Black Ice: Real bright idea, Rain.
Blood Rain: (sulks) Shut up...
Black Ice: (drawls) It was Blood Rain's idea to make the dialogue in the story look like it does, saying it added a kind of mysteriousness to the story. But now it's just getting annoying, and it diminishes the text. Thus, once more must one of Rain's bright ideas come to an end.
Blood Rain: Oh, shut the hell up!
Black Ice: (ignores her) After the first portion of the story, we're gonna start doing it the regular way, but in that way, the story's going to be most likely entirely italicized. Tacky? Certainly! Hope that doesn't annoy anyone. And if it does, oh, well. Better than what Rain proposed, right?
Blood Rain: I'm going to strangle her. I'm going to strangle you, Ice. You realize that, right?
The month of May was nearing its end, and one particular day marked ten days of Kagome and Inuyasha's sojourn at Tsubaki's home—May 30th—when they discovered that Kamikaze was coming close to them.
Kagome had finally mastered her first lesson, seeing through the darkness, and was currently on her second: befriending it. It was sometime around midnight; Tsubaki had informed Kagome that this was the darkest hour of the day. Inuyasha was asleep in his room, and all the lights in the house were off for Kagome's concentration. She was meditating in the front room, a practice that Tsubaki called "becoming one with the darkness".
Kagome.
Tsubaki placed her hand on the girl's shoulder and Kagome looked up at her solemn face.
What's wrong, Tsubaki?
I can sense it. A malevolent force...searching for you.
Kagome's face remained even, like Tsubaki taught her the day before, but her insides were twisting like helixes.
You must leave this place and find your own way amongst the darkness. You understand me, right?
Of course, sensei. I understand.
And you will also understand that, if you were to return here once you leave, I shall no longer be here.
(bites lip somewhat nervously) I...understand.
(smiles, embracing Kagome) You were a good pupil and a good friend. I know you'll be able to defeat him.
Thank you, Tsubaki.
Kagome got up and went up the stairs, into Inuyasha's room, where he slept haphazardly, his leg and arm dangling over the edge of the bed.
Inuyasha, wake up!
Kagome grabbed him by the leg and yanked him off the bed. He landed on the hardwood floor with a thud and a yelp.
(groggy and annoyed) Was that necessary?
Very necessary. Tsubaki just told me Kamikaze's near and he's looking for me.
Inuyasha got up immediately, swearing so nastily it startled Kagome.
Fuck...I hadn't finished planning for this...
"Finished"? What the hell do you mean?
(looks at her sternly) How well do you know Kamikaze?
Pretty well, I guess.
Do you suspect he might have the keisatsu looking around in the cities we've already left?
He would be that tactful, but I don't know that he'd actually do it.
Then we can't go back to Sapporo...
Why were you going back to Sapporo?
I—(sighs in slight impatience) We'll have to talk on the way.
On the way where?!
Despite her obvious lack of knowledge on his cryptic plans, Kagome followed him out of the house and jogged after him.
Inuyasha, if you're gonna tell me what the hell you're planning, then do that, damn it!
I'm trying to think, Kagome. Shut up for a minute.
(affronted) Ass-fucker.
(ignores her) Okay. This was the original plan: to head back to Sapporo and go to the Chitose Airport from there. We'd catch a flight to Kitakyushu—I have a friend who mines coal around there.
Okay, so what's wrong with that plan?
(glares at her)
...Oh, yeah. I forgot...we just left Sapporo.
Exactly, genius.
So now what?
Well, I guess we have to find a way to either...Asahikawa or Obihiro. There are airports near both of those cities, and both airports go to Kyushu.
Which city do we go to?
Choice is yours.
It doesn't matter to me—whichever route is shorter, I suppose.
Then Asahikawa it is.
Inuyasha stopped them at the mouth of the forest and pointed outward. Kagome looked at all the bright lights of the gas station they'd stopped over at some time ago, but something was wrong...the gas station wasn't the only thing giving off bright light. What were those other colorful lights? Kagome squinted at the lights, and then it dawned on her—they were police lights. The police were here, and Kamikaze right along with them, from what Kagome could see.
What's the plan now? There's no possible way we can get past them without being stopped.
Hmm. I don't know if it would be wise to wait for them to leave, because it looks like they're gonna be there for a while. And even though the cashier was a demon, I still don't know him, and I don't know if he noticed you outside.
There has to be a way around this gas station.
Inuyasha looked around. He finally spotted a large body of water in the distance—the Sea of Okhotsk. With an small, mirthless smile, he turned to Kagome.
Do you know how to swim?
Nope. I have somewhat of a complex with water after Kamikaze nearly drowned me in the bathtub when I was eight.
(clears throat) That's...charming. Uh, are you up to another run through water?
(sighs) Sure, why not? It's so fun, I may just pass out from the merriment of it all.
(chuckles) I feel the same. Hop on my back.
And so it began again: Inuyasha running Kagome along the coast of Hokkaido, without one indication of exhaustion or otherwise. Luckily, they didn't have very far to go, but as he ran, Kagome began to ponder again. She'd traveled a farther distance than she ever before had in her life, and though it might not have been that long an interval to some, it was extraordinary to her. Kamikaze was rather averse to allowing her to go many places. Home and school was basically it. Hell, most of the time, he'd wondered why he even let her go to school.
When the sun began peeking over the horizon, Kagome suddenly requested, "Inuyasha, could you slow down a little? I mean, just for the time being." Inuyasha twisted his neck to stare at her in bewilderment, but he obliged and slowed down.
"May or should I ask why?
"Well..." She hesitated a little. "When I was a kid, I used to always watch the sun rise with my mother. That was when she was alive. Once she died, I was always too tired or beaten to get up so early. I haven't seen a sunrise in nearly a decade. I don't mean to slow us down for something this petty, but--"
"Say no more." He interrupted her self-deprecation immediately. "I understand completely. It's not petty, and it's no trouble for me to go a little slower for you. To see the daybreak, I mean." Kagome smiled gratefully, and suddenly, her eyes began to irritate her. Annoyed, she blinked hard a few times, but the irritation persisted. What the hell was wrong with her? Kagome swiped at her defiant eyes, shocked when her knuckles got wet. Was she crying?! No, no, she couldn't be. There was nothing to cry about here. She was simply yawning and probably hadn't realized it. Yes, that was it.
If Inuyasha detected her "tears", he didn't call attention to it, and merely continued walking. Kagome dabbed at her itchy eyes with her shirt, satisfied when they dried back to normal, and turned to the sunrise, liking the slow animation effect.
"To be honest," Inuyasha said softly, his voice seeming to blend in with the calm auroral atmosphere, "I've never paid much attention to the sunrise before. I always get outside when the sun's over the water, y'know? Right after daybreak."
"Yeah. That's how it is with me, when I attempt to get up early, but it always fails and I wake up at seven or so. Miss the entire thing."
"It is beautiful, though, isn't it?"
"It really is. An effective distraction, too." They both nodded and continued walking in comfortable silence. To any unwitting onlooker, the two looked like a pair of lovers on a romantic walk, but neither of them even considered the possibility of spectators.
That is, until Inuyasha saw what looked like a head peeking up from the water.
"What the hell...? Do you see that?"
"See what?"
"That thing in the water. It looks like a head." Kagome turned to the water and blinked. That was definitely a head. But whose was it? Was it the head of a corpse?
Apparently not.
"Oh, such a beautiful couple you make." The voice was strong, and it seemed to be coming from the head. Actually, the head was getting closer—and growing a body. A man was walking out of the water.
"..." Inuyasha and Kagome were shocked into silence and stillness.
"Where I come from, hanyou are not allowed to show their faces in public, yet here you are—and with a human lover, no less! That's so romantic." The man finally came up onto the sand, in a black vinyl body suit and a domino mask.
"...Inuyasha."
"Yeah?"
"Did a ninja just come up out of the water?"
"If I'm not mistaken, yes."
"Oh. I thought I was hallucinating."
"If you are, then so am I."
"No, I'm no hallucination." The ninja chuckled. "My name is Akiyoshi, but some call me Katanasan."
"...Mister Sword?" Kagome quirked her eyebrows.
"No...Katanasan. It means "three swords". Which, as you can see, I wield." Kagome and Inuyasha looked at him more carefully. Now they saw that he had one sword on his left, one on his right, and one slung across his back.
"Oh. Hmm. Well, is there any particular reason you were in the ocean?"
"Yeah. A ploy to scare the shit out of innocents? 'Cause it definitely worked, buddy."
"No, no, that's not it. Tsubaki informed me that you would be coming around this way, and I am to accompany you to Asahikawa."
"So...you're something like a bodyguard."
"That's right." Kagome saw Akiyoshi smile through his mask. "Something like a bodyguard."
"Hmm. Kagome, I don't know if we can trust him." Inuyasha muttered under his breath to Kagome, and she tentatively analyzed him with her new powers. Akiyoshi scratched idly at his chest.
"No, he's telling the truth." Kagome whispered back.
"How can you tell?"
"I don't know...I just sense it." Kagome cleared her throat and said aloud, "Okay, Mister Sword, we believe you."
"That pleases me greatly."
"We move pretty fast, dude, so are you sure you can keep up?"
"Can I keep up?" Akiyoshi chuckled. "I ran across water from Kunashiri Island to get here, and that was at midnight. I think I may be able to keep up." Kagome and Inuyasha looked at each other, then both shrugged.
"Okay, sure, you can come along." Inuyasha said, and they began running again. True to his word, Akiyoshi was neck and neck with the speedy hanyou, his silk streamers—he had tied them tightly around the hilts of each of his swords—drifting behind him as though the wind itself was following him.
"But there's something you need to know if you want to join this little runaway clan, Sword Man!" Kagome said over the wind of Inuyasha's running.
"Oh? What's that, pretty girl?" Kagome was at a loss for words for a moment, blushing a little.
"Uh...we're not a couple. Inuyasha and I, that is. We're not lovers. Our paths just happen to be a little intertwined, that's all."
"How intriguing. And lucky for me, ne?" If Kagome wasn't mistaken, he winked at her behind that mask. And if Kagome wasn't mistaken, Inuyasha sucked his teeth.
What was going on around here all of a sudden?