InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Dogs in Tokyo ❯ Chapter 23 ( Chapter 23 )

Chapter 23

"What is it with your menace of a brother?!"

Kagome's voice rang out in the little kitchen, causing Inuyasha's ears to clamp tightly back to his head and his eyes to nearly close in a reflexive wince. She had such a gift for pitching the tone of her voice to portend trouble on the home front with a nearly head-splitting middle "C". The girl stood in front of him like an avenging fury with the button less front of her shirt pulling open to reveal her now nearly chronic lack of a bra and her mother's note clenched in one hand. "Why would he stoop to Naraku's tricks of kidnapping and lies? I thought you two weren't fighting anymore." Her chest heaved, distracting him badly.

Inuyasha reached for her wrist and held her arm still as he took the crumpled note from her hand. "You're sweating all over the scent markings." he grumbled as he brought the paper to his nose and inhaled. "There's no fear here.' He declared. "On the note or in the room. She went with him willingly." he released her arm and glanced around the kitchen again, keeping his eyes away from her. "They've been gone for a few hours. It's late. When do the stores close?"

Kagome looked up from where she was contemplating the ruined mess of wedding invitations scattered on the kitchen table. She was trying to rescue any that were not wet from the bottom of the pile but she had only found one or two in good condition so far. "It's after ten. There is no way they could still be shopping. And for all we know there's school tomorrow. I didn't see any roving bands of monsters like they were claiming on the news so there's no reason for the schools to stay closed."

Inuyasha grunted and pulled open the refrigerator. "That doesn't mean anything. They probably found places to hide. Better eat…This looks like it's going to be a long night."

The girl was silent as she watched the love of her life slice into a water-filled package of tofu and take the pasty brick out to eat it as it was. He did not look like he was enjoying it but he ate it unhesitatingly in swift economical bites. He paused for a moment and glanced at her before shoving another package in her direction. It was a container of miso paste. There was no way she was letting either of them eat that straight out of the box.

"Umm, I'll make a couple of sandwiches."

"Good, we can bring 'em along. But be quick about it. I want to get moving and find that asshole. 'Bout time we talked." He hooked a container of juice out of the refrigerator and proceeded to guzzle it down.

The sound of a large and poorly muffled motorcycle pulling up the service drive of the shrine drew them both to the kitchen door and they watched as Jukuryo gunned the bike slightly to take the hill and park behind the cinder-blocked Nissan.

"Whoo-hoo!" Jijii-Chan shouted as he waved his scrawny arms over his head, sleeves flapping. Inuyasha and Kagome stared at the vision of a shrine priest riding in an antique side car. Both the side car and the motorcycle looked to be relics from the second world war. The bike vibrated alarmingly until the motor cut off with a wet cough that produced a plume of greasy black smoke.

Jukuryo got creakingly off of the bike revealing an outfit of black leather so old that it was split in the creases. He had a pair of aviator goggles over his eyes and smelled of fresh gasoline and beer.

Inuyasha stepped slightly in advance of Kagome and didn't mince any words; "Where's Sesshoumaru? We need to talk to him. Now."

Jukuryo's eyes gleamed red as he sniggered under his breath. "He wanted to speak to you twenty-four hours ago. What's so changed now that you suddenly want to speak to him?"

"He took Kagome's mother and her brother Souta out shopping. He's not the kind of guy to do that sort of thing for anybody. Now it's so late that the stores are all closed and they're still not back." Inuyasha folded his arms. "So, yeah, we want to speak to him. We've got the staff so he can just back off."

The bird youkai sniffed. "I don't detect any such thing around here."

"It's safe out of harm's way. We'll cough it up when we're damned well ready to." Kagome nodded her head in staunch agreement.

The old youkai cocked his head and studied the hanyou before him. "I know I'm right." He tapped the hanyou's sternum with one clawed fingertip, causing a surprised flinch in response. "You are the Inuyasha of childhood legend. The Inuyasha who sought the Shikon-no-Tama and decimated large segments of the daemon population in the process. The hanyou who allied himself to powerful humans, both living and dead and destroyed the monster that would have eaten the world for all living beings." The old youkai shook himself as if trying to shake off unpleasant memories.

Then he resumed the attack. "Just as Sesshoumaru is the very same youkai that visited my father when I was just a chick. He is not much older than that now (If I can trust my nose, and I do) and you are practically a pup. So, what gives? Are you two able to travel through the march of time as well? This on top of you having very nearly absolute command over your blood and innate power?"

Jukuryo looked at Inuyasha and saw him clearly for what he was, along with the shrine girl who would always be beside him. To sigh over the ill-advised relationship would be a waste of breath. Far too much youkai nobility and far too much human need for love and warmth. He frowned portentously at the pair and waited for an answer.

Inuyasha's eyes swiveled to the silent humans. The girl stood at attention, as unable as he to fathom whether this would mean trouble or not. Jijii-Chan looked on in frowning concentration. Almost against his will, his lips opened to answer. "Sesshoumaru played his part. He was there at the end. Does no one remember? It's only been a few weeks for me---us, I mean, but there must have been talk."

Jukuryo sighed and stepped away to move past him into the kitchen. "No, the legends only mention you and some half-naked girl with a bow." He gave a significant glance at Kagome who only then realized her disheveled appearance and reached to tug the gaping neck of her shirt closed. "I will give you your brother's home address upon condition of a binding agreement to explain how all this happened at the first convenient opportunity."

Inuyasha was following him when Kagome's warm hand slipped into his. He paused and looked at her and she smiled solemnly. "It's been three weeks, four days and fifteen hours since the end of Naraku. See, I have it on my chronometer." she displayed the watch on her wrist, a gift from her friends at school for her last birthday.

He stared at it, looked at her, and growled. "That thing is off by a few years." He turned his back and stomped up the steps with a suddenly annoyed Kagome following him.

"O.K. Fine. I was just showing you."

"Keh, like I care. Your blinky wrist thingamajig doesn't do anything we want and it's ugly."

"What do you mean? It does all kinds of things!" She said, still fingering the watch on her wrist.

"Like how?" He had stopped, blocking her way in through the door. She seemed about ready to cry. "Is it going to tell whether or not Sesshoumaru is going to harm your brother or mother?" His voice softened as he finished the sentence and, rather than going on, he caught her in a rough embrace before he spoke again to her. "Look, Kagome.." His voice was warm and anxious.

"Are you two idiots coming in or do we lock you out of the house?" Jijii-Chan exclaimed irritably, having had enough of the adolescent courting of the two to last him for a while.

It took a few minutes to dig out a general map of Tokyo showing its wards and then to draw another one that Kagome could understand with the address carefully penciled in showing its chome, block number and building number located in a quite upscale residential area. Japanese addresses do not appear to be particularly easy to understand even for native Japanese but Jukuryo stated that Inuyasha could rely on his nose after that and argued heatedly with the dog daemon about the wisdom of just smashing in through Sesshoumaru's windows. Kagome, long pressed into making good use of such delays, took the opportunity to change her clothes and gather a few things.

As she padded back down the stairs from her room she could see Inuyasha resettling the webbing which held Tetsusaiga firmly against his back, map furled up and thrust into the front of his jeans. He was still exchanging rude comments with both Jukuryo and Jijii-Chan as to whether or not keeping a low profile would be any good in the long run. So she just crossed the kitchen and opened the back door to stand on the back steps expectantly waiting.

Inuyasha gave a final bark of derision and swept past her with a practiced catch at her wrist that landed her firmly on his back. Within moments they were airborne and headed for Yamanote ward.

~*~

The two old men stood with light falling about them from the open door, looking off into the dark. The taller of the two cleared his throat and reached for a cigarette. "You heard what he said didn't you?"

"About the staff? Out of harm's way, that's what he said."

Jukuryo lit a cigarette and passed it to Jijii-Chan before lighting one for himself. "And where might that be?"

Jijii-Chan shrugged. "Where else would a miko think a magical object was safe and inert? Sealed in the sanctuary of the shrine of course." Jijii-Chan took a flashlight that he always kept by the back door for nighttime perambulations about the shrine precinct and led the way. "It's an ancient tradition, you know, to place things in safe keeping under the eyes of the kami. Kagome has been raised in these traditions all her life. You'd never know it by her behavior, but she has inherited great spiritual power from her ancestry. Naturally through me." He inhaled a puff of smoke in great satisfaction as he led the way to the darkened shrine office.

"You don't say. Then you can unquestionably undo any spell she lays down?" Inquired his companion.

"Of course." Jijii-Chan clicked on the overhead light and went over to the deep shelves on the wall where his priestly paraphernalia was kept. "And of course I do not believe those kids have the right idea." He turned and thumped the wooden box onto his desk and moved to collect his vestments.

Jukuryo's eyes gleamed red as he studied Jijii-Chan's back. "Naturally not," he agreed equably. He initiated his own search of the deeper desk drawers for the sacramental saké coming up with the appropriate bottle within a few moments.

"No." Stated Jijii-Chan. "They need only to hand over the staff to get my daughter and my grandson away from that evil daemon. It makes no sense to leave it behind. So I will get it for them and follow with it to save the day." He finished on a triumphant note just before diving his head into the swathing folds of his ceremonial saifuku without noting the dismay on his old friend's face.

"You intend to confront Sesshoumaru-Sama with his own magical staff? Inuyasha didn't even tell us how he obtained it." Jukuryo paused and frowned as Jijii-Chan's tousled head emerged from the neck of his robes. "Nor did he say what happened to the little toad daemon, Jaken."

Jijii-Chan tidied his hair and settled his tall ceremonial hat. "Probably got dragged off to hell. That's where all naughty daemons get dragged off to."

Jukuryo did not much like this answer and took a defiant swig of the sacramental saké as they made their way across the shrine compound again to prepare themselves for entering the sanctuary. Within a few minutes they were at the shrine doors to the Haiden. Jijii-Chan's beard quivered as he spotted the depleted condition of the bottle.

"Give me that! I need it for the benediction." He brusquely snatched the bottle away and poured a good measure of it into his wooden bucket and dropped the mace-like lustrum into it. "There, that's more like it." He stated, making sure to take a healthy swallow himself before passing the bottle back to his friend.

As Jukuryo gazed sadly at the now nearly empty bottle of sacramental wine Jijii-Chan slid the doors of the shrine wide open with a practiced heave of his shoulders. The hall was darkly chill and silent and both old men hesitated at the entrance before venturing in. Jijii-Chan felt a frisson of unaccustomed self-doubt as he regarded the normally welcoming environs of the Haiden. Jukuryo's reason for hesitation was more complex. Not least of which was the traditional barrier to the entrance of daemons placed at the doorways of shrines throughout Japan. This one was very old and weak (not having been renewed in many years) he waited for the shrine priest to make the first move.

Jijii-Chan began to rumble an impressively deep and unintelligible chant as he strode down the center of the Haiden, He repeatedly dipped the lustrum into the wooden saké bucket and shook droplets to either side towards the dimly seen contorted figures of Shintô kaiga statues that stood along the walls.

Jukuryo followed his human friend carefully, placing his feet as nearly as possible into the old man's foot prints. Best not to risk trouble. He had a youthful memory of having been stuck on a stepping stone in the middle of a stream for two days by an irate priest for disrespectful profanity and the experience still occasionally would find an echo in his nightmares centuries later.

Jijii-Chan finally reached the sanctuary screen and stopped in surprise to find one of the shrine's purification arrows set on top of the offering tables. It was odd that it would be pointing inward toward the shrine that way, but with a shrug and an extra shake of the lustrum over it he passed on and rounded the end of the screen to enter the Honden.

At first glance it appeared undisturbed but a more careful inspection revealed the disturbed cloth that had covered the mirror and the carelessly disarranged folds of the cloth that draped the table. Jijii-Chan grunted and bent down arthritically to feel under the table for this famous staff.

Although his fingers contacted nothing a sliding scrape of wood upon the floor was audible. The old man harrumphed to himself and got down on his hands and knees to reach further under the table. He felt a sensation of movement and the table cloth was disturbed. In astonishment Jijii-Chan got up, supporting himself on the table, and looked over it to the space of bare wood floor beyond. There lay the staff, topped incongruously with a pair of Bunraku puppet heads sharing a tightly tied blindfold.

"What on earth?" The shrine priest hurried around the table and bent to pick up the staff which promptly shot away from him across the floor as if he had kicked it.

Jukuryo's patience was wearing thin and his pointy-eared bald old head edged itself around the side of the screen in time to see this. His jaw dropped open as he watched the old shrine priest, robes billowing, chasing after the staff in a bent posture with hand outstretched as it scooted away from. He would have laughed if circumstances had been different. As it was he gnawed his lip and cast his eyes about in an effort to think of a way of catching the thing.

Jijii-Chan, seeing his old friend, stopped and straightened up. "So? Why are you just standing there gawking? Can't you see I need some help?"

A clawed finger tip was stuck past the screen to be greeted by a shower of sparks. "That's why. Some one has placed a fresh and strong anti-daemon barrier on this sanctuary. I'm afraid you're on your own."

Jijii-Chan looked about him suspiciously. "Barrier? What barrier? And why would it work on you?" His face was red and he looked both out of breath and disturbed.

"Oh, for pity's sake!" Jukuryo clapped a hand to his forehead and looked up for heavenly guidance. "Look, maybe we can't get the staff and we'll just have to leave it here. We should follow those kids and keep them out of trouble."

"Nothing doing!" was the mulish answer and in a flash of movement Jijii-Chan ripped the tall hat from his head and used it as a scoop to catch the escaping staff as it shot away from him at his approach. He stood up with a justifiable air of triumph and the butt of the staff quivering where it stuck out of his bag-like ceremonial hat. "Now, we go help the kids!"

~*~

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