InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Laying Down the Law ❯ Race Wars II ( Chapter 24 )
[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]
By: The Kouga Lucius Connection 
The gang continues as Race Wars and something unexpected happens to end Kouga and Inuyasha's feud.
Anime/Manga: InuYasha Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Romance / Action | Type: Alternate Universe | Uploaded On: 09.15.2006 | Pages: 6 | Words: 8.9K | Visits: 1.6K | Status: Completed
The gang continues as Race Wars and something unexpected happens to end Kouga and Inuyasha's feud.
Anime/Manga: InuYasha Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Romance / Action | Type: Alternate Universe | Uploaded On: 09.15.2006 | Pages: 6 | Words: 8.9K | Visits: 1.6K | Status: Completed
And yet another chapter! Woot! Thank you so much for everyone's great reviews, they make me so happy. I love to know people like the story because it makes me want to keep writing; lots of people say its there favorite and I've never been more flattered in my life. Thanks to all of ya'll and your compliments, it makes me feel so much better about my writing. Love!
And now for the story and an apology for being so late at the bottom!
Shitora whimpered quietly, trying rather unsuccessfully to constrict her hair in a bun. Throughout her life the girl had refrained from wearing her hair anyway but naturally; 47 degrees Celcius was bad enough to break even her lifeless traditions. Suddenly, Shitora found her hair taken gently from her fretful hands before the soothing feeling of raking fingers soon followed. Within seconds, her hair was twisted into a neat little bun, sitting cutely atop her downy white head.
"We really should get you some girl lessons, Sukini. You can't even put up your own hair."
Furrowing her brow, Shitora turned to face Ranbou, whose ice blue eyes were twinkling with mirth against his tan skin. "How do you know so much about putting up hair anyway, huh?"
"Look at my hair Sukini," Ranbou pointed out, gesturing to the neat black ponytail cascading down his back. Shitora frowned; he had a valid point. She could only remember seeing his hair down at important demon clan meetings, but everyone was required to dress in formal clothing and present themselves fashionably; she'd barely even noticed, it was so commonplace.
"Yeah, well...hell, I don't have an answer," the hanyou murmured defeatedly, throwing up her hands in despair.
Ranbou chuckled and wrapped a comforting, strong arm around the girl's shoulders, planting a quick kiss on the top of her head. "You don't need one, Sukini. Your hair looks sexy down anyway."
Despite herself, Shitora couldn't help but smile and giggled in response; something about those cute little gestures of his always seemed to bring a certain light to her face. Kagome watched the two from a distance, standing a few feet outside the tent with a cold beer sweating in her palm.
"I still can't get over them," she murmured to Inuyasha, who was squinting at a blue Lamborghini in the distance. Just the sight of it renewed his delicious desire to finish modifications on his own Diablo.
"Yeah," came Inuyasha's disinterested mutter; when it all came down to it, Inuyasha preferred the thought of Ranbou with his precious sister more so than some pathetic gang punk. He loved most of the gang fellows, of course, but some just couldn't be trusted; Inuyasha was no fool when it came to misplaced loyalties.
Kagome cocked her head to the side, observing her boyfriend's focused amber eyes, before following his gaze toward the horizon. She smiled slightly. "Thinking about your Diablo?"
"What? Oh, yeah," Inuyasha replied rather softly. Still seeming preoccupied, he managed to get out, "I should've worked harder on the damn engine, but the thing was so fucked I figured 'what's the point,' right? I mean, there were other jobs to do and-"
"And you wanted to help everyone else. I know, Yash, I saw," Kagome interrupted, smiling knowingly. "Mister 'don't worry about it, Roku, I got that?' Mister 'sure thing, Tora, hand me that wrench? Mister-"
"I get it," the hanyou repaid her, rolling his eyes plantively before reaching back to pull his wifebeater over his head. What with the sun's relentless intensity, clothing seemed less and less necessary as the day went on. "I'm a pussy who couldn't get his priorities in order and spent all his fucking time on other people's shit, alright?"
"Yeah, alright," Kagome said quietly, slightly chastened by his sharp tone. When Kagome's brown eyes shifted instinctively towards the ground, Inuyasha sighed and took her by the shoulders, forcing her to face him.
"Aw, Kags, I'm just in a bad mood cause I didn't finish the Diablo. Sorry, babe, I didn't mean to be a bastard," he said sourly, hating apologizing yet hating the sadness on her face even more.
After a brief silence, Kagome glanced up and offered him a small smile. "I know, Inuyasha. You don't have to apologize for being in a bad mood."
"Feh. You just lay on the guilt when you look all sad, is all."
At the staunch rebellious look on Inuyasha's face, Kagome laughed and reached up to tweak one of his lily-white ears, grin growing as hs purred contentedly. With her face lingering so close to his, Kagome remembered for the umpteenth time that their lips had never touched. Sure, they touched quite a bit and he often planted possessive kisses on her neck, but an actual kiss was another thing. Though it hadn't happened yet, Kagome was counting on the possibilities surrounding fate and the meaning of the moment. She wanted it to be a memorable kiss and rushing things wouldn't help that at all. No, she would just wait.
"It's almost time for Sango's race and I said I'd be there," the girl muttered, glancing down at her watch. "Shit. Gotta go. See you later?"
Inuyasha kissed her forehead, smiling reassuringly. "Sure thing, babe."
As Kagome hurried off towards Sango's favorite runway, one which she'd been frequenting during the races, she couldn't help but grin; she loved it when Inuyasha called her "babe."
When she arrived, a substantial crowd had gathered around two impressive looking cars, one being Sango's silver Corvette and another belonging to her opponent, a Kyoto gang member by the name of Razz. Razz was a generic looking badboy with a few piercings and tattoos, acclaimed leader of the leading Kyoto gang, the Rhythms. Inuyasha always scoffed about the gang's "gayness" and about how "no one called the Rhythms could possibly do shit on the racetrack." But oh how wrong he was.
Razz's blue Viper, shimmering in the sunlight, was pulled up directly adjacent to Sango's Corvette at the starting line, window rolled down as he chatted blithely with the girl. When Kagome jogged up, saying quickly, "Sorry, Sango," Razz blinked and adjusted his muscled grip on the steering wheel.
"Well who have we here? I don't think we've met."
At the voice Kagome jumped slightly, turning to look through the Viper's window with a hint of hesitation. At the sigh of Razz's friendly yet animalistic grin, she softened slightly; it reminded her of Kouga and Ranbou. "Oh, I'm Kagome."
"Nice to meet you Kagome, I'm Razz," the boy said plesantly, crimson red eyes oddly violent for his calm personality.
Sango cut in amusedly, "He's only the greatest racer in Kyoto. No sweat, right?"
This provoked a barking laugh from Razz, who replied modestly, "I don't know about being the greatest racer. I'm pretty normal, as I see it."
"Uhuh, yeah," Sango joked, before turning back to Kagome. "So, you check out Ranbou and Shitora this morning?"
At these words, Razz's keen demon ears gave a twitch and he grinned, calling, "Did they finally do it? I was gettin' sick of them playin' around."
"Weren't we all," Kagome agreed dryly. "Yeah, they finally did it. I never could get it out of them how it happened though, apparently it's all hush hush. Shitora was all 'it just happened, no big deal,' and Ranbou said, 'ask Shitora.' So basically it was a dead ended conversation."
"Sounds just like them," Razz murmured, shaking his pierced head knowingly. "Well, they deserve it. Lord knows they've gone through enough. I mean, that thing with Shitora an-"
"Yeah, Razz, shut up," Sango interrupted at a low mumble, deliberately avoiding Kagome's eyes. Eyebrows raised curiously, Kagome looked between the two as though awaiting an explanation, but none came. Puzzling over what the two could mean, Kagome decided it was best to change the subject.
"So, you guys are gonna race? For how much?"
At this, the two racers grinned once more and Razz announced boldly, "Two grand. And it's gonna be a close one, I guarantee that."
Before Sango could reply, an abbrassive shout broke the air, interrupting the general conversation in the area with it's British flare. "Fuck, Razz, you get lower and lower ever year. Racing women. Fuck."
Kagome turned to observe the newcomer, who was waltzing arrogantly towards the racers. His hair was quite the oddity, a red mohawk of sorts which curled up like flamed from his bald scalp, clashing violently with his violet eyes. He was decked out in all sorts of leather, though this was to be expected at an event like Race Wars; the real eye catching thing about him, besides his demon ears of course, was the man's gnarled face, which looked as though it had been burned in an accident of some sort. Kagome felt bad for staring, but she couldn't help it; his entire face was distorted.
"Fucking Mad Max," was all Razz said, though the smile was gone from his face.
Sango regarded the man with a likewise cold demeanor. "What the hell do you want, Max?"
"I want to know why the fuck Razz is fuckin' around with some fuckin' chick in a fast fuckin' car, that's what I fuckin' want," Mad Max spat out in reply, fleshy face drawn in an obvious frown.
Before Sango could reply to his outrageous statement, Max turned his attention to Kagome, who was observing him with slight interest and slight dislike. Max grinned, which was quite an odd look on the face of someone so damaged, and took a few bold steps towards Kagome. "What a pretty little lady," he crooned, British drawl even more aparrent. As he neared Kagome, she snapped out of her frozen state and implemented a hard look on her face, eyes narrowed in distaste.
"Get away from me," she spat, voice hard and sharp.
Max scowled immediately, shrinking back as though stung by her barb, and his eyes became a steely purple. "Afraid of my fuckin' face, little lady? Go on, be afraid. It's not every day you see some fuckin' bloke who had his face burned off by a fuckin' tail pipe."
The blunt explanation startled Kagome, whose brown eyes adopted a sort of pity. "A-a tail pipe did that?"
"Spit out fuckin' flames when I was tryin' to fix the fuckin' thing," Max replied off handedly, as though the story were uninteresting and old hat to him.
"Kagome, this is Fucking Mad Max," Sango interrupted from her car, dangling her arm out the window. "He's a racer from Kyoto, one of the Scorpions."
Drawing in a calming breath, Kagome observed Max levelly and held out her hand. "Kagome Higurashi," she said cooly.
Max looked rather strangely at Kagome's hand before he finally shook it in his much larger one, seeming almost surprised by her sudden lack of fear. After a moment, a look of recognition passed over his face and he muttered, "Inuyasha's lemon curd, right."
Razz, Sango and Kagome all observed the man blankly, bringing an exasperated look to Max's face. "Girlfriend, you dumb sods."
"Oh," they murmured in unison, as though interested by his use of such authentic British Slang.
"Wait, sorry, did you call him Fucking Mad Max?" Kagome said rather suddenly, having just made the connection between both Razz and Sango's presentations of the name.
Razz rubbed the back of his neck absently. "Well, in case you haven't noticed, girl, he loves to say 'fuck.'"
"But that doesn't explain why he knew I was Inuyasha's lem- uh, girlfriend," Kagome said irritatedly, almost reverting back to Max's odd term.
Max shrugged, leaning back against Razz's car with a practiced ease; he seemed very at home around mechanical things, as did most of the gang members at Race Wars. "News travels fast, love. I knew ' bout Bo and Tora nearly..." glancing down at his worn leather watch, Max proclaimed, "Seven hours and twenty minutes ago."
Glancing down at her own watch, Kagome murmured, "That would mean you knew at seven this morning."
"Like I said, news travels fast."
Sango snorted belligerently, obviously not friends with this man. "What the hell were you doing at seven that led to this brilliant discovery?"
Max only shrugged at the comment, as though missing its intended barb. "Well, I was removing explosives from the bottom of the Fangs' fuckin' cars when they came strollin' out holdin' fuckin' hands. It was a pretty obvious, love."
A silence stole the air as fear passed around each and every face in the circle; Sango and Kagome especially looked as though they were about to faint. Razz cleared his throat and attracted Max's attention, unaffected by the man's gnarled face. "Max, whadya mean 'explosives?'"
Shrugging his thin shoulders blithely, Max replied, "I mean fuckin' bombs, mate. Little things about this big that go boom, know what I mean?"
"I know what a bomb is, I'm saying you mean they were planted there? Like sabotage?" Razz pressed, black eyes glittering with anger at every passing word.
Narrowing his violet eyes plantively, Max replied, "Unless you think the Fangs wanted to go for a jolly fuckin' ride and put them there themselves, then that's my guess, yeah. Oh well, I'll leave you to your fuckin' race. Out." Raising his tattooed hand as a sort of casual farewell, Mad Max turned on his thin boot heels and strolled easily away from the other, ignoring their gaping mouths as they puzzled over this recently departed news.
Kagome furrowed her brow and turned to Razz. "Wait...bombs under the cars...sabotage? How did he know the bombs were even there?"
"Max is a combustion demon," the tattooed driver replied, shaking his shaggy head confusedly. "He could probably feel the pulse of the timer, sense the bomb or something. But who would want to blow up your cars?"
Sango snorted, killing her engine and unfolding herself from the car; obviously this was not a good time to race. "Blow up our cars? I doubt this was really about our cars, Razz. I bet it was about us."
Kagome, still stunned by the thought of something like a bomb within such close proximity of their safety, shivered despite the hot weather. "Bombs...that would've kil-"
"We know, Kags," Sango interrupted tightly, obviously unwilling to hear the words spoken aloud. "And we all know who it was. I just hope Naraku knows what he's getting himself into."
Gazing out at the horizon where more races were taking place, Razz narrowed his eyes against the heat and sighed. "I just hope that Max got all the bombs."
"Nice win, man."
"Smoked 'im!"
"Good acceleration, dude; nice ride ya got there."
Miroku stepped gallantly out of his car as a generally excited crowd surrounded him, congratulating him on his recent win over one of the Dragons. Grinning and slapping hands with a few familiar faces, Miroku patted the top of his car gently, as though thanking it for a wonderful ride. He'd matched his opponent wheel for wheel the entire time, racing what was, frankly, a faster car, but he'd shifted the Dragon in the last leg of the race. It was simply his skill as a racer which carried him, not the chassis beneath him. And that made him proud to be a Fang.
As Miroku pocketed his keys, he caught sight of a familiar silver head above the crowd, moving steadily towards him, and he smiled. Inuyasha broke through the front lines, grinning full fanged at his best friend of fifteen years. "Nice, Houshi."
"Thanks Taisho," Miroku replied in kind, clasping hands with Inuyasha and performing a sort of manly secret handshake.
"You go on and do whatever it is the hell you do, the wolf and I got the tune up under control, alright?" Inuyasha said, jerking a thumb at the purple vehicle behind him.
Miroku shrugged, wiping the back of his hand across his forehead; the heat was only intensifying as the day went on. "Suit yourself. Aren't you and Ko still fighting though?"
"Yeah, whatever," Inuyasha muttered, cheeks burning a hot red as he turned away from Miroku's scrutinyzing gaze to attack his work with vigor. Miroku gave a small half smile at his friend's stubborness and turned on his heels, readjusting his sweat soaked jeans as he walked. Inuyasha had barely made it to the car when he spotted a familiar muscled arm, three diagonal claw marks on the bicep, working busily away under the recently opened hood. Kouga was already there.
Trying to ignore the awkwardness creeping up in his throat, Inuyasha saddled up beside Kouga, who was working dilligently away at the engine without a single unfocused glint in his eye. At Inuyasha's appearance, he merely grunted and continued wrenching; he hadn't forgotten the callous insults paid to his entire family, nevertheless him. Inuyasha paused from where he was about to grab his own hammer from the toolbox, sun beating down upon the airport concrete, but he closed it again as a second thought. He couldn't think of a single thing to say in return.
Inuyasha looked out across the open air base, looking at the sea of tents spread before him like a quilt. The nearest tent was a good seventy meters away, as the races took place a safe distance from the living quarters. The fans had cleared out and it was just him and Kouga, the sound of the turning wrench the only strains audible above the general hum of airport life. Sighing, Inuyasha brushed away a drop of sweat dangling from his nose and was about to turn back towards his work when a sudden voice interrupted his thoughts.
Danger.
Blinking, the hanyou glanced this way and that as though searching for the owner of the voice. Kouga looked as though he hadn't heard a thing, continuing his work like there was no tomorrow.
Danger.
This time Inuyasha was quite sure he'd heard it. Standing stark still, Inuyasha held out his hands as though searching for balance when he felt a sudden heat on his palms. Glancing down, he noticed that it was coming from underneath the car. Pulse, pulse, pulse...There was something abnormal about this whole situation and his instincts were trying to make him aware of it. Danger, danger, move, move, move they urged. The hackles on the back of his neck rose threatningly and a cold sweat interrupted the hot one on his brow, combining with the swell of fear in his stomach.
"Kouga..."
The wolf demon paused, glancing up at the hanyou with slight irritation. "What?"
"Move."
"What?"
"Move."
"Why?"< br>
"Now, Kouga."
"Inuy-"
"Move, god dammit!"
Grabbing Kouga's arm in a violent motion, Inuyasha jerked him away from the car with such force that the demon dropped the wrench to the ground. Kouga was about to protest the strange desperation in Inuyasha's mood when he hazarded a glance back at the car. They were only about ten feet away when the most unexpected thing happened.
Miroku's car exploded.
There was an extremely blank silence before a heat engulfed the area, followed closley by the defeaning sound of metal being blown to pieces by an explosion of powerful chemicals. Crashing, grating, screaming and a startling absence of sound which accompanies all loud ones tore through the afternoon air, sending billows of smoke and torrents of flame reaching for the sky. The car was blown at least fifteen feet in the air on sheer explosive power alone, glass cracking beneath the power and wheels melting to a sweltering pile in the chaos.
Kouga found himself thrown violently backwards, entangled with Inuyasha who had somehow appeared behind him during all of this. However fortunate this was for Kouga, it was rather unfortunate for Inuyasha, who was now between the wolf demon and the explosion, a sort of living buffer zone. Shrapnel pelted his back as they careened forward, impaling his flesh and sticking in the muscles of his back. He cried out, a raw howl which echoed in Kouga's ears; he'd never heard Inuyasha cry out in pain like that before.
They landed at about the same time as the car, which created a far louder sound; Inuyasha and Kouga just sort of plopped down on the pavement like potato sacks, bodied scraped and, most of all, burned. By this time, the explosion had attracted quite a bit of attention and the sound of many footsteps slapped against the conrete on a beeline for the fallen demons. Kouga grunted, finally coming about his senses enough to be aware of himself. The wolf demon found himself laying flat on the ground, Inuyasha half on top of him and half laying limply on the ground; even from his position, Kouga could make out shards of glass and metal embedded in the hanyou's back. Blood was trickling down his neck and face, rolling over his pale lips like rain.
Sesshomaru had been enjoying a nice peaceful afternoon of Race Wars paperwork when it was all interrupted by a deafening explosion. Naturally, he'd come running to investigate the noise in his premises, but found nothing like what he'd expected. A car, which he could barely discern as Miroku's, was laying in a smoldering heap some twenty five feet from the bodies of his brother and best friend, who were unmoving at the current time. Of course, Sesshomaru began to run.
Footsteps soon joined his, much faster and skilled; Ranbou was at the Fang leader's side in an instant, normally light hearted eyes a dark and confused blue. His ponytail flew out behind him as he ran, screaming, "Kouga!" in a terrified voice. Sesshomaru, despite the danger to his own kin, felt a striking pity for Ranbou; Kouga was his only true family, besides his Yakuza father and estranged siblings. The brothers and sisters weren't in touch, however, and Sesshomaru was aware. But just the thought of being completely alone...it startled him.
"Yash?" Kouga called out feebly, trying to sit up on his elbows. "Come on, Yash, wake up man." The hanyou didn't stir however, which furthered Kouga's desperate attempts to wake him. "Come on, ya dumb mutt, wake the fuck up!" he cried, voice cracking as he shook Inuyasha's shoulder violently. He recoiled sharply when he felt his finger come open on something sharp; he'd cut himself on a piece of glass protruding from Inuyasha's flesh.
"Ko, are you alright?"
Glancing back at the voice, Kouga looked full into the faces of his brother and best friend. At Sesshomaru's question, he could barely find his voice. "I-I'm...Inuya-"
Sesshomaru and Ranbou knelt down beside their brothers, assessing the damage as best they could. Sesshomaru frantically ran his hands over Inuyasha's back, searching for damange to the spine; he couldn't feel any, though he was anything but a classified doctor. He could however, feel the menagerie of glass and metal pieces tugging at his skin, obviously stuck in his brother's. "Shit," he swore softly, throwing a glance over his shoulder at the still flaming car. "What the hell happened here?"
"Sabotage," came another voice.
Sango and Kagome, upon hearing the blast, came running with only one thought on their mind: friends. They knew the explosion had come from one of their cars for, according to Max, the Fang vehicles were plauged with bombs, planted by Naraku they surmised; they'd been on their way to warn Sesshomaru when the explosion occurred. But they hadn't actually wrapped their minds around the thought of someone getting hurt or worse, dying, from an explosion caused by the catastrophe. They knew Max had removed all the bombs he could find, but they didn't even know if all the vehicles had been present when he discovered the sabotage. Now they knew for sure that he'd missed one.
Kagome had never even dwelled on the thought of Inuyasha getting caught up in all this bomb business. She'd been counting on the misfortune on one of the others for, as heartless as this sounded, she didn't want it affecting her quite as directly as her boyfriend. But now she was feeling the pains of worry spreading through her veins as she made out a bloodied main of white hair collapsed in a heap on the ground, cradled in his brother's arms. It looked so...bad. She couldn't think of another word to put to it, but 'bad' seemed to suit her purposes. He looked like he could never walk or think or talk or breathe again; that's what true death looked like, or so she thought.
"Inuyasha!"
Despite her fear, the scream tore from her throat like a wounded animal's cry. She hurried to his side, running faster than she ever had before, and hurriedly took his face in her hands; he was pale but warm. Dead people were cold, right? But he'd just been through an explosion, she remembered, so wouldn't he be abornmally warm for a while now? She wasn't sure. Of course, she couldn't be quite sure of anything right now. None of this was commonplace or...thinkable.
By this time, a sizeable crowd had gathered some thirty feet away, whispering and talking amongst themselves as they wondered what exactly had gone on. Twin water demons from Kyoto's Jackrabbits hurried through the densely packed crowd, calling in unison, "Coming through!" as they ran towards the flaming car. Raising their hand towards the flaming wreckage, they began systematically moving their way around the car, dousing the flames in streams of clear blue water. It wasn't long after that Miroku came sprinting towards the scene, finding almost everything he cared about in shatters. First there was his car and then there was his best friend; his breath caught in his throat as he saw Sango sitting with the others around Kouga and Inuyasha, obviuosly unharmed. At least one important thing was safe from this disaster.
"Holy shit," he murmured, sparing his car a brief glance before falling to his knees beside Sango and the others. "Yash...Ko, what happened?"
Coughing up grit, Kouga accepted his brother's strong arm as he sat weakly up from his laying position. "It just blew up, man. There must've been something wrong under the hood, or something...Yash seemed to know about it before it happened though. He got us moving just in time."
"It wasn't under the hood, Kouga," Sango murmured, shaking her head. "It was under the chassis. Someone sabotaged our cars. We just found out and we were on our way to tell you."
"What?!" Sesshomaru barked, turning on Sango with the speed of a typhoon. His amber eyes were growing to be an almost inhuman yellow, one which pierced the souls of everyone present. "Sabotage? Who told you this?"
Kagome, unaffected by Sesshomaru's rage, only continued to stroke Inuyasha's head as tears rolled silently down her face. She finally murmured, "Fucking Mad Max. He found them this morning and removed the only ones he could find. We hoped he'd gotten them all but we were going to tell you just in case..." her voice broke as she forced herself to look away from Inuyasha's eerily calm face, biting her lip and forcing her jaw to steady; she wouldn't break down because of sickness or injury. Only when Inuyasha stopped breathing would she break down. And that day was not to day. Not on her watch.
"Holy crap," someone murmured, alerting attention from the circle.
Ayame sprinted towards the chaos, which surrounded the explosion she'd heard mere minutes before. She'd been on the entire other side of the airport, two miles away, and she'd used her demon speed to arrive in two minutes time, only to find her boyfriend laying hurt near the wreckage of Miroku's once stunning race car. Dropping down beside him, the redhead assessed his injuries with her fierce green eyes. "What the fu-"
"My car exploded," Miroku offered, sighing and rubbing his smoke ridden eyes. By now, the water twins had brought the car down to a sort of smoking pile of rubble, which was barely even recognizable as a vehicle. The explosion had done its damage and absolutely nothing was salvageable, as far as the eye could tell. The twins came jogging towards the group, shrugging their thin shoulders and running simultaneous hands through their sky blue hair.
"Sorry, we did what we could," one of them said, offering Miroku an apologetic frown.
"No, you've helped a lot guys. Thanks," Miroku insisted, mustering a weak smile in return for their trouble.
At this point, Rin, Akago and Gan came running to join their friends, the last to arrive but perhaps the most valuable in the situation. When the explosion happened, Rin immediately went in search of the Shark leader and second, knowing they were the only ones adept enough in the medical arts to help should someone need assistance. Gan especially was well trained and Rin knew that, following an explosion, people were hurt; it was just the way things happened.
Akago took in the sight of Miroku's car or, rather, the charred remains of his car, and assessed the situation in one glance. "Well, this is quite the situation," he murmured, kneeling down beside Kouga and allowing Gan to take the more desperately needy of the two.
Without a word, Gan ran his hands over Inuyasha's limbs, his muscles and, finally his spine. Outwardly, Gan the Gun looked calm and concentrated. On the inside, however, female Gan's mind was traveling a mile a minute; Oh God, please don't let the pieces be in his spine, I beg you. I know I've been kinda sinful lately, Kami, but just don't do it to the Fangs, not them. They're such good people, not them...Thank Kami, I'll pray to you more often.
Letting out a breath of air, Gan wiped a hand across his brow and announced, "He's quite fixable. I'll just need to extract the metal and glass. It'll be long and tedious, but easier to do when he's unconcious. We need to get going to the tent. I'm going to need sterile water, tweezers, alcohol, rubber gloves and a bowl to put the shards in." No one moved for a moment, but Gan reitterated fiercely, "Now, people!"
A flurry of movement began as Akago spoke quickly to Ranbou, who was supporting his still shaky-legged brother. The shark leader imparted a few passing words between leaders, instructing him in Kouga's basic care, which involved cleaning him up, putting bandages over the larger cuts, and letting him rest for an hour or two. Inuyasha had sheltered him from most of the damage, which was perhaps the saddest part of it all.
Last but not least, Shitora came sprinting doggedly through the crowd, throwing people to the side as she hurried towards her friends and brothers. She'd been buying cigarettes for herself and Ranbou with Bankotsu in the nearby town when she'd sensed danger and, with their newly purchased cigarettes, she and Bankotsu hurried back to the air base only to find the smoke in the air and the scent of fire permeating the place. They followed smoke to the fire, only to find the "fire" a smoldering pile of junk, before which was a group of their friends.
"Inuyasha!" she screamed, horrified, as she witnessed her strong brother settled limply on Sesshomaru's back, never even so much as twitching at her voice. "What the fuck happened?"
"Someone's been putting bombs on your cars, baby girl," Ranbou told her, stone faced, as he offered Kouga a shoulder to lean on, walking strongly towards the RV to get his brother cleaned up. "Help me, Sukini?"
Nodding dumbly, Shitora spared one last glance at her brother before pausing. "Maybe I should go wi-"
"You don't wanna see that," Ranbou murmured quietly, referring to the medical procedure which was about to go on. He knew that, no matter how hard Shitora tried to prove her strength, she was still weak for her family. Watching Inuyasha's near emasculation would do nothing for her spirit and he wasn't about to subject her to that sort of pain. "C'mon, baby girl."
Kagome walked anxiously at Sesshomaru's side, eyes straight forward and jaw strong; she looked almost unaffected, if not for the slight quiver in her lip. Observing her with a seemingly cold eye, Sesshomaru said quietly, "He's not going to let something as miniscule as an explosion keep him down, Kagome, as I'm sure you well know."
"I know," came Kagome's quiet response. She said nothing more on the subject, never removing her gaze from the straight forward path. Sesshomaru sighed and returned his own gaze forward, returning his mind to the matters at hand; this changed quite a few things about their safety procedures. He wouldn't let it destroy their Race Wars, but by God, those responsible would pay. Sesshomaru was no fool; he was perfectly aware that Naraku was the culprit in all this, but he wasn't going to make a large deal over it. He would, instead, talk to Ranbou about a little revenge. Yes, he thought bitterly, revenge was in order.
The Spiders would pay. They would pay with their lives.
"A senseless act of violence," Gan murmured, initiating conversation where there had once been a deadening silence.
Akago observed the boy quietly, taking in his concentrated violet eyes and pale, markless face. He looked concentrated, cold, stoic, but almost hurt by all this pain and suffering. More than anything, he looked confused; if Akago knew Gan, he was currently dissecting all the ways that the Spiders could've planned this out and why they would do such a thing. Gan was a thinker. A practically flawless thinker.
"Indeed," Akago murmured, leaning back in his chair, still clutching the alcohol rag. "Not unlike the Spiders, I should imagine." After a moment, he murmured, "Is it the 'Tarantulas' or the 'Spiders'? I've heard Naraku call them both."
Shrugging, Gan removed a rather large piece of glass and dropped it in the bowl. "I don't remember, nor do I care. They're bastards. That's what I'll call them. The Bastards."
Akago chuckled humorlessly and wiped down Inuyasha's back once more. "I'll agree to that title. But tell me, Gan, why would they put an explosive on every single car the Fangs possessed? There's a greater chance of them being discovered that way. Why not only one car?"
A voice interrupted their conversation from the tent flap, thick with British drawl and it's usual disdain. "Cause, mate, these were fuckin' chain bombs."
Fucking Mad Max sauntered into the tent, numerous chains jinglings as he took a backwards seat on someone's empty chair, red mohawk casting a strange shadow on the tent as he screwed up his gnarled face. "Rank smell, that."
"Cleaning his back," Gan explained, not at all unused to Max's presence. Max's gang, the Scorpions, was a strong client of the Shark's drug trading business. As Max was often brought along to smell and detect for sabotage in the handoffs, both Gan and Akago were at ease around his gruffness. And his badly burned face.
"So we hear you did a little bomb sniffing this morning," Akago mentioned casually, as though speaking to someone over afternoon tea. His crimson eyes dissected every bit of Max's character in that moment, right down to the toes in his boots. He would know if Max was lying or not; it was often that Akago turned on his mind reading powers, but this was obviously a good situation for them.
"Yeah, fuckin' Fangs didn't clean out their own shit," Max mentioned boredly. Akago sensed no lie. "All in the undercarriages."
"Of all the cars?"
"There was only cars there, mate," Max mentioned. "Coulda been on the fuckin' bikes for all I know. I didn't fuckin' check the bikes; they weren't there."
Letting out a thick stream of air, Akago rubbed wearily at his face, as though not understanding how one situation could make everything so difficult. "Great. So right now, Bo and Tora could be riding around with explosives on their bikes."
At this horrible news Max only shrugged, collapsing down backwards on a folding metal chair. "Yeah, but hardly fuckin' likely. Harder to hide a bomb on a fuckin' bike, less place to put it."
Gan, while the two men discussed the bomb occurrance, was preocuppied with her work on Inuyasha's back. While she appeared stoic on the outside, the only image she could seem to conjur up was that of Kagome's tearstreaked face. Whenever Gan came across a situation that was either heartbreaking or emotionally striking, she tried to put herself in the position of the victim. What if Akago had been laying draped across another, covered in blood, staining his pale skin, white hair, running down and pooling on the concrete. What if he'd been the one saving another but finding himself harmed in the process? What would she be feeling? It was almost unthinkable, the grief and confusion surrounding the whole thing. All Gan could think was "poor Kagome."
"Gan?"
Blinking fiercely, Gan turned to Akago and adopted the voice she'd been masking for three long years. "Yes?"
"How does it look? You're the doctor here."
Running a hand along the back of his neck, the newly assumed Gan the Gun shrugged his thin shoulders and began wiping his hands on a clean rag. "Well, I've done all I can do. It was really just a cleaning sort of job to be honest, but he'll still be in a lot of pain when he wakes up. Knowing Inuyasha, however, he'll be up and moving the minute he opens his eyes."
"Of course; he's a Taisho."
Sesshomaru moved with the grace of his station, gliding towards the table and glancing over his brother's recent treatment. Nodding curtly to show that he approved, the Fang leader murmured, "Fine work, Gan, as always."
Knowing this was high praise coming from Sesshomaru, Gan replied modestly, "Thank you."
Just as he said these words, a grunt emitted from the still body on the table; all those beneath the tent turned and watched in mild amusement as Inuyasha twitched, opening his eyes with some difficulty. "What the hell..." he mumbled, eyes half hooded and a dull gold with sleep.
"Congratulations on surviving a car explosion," Akago said mildly, smile threatening to creep over his lips.
The tent walls flapped in the silence and Inuyasha only continued to stare, eyes half hooded, at the tarp. Finally, he asked gruffly, "Did the wolf survive?"
"Yes, and he's in much better shape than you," Sesshomaru informed him, arms crossed and amber stare piercing. Obviously, the leader was slightly annoyed at Inuyasha's self sacrifice, while simultaneously quite touched and pleased.
"Hn," was Inuyasha's only reply.
"And they call me fuckin' mad," Max joked, grinning in a way which distorted his already mangled flesh.
Inuyasha managed a smile at the familiar voice; he'd always been a fan of Max's insolence. "Max, you sonofabitch."
While the boys bantered, Gan excused himself tactfully from the tent and dodged through the flap, walking across the dirty way to the Fang's original red topped tent. It had no flaps, allowing what little breeze there was to drift pleasantly through, though the people beneath it looked anything but content. Kagome was sitting at the table, flip flops on the ground and legs crossed sadly in her seat. The way her head hung was enough to warrant pity, but she didn't want it; she was never a girl to beg attention from others and Gan knew that. Rin and Ayame sat with her, saying nothing but offering the only encouragement they could with their presence.
"Kagome?"
At the sound of Gan's voice, Kagome looked up from her lap with wide brown eyes; she seemed responsive and alert, only slightly world-worn. "Inuyasha woke up and I thought you might want to see him."
Inuyasha's name brought a certain brightness back to Kagome's eyes and she nodded, jumping up from her chair and hurrying to slide on her sandals. "Excellent! Yeah, I would, thanks Gan. How's he doing?"
Gan was actually surprised at Kagome's resiliance; he'd expected her to be slightly more beaten by all of this, but she appeared to have escaped the worst of it. Truthfully, the was handling it with all the maturity of a woman twice her age. "He's doing fine, already joking with Max," Gan replied casually nonetheless.
The two walked across the way and into the tent, where Akago and Sesshomaru were helping Inuyasha into a sitting position while Max looked on with a rather happy smirk. Seeing Inuyasha's familiar tan face, amber eyes alight with irritation at his injuries, while hair clean from it's previous blood soaked state, did Kagome a great amount of good. "Well, look who finally woke up," she giggled, smiling warmly at her boyfriend.
Kagome's voice certainly had an affect on Inuyasha, who looked as though he would've liked nothing more than to strangle everyone involved in this situation; his back hurt like bloody kingdom come. "Kagome," he murmured, looking up so quickly he nearly wrenched his neck. A smirk slowly formed on his lips. "Yeah, I was just taking a nap, I'll be good for a while."
Sesshomaru and Akago carefully removed their hands as Inuyasha finally managed a sitting position and they stepped back, allowing Kagome to get through to the table. She sat slightly on the edge, taking Inuyasha's hand in hers as he leaned forward, placing a gentle kiss on her forehead.
Gan the girl watched the two with a small smile, wondering what it must feel like to have someone love you so completely. Sure, she knew they probably hadn't come right out and said "I love you," but they certainly were adorable about it all. They would realize their feelings soon enough...or if they already had, they'd disclose them to one another. She hoped.
The tent flapped once more and Kouga ducked beneath the tarp, trying to ignore the heat on his skin as the others aimed their gazes at his face. He could feel Inuyasha's, as well as Sesshomaru's, looking right through his tough facade; he'd been scared shitless that Inuyasha would never wake up at all. Sure, this was a bit dramatic, but every time someone gets hurt, death is always a nagging thought. The wolf demon shuffled his feet, wondering how to behave in the face of a man who insulted your very culture but saved your life.
"Hey," he muttered, inwardly smacking himself; a great opening line to be sure.
There was a silence amongst the others until Kagome smiled and said, "I'm going to go back with Rin and Ayame, but if you need anything, call me, okay?"
Inuyasha just nodded, never removing his eyes from Kouga's. Sesshomaru, Akago, Max and Gan seemed to take Kagome's hint flawlessly and all began filing out the door behind her, never offering a false excuse for their departure; they knew the two demons didn't care about their reasoning anyway. When they were finally alone, Kouga's nervousness waned ever so slightly and he murmured, "So, how you doin?"
"Fine, except for the whole glass part," came Inuyasha's mildly sarcastic reply.
Kouga grinned, knowing this was Inuyasha's way of trying to make him feel at ease. "Yeah, that's a bitch. Anyway, I just wanted to say thanks, man. What you did-"
"Don't mention it," Inuyasha mumbled; he glanced at the ground to hide his blush. "You woulda done the same for me."
"Yeah, but-"
"Forget it ya dumb wolf. I oughta be the one actin' all humble an shit. That stuff I said about your dad, just forget all my crap. You know I say shit like that when I'm angry just to piss people off. I didn't mean it like it came out. Your dad's a great guy," Inuyasha interrupted gruffly, trying to keep the mushy stuff to a minimum. He was, after all, still a tough smelling, beef eating man.
"Thanks Yash," Kouga said sincerely, offering his first real, toothy Ookami smile. "We're even."
"Yeah, Ko. Even."
"Ranbou."
The wolf glanced up at his name, startled to hear Sesshomaru speak after his long silence. "Yeah?"
"I've been meaning to ask you: exactly how did you and my sister end up at your current place?"
The question caught Ranbou off guard and his blue eyes widened considerably, in conjunction with the lurching of his stomach. He hadn't expected Sesshomaru to ask such a thing and, frankly, it was startling. "Uh...I dunno, Shomo," he muttered, rubbing the back of his neck embarrassedly. "I just kinda...blurted it out I guess."
Sesshomaru glanced at Ranbou over his spectacles, fixing the wolf with the most acute glare he could ever remember. There was a pregnant pause, during which both parties refused to yield, and Sesshomaru finally said, "Hm."
This was the extent of it all and Ranbou stood, deciding to high tail it out of the tent while still keeping Shitora's midnight rape story underwraps. After escaping the tight atmosphere of Sesshomaru's scrutiny, Ranbou breathed in a fresh breath of night air, glancing up at the moon and stars with a sense of uneasiness. Ever since they'd arrived at Race Wars, despite the fun and good times, bad things had been happening. It all made him rather...uncomfortable.
He walked slowly towards the RVs, hands shoved in his jean pockets until he could bear the desire no longer. The wolf withdrew a cigarette from his pocketed box and lit it with a familiar motion, drawing in a deep drag and blowing it towards the moon. Some of the discomfort left him, but a good deal of it remained; normally he wouldn't be so affected by all these strange situations, but they were dangerously close to home. Meaning dangerously close to his brother and his girlfriend.
"Hey stranger."
Blinking, Ranbou inhaled the familiar scent of cigarettes, cinammon, grease and sex as Shitora walked softly towards him, out of her normal gang attire. Instead of tight leather and spandex, she wore a pair of sweatpants and a tank top with a pair of ratty flip flops; she was obviously in her pajamas. Her silken white hair shone in the moonlight, piled up in a messy bun, but Ranbou couldn't remember seeing her so beautiful.
"Hey baby girl," he murmured, wrapping his arms around her waist and kissing the top of her head softly. "Going to bed already?"
Shitora shrugged, replying, "The girls went to the mechanics tent with the boys, but I just didn't want to go. Ever since last night, I dunno, I haven't wanted to party very much."
"I know," Ranbou said quietly, tightening his hold; the very remembrance of Bokoru's face sent shivers of anger down his back. "Let's go to sleep, you and me."
When Shitora regarded him with a craftily cocked silver eyebrow, he rolled his eyes and said tiredly, "No sex involved, I swear. I mean sleep. You. Me. Bed...and sleep."
Gazing up into Ranbou's ice blue eyes, Shitora felt a sense of cleanliness and safety. Despite being saved at the last minute, Shitora couldn't help but feel dirtied by her would-be rapest's hands. But now she felt clean, just from looking into those eyes. God, I'm starting to sound like a Harlequin Romance. Oh well, my story's just a little bit different. And better.
"Alright, sleep would be good," she murmured, smiling at her boyfriend with a new sense of heart. "To the girl's RV."
"Sounds like a plan," Ranbou replied with a smile to mirror hers, taking her hand as they walked leisurely towards the girls' RV.
That night, the entirety of the Tokyo South would sleep in peace, but the Tokyo North was a festering pit of anger and bitterness; plans were being hatched and dangerous business relationships strengthened...and none of them were good for the Fangs.
Okay, hit me, hurt me, all that jazz, but I've been really busy with school and I didn't quite know how to connect the last chapter and the next. So here it is, finally, I swear I'll never give up on this story. I love it too much; I'll be okay now, this was the longest you'll ever have to wait, I promise. Seriously, my bad.
Shout outs to Jackie for her fabulous fan art! Here's a link to Laying Down the Law art by Jaclyn Huber:
http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/38799643/ this is a cover art type of thing
http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/39500526/ this is Ranbou and Shitora
Much love Jax!
And now.....
////Poll////
...Does this story need/warrant a lemon? Vote yay or nay in your review!...
Thanks a lot guys; love ya!
KOLU
And now for the story and an apology for being so late at the bottom!
*!*!*!*
The sun was high over the airforce base as Japan's many teen gangs continued their high speed races, vying for honor, wealth and pride. The Fangs, however, were taking a brief break from all the excitement, kicking back beneath the comforting shade of their tent. It was, after all, nearing 47 degrees Celcius at the air base and not even the rushing wind through a Corvette window could kill heat like a cold beer. Besides that, several races had already been won by Southern Tokyo and not even the heat could change that; what was one little break when they were already the best?Shitora whimpered quietly, trying rather unsuccessfully to constrict her hair in a bun. Throughout her life the girl had refrained from wearing her hair anyway but naturally; 47 degrees Celcius was bad enough to break even her lifeless traditions. Suddenly, Shitora found her hair taken gently from her fretful hands before the soothing feeling of raking fingers soon followed. Within seconds, her hair was twisted into a neat little bun, sitting cutely atop her downy white head.
"We really should get you some girl lessons, Sukini. You can't even put up your own hair."
Furrowing her brow, Shitora turned to face Ranbou, whose ice blue eyes were twinkling with mirth against his tan skin. "How do you know so much about putting up hair anyway, huh?"
"Look at my hair Sukini," Ranbou pointed out, gesturing to the neat black ponytail cascading down his back. Shitora frowned; he had a valid point. She could only remember seeing his hair down at important demon clan meetings, but everyone was required to dress in formal clothing and present themselves fashionably; she'd barely even noticed, it was so commonplace.
"Yeah, well...hell, I don't have an answer," the hanyou murmured defeatedly, throwing up her hands in despair.
Ranbou chuckled and wrapped a comforting, strong arm around the girl's shoulders, planting a quick kiss on the top of her head. "You don't need one, Sukini. Your hair looks sexy down anyway."
Despite herself, Shitora couldn't help but smile and giggled in response; something about those cute little gestures of his always seemed to bring a certain light to her face. Kagome watched the two from a distance, standing a few feet outside the tent with a cold beer sweating in her palm.
"I still can't get over them," she murmured to Inuyasha, who was squinting at a blue Lamborghini in the distance. Just the sight of it renewed his delicious desire to finish modifications on his own Diablo.
"Yeah," came Inuyasha's disinterested mutter; when it all came down to it, Inuyasha preferred the thought of Ranbou with his precious sister more so than some pathetic gang punk. He loved most of the gang fellows, of course, but some just couldn't be trusted; Inuyasha was no fool when it came to misplaced loyalties.
Kagome cocked her head to the side, observing her boyfriend's focused amber eyes, before following his gaze toward the horizon. She smiled slightly. "Thinking about your Diablo?"
"What? Oh, yeah," Inuyasha replied rather softly. Still seeming preoccupied, he managed to get out, "I should've worked harder on the damn engine, but the thing was so fucked I figured 'what's the point,' right? I mean, there were other jobs to do and-"
"And you wanted to help everyone else. I know, Yash, I saw," Kagome interrupted, smiling knowingly. "Mister 'don't worry about it, Roku, I got that?' Mister 'sure thing, Tora, hand me that wrench? Mister-"
"I get it," the hanyou repaid her, rolling his eyes plantively before reaching back to pull his wifebeater over his head. What with the sun's relentless intensity, clothing seemed less and less necessary as the day went on. "I'm a pussy who couldn't get his priorities in order and spent all his fucking time on other people's shit, alright?"
"Yeah, alright," Kagome said quietly, slightly chastened by his sharp tone. When Kagome's brown eyes shifted instinctively towards the ground, Inuyasha sighed and took her by the shoulders, forcing her to face him.
"Aw, Kags, I'm just in a bad mood cause I didn't finish the Diablo. Sorry, babe, I didn't mean to be a bastard," he said sourly, hating apologizing yet hating the sadness on her face even more.
After a brief silence, Kagome glanced up and offered him a small smile. "I know, Inuyasha. You don't have to apologize for being in a bad mood."
"Feh. You just lay on the guilt when you look all sad, is all."
At the staunch rebellious look on Inuyasha's face, Kagome laughed and reached up to tweak one of his lily-white ears, grin growing as hs purred contentedly. With her face lingering so close to his, Kagome remembered for the umpteenth time that their lips had never touched. Sure, they touched quite a bit and he often planted possessive kisses on her neck, but an actual kiss was another thing. Though it hadn't happened yet, Kagome was counting on the possibilities surrounding fate and the meaning of the moment. She wanted it to be a memorable kiss and rushing things wouldn't help that at all. No, she would just wait.
"It's almost time for Sango's race and I said I'd be there," the girl muttered, glancing down at her watch. "Shit. Gotta go. See you later?"
Inuyasha kissed her forehead, smiling reassuringly. "Sure thing, babe."
As Kagome hurried off towards Sango's favorite runway, one which she'd been frequenting during the races, she couldn't help but grin; she loved it when Inuyasha called her "babe."
When she arrived, a substantial crowd had gathered around two impressive looking cars, one being Sango's silver Corvette and another belonging to her opponent, a Kyoto gang member by the name of Razz. Razz was a generic looking badboy with a few piercings and tattoos, acclaimed leader of the leading Kyoto gang, the Rhythms. Inuyasha always scoffed about the gang's "gayness" and about how "no one called the Rhythms could possibly do shit on the racetrack." But oh how wrong he was.
Razz's blue Viper, shimmering in the sunlight, was pulled up directly adjacent to Sango's Corvette at the starting line, window rolled down as he chatted blithely with the girl. When Kagome jogged up, saying quickly, "Sorry, Sango," Razz blinked and adjusted his muscled grip on the steering wheel.
"Well who have we here? I don't think we've met."
At the voice Kagome jumped slightly, turning to look through the Viper's window with a hint of hesitation. At the sigh of Razz's friendly yet animalistic grin, she softened slightly; it reminded her of Kouga and Ranbou. "Oh, I'm Kagome."
"Nice to meet you Kagome, I'm Razz," the boy said plesantly, crimson red eyes oddly violent for his calm personality.
Sango cut in amusedly, "He's only the greatest racer in Kyoto. No sweat, right?"
This provoked a barking laugh from Razz, who replied modestly, "I don't know about being the greatest racer. I'm pretty normal, as I see it."
"Uhuh, yeah," Sango joked, before turning back to Kagome. "So, you check out Ranbou and Shitora this morning?"
At these words, Razz's keen demon ears gave a twitch and he grinned, calling, "Did they finally do it? I was gettin' sick of them playin' around."
"Weren't we all," Kagome agreed dryly. "Yeah, they finally did it. I never could get it out of them how it happened though, apparently it's all hush hush. Shitora was all 'it just happened, no big deal,' and Ranbou said, 'ask Shitora.' So basically it was a dead ended conversation."
"Sounds just like them," Razz murmured, shaking his pierced head knowingly. "Well, they deserve it. Lord knows they've gone through enough. I mean, that thing with Shitora an-"
"Yeah, Razz, shut up," Sango interrupted at a low mumble, deliberately avoiding Kagome's eyes. Eyebrows raised curiously, Kagome looked between the two as though awaiting an explanation, but none came. Puzzling over what the two could mean, Kagome decided it was best to change the subject.
"So, you guys are gonna race? For how much?"
At this, the two racers grinned once more and Razz announced boldly, "Two grand. And it's gonna be a close one, I guarantee that."
Before Sango could reply, an abbrassive shout broke the air, interrupting the general conversation in the area with it's British flare. "Fuck, Razz, you get lower and lower ever year. Racing women. Fuck."
Kagome turned to observe the newcomer, who was waltzing arrogantly towards the racers. His hair was quite the oddity, a red mohawk of sorts which curled up like flamed from his bald scalp, clashing violently with his violet eyes. He was decked out in all sorts of leather, though this was to be expected at an event like Race Wars; the real eye catching thing about him, besides his demon ears of course, was the man's gnarled face, which looked as though it had been burned in an accident of some sort. Kagome felt bad for staring, but she couldn't help it; his entire face was distorted.
"Fucking Mad Max," was all Razz said, though the smile was gone from his face.
Sango regarded the man with a likewise cold demeanor. "What the hell do you want, Max?"
"I want to know why the fuck Razz is fuckin' around with some fuckin' chick in a fast fuckin' car, that's what I fuckin' want," Mad Max spat out in reply, fleshy face drawn in an obvious frown.
Before Sango could reply to his outrageous statement, Max turned his attention to Kagome, who was observing him with slight interest and slight dislike. Max grinned, which was quite an odd look on the face of someone so damaged, and took a few bold steps towards Kagome. "What a pretty little lady," he crooned, British drawl even more aparrent. As he neared Kagome, she snapped out of her frozen state and implemented a hard look on her face, eyes narrowed in distaste.
"Get away from me," she spat, voice hard and sharp.
Max scowled immediately, shrinking back as though stung by her barb, and his eyes became a steely purple. "Afraid of my fuckin' face, little lady? Go on, be afraid. It's not every day you see some fuckin' bloke who had his face burned off by a fuckin' tail pipe."
The blunt explanation startled Kagome, whose brown eyes adopted a sort of pity. "A-a tail pipe did that?"
"Spit out fuckin' flames when I was tryin' to fix the fuckin' thing," Max replied off handedly, as though the story were uninteresting and old hat to him.
"Kagome, this is Fucking Mad Max," Sango interrupted from her car, dangling her arm out the window. "He's a racer from Kyoto, one of the Scorpions."
Drawing in a calming breath, Kagome observed Max levelly and held out her hand. "Kagome Higurashi," she said cooly.
Max looked rather strangely at Kagome's hand before he finally shook it in his much larger one, seeming almost surprised by her sudden lack of fear. After a moment, a look of recognition passed over his face and he muttered, "Inuyasha's lemon curd, right."
Razz, Sango and Kagome all observed the man blankly, bringing an exasperated look to Max's face. "Girlfriend, you dumb sods."
"Oh," they murmured in unison, as though interested by his use of such authentic British Slang.
"Wait, sorry, did you call him Fucking Mad Max?" Kagome said rather suddenly, having just made the connection between both Razz and Sango's presentations of the name.
Razz rubbed the back of his neck absently. "Well, in case you haven't noticed, girl, he loves to say 'fuck.'"
"But that doesn't explain why he knew I was Inuyasha's lem- uh, girlfriend," Kagome said irritatedly, almost reverting back to Max's odd term.
Max shrugged, leaning back against Razz's car with a practiced ease; he seemed very at home around mechanical things, as did most of the gang members at Race Wars. "News travels fast, love. I knew ' bout Bo and Tora nearly..." glancing down at his worn leather watch, Max proclaimed, "Seven hours and twenty minutes ago."
Glancing down at her own watch, Kagome murmured, "That would mean you knew at seven this morning."
"Like I said, news travels fast."
Sango snorted belligerently, obviously not friends with this man. "What the hell were you doing at seven that led to this brilliant discovery?"
Max only shrugged at the comment, as though missing its intended barb. "Well, I was removing explosives from the bottom of the Fangs' fuckin' cars when they came strollin' out holdin' fuckin' hands. It was a pretty obvious, love."
A silence stole the air as fear passed around each and every face in the circle; Sango and Kagome especially looked as though they were about to faint. Razz cleared his throat and attracted Max's attention, unaffected by the man's gnarled face. "Max, whadya mean 'explosives?'"
Shrugging his thin shoulders blithely, Max replied, "I mean fuckin' bombs, mate. Little things about this big that go boom, know what I mean?"
"I know what a bomb is, I'm saying you mean they were planted there? Like sabotage?" Razz pressed, black eyes glittering with anger at every passing word.
Narrowing his violet eyes plantively, Max replied, "Unless you think the Fangs wanted to go for a jolly fuckin' ride and put them there themselves, then that's my guess, yeah. Oh well, I'll leave you to your fuckin' race. Out." Raising his tattooed hand as a sort of casual farewell, Mad Max turned on his thin boot heels and strolled easily away from the other, ignoring their gaping mouths as they puzzled over this recently departed news.
Kagome furrowed her brow and turned to Razz. "Wait...bombs under the cars...sabotage? How did he know the bombs were even there?"
"Max is a combustion demon," the tattooed driver replied, shaking his shaggy head confusedly. "He could probably feel the pulse of the timer, sense the bomb or something. But who would want to blow up your cars?"
Sango snorted, killing her engine and unfolding herself from the car; obviously this was not a good time to race. "Blow up our cars? I doubt this was really about our cars, Razz. I bet it was about us."
Kagome, still stunned by the thought of something like a bomb within such close proximity of their safety, shivered despite the hot weather. "Bombs...that would've kil-"
"We know, Kags," Sango interrupted tightly, obviously unwilling to hear the words spoken aloud. "And we all know who it was. I just hope Naraku knows what he's getting himself into."
Gazing out at the horizon where more races were taking place, Razz narrowed his eyes against the heat and sighed. "I just hope that Max got all the bombs."
*!*!*!*
"Way to go Miroku!""Nice win, man."
"Smoked 'im!"
"Good acceleration, dude; nice ride ya got there."
Miroku stepped gallantly out of his car as a generally excited crowd surrounded him, congratulating him on his recent win over one of the Dragons. Grinning and slapping hands with a few familiar faces, Miroku patted the top of his car gently, as though thanking it for a wonderful ride. He'd matched his opponent wheel for wheel the entire time, racing what was, frankly, a faster car, but he'd shifted the Dragon in the last leg of the race. It was simply his skill as a racer which carried him, not the chassis beneath him. And that made him proud to be a Fang.
As Miroku pocketed his keys, he caught sight of a familiar silver head above the crowd, moving steadily towards him, and he smiled. Inuyasha broke through the front lines, grinning full fanged at his best friend of fifteen years. "Nice, Houshi."
"Thanks Taisho," Miroku replied in kind, clasping hands with Inuyasha and performing a sort of manly secret handshake.
"You go on and do whatever it is the hell you do, the wolf and I got the tune up under control, alright?" Inuyasha said, jerking a thumb at the purple vehicle behind him.
Miroku shrugged, wiping the back of his hand across his forehead; the heat was only intensifying as the day went on. "Suit yourself. Aren't you and Ko still fighting though?"
"Yeah, whatever," Inuyasha muttered, cheeks burning a hot red as he turned away from Miroku's scrutinyzing gaze to attack his work with vigor. Miroku gave a small half smile at his friend's stubborness and turned on his heels, readjusting his sweat soaked jeans as he walked. Inuyasha had barely made it to the car when he spotted a familiar muscled arm, three diagonal claw marks on the bicep, working busily away under the recently opened hood. Kouga was already there.
Trying to ignore the awkwardness creeping up in his throat, Inuyasha saddled up beside Kouga, who was working dilligently away at the engine without a single unfocused glint in his eye. At Inuyasha's appearance, he merely grunted and continued wrenching; he hadn't forgotten the callous insults paid to his entire family, nevertheless him. Inuyasha paused from where he was about to grab his own hammer from the toolbox, sun beating down upon the airport concrete, but he closed it again as a second thought. He couldn't think of a single thing to say in return.
Inuyasha looked out across the open air base, looking at the sea of tents spread before him like a quilt. The nearest tent was a good seventy meters away, as the races took place a safe distance from the living quarters. The fans had cleared out and it was just him and Kouga, the sound of the turning wrench the only strains audible above the general hum of airport life. Sighing, Inuyasha brushed away a drop of sweat dangling from his nose and was about to turn back towards his work when a sudden voice interrupted his thoughts.
Danger.
Blinking, the hanyou glanced this way and that as though searching for the owner of the voice. Kouga looked as though he hadn't heard a thing, continuing his work like there was no tomorrow.
Danger.
This time Inuyasha was quite sure he'd heard it. Standing stark still, Inuyasha held out his hands as though searching for balance when he felt a sudden heat on his palms. Glancing down, he noticed that it was coming from underneath the car. Pulse, pulse, pulse...There was something abnormal about this whole situation and his instincts were trying to make him aware of it. Danger, danger, move, move, move they urged. The hackles on the back of his neck rose threatningly and a cold sweat interrupted the hot one on his brow, combining with the swell of fear in his stomach.
"Kouga..."
The wolf demon paused, glancing up at the hanyou with slight irritation. "What?"
"Move."
"What?"
"Move."
"Why?"< br>
"Now, Kouga."
"Inuy-"
"Move, god dammit!"
Grabbing Kouga's arm in a violent motion, Inuyasha jerked him away from the car with such force that the demon dropped the wrench to the ground. Kouga was about to protest the strange desperation in Inuyasha's mood when he hazarded a glance back at the car. They were only about ten feet away when the most unexpected thing happened.
Miroku's car exploded.
There was an extremely blank silence before a heat engulfed the area, followed closley by the defeaning sound of metal being blown to pieces by an explosion of powerful chemicals. Crashing, grating, screaming and a startling absence of sound which accompanies all loud ones tore through the afternoon air, sending billows of smoke and torrents of flame reaching for the sky. The car was blown at least fifteen feet in the air on sheer explosive power alone, glass cracking beneath the power and wheels melting to a sweltering pile in the chaos.
Kouga found himself thrown violently backwards, entangled with Inuyasha who had somehow appeared behind him during all of this. However fortunate this was for Kouga, it was rather unfortunate for Inuyasha, who was now between the wolf demon and the explosion, a sort of living buffer zone. Shrapnel pelted his back as they careened forward, impaling his flesh and sticking in the muscles of his back. He cried out, a raw howl which echoed in Kouga's ears; he'd never heard Inuyasha cry out in pain like that before.
They landed at about the same time as the car, which created a far louder sound; Inuyasha and Kouga just sort of plopped down on the pavement like potato sacks, bodied scraped and, most of all, burned. By this time, the explosion had attracted quite a bit of attention and the sound of many footsteps slapped against the conrete on a beeline for the fallen demons. Kouga grunted, finally coming about his senses enough to be aware of himself. The wolf demon found himself laying flat on the ground, Inuyasha half on top of him and half laying limply on the ground; even from his position, Kouga could make out shards of glass and metal embedded in the hanyou's back. Blood was trickling down his neck and face, rolling over his pale lips like rain.
Sesshomaru had been enjoying a nice peaceful afternoon of Race Wars paperwork when it was all interrupted by a deafening explosion. Naturally, he'd come running to investigate the noise in his premises, but found nothing like what he'd expected. A car, which he could barely discern as Miroku's, was laying in a smoldering heap some twenty five feet from the bodies of his brother and best friend, who were unmoving at the current time. Of course, Sesshomaru began to run.
Footsteps soon joined his, much faster and skilled; Ranbou was at the Fang leader's side in an instant, normally light hearted eyes a dark and confused blue. His ponytail flew out behind him as he ran, screaming, "Kouga!" in a terrified voice. Sesshomaru, despite the danger to his own kin, felt a striking pity for Ranbou; Kouga was his only true family, besides his Yakuza father and estranged siblings. The brothers and sisters weren't in touch, however, and Sesshomaru was aware. But just the thought of being completely alone...it startled him.
"Yash?" Kouga called out feebly, trying to sit up on his elbows. "Come on, Yash, wake up man." The hanyou didn't stir however, which furthered Kouga's desperate attempts to wake him. "Come on, ya dumb mutt, wake the fuck up!" he cried, voice cracking as he shook Inuyasha's shoulder violently. He recoiled sharply when he felt his finger come open on something sharp; he'd cut himself on a piece of glass protruding from Inuyasha's flesh.
"Ko, are you alright?"
Glancing back at the voice, Kouga looked full into the faces of his brother and best friend. At Sesshomaru's question, he could barely find his voice. "I-I'm...Inuya-"
Sesshomaru and Ranbou knelt down beside their brothers, assessing the damage as best they could. Sesshomaru frantically ran his hands over Inuyasha's back, searching for damange to the spine; he couldn't feel any, though he was anything but a classified doctor. He could however, feel the menagerie of glass and metal pieces tugging at his skin, obviously stuck in his brother's. "Shit," he swore softly, throwing a glance over his shoulder at the still flaming car. "What the hell happened here?"
"Sabotage," came another voice.
Sango and Kagome, upon hearing the blast, came running with only one thought on their mind: friends. They knew the explosion had come from one of their cars for, according to Max, the Fang vehicles were plauged with bombs, planted by Naraku they surmised; they'd been on their way to warn Sesshomaru when the explosion occurred. But they hadn't actually wrapped their minds around the thought of someone getting hurt or worse, dying, from an explosion caused by the catastrophe. They knew Max had removed all the bombs he could find, but they didn't even know if all the vehicles had been present when he discovered the sabotage. Now they knew for sure that he'd missed one.
Kagome had never even dwelled on the thought of Inuyasha getting caught up in all this bomb business. She'd been counting on the misfortune on one of the others for, as heartless as this sounded, she didn't want it affecting her quite as directly as her boyfriend. But now she was feeling the pains of worry spreading through her veins as she made out a bloodied main of white hair collapsed in a heap on the ground, cradled in his brother's arms. It looked so...bad. She couldn't think of another word to put to it, but 'bad' seemed to suit her purposes. He looked like he could never walk or think or talk or breathe again; that's what true death looked like, or so she thought.
"Inuyasha!"
Despite her fear, the scream tore from her throat like a wounded animal's cry. She hurried to his side, running faster than she ever had before, and hurriedly took his face in her hands; he was pale but warm. Dead people were cold, right? But he'd just been through an explosion, she remembered, so wouldn't he be abornmally warm for a while now? She wasn't sure. Of course, she couldn't be quite sure of anything right now. None of this was commonplace or...thinkable.
By this time, a sizeable crowd had gathered some thirty feet away, whispering and talking amongst themselves as they wondered what exactly had gone on. Twin water demons from Kyoto's Jackrabbits hurried through the densely packed crowd, calling in unison, "Coming through!" as they ran towards the flaming car. Raising their hand towards the flaming wreckage, they began systematically moving their way around the car, dousing the flames in streams of clear blue water. It wasn't long after that Miroku came sprinting towards the scene, finding almost everything he cared about in shatters. First there was his car and then there was his best friend; his breath caught in his throat as he saw Sango sitting with the others around Kouga and Inuyasha, obviuosly unharmed. At least one important thing was safe from this disaster.
"Holy shit," he murmured, sparing his car a brief glance before falling to his knees beside Sango and the others. "Yash...Ko, what happened?"
Coughing up grit, Kouga accepted his brother's strong arm as he sat weakly up from his laying position. "It just blew up, man. There must've been something wrong under the hood, or something...Yash seemed to know about it before it happened though. He got us moving just in time."
"It wasn't under the hood, Kouga," Sango murmured, shaking her head. "It was under the chassis. Someone sabotaged our cars. We just found out and we were on our way to tell you."
"What?!" Sesshomaru barked, turning on Sango with the speed of a typhoon. His amber eyes were growing to be an almost inhuman yellow, one which pierced the souls of everyone present. "Sabotage? Who told you this?"
Kagome, unaffected by Sesshomaru's rage, only continued to stroke Inuyasha's head as tears rolled silently down her face. She finally murmured, "Fucking Mad Max. He found them this morning and removed the only ones he could find. We hoped he'd gotten them all but we were going to tell you just in case..." her voice broke as she forced herself to look away from Inuyasha's eerily calm face, biting her lip and forcing her jaw to steady; she wouldn't break down because of sickness or injury. Only when Inuyasha stopped breathing would she break down. And that day was not to day. Not on her watch.
"Holy crap," someone murmured, alerting attention from the circle.
Ayame sprinted towards the chaos, which surrounded the explosion she'd heard mere minutes before. She'd been on the entire other side of the airport, two miles away, and she'd used her demon speed to arrive in two minutes time, only to find her boyfriend laying hurt near the wreckage of Miroku's once stunning race car. Dropping down beside him, the redhead assessed his injuries with her fierce green eyes. "What the fu-"
"My car exploded," Miroku offered, sighing and rubbing his smoke ridden eyes. By now, the water twins had brought the car down to a sort of smoking pile of rubble, which was barely even recognizable as a vehicle. The explosion had done its damage and absolutely nothing was salvageable, as far as the eye could tell. The twins came jogging towards the group, shrugging their thin shoulders and running simultaneous hands through their sky blue hair.
"Sorry, we did what we could," one of them said, offering Miroku an apologetic frown.
"No, you've helped a lot guys. Thanks," Miroku insisted, mustering a weak smile in return for their trouble.
At this point, Rin, Akago and Gan came running to join their friends, the last to arrive but perhaps the most valuable in the situation. When the explosion happened, Rin immediately went in search of the Shark leader and second, knowing they were the only ones adept enough in the medical arts to help should someone need assistance. Gan especially was well trained and Rin knew that, following an explosion, people were hurt; it was just the way things happened.
Akago took in the sight of Miroku's car or, rather, the charred remains of his car, and assessed the situation in one glance. "Well, this is quite the situation," he murmured, kneeling down beside Kouga and allowing Gan to take the more desperately needy of the two.
Without a word, Gan ran his hands over Inuyasha's limbs, his muscles and, finally his spine. Outwardly, Gan the Gun looked calm and concentrated. On the inside, however, female Gan's mind was traveling a mile a minute; Oh God, please don't let the pieces be in his spine, I beg you. I know I've been kinda sinful lately, Kami, but just don't do it to the Fangs, not them. They're such good people, not them...Thank Kami, I'll pray to you more often.
Letting out a breath of air, Gan wiped a hand across his brow and announced, "He's quite fixable. I'll just need to extract the metal and glass. It'll be long and tedious, but easier to do when he's unconcious. We need to get going to the tent. I'm going to need sterile water, tweezers, alcohol, rubber gloves and a bowl to put the shards in." No one moved for a moment, but Gan reitterated fiercely, "Now, people!"
A flurry of movement began as Akago spoke quickly to Ranbou, who was supporting his still shaky-legged brother. The shark leader imparted a few passing words between leaders, instructing him in Kouga's basic care, which involved cleaning him up, putting bandages over the larger cuts, and letting him rest for an hour or two. Inuyasha had sheltered him from most of the damage, which was perhaps the saddest part of it all.
Last but not least, Shitora came sprinting doggedly through the crowd, throwing people to the side as she hurried towards her friends and brothers. She'd been buying cigarettes for herself and Ranbou with Bankotsu in the nearby town when she'd sensed danger and, with their newly purchased cigarettes, she and Bankotsu hurried back to the air base only to find the smoke in the air and the scent of fire permeating the place. They followed smoke to the fire, only to find the "fire" a smoldering pile of junk, before which was a group of their friends.
"Inuyasha!" she screamed, horrified, as she witnessed her strong brother settled limply on Sesshomaru's back, never even so much as twitching at her voice. "What the fuck happened?"
"Someone's been putting bombs on your cars, baby girl," Ranbou told her, stone faced, as he offered Kouga a shoulder to lean on, walking strongly towards the RV to get his brother cleaned up. "Help me, Sukini?"
Nodding dumbly, Shitora spared one last glance at her brother before pausing. "Maybe I should go wi-"
"You don't wanna see that," Ranbou murmured quietly, referring to the medical procedure which was about to go on. He knew that, no matter how hard Shitora tried to prove her strength, she was still weak for her family. Watching Inuyasha's near emasculation would do nothing for her spirit and he wasn't about to subject her to that sort of pain. "C'mon, baby girl."
Kagome walked anxiously at Sesshomaru's side, eyes straight forward and jaw strong; she looked almost unaffected, if not for the slight quiver in her lip. Observing her with a seemingly cold eye, Sesshomaru said quietly, "He's not going to let something as miniscule as an explosion keep him down, Kagome, as I'm sure you well know."
"I know," came Kagome's quiet response. She said nothing more on the subject, never removing her gaze from the straight forward path. Sesshomaru sighed and returned his own gaze forward, returning his mind to the matters at hand; this changed quite a few things about their safety procedures. He wouldn't let it destroy their Race Wars, but by God, those responsible would pay. Sesshomaru was no fool; he was perfectly aware that Naraku was the culprit in all this, but he wasn't going to make a large deal over it. He would, instead, talk to Ranbou about a little revenge. Yes, he thought bitterly, revenge was in order.
The Spiders would pay. They would pay with their lives.
*!*!*!*
Gan worked quietly away at Inuyasha's pack, removing each sliver of glass and metal with the tweezers, allowing them to drop in the bowl with distinctive metallic clinks. Akago watched his second in command work, occasionally wiping Inuyasha's skin with an alcohol soaked rag to prevent infection. The crackling of raw flesh was truly sickening, but both Sharks had seen worse in their lives."A senseless act of violence," Gan murmured, initiating conversation where there had once been a deadening silence.
Akago observed the boy quietly, taking in his concentrated violet eyes and pale, markless face. He looked concentrated, cold, stoic, but almost hurt by all this pain and suffering. More than anything, he looked confused; if Akago knew Gan, he was currently dissecting all the ways that the Spiders could've planned this out and why they would do such a thing. Gan was a thinker. A practically flawless thinker.
"Indeed," Akago murmured, leaning back in his chair, still clutching the alcohol rag. "Not unlike the Spiders, I should imagine." After a moment, he murmured, "Is it the 'Tarantulas' or the 'Spiders'? I've heard Naraku call them both."
Shrugging, Gan removed a rather large piece of glass and dropped it in the bowl. "I don't remember, nor do I care. They're bastards. That's what I'll call them. The Bastards."
Akago chuckled humorlessly and wiped down Inuyasha's back once more. "I'll agree to that title. But tell me, Gan, why would they put an explosive on every single car the Fangs possessed? There's a greater chance of them being discovered that way. Why not only one car?"
A voice interrupted their conversation from the tent flap, thick with British drawl and it's usual disdain. "Cause, mate, these were fuckin' chain bombs."
Fucking Mad Max sauntered into the tent, numerous chains jinglings as he took a backwards seat on someone's empty chair, red mohawk casting a strange shadow on the tent as he screwed up his gnarled face. "Rank smell, that."
"Cleaning his back," Gan explained, not at all unused to Max's presence. Max's gang, the Scorpions, was a strong client of the Shark's drug trading business. As Max was often brought along to smell and detect for sabotage in the handoffs, both Gan and Akago were at ease around his gruffness. And his badly burned face.
"So we hear you did a little bomb sniffing this morning," Akago mentioned casually, as though speaking to someone over afternoon tea. His crimson eyes dissected every bit of Max's character in that moment, right down to the toes in his boots. He would know if Max was lying or not; it was often that Akago turned on his mind reading powers, but this was obviously a good situation for them.
"Yeah, fuckin' Fangs didn't clean out their own shit," Max mentioned boredly. Akago sensed no lie. "All in the undercarriages."
"Of all the cars?"
"There was only cars there, mate," Max mentioned. "Coulda been on the fuckin' bikes for all I know. I didn't fuckin' check the bikes; they weren't there."
Letting out a thick stream of air, Akago rubbed wearily at his face, as though not understanding how one situation could make everything so difficult. "Great. So right now, Bo and Tora could be riding around with explosives on their bikes."
At this horrible news Max only shrugged, collapsing down backwards on a folding metal chair. "Yeah, but hardly fuckin' likely. Harder to hide a bomb on a fuckin' bike, less place to put it."
Gan, while the two men discussed the bomb occurrance, was preocuppied with her work on Inuyasha's back. While she appeared stoic on the outside, the only image she could seem to conjur up was that of Kagome's tearstreaked face. Whenever Gan came across a situation that was either heartbreaking or emotionally striking, she tried to put herself in the position of the victim. What if Akago had been laying draped across another, covered in blood, staining his pale skin, white hair, running down and pooling on the concrete. What if he'd been the one saving another but finding himself harmed in the process? What would she be feeling? It was almost unthinkable, the grief and confusion surrounding the whole thing. All Gan could think was "poor Kagome."
"Gan?"
Blinking fiercely, Gan turned to Akago and adopted the voice she'd been masking for three long years. "Yes?"
"How does it look? You're the doctor here."
Running a hand along the back of his neck, the newly assumed Gan the Gun shrugged his thin shoulders and began wiping his hands on a clean rag. "Well, I've done all I can do. It was really just a cleaning sort of job to be honest, but he'll still be in a lot of pain when he wakes up. Knowing Inuyasha, however, he'll be up and moving the minute he opens his eyes."
"Of course; he's a Taisho."
Sesshomaru moved with the grace of his station, gliding towards the table and glancing over his brother's recent treatment. Nodding curtly to show that he approved, the Fang leader murmured, "Fine work, Gan, as always."
Knowing this was high praise coming from Sesshomaru, Gan replied modestly, "Thank you."
Just as he said these words, a grunt emitted from the still body on the table; all those beneath the tent turned and watched in mild amusement as Inuyasha twitched, opening his eyes with some difficulty. "What the hell..." he mumbled, eyes half hooded and a dull gold with sleep.
"Congratulations on surviving a car explosion," Akago said mildly, smile threatening to creep over his lips.
The tent walls flapped in the silence and Inuyasha only continued to stare, eyes half hooded, at the tarp. Finally, he asked gruffly, "Did the wolf survive?"
"Yes, and he's in much better shape than you," Sesshomaru informed him, arms crossed and amber stare piercing. Obviously, the leader was slightly annoyed at Inuyasha's self sacrifice, while simultaneously quite touched and pleased.
"Hn," was Inuyasha's only reply.
"And they call me fuckin' mad," Max joked, grinning in a way which distorted his already mangled flesh.
Inuyasha managed a smile at the familiar voice; he'd always been a fan of Max's insolence. "Max, you sonofabitch."
While the boys bantered, Gan excused himself tactfully from the tent and dodged through the flap, walking across the dirty way to the Fang's original red topped tent. It had no flaps, allowing what little breeze there was to drift pleasantly through, though the people beneath it looked anything but content. Kagome was sitting at the table, flip flops on the ground and legs crossed sadly in her seat. The way her head hung was enough to warrant pity, but she didn't want it; she was never a girl to beg attention from others and Gan knew that. Rin and Ayame sat with her, saying nothing but offering the only encouragement they could with their presence.
"Kagome?"
At the sound of Gan's voice, Kagome looked up from her lap with wide brown eyes; she seemed responsive and alert, only slightly world-worn. "Inuyasha woke up and I thought you might want to see him."
Inuyasha's name brought a certain brightness back to Kagome's eyes and she nodded, jumping up from her chair and hurrying to slide on her sandals. "Excellent! Yeah, I would, thanks Gan. How's he doing?"
Gan was actually surprised at Kagome's resiliance; he'd expected her to be slightly more beaten by all of this, but she appeared to have escaped the worst of it. Truthfully, the was handling it with all the maturity of a woman twice her age. "He's doing fine, already joking with Max," Gan replied casually nonetheless.
The two walked across the way and into the tent, where Akago and Sesshomaru were helping Inuyasha into a sitting position while Max looked on with a rather happy smirk. Seeing Inuyasha's familiar tan face, amber eyes alight with irritation at his injuries, while hair clean from it's previous blood soaked state, did Kagome a great amount of good. "Well, look who finally woke up," she giggled, smiling warmly at her boyfriend.
Kagome's voice certainly had an affect on Inuyasha, who looked as though he would've liked nothing more than to strangle everyone involved in this situation; his back hurt like bloody kingdom come. "Kagome," he murmured, looking up so quickly he nearly wrenched his neck. A smirk slowly formed on his lips. "Yeah, I was just taking a nap, I'll be good for a while."
Sesshomaru and Akago carefully removed their hands as Inuyasha finally managed a sitting position and they stepped back, allowing Kagome to get through to the table. She sat slightly on the edge, taking Inuyasha's hand in hers as he leaned forward, placing a gentle kiss on her forehead.
Gan the girl watched the two with a small smile, wondering what it must feel like to have someone love you so completely. Sure, she knew they probably hadn't come right out and said "I love you," but they certainly were adorable about it all. They would realize their feelings soon enough...or if they already had, they'd disclose them to one another. She hoped.
The tent flapped once more and Kouga ducked beneath the tarp, trying to ignore the heat on his skin as the others aimed their gazes at his face. He could feel Inuyasha's, as well as Sesshomaru's, looking right through his tough facade; he'd been scared shitless that Inuyasha would never wake up at all. Sure, this was a bit dramatic, but every time someone gets hurt, death is always a nagging thought. The wolf demon shuffled his feet, wondering how to behave in the face of a man who insulted your very culture but saved your life.
"Hey," he muttered, inwardly smacking himself; a great opening line to be sure.
There was a silence amongst the others until Kagome smiled and said, "I'm going to go back with Rin and Ayame, but if you need anything, call me, okay?"
Inuyasha just nodded, never removing his eyes from Kouga's. Sesshomaru, Akago, Max and Gan seemed to take Kagome's hint flawlessly and all began filing out the door behind her, never offering a false excuse for their departure; they knew the two demons didn't care about their reasoning anyway. When they were finally alone, Kouga's nervousness waned ever so slightly and he murmured, "So, how you doin?"
"Fine, except for the whole glass part," came Inuyasha's mildly sarcastic reply.
Kouga grinned, knowing this was Inuyasha's way of trying to make him feel at ease. "Yeah, that's a bitch. Anyway, I just wanted to say thanks, man. What you did-"
"Don't mention it," Inuyasha mumbled; he glanced at the ground to hide his blush. "You woulda done the same for me."
"Yeah, but-"
"Forget it ya dumb wolf. I oughta be the one actin' all humble an shit. That stuff I said about your dad, just forget all my crap. You know I say shit like that when I'm angry just to piss people off. I didn't mean it like it came out. Your dad's a great guy," Inuyasha interrupted gruffly, trying to keep the mushy stuff to a minimum. He was, after all, still a tough smelling, beef eating man.
"Thanks Yash," Kouga said sincerely, offering his first real, toothy Ookami smile. "We're even."
"Yeah, Ko. Even."
*!*!*!*
That night, Sesshomaru sat beneath the fangs tent with a calculator and several slips laid out on the table, along with several piles of paper cash. Wearing his spectacles and tapping along on the calculator with his pencil eraser, the Fang leader looked like nothing more than an old businessman, tidying up his earnings. Ranbou sat nearby with his motorcycle, polishing the chrome plating after recently finishing a routine check over for explosives. Normally, he would go to the mechanics tent, which was a large circus tent erected for the sheer purpose of fixing vehicles inside. Some of the best gang mechanics in the country were there and, if you needed your car fixed, Race Wars was the place to do it. Tonight, however, Ranbou just didn't feel like hanging out with the other guys. In fact, after he was done polishing, he was going to join Shitora for some good old fashioned relaxation."Ranbou."
The wolf glanced up at his name, startled to hear Sesshomaru speak after his long silence. "Yeah?"
"I've been meaning to ask you: exactly how did you and my sister end up at your current place?"
The question caught Ranbou off guard and his blue eyes widened considerably, in conjunction with the lurching of his stomach. He hadn't expected Sesshomaru to ask such a thing and, frankly, it was startling. "Uh...I dunno, Shomo," he muttered, rubbing the back of his neck embarrassedly. "I just kinda...blurted it out I guess."
Sesshomaru glanced at Ranbou over his spectacles, fixing the wolf with the most acute glare he could ever remember. There was a pregnant pause, during which both parties refused to yield, and Sesshomaru finally said, "Hm."
This was the extent of it all and Ranbou stood, deciding to high tail it out of the tent while still keeping Shitora's midnight rape story underwraps. After escaping the tight atmosphere of Sesshomaru's scrutiny, Ranbou breathed in a fresh breath of night air, glancing up at the moon and stars with a sense of uneasiness. Ever since they'd arrived at Race Wars, despite the fun and good times, bad things had been happening. It all made him rather...uncomfortable.
He walked slowly towards the RVs, hands shoved in his jean pockets until he could bear the desire no longer. The wolf withdrew a cigarette from his pocketed box and lit it with a familiar motion, drawing in a deep drag and blowing it towards the moon. Some of the discomfort left him, but a good deal of it remained; normally he wouldn't be so affected by all these strange situations, but they were dangerously close to home. Meaning dangerously close to his brother and his girlfriend.
"Hey stranger."
Blinking, Ranbou inhaled the familiar scent of cigarettes, cinammon, grease and sex as Shitora walked softly towards him, out of her normal gang attire. Instead of tight leather and spandex, she wore a pair of sweatpants and a tank top with a pair of ratty flip flops; she was obviously in her pajamas. Her silken white hair shone in the moonlight, piled up in a messy bun, but Ranbou couldn't remember seeing her so beautiful.
"Hey baby girl," he murmured, wrapping his arms around her waist and kissing the top of her head softly. "Going to bed already?"
Shitora shrugged, replying, "The girls went to the mechanics tent with the boys, but I just didn't want to go. Ever since last night, I dunno, I haven't wanted to party very much."
"I know," Ranbou said quietly, tightening his hold; the very remembrance of Bokoru's face sent shivers of anger down his back. "Let's go to sleep, you and me."
When Shitora regarded him with a craftily cocked silver eyebrow, he rolled his eyes and said tiredly, "No sex involved, I swear. I mean sleep. You. Me. Bed...and sleep."
Gazing up into Ranbou's ice blue eyes, Shitora felt a sense of cleanliness and safety. Despite being saved at the last minute, Shitora couldn't help but feel dirtied by her would-be rapest's hands. But now she felt clean, just from looking into those eyes. God, I'm starting to sound like a Harlequin Romance. Oh well, my story's just a little bit different. And better.
"Alright, sleep would be good," she murmured, smiling at her boyfriend with a new sense of heart. "To the girl's RV."
"Sounds like a plan," Ranbou replied with a smile to mirror hers, taking her hand as they walked leisurely towards the girls' RV.
That night, the entirety of the Tokyo South would sleep in peace, but the Tokyo North was a festering pit of anger and bitterness; plans were being hatched and dangerous business relationships strengthened...and none of them were good for the Fangs.
Okay, hit me, hurt me, all that jazz, but I've been really busy with school and I didn't quite know how to connect the last chapter and the next. So here it is, finally, I swear I'll never give up on this story. I love it too much; I'll be okay now, this was the longest you'll ever have to wait, I promise. Seriously, my bad.
Shout outs to Jackie for her fabulous fan art! Here's a link to Laying Down the Law art by Jaclyn Huber:
http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/38799643/ this is a cover art type of thing
http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/39500526/ this is Ranbou and Shitora
Much love Jax!
And now.....
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KOLU