InuYasha Fan Fiction / Crossover Fan Fiction / Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Mors Mortis Miko ❯ Quarrel ( Chapter 18 )

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

He smelled him before he saw him. And he felt him before he could stop him. A clawed hand on his arm alerted him too late. The grip was stronger than he expected, too strong, the man had to be a mutant. Claws pierced his skin, scraping the bone, he felt with a grimace, and he was sent flying through the air. He hit the wall above her bed, his lower back creating a crater in the plaster before he fell to the bed. At least he had a soft landing.

He didn’t stay down long, and as the strange man loomed over the immobile Kagome, he tackled him away from her and into the dresser. They grappled around for only a mere minute before the stranger hoisted him into the air and smiled at him.

“Hey, Kagome!” the stalker called out cheerfully, not taking the fight seriously. “Watch this!”

Growling at the leisure tone of the stalker, Logan prepared to knock him out with a punch to the temple, but faltered as the man’s jaw detached and opened wide. His chin stretched down to touch his chest and his mouth was filled with needle thin, black spikes taking the form of teeth.

“Shippo, stop this.” Getting her resolve, he watched as Kagome stood up to come to his rescue.

“What?”

Kagome bit her lip as Shippo, wearing her husbands skin, looked at her with hurt and confusion in his eyes. It made the situation, with him holding an enraged Logan in the air, look like a love triangle come to fruition.

Seemingly oblivious to the snarling, hairy man he held over his head, Shippo continued. “But…but he made you do nasty things.”

She didn’t know what to tell him. “That’s what adults do.”

Shippo scowled and tossed Logan through the other half of the balcony door. The impact sounded painful and Kagome flinched. Then she did it again when a clawed hand grabbed her around the throat.

“Don’t tell me you like doing those things.” The arm seized up, she could see the evil controlling it ripple underneath his skin. It tightened around  her neck and she clutched at it to relieve the tension as he hoisted her to eye level. “Is it because you’ve been hanging around the monk?”

‘More like Kouga.’ She thought aloud, enduring the choking, as her feet kicked at the air.

Green eyes sought out hers, and when they darkened in rage, she instantly knew why. The grip around her throat tightened and claws pierced her skin.

“Who are you!” he yelled, skin rippling with his fury. “You’re not Kagome! Don’t you look at me with those eyes!”

“Well I’m looking at you, pretty boy!” and suddenly Logan was there with a handful of knives and slicing up the arm that held Kagome. He sliced him from his shoulder to the wrist, spilling black blood that ate at the floor like acid.

Shippo screamed at the contact and leapt away, dropping Kagome in the process. But Logan gave him no time to retaliate before he was on him again. Slashing at Shippo with a savagery Kagome was unaware that he possessed.

Kagome wasn’t sure where Logan had gotten the knives, considering he only wore his boxers at the moment. Though their origins were a mystery to her, she saw that Logan wielded them with expertise. Her poor Shippo was getting sliced and diced, but he wouldn’t go down. He called out to her in Shippo’s voice, calling for help, but she knew he didn’t need it. His blood, being slung and splattered by the knives, was causing the room to be filled with smoke from where it hit the wall and carpet. There was less smoke from where it landed on Logan.

An elbow to the face and a kick to the sternum put Shippo in timeout in the corner. Breathing hard, Logan crouched down before Kagome and examined her throat. “Are you hurt?”

When she didn’t answer, he followed her line of sight to his claws. Shiny and deadly, they lay only millimeters away from her skin as  he touched her. His face slackened at her intense scrutinization of him. Guess the fun times were over. No more pretending. He silently cursed. Where was he going to find another crazed model that only wanted him for his body. No where. Damn. He liked being/having a booty call.

“I’m fine.” He heard her say. He looked into her eyes, only briefly, and saw that she meant it. There wasn’t acceptance, but it wasn’t revulsion either. No fear, no negativity at all. It was just as if nothing had occurred. She was fine. That said something about her state of mind, but he wasn’t going to complain.

“I’m fine too.” They heard Logan say from across the room. From where a fox in wolf’s clothing had lain fallen.

“What the hell?” he growled, as he looked at his doppelganger, smiling viciously and bearing claws. He sniffed then and growled low in his throat. “You’re that damn dog from the bridge.”

Shippo bounced on his feet giddily. “Yeah. I like to show Kagome what I can do.”

Logan glanced back at Kagome but didn’t say anything. She was busy staring at Shippo as he attacked. Logan had the upper hand in the battle. His claws were made of harder stuff, she saw, and hacked Shippo’s imitations down like wood. He seemed greatly adept in his fighting style and technique, while Shippo was only a child playing warrior and had no training whatsoever. Logan easily evaded any and all of Shippo’s assaults and was quick to deliver his own with a skilled aim.

Yet, while Logan had the upper hand in fighting, he still succumbed to injury from the acid blood that Shippo expelled. Kagome could smell his sizzling flesh from where she sat. Though Shippo’s imitation claws were quick to be terminated, he had them in abundance and was quick to regrow them. And what Shippo lacked in skill, he made up for in ferocity and a timeline that only Kagome could end.

She was snapped out of her reverie by a roar from Logan that was soon imitated by Shippo. Claws still unsheathed, Logan grappled with her cub and crashed through her wall and into the interior of her apartment. She only sat dumbfounded for a moment, listening to the grunts, groans, and growls of the combatants in her home, before she hobbled to her feet, you could only hobble in heels, and ran out after them.

Outside her room, her apartment looked like it had been hit by a bomb. Craters lined her wall in random order, claw marks gouged everything from the floor to the ceiling. Her minimal furniture and decorations that lined her hall were destroyed and lay on the floor in pieces. And to top it all off, the blood that Shippo emitted was smoking and burning away at whatever it touched. For a moment she was almost drawn back to the cave after she had found her boys slain, but her grip on sanity allowed her to stay in the now.

Following the sounds of the scuffle, Kagome ran down the hall and barely missed getting bowled over as one of the Logan’s was thrown from the kitchen and into her living room. That Logan was soon followed by the other, and it all happened so fast, she didn’t have time to decipher one from the other. As she watched them, she thought about telling them apart by the severity of wounds. Shippo would have the least, and Logan should be suffering from lacerations and sever burns from the amount of blood. Yet as she looked upon them, she noticed that both were healing up as fast as the other.

“Hey, Kagome!” one of the Logan’s called out jovially in the midst of the fight. Kagome smiled back. There was her Shippo.

“What the hell are you?” Logan growled angrily, irritated that his combatant wasn’t taking their fight seriously.

Shippo grinned widely, showing his needle like teeth, and jumped back. “Want to see?” he asked as he raised his hands above his head.

Recognizing the gesture, Kagome found her feet moving before her brain could register the thought.  And just as the familiar blue fire left Shippo’s fingertips, she had knocked the unsuspecting Logan out of the way. She felt the heat of the flames on her back and was glad her mind had decided to fall away with Logan instead of just pushing him out of the way. That would’ve hurt.

Apartment now ablaze, Kagome lifted herself off Logan and smiled uncertainly down at him. “You all right?”

He stared at her and started to say something along the lines of: “Of course, I’m alright, why the hell did you but in?”

But before anything romantic could be said, something large, tan, and furry, swatted Kagome away from him like a fly.

“Stop messing up my fun, Kagome.” Shippo reprimanded her from Kirara’s mouth. “We’re going to play later.” Turning towards his prey, Shippo prepared to pounce on Kagome’s fiend when his neck met with the force of adamantium, and before the head was done bouncing against the wall, Logan was on his feet checking up on the, miraculously, unharmed Kagome.

“That’s not going to last.” She breathed out as he hovered over her.

“The head came off in one clean swipe, I doubt…” but any reasoning he had flew out the window as the headless body stood up.

“You just wait until my body gets over here.” Kirara’s head growled with gnashing teeth. “I’m going to kick your assheaded poop chute!”

“He doesn’t know how to curse properly.” Kagome answered as Logan looked to her quizzically.

“Hey, come over here! Hey, you, over here!” the head yelled towards its wandering body. “Wait! No! Don’t you take her from me! Kagome! Come Back!”

But by the time his yelling turned into keeling, Logan had swooped Kagome up and out of the apartment before she had a chance to react to his heart wrenching wails for her. With Logan holding her, bridal style, she could do nothing as they escaped the burning apartment and into the hallway where he almost dropped her from tripping over his clothing.

“What? When the hell did you have time to do this?” as he looked at her, she averted her gaze and he growled. “Nevermind!”

Setting her down, he hastily threw on his pants while tossing her his jacket. By now the smoke began to emit from her apartment, and with a battle cry, Logan smashed the fire alarm into smithereens and tossed her over his shoulder.

“Hold him here.” She whispered under her breath, hoping the sound of the alarm and the newly emerging residents would keep Logan from hearing her. The only sign she got that signaled that Miroku had heard her was a gentle breeze against her cheek when the air was hot with the heat of fire.

Logan kicked open the door to the stairwell, and with more grace than she thought he had, he jumped down into the open area in between and only halted every few feet or so by grabbing hold of the railing before plummeting again. By the time they made it to the bottom, Kagome was holding in a grin and feeling like Ann Darrow, only with the succuss of making it down the empire state building safely with her beast.

With a fierce growl, Logan burst into the lobby, alert for any danger that would threaten him or his woman. But the only thing he startled were the security guards and managers who were already confused by the alarm going off. As he burst onto the scene, they started to approach  but the sheer look of ferocity he displayed had them hesitating and when identifying the damsel he was making off with they gave silent prayers of relief. It was only the model from the 12th floor. She was strange enough to have them not bat an eye in their direction.

Outside, the fireman and emergency vehicles were just arriving, and despite the sight they  provided, they were the least of anyone’s worry. Though the sight of the authorities made Logan remember himself enough to set Kagome down so she could walk for herself, yet he kept a firm grip to her hand.

Above them, the fire had started to reach the other floors, and a crowd had gathered to watch the disaster. As they rushed through the crowd, Kagome smiled at the undecrepit nature of them. They were like moths to a flame. Flies to honey. Flies to anything really, those buggers didn’t discriminate. That was good of them. Or greedy. She wasn’t sure which would  better apply to them.

An explosion wrenched her from her thoughts and she looked up to see debris raining down on them as, what looked to be where her apartment was located, the building belched out a torrent of flames. With the fire came a horrid screeching of warping metal and scraped glass. The crowd all cowered and cringed at the sound, but only Kagome knew what it truly was. The sounds of a little boy not allowed to play and have his way.

The noise continued, fluctuating in the air like a radio with bad reception. Her heart called out to him, as his did her for her. She heard the tormented cries in her head, but the grip on her hand was strong and led her away and to a parked bike.

“Where are we going?” she asked, her voice sounding oddly detached as she watched Logan straddle the machine, his hold on her hand never lessened.

“I’m taking you someplace safe.” He told her with a grimace as he handed her a helmet.

She took it but didn’t put it on, she smiled at him sadly. “You can’t keep me safe from him.”

He growled at the helplessness of her voice and he gripped her hands in anger, drawing Kagome attention to them. She had never noticed when he had retracted his claws. His hands looked so normal, still lethal, but not quite as deadly.

Seeing her look at them, he lessened up on the pressure and spoke to her in a calmer and resigned voice. “I can take you home with me. With more people like me.”

Kagome who had been resolved to distance herself from him, stalled. Just as she turned to scream rape, someone had to pay attention then, his voice stilled her and the smell of his soul flooded her senses as she inhaled. More people like him? Who smelled like him?  Beings with claws? Those she smelled on the wind?

She turned back to him, the burning, exploding building behind her forgotten as she looked at him.

“No.” She finally told him, ignoring temptation.

“Listen.” He rumbled lowly. “You either get on this bike willingly, or I toss you over this front seat and haul you off like a child.”

She smiled at him before climbing onto the back. “Well, when you put it that way.”

~_______~

And so they drove. Away from the burning building, away from her screaming kit, and away from her life as a model. To that she would shed no tears, and once they were far enough away, she forgot about Shippo’s wails too.

She and Logan had ridden together before. Both of them enjoyed the thrill of taking speedy trips through traffic. But this ride was different. It had a purpose; to get her the hell out of dodge.

They sped dangerously through traffic, took curves so tight that they fought gravity, and drove so fast that the wind threatened to steal Logan’s jacket from her very back. She was slightly sheltered from the blistering wind by his wide frame, and clutching him as tightly as she did had his scent filling her nose. Not the scent of his soul, but his scent as a man. All together, their getaway wasn’t so bad.

Soon the traffic and tall buildings thinned out as they left the city behind and entered the countryside. Not letting up on the throttle, they drove into the night and on lone roads in compatible silence. The lull of the engine and the scent of him in her nose had Kagome drifting to sleep, and it was only the knowledge that no death awaited her that had her lowering her defenses. That and the reassuring hand that Logan had placed on the arm encircling him. She smiled a sleepy smile that he couldn’t see.

It wasn’t until the sky started to lighten up did Logan decide to stop. As the engine cut off and they pulled over to the curb, Kagome awoke to find them just short of the middle of nowhere.

“I knew you were an animal.” Kagome yawned as she followed his lead and got off the bike. “Living out in the wild, are we? Only venture into society for booze and mating?”

“Mating?” he growled at her, confused by the choice of words.

Kagome just smiled and made hand motions at him.

He ignored her. “This place I’m taking you too is just down this road.” He told her with a jab of his thumb.

“And we need to walk there?” she asked.

He shifted and cleared his throat. “No. Its just that I want to set things straight with you.”

She looked at him expectantly.

“This thing.” He started. “Between us, stays between us.”

Her eyebrows rose in realization. “/Ashamed of me?”

“Who the hell would be ashamed of dating a model?”

“Then what’s the problem? You have a wife?”

“The place I’m taking you is an institute. A school for gifted kids…”

“And you want to save face?”

He shrugged. “I only come around ever so often. They don’t need to know my private life.”

She flashed him. “Then how are we to explain this?”

After getting an appreciative look, he shrugged again, only with a roguish smile on his face. “I’ll just say I was following up on a lead.”

“So this secrecy…” she started as she laid a hand on his chest and leaned into him. “This means no more fun.”

“No.” He growled, throwing an arm around her waist. “This just means you can’t be as loud anymore.”

She looked at him with a raised brow. “I can’t be as loud? You act like you’re quiet as a mouse.”

Not knowing how long they would be secret lovers, the two spent a short moment memorizing the feel of each other. Shortly after, Kagome found herself riding up to the driveway of a castle. It was probably a mansion, but the little girl in her wanted it to be a castle.

The estate was so  colossal and beautiful that she wasn’t even put off in the least when Logan drove around to the back like she was some kind of mistress.  As they neared a garage,  she was impressed by the automatic doors that opened upon they’re arrival.

Hopping off the bike, Kagome began to follow Logan around like a puppy as he lead the way and she busied herself by sight seeing. But it wasn’t until they got by the door that lead to the mansion proper, that he hesitated again.

“Some…some of the kids might look or do something out of the ordinary. Try not to be scared or anything. They just want to be normal.”

She looked at him with a blank expression. “There was a talking, walking headless body in my apartment. Should I really be too shocked by anything I see?”

“Good point. Come on, I have someone I want you to meet.”

“Isn’t it a bit early to be doing this?” she asked, as they entered a highly decorated hallway.

“I’m sure he already knows we’re here.”

“Why? Security cameras or something?”

But before she could get a reply she sneezed loudly as her nose was assaulted.

“Bless you.” He  told her in his gruff way, turning to find a wide smile on her face. “What the hell are you smiling at?”

“Life.” She told him truthfully.

~______~

‘What a motley crew.’ Kagome thought as she found herself in a office with Logan’s ‘friends’.

The headman in charge, she assumed that to be the older bald man in the wheelchair sitting behind the desk. Next to him stood a tall black woman with Inuyasha’s hair.  The bald guy seemed pleasant but impressive with his piercing eyes and shiny chair, and the white haired woman was lithe, beautiful, and incredibly intimidating.

She stood in the middle of the room facing the two while another, younger couple took up the rear. The young couple consisted of a proud standing, red head lady and her brunette love who wore his sunglasses at night so he could, so he could watch people weave then breathe their story lines, she assumed.

Logan stood level with her but off to the side. As far as everyone knew,  she stood in the middle of the room surrounded by strangers. She wondered how she should act. As she contemplated this, and the plethora of souls that assaulted her nose. She sneezed again, causing Logan to pause momentarily in his recap of tonight’s events.

Upon entering the mansion proper, the smells of the many souls inhabiting the place had overflowed her senses and made her sneeze. With the last sneeze, she assumed she was getting used to it as it wasn’t as violent of the first had been. For the first time, she wondered why she was able to do so.  What was the point? Was it because of her connection with Death? Her face clouded up at the thought. How deep did that connection go? As if to answer her, a chill went slowly down her spine and she had to control her urge to vomit.

“Miss,” the voice jolted her from her disgust and she glanced up to find Logan’s friends looking at her.  It was the bald guy who addressed her. “If you’re feeling sick, please have a seat.”

“Thank you.” She told him, feeling genuinely sick as she took a seat.

“Logan, please continue.”

“There isn’t much else to say.” Logan grumbled. “I followed the scent to the hotel and caught the guy just before he could attack her.”

“Why was he going to attack her? Rabid fan?” Inuyasha’s cousin asked, her voice slightly accented.

“Why’d you bring her here instead of the authorities?” she heard red ask, but her voice did not sound angered or testy.

“What’s the connection between these attacks?” Sunglasses asked. “They seem so random.”

As they threw around questions, Kagome found the bald guy silent and studying her.  The others quickly picked up on his attention and grew quiet.

“I find myself uncharacteristically at a lost of thought.” He said, and Kagome saw that the words had a significant effect on the others. “But I feel you might be able to help me with that?”

Kagome looked around confused. “I can?”

“I hope so.”

She shrugged. “Shoot.”

“You’re quite famous.”

“That’s what they tell me.”

“So famous in fact, that you are bound to draw attention to yourself in crowded places.”

“It happens.”

“Yes it does.  From news cameras on the attack downtown, you were filmed standing before the…assailant. Yesterday, I have
had students who claimed to have rescued a group of models from the assaulted bridge. And now we have our associate bringing you directly to us.”

Kagome glanced around at the other occupants of the room, mostly to see Logan’s face, but he was as indifferent as the rest. She looked back at the bald man.

“So, what are you getting at?”

“That if you’re not directly involved,” Logan answered for her, steel in his voice, “you damn sure know what’s going on?”

She looked directly at him this time and didn’t attempt to hide her annoyance. This was not the time to use sexy, steely voice. “Yes, I know what is going on.” She answered truthfully, addressing the bald guy.  “His name is Shippo and he’s attacking this city because I’m here. He’s my son.”

“Your son?” the others exclaimed.

“So are you a mutant too?” this came from Logan.

“Mutant? That’s a bit rude isn’t it?”

“It’s a mutated gene in our genetic code that gives us our powers.” The bald guy explained. “Thus, regular humans call us mutants.”

“And you embrace it.” Kagome concluded with a shrug. “Where I’m from its just demons.”

“Do you think that’s any better than mutant?” Inuyasha’s cousin asked her, challenge in her voice.

“That which we call a rose, by any other name would smell as sweet, my dear Romeo.”

“I’ll take thee at thy word, but I’ll never be your Romeo.”

“What just happened?” glasses asked in confusion. “Did they just quote Shakespeare?”

“What is your son’s, this Shippo’s, intent behind these attacks? Why does he want to hurt you, if you don’t mind my asking?”

Kagome shook her head at him. “He doesn’t want to hurt me.”

“Really?” Logan spoke up. “Because that’s what it looked like back when I rescued you.”

“Well I guess you don’t know much, now do you?”

Instead of answering her obviously rhetorical question, Logan growled deeply and took a menacing step forward. Kagome interrupted his bravado and stood up abruptly.

“Listen, I don’t know you people, and you don’t know anything about what’s going on; I’m out of here.” Turning towards the door, Kagome saw that glasses and red stood stoically in front of it.

“I’m afraid I can’t allow that.” Baldy told her calmly. “You are a liability. You see, if you are not directly controlling your son, you know why he’s doing this. So, perhaps you take a seat  and explain to us what’s going on?”

“Well, since you put it like that.” With as much  grace as she could muster, Kagome glided back towards her seat and sat down primly. “Care to introduce yourselves first?”

“Pardon my rudeness. I am Professor Charles Xavier. And these are members of my team; this is Ororo, Jean, Scott, and you’ve already met Logan.” As he indicated at each of the people in the room, they nodded to her in turn.

“Now, miss Higurashi, the matter of your son.”

“Shippo.” She said fondly with a smile, but as she  looked back to the Prof., her smile dropped. “He’s not a bad boy.”

Logan scoffed, and Kagome glared at him.

“He’s just a little boy with too much power. That’s all he’s ever wanted was to be strong. To protect me.”

“Then what about these attacks?” Jean asked. “Were you in some kind of danger when they occurred?”

“No.” Kagome answered, looking embarrassed. “He’s been somewhere watching cartoons. He just wanted to show me what he can do.”

“How long has he been out of control?” The professor asked, continuing the interrogation.

“I can’t remember. After a while I stopped thinking of it.”

“When did he come into his power?”

“He was born with it. He’s my little shape shifter. You saw what he can do.”

“You said he wanted to protect you. From what?”

“Whatever and whomever threatened me. But it usually ended up with him getting assaulted right along with me.”

“Assaulted?”

“I was priestess before all this happened. My shrine got  attacked a lot by…vandals.”

“What the hell did anybody want at your shrine?” It was Logan who spoke, and the way he said shrine made it known that he didn’t believe her.

“That story is not for you, so never you mind that.” She snapped at him. “My shrine was a safe haven for wayward souls and some who came were too lost. He couldn’t do anything then, but now that he has the strength, he goes overboard with trying to impress me; to protect me. He’s such a sweet boy.”

“I know you may have aversions to this, but your son has killed many innocent people and he needs to be stopped. If not for yourself, because it is obvious that this has had some monumental effect on your psyche, then for the millions of innocents out there in danger because of your son.”

“You want me to tell you how to kill my Shippo?” she asked him, her face stony and her voice dead.

“Not kill, but at least detain, we try…”

“You can’t stop him.” She said with a grim smile. “Your thug here decapitated him, but he still lives. You can do nothing; nothing but let me go, so I can at least lead him away from you. If not, then you’ll all die. I  don’t think that sounds fun; death by prepubescent child with no morals; broken and dismembered and dying in vain.”

“And what about you?”

“Me? I’ll live, but I won’t survive it. Shippo has ways of keeping me safe. Safe and sound, but dead inside. I’ll never survive, and he doesn’t care.”

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