InuYasha Fan Fiction / Fan Fiction ❯ Razing Hell ❯ The Pain of it All ( Chapter 4 )

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]

‘thoughts/inner voices’
“spoken words”
****new scene or switch of POV****
Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha & Company, but I do own all other characters.
Chapter Four: Pain of it all

The young teen looked into the room of his older brother. Shippo usually did most of his snooping when no one was home, he had noticed Inuyasha leave early that night and was home pretty early for having just left for a party. Inuyasha was laying face down on his mattress, bed all ruffled and messy and still wearing all his clothes ‘Typical’ Shippo thought. ‘This is just like him. Getting wasted then coming back without even a hello.’ He looked around the room to see if he had left any things of interest out in the open. Things such as money, drugs, and such things Shippo could then ransom back at a large gain. He glanced over at his bedside table were his unconscious brother’s wallet happened to be. ‘He should really learn to put his stuff away before he passes out. Someone could just waltz in here and take it.’ He smiled evilly. ‘And that someone is going to be me.’ He crept in and was about to pick it up when.

“Oi, runt! What’cha think you’re doin’?”

He froze. ‘He’s going to pound me for sure.’ He slowly looked over to his brother. He was still sleeping, with his mouth slightly open and ears twitching. Shippo sighed in relief. ‘He’s just talking in his sleep. He usually doesn’t do that when passes out from intoxication. He must have worn himself out some other way.’ He shrugged and then proceeded to take two twenties out of his wallet. Shippo felt no guilt in taking the money. In his mind set, Inuyasha was only going to waste it, so why not put it to good use in his care. Stuffing the money in his own wallet, he turned to the door to see a figure with a stoic expression on his face looking back at him.

“If Inuyasha knew what you were doing, he’d skin you alive.”

Shippo smiled nervously at his eldest brother. “You’re not going to tell him, right Sesshomaru? I’ve got dirt on you too.”

“No, you don’t have any ‘dirt’ on me, and it does not matter to me what you two idiots do. Don’t let him catch you, he’s more annoying when he’s angry.” He turned and walked away without so much as a glance back.

Shippo let out another sigh of relief. Two near heart attacks was barely worth the moderate prize he got, so he took out another twenty. He knew Inuyasha was bound to notice he had less money, but wouldn’t question it due to him getting wasted or worn out last night. Or that’s what Shippo thought. So he went down to the kitchen to grab a snack before he went back to his room. As he passed an open window, he did a double take at it. ‘I swore that window was closed just a minute ago.’ He shrugged. ‘Oh well. Whatever.’


“Alright, step one done. Now I just have to find those jewels,” Karu whispered to herself. “Just get in and out quickly, and watch out for the demons that live here.” She snorted. ‘Easier said than done.’

She silently ran along the hallway trying to find the owner’s main office. She knew that he kept all his valuables in there. She was good at what she did, which was stealing. It did not matter whom she stole from, only what she stole. If it was valuable and nonessential to their wealth, then she had no qualms with liberating it from them. In her eyes, it was merely putting more money into the economy instead of keeping it locked up somewhere collecting dust. Karu did not know whom she was stealing from, and she didn’t want to know; it would only make it harder if she knew them. She was dressed in complete black with a thin strip of material covering her face. Having already memorized the floor plan of the house, she knew exactly where to go. ‘Alright, two rights and a left, second door on the left. It will have a simple lock on it. This won’t take me long at all.’ When she got to the door, she pulled out her lock picking set. This was the only door that mattered in the entire house to her. She already knew what kind of door it was, what brand the handle and lock was made by, and how much time it would take to open it. ‘Just a few more seconds and this job will be done and I can relax for a while. Dad has been sending me out far too often for my liking.’

“Who the hell are you and what are you doing in my house?”

She turned her head to see someone she didn’t expect. According to the information gathered, the residence almost never came around this area of the mansion at night. She looked at the teenager who interrupted her work. Her eyes widened when she recognized the face of this particular teen that happened to be in her second period class.

“Shippo!?”

“Listen, I don’t know who you think you are but you picked the wrong house to steal from.” He sniffed the air to memorize the smell of the thief just in case she got away. ‘Wait a second. She smells familiar.’

Karu threw a small packet of smoke powder on the ground, which immediately formed a thick black cloud. Shippo started sneezing compulsively as the smoke reached his highly sensitive demon nose. He jumped back away to keep from choking to death from the cloud of dust that now clogged his nose. The cloud was already starting to clear but Karu was nowhere in sight. He tried to get her sent to follow, but still couldn’t smell anything besides dust. He started to run in the direction that he though she would go, but stopped when he decided it was foolish to even try. The mansion was like a maze to those who did not know it, and even though he did, the possibility of finding the thief was slim. By now she was outside and would soon be off of the property and into the night.

As he walked towards his room, he tried to recall the sent he had gotten before. ‘It’s familiar, a smell that I know I come into contact every day. I just don’t know when or who.’ He tried thinking harder. ‘She’s probably in one of my classes at school. I just can’t get a face or name.’ He sighed when he kept drawing a blank. ‘I figure it out tomorrow at school. That is if my nose clears up by then.’

He kicks off his shoes and looks in the full-length mirror next to his closet. Out of the three adolescents in the house, he was gifted with the most fashion sense. Inuyasha had little if any, commonly dressing in old red or black colors. Though everything that he worn matched, he had little variety, and almost none clothes that would be acceptable for anything that might be considered formal. Sesshomaru was much better than his half brother, but was still left in the dust by the adopted child. He dressed mostly in black or dark shades of blue, and most of those were semi-formal, and was starkly contrasted by his light complex and white hair. Shippo dressed mostly like a punkish boarder, though he did own a few gothic styled garments along with some prepish. In fact, he had more clothes in that one closet than the rest of the house did put together. Shippo still had some of the boyish looks of childhood, but was fairly well grown. While his shoulders my have not been as broad as either of his brothers, nor was he nearly as tall, he still had the features of manhood all over him. His entire style was completely different to that of his brothers. His hair was not as long as theirs was; it was a moppish growth that he was constantly getting out of his eyes. His demeanor was happy, while theirs was asinine and stoic. He had friends everywhere and friendly acquaintances that numbered in the size of small armies. His brothers had a few friends each. He was extremely popular and was sought after by many people to be friends with. His brothers were held at a respected distance for fear of getting killed or otherwise hurt.

Shippo took a second to wonder what it would have been like to grow up with brothers similar to him. He shook his head and smiled as he thought, ‘I wouldn’t have it any other way.’ He then quickly threw off his clothes and took a second to admire his well-toned reflection, then jumped into bed. As he drifted off into sleep, a face came the smell that he got before the cloud got to him, but then vanished as suddenly as it came.

************************************************************ *********

Inuyasha awoke to the noisy, annoying sound of his alarmclock. He slammed his fist down on the offending object, nearly breaking it, when he felt a sharp pain over his entire body. The memories of the previous night came flooding back to him. He slowly rolled over, grimacing in pain as he did, and went to his adjacent bathroom. Shrugging off the remaining clothes he still wore, his limbered into the shower. With his eyes still half closed and mind nowhere near fully away, he fumbled with the knobs to adjust the water. As soon as the hot water hit his body, his eyes snapped open and he whimpered. The burns on his body throbbed with pain as if they were just freshly made. He quickly turned the water down to a cooler temperature. It still hurt, but not as much. He hastily washed his body, careful of all the burns and jumped out. Drying himself off was nearly as painful, but he made it through. Going over to his lightly filled closet, he picked out he lightest long sleeved shirt he had and some jeans. Fumbling through his bedside table, he found some of his stronger painkiller and popped two in his mouth while stuffing the rest of the bottle in his backpack. He had a feeling he was going to need it.

Shippo had done basically the same thing, but without all the pain and medication. As he looked at his wide selection of clothing, he wondered what to wear. He wasn’t feeling that preppy today, and he wasn’t feeling too depressed either, so he went with his normal look. Very baggy cargo pants with a light colored T-shirt. He made sure his hair was ruffed and messy, and then inspected his look. Not completely satisfied with it, he grabbed a random surfer necklace and put it on. Feeling that it looked good enough for a Friday, he went to get something to eat. With his nose being cleared up, he went to the hallway by his father’s office to see if he could get another whiff of the intruder on that hallway or any one near by. Unfortunately, all he could smell was dust. By the time he got to the kitchen, both of his older siblings were there. He could safely assume that Sesshomaru had been up at least an hour beforehand and was simply waiting to ask him something. He rarely him out directly sought him out, but rather waited at a convenient spot and did something else while he waited. At this point he was reading the newspaper with a dry piece of toast still on his plate. Inuyasha was currently devouring a bowl of cereal like a staving animal, oblivious to his entering.

“Shippo, do you have any knowledge of why one of the corridors reeks of smoke and ash?” Sesshomaru’s voice was calm, but after living with him for so long, he could feel a hint of annoyance in it.

“Yeah, someone tried to rob dad’s office last night. I came along and she threw this powdery stuff on the ground and it formed this large, dusty cloud. She got away before I could grab her.”

Inuyasha had apparently diverted some of his attention away from his food to hear what he had said.

“Someone tried to rob us and you let them get away! What kind of demon are you?”

“I was a little busy at the time, you know. Not choking to death was a bit higher on my list of priorities than catching a clumsy thief, Inuyasha.”

“Did you get a good look at her, catch her scent, or hear her voice before she threw the smoke screen down and ran?” Sesshomaru was now very annoyed.

“Sort of. She seemed kinda familiar, like I see her every day or something close to it. I just can’t put a face or name to it.”

“Well, you better find out soon, runt. Dad will get pissed once he finds out,” Inuyasha slurred.

“Don’t take with you mouth full, idiot. It makes you seem more like a complete fool.”

“Shut up Fluffy!”

“Call me that again and this Sesshomaru will disembowel you.”

At that moment their father walked in. “Would both of you be quiet! I can hear you from my bedroom.” He turned to Shippo. “So you know something about that smell and who caused it. Start talking, boy.”

“Well father, someone tried to rob your office last night. I stumbled into them while they were trying to pick the lock to the door. She somehow knew me, because she said my name before she threw down this powdery stuff that made me almost choke to death. I recognize her sent and voice, but I can’t put a face or name to it.”

He nodded and started walking away. “You boys better get going. You’re almost late for school. Sesshomaru, would you drive both of them today? It seems like you never do even though you all go to the same school.”

Sesshomaru let the annoyance he felt show clearly on his face. “Yes, I will, but this Sesshomaru doesn’t want this to become a daily thing.”

**************************************************** ****************

The three teens clambered into the car of the eldest one. The car was a Mercedes-Benz with a silver finish and black leather seats. The entire car was immaculate and looked like new. Sesshomaru turned to the two other boys.

“You better not leave any dirt in or on this car or I will skin you both alive and wear your pelts to your funerals.” He growled as he started the car. It purred like a kitten and pulled smoothly out of the long driveway. At the head of the driveway, Sesshomaru took a right.

“Yo, Sess, the schools the other way! Where the hell are you going?”

“To get some coffee, you worthless half-breed. We have plenty of time before school starts.”

“I happen to need that time before school starts to talk to my friends, fluffy, so turn the car around.”

Sesshomaru’s hand shot out, grabbed the back of Inuyasha’s head and slammed it into the front console.

“I told you not to call me that, and the monk can wait for your idiotic story.”

Inuyasha held his now bleeding nose and looked away. Shippo looked nervously between his two older brothers before reaching forward to turn on the radio. He just couldn’t deal with awkward silences, or really any kind of silence. It was simply against his nature. The music that was playing was some classical station, which the eldest brother seemed to like the most. He let it play for a moment before changing it to a rock station. He knew Sess didn’t mind it and he didn’t fear getting touched by him. Sesshomaru rarely harmed him at all, and was fairly light on insults as well. But for Inuyasha, a day hardly went by without some kind of violent act being performed, such as the one that just occurred. Shippo coughed before he said something.

“Um, Sess, didn’t you already have coffee this morning? Do you really need that much caffeine to stay awake?”

“The coffee at home was old and had a burn taste to it. I require some coffee of a higher caliber to appease my tastes."

“Oh, OK then. Mind if I get something as well?”

“I doesn’t matter to me. It will hardly take any more time, but you better have your own money.” Shippo swore he saw a smile grace his brother face as he said that, and then remembered last night.

He smirked as he said, “Oh, I have plenty of money with me. No need to worry.”

Inuyasha was oblivious to all of this as he tried to make his nose stop bleeding. His body was still reeling from the purification from the other night. He had noticed that his reflexes were slower and that he still felt tired, and now that his body was having trouble healing a simple wound, he was getting worried. He had wanted to ask Miroku about purification, for nickname was based on some truth. He knew a lot about demons and priests, and would most likely know some sort of way to counter the effects of being purified. The monk was full of information like that.

As they pulled up to the drive-through of the coffee shop, Shippo and Sesshomaru rolled down their windows. When the cashier announced that she was ready to take their order, Shippo answered first.

“I’ll take a large double mocha ice coffee with three sugars, two creams, and a shot of expresso. And don’t forget to shake it well!”

Sesshomaru gave his little brother a questioning look. Shaking his head, he gave his order. “I’ll take a small black coffee.”

As the girl went to make the orders, Shippo looked at his brother. “Um, Sess, I only have twenties. Could I pay you back once I break one of them?”

“If you don’t, I’ll break your arms.”

As soon as they got their drinks and paid for them, Shippo started drinking it greedily as if it would disappear if he didn’t drink it fast enough. Inuyasha snorted as he saw Shippo doing this.

“I pity the teachers who have him for the next few hours. He’s not going to be quiet for a minute.” Sess didn’t say anything, and Shippo was too busy drinking his coffee to notice. Inuyasha rolled his eyes when his comment fell on deaf ears. As they drove back in the right direction of the school, Inuyasha stared blankly out the window. His thoughts were still on last night, no matter how hard he tried to put it out. It wasn’t so much the pain of getting purified, but rather the thought of seeing and hearing Kikyo when he knew for a fact that she was off in another country. Or at least the girl looked like Kikyo, and she sounded sort of like her. He shook his head to clear it as they pulled up to the school.

Thanks to the large donations their father gave to the school, Sesshomaru was given a senior parking space even though he was a junior. As Sesshomaru turned off the car, Shippo saw his friend, Kohaku, approaching. He had to tell him about the little attempted thieving incident that befell his family. He might know someone who steals a lot, or at least someone who knows something about it. He jumped out and ran over to him.

“Hey Kohaku! Bet you can’t guess what happened last night.”

Kohaku smiled and said “Inuyasha got wasted and you took some of his money.”

“No! Actually…” He paused for a second and reconsidered. “Well, that did happen, but that’s not what I wanted to tell you. Someone tried to rob us.”

“Really! Did the police get ‘em? Who was it? What were they trying to take? How many were there?” Kohaku’s mouth was flapping at an alarming rate.

“Whoa man, slow down. No, they didn’t catch her, I don’t know who it was, same for what she was trying to take, and I think only one. I was wondering if you knew anyone who would do this kind of thing, because the girl knew me and she smelled familiar.”

“No, I can’t think of anyone off the top of my head, but I’ll ask around. And how familiar did she smell. Familiar like see her in one of your class’s familiar, or like dated her familiar?”

“Someone I see every day familiar.” He then grinned slyly. “Speaking of dating, are you ever going to ask Kanna out? You’ve been eyeing her for the past month.”

Kohaku face turned beat red and he looked at his feet. “No, and I don’t see the point. Why would she want to go out with a human, especially me? She’s a demon. She would never even give me a second glance, if she were to even look at me at all. Come on, she’s extremely popular and the center of attention. We’re not exactly the coolest kids around, so I have no chance at going out with a goddess like her.”

Shippo shook his head while still sipping at his coffee. “You need to have a little more self-confidence. I doubt that she is that shallow, and my guess is that she is probably shy if anything. Take a chance for once in your life!” He looked over to see the large crowd of kids entering the building, and in the vast hoard, he spotted Kanna walking by herself. “Here’s your chance, go ask her!”

“I don’t know… Maybe later.”

Giving his friend an exasperated sigh, grabbed him by his arm and dragged him over to Kanna. “Hey Kanna! What’s up?”

She smile at the kitsue as she said “Hey Shippo, and…”She paused for a moment as she looked over to at his friend to remember, “Kohaku is it?”

He didn’t trust his voice, so he only nodded. Feeling that Kohaku wasn’t going to say anything for a while, Shippo took the offensive for him. “My friend and I were wondering if you were doing anything after school. If you weren’t, do you want to come to my place to watch a couple of movies with a few other friends of mine?”

She smiled at the thought. “Sure, why not. When should I come over?”

“As soon as you can. Do you know where my house is?”

“Your older brother is Sesshomaru, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Then my sister, Kagura, will know where to go.”

Shippo blinked. “I didn’t know Sess was friends with your sister.”

“They are not really friends. They are just friendly acquaintances.”

“Sesshomaru has never really been friendly with anyone before…” He paused for a moment. “Unless he sorta respected her.” He shrugged and decided not to think too hard on the subject matter. I really didn’t matter too much to him.

Kanna saw a few of her friends and they waved to her to come to them. She turned back to the two boys standing in front of her. “See you guys later.” She said as she walked towards her other friends.

Once Kanna was out of earshot, Shippo turned to his shy friend. “See, that wasn’t so hard now was it. You just have to be a little assertive, that’s all.” He patted Kohaku on the back.

Kohaku slumped his shoulders in depression. “Come one Shippo. You know that she only agreed to it because you were there. If it was me asking, she would have laughed and walked away.”

“Would you cheer up! Yes, I set you up to ask her out in a semi-private area, but if she didn’t like you, she would have said no to the invitation.” Kohaku mumbled something incoherently, but Shippo didn’t care. He was in a good mood and he didn’t want Kohaku to ruin it.

************************************************************** **************************************

Inuyasha tried his best to not wince as he walked, but he struggled at that. Though the pain had lessened from the night before, it was still difficult to ignore. While his face was the part that actual got touched, it still remained unmarred and didn’t hurt at all. His thoughts lingered on the girl who had hovered over him the night before. He couldn’t get her out of his head no matter how hard he tried, and the image of the girl was fuzzy at best. Stumbling over to his locker, he did his best to put thoughts about last night behind him for the time being, and try to focus on what was to come. Gathering his books he needed, he headed off to his first period class. Upon reaching his intended destination, he went to the back row where Miroku was sitting. Plopping himself down Miroku gave him a curious look.
“What the hell happened to you? You look like you got hit by a bus.”

“It feels like it. It’s a long story.” He then launched into a brief account of what he remembered happening.

“Well my friend, you’re just going to have to wait out the effects of being purified. There is nothing you can do but rest and not push yourself too hard. With being purified, if it does kill you in an hour, it won’t kill you at all. I guess you’re lucky to be alive for the time being.”

“What do mean ‘for the time being’?”

“There are fates worse than death Inuyasha. The people you described seem to have a hold of things, and they might come after you again.”

Inuyasha grunted and tried to think of something else. He could already tell that it was going to be a long day.

************************************************************* ************************************

Shippo bounced down the hallway waving and saying hello to the numerous friends he had acquired, promising them he’d hangout during the weekend and show up at one of the parties, never intending to go to half of them. Kohaku had his shoulders slumped and was staring at the floor as he walked. While Kanna had agreed to hangout with them, he still felt robbed of the chance to ask her himself, even though he knew he would never have done it.

‘How could she possibly like me?’ he thought. ‘I’m a nobody with nothing to offer her. She’ll just talk to Shippo and whoever else he invites and not even look at me.’

Shippo could feel the melancholy seeping off of his friend. He knew what was causing it, but could do nothing to cheer him up. They both sat down and got out the things they need for class. The Kanna was also in that class and she smiled and waved at them as she passed. Kohaku didn’t notice due to his face being firmly planted on his desk, and Shippo sighed inwardly, knowing that it would have probably made him feel better if he saw it. The bell rang and class began, and the teacher started a lecture about the results of several chemical reactions. Half way through the class, Shippo was dozing with his eyes open (a trick he learned from Inuyasha) while Kohaku hadn’t moved an inch. Someone at his side poked him to get his attention and handed him a note. The girl doing so whispered to him to give it to Kohaku. Kicking his foot, he slid him the note. Opening the note, Kohaku’s expression went from surprised to depressed to unbridled joy. Snatching the note from Kohaku’s hands, he read it.

‘Hey Kohaku! I don’t really feel like watching any movies, and the little get together is starting to sound more like a party, and I’m not in the mood for a party. I still want to do something with you, so how about ice cream after school? ~Kanna’

Shippo was just as excited, but for different reasons. First, he didn’t have to throw a party, second, he didn’t have to mediate any conversations between the two, and third, that had just restored his friend’s good demeanor and they could get to know each other better. Handing back the note, Kohaku scribbled down a response and passed the note back towards Kanna. The class passed without anything else happening, and soon the bell rang. As Shippo went to the door, he saw Kohaku waiting for Kanna. Smiling, he turned and walked towards his next class.

*********************************************************** **************************************

Raziel gently rubbed at his temples, trying to ward away the impending headache his winged friend had indirectly caused. He glanced at his watch, which read 8:23. He had already been working for four hours, and did not plan on going to school that day. With the money and intelligence he had, he could get into any collage he wanted at any time, regardless of his grades. After Ryu had returned for dropping off Inuyasha, he went over everything he had seen at the party. Ryu’s real reason for going was to obtain information, not to get someone half killed and marked. He shuffled some papers, made some more notes on various pieces of paper before going over to a filing cabinet and pulling out a folder labeled ‘Tsukamoto’. For being the head of the entire operation, Raziel had very little on the boy. The folder was practically empty compared to the other big players running it. All it had was a picture and a single piece of paper. The photo was of the boy from the waist up and half turned, getting barely more than a profile of him. On the paper was a brief physical description and an even briefer description of his personality. He did not know how old he was for sure, he did not know where he lived, who his parents were, or any basic intelligence of him. In all his research, he could not find anything that stated that there was indeed a person named Tetsu Tsukamoto. All he gained from that party was the confirmation of two of the grunts having some spiritual power, one of which having enough to cause some damage. Pacing around the room, he tried to think of a way to make things turn out better. ‘Ryu can still to some reconnaissance, if a little limited.’ He sighed, ‘I have no choice but to move to the next stage. I wish I had more information and more time.’ Placing the contents back in their folders and filing them away, Raziel turned off the lights and left.

************************************************************ **********************************************

Ryu couldn’t sit still. His thoughts were racing from the recent turn of events. Part of him just wanted to give up on the whole thing, run away and enjoy the time of his younger years. Another part of him wanted to go through with it to the farthest extent and make sure everyone knew exactly what happened. He checked his watch. ‘8:25, three more minutes if the information is right.’ He looked at his side. Akinos was calm and had a faint smile on his face.
Akinos spoke barely above a whisper. “Would you quit moving. Everything is going to go fine. Calm down.”
But he couldn’t. He checked his watch again.
‘Two minutes left. But what if everything went wrong? What if those people knew what they were going to do? What if we get caught?’
He thought he heard something and looked around, and no one was there. Ryu took deep breaths to try and calm himself.
‘Raziel said that these people run like clockwork, making the same rounds every day at the same time.’ He could trust that information, since Raziel is almost never wrong.
“One minute left, Ryu. You ready?”
“Hell yeah. We’re gonna make them regret every time the pushed us around.”
“Just remember, stick to the plan and everything will go off without a hitch.”
They then began to ready themselves. They picked up their packages carefully, for breaking the seal now would ruin everything. They saw their two targets approaching. They were walking in the hall below them, with both of them standing on the balcony above. They were almost in place. They took aim and released their packages. Ryu smirk as he watched it fall. He knew it was right on target, and so was Akinos’. Then they hit.

“WHAT THE HELL IS THIS!?” The now soaking principal thundered. He could only be described as a towering mountain of fury.

The vice-principal next to him was equally as mad and wet from the water balloons just dropped. He looked up to see who had dropped them, but no one was in sight.

Ryu and Akinos sprinted towards their gym class, which was already in session. Their class was large enough that they would not be missed, so they were covered in that area. Since the gym teacher would rather die than admit that one of his students was skipping, he would vouch for them. As soon as they got to class, they collapsed in helpless laughter.


The Principal glared at the two boys sitting in front of him. Both their faces were completely blank, their eyes glazed over staring off into nowhere. He knew they did it, he just knew it, but he didn’t have any evidence. They both said they were in class, and so did their teacher. He searched their lockers and bags and found nothing. He asked everyone in their class if they left at all that period for anything, but they all said no. They both had powerful families, so he could not just punish them without proof, and they were closing the school next week, so there wasn’t much he could do anyway.

“Listen you two whippersnappers,” he sneered jabbing his fat finger at them. “I know you did it, and as soon as a find anything proving my assumption, I going to make your lives a living hell! I’ll be watching you two kids like a pedophile at a playground, and if you put one toe out of line, your asses are mine!”

He took a breath to settle himself.

“You two think you can get away with anything, but you can’t! I run this school, and we do things the way I say they should. As of now, you both are to report to my office first thing in the morning and at the end of the day. Failure to do so well result in an in school suspension to which you will be scrubbing the floor of my office. If either of you are late or skip one of your classes, the same thing will happen. And so will if you misbehave in class, or even look at a faculty member funny.” His voice dropped to a growl. “ If you get into any fights, consider yourself expelled.”

************************************************* *******************************************************

Ryu leaned against his locker with a triumphant smirk on his face. He got away with it more or less clean, and he felt like celebrating. “That pedophile analogy with our asses being his was kinda creepy. That sick fuck probably is one. There is no way in hell I’m gonna be his bitch.”

“Then you need to play it straight, no fooling around. That ass has already told the entire staff about it, and most of them are going to follow it to the letter.” Akinos picked up his bag and started walking to his next class. “They all know they only have a week left, so they want to make us as miserable as possible. Chances are that the teachers are going to impose it on the entire school just for kicks.”

“A lot of people are going to be mad at us for this, aren’t they?”

“Yeah, but since when do we care about anyone else.”

“You’re right.”

“It was worth it though, wasn’t it?”

“Oh yeah.”

***************************************************** ****************************************************

Ayane glared at the two boys sitting across from her at the lunch table. They both had that dumb grin on their faces that told her that had done something extremely dangerous or stupid or both, and had gotten away with it. She assumed that it had something to do with the new harsh restriction in place. She had heard rumors about water balloons and the principal and vice principal, but they weren’t saying a word.
“Alright you two, spill it!”

“Spill what? We didn’t do anything. It always seems like you think we’ve done something wrong.” Ryu could barely keep from laughing as he spoke.

“Because you probably have! I know you two did something, and you have these stupid smiles plastered on your faces. I’m not going to let this drop until I know exactly what’s going on.”

“Ayane, the only reason why we’re smiling is because they are trying this last ditch effort to make the school hate us. As Ryu said, we didn’t do anything.”

“Akinos, I swear to God that if you don’t tell me what you did right now, I won’t speak to you for a long, long time.”

“Ayane, I’m telling the truth! We didn’t do anything. I have no reason to lie to you.”

She gave them a final flat unfriendly stare before huffing and walking away.

“You know she’s not going to talk to you for at least a week, right?”

“I’ll just get her something nice, and she’ll forget about that part.”

“I don’t know man…”

“Damn, she is really pissed at us, isn’t she.” Akinos smirked.

“I know! Isn’t it great.”

**************************************************** **********************************************

They all met at sanctuary around three. They all needed a little time to gather some things together before coming. They made it a tradition to stay over at sanctuary during the weekend. Stocked full of junk food, drinks of all kinds, new movies and such things, they could stay the entire time and not have to leave. Kagome was brushing Ayane’s hair when Ryu and Akinos walked in. Raziel was sitting on one of the couches reading a book waiting for them to arrive.

“So, how did it go? You get caught?” Raziel didn’t even look up from his book.

Ryu grinned as he answered. “Yes and no. The principal knows we did it, but he doesn’t have any evidence, so he can’t really punish us. He is though making us go to him at the beginning and end of school. He also made all the rules a lot harsher, so he can’t do anything without getting suspended.”

“Yeah, and he said something that makes us think he should register as a sex offender.” Akinos’ face seemed a little worried.

“What’d he say?” Kagome asked, still brushing Ayane’s hair.

“He said, and I quote ‘I’ll be watching you two kids like a pedophile at a playground, and if you put one toe out of line, your asses are mine!’” Akinos did his best to imitate his voice. “He said we’d be scrubbing his floors, and then gave us this weird look.”

“Eww! That’s gross. He must like boys that way more than girls.” Kagome’s expression was one of complete disgust.

“Yeah, and now he gets his own private showing of these two supple young men twice a day.” Raziel did look up from his book this time. “It is time to reap what you’ve sown, which means getting eyed up every day. I hope you enjoy yourselves.”

“Screw you Raz!”

“Speaking of being screwed over, don’t ask for these kind of favors from me again. I am going to be very busy for the next few weeks, and I need to divert all my attention to the task at hand.”

Ryu gave him a small knowing nod. His friend didn’t need much sleep to function well, but he had a feeling that he wasn’t going to sleep for the next two weeks, and he knew he was the one to have caused it. If he hadn’t brought Inuyasha to that party and gotten himself partially marked, Raziel would have had more time to sort things out. He then suddenly remembered something.

“Akinos, have you heard from Miroku at all?”

“Yeah, he said Yasha looks like he got hit by a train, and he winces all the time just from walking.”

“Do you know how long it will take for him to start feeling better?” Kagome’s voice was full of concern, and her eyes looked sad.

“He should be fine in about a week, give or take a few days. You can never really be too sure with these things. It all really depends on how strong the person doing it was. The more spiritually stronger, the longer the effects last, and longer it takes to heal.” Akinos’ voice was also filled with concern. He looked over at Ayane. She looked distinctly unhappy and avoided looking at him. True to her word, she had not yet spoken to him. He made a mental note to make sure he got her something really good.

“He’ll be fine, it will just hurt a lot.” Ryu was sympathetic, for he too had been purified once. “Do you have his phone number, I need to talk to dog boy about a few things.”

“I don’t, but Miroku does. I call him for it later.”

“Do that. He and I have a lot to talk about.”

**************************************************** *************************************************

The hours passed as they played a few rounds of pool, listening to music and making small talk. It was the little things like this that kept them sane. All of them had burdens that they had trouble bearing, be it family troubles, drug problems, emotional issue, or simply being too sensitive to other peoples problems. The real ones who were suffering then were Akinos and Ayane. They had grown up together and had always been close. They had gotten in a lot of fights during the years of their friendship, most of them being quickly forgiven and forgotten. While the absence of each other was not what pained them so, it was the silence between them that always got to them. They both always felt a need to tell each other everything, share every detail of their thoughts and feelings to each other. When it stopped, it felt like something had died in them.

Ayane was in the kitchen making some more snacks for them, her being the best cook out of all of them and actual enjoying it. The fact that Akinos had caused the argument tore him apart from the inside, so he took a deep breath and walked into the kitchen. He needed to apologize and make everything better.

She was wearing white shorts and a small tanktop, her light brown hair spilling softly on her shoulders. Her face made a small frown in concentration, her small frame slightly bent over a cookbook. She didn’t notice Akinos come in. He padded softly behind her, then wrapped his large arms around her gently.

He lowered his mouth to her ear and softly whispered, “I’m sorry Ayane, I’ve been a real ass. Please forgive me?”

She struggled against his gentle hug and broke free, never looking directly at him. Going to the opposite end of the kitchen, she started pulling out the ingredients for what she was making. Akinos sighed softly.

“If you aren’t going to talk, then I will.” He leaned against the tabletop before continuing. “I should have told you from the start, but Ryu said to keep quiet about it. He doesn’t want anyone to hear about what we did. It all started when Ryu first heard that the school was closing. He had been checking out the teachers’ rounds with Raziel for a long time before it, and he wanted to put it to good use. Ryu wanted to get back at the principal for a long time for suspending him so much. He knew it was his fault for getting suspended in the first place, but you know how he is sometimes. He and Raz came up with the whole thing, but Raziel didn’t want to get himself in trouble, and Ryu didn’t want to do it alone, so he came to me. At first I said no, but it started to sound better and better as he told me more about it. I’m not sure if you heard exactly what happened, but Ryu and I dropped water balloons on the principal and vice-principal. The big guy knew it was us, but he didn’t have any proof. You’ve heard the rest. I know I should’ve lied to you in the first place, and I know you were only looking out for us. I’m sorry.”

The entire time, Ayane didn’t even look at him. He sighed again, know it would probably be a long time before he got any form of communication from her. Akinos turned and started to walk away, but then felt two small arms slip around his waist stopping him.

Ayane rested her head on his back and said softly. “Promise me that you will never lie to me again. Promise me, so we can forget the whole.”

Akinos could hear that she was about to start crying. He turned around and embraced her. “I promise, Ayane, I promise.”

The two held each other for some time, completely oblivious to everything else around them. They only relished in the feeling of once again being happy.
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Authors notes: I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and I know it has been a while since I last wrote, but I will be writing a lot more now that summer is here and school is out for a few months. I know there are a lot of new characters, so it might be a little confusing as the story goes on, so try not to get lost. If you see any places where I contradict myself, please tell me so I can fix it. The story line in my head and what comes out are sometimes two different things so I may not notice it. If you guys have any ideas for the story, tell me, I may find a way to work them in. And for a brief overview of the new people’s personalities, Ryu is angry and violent, Ayane is kindhearted, Raziel is introspective and pessimistic, Akinos is not that bright but kind as well. That’s most of them for now, but there will be more later. R&R!