InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Engaging Enemies ❯ Chapter 6 Demons on the Drums ( Chapter 6 )

Chapter 6 Demons on the Drums

`She was happy. She was in her own little world, being with the dreamiest guy in the world who was kind, smart, and treated her with respect. She had no problems. The sun was shining, no rain was falling, and the world was pure as she breathed in the clean air that blew her dreams away in a flash with a huge tornado of destruction, eradicating everything in its path. And there was a dumb baka that never stopped bugging her with his stupid idiotic talk of the dumbest things in the whole entire world and had a whore that loved to tick her off and make her embarrassed and acted like a damn prostitute with a head so large that it was bigger than the whole entire universe. That's when the girl took a huge, pointy needle and stuck it in the floozy's eye as her head bursted into a million pieces like a balloon, and the mutt became a tiny, little roach in which the girl trapped and stomped and smashed and bashed and sprayed and crushed and squashed and mashed and pressed and pounded upon its tiny, belittling body of absolute stupidity and idiocy and nothingness and…!'

"Kagome! Kagome!"

"Huh?" Kagome looked up from her typing and looked at Rin.

"What you're typing, that has nothing to do with Leonardo Da Vinci and the Madonna of the Rocks. What is that anyway?"

Both Rin and Kagome looked at Kagome's screen and read its contents. "Wow. What kind of article is that? A `how to let out your feelings about a hanyou and his whore'?"

Kagome cleared everything that she had just written and sighed. "No, I was trying to figure out ways of fixing my problems, the small ones first. But everytime I tried to think, I kept thinking about my cursed life after high school and what I have to deal with for the rest of my life. I must have typed this in my tyrant of rage. Sorry."

"Sure. Well, just hurry up with your article. We still gotta make up a flyer for our band before they decide to kick us out of the press room."

" `Kay."

It took Kagome fifteen minutes to type up her article on Da Vinci's famous painting of Madonna of the Rocks and its history of being discriminated because of its hidden meanings. Then it took her another ten minutes to come up with a flyer with Rin's approval. It read:

Drummer Wanted

Auditions for a drummer of experience

Must be at least a junior

Will be held in the gym

Thursday and Friday during lunch

Bring your own drumsticks

Kagome, Rin, Sango, and Ayame were starting their own band. Kagome and Rin were gonna be the lead singers and guitarists. Sango was playing bass guitar while Ayame did keyboard and the sound effects, but both were backup singers. Shippou was going to record their songs and be their critic since he had a good ear for music. All they needed now was a drummer and no one in their group knew how to play the drums well enough. The band was Rin's idea and since she and Kagome were the best singers out of the four they played lead. Seeing as lead singers hardly ever play bass, Sango became bass guitarist, knowing how to play both electric and bass. Ayame had spent some of her extra time helping with a play group for a few years and knew how to mix sounds to come up with the perfect effect or tune. That and she loved to play the piano since she was six.

Kagome began printing out the flyers, three for each wing, four for the gym, and five for the cafeteria and library. In total, 33 flyers for the whole school. "Finished!" Kagome said as she held out the stack papers.

"Great! Now all that's left to do is to get Sango and Ayame to hang the flyers up and we'll be…"

"There you are Kagome! Mutt-face told me you were here."

`Please let that not be him. Please!'

Rin saw Kagome's face and smiled secretively. "Hello, Kouga! Kagome's told me so much about you. It's a pleasure to finally meet you."

"Aren't you in some of my classes?"

She nodded. "Yeah, I'm in AP Calculus and Gym with you. I'm Aoikone Rin!" Rin held out her hand to shake his. He took it and smiled.

"Oh, I remember, now. You're that snow leopard youkai I saw hanging around with Kagome all the time."

Kagome and Rin drew back some. "How did you know that I'm part snow leopard?"

"How could I not know? That concealment charm you wear does little to hide you ears and tail to us wolf youkai. I'm pretty sure your other friend, Ayame I think, can see through it. She's a wolf youkai, is she not?"

"Dang it! I knew this thing was running out of energy!" Rin hadn't heard the rest of his words, but Kagome had.

"Wait, so you're wolf youkai? And how did you know Ayame was one? Very few people know about Ayame and Rin being youkai, so how did you figure it out?"

"Like I said, Rin's concealment charm doesn't help much anymore and I can smell Ayame's wolf blood. My nose doesn't lie to me, unlike that dog-shit's that you hang around with all the time. I know a wolf youkai when I see one." Kouga looked at Rin, who was still trying to figure out how to get another charm. "Rin, why don't you just transform to your human form. That would be a lot easier."

"Not really. I'm only part youkai, so my powers are kinda hard to control. Everytime I'm able to hide something, something else pops out. And then when I'm able to get it right, everything shows when I get a sudden burst of emotion, so I have to wear this charm. But now, my mom's gotta make another one. If you can see my youkai form, then there's no doubt everyone else has seen it."

"Not exactly. You'd have to look really closely to notice even a glimpse of it." Sudden realization just hit Kouga. "Gomen, Kagome. With all this talk of youkai, I almost forgot about my powerful miko goddess."

"Wha-? Okay, I understand you knowing who's a youkai, but how do you know that I have miko powers?"

"One, you always place some kind of spell on the dog-shit so only someone with great spiritual powers can use talismans. Two, your energy spikes whenever you get mad so you practically push everyone out of the way with your aura, which I might add is gigantic, and makes you look hotter. Three, someone would have to be blind to miss the energy you give off, depending on your mood. Four, you…"

"Okay, okay, you know!"

"But I'm just pointing out your lovely qualities. What's that?" Kouga pointed to the papers in Kagome's hand.

Kagome remembered what she was holding and tried to hide them from his view. "Oh, these are nothing. Just meaningless papers."

"They're our flyers for an audition. We're making a band." Kagome eyed Rin suspiciously, and Rin just smiled.

"Auditions, huh? It's says you need a drummer." Kagome turned around, trying to figure out how he got behind her and grabbed one of the flyers. "What luck! I know how to play the drums. Maybe I could stop by Thursday and see if I'm what you girls need."

"That'd be great! We'll see you Thursday then!" Rin said slyly.

"Kouga, we need your help." Two guys busted through the door, one with white hair that was cut into a Mohawk and another with gray and white.

"Hakkaku, Ginta? What's up?"

"Some of the others need your help with some personal matter. The wol- guys need you." Ginta almost let slip something when he noticed the two girls.

"Alright. See you later, Kagome!" Kouga sped out of the room with the other two in tow.

Kagome turned to Rin. "Rin, that was wrong of you."

"What'd I do? I just mentioned that we needed a drummer, and he might be just what we need if he turns out any good."

"If, Rin, if. You're evil, you know that."

Rin did her kitty smile with a tell-tale paw next to her face. "I'm just a kitty-cat that loves to play!"

"Still, you're pure evil."

"You mean purr evil."

"Whatever. You're crazy."

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"Next!" Kagome said exasperated. The previous auditionee was worst than anything that she'd heard in all of her life. It was five minutes until lunch ended and for them to move on to fourth block and every person who auditioned was worst than the last.

"Does anyone know how to play the drums without sounding like a total idiot?" Rin said before she began banging her head on her notebook.

"Maybe I could be of some service, ladies. You seem distressed and probably need some nice massaging. Perhaps, I could ease the tense out of your muscles by…"

"Get out houshi before I decide to get my boomerang and throw you to the ground with it in tow!"

Miroku heeded Sango's threat as Ayame got ready to put the drum set up. "Don't give up hope yet. You've still got me, isn't that right, Kagome?"

Kagome forced a smiled as she turned to see Kouga. `Damn it! What the heck is he doing here?' "What brings you by, Kouga?" she asked in the nicest way possible.

"I told you, I was going to audition to see if I'm what you girls need. And from the looks of it, you need someone bad."

Kagome sighed. "Go ahead. Not like it'll kill me if I hear another lame beat."

"Oh, I'll tell you that you won't regret it. Just listen."

`Great. He's possessive and a cocky bastard. What my luck.'

Kouga took out his pair of drumsticks and begin doing a very simple beat. `So much for the `what we girls need' speech. He's just another drummer wannabe…' Kagome's attitude changed when he started doing a mix of hard rock and punk style, probably his own type of style.

The other three started to lighten up as his tune became much more difficult for even the simplest of music lovers. They were smiling like maniacs by the time he hit the cymbal a last time to end his routine. Kagome was impressed but didn't show it. "That was great, Kouga! You're the best we've heard all day. And I emphasize best. Everyone we've heard just plain sucked."

"Yeah! So welcome to the band!" Ayame held out her hand to congratulate him.

"Wait a minute! He's not in the band yet! We've still got to see more auditions tomorrow before we can finally decide. Unless no one else is better than him, he's not in the band yet."

"But, Kagome, I don't think you'll find anyone that's better than him. He's the best we got so far!" Ayame was trying to put on a pouty face.

"Keywords: so far. We've still gotta be fair to the other people that wanna try out."

"Fine. We'll wait until tomorrow to decide. That'll be okay with you, Kouga?"

"Sure. It's not a problem. If Kagome thinks I should wait before I join the band, then I'll wait."

`This guy doesn't take a hint, does he? We didn't say he could join the band yet. He's hopeless!'

"Later!" Kouga walked off to his lockers to get ready for next block.

"Kagome, that was kinda harsh."

"What're you talking about?"

"We know how much Kouga bugs you, but you had to admit that he was pretty good."

"I'm not saying that he wasn't, but we still have to wait till tomorrow before he can actually join the band, if he makes it."

"Still, your being harsh."

"Look, I gotta go before I'm late for Trigonometry. Bye!"

---------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------- "Hold on, Inuyasha! I don't run as fast as you!"

"Feh! Pathetic human! I don't slow down for no one, especially a hentai houshi that always brings trouble wherever he goes."

"But, wait, I gotta ask you something important!"

Inuyasha stopped and turned, waiting for the lagging Miroku, not that he was slow, just not as fast as Inuyasha. "What is it, monk?"

"It's about Kagome-sama. Wait! Where are you going?"

"I don't even want for you to mention her around me. She ticks me off enough as it is, so I don't need her to be the top of the subject when I'm around."

"But, Inuyasha!"

"Inuyasha," came a sing-song voice.

`Oh, hell. Don't tell me that's…' Inuyasha stopped and turned to see a woman running in the most disgustingly and un-daintily way ever. `Kikyou.'

"Inuyasha, wait for me a second."

"What the fuck do you want, whore?"

"Now, surely you don't mean that. I just came over to talk with my little doggy. Is that so wrong?"

"Don't call me yours, doggy, or your little doggy."

"Come on, Inuyasha. Don't you like being with me? I haven't talked to you since last week. Certainly, you would tell me what's on your mind or what you're keeping from me, am I not correct?"

"Like hell I'd tell you anything! Except for you to get off me!" Inuyasha snatched his arm from her grasp and continued running.

"But Inuyasha, why didn't you tell me you were supposed to be engaged to that little nothing over there?" she asked, motioning to Kagome, who was taking a break in the shade with Ayame from jogging ten laps. "If you had, I could've off-ed her with ease and we could still be together."

"Not saying that you aren't, but a weak pathetic human like you can't off her as easily as you say. You don't even measure in power to her because she has surpassed you in power sooo long ago. She could get rid of you with just the twitch of an eye. If I was you, I wouldn't say things like that to her, seeing as your petty little friends are no match as well. So technically, you don't have the brawn to back that up, and you sure don't have the brains. Hell, you don't have any brains! Imagining you beating her at something, now that would be something of immense credulity."

"I wouldn't say so much as you've said since I do have two times in which she got more than what she deserved. I'm pretty sure she would know exactly what I'm saying."

"What?!" he said as he turned, but Kikyou had already left. `Something she deserved? Two times? What the fuck?!'

"So, have a nice conversation?"

"Shut it, monk." Miroku just shrugged, but Inuyasha decided to go on. "Miroku, name one time in which Kikyou has actually beaten Kagome at something."

"You're joking, right?" Inuyasha's look was obvious. "Okay, um… uh……… Can't say that I've actually witnessed anything of the sort. Why do you ask that? You've known Kagome for years. If anyone, you should know."

"Screw it, houshi. I got a dumbass wolf that's ready for some Tetsusaiga shoving."

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"Is it possible to be worse than the others from yesterday?"

"Probably. We keep hearing the same routine over and over again, and if I hear another one of those damn two-bit routines, I swear I'll punch in the next thing I see!" Ayame was cracking her knuckles to show she meant it.

"Sorry, Kagome, but it looks like Kouga's our only choice." Rin tried to motion over to Kouga, who was waiting by the door

"No, I will not allow it. We've still got ten minutes! Plenty enough time for someone else to prove you wrong."

"Kagome, stop trying to avoid the truth. Just give him a chance. Maybe it won't be so bad."

"My foot! We've still got ten minutes, and he ain't part of the band until that dumb bell rings."

"Correction, nine."

"Nine what?"

"Nine minutes."

"Rin?"

"Yes?"

"Don't get too smart." Rin just laughed.

Four more minutes passed, and Kagome started to panic. `Isn't there anyone else that knows how to play the drums? Anybody? Just one person that could play better than Kouga?'

"Okay, Kagome. No one else is coming and we've gotta put these drums up before next block. Kouga's gonna have to be in the band."

The doors opened as a senior girl came in. She had golden blonde hair with a small tint of black and clear blue eyes. "Hello. I heard that some group needed a drummer with experience. Are you them?"

"Yeah, you're probably our last person to audition."

"Oh, sorry I'm late. Ma cousine was showing me around the school before lunch ended. I just got back from Europe two nights ago, and I'm staying at her house for a while."

"Okay, well, let's begin."

"Sure, but I have a problem. I don't have my drumsticks with me. Could I borrow someone's?"

"Here, catch! You can borrow mine." Kouga threw his pair to the girl and fumbled with them before they were in her full grasp.

"Domo arigato." The girl stepped up to the platform and briefly inspected the drums.

"Something wrong?" Kagome asked.

"No, not really. It's just that these drums are kinda different from the ones I'm used to. I'll go ahead and start. Uno, dos, tres!" The girl started off with a simple beat, but accidentally hit the bass at the wrong time. "Excusez-moi, mais I kinda messed up. Can I start again, s'il vous plâit?"

"Sure, it's no problem."

The girl took a deep breath and counted in her head, `Un, deux, trios!' She started with her simple beat again and placed on a more serious face as she increased her pace with a trickier version. Just like Kouga, she put in her own variety of playing as the girls were loving it. Even Kouga was impressed and knew he had competition. In regard to the time, the girl had to finish short. She ended it with a faded out end. "C'est finit."

"That was great!" Kagome said clapping as the other girls acknowledged her as well.

"Yeah, but it's gonna be a close decision between you and Kouga."

"Merci beaucoup. I wish I could have done better but seeing as the bell's gonna ring, I didn't want to get us in trouble. Oh, and here're your drumsticks. Gracias."

"Denada," Kouga said in return as he took them back. "Looks like I have some competition that I need to watch out for. What's your name?"

"Kirara. And you're Kouga, n'est-ce pas?"

"Yeah."

"Enchanté."

"Likewise. I'll see you girls later!"

Kirara looked back at the other girls and smiled. "Guess I'll see you guys around later. A bientôt!"

Kirara left as the girls began putting away the drum set. "Something's not right."

"Oh, not again, Kagome! First you don't like Kouga just because he's courting you. Your problem with Inuyasha doesn't bug us, even though you two should work on some kind of agreement seeing as you two are getting married. We all hate Kikyou, but now you don't like Kirara? Since when did you start hating everybody?"

"That's not it, Rin. I didn't say that I don't like Kirara. It's just her presence…I think she's a youkai."

"You sensed it too?"

"Not you Ayame too?"

"It's nothing, Rin. Just ignore me."

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"Sango!"

Sango turned around to see Kagome running up to her. "Oh, Kagome! How did the auditions go? Who's our drummer?"

"We don't know yet. What happen to you at lunch? I thought you were coming with us to help with the decision."

"Yeah, sorry about that. I had to show my cousin around the school. She just came back from Europe and she's gonna be staying here for the rest of the year."

"Your cousin came from Europe? Then that means…"

"Hey, Sango! What am I suppose to do with this?"

"Coming! You can meet my cousin. Come on."

Sango dragged Kagome over to the cousin in question and started introducing as she turned around. "This is one of my friends, Kagome. Kagome this is…"

"Kirara."

"Wha- How did you know?"

"We've met. She and Kouga are the two people that we're trying to figure out who's gonna be our drummer."

"Well that takes the fun out of everything."

"We didn't fully introduce ourselves because of time-wise. Nice to meet you, Kirara…"

"Chiisaineko Kirara. I hope to be in your band, Kagome-san."

"Kagome, did you know that Kirara is part fire cat youkai, part human?"

"I thought I sensed a youkai presence! So you're a hanyou?"

"Not really. I'm only part human. My mom has a little bit of human blood in her."

"But you still turn human on nights of the new moon?"

"Yeah, so does my mom."

"So I'm guessing that Kirara's mom is kinda like Sango's aunt and vice versa?"

"Yeah, our families have been close for over 500 years I believe. We all are some sorts of taijiya, working side by side, you could say."

"Cool. Oh, and Kirara, we need you and Kouga to meet us at the auditorium later this evening so we can determine which one of you will be playing with us. Is that alright?"

"Bien sûr! I'll be there an hour after school, ne?"

"Yeah, that's fine. I'll go tell Kouga. He'll be ecstatic."

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"Okay, Kouga and Kirara. You two are gonna give us two routines, one freestyle, and the other seeing if you can keep up with the beat. The best one will win. Do you accept the terms?"

"Yeah."

"Si."

"Okay, well let's get started. Kouga, you're first."

"Okay." This time, Kouga did a more modest version of his earlier routine. It was a similar beat, but it was much softer. The girls loved it though Kagome refused to show emotions towards his skills. This routine of his was two minutes longer than his previous one, but showed the same amount of approval.

"Kirara, you're next."

"Okay!" It took her a minute to gather which routine she was gonna use and decided upon blend of punk and heavy metal. Hers was a lot more upbeat than Kouga's but was still shorter than his by a minute and a quarter. "Finis."

"Okay, now for the second part." The girls got their guitars and Ayame set up her sound system. "Shippou will judge on this part seeing as we will be playing as well. Okay, ready Kouga?"

"I'm always ready for you, Kagome."

"Riiiiggghhht. Okay, on with it. Anything But Ordinary, right?"

The girls nodded. "Okay, Rin, you start us off."

She nodded. She started off for about ten seconds before the other two came in. Then Ayame came in with the effects after another six or seven seconds. Kouga was to come in after Ayame but something prevented that; more like someone.

"Uh, Kouga? This is where you come in. Kouga?"

"Oh, sorry. I was just noticing how good you look while playing the guitar." He smiled; she sighed.

"You start right after Ayame finishes, okay?" He nodded. "Rin start again."

They started and Kouga came in as he was supposed to. All was doing well until they got to a part in the song that was a little bit faster than the rest, and Kouga was caught off guard. He recovered quickly and did a pretty decent job with finishing it.

"Okay, Kirara, it's your turn."

"Okay."

"Nature's Love, right?"

"Yeah."

"Ayame, you start." Ayame started off with her keyboard with a simple beat and nodded for Kirara to start. Kirara was able to catch on pretty fast as the others came in with the guitars. Just like they did with Kouga, they only played the song but didn't sing it only because they wanted to get a pretty good hearing of Kirara's playing.

Amazingly, Kirara didn't mess up when they switched the beat in a small interlude, even though she first gave the impression that she was pretty clumsy. The song went better than anyone thought it would go. When they finished, Shippou got up and start clapping like a maniac.

"That was great! I've never seen a better performance. I'd say Kirara won that round!"

"Well, you heard the kitsune! Welcome to the band, Kirara. Sorry Kouga."

"Ah, it's okay. It was nothing, really. I wouldn't have enough time for a band, seeing as the guys need me practically every second. See you girls later!"

"Well, thanks for the competition, Kouga! So, what do we do?"

"We'll have to wait till tomorrow to figure that out. We still need a name."

"Okay, well, tomorrow then. Salut!"

Aoikone: blue kitten (aoi- blue, koneko- kitten)

Chiisaineko: small cat (chiisai- small, neko- cat)

Hey, y'all. Sorry the last chapter kinda ended abruptly and so did this one. I'm kinda in a rush right now since I'm in engineering class right now. And to answer someone's question, this story isn't in just Kagome's perspective. It's for everyone, but mainly focused on IY and Kag.

None of you voted on my polls. I'm so sad. Then that means you won't get three chapters this week, but I am giving you two since I didn't update last week. And you'll have more of a chance if you do this week. I gotta extend the polls till next Monday since my e-mail didn't actually come up, or that's what I'm told.

I have to go and sorry for not giving you a chapter last week. Ja ne!

(Bite my shiny, metal ass.

Doesn't look so shiny to me.

Shinier than yours meatbag. -Bender and Fry -Futurama)