Disclaimer: Rumiko Takahashi has the delight of owning these characters. I have the delight of owning a car that is the same age as me, and completely wrecked.

Chapter 2. Drinking Milkshakes

O.O

The water turned a slightly disturbing shade of purple and pink as Inuyasha waded his way waist deep and it drew the blood off his body. He made sure to give his claws a good careful cleaning first, then dove straight under.

He reveled in the coolness the water provided as it surrounded him. He had spent a good portion of the day scorching up his feet on the city roof tops. This weather was a pain in his ass.

A little while later when he came up for air he relaxed and floated a little while. He had some time on his hands now, so he watched the horizon turn pink and then orange with the sunset. After it had set he hauled himself out onto an outcropping on the bridge he'd been swimming under.

Getting a claw full of silvery white, he sniffed curiously at his damp, tangled masses. Unfortunately the swim had washed all the black dye out, but he was happy to have gotten rid of the blood and stink that had gotten into it when he'd torn that bastard up. Still it was a bit of an inconvenience.

Once his clothes had dried Inuyasha twisted a simple silver ring onto a finger and watched with a frown as his gleaming claws disappeared into the sad little nubs humans called nails. Never mind the hair, he could just pass for some gay fashionista, a a cosplay fanatic, or a blonde foreigner. Whatever it took to get the job done.

O.O

"Chug! Chug! Chug!"

Kagome giggled as she and her friends watched two of the boys at the next couple of tables over chug size gargantuam Cold Things Perfecto Peanut Butter shakes in a face off. Their faces were looking rather blue, but the five bucks to the victor was sure to be worth brain freeze!

Eri threw an arm around Kagome's shoulders bringing her out of her sympathy brain freeze. "You feeling better Kagome?"

Kagome swiped a tear of laughter and nodded. "Much, I still can't believe the policeman didn't find anything but one of the knives. I wonder what happened after I ran off?"…or if I imagined it all.

Eri didn't seem to want to hypothesize with Kagome, so she just decided to give her shoulders another comforting squeeze. "It doesn't matter, your safe now and you gave them his description so they'll find him!" She removed he arm suddenly and gave Kagome a reproving look that immediately reminded Kagome of her mother. "Just make sure you don't go around in alleyways by yourself again. I almost had a heart attack when Ayumi waved me over and I saw your face!"

"Yeah that was pretty stupid of you Kagome." Yuka added. She had somehow managed to tear her eyes away from jubilant cheering and muscle display in time to add her own reprimand.

Kagome avoided their suddenly accusing gazes and blew bubbles into what was left of her Mucha Mocha shake, great guys, blame the victim. "Yeah well it was one thirty in the afternoon, and, and, and. Bad things aren't supposed to happen when the sun is out!"

She was rather thrown off by it really. Tokyo had always been a safe place for Kagome, she'd never feared for, well, anything before. She never thought the stuff that sometimes happened on the news could happen to her.

Well it didn't and it wouldn't, that's what mattered… She knew better than to walk alone in dark alleyways by herself now, so she was safe. At least that's what she kept trying to convince herself and her mother.

"Hey I know what will make you feel better."

Kagome looked up hopefully at Eri. "Puppies?"

Eri seemed stumped by that answer for a moment, battling internally with the truth of it. "Well yes, but no! Shopping!" She recommended, practically bouncing in her seat.

Kagome was intrigued until she remembered the state her funds were in. "I mean, I guess, but we went shopping yesterday. I kind of used up my budget then…" she trailed off when she saw Eri's debate face fall into place.

"You have a point, however, the summer lights festival is in two weeks." Eri paused to make sure Kagome was following long. "We should go shopping for yukatas, hair pieces and obis!"

Kagome gave her a flat look. "That's an awful long shopping list Eri."

Eri didn't even blink, completely taking the rebuff in stride. "It's an important Japanese tradition, Kagome. One that we must honor and uphold with our traditional dress. We must maintain a high quality of style and honor in our garb, or our generation will fall into a degenerate state!" Eri was a bit breathless once she finished, having said most of her speech in one breath.

"Wow," Kagome gave Eri a soft round of applause. " Is that the speech you would like me to give me mother?"

Eri contrived to look demure, "if you think it would help…yes."

Kagome had to give her props for her convincing argument. Of course, Kagome was a bias judge. She really wanted to go shopping too.

"Hmm, o kay, how about next week? I'll have gotten to have tried that and maybe have saved some more money by then." She winked.

"I wanna come too!" Ayumi cried, making Eri, Yuka, and Kagome jump. She had suddenly decided to pay attention since the boys had ended their contest.

"Me too." Yuka added, not one to be left out.

"Okay" Eri said, "everyone comes, how does next Friday sound?"

Kagome frowned when she realized the very festival that inspired their shopping spree would ruin her Friday. "I'll be babysitting my little brother most of Friday." She slouched down in her seat and groaned. "Mom and Grandpa are leaving early that morning to go gather supplies for the festival."

"Are you free next Saturday?" Yuka asked.

Kagome perked up, of course, another day! "Yep!"

Kagome was still kind of preoccupied with the fact that her almost attacker was still on the loose… But the police were supposed to be scouring the city at the moment so…She figured she was probably safe enough-ish.

"Hey do you guys think we should go to Shibuya or OW!" Ayumi threw a hand to her cheek. "What was that? OW, another one? Ick!" Ayumi's hand traveled up to find a wet waded up piece of paper that had just struck her hair.

"What is that?" Eri asked looking at her hand.

"I think, I think it's a spit ball!" Ayumi realized with a shreek. "Ew gross!" She threw it as far away from herself as she probably could. She had a bad arm so, it just landed on Yuka's sleeve.

"Ew! Watch it!" Yuka wiggled and grinded in her seat until it fell off.

Meanwhile Kagome had zoned out their antics and was investigating the crime scene. She examined the landing point of the first spit wad, the left side of Ayumi's wavy haired head, then looked to the opposite table and saw that the boys who had been in a chugging competition were now in the midst of hysterical laughter. She put two and two together and…

"Oi!" Kagome jumped up suddenly, accidentally knocking her drink over. Eri lunged to pick it up for her, wondering if maybe there was a spider on it or something.

Kagome was oblivious to her near spill as justice became more important. "Hey you! You with the weird straw and the bad bleach job, what's your problem?"

"Me?" Said a boy with long blonde hair at the table next to the girls with a hurt look, he was paused in the middle of taking a sip of his shake through a giant squiggle straw. "What did I do?"

"Oh, I'm so sorry, not you." Kagome apologized to the confused boy, immediately realizing her mistake in stereotyping. "Your hair looks great." She added, awkwardly.

"You really think so? You don't think it looks unnatural?"

"I, is it not natural?" Kagome huffed, realizing she was getting side tracked. She threw a pointed finger at the squad of boys at the other table. "I meant them!" When the blond one at that table turned wide eyes on Kagome, she added, "What's your problem?"

The boys weren't laughing anymore. The one with the bad dye job and the most muscles stood up. "What's your problem!"

Meanwhile Kagome's friends were frozen in a state of shock. They knew Kagome had a temper, but they had never seen her this bold before. They were a little scared. Mostly of her, right then, but also for her. The boys were big.

"Hey, I asked you first…OW! Seriously? Another one?" Kagome screeched, wiping a spit wad off her cheek. If they shot her again, so help her, they were not going to see tomorrow. Wow, when had she become so hostile, she wondered if she was suffering from some sort of PTSD.

She saw a flicker of movement and realized it was the brunette boy next to the one with the bad bleach job who had taken the opportunity to shoot a spit wad at her.

"That's it!" She marched over to the table. Someone needed to teach them some manners, and that person, Kagome decided, was herself.

THUMP

When her hand slammed down on their table the boys jumped in their seats. She may have taken a little pride in that. A little.

"I don't care if you think she is cute, or you're too scared to come talk to her. It doesn't give you the excuse to throw spit wads at my friend like a ten-year-old!" She told them, fixing her eyes on each, guilty individual.

"WH-what! I don't think she's cute!" One of them tried to protest when Kagome stopped him in his tracks.

"Oh, don't even try!"

"Kagome, settle down, it's okay!" Kagome heard Eri call from their table, her friends had finally thawed out of their shock and were starting to murmur amongst each other.

"No, it isn't." Kagome straitened, returning her attention to the guilty party. "You need to apologize." She told them.

"Me?" asked the last one to launch a spit ball.

"All of you." she said. "If you don't start treating girls right now, you'll never find one worth having." She warned them sagely.

"Hold up, I didn't actually do anything," a handsome, black-haired boy with glasses at the back of the table said.

"Okay, except for you." Kagome agreed, but continued to glare at the rest of the guilty looking lot.

Suddenly Kagome felt an arm fall around her shoulders. She broke eye contact and looked to her right see that Yuka was beside her. "Hey Kagome, we're ready to head out. Are you?"

Kagome looked to see that on her other side was Ayumi looking bashful and Eri who was red faced and trying to hold back a laugh.

The blond boy scuttled forward eagerly, "Hey, want to introduce us to your friends?" he asked Kagome hopefully.

"No!" She barked at him. Wondering how he had the gall to even ask. She watched him fall back in disappointment, clutching at his chest as though struck through the heart with an arrow. She ignored him and turned to her friends, "Yeah, let's get out of here." And with a hair flip she began walking away, the girls following in her wake.

"But wait! We're sorry!"

"Yeah, really sorry!"

Ayumi stopped suddenly to stick her tongue out at the boys before running to catch up to Kagome, Yuka, and Eri.

"Wow, Kagome, you're so brave! I can't believe you did that!" Kagome couldn't believe it either. "Wasn't the one with glasses really cute though?" Ayumi asked as she threaded her arm cutely with Kagome's, "Like really cute?"

It didn't take a communications degree to figure out what Ayumi was getting at. Kagome stopped in her tracks. "Ayumi, we're not talking to them next time. They had their chance."

Those boys weren't fit to date a toad.

Ayumi pouted, "Aww come on, they apologized...and they're cute."

Kagome shook her head. Sometime she really wondered what went through Ayumi's head. She probably didn't want to know. But really she had already forgiven the twerps. They weren't bad guys she decided, just not well-mannered ones.

"Well, you can. But I won't." She replied bemusedly.

Ayumi unlinked their arms and skipped ahead. "We'll just have to wait and see!" she added loftily.

O.O

Kagome pushed on the old wood of the window above the kitchen sink. With a groan it opened and let the sounds of summer float in on a current of balmy heat.

"I'm going to watch you from here Sota, okay?"

"Okay" he called back from a distance. He was running out to the street to play with some neighborhood kids.

The cicadas were ringing, children were playing in the streets, and no matter how many windows and doors were open there were never enough breezes to stop the sweat from collecting on Kagome's forehead and back.

It was so hot, and Kagome was a hot mess. Well at least her hair was, thanks to the ruthless humidity that came with summer.

Kagome paused in her filling the water pitcher and contemplated dumping it over her head. And then refilling it and dumping it over her whole body.

But it would take her forever to clean the floor after so…she turned the water back on to fill it the rest of the way.

Thankfully her mother had already made lunch for her and her brother before she left, so cleaning and keeping an eye on the place was really all she had to do until they got back that night.

Yawning she looked dreamily out the window to see the children coloring the streets with chalk patterns and drawings. The drawings were nothing spectacular- just a few cats and dogs, some hopscotch, and a few indistinct doodles here and there.

She watched them somewhat wistfully. She remembered playing with chalk, and always getting covered in it somehow. Her brother had started drawing a badly formed cat with chalk when he waved her over to join him. She shook her head and lifted the pitcher and mouthed 'making iced Kool Aid' at him.

He mouthed back 'why?'

No way was she going out into the sun today, she might get…tan, and hotter. Not reasons a young boy might understand.

She looked up pointedly at the sun, then at the sweat beading down her chest, then back at him like he was crazy. His face was still blank so she then panted and fanned herself.

He still didn't seem to get it so she shrugged and mouthed 'because why not?'

He laughed, made some armpit fart motions and then lifted his arms to the side like he was an airplane and ran away in zig zags.

Ahhh, the bliss of being a young idiot.

Kagome shook her head, she loved that kid, but what she wouldn't do to be anywhere but there right then. Like out shopping in an airconditioned mall with Eri, Yuka, and Ayumi.

That's right, they were all ecstatically shopping without her right at that moment. And they were probably laughing about it too.

Okay maybe they weren't laughing about it. They were all still going out together on Saturday, But, apparently her friends had decided they couldn't go the extra day without putting some shopping hours in and had gone out to look for hair ornaments together, sans Kagome. Who had been stuck at home with some good ol' honor bound babysitting.

But the girls had sweetly promised her they were leaving the whole yukata shopping for when she was free, "tomorrow, because we totally need your help and fashion expertise girl." Eri had assured her over the phone.

Bunch of weaklings. Not one ounce of loyalty in the lot of… "Okay, but you owe me some Boba!" Kagome had chirped in a dangerously light tone.

After a moment of tense, worried silence and deliberation Eri agreed, "Deal! I hope you're not too mad…"

She was, but she knew she shouldn't be. She knew it wouldn't be right for her to expect her friends to give up their fun just because she couldn't join them. So Kagome assured Eri she wasn't, hung up the phone and screamed into her pillow in frustration. Because she really did want to go.

Her smothered scream had mildly alarmed her mother that morning who was still on edge after the whole, her baby was almost kidnapped or raped episode in a dark alleyway in the middle of the afternoon just last week.

Kagome felt pretty safe though. Later that night, after the incident, they had found the crazy guy two or three blocks away from the crime scene with gashes on his body and in a state of shock.

They found his wallet which had actually had her name on a scrap of paper in it with the route to Cold Things drawn, and his ID. Which, after they ran it, told them his name was Ricardo, and that he had a history of public aggression, drugs, and nudity.

They said he was probably attacked by a giant dog based on the cuts and scratches he turned up with, but he wouldn't answer any of their questions and they couldn't find the beast.

Although terrified at the realization that it was some crazy, dangerous beast that had jumped down behind her, Kagome was grateful to the animal that must have saved her anyhow. She hoped they didn't find it, when they did, they would probably try to put it to sleep.

Kagome went to the station the next day to see her attacker in a line up. She picked him out and got to leave knowing he wouldn't be coming after her again. She decided she could probably continue going around Tokyo with some semblance of safety. Like, to go shopping.

Speaking of shopping, although still slightly irritated with her friends, Kagome was actually pretty psyched about the free Boba she was getting tomorrow.

Suddenly Kagome's hands felt very cold, "Ah!" Ice water on my hands!

Kagome jumped with a yelp, banging her hand on the faucet. The sudden feeling of ice water running over her hand had shocked her.

"Ignuhh!" she moaned indistinctly, as she observed her red hand. It looked like she had accidentally overfilled the pitcher during her mental raging…Now she really did have a mess to clean up off the floor.

Sighing she shut off the faucet and grabbed a hand towel and bent over to sop up the spilled water.

It was then, the one moment she had to look away from the children, that she heard a call for help that sent her heart thumping out of her chest.

"Sota!" She screamed in panic, skittering over the wet towel on the floor. She flung the screen door open and ran with all the fire her limbs would give her and made it in record time to find her little brother being thrown over the shoulder of a strange man. Of whome she could only see from behind as having long white hair spilling down his back and over his shoulder and a red cap on.

Not being able to stop herself in her rage, or halt her momentum, she slammed into the shoulder he had closest to her as hard as she could. His body swung to face her, and he met her with wide golden eyes she was determined to make black as her fist connected with his face.

Immediately he dropped Sota, who she caught quickly and pushed towards the other children. The man looked stunned.

"Run children! Now!" She shouted at them, particularly at a queasy looking Sota. "What is wrong with you go!" Shocked out of their frozen state, the children ran away screaming as Kagome knocked her hand back for another punch. Today she decided she would not run. Did she realize he was probably a heck of a lot stronger then her? Yes. Did she also realize that hand to hand combat with a grown man was futile and she would most definitely lose? No, no she hadn't gotten that far in thinking yet.

She was too preoccupied with adrenaline and the appearance of him regaining his balance. With a curse he rocked forward.

He was big. Suddenly feeling fear again for a moment she hesitated, but then more adrenaline and anger kicked in. "I will call the police asshole, if you don't leave now!" Kagome threatened. She lunged again, convinced that she was about to pulverize his idiotic, child knapping face. But this time her clumsiness kicked in and she twisted her ankle to the side, causing her to lose her balance.

The floor didn't rush up to meet her like she expected, instead she found her wrists were already bound in an excruciatingly strong grip and her body being thrown with inhuman speed over the shoulder of a body bounding to a black SUV. Huh, real inconspicuous. She internally remarked before she snapped again with an angry screech and began fighting anew for escape. Kagome kicked, scratched, and fought like a wild animal, but to no avail, as the man threw her into the car.

"Sorry about this kid." Were the last words she heard through her screeches as a cloth was held up to her face. And as the world fell away only then did it occur to Kagome to remember that she was just a sixteen-year-old kid, and that that's was why she—she was being kidnapped.

Also, why in the world didn't she tell Sota to call the police? Stupid Kagome!

O.O

A/N: So, a bit of a cliff hanger here. If you like where this is going, please review!