Warring Souls
Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha or Yu-Gi-Oh.
A/N: This chapter we meet up with Kagome and her experiences in Domino. BTW, I've decided this fic is going to have, albeit minor, elements of romance (InuKag)- so you've been warned if you don't like it.
Chapter Two
Kagome stared wistfully out of her window, pen lying forgotten on her makeshift desk. The quiet, suburban home that belonged to her great aunt was a welcomed reprieve from the oppressive, intimidating atmosphere of Domino's central business district. She had only ever been to Domino once before, when her father had still been alive, and she could vaguely recall feeling the same way about the city back then as well.
Tokyo held a vibrancy that was conspicuously missing in Domino. Instead Domino seemed to posses a sort of urgency—the type one has when one's life is under constant threat. Domino was not lifeless by any stretch of the imagination, but it was…cold—cold and suffocating.
Sighing, Kagome turned back to her mats work. To her, these collections of dots and lines were far more imposing than even the tallest of Domino's skyscrapers. She had already spent a good twelve hours on understanding them, and she was barely any less lost than she had been at the onset. Granted, her mind consistently wandered to the Sengoku Jidai in addition to her having sudden, inexplicable bouts of intense panic—but that was no excuse! Even if her brain seemed to be resisting every form of learning she had tried, she still had to work, work, work!
She out her head in her hands and groaned frustratedly. Who was she kidding? At the rate she was going she was going to have a nervous breakdown! Forget youkai and Naraku, middle school MATH was going to be her cause of death!
Of course, there was always that niggling voice of rationality at the back of her head, telling her evil little things like: 'the more you work, the less you learn—blatantly you need to take a break!' and 'in order for the mind to WORK, you need to let it REST— otherwise you won't accomplish anything'. And she was ignoring it spectacularly if she did say so herself.
Thus, over-achiever, obsessive-compulsive Kagome won out. However, just as she was about to get back to her unproductive work, she heard a knock on the door.
"It's fine to come in," she assured, and heard the door creak open in a manner they were wont to in that century-old house. She turned to see her mother smiling brightly in the doorway, the handbag hanging from her shoulder a sure-fire sign that she was going out someplace.
"Kagome, I'm going to the bank Aunt Hana recommended in the city. Do you want to come with me? I think you deserve a little break."
Kagome felt all her willpower crumble into nothingness. "Okay, mama. Just let me get changed before we go."
The subway ride had been blessedly uneventful; something that only somebody like Higurashi Kagome could truly appreciate. It had given Kagome an opportunity to do something that she rarely had time to any more: talk to her mother. They had spent a good half an hour talking about nothing in particular. What movies were coming out worth seeing, how Souta was doing in school and—how cute! He finally got his first crush on a girl! It was easy, for the duration of that subway ride, to forget about math, or magic wells, or Shikon Shards, or Inuyasha…
Exiting the subway had been an altogether different experience—and one that was decidedly unpleasant. Kagome hadn't gone to any sort of crowded place (unless you counted school) since the time that she had fallen down the well. She realized then, as she was milling in and out of the tightly packed crowd desperately trying to keep a hold of her mother's hand, how used to the far sparser population of the Sengoku Jidai she had actually gotten. She had to keep her reaction to the giant crowd under tight control, lest she had a panic attack and caused an unnecessary commotion.
They seemed to navigate endless sidewalk, weaving in and out of the multitudes of people with calculated care. To Kagome it seemed to take forever. She didn't understand why, but her hearing seemed over-sensitive, and her skin seemed to burn at even the slightest brush against it.
She was suddenly assaulted with a feeling of total and utter wrongness.
Shivers ran up and down her spine, causing her entire body to seize up. It felt as though she had been dunked headfirst into ice-cold water. And that's when she finally recognized it. She knew this feeling—had, in fact, felt it many, many times before. Only, never since the day she had been pulled down the well had she felt it in this time. This was the feeling of…jyaki.
She unconsciously followed its pull, the intense feeling of its presence causing her to abandon all sort of logic or reasoning. She was not even aware of letting go of her mother's hand.
When she finally snapped out of her instinctive reaction—which, had she not been a miko, would have probably been to run far, far away—she was standing in a street that was completely deserted. Her initial reaction to the evil energy had decreased in intensity, settling as an uncomfortable knot in the pit of her stomach. The noticeable and abrupt change in atmosphere did nothing to ease it.
Once again she found her legs moving of their own accord, pulling her even further towards the origin of the jyaki. Before she knew it, she had come to the entrance of graveyard. Her hands fisted unconsciously, both clammy with perspiration. Taking a steadying breath, she took the first step into the cemetery, and another, and another—each stride faster than the one before it. Soon, she had made a goodly number of steps, enough to come across the source of her discomfort.
It was a wall of pure blackness.
As she came closer to it, it became less and less opaque. She could begin to make out figures as it became more and translucent.
She wasn't entirely sure what compelled her to make her next move, but whatever it was could be nothing short of foolish.
She stepped through the barrier.
The first thing she was aware of was an acute feeling of nausea. It was paralyzing, causing her eyes to water and her stomach to spasm painfully. This place practically embodied wrongness and evil energy. Who, she thought, could possibly summon up something of this magnitude in her time? She tried her best, and managed to push down her body's rejection to the strange place to a point where it became tolerable. She opened her eyes…
…Only to find somebody eerily familiar positively glaring at her. He looked so much like—
"I-Inuyasha?" She whispered softly to herself. No. She realized, not Inuyasha. This boy was clearly human, as was evident by his lack of both dog-ears and youki. And had Inuyasha been in his human form, his hair would have been black, while this boy's hair was silvery white. Furthermore, his eyes were a shade of deep brown, completely different from either one of Inuyasha's eye colors. Despite all this, however, the stranger had almost the exact same face…the exact same glare—though Kagome had never seen an expression nearly so malicious cross Inuyasha's features.
"W-Who are you!" A voice demanded. Kagome had been so caught up in the glaring boy that she had failed to notice the three others in front of him. The one who had spoken was a terrified boy with an unnaturally gaunt face. "And what are you doing here!"
"Yes," said the white-haired boy, "what are you doing here? I hope you know that you're interrupting one of My very important games."
Kagome caught his meaning. The three cowering in front of him must have been his 'playmates'. For the second time that day the voice of reason was making itself heard. It was screaming at her to leave, and possibly NOT antagonize a potentially very dangerous person in the process. For the second time that day, she did a wonderful job of ignoring it.
"I can't let you hurt those three."
The white-haired boy gave a smirk that was positively unnerving. "Oh? What exactly are you going to do about it, miko-sama?"
Kagome noticed far too late that she did not have her bow and arrow. And just how did he know that she was a miko? However he knew, she thought, she was going to have to bluff. "That's right, I am a miko! And if you don't let these three go, I'll purify you into oblivion!"
He did not look impressed. If anything, he looked amused. "You and I both know that you can't do that without your bow and arrows, miko-sama." His smirk widened at Kagome's shocked reaction. "And these 'three' attacked me first. I am merely showing them what happens when you try to steal from the King of Thieves."
Kagome was still in a state of complete shock. Okay, knowing that she was a miko was one thing—but knowing that she used a bow and arrows to access her miko powers was no mere coincidence. Something more was going on here, and she fully intended to find out what it was. It was still her responsibility to free the other occupants of the strange barrier before she could, though.
"Well," she said, trying to keep her voice steady, "you've obviously proven your point. What would you accomplish by hurting them more?"
He seemed to consider this before turning to the other boys. "Well, it's your lucky day. Unfortunately I can't afford any of you to remember this, though." And with that, their forms literally disappeared.
"What have you done to them!" Kagome demanded.
He turned his now blank face back to her. "Nothing too harmful, I assure you." He began to walk towards her, eyes radiating some nameless emotion that set Kagome on edge. She could feel her heartbeat beginning to speed up. She couldn't seem to move a single muscle. "But, I must tell you that the only reason that I let them go—" he was right in front of her, his mouth placed so close to her ear that she could feel his warm breath fanning out against it, "—is because you have taken their place."
He drew back his head to look directly into her eyes. His gaze was still filled with that frightening, nameless emotion. Had Kagome been able to move, she would have bolted a long time ago. But she could not, not even as his left hand slid gently around her throat.
Oh my God. He was going to kill her.
But, even as she anticipated the inevitable squeeze, his hands remained gentle, caressing her pulse as though checking if she was still alive. However, she knew it was the end when the look in his eyes intensified, and another of his unsettling smirks made its way onto his countenance.
After all was said and done, she was going to die by the hand of a human in her own time.
At least, that's what she thought…until his lips touched her own in a kiss.