly. "Yokuyamu. But just what sort of 'manual preparation' is required for the ball I wonder? The servants can handle most of it, and unless there are toilets that need unclogging in all of the ballrooms I doubt there is much need of a plumber like yourself around here. You are here to fix the pipes in the kitchen, that's your job as far as this gala is concerned." Inuyasha held back a large growl at the very obvious condescending tone in Mr. Tsuyame's voice. This guy was unbelievable.
"Well ..... you're the boss ....." Inuyasha gritted out, wondering if the people back at headquarters were catching all of this on his concealed earpiece, and just how much fun they were going to poke at him when the assignment was over and done with.
"Good. Glad we have that cleared up. Now, if you'll follow me ......" Mr. Tsuyame said firmly, turning towards the kitchen doors.
"Hey!" Inuyasha barked abruptly, halting the tall, thin wolf demon once more.
"What is it now?" Mr. Tsuyame groaned, laboriously moving to look at the troublesome hired help.
"Do you smell that?" Inuyasha inquired, sticking his nose in the air and momentarily loosing his accent as his nostrils flared.
"Smell what?" Mr. Tsuyame replied stiffly, sniffing the air as well with his sensitive nose, and frowning deeply. "I don't smell anything."
"It's the wind ....... it smells ...... like blood." Inuyasha murmured darkly. Mr. Tsuyame stared at Inuyasha blankly.
"Quite." he replied dryly.
"Of course you can't smell it, your nose isn't as sensitive as a dog-demon's," Inuyasha mumbled gruffly by way of a response, turning on his heal and heading towards a pair of large glass doors that led out into the sprawling expanse of gardens behind the mansion. He threw them open roughly and walked out into the sunny winter day, sniffing the air almost violently the whole while.
"Hey! Hey come back here – you can't just wander around the compound you know!" Mr. Tsuyame cried, rushing after Inuyasha with his tailcoats flying and looking as though he might like to slap the plumber.
Once outside, Inuyasha took a long look around the property, half expecting some carnal assassin to pop out of the woodwork at any moment. But when nothing happened he became frustrated and frowned darkly. He knew that scent! That bloody, angry scent could only belong to ......
"Inuyasha! Inuyasha you MUST find Kouga and Kagome! They're in great danger! There's an assassin attacking them in the common room and it's threatening to overwhelm their forces!" the sound of an agent back at headquarters speaking through Inuyasha's earpiece confirmed the hanyou's greatest fears, and he felt his blood run cold. Kagome ......
"Dammit! Where's the common room!" Inuyasha roared angrily, unable to reply to the agent's warning, only capable of hearing it. If only he'd brought his walky talky!
"Uhh ......" Mr. Tsuyame said, giving Inuyasha a decidedly queer look and wondering if the half demon had a few dozen screws loose.
Luckily, it was at that moment that a large red velvet couch came crashing out of the window above the duo, flying through the air and landing in an unused fountain some yards behind Inuyasha and the alarmed servant. It was accompanied by a terrible scream and an even more blood curdling war-cry that made the birds that had been peacefully moving about the courtyard take to the air frantically.
"Never mind, I think I found it," Inuyasha murmured distantly, tensing his legs and jumping towards the mansion, making it to the balcony of the third floor with one impressive leap. Mr. Tsuyame did nothing but gape in awe as he watched the plumber fly away, and in through the recently broken window.
When Inuyasha made it to the third floor, he didn't quite know what he was expecting ...... but what he found was certainly worse than anything he could have thought up on his own.
The entire room, which once might have been a lavishly decorated and even considered a comfortable space, he was sure, had been reduced to a virtual battle ground. The marble floor was completely massacred, nearly every single wall was slashed to pieces and all of the furniture had been overturned. The scent of blood hung so thickly in the air Inuyasha had to take a step back to regain his senses, noticing evidence of the actual blood smeared across the walls and floor. He even spotted a couple of the lifeless, broken bodies the blood had come from ...... he found he could breath again when he made sure none of the fallen wolf demons were Kagome. But, where WAS Kagome?
"EEK!"
'Ah.' Inuyasha thought resignedly, spotting his partner backed into a corner, covering her head and shaking violently as a woman dressed in a rich kimono and clutching a fan advanced on her. Inuyasha immediately recognized the repugnant stench he had smelt outside wafting off the new demon's body heavily. And then he watched the demon woman raise her fan that glinted dangerously in the sunlight above her head, preparing to swing down upon Kagome with no sign of hesitance.
"STOP!" Inuyasha found the words tumbling unconsciously from his mouth as he felt a brief state of panic wash over him, understanding for the first time that this woman meant to, and very well could, kill Kagome. He launched himself forward with more speed than he knew he possessed, and whipping off of his back the Tetsusaiga that had been previously concealed as a broom ....... he gracefully released it from its temporary wooden sheath and swung forward with all of his demon power coursing through his veins. And then, for the third time that week, the Tetsusaiga evolved into its greater self; a wide, glimmering blade with the potential to smite a hundred demons with one blow.
He tensed his arm muscles as he swung the blade in front of Kagome and let the broad side of the Tetsusaiga catch all of the wind attacks that were being flung at the scared miko. Each hit strained his arm, and surprised him with their force.
"Inuyasha!" he heard Kagome gasp in relief. Inuyasha tried to give his partner a comforting smile, but found he was incapable of doing so in his current distressed state. If he had been just a few minutes later ......
After that, Inuyasha was vaguely aware of himself saying something very heroic and daring to the threatening wind witch, when really what he was focused on was assessing the damage to the actual people in the room. Out of the corner of his eye he could tell that Kagome was basically in fine shape. She had a purpling bruise on one cheek bone accompanied by a split lip, and her gun seemed to have already been put to use, but other than that she was physically all right. Across the room, the victim he and Kagome had been assigned to protect was entirely another story. Kouga was covered from head to toe in mean looking lacerations, and he was panting far too hard for someone of his skill level. There were also three corpses of wolf demon guards in various states of mutilation around the room. This wind demon meant business, apparently.
"We will see," he heard the witch murmur, and at the underlying threat in her tone he found himself lifting his heavy blade aloft once more, ready to defend the girl slumped behind him as well as the demon prince across the way.
'Knew I shouldn't have left these two alone.' Inuyasha thought disgustedly to himself as Kagura raised her arms for a new attack.
"Now that I've done away with some of Young Master Kouga's lackeys .... I think it's time to put them to good use." Kagura crooned suggestively.
"What do you mean!?" Kouga demanded, gathering his strength to stand up as straight as he could and stare the powerful woman down. Kagura said nothing to that inquiry, but merely performed yet another complicated pattern with her fan. Kagome sucked in a breath as she was able to see with her naked eye the magic twist itself around Kagura's fan as she did so.
"She's performing a spell!" she warned everyone in the room. "And it's a powerful one – stop her!"
"Right," Inuyasha agreed, starting forward and distantly acknowledging Kouga doing the same thing from the other side of the room, trailing blood all the while.
But before either demon could make it to Kagura they were both stopped in their tracks by new opponents. Or rather, old ones, reborn.
"Shino! Toku!" Kouga gasped, looking on in shock as his friends, who he had thought to be dead, abruptly got to their feet and stood in front of he and Inuyasha, creating a living blockade. They stood hunched over and looking as though there was something actually holding them up, especially the way their destroyed bodies seemed to be barely keeping themselves together. Shino was missing one arm and practically his entire face, and Toku's head was split directly down the middle. Still,they were on their feet ....... there just seemed to be something very wrong with their eyes. They were so blank .......
"Those demons .... they are ...... not really alive," Kagome confirmed in a shaky voice, unable to believe was she was seeing.
"This is disgusting," Inuyasha admitted, wrinkling his nose as the smell of rotting flesh invaded his senses. Kouga appeared to have been stunned into silence at the sight of his dead friend glaring at him with hollow, lifeless eyes. "She's a necromancer."
"It's true, I make the dead dance for me," Kagura admitted, flicking her fan ever so slightly. "But they dance so prettily, and so well ...... I just can't help it."
With that, the two dead wolf demons hurled themselves forward, one heading for Inuyasha and the other for Kouga. Inuyasha frowned and blocked the undead wolf's attacks with his sword, but Kouga merely yelped in distress and backpedaled furiously, trying to avoid his ex-comrad.
"Kouga! You've got to fight him!" Inuyasha hollered, slicing his own opponent in half with one clean swipe. The corpse moved about a bit even after it hit the floor in three different pieces, but eventually fell still.
"I-I can't! It's Toku!" Kouga cried in distress.
"That's not Toku anymore. The real Toku would never want to hurt you, and would hate it even more if you let some wind witch use his body to get to you. Kill him and put his soul to rest." Inuyasha advised, showing a rare bout of sensitivity and wisdom. Kouga blinked owlishly at Inuyasha once, before nodding firmly and turning back to his old friend.
"Sorry Toku." He murmured, before racing forward and ending the dancing corpse's half life with one merciful punch.
"Good job," Inuyasha congratulated, nodding towards the wolf.
"Thanks, I - "
"AHH!"
"Kagome!" both demon's cried, spinning around to find the Wind Witch they had momentarily forgotten, and the last corpse they had not seen come to life, standing around Kagome, the corpse holding her captive from behind.
"S-sorry Inuyasha..." she gasped pathetically from around the animated cadaver's muscular arm.
"Dammit......" Inuyasha growled, looking at Kagura's infuriatingly smug expression.
"Hmm... what will the brave Agent do now?" she hissed, cocking an eyebrow. "I'll only let the girl live if you both surrender your lives to Naraku."
"Never!" Kouga roared, his eyes taking on a crazed gleam, apparently having been finally pushed over the edge.
"Well then...... I guess the miko gets it." Kagura sighed, shrugging and lifting her fan towards a prone Kagome.
"Wait!" Inuyasha and Kouga cried in unison, lurching forward to stop Kagura. However, before Inuyasha had even covered a two feet, he felt something violently grab him from behind and swipe him viscously across the side. "Argh!" the half demon shouted in pain, collapsing to the floor and clutching his heavily bleeding wound.
"Toku!" Kouga gasped in disbelief. The dead wolf he had just felled once more was back on his feet. There was an impressively large hole through his stomach now, but it hadn't stopped him from taking a chunk out of Inuyasha's side with just his bare hands.
Taking Inuyasha and Kouga's moment of surprise as a time to attack, Kagura raised her fan to the heavens and cried out the words: "TORNADO ATTACK!" Instantaneously, numerous mini tornados began to form through out the room, making a terrible whirring noise and spreading books and other miscellaneous objects about chaotically. Kouga and Inuyasha howled in pain as the tornado's fell upon them, pounding them into the ground and opening fresh wounds.
"Gyah!" Inuyasha screamed as he flung himself out of the way of one tornado, only to be swamped by another. He felt as though he was being pulled apart, and could barely left his arms to use the Tetsusaiga. Just who WAS this wind witch, and how was it she had so much power? There was something about her scent......
"Inuyasha!" Kagome cried, distressed as she watched her partner be flung about the room. "Stop it! Let them go! Why are you doing this?" Kagome asked Kagura desperately, fury raging in her brown eyes.
"Because Naraku is my master." Kagura replied simply, something like bitterness flashing across her face for a moment. Kagome caught the look and frowned lightly. "And because it's fun to dispose of low class scum like you." she added as an afterthought, raising her fan for the move that would claim Kagome's life.
"No!" Kagome cried, turning her head to the side in fear and making one last attempt to muscle her way out of the powerful wolf's suffocating hold. The last thing she saw before closing her eyes was Inuyasha being thrown across the room by one of the many rampant tornados. 'Inuyasha......'
SWOOOP!
The sound of something heavy being flung through the air reached Kagome's ears, and after a moment she heard something clutter to the floor. Surprised what had hit the floor wasn't her own head, she quickly opened her eyes in confusion. What had just happened, and why hadn't she been killed? She glanced up just in time to see the mysterious heavy object careen away from Kagura, who was scowling deeply and clutching the hand she used to hold her fan, as though in pain. The fan in question lay a few feet away from her now.
"Damn!" she hissed, massaging her injured wrist.
"What the......" Kagome murmured in wonder as she watched the heavy object, an overly large boomerang, fly smoothly back into the hands of an attractive woman sitting on top of what looked to be a white, fanged cat demon with a tail made of fire. The woman had dark brown hair held back in a high pony tail and gray, mysterious eyes. She wore all black and sported a large leather belt around her middle that held a collection of dangerous looking weapons.
"You all right?" she asked Kagome, while strapping the large boomerang, made of an unknown substance, onto her back. Kagome could only blink in response.
"Kagome, say something!" Another voice ordered. Kagome automatically recognized the voice as Miroku's, and smiled in relief at the sight of a familiar face, noticing for the first time that Miroku was seated directly behind the odd woman on the giant cat.
"Miroku, thank God you're here!" Kagome cried.
"Kagura, release that girl and call off the tornados!" the woman ordered, leaping from the cat and running towards a momentarily defenseless Kagura, drawing a gun from a holster on her belt. Cursing, Kagura reached for her lost fan, but was intercepted by a quick, efficient kick from the woman. Kagura retracted her hand quickly, holding it daintily as bruises began to form.
"What the Hell are you doing here, Sango? You're supposed to be three cities away." Kagura accused angrily.
"Where you and your master go, I go." Sango replied evenly. "You had me fooled for a while, but I've figured you out now." This statement seemed to make Kagura even more angered, and she turned to the wolf holding Kagome with an evil sneer on her face.
"Kill the girl now!" she ordered.
"Agh!" Kagome gasped as she felt the dead wolf demon's large hands close in around her throat painfully. Luckily, the pain was short lived as Miroku appeared behind the wolf, quickly bashing him over the head with his staff and then kicking him firmly away from Kagome, who immediately fell to the ground, clutching her throat. Miroku then proceeded to beat the demon with his staff until it was nothing more than a bloody pulp, finally dead.
"What are you going to do now Kagura? All of your cronies are dead, and without your fan you're not much of a fighter." Sango pointed out in a cold voice, her gun aimed at the demon, and her face emotionless.
"And soon you will be too!" roared Inuyasha from the side, shooting out from the debris the tornados had caused with the Tetsusaiga in hand. Behind him the tornados had been defeated by the impressive blade already, and as he lunged at Kagura it gleamed brightly in the light, promising more death.
"Aha!" Kagura shouted, grabbing her fan up while Sango remained surprised by Inuyasha's abrupt appearance on the scene. She held it protectively in front of her and shouted "Wind Blade's Dance!"
An arc of wind came at Inuyasha's sword as he thrust down on the witch. Everyone watched in awe as the Tetsusaiga cut through Kagura's attack as though it were butter, and then continued downward to slash Kagura across her chest.
"Ack!" She cried, eyes wide in disbelief as her fan fell to the ground in pieces, and her kimono hung off her in wrags, a large gash down her middle bleeding all over her pale skin. 'How has he done this?' Kagura wondered in amazement, looking at Inuyasha's blade as he stepped back, covered in blood and sweat himself, to observe his handiwork. 'How is he able to weild that blade? What is that sword's secret? To cut through MY wind spell.......'
"Well." Kagura said aloud, backing slowly away towards the window, even as Sango followed her, gun still at the ready. "Until next time....." with that she swiped one of the feathers in her hair and threw it into the air, surprising everyone as the feather began to expand to many times its size in a puff of magic.
"No!" Sango yelled, shooting at the feather as Kagura gracefully leaped on top of it, holding her kimono together with her uninjured hand. The feather seemed to act as a shield, and the bullets bounced off it harmlessly. Sango scowled deeply and made a run for her cat.
"I won't let you get away!" Kouga screamed and, with the last of his strength, leaped for the feather, powerful arms outstretched. Kagura merely grinned down wryly at the wolf prince as she floated away unharmed, Kouga crashing to the floor.
"Byeee......." she hummed tauntingly, disappearing into the horizon.
"We've got to follow her!" Inuyasha exclaimed, heading towards the window with Kouga right behind him, both men sporting bared fangs and nasty sneers.
"I don't think either of you gentlemen are up for any wild chases just now. Look at you, you're about to fall to pieces." Miroku pointed out, smoothly stepping in front of the two irate demons, and motioning to their bodies. Both males took a moment to look down at themselves, and then at one another, snarling in anger as they realized they had to agree with Miroku. They were in terrible shape, especially after the tornado attack, Kouga moreso than Inuyasha. Their entire bodies were covered with deep lacerations, their clothes hung off them in shreds, and their postures were those of elderly men on their last breath. They were in no shape for a wild goose chase, by foot no less. Miroku raised an eyebrow at them and shrugged, as though to say 'C'est la vite'.
"Those two might not be in well enough shape for a chase, but I certainly am," Sango said, as she and her giant cat made a run for the window, catching everyone by surprise. "I'll call if I need help."
"Sango, wait for backup! We can do this together!" Miroku called, turning towards Sango's retreating figure with a worried expression on his handsome features.
"Not enough time! I'll lose her if I wait! Don't worry!" Sango called over her shoulder before totally disappearing from sight.
"Wait, I never got to say thank you for saving me!" Kagome gasped, coming to stand next to Miroku and looking desperately out into the blue sky of the afternoon. "Miroku, who was that woman?"
"Yeah, that's what I'd like to know." Inuyasha said, approaching Miroku while using his sword as a cane. He had truly taken a beating this time. Kagome took one look at him and immediately was at his side, coaxing him to sit down and beginning to shred the remains of his shirt to make makeshift bandages for his more grievous injuries. Inuyasha sighed at her actions but made no move to stop the determined girl. It had become sort of routine for them.
On the side, Kouga collapsed against a wall and slid to the floor, where he sat in a crumpled heap while regarding Miroku carefully. He apeared to be in shock, and Kagome made to try and help him as well, but when she came near he shooed her away firmly, immediately straightening up and trying to look like a picture of health. Kagome wasn't fooled in the least, but Inuyasha, looking grouchy, pulled her back towards him.
"That was Sango Ryoushi. And don't worry about thankyous Kagome....... you'll have plenty of time to thank her later. She's going to be working with us on the Naraku case now, after all." Miroku said, still gazing pensively out the window.
"Ah....... so that was THE Sango," Inuyasha commented with a small smile.
"THE Sango? What do you mean THE Sango?" Kagome questioned, as Inuyasha batted her hand away from one of his wounds in favor of rolling up her sleave to get a look at her own injuries. He frowned as he located various hand shaped bruises covering her arms, no doubt thanks to the undead wolf demon. One hand idly trailed up to her head to feel the bleeding wound that had been formed when she was smashed into a book case.
"Well -" Miroku began hesitantly, before being cut off by a barrage of wolf demons who came dashing into the room, swamping Kouga and fretting over his injuries, packing at least thirty wolf demons into the already cluttered and utterly destroyed common room.
"Prince Kouga! What's happened to you! Who did this! You're a wreck!" The wolves cried, lifting Kouga up from under his shoulders and smothering him with their attention. Others crowded around the utterly mutilated bodies of their fallen clansmen, moaning their distress.
"You!" One of the wolves cried, turning and pointing a finger down at Inuyasha and Kagome. "You were supposed to protect Master Kouga from this sort of thing! What happened here, and why didn't you protect him! Are you useless?"
"Ginta..... calm down." Kouga coughed, drawing everyone's attention back to the beaten wolf prince. "It's not their fault. They fought valiantly....... but we were faced with a formidable foe. Naraku's cronies are responsible for this massacre." The wolf demons gasped in disbelief as the Demon FBI crew got to their feet and tried to make themselves look respectable.
"That's right...... he's really targeted this clan. And that officially makes him an enemy of the Wolf Clan. He will not get away with this, and we will not rest until he is dead. We must avenge those who have fallen today, and our pride as a tribe." There was a collection of wildly enthusiastic howls of approval, and Kagome, Inuyasha and Miroku awkwardly shuffled their feet in a corner, feeling completely out of place.
"You." Kouga said, addressing the three agents. "As Prince of the honorable Wolf Clan, I swear we will do all we can to aide you in your cause. Naraku is now our enemy as well."
"Uh, that's a real sweat offer Kouga...... but we don't need help from civilians." Inuyasha said pompously, even as he used Kagome's shoulder for support. The girl eyed him incredulously.
"Are you sure about that Inuyasha? Based on today, I'd say we could use all the help we can get." Miroku pointed out.
"Shut up!" Inuyasha hissed.
"Well, let me put it this way." Kouga said, frowning once more at the half demon. "Whether you like it or not, this clan is now involved with the Naraku case, and you can bet on seeing much more of us in the future. If you want our help or not, it doesn't matter to me. Naraku and Kagura will be mine for this humiliation. Also," he added slyly, grinning weekly at Kagome. "I wouldn't want to see a pretty, brave lady like Ms. Kagome here get killed because of your stupidity." With that the wolf demon began to hobble out of the room, his many clansmen soberly following him, as others went to collect the remains of the fallen guards. Inuyasha gawked after the Prince with an expression that clearly said he would have like to retaliated to that last statement, but could think of nothing to say immediately.
"He's going to be trouble for us, isn't he?" he asked no one in particular.
"Yep." Miroku agreed, sighing.
"He's pretty stubborn." Kagome admitted, blushing just a bit.
"Well...... we will cross that bridge when we come to it. Right now I think we should make our way back to headquarters. I want to see if Kaede has any news on Sango. I don't think she's going to be able to catch Kagura...... but if she's in trouble..... I'd like to be there." Miroku said.
"Heh, worried about your girlfriend? From what I've heard, Sango can handle herself just fine. That boomerang trick is pretty impressive, anyway." Inuyasha commented slyly as the trio headed towards the exit.
"Girlfriend? Miroku! Is Sango your girlfriend? You've never mentioned it!" Kagome gasped in surprise.
"No. No she's not my girlfriend I'm afraid." Miroku quickly corrected Kagome, frowning and abruptly walking ahead of she and Inuyasha, his posture tense.
"Um, touchy subject?" Kagome asked Inuyasha, raising an inquisitive eyebrow. She had never seen Miroku get so closed off like that. It was a bit disconcerting.
"Well, I don't know the whole story." Inuyasha shrugged, and wouldn't say anymore.
"Let's just get out of here." Kagome sighed, too exhausted to put up a fight.
YYY
Some hours later, Kagome found herself back at headquarters, sitting in the conference room with Inuyasha, Miroku and Kaede. She and Inuyasha and already been to the infirmary, Inuyasha only because it was a direct order from Kaede. Now Inuyasha somewhat resembled a mummy thanks to all of his bandages, and Kagome an eggplant due to the many bruises covering her body. Kaede sat at the end of the table, her eyes closed and her hands clasped together; she had just heard the entire story of what happened and the Wolf Clan compound from both Inuyasha and Kagome, and looked slightly troubled.
"So it is true, Kagura of the Wind truly IS in Tokyo." she sighed in a resigned way.
"Yes. We had thought that she was still in Kyoto ..... we're lucky Sango tracked her down and was able to aid us in this fight, otherwise I'm not so sure how we would have faired." Miroku said uneasily.
"I could have taken her on alone!" Inuyasha snorted stubbornly. "Not to say that Sango wasn't a help, but....."
"So wait, we already knew of Kagura's existence?" Kagome asked, frowning. "Just who is she anyway? Another demon hired by Naraku?"
"More than that I am afraid......." Kaede stated darkly. "She is - "
"- Naraku's protégé, is a sense." a new voice interjected. All eyes turned to the door as Sango strutted into the room, her large boomerang still firmly strapped to her back, and a small cat with two tails draped across her shoulders. She looked strong and exotic compared to the collection of exhausted, bandaged agents laying about the room. "Some say she is even a part of Naraku. An extension of himself he created using the tainted power of the cursed shikon no tama. She had been stirring up things in Kyoto for some time, curiously far away from her master, until very recently when she was apparently called back here to Tokyo." Sango took a seat near Kaede at the conference table, her steely eyes glinting purposefully. "To me it says that things are finally coming to a head for Naraku. We are running out of time if he is gathering all of his followers to this place, and attacking civilians with pure souls so frequently. Once the shikon no tama is fully tainted, there will be no holding him back."
"Quite." Kaede agreed, heaving a great sigh.
"Well, everyone, this is Sango Ryoushi. I'm sure she's pleased to meet you," Miroku chirped sarcastically.
"Charmed." Sango deadpanned.
"Hm, it's nice to finally meet you Sango. I've heard quite a lot about you from Miroku and Kaede. Apparently it was a real blow when you left the force," Inuyasha said, folding his arms and giving the stony Sango an appraising look. Sango shrugged her shoulders nonchalantly.
"I had my reasons," she stated simply.
"Wait, you were part of the FBI's Demon Investigation Unit before?" Kagome asked, confused. "When?"
"Before I got here." Inuyasha answered.
"Almost three years ago now." Sango added. The small cat demon around her shoulders leaped onto the long silver table and tentatively approached Kagome. Kagome smiled eagerly and petted the adorable creature, just holding back a giggle as it began to purr.
"Actually, Inuyasha was hired as Sango's replacement after she left us." Kaede informed the group.
'So she knew Kikyo,' Kagome thought to herself, tucking that information away, to be used at a later time.
"And for these past three years, I have dedicated my life to hunting down Kagura and destroying she and her master." Sango added passionately.
"Do you have some sort of personal vendetta against Kagura?" Kagome asked, cocking her head and feeling as though she was missing something important.
"Yeah, and why did you leave the force in the first place? I never found out why." Inuyasha admitted. Sango averted her eyes at this question, and Miroku and Kaede got uncomfortable looks on their faces. Apparently Inuyasha and Kagome had hit on something important.
"Yes. Actually. I do having something against Kagura. She ..... she slaughtered my entire family and clan." Sango confessed softly.
"Sango – if you don't want to talk about this it's all-" Miroku interrupted quickly, looking deeply concerned.
"It's fine. If I'm going to be working with Inuyasha and Kagome they deserve to know about me. You see, I come from a long line of demon bounty hunters. We have been notorious through out the demon community since the feudal era when demons ran rampant through out the lands. We have been defenders of humans for some time, but in more recent years we have formed alliances with the demons and only hunt those labeled as unlawful criminals. I've been trained as a hunter my whole life, just like my family and friends were."
"Wow," Kagome breathed, impressed. No wonder Sango was so strong.
"We were good at what we did, and I lived with my father and little brother in Tokyo for some time as a bounty hunter with my clan before deciding to be the first in my family to accept an invitation to join the demon section of the FBI. I was recruited by Kaede and greatly enjoyed being a part of the agency.
"However, when Naraku first appeared on the scene with the shikon no tama, his first target was my clan. A group of such well known, powerful humans in the demon world was exactly his type of prey for the tainted shikon no tama...... and while I was off on a case, he sent his first henchman, Kagura the Wind Witch, to slaughter the entire Demon Bounty Hunter clan. They didn't stand a chance under a surprise attack by a hoard of Naraku's demons led by Kagura. They had never encountered anything like Kagura before, and by the time I got word they were under attack, my entire family had been killed by Kagura. There were no survivors from my clan."
The entire room fell silent at Sango's story, shocked and at a loss for words. Even Miroku and Kaede, who had been there for this part of Sango's life, seemed extremely uncomfortable.
"Oh God, I'm sorry....." Kagome whispered hesitantly, now very sorry she had brought the subject up. Sango threw her a weak smile and shook her head.
"It's all right. Or at least, it will be when I have my revenge. After that day I left the FBI and dedicated my life only to hunting Naraku, usually through Kagura. She has been stationed in Kyoto for some time now, which was where I was, constantly waging battles with her. But she is very cunning, and always has Naraku's personal hoard of demons for backup. It's .... been a long few years." the strong woman admitted, leaning back in her chair. "Of course, now that she is back in Tokyo, apparently with Naraku, I am perfectly willing to lend the FBI my services once more in their new attempt to finally destroy Naraku."
"And we appreciate the help very much." Kaede said firmly, smiling warmly at Sango. "This case has been no piece of cake for us, even with our new miko on the team."
"Yes, I heard you were the new miko in town. They say you've only come into your powers this past week? You've been fairing very well for a rookie." Sango said, her tone not particularly condescending, nor very complimentary.
"Yes well, I try." Kagome said. "But, I would really like to thank you for saving me earlier today. You were amazing!" she added enthusiastically. So enthusiastically that the usually straight faced Sango seemed to blush a bit, hiding the beginnings of a smile with her hand.
"Oh, it was nothing at all." she said simply.
"Well, whatever it was, it will certainly be of great use to us. I'm sure we'll make much progress with Sango here to help us now." Miroku said confidently. Sango didn't spare him a glance at this statement, and Kagome took note of it.
"I'm sure we will too. Now I have with me your new assignments, Sango and Miroku since you are now partners I have your first potential victim to guard. Kagome and Inuyasha, you get tomorrow off to recuperate and then I have a new assignment for you as well." Kaede said in her professional tone, whipping out a pair of thick folders.
"We won't continue guarding the wolf compound?" Kagome asked curiously.
"No, I don't believe so." Kaede said, passing out the new assignments to the four assembled agents.
"Well, THAT'S good news." Inuyasha huffed not so quietly under his breath. Kagome shot him a withering glare.
"And what do you have against the wolves?" she asked skeptically.
"Nothing, just the fact that their leader is a pompous idiot." he huffed.
"Really? I thought he was sort of sweet,"
"FEH!"
"What? He tried to defend me against Kagura!" Kagome argued defiantly.
"Well so did I!" Inuyasha replied sharply.
"Children! Enough." Kaede barked in a tone that immediately ended the brief spat. Kagome was brought back to reality and instantly felt ashamed for being part of a petty squabble so soon after hearing Sango's horrible story. She lowered her head and tried to stay silent, merely peeking at Sango once. However, the look on Sango's face wasn't one of disgust or anger...... it was of amusement. It was the first happy sort of look Kagome had seen grace the bounty hunter's features since meeting her. It made her look almost beautiful.
"Now, the reason I don't feel it will be necessary to guard the wolf clan again just yet, is because now that Naraku knows we've got their mansion covered, and one of his strongest agents, Kagura, has been efficiently beaten by us there, he most likely won't attack the compound again so soon. You would be put to better use guarding other potential victims who are seemingly defenseless at the present. Although it might not be a bad idea to send you back to Kouga's place in a few weeks time, just for a checkup." Kaede explained to the partners, who nodded in understanding.
"We are to be guarding Mr. Myouga then?" Miroku asked, drawing Kagome's attention back to the young monk as he flipped through his first potential victim file. "How exciting! I've heard so much about him in demon circles. He's supposed to be a genius scholar!"
"Mr. Myouga! That old flea? I had him for ancient history in college!" Inuyasha grunted disdainfully.
"Really? How lucky for you." Miroku commented.
"Not really. He's just about as boring as they come, and his course was fucking impossible to pass." Inuyasha admitted.
"You went to college? I had no idea!" Kagome stated.
"What? Did you think I was some ignorant fool? Of course I went to college! You're going to college, aren't you?" Inuyasha pointed out, narrowing his eyes. Kagome realized how deprecating her statement had really sounded, and immediately tried to make amends.
"No, I didn't mean it that way! I just didn't know if, you know, DEMONS in general went to university, or -"
"Oh, so now you're insulting my entire RACE?"
"Not at all! Listen! -"
"Inuyasha, Kagome!" Kaede snapped once more, looking quite peeved now. This time around, Sango nearly all out laughed.
"Sorry," Kagome sighed, while Inuyasha scowled deeply and looked away. Kagome frowned at him. Why was he being so touchy? Was Kouga really getting to him that much? Or was it something else? It was impossible to tell with the clearly bipolar hanyou.
"Well, I have nothing else to say presently," Kaede admitted, rubbing her temples. "Except to warn everyone to be extra careful, as usual. Naraku isn't above targeting agents when they're not on the job, that we've already come to learn."
"Right," Inuyasha agreed, glancing briefly at Kagome who was following the small white demon cat over to Sango, as the older woman made to leave the conference room.
"Sango, wait up!" Kagome called, jogging down the hall after the demon bounty hunter.
"Yes, what is it?" she asked, turning around to face Kagome. Finally having her alone, Kagome came to the abrupt realization that she had nothing of real importance to say to the cold looking woman.
"Uh, well, I just wanted to say thank you again....." Kagome started, awkwardly.
"Think nothing of it, it's my job,"
"And also to say that, well, your cat is very cute!" Kagome added dumbly, feeling like a complete fool, but determined to somehow have a conversation with Sango. There was something about the woman that drew Kagome to her. She had an odd aura about her, that spoke of many different layers.
"Kirara?" Sango asked as the cat youkai in question jumped into her arms and began to purr once more. "But you've already met her, earlier today."
"I have?" Kagome asked, trying to remember if she had seen the tiny demon with Sango earlier. "I don't think so....."
"Oh, well, she's a little hard to recognize in her other form." Sango explained. "She was the large cat demon I was riding, the one with the tail made of fire,"
"WHAT? No way! Kirara's so small! It's impossible for her to look like that big demon!" Kagome argued. Sango was chuckling now, and stroking Kirara slowly.
"Yes, it's a bit surprising, but that's her true form. She's a neko demon after all....."
"Right, I guess I'm still not used to this whole demon world idea," Kagome sighed, looking at the cute kitten in a whole new light. S
"Well, considering you've only been a part of it for a week, I guess we can forgive you." Sango said, throwing Kagome a friendly look. "I've got to head out now, I'll see you around, I'm sure."
"Wait!" Kagome called as Sango started to leave once more. The woman stopped and glanced at Kagome expectantly. "Well, I know we've just met, and you've got work to do tomorrow, but..... I was thinking, if it's all right with you, would you like to.... I don't know. See a movie or go shopping or something sometime?" Sango didn't really seem like the type of girl who appreciated a nice day at the mall or a good sappy romance movie, but Kagome just didn't know how else to have a good time with another girl around her age. She had never met anyone like Sango before.
For her part, Sango tried not to look to surprised at the odd request. "Um, sure, I guess." she said amicably. "That would be nice."
"Great! I'll get your number from Kaede then, and call you this weekend or something!" Kagome gushed, waving at Sango as the woman finally disappeared around the corner, demon cat, boomerang and all.
"Well, aren't you just the social butterfly." Inuyasha said, coming out of the shadows to stand near Kagome.
"Aren't I though?" she replied cheerfully. "Say, do you want to head back ho- to my place?" Kagome said, correcting herself before she said 'home', after realizing that her apartment wasn't actually, in fact, Inuyasha's true home. Although as the days went by it sure felt like it to her ..... "I feel like I haven't seen Shippou in forever, and I don't want to miss him getting dropped off at the apartment. I know he would never say so, but I don't think he likes being there alone so much."
"Right, his pride wouldn't stand for it," Inuyasha cackled.
"You're one to talk." Kagome said, rolling her eyes.
"What's that supposed to mean?!" Inuyasha squawked.
"Oh nothing. Say, where's Miroku? Maybe we can invite him over for a movie night or something," Kagome suggested, never once thinking that perhaps it wasn't very customary for fellow agents to have sleep overs and movie nights together.
"Actually, I don't know where he is. Where did that pervert go, anyway?" Inuyasha asked, glancing around but finding nothing. Even the monk's scent was stale. "Oh well......"
"Perhaps another time," Kagome sighed as she and Inuyasha headed towards the parking garage, both bone tired and ready to be back at the apartment. They would have lots to tell Shippou that night, in any case, if their combined colorful array of bruises and gashes were any proof of that.
YYY
"Sango, wait!" Miroku called after the demon bounty hunter just
as she moved to open the door of her black Range Rover. She sighed and turned to face the monk after being stopped on her way out for what felt like the umpteenth time that evening.
"Yes," she asked, her tone curt. Miroku tried not to flinch at her indifferent expression and posture, but found it alarmingly hard to hide his hurt.
"I just wanted a moment to talk to you," he explained, attempting to look casual. "We haven't really had any time to talk since you got back, what with all of the excitement. I was wondering, if you weren't busy tonight, it might be a good idea to catch up on things before our first mission together tomorrow."
"Actually...... I am a bit busy...... tonight." she said, looking away.
"Really," Miroku sighed, looking clearly disappointed, and not totally sure if it was because Sango was busy, or because she was so bad at lying about being busy.
"Sorry," she murmured, shrugging. "There's nothing to talk about anyway, I'd wager. Not too much exciting going on in my life, as you can imagine. And unless you feel you need to tell me about the various girlfriend's you've accumulated in the years we've been apart-"
"Hey!" Miroku said, indignant.
"-then I doubt there's much for you to say either. No need to spend the next couple of hours dancing around awkward topics." she finished shortly.
"That's unfair, Sango." Miroku said harshly, looking uncharacteristically stung.
"Life's unfair," she pointed out, throwing her boomerang into the trunk and then stepping into her car, while Kirara hopped onto the passenger's seat. "I don't know what you think can be said Miroku, but I'm not one of those silly girls you can seduce with your charming ways." Sango reminded him cooly, taking out her keys.
"I know that." Miroku sighed. "Trust me, I know that."
"Then I guess we've come to an understanding," she said curtly, slamming the door shut and starting the ignition.
"Not nearly." Miroku murmured darkly to himself, watching the car swiftly pull out of the garage with emotive purple eyes that followed it out onto the street yearningly.
YYY
"Yahtzee!" Kagome crowed cheerfully, throwing her arms up into the air and doing a little victory dance while trying very hard not to aggravate her various cuts and bruises.
"Feh, this game sucks anyway." Inuyasha grumbled, throwing the pair of dice to the side.
"Wow Inuyasha, you lost even worse than I did!" Shippou pointed out, glancing over slyly at Inuyasha's score pad.
"Shut up!"
Shortly after coming back to Kagome's tiny apartment and being reunited with a typically joyful Shippou, both Kagome and Inuyasha filled the small kit in on the days activities. Shippou loved to hear about the duos exploits in the FBI, seeing as how he was never allowed to go on missions with them, and was an enthusiastic listener, which seemed to make Inuyasha happy.
Kagome had made a dinner of microwavable pad thai, and the gang had eaten their food while playing a game of Yahtzee that the young miko had easily won. The atmosphere was light hearted and cheerful, and Inuyasha had, to Kagome's sharp eyes, let all of his usual tough guy barriers down. For although he was putting up his usual pouty display after loosing the game, his face looked as open and vulnerable as she had ever seen it. To say it warmed her heart was an understatement.
"So, when do I get to meet Sango?" Shippou wanted to know as Kagome cleaned up the game, and Inuyasha gathered up the dishes to bring to the kitchen. It had become customary for those who didn't make the dinner to clean up the mess afterwards.
"Oh, well, I sort of invited her out for a day on the town sometime this weekend, so maybe you'd like to come with us Shippou?" Kagome asked.
"Yeah!" Shippou cried enthusiastically, eager at the thought of actually spending a day in the city with his new favorite person and the ultra cool sounding demon bounty hunter woman.
"You know, I was wondering Inuyasha ....." Kagome said as she came to sit on a stool by the kitchen while the hanyou and Shippou attended to the dishes, Inuyasha washing and Shippou drying, sometimes with his puffy tail.
"Yeah?" he asked, arching an eyebrow and flicking his dog ears towards his partner.
"Well when I brought up Sango and Miroku maybe having a romantic past earlier at Kouga's mansion, you didn't want to talk about it. But today when I saw them together they looked so tense, and Miroku was unusually stony..... it was odd. Do you really know something about them?" she asked, unable to contain her girlish curiosity.
"Well....." Inuyasha sighed, greatly disliking gossip, but figuring that it would be all right to tell Kagome considering Miroku and Sango were doing a pretty shabby job of hiding their awkwardness anyway. "Like I said, I don't know that much because I was never around to see them together. But I did join the team right after Sango left, and Miroku was definitely a different person those first few months after her leaving."
"You mean she dumped him?" Shippou asked flatly.
"Sort of," Inuyasha admitted. "I know for a fact that they had been together for some time before I joined the agency, and apparently they had been pretty happy as well. I know that at least Miroku was deeply in love with her. But after Sango's family was slaughtered, apparently she became a completely different person. She was all about the job and killing Naraku became an obsession. She even left the agency so she could more fully dedicate herself to hunting Kagura."
"Intense," Shippou commented, while Kagome nodded in agreement. Inuyasha began to put away the dishes as he continued talking, and Kagome joined in to help, since Shippou was too small to be of much aid.
"Miroku was still really intent on continuing their relationship after the tragedy with her family, but after Sango left the city it became almost impossible. She didn't return his calls, didn't reply to his e-mails, and he wrote her about a thousand love letters but she never wrote back. After a while he accepted defeat and merely kept tabs on her and her doings in Kyoto, but realized she just wasn't at a point in her life where she wanted to be with him." Inuyasha explained. Kagome raised an eyebrow; apparently Inuyasha DID know a lot about this particular relationship. She wondered just how often Miroku lamented about it.
"I bet he thought her coming back might mean there was a chance for them again." Kagome sighed sadly, traveling over to the couch. Inuyasha went with her, and Shippou jumped into her lap where he snuggled there contentedly.
"Yeah, I'd have to agree. The way he's always talked about her, it doesn't sound like he's ever recovered from her dismissal of him. He may come off as a perverted playboy, but he always gets this really tender look in his eyes whenever he talks about her." Inuyasha said, looking rather uncomfortable with discussing Miroku's love life.
"The way she's acting, I bet she's not making this easy for him. Whenever I look at her I get this sad feeling in the pit of my stomach. She just has this gloomy feel about her..... I'm sure Miroku's feeling it too. How depressing," Kagome sighed, finding the sob story entirely romantic anyway.
"In any case, she's a damn good fighter from what I've seen. She'll be good to have on the team." Inuyasha said.
"Right, and who knows, maybe she'll warm up to Miroku again!" Kagome added hopefully.
"Yeah sure." Inuyasha shrugged, obviously indifferent.
"Oh don't be so unromantic Inuyasha," Kagome teased, tapping him on the nose. Inuyasha blushed a bit a she turned away and stood up with Shippou in her arms. "You ready for sleep Shippou?"
"N-no....." Shippou yawned.
"Right. Inuyasha, help me open up the bed," Kagome sighed, motioning for Inuyasha to get off the couch and help her convert it into a queen sized bed.
"Sure thing," Inuyasha said, standing up, and wondering distantly how even so small a thing as a tap on the nose from Kagome sent him flying into a dizzying world of confusing emotions. He nearly stopped breathing when Kagome stood right next to him and put her hand over his while they opened up the bed. What was wrong with him?
"Goodnight Shippou. See you tomorrow morning.... we have all day off, so we'll do something fun, okay?" She said softly, smiling at the little kit. Shippou smiled back as Kagome leaned over and kissed him goodnight on the cheek as always. Inuyasha never took his eyes off her once. For some reason, nights at Kagome's apartment always felt extremely intimate.
"Well, I guess I'll be off to bed as well," Kagome said, turning to Inuyasha and wishing she could kiss HIM goodnight as easily as she could Shippou. But she didn't have nearly enough guts for that.
"I might watch T.V for a bit," Inuayasha admitted.
"Just make sure it doesn't wake up Shippou," Kagome said, waving goodnight as she headed off to her room.
"Right," Inuyasha sighed, turning away and collapsing onto a nearby chair, trying to keep himself from following Kagome into her room and spending the night there wrapped in her wonderful scent and warm aura, instead of out on the pull out bed with Shippou. "Right."
YYY
Author's Notes:You thought I was never going to update, did you? Well, HA! Ha to you. Hope no one thinks I made Sango into too much of a bitch, but she's been on her own for a while so we'll have to forgive her for the time being. I've got lots more Kagome/ Inuyasha fluff on the way...... I wouldn't hold your breath for Miroku and Sango though. Sesshomaru is scheduled to make an appearance sometime in the near future, as well as Rin. (Hint hint, they're my favorite IY couple.) Anyway, have a lovely rest of the summer, seeing as how I doubt you'll get another update from me before it's over.
xoxo
Rio Grande.
P.S – next chapter "Things You Never Knew You Never Knew."
- Also, I just read Inuyasha #18 – Oh my god! I was almost crying! That whole scene with Kikyo and Inuyasha and Kagome was just devastating! On top of reading Paradise Kiss #5 I almost had a breakdown.