* * * * *
Chapter One
* * * * *
Susan
* * * * *
"Mom?" I asked, walking into the kitchen. "Mom, are you okay? I thought I heard something crash."
My mom jumped at the sound of my voice.
"Susie!" She blurted. I cringed a bit at the name. My mother was the only one I would permit to call me Susie. Otherwise I was Suze, Susan, or Susie-Q to my closest friends. Nobody called me Susie. But my mother had been calling me Susie all of my life. So I just endured it when she used the name. "Honey, I didn't think the glass smashed so loud. . . oh, right. Sorry, honey." she ended in a whisper. I wasn't sure if she was apologizing for calling me Susie, or for forgetting that I had super-human ears.
"it's okay, mom." I told her. I didn't want to upset her. She was my mother, after all.
My mother gazed sadly at me.
"I do forget sometimes." She said quietly. "I guess it may just be that you're my only child. My only daughter. I forget that you're only half-human. I'm so sorry, honey."
I felt my eyes welling up with tears. I couldn't stand my mom saying that she was sorry for bringing me into the world.
"Mom, don't apologize." I muttered, finding myself staring at the broken dish just to avoid her tearful gaze. "It is so not your fault. And to be perfectly honest, I could care less what I am." I was lying between my teeth. "I'm just glad to be alive. I've done some research. If I had been born even a couple of centuries ago, I most likely would have been killed. So please stop telling me that you're sorry."
Please stop rubbing it into my face that I'm a half-Demon. I thought silently. But just in my head.
She looked like she was going to cry.
"Right, well." I said to change the subject, "I'm going upstairs. I have some homework left to do. I just wanted to see if you were alright. Later, mom."
Back up in the sanctuary of my room, I stared into the mirror. I didn't really have any homework to do, I just wanted to get away from my mom.
I guess I'm pretty, but with my Demon features, I never thought of myself that way. I would spend hours in my bedroom, just staring into my mirror and wishing I was normal. But I'm not. My ears are pretty big, but they slope off toward the back of my head and are pointed. My eyes are big and have a nice shape, but are the craziest color ever. A light greenish-blue color that would look great in a coloring book but just look awkward and strange on my face. No matter how much I file my nails, they just grow out in a few hours to about an eighth of an inch long and to a pointed tip. I run faster than any full-blooded human could comprehend, and I defiantly have this weird thing for plants.
My nose, (Which, by the way, is the only part of my face that I could ever like) can pick up smells from a mile away, and my hearing is as good as a wolf's. I'm short, though thank God that I didn't get the usual side-affect of having a totally slow growth rate (most half-demons look like they age a year in about that time quadruped, some even ten years!).
But that's all because of the simple face that my father was a Wolf-Demon. I say was because he was killed a few years back when I was just a kid in
kindergarten. I don't remember him to well.
I sighed and leaned my head up against the back of the stuffed computer chair that I was sitting at. It was all so confusing. I should only look like I was six or seven, but I looked thirteen. I actually was thirteen, and my normal aging rate shocked my mom. But like she said, I would probably slow down pretty soon. Slow down a lot. Like, my appearance changing every ten or twelve years. I hoped not. I wanted to live a normal span of years, but things weren't looking pretty good at the moment. I was only five foot two, but despite my size, I was in a "B" bra.
My tiny butt still in the computer chair, I rolled over to my bed and laid my torso down on the mattress. I was so tired. I hadn't slept that great in the last couple of days, and I really thought that I was going to pass out. I closed my eyes.
Just for ten minutes. I told myself. Just ten minutes. Then wake up. Just ten minutes. . .
* * * * *
Susan
* * * * *
I woke up hours later with the horrible feeling that I had overslept. My room was dark, and I couldn't see my hand in front of my face. My digital clock on my night stand read that it was around ten in the evening. I was coughing like I was having some athsma attack or something. It was like there was something caught up in my lungs and my body wanted it out, but I couldn't quite do it.
Then I caught the smell. Blood. Human blood. I gasped. I knew that blood so well. How many times had I seen that human bleed? How many times had I smelt her blood?
I felt like I was going to puke, half from the coughing and half because my mother was hurt. And badly, too. The smell of her blood was all over downstairs. Still hacking, I made my way into the living room. As I descended the stairs, the smell grew stronger, and I really did vomit at the landing. The air was thick with some purple fog. It was clouding up my eyes and making it hard to see. It was as if I had cataracts or something.
"Mom?" I asked fearfully. I had seen enough horror movies to know that a strange fog inside and blood mixed together wasn't good at all.
All of a sudden, I heard a strangled cry coming from the living room. I female's strangled cry. As if the woman was being choked to death. . .
"MOM!!" I shouted, running into the room to see. . . absolutely nothing. Nothing except for a very smelly man wrapped in a baboon costume.
"So." he said in a thick, gravely voice. "You would be her half-Demon spawn huh?"
"Bastard." I hissed, clenching up my fists. "I dare you to come and say that to my face! C'mon! Or are you too chicken to come any closer to me?!"
He just laughed at me.
"As appealing as it sounds to wipe out Taylor Thomas's disgusting half-breed daughter, I have to run. Maybe next time." and as he vanished into thin air.
"Mom?" I shouted, almost afraid that I would get an answer. But nothing. Just the eco of my own voice re-vibrating in the staircase.
I took a shuddering breath, and forced myself to look around the room. The only thing I found was my mother's favorite choker, made of some kind of twine and light blue stones and laying in a puddle of her blood. I gasped and gently picked it up. It had been a wedding present from my father. Mom would never loose it if she could help it!
The basement. A voice. . . my mother's voice in my head told me. Go and find the well in the basement and jump in.
"Great." I said shakily. "So now I've got schizophrenia?"
But nevertheless, I did go down into the basement. I looked around and saw with a slight start that there was a wooden cover off of a giant gaping hole in the floor.
"I must be insane. . ." I muttered, sitting on the edge and slowly lowering myself into it. There was a great purple flash of light, and I was at the bottom, finding my mouth full of some kind of sand.
And I didn't feel a thing. I was totally numb with the realization that I was alone. I didn't have anybody else. I was just doing what my mother had told me to do like I always had.
What I little girl I used to be.
I spat out the sand and climbed up. When I climbed out of the well, the first thing that I noticed was that it was outside. I recognized the smell almost instantly. The air was clear, and that horrible fog was gone. I could see again! But so was my mother. I almost couldn't see again. My vision was going all fuzzy, as though I was going blind again. Warm water gushed out of my eyes, and I crumpled from the sheer despair at the thought that I would never see my mom again. That I would never hear her laugh or feel the warmth of her arms. I started to regret every single argument I'd had with her. Why had I bothered to fight with her over the fact that she wouldn't let me get some top at J.? Why hadn't I apologized after I had cooled off? Why hadn't she told me about that well that somehow had taken me to another place, so far from my home?
I didn't know the answer to any of my endless questions, but I wished that I did. It would make things a hell of a lot simpler.
I smelled something so familiar. Disturbingly, hauntingly so. It was like my mother. . .
Slowly, I dared to look down at my hands. Blood. Dark, thick blood. My face paled. I hadn't even noticed that I was covered in my mom's blood until that moment. It must have been that puddle of blood!
"Oooh." I moaned, fighting the urge to hurl. It didn't work too well. I spewed up the contents of my stomach. It was disgusting, being covered in my mother's blood. . . smelling it. . . I felt my stomach churning again. Stumbling over to a river, I started to rub my hands under the rapid current.
"Oh, my God." I whispered, scrubbing even harder. "Oh, God! It's not coming off! Why won't it come off?! Oh, please just get off my hands!"
* * * * *
Koga
* * * * *
I could smell the blood from a mile away. And the disgusting scent of a half-Demon surrounding it. Honestly, didn't I have enough with Half-Demons with that InuYasha?! But this person didn't smell like InuYasha. No, she didn't smell like a mutt. It was more familiar.
"Wolf-Demon." I muttered in disgust. What Wolf-Demon in their right mind would mate with a human and not kill the child?! Having a human for a lover was one thing, but kids were another altogether.
"Koga!" Hakkaku gasped, running over to me. "Koga, what's wrong?"
"Yeah, Koga. What's up?" Ginta added, gasping and coming to a halt beside Hakkaku.
"Can't you two smell it?" I growled. "there's some Half-Wolf-Demon around here."
"What?" Ginta asked in shock.
"No way!" Hakkaku gasped.
"You gonna go check it out, Koga?" Ginta asked me.
"Obviously." I growled, taking off. "Catch up when you can!" I called over my shoulder to the other two.
As I got closer to that Half-Demon scent, I kept picturing another annoyance like InuYasha. Someone who was better off just dead.
When I finally found that Half-Demon, I was in shock. It wasn't a male. The sleeping figure in front of me was obviously a female. And she was young. She couldn't have been more than thirteen or fourteen. Unlike InuYasha, she didn't have fuzzy ears like I had expected. They were just a pointed and bigger than average. I had been expecting a guy in his mid-twenties with wolf ears and to be covered in human blood. This girl was small and almost vulnerable looking. Her hands were beat red, as though she had been scrubbing them in the nearby stream.
She was sound asleep on her side. Her legs were bent at the knees and her arms were being used as a pillow. Her hair had been pulled up, and her eyelids had this grey powder on them. She was clothed in some kind of silver trousers and a black shirt with the thinnest straps that I'd ever seen. A sweat jacket, as Kagome, the girl I loved, called it, lay in a ball under her head, and I could just make out a bunch of skulls. A rope choker with some kind of blue gems in it was fastened around her neck. Some blond streaks were in her dark brown, curly hair, and the small strands that had come free of the restraint were framing her face in a way that really made the sleeping girl look beautiful.
"Koga!" Hakkaku and Ginta shouted in unison, finally catching up with me.
"Whoa." Ginta said quietly, seeing the sleeping Half-Demon. "I was imagining a Wolf version of InuYasha, not some girl like this."
"Yeah." Hakkaku said, matching Ginta's tone. "She's so young." he added, kneeling down and covering the tips of her ears with his hands. "Huh. Take away the ears and scent and she might be human."
"And the claws." Ginta said. "Don't forget about her hands."
I hadn't even noticed her fingernails, but now that Ginta pointed it out, she did have rather wolf-like hands.
The girl moaned in her sleep, rolling over onto her stomach.
"Stop touching her." I commanded, brushing Hakkaku's hand off of her head. "We don't know who she-"
"Mom. Oh, mom." the girl moaned, horror in her voice. "Mom, don't go. Mom! MOM!" she shouted, bolting out of her slumber and pushing herself up by her arms. She looked ridiculously like a seal.
"O-oh." she said in a soft voice, looking around at the three of us. I guess instinctively, she changed her position to kneeling onto her calves with her arms covering her chest that was almost revealed by the low neck of her shirt protectively. Her nose quivered, and she looked straight up at me, terror and shock beginning to build behind her eyes.
* * * * *
Susan
* * * * *
"You'll have to be careful, Honey. Most demons won't accept a Half-Demon even if it's their own flesh and blood." My mother had once warned me. These words kept replaying themselves to me as I looked around in horror at the three Wolf-Demon and the pack of wolves that surrounded me in a circle.
Even if it's their own flesh and blood. . .
Sure I was half Wolf-Demon, and the guys surrounding me were Wolf-Demons, but that wasn't too reassuring. If anything, it would mean that they would want to kill me even more. My arms were around my breast. To be honest, my cami couldn't really be classified as skanky, but since my boobs were big, I was careful about how much cleavage I showed. The cami gave away a little more than I allowed, strictly speaking. I guess it's a little stupid to be worrying about your modesty when you're surrounded my Wolf-Demon who would probably kill you without an after thought, but I was still a little asleep. Slowly, I reached over and grabbed onto my sweat-jacket and pulled it on. I zipped it up to a couple inches below the neckline of the cami. None of the Wolf-Demons made a move to stop me. I took this as a good sigh.
"Um, hi?" I said uncertainly as I pulled my arms into the sleeves.
"Who are you?" The guy with the black pony-tail asked in a pretty rough voice.
"My name's Susan." I said, nervously climbing to my feet. Since nothing took a shot at my neck, I decided to keep him talking. "Who're you?"
"I'm Koga, the leader of the Demon-Wolf Tribe." He told me. "The one with the white hair is Hakkaku and Ginta is the other."
"Hello," I said in a mix of nerves and shyness. I bit my lip and crossed my arms tightly around my stomach. My throat was dry, and if my teeth closed any tighter on my lip it was going to break the skin.
"Well," I added when they didn't say anything. "I'm. . . going away now. Uh, bye."
I squeezed my way past a few wolves and quickly walked away.
About an hour later, I happened to gaze up at the sky.
"oh, dammit." I whispered upon seeing the moon. It was one week away from being half-way through the waning process. I was going to become a full human in a week. I hate becoming a human. As much as I despise my Half-Demon form, I utterly hate the weak feeling of being a human. I have to hide myself so nobody sees me. I wouldn't be able to bear it if anybody saw me as a human. My hair turns blond and my eyes go a light blue like my mom's. My claws utterly vanish, and my sense of smell and hearing go down so much it's not even funny. I can barely run, too. The only part I like is that my ears shrink down to a normal size.
All of a sudden, I heard a light growl and a cheerful barking from behind me. I spun around, almost passing out because I was so happy. But it couldn't be. . . A little wolf cub came running up and jumped up into my arms.
"Ruby!" I cried out tearfully, embracing my little pet wolf. "Oh, Ruby! It really is you!"
"Of course it's me!" Ruby exclaimed in the Wolf Language that I somehow understood perfectly. "Who'd you think it would be?"
"I don't know." I murmured, stroking the wolf behind her ears. "This place is just so confusing, Ruby. I thought I was going to die just now, but I didn't. I have no idea where I am, either."
"Susan, how's your mom?" Ruby asked me urgently. "I saw that man before she threw me down that well, but I don't know what happened next. Is she okay?" My eyes filled up with another kind of tears.
"Ruby," I whispered. "My mom is. . . well, Ruby, she's. . . I don't know. I couldn't find her." I tried to hide the sadness in my voice, but Ruby knew. I'd had her for months. She knew what I was feeling. And she could feel this deep despair that I felt from the bottom of my heart. She knew what I would have said if I wasn't in the state I was in.
"Oh, Susan." she said quietly. "I'm so sorry."
It was only then that I realized the smell of wolves were following me.
* * * * *
Susan
* * * * *
"W-Who's there?" I stammered, fear punctuating my voice.
"It's just me." Ginta said, walking out of the wooded area.
"Oh." I sighed. This Ginta didn't look all to menacing. "You again. What's up?"
Ginta shrugged.
"Nothing much. Koga just asked me to follow. . . damn me and my big mouth!"
I laughed.
"So Koga asked you to stalk me? Well, ya' can't stalk me too good when I know that you're following me around, can you?" he looked really upset, so I told him: "Hey, it's not your fault. I actually smelled you out, and even then it took me a while. Guess it's 'cause you're a wolf, huh?"
He looked hopeful.
"Yeah, maybe. He just wanted me to spy on you anyway because he wasn't sure if you were the real thing or one of Naraku's tricks. Ya' know, some resarected half-demon girl or something."
I frowned. This Naraku again?
"Hey, my mom mentioned some guy named Naraku. Who exactly is he? It didn't exactly sound like she liked him too much. . ."
"Who does like Naraku?" Hakkaku asked, appearing from the side opposite Ginta. "Ginta, you're so dead when Koga finds out that you're actually talking to her."
"Hey, smart one." I said. "In case you haven't noticed, you're talking to me, too."
"No, I'm not! I'm talking to Ginta!"
I grinned.
"You just spoke to me." I said deviously.
He seemed to loose track of what he was going to say for a few seconds. I laughed again. Pretty soon, Hakkaku and Ginta were laughing too.
"So. . ." I began again once we all stopped laughing like the idiots we are. "Who is Naraku? I can't exactly go and ask my mom, at least not anymore. . ." My voice trailed off.
"He's. . . a guy." Ginta said lamely. "He's. . . uh. . . not very nice."
I raised my eyebrows.
"'Not very nice'?" I quoted. "Oh, c'mon, I know you can do better than that. What's he do? What's he like?"
"Fine. You want all the gory details, we'll tell you." Hakkaku said to me. "But I'm warning you, it's not a pretty story."
I rolled my eyes. I'd yet to see a slash-em-up movie that could give me nightmares.
"Try me." I challenged. "I'm sure I can handle it."
"Alright." Hakkaku began. "He's. . . I think he's a half-Demon. Ah, he killed a good chunk of our comrades, and I guess he's taken out a hole bunch of other people. InuYasha sure seems to hate him for some reason, and so do Kagome and her friends."
"Who're. . . never mind." I said, crossing my arms. "But your pall Koga sure seems strong enough. Why doesn't he just get all slash and kill on this Naraku dude?"
"Cause he's disappeared." Koga announced, coming out from behind me. "You two," he added to Hakkaku and Ginta. "Drop and give me fifty. No, seventy. I told you to follow her, not get all buddy-buddy with her. She's a half-demon, remember?"
There it was. The one thing that made me tick. Half-Demon. It was like a curse word or something. I don't have a problem with people pointing out that I'm half-Wolf-Demon, it's only when they use it as an insult. And that sure as hell was an insult!
"Got a problem with that, ya' damned cross-dresser?!" I demanded, balling up my fists. I wasn't exactly lying, either. He was in a skirt and metal breastplate, though my mother had told me once that most if not all Wolf-Demons dressed like that. She'd also told me that she loved the skirts.
"How come?" I'd asked innocently.
"Easy access!" She'd told me, bursting into peels of laughter.
That was my mom. Always filled with dirty jokes and punch lines. She was always laughing, and I guess some of it had rubbed off onto me.
Even now, as I was glaring at the guy, I could come up with a thousand jokes about the situation, half that weren't really all that funny.
"Yeah, I do have a problem with that!" Koga was shouting, snapping me back to reality. "'Cause you're an effing freak!"
I growled deep in my throat.
"You'd better watch what you say, wolf-boy, otherwise you might just wake up one night wondering why your head's rolling on the ground ten feet away from you!" I snapped, turning around.
"Hey!" he called as I walked away. "Where do you think you're going?!"
"I don't know!" how could I?
"Going home to your mommy?" He taunted to my back. That did it. I snapped. Before he knew it, I was grabbing his throat and pushing him into a tree.
"Don't. You. Ever." I hissed into his ear. "Talk. About. My. Mother. Got that?!" I added, an evil glint showing in my eyes.
"What's your deal?" he muttered, rubbing his throat down once I let go.
My bottom lip trembled and I covered up the bottom of my face to try and hide the emotion.
"Nothing." I muttered, not able to hide the sob in my voice. "I. . . I just don't like people bad-mouthing my mom is all!"
"Koga," Ginta gasped from the ground. "Do you think. . .?"
"Yeah." Koga said quietly, looking at me with a slightly new look in his eyes. "I heard you talking in your sleep. Something about your mom. What's up with that?"
My lip began to tremble again, and I had to sit down while I tried to blink back the tears.
"Nothing." I whispered, my voice barely audible.
"When'd it happen?" Ginta asked gently, crawling up next to me and putting an arm around my shoulders.
"Few hours ago." I said, shaking him off, even though it really was quite comforting. "Some guy in a monkey was in the room when I got downstairs, but I couldn't find my mom. This is all I could find. . ." I added, fingering the choker.
And with that, I broke down crying.
"S-she told me t-to f-find the well in our b-basement and t-to jump in." I sobbed, burring my face into me knees.
"Monkey costume?" Koga asked sharply. "That sounds like Naraku. What'd he smell like?"
"I-I-I dunno." I moaned, gulping in air and stopping the tears. I let that moment rush over me. I had been worried about my mother, I hadn't paid that much attention to his smell. But wait. . .
"Like he hadn't bathed in a while." I said decisively. "Or, I dunno, like he may have been in a battle. Um. . . I think he smelled like a human. . . but not totally. There was defiantly something else. Kinda' demonic, but nothing I've ever encountered before. I think it was like a bunch of lesser demons mixed together. Or if it wasn't, it was something a hell of a lot like it."
"Yeah." Koga growled. "That's Naraku. HEY! Didn't I tell you guys to give me seventy?! That was only fifty!"
Hakkaku and Ginta, who had apparently been hoping to escape their remaining push-ups, groaned together and fell back to the ground. I had to giggle. It was too funny.
"So. . . Koga said awkwardly. "Do you. . . have anywhere to go?"
"Nope." I answered, puzzled at his question. "Why?"
"Well, I was thinking. . . If you didn't have anywhere else to go. . . I thought you might like to tag along with us. Where're looking for Naraku, anyway, so it's not like it'll be a big hassle for you to get revenge if you want."
I felt myself go into shock. Join up with them? With three Wolf-Demons?
"Uhm. . ." I choked out, the kindness of his offer shocking me more than anything else. "Um, sure, okay, if you don't mind. Yeah, revenge would defiantly be nice. Sure, if you're positive I won't be in the way or anything."
Koga rolled his eyes.
"Yeah, like some half-Demon could get in my way." He muttered.
* * * * *
Susan
* * * * *
"Heh. You a half-Demon?" The boy with doggy ears and amber eyes dressed entirely in red before me asked.
"Ugh. Aren't you?" I challenged, picking up his scent and scoffing at his stupidity.
"You smell like a wolf." He told me, making a face.
"Yeah? Well you smell like dogs. And I hate dogs!" I shot back.
"D-do you really?" He asked like the idea was incomprehensible.
"Uh. Wolves are my thing, boy." I announced as Ruby appeared out of the woods and started circling my legs protectively.
"My dear," The monk accompanying the half-Dog-Demon said to me, pushing ahead of his friend and grabbing my hands. "I simply must apologize for my friend's rude behavior."
"Ah. . ." I said, not sure what this guy wanted.
"Miss, could you possibly consider bearing my child?" he continued.
Oh. Typical guy.
"Hey, Monk," I said, giving him a sweet smile. "If I punched you right now, you'd go careening backwards off this cliff and to your death. So I'd really advise you to think twice about that little stunt before you pull it on me again." and with that, I ripped my hands out of his, crossed my arms, and gave him the face I give people who try to make me feel like crap about being a half-Demon. The monk looked like I was freaky (and I most defiantly was) and backed away very quickly.
"Idiot." The small Fox-Demon on the school girl's shoulder said.
"So." the Dog-Boy said to me. "You know Koga?"
I rolled my eyes.
"What's it to you? As a matter of fact, I just met him last night. . ." I trailed off as Koga came running in his cyclone. He jumped over the boy and ran to take the school girl's hands, not unlike the hold that the monk had taken on my hands moments before.
"Yo, Kagome." He said to her, grinning this idiot grin. "I thought I picked up your scent, so I came to see 'ya. Sorry, I still don't have Naraku's neck for ya'. I swear that next time I'll bring you his head on a platter."
"Uhm. . ." Kagome said, looking like she would have liked to sink into the ground.
"Are you trying to flirt with her?" I asked like I couldn't believe, trying to spare the poor girl.
Koga turned around to face me, and Kagome mouthed 'thank you' at me.
"I happen to be in love with Kagome!" he barked at me.
"Okay, okay!" I said, raising my hands. "But I'm just saying, if you're trying to flirt with a girl, you might want to leave out the gore. It's disgusting." I stuck my tongue out and pretended to gag myself with my index finger.
Kagome and the other girl in the long skirt and long sleeves laughed, and even Koga had to smile.
"Ah, shut up, ya' mangy cross-breed." He said to me good-naturedly, mussing up my hair.
"Puny wolf." I muttered, shaking him off.
"Well, later, Kagome!" Koga said, taking off once again.
"Koga!" I yelled, running after him.
"Koga, wait up!" Ginta pleaded.
"Koga!" Hakkaku shouted, following me.
They had just caught up, too. I thought, looking over my shoulder as even I, a half-breed, left them far behind.
* * * * *
Five Days Later
* * * * *
Bankotsu
* * * * *
"Bankotsu? Hel-lo? Earth to Bankotsu." Jakotsu was saying to me, waving his hand in front of my face.
"Huh? Wha?" I asked, jerking out of my thoughts of finding another village to slaughter.
"You were staring off into space like some spacy woman." my very much homosexual friend told me, shaking his head sadly.
"Sorry, Jakotsu," I said, smiling at my best friend. "But not all of us can be as manly as you."
Everybody laughed, even Ginkotsu, though it sounded more like an engine turning over than an actual laugh.
Jakotsu grinned at me, raising his sword, the Jakotsuto.
"I'll kill you for that!" he shouted, chasing me around the campsite while I parried off his small, fake blows with my own weapon, Banryu.
"Hah! Your Jakotsuto is no match for my companion!" I declared as I faked a stab at his heart.
Jakotsu did a very convincing act of dying.
"If you two are done fooling around. . ." Renkotsu said, pretending to be annoyed but not completely able to hide a smile.
"Yeah." I said, helping Jakotsu up. "I guess we should get back to work, huh?"
"When did we start?" Jakotsu asked, ducking down as I punched at his head.
"Both of you, cut it out!" Suikotsu ordered, totally forgetting that I was the leader. I decided not to let it slide this time.
"Hey! Who's the boss around here?!" I demanded. Then, not being able to stand the atmosphere that my own yelling had created, I added: "So Jakotsu, you heard the guy! Stop being an idiot!"
This time it was Jakotsu who tried to punch my head.
"Aw, Jakotsu." I said, faking hurt. "And I was going to let you go after InuYasha. Oh, well. Renkotsu and Suikotsu, you try to handle InuYasha this time. Jakotsu and Ginkotsu, you try to take on Sesshomaru, but don't get yourselves killed like Mukotsu did, got it? Kohaku," I said to the eerily silent Ninja near the campfire "You take them to him. Jakotsu, for crying out loud, if you hurry up, you can see InuYasha get killed!" I added to the pouting Gay boy. "I'm going to take care of Koga after I pack all of our stuff up. Okay, move out!"
"Alright." Jakotsu agreed, slightly cheered by the idea of watching InuYasha die, and hopping onto Ginkotsu. Renkotsu and Suikotsu followed Kohaku into the woods.
About an hour later, I was done packing up all of our crap (Jakotsu has a lot of clothes and makeup, and you can't imagine the amount of oil we have to lug around for Ginkotsu) and was attempting to put out the camp fire. Then, out of the blue, I heard a girl's voice shouting playfully:
"Hakkaku! Ginta! I'm going to murder you!!"
"Catch us if you can!" one of Koga's friends shouted.
"Do you really want me to?!" the girl demanded. I heard three separate sets of pounding footsteps. Losing concentration about what I was trying to do, the sleeve of my shirt caught fire.
"AHHHHHHHH!!!!!!" I cried, running around in circles and waving my arm above my head like an idiot.
"Huh?" the voice asked and I heard the slight crunching of leaves as the girl came to a halt.
Of course, I was still running around and screaming. At least, I was, until I cold burst of water hit me. The flame went out, and I could look at the laughing girl in front of me clearly.
She was wearing a silver skirt that came to a little under half-way to her knees with some kind of skin-tight black pants on her legs. Her shirt was a sleeveless mess of black, grey and pink, and her arms were covered with some black covering that looked kind of like fishing nets. Her hair was curly in the extreme, and pulled up into a pony-tail on top of her head. Her eyes were a strange color, some kind of green-blue that was really pretty.
She was bent over laughing, holding her stomach, and some kind of gun with a majorly big barrel was laying at her feet.
"Oh-my-god!" she howled, sinking down to her butt and laughing harder still. "What-the-hell?!"
"It wasn't that funny." I muttered, taking a closer look at her. I noticed that her ears were a little big and pointed, and so were a couple of her teeth. Half-Demon? I thought.
"Yes-it-was!" She said, taking deep breaths. "You looked like such an idiot! It was hilarious!"
I rolled my eyes.
"Sure, kid, whatever." I said, taking in her appearance once again. It wasn't as shocking at a second glance. "Why're you dressed like that?" I asked, unable to restrain myself.
This time it was her who rolled her eyes.
"Um, 'cuz I like to be weird and most of my friends dress like this." She said like it was obvious. Then she grinned again. "I'm Susan, by the way," She added. "Who're you?"
"Name's Bankotsu." I said, grinning back. "What is that thing, anyway?" I asked, nodding toward the gun.
"Oh, that? That's my Super Soaker." Susan told me. "It's the Icy Blast kind. I lugged it from home 'cuz I couldn't resist getting Hakkaku and Ginta by surprise. But they got a hold of a couple of my other ones and ambushed me. I'll kill them if I ever find them!" She added jokingly, then burst out laughing. "Yeah! Kill them! Sure, right! As if I could ever kill them! They make me laugh too much!"
I just had to laugh along. She had that kind of laugh that just rolls out of her body and seems to infect anything around her.
"Well," She said finally, still shaking with silent giggles. "I'd better get back to camp and get into some warmer clothes. Normal clothes, now I think about it." She grinned yet again. "Wonder what Koga'll do if I spray him." she muttered.
Koga?! I thought. She's tagging along with Koga of the Wolf-Demon Tribe?!
"I guess I'll see you later, Bankotsu!" Susan continued, giving me a sly wink. "Stay away from the hot springs, okay? I'm going to want to warm up a bit." laughing like an idiot, she ran off at a speed that could only belong to a half-demon.
I felt sick as she took off. She was hanging with Koga, the one who I'd told the others I was going to kill. Really, it was pathetic. I'd killed nine thousand, ninety-nine people before I'd been executed, and now that Naraku had restricted me, my number was up to ten thousand something. I'd killed ten thousand plus people, taken at least ten thousand lives away from very living, very aware beings, each with their own story, hopes, and dreams. Dozens of kids had been slayed by my great halberd Banryu. Yet I knew I wouldn't be able to kill that one half-Demon girl. It wasn't a question of being physically able to do it. No, there was absolutely no doubt that I'd be able to do it. I just couldn't look at that face, into those eyes, her face tormented with shock and fear, with those perfect lips and eyes wide open, tears brimming in those beautiful aqua eyes, and know that it was me who'd taken her life away from her.
Like I said, really pathetic. But that girl had made me laugh an actual laugh that I hadn't uttered in a very long time. It was her who'd done it, with her funky clothes and carefree attitude mixed with those eyes that were filled with laughter and love for her life. It was that which had made me roar out into the forest. That had made me forget, just for a moment, that I had a job to do, otherwise Naraku was likely to kill me. For just a few minutes, she'd made me feel like a man. Not an undead man, just a normal, living guy.
"Oh, dammit!" I muttered, sinking down onto a rotting log. "What the fuck is wrong with me?! Suddenly I'm developing morals, just like that?!"
I knew that I had to kill Koga, or at least try to. But how could I do that without hurting the girl in the process?
Then it hit me. Just like that, in a sudden revelation, I knew. The hot springs. Girls liked hot springs, and by the time I had taken care of the job at hand, Koga would be dead. I could even be there, too. Pretending that I'd heard some kind of uproar and ran over to see what was happening, but arriving too late and finding the demon dead. That would work. That would defiantly work. There was no doubt about it. I could get the girl, kill Koga, and I might even get lucky and get to see that hot girl in the springs.
* * * * *
Susan
* * * * *
"No peeking!" I shouted over my shoulder as I undid the snap on my silver denim skirt.
"Cha, as if there's anything to look at!" Koga hollered back at me.
"You just be a good little wolf and stay far away from these springs until I'm done!" I countered, slipping the mini off to reveal my black spandex leggings. I pulled off my punk/rocker sleeveless to and my fish-net long sleeved tee so I was in nothing but my bra and leggings. I stripped those off too, and finally just stood there shivering in my underwear.
"G-g-g-God!" I stuttered, shaking like crazy. "It's f-f-f-frickin' f-f-f-freezin' out here!"
I quickly undid my bra strap and slipped out of my panties and sank gratefully into the hot springs.
"A-a-ah" I muttered as I my feet touched the sandy bottom. Compared to the morning air, these pools were boiling! The water came to just below the bottom of my breasts, and I was actually a little nervous about getting those in this hot water. They were very sensitive.
"Can't be much worse than the shower." I reasoned, bending my knees and leaning against a warm rock so that everything but my head was submerged under the murky water.
"Oh, wow." I moaned as the water began to relax my leg muscles that were sore from running for three days straight.
That's how long I've been hanging around Koga, Hakkaku and Ginta. I though. Three whole days. I've slept near them, and they haven't tried to slice my throat open or even rape me. I've been pretty much naked with only a tree blocking me from view, and they've never tried anything. Koga let me go home last night to get my clothes and things, and he even told me to be careful alone and ended up sending Hakkaku to keep me safe. He can be such a jerk at times, though. But I think that he really might care more than he's showing. He hunts and doesn't hoard the best meet. In fact, he lets me and the guys eat before he'll even touch anything.
My thoughts turned to that guy- Bankotsu- that I'd met only a half-hour ago.
He was nice, I have to admit. But he smelled graveyard soil. I guess he could have been visiting his mom's grave or whatever and fallen into a hole or something, but the scent was all over his body and his clothes were clean. I did blast him with my Super Soaker, though, so the dirt could have washed off him. Who knows, though? He could be a grave-digger or. . . I dunno. . . Ah, well. Who the hell cares? I'm a pretty freaky girl, so I guess I'm not one to talk.
Sighing, I reached out of the water to get a hold of my VO8 Sun kissed Raspberry shampoo and matching conditioner.
"Ah, sweet bliss." I moaned, working up a lather in my hair and breathing in the delicious smell, washing out the grime that I'd managed to get in my hair the night before while I'd slept. Nobody had noticed it, but my head had felt like crap all day. I dunked my head and started to massage the conditioner into my scalp. It felt soooo good.
I tried to think of other things, but my mind kept trailing back to Bankotsu and Koga. I ended up comparing and contrasting them.
Well, Koga's the hottest guy that I've ever met, without a doubt, but Bankotsu is the sexiest. Everything about that guy is sexy, down to his voice and his laugh. Koga's really loyal, though, and you can tell he'd do anything for the girl he loves. I mean, just look at the way he treats Kagome! It's like she's some princess! And he's strong on top of all of that. But Bankotsu has that giant halberd, and he'd have to be really strong to lift the thing. You can't really tell anything about his body make-up, though, since he wears all of that baggy shit. Koga wears that skirt. Mom was so fuckin' right. Those skirts are uber-hot, and I love that armor.
"Oh, dammit." I muttered, sinking further under the water. "What in God's name am I doing? It's almost like I'm going to end up marrying them or something! I'm thirteen! I so shouldn't be thinking about that kind of thing!"
But some little voice in the back of my head kept nagging at me.
You're going to be fourteen in a few weeks. It reminded me. And you're a hell of a lot mature than half of the kids in your grade, and all of the ones you hang out with.
Great. So now I was hearing voices.
"I am so fucked up it's not even funny." I muttered, gliding a bar of soap around my body. "I am so messed that I should just start smoking weed and downing. . . whatever kind of pills people take anymore."
It was right then that I heard Hakkaku and Ginta yelling their heads off.
"What in God's name. . ?" I asked, heaving myself out of the water and quickly toweling off. I pulled on some clean underwear and jeans, plus my long-sleeved Harry Potter tee-shirt and a sweat shirt proclaiming: I Love New York!, my sneakers and socks and ran in the direction of the guy's yelling.
"Damn, Koga!" I gasped out loud after running over a mile. "When I told you guys to stay away, I didn't mean that you should get miles away from where I was!"
I leapt over fallen logs and met up with Ruby after a bit.
"Ruby! You heard them, too?!" I huffed, all of the sprinting finally getting to me.
"Yeah! Something's attacking them, but I have no idea of who or even what!"
"I know! I can't even smell them anymore!" I cried. But then it seemed like I ran smack into a brick wall.
"Susan!" Ruby cried, grinding to a halt right next to me.
"O-o-o-h." I moaned, holding my cranium in my hands. "Oh, God, my head. What did I run into?"
"Nothing." Ruby whispered. "You just bounced back like you'd hit something."
Slowly, I got up and felt along in front of me. My hands finally hit something very solid and giving off one hell of an aura.
"What. . ." I said quietly, feeling along it. "A barrier? In the middle of the woods? What's going on here?"
Hakkaku's voice screamed from somewhere inside the barrier.
"They're in there!" I cried, trying to kick that barrier out of existence and only succeeding in being thrown off balance and getting a sore foot. "God dammit, they're somewhere in that barrier, and I can't get in!"
END CHAPTER
I know, I know. It was extremely long and there were a million places where I could have ended the chapter, but I wanted to wait until Bankotsu came in, and since I have the whole thing almost completely worked out in my head anyways, it was basically impossible to end the chapter anywhere else. I NEVER totally figure something out before I begin to write it, since that's not much fun for me. I just have the basic ideas in my head, and I work off from there. This is kinda' my first fanfic, but I've been writing for years, so don't even think about telling me how to write my stories! I've seen that kind of thing on YouTube, and it's really disrespectful and rude. I KNOW WHAT I'M DOING!!!! So sorry, Internet-flamers, but you can't get to me!
No, I'm not really a punk/goth/emo girl, but some of my friends are, and I think it's the coolest look ever. I'm making up some friends for my next one, which I think might take place mostly in the present. Like I said, I don't have it totally figured out yet, and the second chapter ALWAYS takes longer than the first for me. Well, almost always. IDK, maybe it won't take as long as I think it will, but who really knows?