InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ The Aftermath ❯ The remains of a city, the remains of a life ( Chapter 1 )

In the remains of a war-torn world, can four individuals find peace?

A/N:Some of you guys may remember my old fic, The Streets, but I've removed it. It seemed too cliché to m, and I really wasn't happy with a lot of it. This one is pretty different, in my opinion. I've never seen it done quite like this, as far as I know.

I'm hoping FF.net/MM.org doesn't kill my formatting on this, so if it's all garbled together, sorry.

Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha or any of the songs contained within.

Songs are listed w/ copyrights and the like at the end of the fic.

_____The Aftermath_____

[music]

Silently to silence fall

In the fields of futile war

Toys of death are spitting lead

Where boys that were our soldiers bled

War horse and war machine

[/music]

Inuyasha stood at the doorsteps of his old apartment. It was raining, but he didn't much care. It had soaked through his fatigues, the standard camo green jumpsuit. His helmet was slowly spinning beside him, water building up and then spilling out in a continual process.

[music]

Curse the name of liberty

Marching on as if they should

Mix in the dirt our brothers' blood

[/music]

He had returned from the fighting, expecting his home to be largely unchanged. Instead, he found himself standing in the remains of what could only be part of hell he had yet to visit. He had heard that fighting had been bad in his homeland, but he had never expected this. This was what he and his comrades had done to the enemy, not the enemy to them.

[music]

In the mud and rain

What are we fighting for

Is it worth the pain

It is worth dying for

Who will take the blame

Why did they make a war

Questions that come again

Should we be fighting at all

[/music]

Inuyasha stood staring for many hours, and then finally sat on the steps. He contemplated going inside and searching through the rubble for his belongings, but he doubted there would be anything salvageable in the wreckage.

[music]

Once a ploughman hitched his team

Here he sowed his little cream

Now bodies arms and legs are strewn

Where mustard gas and barbwire bloom

Each moment's like a year

I've nothing left inside for tears

Comrades dead or dying lie

I'm left alone asking why

[/music]

'What the hell happened? The whole fucking city is burning, and there's no one doing anything about it. The war ended weeks ago, and the city is STILL BURNING. Did we really lose so much as to let this sort of thing happen?'

[music]

In the mud and rain

What are we fighting for

Is it worth the pain

It is worth dying for

Who will take the blame

Why did they make a war

Questions that come again

Should we be fighting at all

[/music]

His ears caught a faint tune coming from inside the wreckage of the apartment, so he decided to investigate. 'Might be a CD player or something. Might as well take it, don't have anything else of my own... Just my gun'

[music]

After the war

Left feeling no one has won

After the war

What does a soldier become

[/music]

As his luck had it, it was a CD player, and a nice one at that. "Score ... Now let's see what's playing..."

He opened it up, and found that it was some old punk band. "Feh, no fucking taste. Punk.... Bunch of shit, I need some metal..."

He continued muttering to himself as he went to his old room, in hopes of finding something good to listen to. He found most of his apartment to be unable to be salvaged, such as his TV and desktop computer, but his laptop seemed to be intact, besides the large amount of water that had gathered on it.

After drying it off, he put it on the remains of a table under which the ceiling was still intact, and turned it on. While it booted up, he continued his search throughout his home, and came up with several things worthy of carrying, in his mind, at any rate. Several sets of clothes, some accessories to the laptop such as the power cord and network cable, several hundred dollars worth of cash, and, most importantly in his opinion, his three CD wallets, containing 100 CDs each.

'Score! Real music! The money is nice, so are the clothes and laptop... but I survive on my music!'

He tested out the laptop, put in an Iron Maiden album in the CD player, shoved everything he wasn't using in his large army-issued backpack, hoping it was more water proof than his previous ones.

He replaced the large headphones with earpieces, stuck them in the triangular ears adorning the top of his head, and dialed the volume up.

As he began to walk through the whole in the wall that had been serving as an entrance, he noticed his ATM card, lying by a surprisingly intact table at the original door. 'I doubt the bank has any money, the economy really collapsed... But it's worth a try to get some money.'

Most people would assume that the ATM's would have been stolen and broken into, but having been in a life of crime before being sentenced to the army, Inuyasha knew otherwise. Not much could break into them, and moving them was a waste of time.

As he stepped outside of the apartments, he picked up his helmet, drained the water out, and placed it on his head. 'Things are looking up, I suppose. I've got some money, a computer, and most importantly of all, music.'

At the first location he remembered an ATM to be, he was greeted with the site of a bombed out building, and decided to go elsewhere. 'Few things open up ATM's, but I don't doubt a fucking bomb would do it... Money probably burned up too. No chance of any being left, though. Looters would certainly have gotten anything that the fire spared.'

Now that he thought of it, he was surprised that everything in the apartments hadn't been stolen. 'A bit of a miracle, really...'

He spent several hours in search of an ATM machine that was still working or in place, and finally found one... Only to be disappointed in the fact that the banks were without any money at all. They apparently had sent people to empty the ATM's and replenish their vaults long ago. 'Guess money is more important than people's lives... Greedy assholes'

During his search, it had been rare to see any people... beyond that of gangs. They seemed to be everywhere, running around, doing whatever they pleased. That explained the lack of any sort of officials on the streets. The politicians and their workers would be looked upon unkindly, and as it seemed, unkindly would be the death of you.

Inuyasha decided to set off towards the heart of the city, and see what remained of it. As he grew closer, there were more civilians, as he had started to refer to the city dwellers who seemed to not be part of a gang. In his mind, the city was a war zone, one with many more sides than two.

He also noticed that more and more gang members were sighted as well, but they all wore similar colors, and seemed to be guarding the people. 'I suppose not everyone is bad, but I can't tell at this point... Protection usually comes at a cost, and there's no telling if the cost being paid here is worth it...'

Other soldiers had been cycled back to their homes before he had been, and others had been stationed there during the defensive fighting. Inuyasha assumed that they were responsible for the forming of the gangs.

'This whole thing doesn't seem right to me... This should be a city, not a battlefield. The army is still full of plenty career soldiers, not just draftees like myself... Why are they just ignoring this problem?'

Inuyasha felt like voicing his thoughts to someone, but didn't know of anyone whom he could trust. As he came nearer to the center of the city, the gang presence decreased, though the civilian population increased. 'I suppose they feel that they only need to defend the perimeter...'

He yawned, and resolved to find a place to sleep. There were still plenty of abandoned buildings around, so he traveled through some back alleys. As it grew darker, he turned off the music and removed the earpieces to rely on his hearing.

[music]

Loaded, stormin' out of control
Fired up, hell ridin' we roll
Drinkin' from the well of the damned
Seize the roads, assault the land

[/music]

As he traveled, hoping to get as far away from the presence of humans and youkai as possible, he heard a shrill scream and yells for help. He instantly ran off in the direction they were coming from, turning down the alleys and streets until he arrived.

[music]

Respect through fear
Walkin' tall
Beyond unreal

[/music]

There were several men and spider youkai standing around a young lady, roughly Inuyasha's age. The men were mostly younger than he was, and wearing the colors of one of the more violent gangs he had seen outside of the supposed protected zone. He rushed in, extending the claws on his left hand, and pulling out his pistol with his right.

[music]

Always up for the ride
Junkies of the genocide

Risin' always above
Hell ridin' never enough
The rush of the chrome, to reign supreme
Pistons of torture, crucifixion of speed

[/music]

He fired a warning shot, and the men turned to look at him. Instead of standing down, they began to pull out their own weapons.

[music]

Respect through fear
Walkin' tall
Beyond unreal

Always up for the ride
Junkies of the genocide
Always up for the ride
Junkies of the genocide

[/music]

Inuyasha jumped over the head of the first man, and backhanded him into the wall, and punched the next in the face. The man crumpled instantly, and the others ran off. He turned to face the spider youkai, who were completely ignoring him, and stabbing at the girl with their spindly limbs.

[music]

Intimidation, degradation, loomin' large, desecration
Bury the old game, worship the insane
Tomorrow will soon be here
Immune to fear, tomorrow is never here
Hell ridin' the gears of life
Intimidation, degradation, loomin' large, desecration

[/music]

She was avoiding the majority of them, but several slashes across her face and arms proved that she couldn't dodge them forever. Inuyasha shot one in the back of the head, and fired several rounds into the abdomen of the other.

[music]

Always up for the ride
Junkies of the genocide
Always up for the ride
Junkies of the genocide

[/music]

He hurried to the girl's side, and looked over her wounds. None seemed to be life threatening, but she was losing large amounts of blood.

"Thank you... you saved me..."

Inuyasha grunted in acknowledgment. "Where do you live? Get on my back and I'll carry you there... You're too weak to walk."

The girl looked at him in indecision for several seconds, before decided to go with her strange rescuer. 'If he saved me, I doubt he's going to harm me... And he does appear to be a soldier... I guess I trust him for now....'

"Uh.... okay ...."

She hesitantly climbed on his back, and began to give him instructions. As he began to turn around, he felt a sharp stab of pain, and looked at the leg that seemed to be growing out of his chest.

"Fuck..."

Inuyasha grunted in pain, pulled out his pistol, fired several more rounds into the spider demon that had stabbed him, and jumped up onto the nearest intact rooftop. He followed the girl's directions, but ignored all of her questions concerning his health.

He arrived at the location, a nice looking apartment near the middle of the city, and stumbled through the door, and began to trudge up the stairs. "Which floor do you live on, and what room?"

"Eighth floor, third door on the right"

He grunted several times as he walked up the stairs, and each time drops of blood fell from his chest, but he continued without saying a word. He leaned against the door as the girl inserted her key and slid off his back. The door opened, and he walked several steps. He stopped, and the girl nearly bumped into him.

"By the way... What's your name?"

"Kagome. And yours?"

"Inuyasha."

And with this, he fell to the ground.

~Time Break~

When Inuyasha woke up, the next day, he found himself lying on a leather couch, wrapped in warm blankets. His helmet and backpack were lying on the ground beside him, and his fatigues were sitting on a table beside what appeared to be a washing machine.

'Wait.... What the hell? Why are my clothes over there instead of on me? What the fuck happened? All I remember was saving that Kagome girl, then getting her to her home, and then I blacked out... Shit, she must be taking care of me or something!"

He lifted up the blankets and saw that his chest had been bandaged, and in the center of it some pinkish red had gone through. To his relief, he still had his boxers on, though was still embarrassed due to his lack of clothing.

He saw a piece of paper lying on the table beside the couch, and sat up to read it.

'Inuyasha,

I've gone out to get some groceries and talk with some people. If you wake up before I get back, help yourself to the food in the fridge. I should be home within an hour or two of leaving, so if you need anything else, it shouldn't take too long.

Also, I hope you don't mind me bandaging your wound. Your clothes are over by the washer and dryer.

Kagome'

"Feh... didn't need to banded up my chest... I'm a hanyou, wounds will heal just find if left alone..."

Inuyasha reluctantly got out of the warmth of the blankets, and went to retrieve his clothes. He preferred his military jumpsuit to his regular clothes, it was more comfortable and flexible.

He nodded in satisfaction as he saw that any bloodstains that he had left on it had been washed off, and pulled it on.

He pulled his laptop out of his bag, and plugged in the power supply to the wall, and then hooked it up to the laptop. He was pleasantly surprised to find a small hub in the corner, and stretched out his ethernet cable and hooked his computer up to the Internet.

While his computer started up, he went into the kitchen and opened up the refrigerator. 'This apartment really is nice... much better than my place... wonder if there are any open rooms... probably not, but I'll ask the owner or the person in charge, I suppose.'

When he returned to sit on the couch and use his laptop, he carried with him a very large sandwich, scrambled eggs, bacon, and a cup of coffee.

By the time Kagome had returned, he had eaten the sandwich, eggs, bacon, and had begun on some random snacks he had found in the pantry.

When she surveyed the mess of plates and bags on the table and food on Inuyasha's face, her right eyebrow began to twitch. 'He certainly eats like a dog...'

Inuyasha was typing and munching away on a handful of chips happily for a minute or so before he realized that Kagome was watching him, after which he scrambled for the nearby box of tissue and used one to wipe off his face.

"Uhh ... sorry?"

She gave him a thin smile while her twitching eyebrow began to stop, and asked him politely if he would help her bring in the bags of food.

"Sure."

After replenishing the fridge and pantry after hiss vicious assault on their stores, Inuyasha sat back down and went back to work on his laptop. Kagome sat down beside him, and began to speak.

"I never got a chance to really thank you for saving me... so thanks, I would probably be dead or raped in that back alley if you hadn't come along and helped me..."

It took Inuyasha a moment to register that he was being thanked, and mumbled for a few seconds before coming up with an intelligible reply.

"It was nothing, I am a soldier and all... It's my job to protect and server, and all of that stuff... I was just in the right place at the right time... though I am mad that the bastard stabbed me..."

Kagome sat thoughtfully for a few seconds, and then asked him a question she had asked many times the day before: "Are you alright.... I mean.... he did stab you through the stomach and all..."

"Feh, some fucking spider ain't going to kill me. I'm a hanyou, he didn't do any serious damage."

They sat in silence for several moments, before Inuyasha seemed to realize that she lived alone.

"You live alone?"

"Not until recently..." a pained look crossed her face before she continued, "I was living with my mother and brother, but they left to go to America, saying it was safer there. I stayed to finish college... but it it was blown up just before my final exams to get my bachelor's degree."

"Oh... but that sounds like it happened a while ago, not recently..."

Another pained look, this time with a small smile to it. "You're too smart for your own good... I lived with my grandfather at our old shrine, but while I was away, a bomb missed it's target and hit the shrine.."

With this, several tears streaked down her face, to Inuyasha's extreme discomfort. He awkwardly placed a hand on her shoulder.

"Hey... I didn't mean to make you cry.... "

She sniffled several times, and then laughed.

"You're not used to comforting people, are you?"

Inuyasha frowned, let out a "Feh!", and went back to working on his laptop.

"So, Inuyasha, do you have a place to stay?"

"...."

"Inuyasha, c'mon. Tell me."

"... no...."

"If you promise not to peep on me or hurt me or something, you can stay in one of the extra bedrooms. This apartment is really big, I don't use much of the room at all"

"...."

"Please?"

".... no."

"C'mon Inuyasha, you have nowhere to stay, and it's impossible to find decent shelter, and I get lonely in here by myself!"

"....Feh."

"Is that a yes?"

"...."

"Inuyasha..."

"Fine!"

His ears twitched in irritation, and Kagome watched them with silent glee. After several moments, she began to giggle. Inuyasha sent her a questioning look, and she shrugged. Her reserve quickly ran out, and she began to laugh. Inuyasha looked at her like she was crazy, and decided to get her to talk about something before she went insane.

"What happened to the city while I was gone?"

"Well... it was normal, until it was bombed out. Anarchy broke loose really quickly, and gangs started to form. The officials realized that they would be killed if they tried to impose any authority, so they're all in hiding. Most of the gangs spend all of their time fighting each other, though several, like Kouga's Wolf pack, the gang who rules over the area we're in, spend most of their time defending the people."

"Obviously not well enough...."

"Well, it is much better here than it is on the outside of the inner city. The problem is, the gangs are made up of street kids and low ranking soldiers. No one with any real experience or wisdom in the matter is running things, except for Naraku's gang... but they spend all of their time killing and plundering... they were the ones who attacked me yesterday...."

At this point, the door slammed open, and a girl with her hair tied in a high ponytail came in, yelling something about 'perverted boys who needed to keep their hands to themselves' and followed closely by so called 'perverted boy'.

Inuyasha blinked once, twice, three times and then...

"Miroku, you ugly bastard, what the hell are you doing here?"

Miroku stopped mid-sentence, just now realizing who all was occupying the room.

"Great, he didn't die in the war. Just my luck."

At this, Inuyasha walked over to Miroku, clapped him on the back, and whispered something that sounded suspiciously like "My guitar better be in fucking perfect condition or you are one dead asshole."

"Your Les Paul is in perfect condition, don't worry. It's at Sango's" he said, gesturing to the woman who he had followed in.

"Oh. Hi Sango, didn't notice you there"

"Inuyasha ... I see you're as dense as ever."

As all of this was occurring, it was Kagome's turn to blink.

"You guys know each other?"

Miroku spoke up first, his grin belaying his words. "Unfortunately."

Inuyasha nodded, "Yea, Miroku's the bassist in my heavy metal band. Sango's the drummer. This one kid named Shippo plays secondary guitar... Speaking of the little brat, where is he?"

"Right here!" called a voice hidden by three guitars, all of them rather large.

Inuyasha walked over to Shippo, and picked up the guitar that was black and white concentric circles on it It's fretboard was ebony, and had a pearl black inlay, and golden hardware.

"This," Inuyasha announced, "Is my pride and joy. Zakk Wylde Signature Gibson Les Paul."

Shippo handed Miroku a black bass guitar, and then set his metallic red electric beside the couch.

"I'll be right back with some practice amps and amp modelers"

"What about me? I'm not carrying my drums in here! Why didn't we just go to your room?"

"We don't care about drums, we don't need them, we just need guitars! 'Cause I WANNA ROCK!"

"Inuyasha ... you're an idiot."

Before Inuyasha could respond, Shippo was in the room and plugging in the amps and cables. Inuyasha grabbed his guitar, and his lead was quickly followed by Miroku and Shippo.

[music]

I WANNA ROCK! (ROCK)

I WANNA ROCK! (ROCK)

I WANT TO ROCK (ROCK)

I WANNA ROCK! (ROCK)

[/music]

Inuyasha was singing the lead, with Miroku and Shippo coming in as his echo.

[music]

TURN IT DOWN YOU SAY,

WELL ALL I GOT TO SAY TO YOU IS TIME AND TIME AGAIN I SAY, "NO!"

NO! NO, NO, NO, NO, NO!

TELL ME NOT TO PLAY

WELL, ALL I GOT TO SAY TO YOU WHEN YOU TELL ME NOT TO PLAY,

I SAY, "NO!"

NO! NO, NO, NO, NO, NO!

SO, IF YOU ASK ME WHY I LIKE THE WAY I PLAY IT

THERE'S ONLY ONE THING I CAN SAY TO YOU

I WANNA ROCK! (ROCK)

I WANNA ROCK! (ROCK)

I WANT TO ROCK (ROCK)

I WANNA ROCK! (ROCK)

THERE'S A FEELIN' THAT

I GET FROM NOTHIN' ELSE AND THERE AIN'T NOTHIN' IN THE WORLD

THAT MAKES ME GO!

GO! GO, GO, GO, GO, GO!

TURN THE POWER UP

I'VE WAITED FOR SO LONG SO I COULD HEAR MY FAVORITE SONG SO,

LET'S GO!

GO! GO, GO, GO, GO, GO!

WHEN IT'S LIKE THIS I FEEL THE MUSIC SHOOTIN' THROUGH ME

THERE'S NOTHIN' ELSE THAT I WOULD RATHER DO

I WANNA ROCK! (ROCK)

I WANNA ROCK! (ROCK)

I WANT TO ROCK (ROCK)

I WANNA ROCK! (ROCK)

I WANNA ROCK (ROCK)

ROCK (ROCK)

ROCK (ROCK)

I WANNA ROCK (ROCK)

ROCK (ROCK)

ROCK (ROCK)

I WANT TO ROCK (ROCK)

ROCK (ROCK)

ROCK (ROCK)

I WANNA ROCK (ROCK)

ROCK (ROCK)

ROCK (ROCK)

I WANNA ROCK

[/music]

Inuyasha held his guitar up in front of him, his fingers flying over the fret board, using a pick that had earlier materialized out of nowhere.

[music]

I WANNA ROCK! (ROCK)

I WANNA ROCK! (ROCK)

I WANT TO ROCK (ROCK)

I WANNA ROCK! (ROCK)

I WANNA ROCK (ROCK)

ROCK (ROCK)

ROCK (ROCK)

I WANNA ROCK (ROCK)

ROCK (ROCK)

ROCK (ROCK)

I WANT TO ROCK (ROCK)

ROCK (ROCK)

ROCK (ROCK)

I WANNA ROCK (ROCK)

ROCK (ROCK)

ROCK (ROCK)

I WANNA ROCK

[/music]

"I WANNA ROCK!" Inuyasha yelled out, oblivious to the looks everyone gave him as he continued to sing past the song's ending, taking several seconds to realize they were staring at him. "What?"

Sango sighed, and gave him a simple retort. "I stand by my earlier comment. Inuyasha, you're an idiot." Soon after her comment, she felt a certain someone's hand on her back and heading down. "Miroku, you're dead."

As Sango proceeded to beat Miroku senseless, Shippo gave an apologetic sigh and proceeded to usher them out of the room. "We'll be back later... sometimes it seems I'm more of an adult than these two...."

Kagome sat silently, her face scrunched up in concentration. "So, you know Miroku and Sango?"

Inuyasha nodded. "Yea, I've known them for a long time, Shippo too. Miroku got stuck in the air force during the war, though... I was a foot soldier. We've played in the same band for years, though we never actually performed anywhere."

"Oh. Well, that's nice." She trailed her hands across the strings on his guitar before continuing, "You play the guitar well."

Inuyasha smirked. "Yea, I know."

[/chapter]

And so ends the first chapter of The Aftermath. Let me know what you think!

Here's my random tidbit of the chapter:

Elementary level Kanji is roughly 1000 symbols. Most published works use a set of around 2000. The average Japanese adult knows from 3000 to 4000.

Japanese is a hard language to learn.

There are some good things around for learning it, though. I suggest Slime Forest, a fun game that works really well for teaching. http:// www. lrnj .com, just remove the spaces.

-_Credits_-

Iron Maiden - The Aftermath (This song will be popping up a lot. It's where the inspiration [and name] for this fic came from)

Black Label Society - Genocide Junkies (Zakk Wylde's band, Inuyasha's guitar is his custom model. I own the Epiphone version, but Inuyasha apparently has $3000 more than I do, and got the Gibson model. Wylde is also more widely known as Ozzy's guitarist)

Twisted Sister - I Wanna Rock (What else can I say besides I WANNA ROCK!)