Disclaimer: Still not mine. But soon... .
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"Kagome?"
The girl winced as the noise made her head throb. Everything hurt. Her arm, hip, belly and most especially her head worst of all. Her skull felt as if it was going to pop like a balloon at the slightest pressure. She groaned when darkness did not immediately swallow her up.
"Kagome, can you hear me?"
The voice was soft, but not soft enough for Kagome's liking, and she winced again as the sound shot through her skull again. It was rough and low, but not unkind, she thought. Probably best to answer. She did not want to think about possibilities for her location at that point. Since she still had control over herself, she assumed that that could only be good.
…Right?
She managed to nod her head slightly with another groan as her neck muscles protested painfully. A cool hand passed over her face with a gentle touch before moving behind her head.
"I'm going to help you sit up, ok?"
Kagome managed one more tiny nod, and another hand grasped her shoulder in a firm grip, before it pulled her up. The other hand supported her head, and although Kagome tried to join in the effort, it was just…too much. She was too sore, too tired, too…everything. It was so much easier to let someone else do it.
A large cushion had been slid underneath her and she relaxed back on it with a sigh. Now to work on opening the eyes.
She accomplished a tiny crack before wincing them shut again. Light was rather painful.
"I'll shut the blinds for you," the voice murmured. A slight shuffling sound, then the rasp of a blind pulley mechanism, then the rustling of material as the person settled back down beside her.
Kagome inched open her eyes, finding the light level far more manageable this time around. Her eyes slid to the owner of the voice, morbidly curious finally about where she had ended up. Where had they placed her to await her…operation? Why had they not done it whilst she was out?
Or…maybe they had, and they had not activated it yet. She could feel a weight on her head, a pressure that she deduced was a bandage. What if this was all a trick?
No. That could not be it. She was not sure why, but she just knew it was not.
She finally forced her head to move enough for her eyes to reach the person sitting by her side. An old, careworn woman knelt serenely on a tatami mat floor. An eye patch covered her right eye, and her face was deeply lined and weathered. It was softened by a smile, however, and Kagome wondered why the hell any Sphere employee was smiling at her.
"You are Higurashi Kagome."
You think? "Uh, yes."
The woman's smile deepened slightly, her eyes crinkling and warm even in the dim lighting. She lifted an earthenware bowl off the tatami next to her and proffered it to Kagome. "Here. Take this. It'll help with the pain, trust me."
Instantly Kagome's eyes narrowed. The throbbing was receding, anyway, and no matter how sore she was, she was not just going to let any old biddy poison her. "Trust you? I'm not stupid."
The woman blinked ---or winked--- in surprise. Kagome's anger resurfaced and she scowled, ignoring the pull it made on her scalp. "Listen, I don't know why you didn't chip me while I was unconscious, but you're going to have to get your hands dirty. I'm not doing it for you. And I'm sure not trusting you," she hissed venomously.
The woman stared for a brief moment before breaking into a barking laugh. Kagome winced as the harsh sound bit into her head like a blow.
With another smile, the woman reached forward to pat Kagome's hand. "Oh, child, you silly thing. You think I'm Sphere, don't you?"
"Do you think I'm stupid?"
The smile widened. "Whether you are or not, which I doubt, Class A, I am not Sphere. Far from it. About as far from it as possible, to be exact."
Okay. Kagome was not following. She was fairly sure that she had been dropped off about a kilometre back in this conversation and was choking on the dust. Her brow wrinkled in a confused frown. "What?"
The woman adjusted her shirt, tugging at the tight collar to try and loosen it just a little. "Don't worry, Kagome, I'm not going to chip you, or punish you, or imprison you, or do anything of the sort. In fact, you're here in order to prevent any of that from happening."
Kagome's eyes narrowed suspiciously. "And where exactly is 'here'?"
The woman met her eyes in a direct gaze. "You are on a rebel base just north of Tokyo, outside the barriers and the patrol routes. We mobilised to break into Akiyama as soon as I sensed your power fluctuations. You were knocked out just as we arrived."
Kagome felt like she would pass out again. She blinked several times in rapid succession, filing questions for later and seizing on the relevant points of information. "Rebels?" Her eyes slid up and down the greyed woman again. Stocky, swollen joints, terrible dress sense, only one eye…
"You're a… rebel?"
The woman straightened and tugged her white dress shirt again, looking slightly affronted. "Yes, I am, thankyou, child. Anyway, we brought you in to save you from your rather unpleasant fate. You're welcome, by the way." She lifted the bowl again, pushing in Kagome's direction meaningfully.
Kagome snuggled back down into the cushion and took the bowl, sniffing at it indiscreetly, ignoring the pull on her injured belly. She did not detect any suspicious smells, but that did not necessarily mean anything. But… Sphere would have no reason to pretend to be rebel, so… She took a tentative sip, and decided it was not all that bad.
Not much else to do, anyway, she supposed.
She shot the woman a wry look out of the corner of her eye as she drank another small mouthful. "It might help if I knew who you were."
The smile was back in full force. "How rude of me. I'm Shirokawa Kaede, commander of this base. No formality here, just call me Kaede."
Kagome inclined her head politely, her composure and manners impeccable. "Nice to meet you." She took another drink, deciding she liked the taste of this tonic. With a gulp, she finished it, and breathed somewhat more easily when the aches in her head and body receded to far more bearable levels. She turned her head to Kaede again and smiled ingratiatingly.
"Now, Kaede. Would you mind terribly telling me… justwhat the hell is going on?!"
Kaede winced as Kagome's voice went up a few octaves. The girl's calm had now completely eroded as recent events sunk in completely, and she was panting quickly, her eyes taking on a slightly wild sheen. The woman reached her hand forward and pressed it to Kagome's forehead, taking the bowl away with the other.
"Calm yourself, for heaven's sake. You have a nasty bump on your head, let's not reopen it, shall we? I'll tell you everything, just calm down!"
Kagome's eyes were rolling as she began to hyperventilate, the oxygen shooting to her brain and making her dizzy. The soothing hand on her head and the voice was getting to her, though, and abruptly she thought of her grandmother, dead for years. That thought led to her grandfather, to the rest of her family.
Oh god.
What was happening to them?
Tears welled up and spilled over instantly, sobs interrupting her heavy breathing. The pain in her head was inconsequential now, as images of Captain Ai storming their Shrine and demanding answers from her mother and brother cascaded through her mind.
Kaede had gathered Kagome into her arms and was rocking gently, stroking the side of Kagome's head and shushing her quietly. Kagome latched her hands into the fabric of the older woman's clothing and howled, the injuries on her body completely forgotten in favour of the ones on her heart.
She did not know much about what was happening, but she did know that nothing was ever going to be the same.
I can hear her crying.
She's in the room next to mine, I know that from her smell. Not that she smells good or anything.
The old hag is trying to calm her down. Good luck with that. The girl's hysterical, terrified. I can tell that from her scent, too. It positively reeks of fear. And grief.
Honestly, shit like this is just my luck. Here I am, stuck in a room papered with sutras to keep me from moving or killing anyone, listening to a girl I hate sob her heart out.
Yes. I hate her. Don't really know why.
What am I talking about, of course I do. It's that damn face. How can I not hate someone with her face? It's programmed into me.
It pisses me off I just can't get the expression out of my head that was on that face when she asked that Captain bitch what was going to happen to me.
Why the hell did she care?
She's human, I'm not. It's as simple as that. Humans hate me, I hate them. Period. She's stupid if she thinks it happens any other way. The world will drill that into her sooner or later. Idealism is just going to make the process more painful.
It's a dog eat dog world, or at least human eat youkai eat hanyou world.
Kagome stared at Kaede levelly. She had stopped crying a while ago, and was trying to work up the nerve to ask her questions. There were so many of them, and she needed to know.
She was just terrified of the answers.
She took a deep, shuddering breath, dropping her gaze to her lap. She tentatively touched the bandage on her head, wincing when the wound throbbed.
"How bad is it?" Better to start with simple things, she thought. Work her way up. Prepare herself.
Kaede sighed. "Not too bad. You might have a scar, but your hair will cover that. There are two stitches, but you got away lightly."
Kagome nodded. "How long was I out?"
"About 34 hours."
The girl's jaw dropped. "What?!"
"You had a bad fall, and a traumatic experience, plus many other smaller injuries. Your body needed time to recover."
Kagome's eyes narrowed. "And it had no chemical assistance?"
Kaede's face was serene and her tone wry as she replied, "There may have been a small amount."
With a glare Kagome crossed her arms. "I thought so. Well, I'm awake now, and I want answers. A lot of them."
Kaede raised an eyebrow. "Are you ready for them?"
"No. But I need them anyway."
The woman nodded slightly. "Wise. Alright. I will answer your questions."
Kagome hesitated, her resolve faltering. She could deny her situation now, in ignorance pretend that she could go back and that this was not the biggest event to ever happen to her. But…once she knew, she would not be able to do that anymore. It would be real. It would really have happened. She was not sure she would be able to deal with it.
All the same…she had to know.
She took a deep breath and averted her eyes again, staring at the wall of her tiny room. "What…what happened, at the Sphere Base?"
"Well, what do you remember?"
"Hey, don't try and get out of this," Kagome protested indignantly. The drink Kaede had given her had revived her considerably, the occasional twinge or throb the only pain she felt.
Kaede rolled her eyes slightly. "I am trying nothing of the sort. You tell me what happened and I will explain it to you. I wasn't there; how can I tell you if I don't know?"
Kagome pursed her lips and frowned, sorting through her scattered and chaotic memories of that day, two days ago, apparently. Her recollection was erratic, as she supposed was only to be expected.
"It was a normal excursion. We go on one every quarter, and every time I hate it. Everything was the same as every time, we were showed the same things, given the same lectures.
"It started being weird in the holding cells. We were in the complex of large and more powerful youkai. The Slaver was there, right next to me, and the youkai were all around me, but I couldn't hear them. At all. I'd seen them on the screens in the security booth, making what looked like a lot of noise. but it was dead silent in the cell block…"
She sighed, looking down at her clasped hands. "It felt so wrong. I just…I remember wishing that it was all different."
She paused, her head throbbing in pain reminiscent of the unbearable ache of that day.
"And then?" Kaede prompted.
Kagome shook her head, her face confused. "I have no idea. Suddenly this pain blindsided me and I fell to the side. I couldn't breathe, I couldn't think…it just hurt. I just knew I had to get rid of it, it had to stop, and then it…drained out of my body. It didn't stop, it… flowed away. I opened my eyes and everyone was staring at me."
She shook her head. "No…not at me. Behind me."
Kaede was leaning forward slightly. "Go on. What was behind you?"
Kagome face creased further, her eyes moistening slightly. "The…the centipede woman."
Kaede said nothing, but Kagome went on, rushing now, almost unable to stop herself.
"She said I was a Slaver, and I said I wasn't, and she called me a liar, said that only a Slaver could open those doors. She slashed me," Kagome clutched at her stomach, remembering the feeling of those claws ripping through her flesh… "and then I ran.
"All the doors were open. Every single one. I ran into the foyer and… I'd never seen a dead body before… A soldier told me the way out and I ran."
She dashed tears away before hurrying on, her voice rising in pitch and speed.
"Outside was worse. People were dead everywhere, and youkai, too… there was so much fighting, I couldn't see a way to go. I ran down an alley when I heard the centipede behind me, and then I saw a warehouse. The doors wouldn't open at first, and when they did they slid shut behind me so fast…"
She stopped, breathing hard as she relived the moment. The tears running down her face as she heard the centipede youkai's threats and bellows behind her, the terror as the doors resisted her, the relief when she was pitched into the warehouse.
"There was nothing in there. No trucks, no food, no stores of anything. Just… him."
I don't believe it.
That stupid wench has no idea what she is.
She has no idea what she's done.
She has no idea what's coming.
…Sucks to be her.
"Him, Kagome?"
Kagome shook her head to try and clear it as visions of the hanyou strapped up against the wall assaulted her.
"He was strapped up, wires in him everywhere. It was… horrible. How can people do that to anyone?" Her brimming eyes met Kaede's in confusion. "I just don't get it! I don't get any of it! It doesn't make any sense!"
Kaede touched a hand to Kagome's shoulder. "What happened then?"
Kagome rubbed a hand over her face, trying to put it into words, her voice floundering and confused. "I…I don't know. I saw him hanging there and I felt sick. I wanted to help him. I went towards him, and I just knew that something like that shouldn't be happening to him."
Kaede was leaning forward, her eyes bright. "And then?"
The girl shrugged helplessly. "Then… he woke up. The wires fell off him and he woke up."
Kaede gripped the shoulder her hand rested on with more force, turning Kagome to face her. "Kagome. I need to know something. It is very important. What happened to the Slaver you saw in the containment cells?"
Kagome blinked. "What do you mean?"
"Did you see what happened to him or her? Were they unconscious? Did they fight you, or anyone else?"
Kagome shook her head. "No. I opened my eyes and he was staring at his hands, then he ran off."
Kagome sat back on her heels, her jaw slack and her eyes wide with shock and awe. Her voice was hoarse as she whispered, "Are you sure, child?"
The girl nodded but then her eyes narrowed. "Kaede? Why is that important?" she asked slowly, voice laden with suspicion.
The woman's eye was still slightly blank as she answered quietly, "It means everything, Kagome. Everything."
"It means everything, Kagome. Everything."
Yeah. No shit, hag.
The girl's scent is flooded with confusion, but irritation is seeping in, now, too.
"What do you mean?"
I can't help but wonder what she'll do when she finds out. I figured it out just before she fell. There was only one way that she could have set me free. Those wards and seals on me were damn powerful, and sensitive, too.
The bitch who made them made very, very sure of that.
The hag is talking again. I can tell she's pretty nervous about this. Well, the most powerful miko in fifty years is sitting right in front of her, emotional and very scared. I would be nervous, too. But then… the wench needs the hag as much as the hag needs the wench. It should be a straightforward barter.
If she wasn't so damn emotional.
"Kagome. You are… different. You have powers, spiritual powers." She pauses, unsure of how to go on.
"The pain you felt in the containment cells was the awakening of your power. It lay dormant until a time of extreme emotional stress and a strong desire to make something happen."
She stops again, and the silence is longer this time.
"So… I am a Slaver… All those people died because I let those youkai out. It's all my fault."
The girl's voice is choked and scared, and I can't help but feel a little sorry for her. Talk about a guilt trip.
I can't wait to hear what the old woman is going to say to that.
"Kagome…you have to understand…your power is raw. You can't control it. It is tapped into your emotions, and that's what triggered the doors. It's not your fault. You mustn't blame yourself---"
"What are you talking about? Not blame myself? It is my fault! I opened those doors, didn't I? I wanted those youkai out! I let them out! People are dead because of me!"
Her voice is high and hysterical, and her scent is awash with guilt and pain. She's taking this really hard.
The fact that they wanted to turn her into a Slaver seems to have slipped her mind at the moment. Funny that.
"No, Kagome, no. It's not your fault. You didn't know what would happen. It's like giving a monkey a gun and then yelling at it when it shoots the trainer."
"WHAT?!"
Ouch. Nice metaphor. Very compassionate.
"What I mean is that you didn't understand what was happening. You didn't know what power you held and what it did. You can't be held responsible for what it did. No one blames you."
The girl is crying. Again. I really hate that sound. And that smell. It gets to me. And the fact that it gets to me really gets to me.
"That's not true, Kaede. I blame me. I wanted those youkai free, and then they were. My thoughts became my actions. I was foolish and now people are dead, and those youkai aren't any better off. They're dead or recaptured, and it is my fault. I didn't achieve anything except their deaths."
The hag is getting exasperated, but now she's on more familiar ground. "You're wrong about that. We recovered thirty-eight higher youkai and four Slavers. We counted casualties at forty two lower and one higher youkai, and six humans."
You forgot one hanyou.
"Oh, and one hanyou, of course."
Thanks.
"What…what does that mean?" The girl is just as confused as before, but there is no more tears or guilt.
"It means that we saved more youkai thanks to you in a day than we have over the past year and a half. It means that four spiritually gifted people can have a life without mind control again. And it means that what you did was a good thing."
Yep.
And now you're going to suffer for it, kid.
It's gonna fuckin' suck to be her.
"And it means that what you did was a good thing."
Kagome sat in stunned silence.
"There's more, Kagome." Kaede's voice was low and urgent, and Kagome grimaced dully.
"I knew it."
"You can't go home."
Kagome's eyes widened and her jaw dropped. "What?" In her heart of hearts, she had known that. She had known that her world changed the minute that Ai had told her to go with her, even before that, when the doors had opened. She was different, and that was never a good thing in a Co-Prosperity Sphere-run society. But it was one thing to know it, and another completely to hear it spoken. It became reality that way. She could not pretend anymore.
Kaede went on. "You are a miko. The Sphere uses people like you, with spiritual power, to control the chips in youkai's brains. You would be caught and have a chip of your own in your head moments after you stepped foot in Tokyo. You would become a mindless leash for leashed creatures. Your life, as you knew it, is over."
Tears sprang to Kagome's eyes again, but she had not the heart to sob. Her mother, her brother, her grandfather, her friends…her life.
All gone.
"What's going to happen to me, then?" she whispered as she wrapped her legs around her calves and pressed her face into her knees, making herself as small as possible.
Kaede's face was sympathetic, but her tone uncompromising. "There's more, Kagome," she said again.
Kagome laughed harshly. "What more could there possibly be? I've lost my entire existence as I know it, turned into something I don't understand, and you tell me there's more?"
Kaede did not bother with any preliminaries or comforting words. Her voice had a clinical sound as she bluntly stated, "We scanned your brain while you were unconscious, and we found something…that shouldn't be there."
Kagome laughed again, her face still buried in her knees. "Don't tell me. Brain cancer. I'm dying," she muttered bitterly.
"No. We found a microchip."
Kagome's head shot up and her wide eyes fixed on Kaede as her jaw dropped. "A chip? In my brain? Are you sure?" she asked, half incredulously and half disbelievingly.
Kaede nodded.
Kagome floundered, seizing on the only thing she knew. "But… but it's not doing anything!"
Kaede nodded again. "Yes. The chip is currently dormant. However, we have no idea how long it will remain so."
"I…what… how did it get in there? I haven't had an operation in my entire life!"
Kaede's gaze fell to the tatami. "We…we have reason to suspect you were born with it."
"Born with it," Kagome repeated incredulously. "How the hell can someone be born with a chip in their head?"
Kaede looked distinctly uncomfortable, shifting slightly on her knees, ignoring the scrape of the tatami on her linen pants. "It is no ordinary chip. It consists partly of organic matter of some kind, we don't know what, and the electronic components don't seem to be in contact with your brain at all. I would call it a tumour if I didn't know better."
Kagome shook her head in confusion and frustration, her temper coming to the fore once more. "Stop talking in riddles and half-truths, Kaede! How exactly do you know better?" she questioned, her voice like acid.
Kaede sighed and met Kagome's angry gaze. "Very well. I will tell you the whole truth. At least what I know of it."
Kagome nodded curtly. "Thankyou."
"However," Kaede went on, and Kagome's eyes narrowed, "I must insist that this take place later. You are still injured, and I wish to confirm a few things first. I will come to you later."
"No!" Kagome yelled, her face contorting in rage. "How can you say that? You owe me answers, and I want them now! You can't just tell me I have an abnormal growth in my head---"
"A microchip."
"---Whatever! You can't just tell me that and then swan off, leaving me hanging! This is my head we're talking about! I have a right to know!"
Kaede cast her a wry look. "You, who come from a Sphere city, would talk to me of rights?"
Kagome flushed, but her fury never wavered. "You, old woman, are doing an impressive imitation of Sphere control on your own."
Kaede stood slowly, shakily, her joints creaking, and fixed Kagome with a stern stare. "That's quite enough, child. You're here, now, and I am in charge. You are not well, not yet, and I refuse to put you under unnecessary stress whilst you are in this condition."
"Unnecessary stress?! What do you call everything you've just told me and then leaving me to dwell?!" Kagome shrieked, but Kaede had reached the door.
"Try and get some more rest, child," she said, smiling, before shutting the door behind her. Kagome heard the distinct click of a lock snicking into place. Her mouth opened and closed like a guppy as her anger rampaged around inside her with nowhere to go. She grabbed the empty bowl beside her and threw it at the closed door with a furious and frustrated squeal.
It shattered, and Kagome stared.
What was wrong with her? She did not throw things. She was… a good girl.
Kaede was going to be angry at her.
She really, really wanted to see her mother.
Then, again, she began to cry.
I pace from one side of my "room" ---read as "cell"--- and for one of the few times in my life I'm deep in thought. I'm more of an action kind of guy, but this situation needs more.
A lot more.
The oh-shit-how-am-I-going-to-do-this-without-a-lot-of-guns-and-money kinda more. Especially since I have no guns and no money. I don't even have any clothes that are really mine. I'm still in those ridiculous red things I found in the warehouse. Looks like they're left over from a fancy dress party… Bitch Kaede… She seems to think that they're some kind of experimental military fabric.
Normally I wouldn't even think about that kinda stuff. Guns, I mean, not fancy dress parties or Kaede. I don't need guns to be dangerous. But nothing I'd ever thought about doing was as huge as this.
Claws ain't gonna cut it this time.
The girl next door who's crying ---again! Fuck! Doesn't she get dehydrated?--- is the reason I'm thinking about AK 47's and how to procure them right now. I have to get her. I have to get her away from here, but they're hardly going to let us walk out hand in hand with a parting kiss and a packed lunch. I can't get out of this room at the moment.
And they really won't want to let her go.
For one thing, this is the most heavily armed Heiwa rebel base outside Shikoku. I don't even have to ask to know which branch of rebels this is. Considering that the girl is alive, and so am I. I wonder if that's occurred to her? Should have. Her interrogator was human, after all.
No, focus! Focus on getting out of a room more secure than any prison, getting the girl out as well, then breaking out of a base with more firepower than a nuclear sub convoy. Maybe if I tunnel…or…I knock the serving boy out when he comes to feed me…
A knock on the door interrupts my devious plotting. Honestly, why bother with a formality like that? Any protest I make isn't gonna stop 'em coming in. I grunt, taking up a defensive position cross-legged on the floor opposite the door.
The door opens and a wizened face half covered by an eye-patch peeks round. Great. The hag. Just my luck. If she's here, it means she wants to talk. Otherwise, she would have sent a lackey to feed the prisoner. Of course, I'm not called that. Politically incorrect for pro-equality rebels to hold a youkai prisoner. Even a half-breed like me, no matter how much both species despise me.
She steps inside and kicks the door shut behind her, balancing a tray and a bottle of something. Why she can't put the bottle on the tray I don't know. Stupid old woman.
She slowly leans over to place it on the tatami floor, her back creaking hideously. I, being the rude and disgruntled prisoner I am, make no move to help her and she glares at me out of the corner of her eye as she lowers herself to the ground. Subtly, or not so subtly, I brush a thumb over the sutra on my chest, the one that stops me making any sudden movements. Or was supposed to, before I managed to peel it off with my claws. It's lost its power, now.
She ignores my accusing look. "You know, InuYasha, your surliness really doesn't fool me. You could give it up."
I scoff, crossing my eyes and glaring right back. "What are you talking about, crone? There is a reason you have no eye."
She meets my gaze very coolly. Damn it, I hate it when people do that.
"Yes, InuYasha, and I am very aware of that reason. You, however, are not."
Huh wha?
"Keh."
With a slightly exasperated roll of her eyes, she pushes the tray towards me. I ignore it, even though I know there's no way she'd poison me. Morals and all that shit. She's really in the wrong job for morals.
She settles back, making herself as comfortable as she can in that rickety body, and takes a deep breath. "InuYasha. You have been held in suspension for fifty years---"
"Yeah, you told me yesterday," I interrupt.
"Let me finish!" she snaps. Another deep breath. "You have been held in suspension for fifty years, and in that time, I have had a lot of time to ponder your…situation."
"Meaning?" Humour the dumb hanyou.
"I realise many things that were unclear to both you, and my sister."
My head snaps up at that from my indifferent contemplation of the floor. I didn't think she'd actually have the guts to mention… She gazes at me with compassion in her eyes. I hate compassion, so my hackles go up.
"What are you talking about, you old geezer?" I snarl, baring my fangs, but being in the company of youkai every day, she's not impressed.
She sighs patiently. "InuYasha, I'm only sixty three. That's not that old."
"So? You look ancient."
Another sigh, but now she's pissed off. Excellent. "InuYasha, as tactful as always."
My brow creases, pissed off, too. "Why do you keep saying my name?"
Her lips purse thoughtfully and she shrugs. "I haven't heard it in so long…trying to make up for it, I guess."
Like she didn't curse my name more than a couple times.
She shakes her head like her ears are ringing, before glaring at me again. "Now, listen, and don't interrupt."
I roll my eyes as insolently as I possibly can, which is pretty insolently. She ignores it, though. When did my annoying traits stop affecting her?
I mean I haven't seen her since she was a kid.
"Now, InuYasha, I know you have some fairly ingrained ideas about what happened fifty years ago---"
"I was there, bitch! I know what happened!" How dare she?
"Shut up! You don't know why. But I do."
Well, that actually does shut me up. Whoa.
She goes on. "I know it was a long process, sealing you, and the only thing stopping you from tearing my throat out now is the wards I have on you, and even some lingering compassion in that bitter heart of yours."
Thanks so much, Kaede. So trusting.
"But believe me, InuYasha, I am not going to seal you again, or kill you, or keep you locked up here forever. I simply want to talk to you."
Fate worse than death. If I believed her.
"I also remember how good your hearing is, and I know you must have heard me talking to Kagome this morning."
Oh shit.
Wait.
She must have known that before…so…she engineered that?!
"Why the hell would you want me hearing that? I'm just going to take her now, you do realise that, right?"
A smug smile filters over her lined face. "No, InuYasha. She's going to take you."
That…bitch!
I have no words in my extremely colourful vocabulary to describe the…the…the… evilness of that old hag.
I have no words. That's never happened before.
Well… once, but never mind about that.
I tug again at the thing around my neck, and I get another nice little pulse of spiritual energy shooting up my arm. The growl that has not let up since she attacked me just gets louder, rumbling out of my chest viciously.
"What. The fuck. Have you done?" I yell, almost ready to risk the purification and rip the sutras off my chest so I can get my claws around that saggy old neck.
Kaede is calm, composed, sitting cross-legged in front of me with the serenity of fucking Buddha on her wrinkly face.
"This, InuYasha, is my insurance. This is to make sure that my prize, my secret weapon and the very thing I have been praying for since the death of my sister does not fall prey to the likes of yourself."
I snarl, really meaning it this time. "You gonna shove one of these on every damn youkai that tries to attack her?"
She smiles. "No, InuYasha, you are going to protect her from them."
"WHAT?! Like hell I will!"
Her smile disappears, replaced by the look I have come to recognise as her business face. "InuYasha. You know as well as I do that Kagome is vital. She is also fragile. I don't have the resources nor the know-how to remove that thing from her head. But she cannot, cannot fall into Sphere hands. Kagome is the single most important person in the world right now. You know just what potential is in that brain."
"Yeah, and I want it!"
She scoffs and rolls her eyes. "Please. What are you going to do, kill her and claw her skull open? That microchip is partly organic! It would die, too. Not to mention the fact that you wouldn't be able to activate it."
My ears perk up. I've known a lot of liars in my time, and Kaede isn't one of them, no matter what my personal feelings on the subject might be. "Say what?"
My stupidity appears to astound her. "InuYasha, you did not spend all that time with Kikyou and not learn something about the burden she carried."
The name sends a jolt down my spine and automatically my eyes narrow, my ears flatten and I get angry. Angry is easier than anything else. Especially when all I want to do when I hear that name is cry.
"What the fuck are you talking about, you stupid old bitch? You were a fucking kid! You have no idea what happened!"
She sighs and looks down. "I was a child, yes. But she was my sister, and I was close to her." She looks up and her face is sad. "Don't think that you and she were the only ones who suffered through what happened. I lost an eye, you both lost your lives, but so did many on that Base. No!" She holds up a hand when I open my mouth.
Grumbling, I shut up.
"I hated you. For a long time. But it's time for you to know why I don't any longer."
I don't think I wanna hear this. Since I woke up, I've been avoiding thinking about what happened before…but she's gonna make me.
She notices me start to fidget and fixes me with a glare. "Stay. You need to know this." She smooths her hands over her thighs. The rough skin catches on the material of her pants with a scratching sound, and it grates on me.
I grind my teeth and start to growl at her. Just like all my other threatening actions, she ignores it.
She takes a deep breath and stares at me. She knows this is gonna be hard. As much as I hate to admit it, she knows me probably better than anyone else at this point.
She drops her gaze and begins. "Kikyou was my only sister. She was taken away for training when she was eight, and things were hard from then on. The Sphere wasn't as strong then as it is now, and my parents weren't from the same class as each other. In fact, they had no class. Soon after Kikyo left, they had to take the aptitude tests, and my father was deemed Class B while my mother was class C."
My claws are digging into my palm, but I can't bring myself to care.
Shit. This is gonna be really hard. How can I hear someone talk about Kikyou and just…be normal? The bitch betrayed me!
"They took my mother away after Kikyou, and then my father wasn't the same. He jumped off a bridge after a few months. I went to live in an orphanage, but when I was seven, a woman came. She said that my sister had said that I had power, too, and that I was being taken to Akiyama Base for testing."
Kaede swallows and turns her face sharply to the wall, and her voice is hoarse when she speaks. "I hadn't seen her since I was four, but she was still my sister. She didn't smile as much, and hardly talked, but she was my sister. The only family I had left." She smiles slightly and her voice gains strength. "I remember the day I was tested. You and I both know that I am not the most powerful of miko, and in those days, there were enough gifted people that I might have been overlooked. So Kikyou helped me.
"She had enough power to light a city, so she fed it to me during the testing. It was erratic, but they just took it to mean that I was young and untrained."
She shakes her head and stares at the floor again. "That was the only way I could stay with her. She took over the job of training me soon after that, because she was just so talented and powerful. She was only twelve when she was fully fledged and the most powerful miko alive."
I'm breathing hard, raggedly, as my claws shred my palms. This is so. Damn. Hard. I don't wanna hear this from someone else's perspective, I'm happy with mine! I close my eyes and wish to hell that there was no fucking sutra on my chest, and then I wouldn't have to sit there and take it.
Shouting and insults wouldn't stop Kaede. All I can do is try and ignore her.
Yeah. That's gonna happen.
"It was when she was fourteen that the last Protector died. One day, during my so-called training, she was called away. When she came back, she had it."
There's no question just what it is she's talking about. The most powerful microchip ever created. One of a kind, irreplaceable and indestructible, imbued with the soul of a rebel miko and the youkai partner that betrayed her. The chip with the ability to alter the genetic makeup of the person who uses it. Codenamed the Shikon Jewel.
"It was…so small, and I remember thinking it was so boring, that she had to spend so much time protecting it. It was just a lump of silicone and wiring, after all." She shakes her head, a rueful smile on her face.
"I was so young. So was she. The first time that she talked about breaking free, getting out of the Base, I laughed. We couldn't go. That was where we lived. Simple as that. But I was only twelve, she was sixteen. She could see and understand what was wrong, and she knew that we had to get out of there."
She turns her one-eyed gaze on me, and the guilt hits me again. If not for me, she'd still have that eye.
"It was only a matter of time until she tried something. And then…you came along."
Oh yes. So I did.
I don't need her help to remember it. The first time I saw her. How I hated her. Of course, at that time I would have hated anyone I saw. I was bound, beaten, and sentenced to execution on the crime of existing as a hanyou. The one form of youkai that they can't control through microchips due to that pesky human side we have interfering with the chip and the spiritual control on our youki by the Slavers. Human chips don't work, either, with the youki overriding it. They've yet to engineer a chip that harnesses both side of us.
With hanyou, the only answer they have is to eliminate us.
They were dragging me, kicking and biting and growling and swearing no matter how much they hurt me, through the central parade grounds of the Base when I saw her. I saw a Slaver uniform and my mind went haywire. I threw off my guards and attacked.
She hardly reacted at all, just stared at me with those cool brown eyes as I leapt towards her, claws extended and fangs bared. Stared at me, threw up a barrier and watched expressionlessly as I crashed to my ass on the dirt.
She lifted a hand to the soldiers and they stopped. Still staring at me, she smiled very slightly. "Leave him to me. I wish to investigate him further."
They didn't want to agree, but when Kikyou said something, you damn well did it or you got roasted, and they knew that. She was terrifying, at just 17.
Fuck… she was so young.
Anyway, they hoisted me up and dragged me to her building, the place she worked and lived. Her warehouse.
And thus began my career as Kikyou's lab-rat. Not that she ever prodded me with instruments or injected suspicious substances into me.
She just watched me.
All the time.
I suppose I intrigued her, and why wouldn't I. There I was, the only example of any sort of youkai that she was going to be able to see in its natural (ish) state. The rest were all chipped or imprisoned, waiting to be chipped.
Or dead.
So she watched me. As I did everything. As I ate, drank, slept, glared (there was a lot of that) and anything else I decided to do.
Of course, there were a few conflicts to start with. I wanted out, really badly, and she didn't want me to go. The first few times I tried to escape, she just put up a barrier and left it up until I'd calmed down. But then I started to get sneaky, and try it when she was asleep. That pissed her off, so she got sneaky, too. Barriers that gave me a nasty kick, spiritual booby traps, tripwires in mid air, whistles in supersonic pitch to have me rolling around on the floor in pain… she got pretty inventive.
But between all of that, things happened. I was so damn lonely, had been my entire life, and she was the only person who'd ever, ever talked to me without insults or threats. My mother didn't count.
And of course she was beautiful, as well.
That helped.
And every once in a while she'd smile at me. On those days, nothing could bring me down.
I'd figured out just what she was guarding fairly early on in the piece, and tried to steal it a couple times. Unsuccessfully, obviously. It was a legend in youkai circles, the Shikon Jewel, the weapon that would let any youkai defeat the Sphere forces coming to catch you. It could change what you were, make you so much stronger…
And I really, really wanted to be stronger.
There are a lot of reasons behind that, but this trip down memory lane is hard enough. I don't wanna make it a parade down the highway of childhood trauma.
I tune in to Kaede, who is catching up to where my memories have brought me. "Then, of course, she began to think of you differently. Not the interesting anomaly, but InuYasha, the hanyou, the being. And she figured out that although everyone assumed that the Shikon Jewel would be used to make one stronger, it could also…go the other way."
I growl, interrupting her with a snarled, "I remember. She wanted to use it to make me human."
"Yes. She knew that with the spiritual powers imbued in the Shikon Jewel as well as the technology, it would remove not only your bodily traits but also your youki."
This is getting to me. I thought I could handle it…I was wrong.
"Yeah, I know, you stupid old woman, I was there, you do realise. The bitch betrayed me, alright, I don't really feel the need to dissect her damn motives! She was human, I'm not, I get it, ok? I don't wanna think about her. So can you shut the fuck up already?"
Her voice is quiet, almost a whisper. "She's dead, InuYasha."
I know. I've always kinda known. I'd seen the blood on her clothes and on the warehouse floor before she'd finally sealed me into the void. But still, hearing it spoken so bluntly like that hits me like a sucker punch. I can't breathe. I hit the floor with a thump. I stare into nothingness. That woman… I love her almost as much as I hate her. Even now.
"She went just after you were sealed. I don't think she wanted to live anymore, even if she hadn't been so badly wounded. Why do you think I had to find out what happened?"
Kagome groaned and moved her head a fraction, sleep slipping away from her no matter how she tried to clutch at it. Finally giving up trying with a noisy sigh, she blinked and pushed herself off the floor, glancing at the blinds to see what time it was, roughly. The window was dark, the same as the room, so it was after sunset sometime.
The drink Kaede had given her was starting to wear off, and her head was throbbing again. Wincing at the sensation of elephants in a conga line dancing around her skull, she rubbed at the pressure mark the tatami floor had left on her cheek.
A heavy thud on the wall made her jump. Shouting voices from the room next door filtered through, and Kagome could not help herself. She was a natural born eavesdropper. Scooting over, she pressed an ear to the thin wall.
"I mean, fuck! You just come in here and expect me to believe all the shit you're throwing at me? I was there, and I know you were, too, but you were thirteen! A kid!"
Kagome frowned. Who was that? That voice was familiar, but she could not place it.
"I know, InuYasha, but I have spent my life trying to understand what happened between you and my sister. I wanted to know why you would betray her---"
"I DIDN'T!"
"Yes, I understand that. Now. But then… neither of us did. Kikyou sealed you because she thought you were planning to steal the Jewel for yourself."
"She was never going to give it to me! She had called the extermination crew to come and get me!"
"And there, InuYasha, lies the key."
"And there, InuYasha, lies the key."
I glare at her. "What the fuck do you mean by that?"
She gives me an appraising stare with that one eye. "Are you ready to listen to me without destroying any more furniture?"
I scoff and roll my eyes, conveniently ignoring the table that lies in splinters next to the wall. A scent catches my notice.
"The wench is awake."
Kaede glances at me. "What?"
I plop down on the floor in front of her, cross-legged, shoving my hands into the huge sleeves of this weird red jacket. With a jerk of the head towards the room that that girl is in, I drawl, "She's awake. Eavesdropping."
My ears swivel at the yelp from the room next door, and I smirk. Yep. Definitely eavesdropping.
Kaede tuts exasperatedly. "Fine. You'll just have to wait."
Oh hell no. "What the hell, old woman? Come on, she's just a little human bitch."
The scent through the wall floods with anger. Hmm. This could be fun. I raise my voice just that little bit more. "She's weak, too. Couldn't even take down a low level youkai."
Oh yeah, she's furious, now. A muffled "What?" filters through the wall, followed by a frustrated growl. A silly grin crawls onto my face before I can help it. Damn but she smells good when she's pissed off.
Wait. What?!
I shake my head, angry at myself. I'm getting sidetracked. She's my ticket to unbelievable power, and that's it. Nothing else… despite that damn face.
The image of her staring at me in awe, the instant after I had killed that centipede youkai, blindsides me. Her scent, petrified but determined, her blue eyes softened by tears, the relief I could see in those eyes before I snarled at her and she'd scrambled away from me.
No! Stop it, you idiot.
Kaede is standing at the door, staring at me oddly. She shakes her head and turns to go.
"What are you doing, hag?"
She sighs long-sufferingly. "My patient is awake. I must tend to her."
Bullshit! "You owe me answers!"
She swivels her head and stares at me with one beady eye. "I owe you nothing, InuYasha. I'll explain more fully when Kagome is settled again."
And she leaves, slamming the door shut, the lock sliding into place and a few slap rattling the wood as she pressed some more sutras on. As if I'm not already contained enough.
Kagome glanced around frantically, ignoring the pains that shot up her neck into her brain. She needed a position of nonchalance, a place from which to perfectly glance up with sleepy surprise as Kaede entered her room, displaying irrefutably the fact that she had not been eavesdropping.
Even though she had. Because that was entirely beside the point.
As the lock on her door began to turn, she desperately flung herself down on her futon, biting her lip to keep from crying out as the movement pulled agonisingly on the slashes on her belly. She flung the covers over herself, buried her head in her forearms and relaxed as the doorknob turned.
"Give it up, Kagome."
Damn.
Still ignorance might work. She languidly sat up and smiled sleepily at the base commander. "What? Oh, hello, Kaede."
The worn woman rolled her eye. "Oh please, InuYasha's ears and nose don't lie. I know you were listening."
Kagome's curiosity got the better of her and overruled her desire to protest her innocence. "Was that the man in the next room who you were fighting with?"
Kaede raised an eyebrow at the abrupt change of tune, but decided not to comment. "Yes, if you must know."
Kagome frowned, that voice still nagging at her memory. "Who is he?"
Kaede blinked. "What?"
Kagome was chewing her lower lip thoughtfully, staring blankly at the tatami mat as she drew her arms around herself. Her voice was quiet as she replied, "Who is he? He sounds so… lonely."
The young woman didn't see Kaede's jaw drop slightly at her assessment of the grumpy hanyou next door. She shook herself out of her daze, her gaze moving to Kaede. "He sounds familiar, but so sad."
Kaede began the arduous process of kneeling on her arthritic knees. "Why would you say that, Kagome?"
She shrugged. "I don't know, really. But as he was yelling, he wasn't really angry… just hurt, I think."
Kaede shook her head slightly in amazement, before shifting on her knees and fixing Kagome with a serious look. "InuYasha is the hanyou you freed in the warehouse."
Kagome gasped. "Really? Is he ok? Did Ai hurt him?"
"Yes, yes, child, he's fine. In fact, you must meet him in a little while."
Kagome frowned. "But we've already met."
The older woman smiled. "Not officially. But I think you're going to be seeing a lot more of each other soon enough."
Kagome smiled and opened her mouth to reply…
…and the pain in her head exploded.
She screamed and toppled forward, clutching her skull as the pain spread. This was different than before. It was not pressure building painfully in her skull, rather the back portion of her brain was afire with stabbing agony.
As she writhed on the tatami, she realised something that almost made her freeze.
Oh God.
The chip.
She began to sob, tears leaking from the corner of her eyes in fear as much as pain. What if this was the chip awakening? What would happen? Oh God… oh God…
Another burning wave tore through her head and she screamed again, her breathing quickening and deepening as the combination of terror and pain set her hyperventilating.
Voices broke through in the background, frantic as she, and she felt a hand on her forehead before the darkness crashed over her.