A Family Like Mine
Chapter 13 – By the Hundreds
"No. I think I do want to hear what you have to say," Akane said, from behind gritted teeth.
"It's quite an expensive thought," Nabiki grinned.
Akane stormed out of the room, muttering under her breath. "I should have known."
Kasumi frowned. "I'm not sure you did the right thing here, Nabiki dear."
"Well, it doesn't matter now anyway, the damage is done. We're just going have to deal with the consequences now."
"What are the consequences?" Ryoga asked.
"Demons start appearing out of nowhere prepared to fight to the death for the jewel." In rememberance of the broken families Kagome'd come across, she hoped that no evil like Naraku would appear this time.
Ranma nodded. "So you're going to need constant protection then."
Thinking of what this 'protection' might entail, she winced.
"Don't worry, just leave it to us."
#
If she hadn't had an inch of privacy before...she definitely didn't have any now.
It wasn't that is was a bad thing that she always had someone to back her up, in case of emergencies – but...it was getting just slightly ridiculous. Because, when Ranma had said that everyone wanted to help...he'd meant that everyone wanted to help.
"Look! It Shampoo turn to guard now!"
"No! It's my turn, bimbo! Now get out of here before I pour a ton of batter on that nice, shiny hair of yours!"
"Ukyo, please," Kagome said, trying to intervene before things got too out of hand.
"Hah! Weakling like you cannot defeat great Amazon warrior!"
"Oh yeah? Wanna bet on that?"
"Guys!" Kagome shouted, stepping in between the two. "Look, both of you can follow me around if you want, but just stop fighting!"
"Tell her Kagome! Tell her she no wanted here!"
"Kagome! You'd rather have me with you, wouldn't you?"
Truthfully, Kagome agreed. Ukyo reminded her a lot of Sango. Both of them were strong, independent women, whom could be relied on and were incredibly loyal. And they both carried large weapons on their backs. Kagome couldn't help think sometimes, that her cousin and her friends, were just a parody of the friends she'd made in the feudal era.
Shampoo was nice too, but she was a lot of hard work, and she was just far too fickle. But she couldn't really say anything now, could she?
"Don't you guys have shops to run?"
Ukyo raised an eyebrow. "How can my shop be open when I have school?" She turned to look at Shampoo. "But you're not closed are you?"
Shampoo glared. "Shampoo will be back to look after Kagome later."
"Well that sure got rid of her."
Ukyo laughed, leaning back on her arms.
"Where'd Akane go anyway? She said she'd meet us on the field during lunch."
"Dunno. Probably demanding Ranma tell her why he won't let her be a bodyguard."
Kagome sighed. Ranma was enjoying his self-appointed post as 'Commander of the Troops' a little too much in her opinion.
Ukyo sat up straight, her eyes wide. "We've got to go look for them! I mean...they can't be left alone together!"
"For god's sake Ukyo, they live together. Alone togtherness can't be avoided. Besides, does it really matter?"
"Yes!" Ukyo's eyes flickered from Kagome to the school building.
"But aren't you and Ranma just, you know, old friends?"
Ukyo frowned. "No, he's my fiancee."
"But think about it, the friendship you have with Ranma is...is friendship! You're comrades, and -"
"Look, Kagome, I know you're on this whole Ranma-and-Akane-together-forever crusade, but the fact is, Ranma is going to fufill his promise to me one way or another." Ukyo nodded in agreeance to her own words.
"Fine. But I'm not going to give this up either." Kagome paused, falling back into the soft, green grass. "Hey Ukyo?"
"Hm?"
"Why are you guys all so eager to protect me? I mean, I barely know you or Shampoo, but..."
Ukyo shrugged uncomfortably. "Let's call it good business...and besides, you're my friend now!"
"Oh. Thank-you," Kagome replied, still a little confused. She pulled out the jewel from underneath her uniform and twisted the chain around her fingers.
"The key-chain was pink." Ukyo said.
"What? Oh! Right, yeah well, I've been trying to purify it...or, well I didn't mean to and it happened anyway...I didn't even notice it had turned white till I got to the dojo." Kagome untangled her fingers and brought the jewel closer to her face for inspection.
"So...you mean there's no magic left?"
"No...I don't really know. But I do know that Kikyo thought that if the jewel could be completely purified it would vanish, for good." She clenched her hand around the jewel. "But...I havn't been able to find the right wish."
"The right wish?"
"Mm. A wish tainted by the slightest bit of jealousy or greed...the jewel itself is tainted, so it will use whatever oppurtunity it can to ruin things..."
She looked up to see Ukyo worriedly biting her lip.
"What's -"
"Kagome!" Akane fell on to the grass beside the other two girls. "Hey, Ukyo! Shampoo's gone I see."
"Yes, she is," Kagome agreed, rather sleepily...the sun was just so warm...and the grass was so soft...
"Did you guys hear that?" A shadow fell over Kagome and she shivered from the loss of the sun's heat. Ukyo was on her feet, scanning the area rapidly with her hair swinging out behind her.
"No..."
"There it is again! Listen!"
Kagome concentrated, and found she could hear something – a low, muffled, rumbling, just barely there.
Akane frowned, listening intently. "I can hear it."
Kagome curled her fingers into the gras as she tried to discern the direction the sound was coming from. The dirt shivered beneath her. Leaping up with alarm, she stared at the ground. "It's below us!"
The rumbling grew louder and the shaking got stronger, like a sort of tiny, localised earthquake. "Run!" Kagome screamed.
The three girls scrambled away just in time, as the earth broke open and a giant worm slithered out of the crater, roaring in fury.
Kagome could've started crying. There weren't supposed to be this many demons in her era! And what was this? The fifth demon this week?
The sooner she got rid of the damn jewel the better.
#
Kagome was lying in the grass in the Tendo garden once more. She was exhausted, and still a little bitter over a nasty scrape on her ankle, courtesy of a certain worm. Though it was starting to get dark and she was shivering, she made no move to go inside because quite frankly, Ranma and Akane and Ukyo and Ryoga (and all the rest) were giving her an intense headache.
They were all fighting pretty horribly over her now, she hated to think how it would escalate when Kuno came back from wherever he was right now.
"Ugh!" Akane screeched, slamming the sliding door after her as she came to sit by Kagome. "I can't believe them!"
Kagome sighed. "Mmm. It's all a little much, isn't it?"
"I just...all they're after is a chance to..." Akane stopped. "Never mind."
A horrible feeling washed over Kagome as she thought of the various ways that sentence could have ended. She wrapped a protective hand over the Jewel. Akane's – and her's too, now – friends, were good people. But, they all had problems of some sort or the other, problems they'd long been searching for a solution for. If Ranma had the jewel...he wouldn't have to be a girl anymore.
If Ryoga had the jewel, he would gain back some of that dignity and self-esteem he'd lost with his change.
If Shampoo, or Mousse had the jewel....or god forbid, Happosai got his claws on it...
She'd tried to explain, just what the evil the Jewel could do, but they were much like she had been at the start of her journey. They didn't fully comprehend it's power for evil – it was on a whole different scale to the demons they were used to fighting. None of them, not even Nabiki who'd sold her out in the first place, had seen what she had. Headless bodies, ravaged, torn, mangled bodies. Rotting flesh, falling from the faces of murdered children. And the blood. So, so, so much blood.
"I see," she whispered. Even between all this worry, Kagome couldn't help but also feel a little hurt.
Ukyo came out next, slamming the door just as hard as Akane.
"I'm sorry Kagome," she said, falling beside her.
Akane glared at Ukyo. "Hmph. You were one of the ones trying to get a piece of her. Don't try and deny it."
Ukyo looked at the ground miserably. "Well, yeah, I had...I thought, that maybe if I could lift Ranma's curse then he would...well. But after what you said at lunch Kagome, maybe, maybe it's not worth it. Maybe I would have made Ranma hate me instead."
Kagome reached out and took Ukyo's hand comfortingly. "At least I got through to one of you."
They all winced as they heard something crash.
"It's a wonder you have any possessions left," Kagome mused.
"Kasumi started putting the good china away a long time ago."
For a while they just sat together in silence, letting the war rage on behind them.
Shrieking suddenly, Akane got to her feet. "I can't take this anymore! Between the three of us, we should be able to take care of ourselves! We did pretty good to that worm demon!"
"But Ranma help- what am I saying? Of course we can take care of ourselves! We're as strong as any man!" Ukyo was on her feet too, smiling wickedly.
They both looked expectantly at Kagome. "Uh...power to the female?" She didn't really want to go anywhere. She was exhausted. But...
A small explosion shook the ground and rattled the house.
"Come on, quick, before they notice." And with that Kagome sneaked away with the two girls.
AN - Sorry! I was hoping to get this up sooner....but............gah!
Its shorter than the last one, because A) I needed desperately to get SOMETHING up for the sake of my writer's block (or rather my muse decided to take a detour) and B) Because I felt bad. I going away for a week, without access to a pc...and that just adds more bad time to my Record of Lates. Speaking of which, I was an HOUR late to piano today....and I have an exam in ... on the day after tomorrow!!!!! Gah!
*PANIC ATTACK*
*Cries hysterically*
*Runs away to magical forest, within which hides dream house, complete with internet access and live-action half-demon......also LACKING IN THREE ASSIGNMENTS THAT WANT TO BE HANDED IN ON MY FREAKING BIRTHDAY!!!!!! Not to mention English. Nooooo English there.*
Hope the chapter is okay untill I get the next one up, which I SWEAR will be more substantial (and more importantly interesting). I felt this one is just filler. But certain parts were necessary for the story.
Till next time......