InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Waiting on a Wish ❯ Chapter 22 ( Chapter 22 )

Chapter 22

“This is bad. I have to find some kind of weapon.” Sango dug Kagome's nails out of her arm and yanked her along as she shot off the bench and into a run.

Kagome stumbled in her effort to keep up. “What about Hiraikotsu?”

Sango shook her head and renewed her grip on Kagome's arm as they shoved their way into a mass of panicked bodies. “No good. Miroku convinced me that it would be too unwieldy for such a crowded place, so I didn't bring it. We have to find something else to use.”

With breathtaking swiftness, all around them the school had degraded into utter chaos. Just inside the school gate, the green-skinned twin to the rogue in the soccer field indiscriminately swung an uprooted tree, tossing humans and non-rogue youkai around like swatted flies. High above the school buildings, they could see a pair of round, ugly, feather-winged youkai dive-bombing random targets.

Everyone was trying to get away from the rogues, but in the confusion no one seemed sure which way was best to go. Teenagers in odd costumes ducked and wove, trying to get to unknown safe areas. Small groups had clustered everywhere, from the stone wall, where they were boosting each other over, to the main entrance, where a huge jam of people were pushing and shoving their way out of direct line of sight. With so much panicked activity, moving around wasn't just difficult, it was dangerous.

Unable to make progress, they ducked into the first vendor booth they came across. After making sure Kagome was right behind her, Sango crawled into the back area of the tent and started rummaging through the stacked equipment and supplies. Things fell out of boxes and scattered into the grass beneath their feet as Sango wasted precious seconds going through them: stacks of cheap sugar cones, the same kind of flimsy cardboard trays they'd been eating out of earlier, stacks of plastic cups. Spatulas and other cooking equipment. Bags of flour and half-melted ice. Soy sauce.

Very close, the terrifying sound of something big crunching into something much smaller made Kagome jump, and the box in her hand—a bunch of wooden shishkebab skewers—tumbled to join the rest of the stuff on the ground. “There's so many rogues! How did they get onto campus?!”

“That's a good question. This is already worse than the last big rogue attack. This is a school. And where's that official Alliance representative?!” Sango glared in frustration, but kept her voice down. Sweat glistened on her face, her bangs already damp and sticking against her forehead and temples. “Damn! There's nothing here. I need a weapon!”

Kagome was breathing hard. “Isn't the best option to try and get Hiraikotsu? If you can get off campus, then even if you have to find the car--”

Sango was already shaking her head, her fists clenched and pounding against her knees. “No! We don't even know if it's still there. They could have taken it when they left. I have to find something else to--” She blinked. “The school probably has a classroom for cooking, right?”

Kagome blinked back at her. “Not probably. Definitely. It was right beside the kyudo area. The window was open.” She remembered distinctly the smell of baking cookies while she'd been shooting.

“That's right!” Sango snapped her fingers. “That classroom was across the campus, wasn't it? On the other side of the school. You said the window was open?” Without warning, Sango was pulling her towards the back of the little tent-booth. When they reach the back wall, she crouched and shoved up a corner of the tarp to peek outside. “Okay. The main entrance has too many people, so we're going to try to get to the window. We need to get to the cooking or cleaning supplies. With those, I might be able to mix up a few things that will at least help ward the rogues off. A janitor's supply cart or closet would do in a pinch.”

Kagome's eyes widened at such a ridiculously simple solution. “Of course,” she said. “Bleach. Youkai hate bleach.” It was one of those modern, everyday chemicals that did almost universal damage to youkai senses. In the case of bleach, it was their sense of smell, but many other common household chemicals could harm youkai if handled carelessly. For that very reason, everyone at the clinic followed specific guidelines dictating how they used and stored their cleaning supplies.

Sango nodded, her mouth in grim lines, and offered Kagome a warning look. “We have to pass the gate. Try not to draw attention, but don't stop moving.”

Kagome nodded, braced herself, and followed Sango when she ducked back out into the open.

Kagome could scarcely believe her eyes. It had only been a few minutes, so the chaos had barely abated. People ran haphazardly, screaming, chased by still more rogues: smaller, uglier, more insect-like. Terrified shouts and shrieks echoed from all directions, and quite a number of people had huddled in small groups within the vendor tents, looking frantically for a safe chance out of the school. Kagome's heart clutched every time she glimpsed the bodies near the main building – some injured and moaning, some so completely still they put a chill in the marrow of her bones.

Sango grabbed her wrist again to keep them from being separated in the confusion. Together, they navigated a quick, cautious trail towards the other side of the campus, keeping an even distance from both the front gate, and the school building that appeared to be infested with the smaller youkai.

The main thoroughfare, a walkway of concrete that led from the gate to the front doors of the main school building, was eerily clear of the people still scrambling to get away or hide among the booths and main building. No one wanted to make themselves a target by wandering into an open area. The big green-skinned youkai had its body planted right in front of the gate, its claws sunk into the stone of the wall as it tried to rip away the final remnants of the twisted and bent gate. The ground around its feet was spattered heavily with blood and (Kagome didn't look too closely) what was most likely body parts. Sango didn't even pause before she sprinted out across the concrete. Kagome sprinted after her.

And the round-bodied, feathered youkai made their re-appearance.

They came flying from above the roof, two of them, the huge mouths set deep in the roundness of their lower bodies gaping wide in pointed-tooth grins. Humanoid torsos sprouted from atop their lower, feathery masses, complete with arms, claws, and facial features as sharp as their teeth. The rogues laughed as they dove at them with terrifying speed, and the nerve-grating cackles echoed off the concrete.

Kagome's head jerked up at the sound. Sango faltered and sucked in a sharp breath. Kagome couldn't stop her momentum and slammed into Sango from behind; they both hit the concrete with a hard “oof” just as the wind from the swooping youkai whooshed over their backs. Ear-rending screams and a spectacular crash followed as one of the bodies plowed into the booths ahead of them.

Stunned, breathing hard and choked with fear, Kagome rolled over.

Sango was already up on her knees, glaring at the sky. Her hair had come loose and wild, and her chest heaved as she gasped for breath. “Gokurakuchou! How did they even get into the city?!”

Kagome's heart stopped when she heard the name. She knew what they were, but she'd never before had the opportunity to see them in the flesh. The Gokurakuchou clan had been banished into the wilds generations ago for refusing to submit to Alliance regulations; they were carnivores of the worst kind, said to have a taste for anything that moved, and particularly dangerous to humans. They were one of the only youkai in existence that lived under a kill-on-sight order to keep them away from the heavy human populations in the cities. Even as close as Rin's school was towards the outlying edges of Tokyo, it was almost impossible to believe a pair had made it so far into the city without being noticed and hunted.

But the rogue still in the air, ignoring the way its comrade wallowed within tangled bits of wood and tarp, had already turned and was coming back at them, skimming over booths.

Sango cursed and pushed onto her feet. “Just run! Find cover!”

Barely able to swallow around the hard beating of her heart, Kagome scrambled to keep up, but her sandals dragged against the concrete, and she stumbled, staggering for several steps of delay that had her heart sinking. Just as she regained her footing, she heard Sango shriek her name; she didn't even have time to look up before a harsh impact from behind knocked all the air from her body.

For a stunned, timeless moment, Kagome felt nothing but stomach-whirling disorientation. The world seemed to spin into one great big blur of green, black, and concrete gray. Then the spinning stopped long enough for her eyes to focus on the stars that suddenly seemed much closer above her and the queer weightlessness surrounding her, almost like...she was floating?

She caught a clear-headed glimpse of the world around her. Her eyes widened. She could see the school of the roof, and the people on the ground below it. She spotted Sango, alone on the concrete, dodging acrobatically to avoid the huge, bird-like claws of the Gokurakuchou who'd emerged from the broken booths.

A gasp stuck in her throat. Her hands grabbed at thin, useless air.

No. She wasn't floating. She was falling. Plunging towards the ground that was somehow far, far below her, with no purchase and nothing between her and the fast-approaching ground--

Her stomach rammed hard into a solid bar, jerking her free-fall to a sudden stop, and Kagome didn't even care that it forcibly pushed the air from her lungs for the second time in less than as many minutes; struggling to breathe was a problem for the living, not the ground-flattened dead. She dangled mid-air, in desperate need of oxygen and too relieved to wonder what it was that had stopped her from falling.

Then she was hauled roughly upright and her back smashed against something warm and hard, something living. A bone-shivering cackle shook through her body and echoed in her ear...and the terror returned with the uncomfortable raze of chill-bumps skittering a brief wave across her skin. The hard object squeezing her middle was a blue-skinned arm, and the body behind her was a torso sprouting from the round, feathered body that supported her legs.

Oh no. I'm really going to be eaten.

Before she could even think to struggle, long, claw-tipped fingers had taken a bruising grip on her face and yanked it around until she was forced to twist into an uncomfortably awkward angle to keep him from breaking her neck. Kagome found herself face-to-face with a male Gokurakuchou, staring into his dark, greedy eyes and suppressing a shudder at the blood staining his sharp teeth. Her breath came back in a thready hiss, and she realized he smelled awful, of unwashed animal, the stench of rotting meat.

Gagging from both the smell and the position, she tried to jerk her head away, but his fingers just dug a little deeper to keep her head twisted painfully while he studied her face. The huge wings flapped almost gracefully, keeping them suspended high above the pandemonium still razing Rin's school. Panic of the blind kind threatened, and Kagome had to strain to keep from lashing out at the entity of obscene strength and smell, had to struggle to focus her mind so that she could, desperately, seek a solution that excluded the two most likely possibilities of getting chomped in that huge mouth or going splat.

I have to get him to put me back on the ground. I have to--

“It is the right one!” The Gokurakuchou's mouth stretched into a smirk; his voice was nearly as obnoxious as his screech. “Got you, face!”

That pulled her up short, saved her from wide-eyed, helpless stupidity. Face? What?

He threw back his head and cackled again. “Got you! The reward is mine!”

The shrillness scraped at her eardrums, and she winced back. He let her go. Then, ignoring her terrified shriek, he flipped her body until she was tucked into a precarious, vertical hold between his arm and the hard, muscular torso sprouting from the larger feathered base of his body. Kagome didn't even have a moment to reorient herself before he dove sharply, leaving her stomach in the air where they had been and prompting another shriek as her brain spun.

“Stop! Put me down, you--” Through a sick, panicked haze, her hands scrabbled for something – anything – to anchor herself within the controlled fall. Her fingers curled into grayish feathers and, instinctively, she started ripping. “Let. Me. Go!” Handfuls of feathers trailed behind them.

Letting out an indignant screech, the Gokurakuchou pulled to a floating stop just above and beside the school building. He took a harsh grip in her hair and yanked hard enough to make her wince. “Stupid prey! You're already caught, so just be still while I take you.”

The abuse inspired a blessed shot of fury. She started kicking, grinding the toes of her shoes into his feathers. “Who would stay quiet in a situation like this?! I don't want to be your prey, so put me down!” She grabbed another big handful of feather and wrenched viciously.

His fingers wove into her hair to grip closer to her scalp, and this time the yank felt like he was trying to separate her head from her body. She cringed, but didn't stop struggling. Her foot made a solid connection with the edge of one of his wings and, he let out a harsh curse as they wobbled. The arm around her waist disappeared, and Kagome experienced the momentary terror of a dead drop into nothing – until his grip on her hair jerked her to a sudden stop.

Agony exploded in a burst of fire across her head and shoulders, and she shrieked. Tears blurred her vision and she grabbed blindly at his arm, desperate to keep her scalp from being ripped off her head as she hung suspended in the air from nothing more than a monster's harsh grip. One of her sandals slipped from her foot and tumbled to the ground, but she barely noted the loss.

He sneered. “Fool. Even special prey can be hurt as long as it stays alive --”

–Something clamped down hard over the hands she'd wrapped around the creature's wrist, and she was yanked backwards.

“Dokkasou.”

The creature that had been holding her jerked and gave a screeching cry. Kagome saw four large gashes bloom across the bulk of the Gokurakuchou's body. The hatred in its eyes died with the spark of life that had lit them. Struck by twin spikes of horror and relief, she watched as it plummeted towards the ground below, trailing smoke and streams of red liquid.

But she didn't fall with it.

Her unbelieving eyes tracked its descent until it hit the ground. Bewildered, she jerked her head up and around, dreading the possibility that something had saved her only to kill her. The first thing she noticed was the long, clawed fingers that had wrapped around hers on the body-less blue forearm. She followed the arm back along the body keeping her from certain death, past the elegant white silk sleeve of a kimono. Long silver hair, pointed ears, a face with smooth, delicate features and an odd half-moon in the center of the forehead. She didn't stop until she reached the eyes with the hauntingly familiar hue that were narrowed onto her dangling form.

Kagome sucked in a much-needed, deep breath and blinked again, trying to get her mind to work in a normal, dependable way. Here was another youkai, with looks so striking she was getting deja vu. Another rogue?

No, no, no. InuYasha's brother.

He had to be. No other possibility for such similar features.

Oh my god. It's InuYasha's brother.

“You're...Sesshoumaru.” The words barely slipped past numb lips, but she couldn't prevent them.

His eyebrows carved a bit lower over his eyes. “InuYasha's human.” His voice was deep and filled with a kind of indifferent arrogance that made the hairs on her neck stand on end. “That fool.”

Dear god, she thought. This is InuYasha's brother?

Even so, she relaxed, just a little, because she was pretty sure her chances of living out the next five minutes had just gone up dramatically. She knew he was curious about her, because she could see it in the way he eyed her – and more importantly, she knew from the little time she'd spent with Rin that the girl adored him. So, arrogant or not, she could deal with it until he got her safely back onto the ground.

That was, assuming he had any intention of putting her down. At the moment, they were just kind of...defying gravity by floating above the schoolyard – which, in the grand scheme of events, wasn't nearly as terrifying as it would have been only minutes before. She glanced around, emotionally worn out from several minutes of excessive highs and lows, and unsure of which direction to go with this new development. Save for the dead Gokurakuchou directly beneath them, and the fact that Sango was now free of the second one and running towards them, yelling her name and carrying some kind of stick in her hand, everything on the ground was exactly the same.

She swallowed, then braved another glance upward. “We're not going to just hang here all day, are we? Those people down there need help!”

A flicker of surprise marred the emotionless perfection of his features. “Your own situation is less than secure, human.”

Whoa, wait a minute. Was that a threat?

Impatience shot through her, and she dared to glare at him. “Shouldn't a lord of the Alliance be more concerned about stopping a rogue attack that happened right under his nose?”

Besides, it's not as if you don't scare me, she thought, her irritation warring with yet another ripple of unease.

She'd noticed it the second she'd clapped eyes on him: InuYasha's brother had a subtle, dangerous air about him, a competence and a lack of mercy that completely belied the prettiness of his face. It had already borne itself out in the quick, almost disdainful way he'd dispatched the Gokurakuchou. Quite simply, he gave her the shivers. Kagome had the feeling that annoying him probably wasn't the best idea at any time. But she was also certain that he would be more than capable of handling the rogues in the school – if he could bring himself to help a group of helpless humans. Unfortunately, the thought that he might be capable of sitting by and watching a massacre infuriated her.

His brows reversed directions, inching upward and he lifted her until they were face-to-face and he was studying her closely. “Perhaps I should drop you now and see to the one by the gate instead?”

The question chilled her, but it also gave her the resolve she needed for the defiant lift of her chin as she spoke. “And waste the effort you just put into saving me?”

In a subtle flex of muscle she would have missed if she hadn't been so close, his expression tensed. “Very little effort.”

She felt triumph. “But wouldn't you look silly saving a girl only to kill her?”

“Silly.” For a breath and a half, he stared at her, his face bland and unreadable. “Is it your habit to provoke those who hold your life in their hands?”

“Just following that fool's example,” she shot back.

“Kagome!” Rin's frantic voice broke through their staring contest. They both glanced down to see Sesshoumaru's young human ward shoving her way around the people hovering uncertainly near the school entrance. On her heels, a small, green, imp-like creature squawked and tried to keep up. Rin came dashing along the school building towards Sango, who had reached the clear shooting field of the kyudo area, and now stood staring up at them, silent and still. Even from so high above, Kagome could see both women looked worried.

“Are you all right? Lord Sesshoumaru saved you, right?” Rin pulled to a halt beside Sango and started bouncing on her toes and waving her arms. “You can come down now!”

“Hmph.”

The sound brought Kagome's head up once again. She blinked. Sesshoumaru's eyes were fixed on his young charge, and was it her imagination or had his marble-cold expression softened just a degree or two? But before she could get a decent second look, they'd already started descending towards the kyudo demonstration area.

Not quite a foot from the ground, he dropped her. She stumbled forward on unsteady feet into the steadying hands of both Sango and Rin.

“Kagome!”

“Thank you for saving her, Lord Sesshoumaru!”

Kagome regained her balance, swallowed her intense relief at the feel of cool earth and grass working between her bare toes, and whirled. “I –”

InuYasha's brother was already walking away, heading back towards the vendor area.

Kagome gasped when she saw that the green-skinned rogue had abandoned the front gate in favor of plowing through the densely packed booths. A fresh round of panicked screaming started up as people darted away from hiding places that were no longer safe. “Oh my god. We have to do something.”

Rin's fingers, still clutching at her arm, tightened. “Don't worry. Lord Sesshoumaru can do it.” Despite her words, worry and sorrow were thick in her voice. “It'll be all right.”

Sesshoumaru paused at the edge of the make-shift field, but didn't turn back to face them. “Jaken.”

The creature that responded startled Kagome so much that she jumped. She'd nearly forgotten its presence right behind Rin until it stepped forward around their legs. Barely bigger than Shippou, dressed in a simple brown robe and clasping a large staff with two odd-looking faces carved into the top, the one they called Jaken didn't seem all that impressive to Kagome. His leathery skin was a dark green and sweating profusely as he bowed. “Yes, my lord. I will stay with Rin!”

Sesshoumaru vanished.

Kagome blinked at the empty space of grass where he'd been. “Where'd he go?”

Sango let out a huge sigh from beside her. “If we're lucky, he's planning on taking care of the big rogues, but who knows? None of the males in that family have ever been known for doing what was expected.” She pushed her hair away from her face, revealing a few minor scrapes and the beginnings of a nasty bruise on her collarbone peeking between the folds of her kimono.

Kagome's brow wrinkled as she suddenly remembered. “Sango, what about that other Gokurakuchou?”

Sango grimaced and nodded at the jagged piece of wood she'd dropped in favor of steadying Kagome. “Turns out that broken booths makes pretty good weapons. I hurt it, but it got away.”

“Well, we can't just stay here. We have to do something to help.”

The micro-youkai Jaken spoke up. “Stupid human! You should just stay here until Sesshoumaru is done. He is more than enough for the current problem.”

As if on cue, a horrible squeal echoed from the rogue in the midst of the booths, and they all looked up to see the large body tumble backwards, suddenly minus one of its hugely muscled arms.

Sango sucked in a breath. “I can't believe it. He's actually helping.”

“Of course he's helping.” Rin's soft voice brought Kagome's around to the girl still holding tight to her arm. She noticed that Rin's figure was still adorned in costume, though this time the frothy, colorful gown had been replaced by the pale, fake-blood-stained features and robes of a ghost. “It's my school.” Rin looked like she was barely holding back tears.

Kagome clasped the girl's hand in her own. “Rin.”

Sango shook her head and walked over to the nearest window. “Never mind all that now. Even if the big ones are taken care of, we still have to do something about the small ones. This area's fairly safe, so you stay with Rin and Jaken. He's not much, but he'll be some protection if one of those things comes over this way.” Ignoring Jaken's indignant squawk, Sango slid the window open and boosted herself inside. “I'm going to look for something that might help.”

Kagome glanced around. Sango was right. For safety's sake, the demonstration area had been cordoned off to the farthest corner of the school building, and it seemed to have been quickly abandoned and dismissed by all people and rogues. Just for the moment, they were out of harm's way, and echoing through the schoolyard she could hear the whimpering squeals of agony and defeat as Sesshoumaru finished off the first of the two big rogues. So quickly. So easily.

It felt so wrong that she could only stand here and do nothing.

The shooting range was rough and simple, consisting of a short wooden counter behind which the shooters would stand, and hay bundles stacked up against the school wall for targets. Her eyes stopped at the sight of the bows, which she remembered had been stored with care and precision beneath the counter, all scattered on the grass. Drawn by some strange feeling she didn't understand, Kagome let Rin's hand slip from hers and wandered over. Dropping into a crouch, she let her fingers hover almost caressingly over the sleek curve of one of the bows, wondering what it was that made her want to pick it up, hold it, flex the string. To use it to fight.

Her heart ached, thumping hard in her chest and loud in her ears. Pain, like an old wound splitting open under a new blow, sprouted throughout her torso, stretching and growing with each guilt-ridden beat until it was almost suffocating. Still, all she did was hover and stare, thinking about Sango, searching frantically for a weapon, and InuYasha and Miroku, off trying to help Sango's family. And all the people right here within her own sight and reach, bleeding, terrified, and in need of help.

It's wrong to just wait here, she thought with sudden conviction. It hurt to just wait here.

“...gome? Kagome?”

The pain faded. Kagome's head snapped up. Rin stood beside her, looking concerned.

She shot to her feet. “Rin, can you show me to your school's nurse office? We can start setting up supplies that will help with treating the wounded.”

Rin hesitated for a moment, but understanding blossomed in her eyes and she nodded. She grabbed Kagome's hand and started for the same window that Sango had disappeared into. Jaken fretted and complained, but he followed them closely.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ < p>“What the fuck is going on here?!” InuYasha burst into the nurse's office in a fury, only to draw to a stop in stupefied amazement at the scene awaiting him:

Rin, on a desk chair, dressed like a godsdamned zombie and flanked by that stupid toad flunky of Sesshoumaru's, looking so much less than her usual cheerful self.

Kagome, sitting on the small bed in the corner, next to a dirt-smeared, tired-looking Sango, dabbing at some minor scratches on her neck with a cotton swab.

Fucking Sesshoumaru, standing in the opposite corner, staring out the window (open – bastard was probably having as hard a time with the weird smell as he was) at the controlled chaos of an Alliance clean-up.

The chemical smell that had permeated the smoke and debris of the campus was very strong in here, strong enough that his stomach roiled in protest – and why the hell was Kagome only wearing one shoe?!

They all turned and looked at him. He looked at them.

He wanted to growl, but couldn't quite make the sound around the choked jumble in his chest. It wasn't enough that he'd nearly killed himself getting back so fast; he'd had to deal with the horror of finding a scene crawling with destruction and mayhem that more than rivaled the disarray he'd left at the Yanagimoto family estate. It wasn't enough that the whole place had a disgusting air of chemicals and blood that threatened to make his nose fall off; he'd had to try and sniff Kagome and Sango out in that terrible mess. It wasn't enough that his heart had about climbed out his throat while he wasted time navigating around a confusion of ambulance personnel treating the wounded, policemen herding the rest, and the multitude of busted booths that had all been in one piece the last time he'd seen them while he searched frantically for the women they'd left in supposed safety; he had to finally find them practically having tea with his fucking half-brother, scratched up, obviously battle weary, and missing a fucking shoe?

It had only been an hour!

Rin broke the silence. “Brother InuYasha! You're all right!”

“Rin!” He glared at her. “What the hell happened?!”

She gave him an owlish look and tipped her head to the side. “Some rogues attacked my school?”

Rogues. This time the growl made it all the way out his throat. She'd said rogues. Plural. As in more than one? He'd seen the piecemeal remains of the bastard out front. It hadn't been small.

Far from intimidated, Rin smiled back at him – returning to her infectious cheer for a moment. “It's okay, though. Lord Sesshoumaru saved everyone. He even saved Kagome!”

InuYasha was suddenly, absolutely positive, that he would never breathe right again. He coughed – a soft, choked noise. “Saved Kagome from what?”

Sesshoumaru's deep voice gripped the room, scathing in its softness. “What does it matter? I had to save her.”

InuYasha rounded on him, fists clenched, more than happy to have a familiar target. “I don't want to hear that from the bastard that lets Rin run around unsupervised during school hours.”

Sesshoumaru bristled visibly and turned from the window, his eyes narrowing into slits. “But only in danger in the company of your unsupervised human.”

InuYasha's hand went to Tetsusaiga's hilt and a growl rumbled in his chest. “Just what the hell are you tryin' to say, bastard?”

“Can't even understand that much, InuYasha? It's no less than I expect from you.”

“You son-of-a--”

“Oh, stop it, both of you!”

They stopped, and turned their nearly identical gazes towards the doctor on the bed.

Unimpressed, Kagome let her glare flit between them. “Honestly, with everything that's going on right now, too.” She turned back to Sango. “Are they always like this?”

Jaken, nearly forgotten slumped back against his little corner of the room, groaned. “Always.”

It took him a moment to realize he'd become the center of attention, but when he did, he jumped. “Ah!” A nervous glance at Sesshoumaru, then a disdainful nose turned up at InuYasha. “That is to say, InuYasha never displays the appropriate respect when talking to his honorable brother.” He paused, darted another glance at Sesshoumaru, then muttered, “Please, my lord. Don't look at me like that.”

Sango rolled her eyes. “I told you they didn't like each other.”

“Never mind.” Kagome sighed, sounding tired. “InuYasha, everyone is fine.”

Sesshoumaru gave a “humph”, but InuYasha frowned and studied her with a wary eye. If he didn't like the way she sounded, he liked even less the way she looked, with her hair mussed and her face strained and missing a good portion of its color. It was an eerie echo of the way she'd looked after collapsing at the clinic, and it made his chest tight, his fingers itchy with the desire to act, to somehow forcibly banish all that stress.

Rin pulled his attention away with a humming sound of agreement. “The damage is really bad, but it seems as if they're not finding as many dead bodies as they were expecting.”

InuYasha was pretty damn sure that the only dead people he would have cared about just then were alive and well in front of him, but even he wasn't stupid enough to say that to Rin.

Kagome made a sound of stress that had his head whipping around in time for him to see Sango push herself off the bed. “InuYasha, what about my family. What happened? Is everyone all right?”

InuYasha took in her appearance with the same apprehensive calm he'd given to Kagome: Sango limped slightly, her clothes were covered in a mixture of odd stains, and her hair flew into wild, tangled strands around her shoulders. But she stared at him expectantly, hope and fear warring in her dark eyes.

Well, hell. Miroku was going to throw a fucking fit, and InuYasha couldn't say he'd blame –

He grimaced and snapped his teeth together, suddenly reminded of what had brought him back in such a hurry. “Damn it! I don't like it, but we don't have time for a lot of details. You and Kagome have to come with me, now.”

Sango paused, the blood draining out of her cheeks. “What? Why?”

Kagome shot off the bed, her one shoe and bare foot making a strange clop-slap sound. Human ears would barely have caught it, but to his anxious hearing, it rang ominously. “InuYasha?”

“The place is wrecked up, but it's nothing that can't be fixed. And no one's dead or anything, but –” He felt like beating on something. Now wasn't the time for more bad news. “Something's wrong with Kohaku.”

Rin jumped to her feet with a cry and Sango sucked in a breath. From the corner of his eye, InuYasha caught Sesshoumaru pivoting to narrow a cold stare at him, but he couldn't care less about his asshole of a half-brother. He kept his gaze on Kagome, tensed and ready to do...something. Anything that he could if she started looking really bad.

She seemed calm and not in pain. Kaede had said there would be pain.

Damn, oh damn, but this outing had been a bad idea.

Kagome's eyes were wide as they met his. “What do you mean, 'something'? Is he hurt? On his way to the hospital?”

InuYasha shook his head. “I don't know. He's got a few wounds, but nothing that he can't be treated for at home.” He hesitated. “He's...he's unconscious. He won't wake up. And –” His eyes narrowed, flicked away from hers. “He's in pain.”

It was an understatement. When he'd left, Kohaku had been writhing on the floor in agony, and his father and Miroku had been holding him down to minimize the thrashing.

“He won't wake up? Then, is one of his wounds on his head?”

A shock jolted his system, and his eyes flew back to Kagome. “How did you--”

She blinked. “He does have a head injury?”

InuYasha scowled, then shook his head. “No, it's not...we couldn't find any damage on his head. But before he hit the ground he was holding it like it hurt. Miroku thinks it might be youkai-caused, whatever it is. We're supposed to meet them at Kagome's clinic.” He hesitated again, anger still deep and hot in his blood. “We didn't know anything about this.” He gestured around at the walls, the school, the chaos. If he'd had even the smallest suspicion, he never would have –

“InuYasha, we don't have time for you to be angry about this.” Kagome had already found her bag and was trying to push him out the door. “We have to go.”

Rin hadn't moved from the desk, but anxiety made her tense as she watched them, her fingers twisting together in the pale sheet of her costume. “Can I come, too?”

Kagome stopped shoving at him and looked over at Rin. “I don't know, Rin. It's probably better if you stay where we're sure it's safe, right? Especially since we don't know what's wrong with him yet. I promise I'll call you as soon as we've got it all figured out, okay?”

“But I –” Rin pursed her lips, then cast an odd look across the room at a stone-faced Sesshoumaru before she nodded. “All right. Please take care of Kohaku.”

Kagome nodded, shot him a “what are you waiting for?” look, and slipped around him and out the door. Sango was right behind her.

InuYasha wondered where the hell they thought they were going, since between the police and their lack of vehicle, he was the only way they were getting anywhere just then. Then he blinked, cursed, and darted out into the hallway after them. “Hey, Kagome! What the hell happened to your other shoe?!”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~

Even carrying both of them, InuYasha made the trip in record time, skipping over buildings and traffic with smooth youkai agility. As InuYasha's feet touched down on the sidewalk, Kagome noted with some surprise that the clinic seemed remarkably calm and quiet for such a terrible night. The last time that a rogue had attacked on the scale she'd seen that night, the clinic had been swamped.

And she'd ended up with a lover.

Sango barely waited for InuYasha to stop moving before she was sliding from his back and dashing for the ambulance bay, where Miroku's car was parked, haphazardly, right up against the doors. Kagome ran, too, her bare feet slapping against the concrete, her remaining sandal tucked into her bag – InuYasha's fault, since he'd been so agitated by her missing shoe and wouldn't quit bothering her about it until she'd taken the other one off. They burst through the doors and then it was cold tile against her soles.

They didn't have any problems finding Kohaku. The clinic was small, so the rooms designated for emergency care were few, but even so it would have been easy to find Kohaku. All they had to do was follow the screams.

Sango ran faster, so she was in the room first, already demanding to know what had happened. Miroku caught her before she could get close enough to get in the way while Sango's father spoke quietly to his only daughter. Kagome hesitated just within the swinging doors, taking in the scene.

Something inside her chest went cold and numb at the sight of Kohaku's body strapped to an operating table. His eyes were squeezed tight, his head arched back until the cords in his neck stood out with the strain, his skin a pure, bloodless white. His body, draped in a loose yukata that was covered in the brown-splotched remains of the rogues he'd fought, arched and twisted against the leather pinning his arms and legs onto the plastic cushion. Dr. Hiraga was there, as were Miso and Eishi and a few of the other female nurses, who were helping to restrain Kohaku's convulsive movements long enough for Dr. Hiraga to give him a shot. Machines were beeping, too fast to be good, and one of the nurses was shouting something about blood pressure.

Kagome's heart clutched painfully tight, and she stopped breathing. For moment, all she could do in the noise and pandemonium was stand there and stare at young man writhing in pain. It only took a glance to see how critical Kohaku's situation was.

Oh my god.

This was her best friend's brother. Kohaku was a sweet young man, intelligent and kind, someone she considered a friend. He'd been to her family home nearly as many times as she'd been to his; she'd even been there at his high school graduation. What would she do if they couldn't help him?

“Higurashi! Higurashi!”

She jolted, her eyes flying to where Dr. Hiraga stood near Kohaku's twisting head, his older features set in a grave cast and an empty syringe in his hand.

A deep breath caused that irksome pain again, but she drew it anyway. “Dr. Hiraga?”

“The sedative doesn't appear to be having any effect, and we won't be able to determine exactly what's wrong with him until he's relaxed and calm. You're the expert on herbs – go get something to help!”

It still hurt to breathe – in fact, it hurt even more now – but she bit down on the pain and nodded. “I understand.” A quick glance at the supplies in the herbal cabinet told her that they didn't have what she wanted in here. “I'll be right back.” Her bag hit the ground as she whirled and darted out into the hallway, determined to find the stock of dried herbs she kept in a nearby room. If they could just get him calm, then maybe –

She slammed into InuYasha and nearly fell. He caught her, steadied, but she didn't stop to give him her thanks, because fear had closed off her throat. She just shook her head and kept running.

“Hey! Kagome, where the hell are you going?”

He sounded really worried. He even started to follow her, but she whirled and sent him a glare that stopped him in his tracks. One good swallow cleared her throat. “Don't worry about me! I'm just going to get some supplies.” She pointed. “Go in there and try to get Sango and her father out of that room.”

He hesitated, a dark frown in his eyes as they drifted between her and the swinging doors.

“Please, InuYasha! I don't have time to argue.”

Finally, he gave her a short nod. “Don't take too long.”

She didn't even bother to roll her eyes as they headed in separate directions.

They needed Kohaku calm, and she was pretty sure she knew something that might calm him, at least externally. It would do little more than force his muscles to relax, but it might just help them find what was wrong. Her mind raced as she reached the small herbal workspace near the very back of the clinic and started pulling jars off shelves, working from memory, instinct, and the adrenaline-laced anxiety that was building up deep inside her.

The terrible pain in her chest split off into branching veins of smaller, sharper pain, up into her head, down into her feet – as if fine cracks were developing within her very soul. This time it was so piercing and distracting, she couldn't prevent her involuntary response; she nearly doubled over, her fingers grabbing at her shirt, nails clawing into her chest. Breathing much harder than she should have been, eyes wide with shock, she hesitated for just an instant, struck by a single mind-blowing realization: something was very wrong inside of her.

She knew it, felt it way down deep inside her own body. The blurred and fuzzy suspicions at the back of her mind came into sharp, sudden focus, and whatever blind had stopped her from acknowledging it before fell away. And with that clarity came something else – the certain knowledge that if she didn't figure out what was going on, and soon, something irreparable was going to happen to her.

There was a brittle urgency about the feeling, as if some internal clock had just appeared inside of her, it's timer run down to almost zero. And it scared her.

Was this – was this what InuYasha was so afraid of?

No, no, no! Kohaku!

Kagome shook her head and bit down hard on the inside of her lip until she tasted blood, until the dull hurt and acrid taste grounded her and she could straighten. The other pain she relegated to a small corner of her brain for later consideration. She didn't have time to worry about whatever was going on inside of her right now. Saving Kohaku came first. If they didn't find a way to stop whatever was causing him so much pain, he was going to die.

She finished the mixture of herbs and oils, smeared the resulting paste onto a strip of cotton bandage, and tucked it into a small, lidded clay bowl before she darted back for the emergency room. It had taken her seven minutes, at most. Little had changed except now InuYasha was standing off to the side with Sango, Miroku, and Sango's father – all watching with anxious eyes as Kohaku continued to struggle mindlessly against his bonds and the medical personnel tried desperately to find what was wrong.

The moment Kagome pushed her way back into the room, InuYasha cringed away from her and threw a heavy red sleeve across his nose. “What the hell is that smell?” By the word “smell”, his voice sounded as if it had almost strangled on itself.

Kagome threw him a harried look of warning and raised her voice to be heard over Kohaku's screams. “Better get out now, InuYasha, because it's only going to get worse.” She hesitated, looked at Sango. “You three should get out, too. Let us do our jobs without you watching.”

Sango had tears in her eyes as she watched her little brother, with her fingers digging into Miroku's arm. “Do you know what's wrong with him yet?”

Kagome shook her head. “We don't know anything more than you. Please, just wait outside, okay?” She didn't wait to see if they listened, only hurried over to the bed.

Kohaku's condition hadn't changed. A fine layer of sweat had filmed over his face, making his too-pale skin sheen in the harsh fluorescent lighting. He was still screaming, but didn't seem at all aware of the sounds he made; that made his movements totally instinctive. His breathing was labored and shallow despite the volume he was achieving, and she noticed his hands kept reaching for his head.

She set the bowl down on a nearby counter. “This might help, Dr. Hiraga. Try not to breathe in too much of it.” She held her breath, pulled the strip of bandage from the bowl, and pressed it against Kohaku's nose.

Behind her, vaguely, she heard InuYasha swear, then the door bang against the wall, and she grimaced but didn't waste any thoughts on the discomfort of a healthy hanyou over a patient dying right in front of her.

Kohaku jerked at his first breath and started relaxing on his second. By the time he'd taken his fifth whiff, his limbs had fallen loose and his head and neck gone slack. Miso breathed a quiet sigh of relief, but Kagome shook her head. “Don't be happy about this,” she said, struck by a pang of guilt as she pulled the strip away from his face and tucked it back into its bowl. “It's only causing a slight paralysis. It won't affect his ability to feel pain. His condition hasn't changed.” It was just that his ability to convey his pain, even unconsciously, had been taken from him.

“She's right.” Eishi pointed to one of the machines they'd managed to hook up despite the thrashing. “Look at his heart rate. This kid's going to have a heart attack if we don't do something about the pain quick.”

Kagome bit her lip. “They said he was holding his head before he collapsed. There has to be something here.” As she spoke, she was already grasping his head, turning it to the side, searching for signs of trauma.

Dr. Hiraga shook his head. “Given that the boy was just battling rogues and the severity of the pain, poison is a strong possibility.”

Kagome sucked in a breath. “I've seen a lot of that recently, usually associated with the rogue attacks. Patients have come in with wounds that won't heal because of some kind of poison that feeds off the damaged flesh. But if that were what's wrong with him, we would have seen evidence of it in one of the wounds – ”

Her fingers stopped over two tiny puncture marks at the base of his neck, a finger's reach behind his left ear. Barely half an inch apart, hidden in his hair line, and as small as a pinprick, she would have missed them if they hadn't turned red and swollen. Her heartbeat stuttered. “Dr. Hiraga...a bite.”

“Let me see.” Movements brisk, Dr. Hiraga came around and bent to peer, squinting through his glasses. “An insect of some kind? But I can't think of any insect that would cause this kind of reaction.”

“Anti-venom, then?” Her stomach went tight and queasy, as if in protest. Breathing was a chore; she could hear her own breath rasping just slightly as she forced it in and out of her lungs. She felt pale.

Dr. Hiraga glanced up at her. “Without knowing the insect? I suppose –” He started to bend towards Kohaku, but his eyes jerked back to frown at Kagome. “Higurashi, are you all right?”

“This is bad,” Miso said from the other side of the bed. “His heart rate is....”

“I....” She blinked slowly, and swallowed. Once. Twice. Focus, damn it! “It's a spider.”

“What?” He straightened and stared at her. “What did you say?”

She stared back at him, unsure but sure. The fine, aching slivers of pain inside her had spread out even more thinly, reaching out to prickle against her fingertips, toes, even along her scalp. Harsh, but bearable. Gooseflesh paved a reactionary path over her skin, but she could ignore that, too.

Kagome was aware she was probably very sick. In almost any other scenario, she would have excused herself. But she couldn't just abandon Kohaku, not while she knew what was happening and could still help. She didn't know how she knew what was happening, or where the certainty came from, but she did know. Just like she knew there was something going wrong within herself.

Once Kohaku was stable, then she could check herself into the nearest bed.

She drew another slow breath. Under her palm, Kohaku's skin was hot, pulsing with something unpleasant. “It was a spider, Dr. Hiraga. But not normal. Some kind of youkai. The poison is – it's attacking his brain, stimulating the pain centers, maybe.”

Like torture, she thought. A bug designed to torture someone.

The lines in Dr. Hiraga's face had fallen into a grave formation around his eyes and mouth. He curled his thicker fingers around the hand she had resting against Kohaku's neck, and tugged gently, trying to remove her hand. “Higurashi, you're obviously not well. Get out of here and get someone to look at you. Now.”

Her eyes widened. Without even really thinking about it, she resisted his attempt to pry her away. “But these wounds –”

The machines went wild, beeping and shrieking in alarm. Miso, whose attention, like a spectator at a tennis match, had been darting from the readings to the doctors and back again, paled. “He's in v-fib.”

The room burst into activity. Yelling people, moving equipment, all efficient and quick. The defibrillator was pulled up to the bed, Kohaku's clothing pushed out of the way, and the first charge built, all within seconds. Kohaku didn't move. His body remained as limp as a rag doll.

Kagome was pushed away from the bed. To her, it seemed to happen in muted slow-motion: the hot, clammy skin beneath her palm sliding away, the harsh, dark pulse writhing angrily inside him reaching out to grab at her. The moment of separation was, in a way, almost as agonizing as having a layer of skin ripped from her hand.

She stumbled back a few steps, nearly falling on her backside before she hit a metal cart and used it to steady herself. Dizziness swamped her, weakness trembled through her legs, and breathing...each breath she took sent waves of pain through every nerve ending she had.

From out in the hallway, she heard Sango cry out, heard both Miroku and InuYasha yell and the distant, cotton-wrapped sounds of a struggle that Kagome barely noted.

And all she could focus on, strangely, was Kohaku. A tense “Clear!” rang through the room, and a few feet away, Kohaku's body clenched tight under the weight of one hundred and twenty joules ripping through his system.

No change.

Another “Clear!”

Two hundred joules.

Her fingers tightened on the cold metal side of the cart. No. No, this wasn't right. Kohaku couldn't die. Not now. Not when he was right in front of her. How would she face his family? How would she face any of her friends and patients who depended on her to protect their lives when they needed her most? How would she face InuYasha? Herself?

Before she realized what she was doing, she was forcing her legs back towards the bed, her mind a hazy mixture of pain and blind determination. She reached Kohaku just at the pause between charges, when everyone stopped to see if his heart was beating properly.

It was as if her rational-thinking self had been relegated to the same corner of her brain as the pain, and her body was on instinct-driven automatic. She watched with detached curiosity as she came up right behind Kohaku. From above his head, she grabbed at his cheeks with both hands and bent over until their foreheads touched.
Oblivious to the co-workers jumping to pull her away, or the door that swung open to admit a frantic Sango with Miroku dragging from her arm – or even the horrified look from the hanyou just struggling to his feet in the hallway beyond them – she whispered, “Please.”

And in that little corner of her brain where the rational-thinking her had been banished by the instinct-driven her, all that pain that she'd been ignoring or pretending away for weeks responded with a blinding, sparkling, terrifying flash.

Something broke inside of her. The rational her gave a small cry of dismay as all of her felt it shatter, then dissolve away. That internal clock ticked its last.

And to the shock of nearly everyone watching, the emergency room flooded with a brilliant flash of pink-tinted power.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Somewhere in the city, in the midst of a luxuriously appointed office filled with ornate carpeting and trimmed in dark-stained oak, a young girl stood motionless in the center of the room, cradling a small mirror between her white hands. Images reflected from its smooth surface – not of the room it looked over but of people nowhere nearby: fighting, running, crying, screaming. A chaotic whirl of commotion over one pathetic, dying young man.

An obliterating flash of pink light filled in the mirror. A crack ripped up the center, then branched like lightning in a split second of warning before the mirror exploded. With an almost musical tinkling, shards sliced through the air in every direction. From her place by the door, a beautiful youkai with red eyes and pointed ears snapped open a fan in front of her face, calling forth a strong gust that diverted the shards. When the room settled, the walls on either side of her held crystalline clusters of glass, and the girl in the middle of the room stood unmoved, unharmed, and still holding the ornate backing.

She looked down at her mirror. From the tiny reflective bits still left in the edges, it had already begun to mend itself, spreading out and seeming together like water. She spoke, and her voice was soft and just as emotionless as her features. “The damage is not fatal.”

Across the room, behind the dark-stained desk now riddled with shards, a tall, slender figure sat forward with steepled hands. “That much from just a reflection?” But he was smiling as he said it – a slow smile, spreading his lips, all the more eerie for the fact that it was genuine and smug, reaching all the way up to his eyes. They seemed to almost glow with a deep, quiet excitement.

A knock sounded from the other side of the wooden door. “Minister? We heard something break. Is everything all right?”

The smile didn't falter, and the figure rose from behind the desk and walked around to run long fingers over the jagged pieces marring the desk's smooth surface. “Everything is fine,” he called in a detached baritone through the door. “We do not require assistance.”

There was a pause, then a, “Yes. Please call if you have need of anything.”

A mocking amusement twisted his mouth as he picked out a loose piece of glass and examined it. “No,” he murmured. “Now, I have everything that I need.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~

A/N: Well, then. Happy Birthday! Sorry your present consists of another cliff-hanger, but this was the best I could come up with. ^_^

And yes, this is the last update before school starts up again, but we'll see how it goes on Monday. I still intend to finish this story soon, and it's getting there.

Muchas Gracias to Blackberry, both for the first beta, and the super-efficient secondary check, and a tiny thanks to JRMaxwell for different pair of eyes. And thank all that is good and right in this world for hot tea.

Now then, I'm off to find some guacamole. Hope everyone enjoys!

~Quill