InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Taken ❯ Investigation ( Chapter 3 )

Chapter 3: Investigation

Kagome sat on the bench near the God Tree with her head tilted up and her eyes closed. She took deep breaths of fresh air newly made by the temple trees around her. The sounds of nature almost managed to drown out the noise of the city that surrounded the island of primordial life the temple was nestled in.

A slight breeze ruffled her hair and turned the pages of the diary in her lap. She hadn't written in it since that day. She tried to, so she could sort things out. But she couldn't think about it, not clearly. And she couldn't think about anything else. She couldn't get close enough to herself to touch the subject, but she couldn't look away.

Her mom didn't know about anything. Not even that she had been skipping school the past few days. Why not? She hadn't been expected back for another week, and the school had ceased calling in for her absences. She had spent the last few days wandering around a park close to the school, thinking, and… not.

That day was the last day that she had written in her diary. She looked down at the page with its strange, halting words. She wouldn't read them, she knew what they said. It was time for her to go to school, it was time for her to go back to the group, it was time to look at these things and figure out what to do.

Kagome looked at her arm which still bandaged though it had healed. The truth was the strange symbols were so bright, now a vivid red, that you could see them through the white fabric of her uniform top. There was no scar, only flat red marks like a tattoo.

Kagome saw Souta bolt from the front door and down the steps. She should be going too or her mother would think she was late for school. She had no intention of going to school today. Tomorrow there was a test she had to attend, but today there was research she had to do.

The temple had many documents, mostly hand written originals. But they were old, and her grandfather might catch her if she looked through them. However she knew of a university library that had a large section on the history of youkai. Maybe that would help her.

*

She found her way to the university, and library, with little difficulty, and wondered around the dim stacks looking for something that might be useful.

One large tome titled `the secret lives of Youkai' looked promising, but once she had it on a table where she could see large holes in its knowledge. The history of wars and natural dislikings between youkai seemed right, but what she did know about youkai conflicted with the rest of what it said about their personal lives. How was she supposed to trust it about anything else when it denied what she knew so well?

Still she sat there, flipping through the pages, looking for any information on the symbols on her arm. Her diary was open next to the book. She had copied the symbols for easier access.

"Can I help you find something?" Kagome jumped and flinched away from the sound of a mans voice over her shoulder.

A youngish man, looking slightly surprised, was standing just behind her, or had been before she jumped away.

"Sorry to startle you," he apologized, "but we don't get many young women in this section. Is there something I can help you find?"

"Do you work here?" Kagome said nervously, trying to calm down.

The man smiled, "No, But I know this section pretty well. I'm studying to be a Shinto priest."

"Oh,… I was looking for symbols." Kagome straightened her work area and grabbed her diary, "Youkai symbols, like these." She showed the young man the page with the symbols. But when he tried to take the book and pulled it to her chest. She didn't want him figuring out it was her diary, or flipping through the pages. "Have you ever seen anything like that here?"

"Maybe," he looked around thoughtfully, "I don't think I've seen those exact symbols… but something similar. Wait here a minute."

He left her standing next to the table, and she obediently stayed there, listening to the silence around her, she felt so alone, so isolated… so vulnerable.

"Here," Kagome jumped again as the man reappeared, he pretended not to notice, "this text has testimonials from people to had dealings with Youkai. They were said to have a written and spoken language all their own, though mostly they used ours. Presumably because each type of youkai had their own individual spoken language."

He placed the book down next to the one that Kagome had picked out and motioned her to sit next to him. She did, hesitantly.

She hated that she acted this way. She just couldn't get herself to calm down.

"This chapter has all the youkai writings known to humans. Actually they were all on humans. On the left arm of females, mostly. See?"

He pointed to several drawings of arms with strange symbols carved into them, all were the same. But they were completely different from Kagome mark.

"All of these symbols were supposedly made by different youkai. See? Lightning," he pointed at one and moved to the next, "cat, dog, and fox."

Kagome started and looked at the one labeled from a dog youkai. It was still completely different from what was on her arm, just like the first time she looked.

"All of the people bearing this mark were raped by the youkai that marked them." He pretended not to notice when Kagome flinched again, looked into her lap and bit her lip nervously, "After that they, and sometimes their families were plagued by youkai. It got so bad that the person bearing the mark and whoever had angered the youkai to mark them were put to death as soon as it was clear which mark it was."

"But this mark isn't at all like the one I showed you." Kagome looked up from her lap.

"No." the man turned the page, "But it was similar in style. These are closer, I believe."

Kagome looked at the symbols represented on this page. These were smoother then the other ones, less like ragged scars. In this group the last symbol was always different from the others, while the first few were always the same. Also there was one less then Kagome's had.

"This group still has a fair amount of forced beginnings." The man was saying, "But the same youkai would return to the human they marked, and other youkai would stay away from them, generally. Unless the youkai that marked them brought them. But that's another story. These marks are generally accepted as given to human lovers or concubines. Which is why they were documented. The victim of a vengeful youkai may have needed to be killed to protect the family, but the lover of a youkai had to be kept safe. Though they were usually ostracized, they were kept healthy.

"But what really brought me to this text was this illustration." He tilted the book to show Kagome, "This one was marked by a dog youkai. See?"

Kagome looked at it somewhat surprised, all the marks before the last one were different from hers, but the last one on the picture was the exactly the same as the second to last one on her arm.

"What about the rest of the symbols?" Kagome whispered, a little afraid, "What do they mean?"

"I don't know." the man put the book down again, "Those are all the documented youkai symbols. We don't really know what any of them mean. But that last symbol is the same as one of the ones you showed me. May I ask where you found them?"

Kagome was staring at the page he had shown her, "I live at a shrine." She said in way of answering him.

"I see. Well," The man stood up suddenly, making Kagome flinch again, "… maybe I'll see you around then." He paused, pulled something out of his pocket and handed it to Kagome.

She took it automatically, it was a card. It advertised various counseling services at the university followed by places and times.

"In case you know someone who could use it." He said and left carrying the volume he had shown Kagome.

That was fine. She knew it wouldn't help her. She still didn't know what the symbols meant. Well maybe she knew one. But she couldn't be sure. She couldn't be sure of anything.

She looked down at the card in her hand. She didn't want to be afraid anymore. She wanted to stop acting like she was around men. She wanted to think about what had happened. She wanted to be able to confront InuYasha and she wanted to know how to do it.

*

It was a dark and quiet section of the building that they met in. That was comforting in a strange way. She was sitting in a small classroom, in a circle with women that were mostly college students, listening to their stories.

"Kagome," The director of the group said, "Why don't you tell us a little about yourself."

Kagome just stared at the floor in the middle of the circle, "I don't belong here." She whispered.

"And whys that?" She asked encouragingly, "This is a safe place to talk about what happened to you."

Kagome shook her head, "You wouldn't understand."

"We've all had similar experiences, we will understand." The other women nodded quickly.

"I don't think you could." Kagome answered in her strange little whisper, "He's different. There's too much I don't know."

"We can help you-"

"NO! I… I need to talk to him." Kagome said desperately, "He's… He's my friend. There's too much that I don't know. I have to know why he did it." She held her bandaged arm gently as she spoke.

"He hurt you didn't he?"

"Yeah, but…"

"A friend wouldn't hurt you like that."

"But, he's different." Kagome insisted, "There are things you don't know, things you wouldn't understand, about him. I have to talk to him." Kagome stood to leave.

"I don't think you're ready for that." The woman tried to get Kagome to sit down.

"You don't understand." Kagome said again, "I can't move on or calm down until I have all the facts. I don't know if they'll help but…" she shook her head again, "There's too much I don't know." Kagome quickly ran out of the room before they could say anything else.