InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Club Shikon ❯ Chapter 10

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

So here I am, it's late at night on a Sunday, and I'm finishing CS! Woot! I'm SO HAPPY! It's over...soon. This will be the third fanfic outside of one-shots that I've officially completed, right? REVIEW, MONKIES! I KNOW THAT YOU'RE READING THIS! REVIEEEWWW!

DISCLAIMER: although your author has been known to own several males, Inuyasha is not one of them. She can name a few that have been indebted to her in the past, but none can quite fit the hanyou description.

True Love: stemming from infatuation and lust, True Love is a complimenting of the attributes, a completion of a puzzle, and the finding of a soul mate.

Kagome was humming to herself while she read a recent romance novel, outcome of her coffee date with Sango. She was cheerier than she had really been in months all on her own, filled with a sense of purpose and belonging. Nothing could go wrong, nothing could bring her down, nothing could...

Thump, thump, thump, BOOM!

Kagome rushed down the stairs, book forgotten behind her. If Keade had fallen again, she could be—

“Inuyasha!”

Rushing to his side, all conscious trains of thought forgotten; she fell to her knees and tried to discern if he was dead.

No, not dead. He was breathing. That was good.

One of his hanyou ears was drooping slightly, the other inflicted with a nasty cut. He seemed to be bleeding somewhere else, the hot sticky fluid sticking to her hands and staining her pajamas.

“Inuyasha!” she exclaimed again, trying to flip him onto his back to see what had happened.

“Damn!” he hissed, wincing as she pushed at him. “Let go! That hurts!”

“I know it hurts, I just have to see why!”

“I know why, Kagome, stop pushing me!”

She withdrew her hands and stared at him, waiting for an answer. “Well?”

“I got beat up, okay? No weapons, knives, guns...just fists,”

“You got beat up,” Kagome repeated, not believing it.

Inuyasha nodded in a not-so-convincing way. He pulled himself together and sat up, pulling her into a tight embrace. “I was ambushed,” he explained. “And all that I could think about was you, what would happen if I—”

“Don't talk like that, you're scaring me,” Kagome said seriously, looking up into his eyes. “Inuyasha, stop. Come upstairs and we'll clean you up. You need some sleep and you need some quiet.”

“What I need is you, Kagome, but that can wait. All of it can wait.”

“Why?”

“Naraku's going to take the Jewel again. He knows that you have it, and he's fully prepared to attack us,”

“So we'll stay at the club. No big deal, Inuyasha. It's a gun-free joint.”

He gave her a flat look. “Believe what you will, Kagome, but there are at least fifty guns fully loaded in Club Shikon at every given moment,”

Kagome sighed and tugged at a lock of her own hair, not knowing what to say. “Are you sure?” she asked.

Inuyasha nodded.

“Well, the club is still the safest place anyway. No one would dare to start a firefight in there.”

Kagome didn't quite believe it even when she said it herself.

Kagome was fuming, sitting in her apartment and looking out the window. How dare he do this to her? Sure, it had been an entire day since she had stormed out of her own club and left him standing on the dance floor with his beloved Kikyo, but that hadn't been time enough for her to loose any of the anger she was harboring.

She was so preoccupied with her fuming that she would have missed the hit man if he hadn't pulled the gun out of his jacket at that exact moment.

Kagome was on her feet and down the stairs faster than she had ever been in her life. Minutes found her at Club Shikon, standing in the employee lounge and chugging down a bottle of vodka.

Someone was trying to kill her.

Who could possibly want her dead?

Inuyasha, for one. She had yelled at him the day before, and he WAS the leader of a powerful gang, after all.

Kikyo for another, definitely. Better to eliminate the competition than worm your way around it.

Kagome resisted the urge to cry.

She was still on brink-hysteria when a certain silver-haired, puppy-eared male head made itself known in her employee lounge gone sanctuary.

“Kagome,” he said apologetically. “I didn't mean for...You didn't see the entire thing yesterday, you don't understand what happened.”

Kagome glared. “Oh really? I was almost killed just now, Inuyasha. I think I understand exactly what happened.”

His amber eyes widened in shock. Inuyasha was silent for a moment, deep in thought. “Killed, Kagome?”

“I have no idea who could have hired someone to SHOOT me, of course,” she replied dryly.

Inuyasha sat down next to her, still in thought. “Kagome, I'm so sorry. This is all my fault.”

“No kidding,”

“I shouldn't have dragged you into any of this mess...”

“Mm, you don't say,”

“Let me make it up to you?”

“Not a chance, looser.”

Inuyasha sighed. “I don't know what I'm supposed to do, Kagome. I love you, with my entire heart, but...”

I love you, but...

The words stung. She hated to admit it, but the words stung.

Kagome was on her feet in an instant, once again.

He loved her, but he obviously loved Kikyo more. There was no way that she would be able to put up with it, continue living the way that she was. She would have to give up everything just to regain her own sanity and order again. There was no way out of it; she would be packing her bags later that night. But she hated to leave Inuyasha, when he seemed so sincere and filled to the brim with regret...

“...at least, would you come dance with me? Just once. Forget that everything's so fucked up for right now, Kagome.”

The next five minutes found her on the dance floor.

It was perfect in his arms, as it always had been. Kagome was content to just sway back and forth in the protective embrace; the embrace that she wished was only for her.

The entire experience was nirvana filled with regrets.

She would just have to leave. There was no getting out of it, no turning back. She couldn't live in a town with people out for her head and her rival running around with HER boy. Today was the day that she was going to have to let her Tough Puppy go.

He pulled her closer, face buried in her hair, as if he knew what she was thinking. “...I'm sorry. There's no way...”

“What are you saying?” she had asked, looking up into his face in confusion.

“I'm saying...you probably won't see me again,”

And then he walked away, leaving her alone on the dance floor. Behind her, the orchestra continued with its haunting melody. Why is he doing this, instead of me? She wondered. He must be pushing me away for a reason of his own.

Minutes found her in the employee lounge, muttering a less-than cheerful hello to Sango.

“Whoa, are you okay?” Sango asked, double-taking.

“Yeah, I'm just fine.”

Kagome didn't quite believe it even when she said it herself.

Inuyasha wasn't at the club yet.

Just to be safe, they had gone separate ways to get there. As two different targets, there was a better chance of one arriving at their final destination than both of them together.

Kagome had arrived with time to spare, sitting at a table and watching the dancers with jaded eyes. She couldn't wait for Inuyasha to get there, wouldn't be able to handle waiting much longer.

The doors flew open with a bang, making her jump and her attention snap to the figures silhouetted there.

Her heart caught in her throat.

Inuyasha.

He was being held between two men, Naraku leading the way into the club before them. The rival leader pushed a pathway through the frightened people until he reached the stage.

Inuyasha was struggling to get free, trying to kick and hit the two men carrying him. Kagome recognized one immediately—

Kouga.

Unable to take her eyes off him, she watched as Naraku and his little parade arranged themselves on her stage.

“And now, I give you the destruction of the impure race, the select few that challenge their elders and rise up against authority. At the same time, we christen Club Shikon in blood, lifting the weapons ban and claiming it as our own,”

Naraku's voice was grating on her nerves, his words filling her heart with lead. What did he mean, destruction? What was going to happen to Inuyasha?

The flash of a silver gun brought her to her senses. People began to scream; the crowd rose as one and moved towards the door. They were pushing her away from Inuyasha, away from Naraku.

In effect, they were unintentionally saving her.

Kagome was almost to the door when the screaming seemed to pause. It was a pregnant pause, like a moment frozen in time—a moment in time that was never supposed to happen.

A moment punctuated by a single, vicious gunshot.

And after that the screaming returned like a wave upon her senses, making her mind blank and unable to register what had happened there. Without her knowing, some random flailing hand caught on the thin chain around her neck.

The chain and its burden were the cause of the events of the day, the reason for the screaming, and the reason for the gunshot that was never supposed to happen.

And without so much as an audible noise, the chain snapped, clattering to the ground to fall prey to the wear of time and the elaborations of a forgetful memory.

She was blinded by sunlight, and in that moment, sunlight was all that she knew.

so...review. Yes. Review, please. I so did what it is that you think I did. Just wait for the epilogue. You're gonna hate me forever. Maybe. I dunno, review and I'll feed you the rest.