Not Strong Enough, Sad Inuyasha Playlist

Okay! Normally I hate AU's, but the Inuyasha fandom is filled with them so I figure, why not? However, I wanted to do mine differently.

For starters, I'm tired of the plot where Kagura's life sucks and Sesshoumaru sweeps in with his buckets of money and saves her. Yes, Kagura's canon life does suck, and yes, in an AU Sesshoumaru should have buckets of money, but there's going to be none of this sweeping in and punching people with hundred dollar bills. I also wanted to see how much canon I could tangle with despite tossing names out at random, and not wanting to re-tell the old story. I think I've managed a nice balance, but I'll let my reviewers decide.

And just to say it now, yes, I set the story in Tokyo.

Please enjoy my AU!

Taking Care

Dead Beat Dad

This was going to change a lot of things. That was the only thing Kagura could think of as she sat there on the curb, holding the infant in her arms. It was cold out, winter, no snow but with enough chill in the air that there was frost on the neighbour's dead plants, her breath vaporous and white in the night air. The baby had stopped crying a minute ago, possibly asleep after all the excitement. He looked oblivious to all the light and the noise, tear-stained face smooth and relaxed in his sister's arms.

Her other brother was sitting next to her on the pavement, a white muscle shirt making his thin arms look even skinnier, his flat chest boney and white in the dark, black shorts and no shoes showing he'd been rudely awakened too. Fourteen years old, he had a big black mark on the side of his face from taking a tough blow, layers of gauze wrapped around his left arm from wrist to elbow, and another patch of white stuck to his face with medical tape. Hakudoshi shouldn't have interfered, the slashes from the knife were superficial, but they could have been so much worse. There was still blood on his hands, and some on his knees, the crimson running down one leg where he'd knelt inside the house.

Kanna's white head was resting on Kagura's shoulders, the quiet girl either asleep or pretending to be, her sister couldn't tell. Half-sister, actually. The three around her shared all their blood, but Kagura had had a different mother. Hers had run away from their father years ago, leaving her daughter behind with a roof over her head and food on the table. She'd had another brother, a little older, but he'd left with their mother. In total Naraku had had five children from two wives: three boys and two girls.

The second wife was dead tonight. Hakudoshi had tried to stop it from happening, he'd failed. Their father's second son had almost been killed tonight too. Kagura had tried to keep that from happening, she'd succeeded.

"Miss Onigumo?"

Yeah? She looked up slowly, too tired at this time of night to figure out what the officer's face looked like. Maybe he was a detective, maybe he was a grunt, maybe he was the guy that'd kicked down the front door of their house after Kagura called in the fight from Kanna and the baby's room. Maybe. She didn't know, and at this time of night she didn't care.

She'd been with Kanna and the baby, then she'd run out trying to keep her other half-brother from being killed. She probably should have just let it happen, not gotten in Naraku's rampaging way. Kagura didn't want to admit it, but she couldn't figure out whether she resented Hakudoshi or forgave him for making her stand between him and that bloody knife.

"We need you to come down to the station and make a statement."

Yeah. She could do that.

IT'S SO SHORT, yes it is, which is why there will be days with double-updates: I will be updating every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

Why not just combine chapters? I actually wrote the first half of this story like that, but for stylistic reasons I want chapters that are written in the Present-Tense, and I want them separate. I've given this a lot of thought and I'm thinking about the project as a whole, not one in instalments. So click away! Next chapter ahoy!