InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Lemonade, Too ❯ VisionQuest ( Chapter 16 )

Lemonade, Too

 

By Fujifunmum

 

 

Chapter 16: VISIONQUEST

 

 

 

 

 

Kagome stirred in the darkened bedroom. She wasn't awake, but she moved restlessly in the bed. She reached for Yash, but he was not there. Only the grimace on her face showed the intensity of her internal turmoil.

 

It was dark; too dark. She was not afraid of the dark, but she was very afraid of this place. This place looked too much like the place she had already visited. It was a place with no light; a place with no air; a place with no hope. Yet she could breathe and see in the darkness. It was as if there was a flashlight outside pressing on a translucent wall in a futile attempt to see within. As before, she tried to feel the walls, but her fingers found only the same mucus membrane as before. Her feet tried to move with the same results: her feet seemed to stick to the uneven floor. At this point she wasn't sure this place even had a floor or walls in the usual sense.

 

Remembering what she had tripped on the last time she had visited this dreadful place, Kagome hesitated to move. What if Kaede was right? What if this was a vision, not a dream? Didn't she have an obligation to seek the truth? To face whatever this vision was trying to communicate, no matter how frightening it might be?

 

Tentatively, she moved one foot, then the other. She did not trip this time, but her foot did nudge something, something she was sorely afraid to reach down and touch. If she had felt a compunction during the last dream or vision, this time the feeling was doubly compelling. She knew it was her duty, her fate, her supreme calling to face whatever lay below.

 

Her hand found another; a very small hand. Could a person vomit in a dream? Kagome felt the small fist, fingers closed around a small thumb. The entire fist fit easily within her palm. Her other hand grasped her abdomen and she cried out her emotional pain. She did not have the fortitude it took to feel this small arm. What if it ended in the same pool of blood as before? What then? What was this place, this shroud of blood? As her hand withdrew, a loud voice in her head shouted: KENTSUZU!

 

She felt, more than heard, her own bloodcurdling screams in the darkness.

 

All of them heard her screams. Kaede was the closest and she ran from the kitchen to the bedroom at the back of the house. Yash, Miroku and Shippou all headed in the same direction, but of course, Yash got there first. He was furious that he had left her alone for even a minute.

 

The bedroom door was off its hinges in no time. Yash was in no mood to be slowed by anything so trivial as a doorknob. Kagome was sitting upright in bed, dressed in his haori, screaming as if her life was forfeit, tears streaming down her cheeks in utter despair. He was by her side in a moment, clasping her to him, speaking words of comfort in her ear between kisses. Was this a repeat of her early morning vision? If it was, they were going to have to accept that these were more likely visions than dreams.

 

It took a while for Kagome to calm her tears and her labored breathing. She struggled to bring her sputtering gasps for breath under control as she urged her mind and her feelings to subside enough that her tears could slow from a flood to a trickle. Finally, she managed to squeak out the words all of them dreaded to hear.

 

“It was….another vision.” Then she pressed her head back into Yash's chest and clung with her fists to his under kimono as if he was her last lifeline to sanity. At the moment, that was an accurate description of her feelings of panic.

 

Yash patted and shushed her, enfolding her so fully in his arms that the others could barely see her. His protective instincts were already on red alert. This new “vision” was sending him into the stratosphere of over-protectiveness. He couldn't protect her from her own visions, and that knowledge alone made him all that more determined to try.

 

Still holding Kagome and keeping his attention on her, he barked back some orders to the prying eyes he knew were standing behind him.

 

“Shippou, Kagome will be fine. You go and run that new list. Do it from here if you can - if not, go into work and email it when you are finished.” Shippou was not happy about being told to leave, but he knew that culling the list to a manageable level was their only hope in finding Toukijin before it caused any more death or destruction.

 

His voice was resentful but resigned. “It will be faster to run it from the precinct. I'll email it as soon as it's completed.” He heard Shippou close the door behind him as he left the beach house. Kaede and Miroku waited behind him with great patience, patience he understood but would never be able to emulate. He waved them off, but they stood their ground, so he sighed and leaned closer to whisper into Kagome's nearest ear.

“You've got to tell us, Babe. You know you do. Can you talk yet?” Kagome's head nodding in the affirmative was something Yash felt more than saw. Then she whispered. “Bathroom. Tea. Kitchen.” Yash just kissed the top of her head and then called back behind him.

 

“Go make some tea, Baba. Fix her something light if you can. We'll join you in the kitchen shortly.” Kaede nodded, but Yash was in no position to see. He heard her muted footsteps as she turned to go to the kitchen. It was almost an afterthought when he called out after them, “Miroku, check around the house. There's probably nothing there, but I want to be sure.” Miroku jangled the head of his staff in response, heading out to the living room deck. Yash knew he would carefully check the outside of the house, making sure the enchantments he and Kaede had used were all securely in place.

 

Once they were gone, Yash loosened his hold on Kagome enough to try to see her face. It was red and swollen with crying. The panic still clearly showed in the depths of her eyes, and it pained him to see it. He knew that concern would not fully vanish until the renegade sword had been found and secured. He was doing all he could think of to make that happen as quickly as possible, but he was left with the overriding question: was it enough?

 

“Kagome? Please don't cry. We'll find the sword, I promise we will. Our friends are helping. We can do it.” She grabbed the edge of the sheet that was next to her on the bed and dried her eyes. Her determination was starting to set in, he could tell by the set of her jaw. “I know we will, Yash. I just need to use the bathroom and wash my face before I try to tell you what I saw.”

 

She got up and crossed the room headed for the bathroom. Yash was less than half a step behind her, but she closed the door on him when she reached her goal, and he decided to sit outside the closed door until she opened it. When he heard her retching her guts out, he didn't know whether it was morning sickness or her abject fear of these new visions. Either way, she was bound to be distraught and distracted from now on. They had to find that sword sooner rather than later.

 

In the kitchen, Kaede continued fixing the lunch she had been working on when Kagome's screams reached them. She put on water for tea and got out the cups and dishes. She had already fixed some sandwiches, now she found some broth that would do for Kagome's raging morning sickness and some saltine crackers to go with it. Kaede didn't like the fact that Kagome was suffering such extreme stress and was barely able to keep down any food due to her morning sickness. It was not a healthy situation for the young mother-to-be.

 

Miroku wondered what they could make of this new vision. His mind was barely wraped around the last one. He sat at a stool by the kitchen counter and watched Kaede work. He had offered to help, but knew she would refuse him, preferring to have something to do with her hands as they waited for Yash and Kagome to join them.

 

“It's got to be another vision, Kaede. With them being this close together, it's not a good sign. We are running out of time.” Miroku said this as much to himself as to Kaede. His uneasiness was mostly due to the fact that they were doing everything they could think of to find the sword already. What more could they do? If Kagome's dreams or visions or nightmares didn't yield a clue to send them in another direction, all they could do was continue to try to narrow down their list of suspects and investigate all of them.

 

“Hopefully, Shippou will forward a manageable list very soon. We must find this killing sword before it turns up on this doorstep.” Kaede's response was just as bleak. Both of them knew this already, but making some kind of small talk was just a normal human thing to do , and in this situation, they welcomed any normal human thing they could find.

 

Yash and Kagome came out of the bedroom together. Yash had his arm wrapped protectively around Kagome, supporting her and urging her forward. The slender girl's face was pale and drawn. Whether that was due to the nightmare or another bout of morning sickness was unclear. Kaede set a cup of steaming tea, a small dish of saltine crackers and a glass of ginger ale in front her student once she was seated at the counter. Yash had wanted to keep her in his lap, but she resisted, trying to convince them all of her steady recovery. She gave Kaede a wan smile and munched on a cracker while Kaede gave the boys sandwiches and coffee. When she grimaced at the coffee, they all set their cups out of her range. No sense aggravating a strong Miko who was already feeling poorly.

 

Once they all were seated and had eaten some of their food, she began.

 

“It was too similar to the last vision to be a coincidence.” Kagome noticed Kaede's raised eyebrow at her use of the term “vision”. “Yes, Kaede, I now agree with you. These have to be visions.” She sighed and drank a little of the ginger ale. “I was in the same dank and closed in space. It had the same `sticky' feeling walls and floor. This time it seemed more like a mucus membrane to me. I could feel the wall next to me on the right and the surface beneath me, but had no sense of a wall on any other side of me.

 

“Needless to say, I was not anxious to take a step, after the last thing I found in that place.” She shuddered to remember the dead body parts she had found. “I took a step, and the surface beneath me felt the same as the wall next to me. I couldn't bring myself to take another step, but I could not resist feeling my way along the floor with my hands. It was if some dark force was guiding my hand and forcing me to find whatever lay before me.”

 

She took a deep breath before she continued and her tears started to fall. Yash left his chair and took her into his lap, wrapping his arms around her and draping the long sleeves of his under kimono over the fire rat fur kimono that she still wore. Kagome snifled, but continued.

 

“Last time it was the arm of an adult. This time, it was too small to be the hand of a grown up. It was the fist of a child, a very small child, and it terrified me in the darkness.” She did not say any more, but they could all see by the look of horror on her face and Yash's growling that both parents feared this vision was a very bad sign about their unborn child. “Then I heard “kentsuzu” shouted into all my senses in the darkness. It was a woman's voice, I think. Then I woke up.”

 

Kaede stepped in to try to keep Yash from blowing up and Kagome from the panic of her own deep-seated fears. She took Kagome's hand in hers and laid it on Yash's heart. Then she placed it on Kagome's chest, forcing her to feel the steady heartbeat of both her husband and herself.

 

“Your baby's heartbeat is as strong as yours, as strong as Yash's. Do not despair over a vision that may well be the warning that saves this child's life. We must learn from this vision, not fear it.”

 

Yash raised his golden eyes, gleaming with tears of fear for his wife and child, and nodded. “Oi, Kagome. Baba is right. We will find this sword and these visions might help us do it. Try to eat something so you and Kaede-baba can get back to working on your Miko training. Miroku, Shippou and I will find the sword, don't you worry.”

 

His words were comforting to Kagome, even though she knew they were no closer to finding Toukijin than they had been yesterday. Still, she gave Yash her best pasted on smile and sipped at her tea.

 

“Is there any broth, or some soup, Kaede? I feel up to a little something more before we begin.” Kaede watched the young Miko as she heated up some broth for her. She did not really look in any condition to be doing the kind of training they needed to do if they were to defend against a powerful sword such as Toukijin, but they had to try. If Kagome could learn to focus her power and channel it through the Shikon Jewel she wore at her neck, then the sword would be no match for them and Kagome and all of their family might be safe. Once Kagome had finished her broth and crackers, they retreated to the bedroom to work in the relative quiet and safety there.

 

 

Yash and Miroku finished eating and retreated to the living room. Shippou should have reached the precinct by now, so Yash went to his laptop and checked for mail. Nothing. He set the browser to notify him if any mail came in and shook his head at Miroku to indicate there was no word yet.

 

“Sango should be ready to help us with the search soon, Yash. The four of us will be able to cover a lot of ground this afternoon.”

 

“Three of you. How can I leave Kagome here, unprotected, after those damn visions or dreams?” Yash looked over at Miroku, and was a bit surprised by the thoughtful look on his face. “What?” the hanyou demanded.

 

“You sure you just don't want to put in a little `quality time' with the new wifey?” Miroku took a step back as he said this, just to be sure he was out of claw-slashing reach. Yash fumed as his reflex reactions did not meet with any flesh to rend, but when he saw the smart ass look on Miroku's face and the sadness in his eyes, his anger evaporated. Miroku was trying to distract him for a moment, trying to help him get through this awful situation with at least some trace of humor.

 

“Keh!”

 

Yash would have snapped a bit more, had his laptop not interrupted his train of thought by asking: “Don't Cha wish your girlfriend was hot like me?” The Pussycat Dolls sound bite was his current notice that there was new email.

 

“You really want this to be an only child, don't cha?” Miroku asked, rolling his eyes. “You'd better change that beauty before Kagome hears it and flattens you.”

 

Yash just snorted and turned his full attention to the screen. In a matter of seconds his printer was spitting out copies of Shippou's lastest revision to their list of suspects.

 

“Call Sango,” Yash barked out. “There are only 5 pages left. If we divide it up, we might be able to find them all today.”

 

Miroku was already speaking into his cell.

 

 

The list was arranged by location - or as much of a location as any of the sources had for the possible thief. Yash knew the limitations of his DDA (Demons, Dead or Alive) and the local, state and federal lists were only as good as the last parole officer's entry. As for Sesshoumaru's list of contacts, it was the most incomplete as far as providing a current location. With few exceptions, the list only had the names of the many workers who had been on the set of the video. Sango had added the company's name and location, as well as checking widely for a current address. She had identified many of them, but not all.

 

The final five pages, a remarkable culling from the previous list of well over ten thousand, was still lacking in basic information for some of the entries. At least they could check out the rest and rule them out.

 

Kaede came out of the bedroom just as Yash and Miroku were finishing up dividing the list and sending a portion of it back to Shippou for him to contact. Miroku emailed another section to Sango so she could get started directly from her apartment. He and Yash were still “discussing” whether Yash could assist in the search.

 

“Kagome is safe here with Kaede and our barriers, Yash.” Miroku tried to convince him again.

 

“Right. If she stays here in the house.” Yash snorted and looked crossly at the Monk. “When have you ever known Kagome to stay where she is safe?”

 

Kaede came out of the bedroom just then to get some more tea and interrupted, placing a calming hand on Yash's shoulder.

 

“The list is finally manageable, Yash. Go ahead and do what you do best. I will be here with Kagome and she won't leave the house while you are gone, I promise. She and I will be working most of the day. I'll try to get her to rest and maybe even get some more sleep; hopefully without any more visions. Once she has rested we have more work to do. She won't have time to go anywhere before you get back, and I'll call you on your cell phone if anything happens or if she does have another vision.”

 

Yash looked at the older Miko's face. It was serene and confident. He knew the conflict he felt was important, that he needed to get the work done to find the sword in the fastest way possible. He was afraid to leave Kagome alone, but he was more afraid to leave the sword undiscovered. If he worked with Miroku, Sango and Shippou, he was certain they could cover the entire list today.

 

As soon as Kaede saw the set of Yash's jaw, she knew he had decided to leave Kagome in her care. She was more relieved than anyone. She understood the danger and Yash's skills with the demon community better than the others.

 

“All right, Baba,” he said sternly. “But I'm leaving her in your care. If anything happens, I expect you to call me immediately! Most of my list is fairly close to here, so I'll be checking in and checking up on you just to make sure.” With that, he leapt off to the bedroom to change.

 

Kaede just rolled her eyes at Miroku as he scanned the list Yash handed him and saw that he had sorted it by demons/humans using a ranking included on his DDA. The list was already marked into four equal pages and labeled with their names at the top. He knew Yash would take the portion of the list with the worst demons on it, leaving the rest to Shippou and him. Sango could deal with the rest, which he noticed were mostly named Erin, Jessica, and Courtney. They were probably mostly groupies from the video shoot anyway. He stifled a snicker. Maybe he'd finish his own list quick enough to “help” Sango with her list!

 

Yash changed into jeans and a plain t-shirt. He talked non-stop the entire time, assuring Kagome that he would be in the neighborhood or at least close by, insisting that she call him regularly to assure him she was ok, and asking her more than a few times if she would be all right with Kaede while he was gone. Kagome was more than a little tired from lack of sleep and intense vomiting. Yash was giving her a headache, with his usual overprotective attitude. If she hadn't had important work to do with Kaede, she was tempted to go into work just to piss him off. Still, watching him as he changed, she couldn't help but be a little happy that her husband was such a hottie.

 

She was worried about the barriers, but she knew that she and Kaede would be working on the skills she needed to protect herself and the baby. If Yash stayed here, he would most likely drive her insane one way or another. She gave him a small smile and watched him finish dressing.

 

Yash tied up his hair and stuffed it into a hat with a ponytail hanging out the back and put on his cowboy boots. He was time to get serious with the names on his list. He kissed Kagome a quick good-bye, making sure her cell phone was on and right next to her in case she needed him. By the tolerant look on her face, Kagome wasn't feeling the need for any more Yash hovering at the moment. She stopped him in his tracks by giving him more than just a quick kiss in return, but then she smirked a littleand smacked him on the ass.

 

“Just go find that sword, Yash. We're newlyweds, it's time we had this house to ourselves again, don't you think?”

 

Yash gave her a brilliant smile, feeling a little better about leaving her already. “My thoughts exactly, mate. Behave yourself while I'm gone.”

 

“That's my line, Yash.”

 

Yash grabbed his list, waved a quick goodbye to Miroku and Kaede and grabbed Tetsusaiga and Tenseiga. He tossed the swords in the trunk of the Jag, hoppe in and squealed the tires as he tore out of the driveway.

 

Miroku emailed Sango and Shippou copies of the lists, indicating which was their portion to check on and asking them to keep in contact with their cell phones. He was reaching for his staff to take his leave when Kaede stopped him. She had his list in her hand, and had been studying it while he was using Yash's computer.

 

“There is something we may have overlooked, Miroku. Something important.” She was running down each page, taking in each name and considering it as she spoke. “We have not discussed who might know about the sword in the first place. It is a famous sword, to be sure, but is not one that would be well known in the community, even the demon community. There are very few who knew of it and would consider sharing that information.”

 

Miroku watched her continue searching each line on the list with her eyes. He knew she had more to say, but was not sure where this line of thinking was leading. Once she had finished looking over the names on the list, she handed it back to Miroku. “I only recognize a few of these names, and none of them are ones who I might have mentioned the sword to at all. I sincerely doubt Yash would have spoken about it to anyone on this list.”

 

Miroku was still not certain where she was headed with this line of thought. He glanced at the list in more detail, just as Kaede had done. “I only recognize a few of these names as well. I would not have mentioned or discussed the sword with any of them. Only a few of us even knew about it, Kaede, what are you getting at?”

 

“Did Shippou know about it? I doubt it. Yash would not share such a thing with Kagome's co-worker. He probably didn't tell her anything about it either.”

 

“Then who else knew? Who else might have let something slip besides you, me and Yash?”

Kaede paused, she was not happy about interjecting this new possibility, but if it helped them to locate the sword, it must be tried.

 

“Naraku……………..and my sister.”

 

February 2, 2006