InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Dead Famous ❯ Don't Hear, Don't See, Don't Speak... ( Chapter 25 )

Author's Notes: I don't think I've ever had so much trouble writing a chapter before. I've been planning this chapter since the beginning (well, parts of it) and so it feels weird to have finished with it.

Once again, back with the flashbacks but this is the last two sequences for this story (there's a thing called over-kill that I'm worried about). Oh and judging by the way things are going, there may be more chapters left than I originally planned. I'd say about four or five chapters are left to go now.

Dead Famous

Chapter 25

Don't Hear, Don't See, Don't speak…

~~~~~~~

"-do you have any idea how long we'll be in prison if the police catch up with us?" Fushira Hashimoto's voice growled, a sound muffled by the walls of Inuyasha's room. He called it his room… it was the only room he ever got to see.

Right then he couldn't see very much at all. The drugs had a firm hold of his system and his head was wrapped up in such a blanket of apathy and emptiness that he could barely even recall who he was or where he was anymore. The voices going on in the other room were like part of a dream to him. It had to have been a dream… because he could hear his father's voice too.

"The whole idea of this scheme was to boost my publicity!" The normally smooth voice of the prime minister was now at an angry pitch to match Fushira's. "You kidnap the boy - the press go nuts for a few weeks and then you give him back! The general election comes the following week and I win through a landslide of sympathy votes!"

"If you dare tell the police about this kidnapping the chances of them tracking us down go up!" Hashimoto ranted. "You go public when I say - and that's after we give him back and we've left the country with our fifty grand!"

"Unacceptable. We go public now!"

"If you go public now I will inform the police that you were the one who organised your own son's kidnapping!"

This was met with a long silence. Then there was the muffled sigh of resignation. "Agreed."

Inuyasha slipped back into unconsciousness easily, like water closing over his head. When he woke he had forgotten the conversation and was left with only the vaguest memory of a dream where his father had come for him…

Instead he found Jinko kneeling down in front of his dog cage. "Good morning," she smiled at him. Half her face was covered with fresh white bandages. "Would you like some breakfast?"

Inuyasha remained in the furthest corner, silently watching her. He'd injured her yesterday and she was acting unusually nice to him. He didn't trust that for an instant. She was probably trying to lure him close so she could twist his ears.

"I have a present for you Inuyasha." Jinko walked to the door. "It belongs to my brother, but he said you could borrow it for the day."

She opened the door and whistled.

In through the gap toddled a small black animal with a whippy tail. A puppy. Jinko caught its collar and gestured for Inuyasha to come forward. "Come over here, it doesn't bite at all."

Inuyasha didn't move. It wasn't that he was scared of dogs. Back at the villa they had several, all of them large and ranging from Alsatian to German Shepherd. They weren't all that friendly sometimes and Inuyasha had never been allowed to play with them when they were puppies. He wondered why Jinko was doing this…

"You like puppies don't you, Inuyasha?" Jinko laughed slightly as she knelt down and stroked the animal. "Of course you do, you're practically related."

Inuyasha stared at her a moment before deciding it couldn't hurt… Jinko had never been overly mean to him. It was only Fushira that he had to watch out for and since he wasn't around…

He crept out of the cage.

Jinko smiled as he came over. "This one's a Labrador."

He remembered the dozens of advert for the toilet paper. "Like the Andrex puppy?"

"But this one's black." She nodded. "You can stroke it if you want."

Inuyasha didn't move.

"Go on. It won't bite you."

"…but…"

"Go on. Stroke it."

Inuyasha slowly and timidly reached out, still not entirely sure about the situation. He touched the puppy's head between the ears, hesitantly skimming its fur with the backs of his fingers. The puppy nosed his hand and Inuyasha stepped a little closer.

"…Feels nice…" he said, beginning to smile for the first time in weeks.

An odd click sounded from his left and before Inuyasha could turn his head a tremendous bang made him jolt.

The dog yelped and died in an instant. Inuyasha reeled back, a hand touching the warm blood dribbling down his face. It wasn't his blood… and it felt all the more repulsive for it. Jinko gaped in horror at the dead animal before whirling to face Fushira who stood in the doorway, cleaning his handgun. "Why did you do that?!" she whispered frantically. "That was my brother's dog!"

"It was just an animal Jinko." Fushira snapped cruelly slanting a nasty look at Inuyasha who was staring flatly at the puppy's body. "And so are you, brat."

~~~~~~

"…fear has gripped the nation as the news of Inuyasha's disappearance is announced. Police suspect that the kidnappers who abducted Miss Kagome Higurashi early yesterday have probably abducted Inuyasha as well. Authorities urge anyone with any information regarding this investigation to step forward…"

Jinko Aida flicked the radio off with a small sigh and turned her gaze to the broken window at the opposite end of the room. "National news already, huh? Last time we kidnapped you no one gave a toss."

"My popularity must have gained some." Inuyasha responded flatly from the floor by the pole. Kagome was still conked out and dead to the world beside him, twitching every now and then to let them know she was still alive and dreaming.

"You're ego gained some as well." Jinko noted dryly.

She didn't speak for several minutes after that, and Inuyasha was more than willing to let the silence stretch. Then she finally shifted and removed her shades to fold them in her lap. "You should get some sleep… conserve your strength for morning."

"It is morning." Inuyasha said contrarily.

"You know what I mean." Jinko flicked a brief glance at the dark sky outside. "Fushira was thinking of shaving your head… then work on making a few scars on your face. He wants revenge for me."

"Let him…" Inuyasha said indifferently. "I heal."

"Not if there's poison in the wounds." Jinko countered. "How would you feel about that…? You always did strike me as a little vain about your looks… so how would you feel to have permanent, disfiguring scars all over you face on top of being a skin-head."

He'd probably never go out in public again. "I'd feel like you I suppose." He shrugged lightly with his bored 'whatever' expression.

Jinko sat down smoothly in an old arm-chair with the stuffing bursting out of the seams. She idly flicked a lock of her hair between her fingers, gazing off into space. Inuyasha wondered where Fushira was… probably napping downstairs with his torture kit as a pillow.

That was how Inuyasha remembered him sleeping anyway…

"You're father was a very interesting man…" Jinko narrowed her eyes slightly. "A fool, but an interesting one at least. Do you have any idea why he asked us to kidnap you in the first place?"

Inuyasha was forced to shrug again, uselessly. "He hated me as much as everyone else seems to." He said with a mild sigh.

Jinko gave him a brief, incredulous smile. "Don't let it bother you or anything."

He rolled his eyes.

"He thought that by having you abducted for a week or two would win him the sympathy votes in the general election. His opponent was looking more promising at the time… I guess he must have been desperate enough to put a price on his own child's head in order to swing the votes his way." Jinko told him.

"If that's true, why didn't my family tell the police?" Inuyasha tried to squash the nagging pain that arose. Hadn't they cared about him? Had his mother known? Sesshomaru? Anyone other than his father? "It doesn't make sense that he would pull that kind of stunt for publicity and then forget to tell anyone."

"Fushira blackmailed him to keep his silence until we had passed out of the country." Jinko ran her fingers along the armrest of her armchair. "It was all a bit of a stalemate. Fushira wouldn't give you back until your father had paid up and we could book our plane tickets. But your father wouldn't pay up until you were back with him. It was stupid really… it was just an arrangement but after your father refused to cough up after the second week, Fushira figured we could motivate him with a little torture."

Inuyasha swallowed hard, half wishing that Kagome was conscious to offer some kind of support. A shoulder maybe…

Jinko sighed loftily. "But in the end it all went pear shaped. Fushira got carried away and wouldn't give you back even when your father was offering the money on a silver platter. And your father couldn't go to the police because Fushira would expose him…"

"Oh poor dad." Inuyasha said flatly, letting his head fall back against the pole with a thud.

"Indeed." Jinko smirked in a lady-like way. "Fushira only gave you back until your father was out-voted in the general elections, then we took our money and left…" she leant forward so her forearms rested on her knees. "So tell me… what did your father say to you when he saw you again after three months?"

Inuyasha shook his head slightly. "I don't remember…"

Jinko tutted. "Pity…" she sighed and stood to make her way to the door. "I'd like to know how a man like that can face his own son."

A rather sharp surge of anger and bewilderment burned his throat. He was unable to stop himself. "I'd like to know how you could do the same thing after all you and Hashimoto put me through!" Damn.. his voice had cracked.

Jinko stopped and looked back at him blankly for a moment. Her mouth opened softly… but she seemed to change her made as she shook her head slightly. "Are you sure you ate your food?"

Inuyasha became painfully aware of Kagome's soft snoring beside him… but he didn't look at her. That just might give him away. "If I could stand up you would be dead right now!" he ground out with feeling.

"Mm." Jinko hummed blandly, either looking slightly perturbed or annoyed, he couldn't tell which. She opened the door and swept out, locking it behind her.

Inuyasha stared after her before slowly lowering his gaze to the grey concrete in front of him. Kagome shifted again in her sleep, muttering something incomprehensible. He ignored her for the most part, too busy listening to that festering resentment and pain inside him to pay much attention to his immediate surroundings.

Jinko's question bothered him. What had his father said to him the first time he'd seen him after the kidnapping? It was so long ago… at the time he hadn't paid that much attention… he hadn't known that his father was the cause of that world of pain and all he'd felt was relief to be back in familiar settings with familiar faces…

It was so long ago…

~~~~~~

It had been three months down the line… well that's what Jinko had told him but Inuyasha's sense of time had been distorted. He had no idea what time it was or what day of the week… he was troubled to find he could barely remember the month or the year. Was it '91 or '92… maybe even '93?

It was even worse when he was blindfolded.

Outside he could hear a distant hum of traffic, the odd horn blow of angry drivers…

He was back in the city.

It seemed like a day had passed since Fushira Hashimoto had strapped a blindfold over his head and slapped tape over his mouth, muttered something about it being time before tossing him in the back of some van to transport him to where he was now. In fact, only a few hours had passed, but he'd been left alone for so long that once more time held very little meaning to him.

He could have sworn he'd heard his kidnappers leaving no sooner had they dumped him in this musty smelling room. Normally he could hear Jinko humming in another room, but now there was nothing. Normally Fushira could be heard either shouting at his underlings or snoring as he slept. It was completely silent in this new building.

It was damp but warm and he could smell rotting, but he wasn't sure what exactly had been rotting.

The cuffs securing him to the radiator were beginning to make sores on his wrists, opening old sores at the same time. It was painful… he tried to move as little as possible. Instead he just listened to the sound of the traffic outside, straining to catch the sound of something more human, like a voice or a laugh. Something to reassure him that there really were other people in the world than Fushira and his cronies.

As he listened he wondered when his kidnappers would come back. They'd never left him before… they'd never taken him anywhere than the junk filled loft that he normally inhabited. Maybe Fushira had finally gotten bored and abandoned him in this stinking hell to die of starvation and loneliness.

But as he listened to the world outside a different sound started to rise above the rest of the background noise. The sound of a deep engine grew louder, dominating the other cars until Inuyasha realised it was only a street away and getting closer.

He began to panic, but at the same time couldn't ignore the hope that maybe his father had come to save him.

The engine cut off directly below, car doors slammed and men's voices barked orders. The whole building shuddered as some heavy object began crashing against the front door downstairs. It was a menacing and frightening crunching that had Inuyasha leaning that bit closer to the wall in an effort to make himself smaller.

Shit… he thought, a word he'd picked up from Fushira's frequent use. He squeezed his eyes shut behind the blindfold and dipped his head. What the hell was happening?

The front door gave at last and with a tremendous crash and feet thundered over the threshold. The stairs groaned as a large group of people moved up them, heading right for him… Inuyasha lifted his head slightly and heard a muffled mutter. "What the hell is that smell?"

The door crashed open and the footfalls stumbled into silence. Inuyasha lifted his head quickly towards the doorway, silently trying to determine who it was.

"Dear god…" A young sounding man breathed.

Inuyasha squirmed uncomfortably.

Someone older spoke up, but he stuttered uncertainly. "We-We'll have to deal with that later… we came for the boy."

Someone crossed the room in a few short strides and Inuyasha felt gentle hands touch his shoulder. "You'll be ok now." Said the man. "We finally found you." Then over to the others. "We need some bolt cutters over here!"

Not his father, but probably the next best thing. Inuyasha wasn't one to complain as to the identity of his rescuer. He bit down on the inside of his lip as someone else came over and put a lightweight, clean-smelling blanket around his shoulders, unknowingly brushing against his arm. It was still broken.

It was odd that he'd been waiting for this moment for three months, silently hoping and praying… and now that it had finally arrived he didn't feel all that relieved.

He was still a little numb.

"You'll be ok now." The man who had first spoken repeated his words in a soothing manner. "I'm detective Sano, I'm with the police. We're going to take you back to your parents now."

Inuyasha nodded slightly.

The bolt cutters arrived and it was only a moment before he was free from the cuffs. The tape was carefully peeled from his face and the blindfold untied. Automatically he turned to look across the room to see what the source of that terrible stink was…

What he saw made his breath catch.

"Don't look!" Detective Sano jerked his chin back around to avert his gaze, but a little too late. The image was imprinted on Inuyasha's mind.

Bodies… dozens of them, all lined up along the opposite wall and wrapped up in something like cling-film. Fushira Hashimoto's work…? Who were they…?

"Come on…" the detective picked him up swiftly, obviously not realising the condition of Inuyasha's arm. "Let's get you out of here." Inuyasha was carried out of that room in a eye-blink, but Inuyasha still got another glimpse of that massacre.

Hospital had been the first stop. Inuyasha was constantly surrounded by anxious people from the moment he'd left the old warehouse. It was slightly bewildering and he was left at a complete loss for words and emotions the entire time. No one asked him about what had happened, all of them were strangers anyway. A doctor took a look at his arm and bandaged it. A dentist looked at his teeth but declared Hanyou baby teeth were soon replaced. A nurse fixed up all the cuts and bruises on his small body with slightly more care and gentleness than the previous too…

But it wasn't until his mother arrived in the hospital ward that Inuyasha felt the first pang of sincere relief. "Mom!" She looked different. Pale, dark-eyed and wearing jeans for the first time. She broke down into tears at the sight of him and simply held him, more for her benefit than his. She could barely say anything intelligible but he got the basic message that she'd been distraught and terrified for him for the past three months.

"Who did this to you?" she sniffled fiercely, stroking his hair in a motherly fashion. Something she didn't often display. "What did they do to you?"

Inuyasha frowned slightly but didn't answer.

His mother stared at him, before quickly making her first mistake. "It's ok, you don't have to talk about it. I know it must have been painful for you."

And then his father had arrived. The man who had started it all…

Inuyasha had never been so pleased to see him in his life. "Daddy!" He looked worse than his wife, a shade paler and a little grey around the temples. But just like his wife he pulled Inuyasha into a tight embrace. "Thank god you're safe…" he whispered, his eyes not staying completely dry either. "My god, what did they do to you?"

Inuyasha didn't want to talk about it. His mother had said he didn't have to, and he felt a little better being able to decide what to do for himself. He didn't feel the need to cry like his parents and he didn't feel the need to go over every detail of what he'd just been through.

"It's too soon…" His mother told her husband who just nodded slowly in acceptance.

They'd gone back home the same day to a villa that was unusually sombre and cautious around Inuyasha. Miroku barely said two words to him, but probably only because Kaede had cautioned him to watch his mouth… and Miroku always seemed to have a case of foot-in-mouth syndrome so he'd kept his distance. Either the maids and stewards gawked at him knowingly or simply ignored him - opting for that 'pretend everything is normal' deal. It was a strange atmosphere. His parents didn't want to leave him alone either, constantly coddling him and paying more attention to him than they ever had in their lives.

Inuyasha wasn't sure he liked it.

So at the first opportunity he'd snuck away and gone up to his room.

Everything was as it should be. When he usually left his room it was an organised tip and by the time he got back one of the maids would have cleaned it up for him… only for him to mess it up and start the whole cycle of events. He'd left it three months ago to be dropped off at the modelling agency by his mother in a mess, but as usual, it was prim and tidy.

His toys were all there, arranged neatly in his box. Everything was so normal in his room that he finally began to relax a little. Maybe if he could just put everything behind him and forget what had happened it would all go back to normal and he'd be happy again. But maybe everyone else needed time to forget… they all seemed a little hung-up on what had happened.

This was different, this was better. This was a new start in a sense. So Inuyasha inhaled deeply and let it out in a rush before plonking himself down in front of the playstation and started up his favourite game.

It couldn't have been more than ten minutes game-play before his mother barged in through the door. "There you are! I was worried sick about you - I didn't know where you were!"

Inuyasha carried on playing. Already he was tired of his mother's attention. Something he didn't used to ever tire of, but now it came to him naturally. His mother hovered in the doorway awkwardly for a minute or so before eventually she shut the door and came forward.

"You're not… angry with me are you?" she asked uncertainly.

"No." he shrugged. It wasn't her fault after all.

"They told your father they would kill you if we went to police…" his mother went on awkwardly. "We didn't know what to do… or where to find you."

Inuyasha paused the game and look up at his mother. She looked back at him, expecting him to say something before realising he was expecting the same thing from her. She sat down nervously at the end of the bed. "You can always talk to me… you know." She told him quietly. "About what happened. The police want to talk to you in a few days… and you'll feel better to get it off your chest with me first. You don't have to be brave… you can cry if you want."

"I don't want to." He frowned and squirmed his good shoulder in a way to show his reluctance. "I don't want to talk about it."

"That's ok." She said quickly. "If you don't want to talk about it that's fine. We can just keep it to ourselves. We don't have to tell the press or anything. I think that might be too much for you."

Inuyasha nodded numbly. The feeling of being home still hadn't really sunk in yet. Maybe he would talk to her later, but for now he needed to adjust to the change in scenery.

"Well…" his mother stood shortly, clasping and unclasping her fingers like she did when she was nervous. "I'll have cook make you your favourite food. Fish fingers… you like those, don't you?"

"Mm." He nodded. Although he didn't really feel very hungry, despite not having eaten in days. The last thing he'd eaten had been bacon rinds.

"Good." She smiled briefly and falsely before stooping down and kissing him on the forehead. "I forgot how cute you were, son." She whispered, earning a slight, uneasy smile from him.

She went back to the door and he un-paused the game and continued beating up the bad guys. Out of the corner of his eye he saw his mother stop and look back at him, her gaze lingering on him and making him uncomfortable. But after a moment she sighed and left, leaving Inuyasha to concentrated freely on his game.

~~~~

Life had basically deteriorated after that. He told the police the same thing he told his mother - nothing. They hadn't liked it but they had soon put the case away and had left them alone.

Inuyasha got into more arguments with his parents and deliberately began sneaking away with Miroku to join his school friends. He was smoking before his eleventh birthday and drugs had followed only a few years later.

Life was a mess for him…

And perhaps he would have just sat there in that cold junk room and stayed until he was torture to death if it hadn't been for the girl sleeping beside him. She was clean and free and happy… she wasn't messed up and she had much more to live for than him. She had people she loved and who loved her back. The world would miss her more than it would him…

For Kagome's life he would move a mountain. His own life was worthless and superficial. She mattered… and that was a simple enough excuse to get him to his feet.

AN: No more flashbacks from now on. Awwww…. But don't worry! There's so much more present day mental anguish to go! ^__^;;