InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ This Wasn't In The Job Description ❯ Miroku's Hand ( Chapter 7 )

Chapter 7

 

Miroku's Hand

 

After taking her new archery equipment and the target to her room, Kagome returned to InuYasha's office to deal with the mail. First, she sorted the mail into piles, making sure to toss out any junk mail she got. The list InuYasha gave her included a service that would come and pick up the fan mail, and she left that in the box. Then she labeled the files and started putting the sorted mail in them.

 

As she worked, Kagome tried not to dwell too much on the conversation she had overheard InuYasha have on the phone with his ex-girlfriend, Kikyo. It seemed she was still in his life, but in what capacity, Kagome was not sure. But the fact that Kikyo could make him go running out of his home with a phone call meant that she still had some kind of important claim on him. This made Kagome feel disturbed for some reason, but she did not pursue why that could be, because that only served to make her feel even more uncomfortable.

 

Kagome had just sat back to survey her work, when she heard the roar of InuYasha's bike returning.

 

“Kagome, are you there?” InuYasha's voice said on the intercom in his office.

 

Kagome got up and bit her lip, looking for his phone on his desk. After finding it, she pressed the intercom button.

 

“Yes, I'm here,” she responded.

 

“Tell Kaede to meet me at the entrance from the garage to the house,” InuYasha said. “You come too, Kagome.”

 

With trepidation, Kagome went to find Kaede. Luckily, the housekeeper was nearby, in the kitchen preparing lunch.

 

“Kaede?” Kagome said, sticking her head in the door. “InuYasha wants us to meet him at the entrance to the garage from the house.”

 

“Does he now?” Kaede said, wiping her hands on her apron as she turned to Kagome. “Follow me, Miss Kagome.”

 

Kaede walked out of the kitchen and Kagome fell in step behind her. They walked past the little-used formal dining room, the huge, also largely unused living room, and out a door at the back of an over-sized entertainment room. A short corridor led to a door to the garage. Kaede pressed the code on the keypad next to the door, and the bolts in the door clicked back. Kaede opened the door, and Kagome gasped. InuYasha was standing there supporting Miroku, who was pale and half-conscious, his hand bound up and leaking blood and a foul-smelling, greenish substance.

 

“What happened?” Kaede said, as she helped InuYasha get Miroku through the door.

 

“We're not sure,” InuYasha said as they walked in. “Some kind of nanotech shit, we think. That's why a hospital is out of the question.”

 

Kagome walked behind them, and paled at what she heard.

 

`Nanotech?' she thought. `Just where had InuYasha and Miroku gone? And where was Kikyo - was she alright?'

 

They brought Miroku to InuYasha's office and lowered him carefully into InuYasha's chair. Kaede knelt and carefully unwrapped Miroku's hand - the makeshift bandage was soaked.

 

“Kagome,” InuYasha said, startling her. “There's first aid kit in the closet over there - get it would you?”

 

Doing as instructed, Kagome went and opened the closet door. On the floor of the closet was a large first aid kit, and she picked it up and brought it over. Miroku's hand was now completely uncovered, and something strange was going on. The edges of the wound were raw and bleeding, but his palm was a glowing, oozing green color. As they watched, the green was rapidly being replaced by black, moving from the center towards the edge of the wound.

 

Kaede went to open the first aid kit and pull out some fresh bandages, but something more ominous started to occur. Objects in the room started to tremble, and be pulled towards Miroku's hand. Everyone gasped, as they watched papers, books, and even furniture start moving towards him.

 

“Shit!” InuYasha said. “I got no choice, now.”

 

Snarling, his eyes flashing, InuYasha grabbed the shaking phone and jabbed at the numbers. Kagome saw that his claws were gouging the receiver.

 

“Kikyo!” InuYasha growled into the phone. “What the fuck is this shit? Miroku's hand is turning black and things are moving towards it…yeah, things…like papers, furniture and that shit…yeah, I still have it…fine.”

 

InuYasha slammed down the phone and a crack formed in the receiver. Kaede shook her head in exasperation. The hanyou ran over to a file drawer next to the closet and yanked it open. Digging around inside, he came up with an odd-looking chain of metal links. The metal looked almost like silver, and had an odd gleam to them.

 

“Kaede, be ready to wrap his hand with the gauze bandage when I get there,” InuYasha said, as he ran back.

 

Kaede cut a long gauze strip, and InuYasha stood poised over Miroku's hand with the chain. Quickly, she wrapped his hand with the gauze, and InuYasha wrapped the chain around the bandage. The objects in the room stopped rattling and moving at once.

 

Miroku opened his eyes slowly in wonder and raised his chained hand to his face.

 

“How do you feel?” asked InuYasha.

 

“Better,” he said. “What is this?”

 

“Something Kikyo was working on,” InuYasha said. “She wasn't sure if it would work, but I'm glad it did.”

 

Kagome stood to the side, her hands clasped in front of her, and gulped. It did not look like she was going to be told what was going on.

 

`Just what is InuYasha mixed up in?' she thought. `I'm beginning to feel I've got into more than I bargained for with this job. Maybe I should've asked for more money. Or maybe I should not even get involved and put in my resignation.'

 

Kagome looked up at InuYasha, and saw that his face was intense and pinched with worry for his friend. His expression was oddly touching to her. It held a sincerity she had never seen before in his closely guarded face. No, she realized, not even this could make her leave him. Something about this strange hanyou had captured her, and the more she was around him, the more attached she felt.

 

`I hardly know him,' Kagome thought, `and yet I feel like I do know him somehow. Gee, what a romantic fool I'm becoming over this man who is my boss.'