InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Hallowed Anniversary ❯ I ain't afraid of no ghost... ( Chapter 3 )

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]

 

 

Chapter 3 – I ain't afraid of no ghost

 

 

 

 

 

“Mama! We're back!” Kagome called from the genkan, kicking off her shoes while Inuyasha did his best to wipe his feet as they entered her family's home.

 

“Welcome back, dear,” her mother greeted from her place in the kitchen doorway.

 

“What day is it?” Kagome asked, believing she had kept track of her calendar correctly but needing to double-check.

 

“It's Monday dear, the 29th,” her mother replied, and Kagome sighed with relief. They'd made it with time to spare, after all.

 

“I'm going to go get cleaned up before dinner,” she told Inuyasha with a quick peck on the cheek, before staggering her exhausted body towards the shower.

 

Inuyasha was quick to follow her into the main part of the house, though he went left to head upstairs while she went right, towards the family washroom. He took Kagome's bow, arrows, and backpack to her room, taking a moment to glance around and smile that secret smile that he never let anyone but his wife see, before heading back downstairs to see if that cat was anywhere around...

 

Mrs. Higurashi grinned at the sight of her son-in-law playing with Buyo.

 

While he and Kagome had not been married in the modern sense, she understood that the boy had no papers of identification, and as such a legal marriage simply would not be possible, regardless of his hanyou appearance. But that didn't stop her from considering the young man currently sitting on her kitchen floor to be her daughter's husband. She also knew that Inuyasha was actually a lot older than he appeared, but that didn't stop her from seeing him as the innocent boy he truly was deep down inside. While granted, he had obviously matured in some ways, considering his relationship with her daughter, it honestly amazed Mrs. Higirashi how child-like he could still appear at times, like now, when he had seen and received so much hardship for so long.

 

“I'm sure Buyo missed you, Inuyasha,” she said softly, causing the canine man-child to freeze in his playful torture of the family pet. “But why don't you go join Kagome? Dinner won't be ready for a while yet, and Father's still puttering around outside doing his shrine duties until I call him.”

 

He just sort of gaped at her. Had she just said...?

 

“Uh...”

 

“Oh! I nearly forgot,” Mrs. Higurashi added suddenly as if completely changing the subject. “I know you promised Souta that you two would play that new video game of his the next time you came over, but he's actually spending the night at a friend's house tonight, so you're going to have to take a rain check on the Playstation, I'm afraid, since he isn't home right now.”

 

He grinned then. No Souta? No old man?

 

Maybe he should go join Kagome.

 

He'd only been kidding when he'd said so before, knowing how Kagome felt about doing anything with her family in the house, but if it was only her mother, and she had just suggested it...

 

“I'll umm, yeah...see you for dinner in a little bit?” he asked shyly. It was still an embarrassing subject to discuss with her mom.

 

“Of course, sweetheart.”

 

With that, he bolted out of the kitchen faster than the human eye could see, appearing as nothing more than a red blur. Mrs. Higurashi merely chuckled to herself at the sight before getting back to chopping her vegetables. Ah, to be young and in love.

 

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Tuesday was rather uneventful. They enjoyed just lazing about the house doing basically nothing.

 

Inuyasha would never get used to Kagome's crazy modern world. He knew there was no way in all the eight hells he could ever learn to live there on a permanent basis, there was just way too much that he'd never be able to understand. But it was definitely still a nice place to come and visit from time to time.

 

When he needed a drink of water, he didn't have to go sniffing out a stream, first making sure that the area wasn't guarded by something bigger and stronger than himself before sneaking out into the open. All he had to do was grab a 'glass' out of her cupboard, and turn on the 'sink' to get his much needed thirst quencher. While granted, the water tasted a little funny, he could tell that there was nothing truly harmful in it, and to him, the simple pipeline that Kagome had explained was sort of like a pressurized well system seemed like nothing short of a miracle.

 

Some things went completely over his head, like the television, but while he couldn't grasp her explanation as to how the contraption actually worked, he had come to accept that the people he saw on the screen were actors performing in various plays. That concept he understood. They had plays in his own time, after all. Never mind how the images appeared on the screen, it wasn't that important. His world had things like magic mirrors that would show you visions of various things, so he just chalked it up to 'futuristic human magic' and Kagome agreed that that was good enough.

 

Inuyasha enjoyed watching movies with her all the same, and appreciated that she tried to keep their viewing choices limited to things he'd be a little more likely to grasp. Nothing 'science fiction'...whatever that was, that Souta had suggested but Kagome had in turn insisted he wouldn't be able to follow. He hadn't gotten offended at her words; Kagome had explained that she knew he wasn't stupid, but that there were just certain things that nobody from his time period would be able to understand. At least not without first being sat down and having everything explained at length, and it honestly wasn't that important to him so he'd agreed to just avoid the complicated movies to make it easier.

 

So they usually stuck to martial arts movies, or the occasional 'western' which he could also follow, as there was no 'modern technology' involved in those types of movies, either. Inuyasha knew what guns were. The ones in his world were much more primitive than what those 'cowboys' used, but he at least understood the concept of gunpowder and bullets.

 

Presently, he and Kagome were watching a cooking show, since competitions were also something he understood, and he got that those participants were not actors but real chefs really competing. They were also presently alone in the house, just the two of them, since Souta was at school and Kagome's grandfather was once again outside doing whatever it was he did out there all day, while her mother had run to the store. So of course Murphy's Law would arrange it so that just as soon as he was temporarily left to his own devices, when Kagome excused herself to go use the restroom real quick, that was when the phone rang.

 

The noise startled him at first, but he quickly recalled Kagome's brief explanation regarding what a telephone was, and how to use it. He understood what it did, in theory, even if he didn't have the foggiest idea as to how the damn thing actually worked. He also knew that there was a strange phrase he had been unfamiliar with the first time he'd heard Kagome's mother use it that Kagome had explained was a greeting they used only when answering the phone, which of course explained why he'd never heard it before.

 

At first he thought he would just let it ring, that whoever it was would 'call back'...but after they did indeed call back, just a few seconds later, the inu-hanyou rolled his eyes and decided that it couldn't be that bad for him to answer the phone himself. The ringing was getting fucking annoying.

 

“Moshi moshi,” he said into the device, having seen both Kagome and her mother talk on the thing on several occasions.

 

“Ummm...hi, is Kagome there?” asked a confused female voice on the other end.

 

“She's using the toilet,” he answered bluntly.

 

“Oh...” the voice said, then giggled nervously before suddenly perking up. “Hey, wait! Is this Inuyasha?” she asked.

 

His ears flicked nervously at the girl's recognition. Who was she? She must have been one of Kagome's friends from the party last year, he realized. But which one? Well, it wasn't like that really mattered. They were all the same.

 

“Yeah,” he answered honestly. “What of it?”

 

“Oh I'm so glad I caught you!” the girl continued, ignoring the rudeness of his response. “I was going to tell Kagome, and then ask her to invite you too, but since I'm already talking to you, then I'll just tell you and then you can tell Kagome what I told you to tell her so that she doesn't have to invite you because I already told...”

 

He pulled the phone away from his ear. Didn't these girls ever shut up?

 

“Tell me what?” he finally interrupted.

 

“Oh.” She giggled again. “Well, I know last year Eri had said that she was going to have another party, but we were thinking that this year, since we're all eighteen now, that we'd do something a little more real for Halloween, instead, ya know?”

 

“Ummm...”

 

“Sort of like a rite of passage thing, 'cause we're not kids any more,” she continued. “So we've decided...” She paused for dramatic effect. “We're all going to stay the night at Yuurei Manor!” she finished excitedly, obviously awaiting some kind of a reaction from him at the name.

 

“Ummm...”

 

“Inuyasha?” Kagome asked with confusion, having come into the room to see him on the phone. Somehow, Yuka managed to hear Kagome's voice in the background, as she suddenly squealed in Inuyasha's ear. He pulled the phone away again.

 

“Oh! Kagome! Tell her what I said! No, better yet, let me talk to her!” Yuka all but shouted in her excitement.

 

“It's for you,” Inuyasha mumbled, virtually shoving the phone at Kagome, which she accepted with an unprepared fumble before shaking her head in exasperation and placing it to her ear.

 

“Hey Yuka, what's up?” she asked.

 

She'd recognized Yuka's voice on the other end of the line since Inuyasha had been holding the phone receiver away from his head.

 

“Kagome! Guess what!”

 

Kagome listened as Yuka proceeded to explain to her what she'd just told Inuyasha, except this time, the hanyou could tell from his wife's reaction that the name did indeed hold some measure of significance.

 

“Are you insane?!” Kagome spluttered. “First of all, that's breaking and entering. Second of all- No! I'm not scared. Yuka, no, I- No...yes...no I'm not scared of 'a few ghosts', and that place isn't even haunted to begin with,” she continued.

 

Ah...so that's it, Inuyasha thought in understanding. Some abandoned house in town that was supposed to be haunted. Interesting.

 

“Yuka, I don't think- No...I don’t know...”

 

Kagome sighed, then glanced over at Inuyasha. He could easily still hear Yuka's voice through the device, and so knew that she'd just asked Kagome what he thought about the idea, obviously hoping that he would assist her with convincing Kagome that they should go.

 

“If you really don't want to, then we won't,” he told her quietly enough that the girl on the other end of the line wouldn't hear him. “But if you kinda do want to go, don't worry 'bout me. I'll go with you. I don't mind.”

 

Kagome smiled at him. One of her true, heart-warming smiles, that still made his insides flutter even after all their time together. He had changed so much since they'd gotten together. Before, he never would have told her that they could do whatever she wanted, that he didn't mind accompanying her to such a thing. The old him would have snorted, and chastised her, stating that doing something like that was a stupid waste of time.

 

The truth was, she did kind of want to go with her friends, although she was still worried about the 'breaking and entering' part, despite the fact that that old mansion had been abandoned for a good thirty years by then, at least.

 

The story went that a wealthy family had lived there once; a husband and wife with their two sons. Everything was fine until supposedly, one day, the man went nuts and murdered his wife and sons before then also killing himself. The details of how the family had died always seemed to change every time she heard the story, though. Some people said he drove a knife straight through their hearts, while other people said he had somehow gotten a gun and had shot them all. Some people said he shot himself afterwards, while others claimed he had hanged himself. Other people still denied that anything out of the ordinary had happened there at all, believing the whole story to be the workings of urban legend after the house had suddenly become abandoned for non-murderous reasons, while others also believed the entire family had been murdered by somebody else who'd gotten away with it and the husband had been unjustly blamed.

 

Growing up, Kagome had always fallen into that latter category, but even though she'd believed that something horrible had indeed happened to the family that'd used to live there...haunted? The story also went that the house was now haunted by the tormented spirits of the slain family.

 

That was something the old her had never really believed. Yes, that huge house had been boarded up since before she was born, and yes, all throughout her school years she had heard tales of those older than her braving a stay in the place, only to report back with horrid accounts of haunted activity, but she'd thought they were just making it up. Other kids at school had even claimed to know of somebody who had stayed overnight in the manor, never to be heard from again, and she'd definitely thought they had been making it up. She'd never heard any serious talk of missing students, after all.

 

The ongoing claim that the place was haunted had been what had finally dubbed the abandoned mansion 'Ghost Manor' amongst her peers, although she doubted any of those people had actually stayed the night in there, especially if they feared disappearing.

 

Kagome was honestly surprised that Yuka had actually suggested the lot of them do such a thing, themselves. While she had never personally believed the place to be haunted, her friends, especially Yuka, had always been among those who fell for the fantasy hook, line, and sinker.

 

Should they really be doing this? Wasn't it against the law? There had to be some property owner floating around out there somewhere, choosing to do nothing with it, otherwise the city would have reclaimed the land a long time ago.

 

Supposedly, according to the story, that detail was even accounted for. The house had allegedly been inherited by the dead wife's brother. Since somebody obviously owned the property, whomever they were, Kagome felt a little bad about staying the night there. Though granted, it wasn't as if she'd never stayed the night in an abandoned hut back in the Feudal era, and certainly the owner of that house had to know that people had been breaking inside to stay overnight for years now. It was abandoned with a reputation for being haunted, after all. Maybe he just didn't care?

 

Screw it, she finally decided. I deserve to have a night of fun with my friends.

 

“All right,” Kagome finally relented to the happily squealing Yuka on the other end of the line.

 

“Cool!” Yuka cheered in her ear, causing her to pull the phone away from her head a bit, which made Inuyasha chuckle. “We'll stop by your house tomorrow evening to kidnap...I mean get you,” she said, trying to sound funny. “Have an overnight bag packed!”

 

“Okay, we will. Bye Yuka.”

 

Upon hanging up the phone, Kagome slouched tiredly against the wall behind her, pinching the bridge of her nose with a very 'How do I always get myself into these situations?' expression on her scrunched up face.

 

She was just about to voice the thought aloud when her mother suddenly returned home with the groceries. Oh well, she'd have time to worry about it later. Right now, she and Inuyasha should help her mother carry everything inside.

 

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The following evening Kagome was pacing in her room, nervously waiting for her friends to arrive. She had told her mother that she and Inuyasha were going to be staying overnight with her friends at somebody's house, kind of semi-lying, stating that they were coming to 'kidnap' them for a night of Halloween fun and that she didn't know where they'd end up.

 

That last part was a lie since she did know where they were going, but at least she hadn't outright lied that she was staying specifically at one of her friends' houses, where her mother could theoretically attempt to reach her later and then be unable to. At least this way her mother knew where her daughter wouldn't be, and honestly, considering Kagome's years spent traipsing across all of Feudal Japan, Mrs. Higurashi wasn't really worried.

 

“Be careful,” was all her mother had told her.

 

Mrs. Higurashi especially wasn't worried about her daughter since Inuyasha would be going with her. She neither had to worry about any unexpected danger, or that Kagome would let her friends talk her into something she shouldn't be doing, like sneaking into a nightclub with a phony ID. Not with Inuyasha in tow.

 

If they stayed up all night going from house party to house party, well, Kagome was eighteen now. At least she didn't have to worry about her daughter getting drunk and hooking up with a strange man for the night, again because of Inuyasha. Kagome was a married woman, even though her friends didn't know that, but they still knew Kagome and Inuyasha were together, at least.

 

And speaking of marriage, the miko had told Inuyasha earlier that afternoon that it would probably be best to not mention being married, otherwise her friends were bound to get on her case about why she hadn't invited them to a wedding she'd never even had. On that side of the well, at least.

 

When Inuyasha finally informed her that he could hear her friends approaching, they darted outside to meet them, a quick “Bye Mom!” from Kagome echoing in their wake.

 

“Have fun dears,” Mrs. Higurashi replied, despite the fact that they were already out the door. She was pretty sure that at least Inuyasha had still heard her.

 

“Your mom said have fun,” he relayed to Kagome as they approached the shrine steps.

 

Upon greeting her friends at the top of the stone stairs, she blanched.

 

What was Hojo doing there?

 

Oh well. At least he knew she was with Inuyasha now, right? And at least she and Inuyasha weren't the only ones in 'costume' like she had feared they were going to be.

 

Since Inuyasha obviously couldn't do anything about being hanyou, Kagome had still dressed up in her miko attire, though she didn't really consider her everyday clothing to be a costume, but whatever. Fortunately, they didn't really stand out all that dramatically, after all.

 

Apparently to get into the 'mood' of things, two of her friends had chosen to dress themselves up in outfits that looked as though they'd been pulled right out of an Evanescence video. Eri was dressed in an off-white floor length gown that had an outer layer of floral lace over the skirt, with a fitted bodice and belled half-sleeves. Yuka was dressed in a black gothic number with a full length skirt overlaid in a gathering of black tulle, with a velvet corset top that laced in the back, and long, straight sleeves.

 

Ayumi had opted for a more classical approach, in that she was dressed in a hauntingly beautiful dark blue yukata with a pale cream colored pattern of ghostly faces throughout the rob, and matching pale cream obi. It was something straight out of your traditional Japanese ghost story, complete with a matching midnight blue geisha fan. She had enough hair to wrap up into a small bun, which she'd done, and eerie pendants of ghosts and youkai hung from her various hair ornaments, symbolizing herself as a servant to the underworld.

 

Hojo was the only one who appeared not to have dressed up for the occasion, wearing his school uniform, of all things. Didn't that boy own any other clothes?

 

Heh, like you're one to talk, she joked to herself in her mind, since that was all she used to ever wear in the Feudal era.

 

But still, for something like this she would have at least expected another store bought costume like the vampire one he'd worn at least year's party.

 

And speaking of Hojo, he seemed to take notice of Kagome's attire around the same time that she noticed his, and was currently scrutinizing her outfit as well. Were the bow and arrows truly necessary?

 

“A miko?” he questioned, looking her up and down.

 

“Well, somebody has to purify all the ghosts at Yuurei Manor, right?” she replied with a nervous chuckle.

 

What was his problem?

 

Of course, the truth was she was only half kidding.

 

While she had been a firm believer growing up that there was no such thing as ghosts, she had quickly been proven wrong shortly after her fifteenth birthday. She would never forget the angry spirit of young Mayu, that girl who had died in the house fire. If there were ghosts at Yuurei Manor, or at least, children ghosts, then it might be possible that she and Inuyasha would also detect the presence of the Soul Piper. She wasn't sure what the rules were regarding adult spirits, but if other people actually had disappeared there when staying the night then the situation was rather serious.

 

Of course, it was still equally possible the place was not haunted at all and it was all just an urban myth, but given everything she'd learned over the years it would be too irresponsible of her not to come prepared, just in case.

 

Unlike Hojo, Yuka actually thought that Kagome's miko outfit was pretty cool. It certainly fit, considering she was from a shrine. In a way, you could say that she really was a miko, even if today's miko didn't have any of the cool powers like the legendary miko of the past did. Yuka was also quick to notice Inuyasha's repeat in costume choices, though she wasn't going to chastise Kagome's boyfriend for a lack of creativity. His inu-hanyou accessories were actually pretty damn realistic, and she could easily understand the concept of having a favorite costume. There was no rule that said you couldn't wear the same thing two years in a row.

 

“Oh I get it,” Eri suddenly chimed in, glancing across at the Goshinboku tree behind them. “You're still an inu-hanyou, so this time Kagome is a miko so that you're the legendary lovers!”

 

Inuyasha spluttered at the bluntness of her comment, his cheeks instantly flaming as deep a crimson as his fire-rat robes, but he made no move to deny it, and Kagome chose that moment to silently thank the gods that they actually were together now, and that Kikyou was no longer a sore spot between them, or else Inuyasha could've really closed himself off at such a comment.

 

“Yup!” she replied in that moment, thinking that would be the end of it.

 

“Though of course, according to that legend, the hanyou and miko may have loved each other but were never really lovers,” Hojo provided, sounding as though he were merely giving a history lesson although Kagome couldn't help but wonder if there wasn't the tiniest spark of jealousy hidden somewhere deep within the boy.

 

And apparently Inuyasha picked up on the same vibe from Hojo that she had, instantly losing his embarrassment in favor of defending what was his. Unfortunately for Kagome, that meant that before she could come up with a safer, less embarrassing reply, Inuyasha beat her to it with his knowing grin and comment of, “Yeah, well...so we deviate from the original story a little bit.”

 

At first she groaned to herself at his announcement, until she realized, Wait a minute, I am eighteen here, and I seriously doubt that they're all still virgins...

 

Yes, this would not be the end of the world, after all.

 

“Go Kagome!” Eri cheered. “He's hot!” she declared shamelessly, re-igniting the burn under Inuyasha's cheeks.

 

Kagome glanced his way with a very 'Well that’s what you get, big mouth' kind of smirk, before agreeing with Eri's statement wholeheartedly.

 

They continued to walk down the shrine steps in silence for a moment after that, before Ayumi spoke up next, telling Kagome sincerely, “I'm so happy for you.”

 

She knew that Kagome had been in love with that white haired boy for quite some time now, although she hadn't known at first how he'd felt about her in return, based upon the stories she used to tell them.

 

Apparently, Yuka hadn't forgotten about those stories, either, as she asked Inuyasha in her typical straightforward manner, “So, you're not ever going to hurt Kagome again, right?”

 

She wasn't about to tell Kagome that she could do better, if she really loved the guy, but she didn't want to see her friend crying over milkshakes because he had two-timed her yet again, either, especially after taking their relationship to the next level.

 

“What?” Inuyasha asked in shock, stopping in his tracks and somewhat offended at the question.

 

Him? Hurt Kagome? He'd rather gift wrap Tetsusaiga for his brother's next birthday.

 

But the way Yuka had said 'again' gave him pause, allowing Kagome time to explain before he could go off on her at the accusation.

 

“She means Kikyou,” his wife explained quietly, while taking and squeezing his hand, and he immediately understood.

 

Oh...

 

Neither of them noticed how surprised Kagome's three girlfriends were at how she had just said the other girl's name so openly.

 

When they reached the bottom of the concrete stairs Kagome finally understood why it was that Hojo had accompanied them, as he was the one who removed a set of keys from his pocket, pushing a button that opened the trunk of the car that was parked on the curb in front of them. The manor was a fair distance off the beaten path, after all. It wasn't some place that they could just walk to.

 

Nice one guys, the miko thought, shaking her head. Use the poor guy for his car, why don't you.

 

“That was a long time ago,” Kagome suddenly continued aloud, on the Kikyou subject, addressing Yuka and by extension her other friends as she moved around to the opened trunk and found a spot for her backpack alongside everyone else's luggage.

 

She secretly hopped Hojo was listening as well.

 

“Kikyou is no longer an issue between us,” she explained, finding a place for her quiver and bow. “I was younger, and easily upset, back when all that drama took place. I didn't really want to understand the kind of obligations Inuyasha had, but everything's been resolved for a long time now,” she added, turning to the man in question and pulling the sheathed Tetsusaiga from his obi to store in the trunk as well. “I've forgiven him for my past tears, and we've officially been together, happily, for an entire year now,” she concluded, closing the trunk and taking Inuyasha's hand once more.

 

Kagome's three girlfriends all beamed at her words with the proverbial anime hearts floating around their heads and fluttering in their eyes. All four females present seemed to miss the twinge of something that flashed in Hojo's eyes in that same moment, which most certainly wasn't cartoon hearts. Inuyasha saw it, however, some bizarre mixture between sad longing and anger, and he quickly met the boy's eyes with his own. He gave Hojo a look that said he wanted to be civil with him, but that he needed to learn when to back the fuck off. He was still a little pissed over that candy corn incident, too. His ears were sensitive, and that shit had hurt!

 

Of course, Inuyasha realized that Hojo had obviously had no idea that he was a real inu-hanyou, although something about the boy's overall personality seemed to suggest that if he did know, he would be one of those people telling Kagome to stay away from a 'monster' such as himself. Her three girlfriends, on the other hand, would probably jump up and down squealing nonsense, and ask to touch his ears.

 

Said appendages automatically lowered at the thought, though fortunately nobody seemed to notice their movement. Everyone was too busy deciding upon the seating arrangements for their drive. He didn't care where anybody else sat, just so long as he was next to Kagome. He didn't appreciate how it looked as though somebody else would have to sit next to Kagome, too, but just so long as it was one of the girls, he supposed that would be all right. Fortunately, it looked as though Hojo was the one who'd be operating the contraption. Inuyasha would admit, at least to himself, that he was a little nervous to be climbing inside one of those things, but he wouldn't let it show while in the presence of her friends.

 

Once everyone was seated, the final layout consisted of Hojo in the driver's seat, with Yuka squished next to him on the little excuse of a middle seat provided upfront when the center console was raised, followed by Eri jammed over in the passenger's side next to her. The two girls didn't seem to mind the close quarters at all, though, as they proceeded to chat it up regarding how they couldn't wait to see Yuurei Manor for themselves, and how 'so and so' had said it was this way, and 'so and so' had said it was that way.

 

Inuyasha couldn't care less. But he had cared about having somebody else physically packed up against himself, which was why he had maneuvered it so that he was against one door, with Kagome in the middle, and that other girl, Ayumi, sitting on the opposite side. There was a tad more room for three people in the back, although his and Kagome's thighs were still snugly touching one another. Not that he minded that in the least. He also didn't mind Kagome being in physical contact with that Ayumi girl. She seemed nice enough, and was the one out of her three chatterbox friends that he minded the least.

 

The drive was rather uneventful, as Yuka turned on something he knew was called the 'radio', filling the car with upbeat foreign music from her 'CD'. He might not have understood what was being said, but that didn't seem to stop anybody else from enjoying the song currently being played. Kagome explained quietly that the words were in a language called English, and in a delicate whisper that nobody but himself would hear, she translated the lyrics for him to the best of her ability, doing her best to keep in time with the song. Everybody should be able to enjoy the timeless American masterpiece that was 'Thriller', after all.

 

Several other appropriately themed songs played throughout their drive, Yuka obviously having put forth a fair amount of effort into burning a Halloween mix CD for their trip. It made Kagome wonder how long they'd actually been planning this little vacation, before deciding to spring it on her at the last second. Though granted, even if they had tried to call her before yesterday, she wouldn't exactly have been able to take their call. In the end, it had all worked out.

 

Arriving at their destination, Hojo pulled the car around back where passersby on the road wouldn't be able to see it, before everyone gathered their luggage and made their way towards the front of the rather large building. Inuyasha's nose wrinkled from the amount of stale air and dust that he could already smell from just standing out there on the front lawn, or rather, what he assumed used to be the front lawn. Still, if Kagome wanted to stay the night here with her friends, then he would let her, and since there was no way in all the eight hells that he'd ever let her stay in an unknown environment such as this unprotected, that meant that if she stayed the night in such a place, then so did he.

 

You could tell that nobody had lived there for a long time. The windows had all been boarded up at one point, though a lot of the boards had since either fallen off or been torn down. What glass that was exposed was broken, and a few small patches of house here and there were covered in a bizarre ink, which Inuyasha figured out pretty quickly was just somebody's way of marking that they had been at the 'forbidden' property.

 

It wasn't long before everybody started to wonder how hard it would be to get in, if the door was locked, and if they'd need to find a window to crawl through somewhere. It was Yuka who first braved approaching the front door to investigate, and things were made infinitely easier when the door proved to be unlocked, swinging open with a loud creak upon the gentlest touch of her hand. She laughed nervously, and turning back to the others, joked, “Well, it looks like we're being invited in.”

 

Inuyasha and Kagome shared a look that told each other to remain on guard, as they slowly followed her friends inside.

 

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“Oh ick,” Eri complained, wondering where it would be safe to sit without getting her dress all filthy. Oh well, should have thought of that before.

 

Virtually everything was covered in dust. What little furniture there was, mostly Western influence in style, was covered by old white tarps that were darkened with age, and riddled with moth holes. Cobwebs clung to nearly every surface, stretching upward towards the high ceiling in the living room, framing every doorway, and traveling up the banister of the stairwell. The floors were so grimy anyway that it was unanimously agreed that everyone would keep their shoes on, nobody really wanting to walk barefoot in there, and besides...who knew if they would suddenly have to run for their lives at any given moment?

 

Kagome wasn't sure yet about the place actually being haunted, but labeling it 'filthy' would win the grand prize of all understatements. Glancing sympathetically in Inuyasha's direction, the miko couldn't imagine what it had to be like for him when even she had to cover her nose to keep from exploding into a sneezing frenzy. As the gang moved forward into what was once the living room, Ayumi gaped at the beat up looking grand piano that sat lopsidedly off in one corner.

 

“Oh wow!” she exclaimed, rushing towards the instrument as quickly as her snug yukata would allow, before hesitantly tapping on one of the keys.

 

The most gods awful out-of-tune twang that anyone had ever heard echoed loudly throughout the otherwise silent two-story building, and everyone glared at the girl with a very 'Don't do that again' expression on their faces.

 

It was very dark inside the mansion, which was obviously to be expected with over half of the total windows still at least partially boarded up, but there was still enough light coming in from the evening sun for everyone to make out what they assumed to be a family portrait that hung crookedly on the wall above the fireplace. The photo consisted of a man and a woman, with two small boys of similar age, each dressed in rather expensive looking traditional robes. It seemed somewhat out of place that they would be dressed so traditionally for their portrait when they obviously preferred Western style furnishings, although Kagome could definitely understand the concept of getting prettied up for picture day.

 

It was quickly decided that they'd all be camping out in the living room downstairs, as the large open space gave off some semblance of security, and they didn't much feel like splitting up into the various smaller bedrooms upstairs. It seemed, though, that Kagome had to question how many horror films her friends had actually seen throughout their lifetimes, as slowly but surely everyone started to wander around in separate directions anyway, 'exploring'. She shrugged it off with a small chuckle after a moment though, telling herself that there was nothing to worry about, as she was yet to sense anything that felt like any sort of threat. Although she had left her jewel shards back at the shrine...just in case...stashed away in her lockbox which she'd sealed with one of Miroku's ofuda...just in case in case.

 

Eri quickly found her way into the kitchen, glancing about the older style appliances and tile flooring with that eerie feeling one gets when you feel connected to something gone before. It was as if she could picture what the room had looked like back when it'd been new, back when it had still been in use. In her mind's eye, she could see the family from that portrait sitting around the now broken table, enjoying a peaceful breakfast. What had happened to them? What had really happened to them? Was that whole murder/suicide thing just some cover story? What if the entire family had been murdered, and whoever had done it had gone free?

 

Approaching the sink, she didn't know why she'd expected to see it full of mucky disgusting water. As it was, the white porcelain was dry as a bone, even if it was truly no longer white, stained as it was with so many years of filth. Reaching for the faucet, she turned it into the 'on' position, jumping out of her skin at the horrid gurgling sound that rattled throughout the dry pipes. She hadn't honestly expected any water, but she hadn't expected there to be any sort of pressure on the line, either. At least nobody had seen her jump like an idiot, she thought with a sigh of relief, as she quickly turned it off and made her way back towards the living room.

 

An older style rotary phone hung covered in grime on the wall, and once again picking up on the nostalgia of when the house had been lived in, she picked up the receiver, not surprised in the least when the phone remained completely silent.

 

“Booo!”

 

“Ahhh!”

 

Yuka laughed hysterically, leaning forward with her hands on her knees, as Eri screamed, “Don't do that!”

 

“You should have seen your face!”

 

Frowning, Eri hung up the phone, much to Yuka's amusement. “What were you expecting? To hear some guy ask what's your favorite scary movie?”

 

Pouting in embarrassment, Eri attempted to defend herself. “Old style phones don't need electricity to work; I was just curious.”

 

“They may not need electricity, but they still need somebody to pay the phone bill on time,” Hojo chimed in from his place in the doorway, thoroughly amused, and deciding he was glad they had talked him into coming on this trip, after all.

 

He would admit it; he still had feelings for Kagome. He had been hoping that she and that Inuyasha person would have broken up at some point over the last year, but apparently, that wasn't the case. He hadn't even known who that guy was, at first, although he did recognize him from that time he'd crashed their school play, way back when. It would have been hard not to make the connection, considering he had been wearing his hanyou costume at the cultural festival, too.

 

Hojo had thought that Inuyasha and Kagome were just friends, though. Which, apparently, actually had been the case back then, at least according to the story she'd just relayed that evening. Apparently, she had had feelings for the guy for some time, but they hadn't actually been 'together' at first. Not until after he'd gotten something or another resolved with some ex-girlfriend of his.

 

Hojo had no idea what could have possibly been so important that it had prevented Inuyasha from being with Kagome, if he'd truly had any sort of feelings for the girl at all. Nothing would have kept him from being with Kagome, if she had ever actually shown any interest in him. She deserved somebody who understood just how special she really was, Hojo thought. Someone who'd treat her like number one in their life, rather than second choice. She shouldn't be with somebody who had kept her feelings for him pushed aside on the back burner until it was convenient.

 

Hojo tried to tell himself in that moment that he was glad she at least seemed to be happy with whom she had chosen, though. He wanted her to be happy above all else, after all. Still, if that Inuyasha character had truly caused Kagome any tears, then he didn't deserve her, in his book. And besides that, there was also something else about the guy that just didn't sit right with him, either. Something besides his interest in Kagome. Something he couldn't quite put his finger on.

 

Back in the living room, Ayumi watched as Kagome and Inuyasha 'set up camp' with practiced ease, and silently wondered if the two of them had actually spent some real time camping outdoors. At first she'd thought it was odd that Kagome had only brought one simple backpack, for the two of them, no less, but now that they were going through everything she'd brought, it seemed as though Kagome was used to storing tremendous amounts of stuff in that seemingly bottomless bag.

 

“Can't do ramen, I'm afraid,” she muttered to her companion, before handing him a small bag of potato chips.

 

“Keh, these're fine,” he replied before chowing down.

 

“You guys have gone camping before, haven't you?” Ayumi asked conversationally, to which Inuyasha paused for a moment between mouthfuls of dried potatoes before answering, “S'ppose you could say that.”

 

“This is actually 'roughing it' a little more than I'm used to,” Kagome explained then, gesturing to their surroundings. “I can't build a fire, there's nothing to eat besides the junk food we packed, and there's no fresh water, meaning we have to conserve what we brought for drinking and there's no place to get washed up.”

 

“I hadn't thought about it that way,” Ayumi admitted. “Though I doubt we need to worry about showering for one night. We'll be outta here first thing in the morning.”

 

Everyone nodded in agreement, Eri, Yuka and Hojo having rejoined the others in the living room.

 

“Still,” Ayumi continued after a moment. “I doubt the restroom facilities are in working order.”

 

“Eww,” Eri said, shaking her head in disgust.

 

Kagome chuckled, glancing around at the dust and spider web covered everything that was their scenery for the time being. “If the living room is any indication, I'll go 'round back to the bushes, thank you very much.”

 

Ayumi just giggled like Kagome was joking, while Eri and Yuka looked equally horrified at the thought of using the bushes as they had at the thought of using the bathroom. Inuyasha just rolled his eyes.

 

```````````````````````````````````````

 

“...and then all of the villagers just started rising up into the air.”

 

Everyone gasped.

 

“They were floating?” Yuka asked.

 

Kagome shook her head. “Although that's what it looked like to the hanyou, they weren't actually floating. Thin hairs that nobody could see were actually wrapped around each sleeping villager, controlled by an oni of hair,” she explained.

 

“How did the hanyou defeat the oni controlling them without harming the innocent people?” Eri asked next.

 

When her friends had expressed their interest in telling another round of ghost stories, Kagome had decided to twist a minor truth regarding some select adventures between herself and Inuyasha, making the tales ones regarding 'the hanyou and the miko' instead. She didn't mind, since it was still kind of true, in a way. It was just a different miko, was all, or the same miko reincarnated if you wanted to get really technical. But either way, she was fine with it. According to the original scrolls, 'the hanyou and the miko' had been together for quite some time before the eventual betrayal, so it stood to reason that they could have shared in some random adventures together beforehand.

 

Inuyasha had claimed that these stories came from his family's private collection, in keeping with the original pretense that his parents were historians who had studied that particular legend, but even if her friends actually thought they were just making everything up, they were still soaking up the entertainment. Since the sun had set over an hour ago, their only sources of light were the various flashlights that everyone had brought, save for the minimal amounts of moonlight shining in through some of the broken windows, which only amplified the effect of telling spooky stories all the more.

 

“The hanyou left the village to go and retrieve the miko from where she had been meditating out in the woods,” Inuyasha quickly fabricated in answer to Eri's question. Couldn't exactly mention anything about the well, after all.

 

“While the hanyou had known that something was obviously controlling the villagers, he couldn't tell what it was, until he retrieved the miko, who it turned out could see the hairs that were wrapped around everybody,” Kagome elaborated smoothly, she and Inuyasha taking turns with the story of the first real adventure they'd ever shared together.

 

They continued to tell the tale of Yura of the Hair, only slightly modified, making the demoness after the entire jewel rather than merely their shards of it. Kagome got a little misty eyed, though thankfully hid it well, when she caught the slightest choke in Inuyasha's voice as he told them how the miko would have surely been burned to a crisp had the hanyou not given her his robe of the fire-rat to wear for protection. Even though he had professed to not liking her very much back then, the truth was, she had been the first companion he'd had in a very long time, and he hadn't wanted anything bad to happen to her. He hadn't wanted to become lonely once more.

 

Inuyasha could detect the scent of Kagome's unshed tears at his words, though even through the heavy stench of dust and decaying wood, he could tell that they were happy tears.

 

Eri then took that moment to ask him if that was why he was wearing the bright red kimono, because according to the details in his family's scrolls, the hanyou of legend had worn red clothing, and he nodded, muttering something about his outfit being a replica.

 

Because if this were real fire-rat, Hojo thought bitterly, then it'd be able to withstand this...

 

He'd been sitting next to Inuyasha during the tale and had slowly, casually, pulled out his small pocketknife. He'd brought the blade for protection, in case some other people showed up during the night and tried to cause trouble. He had no intention of harming Inuyasha, or anything crazy like that. He just wanted to poke a little hole in his precious designer robes...the Kagome stealer. The guy's baggy sleeve was draped across the floor right next to him, with the way Inuyasha was currently sitting so casually, with his hand palm down on the floor by his thigh, as he leaned backward against his arm ever so slightly.

 

At the sight, Hojo had thought to make the tiniest rip in the fabric of his rival's sleeve. It would be so easy. Inuyasha probably wouldn't even notice it until much later, and would then curse himself regarding how he had managed to ruin such an expensive outfit.

 

So it stood to reason that Hojo was not expecting the tip of his knife to snap off when he pushed it down into the fabric against the rotted wooden floor. The look Inuyasha immediately sent him afterwards was even more unnerving, as if the man had known what he'd been planning on doing all along, but had remained motionless to let him see for himself just how futile his effort would be.

 

Stupid little snot, the hanyou thought. Attempting to damage father's robe.

 

Not that the hole would have been permanent, anyway, even if he had been able to make one. Only spiritually or demonically charged weaponry could damage his fire-rat clothing at all, and even then, the garments still mended themselves afterwards whenever such damage occurred.

 

Of course, it wasn't like that puny human would know that, and if he was going to put forth such cowardly and wussy attempts at getting even with him over being with Kagome then he wouldn't hesitate to fight back in his own little way. He still felt that he owed the boy for that candy corn stunt, after all. The hanyou had been willing to let it go at first, for Kagome's sake, so that they could all 'get along' as she'd asked of him earlier in a quiet whisper, but if that Hoho clown wasn't going to leave well enough alone then he would simply play his game right back.

 

Taking a casual, deep breath, Inuyasha smirked to himself at the rapidly growing stench of the man's fear. He was obviously scared and confused over what had just happened with his knife.

 

Feh, stupid human, that's what he gets.

 

Hojo wasn't just scared, he was on the verge of freaking out. How had that happened? There was no way that outfit was really made out of fire-rat fur. Fire-rats didn't even exist! They were a type of youkai, and youkai were just myths, weren't they? Sure, a lot of people still believed they at least used to exist. In some rural shops you could even get medicine made from ground up 'dragon' bones, although in reality it was really just dinosaur bones. A lot of people bought into the fantasy, but it was still just a fantasy...wasn't it?

 

The girls, meanwhile, had remained completely oblivious to the incident between the two boys, as Ayumi asked Kagome to tell them another story. She was just about to oblige them, but just as she opened her mouth to speak, the door that led into the separate kitchen off the living room suddenly slammed shut. Everyone jumped, including Inuyasha.

 

“What was that?!” Ayumi questioned frantically.

 

“Probably just the wind,” Eri tried to reassure her.

 

“What wind?” Yuka questioned frantically, while Kagome concentrated on detecting anything unusual in the atmosphere.

 

There was a tiny speck of something that pulled at the very edge of her awareness, but it didn't quite feel like spiritual activity, and it didn't quite feel like jyaki. Still, it was enough for the miko to rise to her feet, grabbing her bow.

 

“What's going on?” Ayumi asked Kagome as she watched the girl next swing on her quiver of arrows. “Are you really going to purify the ghosts?”

 

Before she could answer, Hojo also jumped to his feet, the incident with his knife completely forgotten with his mind suddenly focused on protecting the women. He didn't believe in ghosts, but somebody else was obviously in the house. He didn't know what Kagome was trying to prove with those foolish arrows of hers, but she'd better put them down before she hurt herself. He hadn't planned it, but he would use this opportunity to prove to her who was the better man. He doubted that that cosplaying fool would know how to handle himself in a real situation. His knife must have just had a flaw in the blade, and that glare he'd received afterwards must have just been at his rival's realization of what he'd attempted to do, despite how he'd originally read his expression. That was all.

 

Kagome, meanwhile, was clueless to Hojo's thoughts on the subject of her arrows, and still completely unaware of what had happened regarding his pocket knife, as she attempted to quiet down her panicking girlfriends.

 

“Let's all just calm down for a minute,” she said as she tried to reason with the group. “I'm sure everything is-”

 

She was cut off as all of the bedroom doors upstairs also slammed shut, one right after the other.

 

Yuka and Eri both screamed and huddled together, while Ayumi seemed too frightened to move or scream.

 

“I'm sure there's a logical explanation for everything,” Hojo stated with false bravado, to which Inuyasha snorted, earning a hard glare of his own.

 

“Yeah,” the hanyou answered casually, glaring right back. “And I plan on sniffing that bastard out.”

 

Nobody but Kagome knew how literal that statement actually was, as he began stalking off towards the kitchen door, hand on the hilt of his sword.

 

“He doesn't plan on using his sword against the ghosts, does he?” Yuka asked nervously, not believing such a thing would be very effective.

 

Shaking her head, Kagome answered without thinking, “No, the Tetsusaiga can't cut through spirits.”

 

“Tetsusaiga...?” Eri echoed, the name somehow sounding familiar to her.

 

Wasn't there some other legend regarding some inu-youkai who'd possessed a sword by that name? Shaking her head, she knew she needed to brush up on her local mythology a bit more.

 

Damn, there's no scent... Inuyasha mentally cursed, investigating in the kitchen until another scream out in the living room caused him to rush right back.

 

“What happened?”

 

“Yuka just-” Kagome started, only to be rudely interrupted.

 

“Nothing you need to worry yourself over,” Hojo answered condescendingly, apparently assuming the role of leader. “Why don't you go see if you can find out anything upstairs?” he asked next, in a clear attempt at dismissing him.

 

“Why don't you just shut up?”

 

“Inuyasha!”

 

“What?!”

 

“Now's not the time to fight amongst ourselves!”

 

“Well tell him that! That little shit tried to cut-”

 

“I don't care,” Kagome interrupted that time, frowning as her husband snapped his jaw shut at her words, but remained fuming, glaring daggers at Hojo. What had she missed? She'd definitely ask him about it later.

 

Hojo appeared to be glaring daggers right back at Inuyasha, so something had obviously gone down between the two of them, and if that weren't stressful enough, there was potentially a ghost on the loose. To quote their friend Miroku, this did not bode well.

 

“There it is again!” Yuka screamed a second time, pointing upstairs to a shadow they could all see moving across the far wall, barely caught in the dim moonlight that shown in through the exposed windows.

 

“Hey, whoever you are, get out of here!” Hojo suddenly called out towards the shadow. “You're scaring the women!”

 

Kagome just managed to suppress rolling her eyes, for once, but did wonder if Hojo's apparent opinion that there were simply other people in the house was valid.

 

“Inuyasha,” she said then, all hostility from their previous mini-squabble completely gone from her voice. “Can you please check out the upstairs?” she asked him nicely.

 

Since he'd seen the shadow too, he'd already planned on heading up there anyway, but that didn't stop him from approaching her with a soft, caring smile, as he quietly replied with, “All right,” as he slowly took her hand. “Because you asked me to,” he finished, quickly kissing her on the cheek before darting upstairs.

 

She blushed at his out-of-character show of affection, but her flush quickly became one of anger when she caught Hojo's piercing stare, as she realized the entire display had been for his benefit.

 

Just you wait until we get home... she thought, her eyes narrowing as her gaze followed her husband's disappearing figure upstairs. Her anger quickly dissipated, however, her eyes softening once again as her thoughts finished off with… Please be careful.

 

Hojo, meanwhile, was fuming. Who the hell did that guy think he was? He hoped he got lost in the dark, as the idiot hadn't even thought to bring a flashlight with him. The human man was so preoccupied by his own thoughts that even he let out a startled yell...men did not scream...when the piano in the corner started playing by itself.

 

Ayumi now joined in the huddle, as all three schoolgirls held each other tightly, while Kagome slowly approached the instrument, bow in hand.

 

“Be careful,” Eri beseeched, to which Kagome automatically replied, “Always,” without giving the statement much actual thought.

 

She then proceeded to reach behind herself, grabbing and notching an arrow a little more effortlessly than what one would expect from somebody who'd never fired a bow before in their life. The piano was still strumming away, playing some gods awful, horribly out of tune melody, that if Kagome hadn't known any better she'd swear was a spoof off the theme song for the Haunted Mansion at Disneyland. Upon closer examination, she discovered that the grand piano was in fact not one of those automatic player-pianos, and upon touching the keys herself, all music instantly stopped. She would have fired her arrow, if she'd sensed something to shoot it at, but there was simply nothing there. She'd felt nothing.

 

Upstairs, meanwhile, Inuyasha's ears had swiveled at the sound of the piano playing, but then a flash of movement out of the corner of his eyes encouraged him to stay on track. It was unnerving that there was still no scent, but – he supposed with a shrug – you couldn't exactly smell a ghost, now could you? If that was what this thing really was.

 

“Show yourself, you bastard,” he hissed, drawing Tetsusaiga.

 

Another flash of movement coming from the other direction caused him to spin around, and yet he still saw nothing. He had no trouble adjusting his eyes to the low lighting, his night vision illuminating everything before him in perfect black and white clarity. Staring at the far wall, he concentrated for a moment, trying to focus on what looked different from his memory of that same wall from just a few moments prior. Then it hit him, that dusty, chipped vase sitting on the side table had two shadows.

 

There was no source of light other than the moon that shown in through the broken window to his right. Which meant the shadow on the left was the real one. Pointing his sword at the other shadow, then, his eyes widened in alarm as it began oozing down the wall, like spilt ink running down a piece of parchment.

 

Downstairs, the girls all stared with nervous confusion as Kagome slapped what appeared to be some sort of ofuda on top of the piano. She then appeared dissatisfied with the results when nothing happened.

 

“What's that supposed to do?” Hojo asked, to which she bit the inside of her cheek to keep from snapping at his blatantly condescending tone. Honestly, what the hell was up Hojo's butt tonight?

 

Granted, he too had matured over the last three years, as he was now eighteen just like the rest of them, rather than the shy little fifteen-year-old her friends had used to try and set her up with. But seriously, had the guy really changed that much? Then again, he had dumped a bowl of candy corn on top of Inuyasha's head at last year's party. That should have been a clue, right there, that the guy wasn't quite as docile as he'd used to be.

 

Maybe he was just sexually frustrated, Kagome snickered in her mind, knowing how Inuyasha could get if she kept him waiting for too long. She and her hanyou even sometimes joked that that had been a big part of why he'd always been such a dick to her back in the beginning. Maybe Hojo just needed to get laid. But if that was the case, then he'd better learn to get her out of his mind real quick and find himself somebody else, because she was unavailable.

 

“It's a purifying ward,” she finally decided to answer, after amusing herself enough with her secret thoughts that she could speak to the guy without biting his head off.

 

“Those things don't really work,” Hojo criticized softly, which increased the worried expressions of the three other girls who had previously decided to put a lot of faith into Kagome's apparent abilities for the time being.

 

Coming up with a safe, neutral reply, Kagome answered, “Well, you'd better not tell my grandfather that. He is a Shinto priest, after all. And I'm surprised at you, Hojo,” she added, deciding to be just a little bit condescending herself since he seemed to have no problem dishing it out. “This coming from a man who pawns off ancient herbal remedies to cure things they invented Tylenol for.”

 

Hojo stiffened at that last part, an obvious personal dig.

 

Fine, he didn't have to take that.

 

“I'm going to go see what's taking him so long,” he muttered quietly, before grabbing a flashlight and also heading upstairs.

 

“Do those wards really work, Kagome?” Ayumi asked after Hojo was gone, to which her friend smiled.

 

“Mine do. Just, like I said, don't tell my grandfather that his are powerless,” she joked with a wink.

 

Something crashed behind them then, and Kagome instantly stood taller, whirling around in a protective stance as she instructed her friends, “Stay behind me.”

 

```

 

Inuyasha had heard the conversation downstairs, and was somewhat amused, although their voices truly had to remain background noise for the time being as he concentrated on listening for any sounds from his prey. After that shadow had melted, which was the best way to describe what he'd just witnessed, it had completely disappeared, seeping into the floor without a trace. He'd thoroughly sniffed the wall where it had previously been sitting, though, and he thought he'd detected the faintest hint of a youkai.

 

That worried him.

 

Ghosts shouldn't smell like youkai, and if it was not a ghost they were dealing with, then they had a serious problem.

 

Kagome had told him before how she'd always had a feeling that there were probably more youkai still around in her time, even though neither of them had ever seemed to sense any. They were probably just really well hidden, was all, and probably at least a little more on the rare side than they were back in his century, because of the simple increase in the human population, if nothing else. But if this house was possessed by a youkai posing as a human spirit, that was very bad, as it would explain, in a rather morbid way, what had happened to all those who had supposedly disappeared after staying the night here.

 

There was definitely something going on, that was for sure. Inuyasha was confident that his Kagome could take care of herself, though, which was why he hadn't instantly dashed back downstairs at the sound of that crash. Her words following immediately afterwards had assured him that she had the situation completely under control. He was on the hunt, and couldn't risk losing track of his prey now; he'd finally caught its scent.

 

Ducking into what the hanyou quickly realized was the master bedroom, Inuyasha gawked at the scenery before him.

 

What the hell kind of furniture is this?

 

What Inuyasha saw as simply foreign would've actually had a much greater emotional impact on any of the humans in their group. The bedroom set was like something out of a Victorian movie. It stood to reason that reproductions of such furnishings could have been acquired for a house back in the late 1960s, but forgetting for a moment how modern the mansion actually was, standing in that room gave off the impression of being in some ancient European manor from the 1800s. The elaborately detailed canopy bed was still rather beautiful, despite being just as filthy and grimy as the rest of the house, but the arrangement of cherub angels carved into the wood of the footboard and headboard, as well as what appeared to be the remains of dried blood on one of the four ceiling-high posts barely holding up the tattered remains of the canopy, all went completely unnoticed by our time traveling half-demon as he concentrated on an unusual sound coming from the adjacent bathroom.

 

Darting through the narrow doorway, sword transformed and at the ready, Inuyasha hesitated when he realized that all he'd heard was the damn sink dripping. Being familiar with faucets thanks to his experience in Kagome's home, he quickly twisted the knob into the off position. It took him a full five seconds to realize that there wasn't supposed to be any running water in the house.

 

```

 

Kagome stood, unblinking, as the knocked over lamp on the floor flickered on and off a few times. The angle of the light from the fallen lamp perfectly illuminated, for brief intervals at a time, what appeared to be the small figure of a Japanese boy. He appeared to be one of the children from the family portrait; he was even dressed in the same kimono.

 

Glancing around, Kagome realized that she couldn't detect the presence of a tatari-mokke anywhere, and wondered if it was already too late, if the piper-youkai's eyes had already opened. After all, unlike Mayu, whom she had helped find peace three years back, these ghosts had already been trapped in limbo for over three decades by that point. Kagome wondered vaguely why his spirit hadn't been pulled into Hell yet like Mayu's soul had nearly been, but there were plenty of legends of poltergeists haunting a place for years upon years after their death.

 

It probably just depended on the strength of the spirit's rage, and whether or not they even knew they were dead. Mayu had been aware of her death, so perhaps that was why her time as a poltergeist had been so limited before she was forced to cross over.

 

“We're not going to hurt you,” Kagome said slowly, lowering her arms so that her arrow was pointed downward.

 

Damn, where's Sarah Michelle Gellar when you need her? the miko thought in passing, trying to use humor to keep her wits about her. Too bad this was real life, and not some American-made remake of a traditional ghost story.

 

The boy just continued to stare at them, not moving a muscle. Kagome stared right back, and as a result quickly realized that she couldn't detect his shape in the shadows whatsoever, when the light went out. She knew that thanks to her miko powers, she had the ability to see ghosts and that to her, they would appear like normal people, so even if her friends would only see him briefly in the flickering light, she should be able to see him like a normal, solid person.

 

This whole thing, appearing and disappearing, almost seemed too much like something you'd see in a horror movie, Kagome realized then, thinking of her earlier thoughts from a more serious perspective. And come to think of it, how the hell was that lamp even working to begin with? She knew for a fact that there was no electricity in the house. The other girls had all briefly humored themselves earlier that evening by trying the various lamps, including that one, which almost seemed to be working more like a projector, like it was creating the image of the boy with every flicker of light. Something was fishy about this.

 

Continuing to hold her arrow notched against the bowstring with her right hand, she carefully released the bow with her left to reach behind herself, quickly saying, “Flashlight,” without turning around.

 

She didn't know who it was, but one of her friends pulled through by quickly placing said device in her open palm. Kagome then quickly brought her arm forward, shining the light directly in the 'ghost's' eyes. He simply disappeared, leaving no evidence that he'd ever been there in the first place, and upon approaching the fallen lamp for a closer inspection, she was only mildly surprised to note that the bulb had actually been broken during the fall. She should have figured, all other things considered.

 

Quickly pulling out another purifying ofuda from within her robes, Kagome slapped it on the lamp, and that time, all four people remaining downstairs bore witness to mild static electricity-like sparks crackling around her ofuda before the piece of paper finally grew quiet.

 

“What does that mean?”

 

Turning to greet her friends with a grim face, the miko answered, “It means we're not dealing with ghosts. We're dealing with youkai.”

 

Yuka and Eri both gasped, while Ayumi tried to insist, in a questioning manner, “But youkai don't really exist...?”

 

The unspoken “Do they?” at the end of her statement was clear enough that Kagome nodded confirmation in response, quietly answering, “They do.”

 

She wasn't about to reveal to her friends the secret of the well, or the truth regarding herself and the Sacred Jewel, or even Inuyasha if she could help it, but they already knew that she was from a shrine family, and had now already bore witness to her powers as a true miko, so Kagome quickly decided that by that point, explaining that there were still some magical beings living among them wouldn't really be the end of the world.

 

Especially now that she was convinced she had been right about not all youkai going extinct. There was no way she could really believe that all of the youkai from Inuyasha's time had simply up and disappeared somewhere between then and now, and after all, spiritual activity caused by a ghost would not have had such a reaction to her ofuda.

 

We're definitely dealing with a youkai.

 

```

 

Trying the sink again proved futile, as that time the pipes remained silent, not a drop of water to be had, despite the fact that he could still smell the water that had oh-so-recently dripped down the drain.

 

Sticking his nose into the air and inhaling deeply, Inuyasha suddenly caught the scent of what smelled like very old blood, and he followed it back out into the bedroom, finally noticing the browned, dried stains along the wooden frame of the bed. He also discovered what appeared to be the remains of spilled blood on the sheets and mattress itself, although not very much of it remained since the majority of the blood soaked fabric had apparently been eaten away by insects over the years.

 

Definitely looks like somebody got killed here... he thought, at first, until he took another whiff.

 

“Wait a minute...” he mumbled aloud, leaning in closer for a more thorough examination.

 

Hearing a floorboard creek behind him, he whirled around without thinking, sword at the ready, only to freeze mid-swing at the sight of the petrified human male behind him. Tetsusaiga reverted itself back into its dormant state at the lack of a threat, and Hojo's eyes widened even further.

 

“Hmph,” Inuyasha snorted, sheathing his sword. “You should know better than to sneak up on a hanyou, idiot.” Served the little bastard right.

 

Hojo stood frozen in place for a moment longer, his flashlight still in hand, which just happened to illuminate the bloodstains on the bedpost. Finally coming back into some semblance of functionality, the boy managed to mutter, “Is...is that...blood?” while gesturing to the bed.

 

“Yeah,” Inuyasha answered casually. “But it ain't human, it's pig’s blood.”

 

He was just about to walk passed the guy into the hall, but Hojo suddenly found a twinge of courage, as he held out what remained of his pocket knife, stuttering through, “Wh-what are you?”

 

The blade was far from useless. Only the very tip had snapped off, and the rest of the knife was just as sharp as ever. But that didn't phase our hanyou one bit.

 

Deliberately wiggling his ears, smirking as he saw the man's eyes travel upward, he opened his mouth to speak.

 

“I...” he answered slowly, quickly snatching the knife from the mortal's hand, “...am Kagome's husband.” Hojo's brows furrowed at that particular word, but the stench of panic was instantly back when he witnessed the man before him snap his knife in half, separating the blade from the tang, as though it were made out of balsa wood. “You...” Inuyasha continued, relishing in the puny mortal's panic, “...are in my way,” he finished, brushing passed him and entering the hall.

 

Inuyasha grinned momentarily as the acidic stench of urine reached his nose, but shaking his head, he knew he had more important things to worry about. Like meeting back up with Kagome so that they could take care of this youkai bastard once and for all.

 

```

 

“Now stay within the circle, and you guys should be fine,” Kagome assured her friends, having made a barrier in the center of the living room for Yuka, Eri and Ayumi to stay in, while she took care of their little 'ghost' problem. Just because a straight wall barrier was easier didn't mean she couldn't do a round dome, and she had never felt more grateful to Kaede and Miroku's teachings than she did in that moment.

 

“What about Hojo and Inuyasha?” Yuka asked, and Kagome smiled, assuring the girls, “I'm sure they're fine, but I'll go find Hojo and get him within the barrier as well, okay?”

 

Eri thought it odd that Kagome hadn't seemed worried about protecting her boyfriend as well, but maybe he knew how to hunt youkai? His parents were historians on youkai, after all, so maybe he knew some sort of ancient trick?

 

“Hojo's fine, he's in the master bedroom,” suddenly came Inuyasha's voice from behind her, and Kagome whirled around, frantically gesturing with her hands for Inuyasha to stay where he was.

 

“I made a barrier to protect the girls,” she quickly explained, and Inuyasha froze mid-step as he looked down and noticed the few arrows jammed into the floor, forming a circle. Yeah, it wouldn't be good to accidentally purify himself in front of her friends.

 

“So, you know, then,” he answered, and she nodded.

 

“Yeah, we're dealing with a youkai.”

 

“Let's go.”

 

“Right.”

 

Once the couple disappeared from sight, Ayumi asked her two friends, “Do you think they do this often?”