InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Empty Smile ❯ Chapter 1

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

‘How is it that I always end up in these situation!?’ A young girl, no older than seventeen in appearance, picked up her pace as the footsteps behind her grew louder, and more hurried. Tying her waist-length black hair so that it wouldn’t blind her in the inevitable fight that was to come, she allowed her dark grey orbs to assess the situation: seven football player-like males, eighteen or nineteen years old, no visible weapons(but who can tell?) and no way out, except to beat all of these jailer look-alikes. As soon as she entered a one-way alley, she stopped and whirled to face her opponents.
“Hey, Minako.” The lead jock stressed her name, “Looks like I’ve finally got you cornered. Think you’ll regret turning me down now?” With a sneer, the jock glanced at his lackeys, who eventually took the hint and made very… sad.. Attempts at evil cackles. Minako cocked her head and smirked.
“You know I don’t trust guys, Senji. And just so you know, this really isn’t a turn-on.”
With a girly warcry, Senji galloped toward Minako, launching a fist at her face. Kneeling quickly, Minako avoided the punch and sent her combat boot at the back of his knee, causing him to kneel as she stood, kneeing him in the face. ‘One down,’ she mused grimly.
Three of the jocks, upon seeing their fallen leader, left so quickly it looked like Shinigami was at their heels.
‘Oooookay… Fine, make that four down..’ With three idiots left, it seemed a much fairer fight.
As two of the jocks lunged at her, Minako jumped. High… Tucking her feet under herself, she grabbed the boys by the necks and bashed their heads together. Before she landed, though, a heavy two-by-four connected with her skull, making her wish she was unconscious as the reformed group (minus the last two victims) began to kick, punch, and otherwise harm anything else that could cause her harm.

After limping the remaining two blocks to her house, Minako stopped.
‘Is he here?’ She thought, wincing at the pain it caused to frown. With a sigh of defeat, she trudged up to the door, ‘Jeez, I hope he’s out drinking again,’ and stepped inside.
He was there.
“Minako,” he called softly, dangerously. He was drunk and smiling. He was in the mood for a punching bag.
Despite her fear, Minako tried to gather her courage, making an attempt to distract the man in front of her with offers for dinner. But he looked too crazy to be distracted tonight. He took a menacing step towards Minako, who in turn made a dash for the stairs. Tripping as much as she did, Minako was still up the stairs by the time her father rounded the U-turn by the stairs, his muscular bulk slowing him down. As Minako raced to her room, she passed a doorway, closed but not locked.
The sword lay there…
Near tears, Minako scrambled into her room and bolted the door. With nowhere to hide, Minako sat on her bed by the window, praying that her father would calm down before the flimsy door gave way. She didn’t try to run away. She knew better than that- she had tried to run before; He broke four ribs that night.
A prominent bang declared the cheap bedroom lock thoroughly broken, leaving an angry man to lunge at his only daughter.

Dragging herself to her knees, Minako bit back a sob as her shoulder screamed.
‘Oh yea. Definitely dislocated again.’ Careful not to make a sound, she used her left arm to prop herself up, putting her recently created idea into action as soon as she was sure her father was asleep.
Sneaking into the sword room, Minako fumbled as she carried the sword to her room, before changing her mind and leaving the house through the back door.
With a grunt, Minako muttered something incoherent about a sword’s weight, praying for the world that her father stay sleeping. With more grunts and a few muffled curses, Minako made her way back to the well house, nearly laughing at the scene. Her favorite mange involved a girl traveling through time in a well…
Minako managed to get to the well house, falling down the stairs and trying not to scream as her dislocated shoulder took the brunt of the force. It took her half of an hour to roll onto her side, and another half to stand.
With more muttered curses than necessary, Minako slowly and painfully pushed herself onto the side of the well, gasping as her bruises continued to punish her.
‘I guess there isn’t much to do now but jump and stab.’ And with a strange home, ‘Hey, maybe the fall will kill me!’ Smiling grimly, Minako cradled her dislocated arm to her chest with the other arm, while somehow still holding that damn sword as she climbed awkwardly onto the lip of the well.
She dropped.

‘Waiting for the pain… still waiting….’ Minako opened her eyes and gasped, seeing a blue shimmer, no, purple, green… so many colors, some Minako had never seen, bringing forth a strong sense of recognition.
‘Oh, kuso! This is just like Kagome’s travel! No way… Don’t tell me I’m going to Sengoku Jidai!’
Just then, a slow and gentle breeze toyed with her hair, and a blinding white light shone all around.
When she opened her eyes, a different well greeted her. With a frayed rope ladder hanging from one side, and a cluster of long vines on the other, Minako realized exactly where she was.
“KYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!

“Okay, no big deal, you know how the story goes: the well goes both ways and all you have to do is jump back through, so you see it’s all okay and you absolutely won’t end up as another TV KikyGome…” Muttering to herself, Minako slowly but surely climbed up to the lip of the well.
She let go. She landed. The vines were still there. Two plus three plus four is nine. She was stuck.
“Chikusho!” she yelled in frustration, and then shut her mouth with an eep at remembering the demons that resided in the woods.
‘Oh no, please Kami, don’t let them have heard me… Wait! I got here trying to kill myself!’
Glaring up at the sky, she snarled, “Are you happy now!?!? Jonen dies, mom leaves, I end up with that sad bastard, DON’T let me die, then strand he HERE!”” She slumped against the wall of the well.
“I wonder if the bastards are satisfied now…” she murmured, dropping her head into her good hand. She looked up at the elegant clearing of a throat.
Amber eyes coolly met smoky gray, as moonlight shone off silky silver hair. When her eyes took in the fluffy white mass on his shoulder, and the armor her wore as if it weighed two pounds, recognition shone in her gray eyes, which she hid behind a mask not unlike the man’s as she turned away from his assessing eyes.
“Go away, Sesshoumaru.” She didn’t include any honorific, which the youkai immediately noticed.
“Such a foolish human, to know my name and not my wrath. For that you shall play dearly… with your life.” Flexing his claws, the demon lord glanced sharply at the girl, as his elfin ears caught at a soft “coward.”
‘How dare this ningen call me a coward! Why isn’t she cowering? …perhaps she is daft…?’
With an icy glare, the youkai commanded, “Repeat yourself.”
Staring up at him, Minako repeated, louder this time, “I called you a coward. You pretty much kill the weak, just because we’re defenseless against you. I don’t begrudge you when you kill to eat, but just because I didn’t cower before the almighty lord of the western lands, you decide I don’t deserve to live? Oh, yea. Real tough.” Voice dripping with sarcasm, Minako awaited the inevitable death, refusing to look away from those haunting eyes that momentarily lit with… curiosity? For the first time since his mother’s murder, Sesshoumaru gave in to a human.
“Very well then, ningen.” After a moment’s hesitation, he glided to the bottom of the well. Curious about the blood and bruises framing the teenager’s face and those hidden beneath her hair, he lifted her by the shirt collar, receiving a whimper.
‘Now she has the sense to fear?’ A sniff told him otherwise. ‘That’s not fear. She’s in pain.’
With a snarl, Sesshoumaru jumped from the well and threw the pitiful human to the ground.
“Now that you have the chance to ‘defend’ yourself with that weapon,” he indicated the sword she so desperately clutched with her one good hand, “Lift it. Fight.”
Minako stared at him in defiance and disbelief. “Do you not notice the blood? I can barely hang onto the sword,”-her vision grew dark-”let alone…” she fell to the ground, the sword slipping from her fingers.