InuYasha Fan Fiction / Sailor Moon Fan Fiction ❯ Prismatic ❯ Emergence ( Chapter 3 )

"Sailor Moon! Look out!"

Throwing a hastily charged ofuda, Kagome heaved a breath of relief when the other girl dove out of the way, barely dodging a swipe of claws that nearly took her head off. The ward missed its mark, only narrowly grazing the creature, youma as Luna had called them, and leaving a burn on the side of its arm instead.

The creature clutched the wound and spun back to her with a snarl, the sailor soldier forgotten. "You!"

Kagome gulped, a bead of sweat rolling down the side of her face. She wasn't sure if it was the physical exertion or the burst of nerves as the enemy's attention shifted to her. Ever since that first night at Osa-P, the supernatural activity had been consistent. It wasn't frequent, they had admittedly only discovered each plot because of the strange behavior they caused, but it had been enough for them to fall into a routine. So far, it seemed to be roughly a week between attacks, and Kagome supposed that was simply the amount of time it took them to set up their schemes to feed on human energy.

Usagi and she had developed a routine of their own in that time. Kagome had gone back through the well that weekend to awkwardly patch things up with Inuyasha and discuss their next move with the others. She'd waited until that evening, when everyone was fed and content to bring up the issue of the responsibilities she had in her own era. It had taken all of her courage just to broach the subject and she still felt guilt for it, but she had finally done it.

It had been needed.

---

Sango and Miroku had been willing enough to admit that the search for the jewel shards had spread her much thinner than the rest of them with her time-hopping, but Inuyasha hadn't been so keen to agree. He'd only huffed and avoided looking at her. Then she brought up the new schedule she had decided on, after a long sit down with her family that had been needed for some time, and he'd nearly had a stroke at first. She hadn't expected him to exactly like her plan of only time hopping on the weekends, but she hadn't expected the sheer volume of his protest either. He had clearly been expecting her to argue back, in the shouting matches that had become typical for them, because he seemed uncertain how to respond when she'd only sighed wearily, visibly worn by their adventure for one of the few times throughout their journey.

"I have more responsibilities than just the jewel, Inuyasha."

Then again, he may have been anticipating more given the way she had found him upon her return. There had clearly been a battle in her absence, although not one of demons and blood that she'd grown used to. Souls had been dancing through the forest, lighting up the darkness of the evening. Where there were lost souls to be found, like always, had been Kikyo. He hadn't even noticed her return.

She had looked away once he finally did, but he did not even have the shame enough to do that.

As was usually the case between them, she was the one who finally gave in. However, despite the overwhelming urge to simply run back home, to the comfort of her mother's arms, she had only closed her eyes and walked back to the village in quiet acceptance. In truth, Inuyasha had made his choice and she knew that. But she had a duty here, and people dear to her heart, beyond him.

Even if he would never have chosen her, she had a mistake to correct.

Inuyasha hadn't chased her that night, likely expecting her to run back to her own time as she'd so dearly wanted to, but her friends had welcomed her with open arms if a bit of surprise to see her back so soon. At least Shippo had kept her secret.

Judging by their concerned expressions they had also noticed the souls littering the sky, as well as the soul collectors harvesting them, and realized the source. It didn't take much for them to put two and two together. When she had only smiled, still carried by that odd sense of acceptance, they'd seem startled. Miroku had been even more astonished as he'd rushed in front of her, staring at her eerily calm expression studiously.

"Lady Kagome? Your face looks like the Buddha. What has happened for you to look so calm and divine?"

Lecher though he was, Miroku had always been dangerously astute. So, while she couldn't lie to them and promise that nothing had happened, that she was fine as she always was, she felt a sense of serenity in being able to tell them that she had made a decision. It simply wasn't the one they had been expecting. They, much like Inuyasha, had assumed she would have run away home, with no intent to return.

It had rankled her a little to realize that they thought that little of her motivations on their journey, even if she had, admittedly, considered it.

Inuyasha wasn't her only reason for returning, although the want to see him had been a key driving force in the months since they'd met, and despite how deeply she'd come to feel for him. She said as much, and they'd seemed to accept it enough to let her unpack her fresh collection of supplies in peace. She had told them her plans to attempt to salvage her education, to come back to them on the weekends and during breaks, uncertain if Inuyasha's reaction to the news would have even let her finish explaining. Then she told them about Usagi and the strange creatures she'd discovered and they'd revisited the idea of training her in their respective arts.

None of them had known what a 'sailor soldier' was though.

It wasn't until the next morning that Inuyasha finally turned up, looking just as solemn and eerily calm as she had been. When he approached the well where they'd gathered and she came into his line of sight he had straightened, clearly surprised to see her still there and she had halted any questioning with her own assertion.

"It's okay. I won't just leave my duty to this era. Or my friends."

He hadn't seemed to know what to say, and things had been awkwardly quiet for the rest of the afternoon before progressing back to a sense of quasi-normal that evening. Then she broke the news of her new schedule to him, and things had really gone back to normal.

But their normal hadn't been working.

Their normal had been hurting, despite how much she had been trying to pretend that it hadn't, and she didn't want to feed into it anymore. So instead of engaging him in the shouting match that he had expected she had only smiled placatingly and asserted that it was the best she could do. She had taken his silence at her response for acceptance, and they'd finished that first weekend off in relative peace.

She met Usagi after school that Monday and the other girl had seemed surprised to see her there. She did, however, brighten just as quickly and the two hurried off to the local arcade to commandeer a table for their schoolwork and did so each following day. Usagi wasn't that hard to teach, really. In fact, as Kagome had discovered, her English was perfectly fine when she was interested in the subject matter. Granted, that interest usually came down to comic books.

It wasn't until near the end of that week that the next scheme had surfaced. Kagome had just arrived to meet Usagi at the gates when she'd heard the girl's wailing. She had stomped over to them, intending to put a stop to whatever had been happening, when she heard Luna who had been hidden in the hedges.

"I feel some kind of evil energy."

Having stopped to look, Kagome had furrowed her brows and stared hard at the retreating group. It was subtler than the last time, but it was there. Instead of simply draining them though, it had been influencing them, controlling them. It reminded her so much of the shard's power that she grabbed Usagi's hand, startling the blonde and her friend before she had thought about it.

Eventually, they'd traced it to a fortune-telling business that had set up shop only recently. The creature running the show had been better prepared, though it seemed that it had only been aware of the threat Sailor Moon posed to its operations. Kagome, luckily, had been able to break its hold on the students it had enslaved if she could get close enough to them to touch. That plan had gone out the window when a group surrounded Usagi, and it was the distraction of that strange, masked man that had allowed the priestess time enough to draw an arrow and take aim for the creature controlling them.

Usagi had been reticent to let her go that weekend, worrying about what would happen if there was an attack while she was gone, and Kagome might have caved if Luna hadn't promised to take care of her. Although Usagi had made her promise to stay safe, likely recalling the stories from the feudal era that she had shared before, Kagome hadn't been able to keep to it. After the drama that had unfolded when they'd stumbled on Kohaku, Kagome had found herself feeling lucky that she had managed to return on time at all.

Her arm still throbbed beneath the bandages hidden beneath her sleeve.

A few days after her return, it had been a radio station, and Kagome could have laughed. It was luck that they had picked up a few bags of readymade bento boxes and treats that day, intending to practice in the empty area of the park. When Usagi had worried about how they were to get in Kagome, now used to thinking on her feet to make excuses, brightened and snatched the bags away to stride up to the gate.

One confused blink of the eyes and a shy mumble about delivering a dinner order to the security guard and they had gotten inside.

Usagi had awed at her quick thinking but snapped out of it when Kagome only whispered a reminder of why they were there and positioned her scarf. The dark energy was much more noticeable inside, enough to make the priestess shudder, but it was coming from too many directions at once to determine the source. So, it had led them to search the old-fashioned way. At least it had seemed moderately empty inside.

Kagome really shouldn't have been surprised the culprit was a radio personality. 'But cursing love letters? Well…whoever said the industry was heartless wasn't kidding.'

To her credit, Usagi had thought quite quickly on her feet in using one of the empty rooms to interrupt the broadcast and warn the victims. However, Kagome had barely managed to hiss at her to transform in time when she'd felt the dark energy rapidly closing in on them. The room had burst open just as the transformation took hold, but their attackers had at least seemed just as surprised to see two of them as they were to see the door fly off the hinges.

At least they had pretended to exchange pleasantries this time, with the man who was clearly in charge introducing himself as 'Jadeite'.

Those pleasantries didn't last long though. The creature had immediately leaped for Usagi, forcing the sailor soldier to engage her in battle and for Kagome to dive out of the way as the shot hit the ceiling. The rubble fell between the three of them, and Kagome frowned behind her scarf as she'd peered up through the hole to see the night sky above them. When the creature reached for Usagi, Kagome had panicked and frantically charged an ofuda, leading to this.

---

Glancing to the side briefly to check on Usagi was her mistake.

Still expecting the creature to be targeting Sailor Moon, Kagome was wholly unprepared for it when it pounced on her instead, hauling her up through the hole it had blown to the roof. Sailor Moon's scream of fright was distant, now a few floors below them, but Kagome didn't have time to worry about the other girl with a demon breathing quite literally down her throat.

It threw her into the wall and she stumbled, winded by the impact and a little cry escaping her when it sent a shock of pain through her arm, the wound there still tender. She hit the ground when she couldn't find her footing before the creature was upon her again and landed on her back, pressed against the edge of the roof with its claw around her throat. Kagome gasped uselessly as she lifted a hand, her fingertips flickering with spiritual power as she struggled to find her focus enough to summon the energy through the lack of air.

"Moon Tiara Action!"

All at once, the creature froze, its grip loosening in surprise. A sensation of purity not her own washed over the two of them and Kagome gulped down a breath of air just in time to watch as her attacker faded to dust. Her eyes fell to Usagi, Sailor Moon, who had saved her. The blonde soldier looked just as surprised as her by the turn of events.

Up to this moment, Usagi had never attacked their enemies.

The quiet step of measured footsteps reminded Kagome that the fight wasn't over yet. They still had Jadeite to deal with and she wasn't sure they were quite ready for that yet. Looking up, she bit her bottom lip and pushed herself to her knees with a steadying breath.

"Jadeite!"

Sailor Moon's shout of his name caught her by surprise, yet again, and Kagome turned to stare at the girl wide-eyed. Usagi had never been so firm in a fight before, not that they'd had many yet, much less challenged someone so openly. Although, Kagome wasn't quite sure that Usagi quite knew the implications of what she was doing.

"What? You want to fight me now?"

The surprises that night seemed to be endless because Usagi only hardened her expression and dropped into position to aim the attack. "Moon Tiara Action!"

The sensation of purity welled up in the air again and Kagome reflexively held her breath as she watched the glowing disk leave her friend's hand. Then her gaze landed on their enemy, Jadeite, and her stomach rolled. He didn't even bother to pretend to look concerned, despite the attack having just destroyed his servant. Gritting her teeth, Kagome pulled herself up to her feet. Jadeite lifted a hand just as she regained her balance, halting the attack with barely a flick of his fingers.

"No! You're kidding me!"

The tiara fell to the floor with an ominous clatter.

There was silence for a moment as Usagi visibly wavered, but it seemed her impulse of bravery hadn't quite run out because, just as quickly, she was suddenly running at him. Kagome didn't even get the chance to warn the girl off of her plan before the blonde was flung to the ground with a cry. Jadeite seemed to have forgotten her though, in his mocking approach of the fallen sailor soldier. Her rapid footfalls were drowned out by Usagi's wail of pain, and Kagome felt her blood boil when she heard the girl's frightened whimpers.

"Back off, Jadeite!"

Leaping between them, it was only months of fighting demons that allowed Kagome to keep her hands from trembling at the surge of adrenaline that rushed through her. He couldn't have Usagi. She wouldn't let him.

Even Jadeite, in all his arrogance, seemed taken aback by the ferocity of her interference.

Then he raised his hand as if to bat her away with the same power he had used on Sailor Moon and the ofuda in her hand flared to life. She barely saw his eyes widen before their energy clashed, tossing them apart from each other. Jadeite, while thrown back a few feet, managed to stay upright.

Kagome wasn't quite so lucky. However, Usagi had gotten herself together enough to get up just in time to catch the priestess as she was flung backward. Turning to look at the blonde soldier, Kagome smiled, the crinkle of her eyes giving the expression away beneath her makeshift mask. "Thanks, Sailor Moon…"

She could feel Usagi's hands trembling as the girl helped her stand, despite the resolute nod the blonde gave. Straightening herself, Kagome fished a fresh ofuda from her pocket, her last one, and turned back to the problem at hand. Jadeite, though visibly surprised, was clearly no worse for the wear. He narrowed his eyes at them, making Kagome hunch her shoulders, and took a step towards them. Her ofuda lit with a warning glow of her spiritual power, a lingering taste of purity in the air as the remnants from the last one slowly pushed back the dark energy.

"You're not a sailor soldier…" He strode towards them once more, now looking more befuddled than outright angry, and Kagome readied for a fight. Then something flew between them, and they both froze. "Hm?"

Jadeite glanced towards the tower just as she did, though nothing was visible at first. Kagome didn't need to see the culprit to know who it was. She recognized his energy by now, especially with the way it filled the rose he'd thrown. 'I can't even call it a strange weapon…Usagi threw her tiara at them…'

Usagi's noise of surprise behind her brought Kagome back to the present just in time to see Jadeite take a step back and jump into the air. Then he flickered out of sight and a swirling mass of darkness appeared. Kagome shuddered at the feel of it, quivering as she stared at it. Then Jadeite reappeared just at the edge of it, hovering seamlessly midair as his eyes caught hers. Her breath caught in her throat as he stared down at her and it felt as if time had stopped for a moment.

Then he vanished and she let out a breath as it began again.

If it weren't for this other man's appearance, Kagome would have liked no more than to just sink to her knees to breathe for a moment. But, for now, she couldn't. Her gaze drifted warily to the well-dressed stranger, Tuxedo Mask as Usagi had taken to calling him, and Kagome pursed her lips. Relaxing her posture a little as she straightened, she turned to face him more directly. Then a gust of wind washed over them, and she barely caught her scarf before the fabric, torn in the fight, could fall away from her face. Even as she turned to scramble and fix her makeshift mask, Kagome could practically feel his glare on her back.

After a moment more of awkward tension, he only narrowed his eyes and turned to her blonde companion. "Be careful who you ally with, Sailor Moon. We'll meet again."

Much like each time before, he left as soon as he'd said his piece, and Kagome nearly sunk to her knees. When she glanced over to Usagi and saw the girl on the verge of tears, she softened and pulled herself back together. Though the muscles in her legs quaked with a desire to collapse, she turned and offered Usagi her hand, the gesture distracting the girl from crying. "Ne, Usagi-chan… let's go back to my place. It's closer and Mama won't mind."

With a sniffle, Usagi took her hand and Kagome tugged her to her feet.

---

"Uwaah, that was so good!"

Giggling, Kagome shook her head, amused by Usagi's dramatic appreciation. Her mother had been all too pleased when the two of them had shown up, despite their bedraggled state. Kagome had snuck upstairs while the Higurashi matriarch gushed over her new friend, Usagi looking a bit lost on how to handle the welcoming atmosphere. It provided just the distraction Kagome had needed to tend to the reopened wound on her arm and make a quick phone call to the Tsukino household. With as shaken as Usagi had been, the last thing the girl needed was to be scolded for staying out without notice.

So, she cheerily greeted the older woman when she picked up, apologized for the late notice, and asked if Usagi could stay for dinner. Tsukino Ikuko had been only too happy to comply.

After throwing some water on her face and changing into a fresh set of clothing, Kagome hurried back down the stairs. She'd felt a touch guilty just leaving her friend until she entered the kitchen only to find Usagi staring starry-eyed at the large amount of home-cooked food that lined the table. Souta and Grandpa came in then, and they'd both been swept away in introductions to the family. For her part, Kagome was content to watch, a tiny smile curling her lips at how relaxed and at home, Usagi seemed to be amongst her family.

She knew bringing her here had been a good idea.

When Souta and Grandpa finally wandered out and it was just the three of them, Kagome slumped in her own chair. She'd only been back a few days and she was sore. Despite her building exhaustion though, Kagome could not help but to be happy in this moment. As she looked across the table to the sight of her mother offering a dramatically teary-eyed Usagi a packed lunch, there was such a sense of rightness that she couldn't help but smile. Then, she recalled the feline that had been with them and guiltily realized that she'd not been with them through dinner.

Plating a few shrimp from that night's meal and filling a dish with a few drops of milk, Kagome left the two to their chatting as she hurried outside. It was quiet, but she could sense the presence lingering. "Luna-san? Are you out here?"

"Yes?"

Nearly dropping her hastily made plate with a start, Kagome heaved a breath and turned to look at the feline. Smiling a little as her heart rate calmed down, she shook her head and knelt to set the dishes out. Luna eyed her curiously for a moment, before hopping down from the post she had taken.

"Well, you didn't come in for dinner – which you totally could have, by the way! I told you my family already knows all about…all of this." Kagome waved a hand and blushed, rocking back on her heels when she realized she was rambling. "But, um…I wanted to make sure you ate too since you didn't join us."

Luna seemed surprised for a moment and then her gaze, usually firm, softened a bit. "That is very thoughtful, Kagome-chan…thank you."

The cat padded over to the dish to look at the contents quietly, but Kagome realized after a moment that her attention wasn't really on the food. When she suddenly turned a more serious gaze back up at her, the priestess straightened.

"I was a bit unfair to you when we first met, I'm afraid."

Kagome's eyes widened and she opened her mouth to protest. "Wha- no, you couldn't have known!"

"No, perhaps not." Luna hummed, looking thoughtful a moment. Then she looked back up again, a renewed firmness to her gaze. "But you have more than proven yourself tonight alone, I think."

"Wh-but…"

Luna didn't give her the chance to finish stammering before she'd leaped into the air and a brief sensation of magic tickled her senses. Kagome barely caught the little pink pen as it appeared from nowhere that she could see. "What is…"

"The Disguise Pen. You have been helping…protecting Usagi at great danger to yourself. You were at great risk tonight alone. The glamour of a sailor soldier protects her from being discovered by our enemy. But not you." Luna nudged the top of her head against her hand. "This can help protect you."

Kagome froze, her fingers wrapping around the pen so tightly that her knuckles whitened. Swallowing a lump in her throat, a few tears burned her eyes as she stared down at the feline. "Luna-san…"

Luna glanced up at her once more and their gaze met. Then, choking back a sob, Kagome could no longer resist the impulse to gather the cat up into her arms. The cat jolted in surprise by the sudden affection but eventually rewarded the priestess with a purr. They stayed like that for a moment before Kagome released her to inspect the pen with a giggle, as Luna settled in her lap.

"So, how do I use it?"