Alley
A/N: Eh...sweatdrop After Asn water's review, I realized I had to explain a lot of things...no, Naraku is not the main villain, I have a rather intriguing idea I'd like to try out on this story.
Sorry for keeping you in suspense, but if I revealed everything there'd be no point in telling the story! '''
Okay, reviewer responses!
DemonAngel12, to answer to second part of your review, no, I will never, ever write a lemon. Ever. If you want to read lemons, go somewhere else. Lemons are not my area of writing. I hope I make myself very clear, because I don't want any more reviews like that.
Helpful Monkey, thanks! You are indeed helpful...of course, I do have to ask...how would you know what a joint was? oO
Asn water, thank you so much for sticking with this story through two chapters and an interlude...I appreciate it! And I already answered your question.
Have fun.
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Alley
Chapter 3: At the Haruki-ya
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"Damn aniki-sama, damn aniki-sama, damn aniki-sama..."
Inuyasha stalked down the street he knew well, muttering this little mantra under his breath. He was pissed.
"Damn aniki-sama, damn aniki-sama..."
Was it his fault that he hadn't killed the girl? Did it matter? The girl was probably stuck in some hospital ward, talking to shrinks as part of "therapy". Post-traumatic stress disorder, Miroku had called it once when Shippo came down with it after making his first shot on a pistol. The little squirt had revived after about two days, though.
Inuyasha hoped that the girl would stay in the ward for a very, very long time.
"Damn aniki-sama, damn aniki-sama..."
He turned the corner to his favorite bar, the Haruki-ya. (A/N: Akira tribute! The best anime done in "old style", to my opinion.) The manager there was a longstanding friend of the Third Street Alleys, and Inuyasha was always welcome.
The screen door banged shut behind him as he stalked into the bar, lit by fairly decent lights and teeming with shady characters. That was just fine with him. Nobody messed with Alleys, not even the yakuza, and if they thought they could they had another thing coming.
The bartender, a young man smoking a thin cigarette, looked up with a lopsided smile as Inuyasha came toward the bar. "Inuyasha! Hey, hey, hey, what's up?" Shiruki Miyamana was an old friend.
"Eh. Shiruki, throw me a heavy one." He growled. "Black."
Something akin to apprehension crossed Shiruki's face before he took another look at his friend's face and nodded amicably, taking a green bottle filled with ominous-looking stuff off a tall, falling-apart shelf, popping the top of with expertise and filling a bar glass. He scooted it across the table to Inuyasha, who promptly chugged it down.
Shiruki drew up a stool and sat across from his old friend. "Black, eh? Something fucked up on a job?"
Inuyasha lowered the glass and shook his head. "Nah."
"Eh...restrictions?"
"Nah."
"A payment gone awry?"
"Nah."
"Woman problems?"
Inuyasha threw him a heated glare.
"Ah. I forgot, after the respected Kikyo-sama..." Shiruki bowed his head in reverence.
"It's okay." Inuyasha put his empty glass down, already feeling the pleasant light-headedness coming on. "Ahh...black's good, it's good..."
Inuyasha was a frightening sight. His cheeks were flushed, his smile was lopsided and goofy, and his eyes were rolled upwards in an expression of pure bliss. It terrified Shiruki.
"It's all right, it's all right!" Shiruki grinned nervously. Just keep agreeing. "You feelin' it, man?"
"Dat's right, dat's right, yo." Inuyasha was becoming drunker by the minute. And scary.
"Here." Shiruki quickly pulled out a bottle of lighter, clearer liquid. "Chug it, fast not slow."
Obligingly, Inuyasha tipped his head back and let the liquid flow down.
Shiruki waited patiently as Inuyasha came to his senses.
"Shiruki..." he gasped, gruff demeanor returning. "Why can't you ever let me stay stoned?"
Shiruki just gave his amiable grin again. "Inuyasha, you're too good a man to fall prey to the "whiskey fever". I heard the Americans talking about it last week. Drives 'em nuts, man. You can't be like them." His grin stayed, broad as ever. "I'm a bartender. I see these things, and I hate it all."
"Then why not quit?" Inuyasha asked.
Shiruki just shook his head. "No way, no way. I got a family to pay for now, and I can't let Sayatobi-sama down. I love this place. Love it and hate it."
Inuyasha gave a hard stare. "I won't ever understand you, Shiruki."
Shiruki just laughed. "That's right, Inuyasha."
"So." Inuyasha looked seriously at him, an idea coming to him in his reawakened state. "I need to contact Yakito."
"Yakito-sama?"
"Hai. It's most important."
Shiruki nodded. "I'll arrange for it. Satoshi-san will deliver the time. Now, about the black...a few couldn't hurt..."
The two men exchanged devilish smiles, and then poured themselves each a cup of black and toasted to the good times. When Miroku and a team of Alleys came to the Haruki-ya to find Inuyasha, they found him quite inebriated. Though they pressed Shiruki for details on what Inuyasha had said, the black had taken its toll on him and he couldn't remember a thing-or so he led them to think.
Shiruki was a bartender, yes, but one couldn't say he didn't know to be loyal.
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When Inuyasha woke up, Miroku and Sesshomaru were peering over him and he was stripped of a shirt, lying on his mattress in his familiar hut.
"Inuyasha." Sesshomaru immediately pulled him up by the arm, seething with rage. "What have you done?! Do you know-"
"Relax, aniki-sama..." he murmured. "Just a few cups of black..."
Sesshomaru looked at Miroku questioningly.
"Black..." Miroku sighed. "Alley term for what you call pitch beer." (A/N: Self-invented.)
Sesshomaru's face grew red. "P-pitch beer-"he stuttered, infuriated. "You-"
"Sesshomaru-sama?"
Three heads turned to the sound of the voice. Shippo was standing, quite confused, in the door of his hut.
"What's going on?" he asked with baby-boy curiosity.
The silence was deafening.
Sesshomaru's fatherly instincts kicked into high gear-PROTECT THE INNOCENT LITTLE BOY!
He dropped Inuyasha back down to his mattress in a rather undignified manner. "Shippo-san." He nodded. "I will be leaving now."
He stalked out of the hut, leaving a very flustered Shippo in his wake. He turned to Inuyasha and Miroku, pouting. "Guyyyyys!" he whined. "You never tell me ANYthing!"
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Meanwhile, at Sango's modest middle-class house in suburbial Tokyo near the University, Kagome was rudely awakened by the melodic sounds of Sango and Kohaku displaying sibling love in the purest form.
"HOW could you-you IMBECILE lose my SPECIAL EDITION COPY of RUROUNI KENSHIN SEVEN?!!!" Sango screamed, voice echoing in the relatively small house.
"But YOU lost MY ONLY COPY of TEEN TITANS!!!! It was a gift from DAD!!!!" Kohaku valiantly tried to argue back, but Sango was too furious and it wasn't in Kohaku's nature to argue.
"RUROUNI KENSHIN SEVEN was bought with my LAST DROPS OF ALLOWANCE!!!!"
"DAMERO!!!!!" Kagome shrieked, finally having had enough. (SHUT UP!!!!)
The room fell silent.
Kagome flopped back down onto the spare bed she had been sleeping in. "Trade one hell for another..."
"Gomen, Kagome-chan..." Sango muttered sheepishly. She turned to glare daggers at Kohaku. "Begone."
Kohaku sighed wearily and duck-footed his way down the stairs grumpily. Sango flipped her hair dismissively and turned back to Kagome.
"How are you feeling?"
Kagome sighed. "Okay, I guess. Head's pounding...but I'm all right. What time is it?"
"Around noon."
Kagome sighed again. It was becoming habitual.
Sango studied her best friend in silence for a while. "Y'know, after you fell asleep last night, Kohaku and I sat around to talk for a while."
"Oh really?" Kagome asked disinterestedly from the depths of her pillow.
"Kohaku thinks the Alleys are coming after you."
Kagome looked up, and there was nothing disinterested in the least on her face.
"Alleys?" she asked, almost afraid to. "I...I thought they were just yakuza..." (A/N: In my AU Alleys are feared more than yakuza.)
Sango shook her head sadly and tossed her a copy of the morning paper. Kagome's eyes traveled down the page, coming to rest on the headline at the bottom. The eyes grew wide, and wider still, as she read the article.
"Alleys? Kill Mr. Lansing? Why?" she asked.
Sango shrugged, nonchalant. Nothing scared Sango, not after her father died in a car crash and her mother was kidnapped and killed. Her response to her mother's death had been "Just killed? Good." and her reaction to her father's had been "Who?!"
"I'm not an Alley." She spat the name like a bullet to be pried from her body. The drunk driver in her father's crash had been an Alley. "I don't pretend to be one."
Kagome opened her mouth to respond, but then a rousing shout came from downstairs- "KAGOOOOME! SAAAAANGOOOO!"
"What is it, Kohaku?" Sango called.
"Someone at the door for Kagome-san!"
Throwing Kagome a worried glance, Sango got up and hurried downstairs. When she came back up, she was wearing a knowing smirk and she had Hojo with her.
"Hojo!" Kagome gasped, sitting up in bed. "What are you doing here?"
"Are you all right, Higurashi? I had to make sure you were okay..." Hojo looked so much like a lost puppy it was hard not to laugh. "Miss Sango doesn't even live with her parents! When I found out, I rushed over right away. Do you know how unsafe this is?"
While Sango's veins popped and her fists shook, Kagome answered in an amicable tone. "I'm all right, Hojo, thanks for coming, and Sango's house is one of the safest places around. Did you notice the alarms around the place? Sango's very paranoid."
Sango nodded, eyes still beating a tattoo on Hojo's shoulder.
Kagome sweat-dropped and spoke quickly. "Of course, Sango and I were just going to go to University to attend our...ah...seminar for our history class...we better go, Sango, we're going to be late!"
Hojo looked confused. "But, Higurashi-"
"No time to talk!" Kagome leapt out of bed. "Come on, Sango, I'll get dressed, get ready, and can you get my books for me?" she jerked her head in the general direction of her backpack. Sango leapt to it, ran out of the room, and careened downstairs, the hurried sounds of her packing her bag carrying upstairs. Kagome slapped on some makeup, started to take off her nightclothes but then remembered Hojo in the room.
"Get out, please, so I can get dressed-"
"But-"
"Hojo! Lecher!"
"All right! But Higurashi-"
"Thanks for coming, I'll see you at work, goodbye!"
Hojo was out the bedroom door before he knew it. Kohaku, taking the hints, ushered him down and out the door, grinning and uttering apologies every step of the way.
"Sayonara!" he called cheerily, slamming the door behind him.
Hojo stood stupidly outside, a look of immense confusion crossing his face.
"There is no history seminar today...and we just lost our jobs cause the owner died..."
To his side, at the entrance to the front yard, a motorcycle roared to life and sped down the street, Kagome waving to him as they passed.
"Huh?"
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A/N: Can you say POINTLESS...?
But ah well, that was a fun chapter. Reviewers will be awarded with cyber-Pocky.
Ja ne
Misao7