InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Haunted ❯ Ruthless ( Chapter 21 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

AN: It's been a while, I know! Sorry! I pulled my shoulder(s) just a bit, nothing serious, but they're both really sore, so it took me a while. This chapter was also very challenging because it's really a huge turning point for the entire story…

Responses:

Auxana: Yup; fire rat fur. If it wasn't, I think that Inuyasha would mysteriously find himself not wearing anything when he switched from poltergeist to normal and back because of the properties of the stuff or what have you… Something that I feel few people would object to, but he needs his dignity! Ooh, a bribe… I love pocky! Especially the strawberry kind… Thank you!

Inu Kaiba: I'm sorry! Please forgive my many grammar, spelling and other mistakes! The first seventeen chapters I really ripped through, and as such, there're lots of 'em. (There's only so much that the Spelling/Grammar Check can fix…)

Tiamath: Heh. Miroku does some pretty stupid things sometimes, doesn't he? On the subject of the shorter chapter: I probably shouldn't mention that, should I? No point in drawing attention to it…

Inu-ears: Thanks! And man, you're lucky. I finally got out, but it took a while. The last week crawled by at a snail's pace, and it drove me insane!

Didiaskyou: Well… I didn't have Inuyasha and Kagome making out in mind when I thought about writing the end, exactly… But it'll be fluffy, I can promise ya that.

blinkytingson: Thank you!

AkeryouSesshoumarusMate: I'm sorry! I wasn't trying to be mean, or anything… It seems that I have a strange obsession with cliffhangers. I will try to fix it, and I promise that this chapter won't end with a cliffhanger.

fluffyrachel: hehe… I'm sure that Inuyasha isn't stupid enough to believe that Kagome would go as far as to try and kill him, or even hurt him… Will Naraku be killed? Well, you'll see.

AnimeKitty07: YOU'RE LUCKY! At the time I read your reveiw- 6/12/05- I had not yet gotten out. I got out on the seventeenth… And I was very jealous, because I was stuck in school for another lousy week.

rin sama1989: First of all, I wish to apologize: I had problem uploading the 19th chapter, and then I forgot to later! Then, when it came time to do the twentieth, I realized that I hadn't done it… I'm so sorry! Kagura's clumsy landing was from her eagerness to get rid of The Sword. If Naraku has uncovered her treachery, he certainly hasn't done anything about it!

Angel 4 life: The same goes for you; I'm very sorry that I forgot to upload chapter twenty on mediaminer! I feel really bad about that… How many more chapters? Well, let's just say that it's coming to a close. I'd hafta say… less than five, but not too many less. Four or three-ish.

Disclaimer: Not mine. Let's see… I've now proclaimed that I am -sadly- not the owner of Inuyasha twenty-one times! Whoo!

Haunted

Chapter Twenty-One: Ruthless

Obviously something was very, very wrong.

"What are you talking about?" Inuyasha was bewildered. And how had Kagome ended up here?

"I hate you," Kagome replied simply. "So I'm going to kill you." And without further warning, she lunged forward stiffly, like a doll, hands outstretched. Only, Inuyasha noticed with wide eyes, they weren't hands. Her fingers were tentacles.

"What the hell-" he leaped out of the way easily. "is going on?" A sudden thought occurred to him. He sniffed. "I knew it! You're not Kagome!" He exclaimed triumphantly. Thank gods for that…

"Yes I am." The Kagome look-alike smiled prettily. "I'm Kagome, and I'm going to kill you. Stop moving." She lunged again, tentacles flailing.

Gritting his teeth, Inuyasha easily hacked away the tentacles. They fell to the grass, writhing. The opponent herself -or maybe himself- wasn't that hard to beat. It was the fact that when he hurt him or her, it was Kagome who grimaced in agony, with tears in her eyes.

"Why are you doing this?" she cried, as if it was his fault. "You're not supposed to hurt me. You need to die," she explained, as if it was the most ordinary thing in the world.

A sharp, harsh bark of laughter uttered from Inuyasha's throat. "You must be the most idiotic thing I've met if you think I'm going to listen to you. That includes Kouga. You're not Kagome." Teeth still gritted, he moved forward and hacked at more tentacles.

"Kagome" dropped onto her knees, head bowed over. Yet, Inuyasha's sharp amber eyes noticed that her brown ones were alive with cunning. It was probably best to stay away for now. Besides, he didn't think that he could make himself do anything else to this creature that looked and acted so much like the black-haired girl….

It was as if she read his thoughts. "Can't bear to kill me, can you, Inuyasha?" The Kagome look-alike straightened, cold, cruel confidence shining in narrowed eyes. She laughed harshly at the fury smoldering in his eyes. "Well, isn't that something?" There was a thoughtful expression to her face.

"You're wrong." That look in her eyes, that cruel sneer. She didn't look like Kagome at all now. Sure, she wore the same shape, the same face, but the way that she wore it was arrogant, cruel. That wasn't like Kagome, and with that appearance, the whole charade slid away.

But even still, he hesitated, and she knew it. "No, you're wrong, you filthy mutt." The words dripped from her mouth like poison, and he struck, claws outstretched. The look-alike collapsed.

Inuyasha reeled back as if he had been the one struck. Clenching his fists tightly until they drew his own blood, rather than the other stuff smeared over them. She looked like Kagome when she was dead.

Something struck him from behind and he staggered, whirling around in surprise. It didn't look at all like Kagome now. The thing was all tentacles. "A golem?" Inuyasha queried incredulously. "Don't tell me Naraku still uses thing things…" He shook his head and calmly ran it through the chest with one hand. It crumbled into dirt.

But wait… to make a golem, you needed the hair of the one it took after, didn't you? Slowly, he bent over and picked up the wooden doll. So, Naraku needed Kagome's hair. And where would he get Kagome's hair? Why, her head of course. In other words, Naraku had Kagome.

"Oh, shit."

The frantic hanyou took off at a desperate sprint.

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(•. •)

(><)

She didn't know where she was going.

But for some reason, she didn't really seem to care. In the grand scheme of things, what did it matter that she was going for a walk to a place that she didn't know, yet did know? She'd never been there before, that much she knew, but she knew where to go. It confused her. Why waste time trying to figure it out? All would be explained in time. She just had to wait until she reached her destination.

A small, saner corner of her mind shrieked that something was more than wrong; it was terrible. She couldn't properly think. Everything was blurred and dizzy as her feet drifted across the top of the grass. That one conscious part of her mind wondered if she was even walking.

Time passed -it could've been only five minutes, or even fifty- and she seemed to stop. Whatever. Maybe she did, maybe she didn't. Did it really matter that much? Blurrily, Kagome realized that she shrugged, a small carefree smile playing on her lips. There seemed to be a large black stone nearby. But who cared?

Something came out from behind the stone, but the part of her mind that was still active had no idea what it was. She couldn't focus.

Someone snapped their fingers softly and the disorienting shroud cleared like thick fog in the sun. She blinked and stared around her to get her bearings. She had no idea where she was. Or, for that matter, who the white-haired girl was standing in front of her.

"Come." The pale girl spoke with a voice as soft as silk and as hollow as her father's promises to return home one day -but now was not the time to think of things like that.

Without Kagome's leave, her body obediently stepped forward and followed the child behind the rock and down a long, sloping tunnel. Fortunately, she still had some control. "Where are you taking me?"

The white-haired girl didn't answer, and merely kept walking, pale lank hair swinging slightly as she disappeared down the dark tunnel.

Kagome followed -or rather, her body did. Panic rose in her mind and fluttered in her gut as the tunnel got darker and started to slope downwards more. "Where are we going?" she repeated, a slight edge to her voice.

"You will see." The child didn't turn around to address her and turned a corner. She bowed low to something beyond. "She is here."

"I am aware of that, Kanna." A cold, deadly voice echoed through Kagome's mind. She clapped her hands to her ears and winced. There was a searing pain in the voice, one that tore at her mind and made it feel as if her ears were bleeding.

"Youkai energe doesn't react well with you, does it Kagome?" This time, it was the pale child, Kanna, who spoke.

Kagome didn't respond. She was still crouched over, hands pressed to her ears from the pain. Her head throbbed and there was a dull ache in her bones as if they were dry and brittle. Through gritted teeth, she realized that the girl was speaking.

"…your abilities, but I've found a much more promising quality that you possess, one that will work far better." Kanna smiled smugly. "Come." She walked into the cave with large striding steps, not the small shuffles that she'd taken before.

Kagome tagged along compliantly. "You're not the same person, are you?" the black haired girl asked slowly as she was urged into the cave.

Kanna chuckled softly and settled on the dirt floor by a large urn. Kagome's eyes widened in surprised shock. The cave was littered with sutras, most of them rotten or shriveled pieces of paper on the floor. A few of them hung in the air, glowing defiantly but weakly.

"You could say that." The white-haired child inspected her fingers with eyes alive with cold intelligence that hadn't been present before. "It would be more accurate to say that Kanna here is merely my incarnation. An extension of me."

Kagome sat down heavily and leaned against one of the cave walls. "And who are 'you'?" Kagome asked hostilely, though she was pretty sure that she already knew the answer.

Again, it was as if the entity already knew her thoughts. "You already know that, don't you?" Naraku chuckled gently. "Not that it matters." Kanna picked up aa wooden doll. For some reason, the sight of it chilled Kagome to the bone. Dark, bottomless eyes met angry brown. "You're right to be afraid of this, girl." The eyes narrowed as Kanna held forth the little figure. "I know your thoughts, emotions, memories through this."

Kagome's eyes widened in shock and she tensed against the cave wall. "How?" Her voice came out slightly squeaky, rather than the imperious tone that she'd intended.

"Your hanyou is careless," Naraku replied dispassionately through Kanna. "He came in here, waved his sword about and acted generally stupid, and then left himself completely defenseless and at my disposal."

"What'd you do with Inuyasha?" Kagome managed to stand up against the euphoric force controlling her.

"I didn't kill him, as you think." Naraku sighed. "He's nearly immortal, you know. The only way to kill him is through his urn." Dark eyes narrowed. "You might find that information helpful when all is said and done, girl. After all, you're going to die because of him."

"What are you talking about?" It was as if Naraku was speaking a different language, one of insinuations and riddles.

"He was borrowing your life force, correct? Now I have it, which makes you my puppet. I could kill you, make you kill Inuyasha, make you kill the demon exterminator, the possibilities are wonderful," he explained. "But I have a much better idea for you. You're much too good to waste on such petty tasks."

"I don't care what you want me to do," Kagome told him stubbornly. "I'm not doing it. In fact, I think I'm going to go home now." She slowly got to her feet and started to walk out of the cave. It was like walking through water. She still wasn't in full control of her body.

Kanna frowned. "How odd. You shouldn't be able to move at all." Eyes bright with comprehension, she smirked. "Oh! No wonder. You made quite a botch of that spell, didn't you?"

Kagome flushed, embarrassed. "Well it works, so it doesn't matter!" she retorted. "Now, goodbye!" Her steps became stronger as she regained partial control of her legs.

"Stop." And Kagome did. "Come back and take that sword in the corner." With gritted teeth, she stubbornly obeyed.

Naraku smirked. "There you go. Feeling much more obedient, are we?"

The black-haired girl's eyes widened in shock. "But this is Inuyasha's sword!" She swung around. "Why do you have it? What did you do to Inuyasha?" she cried, hands trembling in anxiety.

"I already told you that I just took his sword and a bit of your life force," the demon explained patiently. "Now shut up and destroy this urn."

Like a puppet, Kagome lifted the rusted blade high overhead and swung down. Kanna watched with hungry anticipation, eyes gleaming.

Nothing happened.

"What?" Kanna whirled furiously on Kagome. "Girl! What did you do?"

Kagome shrugged, relieved that whatever it was hadn't worked. "Just what you asked me. Don't blame me for your stupidity."

"I don't have to put up with this," Naraku snapped. "Shut up and sit in the corner like a good prisoner."

"Make me." Kagome was starting to wonder if this Naraku was really so evil and twisted as Inuyasha had led to her believe. He seemed pretty human to her, though he was definitely messed up and deadly. Sure, he was clearly a murderer, but there were plenty of murderers not considered evil, right?

"Do it, or I'll kill you."

"You won't kill me," Kagome retorted archly. Yup. This guy was a pushover. "I'm your bargaining chip or whatever. I wouldn't be very valuable dead, would I?"

"But I could suck out your soul and leave your body under my complete control," Kanna's voice was as soft as powdered snow, and just as cold.

Brown eyes wide in a pale face, Kagome realized that he wasn't joking. She scrambled upright and then hurried to the corner, her mouth firmly shut. Okay, maybe he was as bad as Inuyasha said.

_|__|_

(•.•)

--( • )--

(____)

"Hey, where's Kagome?" Shippo wandered into the living room and plopped down on the couch next to Sango as he sucked on a lollipop.

Deftly, Sango grabbed the stick and pulled it out of his mouth and continued to read. "She went out for a walk about half an hour ago."

"Hey! Give it back!" Shippo reached for the candy beseechingly.

"No way," Sango retorted. "You've had way to much sugar recently." She lifted her eyes from her book. "In fact," the demon exterminator continued, "I remember seeing you eating ice cream just this afternoon, and you had that sugary cereal for breakfast. No more sugar for you."

"I wish Kagome would come back," Shippo grumbled, and scrambled off the couch. "She's much nicer than you."

"Don't try and make me feel bad," Sango warned and returned to the neat black-and-white printed world of Mrs. Marple. "I babysat my cousin, Ataru. He was twice as bad as you."

"I prefer to think that I'm twice as good as him." Shippo sat down on the floor and started to bounce a bright red rubber ball.

"It doesn't work that way, Shippo." Miroku sauntered into the room with a sigh. "You're only half as bad as him."

"It's the same thing." Up and down went the little red ball. It hit a dent in the carpet and went rolling away. The kitsune scrambled after it.

Miroku dusted off his aching hands. "I fixed up the sword," he told the others proudly. "It's no longer melting holes in stuff."

"Congrats." Sango didn't look up from her book. "Now how about fixing that hole in the roof?" Shippo snickered at Miroku's deafeated look.

"None of you appreciate my talents." He trudged out of the room and up the stairs, intent on taking a nice long shower to rid the feel of the sword from his skin.

Shippo flopped onto his back and rolled the little ball over the carpet. "Kagome's been gone a long time, hasn't she?"

"Oh, only about a half an hour or so." Sango glanced at the clock, and her eyes widened. "An hour?" My, how time flies…

"See? A long time…" Shippo yawned. "She better come back soon. I'm so bored…"

"Why don't you go play with the leftover packaging from the move?" the demon exterminator queried, her mind still focused on Kagome's absence. An hour wasn't a long time to be gone for a walk, but she'd seemed pretty odd when she left, too. It just seemed wrong.

"But that's only fun with Souta!" the ginger-haired kitsune protested. He glanced at the candy in Sango's hand. "Can I have my lollipop back now?" Wide green eyes stared hopefully into distracted brown.

"No." She flipped a page in the worn little paperback. Abruptly, she sighed and put the book down. "I'm going to go look for Kagome." She stood up and walked to the door. Slipping on her shoes, she turned to Shippo. "Hopefully, I'll be back in about half an hour, with Kagome."

"Why?" Shippo looked at the demon exterminator skeptically. "She's only been gone about an hour, right? Maybe she just takes long walks."

Sango shrugged uneasily and opened the front door with a click. "It just didn't seem right. You're probably right, and she's fine. I still wanna check."

"You'd be a really overbearing mother," the kitsune observed. "Always checking on your kids and stuff." Shippo noticed with interest that his comment made Sango blush furiously hefore slamming the door behind her.

He shrugged. "That's weird."

(| /)

(•. •)

(><)

Inuyasha growled with frustration, amber eyes glinting furiously. It felt like he'd been running for hours, and he didn't seem to be much closer. Of course, he reminded himself, panic was like that. Time seemed to slow and crawl by at a snail's pace.

"Almost there," he growled and leapt over a brook. Less than half a mile to go if he was where he thought he was. The hanyou grimaced in spite of himself. The last time he'd been here, he was part of a motley crew of humans, off to fight Naraku. A question that hadn't entered his mind before surfaced.

Why?

Why fight Naraku? What exactly had happened between the humans and the demon? It was a question he should've asked in the beginning, rather than running off blindly for some lost cause. There was no doubt in his mind that Naraku was dangerous, and wanted him dead. There was no doubt that he was cruel, heartless and self-centered. But what did he do to merit the attack?

As he ran, he called up distant memories, like bubbles rising through water to the forefront of his mind.

Dark eyes flashed with hate. "Why are you here, hanyou? I have no quarrel with you." Those eyes turned to the priestess sitting in the corner and chanting spells that would eventually end up trapping both hanyou.

Naraku's mouth twisted in a softly mocking smile. "It wouldn't happen to be love, would it? Or perhaps a need to belong. Being their lapdog won't make them accept you. Doing their dirty work, sacrificing your life for humans won't gain their respect. You're just a handy tool for them…"

Only, Inuyasha realized too late that he'd been right. Working for humans wouldn't make him part of their community, despite what Kikyo had promised. Maybe she did accept him, maybe she didn't. Maybe she loved him, maybe she didn't. But the fact was, no one else would. There was too much hostility towards demons and hanyou alike. Yes, he realized far too late; five hundred years too late.

He knew now that if that's what it took to be one of them, then it wasn't worth it. He shouldn't -and didn't- have to lower himself to gain acceptance; acceptance was in Kagome's smile and Shippo's taunts, in Miroku's backup and Sango's quiet confidence. It was in Mrs. Higurashi's kindness and Souta's wide-eyed admiration.

He crested a hill and took a moment to get his bearings. There. Amber eyes flashed with the promise of revenge as he pinpointed the black rock. Dropping his train of thought, the furious demi-demon raced down the slope with clenched fists and hoped that he wasn't too late.

Because he simply refused to be too late this time.

(\ /)

(•. •)

(><)

Meanwhile, Sango was getting absolutely nowhere. Kagome wasn't out back on the hill, she wasn't in the forest, and the demon exterminator was starting to get anxious. It had been two hours now. She needed help to search.

The black-haired woman sighed and trudged up the hill towards the house, carefully maneuvering around various bushes and trees that got in her way. The forest out back was really quite a mess; there were no trails, no signs and it was dark in a foreboding way. Tall, magnificent trees towered above her like shady sentinels, testimony to time. Oddly, there was little to no forest life, or it was all very silent. The only sound was Sango's worn sneakers as the wove back and forth up the slope.

A few curses and struggles with the underbrush later, a scratched and irritable Sango emerged from the forest, frowning. "That's odd…" she murmured, a hand over her eyes to shade them from the sun.

There was nothing familiar in her sight. An endless green field stretched out ahead of her, the long, uncut grass waving restlessly in a nippy breeze. Anxiety seeped up from the packed dirt and through her shoes, making her shudder. Something wasn't right here. She turned to look back at the forest. It looked out of place in this giant, lonely space before her. It was a pity that she didn't have a cell phone. But then, that might not've worked anyway.

Something told her that trying to get through and go home would reap the same results. And perhaps Kagome had gone this way. Maybe she'd gone through here and had gotten lost, thus her disappearance. "Bingo." Sharp brown eyes noticed a path through the grass. While Sango wasn't the best of trackers, she knew a trail when she saw one. Judging from the width of it, it belonged to a person, or a large animal. Sango was betting that it was a person, and that that person was Kagome.

Fifteen minutes later, the demon exterminator was starting to get impatient. The path was clearly marked, but the grass was thick and hard to walk through. So far, she'd seen no signs of other life or technology. "Wait…" Sango stopped temporarily as things clicked into place. "It's exactly like the forest." She counted off on her fingers and hurried on. "No animals, no technology, no people, all undisturbed…" How long had she been wandering through that other forest? When had the familiar one become this place?

With a growl of frustration, she ripped out a handful of grass. She hated being trapped like this. She was weaponless, friendless, clueless, and was walking through an apparently never-ending field of grass. There were only two ways to go, and only one that made sense to take. Sango pushed forward, some choice words coming to mind as she decided what to say to whoever was behind this.

_|__|_

(•.•)

--( • )--

(____)

"What are you doing?"

Kagome glanced nervously at the small objects littered around Kanna on the cave floor. There were three large wooden boards, all of them unmarked. Three smoky brass bowls were stacked, one on each of the boards with blank parchment in them.

Kanna didn't reply as she ground up a black ink stick and added other powders to it. She took the new mixture and stirred it into brackish water, making sure that the ink was smooth. A pale hand reached out for a scrap of parchment, and the brush flowed smoothly over the thick paper. The kanji glowed a sickly orange and turned reddish, like the color of dried blood.

In the other corner, Kagome shuddered and wished that she was somewhere else. Anywhere else. Futilely, she tried again to move her legs and stand up. The black-haired girl heaved a frustrated sigh. At least she could still talk, right?

Brown eyes watched in perverse fascination as the silent demon dropped the spell into the bowl, which was half-filled with a grey powder. The parchment burst into flame, the tips glowing red and curling. The little scrap burned up, leaving behind some noxious smoke and glowing kanji in the bowl.

Delicately, Kanna opened a newspaper twist and took a small pinch of dark green material. She scooted away carefully and dropped the stuff over the bowl. There was a blinding flash and a roar. Kagome shielded her eyes and backed away, too surprised to even realize that she'd managed to move herself.

Kanna came out looking slightly the worse for wear, with a gleeful expression on her face. "Goshinki!" It was Naraku's voice. "Welcome back!"

A large claw squeezed itself out of the bowl, followed by an impossibly sized forearm. Kagome didn't bother wondering how something that large could appear out of the bowl that small like that. She simply backed away again, brown eyes wide. That's when she noticed.

She could move.

Slowly, a plan began to form in Kagome's mind. While Naraku/Kanna was distracted, she would escape. The best time would probably be during the next bowl's explosion, when no one would hear her or see her through the smoke and the bang that accompanied it.

Fortunately for her, Kanna had just started a second bowl-and-powder reaction. Kagome watched almost hungrily as Kanna carefully tipped the green powder into her hand.

Kanna's dark eyes were intent on the bowl and not Kagome as she backed away and tipped the powder in. Bingo!

Kagome lurched to her feet and rushed to the exit, making sure that her feet didn't echo in the tunnel as she dashed out.

Instincts that had kept humankind alive since the dawn of their existence stirred in Kagome. Adrenaline surged through her veins and her heart fluttered like a leaf in a gale. Brown eyes focused on one thing: the exit, a small patch of pale blue sky in the midst of the dark tunnel.

She scrambled up the last few yards and shot through the opening into someone's grasp. She tried to scream, but a hand covered her mouth. Brown eyes shut in defeat.

Foiled at every turn.

(\ /)

(•. •)

(><)

Frankly, Inuyasha was surprised.

He'd expected a demon to come rushing out of the tunnel at him, claws and teeth bared. So, he'd readied himself, one foot in front of the other as he tensed on the balls of his feet. Ready to spring.

Imagine his surprise when it was Kagome who dashed out of the hole like a bat out of hell and straight into his chest. She screamed, but the hanyou managed to get a hand over her mouth to muffle the noise.

The two surprised teens stumbled back, Inuyasha heaving a sigh of relief and Kagome still terrified. Inuyasha pushed her back and looked fiercely at her. "Are you okay? What happened?"

Kagome smiled with relief. "Oh, Inuyasha! I thought that you were one of Naraku's minions, or something. And just after I managed to get out, too."

"Are you all right?" Inuyasha repeated intently.

"I'm fine," Kagome replied quickly with a glance behind her. "But we should get out of here quickly. Naraku'll notice that I'm gone pretty soon."

Without any notice, Inuyasha grabbed the black-haired girl and swung her on his back before dashing away. "How'd you get out in the first place?"

"Kanna -she's the little girl, with the creepy voice" -Kagome shuddered slightly, "was bringing things to life inside bowls, or bringing them out. There was a blast and I escaped then while she was distracted."

"One more question." Inuyasha risked a glance behind him and sighed with relief. No one was following. "How did you get caught?"

Kagome shifted uncomfortably and averted her eyes. "Naraku said that he had control of my life force," she admitted finally.

Inuyasha stiffened, guilt gripping his throat like a vice. The hanyou grimaced. Kagome had given her life force to him, and this was the way that he repaid her. "Kagome, I'm so sorry," he told her vehemently. "I swear I'll get him back-"

"No problem." Kagome interrupted, slightly flustered at Inuyasha's intensity. "I'm surprised that he hasn't done anything yet, actually. Oh, wait…"

Kanna frowned. "How odd. You shouldn't be able to move at all." Eyes bright with comprehension, she smirked. "Oh! No wonder. You made quite a botch of that spell, didn't you?"

It was that "Oh! No wonder." That caught her attention. "No wonder." What did he mean by that?

"Wait for what?" Inuyasha glanced back again. No one following. They were safe for now, until Naraku got it through his thick skull that Kagome was gone and used her against him. Like that golem… He shuddered and shoved the thoughts away. He realized that Kagome was talking.

"… about the weird thing I did with that spell, you know? Somehow it was inhibiting him, or something. He -or she, since it was Kanna- said 'No wonder' when she was having problems controlling me. I could still talk, and that wasn't supposed to happen."

"Huh?" The demi-demon had no idea what she was rambling about.

"I was saying," Kagome began again patiently, "that the weird thing I did with the spell was messing with his ability to control me as he thought he'd be able to." She sighed heavily. The last few days had been… trying, to say in the least. And she knew that she'd been in the wrong. "I'm… sorry," she admitted grudgingly.

Inuyasha stopped in his tracks, surprised. "What?" White ears twitched maddeningly. Had he heard her correctly?

Kagome's face flushed with embarrassment. "I said I was sorry! What more do you want?"

"Sorry for what?" He was the one who'd given Naraku "the ace". It was sheer luck that he was having difficulty controlling Kagome. He glanced back again and started running.

"I'm sorry for making you fall off the car and driving away," the black-haired girl grumbled unhappily. "There. I said it. Happy now?"

Inuyasha snorted. "You should be sorry." But he knew that he was pushing it. Best to stop now before she decided to make him eat dirt again.

"Well, I am," she admitted. "By the way, how'd you get to Naraku in the first place? What happened?"

The demi-demon sneered in self disgust. "I was lured there, I think. Then, I talked with him, waved Tetsusaiga around and got knocked out. The next thing I knew, I was sitting in a tree like nothing happened." What a disaster…

"We all make mistakes." Kagome knew it was a futile attempt to console him.

_|__|_

(•.•)

--( • )--

(____)

Purple eyes thoughtful, Miroku looked up from the newspaper he was reading. The story was quite elaborate, something about a missing woman spotted floating outside of someone's window. The monk smiled thinly. It was a small world, especially when the "missing woman" turned out to be no other than Kagura.

Was it just him, or was the house oddly silent?

The purple-eyed man set down the article and stood up from his seat in the kitchen. He moved to the window and peered out. No one was there. Miroku shrugged a wandered into the living room. "Hello?" His voice echoed forlornly, the only sound in the house besides the dull whine of the refrigerator.

"That's odd…" Where was everyone else? Inuyasha was missing, presumably off pouting somewhere, so that left Sango, Kagome, Shippo and Kirara. And Buyo. Miroku stepped over the large furry blob and the goliath cat rolled a green eye in his direction.

Miroku trudged up the steps to the second floor. "Sango?" He knocked on the exterminator's door. There was no reply. "Are you there?" The black-haired man knocked again. Silence. "Well…" he grumbled. "Did they all ditch me like Inuyasha?"

There was a mewing sound from near his feet and Miroku glanced down in surprise. It was Kirara. "Did they leave you, too?" He frowned. That wasn't right. Kirara and Sango were close; the little firecat was the only member of their unorthodox family that shared a past with the demon exterminator. She was the only one who knew, and Miroku could understand that. Kirara typically went with Sango everywhere.

Something wasn't right.

The monk crouched down on the floor next to the little demon. "I don't suppose that you'd know where Sango or Kagome are, would you?"

Slit-pupiled red eyes stared unblinkingly into purple. Kirara mewed and sat down on the carpeted floor.

"I guess not." Miroku sighed unhappily and trudged to Kagome's door, Kirara trailing behind forlornly.

"Kagome?" Miroku rapped his knuckles on the door. "Anyone there?" Again, there was no answer. The black-haired man wandered away, clearly confused. "What on earth is going on here?"

"Beats me."

Miroku flinched and whirled around in surprise. Purple eyes widened. There was no one behind him in the corridor. "Who's there?" he demanded.

"Look down here, stupid," Shippo retorted sourly. His bushy tail twitched in agitation and emerald eyes glared sullenly.

"Oh." Miroku frowned. "You don't appear to be in a very good mood, Shippo."

"Sango took my last lollipop away." The kitsune folded his arms over his chest grumpily and followed the monk down the hallway.

"So you're suffering from withdrawal symptoms." Miroku nodded sagely. The kid was addicted to sugary substances. "And Sango is here. Where did you see her?"

"Oh, she left a while ago," the ginger-haired kitsune replied airily. "She went to go look for Kagome, said something about if she's not back in twenty minutes that something, something… I dunno."

"Thank you, Shippo." Miroku increased his pace, worry creasing his brow into a frown. Twenty minutes. It must've been longer than that by now… "Shippo, when did she leave?"

"Oh, ages ago." Little alarm bells went off in Miroku's head at the kitsune's comment. "Must've been at least an hour ago."

"I see. Do you know where she went?" Miroku broke out in a jog, those alarm bells shrieking. Just stay calm. What could've happened, after all? Sango was strong, a good fighter. She could defend herself.

"I told you already. She's looking for Kagome." The monk shot him a pointed look. "She went out the back door, but I don't know anything else." The kitsune suddenly realized that something might be very wrong. "Do you think something happened to her? And what about Kagome?" Shippo's voice went shrill.

"That's what I want to find out." Miroku dashed around a corner and rushed down a flight of stairs. He glanced back. "Kirara, can you find Sango?" It was a safe guess; Kirara had found her friend before, when she'd left her home and wandered here.

The cat mewed in the positive.

"Then let's go." Miroku grabbed his staff from the wall. "Oh, I almost forgot." He dug around in his pocket and handed a photo to Shippo. "If anyone looking like this knocks on the door, answer it and make sure that he stays away from the alcohol."

Shippo looked at the picture dumbly. "Wait! When are you coming back? Don't leave me here alone!"

"You're not alone," the monk retorted and slid open the back door. "You've go Buyo, remember?"

"Buyo doesn't count!" the kitsune wailed. "He's a cat! A fat, lazy cat!"

"He's company. Now, if you'll excuse me…" The two of them walked through the doorway and Kirara grew in a flash of fire. "Let's go, Kirara!" The fire cat leapt up into the midday sky.

"I DON'T EXCUSE YOU!!!" Shippo hollered. "COME BACK!"

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Sango was beyond pissed.

Ipso facto, she was absolutely furious. According to her watch, she'd been walking for an hour and a half now. And she'd gotten absolutely nowhere, as far as she could see. The grassy expanse spread out to the horizon, and the trail she was following did exactly the same thing.

The demon exterminator turned to survey her work. "Great. I'm surrounded by grass. Lots and lots of grass." She could no longer see the forest she'd come out of. Green hills stretched out in the distance, hummock after hummock, hills and valleys all covered with the same waving green plant material.

Brown eyes narrowed. Yes, the same green. She turned to the right. "Oh…!" There. That hill was identical to the one behind her, and the one to the left, as was that valley to the one behind her, and that little slope there was in front of her. "It's all just an illusion…" She shook her head wearily. All this time she'd been wandering through an illusion, and probably following an imaginary path. So, how to get out of it?

Sango pushed through the long grass and left the path, intent on the identical hills. After fifteen minutes of struggling through the vegetation and several choice exclamations, Sango made it to the top of the nearest hill.

"Ahah!" Down below on the other side was a road, the one leading out of Maebashi. Speaking of which… There was the city in the distance. Happily, Sango plunged down the slope and stumbled onto the road.

She paused a moment, brown eyes narrowed as she stared down the road. Something was coming, and it wasn't a car, though it was going fast enough… Well, if it was a car, then she'd never seen anything like it before.

"Oh!" The demon exterminator straightened and waved. "Hey, Inuyasha! Kagome!"

"Sango!" Kagome hollered back.

Inuyasha screeched to a halt, wincing and hopping from one foot to the other as she set Kagome down. "The pavement's hot," he explained. "And what are you doing out here?"

"I was looking for Kagome, but I got caught in something. She looked back up the hill. "Here, I'll show you."

The three of them clambered back up the hill through the grass. "What?" Sango frowned in confusion. "It was here just a moment ago." She shook her head. "Well, nevermind."

"What was it?" Kagome asked curiously, staring down at the houses below.

"There was a lot of grass, nearly as high as my waist, and a path through it. Nothing else, no one else. I thought that the path might've been yours," the demon exterminator admitted and hurried down the hill again.

"Maybe it was." The black-haired girl shrugged. "I don't remember how I ended up at Naraku's fortress."

"What?" Sango stopped in her tracks. "You mean you got taken hostage?" She glanced at Inuyasha. "And he rescued you."

Kagome sighed. "It's a long story…"

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AN: Question, comments, complaints are all welcome.