A.N. Thanks everyone who reviewed. I hope you enjoyed your previews of Under the Brown Wrapping, though I honestly think the preview was a bit bland...

Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha.

-

Delightfully Disastrous

Chapter Nineteen

-

(Tsuki)

"Naraku is unrelenting. He will not give up until the jewel is his. But never let the Shikkon get into his hands. Sacrifices may have to be made, but the life of one woman is not more important than the lives of many.

In trying to save your mother, I condemn our line to protecting this curse. Keep the Shikkon no Tama safe, no one of this line is permitted to make a wish, but we are obligated to protect it from hands such as Naraku.

Though I wish you happiness, my son, I hope you chose correctly when you are face with love over death."

A snort sounded from his son, "I would not dream of it, father, you have nothing worry about."

"Words from a boy who has not loved?"

"Who are you to speak of love? You betrayed her... You remarried."

Inu Taisho looked wearily at Sesshoumaru, "You are free to leave."

Maybe he had chosen the wrong time to speak with him. It was so soon after the death of his mother, Inu-Taisho's first mate.

(Tsuki)

Drip...

Drip...

Kagome awoke to the sound of dripping water. Groaning, she muttered, "Did someone get the number of that bus?"

Drip...

Her voice sounded hoarse and weak.

Her body ached completely. She sucked in a breath to ease the throbbing of her torso, and nearly gagged. It was like someone blended corpses and death and sprayed the stuff all over the walls. She squelched the urge to vomit.

"Ugh...Where am I?"

It was dimly lit where she was. She was in a cell of some sort, if she guessed right. She could see the outline of the room. "Why am I here?"

Wasn't she last on the beach with Sesshoumaru?

'Sesshoumaru...' She smiled contently at the name.

Everything slowly came back to her and panic seized her, "Inuyasha? Rin?" They were last with her.

"But then..."

The wind blew them away and then there was nothing.

Why was she here?

She tried to calm herself, but couldn't. Her mind kept repeating, 'There's no Sango, or Mirouku, or Rin, or Kikyou, or Inuyasha... or Sesshoumaru.'

No Sesshoumaru...

Kagome forced herself to breathe, again harshly smothering the urge to vomit.

She would get out. She once juggled her college classes with a job, and managed to get her all assignments done.

'I can do anything!'

A noise behind her made her jump, "Who's there!"

There was the sound of a striking match and someone lit a candle. Kagome furrowed her brow at the person- rather the child.

"Who are you?"

The child looked into her eyes with hollow black eyes that seemed to have a speck of pleading, "I am Kanna..."

Kagome shakily asked, "What do you want?"

"Naraku wants to see you."

(Tsuki)

Mirouku paled as Sango gave a strangled cry and fell into his arms, "What happened? Inuyasha, tell us what happened."

Inuyasha gave Rin to Kikyou before collapsing onto his knees, exhausted and beat. "They took Kagome."

Sango choked back a sob, "No!"

Kikyou covered her mouth in silent horror. She buried her face in Rin's kimono.

Inuyasha looked Sesshoumaru dead in the eye and as one last explosion sounded in the villa with a several scattered laughs of mockery, "Kagura's going to give Kagome to Naraku."

Inuyasha looked with hooded eyes at his brother, "I'm sorry, Sesshoumaru... I- Kagura, she was with Naraku all this time."

Sesshoumaru form grew ever more rigid, "What?"

"She was an incarnate. Under our noses. The wind witch." He was babbling on, berating himself, and how he never put two and two together.

Mirouku tensed, "The basement door... She was in the kitchen— Why didn't I realize that before? I let myself be distracted..."

Sango roughly wiped her eyes, "Alright. No more finger pointing. The longer we're self-pitying messes the longer Kagome is in the hands of a sick fuck."

Her vehement little speech caused her to be stared at.

Inuyasha glanced at Sango, and let a small smile, "Girl, you've definitely been spending too much time with me."

Sango blinked, "I don't know whether or not to feel insulted or complimented."

Mirouku laughed and Kikyou smiled, "And I don't know whether or not I should be jealous." She let out a smile to say that she was kidding, and the initial despair lifted a bit. After a moment she said, "Sango is right, though."

She glanced around the room, "Mirouku, I know a bit about computers myself. Is there some way to fry the system so the timer automatically is disabled?"

Many of the wires in the back had gotten frayed in the scuffle, and no one was willing to handle them. So that meant that unplugging it was simply out of the question.

Mirouku studied the system for a bit. His eyes lit up. "It's pretty old, so I think I'll be pretty easy... "

Sango smiled, "That's more like it. The faster we work the sooner we have our girl back."

She looked at Sesshoumaru who had his back turned from the group. He was the only one besides her that was not doing anything. Inuyasha was helping Kikyou and Mirouku decapitate the machine.

"Sesshoumaru?"

He ignored her, and Sango bit her bottom lip, a habit that Kagome had rubbed onto her. For some reason, she was a bit worried. During the Code E practices, he seemed to find every flaw in anything, from how the workers got from one place to the safe places to how they breathed and would make it his past-time to point them out.

Now he was not as much as pretending to be involved. 'Don't let him be crying, don't let him be crying, don't let him be crying!'

She didn't know why she expected him to be all tears, but she had seen that kiss, and he obviously liked Kagome more than he put on. But enough to cry?

Well if it were Mirouku in Kagome's shoes, she would be a sobbing mess. Stifling and everything.

Sango walked around him, and gasped.

He wasn't crying. She was tempted to get on her knees and thank every being up there, but under the circumstances, she wasn't even sure if she should risk that.

Sesshoumaru looked as if he were ready to kill anything that moved. His eyes had turned a hauntingly bright red, and his fangs and claws were elongating. She only learned that pleasant fact however, only because he hissed at her.

"Sesshoumaru...?"

There was no response, white flickered into his eyes, and he held his head. A low growl rumbled in his throat "Stay... back."

Inuyasha's sensitive ears picked up the conversation. Turning he looked to see what was going on between Sango and his brother. What he saw made him curse under his breath. He stood quickly, "Sango, move away from him!"

There was only one other time when Inuyasha had seen his brother like that. They had been at the courtyard a few years after his birth during a ceremony for his mother.

There had been a ceremony at the court and there had been a group of women gossiping. Sesshoumaru's mother had been brought up not so nicely and his brother had gone berserk.

Despite being merely a teen, the four women stood no chance.

And if Sesshoumaru let his anger reign him, then he would transform, and Sango would end up like those women.

"Sango move!"

But with a snarl, Sesshoumaru reached over and grabbing Sango's shoulders, digging his sharpened claws into her skin.

(Tsuki)

Screams echoed the halls as Juromaru carried a protesting Kagome into Naraku's quarters, "Let me go, you ...you jerk!"

After Kanna had spent almost ten minutes trying to goad Kagome to willing come with her, Juromaru had been forced to carry the girl literally kicking and screaming, not to mention clawing and yelling.

So Juromaru had to put up with this banshee of a girl, yelling into his ears, as his brother laughed at his expense.

Nice...

He was ready to shoot himself by the time he reached Naraku's quarters.

Kagome had started kneeing him in the stomach. He had had to carry her on his shoulder, and the effects of said action were very unpleasant.

Finally she was set down in a dark room and everything was quiet. "Turn-coat? Are you here?"

She had begun calling Juromaru Turn-coat because of his technical double-crossing of the Police force. His name had once again slipped her mind and she would have felt back if she started calling him Jeremy, what she assumed his name was, when it was something completely different.

'But you don't feel bad if you insult the guy...'

She huffed. But Turn-coat couldn't really be considered insulting. Even if it was the best she could think of, with her bravado disappearing each time she realized that she was all alone.

There was a chuckle that sounded somewhere behind her and she whirled around, "Who's there?"

"Sources say that you're a very fiery girl... I wonder what it would take to extinguish you." She saw the silhouette of a man, but his outline seemed to keep disappearing.

She had to depend fully on his voice.

Kagome back away from the sound of the voice, "What do you want from me you, sicko."

There was the sound of a sigh, "I'm very disappointed in you Kagome... I expected more flavored insults."

She suddenly backed into a wall, wishing for some form of light. She didn't even bother to respond.

'He's freakin' crazy!'

"How do you know my name?"

"I know a lot about Sesshoumaru's whore." There was a soft caress of her cheek and the scent of death grew stronger. "Get the hell off me. I am no whore!"

The hands against her face seemed to burn. She screamed and pushed at the space in front of her to find nothing there. 'Where is he!'

Footsteps headed in her direction and she was thrown over someone's shoulders for the second time. Knee found the oh familiar stomach. "Let me go!"

There was a cackle in the back ground, "Hmm. 'Till next time... Kagome."

She shivered, as she was returned to her cell.

Why was she here?

What did he want from her?

(Tsuki)

The sharp sound of a slap echoed in the Lock-in.

There were a collective amount of gasps as Sango removed the claws from her flesh, with a stifled wince. Blood soaked her kimono.

She looked up at Sesshoumaru.

His head had been turned with the force of the hit.

"Get a hold of yourself, Sesshoumaru." Her voice was sharp and calm. Sango still held his wrists tightly, but he made no move to attack her again.

She continued harshly, "What did I say about self pity? You're on the same level as the rest of us, so don't blame this all on yourself."

He did not meet her glaze, but spoke, "I could have prevented this."

Sango frowned, "I will slap you again if I have to. Do. Not. Blame. Yourself."

Inuyasha glanced at Mirouku neither moving from underneath the machine, "She's some scary shit, man."

Mirouku merely grinned, "Correction, she's my scary shit."

Inuyasha shook his head, but whatever he had to say was interrupted by Kikyou.

She was standing behind them, "You two, move back..."

With questioning looks, they, step back as asked, and Kikyou scooped up Rin, "Give it a minute."

There were a series of sparks as everything suddenly shut down- everything including the barrier.

Sango returned, looking oddly pleased, and Sesshoumaru looked as if the whole scene had not happened. His eyes were clear amber, but his jaw was clenched.

"I will dismiss the servants. Rin will be placed in Kaede-san's care, and the rest of you shall meet me in the dojo. No one is to travel alone, as there may be a few stragglers left behind."

Sango smiled brightly as Sesshoumaru returned to command.

Inuyasha nudged her, "What did you say?"

She winked, and merely linked arms with Mirouku, "That my friend is confidential."

(Tsuki)

The dojo was for the most part unscathed. It had started to rain and so the fire was kept under control and hadn't reached a lot of the villa, that did not mean, however that the villa on was not a wreck.

Where the fighting had ensued was completely unrecognizable.

Inuyasha looked sadly out into the graying skies. He took sniff of the air, sorting the scents. The scent of rain permeated everything, "Any trail left behind is gone."

Inuyasha, Mirouku, Sango, and Kikyou, sat thinking aloud in the dojo, waiting for Sesshoumaru to return from the servant Lock-in. They sat in a circle on the floor.

Kikyou shook her head, "Not quite. You said Kagura took her. From what Inuyasha said, she rode on a feather. I doubt they could have left Tokyo."

Mirouku nodded, "She's right. But we need a location..."

Sango snapped her fingers, "At one point, Kagura said she had to visit a 'sick relative'. What was the time frame?"

Inuyasha slammed his hands on the floor, "Three or four hours!"

He was greeted by three stares. He poked his index fingers together sheepishly, "What! Can't a guy pay attention every once in awhile?"

Mirouku gave a small smile, "So we have three or four hours."

Kikyou looked at each of them. "So what do we do with that information?"

Sesshoumaru entered with two laptops, "Two of you do a search of Tokyo for abandoned houses within Tokyo limits."

Sango and Kikyou volunteered to do the searches.

He turned to Inuyasha, "Go back to the room Kagura was in. See if she dropped anything. While you are up there, check the remains of the two incarnates."

Inuyasha frowned, "Way to make the last part sound nauseating."

Amber eyes flitted to violet, "Follow me."

(Tsuki)

Kagome didn't remember at what time she fell asleep, but that girl Kanna had made her drink some tea when she returned to the cell, and she had drifted off.

She had to wonder what was with these people and their infatuation with sleep! Everyone and their grandma seemed to know of some way to make a person fall a sleep, whether they wanted to or not.

The only good side to the situation: Now it was thankfully a bit lighter than it had been those hours before, if not a bit colder too.

She brought her bare legs to her chin, and she felt something scamper over her exposed toes, "Ew, ew, ew, ewww!"

"I wish I could trade these sandals for socks."

There was movement off to her right, "Who's there." She knew it wasn't the mouse for it had gone in the other direction.

Light suddenly filled the room with another lit candle and she gasped, "Kagura?"

Indeed, it was the designer, standing some distance away from her with a pain look on her face. She was clutching her chest.

Her mind reeled, "Naraku got you too?"

Kagura nodded reluctantly. She had wanted to refuse a part in all this, but Naraku was very ...persuasive. He needed Kagome responsive to at least one person there, and since Kagome was blissfully unaware of just who Kagura truly was and what she had done...the position just got filled.

But as Kagura thought about the current predicament, this could actually work more to her advantage than Naraku's.

If she were to say run, the girl would do so.

So one way or another, Naraku was going to perish.

-

(Tsuki)

-

"In total we researched over twenty empty houses within the set radius..." This was the only news they had and it was bad.

They didn't have time to search twenty houses.

Too hours before Kagome woke up, as the clock struck two, they were back to their circle to share information.

Sango and Kikyou had spoken last. Inuyasha had come up with nothing.

"By police records, only five show signs of life, and all of those five are going to be demolished, so it seems cops couldn't care let whether someone gets a free home until then."

Inuyasha sighed, "Why don't we just wait for the call. Naraku will give us a meet point and—"

Sesshoumaru's eyes narrowed, "Then we hand over the jewel and sit back and perish?"

Mirouku sighed, "We need to face him on our terms. If he's ready then we lose undoubtedly. If we take him by surprise...then we have a chance."

Kikyou smirked, "Hold on. We may not have to wait. Get this... There is one house that was built as an old castle replica." Sango looked over at her laptop, "But no one would buy it after the original man who bought it died. It was because of a rumor that death hung over its door or something. The place is about an hour away.."

Inuyasha cracked his knuckles, "He's going down..."

Suddenly the phone rang.

Sesshoumaru lifted a finger in sign to stay put and rose to answer it. There was a phone located in the dojo— it was the same number as the phone in the living room, and there incase he was training and someone phoned him.

"Naraku?"

"You're catching on, Sesshoumaru. Wonderful."

His jaw clenched, "What was the reason for this call?"

There was a sigh on the other line, "My praise has just been retracted. Apparently there is much for you to learn. But I called just to tell you that your little plan has a few holes in it. I have more eyes than you realize Sesshoumaru."

Sesshoumaru's amber orbs shot to the rest of them.

"But props to your women. I suppose your little group does have something intelligence wise."

Sesshoumaru fangs bit into his lower lip to keep from cursing, as blood ran down his cheek, he spat, "Time and place."

"Time... in three hours... Place here, with the jewel of course. And Sesshoumaru, no funny business or the girl dies. And I'd hate to have to kill off such an amusing creature."

The phone was slammed down, and bits of plastic and wiring exploded from the once phone.

"He knows..."

Sango paled, "How?"

Sesshoumaru ran a hand through his blood stained hair, "One of those things... they have a mirror. Father mentioned something about it."

Inuyasha growl, "Well if Naraku's watching," he flipped off the other hanyou, "Your ass is mine."

"We have three hours to go there and bring the jewel. Any communication, will here by in be done on paper. Understood?"

There were three nods.

He left and returned seconds later with notepads and pens. He handed them out and wrote, 'Mirouku, pick out a car, no open roofs.'

Mirouku merely nodded.

To Sango and Kikyou he wrote, 'Pack foods, and then meet Mirouku outside.'

Being only mortal, they needed to eat, and they would be of no use, half starved.

Pocketing his notepad he nodded towards Inuyasha. There was no need to hide this message, "We shall get the jewel."

But the glint in his eyes told Inuyasha that that would not be the only thing that they would get.

(Tsuki)

Okay that's done! Yes! I didn't expect to get this out today. Two more chapters left! Saddening but relieving.

Happy 2006!