Curiosity – Chapter 37 – "Helter Skelter"

The tension in the living room of the Higurashi household had definitely thinned out since all had heard the good news about Inuyasha making it through the night. Those within the room finally allowed themselves the sleep they so deserved after the horrible night, but, to the insistence of Aritsu all were to have breakfast first.

Sango and Shippo were helping her out with the cooking while Miroku set the table and Gramps led Kaede up to his bedroom to catch some shuteye; people their age just couldn't stand to stay up for so long you know. All three within the kitchen noticed how thoughtful and quiet Kagome's mother was compared to the bubbly personality they'd become accustomed with over the past two days.

"May I ask you both a question?"

Both turned to the elder woman who broke the never ending silence and waited for her to speak.

"Has… Kagome ever been injured as badly as Inuyasha is now?"

"I can assure you she has not Higurashi-san. Inuyasha would never let anything so harmful happen to her; keeping in mind the occasional scratch and bruise of course. Rest assured no such danger could ever happen to your daughter while Inuyasha is around." All looked to the monk that stood in the doorway who doused the worried mother's fears with his golden tongue. Sure he was a lecher most of the time but he had his moments and this was definitely one of them.

A breath of relief exited the woman before she continued to chop her vegetables.

"Well that is a relief to hear. I know how dangerous her traveling is and I do worry about her but knowing you all are there with her makes it a bit easier." The familiar smile returned to her face as she continued her work.

"Now, who would like to help me make the pancakes?"

It was midafternoon now and everyone was trying their best to keep themselves busy; Sango and Kirara were taking a walk around the shrine grounds, Miroku was helping Gramps with his daily duties, Izayoi and Touga were in Kagome's room with Inuyasha, Souta was – well no one knew exactly what he was doing, and Mama, well she was just trying to keep her sanity. After all, wouldn't you be a little nervous too if the demon who had practically killed your daughter's best friend the night before was sitting right in the next room? That's right; the fearsome Lord Sesshomaru was seated in the Higurashi living, at his father's orders and it made her absolutely edgy. Once in a while she would take a glance at him and find him in the same position against the wall, looking as stiff as a board; more statuesque-like than a real person. A few times Arisu had considered offering him food or drink but from the way Kagome described him and after what he'd done the night before – there was no way she was taking the chance.

Minutes ago, after Kagome had finished washing most of the blood from Inuyasha's person, Kaede had practically dragged her into the bathroom to tend to her now severely broken arm. Arisu had tried to reason with the old woman, saying she could take her daughter to the hospital but amazingly Kagome refused the "futuristic" treatment; her logic was sound though. Why go to a hospital and have to make up a tall tale about how her arm came to be broken when you practically had a trained "doctor" under your roof that'd been practicing medicine for most of her life? It did make a lot of sense -

Now if only the bathroom was sound-proof.

Every moan, groan, and cry of pain could be heard outside of those four walls; that's why everyone was trying to keep themselves busy – none of them liked to hear Kagome in pain. Lord only knows how crazy Inuyasha must be right now, knowing he couldn't stop her daughter's pain and that what Kaede and Kikyo were doing was necessary. She felt even worse for Kagome since she was the one that had to go through all of it without even a sedative. Her little girl had definitely turned into a brave woman indeed.

Her mind finally became occupied then, when Touga came down and asked if he could trouble her for tea which she quickly began to prepare for him.

Little did they know that the next bout of madness was going to begin in mere moments.

He was almost there; almost to the place that was his home during the younger years of his life. His heart raced ever faster as his little group got closer and closer to the shrine. Kei just hoped to whatever God would listen that his family was alright; especially his sister. The young man wouldn't know what he'd do if that little spitfire was gone from his life forever.

"You're about to miss the turn."It still freaked him out when Mytonic "spoke" to him through his mind but the big white dog was right. If Mytonic hadn't have warned him, they'd be heading into downtown Tokyo right about now.

Immediately, the old motorbike turned left down the alley beside the shrine and then took another left up the hidden driveway that let up to the back of the shrine property and the garage, but he didn't stop there – no, Kei completely avoided the garage and headed down the narrow dirt walkway that led up to the rear courtyard. The man needed to see if his family was alright damn-it not worry about parking his motorbike! The courtyard came into view then, as did the step that you took to actually step into the shrine grounds. Using all of his strength, Kei caused his motorcycle to pop a wheelie at the last minute, avoiding the step but then narrowly running into a surprised Sango; but he paid her no mind and kept heading to his destination.

Moments later, the screeching of brakes was heard along with the surprised squeals and barks from Kei's passengers as he quickly jumped off his bike and headed into the back of the house, startling the two people occupying the kitchen area as he began slamming his fist three times into the wall every few seconds – causing Arisu to come barreling towards him, thinking there was an emergency.

"Oh Kei don't scare me like that! Now what's the matter? What's got you so riled up?"

Touga watched as the man before her started waving his hands and arms around like some sort of crazy man. Why didn't he just talk to Arisu? Wouldn't that have made more sense?

"Honey, slow down, I don't understand a word of what you're saying."

Kei let out an exasperated sigh and he began to start over again when a pain induced scream rang throughout the Higurashi household. Immediately Mytonic began heading up the stairs with Kei following him to the source of the horrible scream, leaving Arnold downstairs with a bemused Arisu and a confused Touga.

He just hoped nothing awful had happened to his sister.

*A couple minutes earlier – Higurashi bathroom*

Once Inuyasha had been cleaned up to the best of her ability, without getting to personal, Kaede had practically dragged her into the bathroom where Kikyo was waiting for them. She knew it was about time her arm was fixed up and her bones put back in place, it was really starting to hurt, but could you blame a girl for wanting to make sure her best friend was going to be alright first?

"Alright child, come over here and let's get the dried blood cleaned off of ye."

Kaede motioned to the sink and to the pile of towels setting on the counter. It took both of them many minutes to get all of the blood from her person. Had she truly bled so much in the past night? Was the loss of all this blood why she felt so drained?

She was told to lay down on the tiled floor with her right arm as straight as she could make it. Kikyo and Kaede examined her arm and determined that some of her skin and muscle had to be cut for the bone to be set back in place correctly. A small leather strap appeared out of blue and was placed in her mouth to bite on as a knife was brought out of thin air and was set in place on her arm. It was all Kagome could do not to scream as they made the wound surrounding the protruding bone big enough to reconnect the bone back with its other half. It was a whole other thing not to rip Kikyo's mouth right off her face.

"You act as if you've never had something like this done before."

A death glare was directed at Kikyo, courtesy of a young miko.

"For your information I have had my bones reset before but it was while I was unconscious."

The two continued to banter back and forth and the elder miko took this as a great distraction to restore the bone in Kagome's arm, hopefully without too much trouble. So as her sister and granddaughter continued their mini-fight, Kaede placed a firm hand on either side of the nasty break and quickly snapped the protruding bone back into place. That's when the scream wrenched out of Kagome. The girl started breathing heavily through her clenched teeth, attempting feebly to control the pain that was coursing through her as Kaede cleaned up the blood that had started to flow again. Just as she began to apply the wrappings, all the woman occupying the small room heard frantic footsteps coming up the stairs as well as barking. None of them thought anything about it, thinking it was Souta and Tinkerbell playing; man were they wrong.

Suddenly the door was nearly swung off of its hinges as all three women turned their gazes to the young man standing in the doorway. Before any of them could say a word, he came in, pushed Kikyo out of the way, and hefted Kagome up from her place leaning against the tub and pulled her out into the hallway.

"Kei what is going on? Let me go!"

"You heard her – let the wench go." All eyes became fixed on the hanyou standing just outside Kagome's room, Tessaiga gripped tightly in his hand as Izayoi stood behind him – begging him to go lay back down, but being the stubborn hanyou that he is…

Mytonic had continued to growl threateningly until he took in Inuyasha's scent. There was just something about it, besides the hostility that set him on edge. There was something else as well; something that made the snarling man feel like family, but that wasn't possible – all of his master's original family was dead right? But there was just that one miniscule thing that kept tugging at his canine brain, telling him to back down – and that is what he did.

"Stand down. There's something odd about this situation."

Kei shook his head vehemently as he tightened his grip on Kagome. There was no way he was going to let this guy have his sister. He saw something out of the corner of his eye and found a man, who looked suspiciously like the sword wielder, standing just a few feet from him. How in the world had he gotten there? He couldn't have come up the steps because he himself was blocking them, so what was he, Superman or something?

"Keh I'm giving you one last warning pup. Let Kagome go and I won't shove the Tessaiga up your ass."

It was then that Kei decided to pull out a weapon of his own. From his back pocket he revealed a black box but when he flipped the switch on the side, Kagome could see the tell-tale bolts of electricity zapping from the tazer. She decided to stop the big lug then and there; the last thing she needed to deal with today was an electrocuted Inuyasha. Stunning everyone in the hallway, Kagome roughly shoved her left elbow into Kei's lower stomach, which made him release her, and she shoved him to the left and up against the wall – taking no time in revealing the hidden weapon she always had on her and holding it up against his neck.

"I'm only going to say this once Kei and you better listen well; you are going to march your butt downstairs and park it on the couch until Kaede gets done fixing up my arm. And if you EVER pull a tazer out on Inuyasha again, whether he is injured or in perfect health, I WILL NOT hesitate in taking you down. Do I make myself perfectly clear?"

A gulp was her only answer as Kei signed to Mytonic to follow him as they made their way to the living room. Kagome let out an exasperated sigh as she placed the small dagger back into it sheath hidden in her bra.

"You've got a knife hidden in your boobs."

She turned to look at Souta with tired eyes, wondering what was in the bag he held before beginning to head back into the bathroom.

"Seriously Souta could you be any more blunt?"

Half an hour later found Kagome walking down to the living room and revealing to her the funniest sight she'd probably ever seen in her life.

She'd known from the commotion coming from outside the bathroom door that Inuyasha had discovered Sesshomaru was still in her era which in one way or another resulted in him ending up down here, so it was no surprise to see him, but it was what her brother was doing that made her question his sanity, or what little sense he had.

Sitting a chair directly across from Sesshomaru, who was still settled against the wall, was Souta who in his hands held his "weapon". Apparently he'd seen how nervous their mother had been and decided to take things into his own hands.

"Souta, what exactly do you think you're doing?"

"Protecting our family – what's it look like?"

"With a Nerf gun?" She asked incredulously. That's right, her ding dong little brother was "protecting" everyone from Sesshomaru with a children's toy.

It surprised her even more when she heard a growl escape from him. "It was the best thing I could think of! Mom wouldn't let me get dad's gun or even a knife so this was the next best thing. I wasn't going to let him kill anybody so I figured if he tried something I would kill him first."

She rolled her eyes. "Were you having an out of body experience or something yesterday while the whole 'Inuyasha vs. Sesshomaru' battle was going on? Did you miss the whole 'poison claws' thing? For goodness sakes do you honestly think he would try anything with his father around?" Kagome whopped Souta upside his head with her good hand. "And besides that unless he's magically allergic to foam rubber, which I highly doubt, then I wouldn't expect that thing to do anything to him except make him mad."

"Hn, as if a weak human weapon would harm this Sesshomaru."

Kagome gazed at the fearsome Lord for a moment before deciding to show him just how "weak" her brother's "weapon" truly was.

"You've not seen anything yet. Watch this." She muttered just low enough for the only the demon-enriched hearing to hear. She saw the smirk cross Inuyasha's face before returning her attention to her brother; he knew what was coming.

"Hey Souta," Quickly stealing his Nerf gun out of his hands, she aimed it at him and shot. "Are you dead?"

"No." Another shot was fired.

"How about now?"

He began to laugh. "Nope"

She shot one at herself. "Well I'm not dead." One was fired at Inuyasha and another at Touga. "Are either one of you dead?" A shake of their heads was her answer and the people in the room could hear Izayoi start to laugh as she took in the hilarity of the situation. There fun was interrupted though when Kei got up from his place and stood in front of her, obviously very mad and concerned about her wounds and the recent happenings going on. With the current silence in the room, Kagome figured she should be the one to break the ice.

"Heh, heh, I guess I should introduce you to everyone."

"Yes, it would be wonderful to know who almost ran me over with whatever that device is outside."

Sango and Miroku appeared in the doorway now and Kagome gave Kei a look that said they would definitely be talking about this later.

Kei moved to stand beside Kagome, bringing himself to his full height which made him look even more menacing than Sesshomaru. The boy was a good two heads taller than Kagome, who herself barely came up to his chest, which made Kei almost half a head taller than Touga by her calculations. Once Kagome had named off and pointed out everyone to him she turned to the others occupying the room and revealed the answer to the "big mystery".

"Everyone, I would like to introduce to you Mytonic, Arnold…." Pointing to each animal respectively before finally getting to the man standing beside her, "and my freakishly tall brother, Kei Higurashi."

"What!?"