InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Stealing Heaven ❯ Missing Pieces ( Chapter 10 )

Chapter Ten

Missing Pieces

It was turning on one AM by the time Sango ducked into the tent to rouse Kagome. She'd been lurking on the outskirts of camp, waiting patiently until every team member was accounted for and safely asleep in their own tents. Professor Taisho's commitment to getting as much work done as he could until he felt sure he might pass out standing up had been the true issue.

Such a workaholic, Sango had groused to herself as she watched him finally trudging back from the site and wind his way through camp to retire for the night. She shook her head- he and Kagome were so much alike it was a wonder they weren't engaged in some steamy secret affair. Brown eyes rolled back and forth a bit as she thought that over . . . technically they sort of were, but seeing as Professor Taisho Sesshomaru, himself, wasn't aware of the situation she didn't believe that could count.

She entered slowly, thinking she would have to wake Kagome, but the girl was already sitting up on the edge of her mattress, fully clothed and apparently fully alert. The moment Kagome's eyes locked on Sango's, she bounced up as silently as she could manage and grabbed her lantern. Brow furrowing, Sango mouthed the question, "Are you okay?"

Nodding stiffly, Kagome lightly tossed Sango a second lantern and hefted a small pack containing brushes, delicate digging tools and a handful of back-up glow rods onto her back. She didn't know if what they were doing was brilliant or idiotic, but perhaps it was the only route they had open to them at the moment. Really, she simply wanted to get this over with, focusing on the task before them and trying to keep her thoughts blessedly blank of anything else.

Casting a scrutinizing glance at Dominique's slumbering form to assure themselves that they hadn't disturbed her, the girls quietly slunk back out, into the serene darkness of the camp. They proceeded cautiously to the trail, creeping along through the jungle, not bothering to turn on their lanterns until they finally entered the mouth of the cave and started down into the winding tunnel.

Sango couldn't shake the unsteady feeling in the pit of her stomach, it inched over her making her skin crawl and edging around her brain like ice water. Frowning as they followed the curve of the tunnel, she rubbed her free hand over the arm holding her lantern, attempting to banish the goosebumps there, at least. She knew it was likely the combination of being here so very late- and so very alone- and the knowledge of what they hoped to accomplish, all in light of the things that had been stumbled over in this place within such a short time.

"Kags?"

"Yeah?"

"Is this how you always feel in here?"

When Sango felt the weight of blue eyes landing curiously on the back of her head, she turned, showing her bared forearms. It wasn't that, though, that let Kagome know what she meant, it was the always-calm brown eyes that now showed a hint of white all around and the minute tremble in that usually so-firmly-set bottom lip.

Giving a tiny nod, Kagome offered a bleak smile. "Sometimes, yes. It was more potent when The Thief was still behind the wall, but yes."

Sango managed a nod back and turned on her heel, continuing down the tunnel in silence until they emerged on the dark, seemingly forever-damp sand of the underground shore. Coming to a halt, Kagome set down her lantern and shrugged the pack off to unwrap the wind breaker from around her hips and placed it as neatly as she could on the sand. "Remind me what I'm doing?"

"Um," Sango began, with a not terribly confidence-boosting scratch of her head. "Well, you're going to sit down and close your eyes and then just . . . breathe. You focus on that and just try to listen to whatever that little voice in your head tells you. Hopefully, this will at least give us a direction to start looking for her."

Sighing heavily, Kagome shook her head as she delicately sat herself on the jacket and pulled her ankles inward. "You've just made me feel so secure about this whole thing."

Taking a few steps back- allowing Kagome a personal-space bubble of at least several feet- Sango frowned a little. "Do you have a better idea? Look," she went on, not sparing Kagome the time to respond, "those other times you felt things, you weren't even trying, you were just kind of 'here'. So I'm thinking that if you try, if you focus on what you're feeling, maybe it'll give you a more direct impression."

Rolling her eyes- at both her willingness to go along with this insanity and the unbelievable predicament she was in altogether- Kagome squared her shoulders, drawing in a long, deep breath and as she let her lids drift downward. She focused on the air she was pulling into her lungs, on the simple act of pushing it back out again; focused on the sketchy blackness behind her eyelids, trying to imagine that somehow she could still see the stretch of night-dark beach before her.

Kagome felt- almost irrationally, she thought- that she could actually sense where Sango was. It was faint, but a little thrumming energy, warm and bright that she just somehow understood was Ryoushi Sango. Was this quiet bundle of individual energy what auras were all about? Nodding inwardly- she guessed it probably was- she delicately nudged her awareness of her friend's presence aside, almost mentally earmarking it so she wouldn't confuse it with anything else she might come to her attention.

It seemed a long moment passed as Sango watched Kagome apparently meditating. There was nothing from the girl, not the tugging of her mouth to frown about how stupid she probably thought they were being, nor even the twitch of the eyelids she was likely fighting to keep closed. Blinking and rubbing her eyes with the tips of her fingers, she checked her watch. A sleek dark brow quirked. If her estimation of when they'd gotten here was correct, than Kagome had already been in this bizarre statue-resembling state for ten minutes.

So very odd, certainly she felt it had been a while but not that long. Ignoring the feeling of the fine hairs standing up on the back of her neck- and reminding herself of that rational, easily explainable combination of things causing her to feel this way- Sango turned her head in slow increments of motion, dark brown eyes taking in their surroundings. She wasn't sensitive, that was Kagome's shtick . . . so then . . . why was she suddenly overcome with the deep, unavoidable feeling that they were trespassing here? Her wary gaze shot back to Kagome a moment before the girl began to make an odd, guttural sound.

Kagome . . . flinched. Her lungs felt heavy instantly and the scent of sea water become overpowering, the sensation of waves lapping danced along her skin for the briefest moment before she let out a strangled cough, sounding as though she was about to force out a lung full of liquid.

Blue eyes snapped open. "There's something under the water," she whispered.

That thread of sound sent a chill through Sango's bones before she got a hold of herself and shook the feeling off. Frowning, she stepped over to where some of the more heavy-weight tools were kept and gave a determined nod. "Lead the way, Mystica!"

Scowling, Kagome shook her head as she pushed herself up to stand. "You are always such a wise ass." She paused as she noticed the shovel in Sango's hands. " . . . You're not seriously going to start digging wherever I tell you, are you?"

Sango held the shovel blade upward and made a waving motion with it. "First off, it's 'we', there's not going to be an 'I' in this especially if that 'I' means me. Second, I wasn't thinking it through, I just figured we'd be needing it anyway if it's out there," she pointed to the water with the tip of the shovel's blade.

Nodding reluctantly, Kagome swept her hair back and squared her shoulders. She wasn't sure exactly where the feeling had come from, but she was almost positive that if she got closer to wherever it was, she would simply know it. "We're going to freeze to death on our way back to camp, you realize," she grumbled as she proceeded cautiously to the shore line.

"Only depending on how far in we're going!" Sango said optimistically as she followed her friend- she was diligently ignoring what she'd felt a few minutes ago, resolute in the notion that they were going to solve at least one of Kagome's problems this very night.

Kagome felt it as the toes of her boots touched to the very edge of gently lapping waves. A little glimmering pulse that oddly felt as though it was fading out with every ping, but it never seemed to lessen or dissipate at all. Freezing immediately, she threw an arm out, stopping Sango as well.

"We've missed something," she whispered, her voice again no more than a breath.

Turning her head slowly, Sango locked her eyes on the side of Kagome's face. "Okay, you really need to stop it with the creepy muttering already."

Crinkling the bridge of her nose as she furrowed her brow, Kagome could only shrug, "Sorry, it just . . . comes out that way, I'm not meaning to do that."

"And don't say things like that, it makes it creepier!"

Huffing, Kagome threw her arms up in the air, "Can we just do this, please?"

"Okay, okay," Sango said in a placating tone. "We missed something, what do you mean? We're getting something wrong?"

"No," she responded certainly. "I mean our team, I mean the ones who initially found the site. We've all missed something."

"And do you want to share?"

With a quick jerking nod, Kagome reached over and extracted the shovel from Sango's hand. Bracing herself against the expectant chill, she stepped into the water.

"Thank the gods we both remembered to pack extra boots," Sango mumbled as she watched the girl wade into the water until it reached just above her knees.

Feeling that she almost lost the soft, tapping sensation of that faint glimmer Kagome closed her eyes, allowing her steps to drift right and then left as she sloshed forward ever so slowly, keeping her cringe to herself as the icy water reached her hips. The toes of her boot stuck something and she halted. Turning from the waist up to look at Sango, she raised the shovel over her head.

"We missed this," she brought the shovel down into the water before her.

Sango blinked in surprise as the blade gave a loud, water-logged thunk only an few inches at most into the surface of the waves. "What?" she asked, her own voice suddenly and strangely hollow to her ears. Water didn't thunk- and it certainly didn't stop rapidly driven metal objects- at least not from such a meager distance.

"I think there's a like a tiny plateau here," Kagome replied, pulling herself out of the water and up onto the thinly covered surface.

Shaking her head, Sango ran back for a second shovel and retrieved glow rods from the pack. Sloshing out through the waves, she joined Kagome on the small platform and hand her a rod before cracking her own and shaking it to life. Tucking it securely into a button hole of her shirt, she grasped the shovel's handle in both hands and plunked the blade down against the veiled bit of risen earth.

"This water is going to make it hard to know what we're getting at," she shook her head as she watched Kagome snap the other rod into illumination, "we're totally in danger of contaminating a find."

"I will remind you this was your idea," Kagome said as she determinedly began digging, though the effort more closely resembled pushing mud and water out of the way with the shovel.

Strangely the water seemed to be receding a little, barely noticeable from shore, probably, but enough to leave them seeing what they were digging into. Was it becoming low tide? The slowly strengthening richness of the saltwater in the air seemed to say so. Perhaps this was why no one had noticed this odd little hill before- because it must only be visible when they were all turned in for the night.

Kagome noticed it as well, sparing a moment to exchange a bewildered, yet relieved glance with Sango. It would make the search easier. If anything, however, she was a little disappointed in herself in that they hadn't been at this very long, yet her arms were already feeling the strain. They continued on in silence before she felt a tremor tumble through her.

"Stop!" she hissed to Sango who obediently paused as she was about to bring her shovel down for another shift-scoop of soggy earth.

They hadn't made too much of a mess- or too much of a dent, for that matter- yet, but Sango stepped back, allowing Kagome to do her thing. Kagome held her shovel out for Sango to take and then lowered herself to her knees to dig clumsily in the muck with her fingers.

"Are you sure you should be doing that?"

Kagome could only nod back, her jaw set in determination. "You can always help me fix my nails later," she grumbled, mostly at herself, as she clawed up chunks of mud and softened rock.

With a roll of her eyes, Sango shook her head. Kagome felt her nails scrape unnervingly against a smooth surface and froze.

"I've got something," she murmured.

"Creepy whispering again," Sango reminded as she set the shovels down and sat on her knees beside her.

"Sorry," Kagome offered distractedly as she began gently easing the object out of the muddy indent they'd made- mortified inwardly that she was unearthing something with such improper means.

Whatever was in her hands snapped suddenly and into the air wafted a cloud of dust. "Oh . . . OH SHI-"

Kagome didn't even have time to finish her cussing before the cloud rushed forward invading her mouth and nostrils. She fell back from the hole instantly, patting at her chest with her hands as she tried to cough out the specks.

"Kagome!" Sango shrieked, instantly snatching her friend's arms and yanking her up into a sitting position.

After a long moment of coughing and panicking, Kagome drew in a sharp, salty lungful of miraculously clean air. She felt something . . . a momentary sliding of thoughts not her own against her mind. Closing her eyes, she focused on the confusing and bizarre sensation, trying to identify it with the new sense that had yet to fail her. It frightened her beyond all comprehension, but fail to pinpoint spooky things happening to her? Not once, yet- she simply hadn't been listening to herself before, that was amazingly obvious to her now.

She could see it in her mind's eye- an odd, luminescent replay of the moment that had just happened. The bit of ash had driven itself into her . . . it had sought her out, ignoring Sango entirely, it seemed. It had slid through her, a faint glimmering pulse of light, and attempted to latch onto her, but it met resistance almost instantly, unable to find purchase in any way. Quickly she clamped down on that tiny point of forever-fleeting light with a surge of inner strength that surprised her and slammed it into a dark corner of her mind, trapping it there. The volatile little ball of anger and jealousy rattled around for a moment like a trapped moth.

Kagome couldn't know for absolute certain, but she was confident that this presence understood that it couldn't overtake her . . . like Nah Rah Ku had with her Professor Taisho. Shaking her head, she pushed Sango's arms away, blinking her lightly tearing eyes open.

". . . Kags . . . ?" Sango began cautiously, her chin tilting up in suspicion. Wasn't this exactly what had happened to the professor and caused this entire mess?

Forcefully regulating her breathing, Kagome grumbled, "You're really never going to stop calling me that, are you?"

Shoulders slumped as Sango let her body relax. "Sorry, had to be sure you were still . . . well, you."

Kagome gave a nod of understanding. "There's something in here," she explained as she tapped a finger to the back of her head, trying hard to pay no mind to the sudden widening of Sango's eyes and raised her other hand up, "but- but . . . I don't think it's the same thing as what happened to the professor."

"Are you sure?"

Nodding, she went on, "She's not nearly as strong as The Thief, and I'm stronger than Professor Taisho . . . spiritually, I mean," she added to amend the statement at Sango's quirked brow. "She couldn't grab hold."

"You mean . . . the uh . . . daughter's in . . . there?" Sango made a quick pointing jab in the air, directed at Kagome's skull.

Kagome nodded leaning forward to look back into their indent. In the scraped-out pit she'd carved with her fingers was a traditional jar of earthen clay, shaped like a basket and what had come off in her hands had only been a covering. Inside the jar lay more ash and she realized she was lucky- she'd somehow managed to cut off the process before it could be completed, which likely also added to the spirit's inability to take hold. Quickly she snapped the lid back over the jar and began piling the muddy earth back over it. Sango watched in disbelief for a long, silent moment as Kagome proceeded to fill the indentation in as though it had never been made.

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" she asked, her tone quiet and cautionary.

Kagome shrugged, "Hell if I know, but I have the distinct feeling now that she wanted me to find her so she could do with me what Nah Rah Ku did to the professor. The rest of this bitch is staying right where it is."

Sango's eyebrows shot up at that. The spirit must have really ticked Kagome off- she never talked like that unless her fiery temper had been stoked. Unable to argue any further, after all, what if not replacing it as it had been proved a danger to Kagome later?

"Okay," she replied finally, hefting up the shovels and getting to her feet. "Let's get out of here- the tide is already rolling back in."

Nodding firmly, Kagome rose, hopping down into the rough foot of water still left and rising slowly but steadily to begin sloshing her way back to shore. She didn't speak as Sango followed her, as they carefully repacked the back that they'd not really needed and replaced the borrowed shovels exactly where they'd been. She didn't know how to feel about what had just happened. Should she feel stupid for being tricked? Should she be angry that she'd let herself be tricked? That this spirit had deliberately called her out in an attempt to possess her? Why? To be able to live again, like The Thief was doing?

Growling inwardly, she picked up her windbreaker and shook the sand from it before retying it around her hips and putting the pack back on. Snatching up her lantern, she turned to Sango, not terribly surprised to see her friend watching her cautiously. It wasn't incredibly heartening to know that Sango was half-expecting the high priest's daughter- Lyka . . . Kagome got the impression of the unusual-sounding name Lyka- to burst forth and take her over at any second, but it wasn't exactly a shocking thing for her to think, either.

Sango picked up her own lantern and gave Kagome a nod. "You're really okay?"

With a roll of her eyes, Kagome let a breath hiss out from between lightly pursed lips before responding. "For my sake, I certainly hope so, but even if I'm not I really don't know what I can do about it!"

"Okay, alright," Sango said starting toward the tunnel, the verbal slap had reminded her that she wasn't the one carrying the brunt of this and her scrutinizing look probably wasn't helpful to Kagome's frame of mind or her understandably soured mood. "Let's just get back."

Another nod was offered as Kagome moved a few steps toward the mouth of the tunnel and stilled. She felt . . . something. Blue eyes roved aimlessly as she tried to pinpoint it. This wasn't like Lyka, it was . . . it wasn't tiny, but it was just as faint and she got the impression of something . . . broader. No, that wasn't right, but she couldn't think of how better to interpret it. It was wider in scope somehow and . . . mournful.

Sango didn't know whether to be fed up with Kagome's constant short-stopping or freaked out by it. "What's wrong?"

Giving a vague shrug, Kagome turned on her heel and spun to face further into the cavern. "There's something else," she said quietly as she began walking toward the deep recesses, where the water was feed in to the cave, not toward the temple nor back to the water, simply further in.

It was unnerving to follow her silently past the only area of the subterranean space that they were familiar with and into the completely, endlessly black depths with no illumination but their lanterns. Sango could tell that Kagome was focused on whatever it was she was sensing, so she didn't bother distracting her, forcing herself to trust where her friend was going with this.

Again the hairs on the back of her neck raised and she felt an icy roiling in the pit of her stomach, swimming around in her skull, but she did her best to push it out of her mind. Raising her lantern's light she panned slowly around as they walked seeing nothing but the rough surface of craggy, pocked stone.

"I know they didn't find anything of interest," Kagome was unintentionally back to the dull, breathless whispering that added to Sango's unease- she honestly didn't know how Kagome had managed to work in the temple all those days with this sort of constant, gnawing, nameless dread stealing over her the entire time- as she answered the girl's unvoiced, but nevertheless obvious question, "but what if it's another case of not knowing where to look?"

Kagome felt her heart drop into her stomach, the strange, mournful energy seemed to pull back from her. She got the oddest impression than that whatever this was . . . it was trying to protect itself. The notion sent a chill dancing over her spine and she paused, forcing a gulp down her throat as her gaze darted around the blackness, the lantern clutched in her numb fingers suddenly too heavy to lift up and accompany her eyes' path. What could this be hiding from?

Sango didn't need Kagome's sudden frantic, confused surveying of the area to tell her something was wrong. She could feel it . . . eyes on them . . . boring right down into their backs and-

"Would someone like to-"

They both nearly jumped out of their skin, emitting startled yelps and spinning to face the voice. Twin lantern beams landed on the tired, confused and downright sleep-rumpled face of Professor Taisho as he threw up a hand to shield his eyes.

Immediately letting the focus of their lights land back on the ground, Kagome and Sango somewhat blindly exchanged a quick glance of Oh gods, are we in Trouble! "P-Professor Taisho!" Kagome managed after a moment of confused looks all around.

"As I was saying . . ." he muttered, squaring his shoulders and setting his jaw- Kagome didn't like that combination of gestures, it wasn't a good sign at all, one was fine, the other was fine, but together . . . she repressed a shudder, she didn't even want to think on it- "would someone like to tell me what the hell you two are doing?"

Sango to the rescue! Kagome thought with relief as her friend cleared her throat and lifted a hand. Quirking a brow, the professor lifted the beam of his own lantern to confirm the action as though he didn't believe she was actually doing it.

"Put your hand down," he said in a mystified tone, sleep-tousled silver head shaking. "Just speak."

"Okay, well, um," Sango let her hand drop as she stammered, but it could be easily written off as fear of getting in trouble and Kagome was more thankful in that moment than she'd ever recalled that Sango could think on her feet so well, "Kagome was having another of her 'feelings' and even though you let her turn in early, she wasn't getting any sleep. So I thought that maybe if she came out here and could pin down at least where it was coming from, she could finally get some rest."

A dark, almost dangerous-seeming frown tugged the corners of his mouth downward as he pulled his gaze from Sango to look at Kagome. "Why didn't you come to me about this?"

Like a brick to the side of her head, the realization of what that expression meant hit Kagome. Professor Taisho Sesshomaru was hurt. Even trying to tell herself that she was imagining things did precious little to ease the stabbing ache she felt in her chest at seeing such a look on his face- to acknowledge that she was the one who'd put it there seemed to be beyond her comprehension entirely.

"I . . . I didn't," she licked her lips nervously, having to drop her gaze from his before trying again, "I mean I didn't and I still don't know what it was, and I didn't want to disturb you if it turned out to be nothing. I've gotten so little sleep that I couldn't be sure if it was just my imagination running away with me after all that's happened lately."

Sango hid her surprise at how fluidly Kagome had just fibbed . . . to the professor, no less. She recognized quickly enough, however, that she hadn't needed to hide anything, since it suddenly seemed like they'd forgotten she was there.

"I told you to come to me if anything was troubling you," he reminded in a tone that bordered on lightly scathing.

Kagome felt herself wince. "I'm sorry! I just didn't want to bother you with it if it turned out to be nothing."

Professor Taisho opened his mouth to argue that point, but seemed to remember himself- why was he arguing with her again? She was his student, not his equal, not yet, no matter how strangely it felt as though she already was so often of the time, therefore she should do as he instructed and not always put up such a fuss! He nearly growled inwardly at himself. Not only was her behavior vexing, but so was his own- he let her get away with acting this way.

Amber eyes narrowed at her and for a split-second, Kagome could have sworn she saw a glint in them that was a mix of predatory and spurned. "Let's just get back to camp, shall we?" he finally managed through lightly clenched teeth, gesturing for the girls to walk ahead of him.

"We will come to this spot tomorrow- during appropriate hours and inspect the area- after we've all had sleep." His voice was a low, grumbling bark of sound at their backs.

Kagome was about to mutter another apology, but the professor cut her off. "Do not make me ask why you two are soaked practically from the waist down."

Nodding and audibly snapping her mouth shut, Kagome simply trudged along beside Sango, both relieved that he'd not declared them kicked off the excavation and still a little . . . worried.

It was as they were moving away- as the professor was moving away- from that area that she felt the dim, mournful essence reaching toward her again. She was worried because she understood now why it had shrank back from her in that moment. Whatever that energy was, it could feel the demon lurking beneath Professor Taisho's consciousness. It had recognized Nah Rah Ku.

And it had recoiled in fear.

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