Chapter 5 - "If we die, I'll have Inuyasha's brother use his sword to resurrect you and I'll kill you again!"
In the end, Kagome and Yusuke never did get to use the plan they had managed to sketch out. Not how it was meant to be used. Soon after another member joined them the ships came down. Only three days since Yusuke and Kagome had begun planning, and they had been almost ready. The new member would have been a great asset to their plan. Of course, the last member had actually wanted to get caught. Only to protect Rin even then.
Inuyasha had been very vocal when the inu youkai had strode in there, the collar on his neck released by Rin without a second thought. Still proud, still arrogant, and always in control. He wasn't a true part of their group, but unfortunately Rin was, at least in the younger group. So, wherever the kids went, they were sure to have at least one protector who had no scruples about killing anyone who threatened them.
It was why the authorities had left him alone for so long. As powerful as the rest of the group, more than many of them, he was also as deadly and as inhuman as a demon was supposed to be, at least to what the public saw. An excellent businessman who made those in the upper class want to keep him there. The middle class, the large group of regular citizens who believed what the authorities and the media told them, they were afraid of the apparently emotionless demon. Those in power made sure that the general public did not know about the human girl he had adopted. Nothing could be surer to ruin the deadly demon image than that.
It was the lower class, and those who rebelled against society's expectations, who saw what demons like him and groups like Yusuke's and Kagome's really were. Unfortunately, they were never believed, and were powerless to stop them from getting captured. Especially when Naraku placed curses upon them and attacked them. Then they were too weak or too shocked to defend themselves.
Now, the two strongest groups who were still true and not corrupt, perhaps the last two groups who could, given time, put everything right, had been separated into three groups and put on three separate hover cars. They were not happy about it.
Of course, they had been fully ready to fight, but when gas strong enough to drop the strongest demon into sleep is spread over the area, people tend to drop. Even then they fought. Yusuke and Sesshoumaru were the last two standing. Both tried to be the very last, but in the end their vision blurred so much they never did find out who had dropped first. Sesshoumaru had more practice at dangerous situations and had surely stopped breathing in the gas early, especially with his sensitive nose. Still, he made no mention of this. Perhaps he could not honorably say anything. Or perhaps his vision had not been blurred, and Yusuke's Toushin blood had kept him standing longer. It was impossible to say, since neither had seen. Or if they had, they never did say.
When Inuyasha had awoken to what was dubbed in a little glowing sign by the back doors "Car #1", he had understandably been angry. His first reaction, typical if you had ever seen his past situations, was to attack the door and attempt to get out. This only had the positive effect of giving him a very good idea of how strong the wards were.
It had the negative effect of waking everyone with the rather large high-pitched crackling the wards made in response to his attack. Six irritated faces looked up at him. Another awoke and immediately cried out, clutching her head. The red headed kitsune of their group immediately ignored the guilty looking hanyou and crouched beside her, his powers weaving the block almost automatically. Until something stopped him.
There is a different way that uses up less energy.
'Youko! Why didn't you mention this before?'
Because this needed to be done first, to establish a necessary bond of spirits.
'Bond? What are you talking about Youko?'
It doesn't matter. Just focus the tiniest tendril of energy into your hands and then touch her. Anywhere would be fine, but I can suggest a few rather pleasurable-
'No! That's good, thanks.'
Kurama hesitantly came out of his talk with his other self and twisted just the smallest amount of power into his hand as he carefully took one of hers in one of his. Immediately the shaking, crying, and terrified whimpers stopped and her clear brown eyes regarded his in obvious gratitude. Then she launched herself at him. The instant their hands were no longer connected he saw her eyes fill with mental agony, but her body moved with the command it had been sent and when she was again touching him, this time in a hug, he felt the block rush up to scatter the thoughts babbling into her mind.
Both were stunned for a moment before Kurama quickly wove the other more energy-consuming block. Obviously whatever bond Youko was talking about wasn't strong enough. In the back of his mind, Kurama felt Youko's disappointment.
No one else seemed to notice them as Kurama explained quietly what he knew of what he'd just done, carefully avoiding mentioning Youko and instead saying it was instincts. In fact, the rest of the general populace in their car was still glaring at Inuyasha.
"Hanyou, you are too reckless. Your attack could have hurt Rin." Inuyasha winced at his brother's tone, and found himself getting glared at not only be Sesshoumaru, but by the little demon boy standing next to the girl. The worst was not Rinku or Sesshoumaru however, or even Kikyou's deep frown, but the disturbing squeals that spoke of torment for all those with good hair.
"What utterly lovely silver hair you have! And your brother has even more gorgeous hair! And the kitsune's fiery red hair... Oh, if I had the right stuff, I'd steal that hair right off your head!" Both inu brothers shifted as far away from the squealing hair demon, and Kurama managed to put Keiko between the woman and himself. Kikyou stood firmly in front of Inuyasha.
"I doubt you'd bother. You'd probably take the head with the hair," Kikyou said emotionlessly.
Yura pouted, but her gaze was fixed firmly on the unprotected Sesshoumaru. He gave her an amused glance, then his gaze dipped down to the skull bound at her waist knowingly. She quickly backed off.
In the car with the glowing white sign that said "Car #2", no attempts against the wards had been made, and only one person was still unconscious. Or rather, unconscious again. Miroku had, in succession, groped Sango, Botan, and Yukina. He'd gotten Botan twice before Sango knocked him unconscious, and both Hiei and Kuwabara had proceeded to beat him into unconsciousness again after he'd groped Yukina.
Kohaku looked at the others, all of them silent at the moment. It was a deafening silence. When he broke it almost everyone jumped or showed shock in some way. "I wonder what part of Makai we'll be put down in. Hopefully not too close to Naraku, or we won't have chance to make a plan. Sometimes I wonder if they only let us train to give us false hope."
"Kohaku! Don't be so pessimistic! We'll escape long before the hover cars put us down!" Sango glared at her brother, but he simply shook his head, looking out the single window that they were given. Sango bit her lip, trying not to let the anger and frustration show through. Her brother was fifteen, and he had already almost given up on life.
"How are we going to escape sister?" It was a simple question, but one that she found she couldn't answer. She dropped her head in shame. The others were silent around them, until Hiei spoke up.
"If you don't think we can escape, what is the point of going on? You have your sword." The meaning was obvious and everyone stiffened at Hiei's calm words. Kohaku opened his mouth for an angry retort, but the teen found he couldn't find any words for what he was feeling.
"There is always a chance. We simply need to explore our surroundings and find the way out! I'm sure the others are doing the same, so we'll be out of here in no time!" Miroku was awake again and grinning at them. Sango and Botan frowned warningly when he got up, but all he did was peer over Kohaku's head and out the window. Without hesitation, he laid his hand against it. The wards crackled and he hissed as he was pushed back. He shrugged off the pain and continued searching the car for a weak spot.
"Miroku... You're going to really hurt yourself!" Botan actually pulled Miroku's hand away from the wards. She glanced at his hand and drew her head back before quickly covering his hand with hers, golden energy seeping into his hand.
"Why do they want to do this to us? Why don't they just send in their armies after him?" Yukina's red eyes seemed extra mournful now and everyone was at a loss to explain.
"We threaten them. Naraku does too, but they figure that they can get rid of two birds with one stone. If we kill Naraku, we'll probably be too weak to defend ourselves and they'll quickly kill us while telling people that we turned over a new leaf and died protecting them. If we don't kill Naraku, they'll wait and gather up another troublesome group while Naraku heals, then send them against him. Eventually if the prison groups don't work, they'll swarm him and maybe be able to kill him if they get a collar or a net over him to contain his powers. He's smart though. I doubt he'd fall for it." Everyone was staring at the teenager by the time he finished and Kohaku squirmed under the attention. Sango actually grinned at him and he grinned tentatively back.
In the last car, with the glowing sign that said "Car #3", Kagome was glaring fiercely at the warded door that led to the pilot and the couple of guards they'd sent with them. The guards had already come back once to quickly tell them to stop misbehaving when Yusuke and Kagome had both gotten frustrated. The wards hadn't been breaking, but they'd been making some very unpleasant high-pitched sounds. Kouga and Shippo had forgiven Kagome for her part in it while Ayame glared at them both, still rubbing at her abused ears.
"Come sit down, Kagome. You'll think better over here." Kagome almost giggled at Kouga's illogical statement as he patted the spot next to him, but since glaring wasn't doing anything, she saw no reason why it would be bad. She started to sit down, only to get jerked into the wolf demon's lap. She frowned up at him as he chuckled but simply turned her around so her back was to his chest. Ayame's growls could clearly be heard as Kagome made no move to get up and Jin was muffling his own chuckles as the Toushin glared at the wolf demon.
"I don't see how that will help her think," Yusuke said, gritting his teeth at the unwanted wave of jealousy as he remembered that he'd held her much the same way when they'd been in their cells. He shook it off impatiently.
"I don't either." The air temperature dropped ten degrees as Ayame spoke.
The tension in the air as Kagome's faintly amused gaze met Ayame's was broken when Shippo began giggling with Souta. "You two are so funny! Kouga knows he'll never get anywhere with Kagome, despite his crush on her. There's nothing for either of you two to be jealous of!"
Souta paused and realized he said the wrong thing when both demons turned towards him, vocally denying that they were jealous as well as both growling under their breath. Souta rubbed the back of his head nervously as they continued glaring at him.
Kagome and Kouga exchanged triumphant glances, then quickly looked away when Jin and then Shippo eyed them suspiciously. "You know, I wonder when they'll realize we were baiting Ayame?"
Kouga chuckled at the barely audible whisper and wrapped his arms around his friend while he could. "We? I was baiting Yusuke. You two would make a good match. If only you'd realize that you like each other."
"Hey! I've only known him for a few days! We haven't even talked that much!" Kagome strained herself to keep her voice as a whisper.
"Please. You spent more time talking to him than you did planning these last three days." Kagome opened her mouth, then closed it with a snap and sighed, her shoulders slumping slightly to admit defeat. She could not refute his statement. Kouga chuckled again and she leaned back comfortably, feeling his body shake as he did.
"Like we've never sat like this before. Heck, we sat like this before we went out, while we went out, and after. Nobody had a problem with it before," Kagome said instead, attempting to change the subject.
"Not true. Inuyasha always had a problem with it, especially when you two were going out." Shippo piped up. Kouga and Kagome looked startled to find him sitting next to him and a small smirk grew on his face. "So, you like Ayame and she likes him, is that what you two were saying?"
Kagome and Kouga blinked twice before lunging for the kit. He squealed and ran towards Ayame and Yusuke. "Kouga likes Ayame and- Ghammphff!"
Kagome had clapped both hands over his wide-open mouth, smiling sweetly as everyone but Souta eyed her suspiciously. Souta looked more amused, and he leaned back to watch Ayame and Kouga. The red headed wolf demon was staring at Kouga like he'd just offered her the world. He was surprised that hearts hadn't appeared in her eyes.
"Really?" She asked breathlessly. Kagome let go of Shippo and watched with a content grin on her face as Kouga took a step towards Ayame and took her hands, looking sincerely into her eyes. Kagome recognized that look. it was Kouga putting his whole heart into something.
"Yes. Wait, no," He didn't let go of her hands as her face drooped and she tried to back away. "I don't just like you Ayame, I love you. I know you've wanted to be mates for awhile, but I have to ask, do you want us to be mates because you want me, or because of an alliance between our packs?"
"You of course! Our packs can rot!" Kouga looked faintly surprised, and looked even more surprised when the wolf princess leapt forward and kissed him on the lips. He didn't let his shock deter him for long and a certain miko began cheering as the wolves didn't show any signs of letting up.
"Finally! Was that really his only problem? He thought it was about packs? Ayame's been after him since they were pups from what I hear." Souta shook his head while everyone else stared between the still cheering Kagome and the two kissing wolves.
"I'm a bit confused," Yusuke muttered under his breath. Shippo patted his leg. "That's ok. When it comes to relationships and this group, everything is always confusing."
"So, how do we get out of here?" Kagome asked suddenly, having run out of breath to cheer.
"Why don't you just make the walls crackle again and then we can all pounce upon the guard. The wards have to go down around the door when it opens for him to come through, right?" Jin grinned as everyone stared at him. "Common sense."
"WE DON'T HAVE ANY!" Kagome, Souta, and Shippo chorused together, starting to giggle immediately afterwards. Then Kagome calmed herself down, brushing away the amusement. Upon seeing the glow around her Souta and Shippo stopped laughing and fell silent, letting her concentrate.
There wasn't much concentration necessary to do this. She did the same thing she had done the last time the walls had begun to crackle and squeal. She let herself get frustrated and angry. She let her emotions fuel her power and felt the energy crackle around her, pressing against the wards. It wasn't quite as bad as when Yusuke had joined her, but she managed to get it high enough that the three canine demons were holding their ears.
"If this doesn't work, I'm going to kill Jin for suggesting it," Ayame whimpered to Kouga. Kouga growled in agreement, glaring at the innocent looking wind demon, who didn't look like he was liking the noises much more than they were.
Finally a guard came out, his head swinging inside the doorway, a collar in his hand. "If you can't behave, we'll have to collar you human!"
Yusuke allowed himself time to smirk at the stupidity of the guard. probably had never had groups willing to work together before, or who hadn't given up just because they had passed from the Human World into the old and dark Demon World. Then he punched him and Kagome ran forward.
The demons inside were very surprised and Kagome took care of the first one before Yusuke jumped in, fists flying. Kagome looked over her shoulder to see him smirking as he dispatched the last one. She grinned when he met her eyes. "Waiting to do that, haven't you?"
"Maybe a little." His smirk grew and she rolled her eyes, turning away as a smile played across her face. She frowned suddenly as she saw the other two cars one either side. Her eyes narrowed and she bit her lip. "Souta, can you hand me my bow and my quiver?"
"Sure! Whatcha gonna do with them?" Kagome just grinned and motioned to the car flying to the left of them. "I'm going to kill the demons in there!"
Souta immediately saw a problem with that, but unfortunately, Yusuke had also caught onto the idea. He managed to say, "Umm... Kagome, how-" before the two shot off their separate weapons.
"-will the others get out of the wards?" Souta finished. Kagome's mouth opened to answer and then guilt flashed across her face. She turned her head to meet Yusuke's own shocked gaze just as both of the ships suddenly crackled. Kagome winced, not daring to look. "Oops? Maybe our weapons shut off the wards?"
"They're crashing," Souta observed. Kagome's eyes widened frantically and she started pressing buttons. It took a few seconds until Yusuke pulled her away. "Don't touch anything!"
The hover car lurched painfully and the engines seemed to die. Yusuke managed to glare at Kagome before everything went to hell. "If we die, I'll have Inuyasha's brother use his sword to resurrect you and I'll kill you again!"
Kagome didn't bother refuting the idiocy of that statement. Instead, the black haired miko scrambled towards the back of the car as it began to tilt. She managed to get to the back doors and pushed and tugged on them, relieved to see that one of the many buttons and switches she'd pulled had shut off the wards.
"What's going on?" Ayame asked fearfully, having not bothered to look in to what Yusuke and Kagome had been doing in the cockpit. Souta grinned at her as he clutched the edge of the door to the front, holding onto it for dear life as the ship began to accelerate downwards faster. "Oh, Kagome and Yusuke just thought the best way to get out of the cars would be to crash them."
Yusuke growled at the young teenager as he struggled to where Kagome was frantically trying to get the door open. "Here, let me."
Instead of attempting to open the door, Yusuke kicked it, watching in satisfaction as the door flew off. Then he frowned as he looked outwards, noticing the quickly nearing treetops. "Shit. Jin!"
The wind demon immediately understood and clapped his hands. "All right, everyone jump! You'll be all right if you do, but if ya don't, you're going down with the ship!"
Kouga yelped as the car twisted around and suddenly found he had no choice whether to jump anymore. None of them did. The wolf demon managed to grab onto Ayame and get his feet underneath him. He pushed up and away from the falling cars, wincing as the ground rushed up to meet them. Apparently the car had still been on back up engines, so had been falling slower than usual. That wasn't the case for him.
In the other two cars, they had all done similar things, though they didn't have a wind demon to help the more fragile of them down. Sesshoumaru had grabbed both Rin and Rinku, seeing her frantic look as the boy had slid out of their car. He landed skillfully, rolling to take away the strain of gravity wearing down on him. He looked none the worse for the fall and calmly put down the more than slightly frightened children. "Come. I assume this is at least partly Kagome's fault. Things do not fall from the sky and explode without her having been involved."
"But Sesshoumaru-sama, they haven't exploded!" Three fiery explosions followed Rin's protest as the cars hit the ground. Sesshoumaru simply raised any eyebrow before turning on his heel and heading towards the closest scents of his companions.
Kurama had, by some skillful manipulation, managed to have some trees make a soft padding to catch him. Relief welled up inside as both he and Youko rejoiced. Their joy was short-lived as a high-pitched definitely female scream rang out and Kurama whirled about on his tree bed, having only a moment to take in the scene before taking action.
Keiko, unskilled and with no hope of surviving the waters of Makai with all their monsters, was falling towards a nearby lake. Kurama had time to note Hiei too was falling towards the deadly lake, but he had already chosen a tree to put all of his energy into, and he could not divide it now. Besides, Hiei would live, even if a little worse for the adventure.
A strange tree with perfectly round leaves extended its branches upon his command. Its leaves grew to three times the length of a person and stretched beneath the falling girl. Kurama gasped as the tree didn't actually manage to get under her and waited for the final splash that would say she had landed in the deadly waters.
No splash was forthcoming and Kurama peered towards the branches, emerald eyes piercing the leaves and seeing her two hands holding a pale and frightened Keiko to one of the large leaves.
Kurama bounded over and skidded to a stop on a large leaf nearby. If he jumped onto hers, he might tip it over. He took a blood red rose out from his hair, carefully transforming, focusing on the whip aspect and trying to form it without the thorns. Finally the whip was done, thornless and as maneuverable in his hands as ever.
Keiko trembled violently as she struggled to pull herself up onto the thin and slippery leaves. A small whimper escaped her as her hands began to slip just as she saw a shadow from another leaf. She studied the shadow for a moment and hope welled up in her chest. It had to be Kurama!
Then her hands began to slide of the leaf, slick with her own sweat and trembling from holding on with all of her strength for so long. She looked down briefly and found some strange creatures awaiting her with mouths full of sharp carnivorous teeth. She opened her mouth, ready to scream, when a familiar green whip wrapped around her waist and her shriek turned into a surprised mousy squeak.
Kurama skillfully manipulated the whip into quickly bringing her to him, his free hand automatically reaching out to balance her when she was dropped next to him. When she still trembled lightly he frowned and quickly put the rose whip back into it's original flowering shape and tucked it safely away in his hair. "Are you all right, Keiko?"
"I thought I was going to die," She admitted frankly, still shivering with fear. Kurama smiled sympathetically, understanding that despite the many trials they had gone through, she had not gone through as many, and even in that prison she had never been close to death, and wouldn't have known if she was because of her telepathic curse. Hesitantly, he opened his arms and she immediately took the comfort offered, relaxing slightly at the safety the kitsune's arms represented.
She gave another surprised squeak when one arm threaded beneath her legs, the other beneath her shoulders, and then found herself being lifted off of the ground. Automatically she locked her arms around Kurama's neck as he actually jumped off of the overly large leaf. She buried her head into his chest, afraid to feel water around them and felt him chuckle as the air moved around them again.
She lifted her head and gaped as branches seemed to form underneath the kitsune's feet. She was puzzled as she watched the leaves grow and then recede, and branches do the same. "What... Kurama?"
"The Makai trees are much easier for us to manipulate than normal Ningenkai trees. It is good to be back. They welcome us." There was a wistful tone in Kurama's voice she had never heard before and at the same time she realized his voice was deeper and smoother than usual.
"Youko..." She whispered to herself. But they heard it. In mid stride as Kurama went to leap again he stumbled and emerald green eyes looked down at her in shock.
"But, how do you...?" Kurama trailed off as an amused voice explained in the back of his mind.
"When you were setting up the block again he talked to me a bit. I'm sorry for not telling you." Keiko looked away, biting her lip. She hadn't known that she'd been doing anything wrong.
"No, it's fine Keiko. I'm mad at Youko, not you. Cheer up, we're almost to where the others seem to be gathering. Then we can find out what happened." Kurama smiled and Keiko tentatively returned it. Both of them were pulled out of their reverie when another voice interrupted them with anger burning beneath the words.
"I'm wet, fox." Kurama winced as he remembered seeing Hiei falling nearby, having jumped out of his car. He turned around, Keiko still in his arms, and faced a pathetic looking fire apparition. His normal gravity defying hair was plastered down around his head, his black clothes were sopping wet and clinging to him uncomfortably. When the fire apparition shifted his weight slightly, Kurama could hear a faint squelch as water moved inside his boot.
Inside him, Youko was roaring with laughter, and by the glare Hiei was giving him, Kurama knew some of that was showing. Or perhaps it was his own amusement showing. Either way, the fire apparition didn't look very happy.
"I noticed you managed to grab the human." The icy tone was a bit different than usual and Kurama sighed. His partner felt a bit betrayed.
"I could only grab one of you."
"So you chose her?"
"I knew you could survive, Hiei. She would not have." Hiei could not dispute that and hesitated. He eyed the kitsune warily, the general feeling of water around him making him want to kill something. He was a fire apparition. He did not like water.
"Besides, Shuichi thinks she is prettier than you," Kurama's mouth opened in shock as after Youko's brief take over of his body, his eyes quickly flashing back to green from the all too brief gold that had filled them.
The fire apparition blinked. Once, Twice, he blinked three times. His mouth twitched, tugging into a surprised but overly amused smirk. Finally, a noise that was rarely heard from Hiei shook the birds from the trees.
Hiei threw his head back and laughed. Kurama was blushing too much to attempt a glare, and Keiko was hiding her crimson face in his shirt again. Still cackling madly, the fire apparition walked out towards the general direction that the others auras were coming from.
When the three entered what appeared to be a newly formed clearing, it seemed the order of the day was general chaos. Hiei was still chuckling when a swearing tajiya bumped into him, quickly ruining his good mood. "Sorry, Hiei," came the terse apology before Sango was up, roaring in anger.
"Kagome Higurashi! Get back here!" Both Sango and Inuyasha seemed to be chasing the overly athletic miko all over the clearing. At least they knew how it had become a clearing now. In an effort to stop Kagome from dodging behind trees and attempting to hide from scent and sight, Inuyasha was methodically destroying any tree in his way.
On the other side of the clearing, Kuwabara and Jin were both screaming at the bored looking majin. The Toushin seemed more interested in how the chase was going on. The younger demons and humans had gathered near the middle of the clearing, that apparently being the safest course of action. Rin was presently trying to convince them all that playing tag or hide-and-seek in Makai was perfectly all right. Rinku was pointing out that numerous plants that got hungry wouldn't mind snacking on one of them. Rin was quickly losing the argument.
"Aww, the beautiful red hair is back!" Kurama grimaced as he noted that Yura had unfortunately not been eaten yet.
Her shout of course, turned everyone's attention to them and Kurama was acutely aware that he was still holding Keiko as Yusuke smirked knowingly at him. Surprisingly, Kagome smacked him from a tree above his head. He tilted his head back and gaped at her. Kurama briefly wondered how she'd gotten so used to being in trees.
"Um, perhaps I should get down?" Keiko murmured reluctantly. Kurama immediately started blushing again, then carefully let her slide out of his arms. Hiei was beginning to chuckle again.
"I wouldn't be chuckling, Hiei, you look like a mop at this point. Your hair definitely looks better up." Kurama turned his head and briefly smirked, his eyes gleaming as he watched the enraged fire apparition glare spitefully at him.
"Well, besides Hiei, you three seemed to have survived Yusuke and Kagome's little stunt unscathed," Botan commented, dressing a wound on Miroku's head and nursing one of her own arms which looked broken.
"Us? We didn't do anything! Right, Kagome?" Yusuke grinned above his head and found himself looking at empty air.
"Right," Kagome said from beside him. Yusuke looked exasperated and Kurama was shocked to notice he couldn't sense her aura.
"What...?" He glanced at Hiei and from his expression surmised that the fire apparition had noticed the same thing.
"Something I learned a bit after Kaede was taken. The wards interfered with our powers a bit, I'm sure you noticed, so even though we were able to train, it wasn't to the best of our abilities. Hiding my aura is a very useful skill considering who I am." Kagome's face flickered with guilt and sadness, obviously remembering Kaede.
Inuyasha, ignoring the side conversation, bared his teeth at both of them. "If you two didn't do it, then who did?"
Kagome and Yusuke glanced at each other and both managed to keep straight faces as they shouted at the same time, "IT WAS THE ONE ARMED MAN!"
It took a few moments of everyone staring at them before they realized that that apparently didn't cut it. Kagome, surveying Sango and Inuyasha nervously, took to the trees again, while Hiei and Kurama both joined Kuwabara and Jin in berating the Toushin.
Yukina watched Kouga and Ayame sit together and gave a content smile. No matter how chaotic they were, or other affects that the crash had, at least they were free.