InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Hanyou of the Future ❯ Hey, I remember you ( Chapter 14 )

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]

AN: Thank you to Isis-Kitty for the beta job.

Hanyou of the Future

Chapter Fourteen: Hey, I Remember You

Wrinkling his nose, Inuyasha realized in his daze that the scent fluttering around him seemed oddly familiar. It was an 'oddly familiar' scent that didn't settle too well in his nostrils. He sneezed.

Inuyasha jerked awake and darted his eyes around his surroundings. He glared as he met the blue eyes of someone he hadn't seen in a long while - someone very annoying.

"Dog breath, glad to see you're finally awake!" His rival gave him a wolfish grin. Inuyasha's eyes widened.

"How ...?" And Inuyasha turned to his side, worried for Kagome. Thankfully, she was sleeping soundly beside him. He then turned to their rescuers and pointed his clawed finger at the leader. "You! What are you doing here? How'd you get through the well, you mangy wolf?"

Automatically, Kouga crowed with laughter. "I didn't go down no well, Inu-kuro. I lived out those five hundred years like the rest of the demons." He jabbed a thumb behind him. "Although, those guys could barely keep up with the times."

"Hey!" the other two wolf demons protested in sync.

"Keh, whatever! What the hell is going on here, huh? How did you know to rescue us? Who were those guys?"

Kouga sniffed. "Jees! Settle down!" He gave Inuyasha a cocky grin. He waggled a finger at him teasingly. "All will be explained when we get back to our base. There's someone there who's very anxious to see you again."

Inuyasha gaped as Kouga continued to chuckle at him. He looked around his surroundings, and he noticed they were outside near the road, hiding on an incline behind thick bramble and bushes. Kouga turned around when his comrades called him, and Inuyasha listened to their conversation.

"They took the bait, Kouga," the one with the Mohawk said. Inuyasha never could get their names straight. He assumed the one with short gray and black hair was Ginta, and the one with the Mohawk was Hakkaku. Though even after all these years, they still sort of looked the same (except for Kouga, who's hair was shorter and all over the place), and the three of them were covered in crude piercings and specially formed leather hides. Inuyasha remembered Kagome talking about people who wore such clothes, blathering out a foreign phrase that was pronounced like 'grease monkey'. Inuyasha just thought they looked ridiculous more than anything.

"Are the youki scent pellets set on a timer, Hakkaku?" Kouga asked, peering through the binoculars. Inuyasha squinted and could see a moving vehicle in the distance. The vehicle looked vaguely familiar to Takeda's van.

"Hey! That's the guy...!" Inuyasha yelled, startling Kouga's two lackeys. They shushed him, and Kouga turned around and gave him an angry glare.

"Will you just sit back while we take care of them? Jees!" Kouga lashed at him, and Inuyasha drew back offended. Usually, he would pound Kouga or butt him with his sword for saying such a thing, but he held back, wondering what the hell kind of work the wolf turd had meant. He then heard Kouga mumble, "That ice prince better pay me double for dealing with this idiot." The phrase made Inuyasha's ears burn to hear. He had a strange feeling he knew just what Kouga had meant.

"Look! They're going in circles. They must have last years model for a tracking system." Kouga nodded in affirmation to Ginta, turning back to face Inuyasha.

"What's going on?" Inuyasha demanded. He grabbed the collar of Kouga's jacket. Kouga batted his hand away and sighed.

"We're trying to get those assholes off our trail. We were betting on them having an out of date tracking system, and it seems we were right. We don't want them pursuing us while we take you guys back to our base. Now just sit tight and we'll go as soon as they leave," Kouga answered.

Inuyasha was silent for a moment, and then a thought occurred to him. "Are you guys the Vigilantes they were talking about?"

Kouga returned his question with a fanged grin. "We're something like that." He turned back to peer through the binoculars, tracking the van's changing course, right in the opposite direction of where they were hiding.

"Heh, yeah, sometimes they consider us a big pain in their ass," said Ginta. Hakkaku gave him a quick high five.

"This is just... “Inuyasha felt totally dumbfounded. Meeting up with these guys again in the modern era was something out of a bizarre nightmare. And then they dressed just like the humans, and their speech had picked up the weird modern dialect that Kagome's had. It was like they weren't from the feudal era at all! "This is just fucking crazy!"

Kouga rolled his eyes, and he was about to respond with a quip, but then Kagome stirred away next to Inuyasha's side.

Her voice crackled as she murmured, "Inuyasha ...?" She started to sit up from her spot, feeling a soft blanket beneath her. She wiped her eyes and blinked as Inuyasha and three others looked down at her with concern.

"Are you alright, Kagome?" Kouga asked with a smooth voice.

Suddenly, she slapped a hand to her cheek and her eyes widened. She squealed with surprise. "Oh Gods, it's Kouga!"

Her outburst had sent Kouga's comrades into fits of chuckles. Ginta was even starting to cry. "Oh man, Kouga, why do all the ladies have that horrified look on their faces when they wake up to you?" Then, Hakkaku began laughing louder, and even Inuyasha couldn't suppress a smirk.

"Shut up, you bastards!" Kouga snarled at them, waving a closed fist in their direction. Kagome continued to stare at them in bewilderment.

"Am I dreaming?" she asked, looking at Inuyasha.

Kouga grabbed her hand. "Do you usually dream about me, Kagome?"

"Stop that, jerk!" Inuyasha smacked his hand away, giving him a dangerous glare. Kouga snickered.

"No, Kagome. These bums rescued us from Oogami." Inuyasha looked at the offended parties and said, "They say someone wants to see us."

"He does, although he may be more interested in the miko than you, Dog Pile," Kouga replied, crossing his arms.

"Let me guess, he wants the Shikon jewel too?" Inuyasha narrowed his eyes. "I'm surprised at you, Kouga. After five hundred years you're just a pathetic minion for some power hungry demon!"

"Hey!" Kouga put his hands up in defense. "It's not like that, alright? We're the good guys - as hard as that is for you to believe." Kouga turned to Kagome and said earnestly, "And we're not after the jewel." His smile intensified. "Besides, we already have it."

"What?" Kagome and Inuyasha both shouted in unison.

"Kouga! I'm not sure the boss wants you to say that to them just yet," Hakkaku chided.

"Quiet, they're going to find out anyway," Kouga said.

"Yeah, but is it worth that death glare the boss always gives you for screwing up?" Ginta moaned.

"Hey, you guys listen here! How do you already have the jewel?" Inuyasha poked a clawed finger into Kouga's chest. "We know were there jewel is right now and unless you've stolen it, I don't see how you could have it too."

Kouga waved a hand at him. "Relax. Everything will become clear shortly." Kouga turned to the other two wolves. "You two quit slacking and keep an eye on that van."

"Uh... it disappeared," Ginta replied, looking through the binoculars. "I think it headed back to the city."

"Good," Kouga said. He turned to Inuyasha and Kagome with another one of his infamous cocky grins. He handed Kagome a helmet. "Now we can go to the base. Hop on with me, Kagome."

"Feh!" Inuyasha immediately jumped in front of her. "I don't think so."

"Don't worry, Dog Breath." Kouga sighed. "I'm not after your woman anymore. I've got enough pretty ladies in my harem to keep me occupied." Inuyasha eyed him suspiciously as Kagome continued to gape at him. She still couldn't believe she was seeing Kouga, of all people, in her own era.

"Don't listen to him, Kagome. He doesn't have a harem," Hakkaku stated, shaking his head.

"Yeah," said Ginta. "If he even spoke of a harem, Ayame would have his ass in a sling so fast."

"Shut up!" Kouga growled at them, his face turning red. He pouted. "At least I have a woman, even if she is a bit demanding."

Ginta and Hakkaku both bristled, puffing up their chest. Ginta spoke first, "We prefer being single, thank you. Anything's better than that old ball and chain."

"Yeah," Hakkaku replied. "Talk about having your balls on a skewer."

Inuyasha and Kagome stepped back, watching the scene with shameless intrigue. Kouga's youki was starting to stir angrily as his comrades taunted him. He snarled, "Well that's easy for you guys to say when you're so gay for each other." Kouga lifted his nose in the air, and Ginta and Hakkaku sputtered with myriad retorts, trying to adamantly convince their audience of their over-whelming straightness.

"Come on, Kagome." Kouga grabbed her hand and led her to the motorcycle. Inuyasha stepped in again, not at all distracted by his bungling lackeys to have Kagome out of his sight.

"I don't think so. She can ride with one of them." Inuyasha peered at Kouga sternly. "I'm coming with you."

Kouga purred sweetly as Inuyasha gripped his arm. "Why Inu-kuro, I didn't know you cared."

"See? He does that to everyone. The situation goes bad for him, and he pulls out the gay-card," Ginta whined, pointing. Everyone was ignoring him though, as Inuyasha and Kouga got locked in a stare-down.

"Argh! Enough! Let's just get going." Inuyasha turned to Kagome. "Just ride with one of them, and then we'll find out what the hell is going on." Kagome nodded, and climbed on the seat behind Hakkaku.

Hakkaku handed her a helmet and tittered happily. "It's been so long since I've seen you, nee-chan. We were so excited when our boss gave us an assignment to meet you!"

"Why do you still call me 'nee-chan' if Kouga has Ayame?" Kagome asked, strapping on the helmet securely. She had no idea how these guys drove on a motorcycle, and she wanted to be extra cautious. At least they wore helmets.

"Well, you haven't seen how Ayame acts since the feudal era, have you?" Ginta answered.

"Yeah," Hakkaku said, his voice strained. "We ... ah, would have still preferred you as our sister, in any case." He chuckled nervously. Kagome could only imagine the worst by the look of their fear.

"Anyway, what you did against Naraku and helping avenge our tribe, that was really something," Ginta said, chiming in again. He revved the engine on his bike and started to ride ahead behind Kouga and Inuyasha, who had already taken off.

"Yeah, and because of that, it makes you our honorary sister," Hakkaku said, winking at her. "Now hold on tight!" And Kagome gripped her arms around the wolf demon's hard chest, and she let out a squeal as the bike took off, speeding quickly to catch up with the other two.

When supper was over, Mrs. Higurashi quickly cleaned off the table and made a huge apology to Hojo for hurrying him out of the house. Truthfully, she would have loved for him to stay longer, but after that unsettling phone call, she had too much to do.

More than anything, she did not want to get Hojo involved in her work, for it would probably be too dangerous for him. He was such a sweet boy anyway.

"Thank you so much for dinner, Mrs. Higurashi. The food was beyond delicious." He bowed to her, and she couldn't help the rising blush to her cheeks.

"Oh, dear, you flatter me." She touched him lightly on the arm, and Hojo's lip quivered at the obvious affection. Her voice was low, almost in a whisper when she cooed brightly, "You must come again sometime."

Mrs. Higurashi could see Hojo visibly swallow, and he nodded dumbly to her request. His reaction to her subtle flirtation had greatly pleased her. It only fueled her desires to get the young boy over to her house again, for his reaction toward her advances was beyond anything she expected.

Did it mean he was slightly attracted to her despite her being Kagome's mother? She tried to suppress the wickedly satisfied laughter inside of her, urging to burst into the open. Instead, she smiled sweetly and watched him leave as he made his way down the numerous stairs of the shrine. And when he was out of sight, she gazed to the tree branches and felt an unsettling shiver surge through her body.

In spite of it, she smiled, and a mysterious animation swirled within her dark eyes.

"That was close," a hooded figure said to his partner, hovering within the large tree that grew next to the Higurashi shrine. "I thought for sure she saw us."

His partner didn't say anything, but instead, he started chucking small pebbles infused with youki at the house. As expected, the youki-laced pebbles bounced back off the large barrier encompassing the shrine.

"Damn it; the barrier is still strong," he said, ignoring his partner's fear of being discovered by the woman at the shrine. He ran a quick hand through his dark blue hair and cursed their luck.

"Look, we can't do anything until that barrier is down. We don't even know if the jewel is in there," said the other one, his hair a lighter shade of orange in contrast to his partner's, and with a skin tone to match.

"This is bad. We were supposed to pick up the jewel after Oogami took care of the miko and her dog. Ikkaku-san said these new barrier repellent ofudas would take the barrier down without a problem," he said with a growl.

"Well, the barrier is too strong. We're going to have to go back." The other one sighed in exasperation, and then his attention diverted to movement over his partner's shoulder. He pointed. "Who's that?"

"What?" The blue-haired thug followed the direction of his partner's finger to the bottom of the stairs outside the shrine. He relaxed his shoulders. "It's just some human boy."

"But that human boy just came out of the shrine."

His partner looked at him. They both grinned.

As they jumped off the tree, the branches rustled alerting their target below. Quickly, they muffled his scream of surprise.

If they couldn't get the jewel for their boss, at least they could take a hostage.

TBC...