Disclaimer: Here's my plan: I kidnap Rumiko Takahashi, and undergo major plastic surgery to make myself look exactly like her. Sounds good?
"…" – speech
'…' – thoughts
- change in scenery or time
--
Previously, on Lock Down:
{"It's you…
… You…
…Ki-
Kikyou…"}
--
Encounter
--
Feb.27.299 NA
New Tokyo, Human Division, Sector 118Inuyasha could only stare dumbly at the girl before him.
Surely, it was her! It had been two years, but her image still blazed in his mind. Her elegant and cool beauty still taunted him with what he could not have. What had been so close, yet so far for him to reach.
Kikyou.
Two years. It had been long two years.
She would be twenty years of age now- Three years older than Inuyasha himself was.
Two years since she- since she had betrayed him. Since he had discovered the truth. That it had all been a plot from the beginning. That she'd been working for them all along. He'd truly thought-
No. He shook his head. He wouldn't think of that right now. It was still far too painful.
As he snapped back to reality, the dazed expression on Inuyasha's face twisted in to a sneering one.
"So, Kikyou," He spat her name like it was something disgusting, "What are you doing here? Thought you had to go work for your Government?"
Kagome frowned. Kikyou? Who was this girl? Just who did this guy think he was?
"Well, Kikyou? Aren't you going to answer me? Or are you just as two-faced as ever?"
Her eyes narrowed, and her expression became most foul. She marched up to the boy, and stabbed her finger into his chest. "Kikyou, Kikyou! Whoever she is, I'm not her! I am Kagome! Say it with me: Ka. Go. Me! You don't just go around New Tokyo accusing people, idiot!"
The boy had unbelievably wide eyes. This… wasn't Kikyou?
Wait.
His eyes narrowed.
Now that he had a better view of her, he could see differences. This girl had bluish eyes while Kikyou's had been more of a grey hue. This girl's hair was clearly younger than Kikyou must be. She appeared to be his own age. This girl, Kagome, was it? Kagome had an air of innocence surrounding her, while Kikyou had been darker and more mysterious. She couldn't have been Kikyou. She never shouted.
Wait- this wench had the audacity to lecture him?
Taking a step back from the girl, Inuyasha sniffed disdainfully. He turned his nose upwards to disguise his embarrassment. "You're right. You're not Kikyou. She was prettier- a beauty. Smarter too."
Kagome's mouth dropped wide open in surprise. How dare he! To send her crashing to the ground without so much of an apology, then insulting her? Who was this guy? She locked eyes with him in a furious glare. She noted that he had strange slitted eyes.
"Why you…" She couldn't think of a worse enough name for him, "You…"
The boy was clearly enjoying her shock, going as far as giving a few suggestions, "What? Jerk? Ditwad? Bastard?"
"You… you…"
"Hottie!"
Azure eyes wide once more, Kagome turned to gape at her friends. All three were grouped together and looking at the boy as if he were the last man on Earth. Stars sparkling in their eyes, and drool nearly clearing the corner of their mouths; the girls were obviously appreciating his… physical aspects.
From the look on the boy's face, he was shocked as well. It was really quite comical- the wide eyes, wide-open mouth, stiff posture. Kagome would have laughed if not for her baffled astonishment.
The group earned quite a few gawks from the people passing them by.
The blue-eyed girl stared, dumbfounded. "What?"
Shuffling closer to Kagome, the others whispered none too quietly in her ear while keeping an eye on the now uncomfortably shifting boy to make sure he didn't escape.
"Can't you see? He's CUTE!"
"You have to love the hair!"
"His eyes are so deep!"
"That body!"
"The attitude!"
"The hot ASS!"
Yuka's last comment was quite loud, drawing yet more stares from the surrounding people. The boy in question now looked more than just a little frightened, slowly shuffling away from the romantically unbalanced girls. Kagome could only gape at the others in half-surprise, and half agreement- he was quite cute after all, despite his disposition.
She blushed.
And then mentally cursed. He was a moron, for god's sake!
Eri, a predatory glint in her eyes, left the group and advanced on the new boy. Looking much like a cornered mouse, he could only watch, an expression of apprehension on his face, as the girl approached.
She stopped in front of him, suddenly looking quite innocent.
"Why, hello there! I'm Eri. What's your name?"
Not thinking clearly from the shock of having somebody 'coming on' to him, the boy answered, "Er… Inuyasha…" The girl latched onto his arm, making the teenager's eyes widen even further. "Um… hi?"
She batted her eyelashes, a deceptively sweet smile crossing her face. "What do you say about hanging with us for a while, hmm?"
"Umm… Well…" A furious blush spread across the bewildered Inuyasha's face.
Watching the scene with growing anxiety, Kagome abruptly turned away.
She couldn't watch this anymore.
Her other two friends looked at her curiously, "Kagome-chan? Is something wrong?"
"No- Nothing's wrong."
Kagome mentally beat her head against a brick wall. Why was she acting this way? It wasn't as if she were attracted to him- they had just met! Although, she did admit, he was kind of cute…
No! He was a pig-headed jerk! Not cute!
Ayumi and Yuka watched as Kagome slapped a hand to her forehead. She appeared to be debating with herself in a most serious issue. Flushed cheeks, balled fists, and- was she jealous?
They turned to each other, exchanging knowing grins.
It looked like Kagome was experiencing her first crush…!
Yuka rushed forward to the flirting girl and pulled her off of the now relieved boy. "I have to talk to you, Eri-chan…" She smiled at Inuaysha. "Be back in a moment!"
Ignoring Eri's objections, Yuka dragged the struggling girl towards the other two. Inuyasha scratched his head, mumbling something that sounded suspiciously like, 'crazy females'.
"What is it?" demanded the pouting girl.
Yuka took a deep breath. "Girls, I think that Kagome should have this one."
The aforementioned girl whipped around in shock. "WHAT?!"
Eri sulked. "Why does Kagome get the cute one?"
"Because this her first time," Ayumi patiently explained, "And she should get the opportunity to express her creativity to the opposite gender before she gets paired up with some man by the Government. It's a great opportunity."
The others stared at her.
"That was… logical," mumbled Eri, "But why Inuyasha-kun?"
Yuka placed a hand on either of the pouting girl's shoulder. "Because, Eri-chan, he is Kagome's first crush."
The blue-eyed girl broke into the explanation, "He is NOT!"
They turned doubtfully to her.
"Then who was your first?" questioned Ayumi.
"Well… erm… nobody…"
Eri raised an eyebrow. "Don't you find him cute?"
Kagome turned pink again. "… Yes…" She stared at her shoes.
"See? You're turning red already."
Eri sighed, submitting to her friend. "Fine. He's yours, Kagome-chan. The things I do…"
The raven-haired teenager's head shot up. "What do you mean?!" Her temper was back. "He's not just some slab of meat I can go and just buy, you know? And besides, there's no point in doing those types of things when I'm just going to end up with Miroku guy…"
Ayumi sidled up to her side. "That's the point. Before you do meet your partner, where's the harm in… testing the selection a little? It's not like it'll be anything serious. It's just some harmless playing. You'll be able to compare who you got to who you could have gotten!"
"Try it, Kagome-chan!" encouraged Yuka, "It's pretty fun."
She stared at her flatly. "Flirting… is fun?"
Eri butted in, "Sure it is! It's all just a game, anyway. We came out to have fun, right? Well then, go and have some fun! Forget school for a while! Forget the Government- everything! Take a chance!"
Kagome nodded slowly.
That was true.
She had gone out on this trip to free herself a little, and to forget everything for a while.
Her shoulders became set and a determined expression flicked over her face.
"I'll do it."
The other three discreetly cheered, Eri having forgotten that she had 'placed a claim' over the boy. But getting Kagome to do anything out of the regular was a task to be proud of- she was such a polite girl.
Kagome breathed in slowly, and cracked her knuckles- by the actions she was taking, one would think she were preparing for a battle.
Which, in her opinion, wasn't far from the truth.
Nodding determinedly, the blue-eyed smiled at her friends and turned around. She let out her breath in a whoosh.
"Hey-" She cut herself short. "What?"
There was nobody there. Only the constant flow of strangers filled her vision.
The boy had fled.
Inuyasha hurried through the streets of the commercial district.
That had been freaky!
Never before, had he been eyed by a, let alone three, girls with something other than malice in their eyes. That particular girl- Eri, was it?- had made him extremely nervous. Nobody had been that close to him without the intention of causing injury- except for his mother, but that was beyond the point.
And that Kagome girl.
Her visual similarity to Kikyou still put him off kilter when he thought about it, For a moment, he had been sure that he'd bumped into her again.
And that wasn't necessarily a good thing either.
Of course, he hated her now.
…
Inuyasha steered his thoughts away from her for the time being. It was still quite painful.
Even though he'd had two years to recover.
Glancing upwards, the boy's mind barely registered on the fact that the buildings were becoming shorter, yet larger. His gait slowed, as the image of a girl filled his mind.
He was still thinking about her.
Not her, but her.
She had been so much more innocent looking and emotional- in a good way. She had rarely ever shown emotion. That wench appeared to be fairly normal despite her strange boy-driven friends. He didn't know if she'd had any friends…But that Kagome had seemed to be nicer, even…
Damn it!
Why couldn't he get that girl's face out of his mind? Was his brain broken or something?
Whenever he thought of the blue-eyed girl who called herself Kagome, he would inadvertently compare her to Kikyou. It was annoying, but he couldn't stop it!
Stopping on the streets, the boy shook his head, as if that action would clear his thoughts. Raising his gaze from the asphalt ground, he looked up again, mind thankfully clear.
He froze.
Shit.
Where… where was he?
In his hurry to escape the strange humans, Inuyasha had completely disregarded the fact that he couldn't be sure where everything was. He examined hi surroundings.
Wait.
These buildings were… strangely familiar.
They were large, white, dome-topped buildings. Almost like…
They looked like… the boy's gaze fell upon the tip of a black dome rising above the mass of white.
They were student settlements! Exactly like those in his Division!
Blinking, the teenager slowly walked forward, examining the smooth walls of the closet buildings. He frowned, bringing up the mental map of the Demon Division.
'Let's see… if the school was here, and the commercial district were here…"
He blinked again, this time in complete surprise.
From his calculations, he'd wandered for about an hour, provided the Human Division coincided with the Demon one. Which, knowing the Superior's aim for perfection, it probably did.
Inuyasha continued to wander around in the educational district, occasionally catching glimpses of groups of students. This place wasn't nearly as crowded as the commercial district, but that was probably due to the fact that most of the people were in their homes, most likely sleeping.
It was pretty late, after all.
22:18
That walk around the shops had taken a lot longer than he'd have thought. But he still had about seven hours before the sun rose.
Lots of time to explore this place.
He walked around absently, strolling past the individual buildings.
That Kagome had been wearing a blue arm band… She was most likely a student. She probably lived in this area. He wondered what school she went to…
'Dammit!'
There he went again, thinking about that girl. What the hell was wrong with him? He'd met her only once, got a sample of her strange personality, and now he couldn't get his mind off of her for ten minutes! Stopping dead in the middle of the road, Inuyasha silently berated himself for his traitorous thoughts.
Then he turned to his left.
And tensed.
For right in front of him, was an android.
An android that was staring right at him.
'Shit…'
Grinning rather uncertainly, he waved at the humanoid machine. It made no move to do anything, but its eyes stayed trained on the one boy out of ten others. There was no expression on the pale, metal face. The smile becoming even more strained, Inuyasha hastily walked away, speeding up with every step. Glancing back, the boy noticed that the android had removed its gaze, and was now searching another target.
He let out a breath.
That had been… a little close.
Too close for his liking.
Once he had jogged a respectable distance away from the android, the now lavender eyed boy slowed down to a walk. Inuyasha leaned against a building and glanced around. Once again, while trying to escape something, he had no clue where he was.
He was still surrounded by student settlements, but they were definetly thinning out. In fact, the building he was leaning against was made from a grey coloured concrete rather than white or black. Grey meant one thing- it was a library.
Curiousity struck the hanyou, and he found himself headed towards the large glass doors. He wondered- what reading material was kept in these places? It was obvious that everything distributed to the public was regulated, and pre-checked before it was published, but what kind of books were given to the humans?
Pushing aside the wide doors, Inuyasha strolled inside. His eyes were met with a large, circular- the Government seemed to have a thing for circles- room that was filled with bookshelves. The bookselves, in turn, were stacked with hundreds of books. In all aspects, this library was exactly similar to the ones in the Demon Division.
Although this wasn't a very big building, the boy estimated that there must have been at least twenty thousand pieces of reading material in the place. However, the question was what the books were about, not how many there were.
Cracking his knuckles, the boy walked over to a shelf, ignoring the two androids standing at the front desk. He pulled off several books, and sauntered over to a low metal table. It would take a while to scan over each one, but what the hell.
He had a lot of time to waste.
Kagome trailed after her friends, who were chatting excitedly. She only nodded here and there, not really participating in, or indeed, listening to the conversation. They seemed to have forgotten that boy while spending several hours walking around the commercial district.
Inuyasha, was it?
The blue-eyed girl sighed.
She didn't know whether to be relieved that he had fled, or to feel insulted. After all, he had left without saying so much as a 'goodbye', or anything. Annoyance bubbled up within the teenager.
He was a jerk after all.
But then why couldn't she get her mind off of him?!
'He was kind of cute…'
Suddenly realising what she had thought, Kagome muttered in irritation. She had to admit, he had been appealing to her eyes. It was just the personality that struck her as odd.
He'd just seemed so… defensive about everything. And who was it he'd thought she was? 'Kikyou'? When he'd said her name, there had been something in his expression that she just couldn't interpret. It was something akin to hurt- had this 'Kikyou' hurt him?
In fact, now that she thought about it, hurt hadn't been the only emotion swirling in those lavender orbs. There had been an entire myriad of expressions that flickered here and there. But the most prominent one had been a look of absolute loneliness. True, he had hidden it extremely well with cockiness, but Kagome had always been good in deciphering what a person truly felt.
A lot of this Inuyasha person was shrouded in mystery, and for some reason, Kagome wanted to unearth them all. She wanted to reveal the pain, and heal the emotional scars. She'd always been a caring person. She'd hated seeing anybody feeling down when they could be having fun and enjoying life to the fullest. It was almost somewhat of a passion she had- to help people.
But why the boy had struck a cord so deep within her soul was unknown to the girl herself.
"Eh, Kagome-chan?"
The girl snapped out of her thoughts. "Huh?"
Yuka heaved an exasperated sigh. "Kagome-chan, you weren't listening, were you?"
Kagome kicked her toe. "…Not really…"
"You were thinking about Inuyasha-kun, weren't you?" Eri smiled knowingly.
"What?" A pale pink tinge appeared over her face. "Of course not!"
"Yes you were!"
Ayumi jumped in, saving the day. "Yuka asked you whether or not you wanted to get that new book you've been wanting. In fact, your birthday's coming up, isn't it? We'll get it for you for your birthday!"
Kagome waved her hands in front of her. "No, it's okay. I'm getting a little tired. I think it's about time I headed back home."
Yuka checked her watch. "It's only three thirty!"
The girl gave Yuka a deadpanned stare. "Only three thirty? Only?! Are you crazy? It's early into the morning! The sun's going to be rising in just two hours!"
Yuka shrugged. "Tomorrow… er… Today's a free day anyway. We don't have school on Day Sevens, remember? I can always catch up on sleep later."
Ayumi stifled a yawn, "I think Kagome-chan's right. It is getting too late, and I'm tired."
"I still have homework to do," added Eri.
"Can't we stay out for just one more hour? I'm still looking for that old school textbook," begged Yuka. "Shopping's no fun alone!"
Kagome sighed and bowed her head. "Fine."
Her friend smiled and dragged her along, waiting for the other two to follow.
Kagome shook her head.
The things she did for her friends…
A jaw-cracking yawn broke a teenaged boy's face. Inuyasha blinked weary eyes, and picked up the pile of books he had created beside his chair. Ever since he had entered the library, the boy had scanned over book after book. Some things had been boring, describing events that he already knew. Others had been a little more interesting, but in all the books that Inuyasha had skimmed, there had been one prevailing theme:
The Government is good- listen to the Government.
He also noticed that none of the books described any humans ever taking a stand for themselves. There was no mention of demons except for in the most negative of uses. It was like everything was written by some brain dead person who adored being controlled.
He snorted.
That was probably true…
The truth was, the information stowed away in the books were really quite similar to that fed to the demons. Only, issues regarding the two races were flipped over.
Inuyasha stood up and stretched his aching limbs. Sitting on one position on a stiff metal chair did wonders to one's physique. Leaving the books to the library staff, the boy meandered to the doors and exited the library. The androids paid no attention to the long-haired boy.
He was of no threat.
The boy walked outside and was greeted by the lightening sky. At first, this information didn't process through the teenager's hazy mind, as he walked in the general direction of the student settlements. Another yawn wreaked his body.
Then he froze mid-yawn.
Wait a minute.
Light purple eyes snapped open.
'Oh shit, shit, shit…'
Inuyasha recited every curse word he had ever learned in his head. And that was a long list.
This was NOT happening! It COULDN'T be!
Oh, but it was.
For the sky was steadily becoming brighter, and colours were just beginning to streak the sky.
Inuyasha broke into a frantic run, but he knew it would be of no use. The first ray of the sun lightened the dark city, and he felt slight tingles begin to stir within his body.
It was dawn.
He would be returning to normal.
And just how many normal humans had dog-ears, fangs, and claws?
Rounding a bend, the boy skidded to a full stop, and retreated to hide behind the corner.
'Damnit!'
Panic began to well up in the boy. This was NOT good. Several androids were slowly making their way towards where he hid, and Inuyasha knew that he would be toast if they were to catch sight of him. So he looked for an escape route.
He could feel as his ears moved to the top of his head, and as dull nails sharpened into deadly claws. His vision abruptly sharpened, Inuyasha caught sight of an open window.
It was several metres above the ground, but he was certain he could make it. He had to.
Clunking footsteps drew closer.
Desperately, the hanyou sprung off the ground in an unnaturally high jump.
'Come on…!'
Inuyasha grabbed hold of the ledge just under the window. He quickly pulled himself over the ledge.
And when the android walked around the corner, they saw nothing but an empty ally.
He was safe- for now.
-- SniperGirl
Thanks! I'll try to keep the chapters at the best of my ability!
-- a
Update soon… a little later than I would have liked… but that's life, I suppose…
-- TitianWren
Thanks! I guess this story is more suited for the more mature readers? Oh well. It doesn't matter. As long as you enjoy reading it, I'm happy!
-- Gueshoo
Thanks for the review, and I did mention it, but you hit the nail dead on the head without knowing, so it's still all good… Don't feel foolish!
-- Katami
Indeed. At the rate we're using up our natural resources… ::shakes head:: I just hope that we'll be able to find some new ones to make up for the ones we're rapidly depleting…
[This chapter was a little harder to get started, but once I passed the thousand-word mark, the chapter was easier to write from there.
Ahh… the cliché meeting… I couldn't resist putting that in there. At least they met, ne? Of course, they didn't stay together for long. And no, it wasn't 'love at first sight', they're just really quite interested in each other.
Whooo… the word "Kikyou" was used 17 times on this page…
I was actually going to add more to this section, to make it a sort of a cliffie, but… nah.
The story's (finally) beginning to heat up!
Till next time…
Ja!]