InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Safe ❯ Chapter 3

DISCLAIMER: Inuyasha, world and characters, belong to Rumiko Takahashi and not to me. The only things that belong to me are the plot and any additional characters. I make no profit of this story, and am doing it only for my own enjoyment.

 

Warning: mention of school shootings in chapter. I am not trying in any way to make light of what I know to be a very serious subject.

 

Chapter 3

 

Inuyasha arrived at the building Yuka had told him Kagome was taken to in a matter of minutes. Damn it, this place was huge, was it all meant to be used for treating injuries? If so many people were hurt in Kagome's time, how was it she had managed to avoid getting hurt herself so far, and why did she keep insisting that her time was wasn't as dangerous as his? Fuck it, that bitch was never getting out of his sight again! That is… if she survived.

 

Inuyasha paused for a moment to try and stop the tears of pain and fear he could feel burning the back of his eyes. He couldn't break down now, men never showed their tears, and more importantly it might just be that Kagome needed him to be strong for her right now, needed him to help her through this. But, how was he meant to find her in a place this big? He couldn't exactly go looking in every window the building had, there were way to many, it could take hours and who knew what kind of shape Kagome might be in by then.

 

Deciding he might as well go for the obvious first, Inuyasha headed straight for the main entrance after seeing several human head in that way. Once he entered through the strange doors that opened all by themselves, Inuyasha had to stop to allow himself time to readjust to all the scents he was picking up. So much blood, and sickness and death, mixed in with the smell of medicine, cleaning products and so many humans; it was too much to take in at first, and he had to allow himself time to shift through them all. However, he was on an important mission to find Kagome, and knew he didn't have time to waste standing around letting himself get adjusted to all the different smells in this place. With that thought in mind, Inuyasha was just about to go up to and grab the nearest person who looked like they worked here, when he realised that not everything he was smelling was alien to him. One scent was very familiar, and would likely lead him to all the answers he so desperately needed about Kagome. With that thought in mind, Inuyasha started running down one of the many hallways the place had, trusting his nose to lead him to the source of the scent.

 

It took Inuyasha less than a minute to find what he was looking for. Following his nose, Inuyasha soon found himself in a small waiting room off the side of the hallway. Although the hospital as a whole was full of various noises, this room was currently silent save for the sound of breathing coming from the room's three occupants. Sitting in chairs against the far wall, looking as scared as Inuyasha felt, was Kagome's family. The three of them were the only people currently in the waiting room, and were all sitting very close to each other, as if seeking comfort from each other's presence, which Inuyasha thought was likely exactly what they were doing. Although they were who he had been expecting to find, now that he saw them, Inuyasha wasn't sure whether he should go over to them or not. He knew he how much he cared about Kagome, probably as much as they all did, and he knew that Kagome's family liked him (well, Kagome's mother and brother anyway, he wasn't so sure about her grandfather). However, seeing them as a family so close to each other in this trying time, Inuyasha felt reluctant to bother them, no matter how desperately he wanted to know everything they did about Kagome's condition. He was thinking about leaving and looking for information on Kagome on his own without bothering them, and was about to do just that, when Souta seemed to somehow sense his presence and looked up in his direction.

 

“Inuyasha?” Souta asked, so quietly that had he not had Youkai hearing Inuyasha would have likely missed it, clearly surprised to see the Hanyou there.

 

Kagome's mother looked over at Inuyasha, and Inuyasha winced to see her eyes so red from crying. Kagome's mother had always been so happy and seemingly carefree when he had seen her in the past. But then again, what kind of a mother would she be if she wasn't upset by what had happened to her daughter. Somewhat to Inuyasha's surprise, she motioned to Inuyasha to come over, gesturing to the empty seat next to her. Still a little hesitant, Inuyasha complied with her wishes. He hadn't wanted to intrude on the family if he was unwelcome, but he still desperately wanted to know about Kagome, and if they were okay with him being there he wasn't about to say no.

 

“I forgot you were coming to pick Kagome up this afternoon.” Mrs Higurashi said, her voice hoarse no doubt from crying. “How'd you know to come here?”

 

“When I found the house empty, I went to Kagome's school and saw the crowd.” Inuyasha answered softly, as if he wasn't aloud to raise his voice anymore in the otherwise silent room. “I ran into Kagome's friend Yuka in the crowd and she told me what happened.”

 

Souta looked up, appearing furious at the sound of Yuka's name. “That bitch.” Souta snapped.

 

“Souta!” Mrs Higurashi gasped. Inuyasha's eyebrows went up in surprise at the boy's choice of words. He had never heard the boy swear before, it seemed weird coming from any member of Kagome's family.

 

“It's her fault Kagome got hurt!” Souta snapped, his voice rising to nearly a yell. “Her and those other bitches. There the ones that kept trying to set Kagome up with that bastard, no matter how many times she told them she didn't like him. Kagome told me. If they had backed off like sis told them to then…” Souta couldn't continue and broke down crying again as his grandfather engulfed him in a hug.

 

“The only one at fault Souta was the boy who shot her.” The old man said softly as he tried to comfort the boy. “Placing blame on other will not help anyone.”

 

Although Inuyasha didn't believe that Yuka and Eri were innocent in this as the old man said, he did agree that placing blame wasn't any good at this point. Right now, all Inuyasha was interested in was Kagome.

 

“How…” Inuyasha started, before having to stop when his voice broke. “How is she? Is she…?” His voice broke again, still unable to say it, to ask whether Kagome was still alive or not.

 

“She's in surgery right now, and has been for several hours.” Mrs Higurashi said softly, looking not at Inuyasha but at her own hands as she clenched them in her lap. “The doctors are trying to repair the damage the bullet caused, but…” She broke down crying quietly for a few moments, leaving Inuyasha to frantically wonder what he should do. He always hated the sight of a crying woman; it made him feel so helpless. Before Inuyasha could figure it out though, Mrs Higurashi seemed to get a hold of herself and began talking again.

 

“I'm sorry.” She said softly. “It's just that all of this has been so hard, and such a shock. I never thought something like this could happen to my baby. I've heard about shootings at schools of course, but they've all been so far away, and never involved anyone I knew. I always just though `that's horrible, but at least we don't have to worry about that here'. Your time, it's so dangerous, but you know it's dangerous and are prepared for that when your there. Here we have dangers of our own, but we spend so much time telling ourselves that we're safe, that things like this only happen to other people. That Hojo,” Mrs Higurashi couldn't have kept the hatred out of her voice when she said his name if she tried, “I'd met him in the past, I really thought he was a nice boy even though I knew he would never be able to be what my daughter wanted or needed. I never would have even imagined that he could do something like this. If you had even suggested it a week ago, I would have laughed at the very idea.”

 

“As would have I, and I saw him far more often than you did.” Kagome's grandfather said. “I imagine almost everyone who knew him would have said the same thing. You can't really assume anything with people. Human beings are truly the most dangerous creatures on this planet.”

 

After that the family fell silent, unable to think of anything else to say. It was plainly clear that they were all scared to death about Kagome, wondering if she was going to be okay or not. For a long time, the only sound was Souta's quite sobs, but eventually even that stopped. How much time had pasted Inuyasha couldn't rightly say, but it felt like an eternity. It was getting to the stage where Inuyasha felt like the silence and the worry was going drive him insane, when the Hanyou couldn't help but jump at the unexpected sound of an unfamiliar voice.

 

“Mrs Higurashi?” A serious sounding male voice said. Turning as one to look, the Higurashi family and Inuyasha saw a middle-aged doctor wearing surgical scrubs, which were splattered with blood. Inuyasha instantly recognised the blood as belonging to Kagome, and were it not for Mrs Higurashi grabbing hold of and squeezing his hand he would have likely jumped up and throttled the man. It was a good thing Mrs Higurashi had done that, Inuyasha realised a moment later, as this was likely the man who had been treating Kagome and he could tell them all how she was. Inuyasha just had to know by now how Kagome was… no matter what the answer was. He couldn't handle waiting anymore.

 

“How's me daughter?” Mrs Higurashi asked without bothering with any formalities. Apparently she couldn't wait anymore either.

 

The doctor smiled slightly, instantly putting everyone more at ease. “The surgery went very well. The bullet did some intensive damage, nicking an artery before coming to a stop at the base of her spine. Fortunately, it appears there was no damage to her major organs, and her spinal column is intact. We removed the bullet and repaired the damaged artery as best we could. Right now our biggest concern is the risk of infection. We will of course need to keep her here for observation for some time, and her body will need a long period of time to heal from all the damage caused. However, with support and a little luck, she should eventually make a full recovery.”

 

Inuyasha almost wilted in relief. Kagome was alive, she was going to be okay. The fact that the search for Naraku and the Jewel Shards would have to be put on hold for God-only-knows how long didn't even cross his mind, and even if it had he wouldn't have cared. His Kagome was going to be okay.

 

“When can we see her?” Mrs Higurashi asked next, as tears of relief ran down her face. This had been one of the worst days of her life, the only other that compared being the day her husband had died, but the news that her daughter would be okay made all the anguish of earlier seem so far away right now.

 

“She's currently in the recovery room, but hopefully soon we should be able to move her to a private room and you should be able to see her then.” The doctor said. “Just remember, she has been through a ordeal and will need plenty of rest in order to recover.”