Chapter 24: Incognizance
n. A lack of knowledge or recognition
A/N: So, I was fully planning to complete this fic on all sites that I'd started posting it. However, given the state of this site nowadays, between the notification system, new chapters not posting, and scammers seeming to be the only users left, this will likely be the last update posted to FFN for the foreseeable future. If you're following and looking for updates, you can find this fic and all other future updates and works on AO3.
Word Count: 8395
Genre: Friendship/Drama/Romance
Rating: M
Disclaimer: Of the few things I own, these fandoms are not on the list.
After facing down bandits, dragons, and hoards of demons many times their size, fighting off woodland animals should have been a piece of cake. And it was. At least in theory.
Unfortunately, in practice, it wasn't quite that simple.
Defeating them was, of course. Even in the numbers of the hoard that surrounded them, these creatures weren't predators. Disarming squirrels and chipmunks was easy enough. Doing so without hurting them, on the other hand, was a bit more challenging.
But they were faced with little choice. Sailor Mercury's mist seemed to weaken the magic enough to free the smaller animals, but their numbers seemed endless, twice as many rushing from the shadows to take the place of the ones they freed. Repeatedly casting it was impractical, more likely to drain Mercury of her own energy than yield any lasting results with the demon still free to undo it.
Kagome couldn't help her grimace when a little fox yelped as she swatted it away with her bow. Guilt twisted her stomach for a beat, but then anger took its place just as swiftly. These animals were innocent. They didn't deserve pain or death simply because a demon had corrupted them with its magic to use as puppets.
It was cruel.
It was cowardly.
It made her angry.
Kagome glared into the shadows of the forest. She'd had more than enough of people who used the innocent like this. "Using innocent animals like this is despicable!"
"Using them? Humans have done nothing but destroy their homes," the demon's voice hummed, echoing around them from all directions at once. "I've merely given them the power to protect it from your kind."
This demon was using these creatures, getting them hurt and killed, and it had some nerve to chastise them for it.
"Why, I'm even generous enough to give them a protector," the voice sang next, a melodious hum of mocking. "Would you like to meet him? He's quite a handsome guard dog."
All at once, the mass of wildlife stilled. The forest around them fell silent, even the rustling of the wind in the trees coming to a halt.
Kagome bit her lip and glanced around, fingers flexing anxiously around her bow.
In a rustle of movement, the wildlife fled back into the shadows of overgrowth that they had come from. In their wake was naught but the unnerving sound of silence, the forest itself holding its breath. As she peered into the darkness, her own caught in her throat.
Pupils of teal against a backdrop of glowing red eyes peered back from the shadows.
Kagome's heart skipped a beat, her grip faltering on her bow as he slowly stepped into sight, practically melting out of the shadows. "Inu…yasha?"
"Uh, guys?" Sailor Jupiter began hesitantly. "I don't think-"
Sailor Jupiter landed with a shout, narrowly throwing herself out of the way in time to avoid a swipe of his claws.
She rolled back into a crouch with a grunt, fingers clenched into waiting fists as she popped back to her feet. "I don't think that's Inuyasha!"
'No,' Kagome thought. It was worse than that. It was Inuyasha. 'But why…?'
Her eyes roved over him, searching desperately for what could have triggered the change, and her breath caught. Tessaiga was gone.
But that shouldn't have been enough for his demon blood to overtake him on its own. Inuyasha had lived years before the sword had ever come into his life and he'd been separated from it before, in much worse conditions. At a glance, he didn't appear to be injured in any way.
"Where did Tessaiga…?" Inuyasha made another leap for Jupiter and Kagome sucked in a breath.
"Hey!" Sailor Jupiter shouted, scrambling to dodge another swing aimed for her face. "The heck is your problem?!"
Another swipe came a bit too close for comfort, the tips of his claws taking off the ends of her bangs as she narrowly twisted out of reach.
Sailor Jupiter righted herself quickly, fingers flexing anxiously as she looked back at them. "A little help here, you guys!"
The kotodama glistened in the darkness. Kagome came to her senses with a jerk.
"Inuyasha!" she cried, drawing his attention. His gaze swiveled to her and Kagome shivered. His eyes were an eerie red that seemed to glow in the shadows of the forest, his mouth curled into a twisted grin around a pair of elongated fangs. Abandoning his pursuit of Sailor Jupiter, he turned his back on the soldier to stalk towards her instead. An instinctive sensation of fear tightened her throat, but Kagome squared her shoulders. "Sit boy!"
Inuyasha paused. The beads flickered, the imbued spiritual power glowing faintly in the darkness.
But nothing happened.
Inuyasha chuckled, his posture straightening as his gaze bore into her. "Was that supposed to do something?"
"W-what?" Kagome breathed out, her eyes widening in swiftly mounting horror. Inuyasha rolled his shoulders and took a step towards her.
The beads didn't work.
He lifted his hand, claws glistening in the little trickles of moonlight that filtered in through the trees, and he took another. "Did you think you could stop me?"
The beads didn't work.
Inuyasha cracked his knuckles and Kagome took a step back. Her heart skipped a beat as her breath caught. "Inu…yasha?"
The beads didn't work.
"Look out!" Sailor Jupiter shouted, tackling Sailor Mercury to the ground while Kagome dove out of the way just in time. Inuyasha sailed through the air above them, close enough that Kagome could feel the wind of it as he passed overhead.
For a moment, her eyes locked with his, the red glow of feral demonic power a terrifying glow against the backdrop of the foliage above.
"I don't know what's going on here," Sailor Jupiter said as she clambered to her feet, the first to recover. "But I think he means business!"
Sailor Mercury came back to her senses next, her hand darting up to tap another button on her visor. "You're right. There's something wrong with his energy."
"You-" Sailor Jupiter ducked another swipe aimed for her midsection. "You think?! Tell me what to do!"
"It's the demon!" Kagome shouted back as she climbed back to her own feet. "She has some kind of power over the animals and Inuyasha-"
Sailor Mercury's posture straightened and a flicker of understanding crossed Sailor Jupiter's face right before she was forced to leap into the path of another swipe, this time aimed for her fellow soldier. "Hey! I'm your opponent, got it?!"
As Jupiter led Inuyasha away from Sailor Mercury, Kagome realized that kiting him wasn't going to work for long. She'd seen Inuyasha fight. She'd seen his demon fight. Right now, he was entertained, but he was playing with them.
Taking out the demon behind it all was the only way.
"Sailor Mercury!" she shouted, hoping the other girl would understand her intention as she lifted her bow. "Where's it coming from?!"
Lightning crackled between them now, Sailor Jupiter forced to take more drastic measures to keep his attention when Inuyasha honed in on Mercury's frantic typing.
"Just a moment- that way!" Sailor Mercury lifted a hand to point in the direction they'd initially been heading. "But there's-"
"Shit!" Sailor Jupiter swore, backing away from Inuyasha and clutching her arm. A patch of red stained the white of her gloves.
"No time!" Kagome shouted, already sprinting in the direction that Sailor Mercury had indicated. They wouldn't be able to hold out much longer, not against Inuyasha's demon. And even if they survived it all, the weight he already carried with his demon blood was heavy enough - she didn't know if Inuyasha would be able to withstand it if he woke to their blood on his hands too.
A crack of thunder echoed behind her.
The smell of ozone and dust floated on the eerie breeze that followed.
A shout of pain came next.
Quiet settled over the forest. For a moment, Kagome could only hear the sound of her own panting as she ran towards the demonic energy, her friends growing further and further behind her. Her harried footfalls echoed in a frightening silence.
It was broken by the distant sound of Sailor Jupiter's scream. "Run, Mercury!"
Kagome almost turned around. Several months earlier, she would have.
But the lessons on navigating a battlefield that came from the other side of the well had been hard learned. There was no time for second guessing in the middle of a fight. That sort of hesitation got people killed. Her mistakes had already killed enough. Now, she had to act - quickly. Sailor Mercury's information was all she had and it had to be enough.
Judging by the way the forest shifted as she ran, somehow thickening and parting for her at the same time, this was definitely the right direction.
All at once, the plant life parted, clearing a path for her so suddenly that she nearly lurched forward. Kagome had to scramble to catch her footing as she stumbled into an eerily open patch of grass between the trees. And in front of her now was the cause of it all, casually basking in the moonlight. "You-!"
There, in the center of the clearing, the demon sat perched on the petals of a large blossom as if it were a throne. The demon itself had a very feminine figure, though her body seemed to be made of the same flowers and plant life she controlled.
"Ah, so you've found me," she hummed nonchalantly. "I wondered how long it would take you."
Kagome hunched her shoulders, her fingers gripping at her bow anxiously. It was a trap. Of course it was, because there were few times that it wasn't.
"Who are you? What do you want?" she demanded, sounding more assured of herself than she felt. "You've been driving people away. How could that be useful for harvesting energy?"
"My, my. What a curious little rabbit. Very well," the demon laughed.
As she stood from her perch, Kagome felt her stomach plummet with renewed fear when she saw what laid on the ground behind her. The glint of rusted, useless steel, shone almost mockingly within the shadows, nearly hidden within the grass. 'Tessaiga…'
"I am Petasos," the demon announced, eyes twinkling with the laughter that echoed around them.
"Oh, this wasn't planned, mind you," Petasos said with a purr, her grin widening just as Kagome felt something wind around her ankle. "But who am I to deny opportunity when the prey walks so willingly into my nest?"
This fight didn't get the chance to go sideways. It had simply started that way.
This fight, Kagome realized, was not a fight at all. It was a hunt.
Now, it was all she could do to try and keep it from becoming a slaughter.
That, unfortunately, was easier said than done. Her arrows were useless at this range. She couldn't move quickly enough to draw and aim one anyway. Even more unfortunately, attempting to use her bow alone to ward away the vines that had wound around her limbs proved just as useless. They paused, slowed for a moment that almost gave her hope, only to surge forward undaunted.
The bow fell from her fingers, her grip forced open as she was strung up by her wrists. Petasos chuckled and, as a wave of her fingers drew her to hang at eye level with the demon, Kagome grit her teeth. She wouldn't succumb to fear now. She couldn't.
"What did you do to Inuyasha?!" she demanded, abandoning her pointless struggle against the vines to glare at the demon controlling them.
"Inuyasha?" Petasos echoed, mocking in her curiosity. "Oh, you must mean my new little hound."
"Why, I've simply empowered his true nature," she said, lazily carding her fingers through the ends of Kagome's hair as she circled her. "Just like all the other animals."
Kagome twisted, jerking her head back to glare at the demon as rage for her friend swelled in her. "Inuyasha's not an animal!"
"Oh no?" Petasos laughed, eyes twinkling as she meandered back around to stand in front of her. "What was that enchantment you tried to use on him?"
Kagome felt her stomach drop. Her arms, taut with resistance, slackened.
"Ah yes. 'Sit boy', wasn't it?" Petasos only looked more amused. "I don't think I'm the one treating him like an animal, little soldier."
"You don't know anything," Kagome refuted.
Petasos smiled. "Yet I'm not the one who leashed him."
The kotodama were more than that. They might have started that way, as a seal on his power to ensure her safety, but they were more than that. No matter what their relationship was, wasn't, or ever could have or should have been, he was still one of her dearest friends. No one could deny the bond between them. Thekotodama was not a leash, it was their connection.
The thought that it could be taken from them terrified her.
"What did you do to the beads?" Kagome asked instead and Petasos tilted her head. For a moment, she looked genuinely surprised by the question. A moment later, her smile returned.
"You little soldiers are terribly unobservant," she chided. "Did you not notice the energy that fills this place?"
Of course she did. It had obnoxiously obscured her own senses in trying to find this demon in the first place.
"Oh, my," Petasos chuckled, "did you think it was my doing?"
Kagome swallowed, realizing they'd miscalculated more than she thought.
"Well, perhaps I should be flattered that you think me so capable," Petasos continued with a hum. "But the guardian spirit protecting this place was already here."
Not expecting that, Kagome faltered. "Then how did you-"
"My power also stems from nature, little soldier." Petasos tapped the underside of her chin, forcing Kagome to look her in the eyes as the motion tilted her head back. "This land might have guardian spirits, but they are born of the same energies of nature that I am. Besides, what power do they have when they are now so forgotten by your kind?"
Kagome noticed the siphoning of her energy too late.
"What is there for you to purify?" Petasos chuckled, releasing her chin to pat her cheek mockingly. "What is nature but the opposite of corruption?"
She'd been too distracted, too focused on the enemy in front of her to notice the slow drain until the sudden wave of dizziness hit. Her expression must have shown her realization too obviously, because Petasos laughed and only hastened pace in which she fed, clearly no longer concerned with her being kept unaware.
Her body sagged, the strength to hold herself up -never mind struggle- rapidly fading.
The vines holding her up dug into her skin. Kagome realized a moment later that she shouldn't have felt the contact so directly. It took a frightening amount of effort just to muster the strength to turn her head enough to inspect the limb.
Her glove was missing. Her arm was bare.
'I can't…hold the disguise magic…' she realized blearily. But when she tried to push back, to draw on that energy that would call up even her haphazard wards, risk of blowing herself across the clearing be damned, it only seemed to flow from her faster still.
Her eyes grew heavy. Petasos' laughter suddenly sounded very far away.
Mizuno Ami was a very practical person, an individual driven by logic. Everything, no matter how complex, could -in some way, shape, or form- be explained.
When the monsters had first started to appear, she'd been faced with the first real challenge to her understanding of the world. Magic, evil spirits, demons, and talking animals had always been things of fantasy. But she'd still been born and raised in Japan, so accepting that there might be some truth to the mythology of her country wasn't terribly difficult.
Discovering her role as a sailor soldier had come strangely easier. Perhaps the monsters had already primed her for it -and at least offered a logical explanation- or perhaps her ready acceptance had been driven more by the friendships -something she'd both yearned for and been denied, trapped in the role of the outcast prodigy for far too many years- that were so intertwined with it. Of course, Usagi and Kagome's welcoming natures helped, but something about it had simply felt right.
But even when every part of her had accepted that, had somehow simply known it was truth from nothing more than instinct that could only be explained by the past life serving the Moon Kingdom she'd been told of, Ami had always known that there was still information missing.
Mizuno Ami did not like incomplete information. Incomplete datasets were dangerous. Arguably more so than having none at all - at least there were no preconceptions that way.
But now she could have kicked herself for never thinking to learn more about demons beyond fighting the monsters born of Dark Kingdom magic. She was supposed to be a genius strategist, a prodigy, yet she'd failed to prepare for this -a quite predictable predicament, if she were honest- far too comfortable in her acceptance that what they knew of the monsters was just right, that there was no need to learn about them further.
Now the opportunity for prevention was long gone. She had to undo it somehow. 'Think, Mizuno, think!'
She should have been more proactive. She should have been studying the magic, the demonic energy, the differences between the enemies they fought against and the friends they fought alongside.
To think she called herself a scientist, Ami thought bitterly.
Now Inuyasha -not even for the first time- was paying the price.
"You can't hide from me," his voice, a distorted baritone, laughed from behind her. "I can smell you."
'Oh, that's it,' Ami realized. 'If I can conceal the scent-!'
She skidded to a stop, feet falling into position with an instinct not entirely her own. The magic came to her hands just as he landed across from her.
His chuckle echoed eerily through the stillness of the woods. "Found you."
He took a step towards her, his gait slow and even - his steps purposeful, moving in the way of a predator stalking its prey.
'But Inuyasha is no animal.' Ami's expression hardened. She might not have learned as much about demons as she should have but she was certain of at least this much. He leapt for her just as the magic left her fingertips. "Bubble Spray!"
The mist burst between them just in time.
"What?" he growled. He spun around, lips parted in a snarl as he attempted to peer through the fog in vain. "You think a little fog can hide you from me?"
"That's not the only reason," Ami announced, unsurprised when he pivoted towards the sound of her voice. But as before, the mist muffled the sounds of the forest and he missed -narrowly- when he launched himself in her direction. Her throat tightened with fear, the near miss expected but still far too close for comfort, but this time she was the one to take a step towards him. "It disrupts dark magic, remember?"
The tone to his laugh was different this time. While feral and loud, it was two-toned now, an echo of an unfamiliar voice overlapping the tenor that she'd grown familiar with.
"Don't you get it?" he snarled. "This isn't dark magic. I am a demon. This is me."
He stalked towards her but -though her heart pounded in her chest and every instinct within her screamed to run- Ami stood her ground.
"You might be part demon," she said, squaring her shoulders as he lifted a hand between them to brandish his claws only inches from her face. "But you're no animal."
Inches from her face, his body stiffened. His lips curled back, teal pupils staring down at her. "You think you know everything about me, huh?"
"Not everything," she conceded, meeting his feral gaze with a confidence she hoped he believed more than she did. "But the Inuyasha I do know would never let something like a youma control him."
He reared back from her with a jerk, sinking to his knees with a snarl on his lips as the hand he'd aimed for her only moments before reached up to clutch his own head instead.
Ami sucked in a breath. "Inuyasha?"
"Again…" he grit out. Red still colored his eyes but the teal had faded, now speckled with a familiar gold, and a certain cognizance had returned to them as he stared up at her. "Use…the mist…again."
Ami didn't need to be told twice.
The magic burst from her fingertips before she'd even finished the incantation, concentrated and contained in the small space between between them. A world of freezing white surrounded them in that moment, the usual chill of her mist instead an icy bite of cold. But the mist was her power, and so she saw through it ever clearly.
She saw the way the tension seeped out of Inuyasha, still knelt on the ground at her feet. She saw the way his shoulders heaved as he took a ragged breath. She saw the way his fingers -tipped with claws far less ragged now- dug into the soil beneath him, desperately grounding himself as the demon's grip on him weakened. There were still flicks of red in his eyes as she dropped to her knees to check on him. But when she opened her mouth to question him on it, he took in a sharp breath before she could formulate the words. His eyes widened with a gasp, and suddenly it was only that familiar gold peering at her through the mist.
When it cleared, the forest was alight around them. The sound of fire crackled loudly through the air and she realized with a start that the flash of power that had lit the forest had not only been her own.
Now that she was not running for her life, Ami found herself worrying for what had become of her friends. Kagome had run off to find the demon and Makoto surely hadn't been felled so easily. Makoto was the best fighter of all of them. The mercury computer would have alerted her if a fellow soldier had- no, she wouldn't think of that.
The air was hot and thick with smoke, the acrid smell of burning wood and ash stinging her eyes even behind the safety of her visor.
The entire forest was burning around them.
There was no time to succumb to fears of what might be.
Thankfully, the threat of panic was interrupted when Inuyasha shifted. The movement drew her attention, allowed her to refocus on him and ground herself as he pushed himself to his feet and shrugged off the top layer of his robes.
"Here," he said, setting it over her shoulders. "It'll protect you from the flames."
"But what about you?" Ami questioned, her hands reflexively lifting to grasp the robe.
Inuyasha chuckled. This time the sound was soft, warmer than before, but tired. "Takes more than that to take me out, remember? A few flames are nothin'."
The echo of his declaration -made scarcely a week earlier- was not lost on her. Ami looked away hastily, tapping the button on her visor to conceal her sheepish expression. A moment later, she pursed her lips. "This is Mars' fire…"
To their left, the branch of a tree hit the ground with a crash, broken by the flames that had eaten away at it. Embers leapt from the smoldering wood, the orange glow dancing through the smoke. This had to end sooner rather than later or the entire park, whatever might have been left of it, would be destroyed. There was no time to regroup with the others, even if not knowing her friends' fates ate away at her. For all their sakes, she had to be to remain cool headed. After all, she was Sailor Mercury right now.
Sailor Mercury was practical.
Sailor Mercury was the tactician.
Sailor Mercury was the only one with the power needed to save them all right now.
"I'm sorry to ask," she said as she turned back to him with a frown. "But would you be able to help me get some altitude? Just once should do."
"Keh," Inuyasha muttered before crouching down in front of her. "What do you take me for?"
Though they'd done this once before, Ami found herself grateful that he could not see the flush on her face as she slid into place on his back, nor the way that flush darkened when he secured his grip on her thighs. Thankfully, the rush of the wind as he launched them into the air offered a pleasant chill, the resurgence of her mist as she called out another 'Bubble Spray' even more so.
Luckily, they did not have to traverse the city this time. Inuyasha landed heavily and as she slid back to her feet, Ami noticed his stagger.
"I'm sorry," she said, turning to look him over. "Does the mist still bother you?"
"Not really…" he replied quietly, closing his eyes to take a breath as he steadied his posture. "It smells like you."
"O-oh." Uncertain how to take the admission, Ami hurried to look away when she felt her face flush.
Surely he hadn't meant it the way it sounded. She'd simply been spending too much time listening to Usagi fantasize about romance and Makoto and Rei discuss varying levels of attractiveness. This was one of the many things she'd never understood about her peers and after spending so much time with them it must have simply rubbed off on her.
Inuyasha was part dog demon, after all. A comment on her power sharing her scent surely didn't mean anything beyond simple observation.
That was the logical explanation, after all.
"We should find the others. Sailor Mars must have found trouble too, judging by the fire and Sailor Moon already had a head start on us," she said, pulling the mercury computer out and hoping that shifting the focus back to the more immediate issue at hand might distract them both long enough for the heat in her cheeks to quell. "Readings show the dark magic is fading now, so Sailor T must have had some success with the demon and Jupiter…"
Ami glanced at him as she trailed off, realizing her mistake too late. Inuyasha flinched, a grimace curling his lips as he stared out into the forest.
He was silent for a long moment before he muttered a quiet reply. "She's not far. I can smell her- the scent's coming from that direction."
"Then we'll head that way first," she agreed, and they headed off.
Not long into their trek, however, she saw him falter. The movement was brief, and his steps remained even, but the sudden way he flexed his fingers evinced that something still troubled him. Perhaps he wasn't quite as recovered as she'd thought.
Ami turned to him, brows furrowed. "Are you alright? Perhaps we should find Sailor Moon first. She has the healing wand…"
"No," he interrupted, lifting the hand he'd been clenching to rub his fist nervously. "It's just- I need to get Tessaiga back."
The name sounded familiar, but it took Ami a moment to place where she'd heard it. "Oh, that's the name of your sword, isn't it?"
"Yeah," he confirmed gruffly, looking more and more the part of a wound spring the longer she studied him. "It…that demon didn't exactly control me."
Ami paused at that, looking at him curiously before offering a nod for him to continue.
"She made it worse, but she only weakened my control," he grit out. "I can still feel it- my demon blood. It still wants to take over."
While she didn't know very much about the magic at play, she thought she was beginning to understand. "And your sword prevents that?"
"Tessaiga's barrier keeps my demon blood sealed," he admitted quietly.
Ami stared for a moment as she puzzled over that, lost in analysis of the implications before the uncertain glance he threw in her direction snapped her out of it.
"Fascinating," she muttered, still awash with curiosity. "I'd never realized it was so special. But I suppose we'd never seen you use it in a fight before. Only back at the gala, now that I think about it."
"Humans can't use it for anything but its barrier," he clarified with an annoyed grunt. "Tessaiga needs demonic energy to use its power. And I can't use most of its powers in this world anyway. Something about property damage."
"Perhaps…" she began, glancing at him hesitantly. "Would it be alright for you to show me?"
Inuyasha paused to look at her, and his expression could only be described as baffled.
"After all this is over, of course!" she hurried to amend. He turned away from her just as quickly, and for a moment Ami worried she might have offended him.
"Keh, sure," he agreed, corners of his lips turned upward just slightly. "When this is over."
Ami smiled her appreciation and quickened her own pace.
"Whenever that is," he added quietly.
"I will try to monitor the situation in the meantime," she agreed, slipping a bit more into the role of a collected Sailor Mercury rather than the eager scientist of Mizuno Ami. Lifting the mercury computer once more, she deftly balanced it on one arm so she could type with the other as they continued backtracking. The readings that came back this time made her pause and furrow her brows.
Inuyasha, noticing she'd stopped, leaned a bit closer to peer at the screen. "Your magic box find something else?"
"Yes, it's rather strange," she muttered, "the demon's signature appears to have vanished entirely. I suppose if we're lucky that means the others managed to reach her and she didn't escape with-"
"She's dead," Inuyasha interrupted, startling her with his certainty. "I could still hear her the whole time. The mist helped but…that demon's energy was all over the place and now there's nothing. There'd be residue if she just ran away."
He paused and Ami watched, fascinated yet again as his nose twitched in a quiet sniff of the air.
"Not sure what did it. The others don't smell close enough to have taken her out." Inuyasha frowned a moment later. "But there's still a lot of smoke stinkin' up the place."
Luckily, by the time they made it back to the clearing, Sailor Moon had already beaten them there. Sailor Mars had also found her way to them and, hopefully an indication that the threat had passed, was busily arguing with Sailor Moon while Sailor Jupiter stood to the side looking lost on how to break that particular loop of theirs.
Ami glanced towards Inuyasha when she noticed he'd stopped. He stood, rooted to his spot at the edge of the clearing. His eyes raked over Sailor Jupiter. Neither Moon nor Mars noticed him, but Jupiter did and when she turned to greet them, Ami saw the way his fingers trembled.
"Oh, good. You're both here," she said suddenly, offering a polite smile that would have them believe the redirection was entirely unintentional even if they did notice it. "We should hurry and regroup now. Sailor T-"
"It's this way!" Sailor Moon declared, darting off before she could finish but luckily in the same direction Ami had been about to send them.
Sailor Mars protested, but followed, loudly arguing the whole way. Sailor Jupiter only gave a bewildered shake of the head and took up the rear, guarding the pair from a distance that left her safely out of their bickering.
Inuyasha hung back, eyes still trained on Jupiter's back.
Ami stepped up beside him. When he continued staring into the distance, she timidly set a hand on his arm.
"Sailor Moon was right," she said when he turned to look at her. "We shouldn't let them leave us behind."
"Pigtail would find something else to fight," he muttered, before shoving his hands into his sleeves and stomping after them. This time, Ami watched his back. A beat later, she hurried to follow along at his side once more. When they caught up to the others, Sailor Jupiter paused long enough to fall into step beside them without prompting.
Ami thought she might not mention the readings that indicated the recent use of Sailor Moon's healing spell.
It wasn't often that Nephrite interacted with the demons, even those under his command. It was even less often that those under his command sought him out after they'd been released from the crest planted on a target. Especially after such an extended period of time. Petasos had been operating for well over a month now - perhaps it had even been longer than that.
Nephrite had been content to leave her to it. Her occupation of a city park had proven fruitful enough on its own for how long it had gone unnoticed. She had drained the original target successfully -and for all intents and purposes her mission had been completed- but the fools who wandered into the nest she'd built allowed for a steady enough supply thereafter. She continued sending energy, he remained in good standing with the queen and free to pursue more important objectives.
After all, his original purpose had been to locate the silver crystal, not the gathering of energy. Now, though he kept the promise to his friend to continue the mission in his stead, he was content to allow his servants to carry out the efforts once he'd established a target. Her preferred the minimal direct contact with those targets. Somehow, dealing with them so directly left a sour taste in his mouth. It shouldn't have.
He was a general. They were at war. The humans were destined to belong to the queen. Casualties were simply unavoidable. They certainly weren't so notable as to demand his attention. So when his otherwise faithful servant so excitedly reached out with a declaration that she'd caught one, he was at a loss as to why she felt the need to involve him.
"Master!" her voice had called, excitedly echoing from the back of his mind as she flung open the connection.
Petasos didn't usually bother him for something like that. Curiosity had him appear by the entrance to the park she'd claimed, if only to see what had riled her so. A rabbit, eyes glowing with the telltale crimson of Petasos' control, rushed to greet him almost immediately.
Nephrite arched a brow. "You called me over a human?"
While she might have been his servant, a monster born of his dark crest, Petasos' methods were rather unlike his own. They targeted groups, fed on distraction, chaos, and desperation. Compared to his preference for surgical precision, for specific targets to avoid drawing attention, they were almost a stark contrast.
'Like Jadeite's,' he realized. The already sour taste in his mouth grew a bit more pungent.
"Yes," her voice replied, echoing through the creature with thinly veiled excitement. "I think you'll be very interested in this one."
Nephrite doubted that.
Still, Petasos was not the sort to make empty promises. Giving his servant's vassal a disbelieving arch of a brow, he exhaled through his nose and motioned for her to lead the way. It would be foolish not to investigate what had her so excited, no matter how skeptical he was of her claims.
Humans, as amusing as they could be, were not particularly interesting creatures. Not usually, that was. Nephrite found himself only half listening to his servant's eager reassurances as his thoughts drifted to one little woman in particular.
Higurashi Kagome didn't exactly fall in line with the rest of her kind. That wasn't even to say that she was terribly unique, really. For as much as the girl had caught his eye, she was still very, unabashedly human. For all intents and purposes, she was only marginally different to her cohort if he were to think about it practically.
Higurashi Kagome was foolish in her selflessness.
Higurashi Kagome was as comforting with her gentleness as she was brazen with her fire.
Higurashi Kagome was interesting.
The forest grew deeper as he neared its center, where Petasos had likely established her nest. As if on cue, the rabbit froze and bolted back into the brush, no longer needed. A moment later, Petasos herself appeared from the foliage to greet him and parted the overgrowth with a wave of her hand. "Welcome, Master Nephrite. Look!"
The black crystal in his pocket suddenly roared to life, vibrating almost angrily. Nephrite turned to look, still unconvinced that this was anything more than a waste of his time, but now curious what had triggered such a reaction from the artifact.
Nephrite paused.
Higurashi Kagome was unconscious before them.
Her energy was faint, clearly fed on. Ivy wound around her limbs and her body hung limp, left strung up like a discarded marionette once Petasos had obtained her fill of energy. Judging by the wan color -or lack thereof- of her skin, it had been quite a bit. At a glance, he might have thought he'd been presented her corpse. The thought made him oddly uncomfortable.
Nephrite took a step towards her.
Higurashi Kagome did not move.
Nephrite stared hard at her.
Her stillness bothered him. Logically, he knew she still lived. The faint fluttering of her energy was proof enough. Objectively, she was less damaged than she had been in the wake of Sumidagawa. She wasn't even bloodied this time. But she was far too unmoving. It was only when he looked closely enough that he could even see the shallow rise and fall of her chest.
"You drained her?" he asked.
"And she put up quite the fight!" Petasos boasted, sounding quite proud of herself as she clapped her hands together excitedly. "But still just a human—"
She gasped loudly as his fingers wrapped around her throat. He spared her not so much as a glance, eyes trained on the pallid woman laid at his feet.
"I believe," he said lowly, "that I gave orders to leave this one."
Petasos gasped, clearly realizing her folly as her hands clawed at his grip. "B-but Master, she-!"
"Starlight"—her scream echoed into the night before simply fading away, a distant howl on the wind— "Attack."
Higurashi Kagome fell silently into his arms as the vines faded away. Color slowly returned to her cheeks as the energy Petasos had stolen from her trickled back. Her eyes flickered open, half lidded and glazed as she looked up at him, though he doubted she was really conscious enough to know who or what she was seeing - not that she would be able to truly see him to begin with. And perhaps that was for the better.
Nephrite brushed the hair from her face, lips thinning as he looked her over.
"-sato…" she mumbled, catching him off guard when she sleepily leaned into the touch and surprising even him with his gentleness when his reflex was only to trace the curve of her cheek with his thumb.
"You-" Nephrite cut himself off with a sigh, peering into the night sky quietly. The stars shone brighter, the darkness from Petasos' influence no longer tainting the air. When he processed his own feelings of relief at that realization, he exhaled through his nose and looked back down at the girl. "You are going to ruin me."
And yet he found himself even less inclined to relinquish her.
Her brows furrowed after a beat, consciousness threatening to return as her energy settled. Hours later, Nephrite would marvel at the indecision that struck him in that moment. As generals, they enjoyed the same glamour that protected the sailor soldiers and yet, he was struck with irrational alarm at the thought of her seeing his face.
He was a general of the Dark Kingdom. He was the commander of the North American Division.
He didn't want her to see him as either.
"Over there!" a voice shouted, not far from them. "I'm sure it went in that direction!"
"Your sense of direction isn't exactly reliable when you get lost on your way to every meeting!"
"I don't get lost, I get distracted. If you're going to scold me at least get it right!"
'Soldiers,' Nephrite realized. For once, he thought as he lowered a still not quite conscious Higurashi Kagome to the ground, their interference was to his benefit.
Kagome felt sluggish, lethargic, and almost entirely disconnected from reality as her senses came back to her. Unfortunately -or perhaps quite fortunately- they did so slowly. She didn't remember passing out at first. A delirious part of her wondered if, with her track record, that even mattered anymore. Then she remembered the demon. She strained to open her eyes, only to grimace.
The world was a blur of muted colors and white noise.
Shapes followed not long after, though not quite distinct enough to properly make anything out of the environment. Her head still felt too fogged to think, but she found enough awareness to realize that the colors taking shape in front of her did not match the dark earthy tones of the forest. As they cleared just a little bit more, she blearily thought this shape oddly humanoid. It was almost the shape of a man, her disoriented mind supplied, finally parsing that much. When the colors stopped blending together quite so much, she thought this man might have quite pretty brown hair.
'Like Masato…' she thought, before mumbling something she wouldn't later remember and closing her eyes again.
Consciousness came to her like a slap in the face. In fact, a slap in the face might have been gentler. The ringing suddenly echoing in her ears was even worse. Had night not fallen, she might have cried if she'd opened her eyes to the light of the sun.
Thankfully, there was only the soft light of the moon and the twinkling stars that trickled through the canopy.
Kagome sat up, wincing as she pressed her hand to her forehead. If this was what a hangover felt like, she thought she might skip whatever teenage phase involved experimenting with alcohol.
A moment later a chilling realization struck her.
Her hand was pressed to her forehead. Her bare hand. There was no glove, no magical disguise of a sailor soldier.
There was no glamour.
But the demon was gone. If Petasos had drained her to the point that she'd lost consciousness -to the point that the disguise magic had fallen- Kagome couldn't imagine that she would have been left unguarded in any scenario short of the creature's defeat. The soldiers weren't there, so it probably wasn't their doing.
Kagome staggered to her feet, grimacing at the wave of dizziness that followed. She pressed a hand against the trunk of a tree to steady herself. Maybe she'd done it. She couldn't clearly recall what had happened after Petasos drained her, but it wouldn't have been the first time she'd passed out from an expenditure of power. But that didn't feel right for some reason. The dark energy of Petasos' influence was gone, and the suffocating aura of the forest with it, but the air here didn't have that feeling that came in the wake of her power.
If she'd purified the demon, the air would have felt lighter, warm. It would have felt pure.
A rustling in the underbrush jerked her back to reality and a rush of panic washed over her when she heard the distant chatter that came along with it. She flattened herself against the tree and held her breath. It was too far away to make out what was being said, but there were clearly multiple people.
And she was Higurashi Kagome. Just Higurashi Kagome.
She couldn't be found like this. Her fingers dug into the bark of the tree, gripping uselessly at the wood to steady herself while she debated whether to attempt to run or throw herself into the bushes. The footsteps grew louder, nearing closer and closer with every anxious beat of her heart, and rustle of the foliage nearly made her jump.
"You ran away from a rabbit, Moon Face!" Sailor Mars' voice filtered through.
Kagome never thought she'd be so happy to hear Hino's typical chastising. She nearly slumped back against the tree in relief.
"I told you it was a ghost! A wolf ghost!" The familiar disgruntled huff of an indignant Sailor Moon wasn't far behind. "And at least I didn't set the place on fire!"
'Wolf ghosts? Fire?' Kagome wondered. 'What the heck happened?'
"Oh, Ka-! Er, I mean-" Sailor Moon straightened, scrambling to cover her near slip when she realized she shouldn't know Kagome. "Are you alright, citizen?"
Sailor Mars snorted. Inuyasha, drawing up the rear with Mercury and Jupiter -who was trying and failing to hide her own snickers at the display- at his flank, raised a brow.
Kagome blinked and could only manage a slow shake of her head as the trio caught up. "Sailor Mercury? I think I might have a concussion."
That was apparently enough to break Sailor Jupiter, because she doubled over with a howl of laughter. Sailor Mercury, unsurprisingly more collected than the rest, only stepped over to gingerly inspect the back of her head.
"Oh, hey," Sailor Jupiter said, crouched at the edge of the clearing. She turned, lifting a dormant Tessaiga into the air and tilting her head to look at Inuyasha. "This is yours, right?"
His shoulders tensed, his eyes wide for a moment before he hastily snatched it from her hands. Under different circumstances, Kagome might have teased him for remembering his manners enough to mumble a quiet 'thanks' as he returned the blade to its sheathe.
Sailor Jupiter was a good sport, only popping back to her feet to smooth out her skirt with a good natured 'no problem' in turn. Kagome couldn't help but notice the way Inuyasha's eyes lingered on her, though Jupiter herself seemed unaware.
"Uh, hey," he finally said, "about what happened back there…"
"Oh that? Sailor Moon fixed that little scratch, no problem," Sailor Jupiter assured as she flashed him a grin and lifted her arm. "Good as new!"
Inuyasha stared for a long moment, nostrils flaring with a quiet sniff as he looked her over. Kagome realized with an ache in her heart that he was probably checking for the scent of blood.
Finally appearing satisfied that she truly did seem fully healed, he heaved a breath. "Keh, you're pretty tough for a human."
Instead of taking offense, Sailor Jupiter only grinned and made a show of jokingly flexing her bicep.
"Hah, just you wait till you see me in a real fight," she said, playfully punching him in the arm.
"Yeah, well. If I-" Inuyasha hesitated and looked away, lips thinning for a moment before he turned back, staring her dead in the eyes. "If I ever get like that again, you don't hold back, got it?"
Sailor Jupiter blinked, her playful expression melting away as she straightened. Her expression grew serious, sober in a look of understanding that none of them should have had and Kagome wasn't entirely sure was only because of her newfound role as a sailor soldier.
"Yeah, okay," Jupiter agreed, before slapping him on the shoulder a moment later. "But you gotta promise not to let those creeps push you around again either, got it?"
Inuyasha gave her a bewildered look before covering what she thought might be a laugh by looking away with a scoff. If anything more was to be said, it was lost in the chaos of their regrouping.
Kagome looked over at Usagi longingly, knowing that even more than before she needed to talk to her friend. She hadn't even gotten to ask about the wolf ghosts the girl had been shouting about, though she could guess where the fire had come from. But even after the rest of them had found a safe place to drop their transformations, it seemed the universe was simply against it.
Usagi discovered a still weakened Luna not long after they'd changed and proceeded to spend most of their trek back to the entrance alternating between fussing over the cat and firing panicked medical questions at Ami.
For her part, Luna looked about as bad as Kagome felt so by the time they reached the gates again, she thought it was just a better idea to let everyone recover first. Besides, she thought with a grimace, her own head still throbbed enough to make putting her thoughts together a challenge.
Even if Kagome had the capacity to attempt and redirect that conversation, Rei had also regrouped with the jerk she'd been on a date with so talking about supernatural nonsense was no longer an option. The jerk in question, as if intending to prove he deserved the title, spent more time trying to poke fun at Usagi's tearful fussing than actually paying attention to his date.
Kagome actually felt bad for Rei. This wasn't the way she expected to relate to the other girl. But Rei was less likely to accept her sympathy than the universe seemed willing to let them breathe.
It had taken so long already, a little more time to regroup and maybe talk about things with Sango the way she'd tried to wouldn't hurt anymore than it it already had. Besides, Inuyasha definitely wasn't in the right mood to handle any more surprises tonight when she'd initially promised him only a trip of an hour or two. Now, she wasn't entirely sure what had happened after she'd taken off to find the demon, but he seemed equal parts rattled and pensive about it. His earlier conversation with Sailor Jupiter had only confirmed her suspicions on what had likely unfolded.
It wasn't until they crested the top of the staircase and she was watching as Inuyasha shrugged off a panicked Souta to flee back through the well that Kagome realized he never did agree to that promise.
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~Huntress