InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Dead Famous ❯ Hitchhiking ( Chapter 8 )

Author's Notes: Yeah, that was a nasty cliff hanger - but fret no more for the conclusion is here!

And by the way the 1992 incident still hasn't been explained, just to those who seem to think that the first suicide attempt was the 92 incident. Nope, that would have happened in 97.

Dead Famous

Chapter 8

Hitchhiking

It took nearly a full five minutes for all the bits of plaster and wood to finish raining down around them. Kagome stared in aghast horror as flames now happily furled within the dark depths of the bedroom where she'd confronted Inuyasha barely half an hour ago. Had anyone been in there? Had anyone been caught in the explosion?

Sirens began wailing in the distance and Kagome heard a few people shouting for fire extinguishers. She turned slowly to Inuyasha who was watching pieces of his bedroom floating in the pool behind them. But he suddenly turned to her. "You did that didn't you?!" it sounded more like an accusation than a polite question.

"W-What?!" She gaped at him and pointed to he scorched and blackened balcony. "A bomb just went off in your room!"

"You put it there this morning, didn't you?!"

"Are you still high or something?! I'm fifteen years old - I don't know how to make bombs!"

"So? I knew how to make bombs when I was fifteen." Maybe now was a good time to stop talking, he decided. He promptly shut his mouth and turned to go back inside. Kagome shook her head in disbelief as she watched him pad bare-foot up the steps, making his way around the debris scattered around the area.

"This is unbelievable…" she breathed, running a hand through her hair as she gazed up at the burning bedroom.

It was only then that she realised something shocking.

Someone had just tried to kill the most famous guy in the world.

~*~

"…And we were just sitting there talking when there was this tremendous bang - I heard the windows shattering and when we looked up there were massive flames coming out of his bedroom." Kagome explained as she sipped her diet coke now and then at the island counter in the middle of the kitchen. "I nearly had a heart attack."

"Ze police found a bomb didn't zey?" Cook asked as she stirred in the cake mixture for breakfast tomorrow morning. Cook was German.

"Mm-hm." Kagome nodded. "Tucked right under where the mattress was until it was blown to smithereens. They don't know who planted it. But Inuyasha seemed to think it's me." Kagome couldn't help but sound a little put-out at that. And they'd been talking half-decently to one another as well… he just had to go and ruin it like that didn't he?

"People bomb zis place all ze time." Cook shrugged as she began divided the cake mixture up into baking tins. "Inuyasha is so popular viz ze ladies sometimes zat he makes himself unpopular viz ze men."

"Really?" Kagome blinked at her. "I thought he had this whole cross-gender appeal going for him."

"Mostly. Not alvays." Cook wrinkled her nose. "You'd be surprised how many enemies he has made over ze years."

"Not that surprised." Kagome eyed Cook's work. "Can I lick the bowl?"

"Zat is very unhealthy." Cook admonished. "But I like you." She plonked the bowl down in front of a beaming Kagome and left her to it as she began fiddling with the knobs of the economy sized oven.

"Cook?"

"Ja?"

Kagome sucked the chocolate cake mix off her finger as she figured out the best way to get the information she wanted. "You've been around for… how many years again?"

"Sixteen." Cook grabbed the oven mittens and shoved the cake mix into the heat.

"So you were here when that thing happened in 1992."

"Absolutely."

Kagome nodded slowly. "That was bad, wasn't it?" Kagome said, trying to give the impression that she already knew what she was talking about. "For Inuyasha I mean."

Cook gave her a sceptical look. "Ja, from vat I heard from ze former prime minister, it vas bad."

Kagome still didn't have enough to draw her the truth. "Yeah… Inuyasha told me all about it."

"He did?" Cook blinked at her. "Zen he must like you a lot. He didn't speak of it to anyone, not even to ze police or his parents… still von't talk."

"He didn't?" Kagome blinked right back. "Why not?"

Cook shrugged. "Traumatised I suppose…"

"By what?" it slipped out before Kagome could stop it.

"By vat?" Cook laughed. "You'd be traumatised too if it happened to you."

But what had happened?! Kagome tried to weasel more out. So far this middle-aged cook was the only person to have spoken about it without looking around nervously for eavesdroppers or microphones. "Yeah… I guess I would be too. What do you think you would have done if it had happened to you?"

"Viz the whole-" She imitated clutching a steering wheel with her hands and screeching round a corner with sound effects to boot. That was all the hint Kagome was given as Cook waved her oven mitten dismissively. "Nein. I would be just ze same as Inuyasha. Perhaps I scream more."

All Kagome could gather so far was that it had involved a car of some sort… another car crash perhaps? One that had killed someone else dear to Inuyasha or nearly Inuyasha himself? Kagome still wasn't sure yet, but by the way Cook went off to deal with a roast turkey, Kagome decided that the discussion was over and she would have to try elsewhere for her information.

"You'd better get ready for bed, Kagome." Cook warned her with a pointed look at the clock high up on the wall above the stove. "It's getting and you need your sleep, ja?"

"Mm. I hope the ceiling doesn't fall in on me…" she mumbled more to herself.

"Oh no…" Cook shook her head. "Ceilings are very stable. Ze bomb vas only little."

"Ok then. Goodnight!" Kagome waved cheerfully as she abandoned her licked bowl and headed back to her bedroom. She decided to save herself the walk up the stairs by taking the elevator. When the doors opened she found herself facing a rather old, hunched woman. "Oh, hello." She said, wondering why she'd never noticed this woman around the villa before.

"Ah, you must be the alleged Kagome Higurashi." The old woman rumbled.

A light-bulb went off in her head. "Are you Kaede?" When the old woman nodded, Kagome's suspicions were confirmed. This was his Aunt, sister of the former prime minister and the woman who had abandoned her duty as guardian of a very disturbed child. Though Kagome didn't quite hold that against her, after all, it wasn't like she'd left Inuyasha to fend for himself on the streets.

"I'm going up, second floor." Kagome stepped into the elevator beside the old woman who nodded again and pushed the button.

The doors slid close and the elevator began crawling upwards at an unusually slow speed. Kagome reckoned Kaede's weight was jamming the works.

"Just out of curiosity," Kagome turned to her. "Where will Inuyasha be sleeping tonight?"

"If he had his own way he'd sleep on the tattered remains of his bomb-blitzed bed." Kaede responded. "But I think Kikyo will make him sleep in the best bedroom in the villa for once. Who knows. Maybe he'll let himself stay there for good."

"Which rooms that?" She hoped that was far from her own room.

"Room 6."

Ah… too bad. The one right beneath hers instead of above it. Kagome sighed inwardly hoping that no one let a bomb off down there either. She didn't think her floor would take the same strain as her ceiling had.

But there was something more Kagome needed to ask. "Do you know what happened to Inuyasha in 1992."

Kaede gave her a slanted look with her one eye. "You are too nosy, child." True, true… but Kagome liked to think of it as a healthy curiosity. Then Kaede added. "Curiosity killed the cat." Also true.

The elevator doors opened on the second floor and Kagome stepped out, still non the wiser since she had stepped in. "Thanks anyway."

"My pleasure." The old woman drawled as the doors closed again.

Kagome hurried along to her own bedroom and dashed the card key through the lock. It must have been broken or something because it took quite a few tries to get it working and unlocked. But when she succeeded the first thing she did was flop on her bed and let out a big sigh of exhaustion. She was tired from such a rough day. She'd found Inuyasha on the beach that afternoon then learnt about his slightly scary, daunting drug habit, his suicidal tendencies (or lack of) and had a bomb go off in the room above her then had the police question her for three hours straight on the matter. Thankfully no one suspected her in the slightest, which was a surprise since Inuyasha had been going around that evening telling everyone how the crazy schoolgirl had attempted to kill him. Kagome could see where he was coming from though, after all, she was the only person in the villa who hated him.

"What about Kaede though?" she pondered aloud. That woman had a problem with the boy as well… She and Kagome should join forces and form an anti-Inuyasha club…

Kagome got changed quickly into her silk night-gown and headed over to the window to open up the balcony doors to allow some of the stuffy air to escape.

She was assaulted by the smell of cigarette smoke at once. Her hand flew to her nose as she fought the nauseous feeling that arose in her stomach with the gagging smoke. She stepped outside, wondering for a moment if it was smoke from the room above, until her eyes turned to the balcony below and spotted the figure with the white hair leaning on the stone wall complete with the culprit fag.

"You!" she barked, making Inuyasha look up and give her a salute.

"Evenin'!" he called back up with a polar opposite kind of cheerfulness.

"What are you doing?!" she hissed down at him. "For a start you nearly died of an overdose a few hours ago and you should be resting in bed before you get hit with those withdrawal symptoms Kikyo keeps talking about - and for another, how dare you light up below my balcony and gas me out with your noxious fumes."

"You know a lot of long words for a kid." He told her, taking another drag of his cigarette before flicking the ash over the side of the balcony wall.

"It only seems that way because you're a retard." She told him curtly. "Now put that out before you get lung cancer."

"Oh I'm shaking." He said flatly, but even so he stamped the butt out on the balcony and tossed it into the darkness below him. Just when Kagome thought she'd won the argument, he pulled out another, much to her annoyance.

"Your breath will stink even more than it does." She warned.

"I brush my teeth." He said with a glare up at her. "Unlike some people."

"Your teeth will turn yellow no matter how much you brush." She went on. "Then we'll see how many die-hard fans stick to a dog with a yellowing fangs and bad breath."

"It doesn't cost much to get a little whitening job down at the dentists a couple of years down the line." He lit the cigarette and blew the smoke upwards at her.

She coughed deliberately and loudly. "You'll get lines around your mouth and your fingers will turn yellow."

"No they won't. I'm a Hanyou remember."

"Think of all the tar clogging up your lungs!" she snapped.

"Think of the way that I don't really care." He said loftily.

"You're committing slow suicide by doing this." She said quietly.

"Oh, but it's such good stress relief."

"And you have shit to be stressed about with all your lackeys doing your thinking." She ground out, leaving a rather shocked Inuyasha standing below her at her choice of language, before picking up her watering can (for her plastic flowers) and dumping the contents over his head. She didn't even pause to listen to his streaming string of expletives as she headed back inside her room and shut the balcony door, regardless of how it was still stuffy. She'd rather have a stuffy room than a smoky one.

She went to bed with a troubled mind.

~*~

He had no idea why he'd told her what he had that afternoon. First of all it was absolutely none of her business. She was a nosy bitch who was annoying and needed to be sent away as soon as possible if only Kikyo would let him. He decided it must have been the effects of the drugs that had made him stop caring about what he'd said. Because he was almost certain that he wouldn't talk like that about secrets and feelings he guarded very closely every day…

Well… he had a fight to go to tomorrow. He had to get his rest and start doing his warm-ups early in the morning if he wanted to get anywhere. And it was against Kouga of all people…

That guy made his skin crawl and his lip curl. The semi-finals… all he had to do was beat Kouga and he would make it on to the last round… and if he won that he would be the champion for the third year - not third year running though, since last year he'd lost to that meatball with the outie belly button… He had to beat Kouga to face the meatball man again.

Which was why Kikyo's declaration the next morning had him floored.

"You're forfeiting the match with Kouga."

Inuyasha practically sprayed half the people around the breakfast table with his cereal - mostly Kagome who was sat opposite him… though he wasn't entirely sorry for it. But then again he was too outraged at Kikyo to care. "What?!" he snarled.

"Don't give me that tone." She gave him a cold look. "Thanks to your antics yesterday with the heroin you can't enter."

"Why the hell not?!"

"Because they do drug's tests, doofus." Kagome told him curtly whilst she flicking crispy cereal puffs off her sleeves.

"Or did you forget that?" Kikyo folded her arms.

"Then I won't take the test." He declared loudly.

"That's just as bad as failing the test." Miroku told him without taking his eyes off his morning paper. "You'll just have to skip the finals this year and take part next year."

He was about to explode all over again when Sango put in her opinion. "It's your own fault. You should have known to be careful with drugs only twenty four hours before a fight. If you test positive then you'll be screwed."

"But they weren't what I'd call performance enhancing drugs." He snapped, noticing how Kagome was quickly growing irritated with the topic of conversation. Well tough.

Kikyo scowled. "I know, but the results are still published for everyone to see and when everyone sees that perfect little Inuyasha took heroin you'll never hear the end of it and you'll lose all your sponsors and fans like that." She clicked her fingers to demonstrate her point.

"This is ridiculous…" he grumbled.

Kikyo ignored him. "And also the police still haven't found the culprit who planted the bomb in your bedroom. They believe it was attempted assassination but they haven't any more leads on the matter."

"Well I could have told you that." Inuyasha snapped again. He couldn't take their company anymore. He had to get out of there and get the little problem with Kouga sorted.

~*~

"And our new corporate slogan is… 'The power of the Internet lies in converging the future with the here and now.'" Sesshomaru set down his papers at the board table and glanced over at his small green associate. "Goose-bumps?"

"Psoriasis." Jaken replied, picking at his arm.

"Oh lovely." Sesshomaru wheeled his chair away slightly.

"Mr Sesshomaru sir!" His new secretary Rin came bobbing through the meeting door with a post-it in her hand. He always marvelled at how young and bouncy she was. And very pretty, but slightly dim. Perfect in that case. "Mr Sesshomaru, you're brother just called, he needs to see you right away."

"Oh really? I'm in a meeting, Rin."

"He says it's urgent, something about Uranus?" Rin looked like a lost lamb. What a dear little thing she was.

"The planet or my actual anus?" he prompted.

"No… no… oh! About Urine! Sorry! My handwritings terrible!" she hopped out of the room again leaving Sesshomaru with many, many puzzled faces staring straight at him.

He cleared his throat and slipped out of his chair. "I think I better take that call…"

~*~

Kagome knew Inuyasha was up to something the moment he'd slunk away from the breakfast table with the air of a hound trailing away with its tail between its legs. Perhaps she'd been prying a little too much so far, but she had a feeling that this time he was up to something far more dangerous than drugs.

It was while she was taking a swim in the pool with Sango that she noticed a movement out of the corner of her eye. When she turned and looked she spotted Inuyasha rounding the corner of the building and disappearing out of sight, obviously with some destination in mind. He looked deadly serious.

"Um, Sango? I'm just going to get more sun cream." She excused herself to the other girl as she pulled herself out of the water.

"But we have some right here." Sango pointed to the bottle on the table by the pool.

"Um… I have sensitive skin so I think I'll get a higher screen-factor from my room." She wrapped the towel around her body and ran, bare-foot, after Inuyasha.

She rounded the corner of the building and stopped. No where had he got to? All she could see now was the North side of the villa with the extensive car hanger on her other side. The driveway connected to the hanger/garage thing and beyond that was the gardens. So where had the sneaky snake snuck off to?

Then Kagome noticed the open door behind a row of bushes. It led into the garage and was swinging slight as if it had just been opened. Ah hah! She thought and padded silently towards it. She peeked through it before entering. She didn't see Inuyasha, but she saw a heck of a lot of cars. According to Miroku they had all belonged to Inuyasha's parents, mostly his mother since she liked her accessories from her earrings to her handbag to her Porsche. The cars were all sporty numbers parked in rows. There must have been at least sixty of them in total.

Maybe no one would even notice if Kagome took one home with her? Not that she could drive or anything…

She stepped between two red Ferraris and made her way towards the open hanger bay doors. It looked as if someone was planning to go for a drive. If it was Inuyasha then Kagome knew for a fact that he was too young to drive.

She stopped beside the only estate business car in the garage when she heard voices somewhere close-by.

Knowing she didn't want to be caught snooping she immediately dove around her for a place to hide. She tried the silver Porsche beside her - locked. So she tried the Toyota estate instead. Luckily someone was smiling down on her and the back door opened without a fuss or a screech of an alarm. She hopped quickly inside and shut the door as quietly as possible. She peeped out of the tinted window long enough to see two silver haired men enter the garage through the hangar doors. At that point she ducked down out of sight, her heart beating hard.

"… the things I do for a needy brother." The strange man said.

"It's only one little test you have to take. I need someone with dog demon blood otherwise they'll know it wasn't me who took the test." Kagome recognised Inuyasha's voice.

"Kikyo's going to kill you."

"I'm not scared of her."

"I can see your hands shaking."

"Yeah well… that's something else entirely."

"Are you sure you should even be bothering in the condition you're in. A chicken with a broken wing could probably knock you over in that ring."

"No it wouldn't."

Their voices grew closer… and Kagome realised too late that they were heading straight for the very car she was hiding in.

"Crap…" she hissed and hunched further behind the front seats, trying to make herself invisible.

"I hope you appreciate this." The drivers door opened and the stranger got in behind the wheel. Kagome only saw a minor glimpse of him, but she recognised him instantly. He was Sesshomaru - style guru and catwalk King and also founder of e-tech, the most renowned company of Internet computing.

He would also happen to be Inuyasha's brother.

Inuyasha got into the passenger side. Kagome didn't see very much of him at all since she was squished up nice and tight against the back of his seat. Even more so when he helpfully pushed his seat back to the furthest it would go.

The engine revved and the doors slammed shut. Kagome mentally and sarcastically thanked her lucky stars. She couldn't believe it. She was hitching a ride with two of the most famous men in Japan… and she wanted out?

Her main concern was if they would notice her. Her second being what they would do if they noticed her. And thirdly, how the heck she was supposed to get back to the villa. But above all that she realised that she was only wearing a bikini and a blue towel… not appropriate costume for a day out.

"Smells like chlorine in here." Inuyasha commented.

Kagome stiffened and held her breath.

"Wife took the kids down to the swimming baths yesterday." Was his brother's explanation.

"So did you let my little niece watch Blair Witch last night?" Inuyasha.

"Yes. She said scarier things have flown out of my nose."

"She speaks only the truth."

Sesshomaru made a sharp turn left that had Kagome bracing herself uneasily. "We plan to rent Titanic tonight."

"I saw that. It was crap." Inuyasha said bitterly. "It battered my intelligence so much that I barely found my way out of the cinema. I should have eaten twenty bags of sugar, at least it would have made me throw-up sooner. It sank - there - I saved you 3 hours of your life."

"You were cheering the ice-berg weren't you." Kagome clapped a hand over her mouth, but too late. She'd already spoken. The two men in the front of the vehicle suddenly spun around to locate the source of the voice. Sesshomaru was the one who spotted her.

"What the hell…?" he muttered.

"Eyes on the road!" Inuyasha punched his brothers arm as he quickly scrambled over the seat and fell into the back with Kagome. She found herself being hauled up by her arms the moment he arrived.

"Talk!" he snapped right with his nose touching hers.

Kagome's head swam from the suddenly movement. "Hi…" was all she managed.

He pushed her back onto the seat. "What are you doing here?!"

"I… I thought I saw a rabbit in here…" she said lamely. "I was trying to rescue it."

"Bull."

"No, rabbit." She insisted.

Inuyasha made an irritated sound as he turned to his brother. "Stop the car, we're kicking her out."

"You can't do that!" she burst out. "How will I get home?!"

"Maybe you can sneak into someone else's car." He snapped back. "Now stop the car."

"Forget it, Inuyasha." His brother told him calmly. "We might as well take her with us."

Kagome glanced between them with concern. "You haven't got a body in the boot wrapped up in bloody sheets and rope have you? And you're not taking it to the quarry to dump down there and you're not planning to throw me down there with it are you?"

"And if we are?" Inuyasha challenged with narrowed eyes.

"Stop it." Sesshomaru told both of them in the authoritatively. "She's coming to the arena with us. You can give her some clothes when we get there and a VIP ticket. She is Kagome Higurashi, right?"

"How does everyone know that?" she wanted to know.

"Your picture's been pasted around the country for the last few days. Right now people want to see you more than they want to see Inuyasha."

"Really?"

"You wouldn't know. It's very isolated up at the villa." Inuyasha told her, sitting back in the seat. Seeing as how he wasn't hurling her out of the window, Kagome figured it was safe to relax a little.

It suddenly hit her. "Oh… you're going to the fight aren't you." She frowned at him. "But Kikyo said-"

"Kikyo says a lot of things. All of it a load of garbage." Inuyasha snorted.

"But what about the drug's test?"

Inuyasha smirked and pointed a thumb at Sesshomaru. "That's where he comes in. He's taking the test for me." "I see. And you're going to get away with this?" she folded her arms.

"Of course. I always get what I want." He responded arrogantly.

It could have all been solved by a simple matter of not doing drugs. Then he wouldn't have to do anything further illegal to get on with his job. Kagome smouldered on this while she wished that she had never bothered getting involved with Inuyasha's affairs. She was learning he had more skeletons in his closet than the grim reaper…

What she didn't notice was Inuyasha scanning her rather scantily clad form. "Well then," he said, stirring her out of her thoughts. "Now that we have that settled why don't we make ourselves a little more cosy, yeah?"

His hand moved faster than a cobra as it hooked behind her knee and dragged her towards him. She lashed out mostly because he'd alarmed her, but also because his hand had grazed the cuts on the back of her thighs. "Get off!" she planted her foot in his side, making him grimace and recoil a little.

Up front Sesshomaru just laughed lightly. "You don't have a chance against Kouga if you can't take a little kick from a little girl."

Inuyasha clambered back up front to the passenger seat after that and Kagome gladly shuffled as far away from his side of the car as possible. She couldn't even trust Inuyasha in the company of other people not to pull stunts like that?

Kagome recognised the sports arena they arrived in, it was the place where most of the important sporting events were televised from… not that she usually took much interest in sports. They were early, and since they used the back entrance no one saw them arrive or enter. Kagome followed the pair of white haired brothers through the halls, vaguely thinking how much it all resembled the hallways of the football stadium she sometimes took Souta to go see with Grandpa. She was just about to follow them into the bathroom when Inuyasha held up a hand with a wry smile. "No girls, sorry."

"I want clothes." She said shortly.

"Here," he reached into his pocket and handed her his wallet. "There's a VIP ticket in there and some money to buy yourself some clothes."

"Do you see any clothes stalls around here?" she pointed out.

"You'll come up with something, interesting girl." He shooed her away and gave her a pat on the behind that had her burning with ire at him, but he was gone into the bathroom with his brother before she could vent it on him.

Instead she went off in search of a place to find some clothes. Like she'd said, there weren't exactly any designer outlets hanging around… so she had to improvise. She had just about resigned herself to wearing a couple of fresh white towels when she came across a closet full of tennis dresses.

"Bingo." She picked the smallest one out and looked around to make sure no one was around before shuffling into it. Not a perfect fit, but what was she to expect?

Now all she had to do was find out where the fight was supposed to take place…

Her salvation came in the form of a dark haired youth with sharp green eyes. Something about him struck her as familiar. But she was sure that she would have remembered if she'd met someone with his description before. His hair was almost as long as Inuyasha's, but obsidian black and pitched in a high tie towards the top of his head. He was round about Inuyasha's age as well, and just as built. She wondered if he was a fellow fighter.

The green eyes fell on her and seemed to weigh her for a moment as he came closer. "You'll do. Come with me."

What a presumptuous order! Kagome planted her fists on her hips. "What do you mean by that?" she said contrarily.

"My normal prep girl couldn't make it in today, do you mind filling in for her?" he stopped and regarded her impatiently.

Ah… he thought she was a member of the staff. Kagome was momentarily left at a loss of what to say.

"Come on then." He crooked a finger to beckon her as he started off on his way again. "I have a match in an hour and I want my massage."

Kouga? Out of pure curiosity she followed him. She was getting mildly interesting in the sport that Inuyasha engaged in. These two didn't really seem to have the build or style of movement like the usual boxers she saw on television. Kagome followed the fighter as he led her into one of the side changing rooms, it was already filled with six or so other men getting changed… Kagome had to keep her eyes averted or firmly fixed on the back of Kouga's head. "Do you always have a massage before you fight?" she asked.

"Of course. Loosens your muscles. Makes you more flexible." He offered as an explanation as he led her into a separate room off of the main changing area. When she closed the door behind her he gave a small sarcastic laugh. "Not that I'll be needing to fight today."

"What makes you say that?" she asked absently as she worried about where she was and how she was going to get back to Inuyasha or someone else who knew what to do with her.

"My opponent won't be coming today. You've heard of Inuyasha, right?" Kagome nodded as he set down his bag on a bench against the wall and pulled himself up onto the table in the centre of the room. "If he has any sense he won't turn up today."

"You sound so certain." Kagome didn't feel like telling him that his assumptions were incorrect and Inuyasha was probably getting a massage of his own right across the hall from them.

"Of course. He wouldn't want to let everyone know he has a drug problem now, does he?"

Kagome stiffened. How did this guy know? "How do you…"

"I was the one who gave him the stuff the other day. He took it gladly enough." The dark-haired fighter said with a smirk as he began stripping out of his clothes. Kagome watched him with a growing cold anger in her stomach. "And just to make sure he would forfeit the fight I slipped another two bags in his beer."

He lay down on his stomach and rested his chin on his arms. "You can start on the shoulders, love."

Kagome ground her teeth together as a new rage blazed inside her, erupting from that cold lump of anger in her stomach. This guy had nearly killed Inuyasha. Kagome didn't have to necessarily like Inuyasha to stick up for him in this circumstance. This idiot had preyed on an addiction, played dirty, manipulated his weakness - whatever she called it, it made her angry.

And he would pay.

Kagome, defender of the needy, pushed her sleeves up and cracked her knuckles. "Let's get you loosened up then." She said in a deceptively syrupy voice that he would have known was completely false if he'd looked up into her stormy, malevolent face.

His screams could be heard all the way down the corridor to the arriving spectators.

AN: Isn't she so protective? ^_^