Disclaimers: I do not own Inuyasha
A/N Sorry for the wait. Hopefully I'll be updating lots more so I can match up the dates with this months holidays and stuff. Anyways I hope you enjoy this chapter!
To Baby Spaz Monkey, I saw the picture and I'm glad I inspired you to make an adorable thing like this. It's really cute!
On with the chapter!
Awakened Dead
Chapter 20. December 7th
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A haunted house.
Could this night be any lamer?
Oh yeah, the answer to that is most definitely. And why do you ask? Well, because a bunch of know-it-all nerds with their toys had decided to claim this house as their territory. Oh yes, all in the name of paranormal discovery!
Now with the clock ticking on their lives as the sun kept dipping lower and lower on the horizon, Miroku and Kagome hadn't wasted time kicking people out of the place. Apparently there were seven of them floating around in the house, so they got to work. Inuyasha had even used some of his poltergeist-ish force to keep the moron's out of the house once Miroku managed to throw them out. And even so, with this stupid group already spread out all over the house, it was difficult to round them up. They were setting up tech in the halls and the rooms.
Basically, they were everywhere.
'This just isn't working. We only got three of them out. How are we supposed to get four more people out in two minutes?' Kagome glanced out one of the heavily stained windows, cursing the sun for dipping so quickly. She was standing in the room where the entire tech was hooked up to on the main floor. It most likely used to be a living room since there were a couple chairs and tables still set up and covered in dust, as well as a fireplace.
'What should I do?' She turned around and walked out of the room, finding Inuyasha still holding off the pissed off guys they had actually managed to pull out. Next to the hanyou was the duffel bag that she had dropped as soon as they got in. Then an idea of sorts struck her. 'If I can't get them out, at least I can protect them.' She yanked the duffel bag away from Inuyasha and opened it up. There were the basics needed to ward off spirits within the bag. A large bag of rock salt (no wonder the stupid thing was so ridiculously heavy), a book, flashlights, some seals and wards as well as matches and a small bottle of fuel.
"Kagome, use the salt to make a sealed circle big enough to fit the group left." Inuyasha grunted from the doorway, using more blasts of his demonic winds to hold back the others.
"On it." Kagome nodded, already beginning to pour the salt down for the circle. 'I just hope I have enough salt.' She inwardly rolled her eyes at her little question, deciding that yes, she most definitely had enough salt for a circle. When she finished, she put the rest of the salt into the duffel and took out a flashlight. She flicked one on just as she heard a large thud, the noise startling her. She pointed her light to the person who appeared as if from nowhere, blinking at him. "Who are you?" She asked.
She could hear several voices upstairs that were drawing nearer, Miroku's being the one she picked up on the most.
"I should be asking you that!" The one guy in front of Kagome grumbled, crossing his arms in an intimidating fashion.
Kagome opened her mouth to retort when the front door to the place had slammed shut, Inuyasha's foul cursing and growls catching her attention.
"What was that?" The guy in front of Kagome jumped a little.
Inuyasha appeared in the living room shortly, his claws and fangs bared as his eyes shifted. "Kagome, that wasn't me. Whatever is in this house has finally woken up."
"I figured that much." Kagome replied.
"What are you talking about?" The guy in front of Kagome asked.
Oh yeah, the girl had forgotten that no one could see Inuyasha except for her and Miroku.
"You and the Monk start rounding up the idiots into the circle. I can feel the other spirits around here stirring." Inuyasha's ears perked, growls escaping his lips.
"Oi girl, I asked you a quest—" The guy in front of Kagome began, but was cut off by loud screams that were approaching them. As it turned out, the missing members from upstairs were being chased down the stairs by floating objects.
"Miroku!" Kagome yelled past the guy. "Bring everyone towards the living room!"
Three people had been directed by Miroku to the living room where the salted circle was. Behind them Kagome could see the spirit of a young teenager grinning sadistically while maneuvering the objects in midair. 'He must be just like Mayu-chan. The ability to move objects with their mind.' Kagome glanced over at Inuyasha whom had actually surprised the boy ghost momentarily.
"Quick. Everyone get into the circle!" Miroku ordered the three new people. He then looked up at the taller boy who was standing in front of Kagome with confusion written on his face. "You too big guy. It's not safe."
"Well isn't this interesting. Humans who can actually see me and another ghost to play with." The young poltergeist giggled cruelly. "This will be so fun."
"What the hell are you talking about? Why should I go into that circle of—what is that stuff—"
"Looks we don't have time to explain. You'll be safe in the circle." Miroku said quickly.
"Come on Taichi! He's right!" The single girl of the group pleaded, holding her hand out to him desperately. "Please!"
"You actually think a little circle of salt can stop me? My my, aren't we being confident." The poltergeist tsked them, motioning with a wave of a hand to move the objects that floated around him in midair. "Aren't any of you going to even wish me happy birthday?"
Inuyasha cursed under his breath and glared at the kid, moving himself in between the teens inside the circle and the boy who had yet to enter. His eyes glowed as he increased his demonic aura, pupils flashing briefly blue once he swiped at the thrown objects. He shattered the first pot without a problem and had easily tossed the other blunt things to the side, charging the boy now with elongated fangs. "You brat!" He howled, claws extended.
The poltergeist stared wide-eyed at Inuyasha, his form flickering in panic. "What the hell are you!" He yelled when he was tackled through the floor, his roaring screams of anger disturbing Kagome.
"I guess I'll be going into this circle after all." The one named Taichi surprisingly said steadily, looking back at the others wordlessly.
Once inside, Miroku had crouched down in front of the duffel bag they had brought and withdrawn some of the seals. "Kagome, we should place these around the circle. Hopefully it will cancel out all the energy being used to control the items. You should also place up a barrier just in case this idea of mine doesn't work out so well."
"Right." Kagome nodded, glancing up at the group of four. She cringed when she heard Inuyasha's howls below them, and more screams of the boy. 'I hope he's okay—' She jumped a little when a younger boy materialized in front of her. 'Oh my ka—' She held a hand to her racing heart.
"What are you doing here? It's dangerous." He whispered, most of his figure hidden in the shadows. Though from what Kagome could see, he was wearing pyjamas that were blotchy in some areas near the chest and shoulders. "Well? You could get hurt lady."
Miroku momentarily froze as he was placing his seals on the floor. Where the hell had that voice come from?
"L-look, I don't know who you are, but Miroku-san and I can take care of ourselves. Inuyasha is also handling the other kid pretty well." Kagome pointed, trying a warm smile but ended up with only a weak one. Yeah, so much for sounding convincing. It was obvious the kid wasn't buying it, and was shuffling nervously in his spot. The girl had a sneaky suspicion that he wanted to remain hidden from her, most likely because of those spots on his pyjamas. 'Blood, he's probably stuck in the painful form his body was butchered into when he died.'
The boy grumbled a bit and clenched his fists, "N-no! It's not only my brother you have to worry about. He killed me—but dad—he killed him! Y-you need to watch out for them. Pa-Papa isn't the same person anymore and neither is Alistair—" He was cut off mid sentence when a aggressive wave of fear shook through him. He was trembling violently and whimpering loudly when he suddenly dispersed.
"Did you see that?" Squeaked that same girl from within the circle. Upon closer examination you could see that she was holding out a video camera to where Kagome was standing, her eyes wide in wonder.
Now that couldn't be good.
'Is it possible that the video camera she's holding picked up on the frequency of the spirit? If so, that means she and the others are going to be having a rough night watching Inuyasha brawling with the ghosts. Not to mention what I'm going to have to do to banish them.' She clenched her teeth, frowning at the small pack of teens huddled in the circle.
"Kagome-san! The seals are in place." Came Miroku's voice, breaking the girl from her thoughts.
Kagome nodded curtly and easily formed her crackling barrier, sighing in relief that at least the video camera couldn't pick up on that much. 'The less they know about us, the better.' She felt even more waves of small relief when the brats inside the circle were asking each other what was happening and if Kagome had truly done anything.
"What a pretty pretty glow." Mused a new voice.
Miroku grunted, his eyes searching for the new voice in the room. Computer screens flashed, the flashlight Kagome held was now useless and burnt out, the speakers spewed out white noise as the rest of the technology around sparked. The only thing unaffected was the video camera safely within the barrier with the teenagers. "Kagome, get ready."
"He's circling us." Kagome whispered, clutching onto her necklace as if for strength. They were being scrutinized by the spirit, that much she could tell. That and he was more than likely looking for a weak point to attack. 'He's also gaining strength from the technology around us. And for all we know he has the same abilities as the other one!'
"Well isn't this interesting. Not only have humans come to disturb my psychotic son from his rest, but a monk and priestess too? You can't just leave well enough alone, now can you?" His voice echoed around them, objects rumbling on their tables as he spoke.
Kagome winced at the booming voice, beginning to gather her powers to at least pull the spirit forward and illuminate him. She was tired of guessing where he was, so what choice did she have? Inhaling, she focused her thoughts on the voice, the supposed father of the two sons haunting this place. She had timidly reached out to him, imagining her hand pulling him forward to her.
"Wh-what are you doing-! S-stop that!"
'Don't stop. You can do this Higurashi!' That little voice in the back of her mind encouraged. 'Bring him forward, then send this joker packing!'
Kagome gave another fierce pull forward, feeling the spirit materialize before her in a shimmer. She opened her eyes, staring in the face of a murderous older man. 'Oh my god, what's wrong with his face!' She thought in disgust. It was completely twisted with darkness and malice. He hardly even looked human.
"You bratty wench! No priestess could have done such a thing! You are a lie in disguise! A filthy Necromancer bitch!" He raised his arms, allowing all the objects around the group to rise. "Ha ha! Did you really think that my son received those powers by chance?"
"W-what's going on!" Taichi stuttered within the barrier, looking around at the floating objects wearily.
"I don't like this man." Said the other male.
"B-be quiet guys. We can't distract them!" The girl growled, trying her best to keep her hands from shaking too much in order to view the spirit more clearly on the video camera.
"Kagome-san! Do it now!" Miroku yelled.
'I know I know!' Kagome bit her lip with worry. This thing wasn't a demon, so she couldn't just purify it. The only other choice was to push it away. Banish it. But… 'I can't worry about where he's going to land! I need to believe in myself. And hope that I don't push away the wrong spirits!' Kagome breathed in deeply, gathering her inner strength until her body began to glow.
The objects that had been floating were now being thrown at them at full force. "I won't let you!"
Kagome gave him a fierce mental push. "Go away!"
The objects around them crashed to the floor loudly followed by Kagome.
"Kagome-san!" Miroku rushed to her side. "Are you alright?"
"Kagome!" Inuyasha's form appeared next to her, the hanyou kneeling with a growl rumbling in his chest. "What the hell did you do?"
The young girl looked up at him with a small smile. "I only got rid of them temporarily. I'm sure they'll be back soon. So hurry up and figure out a plan."
Miroku sighed. "You actually got rid of the both of them? I thought you were only aiming for the father."
"There's no time to argue. We need to find a more permanent way of getting rid of these guys." Kagome hissed, clutching her necklace tightly in thought. "We need to find their bodies—"
Miroku yelped, his figure suddenly being pulled roughly away from them. He glanced down at his ankles and found the teenaged ghost pulling him with one of his semi transparent hands.
"Miroku-san!" Kagome's voice called to him in alarm.
The monk was quick to reach within his pocket, pulling out a sutra and throwing at the back of the boy's head. "Dark spirit be gone!" He proceeded to do a small chant, blue flames engulfing the screeching boy as he got banished once again. When he was gone, Miroku had sat up with a huff.
Apparently, the kid had dragged him into the kitchen, nearly pulling him down to the cellar. He involuntarily shivered at the thought of going down into the basement and stood quickly to return to the living room. He saw Kagome standing in front of the barrier of salt and sutras, the girls eyes glued on the scene of her hanyou fighting against the father of the house. 'Damn, they are just coming back!' Miroku thought. 'If only there hadn't been anyone in this place. We could have found their graves and torched their bones.' He clenched his fists.
Then an idea popped to mind.
'Sango-san!' Miroku turned to Kagome quickly. "Kago—" A cool hand wrapped around his mouth before he even had a chance to finish, the houshi now getting very annoyed with all these interruptions.
"I'm going to rip your heart out, houshi." The spirits voice giggle darkly in his ear.
The miko girl turned towards the houshi in time to see that stubborn boy try to take her friend away. With a small growl, her eyes shimmered with pink as she gave that spirit another very powerful mental push. "Get away you creep!" She glared at him, watching in pure satisfaction as his spirit got violently pulled back into the territory of the other side. 'I'd like to see him get outta that so quickly!'
Miroku breathed a sigh of relief. "Arigato, Kagome-san. You still have your cell phone right?" He asked, earning a nod of recognition. "Get Sango to find the graves. Get her to burn them!"
She nodded firmly, searching in her pockets for her phone. 'But even if I do tell her, she won't even know where to start! I don't even know where to start. They could have been buried anywhere.' She thought, pulling out her cell phone and keying the message quickly. "I don't even know their full names."
"Takahashi." Whispered a small voice bellow Kagome.
The miko looked away from her phone and peeked down, holding back a gasp of mortification. It was the ghost of the little boy from earlier. Except this time she could see him quite clearly out in the open and within the source of light being emitted by her barrier. This boy… This poor boy…
His skull had been cracked open with some sort of blunt open, blood covering most of his face and of course staining his shoulders. Staining his pyjamas.
He had been beaten to death in his sleep. Without even a chance of survival!
"Did you hear me? Look for Takahashi." The boy repeated. "In the nearest cemetery from here! I d-don't know the name.."
'There could be dozens of Takahashi's' Kagome thought with a bite in her lip. But she texted it anyways. Sending the first message off as a 911 for help as well as the basic information.
"Just look for the really big stone angel and you'll find Papa with Alistair and me! I'm Terri—"
"Obviously, I didn't beat your skull in enough, you mouthy little brat!" Alistair appeared behind the kid with a murderous look twisted into his features.
Kagome sent off her next text shortly after the boy told her the needed information. 'I need to help him!' She glared at Alistair. "Leave him alone! Haven't you done enough to him!" She screeched, waving her hand and giving him a nudge away from his brother. 'How does he keep coming back so quickly! I don't get it!'
"Sacred Sutras!" Miroku yelled, tossing his sutras at the spirit.
Alistair chuckled and avoided the blue flamed papers, disappearing in a mist. His taunting laughter filled the room only momentarily until he reappeared behind the houshi with a hand through his chest. Eyes wide with blood lust, Alistair smiled darkly, moving his lips next to the monk's ear. "I told you, I was going to rip out your heart."
The houshi's blue eyes widened in surprise from the ghost's appearance, his mouth opening to let out a raw yell of pain. He felt a tremendous pressure on his heart, as well now as twangs of pain. He didn't know how much more he could take of this, and it had barely even been ten seconds. 'C-can he really rip out my heart?' He thought in agony.
"Iron reaver!" Inuyasha's guttural snarl came from nearby, glowing claws slashing through Alistair's ghostly flesh. He let out a grunt when the spirit dispersed with a scream, cracking his knuckles for the next round of attacks.
'There's no way we can keep fighting like this the whole night. Sango needs to find those graves. She needs to burn those corpses!' Kagome thought, gasping when the father appeared in front of her. There was a blast of wind, and next thing she knew Inuyasha was standing in front of her, snarling and baring his fangs and claws. 'Even Inuyasha must get tired at some point, or can spirits not get tired at all?' she clutched her phone to her chest tightly, feeling it buzz with a new text.
"I'm on it Kagome! Leave it to me!" Sango had messaged back confidently.
Right, so they had a hunter on their side, but even then it wouldn't be enough. Sango-san was only one person. She needed to dig up at least two graves by herself—Oh that's right, super strength. Okay then maybe she could handle this just fine after all. 'Please be quick Sango-san. Things are getting crazy here.' She bit her lip. Then she made a silent vow.
She wouldn't give up. She'd fight to the end and make sure that these people encased in her barrier would not be harmed.
Her eyes darted to Miroku being tossed against a wall then back at Inuyasha resuming his fight with the older man.
'What do I do?' Kagome asked herself, blinking between her two friends fighting the spirits.
'How can I help?' She gasped when Miroku was once again dragged off beyond the doors that she assumed led to a kitchen. She felt the need to go after him, and to banish Alistair again, but what about the people inside the barrier? She didn't want anything to happen to them either.
"Iron reaver!" Inuyasha howled, ripping apart Takahashi-san with his claws. The shredding and cracking of bones being twisted and flesh being torn had made the Father yell out in a cry before dispersing to recover, giving Inuyasha the opportunity to go after Miroku. "I'm going to help the houshi. Stay here!" He rumbled, dispersing as well.
"W-who is that red and white guy Ai-chan?" One of the boys inside the barrier questioned.
"I don't know. I don't remember this place being haunted by people from another time period." The girl, Ai, answered. She looked up from her camera screen and called out to Kagome. "S-sumimasen, but… Do you understand what's going on? Can you see this?" She asked.
The miko slash necromancer kept silent, clenching and unclenching her fists in worry. She turned to them, her blue eyes turning icy with anger. "Yes, we can. Anything else?" She said, her words dripping with venom.
And of course, one of the boys, completely ignoring her very pissed off mood had asked. "Yeah, uh what about the guy in red? Whaddyaja call him?"
"Kito-kun!" Ai whispered, shaking her head. "Shut up!"
"You're friend is being torn apart as we speak. Limb from limb. His spirit will join the other world leaving only you here to defend yourself. Poor poor necromancer bitch."
Oh god, he was back. Why couldn't they just stay gone?
"Shut up!" Kagome yelled, turning her head to try and pin point where Takahashi's voice was coming from. "Or I'll drag your sorry excuse for a soul back to your body and make you my puppet." She threatened. Actually the thought of doing such a thing to anyone was unforgivable and completely disgusting. But this poltergeist was really getting on her last nerve very quickly. And how long had it been since sundown? Maybe a half hour at most?
Miroku-san was gone.
Inuyasha was off somewhere hopefully helping Miroku-san.
Kagome was here, protecting these moronic people from this bloodthirsty dead man who just wouldn't stay dead. Why the hell were they coming back? How the hell were they coming back so quickly?
"Hardly a threat. My body lies away from here. Too bad for you, little girl."
"Apparently you didn't know then." She could at least buy some time until she could formulate a plan or at least understand why the spirits kept coming back so easily. Either way, time was needed.
"Know? Know what!"
"Like you said. I am a priestess." Kagome's eyes sharpened, the girl focusing on pulling the man forward again from the mist. "But also, a necromancer." She watched as his form appeared, some joints still popping back into place while his body continued to sew itself back together.
"You little—So what. You are two things. That doesn't mean—"
"What it means." Kagome interrupted him, "Is that I have unusually powerful and at times uncontrollable powers." Her hands crackled with spiritual powers, though unseen to the human eye. "I could easily send you sailing back to you body and keep you there, buried underground and out of trouble with only a thought. No spell needed." She walked forward towards him, her hand crackling more now.
She'd been training her butt off ever since Inuyasha was out of commission and now was as good a time to start using her powers. 'No more sitting on the sidelines! Until Sango-san burns those corpses, I'm going to make myself useful.' She held out her right hand, increasing her spiritual powers until her body came to a glow. The light gathered slowly, and formed a long, sparking pink bow made of spiritual powers.
Takahashi took a step backwards wearily. "I-if you could do that—You would have done it by now!"
"If I was cruel, maybe. And I am debating it." She held out her bow, pulling back the thin bowstring, an arrow of light forming. "Or maybe I'll just stick to purifying your soul painfully until you leave this place permanently." She let her first arrow fly, burning through Takahashi's mending soul and disintegrating him.
'He'll be back. Unfortunately.'
"I won't leave this place! No matter how many time you try and use those silly arrows, or tear my soul to pieces! I will return to this very place! The place where I killed my son, and killed myself I will—"
She tuned him out after that, letting him go on with his speech. 'The place where he died? That makes sense. They're attached to this specific location because it was the last place they were in when they lived. It's the house!'
"Kagome!"
"Kagome-san."
Both Miroku and Inuyasha had returned in time to see Kagome standing in front of the barrier, a pink bow made entirely of her spiritual powers in her grasp.
The girl had briefly caught a glimpse of Miroku's eyes exchanging looks of recognition with her, the monk smiling weakly. "I'm glad your safe."
Of course the moment was short lived when the two poltergeists had returned full force again. Well, mostly. Takahashi looked to be having a bit of a problem healing. His attacks were also sluggish and he couldn't move objects as easily.
With the boys fighting again, this gave Kagome the opportunity to use her arrows again, first aiming at Alistair, the boy looming above Miroku with his back turned to her.
She let the arrow of light go, the thing taking flight and landing square into her target, sinking into his ghostly form and causing him to freeze up. He let out choking noises, and screeched loudly. Now distracted, Miroku had withdrawn a sutra from his pocket and banished the ghost with the spell, taking this time to get up and move to Kagome's side quickly.
"Get the old man too. I have a theory about all this." Miroku told her.
"Got it." She turned her bow and pulled back an arrow. 'Except that he's not here. It looks like Inuyasha might had taken the fight to the basement again.' She thought, mentally calling the hanyou back along with the other poltergeist. 'Here we go!' As soon as they shimmered into place, she had distinguished Inuyasha's shimmer from that of the other man.
Once he was completely visible, she shot.
Similarly he froze, giving Miroku enough time to banish him as well.
"A-are they gone?" Taichi ventured to ask them.
Kagome looked to Miroku, silently urging him to speak before the ghosts returned.
"Inuyasha! Try to open the door." Miroku said quickly.
The hanyou growled in response, glaring at the monk for ordering him around. With a wave his hand he tried to force the door open, but again it wouldn't budge. "Well, didn't we already know there was no way out, houshi?"
"Kagome-san! Use an arrow on it." Miroku instructed, watching as she formed another one and aimed it at the door. "Without their presence here, all that's left is their hold on the doors and windows that lock all people inside. Maybe by purifying one of the exits of their tainted powers, we can open a door before they return."
Once she shot the arrow, Inuyasha had motioned for the door to open.
Which surprisingly enough, it had.
"Every body out!" Kagome yelled. "While the door is still open!"
"I-I don't have to be told twice!" The girl inside the barrier squeaked. Soon the four people had exited the house and joined up with the other three members of their group that had been locked out. Next Miroku joined them and just as Kagome and Inuyasha were going to leave, the doors had slammed shut again.
"How did you do that girl."
"What the fuck did you do to us!"
"We'll kill you! All of you!"
Kagome withdrew all the powers that had created the barrier and returned them to her body, the pink glow swirling around her bow.
"Well isn't that a little difficult when they all managed to get away, you morons!" Inuyasha yelled, standing protectively next to Kagome.
"Not for long! We'll leave this place, and we will hunt them until their all dead!" Alistair appeared close to them. "We'll coat them in lots of blood… Such a pretty colour blood is… I can hardly wait to see what your insides will look like on the outside!" He cackled.
Kagome flinched, but still stood her guard. 'I won't let him frighten me!' She lifted her bow and pointed it at him with an arrow ready.
"Come on, do try it little girl. I guarantee I won't let you hit me with that again." Alistair mocked. He rolled his shoulders and began to lift items around them again, thought with a bit of difficulty, surrounding them with blunt and pointy things.
"Shoot him." Inuyasha growled. "You can do it."
Kagome remained still, eying the boy down. When the objects around them began to move, she had shot her arrow, narrowly missing him. 'Uh oh-!' She turned and ducked out of the way of some of the objects, gasping when a piece of broken window glass caught her off guard. It was aimed for her side, and she waited for the pain. But nothing happened. The glass stopped millimeters from her side, and then dropped to the floor along with everything else.
She turned back to Alistair, only to find him howling in pain, his spirit disintegrating in red flames and ashes. When he was completely gone, the door to the house had swung open, revealing the way out. 'A-are they both gone?' Kagome thought in shock. 'Sango-san did it?' A vibration in her pocket seemed to confirm her suspicions. A text from the woman of the night, asking if everyone was okay.
"We're fine but how did you do that so fast?" Kagome had texted back.
Moments later, a new message was received.
"Their graves were shallow. I barely had to dig for them." Sango wrote back.
"Shallow graves?" Kagome repeated aloud, looking up at Inuyasha in confusion. 'How can that be? Most graves are can range from all kinds of deep depths. Tsubaki's grave was a work out and a half to dig up.'
"I wanted to help. So I lifted them a bit." Came a small voice.
It was the boy from before again. The younger brother of the family. Terri? He'd returned, but looked different. He looked content, and proud.
"I'm sorry for what they've done. I-I couldn't stop th-them by myself." He stuttered.
Kagome shook her head and smiled. "It was never your responsibility. But what you did helped us a lot. So thank you." Her pink bow felt from her grasp, though light still circled around her fingertips. She reached out and touched the boys shoulder, blinking when her light began to surround him. She pulled her hand away quickly, watching as the blood stains vanished from Terri's pyjamas, his nightmare-ish injuries also disappearing, instead showing a beautiful smiling face.
"I feel so warm… It's nice…" The boy hummed in delight, his form flickering, then disappearing.
The hanyou standing next to Kagome had finally relaxed. With the last soul gone from this godforsaken place, he could settle his nerves and focus on lowering his demonic aura. To help, he had wrapped his arms around Kagome's waist and pulled her to him, his nose going for her neck as he inhaled deeply. He shuddered, the scent giving him chills but none the less soothing his demonic counterpart until he visibly resembled a hanyou again. Well, for the most part anyways.
His purple stripes were still tattooed across his cheeks, but that was to be expected considering what kind of trouble they had gotten themselves into tonight.
"Let's go, the others are waiting." Inuyasha rumbled against Kagome's neck. He felt her nod against him and so he turned her around and began to lead her out, only stopping to pick up the duffel on the floor. Once they were out, they were greeted by a happy Mushin.
"I see it went well." He chuckled. "It only took you an hour and a half. Now we can go home fairly early for once."
"Wait—An hour and a half? You're kidding, right?" Ai had asked. The group of 'paranormal researchers' were still here, talking amongst themselves and exchanging hugs.
"I'm afraid not. You took your time in there." Mushin replied. "So much for simply removing you."
"But it had only felt like a half hour at most." Kagome said, dropping the duffel on the ground. "How does that work?"
"The spirits could have changed our perception of time as soon as they woke up. That entire house was under their control after all." Miroku shrugged, picking up the duffel and tossing it into the car.
"You won't believe all the footage we caught!" Kito shouted inside the group, grabbing the camera from Ai and pressing the button to rewind the tape. "It was sick! The fights, the tearing the—Hey-what the hell!"
Kagome and the others turned to look over at the silly paranormal group, secretly hiding their smiles while a happy looking Mayu-chan stood next to Kito. Bits and pieces of the tape started to jam up in the machine and then pool out, the strands tearing and gathering messily on the ground in the snow.
"Th-the tape!" Ai bawled, glaring at Kito angrily. "You ruined it! How could you? That was our proof!"
Mayu giggle at the arguing members, sending smiles and a wave towards Kagome and the others before secretly disappearing.
"Well, now we know they can't prove anything from tonight or expose you." Inuyasha glanced down at Kagome. "I heard you when you were pissed off at the old man. If that had gotten out, we'd have every kind of supernatural being on our asses and fighting over dominance for you."
"I know I slipped up. But you guys were gone, and I was worried." Kagome defend in a mumbled.
The hanyou snorted. "To be fair, you pretty much made up for it by using that bow of yours. How the hell did you do that wench?"
"Later. Let's go home, I'm tired and their loud." She gestured to the arguing group of researchers, deciding that they didn't need a 'thank you' for protecting their sorry butts from certain death.
Instead, they piled back into Mushin's car and enjoy a nice, slow drive home.
Home.
That idea sounded absolutely fantastic right now. That and dinner.
'Then sleep. I'm so tired right now, I don't care about homework.' Kagome thought drowsily, leaning her head against the window. She slowly dosed off to the sounds of Miroku and Mushin's arguing voices and Inuyasha soothing growls.
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A/N Wow, that took awhile to do huh? Well good news is that when I get the holiday chapter out, it will be on time fort he holidays this year lol. And yes there is one massive sort of villain that will be coming up shortly. And of course the return of our other hunters, finally. Well, until then, R&R!