InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ One Last Chance ❯ Chapter 4 ( Chapter 4 )
[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]
By: Kawa-Misuterii 
InuYasha finally meets Kagome's reincarnation. But she's not exactly what he expected, and her circumstance are not what they should be...
Anime/Manga: InuYasha Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Romance / Fantasy / Drama | Type: Other | Uploaded On: 04.12.2008 | Updated On: 04.12.2008 | Pages: 5 | Words: 8.0K | Visits: 360 | Status: Work In Progress
InuYasha finally meets Kagome's reincarnation. But she's not exactly what he expected, and her circumstance are not what they should be...
Anime/Manga: InuYasha Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Romance / Fantasy / Drama | Type: Other | Uploaded On: 04.12.2008 | Updated On: 04.12.2008 | Pages: 5 | Words: 8.0K | Visits: 360 | Status: Work In Progress
Disclaimer: I don't own InuYasha and co. I'm just borrowing them. Their mental state upon their return is not my fault.
Songs: She loves You-The Beatles
Welcome to the Black Parade-My Chemical Romance
One Last Chance: Chapter 4
“Ten years.” InuYasha thought, shivering a little in the frosty air. “Ten fucking years.”
He was walking in Times Square, with nothing but a T-shirt on his torso in the middle of March.
“A really fucking cold March.” he thought angrily, looking longingly at a cozy-looking coffee shop.
He had spent the last ten years in America, jumping from city to city, clearing every one of any trace of the miko girl. He had also watched as Hiro grew in front of him, aging every day, as his life passed him by.
“Bouzo, you should just go live your life, I can handle this on my own, now.” the hanyou had said to the boy, who looked much physically older than him now, the night before. Hiro was bustling around, cleaning the hotel room as he did every night.
“I promised to help you. Besides, I think we’re closing in on her. It’s only a matter of time since we found out she’s definitely here in New York. I don’t know why I didn’t insist on coming here in the first place. If there were anyplace to be, this is it! Anyway, we’re almost three quarters of the way through the list of girls in the city. I’m confident we will find her soon, InuYasha-sama.” Hiro said approvingly. The truth was that he too had begun losing hope. The fact that they now new for sure she was in New York hadn’t really heightened his spirits as much as he thought it would. But he wouldn’t let InuYasha know that.
Hiro visibly sighed. He had thought that they would have found a trace of her by now, at least. Surely fate would have intervened by now, bringing the two friends together. He looked over at his counterpart, who had not aged or changed a bit in all the time he had spent with him. Hiro smiled at some of the times he had with the hanyou. One of his favorites was when he had first introduced InuYasha to tequila, hoping to get him into a more revealing/talkative mood. Instead, he had found out that hanyou didn’t take their liqueur well, and had to restrain him from pounding a man to a bloody pulp for looking at him funny.
Hiro turned to see the hanyou sitting on the window seat and looking wistfully at the horizon. InuYasha had always seemed to be a man of few words, and growing up at his side was a quite life. True, there were times where his temper got the best of him and he ended up injuring someone, but with this new, less pressing mission, he found that he was on edge less and less, unlike when he was hunting jewel shards. His reflexes and strength never left him from the constant training he underwent with the special youkai dojos he signed up for. InuYasha was rather surprised at how many youkai and hanyou were still running around. Many, like Jaken and Sesshomaru, used a mixture of technology and glamour magic to disguise themselves as humans. (InuYasha didn’t bother, preferring to simply keep a bandana on, his fanged mouth shut, and his clawed hands in his pockets.)
But there was no denying that he never got attacked anymore, not even mugged when he went for lonely walks in Central Park in the middle of the night. And that was just not his style.
“Perhaps tomorrow will be the day, InuYasha?” Hiro said, as he did every night. To his surprise, the hanyous’ ears perked a little, instead of their usual drooping at the mention of their constant search.
“It’ll be her fifteenth birthday, tomorrow....” he said to himself, feeling an unfamiliar bubble of hope in his chest. “That’s how old Kagome was when I met her.”
Hiros’ eyebrows furrowed in thought. He too felt a little hope that maybe fate would finally take place, no matter what the skeptical InuYasha said.
‘No, no, that would just be too convenient.’ he thought, quashing his hope as quickly as it had come.
____________________________
So here InuYasha was, once again just scanning the crowds as he usually did on his days off. He had recently decided that merely tracking every girl on the list until he got a good look at her face wasn’t enough. He began taking a day off every once and a while and just walking around the city, keeping his senses wide open, hoping against hope that perhaps she would just walk into him.
‘The good thing about Times Square,’ he thought with a smirk as a pair of brightly clothed teenagers walked passed him with giant boa constrictors on their shoulders. ‘Is that everyone here is such a freak already, no one notices me.’
InuYasha scowled at a gay couple passing by, feeling a little reminded of Jakotsu. He shuttered.
A half hour later, and he was in the park again. He felt a little relaxed in the almost forest-like setting, and began to feel the temperature rise a little, like the weather had promised.
“I’ve never been here this early before.” he said idly, wondering into the area in which their were many college students sitting around, studying. He took his place at his favorite park bench, and looked at the dead trees, and as usual, began thinking about Kagome.
‘Do yo think she would have liked it here?’ his inner voice wondered, echoing in the back of his mind.
‘Probably. It’s just like Tokyo. ‘Cept the people are ruder.’
‘It seems you can’t get her off your mind anymore.’
‘No thanks to you.’
‘I bet she wished she could’ve had a goodbye like Kikyou did.’
‘That’s a terrible thing to think.’
‘And yet you do.’
*sigh* ‘I wish I had.’
‘When she was alive.’
‘And not almost turning into a blood thirsty demon.’ he thought, remembering the incident with Kaguya. Miroku just had to bring it up at the wrong moment, didn’t he? InuYasha had thought about perhaps telling Kagome his true feelings, had it not been for his promise to Kikyou which was still valid, at the time.
He wondered for a moment why he had not said anything to her after Kikyous death, but reflected that between that time and the battle with Naraku, the opportunity had never really presented itself.
InuYasha sighed, berating himself that he had never really tried. The very thought of revealing his feelings to the woman turned his knees to liquid. InuYasha snorted at himself.
‘The guy who can slice off a gigantic dog demons arm (who also just so happens to be his brother) without flinching turns into a spineless jellyfish at one look from a helpless woman. Yeah, that sounds about right.’ For once, he was not disgusted at that particular weakness. Over the years, he was beginning to come to terms with his human half, despite its limited expression.
‘Still, I never knew if she actually loved me, or if she just said that to snap me out of my little fit. I know she cared about me a lot. She’d have to be some kind of idiot not to have some kind of clue how I felt, even if I never said it. Even if I never said it to myself. She knew me better than anyone, so she’d have to know that that’s just not the kind of thing I’d come out and say. At least, it used to be like that. I don’t really have a problem admitting it to myself now, at least. Keh, well, too little, too late. Oh gods, this era is making me so soft.’
InuYasha herd a distinctly quiet and small person sit down opposite of him, back to back. The persons closeness to him irritated him, but then again, so did a lot of the things people in this city do.
“Hey! Betty Lou! I wondered were you went! Where’ve you been?” shouted one of the studying students. InuYasha smelled the reaction of the person beside him as she heard her name called. He was launched back into his thoughts before he heard the low, smooth voice answer.
“I had to take a couple days for myself. But I’m back, now. I’m assuming you’ll want your song in exchange for my absence, eh Jerry?” she said playfully. InuYasha still stared off into space.
‘I wish I could just get some sort of clue of what the hell was going on inside her head when she looked at me...’
At that moment, InuYasha felt as if he had been electrocuted by one of those stupid outlets again. A voice reached out to him like an aura, and the next second he realized that he recognized that aura.
“No.....no fucking way.....” he said to himself, not daring to turn around as he heard the strum of an acoustic guitar.
“She loves you, yeah, yeah, yeah. She loves you yeah, yeah, yeah. She loves you yeah, yeah, yeeeaaaahhh.” sang out the voice, clear as a bell and just loud enough to reach the ears of all in the clearing.
InuYasha’s eyes bulged out of their sockets as he jumped up from his seat on the picnic on the table, trying to gain his composure before he faced her. Her strumming was precise yet gentle, and the familiar pink aura was clearly visible to him, if not to any of the humans in the clearing.
He felt his heart in his throat. It looked as if she had never cut her hair in her life, as it made a waterfall down her back and pooled around the table where she sat, a style InuYasha was used to, but rather odd and bothersome in this era. He could see she had a very pale face, a feature also considered beautiful in his time, but sickly and gross in this, as far as he could tell. Her fingers were long and elegant, if a little too thin and spindly. It seemed as if she was Kagome’s copy, except stretched out, like a rope pulled taunt. She was defiantly taller, but her shoulders were hunched, so he doubted that it would make much of a difference.
“You think you’ve lost your love? Well I saw her yesterda-y-ay. It’s you she’s thinkin’ of, and she told me what to sa-y-ay. She said she loves you! And you know that can’t be baaaad!” she sang, still focusing on her guitar. InuYasha still stood, feeling the urge to run and jump away. Instead, he stood his ground and watched her intently, even being so bold as to take a step towards her.
He was startled by a growl by her feet. To his surprise, a huge German Shepard was growling at him, although she was not sitting in a defensive position. InuYasha smirked. All dogs new the son of an Inu no Taisho when they smelled them. Still, he understood the canines apprehension, even if the beast knew to show respect. He was just some random guy walking up to her mistress. He gulped as he tried to come up with something to say.
“With a love like that, you know you shouououould....be GLAD!” the girl finished, smiling at the applause that rang out across the field. “Yeah! Yeah, yeah, yeaaaah!”
As she ran a piece of plastic across the strings for the last note, she looked up, and caught his gaze for the first time. The German Shepard stopped growling, and the girl broke her gaze immediately to look down at her questioningly.
“Wow, she sure has taken a liking to you. Normally when people stop and stare like that, she’d be creeping in close for a bite on the leg!” she said, looking into his eyes again.
InuYasha had to keep a whine from escaping his throat. Her eyes were almost as deadened and cold as in the picture he carried around with him, a tragic past hidden deep in her irises. And yet....there was still a light in her pupil, no matter how much misery she had seen, and he was positive now that she had seen more horrors than the death of her parents. She narrowed her eyes a little.
“Hey! Take a picture, it’ll last longer.” she said, and turned back to her guitar, before raising her head to shout out to the multitude of students. “I bet you guys would like to here my acoustic version of Black Parade?” she shouted playfully, and to InuYasha’s elation, a happy gleam twinkled in her eyes. When a bunch of kids yelled back her reply, she crinkled her nose at the sound of a few of them groaning.
“And for those of you who are too good for pop punk, please shut up, stuff your fingers in your ears, and enjoy!” she shouted out, eyeing a few individuals in particular who seemed less than pleased at her selection.
She began with a simple tune, slow and steady. Then, she sang along with her hands.
“When I was, a young boy, my father, took me in-to the city. To see a marching band. He said son when, you grow up, would you be, the savior of the broken, the beaten and the damned? Because one day, I’ll leave you, a phantom, to lead you in the summer, to join the Black Parade.” she sang, and a few of the kids got up from their studies to stand around her and watch.
At first, InuYasha had raised his eyebrow when she referred to herself as a boy. But as she sang on, he couldn’t help but think about how the song seemed to be a little about him, as self-centered as that sounded. His father had never taken him anywhere (seeing as he had died to night he was born), but in a way, The Inu no Taisho had asked him to be a savior, by leaving him Tetsusaiga. The sword itself was like a phantom of his old man’s strength, and it had lead him through many summers, some happy, but most lonely and pining. He sighed. He hated admitting things like that to himself.
He looked up as her fingers began to quicken their pace. She was smiling now, and he felt an indescribable excitement quicken the heart beats of the kids around him.
“Sometimes I get the feeling, she’s watchin’ over me. And other times I feel like I should go. But through it all, the rise and fall! The bodies in the streets! And when your gone we want you all to know...
“We’ll CARRY On! We’ll CAR-Ry O-o-on. And though your dead and gone, believe me, your memory will CARRY ON! We’ll CAR-Ry O-o-on. And in-my-heart I can’t contain it, the anthem won’t explain it!”
The kids around him began jumping up and down with the rhythm. Now, the unexplainable but unavoidable thick scent of excitement in which he had never witnessed before seeped around him like fog on a lake. He began to back himself into the crowd, feeling the bizarre need to be part of it. There was no denying it, that last part of the song....well, he might as well have written it about himself and Kagome. It just seemed to fit, too perfectly. He frowned at this thought.
“And we will send you reeling, from decimated dreams. Your misery and hate will kill us all. So paint it black and take it back, and let’s shout it loud and clear! Do you fight it to the end? We hear the call...
“To CARRY ON! To CAR-Ry O-o-on. And though you’re dead-and-gone, believe me, your memory will CAR-Ry ON! We’ll CAR-Ry O-o-on! And though your broken and defeated, your weary widow MAR-CHES ON!”
‘Damn it! If I wasn’t such a sap....that part wouldn’t remind me of Kikyou.’ he thought to himself, as he thought of the wayward glances he would sometimes get from her when she saw him standing next to Kagome. How she tried to drag him to hell while he was asleep in her arms. Scenes of moments like that ran though his head, and he put his hands to it to try and quell the memories.
He remembered how, after Kagome had broken the spell on him, he would just think about Kikyou. About their promise, which he had broken. And about Kikyou herself, who he might as well have killed. Sometimes, when he was sitting by himself, he would go over all of time they spent together, all of the loneliness she had quelled. She had been the only one since his mother to accept him, to like him even. He had been convinced she loved him, and at times he would have traded Tessaiga to find out if she truly did.
And yet, after her death, he also couldn’t help but breathe a sigh of relief with her as she faded away into dust, a normal woman. Still, he mourned the loss of his first love, even if it was not truly her.
Yes, despite whatever anyone else thought, he knew that the clay copy was not the true Kikyou, that she did die fifty years ago. But the reminder wandering around had never given him a chance to grieve, as he had wanted to. Whenever he saw the soul collectors, a microscopic bubble of hope would form in his chest, hoping that maybe, by some stupid, impossible circumstance, he still would be able to be with his first love.
But when she died her second death in his arms, he realized that his hope had been false, nothing more than a fantasy that he didn’t really even want anymore, anyway. And while he grieved, he was happy.
“And on we carry through the fears! (Oh, oh, ooh, the crowd sang along) Disappointed faces of your peers! (Oh, oh, ooh) Take a look at me, cause I could-not-care-at-ALL!
“Do-or-DIE! You’ll never MAKE me, because the WORLD will never take my heart-You can TRY! You’ll never make me. Want it all! I’m gonna play this part-Won’t explain, or say I’m SOR-ry! I’m not ashamed! I’m gonna show my scar to the CHAIR! For all the BRO-Ken! Listen HERE! Because it’s ON-ly! I’m just a MAN! I’m not a HE-Ro! Just a BOY! Whose meant to SING this SONG! Just a MAN, not a HE-Ro! I.....don’t....CARE!
“Carry ON! We’ll CAR-Ry O-o-on. And though your dead and gone, believe me, your memory will CAR-Ry on! We’ll CAR-Ry O-o-on! And though you’re broken and defeated, your weary widow MAR-CHES ON!” she sang out, her voice ringing throughout the field. The crowd sang out the rest of the song, shouting back ‘Carry on!’ off key, and out of tune, which bothered InuYasha’s ears, which were flattened to his head.
“Thank you New York! I’ll be here all week!” she laughed, and to InuYasha’s joy, the laughter in her voice reached her eyes as the kids gave a cheer and congratulated her on her prowess. The excitement died away, and the kids scattered, as she settled down for quieter, less riot-causing songs.
InuYasha backed into a tree, and in one swift movement, he was in the branches, watching over her. He got an intense feeling of deja vu as he moved to do this, but it disappeared as he looked down on the girl. She was strumming a wordless song now, and he was relaxed by it, as it reached into his ears and willed him to sleep. He nodded as he thought about how he hadn’t really slept all his life, not counting when he was with his mother.
‘Wait, that’s not exactly right. I slept for real one time, on Kagome’s bed.’ He blushed at the memory. Her scent had just been so calming, he couldn’t help himself but feel relaxed. That was another thing he had never done with Kikyou.
But that was after he had known Kagome for a long time, and had even begun realizing he feelings for her. His head snapped back up. He hadn’t even spoken a word to the girl and already she was lulling him to sleep!
The girl, he noticed, was sneaking glances in his direction now, although he was pretty sure she couldn’t see him. He smirked at this thought. Perhaps he had left enough of an impression on her soul for her to recognize him, if only a little.
‘That’s exactly what you need right now. An ego boost.’
InuYasha growled.
‘Don’t you feel that tugging in the back of your head?’ his inner voice asked. Over the years the voice seemed to separate from him so much that he thought that perhaps he had some kind of nagging parasite instead of his soul talking to him.
‘Come to think of it, yeah I do.’ InuYasha closed his eyes shut and concentrated. The tug was fearful, familiar, and almost forgotten. InuYasha opened his eyes and looked toward the girl still concentrating on her guitar. His face blanched with the biggest amount of amazement he had felt in a long time.
‘Whoa! Holy shit! Holy shit holy shit holy shit holy shit holy shit holy shit holy shit holy shit! She’s trying to reach out to me with her aura! What the fuck?’ InuYasha had to clamp a clawed hand over his mouth to make sure he didn’t shout out to her. He turned around on his branch and stared straight ahead, panting slightly. He noticed a young boy looking up at him with concern. InuYasha sent him his favorite scowl, and to his pleasure, it scared the boy enough to make him get up and scurry away.
‘I’m okay, I’m okay, I’m okay’ he chanted to himself, struggling to regain his composure. ‘Alright. She can use her aura. I doubt she knows she’s doing it, though. Yeah, she’s still untrained. Ain’t no way she’s got any clue. I’ll have to tell her soon though, if she can already do that. Kagome was never able to do that. I think Kikyou could, but she had only done that the time when she had asked him to turn human for her.
He looked up, and noticed something he hadn’t before, when the crowd of kids were still around her.
Their was an open guitar case in front of her, and on the bottom it was littered with money. His eyes widened as an old couple passing by dropped a few dollars into it.
“She’s a beggar?” he said to himself, eyes widening in confusion. In Sengoku Jidai, it didn’t matter if you were performing entertainment in exchange for money. If you were on the street and accepting handouts, you were a beggar. And if you were a woman, it also meant that you were a prostitute. (*I don’t know if that’s true. Anyone with a clue, feel free to message and flame me!) InuYasha growled at that thought. A miko and a prostitute shouldn’t even be mentioned in the same sentence.
Deciding that he would just wait until she was done, (and to make sure no one got the idea that she was selling her body just because she was accepting handouts) he settled himself into a more comfortable position, keeping his senses wide open as he tried to ignore the slight pull of her aura on his youki, the energies rubbing and nipping at each other. InuYasha fought down a blush.
She sat on the park bench for three hours, her dog sitting faithfully at her feet the entire time, never moving from her mistress. Almost everyone who passed by stopped to listen and leave her a dollar or two before walking on. Eventually, it seemed her fingers got tired, and she finally finished, giving a sigh of relief.
‘Keh. Almost like she just got out of the fields.’ thought InuYasha, then gritting his teeth in annoyance as she took out a text book and began studying. It always irritated him to no end whenever Kagome would pay more attention to a stupid book more than him.
‘Well, might as well get this over with.’ he thought as he leaped nimbly down from his perch. He strode confidently over to her, and took a seat across the table, looking at her intently until she decided to acknowledge him.
She sat still for a few moments, and looked slowly up at him. He opened his mouth to say something, but was taken aback at the close look at her face, which he realized he didn’t really see until now.
Her eyes were so thick with darkened circles from lack of sleep, it looked as if her eyes were receding back into her head. Her cheeks were sunken in, and her skin was dry and what at first had looked like a lovely pale face turned out to be a sickly yellow sheen. What surprised and disgusted him the most were her lips. They were red and cracked, and had blackened scabs dividing them into mangled sections. She gave him a sideways grin when she saw how intently he was staring at her. Although her teeth were straight and white, he could see that more than one of them were cracked. But her hair was the most beautiful he had ever seen. He himself had seen his fair share of hime’s, many of whom claimed to have the most beautiful hair. But the girl in front of him could easily out win them, were it not for her beggars appearance.
She wore a simple white t-shirt with some sort of logo on it, with a black jacket over it, along with oversized black jeans with holes in them. He could tell from the smell that although they were not filthy, they were not exactly fresh, either. She seemed to notice him wrinkling his nose.
“You gonna say something or are you just gonna sit there lookin’ pretty?” she said, not able to take his silent scrutinizing anymore. He seemed to jerk out of his trance, and looked into her eyes. Looking away before he got drawn in like he did her pictures, he searched his blank brain for an answer.
“Your, aaahhhh....your pretty good.” Idiot! She knew that! What the hell was he supposed to say to her? All the years he searched for the girl in front of him, and he had never even considered what he would say during their first conversation! Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!
She smiled another sideways smile, and InuYasha could feel her aura brighten up.
“Thanks! Corse, I’m afraid your opinion doesn’t really matter to Julliard, but it’s a start. So, what, are you albino or something? You part of a gang?” InuYasha raised his eyebrow before he noticed she was making fun of his outfit.
“Excuse me?” he said, feeling insulted. What was wrong with his clothes? He’d been wearing basically the same thing for the past ten years, and no one seemed to say anything. In fact, Hiro had mentioned more than once that his clothes suited him well.
“Dude, you look like a bloods reject.” she said, pointing to his red shirt and bandana.
“Hey, what’s your problem?” he said, getting angry.
“Hey man, not worries. So, did you want something?” she asked, leaning her face on her hand, and for a moment InuYasha saw a flash of recognition across her face as he pouted.
“Do you always pout like that?” she asked, leaning forward and squinting her eyes, as if trying to see something.
“Keh! No! I, ahhh....I just wanted to ask you if you wanted to grab a slice with me?” he finally spat out, thinking that he could buy himself more time. He was amazed at the looked that caught her face. It was a look that had never crossed either Kagome’s nor Kikyou’s face. He had to think for a moment before the word came to him; utter disgust.
“Ah, no I can’t. Sorry, I have to go.” she said, picking up her text book and making a small whistling sound to the dog. InuYasha became angry, but then he heard a noise that made his heart drop straight to his lower regions.
Her stomach. It was growling like the stomachs of starving children he’d come across in desolate towns. What surprised him even more was that she had the audacity to not blush, but instead put her head up high and start to walk away, her dog following close behind her.
He took a few long steps to catch up to her, and she looked down at her dog in surprise.
“Well, aren’t you friendly today, eh Kyoko?” she spoke to the dog, who looked up at her with a blank face. Not that dogs show that much emotion on their faces, anyway.
“What do you mean?” InuYasha asked, looking questioningly at the dog. The dog responded by continuing to walk forward at an easy pace.
“Normally she would have bitten you by now. You know how many times I had to ask my friend Shelly to bail her out of the pound because she nips? Nothing serious, but she’ll only attack if it’s real danger and I can’t run away.” she said, heaving her guitar case over her shoulder.
“Why won’t you come get something to eat. I hear your stomach, you’re definitely hungry.” he asked.
“I don’t have any money.” she said simply, still not looking at him, and it seemed as if she was trying her best to hold her head even higher, her back as straight as it would go, despite her sloping shoulders.
“What!? What are you talking about? You have a whole case full of money there!” InuYasha said, forgetting that he had planned to pay for her anyway.
“That’s not for food. Sorry, but food is last on the list. Besides, how am I supposed to know you aren’t going to try and rape me or something?” she asked simply. That question almost made InuYasha fall over. Even though he could tell that she sort of trusted him already by letting him walk with her, he couldn’t believe that something like that would come out of the girls’ mouth!
“I-wha...uh...yo-you...ugh...I c-can....ARHG! I can’t believe you just said that!” he said, feeling his face start to turn a shade roughly matching his fire-rat. To his fury, she shrugged as if she’d been commenting on the weather.
“Hey, can’t be too careful. You’d think a big guy like you would know that.” She said, giving him the once over. True, he could cut her in half with one swipe of his claws. But InuYasha could never do that, especially someone who used to be...*InuYasha gulped*...Kagome.
“Look, I’ll pay for you, and then you can go home by yourself. I promise.” he said, holding his hand up in the boy scouts gesture. He expected her to cave in and continue to walk with him, but instead she made her back as straight as it would go while being weighed down by the guitar case, and continued walking at a faster pace.
“I can get my own food.” she said.
InuYasha stopped. He was getting a whole new feeling from her aura. She was lying. Lying? Did that mean that she was going hungry? She did seem to be unusually skinny, but InuYasha had just assumed she did that to her self on purpose, like a lot of the women walking around the city.
Yet, if she was letting herself starve on purpose, wouldn’t she be wearing more provocative, revealing clothing than oversized pants and a dirty, ill-fitting jacket, like the idiots on TV? No, there was something horribly wrong with this picture.
“Look, I didn’t say anything about you not getting your own food. I want to buy you something to eat, because your hungry right now. Okay? Now quit fooling around and common.” InuYasha said irritably, grabbing her arm and dragging her along with him. He was secretly worried at how thin her arm was in his grasp.
“Hey, buddy, I don’t know who you think you are, but if you think you can just drag me with you whenever you want, you got another thing coming!” she said, pathetically trying to wrench her arm out of his grip.
“I’m InuYasha, bitch.” he said, turning around and looked deeply into her eyes. His heart leaped for joy as another look of recognition jumped across her face, there in a instant and gone in a flash. Maybe this would be easier than he thought. Perhaps if he just kept acting like his usual self around her, he’d be able to convince her to come with him. He was the only constant in her past two lives.
She shook her head, and to his mild surprise, completely disregarded his remark. Kagome would have sat him and taken away his ramen for that night whenever he called her that, but this one shrugged it away, almost as if she was used to it.
‘Aw, hell no. Tell me she hasn’t always been treated like that.’ he thought to himself, with a twinge of guilt now that he’d said it. But then he remembered her appearance, and thought maybe it wasn’t so far-fetched. There was obviously something going wrong with her godmother at home, he’d already decided that he was going to look into it as soon as he could.
“Well, I’m Betty Lou. Nice to meet you.” she said, not bothering to hold out her hand.
“Look, just come get something to eat with me.” he said
“I don’t accept handouts.” she said, still turning her nose up at him.
“WHAT!? Are you kidding me? What do you call sitting on a park table and letting people give you their spare change while you dick around on that dumb-ass instrument?” he said, raising his hands in the air in frustration.
“Working. I earned that.” she said, practically spitting venom in the sentence. Aw, crap, now he’d insulted her.
“Please come with me? As a favor?” he thought, hating himself as he pleaded.
“Give me one reason why I should.” she said simply.
“Because your dog is about to keel over, and I’ll buy a slice for her, too.” InuYasha said, finding her weakness. Betty Lou looked down at the dog with sad eyes, because yes, the dog was very skinny. She glared at him from the corner of her eyes.
“Fine.”
____________________________________
InuYasha was impressed. Never before had anyone beaten him in his gusto for food, but he’d finally found a contender. After being so hesitant to come with him, once the smells hit her, she didn’t think twice about ordering one of everything on the menu. And now, she was about halfway through her order!
Her dog, Kyoko, was sitting faithfully outside, upright and guarding her master inside.
“So....Betty Lou, huh? That’s a pretty unique name.” he said conversationally.
“So’s InuYasha.” she countered, not focusing on him, but her food. Other people in the restaurant were beginning to notice the unusually highly stacked pizza slice container boxes around their table. Not that InuYasha cared. He was actually pretty amused at their stricken faces at seeing the young girl scarf down so much in so little time.
“I don’t know....it just sounds kind of...made up.” he said, jumping on his chance to reveal a little what he knew to her. He had to resist comforting her as she froze in her feast, fear immediately permeating her scent.
She looked up at him, and stared at him deeply. The fear seemed to melt away as chocolate brown eyes met golden ones. She looked him over. Her eyes lost their deadened look for a moment, and again he saw Kagome slide into her eyes, if only for a moment.
“Can I show you something?” she asked, dead serious. InuYasha nodded. She gathered up her leftovers and stacked the boxes in her arms, intending to bring them home with her. InuYasha followed her out of the store.
“Hey, uh, you want some help with that?” he asked, watching her as she struggled with the pizza boxes and her guitar case once they were outside. She looked up at the sky, which was beginning to get dark. He reached for her case, but felt a small spark as his claw grazed the handle, a second before she jerked it out of his reach.
“I can carry that myself, thanks.” she said, turning her nose up again. He was astonished when she handed the dog a few boxes of pizza, and even more so when Kyoko took them in her mouth and began to walk with her master, intent on going home after their long day.
“Jeeze, I was just trying to be nice.” InuYasha said, angrily. The girl was infuriating! She was obviously having trouble, couldn’t she just accept help when she needed it?
They walked along the streets of New York for about fifteen minutes, before entering the shady, dangerous part of town. InuYasha could feel eyes leering at them from in the dark allies, and instinctively began walking closer to her.
They approached a dirty-looking, decrepit old building. They stayed in silence as they stepped inside, avoiding the angry, greasy looking man at the front desk, and began climbing the steps.
On the third floor, they stopped, and InuYasha followed her to the end of the hallway. She stopped at the last door, and reached above the paneling on top of the door and pulled out a key.
The first thing he thought when she let them into the apartment was the cold. It was much too cold in there. And then, the smell. It wasn’t a bad smell. Sort of like the thick perfume of slightly wilted flowers. That and a scrubbed, anti-septic smell.
The place was incredibly tiny. To his left, there was a mini refrigerator and a toaster on a broken counter. There was one and a half stools standing underneath a table that connected to the counter, one of them appearing to have to bottom part of it’s legs sawed off. InuYasha took a deep, inhaling breath. Yes, this was Kagome scent. And it was Kikyou’s scent, as well. And yet, there was also something mixed into with them that was so undeniably new that it just had to be her, Betty Lou, Keera, whatever her name was.
There were two windows on two different walls, as she lived in one of the corner apartments. The carpet was old and brown, but it was clean. There were posters on the walls, most of them having something to do with one band or another. There was one other door in sight, to his far right. This, he assumed, was her bedroom. Wait. One bedroom.
“Where’re your parents?” he asked, before cringing and smacking himself on the forehead.
‘Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!’ he berated himself.
“They’re dead.” she said simply, keeping a remarkably Sesshomaru-type look on her face as she said that, bustling around the kitchen, putting the pizza away. She closed the door as she finished, and looked at him expectantly.
“You saying you live here by yourself?” he asked, but he already knew the answer. She didn’t have the smell of someone who was being cared for by another. She smelled like someone who had been on her own. For a long time.
“Yup.” she said as she picked up a plastic bowl on the floor and put it in the sink, filling it with water for Kyoko.
“No foster parents...” he tried to suggest, and was stricken when pain seeped into her aura, the pain of losing someone.
“She...she taught a survival skills class for the YMCA. They went on a trip to the Rockies about two years ago, and she...she got lost. They never found her.” she said, holding back the waterfall of emotions raining in her eyes. InuYasha felt his sympathy well up for her, as well as his respect for her. Not many kids of thirteen would have been able to handle being on their own in this world. It should have been impossible.
“So how have you been-?” InuYasha began, but was cut off.
“I made a deal with the land lord here once I ran away from my first foster home. I pay him fifty dollars a week, I get the room with no heat, and he signs all my forms and acts as a temporary guardian. No one really bothers us, so it’s been working out pretty well, I’d say.” she said, a distant look in her dead eyes. InuYasha felt his throat clench up. So that was why she couldn’t spare any money.
“Alright, I want you to promise me something.” she said, grabbing his hand and his attention. “We’ve never met, right?” she asked, looking into his eyes.
“No.” said InuYasha suspiciously.
“Okay, I don’t want you to get freaked out, is all. Come in here.” she said, leading him towards what he assumed was her bedroom. InuYasha’s eyes widened in confusion as she dragged him into her room.
Then InuYasha gasped. Covering every inch of her wall were pictures of him. They were drawings, he saw as he looked closer. They were really good, too. He noticed that in the corner, there was always a tiny BL signature.
Okay, not all of them were of him. There were pictures of Shippou, Sango, Miroku, Kirara, even Kaede! InuYasha leaned forward to look at a very detailed drawing of Kikyou under the moonlight in the middle of a green field, a soul catcher twisting in the air in the background.
“I used to think that one might be a self portrait, but she’s too pretty to be me.” Betty Lou said.
He stood up straight and found himself looking into his own eyes as a picture scowled at him.
“Look familiar? Freaky, huh?” she said, stepping forward and examining with him. “These are just some characters I’ve been dreaming up my whole life. I always wanted to write a story to go with them, but I can’t write to save my life. That’s the reason I decided to show you, anyway. You look a lot like him. Like, a lot!” she said, repeated herself for emphasis. InuYasha turned around to stare at her, because he felt another stab of pain in her aura, which at the moment was rubbing against his youki a little too familiarly.
To his chagrin, she wasn’t even focusing on him, instead staring off into space. What on earth could be distracting her at a crucial moment like this? InuYasha, as of yet, had no response in finding out this secret she held in her room, but this was the perfect chance to tell her!
InuYasha opened his mouth, but Betty Lou beat him to it.
“Hey, you wanna come see me play on stage?” she asked, a twinkle of hope deep in her eyes.
(Author's note)
I am so so so so so so so so so so sorry it took me sooo long!!! I swear I have the usual pathetic exscuses, but I'm not going to bother telling you because you'll still be mad at me. I promise it will never take me this long to post a new chapter ever again!
Anyway, so yeah, you've now met my main OC. She's a little different, in case you noticed, but I swear to god this isn't some kind of perverse self-insertion attempt. (espescially since I'm terrified of german shepards)
Basically you'll understand what's happening later on in the story, can't give too much away right now.
And another thing. I realize that this seems a little songfic-ish, but it's not. I just like that song (no matter how popular it is) and I always saw a little bit of a parallel between in and InuYasha. There will be other songs. What I'm really trying to do is convey how I'm feeling when I listen to the music into my writing. Am I doing okay? I think it might help if you guys could some how listen to the song while your reading it, it sure helped me write it.
Wow, this is a long author's note, I apoligize for taking up so much of your time. Please review, I need something to tide me over untill the next chapter, which I will begin working on immidiatly. Love you all!
Songs: She loves You-The Beatles
Welcome to the Black Parade-My Chemical Romance
One Last Chance: Chapter 4
“Ten years.” InuYasha thought, shivering a little in the frosty air. “Ten fucking years.”
He was walking in Times Square, with nothing but a T-shirt on his torso in the middle of March.
“A really fucking cold March.” he thought angrily, looking longingly at a cozy-looking coffee shop.
He had spent the last ten years in America, jumping from city to city, clearing every one of any trace of the miko girl. He had also watched as Hiro grew in front of him, aging every day, as his life passed him by.
“Bouzo, you should just go live your life, I can handle this on my own, now.” the hanyou had said to the boy, who looked much physically older than him now, the night before. Hiro was bustling around, cleaning the hotel room as he did every night.
“I promised to help you. Besides, I think we’re closing in on her. It’s only a matter of time since we found out she’s definitely here in New York. I don’t know why I didn’t insist on coming here in the first place. If there were anyplace to be, this is it! Anyway, we’re almost three quarters of the way through the list of girls in the city. I’m confident we will find her soon, InuYasha-sama.” Hiro said approvingly. The truth was that he too had begun losing hope. The fact that they now new for sure she was in New York hadn’t really heightened his spirits as much as he thought it would. But he wouldn’t let InuYasha know that.
Hiro visibly sighed. He had thought that they would have found a trace of her by now, at least. Surely fate would have intervened by now, bringing the two friends together. He looked over at his counterpart, who had not aged or changed a bit in all the time he had spent with him. Hiro smiled at some of the times he had with the hanyou. One of his favorites was when he had first introduced InuYasha to tequila, hoping to get him into a more revealing/talkative mood. Instead, he had found out that hanyou didn’t take their liqueur well, and had to restrain him from pounding a man to a bloody pulp for looking at him funny.
Hiro turned to see the hanyou sitting on the window seat and looking wistfully at the horizon. InuYasha had always seemed to be a man of few words, and growing up at his side was a quite life. True, there were times where his temper got the best of him and he ended up injuring someone, but with this new, less pressing mission, he found that he was on edge less and less, unlike when he was hunting jewel shards. His reflexes and strength never left him from the constant training he underwent with the special youkai dojos he signed up for. InuYasha was rather surprised at how many youkai and hanyou were still running around. Many, like Jaken and Sesshomaru, used a mixture of technology and glamour magic to disguise themselves as humans. (InuYasha didn’t bother, preferring to simply keep a bandana on, his fanged mouth shut, and his clawed hands in his pockets.)
But there was no denying that he never got attacked anymore, not even mugged when he went for lonely walks in Central Park in the middle of the night. And that was just not his style.
“Perhaps tomorrow will be the day, InuYasha?” Hiro said, as he did every night. To his surprise, the hanyous’ ears perked a little, instead of their usual drooping at the mention of their constant search.
“It’ll be her fifteenth birthday, tomorrow....” he said to himself, feeling an unfamiliar bubble of hope in his chest. “That’s how old Kagome was when I met her.”
Hiros’ eyebrows furrowed in thought. He too felt a little hope that maybe fate would finally take place, no matter what the skeptical InuYasha said.
‘No, no, that would just be too convenient.’ he thought, quashing his hope as quickly as it had come.
____________________________
So here InuYasha was, once again just scanning the crowds as he usually did on his days off. He had recently decided that merely tracking every girl on the list until he got a good look at her face wasn’t enough. He began taking a day off every once and a while and just walking around the city, keeping his senses wide open, hoping against hope that perhaps she would just walk into him.
‘The good thing about Times Square,’ he thought with a smirk as a pair of brightly clothed teenagers walked passed him with giant boa constrictors on their shoulders. ‘Is that everyone here is such a freak already, no one notices me.’
InuYasha scowled at a gay couple passing by, feeling a little reminded of Jakotsu. He shuttered.
A half hour later, and he was in the park again. He felt a little relaxed in the almost forest-like setting, and began to feel the temperature rise a little, like the weather had promised.
“I’ve never been here this early before.” he said idly, wondering into the area in which their were many college students sitting around, studying. He took his place at his favorite park bench, and looked at the dead trees, and as usual, began thinking about Kagome.
‘Do yo think she would have liked it here?’ his inner voice wondered, echoing in the back of his mind.
‘Probably. It’s just like Tokyo. ‘Cept the people are ruder.’
‘It seems you can’t get her off your mind anymore.’
‘No thanks to you.’
‘I bet she wished she could’ve had a goodbye like Kikyou did.’
‘That’s a terrible thing to think.’
‘And yet you do.’
*sigh* ‘I wish I had.’
‘When she was alive.’
‘And not almost turning into a blood thirsty demon.’ he thought, remembering the incident with Kaguya. Miroku just had to bring it up at the wrong moment, didn’t he? InuYasha had thought about perhaps telling Kagome his true feelings, had it not been for his promise to Kikyou which was still valid, at the time.
He wondered for a moment why he had not said anything to her after Kikyous death, but reflected that between that time and the battle with Naraku, the opportunity had never really presented itself.
InuYasha sighed, berating himself that he had never really tried. The very thought of revealing his feelings to the woman turned his knees to liquid. InuYasha snorted at himself.
‘The guy who can slice off a gigantic dog demons arm (who also just so happens to be his brother) without flinching turns into a spineless jellyfish at one look from a helpless woman. Yeah, that sounds about right.’ For once, he was not disgusted at that particular weakness. Over the years, he was beginning to come to terms with his human half, despite its limited expression.
‘Still, I never knew if she actually loved me, or if she just said that to snap me out of my little fit. I know she cared about me a lot. She’d have to be some kind of idiot not to have some kind of clue how I felt, even if I never said it. Even if I never said it to myself. She knew me better than anyone, so she’d have to know that that’s just not the kind of thing I’d come out and say. At least, it used to be like that. I don’t really have a problem admitting it to myself now, at least. Keh, well, too little, too late. Oh gods, this era is making me so soft.’
InuYasha herd a distinctly quiet and small person sit down opposite of him, back to back. The persons closeness to him irritated him, but then again, so did a lot of the things people in this city do.
“Hey! Betty Lou! I wondered were you went! Where’ve you been?” shouted one of the studying students. InuYasha smelled the reaction of the person beside him as she heard her name called. He was launched back into his thoughts before he heard the low, smooth voice answer.
“I had to take a couple days for myself. But I’m back, now. I’m assuming you’ll want your song in exchange for my absence, eh Jerry?” she said playfully. InuYasha still stared off into space.
‘I wish I could just get some sort of clue of what the hell was going on inside her head when she looked at me...’
At that moment, InuYasha felt as if he had been electrocuted by one of those stupid outlets again. A voice reached out to him like an aura, and the next second he realized that he recognized that aura.
“No.....no fucking way.....” he said to himself, not daring to turn around as he heard the strum of an acoustic guitar.
“She loves you, yeah, yeah, yeah. She loves you yeah, yeah, yeah. She loves you yeah, yeah, yeeeaaaahhh.” sang out the voice, clear as a bell and just loud enough to reach the ears of all in the clearing.
InuYasha’s eyes bulged out of their sockets as he jumped up from his seat on the picnic on the table, trying to gain his composure before he faced her. Her strumming was precise yet gentle, and the familiar pink aura was clearly visible to him, if not to any of the humans in the clearing.
He felt his heart in his throat. It looked as if she had never cut her hair in her life, as it made a waterfall down her back and pooled around the table where she sat, a style InuYasha was used to, but rather odd and bothersome in this era. He could see she had a very pale face, a feature also considered beautiful in his time, but sickly and gross in this, as far as he could tell. Her fingers were long and elegant, if a little too thin and spindly. It seemed as if she was Kagome’s copy, except stretched out, like a rope pulled taunt. She was defiantly taller, but her shoulders were hunched, so he doubted that it would make much of a difference.
“You think you’ve lost your love? Well I saw her yesterda-y-ay. It’s you she’s thinkin’ of, and she told me what to sa-y-ay. She said she loves you! And you know that can’t be baaaad!” she sang, still focusing on her guitar. InuYasha still stood, feeling the urge to run and jump away. Instead, he stood his ground and watched her intently, even being so bold as to take a step towards her.
He was startled by a growl by her feet. To his surprise, a huge German Shepard was growling at him, although she was not sitting in a defensive position. InuYasha smirked. All dogs new the son of an Inu no Taisho when they smelled them. Still, he understood the canines apprehension, even if the beast knew to show respect. He was just some random guy walking up to her mistress. He gulped as he tried to come up with something to say.
“With a love like that, you know you shouououould....be GLAD!” the girl finished, smiling at the applause that rang out across the field. “Yeah! Yeah, yeah, yeaaaah!”
As she ran a piece of plastic across the strings for the last note, she looked up, and caught his gaze for the first time. The German Shepard stopped growling, and the girl broke her gaze immediately to look down at her questioningly.
“Wow, she sure has taken a liking to you. Normally when people stop and stare like that, she’d be creeping in close for a bite on the leg!” she said, looking into his eyes again.
InuYasha had to keep a whine from escaping his throat. Her eyes were almost as deadened and cold as in the picture he carried around with him, a tragic past hidden deep in her irises. And yet....there was still a light in her pupil, no matter how much misery she had seen, and he was positive now that she had seen more horrors than the death of her parents. She narrowed her eyes a little.
“Hey! Take a picture, it’ll last longer.” she said, and turned back to her guitar, before raising her head to shout out to the multitude of students. “I bet you guys would like to here my acoustic version of Black Parade?” she shouted playfully, and to InuYasha’s elation, a happy gleam twinkled in her eyes. When a bunch of kids yelled back her reply, she crinkled her nose at the sound of a few of them groaning.
“And for those of you who are too good for pop punk, please shut up, stuff your fingers in your ears, and enjoy!” she shouted out, eyeing a few individuals in particular who seemed less than pleased at her selection.
She began with a simple tune, slow and steady. Then, she sang along with her hands.
“When I was, a young boy, my father, took me in-to the city. To see a marching band. He said son when, you grow up, would you be, the savior of the broken, the beaten and the damned? Because one day, I’ll leave you, a phantom, to lead you in the summer, to join the Black Parade.” she sang, and a few of the kids got up from their studies to stand around her and watch.
At first, InuYasha had raised his eyebrow when she referred to herself as a boy. But as she sang on, he couldn’t help but think about how the song seemed to be a little about him, as self-centered as that sounded. His father had never taken him anywhere (seeing as he had died to night he was born), but in a way, The Inu no Taisho had asked him to be a savior, by leaving him Tetsusaiga. The sword itself was like a phantom of his old man’s strength, and it had lead him through many summers, some happy, but most lonely and pining. He sighed. He hated admitting things like that to himself.
He looked up as her fingers began to quicken their pace. She was smiling now, and he felt an indescribable excitement quicken the heart beats of the kids around him.
“Sometimes I get the feeling, she’s watchin’ over me. And other times I feel like I should go. But through it all, the rise and fall! The bodies in the streets! And when your gone we want you all to know...
“We’ll CARRY On! We’ll CAR-Ry O-o-on. And though your dead and gone, believe me, your memory will CARRY ON! We’ll CAR-Ry O-o-on. And in-my-heart I can’t contain it, the anthem won’t explain it!”
The kids around him began jumping up and down with the rhythm. Now, the unexplainable but unavoidable thick scent of excitement in which he had never witnessed before seeped around him like fog on a lake. He began to back himself into the crowd, feeling the bizarre need to be part of it. There was no denying it, that last part of the song....well, he might as well have written it about himself and Kagome. It just seemed to fit, too perfectly. He frowned at this thought.
“And we will send you reeling, from decimated dreams. Your misery and hate will kill us all. So paint it black and take it back, and let’s shout it loud and clear! Do you fight it to the end? We hear the call...
“To CARRY ON! To CAR-Ry O-o-on. And though you’re dead-and-gone, believe me, your memory will CAR-Ry ON! We’ll CAR-Ry O-o-on! And though your broken and defeated, your weary widow MAR-CHES ON!”
‘Damn it! If I wasn’t such a sap....that part wouldn’t remind me of Kikyou.’ he thought to himself, as he thought of the wayward glances he would sometimes get from her when she saw him standing next to Kagome. How she tried to drag him to hell while he was asleep in her arms. Scenes of moments like that ran though his head, and he put his hands to it to try and quell the memories.
He remembered how, after Kagome had broken the spell on him, he would just think about Kikyou. About their promise, which he had broken. And about Kikyou herself, who he might as well have killed. Sometimes, when he was sitting by himself, he would go over all of time they spent together, all of the loneliness she had quelled. She had been the only one since his mother to accept him, to like him even. He had been convinced she loved him, and at times he would have traded Tessaiga to find out if she truly did.
And yet, after her death, he also couldn’t help but breathe a sigh of relief with her as she faded away into dust, a normal woman. Still, he mourned the loss of his first love, even if it was not truly her.
Yes, despite whatever anyone else thought, he knew that the clay copy was not the true Kikyou, that she did die fifty years ago. But the reminder wandering around had never given him a chance to grieve, as he had wanted to. Whenever he saw the soul collectors, a microscopic bubble of hope would form in his chest, hoping that maybe, by some stupid, impossible circumstance, he still would be able to be with his first love.
But when she died her second death in his arms, he realized that his hope had been false, nothing more than a fantasy that he didn’t really even want anymore, anyway. And while he grieved, he was happy.
“And on we carry through the fears! (Oh, oh, ooh, the crowd sang along) Disappointed faces of your peers! (Oh, oh, ooh) Take a look at me, cause I could-not-care-at-ALL!
“Do-or-DIE! You’ll never MAKE me, because the WORLD will never take my heart-You can TRY! You’ll never make me. Want it all! I’m gonna play this part-Won’t explain, or say I’m SOR-ry! I’m not ashamed! I’m gonna show my scar to the CHAIR! For all the BRO-Ken! Listen HERE! Because it’s ON-ly! I’m just a MAN! I’m not a HE-Ro! Just a BOY! Whose meant to SING this SONG! Just a MAN, not a HE-Ro! I.....don’t....CARE!
“Carry ON! We’ll CAR-Ry O-o-on. And though your dead and gone, believe me, your memory will CAR-Ry on! We’ll CAR-Ry O-o-on! And though you’re broken and defeated, your weary widow MAR-CHES ON!” she sang out, her voice ringing throughout the field. The crowd sang out the rest of the song, shouting back ‘Carry on!’ off key, and out of tune, which bothered InuYasha’s ears, which were flattened to his head.
“Thank you New York! I’ll be here all week!” she laughed, and to InuYasha’s joy, the laughter in her voice reached her eyes as the kids gave a cheer and congratulated her on her prowess. The excitement died away, and the kids scattered, as she settled down for quieter, less riot-causing songs.
InuYasha backed into a tree, and in one swift movement, he was in the branches, watching over her. He got an intense feeling of deja vu as he moved to do this, but it disappeared as he looked down on the girl. She was strumming a wordless song now, and he was relaxed by it, as it reached into his ears and willed him to sleep. He nodded as he thought about how he hadn’t really slept all his life, not counting when he was with his mother.
‘Wait, that’s not exactly right. I slept for real one time, on Kagome’s bed.’ He blushed at the memory. Her scent had just been so calming, he couldn’t help himself but feel relaxed. That was another thing he had never done with Kikyou.
But that was after he had known Kagome for a long time, and had even begun realizing he feelings for her. His head snapped back up. He hadn’t even spoken a word to the girl and already she was lulling him to sleep!
The girl, he noticed, was sneaking glances in his direction now, although he was pretty sure she couldn’t see him. He smirked at this thought. Perhaps he had left enough of an impression on her soul for her to recognize him, if only a little.
‘That’s exactly what you need right now. An ego boost.’
InuYasha growled.
‘Don’t you feel that tugging in the back of your head?’ his inner voice asked. Over the years the voice seemed to separate from him so much that he thought that perhaps he had some kind of nagging parasite instead of his soul talking to him.
‘Come to think of it, yeah I do.’ InuYasha closed his eyes shut and concentrated. The tug was fearful, familiar, and almost forgotten. InuYasha opened his eyes and looked toward the girl still concentrating on her guitar. His face blanched with the biggest amount of amazement he had felt in a long time.
‘Whoa! Holy shit! Holy shit holy shit holy shit holy shit holy shit holy shit holy shit holy shit! She’s trying to reach out to me with her aura! What the fuck?’ InuYasha had to clamp a clawed hand over his mouth to make sure he didn’t shout out to her. He turned around on his branch and stared straight ahead, panting slightly. He noticed a young boy looking up at him with concern. InuYasha sent him his favorite scowl, and to his pleasure, it scared the boy enough to make him get up and scurry away.
‘I’m okay, I’m okay, I’m okay’ he chanted to himself, struggling to regain his composure. ‘Alright. She can use her aura. I doubt she knows she’s doing it, though. Yeah, she’s still untrained. Ain’t no way she’s got any clue. I’ll have to tell her soon though, if she can already do that. Kagome was never able to do that. I think Kikyou could, but she had only done that the time when she had asked him to turn human for her.
He looked up, and noticed something he hadn’t before, when the crowd of kids were still around her.
Their was an open guitar case in front of her, and on the bottom it was littered with money. His eyes widened as an old couple passing by dropped a few dollars into it.
“She’s a beggar?” he said to himself, eyes widening in confusion. In Sengoku Jidai, it didn’t matter if you were performing entertainment in exchange for money. If you were on the street and accepting handouts, you were a beggar. And if you were a woman, it also meant that you were a prostitute. (*I don’t know if that’s true. Anyone with a clue, feel free to message and flame me!) InuYasha growled at that thought. A miko and a prostitute shouldn’t even be mentioned in the same sentence.
Deciding that he would just wait until she was done, (and to make sure no one got the idea that she was selling her body just because she was accepting handouts) he settled himself into a more comfortable position, keeping his senses wide open as he tried to ignore the slight pull of her aura on his youki, the energies rubbing and nipping at each other. InuYasha fought down a blush.
She sat on the park bench for three hours, her dog sitting faithfully at her feet the entire time, never moving from her mistress. Almost everyone who passed by stopped to listen and leave her a dollar or two before walking on. Eventually, it seemed her fingers got tired, and she finally finished, giving a sigh of relief.
‘Keh. Almost like she just got out of the fields.’ thought InuYasha, then gritting his teeth in annoyance as she took out a text book and began studying. It always irritated him to no end whenever Kagome would pay more attention to a stupid book more than him.
‘Well, might as well get this over with.’ he thought as he leaped nimbly down from his perch. He strode confidently over to her, and took a seat across the table, looking at her intently until she decided to acknowledge him.
She sat still for a few moments, and looked slowly up at him. He opened his mouth to say something, but was taken aback at the close look at her face, which he realized he didn’t really see until now.
Her eyes were so thick with darkened circles from lack of sleep, it looked as if her eyes were receding back into her head. Her cheeks were sunken in, and her skin was dry and what at first had looked like a lovely pale face turned out to be a sickly yellow sheen. What surprised and disgusted him the most were her lips. They were red and cracked, and had blackened scabs dividing them into mangled sections. She gave him a sideways grin when she saw how intently he was staring at her. Although her teeth were straight and white, he could see that more than one of them were cracked. But her hair was the most beautiful he had ever seen. He himself had seen his fair share of hime’s, many of whom claimed to have the most beautiful hair. But the girl in front of him could easily out win them, were it not for her beggars appearance.
She wore a simple white t-shirt with some sort of logo on it, with a black jacket over it, along with oversized black jeans with holes in them. He could tell from the smell that although they were not filthy, they were not exactly fresh, either. She seemed to notice him wrinkling his nose.
“You gonna say something or are you just gonna sit there lookin’ pretty?” she said, not able to take his silent scrutinizing anymore. He seemed to jerk out of his trance, and looked into her eyes. Looking away before he got drawn in like he did her pictures, he searched his blank brain for an answer.
“Your, aaahhhh....your pretty good.” Idiot! She knew that! What the hell was he supposed to say to her? All the years he searched for the girl in front of him, and he had never even considered what he would say during their first conversation! Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!
She smiled another sideways smile, and InuYasha could feel her aura brighten up.
“Thanks! Corse, I’m afraid your opinion doesn’t really matter to Julliard, but it’s a start. So, what, are you albino or something? You part of a gang?” InuYasha raised his eyebrow before he noticed she was making fun of his outfit.
“Excuse me?” he said, feeling insulted. What was wrong with his clothes? He’d been wearing basically the same thing for the past ten years, and no one seemed to say anything. In fact, Hiro had mentioned more than once that his clothes suited him well.
“Dude, you look like a bloods reject.” she said, pointing to his red shirt and bandana.
“Hey, what’s your problem?” he said, getting angry.
“Hey man, not worries. So, did you want something?” she asked, leaning her face on her hand, and for a moment InuYasha saw a flash of recognition across her face as he pouted.
“Do you always pout like that?” she asked, leaning forward and squinting her eyes, as if trying to see something.
“Keh! No! I, ahhh....I just wanted to ask you if you wanted to grab a slice with me?” he finally spat out, thinking that he could buy himself more time. He was amazed at the looked that caught her face. It was a look that had never crossed either Kagome’s nor Kikyou’s face. He had to think for a moment before the word came to him; utter disgust.
“Ah, no I can’t. Sorry, I have to go.” she said, picking up her text book and making a small whistling sound to the dog. InuYasha became angry, but then he heard a noise that made his heart drop straight to his lower regions.
Her stomach. It was growling like the stomachs of starving children he’d come across in desolate towns. What surprised him even more was that she had the audacity to not blush, but instead put her head up high and start to walk away, her dog following close behind her.
He took a few long steps to catch up to her, and she looked down at her dog in surprise.
“Well, aren’t you friendly today, eh Kyoko?” she spoke to the dog, who looked up at her with a blank face. Not that dogs show that much emotion on their faces, anyway.
“What do you mean?” InuYasha asked, looking questioningly at the dog. The dog responded by continuing to walk forward at an easy pace.
“Normally she would have bitten you by now. You know how many times I had to ask my friend Shelly to bail her out of the pound because she nips? Nothing serious, but she’ll only attack if it’s real danger and I can’t run away.” she said, heaving her guitar case over her shoulder.
“Why won’t you come get something to eat. I hear your stomach, you’re definitely hungry.” he asked.
“I don’t have any money.” she said simply, still not looking at him, and it seemed as if she was trying her best to hold her head even higher, her back as straight as it would go, despite her sloping shoulders.
“What!? What are you talking about? You have a whole case full of money there!” InuYasha said, forgetting that he had planned to pay for her anyway.
“That’s not for food. Sorry, but food is last on the list. Besides, how am I supposed to know you aren’t going to try and rape me or something?” she asked simply. That question almost made InuYasha fall over. Even though he could tell that she sort of trusted him already by letting him walk with her, he couldn’t believe that something like that would come out of the girls’ mouth!
“I-wha...uh...yo-you...ugh...I c-can....ARHG! I can’t believe you just said that!” he said, feeling his face start to turn a shade roughly matching his fire-rat. To his fury, she shrugged as if she’d been commenting on the weather.
“Hey, can’t be too careful. You’d think a big guy like you would know that.” She said, giving him the once over. True, he could cut her in half with one swipe of his claws. But InuYasha could never do that, especially someone who used to be...*InuYasha gulped*...Kagome.
“Look, I’ll pay for you, and then you can go home by yourself. I promise.” he said, holding his hand up in the boy scouts gesture. He expected her to cave in and continue to walk with him, but instead she made her back as straight as it would go while being weighed down by the guitar case, and continued walking at a faster pace.
“I can get my own food.” she said.
InuYasha stopped. He was getting a whole new feeling from her aura. She was lying. Lying? Did that mean that she was going hungry? She did seem to be unusually skinny, but InuYasha had just assumed she did that to her self on purpose, like a lot of the women walking around the city.
Yet, if she was letting herself starve on purpose, wouldn’t she be wearing more provocative, revealing clothing than oversized pants and a dirty, ill-fitting jacket, like the idiots on TV? No, there was something horribly wrong with this picture.
“Look, I didn’t say anything about you not getting your own food. I want to buy you something to eat, because your hungry right now. Okay? Now quit fooling around and common.” InuYasha said irritably, grabbing her arm and dragging her along with him. He was secretly worried at how thin her arm was in his grasp.
“Hey, buddy, I don’t know who you think you are, but if you think you can just drag me with you whenever you want, you got another thing coming!” she said, pathetically trying to wrench her arm out of his grip.
“I’m InuYasha, bitch.” he said, turning around and looked deeply into her eyes. His heart leaped for joy as another look of recognition jumped across her face, there in a instant and gone in a flash. Maybe this would be easier than he thought. Perhaps if he just kept acting like his usual self around her, he’d be able to convince her to come with him. He was the only constant in her past two lives.
She shook her head, and to his mild surprise, completely disregarded his remark. Kagome would have sat him and taken away his ramen for that night whenever he called her that, but this one shrugged it away, almost as if she was used to it.
‘Aw, hell no. Tell me she hasn’t always been treated like that.’ he thought to himself, with a twinge of guilt now that he’d said it. But then he remembered her appearance, and thought maybe it wasn’t so far-fetched. There was obviously something going wrong with her godmother at home, he’d already decided that he was going to look into it as soon as he could.
“Well, I’m Betty Lou. Nice to meet you.” she said, not bothering to hold out her hand.
“Look, just come get something to eat with me.” he said
“I don’t accept handouts.” she said, still turning her nose up at him.
“WHAT!? Are you kidding me? What do you call sitting on a park table and letting people give you their spare change while you dick around on that dumb-ass instrument?” he said, raising his hands in the air in frustration.
“Working. I earned that.” she said, practically spitting venom in the sentence. Aw, crap, now he’d insulted her.
“Please come with me? As a favor?” he thought, hating himself as he pleaded.
“Give me one reason why I should.” she said simply.
“Because your dog is about to keel over, and I’ll buy a slice for her, too.” InuYasha said, finding her weakness. Betty Lou looked down at the dog with sad eyes, because yes, the dog was very skinny. She glared at him from the corner of her eyes.
“Fine.”
____________________________________
InuYasha was impressed. Never before had anyone beaten him in his gusto for food, but he’d finally found a contender. After being so hesitant to come with him, once the smells hit her, she didn’t think twice about ordering one of everything on the menu. And now, she was about halfway through her order!
Her dog, Kyoko, was sitting faithfully outside, upright and guarding her master inside.
“So....Betty Lou, huh? That’s a pretty unique name.” he said conversationally.
“So’s InuYasha.” she countered, not focusing on him, but her food. Other people in the restaurant were beginning to notice the unusually highly stacked pizza slice container boxes around their table. Not that InuYasha cared. He was actually pretty amused at their stricken faces at seeing the young girl scarf down so much in so little time.
“I don’t know....it just sounds kind of...made up.” he said, jumping on his chance to reveal a little what he knew to her. He had to resist comforting her as she froze in her feast, fear immediately permeating her scent.
She looked up at him, and stared at him deeply. The fear seemed to melt away as chocolate brown eyes met golden ones. She looked him over. Her eyes lost their deadened look for a moment, and again he saw Kagome slide into her eyes, if only for a moment.
“Can I show you something?” she asked, dead serious. InuYasha nodded. She gathered up her leftovers and stacked the boxes in her arms, intending to bring them home with her. InuYasha followed her out of the store.
“Hey, uh, you want some help with that?” he asked, watching her as she struggled with the pizza boxes and her guitar case once they were outside. She looked up at the sky, which was beginning to get dark. He reached for her case, but felt a small spark as his claw grazed the handle, a second before she jerked it out of his reach.
“I can carry that myself, thanks.” she said, turning her nose up again. He was astonished when she handed the dog a few boxes of pizza, and even more so when Kyoko took them in her mouth and began to walk with her master, intent on going home after their long day.
“Jeeze, I was just trying to be nice.” InuYasha said, angrily. The girl was infuriating! She was obviously having trouble, couldn’t she just accept help when she needed it?
They walked along the streets of New York for about fifteen minutes, before entering the shady, dangerous part of town. InuYasha could feel eyes leering at them from in the dark allies, and instinctively began walking closer to her.
They approached a dirty-looking, decrepit old building. They stayed in silence as they stepped inside, avoiding the angry, greasy looking man at the front desk, and began climbing the steps.
On the third floor, they stopped, and InuYasha followed her to the end of the hallway. She stopped at the last door, and reached above the paneling on top of the door and pulled out a key.
The first thing he thought when she let them into the apartment was the cold. It was much too cold in there. And then, the smell. It wasn’t a bad smell. Sort of like the thick perfume of slightly wilted flowers. That and a scrubbed, anti-septic smell.
The place was incredibly tiny. To his left, there was a mini refrigerator and a toaster on a broken counter. There was one and a half stools standing underneath a table that connected to the counter, one of them appearing to have to bottom part of it’s legs sawed off. InuYasha took a deep, inhaling breath. Yes, this was Kagome scent. And it was Kikyou’s scent, as well. And yet, there was also something mixed into with them that was so undeniably new that it just had to be her, Betty Lou, Keera, whatever her name was.
There were two windows on two different walls, as she lived in one of the corner apartments. The carpet was old and brown, but it was clean. There were posters on the walls, most of them having something to do with one band or another. There was one other door in sight, to his far right. This, he assumed, was her bedroom. Wait. One bedroom.
“Where’re your parents?” he asked, before cringing and smacking himself on the forehead.
‘Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!’ he berated himself.
“They’re dead.” she said simply, keeping a remarkably Sesshomaru-type look on her face as she said that, bustling around the kitchen, putting the pizza away. She closed the door as she finished, and looked at him expectantly.
“You saying you live here by yourself?” he asked, but he already knew the answer. She didn’t have the smell of someone who was being cared for by another. She smelled like someone who had been on her own. For a long time.
“Yup.” she said as she picked up a plastic bowl on the floor and put it in the sink, filling it with water for Kyoko.
“No foster parents...” he tried to suggest, and was stricken when pain seeped into her aura, the pain of losing someone.
“She...she taught a survival skills class for the YMCA. They went on a trip to the Rockies about two years ago, and she...she got lost. They never found her.” she said, holding back the waterfall of emotions raining in her eyes. InuYasha felt his sympathy well up for her, as well as his respect for her. Not many kids of thirteen would have been able to handle being on their own in this world. It should have been impossible.
“So how have you been-?” InuYasha began, but was cut off.
“I made a deal with the land lord here once I ran away from my first foster home. I pay him fifty dollars a week, I get the room with no heat, and he signs all my forms and acts as a temporary guardian. No one really bothers us, so it’s been working out pretty well, I’d say.” she said, a distant look in her dead eyes. InuYasha felt his throat clench up. So that was why she couldn’t spare any money.
“Alright, I want you to promise me something.” she said, grabbing his hand and his attention. “We’ve never met, right?” she asked, looking into his eyes.
“No.” said InuYasha suspiciously.
“Okay, I don’t want you to get freaked out, is all. Come in here.” she said, leading him towards what he assumed was her bedroom. InuYasha’s eyes widened in confusion as she dragged him into her room.
Then InuYasha gasped. Covering every inch of her wall were pictures of him. They were drawings, he saw as he looked closer. They were really good, too. He noticed that in the corner, there was always a tiny BL signature.
Okay, not all of them were of him. There were pictures of Shippou, Sango, Miroku, Kirara, even Kaede! InuYasha leaned forward to look at a very detailed drawing of Kikyou under the moonlight in the middle of a green field, a soul catcher twisting in the air in the background.
“I used to think that one might be a self portrait, but she’s too pretty to be me.” Betty Lou said.
He stood up straight and found himself looking into his own eyes as a picture scowled at him.
“Look familiar? Freaky, huh?” she said, stepping forward and examining with him. “These are just some characters I’ve been dreaming up my whole life. I always wanted to write a story to go with them, but I can’t write to save my life. That’s the reason I decided to show you, anyway. You look a lot like him. Like, a lot!” she said, repeated herself for emphasis. InuYasha turned around to stare at her, because he felt another stab of pain in her aura, which at the moment was rubbing against his youki a little too familiarly.
To his chagrin, she wasn’t even focusing on him, instead staring off into space. What on earth could be distracting her at a crucial moment like this? InuYasha, as of yet, had no response in finding out this secret she held in her room, but this was the perfect chance to tell her!
InuYasha opened his mouth, but Betty Lou beat him to it.
“Hey, you wanna come see me play on stage?” she asked, a twinkle of hope deep in her eyes.
(Author's note)
I am so so so so so so so so so so sorry it took me sooo long!!! I swear I have the usual pathetic exscuses, but I'm not going to bother telling you because you'll still be mad at me. I promise it will never take me this long to post a new chapter ever again!
Anyway, so yeah, you've now met my main OC. She's a little different, in case you noticed, but I swear to god this isn't some kind of perverse self-insertion attempt. (espescially since I'm terrified of german shepards)
Basically you'll understand what's happening later on in the story, can't give too much away right now.
And another thing. I realize that this seems a little songfic-ish, but it's not. I just like that song (no matter how popular it is) and I always saw a little bit of a parallel between in and InuYasha. There will be other songs. What I'm really trying to do is convey how I'm feeling when I listen to the music into my writing. Am I doing okay? I think it might help if you guys could some how listen to the song while your reading it, it sure helped me write it.
Wow, this is a long author's note, I apoligize for taking up so much of your time. Please review, I need something to tide me over untill the next chapter, which I will begin working on immidiatly. Love you all!