Chapter 30
Rin is in Towa's room, watching her sleeping like normal but can tell that something's definitely wrong. Like she told Kagome over the phone, the twins arrived home at the usual time after school, but they looked completely drained from something. Even though Rin is a human, she can still feel it inside of herself, a mother's instincts to do whatever it takes to get her daughters better as soon as possible.
"Lady Rin." Gin asks her from the doorway. Rin turns around to see the half bull demon with a worried look like hers. "Is Setsuna ok?" Rin asks him first.
Gin nods. "For now, she's the same way as Towa. I don't get it. How could they be so fatigued all of a sudden? They're never like there." He said to her.
Rin hmms, "Well the only plausible reason they're like this is that the human body uses a lot of energy growing up in their teens. As such it's too much for them to endure and that makes them very tired for a while. But this isn't it. It has to be something else."
Gin doesn't really know what to say in response to Rin's theory. Even though she's right about it.
"Rin." Sesshomaru speaks up from outside the bedroom door. Gin respectfully steps aside to let the man enter. "I just received word from Inuyasha that Misako has escaped prison."
Rin turns her head to see him in his usual stoic look, not that she minds at all. "I see. Do you think that Misako is coming here to kill our girls?" She asks rather calmly, not to freak at the slightest.
Sesshomaru narrows, "It might be them or Moroha." He just tells her that.
"Um, excuse me, Lord Sesshomaru?" Gin asks him curiously. Sesshomaru slightly turns his head. "What is it, Gin?"
"Who is this Misako? Is Misako a fugitive?" Gin asks his question is a nervous tone.
"Misako is a fugitive. The reason she escaped prison is because she's after someone who managed to put her in prison in the first place." Rin answers the question.
"And then who?" Gin asks eagerly.
"She's after my daughter, Moroha." Inuyasha said out of nowhere since the entire house was too focused on the twins' current state that they didn't even sensed Inuyasha coming in.
"You're…" Gin widens his eyes.
"I'm Moroha's father, Inuyasha Takahashi, as well as Sesshomaru's younger half-brother." Inuyasha crossed his arms.
"What brings you here, Inuyasha?" Rin asks him. Inuyasha turns to the backpack in the bedroom. "Hey, can I see Towa's backpack?" He points to the school item. Rin nods and hands it to him. Inuyasha sniffs the item carefully, "What is it that you're sniffing?" Gin asks him, not that he's being rude to the half dog demon.
"My daughter was wearing her signature ribbon this morning until she came home with a different one. That item had a foul smell that was able to sap her energy the entire afternoon. I bet that whatever Towa and Setsuna had replaced would prove my suspicion." Inuyasha explains until he picks up her cell phone.
"This phone isn't Towa's." He tells them as he pulls out his own to dial Towa's number. As such the duplicate cell phone doesn't go off here in the room.
"Hello, Inuyasha. It's been a while hasn't it." A new voice answers the device. Inuyasha recognizes the voice. He gestures to be quiet and turns the speaker on his phone to make sure that rest of the group hears in.
"Misako. I know for sure that you escaped prison and swapped Towa's phone." Inuyasha said to her. Misako giggles at that. "You may think that I was the one who did that, but I assure you that it wasn't me who did that. You see I happened to have been making connections with a particular person at the school that your daughter goes to. Does the name Meiko ring a bell?"
The group silently gasps.
"I can tell that you're not the only one in the room. Not just that, you're not home either are you. What kind of father leaves his mate and child unprotected? I guess you don't want to see them dead." Misako said as the call ends.
"Sesshomaru, are you able to track where your daughter's phone is located?" Inuyasha asks his brother. Sesshomaru pulls out his phone. "It's at the school. She was taunting you. You need to go back home before Misako gets there."
Inuyasha leaves the house immediately and dashes back to his family. "What about Setsuna? Any idea what the item that has the same smell?" Rin asks Sesshomaru.
Sesshomaru goes into Setsuna's room to pick up the scent that was Towa's phone. He walks towards Setsuna's backpack and pulls out the one folder that has her violin music sheets. "Her music folder has the scent as well." He turns his sight to the younger twin who is in the same state as Towa and Moroha.
"Lord Sesshomaru, how was it possible for the girls to be put under such a state?" Gin asks him curiously. Sesshomaru thinks for a second. "It has to do with what they hold the most valuable to them. Towa is her smartphone, Setsuna with her music folder, and Moroha's ribbon she wears to make the ends look like Inuyasha's ears." He answers the half bull demon.
"So this Misako is after Moroha. But why put your daughters in danger as well?" Gin is getting rather suspicious about the subject.
"They're her hostages. So far, my daughters are the ones closest to Moroha. So in order to get to Moroha without an interference, Misako ordered Meiko to swap their belongings with the replicas with the scent that makes them very tired." Sesshomaru said to him.
Kagome is in Moroha's room, just watching her daughter sleep like the last time she told her to sleep. As soon as Inuyasha left the house, she made sure that she put up a barrier to keep the house safe from Misako. Her phone chimes.
I'm outside. Let me in.
It was from Inuyasha's phone, so Kagome easily creates a hole for Inuyasha to enter the barrier and into the house. "Kagome. Are you alright?" Inuyasha asks as he enters the bedroom quickly. Kagome nods with a frown. "For now, nothing's happened since you left." Inuyasha kneels down by Moroha's side of the bed. "I heard from Sesshomaru that Misako has indeed escaped prison."
"Is anyone going to go after her?" Kagome asks him in silent anger in her voice, not to wake up their daughter. Inuyasha narrows his eyes. "We only have one idea. Towa's smartphone was swapped so that the replica did the same thing to Moroha. I assume Setsuna is in the same state. But from a different approach." He leaves the room.
"Inuyasha, where are you going?" Kagome asks him from behind, just to follow him. "If Misako is going after Moroha, I have to make sure that she doesn't come any closer here. In other words, we have to relocate somewhere else." He enters the master bedroom to grab an emergency bag. "Kagome, we have to get Moroha to my brother's house. His barrier is way stronger than mine." Inuyasha said to her seriously.
Kagome goes back to Moroha's bedroom and gets a red duffle bag in Moroha's closet to fill it with Moroha's belongings as well of a few clothes. "Mom…" Moroha murmurs. Kagome turns to see Moroha trying to wake up.
"Moroha, stay down, sweetie." Kagome gently pushes her daughter back down onto the bed. Moroha looks over her mother's shoulder. "What are you doing with my bag? Are we going somewhere?" She asks in mumble.
"We're heading out. You can sleep as long as you want. We just need to get a few things." Kagome smiles gently. "But I want to know where." Moroha growls weakly. Inuyasha enters the room to see Moroha trying to stay awake.
"Ok, Moroha. We're out of here." He carries her in his arms while the emergency bag on his left shoulder while Kagome has Moroha's duffle bag as well as her own on her shoulders.
"We leave the cars here. And we have to turn off the phones so that no one can tell where we are." Inuyasha said to Kagome. Kagome raises her eyebrow. "Really. And how exactly are we going to get to our destination?" Inuyasha looks in one direction. Soon Riku appears with a bow. "I've been summoned by Lord Sesshomaru to escort you."
"Ok. We're ready to go." Inuyasha nods to let him know. Riku stands up and flicks the one blue stud earring on his left ear to teleport the group to the one place they'd never expect. Then they reappear in Sesshomaru's patio.
"Oh, Kagome." Rin runs outside and hugs her. "I have your rooms ready." She takes Kagome and Inuyasha to the other guest bedrooms in the manor. Kagome and Inuyasha enter the bigger guest room that is only reserved for them. Moroha has the other guest room down the hall from them.
"What are we going to about Misako?" Rin asks the couple as they put their bags onto the bed while Inuyasha puts Moroha into the other guest bedroom. "We left most of the stuff back home. We were only able to bring the supplies that we need for the mission." Inuyasha answers her.
"Last time I heard was that Misako was at the school." Rin said as she opens her phone to check on the school's security cameras to find which one has Misako. She scans through the timelapse to see that is was Meiko who answered Towa's phone.
"What's the problem?" Kagome asks Rin. "When Inuyasha called Towa's phone, I see it was Meiko who was answering it, but it wasn't her voice. It was Misako's." Rin said to her.
"Maybe it's a possession ability. But Misako's human. There's no way she'd be able to do that." Kagome points out.
"Not unless the tree that's at the school gave her that ability." Inuyasha said to her. "What do you mean by that?" Rin turns to him. Inuyasha presents the ribbon that Moroha wore that made her fall asleep in a sample jar. "This ribbon has spore particles from the Memori Nori. It took me a while to understand the tree's purpose."
"The tree is meant to have its victims inhale its scent to forget about things. One effect is falling asleep. So far, our daughters have been its victims. When the victim wakes up they're forget about a certain time of their lives."
Rin and Kagome look at each other. "You don't think…" Kagome said first.
"Our daughter will forget about us eventually." Inuyasha said in gloom.
"Is there anyway to stop it?" Rin asks him.
Inuyasha is about to say something. "Bracelet…" Moroha murmurs to get their attention. Kagome comes to her one side. "Moroha. Baby, are you okay?" Kagome presses her hand onto Moroha's forehead. "No fever." She smiles in relief.
"I made bracelets for them and myself." Moroha slips her own arm to show the bracelet. "Oh, you made this?" Rin asks in awe.
Moroha nods. "Yeah, I made sure I add a few effects to make sure that the tree's scent wouldn't affect us completely. We're only able to sleep. But our memories aren't affected." She assures her aunt.
That made Rin go into Towa's room first to see that Towa's wrist has a bracelet like Moroha's. She then goes into Setsuna's room to find the same thing.
Moroha moans in pain. "Moroha?" Kagome asks her daughter. Moroha growls ferally. Her brown eyes are beginning to turn gold like Inuyasha's. Her raven black hair shines between silver and black. As well as her fangs and claws try to get longer. Inuyasha gets behind her and knocks her out to stop her in her tracks. "What happened?" Kagome asks him in concern.
Inuyasha narrows his golden eyes, "Even though the scent from the tree didn't affect her human part, it's trying to affect her demon side, which explains why she's going through the pain." Just hearing that made Rin worry even more. Soon she hears both Towa and Setsuna screaming like what Moroha just did.
Sesshomaru enters Towa's room and does the same trick Inuyasha did to stop Moroha's transformation. He then goes into Setsuna's room and does it again. He narrows his eyes. "It appears that their demon blood is reaction to the demon tree's scent." He said to them. "Maybe Tenseiga can repel the affect." He said as he goes into his master bedroom to retrieve the sword.
"Inuyasha, do you think the Tetsusaiga could help them too?" Rin asks him. In responds, the sword begins to rattle. Inuyasha pulls out the sword from his hip and hands it to Moroha. Moroha smiles thankfully and relaxes as she holds the sword towards her chest. That made Inuyasha smiles back.
"Rin, we should have the twins in here too. I bet both swords will work better that way." Kagome gives her an idea. Rin goes into Setsuna's room, while Kagome gets Towa. Luckily since the twins were both out, the two mothers didn't have to carry them that far and put them onto the bed that Moroha was laying on.
Soon enough, Sesshomaru enters the room with the Tenseiga. "We should place the swords' hilts together to make a barrier for them. That way they're safe." He said as he places the Tenseiga on one end while Moroha does the Tetsusaiga's part on her side of the bed since she's holding it. The two swords pulsate, and a blue dome barrier surrounds the bed with the three girls in it.