InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Dogs in Tokyo ❯ Chapter 24 ( Chapter 24 )

Chapter 24

Tokyo went under curfew on that rather blustery Autumn night. The quiet hours of daylight had caused the powers that be in the city to believe that the populace of Roppangi had suffered from some kind of collective delusion: structural damage to businesses and video footage of a home guard with a cut finger from an apparently naked blue chicken be-damned. The blue chicken had escaped from its cage anyway and the calls from irate working parents to their assorted chome administration offices had amounted to a general outcry. The school closings and the entire emergency status were regretted and it had seemed better to just get the city back on normal footing ASAP.

But that was before the prime minister was engulfed in a glistening clear gelatin as he was making the opening comments of a press statement on the safety of the streets in front of the National Diet Building and swept off down a conveniently open storm drain. So, as it has been said, Tokyo was placed under a curfew and the streets were cleared of all but emergency traffic from the hour of 10:30 p.m. on. (The prime minister had been abducted at 7:45p.m. so, that was really pretty quick action as government things go).

The few shops and bars that remained open had running reports on television and radio blaring the most recent conflicting rumors of everything from lurking dragons to infestations of giant rats. "Stay inside, the Home Guard is monitoring the situation and will deal severely with malefactors." This injunction was ignored by the die-hard regulars and clueless gaijin who crowded the counters of those establishments. The regulars were there to collect gossip and place bets. The gaijin were there wondering if now was the time to contact their respective embassies for instruction.

As it was, the majority of Tokyo's citizens remained inside. For the most part in a state of pleasurably voyeuristic terror as news reports mounted up about the infestation of creatures roaming its streets. In a way, it was like an event such as a major earthquake warning or a tsunami threat for most of the families crowded around their TV sets and radios. All around Tokyo little old grandmothers were saying "Isn't it time to shut the gas off and go to a basement and get under a table? That's what we did when I was a lass."

There were an intrepid few who were out wandering the deserted streets on that eerie night and that is where we belong;

0...o…0

Wheeling unsteadily up the street that led towards the apothecary shop Houjou leaned into each pedal-stroke. Something about the gears seemed out of whack but he felt too muzzy in the head just then to stop and remember how to fix it The road, dark and empty, stretched before him in one of those endless ascents which bicyclists either find a challenge or a darned good reason not to ride a bike in that direction.

At the top of the street he stopped and rested with his feet on the ground and his head propped by a forearm on the handle bars, breathing hard. His nose was running and he sniffed miserably. That weird guy. The one who was hanging around Kagome. Houjou distinctly remembered the guy's scowling face just before everything went black. Was that why the back of his head hurt so? He gave another, stronger sniff which brought a flare of pain along the back of his neck into what seemed to be his very brain.

'Of course, that wouldn't be the only reason..' A vision played across his mind's eye of a green cliff side over the ocean and anti-daemon charms sparkling on the grass. A woman's voice speaking and the sudden lassitude and warmth from that wonderful staff. 'Ah, yes, the staff.' How could he have forgotten?

A soft churr interrupted his line of thought. He lifted his head and squinted to focus in the dimness.

There, in the middle of the empty street, stood what had to be the cutest and most delicate big lizard he had ever seen. It was the size of the American turkey, standing about as tall but with a long tail which it lifted as it moved. The forelegs ended in three-fingered hands tipped with claws and its brown hide sported darker spots along its spine.

The creature cocked its head with a bird-like movement and advanced a few steps. Another soft churr brought an answering echo and Houjou looked up to see several more of them advancing along the street towards him There were seven of them and they seemed to move as a flock. They reminded Houjou rather of his grandmother's pet chickens in the way they swirled about him expectantly, surrounding his bike.

"Shoo," he said, much as he would have to his grandmother's chickens and began to pedal his bike again. It definitely had something wrong with its gears. The lizard-birds kept pace easily and showed a tendency to pop in front of the bike and stop to look at him with an inquiring churr. Up close, they were not so cute. The hide showed short, fibrous, feathers concentrated on the under sides of their arms and their beak-like faces sported some nasty-looking teeth.

"Shoo." He repeated nervously and gently swung his foot to clear a path. The creature that he swung at jumped deftly to the side and hissed. As if that were a signal they all stopped, necks raised to their fullest extent, and gazed at him out of round eyes. Houjou's nervousness increased. "Please move?"

The one in front of him dipped its head and took a nip at his front tire. "Hey, cut that out!" Houjou jerked at his handlebars to free the bike only to find two more of the things grabbing at his bike from behind. "What is this?" He spun around on his seat and swatted at them.

One loosed its hold on his bike frame long enough to raise its head on its sinewy neck and hiss straight in his face. Houjou scrambled off the bike in alarm and backed off in a hurry.

He watched in dismay as the creatures surrounded his new bike and began to drag it off between them. "Hey!" He called out and took a few following steps. But several of the creatures heads turned back towards him to hiss and a couple separated from the group to trot back towards him, tails up and necks extended. They gave hissing coughs and flexed their clawed hands.

Houjou suddenly discovered that discretion is the better part of valor and legged it in the opposite direction. He was young and athletic and covered a fair distance before having to slow his breakneck pace. He became aware again of his surroundings and checked behind him for signs of pursuit. There were none he sucked in air in grateful gulps while leaning against the wall of a building.

The apothecary shop was diagonally across the street from him and he pushed himself off of the wall to stagger in that direction. He was so blown by his sprint that he stared numbly at the closed sign in the shop windows for some moments before he realized that the door was locked.

He released the door handle and dragged himself into a trot to go around the side of the building to the back staircase. This led up to the cramped bed-sitter that the clerk, Genji, called home. Houjou had been to visit once or twice to examine particularly interesting finds from the basement of the old building. There had even been the preserved remains of a fetus floating in a bottle but they had been unable to decide if it was human or that of a monkey.

There was no answer to his knock for a few moments and Houjou was just about to turn away when the sound of a tortured human scream sounded from inside. He froze, and was staring at the door in shock when it swung open to reveal the rumpled figure of Genji-San looking inquiringly out.

"Oh, it's you, Houjou-Kun." Genji glanced back distractedly over his shoulder and then swung the door open with a shrug. "Well, it's not like you haven't seen the mess before. Come in. Leave the monsters outside."

Houjou stepped in, pausing to toe off his shoes in the concrete floored excuse for an entranceway. In the manner of such places the living area was differentiated by floor cover as much as by anything else. The first few feet past the entrance had a wood flooring that extended into the closet-kitchen and equally rudimentary bathroom next to it. The rest of the floor was covered in tatami mats to the front window. There was a low folding table set up in the middle of the room and a wide screen TV on a stand. An in-wall closet and a tall set of shelves under a canvas cover completed the rooms appointments. It would have been ugly but O.K., lit as it was by a single florescent light in the ceiling, if it had not been covered in a flood of magazines, clothes and the occasional take-out box.

Genji used his foot to push some of the rubbish on the floor aside to make a clear space and went to resume his place on the mats by the TV. "Have a seat. I'll just be a minute. I want to go back to my last save point."

Houjou dropped to sit cross-legged on the mats and surreptitiously straightened a stack of manga next to him while Genji took up his game controller and flipped though screens. "I don't suppose you know any cheat codes for Metal Gear Solid. I need infinite health to beat the torture room in area 14. I don't care about Meryl but I don't want to have to give in and catch a cold."

Houjou took one look and gave him the answer. "No, I don't play fighting games." Genji sighed and turned off the game, returning the set to one of the now ubiquitous news updates.

"Listen, Genji." Houjou shifted uncomfortably. "Are you able to get into the shop downstairs?"

"Well, yeah. I'm the one who locks it up at night." He cocked his head and looked at his visitor pensively. "Say, you're the cautious type, Houjou. What brings you out on a night like this when monsters are supposedly roaming the streets."

"They are. A group of them just stole my bike."

Genji was electrified. "No way! The Olympic? Man, that thing was boss. Did they steal your money? It doesn't look like you got hurt."

"No, they just wanted the bike…Not that they can even ride it. These things were lizards and their legs were too short." Houjou paused and contemplated his misfortune for a bitter moment before remembering the purpose of his visit. "Anyway, I came over here to see if I could purchase the rest of those amulets off of you."

"The Chinese anti-daemon amulets? They're here. I brought the box up here to finish sorting it out. Yamaguchi-San came by right after you left and took up the rest of the afternoon. Dear, sweet, frigging old plum that she is." He pointed. "It's in the corner. Help yourself to what you want and I'm sure we can settle on a price that the boss will be happy with. He thought the shipment was a loss until you came in. Just tell me about the lizards"

Houjou scooted over and started sifting the items in the box with trembling fingers as he recounted his recent experience. There they were, a whole bunch of them, their knotted red strings tangled together and the odd stone pendants clicking.

"How much for the lot?"

"Huh? For the lot? How many?" Genji scooted over next to him and fished out the invoice. "I think these were billed on the invoice as 'sacred luck sticks'. Yeah, here they are. Hmm." He fished around in some papers for a moment and came up with a small abacus. "How about ¥15,00? Just make a round number? I left one out for myself to buy. You never know"

Houjou pulled his billfold out of his pocket while Genji teased the strings loose so he could take one of the amulets. "Yeah, you never do know."

In his billfold he found the slip of paper with Yasuku Ryosei's name and cell phone number on it. He passed over the money and while Genji wrote up a sales slip and searched for change he pulled out his on cell phone and dialed it without pausing to analyze the strong impulse that made him do that.

0-o-0

Kagome was severely puzzled to have a buzzer vibrating against her hip and wasted an instant scanning the sky and slapping at imaginary youki insects before she realized that the vibration was coming from the cell phone in her cargo pants pocket. She braced herself against Inuyasha's back and slid her hand down to pull the shiny red phone out and activate it. Fortunately, Inuyasha was in a mid-sky set of movements so she was able to thumb the phone open and activate it fairly easily.

"Moshi-moshi," she said experimentally and awaited results.

"Uhh, Ryosei-San?" The connection was fine but the wind whistling through her hair was causing her hearing to go off. She could've sworn that…

"Ryosei-San? This is Houjou. The guy you kidnapped this afternoon?"

"Houjou-Kun? What are you doing on this phone?" Kagome gripped the hair at the nape of Inuyasha's neck and leaned back, twisting her head to get out of the wind. She could feel the rumble of Inuyasha's growl between her thighs.

"Who's this?"

"Houjou -Kun, this is Higurashi Kagome. Where are you? How did you get this number? We were so worried when we returned to where we left you and found you gone."

Houjou ignored her question. "Where are you now? There seems to be a lot of interference."

"Well, we're en route to somewhere right now." She was interrupted as Inuyasha choose that moment to commence a jerking series of short jumps that had her plastered to his back with her rump rising up in the air with each savage impact. She yanked at his hair and gripped the phone to her ear even more tightly. "What? I'm sorry, something's not acting right!" She shouted this last into Inuyasha's back-turned ear and had the mean satisfaction of seeing them both clamp tight to his head.

"I said, what's the address of the place you're going to? I'll find a way to meet you there!" Houjou's voice crackled over the receiver and Inuyasha's ears quivered.

"Oh!" Kagome squeaked as Inuyasha bounced off of a building cornice with a particularly hard thump. She reeled off Sesshoumaru's address without a second thought. This was Houjou-Kun after all. She gave an even louder "Oh!" as she was dumped unceremoniously off of her perch and had the cell phone snatched out of her hand.

Inuyasha wasn't sure how to talk to the thing and settled for simply holding the phone up and roaring into it. "Stop fucking calling my wife!!!!" With a snarl he snapped the phone shut and tossed it into Kagome's lap where she half sprawled on the sloping side of the roof they were on. Speaking somewhat less heatedly, he continued; "And Kagome, you stop using me as a table. My back is not your business-office."

She hid her blush by brushing the tumbled hair out of her face as she sat up more erectly. "Well, the call might have been important. So I answered it."

"That thing takes messages. Why do you even have it along?"

"I…I thought that I could return it to Ryosei-San when she's rescued. It didn't seem right to keep it."

Inuyasha leaned down to pull her to her feet. "Still doesn't explain why that limp noodle called you." He turned his attention to brushing off her backside.

"Uh, he didn't." The brushing hand paused. "He was calling Ryosei. It's her phone after all." The hand resumed its motion, working its way up her spine to stop in a light scratch between her shoulder blades. "Mmm, over just a bit." She twitched. He shifted movements accordingly.

"Tired?" She nodded silently but her shoulders were relaxing.

"They're alright aren't they? Sesshoumaru wouldn't…"

Inuyasha abandoned her back and tugged at her wrist. "C'mon, let's go. It's unlike Sesshoumaru to kidnap anyone. Let alone even bother to talk to them. From what Jaken said, he's been in this time for a good twenty years or so. But I don't think he can have changed all that much.

"Look at your map. Are we getting close?"

She pulled her maps out and checked before nodding. She pointed at a building situated in a tree-filled park of its own. Dwarfed by the towering high-rises around it, it nevertheless drew the eye. It was large but only about four or five stories tall, its sharply-pitched roofs were softly under lit by a golden wash of light so that it seemed almost a fairytale castle.

"See, that's the Imperial Palace. Sesshoumaru's building should be almost straight beyond that in the next district."

He had her remount and set off moving rapidly towards their destination in a beeline that somehow had to include a quick run along the ridgepole of the topmost roof of the Imperial Palace.

Kagome was not surprised that they left ringing alarms in their wake and a disturbed ants nest of activity. "You took a real risk, Inuyasha!" She exclaimed into his ear. "What if they had started to shoot?"

"With what? No one was outside."

Kagome sighed and promised herself to demonstrate remote operation to him at the earliest opportunity. Maybe a visit to a electronic toy store was in order. She could dimly hear the beat of a helicopter off in the distance and huddled against his back. Inuyasha's swift and erratic movements left it circling around in a search pattern behind them and Inuyasha slowed to a stop on a roof near to an apartment building in the high-rent district. Wide windows gave onto generous balconies with potted trees and hanging gardens on them. Through the windows they could catch glimpses of an array of living spaces that looked like a collage of decorating magazine layouts.

Kagome checked the hand-drawn map and the apartment numbers in dismay. There were so many, and how did you tell where one apartment ended and another began without entering the building? It wasn't like some of the older apartment buildings with a regular façade. They would have to enter the building and check for apartment numbers or take a wild guess.

She glanced dubiously over at Inuyasha, still defiantly hanyou, and down at the street. A booth guarded the entrance of the underground garage. She had no doubt that there were attendants in the front foyer too. "Umm, Inuyasha, maybe you should ch--"

"Nothing doing." He interrupted with a snap. "There is no way I'm showing up at Sesshoumaru's front door as some measly human knocking to get in."

"But how else do we find his apartment?"

He indicated the top left corner apartment with an impatient sweep of his hand. "It's that one. He's not trying to hide or anything. Smell's flapping right there in the open." He started to readjust his baldric. "So, you wait here and I'll.."

"No way."

He sighed. "I'll get your mother and Souta.."

"I said you're not leaving me here."

"I'm going to.." His voice was tightening in exasperation.

"No, Inuyasha. You take me to my mother right now!"

With a snarl he jerked her onto his back and leapt, careless consequences, to land on the railing of the corner apartment he had indicated. He was still standing over that precipitous drop, with Kagome clinging to his back when a figure appeared from within the apartment. The slider shot open and Sesshoumaru stepped out onto the balcony, the evil sword Toukajin in his hand.

"Well? Are you coming or going?" He inquired.

o.0.o

To be continued…..

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