InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ All But One ❯ Contemplation of the Other ( Chapter 3 )

All But One (by S'revan - inspired by *Shichan)

Kagome's willing to do almost anything to get Inuyasha's attention. Problem is, he's not interested… but others are.

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Chapter One: Contemplation of the Other

"Are you sure you want to watch me practice? It's pretty boring, I mean, Kikyo never-" They entered the dojo and Inuyasha stopped short, staring. Kagome, a little confused, stopped looking at him and instead looked into the dojo from the doorway where they were standing.

Sesshoumaru and Fuji were fighting. Not only that, but they were fighting dirty. And they had been expecting to do so. Sesshoumaru wore a cup and mouthpiece, and Fuji had wrist and ankle braces, and they were both dressed in rather tight-fitting exercise clothing.

Sesshoumaru grabbed Fuji's breasts, and while she flailed a bit, surprised, he changed his grasp to around her waist and made as if to kiss her.

Inuyasha was about to run in and beat Sesshoumaru up - he was always looking for the opportunity - but Fuji slammed a fist into Sesshoumaru's chin first and then her other fist into his solar plexus, and threw him off of her.

He fell on his back a distance away and she moved to him before he could get up and said, "Pause."

Sesshoumaru reached up and removed the mouthpiece to talk. "Yeah?"

She tapped the cup with her toe. "May I? I've got an idea."

He lay down and put his arms back where they had been before she spoke, braced himself, then told her to go ahead.

She stepped on his crotch, kicked one arm over the other, and then stepped on the crossed wrists.

Watching, Inuyasha winced.

"Could you get out of this?" Fuji asked.

"If I were a normal man I wouldn't be able to think the instant you stepped on me," Sesshoumaru said dryly. "If I were angry enough to ignore that…" He tried to move his arms, then lifted his right leg and just barely managed to tap her in the middle of the back with his toes. "I'd have to be pretty flexible to get you at all. And angry. Ouch, that hurts."

She nodded and stepped off him quickly, before turning to look at Inuyasha, who was choking, and Kagome behind him. "You just saw the end to one of our sparring sessions. Inuyasha, are you alright?"

He nodded and ignored her obvious ability to take care of herself to focus on one of his favorite subjects: Reasons to Hate Sesshoumaru. "That bastard wasn't doing anything to you, was he?"

"Nothing that I didn't ask him to," she said coolly. "He's been helping me make sure that nobody will be able to do anything to me and get away with it ever since you were so useful in getting the dear upstairs sponsor into my room."

Sesshoumaru scowled.

"You had a part in that, Inuyasha?" Kagome asked.

He shrugged. "She seemed to like him well enough, and I thought he just wanted to see her… And if he got involved with Fuji, I thought maybe he'd ease up on me and Kikyo a bit."

"And so you sent him to her when you know that she's lesbian," Sesshoumaru growled, coming up behind Fuji and hovering over her like a protective avalanche.

"No, I didn't! I thought-"

"We went window-shopping for girlfriends together in highschool!"

"But you came on to me! I thought you were bi!"

Fuji grabbed her bangs and tugged on them. "I flirt with everyone, dearest. You know that." She glared at him through her hand. "You also know I only use endearments when I don't mean them."

"Yeah, but-"

"Rrrgh, this has just gotten me angry again." Fuji spun around to face Sesshoumaru. "May I?"

"Go ahead."

She hit him in the stomach as hard as she could. He winced, but only doubled a little, putting one hand on her shoulder to steady himself. Fuji sighed.

"Pardon my rudeness, but why are you helping her?" Kagome asked.

"Why not?"

"Well, it's not very…"

"You're thinking that it's a woman's place to be protected by a man."

Kagome looked at Inuyasha, who looked torn between agreeing with Sesshoumaru and agreeing with her.

"When I was living in London," Sesshoumaru said, slowly and evenly, "it was not uncommon for the public transport to have a notice from the police informing travelers that a woman had been raped nearby and that they would appreciate any information that someone could give them. Moreover, men have been known throughout history to rape or beat their wives, their girlfriends, their children… In these cases, the only form of protection a woman has is herself."

"You're still implying that women are different," Fuji said.

Inuyasha and Sesshoumaru sighed together, and Inuyasha slid down the wall to sit against it. "Equality of the sexes is still not very widely recognized in Japan," he said. "I'm sorry. I had forgotten that when Naraku came asking me about you."

"It's okay." Fuji sat down as well before flopping back to lie on the floor. Sesshoumaru sat as well. "It was my choice to come here. It's my problem if I can't handle it." She tilted her head back to look at Sesshoumaru. "Right? Sesshoumaru-nii-chan."

"Argh. Don't call me that: it's worse than `Fluffy.'"

"Fluffy?" Kagome asked, sitting as well. "That's so cute! Where did it come from?"

Fuji reached over and flicked some of Sesshoumaru's hair into the air. "Fluff, fluff."

"Is it really?" She scootched closer. "Can I touch it?"

Sesshoumaru glanced at Inuyasha, who was looking faintly disgusted, and grinned. "Go right ahead."

"Aww, it's so pretty."

"It's kind of gunky right now. I need to wash it."

"And then it frizzes!" Fuji added. "Hence the name."

"Fuji, you take showers with Sesshoumaru?" Inuyasha looked sick.

"It's not like I take one with you right afterwards, so what are you worrying about?"

Inuyasha growled. "Sesshoumaru, you bastard! Back off! Fuji is my best friend."

Kagome felt a little sad, but Sesshoumaru's hair was sufficiently distracting that she didn't really mind.

"Yes, but I'm her mentor." Sesshoumaru stuck his tongue out at Inuyasha.

"You're my mentor too, but we don't take showers together!"

"Of course not. You wouldn't be able to keep your hands off me."

"I AM NOT GAY!"

"You sure about that?"

"Guys, guys, enough," Fuji said, laughing. "I just happened to walk into the unisex bathroom when Sesshoumaru was drying his hair once, that's all."

"Oh, is that what you call it these days?" Sesshoumaru murmured, looking down at her with a smile.

"Sesshoumaru! You bastard! I know why you're helping Fuji: it's so you can grab innocent young girls off the street and molest them, isn't it!" Half-laughing, Inuyasha jumped up and grabbed the forgotten bokken and charged at Sesshoumaru, who rolled away at the last minute, also laughing.

"No, it's for endurance, so I can survive the next time you feel like cheating."

At the loss of Sesshoumaru's hair, Kagome looked up, startled. Fuji jumped up and threw herself melodramatically between the two guys and caught Inuyasha as he almost fell over from laughing. ^No, not my love!^ she cried in English. ^Take me instead!^

Inuyasha raised the bokken over his head and brought it down, only to be blocked by Sesshoumaru. So he brought it back (by now Kagome could see that he wasn't meaning any of his strikes) and aimed it at Fuji's chest.

This time, she caught it. ^Aha! You will never beat me, the master of-- of Cheesy Fung Ku! Tya!^ And she made a silly pose before punching at him. Inuyasha stumbled back, clutching at his stomach, though he hadn't been touched.

^My damsel in shining armor!^ Sesshoumaru said, jumping into her arms. She managed to support him - bridal style - for all of a few seconds before she fell down.

Kagome watched wistfully. She'd never had fun like that - it hadn't been proper. Was this what Inuyasha - what Fuji and Sesshoumaru and the other foreign students missed?

"It's been a long time since I was so silly," Sesshoumaru said after a while.

"It's a good thing to be, every now and then," Fuji said. "I miss Susie. She had great ideas."

Inuyasha snorted. "What, like that feminist pirate ship?"

"A feminist pirate ship?" Sesshoumaru looked interested.

"Well, it was a boarding school, and we all had all these boxes in our rooms. And then Susie and - oh, what was her name again? She got a new computer because her old one was crappy and ate a floppy disk."

"Dana."

"Yeah, Dana! Susie and Dana and I decided to make a fort. Only it turned into a ship instead. And then we made the mast out of brooms and used scarves for rigging and the guys started complaining that it was too girly, so we decided to go ahead with the idea and added some tampon boxes and a bra."

"And a fake penis."

"It was a banana, and you're the one who added it."

"Josh tried to add a jock strap."

"Tried. That's the word, tried. And then we added a printed-out version of the jolly roger and played pirate music and made cannon balls out of paper and went pillaging. It was a lot of fun."

"You stole my skateboard."

"We took Josh's rug too. And your skateboard made for a great jolly-boat."

"I think I get the idea," Sesshoumaru said. "I probably would have helped you."

"Yeah, yeah," Inuyasha said. "Bastard. I still hate you."

"I still think you're incredibly juvinile."

"You still have a stick up your ass."

"I'm sure you'd like to put something else there instead," Fuji said.

They were silent a moment. Then: "Ewww," Sesshoumaru said.

"That's disgusting," Inuyasha said.

`Uh huh." Fuji grinned: she was going to steal one of their lines. "Is that what you call it these days?"

"You Americans," Sesshoumaru said.

"You Brits," Inuyasha countered. "What was that ad with the guy doing push-ups without his hands?"

"That was German."

"Uh huh. Yeah right."

"Eh." Sesshoumaru fell back, not bothering to remove his legs from Fuji's lap. "At least you're Californians. I'd hate to think if you were prudes from the South-East."

"Hey!"

"Oh, that's right. You have some family there, don't you, Fuji?"

"It's not the prudes that are a problem. It's the Southern Baptists."

"Oh yuck," Inuyasha said.

"No offense to anyone who's a Southern Baptist, but any church where the majority of the writing is hate-propaganda is seriously screwed up."

"At least they don't walk up to you and ask if you've found God."

"Like that one time?" Fuji leaned towards Inuyasha. "I loved the part about the refrigerator!"

"Did you ask them if they lost Him?" Sesshoumaru said in a much put-upon tone.

"Basically, yeah."

"Childish." Sesshoumaru turned and seemed to notice Kagome for the first time since they had stared. "Oh, I'm sorry Kagome. Have you been feeling left out?"

"Only a little. It's okay."

"No it's not. Are you ticklish?"

"No." He got up and came to her and she backed away. "No! No, I'm not! Yeek!"

Sesshoumaru had reached her when the door opened again and Kouga stood in the doorway. Everyone froze for a moment, but then Kouga dashed in and carried Kagome off, saying something about rescuing her that she missed most of.

"Ahh, put me down!"

"But I'm-"

"What do you think you're doing? Kyaaaa!"

"Argh, will you stop going kyaa-kyaa in my ear?"

"I'm allowed to panic! Kyaa-kyaa! Kyaa-kyaa!"[1]

Suddenly, somehow, Sesshoumaru was before them. "I suggest you let Kagome go," he said dead-pan. "Unless you'd rather be tickled as well?"

"What?" Kouga asked, stopping short.

That was when Fuji tackled him. Kouga almost dropped Kagome, so Sesshoumaru took the opportunity and took her from him. "Are you alright?"

Kagome's heart was beating fast and loud in her ears. Sesshoumaru seemed to be glowing - she would realize later that it was the sun behind him - and she had one of those moments when the world seemed to stop and he was the only other person in existence. "Yeah. I'm fine. Thank you."

"You're welcome." He put her down gently and didn't quite let go. "Next time my worthless mentee makes you feel depressed, come and talk to me. I may be able to give you an insight - and you don't have to be born into our world to live it."

"A-alright. Where?"

"Fuji can tell you." Smiling, he lifted her hand and placed a kiss on the inside of her wrist. "I must depart, but I am sure to see you soon."

Kagome looked after him, dazzled, as he walked off into the setting sun. He reminded her of an exotic prince - or a samurai. Wow.

Fuji caught Inuyasha and Kouga's attentions and jerked her head at Kagome. Kouga looked sad for a moment, then frustrated, and then accepting. Inuyasha looked surprised for a moment, but then smirked and nodded.

"Don't push," she whispered to him. "Let him do it himself."

Inuyasha nodded again.

"Hmm? I'm sorry, Fuji, did you say something?" Kagome asked, breaking out of her trance.

"Just commenting on how pretty the sky is."

"Yeah." Kagome looked off to where Sesshoumaru had been. "Yeah, it is."

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[1] This particular mini-scene is heavily based on the whole Kouga-carried-Kagome-off thing in the manga; volume 14 in either English or Japanese.

Sorry to everyone who asked for more on Sesshoumaru. I tried to make this chapter about him more, but it came out like this. Still, you like the end, yeah?

A note to the people who have also read [How to Get a Guy]: I asked and received *Shichan's permission to write this story. The first chapter of this one was based on the first of that one; aside from that, I'm going my own way. Thus any further similarities are coincidental.

Current Votes

Fuji/Kagome: 0

Hojo/Kagome: 0

Inuyasha/Kagome: 2

Inuyasha/Kikyo: 0

Inuyasha chasing after Kagome: 1

Kouga/Kagome: 0

Naraku/Kagome: 1

Naraku/Kikyo: 1

Sesshoumaru/Kagome: 5

Sesshoumaru/Kagome/Inuyasha: 1

Do we want more on Sesshoumaru? Do we want to know if Kouga has given up or not? Give me hints!