InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ OUTLAWS ❯ Jailhouse Rock ( Chapter 1 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

Righty-o then....this doth be OUTLAWS.....yes....capitalized just like that. n.n keh. Always knew I liked notepad better. >.> glare.....word = = the devil

Disclaimer - *sigh* I can't think of anything cute or witty to use as a disclaimer. meh. I don't own Inu-yasha, but the plot is mine! ... mostly...

A word of warning.....this thing is gonna be HUGE. okies? HUGE.

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~~OUTLAWS~~

The stars in the night sky were bright that night. As was the raging fire in the small town of Jidai. The flames licked at the dark skies, covering the town. The winds blew the stinging sand in the dusty streets about, making it difficult to see clearly. The cries from the people echoed across the barren plains.

"Inu-yasha's escaped!"

"He's free! He's free"

"The last demon has escaped!"

The one they spoke of leapt from the low rooftops to taunt them. His long white hair blew about in the strong wind and his golden eyes shone fiercely, reflecting the raging fires. In his hand he clutched a crumpled sheet of parchment.

"This is what you all deserve! You all betrayed me! I'll find the treasure! You'll never see it!"

A sound. Click.

"Inu-yasha!"

From nowhere, a shot rang out, piercing him in the left shoulder. His arm twisted back from the impact, forcing the paper out of his hand. The shot was quickly followed by another, and another. Inu-yasha stumbled, then fell to his knees. His blood slowly dripped to the sandy ground, the life seeping out of him. He growled and looked up to search for the shooter.

"Kikyo!"

And there she was. Town protector. Everyone's friend. She stood with a rifle, aimed at Inu-yasha. She may have been beautiful once, but now her face was flecked with blood and she wore an angry scowl. Her own injuries were no small matter, and she would without a doubt not survive the night.

She yelled at him, but Inu-yasha heard no words. He was vaguely aware of another bullet tearing through him and knocking him backwards. Then, he lay still, a red puddle growing beneath him.

Kikyo, seeing Inu-yasha fall, fell herself, as her wounds finally made her succumb to the pain. Some of the townsfolk ran to help her, while others stood back to give her air. Her rifle dropped to the dusty ground, forgotten. She winced when she turned the wrong way, but turned never the less, to face the nearest person.

"Tell her...tell Kagome...she's the only one...that...." She paused to clutch at her bleeding arm, "that she's the only one....." Wince. "...who can help" And with that, she died.

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"Inu-yasha!"

"Die Inu-yasha!"

"Inu-yasha! Wake up! Inu-yasha!"

Moaning, Inu-yasha rolled over on his tiny cot and pulled his pillow over his head. The sheriff pounded against the metal bars again. "I said, wake up!"

"And I said piss off." Inu-yasha lazily threw a fork at the voice. It clanged noisily against the bars before hitting the ground.

"Yeah, yeah. Tell me a new one." The sheriff mumbled what were most likely curse words to himself. "You're gonna need that fork, there. Breakfast time." He kicked the fork back to Inu-yasha and slipped him his meal through a slot in the door.

"Screw off. I'd rather starve." But he sat up and took the plate anyways.

"That's a good prisoner." The sheriff laughed to himself and walked away, twirling his keys. Inu-yasha gave him the finger.

"Keh. Smart-ass."

Inu-yasha sat back on his cot and regarded the cell around him. The walls were stone, and the floor was bare earth, though in this area, it was a dusty type of earth. He had often contemplated digging out, but there was the problem of hiding his progress from the sheriff when he was the only prisoner that was watched. There was the front of the cell with the metal bars and steel door, facing the sheriff's office. In the back there was a small window, also with the metal bars, that looked out onto the main street of the town. A few people were out today, but no one was doing anything interesting, so they remained unnoticed. There were, of course, the essentials, but Inu-yasha preferred trying to use any of the sheriff's personal items as a toilet instead. Then the cot he was sitting on, a miserable little bed, raised about a foot off the floor with a sorry squashed excuse for a pillow.

By any logical sense, Inu-yasha should have been able to escape. He could easily tear down the stone and the metal bars were an easy task to get rid of. The reason he couldn't escape was Kikyo. The damn girl had strange powers, and she had used them on this cell. Call it magic, witchcraft, whatever. There was a seal on this place, and Inu-yasha could not leave. Well, at least not until he had a key.

Meaning that he could not walk out and get some good food. Meaning that this 'food' was all he was going to get. Meaning that today, Inu-yasha was going hungry.

In the distance, he heard the whistle of a train, the first one to come by in a few months. Curiosity aroused, Inu-yasha peeked out of his window to take a look, careful not to stick his head out too far. That happened once and his head got stuck for a few hours until he finally managed to yank it out. That itself was bad enough, but some kid thought it would be amusing to smack him in the face with a stick. Suffice to say the kid did not leave unscathed.

The station was across the so-called street, in all its dingy glory. What little paint it had was peeling, the bright gold and greens faded in the sun, and worn down from the sandy dirt beating on it. The weathered boards that made up the station platform were in constant danger of breaking, though it had yet to happen. The steps to the 'street' were a different story. The middle one had snapped clean down the center, and the other two bowed inward precariously.

Next to the station was Kaede's hotel, if you could call it that. Many years ago it had some cutesy name that had long since worn off and been forgotten. It was rather run down and had had no visitors for nearly a year. Doors often got stuck, the windows were always dusty, paint was peeling, the stairs were broken, and the walls had cracked in places. Kaede herself was a cheery old woman that never seemed to be tired, and Kikyo's aunt. She had seen many strange people in her business, which hardened her against odd things and rude people, though she stayed kind to her guests.

In fact, nearly everything in town was like that. Run-down and empty. Ever since Kikyo died. Kikyo had a way of bringing enough money into the town, but since she was gone, things had become difficult. Nothing would grow, wells frequently ran dry, and there was no economy. It was a dying town that should have been dead years ago.

So it's easy to understand why it was such a surprise that people were arriving. The train finally screeched to a halt next to station platform. A few minutes passed before the doors opened, the dirty air hitting the passengers in the face. Despite this, they exited, although most were only getting off to stretch their legs until they were ushered back on board to head toward their intended destination. There was the customary group of grungy travelers, the kind that immediately headed for the saloon, which held true to their type and immediately headed for the saloon, conveniently next door to the jail. An occasional family wandered about, never too far from the station, attempting to keep their many children close.

They always proved entertaining. A wandering child that had escaped his parents 'watchful' eyes would pass by, curious about a small window with metal bars. And what better thing to do that to look inside? So the child would scramble about, searching for a box to stand on, and once found, stood on it and peered inside. Which of course, was promptly followed by Inu-yasha scaring the living daylights out of him.

But Inu-yasha didn't feel like scaring any defenseless children today. He looked at the travelers again, when he found something that sparked his interest. A girl with long-ish black hair stood by the doorway, watching a steward remove what Inu-yasha supposed was her bags. Did she intend to stay? Taking a closer look, he noticed that she was strikingly similar to Kikyo. A relative, perhaps. She did look a lot like Kikyo, but she seemed more.....happy then Kikyo had ever been. She wore a white dress with little blue flowers on it that only reached her mid-calf. Scandalous. Maybe she was one of those women suffragette-type people. At least she would give the town something else to talk about other than himself.

He continued to watch as she made her way to Kaede's hotel confirming she did intend to stay, at least for a little while. She struggled with her many bags, continually having to pick one up after she dropped it, or having one get a corner stuck in the ground, but eventually she reached the hotel. She managed to swing the door open and stumble inside, but not before hitting her head on the doorframe.

Inu-yasha snorted. She certainly was a clumsy girl.

Through the dusty cracked window, Inu-yasha saw her talking to Kaede, then giving her a hug. Apparently she was a relative. Inu-yasha mentally gave himself a pat on the back for his good guess-work. He turned his ears in an effort to hear what they were talking about, but only heard bits and pieces through all the other sounds of the town, as few as they were.

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Meanwhile, inside the hotel, Kaede was chatting to her niece while stirring a large pot of stew, on a stove that looked like it hadn't been cleaned in years.

"So you finally received word? It's been nearly four months. What took so long?" She inquired, sipping a bit of the stew from her wooden spoon.

"Yes, I just got the letter a week ago. I don't know why it took so long to get to me, but I came as soon as I could. I hope it isn't a problem." Kagome had left most of her luggage in the hallway, but still clutched her purse, safeguarding the little money left in it. "How are things here? I mean, ever since, Kikyo....died." Kagome knew Kaede had been especially close to Kikyo, and her death grieved her more than she let on.

Kaede sighed. "I'm afraid to say things aren't going well. The town's run out of money, and nothing will grow. But that's about to change. You're here now." Kaede smiled warmly at Kagome. However, Kagome only look confused.

"How will I help? I can't make things grow, just like that. And I certainly don't have nearly enough money to help things." Kagome sat down in the most study looking chair in the room, and looked at Kaede as though trying to make the world of logic shift so what she said made sense.

"You see, my dear--" But before the older woman could finish, gunshots rang out in the street. Startled into action, Kagome jumped from her chair, and Kaede dashed as quickly as she could into the front room.

"Kaede? What's happening?" Kagome stumbled due to her shoes, but followed Kaede to where she peered out of the filthy window. What she saw made her breath catch in her throat. Five men, drunk, stumbling from the saloon, headed straight in her direction.

Kaede's eyes visibly widened at this. "They know..." At this she turned from the window, making her way back to the kitchen, through the storeroom, and back to a secret closet, Kagome following her every step. Kaede stopped at a small safe, ignoring Kagome's questions of "What do they know?" and "Tell me what's happening!" mind bent on opening the safe. Successful, she shuffled through the bills and found what she was looking for, a piece of paper a foot square that to many appeared blank save for a decorative border. However, in Kagome's eyes, she could clearly see a map, written in shining blue ink, and a set of instructions, directing to an 'X' placed in the middle of the paper.

Kagome stared at the paper in wonderment, and was drawn out of it only when loud pounding could be heard on the fragile door of the hotel. Kaede shoved the paper into Kagome's empty hands, which had long since deposited the purse on the kitchen floor.

"Take this, child, and head out the back. Go to the jailhouse, they will not think to look there." And with this, Kaede shoved the girl out a back door in the kitchen and hurried to greet her 'customers'.

Scared and confused, Kagome did as she was told. She hiked her skirt up so it came only to her knees, and made a mad dash to the jailhouse, hoping that the five men would not be looking in her direction. She was lucky, they were too busy firing shots into the sky.

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Kagome entered the jailhouse breathless, her heart pounding. The building appeared to be devoid of life, but some shuffling from the back told her otherwise. Her already frazzled nerves caused her to jump when a voice spoke.

"Back already? So you actually do anything this time, or did you only pretend to work? Asshole." Kagome was appalled at the voice's owner's language, but relieved that he clearly wasn't talking to her. Probably against her better judgment, Kagome headed to the back of the building to straighten things out with the coarse stranger.

When she saw him, she was startled to fight that he appeared no older than a boy. (She chided herself a bit, saying she was no older than a girl herself) Kagome had imaged a scruffy man, dirty and drunk, but the person before was a far cry from that. He looked no older than 18, and his stunning silver hair brushed against the floor from where he sat against the wall. He wasn't drunk, and he wasn't dirty, but he wasn't clean either. The silence must have lasted too long, because he finally turned his head toward her, revealing golden amber eyes.

"You're not that bastard sheriff...." He blinked in surprise and Kagome barley managed to shake her head 'no'. Outside, shots continued to ring out, but when they finally ceased, the two in the jailhouse had said no more to each other. Content that the ceasefire lasted more than the time to reload, two ears atop Inu-yasha's head peeked out from his hair, made their presence known, and effectively broke the silence between the two.

"You....you've got dog-ears." Kagome took a step forward. Inu-yasha however, realized the strong resemblance this girl bore to Kikyo, and so when he finally replied, it had nothing to do with what she said.

"Are you Kikyo?" Even though he knew it wasn't true, Inu-yasha's mind began to create reasons that Kikyo may have lived, and just returned, reasons that she would come back, and reasons that made her no longer hate him.

"My name's Kagome. Not Kikyo. She's my cousin. I don't understand why so many people think I look like her! Honestly, she is-was a good three years older than me, her hair's straighter, longer too--" Kagome would have continued but cut herself off when she realized she was rambling and shouldn't be talking about her dead cousin in that way. It also helped that at that moment, the five men from earlier barged in, having heard her raised voice.

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bwahaha evil evil cliffhanger...but it had to happen. I'm far over my average chapter length already, and I couldn't push myself to go on. so....review and let me know what you think. n.n you can give me suggestions for things you want to see and I'll try to fit it in, but ive already got a basic plot going, and if it doesn't work, tough luck. ::shrug:: n.n;;; so...yeah.

c|_| Keri Maxwell