InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Love's Smirking Revenge ❯ Vigilante ( Chapter 38 )

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

By: Langus

Love's Smirking Revenge

- Chapter Thirty-Nine -

Vigilante

The doctor stepped back from his inspection of her head and offered her a nervous smile, "It's superficial, nothing to be worried about."

He turned back to his medical bag and she found herself wondering how he'd managed to sound reassuring while staring a bullet wound in her head. The ridiculousness of the entire situation almost made her burst into hysterics. Instead she bit her lip and watched closely as he soaked a swab in iodine.

The doctor was a thin man, barely past fifty, with a pleasant dusting of salt and pepper hair. He had kind eyes and they sent a brief, pitying glance her way before they locked on the reason they both were there. Sesshomaru lingered an arm's length away, standing before the expansive bank of windows lining his living room. An untouched snifter of Scotch sat cradled in his hand as he took in the city below.

"You're a very lucky girl," the doctor said more softly. He offered a sympathetic look as he swept the iodine swab over her gash. The resulting sting caused her to flinch and hiss in pain. Sesshomaru turn in her peripheral vision and she glanced over in time to see his lips press into a frown.

"Am I?" she wondered to herself and slowly turned back to the doctor. Her tone held just the faintest hint of disbelief.

An hour ago she'd awoken inside Sesshomaru's car as it sped down the expressway, weaving expertly in and out of traffic. The view of Tokyo's bright city lights ahead of them nearly brought tears to her eyes. She'd never felt so homesick, so thankful to see that neon jungle of metal and concrete in her life. It was only in that moment that she realized she'd survived. She was still having trouble processing it. After all, how could anyone survive a gunshot to the head from so close a distance? But somehow she had.

Now she found herself in Sesshomaru's apartment, being cared for by a doctor he'd called up on his cell phone the moment they'd walked through the door. The man had arrived in less than 20 minutes, carrying a medical bag at his side.

"I didn't know doctors still made house calls these days," she observed, trying to make conversation as he wiped the gunpowder off her cheek with a damp cotton pad.

"We don't, but in certain situations alternative arrangements can be made," he replied, careful to keep his eyes on the task at hand.

Rin nodded absently and kept her eyes on the floor. Having a private doctor on speed dial was more than a mere convenience. When you come home with bullet wounds and want to avoid the hospital's mandatory policy of filing a police report for every gun related injury, having an 'alternative arrangement' was crucial. She wondered how many times the poor doctor had been dragged out of his bed in the middle of the night to patch someone up. How many other girls had his kind eyes given a sympathetic glance to in this apartment? How many of them were dead now?

As that horrifying thought circled through her mind, her gaze lifted to Sesshomaru. He was watching her, his expression unreadable. The glass was still cradled, untouched, in his hand. It seemed there was nothing he couldn't have or accomplish if he set his mind to it. He owned everything and everyone in Tokyo, except her. Maybe that was the point. They held each other's gaze until the sound of the doctor's medical bag snapping shut drew her attention away.

"All finished," he announced with a perfunctory look at his benefactor.

"Thank you," Rin said sincerely, bowing in gratitude.

The doctor looked abashed. "It's nothing at all," he reassured her with a bow of his own.

As an afterthought he placed a few packets of antibiotics in her hands. "These should keep any infection away, and I've done the best that I can to clean the wound but if you start to feel sick or faint, please go to a hospital."

Rin promised him she would and he visibly exhaled his relief. Turning to Sesshomaru, he bowed low, thanked him for his patronage and reminded him that any time he was in need of assistance to please give him a call. Sesshomaru wordlessly escorted him to the door and Rin listened from the couch as the doctor bid them both 'Goodnight' before the door was shut in his face.

She waited, unmoving, for Sesshomaru to return to the living room. He moved at an unhurried pace, perhaps dreading their impending talk as much as she was. Slowly and carefully she got to her feet and held on to the back of the chair for support. The doctor may have patched up her head, but the waves of dizziness that came and went had yet to abate.

Uncertain what to expect, she pulled in a deep breath and met his golden-hued gaze. Half of her was terrified, the other half was livid. Her free hand was shaking, she realized, and quickly balled it into fist at her side.

He came to a stop in front of her, one hand lingering in his pocket while the other hung at his side. It looked empty without a glass in it. She guessed he'd left it in the kitchen, maybe even poured it down the drain. With the amount of money he had, he could afford to toss an entire tumbler of expensive Scotch. For people as wealthy and powerful as him, everything is disposable - even people. The thought left a bitter taste in the back of her mouth and provided the extra bit of strength she needed to confront him.

"Why didn't you kill him?" she asked point blank. It was a completely irrational place to begin, but it was an answer that gave them both a momentary reprieve from trying to untangle the mess they'd gotten themselves into.

"Death would have been too easy," he answered, his hand lifting to push a stray hair back from her face. She flinched involuntarily and he let his hand fall back, leaving the hair where it was.

"Prison is a far more suitable place for him to be - side-by-side with all the dogs he tricked and double crossed. Believe me, he will regret what he has done," he said with a chilling certainty.

Rin nodded wordlessly and looked away while her teeth gnawed at her bottom lip. Before she was aware she was moving, her feet took her to the bookshelf she'd stood in front of on her first night in his apartment.

The picture was still there, the glass flame reflecting in the moonlight. She picked it up and studied the large dark eyes of the woman standing next to Sesshomaru. Kagura, Sesshomaru's wife, stared blankly up at her with the faintest hint of a smile on her ruby lips. It was like she was mocking her, basking in her victory. She stared into the face of a woman she'd never met, a woman who wanted her dead badly enough to hire a hitman to do it, and felt a shiver run down her spine.

Replacing the picture with trembling hands, she turned round to find that Sesshomaru hadn't moved though his eyes followed her carefully.

"She will pay," he reassured her, his expression dark.

"Haven't you done enough?"

His brow lifted in surprise and she exhaled a short sigh of frustration. Feeling the beginnings of another dizzy spell, she put her hand to her head and wearily closed her eyes. The cool, light touch of his fingers against her neck was an unexpected surprise. His thumb levied beneath her chin, tilting it upwards and she opened her eyes to look into the amber orbs that had always seemed so endless. Tonight they were tinged with concern, and his brow furrowed a little as he looked her over.

"You're going to be alright," he determined, his quiet confidence reassuring. He leaned forward just enough for his lips to brush against her brow and her hands wrapped round his wrists, holding on for support.

"I want to go home," she whispered, finding it hard to force the words out around the lump in her throat.

"It's not safe," he stated, reluctantly pulling away.

She felt the absence of his warmth immediately and in its place a chill set in, one that froze her right to her core. Kagura could just as easily send someone else to find her at her old apartment. She'd never be safe there… She might never be safe again.

The first whispering acknowledgment of what she must do was pushed away with hardly a second thought, but it soon returned, creeping into her consciousness where it rooted itself and refused to be ignored.

"I'll stay with a friend," she suggested, despite knowing what his answer would be.

"You are safer here," he retorted, his features hardening into a stubborn frown.

She stepped fully out of his embrace then, and felt the ice at her core spread slowly into her limbs. The silence that suddenly filled the apartment made it spread faster. It crystallized her veins, gradually making its way to her heart. It was the only way she'd be able to leave, she knew. Hardening her heart against him was her last chance for survival.

"I can't do this," she admitted softly, wrapping her arms around herself. "I can't. Sesshomaru… You have to let me go."

She hazarded a pleading glance his way and saw the change in his eyes. He didn't want to listen. His ego disliked being told to do anything and stood ready to refuse. But the other part of him, the part that cared for her, realized that this was where it had to end. It was a long moment before a quiet sigh of resignation slipped from his lips. She looked away, knowing that she'd won and tears filled her eyes. It was a hollow victory. Nothing felt good about this. She felt like she'd torn a piece of herself off and left it behind.

Her body felt uncoordinated as she slowly made her way to the door, knowing it would be for the last time. The jangle of his keys sliding off the counter into his hand shot through her with a sense of finality that made the breath catch in her throat. She exhaled shakily and stepped out into the hall, thankful for the rush of cool air against her face.

Thirty-seven stories below them, Tokyo went about its business undisturbed and completely unaware of the two souls above who'd found and lost each other in its cacophony. Instead, the bustling city guided them into what was left of the night with the help of neon lights and pachinko noise. Late night revellers spilled out of clubs, drunks laughed loudly at stupid jokes, and packed cabs littered the streets. No one took any notice of the odd looking pair getting into the expensive imported car.

That was both the beauty and the curse of the city; even when embraced by it, you were utterly alone.

xXx

The rapid click of her heels atop the linoleum punctuated Kagome's every anxious step. She'd never felt a corridor so long in all her life. She resisted the urge to run and clenched her fists at her sides. At the end of the hall a heavy metal door suddenly opened and a uniformed guard waved her in. She offered him a nervous smile as she passed and soon found herself in another hallway.

"It's just around the corner, to your right," the officer informed her.

Her feet picked up their pace and she rounded the corner with her heart in her throat. She hadn't known what to expect when they'd called her. An officer "Ogawa" had asked her to come - no explanation, no reassurance, just "Please come to the station immediately." She'd immediately hung up and called Inuyasha's cell. It went straight to voicemail. She tried again - nothing. Her stomach dropped with dread and she'd hailed the first cab in sight.

The ride from the Asahi Shimbun building to the precinct had been the longest of her life. Had something happened? Was he hurt? Why wouldn't they tell her anything over the phone? She'd nervously torn the cab driver's business card to shreds in the backseat as her mind tortured her with every possible scenario. This couldn't happen now. They'd only just gotten their second chance to be together and make things work. Fate couldn't be that cruel, could it?

But she knew perfectly well that it could, and so she'd prepared herself for the worst before rounding that corner. She prepared herself to see solemn faces and sympathetic looks, some unlucky soul approaching to tell her the bad news. Instead he was there in front of her - alive, whole and looking no worse for the wear. A cry escaped her and she launched herself at him, burying her face against his chest. Her relief at seeing him became all-consuming. She'd never cared for anything as much as she cared for this one stubborn, reckless man. Tears coursed down her cheeks and she held him tight, almost as though if she let up even the slightest he would disappear forever.

"I'm so glad you're alright," she breathed, shutting her eyes tight as she felt the solid warmth of his arms tighten against her back.

"Of course I'm alright," he rebuked softly. She could hear the hint of a smile in his voice and gave a tearful laugh in spite of herself. Of course he was alright. Exhaling for the first time since she'd received officer Ogawa's call, she slowly relinquished her hold on him and stepped back.

It was only then that she noticed the others. Six pairs of eyes were watching them curiously and she felt slightly embarrassed as she wiped the remnants of tears from her cheeks. She gave Inuyasha a sheepish look and a faint smile pulled at his lips. His arm lingered lightly around her waist, offering comfort and support. At one time he would have done everything possible to avoid a scene, probably even have mocked her for her display, but not now.

Feeling more like herself again, she turned her attention to the others. A few she recognized from her previous visits to the precinct, others she didn't know. She wondered if officer Ogawa was among them. They were a mixed bag - several of them wore uniforms, the rest plain clothes, but all had identical grave expressions. Inuyasha guided her to the large picture window the group was standing next to.

"He's been asking for you," he said with a nod at the figure on the other side. It was then that she realized it wasn't a window she was looking at but a mirror - a two way mirror. She was staring into an interrogation room and seated at the table staring back was Kouga. Her brows rose and her mouth hung open in surprise.

"Why does he have cuffs on? You don't mean-"

She glanced back and her suspicions were confirmed by the grim expression on Inuyasha's face. It was Kouga…? Her eyes darted from one face to the next, but they were all the same - sober, sombre and awash in disbelief.

"How...?" she croaked, barely able to get the word out.

"I suspected something after his partial fingerprint showed up on a gold-plated bullet fragment we retrieved at a crime scene," Inuyasha explained, focusing his gaze on Kouga.

"At first, I didn't want to believe he could be involved in something like this so I got access to his phone and bank records to rule him out as a suspect. Except, rather than exonerate him they revealed he'd been at this for a long, long time." A forceful exhale blew past his lips and he scratched distractedly at the stubble along his jaw.

"When you told me about Rin, I had the lab dig up both of their cell phone records on the off chance the two were connected. That's when I saw that he'd been in touch with Kagura. She took over Samiyoshi-kai after Naraku kicked the bucket," he explained with a sour look.

"I couldn't understand why Kouga had been in contact with Rin until you told me about Kobayashi's involvement. You know as well as I do about the rivalry between Samiyoshi-kai and Inagawa-kai. From there, it wasn't hard to put two and two together. I got the lab to trace the GPS in Kouga's phone and was on my way to confront him when you called."

She blinked up at him, stunned by this series of revelations. "So Kobayashi wasn't the one who was after Rin?"

Inuyasha, looking somewhat mystified, lifted a brow and subtly shook his head. "Kobayashi was there, but Kouga was the one with his gun to her head. If I didn't know better, I'd think Kobayashi was trying to protect her. We still don't know why Rin was the target."

Kagome's eyes widened and slowly turned back to rest on her friend. He looked unperturbed, bored even, as his fingers drummed rapidly against the table.

"And Rin, is she...?" She couldn't bring herself to say the rest. The lump in her throat made it difficult to swallow as she thought of Rin, terrified, hurt, and thinking she was about to die. Kagome understood that fear better than anyone and it gutted her that someone as kind as Rin had ever had to experience it.

Inuyasha's hand came to rest atop her shoulder and offered a consoling squeeze.

"His gun went off before I could stop him," he said gravely. "Rin went down and Kobayashi took her with him. I don't know if she made it or not, but it didn't look good. I'm sorry..."

Kagome felt numb as she stared hard at the man on the other side of the mirror. She studied every inch that she could see of his face, searching for something she'd missed before. Her mind simply couldn't wrap itself around this new image of him. The friend who'd taken such good care of her during her darkest time was a heartless serial killer? It didn't make sense. She'd spent long enough looking into those eyes to know what lingered in their indigo depths. Those were not the eyes of a cold-blooded killer. There had to be a mistake…

But she also knew Inuyasha wouldn't lie, not about something this important. A heavy breath escaped her lips and her shoulders sagged.

"I can't believe it," she muttered in disbelief. Inuyasha's warm hand found hers and gave it a comforting squeeze.

"He's been asking to speak to you. You don't have to do it, but if he'll talk to you maybe we can get some questions answered."

"Like why the hell he did this?" she wondered aloud.

"Exactly. Think you might be up for it?"

She looked back and noticed the inquisitive stares of the other officers in the room. They wouldn't force her to do anything, but it was obvious that they needed her to get the information they were after. Looking back at Kouga, she realized she didn't have a choice. She'd never feel right about this if she didn't hear it from his lips. She wanted to know the whys just as desperately as they did.

"Okay, I'll do it," she said softly, aware of the silent exhalation of relief that emanated from the group.

"You don't have to," Inuyasha said, his voice low in her ear. "I know you two got close…before. I know he's a friend. Just say the word and we'll go home."

Those last three words left his lips so easily, so weightlessly, that it brought a fleeting smile to her own. To be home, with him - she'd love nothing more. Turning her back to Kouga, she looked Inuyasha in the eyes and gave him a reassuring nod.

"I want to help. And I think I need to talk to him. I need to hear it for myself."

His gaze lingered on her, searching for any signs of doubt. Seeing only stubborn determination, he gave an understanding nod and gestured to the officer standing guard at the door.

"Okay, let's do this. But at the first hint of trouble I'm getting you outta there. Got it?"

The guard pulled open the door and Kagome peeked inside. She hesitated at the threshold, suddenly aware of the butterflies flittering about in her stomach. Pulling in a deep breath, she let it out slowly and turned to the officers waiting impatiently by the window.

"This has to be off the record or I'm not doing it," she explained plainly. Their faces darkened and she hastened to add, "The moment I enter this room, I'm a journalist for the Asahi Shimbun and he's my confidential source. Understand?"

Several of the officers balked and shot Inuyasha imploring looks. She heard his sharp intake of breath and watched him exchange a quick glance with one of the men who she assumed was the Superintendent. He acquiesced with a nod and she breathed a sigh of relief.

"Alright boys, you heard her - turn the speaker off," Inuyasha instructed. Then he leaned down so his mouth was next to her ear and added more softly, "Be careful, Kagome."

She nodded and gave him a grateful look and then she was on her own. Steeling her nerves, she stepped through the door and waited until it clanged shut behind her.

The room was barren but for a metal table and two metal chairs at its centre. Kouga occupied one of the chairs and the other sat empty, waiting for her. A charismatic smile lit his face as she approached.

"Hey beautiful," he greeted, his smooth baritone caressing her. "You look good."

"I wish I could say the same," she replied, slowly lowering herself onto the seat across from him.

He nodded and bowed his head in a show of embarrassment.

"I heard what you said in the hall about me being your confidential source. I appreciate it."

Not sure what to say, she pressed her lips together and re-adjusted her skirt. The room was surprisingly cold and a ripple of goose bumps raced down the flesh of her arms.

"So, has the mutt been treating you alright?"

Her brows shot up in surprise. "Is this why you asked me to come here? So you could grill me about my love life?"

Kouga lightly shrugged his shoulders, "I was just making conversation, Kagome. That's what friends do, isn't it?"

"Friends don't keep secrets from one another," she replied a touch haughtily.

"Well, I never said I was perfect," he teased.

"… They told me about what you did," she said suddenly, the anxious words bursting forth before she could stop them. "Is it true?"

"What do you think?" he wondered, relaxing back against his chair.

"I don't know what to think," she confessed with a shake of her head. "I know you, Kouga. You're good. But I'm not naive enough to think that even a good person can't turn bad if pushed hard enough."

He looked amused by her assessment and so she pressed him for an answer. "What happened?"

"Nothing happened," he replied calmly. His finger distractedly drew small concentric circles atop the metal tabletop. Her eyes followed the movement for a moment and then looked up to meet his gaze. He wasn't hiding anything from her, which made his words all the more confusing.

"Is what I did really so terrible? Gamblers, deadbeats, criminals, murderers, rapists - they're off the street forever thanks to me."

There was no remorse behind his words, she realized. He felt completely justified in what he'd done.

"No one asked you to be a vigilante, Kouga!" she admonished him. "You could have done it by the book. You didn't have to kill them."

"That's where you're wrong," he said with a sympathetic smile. "You've seen how corrupt our justice system is. It's a farce - nothing more than a revolving door. Defendants walk in to court all the time with a mountain of evidence stacked against them and are set free on a technicality. I got sick of watching scum be put back on the streets to cause more damage and ruin more lives."

Kagome regarded him with a hard look. "I'd have more room to stomach your rationalizations if you hadn't been working for the very people you claim you were trying to stop."

"I wouldn't expect you to understand," he responded.

"Then explain it to me so I do understand because right now I can't even begin to fathom how you slept at night while playing errand dog to someone like Naraku. And I certainly can't understand whatever logic you used to justify taking someone as innocent as Rin and putting her life in danger."

Kouga exhaled a heavy sigh and brushed his fingers through his hair. The metal links of his handcuffs clinked together, the sound hammering home the strange reality of the situation they were both in.

"Dealing with these people, these groups of yakuza, it's like dealing with a hive filled with hornets. If you attack the hive from the outside they emerge as a unified force and their retribution is relentless. Attacking them from the inside is the only option. You enter like a poison, spreading vitriol, conjecture and mistrust until eventually their carefully constructed ranks begin to break down. They're all power hungry and eager to kill each other for a bigger slice of the pie. Once you caused dissention, there's no stopping the destruction. Eventually a power void is created at the top. Once that happens, it's game over - the hive is powerless and can be easily dismantled from the outside."

"So you were the poison…"

Kouga nodded.

"So let's assume, for the moment, that I'm taking you at your word. That wonderful analogy you just gave me still doesn't explain why you did what you did to Rin. What did she do to deserve any of this?"

"What happened to her is regrettable, but she has very poor choice in men. Unfortunately she was a necessary means to an end. I needed Inagawa-kai and Samiyoshi-kai to take one another out. The easiest way to do that was to play both sides. I gained Sesshomaru's trust by completing the hit he ordered on Yoshi Ishii, and I gained Kagura's trust by continuing to be their man for hire and accepting the hit she put out on Rin. It required very little effort on my part to have them within a hair trigger of killing each other. With them gone, the two most powerful crime syndicates in Tokyo will collapse, leaving our streets and families safer. I'm sure your friend would happily give up her life for such a noble cause."

"That wasn't your call to make. What you did was cruel…inhumane! It makes me sick just thinking about it."

He shrugged again, unapologetic, "It had to be done. Things didn't go exactly the way I wanted them to, but it might have been enough. Time will tell."

Kagome sat back to give herself time to absorb everything Kouga had said. What bothered her most was the conviction in his gaze. He believed every word coming out of his mouth and that only made it harder for her to swallow. If he were crazy it'd be an easy task to condemn what he'd done as the actions of a lunatic. After all, wasn't what the press always did when faced with a serial killer? Yet, here was an officer of the law, a friend, telling her in completely rational terms how his killing of countless people was completely justified.

"Why tell me?" she asked softly, defeated in the face of his monumental confession.

"Because of all the people in this building, I figured you'd be the one person who could understand just how badly I wanted those people gone. Their presence taints this city like a disease, slowly turning it black from the underbelly up. I know what happened with Oniguomo. I know what he did to you and how close you came to dying that night. I thought you would understand the futility of trying to control people like that within the realm of the law. The only way people like you, like Rin and all the other innocent ones out there can be safe is if these organizations are gone - no matter what the cost."

Kagome stared at him wide-eyed. The truth was, a part of her did understand. Until the moment when she'd known for certain that Oniguomo was dead on her kitchen floor, she hadn't felt a single moment of relief. The restraining order hadn't protected her. Moving hadn't kept her safe. She'd been utterly helpless until she'd taken things into her own hands and dealt him a fatal blow. Not a single day had passed where she regretted that decision, but she couldn't condone what Kouga had done.

Maybe that made her a hypocrite, but at the end of the day she'd killed Oniguomo in self-defence. Kouga chose people he deemed to be unworthy and executed them with a bullet to the back of the head. That was the difference. She may understand the impetus for what Kouga had done, but that didn't mean she could ever accept it or forgive him for it.

"What now?" she wondered, finding herself at a loss to say anything else.

"My turn's over. It's time for someone else to play the hero and make the next move."

"None of this makes you a hero," she lamented softly. "At the hospital and after… you were my hero then, Kouga. But this…? I can't accept it. I can't look you in the eye and tell you that I think what you did was right. You've killed people, Kouga, a lot of people, and you deserve to go away for it."

She stood to go and felt his eyes on her. It was then that the question she really wanted to ask surfaced. It was ugly and dark and a part of her wondered whether it was worth bringing up at all, but once it was there there was no getting rid of it.

"That night at the pier…," she began slowly, mulling over her words.

He shook his head minutely. "Don't go there," he pleaded.

Ignoring him, she pressed on, determined now to get her answer. "That night at the pier, would you have shot me to save Naraku?"

Her mind travelled back to the night she'd tried so hard to put out of her mind. She'd stood over Naraku with a gun in her hand, beaten, bloody, and terrified of living a life where she had to constantly look over her shoulder. She'd been ready to kill him and then Kouga had trained his gun on her. Not Naraku the crazy yakuza boss who'd spent the last 72 hours torturing her, but her.

Afterwards she'd been too traumatized to dwell on it, and with his kindness at the hospital and when she was discharged she'd put it out of her mind completely, but the scene returned to her now just as vivid as it'd been that day. Would he have done it? Would he have shot her to protect his cover?

Kouga looked away, refusing to meet her gaze.

"I want an answer," she pressed, her voice like ice.

He looked back at her then, his expression torn. It was the first hint of regret she'd seen in him since she'd entered the room.

"I don't know," he said finally, his words barely audible.

"You don't know?"

"I considered it," he shot back, exasperated. "Naraku knew I was playing both sides, but if he'd died while I was in that room all the progress I'd made in both organizations would have up and disappeared. So yes, I considered it. I didn't do it though, did I?"

Her head was left spinning in the wake of his confession and her mind tried furiously to reconcile the memories of the Kouga she knew with the stranger sitting in front of her. She felt sick at the thought of how close they'd come to being something more than friends. Her hands shook as she awkwardly smoothed the wrinkles out of her skirt and prepared to leave.

"I know I don't have any right to ask anything of you, but I hope you'll do me one bit of kindness. For the sake of the good times…"

Kagome gaped at him in disbelief, wondering what he thought he could possibly ask from her now.

"Tell my story," he said simply, folding his hands together atop the table. "You know the truth now, all of it. Make sure someone else knows it."

"I'll do my best," she promised wearily. To be honest, she didn't have the first clue what to do with what he'd told her. The journalist inside of her was itching for a laptop to get it all down while it was still fresh, but another part of her wanted to bury it somewhere so deep it would never see the light of day.

The heavy metal door creaked open and she glanced over her shoulder to find Inuyasha's anxious face peering in. It was her cue to leave. Feeling herself relax a little at the sight of him, she made her way to the door, turning back only once to give Kouga a long, hard look.

One of his cuffed hands waved goodbye to her in a simple gesture and for a moment her heart caught in her throat. She wondered, for a brief moment, if it'd all been a dream. There was no way a story like this could possibly be real. But the scent of Inuyasha's leather jacket as his arms wrapped around her was strong and clear in her nose.

So, not a dream then.

"Come on," he said softly, pulling her away, "I've got some really shitty coffee in the break room that'll perk you right up."

Kagome smiled in spite of herself and leaned into him as he guided her down the hall. Behind her the sound of a metal door clanging shut echoed off the linoleum with a sense of finality, freeing her from that nightmare chapter of her life. It'd been a long, hard ride, but it was finally over. No more unanswered questions, no more nightmares, no more fear. Glancing covertly at Inuyasha as they made their way down the halls of Tokyo's 29th Precinct, Kagome felt something she hadn't felt in a very, very long time - safe.

Author's Note: Finally, an update! I hope you guys are as excited as I am about this chapter. It's been a long time coming so at least it's a nice long one for you to sink your teeth into ;)

I can't thank you guys enough for sticking with me through the long waits. It's been a pretty hectic year for my personal life (but in a very good way) so I haven't had much time to sit down and write. Only one chapter and an epilogue left. Are you guys ready for this story to end? I'm not :( But it's gotta be done. Hope you'll stick around to see how everything wraps up!

Much love,

Langus

Edit: I realized after I'd posted this that I left out an entire scene *headdesk* It's been added in now, so hopefully the chain of events makes a bit more sense. Sorry for the confusion everyone!