InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ The Price of Freedom ❯ Hidden Past ( Chapter 6 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

Disclaimer: same as chapter one

(A/N: Chapter number six at last - now I have to go to a friend's birthday barbecue... hope the rain holds off. Enjoy the new chapter!)







The Price of Freedom

Hidden Past











"Thank you Mr and Mrs Ookami - you're room is just around the corner, number eighteen." The clerk smiled happily for the new couple. "Enjoy your honeymoon at our resort.

"We will!" Kikyo replied and dragged her 'husband' Kouga off as quickly as possible before she threw up.

They entered their honeymoon suit and Kikyo immediately set about sweeping the place but bugs (the listening kind, not the biting kind) while Kouga took his time enjoying the free mints on the pillows of the large emperor sized bed.

"I have a theory." Kikyo said, coming back into the bedroom from the bathroom.

"The sheets aren't washed properly?" Kouga guessed, inspecting the satin quilt beneath him critically.

"No - it's about Inu."

"He's called Inuyasha."

"Do I give a damn?" Kikyo snorted and sat down on the bed, delicately crossing her legs and placing her hands on her lap. "I think it's pretty logical to assume that he's been taken in my someone."

"Oh yeah?" Kouga didn't sound interested.

"Or abducted by someone." She nodded.

"Aliens?"

"No - humans." And what was amazing - she actually took his comment seriously. "Not one man of the institute has managed to find his body in a ten mile radius of the coast, and they've combed the ocean between here and there. So he has either floated away beyond the radius as a dead body - or someone has found him and is taking care of him."

"Why do you think that?"

"Because if he had died from blood-loss he would be out there waiting for us to find his body. And he couldn't have been sent to hospital otherwise the gunshot wound would have been reported by now. Or else he'd be in a morgue... but I've checked all the local ones and he isn't in any."

"Maybe he hitchhiked to the city after all?" Kouga lay back on the bed, staring at the ceiling.

"Not with his looks. And I checked the hospitals in the nearby cities and even in Tokyo."

"So he's around here somewhere being housed by someone who's not saying anything." Kouga shrugged. "Perhaps he's awake and sworn them to secrecy."

"I think so." Kikyo smiled. "We're getting closer. I know it.





^_^





There was probably no reason as to why she woke up in the middle of the night. But her mouth was dry and she wanted a glass of water. Kagome got up, yawning and headed with shuffled feet out of her bedroom to the kitchen. It was pitch black outside so she could see nothing other than the moths that clung to the windows due to the kitchen light.

She poured herself a glass of water and paused a moment to take a few sips. Though she almost dropped the glance entirely when a masculine scream pierced the air.

"GET AWAY FROM ME!

It was Inuyasha, yelling at the top of his lungs. And without any regard for her own danger she hurtled through the house to the bedroom and threw open the door. She expected someone to be standing over him... but there was no one beside himself.

He was lying twisted in the sheets, writhing like he was strapped down by invisible bonds and unable to get away from whatever was causing him distress. "Inuyasha!" she yelled, trying to wake him up. But he didn't respond.

"Two, two, nine O..." Inuyasha's breathing was becoming laboured. "It was him...! Don't touch me! I'll kill you!"

He wasn't yelling this to Kagome... but to some unseen phantom in his sleep.

"INUYASHA!!" Kagome didn't want to get any closer to the bed by the way he was flailing those limbs and those sharp claws.

"My arm!"

Kagome couldn't take it any longer and tossed the water in her glass onto his face. Almost at once his movements stilled and he took a moment to calm his breathing and open his eyes. "Who's there?"

Kagome swallowed her relief that he was awake.

"Who's there?!" Inuyasha said more urgently, sitting up quickly.

"It's me! Kagome - you were having a bad dream." She sat down beside him, touching his arm softly. "But it's ok now, it was just a-"

The rest of her sentence died in her throat with a gasp as he suddenly tugged her forward roughly into a bone-crushing hug... literally. She could barely breathe let alone feel her arms anymore. It was so totally unexpected that she sat stunned for a few moments, her chin resting on his shoulder while his face buried in her hair.

After a few minutes he seemed to realise what he was doing and pulled back a little. "Um..." was all he could say.

"Bad dream?" she tried, not bothering to resist the urge to sweep his bangs away from his forehead. "You were screaming."

"I don't scream."

"Well you don't think that because you're asleep when you talk and scream so you don't know you're doing it." She pointed out logically.

He flopped back down quickly.

Kagome's interest sparked quickly in what he'd been talking about before. "What's two, two, nine O, then?" she asked, intertwining her fingers.

"Shut up."

Being rebuked so curtly after such a display of emotion ticked her off. "No."

"You don't know what you're talking about." He turned over so he faced away from her.

"Then tell me." She pleaded.

"If you knew they'd kill you."

"I don't want to die." She admitted truthfully.

"Then don't ask."

"What if they don't know I asked."

"Then you'd still know. And they'd know you know, no matter what you did or didn't know."

"What?"

"I don't know." He sighed.

"Wouldn't they assume you told me all about them if they ever found me?" she asked sincerely. "If so, why not just tell me anyway so I know what I'm supposed to hide from."

He was silent for a long time, but Kagome sat patiently, hoping he hadn't fallen asleep. "You shouldn't have to deal with this."

"Why not?"

"Because you're too nice. You don't deserve to get caught up in things over your head."

"Neither do you. You're blind - you need me - we'll help each other."

He sighed and sat up again to face her. "You're making a mistake."

"You're going to tell me?"

"...Yeah..." he sighed in defeat again.

"Ok." Kagome shifted to get comfortable, with a happy smile. "So who are 'they'?"

"Bad people." He said simply.

"I knew that - but where are you from?"

"An island... I thought if I escaped from there I would be free forever... but, even though I've escaped... I don't think I'll ever be free." He ran a hand through his hair. "Ever since I was born I've been in that institute... tested... both physically and mentally and tried for improvement. They never let us outside unless it was night and in the daytime they kept us inside in our cells or tested us in these bright rooms."

Kagome stared at him silently, trying to absorb this information. This actually sounded a lot more serious than gang warfare like she'd presumed before. "In 'our' cells. There are more people like you?"

"No... we're never the same... always different... always being improved or worsened in some way." He said bitterly. "There are subjects there in their late teens... that's as old as we've got... with all sorts in their bodies or out of them."

"What are you talking about?" Kagome frowned at him.

"Ever heard of genetic experimentation?" he asked wearily. "Where you tinker with the DNA of an embryo or something before growing it."

"Are you...?"

"Part dog."

"And Kouga...?"

"Part wolf..."

"And there are others?"

"Rabbits, cats, monkeys, lions, rats... you name it - some poor sod is bound to be it."

"And the code you said before, 'three, two, nine, I' and 'Two, two, nine, O'?" Kagome pressed.

"Three two nine is my code. My DNA changes - the I for Inu. And Kouga is two, two, nine. The two, and the nine at the end of the code is the canine code."

"This is for real?" Kagome stared at him flatly. "You're not making this up? How can this happen? Someone must have found out about this ages ago and stopped it!"

"The people running it are a branch of the government. That's all I know. That's all anyone knows. But no one here on the mainland understands the extent of the experimentation over there. Inspectors come yearly to check the research and all the institute shows them are some ancient research from years ago about genes and chromosomes. They hide us away..."

"Why...?" Kagome clenched her hands into fists. "How can they do that? Why?"

"Because they can. The guy running it thinks he's god. He can do what he wants. Trying to create the strongest imaginable human being - but even then he says we're animals. The men there taunt us with the whole human rights crap. Knowing that they're breaking every rule in the book, but can get away with it because we're not classified as human."

"That's horrible... no wonder you wanted to get away..." Kagome touched his arm and his head twitched towards her.

"I wanted to be a real man... but I don't feel real... not with this..." he gestured to his eyes. "It's all been stolen..."

"You can still be real even if you can't see!" Kagome protested. "My uncle- "

"Him again?" Inuyasha rolled his head back.

"Yes, him again! He had lots of women because he was good-looking alone - he didn't have to see the women he dated to know they were looking at him." She smiled.

"No self-respecting girl would give me two glances. And even then it would only be to think 'oh, look at that freak'." He grumbled.

"I don't know... ever since you lost your wounds I think you've been good looking." She said idly. "You're ears are kinda cute... any girl would overlook some blind disability to date you."

"That sets me out of you league then." He folded his arms cockily.

"Of course the disability of being a jerk is a totally different kettle of fish." She rolled her eyes.

"Nah... you'd always be ahead of me in any league." He said quietly. "Any day of the week."

Kagome frowned at him slightly, a little sympathetic. She didn't think he was a freak. A jerk maybe, but not a freak... to her he was just... Inuyasha... Inuyasha with the funny ears... but he was hardly much different than some of the boys in her class. Apart from the fact that he didn't know whom Pamela Anderson was.

Suddenly without much other inhibition she leaned forward and pressed her lips against his firmly. The action taking him completely by surprise and he stared at her with wide unseeing eyes. "What are you doing?" he mumbled against her lips.

She pulled back a little. "Kissing you."

"Ah..."

She doubted by the look on his face that he'd ever been kissed before. And if he had, she'd be worried since the only people he'd ever known had been the male side of the gender.

"You shouldn't worry about the institute coming for you. I swear I'll protect you." She promised as she rose to her feet off the bed. "Goodnight."

She was at the door when she heard him mutter an almost inaudible reply. "I don't need protecting."

She smiled wryly and left, closing the door firmly behind her to let him get some more sleep. He flopped back on the bed and turned face down in the pillow - his thinking position. Absently he pursed his lips, thinking about the way she'd felt... so soft...

Everything about her was soft. Her body, her nature and her touch... except her temper, which could somehow spike to match his own at times. She was too gentle to get caught up in this... and she was the one who would need protecting. And with his eyes in a pig state like they were, he doubted he would be able to manage that.











(A/N: Hope you enjoyed it so far!! ^_^)