INVISIBLE SHADOWS

                       Inu-Yasha manga fanfiction
                             by Gary Kleppe

The characters of Inu-Yasha are the creation of and rightful
property of Rumiko Takahashi. They are used here without permission.
This story may be freely redistributed, but it should not be altered
substantially or used for profit in any way.

This probably won't make a lot of sense unless you read part one, which
you can find at <http://www.akane.org/gary/fanfic/invshad1.txt>. C&C is
welcome and appreciated, and I am happy to take my lumps in public. :)
All of my fanfics can be found at
<http://www.akane.org/gary/comics.html>.



                      PART TWO

The next day, I went back to see Kagome as soon as visiting hours had
begun.

"You were telling me about how you had given up your soul to that
priestess," I prompted, to get her started.

"Yes. At first, I thought it strange that I could do that and still keep
being myself afterwards," she said. "But, thinking about it, it made
sense. Why shouldn't two people be able to share a soul? After all,
isn't that what reincarnation is all about -- a soul shared by two
people, separated in time?"

"But you weren't. Separated by time, I mean."

"Yes." She looked up at me, her eyes unfocused, as if she were staring
at something a long way off. "And now that Kikyo had recovered, it was
time for me to leave. I think something inside of me, whatever it is
that the two of us shared, knew that. I had called out across time to
myself for help, and now the job I'd came to do was finished."

I nodded, waiting for her to continue.

"Strangely, it didn't bother me that I was leaving Inu-Yasha behind.
Before then, I'd been jealous of his feelings for Kikyo. But when the
time came, there was no question that leaving him behind was the right
thing to do. This was his time period. He belonged there. I didn't."

Her gaze abruptly sharpened, eyes staring directly into mine.

"I spoke with Kikyo before I left. I asked her whether she was worried
about being attacked by demons now that the Jewel had been destroyed."
Her voice dropped to a whisper. I felt as if she were offering me one of
the secrets of the universe. "Do you know what she said?"

"Er, no. What did she say?"

"She said that she wasn't worried, because humans will always prevail
against demons. Demons may be stronger, faster, tougher, but there's one
thing that we have that they don't."

"We do? What's that?"

"The ability to care about one another. Oh, a demon will work with
another when it's in their mutual interest, but it'll stab the other in
the back as soon as it's no longer useful. They can't truly rely on each
other, and as long as we can, they'll always fear us more than we do
them."

"Interesting," I said. Kagome had certainly thought out this fantasy
world of hers in great detail. It might make a good novel, I mused, if
she could be convinced that it wasn't real.

"So," she continued, "I returned to the present, and never went back. I
almost expected to meet a present-day incarnation of Inu-Yasha when I
got home. That's the kind of thing that always happens in romantic
movies." Her eyes drifted back into a dreamy, drugged-out stare. "That's
one thing I know for sure now. Life isn't a romantic movie."

I knew I had to say something to get her talking again. "So... what
happened then?"

"Well... I'd missed a lot of school. Somehow I still managed to
graduate, but college was out of the question. I hadn't even shown up
for most of the admission tests. So I resigned myself to the year of
remedial study that I had in front of me.

"Luckily, my uncle has connections at Ikasama university. He got me a
part-time job as a gofer for the facilities department. I worked for
them twenty hours a week, and used their library to study for exams the
rest of the time. It went quickly. Concentrating was easier not having
to worry about demons jumping out of the shadows.

"Until one day....



"Excuse me, young lady," the man in the suit said. "Where might I find
Professor Tanaka?"

Kagome looked up from the overhead projector she had been installing.
"Oh. Uh...." The man looked perfectly normal. Well-built, muscular, a
youthful face, a touch of gray at the temples. But.... "He's over in the
next room." Something about him was just... wrong.

"Thank you, miss." The man in the suit flashed a smile, then followed in
the direction that she had indicated.

"Who's that?" Kagome whispered to Yuzu, her supervisor.

"His name is Mr. Joi," Yuzu answered. Though she was in her thirties,
she was a full head shorter than Kagome; that, combined with the playful
smile she often wore, made her look positively child-like. "He's with
the Buradoeri foundation."

"The Burai- what?"

"The Buradoeri foundation. They're a group that funds a lot of community
service projects. Last year, when tax cuts depleted the university's
funding for student groups, they helped make up the shortfall. He's
going to be part of some sort of panel discussion Wednesday evening."

Funny, Kagome thought. I wonder why I've never heard of them. Then
again, that wasn't so strange for someone who'd spent the better part of
the last few years in another time period.

Still, as she stared at the man through the doorway, she couldn't shake
the feeling that something about him just wasn't right. It was like
walking into a kitchen and smelling something odd; and you look inside
the refrigerator, and under it, and under the stove, and nothing looks
out of place, but something still smells rotten, and you know the smell
has to be coming from somewhere....

"Why don't you go to the library after you're done here?" Yuzu
suggested. "I'm sure they'll have something on Buradoeri, if you're
curious."

"Good idea," Kagome said, forcing her attention back to the transparency
projector she'd been setting up. Though she couldn't quite say why, her
curiosity wouldn't let her go until she found out more.

***

Nothing.

Kagome had searched through all of the catalogs and indexes that might
possibly be relevant. There was no information on the Buradoeri
foundation, apart from a few odd references to things they had given
money to help fund. Including, she noted, this library. Why wasn't there
anything more? Was someone keeping a secret, or was it just that no one
was interested?

Maybe she was making a big deal over nothing here. Maybe she was just
over-tired, and it was making her imagination play tricks on her. But
when she'd seen that man, some sort of alarm had started blaring inside
her mind. *Time to wake up, Kagome.* It was a feeling like... like she'd
had when....

Suddenly, she knew exactly what the feeling had been trying to tell her.
She'd experienced it many times before -- just not in this century. Joi
was a demon.

But knowing that posed as many questions as it answered. Had this demon
followed her into the present? And if he had, why take the place of this
particular person? Why would a demon be interested in a non-profit
group?

Thoughts whirled around Kagome's mind like hurricane winds. Too many
questions, no answers. But if this person *was* a demon, then maybe she
could get answers by exposing him. And as she thought about it, she knew
exactly where to go to get what she would need.

***

"Oh, can it be true? My little Kagome is finally ready to learn to
defend herself against evil spirits?"

"Chill out, Gramps." Kagome glanced up from the workbench. "I'm just,
er... playing around with this stuff a little."

He looked over her shoulder at the scroll she was painting. "Kagome,
that's not the proper way to make a spirit ward." He picked up a brush.
"Here, let me show you...."

"No way!" Kagome pulled her scroll away. "Um, thank you, Grandpa, but I
want to try this myself. Learn from my mistakes, y'know?"

"Oh, all right," Grandpa said reluctantly. "Try it your way if you like.
I'll give you some tips later." He strolled out of the workshop. "My
little granddaughter is finally ready!"

Kagome forced herself to ignore him. He had no idea what he was talking
about. Somewhere inside her was something that really knew how to do
this. She just had to relax, let herself draw whatever felt like it was
right.

***

"Our next panelist is Mr. Joi, from the Buradoeri foundation." The
audience applauded politely as the man stepped over to his designated
seat.

*They're in for a surprise,* Kagome thought to herself with a smile. As
soon as he touched the scroll that she'd left on his chair, his true
form would be exposed. Though  now that she thought about it, an exposed
demon running around the university might just be a little dangerous,
and this time there'd be no Inu-Yasha to come rescue her if she got into
trouble that she couldn't handle. But this was the twenty-first century,
not the feudal age. Police and soldiers would have weapons that could
deal with this thing once it was revealed for what it was.

Joi pulled his chair back and sat down. Kagome craned her head to see
over the people in front of her.

Suddenly, the man dropped behind the table. Nice try, Kagome thought,
but the other panelists would be able to see--

"I'm afraid Mr. Joi is indisposed," the panel moderator said into his
microphone. "We'll just have to carry on with the remainder of our
guests." The curtain behind him rose slightly as the man-turned-demon
slipped under it.

Kagome could only blink in surprise.

***

The discussion was going strong as Kagome slipped out the back. The
demon must have had those people under some sort of hypnotic control.
That was the only way it made sense. But she had to see for herself,
just to convince herself that she wasn't just imagining all of this.

Silently, she crept up to the entrance to the preparation room. Pausing
to listen first, and hearing nothing, she slowly crept her head around
the doorway to see.

A voice from behind nearly made her jump out of her shoes. "You."

"Uh, hi. I'm with the facilities department, come to check the room,
and...." One look at him told her that this story wasn't going to wash.
His face had turned red, with huge, gnarled horns growing out of his
forehead.

He threw her scroll back at her. "You did this."

"I was right," she said, trying to sound unafraid as her heart thundered
in her chest like machine gun fire. "You're a demon."

He lumbered toward the doorway, forcing Kagome into the room. "So you
know."

"I know all about you, and what you're doing here," she bluffed. With
luck, he'd end up answering all her questions.

"I congratulate you, young lady. Few people are even aware that my kind
ever existed. And most of those think that we died out after the feudal
age."

"But you didn't." She tried her best to sound as if she'd known it all
along, while inwardly her mind reeled. Of *course* they'd died out!

The demon smirked. "How arrogant your race is, to believe that ours
would simply fade away when you brought light into the shadows, so to
speak, and entered the so-called age of reason. But, of course, it was
convenient for us that you did. Being presumed destroyed allowed us to
infiltrate your society, to play the same games that you do, and we were
better at them." He raised a massive fist to his chin, stroking it
ponderously. "But what am I to do with you now?"

Kagome inched backwards. "I've got friends who'll be looking for me!"
she said, not even sure whether it was the truth or another bluff. "If
you kill me, that'll blow the lid off this-- this--"

"Oh, I do hope something like that won't be necessary," he said. "You're
quite an intelligent young lady. Surely you can see that you'd do better
with us than against us."

Kagome's mind raced as she considered what he'd said. "You want me
to...."

"To come and work for my organization. I'm sure we can find a position
for someone as capable as you obviously are. You'll be safe, and well
rewarded by having chosen the winning side. We take care of our own."

*Oh, do you?* she thought. *That's not what Kikyo said.* Something deep
inside her, some sort of intuition, told her that this was a lie. As
soon as they had no further use for her, she'd be discarded without a
second thought.

Still, she needed to stall for time....

"What makes you so certain that you're the winning side? You're just a
handful of misfits against the entire human race."

"Ah, I see that you are not quite as well-informed as I had thought."
The demon laughed. "We are many more than a 'handful.' We are the
wealthy, the influential leaders, truly the blood elite. We've nothing
to worry about from humanity. It takes its orders from us without
knowing we exist."

"And you want me to work for...." Kagome abruptly jerked her head to the
side. "Oh! Yuzu!"

The demon's head whirled to look out the doorway as he stepped to the
side.

So much for nothing to worry about, Kagome thought. Then she bolted
through the doorway.

***

Out the building and down the shadowy streets ran Kagome. Block after
block of sidewalk sped by under her feet. She gasped and wheezed for
air, desperately wanting to slow down but not daring to. Just get to
somewhere safe. Where? Her home? No. The bone-eater's well? Yes, that
was it. She could jump in and return to the past. They'd never be able
to find her, and if they did, Inu-Yasha and Kikyo would be there to
protect her.

*Maybe I came back to the wrong future,* she thought. A science-fiction
story that she'd read came to mind. The man in the story traveled back
in time and stepped on a butterfly, and when he came back everything was
different. Maybe that was it. That would be easy to fix. She'd just go
back through the well and... and un-do whatever she had done.

No. As much as she wanted to believe it, it made no sense that she
could've changed things so radically but have the world still *look* the
same. It had been months since the last time she'd visited the past;
months during which everything still looked the same and she'd had no
idea that there were modern-day demons running around. If they'd managed
to remain hidden for that long, they certainly could've done so her
whole life.

No, this wasn't a different present. But Joi wasn't necessarily telling
the truth, either. Maybe he wasn't even a real demon. Kagome remembered
the Peach Man, who had given himself demon-like powers through some sort
of mystic means; not to mention Naraku, who had originally been a human.

Across a now-empty faculty/staff parking lot she ran, and the place that
the students called "The Tunnel" loomed ahead. The dark, narrow space
between the Chemistry and Psychology buildings used to be a popular
shortcut, until one girl got mugged there. Now, and with budget cuts
having left the university unable to pay to have a light installed,
almost no one used this route at night -- which, Kagome figured,
probably just made it that much easier for the muggers.

It didn't matter, though. Going this way was the quickest route to the
main part of campus, where there would be too many people for Joi to
risk attacking her. She began to sprint faster as she entered the
shadowy corridor. Memories came to mind, of a little girl walking down
suburban sidewalks, trying to run past all the lawn sprinklers without
getting wet.

A noise sounded at the far end of the "tunnel." Silently, Kagome
flattened herself against the wall of one of the buildings. Ahead,
footsteps clopped against the pavement. Her heart began to thud in her
chest as they approached nearer and nearer. Was it Joi? A mugger? Some
random passer-by?

The beam of a flashlight stabbed through the darkness. Kagome began to
inch gradually backwards, ready to bolt and run at an instant's notice.
A figure stepped into view; atop its head was the wide, flat-topped hat
that Kagome instantly recognized.

"Oh!" She stepped forward. "Officer! I--" What could she tell him? Help
me, I'm being chased by a demon?

The police officer abruptly reached out to grab Kagome by the shoulder.

The smell lingered in the air for a moment; the dirty kitchen smell.
Then the world went black.

***

Kagome swam.

Arm and leg muscles shoved against the stiff, viscous water that
surrounded her. Was she making any headway? It was impossible to tell.
Her destination stood impossibly far ahead, under orange-haloed clouds.
How long had she been swimming? Dim memories stirred, of floating in
calmer waters... a swimming pool? The image fluttered away from her
mind.

All at once, she was below the surface of the water, lungs gasping for
air, arms flailing to grab onto something, anything. Looking down into
the murky depths, she saw what looked to be hordes of demons, their eyes
glowing a pale yellow, their fangs bared as if about to leap forward and
tear out someone's throat. Ghostly voices burbled around her, barely
comprehensible whispers.

*Aw, look at that. Ain't that a shame? She's gone and killed herself.
Guess she couldn't live with the guilt of what she did.*

*A shame? It's one less maniac in the world, that's what it is. I'll
sleep a little easier knowing that my kids are that much safer.*

*C'mon. Let's finish typing up those reports. That's what we were doing
when this happened.*

*Yeah, sure. I-- huh?*

Suddenly, Kagome was no longer drowning; she floated, breaking through
the surface of the water with a loud splash, rising higher as
life-giving air flooded into her lungs. Stopping to hover, she pivoted
around to see who her rescuer was.

"Kikyo?"

The priestess remained silent, her expression neutral, only
acknowledging Kagome's presence with a slight nod.

"The bow and arrow." Kagome pointed to the weapons strapped to Kikyo's
back. "Let me use them."

*No,* came Kikyo's reply, one which Kagome felt more than heard.
*Remember what I've told you. You *can* win. But not *that* way.*

And Kagome understood, or at least something inside her felt that it
understood what her other self had meant. A deep breath, and she plunged
back into the water. Straightening her legs, she kicked, and began the
long task of moving forward, ever forward....

***

Kagome's world came back into focus with a painful jolt, like being on a
speeding train as it suddenly came to a stop. She was lying on a cot;
its springs groaned and sagged precariously as she shifted her weight to
sit up. The walls of the tiny room were bare, and in front of her a set
of vertical steel bars blocked off the exit.

*Bars?* she thought. *I'm in... jail?*

"So you're awake,* a voice said. Kagome turned her head to see a
policewoman, her hand half-buried in a bag of potato chips. "I was
beginning to think you were gonna sleep through your whole trial."

"Trial?" Kagome rose to her feet, grabbing onto the bars as if to bend
them apart. "Let me out! I haven't *done* anything!"

The policewoman snorted, tipping a glance to a newspaper under her
shoulder. "Just a little mass murder," she half-mumbled through a
mouthful of chips. "Nothing much."

"Mass--" Kagome pointed at the paper. "Could I see that, please?"

"Sure, honey." The policewoman handed the newspaper through the bars,
then walked off. Kagome unfolded it and read the headline: SLASHER
MURDER CAPTURED.

"No!" Her frantic shout echoed through the cell. "No! It's a LIE!"

***

"By the time my trial came up, they had managed to produce half a dozen
'witnesses' for the prosecution; people who had been bribed or
intimidated into telling the court what they needed to hear to convict
me. They made sure that my assigned defense attorney was incompetent.
Physical evidence was manufactured, and any officers who couldn't be
trusted not to blow the whistle on the operation was quietly assigned
elsewhere. If there was any doubts in the jurors' minds as to my guilt
or my sanity after that, hearing me talk about demons erased it."

"They're all demons, then?" I asked. "The police, I mean." It was
difficult to keep a neutral tone in the face of such obvious paranoia.

"No. No, I don't think so. A few strategically-placed agents, probably,
but no more than that. From what I've been able to gather, most of the
police have no idea that demons even exist. A few of them went along
with this because their superiors wanted it, and they needed to make
points. Others were bribed, and still others believed that I was guilty,
and weren't about to let an inconvenience like lack of real evidence
stand between them and a conviction."

"Why go through all this trouble?" I asked, thinking that I had her now,
that she'd never be able to answer. "Why not just kill you?"

"Because Kikyo was right," she answered without missing a beat. "Because
they're afraid of us. And their secret isn't nearly as well-kept as
they'd like it to be. A fair number of people do know that demons exist.
If I simply turned up dead, people would ask questions. They'd need to
know the story behind this murdered woman.

"So the demons gave them a story. But a different story, one with a
different kind of moral: lock your doors, trust no one except us,
because crazy people like this woman are running around stabbing people
to death, and we're the ones who protect you from them.

"I don't know who really did those killings," she continued, as if in
answer to an unspoken question. "It's possible that the demons wanted
them out of the way, and saw the opportunity to kill two birds with one
stone. Or perhaps there's a real mad slasher, still at large somewhere."

She paused for a moment, resting her head against an open hand, then
looked me in the eyes.

"Does that tell you what you came to learn?"

I got up from my chair. "Yes, I think it does. Thank you very much for
your time."

Smiling a half-smile, she looked at me as I turned to go, with an
intensity in her eyes, enough to drill a hole right through me. I needed
to go, needed... time to think.

It seemed clear enough. This woman went off the deep end, thought she
was being chased by demons, and knifed a bunch of them to death. Nothing
more than that.

But... something about that answer just wasn't completely satisfying.
Maybe it was just prejudice on my part. No one expects a slasher
murderer to be a pretty young woman.

But it was more than that. I *hadn't* questioned any of the witnesses,
hadn't checked into the physical evidence. Neither had any other
reporters that I know of. Everyone had just assumed that if she'd been
locked up and convicted, she had to be guilty, because the alternative
was just... unthinkable.

*Suppose she's telling the truth,* I told myself. *What if she's really
the damsel in distress, being held captive by evil monsters. What would
you do? Turn around and go? Walk away and let them eat her?*

Leaving the building, I emerged onto the hot noonday streets. I trudged
toward the train station, weighed down by invisible shadows.



Notes:

Part of the inspiration for this fic owes to the excellent "An Awakening
of Demons" fanfic series. (If you haven't read it, visit
<http://www.csus.edu/indiv/s/seifertv/kagami/>) and comments from Vince
Seifert asking how demons could go unnoticed in present-day society. I
started to think about what roles they would play in this modern world,
and, much later, certain other events gave me the idea for this story.

Thanks go to the FFIRC crew, who saw various bits of this story during
various hour challenges. Thanks also to Krista Perry and Ronny Hedin for
providing IY canon info beyond what I've read.

"Buradoerito" = "blood elite," according to the online Japanese/English
dictionary; a pretty obvious Japanization of the English phrase. For the
Foundation's name, I dropped off the last syllable so it wouldn't sound
like something you'd get at a Mexican restaurant. :-)





Gary Kleppe
http://www.akane.org/gary/comics.html
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