A/N: Wow. Okay, well I got WAY more of a response than I thought I would get with that prologue… Anyways, just wanted to thank you reviewers! It makes me happy to know that you like my writing so much :D Anyways, here is the next chapter…. Enter, Sesshomaru and Inuyasha Iwasaki!
()() o(")(") Manga S.
"…. As two more bodies were discovered near the scene of the first and third attack. Authorities are at a loss, seeing as no weapon, finger prints or other evidence has been thus far discovered. The people who have been murdered have no relation to one another, aside from the fact that all of them seemed to have been killed instantly. The deceased are the following: Etsuo Goto, age twenty two, Fujitaka Hiro, age eighteen, Hana Ishikawa, age thirty five…."
Rin Kanada shuddered as more pictures appeared on the screen, as name after name was listed. The only thing the police knew was that it was the same person every time. The places, names, faces, ages, ethnicities, genders, and blood types were all different, but they occurred one after another, at least twice a week, if not faster, and in every kill, the 'mark of the moon' was seen.
In the killing that had happened last night, the crescent moon had been slashed across one of the men's chests', with what seemed to be claws. One of the other victims had had the moon carved into his jugular with the tip of a knife. Most often though, the moon was painted in dark blood on the ground, the walls, or the corpse itself.
All the kills were clean, immaculate.
"… demon involvement is suspected, and if you have any information regarding this, please call the hot line on the bottom of the screen." The announcer finished.
Demon involvement was suspected? No human could do things that perfectly. Rin glanced at the clock.
"Oh crap!" she yelled, switching off the television, grabbing her bag, and sprinting out the door. She ran full tilt up the street until nearly colliding with a group of four people, in the same uniform as Rin.
"Rin!" cried Miroku, trying to hug her, and more than likely, grope her. Rin dodged swiftly, causing Miroku to nearly trip.
"Knock it off Miroku, that's just annoying." Sango, his girlfriend, complained as she grabbed his arm. Ayame and Kagome bounded forward, each linking arms with Rin.
"Did you see the news report?" Kagome asked with wide, nervous eyes.
"Yeah! If it is a demon, how dare he shame our name!" Ayame yelped, looking equally unnerved. Rin nodded, with a slight shiver.
"I'm kind of scared to go home now! I live alone, so…."
"You should get a dog or cat!" Sango called around Miroku's arm. "I live alone, but I have Kirara with me."
"But I can't afford upkeep!" Rin moaned. By now, the five of them were on the school doorstep. The warning bell went off, and Miroku suddenly froze.
"Dammit! Why does my locker have to be so far away from my first class?" He yelled in exasperation, darting through the doors and leaving the girls in his dust.
"You'd better hurry, you know how Tsubaki gets when we're late… hag." Muttered Kagome.
"True, true." Piped Ayame. Sango just rolled her eyes and stopped at her locker.
"See you guys later."
As it turned out, Rin made it to class with seconds to spare. She glanced around the room as if expecting some sign of the fear the recent killings had imparted on her.
Every thing looks…. So normal! She thought to herself. The door creaked open and she gasped despite herself. Or not.
Two boys walked through the door after Tsubaki, just as alike as they were strangely different.
One was tall, pushing seven feet, but slim and incredibly lean, with pale skin and magenta marks on his face and arms, as well as a blue crescent moon cresting his forehead. His pointed ears marked him as a demon.
The other was shorter, and of a slightly stockier build. Heavier eye brows, wider, wilder, eyes, and the odd addition of dog ears gave him a meaner, more temperamental look. A half-breed, then.
Their similarities were in their gold eyes and silver hair, the shared nose proving them to be related in some way. They were both dressed in the boy's uniform, a white button up polo with a black tie and matching slacks.
The taller of the two had a silver choker around his neck, marked with an odd, shimmering symbol. The shorter and seemingly younger boy wore a red leather necklace on the end of which hung a sizeable fang.
"These are the new transfer students, Inuyasha and Sesshomaru Iwasaki. I expect you to treat them well. Inuyasha, you may go to your assigned class now. Sesshomaru, you may have that empty seat beside Ms. Kanada." Tsubaki announced.
Rin stiffened as two sets of amber eyes turned on her. One indifferent, and one so cold it felt as though the temperature in the room dropped ten degrees.
Sesshomaru looked back at Inuyasha. "Goodbye, abomination." He said smoothly.
"Yeah, later bastard." Inuyasha called over his shoulder as he walked out of the room with his hands in his pockets.
"Seems they don't like each other very much." Murmured Ayame.
"As you say, wolf. My brother and I detest each other." Sesshomaru replied, startling Rin, who hadn't noticed that he was already at his desk.
"This 'wolf' has a name, you jerk. It's Ayame."
"If I ever care to remember that, I'll let you know." He said flatly. Ayame stared at him, incensed, and opened her mouth to say more. At that moment, however, Tsubaki slapped a ruler down on the desk up front and declared that we would be having a pop quiz.
A universal groan filled the air along with the shuffling of papers. Rin tried desperately to remember her biology formulas. All she could remember was that to transcribe RNA off of DNA you first needed to find the start and stop codon that was usually located close to the TATA box… or was it closer to the promoter region? Was adenine supposed to attach to thymine or urasil…? She couldn't remember. (A/N: Ha ha, actually, bio is my best subject… and English :D)
Dreaded silence filled the room as Tsubaki scrtich-scritched away on papers with her red pen of doom. After about ten minutes Tsubaki stood with a swish of her black skirt and began passing back papers.
Rin Kanada: 67%
Ayame Soseki: 83%
Sesshomaru Iwasaki: 100%
"I will have you know, class, that the transfer student was the only one to get a perfect score. I find this highly disappointing. Your grades will suffer because of this." The white haired witch proclaimed. Sesshomaru was receiving some dirty looks, but he seemed either oblivious or unconcerned about this. Rin was tempted to go with the latter.
The bell rang, and everyone stood… except Sesshomaru. Rin looked at him as he simply stared off into space.
"H-hey… the bell rang." She stuttered nervously.
"Hn…? Oh. I see." He rose, but walked with just the slightest trace of uncertainty. Rin's older brother had been the same. She had seen that look before. The one that spelled out, 'Really, I have no clue what I'm doing, but I'm going to act like I do because I'm a man and refuse to ask for help.'
"You don't know where your classes are… do you?"
"Not really. I can handle it though. Don't trouble yourself."
"O-oh… well, alrigh-."
"Kanada! You are assigned to help Iwasaki around the school for the week. Your classes are all with him, so it should be fine." Tsubaki yelled over her shoulder.
Rin and Sesshomaru stared at her, and then at each other. Then Sesshomaru turned and walked away.
"Hey!" Rin cried, tailing after him. Someone suddenly tapped on her shoulder, and she turned to see Inuyasha standing there with Kagome and Miroku.
"Sorry, but could we get by…?" he asked with the barest hint of nervousness in his voice. Rin smiled and moved a bit to the left, waiting for them to pass. Kagome tripped, and grabbed Inuyasha's hand to catch her balance. He didn't seem to mind though.
Sesshomaru caught sight of this, and his blank face twisted in a sneer.
"Inuyasha, you already found a woman I see… a human none the less. You should make better choices."
"Shut the hell up." His brother growled irritably, shoving past and pulling Kagome with him. Miroku tried to touch Rin's butt again, but one glare for Sesshomaru and he scurried off.
"You… don't like humans?" she guessed.
"I certainly have no love of them. But I hate liars the most."
"I see…" she murmured. Rin thought he was really attractive, despite his… cold demeanor.
But obviously I'm human, she thought, and any relationship between he and I would be one of contempt at the most. He's a powerful demon, and what am I? I'm short, A-cup little girl with black hair and brown eyes. Absolutely nothing to make me stand out.
"Unfortunately, saying that makes me a hypocrite…" he sighed to himself. Rin caught a brief flash of deep rage mingled with pain in his eyes.
"I'm sorry, what did you say?" she asked. Sesshomaru looked at her, golden eyes empty once more.
"No, nothing. Where is our next class, Kanada?" He queried.
"You can just call me Rin." Rin murmured embarrassedly.
"Fine. Where is our next class, Rin?"
XxXxXxX
Night had fallen again. Again the black-and –silver shadow began to hunt his prey. He pulled the picture from his pocket and glanced it over. A woman this time. A young woman.
A voice swore from behind the mask, sounding hollow as it re-echoed around the metal. How he hated killing the women. It made his guilt trip just that much worse.
But a job was a job.
And his job had to be done.
At anycost.
He slunk through the alley ways, sniffing out his quarry. He finally caught her trail, winding up a hill to a richly decorated mansion that stood alone, in a semi-rural area. Perfect.
No one would hear her if she screamed.
He crept under her bushes, peering through the window, seeing his own silver reflection staring back at him.
Silver face, golden eyes.
Oh, how he hated that mask.
That constant reminder of his sins, past, present, and future.
But a job was a job.
And his job had to be done.
At any cost.
He slunk out from under the brush, testing the window. It was unlocked. What a stupid woman she must be. The window rattled slightly as the masked killer opened it and skulked in, dropping to the floor without a sound. He listened intently for any sound.
"…yeah. Yeah. Okay, fine. You're coming over at noon tomorrow, right? Kay. Yeah. Love you too. Bye." Said a woman's voice from upstairs. She was on the phone? Good. She hadn't heard him come in.
Climbing the spiral stairs noiselessly, the silver mask sent gleams of moonlight sparkling into the empty space. The killer's heart thrummed in his chest.
He may not enjoy killing needlessly, but while it lasted, he loved the thrill of the hunt.
The girl was in her room it seemed, humming loudly to herself and walking about. Perhaps dancing. Her footsteps were rather erratic.
He had already confirmed there was no one else in the house. Why not go out with a bang? Rather than opening the door, he blew it to pieces with his fist. There was a shriek that hurt his ears as the girl fell back.
She glanced at his gleaming features and screamed again. It pained him to listen.
He killed her for that.
He hated it. That guilt that come after. The thought that maybe she had someone to care for her. Maybe she was the one who cared. It didn't matter. It was over, and her heart had stopped.
He bent over and dipped his fingers in her blood, approaching the white wall and began to paint.
XxXxXxXxX
The next morning the police were called by a hysterical mother. Her daughter had been found dead in her room. The mark of the moon was there. And directly below it?
She makes twenty- six. How many more must I kill before he is satisfied?