Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha or any of it's characters.
Enjoy. -Sabrulee.
Chapter 1,
Fated Alley
Inuyasha sighed as he walked down the rainy streets of Tokyo on a cold winter night. The crisp hair nipped at his throat as he breathed in and out, vaguely watching as his breath became visible and danced off into the night. Random unrecognizable faces stared out from the darkness at him as he passed by. They were, of coarse, shocked to see one of Tokyo's richest men walking the streets in the middle of the night during a down pour. Actually they were probably just amazed to see him walking at all, what with all his limos and expensive sports cars. Not to mention the expensive suit he had forgotten he was still wearing...
A police siren could be heard in the distance but his pace didn't change.
He was one of the youngest millionaires in the world and constantly appeared on magazines in Japan and other countries, everyone knew him. But he didn't know any of them, not a single face on that dark street was familiar to him and that was exactly how he liked it. Why bother trying to interact with those humans? They only wanted to use him, somehow gain what he had through him. It was like they thought if they rubbed up against him enough some of his fame and money would just flake off on to them. All those women pretending to love him, begging for marriage, just so they could devorse him and take half his hard earned riches, the money he sweated and bled for for years. He would never love a human, it was a waste of time. All they did was take and lie.
Inuyasha laughed to himself as he adjusted his black umbrella, they were all just greedy users. Something cold and wet unlike rain landed on his nose and he glanced up at the sky as the rain began to freeze in the bellow zero temperature. It was snowing...without warning he was pulled in to a distant memory of his childhood..
"Mommy!" the younger version of himself ran past him on the street arms stretched out towards the back of a woman he could only fuzzily remember. "Mommy look at the snow!"
The woman turned around to catch her child in her arms, "Yes honey, isn't it pretty?"
"Can we build a snowman?" the little hanyou looked up at his human mother expectantly, eyes sparkling in the night.
"Sure we can, when we get home okay? Then we'll have some hot cocoa and get in our pyjamas and I'll read you a story! Okay? How's that sound Inuyasha?"
"'Kay!" He smiled cheek to cheek revealing that he was missing a tooth in his childish grin.
Inuyasha chuckled to himself, he had been so excited when he had lost that tooth. The whole tooth fairy thing and all... being a child was so...easy. His memories wavered and continue,
"Hey mom do you hear that..?" the pair had started walking again but the little boy had suddenly stopped ears perking underneath his wool hat.
"Hmm..?" his mother hummed absentmindedly, thinking about what she would make for supper when they got home.
"Can't you hear it? Stop..wait!" The boy tore his hand from his mother's and took off running into a dark alley a little ways back.
His mother immediately began yelling at him, "Inuyasha! Where do you think you're going? Get back here!" The thickness of worry and panic layered in her voice almost made Inuyasha sick. He had always put his mother through a lot. "Where are you? INUYASHA!" She dropped the bags she was holding and ran after her son.
"Look mommy..." the boy reappeared from the alley holding something small and dirty.
"My god Inuyasha never do that to me again!" the grown Inuyasha watched as a single tear slid from his mother's cheek and landed in the snow melting through instantly as she held her son. He felt like walking over and slapping his former self in the back of the head, little runt nearly gave his mother a heart attack!
"No, but mommy look...!" the boy persisted sounding urgent and his mother looked down and gasped at what was in her boy's arm.
"Inuyasha..." his mother's voice was low and sympathetic now. "It's not moving..."
Cradled in his arms was a little black cat, barely recognizable as a feline because of it's starved and dirty appearance It's ribs clearly visible and a nasty smell emmiting from it's dirty matted fur.
"No..I herd it..it meowed." He persisted, "I herd it meow..it looked up at me!"
"Honey, maybe..." his mother paused, "Maybe it was alive when you found it but..." she stopped again to wipe away some tears forming in her son's beautiful round golden eyes, "When it saw you and you rescued it... it was able to finally let go." The little boy finally broke and huge tears poured down his face, a few landing on the little cat's dirty fur.
"No..no.." he cried still holding the cat tightly and pushing his face deep into his mother's chest.
"It's okay honey.." His mother cooed running her hand through his long silver hair, "It's gone to a better place now..it's happy now, and you helped it get there."
The boy sniffled between sobs, "R-really..?"
"Really." His mother replied with what sounded like the most confidence anyone in the world had ever had in anything.
Inuyasha blinked and the hazy forms before him disappeared.. he pulled a pack of cigarets from a pocket on the inside of his suit and lit one. He breathed in heavenly and released after a few moments, the smoke spiralled and curled before disappearing into the sky above him. He remembered that little cat so vividly, he had found it in a cardboard box behind a garbage can, a dirty blanket was wrapped around it and when he approached it had looked up at him. Those big scared eyes, like he was the only person in the world. Unfortunately his mother was right and it had been too close to death, he hadn't been their in time to save it, and on the way home they stopped by the park to bury it in the frozen flower beds. His mother had offered to buy him a pet, maybe even a cat, many times in the future but he had declined every time. Inuyasha took another long drag on his smoke and sighed, maybe life wasn't easier as a child...
Suddenly his ears perked, it was like dejavu, he dropped his cigarette and turned walking slowly to the alley he had just watched his past self scurry to in a panic. But now no woman called after him, only the sound of the snow hitting the top of his umbrella. He turned and walked in, the alley was darker than the street, away from the lamp posts. It was also very dirty and smelt of garbage and dampness. He paused and looked around, what was he doing? There was no cat waiting here for him to rescue it like back when he was little...it was just a dirty alley full of garbage. He turned to walk away,
"Who are you..?" a weak voice tinkled out from the darkness like a wind chime and he stopped in his tracks. It sounded like a girl.
"Who's there?" He demanded seriously, his expression was no longer resembling that of his younger anxious self., "Come out."
"I can't..." the voice came again, sounding just as weak but now more defeated.
"What do you mean..? What are you doing in this dirty alley in the middle of the night?" Inuyasha squinted but their were just too many dark corners and their voices seemed to echo off the walls of the narrow brick corridor.
"I don't know..." the girl's voice sounded sad this time.
"Where are you?" Inuyasha didn't sound as agitated and as annoyed as he had been, this time he just sounded concerned.
"Near the back..." the voice hesitated, "Don't come over here."
"What do you mean? Of coarse I'm coming over there!" the snow hadn't stopped and it was quickly filling up the alley, making it harder than ever for him to trudge his way to the back and the source of the voice. Inuyasha looked around "Hey!"
There was no reply, "Hey say something!" but the only thing he could hear was the echoing of his own voice right back at him. Why didn't he just leave? What did he care about this stranger...? Flash backs of the little cat came careening into his head like a run away train, he had been too late then... not this time.
"Hey..I can help you." he spoke with compassion he didn't even know he possessed, ever since his mother had died he had just turned himself off from the world. He focused on his studies and his job and just tuned the rest out. That was part of why he had been so successful, no temptations But now... he felt something he hadn't in a long time, worry. "ANSWER ME!"
"I'm here..." Inuyasha found the location of the voice before the owner could go silent again, he felt so relieved just hearing it.
"I'm coming." The voice didn't respond but he moved over in the direction of a knocked over garbage can and gasped as he moved it aside, there on the ground was a girl. A dirty broken girl. The only thing seeming to hold up her frail frame was a box she was leaning on. Her clothes were tattered and dirty and her skin was the same colour as the ground around her. Her eyes were dazed and empty, like someone had taken all the life and colour and just sucked it out of her.
"I told you not to come over here." as she said this her head lifted slightly and her eyes met his, Inuyasha didn't see a human's empty eyes anymore, he saw the scared eyes of the cat. And he lost control of his actions, as if a ghost had possessed him he carefully scooped up the dirty, smelly girl and began walking out of the alley. She didn't say anything she just kept looking at him with those familiar eyes and he felt like he was the only person in the world. This time was different though, this time he would save her.
