InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Future Incarnations: Inuyasha 2030 ❯ Morning Commute ( Chapter 2 )

Morning Commute

There was a familiar woman in his dreams tonight. He couldn't place her, but she had long wavy black hair, even longer legs and she was wearing a miniskirt. Her body lunged forward and in her hand was a sword. The sword seemed familiar. “Here!” she said, “you can use this.” He took the sword in his hand. It was a mangled old sword with a battered edge. Though it looked worthless, somehow he knew there was more to the sword than it's appearance. The sword pulsed as if it had a heartbeat and transformed. “The Tessaiga,” he breathed. He looked at the maiden again. She turned to him and grinned a brilliant smile, which melted his heart. He had to protect her. He had to protect her because he loved her…Then he felt his demon blood rise and his mind receding. He lost himself to the demon lust. Then he sobbed with dismay to see her blood on his hands. He had injured her himself. What happened to her? Had he killed her? He screamed…

 

Inuyasha awoke gasping for air. His amber eyes looked around wildly and realized that he had just been dreaming. It was only a dream. However, the hope, the love and the guilt that the dream brought him was so real. His heart was beating wildly. He turned and looked at his alarm clock. 4:30 pulsed on the wall with red laser lettering. He felt too anxious to go back to sleep, so after lying in bed pointlessly for a few minutes he decided to get up and face the day.

 

He lived with Miroku's family, the Moroboshi's. They had taken him in and adopted him when he was six-years-old. Normally people did not adopt children in Japan. Adoption was only seen as an option if there were no children to carry on the family name and even then it was seen as a disgrace. However, Miroku's family owned a temple and they had tried to live the Buddhist way of serving others. They felt that adoption was just another way to serve humanity. They had taken the troubled child when no one else would have him. They had given him love and a family. He had even gained a brother in the process. Miroku was his adopted brother, but he was a brother just the same.

 

After an early morning shower to clear the nightmare from his mind Inuyasha put on a red shirt, black jeans and slippers. He combed out his long white hair and then tied his hair in a pony tail. He then put on some brown tinted contacts to cover up his amber eyes. However, his eyes seemed dry this morning. So he took them out. He would try to put them back on later. His adopted family had decided a long time ago to mask his true nature so that he could fit in better. They had even told him that he had been born with some strange ears that had to be surgically removed when he was much younger.

 

He made his way to the breakfast table before anyone else was awake. He made his favorite breakfast, `ramen'. If Inuyasha had his way he would be eating ramen morning, noon and night. It was too bad that Mrs. Moroboshi didn't see it that way. She called ramen `fatty salty soup'. If she ever caught Inuyasha eating ramen he was sure that he would get a lecture. So since he was up early and no one else was around to criticize his choice in breakfast, ramen it would be! He enjoyed eating the ramen so much that he soon forgot his dream. The dream tucked itself away in a far corner of his mind and he found that for some reason he could no longer even remember it. That was just as well, since it had been a nightmare.

 

Soon Miroku joined him at the breakfast table.

 

“What's up Inuyasha? Did you have a nightmare again?” asked Miroku.

 

“Nightmare?” said Inuyasha quizzically as he slurped up more ramen.

 

“Yeah, you just screamed and woke me up earlier in the morning. What's eating you bro?” said Miroku.

 

Inuyasha paused in thought briefly as he continued to slurp his ramen. “You know I really don't remember the dream,” he said nonchalantly. “I sometimes wake up in terror. But then within seconds I forget whatever it was that I was dreaming about. Something about a girl and a sword I think.”

 

“A girl and a sword?” asked Miroku.

 

“So what did she look like and I guess since it was a nightmare nothing good happened with her. Am I right?” said Miroku as he arched his eyebrows.

 

“Can it Miroku! I told you that I can't remember it anymore. All that I can tell you is that she seemed familiar somehow. I just don't know why. I don't even really remember what she looked like,” said Inuyasha as he slurped the final ramen out of his bowl.

 

“Do you have to eat that stuff?” asked Miroku as he looked at the empty ramen carton. “There are better things to eat.”

 

“Nothing is as good as ramen, Miroku. Besides it is cheap and easy to make. I'll eat the stuff that is good for me when Mom makes it,” said Inuyasha.

 

Miroku sighed as he started to eat his own breakfast of toast and green tea. “So are you heading out to the University soon? We both have 7:30AM classes to make and we still have to make it through the subway system.”

 

“Yeah, yeah”, said Inuyasha. “Just finish up and I'll walk with you there.”

 

The Moroboshi family temple was situated in the heart of downtown Tokyo. The Moroboshi's were lucky that the temple had been passed down through the generations, otherwise there was no way the family could afford the land they currently occupied.

 

Once they were done with breakfast the boys grabbed their backpacks and paused outside of the temple to put on their shoes before heading out the front gate. After a few blocks they made their way to the subway and headed toward Shinjuku station. Shinjuku was the busiest subway intersection in the entire world. Over one million people would transit through this subway station in one day.

 

Inuyasha paused as he looked at the newspaper and book stands. He stopped momentarily to buy a manga from his favorite artist `Rumiko Takahashi', then he headed into the maze of the underground subway system with Miroku. Once they got to their gate they waited until the magna rail train pulled in smoothly before them without a sound. The problem was that they weren't the only people trying to get somewhere in Tokyo by 7:30AM. This was rush hour and rush hour meant…

 

“Oh no,” Inuyasha cringed. The pushers were there!

 

Men and women in subway uniforms and white gloves stationed themselves at the gates of the train. Once everyone got on they chanted “ich, ni, san!” and then shoved everyone into the train.

 

Inuyasha managed to get squished up against a woman in front of him. There was absolutely no space between them and certainly no privacy. He stood taller than her and his chest was shoved right into her face.

 

“I'm sorry about that, uh…” said Inuyasha as he looked down in front of him in embarrassment.

 

She looked familiar, but he couldn't place her at first. She had long wavy raven hair, brown eyes and creamy skin. She was wearing a sweater, a mini-skirt and had a large yellow backpack. It's too bad that they were so close together that he couldn't see her legs. She looked up at him and he caught his breath. Her chocolate brown eyes bored into him. She was very beautiful. Who was she, he knew her from somewhere…a dream maybe?

 

“Inuyasha! What do you think you're doing shoving into me and then staring at me?” the girl yelled.

 

Inuyasha was momentarily confused. The shrine! She was the miko from the shrine. He hadn't caught on quite as quickly because she had been wearing miko garb the last time he had seen her, now she was wearing regular clothes. There were also so many scents in the air that he couldn't distinguish her scent from anyone else. She was the girl he had insulted, the girl named Kagome.

 

He paused at her anger and then felt some anger rise up within him as well, “I didn't shove into you. Those damn pushers did it. Why would I ever want to be shoved up next to you anyway, wench!” spat Inuyasha.

 

Miroku sighed next to him. “We really need to work on your manners Inuyasha.”

 

Inuyasha turned red as he saw Kagome starting to fume. “First you call me a homely wench, then you shove into me and insult me! Don't you ever get near me again you jerk!” yelled Kagome.

 

“I'll try not to,” yelled Inuyasha as the rest of the crowded subway train heard their heated argument. “But as you can see now, I am stuck and there is nowhere that I can go.”

 

Inuyasha had to admit that having her body pressed so close to his was actually rather fun. It was almost teetering on pleasurable, if only there weren't so many other people hemmed in on every side of him. And of course, if only the girl he was pressing in against wasn't so angry at him. Still, it was kinda fun to invade her space and press up next to her body and to then blame it on the `pushers'.

 

Kagome and Inuyasha tried to ignore each other for a few minutes. It was a little difficult since her body was pressed in against his. There really wasn't any space between them.

 

“So,” said Inuyasha after a long pause. “Where are you commuting to this morning Kagome?”

 

“Like you care,” said Kagome in a huff.

 

“Just trying to make conversation since we are stuck next to each other until we get off of the train,” said Inuyasha. “Miroku keeps on telling me that I need to work on my manners.”

 

“The University, Tokyo University,” said Kagome.

 

“Oh, so what are you studying?” he asked.

 

She looked up at him in confusion. Having him go from insulting to questioning within just a few minutes bordered on bizarre. Kagome said her words slowly, “I'm currently undeclared. All I know is that I want to change the world.”

 

“Change the world?” asked Inuyasha incredulously.

 

“Yes, change it. I don't know if I want to change it by being a doctor or a priestess or just a social worker or.... There is so much to do…But I guess you wouldn't understand,” she said as her voice trailed off.

 

“Well, maybe I do understand. At least a little,” he said as he scratched his head. “I'm studying Criminal Justice. I always felt like I needed to get in there and save people. Maybe I can do that if I become a police officer or a detective.” Inuyasha was pleased that they were no longer yelling at each other and that they seemed to have some things in common. At least this was some sort of progress, albeit a small one.

 

They looked at each other. Her brown eyes on his amber eyes and their bodies were pressed together.

 

Kagome's eyes widened momentarily as she spoke, “Your eyes. They look golden. Are those real?”

 

Inuyasha had a canned answer for his eyes--he had been saying the same thing since he was a child. “Oh, they are just tinted contacts. I wear them sometimes…”

 

She looked back up at him again quizzically as if she was recognizing something just by looking into his eyes. Then she blushed and turned away.

 

Then the train stopped at a station and Kagome did her best to push her way out. “Hey, Kagome, wait!” called Inuyasha as he tried to grab her hand as she moved off of the train. Masses of bodies pushed between the two of them and he quickly lost her in the maze of people. He could try to sniff her out--he knew her scent now. It was wonderful, gentle scent. But there were too many scents and too many people.

 

He did know one thing however, she was going to Tokyo University and she wanted to change the world. Now this was progress.

 

 

Authors Notes:

#1: Don't kill me yet for taking away Inuyasha's dog-ears. He'll get them back! I promise! Soon! I was just trying to be realistic. In today's society a plastic surgeon would be quickly brought in if a kid were to be born with dog ears. Inuyasha and Kagome were both born in 2012. So plastic surgery will be even a little more advanced than it is today.

#2: I visited Japan for two weeks and went through Shinjuku station a number of times. It's a huge maze and crowded during rush hour. Yes, there really are pushers who cram everyone into a train by shoving them. I didn't make it up! This really happens in Japan.

#3: Miroku's family name. Moroboshi, is from one of the main characters in Urusei Yatsura. Urusei Yatsura was the first Rumiko Takashi manga that I had ever read back in the 1980's. Surprise, surprise it has a letch named Ataru Moroboshi who can't keep his hands off of women and he's constantly being hit. Sound familiar? So I had to give them both the same last name.

#4: I bought Inuyasha Manga volume #45 while I was in Japan at the Shinjuku subway station, so I had to have Inuyasha buy a manga there as well. I figure that since Rumiko Takahashi has been doing manga since the 1970's that she will still be writing in 2030. Or maybe Inuyasha was just picking up an old reprint?