InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ From Beginning to End ❯ The Doorway ( Chapter 3 )
[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]
By: Fay-of-Faerie 
Kagome, Sango, Miroku, and Kirara finally find the way to Naraku's lair. Sadly, they awaken something... ::cough::InuYasha::cough::
Anime/Manga: InuYasha Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Romance / Comedy / Adventure | Type: Alternate Universe | Uploaded On: 07.21.2004 | Updated On: 07.21.2004 | Pages: 6 | Words: 5.3K | Visits: 237 | Status: Completed
Kagome, Sango, Miroku, and Kirara finally find the way to Naraku's lair. Sadly, they awaken something... ::cough::InuYasha::cough::
Anime/Manga: InuYasha Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Romance / Comedy / Adventure | Type: Alternate Universe | Uploaded On: 07.21.2004 | Updated On: 07.21.2004 | Pages: 6 | Words: 5.3K | Visits: 237 | Status: Completed
A/N: A recap for those who are confused:
It is the modern world where youkai and humans live together. Kagome’s great grandmother (Midokiko) created the Shikon no Tama, but it disappeared when she died. It was reborn inside Kagome because she has the same strong and unusual powers as Midoriko. Naraku (who has been around since Midoriko’s time) stole the jewel and is hiding out in his lair (a labyrinth) in another dimension. Kagome was supposed to keep the jewel protected so that no one used it for ill, but since she lost it, she has to get it back within a month or she’ll be executed for the ‘heinous’ crime. Sango and Miroku (her friends) volunteered to help her get the jewel back, but now they too will be killed if they fail.
When Midoriko had the jewel, she kept a diary that talked about all kinds of things. One being that she thought the doorway to Naraku’s lair was in Ireland. So the three (Kagome, Miroku, and Sango) are there looking for a way in.
--- ::deep breath:: Wow that’s a lot to get from two chapters. It’ll be easier to figure out from now on AND InuYasha is showing up....
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Disclaimer: I do not own InuYasha or do I have any faeries stowed in my closet to get information from... ::shifty eyes::
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From Beginning to End
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--- Last Chapter ---
Sango pursed her lips and nodded resolutely. “Good,” she clapped, ready to tackle the problem head on. “Let’s get moving then!”
“Um, Sango?” Kagome walked forward and wheeled the brunette around until both girls were facing the lake.
The lake, and a lot of large boulders, rocks, pebbles, and cliffs.
Sango growled, “This’ll take awhile.”
--- End of Last Chapter ---
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Chapter Three: The Doorway
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Kagome sighed as she perched on the edge of a large boulder resting beside the lake. She looked over, a few meters away, where Sango and Miroku continued their search. “How many so far?”
Sango turned from her position by a medium sized rock to glower up at Kagome, the chalk she’d been using to mark the rocks she’d already checked hanging limply in her hand. “187 rocks for me!”
Miroku straightened and looked back and forth between his two women companions before a slow, easy grin spread across his face. “187, Sango? Well look at that...I’ve looked at 203. That means...I BEAT SANGO!”
Sango watched with narrowed eyes as her boyfriend started to jump around in a gleeful dance. Using the rock she had just finished putting a white ‘x’ on (she’d already looked at it) she clobbered the monk over the head.
Kagome sighed as Sango expertly whipped her hands down in triumph. “Will they ever learn...?”
After tossing the rock away, Sango proceeded to kick the unconscious man lightly while giggling merrily.
Sweatdropping, Kagome hung her head. “Guess not.”
The sun was close to setting and Kagome didn’t want to have to spend any more time in an unknown land than she had to, so she hopped off her rock.
Walking away from the 6 foot, in height and diameter, boulder, something tugged at Kagome’s stomach.
If she’d been forced to explain the feeling, the closest she could, would be that it was some kind of extreme awareness. And, if she wasn’t mistaken, the pull seemed to come from that boulder.
Tossing a glance over her shoulder to see her two friends were still occupied (Sango had found a black magic marker somewhere and was currently drawing a moustache on her boyfriend) Kagome walked cautiously to the boulder. Up close, same as far away, it looked like a normal boulder.
Big...gray...hard...and, well, you know, rocky. So why did it give her this feeling...?
Scowling in frustration, Kagome rapped her knuckles near the center of the boulder. And a ringing sounded back at her.
‘Well that’s interesting...it sounds almost.... hallow?’ Kagome struck her knuckles again, just to make sure. ‘Yep...same sound. So either I’m tired and hallucinating, or this rock is different.’
“Only one way to find out,” Kagome murmured under her breath before reaching out her fingers toward the gray surface. As the tips of her fingers swept it in the lightest of feather soft touches, a light shot from the tips of her fingers and into her head.
Accompanied with the blinding white light was, not pain, but a sort of shock. Kagome squeezed her blue-gray eyes shut to wait for the tingling feeling to pass. When she opened them again, she glared at the seemingly innocent rock for hurting her when she found...
...That a door, no wider than three feet across and five feet high, had pulling away from the front of the boulder.
It was a perfect black rectangle, and it curved with the rock.
The hairs on Kagome’s neck and arms stood up as she took a step closer to peer into the rock. It was the purest darkness she'd ever seen; no light from the setting sun seemed to penetrate it.
An invisible, ice cold fog seemed to wrap around her legs and arms, chilling her to the bone.
‘This,’ she decided silently, ‘is not a good place.’
“G-guys? I think...I think I found it,” she shouted back towards her friends’ direction. But the words, they seemed to hang in the air and ring shrilly in Kagome’s ears. She wasn’t even sure herself if she’d spoken.
But sure enough, only a few seconds later, her two friends came running back...Miroku mysteriously conscious again.
Miroku looked at the doorway with a calm, calculating face. “This place...it gives off a bad vibe. I do believe it’s not a very welcoming opening.”
“No shit, Sherlock,” Sango hissed but snapped her mouth shut with a disapproving glare from Kagome.
“Sango-chan,” Kag whispered, somehow not able to get her voice above that, “I know you don’t have spiritual powers like Miroku-sama and I, but can’t you tell me that there’s a...”
“Foreboding feeling,” Miroku supplied.
“Coming from this place?” Kagome finished.
“Yeah. I can feel it. Are you sure, Kag-chan, that this is how we’ll get to Naraku?” Sango asked in all seriousness.
Kagome opened her mouth, only to shut it again. She cast a look at the dark entrance before turning back the taijiya. “Yeah, Sango-chan, this is the only way.”
“Was it in Midoriko’s diary?” Miroku asked curiously.
“No,” Kagome said slowly, “I just –feel- like this is the only way.”
Her friends accepted the vague answer quickly enough, and the trio turned to the doorway. “So...we just walk through?” Miroku scrutinized the absolute blackness.
“I guess,” Kagome shrugged. She’d lived in a shrine, protecting a jewel, her whole life. It’s not like she went searching for other worlds regularly.
Sango tucked her arms around one of Miroku’s and one of Kagome’s. She stood straight and tall in the center, her blood already pounding in the excitement of an adventure. “Then let’s get going!” she gave a reassuring smile to the two who flanked her and tugged them forward.
As one foot from each of them landed inside the entrance, the muffled sound seemed to vibrate off the walls.
But nothing came out, teeth bared and snarling, so the trio deemed it safe to continue...
...Unaware of the thing they’d just awakened.
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The echoing sounds of the footsteps bounced off the walls and kept moving forward. The sound rang through the dangerous twists and turns of the long and deadly tunnel that led under the lake.
And then the sound reached the end of the tunnels, the door that led out into the Land of Faerie...and to Naraku’s fortress.
At that door, spreading out slowly, a ribbon the color of molten gold flowed. Like a river the color twisted and dipped, curled and flared, to form a stretch of golden words, the language long since forgotten.
Racing along the walls and ceiling of the tunnel, the words stopped just before the clamoring trespassers before shrinking back to where they started...
...And bringing with them the voices of the three people.
At the end of the cave path, for the first time in decades, a set of amazing amber eyes, the same liquid gold as the ancient writing, snapped open.
“Time to play,” a cold voice whispered before the owner let out a bark of laughter...the laughter of a hunter as it set out for it’s prey.
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“—And I said: ‘What about, breakfast at Tiffany’s?’ You said: ‘I think, I, remember the bill, and as I recall, I think, we both kinda liked it.’ So I said: ‘Well, that’s the one thing we got!’”
While Sango sighed in boredom and continued to trudge forward, Miroku laughed hysterically. "Leave it to Kagome-sama to sing to keep our hopes up!”
Kagome stopped her singing to grin at the monk. “Call it a gift!” she said elegantly before snorting in laughter.
“When you two numbskulls are done hacking up a lung-,”
“We’re laughing!” Kagome corrected.
“-Then I think we should settle down for the night. We’ve been walking for a few hours and we didn’t even start until almost night. Who knows, maybe the daytime might light this place up some,” Sango finished.
“Yeah, that sounds good. If I trip over another rock because of this dark, I’ll scream!” Kagome sighed unhappily, thinking about her bruised toe.
“Kagome-chan, I don't think it’s the dark that has you tripping over the rocks...” Sango supplied while biting her bottom lip to keep from laughing.
“What do you mean?” Kagome blinked innocently back at her friend.
“I think she means you’re clumsy,” Miroku grinned apologetically back at the blue-eyed miko.
“Oh...really?” Kagome asked sweetly.
“Sorry, Kag-chan, but it’s true,” Sango stated.
“Oh...well in that case...”
Miroku watched amused as Kagome leaped on his girlfriend’s back and started to tickle the poor demon huntress.
“Okay! OKAY! You’re not clumsy!” Sango shrieked when she couldn’t handle it any more.
“That’s what I thought,” Kagome huffed as she pried herself up off the ground. Sango continued to glare up at her best friend from her position on the floor.
“This seems as good as any place to settle,” Sango shrugged before leaning again the rock wall. After the entrance, the tunnel had widened out considerably to the point where the three friends could walk side by side.
“Whatever,” Kagome muttered as she collapsed back down to rub her toe.
“Perfect choice, as always, My Heart!” Miroku smiled charmingly at Sango.
“Didn’t we discuss you calling me your ‘heart’?” Sango’s magenta eyes narrowed.
“Uh...No, it must have been with someone else,” Miroku sweatdropped, looking away casually.
Kagome, who sat in the middle between the two love birds, restrained Sango from strangling the monk. “Calm down,” she said aloud before adding in a whisper, “As soon as he’s asleep we can get back at him.”
“Good,” Sango murmured as she sat back. Kirara leaped up and curled in her mistress’ lap, purring when Sango started to stroke her fir.
“Sango-chan...” Kagome began looking at Hiraikotsu. It was leaning against the wall beside the demon slayer. “How can you carry that thing all the way?”
Sango glanced at her bone boomerang and then back at the miko and her lightweight bow. “How can you walk in the those hakama pants? Don’t they trip you since they’re so wide?” Sango countered.
Kagome shrugged, “Untied hakama pants are the miko’s uniform. I could tie them...but I’ve never heard of a miko who’s done that.” (A/N: The same red pants as Kikyou wears are Hakama...her's are untied, but Inuyasha's are tied, that's why they're bunched up at the bottom.)
Sango sighed. “Wonderful. I know we should sleep and catch up on our rest, and that none of us have sensed any enemies, but I can’t.”
“You’re just worried about us being attacked, right? I’ll stay up and let you two sleep, and we’ll take turns,” Kagome suggested, knowing her friends, no matter how strong, would need rest.
“You sure? You won’t fall asleep?” Sango gave Kagome a pointed look.
“I won’t! I promise!” Kagome held her hand up in defense. “Don’t worry, I’ll keep myself busy.”
“How? It’s so dark...what can you do? And I didn’t see you bring anything with you...” Sango looked harder at the miko, but even after her vision had gotten used to the blackness it was still hard to see.
“Oh, I’ll just do something to keep my hands busy,” Kagome answered.
“Oh really...and what would that be Kagome-sama?” Miroku gave his eyebrows a suggestive wiggle.
Kagome smacked him in the chest...hard. “Get your mind out of the gutter, you pervert!” Reaching into the small sash tied to her obi (the blood red sash she tied over her waist) Kagome pulled out a piece of string. “I’ll play cat’s cradle.”
“With yourself?” Sango’s own eyebrows lifted.
“It’s possible! Or I could just teach myself new tricks...” Kagome drifted off as she began to do things like an Eiffel Tower and cat whiskers. “I’ll stay awake,” she repeated firmly when Sango continued to stay awake.
Sighing, Sango leaned back and relaxed, letting herself fall asleep.
“Finally,” the miko muttered but broke off when she yawned. “Don’t trust me...do they?” Another yawn later, her blue eyes began to drift shut...
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The first thing that Sango was aware of when she woke up was snoring. It was light and soft...a female’s snoring. Kagome’s snoring.
Trying to keep her sore eyes open, Sango sat up stiffly, and snapped a glare in the younger girl’s direction. “Kagome! You SAID you’d stay awake!” She snapped.
“Huh?” A feminine voice mumbled as ocean eyes blinked innocently back at Sango; Kagome seemingly pretty awake as the snoring continued to echo in the cavern.
“You’re awake?” Sango asked, mirroring Kagome’s confused blinking. “But that girl snoring, who was it...” She drifted off as her pink eyes snapped onto the blissfully asleep Miroku...snoring lightly. “Oh.”
Kagome smothered her giggles. “You thought I was snoring? I told you I wouldn’t fall asleep!”
Sango gave her a sheepish look. “I know...I was just...um...”
“It’s okay, whatever,” Kagome waved it off before slipping a hand into her pouch. She pulled out a black marker and leaned over the sleeping Miroku.
Humming softly, she colored in an uni-brow, a moustache, a goatee, and a large ‘L’ in the middle of his forehead.
Sango laughed gleefully as she snatched the pen. She added to Kagome’s artwork a smiley face on each of his cheeks, a dimple, a few tears, and a mask over his eyes. “Why are we doing this again?”
Kagome shrugged, “Um...’Cause it’s fun? I don’t remember...”
The two friends looked at each other before bursting out in laughter. Sango finally started to realize something...they had been able to see to draw on Miroku’s face.
“Hey...light...” she pointed out before looking up to a small crack in the ceiling. “I guess it’s morning.” It was only a foot long, and slim, but it allowed a strong beam of light through.
“I guess so...” Kagome joined Sango's staring.
Miroku’s violet eyes finally flittered open to reveal his two best friends staring intently at the ceiling. Seeing an open opportunity, seeing that they were both kneeling next to him and not paying attention, he took it.
-Rub- -Rub- -Rub-
---SMACK---
---SLAP---
Miroku happily rubbed at his stinging red cheeks while mumbling something pitifully like ‘it was worth it’ while the two girl stood glaring down at him, their hands still up from the attack. Even in his unstable mind at the moment, Miroku noticed that their auras were growing darker and flaring.
“Don’t you ever touch me again! HENTAI!” Kagome screeched, her azure eyes dancing with the promise of pain.
“Right! Don’t you ever touch her again! Pervert!” Sango’s voice level reflected Kagome’s.
Kagome’s eyes lost the glint of malice as she turned to stare at her friend. “Just not me? What about you?” she pointed out.
Sango gave Kagome a blank look, “I am his girlfriend, right? So he can touch me...just not there. But touching you anywhere would be inappropriate.”
Miroku, while the females were distracted, had stood up and dusted off his monk robes. “You know?” he changed the subject, looking at his friends. “Without modern conveniences and the way we’re dressed,” he gave a look at Sango’s demon slayer uniform and Kagome’s miko robes, “It feels like we’re in the Feudal Era!”
Kagome and Sango stared back at him and then at each other. “Sure, whatever,” Sango shrugged. “We should get moving. We only have 27 days, counting today.”
“Yeah that sounds right. We’ve already wasted enough time,” Kagome sighed, the good mood disappearing as they were once again reminded they were in a dark and creepy tunnel.
Kagome combed her long ebony hair with her fingers before tying it into a loose braid with a white ribbon. Sango just tightened her hair tie while Miroku looked intensely at a compact mirror. After he was sure that every hair was in place, and Sango gave him a death glare, he suggested they should start out.
“Kirara’s being quiet,” Kagome commented, looking down lovingly at the small fire cat.
“Yeah, she’s pretty unnoticeable unless we’re in battle.” Sango clucked her tongue and her partner leaped into her arms and then up onto her shoulder. Curling up contentedly, the neko fell asleep happily.
“No more singing?” Miroku asked the youngest of the group.
“No singing,” Kagome announced. “The only song that stuck in my head this morning is ‘Mary had a little lamb’.”
“Oh, wonderful. Don’t sing it,” Sango imagined the high spirited song and shivered.
“Wow. This has gone by so fast, it’s hard to imagine it’s real. One minute we’re sipping soda and laughing at a comedy, the next a creepy man snatches my jewel, then we’re at court, and now we’re stuck finding the jewel or they'll chop off our heads!” Kagome stuck a finger into the air.
“No, they’ll hang us,” Sango corrected.
“...Right. Sorry, got a little excited there.” Kagome sighed. “That was a weird night.”
“...Yeah,” Sango murmured, her eyes glazing over as she thought back to three nights before.
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“Oh, my God! Did he just set himself on fire? He’s an idiot!” Sango roared with laughter as Kagome watched in amazement as a teenaged boy, in flames, rolled around on the ground.
“That’s just sad...” Kagome shook her head slowly.
“Sad, but entertaining,” Miroku continued to chuckle as a dog wondered by and relieved his bladder on the poor young man, effectively dousing the flames.
Kagome giggled at that part. She readjusted her jean-clad legs so she was sitting Indian style on one end of the couch. She turned her attention away from the TV to smile lovingly at Miroku and Sango who sat at the other end, Miroku’s arm around his love.
‘When they’re not aggravating each other, they can be really sweet,’ she mentally cooed. For spring, the house seemed pretty chilly and Kagome shivered in her thin T-shirt.
“Hey guys, I need a jacket.” Kagome told her friends as she got off the couch, stretching in the dark. She decided not to switch on the lights, she could navigate through her house pretty well without at night. “You need anything?”
Sango stopped chuckling at looked up at her friend. She fluttered her long eyelashes at the younger girl, “Oh, Kagome-chan. Could you be a sweetie and grab me a coke?”
Kagome laughed at her friends attempts. “Sure thing. Miroku?”
“Nothing for me, I’m fine, thank you for asking, Kagome-chan.” Miroku flashed a grin in the young woman’s direction.
“Okay, I’ll be right back.” Kagome toddled into the kitchen and came back out with a can of coke. Throwing the cold drink at Sango, Kag didn’t wait to see if the taijiya caught it or not before moving towards the stairs.
Her room was the first to the right. It wasn’t very large, but the butter yellow walls made it seem bigger. She sighed contentedly as she felt the thick, blue carpet under her slippers.
Finding her tall white dresser, Kagome began to shift through the top drawer to find a blue jacket to throw over her white shirt.
“A ha! Thought you could hide from me!” she grumbled as she finally contracted the piece of fabric. Slipping her arms into the sleeves, Kagome yanked her loose hair out and zipped the front halfway up.
“That looks good on you. The color matches your eyes,” a cool drawl commented from the shadows. The owner, a young man not unattractive, stepped out and gave a nod in the direction of the gray blue jacket. His long, wavy, silky hair tumbled around his shoulders.
A warning shiver ran up Kagome’s spine. There was just something about a guy with better hair than her that seemed to rub Kagome the wrong way...
...That and the fact that his aura seemed to be nothing but pure black and flaring with evil.
“What are you doing in my home?” Kagome snapped, satisfied that her voice was steady so she took a bold step forward. She was used to protecting the jewel from powerful demons, and when it came to her duty Kagome was all serious.
“My dear, kukuku,” the man chuckled darkly, his crimson eyes narrowing as they landed on the milky jewel that hung around the miko’s neck. It was an airy pink now...but he could just see it brewing a dark purple with evil.
“Don’t you ‘my dear’ me! I want to know why the hell you’re in my house1” Kagome let her own aura flare again, frustrated when the man didn’t seem to notice her warning signs.
Naraku flashed her a confident smirk, his face darkening.
His face seemed familiar, and so did the sense his aura gave off. Kagome had read about someone like this somewhere...
Kagome bit her cheek. “I know you. You’re Naraku!”
Naraku began to drawl smugly, “I see my-”
“-Reputation proceeds you. Yeah, yeah, where do you guys get that line? At a bad guys’ convention?” The miko was irritated by the confidence of this demon. He seemed so sure that he would get the jewel from her, and his aura was sickening. Kagome gulped and took a small step backward. Naraku may have been a hanyou, but Mirdoriko had written in her diary that this man was her evilest enemy.
‘I really do have all the luck,’ Kagome thought dryly.
Naraku seemed to be stepping closer without Kagome noticing it. The chill that his presence brought with him seemed to bite through the air, the jacket no use now.
Kagome narrowed her blue-gray orbs before opening her mouth to yell for Miroku and Sango. The three of them could beat this guy...
As soon as Naraku realized what the young woman was doing, he disappeared from his spot...only to reappear inches from her face. Kagome’s voice froze in her throat as she watched breathlessly as Naraku reached forward and snapped the jewel from her neck.
“You bastard! Give that back!” Kagome screamed, lunging from her spot to Naraku, her powers concentrated on her fingertips.
Downstairs, Miroku and Sango heard the frantic yelling of their friend and snatched up whatever they could before racing up the steps. The two burst into Kagome’s bedroom, Sango sporting a baseball bat and Miroku holding a...couch pillow.
The door swung open, revealing Kagome’s friends, as Naraku stepped toward the window. Instead of jumping, which seemed the relatively 'normal' thing to do in the situation, Naraku shrunk into the shadows...and disappeared.
“No!” Kagome ran forward but stumbled, choking, as a dark purple mist spread from the corner where Naraku had disappeared. The toxic miasma collected around the three friends until their vision blurred and they fell in a heap on the ground.
The poisonous smoke dissipated before it could cause enough harm to kill Kagome and the others. Naraku didn’t want them dead.
The next morning, soon after the sun rose, a small band of police officers arrived at the front door. A neighbor had called about a scream the night before, but the police had waited for Kagome to call and say everything was all right.
Many tried to steal the jewel so they were used to disturbing noises coming from the shrine.
But morning came and Kagome Higurashi had not called in with the usual ‘it’s okay, everything’s all right’ so a small collection of youkai and human officers came over.
Getting no answer when they pounded on the door, a particularly strong lizard youkai kicked the door open.
And Kagome and Miroku and Sango were found still passed out on the floor.
Once they were properly awakened, Kagome had been brought in for questioning. Learning about the missing Shikon no Tama, Kagome was arrested and brought in for court.
And she’d been blamed for crime.
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The three friends continued their labored climb through the long passageway. The light that did penetrate was dim, and they had to walk with their arms spread out so that they didn’t walk into anything.
Or anybody for that matter.
“...We should take a rest,” Miroku stated while looking at the perfectly in shape women. “For Kirara, you know, so she doesn’t get tired.”
Sango shared a knowing look with Kagome, both girls knowing it was Miroku who needed a rest based on his heavy breathing, “Riiiight.”
“I’m serious!” Miroku protested, looking hurt and offended.
“We never said you weren’t,” Kagome grinned and nudged past him to a nice sized boulder to perch on. Sango followed suit quickly.
Miroku, still a bit miffed that the girls didn’t believe him that the break was for Kirara, leaned against the cave wall. He took his time catching his breath so that his companions wouldn’t notice his panting.
“How much longer, Kagome-chan?” Sango broke the silence, looking towards the miko.
Kagome frowned and lifted her shoulders before letting them drop listlessly. “I don’t know. Midoriko only said that the fairy tunnels that led to Faerie were long, but she didn’t mention how long.”
Sango nodded firmly, “We’ll just have to keep moving. Once we’re out of here, the fresh air will do us good. And it would be good to refill our water bottles... I can’t believe you, Houshi-sama! If you’d brought a water bottle we could have lasted longer, but no, you used that space for a dirty magazine!” Sango broke off her reassuring talk to Kagome to scold Miroku.
Miroku blinked back at Sango innocently. “The comics in the newspaper are considered 'dirty' now?”
Sango starred back at him, “But I saw the title ‘Blondie’ and isn’t that that new model who just got a chest job?”
“No...Blondie is a comic,” Miroku informed.
Kagome promptly ignored the argument brewing between her two friends and focused her attention on Kirara. The fire neko had sat up pretty hastily and was now perched on Sango’s knee, completely tense. The demon cat had her blood red eyes trained on a particularly shadowed corner and a deep, low growl was reverberating from her throat.
“Guys...” Kagome whispered. When her low voice failed to get her friends’ attention, she tapped them on the shoulders. The yelling ceased and they both looked at the stormy-eyed girl.
“What is it Kagome-sama?” Miroku looked at the younger female’s creased brow and small scowl.
“...Something’s here.”
Violet eyes followed Kagome’s line of vision to the tall shadowed spot in the wall just ahead. Two deep golden eyes sparkled back at him. They weren’t the viscous eyes of a plain low level youkai...these were of a highly intelligent demon.
“I do believe you’re right,” Miroku stated before readying his staff in a fighting position.
He could finish his argument with his girlfriend later.
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A/N: Ask any questions that you’re confused about, and I’ll answer, I swear. Review, please!
Ja ne!
Fay
It is the modern world where youkai and humans live together. Kagome’s great grandmother (Midokiko) created the Shikon no Tama, but it disappeared when she died. It was reborn inside Kagome because she has the same strong and unusual powers as Midoriko. Naraku (who has been around since Midoriko’s time) stole the jewel and is hiding out in his lair (a labyrinth) in another dimension. Kagome was supposed to keep the jewel protected so that no one used it for ill, but since she lost it, she has to get it back within a month or she’ll be executed for the ‘heinous’ crime. Sango and Miroku (her friends) volunteered to help her get the jewel back, but now they too will be killed if they fail.
When Midoriko had the jewel, she kept a diary that talked about all kinds of things. One being that she thought the doorway to Naraku’s lair was in Ireland. So the three (Kagome, Miroku, and Sango) are there looking for a way in.
--- ::deep breath:: Wow that’s a lot to get from two chapters. It’ll be easier to figure out from now on AND InuYasha is showing up....
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Disclaimer: I do not own InuYasha or do I have any faeries stowed in my closet to get information from... ::shifty eyes::
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From Beginning to End
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--- Last Chapter ---
Sango pursed her lips and nodded resolutely. “Good,” she clapped, ready to tackle the problem head on. “Let’s get moving then!”
“Um, Sango?” Kagome walked forward and wheeled the brunette around until both girls were facing the lake.
The lake, and a lot of large boulders, rocks, pebbles, and cliffs.
Sango growled, “This’ll take awhile.”
--- End of Last Chapter ---
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Chapter Three: The Doorway
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Kagome sighed as she perched on the edge of a large boulder resting beside the lake. She looked over, a few meters away, where Sango and Miroku continued their search. “How many so far?”
Sango turned from her position by a medium sized rock to glower up at Kagome, the chalk she’d been using to mark the rocks she’d already checked hanging limply in her hand. “187 rocks for me!”
Miroku straightened and looked back and forth between his two women companions before a slow, easy grin spread across his face. “187, Sango? Well look at that...I’ve looked at 203. That means...I BEAT SANGO!”
Sango watched with narrowed eyes as her boyfriend started to jump around in a gleeful dance. Using the rock she had just finished putting a white ‘x’ on (she’d already looked at it) she clobbered the monk over the head.
Kagome sighed as Sango expertly whipped her hands down in triumph. “Will they ever learn...?”
After tossing the rock away, Sango proceeded to kick the unconscious man lightly while giggling merrily.
Sweatdropping, Kagome hung her head. “Guess not.”
The sun was close to setting and Kagome didn’t want to have to spend any more time in an unknown land than she had to, so she hopped off her rock.
Walking away from the 6 foot, in height and diameter, boulder, something tugged at Kagome’s stomach.
If she’d been forced to explain the feeling, the closest she could, would be that it was some kind of extreme awareness. And, if she wasn’t mistaken, the pull seemed to come from that boulder.
Tossing a glance over her shoulder to see her two friends were still occupied (Sango had found a black magic marker somewhere and was currently drawing a moustache on her boyfriend) Kagome walked cautiously to the boulder. Up close, same as far away, it looked like a normal boulder.
Big...gray...hard...and, well, you know, rocky. So why did it give her this feeling...?
Scowling in frustration, Kagome rapped her knuckles near the center of the boulder. And a ringing sounded back at her.
‘Well that’s interesting...it sounds almost.... hallow?’ Kagome struck her knuckles again, just to make sure. ‘Yep...same sound. So either I’m tired and hallucinating, or this rock is different.’
“Only one way to find out,” Kagome murmured under her breath before reaching out her fingers toward the gray surface. As the tips of her fingers swept it in the lightest of feather soft touches, a light shot from the tips of her fingers and into her head.
Accompanied with the blinding white light was, not pain, but a sort of shock. Kagome squeezed her blue-gray eyes shut to wait for the tingling feeling to pass. When she opened them again, she glared at the seemingly innocent rock for hurting her when she found...
...That a door, no wider than three feet across and five feet high, had pulling away from the front of the boulder.
It was a perfect black rectangle, and it curved with the rock.
The hairs on Kagome’s neck and arms stood up as she took a step closer to peer into the rock. It was the purest darkness she'd ever seen; no light from the setting sun seemed to penetrate it.
An invisible, ice cold fog seemed to wrap around her legs and arms, chilling her to the bone.
‘This,’ she decided silently, ‘is not a good place.’
“G-guys? I think...I think I found it,” she shouted back towards her friends’ direction. But the words, they seemed to hang in the air and ring shrilly in Kagome’s ears. She wasn’t even sure herself if she’d spoken.
But sure enough, only a few seconds later, her two friends came running back...Miroku mysteriously conscious again.
Miroku looked at the doorway with a calm, calculating face. “This place...it gives off a bad vibe. I do believe it’s not a very welcoming opening.”
“No shit, Sherlock,” Sango hissed but snapped her mouth shut with a disapproving glare from Kagome.
“Sango-chan,” Kag whispered, somehow not able to get her voice above that, “I know you don’t have spiritual powers like Miroku-sama and I, but can’t you tell me that there’s a...”
“Foreboding feeling,” Miroku supplied.
“Coming from this place?” Kagome finished.
“Yeah. I can feel it. Are you sure, Kag-chan, that this is how we’ll get to Naraku?” Sango asked in all seriousness.
Kagome opened her mouth, only to shut it again. She cast a look at the dark entrance before turning back the taijiya. “Yeah, Sango-chan, this is the only way.”
“Was it in Midoriko’s diary?” Miroku asked curiously.
“No,” Kagome said slowly, “I just –feel- like this is the only way.”
Her friends accepted the vague answer quickly enough, and the trio turned to the doorway. “So...we just walk through?” Miroku scrutinized the absolute blackness.
“I guess,” Kagome shrugged. She’d lived in a shrine, protecting a jewel, her whole life. It’s not like she went searching for other worlds regularly.
Sango tucked her arms around one of Miroku’s and one of Kagome’s. She stood straight and tall in the center, her blood already pounding in the excitement of an adventure. “Then let’s get going!” she gave a reassuring smile to the two who flanked her and tugged them forward.
As one foot from each of them landed inside the entrance, the muffled sound seemed to vibrate off the walls.
But nothing came out, teeth bared and snarling, so the trio deemed it safe to continue...
...Unaware of the thing they’d just awakened.
.
---
.
The echoing sounds of the footsteps bounced off the walls and kept moving forward. The sound rang through the dangerous twists and turns of the long and deadly tunnel that led under the lake.
And then the sound reached the end of the tunnels, the door that led out into the Land of Faerie...and to Naraku’s fortress.
At that door, spreading out slowly, a ribbon the color of molten gold flowed. Like a river the color twisted and dipped, curled and flared, to form a stretch of golden words, the language long since forgotten.
Racing along the walls and ceiling of the tunnel, the words stopped just before the clamoring trespassers before shrinking back to where they started...
...And bringing with them the voices of the three people.
At the end of the cave path, for the first time in decades, a set of amazing amber eyes, the same liquid gold as the ancient writing, snapped open.
“Time to play,” a cold voice whispered before the owner let out a bark of laughter...the laughter of a hunter as it set out for it’s prey.
.
---
.
“—And I said: ‘What about, breakfast at Tiffany’s?’ You said: ‘I think, I, remember the bill, and as I recall, I think, we both kinda liked it.’ So I said: ‘Well, that’s the one thing we got!’”
While Sango sighed in boredom and continued to trudge forward, Miroku laughed hysterically. "Leave it to Kagome-sama to sing to keep our hopes up!”
Kagome stopped her singing to grin at the monk. “Call it a gift!” she said elegantly before snorting in laughter.
“When you two numbskulls are done hacking up a lung-,”
“We’re laughing!” Kagome corrected.
“-Then I think we should settle down for the night. We’ve been walking for a few hours and we didn’t even start until almost night. Who knows, maybe the daytime might light this place up some,” Sango finished.
“Yeah, that sounds good. If I trip over another rock because of this dark, I’ll scream!” Kagome sighed unhappily, thinking about her bruised toe.
“Kagome-chan, I don't think it’s the dark that has you tripping over the rocks...” Sango supplied while biting her bottom lip to keep from laughing.
“What do you mean?” Kagome blinked innocently back at her friend.
“I think she means you’re clumsy,” Miroku grinned apologetically back at the blue-eyed miko.
“Oh...really?” Kagome asked sweetly.
“Sorry, Kag-chan, but it’s true,” Sango stated.
“Oh...well in that case...”
Miroku watched amused as Kagome leaped on his girlfriend’s back and started to tickle the poor demon huntress.
“Okay! OKAY! You’re not clumsy!” Sango shrieked when she couldn’t handle it any more.
“That’s what I thought,” Kagome huffed as she pried herself up off the ground. Sango continued to glare up at her best friend from her position on the floor.
“This seems as good as any place to settle,” Sango shrugged before leaning again the rock wall. After the entrance, the tunnel had widened out considerably to the point where the three friends could walk side by side.
“Whatever,” Kagome muttered as she collapsed back down to rub her toe.
“Perfect choice, as always, My Heart!” Miroku smiled charmingly at Sango.
“Didn’t we discuss you calling me your ‘heart’?” Sango’s magenta eyes narrowed.
“Uh...No, it must have been with someone else,” Miroku sweatdropped, looking away casually.
Kagome, who sat in the middle between the two love birds, restrained Sango from strangling the monk. “Calm down,” she said aloud before adding in a whisper, “As soon as he’s asleep we can get back at him.”
“Good,” Sango murmured as she sat back. Kirara leaped up and curled in her mistress’ lap, purring when Sango started to stroke her fir.
“Sango-chan...” Kagome began looking at Hiraikotsu. It was leaning against the wall beside the demon slayer. “How can you carry that thing all the way?”
Sango glanced at her bone boomerang and then back at the miko and her lightweight bow. “How can you walk in the those hakama pants? Don’t they trip you since they’re so wide?” Sango countered.
Kagome shrugged, “Untied hakama pants are the miko’s uniform. I could tie them...but I’ve never heard of a miko who’s done that.” (A/N: The same red pants as Kikyou wears are Hakama...her's are untied, but Inuyasha's are tied, that's why they're bunched up at the bottom.)
Sango sighed. “Wonderful. I know we should sleep and catch up on our rest, and that none of us have sensed any enemies, but I can’t.”
“You’re just worried about us being attacked, right? I’ll stay up and let you two sleep, and we’ll take turns,” Kagome suggested, knowing her friends, no matter how strong, would need rest.
“You sure? You won’t fall asleep?” Sango gave Kagome a pointed look.
“I won’t! I promise!” Kagome held her hand up in defense. “Don’t worry, I’ll keep myself busy.”
“How? It’s so dark...what can you do? And I didn’t see you bring anything with you...” Sango looked harder at the miko, but even after her vision had gotten used to the blackness it was still hard to see.
“Oh, I’ll just do something to keep my hands busy,” Kagome answered.
“Oh really...and what would that be Kagome-sama?” Miroku gave his eyebrows a suggestive wiggle.
Kagome smacked him in the chest...hard. “Get your mind out of the gutter, you pervert!” Reaching into the small sash tied to her obi (the blood red sash she tied over her waist) Kagome pulled out a piece of string. “I’ll play cat’s cradle.”
“With yourself?” Sango’s own eyebrows lifted.
“It’s possible! Or I could just teach myself new tricks...” Kagome drifted off as she began to do things like an Eiffel Tower and cat whiskers. “I’ll stay awake,” she repeated firmly when Sango continued to stay awake.
Sighing, Sango leaned back and relaxed, letting herself fall asleep.
“Finally,” the miko muttered but broke off when she yawned. “Don’t trust me...do they?” Another yawn later, her blue eyes began to drift shut...
.
---
.
The first thing that Sango was aware of when she woke up was snoring. It was light and soft...a female’s snoring. Kagome’s snoring.
Trying to keep her sore eyes open, Sango sat up stiffly, and snapped a glare in the younger girl’s direction. “Kagome! You SAID you’d stay awake!” She snapped.
“Huh?” A feminine voice mumbled as ocean eyes blinked innocently back at Sango; Kagome seemingly pretty awake as the snoring continued to echo in the cavern.
“You’re awake?” Sango asked, mirroring Kagome’s confused blinking. “But that girl snoring, who was it...” She drifted off as her pink eyes snapped onto the blissfully asleep Miroku...snoring lightly. “Oh.”
Kagome smothered her giggles. “You thought I was snoring? I told you I wouldn’t fall asleep!”
Sango gave her a sheepish look. “I know...I was just...um...”
“It’s okay, whatever,” Kagome waved it off before slipping a hand into her pouch. She pulled out a black marker and leaned over the sleeping Miroku.
Humming softly, she colored in an uni-brow, a moustache, a goatee, and a large ‘L’ in the middle of his forehead.
Sango laughed gleefully as she snatched the pen. She added to Kagome’s artwork a smiley face on each of his cheeks, a dimple, a few tears, and a mask over his eyes. “Why are we doing this again?”
Kagome shrugged, “Um...’Cause it’s fun? I don’t remember...”
The two friends looked at each other before bursting out in laughter. Sango finally started to realize something...they had been able to see to draw on Miroku’s face.
“Hey...light...” she pointed out before looking up to a small crack in the ceiling. “I guess it’s morning.” It was only a foot long, and slim, but it allowed a strong beam of light through.
“I guess so...” Kagome joined Sango's staring.
Miroku’s violet eyes finally flittered open to reveal his two best friends staring intently at the ceiling. Seeing an open opportunity, seeing that they were both kneeling next to him and not paying attention, he took it.
-Rub- -Rub- -Rub-
---SMACK---
---SLAP---
Miroku happily rubbed at his stinging red cheeks while mumbling something pitifully like ‘it was worth it’ while the two girl stood glaring down at him, their hands still up from the attack. Even in his unstable mind at the moment, Miroku noticed that their auras were growing darker and flaring.
“Don’t you ever touch me again! HENTAI!” Kagome screeched, her azure eyes dancing with the promise of pain.
“Right! Don’t you ever touch her again! Pervert!” Sango’s voice level reflected Kagome’s.
Kagome’s eyes lost the glint of malice as she turned to stare at her friend. “Just not me? What about you?” she pointed out.
Sango gave Kagome a blank look, “I am his girlfriend, right? So he can touch me...just not there. But touching you anywhere would be inappropriate.”
Miroku, while the females were distracted, had stood up and dusted off his monk robes. “You know?” he changed the subject, looking at his friends. “Without modern conveniences and the way we’re dressed,” he gave a look at Sango’s demon slayer uniform and Kagome’s miko robes, “It feels like we’re in the Feudal Era!”
Kagome and Sango stared back at him and then at each other. “Sure, whatever,” Sango shrugged. “We should get moving. We only have 27 days, counting today.”
“Yeah that sounds right. We’ve already wasted enough time,” Kagome sighed, the good mood disappearing as they were once again reminded they were in a dark and creepy tunnel.
Kagome combed her long ebony hair with her fingers before tying it into a loose braid with a white ribbon. Sango just tightened her hair tie while Miroku looked intensely at a compact mirror. After he was sure that every hair was in place, and Sango gave him a death glare, he suggested they should start out.
“Kirara’s being quiet,” Kagome commented, looking down lovingly at the small fire cat.
“Yeah, she’s pretty unnoticeable unless we’re in battle.” Sango clucked her tongue and her partner leaped into her arms and then up onto her shoulder. Curling up contentedly, the neko fell asleep happily.
“No more singing?” Miroku asked the youngest of the group.
“No singing,” Kagome announced. “The only song that stuck in my head this morning is ‘Mary had a little lamb’.”
“Oh, wonderful. Don’t sing it,” Sango imagined the high spirited song and shivered.
“Wow. This has gone by so fast, it’s hard to imagine it’s real. One minute we’re sipping soda and laughing at a comedy, the next a creepy man snatches my jewel, then we’re at court, and now we’re stuck finding the jewel or they'll chop off our heads!” Kagome stuck a finger into the air.
“No, they’ll hang us,” Sango corrected.
“...Right. Sorry, got a little excited there.” Kagome sighed. “That was a weird night.”
“...Yeah,” Sango murmured, her eyes glazing over as she thought back to three nights before.
---
“Oh, my God! Did he just set himself on fire? He’s an idiot!” Sango roared with laughter as Kagome watched in amazement as a teenaged boy, in flames, rolled around on the ground.
“That’s just sad...” Kagome shook her head slowly.
“Sad, but entertaining,” Miroku continued to chuckle as a dog wondered by and relieved his bladder on the poor young man, effectively dousing the flames.
Kagome giggled at that part. She readjusted her jean-clad legs so she was sitting Indian style on one end of the couch. She turned her attention away from the TV to smile lovingly at Miroku and Sango who sat at the other end, Miroku’s arm around his love.
‘When they’re not aggravating each other, they can be really sweet,’ she mentally cooed. For spring, the house seemed pretty chilly and Kagome shivered in her thin T-shirt.
“Hey guys, I need a jacket.” Kagome told her friends as she got off the couch, stretching in the dark. She decided not to switch on the lights, she could navigate through her house pretty well without at night. “You need anything?”
Sango stopped chuckling at looked up at her friend. She fluttered her long eyelashes at the younger girl, “Oh, Kagome-chan. Could you be a sweetie and grab me a coke?”
Kagome laughed at her friends attempts. “Sure thing. Miroku?”
“Nothing for me, I’m fine, thank you for asking, Kagome-chan.” Miroku flashed a grin in the young woman’s direction.
“Okay, I’ll be right back.” Kagome toddled into the kitchen and came back out with a can of coke. Throwing the cold drink at Sango, Kag didn’t wait to see if the taijiya caught it or not before moving towards the stairs.
Her room was the first to the right. It wasn’t very large, but the butter yellow walls made it seem bigger. She sighed contentedly as she felt the thick, blue carpet under her slippers.
Finding her tall white dresser, Kagome began to shift through the top drawer to find a blue jacket to throw over her white shirt.
“A ha! Thought you could hide from me!” she grumbled as she finally contracted the piece of fabric. Slipping her arms into the sleeves, Kagome yanked her loose hair out and zipped the front halfway up.
“That looks good on you. The color matches your eyes,” a cool drawl commented from the shadows. The owner, a young man not unattractive, stepped out and gave a nod in the direction of the gray blue jacket. His long, wavy, silky hair tumbled around his shoulders.
A warning shiver ran up Kagome’s spine. There was just something about a guy with better hair than her that seemed to rub Kagome the wrong way...
...That and the fact that his aura seemed to be nothing but pure black and flaring with evil.
“What are you doing in my home?” Kagome snapped, satisfied that her voice was steady so she took a bold step forward. She was used to protecting the jewel from powerful demons, and when it came to her duty Kagome was all serious.
“My dear, kukuku,” the man chuckled darkly, his crimson eyes narrowing as they landed on the milky jewel that hung around the miko’s neck. It was an airy pink now...but he could just see it brewing a dark purple with evil.
“Don’t you ‘my dear’ me! I want to know why the hell you’re in my house1” Kagome let her own aura flare again, frustrated when the man didn’t seem to notice her warning signs.
Naraku flashed her a confident smirk, his face darkening.
His face seemed familiar, and so did the sense his aura gave off. Kagome had read about someone like this somewhere...
Kagome bit her cheek. “I know you. You’re Naraku!”
Naraku began to drawl smugly, “I see my-”
“-Reputation proceeds you. Yeah, yeah, where do you guys get that line? At a bad guys’ convention?” The miko was irritated by the confidence of this demon. He seemed so sure that he would get the jewel from her, and his aura was sickening. Kagome gulped and took a small step backward. Naraku may have been a hanyou, but Mirdoriko had written in her diary that this man was her evilest enemy.
‘I really do have all the luck,’ Kagome thought dryly.
Naraku seemed to be stepping closer without Kagome noticing it. The chill that his presence brought with him seemed to bite through the air, the jacket no use now.
Kagome narrowed her blue-gray orbs before opening her mouth to yell for Miroku and Sango. The three of them could beat this guy...
As soon as Naraku realized what the young woman was doing, he disappeared from his spot...only to reappear inches from her face. Kagome’s voice froze in her throat as she watched breathlessly as Naraku reached forward and snapped the jewel from her neck.
“You bastard! Give that back!” Kagome screamed, lunging from her spot to Naraku, her powers concentrated on her fingertips.
Downstairs, Miroku and Sango heard the frantic yelling of their friend and snatched up whatever they could before racing up the steps. The two burst into Kagome’s bedroom, Sango sporting a baseball bat and Miroku holding a...couch pillow.
The door swung open, revealing Kagome’s friends, as Naraku stepped toward the window. Instead of jumping, which seemed the relatively 'normal' thing to do in the situation, Naraku shrunk into the shadows...and disappeared.
“No!” Kagome ran forward but stumbled, choking, as a dark purple mist spread from the corner where Naraku had disappeared. The toxic miasma collected around the three friends until their vision blurred and they fell in a heap on the ground.
The poisonous smoke dissipated before it could cause enough harm to kill Kagome and the others. Naraku didn’t want them dead.
The next morning, soon after the sun rose, a small band of police officers arrived at the front door. A neighbor had called about a scream the night before, but the police had waited for Kagome to call and say everything was all right.
Many tried to steal the jewel so they were used to disturbing noises coming from the shrine.
But morning came and Kagome Higurashi had not called in with the usual ‘it’s okay, everything’s all right’ so a small collection of youkai and human officers came over.
Getting no answer when they pounded on the door, a particularly strong lizard youkai kicked the door open.
And Kagome and Miroku and Sango were found still passed out on the floor.
Once they were properly awakened, Kagome had been brought in for questioning. Learning about the missing Shikon no Tama, Kagome was arrested and brought in for court.
And she’d been blamed for crime.
---
The three friends continued their labored climb through the long passageway. The light that did penetrate was dim, and they had to walk with their arms spread out so that they didn’t walk into anything.
Or anybody for that matter.
“...We should take a rest,” Miroku stated while looking at the perfectly in shape women. “For Kirara, you know, so she doesn’t get tired.”
Sango shared a knowing look with Kagome, both girls knowing it was Miroku who needed a rest based on his heavy breathing, “Riiiight.”
“I’m serious!” Miroku protested, looking hurt and offended.
“We never said you weren’t,” Kagome grinned and nudged past him to a nice sized boulder to perch on. Sango followed suit quickly.
Miroku, still a bit miffed that the girls didn’t believe him that the break was for Kirara, leaned against the cave wall. He took his time catching his breath so that his companions wouldn’t notice his panting.
“How much longer, Kagome-chan?” Sango broke the silence, looking towards the miko.
Kagome frowned and lifted her shoulders before letting them drop listlessly. “I don’t know. Midoriko only said that the fairy tunnels that led to Faerie were long, but she didn’t mention how long.”
Sango nodded firmly, “We’ll just have to keep moving. Once we’re out of here, the fresh air will do us good. And it would be good to refill our water bottles... I can’t believe you, Houshi-sama! If you’d brought a water bottle we could have lasted longer, but no, you used that space for a dirty magazine!” Sango broke off her reassuring talk to Kagome to scold Miroku.
Miroku blinked back at Sango innocently. “The comics in the newspaper are considered 'dirty' now?”
Sango starred back at him, “But I saw the title ‘Blondie’ and isn’t that that new model who just got a chest job?”
“No...Blondie is a comic,” Miroku informed.
Kagome promptly ignored the argument brewing between her two friends and focused her attention on Kirara. The fire neko had sat up pretty hastily and was now perched on Sango’s knee, completely tense. The demon cat had her blood red eyes trained on a particularly shadowed corner and a deep, low growl was reverberating from her throat.
“Guys...” Kagome whispered. When her low voice failed to get her friends’ attention, she tapped them on the shoulders. The yelling ceased and they both looked at the stormy-eyed girl.
“What is it Kagome-sama?” Miroku looked at the younger female’s creased brow and small scowl.
“...Something’s here.”
Violet eyes followed Kagome’s line of vision to the tall shadowed spot in the wall just ahead. Two deep golden eyes sparkled back at him. They weren’t the viscous eyes of a plain low level youkai...these were of a highly intelligent demon.
“I do believe you’re right,” Miroku stated before readying his staff in a fighting position.
He could finish his argument with his girlfriend later.
.
.
.
A/N: Ask any questions that you’re confused about, and I’ll answer, I swear. Review, please!
Ja ne!
Fay