Chapter 14 - operation has begun

Things were not looking well for Kisa, Hiro, Rin, Ritsu, or Kureno. The other Sohmas who knew about the curse didn't know what to do without Hatori being there.
Ritsu had been the first to become affected (one hour after Akito's disappearance), and had immediately gone home to the hot springs the day before—which seemed like the obvious thing to do. However, since yesterday, he had only been getting sicker, and slept throughout most of the day. His mother tried calling Hatori, but the doctor didn't seem to be there. Naturally, she jumped to crazy conclusions at first, then decided that he might be out. She tried calling Shigure, but there was no answer there either. Possibly Ayame? No answer.
Maybe he was visiting another of the Juunishi?
Kureno fell victim second—only hours after Akito had gone through the well. However, because of his confined state, it would be a while longer before anyone took notice of the bird. He had a pounding headache. It felt like someone had taken a hammer to the inside of his skull… As if his body were slowly being pounded to pieces.
Rin was the next target. She had been out shopping with one of her non-cursed cousins, and had suddenly collapsed outside. Her cousin panicked. Luckily, she knew enough about the curse to not let any man help them. What if Rin transformed—right here in public? Somehow, however, she managed to get the unconscious Rin into a taxi and the girl didn't transform all the way home. In fact, she wasn't even conscious until the taxi stopped. The cousin (who I am not naming) paid the fee and helped Rin out of the car. Rin stumbled, leaning heavily against her.
“What happened?” she asked her.
Rin moaned in pain. “I just feel so sick…” She covered her mouth and stumbled away from her, to the curb, where she threw up. Couldn't even make it inside. This was bad. Rin had been fine a while ago…
It wasn't until later in the evening that Hiro was affected. His family was just sitting down to dinner when he suddenly ran from the table to the bathroom—to throw up. He was spitting up blood as well as vomit. The pain was making him dizzy. The world seemed twisted at an odd angle, and nothing made sense.
“Hiro, are you okay?” he heard his mom ask.
“No,” he snapped angrily, pushing his hands against his temples, trying to massage his throbbing head. “Call Hatori-san.”
“Right away, honey.” But Hatori couldn't be reached.
Kisa was the last, and she remained unaffected until late at night. She woke up in a cold sweat. She was freezing and too hot at the same time, and feeling miserable. She tried to get up, but was too dizzy. She waited a moment, then slowly climbed to her feet. She struggled down the hallway to her parents' room and knocked on the door. She opened it. “Mommy?” she called.
“Kisa?”
“Mommy, I feel really sick…”
Her mom got up. She took her temperature. Kisa had a high fever. Her mom got her some water, over the counter medicine, and an ice pack, and Kisa tried to go back to sleep. She did, but it was a fevered sleep.
Things were not looking well for the Sohma family right now.

*****

Akito, however, was currently having the time of his life. He was playing with his newfound power, testing his limits, and discovering that there were few. He wanted to use it to kill something—or someone. To inflict pain and suffering on others.
He looked back at Naraku, who was watching him with curiosity. Akito raised his hand. A tiny bird perched on his finger and began to preen itself. “I want to kill someone,” he said.
Naraku smiled. He found himself liking this man more and more by the minute, as if fate had bestowed upon him his ideal partner. “You will. Just be patient.”
Akito frowned. Patient? He glanced back out the open window. His gaze settled on one unfortunate tree. With his power, he uprooted it and let it fall to the ground with such force that it made the farce building shudder with the impact. The bird spooked and flew off. He smiled wickedly. “Let me kill Tohru.”
“No.”
He glanced at a teacup. He cradled it with his power, making it rise. He took it out of the air and sipped slowly. “Then I will kill your enemies for you.”
“Leave the priestess.”
Akito glanced into Kanna's mirror, watching the scene. “Which one?”
Naraku had the mirror direct to one particular priestess. “That one.” Kikyou was riding on a dragon, her soul collectors nearby her. “It won't be long now.”
“Fine.” He let go of the teacup, letting it glide back to rest on the table. He rose to his feet, delighting in that movement was no longer painful at all. His kimono slipped off one of his shoulders. “How much longer?”
“Give them one more hour.”
“Just let them in the barrier.”
“Then they will suspect something.”
“They already suspect something.” He glanced back in the mirror. “And I'm sure they know that I'm here.” He looked at Shigure, a bit annoyed to see him. He didn't want to hurt Shigure. The dragon must be Hatori. Maybe he would blind his other eye this time, but he couldn't bring himself to kill Hatori either.
Not that he wanted to explain it to Akito (who still wouldn't see his point of view) leaving the barrier in place just forced Kikyou and Kagome to waste arrows. Maybe he should send Kagura to attack them. Akito would be angry for wasting time.
Naraku rose. “Akito.” The other turned to look at him. As soon as he turned his head, Naraku kissed him. Akito blinked slowly, trying to process what was going on. Then his eyes closed as he found himself melting into the kiss. “Should I slow them down a bit?” he asked, trailing his fingers down Akito's bare shoulder. Akito shuddered softly.
“All the time you can,” he said with a small smile.
Naraku called for Kagura, not bothering to be courteous enough to step away from Akito when she came in. She abruptly turned around upon seeing Naraku half-naked and Akito getting there.
“Well I never knew you liked men,” she muttered under her breath. But it sure explained a lot.
He ignored her statement. “Go slow down Inuyasha.”
“Fine.” So long as he wasn't intent on making her a party to this. Battling Inuyasha would be much more preferable. Besides, she really didn't want to be here while Naraku fracked Akito. Not a pleasant thought. And here she had been, thinking that Naraku didn't even have a sex drive, considering that he didn't really have a gender to begin with anyway. Well, surprise, surprise. She heard the first moan before she had even left the castle. She kind of flinched and took off.

*****

Inuyasha froze in mid-air upon a rather disturbing scent and sound assaulting his senses, making for a rough landing.
Kagome's grip tightened. “Inuyasha! What are you doing!” she yelled. He glanced in the direction said noise and smell were coming from. He was positive it was Sesshomaru, too. Was it with… that guy that looked really feminine? Huh. Well, he had always assumed that Sesshomaru had to like men. Why else would he be so… weird? He thought of Kyou. Of course, Inuyasha really couldn't talk. “Inuyasha!” He glanced at Kagome. “What is it?”
The others, noticing that he had stopped, landed—except for Hatori, who was too big for that. Shigure jumped down off of Hatori's back, landing gracefully on the ground—beside Miroku. He immediately wrinkled his nose. “That's…” He looked around. He laughed. “Ayame.”
This only dawned on Sango, Kagome, and Miroku slowly. Miroku, being a pervert, was the first of the three to get it. “Oh… Let's leave them alone,” he said.
Kagome frowned. “Don't we need to get Ayame anyway?”
Shigure laughed. “It might be best not to bother them.”
“Wha…?”
A scream of pleasure from Ayame clarified exactly what was going on. Shigure howled with laughter. Miroku looked in the opposite direction. Sango got back on Kirara, followed by Miroku. Kagome's face was indescribable and quite humorous to others, though it was a look of horror. “I never knew… that Sesshomaru was gay,” she said, flinching when Ayame screamed again.
“Let's leave,” Inuyasha suggested when he heard Sesshomaru moan. They really weren't very far off from here, which bothered him quite a lot. He couldn't take it any more and started to leap off.
Shigure grabbed a hold of his haori. “I'm going to get Aya.”
“What!”
“They're done.” He pointed and signaled for silence. Indeed, it seemed as though they were.
“You're going to just… walk in on them?” Kagome said, horrified.
Shigure blinked. “I've walked in on Aya-kun having sex before.”
“With a man!”
Shigure considered pointing out that there had once been a time when he was that man, but decided it was best not to. “So?” He went off in the direction he smelled them. “Just give me a while.”
“I'm not sure that Sesshomaru would appreciate you walking in on them, even if your friend won't care,” Miroku said.
Shigure blinked. “Who says I'm going to look? I'm just going to tell Ayame to come with me. I'll say Hatori said so,” he added as an afterthought. Come to think of it, if Hatori went… He looked up at the dragon. “Hatori-chan—“
“No,” he replied.
“Fine.” He started off, careful to only go so far. “Aya-kun!” he called.
“Gure-chan?” Ayame called, sitting up. Sesshomaru had half a mind to haul him back down, but he didn't.
“We're going to try to get back Tohru from Akito and this Naraku person. It would be easier if you were back at the village when we got back, so could you go back?”
Sesshomaru sat up. “Exemplify.”
“What's happened to Tohru-kun and Akito-san?” Ayame asked. Shigure realized that no one had told either of them what was going on. He sighed. Ayame suddenly appeared, completely naked, sweaty, and dirty, beside him. It didn't suit him at all. “Gure-chan, did something bad happen to Tohru?”
He nodded. He would have to go back to the beginning, with the younger boys' story. Once he got to the part with Naraku, Ayame's “lover” appeared, halfway dressed, listening intently. He stopped and explained the curse of the Juunishi, then continued with his story.

*****

During all this time, the others discussed how to subdue Akito. The obvious thing to do was to split up a bit—Inuyasha and gang, as well as Kikyou, would go after Naraku, Hatori would go after Akito, and Shigure would try to find Tohru, who would most likely be inside the castle.
They warned Hatori about Naraku's various incarnations, and told him to, if at all possible, avoid Naraku. They had to explain Naraku's power to absorb other demons. It would be bad if he absorbed Hatori, for many reasons. Not that Kikyou would let him.

*****

In the meantime, Momiji had found Rin (how, nobody really knows), but he did. Rin was thrilled.
Jaken was not.
The hanyou and ningen children were playing in the field. It appeared as though Rin had her first crush. Fantastic.
To anyone else, it would look cute. But to Jaken, it was horrifying and sickening. One, because he didn't like Rin. Two, because Rin was playing with a hanyou disgrace. What would Sesshomaru do? Then again, Sesshomaru had been with a disgraceful hanyou recently. Had he forsaken all of his morals?
Had the world suddenly gone utterly berserk?
The answer was apparently “yes,” for at that moment, Sesshomaru walked into the field, accompanied by the snake hanyou.
(Shigure had gone back to the others, informing them that Sesshomaru and Ayame were coming with them. Inuyasha was displeased. They had come to the conclusion to bring Ayame when Naraku's incarnations came up. You see, Kanna has no demonic aura, or scent, thus only one person could detect where she was—Ayame.)
They looked somewhat washed, but it was more of a very quick dunk in a river, and their clothes were damp (ooh, white clothing on a damp Sesshomaru and Ayame—yummy!).
Momiji and Rin mostly ignored them, aside from greetings. Sesshomaru led Ayame over to Ah-Un. He picked up the snake and set him down on the dragon's back. Ayame frowned. He had seen Ah-Un before, and the creature looked tame enough, and he trusted Sesshomaru, but... “Um, what are you—“
Sesshomaru kissed him, interrupting him. Jaken hit the ground. Momiji didn't care. Rin frowned, looking from one to the other. Weren't they both men? Sesshomaru pulled away and climbed on in front of him. Ayame wrapped his arms around Sesshomaru's waist instinctively when the dragon took off.
Operation Everyone-Teams-Up-to-Take-Down-Naraku-and-Akito-and-Take-Back-Tohru had begun (that was horrible).

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