InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Patchwork Family ❯ A Story, a Promise, and the Beginnings of a Plan ( Chapter 34 )

A/N: All Inuyasha characters and references belong to the creator of Inuyasha, Rumiko Takahashi and published by Shogakukan. Any other characters are more than likely my own creation. If I borrow directly from another story I will do my best to make sure I give credit where credit is due. I will be pulling some material (ideas and inspirations) from Burn Notice, Leverage, Scorpion, Supernatural, and Lockwood & Co.

Okaaaaay, so I sacrificed another hour or two of sleep (I should start keeping track of that for this story, just to sait personal curiosity) to go ahead and put this chapter up right after the last one. I felt guilty. You’re welcome. Enjoy.

*** A Story, a Promise, and the Beginnings of a Plan ***
03202015 (numbers are for my own purposes, don’t mind them)

Upon entering the living room Sesshomaru checked to see that all were present. Sango sat across Miroku’s lap at the end of the couch, as before, her arm settled over his shoulders. Koga and Ayame sat next to them near the corner of the sectional. Inuyasha had planted himself in the opposite corner, nearest the door, with Kagome next to him, one leg bent under her where she balanced over the arm of the large sofa. Gabriel had pulled up a kitchen chair and sat near the empty fire place, feet propped on the coffee table. Sitting on the floor next to Gabriel’s chair was Kohaku, looking nervous, but determined.

Sesshomaru’s eyes settled on the boy, waiting for an explanation. Finally the kid’s courage cracked and he said stubbornly, “Rosie and Kagome are in trouble. I’m 15, I’m not a little kid anymore. I want to help.”

The Dai Yokai considered the boy for a second more before he asked, “your sister has granted her approval?” The kid looked less sure of himself, but admitted, “Sango said I could ask you.”

Sesshomaru’s eyes flicked to Sango, who clearly looked unhappy with the idea. He could imagine how that conversation had gone. Sesshomaru raised his brow almost imperceptibly in Sango’s direction and she gave him the slightest shake of her head. Kohaku was a good kid, and was turning into a good man, but he wasn’t quite there yet. Sango had been his guardian since he was about Rin’s age, and he was getting old enough to start challenging her authority in a big way, as all young males did even under the best of circumstances.

At the same time, he was grown by the standards of the older world Sesshomaru and a few of the other demons in the room were more accustomed to, and they tended to treat him accordingly much of the time. It was easier on both siblings if Sesshomaru was the one to deny Kohaku, and it cost him nothing to do so. Smoothly, Sesshomaru told him, “your availability is noted. If we can use your assistance in a capacity that will not put you at unreasonable risk, you’ll be brought in.”

Kohaku shot Sango an apprehensive look. “So I can stay for the meeting?”

Sesshomaru shook his head once. “It’s unnecessary. It would be of greater assistance if you were to station yourself to prevent interruptions if one of the pups come wandering.” He figured he’d hit two birds with one stone: keep other young ones from listening in, as he knew Rin had a habit of attempting, and allow Kohaku some separation from the idea of being treated as one of the children himself, which would only make him angry and more susceptible to rash, ill-considered behavior.

Rosalind looked as if she approved, and something about that made him feel sure he’d handled the situation in the best way possible. She was generally a good gauge for the emotional and ethical compass of his current crew of primaries here in the U.S., all of which were essentially her family.

Kohaku looked at him for a second, trying to decide if he was being given the brush off. Apparently Sesshomaru’s solution passed muster, because the boy stood and gave him a respectful bow of the head before leaving the front room. After the boy had gone, Sango breathed out a small sigh of relief and gave him an appreciative look. Rosalind made her way past the coffee table to sit in the corner of the sectional between Koga and Inuyasha, while Sesshomaru took the arm chair to face them all. “To business then.”

There was a perceptible sharpening of attention in the room as everyone focused on him. Inuyasha, sitting leaned back into the couch, heels braced on the coffee table, was the only one who wasn’t looking at him but he knew by the set of his triangular ears that his brother was listening.

“We all know who Naraku is,” he began. “We all have intimate knowledge, much of it first hand, of the things he’s doing. I believe I would not be overstating our intent if I say our end game is extermination.” He paused for a moment and in the quiet Inuyasha’s right ear twitched, listening to the same sound he’d just heard.

Not raising his voice a single decibel, Sesshomaru said, “Kohaku this is your only warning. I do not repeat myself.”

Sango frowned and she and Miroku looked towards the door to the hall. Everyone heard a frustrated sigh, a few footsteps, and then there was silence again. Sesshomaru continued.

“The situation has escalated for multiple reasons, in order of priority as follows.
First: Naraku’s renewed interest in Rosalind. He’s already crossed this line once, and I should have responded with greater force when it happened. For that I owe an apology, most especially to Rosalind and Kagome.”

Both girls looked surprised and he met Rosalind’s eyes, knowing his apology to her needed no explanation. However, when he turned to Kagome’s more timid countenance, he grudgingly elaborated. “Had I gone after him when I should have, your family would likely still be with you. Their lives and any resulting damages to you are direct products of my lack of action- for which I take responsibility.”

Kagome looked around at them all nervously, taken aback. She started to open her mouth, but didn’t know what to say. He was right, but at the same time she felt he was taking on a little more of the blame than was necessary. Inuyasha circled his arm around her hips and she leaned into his warm shoulder, quietly stating, “the one ultimately responsible for evil acts is the one who commits them. I blame Naraku… not you.” Her voice was nearly a whisper when she said his name, but she’d managed to get it out, which to her was an improvement, at least.

Sesshomaru gave her a nod and went on. “Second: there is the possibility that he’s acquired a source of power that he cannot, under any circumstances, be allowed to keep and utilize.

Third: his alleged trespass among our ranks, which is likely but as yet unconfirmed.

Lastly, there are innumerable laundry lists of other transgressions against many of us and others individually in the past, which while important on a personal level, have little immediate bearing on our current situation.”

He turned his eyes to Miroku and Sango. “The exception to this is your hand. This condition has not worsened?” Miroku’s mouth was set in a grim line. Sango rubbed the dark haired man’s shoulder as he clenched his right hand into a fist and shook his head. “It’s the same. I haven’t used it in a while.”

Kagome looked at him curiously and noticed that his right hand and wrist were wrapped in a dark, violet colored cloth, threaded in spelled jade rosary beads. Now that her attention had been drawn to it, she could sense something was wrong. She tried to focus on the feeling with her spiritual senses, but it was unfamiliar, like she could see a book and knew there were words, but couldn’t tell what language it was written in. She could only sense a dark knot of violently twisting energy. She pulled her mind back to the task at hand, realizing Sesshomaru was speaking again.

“Our current approach to the first issue is obvious. Rosalind and Kagome are staying here for the time being and will not leave the premises without an escort armed with yokai capabilities.” Rosalind seemed to bristle at this for a second, but nodded once, while Kagome nodded a cautious agreement. Inuyasha’s arm tightened possessively around her hips again. The half demon gestured to the cell phone and walkie he’d set on the coffee table. “Rose’s place is rigged with cameras and Kagome put something together so we have sound too. We’ll keep an eye on the place and see who shows up.”

Miroku was frowning as he asked, “how do we know Naraku’s looking at Rosie? It’s been several years now, hasn’t it?”

Sesshomaru, rather than answering, looked to Kagome to explain in her own words. She swallowed audibly, dropping her gaze to Inuyasha. He nudged her quietly. “Tell them what you told me.”

Kagome looked apprehensive, but explained. “I’ve been running with the Anansi for almost a year. While I was there I knew a woman called Tsubaki.”

Several people stiffened, and their attention felt as if it would drill holes right through her, but she continued. “In the last week I was there, I heard her tell him she’d located someone he was interested in. The address she gave him, from what I gather, is Rose’s apartment.”

When she went quiet Inuyasha added, “when we went to set up the bugs at her place there was a blue truck with Naraku’s chuckleheads sitting outside, watching the building.”

Rosalind looked up sharply. “The electric maintenance truck? You know they were his?”

Inuyasha reluctantly admitted, “yeah… it was Hiten and someone else, I couldn’t see the second guy.”

Kagome stiffened next to him, breath catching in her throat. She brought a hand automatically to her neck as she murmured, “you didn’t tell me it was Hiten out there.”

He frowned. “There wasn’t any reason to.” She shot him a look of dissatisfaction, but didn’t say anything more and he went on. “So far the only thing we’ve heard is the neighbor coming in and out. They haven’t tried to go in.”

“It’s possible,” Sesshomaru said, “that we have another leak besides Tsubaki. We’re in the process of investigating that, and Yuko is still unaccounted for. We’ll go through photos of everyone down to the incident stringers and see if Kagome recognizes anyone else.”

Koga asked warily, “why was Kagome working for Naraku? That’s what I’d like to know. So far all I’d heard was Inuyasha fished her out of the river a week ago.”

Kagome frowned and looked down at Inuyasha again. It felt like it had been much longer than a week since she’d woken up in his guest bedroom, feeling like she’d been run over by a freight train. Inuyasha gave her another nudge. “You can trust everyone in this room. Tell them about the jewel.”

Gabriel crossed well-muscled arms over his chest and leaned back in his chair. “She was after a rock?” He gave her a teasing wink. “Here I thought you were a civilian. Tell me you weren’t there to steal from that bastard. That’s a ballsy move for someone your size.”

Her frown didn’t ease as she explained further, her jaw set stubbornly. “I was there to take something back that doesn’t belong to him.” Kagome crossed her own arms, a little defensive, adjusting her weight on the arm of the couch before she sighed and said, “I better start at the beginning.”

She took a moment to gather her thoughts, then began her story. “My grandmother was born to a family that kept a Shinto shrine in Japan, on the outskirts of Tokyo. Any who received the spiritual powers that are often passed through our genetic line there are the guardians of that sacred ground, but their primary job was the safe keeping of an artifact called the Shikon no Tama.”

Gabriel’s foot fell off the coffee table as he sat forward in surprise. “You’re shitting me…”

When Inuyasha gave him a look, he shook himself. “Sorry, I just… I’ve heard of that thing. I just thought it was a load of bunk.”

The wolves were looking at her speculatively, and Ayame said, “it’s real alright. A lesser demon got ahold of it once and was able to wipe out an entire clan of our wolves on the eastern side of the mountains… back in Japan. I know a team of slayers finally managed to kill the thing, but I never heard what happened to the Shikon.”

Kagome told them, “I don’t know as much about the details as I probably should, but I’m sure they returned it to the miko or priest guardian of the time. No one else can safely hold onto it.” She looked around, as if wanting to drive this point home. “The Shikon no Tama’s magic becomes tainted easily and turns into an instant corruptive power that can turn even someone with the temperament of a bunny rabbit into a monster. Its magic is too powerful and chaotic.”

Sango looked at Miroku, then at Sesshomaru in concern. “If Naraku has it, what does that mean for us?”

Kagome said, by way of reassurance, “he has it, but he can’t really use it. The Shikon requires someone with a very rare level of spiritual power and magic to act as a conduit for the kind of oomph he wants to extract from it.”

Sango looked thoughtful. “Which explains why he’s pissed you escaped- and wants you back, but…” She frowned and asked, “I don’t understand, if he needs you… why beat you to a pulp and toss you in the river?”

Kagome snorted, a manner that sounded remarkably like Inuyasha, causing his ear to twitch and his lips to tug a little in a half smile. Her eyes went a little distant as she said, “I’ll get to that… He sent… he sent some of his demons after my father and my Uncle Akira about 14 months ago. My father was the last guardian before me. They were murdered… and it was made to look like a violent robbery.”

Her voice went a bit rough again as she said, “the day of the funeral he broke into our family residence in Portland, where the jewel was kept.” She ran a hand through her still damp hair. “We had several kinds of magical and mundane protections around the place, and a few more around the jewel itself, but he plowed right through them.”

Miroku frowned. “How did he manage that? Did he just strong arm his way in?”

Kagome looked up and met his eyes. “Once I was in with his people, I saw him wearing a ring of dispell. I think that’s what it is… it has to be.” Miroku’s eyebrows rose. “Where did our nasty neighborhood spider find one of those?”

She shook her head, at a loss. “I don’t know. I’m not exactly a regular buyer but I know the magical market. You can find things like that if you’re looking for them, and if you have the money and the pull.”

Sango shook her head in confusion. “What’s this ring?”

Miroku laid his arm across his wife’s lap, giving her knee a squeeze. “A dispell tool will allow anyone who has it to completely nullify any kind of barrier, as well as strengthen their eyes against any shielding that might blur or block something from sight. It can be a ring, or a bracelet, usually something small that can be worn unobtrusively.”

“Hmm…” she said thoughtfully. “That’s awfully handy. I know what I want for Christmas I guess.”

Kagome nodded, smiling ruefully. “A good one that really works like that isn’t easy to come by. Anyway… we weren’t home when he came. Souta, my…” she paled a little and licked suddenly dry lips. “My little brother, my grandmother, and I… we were at the cemetery. He just walked in and took it.”

Koga rolled his eyes. “So much for that guardian shtick, hugh?”

Kagome frowned at him. Her voice was a hollow, aching thing as she said defensively, “I was busy burying half of what was left of my family.”

She snapped her mouth shut and looked away, closing her eyes and swallowing hard around the lump forming again in her throat. Inuyasha sat up a little straighter next to her and gave her hip a gentle squeeze where he’d left his arm around her. Even Ayame gave Koga a dirty look and his scowl softened. As Inuyasha had told Sesshomaru, the grief Kagome wore around herself was clearly real. The truth was there and for a few moments, bare for everyone to see, and for those of them who could, to smell also.

After a second, Kagome said more evenly, “I was never supposed to be the next guardian. Dad was going to train Souta for that.” She cleared her throat and said, “it was kept in the best small-scale vault money can buy, with a dozen different magics blocking and dampening the field around it.” Her eyes held Koga’s fiercely for a moment before she looked away again and nodded just slightly. “But yes. You’re right… and I’m going to get it back.”

Sesshomaru added thoughtfully, “with enough dampening spells, he shouldn’t have been able to sense it was there.”

Kagome released a tired sigh. “And no one did. There were several dampening spells and we layered fresh ones onto the safe and the room it was kept in every year. We’ve never had a problem until Naraku came after us. We never told anyone we had it- not friends, not anyone. I don’t know how he found out.”

Ayame sat forward now too and asked, “okay, so how long ago was all this again?”

“About 14 months,” Kagome said. “After we buried Dad and Uncle Akira, I dropped almost everything and moved my grandmother and Souta to a small house in a different part of the city temporarily, with different names on the paperwork. I made Souta change schools and everything; made him understand that he couldn’t call his old friends or anyone. Then I went under with a false identity, worked my way into Naraku’s sights… annnnd busted my butt to convince him to bring me in close.”

Koga was scowling again. “And just how did you do that?” Ayame gave him a look and smacked him in the arm, making a shushing noise. Kagome shrugged, looking grim. “I minimized damage where I could without being caught and… I was telling some of you the other day, I started learning private security work, particularly anti-larceny when I was a little kid. As I got older, I got really good at cyber stuff.”

Inuyasha added, “she’s a hacker. She pulled up Tsubaki’s file with the police on my computer at the apartment to ask me if it was the woman Sesshomaru mentioned we were looking for.”

Kagome’s lips twisted in mild irritation. “I’m not a hacker. I’m an investigative computer specialist.”

Koga snorted. “If it walks like a duck, and talks like a duck….”

She arched a brow and narrowed her eyes a little. “Then it’s a hacker?”

He grinned reluctantly, his frown fading, “you know what I mean.”

She pursed her lips, but didn’t argue. Inuyasha nudged her again. “Anyway, you were his- what did you call it? Research and development person?”

Kagome nodded once. “Yes. Mostly. I did other odd jobs as they came along but that and the security gig were my selling points to get him to keep me around long enough to find out where he was keeping the jewel. It took me eight months to figure out where he had it, and how to get at it. But before I was ready to make the grab he found me out. I was using a cover ID that held up really well until the local paper printed a story about some work I’d done a few years ago on the network security for my high school. It wouldn’t have been a problem, but they ran a group shot of the IT class I was in and my mug shot right on the bottom of the front page. I’d changed my look but person can only change so much without surgery.”

Gabriel loosed a long, low whistle. “So he made you.”

Kagome nodded mutely. Inuyasha watched her carefully as emotions flickered across her face, her anxiety and fear rustling uncomfortably against his thoughts like coarse sand paper. He frowned, doing the math in his head. If this had begun 14 months ago, and she’d been under for eight months before she’d been caught, that meant Naraku had held her captive for almost six months. The beast in his chest shifted angrily, and he clenched his jaw tightly to keep from growling.

“It wasn’t pretty,” she said very quietly. “But long-story-short, he figured out who I was, what I was, and that he needed me alive to use the jewel, among other things… or I would’ve been dead months ago.” She smiled a little bitterly. “He learned the hard way that you can’t make someone use that kind of magic against their will.”

Rosalind pulled her knees up to hug them against her chest. “I guess we should all be grateful you held out. I don’t like to think what he’d do with a powerful new toy like that at his disposal.” Kagome shuddered briefly and said, “with full access to the Shikon, he could go from being a major player in the Northwest region to owning the western seaboard, limited only by the speed at which he could spill the necessary blood….” She gave Sesshomaru an awkward look and added, “no offense to you guys. From what I’ve seen the Wardens have a pretty impressive rep but...”

Koga was frowning again. “So… how did you wind up in the river then, if Naraku wanted to hang onto you so bad? Mutt face said you shot the bastard?”

Kagome took another deep breath and dived in to finish her story. “Yes. There were a number of complications- but I got loose from where they were holding me and got to a gun in his office. I was in the process of breaking into the vault where he kept the jewel when he walked in with Hiten, Manten and Bankotsu. I got a shot off… but I’m not that good with a firearm.”

“You missed… is what you’re saying,” Koga admonished. Inuyasha stiffened a little next to her, a growl in his voice. “She was beaten half to death, starved, drugged, and exhausted. And she’d never used a gun before in her life. It’s kind of a miracle she hit him at all, but she was only about an inch from a kill shot.”

Kagome’s smile was a little sad, and she tweaked his ear gently, repeating her statement from before. “Almost only counts in horse shoes and hand grenades… he’s right. I missed.”

Miroku was the next to speak, asking, “I thought you came from a line of Monks and Mikos. Why couldn’t you use your magic to get away with the Shikon no Tama? Or were you born without it? Is that why your brother was supposed to be the guard?”

Kagome shook her head slowly. “No… I have my magic, but I couldn’t catch hold of it somehow.” She looked a little ashamed to admit it. “Whatever narcotics he was putting in my system made it nearly impossible for me to call up my power at all. He wanted to be able to touch…”

She stopped, shuddering a little and forcing her spine to stiffen, shaking her head once against the rising bile and altering her statement to say, “I zapped him hard once before he backed off and got the IV line put on me. He didn’t want me to be able to fry him every time he got within arm’s reach.”

Inuyasha’s arm tightened around her hips again and she glanced at his tense expression, going on quickly with her account. “The demons that walked in with him handed me over to one of his lieutenants, of sorts, and they weren’t happy.” She frowned a little at her spotty recollections. “I vaguely remember being in the trunk of a car at one point, but I don’t remember much between that and waking up at Inuyasha’s apartment.” Her face was tight with worry as she told them, “he’ll be fully recovered before too much longer, I think. It depends on what he decides to do about his healing process”

Inuyasha’s ear flicked once as he thought. “You said he’s only half demon though right? A shot that close to the heart… it might take longer, depending on the caliber of the gun.”

She shrugged. “It might. He’s not a full demon, but he isn’t… normal.” She stopped, trying to find a way to describe what Naraku was, but she didn’t truly know. Kagome looked up at the group again and explained, “what he’s turned himself into isn’t natural. I don’t know exactly how old he is, or what he was in the beginning, but he likes to experiment with all kinds of magic and chemistry. He’s… almost a sort of mutant.”

Sesshomaru’s eyes narrowed as he absorbed this information. “How do you mean?”

Kagome swallowed, shifted her weight a little, and almost unconsciously her hand dropped to grasp Inuyasha’s where it sat next to her leg. “He can change his form in some pretty hideous ways. It takes him time, but he hides himself away and his body turns into this mass that absorbs other creatures, which he chooses carefully for attributes he wants.”

Sesshomaru’s brows lowered as he thought this over, then asked simply, “how is this possible?”

Kagome shook her head and shrugged. “I still don’t know. He tried to absorb the Shikon that way I think, because I saw him take it into his chambers with him and he locked himself in there for almost a week. When he came out he still had the jewel but he looked terrible. He was ill, and it took him several weeks to recover. I was only able to see him in that loose form once; he’s very choosy and secretive about it.”

“Naturally.” Sesshomaru agreed. “If he’s incorporating another demon’s power as a part of himself he would take care with his selections, and he may well be vulnerable in the process.

Kagome pushed on, finishing out her explanations. “His base of operation is a ranch compound in the woods southeast of Portland, outside a small town called Silverton. He prefers to rely on his magic more than his people. There’s a perimeter guard but mostly he hides the place with energy barriers of his own making. Trapped between the layers of magic there’s a poisonous fog of some kind.”

“Miasma...” Rosalind said, absently. Inuyasha’s ears twitched and they all turned to look at the red head, curled in the corner of the couch. When she saw everyone watching her, she cleared her throat and elaborated. “He can produce a toxic fume called a miasma. He breaths it out when he wants to in varying quantity and quality, ranging from paralyzing to lethal dosages. Exposure makes a difference too; the longer you’re in it, the more damage it does I think.”

No one said anything for a long moment and finally Sesshomaru asked, “you saw this?”

Rosalind nodded slowly, eyes dropping to the coffee table as she told them, “he used it to keep all of us quiet in the shipping container. I heard one of our guards refer to it as miasma.” She did her best to utilize the same method she’d seen Sesshomaru use every time he was angling to share nothing of his internal workings. She relaxed the muscles of her face as well as she could, adopting a passive, indifferent expression, despite the tightening in her chest and throat.

Sesshomaru watched her carefully, tucking this moment away for later inspection before he said, “he’s hiding himself with multiple tools. The barriers explain why we never were able to locate him. How often does he leave this concealed location? And would you be able to show us where it is on a map?”

Kagome nodded. “Yes, but it looks like an empty field with some dead trees from the outside. He doesn’t leave very often, but he keeps an office in the city that he uses sometimes to work from or meet with people. The front for it is a Japanese business called Kuro Kumo Shipping and Freight… I’ll put that on your map too.”

Sesshomaru nodded once and said dryly, “hm, Black Spider Shipping is it? The man possesses all the subtlety of a battle axe.” After a moment he went on. “So we have some new information to work with, but we’ll need to approach this carefully if we want to minimize collateral damage. The ultimate objectives here are to eliminate Naraku, as well as any of his people necessary along the way, and to retrieve the Shikon no Tama.”

“And when we get that far,” Kagome interjected. “No one touches the Shikon but me.” She swallowed nervously, but held herself firm as she met their varied regards. She reiterated, “I mean it. If I’m staying to do this here, with the Wardens, I need that promise now from everybody.”

Koga stiffened and looked at her incredulously. “I don’t see how you’re in a position to be making demands.”

Ayame gave him an annoyed look but before anyone else could say a word, there was a low warning rumble from Inuyasha. Sesshomaru cut in firmly. His voice was smooth but there was no mistaking the reprimand in his tone. “You will be respectful while in this house wolf. Kagome is a guest, and is under our protection. Furthermore she is a valuable asset.”

The Dai Yokai considered the wolf through narrowed eyes, his relaxed position in the arm chair somewhat at odds with his tone as he asked, “do you still want revenge for your dead?”

Koga bared his fangs in a challenging snarl. “You know I do Sesshomaru.”

Sesshomaru stiffened very slightly, his shoulders tensing as if ready to deal a blow. When he spoke next there was a dangerous, underlying snarl in his words. “Then you will appreciate that what she offers is critical if we expect to gain any ground in the immediate future, and that if you can’t accept my decisions on the matter, this is your one chance to leave in one piece… now.” All the demons in the room were sitting tense and ready in such a way that Kagome wasn’t sure if they were going to continue talking or if she needed to be ready to run when the fur started flying.

Her grip on Inuyasha’s hand tightened nervously. This served the dual purpose of making her feel better, and shifting Inuyasha’s focus from the wolf demon he wanted to dismantle to the young woman next to him. Kagome’s scent had soured with fear; and the beginnings of her panic thrashed and shifted against his thoughts in a distracting way, but she managed to keep herself from visibly falling apart, at least.

Rosalind’s quiet words cut through the dense pressure that was building in the room, mostly dispersing it within seconds. “Besides, she needs us as much as we need her if we all want to nail this bastard to the wall. I’ve bought a ticket on that boat, how about you guys?”

Koga glared at her around his mate for a long moment before he eased back into the couch again, muttering, “fine.”

Kagome’s voice wasn’t as steady as she would have liked when she spoke again, but she managed. Between the scent of her fear and the challenge that had just been narrowly dismissed, every demon in the room was wound tight, eyes sharpened with that predatory gleam that turned that pit in her stomach to ice. “There’s a good reason I need this to be absolutely clear,” Kagome said quietly.

“Naraku’s had this stone in his possession for more than a year. By now the corruption from his influence will be so corrosive that I don’t even want to think of the damage it could do to any one of you. It might also be affecting anyone spending a lot of time near it, like a kind of radiation poisoning, though I don’t know that for sure. That might help us in some cases and hurt us in others. It may twist their minds, confuse them, make them stupid… but it could also make them more dangerous.”

She seemed to hesitate for a long moment, uncertain, and Sesshomaru raised a brow in inquiry. When he caught her eye she took a deep breath and stood, pacing back and forth behind the couch as her hands fidgeted. “Okay… against my better judgment, I can’t seem to help that I trust Inuyasha, and for several reasons, by extension… I’m trusting the Wardens… you guys…” She stopped in her tracks, tired eyes looking around at them all and almost begging softly, “please… please don’t make me regret it.”

Sango gave her a reassuring smile. “I don’t know about the rest of these crooks.” She paused to add, “and I say that in the most loving of ways- but if you can help us go after this guy, I’ll promise whatever you need.” Her smile faltered as she looked down at Miroku for a second. “I have some pretty powerful motivation to put my own nail in Naraku’s coffin.” Kagome met her gaze and Sango’s smile returned as she added, “and I like you.”

Rosalind smiled and nodded her agreement along with Ayame. Koga rolled his eyes and just muttered, “yeah, yeah, me too, whatever needs to happen.”

Gabriel grinned and gave her a loose salute. “You know I’m good for it. Shikon no Tama… just say no. Got it.” Sesshomaru straightened in his chair after a moment and said, “you have my word. No one touches the Shikon no Tama.”

Kagome breathed a sigh of relief and leaned against the couch behind Inuyasha. “Thank you.”

Sesshomaru accepted her thanks with a nod and said, “we’ll go through the photos and get out a map for Kagome to mark up. Beyond that, this is likely to be a waiting game of varying levels. We have more than we had before, but this is still going to be a long careful process if we want to keep everyone alive.”

Kagome had resumed her seat on the arm of the couch and was chewing her lip, gaze turned inward in thought. Inuyasha nudged her again with his shoulder. “What’s up?”

She glanced from him to Sesshomaru and said hesitantly, “I have some things in Portland I need to retrieve from a bike locker… if I’m going to be staying here for a while.”

Sesshomaru considered this and offered, “I can have a stringer deliver them if you give me the address.”

Kagome shook her head, biting her lip nervously. “I sort of need to get them myself. There’s some things there I can’t let anyone else touch.”

Inuyasha frowned. “Like ‘anyone else can’t touch the jewel’ can’t touch?”

“No,” she answered quickly. “Nothing like that, it’s just a few things that are really important… and personal.” Her eyes met Sesshomaru’s and she added, “and… if I’m going to do this right and be as effective as possible, I’m going to need some other things I have tucked away as well. It’s all in Portland, but it’ll be more than I anticipated bringing back here… more than the contents of a locker.”

Inuyasha smirked, muttering, “told ya, there’s no such thing as a girl with no stuff.”

Kagome scowled a little and crossed her arms. “Well… a good chunk of it’s some equipment to patch my way back into his network. I figured I’d run a morris worm and then activate a few of the Trojans I left in his machines. I can keep track of who he’s working with, then maybe we can eat popcorn and watch him harass his underlings on his personal security system.” She shrugged her shoulders and adopted a blasé expression. “But if that’s not useful to you let me know… and I won’t bother.”

Sango, Miroku and Gabriel were grinning ear to ear at Inuyasha’s stunned expression. Koga looked reluctantly impressed. Rosalind tried to quash a snort of laughter as even Sesshomaru’s face leaked some of his surprise. The red head exchanged a look with Sango and smiled. “I like her too.”