InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Infatuation ❯ Snatch It ( Chapter 14 )

[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]

A/N: Two words: Writer’s block. I’ve had a lack of inspiration for the past few months. I didn’t want to publish crap, so I held off until my usual standard came back. Couple that with vacation, my birthday, preoccupation with the seventh Harry Potter, moving into my new apartment, finding a job and getting ready for classes to start…Let‘s just say I‘m easily distracted. =) It’s a little longer than usual, so hopefully that’ll help make up for the wait.

Also, I received Dark Angel for my birthday, so therein lie the references. ;)

Special thanks to Gabi for betaing this chapter!

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Infatuation
Rated M/R

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Chapter 14: Snatch It

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Recap:

How could you do something so stupid!” InuYasha continued his tirade. “Do you have any idea how dangerous that was?”

“I just couldn’t continue to sit around and do nothing! I’m the only other one who can sense the shards. I had to try and find some before Naraku did!” Kagome bit back.

“And what if we hadn’t got here in time? He was planning on taking you and…” InuYasha trailed off, the rest of the sentence unbearable to say.

Kagome’s face softened. She slipped her arms around him cautiously. “I’m sorry,” she whispered. “I didn’t mean to make you worry.”

InuYasha just brought his arms up and hugged her tightly.

“Kagome! InuYasha!” Sango cried urgently.

“What?” InuYasha replied sharply.

“I just got a distress call from Rin. They found Ayame and Kouga. They got away with the soul concoction.”

“Shit,” InuYasha cursed.

“How are Ayame and Kouga?” Kagome asked hesitantly.

“Something’s wrong with Kouga,” Sango said wearily. “Rin reported that it seems like his soul has been sucked out.”

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~HQ Infirmary Ward~

“…stability…limited…”

“The window of retrieval…decreasing.”

Ayame stood listlessly with her defeated face pressed against the Infirmary glass, attentively watching the doctors and nurses converse around the prone body of Kouga. Since the consultation rooms had thick walls and glass to satisfy sanitation regulations, even her enhanced youkai hearing could only pick up snatches of conversation. And those bits made her feel panicky and…guilty.

“It’s my fault.”

“BP…dangerously low.”

“That void youkai, Kanna, she was able to suck out Kouga’s soul because I wasn’t being a good partner. I was too busy busting him on stupid things instead of surveying for threats like I normally do. I was so stupid!”

“…become comatose…”

“Ayame?”

The female ookami slowly turned her head to the side, realizing belatedly Kagome had called her name. Her fellow Slayer looked battered and worried too.

“Oh shit, the-”

“I failed you, Kagome. Urasuae got away with the soul concoction,” Ayame whispered dejectedly.

“Oh, hon,” Kagome sighed and wrapped her arms around Ayame. “You didn’t fail me. You did all you could. You almost had it. We weren’t counting on Kagura and Kanna showing up.”

“But I should have,” Ayame insisted, pushing away slightly. “And now Kouga’s lying in there because I was too foolish to anticipate enemy movement, like we had been trained.”

“Ayame, none of us know how to predict these guys’ moves. They’re like nothing we’ve ever faced before. They’re calculating and depraved, and what’s worse is they’ve popped out of nowhere with all this history and connections we can’t find,” Kagome sighed. “We’ve managed to keep a few steps ahead of them before, but now I think they’re catching up. At least we got a few jewel shards away from him. That’s something, isn’t it?”

“I suppose,” Ayame muttered distractedly, watching the lab coats stick a few more tubes into her partner.

“Kouga’s going to get his soul back. He’s going to live,” Kagome said determinedly.

Ayame whipped her head around. “How can you say that? How can you be so sure?”

“Because girls kick ass, says so on the T-shirt*,” Kagome grinned. “You know that’s how we roll around here. Seriously, no worries. All of us are going in after it. Rin and Sesshomaru are working on tracking down Kanna’s whereabouts now. Miroku and Sango are researching the databases for information on mirrors like hers. InuYasha’s loading up gear and waiting for weapons specifics.”

“What about you and me?”

“I’ve come down here to inform you you’re sitting this one out.”

“But-!”

“No buts! You just had a three-week undercover that ended pretty badly, you need some recovery time. Plus, I’m sure you don’t want to leave Kouga’s side right now,” Kagome said, smiling gently.

“Hold on-!” Ayame protested weakly, cheeks tinged pink.

“Un-huh, deny it all you want. I’ll never believe you. Now, I’m off to see Kaede about some stronger warding spells for these shards.” Kagome gave her friend a quick squeeze, then disappeared down the hallway.

Ayame stared at vacant spot, the miko’s words looping in her head.

“Could I really…?”

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~HQ Boardroom~

“Okay, so we have a 24-hour window to retrieve and return Kouga‘s soul,” Sango said before the group, all business. “This is a quick and slick heist. We need to avoid confrontation. Get in, figure out how to break the mirror and get out.”

“Kanna has been spotted by our operatives in a residential district,” Sesshomaru began, “in Osaka. Since we’re down two youkai and have need for immediacy of travel, we’ll have alternative means of transport. InuYasha is arranging it now.”

“Her place is heavily warded,” Rin continued. “Plus, state of the art alarms and security. Miroku and I will be all over that.”

“The mirror itself will be the biggest problem,” Miroku picked up. “Sango and I found little to nothing on soul-absorbing objects of this type. Mostly, the controller has to release the soul of his or her own volition, be killed-”

“Or the object has to be broken,” finished Sango. “But the tricky part is, not all apply to every soul removal object. It depends on the maker and how the object was created. One wrong move on our part could make Kouga’s soul lost forever.”

“Well, from what Ayame told me, the mirror can reflect your attack directly back at you,” Said Kagome wearily. “How are we to even make a dent in this thing?”

“Divide and conquer,” Sesshomaru intoned.

Kagome gave the Ice King an incredulous look, then smacked her forehead with her palm. “Duh! Separate her from her mirror!”

“Hn.”

Kagome rolled her eyes. “All hail the Ice Prickle.” Sesshomaru chose to ignore her comment. “We’ve got our objective, are we ready to move out?”

Suddenly, InuYasha stuck his head in the door. “Ride’s here! Let’s move it, I’ve already loaded our gear.”

The four Slayers and Hunters quickly followed him. After climbing a few flights of stairs, Kagome huffed out, “Where the hell is this ride?”

“Quit your bitchin’,” InuYasha growled back, swinging open the roof access door.

“A helicopter?” Sango asked in disbelief.

“No, it’s a freakin’ bird. What the hell did you think we’d use? Now get in!”

Sesshomaru and Miroku climbed right in behind InuYasha. Sango and Kagome exchanged glances before hauling themselves inside.

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~Onigumo Industries~

Kagura leaned against the sleek laboratory wall, observing Urasuae from a clinical distance. The old witch was carefully stirring her herbal soul extraction concoction into the metal tub. Tsubaki was assisting by running diagnostics on the electrical equipment and connecting the tubes to the tank. The thrum of electricity and dark magic contained in the room had the small hairs on Kagura’s neck annoyingly prickling.

The wind youkai eyed Hiten leaning in the shadows. He looked quite pleased with himself as his eyes followed Tsubaki around the lab.

“What the hell does that annoying Thunder youkai have to be so smug about? It was Kanna and I who secured the concoction, not he. Foolish idiot is up to something,” Kagura thought angrily.

“Kagura.”

Her head snapped up to meet the red gaze of Naraku as he entered the lab, Kikyo trailing eerily silent, as always, behind him. How Kagura hated the half-dead once miko. Something was just off about Kikyo, and it irritated the crap out of Kagura. The woman seemed so cold, but not on the same level of Kanna. Kanna was a void youkai. It was her nature to be emotionless. She knew nothing of feelings, having no natural inclination nor an environment to foster them. Kikyo, however, was the epitome of the woman scorned. But scorned by what? Kagura knew not. The woman’s past was as mysterious as her true origins.

“Hai, Naraku-sama?”

“It appears the preparations here are nearly complete. I assume everything else has been set in place with Kanna?”

“Of course, or I would not be here,” Kagura replied.

“Good. Hiten,” Naraku called the Thunder youkai’s attention away from Tsubaki. “You know what to do.”

“Hai,” he said, bowing, then leaving.

Kagura’s eyes widened slightly as she witnessed Naraku smile malevolently.

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~HQ Infirmary Ward~

“Tsuki-san?”

Ayame’s head jerked up the moment she heard one of the attendants call her name. It had seemed like hours had passed since Kagome had left her alone with her thoughts in the ward. She turned wearily to a petite brunette attendant in a white lab coat, fearing bad news already.

“Hai?”

“Your partner, Kouga, is stable at the moment. Kaede-sama said you would like to see him.”

Ayame nodded, following the petite attendant past the glass window she had been staring through and around to the sealed door. The attendant swiped her card, motioning Ayame inside after hearing the swoosh and click of the lock mechanism release. Once inside, the attendant made herself scarce. The red-haired Slayer slowly approached Kouga’s bedside, dropping onto a nearby chair.

The Hunter laying before her hardly resembled the energetic ookami she knew. His normally tanned and glowing skin looked so sallow and lifeless. His beautiful sky-blue eyes were thankfully closed, for the eerie soul-less appearance made Ayame’s heart ache in new ways. His vibrant and exuberant aura was gone, replaced by this shallowly breathing body. Tears sprang to Ayame’s emerald eyes as her shaky hand reached to clasp his. It felt so cold and stiff, like she was holding a corpse‘s.

“Kami, Kouga,” she hiccupped. “I’m so sorry. This is all my fault. I never meant for you to ever get hurt. And now look at you, laying here. Almost…dead.” Ayame began crying harder now. “I have to have faith in our friends that they’ll get your soul back, despite the odds. We’ve faced worse, right?” Ayame tried to force a smile, but it turned into a watery frown. “I have to. Because…because I never got to tell you something really important. And I need you to be awake and alive so you can hear me! ‘Cause I want a response from you, you baka ookami!”

Clutching his hand tightly, the tears and sobs came more frequently as Ayame pondered the reality of her fears.

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~Hinto Residence, Kanna and Kagura’s apartment~

Kanna stood at the kitchen sink, rinsing her dinner dishes. Without Kagura in the apartment, there was no noise. Kanna herself rarely spoke, if ever. It was usually up to her sister to instigate and carry on all conversations. Which, usually, were rants about Naraku and his several bastardly qualities and their never-ending enslavement to the madman. Kanna normally just nodded in the right places. Why speak when it wasn’t necessary? Kanna liked the few, quiet peaceful moments they had here in this little apartment. Away from Naraku. Not completely out of his sphere of influence, but at least out of his presence, out of the feel of his oppressive aura.


She put the last plate in the drainer, tilting her head to the side.

“What is that sound?”

She turned and padded softly across the tile to the window by the dining table. She saw a black object high in the sky.

“A helicopter,” she said softly and decidedly aloud, turning to face the front door of her apartment just as InuYasha busted through it, followed by Kagome. Sango and Miroku climbed in through the window behind her, and Sesshomaru and Rin approached from down her hallway.

“One of our bedroom windows,” she thought. “But the wards…”

“Don’t look so confused,” InuYasha said sarcastically. “Those wards were a joke for Miroku and Kagome. And Rin could have dismantled your alarm system in her sleep.”

“InuYasha,” Kagome warned softly.

“I see,” Kanna said in her emotionless voice. “I know why you have come. But you will not retrieve it. What is done cannot be undone.”

“Listen here, missy,” Rin bristled, finger out and hand on her hip. “You’re going to give our friend back his soul right now!”

Sesshomaru raised an eyebrow at his partner.

“I do believe the Ice King is amused,” Sango mentally snickered.

“Where is the mirror?” Kagome demanded.

“It is of no consequence to you,” Kanna replied tonelessly. “Only I can control it.”

“Look here you annoying little girl, quit your bullshitting! Give back our friend’s soul and we won’t hurt ya!” InuYasha growled, quickly losing his temper, as usual.

“I cannot,” Kanna replied, summoning her mirror to her hands as the Slayers and Hunters took up offensive stances around her.

“Fuck this! Wind Scar!” InuYasha yelled.

“Idiot!” Sesshomaru roared, grabbing Rin and diving out of the way. The others group members scrambled to do the same.

Kanna easily deflected the attack, sending InuYasha’s wave directly back at him, slamming him squarely in the chest. The inu hanyou crashed through the nearest wall.

“InuYasha!” Kagome cried, racing over to his side.

He staggered back up, bleeding profusely from his torso. “Well, shit,” he rasped out.

“InuYasha, you know she can send attacks right back at you! What were you thinking?” Kagome demanded in lecture mode as Miroku and Sango double teamed the void youkai from opposite sides in a surprise manuover. She sent them blasting backwards, Sango through a wooden table and Miroku into a glass cabinet.

InuYasha just gave his partner an irritated look. Kagome growled in annoyance, firing up her miko powers as she whipped out her crossbow. Nodding to Rin for cover, the two went in behind Sesshomaru as the taiyoukai struck Kanna in the side with Tokijin. Rin sprung from behind, shooting her in the leg with two poison bullets. Kagome lined up her shot and fired.

Everyone watched as the purifying arrow sailed through the air and into the mirror, slowly being absorbed.

“No,” Kagome whispered.

Then instantly, the arrow was stuck.

The mirror cracked.

Kagome had never seen Kanna display any kind of emotion. In that moment, Kanna showed surprise, then concern.

Hundreds of white, globular substances began to leak out of the mirror and rise into the air, escaping the apartment.

“The souls,” Miroku cried, bruised and bleeding from glass shards. “They’re returning to their owners!”

“Yes!” Kagome and Sango hooted.

Kanna stared blankly at the souls from her slumped position on the floor, as if she had never seen them before.

“Kanna!”

Everyone looked up to see Kagura had appeared in the apartment. And she was enraged. She swooped down to pick her sister up.

“Dance of Blades!” she screamed.

The Slayers and Hunters were sliced up by the wind’s razor blades, and consequently knocked several feet away from the Hinto sisters.

“I hope you feel accomplished that you got your little ookami friend’s soul back,” Kagura snarled. “I hope it’s worth the price of losing another one of your own so dear to you, Kagome and Sango.”

With that, Kagura blasted a hole through the roof, whipped out her feather and sailed away with Kanna.

“Kagome, what did she mean?” Sango whispered, panicked.

Kagome turned to look at her best friend, tears welling in her eyes with a horrified expression dawning on her face.

They tore out of that apartment, into the helicopter and forced Sesshomaru to fly toward the boys’ school like all hell was after them.

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~Middle School~

Kohaku, Souta and Shippo waited outside the school building for Jaken, as they routinely did every day after school.

“He’s late,” Kohaku deadpanned, crossing his arms and leaning back against a lamp post.

“I know,” Souta sighed from his seat on the curb.

“Wonder what’s keeping him,” Shippo muttered, using a stick to doodle in the sand.

Suddenly, they saw the green kappa appear around the corner.

“Hey, Jaken! Where did you park the car?” Shippo yelled to him.

“Yeah, why didn’t you just drive it right up here--” Souta stopped cold when he saw who was behind Jaken, prodding him along threateningly.

“It’s that thunder youkai our sisters defeated,” Kohaku whispered.

“It’s Hiten,” Shippo said quietly, trying not to show his fear. “He’s back for revenge.”

“Who is that woman with him?” Souta asked in a hushed tone.

“Another bad guy,” Kohaku whispered back.

The three boys looked at each other.

“Run,” Kohaku ordered.

They dashed desperately in different directions.

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~HQ Infirmary~

Ayame was gently pulled from sleep by someone stroking her hair. It felt so nice, she didn’t want to move. She burrowed her face further into the stomach that currently served as her pillow.

“Wait, stomach pillow? When the hell did I fall asleep? Hold up, who’s stroking my hair?”

She sat up so quickly she almost gave herself whiplash. Ayame found herself staring into those sky-blue eyes she adored so much.

“Kouga?” she whispered in disbelief.

“I’m back, babe,” he grinned wolfishly. “I saw the white light and stayed away.”

“You BAKA!” she screamed, whacking him hard in the chest. “How DARE you JOKE about that! You almost DIED! I almost lost you!” Ayame began to feel tears falling down her cheeks. “And now you’re making me cry again!”

“Again?” he blinked in confusion. Kouga gently pulled her against his chest, shushed her and rubbed her back. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry I made you worry.”

Ayame just stayed there, soaking in the sound of his voice, the warm, comforting feel of his arms, his lively unique scent. Everything she feared she would never experience again.

“They did it. The guys really did it. I’m going to start calling Kagome Agent Hunt and hum the MI* theme song around her.”

Slowly, Ayame pulled away so she could face Kouga, her green eyes filled with guilt. “I’m sorry too. It was my fault Kanna was able to attack you like that.”

“Nah, don’t be. We had no idea she could do that.”

“But I should have--”

“Shoulda, coulda, woulda. It’s all in the past now. I’m okay. There’s nothing to be sorry for,” Kouga finished, fixing her with a soft, yet pointed look.

Ayame sighed. “I’m just glad you got your soul back. There’s something I wanted to say to you, and it would have been wasted on your comatose self.”

“Oh yeah? And what’s that?”

Ayame’s cheeks pinked and she fixed her gaze on the wall behind Kouga’s head. “Let’s just say I might care for you more than just as a partner.”

Kouga’s eyes twinkled mischievously. “You might, eh?”

Ayame glanced at him, narrowing her eyes slightly, as her cheeks grew redder by the moment. “Shut up.”

“I think you love me. You want to hug me. You want to marry me.”*

Ayame bristled with indignation. “Hold up you moronic ookami! I said nothing about--”

“I do too.”

“You do?” she whispered softly in shock.

“Yeah,” he smiled, grabbing her chin and bringing her in for a long, melting kiss.

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~Mid-air, in helicopter~

Sango stared out the helicopter window. She and Kagome had patched Miroku and InuYasha--then themselves--up as best they could with the med kits. InuYasha lay on a mat on the floor, per Kagome’s orders he remain still as to not aggravate the wound. Kagome had curled herself into a corner. Miroku sat on the seat next to Sango.

“We’ll find them,” he whispered reassuringly, placing his bandaged hand atop hers.

Sango just nodded distractedly.

“Oh kami, oh kami, oh kami,” Kagome chanted under her breath, into her knees. “Please, please, please be alright. Don’t let us be too late.”

InuYasha reached out a comforting hand to his miko. The shredded skin and torn muscles in his chest protested loudly at the movement. The bandages wrapped around his torso darkened with fresh blood. He frowned slightly.

“Why ain’t this shit healing faster?” Realization dawned on him immediately. “Aw, fuck. That’s--”

His face hid the stab of pain as he ignored his personal problems and concentrated on Kagome’s much more important crisis. But, of course, he could never hide anything from her. She immediately spotted the fresh stains.

“InuYasha!” she admonished. “Lay back down! You’re making those wounds worse!”

“Shut up, Kagome,” he grumbled, stubbornly complying. “This is the thanks I get for tryin to be nice.”

“Oh InuYasha,” she sighed, scooting closer to him on the floor of the helicopter. “I’m sorry. I appreciate it. I just…I’m worried enough about the boys. I don’t need anything else happening to you too right now.”

“Keh, I’m tough. A few scratches ain’t gonna do nothing.”

Kagome smiled. “Yeah, ‘cause the Wind Scar is another name for a kitten.”

“Don’t say shit like that! Tessaiga’s a legendary sword that can lay waste to a hundred demons, no sweat!”

Kagome looked at him pointedly.

InuYasha just turned his nose up slightly in a pout at her and looked away.

From the co-pilot’s seat, Rin covered her mouth to stifle a giggle and turned back to monitoring the cockpit’s instruments.

“What do you find so amusing?” Sesshomaru asked his partner, never taking his eyes of the sky.

“InuYasha. He never fails to take Kagome’s mind off of things.”

“Hn.”

“Do you think the boys will be okay? That Jaken will have brought them safely home before Naraku’s minions can get to them?” Rin inquired, worrying her lip.

Sesshomaru’s face was set in stone, and gave no hint of his thoughts. Inside, he was doubtful for one of the few times in his life. While he trusted his retainer implicitly, he knew the limitations of Jaken’s strength and fighting ability. It was a difficult one to call.

“For the boys’ sake, I hope so.”

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~Middle School Area, back of the school~

“I got you, you brat!” Hiten laughed as he grabbed Souta by the scruff of his shirt.

Souta struggled and kicked, trying in vain to escape the evil youkai’s grip. “Let me go, ugly!”

“Shut up!” the thunder youkai thundered, slamming the boy’s head into the nearest wall.

Souta cried out and went limp in his hands.

“No!” Kohaku cried from his hiding spot. He sprang from the bushes and charged the youkai full speed, catching Hiten in the stomach with his shoulder and knocking him back a few steps, jarring Souta free. Shippo appeared and grabbed Souta up from a crumpled heap on the grass floor.

“Get him out of here!” Kohaku cried, settling into a defensive stance.

“But Kohaku--” Shippo protested.

“Just do it!”

Shippo nodded determinedly and began to run, carrying an unconscious Souta away. Tsubaki tried to stop them, but the kit was determined. He sent a blast of fox fire her way, incapacitating the former miko.

“So you think you can fight me?” Hiten laughed haughtily.

“I’ll do what I can to protect my friends.”

“How noble,” Hiten snorted, then lunged.

Kohaku managed to dodge a few times, and grabbed up a fallen tree limb to strike back with, but he was no match for the thunder youkai’s powers.

Hiten had Kohaku writing on the floor under the pain of electrocution in mere minutes. He scooped the boy up and grabbed Tsubaki.

“What about the other two brats?” she rasped.

“We got one. He’ll be more than enough leverage with the jobs Naraku will make him do.”

They disappeared into the air.


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A/N: * Line from TV series Dark Angel, said by Max (Jessica Alba) in episode 1, season 1. Line also repeated in episode 15, season 2 by Mia (Tracy Leah Ryan).

*Agent Ethan Hunt is Tom Cruise’s character from the Mission Impossible movies. He basically goes on impossible missions (hence the name), gets himself in crazy situations, kicks some serious butt, does some cool moves, and wins/completes the mission objective successfully. (For those of you who have been living under a rock, lol.)

* Paraphrased from the movie Miss Congeniality. Gotta love Gracie (Sandra Bullock).

Special thanks to reviewers: Bert8813, MyInuYashaObsession, InuGoddess715, Kylexi, In love with _Infatuation_ () (I’m so glad to hear you’ve not only loved this story once, but rediscovered it and fell in love with it again! That gives me so much hope as a writer. Your praise and encouragement mean such a great deal to me, I can’t express how deeply your review affected me. I do plan to soldier on with this story, never fear me leaving you hanging for too long. It’s just something I’m going to have to work through, and as everyone has told me, it takes time. Thank you again for keeping up with the story! I’d really love to keep hearing from you and your opinions on the progression of the story!) and fire-Angel-of-death322.

Please read and review! I live off opinions and feedback!
~Lizzie