Transcending A Dynasty
Chapter 19: In the Yellow Woods
8:50 AM, TUESDAY, JUNE 6, 6118 AD, V.E.O. ACADEMY, NEO TOKYO, JAPAN
Just as Kagome's hand brushed the door, there was a knock on it. Surprised, she opened it, only to find Inuyasha there with a look on his face she'd never seen before. And then he said something she'd never expected to hear from him, of all people. Miroku, maybe. But not him.
"We need to talk."
She openly stared at him, then managed a cautious, "All…right…. Um…come in, I guess." He followed her in, and she psionically shut the door behind them, then stood nervously in the living room, facing him with her hands clasped behind her. "What's up?" she asked, trying to sound cheerful.
Inuyasha could see right through the pretense but didn't comment. He was sick of all of this: sick of not knowing how he felt, sick of not knowing the full story, sick of the tangle of one problem after another that his life was quickly becoming. Kagome, at least, had some of the answers he wanted, and he was sick of making himself try to solve everything on his own. After the events of yesterday, like Kagome, he was tired, and in more ways than one.
So he saved both of them time and asked straight out, "What's wrong with Kikyô?"
"Kikyô," Kagome repeated somewhat faintly. "Oh." Inuyasha saw the silver of hurt or disappointment flicker in her downcast eyes, and mentally swore, but didn't know what to say. She sucked in a breath. This had been weighing painfully on her mind since the night before, trying to reason out why things had happened the way they had, and it was beginning to make sense. "It's a long story, so we may as well sit down." She took a seat on the sofa, and after a moment's hesitation Inuyasha sat in the other chair. "She…when I went to sleep… right before then, I saw Kaede and Kikyô get into Preservexes too, but they were knocked down before they really started working. I thought they died, and I don't know about Kaede, but I guess Kikyô was stuck in a half-functioning Preservex, like she was half-asleep or something, for almost as long as I was asleep. I think if she never got out it would have sucked the power out of her more and more until she died, and she must have thought the same thing, because a year ago she sent a projection—an embodiment of her soul—into the real world to go get help. I guess it was a really good projection, because it was like a real living person…she wasn't an amnesiac, her memories were stuck in her brain… But it was her projection, her soul, that died, and her mind and body were still alive in the Preservex… I think when the Shikon no Tama took me over, it may have woken her up or something, because she's got a Silver dragon and we were short an egg after that day…but Kikyô's now soulless. And she thinks the Shikon no Tama can bring her soul back."
"Can it?" he asked quietly.
She shook her head, staring at the ground and hoping he didn't see the tears starting to gather in her eyes. "Nothing can bring back a soul once it's gone. But she won't accept it." There was a pause. "And if I give her the jewel, and she tries to use it and can't, then she might be vulnerable enough for it to take her over like it did me. And it will be much worse than what I did, because she won't have a specific target. She'll break whatever she can." The breath she pulled in shuddered, then was let loose in a low whisper. "I'm sorry."
Inuyasha watched her, thoughts racing. If what Kagome had just said was true, and the scene he'd witnessed last night was no dream… "You can't afford to give her the jewel, and she's not going to believe you if you tell her it won't work," he stated, seeing if he had his facts straight.
"She'll think I'm just trying to keep it for myself," Kagome confirmed.
"Then she'll try to kill you," he said wearily, his heart sinking. This was slowly unfurling into a nightmare. Kikyô was back, but as a travesty to life. It had seemed so perfect—she'd returned to him, somehow back from the dead, and in a little while it would be like it had been before she'd died… For once, his life had been looking up… but now the perfect picture he'd had was ripping. Kikyô was broken, and she couldn't be fixed. "Won't she?"
Kagome nodded. Brittle silence filled the room; Asa watched them with wide sapphire eyes, confused but knowing the conversation was important. Finally Kagome asked, "So… What do we do?"
"I don't know," Inuyasha said heavily. Kagome looked up, surprised. Before, he'd been emotionless, just asking questions. None of his normal surliness, no signs of a brewing argument; just flatness. But now there was something in his voice, in the way his shoulders were slumped, in the pure yellow of his eyes, that said more than the words he spoke. "I just… don't know."
Kagome bit her lip. This wasn't like him—he was the win-or-die-trying type; this was the first time she'd seen him in defeat. "Things will work out somehow," she offered, silently adding, They have to. The only response Inuyasha gave was to glance momentarily her way.
The silence stagnated, and Kagome decided she didn't want to think about such a depressing subject anymore. Sitting around and stewing in their own fears and doubts might have been self-gratifying, but it accomplished diddly squat, whereas pushing the morose thoughts aside for the moment and focusing on getting through the day at least took her mind off of that for a while. "We're going to be late for breakfast," she pointed out.
That drew Inuyasha's attention. "Your sister is walking around soulless," he said angrily, "I won't be able to kill her—" he skipped mentioning the fact that, long ago, he'd heard her tell Kaede she'd found out about him and Kikyô when he had woken up, found a very interesting conversation going on, elected to pretend to sleep, and eavesdropped on them. "—and she will hunt you until one of you is dead! How can you think about something like missing breakfast?"
"Because, as someone once said, Life can be summed up in three words: It goes on." She met his glare squarely, secretly pleased to see irate orange beginning to replace the yellow. "If I do die, I'm not going to waste what time I have left moping around. If I don't die, and I have to kill Kikyô, I'll cross that bridge when I come to it. And maybe we won't see each other again," she lied, knowing very well it would come down to the two of them someday. "So I don't know about you, but I'm not going to just moan, pull at my hair, and rend my clothes. It just means someone else besides Naraku is trying to kill me, and that didn't spur any clothes-rending. Plus I know that what's walking around in Kikyô's body isn't really my sister anymore." She took a deep breath. "That might help me later… but I'm not going to think about it until I have to deal with it again. The only thing I'm going to think about is whether I'm going to have strawberry or blueberry jam on my toast in a few minutes. Now come on." She stood up.
Inuyasha looked at her, his eyes a confused red-gold. What relieved her was that the pained yellow was completely gone. "You make no sense," he announced.
"Oh, I know," she replied cheerily. "But Asa's hungry, and I bet Tai is too. And they're the ones that can breathe fire."
"And lightning," Inuyasha said darkly, looking at a burnt mark on his sleeve as he stood as well.
The discussion turned away from Kikyô and onto the dragons as they left the room together, headed for the Dining Hall.
5:39 PM, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 14, 6118 AD, NEO TOKYO, JAPAN
Keiko Isozaki walked down the street, studying the newscast via her CelScreen. So that Higurashi girl had rebuilt the buildings she'd destroyed or damaged, had she? She was only glad her powers, while unusually strong, would never come close to doing half that damage, even if she lost all control.
What was on her shopping list? Her oldest boy would be coming home from V.E.O. for the summer that night, and she'd have to stock up on food—everyone knew how teenage boys ate. And if Eizo kept up his tradition, he'd have Lawrence and Toson spend the first night out of school over at their house, so she'd need even more food. And then his younger sister, Setsuko, was going on and on about wanting to go to V.E.O. too. She didn't understand that they only made exceptions for people like Kagome Higurashi, not ordinary girls like her, and she'd have to keep going to Halisyen. And Setsuko most certainly didn't know of all the prejudice against women in this time. She didn't know that, even though she'd been studying Eizo's old notes on mechanica since she was seven and knew almost as much as a boy three years older than her, there would be no further education for that in Halisyen and that nobody would hire her for the job she wanted most, an emergency mechanic. It wasn't fair, but it was the law. But maybe she'd feel a little better about it if she bought Setsuko the Dragonship Manual, since Eizo swore his Mechanics Professor would throw him off the school if he gave away his copy.
"Mom?"
Keiko looked up, startled. She could have sworn she'd heard Setsuko's voice.
"Mom!" Setsuko sounded frightened, pleading, but she was nowhere in sight. Then, through a break in the crowd, Keiko saw her looking around anxiously.
"Hold on, sweetie!" she shouted, but Setsuko didn't seem to hear her, disappearing among the people again. Keiko pushed her way through, catching a glimpse of her daughter's dark braids every so often, until she realized the other pedestrians were gone and she was alone in the abandoned part of Neo Tokyo. Setsuko was nowhere to be found.
Black, glossy threads—hair?—wrapped around her, pinning her arms to her sides. She thrashed, frantic, and a spell built in her mind, but something struck the back of her head and everything went black.
Naraku regarded his catch of the day with triumph mixed with regret. She would make a fine addition to his collection, but he couldn't have fun with her like he'd had fun with Kikyô. For one thing, she was too important to be traumatized. And for another…she was old. Granted, he was over three thousand years old, but that wasn't the point. At least he'd avoided aging, but she hadn't.
Why was it that all the good psions were either boys or old women? There was no justice in the world.
Then again, there was that damn Kagome girl. But did he have plans for her. When he was done with her, she'd think Kikyô had gotten off easy. He had plenty of in store for dear Kagome; the only difficulty was deciding what he'd do first, and choosing which way to kill her. And in waiting. He'd been testing her, finding her limits, over the past month and a half, but he couldn't afford to throw youkai at her anymore. And the product of his 'collection' was going to take time. So while that sat on the back burner, and his ranks refilled with more youkai and their offspring, he would have to sit back, relax, and devise more ways to have fun with Kagome.
While much less hectic than the first month and a half she'd spent in the sixty-second century, Kagome's summer was by no means boring. Kaede insisted that neither of them lose touch with their piloting skills, particularly since Kagome hadn't been in a Dragonship for—in Kaede's opinion, at least—an appalling amount of time. Also, her older sister drilled her mercilessly every day in martial arts, saying that both of them had gotten shamefully out of shape and needed practice. The dragons grew by leaps and bounds until first Asa, then Sare could no longer comfortably inhabit Kaede's apartment. Fortunately, Principal Ginme had foreseen this, and long before then had had the old Scanner Room outfitted to house dragons rather than mechanica, including installing a shaft that would allow the dragons at their full size to fly to one of the upper levels of the school and take to the skies from an opening there. As Kagome didn't want to be separated from Asa the entire summer, she visited for an hour every day, which provided an opportunity to check in with Inuyasha, Miroku, and Sango.
Miroku had noticed it ever since Inuyasha's birthday in the hospital, but Sango quickly caught on to the new dynamic between Inuyasha and Kagome as well. Inuyasha was always nervous right before the usual hour Kagome came to visit, unusually irritated if she was late, and in a remarkably good mood for a little while after. Kagome was her normal self if it were her and Miroku or her and Sango or all three of them down in the old Scanner Level, but she'd always fidget and glance ever so often at the transportation shaft. Once Inuyasha arrived, she'd stammer, blush, and avoid his gaze. Of course, she was always watching him. Maigo once remarked to Miroku that one day, if she wasn't careful, she would be too busy watching Inuyasha and walk into a wall or the like.
Other than visiting the dragons (which was more of a handy excuse to see Inuyasha) and the piloting practice, she still had other ways to keep busy. She was called on occasionally, the first time when Eizo Isozaki's mother, one of the stronger psions in the city, had disappeared and they wanted her to try to find her, since the Psionic Hime's range for that sort of thing wasn't as expansive as hers, especially when she used the Shikon no Tama. The only thing she was able to detect was a hint of her aura in the abandoned district, and the acrid residue of miasma, which at least told them who did it, if not Keiko Isozaki's fate.
Another time she was summoned to help with an aerial crash of a bus-transport and a cargo transport. A psion onboard had managed to pull off a motion-stopping spell, delaying an explosion, but he was slowly tiring and they couldn't get anyone close enough to get them off. It was the first time she rode Asa, who'd grown to thirty feet in length, and Inuyasha came with them on Tai. Together, they managed to get all the passengers off and the cargo down to the nearest building before the two transports exploded. She got a call to help every week or so, but she didn't mind. One of the officers of the branch she worked with pulled her aside after her second summons and informed her, to her astonishment, that the government was actually depositing a little more into her 'Allowance' fund for every time she'd come to their assistance. (She knew the honorable thing to do would be to protest and try to give back the money, but there was a pair of shoes she'd been eyeing for a while, so she decided not to risk them agreeing and rescinding their payments.)
Kikyô did not show her face; Naraku did not attack. The time where near-death experiences occurred two or three times a day seemed to be over, or at least there was a break from it.
There was an extremely interesting incident where Miroku not only bespoke of a swimming pool in V.E.O. (which she had never seen), but insisted that she go swimming with them, and when she realized with horror that she had no swimsuit, was offered one of Miroku's. When she pointed out that they were swim trunks and neglected the top half of her torso, he said no one would really mind, least of all him and Inuyasha.
She decided to pass on swimming until she'd found a swimsuit.
Luckily for Inuyasha, she soon found and purchased one, and once Miroku found out, he lured her to the pool with assurances that Inuyasha would not be there, while at the same time he coaxed Inuyasha there with assurances Kagome would not be there, and then accidentally-on-purpose directed Kagome into the boy's changing room.
To him, the look on Kagome's face when she came storming out, cheeks glowing incandescently, was worth the resulting hour spent standing outside the entrance to the pool with no muscle control—meaning he was forced to stand stock-still—and a sign around his neck that proclaimed, "Girls have cooties. I like guys. Here's my room number…" And it had attracted the attentions of quite a few of the female refugees, while Sango, when she saw the sign, merely sighed, rolled her eyes, and headed inside.
Kagome and Inuyasha also ended up having to explain to Tai, Asa, and the other dragons that they weren't exactly their parents, which was rather bittersweet. Miroku was there also, because for some reason not only could he hear all of the dragons, but Maigo could speak to any human, and overall it shortened the translation time. Maigo had already seen the difference and knew they weren't biologically related, but the explanation was nonetheless an interesting moment in their lives.
Particularly when, full of innocent curiosity, they asked what human babies looked like when they hatched. Which led to them explaining that human babies weren't hatched. Which led to the dragons unfortunately asking where babies came from.
Which led to Kagome realizing that her visiting hour was up and she'd made many, many urgent appointments, and that if her schedule was thrown off even the teensiest bit disaster and chaos and fiery doom would follow, and thus leaving the Scanner Level before she could be roped into answering that question.
On a hunch, Kagome found out the date Kaede had been found, then went through archived newscasts around that date. The very day Kaede had been released, there had been an earthquake; this led to Kagome and Kaede making their way under the Scanner Level again, Kagome trying to remember exactly where Kaede's Preservex had been, and them scaling piles of debris and clattering down them, only to find, where Kaede's Preservex should have been, an long indentation in the rubble as if some large cylinder had rolled down. Which it had, right into a large water pipe that released into the Sumida River, on the banks of which Kaede had woken up. Kagome wanted to actually find the Preservex, but Kaede declined, saying it was proof enough for her and at least they knew the full story.
When Kagome was asked to find a tenth missing person, she noticed a pattern. All of them were psions, and ones on the stronger side at that. Once she had tried to find the person—a nineteen-year-old girl—and had no luck, she instead asked for a list of all the people who'd vanished that year, then cross-referenced it with the ones who were notably powerful psions.
What came up raised more questions than it settled. Since the first day of January, a psion had vanished every day, sometimes more than one, and never two in a row from the same planet. But none of them had been found, dead or alive, and there had been no dramatic capture, no bounty hunters gunning them down in the streets. They had simply slipped away. And that reeked of Naraku—but why? Why was he taking them, not killing them?
Psions, strong and weak alike, were warned to be cautious and to travel in pairs or groups. But one by one, day by day, they continued to go missing. And there was nothing Kagome, or anyone, could do to stop it.
In short, Kagome's summer vacation was only relaxing in the fact that nobody was trying to brutally murder her at the time. But, as she reflected while preparing to head back to V.E.O., like that was going to last very long.
9:16 AM, TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 6118 AD, VALIANDESSA EVE OBRIEUN ACADEMY FOR THE MARTIAL AND PSIONIC ARTS, NEO TOKYO, JAPAN
"So, are you ready for the big trip?" Miroku asked brightly.
Confused, Kagome swallowed her bite of muffin. "And what big trip would that be?"
"You don't know?" he asked, shocked. She shook her head, taking a hearty gulp of orange juice. "Outdoor Survival Camp! Duh!"
A moment later, Miroku was giving her an extremely dirty look, now dripping in orange juice. "What is with you and Inuyasha and playing the Fountain of Beverage Youth!"
"It's good for your complexion," Sango said placidly. She had been sitting next to Kagome and had escaped being sprayed, and so was entirely nonchalant about it. "Napkin?"
"What do you mean, Outdoor Survival Camp?" Kagome demanded.
"OSC for short," Inuyasha answered, setting his tray down on the same side as Miroku, though there was at least a foot between them. He raised an eyebrow at the scent of orange juice all over Miroku and the droplets in his hair. "I'm not going to ask."
"But what is this camp thing?" Kagome asked again.
Miroku was swabbing at his face and hair with a wadded up napkin. "Exactly what it sounds like. Commander Kaede, Toutousai, and Hanesuzu take those that can come from the upper five grades—including us—out to one of the nature preserves for a week, and we go over outdoor skills like fire-building, lashing, using a compass, and all that fun stuff."
"Oh my god," Kagome said slowly, "it's Girl Scouts."
"What?"
"Never mind." Of course they didn't know about Girl Scouts. "But…um… why are we going? Last time we got stranded in the wilderness, we managed to survive." Wait, no, she'd technically died. "Well, sort of."
"Yeah, but see, we had plenty of nice tents and food and supplies. With this, yeah, we get a tent and a sleeping bag and whatnot, but we learn how to make do without them. Not everybody goes, either—a lot of parents have gotten nervous about Naraku, so only about a fifth of every grade goes, tops." Suddenly Miroku frowned. "Hey, whatever happened to Floujo?"
"Who knows, and who cares?" Inuyasha said flatly, clearly more interested in the contents of his plate. "Probably a bottle of glue by now."
The others regarded him with horror, and quiet reigned for a moment, until he looked up and found all of them staring at him. "What?"
"So…anyway…" Kagome hastily changed the subject. "When are we leaving for this…thing?"
"That's another thing," Miroku said sheepishly, checking his watch. "We leave at noon."
"WHAT!"
"I think Kaede asked me to tell you… a few days ago, when you got back," he mused. "You know, she's been so busy helping get everything coordinated… Anyway, here's a list of things you'll need—" he fished a sadly crumpled piece of paper out of his pocket. "—and… Well, I'd say you might want to start packing."
Kagome snatched the paper and bolted from the table. A moment later, she was back, pointing dangerously at Miroku. "When I'm done," she threatened, "what I'm going to do to you is—is—it's going to be big!"
Miroku straightened, grinning. "Yee-haw!"
Her eyes widened. "NOT LIKE THAT, you pervert! You are so dead!"
"You might want to start packing," he said mildly. "You know that hangar above the Dragonship one? Gotta be there by noon, or they'll leave without you."
Sending him a smoldering glare, she took off.
11:49 AM, TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 5
Kagome arrived, gasping for breath, a little after the bus transports did. "I had to go out and buy some of the stuff, you jerk!" she huffed at Miroku. "I think Kaede wanted you to give it to me a few days ago for a reason!"
"But you made it anyway," he said with invincible good cheer.
"You know we're coming along, right?" Asa asked innocently in her mind.
Her mouth twisted, and Miroku grinned. "No, I did not, and thank you for warning me beforehand," she replied. "The dragons are coming too?"
"Yeah, that's part of why they needed more transports this year."
"But the dragons won't fit into the transports," Kagome said, lost.
Miroku slung his bag over his shoulder. "No, the dragons will fly behind. The extra transports are for the refugees that are old enough and want to come along, and the food for the dragons."
Seeing the veritable sea of transports, Kagome said a little dazedly, "Oh."
A few minutes later they each were directed into one of the bus transports—like when they'd ferried the refugees down to Earth, some of the V.E.O. students were flying the aircrafts—and even after a summer of Kaede hounding her at the controls of a Dragonship, Kagome had no qualms about being assigned piloting duty. It didn't take long for her transport to be stuffed with students, refugees, and their luggage, nor did it take long for her to be out in the skies, though unfortunately stuck with the rest of the Dragonships. They soared out over Neo Tokyo like an enormous flock of oversized geese, though the much larger dragons following them threw that image off a bit. The sky was a perfect, crystal-clear blue, the leaves on the trees bright green but with a hint of yellow bleeding into some. Personally, she didn't mind things like camping so much. Sango, who had elected to ride with her—she didn't trust Miroku's skills as a pilot, and she knew Kagome better than she knew Inuyasha—informed her that, compared to her hasty exit off of Hokkaido, this would be a piece of cake. If the cloudless, sunny sky was any indication for the rest of the weather, this wouldn't be so bad.
What nobody saw was the second Silver dragon tailing the procession, or the small figure clinging to its back.
2:23 PM, TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 6118 AD, BANDAI-ASAHI NATIONAL PARK, JAPAN
"Quit your whining!" Toutousai bellowed. He was seated cross-legged on an enormous three-eyed youkai bull, an umbrella keeping him high and dry. "You act like you've never seen rain before!"
"Seen, yes," Miroku muttered sourly. "Walked fifty miles in it and prohibited from keeping it off, no."
The perfect day had vanished not fifteen minutes after they had picked up their gear and headed down the trail, the blue sky replaced by dark thunderclouds. At first, Kaede had been worried about the possibility of a forest fire started by a lightning strike, but then it had started raining. Hard. And Toutousai, always practical, insisted that they rough it out and not use psionics to keep themselves dry—"You never know when the enemy could attack, and one day you'll regret being little pansies and wasting your power on something frivolous like keeping away the rain!"—which was met with about as much joy as the news that they had to hike three miles with their luggage.
Kagome kept her eyes on the trail, watching her footing. She'd ended up buying a backpack for the trip with the knowledge that they'd have to do a lot of walking, which was more than quite a few of the others could say. But someone had asked to borrow her jacket before it had started raining, and they were nowhere in sight now, so she was dripping wet and would have been shivering if the walk wasn't entirely uphill. It would have been pretty if not for the weather—the leaves here were beginning to fall, and glorious yellow was splashed over the leaves.
Inuyasha, who was perfectly fine—he'd allowed no one to run off with his coat—sent a sideways glance at Miroku. His friend was also dry, but like a cat, he absolutely hated the rain. Sango was up ahead of them, talking to Toutousai. To her, the rain might as well not exist, but Kirara was huddled under her raincoat. In her larger form, she wouldn't have minded the rain—to her it would be no more than a mist—but in her smaller form it was quite uncomfortable.
Miroku leaned forward, squinting through the drops running off his hood, then pointed. "Look! It's Houjo!"
Inuyasha scowled at the name. "Of course he came. It's another adventure."
"No! It's the other Houjo! I mean, it's both of them!"
Frowning, Inuyasha looked where Miroku was pointing, and found Houjo the human leading Floujo, who was carrying several packs and looking used to it. "Can't tell the difference," he announced.
"Hey Kagsy-pie, check this out!" Miroku called over his shoulder.
Inuyasha glanced back to find a very wet Kagome about ten feet behind them. Her eyes were edged in irritated dark blue but mostly a flat gray, which he'd never seen until now, but from the look on her face he could guess it belied something like dismal vexation. "What's up?" she asked, blinking away the water that rolled off her bangs, into her eyes.
"It's like Houjo squared," Miroku said gleefully, indicating the horse-and-boy duo. Then his eyes narrowed. "Where's your coat?"
She looked aside, sheepish. "Someone borrowed it from me before it started raining—"
"You've been walking the entire way without a coat?" Inuyasha demanded.
Now she was blushing. Hopefully he would think it was because of the chill. "Well—yeah." She didn't look up, only kept walking. "But I've been doing fine, and it's not that much further—"
A pair of feet entered her line of vision; now she did look up, and discovered Inuyasha hadn't kept walking. In fact, they were only inches apart, facing each other. "Bullshit," he said darkly, trying to cover the mild panic attack he was having at Kagome being within such close proximity to him. "We have at least another mile and a half to go. You're lucky you haven't contracted pneumonia yet."
Kagome was making her mightiest attempt yet to avoid his gaze. Couldn't he just drop it and let her continue in her sullen misery? "I'll be fine," she started to say, when something was dropped on her head.
"If you 'loan' that to anyone, I'm making you pay for it," Inuyasha growled. Then he was gone.
Kagome blinked, eyes darting up, only to find Inuyasha's retreating back. Which was no longer covered in a coat. And the coat was now on her.
Her face turned so red that Miroku was surprised the droplets on it didn't vanish into little puffs of steam. He'd witnessed that little exchange with growing interest and smugness; sure, the progression of their relationship was going a lot slower than it had with Inuyasha and Kikyô, but that was understandable. He got the feeling that Kagome hadn't had the best of love lives in the past, and with Inuyasha's past being what it was, it was obviously going to take time for them to get over their own little neuroses and act on their feelings.
Of course, once they did, he also got the feeling that Kaede wasn't going to be so fond of Inuyasha anymore. She'd been very grumpy with him for a week or two when he started dating Kikyô, and if anything, she and Kagome were closer, which did not bode well for Inuyasha's Advanced Flight Training grade.
Sango appeared at his side—well, sort of. She was riding Kirara. "Want a ride?" she asked. "I asked Toutousai, and he said that as long as Kirara'd be coming with me all the time, it was a way to use the resources on hand, and Kagome didn't want a ride."
"Sure!" He climbed up behind her. "Hey, a horse walks into the bar and sits down. The barkeep notices the horse looks down in the dumps and walks over. 'Hey, pal,' he says as he pours the horse a drink. 'Why the long face?'"
Sango let out a long sigh. It was almost horrifying, the way she walked right into these things.
As the rain got worse and worse, Toutousai and Kaede finally agreed to spend the night at one of the Outposts, huge, dome-shaped buildings with running water, emergency rations, temperature management systems, extensive medical supplies, and the Emergency and Rescue Department's number on speed dial. When they finally arrived, it was an hour later, with the wind blowing full-force, the cold rain lashing against their faces, lightning tracing broken lines over the dark gray-purple sky, and thunder rippling through the clouds like the drum-strikes of the titans.
After walking an hour in the rain with no coat, Inuyasha was admittedly cold and wet, but he didn't mind that nearly so much as he would have minded Kagome walking an hour in the rain with no coat and catching some disease. He was half-youkai, which earned him plenty of resistance to sickness. She was not.
On the other side of the dome, Kagome watched with flushed fascination as Inuyasha changed into a dry shirt. Sango was nearby, toweling off a small Kirara, along with all the girls who had come—they had the 'girl' half of the dome, which was a pretty sweet deal, because where there were about a thousand boys, there were only about two hundred girls, and they had just a little more room than the boys. Also, the girls were the charges of Kaede, whereas the boys were under Toutousai's loving ministrations. It was Kagome's opinion that she and the other girls had gotten the better end of the deal.
Her sleeping bag was still rolled up, but it functioned as a cylinder-like seat anyway, and she sat down on it and pulled out the bag with the Shikon no Tama. It glowed softly, seemingly in anticipation, but she stuffed it back into her pocket and set about drying Inuyasha's jacket.
"Asa, where are you staying?" she asked. She didn't think there wasn't enough room in the Outpost for the dragons alone, much less twelve hundred students and the dragons. By now the dragons were sixty feet long and the days when they were carried on their Bonded's shoulder were long gone.
"We're at another Outpost," Asa sent back. "It's about eight miles from yours, and if we squeeze, we can all fit."
"Good, you're out of the rain."
There was a sigh. "Yes, Mother, we're out of the rain, no one has died or been horribly maimed, no raging forest fires are coming our way, and Tai hasn't hit on me."
"Don't take that tone with me, Asa," Kagome said sternly. Asa didn't call her 'Mother' seriously anymore. "And it's Maigo I'd be worried about. He was helping Miroku pick up girls when he was a month old."
"He's funny," Asa retorted. "And these days he's been chasing after Tana, so I've got nothing to be worried about. And Tai's too busy hanging out with Moe to even pay attention to me."
Kagome snorted. Professor Sasaki's Orange dragon was a lot more laid back than his human companion, and he, Shippô's Sano, Tai, and Maigo had a 'boy's club' as far as the dragon associations went. Asa, Kaede's Sare, and Sango's Tana also clustered together, and at this point Asa and Tai were the equivalent of sixteen human years, Moe and Sare were around fifteen, and Sano and Tana were fourteen. Maigo was supposed to be the same mental age as Sare and Moe, but for whatever reason he was a little older than Asa and Tai; it was probably related to his mutation.
And, to Kagome's amusement, Asa had developed a crush on Tai. Whether it was related to Kagome's feelings towards Inuyasha, she didn't know, and she most definitely wasn't going to ask Inuyasha about it, but it did make things interesting.
"So all of you are squeezing into an Outpost?" she inquired. "Don't do anything I wouldn't approve of—I don't think Neo Tokyo could handle another round of hatchlings."
"I'm going to kill you," Asa said darkly. "Seriously. And you just wait until YOU start having Inuyasha's puppies."
"ASA!" Kagome blushed furiously.
"Did you get a fever?" a familiar voice asked, and she jerked her head up only to find Inuyasha standing in front of her, eyes narrowed and arms crossed.
She let out a very undignified squeak and tried to scoot backwards, lost balance, and toppled over backwards with a humiliatingly loud "ACK!" Now in a very uncomfortable position with a nice view of her stomach and an ache in her back, Kagome debated on moving, because this couldn't possibly get more embarrassing than it already was. Perhaps if she just stayed still, Inuyasha would go away and not see her make more of a fool out of herself than she already had.
"I knew it," he accused from somewhere over her knees. "You're sick."
"No," she said miserably, and managed to sit up, face aflame. "I'm fine, really."
"And you're delirious," Miroku said matter-of-factly. He'd come over while she'd been busy straightening herself out. "Raving and delirious."
Fortunately, Sango noticed her friend being cornered by the two boys and her flushed face, and came stalking over to her rescue, flapping her hands like she was dispersing chickens. "Go! Shoo! Back on your own side!"
"But if Kagome's sick—" Miroku protested.
"If she's sick, we'll take her to Kaede! Shoo!" She swatted Miroku, who yelped and skittered away. Inuyasha scowled at her, but left anyway. Sango knelt by Kagome, whose luminous blush was receding. "I take it you're not sick?"
"No," Kagome said grouchily. "I just hate my life."
"And I'm sure it hates you," Sango reassured her.
Outside, an ear-splitting crash of thunder rocked the sky, echoing the visual blast of lightning.
6:44 PM, TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 6118 AD, OUTPOST 35, BANDAI-ASAHI NATIONAL PARK, JAPAN
"While we're in here and not focusing on survival skills, we're not going to sit around and waste time," Kaede announced, her voice psionically amplified. "So we're going to do a little history lesson." There was a general moan, which she ignored. "This national park has been around longer than any of us—including Kagome and I. The official park was opened in the nineteenth century, and it's one of the few official parks still in existence. In the year 6008, there was a huge battle fought here on foot, and the Outpost we're in now is the one closest to the battlefield. We'll be visiting that tomorrow, and we may camp there. The general in charge of the forces was killed early in the battle, and was replaced by…"
Kagome's shoulders drooped and she leaned forward, propping her elbows on her crossed legs and resting her chin in her hands. She wouldn't mind history so much if it weren't so boring… Sango, on the other hand, was leaning forward, clearly fascinated. She couldn't see Inuyasha or Miroku, but Miroku would probably be playing Cat's Cradle or Solitaire, and Inuyasha would be staring into the distance, tuning Kaede's voice out.
"…for the first time, the new type of blaster was used…"
"See, this is why I like being a dragon," Asa said gleefully. "You don't see anyone making us sit through an hour of nonsense no one cares about."
"Bully for you," Kagome shot back, closing her eyes and withholding a sigh.
Suddenly the lights went out. There were shouts of surprise, and a few screams, and Kaede swore most impressively before remembering to undo the amplifying spell on her voice. Kagome recovered quickly and sent up a psion light shining blue-edged white, noticing three others tinged red, gold, and purple streaking towards the ceiling as well. They provided harsh light, but only half-lit the giant room, turning everything a pale gray. One person could hardly be told from another. Through the sea of panicking people, Kagome and Sango stuck together, Kagome frantically searching for Inuyasha, Sango trying to spot Miroku. Why had the power gone out? Were they somehow under attack? What was happening?
Toutousai's bellow roared through the Outpost. "STOP WHERE YOU ARE AND SIT DOWN!"
Everyone knew to do what that voice said. Kagome and Sango stopped and sat, and soon the entire crowd was down, a welcome change from the chaos.
Kaede appeared at Kagome's side. "Kag, we need your help."
"What's happening?" Kagome asked, eyes wide as she stood up.
"You too, Sango." Kaede nodded at the red-eyed girl. "We don't know why the power's out. At least one of the three emergency generators should have kicked in by now too, unless the wires are out somehow, but they're outside and so is the main power generator. We need to check it out."
Kagome, who hadn't found her coat yet but was still using Inuyasha's upon his insistence, nodded quickly and pulled it on. "How bad is the weather out there?"
"Bad," was Kaede's short reply. "Toutousai's getting Inuyasha and Miroku too."
"What are we going to be doing?" Sango asked, struggling to get into her own raingear.
"We're going to find what went wrong, and then Kagome's going to fix it. Come on." She led the way through the fields of sitting people.
"Fix it?" Sango muttered under her breath to Kagome.
"I know a couple of repair spells." That wasn't the strict truth; she'd been grilled in restoration spells in her time until she wanted to yell that she'd never have the power to set them in motion, so there was no point in her learning them.
The difference between inside the Outpost and outside the Outpost was all too clear. Inside, it was dry, warm, and at least a little light. Outside, there was no light other than the increasingly frequent spears of lightning, the cold and shrieking wind blew in their faces, and rain seemed to go either straight into their eyes or pelt down on them as it pleased. With difficulty, Kagome followed Kaede over to a large metal hunk a few yards away from the dome. There was a cable running out from it, but she couldn't see where it led.
"Inuyasha, Miroku, see what you can do about that one," Kaede yelled over the wind. "Kagome, Sango, come with me."
She led them over to a much larger metal structure as a clap of thunder boomed overhead. Kagome tried to cast a light, but it was blown away, the shimmers fading into wisps and then to nothing. Switching gears, she grasped a support of the metal structure and rolled power down it, making it blaze with a blue-white sheen. It lit the surrounding area, including a thick cable that began at the top of the structure, then trailed onto the ground. The other half was waving in the wind, one end planted in the side of the dome. It had been sheared in two, which wouldn't have been so strange if there had been a branch on the ground or anything that could have snapped the cord. When Kagome went to examine the end on the ground, she found the end as neat and clean as if it had been cut with a knife.
It was no accident.
Her first instinct was that Naraku was trying something, but when she sent out her senses, she found no youkai other than the ones enrolled in the school. That didn't explain how it had happened—it wasn't as if a blade could have materialized out of nowhere and hacked it in half. But this did explain why the emergency generators were out—whoever or whatever had done this would have had to knock those out too if they wanted a full blackout.
Kaede was looking at it now too, and in the light of the metal pole and a strike of lightning, Kagome could make out a frown on her face. Sango came over to look as well. "It wasn't an accident," Sango said slowly.
"No accident," Kaede confirmed, an unreadable expression on her face. "Kagome, is it Naraku?"
"No, I checked—not a single unfamiliar youkai around."
Kaede's frown deepened, her brow furrowing. "Then I really don't like how this looks… Kagome, fix that as fast as you can and get inside. I'll get the next one. And stay together, you two—don't go off alone, even if it's just a few feet." She strode off.
Sango and Kagome exchanged nervous looks. Naraku was bad enough, but now they had to deal with either someone with a horrible sense of humor or with a psychotic streak.
"Well, sooner it's done, sooner we can get back inside," Kagome reasoned. She didn't want to electrocute herself by touching the torn cable, so she lifted both ends psionically and lined them up until they matched exactly, then made every single fiber fuse together. Sango didn't make any noise other than shifting once during the five-minute process—it was one of the most intricate power cables Kagome had ever seen. It was significantly harder to concentrate with the storm wreaking havoc and spewing rain in her face, as well as flares of psionic power that had to be the others at work, but Kagome made it happen. Once she was done, she lowered her arms, then wondered why the inside of the dome hadn't lit up once more. Maybe they had to hit a switch or something…
She turned around, and Sango was gone. "Sango?" There was no response. "Sango!" Thunder drowned out her yell, and she tried again. "Sango!" Her friend was nowhere in sight.
Kagome took a step forward, then another, then walked forward a few yards, trying to see through the darkness. A bolt of lightning blinded her temporarily, but she kept on moving, trying to clear the spots from her eyes. Suddenly her foot hit a root and she stumbled, falling on her face. Sticks and leaves ground into her cheeks, and she spat out a bit of dirt, then forced herself back up, brushing the mud off of her jacket the best she could.
When she looked around, she realized she'd never seen the scenery before. Whirling, she tried to find the huge bulk of the Outpost, but found only trees and shadows.
She was lost.
Fear tied a knot in her stomach, and she tried to force it down. There was no reason to be afraid. She'd easily be found. She could even help with that. Throwing an arm up, she sent a plume of silvery fire into the sky—and it was blown away, shredded in the wind.
Now Kagome started panicking. Twigs seemed to claw at her as she plunged forward, desperately searching for any sign of the Outpost or even civilization. More than once, she tripped and fell, until she felt like curling up into a muddy little ball and crying. Yet the terror of never being found drove her on, shivering in her jacket, not thinking to shield herself from the pounding rain. Nothing stopped her or even slowed her, not bushes, not hills, not even a small creek.
Only when the wind cut off and the rain stopped rattling down did she halt, bewildered. Dozens, maybe hundreds of ice-blue psion lights drifted around a hemisphere that seemed not to know the storm existed, nearly fifty feet wide and high. Thick green grass lined a small, almost perfectly round curve along the bank of a stream, a small waterfall splashing softly thirty feet away. There was almost a dreamlike quality to the whole environment, like she'd fumbled her way into the world of the fairies or something.
There were two things in the peaceful hemisphere that were most definitely not fairies. One was a Silver dragon with eyes so dark a blue they were nearly black, hunched within the protection of the shield. The other was a girl with eyes so pale a blue they were nearly white, who had created the shield.
Kagome froze, nerves afire and ice-cold at once. It was too soon to have to deal with this—she didn't want to fight Kikyô now—she wasn't ready to die, but neither was she ready to kill this thing with the face of her sister—
"Let's make this quick," Kikyô said flatly, walking over with her hand outstretched palm up. "Jewel. Now."
"I—I don't have it," Kagome said nervously, backing up. If she managed to get out, could she outrun Kikyô? Would Kikyô risk riding her dragon in this weather?
Kikyô's expression didn't change. "Nonsense. I sensed it on you when you left, and I can sense it now. That is why I'm out here in this disgusting weather."
"You cut the power," Kagome said aloud, taking another step back. Another yard and she'd be out of the shield.
Kikyô snorted. "You just now realized that?" she asked disdainfully. "Of course I did. You would have stayed holed up in that stupid dome otherwise. Now don't make me have wasted my time." When Kagome only took another step back, she smiled cruelly. "Don't try leaving—it's a one-way shield, anything living can come in but it can't get back out unless I let it. Oh—and there's one other thing I just love about it." Her smile widened. "Only I can cast spells in here."
Kagome's heart began pounding even faster. She was in serious trouble, and unlike the time on the roof, Inuyasha wasn't there to catch her.
"This is your last chance to give me the Shikon no Tama," Kikyô warned, the smile gone from her face. "If you don't now, I will take it."
Kagome stared at her, then feinted to one side and started running in the other, cutting across the grass. Her mind was frozen—there had to be a way out of this—
Suddenly a pair of hands seized her shoulders. Kikyô's grip tightened as she swiftly grasped onto the strongest source of power Kagome had, thinking it was the Shikon no Tama, and pulled.
"Inuyasha!"
Inuyasha looked up from the neatly sliced cable he and Miroku were mending, glad for the light coming from the dome. Kagome must have finished her power cord already.
Sango stood there, eyes wide and alarmed. "What is it?" Then he realized Kagome wasn't with her. He stood up immediately. "Where's Kagome!"
"When she was done with the spell—she turned around, and it was like I wasn't there, or she couldn't see me," Sango said, agitated. "She yelled my name a couple of times and I tried to talk to her, but she didn't hear me, and she walked right into the forest!"
"Shit!" Inuyasha inhaled, trying to pick up her scent. It was there, but fading fast, carried away on the wind. "Tell Kaede," he ordered, taking off after her.
Her scent thinned, grew stronger, the trail unnaturally straight. Now it made sense—someone had drawn them out by cutting the power, then snared Kagome in an illusion to get her to them. And he didn't like it one bit.
He crashed his way through foliage with no regard for the plants, racing along. His heart was pounding faster than his footsteps—what was happening to Kagome? Everyone knew Naraku was spiriting away strong psions, but he'd know if Naraku was around… What if some nutcase had kidnapped her? What if she'd fallen in one of the lakes or rivers around here and drowned? What if she'd accidentally walked off of a cliff?
Suddenly the black trees, the howling wind, the storm altogether—it was all gone. There was only peaceful silence.
He was in some sort of shield, lit by a swarm of different-sized psion lights, but the brightest light of all came from a huge, brilliant globe, hovering over two familiar, fallen figures.
Kagome watched the world around her with dull, listless eyes. Kikyô had grabbed her, and then… Something had pulled out of her… It had hurt like nothing had ever hurt before, and there had been something like a small explosion… now she felt empty, hollow. She didn't care about anything, had no motivation.
Through glassy eyes she could see something hovering between her and Kikyô, who had been knocked unconscious by the blast. Something in her pocket was trying to tug that burning sphere towards her, but the sphere was blocking its attempts coolly.
Her mind said that that was her soul. She didn't really care. Was this how it felt to be soulless?
Someone was in the clearing now, soaked. She knew him. He was Inuyasha. Something ached in her, like trying to reach for something too far away.
"What the hell…?" Inuyasha didn't know what that blue ball of light was, but it gave him an uneasy feeling.
"I am the soul of Kagome Higurashi," chimed a voice. It sounded oddly like both Kagome and Kikyô.
"And why aren't you in Kagome?" he asked cautiously.
"I was dislodged," it said placidly. "I cannot return without direction."
"Well, then—"
The soul cut him off. "There are two girls here, and I am one soul. They are identical twins, the same cell split into two. Because of that, I can go to either. Make your choice."
It felt as if icy water had been poured down every vein. "…Choose?" he echoed, voice faltering.
"Yes. Choose who will possess the soul. One of them will be restored to as they were before."
"Why me?" he demanded. "You're the soul!"
"I cannot return without direction," it repeated. "As neither possible destination is in any condition to direct me, I must rely on an outside source to provide direction. You must choose."
Inuyasha swallowed. This wasn't possible. It couldn't be happening. This had to be a bad dream, a nightmare, and it would go away.
It stayed firmly in place, and the soul floated patiently, waiting for an answer.
Kikyô could be back, as good as new. He could have Kikyô back. She never should have died—her soul never should have died—he could make up for all the things he hadn't done, all the times he should have told her he loved her and never did… Kikyô could be his again…
But Kagome… she was so much to him now. He didn't even have the same feelings for her that he had for Kikyô. Kikyô had been so… perfect; he'd loved her, but he'd always been in awe of her. He'd only fought with her twice. Kagome was… aggravating, and they'd broken the record for number of arguments a long time ago. She was reckless sometimes, she could lose her temper for the strangest things, and… dammit, she made him think. He didn't want to risk losing her friendship by acting on his feelings, but that was getting harder and harder every time he saw her.
So he had to choose between Kikyô, who never should have died, and Kagome, who was more alive than anyone he'd ever known.
He saw Kikyô's eyes, the way only glimpses of her inner strength flickered on the surface to serve as a warning. Kagome's glared at him, smiled at him, shone with fire inside. Her strength was never even hinted at until too late.
Kikyô's black hair pooled behind her head and splayed out onto the scummy ground, just as the scarlet blood had turned her white blouse red and made the girl a backdrop of liquid rose petals. One arm was bent an unnatural angle, her clothes ripped, her eyes open and empty, staring blankly out. Her arms and legs were striped in red, the overwhelming smell of blood almost too much for his nose.
One scent yet overpowered the rest, but it couldn't be true.
He could have a chance to fix all that…
She blinked, then lowered the rail. "Well, if you're making death threats, that's usually an indication that you're okay. Mind explaining why your hair is black now, though?" Before he could respond, she cut in. "Wait a second—oh. I get it! You're a hanyou!"
He glowered at her. He knew what was coming next: "You're a hanyou? Isn't it weird being only half human and half youkai? I think I'd die if I were a hanyou. Are there any other hanyou kids, or are you the only one?" That was the standard youkai response. Most humans were just flat-out afraid of him, partially because of his reputation—false or not—and partially because he was a hanyou. A freak.
A wide grin spread across her face. "Well, that explains everything. I was wondering why your ears aren't just pointed like most youkai, but that must make hearing things a lot easier." She settled down across from him. "So once a month, you change to human." She checked her watch. "One night a month. I take it you don't let word get out, hence the de-intestine-ing threat?"
He nodded mutely, taken completely by surprise. She acted like he'd just said he was…lactose intolerant, or something!
She understood him, took him on equal terms, like no one but Miroku had before.
There was a distinct thwumpf, and the ship dipped, then steadied again, and he blinked in astonishment at the girl he'd caught. She was…was… She was different than he'd expected, that was for sure.
She opened ice blue eyes, looking up at him with equal surprise. Her face was pale, remarkably so, her straight black hair falling around her like a veil.
"Are you all right?" he finally brought himself to ask.
"Fine," she said slowly. "…Thank you."
"You can sit back there," he said a bit gruffly, indicating the passenger seat behind the main one. "I thought you weren't allowed to fight." He could hear her moving back there and waited for the click of her buckle before he closed the hatch and strapped himself in.
"We aren't," she said coolly. "But I don't wait around for people to give me the okay thirty seconds after I could have actually helped."
Kikyô was so—so different, so invincibly calm, even when she'd just been dropped off a building.
"Aren't you scared of me?"
Kagome tilted her head to the side, a bit confused. "Why would I be scared of you?"
He didn't answer for a moment, then spat out, voice acidic with old anger, "Because my father was one of the strongest youkai in the world and everyone thinks I killed him."
"I don't." She hugged her knees up to her chest, settling her chin on them.
"Why not?"
"Because when I was wigging out in the hospital room, one of the things you said was that you saw your parents killed. You didn't sound like you were lying then, and you don't now."
"Don't you get it?" He wanted to tear his hear out in frustration, but bald would not be a good look for him. What was wrong with this girl? He was a Hanyou! A freak! He didn't belong!
Neither does she, a tiny voice whispered.
"Get what?"
"I'm a Hanyou! Hanyou equals bad! Hanyous don't happen! Two different species aren't supposed to work like that!"
"Since when?" She shrugged, casual. "Doesn't anyone consider that if more youkai and humans got married and had children, then their children would have children, and eventually we'd become one new race that would have both human abilities and youkai?"
He stared at her. He was an outcast, a shunt of society—why didn't she understand?
What if she did? What didn't he understand, then?
Kagome—or Kikyô? He'd hated seeing both of them dead, though Kagome had gotten another chance…was Kikyô meant to get another chance as well?
How was he supposed to decide? Why did it have to be him? Either way, he was going to lose one of the two people he'd cared for more than anyone…
Inuyasha leaned over and looked at Kagome's paper. Not only had she copied down Kikyô's diagram, but she had worked out the proof already and was busy writing A+K (heart) in the margin. After a moment she frowned, crossed it out, and scribbled out A+Kagome (heart). 'A' had to stand for Akio—was that the one Maientra had mentioned? What had she said about him, anyway?
"Not to mention Kikyô knew Kagome had a crush on her friend Akio and went and dated Akio anyway." That had been it.
That had made no sense. Kikyô was so—infallible; even if she'd known about Kagome's feelings for Akio, he would have thought she'd put aside any feelings she had and let Kagome win. He knew he didn't know everything about Kagome, but it was clear there was more to Kikyô than he'd thought…
The small breath that escaped him twisted in his throat, becoming a name spoken no louder than a whisper. He hadn't even meant to say it. But it was enough for the soul—and the soulless Kagome—to hear, and enough for the soul to take as an answer.
"Kikyô…"