InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ A Grudging Loss ❯ Fighting the Bears ( Chapter 18 )

Chapter 18: Fighting the Bears

 

Inuyasha gulped as he heard the roar of the fans in the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Today was the day that USC's Holy Shikon Team would face off against the demonic team of the `Cal' Bears. (`Cal' was a college in Northern California that was founded by a bear youkai, so the campus had taken on a bear as a mascot.) His ears flicked to the right and left as he absorbed the intense yells and screams that permeated the stadium. Usually the roars meant nothing to him. When he was playing he always managed to tune out the yelling so that he could focus on the game. However, today he wasn't participating—he was only a bystander watching Kagome fight.

 

The entire idea knotted his stomach and made him feel queasy. Kagome would be out there fighting against demons and she `could' get hurt. The last time he had faced her in battle he had even injured her. What would thunder demons like Hiten and Maten do to her? He had to fight his basest instincts that were demanding that he run to the playing field and protect Kagome from anyone who tried to attack her. He griped the plastic seat underneath him, his claws scrapping against plastic and concrete.

 

“Hey man! Why are you so uptight?” asked Koga who was sitting next to him.

 

Inuyasha blanched as he pulled his claws back up to his face as if in puzzlement.

 

“Oh, I get it!” exclaimed Koga with a laugh as he smacked Inuyasha on the back.

 

“Get what?” asked Inuyasha as he tried to hold back his anger and frustration.

 

“You want to be out there playing. Don't you?” declared Koga with a grin on his face.

 

`Well, that's true,' supposed Inuyasha. He did want to be out there, if only to protect Kagome. He was going to go nuts seeing her out there defenseless. “Yes, I want to be out there fighting,” acceded Inuyasha as he looked back over the field.

 

Sesshomaru grunted on the other side of Inuyasha. “Patience little brother. In time we will pay them back for our last defeat.” His amber eyes of ice scanned the field.

 

The Class `A' team from UCLA was here to help cheer on the `Cal' Bears, so they were sitting on the side of the stadium where the fans wore blue and gold colors. Inuyasha even noticed a bald college teen that had his entire head painted in his school's colors. One side of his face was a bright blue and the other side of his face was a burnished gold. “Go Bears!” the bald student yelled. He quickly heard another voice yell, “Crash and burn Shikon!”

 

Inuyasha looked over to his left, they were sitting right above the sidelines where the demonic Cal Bears team sat. He noticed the players milling about, drinking Gatorade and discussing tactics before the match. Two players caught his attention as he studied them from the stands. Hiten and Maten, the Thunder brothers, were leaning up close to each other discussing something. The two brothers were fraternal twins, but they were also complete opposites. Hiten was lean, handsome with cool sapphire eyes that held no warmth and long black hair that was tied into a tight braid. Maten was wide, squat, nearly bald and so ugly that he looked more like a large albino toad than a man. Hiten started to laugh and this caught Inuyasha by surprise because that thunder brother never laughed. He was as much of an iceman as Inuyasha's brother, Sesshomaru and if Sesshomaru laughed, it was time to cringe in fear.

 

Inuyasha's white triangular ears swiveled in the direction of the thunder brothers in an attempt to pick up on what they were talking about. He knew the laughter he was hearing was not about humor, it had to be about someone getting hurt and of course, Kagome would be facing them soon. He needed to find out what it was they were `discussing'.

 

“You didn't!” exclaimed Maten with a look of shock that swarmed over his toad-like face.

 

Hiten grinned after his coarse laughter started to fade. He leaned in closer to Maten in an attempt to keep his voice as low as possible. “Our friend put `Rohypnol' in her Gatorade,” said Hiten slyly. “If she drinks enough of it she'll pass out while fighting.”

 

Maten's large toad-like mouth widened and then opened revealing layers of sharp teeth. Inuyasha supposed that he was smiling. “One down…”

 

“Two more to go,” Hiten added with a smirk.

 

Inuyasha's face drained of color and his blood started pumping as if he was the one who was about to fight. “No…,” whispered Inuyasha as his eyes scanned the opposite side of the field to look for Kagome. Soon his eyes settled on the young miko with black hair gathered in a long ponytail, wearing a white kosode and red hakama pants. She was sitting on a bench next to Sango and Miroku, who were also dressed up in their fighting gear. Sango was in her black slayer's uniform and Miroku was wearing his black and purple monk robes. Unfortunately for Inuyasha he noticed that each one of them also had a cup near them or in their hands. He had no way of knowing which female from their team was being drugged. Sadly, it was a 50/50 chance that Kagome was the victim.

 

Inuyasha rose out of his seat in a panic; he needed to warn Kagome before the game started. Sesshomaru quickly put out an arm that grabbed Inuyasha on the shoulder before he shoved him back down.

 

“It's best to be sitting before a game, little brother,” said Sesshomaru dryly.

 

“You don't understand I need to…,” spurted out Inuyasha as he tried to get back up again.

 

Before Inuyasha could finish his speech the crowd started to roar and the electronic billboards lit up. A man's voice echoed throughout the stadium.

 

“Now for you viewing enjoyment. The final match of the day between USC's Holy Shikon team and Cal Berkeley's Fighting Bears!”

 

The crowd hooted and Inuyasha could hear even more screams and taunts from his side. “Get those ningen!” “Take `em down Hiten!” “USC Sucks!” “Go demons!”

 

The announcer continued to introduce each of the team members as the players started to take the stage. His heart beating wildly, Inuyasha was able to avoid his brother's claws (which had tried to restrain him once more) and ran from his seat. He knew that he couldn't run across the field, but he sped with all of his heart to the other side of the coliseum hoping to get in contact with Kagome and warn her. He could hear the announcer echoing in the back of his mind, he heard the roar of the crowd dimly as he leapt over seats and managed to only bump into a few people before finally making it over to USC's side and where Kagome had sat at the sidelines.

 

By the time he had arrived to the seats above where Kagome had once sat he noticed only emptiness. The bleachers were mostly deserted except for Coach Kaede and a few other team members who were on the lesser teams. Down near the end of the bleachers where Kagome had been sitting he noticed three cups of Gatorade that had been abandoned. Kagome was on the field and the game had already commenced.

 

In a daze he looked up at the electronic screen and saw that the fighting had already started. He clenched his hands so hard that his claws drew blood. He forgot how to breathe.

 

There before him was Kagome and she was fighting a demon he had never seen before. He had been too busy running during the announcements to hear the demon's name, but the still figure didn't seem too threatening as he stood on the green grass. The demon was wearing feudal style samurai armor and had long flowing black hair that was held back by a leather headband. Inuyasha almost breathed out a sigh of relief, she wasn't fighting the thunder brothers, perhaps they had drugged Sango instead.

 

However, Sango didn't look drugged as she lifted the Hiraikotsu high above her head as she flew on her demon cat's back. With a yell the giant bone boomerang swished through the air whizzing toward Hiten. The thunder brother seemed to float on the air, but Inuyasha noticed the tiny wheels that were spinning under each of his feet. Whoosh. The Hiraikotsu sang past his feet separating the demon from his floating wheels. Hiten started a long fall towards the ground.

 

Inuyasha could only grin as his fangs crept past and over his lips. `The bastard deserved this,' he thought as he saw the demon plummet about five meters before hitting the ground hard. A moment of peace settled in his throat before he turned his attention back to Kagome. She had her arrow primed and ready in her bow. But Inuyasha could see that something was wrong. She seemed to teeter and waver. Her normally steady arm couldn't hold the arrow straight within the bow string as her hands trembled like she had Parkinson's disease. The demon in samurai armor in front of her only grinned wickedly as he started to walk forward, seemingly without any care as to what her purification arrows could do to him.

 

Pling. Schush. Kagome's arrow flew loose from her bow, but it flew wildly and arched high into the air away from the demon man in front of her. Inuyasha watched in horror as he saw her entire body sway and the demon stalked toward her as if she was his prey rather than a feared competitor.

 

Kagome's face flushed and her bow clattered nosily to her side as the demon flexed his muscles and his arm reshaped and reformed. Instead of a human-like arm his appendage flexed like a snake and writhed forth--striking Kagome across her side. He watched in horror as the coppery scent of her blood wafted to his senses and her body, frail like glass, collapsed to the ground.

 

“No! Kagome!” he yelled as he bounded off the railway next to the stadium seats and landed upon the USC sidelines. He was about to run and leap toward Kagome's fallen body when he heard a familiar voice scream out to him. It was the voice of Coach Kaede, “Inuyasha stop!” was all he heard before he crashed into a pink barrier. The purity and holiness of the barrier erupted up against his body, charging him with an energy wholly opposite of his demonic blood. He reeled in horror as his own body rebelled against him. He heard some screaming and there were black dots in front of his eyes before his own body collapsed on the playing field. The last image that he saw before losing all consciousness was Kagome's still form, crumpled like paper on the grassy field while the looming figure of a morphing demon in samurai armor stood above her.

 

“Kagome…,” he murmured before the blackness took him.

 

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“Oh, what hit me?” groaned Inuyasha as he tried to block out the bright white light glaring from the ceiling.

 

“What is your problem little brother?” demanded Sesshomaru icily.

 

Inuyasha groaned and turned to face Myoga who was glaring at him as well.

 

“You just managed to get suspended from the next two games, Inuyasha,” droned on coach Myoga.

 

Suddenly memories of Kagome's slumped form and the demon that attacked her jumped to the forefront of his mind. “Kagome!” Inuyasha sat upright and looked around frantically. “What happened to Kagome?”

 

Myoga sighed. “You have just been suspended from the next two games this season and all you ask about is a rival player on another team?”

 

“I repeat, what is wrong with you little brother?” growled Sesshomaru.

 

Inuyasha simply returned his brother's ice-cold glare and growled back even louder, his own fangs curving over his lips.

 

Myoga ran his hand through what was left of his wispy grey hair. “Sesshomaru, please leave us. I need to talk to Inuyasha alone.”

 

Sesshomaru simply stood up straight, his face became an impassive mask before he murmured “half-breed” and walked proudly out of the room.

 

Inuyasha watched his diminutive coach who had just started to pace the floor beside him.

 

“You not only broke the rule of not interfering with another teams game, but you also managed to partially transform in front of Coach Kaede.”

 

Inuyasha's eye's widened in horror. “Shit. Who saw? Did Kagome?”

 

Myoga continued. “Most of the players were already distracted or incapacitated when it happened. Luckily for you, Sesshomaru got to you quickly, threw his jacket over your head and pulled you away before people could get a good look at you. But now Coach Kaede might know that it was you who was spying on her team. If she finds out the truth, then I COULD lose everything. You're not going to spy on the USC team anymore, besides I think we have found out enough information already. We'll just follow through with our original plans.”

 

Inuyasha gulped. “But what if I want to go to their team practices…”

 

With a look of exasperation Myoga looked at Inuyasha and started into a rant. “You just begged me to stop your spying on the USC team a few weeks ago. Now you want to spy again? Let's get a few things straight here Inuyasha. First, you are not to be seeing any of the USC players for any reason anymore. Your spying time has ended. Second, you have just been suspended for the next two games. If you screw up one more time—my hands will be tied; you'll be kicked off the team. The board isn't as forgiving as I am Inuyasha. They didn't even want you on the team to begin with. There's no more second chances.

 

Myoga's red face cooled into his normal olive tone as he took a deep breath and touched Inuyasha on the shoulder. He continued but with a firm but gentle tone, “My boy, you're one of my favorite team players. You have always tried so hard to prove yourself. You have always been giving me 150 percent. Now just follow the rules from now on and everything will be fine. And don't you dare interfere with anymore games. Got it?”

 

Inuyasha nodded mutely before turning and away from Myoga and heading out of the room. Despite everything he had been told and everything he had agreed to, he knew who he was going to need to visit next.

 

As he walked out of the LA Memorial Coliseum he felt like he was in a drugged haze. His red cell phone rang multiple times before went into Kagome's voicemail. He called her repeatedly with the same results. Now he was really starting to worry.

 

“Shit!” he exclaimed as he slammed his cell phone together and then shoved it in his leather jacket. `If Kagome isn't answering her cell phone its got to be bad.'

 

He soon found his red and chrome motorcycle , strapped on his helmet and kick started the engine. The USC University Hospital was close by, Kagome had to be there. It was the closest hospital to the Coliseum and it also specialized in holy healing by mikos. Coach Kaede and Kagome would feel comfortable there.

 

It didn't take long for him to park his red and chrome Kawasaki Ninja motorcycle in the urgent care parking. Soon he had his motorcycle helmet in his hands and was bounding into the hospital. He ran quickly into the men's restroom and put on his ring before trying to ask questions about where Kagome was staying. He was visiting a hospital run by mikos and a demon like him would surely be unwelcome.

 

He was even more disheartened to find out that he was not welcome even in his human form. The receptionist at the front desk of urgent care couldn't care less about helping him find Kagome.

 

“Why can't I see her?” demanded Inuyasha.

 

The front desk receptionist looked up at him non-pulsed. Apparently he hadn't been the only person who had ever demanded access to a patient. “We are not allowed to give out patient information to anyone except for immediate relatives and you have told me you are not related to her.”

 

“I'm her boyfriend!” stammered Inuyasha in disbelief as he nearly wrung out his own long black hair. “She was badly injured during the USC game. I need to see her!”

 

“You will need to contact one of her relatives if you wish to see her,” added the short haired brunette receptionist as she rolled her eyes. “There is nothing more that I can do for you. Now please stand aside, there are other people waiting behind you.”

 

With barely contained anger Inuyasha stepped aside and looked down at the silver ring on his finger. `If I can't find out where she is from the hospital staff—then I'll just have to scent out Kagome,' he decided as he headed back to the men's restroom and managed to tear off the ring and stuff it in his pocket as he headed out.

 

He was met with stares, snickers and disbelief as he slowly crawled down the hall, his nose to the floor—trying his best to discern Kagome's scent from the myriad of scents that engulfed his senses. It took him several sweeps over the emergency room area before he caught the faint whiff of her blood and her faint scent gently floating through the air. Soon he had caught her trail like a bloodhound as he started to run through the maze-like hallways and into an elevator. After checking out every single floor that it could have possibly stopped at he finally found that floor number six had her scent as well. He was soon bounding down the hall, as he ran past a nurse's station when Kagome's scent filled his nostrils. She was close.

 

“I was so worried about you Kagome-chan,” it was Sango speaking and Inuyasha could clearly hear her voice coming from the room almost directly in front of him.

 

Inuyasha exhaled in triumph before running back just as quickly down the hall to find the men's restroom to put his ring back on again. Once he had transformed for the last time that evening he ran back past the nurses who were looking at him strangely. “Didn't he just have silver hair?” a young nurse asked.

 

He murmured a quick, “Feh” before stopping before Kagome's door. “Kagome?” he inquired with worry as his head peaked in through the doorway.

 

Inuyasha looked within to see Kagome sitting on a medical bed with white sheets and a grey blanket around her. He was so intent on Kagome that he quickly moved past the many figures around her bed and almost pulled her into a bear hug before stopping when he noticed that her ribcage was heavily bandaged.

 

His fingers found a tendril of long black hair that he brushed gently behind her ear before looking into her chocolate colored orbs. “What happened Kagome? How bad are you hurt? Are you going to be OK?”

 

Kagome almost giggled before her arms wrapped themselves around her midriff and the bandages. “Kami. I forgot that I can't laugh with a broken rib,” she said as she half sobbed and half giggled all at the same time.

 

“Oh Kagome don't…,” murmured Inuyasha as he wiped the tears that were starting to form at the edges of her eyes. Then he kissed her forehead tenderly before he heard someone cough. He turned beet red as he turned around to see that his emotional display had been witnessed by a number of people.

 

The matronly woman that Inuyasha had seen walking into Kagome's room a week ago addressed him with warm tones. “You must be Ash,” she said as she extended her hand. “I am Mrs. Higurashi, Kagome's Mom. Kagome and Souta have been telling me a lot about you.”

 

“They have?” asked Inuyasha askance. Surreptitiously he turned to notice Souta's eyes beaming in abject hero worship and Kagome's eyes glancing at him with adoring warmth. It was the same look that had passed by her features when she had told him, while he was Inuyasha, that she loved Ash. A small gasp escaped his mouth as the affection from her eyes filled his entire being with warmth, his own heart pulsed strangely as he met Kagome's gaze before turning back to her Mom. He brought a hand behind his neck to scratch it and to distract him from his embarrassment. “Oi. I'm Ash. I uh…I was worried about Kagome…,” he muttered under his breath.

 

Mrs. Higurashi smiled at him and Inuyasha suddenly knew where Kagome got her brilliant smile from. “We were all worried.” Then she glanced at Coach Kaede. “Kaede Sensei. You were going to try one more healing treatment before you left?”

 

Inuyasha swallowed nervously as he looked at Coach Kaede who was eyeing him across the room. She looked at him directly before turning her gaze away from him and centering on Kagome. “I think one more treatment for today, child,” she added as she walked up to Kagome.

 

Suddenly Inuyasha remembered why Kagome was hurt and the person who had done this to her. “Coach Kaede! Kagome! When I was on the field I heard that the other team had drugged her. They mentioned Rohypnol.”

 

Kaede turned to look at Inuyasha, her eyes narrowing in suspicion. “What exactly did you hear?”

 

“Before the match. Hiten was laughing about putting the drug in a girl's Gatorade from the opposing team. I didn't know which girl it was and I tried to run over to you guys to warn you, but the game had already started…”

 

“You're kidding!” exclaimed Sango as she looked at Kagome's face and then Miroku's.

 

Miroku only nodded. “You know that actually fits. Kagome's loss of motor control, the way she passed out on the field, the way she doesn't even seem to remember our the game…”

 

Coach Kaede raised a grey eyebrow. “You might be right Miroku.” She then turned to acknowledge Inuyasha. “Thank you…Ash. We will make sure that Kagome is tested to see if any of the drug is in her system. In the meanwhile, I still need to help her bones to knit.”

 

The older coach placed her hands around Kagome's bandaged stomach. The young miko winced at Kaede's touch, but then closed her eyes to will out the pain and concentrate.

 

A brilliant pink glow started to erupt from Coach Kaede's hands and Inuyasha couldn't help but to step backwards in a modicum of fear. Even though the purification power couldn't hurt him in his human form, he had been up against enough miko energy to react negatively whenever he encountered it.

 

Kaede seemed to smile briefly as the glow continued to expand, no doubt from the combined energies from both herself and Kagome. The pink light intensified and Inuyasha noticed that the crease in Kagome's forehead started to fade, as if the pain that was gripping her sides was lessening. Soon the glowing energy started to dissipate. Coach Kaede looked up with the sheen of sweat over her forehead and Kagome looked up at her with a happy smile.

 

“I am feeling better already Coach!” supplied Kagome.

 

“Now, now child. If we administer at least two of these treatments per day you should be ready to play again in two more weeks.”

 

“No!” cried out Inuyasha. “She can't fight anymore. What if she gets hurt again?”

 

“Ash!” exclaimed Kagome in surprise. “What's gotten into you?”

 

“I uh…,” Inuyasha looked down at his hands and wrung them. These were not his normal hands. There were no claws and only blunt fingernails. They made him feel so helpless. He looked back up at Kagome with a pleading look in his eyes and gulped. “When I saw you get hurt today, Kagome. I was so lost and worried. I don't ever want to see you get hurt again,” he whispered.

 

Kagome placed one small hand against his cheek as her eyes glinted with both humor and sadness as she looked directly into Inuyasha's violet eyes. “I promised Coach Kaede, Miroku and Sango that I would play.” Inuyasha looked down at his hands. “Besides,” said Kagome as she brought his face back up to hers. “I would lose my scholarship and my mother is struggling to pay for my college as it is. Just trust me. I might still get hurt, that's to be expected. I accept it as a college sports player. I promise to give up sports when I am done with college. OK?”

 

“That's two more years!” Inuyasha whined. “Who knows what will happen? You're too fragile…” `…too human…,' he thought.

 

Kagome looked gently into his eyes and shushed him like a child before placing a chaste kiss on his cheek. He frowned before touching her cheek. He felt her softness underneath him and was again reminded of how a human could be broken as easily as glass.

 

Unbidden he remembered his mother and the day she had died. The riots had started that day in south central Los Angeles. They were simply at the wrong place at the wrong time. His mother had been walking him down the sidewalk after shopping when they had been accosted. “Demon-lover!” “Whore!” “Get the demon-child, too!” he had watched in horror as a cinder block was thrown at her head and it connected. He remembered his small little hand losing his mother's grip as she stumbled to the ground—shattering like glass—blood dripping from a wound on the side of her head. His eyes had widened in horror as she screamed at him to run away. He actually had stood there stoically above his mother while taller human males converged around them both. He tried to slash at them with his little claws, but they only laughed at him and threw a concrete block at him as well. He was in a lot of pain--his head was spinning and he felt the wet, stickiness of blood oozing from his wound. He remembered that they tried to slice off his ears and had repeatedly bludgeoned his mother with the cinder block as he lost consciousness.

 

When he had come to in the hospital only his older estranged brother, Sesshomaru was around. That was when he learned that his mother was dead and that his father had left to identify her body. He had also found out that his survival was only due to his demonic heritage. The men that had surrounded him had attempted to kill him. Luckily they were only humans, if they had been demons he would have already been dead. He never felt prouder of his demonic heritage than at that moment and never felt so much revulsion for everything human—even his own human blood.

 

“Ash?” Kagome questioned.

 

“Kagome?” asked Inuyasha as he looked back at her, finally being drawn from his daze and his memories of the riot that had killed his mother. He looked at her again, his eyes of violet staring intensely at her orbs of darkened umber. “Just promise me that you'll be safe, please?” He touched his hand to her cheek. `Just like glass,' he thought.

 

Kagome looked at him in puzzlement before she nodded mutely. Then her small hand griped his larger one in hers as if acknowledging a deep sorrow of his that she didn't truly understand.

 

 

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As always, thank you Theleb K'aarna and blackdeathmessenger for being my betas for this chapter! Also, big kudos to Theleb K'aarna who helped me map out the plotline for this chapter. He told me we didn't have enough sporting events in this story and then helped me plot it out.

 

Please read and review. It helps inspire me to write more chapters!

 

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Author's Notes:

#1: The event that Inuyasha is remembering about his mother being beaten to death is of the Los Angeles Riots that happened in 1992. The exact way Inuyasha's mother and Inuyasha were beaten was taken from the real beatings of Reginald Denny and Fidel Lopez. They actually did cut off Lopez's ears. And believe it or not, I cleaned up the beatings, they were much worse in real life. I know that many of the people reading my story do not remember the event (some of you weren't even born yet), but I remember it vividly--especially since many of my friends from USC who were living two blocks away from where the riots started. I know that many Americans remember the unrest after Hurricane Katrina, but you should also realize that something just as violent happened in 1992, but that it was entirely caused by man not nature. It was a riot that erupted from long- term anger and resentment over recent verdicts that were racially charged. I still remember the beige humveesof the National Guard that patrolled the streets and highways of Southern California for weeks after the event. By the time the riots ended there were 53 people dead.

#2: Rohypnol is a sedative drug that is 10x more powerful than valium. It has been called a date rape drug because of the following reasons: the drug has no taste when dissolved in liquid, causes short term memory loss and makes the victim feel drunk, often times to the point of losing consciousness. The drug is illegal in the US, but is freely available in Mexico—which is only a two hour drive away from where this story takes place.

#3: `Cal' students don't get upset with me. My brother and two of my best friends went to `Cal'. It's an awesome college. If you ever stop on by there go to `Blondies' for pizza. Yum! Even though I graduated from the `UC' system I'm having all `UC' colleges in my story having at least some demonic students on campus. (For those of you who have no idea what I am talking about, the University of California system has UCLA, UC Berkeley `Cal', my alma mater UC Santa Barbara, as well as many other UC campuses.) `Ash' pretended that he was from UCSB even though he attends UCLA.

#4:Hospitals will not give out patient information to non-family members. I had a personal experience with that one!

#5: Fanfiction dot net has a new feature called `Reader Traffic' and I was pleasantly surprised to see what countries were reading this story. I wasn't surprised to see the English speaking countries on the top of the list, but I was also amazed to see non-English speaking countries there as well. So I'm sending out a big hello and a warm welcome to India, the Bahamas, Romania, Argentina, Israel and the Philippines. Drop me a line guys, tell me what country you are from and why you're reading my story. I'm curious… :-)

#6: I listened to “Nothing Else Matters” by Metallica and “Broken” by Seether while writing this chapter.

#7: I changed Inuyasha's motorcycle to a Kawasaki Ninja. I just saw two people riding one a few weeks ago and it looks sleek, futuristic and sexy. And of course, I couldn't resist a bike with the title of `Ninja'. Google it if you want to see what it looks like.

#8: Kagome was fighting against `Muso' in the tournament'.

 

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Next Chapter: Kisses and Frustration…the chapter I started to write over a month ago (because I was dying to write it) some of angst, some fluff and kissing of course…it is also quite long and I haven't finished writing it yet, so it might be split into two parts…see you then.

 

Reader Reviews:

Whoah! I was amazed at the response for the last chapter. I even had a reviewer saying that they cried. Ummm…sorry? Now I'm wondering if my poor readers can handle the rest of my story. There's going to be an increasing amount of angst (but hey I'll throw in some fluff as well) before this story concludes.

 

Fan Fiction:

Blackdeathmessenger: Just let me know when Inuyasha is OC and isn't acting like a guy. I'm sure that you can catch it quicker than I could! :-) Yes, and Kagome reacted a little too much to the tiny amount of alcohol. Maybe I should have thrown some sake shots in there. And I hope you have found things interesting. Things are coming to a head soon.

TiffanyM: Oh gosh. This wasn't even the chapter where the bad things really happen…

XCrazyKindOvWeirdx: Thanks keep reading and reviewing.

Diamond369: As I mentioned in the PM's someone was going in the hospital (which happened in this chapter) and someone was going to get really hurt emotionally (hasn't happened yet).

Ayumi Hino: I'm glad that you liked Inuyasha's antics in Kagome's room. I had fun with it. Yes, Myoga and Sesshomaru are dirty. It happens when you value winning above everything else. How is Inuyasha going to get out of it…? Who's to say he will…? :-P

Sofiakalaughable: Gosh, don't cry. That was supposed to be the fluffy chapter. Um… the real angst hasn't even hit yet.

XxRockerElla: I'm glad you are enjoying it. I usually update weekly.

 

MediaMiner(yeah my first reviews from there!):

Silverfeather: Will Kagome reject him if she finds out who he really is? Well, I can't tell you that one yet. But you will find out your answer in less than five chapters.

OrlandoLover: Thanks a bunch. My major in college was English Lit. Though I think my professors would gag if they found out that I was writing some X-rated stuff. :-)