InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Catalyst ❯ Open Sesame ( Chapter 1 )

Disclaimer: InuYasha and his various associates do not belong to me, in any way, shape or form. I don't get any money from screwing merrily with canon and fanon or from contorting characters into aesthetically pleasing positions for my own sick amusement.

 

 

 

~~~ Open Sesame ~~~

 

 

 

Kagome sighed dramatically, though quietly, as she shifted herself on the hard bus seat. Her woollen school skirt was sticking her to the plastic bus seat as her thighs sweated. Ugh, how she hated that feeling.

 

 

Plus, her butt was asleep.

 

 

She gave another sigh and another wiggle, to no avail. She could swear that she could hear snoring coming from her behind. She resisted the urge to give a frustrated groan; Waseda was staring back at the students with a malicious little gleam in his eye, just waiting for the tiniest of infractions, the least little error, a cough, a sneeze…

 

 

“A-a-aaaCHOO!”

 

 

Gotcha.

 

 

“MATSUMOTO!”

 

 

“…sir.”

 

 

Waseda stalked up the aisle of the bus, an unholy gleam in his eyes, his intent gaze centred on the unfortunate victim. Eri Matsumoto quivered in her seat, and Kagome winced slightly. Next to her, Yuka gave her arm a reassuring squeeze, out of sight of the teachers.

 

 

“Matsumoto, must I remind you of our expectations? Your obligations? This visit is a privilege.”

 

 

Kagome had the urge to snort. Riiiight… could a privilege be compulsory?

 

 

“I expect everyone's behaviour to reflect this fact. You are being given an opportunity to witness firsthand the work that the Co-Prosperity Sphere does to keep you safe, to keep us all safe.” Waseda paused dramatically to sweep a disapproving stare round the students sitting ramrod straight in the bus. Kagome kept her eyes front, not daring to look at her friend as she was dressed down.

 

 

“Your blatant disrespect is disgusting, Matsumoto. When we arrive at the Base I expect this attitude to have evaporated, am I clear?”

 

 

“Sir,” Eri all but whispered. Kagome held her breath, waiting for the punishment.

 

 

“6 hours extra workshop for the next four weeks, Matsumoto. Let that be a lesson.”

 

 

… Was that all? Kagome breathed out, feeling Yuka doing likewise next to her. She had expected at least a grade drop, or even a lashing. They were paranoid about misbehaviour on these excursions to Sphere Bases.

 

 

Kagome sighed again, turning and resting her forehead on the cool glass of the window; Waseda, now satisfied, had returned to the front of the bus and was smiling sadistically out at the scenery. Honestly, some people just love rules that little bit too much.

 

 

It was late spring, and the day was slightly overcast, but warm enough that the school had not issued them jumpers today. Kagome shifted in her seat, trying to wake her butt up, but it slumbered on. Her skirt was irking her, too; the one she had been given that morning was tiny, far too short for her height. She had suspicions about the man in charge of uniform allocations.

 

 

“Kagome,” Yuka hissed beside her. Kagome's head whipped round, checking the front of the bus, but Waseda was talking to the other teacher with a smile on his face, not looking their way.

 

 

“Yeah?” she whispered back, barely a breath and a movement of lips. Sound carried in an echo-ey bus.

 

 

“Do you think… they'll make us watch another procedure today?” Yuka's voice was low and frightened, but Kagome could find no way to reassure her.

 

 

“Yeah, I think so. They cottoned on to my fainting, remember? I got ten lashes for that,” she finished in a grumble. For a while she had been able to avoid having to sit through one of the horrible procedures… until they actually brought a real doctor in to examine her after one of her convenient “fainting spells”.

 

 

She had had sores on her back for months from that punishment. She was not willing to try it again this time… she would just have to sit through the whole thing.

 

 

Yuka bit her lip and turned her face back to the front. Kagome gave her hand a squeeze, trying to convey her support.

 

 

The bus rounded a corner and a huge sign came into view.

 

 

Akiyama Base. Authorized personnel only beyond this point. Strictly Permit 53 Area.

 

 

She shivered.

 

 

Soon…

 

 

Waseda stood again, facing the 60 students in the bus.

 

 

“When we stop, assemble in inspection formation beside the bus.”

 

 

“Sir!”

 

 

***

 

 

“Right, that's all in order, proceed through, sir,” the soldier drawled, handing the pass back to Waseda and waving the bus through the third and final checkpoint. He winked at the girls on the bus with a leer around his chewing gum. Kagome stared with apprehension at the razor wire, the shimmering turquoise barrier, the security cameras, the water-filled trenches, the salivating patrol dogs eyeing her with a hungry gleam.

 

 

God she hated this.

 

 

A group of six humanoid youkai in formation jogged beside the bus, eyes completely blank, although one's tail wagged slightly. Kagome shuddered, turning away from their… escort. Not in revulsion for the youkai themselves, but what they represented. Just in case one of the students whipped out a rocket launcher and went postal, there were these handy-dandy zombies on call.

 

 

God… she loathed this.

 

 

The bus slid to a smooth stop beside a billboard, which proclaimed in bold, colourful bubble-type the benefits of Class-designated jobs. A woman with huge and scarily white teeth grinned savagely. Her badge proudly declared her a personal assistant and Class B.

 

 

I know I can do my job. Are you in a regulated Class-designated career?

 

 

Kagome stuck her tongue out covertly at the blonde woman with the enormous white teeth. Honestly, this was Japan. Why was the woman promoting the government a westerner?

 

 

“CLASS A'S!”

 

 

Kagome and the other students jolted violently out of their despondent thoughts, backs locking into perfect posture automatically. Waseda glared, daring any one of them to deviate.

 

 

“Disembark and assemble, rank order!”

 

 

“Sir!”

 

 

Kagome stood, startling her butt out of unconsciousness, squeezed past Yuka, and marched to the front of the bus and down the stairs. She took her position at the head of the formation and tried not to wince or wiggle at the vicious attack of pins and needles. Her friend Hideaki Hojo exited and stood with her, shooting her a quick smile. She just winked back; Waseda chose that moment to stick his shiny head out of the door. She and Hojo were the top two ranked in the school class, and thus the top two ranked in the city in their age group. Kagome had been bumped by at least a course at nearly every evaluation she had had, and Hojo was nearly two years older than she in their graduating year.

 

 

Kagome's friends and classmates all took their positions until the whole group stood in straight lines, feet shoulder width apart, hands clasped behind their backs and eyes staring directly ahead.

 

 

Kagome sighed as she stood at attention in her position in the line. Waseda stalked back and forth in front of them, lecturing them further about upholding the reputation and values of the school, the importance of their behaviour, how it reflected their desire to be productive members of society.

 

 

It was pointless, Kagome thought with an inward sigh and mental tongue-poking at Waseda, who was turning slightly purple in his enthusiastic tirade on discipline. He would hurt himself that way. In any case, no one would dare risk the punishments exacted for any transgression on a Sphere Base. She was amazed that Eri had gotten away with just a lecture and extra workshop for her little sneeze on the bus.

 

 

Finally, Waseda nodded to another teacher, who called out names on a clipboard to assign students to a guide. Kagome felt the knots in her stomach draw tighter. She knew it was only a matter of time until they would be forced to witness “the wonders of the Co-Prosperity Sphere”.

 

 

Lectures were not so terrible. She knew what to expect from these, and what to let pass over her completely.

 

 

It was the visits that were so unpleasant. Every quarter another came around. And every quarter they had managed to find some new horror to show them. Last year, their first procedure. Then, a disciplinary session. Then, an interrogation. Last quarter, their first… elimination.

 

 

Kagome had thrown up. And been punished accordingly.

 

 

She had read about this sort of thing in a contraband pamphlet she had found in her Shrine's attic. “Cultural desensitising”. The more you see something, the less you care about it.

 

 

Well, damnit, she still cared. Was it better that way, though?

 

 

But then, she supposed she was rather... not subversive, she would not be alive if she was. More like… unreceptive. She doubted anyone else had the gall to mentally make faces at Waseda. Most of her friends swore that he could read minds, punish them in their dreams.

 

 

“Higurashi Kagome.”

 

 

“Sir!” Oh shit, what if that was true?

 

 

“Group 2. Security department.”

 

 

Trenches and fences, cameras and barriers. Yippee. She kept a tight leash on her emotions as she marched to the assembling Group 2. Another of her friends, Ayumi, gave her a tense smile from beside her in the formation.

 

 

Idly Kagome wondered what Class B's, C's and D's were shown on these excursions. She should ask someone. But then, she doubted that they would answer. She was Class A, superior in every facet of life, and she held power over the other Classes even at just 16. Anyone she asked would most likely just stammer and then make an excuse to run away, lest they displease her with their answer. If she asked one of her teachers, she would be punished for her insolence.

 

 

She sighed. As a Class A, she would most likely by recruited by the Sphere after graduation, a politician maybe, or a doctor, or one of their droves of lawyers. She would never end up the pervert who doles out uniforms before school every day. He was Class D, through and through.

 

 

Speaking of which, the skirt was definitely too short. If she spun around too fast she would be giving a free show! Honestly… why he could not be confined to his Class zone, she did not know.

 

 

Maybe she would report him… hopefully they would replace him with an old woman with a reverence for modesty and a disdain for indecently short skirts. Creepy Uniform Guy would be stuck in the Class D slum, then. No work pass, no trans-barrier trips.

 

 

“Group 2, such casualness in unacceptable!” Waseda barked. The students all snapped to attention, and with a cursory nod he indicated the slim woman beside him. She was dressed in crisp brown uniform, lapels marking her a Captain and thus a Class A, and she stood perfectly straight beside him, clipboard hugged to her chest. Her hair hung straight and sleek to her shoulders, every strand perfectly in place, not even a bang ruffled, the epitome of elegance, poise and discipline. Her dark eyes roamed over the students before her, expression giving nothing away, but nonetheless Kagome felt the urge to shrink when that cold gaze touched her.

 

 

“This is Captain Ai, your instructor for the day. Pay her every respect. Do not give me reason to be displeased with you,” he spat, before turning on his heel and stalking off again.

 

 

Ai watched him go with a look of contempt, a small sneer lifting the corner of her glossy lips. Bringing an icy gaze back to her group, she swept another glance over them, and by her expression, she was unimpressed. Settling her clipboard on her left forearm, she paged through her notes and found a roll.

 

 

Her chin lifted haughtily and her eyes flashed. “My name is Captain Ai, and I will be addressed as such. I am Class A of higher position than you, and will be treated as such. You will listen, and you will learn. You will not interrupt. Should you have a question or comment, you will raise your hand, and wait for an indication to speak. You will state your name before your question or comment. Is that understood?”

 

 

When no student said anything, she nodded tightly. “Good. Follow me.”

 

 

***

 

 

Kagome trotted to keep up with Ai as she marched across the parade-grounds. The Base was a massive, sprawling construction, with four separate buildings of enormous size enclosing the central quad used for demonstrations, formation and general all-purpose gathering. Then, the containment blocks, huge amorphous lumps of unpainted concrete crackling with spiritual energy. The aircraft hangers, tank bunkers and barracks were behind the various warehouses, which were full of ammunition, supplies, rations, uniforms and spare parts. Behind the hangars were the vast training fields, the rifle ranges, the airstrips and the cages. Kagome had seen this Base enough times over the past ten years to be intimately familiar with its layout.

 

 

The bus had parked near the central administration building that bordered on the parade-grounds, and the security department building lay just inside the innermost fence. Ai strode straight along the bitumen road, ignoring the units of soldiers who scrambled to get out of her way. Her high-heels clacked loudly and her bearing was all-business.

 

 

The security department building was shaped like an air-traffic-control tower, a tall thin stem with a wider disc-like section at the top. Ai pushed in a code at the foot of the tower and the reinforced steel door hissed open. She ushered the students in impatiently, the door beginning to close slowly as its time meter ran out.

 

 

Kagome looked around disinterestedly. The interior was the same as always: a small room of about 5 meters diameter, all harsh concrete and gleaming steel. The huge elevator cage rattled down to their level and two soldiers opened the metal bars, letting the group in.

 

 

After a shaky and lurching ride, the cage reached the top floor and the students crowded in behind the Captain. The room was far bigger than it look from the outside. Screens with feeds from security cameras around the Base lined the walls, with keyboards, touch screens and input stations in banks beneath them. The main computer bank that controlled most of the security systems lay on the far side of the room, the background noise of clicks and whirrs of the machines grating on Kagome's nerves. Ten uniformed people were positioned about the room, all concentrating on their screens and not even looking up at the entrance of the students.

 

 

Ai strode forward to whisper briefly to a man at the main console, before turning back to her Group. The man swung his chair around and fixed them all with a lazy grin, his posture relaxed and informal.

 

 

“This is Captain Jinda, security system operator in charge of monitoring the data feeds and the screens. Tell them what you do, Jinda,” she said with a slight raise of her eyebrows as she stepped aside. He flashed her a winning smile and turned back to the students, rubbing his hands together.

 

 

“Alright, kids, well… I watch the screens to make sure that none of the subjects are getting too restless. If they do I'm authorised to release a dose of gas that paralyses them for a few hours.” He clicked his fingers and beckoned. A man left his bank of consoles and joined Jinda, facing the students.

 

 

Kagome felt the hair on the back of her neck stand up. His face was utterly blank, void of anything and everything. His uniform, a dark blue bodysuit with a mandarin collar with silver trim and embroidered chain links on the collar and belly, shouted to the world what he was. A Slaver.

 

 

Jinda slung an arm loosely around the Slaver's shoulders. The blank expression did not budge an inch, empty eyes staring at a point on the floor. “This here is 4602. He monitors fluctuations and levels of spiritual energy and youki in the Base and surrounding areas. It's also from his body that the barriers around the perimeter are maintained. He draws on the power of the other Slavers in the Base, and acts as a conduit into the barriers and seals.”

 

 

4602 blinked. Slowly. Agonisingly.

 

 

Ayumi lifted her hand, and Jinda gave her a lazy nod. She bit her lip, staring at 4602 with something like horror before saying quietly, “Can he… feel anything?”

 

 

Jinda laughed and squeezed the Slaver round the shoulders, giving 4602's black hair a ruffle. “Of course he can! He knows what's going on around him, just can't do anything about it. He was a bit of a rebel before we reined him in, weren't you, Two-ey?”

 

 

Ai stepped forward, clearing her throat. “4602 has been implanted with the strongest inhibitor chip produced, which is why he's used for such an important task. There's no risk of him compromising the security on this Base as there might be with a less restricted Slaver.”

 

 

The hair on the back of Kagome's neck was standing up, her skin crawling with the sense of something she could not name or define. 4602's gaze had moved from the carpeted floor gradually, torturously upwards. Dimly she heard Jinda giving a lecture on the importance of security in a Base with as much firepower and as many unchipped subjects as Akiyama, but Kagome was not listening.

 

 

4602 was staring straight at her. She could see him trying to show something in his blank eyes, his face looking somehow desperate even as it showed nothing.

 

 

Kagome was just as desperately trying not to cry.

 

 

What was his real name? Who were his family? What had he been or wanted to be before they stole his life from him? Questions raced through her brain, questions punishable by imprisonment if she spoke them aloud. Questions with no answers, pointless questions that would just bring more if they were asked.

 

 

But she had to think them, at least. This man, this shadow of a man, deserved someone to wonder about him, even if she could do nothing else.

 

 

“Two-ey? Whatcha starin' at?”

 

 

Kagome instantly snapped her head to stare at the nearest camera feed as Jinda followed the path of 4602's gaze. An eyebrow quirked, a readout was glanced at, and a wink given to Ai, in the space of a few seconds.

 

 

But Kagome did not notice. She was too busy being horrified all over again.

 

 

Her stare had fallen on a vast block of camera feed screens. A white room was in each one, each room holding one occupant. Mostly humanoid, some clearly not, some so strange that she would never have believed them real at any other time. Some so tiny that the feed showed barely a speck, some so large that the frame barely captured the whole of it. Some so normal-seeming that they could be someone that she passed on the street, a teacher, a family friend. Some that had to be children, or youthful at the least. Some railing against the walls, some sitting patiently, quietly, some yelling, some pacing, some sleeping, some threatening the camera, some simply crying.

 

 

The worst thing was the silence. The impassioned tirades, the cries, the screams… all soundless, detached. A chill went down Kagome's spine.

 

 

She continued to stare at the screens, the real reason that this Base, all Bases, really existed. The real reason for the quarterly excursions. To teach them, engrain in them, the threat that lay in those white cells, the reasons that the city was enclosed, was divided into sections, the passes, the microchips, the papers, why the countryside was not safe.

 

 

The reason for everything, it seemed. Youkai, the citizen's scourge and statesman's dream, she mused bitterly. Justification and scapegoat for anything and everything. The things that humans must be protected from, and to be safe, sacrifices must be made, for the good of all.

 

 

Kagome, an emotional girl at the best of times, was hard pressed not to just burst out crying as her gaze zeroed in on a particular screen. A tiny child-like youkai sat on the cot provided, facing the camera and crying. He clutched at his fuzzy red tail, filthy like the rest of him, and Kagome could clearly lip-read the word he was wailing. `Mama.'

 

 

It was too much, and she tore her gaze away. Breathing hard, but trying to stay quiet, she discreetly inspected the reactions of her fellow students. They all looked fairly indifferent. She had expected that, though. No one seemed to react the way she did, with the small exception of her mother. Even her younger brother was being conditioned to hate, fear, obey. He had no memory of before, of their father.

 

 

He would be going on one of these field trips soon, being shown almost all the things she was. Only his youth saved him the full show, for now, at least.

 

 

Jinda bowed as the students clapped politely, Kagome joining in belatedly as she realised that his spiel was finished. Ai gave the other Captain a curt nod and turned to the group of students. To Kagome's dismay, she gestured to the screens that the girl had been staring at. “This is the block of containment cells. We will be going there next.”

 

 

Kagome wondered if she would really faint, this time.

 

 

***

 

 

“This is where we keep the wild youkai,” Ai lectured clinically as the group of students followed her down the white hall. Metal doors glowing faintly with spiritual power lined the walls. It disturbed Kagome again that she could not hear the youkai behind those doors; the seals blocked all sensory information and energy signatures.

 

 

Ai waved a hand as she strode down the hall, heels clicking against the hard floor. “These youkai are yet to undergo the subjugation procedure, and as such must be contained by spiritual barriers. The sensors alongside the doors react to certain spiritual auras; if touched by a person with spiritual energy, the doors and barriers deactivate. This only occurs after the youkai inside has been subdued through paralysis gas released through the vents controlled by central control, however. It is far too dangerous any other way.”

 

 

One of the girls in the group raised her hand and Ai nodded curtly to her. “Kitahara Hana. Where are the controlled youkai kept?”

 

 

“There is an alternate cell block for subdued youkai. Slavers are positioned there at all times so as to keep the inhibitor chips active. If a youkai is not joined to a Slaver at all times, the chip deactivates and the youkai is unleashed, until another Slaver reconnects with the chip. As such, it is imperative that there be a significant presence of spiritually adept people on this base at all times.”

 

 

The hall opened out in a larger room, which Ai named as the central control area. Technicians and procedural personnel bustled about, all in their uniforms, be they white coat or blue scrubs. A second mezzanine floor ringed the walls of the room, and a single huge white marble statue stood in the middle, rising through both levels. It showed a man with disproportionately bulging muscles, his head tipped up toward the sky, one hand outstretched, the other holding a reptilian corpse. A replica stood in every Sphere building, meant to symbolise the superiority of human over youkai. Kagome snorted in her mind. Cliché and ostentatious, more like.

 

 

Just beside the statue on a raised dais sat an old woman. Her eyes were blank in her wrinkled face and stared straight ahead. Kagome shivered and averted her eyes to see Ai watching her speculatively. Their gazes locked for a moment before Ai turned away to continue their tour, leaving Kagome's hair standing on end.

 

 

“We are now headed toward the amphitheatre, where you will witness firsthand a procedure, the single most important task that the Sphere performs. It is what allows you to live carefree lives, to be safe in your homes.”

 

 

Kagome switched off, something she had become very good at over the years. It seemed to be the only thing that saved her from the conditioning she could see washing over the other students in the group. Reinforcing years of brainwashing and prejudice. She calmly walked on, eyes front, in her position next to Hojo, as Ai led them further into the warren of the containment cells.

 

 

“Captain Ai?” Hojo raised a hand tentatively.

 

 

The woman turned and fixed him with a cold stare. “Name?”

 

 

“Hojo Hideaki.”

 

 

“What is your question, Hojo?”

 

 

His eyes were eager, and Kagome frowned inwardly. She had thought that Hojo, maybe… was not like them…

 

 

“These all seem to be small doors, so they must contain small youkai. Where are the larger or more powerful ones kept?”

 

 

A faint smile passed over Ai's face. “Good question. We'll take a detour to show you.”

 

 

The Captain resumed her march down the halls, leaving the central room, the group of students following in their orderly lines. The doors lining the walls grew steadily larger, the ceiling higher, and the hallway wider. The endless monotony of white doors began to be punctuated by recesses containing chairs, some occupied, some not.

 

 

Ai halted and turned back to the group. “Here are where the larger youkai are kept. Larger does not necessarily mean more powerful, but this is also where Tai-youkai are held before their procedure. The more powerful a youkai is, the more difficult for a Slaver to control the field surrounding a cell. Thus, a larger number of Slavers are concentrated here.” She pointed to a nearby recess, in which a uniformed man sat, eyes as blank as the Slaver in the main room.

 

 

“It's his job to contain the youkai in this area.”

 

 

Kagome felt a surge of pity for the man, and the youkai he controlled.

 

 

Her resolve hardened, swearing that she would never submit willingly to the control of the Sphere. She wished that he could be free, that they all could be… She wanted it to just stop, all of it. It was impossible, she knew, but she could dream.

 

 

“Ahh!” Kagome gasped and grabbed her head as pain shot through her skull.

 

 

“Higurashi!”

 

 

She stumbled, still clutching her head. Her heart thundered in her ears, her stomach roiled and the floor felt like it was tilting wildly. Red clouded her vision and an incredible painful pressure built inside her head. Release it; she had to get rid of it! The swollen feeling spread down her neck and extremities until her whole body was tingling and pulsing. She was going to explode! Get rid of it! Make it go away! A rushing noise grew louder and louder.

 

 

She fell onto the wall next to a door and slid to the ground. She could…feel people crowding around her, feel their energy, feel the youkai behind the door, feel its anger, feel the Slaver down the corridor, feel his fear, his worry, his pain… feel the thing in his head that monitored his thoughts, controlled his body, feel its poison spread through his limbs as he stood and began to walk over to her… The pressure stabbed again in her brain and she curled into a tight ball with a cry.

 

 

Stop it! Stop it! STOP IT!!!

 

 

With a rush she felt…whatever it was leave her body. The throbbing in her skull and body stopped, leaving her muscles quivering. The crushing weight of people around her lifted, and hesitantly she opened her eyes.

 

 

The other students were backing away slowly, Ai with them. Their eyes were fixed on a point above her, wide with fear.

 

 

With trembling hands, Kagome pushed up from the floor and turned. The door to the youkai containment cell was sliding open slowly, the shield of spiritual energy gone. Kagome felt her heart skip a beat as she saw all the doors down the hallway doing the same. Her head whipped around, searching for the Slaver, only to see him staring at his hands in awe, as if he had never seen them before.

 

 

His head lifted and their eyes met. Slowly, he bowed deeply to her, never breaking eye contact, and then he raised a hand in farewell. With that, he joined the students in hightailing it out of the hallway.

 

 

Leaving Kagome alone.

 

 

In the containment block of the most powerful youkai on the base.

 

 

The very uncontained most powerful youkai.

 

 

With a shuddering breath, she stood, muscles still weak and shivering.

 

 

“You are a Slaver.”

 

 

She screamed in fright at the gruff voice behind her and whipped around.

 

 

A pale female face was inches from her own, the skin almost luminescent, two black circles just below the hairline. Black hair twined around her body almost with a life of its own, and as Kagome eyes slid downwards, they widened. Four arms grasped eagerly towards her, sprouting from an androgynous torso, which was connected to a very long body of segmented chitin, thin legs growing in pairs from each segment.

 

 

Kagome gulped and raised her eyes to meet the youkai's once more. Arrogant black eyes stared into terrified blue, and a sadistic leer spread slowly across the youkai's face.

 

 

“You are a Slaver, yes? Only a Slaver can open these doors.”

 

 

Kagome jumped again, before shaking her head emphatically. “No, I'm not, I'm just a-”

 

 

“Lies!”

 

 

With no other preliminary than that bellow, the centipede youkai swiped her claws across Kagome's belly. The schoolgirl jumped backwards, fast but not fast enough, and she screamed as the tips ripped shallow gashes in her flesh.

 

 

She turned and ran, wasting no more time, back the way Ai had brought them. All around her, the doors were open and youkai were emerging. Eyes of all shapes, sizes and colours glared at her as she ran, dodging the slashes and snaps before they had the chance to catch her. Behind her, she could hear the rattling of the centipede youkai's hundreds of feet on the smooth floor, her bellows crying out for Kagome's blood, as well as the bays and howls as other youkai joined the chase.

 

 

Rational thought had switched off. Instinct and adrenaline had taken control. Somewhere inside her, the normal Kagome was gibbering and sobbing in terror. Meanwhile, her body ran.

 

 

She slid round a corner, pushing off the wall and missing a claw by a millimetre. The smaller cell doors were open, too, but they were empty, their occupants obviously having left as soon as the opportunity presented itself.

 

 

As she drew closer to the central point, she heard the occasional scream and patter of gunfire. Mobilization had been quick, the calculating survival side of her noted. Her lungs ached and her belly burned, but she did not stop. She couldn't. She turned a final corner and came to the central control area.

 

 

The statue was overturned and shattered. Kagome felt a small sense of perverted satisfaction at that. The Slaver woman was nowhere to be seen, her chair empty and currently being employed as a barrier for the soldiers to fire from. Youkai swarmed the balconies, unfortunate technicians and administration staff screaming and security personnel fighting back. Kagome barely had time to slide to a halt before a roar from behind her spurred her on again.

 

 

Trying desperately to remember which hall Ai had brought them in through, Kagome sprinted towards the soldiers behind the chair. She was sure that they would not last long, two of them down already, but she had to find her escape route first.

 

 

A soldier's eyes fell on her and widened. With a shout, he beckoned her over. She stumbled in beside him, tripping on the detritus and statue remnants. He put a protective arm over her as a tentacle came sailing towards them. One of the other two men shot at it before the slimy thing twined around his gun, yanking both him and his weapon into the youkai's gaping maw.

 

 

Panting out of both exertion and fear, Kagome shouted to the soldier, “Which hall is the exit?”

 

 

He shook his head. “Too dangerous. I'm waiting for back up.”

 

 

“I asked you a question, Class D!” Kagome was not in the mood. For once, she had no qualms about pulling rank.

 

 

He shot her a shocked glance before nodding. “Alright, suicidal chick, it's the one right behind us.” When she made to rise, he clamped his arm back around her, pinning her to the floor. “Not yet, you idiot!”

 

 

“I have to get out of here!” Kagome's voice was shrill and panicked. The cool calm side of her was getting scared, too.

 

 

He ducked behind the chair briefly before popping up again to shoot at a boar youkai making to charge. His eyes scanned the chaos and a grin lit his face.

 

 

“Calm down, cavalry's here.”

 

 

Kagome followed his gaze and gasped. Emerging from one of the tunnels was a platoon of youkai with dead eyes. Youkai imbedded with microchips.

 

 

A humanoid youkai with yellow hair and a thick yellow tail pointed, and the rest converged on the wild youkai. Growls, squeals and sounds beyond description tore through the air as the inhuman battle was joined.

 

 

Kagome did not wait. She leapt up, ignoring the soldier's cries, whirled and ran for the hallway behind her. Dodging debris and assorted body parts, she felt her heart lift when nothing seemed to notice or follow her.

 

 

The hall was abandoned and Kagome let her pace slow slightly. Her chest heaved as she jogged through the white corridors, praying that she was going the right way. Hadn't the Sphere heard of signs? The place was a warren.

 

 

Natural light from around a corner made her heart lift. Picking up her pace again, she grinned in relief as she burst through the doors.

 

 

Before she saw the courtyard.

 

 

It was in a worse state than the central area in the containment cells. Youkai and humans were locked in bloody conflict, screams, roars and sounds that made Kagome's hair stand on end filling the air. The scene was utter chaos.

 

 

And she had a very, very bad feeling that it was her fault.

 

 

“SLAVER!”

 

 

Guilt set aside to be examined later, Kagome took off again. That voice had bellowed threats at her enough through the halls of the containment block for her to recognise it. She skirted the courtyard, dodging more flying objects and extremities as she ran from the centipede youkai who was so intent on having her blood. Scanning desperately for any safe havens, her heart sank even as it sped up in panic as she saw every point overrun with wild and blood-lusting youkai.

 

 

She darted down an alley between two buildings, regretting it immediately when she saw it was deserted. Even less protection. As she skidded to a stop and turned to go out again, a hungry female face loomed uncomfortably close.

 

 

So down the dark abandoned alley she ran. How cliché, her detached and cynical mind thought. Now you just have to find a creepy old man who owns an abattoir to help you.

 

 

The tight space slowed down her pursuer considerably. The centipede youkai had to resort to twisting sideways and following from the gutters. Kagome's mind was a whirl as she tried to figure out how to lose it.

 

 

At the sight of an overhang down an adjoining alley even tighter than the one she ran down, she could not help but sob with relief, even harder when she saw doors. She could hide there, for now.

 

 

The doors to the warehouse were stiff. Tears running down her cheeks, she pushed then shoved with her shoulder, before finally giving an angry slap with an open palm. Abruptly, the black metal contraption shifted inward and swivelled behind her, sending her stumbling forward and leaving her in an odd entrance chamber. She whirled to shut the entrance, but her jaw dropped instead. She was not exactly sure how these doors worked, but they had acted like revolving ones. The sheer black wall in front of her made no sense at all.

 

 

Thanking, not questioning, her good luck, she pressed an ear to the doorway, listening for any sign of her pursuer, trying to silence her still-panicked hiccups.

 

 

“SLAVER! Come out and face me!”

 

 

Kagome winced but listened on, her shuddering breaths calming and tears drying up. Several minutes and dozens of threats later, she finally breathed normally again. The youkai could not come down. Rubbing a hand to her neck, aching with tension she could not release, she turned from the door with a sigh and walked woodenly out of the entrance chamber into the building proper.

 

 

A huge room lay before her, practically empty, of people, equipment or anything else she might have expected. Just a high roof, four walls and a whole lot of…nothing. Windows near the roof provided light, and Kagome could not see anything resembling electric lights hanging from the steel beams that helped support the vast roof.

 

 

Far too tired to wonder about it, Kagome leaned against the wall next to the entrance and slid to the ground, her exhaustion and fear catching up to her. Her body began to shake as the adrenaline drained out of her system and the shock of what had happened set in. The pain from the myriad cuts and bruises on her body, especially the cuts on her belly, came to the fore of her mind again. The adrenaline had numbed them, but now she just hurt. Her hip where she had landed next to the soldier, her belly, her head, her ankle, her neck, her knee, her shoulder, her elbow.

 

 

A tear leaked out the side of her eye before she had even noticed that she felt like crying. It slid gently down her cheek, others building in its wake. A sob choked out of her chest, and she began to cry, her head buried in her knees and arms wrapped tightly around her legs.

 

 

She had no idea what had just happened. Just that unbearable pressure, and then all the doors had begun opening. She was so confused. She hated what the Sphere did to youkai, sure, but that did not mean that she wanted humans to die instead. Her mind and emotions were rattling around her brain and she was not sure she could take much more.

 

 

The youkai had had a chance to escape the procedure, but then they could be killed in the attempt. Was slavery better than death? Would they rather the chance to die than have their bodies turned into tools and become hostages inside their own minds? But then, what if a student had been hurt? Was having these youkai free worth the risk that someone innocent might be killed? What about the soldiers who had been killed? Were their lives somehow more expendable because they were soldiers?

 

 

Most of all… was it really her fault?

 

 

She did not know any of those answers. And her head hurt.

 

 

She wanted her mother.

 

 

A faint rustling in the far corner of the warehouse caught her attention. The expanse was not as empty as she had thought: plastic sheeting hung from the steel support beams, obscuring something.

 

 

Maybe it was a bathroom? Or a phone?

 

 

Clinging to that unlikely hope, wanting so badly to wash her face or get out of there, she made her way across the dusty concrete floor. When was the last time they had cleaned this place? She had thought that the army were clean freaks. The Sphere were, in any case.

 

 

She reached out and grasped a sheet of the thick clear plastic, moving it aside and stepping through. Shock rippled through her and she gasped.

 

 

“Oh, my God.”