InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Impoverished Heir ❯ Looking at You Through the Glass ( Chapter 27 )

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]

I am so sorry, so sorry, SO SORRY to have taken two months to update this story that I consider some of my better work! Thank you for tuning in if that's what you're here for. Carry on, but first.... a note to how this whole thing started. Yes the next paragraph was written over a month ago. I hope you won't say that it seems it's written by two different people.

The story has smacked me across the face and has taken off. At first I thought this would be a short project. I had gotten the idea at my old job with soap suds halfway up my arms. I could see Inuyasha as a modern man so clearly that it was a wonderful vision. My fiancee was abit cautious at my idea, as I was wrapping up my second Yash sequel and I knew I needed something to write after it was over and done. She read the first chapter and liked it but I warned that it would be only a five or six chapter story, mainly to bring Kagome and Yash together. (chortle) This is a prime example of how a story takes off and forms its own life, commanding the writer to do as they say. Onigumo's dark qualities from the series became apparent in a wonderful way that I hope is original, and is more evil than just being a financial tycoon.

All dedications to my lovely fiancée and partner, Skye. One can never hope to find what they are searching for in their whole lives, and I was lucky. My wish to find my other was answered in my stories and I have been blessed. I can thank any god or God and the Virgin Mary for her presence. She understands me, she hears me, she knows me. When I look into her eyes, I see years we’ve spent already.
This story is dedicated as always to the ones that matter, lovely and kid sister. To those who criticize, to those who deny the truth, to those who won't express themselves... ask not for whom the bell tolls for this story tolls not for you.
For all who have commented and read this tale, also in part a dedication for you. A kind word, though they may be few, is fortune and glory enough and inspiration to keep on writing.


Disclaimer: Penpaninu does not claim to own the characters or likenesses of Inuyasha. The trademark belongs solely to the talented Rumiko Takahashi. Kudos to the woman of humor and drama, her work got me into anime to begin with.

“Impoverished Heir” chapter twenty-seven
"Looking at You Through the Glass"

Kanna watched the surface of the ancient mirror quietly. She murmured and images danced across the surface. A dark-haired woman lay asleep at the side of a slim man who was equally asleep. His arm was protectively laid over her and Kanna laid a gentle palm across the image in watery glass. Her dead eyes could have held a glimmer of longing for the briefest moment before a deep chuckle sounded at her right.
“Friends of the Takahashi, are they? You may begin, my dear,” Naraku smiled. Only his long white teeth were visible in the darkness of the room. Kanna nodded, her white hair shifting to hide her face.
“Yes, Master. I will conserve my strength for the others.”
Her fingers trailed carefully across the warped glass. The images inside begin to stir and Kanna watched. Her black eyes held sorrow as the woman in reflection frowned and moaned…

****

Her hair was bound up so tightly that her head hurt. Sango pushed at the elaborate hair style with one hand, trying to shift the headache the weight of her hair gave. She pushed around her, seeing pinpricks of light shift and float about giving off another-worldly air. Laughter floated past also, stinging her eardrums. Merriment was the emotion she heard and she was sure it was meant to soothe her. Just a party, move along, have a drink and have some fun. Sango bypassed faceless boys carrying trays larger than they were and waved away offers of a drink. A closer look would show Sango not one glass was similar to the other. Tiny, large, or lopsided; all were filled with dark liquor that stung the air before her nostrils.
“No, thank you. I have to find him…” Sango heard her words float out before her and she almost reached out to grab them physically. A pair of voluptuous women squeezed into corset dresses ambled past, giggling gaily as they went, and she was glad they had not heard her lover’s name. They were the type of women he used to associate with and she wouldn’t share him, not again…
“Sango, there you are!” a male voice as familiar as her own heart sounded from behind. Sango whirled and laughed with relief as she met the eyes of her boyfriend in this strange place.
“I thought something had happened to you,” she confessed, and rushed into the open circle of his arms. Miroku sang softly as they embraced and Sango could ignore all the weirdness of this shadowy place. When he was here, nothing else mattered…
"What are you doing to my woman?" A voice asked behind Sango's shoulder. Miroku looked up sharply, his hands possessively tight over her back.
"She's not your woman," he swore. Sango looked confused from the face of the man in her arms, over to a mirror image. Miroku was holding her.... but who was that with his face and body? Miroku stood to the side of them, hands shoved casually into his pockets. He smiled rakishly, eyes shiny with the hints of a few drinks. His shirt tails hung out of his slacks and the top buttons of his collar were loosened without care. It was a look Sango had seen on her boyfriend for years and years when he went out on the town frequently. Seeing him as a reflection of his past deeds was surreal enough without his present self at her side.
"But she IS my woman. She's always been my woman even if I wasn't always her man," the other Miroku smiled sheepishly. Sango's fists tightened over her boyfriend's shoulders as he clung to her.
"Just go away," she cursed. "I don't want to see you again."
The Miroku in her hands flinched but he understood what she meant. The other Miroku smiled disarmingly and held out a hand.
"But you've always wanted me. You can have me. Just not all of me."
Sango shook her head. "No, I don't want you. You'll hurt me."
The Miroku holding her tugged her waist. "Don't listen to him. He's not real."
The Libertine Miroku ran his hand through his bangs in a frustrated gesture. "I'm not real? That means alot coming from YOU."
"Stop it!" Sango cried out. She put a hand against her boyfriend's chest, and then pushed out at the rat beside her. One of her flailing hands sank into oily darkness that clung and sucked at her spread digits. "Oh God!!"
"Sango, hang on! I've got you!" Her boyfriend screamed in her ear as he yanked and tore at her and himself. Sango gave up to the rising panic and it swallowed her whole in its jaws.
"I've got you...." Blackness flooded her vision as Sango heard the words meant to assure shape to a sadistic warning. Her scream was as loud as the earth cracking.
"Wake up! Sango, wake up!" Hands pushed at her again and again, and in the transition from dream to waking, Sango carried the fear of her nightmare with her.
"NO!" she jolted upright and flailed wildly. Miroku grit his teeth and wrapped his arms around her waist, trapping her arms.
"It's me! It's me... Sango, stop it!" Miroku shouted. Sango stared at him with wide eyes, then looked around frantically. What she was looking for, Miroku had no idea.
"It IS you..." she breathed and clung to him with a strength that belied her beauty. Miroku 'whoofed' and patted her back.
"Yeah, who else would be here?" he sweatdropped. He blew a strand of Sango's hair out of his mouth and blinked the gummy cling of sleep out of his eyes. "Sango, you were having a nightmare... I don't know why, but I was able to get out of mine..."
Sango plucked at Miroku's wrist where a strand of black beads clacked together. "You always were blessed, love of mine."
Miroku chuckled uneasily, trying to shuck the fear of his own remembered nightmare. Sango had had no arms to hold him and so could not touch him forever after. With her slender arms around him now, he could forget the cold surreality of that dream he barely dragged himself out of. The sticky sweat on his back begin to dry cooly in the morning air of their waking.
"I don't know why, but I, I felt I had to gather myself... and then I woke." Miroku smiled as Sango kissed his shoulder. "And you were thrashing around and I..."
"And you woke me up. Thank god for you," Sango sighed. "It was so scary..."
"Do you think it means anything?" Miroku mused. He stared at the sunlight streaming in through their uncovered window. Sango shook her head against his bare skin.
"I don't know, darling. We can wait and see."
The pair had the briefest idea that perhaps Inuyasha and the others had had a similar night.

*****

Myoga shifted uncomfortably in his sleep, before his eyes snapped open. They were as round as the moon that had graced Tokyo behind its usual film of pollution that night. He snuffed and sat up, his rotund body straining at his striped pajamas.
Then he smiled.
"Oh, come now. As if I didn't know about the attributes of bronze before it was named," were Myoga's wry words. His mustachioed lips pulled back in a mocking leer as he scrubbed his eyes with one gnarled hand. Then his gaze sharpened to a study of contemplation.
"Well, I can't have been the only one targeted. I would have known it if the young masters were harmed...." But still, it was best to check up on them. The old man cocked his head to the side; the air shifted behind his round ears and something seemed to lift behind his scalp. Myoga smiled with relief and laid his hand over his chest.
"That's enough to make this old heart stop. At least they're alright..." Myoga laid back down, then thought better of it. He was awake, why not make the best of it? The old business servant swung his feet to the edge of his western bed and stood up, striped garments falling to the floor as he strode across the room. The window was swung open abruptly and a small insect leaped out into the city. There was no trace of the man who had worn the pajamas strewn carelessly across the tatami mats.

*****

"I'm telling ya, my ma was there, and she was trussed up like a hog for slaughter!" Inuyasha swore. He paced back and forth across the kitchen tiles, irritation straining every line on his handsome face. His salt-and-pepper hair bannered unbound to his waist and swayed with his pacing movements. Kagome yawned, her fist supporting her chin as she leaned on the kitchen table.
"I heard you the first time, lover! But it was just a nightmare. We all have things like that!" she tried to joke. Inuyasha moved around the far side of the table and pressed his fists against his narrow hips, glaring at her. He was completely naked, forgoing the choice of boxers after his fright. Kagome reflected that she was glad they lived alone and let her gaze drop appreciately low. His manhood swung loosely against his thigh as he moved, half shrunken from lack of arousal. Kagome knew she could rouse it to a fuller length if she so chose, but snapped back to the conversation at Inuyasha's response. Damn.
"I know that, Kagome!" he snapped. "It's just... it was too real! Too TOO real, if you get me. Why did I have to dream about THAT?"
"Oh Yasha..." Kagome's eyes softened. "I had a horrid dream too, but they can't exist in this world. There is a line between the dreaming world and our world."
"What if it's the complete opposite and the dreaming world is the real world?" Inuyasha fretted. He sank into one of the chairs at the table and sprang back up. The wood was just so damn cold!
Kagome chuckled and leaned her chin onto her hands. "Then we really have butterfly wings and just haven't noticed them until now."
"Isn't that what Aristotle said? To look past the cave of the world into the sunlight or something like that?" Inuyasha mused suddenly. He grabbed a dish rag and laid it on a chair for warmth. It would have to do for the moment.
"No, it was Plato," Kagome corrected. "It was in your favorite movie, baby."
"Matrix all the way," Inuyasha grinned. The talk of philosophy became less scary as he envisioned Trinity spinning into impossible spider flips around the room. Kagome would look really great in that tight leather.
The couple laughed together until the house phone rang. Kagome sighed and swayed over to the phone stand and peered at the name flashing across the phone's screen. "It's your brother, Yasha."
Inuyasha reached out automatically and Kagome pressed the device into his palm. "Did you dream too, Sessh?"
Sesshomaru paused then laughed uneasily. "You are opening to the dangers around us. We need to talk, little brother."
"How bout work?" Inuyasha yawned. "We can conference in Pop's room or whatever."
"That is an excellent idea," Sesshomaru compounded. "Myoga hasn't answered my calls but I figure he'd be on this."
"You don't think it was Naraku do you?" Kagome whispered to the side. Inuyasha nodded as Sesshomaru cleared his throat over the line.
"He has found something as that insufferable Kaze woman said, something that is aiding his darkness. We need to know what it is and stop it."
"I agree. It's bad enough we can't get a full night's sleep because of all this crap," Inuyasha complained.
A fleck on the linoleum floor twitched then hopped away. Antennae flickered in the air as it pounced up impossibly high to a window sill and squeezed smaller still through the teeny holes of the window screen before growing back to its tiny shape. Wings stood straight up and the insect took flight, avoiding natural predators with supernatural ease. Just stopping it wouldn't do.... wouldn't the key be to counter it? Plans flashed through the insect's mind as it soared away.

*****

Naraku snuffed as Kanna swept a pale hand over the surface of the ancient bronze mirror. The glass rippled like water impossibly before setting back into cold dark metal and its new owner sank down into her chair, dark eyes silent.
"So they found this probe. Can you try anymore, my Kanna?" Naraku murmured. Kanna nodded once, her eyes never leaving his. Naraku tried not to shiver, but sometimes she was just so....cold. Even too cold for him.
"Yes, sir," she whispered. Hakudoshi raised his head from his arms and stared blurrily at the two.
"Don't you ever get enough, what's your damned problem?" he complained sleepily. His fumbling hands knocked over fast food wrappers as he struggled to lift his head.
"You should pay more attention, Hakudoshi," Naraku drawled. "Your partner here is trying to capture the essence of her item."
"Yeah, well, I don't HAVE an 'item'," Hakudoshi muttered. He pulled a straw wrapper out of his hair and shook the white strands from his face. "So forgive me for sleeping on you."
"You can't handle what I do," Naraku promised. One hand stole inside his suit pocket and carressed cold ceramic and woven rope. "But rest assured; your self-styled vacation is about over."
"Damn," Hakudoshi groused. He would have to actually WORK now. "What do you have for me?"
"You shall see," Naraku grinned. "I go now to collect the essence for our blacksmith."
"Blacksmith? We actually have one of those?" Hakudoshi asked, interested. His eyes followed his boss as he swept for the door, gathering his suit around him like a cloud of pitch. Why did he always have to wear black like a kindergoth?
"Indeed we do, and one talented at that. Well, keep your cell on, Hakudoshi. Kanna, keep on with what your surveillance," Naraku ordered. A soft click of the office door and he was gone.
Hakudoshi leaned back in his chair and sighed. He watched Kanna a moment and gave up on her. She was as immovable as sculptured ice. His eyes shifted to a blur in the darkest corners of the cavernous office and narrowed.
"Hey, what are you doing back there?" he asked. The shadow moved and stood up to become the small waif of a girl, Naraku's newest adopted. Hakudoshi was hardstruck to remember her name, and that should be a terrible thing, but when his boss moved through daughters like a knife through butter...
"I was not commanded to leave," the girl whispered. Hakudoshi couldn't help looking her up and down. Skinny little thing, but with the flaring beginnings of a woman's form. Her hair was shiny and long, framing an oval, white face and large beguiling eyes. Sinful eyes, Hakudoshi thought. He smiled suddenly.
"Wanna get some lunch?"
The boss had never said HE couldn't leave.

*****

"Yeah, pass some of that over here..."
"Enough, Yasha! You'll get a caffeine headache!"
"Oh, he's had enough to o.d. anyone else!"
"You would know, wouldn't you?"
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"You're all so funny!"
Sesshomaru's noble chin was buried in his one hand as he closed his eyes and tried to wish himself away to another existence. Preferably a quieter one. Inuyasha had invited his two friends Miroku and Sango and they were crowded elbow to elbow along with Kagome, Rin and Myoga at a table that was big enough to seat fifty. Why they all had to sit right on top of him was beyond him. And they all were jabbering as loud as a party of seventy. He was really starting to get a headache.
"Will that be all, Mister Takahashi, sir?" a servant murmured at his elbow. Sesshomaru opened his golden eyes and nodded. The servant nodded to a pair of maids and all the hired help left the small conference room. Only the strange party remained.
Sesshomaru cleared his throat. Then he cleared it again. "Attention, everyone. Attention," he said.
Nobody paid him any mind. Finally Rin stood up and coughed politely.
Everyone turned and shut up. Sesshomaru smiled to himself. Of course.
"I think we all know why we're here," she began diplomatically. "Shall we begin?"
Myoga loosened his tie with one gnarled hand. "Young masters, your households were all visited by a messenger of evil. Your very dreams were entered solely to draw you into hell. I fear Kaze-san had the right of it; an item of power is his and he is using it against us."
Miroku and Sango looked at each other, nodding while Inuyasha frowned.
"What item was she talking about? You both are coming off more than cryptic," he complained. Kagome knocked on the table for attention of her own.
"Shrines can generate their own items of sacred power over a long amount of time, and Naraku may have found something like that," she said.
Miroku shrugged. "That may be true, Kagome, but what is it? How do we know what to do?"
"I think you'll find I may have some answers," the familiar female voice purred from the doorway. And it was at this point that Sesshomaru lost a fraction of his outer cool.
"Who invited HER here??" he snapped. Inuyasha and Company turned to gape at him then guffawed at the irritation on his handsome visage.
Myoga stroked his mustachioed upper lip and winked at the half injured woman.
"I think you'll find, young master, that you should be glad she's on our side," he suggested. Rin leaped up to help Kagura limp to a chair and take her ever present knapsack.
"Oh, the jar of dirt?" he asked sarcastically. Kagura 'hmmphed' and set her hand fan before her. Inuyasha gestured to a bottle of water in the middle of the table and she smiled graciously.
"It's nice to see you too," she said darkly towards the elder Takahashi. He gave a mock gesture. Her smile was radiant for the rest of the party, then. "Forgive the intrusion, I am Kaze Kagura, a close friend of Rin-san's."
Everyone said their hello's and Sango and Miroku introduced themselves to her. Sesshomaru rapped his claws on the table until she was done.
"Do you have anything now?" he interrupted. Kagura frowned and tucked bandaged fingers inside her suit pocket.
"While you all were doing idle training and generally making yourself open to the enemy, I have been intercepting information from the palace."
"From the palace?" Inuyasha perked up.
"What would the imperial family have to offer in information?" Miroku asked quietly. Sango's hand found his.
Kagura gestured empathically. "Their line is said to be descendant of those who made these islands, strained but not broken since the beginning of time. Don't you think they'd have some interesting stories locked away somewhere?"
Kagome shivered. She saw cold primal waters deeper than any imaginable void of beginnings before the oceans boiled and formed small beads of heat that became a string of islands that one day would become Japan...
Miroku sat up straight as if struck by lightning. "Yes, yes, of course... well do you have a lead on what Naraku is attacking us with?"
Kagura took her hand out of her pocket and dropped a half folded piece of parchment onto the immaculate table top.
Nobody moved for a moment until Myoga reached over and gingerly unfolded the cracked paper with a softness that belied his size.
"The beginning of the imperial line, the crowning of Amaterasu's fifth generation of offspring as Emperor of the Central Land of the Reed Plains. The three sacred base tools of Shinto itself...."
"...He's using the Mirror," Miroku declared. He and Kagome clasped hands across the table. A hum of power sparked between their outstretched fingertips. "He's using the dark metal to get into the realms of our dreams!"
Kagura laughed suddenly. "And here I didn't get to finish my sentence! You see, Sesshomaru-san, you should listen to your friends more!"
"But what about the other two?" Sango asked seriously. "It's good we know he has ONE of those items, but what about the other two?"
"We don't have to worry about the most aggressive of them," Kagura offered. "I know for a fact that he has only two! So we're safe for the time being."
"Until we go back to sleep," Inuyasha groused. "I don't know about you, but I don't want to be looking for Freddy Krugger over my shoulder when I have to pass the fuck out."
"Heh!" Sango guffawed. She and Rin grinned at each other across the table.
And then it was shouting and laughter from then on.
Kagome took the parchment in the middle of the melee and studied it thoughtfully. "Couldn't we make protection wards or something of the sort? My grandfather isn't too great at that, but is your father, Miroku?"
Miroku nodded. "He is somewhat adept at it, Kagome. I could call him."
Kagura tapped her cane against her knapsack under the table. It made a clinking sound. "Higurashi-san, could I ask a favor of your family?"
Kagome shrugged. "I guess so... what did you have in mind?"
"Oh, don't ask her. She'll ask for your firstborn child," Sesshomaru groused. Rin chided him softly.
"Could you please allow me to store this at your shrine? As I understand it, your forebears made their shrine at a very special tree," Kagura smiled.
Kagome leaned across the table and accepted the knapsack. "They did. It's said to have been in blossom for a thousand, thousand years... or so they say."
"Do they?" Kagura's smile was wide. "I think they may be right."
"Who's making our protection charms already?" Inuyasha wanted to know.
"I said, I was going to call Dad later," Miroku said smoothly.
"What about your mom's weapons, Sango?" Kagome wanted to know.
Sango grinned. "I think I may get my hands on her old bone blade yet."
"Organization, people, organization," Sesshomaru was saying.
"Oh, SHUT UP!" Inuyasha yelled.
"Now, young masters...." Myoga began. He was overcome by a litany of obscenity.
Through it all, the women leaned back and regarded each other ruefully. At least the grave seriousness could be ignored in a moment of camraderie. But they had to move before they were targeted again.


*****

"How does it feel to come back home?" Ayame asked. Kouga smoothed out his suit with one free hand, his smile wide as his girl lay against his arm.
"Fucking fantastic," he cursed evenly. "My old man really went all out, didn't he?"
A score of partial wolf men stood in gray suits flanking the couple as they walked from their limosine to the Ookami Firm building. Old colleagues gawked and scrambled to greet him or get out of the way as Kouga proudly walked his intended bride upstairs. The burly suits followed at a close distance, ready to scrap at a moments notice.
"Kagome-san! Kagome, come quick!" Shippou called. Kagome looked up from her computer then jogged over to her frantically waving friend.
"What's all the fuss about, now?" she wanted to know. She quickly stifled a yawn with the back of her hand.
The short businessman was all but beaming. "Ookami Kouga-san has returned to the building. That woman that's with him, you see?"
Kagome watched the pair in smart business grey across the room. Ayame's aura was enormous and fairly crackled with a wolfish vibe that made her spine tingle. It was almost enough to believe she could imagine a tail and ears along with the woman's naturally golden eyes.
"Who is she?" She looked kind, in any case.
"That's Ayame, from the Elders Council. She comes from a very old unbroken branch of the clan," Shippou whispered eagerly.
"How do you know all this?" Kagome teased. Shippou tried to stand taller, looking important.
"Because I have been reporting on his 'beach side resort' training to Ookami Senior himself," he beamed. Kagome gawked for a moment then smiled.
"He really does have respect for our abilities, doesn't he?" she giggled.
"In any case, he knows how to apply what sources he has appropriately," Shippou made his pointed ears wiggle and grinned. "There must be something in the works if Kouga-san has been sent for."
"A big case for him?" Kagome asked conventionally. Shippou shook his head. His red bangs fell into his golden eyes.
"Ookami senior has been holding meetings his partners and the Elders Council for days now, and a certain name keeps coming up."
"Onigumo," Kagome guessed. Shippou nodded to her.
"He is more than a problem for your lover and his family. I truly believe that he is a problem for any who live with a free will and good heart."
"And that's, well, everyone," Kagome murmured softly. She saw every face from Honshu to Hokkaido in her mind's eye, never knowing of the evil that was working in the wings.
"YES," Shippou whispered excitedly. He sat Kagome down at his desk and held her shoulders in his hand. "Kagome, when the time is right... he must be taken care of, for good and all."
"But aren't we talking about murder?" Kagome gulped. "This is the modern age. When you do something wrong, you go to jail."
Shippou shook his head. "People like the Ookami, the Takahashi, and even my elders say there's more to that. Yes, laws are needed, but nature's laws must be needed too. When something is too evil that it would sap the spiritual underside of our existence, it just must be stopped, plain and simple."
"Kagura-san did say he wasn't human anymore," Kagome said faintly. "We've been attacked in our sleep as it is! What can we all do?"
"I wouldn't worry, Kagome. Your family is well protected with its Time Tree as it is," Shippou said.
Kagome blinked hard. "What?" That was the first time she had heard it be called that. "What did you just..."
Shippou smoothly went on with his train of thought. "And the Takahashi have been protected for years now. Don't worry, you'll be fine as can be."
"You really are a source of information, aren't you?" Kagome asked softly. She could hear Tetsusaiga's constant humming in her mind, as easily as stepping through the front door of the home she shared with Inuyasha.
"I have to be," Shippou said. "I think Ookami Senior may need me. Will I have dinner with you and Inuyasha sometime soon?"
"Count on it!" Kagome grinned. Shippou opened his desk drawer and pulled out a small childish charm which he pressed earnestly into Kagome's palm.
"Please take this with you. Think of it as my clan's blessing," he said impishly, sharp teeth flashing in his customary grin. "Well, I'm off! Starbucks later?"
"Definately," Kagome waved. She blinked and Shippou seemed to vanish as he jogged quicker than she could believe around the corner. Looking down into her hand, she saw a small child's top with two red leaves tied to the stem.

*****

"Got him locked," the first man murmured into his mouthpiece. He was answered quietly but immediately.
"It's go time."
"Just follow, don't tag."
"Roger that."
Three other agents fanned out near him in a triangular pattern and stealthily stalked forward. It was in the dead of night and even though Tokyo was a stone's throw away of light and life, this area of japanese soil was as black as pitch.
The man they followed was even blacker, dressed all in black, complete with a cascade of black hair done up in old topknot style. If it weren't for the best in tracking technology, the agent was certain he would have been lost for sure. Night-vision goggles hung over his face, ensuring their target was identifiable by his heat pattern. Three small green blobs on his wrist tracking device indicated his partners. The whole team had commando suits and other likely gear along with the speediest cell technology (set to vibrate of course) strapped to their shoulders, and firearms attached firmly in holsters on their hips. Oddly enough, swords were strapped to their left sides, short enough to be long hunting knives. The team leader reflected that he had fought long and hard with their employer on the necessity of that when a revolver was good enough, but he had been overruled.
When Takahashi Sesshomaru wanted something, it was best to comply to his wishes.
The agent gritted his teeth and followed softly at a low crouch. His combat shoes effortlessly carried him with the slightest of noise. He could see the other three green blobs no more than twenty feet away on either side of him. When a fourth blob added itself to his tracking device, he stopped sharply.
"What's going on?" the agent to his right whispered through his mouth piece. The leader looked down at his device, then up through his night-vision goggles where Onigumo was seen last. There he was of course. But why was grey surrounding his green signature?
"He's doing something. Caution, everyone," he whispered excitedly. His partners stopped dead in their tracks. The fourth blob kept moving to one of his agents.
"Hey, what is that with you?" he wanted to know. Heavy sporadic breathing sounded over the mouthpiece.
"There's something here, there's something here with me," the man sang out in fear. The leader heard his revolver being cocked back.
"Don't, you'll alert Onigumo! The boss said to watch, not to..."
"There's something here with me!" the agent repeated, sounding all of ten years old. "It's... it's..... oh, shit, it's right on top of me, it's... oh mama, help me!"
The leader heard shots ring out close by, and his two green blobs formed right on top of him, his other two agents forming out of the night to flank him.
"What happened to Junchiro?"
"Shit, what was that??"
"Shut up, we'll find him, you just ruined the whole mission!" the leader hissed.
Low chanting sounded from Onigumo's last location and his gray signature indicated he hadn't moved. But something else was towards them.
"Oh, shit, we're next, what do we do??"
"What is that??"
"Draw, and shoot. Shoot to kill!" the leader ordered, his revolver already in his hand as he spoke. He and his agents formed a back to back circle and aimed at the engulfing darkness. A low roar thundered as if from the earth itself, and the leader's eyes bugged out behind his goggles as an impossibly tall figure lumbered forward, silhouetted in black. It's arms were brawny, hands low enough to knuckle the rocks as it drew closer. Horns perched back from it's lowsunk brow, and eyes large enough to dominate the entire face stared crazily at the three cowering men.
It may not be possible, but it could tell they were there and it was coming for them. The agent reflected insanely that he had better throw logic out the window at this point.
"Oni! It's a fucking oni!" an agent shrilly exclaimed.
"Shoot it! I ain't dying!" the other answered.
The leader responded by popping the huge target three times in the chest and shoulders. It didn't even slow it down. In fact, it just speeded up at that point.
"The gun ain't doing shit!"
"RUN!" the leader ordered, grabbing a man's arm and flinging him to the side. The third agent followed closely. Hoarse fearful panting filled their earpieces as they tore out like all hell was after them. And maybe it was.
"Hey, that's Junchiro!" one of the agents screamed. He stooped low and picked up the fallen agent. Something detached from the unconscious man as he was lifted up.
"Oh, I'm gonna be..." the leader heard the agent vomit to the side, Junchiro in his arms. It was part of him, in any case.
"Get the hell out!" he hissed. He grabbed the other.... part... of Junchiro and they tore out as fast as they could.
"Help me! Help me!" his last agent screamed.
"Use your fucking sword!" the leader hissed over his mouthpiece. He groped wildly for his shoulder and hit 'send' on his highly advanced cell.
"Yes?" agents from a nearby mobile base were right on top of things.
"Get us the hell out of here now!" he babbled wildly. He heard clings and metal sparking in the background as his agent huffed and swung and the oni roared in response to the steel. The leader heard a confirmation to their target and knew salvation was on the way. He drew his own sword in a scrape of metal and rushed to save his comrade. The next few minutes went by in a flurry of tortured gasps, thrusts that made his shoulders ache, and numerous stinging injuries he couldn't let himself fall to.
When twin helicoptors descended upon the team that was four, the leader could only thank any god that was listening. And made a mental note to change careers as he and his three, well two and a half, were helped onto the coptors, and they were airborne. There wasn't much of Junchiro to count as a full body.
"The boss wants to hear your status report," an agent handed a slim phone to the gasping leader. The leader held the phone to his ear, his eyes half slit with exhaustion.
"It was horrible, Takahashi-san, horrible! We were attacked... no, we're all down. Junchiro ain't coming back alive."
"You've done well, sir. I will come visit you immediately."

*****

Takahashi Sesshomaru stood at the foot of a hospital bed, his face grim as he listened to his leader agent's wild story. He was trying to keep a professional face on, but things weren't trying to stay too pretty as it was.
"...And was Onigumo looking for anything? What did you notice about that?" Sesshomaru wanted to know.
"He seemed.... he seemed to be sizing the place up, if that makes any sense. He may have been looking for something, but it all happened so fast!..."
"I understand. You've all done well, and will be adequately rewarded for your misadventure," Sesshomaru bowed to the prone, bandaged man and walked out. Myoga joined him in the hallway.
"Onigumo has the power to draw on oni now, that's for certain," he murmured. Myoga's lined face was very grave.
"You realize that it will take a great effort in battle to defeat him?"
Sesshomaru thought of the power streaming from Tenseiga as his life's blood soaked his side. "Yes...."
"Young master, I have been giving the matter of the Three Items considerable thought, and if I may suggest something?"
At Myoga's next words, Sesshomaru wearily smiled. "Yes. Yes, that may work. It may work well, at that."
The two men swept out of the hospital.

*****

"And you can form what I want from this?" Naraku murmured.
The bald blacksmith smiled widely, his teeth yellow and jagged. "It is most impressive, master, that you collected this residue essence. A copy of the original may be as good as the damned original." His black beard pulled with his smile. A clay container stoppered with a rag was cradled between his talonned fingers.
"Good, very good. I expect it to be finished as quickly as you can be done," Naraku ordered coldly. The blacksmith shrugged.
"Can't rush greatness, master. But, for you, as quickly as I can," he leered. Naraku nodded.
"What now?" Hakudoshi complained behind him. Naraku was quick to note his adopted daughter cringed at the side of his servant.
"Must I even ask?" he asked evenly. Hakudoshi shrugged, trying not to feel strained. The clawmarks in his neck tingled.
"What, she was hungry, we had lunch. Simple as that," he said blithely. Naraku turned his back on them.
"Be fortunate I found what I was seeking or this problem would be punished instantly. But, as it is, we have your new job to discuss. Daughter, leave us," Naraku intoned regally.
'Sick sonuvabitch,' Hakudoshi thought. The waif bowed and scurried away. As the door to the dank smithy shut (and how odd to say THAT in this business tower) , Naraku smiled and clasped his hands behind his back.
"Our able servant is forming your steel as we speak. Thank the man already."
"Uhm..... yeah. Thanks alot," Hakudoshi obediantly replied. "Steel, boss?"
"A sword," Naraku's smile was cold. "A katana of great power will be placed into your hands."
"An effing sword? Oh, come on," Hakudoshi complained. "Granted, that'll be fun, but we can't really chop up our foes even though we would much wish to..."
"Hakudoshi. While I appreciate your constant participation, I would also appreciate your full attention. You know what it is we do, and what is possible here. So stop the young businessman angle and accept this position of power at my side."
"...Of course," Hakudoshi answered. Beads of sweat dotted his brow.
Onigumo Naraku placed his hand on his underling's shoulder as if to console him.... then curled his fingers up and around the back of his neck, locking him into place. "Know that if you disobey me, this sword can, and will, cut both ways. Have we a full understanding between us?"
Hakudoshi stiffly nodded. He tried not to notice a slight dampness in his drawers when Naraku withdrew his fingers. Inky blackness clung to the clawmarks in his throat. He had the feeling that his fate had been more than amply sealed.

End for now

How about that, two months in between posting! Uhm, I hope youre still reading. Please don't kill me! Much need the reviews and your thoughts. Let me know what you think! Its all coming down now, promise. I will finish!!!

Sincerely yours, penpaninu 8/22/07