Chapter one: Bungee Jumping Without a Cord

It was a dark and stormy night and Inuyasha was sitting on the floor of the laundry room folding some clothes. First he folded a bloodstained white shirt and a green skirt. Next he folded a long red kimono. After that he folded a white kimono followed by six pairs of socks. He had finally finished folding the first set of clothes. The smell of laundry detergent was in the air. He glanced out of the window. He was six stories up. He was tired of this life. He looked down into the pond below and watched the water ripple as drops of water fell below.

"Hey Inu, you in there?" said Sesshomaru as he knocked on the door.

"Uh, yeah I'm just folding some clothes. Go get Kagome and Shippo and tell them to pick up their clothes," Inu replied.

"Ok, did you finish cleaning my kimono yet? I still can't believe I spilled grape juice on a white kimono!" he chuckled as he said this.

"Yeah, sure," Inu said obviously spaced out. Inu heard Sesshomaru's footsteps fade in with the tapping of the rain against the roof.

Inuyasha was sixteen years old as was his friend Kagome. His older brother, Sesshomaru, was nineteen. Shippo was the youngest, he was only thirteen. They were all trapped in this building. The seventh level belonged to the demons ranging from fifteen to nineteen. The fifth level held demons from ages ten to fourteen. Shippo was on the fifth floor. It was called the Institute. Here is where the dark side of Tokyo keeps poor hopeless souls that know demons exist. Demons and half-demons weren't accepted in Tokyo ever since World War Three when they were first discovered. So they were all forced to stay at the Institute out of the eye of the public. Even some humans were forced to stay at the Institute if they knew that demons existed. The Snitches were humans who kept the Demons in line. They were called Snitches because that's what they did, twenty four seven. The humans that actually liked demons were treated like slaves.

Inu stared longingly out of the window. He knew what he had to do. He shoved the second set of clothes he was working on to the side and cracked open the large glass window. He stood on the ledge and breathed in the aroma of fresh rain. He had nothing to hold on to but the window frame, which was soaked and slippery from the downpour. He closed his eyes and leaned forward.

"Goodbye cruel-,"he started.

"INUYASHA! What the heck are you doing? Get back in here this instant!" Kagome screamed at him.

Inuyasha was startled. He turned around quickly and tried to face Kagome, but his foot slipped off of the window sill. "Kagome," but that was all he had time to say before he began his long decent into the water below. A pair of cold, hard hands grasped a hold of Inu's kimono and pulled him back over the edge of the window.

"What was that about?" said Sesshomaru, a.k.a. the owner of the hands. "What were you thinking you idiot?"

"Inuyasha...," Kagome said. Her eyes looked frightened and she was shivering from the cold wind pouring through the open window.

"What is this?" Miroku said as he walked in on the fiasco. His eyes widened with horror as he realized what was going on. "Don't tell me you were trying to kill yourself! You fool! That isn't going to solve anything! The headmaster would stick a knife down my throat if he found out you were dead!"

"He doesn't care about-"Inu stared to say, but he was cut off.

"Don't even kid yourself! The only reason the headmaster even bothers to keep the rest of us alive is because of you! What were you trying to do, kill us all?" Miroku yelled in frustration. He stared pacing back and forth. He was obviously trying not to show any anger (it wasn't working).

"Calm down you guys," Inu said. "I'm not dead!"

"But you almost…," Kagome couldn't finish her sentence and covered her mouth with a quivering hand. Then she ran out into the hallway.

"Great, now look what you did stupid!" Sesshomaru said as he left the room in pure frustration.

The moon started to peek out from behind the thick, dark rain clouds. Miroku had no words for Inu, he just continued to pace. "Stupid, stupid, stupid," He muttered.

"Look, I'm sorry. I-I don't know what I was thinking!"

"Just, just shut up!" Miroku screamed. "We try as hard as possible to be good in this place, in hopes to stay alive, and you just go and you, you ruin it! Were you even thinking about the consequences? What about Shippo? What about Kagome? What about ME?" He stopped talking. He was out of breath and out of words.

"Just stop yelling at me! It won't do it again," Inu pleaded.

"That's what you said last time when we caught you trying to sneak poison into your red velvet cake! I can't believe you! Don't you understand that the only reason the headmaster even keeps us alive is because of you? I mean sure none of us have ever seen him, but he has connections. He's the most powerful person on the planet!" Miroku said.

"How do you know he isn't some three foot five Japanese nerd with huge glasses and a pocket protector?" Inu roared. "He probably can't even assemble a pack of two year olds to murder a fly! How do you know he has connections? How do you know he's powerful? How do you know anything when no one has even seen him before? You said it yourself; we don't even know what he looks like!"

"O stop kidding yourself Inu, you know it and I know it; he could kill us with the snap of a finger!" Miroku stormed out of the laundry room. Before a couple of seconds passed Miroku came back and threw a T-shirt at him. "Hey, can you wash this one too? Put it with the delicates." Then he left for real.

Inuyasha sighed and got back to the laundry. In his heart even he knew that for some reason the headmaster had made it clear that he wanted him and his brother to stay alive. He didn't know exactly why. Was it because he thought they were powerful? Or maybe it was the fact that Inu and Sesshomaru were the two last dog demons on the planet. Whatever the reason, Inu knew that if he died, there would be no chance for the rest of his friends to survive. This was the only fact he knew about the manner.

Just then the laundry room door popped open. It was Shippo, and he was carrying what had to be the laundry load of doom and despair. Inu took one sniff and cringed at the thought of what was to come. Shippo's laundry; it wasn't exactly the highlight of Inuyasha's week.

"Hey, Ship. What's up?" Inu asked still trying to preserve whatever fresh was left in the room.

"Nothing, I just brought in my clothes for a good cleaning!" he replied.

"I see your not giving me any mercy this time."

"What are you talking about?"

"Dude, your clothes reek worse than Kaede's feet!"

Shippo took a sniff of his clothes. He looked unaffected by their stench. "I don't really know what you're talking about Inu. Are you saying my clothes stink, because I don't smell a thing."

"Never mind Ship, just put your clothes in this pile." Inu pointed to the corner farthest away from where he was sitting. Shippo smiled and skipped away. Inu opened the window and leaned out gasping for air.

"Inuyasha you better not be doing what I think your doing!" Sesshomaru warned as he walked into the room.

Inu turned around and replied, "Don't worry. I have a reason this time." He pointed to Shippo's pile of clothes.

Sesshomaru waved one hand in front of his nose and asked, "Whoa, what died?" He started to laugh and soon Inu joined in. "Inu, about today…"Sesshomaru began.

"Don't worry about it, it won't happen again." Inu sighed.

"Yeah right, that's what you said last time when I caught you trying to see how long you could hold your breath underwater." There was a sarcastic tone to his voice.

Inu sighed again, it seemed like he had to sigh a lot these days.