InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Possessing ❯ Chapter 4

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

 

Chapter 4

 

 

 

 

“Oh come on!” Kagome yelled at the TV when the next contestant playing Brain Wall, aka Human Tetris, completely botched fitting through what the miko believed had been a relatively easy shape.

 

Inuyasha snorted in amusement, casting a sideways glance and smirk at the miko sitting beside him on the couch.

 

“What do you expect?” he asked. “He’s only human.”

 

Shiro barked once, as if in agreement.

 

Kagome glanced down and playfully glared at the dog that was sitting on the floor between her and Inuyasha’s feet. “Nobody asked you,” she said, cracking a grin despite herself.

 

Grinning back at the miko, Shiro barked again and wagged his tail.

 

Rolling her eyes at the dog, Kagome reached out for the glass of water sitting in front of her on the coffee table, but her cellphone ringing had her reaching for it instead, while Inuyasha grabbed the remote and put the TV on pause. Staring at her phone a moment, Kagome saw it was the local headquarters for the Spiritual Forces, and Inuyasha was instantly on high alert when her face became deathly serious as she answered professionally with, “Higurashi.”

 

Inuyasha’s ears easily picked up the instructions Kagome received from the man on the other end of the phone. There was a large kuma-youkai, a demonic bear, running rampant in her local suburbs, and while the taijiya were already on the scene they were having difficulty dealing with it and so the head taijiya had put in a call for a reiki user. This was precisely why she’d registered as a warrior miko. Her hometown’s local taijiya needed a reiki user and they needed one now; waiting for someone from the city would take precious time they didn’t have.

 

Inuyasha processed everything in silence as Kagome got her instructions and hung up the phone before flashing him a sympathetic glance then darting upstairs to change. This was her first assignment, and she had to get a move on. They’d both known it’d only been a matter of when, not if, she ever got such a call. She knew Inuyasha would worry about her, but she also knew that he knew that she could take care of herself. The only negative thing Inuyasha had ever said regarding her being a warrior miko was that he wished he could go with her. He wasn’t upset about her desire to be a warrior miko, knowing damn well her reasoning was not just so that she could help save human lives, but hopefully also youkai lives as well. He wasn’t upset about it. He was proud of her.

 

That didn’t stop him from worrying, though.

 

Changing into her miko robes upstairs before tying her hair back, Kagome then quickly grabbed her shoulder bag that was always ready and waiting, which contained a large supply of various ofuda as well as a taijiya issue gas mask the training facility had given her, and then taking just a second to look at herself in the mirror, Kagome nodded to herself in determination before grabbing her bow and larger quiver containing two types of arrows from the closet. Dashing back out of her room, down the hall and down the stairs, she was greeted by a visibly nervous but also proud hanyou waiting by the front door.

 

Holding a nervously barking Shiro back, Inuyasha shouted over the understandably agitated dog for Kagome to be careful, and as she slipped her feet into some modern day flats – she’d never mastered running in geta – she paused a moment and said, “You too. We both know you’ll be watching it on the news. I want you to promise me that no matter what happens, you won’t try to rush in to the rescue. If I go down, the last thing I want is you accidentally getting yourself killed because you showed up trying to save me and the taijiya thought you were another attacking youkai.”

 

Inuyasha’s throat got tight at the thought of Kagome being injured, and he had to blink rapidly a few times as the back of his eyes started to sting, but he nodded curtly nonetheless. “I promise.”

 

He prayed to the kami he wouldn’t live to regret that vow.

 

Kagome could easily read his thoughts in his eyes, but she didn’t have time to dwell on it, or his possible feelings for her. Not right now. With a little luck, she’d be coming out of this unscathed so they could resume their awkward dancing around the subject of their feelings in peace. She snorted sarcastically at the thought, before quickly letting that thought go as well. She hugged him, and then she was out the door.

 

Hopping in her car, Kagome pulled out onto the street and headed towards the part of town where she’d been told the taijiya were facing off against the kuma-youkai. It only took a few minutes before she could feel the faint sensation of jyaki against the back of her mind, which told her that the bear-youkai was indeed corrupted, although whether or not it was a lost cause was yet to be seen. Zeroing in on the feel of the dark demonic aura, she ceased reading street signs in search of the one she’d been told to turn down and instead allowed her sixth sense to guide her, the kuma’s jyaki functioning as a homing beacon.

 

oooooooooooooooooooo

 

Miroku was strolling through the forest, about half a mile from the local town’s border, when his cellphone started ringing in the pouch he wore slung over his shoulder because he was working and his traditional houshi robes had no pockets. With his shakujo in his right hand, its jingling rings doing their job of scaring off the little mortal critters of the forest although the somewhat more intelligent youkai animals could sense the peaceful intentions he was exuding and knew he meant them no harm, Miroku reached into what his wife ‘lovingly’ referred to as his murse with his left hand and answered his phone.

 

“Yes, my dearest?” he said as his greeting upon seeing his wife was the caller.

 

“How quickly can you get back to your car?” Sango asked, and the urgency in her tone immediately told him something was wrong. His smile was gone in an instant.

 

“What’s happened?”

 

“We’ve got a tainted kuma-youkai that just showed up in the middle of town out of nowhere and has been angrily chasing people and slashing at cars,” she explained. “We’ve got it cornered now on Tama Rd. between 3rd and 4th street, near WacDonald’s, but something’s not right. Our powders are barely slowing it down so my father called HQ and asked them to send in the new local warrior miko, who should be here soon. I haven’t met this girl yet but if she’s anything like that last miko-”

 

“I understand,” Miroku interrupted, sounding a bit out of breath because he’d already taken off running back towards where he’d left his car as he listened to his wife’s explanation. “Everything’s been peaceful here, so wherever this bear came from, it didn’t pass through my neck of the woods,” he added, using the expression literally.

 

Telling his wife he’d call her back after he reached his car, Miroku hung up his phone and put it away before picking up the pace as much as he could, grateful the old shrine where he’d parked his car was not too far away because he’d only been an hour in on his walk and that had been at a very slow, leisurely pace.

 

The little friendly demonic beings of the forest who had previously been ignoring his presence could sense his sudden agitated state and as a result became more agitated themselves, not to mention he was spooking them by running as fast as his sandal-clad feet would allow.

 

Which actually wasn’t as fast as he’d like under the circumstances.

 

Perhaps it was time he forwent that particular part of tradition and heeded his wife’s suggestion of wearing boots.

 

Either way, his haste was enough to have everything else in the forest scurrying out of his way, and with all of the various small demonic forest critters fleeing deeper into the woods at his approach, Miroku was suddenly stopped in his tracks when he noticed a faint but strong demonic aura coming from his right, towards the houses that bordered the forest, rather than towards the wilds of the world to his left. He hadn’t sensed its presence when he’d passed by this spot earlier, headed in the other direction, but then, the feel of all the other youki had probably masked it, like not noticing a specific conversation in a crowded room with lots of people talking. Now the forest was quiet, so to speak, and suddenly he could hear...not a faint whisper nearby, but more like distant shouting, so while it was quiet he could tell that in reality, what he was ‘hearing’ was very loud.

 

But it didn’t feel dark, like tainted jyaki, and Sango had said the kuma was tainted, so the monk knew he had to keep his priorities in order. Any house that bordered the forest could make prime real estate for something demonic, the homeowner being none the wiser if they could not sense demonic auras, but if it wasn’t tainted then it probably posed no immediate threat, and this kuma did.

 

Making a mental note to come back to this area later and investigate as soon as he could, because if some random youkai or another was indeed holed up in somebody’s home then it would need to be dealt with eventually, Miroku continued running for his car, then, lamenting now more than ever that his regular checks of this part of the forest were always downhill on his way out and therefore uphill on his way back. That was what he got for parking his car at the local shrine grounds. Shrines were always at the top of a hill. Finally, after what seemed to take too long although he was sure only a few minutes had passed since Sango’s phone call, the houshi made it back to where his car was parked, next to the family’s car at the back of the Higurashi shrine, and he quickly drove down the narrow private road to the bottom of the hill, pulling out onto the main street.

 

With the official Spiritual Forces plates on his car giving him unofficial permission to break traffic laws in emergency situations, the houshi carefully weaved around the small amount of traffic on the streets, most residents already having gotten emergency notices about the active youkai situation downtown and therefore staying indoors as instructed.

 

oooooooooooooooooooo

 

Arriving on scene, Kagome’s eyes widened in shock at the sight before her. On the other side of a police barricade, a group of five taijiya had the large – and clearly corrupted – bear-youkai pinned.

 

Well, more like trapped. It wasn’t physically pinned down, yet, and it kept pacing in circles, snarling and swiping at the slayers who were rapidly depleting their collection of stink pellets in their effort to hold it in place.

 

So far that effort was successful, as the kuma-youkai refrained from charging directly at anyone, circling like an agitated animal in a cage as the four men on the ground all kept their specially forged weapons trained on the bear, but the powder that would have normally rendered it unconscious had hardly any effect on the corrupted kuma, the strength of its aura feeling to Kagome almost like it was actually two auras in one. She wasn’t sure how to explain it, but it was obvious the taijiya weren’t making any progress, and as soon as they ran out of stink pellets their standoff with the bear would be over in the worst way possible. Their demonically forged katana were no match for a creature of that strength.

 

Haphazardly parking her car and running out without closing the door, quiver and bow in hand and bag slung over her shoulder, the nearest police officer maintaining the perimeter by keeping curious civilians and news crews on the other side of the barricade took one look at her miko robes and weapon and waved Kagome through as she darted past the police line and headed right for the kuma-youkai.

 

From her position above the circle, riding upon the her trusty nekomata Kirara, Sango clutched the strap of the damaged Hiraikotsu a bit tighter as she saw the new miko arrive on the scene. It was the female taijiya’s wish to incapacitate the kuma-youkai without killing it if at all possible, because she had a sinking suspicion from her learned ability to sense demonic auras that all was not as it seemed, but none of their tricks of the trade, including her trusty boomerang, had been able to even mildly injure the tainted beast. It had batted Hiraikotsu aside like a human swatting a fly, cracking the heavy weapon while sending it flying in another direction and forcing Sango and Kirara to take off after it. Now, their most powerful potions, smoke bombs that should have rendered the bear unconscious, were barely making it the least bit groggy; it was still much too dangerous to approach. Multiple tranquilizer darts meant for mortal animals also riddled its body, but it was less surprising that those had no effect given the strength of the kuma’s aura.

 

Running up to the action, Kagome took just a second to visually scan all of the fighters, and then approached the man whose taijiya colors revealed he was the team leader.

 

“Kagome Higurashi reporting for duty, sir,” she shouted in introduction.

 

“Masaru Tanaka,” the senior taijiya replied as he spared the miko a quick glance before fixing his eyes back on the kuma. He had his sword drawn and aimed at the beast, as did they all, and as soon as the smoke started to dissipate one of Masaru’s men threw down yet another stink pellet.

 

“Better stay back,” he said to Kagome then, since she wasn’t wearing a gas mask like the rest of them.

 

But while Kagome hadn’t yet had the opportunity to get to know any of her local taijiya, as being a new recruit had meant the training facility first had to teach her all the basics before she could join in on field exercises, which she’d been scheduled to start in another month, having a few training sessions under her belt at least meant she knew how to handle herself in a situation like this one. She immediately reached for the mask in her bag and put it on.

 

“Oh, good,” Masaru commented with a pleased nod as he noticed.

 

Having never met this miko he knew she was going to be green, but he hadn’t known how green, and HQ had cleared her for this assignment because despite not having done any field training with them yet her reiki levels were almost off the chart and, according to her instructor, she was one hell of an archer. That had been good enough for Masaru.

 

Unaware of her overhead audience – Kagome had seen the woman up on the nekomata but just wasn’t aware she was the focus of that woman’s attention instead of the bear – she pulled an arrow from her quiver. “Permission to attempt stunning the animal, saving death for a last resort?” she asked Masaru then.

 

The head taijiya glanced back her way at her words and immediately noticed the arrow she was charging up with purifying energy had a large black rubber blunt over the tip. The serious man’s face cracked the smallest of smiles.

 

“Well isn’t that clever,” he said, commending the miko on her ingenuity. “Never seen anyone try that before but yes, permission granted. Let’s see if it works.”

 

After realizing how strong the kuma was he’d thought purification was going to be the only way, but if there was still a chance to save the bear’s life he was all for it, and he knew his daughter felt the same way.

 

“I just never could master the art of throwing ofuda,” Kagome explained as she drew back her bow string. “Using blunt arrows instead was actually my mom’s idea. She reminded me that my toy bow and arrow set as a small child had used suction cup arrows.”

 

Up on Kirara, Sango watched, biting her lower lip, as Kagome got into position, silently praying for Miroku to suddenly arrive on the scene. She knew she was in no position to shout anything down to the miko as if she were actually in charge of this operation instead of her father. He was team leader and when he’d made the decision to request the miko Sango had known it was for the greater good. Saving human lives had to come first, after all, and Sango also knew her viewpoint surrounding youkai was not shared by every member of their team. Save for her father, who was at least sympathetic to her viewpoint, she knew her fellow taijiya would be quite satisfied to just slay the bear and be done with it.

 

As the young miko drew and aimed her arrow she was speaking to Sango’s father but the airborne taijiya could not hear what she was saying over the kuma’s continual roaring. Unable to see any definition to the arrow itself as it began glowing with purifying energy, she wanted to turn her head and look away, but on the other hand, she couldn’t look away, like watching a train wreck. She had prayed that this new miko would be different from the last one, someone who’d been sent in from the city, but the fact that she’d gone straight for an arrow without even bothering to try an ofuda first had the female taijiya believing those prayers had gone unanswered. Sango failed to notice the fact that the arrows in Kagome’s quiver actually had two different colored fletchings, either white or black, and that the miko had looked back at her arrows before selecting which one to grab.

 

Kagome let her arrow fly.

 

The arrow soared through the air, glowing a bright pink with her purification powers, and struck the bear’s right shoulder. There was a brief flash of light, and the bear roared even louder in surprised pain, but as fast as the jolt of power came, it was gone, as if the bear had just been momentarily zapped with electricity. With the blunt rubber tip of her arrow not penetrating the bear’s flesh, the purifying effects of Kagome’s reiki could not reach deep within its being, and also, the arrow fell to the ground, no longer touching the bear, before expending its full charge. Stunned, surprised both by the quick instant of pain and also by the fact that it was still alive afterwards, only a small burnt patch of fur and skin on its right shoulder where the arrow had briefly made contact, Kagome took quick advantage of the moment she’d hoped surprising the kuma with a blunt arrow would create and darted forward, another rubber-tipped arrow already in her hand. She shot that one as she approached, the arrow nailing the kuma right between the eyes as it turned to face her, growling a low warning. It yelped and whimpered when the second arrow struck it, shaking its head, and Kagome reached for the handful of sealing ofuda in her shoulder bag.

 

Sango watched the whole thing unfold from her position up on Kirara with a dumbfounded grin slowly climbing up her face as she realized that after being shot with two purifying arrows the kuma-youkai was still alive. With the other taijiya backing up enough to give her room to work, the miko quickly rushed around the entire creature, then, riddling it with ofuda, which from the lack of any sort of crackling of spiritual light as they made contact with the bear’s fur immediately told the taijiya they were sealing in nature, rather than purifying. She was using way more ofuda than should have been necessary (usually only one would suffice, or possibly two or three if the beast was very powerful) but under the circumstances, Sango didn’t blame the miko one bit for not wanting to take any chances.

 

After all, the presence of extra sealing ofuda would not harm the kuma-youkai in any way. It was like the equivalent of putting five blindfolds on somebody when merely one would suffice. Sealed was sealed. There was no such thing as being extra sealed, and being sealed also wasn’t painful. Glancing down the street as Miroku’s car arrived on scene, Sango exhaled a quiet sigh of relief. Had this miko turned out to be like the other one her husband’s arrival would have come too late. Now, she got to happily inform Miroku that this Kagome person appeared to be one of the good ones. She hadn’t even met her yet and already Sango felt that Kagome was a keeper.

 

“Come on Kirara, let’s get back down there.”

 

Roaring her obedience, the nekomata made her descent.

 

“That was quite impressive,” Masaru said as Kagome studied the now quite sealed kuma-youkai, the still fully conscious animal meeting her eyes with something she recognized as pain in their red-tinted depths, and not pain caused by anything either she or the taijiya had done to it. The very minor burns already looked like they were healing, which was another red flag in and of itself because while youkai healed fast they didn’t normally heal that fast, and definitely not from reiki burns.

 

“I couldn’t just kill it without knowing why it was attacking in the first place,” Kagome replied. “Like their mortal cousins, kuma-youkai usually aren’t so vicious unless they’re starving or their cubs are in danger. And even if it’d been lost and desperately looking for food, that wouldn’t explain why it was so impervious to your usual techniques.”

 

Hearing the feline roar of the nekomata overhead, Kagome glanced Sango and Kirara’s way before resuming her intense study of the captured kuma.

 

“Even now, it’s exuding more youki than should be possible while sealed.” Closing her eyes, she delved deeper. “And I’m sensing two distinct auras. Its natural youki, and something else, tainted with jyaki. Something is corrupting the bear.”

 

“That was the conclusion we’d reached, as well,” Sango said as she approached, holding a kitten-sized Kirara.

 

“My daughter, Sango,” Masaru introduced.

 

“Pleased to meet you,” Kagome said with a small bow.

 

Just then a panting Miroku rushed onto the scene, his own ofuda at the ready although he quickly realized they were not needed.

 

“I see you guys have everything under control,” he said, relieved, as he tucked his ofuda back into his shoulder bag. “Maybe a little overkill, minus the kill part,” he added with a chuckle when he noticed just how many sealing ofuda were covering the bear’s body.

 

Kagome merely shrugged. “Better safe than sorry,” she replied, not in the least bit embarrassed.

 

Masaru, who had already known Sango had called her houshi husband in, merely turned to his son-in-law and asked, “And there was no evidence of this bear’s passage through the section of forest you were patrolling this morning?” Sango had relaid that part of their conversation with her father because it was pertinent information. If the kuma-youkai hadn’t come from the forest, where did it come from?

 

“No, sir,” Miroku answered. “Even sealed, its youki is still massive. I could feel its aura as I approached and immediately noticed the difference as the sealing ofuda were applied. I would have sensed its full, unsealed aura for miles if it’d entered town through the western forest.”

 

At his mention of the western forest, Kagome snapped her fingers in recognition. “I thought you looked familiar,” she said, sticking out her hand to shake his in greeting. “Kagome Higurashi.”

 

“Higurashi?” Miroku asked, his eyes lighting up in delight. “Ah! But of course! How are you fairing? Your family told me you’d won the lottery and bought yourself the home you’d been eyeing since childhood.”

 

“I did indeed,” Kagome replied with a nod. “The kami were very generous.”

 

“You two know each other?” Sango asked, mildly surprised seeing as Miroku had never mentioned knowing who the new local on-call warrior miko was going to be.

 

“Not well,” Miroku clarified. “It’s her family shrine, the Higurashi shrine, that I use as my entry point to that section of forest during my patrols. We’d spoken a few times before she moved out a few years ago.”

 

“And I wasn’t planning on becoming a warrior miko back then,” Kagome chimed in, unconsciously fiddling with the shoulder strap of her quiver. “In fact, when I first moved out, I had gotten myself a job as a waitress and was just renting an apartment nearby, trying to live a quote-unquote ‘normal’ life,” she said with a laugh as she did air-quotes with her fingers. “I always figured that if trouble arose, my place would be at the shrine, helping to maintain a barrier, although really, my brother’s more than powerful enough to handle that task on his own. He’ll be taking over as shrine priest one day, and I’d thought that outside of the occasional activity that called for having a miko on hand I’d just worry about working my job and paying my bills. Then I won the lottery.”

 

“Lucky,” Sango said, petting Kirara.

 

She’d noticed Kagome glance down at the nekomata in her arms, and the miko had actually smiled at the feline youkai, as if Kirara were merely an adorable kitten and not a powerful creature some people would consider a monster. Sango might not’ve known much about Kagome, yet, but already she could safely say that she liked the girl.

 

“I guess it was then in part needing something to do with my life, since I no longer needed to work, and also my long held belief that youkai are just another creation of the kami and as such just as deserving of the right to exist as anything else, that had me realize that if I became a warrior miko I could do my part in protecting both human lives and youkai ones,” Kagome added then, while gesturing to the sealed bear. “I’m aware other warrior miko might’ve just purified the poor thing and been done with it, and society would have probably praised them for it, too, but I’ll only use deadly force as a last resort.”

 

Sango nodded with a slight cringe Kagome didn’t notice as the miko turned back and resumed examining the sealed kuma-youkai more closely.

 

While watching Kagome work, Sango thought back to the last miko they’d had to work with, a warrior miko named Kikyou who lived in the city. She had not, shall we say, been nearly as compassionate about youkai rights as Kagome was.

 

In fact, the woman had even criticized Sango for her use of Kirara, telling her the nekomata should not be trusted, or at least not without a set of subjugation beads to ensure her obedience. Sango had tried to explain to Kikyou that Kirara was her partner, like a police officer and their police dog. The nekomata was a part of their family; all of the taijiya at their local branch trusted and respected the neko because they knew the difference between good and evil youkai, and Kirara, who had actually been bred by Sango’s family a couple of generations back, had been with the taijiya for years. The slayer had then none-too-politely suggested to the miko that she had better brush up on the subject of good youkai since her judgment on the matter was clearly impaired.

 

Needless to say, that confrontation had made Sango downright dread the prospect of having to work with Kikyou again after that day, and so while she’d been nervous about what the new miko’s views were going to turn out to be, she had definitely been relieved there at least was a new miko, and that HQ had cleared her early for this assignment instead of insisting on sending in Kikyou again.

 

Working with Kikyou had been a nightmare, and not just because the woman had insulted Kirara after the attacking youkai had been dealt with. She had also refused to coordinate with Sango during their collaborative attack on said youkai, taking over the mission as if Sango and the other taijiya were not even present. Kirara had even had to dive out of the way of one of Kikyou’s arrows because she’d fired without warning. Masaru had given her a dressing down for that one, but Kikyou had merely replied that they were the ones who had called her because they had been unable to handle the youkai problem – in that case, an escaped snake-youkai somebody had been keeping in captivity – by themselves.

 

Thinking back on that incident had Sango questioning if they were dealing with a similar situation this time. If somebody had been housing the kuma-youkai somewhere within the neighborhood, and it had actually been trying to make its way to the forest, that would explain why it had shown up in their hometown seemingly out of nowhere, without any of their patrols in the surrounding forest having spotted its approach.

 

Unaware of the taijiya’s thoughts, Kagome’s eyes were closed as she concentrated, reaching out with tendrils of her aura that were like feelers she used to poke and prod against the aura of the kuma-youkai. It didn’t take her long to find what she was looking for, namely a second demonic aura.

 

“There appears to be some kind of tainted object in physical contact with the kuma,” she told the others then as she glanced back their way.

 

Once again giving the kuma her complete attention, Kagome started to physically examine the beast, then. The other taijiya that’d been circling it with their weapons drawn were staying nearby, just in case, but everyone knew the kuma shouldn’t be able to move so nobody was too worried about Kagome getting that close to it. It glared at her, and growled so deep in its throat she felt it more than heard it, but with all the sealing ofuda on its body it could do little more than glare and growl and so she ignored that the best she could and continued with her inspection. It once again didn’t take her long to find what she was looking for when she spotted the small dagger sticking out of the side of its neck. The short black handle was almost fully concealed by the bear’s thick dark brown, almost black fur, but she spotted it.

 

“Oh kami...oh you poor thing,” she said.

 

“Kagome?” asked Sango.

 

“It’s got a short blade in its neck, and that’s where the feel of jyaki is coming from,” she explained.

 

“By Buddha...” Miroku murmured, aghast. “Being in physical contact with a tainted object would certainly explain its elevated and corrupted aura.”

 

“Not to mention being stabbed in the neck would piss anyone off,” Sango chimed in. “Certainly explains the unusually high hostility, and then the taint from the blade’s jyaki just fueled it even further.”

 

Miroku looked at his wife. “No wonder your usual potions for normal forest youkai weren’t strong enough to subdue it.”

 

Ignoring what was being said behind her, Kagome wrapped her fingers around the hilt of the dagger. “This might hurt a little, and I’m sorry,” she told the bear, staring into its red-rimmed eye that if looks could kill, would have dropped her where she stood. “I’m not trying to purify you, just the knife, so try to remain calm.”

 

Everyone watched as Kagome spoke to the bear-youkai. Nobody thought she was acting strangely because everyone knew large animal youkai such as the kuma were a lot more intelligent than their mortal counterparts, and in fact Sango’s heart swelled as she heard the miko address the youkai with such tenderness. Kagome was being so gentle; she really did have the kuma-youkai’s best interest at heart, and Sango and her father shared a knowing look and nod. They liked her.

 

Closing her eyes and concentrating, Kagome attempted to localize her reiki and focus her aim exclusively on the dagger. She could have just pulled it out, and doing so would have certainly removed its corrupting influence from the bear, but without knowing how badly the youkai was hurt there was no telling if removing the blade from its neck could lead to its death, as would probably be the case with a mortal animal, at least without medical intervention. While youkai could take a lot more punishment than their mortal counterparts, and could heal from things that would unquestionably be fatal to a mortal animal, bleeding out was still a possibility for the kuma if the dagger, which felt like a powerful demonic weapon, left behind any sort of miasma in the wound that could hinder the bear’s natural healing abilities. It was for that reason that Kagome felt purifying the dagger first, which would also automatically purify the immediate flesh the dagger was in contact with, would render any possible such ‘demonic attacks’ created by the weapon fully neutralized. It would be like cauterizing the wound.

 

Concentrating, she poured her energy into the knife, and the kuma-youkai growled but couldn’t so much as flinch thanks to the multitude of sealing ofuda covering its body. Then as quickly as her reiki came, it receded again, back inside her body, and the kuma immediately stopped growling, a soft whimper escaping its throat instead.

 

“There there...” she cooed, and then she pulled out the blade.

 

What might well have been a fatal wound on a mortal animal would heal in a matter of hours on the kuma now that there was no risk of lingering foreign jyaki acting like an infection or poison, and with the spiritual influence of the tainted dagger gone from its being Kagome met the kuma’s intelligent, sad, warm brown eyes and murmured softly to the gentle giant that it had nothing to fear from them. They weren’t going to kill it.

 

“Amazing,” Masaru said then, as Kagome handed him the dagger, the blade of which appeared to be made out of youkai bone with horn for the handle.

 

“No wonder it was tainted,” Kagome said, in reference to the bear, “with this thing sticking out of its neck. Who would do such a thing?”

 

And where would they have gotten such a weapon?!

 

“How could there be a finished dagger made from youkai bones that hadn’t been purified first?”

 

Kagome didn’t understand it. While such demonic weapons were fairly common, and indeed it was what the taijiya used because standard steel would never penetrate youkai flesh without either reiki or youki running through it, youkai remains needed to be purified first before they could be made into weapons, or else the souls of the deceased youkai would haunt the objects made from their bones.

 

Everyone in their line of work knew that, and no weapons smith who dealt with youkai remains would be so careless. A humanoid youkai might want a power weapon forged from one of its own fangs, but that was different, something made by youkai, for youkai, and humans could not handle such demonically charged weaponry without losing themselves to that power. This blade hadn’t felt like that, though. It’d merely felt tainted in the way a taijiya’s weapon might feel were it not properly purified, not infused with youki as if the weapon had its own soul, but rather, haunted by the spirit of the youkai the remains had belonged to.

 

It was something a layman human might not even be able to sense, although the darkness would probably start to affect them subliminally over time. The fact that it had not been a youkai forged power weapon but rather the type of weapon humans made from youkai remains told Kagome that it had probably been owned by a human, and the fact that such weapons were needed to injure more powerful youkai when reiki was not an option implied that whoever had stabbed the poor kuma in the neck had known this and had chosen that weapon on purpose because they had indeed been trying to kill it. A side effect of the dagger not having been properly purified instead meant that the kuma had increased in demonic strength while also turning abnormally vicious. Anybody who had known the dagger was tainted should have also known that that would be the result, but if the intention had been to taint the kuma, for whatever reason, there were easier ways to go about it, so Kagome believed corrupting the bear-youkai with jyaki had probably been an accident.

 

She was still baffled by the fact that such a dagger had existed in the first place, though.

 

“Unfortunately, we see a lot of unpurified youkai bone weapons on the black market,” Miroku explained to her then, his expression grim. “A different division of the Spiritual Forces is tasked with combating the problem.”

 

Kagome’s jaw dropped.

 

“Really?!” she asked in total disbelief. Miroku nodded. Shaking her head, Kagome said, “Who would do something so...”

 

“Stupid?” Sango supplied.

 

“Yeah.”

 

Sango shrugged.

 

“Honestly, I don’t understand it either. It’s not like it’s illegal to own objects made from youkai remains, so long as they’re purified. Just get one from a reputable dealer. But since only registered smiths are legally allowed to make youkai weapons, some people must just think they’re too expensive, and so they look elsewhere.”

 

“We don’t even try to regulate it that strongly,” Masaru chimed in then. “Our main concern is public safety, so if someone buys an illegal demonic weapon, but got a reiki user to purify it, we’d probably never even know. It’s not like we do raids and check every house for demonic weapons and demand to see their registration.”

 

Kagome nodded her understanding and agreement. No matter what, they couldn’t resort to that sort of behavior.

 

“So there’s a sect of houshi whose job it is to check places like swap meets and county fairs, looking for demonic blades, but their job isn’t to confiscate them, merely purify them,” Masaru continued then.

 

“We’d better get the kuma loaded up so everyone can get back to their lives,” Miroku said then, not referring to themselves, but all the onlookers, both present on the other side of the police barricade, and those watching it all unfold live on the news.

 

Looking beyond the police line, Kagome wasn’t surprised to see the camera crews still rolling. Youkai attacks like this one were few and far between, after all, and definitely news worthy.

 

“You want to do the honors?” Sango asked, a smirk crooking up her lips. “You’re sort of the hero here, after all, and the rest of us can take it from here as far as loading the kuma up in the van.”

 

“Me…?” Kagome asked, before glancing back at the reporters again, two of whom caught her looking their way and eagerly waved her over to them.

 

“Okay, sure, no problem,” Kagome said then, her words dripping with sarcasm, but Miroku, Sango and Masaru only laughed before going to speak with the other taijiya about loading up the immobile bear.

 

Facing the music, as it were, Kagome tamped down her jitters, and finding a hint of amusement at herself that she hadn’t been nervous in the slightest as she’d dealt with the bear-youkai and instead it was the thought of public speaking that was raising her hackles, she sucked it up the best she could and approached the reporters who’d been waving her over.