InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ 21 Bullets ❯ Chapter 1

21 Bullets

 

Summary: “You take a gunshot in the head and you call it homicide. You take a bullet for someone else and you call it love.”

 

 

 

 

 

Basically, I was tossing and turning in my bed, trying to go to sleep when I went into a sudden daydream (night-dream? Whatever…). I hoped that this would help me go to sleep, but it only made me more awake. So I sat down at my laptop and started writing, and before I knew it, there were eleven pages of fanfic. Either way, I always wanted to do something like this, so I hope you guys like! Have fun!

 

 

Warning: This story is rated for violence, gore, drug use, language, and sexual content.

 

 

 

Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha, nor do I claim to take credit for Romiko Takahashi's genius.

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter One

 

 

 

 

The air was thick with car exhaust and factory fumes. Even the snow piled up on the edges of sidewalks and blocking gutters had turned a light brown from the city's industrial establishment. Welcome to Caster, where the only trees you will find are in the tiny cracked openings of the street sidewalks, or huddled together in the parks of the higher-class areas. Where the city is a haven by day, gambling central and criminal base by night…depending on where you live. Where everywhere is the black and brown from concrete or brick buildings and sunlight blinds your eyes from the windows in the skyscrapers.

 

Living here isn't so bad if you knew how, or if you were rich, or if you know the right people. For a certain girl who had been walking down the lower level city at twelve in the evening, it was all three. Of course, none of those assets could possibly help her now that she was out of her comfort zone. Her lack of judgment was birthed from the best intentions however.

 

Hating the dull and accomplished life of the wealthy, her dear friend had run off to explore the thrill of nightlife, something all the girls in their fancy school had been lectured constantly not to do. And that was how Kagome found herself all alone, looking left and right with a tazer in her pocket as she strutted down Blackwood Road.

 

Emily had been roaring about how boring the high life was for months. Kagome never would have thought she was serious when she decided to go clubbing with the less then suitable crowd. That was until Emily sent her an e-mail that morning inviting her to come down to “the nifty little club” that she'd spotted down by the river, the outskirts of town, where you were either a rebel or crazy to enter.

 

Kagome imagined Emily's face with a sigh. If her folks found out about her little rendezvous, she'd be under house arrest until she was fifty, but that didn't mean she was going to sit at home and let one of her best friends stay out all night in some warehouse where anything could happen. “I can't believe you Emi!” She scolded to no one as the buildings around her began to thin and spread out. The river, its fishy and polluted stench, told her she was near.

 

It surprised her that the pounding music coming from the shifty little structure didn't wake the whole city. As Kagome got closer, she saw the crowd of people pushing and shoving at the front doors to get in. She doubted she'd be able to get through even if she somehow made to the front of the line. Besides, the large, square looking man at the entrance didn't appear to be letting anyone go. He was like a dam keeping the lake from overflowing.

 

Keeping her distance, the weapon in her pocket feeling heavy now, she circled the club, approaching slowly and silently till she was behind it. Searching for a ladder or an open window, while keeping her ears open to the orders and hollers from the throng on the other side of the structure, she finally noticed a small beam just big enough for her hands to grasp.

 

Taking in a few steady breaths, she jumped, her fingers enclosing around the metal. Swinging her legs, she shifted her weight till she was up on the roof. “What do you know, gymnastics comes in handy for more then exercise.” A sky window conveniently placed not to far from where she'd landed served as her way in. She had to cover her ears from the obnoxious noise the dancers were willing to call music as she searched for a way down. Climbing down the beams inside served simpler then she imagined and in moments, Kagome was weaving through the mobs of people, searching for Emily.

 

“Hey watch it, you little brat!” She'd been shoved several times. Too mature to retaliate, Kagome pushed her way through the dance floor until her eyes locked on an expensive pair of shoes. Following the legs and upward, Kagome ran forward toward Emily, grabbing the girl by the shoulder.

 

“Kagome! What are you doing here?” Though surprised, Emily's face didn't show it as she kept moving to the roaring, un-rhythmic percussion.

 

“Care to join me and Norma?” Emily grabbed Kagome's hands and began twirling her.

 

Pulling back, Kagome yelled through the deafening volume, “NORMA'S HERE TOO!”

 

“Right there!” Norma's blonde hair appeared behind Emily's red.

 

“THAT'S IT! WE'RE GOING HOME! WE'LL BE IN SO MUCH TROUBLE!”

 

“Oh don't be such a party pooper! Come on, live a little!” Normal and Emily tapped their hips together.

 

“No, we leave now!” She grabbed the two girls' hands and yanked them toward the exit, weaving through the horde of dancers.

 

“What's your hurry baby?” Five boys blocked their path. They each wore white collared shirts and baggy pants. It was like wearing a winter coat on top and swimming briefs on the bottom, Kagome reflected.

 

“No hurry!” Norma winked at them.

 

“NORMA!” Kagome chastised. “Actually, we were just leaving.” She said.

 

The boy in front, who seemed to be the leader because he wore a beanie on his head the others didn't, bared Kagome's path by stepping to the side when she wanted to get passed.

 

“Hey, the lady said there was no hurry.”

 

“Back off.” Kagome spat.

 

“Or what?” Two of them took Emily and Norma by hand and disappeared among the dancers. The leader tried to do the same with Kagome, but she slapped his hand away.

 

“You don't want to make a scene do you?” He said silkily.

 

“Actually I DO!” Kagome backhanded him and tried to run to find her two friends.

 

She tripped. “You bitch!” The leader growled, letting go of her ankle.

 

Someone put their hands under her arms and lifted her up to her feet. Kagome didn't close her eyes, waiting for the punches she knew that were coming, but they never did. The leader looked at whoever was behind her with an impatient scowl.

 

“ This is none of your business. This is between me and her.” The leader barked.

 

“Well I'm making it my business.” Either it was the fact that she was so close to him or he knew how to conduct his voice so well in this cacophony, but Kagome could hear that husky voice quite clearly.

 

“Get lost. I'm warning you.” The two remaining boys behind the leader stepped closer in warning.

 

“What? You want to take this outside?” The man behind her said.

 

“Outside is for pussies.” If the ground below had been pounding, it was now nothing compared to Kagome's heartbeat, which seemed to thud louder.

 

The leader had pulled a gun to point just above her shoulder. To her utter shock, the man behind her simply laughed. “Fighting with fists is for pussies but hiding behind a weapon is not?”

 

She had the thundering urge to turn and rip his tongue out, but didn't have time to express her infuriation. “You'll pay for that!”

 

Thunder cut through the music, enough to make the cheering of the dancers stop. Kagome's eyes were wide and she was immobile. Something warm tickled down the side of her face and she didn't dare put her hand to it to find out what it was, but there was one thing she didn't understand: why did the shooter look on to her in horror.

 

Within seconds music had turned to screaming. The room thinned as the guests ran out. Still, the three boys and the man behind her remained till it was quiet, the warehouse empty except for them. Kagome noticed men stand from the bars, which she could now see without the multitude of club visitors.

 

“You're one of them, aren't you?” The leader growled, over his shock.

 

“If you let me go I can pay y-”

 

“Shut up! I ain't talking to you!” He chocked his head to the person behind her. “Well?”

 

“I am.”

 

Dread was creeping up Kagome's now trembling legs as the men that had circled them pulled out all kinds of projectile weapons, pointing them all toward her.

 

“You got some nerve coming here!” The leader smirked. “We'll get a big reward for this.”

 

“If you can kill me that is.” This man was insane!

 

“Shoot him!”

 

Kagome let out a yelp and squeezed her eyes closed. The earth-shaking pounds of gunshots were followed seconds later by grunts of pain. That warmth on her stomach was blood, she knew it!

 

I never should have left home! Kagome wailed in her head, opening her eyes to see what death was like. It looked almost the same, only this time, all the men, excluding the leader, were sprawled on the floor, unconscious. Was this some cruel afterlife joke.

 

“How the hell did…” Leader trailed off, his pale face unblinkingly staring beyond her.

 

“I just love new requites. They are so easy to fool.” A fist flashed over Kagome's shoulder, smashing into Leader's face. Teeth and blood sprayed in the air for a moment before Leader too was out cold.

 

Kagome felt the warmth behind her move away and she saw a young man with long, black hair cascading down his back, walk over the men, opening his hand and letting bullets fall out of them. Kagome reached for her temple and stomach, noticing that the wet substance had been sweat and not blood. The deep inhale she took made her dizzy. Sirens were heard in the distance, but Kagome's eyes were already too hazy to realize that they were coming.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The city itself remained ignorant of the happening in the club. However, one man knew full well that something was going to happen, or was occurring right now. He waited in his dark room, with a candle sitting on the floor between his feet as the only light. His eyes focused on the buck knife in his hands, twirling it around his fingers with deadly precision.

 

He counted each time the knife landed in his palm after flipping over one of his fingers. As though it were answering his tally, something buzzed in his pocket. He flipped the knife so that the handle was in his palm and reached for the phone in his pocket.

 

“Yo.”

 

“We have a royal flush.” The voice on the other side said.

 

“How many?”

 

“At least ten.”

 

“Where are you?”

 

“The club down by the river…if you can call this warehouse a club.”

 

“You didn't kill any of them did you?”

 

“I couldn't kill them with stun bullets even if I wanted to.”

 

“You make me worry, Inuyasha.”

 

“Aw, Dover, I'm touched.”

 

“It's not your ass I'm worried about its theirs.”

 

“Keh, so who do you want. By the sounds of it, the cops will be here in about thirty seconds.”

 

“Was there a leader?”

 

“Some kid. Think he might be a newbie. So we picking on the elders?”

 

“Grab an old man and get him down here.”

 

“Rocket with you?”

 

Dover stole a glance at the silvers shining not to far from the candle that was beginning to dull at his feet. “Always. Send the old man via gunpoint.” Dover clicked the phone off, standing and turning to leave the room, imagining his alley picking up a comatose body, which he was.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The faint sound of policemen could be heard running around on the other side of the warehouse. He had to work quickly if he wanted to get out of this without handcuffs. Moving the man's arm over his shoulder, he pocketed his gun and dropped the body onto the ground, concentrating. The body lifted up, and sailed along the ground before it was hovering over the river. Then it soared upward and zoomed over to the city.

 

“Job's done.” Inuyasha turned toward the other body he'd carried out here. The flashlights were beginning to flicker on either side of him.

 

“Now what are we going to do with you sweetheart? Let those guys get you? I don't think so.”

 

A moment later, officers turned the corner with their guns pointed at…no one. The area behind the warehouse was empty. “Nothing here.” An officer called.

 

“All clear sir!” They called to their superior.

 

“Anything abnormal about the perimeter?” The chief called back.

 

“Only the unconscious people inside. This area is secure.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Whatever smelled so sweet had to be breakfast. Pancakes? So that was what the maids were preparing, but since when was the smell so strong that it would climb all the way up to the stairs and into her room. She turned over, noticing that her bed was a lot lumpier then it used to be and it didn't smell like her scented sheets. Kagome opened her eyes and sat up.

 

Those pancakes smelled heavenly and she could feel her stomach growling greedily, but that wasn't where her attention was moments after she finished blinking the water out of her eyes. It was the fact that the room wasn't white, or that the floors weren't made of the familiar mahogany that her room had.

 

She bolted to the door, struggling with the handle and rushing down the hall as the door hit the wall behind her. Avoiding following the smell, Kagome found herself in a small living room and she ran toward what she hoped was the front door. She pulled the handle, but it didn't budge. The locks on the door blocked her from freedom and she looked frantically for a key or a crowbar.

 

The smell of pancakes got stronger and the sound of sizzling made Kagome feel someone across the room. She reached for the tazer in her pocket, only to realize that not only was it gone but also she was clothed in a T-shit and boxers. Something gleamed in the corner of her eye and she reached for the gun that was sitting on the small table by the door.

 

She spun and pointed it straight at her would be kidnapper. He shook his head, the pan still in his hand and the yummy smell of pancakes coming off of it.

 

“If you want breakfast so bad, I can make you some.” He said.

 

“You think this is about BREAKFAST! And as if I'd eat something you made. For all I know, you put something in it!”

 

“You know, if I wanted to do anything, I could have done it while you were sleeping. I'm not so stupid that I would wait till you're awake to try to poison you.”

 

“As if I'm going to believe that! You let me out right now or I'll shoot.”

 

He didn't reply, only placed the pan down on the floor before standing straight. “Well? Are you going to let me out, or are you going to wait till I put one between your eyes!”

 

“You don't have the nerve.”

 

“Bullshit!”

 

“For someone who comes from a wealthy family, you sure have a dirty mouth.”

 

“Let me out, I'm warning you!” She pressed her finger gingerly on the trigger.

 

“I wouldn't do that if I were you.” He brought his hands up.

 

“Why?”

 

The gun suddenly jerked and Kagome squealed loosening her grip. The next thing she knew, the weapon had whizzed across the room and placed itself in the man's hands.

 

“That's why.” He said.

 

“What…what?” Kagome gasped.

 

“I think you scratched my favorite gun.” He blew against the metal on the barrel.

 

Favorite? The word ran in Kagome's mind. Did that mean he had more then one? While he was busy rubbing the slide with his shirt, Kagome inched closer toward the table, and carefully pulled a drawer open.

 

“There's nothing there.” She looked up to see that he had picked up the pan, the shotgun still in his other hand, and turned back into the hall.

 

Kagome stood there alone, blinking, until the guy pocked his head out of what she guessed was the kitchen and called her through the hall. “Hey, do you want pancakes or not?”

 

“This guy's nuts.” She sighed as she tiptoed into the hall, peeking into the kitchen to see his back in front of a stove.

 

“I know you're standing there.”

 

Kagome jumped back into the hall, hiding herself behind the wall.

 

“Give it up, you stupid girl. I'm not going to eat you.”

 

Gritting her teeth, Kagome stomped into the kitchen. “But you're willing to kidnap me, and change my clothes while I'm sleeping! I should let the cops arrest you!”

 

“You shouldn't trust cops.” He didn't turn as he flipped another pancake. Kagome noticed that he'd stashed the gun because it was no longer in her sight.

 

“This coming from the guy who kidnaps unconscious girls.”

 

“You'd be surprised what some of the cops really do in this town.”

 

She didn't know whether to roll her eyes at him for suggesting such a thing, or widening her eyes that he ignored her quip, but she found another remark instead. “What is this, some kind of a comic book where all the cops are incompetent and the only one who stands a chance is the wannabe superhero.”

 

“Close, but I'm no superhero.”

 

“Right, you're the villain.”

 

“I wouldn't go that far, but I am pretty bad. And I never said that cops were incompetent, just untrustworthy.”

 

“Where are my clothes?” She demanded.

 

He put another finished pancake in the plate and turned, walking toward the table on the other side of the room.

 

“I was expecting a thank you. Really, you think that when you save a chick from getting a bullet in her skull, she at least appreciates that you saved her life.”

 

She ignored the heat in her face and slumped down in the seat opposite him as he bit into his breakfast. “I want to know why the hell you brought me here, and where my clothes are.”

 

“Well, after I kept you from getting killed, the authorities were on my trail. I couldn't leave you fainted among gangsters and I sure as hell don't trust those officers to `take good care of you.' You'd wake up in a cell and not in a bed. Pancake?”

 

Kagome slammed her hand down hard one the table, causing the pancake to fall to the floor. “Hey!”

 

“You tell me right now, where I am and let me out and I want my clothes!”

 

This time he stood, his face twisted into a scowl. “Okay bitch, I've tried being nice, but you're attitude is starting to grate my nerves. As for your clothes, I'm not having sweat soaked crap in my bed! And I haven't attacked you, or, for that sick mind of yours, done anything other then undress you. If I hadn't been there last night, you would be under white sheets in the hospital right now, so you damn well better show some appreciation or I could give less then a rat's ass and throw you back out there where you'd be in the company of people who would treat your much worse then I do.”

 

He sat back down, and took a deep breath, his appetite gone. Women. For a while, she didn't say anything as he pushed his meal around with his fork.

 

“So…the men that tried to kill me last night. They were really gang members?”

 

He almost sighed with relief when her voice went down several octaves. “Yup. That club you went to seems to be their new hangout. Though I doubt it still is after that last fiasco.”

 

Something triggered in Kagome's memory. “I hope Emily and Norma are okay.”

 

“You're in this kind of position and you're worried about a friend? I'd be more concerned about the fact that I was almost killed by the Black Jack Gunners. Then again, stupid high-borns like you hardly know anything that really goes on in this town other then what happens in your gated communities.”

 

“What are the Black Jack Gunners?”

 

“One of the gangs in this town.”

 

“So where does that put you?”

 

“I'm just a go between.”

 

“And you expect me to believe that?”

 

“Not really.”

 

“So why tell me.”

 

“You asked.”

 

Kagome eyed the plate on the table. He noticed and slid it toward her. She gave him a quick thanks and tore a piece with her finger. “So…are you going to let me go?”

 

He rested his check against his hand. “I might…depending on the looks of things.”

 

The cake piece stopped short of Kagome's lips. “Might?” She hissed.

 

“Those guys you insulted yesterday don't play around. Number Twenty-one isn't very nice to girls. You'd be lucky if they thought you were dead, then they wouldn't go after your family.”

 

“What? All that because I slapped the guy who was coming on to me yesterday?”

 

“Pride. And lots of it.”

 

“But they might kill-”

 

“Not if they don't find out who you are. If I were you,” he stood, “I'd stay low for a while.”

 

He excited the room and Kagome starred at the polished wood of the table. Feeling queasy she pushed the plate away from her. All she had wanted to do was get her friends back home, not end up on the list of a crime group, or get kidnapped by a stranger either. How was she going to deal with THIS? If she went home…Kagome bit her lip. At the very least, she was alive, granted the situation she was in was less then ideal.

 

Her clothes and a pair of keys flumped down on the table in front of her. Kagome looked up to see that her kidnapper had returned. “You can go any time. Those keys are for the locks on the door.”

 

“You're not going to keep me here.”

 

“No, but ultimately, it's you're choice what happens. You don't have to believe me, but know that the Gunners have deep connections and can find almost anyone. I won't stop you.”

 

“But if what you say is true, I'll put my family in danger if I go back. What should I do then? Stay here?”

 

“You make the call.”

 

“I could a hit on my head right now and that's all you say?” She stomped her foot.

 

“I'm no hero.”

 

“Fine. So what will it take to get you to help me?”

 

“Help?” He raised his brows.

 

“To get these guys off my back and off my trail.”

 

“Hmm.” He crossed his arms and glanced at her clothes and then at her. “How much cash do you have with you?”

 

“Why did I not see this coming?” Kagome sighed. “How about I pay you after this is over?”

 

“I don't want your money, but my guilty conscience won't let me let you go without checking into things.” He looked down at the watch on his hand.

 

“You lay low for a week, and if things are on good terms, I'll send you home.”

 

“And if things don't work out.”

 

“Run to the cops.”

 

“I thought you said not to trust the cops.”

 

“I have my own problems. I can't baby sit you all day.”

 

Kagome stifled a yell, with great difficulty. “Fine! One week.”

 

He nodded and reached for something in his pocket. “I didn't get you're name.”

 

“Kagome. And you?”

 

“Inuyasha.”

 

“Is that you're real name or a title.”

 

He smiled, shacking his head. “I'll let you think about it.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I know I left this off with a lot of questions, but that's what makes it fun. I hope you liked! ^_^