InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ A Parallel Dimensional Fairytale ❯ Of Smiling and Self Respect ( Chapter 11 )

[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]

A parallel dimensional fairytale

Chapter 9

Of smiling and self respect

Disclaimer: I never claimed I owned Inuyasha, what's there to disclaim, I wonder?

OOOO

OOO

OOOO

Third time around, the feeling of exiting her counterparts mind was beginning to lose its thrill, Kagome thought, or she was just too mad to really delight in it.

'How dare he say those things to me? And there I thought he was beginning to make an effort to be a little nicer but nu-uh!'

She mentally shook her head and didn't even realize when that imaginative motion became real as her body began manifesting again. But when her sight returned, all thoughts about insufferable hanyous and their antics where pushed aside to be replaced by giggly gibberish. She squealed when she saw Sango sitting on yet another armchair right in front of her.

“Hi,” she greeted hastily, completely forgetting that Sango was a goddess for all she knew and that she'd been rather scared of her not so long ago, and greedily began glancing around the setting said goddess had come up with this time.

And as if Sango knew Kagome had been deprived of her eyesight for almost a week and would be desperate for a little sensory overload (which she probably did, if she was as omniscient as she said she was) she had conjured them right onto a tower overlooking a sea into which a blazing red orange sun was just dropping, painting the few clouds ahead rose. Beautiful. Kagome sucked in as much of the picturesque scene as possible, then turned back to Sango to ask her about it but instead she almost collided with a half transparent Inuyasha.

The fact that he had yet to materialize fully did not hide the immensely disgruntled expression on his face. Kagome seethed again. What right did he have to be mad at anything?

“You!” she started, as soon as he was solid enough for her to poke him. “I'm not done with you yet! I -”

But he just flipped her off and took in the sight she'd just been awed by. Kagome was not going to tolerate that.

“Hel-lo? I'm talking to you!” she tugged at his sleeve and he whipped around.

“You!” he hollered, and Kagome took a step back instinctively. Well, at least he was acknowledging her now...

“You and your fucked up plans! Mind explaining why each of them seems to end up with some girl totally freaking out on me? First that bodybuilding part time lesbian throws me a punch that probably broke my jaw and now that hysterical little princess throws a fit and falls straight off the fucking tree house that you had me build on a streak of genius!”

Immediate concern for her counterpart's wellbeing briefly overrode the urge to strangle him for mocking her ideas again.

“She fell? Is she all right?”

“Yeah, yeah, calm down, I caught her... although-”

“What?”

“Well, I was still pulling her up when I was beginning to um, fade away, so I don't really know what my counterpart will do...”

Kagome closed her eyes in resignation.

“Did you at least get to explain things to her?”

Her eyes opened just in time to see him tense before he shrugged, “'Course I did.”

She scrutinized him suspiciously.

“Well, kinda,” he qualified after a short staring match and shrugged again. “She freaked out before I was getting to the main part, but I told her when I felt myself fading. I'm just not that sure she paid attention.”

Kagome groaned. Things really weren't going her way since the very beginning of this... adventure, why would they have this time?, Kagome tried to console Kagome. But, that hardly made it any better.

“Don't fret,” Inuyasha patted her shoulder. “I told you it was a crap idea.”

Now that really did it! “I don't believe you! I haven't seen you coming up with any better ideas, or actually caring about what happens to our counterparts for that matter. All you seem to be capable of is mocking mine and screwing it up! I bet you didn't even make an effort to explain things to her properly!”

“What?” Inuyasha ripped his hand from her shoulder so fast it collided with his own. “You hypocritical little bitch! Really, I don-”

“THAT'S IT!!!”

Kagome peered past Inuyasha who whipped around at Sango's yell and then really wished she hadn't. And there she'd thought she'd been scared of Sango before... the probable godess was massaging her temples and seething like a tea kettle forgotten on the fire.

“I'm not going to put up with you another second!” she hissed at them and made an ominous gesture with her hand. “You're going straight into that next dimension. I don't want to hear another word from you, let alone be forced to participate in your over-boiling emotions any more! The shard is in the possession of the director of the pharmaceutical factory on the outskirts of the town you'll find yourselves in.”

“Wha-” Inuyasha attempted to protest but was effectively stared into silence.

And before Kagome collected her courage to try and demand more information herself she already felt herself fading.

OOO

Laughter and singing was the first sound that met her ears when she started taking over her counterpart's body, the carefree laughter of children to be exact. And indeed, as soon as her eyes started working, she breathed a sigh of relief just because they actually did, she saw herself surrounded by children of all ages, from toddlers to those at the brink of puberty. Kagome realized immediately that she was taller than most but still smaller than a lot of them. Which meant that she was a child yet again...

The children were forming a circle around some children in the middle and were singing a children's song of some kind to which the children in the middle performed a cute kind of play that seemed to involve hats. They were standing in the middle of a room that had large windows at the far end and miniature furniture obviously designed to be used by small children, as well as slightly taller chairs and a table. She was probably in some kind of day care center, Kagome reasoned.

It was when she took notice of the two adults surveying the play that she realized the first oddity. She was smiling without really feeling the fuzzy, happy fluttering in her stomach that normally made her smile in the first place. She had actual trouble pulling her face straight and in the end decided not to bother with the strain in her cheeks and just keep smiling even if she rather felt like frowning confusedly. When the song finished she saw that everyone seemed to be smiling around here, each of the children, and the adults in the back, too.

Maybe people were really happy in this dimension?

Well, at least she would have no trouble finding Inuyasha that way. She'd just have to look for the only one who was not smiling. Kagome snickered at that thought and eased out of the circle of children to go looking for her grumpy and jerkish companion but she only managed a few steps before one of the adults, a lanky young man actually, crouched down in front of her.

“Nuh uh uh, we don't leave the circle before we have all said our little prayer, Morgaine. You really should know that by now.” He gently shoved her back in line with the children that were now staring at her bewilderedly.

Great, there she'd promised herself to be a lot more careful with how she acted inside the dimension lest she wreak serious havoc in her counterparts' lives again and now she was standing out after a mere minute.

The children grabbed each other's hands and closed their eyes to pray, obviously, and so Kagome just played along, although the prayer they mumbled in perfect unison was not familiar to her. In a way, she was glad about that, it was a little freaky after all, and a little stupid. So stupid in fact, that she wondered how some of the older children could recite it with a straight face

They were indeed allowed to entertain themselves by themselves after the prayer and Kagome sneaked out of the room into a large corridor paved with colorful pictures and long lines of wooden coat racks. She opened the next door a few paces down the corridor and looked inside. The room behind was similar to the one she'd come from and held about as many children who were all busy playing. However, none of them, nor either of the two adults surveying them behaved really Inuyasha-ish, so Kagome closed that door and opened the next one. Inside that room the group of children still seemed to be gathered in their circle, although they were sitting on chairs, and were not singing. Instead, they were all turned towards the two adults who appeared to be a little uncomfortable, despite the smiles fixed on their faces.

“-so where do they come from, then? I asked mommy when she brought my new brother home but she wouldn't tell me.” a little girl was asking just as Kagome stuck her head inside.

“Well,” one of the adults drawled. “That's an interesting question. Where do the babies come from?”

Kagome suppressed a giggle at the increasing discomfort of the two educators. She still vividly remembered the priceless expression on her mother's face when five year old Souta had come home one day asking what a 'hooker' was. Wherever he'd learned that word anyway...

“Maybe one of you has an idea?” the educator continued.

Mumbling arose among the children as each of them seemed to be contemplating that question. A tiny voice rose at last.

“Maybe our Lord makes them?”

The adult nodded enthusiastically. “Wonderful, Clodarch, that is - “

“Keh!” another voice suddenly interrupted. Kagome perked up and scanned the circle of children for a scowling face. However, some of them were sitting with their backs to the door; the boy who'd just spoken up was among those.

“That's fucking ridiculous. I knew that much when I was your age.” The boy turned towards the girl who'd brought up the matter. “Your father knocked your mother up, and voila, you got your baby brother,” he explained matter-of-factly.

Inuyasha.

Kagome failed to suppress a groan that briefly distracted the totally baffled educator. But only briefly.

"Who told you ... that?" he asked the boy who, in a matter of seconds, had become Kagome's first choice candidate for possible Inuyasha counterparts of this dimension. She slipped into the room as soon as the circle of children was the center of attention again.

"It's not true, of course - " he explained to the rest of the group wile his smile grew in confidence again, and Kagome wondered why he'd do that now that the cat was out of the bag anyway, " - and whoever told you this must be awfully misled, the poor one, so why don't you just tell me who might have said such a wicked thing?” his smile briefly changed into a 'we're buddies, you can tell me' grin of some sort. “Then perhaps we can all go and help that someone back onto the right path again."

Kagome reached the boy she suspected to be Inuyasha the moment he snorted at that.

"Yeah right... " he drawled and now Kagome was sure that is was Inuyasha sitting there in front of her. No child of ten should be capable of drenching two words with that amount of sarcasm and arrogance.

"Inuyasha," she hissed, effectively shutting him up when he was about to continue. He finally turned and looked at her and yup, he was definitely frowning.

"Kagome?" he whispered.

"Yes. What are you doing?"

"Huh?"

"I thought we agreed to try to not mess around with our counterpart's lives any more!” she huffed.

“Nice definition of an 'agreement' you got there, where one person decides and the other is the asshole if they don't play along,” he spat back.

Kagome opened her mouth to retort - and closed it again. That was kind of true... but still, they just couldn't go on like this! Conformity and precaution were required here!

“Who is your little friend, Meiron? Isn't that Morgaine from group four?”

... so much for conformity on her side. But all was not lost yet. She turned to the teacher and brandished the most syrupy sweet smile she could manage.

“Yes, that's me, Morgaine. I wanted to ask Meiron if he'll come out to play.”

There, she was slowly getting the hang of that whole acting thing... at least when it came to playing dim witted little girls...

“Can he pleease?” she added, tilting her head for good measure. She felt a little manipulative now...

But it worked. The adult who seemed to feel in charge, rather than the other, nodded - with a smile.

“Of course you can, Morgaine, but you see our mass has not finished yet. You'll have to wait a little, dear.”

“Ooh.” Kagome smiled what she hoped looked like a slightly disappointed smile, “All right..”

“But if you like, you can join us!”

“Yuppee!” she squealed and felt like an utter moron. The other educator fetched a chair for her and she sat down beside Inuyasha. He was staring at her as if she'd just declared her undying love for hairy, overgrown spider youkai. Which was close, in a way; she felt equally appalled by her own behavior.

But, she'd obviously stunned him out of smart arse retorts because when the educator explained that he would like to have a word with him about those nasty things he'd said later on Inuyasha just nodded - and frowned.

After the prayer and a short wordless argument about whether Inuyasha should put back his chair or not they were actually allowed to go 'play'. They slipped out of the room just in time to avoid a boy who was approaching Inuyasha with a puzzled expression and into the bathrooms across the corridor.

“All right -” Kagome started, but at the sight of Inuyasha's frown, or rather, er, increase in frownage, she interrupted herself. “What?” she asked warily.

“These people are fucking nuts. I don't know what they were doing where you came from but in my group they were... it's like they want to turn the children into morons, really. Did you hear that stuff about where the babies come from and that? What use is there in telling them that kinda crap? And before you came, someone was asking about when they were going to be allowed to go to something called... cong-whatever. Something like that anyway, and from what I understood that's where they, like, get a life partner from, like with those Omai back in Japan, you know, but kinda worse cause you hardly know more than each other's name when you move in together. But you're expected to 'contribute offspring' once in four years. And at the same time they say 'The Lord' wants people to live freely and happily in each of their stupid songs. Kinda hypocritical if you ask me.”

It was all Kagome could do not to go looking for the real Inuyasha somewhere.

“Why - what - You care?” she stammered, totally forgetting that she had meant to hurry up with the shard here and at least try to be back by the time their counterpart's parents would come to fetch them.

Inuyasha, oblivious to her shock, shrugged. “Well, I guess once you get used to the whole democratic, liberal idea everything else can't win anymore. It's nice having a choice, at least in some places -”

“Who are you? What have you done to my dimension travel-partner?” Kagome blurted out.

“What?” Inuyasha glared, immediately suspicious. “Did you think just because I'm hanyou I'd be too stupid to know about that?”

Kagome had to blink before she processed how he'd come to that conclusion. “What would that have to do with you being half youkai? I was just surprised that you suddenly sounded like you care for people other than yourself.”

“I don't, I didn't say that, did I?” he snapped back, obviously only half appeased.

“Well, caring about their personal freedom is a beginning, I guess...”

“I don't care, I... whatever,” he huffed. “Let's go find out where that factory is!” and turned on his heel.

Kagome rolled her eyes. Coming out of the mouth of a freckled boy his whole attitude became even more unbelievable. Who was he trying to kid, anyway? And what to prove?

Inuyasha stopped at the door and turned again. “Where do we find that out then?”

OOO

They didn't, in fact, find out the exact location of the factory since asking the adults only led to suspicious questions about why they wanted to know that. As for the name of the factory, Inuyasha had the admittedly good idea to sneak a look at the first aid kit, since they'd probably only stored medication from that factory.

When they were stopped from just taking it from were it hung on the wall by the educator though, she had to restrain him from going the Inuyasha way about it, which was hurting some child and wait for ”the brat” to be treated. Before she'd finished her lecture, he'd grabbed a rather blunt children's scissors and hurt himself, which was not really any better, since it demonstrated just the same disregard for human life. And even though he could just as well have claimed to have a 'tummy ache' or something and try it that way, it worked and the wound wasn't deep, so Kagome didn't let him know that.

'Pharmavaltion' was the name, and with that information obtained they agreed it should be possible to ask someone in the streets for directions. They sneaked out into the play garden of the center their counterparts were visiting. According to the large clock in the corridor, they were nearing four P.M., and their parents were likely to show up sometime soon. On their way out, Kagome spotted some bikes standing in a rack.

“Wait, Inuyasha!” she yelled, and Inuyasha, who was already busy doing the rabbit thing around the street turned back to her.

“Let's borrow some of the bikes, we'll be a lot faster that way!” she gestured towards the parked vehicles.

Inuyasha gave them a once over and then said: “No.”

“What? But why not?”

“...they're locked.” he explained, but the answer came a few seconds too late.

“That's not really gonna stop you, right? I mean, you built a tree house in two days, you're handy like that,” she was still kinda impressed by it, even thought she had never actually seen it. (Souta's and her tree house had taken them a week to build and in the end, it only supported one of them at a time. It was Buyo who brought it down in the end, when he jumped onto her lap while she was up there.)

Inuyasha actually looked like he was blushing for a moment but with the lessening light it was hard to tell. His answer stayed the same, though. “No. You were the one to insist that we don't mess with our counterparts' lives any more. Stealing bikesis going to get them into trouble, don't you think?”

“Well, yes, but staying away over night might even be worse. They're just little kids; I think their parents would worry about that rather than about them taking some bikes without asking.”

Inuyasha opened and closed his mouth a few times. “Well, tough, I'm not gonna do it!”

Kagome scrutinized him, from his impatiently shifting feet to the eyes that refused to meet hers. “There's more to it, isn't there?” she half guessed.

“No!” Inuyasha turned away. “We're losing time, now come on!” he called over his shoulder. Which was, in its way, as good as a 'yes'.

“Why don't you want to take those bikes? You must be just as keen as me on getting out of this dimension as quickly as possible... unless...” But that was ridiculous. With a balance like his, he could probably cycle with his eyes shut. Nevertheless, he'd tensed when she'd trailed off, and so she just asked anyway.

“Unless you just can't - ?”

“Of course I can!” he interrupted, which was as good as an open admission.

“It's OK.” Kagome stifled a giggle. “I'd just have thought with the way you rode that horse and stuff... “

“I can ride bikes! No problem at all. I just don't like it, OK?” he explained decidedly, ruining the effect when he refused to turn around and face her while saying it. “Now come on, there's a car pulling over over there, might well be one of our parents.”

“Then let's just take one. I'll ride and take you up on the rear. You look scrawny enough, we're about the same height,it should work alright”

He finally turned, glared, then rolled his eyes. “Oh whatever. You're not gonna leave this alone until you get what you want, right?”

Kagome smiled, a real smile. “Yup.”

“You're impossible,” he snapped, even while he was already examining the different locks.

“Yup.”

“Whatever.”

~* *~

Inuyasha could indeed not cycle, it seemed. As to what the reason might have been Kagome had no idea, since he refused to talk about it even when she threatened to steer the bike into a bush at the side of the road. Soon after that, she was way too exhausted to keep on interrogating him, so she stuffed that question into the overflowing parcel of her mind she had reserved for the constant source of her curiosity that was her hanyou dimension-travel companion.

The factory was not hard to find because the city was brimmed with signs pointing the way to a 'up to 70% reduced! to clear' sale and they managed to arrive there just when the sun, dimmed by the thick carpet of clouds that had been overcasting the sky since their arrival, began to disappear behind the skyline of the city. The factory area was surrounded by a fence at least two meters tall, crowned with mean looking barbed wire and had no apparent entrance except for the main one, which was guarded.

“So how are we gonna get in there?” Kagome asked, slumping to the ground to catch her breath. “I can definitely feel the shard, it's inside there somewhere, but how do we get over that fence?”

“Well, I can't carry you this time, so I guess I'll go alone first, find something to cut the fence open with, and let you in.”

That sounded reasonable, even if Kagome didn't like being left behind. “Ok. But hurry up, please.”

She looked up to catch him looking at her with a strange expression, but before she could ask he tore his gaze from her, leaped onto the fence and started climbing up. Reaching the top he asked her to hand him her jacket, threw it over the barbed wire and carefully eased over the top of the fence, cursing when he apparently cut himself on it. He jumped down on the other side and disappeared into the dusky shadows between the huge storage houses.

Kagome leaned back against the fence and closed her eyes, allowing herself to relax a little before chaos would most likely ensue again. Somehow, this world left her more ill at ease that any of the previous had, even the one she knew was crowded with giant spiders and snakes. And Inuyasha must have felt the same, she guessed by his baffling outburst in the bathroom. Why was everyone... smiling, for lack of a better word, all of the time? Even now, having spent more than an hour in this temporary body she had only begun to get a grip on that stupid smiling reflex; as soon as she wasn't concentrating on it her eyes squinted and her mouth curved on their own. Spooky.

Inuyasha returned after a while with a spade and began digging out the part of the fence that reached underground, then managed to pull it up enough for Kagome to crawl through. When he helped her up she spotted dark stains on his jacket and when they started sneaking towards the main building she saw that he was limping slightly. She opened her mouth to ask when he suddenly pushed her into the doorway they were just passing and clamped a hand over her mouth.

“A guard's coming.” he explained “With... oh crap, a dog.”

He closed his eyes for a second, then stepped away from her, gripping the shovel tighter.

“Stay right here and hold perfectly still. Don't even breathe if you don't have to.”

He was about to slip away when Kagome reached out and grabbed his hand. “Don't kill them, please.” she asked, knowing full well that a spade for a weapon didn't leave too much of a choice about that.

He gave her that strange look again, then nodded slowly and disappeared into the now completely dark grid of warehouses. A few seconds later she heard a bark that ceased with a whine, then a scream that just stopped dead. A minute passed, then Inuyasha came back, limping even harder, the spade over his shoulder and his jacket torn.

“Bound and gagged him. Gimme a minute.” he huffed and sat down in the doorway.

Kagome squinted her eyes to search him for injuries other than the obvious one on his leg but it was too dark already. She hated people getting hurt in general, but with Inuyasha, it was even worse. And that was only partly because he was usually wounded whilst doing what he thought was necessary to ensure her safety. What made it so hard to bear, Kagome guessed, was more the way he reacted to it. Like it didn't matter at all whether he was OK or not, as if his own life and wellbeing really meant nothing to him. At first, she'd thought he was just being that reckless because it wasn't his own body he risked, but a sane person would still do anything within his might to avoid being hurt for fear of pain. He didn't. It left her feeling, well, curious, as usual, since she couldn't help but wonder what a person had to have experienced to feel that way, but mainly it left her feeling sad. Because no matter what the reason really might have been, it couldn't have been anything she'd wish for anyone to have to go through.

Inuyasha caught her glare and returned it offendedly. “Fucking quit pitying me! I can still fight all right, 'tis just a sprained ankle or something.” He jumped to his feet as if to prove her worries wrong but she heard him hiss when he landed. “Now come on, let's get this done quickly, before anyone finds our friend over there.”

They didn't meet other guards on their way to the main building and found an open window. Sneaking around the ground floor they looked for a way up, which was where Kagome felt the shard, but found the door leading to the stairway locked. Inuyasha insisted they try find another way up, like up the facade outside, or through the production area they'd found behind another locked door that happened to have a glass window.

“But that's needless and dangerous. That guy has to go home sometime; we might as well wait for him down here. If he's got the shard with him we're lucky, if not, we might still find a better way up as soon as he's down,” Kagome countered, and Inuyasha grudgingly agreed.

They hid behind a door left slightly ajar opposite the one leading to the staircase. An hour or so passed, but the shard did not move a single inch, which might have been because the factory owner did not keep it on himself. Kagome was thus not even sure there actually was someone up there, but she kept her mouth shut about that for the time being. There had been light behind at least one window up there, that was for sure. Still, knowing Inuyasha, no, not knowing, since that was what frustrated her so, but having some kind of idea of his patience or lack thereof, he'd probably insist they pull some awkward stunt to get up there. And Inuyasha's counterpart's body was already hurt bad enough as it was. But, as if she'd said that aloud, Inuyasha turned from peering out in the corridor to look at her.

“Is the shard moving down yet? Is it moving at all for that matter?” he whispered.

“Uhm... Yeah... ” Strangely, lying to random people to keep up some kind of act as her counterpart was so very much easier than lying to Inuyasha, especially when he was watching her with such a reproachful expression on the freckly and large eyed face of his counterpart.

“... yeah. It's not moving at all?” he sighed. “You could have told me earlier, you know. You said you wanted to do this as quickly as possible.”

“Well, I just had that inkling you'd have us do something stupid if I did.” she snapped, totally nailed.

“What do you mean, I'd have us do anything? As I recall we've only ever done what you wanted us to, or rather, I only ever did what you told me to.”

“That's just not true!” Kagome jumped up. “What about...”

“Hah, ya see? What about the tree house, huh? And the whole making up with the offended 'friends' shit. I don't recall me telling you to kiss... whatever.”

“Well, but that's all just because you never have any ideas!” Kagome defended herself, ignoring the strange twinkle in Inuyasha's eyes she hoped she'd imagined and her suddenly very warm face. She'd just about managed to ban that particular... incident from her memory. “All you ever do is complain about pretty much everything I suggest. Just because you don't give enough of a damn about anything to give it a second thought, doesn't give you the right to bitch around if I happen to!”

Inuyasha pinched the bridge of his nose annoyedly. “Woman, we had that already. I don't give a damn about anything all right. That's none of your concern.”

“Did I just say you don't care? Scratch that. It's rubbish. I know you care, you wouldn't still be participating in this shard business if you didn't. Yeah, I know - “ she interrupted him when he opened his mouth to counter that. “There's that reward, but that can't really mean all that much to you, you haven't even come up with something to ask for yet, not even asked what is possible and what's not. You do all this...“ Harsh words were called for here “crap without even knowing what's in it for you, don't tell me you don't care about anything. You must at least, like, feel responsible for the, well, the universe and its inhabitants. You're kinda saving it right now, after all. And what about that personal freedom stuff back in the kindergarten? It's obvious you care about some things, you just must have told yourself that you don't too often, is all.” That had to be it, Kagome was sure.

Inuyasha opened and closed his mouth a few times, struggling to find a smart way to react. In the end he chose the probably most familiar one, which was getting angry.

“You stupid brat! It's not because of the fucking universe that I'm doing this crap! It's 'cause I... it's because of-”

“Now, now, what do we have here?” a voice interrupted him, and just when it got interesting, too.

A man had stuck his head through the door and was smiling down at them. Although that probably meant nothing, since everyone seemed to be smiling around here, no matter the circumstances. Inuyasha was obviously thinking along those lines too, because before the man had the chance to utter another word he threw himself against the door, catching the man's head in a heavy blow that knocked him into a groaning heap on the floor. Kagome was horrified and about to voice that, but Inuyasha grabbed her hand and pulled her over the man, another watchman, judging by his uniform, and out into the corridor. The door leading to the staircase was now open and Inuyasha dragged her right through, kicking it shut behind him.

“Why'd you do that?” Kagome huffed as they hurried up the stairs. “He wasn't even threatening us!”

“He'd gripped his truncheon already. And he was tensing. I wasn't gonna risk anything.”

“Well, all right, but you - “

“Shut up, we're almost there.”

'- could have killed him. That's what I call risking something. And we're just children right now, who'd want to harm us?' Kagome thought, but kept it to herself as they had indeed reached the first floor. Inuyasha pushed her behind him and carefully opened the door with the large “1”on it. A voice carried into the staircase, but Kagome wasn't able to single out any words. Slowly, they edged through the door and into yet another corridor. The shard tingling had gained strength all the way up the stairs and was now almost buzzing in her head. The shard was on this floor.

She tapped Inuyasha on the shoulder and nodded when he turned to her. He seemed to understand what she was getting at, answering with a nod of his own and mouthing what might have been the word 'where'. Kagome pointed to the only door that had light shining out from the gap beneath it and from behind which the voice sounded, because that was where she felt the shard was. Inuyasha sighed almost inaudibly, and she shared his feelings. It would have been a lot easier, though unlikely, if the shard had been inside one of the obviously vacant rooms behind the multiple doors in that corridor.

Only when they reached the door in question was Kagome able to properly hear what the person behind was saying. He, his voice told as much, was talking to someone on the phone.

“- coming up here? But why would- wait a minute... “

And, steps began creaking on the floor inside. “Come on up right now!” the man barked.

Kagome opened her mouth to shout a warning the very second Inuyasha grabbed her hand and dashed along the corridor towards where it crossed with another one. Behind them Kagome could hear a door burst open and the man stomped out into the corridor just when they slithered around the left hand corner.

But, the legs of children were not made for outrunning grown-ups, even large ones like this. He caught up so quickly they might just as well have stayed where they were. Inuyasha cursed, shoved her aside and spun around; gripping the spade he still carried with him tighter.

The first thing Kagome realized about the man coming at them was that he was carrying the shard now. The second thing was that he was the first person she'd met in this dimension, save for Inuyasha, that was not, by her interpretation of the word, smiling. His face was drawn into a furious mask involving lots of teeth and... well, on a second thought, maybe he did feel that this expression qualified as a smile. Which was more than just creepy. Inuyasha was apparently not going to ponder that, as soon as the man was in reach he swung the spade. But, the man evaded with surprising agility, considering his sheer hugeness. Inuyasha tried again to hit him but this time he just caught the instrument with one hand and hurled it, with Inuyasha still attached, against the wall.

Kagome screamed when she saw her partner slide to the ground and remain lying there, not stirring, and even more when the man then turned to her.

“What are you two doing here, I wonder?” he said while advancing, in a voice of a calm and friendly quality that contradicted the expression on his face as well as the now groaning heap of Inuyasha he'd left lying behind him. Kagome scrambled backwards as he chatted on.

“Knocking down two of my watchmen and killing one of my priceless watchdogs, my wor - “ a scrape of metal had him turn just in time to have Inuyasha's shovel hit him in the chest instead of his back. He stumbled backwards but caught himself alarmingly well. Inuyasha stood there, or rather swayed there, clutching the spade, one eye closed because blood was running into it from a cut on his brow. The man was on him before he could raise the his makeshift weapon a second time and ripped his it from his arms. Kagome came to her feet and jumped to intervene but was suddenly snatched out of the air and tucked under someone's arm.

“I got the other one, sir.”

The man who was by all appearances the chief of the factory, about to hit Inuyasha, stopped and tilted his head friendlily. “I would not move another muscle if I were you, little man, or your friend might have to pay.”

Inuyasha said nothing and dropped the spade he'd picked up again.

“Let her go,” he demanded menacingly, but coming from the mouth of a ten year old it just sounded cute, for lack of a better word.

“You're hardly in the position to be making any demands here, little man. Quite the opposite, I demand to know what possessed the two of you to break in here.”

He looked from Inuyasha to Kagome, who was still uncomfortably and rather humiliatingly tucked under the watchman's arm, expectantly. When neither replied - well, what could they have said anyway? - he sighed.

“Look, kids, I know 'Pharmacreation' is onto us about those new 'joy-pills' we're about to launch and would do anything to get their hands on the formula. I do believe they are eager or plain stupid enough to send children to spy on us in hopes that I would be lenient if they were caught, seeing as all their previous attempts at infiltrating our laboratories ended in the... inexplicable disappearance of their spies.”

Kagome felt her jaw drop and her heart clench. Abuse children as spies? Inexplicable disappearance? It was obvious that this man was just as ruthless as the picture he'd drawn of his rival factory, if not more so. And very clearly very insane.

“I'm telling you this because if you do happen to be two of those spies now is the time to tell me so and to tell me exactly what you've already found out,” the factory owner continued. “And that, I'm afraid, is the only way there is for the two of you to leave unharmed,” he tilted his head again “I take business quite seriously, you know,” and poked Inuyasha in the chest. “Now tell me, little man. What kind of game did they tell you to play? Where did you go before you came up here? Huh?”

And Kagome sighed when she saw Inuyasha kick the man's shin in an answer 's stead. It wasn't like he could have told the man what he wanted to hear because then they'd be screwed for sure, no matter what he wanted them to believe, but there was always the option of being more ... subtle in one's refusal.

The man let go of Inuyasha and stepped back, tapping his nose. “Well you do seem to know something, given that fierce resistance,” he paused for a moment, thinking. “There are ways of getting it out of you. Mulier, take the girl to the high security storerooms, lock her up and come up to the laboratory.” His smile grew even more unpleasant as he turned his gaze back on Inuyasha. “I've been itching to run a few first tests on that prototype inquisiative. You're gonna be my mouse, little man.”

Off they went. Inuyasha didn't look at her when they passed him but she thought she saw a hint of fear in his frown. That might have been wishful... seeing, though, since she so desperately wanted him to be scared at the prospect of maybe even being tortured for all he knew. There was nothing heroic in being that reckless about himself, but something very worrying and disturbing. Though she was twisting kicking and squirming under the watchman's arm she couldn't catch another glimpse at his face.

The watchman settled her on the ground as soon as they'd reached ground floor again.

“I'm not going to take you down there, stop crying already!” he said, and Kagome realized that she was indeed crying, not for fear of being imprisoned, but for that idiot up there somewhere.

“Chief's a tough guy, I know, but this is going too far. You're just children, even if you've given Morus and Metor a hard time. I'm going to drop you in front of the gates and you'll hurry on home as fast as you can, all right?”

“But my... friend. What about him?” Kagome croaked.

The watchman shook his head. “I'm risking enough by letting you escape, little lady. I don't think I can do anything for your friend. Come on now.” And he picked her up again, carrying her out to the main gates as he'd promised and all but shoved her outside there after a few words with the watchman there.

“Stay away, don't try anything stupid, like rescuing your friend.” he yelled after the gates had closed behind her again, and hurried off.

Kagome ran, down the highly illuminated road until she was sure the watch at the gate could not see her anymore, which was quite far, then plunged into the shadows besides the road and ran back, twice as fast, to the hole in the fence she'd squeezed in through the first time.

There were no watchmen around, which meant they hadn't found it yet, or hadn't cared.

Kagome hurried through the labyrinth of warehouses and lost a few precious minutes when she took several wrong turns, her sense of orientation had never been great to begin with, but she arrived at the main building again after what she guessed to be about twenty minutes. Twenty minutes during which quite a lot could have happened.

She shook her head to shake the pictures of medieval thumbscrews and stretching benches and less medieval electroshocking devices and truth serums and found the window they'd sneaked in through before now securely closed. Circling the whole building frenetically she found absolutely no entrance whatsoever on ground level, but a small window about two meters or more high up on the wall behind which the production area lay. She fought down the tears that threatened to rise again and rushed to fetch some crates she'd seen somewhere on the way, all the while successfully praying that no watchman come along. A few rather large stones found their way into her anorak's pockets since she figured some kind of weapon might come in handy at some point. She thought her arms would fall off and her lungs might explode when she mounted her little pyramid of wooden boxes at last, but there was no helping it. She peered through the half opened window to find the insides even blacker than the night outside. But the handle was on the inside and the window wouldn't budge, no matter how hard she pressed.

Inuyasha would probably have known how to open it... but that was stupid, co-dependent, and not emancipated thinking and would stop this very instant! She sat down to think and her behind had barely touched the box when she'd come up with something. She tugged the cord out of the hem of her anorak and tied one end into a small sling. Then she dangled that sling over the handle on the inside until it caught, pulled it through the small gap below the window, and with many slips and careful tugging managed to turn the handle into the horizontal. (It works. I opened a window that way, once.) The window, hanging only half on its hinges then, slid open and she eased through. The floor on the inside was higher than the ground outside, thankfully. Kagome landed with a clank on an iron balcony thingy that seemed to circle the whole hall, from what she could see in the dark, interrupted by only a few red lights on the monstrous shadow of the machinery and the moonlight filtering through the few dust encrusted windows. She pressed to the ground and waited anxiously but no one seemed to have heard her.

The multiple limbed creature that was really only was a conglomerate of different large machines seemed to move in the corner of her eye as she hurried along the balcony towards some kind of exit but that was probably just her fear of the dark speaking up. Kagome reached the very door Inuyasha and she had stood on the other side of few hours ago and did what she had not wanted Inuyasha to do back then, she smashed the glass with one of the stones and hid up on the balcony again; it stopped a meter or so before the doorframe. But, no one appeared to have taken notice so she fetched a stool from one of the assembly lines and climbed through the dangerously sharp edged opening without greater damage, except to her hands, which bled from several cuts. But she had neither material nor time to take care of these wounds now. She ran through the corridor ahead, praying for the door to the staircase to still be open.

Her prayers were heard for the second time that night although she certainly still did not feel particularly graced by the gods right then. She passed the door to the first floor and dashed further up; the factory owner had told his watchman to come up to the laboratories, which meant they had to be somewhere above. That and the shard was up there, too.

She was but a few stairs from the door to the second floor when she heard a door bang somewhere up high and hurried steps descend right towards her. She turned on her heel and hurried down the stairs herself, taking care to make as little noise as possible and was about to try the door to first floor when the person above her spotted her.

“Kagome”

She heard that broken whisper and turned stupefied, just in time to see Inuyasha stumble over the last steps and fall towards her. She did her best to cushion his fall but in the end, they landed as a tumbled heap on the landing. Inuyasha remained lying on top of her a little too long and she found that odd at first, but he was simply just an inch from unconsciousness. He came to his senses when she shook him though, and scrambled to his feet staggering. Kagome stood, too and only then found her tongue again.

“What happened to you?” she whispered, unsure whether it was safe to speak aloud.

But she really wished she hadn't asked when Inuyasha lifted his face and she saw it was a distorted mask of something between a smile and an expression of naked horror.

“Lots,” he explained, his voice as raw and weak as he looked. He extended a hand. “Come on.”

“What?” she asked absently, while she searched him for injuries, but the only new ones he had were on his lower lip, which looked savaged and was still bleeding.

“The shard, we-”

“We can't go after the shard now!” she hissed. “You're wrecked, face it, and I'm a state too,” she showed him her still bleeding hands. He looked at them and sighed, then carefully snatched her wrist and pulled her down the stairs and into the restroom there.

A thought suddenly occurred to Kagome, up to that point shoved aside by the sheer relief of having found Inuyasha alive and the sorrow at seeing him anything but well, whatever the cause might have been.

“The factory owner! Won't he come after you?” she whispered, panic squeezing her insides.

Inuyasha shook his head. “Not for a while, he should be well out of it.”

“What the heck did he do to you?” Kagome asked urgently.

Inuyasha started to shake his head again but then he suddenly dropped the wet piece of his shirt he had been dabbing her wounds with and a tremor went through him. He bit onto his still bleeding lip and uttered the most horrifying sound Kagome had heard in her whole life and beyond, a squeal of pain mixed with a throaty groan of anguish and a muffled scream of agony. His hand squeezed her wrist unbelievably tight but she hardly felt it. Then his grip suddenly loosened as his knees seemed to give away under him. She caught him and carefully leaned him against the wall between two sinks.

“What did he do?!” she all but yelled at him, feeling those needless tears prick at her eyes again.

It took a minute until Inuyasha was breathing normally again and he opened his eyes very carefully.

“Dunno,” he shrugged, then winced. “Gets worse with each attack. Some stuff... for interrogo -” he breathed in, “interrogating pris'ners er war. They're developing it for the milit'ry he said.”

“By attack you mean, bouts of pain?”

“Yup.” He tried to stand but gave up when his arms wouldn't even push him off the ground. “And damn, that's a pain that is, I tell you. I don't mean to brag or anything but if there's one thing I'm really good at it'S ignoring pain but the last three bouts... whew.”

“Stop it!” Kagome hissed.

“First he'd force-fed me some stuff that makes you smile. That was crazy, I mean, I was going blind with pain but smiling all the time-”

“Stop it! Stop talking about this that way!” Kagome yelled at last, tears springing from her eyes.

“What do you mean, 'that way'? You wanted to know what happened, I-”

“Stop talking about that as if it doesn't matter that you've just been tortured. You can't be this nonchalant about something like that, you just can't! It's neither heroic, nor macho nor whatever else you think it is, it's just sick! You, you - imagine that had happened to me, would you talk about it like this? Would you want me to?”

“Well, with you that'd be different.” Inuyasha replied meekly. “What with you being a-”

“It's got nothing to do with me being a girl or with being used to it! You've been tortured. That's taking away everything that makes you human and-”

“I'm not human, that's what I was going to say.”

“You're human right now.”

He shrugged. “Even so, human standards don't apply to me, I know that. There's no human rights for me, no 'The dignity of man is inviolable' stuff. ”

“Rubbish. Being only half human genetically doesn't make you any less of a person, and that's what matters. You're not worthless just because-”

“I didn't say I was worthless!” Inuyasha rose and did manage to stand this time.

“But you're acting like it,” Kagome said, her tears dried away by the heat of her anger. Didn't he see?

Inuyasha huffed and turned towards the door. “Well, we've got no time for this now. We need to get up there before that bastard wakes up again.”

Kagome followed him, grudgingly. “Just take a little more care of yourself,” she added when they slipped out into the corridor again but Inuyasha just shrugged.

The shard hadn't moved for while and so they thought it safe to enter the laboratories again. Inuyasha had another attack on the way, and she pulled him to her and held him as he shook; it was the only pitiful attempt at comfort she knew to offer. The factory owner was still lying on the ground where Inuyasha said he left him, his head in a corona of blood and the now broken stool Inuyasha must have - repeatedly - hit him with scattered beside him. The 'interrogation' had taken place in a room that was less of a laboratory and more of an office, separated from the main area by a wall of windows one of which was now broken.

Kagome located the shard and snatched it from the man's pocket when he suddenly stirred. A squeal escaped her and alarmed Inuyasha who had been about to leave the room, but it was already to late. A hand clung like a vise around her ankle and the man dragged himself up with an inarticulate groan. Inuyasha rammed into the man full force and he fell over, onto Kagome, which was little improvement, although he did let go of her. Instead, he grabbed Inuyasha, who was, as far as Kagome could see through the stars in front of her eyes, trying to scramble away, and hurled him against the glass wall across the room. The glass split but didn't break and Inuyasha was once again out cold. The factory owner came to his feet, staggering and clutching his once again bleeding head.

Kagome did not bother with trying to stand, since air had yet to find a way into her forcefully emptied lungs again, and scrambled over to Inuyasha, the shard clutched firmly in her hand. All the while, she prayed and prayed for it to fuse with her and get them out in time, but to no avail. Her hand only just brushed Inuyasha when she was seized by her collar and dragged up to face the bruised and blood smeared face of the factory owner.

“I don't care who you two are anymore, you are going to die by my very own hands!” he screeched.

And Kagome prayed and prayed, even as he staggered over to the large window across from the door and opened it. They were on the fifth floor and outside was the concrete ground of the storage area. She was terrified to tears, which ought to have qualified as one very intense emotion but the shard stayed where it was. That is, until the factory owner suddenly glowered at her white knuckled fist and began prying it open forcefully. Kagome struggled but with her collar cutting into her air pipe, she just didn't have any strength left. He extracted the shard and proceeded to open the window.

Kagome was numb with dry ice cold panic but then, suddenly, she dropped as the man groaned and staggered dangerously close to the low window sill. She lifted her head to see Inuyasha swaying backwards, wondrously revived yet again, although he looked half dead, and clutching one of the stool legs.

The factory owner turned with a scream of something intelligible and Inuyasha retreated into the laboratory beyond the door. After a second of indecisiveness, the man turned on her again, bending with a groan to reach her when Kagome had the sense to scramble out of his reach, although her mind was buzzing with near panic confusion. Had Inuyasha taken her words from before that serious and was now leaving her to her own devices?

Suddenly there was a clatter followed by a scream and Kagome thought Inuyasha had another attack until he came storming into the room again at a speed that should have been impossible with the way he'd been limping before .

“Stay down Kagome!” he yelled and threw the stool leg so it hit the factory owner square in the face and barged into him. The man, stunned by the hit already, never stood a chance. He staggered, taking a step back, except that there was no room to step back into, reached out when he overbalanced, neatly cleared the window frame and fell out.

Kagome pushed herself over to where Inuyasha had fallen, blood thundering in her ears and shook him. He didn't stir. She turned him over and saw that his eyes where open and blood was all over his face, more of it oozing out between his lips.

“Inuyasha,” she croaked around her chokingly tight throat.

“Wake up, we did it. I'll just fetch the shard -”

“Shut up,” he mouthed more than said, then coughed up a handful of blood.

“Inu-I'll get the shard, don't move!”

And before he could think of answering she was in the staircase again, running past the same watchman who'd let her go before, who might or might not have said something to her. She had already dug into the man's pockets before she realized that she was actually pillaging a corpse here, and then she was already beyond caring. She put it down to shock that stepping on a piece of... brain? didn't even faze her and snatched the shard from the soaked pocket of what used to be a cream colored suit. And up she raced, past the still puzzled watchman, to find Inuyasha coughing more blood onto a telephone he was holding for whatever reason. Kagome didn't care; she yelled for that blasted shard to fuse with her and cursed that Sango person for being unable, or unwilling to beam Inuyasha up before her.

Then, finally, finally, finally, she felt herself fade from her counterpart's body.

AN: Whew, this chapter was... drastic, or something. Hard to write. (And not very much thought through at first I must admit... thanks, Alvida.)

Yeah, well, I changed the title of the story temporarily, mainly because I'm paranoid and chicken, and don't want people who know me personally to read this story (The anonymity of the Internet has lotsa appeal for people like me, I guess... )

'Omai' are those Japanese official dates, it's really a bit like what I described in the chapter, where two people meet for dinner, often bringing their parents along, and get to know each other to decide whether they want to marry. Sometimes there may even be several suitors present, and more often than not, like with most marriages that are not based on love, the whole thing's primarily about money. It's not that common anymore today, of course, but back when Inuyasha last stayed in Japan in my story most marriages were settled that way. Omai is the way I know it to be romanized (does this word exist? My stupid spellchecker doesn't seem to think so, but it also doesn't know the word spellchecker, the poor, confused thing, so I'll forgive it.) , I didn't look it up in a dictionary, though.

On a random side not, has anyone of you read 'Everything is illuminated' by Jonathan Safran Foer? That was the best book since 'Howl's moving castle' and most definitely the Saddest (Yes, with a capital S) book I've ever read. I would have cried if I still could, it's heartbreaking. Read it, if you think you can bare it, because it's also very beautiful.

Oh and leave a review on the way, if you got the time...