InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Dogs in Tokyo ❯ Chapter 16 ( Chapter 16 )

Chapter 16

Sesshoumaru stepped into his study, dressed in a yukata of white cotton that had a faint pattern of maroon leaves scattered asymmetrically across the fabric.

He was restless although he did not let his face show it. It showed in the way he moved about the room without purpose rather than sitting still. It showed in the way he craved distraction rather than meditation, glancing at the TV, waiting for the hour marked as ten on the clock on the wall to turn the set on and watch the human news. He had noted this tendency over the past few years and had alternately tried to quell it or to justify it to himself as a needed source of information. He could not deceive himself though; it was a distraction from his thoughts.

Enough, he would not watch the news.

This decision having been made, he moved to rest in the chair he had commissioned from a Danish designer and caused to be covered with the tanned hide of a dragon youkai that had been his first kill as an adult. He remembered the day: the carcass fairly intact and smoking in the morning sun, his father decreeing that the soft, dark, hide of its underbelly be stripped and made into boots for his son. There had been a lot left over and rather than passing portions around to his favoured retainers to make boots of their own, Sesshoumaru had kept it.

He stroked the hide absently, feeling its smooth suppleness, its delicately variegated texture. That decision to keep the hide had caused resentment and his father had frowned when he had heard of it. But what was done was done and the unused hide had rested in Sesshoumaru's private household until he had come to this time and had it made up. His father had staged a competition instead, with rich prizes given in the names of both of his sons. Thus, while healing one breach, the Inutashio had unknowingly driven a wedge deeper into one of his own.

What the Inutashio had been thinking when he took the hanyou whelp's human mother as a life mate was a matter of constant speculation. And her noble family had been equally dismayed. They did not appreciate regular visits from a son-in-law that came accompanied by all sorts of paranormal disturbances. Sesshoumaru had wasted a good deal of time in the past trying to prove to himself the weakness and inferiority of that half-breed son of his father's but had ultimately failed.

Rejected by both his youkai and human clans, Inuyasha had nevertheless won associates of power. Even being sealed had not kept him down for long. His youkai power was as strong as anything Sesshoumaru had ever seen but was conflicted by his human heart. Sesshoumaru wondered how he had fared. Was this the time period of that human girl he had taken as mate? If so, why was he selling off his possessions?

Sesshoumaru shook his head. The entire day had been unproductive: By this time, he had fully expected to have had Murakami Ryosei in for inquiries as to why she had chosen to associate herself with Jaken. Jaken had been in his hands last midnight only to slip away in the dawn: a piece of unpardonable negligence. And, to top it all off, he, Sesshoumaru, had never retrieved the Staff of Heads from that benighted failure of a retainer.

The clock on the wall struck ten in mellow notes and Sesshoumaru, badly in need of distraction, picked up the remote and turned on the news.

~*~

Ryosei stood at the end of the intersecting alleyway, the Staff of Heads raised up in one hand. Beyond her the strobe of police lights and the murmur of people told them that they were close to were the crowd was, having headed towards them up the narrow net of back alleys. Jaken stood facing her, almost invisible in the darkness.

Kagome squinted, trying to make out Ryosei's face. She could see the outline of a cheek and the glimmer of widely opened eyes. The Staff of Heads was held with the old man's face pointing in Jaken's direction. Kagome inhaled softly, hardly daring to breathe as she stole a glance at the hanyou beside her. She had seen that head in action and a blast of fire was something that she didn't want to think about. Inuyasha hand dropped his human aspect entirely, apparently wanting the increased senses of smell and hearing that came with his youkai power.

"Ryosei!" Jaken hissed again. "You've fed it haven't you? Naughty girl, playing with things you know nothing about."

The figure at the end of the alley shifted from foot to foot uncertainly. "Jaken, is that you? You're so short."

Jaken sniffed, offended. "Of course it is. And that's my staff."

"What is this thing, Jaken?" The staff was lowered slightly. "Why does it sing to me?" A hand was raised to her face. "I'm so tired. They talk and talk in my mind but they don't make any sense. All about the proper gate and the need to get there, and the food. Blood, Jaken, they want blood." Her voice was cracked and exhausted-sounding.

Jaken's voice took on a gentle, wheedling, tone. "That's a tricky old thing, that is. You don't want to go listening to it overmuch. How about you pass it to old Jaken and I'll see to it that it's taken care of and you needn't bother about it again. It's enough to wear a young girl like yourself right out, that it will." Jaken extended his clawed little hand, reaching for the staff but the girl drew back from him, raising the staff out of reach.

"No!" She gasped. "You just want to take it." She lifted her head and stared about vacantly. "They say you just want them back! To seal their power and make them sleep again." She snapped her head down and pointed at Jaken. "You were the one starving them!"

Jaken snarled and leapt for the end of the staff, coming surprisingly close to grasping it.

Ryosei shrieked and gripped the staff with both hands. The old man's face seemed to light up, its eyes flicking open, as she turned it to face the little toad youkai.

Jaken made an odd, sweeping, gesture and shouted "Avert!" as the jaw of the puppet dropped open and a powerful sheet of flame burst forth.

Kagome found herself jammed face first into the dank wall of the alleyway as Inuyasha spun both her and himself back around the corner and pressed her into the wall. He was shielding her face with the palm of his hand and had his back to the flame, but she could not miss the reflexive jerk and strangled cry as he reacted to the searing heat. She could feel a blast of hot air around her ankles.

She pressed her head backwards against him in order to speak. "Inuyasha! Move further back, you don't have your fire rat!"

The only verbal response she got was a grunt, but he did scoot them further along the wall and away from the fire bath occurring in the intersecting alleyway. She spared a thought for the toad youkai but could not let herself consider his fate too closely.

The glow faded and Inuyasha eased up slightly on his pressure against her back. She could smell the sickening odour of crisped skin and hair but he seemed to be moving smoothly.

She was about to ask how he was when she was stunned into silence by the sound of Jaken's voice. Shaky, but obviously still alive, the toad youkai spoke in tones of disgust.

"Gormless Wench, do you think to use my own weapon against me?"

There was a clatter and a gasp audible as if the young woman, Ryosei, was trying to struggle with something followed by an odd popping noise.

"No!" Jaken's voice sounded out sharply as both Inuyasha and Kagome plunged back to the alleyway corner to see what had occurred.

The sight that met their eyes was enough to unsettle anyone, even those who were as used to the bizarre as those two undoubtedly were. A greenish light suffused the area. Kagome could feel her hair lift as she felt a mild static charge crawling swiftly up her legs. She could see Ryosei lit by a green glare, her hair floating on unseen currants as she held the staff above her head, woman's face forward. Jaken was a shadow against a field of light. An arm was up to shield his eyes but his other hand was still outstretched towards the staff.

He spoke. "By my right, come to me, I invoke your master." His hand stretched even further forwards, if that were possible.

Ryosei stumbled a bit, the staff twisting in her hands. "No! You will only re-confine us!" She brought out in a tortured sob. She hunched her shoulders forward, the staff still stiffly above her head and she gave a motion like a stir, for an upside-down pot.

Inuyasha started forward, an odd premonition of what would be happening running through his mind. "Saké Girl, you don't want to use that!" He cried out, hoping to distract her for a vital instant.

She lifted her head and saw the hanyou and in the same moment recognized the handsome young man she had wanted so much to know about. He was part of this too. Not even human, a freak. Everything was some kind of lie. "This is you!" She yelled, suddenly regaining her own personality, "you've got to be at the bottom of this!"

Inuyasha executed a deft halt and spin to dive straight back around the corner and catch Kagome with an arm looped around her stomach to bring her down to the pavement. A furious blast of flame followed on his heels.

Kagome gasped like a landed fish, thoroughly winded, trying to drag air into her abused lungs. Couldn't he find a way of sending her flying without knocking the wind out of her? The sensation was always horrible and she couldn't act when she couldn't breathe.

There was a shout and the sound of a furious scuffle from around the corner and then everything lit up in a glowing green. Worms of crawling green light seemed to be outlining anything at all that had any sort of edge; the dumpster, the concrete edge of the step just inches past her head, the very corners of the bricks.

Again Kagome could feel an electrostatic charge, but this time it intensified with a peculiar sound as if a chorus a thousand well trained vocalists had suddenly said the word "Whop." She was breathing a little easier as Inuyasha helped her to her feet and led the way back down the alley in search of the others. At the corner they found Jaken and Ryosei nowhere in sight. A large green ball of light hung in midair but appeared to be swiftly contracting into nothingness. Inuyasha and Kagome edged warily past it, not wanting to be sucked though into any alternate universes that might be contained therein and headed towards the main street where they hoped to mingle with the crowd whose roaring murmur they could hear.

They had almost reached the end when the dimming green light behind them suddenly flared brightly and emitted another "Whop" sound. Inuyasha looked behind them and with a shocked oath broke into a run dragging a startled Kagome behind him.

A buzzing sound filled the air and Kagome risked her footing for a glance over her shoulder. What she saw caused her to redouble her pace and she was well in the lead of Inuyasha as they burst forth from the alley to the pavement beyond.

Inuyasha immediately dropped Kagome's hand and turned, drawing Tetsusaiga to confront a swarm of flying insects the size of small birds. They were still in the evacuated area, flashing patrol cars and spectators several hundred feet away as the murderous-looking insects began to emerge from the mouth of the alley. Inuyasha had seen what creatures like this could do when let loose on a crowd of helpless humans and didn't see any choice in the matter. With a momentary focus of concentration he invoked the Kaze-no-Kizu and blasted away the swarming insects and an appreciable portion of brick wall from the corner of a convenience store.

The echoes of the blast rolled down the street and Inuyasha waited only an instant before urging Kagome onto his back so he could make for the roofs and get away from the area. Kagome spoke breathlessly into his ears as he gathered himself for another powerful jump.

"Do you think they got us on tape?"

~*~

Sesshoumaru watched the news and was rapidly transfixed by a brief visual that was presented. It showed clouds in a darkened night sky moving in a lazy vortex above crowded buildings. The jerking nervousness of his fingers caused him to hit the mute button for an instant but he rapidly got the announcer's voice back up again.

"In a breaking news story, there are reports of freak thunderstorms and incidents of the meteorological phenomenon known as St. Elmo's fire in Roppongi. The incidents have caused chaos and a general evacuation of the district. Our reporter Hinoto Junpei is live on the scene. Over to you, Hinoto-San."

The shot switched to that of a young man speaking excitedly into his microphone. Behind him was a neon-lit street with a police cordon across it hold back a large crowd of spectators.

"When NHK News arrived here in Roppongi we came in response to reports of a freak thunderstorm that was causing St. Elmo's fire to outline buildings and even invade some businesses. But the real story is much stranger than that. What seems to be a wave of mass hysteria has local residents reporting sightings of deformed bugs and animals wandering the streets."

He turned and gestured to someone off camera and a young man in a business suit came into view. "I have with me Suntori Yamcha Who states that he was there when the incident began."

Yamcha was more than ready to talk and leaned over to the microphone without prompting. "Yes, I was. My girlfriend and I were waiting to get a table at our restaurant when this huge…"

A disturbance behind him cut him off and the camera panned swiftly away to focus on the mouth of an alley some distance down the empty street beyond the patrol cars. Out of a brilliant greenish glare a couple of running figures could be discerned. A hurried adjustment in focus brought the startled face of a young man looking over his shoulder directly towards the camera, eyes wide and head and shoulders surrounded in swinging white hair. It was only an instant before he turned away and took a ready stance holding an enormous sword before him and something black and swarming burst out of the alley.

The camera recorded a bright flash of light and went dead as the visual returned to a stunned-looking news anchor behind the city desk. There were anxious questions and reassurances of safety on the parts of the news crew but visuals could not be brought back up until the spare camera could be started.

Sesshoumaru let the sound wash over him unnoticed as he stared sightlessly at the screen. He now had a very good idea of where both his brother and his staff had at least been just a few moments ago. His attention was drawn back to the screen as NHK proceeded to replay the video clip to the sound of confused commentary. One of many such replays through the night.

~*~

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