Disclaimers: I do not own Inuyasha
A/N Thanks for all your reviews! A lot of them made me laugh and smile. I'm really happy you guys like this story so much, and I love writing it. So I can guaranty a constant update for a while since it's getting so good. Haha. And as a special sort of treat, this chapter is longer then usual. You can read why at the bottom of the chapter in my little note. Don't worry it's nothing bad. So yeah, oh and I hope I got most of my typos outta this chapter. No guaranties on that though. Heh heh.
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That's right. Got question? I am here to answer!
SO! Kissmeyasha11 asked if Kikyo was going to come back. Well to answer that, I wasn't originally planning on it. But I just might bring her in for a short little role. I haven't completely decided on it yet though. I guess you'll have to stay tuned to find out eh? Haha.
Now on with the chapter!
Awakened Dead
Chapter 17. December 1st
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Sixteen days till the Winter Formal Dance.
Five days since the Hunter brothers left town.
Three days since Sango's blood limit got a jump-start.
And finally, a grand total of one month since Kagome has been introduced to the scary world of the supernatural. Fully equipped with a sexy poltergeist guardian demon, a holy monk, and a newly born hunter.
Oh wait.
Of course we forgot to mention the bigger matter of it all is the fact that she, as in the Higurashi Kagome, is some freakishly juiced up priestess akin to the energizer bunny. That's right. You read right. Her powers could keep going on and on and on… If it weren't for said powers as well as her silly schoolgirl curiosity, she would most likely be living the normal student life of a teenage girl. In addition to that, she would be worrying about one main matter of it all at a time like this.
The Winter Formal.
But of course she wasn't a normal girl anymore. So she couldn't worry about trivial matters like the Formal until the actual date of it came up. Till then, she gets to meditate daily with an old drunk, read mouldy books and hunt ghosts and goblins without getting paid. Hurray.
"Ack—Jeez—Inuyasha! Stop that!" Kagome scolded, grabbing her history textbook from mid air and yanking it back down on her desk to continue her homework. She had skipped two days of school due to her injuries on her shoulders and luckily for her, she had an admirer who would drop off her homework from school for her. Well actually, it wasn't luck at all. She'd rather have one of the girls bring her school things, but nooo. Instead she had a blushing-and-a-little-too-bubbly Houjou-kun at her doorstep now for two days in a row while Sango had the real luck of having the girls get her homework to her.
It's like ever since Bankotsu-san has been out of town, Houjou-kun has been trying to grab as much of Kagome's attention as possible. If the boy didn't cut it out soon and read the obvious sign that basically said in neon letters above her head that she was not interested, then he'd end up with a pissed off poltergeist haunting him over the holidays. Speaking of that certain ghostly roommate of hers…
She pulled another textbook from the air and placed it on her desk, turning to give Inuyasha her darkest glare. "I swear I'll—"
The hanyou held up his hand in a surrendering fashion and scowled at her. "It ain't me doing that wench! There's another ghost in here—"
An echoing giggle quickly confirmed the half demons statement before he even had a chance to finish speaking.
"See? Jesus… baka…" He muttered under his breath.
Although she hadn't heard the insult, she had actually muttered her own back at him causing him to grin somewhat before she turned her attention back on the still invisible ghost. "Ano, could you please stop moving my homework? I need to be using my books."
"You're wastin' your breath wench. She's already gone." Inuyasha pointed out none too friendly, obviously getting yet another round of glaring daggers at him. "My guess is that it was that girl, Mayu."
"Mayu-chan?" Kagome perked a little in interest. "But she seemed friendly. I thought only temperamental ghosts could lift objects and whatnot. But she was… well doing it for fun."
"You're right. She isn't like the others. What she's doing is too easy by her standards." He replied, stuffing his hands in either of the sleeves of his red haorie. "I think that she's one of those psychics, ya know, the ones who can moves objects?"
"A telekinetic you mean?"
His dog-ears perked. "Is that what they're called now?" He shrugged. "Yeah, she must be one of those. Probably why that hunter sent her here to begin with."
Kagome nodded and stared at him for a while, a little deep in her own thoughts. That poor girl, to have died at such a young age was horrible. Judging by the soot on her she most likely died in a fire of some sort. She did have a couple of burns, but not many. Maybe then by smoke inhalation? Still…
"What's so sad?"
His voice was so close to her, she hadn't even realized she had gone so deep into her thoughts. When she blinked back, her beautiful blue orbs had quickly focused up on Inuyasha's closeness. She even felt him dab away something from her cheek. Wait, tears? Was she crying? "N-nani?" She blurted, a bit confused.
"You just said, 'That's so sad' and started to cry." He shuffled a bit in his spot, trying his best to mask his worry with a scowl. "The heck has gotten you so tearful?" He grumbled, dabbing away more tears with his red sleeves.
She blushed a bit and smiled at his kindness, her eyes warming. "I just realized how young she was. How unfair it is for her to be dead when she barely even started to live. I think it's sad." Wow, she really was crying. Great, how attractive did she look right now? Big, red puffy eyes, a snotty nose and her mascara most likely leaking down her face. Damn, she really should have invested in the waterproof kind instead of cheeping out. Stupid, stupid, stupid!
Inuyasha huffed above her and crouched down to her level, carefully gathering up her tears in his sleeves as well as her makeup. "Look Kagome, I know you're wishing that this didn't happen. But you need to understand that this is how the world works. Shit happens. Then you get over it. Life goes on. The kid is still hanging out here, and she doesn't look to be upset about her death, more like she's havin' fun with it. So don't worry." He tried for one of his rare smiles. "She knows she can come to us when she needs to. And if she wants to talk about it, she will. Till then, you don't have to cry, alright?"
This was almost the most she had ever heard come out of Inuyasha's mouth that didn't come with a crude remark slash insult. He was actually being pretty sincere to her, and was truly trying to comfort her even though she most likely looked like a half drowned raccoon with her wrecked makeup. "Arigato Inuyasha." She really wanted to hug him, but with her sitting in her chair, and him crouched as he was, it would have been one of those awkward hugs. Something her shoulders wouldn't take a liking to.
"Feh." He brushed it off as nothing and stood, secretly feeling very proud of himself for having made his mate feel better. 'At least for now anyways.' He thought. His hanyou ears tweaked towards the window when he heard the distinct sound of a car door closing. Wait no, two car doors closing. Kagome's window wasn't open, so he couldn't quite smell from this distance who it was that was coming up the shrine steps. 'The hell? That Hobo guy already came here, and Miroku doesn't drive one of those metal—cars' He corrected. 'He doesn't drive a car. So who..?'
He turned fully to Kagome's window and walked up to it, picking up the sounds of a cheery woman's voice and… the other voice was so low, almost purposefully low.
"Inuyasha?" Kagome had just finished blowing her nose and attempting to wipe away the rest of her tears when dog boy had turned to her window.
He motioned for her to keep quiet, narrowing his eyes on the steps of the shrine. Somebody was trespassing on his territory, and it irked him that he didn't know who it was. Damn this cold weather! If only the window was open just a little bit, he could catch a scent! His hackles were rising and a snarl was ready at his lips when his golden eyes had spotted across the property, in the dark of night, the first person to end up at the top of the steps.
A woman.
She looked familiar in a way; her hair was long, black, and a bit messy. Brown eyes, bright smile. But where did he know her from?
He froze and stood his ground, a combination of a vicious snarl and growl escaping his lips. "Sesshoumaru."
Kagome jumped a bit. "Eh? Sesshoumaru-sama?" Aw crap, why in Kami's name did she have to bawl her freaking eyes out the moment before some great full demon arrived at her house? 'Mirror, I need a mirror, stat!' She mentally screeched in horror, standing to walk quickly to the washroom. She knew she heard a muffled 'God damn, get back here Kagome!' from Inuyasha, but ignored it in favour of looking better for their soon to be guest. Like hell she was going to look like a drowned raccoon in front of Inuyasha's brother!
She was applying her mascara when Inuyasha had poofed angrily into to washroom behind her, his ears constantly moving while his eyes darted from the stairs to her then back again. Kagome ignored him calmly as to not poke her eye with the black brush of her mascara, smiling prettily when she was done. Now she looked like her. A little bit flushed, but other than that, she looked normal.
"Kagome!" Her mother called from the stairs. "You have visitors!"
Hell yeah! Just in time!
"You aren't going down there." Inuyasha said quickly.
Kagome put the mascara back into her makeup bag and turned to him with a raised brow. "If he wanted to kill us, he wouldn't go to the trouble of knocking on my door before coming in Inuyasha. Let's go, I don't want to keep him waiting."
"Them."
"Heh?"
"Them." Inuyasha repeated. "There are two. Sesshoumaru and a woman."
"Oh." Kagome shrugged and nodded, walking down the stairs with Inuyasha right behind her. She could feel him getting a bit antsy, knowing that he disliked being surprised like this and her possibly being in mortal danger and all. 'He's getting worked up over nothing.' She mentally sighed, but plastered a bright smile when she met the two visitors in the living room.
Sesshoumaru was sitting a little too still on their couch, most likely cause he's not used to such a small living space. His office was bigger then half her house so she could only imagine how big his living room was compared to hers.
Sitting next to the inu youkai was a happy looking woman who was only smiles when she spotted Kagome coming into the room.
"Hello again, Sesshoumaru-sama." Kagome bowed respectfully.
He nodded back in acknowledgement. "Good evening."
"I'm Rin!" The woman next to him suddenly bursted, introducing herself with another wide smile. "Nice to meet you Kagome-chan! I'm Sesshou-kun's assistant!"
Sesshou-kun?
She heard a snort of mild amusement beside her and shook her head at Inuyasha. "Be nice." She growled at him.
"I assume my half brother is here as well." Sesshoumaru narrowed his eyes on the space Kagome had been glaring at.
"That's right. He's like my guard dog. Knew when you were coming." Kagome laughed a bit, at least getting a bit of a giggle from Rin. The boys on the other hand didn't seem to like her little joke. … Stuck up dog demons…
"Here's some tea for you both." Mrs. Higurashi came into the living room with two mugs of hot tea and placed them on the coffee table in front of the guests. She was thanked by the perky Rin before leaving to tend to other duties.
"Wow, this is really good." Rin remarked, blowing a bit on her tea and taking another long sip.
Kagome nodded as she took a seat in one of the other chairs in the room. "Mama puts in a bit of honey when she makes tea. And she like to mix a couple of flavours together."
"Do you think I could get a recipe? This is so yummy!" Rin leaned down to place the mug back on the table, her blouse opening a bit more then it should have been, allowing a certain hanyou to catch a view of something on her chest.
"Shit, that's his mate!" Inuyasha cursed with a bit of a jump.
Kagome jolted next to him and shot a glare. "The heck was that for? And what do you mean by that?"
"The girl! Rin, I knew I recognized her!" He said a bit more to himself now. "She's that bratty girl that used to trail after my brother back in the Sengoku Jidai. He must have discovered that she was his mate and marked her."
Kagome puffed up her cheeks in frustration. "Okay buddy, you are loosing me. What do you mean she's from the Sengoku Jidai? She's human isn't she? And what mark?"
From the couch Sesshoumaru had smiled a bit smugly before having it drop to a frown. "Yes, she is my mate. And if you ever glance down her shirt again, mutt, I swear to you that you will come to regret it."
"Bite me, ass wipe!" Inuyasha snarled back.
"That was uncalled for!" Kagome snapped at Inuyasha hotly.
"Who cares? He can't hear me anyways!"
"Apologize!"
"He can't hear me!"
"Oh Kami—SIT!" She bellowed, positive that the two on the couch felt the floor vibrate from Inuyasha's face plant. "Stupid, immature mongrel.." Kagome muttered under her breath for only Inuyasha's ears to catch.
"Anyways!" Rin piped, clapping her hands together. "Me and Sesshou-kun are mates, and this is the mate mark that Inu-chan was talking about." She pulled back a part of her blouse so that Kagome could see. Just above the girl's left breast was what looked like a faded blue crescent moon tattoo. "This connects me and Sesshou-kun even more as mates. That's why I'm still alive and look like I'm twenty-five. I age just like him." She jabbed her thumb in Sesshoumaru's direction. "When Inuyasha chooses to mark you, you'll probably get a tattoo too!"
Kagome blushed scarlet. "Wh-what makes you think that Inuyasha and I…" She trailed off, looking away from the hanyou on the floor. He was probably just as beat red as her. Or maybe he was too proud to let himself blush.
"Aren't you? I mean, Sesshou-kun talked to me about what you did at his office." Her brows furrowed in confusion. "Only a mate could have the ability to calm a raging demon. No ordinary human could do that."
"Enough Rin." Sesshoumaru spoke up, calmly taking Rin's hand and squeezing it affectionally. "We seem to be making Higurashi-san uncomfortable with this conversation."
"Gomen." Rin apologized. "I didn't mean to pry, heh heh."
Kagome waved it off. "It's okay… But uhm, out of curiosity, I thought you were supposed to be out of town by the end of last week. So what are you doing here, in my living room no less, if you don't mind me asking?"
Inuyasha lifted himself from the floor and rolled his shoulders a bit, growling and cursing all the while. Then he stood next to the sitting Kagome, glaring a bit at the fact that his brother was holding hands with Rin. 'I swear he's trying to provoke me… Dick.' He quickly glanced at Kagome's free hands wringing themselves nervously in her lap. With a small huff he sat down, leaning against the chair for some support while one of his hands was placed over hers, effectively calming her. She even linked one hand into his while the other dug into his hair and pet his silver ears. 'Oh Kami... She can't be doing this to me now… I gotta be on guard.' He mentally whimpered.
"To the point, are we?" Rin giggle.
"Y-ya." Kagome stuttered sheepishly.
Sesshoumaru had briefly taken mental note of Kagome's actions, developing a mental picture of his brother sitting on the floor in front of her. 'In denial of their natural bond? Perhaps she is still too embarrassed about her emotions…' He thought. He kept his cool gaze steady on the girl, and spoke smoothly. "Insignificant setbacks occurred at my new branch. I was forced to remain behind longer then intended. However my effort was not fruitless. I had Jaken request a book to be delivered to my office from our home in the West. It arrived this morning and we came here to deliver it to you."
Hurray, another mouldy book for her to read! Wasn't that wonderful? Note the sarcasm used.
"A book? For me?"
"Hai." Sesshoumaru smiled a ghost of a smile. "I became aware of your odd ability when you first arrived in my office. I had recalled seeing it somewhere before, and grew curious. I had this antique book brought here and it confirmed my suspicions about you. You are exactly like the woman my father fought along side with centuries ago."
"You mean Midoriko-sama? The priestess?"
Uh oh.
Inuyasha visibly flinched. He knew what book his brother was talking about now. It was the same one he had studied before he was kicked out of the Western Lands. This shit for brains was going to ruin all the damn effort he put into keeping this whole necromancer secret from her! 'Shit, shit! Damn him! I'm going to get sat for this. She is going to send my soul to the underworld!'
"So you know of her?" Sesshoumaru smirked, much like Inuyasha would. "I see, so you were told of your birthright."
"Well, my family does come from a line of priestesses. So I guess that's how I got my spiritual powers." Kagome said slowly. That was what he was referring to, wasn't he? Her spiritual powers?
The full demon blinked inquisitively. "I suppose you were not made entirely aware of your full heritage after all." He told her.
Inuyasha cringed. 'Why the hell did he have to stick his damn nose into our business? Go rot under a rock you arrogant prick!' He mentally yelled, hoping that his brother would get the message.
"What do you mean?"
"As I said before, after you left my office I was interested in your family, but more specifically, you." He replied smoothly. "Not only did I ask for the book to be sent, but I also required records of your family history."
Rin giggled. "It's so weird. Sesshou-kun told me you looked like her, but I didn't believe him! But you do, you look like Kikyo-sama."
Kikyo… The woman Inuyasha was fond of once upon a time?
"Yes, as it turns out, you are her descendant. Thus the similarity in your appearance." Sesshoumaru added.
She felt like she had been slapped to the face. She knew she looked a bit like this Kikyo person, but was it honestly that bad? And now she finds out she's her descendant? Related to the woman who was sort-of-unofficially-in-love-with-Inuyasha Kikyo? That Kikyo?
Not even noticing the already shocked girl, Sesshoumaru continued anyways. "It was very interesting discovering this, and the fact that your father was a Necromancer. Yes, this proved that my theory was correct about you the moment you stood in my office. You are the second woman to ever hold the clashing powers of a Miko and a Necromancer at once. Just as Midoriko-sama had centuries ago, and for this power to land in the lap of Kikyo's descendant..." He snorted in mild amusement.
Between the times he called her Kikyo and treated her a bit like crap for thinking she was just like her, he knew he was in for shit now. It made sense to find out she was related to her now. On top of that, she was now made aware of the reason why she was so unnaturally powerful.
"I'm a Necromancer?" Kagome mumbled a bit in disbelief.
"Only half." Rin corrected.
"My little brother…"
"He's not a Necromancer, only has a bit of spiritual powers in him." Inuyasha answered before he could stop himself, flattening his ears against his head a bit.
Kagome stood up quickly, letting go of Inuyasha's hand as if it burned her skin. "You knew!" She accused him in a shrill shriek.
Sesshoumaru's mask of seriousness had cracked a bit in surprise at the girls outburst and the accusation. From what he could tell, Inuyasha was a bit more intelligent then he had first thought. 'Ah, I see now. The fool didn't wish for her to know about this information. Well, that would be his own fault. He should have been honest with his mate.' He thought with a bit of a snort.
"Look, can we talk about it later I don't think—"
"Oh no you don't! We are talking about this now!" Kagome growled in a very inhuman way.
"Looks like this is our cue to go!" Rin laughed nervously, standing quickly and pulling Sesshoumaru to his feet. "We'll just let ourselves out."
Sesshoumaru didn't really want to leave at this point. He hadn't seen his brother get chewed out in ages. That and he felt that he should inform him more about his current condition. He rolled his false purple eyes and grunted at his mate. Before leaving he put down the book he had talked about and gave Kagome one final nod and a glare in Inuyasha's general direction. Then he was out the front door, Mrs. Higurashi waving from inside the house.
"Come again soon!" She shouted with a smile, closing and locking the front door.
Back in the living room Inuyasha was still sitting on the floor when Mrs. Higurashi entered and ushered them to go upstairs and not forget their book. There was no way they could have an argument in the living room while Gramps was still loitering around somewhere. He really did not need to be made aware of this stuff.
"So?" Kagome pressed, still beyond furious with Inuyasha. She couldn't even sit still in her desk chair. She had to stand up to keep from loosing her mind while Inuyasha sat on her bed with that whipped puppy look all over his face. She growled again and turned around, pacing her floor. She caught small glances of the book she had hauled upstairs that sat innocently on her desk. It looked to be just as old as the one written by Midoriko, also leather bound and yellowed with age.
"I didn't know you were related to Kikyo." Inuyasha mumbled, though she had heard it just fine.
Kagome crossed her arms stubbornly. "Is that so? Well I'm sorry if I find it a bit difficult to believe you right now!" Her body was already surrounded with a thick aura, her emotions adding to her uncontrollable abilities.
What could he do to make it up to her? But more importantly make her understand why he kept this from her even if it was only for a day or so? "I did this to protect you. Because everything I do for you is to protect you." He confessed. Though he felt the surge of power shortly after his confession, his senses beginning to go into overdrive.
She shook her head, feeling unaffected from this statement. "Heh, yeah sure. Protect me you say? What the heck would you be protecting me from anyways? Something like this should have been said. You should have told me you knew about my father and this Necromancer thing. It would have made much more sense to me. I could have learned—"
"But that's it!" Inuyasha interrupted, standing from the bed. "You are still just barely learning how to control your spiritual powers. Hell even now, with all this meditation you've been doing, you are still letting too much of your aura increase when you get pissed off. It's hard enough standin' in this room without getting fried! Throwing a new power into the mix would have been too hard for you to handle at this point." He backed away from her, holding back a wince. "With everything else happening around us, I didn't want anymore pressure to be put on you. I would have told you eventually, when I knew you were ready to continue—"
"You still should have told me! You—you stupid—Grr, Inuyasha! Do I look like a porcelain doll to you? I'm not! I'm a tough girl! Mushin-shishou could have helped me through this, even back when I raised those zombies! If I had known about this before, Mushin-shishou could have taught me how to control my ability!" As she spoke, her voice raising more and more with anger, so did her crackling spiritual powers.
"Don't you get it?" Inuyasha stepped forward, flesh from his cheek already burning away as well as around his knuckles. "That drunk is only knowledgeable when it comes to spiritual powers. He doesn't even know shit when it comes to Necromancy! You need a Necromancer to teach you these things, something that is very rare to find. Their kind where almost completely wiped out centuries ago. There's hardly any left! Who could have taught you any of this right away? No body!" He barked.
"I bet you're exaggerating!" Kagome hissed.
Damn, his skin burned like a bitch and his inner demon was whimpering in pain. He was getting his ass purified on the spot by her. 'I can't stand in here for much longer.' He desperately felt the need to collapse, but there was no way in hell he was going to do that in here. "Why the hell would I be exaggerating at a time like this? Fuck Kagome, I mean what I'm saying. I'm not lying!"
"Okay, so if you're not lying right now, mind telling me if what Sesshoumaru-sama said was true? Do I really look that similar to her? To Kikyo? Is that why you're around me all the time? Because I'm the replacement? Hm? Are you toying with my feelings and pretending to like me because of my appearance?" Her words were like acid. Her body was beyond glowing, whips of spiritual powers swirling and crackling around her threateningly.
'She thinks I like her because of Kikyo? Is that what she really… No, I don't! I…' He never responded to her, the feeling of his demon blood burning in protest against the overpowering pressure of power, making him groan a bit in pain. 'Shit… I can't…' His knees felt weak, and his vision was getting dotted colourfully. 'No, my soul its—'
She took his silence as an answer. "You bastard, this is why! This is why you're around me? You… Get out of my house! Get. Out!" She shouted, giving him a mental push.
In reality, she had given him a bit more then a mental push. It felt more like she tossed him into the air effortlessly. He had flown out of the house so quickly that his dotted vision had turned into bright stars. He hadn't felt pain like this in ages. Nor had he felt this kind of light headedness since his battling days in the Sengoku Jidai. And that was only when he would loose too much blood.
'Kagome…'
His ears twitched and his nostrils flared when he caught the distinct scent of rotting flesh and shuffling noises. Just as he flew clear across the Higurashi property and all the way off and beyond it. With one final push of energy he had forced himself to disperse into the air and reappear elsewhere.
If he were in a body right now, he would be coughing up blood and most likely be holding his gut to keep his organs from falling out. That was the only time he had ever bled so much after a battle. He snorted at the memory and stared up bleary eyed at Miroku. Heh, so he made it after all.
"Inuyasha? What happened? W-wait, Inuyasha!" Miroku looked a bit alarm.
"Hou…"He mumbled before everything went black. When was the last time he had blacked out like this? Out of pure exhaustion?
"Damn, Inuyasha!" Miroku shouted again. Next to him, Sango crouched and watched as well. The ghost had just appeared out of nowhere in the middle of the hallway floor. His face had burn marks and his hands and feet were looking similar. When he had actually first appeared, he had to do a retake to actually realize that this was Inuyasha. Because lying before him was not a half demon ghost, but a very human looking one. Black hair, purple eyes, no visible claws or fangs and certainly no dog-ears.
Sango gasped. "What could have done this?"
Miroku shouted again at the unconscious ghost and cursed. "I don't know. Possibly a surge of spiritual—" He cut himself short and quickly looked at Sango.
"You think she's in danger?"
"With the way he's looking right now, I'd say she could have destroyed any demon within a ten mile radius." He grit his teeth. "Inuyasha needs to wake up to tell us what's happening before we step into something we're not supposed to."
Inuyasha's face cringed, and he let out a groan of pain. If he had his normal ears, they would be twitching in their direction. "Get… Houshi get… Mushi—" Inuyasha let out a fierce yell of pain.
Sango was already up and getting the drunkard. Hopefully he wasn't too bad tonight and could help them out. She had been careful not to grab him, but the objects around him to force him to move his old ass more quickly to get to the human turned ghost. When he arrived he had gasped in amazement before settling his face into a serious frown.
"What happened my boy?" Mushin asked.
Inuyasha barely opened one purple eye to look at him, his body shaking all over. "G-get to… Ka-K'gome.. She…Necr… o… mance… raised animals—piss…d off—"
Mushin furrowed his brows. "A surge of spiritual powers must have done this to him. She's angry. And…" He tried to bring Inuyasha's words together. "She raised the animals again from their graves?"
"Y…yea… kno the pow—wers.. She knows about her dad." He finally forced out.
"Oh dear." Mushin sat back a little nervously.
"What does he mean?" Sango bellowed.
The two healthy teens looked expectantly at the old man. "Well, it means that Kagome's knows that she is half Necromancer. She most likely found out at an inopportune time and is very upset."
"She did this because she was upset?" Miroku pointed to Inuyasha.
"Well, essentially, yes. That and she raised yet again every dead animal on her property and most likely stirred some spirits at the cemetery a little ways away from her shrine considering the extend of the damage done to him." He pointed idly to the weak human ghost.
"What do you mean, yet again?" Miroku narrowed his eyes.
"Go now! G-get to her!" Inuyasha croaked weakly, closing his eye and letting out a strangled cry of pain.
"I will explain on the way. For now you call on that Kouga fellow, have him here immediately while we deal with Kagome!" Mushin ordered fiercely, his usual bouncy old man façade quickly replaced with a very serious face.
They didn't even wait for Kouga to arrive. They had just left the door unlocked and taken off to Mushin's old car. Miroku had his beginner's licence, which wasn't much, but it meant he knew what he was doing. Before they knew it, they were at the Higurashi Shrine and running up the steps like the wind. Even Mushin was keeping up with them, and he didn't even have a bottle of sake to receive from this tedious work out.
Once they reached the top of the steps, the blood had drained from the teenager's faces while Mushin remained perfectly fine. He had seen many gruesome things in his lifetime. He could deal with a small army of dead animals no problem. It was the human corpses that worried him. From what he could tell there weren't any. She may have just stirred up some more ghosts, but other than that, they were only dealing with animals.
"Miroku-chan, you go and calm her down. Can you see that glow from that window?" Mushin pointed to the far off house that was a little further down. With all this darkness, you wouldn't have found it if it weren't for that bright pink beaming light. It rivaled the brightness of a lighthouse with its intensity. Well, to the trained eye it was anyways.
"I-is that h-her?" Miroku asked.
"Yes, hurry now. Do what you must, she needs to be calmed before she worsens." Mushin had sent him off and then turned to Sango to give her orders. "We need to clear these animals before anyone else sees them."
"N-nani?" Sango's face turned an odd colour of green. She had to pick up those half decomposed things? This old man was crazy. There was no way she was going to do that. "You're out of y-your mind. I'm not about to touch—"
"Sango-san."
She stopped her babbling and huffed loudly at him. This wasn't going to be fun, but he was right. They did need to do something before someone saw this and freaked out even more then them.
"Fine."
-X-
To the normal human eye, you wouldn't be able to see anything besides a dull glow coming from Kagome's room. For a human to actually see even the slightest glow of a miko was incredible enough. It meant that the concentration of energy was strong enough for any person to see, not just those who were supernaturals.
She wasn't aware of any of this, as she sat on her floor, hugging her knees to her chest and rocking herself slowly. She didn't know she was causing such a fuss, only that she was really upset with herself, and felt betrayed by the only person she thought she could completely trust.
She didn't know that she had raised an entire forest of critters again.
She didn't know she stirred hundreds of spirits nearby from their peace.
And she sure as hell didn't know that due to the mixture of her powers that a barrier had formed outside her house burning up any of the corpses that got close enough. Turning them to harmless ashes.
She was hurt. Her heart twisted painfully in her chest at the smallest thought of him. She hadn't even registered the arms that had wrapped themselves around her shoulders, and squeezed. Not until she heard another voice had she woken from her painful trance.
"Kagome-chan, are you okay?" Miroku asked softly.
She lifted her head slowly, her tear-stained cheeks glistening with her natural glow. Gently, she shook her head and stared at Miroku with her broken blue eyes. "I—I.." She gaped for a few more seconds and closed her mouth. What could she say? She could barely speak. She felt so tired and drained. Her night was awful, and kept getting worse. She looked down briefly at the amulet around her neck, the rock feeling a bit warm against her chest.
"Everything will be alright Kagome." Miroku brought her a bit more closely to him, giving her a half hug. "Just calm down and take some deep breaths."
She sighed against him and buried her face into his chest. She felt so gross right now with all her makeup running down her cheeks for the second time that night. "I'm s-sorry." She apologized, unaware of the dulling glow around her.
Miroku was quick to notice the light dying down in the room, and the retraction of her spiritual aura. He didn't know much about necromancy, but he figured it would take more then her calming down to get rid of the creepy crawlies outside. "Kagome-chan, I was told you had the power to bring forward the dead, and reanimate their bodies." He began.
Kagome nodded against him. "I didn't m-mean to. It just h-happened." She hiccupped.
"Are you able to return them as well?" Miroku continued.
"Y-yes." Kagome pulled away from him and looked down at her amulet. "I didn't… Did I do it again?" She asked carefully, almost afraid of hearing the response. Her fears were answered when he nodded and looked up at her window with a bit of a frown. "I d-didn't know. G-gomen nasai." She sniffled again. "Gomen nasai."
Miroku shook his head and rubbed her shoulder again, being mindful not to harm her. "Don't worry about it. Mushin and Sango are helping. All you need to do is reverse what you did." He said casually with a smile, brushing off this incident as nothing serious. 'She can't know how serious this is. Not now.'
"I-I can do th-that." Kagome mumbled, grasping her warm pink amulet between her fingers. She closed her eyes and focused as hard as she could on letting whatever was lurking out there free of her hold. It wasn't till later on, when she had fully calmed down that it was safe for her to leave her room and follow Miroku to his car. She left a note on the fridge saying she'd be back tomorrow morning. Right now though, she needed to be surrounded by her friends, and she knew that Sango needed to constantly be watched. So the only choice was going to Miroku's place for the night.
However she had no idea what laid ahead for her. She had absolutely no idea Inuyasha was already there, writhing in pain. She had no idea what damage she caused to his soul, only that he had disappeared when she yelled at him.
Mushin, Miroku, and Sango had silently promised not to let Kagome be aware of his presence in the house, at least not tonight. They didn't want to risk upsetting her again. To their surprise, she had only sat on the couch for a single second before she passed out in pure exhaustion.
And thank the gods for that, because now that she was out like a light bulb she couldn't actually hear Inuyasha upstairs letting out yelps of pain. Once the three were sure that the miko was comfortable on the couch, they had rushed up the stairs into the guest bedroom to see how the human poltergeist was doing.
"How did you manage to bring him up? We can't even touch him because he's so weak." Miroku asked curiously.
Kouga sat beside the bed in a chair, his charm disarmed so that the others could see his wolf demon features. "Some little girl came out of nowhere and she moved him in here because she felt bad." He shrugged a bit. "I didn't question her. Then she left."
"Mayu-chan." Miroku mumbled.
The older man had worked his way around the bed on the opposite side of Kouga. He placed his hands over Inuyasha and glowered. "Can you feel that Miroku-chan? His demonic half has taken quite a beating."
The houshi nodded. "If it weren't for the fact that he was a half demon, he wouldn't be here right now. His human side actually came in handy and protected him from completely being purified."
Kouga grumbled something under his breath and looked up sharply at them. "Will he be okay? He's been like this since you guys left. I don't know how much more yelling I can take at this point." He rubbed his ears, but glanced worriedly at his hanyou friend.
"That is entirely up to him. It will take some time for his demonic half to heal itself. Something like this could take anywhere from hours to days. For now, only time will tell…" Mushin replied gravely, sighing loudly. He never knew that such a commotion would happen from keeping a teeny tiny secretly from Kagome. Though he didn't really know the whole story, so he couldn't quite place all the blame on the girl. In fact he couldn't really blame her at all. She didn't know any better. She still wasn't used to her powers.
This just meant that they'd have to increase her training to prevent such a thing from happening again. He stared blankly outside the guest bedroom window, observing the weather. How fitting, the first of December and it was snowing outside. Big, fluffy snowflakes.
"Let's go look after Kagome." Sango whispered, tugging on Miroku's sleeve to pull him out of the room. This left Kouga to keep watch on Inuyasha while Mushin turned in for the night.
The ookami simply let out a bit of a groan and made himself comfortable in his chair. It was going to be a long night for him. Didn't they realize he had to go into the school to teach in the morning? Stupid ningen… His ears would be ringing all of tomorrow.
He sunk his fangs into his lower lip and chewed it in thought. He wished he could do something. Be more useful. But he couldn't. He wasn't a healer. He was a demon. 'Sorry buddy, but the rest is up to you.'
Inuyasha let out a low whimper then howled loudly, his body jerking up off the mattress and crashing back down roughly. The burns hadn't healed at all, and he had become non responsive ever since the wolf youkai arrived on site. Thank god the little girl was there to help him out a bit. Otherwise… Well Inuyasha would still be on the floor in the hallway downstairs.
"Come on puppy. You're stronger then this."
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A/N So I made this longer for two reasons. One, I thought it'd be too cruel to just cut it off after Inuyasha got his ass blown out of the house. And two, because the next chapter will be extremely short because it will only be Inuyasha's perspective of things. Kinda like a field trip inside his head. So I want it separate from everything else. Sound fair? Okay, well I hope you guys liked this! Remember to R&R!