InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Honor's Price ❯ Chapter 2

Inuyasha and crew do not belong to me, I only claim the story line.

Chapter 2

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~~~~~Sesshomaru’s point of view~~~~~

I hung up the phone quietly, wishing instead that I could throw it across the room. Jaken had just confirmed what I had already suspected. Someone was leaking confidential information to Naraku and his Spiders. I leaned back in my chair and absently massaged my temples as I felt the stirrings of a headache. I wondered who the traitor could be; there were only a very few who were privy to the leaked information, and I had never before had reason to doubt their loyalty.

I stood up and walked towards the refrigerator, planning to get myself a bottle of water, when my demonic hearing caught the sounds of gunfire. Resisting the urge to sigh, I quickly left Fang headquarters and made my way out to the street.

As I came upon the scene, I could see my Fangs clashing with the Spiders once again. Of course, that really was no surprise. I caught sight of Naraku and growled. I didn’t know what instigated the fight tonight, but I wanted it to end now; the time and place were not yet advantageous for us to make our ultimate move against our rival gang.

Naraku smiled as he saw me standing beside the building and gave me a mocking salute before he seemingly melted back into the shadows. The rest of his gang followed a short time later, evidently obeying an unknown signal. My people quickly began clean-up and I was pleased to see that in this, at least, they were very efficient.

I turned to head back into the building when I paused. I could smell an injured human approaching me. I did not recognize the blood scent and turned back just in time to see a petite, dark-haired woman collapse at my feet. She was not a member of either gang, which could only mean that she was a civilian. I growled in irritation as I looked at her more carefully. Not only was she a civilian, but I recognized her as the human woman who would care for several children while their parents were working. The fact that she didn’t care if the children were human, demon, or hanyou was what had attracted my interest.

I took a closer look and noticed that she had only sustained a minor injury; it appeared that a stray bullet had grazed her hand. I noted that the bleeding had already ceased, but I was puzzled by her state of unconsciousness.

I looked up and saw that the clean-up was almost completed. I watched as Inuyasha talked to Sango, who nodded towards Kouga and his nearly worthless cousins. My half-brother walked over to them and started talking to the wolf demons. I could hear quite clearly Kouga’s response when Inuyasha informed him of the civilian’s injury; I growled when Kouga dared to state that I would not need to be informed of this ‘incident’.

When Inuyasha pointed Kouga in my direction, I could not help but give him one of my few “smiles”. Everyone in the Fangs knew that my smiles meant trouble was fast approaching. I enjoyed the scent of fear that I could pick up emanating from the wolf demon. It almost, but not quite, overpowered the scent of alcohol.

I stood still and watched Kouga shuffle towards me, Inuyasha silently herding him in my direction. When the wolf demon stood before me, his eyes refusing to meet mine, I allowed him to stand there in nervous anticipation while I leveled my iciest glare at him. Finally, I spoke, not wanting Kouga’s agitated state to deteriorate into tears as I could sense he was close to doing.

“Kouga,” I resisted the urge to smirk as the frazzled wolf demon jumped at the sound of my voice, “what is the number one law of this gang?”

Kouga’s voice broke as he started to answer. He stopped and took a deep breath before trying again. “Our number one law is that ‘Any and all civilians are to be treated with respect.’”

“And what does that mean, exactly?”

“That anyone not belonging to the gangs should not be involved in gang business,” Kouga paused and looked into my eyes before quickly glancing away and continuing, “and they should never be endangered through our actions.”

Kouga looked at the woman who had started to stir at my feet. I carefully watched him as he noticed her injury. I was pleased to see that he was ashamed of his role in its occurrence. I nodded at Inuyasha, who had been leaning against the nearby light post. He smirked and stepped forward.

“Your actions this evening, Kouga, were the direct cause of injury done to this civilian woman. If you had not gotten drunk, you would not have started the fight with the Spiders while she was around.” Kouga had looked towards my brother when he began speaking, but returned to staring at the sidewalk, not denying Inuyasha’s charge.

I waited a moment to see if Kouga would try to defend himself, but was pleased when he refused to shame himself further by doing so.

“Kouga, I, Sesshomaru, leader of the Fangs, hereby decree that you shall remain alcohol free for one year. If you are caught with alcohol either in your possession or in your system, you will be thrown from the gang and shall be considered fair game by any.” The wolf demon paled at this but nodded his agreement.

I noticed the woman was now sitting up and cradling her head in her hands and thought of one other “punishment” for this wolf. “Further more, you shall provide this civilian woman twenty-four hour protection for the next month.”

I hid my smirk while Inuyasha openly laughed as both Kouga and the young woman stared at me and yelled in unison, “WHAT!?!”

~~~~~Kagome’s point of view~~~~~

I don’t think I was out too long before I awoke to voices speaking close by. I slowly sat up and cradled my aching head in my hands. I vaguely noticed the now dried blood caked along a scratch on my hand, but was more concerned by a knot I found where I must have hit my head when I passed out.

I was only half listening to the man, err, demon as he talked to the wolf demon, Kouga, whom I had seen on the bus. I looked at this demon from the corner of my eye. His long white hair almost seemed to reflect the light from the street lamp, almost seeming to glisten. I found myself wondering what it would look like up close in the sunlight. I held back a shiver though, as his voice held no hint of warmth. I knew that if I looked into his face, this Sesshomaru (I heard him call himself that), would not show any sort of expression. I was very glad that I was not the subject of his attention.

I shifted my gaze past a nervous Kouga, kinda wondering why he was nervous, and caught sight of the third demon. He had the same white hair as Sesshomaru, and was close enough in appearance to him, that I wondered if they were related in some way. The main difference between the two demons was this one had the cutest pair of doggie ears… I found myself wanting to touch them.

I jerked my thoughts away from their dangerous (at least, not wise) path and started to look for a way to extract myself from the presence of these demons and go home. I started to climb to my feet but stopped when I heard Mr. Ice beside me place me in the protective custody of wolf boy.

“WHAT!?!” I vaguely noticed that Kouga echoed my surprise, but I really didn’t care. I stood to my feet and glared at the demon who dared to dictate my life. “OH, HELL NO! I am not going to be babysat by some mangy wolf demon who probably couldn’t find his ass with both hands!” I found myself poking the tall, silent demon in the chest and resisted the urge to do something more physical.

He growled at me and grabbed my offending hand. I briefly thought about trying to wrest it away, but knew that I could not compare to his demonic strength.

“Woman, you have no choice. The wolf will be your bodyguard.”

“What do you mean, I have no choice? I am not one of your gang flunkies, following your orders blindly. I am a free woman and owe my obedience to no one.” I looked up and saw that not only did he have the most piercing golden eyes, but he sported the blue crescent moon and magenta stripes of a demon lord from one of Japan’s oldest ruling families. Oh hell, what have I gotten myself into now?

Sesshomaru raised a single elegant eyebrow and smirked. “Do you not live in my territory? As such, you have been sheltered from harassment. Therefore, I can demand your compliance as payment. If you choose not to comply, you are then required to leave my territory. It is your choice.”

My heart stopped. Leave? Where would I go? When I asked him, Sesshomaru released my hand and stepped back. “That is not my concern,” he said. I closed my eyes, holding back the tears of frustration that threatened to fall.

“Fine, but I have several conditions to set.”

“Your conditions do not interest me. Work them out with Kouga.” With that, the arrogant ass of a leader turned and walked away. I held back the urge to throw a rock at his back, but it was very difficult.

I turned back to the other two demons who had watched my tirade with silence. The dog-eared demon clasped a hand to Kouga’s back in a silent farewell before he too, walked away. I was left staring at my unwanted bodyguard, who looked as unhappy as I felt about this entire situation. I decided to at least take my unwanted infringement of my privacy as gracefully as possible. I extended my hand in greeting.

“Hello, my name is Kagome and I shall be your prisoner for the next 30 days.”

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TBC

A/N: Thank-you everyone for the wonderful response to the first chapter. I hope that I can continue to bring you pleasure with this fic.

Thank-you Breezie for your help – you are appreciated!

As always, Read, Enjoy and Review!