InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Zero-G ❯ Leaving on a Jet Plane ( Chapter 8 )

Author's Notes: Prepare to be dangled off a cliff edge. Mwahaha… ha…

Zero-G

Chapter Seven

Leaving on a Jet Plane

The apartment was stagnant. The fridge was humming in quiet contentment behind her, occasionally gurgling to itself, while the clock mounted on the wall above it provided an insistent tempo that seemed to get slower with every minute that passed.

Kagome sat quietly in the kitchen, too lost in her thoughts to take note of the passage of time. Her only clue was the square of sunlight that was moving across the table towards her resting hand until it was just kissing the tips of her fingers. Kagome roused herself enough to look across at the window where light and fresh air streamed through the broken pane of glass. Outside she could hear distant traffic and the sound of children playing in a back garden nearby. A cat mewed from the flower strewn trellis below.

The calm of the flat now seemed to echo inside Kagome's head. The questions and the thoughts stopped coming as the sun slid behind a cloud and the room went cold. She didn't know what to think anymore. She didn't know what questions she was supposed to ask or what she was supposed to do now that she knew the truth.

She knew how she was supposed to feel. Angry. Betrayed. Lost. But she couldn't identify her emotions right then… she just felt strangely empty and tired.

Inuyasha had promised that he would be back soon with her `ticket to freedom', whatever that meant. She sincerely doubted that `freedom' was even the right word. Her life, her freedom, had been snatched from her, and now she had nothing. No family, no friends, no home… so what was left?

Kagome slumped forward onto the table and closed her eyes, wishing that there was a solution to her problem that she just hadn't found yet.

The memory assaulted her in that moment of weakness.

"Let go! Stop it!"

A pavement and the stem of a street light whirled past her vision.

Kagome flinched as her head suddenly throbbed with pain, and she whipped a hand towards her skull, almost certain that she could feel a trickle of fresh blood. But it was just her imagination… even though the pain lingered like the ghost of a memory.

Perturbed, Kagome frowned at the hand that was resting on the table a few inches from her nose. She tried to scrape more memory back, but the floodgate had closed no sooner had it opened, and Kagome could remember nothing more.

"Say it!"

"Fuck you!"

"Say it!"

"Fuck! You!"

"Say it, or I break your spine!" Kouga yelled, twisting Inuyasha's arm further behind his back.

"Fine!" the hanyou spat back. "Your mother isn't fat!"

"See? That's all you needed to-"

"She isn't fat - she's an obese whale!"

"Right, that's it!"

Naraku sighed as he pushed through the ring of spectators in the corridor to where the two equally matched cell agents were wrestling furiously on the carpet. "People, people," he waved his hands at the audience, "there's nothing to see here, go back to your posts."

Strangely, everyone decided that there was something to see and lingered on… even if they did edge back a little. Naraku stepped forward and grabbed each scrabbling agent by the scruff of the neck and hauled them apart. Being taller than most people had its perks. "What is it this time?" he asked drolly.

"He insulted my mother!" Kouga hissed.

"Only because she was a crap lay!" Inuyasha responded, equally vehement.

The fight threatened to boil over again, so Naraku sighed and gave them both a hard shove in opposite directions. He turned to Kouga before the young man could take a run at Inuyasha. "Here," he said, handing him a scrap of paper he'd been keeping in his pocket. "A tough job for my toughest agent. Now go and report back when you're done."

Kouga clenched his fist around the post-it note angrily. With one last sneer in Inuyasha's direction, he turned and shoved his way through the crowd of people that was slowly beginning to disperse now that the interesting part was over. Naraku whirled on Inuyasha and slung an arm around his unsuspecting shoulders. "Come with me."

"You're not hitting on me again, are you?" Inuyasha asked suspiciously as he was dragged away down the corridor.

"Of course not. I just want to show you something," Naraku told him as they turned a corner and came to a halt in front of a cork board pinned to the wall. Inuyasha took one look and scowled, whereas Naraku waved a hand over it as if it were a remarkable piece of art. "The employee star chart," he declared proudly.

"Yeah, what of it?" Inuyasha glared at the board.

"Point to your name, Inuyasha." Naraku told him.

Reluctantly, Inuyasha tapped a claw to the characters of his name on the right side of the board.

"And how many stars do you have?"

"Sixty-two."

"And how many does Kouga have?"

"A hundred and three," Inuyasha admitted glumly. "But he's been caught for at least half of those!"

"Yes, but he's still pulling ahead of you and leaving a rather large gap, I'm afraid." Naraku sighed again as he folded his arms. "There once was a time when I considered you my best agent, Inuyasha. In a way, you still are. You can undertake any mission and walk away without being seen or implicated, something not many agents manage to keep up for so long. But I don't think you're taking on enough work. You must be very strapped for cash."

Inuyasha shrugged. "I get by."

"Indeed. But doesn't the fact that Kouga is doing better than you… irritate you?"

Inuyasha knew what his boss was doing. Inciting jealousy and competition was the best way to get people striving to work harder in order to beat their peers. But then again, Inuyasha didn't need a higher body count than Kouga to know that he was the superior agent. Kouga was messy, clumsy and often let witnesses with flapping lips escape, while Inuyasha was precise and clean with his work.

Kouga on a mission was like a bull in a china shop. Inuyasha was the mongoose. A handsome, debonair mongoose with enough charm to rival that of 007.

"It's a little annoying," Inuyasha said to satisfy his boss. "But I go for quality, not quantity."

"And that's why I reserve you for my special jobs." He slapped a post-it into Inuyasha's hand. "Daisuke Hoshi. Best friend of the chief of police and father of the prostitute you killed the other night."

"Porn star." Inuyasha said automatically, reading the note.

"Don't correct me," Naraku warned. "That man needs to be dead by the end of the week. Got that?"

"Got it." Inuyasha tucked the note into his back pocket and was about to walk away when Naraku caught his shoulder. "What is it?" he asked distractedly.

"There's still work for you to do here." Naraku nodded down the corridor. "We've got the Chief of Police's daughter in 12A. She needs to be interrogated… and I can think of no one better suited than you."

Instantly, Inuyasha's teeth clenched and his eyes hardened. He wanted to hit Naraku so hard at that moment… but somehow he managed to contain himself. "Fine," he ground out eventually, and pivoted on his heel, marching in the direction of 12A.

He could feel Naraku's eyes on his back the whole time until he was finally out of sight. Inuyasha slowed down a little and pressed a hand to his forehead wearily. He didn't want to interrogate anyone. He just wanted to go home…

Although even at home, he wouldn't be able to find peace. Not with Kagome there, anyway. She'd undoubtedly have more questions for when he returned, and more demands, and more whining.

But she was a refreshing change of pace. It was rather nice to be around someone who wasn't a cutthroat villain for once. Her innocence made him feel… less tainted.

12A loomed before him in no time, and without hesitation, Inuyasha let himself into the room without knocking

A battered looking girl dressed in the black uniform of a police officer sat propped on a lonely looking wooden chair in the centre of the room. She was bowed forward as far as her rope restraints would allow, a curtain of hair hiding her face away from him. She gave no sign that she'd heard him enter… but her current interrogators had jumped up indignantly.

"What do you think you're doing?!" the older, prettier one demanded. "You can't just barge in like this!"

"Naraku's orders, Hiten." Inuyasha shrugged, shoving his hands into his pockets. "She's mine now."

"I don't believe this…" grumbled the younger, uglier one.

"I'm having a word with the boss about this." Hiten stormed out the door. "Come, Manten!"

"Coming, brother!"

Inuyasha gladly kicked the door shut after them and turned with a loud sigh towards the silent, unmoving girl. He cocked his head to the side and surveyed her. For all appearances, Hiten and Manten had already tried to beat the life out of her, and there was very little left to interrogate. There was a tray in the corner of the room filled with all sorts of cruel and unusual looking instruments. Inuyasha sauntered over to pick up the tray to inspect each device one by one.

A nail splinter: a Chinese based torture device designed to separate nail from finger. Inuyasha picked it up and weighed it in his hand for a moment before tossing it over his shoulder. "Crap," he announced.

The next one was a medieval-like tooth puller. This one would either pull healthy teeth from the jaw or shatter them in the mouth. That one also went sailing over his shoulder. "Bullshit."

A syringe. A bottle of acid. Oversized pins. A handheld `finger-chopper'. These little instruments of torture added up to a whole lot of pain. Inuyasha tossed them all onto the floor carelessly until the tray was empty. When he turned back to the girl, he found her staring at him in bemusement.

"Posers." He shrugged and plucked up the chair that Hiten had been using. He set it against the wall and sat down, stretching out leisurely with his arms behind his head. "They don't know anything, really."

The girl lowered her head again, resuming her lifeless act.

Inuyasha watched her speculatively. "What's your name?"

His detainee gave a sharp, caustic laugh. "Is that the best you can do? `What's your name?' Why don't you ask me how the weather is?"

"I've already been outside today, so I don't need to." Inuyasha scratched his head. "But then again, I don't need to ask your name either. I already know you're Officer Sango Hara. Says so on your badge."

"Congratulations," she said, her voice dripping with cynicism.

"Thank you." Inuyasha smirked at her. "So where did the stooges leave off? What ground have we covered so far?"

Sango lifted her head again with a glare as a fresh bead of blood leaked from the corner of her mouth. "If, by that, you mean what I've been doing here for the past two days; then I've been punched, kicked, stomped on, cut, threatened, beaten and electrocuted. What's next, teacher?"

"Nothing dramatic," Inuyasha frowned slightly. "We'll just stop feeding you for a few days and see how long it is before you'll trade information for a packet of crisps."

Sango sneered at him. "Not likely. My father wrote the book on terrorist interrogations. I know every trick you'll try and pull on me to get me to talk. You won't break me. You're out of your depth."

"You may know the tricks, but so do I." Inuyasha suddenly leant forward with a finger to his temple. "And I know exactly what's going through your head right now. Maybe if I can just hold on for another minute. Another hour. Another week?"

He paused to watch the girl turn a sickly shade of grey as her eyes hardened. "Yeah," he continued, dropping his hand, "I thought so. Police officers are always trained to think the same way. You aren't any different from the last guy to crack under the pressure."

Sango turned her head away from him angrily.

"I'm sure you're aware of the three Fs." Inuyasha began inspecting his claws lazily. "Freedom, Faith and Family. Your father wrote about them, after all."

Sango stiffened.

"We've already taken away your freedom. You know that you can regain it any time you like… provided you give us what we want." The hanyou paused to consider the second F. "If not, we can always move on to Faith. But you don't quite strike me as the religious type so that means we'll skip straight to family."

"Bastard, if you think your attempts to-"

Inuyasha whipped the post-it out of his pocket and snapped it between his fingers. "This is my order to kill Daisuke Hoshi. A friend of your father's. Talk to me and I may just misplace it. But if you are willing to let him die in order to keep your silence, then we can always take a bash at your father as well. We certainly wouldn't miss that guy. You also have a little brother, don't you?"

"Leave them out of this!"

"That's up to you. We won't lay a finger on them if you provide us with whatever you know."

"What if I don't know anything?!" Sango hissed. "I'm just a second level officer! My father doesn't share everything with me."

Inuyasha glanced at his watch absently. "It may come to you later on. Well, I don't have a lot of time to chat today, so I'll be back tomorrow. Hopefully you're easier to talk to on an empty stomach. But if not, I'll just come back the next day. And then the next day, and then the next, and the next, until you're willing to share some information on your father. I can wait."

"I'd rather die," Sango spat.

"Ultimately, you will. If you're stupid." Inuyasha stood up slowly. "It's ok to be selfish when it's your life on the line. Just remember which is more important to your father… you… or his work? Which would he rather sacrifice?"

He began moving towards the door when Sango suddenly lifted her head. "You've done this before," she accused coldly, "haven't you?"

Inuyasha glanced back at her blankly. "Yes," he answered simply, then left her to ponder her choices alone.

"You know, you're lucky, Buyo the Second." Kagome waved a piece of tuna skewered on her fork as she gesticulated. "You don't have to go to school. You don't get depressed when you have no friends. You don't get attempts on your life by family members unless you steal their food, and your idea of a shower is licking your bottom with your tongue."

Six hours had passed since Inuyasha had left for `work', and Kagome was already talking to cats. Not long after she'd settled down to pick at a can of tuna, a white cat with brown and gold patches had stuck its head through the window to do some serious sucking up. It may not have been quite as obese as her own cat, but the patterns on the fur had been so similar that Kagome had been compelled to name it Buyo.

That, and she was seriously lacking the energy to be more imaginative.

Kagome forked up another piece of tuna and offered it to the cat sitting on the table beside her. It greedily gobbled down the little titbit while Kagome resumed eating - with the same fork, no less. "Now, me on the other hand, I have to douse myself in steaming hot water for several minutes and apply liberal amounts of soap before decent civilisation can call me `clean'. Problem is, I haven't been able to do that for nearly a week now, which is a shame considering how much stress I've been put through. Did I tell you that my cousin tried to kill me?"

"Meow."

"Yeah, I thought so." Kagome propped her cheek on her upturned palm. "But what's worse is that the guy who saved me is a complete… blargh… I don't think there's a word in any language to describe him. He treats me like a prisoner, locks me in the flat all day while he goes off doing god knows what and expects me to just deal with the fact that I've been betrayed."

Kagome's hands flew down against the table, making both cat and tuna jump. "But I've been betrayed! By my own family!"

"Meow."

"I know… but he just annoys me," Kagome sighed into her hands. "He may say he's my saviour and is all heroic and that, but he doesn't understand… I bet no one's ever betrayed him this way."

"Nyaw…"

"But you know what's even worse than his emotional obstinacies? The fact that he was involved with Kikyo!" Kagome laughed loudly. "Can you believe that? And what's horrible is that I remember him too!"

Buyo the Second began taking a `shower'. Kagome squinted thoughtfully at the ceiling as she tried to remember. "There was that one time Kikyo was visiting with her mother, and she had obviously snuck someone up to her room… because me and Yuka were listening at the door. It was probably him… unless Kikyo's a slut with more men than yen."

"Meow."

"You're right. She is a slut," Kagome agreed decisively. "An utter tramp with too much lipstick and mascara. She couldn't even come up with a good product on her own - she had to steal Grandma's!"

A key turned in the lock of the front door, moments before it was shoved open and Inuyasha walked through. "Oh, hello, Stinky."

Kagome turned a withering glare on him. "What did you just call me?"

"I was talking to the cat, honey." Inuyasha dumped his helmet and jacket on the sofa and moved forward to scratch the feasting cat behind the ears. "You may wanna watch out for Mrs Saito."

"Who?" Kagome narrowed her eyes.

"The crazy cat woman across the hall." Inuyasha jerked his head towards the door. "If she finds out you're trying to steal her beloved pussy-kins, she may be forced to clout you with a scratching post."

"I wasn't stealing. I was just feeding him," said Kagome defensively. "And what about you? What were you doing all day?"

"Nothing of consequence." He shrugged and pulled an envelope from the pocket of his jeans. He set it on the table beside the cat and went to make himself a sandwich. By now, Kagome was convinced that whatever brain he might possess was situated in his stomach. Turning her attention away from him, she picked up the envelope and emptied the contents onto the table.

A passport, a provisional driver's licence and numerous pieces of folded up paperwork fell out. Bewildered, Kagome picked up the pristine white passport first and opened it up. A smaller version of her own face stared back blankly. It was exactly the same picture that was on her usual passport… so why was she wearing glasses and sporting a very prominent beauty spot on her cheek.

"What the heck is this?" Kagome waved the passport at Inuyasha's turned back.

"Photoshop's a wonder, isn't it?" was all he said.

"But this isn't me." Kagome glared at the passport details and customs stamps furiously. "Kasumi Yoshikawa?! Age twenty?! Travelled to Hong Kong, Hawaii and Africa?!"

"No need to shout it to me. I did design that thing," Inuyasha remarked dryly as he plastered the artery-clogging butter onto his bread. "The picture is to fool the face recognition computer. Just remember to take a pair of glasses and black marker pen with you when we go to the airport."

"The airport?" Kagome blinked. "Am I going somewhere?"

"Yes. France."

Some odd, unidentified feeling made Kagome's jaw lock. "I see."

"It's nice there. Lots of bright colours and romance and open universities with free health service. France is a place to live these days," informed Inuyasha in a vague manner. "It'll only take you a few months to learn the language, and then you'll be eating frogs and snails with the best of them."

It was a chance for freedom - a new life and new opportunities. So why didn't Kagome feel relieved? "Where did you get this?" she asked, dropping the passport back onto the table.

"I know people at work…"

"Crooks?" Kagome guessed bluntly.

"Yeah, sort of." Inuyasha plopped down in the seat beside her to eat his sandwich. "There's your provisional licence. You can take driving lessons with that. Your new citizen ID number is in the passport - memorise it. Get used to wearing glasses, and it might help if you cut your hair."

Kagome put a hand to her jet tresses protectively. "You want me to cut my hair?" she repeated stupidly.

"Chin length would be great." He leant back and looked at her with scrutiny. "You have the neck for a bob."

"No, thank you." Kagome turned frosty and glared at her new documents. "So I'm just supposed to go to France and become French and never look back?"

"Precisely."

It was probably the only way she was going to make it to thirty. If she hung around Tokyo for much longer, it would only be a matter of time before someone recognised her and Kikyo found out she was still alive. Then both she and Inuyasha would be in for it… which brought one of Kagome's most nagging questions to the surface.

"Inuyasha…?"

"Mm," he grunted, licking his fingers.

"How did you save me?" Kagome propped her elbows on the table. "When the Coalescence attacked me."

His eyes flicked up to meet hers. As usual, it was hard to tell what he was thinking… but she knew from the sudden eye contact that he was thinking something. "I found you," he answered evenly. "In the canal."

"The canal?" Kagome echoed with disappointment. "So you didn't see who tried to kill me?"

"Nope." Somehow he had managed to make the sandwich disappear in four bites, and he stood up to clear away the plate (as he felt compelled to do, now that Kagome had taken to glaring at him when he left a mess). "But if I had, I would have kicked the bastard in the bollocks for you."

"How sweet," Kagome said without feeling and began rifling through the other documents that he'd given her. "Wait… is this a plane ticket?"

He flashed her a brief, empty smile. "Yep. You're leaving tonight."

A knot rose in Kagome's stomach. It was natural to be reluctant and scared to travel to a new place with no roots… but was the gut wrenching nausea normal? She could feel a cold sweat breaking out over her body, and she automatically began petting Buyo the Second to hide the shakiness of her hands. Inuyasha hadn't noticed any discomfort on her behalf and mooched across the room to sit and watch TV on the sofa. "Three hours," he warned her, pointing to the clock with the remote control.

Kagome's mouth went dry and metallic, almost as if she was about to throw up. "Inuyasha… can I have a shower first?"

He shot her a beady eyed glare. "You'd have to go down to the public baths across the road, but I'm not sure I trust you to come back."

Kagome gave him a helpless shrug and a lost gaze. "Where else can I go?" she pointed out.

"Alright. But only because you stink worse than Stinky." He stood and picked up his jacket. "And I'll be waiting outside for you in case you change your mind about running."

Kagome rolled her eyes and stood to follow him out the flat.

"Oh…" Inuyasha stopped a moment to dig a hand into his pocket and unearth some shrapnel. "And here's some money to buy yourself some decent soap. Try the Jasmine. It would suit you."

Kagome ground her teeth, but accepted the money. She was, after all, quite desperate.

"And first he says that I need to cut my hair short, but then he's like `you should wear the jasmine, it suits you,'" Kagome did her rather unflattering impression of Inuyasha's voice. "He's such a pig - and all he cares about is food."

"Dear, that's men for you," the middle-aged woman next to her sighed as she rinsed her hair out. "All they care about is food and sex. At least you lived with him first. I know dozens of girls who marry first and then find out what bums their new husbands are. I teach at a university, don't you know."

"Oh no. I'm not marrying this guy." Kagome scrubbed soap into her arms with the ferocity of a crazy woman trying to clean under her skin. "First of all, he's an ass, and I never wanted to live with him anyway. Second, I have this feeling that he's involved with my cousin. You know, the one I told you about? The one who accidentally deliberately tried to kill me?"

"Never!" the woman next to her gasped.

"He comes home from `work' smelling like her, and I've found shoes and clothes belonging to her hidden all over the house. Then I see them talking to each other in public, and they might as well be having sex on the floor for all their `subtle' flirting."

"He's no good for you, dear."

"Yes, I agree. He's very bad for my health. I swear I've lost more hair in the last week than I have in a year." Kagome began rubbing shampoo into her hair very carefully for fear of aggravating her old wound. "And he's sending me to France in a few hours."

The woman next to her suddenly cooed. "Ooh, France. Best place in the world for young things like you. I hear that you can wear pink in that country!"

For some reason, Kagome didn't share her enthusiasm.

"That ticket must have cost a pretty penny. Tickets abroad aren't cheap these days."

"That's true…" Kagome frowned. And just how had Inuyasha managed to pay for the ticket? Last time she'd checked, the price of a holiday flight to Europe was the same as buying a nice second-hand car. "Gah… he probably stole it, for all I know."

Inuyasha sighed impatiently as he glanced at his watch, paced, then checked the time again for good measure. Two hours she'd spent in the baths. Surely it didn't take that long to wash up and get dry.

He was either underestimating a woman's ability to procrastinate, or she'd slipped out the back door.

Letting loose a small growl of irritation, Inuyasha suddenly spun and stomped into the public baths. He strode past the spluttering woman in reception and straight into the women's changing room. He ignored the indignant squeals of the semi-naked women around him and the occasional wooden bucket that conked him on the head. He was too busy scanning the room for Kagome… but she wasn't there.

Which meant she had to be in the baths still.

Inuyasha didn't hesitate as he stalked through the adjoining arch into the showers. "Kasumi!" Women ran shrieking in opposite directions as he passed through. "Kasumi!"

After the showers were the baths themselves, where a hundred odd women were sitting on stools busily soaping themselves and washing their hair. "Kasumi!" Inuyasha thundered, and instantly the whole room fell silent save for the sound of running water.

All eyes turned to stare at him, except for `Kasumi's'. She was the only one who had stiffened so completely at the sound of his voice that she'd been unable to turn to face him. But he knew from her rigid posture that she'd heard him. "The plane leaves in an hour," he reminded her curtly. "I suggest you finish up now."

Having dropped his bombshell in a clear and decisive manner, Inuyasha stomped out again, leaving Kagome in a state of shellshock, as it were, and blushing like a mad thing. The woman next to her tutted and leant over. "You're right, he does have a lot of drawbacks… but at least he compensates for it with those biceps."

Kagome shuddered unconsciously and quickly said her goodbyes to the nice lady beside her. She had no particular desire to insight another outburst like the one she'd just witnessed, so she quickly dried herself off, plaited her hair, and tugged on the fresh set of clothes that she'd brought with her. They were, in fact, Kikyo's clothes which she'd found in the bedroom closet. They emanated the faint aroma of the trademark Regenis perfume and fit with Kikyo's taste. Of course, Kagome doubted that they'd been worn for a couple of years now; Kikyo hadn't been XS for a while.

The three-quarter length business-style slacks may have been a little out of fashion (grey had gone out last year), and the matching jacket was a little too loose around the bust, but it was better than wearing that ghastly funeral dress. It was also far better than her school uniform… because it had been almost three whole years since she'd been allowed to wear trousers.

But the thing that irritated Kagome the most was the fact that she was also wearing Kikyo's underwear. That in itself wasn't too bad since they were quite clean, and Kagome had sometimes borrowed the odd pair of knickers from her cousin when staying over at her penthouse apartment. But just the knowledge that this complete and utter stranger had some of Kikyo's most intimate articles of clothing was slightly disturbing. Kagome was entirely convinced that this guy was a pervert of some sort…

I just wish I had my own clothes again, Kagome thought wistfully as she left the locker room and headed towards the entrance to find Inuyasha. He was more impatient than she'd ever seen him before. The moment he saw her, he grabbed her arm and steered her out onto the street, not bothering to look both ways before crossing the road back towards his flat. "We're taking my bike," he told her shortly. "But it will be a miracle if we even get there on time."

"That's not my fault," she protested, wrenching her arm free. "If you'd let me have a shower earlier, I wouldn't have needed to wash my hair so many times."

"Whatever." He stopped and pointed to the steps leading up to the entrance of his block. "Just wait there."

Kagome flopped down on the cold concrete steps with a sigh and watched as he disappeared down an alley next to the flats. While she waited for him to fetch this infamous bike that she'd heard coming and going several times over the last few days, she slipped off her school shoes and examined her blisters mutely. That's what she got for wearing Kikyo's shoes…

"Come on, what are you waiting for?"

Kagome whipped around to see that Inuyasha had returned already, dragging with him a black monstrosity.

It was love at first sight.

"Wow… cool bike." Kagome got up and trotted towards it. "Wow… how much did it cost? Or did you steal this one too?"

"What do you mean `too'?" Inuyasha frowned, and thrust the black helmet towards her. "Wear this."

Kagome looked apprehensively at the red chevrons and symbols on both helmet and bike. "Are you sure this is legal…?" Whoa… déjà vu.

"Only until you report me," Inuyasha responded, and mounted the bike with ease. He tapped one of the panniers behind him. "Put your bag in here and let's go."

Kagome carefully zipped up her bag full of false documents and ID into the handy pannier and looked at the helmet in her hands. "What about you?" she asked. "Don't you need one?"

"I won't crash. Just put it on already."

"Alright…" Kagome pulled a face and vigilantly pulled the helmet on over her wet hair. It fit snugly around her head with an odd kind of weight, and she carefully eased herself onto the bike behind Inuyasha.

He turned once to snap the visor just over her face before starting the engine. "People won't recognise you this way," he told her.

"Oh, and here I was thinking you were concerned about my safety," remarked Kagome dryly.

"That was the first reason," Inuyasha said with a shrug. "Now put your arms around my waist and go with the flow."

"You don't mince words, do you?" Kagome did as she was told (even though she was somewhat reluctant to hold him that close) and closed her eyes as the bike began to move off.

But it wasn't nearly as terrifying as Kagome had imagined. In fact, she had this crazy urge to throw her arms out and laugh as they sped off down the darkening road. The street lights were beginning to flicker on, almost as if reacting to their presence as they passed by.

Kagome watched stationary cars rush by along with a few pedestrians on their way home from work, and the odd stray cat roaming alongside fences of bamboo. They passed through small lanes and alleys lined with cramped, miniature houses and down a hill with cascading gardens. It was so breathtaking and beautiful in the evening that Kagome suddenly felt a tight pang in her chest.

She didn't want to leave her home behind.

However, Kagome knew that what she was doing was for the best… so she held her tongue and hoped that the ache in her heart would ease soon. But even as the familiarity of the houses and suburban streets melted away into busy, confusing districts of traffic lights and cross junctions, the ache in Kagome only grew. It intensified still as they joined the highway and Inuyasha made rude gestures at everyone he overtook.

When they entered the tunnel, it finally grew too much for Kagome.

Hastily, she tapped Inuyasha's shoulder. "We have to stop!" she yelled.

He ignored her.

Kagome tugged at him even harder. "Please - just stop!"

Maybe the helmet was muffling her voice, or perhaps the wind was deafening him, but Inuyasha still wasn't responding.

Kagome gave him one last tug. "I'm going to be sick!" she shouted.

Inuyasha reacted with the speed of a cobra… who was in fear of being vomited on. The bike veered left at a sudden, dangerous angle, screeching to a stop beside the tunnel wall. Cars continued to rush past at an uncomfortable proximity as Inuyasha jumped off the bike and yanked her helmet off so fast that Kagome's head nearly went with it.

"Not on my bike, you're not." He pointed to the grimy, grease ridden gutter. "Sit there until it comes or goes."

Kagome slid off the bike dutifully and moved away to crouch with her back to the wall, not wanting to stain her clothes with dirt by sitting down. The artificial glow of the overhead lights cast a sickly orange glow on everything, which probably would have antagonised her nausea even more… had she been feeling sick in the first place. Of course, that had only been an excuse to get him to stop. However, she was intensely homesick, and one more step in the wrong direction was going to push her over the edge.

The teenager wedged her fingers into her hair and pressed her palms against her forehead.

It wasn't disputable. She couldn't go to France.

Inuyasha was pacing nearby, watching the traffic with a peevish look on his face. Kagome knew that he was anxious to get moving… and she dreaded having to tell him that it was impossible. Would he shout at her? Would he just accept her feelings and let her stay? Or would he keep his calm and just drag her kicking and screaming to the airport anyway?

"Well?" she heard him ask impatiently.

Kagome didn't answer.

"Are you still sick?" he pressed, crouching down beside her. "You haven't eaten all day, have you?"

"I had tuna," she responded quietly.

"Which the cat ate mostly." Inuyasha sighed and rubbed his face. "Look. It's only five more minutes to the airport. Just try and hold on to yourself for that long, ok? They have sick bags on the plane."

Kagome shook her head. "I can't go."

"What do you mean you can't go? You have to." Inuyasha frowned at her.

"I can't," Kagome emphasised. "I can't go."

"You can't stay!" Inuyasha almost laughed at her.

It was a pity that Kagome couldn't share his humour. "Is this what people do when they're wronged? Roll over and play dead? Whatever happened to justice?! Why can't I stay and fight for what is rightfully mine?!"

Inuyasha made emphatic gestures with his hands. "Because you'll die!" He seemed awfully tempted to throttle her. "Is that what you want?"

"No!" Kagome fisted her hands against her eyes. "But I can't run away either! I belong here! If I leave today, how long do you think it will be before I come running back? I'm fifteen, Inuyasha! I am a kid! I can't make it on my own!"

"You don't have a choice," he told her in a low voice. "What do you think a kid like you can do anyway? Your cousin is a fucking millionaire! She has the Coalescence at her beck and call, and you've already seen that she's not afraid to unload the big guns on her most harmless foe. If you try and take her down, she'll only crush you more completely."

"She's taken my family." Kagome looked up at him pleadingly. "She's taken away my friends and my education and probably the one thing that could have guaranteed me a stable life with a stable income. She's not only robbed me, but she's robbed our grandmother who spent her entire life working on that formula. Was it all for nothing?"

"Yes." Inuyasha stood up and folded his arms.

"No!" Kagome couldn't seem to control herself. She fell forward onto her knees and twisted her fingers into the fabric of his trousers. "Please! Don't make me leave, Inuyasha! My life is here!"

"Would you get off?!" He tried to disentangle the clingy girl.

"I'm begging you!" She gripped him harder. "Please help me! I will do anything! Just please don't make me abandon my world like this!"

She locked gazes with him. She tried to look into his heart and see if there was any help to be found there. But he just looked at her pityingly and gave a helpless shake of his head and a shrug. He opened his mouth to say something, but seemed unable to put it into words.

"Please!"Kagome gasped, feeling her heart break at the thought of losing her family so absolutely.

It must have been the first time that she'd seen any genuine display of emotion on his face. He looked away from her with a torn frown and a downward quirk in the corner of his lips. He appeared unable to face her… but it lasted only a fraction before his face wiped clean of anything at all.

He cursed explicitly under his breath and suddenly glanced back down at her. "The police are here."

Cliffy!

Fackyews

When is Kagome going to figure out who Inuyasha is?

The same day we find out how old Inuyasha is. ::gets smacked:: Ow...

So… the dead girl was Miroku's wife?

Nope. You are reading the right story, aren't you?

I bet you don't know what `bugger' means.

British-english: `bugger' n. means `small annoying thing/person' or `worthless person'. This is what its meaning was in the context of the last chapter… since you'll rarely find me talking about sodomy. Speaking of which, I bet you don't know where the word `sod' came from…

Why do you answer people's questions in this fanfic...?

Why do you ask questions regarding this fanfic?

Is the dead girl Hojo?

Yes. Yes she is. The operation went horribly wrong so poor Hojo jumped into the canal to commit suicide. That also went horribly wrong.

I'll give you the History Channel and Jeopardy if you update `The Sinner'.

How about: I update if you promise not to put me through that. ;)

I'm very sorry, but I forgot... what is Miroku's and Sango's role in this?

::pats head:: Don't worry, you're not alone…

Can you drive?

Yes, but the court says I shouldn't go within five feet of a car after that incident.

How tall are you?

In lamen's terms: about the same height as Frodo, give or take a couple of feet. In technical terms: 5' exactly.

What's your bra size?

Is this really just casual interest or is someone somewhere making an android copy of me?

Are these real questions or are you just making them up?

A little from column A, a little from column B. Nah, these are all real questions… except for one of them.

Have you seen Orlando Bloom lately?

No, last time we spoke he was heading out to the caribbean to start filming his next pirate movie. But the queen sends her regards. And what about you? Seen Brad Pitt lately?