Unseelie Chapter # 16
Inuyasha's hand was warm in hers, as he led her through the dark halls. He probably couldn't see much better than Kagome could, but his keen hearing and sense of smell let him navigate well enough. The dark, cold halls were eerily spooky and she stumbled over nothing as she trailed after him.
"Careful, stairs." He said -- then picked her up without warning and carried her down them. His arms were strong under her back and thighs, and his damp hair slid over her arms. In a lower voice he said, "I don't like their plan. Don't have better ideas, though."
"Mmm."
"Mucking about in things they shouldn't." His grumble was barely audible.
"Yeah, I know. There's a reason they call that spell dark magic -- poor guy'll have to deal with all the things he did without a soul. Without a conscience. That's gotta be awful."
"Feh. That's stupid logic."
"What do you mean?"
He set her down when they reached the second floor, however, and changed the subject to, "Be careful. There's a throw rug."
The others had gathered in the second floor library, which had once been a ball room. It was a large, spacious room -- and in the darkness, eerily spooky. The flickering candles lit at the points of a pentagram did little to dispel the darkness. Impenetrable shadows loomed over the scene, and the scents of sage, lavender, and something like burning meat did little to dispel the ominous atmosphere.
Kagome shut library the door behind them, at Buffy's terse instruction of, "You're the last; everyone else is keeping guard. Lock it. I don't want any interruptions."
"I changed the spell a little," Willow walked over and spoke to Buffy. "No happiness clause."
"Because he's going to be such a happy camper when we do this to him." Buffy rolled her eyes upwards.
Willow shifted uncomfortably from foot to foot. "Well, I didn't want it to be like a curse. I don't curse people anymore. Remember? When we're done he can live on with a soul. He'll probably thank us and stuff. Angel does. And Spike likes his soul."
"Right." Buffy said. "No cursy-Willow. And we like you that way."
The door opened at that minute, admitting Spike and Angel and the hitokiri between them. The vampire was thoroughly bound, ankles and feet, with duct tape. He also had a ball gag shoved in his mouth. Kagome eyed the gag and decided she didn't want to know who it belonged to -- it certainly didn't look like it was standard issue Slayer equipment. It had rabbit fur padding the straps, and an ornate silver clasp.
Spike was also nursing a bloody hand -- likely, the reason for the gag. The hitokiri was vamped out, forehead wrinkled, eyes blazing in anger, and snarls escaping from the corners of his mouth -- gag, or no.
"He bites," Spike complained, displaying his hand to the others. He'd wadded a rag around it, and blood soaked through the fabric. "I'm hungry enough as it is without springing a leak!"
"He's a vampire. Duh, he bites." Xander rolled his eyes at them from across the room.
Spike deposited the demon before Willow and Buffy with an unceremonious thump. Without hesitation or warning the hitokiri promptly lashed out with his bound feet with lightning speed, very nearly kneecapping Buffy -- she leaped over the strike at the last moment. On landing, she knocked Willow sprawling.
The hitokiri kept fighting despite the fact that he was trussed up like a chicken on a spit. He kicked a chair at Kagome, and then somehow lunged to his feet and dove headfirst at Inuyasha -- who didn't have time to react, so quick was the vampire's leap. The vampire twisted in mid air and caught Tessaiga's hilt with his bound hands, tearing it out of Inuyasha's sheath. Then, sword clutched behind him, he fell to the floor.
Kagome realized he intended to cut his feet free with it, even as the vampire did just that.
Suddenly, he was running, Tessaiga clutched in his still-bound hands behind him.
"I'm going to rip his head off," Inuyasha growled, lunging forward as if he intended to do just that. Buffy flung a hand up, and somewhat to Kagome's surprise, Inuyasha stopped short. He was snarling, however, and quivering. An osuwari was ready on Kagome's lips, but she didn't want to humiliate Inuyasha -- or render him vulnerable -- in the middle of a fight. However, he was doubly vulnerable without his sword. No matter what he did to convince her that he could handle himself now without Tessaiga in his hand ... she had deeply visceral memories of red-eyed rage, bloodshed and horror.
The vampire did something with his hands and the sword and the duct tape parted. Now he was armed, and free, and everyone -- including Inuyasha, when both Buffy and Kagome glared at him -- backed off, and surrounded the man. They didn't want him dead, just restrained!
Inuyasha looked furious. Worse, he was probably keenly embarrassed. Kagome winced, watching him. She had a suspicion that Tessaiga wouldn't hurt Inuyasha no matter who wielded it -- but she wasn't willing to bet that Inuyasha wouldn't dust the vampire. He was mad enough to not be thinking clearly. And he was not fond of vampires; he lumped them into the same mental category as all other nasty youkai that stole human bodies. And following plans? Not exactly Inuyasha's strong point -- not even an older, wiser, seven hundred year old Inuyasha. Not when he was this pissed and humiliated.
"I thought it was too easy to capture him, earlier," Buffy grumbled. She sounded only annoyed. Kagome hoped that Buffy wouldn't say anything snarky to Inuyasha about losing his weapon in a fight; Inuyasha was powerful and unstoppable in a freight-train sense when stopping, but his actual reflexes weren't much better than a normal human. What they were fighting, this strange vampire? Was way beyond 'normal human' in the way he moved.
Buffy either had the good sense to not bait Inuyasha, or somebody heard Kagome's silent prayers that the leader of the Slayers would have unusually good judgment. All Buffy said was, "Wil, do your magic."
Kagome realized that the vampire now had a chance to kill all of them and wondered if that had been his plan. He appeared to be good enough with a sword to do it. Had he allowed Buffy to capture him so that she would bring him into their midst?
Possible. The records on him indicated that he was a remarkably devious creature: amoral as all vampires were, but keenly intelligent and a brilliant tactician. Kavan had said that the Sidhe had been trying to kill him for decades, because he was such a dangerous commander in a fight.
"Huh? Oh, yeah. Spell stuff." Willow turned to the pentagram and began to chant something, as the vampire spun and lunged at Xander. Xander, the weak link in the room, at least had the wisdom to shriek and dodge behind Hanako -- who had grabbed a chair and blocked a strike from Tessaiga with it. Kagome winced as ancient steel hit oak.
The chair splintered, and Hanako was left holding a wooden leg. Without hesitation, Hanako lit into the vampire with it. She deftly blocked a strike from the vampire -- dull steel made a crunching noise against wood even as Inuyasha took advantage of his distraction to try to grab him. The vampire dodged both of them with an overhead somersault.
Willow hadn't been idle; the Orb of Thesulah at the center of the pentagram was glowing a brilliant orange. Her voice rose in an appeal to the higher powers, even as the hitokiri vampire landed, spun on his toes, and lunged for Hanako.
Hanako blocked the strike again with the chair leg. "You idiot!" she shouted at the vampire in Japanese. "Don't you know this will help you? Why are you fighting us?"
The vampire disarmed Hanako of her chair leg. Inuyasha was now leaping for him, claws outstretched, even as Spike and Angel and Buffy were closing in as well. They weren't going to reach her in time, however -- Kagome saw it coming.
Sesshoumaru had said, Only once.
Shippou had said that Sango-now-Hanako had lived dozens of lives, always to die in battle. She was cursed, he said.
Kagome saw it coming.
She knew.
Hanako was going to die, in front of them. Armed only with a wooden chair leg, she was no match for a brilliant swordsman wielding even a dull, ancient sword. And now she had not even the chair leg. They would not reach her to save her.
She was going to die.
Time slowed.
She saw Hanako throw an arm up in what would be a futile gesture.
Saw the vampire's eyes flare with a light from within.
She felt something ... something incredibly powerful, and not necessarily entirely of the light. Something scary. Something dangerous. Something that was definitely not a nice spell, even if Willow had been kind enough to remove the 'happiness clause.' Willow was supposed to be a white witch ... now, Kagome wondered at the 'now' she sometimes heard appended to the description of Willow's powers. 'She's a white witch now,' people said, as if she hadn't always been. How did a white witch know a spell like this?
Back to the wall, with everyone's lives on the line, she'd called on something darker -- not strictly evil, but not a blessing, either.
The vampire, at the very, very, very last second, altered his strike. The tip of Tessaiga buried itself in the floor as his momentum caused him to stumble. The sword rang like a tuning fork. Kagome winced on Inuyasha's behalf, and stared at the blade until it was obvious it was undamaged.
The vampire stood, eyes wide and fixed on Hanako. His eyes were not amber, now -- they were a blue so intense it looked purple. Where had a Japanese samurai gotten blue eyes?
His mouth opened. Closed. Opened again.
Willow announced happily, "All done. Presto chango, one souled vampire."
The vampire said, in clear Kyoto-accented Japanese, sounding wildly confused, "Please tell me, where am I?"
"What did he say?" Buffy demanded.
"He wants to know where the hell he is," Inuyasha's fists were balled, and his eyes glued to his sword.
"He was politer than that," Kagome said, "but basically, yeah."
"Hey, isn't that one of the questions he's supposed to answer?" Willow complained, standing up from where she had been kneeling on the floor before the pentagram.
Buffy said firmly, "You. Speak English."
"I ..." The vampire's brow furrowed not into a game face, but into a completely perplexed frown. "I understand you, ma'am."
"Ma'am?" Xander laughed. "We have a polite one here."
"I want my sword back," Inuyasha snapped, cutting to the chase. He didn't care much about the vampire's state of ensoulment -- the vampire was still holding Tessaiga.
The vampire spun at Inuyasha's words, took one look at the hanyou, and dropped into a blatantly aggressive swordsman's stance. "Youkai," he hissed.
"I'm a hanyou. If I was a youkai, you wouldn't be standing there. Give me my sword back. Or I'll take it back, and your arm with it." Inuyasha had a definite growl in his voice.
"Inuyasha, that's not helping. Down, boy." Buffy cast him a dirty look. In a calm tone of voice, she said, "Kenshin, we need your help."
A blink of acknowledgment from the red-haired vampire was her only reaction.
"That's your name, right?" Willow said. "Kenshin?"
"Himura-san," Kagome asked him, in Japanese, "please, bear with us. You are Himura Kenshin, yes? That's who their research says you are. Are they right?"
"Please, please tell me. Where am I?" He shook his head slowly. "What happened? I was ..."
He fell silent. Slowly, the tip of Inuyasha's sword lowered. He looked around the room, taking it all in, studying them, checking out his surroundings thoroughly. He was confused, but clearly trying to orient himself.
He said quietly, finally, with with great dignity, "My heart isn't beating. I'm not breathing unless I need to speak. And the last thing I remember, I was ... I was at peace, I think."
"Oh." Buffy said, in a very small voice. Then, "I'm sorry we called you."
The vampire closed his eyes. "What is this place?"
"You'll remember in a moment," Angel sounded keenly sympathetic. "Believe me, you'll remember everything you've done."
"Please, sir, tell me. Why is my heart not beating?" He made an abortive move to sheath the sword in his hand -- he wasn't wearing a sheath.
"My. Sword." Inuyasha bit each word out distinctly. Then, fists balled, he growled.
Kenshin's grip tightened again on the sword and he resumed a defensive posture. Inuyasha, with a frustrated grumble, lunged.
"Osuwari!" Kagome's voice cracked out. Likely, Inuyasha simply intended to snatch the sword back by brute force, but she could see all sorts of ways this could go bad. Inuyasha hit the ground with a thud. She winced. "Sorry."
"Let me the fuck up! He has Tessaiga! Fuck you, Kagome!" Inuyasha thrashed in real anger. Kagome figured the tantrum had been a long time in coming; Inuyasha had been on his absolute best behavior for a good long while and had finally snapped. He probably wouldn't have lost it if she had not been in the room to stop him -- but this was bad timing, and her lips pursed into a thin line of annoyance. Sometimes, he was absolutely maddening.
Spike said, "I think you have the 'fuck you' part covered already, Rover."
The comment was, apparently, a bit of a stress reliever for the room. Snickers erupted from everyone except for Kenshin, who just looked baffled.
"What?" Inuyasha demanded. "What?!"
"The floor, umm, sorta creaks. Rythmically." Willow pointed upwards. Kagome mentally arranged the geography of the hotel in her head and realized the second floor library was directly below the third floor hotel room they'd used for, ah, activities. She felt a hot blush hit her cheeks as the meaning of Willow's words dawned on her. They'd overheard?
Inuyasha just growled again.
Hanako said clearly in Japanese, in a voice that carried over the laughter. "You do have Inuyasha's sword, Himura-san. It doesn't belong to you. It's very important to him and he would like it back. It is very old -- it is his father's sword."
The man studied Hanako. And he was a man now -- Kagome could sense a clear change with the addition of his soul. There was still youkai to him, but her miko powers insisted he was a man. She could feel it. And it was probably clear to everyone in the room, too, even those without so much as hint of magic. There was a clarity to his gaze and a feel to his aura that couldn't be faked by a soulless monster.
"What did I summon ...?" Willow said softly. "Goddess, what did I summon?"
Kenshin turned to Inuyasha, who was finally picking himself up off the floor. That clear amethyst gaze surveyed her hanyou, seemed to bore into the very core of his being. Suddenly, he stepped forward and offered Inuyasha his sword back, hands outstretched. He bowed after Inuyasha snatched the blade, and said, "I apologize. I am not sure ... I am not sure where I am. Or what happened. But you, sir, have the ki of a swordsman and are no monster. I'm ... I'm a bit disoriented. Why is my heart not beating?"
Plaintively, he added, "I was at peace."
"Himura-san, you'll remember in a moment, I'm afraid." Angel sounded sympathetic. "It takes a bit to remember everything, because of the shock."
"Am I dead?"
"In a manner of speaking." Angel sighed.
Kenshin -- and she found she couldn't think of him as the vampire anymore, or the hitokiri -- repeated calmly, "Who are you?"
He wasn't a thing. A vampire was a thing to be killed, the hitokiri was a label for a monster. He was a man: a person whose identity as a souled creature was as brilliant as the sun to her miko senses.
"Oh!" Willow said. "Umm. Introductions. I guess we should do introductions. I'm Willow Rosenberg. That's Buffy. Angel. Spike. Xander. Hanako. Kagome. Inuyasha. You'll meet everyone else in a bit; they're keeping watch right now."
Kenshin nodded gravely. "Thank you for your names. Who are you?"
"Slayers." Kagome provided him the explanation she thought he was looking for. "Well, Buffy and me and Hanako are. Angel and Spike are vampires. Inuyasha's a hanyou. Xander's a friend. Slayers are chosen by the higher powers to have special abilities so that we can fight demons."
Kenshin blinked at her. "I'm a vampire."
"Yeppers," Willow assured him.
His eyes suddenly grew very wide. He sank slowly to his knees and stared at his hands. There was horror in his expression. His memories as a vampire, Kagome guessed, had begun to surface. He said nothing, just sat there. Moments ticked away. She began to wonder if the man was ever going to get up. Had they broken him?
But finally, he looked at her -- straight at her, perhaps because she'd been the one to answer his question earlier. His eyes, so crystal clear a moment ago, were deeply shadowed now.
"She never knew." Kenshin closed those haunted eyes, a bit to Kagome's grief -- his gaze was unsettling. "She never knew I was dead and gone and a demon was wearing my body."
"I'm sorry." Kagome meant it. She'd never seen anything quite so terrible as the expression on his face. She didn't know who the 'she' was but it was painfully obvious that 'she' was someone who had mattered very much to this man.
He blinked. She thought he might be crying, except that there were no actual tears on his face. The emotion was there, however. She saw deep, deep grief on his face. And through the grief he said, "You summoned me from beyond my final rest because you desperately need my help. Is this correct?"
"Yeah, that's right."
The man blew out a deep, long sigh. "I will help. The first task will be to return you home. Then we can stop Lord Torin."
"Thank you." Buffy breathed.
"Don't thank me." He turned his unnerving, unnatural eyes on Buffy -- who met his gaze squarely and didn't flinch. "When I'm done here, I simply ask that you send me home too. You can show your gratitude by letting me rest."
Buffy nodded gravely. "I can promise to do that."
"Buffy, he means ..." Willow started to protest.
"I know what he means." Buffy squared her shoulders and stood up straight. "It is the least we can do. I'm sorry ... I'm truly sorry to have disturbed you, Mr. Himura."
The man smiled, a faint and ghostly smile. "If our roles were reversed, I would have chosen to do the same. There is no harm done -- and perhaps even some good, if sending me home also means ending the evil of the demon which also wears this body."
No harm, Kagome thought, Except for bringing terrible grief to a soul that was resting and at peace and who should have been beyond all worldly concerns. No harm at all.
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