InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Lemonade, Too ❯ Sea Clues ( Chapter 14 )

Lemonade, Too

By Fujifunmum

Chapter 14: Sea Clues

Yash stood on the front deck searching the blackness of the night for a glimmer of fleeting moonlight on the ocean. His legs akimbo, the largess of his fire rat fur hakama and the voluminous sleeves of his matching haori billowing out behind him, just as his flowing white hair caught in the evening breeze and completed a picture not seen on this earth for several centuries. His senses were at full alert, his ears flicking back and forth to catch any possible sound that might disturb the peaceful silence of his home. His right hand rested comfortably on Tetsusaiga, ready to draw it in defense of his family at the first sign of an intruder.

His mind, however, wandered. His thoughts tumbling like dice over the events of the past few hours and the significance of his appearance this night in his ancient hanyou garb.

Kagome slept in their bedroom, recovering her strength after a long day of mental Miko training with Kaede and a physically exhausting day of morning sickness that lasted far after the morning. He hoped her sleep would keep her mind off the unpleasant reminders of the futile results of their efforts so far to find Toukijin. It was Kagome who had asked him to don the traditional fire rat attire of his youth. Once Kaede had explained what the kimono was that covered her as she rested in their bed, she had insisted he tell her all about the outfit and model it for her. Surprisingly, it gave him more comfort to wear it for her than he could have imagined. The reassurance of Tetsusaiga at this side was only reinforced by wearing the traditional kimono attire he had put away long ago. He could not recall wearing them even once since he had come to this continent.

Once Kagome had appraised his appearance, the warm glow in her eyes assuring him of her approval, he had grown comfortable in his "second skin" and kept it on long after he'd seen that she was resting comfortably and asleep.

Kaede was upstairs asleep in one of their guest bedrooms, Miroku was meditating before retiring in the one next door. Of their close friends, only Shippou and Sango were missing from their house this evening. Shippou was back at the precinct completing the comparison of the available federal and state databases with the information compiled by Yash in his DDA (Demons, Dead and Alive) database. The last step would be to run the results against the information Sango had compiled from all of the possible contacts that had attended Sesshoumaru's concerts or had potential access to the missing sword. Sango had not been heard from yet, and would probably continue to sleep undisturbed after her marathon project to order the information for them.

It was just after midnight, and the night was dark enough that Yash could barely see the ocean. He could hear it well enough, but there was little or no light to reveal its presence without the rare glimpses of the moon when the overcast skies cleared briefly from time to time.

If asked, Yash could not have told you what he was looking for on this dark night. It might have been a reflection of his frustration at the lack of progress in finding the missing killing sword of his Asshole brother, but it wasn't. It might have been an unsettled feeling at the presence of others in his home after so many years of living in solitude, but it wasn't. It might have been the reawakening of his unhappy youkai past as he stood searching the night as he had done so many times so many years ago, but it wasn't that either.

It was a tingling in the back of his mind, maybe even an unconscious foreboding. Yash knew he needed to be on watch in this place and in this time. He knew it in his bones; he felt it in his instincts.

Then he caught a glimpse of something on the beach. A black shadow hummed in his senses. It was something or someone that shouldn't be there. He immediately sprang into action, a red streak darting across the sands. He had identified the scent before his final landing, immediately behind the unwelcome interloper.

She stood with her back to him on the beach, her attention riveted to the ocean before her, as if there was anything to look at besides an endless sea of gloomy dark water. He didn't know what held her attention, nor did he care. She was here, at his house, again. It couldn't be anything good.

He seized her from behind, wrapping one arm tightly under her arm and up around her neck. He jerked her towards him so that she was off her feet and totally at his mercy. She could have kicked him. She could have used her other hand to try to ward him off with her power. She could have screamed or shouted obscenities at him. She did none of these. He grimaced as he heard her low chuckle, nearly feeling the antagonist smirk on her face as she spoke in a very amused tone.

"Glad to see me, Inuyasha? Or have you retrieved your katana from your worthless brother?"

"Half-brother, bitch." Yash snorted as he released her, repulsed by her come-on tone as she turned to face him. Her long black leather coat swung outward with the action, revealing her usual black mini-skirt, this one laced up the sides and showing a lot of bare skin. Her midriff was barely covered by the blue halter-top that covered her breasts the way Continental Insurance covered their claims - grudgingly.

"How very 'Highlander' of you. Cold on your current corner? Or are you serving a more Goth clientele these days?"

"You usually wear enough black to qualify," she retorted, raising an eyebrow as she scrutinized his altered appearance and reached out a slender hand to fist in the front of his red kimono. "Celebrating Halloween early are we? Or just playing 'dress-up' with your new toy?"

When Yash stood his ground, she pulled herself into him, holding his amber eyes with her own deep pools of brown, as she kept moving closer, acting like a long lost lover anxious for a passionate kiss. He stopped her a hair's breadth before their lips met, grasping her other wrist with his hand and wrenching the switchblade out of it with one fierce shake. It fell to the ground with a whisper thud and Kikyo tried in that same instant to simultaneously wrest herself from Yash's hold and knee him in a very tender spot.

Unmoved, Yash stilled her with both wrists kept behind her back, towering above her, as he demanded her complete attention with his glowering eyes and rough tone of voice.

"You're no match for me, Kikyo. You never were. Tell me what you know of Toukijin and I'll give you over to Kaede's care."

"Why don't you just kill me, Inuyasha? It would make your life so much easier, ne?"

"Don't push it, bitch. I'm having a hard time remembering why I don't want to kill you at the moment. Perhaps it would be for the best." He wrenched both of her wrists, twisting her arms painfully and again lifting her off her feet as he pulled her up to glare at her eye to eye.

"You wouldn't. You couldn't."

"Don't tempt me. It's sounding better every time you say it."

Kikyo's dark eyes registered the tiniest bit of fear as he dropped her rudely on her ass in the sand. He hunched down next to her, trapping her where she was with his forearms, his fists pounding the hard packed sand in the process.

"Tell me, bitch! What the fuck do you know about the Asshole's sword? I know you took it, where is it?"

Her mask was back in place as she replied. "Do as you wish, Inuyasha, you always do. I know nothing about Toukijin, except that I pray daily for it to find you and bring you to hell with me."

He nearly hit her. It would have been so easy, so satisfying, and so pointless.

He stood over her with his own mask back in place. "Then leave, bitch, and don't come back here again. Ever. There's nothing here for you and I'll never join you in hell." He turned on his heel and started back up the beach. He stopped only when his sensitive hearing caught the barest of a whisper from her. His ears twitched and swiveled to catch her words.

"Wait."

He stopped. He didn't even bother to turn around; knowing it would increase her unease and ire.

"I don't have the sword. I tried to steal it, but it was already gone. I arrived too late. Naraku was most displeased. He's trying to find it, too."

Without another word, Yash continued back up the beach. He'd been tempted to try to get more out of her, but what she had already told him was more useful information than he'd been able to find in two fruitless days of research and investigation. It was the kindest thing she'd said to him in years.

He looked up as he reached the top step of the deck, startled and less than pleased to find Kagome watching him, waiting for him, her eyes worried and her face filled with sorrow. Damn. Kaede had opened her big mouth again.

"Are you all right?"

"Yes. She doesn't have it. Neither does Naraku."

"Can you trust her?"

"No. But she didn't lie to me. At least not this time."

Kagome continued to watch Yash as he paced around the deck, restless with impatience and frustration. She wasn't pleased about the exchange between Kikyo and her mate. It gave her a very uneasy feeling to see Yash touching any other woman, for any reason and under any circumstances. She hated it.

"Dammit! She was our best hope to find the cursed thing." Yash stopped fuming long enough to see the look in Kagome's wide eyes before she quickly turned away. She wasn't quick enough to stop him from taking her hand, drawing her to him, wrapping her up in his comforting warmth. "Don't worry Kagome. I'll find it."

"Find it by Friday, Yash. I'm going to that wedding."

Gently, Yash rubbed her back. "Go back to bed, mate. You've had a rough day and tomorrow might not be any better. You need your rest, you know you do." He led her back into the house and they walked arm in arm towards their bedroom.

Suddenly, they both felt the pulse of an aura. Yash stopped abruptly, sending a questioning look back at an equally startled Kagome.

"It wasn't me," she paused, closing her eyes and extending her senses towards the upper level of the house. "Doesn't feel like Kaede or Miroku, either." Turning, she looked towards Yash and her eyes were drawn immediately downward. "It's the sword. It's coming from the sword, Yash."

Yash laid his hand on the hilt of Tetsusaiga, feeling the same comfort he always felt from the sword, his sword. It was more of an extension of him than a separate weapon. The sword was slightly warm to the touch and had begun to exude an aura with a slight tinge of red. It was the same hue of red as the sword itself, but he couldn't remember a time that Tetsusaiga had pulsed with such fervor in the past.

A tug at his arm shook him from his reverie. Kagome was pointing past their bedroom door to the side door to the garage.

"There's another pulse, Yash. It's coming from the garage. Can't you feel it."

Squinting, Yash sniffed the air and twitched his ears to gather any aural or scents of the altered aura of Tetsusaiga and the new one Kagome could feel. "I can't hear or smell anything, but there is something tugging on the edges of my senses." Yash's youkai aura was tingling, and the urgency of the situation had a most unwelcome red color bleeding into his eyes. Kagome's Miko aura flowed over and around him as she extended her reach beyond him towards the garage. Yash kept his right hand on Tetsusaiga's hilt, but placed his left hand on Kagome's arm, pulling her back to his side when she moved to go on ahead.

"Stop! We don't know what this might mean, Kagome. Stay behind me."

Yash made his way deliberately and purposefully towards the door. After a few steps, he and Kagome both felt the change. "It's getting stronger. The answering pulse is getting stronger as well."

This time it was Kagome who stopped Yash's progress by placing her hand on his arm.

"Where is Tensaiga, Yash? Have you unpacked your brother's sword?"

"Half brother. And no, I haven't unpacked the Asshole's sword. I put the case in the …garage."

Yash leapt the last distance to the doorway, ripping open the door with his claws extended. Just at the bottom of the three steps into the garage, sat the matching protective cases he had used to bring home the fangs of his father. One was empty, and the other was clearly exuding a slightly blue-tinged aura that sparkled with a new intensity when Tetsusaiga entered the space. Tetsusaiga's aura also sparked with recognition. Then both auras promptly calmed and subsided.

Yash looked from the closed case to Tetsusaiga and back again. Then he turned as Kagome spoke.

"Nice job on the door. That ought to enhance your 'state of the art' security system. The company that installed it will probably want tips from you on how to work that into everyone's house."

Yash frowned and picked up Tenseiga's case, bringing it with him back into the house. He pushed the mangled door closed, giving Kagome a snorted, "Keh!" as he brushed past her. "It's just an interior door, bitch. I'll replace it in the morning. The main security functions and alarms are at the perimeter - just like your wards. Don't be a smart ass, that's my thing."

"So what's up with the swords? Now they seem to be completely soothed."

"Don't know. They're made from my father's fangs - maybe they like being together again."

"Didn't they ever do this before?"

"If they did, the Asshole and I were too busy fighting to notice." Yash was busy unpacking Tensaiga and its scabbard, tucking it carefully into his hakama next to Tetsusaiga. By now there was absolutely no evidence of any kind that either of the great fangs had an aura. Yash took Kagome's elbow and steered her into the bedroom. He urged her back to bed and placed one of the swords on either side of their bed, just as he had at his brother's house on the night of their marking. Kagome watched, fascinated, as he spread his fire rat kimono over her, stripped and joined her in bed.

"Sleep, Kagome. The swords will strengthen our protection."

"You know what this means, Yash?"

"What?"

"Maybe the swords can help locate Toukijin. Now that we know they have an aura, maybe they will help us 'feel' for Toukijin."

"That's not the sword I want to discuss with you at the moment, mate."

Amazingly, sleep had come quickly for Kagome. She had been exhausted from her training with Kaede, and was somehow comforted that both Kaede and Miroku were staying over with them. The powerful monk and Miko upstairs would be a bulwark of magical defense should it be necessary. She drifted off quietly, barely aware that Yash was at her side as her breathing eased and became more regular. Her eyes closed to an easy darkness, one that gave way to an unbidden dream.

Apprehensively, she opened her eyes, not knowing where she was. It was so dark that she could barely make out the color of the room. It was red, a very dark red. A red so dark the color itself made her shiver with dread. She strained to see more clearly in the dim diffuse light. She couldn't see any light source, and yet there seemed to be a small diffusion of light from a force outside of the room.

She stretched out her right hand to feel her way along the wall, but immediately snatched back her hand in revulsion at the wet, sticky feel of the wall. She couldn't actually see her fingertips, but she could make out a dark stain on them, a dark stain that had a noxious mucous feel to it that made her stomach want to revolt.

She swept her hands around behind her, touching nothing. Then she confirmed there was nothing to her left. Choking down the bile rising in her throat, she took a careful, testing step forward. The floor had a springy give to it that was disconcerting. As she raised her back foot to take her next step, she winced at the reluctance of her foot to leave the floor.

Forcing herself to take several halting steps into the space, she stopped when her foot met something solid with its next tentative placement. Carefully bending down to feel what was impeding her progress, her hand fell upon the roundness of muscle and flesh. It was cooling flesh that seemed to be turning flaccid yet unyielding under rigor mortis.

Her abject fear increased as her eyes adjusted to the dim light enough to see a portion of the body she had nudged with her shoe. It was an arm. Her eyes quickly ran along the shape, finding that it ended all too soon. It had been severed recently, the area above her fingertips thick with oozing blood. Casting a fleeting glance beyond the lifeless limb, she saw shadowed evidence of other macabre shapes within the space, each thickly coated with its tragic owners' blood. As her vision improved, the horror increased. Her wide eyes realized she had walked into a den of death dripping with blood.

One thought burst into her consciousness, a word of an unknown origin: kentsuzu. It was then that she covered her face with her hands and tried to scream.

Yash was awakened by a pounding at their bedroom door. His eyes fluttered open as he instantly sensed several things: the sheet underneath him was damp where Kagome was sleeping, Kagome's aura was actively pulsing around her sleeping body, fluctuating with her unease as she whimpered and thrashed in her sleep, and he had been deeply asleep, oblivious to her distress. He sensed Kaede beyond the door, her own distress palpable as her aura radiated into the room.

Yash reached out to waken Kagome, mindful of her pulsing aura as he gently urged his own youki to the surface to ease the entry of his searching fingers. Her aura responded frantically, stretching immediately to cover him, seeking comfort, seeking assurance, desperate to determine that he was unharmed.

"Kagome," he whispered, as he gently gathered her quaking form into his arms. "It's OK, I'm here now. You are safe. We are safe. Wake up, Kagome. Open your eyes."

Behind him, he could hear Kaede's urgent pounding on the door, along with her cries to them to answer. He couldn't respond yet, Kagome's aura was still fluctuating too erratically.

Her eyelids fluttered, as if REM sleep was upon her. Yash clasped her to his chest and stroked her hair, murmuring endearments, afraid to shake her into conscious, afraid to let her distress continue and afraid for her precious cargo should his actions make things worse. He kept his youki aura in check, but allowed it free enough to surround hers, to intertwine with it in an attempt to soothe her on a subconscious level as well.

"Come on, babe. Open your eyes. Let me see what's happening. I'll take care of it, don't worry!" His voice strained with urgency and broke with emotion as he fought to keep it to a whisper. In this state, she should hear him better through the connection of their combined auras and magic. He focused his fear to channel his youki more precisely. He willed his dominant youki to protect and comfort her, to soothe her and coax her into wakefulness. Still Kaede's voice seeped through his efforts, her desperation climbing as she felt the magic within, her own concern flooding the doorway with her aura yet keeping her from entering the room until she could rouse the occupants to answer her.

It seemed an eternity, yet was probably only a few minutes, before Kagome blinked. Her eyes opened wide and she tried to sit up at the same moment as her mouth opened to scream. Yash sat up with her, holding her closely and refusing to release her as she attempted to flee. She gasped, inhaling in preparation to scream, and then she fell silent. Her vocal chords either wouldn't respond or she abandoned the attempt, he couldn't tell which from her pained and frightened expression. Again, he focused his youki to surround and soothe her, encasing her in the warmth her own aura should recognize and respond to as her dominate.

Kagome fell back limply into his arms as quickly as she had burst into wakefulness. Fainting, her aura faded and receded. The Shikon Jewel throbbed with power at her throat. It looked too hot to touch, but it felt cool when he crushed her to his chest and felt it against his solar plexus. The pounding at the door grew louder, as he finally barked out an answer.

"Get in here, Baba! Open the fucking door and help me!"

Kaede looked more wild-eyed than Yash had ever seen her. Her hair was disheveled from her interrupted sleep, her robe hastily thrown over her and loosely covering her sleeping garments. "What happened? Is she OK?"

"How the fuck should I know, Baba? What woke you up? How did you know Kagome was in distress when I didn't feel it?"

"Her aura. It was seeping into my room upstairs and leaking through the walls and out the windows. It appeared to be fleeing. It was almost as if her Miko soul was calling to mine in her sleep. If she was asleep."

"What the fuck does that mean? She was asleep when you went to bed in the guest bedroom. She fell back asleep before I did after your sister's little visit. What the hell time is it anyway?" Yash checked his bedside clock to see it was three in the morning. Kaede had retired to their guest bedroom at almost midnight, after training with Kagome for some of the day and keeping her company the rest of the time. Kagome had asked her to stay with them for at least a few days, and Yash was happy she had agreed. He didn't like to put her in danger by her close proximity to them, but her strong Miko powers and experience might be of assistance. There was no doubt that her training was helping Kagome, if only to keep her calm and keep her mind occupied with something other than fear.

Kaede watched Kagome's even breathing and calm unmoving features. "We won't really know until she wakes up to tell us. Did she say anything?"

"Nothing. I thought she was going to wake the dead with her screams, but then she fainted or passed out and her aura calmed. Should we try to wake her?"

"Just hold her, Yash," Kaede replied as she took one of Kagome's hands and sat on the edge of the bed. "Let's let her come back to us gently. I think she's been through a shock, let's not risk another one. If she doesn't wake up shortly, I'll retrieve some smelling salts to rouse her."

"I can feel her heart and breathing calming. This had to have been a nightmare, Baba. What else could it have been?"

"A vision, Yash. A vision. You know Kagome's soul and aura are exceedingly strong, just like your blood and youki. The marking combining them may have increased her receptivity - making it impossible to predict her capabilities. That's why I feel that if I train her she might be able to shield herself and the baby from Toukijin. Her strength is largely untapped and she doesn't have any idea how far or deep it extends."

Kaede held Yash's eyes with the seriousness of the implications of these suggestions. He was starting to consider the possible ramifications of a magnification of her magic when his thoughts were abruptly drawn back to his mate.

"A vision? That was a vision?"

"Kagome! What was it, what happened to you? Are you OK? How do you feel? Are you hurt? Are you in pain?" Yash prodded and caressed her as he spoke, feeling her forehead for elevated temperature, measuring her heartbeat as she rested against him, fingering the skin on her arms as he kept her close to test for her response. He was anxious to determine that she was unharmed physically from the experience. One hand came to rest on her lower abdomen as the other kept her from stirring.

She paused, as if to take inventory of her own body, holding her hands before her eyes to examine them, particularly her fingertips, before resting them on top of Yash's hand protecting the baby. "No, I don't feel any pain or injury. It must have been a bad dream, a terror of a nightmare."