InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Strictly Taboo ❯ A Million Miles Away ( Chapter 27 )

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]

Five days. It had been five entire days since he had last seen her, touched her, kissed her goodbye. Inuyasha hardly slept now, always waiting for Myoga or Jaken to call and tell him something, anything. Hopefully something hopeful. Even bad news, as long as he knew for certain what had happened. Then he could concentrate on revenge and leave the limbo Kagome had left him in. Alone. In agony.

Most of all, he wanted to drink. He had been in the habit of drinking quite a bit before Kikyo had reentered his life, dragging her (their, he reminded himself) precious daughter behind her. But he was afraid that if he drank he’d pass out and miss the call that would change everything, dead to the world. And what if she came back somehow and found him on the floor in a puddle of his own vomit instead of waiting? That would be unforgivable. Kagome would hate him, and rightfully so.

Inuyasha called Myoga every hour, even though he knew it wasn’t making a difference. The old flea demon was being quite kind to him, considering the fact that Inuyasha was perpetually angry and it only got worse with every call. He accepted the verbal abuse and the threats of physical harm and only gave back a calm answer, noticeably laced with pity. It was always the same.

“Nothing new yet, Master Inuyasha.”

Letting out a strained growl, he hung up and raised his arm to throw the phone across the room, stopping himself at the last minute. Really, he wanted to be out there looking for her himself, but he wanted to be home in case she found her way back. She would be scared and she would need him to hold her, love her, tell her she was safe. Although he naturally excelled at tracking, he and Sesshomaru had employed full-demons who were trained in that as well as detective work and he could admit to himself (privately) that they stood a much better chance of finding her than one sad old half-demon.

He mostly stayed in his room all day in bed, the way they both had when his wife was gone and she didn’t have school. Kagome’s scent had almost completely disappeared, covered up by his own reeking sadness. Her room smelled even less like her. Inuyasha almost pulled out the old Ziploc bag of her panties that he kept in his briefcase back before they had gone all the way, but he denied himself. It wouldn’t feel right, what with the possibility of her laying in a ditch somewhere, alone and cold and—

“Inuyasha? Do you remember what day it is today?”

He blinked in confusion at Kikyo’s hazy form. He hadn’t even noticed her entrance. She coughed nervously and continued.

“It’s my birthday. Would you like to go out for a bit? You’ve been cooped up in here for so long. I thought you might want a little fresh air. It would do you good.”

Inuyasha glared at her, trying to telepathically communicate that he wanted her to leave. She had been sneaking up on him every day, bringing him food which he never touched and launching pathetic attempts at cheering him up. She seemed so sure they’d get Kagome back unharmed, as though her daughter was just off missing nearly a week at some kind of tea party and they had no reason to worry about her. He wondered how she could be so unconcerned when he couldn’t close his eyes without seeing all the most gruesome possibilities displayed there, over and over in his mind. His sweet little girl. What had become of her? Would he ever get her back? If the worst had in fact happened, he would only stay alive long enough to completely avenge her and then some before joining her again. The world without her was like meat without salt.

His ring tone blasted out, an annoying rap song that Kagome had picked out as a joke that never failed to make him cringe with its chorus of “blahblahblah Big Poppa blah”. Inuyasha’s hands shook. This was the first time Myoga had actually called him since Kagome went missing.  The news could be good or bad. The best or the worst. Life or… not life.

“H-hello?”

Myoga was breathing hard and he could feel his excitement. “Sir, we’re outside the location where we are largely certain she is being held. Your brother’s people traced the kidnappers to this address. I’ll text it to you now. We’re going to ambush them. Come quickly.” This time, Myoga hung up on him.

Immediately, the text came and he pulled up directions quicker than quick.

“Who was it?” Kikyo asked, only mildly curious. He looked up from his cell in distaste, only just remembering that Kagome was her daughter too and she deserved to know.

“They found her,” he said, letting his excitement show. “Maybe. They found who took her, anyway.”

“Are you leaving?”

He was already out the door. Inuyasha ran on foot, jumping over buildings and trees and cars, not caring about anything but finding Kagome. All this time he had been stressing and despairing and agonizing and she had only been five miles into town.

The sun was setting when he arrived at the scene. The neighborhood was small and middle middle-class. He picked up his assistant’s scent in a copse of trees and made a bee-line for it, careful to stay out of plain sight in case anyone should see. Myoga was with several professional-looking people and some men who were geared up like a SWAT team. For once, he thanked the heavens for his brother.  They were all looking at a small house on the opposite side of the street. It was squat and yellow, looking like it was inhabited by someone’s grandma. There was gravel instead of grass and no shrubbery whatsoever.

“It’s the Band of Seven,” Myoga whispered to him.

“Then Onigumo is behind this?” Inuyasha asked, clenching his fists. He was gonna deal with that fucker once and for all as soon as he got Kagome back. The slimy man was hard to find, but he’d do it. For Kagome, he’d do anything.

His assistant nodded. “More than likely. They could be acting on their own, but I doubt it. Whatever you do, don’t just rush in there—“

Again, he was already gone. Inuyasha kicked down the cheap white door of the one-story house, not bothering with stealth. A confused, effeminate face appeared before him and he saw red. The scent of her blood was in the air, along with her tears and the semen of many different men. He clawed the man down and he died without even a scream. Face after face, seven in all, room after room. Inuyasha moved faster than he thought possible, some part of him aware of everything and enjoying their blood on him, the feeling of their flesh being rent apart by his strong hands. Seven, dead in under a minute. These were Onigumo’s elite? Laughable.

Kagome.

He smelled her, still, even through the thick, cloying scent of blood. Following the trail, he found her in a small room in the back of the house. It looked like it had originally been a closet but then someone had expanded it. The door was wide open and there she was, chained to an uncomfortable-looking bare cot, naked and blind-folded and even gagged, caked in blood and cum, obviously having been unwashed since her capture. She wasn’t moving, and he felt like screaming and killing them all over again, slower so that they would suffer. He had only been thinking of getting to Kagome, not bringing justice. Stepping closer to her, he saw that she was covered in bruises, some in the shape of entire handprints. They had cut thin lines into her, shallow enough so that she would bleed while not retaining a permanent scar, yet she would still have a physical reminder of the nightmare for over a month. There was a name carved as well. Bankotsu. Over and over, on her arms and stomach and legs and neck and breasts. The streaks of semen seemed to be aimed at those morbid signatures, some hitting them dead center, whiting out the k and o, and others way off the mark, as evidenced by the amount of the substance in her hair.

Inuyasha broke her chains, surprised he could do anything with how badly his hands were shaking. She was alive, at least. He wanted to hold her and bathe her and never let go. He broke the chains on her ankles next, then gently removed her gag. Feeling the air get knocked out of him, he flinched back in surprise to see Kagome kicking out at him.

“No more! Don’t show me anymore!” she screamed, her voice hoarse and dry.

Desperately, he clawed off her blindfold, wanting to speak and soothe her but not having the words to do so, his voice long gone down his tightened, burning throat. The cloth that had blinded her was soaked with tears. Kagome’s eyes squinted as they adjusted to the dim light and she blinked rapidly.

“Inuyasha? Are you really here?”

He pressed her to him, not caring about the filth that covered her body. She still smelled like her, underneath all the mess. She was real. She was there. No one would take Kagome from him again. Shrugging off his coat, he helped her into it and lifted her up, cradling her against his chest. Silent tears were streaming down her face.

“Don’t cry, Kagome,” he whispered. “You won’t ever need to cry again. Let’s go home.”

Inuyasha exited the room, nearly slipping on the blood that pooled on the wood floor. The girl in his arms stared at the collection of mangled corpses, her eyes hard. Inuyasha hated to see that. She had lost her innocence, part of the essential Kagome make-up. Would she ever get it back? Was that even possible?

“I’m sorry,” he whispered to her. “I’m so, so sorry.” Sorry that he had allowed her to be taken, sorry that he hadn’t found her immediately, sorry that he hadn’t drawn out their deaths, sorry that she had to see the bodies.

She said nothing.

He made his way carefully out of the house of death, brushing past Myoga and his people who were now crowded outside the house. Holding Kagome tighter in his arms, he picked up the pace, not wanting anyone to see her this way.

“She needs to see a doctor, Master Inuyasha.”

He froze and turned around. Yes, she needed her wounds treated, needed her abused parts seen to.

“I will not have anyone touching me,” she said, her voice rising almost hysterically.

Inuyasha rocked her gently, trying to calm her. “It’ll be alright, Kagome. I’ll call Kaede, okay? Will you let Kaede help you?”

She looked up at him, her eyes big and watery and showing him that she felt betrayed. “No! You said you’d take me home. I need to go home!” She was outright screaming now, her tears falling faster.

Myoga stepped in. “Miss Kagome, a doctor is necessary. The Band of Seven are, er, were not known for being gentle and you may have sustained permanent physical damage in addition to the glaringly obvious psychological damage,” he droned, ignoring Inuyasha’s venomous glare.

“They didn’t rape me,” she said, quiet and angry. “They touched me and grabbed me and cut me, but they didn’t rape me. Now let me go home.”

“Are you quite sure? You might have blocked it out—“

“I swear!” she shrieked. “If they raped me, I would say something. Now just take me home before I break completely.”

Something about the way she said the last part convinced Inuyasha and he nodded at Myoga. A woman came forward and he sat down at the curb, imprisoning Kagome on his lap and in his arms. She trembled, defeated, but did not struggle. The woman examined her, probing her, taking swabs and bandaging the deepest cuts, disinfecting, and finally arrived at the place only he had seen before the entire ordeal, shining a flashlight into her and coolly observing. The girl shook harder in his arms, now openly sobbing. He felt numb, the knife in his gut and the knife in his heart temporarily absent.

“There are no signs of forced vaginal entry or otherwise,” the doctor murmured, mostly to herself before rising up and pulling off her gloves. Inuyasha nearly fell backwards in relief.

“I told you,” Kagome muttered hatefully between clenched teeth. “Now let me go home.”

Inuyasha looked to the doctor for permission, rising when she nodded and took her clipboard of notes back to the direction of the car she had arrived in.

“I want to walk.”

“Huh?” he asked, surprised at the girl’s tone. Was she mad at him?

“Put. Me. Down,” she hissed. She was so angry, her voice so insistent, that he reluctantly did as she asked, incredibly confused.

As soon as her feet touched the ground, Kagome pushed away from him, stumbling as she did so. He could see her legs tremble; her muscles were fatigued and she likely had not stood since she had been taken. He reached out to help her but Myoga got there first, gently laying a hand on her arm and leading her away to a car.

“This way, Miss Kagome.” His assistant looked back at him and shook his head in apology. Inuyasha began to follow them, but Kagome, sensing his movements, turned her head toward him and shot him a glare that nearly made him fall to his knees. She looked heartbroken and enraged. She hated him now. But why? Inuyasha opened his mouth to ask her, but nothing came out, and then she was in the car and being driven away from him.