Hello, here is a new chapter and this time I have included a couple of familiar faces from Kirara's first visit to the future (Kirara's adventure). I hope you don't mind it^^

Disclaimer: I don't own Inu Yasha

A nasty surprise

Kagome's vision was blurred when she opened her eyes. The new room she so brutally had entered was huge, it looked more like a banquet room than a normal apartment despite the lack of any furniture. Only a few chairs stood lined up against the wall under the barricaded windows and gathered dust. The tall man had immediately followed and was practically standing over with his piercing eyes looking down at her. Outside the broken door she had smashed, coming from the corridor, she heard the sound of fast approaching footsteps.

"Oh, that hurt!" she groaned and felt a throbbing pain from the back of her head. Then she saw two men arrive, and by the look of them it probably wasn't to rescue her. One of them stopped by Kentaro and picked him up like a bag of potatoes, to loud protests from said boy.

"Hey boss, what is going on?" the other one said and stared grimly at her. "We heard fighting from upstairs, do we have visitors?"

The man now identified as their boss gave them an angry look and sneered with a voice cold as ice, "I thought you were able to take care of the little brat on your own you incompetent fools. I was sleeping when I felt another person enter this building, I woke up and what did I discover? A girl! A puny little schoolgirl who though she could walk into my territory and take something from me. Perhaps I should get rid of you and find someone else to keep guard."

Kagome wasn't able to see his face, but from the look of the others faces she could tell this was a person who ruled by fear. They looked absolutely terrified and tried to shrink as much as possible under the pale man's angry gaze.

"We did call the other men and told them to come..," one of them said meekly while the other quickly followed up, "Sure, we didn't want to bother you so we thought we should handle before you came. I am sorry that you have been disturbed."

There was an eerie silence for a moment before the man turned his head back to Kagome and a gruesome sadistic smile spread across his lips. "Good," he said calmly, talking back to them. "Then I will grant you the opportunity to let see for yourself why I am the most feared creature known to man…" He stood still like a statue and stared down at Kagome who laid on the dark floor. She was about to move when suddenly with a swift motion, his arm shot down, grabbing her by the neck and lifted her up in the air like a ragdoll. Kagome quickly grasped his outstretched hand and tried to push them away as he pressed hard on her neck to close off her air supply.

"No-no," he said teasingly. "Nothing you are trying to do will help you now little girl. It was utterly foolish of you coming in her all alone and now you are going to pay the price for it," the man teased while flashing his teeth.

Kagome didn't know if he really was going to strangle her or do something else, his grip on her was steadily getting stronger and black spots were already beginning to appear in her vision. How stupid of her not listening to Inu Yasha, she should have known this would happen, but Inu Yasha wasn't here now to help her out and neither was Kirara. Her own physical strength was no more a match against this one than compared to a demon's. What should she do?

Her throat made a choking sound, proving she was fast running out of time, Inu Yasha wasn't here and Kirara was probably lying knocked out somewhere so Kagome was left to fend for herself, and she needed to come up with something quick! Her vision was swimming dangerously as the man pulled her closer to his face when he opened his mouth to lick his thin red lips. She could see his two sharp fangs behind them and Kagome knew she had to do something now or else she would certainly die a horrific death.

"Vampire!" Kagome managed to whisper angry and locked her eyes onto his.

A tiny trace of surprise appeared on his face for a short moment before it was replaced again by an even wider grin that showed her his pointed teeth. "How curious," he grinned back. "Mortals these days wouldn't be so fast assuming they have been caught by something they don't believe in. Are you even sure of it yourself, we both know that having a pair of sharp teeth isn't out of range for ordinary humans to be born with, just very rare. And my hideous strength can easily be the result of hard training."

Kagome felt her arms and legs starting to burn from the lack of oxygen and she stopped trying to kick him in order to save what little air she had left. She had to do something now and this was her last chance, but this was not a demon, but he was not a human either... That was probably what had worried her senses when she first had entered the building. Vampire, a creature of the night, an unholy being born of the dead who sucked the blood from its victims. At least that was what she had read in books and heard in horror movies, and from her own personal experience with the demon bat.

Then a thought suddenly struck her, "Wait a minute! If vampires truly are unholy beings, maybe my powers also can…?" Kagome called on her powers and suddenly felt the same familiar reaction as she did when facing demons, and now the lack of air didn't prevent her from smiling, grinning back at him with the same sadistic smile he had been giving her. Contrary to what he believed, Kagome was no ordinary person either!

"Oh, you would be surprised of what sort of creatures I believe in," she gurgled with her last air, "You are far from the first creature I have met…" then she fumbled with her hands to grasp the hand and arm that was holding her and sent a huge bolt of her holy powers through it.

The reaction was instant.

The vampire screamed in pain and lost his grip on her, making Kagome fall onto the floor once more. She immediately began massaging her neck while gasping for air as the old ghoul cursed and clutched his arm where the flesh started to burn away. "Aaargghh! What have you done to me mortal, what did you do to my arm?" he howled in fury. The grey skin on his arm turned black where he had been touched before it started to dissolve and fall off.

The two men who had been watching from inside in the corridor seemed confused as they couldn't see the immediate cause of their boss' sudden pain, but they were obviously taken back when the feared man had to let go of her. "What is it boss, do you need help?"

The vampire span around and the men froze in horror upon the sight of his dismembering arm. "Fools!" he shouted, "kill her or else I will tear off your heads for letting her in! NOW!"

Getting threats from this man was obviously nothing they took lightly because the man who held Kentaro abruptly dropped him down in fear and immediately made a move towards them, even though fear and uncertainly shone from both men's face.

Knowing she probably wouldn't stand a chance against them on her own, Kagome quickly got up to her feet and dashed towards the vampire. The creature was acutely aware of her movements but was probably still underestimating her enough not to try to dodge her upcoming attack. Kagome was therefore able to plant a powerful hit on his stomach like she had seen Inu Yasha done to his foes so many times before, but her fist was loaded with holy powers! Her impact made him the vampire scream in utter agony, frightening the two men behind him enough to make them stop in their tracks.

"Your days of kidnapping and terrorizing others are over" Kagome yelled angry at the vampire, "and so is yours if you take any step closer!" she threatened in an attempt to frighten the two humans from attacking her. Kagome turned back to the howling vampire again, his body was bended forward in agonizing pain and he tried to stumble away on shaking legs, but Kagome was now much faster. She forced such a huge amount of her powers into her arms that they started to glow eerie pink, then she sprang forwards and laid her hand on his face. The result was immediate and far more horrible than she had thought it would be.

The vampire let out a single, loud shriek before his voice started to crumbled and the stench of burning flesh hit her nose. With his remaining arm he tried to push her away, only to pull back again the second he made contact her glowing skin as if it was white-hot metal he had touched. Kagome felt and saw how the skin on his face more or less melted and evaporated under her fingers before she pulled her hands back, but then nothing could stop his rapid decay. The flesh she had touched was vanishing, making every tendon and piece of muscles visible before they too etched away into the naked bones. The two men gasped in absolute terror as their feared boss collapsed in agony while turning into a charred, black skeleton on the floor.

Kagome jumped back in disgust as he disintegrated and stared at her hands. Rarely had she tried to purify a demon with her bare hands, the only time she could remember anything close to this was when she had tried pushing Miss Centipede away while she still had the Shikon jewel inside her body. Was purifying a vampire easier or was it just because she actually had tried to use her hands this time instead of channeling her powers through a weapon?

"Wh..what did you do?"

The terrified question from one of the thugs tore her out of her musings; she should not forget them either. Unfortunately she doubted she could harm them with her power, no matter how much she tried to defend herself with them since they only were humans. But if she played her cards right she probably had a good chance scaring them away instead.

Gathering her confidence, she spoke firmly and stared at them with the same air of superiority and disdain that higher demons usually displayed in front of humans, "What did it look like I did? I warn you, if you try as much as touch me or do anything stupid you will suffer the same fate as he!" and then she nodded to the tiny pile of ash on the floor. "Do you understand!"

Kagome took a few stes towards the broken door and both men outside in the corridor backed terrified until they stood with their backs against the wall. Kentaro had fortunately been spared the worst scare as he had been lying on the floor in an angle that had prevented him from seeing what she had done to the vampire. But he was probably acute aware that she had done something incredible scary to frighten them as much as she did.

A bit earlier, Kirara had been kicked, beaten and thrown out. Not only had her tiny form taken far more beating than she had done in a very long time, she had also lost consciousness before she even had been able to transform and fight back. After being thrown out from the building by the strange man, she had flown through the air for a moment before she went through an open window in the neighboring building. But finally the nekomata was waking up again, battered but not beaten, Kirara tried to wiggle herself out of her mess. Fortunately had soft clothing dampened her landing and saved her from further pain, but she had also been buried deep inside the fabric and could hardly figure out which way was up or down. While trying to orientate herself, she noticed muffled voices speaking on the outside, and before Kirara knew it, a hand suddenly took hold on her neck and started pulling her up.

Kirara was raging, whoever of the thugs that though he could kick a cat and get away with it was going to feel sorry for it for the rest of his life, what little that remained of it anyway! She had almost been pulled free from the stuff when she transformed…

"Why do I always have to remind you to keep shut you babbling baboon and watch where you are going?" Hideki hissed in a low voice to Kuniaki as they both crotched down in front of the safe. "If someone should see or hear us now they would no doubt raise the alarm and then we will be screwed. Now give me the stuff and put that thing back."

Hideki and Kuniaki had planned this little break in, in detail. Rumors said that the hotel manager didn't trust banks and kept a large amount of cash in a secret safe. Of course, most people brushed it away as just rumors, but Hideki had his sources and knew better.

Kuniaki grunted and carefully pushed the huge China vase up to standing position again beside the other fragile pieces of art. "I didn't do it," he hissed back. "It was the towel wagon that suddenly moved, I didn't touch it," he replied and pushed the wagon away from the vase. "Leaving a huge breakable thing standing on the floor is asking for trouble anyway."

"I find it more troubling that you can't see a one meter tall and a half meter wide pot standing on the middle of the floor right in front of you!" Hideki commented and turned his attention back to the safe, "Now if you just can keep quiet and give me the stethoscope."

"Yes, yes," Kuniaki mumbled and walked over to the towel wagon from the hotel, it was truly a brilliant plan hiding their equipment inside it and disguise themselves as bellboys. Walking around dressed up in the hotel uniform with a wagon filled with towels, nobody suspect it contained everything they needed to open a safe. Looking back at his partner in crime, he put his hand inside it to pull out their tool kit and grinned for himself, the people here would be in for a nasty surprise…

I have been looking for an opportunity to give the unlucky small-time criminal duo from my previous story, yet another scare^^
They are somewhat a contrast to what is happening with Kagome I believe, or what do you guys think? Review and tell me.