InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ How Do We Learn to Love the Ones We Hate? ❯ Perhaps a Hostage is in Need ( Chapter 11 )

Disclaimer: I own absolutely no characters created by Rumiko Takahashi; as much as I wish I was brilliant enough to come up with these characters, but I did not. This goes for everything but the ideas, a lot are spin-offs of different ideas in the story, but others are completely off the charts for weirdness and/or not related to Takahashi's work at all.

 

Perhaps a Hostage is in Need…

 

Fukuhon was walking down the hallways as a maid that she had recently killed so she could take her place. Fukuhon occasionally dusted or opened window shades, but she never stopped to her destined location, Kagome Higurashi's room.

 

She waited until Kagome's bodyguard, Ayame, was out of hearing range before running for Kagome's door. She reached up and knocked, fixing her white apron and headband as she did, going over Bankotsu's plan once more in her head.

 

“I want you to knock on Kagome's door, make sure that she is alone, and then begin to clean her room.” Bankotsu had said. “When she's looking away, knock her out and take her form, Kikyo will be waiting outside the window with Suikotsu to catch her. You will then become Kagome and tell off Inuyasha, but gently, we don't want him to suspect something. Kikyo will then take over Inuyasha when he needs someone during the recovery, and you will pretend to like me. So in the end, Kikyo will marry Inuyasha and I will marry `Kagome', or even the real Kagome if she gives up on Inuyasha.” He smirked.

 

“Yes?” Kagome called from within.

 

“House cleaning, Miss.” Fukuhon said politely.

 

“Alright, come in.”

 

Fukuhon opened the door carefully and dipped into a deep curtsy the second she saw Kagome, a duty of the servants at the Takashi palace.

 

Kagome was reading on the bed, her long skirt billowing out around her. “I think only my desk needs cleaning, someone was just in here this morning to do the dusting, sweeping and other stuff.”

 

Fukuhon bowed and walked over to the desk. She noted a journal, a family photo of Kagome, her mother and who looked like her father and little brother. It read: Me, Souta, Mom and Dad on my 11th birthday.

 

Fukuhon took out a rag and wiped off the top and ran it down the mirror, watching Kagome through the mirror the whole time. As soon as Kagome turned, Fukuhon whipped a small bottle out of her apron pocket and dumped a considerable amount of the drug on it. She took one jump and flew across the room, landing behind Kagome on the bed and pressed the cloth over Kagome's mouth and nose before she could blink.

 

Kagome tried to scream through the cloth and clawed it frantically, reaching behind her to hit at Fukuhon, but she got one arm around Kagome's torso, pinning her arms to her side as she forced Kagome's head back against her shoulder so she couldn't move.

 

Kagome thrashed as best as she could, but wasn't any match for the demon's strength, and was finally forced to either take a breath or pass out from lack of oxygen.

 

Fukuhon smirked as Kagome went limp, but she didn't wait and hoisted Kagome over her shoulder, carrying her over to the window. She gasped and whirled as someone knocked.

 

“Kagome, can I come in?” Inuyasha asked from outside and turned the knob.

 

Fukuhon silently cursed. There was no way she could get Kagome out the window and still have time to become Kagome and change into one of Kagome's outfits, besides, even if this time failed, she could always take the form of another nurse and do the same thing again. So she did the only sensible thing and dropped Kagome to the ground before leaning out the window and drawing an imaginary line across her neck. She then supported Kagome with one arm and pressed two fingers to Kagome's forehead, wiping her memory before Inuyasha walked in.

 

“Kagome?” Inuyasha walked in and skipped a heartbeat at what he saw.

 

“Lady Kagome! Lady Kagome! Can anyone hear me?! I need help!” the maid yelled. She was holding an unconscious Kagome on the ground, lightly slapping her cheek to try to wake her.

 

“What happened?” Inuyasha slid to Kagome's side and took Kagome from the maid.

 

“I don't know!” she wailed, clearly worried about Kagome. She was crying buckets for god sakes. “I just walked in here to organize her desk like she had requested earlier and she was passed out by the window!”

 

“Go get help.” Inuyasha said sharply. The maid nodded shakily and turned, calling out for help as she ran down the hallway.

 

Outside, Kikyo got down off of Suikotsu's shoulders, utterly disgusted. “That girl has too much luck.” She spat.

 

“Maybe Bankotsu will decide to keep her alive after he marries her.” Suikotsu laughed.

 

“Not me. I wouldn't be able to stand that Inuyasha idiot for that long.” She held up her finger and a black butterfly fluttered down onto it. Kikyo whispered what had happened to it and sent it off to tell Bankotsu.

 

“Well, we can always try again.” She said tartly before storming off.

 

Two Minutes Later

 

“And where was Ayame at that time?!” Lady Higurashi screeched.

 

“That was my fault mom!” Kagome yelled in a panic, remembering her mother's threat. “I sent her off to get me a book from the library because I was almost done with mine!” Inuyasha stood behind her for support.

 

“And besides! Nothing was wrong with me, I wasn't even in danger!” Kagome continued.

 

“We don't know that.” Lady Higurashi said coolly. “Every time you've been hurt, where has she been?”

 

“She wouldn't.” Kagome said firmly, but mostly to convince herself.

 

“The people you least expect to are most often the ones who turn against you.” Lady Higurashi said just as firmly, staring Kagome down.

 

“Where is she now?!” She bellowed, spinning towards anyone that might know.

 

"W-we'll go find her.” Hokaku and Ginta said, clearly shaken by Lady higurashi's outburst.

 

“Mom, please!” Kagome yelled in desperation, grabbing her mother's arm, but Lady Higurashi wasn't hearing anything.

 

Library

 

“Here it is!” the librarian pulled a large book off of the shelf and handed it to Ayame. “The Silver Compass. It's a very good book, I think that Lady Kagome will like it a lot.”

 

“Thank you.” Ayame nodded and tucked the book under her arm, starting back to Kagome's room.

 

“Ayame!” Hokaku and Ginta yelled, gasping for breath as they ran into the library. “Lady (huff) Higurashi (gasp) wants (wheeze) you!”

 

“What's wrong?” Ayame laughed. “You two sound really out of breath.”

 

“Lady Higurashi's mad!” Ginta gasped. “Kagome was found unconscious by her window!”

 

“What?!” Ayame yelled. “But I barely left not four minutes ago!”

 

“Lady Higurashi's really mad.” Hokaku breathed. “You might want to---hey!”

 

Ayame took off, not waiting for the rest of Hokaku's sentence.

 

How could this have happened? Kagome was so into that book, and she only had about six pages left to go, she wouldn't have been by the window for anything until she was done! I smelled a maid, going towards her room, maybe… no! What am I saying? None of the servants here would do that! If it took them this long to find me, and I've only been gone four minutes, then it must have happened right after I left, so maybe the maid did…

 

Ayame dashed into the great hall, gasping as four guards appeared behind her and snapped her arms behind her back in an iron hold. She struggled until she noticed Lady Higurashi's expression, furious, yet… pained somehow.

 

“I'm sorry Kagome, but I promised your father that I wouldn't let anything happen to you, and even he got rid of people that were a danger to our clan.”

 

“No!” Kagome shrieked, yanking on her mother's arm again.

 

Ayame's heart stopped, her blood turning to ice. “…and even he got rid of people that were a danger to our clan.” Her vision blurred as she remembered Lady higurashi's threat. “But if she ever messes up like that again, she will be put to death, and I'm not changing my mind on that.” So she was doing what she thought Lord Higurashi would want, and I guess she was hoping that I wouldn't mess up again.

 

She thought I wouldn't mess up again. Ayame hung her head, shaking slightly, trying to keep her tears from her eyes. Yeah right.

 

Shippo whirled, where the hell was he? There was no way he would let her die. “Koga.” He hissed. Beside him, Rin clutched his arm in a panic. She couldn't do anything. She was powerless.

 

I cant go against Lady Higurashi and speak out, I'm to young, besides, it could start a war between our families if it gets too out of hand. Sango gripped the banister so tightly that it splintered in her hold; behind her, Miroku put his hand on her shoulder, his mouth just as dry.

 

“Koga.” Shippo said again, almost breaking out laughing in bliss when Koga came crashing through the window and landed right next to Ayame, and knocking the guards out in a heartbeat.

 

“Come on!” he grabbed her wrist and bolted for the nearest door, kicking it open and running out before anyone could do a full inhale and exhale.

 

“After them!” Lady Higurashi yelled. All of the still conscious guards in the sped after them except for Hokaku and Ginta, whose loyalties still rested in Koga's clan, not the Higurashis or Takashis.

 

Kagome breathed a sigh of relief. He wont let her die, or even be seen by those guards. She's going to be fine.

 

Inuyasha gripped her shoulder from behind, thinking the same thing that she was. in the back, beside each other, Bankotsu and Kikyo smiled. With the two best bodyguards in the region gone, it would make their job that much easier.

 

Takashi Forest

 

Koga swore as he smelled the mountain dogs behind them, all clans' biggest sources of finding fugitives and such; easily the most reliable hunting dogs in the land.

 

Ayame twisted her wrist in his hand, making him grip her tighter, thinking that she was trying to give herself in, but blinked in surprised when she only turned her hand enough to hold his, running next to him now, not being dragged along behind.

 

“Well, no turning back now.” He grinned at her showing one fang. She kept her devastated look on at first, but very soon, smiled with him.

 

“No turning back now.” She agreed quietly. “Just you and me.” She whispered to herself.

 

Rumika Palace

 

“Lord Kohaku?” Yura, the Rumikas' head maidservant and bodyguard poked her head through the doorway.

 

“Yes?” Kohaku asked. Kohaku was Sango's spitting image; he was also the heir to the Rumika clan after he became of age, because his and Sango's parents had already died long ago.

 

“There is a man to see you, he's tall and has dark wavy hair, and he said---what's that?” she said suddenly, looking out the window where a large black cloud was growing rapidly bigger on the horizon.

 

“Oh no.” she breathed and dashed out. “We're under attack.”

 

Demons. Kohaku grabbed his kusari-gama, a sicle on the end of a chain and ran out after Yura.

 

“We cant handle them!” Someone yelled as the demons struck.

 

“There are too many!” Another yelled.

 

Kohaku cursed and threw his kusarui-gama, slashing through six demons that smashed through the ceiling of the castle. “Where's Kirara?!” he yelled.

 

“Here, young Lord!” a maid ran up to him, carrying a small whimpering two-year old with black hair and a diamond-shaped birthmark on her forehead. (Note: I didn't make Kirara in her normal cat demon form because she would've made it too easy in the fight with Bankotsu, but I still wanted her in the story, and yes this note was also and intended foreshadowing hint. Lucky you!)

 

“Please run, my Lord!” a guard yelled before he was bitten in half by a spider demon.

 

Kohaku took Kirara in one arm and ran, slicing as many demons in two as he could while running.

 

“Take her and get to the Takashi Palace! Protect her with your life!” he handed Kirara to a horse man, who started crying when she was handed away from her older brother as the horse man rode off.

 

Kohaku turned, everyone was slaughtering and being slaughtered. We're too outnumbered, and we cant run… so what---? Kohaku gasped as a man appeared out of nowhere in front of him, smiling sinisterly.

 

“There is a man to see you, he's tall and has dark wavy hair…” Yura's description fit this man perfectly. “You did this?” Kohaku growled, and wound his arm back to throw his kusari-gama, when a woman with feathers in her hair stepped out from behind him and swept her fan in a circle.

 

“Dragon Serpent's Dance!” she said, smiling at him with the same sinister smile.

 

Kohaku dove out of the way of the twisters that she had created, but always found himself face to face with another.

 

Kohaku blinked at the twister coming right for him, but couldn't move fast enough to get out of the way of it. Sango! He thought before it hit him full of in the chest, knocking him unconscious before the clan's eyes.

 

“Lord Kohaku!” some yelled before they were killed by the demons.

 

“Get him Kagura.” Naraku said quietly, ignoring the slaughter around him. “We're going back.” He flew off in a cloud of miasma, back towards the Takashi Lands.

 

“Yeah, yeah.” Kagura flicked her fan shut and pulled a feather from her hair, flying off after Naraku with Kohaku right behind her.

 

Takashi Gardens

 

Sango smiled and took a deep breath of the summer air. “Miroku, I wanted to formally thank you for… exocising me.”

 

“It was really nothing Lady Sango, after all, it's my duty as a monk to always help others.”

 

“Well, in any event, is there any way I can repay you?”

 

“Oh no, it was really no trouble.” He assured her.

 

“Thank you.” She said again, allowing a small smile to show.

 

Miroku looked up as horse beats echoed in the distance and picked up his staff. “Please get behind me Lady Sango.”

 

The man on the horse was breathing heavily, and his horse looked about ready to pass out. “Please!” he gasped out. “I must find Lady Sango!”

 

“That's me.” Sango stepped out in the open, despite Miroku's silent protests.

 

The man reached inside his coat and pulled out a small bundle wrapped in his coat; he held it out to Sango. She reached out and gasped as she saw Kirara inside.

 

“Kirara!” she ripped the coat off and held her little sister close. “What happened?!”

 

“We fell under attack.” He wheezed. “Lord Kohaku sent me to bring her to you if it killed me.”

 

“Is he alright?!” Sango demanded, panicking now.

 

“I don't know Lady Sango, I left in the midst of the battle, I'm sorry.” He bowed, and then passed out, falling of the horse as it went off to look for water.

 

Sango ran as if the devil was chasing her, she sped by servants and even knocked over a washing girl as she ran.

 

“Here!” She yelled to Kagome as they passed, shoving Kirara into her arms.

 

“Sango, what's wrong?!” Kagome yelled, but Sango didn't even look back, or bother to close the door to her room as she tore her dress pulling it off and bruised herself while pulling her fighting outfit on.

 

“Sango!” Miroku called, running after her.

 

“Miroku, what happened?!” Kagome demanded as he ran by.

 

“Sango's castle fell under attack.” He yelled as he passed, doing a 360 degree turn in the middle of the hallway as Sango ran back the opposite direction with her Hiraikotsu, wearing her fighting outfit.

 

“Sango, wait!” Kagome yelled, passing Kirara to a maid as she ran after Sango. “You cant go into battle alone! It's too dangerous!”

 

“Someone stop her!” Kagome yelled desperately as Sango didn't acknowledge that anyone was calling to her. Sango punched out the guards that jumped in her way, and then jumped out a window and landed in front of one of the nobles that was going out for a ride. Sango yanked the reigns away from the poor old man and jumped on the horse, spurring it violently with her heel and steering it towards her lands.

 

He must have been riding for at least a day, and he was so hungry, he must have given all of his food to Kirara. This is bad, this is really, really bad. Please be ok Kohaku!

 

Ten Minutes Later

 

Miroku sat on the back of the fastest horse in the Takashi stables, Shippo and Inuyasha would be running beside him because they were much faster. “We have to hurry!”

 

“And naturally Koga and Ayame are too far away to be contacted.” Shippo muttered. “Although I suppose it's the smartest thing to do, Ayame might be found otherwise.”

 

“Let's just go.” Miroku said and his horse reared as he drug his heels into its side, racing it forward with Shippo and Inuyasha right beside him.

 

“You better bring her back!” Kagome yelled after them, clutching Kirara tightly.

 

“Let Sango be ok!” Rin pleaded to the night sky. “And for Sango's sake, Kohaku too!”

 

Morning

 

Kagome yawned and wrenched her eyes open, she had placed Kirara under the care of 24 nurses who weren't to leave her without ten nurses for one moment.

 

“Good morning Lady Kagome.”

 

Kagome blinked in confusion and then silently groaned. Her mother had assigned her two new bodyguards, Yuka and Eri, ones that took their jobs too seriously and never left her side. Christ. She spat mentally.

 

“Can we get you anything my Lady?” Eri bowed.

 

“That's the maid's job.” Kagome said coolly.

 

“Should we ready a bath for you?” Yuka asked, bowing alongside her partner.

 

“That's the maid's job.” Kagome repeated, gripping the sheets in frustration, almost tearing them in the process. I hope Inuyasha's ok.

 

Kagome got up and stretched, yawing hugely. She stood awkwardly from lack of use of her legs and hobbled over to the closet. “You two can leave now, I'm going to get dressed.”

 

“Oh, um, I'm sorry ma'am, but we aren't allowed to leave.” Yuka bowed again.

 

“What?” Kagome growled.

 

“We aren't---” Eri began, trying to repeat what Yuka had just said.

 

“You know what? Never mind.” Kagome said as calmly as she could and stepped into the closet, closing the door behind her. Dressing in her stupidly large closet was almost as easy as dressing in the great hall would be. No problem.

 

I wonder if Sango's ok, or if she got there in time to save the village. Kohaku's not as good as she is, but he should still be fine, a few puny demons couldn't take him down.

 

Kagome fixed her hair in the closet mirror and finally stepped out… to find Yuka and Eri listening in at the door, to make sure that she didn't suffocate in there or something apparently.

 

“Are you alright Lady Kagome?” Yuka asked, popping back up off the ground.

 

“Yes, my dresses put up a terrible fight, but I made it out alive.” Kagome rolled her eyes.

 

“What?!” Eri screeched.

 

“I was joking.” Kagome said through clenched teeth.

 

“Oh.” Yuka laughed. “Of course!”

 

“Yes?” Kagome said when someone knocked on the door, Yuka and Eri immediately gripped their swords, Kagome waved them away.

 

“House cleaning, Miss.” A maid called from outside.

 

“Alright, come in.”

 

The maid stepped in and dipped into a deep curtsy the second she saw Kagome.

 

“Um.” Kagome looked around for something for the maid to do. Hadn't a maid already come today? “I think just my desk needs organizing.”

 

The maid bowed and walked over to the desk, pulling out a rag as she went to wipe down the mirror.

 

Yuka and Eri stepped up behind the maid to make sure that she didn't try to pull anything, but she was only wiping down Kagome's music box on the corner of the desk, nothing out of the ordinary.

 

“Yuka? Eri?” Kagome pulled open one of her drawers and began looking around for her book, she knew that she had put it in one of these drawers.

 

“Yes!” Yuka and Eri turned at the same time, and the maid whirled and jabbed them both violently on a certain spot in their neck, the most effective sleeping pressure point on the body.

 

“I need help looking for my book, could you two look in the closet for me?” she shut the first drawer and opened another. The maid caught the two unconscious bodyguards and dragged them silently into the closet, momentarily turning into Yuka so she could answer: “Yes ma'am!” she then soundlessly closed the closet door and tip-toed over to Kagome's door, bolting all three locks.

 

“Yuka? Eri? Find anything?” Kagome asked, shutting the drawer and looking around for them.

 

“I think they're still in the closet, miss.” The maid said quickly.

 

“Still?” Kagome went over to it and pulled open the doors, finding them to be closed a little suspicious. She gasped at their unconscious forms, but didn't have time to react before a cloth with one of the weirdest smells was clamped over her mouth and nose from behind and another hand pressed to the back of her head so she couldn't move.

 

Kagome held her breath when she realized that it was drugged and thrashed against her bonds, but her capturer, the maid, she guessed, was at least ten times stronger than she was, if not more. And finally, she was forced to breath or suffer serious brain damage from lack of oxygen.

 

Fukuhon smirked as Kagome went limp again, and this time she didn't have to worry about that Inuyasha idiot walking in on her. She threw Kagome over her shoulder and ran over to the window, throwing both open wide and shivering slightly at the unwelcome cold twilight air.

 

Kikyo and Suikotsu were waiting down below and Fukuhon whistled to get their attention before dropping Kagome down into Suikotsu's arms.

 

“Good job.” Kikyo whispered up to her before running off into the woods with her captive.

 

Fukuhon dashed back inside and stripped out of her maid uniform, throwing it down the garbage shoot where the incinerator was waiting below for all trash. She dashed into Kagome's closet and pulled on one of Kagome's most worn nightgowns before morphing into Kagome and fixing her hair. She then grabbed Yuka and Eri and dragged them back into Kagome's room, placing them in chairs so it would seem as though they just fell asleep while watching Kagome.

 

Good. Fukuhon brushed her hands together and grabbed Kagome's diary before climbing into bed. She would read until she knew the basics of Kagome so she wouldn't be suspicious, and the she would go to sleep. By the time Yuka and Eri woke, they would just be convinced that they had dreamed that, or had fallen asleep after Kagome had asked them to find her book, so that's why they didn't remember anything.

 

Easy. Fukuhon climbed into bed and pulled the covers up. She flicked on the bedside light and began studying everything there was to know about Kagome.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jeez! Could anything else bad happen in this chapter?!