InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Crossed Wires ❯ Shadow Play ( Chapter 16 )

Disclaimer: Have you ever watching the ever shifting play of emotions in humans when they hit a rough spot. So too, I bet goes the way of demons and half demons….

RT is the owner.

The garbled mutters of a diminutive demon caught the slayer’s ear and arrested her movement forward. Hand behind her in warning she peered around the corner ahead of her and watched the tiny green demon babble whispered curses as he shook his head and moved further away to the left from their position.

Pulling back her eyes caught her companion’s as she breathed slightly with a whispered, “Jaken.”

Kagome nodded and pressed her body tightly against the wall, awaiting the signal from the slayer that they could move. Not for the first time she pulled against the silky clothing hampering her movements. She really wanted her uniform but Sango had vetoed that search.

“Kagome, we either leave now, and put as many miles between us and this fiasco, or we spend time searching Sesshoumaru’s castle for the laundry….”

The slayer had been busily tucking the ends of her furisode in her obi shortening the fabric should she need to run as she watched the miko for her answer. It has been a no-brainer for Kagome who matched her friend’s actions and quickly shortened the flowing material of her own clothing.

Their movements throughout the rooms had been quiet and efficient thanks to the slayer’s training and at the moment Kagome could hear the rush of the courtyard’s fountain just a wall away.

Waiting for the slayer’s okay to move, Kagome laid her head back against the wall, as she remembered Sesshoumaru’s amusement, "… you really have no choice but to abide by my decision, unless you do not care for the hanyou and monk's safety."

She cared.

The slayer cared as well. They, Kagome closed her eyes and bit her bottom lip - no, she had been the instigator of this carnival of mishaps. What started in the heat of anger, then fun, had quickly escalated to the point where Inuyasha and Miroku’s lives were being threatened. They weren’t angry or having fun anymore. Now the slayer and she were frantic to find a way out of this unholy mess without losing the men they loved or winding up bound in unwanted political matches.

They had spent the better part of two hours going over their options, discussing what they should do, trying to find a way out of their current mess until the slayer had finally thrown up her hands and began convincing her miko friend that the best course of action was to get as far away as possible, out of Sesshoumaru’s clutches. She felt confident the half demon and monk would follow as soon as they were able.

The miko agreed acknowledging that as long as they were in their current situation they all were in danger.

Leave it to Sesshoumaru, the ice king, to find a way to turn something like this to his advantage despite the wants and wishes of the players involved.

“Inuyasha” her heart cried as the slayer motioned to move again. Drawing a tight breath, Kagome crouched low and slipped behind the slayer’s lead into the shadows bleeding onto the courtyard.

Isamu growled as the wolf prince pushed him again, “How the hell is this my fault?”

“You didn’t tell me your intended was the princess of the southern tribe.” Kouga snapped glaring at his pack mate before resuming his pacing.

Isamu straightened and squared his shoulders his own snarl filling the room, “You would have known if you had been around the cave instead of speeding across the country looking for ghosts!”

Kouga’s pacing stopped as he turned and faced the wolf demon, “say again?”

Isamu widened his stance, lifted his head, looked down his nose at his leader but remained quiet.

Kouga’s chest rumbled in warning as he drew near the wolf demon catching his stare full on, “my pack knows I was avenging our fallen comrades or did you forget?”

Isamu returned the wolf prince’s glare, “and while you were chasing mists the rest of us were protecting the pack, trying to rebuild in an uncertain future. Doing,” the wolf demon snarled, “what our prince should have been home doing!”

A crescendo of snarls filled the room as the wolf prince’s anger pushed at his pack mate, “are you saying you would have done better?”

Isamu’s eyes flicked away for the smallest of seconds, but it was enough. Kouga leapt his claws raking down across the wolf demon’s chest pushing him backward against the wall as the wolf prince dropped to a crouch his attention on Isamu. The wolf demon raised his hand brushing against the blood dripping down his chest and snarled, his eyes filling with fury just as he sprang for the wolf prince.

“Dammit, Inuyasha” the monk hissed as they moved among the dripping clothing. “they’re not here.”

The half demon nodded but continued to move ahead and to a basket of cast off clothing. Digging within he soon lifted with the miko’s uniform and the slayer’s leathers.

Tossing the slayer’s leathers to the monk, he pushed the miko’s uniform within the sleeve of his haori and headed in a crouch for the far door just ahead. Ears flicking the half demon suddenly pulled the monk to the right and behind him against the wall. Crouching low in the shadows, breath’s held they watched the door swing open and the cursing Jaken enter the room.

Eyes on the small demon’s back, Inuyasha and Miroku waited until his steps had taken him deep within the room before slipping through the open door and outside.

Within a few minutes the small demon stopped muttering and looked to his right as a tall demon flowed from the shadows. Turning the small demon watched the doorway the half demon and monk had just slipped through and snorted.

A clawed hand reached out and rested upon his head briefly before being removed. As quietly as the tall demon had appeared he disappeared blending within the room’s shadows as Jaken grumbled beneath his breath, “stupid Inuyasha!”