Running toward Ito Station while escaping the police is the most terrifying thing she has ever done. Kagome is now a true criminal, maybe. She is almost sure she killed that officer and had assaulted Hig— that man by throwing him out of the house through the door.
She can hear the sirens, she can hear the shouts of warning as she zigzags through the streets. Her legs are pumping with energy without her really thinking about it and she's running so fast she rolls on the ground on every curve, and ends up rolling down the sloping roads, incapable of handling such speeds. Still, she applies techniques learned a year back.
She has run from plenty of speedy demons, running from police cars should be easy enough. Then, get a train to wherever the hell is farther away from this place, and then get another one as soon as it hits destination. That's the plan and it's an easy one. She can totally disappear in the night. It's going to be easy—
There are five police cars ahead of her, just passing under the train bridge going over the street. Kagome thinks, for a single, fleeting moment that this is it. She's going to be dragged back to that family that isn't hers, to a mental hospital, to a cell. She'd done for. If they have these many cars going as a back-up, if they're this desperate to catch her, then she has no chance to escape.
There's no getting in a train and disappearing now. Not after she displayed such violence and demonstrated her inhuman abilities.
The summer breeze is freezing against her wet cheeks, biting back any warmth and peace that she'd ever had, that she had ever conquered. It takes her back to square one, to sorrow deep enough to drive her mad if she lets it. But Kagome isn't one that gives up so fucking easily.
So she jumps.
She sails through the air, screaming an embarrassingly high tone as the cars speed under her and the energy dissipates back into her soul. She lands on the train tracks of the bridge, her ankles twisting and snapping painfully before she rolls over and hits the bridge barrier on the other side. The pain is bad, but nothing she couldn't handle.
It's not like she was bitten by a giant demon or half of her soul was taken from her.
Heal, please, heal, she begs her powers to do her bidding. They do, rightening her ankles and feet with a sickening snap and a breathless scream on her part. Wheezing for breath, Kagome kneels and looks towards the direction of the tracks that she is sure heads to the nearest station. The police sirens sing in the night, and the cars have stopped just a few ways ahead of the bridge. Dragging herself over the tracks and peaking over the barrier facing the side from where she jumped from, she can see the officers getting out of their cars and looking around in confusion on the ground below.
Looking back to where she needs to go, Kagome purses her lips, charging her legs with power again and running as fast as she can down the tracks. She falls down, she trips on the train tracks. But she is quick to get the fuck up and reaching the fucking station because fuck, she will not give up her freedom. This is her choice and she will stand by it.
The station is just filling up with people and it's easy enough for Kagome to blend in with the distracted crowd. She goes directly towards the restrooms, closing the door behind her and digging through her bag. She almost screams in frustration when she notices that she's got is the kimono, yoga pants and a hoodie. She scrambles to get out of her simple merchandise t-shirt and into the hoodie, drawing the hood over her head.
Putting a few strands of her dark hair behind her ears, Kagome puts the bag on her back and strides out of the restroom with her head down. A train arrives on the platform and she just sneaks a glance to it, reading Izukyu-Shimoda, before entering it.
The door closes behind her and she finds a place to sit. Her legs ache as they never did before. She stretches them before her, swallowing a pained scream when they are fully straight. Kagome folds over herself, hands gripping tightly to her thighs and closing her eyes. She breathes. In and out.
In and out.
•••
Shimoda is a small town, which means she needs to get the hell out of there as quick as possible. The only way to get to a bigger city that won't go back through Ito or closer, is through the docks, bus or taxi. It's been one hour since her sprint and Kagome's body feels like dead weight, but she drags herself out and buys a Japan map that when fully unfolded is as long as her and twice wider.
She had decided on the way here to head for Osaka, since it was a bigger city and much more easy to disappear into. It's said that Nishinari Ward is dangerous for the high number of homeless and riots and yakuza, and it's there that Kagome can disappear for a few months until people forget her for a bit.
But there's no fucking ferry to Osaka and she's not willing to go to the Izu Islands and get stuck there.
"Are you sure that there's no way for me to get to Osaka?"
"By sea? No, miss," the elderly man she found on the docks says. His friends laugh and cheer to sake again. "But you could get the train to Ito and—"
"No, thank you," she bows to him, a strained smile on her lips before parting from them with a goodnight the group cheered for. She does not let her thoughts wander, looking forward and focusing on her current goal.
•••
She settles for finding the cheapest inn, no questions asked and pay at entering with the bills she has. The room she is given is absolutely crappy, with no window and four tatamis of space, public bath and kitchen. There's an old but well-kept futon on the corner that she struggles to properly set in the small space. The roof is too low for her height, her head two inches from scraping against it when she stands tall.
When she lays down after quickly washing, Kagome stares up in the dark. Her hands are folded on top of her chest, moving with it as she breathes. The AC is loud, too loud. She feels compressed, tight. The futon smells old, the tatami is uncomfortable under it. If she extends her hands, her fingertips will reach each wall without her arms fully stretched out. Her stomach rumbles in hunger.
She's alone, so utterly and completely alone she wonders if she's still alive.
It's with a drop of dread in her stomach that Kagome realizes that she has never been alone. There's been no moment in her life where she had to fend for herself, where she couldn't seek help and guidance. There's never been a moment where there wasn't family, loved ones, allies or friends around her.
And now she's— her own father…
There are tears falling from her eyes, she can feel their cold touch on her skin. Her breath hitches, her chest hurts, her whole being shrivels up, dry of feeling and warmth. She remembers standing at the door, ready for dinner, ready for the end of the day where he would play his stupid games or watch the news as she readies their food but—
("You called them.")
Summer days hurtle through her vision, lighting up the darkness that surrounds her, drowning the sounds of loneliness and her sobs. Reality shifts, whispers deafen memories now stained with betrayal as a scream builds up inside of her.
("I did.")
She found family and home, she found love and security and healing, but now all of it is gone. Ripped away from her along with her heart, opening wounds that had begun to scar. Her scream tears through her throat, silent and weak as she weeps pitifully. Sobs rise and her breath turns erratic as she howls brokenly in her tiny room. Kagome claws at her mouth, trying to keep those horrid sounds inside. Trying to keep the hurt at bay.
Kagome can feel herself breaking apart.
•••
The following morning, the first thing she does is — hurt hurt hurt — count her money. She's got enough to survive for a few weeks on live cash if she really tries. She's been keeping the money since she first ran, only dipping into it the first time she went for groceries and to get her products for hair and make-up. When she goes out of the inn, she buys her hair paint, mascara, and eyebrow pencil. Canned food is essential for survival, so she buys as much as she can carry.
Next is the net coffee place. She pays for an hour and is taken to mini-room with tatami, futon, computer and dest. It's better than her shitty inn. Kagome sits down and researches how the hell she can get to Osaka without passing through Ito.
The only way is to get a cab to Toumei, and it costs around five thousand yen.
Ouch, kid, better walk there.
She ignores her own imagination, focusing on the price of the bus that takes half a day to arrive at Osaka. The train is quicker though, two hours and she's in one of the biggest cities in Japan. Still, it's not safe, the bus will take too long so the most expensive route it is.
Hesitantly, she researches 'Kagome' and is bombarded with news and photos and videos and—
"I tried to protect her. I am very sorry for keeping Kagome in secret with me, but I feared what she would do to herself if I called the authorities. I deserve my sentence, and I will answer accordingly to it but —Kagome doesn't. She doesn't deserve to be accused of anything. She's —She's good, just...She is just confused now, and very very scared. She's not a criminal, or, or a villain. Kagome is—ah, she—she is very sad, and, not quite, not quite, eh, normal. I mean—"
She closes the tab and storms out of the place.
•••
Kagome pulls her hood over her face and faces the window, sitting on the back seat of the cab.
The ride to Toumei is silent.
•••
It's stifling hot with the summer sun on her back, but Kagome perseveres to Hamamatsu station.
From there, she goes directly to Osaka.
•••
Getting to one's destination successfully should be a victory, something that fills you with elation. It's reaching a goal, without any kind of problem or much of a hassle.
Laying on the cold ground, every single layer of clothes she had on her body after spending almost all of her money on getting here, it doesn't feel like winning.
•••
Nishinari ward is not that bad, it's just that Kagome has no more than nine hundred yen on her pocket. It can get her a night on a net cafe or one thing to eat. Sleeping in the train station is a no-no since the government is keen on taking people from there now, playing an annoying sound the entire night through the speakers and letting the lights on.
As the days pass, Kagome is quick to observe the people around her, how the older homeless people investigate garbage bags early in the morning. InuYasha would be proud of how early she wakes up everyday now.
It's something curious though, how clean they are despite living on the streets. It takes days for Kagome to understand how and where they clean themselves. She heads for the park next to Senno, passing by a pair of playing children and entering the public bathroom. She cries in relief when she finally washes her skin after days, scrubbing it for as long as she can, taking full advantage of the precious clean water coming from the sink. Drying feels like taking away old skin, and though her clothes are dirty, it's just so much better than she could ever get. A scream from the park captures her attention, and she grabs her bag in a hurry, pushing the door open with a bang.
When she gets out, she looks around the suspiciously empty park in confusion.
•••
The Shelter is full of sick people near a public park. Kagome volunteers to help, silently blessing people with health and good fortune the way she learned to do to paper. People get better and people die. Kagome ignores their warnings of death, how to stay at the shelter is to die with illness.
After her fourth miracle healing, Kagome finds an income.
She tells them her name is Miko.
•••
Kagome watches as old lady Amaya and her little grandchildren leave the Shelter. The kids jump excitingly around her, excited shouts of joy for their eminent moving. Old Lady Amaya is her nickname, but the ex-prostitute is old only in appearance and follows diligently after them.
Amaya smiles tiredly at the children, limping after them while the men take their single suitcase. Kagome had been the one who helped save her leg after one bad encounter with an old customer. It's infuriating how the woman had insisted on her not interfering, saying that she had settled things and would be moving on the next day.
Kagome hand't expected for suited men to arrive and take them away.
"It's Takumi-camp," Kiyoshi-san who has a bad eye infection, cracked ribs and three fingers on each hand tells her. "A place where people who can't pay their debts go. They work for Takumi in exchange for cleaning their name."
"Sounds fishy," Kagome tells him, one spoon full of soup in hand. Sounds like slavery, she thinks.
"It is," he agrees sadly, opening his mouth as she hand feeds him. "I thought of accepting their offer you know?"
Reeling back, Kagome blinks at him, blowing softly on the shot soup. "Why?"
He huffs out a laugh that has him wheezing for breath. Kagome helps him, massaging his back and using her powers discretely to prod in his lungs. "Who—who do you think put me here, girl?" he chuckles, falling tiredly on the bed. He looks away, eye distant and unseeing as the bandage over his hurt eye darkens with blood. "Who knows where my family is now, because of me…"
"They separated you?"
He shakes his head, hissing in pain as Kagome prods with careful fingers around his eyes. "No, no. I did. I couldn't pay them back, so I had to leave them."
She frowns, "but what about your family?"
There's a dead look in his one good eye when he stares back at her. Kagome's heart twists at the sorrow in them, at the tears that fall down his cheeks. "I don't know," he looks away, closing his good eye. His bandage darkens, the blood spreading further. "I don't know."
•••
Kagome keeps her hair short, and tries to use her black ink sparingly. Finding a beanie near the University Hospital is the one highlight of September.
It's also the unfortunate day that she ends up meeting and escaping one of the three reigning yakuza groups of Nashinari ward.
To be completely honest with herself, Kagome simply didn't know about the drug spots near Haginochaya station. She had strayed far too close to the police station that night and panicked at seeing the male trio loitering on a street corner, grabbing a young girl by her hair.
She grabs a rock hidden in the inner sleeve of her kimono, securing the hood on her head before charging the pebble with power and throwing the thing with frightening accuracy through the man's wrist. The girl falls away from the man and scrambles on her feet, running away from them as the hand falls with a sickening splat on the floor. Blood pours out and paint the sidewalk as the man screams.
It brings back memories of her past.
The one who she just tore his hand off falls screaming to the ground while the other two turn and stare at her in horror. Kagome grabs another rock, holding it between two fingers as it glows bright pink. They scramble away while the other one passes out from pain and blood loss.
Kagome drags the remaining yakuza to the police-friendly Sakaume yakuza group, leaving him with a little note— and flees.
•••
"Kagome, have ye ever thought of going ta 3 Chome?"
Biting on her one day old onigiri, Kagome looks at Takuya-san sitting on the park's ground beside her. They're on a break, the Shelter still buzzing with activity a few ways away. "No, it's bad news for girls," she swallows, not even cringing at the strange taste that she can't quite identify. "Why?" Kagome knows Takuya-san and knows that he isn't just making a lewd comment to get her under him. He has his own distaste for those businesses at 3 Chome Sanno.
He nods, pursing his lips before fixing his posture and turning to her. "My daughter always needs medical attention, ye know," he sighs, closing his in pains she can understand. His daughters followed him to the city, and as they grew, they had to find a way to make the ends meet. He lost one to the deceases already, his oldest one. "They all do, ye know? Specially with those Yamaguchi roaming close again."
("The alternative isn't kind, girly.")
The streets are never kind. And here, in Osaka, the easiest way for young girls on the streets is always to sell their bodies.
"I'll see what I can do," she smiles at him, eyes narrowing in thought. "Tell me more about these thugs bothering the girls."
•••
"You don't belong here," the woman spits at her as soon as she steps into the the 'restaurant'.
Kagome smiles serenely at her. "I don't." She turns away from the fuming woman to face Takuya-san's daughter, Kyoko, who is dressed in an anime character's outfit that reveals far too much of her body. She bows to the wary girl. "I'm Miko, your father sent me to make sure you are healthy."
Kyoko's distrust disappears as her eyes shine with gratitude, "You're that girl from the Shelter," she smiles tentatively and makes a calming gesture towards the older angry woman. "The miracle girl."
Kagome's lips twitch in faint amusement as she nods, kneeling beside the girl as the older woman closes the door to the streets at Kyoko's urging. "Yes, your father asked me to come here. He worries for you."
She smiles, and it's sad. "I'm all he has left." Kagome nods, knowing she has nothing to answer properly to that. Kyoko sighs, turning serious brown eyes to her. "What should I do?"
Kagome slips out of her torn gloves, "Just stay still," she looks at the older woman by the corner of her eye. "Go search for any other who needs a check up. As long as they are willing to keep silent, I won't ask for much more."
The woman nods, still very suspicious of her, leaving quickly.
Kagome touches two cold fingers to Kyoko's forehead and gets to work.
•••
It takes a total of a week for her to get back to the Shelter and her small shared territory with Takuya-san. Tired to her bones and feet sore as they had never been, Kagome feels only elation from knowing that she is, even if just a little bit, helping these people.
•••
In the past, hundreds of years ago in a different reality and time, Kagome walked throughout the entirety of Japan. Alongside friends and allies, hoping against all hope to defeat forces that were more powerful than she was skilled or prepared for, with trials of battle and heart. Kagome's feet had walked over almost every bit of the Land of the Rising Sun. With her out of time bike or on the back of InuYasha, she'd experienced her country at its rising start and most mystical state.
Now, dislocated to someplace that is both familiar and alien, Kagome has to persevere through conditions that, somehow, are more challenging than living in the wild could ever have been. There's laws, strict ones, to obey without questioning if she wishes to remain unknown. There's limits to what she can eat, because she must buy her sustainment. There's no wild hare for her to kin, skin and make a meal. There's no water stream or hot spring to use for a well deserved bath.
Kagome can't remember when was the last time she took a real bath. When she showered profusely, cleaning her hair and skin until she felt as light as air.
It's hard to live in a society where she can't defend herself without calling too much attention, where killing isn't the end of a skirmish or battle. Kagome can't resolve things with her bow and arrows, can't fight or trade to have her comfort. It takes a toll on her mind.
Kagome is tired. She lives in a ward, walking the streets, barely sleeping because, at any moment, she can can actually be removed from her sleeping place. She sticks close to a the Shelter, evades their prodding questions and helping hands so as to escape from offices and media and all they promise. She doesn't move more than two kilometers a week, and yet she is more tired than she has ever been.
When she wakes up one day with yakuza thugs casually hanging out in front of her, Kagome cannot take enough energy to even get up on her feet. She looks up at them through half lidded eyes and waits. They take pity on her, or the taller and bigger one did, crouching down in front of her. Kagome notes that he has kind eyes.
"You're a brave little thing to mess with Yamaguchi-gumi," he tilts his head, a shadow of a smile on his lips. "Or should I say stupid?"
She can feel annoyance surging up its ugly head to throw her into a damn hell ditch because she should not be sassy with yakuza who could most definitely throw her in an actual ditch and—"You're the stupid one if you came here to wake me up just so you can say I'm stupid to my stupid face, you stupid."
Well played, Kagome, she can hear that man saying. She even pictures him laying on his side, one hand supporting his head as he smirked at her. Now you're officially dead. Because of course, she is, the only yakuza she ever actually did something toward were those thugs on the drug spots near Haginochaya.
There's a moment where they stare at each other and Kagome is starting to gather her energy and distributing it all over her body while multiplying it to a gazillion in her legs, ready to jump over to the next skyscraper and beyond. Better yet, she's gonna kick him and his thug friend over the closest skyscraper and beyond and then get the hell outta here—
The man laughs.
He throws his head back, falls on his butt and laughs loud enough to have the few people walking on the street look at them. Of course, eyes are soon moving away at the sight of loose suits and the tattoos visible on their necks. Kagome is ready to ditch them for another part of the ward when he gets up on his feet.
"You've got spunk," he smirks down at her.
"And you're very cliché. I'm not gonna join your little boyband because I've got the—eh, spunk and you seem to like it." This all sounds ridiculously like a movie where the hero got friendly with yakuza because he got spunk. Kagome is not falling into the yakuza soap opera trap.
"And I don't wanna you to. You're from the Shelter, right?" Seeing that they aren't going to leave, but also aren't going to kidnap or kill her or worse, Kagome starts to fold her old mattress cover and her cardboard bed. Her beanie is firm over her head, covering blonde roots that are starting to show.
Kagome nods. "Yeah, I help them one day or another." She grabs her bag, putting the blanket inside and closing the the rusty thing. She's gonna need to either find another one or use her measly savings to get a new one. Or eat. Yay to the choices of the week…or month. "Gotta do my own stuff too." She puts her precious big cardboard under her arm and narrows her eyes at them. "What do you want?"
"You from Tokyo? You sound like it."
"What. Do. You. Want."
The man huffs, putting his hands into his pant pockets and nodding at the other man, who had been silent through their whole exchange. "We're Sakaume-gumi."
"Fuck."
The man wheezes again. "Yeah, fuck. But it's gonna be good, I promise." She cringes, and he cringes and then the other man slaps his own face and sighs in that same tone Sango did whenever Muroku spoke. "Eh, that—I mean. We're—We're not…" He sighs. "I just want to thank you. I mean, we do."
Nope, perv alert. "Not interested." The man dares to lay a hand on her arm and stop her from leaving. Kagome snaps her glare at him.
"It's not like that, miss!" She shakes away his hold and twists to look between the both of them. They sound sincere enough. There's also a very fancy car that been parked behind them since she woke up. So they also hadn't taken the chance to simply kidnapping her. Kagome meets his pleading gaze. "I—That girl, the one you saved!" Kagome remembers how she had ran outta there, because she was smart. Thing Kagome clearly doesn't share with her since she's not doing the same exact thing. "She's my sister. She wants to meet you. And the boss too! He's—well, he wants to thank you. And I do too." He sounds really desperate and really sincere and his soul is dark, it is. There's…bad things. He has killed. But so has she. "Please, come with us."
She sighs, and InuYasha's voice snaps angrily at her when she accepts.
You're too fucking trusting.
•••
"You're giving me a bike."
The boss only smiles serenely. "That man you brought to our door was one of our worst, eh, impertinences. Let's call him such. For bringing him to us, I think it's only fair I repay you." He's dead, she thinks, dully. She doesn't allow the sentiment of dread show on her face, only fisting her hands on her lap.
"You also saved my sister!" The man from earlier chirps in unhelpfully. The boss doesn't even glance at the thug. And he's a low one, he's sitting way back. It's kind of sad, Kagome is forming a slight attachment to the strangely cheerful man. The smaller one, higher on the food chain, is sitting amongst the other ones that line both sides of the boss.
"So, no catch? You expect me to believe that?" She tries to sound cool like Miroku. Or extremely detached and disinterested like…that man. They don't see how she's trembling just a little bit. Or how her tongue is pressed against the roof of her mouth so hard it actually hurts a bit. Or how her fingernails, ragged and short, are pressing on her slowly roughening skin.
"Well," there it is, Miroku's voice says. The catch. "We could offer you much more if you'd be willing to join—"
"No." This is final and she lets it be known in the tone of her voice.
He pauses, looking at her with all the calm of the world, like he is Buddha. Kagome wants to punch his face in. "In that case," he smiles, thin lips stretching over white teeth. "That's it."
It's tempting. It's goddam tempting and Kagome is salivating over the idea of having a bike. She can carry more things. Can actually start gathering some trash, aluminum and whatnots and exchange them for a few extra bucks. She can move through the whole city, can stop depending so much on only one place and still not waste all of her money on the train or bus. It's tempting because with it Kagome can stop limiting herself to only one Shelter. She could volunteer in other places, could spread her touch over the city and have a quick way of moving out.
A bike, a good one, is something it'd take a few more months, maybe a year, of investment.
They know it too, if they didn't, they wouldn't offer it. A homeless who wants to stay homeless is in wanting of food, shelter and transportation. That's her rule and that's what she thinks when she accompanies the old men into their morning sprints to get to the trash bags before the trash trucks. It's in how they spend so much on sake and remain where they are, forgotten, alone.
She wants to stay like that, and these people know this.
She bows shallowly, "thank you for your gift."
The boss claps, closing his eyes and smiling wide. He gestures and men come from behind her carrying a beautiful new bike. "This model is quite resistant. If it ever breaks, please come help with fixing it—"
"Oh, come on—" Kagome whines, tired of his playing around. "You just said it was free of charge, and then you offer more and, let me tell you, it still looks very shady."
He stops, tilting his head at her. He's calm. Everything about him is calculated. All of his words are said slowly, like he has all the time in the world and he doesn't care if she was in a hurry. He's meticulous in how he uses his hands to speak, how he expresses himself with smiles while his eyes remain laser focused on her. This man has power in his fingertip in a different way than she, than InuYasha and even Sesshomaru. It leaves her nervous. This is not something she has faced before. This is my world, the modern world.
"What do you want, Miko?" And that's the key, isn't it? What does she want? What doe she fight for? What awaits for her after all this suffering? In Osaka, she drifts without goals, no sight of the future, no clue on how to get home. She has constant visions of nonsensical science and bald nomads staring at her in silence, nothing more. Still, the reason for why she left the safety of the strange family, the reason for why she wanted so desperately to remain far from them still remains.
I want to go home.
But Kagome isn't sure what home is anymore. Is it trust? Security? Would she wish to return to where she was? With the Jewel, jailed into a void? Somewhere out of time and space but still within it? This is not the time, she says to herself, hardening her heart.
"Get to the Shelter, get my meal of the day, and for you to stop fucking around," she leans forward, anger bursting out and lacing her words with poison as she puts her hands on the table between them. There's amazement in his eyes as the table slowly cracks under her slightly enhanced strength, with just a touch of spiritual power flowing through her muscles. "So, tell me the truth. Why did you call me here?"
He smiles like the cat that got the canary, satisfied. "I want you to help me rid this place of Yamaguchi-gumi."
Kagome blinks. Stares at the man. He's looking back as complacent as ever, uncaring for the madness he just asked her to take part in. "Are you…" she frowns, opens her mouth. closes it and shakes her head. One hand rises so she could perhaps massage the headache that she is sure most be coming. "…mad?"
He leans back, shrugging one shoulder. "Do I sound mad?"
"Yes?" Kagome laughs, no joy in it. "Getting rid of the Yamaguchi-gumi? You'd have to rid it from the world, and that''s—" she cackles, closing her eyes and shaking her head. "Well, you have a hundred man, they have around a hundred armies."
He remains smug in the face of her disbelief, dark eyes watching closely to her reaction as he pushes something across the table, leaving it directly in front of her. Kagome refuses to look down, even as he leans away, crossing his arms and looking down on her. She remains stubborn as he patiently waits. Finally, she looks down. A small pile of pebbles drenched in blood glares back at her.
The crunching noise of the smooth stone hitting its mark as she'd thrown at that thug the other night echoes in her mind. It's made all the more vividly by the bloodstained pieces of rock in front of her. She could picture it reaching his wrist, the impact shattering both the bone and the stone, enhanced speed and power making the pieces cut through the skin and muscle. This thing had been immersed in blood so profusely, all the pieces were painted rusty red.
"How much," his low whisper breaks the silence like a gunshot. "Can you destroy?" She grits her teeth, dread pooling at her the bottom of her stomach. "If a small thing like that cut some fellow's hand off, what can you do with a gun? A bomb?" His voice deepens, greed taking hold of his words and making her mouth taste bitter greed in the air. "And I only know that you threw a pebble at him. But, Miko," he leans closer, eyes wide, shining with sick want and weak empathy. "You can do so. Much. More," he nods his head when she purses her lips, denying his words with a shake of her own. "You can! You can help this community, Miko. Can you picture it?"
"No, I can't," Disgusted, Kagome gets on her feet and turns away from him. "Keep your bike, your privileges, and crazy plans. I'm no one's weapon—"
"No children would need to fear being taken from their mother's arms," she curses her kindness when that was all he needed to say for her to stop and listen to his poisonous words. "No family would be robbed of their hard earned money, no man would be thrown to the streets," faces of her friends from the Shelter, from the people who disappeared around her, who died by all the wrong reasons. So much that is bad around here lead to Yamaguchi. "No woman would fear the streets if they had a patron of theirs. A symbol to their dreams of peace."
She can hear him standing up, walking towards her. "The Yamaguchi branch in this ward has caused enough harm. They have shaken up the balence of things," He puts a heavy hand on her shoulder, voice soft. "I can give you a gun and information, soon enough you, and me, together— we will conquer this city, Miko. All you gotta do," he leans close, his breath hot on the nape of her neck, "is say yes."
Kagome slaps his hand away, laughs in his face and marches out, bike in hand because he said it's hers anyway.
•••
Over two hundred people die on the streets every year, it is said.
Kagome cuts that number by half when December comes.
The girls from Senno get better, and they say many things to Kagome. Kagome finds more thugs in the night, loitering around them or the drugs spots or the train station. Sakaume's proposal floats around in her head, tempting but ultimately ignored.
•••
The winter doesn't bring too much snow to the city. It's cold, but there's no snow, so she should be thankful, it's what her friends say.
It's still too cold for her three light layers of clothes and sneakers.
It pains her to tears to have to buy thicker boots and more clothes then the occasional underwear or shirt. She does it, and when they ask if she wishes to sell her kimono —it'll be worth something— it's on the tip of her tongue to harshly agree to it and say good riddance to it.
She doesn't.
She can't.
•••
The New Year's celebration goes over her head as she stares down at a young girl and boy huddled against each other in an alleyway. They're a few streets away from a dangerous territory, Yamaguchi territory, and they are cowering in fear. In the distance, police sirens sing along with the cheer for a new year. They are passing by a Yamaguchi office down the street, not knowing what it holds.
Yamaguchi-gumi seems to have been using his victims to something more than trafficking, if the stitches, blood, bald heads full of precise scarring and ratty hospital scrubs are saying something.
A batch must have been lost, Kagome notes, numbly.
She kneels, letting her power bloom prettily on her hand and illuminate the dark alley. "You guys seem pretty scared…"
The older one, a girl, maybe, — they both have shaved heads — pushes the other child behind her with a flinch, trembling all over but standing firm between Kagome and the younger one. It's a blow to her heart, it reminds her of the past, of the things she hated of the ancient era. Thin wrists and thinner arms shake as she crosses them in front of her. There's fear like the dying children of an age long gone, of mutilated young bodies asking for mercy. Hungered souls that wanted for anything to replenish themselves, for a blanket of protection that went undone by war and pillage.
Their gaunt faces are overlaid with hundreds of others Kagome had seen in the past. Visions of terror that belong in the books, to warn the generations to come to never sink so low. It's haunting to face them here, in the future still. It makes hate burn hotly in her chest for the monster that made this to them and others.
There's an incision on the girl's arm, and blood splatters to the dark ground and stains white skin that is turning too pale by the minute. Their legs are splattered with piss and blood and worse. Kagome thinks the little one hiding behind this scrap of a girl is missing an ear and an eye.
"Stay back," the little girl's voice is out of breath. As if she can't pull air into her lungs, as if struggling for her last breath.
"I can help," Kagome surges forward, slowly, as to not scare the poor little ones. Her bike hits the floor with a screech that makes the children fall back on the ground and scramble further away from her. Kagome raises her hands in the air, heart beating loudly in her chest. "It's ok, that's my bike being loud. No one is gonna hurt you guys. I'm sorry, I should've been more careful. Silly me, right?" Her weak smile does nothing to calm them down. The little one clutches to the girl with wide eyes filled with a sheen of tears, and the girl is shaking like a leaf, clutching him close to her.
Kagome crawls slowly next to them, hands glowing a bright pink that catches their attention. She sees the hidden awe behind their wariness. "It's okay, it's okay," her hand inches towards them, her fingers itching to heal their broken skin. "I can help you."
Chilled fingers reach skin that does not feel right. It's like holding energy with her hands, like having a powered arrow in her grasp. Kagome's eyes widen when her powers don't seep into the girl's body, but envelops her. Her tiny being is embraced in light pink, blood and gashes falling away along with the hospital gown. Hair sprouts from her head, black as night, sleek and pretty as a cute kimono substitutes the rags. It bleeds into the little one, who looks healthy and whole and happy as the girl suddenly does.
Their bodies are not solid anymore. They are fleeting images, strong but barely there. Lighted in pure pink as they smile at her, something like 'thank you' in their young eyes. The children — their souls — fade away in particles of stardust, glinting prettily in the night, rising up to the sky.
Kagome falls on the cold floor, gasping for air as she stares at the spot she could swear two young children had been. It breaks her heart when it finally dawns on her that she hadn't healed their bodies — she'd purified their souls.
•••
Kagome looks in the eye of a man she shouldn't trust and finally decides to take the bullet if only to save those poor souls. She looks right into his black eyes and says "I accept."
•••
A/N: all those places are real, all routes are real. all facts about homelessness in japan. i researched a lot for this. i now know drug spots on Nashinari ward and shit (unless they changed but shhhh for the sake of the story leave it beeeee). i made up the net cafe in Shimoda though. internet says it doesn't exist i say fuck it it's a rising business. i also made up the Yamaguchi-Sakaume fight thing going on. yamaguchi group is a little different in this universe for kagome's sake because she needs it. any guesses as to why?
i'm so behind the schedule you guys t-t i've been to hospital, traveled, and stepmom is preparing for cirurgy so we all scrambling to help and classes begun and this is the only day i actually have been at home for more than a hour or to sleep.
i still edited this cause my heart can't bare to post it without editin. now, this note here is free terrain i can go nuts no comas and shit. i gotta go sleep, have work tomorrow.
also, on a scale of one to 9000 how much kagome is hurting and bottiling up?
did you catch how she's developing her powers? gotta make up for what canon didn't do.
this chapter are full of ocs cause lol, is anyone gonna be relevant? how?
how will kagome perform in this deal she entered? how will it affect her? tell me your ideas for this story, let's see who gets what i'm going for orrrr does it better lolololol
good night
~Mari