26- Gone
Hello lovelies! I´m back, once again super late. It took me a long time to write some of the last parts of this chapter, I was dreading it. It was shorter than usual, but I thought I should end it there Let´s hope you like how it turned out.
TW: There´s a small fight towards the end. I don´t think it´s too bloody. What follows might be considered a little gory? Just tread carefully if you are sensitive.
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"Do you really have to go?"
Kikyo wrapped her legs tighter around Dr. Kimuras legs, subconsciously trying to bind him to the bed.
"I don´t want to, " he answered while enveloping her in his arms. "I have to do it. I need to support your father´s project. It´s important to Onigumo, plus it will help my career."
"But why would he need a psychiatrist for his new lab? And did they have to build it in such an uninviting place?"
"Well, I haven´t visited yet, but I saw the blueprints. The lab is just one part of it, probably the largest too. Maybe your father added the hospital because it was built in Mount Azusa and there are no medical centers nearby, I´m not sure. They will have a psychiatric ward, mostly for rich patients that don´t want to be seen seeking treatment."
"Then why do they need you?"
"I´ll be the head of the psychiatric ward. My brothers will be there too. And I´ll be close to your father. I will be warming up to him, you know, to get his approval to marry you."
"What?" Kikyo suddenly popped her head up to get a good look at Suikotsu "You are being serious!"
"Of course, I am. I was planning a more romantic proposal but you wouldn´t let it go. I had to tell you my secret plan."
With tears blurring her eyes, Kikyo threw herself on top of her now fiancé, unable to utter any words
"Hey, don´t cry. I'll get you I nice ring, I promise."
"I don´t care about the ring!" She bellowed between sobs. " It´s just that... you know what you´re getting into, don´t you?"
"Of course, I do. You didn´t keep any secrets from me, right?"
"You know I didn´t, everything that was festering inside me, I let it out all. It was Dr. Ginkotsu´s advice and he´s a great therapist, you said so yourself."
"Hey, I´m a prominent psychiatrist, but you just needed a psychologist, so I pointed you to the second-best Dr. Kimura. I´m so glad I didn´t treat you directly now. I think it was more helpful for me to just be there for you. Plus, I couldn´t have dated you otherwise."
"So, are you sure then?" Kikyo had ceased her sobbing, but tears were still running down her face. "You'll never be able to father a child with me, you know that."
"I grew up with 6 brothers, I´d like it to be just the two of us. And there´s always the possibility of adoption if we ever want to add some more people to our party."
His answer left her heart at peace, and she was finally able to smile through the tears.
"This is when I miss my mother the most, she would have been the first person I´d tell. I can´t believe she´s been gone for so long. I had to spend my teenage years without a mother."
"I´m so sorry babe," he said before kissing the crown of her head. " I´d have loved to meet Midoriko-sama."
"And she would have loved you so much, you still have to meet my sister Kaede though. She´s a tough cookie, you´ll have to work your charm on her."
"I´ll try my best dear." Suikotsu´s head was still hanging around one little detail. "So when exactly did your mother passed away?"
"I was eleven, so it was 21 years ago," she answered.
"Really?"
It could only be just a coincidence but his mind wouldn´t let it go. He´d have to dig into it.
Tomorrow.
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It all happened so fast Kagome could hardly understand what was going on. Kouga had been grabbing her shoulders, shaking her like a rag doll when Inuyasha appeared out of nowhere. The hanyo seemed to drop from the sky on top of Kouga and the ookami was suddenly propelled into the side of a black car that was unfortunate enough to be parked there.
Kagome too was thrown to the side, extremely shocked to react to the fight in front of her. The bellowing sound erupting from the hanyo further freezing her in place.
Kouga, on the other hand, was already reacting, launching himself to Inuyasha´s midriff, knocking him down with a loud thump. It was not enough to deter the half-demon from retaliation. Snarling viciously, Inuyasha used his strong legs against the wolf, kicking him in the crotch with enough force Kagome was able to hear the air whooshing out of his lungs.
There were a few seconds of silence before Inuyasha stumbled to his feet and was going once again after the ookami crouching form. That kick would have been enough to stop a regular man, but Kouga was a full demon, in his case it only served to fuel his rage.
Gnashing his teeth and rolling to the side, Kouga was bolting through the air headbutting into Inuyasha´s nose. The hanyo stepped back from the force but promptly responded with a series of ferocious punches to the kidneys sending the wolf youkai to the floor while straddling him, never stopping the savage beating.
It took a few seconds that seemed like ages to Kagome´s eyes, but Kouga was able to turn them around and was on top of Inuyasha, one knee on his chest and both hands on his neck trying to strangle the half-demon. The choked growls that came out of Inuyasha´s mouth turning the young woman´s blood to ice in her veins, her chest constricting until she was almost as desperate for air as the hanyo.
Only then did Kagome notice the changes in the half demon´s features She wasn't sure if he had been like that the whole time, or it had just happened.
It didn´t matter, Inuyasha was not himself anymore, that was the important thing. His fangs were longer and sharper, the same as his claws tearing Kouga´s sleeves to shreds. There were jagged purple marks on his cheeks and his eyes...
His eyes!
Were these the same red eyes that had haunted her for so many nights?
It wasn´t just a shade of red, the sclera was blood red, and the pupils were just a slice of blue.
And his voice too. It was like he had become a feral animal, he just growled and roared in an utterly menacing way.
Kagome dragged herself back to a corner gasping in horror while the pair rolled in front of her in a mass of arms and legs, jabbing and kicking at each other. She could see Inuyasha´s puppy ears desperately moving on top of his head, always pointing in her direction.
"It can´t be him, it can´t be him!" She kept repeating to herself.
"Kagome, get out of here!" Kouga´s voice echoed in the middle of the grunting and growling. "He´s not himself right now, he might try to hurt you too."
She was brought back to the present when Inuyasha noticed Kouga was directing his attention to her. For a moment their eyes met and despite the difference in appearance, Kagome could swear he was worried about her.
Inuyasha was trying to protect her.
Kouga took this moment between them to his advantage kneeing Inuyasha in the stomach, finally able to knock the wind out of him.
Still, Kagome remained on the floor, her back finding a car´s tire for support.
Koga was dragging Inuyasha´s limp body away from where she was and supporting it against a pillar, he was getting ready to finish him off, Kagome feared.
As the hanyo was starting to come to his senses once more, the wolf put his forearm on his throat, attempting to leave him unconscious from lack of air. The hanyo was trying desperately to free himself, attempting to bite off the arm and clawing at the ookami at the same time. Koga defended his stance by punching his face with his free hand.
It was too much, Kagome couldn´t stand to see Inuyasha being punished so relentlessly. As soon as she saw blood running down Inuyasha´s left temple she stood up and run to the pair.
"Stop it Kouga, you´re hurting him!" She screamed in despair.
"We don´t know what he is capable of if I let him go, stand back!"
She couldn´t. She needed to stop them.
"I´m pregnant Kouga," the words blurted out of her without any thought of preventing them. "Inuyasha is the father."
Kouga´s eyes darted to a side glance, the pressure on Inuyasha´s neck never lessening.
Taking advantage of the wolf´s momentary lapse, she slid her arms between both men, palms on both of their chests as she made an effort to tear them apart. She pushed hopelessly for a few seconds until she felt her strength failing her.
"It´s useless," she thought, her hope almost dying before the heat started to flow. She felt it gathering in her chest and sliding up her arms. She couldn´t understand what was going on but she gritted her teeth and pushed harder until she felt a burst of energy erupting from her fingertips.
Abruptly, a stream of pink light came off her digits exploding around them, both men blowing away against the parked cars as alarm blasted and the windows crashed under the weight of their bodies.
She felt her knees weakening after that and she collapsed to the floor unable to support her weight anymore.
The bleeping of the alarms finally stopped, Kagome didn´t know how long it had been but she was finally able to hear the two men breathing. Confusion set in then, she had felt her reiki gather and explode. It hadn´t been her imagination, she told herself while she remained curled on the ground looking at her hands.
"You have the blood of great priests and priestesses running in your veins. Your reiki is already very powerful as it is, if you only let me train you, it would be even more so."
Grampa´s words had never make sense to her, until this very moment. She would have to go over his rambling more carefully once she had resolved this whole "Inuyasha full demon" issue.
She felt drained, her breathing shallow and her limbs feeling like they were made of lead. Slowly, she sat up extending her legs, and lifted her head to the side, looking for Inuyasha´s body.
"Inuyasha?" her voice unsurprisingly, sounded muffled to her ears.
Kagome crawled the distance that separated them getting a hold of his hand in a way to let him know she was there. It felt different though, the fingernails were blunt. Lifting her head in shock, Kagome saw the black hair spread on the cement floor before it dawned on her, Inuyasha had turned human. How did this happen?
"Kagome..." Kouga´s voice startled her, even in this weak state. "What the hell was that?"
She didn´t have an answer to that. How did she even manage to handle her reiki?
"When did you become a miko?" He kept asking for answers when Kagome couldn´t provide them even for herself. "What happened to Inuyasha?"
His attention shifted to the hanyo again
"Let´s go, he´s still unconscious, let´s leave before he comes to."
He moved closer to them and extended a hand as if to try and physically move Kagome from Inuyasha´s side. "We have some time now; you are too weak to use your reiki again if he attacks you"
"Inuyasha won´t hurt me. I know it." She finally spoke up, her voice a croaking sound at best.
"You saw him just a moment ago, he didn´t recognize you." Exasperated at her refusal, he grabbed her arm firmly.
"None of it matters, he´s still the man I love."
"Come with me!" He almost screamed.
"Are you kidding me?" She turned around to face him. "After what you just did to me? How could I ever trust you again?"
She was sitting again, her trembling hands gently combing the black hair from Inuyasha´s face
"You better leave us Kouga, you just said it yourself, I won´t be able to stop him if he decides to go after you."
As in cue, Inuyasha suddenly crouched between Kagome and the wolf.
"Alright then. It does look that I am his target." He was slowly walking backward. "Fine, I´ll leave you with him. I´m sorry it had to end like this between us if it´s worth anything to you."
She didn´t answer. She didn´t care about his words anymore. She was exhausted. all she wanted to do was lay down next to Inuyasha and sleep for days.
Inuyasha was already sitting, his back against a wall, his eyes focused on her finally.
His youki was still there, latent under the surface, he would be back to normal any moment, there was no anger left in him though. She didn´t know how she could tell that now but she could. So, she lay her head on his shoulder and felt his body relax, his arm sliding around her frame, making room for her at his left side as she further sunk into his warmth. Her hands went to her abdomen instinctively, she needed to reassure herself, to feel the new life was still beating within her.
"Our baby?" She felt his hand on top of hers on her abdomen before she could understand the question.
"Is going to be a very strong baby," she whispered looking down at their hands.
She looked at Inuyasha now, he was quietly settling with her, his breathing pattern as calm as hers.
They would work things out. They just needed to rest for a bit and then they would work things out, they were a family now.
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"Sesshomaru-sama!" The little green imp came running down the living room, through the corridors of the mansion, and opened the door of his lord´s studio without waiting for his permission. "Sesshomaru-sama!" He took a moment to catch his breath again. "Something weird just happened."
"Jaken!" The daiyoukai looked away from his laptop and focused his irate gaze on his assistant. "I hope it´s worth barging in like this."
"Our people say there was an explosion. The cameras only caught part of what happened."
"And my brother?"
"They don´t know."
"What?" He stood up now "Where is Inuyasha?"
"He´s gone. Both, the woman and your brother, are both missing."
"How can it be? Did our crew confirm it?"
"The...there´s no cameras Sir...after the explosion..."
"And no one has thought to go check by themselves?"
The imp was getting smaller, if possible, as Sesshomaru seemed to grow in stature.
"Y-y-you said to keep their distance, your b-b-brother didn´t want you inv-v-volved."
"I´m coming down there myself."
The elder Takahashi brother was storming out of the room when he was stopped in his tracks by his daughter.
"What is happening? Why are you guys screaming?"
She looked deeply concerned, her big doe-like eyes searching her father´s face for answers.
"Jaken can inform you, I need to leave right now."
"M-m-me?" Jaken stuttered in shock. His lord had never wanted to get Rin involved in their scheming, what could he even say to appease the girl?
"I´m coming with you then."
Sesshomaru looked to his assistant´s panicked expression and then to Rin´s. Determination was written all over her face, she would learn what was happening one way or another, it would be better to tell her himself.
"Very well, let´s go."
They both heard Jaken´s sighing relieved as they left the studio, most likely he had finally melted in a goo puddle on top of the Persian rug, Sesshomaru thought.
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The Shiten-No were uneasy, circling the parking lot not daring to disturb the scene before Sesshomaru arrived, none of the four wanted to face his wrath.
The tension was more evident when the black Lexus parked on the other side of the street. They heard Sesshomaru getting out of the vehicle and heard the voice of the girl calling after him.
"Father!" Rin demanded when the door was closed before she could get out.
"Stay in the car Rin"
The panther youkai were still standing in a circle watching the entrance to the parking garage.
"Toran!" The voice they were dreading boomed from behind them. "Care to inform me what´s happened?"
The leader of the panther group turned to face him clearly unhappy.
"We were just following your instruction, survey through the cameras without making contact. The ookami was here first, then the woman came, they were arguing and Inuyasha jumped on them. The two men started a fight, there was an explosion of light and that was all."
"Have you monitored the police?"
"Yes, there was an anonymous call, and they came to investigate, we were able to send them away but they might come back if there were any other calls."
"Good job. Have checked the area yet?"
"We were waiting for your consent."
The smell of blood permeated the air, none of them had brought that up even when their noses were twitching in unison.
Sending his underlings first, Tora stood next to Sesshomaru surveying the scene in front of them. Pieces of shattered glass had flown all over the place, there were some cars dented and even a couple of their roofs were compressed as if a wrecking ball had been dropped on them. The trails of blood led to a small pool that was half-hidden by a blue Toyota. There was no sign of fire though, or of any kind of detonation.
"You said there was an explosion?" Sesshomaru asked looking from him to the camera hanging dead from its mounting.
"We saw the blast through the cameras before they stopped working" Tora answered perplexed while scratching the back of his head.
"We can´t find him, sir." Shuran came up from the other side of the scene, followed by Shunran and Karan. "The human isn´t here either," the latter added.
"Where did they go?" Sesshomaru asked more to himself than to the rest of them.
"I can´t reach Kagome-chan."
"Rin! I told you to stay in the car"
The girl had been sneaky enough to jump them.
"I´ve been calling her since before we left the house." She lifted the phone in her hand as if to prove her point. "But I was able to reach Inuyasha, he´s in his apartment."
Sesshomaru moved then and she was able to see the blood, her face transfixed in a mask of horror.
"What happened here? Whose blood is that?"
Her father moved in a flash to block her view and tried to move her back to the car, realizing what a huge mistake he had made.
"Father, stop!" She struggled against the strength of his arms. "Where´s Kagome-chan?"She was getting more frantic the more he pushed her towards the car.
"FATHER, WHERE IS SHE?"
It would be an even bigger mistake to tell her now that it was indeed Kagome´s blood.
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A/N: We are finally here. I hope you are not too discouraged by the events of this chapter. As I said, I was dreading this chapter I was also looking forward to opening Pandora´s box. We´ll see what comes out of it.
As usual, any feedback is much appreciated.
Love,
ALP