Chapter 37. The Nogitsune

My hands were busying themselves with applying my usual amount of make-up; my eyeliner, mascara, concealer, and foundation. They weren't shaking. I wasn't scared or sad or angry.

I was numb.

Completely and utterly numb.

Stiles is gone. He left the hospital last night without leaving a single trace. The woman in the elevator, turned out to be Kira's mother, Noshiko Yukimura. I put it together after I crawled out of the elevator and watched with blurred vision as she led Kira out of the hospital, at the same time that Isaac was being wheeled in on a gurney.

To be honest, I have no idea what to think about what Noshiko had told me in the elevator or the exchange she had with Stiles, hell or the fact that I threw up a damn firefly. I have an Oni somewhere inside of me, waiting to be released whenever she wills it to be. How that is possible, is beyond me. How can a group of fireflies manage to hold a Japanese Spirit inside of me?

I let out a sigh and twisted the cap of my mascara back on before dropping it into the small purple bucket where my make-up is stored. I didn't have the desire to attempt to look decent for school, I almost wore a pair of sweatpants and called it a day... but I can't do that. I can't just give up, whether it be on my appearance or my attitude. I need to remain strong.

So, instead of wearing pajamas to school I put on a pair of black skinny jeans with one of Stiles' red checkered flannels that I had stolen and slipped on my Vans, my converse were still muddy from the other night in the woods.

I slid my arms through the straps of my backpack and walked out of my room, taking the stairs cautiously. I could hear my mom and Scott conversing in the kitchen...

"Is she... is she herself?" my mom whispered, trying to keep her voice as low as possible so I couldn't here her.

My teeth captured my bottom lip and I shook my head from side to side in annoyance. I knew that I shouldn't have told Scott about Noshiko. I knew that as soon as I did he would tell mom and it would cause this whole big fuss about how there is something wrong with me. I mean, I guess in retrospect it's good that he knows I could become an Oni at any given moment, but him and mom smothering me... I just can't handle that right now.

Scott sighed, "I don't know. I think so... I hope so."

"Okay," I stated as I walked into the kitchen, letting my presence be known. My mom glanced up from her mug of coffee, "has there been any news?"

"Nothing new. They're still looking for him. It's past the 48-hour mark, but I guess if anyone's going to be missing for two days and turn up just fine, it's Stiles." she said with a hopeful tone.

Scott nodded, "What about Isaac?"

"Maybe we should go by the hospital, before school?" she suggested.

The thought of going back to the hospital gave me chest pains. I don't have PTSD or anything, but the last time I was there... I was cornered in an elevator and told that I had a Japanese spirit inside of me while I watched my possessed boyfriend walk down the hall and disappear.

I swallowed nervously, "I.. uh, I can't. I have a test first period and I can't risk being late."

Scott and my mom looked at each other before nodding in unison. Obviously my discomfort was rolling off of me in waves, if Scott, a.k.a Mister Oblivious, could pick up on it then it had to be pretty bad.

"We can drop you off at the school before, is that okay?" my mom inquired as she gently placed the cup in the sink.

"Yeah, that's perfect actually." I mumbled before walking out of the house. I didn't miss Scott grabbing my mom's arm and whispering something to her before they left the house.

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"The thing is, in all of the stories, Kitsune are tricksters. They're mischievous. They don't really get caught up in right or wrong or even understand it.." Kira said as she walked alongside Scott and myself through the empty halls of Beacon Hills High.

When I got to school, she found me at my locker and caught me up on what I was missing about her and the whole her being a Kitsune thing. Apparently that was the reason that Scott needed Stiles' help to break into the Sheriff Station, because there were pictures of her ability on her phone.

She then proceeded to showing me the picture, and let me just say it looked kind of impossible, but at the same time I knew that nothing was impossible. After she caught me up on everything, Scott had gotten to school and that leads us to now.

"What's that mean? It's just doing this for the hell of it?" Scott asked in confusion. I knew that what was in Stiles, the Nogitsune, was planning something for a reason. And I had a very strong feeling that the reason had something to do with me.

Kira shook her head from side to side, "No, there was something else I found. If you somehow offend a Nogitsune, it can react pretty badly."

"How do you offend a Nogitsune?" I asked quickly. Stiles couldn't have offended it, could he? I mean, it's not like he is a stranger to saying or doing slightly offensive things but I don't think he could be the cause of this.

She shrugged, "I don't know. But if it's doing something this bad, then someone really really offended it."

So the question is, who is the one that offended the Nogitsune?

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"May I use the restroom?" I asked Miss Hensely, my Computer Graphics teacher, as she passed by my table.

I was having a feeling, an Admonere feeling, and I haven't had one of them in so long that I knew I had to listen up and do what it was telling me. And right now, it was telling me to get up and go to the basement for some unknown reason.

My fingers had been tapping the keys to spell out the word basement on the document I had been working on for the past ten minutes.

Miss Hensely nodded, "Yes... be sure to sign out."

"You got it," I responded before sliding the chair back from my table and scribbling my name on the sign-out sheet by the door.

The hallway was empty for the most part, other than the occasional straggler that was skipping class or arriving late because they just didn't care. I rubbed the palms of my hands on the thighs of my jeans, they were sweating nervously and my stomach was contorting in knots.

I glanced over my shoulder occasionally to make sure that the black fog wasn't chasing me- just in case I was hallucinating again.

My feet carried me down the small set of stairs to the basement, as I turned the corner I stopped dead in my tracks. Stiles was standing at the end of the hall, holding one of the Argent's werewolf emitters. It was lighting up, so I knew it was on... which meant that Scott, Ethan, and Aiden would be here any second.

He turned around and held his other hand up, "Okay... I know what you're thinking, but it's me. Kasey, I swear to God that it's me."

I swallowed thickly, "I-I don't know what to-" my voice fell flat as I was shoved out of the way, Ethan and Aiden sprinting past me towards Stiles.

Scott and I both screamed at them as Aiden grabbed Stiles by his throat and slammed his body against the wall, he hit with a thud and Scott grabbed Aiden and pushed him back. Ethan grabbed a fistful of Stiles' shirt and pushed him back to the wall, "STOP!" I screamed as I tried to pull him off, Scott was able to grab him and jerk him back.

"Stop! I said stop!" Scott shouted at them both, his eyes flashing red. My heart was pounding as Stiles rubbed at his throat. I ran my hands through my hair before wrapping my arms around Stiles' mid-section.

His arms went around me instantly, squeezing me tightly as he pressed his cheek against my forehead. I could feel his body slightly shaking, and I couldn't tell if it was from pain or adrenaline.

"It's me, Kasey. I swear to God it's me. I don't know where I've been the past two days or what I've been doing, but this is me. I promise." he assured me as his lips brushed against my temple. For some reason I shivered from his touch, but instead of questioning it- I squeezed him tighter.

Aiden was growling, "You know what happened at the hospital?" he spat. Stiles' body tensed slightly at Aiden's tone.

"I know more than that," he said quietly before gently pushing me back and walking over to an open duffle bag on the floor. He pulled out a folded up piece of paper and held it up in the air, "You see this? It's a blueprint of the hospital's electrical wiring." he unfolded the paper and smoothed it out on the floor.

My feet carried me towards him as I crouched down beside him, placing my hand on his shoulder and rubbing it soothingly. The last thing I want to do is make him feel worse about the situation, it's not his fault that he was possessed. Just like it's not my fault that I have an Oni inside me.

"You see all these markings in red? That's my handwriting," Stiles said as his hands slid over the blue paper. "I know I did this. I caused the accident. And everything in this bag, it's all stuff that could be part of something bigger."

Aiden crouched down beside the bag and pulled out a hacksaw, "What the hell have you been up to?"

"I think something worse," Stiles swallowed thickly," something a lot worse."

"What the hell were you doing? Building a Terminator?" Aiden asked as he pulled more tools out of Stiles' duffle bag of endless power tools.

I narrowed my eyes, "Not helping."

"Yeah, thank you for that." Stiles mumbled.

Scott held up another piece of paper, "Guys... this is a map."

I flattened the majority of the paper out on the table, revealing a map of Beacon Hills. Woodland Pond sat dead in the center. Aiden traced his fingers across a red curvy line, "Isn't that the cross country trail?"

My eyes widened, "That's the Tate car. Where Malia Tate's family died."

"You mean that's where her father put the steel-jawed traps." Stiles said, his eyes locking on the spot beside Lookout Point. I swallowed thickly, there were way too many coincidences here.

I sucked in a breath when I realized what this meant, "Stiles I think you put something on the cross country trail."

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It felt like it had been ages since I had been in Stiles' jeep, sitting in the backseat while Scott took the front passenger. His driving was erratic as he pulled off to the side of the dirt road by the start of the trail. Coach was sitting on a rock watching his stopwatch, he nearly fell off he rock when he heard the tires squealing.

Stiles and Scott were able to get out of the jeep before I could. As weird as it sounds, I sort-of forgot how to expertly climb over the seats in record timing like I used to be able to do.

I nearly face planted onto the dirt as I finally managed to slip out of the Jeep. Scott and Stiles were already talking to a very distraught looking Coach. I didn't get a chance to question what was happening before Scott took off, leaving me to run after Coach and Stiles.

Once again I was running through the woods of the Beacon Hills Reserve.

"Stilinski can you explain to me what the hell is going on?!" Coach shouted after my boyfriend, who was running with a purpose.

Who the hell knows what Stiles could have planted here while he was MIA. There could be a bomb, there could be a mass of traps under the leaves. The options are endless. And if it's anything like the electrical job he did at the hospital, this couldn't be good.

Scott and Kira appeared out of nowhere in front of us, breathing heavily with their bodies pressed against each other.

"Scott!" Stiles yelled as he slid through the leaves, I stopped right beside him, waiting anxiously as the rest of the cross country team poured into the area.

I held my hands up, "STOP! EVERYBODY STOP!" I screamed, not knowing if they would step on a trip wire or a trap.

Stiles bent down and rustled the leaves, pulling up a link of a chain. I held my breath as he slowly pulled on it, with each inch that appeared above the dirt, my heart clenched even tighter in my chest.

Finstock started clapping as Stiles pulled the entire chain out of the dirt, "Congratulations, Stilinski, you found a length of chain. Can somebody please tell me now what the hell is going on?"

"WAIT COACH-" Scott screamed as Coach took a step forward. I heard the whistle of an arrow through the trees and immediately I was filled with fear and anxiety for Coach. The second that I allowed myself to worry about his well-being, I felt the switch flip in my head.

I had connected myself to Coach, just as the arrow sunk into his torso.

My hands shot up to my stomach, feeling the blood oozing from the hole that wasn't intended for me. Coach's eyes widened as he said, "Oh crap," and his body hit the ground. The entire cross country team surrounded him, taking their full attention.

"Shit, shit, shit," I muttered as I stumbled away from the group. They can't see this, they can't see my stomach seeping blood from a wound that was inflicted on Coach.

Of all the times for my ability to rear it's ugly head, it had to be now.

"Kasey?" Stiles' head shot up when he realized I was gone. He spun around nervously before he found me, my hands pressing against my bleeding stomach, eyes wide with worry.

He sucked in a breath before stumbling over to me, pressing his hands against my own. "What happened? How did you get hit?" he asked nervously. Something about his tone raised a red flag in my mind for some reason.

"I connected, I think... I don't know. I need to get out of here before someone see's me." I said quietly, praying to God that someone wouldn't look up.

Stiles nodded, "Scott-he can take your pain away, you'll be okay."

"It doesn't hurt," I responded. It was true. It didn't hurt at all, in fact- the pain wasn't registering for some reason.

Red flags were popping up all over the place and I don't know why. Stiles' eyes closed momentarily, his jaw set tight as he pressed his hands against my wound. I saw black flash through his prominent neck vein and I knew that this was bad. This was very, very bad. Stiles' wasn't really Stiles.

He was the Nogitsune.

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Aw shit. That's not good... hahah.

So, Kasey's little episode thing with her ability seemed to come out of nowhere, but trust me it was intentional. Also, poor Coach!

I'm getting closer and closer to the episodes I have been waiting to write and I'm so excited! I hope you're all ready for some plot twists! Also, if you missed my message I sent out... up until June 23 there will be an update everyday. I'm trying to get the season finished and in order to do that I need to post each day. I really hope I can do it, hahah.

Be sure to fan, vote, and comment! -Sasha xx