InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Playing Dead ❯ My life on paper ( Prologue )

Playing Dead

Summary: This isn't a story of a bad boy learning to be good. Or a good girl going bad. This is the story of two people, from two different worlds, finding out that everything isn't always black or white.

Rating: T for most chapters. M/NC-17 for excessive violence, adult language and later adult themes.

Disclaimer: Any and all characters used from the Inuyasha series and franchise does not belong to me. Any references to others work, are not property of mine either.

Warning: A/U, OOC

Authors note: In order for me to keep this story as clear as possible, I will be implementing various POV's throughout. I will make it clear when this will occur, as well as WHO is the person that is thinking/speaking. I will mark this with XxXxX. Time shifts and scene changes will marked with ---- , the difference between the two being my tenses.

This is my Second go through on this particular story. I have deleted most of my others due to the fact that I believe them to be beyond helping. I am sorry to any of you who were hoping for an update. If you like, you can ask me where I was going with said stories, and I would be happy to explain briefly.

Prologue

I remember my mother once telling me that the best stories are fairy tales. After all, in fables, for every monster there is a prince, a hero to save the maiden and take her away to live happily ever after. I faithfully believed that for six years, at which point reality showed me a different reality, as it has ever since and quite frequently I might add. But perhaps the best way that I can tell my life, at least up to the present, is by starting it off just like a fairy tale. That's the way every story starts really, even one that doesn't quite have a happy ending.

I had long ago decided that I wasn't meant for happy endings. I had made peace with it. Accepted it. Yet, I had allowed myself to falsely think that I could be a princess. That everything would fall into its rightful place, like pieces of a puzzle. How was I to know that the last piece would be missing?

It's funny really. I had decided to dedicate my life to helping others and in a twist of delicious irony I now find myself needing the most help. God how could I have let myself get to where I am? Lost in a life that was never mine, I find myself wishing to start over. But life isn't a book, where you can flip back a few pages and fantasize your own reality.

Yet, I did promise you a story…

So I shall begin again.

Once upon a time I led a simple life. I had a stable job, a nice house and secure relationships, albeit few of them. I was what you could call successful. I was happy.

If you looked at me as a profile on paper you would see the youngest physician to head a department in the history of the Tokyo University Hospital. You would see a twenty-six year old woman with a bright future and a variety of suitable boyfriends. Truth be told I made a good living doing something I loved to do. But my good living wasn't as it appeared, thanks to a father so deep in the hole that twenty years after his death I was still handing over a good portion of my pay-cheque each month. As a consequence of my situation, I still retained the address I had as a child, an old Shinto Shrine on the outskirts of suburban Tokyo. It had belonged to my mother's father, a man stuck in ancient tradition and mythology. Shortly after my father's passing he took in my mother and me, knowing we would never be able to afford to maintain our apartment. I was too young to really remember living anywhere else

.

When I was eight, only two years after my father's death my mother remarried. She had wanted a new life for us, a better life. I wanted her to be happy. A month after the wedding I moved in with them. At first, everything was great. They had set up a beautiful room for me, in all of my favourite colours. I remember we used to go to the zoo every Saturday. But like everything in my life, what was good would have to become sour. It first started when my mother started throwing up in the mornings. Suddenly I wasn't allowed to go into their room. She slept for so long every day, but never was I to go see her. It was a year after they had first gotten married that I was told she was pregnant with a baby boy.

It soon became all too clear that I was a mistake in my stepfather's perfect picture. Why would he need a stand in when he would soon have his own blood crawling around the house? Shortly after my tenth birthday Souta was born. My room was turned into the nursery. When Souta was a month old they sent me to back to the shrine to live with my grandfather. They had told me his health was failing and he needed me around to help. I knew, as did he, that that wasn't true. I didn't care. I was glad to go.

For eleven years my grandfather diligently took care of me. He was determined to teach me the ancient ways of the Shinto priestesses. I used to laugh and nod my head when he would tell me that I would have made a fine Miko in ancient times, never mentioning the sheer ridiculousness of his words. He helped me make it into University with honours, stating that anything less wasn't acceptable from any granddaughter of his. He died before I graduated medical school. I didn't see the rest of my family at the funeral. I wasn't that surprised.

At the age of twenty, bills started to be forwarded to me by my stepfather. When I called about them the only thing he said to me was, "Look, It's not my problem that your father was a derelict. He wasn't my family, and he is no longer your mothers. You're old enough to take the responsibility for your blood." He hung up after that. A week later their phone number changed. I haven't heard from them since.

I never blamed my mother. I knew she loved me. I just didn't fit. When she looked at me, all she could see was him staring back at her through mirrored eyes. There were times before she had remarried that she would just hold me, lovingly stroking my cheek as she gazed into my eyes, his eyes. After my stepfather entered the picture she didn't hold me like that anymore, refusing to look at me the same. I was a constant reminder to her of what she had lost. I remember some nights when she would drink to much sake; she would sit in the kitchen, crying to herself. When my stepfather neared her she would scream, throw things at him, declare him to be unworthy in comparison to her deceased love. He would hit her then, his rage spilling forth from him like a demon. My mother sent me to live with grandpa after one of those nights, unable to deal with having her dead husband haunt her through their child. I understood. I knew she loved me. I just loved her more.

My grandpa had left me everything when he died. The inheritance paid for any bills the Shrine had, and would have until I was well into my thirties. After I secured the shrine I set out on the task of repaying the massive debt my father had collected. I had little to spare after the shrine was covered, but what I did have I took with me and set up a meeting with a representative of the faceless persons to who money I owed. I managed to convince them to take what I had as a down payment with the agreement that once I was done medical school, and had secured a job I would resume making payments, with interest of course, until all the debts were paid.

I took on med school as I had the rest of my schooling, with every fiber of my being. Graduating at the top of my class I had no trouble finding a job. But handing over half of my pay-cheque was painful. And not knowing what the debts were for, or to whom I was really paying, made the task less then appealing. But I knew I had to pay them. If I was late my car tires would get slashed, or one of my windows would be shattered. The police were little to know help, often declaring the two events unrelated, chalking up the vandalism to teenagers. I was stuck.

So I went about each day, work, go home, microwave dinner, feed the cat, go to bed, repeat. The more I worked the less I thought about each bedroom being empty. The more shifts I took, the less I had to think about my family, or lack thereof. Each night I dreamt of a world that didn't exist, or perhaps it was just a world where I didn't exist. Either way, it was better.

Every morning I looked in the mirror and saw the face of a fatherless child staring back at me. I saw a girl lost in a woman's body. My cat would rub against my leg, shaking me from my stupor. I would pet him, thankful that he was there. I looked forward each day to burying myself in work, helping others as best as I could.

I was happy. I think.

-XxXxXxX-

It was four o'clock in the morning on a Saturday when Kagome's world dramatically changed. The usually busy streets were quiet, the chaotic lives of millions quieted by the wee hours of the morning. She was on her way home from pulling a double shift at the hospital, something she did often both out of necessity and desire. Every day she took the same route, passed the same buildings, listened to the same radio station, and thought about the same man that she had had a steady relationship with for the past five years; Jack Daniels.

Working sixty hours a week at a hospital while maintaining a secret, albeit committed, relationship to alcohol was a stressful task. Were it not for her easy access to Percocet and other painkillers, her problem probably would have long become noticeable to her co-workers and thus she would have been dismissed. But, for once, her inner demons would not be the cause of her world getting a heavy shake. No, this time, it was her familiarity with her routine that would be her ultimate undoing.

It was her eye for detail that had been the catalyst for her life being drastically altered. Every night she took the same route home. Passed the same buildings. She knew what cars would be parked where and when. She knew when something was out of place. A custom, imported BMW stuck out like a sore thumb when it was parked near a ditch, just off the overpass.

But it wasn't the out of place car that made Kagome pull her own vehicle over and go investigate. Nor was it the strange fact that all the street lamps had seemed to die upon the same day. It was that the expensive car appeared abandoned in the middle of virtually no where, in the middle of the night, that had Kagome thinking that someone might be in trouble. The doctor in her clawed at her insides, begging her to pull over, to see if someone needed her help. So, without further thought, she pulled her more modest vehicle some twenty feet ahead of the BMW and parked.

As she had turned off her engine, a moment's trepidation seized her. The overpass acted as a shield to any light emanating from downtown, causing the already dark road to be bathed in even more blackness. Idle hands began to play with her keys, fingering each key chain, going over what each key was for. Maybe this was nothing, and she was just being foolish. But maybe her instincts held true, and perhaps someone indeed needed her help. And wouldn't refusing help go against her Hippocratic oath?

In the end, the doctor in her had won out. She made to get out of her car before grabbing her jacket as an afterthought. Clipped to the front was her Clearance I.D. for the hospital. She rationalized that if her help was indeed needed, she may have to prove that she was indeed who she said she was. In the day and age that she lived in one never really knew. Jacket in hand she stepped out of the car, leaving her keys in the ignition and the door unlocked. She needn't fear theft in such a remote area so early in the morning.

Quickly she strode over the ditch and peered down, her eyes straining against the endless darkness. At first she saw nothing. Her first thought being that her instinct had been wrong, that no one was around and she was just being crazy. But as her eyes adjusted to the darkness, she could make out four figures in the background. Two of them almost glowed beneath the waning crescent moon. Their hair was so white that the moons rays reflected off their tresses in a way that made them glow. Like their hair, their eyes glowed in the dark, like that of a cat. The other two weren't distinct amongst the shadows. The two silver haired men stood with one of the darker haired ones, their three postures showing great superiority towards the fourth man in their party.

They were arguing, that much she could tell. As her eyes adjusted further the moonlight glinted off the barrel of gun. Her brow scrunched, her head pivoting slowly back and forth. She knew what she had seen and her instinct were screaming for her to turn now. Leave. Run. But her legs were no longer attached to the rest of her being. They were back to where they had been decades before. This was too familiar. A lump formed in her throat. She couldn't breathe. She clamped her arm over her mouth to stifle the coughing that was threatening to ensue.

The shorter of the silver-haired men turned his gaze up to her. His golden hews gripping her own blue ones in a calm stare. Surprise filtered through his otherwise stoic gaze for just a brief moment. Her stomach churned. She should leave, should call the police. Everything was urging her to go. But she couldn't.

He snapped his gaze back from her and concentrated back on the weakest of the four. His taller counterpart shifted ever so slightly, his back becoming increasingly stiff as he ran his fingers through his long locks. He nodded at his smaller reflection, one tooth shining dangerously beneath the moon. Without warning the smaller one kicked the legs out from under their prey. His call of pain was rewarded with a slap from the final member of their party. Large round eyes stared pleadingly up at the three men. The argument grew louder. "Please. I never meant for this, you have to understand!"

The tallest one stared evenly down at the whimpering man, "Understand? Tsk tsk tsk. Poor Tenchi. You don't understand the situation at all…" His voice grew quieter as he moved in closer to the man, his hand coming out to grip the man's chin in an iron grip. He pushed the quivering man's face away and stood. With a quick wave of his hand he left the other two as he walked calmly back into the shadows.

The fallen man called to him, begging still, "Please, Sessho!" It was at this point that the remaining silver-haired man turned his gaze back up to her. His arm flew up from his side. The gun made her stomach flutter. The silencer muffled most of the sound, but not all of it. The remaining noise resonated in her skull. It became a white noise that engulfed her being and took her out of herself. But his scream cut through her noise with knife. It was a terrible sound. Yet, she reasoned, the dead couldn't scream. She didn't understand, couldn't. Was this a lucid nightmare?

No. As she fell back into reality she found that two sets of eyes now looked up at her. One pair with the surprise of first spotting the unexpected. The other now just seemed annoyed, angry almost. It was then that she realized that the scream wasn't coming from the dead man. It was coming from her.

The taller silver-haired man appeared at the shorted one's side, his hand coming up to rest on his shoulder. He inclined his head and the other two advanced on her. Her coat fell to the ground. Her body went into flight mode. She turned and ran to her car. She fumbled in her pockets for her keys before realizing she had left them in the ignition. Thanking the gods she started her car and pulled away. She pushed the car to its limit, glancing at her review mirror ever few seconds, praying that hadn't followed her. Each time she looked she saw nothing.

That fact didn't help her nerves. As she got home Kagome threw herself out of her car, barely remembering to turn off her vehicle, grab her keys, and locking it before running up the shrine steps and hiding within the shallow safety of her home. She barricaded herself in her room, her eyes never leaving her door.

This wasn't the first night she had gone without sleep, but it was the first that she had without a bottle in her hand.

XXXXXXXX

He knew his brother was growing bored of listening to the man beg. If his own patience had been exceeded, then there was no doubt in his mind that his elder brother's had been lost long ago. They had already heard his story, had listened to the man stutter and plead as he apologized over and over again. How he hated the weak and stupid. Looking down his nose at him, Inuyasha couldn't help but allow a look of disgust to cross his face. Pathetic little man... He just didn't understand humans sometimes. Why did they feel the need to try to beat the inevitable? It rarely changed anything, except his annoyance level of course.

It was simple. There were three things the Taisho family would never allow or forgive. Weakness, Blatant stupidity, and Disloyalty. The man before him had proved to be all three when he had given the police the date and location of one of their shipments. Disloyal little rat.

His ears twitched at the sound of an engine approaching. It passed and he returned his attention back to the task at hand. His brother lifted his hand, silencing the continuous blubbering. "You know Tenchi I find myself rather hurt tonight." He smirked as his brother's eyes slatted as he moved a hairs width closer to the quaking man. "Our family took you in as a nothing thief and gave you everything." His face was devoid of emotion, giving nothing away to the insignificant being before him. "Perhaps that was where we faulted. We spoiled you too much. What else were you supposed to turn out to be other than a greedy, self-serving little worm?"

He laughed at that, causing his brother to crack a rare grin. "Now come on Sesshomaru, you can't take all the blame. Tenchi here had to have always been a little bit of a snake. You can't blame yourself that he was good at hide…." He stopped. His ears perked at the sound of soft footfalls on gravel. Slowly he glanced up the top of the ditch. There stood a girl, her features indistinguishable amongst the darkness.

Growling in the ancient Inu-Youkai Tongue, his elder brother looked pointedly at him. :: Danger pack brother? :: Inuyasha tore his gaze from the girl to lock eyes with his brother, shaking his head as he did so.

“Nothing important.” He cast a side ways glance up towards the girl once more, his eyes trying to adjust enough to allow him a glimpse of her. Yet the darkness continued to bath her in it's cloak, shielding her from his prying eyes.

Tenchi took this moment to begin to plead once more. Inuyasha snapped his head back to the pathetic man. Frustrated he shot his leg out, smirking with pleasure as it contacted with the scumbags legs, knocking him off his feet. "You have to understand!" Tenchi was becoming hysterical now.

"Understand?” Clucking his tongue in disapproval a sinister smile wormed it's way onto his lips. “Fool, you have no idea the kind of damage you have caused us. You cry to me about understanding, what is there not to understand?” Sesshomaru advanced on him, his voice nothing more than a deathly whisper. "We saw you talking to detective Dokuga. And in case you weren't already aware of our policies," He gripped the trembling man's chin between his thumb and forefinger. "Rats have no purpose but to be exterminated.” Pushing the man's terrified visage away from him, as if disgusted by his very presence, he waved his hand dismissively before turning and walking back into the shadows.

Inuyasha smirked as his brother faded into the darkness, his golden eyes refracting the moonlight. Malicious hatred shone in his amber orbs as he looked callously at the feeble human that lay at his feet. Turning his head slowly, gold locked with blue as he once again found himself staring at the young woman. He didn't understand why he was so fascinated by her, why he didn't alert the others to her presence. Never once taking his eyes from her, his arm raised, the gun in his hand poised perfectly. Tenchi whimpered, one last pathetic attempt at mercy. "Please Sessho...!"

The hushed gunshot resounded in his sensitive ears. He kept his eyes trained on her, as if silently daring her to run, the most animalistic part of him wanting nothing more than to give chase to this brazen girl who had walked in on their affair. He found himself fascinated by her screams, they appealed to his youkai in the darkest of manners. Even as entranced by her as he was, he was still very much aware of the attention she had drawn to herself. Stupid girl. Miroku's gaze was now fixed on her as well, the houshi's fingers sliding over his holster. He could feel the blood flowing into his eyes, turning them red. She was his to harm, not the monks! His brother appeared at his side, his hand grasping his shoulder as he gave him a knowing look. The tension in the elder brothers body indicated his displeasure with the woman baring witness to them. Inclining his head towards her, Sesshomaru signalled for the pair to retrieve her. He felt torn. Unknown to him was his inner beast snarling at him to protect her, to take what was theirs. He swallowed hard, shaking his head to rid himself of such foolish nonsense. She was a faceless human wench, nothing more.

She bolted as they gave chase, her jacket falling forgotten to the ground. Inuyasha knew she would make it to her car, but the metal tin was hardly a safe haven from him. As he reached the top of the hill, his brother's voice stopped him. "Inuyasha, leave her." For anyone with lesser senses, they would not have heard his quiet command, but his ears picked Sesshomaru's words easily. Grabbing Miroku's arm to stop him, he turned and pulled the dark haired man back down with him.

He engine roared to life, her tires squealing as she drove away. As the pair rejoined Sesshomaru, a white pile caught his eye. With inhuman speed he ran to it, whisking it up into his grasp. Now that she was gone, and his youkai was quieted, his temper flared. He hated loose ends, snags in almost perfect procedures. They could have caught her. But now, now this would have to be handled more delicately. What had Sesshomaru been thinking?

Taking a breath he rationalized that this wasn't a big problem. She was just a woman. And a stupid one at that. She had left her jacket with identification on it. Even had the jacket been without I.D. her scent would have done the trick. It was unlike anything he had ever come across. Like cherry blossoms after a rainstorm, with an underlying stench of multiple diseases and illnesses. Sickness not from her but from hundreds. She was a doctor, which he knew even before her had found the Tokyo University Hospital Clearance tag. He fingered the cool plastic, lifting it to his golden orbs. "Hm, Kagome Higurashi." The last name sounded familiar, but why that was he couldn't discern. He hadn't ever seen the girl before.

“Why the hell would you call us back fluffy?!” He ignored the deadly glare from the elder demon, rolling his eyes as he marched up to him. “We could have caught her! Who knows if she took down your plates, or got a good look at our faces. Especially with that stupid fuck over there messing everything up, leaving a witness to run around blabbing her god damn mouth off doesn't really seem like a smart move.”

Sesshomaru's hand shot out like lightning, wrapping around the younger Taisho's throat in a vice-like grip. “You dare point that blame on me hanyou?” Inuyasha cringed at the insult, his ears flattening against his skull. “You were the one that let her remain there, her prying eyes and ears invading our business. How long did you know she was there for Inuyasha?” Letting his brother go, he sneered, his beautiful face scrunching up in disgust. “Staring at her like she was a bitch in heat. Disgraceful.”

Inuyasha flushed, a scowl marring his handsome face as he rubbed his neck. “It still doesn't explain why you called us back.”

Turning his back on his little brother, Sesshomaru looked off into the distance, his hands fisting. “Could you not hear him half-breed? Could you not smell his vile stench? There was a mouse that followed our rat here tonight, one that reeked of the Kumo-dokushii family.”

A mouse? He hadn't noticed anything. But then again his attentions were busy elsewhere. He growled at the mention of the Kumo-dokushii family. They were the second family in the Yakuza, and probably the most insane. Their leader, Naraku, was a sadistic psycho with a fetish for torturing and kidnapping young women. Ever since he had murdered his father, Onigumo, he had spent every moment trying to make his family the first, which meant destroying the Inu-no-Taisho clan. "When was he here? Where is he now?" He cast his eyes about, allowing them to land on a quickly approaching familiar form.

"He ran away after the girl screamed. I think her presence surprised him." Sesshomaru turned back to his brother, his agitation now showing clearly on his face. "Fortunately for us, Shippou was waiting in the trees just in case Tenchi tried to run. He caught a rat, just not the one we were expecting."

Shippou arrived at that moment, carrying a limp mouse youkai. "Rat? No, but close." Dropping his cargo unceremoniously on the ground, Shippou brushed off his pants before stretching. "I caught him alright, but not before he made a quick call. I heard the tail end of it. Something about a girl being a witness. I don't know."

Inuyasha kicked the mouse-youkai, but the man didn't move. "What did you do to him Shippou? Kill him?"

"I didn't. When I pounced on him he was still on the phone. I heard the guy on the other end say something and he just crumpled beneath me. I checked all his vitals, but he's dead." The kitsune rubbed his head, his tongue fingering his small fangs. "I swear guys; I didn't do anything to him."

Miroku cleared his throat, his indigo eyes staring aimlessly up at the sky. The barely there moon smiled mockingly down at them. "Shippou what exactly did he say to the guy on the phone?" As he asked he knelt down to the new corpse before him. His aura crept out to touch that of the deceased. A chill claimed his spine.

"After the chick screamed the guy ran. I followed him carefully. He pulled out his phone as he was running. He began to babble about the job being done perfectly except for one hitch." He looked nervously up at the three taller men. "He said that some girl that smelled like disinfectant and death had seen everything and that she had escaped. He said he knew who she was." Looking now at the dead man he grimaced. "All I heard was him say the name Toishii. That's when I jumped on him and that's when he just, died."

Miroku glanced at the two Inu brothers, his heart caught within his throat. "This man was killed with a very old spell. One that hasn't been seen in almost 500 years." He stood, his arms wrapping around himself, trying to regain some of his body heat.

Inuyasha growled, "But why would Naraku send a man to spy on us killing a rat, only to then turn around and kill his own guy? That doesn't make any sense."

Miroku walked over to Tenchi, his hands searching through the dead man's pockets. He pulled out his wallet. As he opened it realization dawned on him. Facing the other three men he spoke softly. "Because he didn't need him anymore. Instead of buying a testimony he's going to force one out of that girl."

"Testimony? What are you talking about Miroku? A testimony for what?" Shippou inquired, his green eyes narrowing in confusion.

"I think Naraku just figured out a way to end us," He flipped Tenchi's wallet over to show them the shining gold badge with the letters T.C.P.D. engraved neatly across the metal. "And furthermore, we just let a better witness for him get away."

Authors Note: Ok so that's the first chapter. I hope you guys like it. I'll try to have the next installment up as soon as possible. The more reviews, the more inclined I'll be to update quicker.