After leaving the red light district and crimson-eyed woman behind, he'd gone back to that labyrinth as fast as he could. The door he had missed was a trapdoor in one of the shabbiest houses in the maze. He knocked against it and recited the phrase as best he could in choppy English and the slat of wood moved up an inch or so.
One bulbous eye looked out at him.
"What's your payment?" it asked.
Inuyasha speedily grasped the edge of the door and flung it upwards and grabbed the small green man that had assaulted him before with surprising strength for one so young.
"Your blood," Inuyasha growled, holding onto the neck of the man's outfit and glaring into his giant eyes. "I've been looking for you."
The man gulped, his Adam's apple bobbing against the boy's knuckles.
"Why did you do this to me?" he demanded, shaking him.
The toadish man smirked through his fear. "The Saimyousho strike those who are weak."
"Saimyousho?" Inuyasha asked through bared teeth.
"We sting and infect like bees."
Inuyasha shook him again.
"Stop...!" the man gasped, grabbing at his throat. "I'll give you what you want!"
The boy stopped and narrowed his eyes. The man reached an arm around into a pocket and brought our a syringe of bright red liquid.
"More," Inuyasha said, his eyes not leaving the syringe.
"It's all I have on me. Put me down and I'll get you more."
Skeptical, Inuyasha slowly lowered him to the floor and before the man could dash back underground, he grabbed the syringe. He'd at least have this one if what the toad said wasn't true.
But the man came back up with maybe ten more vials and the syringes to go with them. They glowed slightly all by themselves. A milky sheen he hadn't noticed before pulsed inside of them.
He shoved them all in his hoodie pockets and left. The frog scowled at his disappearing form.
"Next time deal with him yourself," he said in his high voice, looking back underground at a shadow. It only moved in assent. "When he's good and roped in..." The toad cackled and disappeared through a separate door hidden in the corner of the room and the wood slammed shut behind him, and there was the faint click of a lock beneath it.
Those vials did not last Inuyasha as long as he'd liked. They were smaller doses of Kikyo, diluted heavily with something else that just made him even more thirsty for the drug. A few days later he'd gone back to the labyrinth.
Only to be turned away by someone different from the frog. It was a shadow that came out of nowhere and cuffed him in the face and he went sprawling out onto the street into the garbage. When he sprang up to try the door again, it was locked.
"Bring me payment, street urchin..." said a voice behind the door, which then laughed dryly.
Inuyasha had slammed his body again and again against the door but it didn't buckle despite how frail it had looked on the outside.
With the withdrawals earthquaking through his body, he left with a heavy heart and heavy veins.