Kagome plasters a fake smile on her face, similar to the ones that she always graced Hojo or Koga-kun with. It–the mask slips on easily and she can understand why Satoru is as outlandish as he is. She would be too if the depressing and oh-so-serious nature of these sorcerers constantly surrounded her. The older man, the one with the extremely long white beard and hunched back, hasn't stopped glaring at her since Satoru teleported her to the school. She tilts her head, eyes him as he stares back unflinchingly.
She gets it. As far as the older man is concerned, she's a civilian that has no ties to the jujutsu world. On top of that Satoru keeps making not-so-subtle hints that the man should drop dead from either old age or just because probably doesn't help. So yeah, she gets it. And yet, her lip threatens to curl up in a proclamation that her teeth are just as sharp as Satoru's if anyone tries to fuck with her.
Kagome shakes her head and stands up. Her skin itches and she wants nothing more than to go back home and sleep whatever the heck is going on with her off. Satoru pats his lap and wraps an arm around her as she settles down. She doesn't care how improper they look, cuddled together while watching the students battle it out on the screen. The only thing keeping her from lashing out is having his arm around her.
"Funny how the footage around Yuji isn't working," Satoru says, "just whose side are you on?"
Kagome was thinking the same thing. How suspicious it is that only Yuji's fight is not being shown. She shifts, her blood heats from the unjustness of it all. This is a school dedicated to training students to develop their skills and successfully exorcise curses and protect those that cannot do it themselves. Her lashes flutter. As usual, the biggest threat is not some curse or demon looking to flex their power, but greedy humans rejecting those that do not fit into some mold.
"Money has no sides. Besides, it is tiring controlling so many crows. Not all of us are limitless," Mei Mei replies. Her voice washes over Kagome like acid. The putrid smell is enough to send her running to the bathroom.
When she comes out of the bathroom, sweat clings to her forehead, though the bile in her gut still seeks to find its way up. Satoru's lips are downturned, and she imagines that his eyebrows are raised behind that blindfold. "I'm fine," she says, not quite looking at him, but past him. He should be worrying about the event.
"You've been sick ever since we left the hotel. Did you take anything else from those foxes?" He crosses his arms.
"I'm fine," she says again, attempting to walk past. His hands reach out and grab her arm. "Something isn't right–and no, I don't think it has anything to do with the foxes. They wouldn't do anything to harm me."
"Do you need to go back home?" He turns her around and cups her cheek, and even though he's shown consideration for her before–it still blows her mind how much he actually listens.
"No, I need to stay." She leans into him, takes in the smell of his expensive cologne, and calms her mind.
"The kids will be fine. Come on, let's go back." He leads them back to the room. The footage around Yuji still isn't showing. Kagome grits her teeth. Gakuganji is still glaring at her with his hand clutching his cane. She looks away, stares at the blue-haired student on the screen instead.
"Man, your students not getting enough rest? Perhaps you should tuck her in," Satoru says, all too cheerily.
"How you can stand to be with this idiot is beyond me, Kagome-san," Utahime says, moving to stand up from her seat. "I'm going to go get Miwa. It's too dangerous for her to be napping on the forest floor."
There's a sudden stillness as the screens turn black and the students' pictures light on fire. Kagome's heart drops to her feet, as her skin pales. That sickening feeling comes back full force, and she has to grip her own mouth shut. Satoru places a hand on her shoulder. His thumb rubs circles into the back of her neck. She can taste the worry seeping through his touch, but she can't shake the dread that something is terribly wrong.
"I would love to believe that my students won the event," Satoru says.
"Mei Mei, stay back here and monitor the situation. I am going to check on Master Tengen. Everyone else, investigate," Yaga commands, leaving the room without looking back at them, and completely ignoring Mei Mei's jibe about how expensive her labor is going to cost.
Kagome picks her black bag up from the floor, takes her bow out, and slips the quiver on. She ignores the questioning stares of Utahime and Gakuganji, focuses instead on the comforting feeling of having her bow in her hand, and how she makes out the stress in the way Satoru runs ahead. The unknown spurs her on and her mind whispers how Yuji-kun and the other students are out there in danger. She doesn't notice all the empty buildings around them, nor the way the area around the forest darkens. No, she feels instead the spike–that familiar pulse of demonic energy. Dark and oppressive.
The students do not know how to fight against demons.
"Toru," Kagome calls, as she runs behind him on the ground as he runs and jumps from the rooftops.
"I know," he responds, "they can handle it."
He says it so confidently, and yet Kagome can't shake that fear and so she runs past him, even when everyone else stops at the veil. She runs through it, ignores the shouts, doesn't look back to see if Satoru followed her. She comes to a stop at a bald man with cleavers in his hands. He looks as though he's out for slaughter, and she realizes with dread that he's dressed up like a butcher for precisely that reason.
"Kagome-san! It's far too dangerous for you," Utahime calls behind her, breathless. There's a sheen of uncertainty that clings to Utahime and Kagome wants nothing more than to shake her and demand that it be she that runs away. If they had time, Kagome would turn around and explain how there's a demon, possibly more, loose on the school grounds, and even though Utahime is wearing a priestess outfit–she is no priestess.
"I'm going to cut you lovelies up and turn your flesh into couch cushions," the psycho retorts, licking a cleaver. A thin sliver of blood trails down the sharp end, and he shudders. Kagome opens her mouth to respond when the demon crashes through the trees.
Of course, she thinks, it's always a fucking centipede–Mistress centipede. With all of its naked glory and annoying trait, to never stay dead. Though this one isn't the same one she encountered in her world, but once you meet one centipede, you've met them all. She lets out a sigh of relief. Frustrating? Yeah, but in hindsight, Mistress centipede isn't that strong. And if she's lucky, then this is the only demon she'll have to purify.
It comes straight for her, knocking the butcher guy and Utahime out of its way. She barely pays attention to Gakuganji's arrival as she runs further into the forest. She needs to lure it away from everyone. Her lungs burn. All that time in her world, she's gone soft, but at least the fight in her has not left. She turns on her heel, pulls out an arrow, and shoots. The arrow hits true, right in the demon's mouth. And it's easy–too easy, the way the screams are ripped from Mistress centipede's throat and the way her body dissolves. With luck, she won't resurrect herself for another hundred years.
"I almost didn't believe it. And yet here you are."
Kagome freezes and then turns towards that voice. Her skin itches again. She grips her bow until her knuckles turn sheet white. "You're the demon that saved that curse," she says.
"Is that all I am to you?" He leans back in the tree, taking a swig of his sake. "After all that we've been through together." His purple kimono and black hakama pants remind her of a time long past, but it's the ease in which he converses with her that twists her stomach into knots.
"Why are you here?" She frowns at the sound of battle coming from further into the forest. A curse–a strong one, that much she can make out.
"How are you here? Is that not the better question?" His red eyes peer down at her. Kagome clucks her tongue. Always with the mind games with him. But he should know by now that she isn't one to fall so easily into his web of lies. No matter how skillful he believes his spinning is, all he ever speaks are words of half- truths.
Perhaps it's his greatest flaw.
"We killed you." She keeps her voice steady, refuses to show any kind of weakness in front of him. She should have known, should have voiced her concerns earlier, but stupidly she had latched onto the hope of being wrong.
"You also got rid of the Shikon jewel, and yet somehow you've merged with another one." He leans forward. "You could join me. Believe it or not, but we share a common enemy."
"Death has made you senile, Naraku." And the lack of battle has made her rusty, but she'll never voice those concerns out loud.
"I wonder, what your precious InuYasha would think of you?" Naraku taps a finger to his chin.
"Whoring yourself out to the next man. How devastated he would be to know that his precious Kagome only opens her legs to humans."
She waits for the embarrassment to come, to flood her senses and remind her that this entire journey began with her trying to get back to InuYasha. But it's silent. Her heart doesn't skip a beat, her palms don't sweat, and her body doesn't recoil from the verbal slap.
It must read on her face because he says it before her mind has time to accept what's in front of her.
"Love then. I knew that six eyes was going to be a problem."
Does she love Satoru?
She notches the bow and shoots. The arrow goes through him and hits the tree with a thud. The wooden figure that falls down from the branch brings her no joy. Of course, Naraku would be up to his usual schemes and not actually come here himself. She turns her attention to the sound of battle. Her mind races faster than her legs, as dread pools low in her belly and her stomach aches to upchuck whatever contents she has left on the forest floor.
Naraku knew she would be at the exchange event. He was waiting–patiently, without a care in the world. And there's no telling how long he's been in this world or the web of deceit he's been able to cast. Or who else has crossed over. Kagome pushes her legs to carry her further.
She has to reach Yuji-kun and the others.
A/N: Thank you everyone for reading and the kind reviews :) I do read each and every one of them. Just out of curiosity, who do you think would win between Naraku and Geto? I feel like if either one 'absorbed' the other, then that would be pretty bad for everyone else.
