The taxipod was badly in need of maintenance, it rattled its way through the transittube, the stabilizers no longer operational enough to keep the ride smooth. Kagome was thankful for the subpar repair work, even if it did make for an uncomfortable commute; the city was darker than it used to be, and the ride was downright eerie without the reassuringly human sound of poorly maintained infrastructure.
The smell of herbal cigarettes and sweat was strong enough that she didn’t mind that she’d forgotten her evening instameal at work. She was weary enough to lean her forehead on the tiny window on the side of the pod, even though it made her teeth rattle in her skull. It had been a hell of a day, just the thought of the file discs piled on her desk was enough to make her want to crawl under her covers and never come out. She had only left because the cleaning borg had threatened to “remove her from the premises” if she didn’t get out of the way of its precious ‘sanitization process.
She’d only ignored that warning once– she’d learned her lesson.
It felt later than it was. The sun set early in winter and It was a new moon, or at least she thought so– it was too cloudy to be absolutely sure. The muted city lights barely penetrated the purple smog that inevitably billowed up from the Levels as the night's work began. Kagome barely remembered the city before the Merge, when the stars had been obscured by the dazzling lights of the buildings and not just the smog of industrial processes.
She had been just a girl when all the bright neon lights that humans used in storefronts, street signs, and billboards had been muted or outright removed. The mayor insisted it had been done in the interest of “sensitivity” and “inclusivity”, but of course, he’d had no other choice. Once the Merge happened, no human had really had a choice about anything.
The late commuter crowd was smaller than earlier shifts so only a dozen or so battered yellow pods, including Kagome’s, were docked at the platform. As Kagome’s pod clicked into the gravidoc a polite voice intoned, Welcome to Takahashi Station, please watch your step.
The door stuck slightly before it opened with a squeak. Kagome slid her link in the wide pockets of her hakama, the cold, slightly acrid air nipping at her cheeks as she shuffled out of the pod and hurried across the platform along with her fellow late-shifters. The station doors snicked open and as the humid air of the station and the smell of cheap coffee and too many bodies rolled over them another recorded message reminded the small crowd of commuters that Responsible Citizens Use Their Ki Sparingly: Remember, All it Takes is a Spark to Cause a Merge Event.
Now she just had to get to the bus. Just a little while longer, and she could sleep. Sleepy-eyed strangers gave her the side-eye as she passed them, shuffling away like the wilted sleeves of her white kosode might pass along the curse of reiki just by brushing against them. Kagome ignored them, marching past with a fixed smile, even as she tugged her collar more securely over the beads around her neck.
Takahashi station was small, comparatively, but it was still a rabbit warren of tunnels and platforms, it took a while to get through it. Kagome kept her head down as she hurried to complete her twice-daily slog through the silently judgemental crowds to the 31st street exit.
The bus trip was thankfully shorter than the taxipod, though comparatively smoother and much more crowded. In the absence of the uncomfortable shaking Kagome nodded off against the faux leather seat almost immediately, nearly missing the announcement that they were at the Last Stop, all passengers must exit now. She was too tired to muster much more than a wave for the borg driver, who someone had programmed to chirp “good evening, thank you for riding” at everyone who disembarked.
Her room was on the tenth floor of a res-tower in the middle of District 6, which was a curse because the elevator was tiny and claustrophobic and slow on a good day, and out of order the rest of the time, but it meant that she was high enough to see the shape of the tall buildings of the Fourth District rising up from the smog in the distance.
She was imagining that view, the dark spears of the office and residential buildings, ringed with transittubes and glides, rising out of the billowing purple smog and gleaming dully in the muted light when something crashed into her.
She hit the pavement hard, stars exploding behind her eyes as her head knocked against the uneven concrete. Whatever hit her was heavy, it crushed the breath out of her as she lay sprawled on the sidewalk.
A loud snarl ripped the air– was there a dog nearby? No… no, the heavy thing was snarling, she could feel the vibrations through her own chest as the noise intensified. Had she been jumped on by a huge dog? Kagome’s scrambled brain struggled to make that make sense, then the weight pinning her shifted.
Oh. The heavy thing was a person. The person, the male person, judging by the hard angles of his body and the gravely sound of the continuous snarling, sprang up with alarming speed and grace. Bruised and dazed on the ground, Kagome could only stare. Whoever he was, he was tall and wearing what looked almost like a bulky white hanjuban tucked into some kind of pants she’d never seen before. Maybe some kind of leather? They were both tight and strangely bulky too, like armor, but we wore no helmet and his hair was much too long for a Patroller, it hung into his face and was tied back into a tail. He wore two belts slung around his waist and– swords? That was definitely a sword, stuck through the belt on the left side.
Sword. Long hair– unnatural coloring, very tall.
Oh!
Kagome scrambled back, dazed now from both the knock on the head and the realization that there was a demon in the human district of the city. It wasn’t common to see them around, even in the communal districts, and it was downright bizarre to see on in a human section of the city. They tended to avoid their “lesser” counterparts.
The demon wasn’t looking at her at all, he was facing the shadows, crouched slightly with his claws splayed out in a very obvious threat. He was still snarling; Kagome’s heart thudded in her chest as it dawned on her that of course, the unknown demon didn’t throw himself at her.
A low hissing sound filled the air, menacing and nowhere near natural. The snarling lowered to an almost inaudible rumble, like far-off thunder, but the demon didn’t move. Kagome was frozen against the wall of a building, her heart beating against her ribs like a trapped bird. Adrenaline made every second crawl by like an hour as the tense standoff between the demon and whatever was in the shadows stretched on. She could hear her grandfather’s voice, a warning from years ago, telling her never to let a demon think of her as prey. “If you run they’ll chase, and they’ll win every time.”
The hissing died down, and there was nothing but the noises of the city for a long moment.
Kagome’s head was beginning to ache, and something wet was dripping into her eyes, either blood or dirty water from the street– she wasn’t sure which she’d prefer. Her hands were clenched so hard her nails were digging little crescents into her palms. She didn’t move, she hardly let herself breathe.
She’d like to say she saw the movement out of the corner of her eye, but she couldn’t really be sure if she actually saw it, or if some long-buried instinct simply screamed danger! at the right second. She hurled herself away from the movement blindly, with no time for anything else. Something flew over her head, and she had the impression of a white mass. There was an inhuman roar and then a sound like two high-speed street cruisers colliding.
Pain sprinkled along her arms as she hunched down and covered her head. Little lines of heat bloomed along her skin as yet another crash, this one accompanied by more inhumane hissing, shattered the air. Galvanized by the sound, Kagome scrambled on hands and knees to hide behind a bin that someone had left on the street. It stank of old garbage, which may (please, Gods, please) hide her sent, and the rectangular bulk was more than large to completely hide her small frame. Her beads sizzled against her skin as her power rose; a useless, instinctive attempt to protect her from the unknown threat. She quashed it ruthlessly, it would do nothing but give away her position. The demons (and whatever was making that hissing sound, it had to be demonic) weren’t interested in her as long as they had each other to deal with. She had no intention of attracting the attention of whoever won the fight.
She didn’t know how long she hid there, shivering madly against the metal wall of the bin and trying to hyperventilate as quietly as possible, but at some point, she realized she hadn’t heard a crash in a while. She waited, counting her breaths as the minutes stretched and the silence remained unbroken. Dare she come out? What were the odds they’d killed each other, or run off? Could one or both of them be waiting for her, somewhere in the dark?
Were there others?
Again her reiki tried to rise, and again Kagome squashed it. The pain of the beads was familiar and nothing compared to her poor sore head. Finally, aching all over, she shuffled forward as quietly as she could on numb, bloodless feet. She leaned out from around the bin.
Nothing. The night was dark and still.
Somewhere in the distance, a horn honked and Kagome nearly concussed herself again jolting in surprise. As the sound died away and no more monsters leaped out in response she leaned heavily on the wall, taking deep breaths and peering around, willing her racing heart to slow.
It was the white cloth in the darkness that caught her eye.
Reeling back Kagome turned to run. Now clearly in the demon’s crosshairs some small part of her brain, something that recognized the primal dance of predator and prey, gave her no other choice. She’d never outrun a demon on her best day, battered as she was she had less than zero chance of escape, but regardless, she ran. At the very least, she wouldn’t be killed while she stood staring like an idiot.
He moved in a blur, more than a sense of movement than anything else, and was in front of her before she’d even taken a step. Golden eyes that seemed to almost glow in the gloom stared down at her. Kagome was transfixed, a trembling gazelle caught in the sights of a lion.
Long fingers came up and caught her chin. She held her breath as his unyielding grip turned her head left and right, then tipped her chin up to reveal the beads around her neck. Distantly, Kagome knew the skin beneath them would be reddened and burned from the suppressors activating. Would he understand what that meant?
Razor-sharp claws just barely grazed the soft skin of her neck, her pulse thudded under his fingers in a rapid staccato. Her head was spinning but she didn’t dare breathe.
“Hn.” Somehow she knew it was the same voice as the earlier snarl. Those golden eyes narrowed on something above her line of sight– was he looking at her hairline, or something just behind her?-- then, just as suddenly as he had appeared, he was gone.
Kagome collapsed against the side of the trash bin, gasping.