Disclaimer: Of COURSE I own Inu-Yasha! -- Dripping with sarcasm. Can't you hear it? [drip, drip] There we go!
[sigh] The end is here… I can't be serious, even for a fight scene… damn… I hope you like…
— — — — — — — — — — —
Reflections and Revenge
— — — — — — — — — — —
Kagome sat on the porch of the beach condo with Sango. They sat together in silence just trying to enjoy each other's company. 'Trying' being the key word. As hard as they tried not to think of what happened earlier that day, they couldn't. One person was dead, another injured and in the hospital. Those types of things don't go away; especially when you have a lingering feeling that it's your fault. It was like a thorn burrowing itself deeper and deeper into their souls. They had no control over the pain and it was starting to be overwhelming. How much pain would they have to go through to become a normal group of college grads?
Kagome felt like she had ruined her cousin's moment. Trouble followed her around like a lost puppy and she knew it. If she knew something awful like this was sure to happen, they why did she come? She remembered the gleeful looks Sango and the others had given her when she told about the wedding. Those looks were what had driven her to come; that and the joy she knew she'd give her cousin by being present.
Sango was absorbed by the loss of her entire family. The events of the afternoon understandably made her mind race to it every time she saw a little boy playing with his friends or family. It hurt. Her entire being hurt; body and soul ached uncontrollably and she needed a way out.
There was one answer to stopping the pain: justice. It was funny how one simple word could relive a world of hurt and suffering, but that's how it was. That's how it was supposed to be at least…
"Sango…? Kagome…?" Miroku asked, poking his head out from inside.
Both girls turned and looked at him with sad, weary eyes.
"Where's Inu-Yasha?"
Kagome's eyes went wide with fear.
"What do you mean?" Sango gulped.
"He's not here." Miroku stated. "I thought maybe he was out here with you two."
"He's not…" Kagome said, horrified. "He didn't…"
"Didn't what?" Miroku asked gently.
"He went after him!" Kagome shouted as she stood up.
She knew Inu-Yasha. He was self-righteous and often took matters into his own hands. If she had guessed correctly, he was out looking for Naraku.
— — — —
Inu-Yasha slipped around a dark street corner. He didn't exactly know where he was going, but he could follow his nose. Naraku's scent was not something to be easily forgotten.
"That bastard…" Inu-Yasha growled to himself. "He can do anything to me, but when he messes with my friends…" He left the threat hanging in the air.
Inu-Yasha sniffed the city air and found the scent to be quite unpleasant: pineapple and tropical flowers mixed with car exhaust and oil. However, there was one scent that stood out: Naraku's. Even without his keen nose, Inu-Yasha could have picked out that putrid scent from a mile away.
Inu-Yasha allowed himself to be led away by the scent. He followed it until he found himself at an abandoned warehouse.
"Way to be original, scum bag…" Inu-Yasha said, absentmindedly under his breath.
He easily made his way inside to find it was extremely dark.
"A security merit to this guy please…" Inu-Yasha muttered as he slunk around in the dark. "Overconfident piss-brained ass…"
Inu-Yasha made his way to a staircase. He didn't know where it led, but he could smell Naraku's putrid scent leaking from the rooms above. As he was about to begin his assent, the overhead lights flickered on.
"An overconfident piss-brained ass, am I?" Naraku's voice asked over the loudspeaker.
"Definitely." Inu-Yasha growled.
"Inu-Yasha…after all the things I've done for you…" Naraku drawled.
"Shut up, you bastard!" Inu-Yasha roared. "You used me and now you want to kill me because I got wind of it!"
"Inu-Yasha, name calling won't solve anything."
"And what will?!" Inu-Yasha growled.
"Your death." Naraku stated like it was the simplest thing in the world.
— — — —
"We've got to stop him!" Kagome shouted as she gathered up her car keys.
"I'd love to, but we don't know where he is." Miroku stated sensibly.
"We'll have to fix that, now won't we?" Sango hissed as she fixed Miroku with a glare.
Miroku gulped and nodded as he followed Kagome and Sango out the door.
— — — —
"You have got to be kidding me…" Inu-Yasha growled.
From the shipping doors, a large group of men armed with lead pipes walked out.
"That is so clichéd!" Inu-Yasha shouted.
"I prefer the term 'classic'," Naraku scoffed over the intercom.
"'I prefer the term classic.'" Inu-Yasha mocked. "Classic, my ass!"
"Go ahead, boys."
"Aw, shit!" Inu-Yasha exclaimed with passion as he found himself surrounded by burly men.
Inu-Yasha dodged as a man flung a pipe at his head. He flipped over and onto another man's shoulders. Another man took a swing, missed horribly, and clunked one of his associates on the head.
Inu-Yasha shook his head. These people fought like bumbling idiots!
Another man threw his pipe at Inu-Yasha, which resulted in knocking out at least ten of his partners.
Inu-Yasha stared then broke out in uncontrollable laughter as he watched all of the men start beating each other up. Evidentially, they hadn't noticed that he was standing by the stairs drinking a beer that he had stolen from a nearby cooler.
"You idiots!" Naraku shouted angrily at his men. "Fight HIM! Fight Inu-Yasha, not each other!"
The men ignored him and soon they were all decked out on the warehouse floor.
— — — —
"You're kidding me…" Miroku said incredulously as he made his way into the warehouse, guided by Inu-Yasha and tailed by the girls and some police officers.
"Nope." Inu-Yasha laughed. "They all just beat each other to a bloody pulp!"
"That is…so…" Kagome started as she peaked from behind Inu-Yasha to see a group of at least fifty men unconscious on the warehouse floor.
"Barbaric?" Sango supplied. "Amazing? Obtuse? Moronic? Stupid? Can I think of any others…?"
Inu-Yasha gave her a withering glance.
"She's right you know." Miroku remarked.
"Yeah!" Kagome agreed. "How stupid can one person be?! You came here by yourself to take on Naraku! You had no clue what kind of danger you were in!"
"They started it, Wench! Besides, I'm fine."
"Shut up and SIT!" Kagome shouted at him as she pushed him into a chair.
While Inu-Yasha was getting reprimanded, Miroku was gazing up into the rafters of the warehouse. He thought he saw something move.
"What the hell…?" He asked subconsciously.
Then he saw it; a man with long, oily black hair was in the rafters and he had a gun aimed at Inu-Yasha's head!
"Inu-Yasha! Watch out!" Miroku shouted as he jumped towards him.
Miroku made pushed Inu-Yasha out of the way but wasn't so lucky himself.
"Damnit! Miroku!" Inu-Yasha shouted from his spot on top of Kagome. He saw the bleeding Miroku next to him.
— — — —
"Forget this…" Kouga muttered to himself as he looked around his hospital room.
He had it all planned out. When none of the nurses were looking he was going to get out of this hellhole. It was a perfect, idiot-proof plan:
1.Wait for the nurses to leave.
2.Get out of bed and find clothes other than his ugly pinstripe hospital gown.
3.Tie a rope made out of drapes, sheets, and scrubs and throw it over the window.
4.Run home before anybody starts to miss his yelling about lumpy pillows.
Indeed, it was a perfect plan…unless you're Kouga and Sesshomaru decides to check up on his partner.
"Tell me you're not going to jump out that window…" Sesshomaru said with an irritated sigh as he came into the hospital room, towing a small girl behind him. "You'll give Rin ideas."
Kouga froze at his spot near the open window. He was still clad in his hospital gown because he couldn't find his clothes, but he had a half-ass rope made from various clothing and bedding materials hanging out the window.
"Rin sees Uncle Kouga's tail end, Sesshomaru-sama!" Rin giggled and yanked Sesshomaru's hand.
"I see it too, Rin," he said to his daughter, covering her eyes, "and I'm going to have a long talk to Uncle Kouga later."
Kouga blushed and quickly covered his exposed backside and came to one conclusion: hospital gowns were definitely not meant for moving around in.
"Can uncle Kouga fly," Rin asked, "like Rin's birdie?"
"No, Rin." Sesshomaru told her.
"Was Uncle Kouga trying to learn? Cause if he was, he can take lessons from Rin's birdie! Uncle Kouga could stay at Rin and Sesshomaru-sama's house and learn!"
Sesshomaru resisted the urge to roll his eyes.
— — — —
Sango followed the bullet's path up into the rafters with her eyes. She caught sight of the man with the oily hair.
"Naraku!" she shouted angrily as she grabbed the pistol from one of the nearby officer's holsters.
"Miss— !" the officer started.
Sango was about to pull the trigger when a bloody but familiar hand enveloped hers.
"Sango, don't do that." Miroku said quietly. "Let them handle it."
Sango dropped the gun and turned to cry into Miroku's chest. What had she almost done? She'd almost killed Naraku…almost sunk to his level.
"It's going to be okay now…" Miroku comforted.
"What about your hand?" Sango gasped as she finally recognized his blood.
There was a bleeding hole in Miroku's right hand where the bullet had hit.
"I'm fine," Miroku assured her with a pained smile, "but Inu-Yasha owes me."
"You dumbass…" Inu-Yasha growled as he helped Kagome stand up.
— — — —
[A/N:] sorry it took me so long…I really, really wanted to finish this up so I could focus on Hagakure [which is coming along nicely, if I do say so myself] but I've had a lot of stuff to do. Um…I'll have the epilogue up soon… It should tie up all the loose ends for ya.
Thankies for your reviews! Now…GIVE ME MORE! [or I may be forced to delay my epilogue writing…]
