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Disclaimer: Inuyasha and associated characters are the property of Rumiko Takahashi


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Chapter 17

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/A fox. Huh. /Inuyasha stared critically up at the enormous creature, a black void against the starry night sky/. Wouldn't have thought they get all that strong. /Kagome slipped off his back, and he could hear her sliding her bow into position.



"Don't waste any arrows, Kagome," he said. "That's gotta be an illusion." If the fox was really that big the reek would be overwhelming, but all he sensed was the same thin thread of scent he had been following from the other side of the ridge. In fact, it could be a diversion for an attack from another quarter. He drew Tessaiga again, warily scanning the area.



"Are you sure?" she questioned uncertainly. He saw out of the corner of his eye that she had nocked an arrow anyway and held it ready, pointing upwards to the heart of the looming presence.



As well she should. The scent might be faint, but jyaki roiled from the building in front of them, thick and vile. If Michiko or anybody else was in there, they needed to get out /now/. He heard Yasei puffing as he hurried over the ridge, loaded as he was with the priest and his box of implements on his back. The young kitsune stopped short as he and Inbe came within view of the huge apparition.



The giant fox swept its glance over all of them, fiery eyes narrowing. Then with a hiss, it abruptly vanished.



Inuyasha turned to Kagome. "See?" he said with grim satisfaction.



Yasei was trotting down the slope towards them, panting. When he reached them he stopped, letting Inbe gently slip off his back, sighing with some relief when he was sure the old man had his feet securely on the ground.



Inbe had not taken his eyes off the building, but now he turned to them. "Kagome," he said slowly, "I'm afraid I have made a great mistake."



"What the fuck do you mean?" growled Inuyasha. The old fart better not back out now.



The priest flicked him a glance, before turning to the kitsune. "Yasei, please take some of the sakaki branches and mark five points around it." He nodded at the building. "Be very careful." The boy nodded, retrieved some of the branches from the bundle of material they had brought, and set off smartly towards the edge of the property. Inbe's gaze followed him as he crossed the ditch, and he said, "I mean that I was foolishly confident that I would find a minor demon here. I shouldn't have dismissed the warnings. Purifying this house of the youkai in it is beyond my powers, I fear. I think all we will be able to do is contain it until we can get some help."



As they watched, Yasei paused, stuck one of the branches into the ground, and hurried off into the darkness on the right side of the building, glancing upward once in obvious nervousness.



Inuyasha snorted with exasperation at their unease. "Keh! What do you mean 'we,' old man?" he smirked, brandishing Tessaiga in front of him. "If you're gonna go all wimpy on us, just leave it to me. It's just a youkai."



Kagome touched his arm and turned to Inbe, her brows drawn. "You want to contain it? What about Michiko and her mother? They're still in there."



"I'm not sure that we dare approach the house. There is a tremendous evil aura surrounding it. My dear, I'm afraid there might not be anyone...still alive." The old priest continued to stare towards the building, his demeanor apprehensive.



"Michiko is," she said quietly. That gave him pause; he turned to look at her, an eyebrow raised. "Inbe-ojiisan, did Ogin-sama discuss my history with you at all?"



"Some, yes." He gave her a sideways look. "But Kagome-" he gestured toward the house, "it would take someone very powerful and experienced to slay this creature. The aura alone is very dangerous. You could be risking your life by going any closer."



"But we've got to get them out of there!" Kagome's expression was stubborn and determined, which to Inuyasha meant trouble. "Please, set up the containment. While you do that, Inuyasha and I will go in and get them out." She moved forward, putting action to words, but the hanyou stepped in front of her to block her progress.



"Wrong, wench. You'll stay here and help the old man, I'll go in and get the women out," he growled. Damn it, he'd better hurry before she took more stupid ideas into her head. Kagome opened her mouth, probably to argue with him, but then her eyes widened as she looked over his shoulder.



He spun, whipping Tessaiga around in expectation of an oncoming attack, only to see a short, dumpy woman emerge from the front doorway, faintly backlit by the dim light inside. She stumbled towards them, away from the house. Kagome darted around him and made a beeline for her, and with a curse he ran ahead so he would reach the woman first. /She /was real enough, smelling of distress and anger.



She was gasping, her face grey and doughy. He caught hold of her before she collapsed, Kagome supporting her on the other side. "Shibutoi-san?" Kagome asked, and the woman nodded weakly. "What's happening in there?" she asked urgently. Shibutoi tried to speak but could only cough and flail impotently.



Inuyasha picked her up one-armed and carried her quickly away from the house and the jyaki, and towards Inbe, who seemed to have woken up out of his trance or whatever. Kagome followed, looking anxiously over her shoulder from time to time. The old man had dragged his box of equipment to where the driveway crossed the ditch-probably the location of the old manor gate-and was setting up a small altar with hurried motions. The wind had picked up, stirring the previously still air and shredding the mist to ribbons, and moaned through the treetops. Weird shapes seemed to flicker and move under the surrounding trees, barely visible at the edge of the light. Inuyasha noted them as scentless and insubstantial, but Inbe was sweating nervously.



"I'm going to sue the hell out of somebody," Mrs. Shibutoi remarked conversationally, wheezing a bit as he set her down behind Inbe, who barely spared her a glance. She seemed to have recovered her breath. "Maybe the prefecture. If they're going to advertise property that reverted to the government, they ought to properly disclose problems, like that it's /cursed/."



"Uh," Kagome seemed to be biting back a comment, and said instead, "Shibutoi-san, where's your daughter? Michiko?"



"In the back room." The woman coughed again, and looked up at her suddenly, moist eyes glinting in the light of the driveway lamps. "I couldn't get her to move. Please get her out of there. I think that thing is almost free."



Without a word Kagome sprinted away. Inuyasha dashed after her, grumbling to himself, and ran with her to the front door, still standing ajar. A swirl of dust rose in eddies in the courtyard behind them as the wind strengthened.



"Kagome, go the hell back," he said, peering uneasily into the house. It smelled very suspicious in there, and the jyaki was overpowering. The reek of fox was stronger, but oddly mixed with the smell of old plaster and paper.



"Wait, let me try something," she said. "I'm the one who's supposed to be doing something here, right?" Kagome didn't seem to be affected by the jyaki, and was fumbling in her pocket distractedly.



"Whatever it is, hurry up," he said impatiently.



"There!" she said triumphantly, and drew out one of the ofuda her grandfather had given her. It was a bit crumpled, but intact. "Let me see...what did Miroku use to do?" She closed her eyes for a moment, and then slapped the ofuda forcefully against the doorframe. It stuck there, and glowed with power. Immediately the jyaki seemed to recede slightly. Kagome turned to him with a surprised, proud smile.



Abruptly the house shuddered, and a thin shriek of outrage rose, seemingly from all around them. Flakes of wood and dust fell from the ceiling of the entranceway above them as the house continued to shake. The wind rose another notch and now swirled violently in the courtyard, blasting them both with gravel and dirt. Kagome covered her head with her arms, and yelled to him "We've got to get Michiko out of here!" Beside her, the ofuda was shriveling, its glow extinguished; it smoked briefly and blackened into nothingness.



They pushed into the house, out of the reach of the screaming wind; he tried to cover her back as well as he could. At this point they'd better just grab the girl and leave, he thought. The house would probably be coming down pretty soon. There'd be time to slice up the youkai bitch later. "Kagome, this way!" he yelled over the sound of the wind and the groaning of the house. Walls rattled and shook as he pulled her with him towards the back, where the smell of the girl and the smell of fox converged.



They emerged into a large room; it appeared that a number of shoji and panels had been removed to increase the size of the space. The room was bare save for scraping tools and a single lamp, and Michiko. She was standing, facing the outer wall, and scrabbling at it single-mindedly with bare fingers, nails bloody and torn. Scraps of paper littered the floor. And the wall, dark with time, bore the remnants of having been papered, ceiling to floor, with many layers of ofuda.



Almost all of it had been scraped off. The only ofuda left, seemingly the oldest layer, was a small, roughly circular patch. There was a strange protuberance underneath them, something papered over, and this was what Michiko was determinedly scratching at.



This set off alarms in his head, and he leaped forward, wrenching the girl from the wall and pulling her away. Kagome grabbed hold of her, trying to get Michiko to face her, but the girl struggled towards the wall, and the ofuda.



"Michiko, stop! Wake up!" Kagome shook the girl. Her eyes were unfocused and wide, and she mumbled incoherently as she tried to pull away.



"We've got her. Now let's get the fuck out," Inuyasha barked, looking worriedly up at the ceiling. The house still shook, and he happened to glance back at the wall, and the ofuda.



The last of them were shriveled and blackening, much as Kagome's had. They turned to ash and fell to the floor, revealing the lump underneath them. It was the brass headpiece of a Buddhist monk's staff, very like the one Miroku carried. And it was sunk nearly flush into the plaster of the wall. The seal, Inuyasha thought. "Shit," he breathed.



Up to that point Kagome had managed to hold on to Michiko, who had been struggling weakly and ineffectually. Suddenly the girl seemed freshly possessed and tore herself out of Kagome's grip.



"Inuyasha, stop her!" Kagome yelled, unnecessarily, as he was already moving to intercept. But she somehow astonishingly evaded his grasp, moving with inhuman speed to the wall, and the headpiece. Upon reaching it, she fastened her hands on its rings and yanked. Above them, the ceiling cracked threateningly, the fissure running swiftly down the wall towards the seal. Inuyasha hesitated, torn between stopping the girl and grabbing Kagome if the ceiling fell.



"Michiko, NO!" Kagome yelled. "Maybe I can seal it again somehow-" She whipped out her bow and an arrow, preparing to shoot the wall. Around them rose an angry hiss. Before she could draw, the bow was knocked from her hands by a rain of plaster and wood that whipped around the room in a sudden, violent maelstrom of debris, and she cried out. Inuyasha swore and pushed her down to cover her with his body, but not before she was struck hard on the head and arms by some of the wreckage. Kagome seemed dazed, scrabbling weakly for her bow.



"Damn bitch!" he raged to the room at large. "I'm sending you to fucking hell!"



"You're too late, dog. I'm just returning from there, and I've no mind to go back!" a voice laughed, coming from everywhere and nowhere.



The crack widened as it ran down the wall; he could only watch through the swirling destruction as it reached the seal. With a grunt, Michiko pulled the headpiece out and fell to the floor with it. At the same time the wall shook, and then split-the wind howled in from outside. And the demon appeared, seeming to step forward languidly out of the remains of the wall. Black kimono, white face like a mask, she looked unreal, almost like a puppet. She ignored Michiko, now sitting bemused on the floor to one side, and focused on Inuyasha. With a cold smile on her blood-red lips, she gestured, but he was already moving.



He evaded the fox-woman's blast of power, Kagome firmly in his grip, and scooped up Michiko as he feinted to the side and burst through the back door. He hadn't got far outside the shaking house, looking desperately for a safe place to set them down, when he was caught by another blast. It struck his left shoulder, weakening that arm and forcing him to drop the younger girl as pain seared him. Kagome cried out, releasing her hold on him. "Inuyasha!" she gasped, staring at his shoulder in the faint light of the stars. He could smell burned flesh, and he grimaced.



'It's nothing, wench! Take the girl and run!" He faced the opening, mostly dark inside now-all the lights were extinguished but for a fire smoldering somewhere. The white face was the only thing visible, that and her glowing hands as she gathered force for another blast. He held Tessaiga, beginning to swirl with power for a Kaze no Kizu. His shoulder and arm throbbed, and he flexed them weakly. Damn it, that fucking left arm is going to slow me down, he thought. Behind him, he could hear Kagome dragging the girl up and limping with her towards the trees, away from the conflict.



It seemed that the youkai had different ideas. Her smile widened, and with one hand gestured. The whole wall on this side of the manor shuddered and tore away from the structure, hovering in the air. He braced himself warily. The youkai made a flinging motion with her arm, and the wall followed. It sailed through the air, but not towards him-it was headed directly for Kagome and Michiko.



"NO!" Inuyasha screamed hoarsely, and swung Tessaiga wildly, ignoring his original target. Kaze no Kizu blasted the flying wall to pieces, but too late-too much of the debris fell on the girls in a deadly rain. He could hear their screams, cut off abruptly.



"KAGOME!" A red haze seemed to blanket his vision. He was already running for the destruction, his thoughts incoherent, when he was struck again, a glancing blow in the back this time, and fell.



"Did you forget me, little mongrel?" whispered a silky voice. Hard upon that voice was a whipping line of power, which struck him across the shoulders, the pain blinding in the earlier wound. With a hiss he was up, and swung his sword to block the next of the writhing whips-there were a number of them waving around the body of the smirking demon.



"You'll fucking wish I had," he snarled. "KAZE NO KIZU!"



Her eyes widened with surprise. She tried to dodge but was blasted back into the shell of the house. It was already crumbling due to one of its walls being gone, but the additional impact delivered a death blow. The roof caved in and collapsed on the youkai, leaving fragments of the walls framing a pile of rubble.



It was still for a brief moment. But the rubble trembled and shifted, and then burst upwards. A very large and enraged golden fox flew upwards from the pile, shedding debris furiously. Her true form, he realized. Nine tails waved in agitation, and she hovered, her eyes fixed on him-and then the remains of the wall near the trees. A malicious grin revealed many needle-like teeth. Inuyasha concentrated, and his sword began to take on a crystalline glint.



She was just a hair quicker off the mark than he was. She flung a bolt of energy at the pile of wreckage at the tree line just before he screamed "KONGOSOUHA!" and swung Tessaiga with all his might.



The fox tried to evade, but again she had seemed to underestimate him. She could not avoid being struck by the edge of the fusillade of diamond spears. She screamed in fury and pain as the spears struck her, her body transfixed by some, others tearing her side and some nearly severing a hind leg, the wounds sending blood fountaining out over the ruins of the manor.



Inuyasha had barely noticed the partial success of his attack. His despairing eyes had tracked the course of the energy blast, and he was astounded to see it repelled by a barrier that had sprung up around the far pile of rubble. /She's alive/, he thought, shaking with relief. With renewed heart he took aim again at his opponent.



But the fox had had enough, apparently. She was keening in pain as she knocked out the bloody spears that bristled from her underside, and began rising up and over the manor, until she hit a heretofore unseen barrier. The dome flared to visibility, different from Kagome's. The old man, Inuyasha thought. He grinned, ferally. Like spearing fish in a barrel, now.



With a grunt of effort he swung Tessaiga, sending another salvo of diamond needles straight at the youkai, but she was faster this time. She hissed angrily as she dodged his blast completely, even though constrained by the limits of the barrier. The demon aimed a desultory blast at him, more to keep him running than in earnest, and struck a massive blow at the containing field. Two blows. And it shuddered and collapsed, popping like a soap bubble.



She rose higher now, still screeching, and aimed herself at a target at the front of the manor. Inbe! He launched a desperate diamond spear barrage once again, hoping to hit her this time. But as she stooped, out of his sight on the other side of the ruins, a huge ruckus arose-like a screeching flock of birds had risen and were attacking, as a matter of fact. He leaped to the top of one of the remaining walls, to see her form diminishing quickly to the southeast, surrounded by swooping and diving adversaries. What the hell? Whatever they were, they looked like they were driving her away. Soon she and they were out of sight.



Satisfied that she was gone for now, Inuyasha wasted no time in running to where he last saw the girls. Most of the scraps of wood and plaster had fallen along the edge of the woods, where the remains of the ditch had been. There was no sign of a barrier now. "KAGOME!" he yelled, flinging aside debris as he dug down. "Answer me, dammit!" He could smell her-and he heard an answering croak, somewhere underneath. They were in the ditch, he realized. His quick-witted Kagome had managed to throw herself and the girl down into it before the wall landed on them. He flung aside a large chunk of wall, to see her blinking up at him. She had thrown herself on top of the younger girl and shielded her with her own body. The chunk had lodged across the sides of the ditch and sheltered them from the rest. He felt almost lightheaded with relief-she was alive and awake. He grabbed her up and held her close, burying his nose in her hair. "Are you alright?" he demanded breathlessly, even as he inventoried her smell. Cuts and bruises, yes, but her scent spoke of relief as great as his.



"We're okay, Inuyasha-but what about you? Your shoulder-" and she pushed away from him to look at it worriedly. He didn't have to look to know that the burned flesh was already knitting itself together.



"Told you it was nothing." He embraced her again, tightly. "You fucking scared me, Kagome," he mumbled.



She laughed a little, her voice trembling. "Nothing to worry about. Did you see my barrier?"



He pulled away to look her in the eyes. "Yeah. That was good." He allowed a small smile; he was proud of her, dammit. Her answering smile faded as she looked down at Michiko, still curled at the bottom of the ditch. The girl's eyes stared at nothing. "What's with her?" he asked, frowning.



"We need to get her to a doctor or something. She's cold and shivering, and won't speak." Kagome reached down and shook the girl gently, but she didn't move. Inuyasha motioned her aside, and picked Michiko up. They climbed out of the remaining wreckage, and headed towards the ruins of the manor house.



They shortly met with Inbe, Yasei, and Mrs. Shibutoi, who hurried toward them around the side of the house. Inbe looked exhausted, and was being supported by the young kitsune, who gave them a surprisingly respectful, wide-eyed look. Inuyasha set the girl down under an ancient plum tree that had somehow managed to avoid destruction; she remained curled in a fetal position, completely unresponsive.



Mrs. Shibutoi knelt, cradling Michiko's head in her lap; the woman was crying. "Why won't she speak?" she asked, in anger and fear. "Not again! What's wrong with her?"



"It could be shock, I suppose," said Inbe tiredly. "Kagome, what do you think?"



Kagome seemed surprised to be asked. "I'm not sure, Inbe-ojiisan," she said hesitantly. "She was possessed again, you know."



"Have you tried what you did at the hospital?" he asked. Despite his weariness, he mustered a small, encouraging smile, that of a teacher for a bright pupil.



"Oh!" Kagome blinked, and moved to sit down next to Mrs. Shibutoi, who glanced at her uncertainly.



"One thing, Kagome," said Inbe, as she was reaching for the girl's hand. "If you continue, you will have treated this girl twice for her possession by the same creature. I've heard of some practitioners sensitive enough to form a sympathetic connection with the possessing demon. You had a connection with Michiko herself, which was very interesting."



"Wait." Inuyasha frowned. "Would that be dangerous to Kagome?"



Inbe glanced at him. "I doubt that she would be possessed herself, if that's what you're asking. She's very strong-willed." His lips twitched. "As you may have noticed."



Inuyasha snorted at that, and Kagome colored slightly. Inbe continued, "The benefit to such a connection would be that you might be able to track the youkai, or tell where it is."



Kagome hesitated. "When I saw her at the hospital, there were lines...a connection...that went off to the north."



"Exactly so," Inbe nodded. "See if you can follow any such connection now."



"Be careful, Kagome," Inuyasha muttered.



Kagome inhaled, and then took the girl's hand and closed her eyes. Almost immediately a bright glow surrounded her and Michiko; Inuyasha could see angry red lines appearing from the girl's hands, leading off to the southeast, and clenched his fists while watching her anxiously. Kagome frowned in concentration. The brightness of the lines intensified, and began to change, fading from red to pink. They suddenly snapped and broke from around the girl, and were gone. Michiko frowned, scrunching her face up before opening her eyes.



She saw Kagome, smiling down at her, and her mother crying. "Mother?" she whispered.



Kagome got up, beaming, and brushed garden soil off her legs as Mrs. Shibutoi embraced her daughter with low voiced assurances. Inbe had found a seat on a stone step leading from the remains of the house. "Very good, Kagome," he exhaled with a tired smile. "Do you notice anything?" Yasei, who had been watching, wandered off to poke curiously through the rubble.



"I'm not sure," she said. "It seemed to go off that way-you saw, didn't you?-but then it cut off. I don't sense her anywhere now." She moved to sit down next to Inbe on the step.



"Then don't get too comfortable," Inuyasha grumbled. "We need to chase that fox down and finish her off. I can still track her by scent." He fidgeted impatiently. They were losing time, sitting here like this.



Inbe looked up at him. "Currently the rest of us don't have a way to 'chase her down,' Inuyasha. The car is wrecked and we're exhausted." He sighed. "We will have to find her as soon as possible; she's obviously too dangerous to be allowed to wander freely. Hopefully you did her enough damage that all she'll do for now is hide, and lick her wounds." He gave Inuyasha a sharp, penetrating look, and then shook his head. "A nine-tailed kitsune. Amazing."



"Master!" came an excited call from the ruins. Yasei popped his head out. "There's a kitsune door here, still active!"



"Don't open it, Yasei!" the old priest warned instantly. "You don't know what's behind it!"



Inuyasha shouldered his way past the young kitsune, looking around interestedly. "Where is it? If the bitch has friends, they can tell us where she went," he remarked, cracking his knuckles. He recognized the small amount of clear space-it was the room where the youkai had been sealed. By some chance remnants of the wall still stood, split by the large crack. He poked at it idly with Tessaiga.



"Watch out," warned Yasei, giving him a wary look. "You might do something to the door. There's something funny about it."



Kagome had clambered in after them, peering at the wall, and now pointed excitedly. "I see it! The outline of the door!" She frowned, confused. "Part of the wall is missing, but the door is still there. How can that be?"



Yasei frowned at her. "Didn't Hanae-san explain this to you?" but then shook his head and went on. "There doesn't have to be a wall, but it helps mark the place, see. A kitsune could build one to hang in the air, but he might lose it that way."



"Ooh." Kagome looked impressed. Inuyasha squinted, but still did not see anything. He snorted.



"You sure you're not just imagining shit, Kagome?" he said, sneering at the kitsune.



"It's there," Yasei said defensively. "In fact, I think it's half open."



"Then open it the rest of the way," said Inuyasha. He brought Tessaiga up to guard position, very deliberately. "If anything pops out, I'll get it, eh?" he smirked.



Yasei appeared to be stung. "Fine," he snapped. He flourished a hand in a quick gesture, and jumped back. "Have fun."



Inuyasha saw the outline now; it shimmered briefly, and then a square, inky hole appeared against the wall. He gripped Tessaiga, but then almost dropped it at the scent that reached him. A small figure fell forward out of the hole, to land at his feet.



"Ow," Shippou groaned.





TBC