InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ A Delayed Dawn ❯ Caught in the Crossfire ( Chapter 7 )

A Delayed Dawn

 

Disclaimer: roshully holds out a shard and dangles it teasingly in front of the man with the long black hair and narrow red eyes. “Just say it.” Roshully demands of him. “Kukuku, I can easily dispose of you and take it by force.” Naraku says. Roshully rolls her eyes. “It's easier this way.” Naraku narrows his eyes, wondering what the author means by that. “Of course. We'll do it your way. The author disclaims any rights over me and anything else associated with Inuyasha.” Roshully smiles. She tossed the jewel shard over to Naraku. Naraku reaches for the jewel and is ready to attack the girl when he finds that she is gone.

 

Previously: A new gang of women, made up of powerful mikos and those well trained in combat is fighting against The Touken. Inuyasha learns details of the woman behind it all and has to wonder why he reminds her of someone he wants to forget.

 

Warning: This story is posted in the mature section for good reasons. If ideas such as vulgar language, descriptive violence, and sexual situations such as rape disturb you, then you are warned now.

 

Chapter Seven Caught in the Crossfire

 

`She's very knowledgeable.'

 

`Always reading books.'

 

`Her stare will freeze your heart.'

 

`Trained to kill demons.'

 

The icy glare of the girl in the picture did freeze his heart. Inuyasha leaned back in his chair. He just couldn't forget. No matter how hard he tried. It haunted him, and it didn't matter if he was asleep or awake, he was always reminded of it. The girl was walking out of a store that night. A bookstore. She had been reading one of her books.

 

`Always reading books.'

 

Inuyasha shook his head. Karma was coming definitely coming back to bite him in the ass. He was going to be destroyed by the girl that he raped. His brother definitely wanted him dead, and if he couldn't do it himself, then he had gone out and put that damn initiation spell on a miko who would later take out her anger on him. Inuyasha dropped his head. And she had every reason to.

 

Inuyasha's men had retreated back to the compound and a temporary cease fire was put in place between The Touken and The Mikos. The Mikos had declared victory over the infamous Touken group. This bothered Inuyasha to no end, but he knew that they had to gather information before running up against them again. And that was what he was waiting for. Miroku and some of the younger members of The Pack were dispersed across all of Japan to relearn the history of the mikos.

 

Mikos were more of a myth these days. And it was believed that their kind died out hundreds of years ago. Inuyasha tried to remember his history. Being pulled out of school early because of this damned war was finally taking its toll. His brain was not helping him out. Inuyasha had wanted to go out and gather information as well, but decided to stay behind, in case the cease fire was broken. He would need to be here for his men.

 

Inuyasha looked at the picture of the one called Kikyo. There was no doubting her beauty. The contrast between her dark hair and porcelain skin was something Inuyasha had never seen. “Ugh!” He yelled as he flipped the picture away from him and onto the table.

 

Just then Kouga walked in. He heard the grunt and saw the tossing of the picture. Kouga reached over and picked up Kikyo's photo. “Is the dead miko bothering you?” Kouga asked.

 

Inuyasha looked up at Kouga. “Dead?” He asked. Had they killed her? Was there a secret mission he didn't know about?

 

“Oh, no. She's not really dead. It's just. . . “He held up the picture to look at it. “I get these chills from her. There's no life in her at all. She just seems dead.”

 

Inuyasha sighed. Of course she has no life; he took it away from her. “What do you want?” Inuyasha mumbled. He wasn't in the mood to bear the grunt of Kouga's jokes. He wasn't in the mood for much of anything.

 

Kouga shook his head. “Just wondering if Miroku got back yet or not. I saw some of the other members of The Pack around.” Kouga sat down in the chair opposite of Inuyasha and threw his feet up on the table that sat between them. “Something bothering you? You've been acting like someone's dick has been up your ass for the last couple of days.”

 

Inuyasha growled. “Fuck you. Get the fuck out of here and leave me the fuck alone.” He pouted.

 

Kouga laughed. “Fuck me? Fuck you. Fuck your attitude. Fuck. . . fuck this Kikyo and her damned Mikos.”

 

With his fist balled tightly, Inuyasha jumped up and roared. “Don't you ever say that ever again, you hear me you piece of shit for a wolf? I'll fuckin' rip your shitty guts out.”

 

Kouga's jaw dropped. He had said something that struck a nerve with Inuyasha. He stood up, locking eyes with his commander and friend. Kouga kept his demonic aura down, though he could feel Inuyasha's rising rapidly. Kouga lifted his hand up in defeat. “I hear ya. Me and the guys will be training. Let us know if you get anything.” He said calmly before leaving.

 

Still breathing hard from the good yelling he had at Kouga, Inuyasha sat back down in the chair. Yeah, he knew his attitude sucked, especially since seeing this Kikyo's picture. It wasn't something he could talk to Kouga about either. He would have to wait for Miroku to return. Miroku was the only one who really knew the details, even though Kouga was there, he just didn't know. Everyone else only knew of rumors.

 

This was driving him insane, and he knew it too. And he didn't know what he could do about it. What was there that he could do? Go up to her and say, `I'm the one who caused you all of the pain and hatred you feel, how about you kill me and call it even'. Yeah right he scoffed. Like that would help. His brother and his friends wouldn't just let him sacrifice himself so easily either. Miroku said that he had value. Whatever the hell that meant. Besides, Inuyasha didn't want to die.

 

 

*Sesshoumaru's Compound Office*

 

Sesshoumaru never had so much reading to do before. At least that was how he felt. With this new Miko group attacking his gang without any logical reason, he had sent everyone out to gather information. His men should have seen this coming. He even had someone on the inside. There was a communication failure somewhere and he wasn't going to let something like that ever happen again.

 

“Come in.” Sesshoumaru said when he heard the slight tap on the door. It opened and in walked a fox demon and a member of The Pack. Sesshoumaru valued hid presence in The Pack. Fox demons had the ability to transform their shapes, and the fox demon was one of the best. It was easy for him to gather information.

 

The fox demon handed Sesshoumaru his report on his findings from the last four days. Sesshoumaru took it and set it down on top of the large stack of other reports and files he had received over the last couple of days.

 

“Anything to add?” Sesshoumaru asked. He didn't want to waste time with chit-chat. He had to read through those files as quickly as possible.

 

“Yes.” The fox demon pulled out a thick envelope and handed it to Sesshoumaru. “I feel that you may want to read this first before reading my report.”

 

Puzzled, Sesshoumaru took the thick envelope. It felt more like a book that just a simple report. “Where did you get this?”

 

“That may be one of the reasons why you should read it sir. I was approached by . . . something and handed this envelope.” Seiko explained.

 

“Clarify this `something'.”

 

“I am not sure if it was demon or human. I sensed a concealment spell. Its scent was confusing. I couldn't make anything of it sir.” The fox demon described his encounter. “However, he must have known of me because he walked right up to me, even in a transformed state and practically ordered me to make sure you received this as soon as possible. He did not stick around to explain his reasoning behind it. He left as quickly as he came. Then I came back here.”

 

Sesshoumaru flipped over the envelope and opened it and pulled out a thick report. “Thank you. If you feel there is something you want to investigate, please feel free to do so.”

 

The fox demon smiled. Sesshoumaru knew him too well. The fox demon bowed and exited quietly. Sesshoumaru turned the report over and read the cover page.

 

The Artifacts of Sengoku Return

Initial Analysis

New Tokyo Museum

The Department of Ancient Relics and Artifacts

Dept. Chair Dr. Kagome Higurashi

 

Sengoku artifacts, Sesshoumaru thought. He flipped the cover page and found a table of contents. His demon eyes quickly scanned over the words. Introduction, background of archaeological discovery, chemical analysis, historical analysis, conclusion, and future research. There were about sixty pages in all. Sesshoumaru admitted that he did not keep up with the reports from the museums. He found them to be dull and useless. But someone went out of their way to track down the fox demon and concealed themselves to give him this.

 

Sesshoumaru sighed as he glanced over at the foot high stack of files he had to read, and then there was this. There was something about this report though that bothered him. The one word that stuck out: Sengoku. He was still surprised that there were people who were still able to do this kind of work, despite the war that raged on outside.

 

Picking up the phone, he pressed the button and waited for the person on the other end to answer. “Jaken, bring me some tea.” He ordered his assistant before putting the phone back down on the receiver. It was only a matter of moments before the toad demon scampered into the room and placed a warm cup of green tea onto his commander's desk before silently leaving. Sesshoumaru leaned back in his chair, taking a drink of the tea before settling down to read this Dr. Higurashi's report.

 

 

*New Tokyo Museum*

Kagome sighed. This was her fifth night in a row staying at the museum. Sometimes she hated her passion for her work. It kept her away from the home she had made for herself. And it meant living off takeout food. The nearest place was some ramen shop that catered mainly to the soldiers of the local gangs. She had met her ramen limit weeks ago, but was forced to eat it as there was no where else to go.

 

Tossing the empty container into the overfilled waste basket, Kagome stood up and walked over to the table. She had handed Myouga her initial report a few days ago. The way she had written it though, it was more like her final report. The entire conclusion was just her writing about her crazy idea. Like anyone was going to read it anyway. And if they did, they would just brush her off as some crazy scientist who didn't understand the real world because she was lost in the past.

 

Well, so what if she was. At least she wasn't involved in this war. For her whole life, she had ignored it, concentrated on what she enjoyed doing. If only others could do that. Well, no, she didn't want that because she had heard of stories of soldiers who actually enjoyed killing. Kagome shook her head. Being lost in the past, and keeping herself locked up in this room was the best place for her.

 

Grabbing the stool, she plopped herself down, slipped on her glasses and grabbed the ratty sheath that lay before her. Pulling out the rusty sword, “I wonder how many demons you have slain.” She asked both the sword and herself. There wasn't any forensic evidence that she could find, so there was no blood testing. That had disappointed her. With demons existing in this age as well as humans, she had blood types she could have compared them to.

 

Kagome felt that the reason why no one was reacting to her report was because she had written something so farfetched. There was little information about the artifacts in any of the books they had. And they had the best resources available. So, in her conclusion, she did what no scientist should truly do, especially for an initial report, she put her feelings and opinions into it. She wrote what she thought, as if she were rewriting history.

 

With this report, she knew that she could lose all respect. She had very little to begin with since she was so young. But she was ready to risk it. Something was drawing her to these artifacts and the crazy ideas and theories that swam in her head just seemed to appear from nowhere, yet, she knew that they were in her head all along, waiting for these artifacts to appear.

 

It was late. Sleep was beckoning and Kagome couldn't refuse any longer. She walked over to the book case and pulled one of the shelves out, revealing a large steel door. Placing her thumbprint on the tiny screen, the computer accepted her and opened. Walking back over to the table, Kagome carried the artifacts and carefully placed them in the safe. Once everything was placed inside, she closed the door, locked the safe and replaced the bookshelf. Only she knew of the safe, though Myouga knew that she had a secret place that she stored the artifacts and he felt it was better if he didn't know its location.

 

Walking over to her chaotic desk, Kagome fell back into her chair. Slipping off her glasses, Kagome rested her head down on her folded arms. Her eyes fluttered shut and soon she was off in slumber land.

 

 

“What the. . . “Kagome mumbled when she felt the ground shaking. “Earthquake?” She asked as she sat up. Then the room rumbled again and pieces of the ceiling fell down. “Itai.” She cried when one of the heavier pieces fell on her arm. Kagome jumped out of her chair and ran over to the table in the middle of the room. She crouched underneath it.

 

It wasn't an earthquake. She could hear the sound of gunfire and explosions. But it was really close. Too close. Then she realized it. They were attacking the museum. Kagome crawled out from underneath the table, grabbed the blanket and completely unfolded it. It was large enough to cover the table and fall down the sides, creating a tent for her to hide in.

 

Kagome held her knees to her chest, panting, and waiting. She had never been this close to the action. Never had it been directed at the museum. It was one reason why she chose to work here. Why? Why would anyone want to do this? She didn't understand.

 

She tried to listen carefully. There were footsteps out in the hallway. And voices that belonged to those footsteps.

 

“Keep them out.” A man yelled.

 

“I hear they are after some artifacts.” Another man yelled back.

 

“Seal off this area. Keep them upstairs. I doubt they know about this level anyways.” Some other man yelled.

 

Their footsteps disappeared as well as their voices. But Kagome had heard enough. She knew. Her report. The artifacts. That had to be it. It was the only explanation. The museum did not have any of the more modern weapons. They were taken early in the war. This museum contained art and clay pots. The Sengoku artifacts were the only weapon-like artifacts they had. But what use would they be. Two swords, one so rusty Kagome thought that it would fall apart by touch alone, the other was hard to hold, a Buddhist staff and a boomerang that no one could lift.

 

She wanted to laugh out loud. Someone may have actually believed her silly hypothesis after all. No, that was silly. Maybe that was why she wanted to laugh. There were things that were stored in this museum that she didn't know about. Maybe the museum was a cover for weapons storage. On the outside, a plain old museum, but secretly, a structure for storage for one of the gangs and finally their secret was unearthed. She didn't know for sure because she just wasn't interested.

 

Lying down on the cold cement ground, still clutching onto her knees, Kagome closed her eyes. She was still tired and wanted nothing more than a few hours of good sleep. The ground continued to rumble beneath her and the loud sounds of bombs and guns bombarded her ears. It was horrible. She felt that they would find her sooner or later. And if they did, they would find her, asleep.

 

 

 

 

Author's Note: Thanks for the reviews so far!