InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Stealing Heaven ❯ Exchanging Problems ( Chapter 27 )

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Exchanging Problems

"Wh . . . what are you doing?" Kagome asked, stammering as she dashed back into the room to find Miroku holding a cloth over Kouga's mouth.

He glanced up from what appeared to be a silent ten-count and then pulled the cloth away, withdrawing a small baggie from the pocket of his jeans and sealing the cloth in it. "Well, he looks pretty banged up, so I was pretty certain he wouldn't be stirring anytime soon and I started to think maybe a few more bashes over the head might be a bad thing- guys like Kouga need all the brainpower they've got. And anyway, you were gone a while longer than I thought you'd be. I ran up to the chem lab real quick and put something together. Only took a few seconds to make the proper mixture, really. Unfortunately, when I got back he was starting to stir."

Kagome thought her knees were going to go out from under her as she put a hand to her forehead and closed her eyes tightly. "Please tell me that you actually know what you're doing and didn't just say . . . accidentally poison him."

Sure, that would probably solve the Lyka issue, but then it would create a whole new Whoops, we accidentally murdered an otherwise innocent man problem.

He waved a dismissive hand as he bent down and- in a rather impressive display of strength and limberness- pulled Kouga up and hoisted the man over his shoulder. "I used to do this stuff all the time . . . some of the jocks would come to me to whip up a . . . . Well, let's just call it a 'draught' for the purpose of pranking their buddies- ya know, something that would put them out for a bit, but not cause anything more lasting than a bit of grogginess or a hang-over feeling."

She opened her eyes, shifting her weight as she shook her hands out, letting feeling flow back into her limbs. "Oh . . . oh, good- I was actually worrying about how I'd keep him out without giving him brain damage."

Given the constantly changing circumstances whirling around her and the numerous shocks to her system that she seemed to receive on a daily basis, Kagome thought she was handling her situation spectacularly well.

Miroku only nodded, walking to the door with his rather troublesome parcel and giving her a meaningful look as he nudged his chin toward the corridor.

"Huh? Oh, right . . . I'm . . . I'm the look-out, my plan and all that." She darted down the hall to the stairwell and paused, listening for a long moment before realizing she had a better tool at her disposal.

Closing her eyes for a second, she reached out, searching for anyone- or anything- other than herself, Miroku and the unconscious Kouga, for any sources of living energy besides themselves in their immediate vicinity. After a moment, nothing came to her and she opened her eyes, breathing a small sigh of relief and waving Miroku to her.

He trudged over, muttering quietly as he reached her, "What took you so long, anyway?"

She gave a short, nervous giggle, casting a skittering glance at him over her shoulder. "I ran into Professor Taisho . . ." she began climbing the stairs carefully, not bothering to look back as she ventured, ". . . . and why are we whispering?"

Miroku inched up the steps behind her, quirking a brow. "Probably because the process of kidnapping someone brings with it the 'talk-low' vibe?"

"Ah."

"Okay, so what is the real deal with you and him, anyway? I wasn't clear on that part- was that just a convenient cover story for this whole possession thing?"

As he joined her on the small landing before the exit to the first floor corridor Kagome found herself vaguely impressed that he could carry on his end of the conversation as though he didn't have a full grown human being slung over his shoulder. "Not entirely- there's nothing physical going on between the professor and me, but," she gave a little smile that was as bright as it was pained, "we are in love and dealing with the fact that we can't do anything about it."

". . . I'm sorry," he murmured in a sincere tone, "that's got to be rough."

She cracked open the door and peeked out carefully- mindful enough to not simply leave their security to a sixth sense that she was still adjusting to- before turning her head to glance briefly at him. "Not really in the mood to talk about this now."

Miroku scowled inwardly at himself for not being more sensitive to her feelings. She had to be reminded every day that she sat in Professor Taisho's classroom about her situation, the last thing anyone would need would be to get forced to remember it when the object of their affection wasn't around. And having to give herself to that thing that was possessing the professor even though she couldn't share herself in such a way with Professor Taisho himself? That had to be seriously, mind-fuck frustrating.

Kagome crept out of the door and inched her way carefully to the rear exit of the school . . . only to find a security guard there . . . they certainly picked lousy times to be paying attention. Frowning, she ducked back to the basement doorway and popped her head into the stairwell.

"I'm going to distract the security guard- he's the only person out that way, so give me . . ." she rolled her eyes upward, moving her lips as she counted silently to herself, clearly having some half-assed plan in the works, "about two minutes , then start moving."

"You're sure?" Miroku had the feeling that as intelligent as she was, one day her quick-thinking was going to get them all in trouble . . . though today it would just be him, but then, he supposed, such was his luck.

She nodded very briefly. "Just . . . trust me, please?"

He rolled his eyes- if he didn't have such a weakness for pretty faces he might not be in this mess- and gave a nod of his own. "Alright, go- now."

Letting the door close, Kagome ran as fast as her legs could carry around to the front entrance of the school. She wasn't as winded as she'd like to be for what she was about to say to be affective by the time she exited and started circling her way around the building. Pausing just at the corner that would bring her into the guard's line of sight, she held her breath. Giving herself a thirty-count- she'd never been able to hold air in her lungs for very long- she only let herself finally inhale when her chest felt like it was about to burst, then, breathing heavily, she gave herself a wide berth so that it would look as though she was running over from the quad.

As soon as her feet hit the grass she took off, making a good show of looking both relieved and surprised as she pretended to only now notice the guard. "Oh, thank the gods," she semi-shouted breathlessly as she turned and headed over to him.

"Miss, what's wrong, is someone chasing you?" he asked in a vaguely authoritative tone, placing his hands on her shoulders to steady her as she teetered to stop in front of him.

"N- not someone," she was having a bit of trouble speaking around the gulps of air she was pulling in, making lying a little easier, "there was this huge dog, I . . . I don't k-know where it came from, but it- it just started chasing me . . . I don't know where it went . . . but it looked vicious, huge white thing, you- you have to do something."

"Okay, miss, okay," he said calmly as he opened the door for her, "where did you see it last?"

Kagome pointed toward the front of the campus grounds as she pressed a shoulder against the door to keep it open and instantly he was moving, calling over his shoulder to her, "You get inside." The next thing she knew he was unclipping his walkie from his belt to inform someone or other that animal control needed to be called as he took off at a sprint.

Breathing a much needed sigh of true relief as he disappeared from sight, she poked her head inside to look for Miroku- who must have been waiting for exactly two minutes to pass- before he began making his way out of the basement and down the corridor to her. As she stood there, she scanned the parking lot, searching for his car. Clearly Sango had also deemed the security guard as a possible interference and had parked far in the back of the lot.

She held the door for Miroku as he barreled through and pointed in the direction of the car, keeping her eyes peeled for the guard, just in case, as she followed him across the lot. "I'm not even going to ask," he mumbled as she hurriedly opened the passenger's side back door for him to stow Kouga away.

Closing the door himself, he tugged the baggie out of his pocket and handed it to her. "Good, 'cause . . . I'm not sure how I pulled that off, either," she replied as she rounded the car and climbed in.

Once they were all in and Sango pulled out of the lot- opposite of the way the security guard had gone- Kagome asked, "Why couldn't you text one of us about the security guard?"

Sango's face looked pinched suddenly as she bit into her lip for a long moment before replying, "I . . . I just totally blanked on that one. I saw him and just panicked and didn't know what to do."

Holding in an aggravated groan, Kagome let her gaze sweep over the poor, battered, unconscious- and now drugged- man beside her before closing her eyes and sitting back. Myoga's neighborhood was so quiet and desolate that they weren't likely to encounter any such issues once they got to their destination.

. . . But nothing set one's nerves on edge quite so much as driving through town with a bound, drugged and beaten kidnap victim in your back seat.

After a very long, excruciatingly tense twenty-minute drive Sango pulled the car up in front of the old building. Kagome dashed out and in through the doors to buzz Myoga. This time she he didn't bother with the intercom, coming straight to open the door for them. As he did so, she darted back to the outer doors and waved to Sango and Miroku to come in. She wasn't certain if it was unusual or comforting that the old man didn't bat an eye as Sango pulled open one of the doors, allowing Miroku to lumber in with Kouga over his shoulder.

Miroku walked directly into the hallway beyond the door the old man held open and simply met Myoga's gaze with an exhausted look. "Which way?"

Kagome caught the door- that swung shut so fast it nearly hit her in the nose- as Myoga released his hold on it to lead Miroku down the corridor to his tiny shambles of an apartment. Sango quirked a brow at Kagome as she joined her and the girls began following.

"This is going to seem rude, but . . . ." Sango broke off her whispered words to Kagome, obviously unsure of how to phrase what she was thinking.

Kagome eyed the pair . . . well, trio, really, waiting until they were inside the apartment before she whispered back, "Reminds you of an overgrown insect in a shabby yukata?"

Sango nodded, closing her lips tightly as they walked through the doorway. Miroku was carefully laying Kouga in the center of what appeared to be a circle of salt on the floor. The old man had been busy in this last half hour, every bit of furniture- scant in number though it was- had been pushed against the walls to accommodate whatever ritual he was about to perform.

No sooner had Kagome closed the door quietly behind them then was the old man in front of them. Kagome turned to face him and instantly caught a sound slap in the center of her forehead, and much to her surprise, Sango caught one, too.

"Ouch, hey!" Sango yelped in surprise, raising a hand to cover her forehead.

Myoga only scowled at them, shaking a finger as his gaze darted back and forth between them. "Insects have very good hearing, it seems."

Immediately both girls affected appropriately abashed looks, Sango nodding in agreement as Kagome said, "We're very sorry, we weren't trying to be disrespectful."

After another long look the old man shrugged and turned on his heel heading to the circle. "Good. Come now, we have a spirit to banish."

They followed him across the room, mimicking him as he sat crosslegged outside of the circle. Kagome watched his actions carefully as he lit candles and mumbled under his breath- it was prayers or his grocery list, she couldn't really tell which- and wafted a stick of burning incense over Kouga's body. She realized with a sort of dull start that this was another thing to be added to the vault of secrets she was already carrying around, she couldn't let Nah Rah Ku know what Lyka had attempted. If she did, he would wonder how she'd gotten rid of the loathsome spirit without his aid . . . and if he found out that she was learning to exorcise such entities . . . .

Her eyes welled up for a moment and the tip of her nose stung. She hung her head for a moment, drawing in a deep breath and letting it out slowly as she tried to get a grip on her sudden bout of worry and fear.

She didn't know what he would do if he learned such a thing . . . only that it would not be beneath him to make Professor Taisho suffer for her actions.

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