InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Dark Heaven ❯ Metal, Blood and Bone ( Chapter 13 )

Dark Heaven

 

Okay, this chapter is totally Kagome and Hunter centric. Enjoy!

 

Chapter 13

 

Metal, Blood and Bone

 

Kagome dodged a knife swiped at her head and spun into a high kick, catching the thug off-guard and knocking him back, his weapon clanging to the ground. This one was a simple purse snatcher and mugger. His head hit the wall to his left, and Kagome landed another kick to the back of his head, knocking him out to fall back and slump against the wall.

 

“Bravo, bravo, another villain thwarted.” Kagome rolled her eyes and turned around. This was the third time Hunter had shown up. It had been a week since he had first shown himself, and he had shadowed her every night, although he didn't always speak to her directly. Hunter smiled at her and clapped slowly.

 

“What do you want?” Kagome asked, folding in her wings for comfort in the confines of the alley.

 

“I came to say hi,” Hunter chuckled, flashing a fanged grin. Kagome nodded, accepting his response but not entirely believing it.

 

“What's your game Hunter?” She snapped. Hunter didn't give any visible response, so she kept going. “I know you're a youkai Hunter, so you could easily kill me. What are you up to?” Hunter shrugged.

 

“You interest me. Besides, I may not want to kill you. Maybe I'm just having fun screwing with your mind.” Kagome snorted.

 

“So, I'm a source of entertainment to you?” she laughed bitterly. “I'm flattered you find me so transfixing.”

 

“That I do, my dear Angel,” Hunter replied. “I admit you are rather alluring in a multitude of ways.” Kagome frowned. This was a different conversation from her usual battles of wits with Hunter. “You're quite lovely, Angel. Your face is unknown, but it's not your face that brings me to you. A winged human, valiantly fighting impossible odds, trying to rid an evil world of wickedness? I find it rather…beautiful, in a dark, laughable way.”

 

“Have you lost it?” Kagome asked, genuinely disturbed.

 

“No, I'm merely telling you what I see when I look at you. I know firsthand this world is doomed to prejudice and injustice, and yet you fight against it. I find that admirable. I'm sorry if I've bothered you by admitting this, but it is true. One Angel fighting for a futile cause, it's quite the story.”

 

“Whatever,” Kagome muttered, turning around. Hunter watched as she left, flying up in the air. Kagome felt the silver-haired youkai watch her until she was well out of view. She glided over the city, noting a man being handcuffed up against a wall of an alley. Kagome figured that Hunter was right on some level, there was no way she could ever stop every criminal. But the police helped, and she did her part. She had learned from experience she'd never be able to live with herself if she did anything less.

 

- - - - - - - - - -

 

“I'll find her myself,” Sango grunted, closing and locking the door of the Cryer office. Shippo had been adamant about photographing Angel for the last few days: he outright refused to take her picture. She wasn't entirely sure why, but she didn't care. Angel was going to make her career, and if she had to she's get a picture of her herself. She double checked the mini-cam on her vest collar and made sure the actual camera she had around her neck was ready to shoot, and jogged down the street. Now all she had to do was get in trouble somehow.

 

“That's the braud Bankotsu told us about,” A low, feminine voice murmured.

 

“Huh, ya sure?” The bulky man beside him asked.

 

“Positive. She looks just like he described,” The first man replied. “You watch out for the winged bitch, I'll handle the reporter.” The second man grunted as the first slipped out into the street, his light-green trenchcoat fluttering behind him. He snuck up behind Sango and wrapped an arm around her neck.

 

“Hello birdie,” The man snickered. Sango gasped, but kicked backwards. The man crumpled to the ground. “Dirty bitch, get back here!” He snarled, watching Sango flee down the street. He slowly climbed to his feet and stumbled down the street after her. High above the city streets, a winged form looked down to see Sango running down the pavement.

 

“Sango,” Kagome gasped. She swooped down and plowed into the man chasing her. He flipped back head over heels and lay on his chest, letting out a grunt. Kagome landed and spun around to see the man groan.

 

“Ginkotsu, don't just stand there dumbass!” The man screeched, running after Sango again. Kagome watched as a shadow loomed from behind her in the light of the streetlamp. She turned to see a large man in a brown trenchcoat behind her. He looked down at Kagome and grinned, flashing a row of steel teeth.

 

“Nice dental plan,” Kagome snapped, snapping a punch across the man's jaw. Kagome's eyes bugged out and she wrung her hand out, wincing in pain. She brought her other fist up to punch his chest. A metallic clang was the result, and Kagome's hand throbbed. She growled and brought a knee up to the spot between the man's legs. There was a rattling and a hollow sound. “Holy shit…” Kagome whispered. The man curled up his dumbbell of a hand and slammed it into Kagome's chest. Kagome was flung no less than ten feet down the asphalt, rolling to a stop with various cuts and scratches along her body.

 

“Crap,” She hissed, climbing to her feet and clutching her stomach. The man drew back a hand and slammed it down on her. Kagome flapped and shot up, the man's hand making an impressive dent in the road. Kagome flapped again and gasped as pain shot through her left side. She landed limply on a streetlamp and looked down at the man. Ginkotsu trudged to the streetlamp and wrapped sausage-sized fingers around the post, and pulled. The post creaked and snapped under his strength, and Kagome leapt off it to the roof behind her as Ginkotsu stumbled back into the road again, off-balance from the massive pole in his hand. There was a loud honk, and Ginkotsu spun around. Kagome looked down in horror as the car sped towards him.

 

It was like the age-old physics problem: irresistible force meets immovable object.

 

The front end of the car crumpled instantly, the metal frame and the machinery inside becoming a few inches thick in moments. The driver had the good sense to leap away as he impacted, and he was fleeing into an alley. The windshield cracked and shattered, sending glass showering to the street. The car lifted up off its back wheel over a foot into the air before slamming back to the street.

 

Ginkotsu leg out a roar and stumbled back, his trenchcoat torn and ripped, revealing a mess of circuitry, metal and fiberglass on his chest. He fell back several feet, took a step forward, and went taut, falling forward like a tree. His head smashed into what was left of the car as his body slammed into the road, sending cracks from where he had hit. Kagome watched him to make sure he didn't move before taking off across the roofs, running as fast as she could.

 

- - - - - - - - - -

 

Sango looked over her shoulder. Jakotsu was still hot on her heels, scowling. She ducked down a side-street and slipped behind a car. Jakotsu rounded the corner and skidded to a halt, glaring down the pavement.

 

“I know you're here bitch!” He called, stepping down the street. He reached into his trenchcoat and drew a long sword out. “And I'll find you…” He spun and flung his sword out. Sango turned her head, her jaw dropping at the sight. The blade extended impossibly far, skewering the side of a car across the road, clear through the front doors. Jakotsu snapped his wrist back and the blade retracted to normal size. Jakotsu kept walking as a dark form swooped down from the roof behind him and hid in an alley.

 

He thrust again, this time through the windshield and the back window of the car Sango was behind. Sango covered her head and closed her eyes as glass rained down around her. Jakotsu took another step forward and stared at the shadow extending over the street from the light above. A distinctly human form rose from the back of a car. “Bye bitch,” He snarled, drawing back his sword. Sango leapt up to run, and Jakotsu flung out his sword. It caught Sango's side and she went down, blood pouring from her hip. Jakotsu pulled his sword back for another strike.

 

There were two flashes of silver. The first sent Jakotsu's sword spinning out of his hand to stick in the side of a bakery. The second sent Jakotsu slamming back into the wall of the bakery next to his sword. Jakotsu glared at his assailant and reached up touch his lip, pulling his hand back to see blood.

 

“You're got guts,” Jakotsu grinned, pulling his sword back. “I wanna see what they look like.”

 

- - - - - - - - - -

 

Kagome heard shattering glass and ran faster, leaping over the gap between buildings and stopping at the edge. About a third of the way down the street lay Sango, breathing but not moving that she could see. Several feet away stood the same man Kagome had seen earlier, although at this range she wasn't sure it was a man anymore. He had a gleaming sword in his hand, exchanging blows with…

 

“Hunter?” Kagome whispered. The man slashed down, and Hunter raised his claws to deflect the blow, knocking the sword aside and bringing his other claw up to slice into Jakotsu's arm. Jakotsu stumbled back and gasped, glaring at his bloody arm. He flung his sword out, and Hunter caught it, grabbing the blade and ripping it from Jakotsu's hands. His hands were bloody now, but the word was far from Jakotsu's reach. Jakotsu aimed a clumsy punch, and a proper one sent his spinning to the ground. Kagome leapt down to perch on the roof of the nearest car, watching as Hunter grabbed Jakotsu's collar and hauling him up to eye level.

 

“You're one of the Shinchinintai,” He accused. Jakotsu groaned and coughed, blood gurgling over his lip. “Who is the head of your operation?” Hunter demanded. Jakotsu hocked back and spat a clot of blood on Hunter's face. Hunter flicked out his claws and drew his arm back.

 

“Don't!” Kagome called. Hunter turned to face her, and Jakotsu wrenched himself from his grasped, stumbling down the street. “He won't get far, he's bloody and a known member of the underground. The police are on their way, they'll get him,” Kagome explained. In the light of the streetlamps, she could see Hunter's face covered by a red cowl, his golden eyes glaring at her, but his mouth and nose covered.

 

“I didn't need them to get him,.” Hunter growled. “What are you doing here?”

 

“Saving her,” Kagome said, jerking a thumb at Sango, who had pulled herself to her feet with the help of a newspaper dispenser. “Same as you.”

 

“Actually, I was here for the transvestite you let get away, she was a bonus,” Hunter replied. “Take her and get out of here, I've got a jackass to kill.”

 

“I see you live up to your name,” Kagome replied. Hunter didn't acknowledge her as he leapt up into the night. Kagome walked over to Sango, her side still hurting like hell. Sango would need medical attention too, but unlike Kagome, she could go to the hospital. If Kagome was going to be healed, there was only one solution. Sango looked up to see Kagome approach, and fumbled for the camera around her neck. Kagome reached up and pulled down the scarf covering her face. Sango gasped, her camera falling from her hands.

 

“Sango…it's me.”

 

- - - - - - - - - -

 

A flat-bed truck pulled up to the flaming wreck in the street, screeching to a halt several feet away. The back of the truck opened, and several men jumped out and rushed to the metal husk of Ginkotsu. The driver of the truck, a young man in a black jacket and matching jeans jumped out to stare as his men hauled Ginkotsu to the back of the truck.

 

“Load him up and let's go,.” He snapped, looking down the street for police.

 

“On it master Renkotsu,” The men grunted, four or five of them barely lifting Ginkotsu's metal body. Renkotsu whirled around as a bloody, panting form stumbled out of the alley.

 

“Did you kill her?” He demanded. Jakotsu snorted.

 

“Does it look like I fucking killed the bitch?” He snapped, putting a hand on the side of the truck for balance. “She had help, some youkai with silver hair, I don't know.”

 

“An angel and a youkai, how ironic,” Renkotsu muttered, smiling slightly. “Get in and let's go, all of you,” He called, climbing inside the truck. Ginkotsu's form was pulled in the back of the truck as Jakotsu climbed in beside Renkotsu. The back doors of the truck slammed, and the Shinchinintai drove off into the night.