Trap of Darkness

A/N: Welcome back to Trap of Darkness my wonderful readers. Just a quick thank you to all those who've followed, reviewed and read. A special thanks to LADY SILVERFOX for persisting the story. The story is jointly owned by LADY SILVERFOX and myself. We only own the plotline and our OCs, Jasmine and Akemi. The rest belongs to Rumiko Takahashi. Well, onto the next chapter. Here you go! Please enjoy and don't forget to leave a review. Thanks!

For a little head's up:

'Japanese'

'English'

Thoughts

Fifteen

'Tōga-ō!' Akemi snapped barging into the office.

The door she slammed open crashed into the wall, cracks spider webbed around the wood. Despite the situation, she would have laughed if the two males in the office had jumped. But sadly, there was no such reaction.

How boring.

She wasn't truly expecting that reaction, as it was only fantasy, but she loved to humiliate people that angered her, directly or indirectly. She was being petty, acting human. But for the sake of the members of her pack, she'd do anything. Except strip naked and offer her body to every man alive. She was never going to whore herself out like that. That was just degrading. Beyond degrading actually.

'What are you doing here, Akemi?' Sesshōmaru's cold voice demanded.

She didn't even spare the prince a glance, let alone acknowledge his presence.

'Calm yourself, Akemi,' Tōga-ō ordered calmly.

Her green eyes burned with an inner fire at the order.

'You no longer have the authority to order me around, Tōga-ō. We are officially of the same rank.'

'My apologies,' he said, golden eyes insincere.

'I really didn't want to believe Jasmine. I really wanted to have that faith in you,' she sneered and turned her nose up to look down at him.

And that had nothing to do with their height differentiation. He would have her beat with his hands down.

'But there's no way that a member of my pack would ever lie to me,' she said with a growl. 'In fact, there's no way I wouldn't be able to detect a lie. But seeing that look in your eye confirms it. You're doing more than looking down on me.'

'We are of the same rank,' he admitted, closely his eyes and leaning back in his chair with a calm confidence. 'But just because we're ranked the same doesn't mean that we are of the same strength. Figuratively, I cannot rest my beliefs in you, even if you were the only one capable of saving the entire yōkai race. The difference in power of our stations makes it impossible to entrust you with such responsibilities.'

'That's a polite way to say you're just a burden, Akemi,' Sesshōmaru said.

Akemi chuckled humourlessly. 'If there's one thing I've come to hate above everything else, it's being looked down on.'

'You're just a child,' Tōga-ō said. 'How do you expect to compete amongst adults who have far more experience, power and intelligence in their stations?'

'Compared to an ancient man such as yourself, I would be a child. But if these last seven hundred years have taught me anything, it's believing and trusting in others. Especially with my House. I lack experience, especially in handling highly ranked individuals such as you and me. I earned the intelligence through the years. And I cannot be called the Lady of the House of the Sun if I did not have the power to back it. I wasn't merely handed the title because I'm the last survivor, although that's only part of it. However, the ceremony requires a specific level of power in order to be granted the title. A requirement I had no difficulty in obtaining.'

'I have heard that the House of the Sun has a Ceremony of Entitlement.'

'Ceremony of Entitlement?' Sesshōmaru repeated, curiously.

'The Ceremony of Entitlement is a ritual that all possibly leaders of the House has to undertake to be chosen to being the Lord or Lady,' Akemi confirmed without looking at him. 'The requirements is the strong bloodline of the inu yōkai, specifically from the House of the Sun, a certain level of power and a blood vow that's Law itself. When the Lord of Lady has been chosen, it's from a higher power. And as each candidate undergoes the Ceremony of Entitlement, we all undergo a thorough examination of our minds, bodies, hearts and souls. Only then will someone be chosen.'

'How do they choose the next leader?' Sesshōmaru inquired.

She looked at him out of the corner of her eyes. 'No one knows. The higher power involved in the choosing of our leader only ever involves themselves during the ceremony. Other than that, everyone doubts their existence. Actually, there were far too many that believed it was some yōkai who believed themselves to be higher than the rest of us. But other than that, no one really knows who or what the higher power is, or why they involve themselves with the House of the Sun.'

'Regardless of this ceremony's requirement of power, you expect me to believe that you're capable of fighting on par with me? On par with Sesshōmaru?' Tōga-ō said incredulously.

Akemi resisted the strange temptation of glaring at him.

'I've been fighting on par with Sesshōmaru since we were little children.'

He waved her words away. 'That was over seven hundred years ago. I'm on about now.'

This time she did glare.

'Your precious first son is not the only one who's grown stronger in these last seven centuries, Tōga-ō.'

He shook his head. 'I'm sorry, Akemi, but I cannot believe it. Especially not with your lack of control the other day.'

'Would you stop belittling me?!' she yelled at him, her yōki flaring.

The loud boom of an explosion shook the building like an earthquake. Both the males immediately looked at Akemi in accusation, but the female yōkai knew that she had nothing to do with the blast. But she knew that she had no part in the explosion. What did she get out of blowing up the school? Absolutely nothing! But of course these two wouldn't believe her, even if she tried to explain. Tōga-ō already believed that she was weak. What else would he not believe?

She glared at him. 'I don't need to prove my innocence to you,' she growled and left the office, slamming the door shut.

At the same time that the door slammed closed, the fire alarm blared alive.

Akemi got a bad feeling in her gut. She used her yōkai speed to race out of the building, and then used her sense of smell to lead her to the fire.

Well, at least this was a good distraction for you, Jasmine, Akemi thought as she raced towards the fire.

'Now that's a distraction,' Jasmine said wanting to laugh to herself, but also worried about Tōga-ō's temper. 'Thanks, Akemi.'

Taking her phone out of her pocket, she placed her earphones in her ears and plugged the jack into the phone. She scrolled through her songs and played School's Out by Alice Cooper, a fitting song considering the burning building and the fact that she was escaping.

Turning back to the wall, she threw her suitcase over the wall and then sat in silence for a minute before climbing over and dropping to the ground on the other side. Waiting at the curb was a taxi, one that Jasmine had called a while ago while Akemi arranged all the payments to get to Illinois. The yōkai had refused Jasmine's refusals. She had insisted that she help a friend in need. And because Jasmine hated relying on others was determined that she would pay Akemi back. The payment Akemi wanted was for Jasmine to be happy.

She slammed the boot closed after she had put her luggage in and slipped into the back of the cab.

'To the airport please,' she asked the driver.

As the car went into motion, Jasmine peered out of the window back to the school. She couldn't help but be worried about Akemi and the other girls. But her thoughts were mainly filled with Tōga-ō.

Shaking her thoughts away, she sank back into the seat and let her mind wander into the song. In a trance-like state, she closed her eyes. However, that only made it worse. Tōga-ō's face kept working its way to the forefront of her thoughts, making it nearly impossible to tune him out. He was like a demanding dog, even in her innermost thoughts. It was aggravating, since she was still angry with him for how he treated her friend, but it was also a pleasure to be able to see him so perfectly in her mind. She didn't want to be distracted from her anger towards him, but for some reason she could never stay mad at him for long, at least not inwardly.

Was she becoming a pushover? Or was this silly crush of hers getting too ridiculous?

She was going to end up hurt again. She just knew she was.

But what could she do? You can't control who you fall in love with. It was out of her hands.

But did she want to stop loving him? She couldn't find it in herself to stop from crushing on him, to prevent her heart from feeling so attracted to him, as if they were drawn together like magnets. She couldn't truly explain why she liked him to begin with, just that there was some kind of force pulling them together. She couldn't escape, even if she wanted to. She didn't even know how to begin to break away. And every time she thought about doing it, something within her rebelled.

She couldn't escape. Some part of her didn't want to.

The hearts wants what it wants.

Kagome, Rin, Sango, Inuyasha and Miroku came to a stop outside the dormitories where everyone else had also gathered. The girls gasped and the twins covered their mouths with their hands. Sango's eyes were wide, just like the boys'.

Fire crackled and hissed from the top storey, from a set of five windows. The smoke ballooned into the sky, the normally grey colour was black before it lightened out, indicating that many things were definitely burning in the room. And it was definitely someone's room seeing as someone had set fire to the room. But it was no ordinary fire. The explosion beforehand pointed out that it was intentional. Those that lived in that room was in danger.

'Kagome-nee, Sango-nee, that's our room!' Rin exclaimed.

'She's right!' Kagome said with wide eyes.

'Who would do such a thing?'

Kagome glared up at the fire. 'I bet it was Kikyō and Kagura.'

'What?!' Inuyasha exclaimed. 'Why would they do this?'

'Well, Kikyō and Kagome hate each other. Kagura's Kikyō's lackey. It shouldn't have surprised me that they'd stoop to this level,' Sango explained.

'Inuyasha, Miroku, is anyone hurt?' Tōga-ō asked as he stepped onto the scene, immediately commanding silence amongst the crowd.

'Oyaji,' Inuyasha said with relief in his voice. 'Iie, everyone's fine.'

'Inu no Taishō-sama,' Sango greeted with a bow. 'Would you like me to investigate?'

Japan's King looked at her. 'Who lives in that room?'

'We do, sire,' she answered. 'My sisters and I, along with Jasmine and Akemi.'

'If Akemi lives there, then I don't see why she would blow it up,' Sesshōmaru said coming to stand beside his father and crossing his arms.

'Akemi-chan did this?' Rin asked shocked.

'No,' Sesshōmaru said before Tōga-ō could pinpoint the blame on her.

Tōga-ō narrowed his eyes at his eldest son.

Rin looked relieved. 'Thank goodness.'

'It's not possible for Akemi to destroy her own bedroom,' Sesshōmaru explained looking up at the blazing fire. 'What reason would she have? She'd not only be destroying her own stuff, but she'd be destroying her friends' as well. Considering the way she treats her four roommates as pack, there's no way she'd endanger them, leave them homeless or destroy the things they own. She's not malicious, even if she is weak.'

Tōga-ō crossed his arms. 'And who do you think did this?' he asked, waving a hand at the fire that the school's security team were trying to put out.

'Does Akemi, Jasmine or any of you have any enemies?' Sesshōmaru asked, turning to the three sisters, Inuyasha and Miroku.

'Rather than asking someone else, wouldn't it be better if you heard it directly from my mouth?' Akemi asked from behind him.

The first prince turned to look at her.

Her once angry green eyes were blue surrounded by a sea of red. The girl was close to transforming. The destruction of her living quarters, and not just hers, had set her teetering close on the edge.

'Sesshōmaru,' Tōga-ō said, bringing attention around to him. 'Interview Akemi, Inuyasha and Miroku. I'll interview the sisters.'

'And Jasmine?'

Tōga-ō sighed. 'I'll leave her be for now. She's in a dangerous mood, and I have no idea how to diffuse it.'

The first prince nodded his head. 'Come, Akemi.'

She glared at the yōkai, but said nothing. She completely ignored Tōga-ō altogether and headed off after Sesshōmaru with the two boys following closely.

Word meanings

Nee - sister

Oyaji – father

Iie - no