Finally back and with a new chapter!

Chapter 18: What's Coming to You

Houjo sighed. That was a close call and all that day he'd been careful not to run into Inuyasha. He didn't come near him in Art class and he certainly didn't try to sit near Kagome at lunch. He kept his distance and Inuyasha kept his.

It was now after school, the bell had just rang but Houjo wasn't riding the bus home. He was captain of the soccer team and they were supposed to be having practice today. He waved to some of his other teammates as he walked into the locker room to change into his clothes. He had a big locker seeing as it was needed for his soccer ball and other miscellaneous equipment.

Just as Houjo slipped off his shoes and was preparing to slip on his soccer cleats, he could have sworn he'd heard the locker room door close and lock. He shook his head. Just your imagination, Houjo ole buddy.He continued to remove his clothes and then changed into his soccer attire, which consisted of a white shirt with black lines across it and some black shorts. He had turned around to see his reflection and when he did, there was Inuyasha's face right behind it.

"What's up, buddy?" he sneered.

Houjo let out a surprised shriek. "Oh, Inuyasha, it's just you." His heart was beating so quickly he could barely breathe. Just what did he want with him? "I was just preparing for practice. You any good at soccer? If so, you should--"

"Stop with the fake act, Houjo. You ain't nice like everybody thinks you are. I overheard your ass in the hall."

A puzzled look came over his face. "What are you talking about?"

"I believe you know and if you don't, let me refresh your head," Inuyasha took on a stupid preppy voice meant to be Houjo's, "Next time I will succeed. Higurashi Kagome will be mine." He switched his voice back to his own, "And I know how you're just pretending to be all nice. But cut the bullshit, Houjo."

"Please," he said raising his hands, "I don't know where you've gotten such accusations from, but I assure you—"

"I don't want to hear it. I'm going to shut your ass up for good."

Houjo didn't like the look in Inuyasha's eyes and he almost knew what was coming next. At least what he thought was coming next. His eyes widened and then the next thing he saw was darkness.

Sango and Miroku walked towards the room that was holding detention. Sango wondered what people did in detention. They'd already told Kagome and she had never been in detention before so she couldn't tell them what happened.

Sango just figured that she'd do her homework in detention. She still wasn't talking to Miroku, she was still angry that he'd gotten her in trouble. She'd rather be at Kagome's house laying on her bed with Kirara at her feet.

"Here it is, room 222," Miroku said stopping at the door. "Ladies first."

Sango flashed him an angry look before going inside…and letting the door close behind her. Right in Miroku's face.

A pleasant looking heavyset woman with glasses that rested on the rim on her nose was sitting behind a desk. The classroom's desks were all empty though. Sango wondered if they were the only ones in detention that day. She got her answer soon. "Nice to see that you've finally showed up, Ms. Hiraiko and Mr. Kazaa. You're a little late but that's alright I suppose seeing as you are new students and this is your first time having to attend detention."

"So what now?" Miroku asked preparing to sit down in one of the seats, but the woman stopped him.

"I'm afraid, Mr. Kazaa, that you won't just be sitting here. The school needs cleaning and that's what you're here to do. Both you and Ms. Hiraiko." She handed them pails and mops and rags. "You two are to go to the lunchroom and clean up. Enjoy!"

Inuyasha walked out of the locker room with a satisfied smirk, he'd put Houjo in his place for sure. And he couldn't wait till someone discovered Houjo. The tension was building so he almost just wanted to go and tell himself.

He laughed. Oh boy, he couldn't wait till school tomorrow. Surely the word would have been spread around by then. As he walked to Kagome's house he wondered if he should tell Kagome or not. If he did, she would probably get mad when it wasn't truly his fault at all. Or so he thought…

Oh well, he'd keep it a secret for longer and when the time was right he'd tell her.

Kagome sat at home on her bed. The house was relatively quiet, something she hadn't gotten used to for awhile. Souta and Shippo were still at school and her mother was home, cleaning the house at usual. Her Grandfather was in the shrine selling talismans and good luck charms.

Sango and Miroku had detention for something that Sango refused to say and wouldn't allow Miroku to either. She wondered they could have done so bad to get detention. Maybe Miroku had grabbed Sango's butt and the teacher caught it. She giggled at the thought. But then they'd have told her that right?

As for Inuyasha, her favorite half-demon wasn't anywhere to be found. After class he'd just stalked off and didn't say a word to her even when she'd called out to him to see where he was going. She'd thought about following him but she didn't want to miss the bus. Inuyasha would just have to find his own way home.

"C'mon, Sango, at least say something," Miroku begged scrubbing the floors. She had still been ignoring him. At first he found it just a tad amusing, but now it was just plain getting on his nerves. It wasn't that serious was it?

She turned over to him angrily. "Leave me alone, monk." She was tired of cleaning up this place, it was grimier than anything she'd known before in her life.

"But--," he was interrupted by a boy rushing inside of the lunchroom yelling out for a bag of ice.

"Need a bag of ice! Now! Houjo needs it."

"What happened?" Sango asked getting off her knees.

"Somebody beat Houjo up real bad. It's horrible!" the boy exclaimed. "But now please, I need that ice to stop the swelling."

Miroku rushed to get some ice from the cafeteria women while the boy continued his story, "Whoever did that to my buddy Houjo's gonna pay." He vowed, then Miroku came back with the ice. "Hey thanks! I gotta go."

"So what happened?" Miroku asked, a little disappointed in missing the action first hand.

"Nothing much after you left. I feel sorry for that Houjo boy. He seemed like a pretty okay guy and then someone beat him up. I wonder why." She shrugged. "But we better get back to cleaning. We only have 30min. or so to go before we can go home."

Miroku smiled. She was talking to him again.

"Inuyasha! Where were you?" Kagome asked as Inuyasha slipped inside of her bedroom window. "And we do have a front door you know."

"Yeah I know I know." He was silent.

She put her hands on her hips, "Inuyasha, where were you?"

"At school. Some stupid teacher wanted to talk to me about behavioral problems or some dumb junk." It wasn't a complete lie. A teacher had spoken to him about that, just not after school…

Kagome let out a relieved sigh. "Good. I thought you were out getting into some trouble."

Little did she know how right she was.

Sango and Miroku had came back later on that day both tired and sweating from cleaning up and from having to walk home. Everyone was all refreshed for the next day of school however. Inuyasha had never felt so good before in his life.

When they got on the bus however, Kagome had noticed that Houjo wasn't on it and she found that unusual. He always rode the bus and never missed a day of school. Never for anything, no matter if he had the flu. Of course he was sent home anyway, but he made sure he always had his school assignments…

"Isn't that strange?" Hikaru asked Kagome, noticing the same thing.

She nodded in agreement. "Oh well. I'm sure we'll find out when we get to school."

And find out they did, the word was spread all across the school. Everyone was whispering about it quietly, some even shaking their heads. It was an understatement to say that most everyone at the school liked Houjo. Even the people with way different personalities than his.

"Did you guys hear?" Megumi asked skipping up to her usual crowd of Ai, Kagome, Miroku, Sango, and Inuyasha. "Houjo was beat up bad after school yesterday. In the boys locker room."

"How horrible," Kagome said covering her mouth in shock. "Who would do that to him?"

Me.Inuyasha thought, still feeling no remorse or anything.

Then everyone grew quiet, up pulled Houjo's family's Hummer. Everyone waited with bated breath for him to come out, everyone had been hearing rumors about how badly he'd been beaten and now they wanted to see.

It seemed to take forever before Houjo finally came out of the car. And when he did, some didn't even want to look.

Houjo's lip was bust and some leftovers of dry blood still remained on it. He had a black eye and he rolled along in a wheelchair. There were casts on both legs and even one on his arm. A bump the size of a crater rested on his forehead. There were scrapes all over him. Still, Houjo wore a plastic smile. The kind that looked like it hurt for him to smile, much less talk.

Everyone gaped in horror, some of his many admirers had to turn around with their faces covered with their hands. Some people even threw up. Inuyasha couldn't believe it either. He hadn't done all that. The only thing he could take credit for was Houjo's black eye and bust lip, but the rest, he didn't know where that had came from. He couldn't help but to feel sorry for him either.

The man rolled Houjo to where he'd pointed with his free arm. Which was directly to Kagome.

"Houjo, what happened?" she asked.

He shook his head and then tears rushed from his eyes. Then he pointed an accusatory finger at Inuyasha. "He did it. Why don't you ask him?"

The moment he did so, everyone turned their eyes on Inuyasha. Their eyes filled with hate.

"That's not true!" Inuyasha yelled.

"Come to think of it," some boy yelled out. "I did see Inuyasha leaving the locker room just before Tatsuya here discovered Houjo lying on the floor in agony."

"So I admit it, I did beat up Houjo." Everyone gasped. "But I didn't do all that. I just bust his eye and his lip. But the rest, I swear I don't know how it happened." He turned his amber eyes on Kagome. "You believe me right, Kagome?"

She shook her head. "I don't know what to believe, Inuyasha. I know you're capable of doing that and I can't imagine why. I always knew you didn't like Houjo, but you didn't have to do that! It's unnecessary."

"But, Kag—"

"How else could it have happened? Houjo couldn't have done it to himself. And no one else was seen leaving out of the locker room but you."

Inuyasha was hurt now. Even Kagome didn't believe him. How could he make her understand the truth? But she was right, he didn't exactly have proof that he didn't other than his word. And Houjo wasn't crazy enough to inflict harm on himself was he? Nah. Nobody was that crazy except Naraku. But then how?

She continued, "So this is what you actually did after school yesterday when I asked you about where you were." She turned to Houjo. "I'm really sorry about Inuyasha. Is there anything I can do to help out?"

He shook his head. "Not really. But maybe could you get all my assignments for the week or whenever, Lord knows when I'll be back." His eyes flooded in tears. "But thank you a lot." He turned to Inuyasha. "I won't hold any grudges against you though, I guess I shouldn't have provoked you."

Houjo's good show of character only made the students hate Inuyasha more.

Kagome wouldn't talk to him, more or less make eye contact with him in all the classes they had that day. Miroku spoke to him and Sango would say a few words but not much. Not even Kagome's other friends would talk to him. Come to think of it. Nobody spoke to him unless it was absolutely necessary. The teachers were debating suspending Inuyasha, but no one had any solid proof so they just let it go. It was a decision most students weren't happy with.

Houjo had already left that morning and Kagome, he'd overheard, was supposed to be going there after school to give him his school assignments. Maybe by that time, with the help of Miroku, Inuyasha could prove his innocence. But where to start?

Yes. I'm back after a veeery long hiatus. And I'm already working on the next chapter. I hope you guys are loving the action. This was actually a fun chapter to work on. Anybody got any ideas on who got Houjo? Or did Inuyasha just not realize how fragile human bodies are? Oh well. Tell me what you think in a review. Megu-chan .