InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Genesis ❯ Three ( Chapter 3 )

 

 

 

InuYasha frantically searched for the creature's whereabouts. He had known that it would find them, but he hadn't predicted on it being so soon. Usually he had a day, a day and a half at best, but it had come in mere hours. It was itching to kill, he thought, and it was itching to kill those it despised most. Wait, “those”?

At first, when he moved, he tried to be slow and play on its weaknesses. He knew that it had bad eyesight, and whenever he was sent back it was usually in neutral shades so that it would be easier to fool it. But, he realized too late, that the girl had had a scarlet scarf in her uniform and, unfortunately, it had realized it too and was already running at them.

He heard her gasp, and he threw all caution to the wind. In less than a second, he turned on his heel and ran, dodging cars and entranced people. Behind him, the sounds of collapsing roofs of cars and buses drilled into his sensitive ears, but he didn't pay any mind to that. He had two options; he could run until they lost track of him, or he could hide the girl and fight. She was important for some reason, and something told him that he couldn't lose her. He wasn't allowed to let harm come to her.

So he ran, and he ran until his breath started coming to him quicker. Given his stamina and enhanced abilities, he guessed it had been about twenty minutes. And still, the damn thing was hot on his tail. Usually he would have lost it before now. Usually, he thought, Usually. He'd been saying that a lot lately, but this wasn't like all the times before. The girl, who had buried her head in his hair so she wouldn't be tempted to look back, accentuated that fact.

When he reached an abandoned parking lot, he turned a corner sharply and knew he only had seconds. He dashed to the back of a nearby building and put her down around the corner. This way he knew where she was, and he was in between her and the creature. He could keep track of them both ways.

“Stay here,” he told her firmly, and she barely nodded, her eyes wide.

He ran back out to the middle as Ugly came around the corner, gaze murderous. He would have shivered, but had seen that face too many times to even consider it. He drew his semi-automatics and held them at the level of its head, all his senses focused on the one thing in front of him. When it moved, he moved. When it shifted, he copied the action, yet he never let it get on the other side of him.

When it started to run at him, he fired off a few rounds then neatly flipped out of the way, continuing the onslaught when he landed on one foot, the other falling neatly in place beside him. His main priority was to keep it distracted, and then when he got out of this he would think about the best course of action. Each era demanded that he find a new way to trap it because, as the years passed, not only did it grow in hunger and need but in knowledge as well.

So he wasn't prepared when it neatly dodged all the bullets he shot off at it. He dodged its strike, but not by much and he barely had time to recover before it shot out a spiked elbow at him. It grazed his shoulder and teared the fabric, but nothing more. He stepped up at that point.

Kagome watched as he fought with the hideous thing, doing her best not to give away her location. But she was transfixed, she couldn't take her eyes off them, and she found herself letting out rushes of air she hadn't know she'd been holding in. She silently cheered him on from the sidelines, clenching her hands and bouncing a bit when he scored a hit.

But then the creature had faked an attack and come at him from behind, sending him away from the building into a lamppost, which proceeded to bend over and shower him with sparks and glass. She sucked in her breath as her heart nearly stopped. She prayed he was alive.

The creature approached him and she began to panic. She couldn't reveal her location because no doubt it would come after her. But then again, he was a messenger from the Gods, wasn't he? Was he even allowed to die? Her mind was reeling, and with each second that passed the creature approached him, and it didn't seem like he would be waking up any time soon. When it was almost on top of him, fangs bared, claws poised, she jumped out from behind the building, waving her arms and screaming.

“Hey! Over here! Over here!”

It worked, and it paused to look in her direction. As it looked at her, she saw something akin to greed shine in its eyes, and she felt a drop of sweat slide down the side of her face. The necklace around her neck shone brightly despite the lack of sunshine, and the creature started towards her, slowly, stalking her as its prey.

What have I got myself into, she wondered, torn between running and screaming. If she screamed it would surely come down on her in a second. Although, if she tried to run, it was much too fast for her so that wouldn't work either. It was if her feet were glued to the pavement beneath, and she couldn't have moved if she wished. With every step the creature took, slow, purposeful, she began to lose more of her nerve. She saw it crouch into a lunging position, and she threw her arms up in front of her face.

 

 

^_^

 

 

A steady pounding filled his head and he tried to shake it out, forcing his eyes to open. He'd been through worse hadn't he? He forced himself to look out, and when he did, he was frozen with fear. The creature had left him to go after the girl! Then he realized that it couldn't have possibly known she was there unless she had tried to divert it on purpose…

Cursing her but silently thanking her as well, he struggled to reach inside his coat as the creature approached her. He knew he was running out of time, because it was driven by the need for power and what she held had incredible power indeed. He was beginning to understand where she came into the picture, but regardless… It wasn't possible to ever seal it away, why would a human be involved? That much didn't make sense, but he didn't have any more time to think about it because it had gone into a pounce and he sprang into action.

Withdrawing a silver dagger, the handle engraved with a design of the cross and some ancient scripts, he threw it at the creature, spinning blade-over-handle. It struck it in the neck, the velocity pinning it to the brick wall to its right. It let out a horrible scream, as it struggled viciously against it, wedging the blade deeper. With a final scream, its body dissolved, the particles scattering into the clouds above, and then it was gone leaving the blade stuck to the wall. He sighed, too frustrated to think about anything else and too angry to do anything except give the girl an earful.

Kagome, who had had her eyes covered the entire time, had instead flung her hands to her ears when a horrible shriek had pierced the silence. Falling to her knees, she grimaced and attempted to block out the sound that sounded like it would never end. When it did end, she cautiously moved her arms down to her side, and was staring at an open lot. Glancing around nervously, she got to her feet and saw something protruding from the wall to her left.

Walking closer to it, she noticed it was the handle of a dagger. She realized that the blade had pierced through the brick and blinked. She tentatively touched the handle of the dagger, and ran her fingers lightly over a line of symbols and a cross. Frowning, she wrapped her hand around it and gave it a sound tug. It wouldn't budge, so she braced herself on either side, and gave it a big heave. It was a few more times before she managed to dislodge it, and it sent her flying backwards stumbling. She caught herself and examined the dagger in her hands with great interest.

When she finally turned to face InuYasha, she blinked for he was looking at her with anger. She kept her eyes to the ground as she walked towards him and when she reached him, he was already on his feet. Stopping in front of him, she coughed lightly and held out the dagger in her palm.

“I, uh, think this is yours.”

He snatched it and slid it into an interior pocket where she assumed he kept a sheath.

“What the hell do you think you're doing?” His voice showed his anger more than his eyes and she winced.

“I was saving you,” she spoke, but she wasn't afraid. She had saved his life, and he had saved hers.

“I told you stay hidden,” he growled, as he brushed past her and started to walk away. She blinked and turned, following after him, almost jogging so she could keep up.

“Well what was I supposed to do? That thing was almost on you and I didn't know what else to do! I was trying to buy you time!” she fought back, her own anger at his lack of appreciation rising.

He turned on her suddenly so that their noses were almost touching and she stopped before she ran in to him, her cheeks coloring slightly.

“You listen to me. When I give you an order, you better obey it. I don't know what role you have in all this yet, but until I do, you're in danger and that thing wants to kill you as bad as it does me. You're my responsibility until this is over, and if you die I'm sure the Gods will be plenty mad at me. So when I tell you to stay hidden, you damn well stay hidden, understand?” He was seething.

Kagome wasn't listening to him. Her features screwed up in anger, she pushed past him, deliberately hitting him the shoulder as she walked by.

“I can take care of myself,” she told him, her pride in her voice. She didn't need a constant babysitter. Sure, she couldn't defeat that creature but that's where he came in, and she didn't need to be watched over twenty-four hours a day.

When she turned the corner, she was so preoccupied that she didn't notice there was a person there. Colliding head-on, she was knocked back a few steps. She looked up to give the person a piece of her mind, temporarily forgetting the kind of situation she was in. When she looked up, she nearly forgot everything else as well because she was standing in front of her mother. She couldn't have been happier to see such a familiar face. Smiling, she reached out to touch her, but her mother just walked by. Something painful struck her deep inside her chest, and she tried to brush it off as she turned and grabbed her shoulder.

But her mother kept on walking. When Kagome gripped her shoulder so hard it would have left bruises, and made to spin her, she stumbled sideways but aligned herself and kept on walking. The reality came crashing down and she fell to her knees. Everything she had lived for, everything she had done in the end was taken from her. Would things even be the same from now on? Even if InuYasha did send this creature away again, what would happen to them? What would happen to her?

She thought of her brother and she suddenly wished she could see him. He was sick, but he was probably walking around somewhere. Was he still sick, would it get worse? No one noticed her; it was as if she didn't even exist. She had wished for some adventure but now she found herself wishing that things were back to the way they were, boring and predictable.

Her head fell into her hands and tears burned behind her eyes as all the emotions came rushing at her at once. She didn't want to be here anymore. She wanted to wake up from this; she just wanted it to be over. She was suddenly very exhausted and she felt the overwhelming urge to sleep and never wake up again. The whole concept of what was going on was horribly surreal to her, and her nose started to sting in a familiar way. Why her, she wondered, why was she the one to get caught up in all this. She was just an ordinary high school girl who took care of her family.

One by one, the tears flowed over down her cheeks, hitting the ground below with hardly a sound at all. She wanted to pretend nothing was happening, but everything was made painfully clear by the sound of InuYasha's boots hitting the pavement behind her. She was suddenly very mad at him, and when he reached out a hand to touch her shoulder she shrugged it off angrily.

“So now you pity me? Now you want to offer me comfort?” She knew he was only trying to help, but her head was pounding and she was suddenly exhausted. Sighing, she spoke, her words muffled by her hands.

“Can… we just go somewhere to rest?” Her voice was soft and defeated to her own ears. She didn't see his frown, but she heard him move in front of her, and when he bent down to offer her his back she gladly climbed on. Leaning her head against his shoulder, she closed her eyes, the wind rushing by her as he ran. She was asleep within a minute.