InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Puppet Without Strings ❯ Inuyasha's Wheel Of Life ( Chapter 8 )

Puppet Without Strings

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Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha.

Pairings: InuKag, MirSan. Others have yet to either be revealed or thought up. They will probably not be straying too far from canon.

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- Chapter 7 -

The scratch of chalk over smooth slate forged a patterned rhythm that echoed in the silence and imprinted itself onto Inuyasha's consciousness. The multiple slides of various other writing instruments across the surfaces of nineteen note pads around the twelfth grade classroom added their own unique intonations to the overall harmony of the history lesson. Inuyasha himself had never been a good team player and had naturally opted for non-conformity. His history notes saw not a single word copied off the black board ahead. It instead comprised of a variety of random doodled images; Guns and knives, grenades and blood, claws and fangs. All of which had been created when he had still been somewhat concentrating on the lesson. As of five minutes ago, his attention span had been wholly depleted and he now settled for counting the hairs on Jaken's, oh excuse him, Professor Jaken's balding head to pass the time. He gave up at twenty-seven when he realised he'd double-counted a couple of them.

The greying strands in question flicked to the side when Jaken turned round to address his class.

"And that would be all I have for you today. Do you have any questions?"

Inuyasha perked up. Jaken had stopped writing on the black board! That would mean that the lesson had come to an end and soon he'd be free to frolic as he pleased.… Back to resuming his guarding duties, that is. The happy thought was somewhat dampened by that little fact. Somewhere to Inuyasha's right, a pudgy hand lifted into the air.

"Yes, Tanaka-san?"

Inuyasha had a good mind to chuck his pencil sharpener at the boy three seats across. What on earth more could the idiot want to know about a damn event that happened two decades ago?! Jaken's notes could have practically filled up a black board and a half!

-Fucking grade-grubber-

It was understandable that the students at this academy were a tad more competitive than normal. Considering most of their parentages, Inuyasha was willing to bet that they'd all been pushed to perform at their best since they'd been in diapers. His lips emitted an inaudible growl as he plonked his cheek upon an upraised right palm. Through the open window, he watched as Higurashi Souta played soccer out on the field with his physical education class. For the third time that lesson, Inuyasha cursed himself for being the age he was. The nine-year olds outside looked happy in their over-sized soccer shirts and mud-soaked shin guards. Inuyasha wished he could be out there playing sport too. Hell, even the ball looked less miserable than he was feeling now, despite having been kicked around pretty roughly by energetic youngsters.

"-ince they knew that demon blooded soldiers were so strong, I simply don't understand why the government couldn't have just introduced conscription at the start of the war to get as many as they could to fight. The conflict wouldn't have had to last for as long as it did then."

Inuyasha swallowed a scoff. Sometimes, he found it hard to understand how some of the brightest youths in all of Sengoku could be so amazingly narrow-minded. He'd come to realise in his time at SNIE, that intelligence did not necessarily incorporate awareness. He simply couldn't believe how sheltered some of these students were.

Jaken spoke his response without so much as a hitch. It was incredible how the wrinkled toad could be so damnably patient with other students when he was an absolute monster to Inuyasha himself. If it had been himself up there, the sheer ignorance that the question had portrayed would have driven him insane.

-Hn. The old fart just likes to show off how much he knows that's all-

"Ah, but you are forgetting, Tanaka-san that back then, youkai neither viewed themselves as subject to the government's authority nor obeyed Sengoku's laws. Sure, politically it was seen as such, but in the hearts of the people, our two races might have just as well belonged on completely different planets. You would never have seen a human person associating with demons or vice versa. During the first few years of the war, my kind kept entirely to ourselves. We viewed the conflict as a human problem and so, chose not to interfere."

The Tanaka kid still looked puzzled.

"But if youkai did not comply with the rules of our nation then why hadn't they been extricated from the land even before the war began? How could they still have been living on Sengoku soil when they hadn't technically been part of the rest of Sengoku? Didn't the government care?"

Inuyasha couldn't contain his scoff this time. It came out a little louder than had been intended. A few curious eyes turned on him. The pair that belonged to Jaken looked irritated. His voice turned gruff when he addressed the hanyou.

"Do you have something to add, Nishijima-san?"

It took Inuyasha's daydreaming mind a second or two to process that the name that had been spoken was in fact, supposed to be his. He tore his gaze from the window and turned it towards the class. He cringed when he saw that all eyes had been fixed onto him. Of course being Inuyasha, he issued them a glare of his very own. But when the expectant gazes did not waver, he came to realise that his classmates were waiting for an answer.

He heaved an irritated sigh before turning to the boy who'd spoken previously.

"Yo Takuya-"

"Tanaka!"

"Whatever. Let me ask you something. Have you ever tried reasoning with a demon before? A strong one."

"I-"

He took the silence that followed as a reply in negative.

"Hn. Thought so. Well let me tell you that, simply put, you can't. When it comes down to it no one, would have been able to dictate a demon of power in his actions. Did it ever cross your mind that us humans would never have stood a chance against the demon kind if we had tried to make them leave?"

The Tanaka boy tried his best to save face.

"But there weren't many youkai in existence back then! I mean even now, they only make up a very small minority..."

Inuyasha rolled his eyes.

"Yes. And that would be because most of the weaker ones would already have been killed off by humans from the time we first came to settle in this region. After two hundred years, I doubt that many would have been left. The few youkai that did remain, however, would have been the ones that had survived those two centuries of human attacks leading up to the war. They would have been the ones that our ancestors had not dared to fight. Why? Because they had done so before and lost. So then, if no humans had been willing to play police man, then I suspect the stronger demons would have continued living happily in Sengoku despite their lack of adherence to its laws."

Inuyasha finished with a roll of his humanized eyes.

- Keh! Who wants a freaking degree when all you really need common sense? -

By this time, the room's occupants had been stunned to silence. The unexpected show of intelligence had obviously come as a great surprise. For many of the individuals present, it had been the first time they'd even heard the new boy speak. Most had simply passed him off as a typical loner slash trouble maker. One of those delinquent types whose rich parents had gotten so fed up with, that they'd dumped him off in SNIE for the sole purpose of kicking him out of the house.

Jaken's loud cough brought their attention back to the front of the room.

"Right, now that we've heard Nishijima-san's insightful speech, I shall be inclined to continue. Our focus today was supposed to have been the causes of the war. But since Tanaka-san has so kindly brought up this other issue, I shall tell you a little bit more about what we will be covering next lesson."

And continue he did. In monologue. Inuyasha wanted to die.

"In summary, Eiji Higurashi, who had been a colonel in the army then, had been the first one to acknowledge the need for demon cooperation in order for Sengoku not to have lost the war. He proposed a truce of sorts that was initially not taken very seriously."

Across the room, pens that had previously been stored away into their rightful cases were once again whipped out and put to work, their owners not wanting to miss even a smidgen of potential examination material.

"However, the marriage of an influential demon leader to the sister of then President Yamaoka Takemaru was what later brought Colonel Higurashi's proposed truce into the spotlight."

Jaken's voice had taken on such an edge of pride at this last comment that Inuyasha had to squirm. It scared him sometimes how much Jaken idolized his father and brother. Inuyasha found it unhealthy. For him, the mention of his late parents brought his gaze back out towards the school field.

"The rare interracial union between Lord Taisho and Miss Izayoi came with perfect timing. Before them, wedlock of such a nature had been virtually unheard of. As would have been expected, the responses to their decision to be togther were far from positive but despite the odds, they succeeded in introducing a controversial new idea to many of Sengoku's people. Both had been well loved amongst their respective kinds and so naturally, the marriage and their influence saw to it that members from our two races started to re-question our dislike for one another. Many of us soon came to realise that our reasons for hatred had been on the whole, baseless. The couple lead by example and through them, Sengoku soon started to see that it was indeed possible for harmony to exist between human and demon kinds despite extreme differences. Heh. In their case class, I guess love really did conquer all."

While the position of his head remained unchanged, Inuyasha could hear more than see the reactions of love struck females around the room. A wistful sigh here; A feminine giggle there; A couple of whispered `aww's' diagonally across the room from him. He tried to shut them out. He tried to shut everything out.

His parents' courtship had been short. Their marriage spawned purely out of a sense of obligation towards their people. The hardship they had endured due to their selfless sacrifices had been real! It had been painful. And now here this little imp was, degrading their story; Making it seem like some sort of unearthly fairytale that teenaged girls could coo about. Inuyasha hid his snarl.

"And so that, ladies and gentlemen, marked one of the major turning points in Sengoku's history. Demon involvement in the war effort soared after that and well, as you know, the rest is history."

Jaken chuckled at his little pun. He had consciously left out the fact that it had been the birth of the couple's first child, a son of human and demon blood, that had really sealed the truce and made it concrete.

Inuyasha's gaze was distant.

He hadn't thought of his parents in a long time. They'd left the world when he'd been a mere toddler. The first four months of his orphaned life had seen him placed in a home which he didn't quite remember.

Sesshoumaru had been made his legal guardian after that. A responsibility he had kept until a few days ago when Inuyasha had turned eighteen. Even at the age of four, the hanyou had still to have met his older half brother. He'd finally gotten the chance when Sesshoumaru had retrieved him after returning from the last remnants of fighting in the east. He'd had spent the rest of his pre-military life in his brother's charge.

SNIE's lunch chimes sounded somewhere in the distance and Inuyasha unthinkingly rose from his desk, slinging a red schoolbag over one shoulder. He barely avoided crashing into the person before him. So lost he was in his reminiscing.

He remembered how, at the age of eight, he'd been sent to the newly formed Sector So54 for gifted individuals, which catered to the employment of demonic and magic-handling persons into the military. That had been ten long years ago. Inuyasha hadn't been able to spend much time with Sesshoumaru after that. He'd always been too busy with his own assignments.

And now, here he was, pulled back under his brother's perfectionist authority. Life sure did have a funny way of repeating itself when you least expected it to. It reminded Inuyasha of the wheel of a car. Once every revolution, a single point on the tyre would always find itself rolling downwards again to be submerged in the adhesive sludge of the road it was on. Inuyasha felt currently, like he was at that unfortunate point on his wheel of life. Yes, he was in deep sludge. It was only a matter of time now before Sesshoumaru returned to pommel him for nearly breaking cover. Inuyasha currently felt as a lamb would while awaiting its time in the slaughter house…

But he'd be damned if he was going to get all poetic over the dilemma! Inuyasha shook his head to clear it of unwanted thoughts. Jaken was certainly having a negative influence on his psyche.

-Keh! Wheel of life… What am I, William fucking Shakespeare? I knew the cafeteria lady put something dodgy in that pie -

What he needed was some fresh air and a nice, steaming bowl of ramen.

"Nishijima! See me after class."

Inuyasha grunted a response and continued walking, worn sneakers dragging themselves across varnished wooden floor tiles, headed for the doors.

Jaken bristled.

A sympathetic female student decided to lend a hand before the old toad's anger made him burst.

"Um… Nishijima-kun. It's after class now."

Inuyasha would have continued walking had Jaken not flung a piece of chalk at his head. The ramen bowls dancing around in his mind disappeared with sad little pops when the white object connected with the back of his skull. He turned around in reflex.

"Good to know that you aren't entirely numb-skulled, Nishijima. Get back here now."

Jaken really needed to lay off the wise-cracks. It was like he was trying to be Sesshoumaru or something. A shorter, wrinklier, greener Sesshoumaru. With less hair. The thought left Inuyasha slightly sick. Jaken reminded him of old lady Kaede in a way. It must have been the toad's insatiable need to see Inuyasha suffer that lead him to make the connection. And there was also the fact that both were absolutely ancient but still very much single, though Inuyasha would readily admit that Kaede was a lot less taxing to look at than Jaken could ever hope to be. Maybe they were so nasty to him because they were both lonely and bitter. Inuyasha paused for a second. Come to think of it, they'd probably make quite a fitting couple. As quickly as that thought emerged, it was pushed aside. No, that wouldn't work. One could never be too sure about Jaken's sexual preferences; what with how enamoured the toad had been and still was with his brother. But Inuyasha was about ninety-five percent sure he knew what the answer was.

"What's up, professor?"

He made sure to keep a safe distance from Jaken. He didn't want toad guts flying onto his newly pressed uniform when the geezer's head finally popped from anger.

"Watch that attitude boy."

"What attitude would you be referring to Professor?"

Inuyasha decided that it was fun being told off by a person one-third your own height. The most Jaken could do to him was maul his leg.

"What attitude hanyou? Why, the one with the damn superiority complex, of course! The one that screams for attention even when you're supposed to be lying low! That attitude is what the one I am talking about! What the hell was that all about just now? The last time I checked, showing off your knowledge to everyone around you had not been in the job requirements. You acted like some sort of attention-seeking five-year-old brat."

Inuyasha pretended to look affronted. Jaken continued in a smaller voice, made even softer by the fact that his teeth were firmly clenched.

"I've a good mind to give you hell's worth of detention. However, that would be impeding on your duties so I must regretfully refrain from doing so."

Inuyasha had the audacity to look a little smug. However, if he had been paying close enough attention to the shorter youkai, he would have seen the malevolent gleam that had entered his dark eyes. Perhaps Jaken's next bit of information would not have come as so much of a mood-killer then.

"I'll leave the chastisement to Sesshoumaru-sama, instead. He'll be arriving tonight."

The resemblance to Kaede had become uncanny. Made more so when Jaken let out a throaty cackle after that sentence. Inuyasha couldn't have been more aggravated now. He had literally to clamp a firm hand down on his right leg. So strong had the urge to step on Jaken been.

"Hn. I'd say Professor, that you take far too much pleasure in that little fact. Either you really, really hate me or you must really miss my brother a lot."

If Jaken's skin hadn't been the dark shade it already was, Inuyasha could have sworn the little imp had blushed. He flung a piece of paper at the hanyou.

"Just you wait, brat. You'll be getting yours soon enough! Be at that spot and that exact time! Now get out of my sight!"

Inuyasha smirkingly left the room.

Half way through lunch saw the half-demon slurping his seafood ramen distractedly atop an obscure limb of a large tree. After that incident with Higurashi Kagome in the stairwell, he knew he couldn't risk meeting the girl a second time. And so, he'd had to change his stake out location to another indistinct area of the school. He'd found the perfect solution to his plight in this tree. Its canopy was thick and hid him easily from anyone who might have been looking. That, plus the fact that this back area of the school was practically deserted, gave Inuyasha the privacy he so needed to do his job well.

Inuyasha held out his right palm. Upon it lay the cause of his current state of distraction.

The scrap of paper that held the details of his and Sesshoumaru's intended meeting point was plain and crumpled. To any other person, it would have seemed like just another piece of trash fit for nowhere other than the confines of a rubbish bin. In Jaken's over-stylized cursive, the note read, "Shijun 2330"

The place and time.

Shijun. Purity. Ironic really, that it was the name of a nightclub on the… wilder side of town. Sesshoumaru sure knew how to pick them. Inuyasha had always secretly entertained the notion that his half brother wasn't as much of a prude as he made himself out to be. This confirmed it.

The hanyou ran over possible excuses he could make. Possible ways he could get out of the meeting unscathed. After some time, the proverbial idea-bulb brightened.

- Wait a second! Nightclub equals bar, bar equals alcohol and alcohol… alcohol equals loss of soberness. Holy shit, that's it! Maybe if I get Sesshoumaru drunk enough… -

He didn't get a chance to finish that thought. Because something below him caught his attention.

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Kagome peered around from beneath her bangs with great caution. She tried not to do it too obviously. She knew it would be too conspicuous if she did. Her approach of the figure standing near the large tree with his hands shoved into uniform pockets was soundless, if a little rushed. The boy glanced up and smirked when he saw her.

"Heh. Never thought I'd be seeing you again, babe."

Kagome gave a weak smile.

"I never thought I'd come back but- Well… its been acting up again."

The boy pushed off the wall he had previously been leaning on. He walked until he stood in front of Kagome.

"Hn. All the better for me, eh? So then, how much do you want?"

Kagome pondered this for a second, then replied.

"Just two. I can't keep that many right now. It's too risky."

The boy's dark head shook with suppressed laughter.

"Hn. Must be annoying being constantly followed around. I'm surprised you managed to get round your watch to come see me. My you're a sneaky one."

As he spoke, his hand snuck into the inner pocket of his blazer and fished out two small paper sachets. He held them out to Kagome. She reached for them.

"How much?"

The smirk was back now. He avoided her grasping fingers and slid the objects into the inner pockets of Kagome's school jacket himself. Nimble fingers switched them for her purse.

"For you, babe, ten thousand."

After the stated amount had been retrieved from the cream-coloured money holder, the dark-haired boy handed the purse back to Kagome, shoved his hands into his pockets once more and sauntered away.

"Nice doing business with you, babe," he called over his shoulder.

Kagome didn't bother with a reply. She'd gotten what she needed. The shower that she'd left on in the gym's changing room had been running for nearly ten minutes already. She had to get back quickly before her bodyguard got suspicious. As she rounded a last corner and climbed back through the shower room window, she failed to notice the pair of amber eyes that watched her from under creased brows.

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