InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Shades of Gray ❯ Conspiracy Theory ( Chapter 33 )

~<>~ Shades of Gray ~<>~

 

~<>~ Chapter 33 ~<>~ Conspiracy Theory

 

 

Standing in front of the tiny condo, InuYasha glanced right and then left. He eyed the cars that lined the street wearily before assuring to himself this would not illicit some deeply unwanted confrontation. With a sigh he dashed the cigarette, which hung limply from the corner of his mouth, against the bottom of his shoe and lethargically made his way up the icy steps. Rapping his knuckles against the door twice, he shoved his hands into his pockets and sat back on his heels. To be honest, he wasn't sure why he was here. There were so many things that he needed to be doing, so many things that he needed to get off his chest, and yet this was where he was. It could be that a part of him still felt responsible for this entire mess. That seemed to be a recent trend in his life, he noted without mirth. After all, he had forced the confrontation, he had contributed to the unorthodox chaos and he had made the God awful mistake.

 

The front door opened and the young girl behind the glass paused, her eye brows drawing together in what seemed to be a sudden flurry of anger. “What?” Her tone answered his unvoiced questions about guilt.

 

InuYasha grimaced, that was not really the welcome that he wanted but rather the one he deserved. She was angry with him and he couldn't say that he blamed her. Digging his nails against the material of his Levis Jeans from the confines of his pocket, he looked a little above the fuming girl's head. From what he could see of the inside of the apartment, the place looked to be in shambles. “I…”

 

“Spit it out, InuYasha, I have a lot on my day planner for today and don't really have time to sit here and fume. What do you want?”

 

InuYasha swallowed down what little hubris was left in his system and met her dark glower. Those brown eyes that he normally knew to be so fill of bubbly laughter and life seemed so empty. “God he did a number on you, didn't he?” Why did he even bother? Wincing at the words he shouldn't have said, he shoved his foot into the door before she had a chance to slam it. Instead it just hurt like hell when the wood ricocheted off his boot.

 

Brown eyes met his in a fit of rage. Her hand remained wrapped around the door she had attempted to slam as she yelled some more. “I do not want to talk about him. If you came here on of a pity trip, then do us both a favor and save it. I don't have time.” She tried to shove the door closed but her petite frame couldn't make him budge.

 

InuYasha put one hand on the door and looked down at the girl. “I'm sorry, okay? I came here to apologize.”

 

She hesitated long enough for him to remove the door from the side of his foot.

 

“Are you going to invite me in?”

 

“Is he with you?”

 

InuYasha shook his head in the negative. Seeing the way her shoulders slumped in defeat made him want to put Sesshoumaru through a plate glass window. Maneuvering around Rin's small frame, he guided himself into her small condo.

 

Rin closed the door, leaning her forehead against it for a brief moment to collect her thoughts. She didn't want for InuYasha to see how much of a mess she had become in one night. It was as if the stars in her sky had imploded the night before, leaving her in a pit of darkness. There was no longer a sun or moon in her world, guiding her day by day actions. All of her hope of salvation from this life, from the self-appointed hell that she ruled, was gone. He had ripped it all away in a few careless words and disregard that broke her heart. Rin had prayed for two years that he would understand or that he would come back to her if he had truly known. But the truth…the truth was he never cared.

 

Lifting her head from the door, she cast her eyes to the floor as she slowly started cleaning up the toys that littered the floor attempting to ignore InuYasha's presence for a few more moments. She hadn't been expecting guests today after deciding to ditch class. A night full of crying your eyes out into a pillow could make you less inclined to be around people. “What can I do for you,” she asked as politely as she could.

 

InuYasha watched her fidget with the toys, scowling as she refused to meet his eyes. “I wanted to apologize for him.”

 

“Save it, I already told you I don't want to hear it.”

 

“He was wrong Rin, and I don't care what he said; he's an asshole.”

 

The corner of Rin's mouth tugged into a taunt frown, her best defense against breaking down right there. “I guess he is.”

 

The shudder of her shoulders or the hiccup of her words did not go unnoticed by the hanyou. “I'm not trying to make excuses for him, Rin.” He said after a moment. Following her into the living room he glanced around at first, wondering just where the little tyke was. He had to say, he was so interested to see the child. This was his nephew, his own blood line. And he could hold it above Sesshoumaru's head.

 

Rin picked up a slew of toy cars that were scattered about the room stiffly. She had planned on spending the day alone, wallowing in her suffering. What more had she expected from Sesshoumaru? She got, ultimately, what she deserved. It just hurt so damn much. “Sure, sure, Yash. I know,” she spoke offhandedly, not really listening to any of his words. They were what she already knew, what went through her head, except he was willing to sugar coat it.

 

InuYasha frowned and dropped off the couch onto his knees. He began helping her collect the tiny match box cars, chuckling lightly at a few that had fang marks in the paint.

 

“He's still teething,” she muttered, catching his bemused expression. She hesitated, watching the way InuYasha ran his fingers over the indents with an almost affectionate air.

 

“We do that,” InuYasha offered. “Youkai children don't have all their teeth until they are about four. They also stay in longer. You lose your baby teeth about eight, right?” seeing her nod absently, he continued, “We lose ours at about fourteen. That's a bad teething spell, if you think this sucks now. The molars are a bitch to break through the skin. At least then we know not to bite, right? It's got to offer some comfort.”

 

Rin took the cars from InuYasha and gazed at the damaged paint job. “Worse,” she gulped audibly. Settling down onto her haunches, she finished cleaning up the mess, organizing it in his toy drawer as haphazardly as she could. The tornado that was her son would rip it apart in second when he woke up without regard. As long as it was off her floor, hell be damned, for the moment at least. Bringing her hands to her face for a moment, she composed herself enough to handle the situation. Speaking into her palms, she added more to the conversation. “He cries all the time now with teething but I can't get him anything to chew on. Those freezer rings…he just breaks the gel instantly with those canines.” Lifting her eyes, her expression was haggard, fatigued from day after day of keeping up with a child.

 

InuYasha nodded slowly, watching Rin carefully. He could see the ware in her eyes and wondered, for the hundredth time, how she did it. He would never be able to have half the strength she mustered in her petite frame to keep moving day by day with a youkai child, no support, a full time student as well as a full time employee. Shaking his head with a muffled sigh, he scooted back up onto the couch. “Where is the little rug rat anyway?” He had been hoping to meet his nephew today. No, it was more than hope; he prayed to meet this child. He had to see it for himself; the undoing of the once great Sesshoumaru. This was his brother's flaw, the brief glimmer of life within him that was otherwise always suppressed. For years InuYasha had wondered just how Sesshoumaru could do it, how he shut off every basic emotion and packaged them all away. He wondered if there were ever cracks in that mighty wall, that set fortress of solitude that Sesshoumaru lived in. Yesterday was the first time he had ever seen one; and in seeing that one, it was as if his brother's superstructure of personality had systematically crumbled. How this young girl, this tiny four foot nothing human, had brought his powerful brother to his knees was beyond InuYasha. But he was damn glad someone did.

 

“He's sleeping. It's nap time,” Rin quickly responded. It was odd, in reflection, that this was the first person outside of her and her father to be inside of her apartment. She had signed the lease after figuring telling her father that she was keeping the baby and had been kicked out of her house. Of course, she harbored no ill will against her father for the move; he did what he thought was best. Unfortunately, they did not see eye to eye on the matter. Explaining to her father that Kenren was a `special' boy was a much harder task after all was said and done. But since moving into the apartment, only her father and she had been admitted into its confines. She never brought home people in fear of them meeting her son, and her `friends' had flaked out once they found out she was a single mother who couldn't let them near her son. She had also come to find, from his experiences in day care, that Kenren wasn't exactly a people person anyway.

 

“This may sounds ridiculous, but get him a chewie from the pet store.”

 

Rin paused, mid stoop to picking up a book. “Excuse me,” she responded incredulously, her head slowly turning to stare at InuYasha.

 

“I know how it sounds. I get it, ha, ha; dog demon, chewie, that's rich.” He smirked and rested his elbows on his knees, “but I'm serious, it will really help with chewing. He'll love it.” With an offhanded smile, he flipped his wrist at Rin, “besides, it will offer some great calcium. Make sure it's a corn starch one though, it will be the most half human part of your child friendly.”

 

Rin hesitated before righting herself. Moving very slowly, as if afraid to startle the hanyou, she took a seat on the couch next to him. Curling her legs under her body, she relaxed for the first time that day. The weight of Sesshoumaru complete dismissal was weighed second in her brain to the abrupt surge of questions that swarmed her mind. Suddenly, she couldn't stop talking. It was as if someone took that zipper off her mouth, gave her a real moment to ask all of the questions she had always wanted to know the answers to but had no one to ask. InuYasha had shown her patience so far, and maybe he could answer a few of those dumb questions that she never quite got. “Why is he so defensive around people? If someone knocks on the door, he gets his hackles up. He only warms up to my father, and that takes time, every time. His biting is horrendous; thank God he hasn't clipped me yet. I'm pretty sure he could take off my hand if he wanted to. How can I stop it?”

 

InuYasha chuckled and draped his arm over Rin's shoulders. Tugging her closer to him, he relaxed his head back against the cushions. He could tell that this was a drastic improvement from her sorrow, and if it kept her mind off of his bastard brother for one moment, so be it. “He gets defensive because that's his protection system kicking in. Consider him like a guard dog; he is going to do everything he can to protect you. It will only stop by you showing him you're dominant. If he thinks you can protect the house, he will relax some. It's never going to really go away; I was fiercely protective of my mother…” his words trailed off as he banned the images from his mind. That was a completely different story. “It's an innate reaction that comes with Dog Demons, just like how you humans are born to eat and read and do things in life. We're born to protect. He's been that way since he was an infant? Never wanting anyone to hold him, getting angry and fussy if you held another baby?”

 

Rin shrugged, closing her eyes against InuYasha's side. “I guess. I haven't really had him around other children. He was in a day care but…well…I just took him out of it.” Frowning, that was yet another experience she didn't exactly want to replay.

 

“Day care?” InuYasha raised an eyebrow, “What day care took a hanyou child?”

 

“A youkai center I found out in the middle of no where. They were good for him, it got him a little bit of socialization with other children, but he was the bottom of the gene pool to them. `A half blood doesn't belong in the world' was their theory. I had it out with the location manager before removing him from the class. Now I'm kind of screwed.” That was putting it gently, she thought bleakly as she gazed at the concealed hanyou in front of her. That was why she wasn't fully angry with InuYasha over contacting Sesshoumaru; he did for her what she was putting off doing herself. She had to get a concealment charm, and that had meant interaction was necessary with Sesshoumaru. InuYasha had just expedited the process and possibly could have saved her college career.

 

InuYasha's face went very blank very quickly. His words, however, held an untraceable amount of animosity. The hues of purple that circled is eyes turned nearly black. “They said that to you?”

 

“In so many words, yes.”

 

InuYasha smirked without mirth, shaking his head in anger. His fists clenched and unclenched as he battled down his anger. It was those words he had grown up with whispered in his ear by Sesshoumaru. It was something he knew about the world himself. There was no tolerance for half breeds and this was a prime example. To see someone like Rin, so loving and so nurturing, to be shot down and torn apart by such vulgarity…he wanted to rip their throats out. “I wonder if they would eat those words, knowing that was the grandson of the Inu no Taisho.” That was hardly doing it justice; though his father was an asshole, he had fiercely defended InuYasha growing up to anyone who dared challenge his half blooded nature, with all exceptions to Sesshoumaru.

 

Rin's eyes opened very somberly. “Apparently, that's the view of his father as well, so what can I expect?”

 

InuYasha's arm around her tightened as he sucked down a deep breath. “Sessh said that?” he asked as evenly as he could.

 

Rin's refusal to answer was enough of a reply.

 

“I'll take his head off, if you want me to,” he offered, after a moment of silence. Teasing his brother had been one thing; to directly insult his own son was three thousand miles across that fine line he should not have crossed. How dare he? That seemed to reset his initial emotions as to why he had left the house. His father. With a snort, InuYasha grunted and sat back in his chair. `It seems that dad perfected making a clone on himself,' he mused, tying in everything Rin was saying to what Kagejiro had told him earlier that day. It all made sense and by god, he was a fool for not seeing it earlier. He had always known that Sesshoumaru strived to be like their father but he never thought his father was as cold and ruthless as Sesshoumaru. Now he knew the truth.

 

Rin sighed, knowing that there was nothing that could be done that would make the pain stop. And with it, it all rushed back ten fold. “No, what good would that do? I don't know what I was expecting. He told me his views on half bred children before…we….” Looking down, she lamented, “I guess a part of me thought that one day we'd be a happy family. I thought that even though he was married, maybe one day he would show up and sweep me off my feet. Maybe I wouldn't have to face this alone.” Inhaling to try to control the flood of tears that entered her eyes, she found herself shaking. “I just thought that with his child, it would leave me a part of him. I know I can't have him and I know that he would never want…” snorting back the tears, she tersely added; “I should have listened to my father. I shouldn't have….”

 

InuYasha turned to Rin and placed one hand under her chin and forced her to look at him. In her eyes, he saw his mother, suffering with an infant hanyou that she couldn't control and couldn't expose. A woman caught in a whirlwind of emotions that she was not ready to handle. He would not let his mother's fate become that of Rin. His father may have destroyed her, but the hell InuYasha would let Sesshoumaru do the same. “You won't be alone, Rin, not anymore. I don't care if you need me to be here as Mr. Nanny, I will not let you face this by yourself. My brother might be the biggest asshole in the country, and he may not give a rat's ass about anyone but himself, but that doesn't mean that I won't be here to help support you.” The fierceness in his eyes deterred Rin from questioning his dedication to his words.

 

“I don't need support,” she muttered dejectedly, “I just want some guidance. I don't know what to do with him at points.”

 

InuYasha smirked and sat back against the couch, resting his hands above his head. “Yeah, we can be tricky little bastards. Let me guess some of his tempers; arrogant, stubborn and a hellion when he doesn't get what he wants? Does he do the entire body slam to the floor when he is told no?”

 

Without really looking up, Rin nodded her head towards the carpet near the kitchen that was torn up. “I worry that one day he'll bring the house down. He will just cast himself face first into the floor when he throws his tantrums. I worry that he'll bust his face open but he's always fine when it's over. No blood, no wounds…”

 

“We heal fast,” InuYasha mused. Inside, he was ablaze with anger; how dare his brother talk down about his own child. It was always one thing for Sesshoumaru to disregard InuYasha, to hate him for his dirty blood and soiled past, but to dare to say that to a human that he impregnated, it was completely unforgivable.

 

“InuYasha?”

 

The hanyou turned his attention from his inner hatred to the girl beside him. “Yeah?”

 

“Is it true that….when a demon and a human mate, the demon chooses whether or not he impregnates her?”

 

InuYasha cringed and rubbed the bridge of his nose. “Not quite,” he said after a moment. “The older youkai who can control themselves and their actions have been said to have that ability. But then again, take me for example. My dad is the fuckin' Tai Youkai of the kingdom and after nearly five hundred and something years of life, he still got his secretary pregnant.” After letting that settle, he added, “So if you are asking if Sesshoumaru knew that you were knocked up, the answer is no. My brother might be a douche but there is no way that he would have gotten you pregnant on purpose.” He could see the wonder in Rin's eyes, the questions not daring to bubble to the surface. She thought he left her knowingly with child. Sesshoumaru, had he known, would have pressed her not to have the child, InuYasha knew it in his gut. It was the asshole self preservation that lingered in his families veins. They were all douche bags in the end.

 

Rin sighed and closed her eyes, pinching the bridge of her nose. “I wish that something in all of this made sense.” Wasn't that the truth? Why had she endured for so long only to find her happy ending was nothing more than façade of fog and lights? When was she going to find happiness? When would life get easier? She hadn't lived much as a teenager, always preparing for her future and being mature. Now she would never know what it would have been like, to indulge in just a little insanity and immaturity. Dejectedly, Rin realized that she longed for the past that she never had.

 

Cocking an eyebrow, InuYasha agreed. “You can say that again.” Reading her body language, he tightened his arm around her shoulder. The anger and the rejection were pouring out of her soul in waves. The air in the room was so thick InuYasha found himself having hard time breathing.

 

“He just makes me so…so…angry!” Rin stood up abruptly, threw her hands in the air and began to pace. Talking with her hands as well now, she grew more pissed off by the second. “I mean, seriously; if he took off his fucking power limiter for one moment, he could smell the kid all over me. He would know without a doubt that Kenren was his.” Snorting, she crossed her arms stubbornly, “If he took one good look at the kid, he'd know the truth. He looks just like him.” She hesitated, looking as if she was going to keep ranting before she gave up just as unexpectedly.

 

InuYasha scowled. “I feel sorry for him then. Having no personality is going to suck for a social life.”

 

Rin leaned forward and smacked InuYasha's shoulder gently, “watch it; you're talking about my baby.” Though she held a disapproving glare, she could never have been happier for the excuse to pull herself from her misery. Exchanging a knowing glance with InuYasha, she shook her head and ran her hands over her eyes. “I just don't know what to do anymore. I knew…well…I figured Sesshoumaru wouldn't…see…it my way. I just…” her voice trailed off as she rested back against the wall, pulling at her face. Closing her eyes, she prayed that she could remain strong for just a bit longer. “I just thought that maybe there was a dim chance that he would at least be interested in the boy, you know? I'm not looking for money, or to pull him away from his wife. Fucking A, I'm not even asking for him to play daddy to the boy…I just want him to meet him and give him a fighting chance.”

 

InuYasha stood up, awkwardly, from the couch and walked to Rin's side. Slowly, so that he didn't startle her, he wrapped his arm around Rin's shoulders and pulled her into his chest. That was all it took. Like a boulder through a poorly constructed dam, the frail sanity that was pieced together by Elmer's glue and verbal backlashes splintered and unleashed a torrent of tears into the man's chest. InuYasha held her while she cried, soothing her with the same words he had once spoke to his mother. `It wasn't her fault', `things will get better' and the likes of `daddy still loves us even though he's not here' were some of his favorites. Of course they were amended now, changed with time and bitterness. “Things may not get better right away, but they sure as hell won't get any worse,” he whispered to the girl, “and the hell I am going to let you face this by yourself. If we have to, I'll take you to talk to my dad myself. Fuck Sesshoumaru, he doesn't give a shit about anyone but himself anyway.” It was the truth, wasn't it? No one ever really cared beyond the reach of their own neck, regardless of pleasantries. It was the lesson he was now learning in life. His father had never really cared about his mom, just like Sesshoumaru never really cared about Rin. If they had, why did it always come to this? There were too many tears being shed for the Taisho boys, InuYasha realized with a pang in his heart.

 

After a few minutes, or a few hours, a piercing yowl from upstairs seemed to reinstate Rin's sanity instantly. Sniffing up her tears, Rin pushed out of InuYasha's arms, wiped her eyes and took to the steps. InuYasha watched, transfixed, as the girl who had been so heart broken and forlorn returned a moment later with a smile worth her weight in gold etched on her face. In her arms was a tiny pup, no taller than InuYasha's knee.

 

With a growing smile, InuYasha knelt down to crouch on the carpet. The tyke looked nothing and everything like him. A thin layer of white fine down-like hair graced the tots head, reaching the tips of his pointed ears. In the right sunlight, one could have passed the boy to have had bleach blond hair. But anyone with one good eye could see the youkai written all over the boy's face. His eyes were darker amber, if not honey, in color. His face, though, was what caught InuYasha by surprise. The bone structure was his brother's without question; the boy had Taisho written all over him. The roundness of his features though, such as the tip of his nose or the corners of his eyes, was all Rin. Where he and the generations of males dating back in Taisho lineage had very sharp features, the boy was very pretty in a movie star way. Without a doubt InuYasha knew that he was going to be a heart breaker when he was older.

 

Taking one look down from his perch in his mother's arms, Kenren's upper lip curled back as he growled menacingly at the intruder. His scent was unknown and his presence was unwanted.

 

InuYasha watched the boy in amusement as he scrambled in his mother's arms, trying to flail his way free to attack the stranger. Standing up slowly InuYasha glanced to Rin and then to the boy. With a short sigh, he did something he had yet to do in front of anyone. He slid the power limiter off his finger. Pocketing the ring, he felt the change take him instantly. There was no graceful morphing or slow shifts. One minute he was human with black hair, the next he was hanyou with silver. Shaking his mane loose, he twitched his ears twice, regaining his senses dulled by the ring. He could smell the woods outside of the house, the petrol fumes from the cars on the road. He could smell the dishes in Rin's sink and the mold in her freezer. And he could smell Sesshoumaru. It wasn't just the child that smelt like his bastard of a brother, it was Rin. She still smelled of the man, years past their affair. He wondered idly if she knew that.

 

Kenren stopped squirming in Rin's arms the minute the youkai sent hit his nose. He smelled like mother or the part of mother that Kenren didn't understand; the male presence that always seemed to permeate the room with no source. Now, standing in front of the young child, was a man who smelled so similar and yet so different, it messed with his tiny head. Recoiling back into Rin, the child peered out unabashed at the hanyou in front of him.

InuYasha smirked, watching the confusion pass over his nephew's eyes. He pulled his gaze away from the child to steal a glimpse at the mother. Rin was staring at him in complete shock. With an awkward, smile, he stepped towards the duo. “So…this it the rug rat, huh?”

 

Rin blinked herself back to reality from where InuYasha's sudden transformation took her. In her own little world, she drifted back to the first time that Sesshoumaru had taken his power limiter off in front of her. He had been so scared to that he had nearly chickened out. But Rin had coaxed him lovingly into showing her who he really was. Why was it now that the true colors were reveled? With a sigh, she refocused on InuYasha. Sesshoumaru and he looked so similar, as brothers do, but also so strikingly different. Sesshoumaru had a well groomed James Bond like air to his suave demeanor; tall, dark, and devastatingly handsome. Rin had been so captivated by his golden orbs that her pants had all but flown off her body. InuYasha, however, had the handsome down pat but there was more to him. His cognac gaze held mischief and amusement where Sesshoumaru's was always so focused and serious. The adorned smirk that InuYasha wore, the one with a fang slightly hanging over his lip, could have made Rin swoon if she wasn't holding his brother's child. With a shake of her head, her eyes traveled to his ears.

 

“Uhh…Yash?”

 

InuYasha watched Rin carefully pick him apart in comparison to his older brother, laughing inwardly at the awestruck look on both mother and son's faces. Hearing Rin's voice knocked some of the cocky out of the boy instantly. He knew what was coming on this one.

 

“Yeah, they are real, yes they are dog ears and no, you cannot touch…”

 

Tiny fingers wrapped around the tip of one of his ears and yanked. Hard. Tilting his head in that direction, InuYasha let out a loud hiss and swatted back the baby's hand. Rin had approached in curiosity while Kenren had other ideas.

 

“Puppy,” he cooed in amusement.

 

InuYasha eyed the pup for a moment before cracking a smile. “Inu Youkai,” he corrected the child. Running his hand over his nephew's head, he looked at Rin. “I'm…confused, I'll give you that.”

 

“Why?” Rin's eyes were still locked on InuYasha's ears.

 

Flicking his ears twice, he avoided another grab by the child. It was only then that Rin moved back to a safe distance. “I thought all hanyou's had…” looking to the ground, he shook his head.

 

Rin shrugged and held Kenren's tiny hands in hers as she knelt down to let him roam. “Nope, he has elf ears, like his dad.”

 

InuYasha sat down next to the pair and took the pup in his lap. Staring into the kids eyes, he had to laugh when Kenren batted his nose. “He's adorable.”

 

Rin smiled serenely, “he's my little man.”

 

InuYasha held the boy for a moment, while he looked over his uncle in scrutiny. Grabbing once more for the ears, InuYasha growled a warning. The boy's hand retracted immediately.

 

“I mean it,” he said after the tot waddled off to play with his toys. “You need anything, you let me know.”

 

“A concealment charm might be nice.”

 

InuYasha nodded slowly. “Let me talk to Kagejiro about that, he might know someone.”

 

“What's with that guy,” Rin asked, leaning back against her couch, “who is he?”

 

“He's the eldest Taisho child but he was…well…removed…from the family a few centuries ago.”

 

Rin's mouth fell into an O shape. “I never heard of him before. That's why we got so mixed up. As far as I knew, you had one brother.”

 

InuYasha waved off her half hearted apology. “It's all right, no one really talks about `Jiro that much. He's kind of the black sheep of the family, worse than I.”

 

“He must have done something fierce to get kicked out.”

 

InuYasha turned his head to face Rin. Contemplating her question for a moment, he shook his head in the negative. “I don't think so. I think that he was…well…himself and didn't fit Dad's little scheme and was cast out. If anything, it proves that I was right all along; dad can't tolerate things not going his way and will do anything to win.”

 

Rin blinked slowly, “It explains a lot about Sesshoumaru.”

 

Wordlessly, he agreed.

 

“So what brings you out here today, Yash? Don't tell me you were in the neighborhood. I live twenty minutes from you.”

InuYasha winced and explained a shortened version of Kagejiro's revelations. He watched the anger bleed into Rin's face as she made direct connections between Izayio and herself.

 

“What an ass,” she muttered when he was done. It was the briefest explanation of her indignant rage.

 

“You're telling me. All these years I thought….I don't know what I thought; maybe that Dad had a heart under it all, maybe that I was wanted. Now I just know that I was one of his fuck ups that he tried to brush under the carpet.”

 

Rin pursed her lips and disagreed. “If he wanted you dead, I would be to think you would be. I mean, after all, he has how much power over the world?”

 

“You can't kill your own kin, as much as I'm sure he would love to. That's why `Jiro is still alive, that's why I'm still here.”

 

“But how easy would it have been to take out a contract?”

 

InuYasha had to give her that. Staring at her for a moment, he nearly forgot that she too had been infected by the ruthlessness of his family. Inhaling sharply, he put his hands to his head. “Look, for what it's worth…I never thought it would lead to this. If I had known that it was Sesshoumaru who was Kenren's father, I wouldn't have…”

 

“I know, and I'm sorry for the confusion. More than that, I'm sorry that your father is a tool.”

 

InuYasha nodded heavily. Glancing to his watch, he stood up. He had to go home, he had to sort out the Kagome thing before more fuel got added to the fire.

 

“InuYasha?”

 

InuYasha glanced back at Rin, a shallow smile gracing his lips. She looked slightly more stable than she was when he arrived. “Yeah?”

 

Worry glazed over her eyes as she remembered the morning's transgressions. “Kagome called me at three this morning,” she hated the way he paled at that comment. He knew something was up and it twisted Rin's gut. “She sounded awful. What happened?”

 

InuYasha scratched behind his ear and stared up to the ceiling. “Kikyo found out,” he muttered, “and we really fucked up.”

 

“Are you going to fix it,” she asked knowingly. There was a slight edge to her voice that added an `or else' to the comment.

 

“I think I finally got my life figured out,” he spoke after contemplating the question, “and yes,” he added quietly, “I am going to make things right.”

 

“It's not going to be easy,” Rin replied after a brief hesitation, “things in her family seem pretty fucked up.”

 

InuYasha snorted, “It seems that dysfunctional is in this year.” Leaning down to plant a friendly kiss on Rin's forehead, he patted Kenren on the head and walked to the door. “I'll talk to `Jiro about the charm and I will let you know what we have.”

 

Rin trailed behind him with the baby in her grasp. Watching InuYasha reach for the door, she called out, “I'm proud of you, Yash. I met you five weeks ago and I can already see how much you've grown up in such a short time span. It suits you better.”

 

Blushing faintly, InuYasha inclined his head, “well, I try, what more can I say?”

 

“Say you won't fuck it up,” she responded without missing a beat.

 

“I can try.”

 

Rin shook her head firmly. “A wise little green thing once said, `do or do not, there is no try'. Remember that, okay?”

 

InuYasha smirked at Rin and then walked out the door. Breathing in deeply as he exited the small apartment, he could just about feel his life starting to fall into place. The pieces of his puzzle were coming together and it seemed to be an end of an era; the end of his father's rule, that was to say, over his life.

 

 

*X*X*X*X*X*X*X*X*X*X*X*X*X*X*X*X*X*X*X*X*X

 

 

“So…what do you do for fun?”

 

Kagejiro glanced from the bottle of fifty year old Macallan scotch that rested on the table in front of him, half empty, back to the other inhabitant of the room. “Kill things,” he responded very monotone.

 

Miroku swallowed audibly as he attempted to find a middle ground with the demon living in his house. This was the third one in the house and he was very quickly feeling outnumbered. He figured he might as well side with this one incase Sesshoumaru's temper flared up and he found himself near death.

 

“Oh, that sounds…well…lovely,” Miroku muttered as he checked the room for his closest exits, “hobby?”

 

“Job.”

 

If possible, Miroku lost a little bit more color to his already pale complexion. “Oh,” he said while inching towards the front door. Hell be damned, if the youkai in his living room made move to get up, he'd be down the block in his underwear.

 

Swigging from the bottle, Kagejiro eyed the young boy with mirth. “I'm not going to kill you, lad, so you can relax. Sit your ass down on the couch and breathe before you pass out on me and all.”

 

Miroku flashed a smile as he remained up right. “So…do you do anything else besides for wage war on foreign soil and kill people?” He blinked a moment after and then remembered to breathe.

 

Kagejiro's mouth twitched up into a smile. “I play.”

 

Miroku's eyes focused sharply on the demon at that moment, all his interest being pulled into that once sentence. “Play what?”

 

Kagejiro shrugged and simply replied “Name it.”

 

“Are we talking sports, where you'd be likely to sever me in half in a friendly game of touch football, or are we talking guitar?”

 

“Yes.”

 

Miroku couldn't help the life that bubbled into his eyes at that very moment. “Do you play Guitar Hero?”

“Ey'?” he asked as he began polishing off the bottle of liquor that cost more than fifty years rent on the apartment.

 

“I am the Guitar Hero,” Miroku boasted with much more emphasis than any normal human being would ever offer. “Have you ever played it?”

 

“Guitar Hero,” he spoke the words as if they were foreign. “Never `eard of it.”

 

With a giggle of excitement, Miroku dashed suddenly from the room.

 

Watching Miroku skip off like a school girl, Kagejiro glanced down at his bottle of liquor, shook his head and downed the bottle of the rest of its contents before going into the kitchen where the stock pile, which he had Miroku buy for him, was amassed. Grabbing a bottle of Hennessey, he returned to the living room to find Miroku hooking up a game station to the television with two wireless controllers that resembled guitars.

 

Kagejiro hurdled the couch with one hand like a vault, a feat that seemed all too easy for him without spilling a drop of beer, and peered at the counsel. “What…is it?”

 

“X-box 360,” Miroku muttered, glancing once over his shoulder. Staring dead panned at the demon, he added, “you can't tell me that you've never heard of X-Box.”

 

“I don't still live in the feudal era, you bloody git, of course I've `eard of it. Wha's that,” he asked, nodding to the controller.

 

Turning on the game that stole too much of Miroku's life away, he picked up his imitation Les Paul and turned on the game. “It's Guitar Hero Three, only the most awesome game ever invented.”

 

“Ah,” Kagejiro responded with an airy chuckle, “then you have never played rugby with a bottle of propane.”

 

Miroku stared at Kagejiro for a moment, his eyebrows raised up under his bangs. “Yes, and I would like to keep it that way with head firmly attached to my shoulders, not the moon.” Pointing to his chest, he chided,” me human, I can die.”

 

“Very easily,” Kagejiro fired back, his one eyebrow hiked in a silent promise.

 

Blinking himself back to his spot, Miroku continued with his tutorial as if that had never happened. “It's really easy and is a fuckin' blast.” Turning on the tutorial, he showed Kagejiro. “As the color note comes down the screen, you hit that button that matches color. You have to remember to strum though, or it won't count.”

 

Kagejiro watched Miroku for a moment breeze through the tutorial before addressing him. “I'm colorblind, Kid.”

 

Miroku hesitated, glancing out of the side of his eyes to take in his demeanor. “What do you mean?”

 

Pointing to himself, he batted his eyes twice. “Inu Youkai, ya fucktard, I can't see anything outside of grays, some blues and a wee bit of yellows.”

 

“Oh,” Miroku swallowed the information for one hot second, “that could explain why InuYasha sucks at this game.”

 

“Oi,” the said boy hollered as he breezed through the front door, “who sucks at what?”

 

Miroku smirked at his friend and held up his guitar. Seeing the smile dip from his face, he responded, “don't say you don't, cause then you'd be a filthy liar.”

 

InuYasha shrugged off his coat and collapsed into onto the love seat. “I ain't denying it. That game blows like a slut on spring break.”

 

“Hey!” Miroku bit back “Don't hate the game, hate the… hate….” Stumped, he though for a moment. “Hate the fact that you're colorblind.”

 

InuYasha raised an eyebrow and glanced at Kagejiro who shrugged, looking rather bored. “I'm…not….”

 

Miroku whirled around to Kagejiro. “uh-huh. You're brother just said. You're colorblind, which sucks to be you.”

 

Kagejiro held up his hand, void a concealment charm. “Notice somethin' missin'? If I were to slap one on, I'd see right by your world. But that boy has some human blood in him veins, which changes his chemical makeup. We're different and similar in many ways. He can see colors while I can polish off another of them bottles I'm so fond of.” To prove his point, Kagejiro wandered off in the direction of the kitchen.

 

Miroku glanced at the clock then back to Kagejiro. “It's four o'clock,” he stated as if the fact was not obvious.

 

Kagejiro glowered at the boy while grabbing a bottle of Jack. “And?”

 

Never had a single word seemed so dangerous. “Just saying, oh hey wow, it's four o'clock. I wonder where my day has gone. Oh look, jack…” he rolled his eyes and returned his attention to InuYasha, praying that the demon wouldn't kill him in front of his kin.

 

InuYasha shook his head and relaxed back into the couch. “I'm not colorblind Miroku. I'm just not good at that fuckin' game.”

 

“Or any for that matter, that requires hand-eye coordination.”

 

“I'm pretty good with my hands, thank you very much.”

 

Returning to the living room, Kagejiro put his bottle of jack on the floor and picked back up the guitar. Kagejior winced and turned to Miroku. “So exactly why am I holding this piece of plastic?”

 

“It's your guitar.”

 

That seemed to rather irritate the demon. “This, my confused friend, is not a guitar. It's a child's toy.”

 

“No, it's a guitar. Trust me,” Miroku muttered as he started a song on a solo career. In a minute, the notes were streaming down the screen in expert mode and Miroku was pounding away on the guitar.

 

InuYasha watched with keen interest as the older demon's left ear twitched in tune with his left eye, seemingly thoroughly annoyed by concept of the game.

 

Halfway through the song, Kagejiro lost what little patience was left in his being and began shouting. “That, you bloody Bogger, is nothing more than obnoxious banging on plastic keys and flicking some floppy excuse for a wham bar. What the fuck is wrong wit' ya to think this is anythin' like the real thing?”

 

Miroku paused the game and turned to face Kagejiro. He seemed personally insulted by the demon's abhorrence to the game. “It's fun, that's what matters. Yeah, I might know a little bit about the guitar but with this I can be a master. Come on, give it a shot! It's fun…and you don't need to see colors.” Pointing to the paused screen and the corresponding buttons on his guitar, he explained, “all you need is good hand/eye coordination. You press as you see. Can you manage that?”

 

Kagejiro opened his mouth to throw something more insulting at the boy but InuYasha interjected. “Hey, you lecture about Dad being closed minded, give it a shot.”

 

Kagejiro pursed his lips, seemingly at odds with the thought of even attempting the game before sighing dejectedly. “All right, give me the bloody guitar.” Walking forward, he snatched one out of Miroku's hand and eyed it wearily, as if it would attack him. “All I'm saying is this piece of plastic I could break with a finger ain't no guitar.”

 

InuYasha fell back onto the couch as Miroku reset the game to an easier two player level. He knew that Kagejiro was about to be royally railed, and somehow the thought put a smile on his face. He wasn't untouchable, this proved; maybe at the end of the day, there was something that neither of his brother's were good at. And that was the humanity of it, wasn't it? It was the ripple to his Dad's control. It was always be the best or go home, and watching Kagejiro failed miserably at Guitar Hero just added that touch of chaos to his father's theory.

 

Dashing the guitar to the ground not more than a minute after they began, Kagejiro grabbed his car keys and stalked to the front door. “Bloody awful game, that is, and a fuckin' knobs end ya are. I show ya what a real guitar is…”

 

InuYasha exchanged long glowers with Miroku as the front door hung open. “I think you pissed him off,” InuYasha muttered a moment later.

 

“Do you think he'll kill me?”

 

“Anything possible,” InuYasha mustered while leaning back in the chair.

 

And Miroku paled further.

 

 

*X*X*X*X*XX*X*X*X*X*X*X*X*XX*X**X*X

 

“That's who Miroku was talking about,” Sango mused, sipping her cup of coffee while looking out her front bay window.

 

Standing in her kitchen, Kagome fixed herself some hot chocolate. “What?”

 

“Miroku's been whining these last two days about the house being overrun with testosterone,” Turning to face Kagome, she smiled, “He always has something to complain about, you know?” Seeing her friend's lips turn down, she mentally chided herself. Ever since she picked Kagome up the previous night from her dorm, depression was hardly the just word. “Look, Kaggie, he's a piece of shit for playing you like that. There is no excuse for what he did.”

 

Kagome grunted and leaned out of the doorway to stare at her friend. “What we did, Sango. I was just as willing of a party as he was. I can't blame him for this, I can't, it's not right.”

 

“Kagome, he's the one who was seeing someone and that someone is your cousin. It's not right for him to put himself on you and expect there not to be consequences.”

 

“We knew it was a risk. I just…I never really thought about, you know. She was always so flimsy over their relationship. Even when they started dating, she never was really all about him. I just thought…I guess I thought in the end, she wouldn't really care.”

 

“Does she?”

 

Kagome sighed and picked up her mug and joined Sango on the couch. “She seems to. I mean, she pissed as hell at me. Even now, twelve hours later, she won't answer her phone.”

 

Sango smiled sadly at her friend and reached out with two fingers to swipe a piece of her hair behind her ear. “Kaggie, it's going to take more than twelve hours to heal a broken heart.”

 

Nearly throwing her hands up, Kagome grunted loudly. “What broken heart? She was cheating on him! She has no right!”

 

“And neither do you. There's no right party here, Kagome. There is no right answer or right person. All of you are in the wrong. Now it's just about sucking out the poison and making a decision. Do you go with InuYasha, a man who was more than happy to cheat on his girlfriend with her cousin, or do you make amends with Kikyo and never see that scum bag again.”

 

Sardonically Kagome asked, “Why do I have this aching feeling that you would rather I do the latter?”

 

“Because as nice as he may be, or as good looking, he's a dirt bag for dragging you into this. If he wasn't happy with Kikyo, then he should have dumped her. He shouldn't have put you in this position to begin with.”

 

“You can't just blame him.” Kagome repeated for the thousandth time since the previous night. Sitting in the lobby of her dorm, Kagome was lost as to whom to turn to. Rin sounded just as messed up as she was and Jakotsu was one of the many people she didn't care to speak to at that moment. She couldn't go home without arousing suspicion and she couldn't stay with InuYasha. It was sad that Sango was at the bottom of her list of people to call, when a month prior she would have been the first. Had life truly changed that much?

 

Sango had driven out to the dorms at four in the morning to walk a sobbing Kagome from the dorm out to the car and into her house. She had been at Kagome's side for the rest of the night and the morning, neither having any rest. They had decided that the day would be devoted to movies about bashing men and women who didn't need them.

 

Shrugging off the conversation, Sango glanced back out the window and sighed.

 

“You can call Miroku, you know. I'm not going to have a break down if you do. I can see you miss him.” `Just as I miss Inu,' she mentally added. It hurt to be this close to InuYasha and yet unable to touch him. Merely yards away and yet it felt like a thousand miles. This whole situation was messed up further than she could ever believe it to be.

 

“You have to stop thinking about him,” Sango replied, as if reading her friend's mind, “He's not worth all of this.”

 

“You don't really know him, Sango, and you judge to harshly.” Sitting back to face the cynic, she smiled softly, “he's a good guy under all that crap who really cares about me.”

 

And Sango reached the end of her rope. “Horse shit, Kagome. Can you smell it, because it stinks over here! You say he cares about you, but what has he done to show it? He was dating your cousin, your friend, and acted for what, six years, as if he hated you. He put you through hell! I remember you calling me crying at the things he said to you. And then suddenly he gets his dick hard at the thought of you, waited until you were the most vulnerable you've ever been and then swooped in like a white knight to be your hero. He manipulated you, used you and got you into the biggest pickle you've ever been in.” Seeing that Kagome was not going to relent, she redirected her approach. “Name me one thing that's he's done nice for you in the past few months. One thing, Kagome, besides for seduce you to get your pants off.”

 

“He's been here for me, Sango. Maybe he doesn't buy me flowers,” she swept her hand towards the two dozen red roses that adorned Sango's coffee table for the boy next door, “and maybe he doesn't take me out, but it's been so secretive. We can't be like that.”

 

Placing her cup on the table, she leaned in to Kagome. “I have a real question for you, and I need a real answer before we continue this.” The sudden seriousness in her friend's eyes stopped Kagome cold. “The trouble you were in, in New York…he wasn't a part of that, right?”

 

Kagome sighed and unintentionally brought her right hand up to the fading bruises that still marred her face. “Not really. He put himself into it when he picked a fight with…with him.”

 

“With who Kagome,” Sango yelled suddenly. She was so done with the secrets and the lies. Sango knew that InuYasha knew the truth, she had dug that much out of Miroku, but there were still so many questions that Sango had about this entire circle of doom that Kagome had crucified herself to. “I never opened up that stupid envelope that you gave me out of respect, but I'm not above doing it.” Seeing Kagome's glower, she moved on quickly. Kagome didn't want the envelope spoken of, and she knew it. “Can you just tell me, let me know what's really happening in your life? You trusted me with the Souta thing, and I get it, and I am so sorry that I never figured that much out. But…this is serious Kagome, and it's happening now. Can't you just give me something; let me know how I can protect you?”

 

Kagome smiled weakly, her eyes betraying her. “I don't know why everyone thinks they need to protect me. InuYasha tried and he nearly got dragged into a real mess. I don't want anyone else getting hurt. What I can tell you, Sango, is that I handled my mess, and I think it's pretty subdued for right now. There might be some backlash, so I am going to ask you to keep it,” her eyes carried `it's' definition.

 

Sango nearly threw her mug across the room. “What the hell do you mean `backlash'? Kagome, someone is or isn't going to come after you, it's not both. If someone is trying to hurt you, you need to go to the police. You need to put an end to it.”

 

“Sango, it's not that easy.”

 

“Funny thing, Kagome; you keep saying that. It's not that easy to fix your New York Problem, it's not that easy to fix your InuYasha problem. It's not that easy to live life, Kagome, but you manage to be making a real mess of yours. Make it simple, Kagome, take out the mess.”

 

“It's…”

 

“I swear to god, if you say it's not that easy, I am going to kick you.”

 

Settling on silence, Kagome stared down into her hot chocolate.

 

Sango waited for a moment on the edge of her seat before taking a deep breath and falling backwards into the cushions on her chair. “I'm sorry,” she spoke after a moment. “I just worry about you.”

 

“I appreciate that.”

 

“You're not going to tell me anything, are you?”

 

Looking up slowly, Kagome attempted to ration with her friend. “I have these feelings for InuYasha, feelings I can't explain. I'm drawn to him. I can't explain why but I can't escape it. I want to be with him, I want to be in his arms. I have this aching need that never goes away until I'm near him. I know I shouldn't be, and I know how dangerous it is for me, but I can't help it. It's why I kept rooming with Kikyo, knowing that I'd have to deal with him because I wanted, in some way, to be around him. I can't explain it, Sango, any further than that. I knew what it would do to me and Kikyo when she found out. I always knew one day she would, but it was a risk I was willing to take. I had to be with him, it's like a drug. He's my heroin of life.”

 

“Heroin kills people, Kagome. That's a poor choice of words.”

 

“It feels like that though; when I'm with him, I feel like I'm okay, when I'm not I feel like I'm dying very slowly.”

 

Sighing loudly, Sango asked, “have you sought mental help over this, because girl, you are way to far gone for me.” With a short sad laugh, she shook her head, “you sound like you're hooked.”

 

“I am.” Kagome moved back to the couch and leaned against Sango. “I feel that he's been here to help me the entire time; that he came in right when I needed him, like a role in a play. It's like God placed him here to be my safety net, to catch me when shit hit the fan with…” hesitating, she nearly said his name out loud. “Well, with `New York'.”

 

Sango's frown deepened. “Are you ever going to tell me what is really happening there?”

 

“I told you, I was being blackmailed by someone who could ruin me and my family. I took care of it, and hopefully it worked.”

 

Not having seen Kagome since their lunch in, Sango questioned her a bit more thoroughly. “So that went well, I take it. You're not dead…”

 

“It went well,” Kagome reiterated. “It was a little tight but with the help of…well…” hesitating, she attempted to ration Sha in her mind. At the time, she was livid with him. He knew who she was by name, a name she had never given him and one that Bankotsu would never have leaked to someone outside his crew. That meant that either he was stalking her as much as Bankotsu was, or he was on Bankotsu's side. Either way, it made the demon dangerous. He knew her, knew who she was and where she would go. He was on the same train as her and must have known where she lived. Was he a part of Bankotsu's circle? There were too many arrows pointing to yes. Maybe he was Bankotsu's test of her devotion. No wonder why the next morning he knew who she was with. There probably were no witness statements or documentations by police. Her fist clenched around the mug; that white haired hanyou had set her up. “Son of a bitch,” she sneered while shaking her head.

 

Sango's eyes widened as she took in Kagome's sudden change in disposition. “What?” she questioned hesitantly.

 

“Just putting a whole lot of pieces together,” she seethed. Add another name to the black list, she thought sourly. How much was Bankotsu controlling her life? She didn't like the numbers as they stood. Was that why Jakotsu had told Kikyo about them? Is that why Jackie turned against her? Did Bankotsu demand it? Maybe that was why he was allowed to leave the club; he just helped dismantle a piece of her already broken world. He really was planning on leaving her completely alone in the end, wasn't he? In a sinking rationality, she realized that eventually, he would send those pictures and videos to her mother and then she would be down another two members of her life. Leaving her….

 

Tears filled her eyes as she ducked her head. She was going to die alone. Bankotsu would see to it.

 

Frowning, Sango leaned towards her friend to place a hand on her shoulder. She hated seeing Kagome cry, and this was the ump-teenth time in a week that her friend was hysterical. It was something that Sango refused to get used to; watching Kagome recoil in on her, watching her pull in those secrets that lay just out of Sango's reach, drove the older girl nuts. “You're doing it again, Kagome,” she chided softly as she attempted to calm her friend, “you're going all secretive on me and I don't like it.”

 

Sniffling, Kagome waved a hand at her. Why did it always loop around? She felt as if she had been making progress and then Bam, hit by the Mac truck named Bankotsu once more. “I'm not meaning to, it's just so intertwined. I don't even know if I have it right, anymore.” And wasn't that the truth; keeping her circles of anger, those she needed to avoid and those she had hurt were all getting jumbled in her mind. There was the city group and her home groups, her enemies from afar and now close by; so many of which could ruin her life with a few words of truth. How was it that those she feared the most were those who knew her better than her own family. The thought made her nauseous. 

 

Sango refused to back down. She could see the minor cracks in Kagome's wall of defense; she could see the light of the girl she once knew shining through. Feeling as though all she needed to do was hack away a few more chunks of the puzzle, find a few more key parts, and it would be solved, she pressed on. “It doesn't have to be this way. I'm not going to go to the news to spread your dirty laundry. I'm not going to laugh or tell you I told you so. I just want to know why you look so miserable. I understand the Souta deal; I understand the pain that you must feel it.”

 

“You'll never understand,” Kagome bit out icily. She didn't mean to snap at her friend but Sango couldn't even pretend to understand what it was like single-handedly destroying her family. 

 

Patience was a virtue, Sango repeated over and over in her mind. “I'm not saying that I personally have ever felt something that strong, besides for losing my brother. But Kagome, there's so much more you're hiding, I can see it and I feel that I can just about reach it. Share this burden; it's what friends are for.”

 

Kagome closed her eyes and sighed heavily. Why did it seem so easy to just tell her the truth now? “I told you that someone knew the truth, and that they had a lot of power.”

 

Sango nodded gravely, “The person who I have the...”

 

Kagome made a grunting noise in the back of her throat, for the off chance that at some point, Bankotsu had bugged her.  Nodding a silent answer, she continued with as best of a description as she could, “I met someone at the club, someone who...wasn't...Oberon.”

 

“Who's Oberon?” Was this finally a given name, someone to blame?

 

Kagome glared at Sango until she caught on with a startled “oh”. Swallowing thickly, she tried to ration out her feelings. “He made me feel...I don't know...alive again. That somewhere in this world, there would be times coming that I don't feel utterly ruined. That one day I'd be forgiven and allowed to live again, without guilt. I liked it...I...liked him. And Oberon found out.”

 

Sango's mouth fell open as her eyes danced across the abrasions that still riddled her friend's face. “He...attacked you...over another man?”

 

Kagome nodded once. “I feared what he did to the other guy, but I saw him two nights ago when I went back to tell Oberon that it was over. I ran into him outside and he was okay.”

 

“That's a good thing, right?”

 

Kagome huffed indignantly. “I thought so, until I realized too late that this entire thing has been a scam. He knew my name, the name I never told him and he wouldn't have picked up around the club. He knew where I would be coming from, he was on one of the trains the night that...” she motioned to her face. “I realized that Oberon has been controlling this entire facade for some time. He's had his hand in all of it; that this guy was a test.”

 

“How can you be so sure?”

 

Kagome sighed and fisted her hair. “Think about it, Sango! What are the chances that I meet a demon in a club, run into him again at the club with Oberon, have him on the same train as me going into the city and then run into him at the club again, outside, and he knows what I'm planning. There is no way this is all coincidence. No possible way at all.”

 

Sango fused her eyebrows together for a moment, a look of confusion passing over her face for the vaguest of seconds. 

 

Kagome did not miss it. “What? What's wrong?”

 

Sango swallowed thickly once then glanced to the window. Outside Miroku, InuYasha and the third man whose silver hair was matted to his head in the down pouring rain stood around the stranger's car, unaware of the girls' proximity. “Miroku mentioned he had to go away two nights ago, something about going up to the city. That's an odd coincidence, isn't it?”

 

Kagome shrugged, “not really. A lot of us go up to the city for a stress relief. It's the benefit of having a train station so close by. When I'm not on someone's hit list, I'll take you up there.”

 

Sango smirked and shook her head, waving her fingers at Miroku through the window when he turned to glance her way. “No offense Kagome,” she spoke while turning to look at her friend, “but I think I'll avoid those friends of yours. It seems you really know how to make `em'.” 

 

Kagome smirked and said nothing else. A moment passed before Kagome glanced up at Sango, confusion rapidly making its way through her eyes. “Sango...who else is staying with Miroku?”

 

“The whole Taisho family, apparently. He was livid when the first brother came by but now with the second one there, he wants to camp out in my bed room. Not that I'd argue,” she added with a light giggle, not seeing the completely dumbfounded expression that crossed Kagome's face.

 

“You mean his father is staying with them also?”

 

Sango grounded herself and tilted her head in Kagome's direction. “No, it's miro, Yasha and his two brothers.”

 

Kagome blinked once then again. The cup in her hands slowly began to shake as she replayed the memories from the last couple days; namely their night together at Jakotsu's bar. Sesshoumaru showed up late, and Kagome had to guess that was the reason for Rin's distress the other night.  Then it was Miroku, InuYasha and that `Jiro guy who was....

 

“Sango, Yash only has one brother.”

 

Sango made a face and leaned back into the chair. “No, he has two, Miroku told me himself. The other one is apparently not a `real' part of the family; he was cast out by the dad a few years back for going against his wishes. I'll tell you, your father and InuYasha's father sound like they have a lot in common, yes? ...Kagome?”

 

Kagome simply stared as her memory recalled the previous night at the bar.

 

“I'm sorry,” She had said to the demon which she had mistaken for Sha. “You look a lot like a guy I've had problems with.” He was an exact copy of Sha, and linked directly to Sha was Oberon. “Exactly like you, minus your ears.”

 

What's-his-name-Jiro was a demon; a full blooded demon that she had first handedly mistaken for Sha. They looked so similar in their facial features and silver hair. As Kagome recalled him, and if she hadn't known any better, she would have sworn him to be…

 

`InuYasha's....InuYasha's.....Yasha's......Sha's...Sha's older brother.'

 

The cup that had rested in her hands cracked hard against the wood based floor, the contents spilling out like a life force being sapped from someone's body. Like the blood pooling away from her heart as it died in her chest.

 

“Kagome, Kagome, what's wrong? Kagome!” Sango moved quickly from her position on the couch to crouch by her friend, her eyes wide with panic. Whatever she had innocently said had put Kagome into a near catatonic state.

 

She could just about hear Sango shouting at her over the sound of her blood flowing through her veins as her brain attempted to comprehend what she now knew. `Sha, InuYasha....they were ...they were one in the same.'

 

“No, absolutely not,” she seethed as she shot to her feet, startling Sango so much that she fell backwards from her crouched position. “Absolutely not. I refuse to believe it.”

 

But it was the truth; she could feel it in her soul. It explained everything; it explained why she was suddenly so inexplicably drawn to InuYasha, it explained why he was acting so different to her. It explained Jakotsu's reluctance for her to be anywhere near InuYasha and his abhorrence to their relationship. It explained why he could make her so wet with just a few muttered words. He spoke her real language, he lived the same life; and he worked for the piece of shit that was ruining her. How Bankotsu Koizumi had made InuYasha Taisho one of his own minions was beyond her understanding, but it proved...it proved everything was a lie.

 

With a primal cry of anguish, she rushed to the bathroom and slammed the door behind her. Sinking down to the cool tiled floor, a rush of emotions stormed her mind, the most prominent of which was anger. InuYasha, Sha…whoever he was, had used her; he had goaded her along, thinking that he liked her, thinking that he wanted to be with her. It was undoubtedly a grand show, a farce really, being put on by Bankotsu. He had pulled their strings like marionettes, he made both of them dance, and he made InuYasha hurt Kagome more than she had ever been hurt in her life. They had used her. She had trusted him above all others; she had put her faith in him. She went to Bankotsu this last time because she feared what he would do to InuYasha for intervening in their circle when in all reality; he had played her like a fiddle. Bankotsu knew how fiercely loyal Kagome was and knew she would come when her friends were challenged. It was a shame she hadn't known that he was already close with InuYasha. A rage so bitter that it demanded blood and tears tore through her soul, leaving what little had once remained in bleeding chunks. Her hands trembled as she swore she saw red; InuYasha Taisho would rue the day he thought siding with Bankotsu Koizumi was a good idea. 

 

“How, how, how did he do it, how did he hide it from me,” she pondered aloud as she crawled across the bathroom floor to rise before the mirror. Like the creature from The Ring, her hair shadowed her face, evil and hatred lurked in bottomless depth of her nearly black eyes. A surge of power coursed through her veins that could purify the whelp on site. And it demanded blood. “How...” she repeated in a hoarse whisper. The ring, she realized with a cynical smile. That ridiculous ring that he had worn since the day she met him...that was his concealment charm. How sad that his brother hadn't felt the same need. If she had met him human, she would have never known, she would never have caught onto their game.

 

Who else was involved, who else knew they were bent on destroying her? Miroku, he would defiantly been in on it. Now she knew, as if the memory was crystal clear, being projected in 1080P, that it was Miroku she had seen at the club two nights ago. Miroku knew what InuYasha was doing, how he was playing her. Memory rushed over her, the day she lay bleeding and broken on Sango's couch; he had seemed so concerned, so angry for a man who knew what was happening. Sango, was she in on it? Did Bankotsu control the world?

 

Then there was Rin. It made all the sense in the world now; Rin had Sesshoumaru's child, Sesshoumaru was a demon, and she had to have known. She was in on it, to some extent; if not with Bankotsu than at least with InuYasha. Everyone…everyone knew and no one told her. `Some friends,' she thought bitterly as the darkness of her mind consumed her.

 

Staring into the mirror, a part of her longed to break the glass and slice open her wrists. Eternal damnation didn't matter; it would be a welcomed vacation from the hell that she was already living. How could InuYasha seem so worried, so deeply concerned, when he already knew who was hurting her, who had destroyed a part of her soul? And now he had destroyed the other part.

 

He would pay.

 

But it would be tricky, oh yes; it would, to get near him with this much Miko power ripping through her veins, through her sanity; it demanded blood for vengeance. The older one, the full demon, would sense her a mile away. But she could harness it; she would have to if she wanted this. And she wanted this. She wanted him to hurt as badly as she did at the current moment; she wanted him to taste the same pain.

 

`No you don't,' her conscience called out to her, the part of her that would never want to see someone in pain, the part of her that saved her friends again and again. She had always been the optimist, all of her life until Bankotsu came along. She had looked for the light, even in the darkest of times. But now…that light was gone, that candle dashed out with all of her hopes for humanity. They had all failed her. How dare a part of her reject her plans for vengeance? How could it speak out?

 

“But I do,” she seethed into the mirror, staring at herself as she argued with the voice. Tears leaked out the corner of her eyes, the hurt and betrayal of the one man she thought...that she dared to... barring that word from her vocabulary, she steadied herself. The world didn't know the Taisho's were demons, and sure as hell, Kikyo had no idea. They would all know by time she was done with him, by time she was done with them all.

 

`You wouldn't do that to him, you wouldn't dare.' the voice attempted to reason with her previous disposition on life.

 

“What he did to me is far worse,” she bit back at the invisible voice. “He…he…”

 

`He exists, he was at the same location…you saw how he jumped in against Bankotsu to save you, he threatened the man's life, his blood…he was willing to throw it all away for you.'

 

“It was a game, it was all a ploy. They didn't mean it, it was play. All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players*. None of it was meant, they…he…it was all a set up. All of it!”

 

`You love him.'

 

“I don't,” she screamed suddenly, grabbing the sides of her head and retreating back into her darkness, she huddled down into the corner of the bathroom and rocked slowly. How could he do this?  He had cost her Kikyo; he had cost her the piece of family, the one piece of her father that she had left. When facing losing Kikyo, it was eased by knowing she would have him. Now...she had nothing. He had played her like a champ. How long had he and Bankotsu conspired? InuYasha was quite good at this, she thought enraged, to be able to make her come to him. He had pulled her in, lured her into the trap. But why! Where was the sense in what they did to her; to prove her loyalty to Bankotsu; to prove that she could be broken? They both now knew she had been broken in the past, why make her suffer again?

 

“Kagome? Kagome, open up! What is it, what did I say?”

 

She could hear the horror in Sango's voice. She was hurting her too. He was hurting her. Thoughts blurred emotions fueled by the fire of hate spurred higher. Rationality be damned, Oberon had won. He had finished her, destroyed her. She was as good as dead. Her common sense and ration long ago fleeing, she stood up and regarded herself in the mirror. It was like an internal narration, she thought as she stared blankly at the face before her. She could taste her own thoughts, feel the rage in her veins, and see the darkness consuming her. Somewhere inside, a small voice cried out in panic, cried out in despair. It didn't want her to become one of them, to become so much like the creature Bankotsu was attempting to mold. She locked that voice away, barring it behind steel doors. Her resolve was absolute, the hanyou would pay dearly.

 

She splashed cold water over her face, drying the tracks of the tears that slipped down her face. It may have well of been a trail of blood. She had been in love with a monster once, and paid for it, and now she had nearly done it again. Turning in a fluid motion, she yanked open the door.

 

Sango took an instant step back, her eyes locking with the blank stare on Kagome's face. This was not her friend; this was not the girl she grew up with. Day by day she had watched small chunks of Kagome fall away to reveal something that just lived in her skin. A skin walker, they had called them back home and it was what stood in front of her. Kagome, her Kagome, could never look so menacing, could never look like she was ready to take a life. “What did I say,” Sango breathed out at the smallest of decibels, afraid to anger the being before her.

 

“The truth.” Even Kagome's words were nearly as hollow as her eyes. Pressing past Sango, she put on her shoes slowly. “I have to see to something, I will be back soon.” 

 

Sango knew a lie when she heard it. “Kagome, what's going on? What the hell just happened?” Reaching for Kagome's hand, she was all but thrown back when Kagome ripped it out of her reach, as if revolted by Sango's touch. 

 

“Don't...touch me.” She couldn't register the amount of anguish that crossed Sango's features. “I'll come back when this is over.” 

 

“When what's over,” Sango stood in Kagome's path, blocking the exit to her house. “Kagome, talk to me! What the hell is going on?”

 

“You were right,” Kagome quipped, meeting Sango's questioning gaze, “they are all in on it.” Seeing the confusion cross her friend's features, Kagome gestured to her face. “He knew, and he did nothing. He set me up to test my loyalty to his boss.”

 

“That…” Sango had a few choice phrases for the boy next door, and her disdain for InuYasha wasn't a hidden fact, but to believe that InuYasha had anything to do with Kagome's injuries…she couldn't fathom it. “Are you sure? Kagome…take a minute to think this through.”

 

“That's all I've done, Sango, since this happened.” Closing her eyes, she fought with her resolve. It would be so easy to fall apart here, to drop to her knees and cry a river longer than the Nile. But she couldn't if she wanted that revenge. “All I have done is sit and wonder what it going to happen to me, what I'm going to do if he retaliates. I never stopped to think he controlled everything, that he controlled where I healed, how I healed and who helped me. I never thought one man could destroy so much.”

 

Sango wasn't sure if Kagome was talking about that Oberon person or InuYasha, but somehow, it seemed that Kagome had merged them as one person. There was something devastatingly wrong here, and Sango had a feeling that if she let Kagome walk, it would only get worse. “Kagome, I think you need to sit down and be honest.”

 

“Honestly, apparently, is over rated. You can't trust anyone anymore.”

 

“You can trust me,” Sango said, hurt by her friends words.

 

“No, I can't.” Kagome glared at Sango with those words, words so filled with malice and hatred that Sango slipped from the doorway and retreated backwards.

 

“How can you say that?”

 

Kagome stared at Sango for a moment as locked away voice screaming for her to stop, to listen to reason. But she wouldn't, she couldn't. She had to get away. Though Sango was the most innocent party of those she knew, she couldn't help but think that she was it on it as well. She would visit them all today, and find out who was a liar, and who was a victim.

 

Casting one last glower at Sango, she walked from the house. What would happen when she got across the street? Would the older demon sense her malice? Would he stop her? Could he stop her? When she ripped the ring off InuYasha's finger, would he do the same with her head? Would she walk out of their apartment? She didn't care anymore. It was too much; one person can only endure so many traumas before they become a monster themselves, and she did not wish to live that long.  

 

Kagome walked from Sango's duplex, crossing the street blindly, before Sango could even think to grab her cell phone. Sango didn't know what she had said, but she knew that hell was about to rain down on the Taisho residence. She owed Miroku enough warning as she could give him.

 

Kagome didn't bother to knock; she simply opened the door and walked into the house. Miroku hardly took note of her, besides for a nod of the head, his attention held fastidiously by the demon older brother playing guitar. Kagome could hear Miroku's cell phone chiming away; Sango undoubtedly was attempting to warn them. That made up Kagome's mind on the lack of Sango's innocence. She regarded the duo for a moment, Miroku was holding the guitar to Guitar Hero, but his eyes were glued to the other man. In Kagejiro's hands was a Les Paul, and he was playing it to the notes that flowed in the video game; interpreting the song and playing the correct cords on the guitar. Had Kagome not been so blood thirsty, she would have admitted that was really fucking cool.

 

She wandered past those two and walked down the hallway to InuYasha's bedroom. She could hear him moving about inside, no doubt getting ready for some rendezvous with Oberon or getting ready to destroy someone else's life. She raised her fist to knock when she paused. What would she say? Could she call him out on it? Would he admit it? A plan worked through her mind; a stupid and reckless plan that was libel to get her killed. She cared not.

 

Tapping her nails against the door, InuYasha yanked the door open immediately. His obsidian colored hair sparkled in the dying day's light, and it make Kagome all that more livid. The silver hair she had found in his brush, it had been yet another clue presented to her face. She had been blind to it all from the beginning.

 

“Hey!” InuYasha seemed genuinely pleased to see her. Was Bankotsu still having him test her?

“Hey yourself,” she relied smoothly. She couldn't take long, soon enough Miroku would get the call from Sango and come catapulting to his friend's rescue. InuYasha held open his door and she walked into the room. Her eyes moved around the room quickly, searching for anything that would make this task easier; something that could restrain him, something that would give her the ability to get at him.

 

“I'm…shocked…to see you here, but I'm glad. We need to talk.” InuYasha walked to the bed and sat down, patting the mattress next to him for her to join in.

 

Kagome walked stiffly to the bed but stood before him. He seemed not to care. It took all of her power not to knee him in the jaw when he wrapped his arms around her hips sensually.

 

He seemed oblivious to the rage that was poorly masked inside of her eyes. “I thought I lost you last night,” he cooed lightly, his fingertips stroking the small of her back. “I thought…you wouldn't want to see me again.”

 

How utterly true that was and he would know it in a matter of minutes. She swallowed down the hatred and rage that sapped her strength and desire her to spit venom at him. “How could I want that,” she managed to respond politely. Her hands came to his shoulders and she pushed him backwards onto the bed.

 

InuYasha moved himself to lay on his side, his head coming to rest on his pillows. He smirked at her without mirth. By god was she beautiful. “I'm sorry… I never thought.”

 

“You're not sorry,” Kagome clipped in response. Seeing his eyes darken a hue, she swallowed down the bitterness. “It was something we both knew could happen. It's what comes about when you mess with fate.” Kagome knelt onto the bed and pushed InuYasha to lie flat on his back. Straddling his hips, she brought her mouth to his ear. Nipping at the cartilage, she whispered, “I want you.”

 

InuYasha struggled for the correct response. To be honest, his mind was blown away after the previous night's discussions and then Kikyo busting them, he was nearly sure it would take months to heal his and Kagome's fragile relationship. But her here now, being so…unlike herself…. InuYasha tried to sit up. “Is everything okay?”

 

“Its fine, baby, or at least, it will be. Just you relax and let me take care of you.”

 

This wasn't the Kagome he knew; it was the Kagome from the club. What had happened that made her revert to this? The demon in him didn't care and was all about letting her please him, but his human blood was attempting to keep its footing. What was going on? But god, the way she was grinding her hips against his pelvis was too much, and he wanted her just as badly. She didn't seem hurt, in fact, it seemed much the opposite.

 

He became so enamored with her thrusts, her kisses and her whispered words of filthy deeds that it took the cold metal of the handcuffs to touch his wrist for him to pull himself back. By that time, Kagome had strapped him securely to his own bed, with his own cuffs that he put on there a few months back. Bondage had always been a weak spot for him, and though Kikyo abhorred the idea, Kagome had been all about it. He, however, had never been the submissive in any of it, and to find himself now restrained by steel handcuffs was something that he was unsure he was ready to deal with. He had wanted to confess his love, not become her bitch.

 

`Shit can wait,' his demon crudely replied, `little bitch wants to suck you off. Shut the fuck up and let her.'

 

His human side was none to pleased but silent. It seemed the devil in him wanted this pleasure.

 

“Kagome,” he questioned with the raise of an eyebrow.

 

“Just relax baby,” she cooed out, her nose wrinkled in disgust but her voice betraying the emotion. “Let me take care of you.”

 

Lifting her body up over his, she reached his right hand and slowly sucked his thumb into her mouth, dotting on each appendage one after the other with dick-hardening perfection. She would suck and lick, suck and lick on each digit before reaching his ring finger which held the concealment charm. Her eyes flickered to his, seeing if he was noticing her quest for truth. Sucking her way down his finger, she swirled her tongue around the base and under the base of his ring while her knee gently massaged his crotch.

 

“Babe, stop teasing,” he cried out hoarsely. Maybe he could get used to being in handcuffs.

 

Grabbing the ring with her teeth gently, she complied with his demand. And as she slid up his finger, her saliva provided the perfect lube to get the ring off his finger with no hassle.

 

It was a sharp shock to his system, as if her mouth had clamped down around his cock and sucked the life out of him. Everything became crisper, clearer. He could smell the scent that was Kagome, he could smell her need and her…rage?

 

Or not. His golden eyes snapped open when something wet and hard was dropped on his face. Staring cross-eyed at the tiny trinket, dread seeped its way into his system. Oh. Shit.

 

His eyes traveled up to meet those mahogany orbs that graced the girl standing next to his bed. He was now tied to his bed, in his demon form, for the girl's viewing. She knew who he was…who he really was, and she did not seem pleased.

 

“Shit, Kagome, I can explain…” and then he really saw her; he could see the anger, the festering rage, and the absolute disgust that consumed her. She already knew.

 

Both stood at the edge of their metaphorical precipice, ready for war. He yanked once at the handcuffs before calling out to her in a dangerously low tone. “Uncuff me and we'll talk about this.” This was very far from a pleasant visit, and he could sense that now. The malice was lapping off her body in torrent waves.

 

He had always been told that hell had no fury like a woman scorned. InuYasha now believed that hell actually took nest inside of Kagome's mouth; because as soon as she opened it, he was surrounded in it.

 

“There is nothing to talk about, InuYasha Taisho. Or should I call you Sha. Which do you prefer?” She spat at him venomously, “How dare you!”

 

InuYasha couldn't help the defensive nature of his creature; anger surged forward by the need to justify himself. Ripping his wrists from the cuffs, he left a pile of twisted metal behind him and ignored the splintering of his head board. “How dare I what? Try to protect you from that asshole you got yourself involved with?” He was in her face in an instant. “How dare I try to take some of his anger away from you? How dare I try to protect you? Fucking ungrateful bitch! I prefer InuYasha, thanks for asking.”

 

Kagome belted him across the face with an open palm. “Don't talk about him like you're not friends! I know the truth now; I know what you've been trying so desperately to hide from me!” Her voice was way too loud; he was sure that everyone in the complex could hear her. “You work for him!”

 

InuYasha shoved Kagome back a foot and cornered her against the wall and his chest. Meeting her head on, he screamed back; “I never worked for him! Ever! I just happened to be in the same place, at the same fuckin' time as you. You think I could work for that piece of shit. Please! I could hardly take the sight of him, let alone his stench. I would never debase myself to work for that conniving jackass.”

 

“Right, because we just happened to be at the same place, all the time, together. Fate thought it would be hilarious to do that to us.”

 

He could feel the dripping sarcasm pour from her mouth. “I wanted to tell you,” he said after a moment. She was hurting…she thought that they had conspired against her, she thought that they…that he…had hurt her in Bankotsu's name. “I just…”

 

“Save it for someone who gives a flying rat's ass,” she spit back, “you didn't want to tell me. That was never in your game plan!”

 

“There is no game plan, Kagome,” he screamed back, “There is no conspiracy. I don't have anything to do with Bankotsu or Oberon, whatever you call him!”

 

“Horse shit, he told me himself that the two of you were friends for a long time. Tell me, you half demon whore, did you decide to sell yourself out willingly or just to fuck your family.”

InuYasha reared his hand back and then stopped himself. Her words hurt more than anything she could have hit him with, thrown at him or otherwise used against him. Lowering his hand to rest on the wall beside her, he tried to keep his head on straight. “Kagome, please try to understand; I never meant to hurt you. I didn't know it was you at the club until I found Bankotsu with his hands around your neck here on campus. Remember me jumping in, taking him down a peg? I realized it then and have been attempting to find a way to tell you since that. That's why I was at the club; I figured out that you were going back to Bankotsu to try to keep me out of trouble. I dragged Miroku with me to do it. He'll tell you, Kagome; I have never worked for Bankotsu Koizumi.”

 

“I call your bullshit,” she harshly replied, before attempting to knee him in the crotch. He spun out of her way and would have a bruise the side of a brick on his hip for it. As her skin connected against his, he felt what touching a Miko could do to him. It was like sticking his finger in an electrical outlet; the pain was intense and debilitating. If he hadn't pushed himself away, he may not have escaped her path. He could hear Kagejiro storming up the hallway, undoubtedly sensing the exerted power on Kagome's behalf. He met his brother at the door.

 

“Wha' the fucks goin' on in there, Yash? Are ya okay?”

 

“Its fine,” he seethed, trying to keep Kagejiro from the room. “I got this.”

 

Kagejiro's gaze fell on Kagome, her hands radiating with power and then flickered back to InuYasha. “I think you best walk away now, boyo, with your nuts intact. You don't fuck with a pissed off Miko,” he warned, a Colt resting in the hand hidden behind his back. He sensed the surging Miko power a second before and he had hesitated to grab his gun. The fuck a miko was going to take out his little brother. He had tried to warn him once, now he understood.

 

InuYasha glowered at his brother. “I need you to go away. Now. Thank you.”

 

Kagejiro stole a quick glower in Kagome's direction before turning and walking away. He wouldn't be far, and both occupants of the room knew that. Sticking the gun into the side of his pants, he crossed his arms and leaned against the wall.

 

InuYasha closed the door and counted to ten before slowly turning back to Kagome. “We need to talk about this,” he spoke calmly, despite his pissed off youkai.

 

“Fuck that,” she spit back, losing no hostility over the time, “I have nothing more I ever want to say to you, besides that if you ever come near me again, even your brother won't be able to save you.”

 

“Kagome,” anguish was slowly starting to seep into his voice, “please, baby, I need you to listen to me.”

 

“Don't you ever call me baby again. Fuck you; I don't need to do shit. How dare you think I owe you anything! You played me! You cost me everything I've cared about in life!”

 

“Kagome, Banktosu played you, he caused you…”

 

“Bankotsu's power was at the club. Using you to seduce me…to make me believe in something beyond pain…that's how I was…” she bit her tongue for a moment, fighting back tears. “I trusted you!”

 

“And you were right to! If I am guilty of anything, Kagome, it's being a shitty human being. I shouldn't have put you in the position to choose me over your cousin. But I never conspired with Bankotsu to ruin you. I would never…”

 

“Stop lying to me!” Kagome screamed back as tears rolled down her cheeks, “you know what you did! I cannot believe that you set me up. That all of this, everything we've had and done has been because he ordered it.”

 

“Kagome, you're delusional. It's not! Kagome, I…”

 

“Stop! I can't take any more lies! Did you set it up for those thugs to attack me? Was it Bankotsu? Did either of you care what they did to me before your game started on that train? Did you care that I was almost raped?”

 

It took InuYasha a second to process what she was asking. “Kagome, no! I normally drive to the city but that day, I just didn't want to. I happened to be in the same cab as you and got lucky. When I saw what they were doing to you…”

 

“Did you know who I was?”

 

“No,” he professed his innocence, “I had no clue that you were you. I just thought you were Oberon's girl. I would have saved you regardless, even if I had never met you before that day.”

 

She couldn't accept his answers; she refused to believe his innocence. So many lies, so many inconsistencies, it was all too much to process. “It was all a set up, admit it! It was all because he wanted to test my loyalty. He had you seduce me in his presence and out of it to see what I would do, how fast I would turn. I guess he got his answers. Tell me; were you there while he beat the fuck out of me? Did you get off on it?”

 

InuYasha watched, astonished and horrified, as Kagome declared this false accusation. But could he blame her? Hearing it put that way, hearing those words come out of her mouth, he could see where she thought herself right. And there wasn't a god damned thing he could say to change her mind. She had been prosecutor, judge and jury on this case before he even had time to make a defense. He was incriminated and booked with no chance of a retrial. “Of course not, I would have killed him for it.”

 

She seemed to be fighting with herself at the moment, debating as to where she went from there.

 

Taking one last stab at his defense, InuYasha begged, “please, Kagome, don't do this. I never would side with him. Hell, I want to rip his fucking throat out for touching you, for pulling that shit at the club. He doesn't know who I am, he has no clue. Kagome, you have to believe me, I never wanted this. I knew I should have told you when I figured out who you were, but I was so worried over your safety.”

 

“You don't give a rat's ass about me,” she threw back at him. She had wanted to tell the world, to hurt him as bad as he did her. But looking into those golden orbs, normally so proud and cocky, she was so shocked to see pain and agony. It was as if he had convinced himself that he did care about her. As more tears ate away at her soul, she had to ask, as her voice cracked, “why did you do it? Why did you have to take away what little I had left?” It was so much easier to believe that he had conspired against her than to believe he was a victim as well. Yet looking into his eyes, her resolve flickered if even for the smallest of seconds.

 

InuYasha wanted to hit something, he wanted to scream, and he wanted to cry. This was too much, to fast, to soon. How could she ask that of him? Did she know what he had almost scarified to be with her? “I am in fucking love with you, Kagome! I never wanted to hurt you, I…”

 

“Shut up, shut up, just shut the fuck up!” Kagome belted him across the face again, adding some miko power in the connection. “How dare you! After everything you've done, after all the lies, you expect me to believe anything coming out of your mouth? Go fuck yourself, InuYasha. If I ever see you again, ever, hell be damned, I will purify you on the spot, do you understand?” Tears flowed freely down her cheeks, and that burnt him more than her words.

 

Numbly, he nodded as his entire world shattered once more in the bitter cold night.

 

And then she was gone; blown past him, past Miroku and Kagejiro who gathered in the door way, and out the front door like a whirlwind. And out of his life. And there wasn't a damn thing he could do to get her back.

*X*X*X*X*X*X*X*X*X*X*X*X*X*XX*

Sorry for the major cliffy, but y'all had to know it was coming. And to those who say that it's OOC of Kagome to react in such a fashion, I ask you to consider all of the facts that have been presented to her and reask that question tomorrow. So not quite by the holiday but not the five month wait either. Hopefully, with the current now moving, I can get stuff together faster. We'll see.

Media Miner shout outs:

Mistress Kagome 4u: you were the first to comment, congrats. LOL. I will say that I loved Breaking Dawn, only because it moved on from the mushy stuff to the action. There is a bit of outlandish entries but it's okay, it's really good.

 

Drakey: Yeah, Kikyo is good for that, but I'm sure Kagome won the cake on the pissing-off contest in this chapter. ^_^

 

Malitiadixie: That's a classic argument about Kikyo's mouth; nature vs nurture. I want to say it's a bit of both in her case. I know what you mean, and don't worry, the day will come where Kikyo will get hers. As for Rin, she's okay, she's a strong character who can weather a lot. ^__^ as for Kagome and Yash…it may be a while before there is any sweeping.

 

Ninjagurl512: sorry your day was horrible. Lol, punch away. Sorry this chapter couldn't be so light.

Thesims1231: Yeah, it was talked about in Chapter 26, the whole discussion between Kagome and Sango.

Elementalobsession09: LOL, see, I caught onto Twilight after all the books were published, so I finished the series in a week (I shit you not). See, I wasn't to pleased at all with the movie; I feel that it was really poorly acted and the script was WAY to choppy. She needs to write her own screen plays. Happy belated birthday.

Sovereignty: Thanks, I have been working on Jiro's back story for at least two and a half years. I'm not even kidding. I started gathering information before I moved out of my mother's house in august of 2007. as for the names, Alucard is Dracula backwards (see Hellsing) and Brahm is one of my favorite names, again going with the Dracula reference. Yeah, they are names that came from the east.

 

Leila Chan: Yes, InuYasha's father is the evil that cannot be touched. The one that we know exists in society but can do nothing about besides for hoping that someone takes him down a peg. Sadly, I couldn't bring so much comedy into this chapter.

Madjax36: if it means anything, it took me over 2