"Had a bad day again

She said I would not understand

She left a note and said,

'I'm sorry I had a bad day again'" - Fuel

Chapter One

I didn't feel anything, save for the immense force hitting my leg which caused me to fall to the slick, tile floor. I caught myself with my hands. I knew what had happened. I'd been shot. I've been shot too many times in my career to not realize what was going on. The veins in my leg began to throb, but as long as I didn't look at my wound, I could ignore the pain for a little longer. I heard screaming above me and more gunshots. I knew that I had to find cover. I forced myself up on my arms and looked around. I flipped my hair out of my face and saw my roommate, Kagome, reaching out her hand from behind the chip display. I crawled towards her as she made room for me behind our flimsy camouflage.

I forced myself up further into a sitting position. It was taking more effort than it should have. "I think I've had too many cups of ramen lately," I panted. I sincerely hoped that it was true. A severed artery in any situation was never good.

"Sango! Your…leg! It's…bleeding!" Kagome was gasping between each word. I turned my head towards her rapidly. "You're having an attack, aren't you?" She nodded. "You don't have your inhaler with you, do you?"

She tried to form words, but couldn't. It was getting difficult for her to breathe. She struggled with herself for a moment, but she couldn't fight the muscle contractions in her lungs. In the end she could only whimper and shake her head no.

I threw my head back against the chips, hearing the crunch of cellophane in my ears. This was too much trouble just to fill a prescription. Normally, Kagome didn't have trouble with her asthma. But she had gotten the flu this week. In her weakened state, she'd become more susceptible to an attack, and the idiots waving a gun around the grocery store weren't helping matters.

Kagome handed me her scarf between gasps and I made a make shift tourniquet. I hadn't planned on jumping up and trying to be a hero. But Kagome couldn't breathe, and my artery was probably nicked, so it looked like I'd have to.

I glanced back and forth, surveying the end of the aisles for any form of escape. Why do they always have to put the cough syrup at the back of the store? In addition to the hysteric woman on my right, there was a tall, black haired man, squatted against the Pepsi counter on my left. He was handsome. His shoulder length hair was pulled back in a low ponytail, revealing the two earrings on his left ear and the one on his right. His black tee shirt shrank against him as he attempted to hoist up a white-haired hanyou in an old orange blazer. They hanyou was looking increasingly dizzy. Sensory overload. It happened too often to hanyous and lesser demons in tight spots. The combination of gun residue and blood was proving too much for him. The black haired man looked as if he was loosing a battle with gravity as the hanyou's head rolled more and more.

Given my other option, I tried to get his attention. He would have to be my only help. I snapped my fingers at him and he flashed his large eyes at me. I stalled for a moment. His eyes were a startling shade of blue. No, not blue, purple. A deep shade of purple that I had never seen in a human. Bringing myself back to my senses, I beckoned him closer. We both looked down the aisle that separated us, and he flashed a look over his shoulder. Finding no one, he crossed over, gracefully pulling the hanyou with him.

"Have you seen how many there are?" I asked as he situated the hanyou behind Kagome. Kagome's breaths were getting more shallow and rapid. He draped the hanyou's arm around her waist, trying to help her keep warm. I noticed that she was crying. I reached out and grabbed her hand; I wouldn't let her die in a grocery store.

"Two, but are you in any condition to do anything about it?" He had balanced himself in a crouching position in front of me. He was at least 6'1" with the way he crouched over me. I looked up into his violet eyes. There was worry in them, maybe even pity. Silly little girls shouldn't play with bad men, they might get hurt.

I looked back at Kagome and gave her hand a squeeze. "I'm a taiji-ya, I'll be fine." I looked to the woman on my right, who was still screaming. I reached underneath my jacket and grabbed my Glock 21. I checked my magazine; thirteen rounds full. As I snapped the magazine back into place, the woman screamed louder. I looked back up at the man in front of me; his eyes were now twice as big. Boys seemed get a little intimidated by girls who carried more hardware than they did. "What?" I uttered, rolling my eyes. After all the times Kagome had begged me not to carry the gun, she's better be glad that I had it now.

My need to carry a gun stemmed from the work I did. I was a taiji-ya, a demon exterminator. In my profession, there was always someone or something that you had to watch out for. I was a firm believer in Murphy's Law; any thing that can go wrong, it will. If I wasn't prepared for everything, people could get hurt. I had come from a long line of taiji-yas. My ancestors were taiji-ya before me and they had fought the demons of their time. But today's demons were different from the ones my grandparents had fought, different from the ones my parents had fought. They had been contracted to kill a demon, money exchanged, no questions asked. But that was no longer the way it was done. There were rules I had to follow, channels I had to go through to exterminate demons. I was glad for that. I never wanted to be considered a bounty hunter, and law abiding demons had rights too. But this was just two punks who decided to shoot up a grocery store for a couple hundred bucks. Their rights, as far as I was concerned, flew out the window with the first bullet.

"Hey dog-boy…Hey you!" I grabbed the hanyou's leg and gave it a sharp shake. Blurred amber eyes opened and looked accusingly at me, angry because I had woken him up, or that I had called him "dog-boy". Either way, I really didn't care. At least he was lucid enough to be in a rotten mood. "Stay awake," I pointed forcibly at him. "You protect her; do not let anything happen to her." He nodded slowly and tightened his arms around Kagome, pulling her closer into the protection of his body. I felt bad entrusting my best friend to a stranger, but I didn't have a choice at the moment.

"Where are they," I asked as I pulled off my jacket.

He straightened his back and glanced down the aisle way to my left. His strong jaw jutted out as he stretched his neck to check over my left shoulder. His black hair, pulled back so neatly, shone in the light. I felt blush being to rise in my cheeks. Trying to regain some composure, I slowed my breathing for a moment. Then I internally kicked my self. I should not be checking out a guy at a time like this. I must be getting too comfortable in these situations, which is a really bad thing.

"There's one walking down this way." Keeping his voice low, he never took his eyes off of the imbecile. I don't think he's the head of this little operation though. He's just strolling along, eating cookies. I don't even think that the safety is off on his gun."

"Great," I grunted as I sat up on my good leg. I took my jacket off and handed the stranger the set of handcuffs from my belt. "Then I think I have an idea…"

…………

He wasn't tall, at most an inch or two shorter than me. He was young too; eighteen maybe nineteen. His Led Zeppelin tee shirt stretched over his round stomach and threatened to burst at the seams. He brushed the stray cookie crumbs from his shirt, and then continued to stuff more in his mouth. He had little hair on his head; in fact if you disregarded his thin eyebrows, he only had three hairs on his head. He also had a dazed look on his face, like he'd just fallen out of bed. He was singing as he approached me. I couldn't make it out at first, but then I realized what he was singing.

"…How come I never hear you say, I just wanna be with you…I guess you never felt that way…"

I recognized the song. Kagome would sing that song religiously at work, as she sat at her computer in the lab. I glanced back Kagome's shuddering form, still struggling for breath. I inhaled slowly, and hoped that my helpful stranger's eyes were as quick as they were pretty.

"Hey, big boy," I whispered. His eyes grew round and large as he spotted me on floor next to him. I took the moment and rammed my Glock dangerously close to his groin. "Be a good little boy and come down here." He started to kneel, a little too quickly for my liking. "Slowly," I warned him, "And place that gun next to my leg." There was fear in his eyes, and I grinned. I had hardly met male, human anyway, that wasn't afraid when you threatened his manhood. Ah, the glories of being a woman.

His knees gave in gently to the weight of his body, and he cautiously placed the gun on the ground near my wounded leg. My partner for the moment grabbed his wrists from behind him and handcuffed them behind his back. Then he picked up the discarded weapon.

"You know how to use one of those?" I still had my gun pointed at the would-be thief. I noticed that there was a growing dark spot on the front of his jeans. "Good," I thought, "that will teach him for singing while people are bleeding." Having tortured him to my satisfaction, I lowered my gun.

"Yeah, but it wouldn't do any good." He clicked the magazine into back into place. "It's empty"

I scoffed. "The leader planned it that way." I racked my brain. "Never give any power to your underlings"

"What are you thinking?" I looked up and saw him watching me. He looked unsure, a little scared of me. Nothing new. He should have just been happy that he caught me on light day.

"This will only work if he's close." I needed to concentrate, so I started to chew on my thumb. I was starting to get a little dizzy and I was scared I was going to loose consciousness soon. "He's going to have to start looking for his partner soon, right?" I gestured to the kneeling, handcuffed boy; who was now crying. "What do you say we speed him up a little?" I reached over and gave Baldie a twist on the nipple.

"Owww!" Baldie squealed.

"What the hell…" He looked at me baffled as I grabbed him and rolled us into the next aisle. I ended up on top of him, out of breath. His violet eyes were round with surprised and a lecherous grin began to slowly spread across his face. I sighed and elbowed him in the ribs as I rolled off of him.

"Can you lift me up there?" I pointed to the top of the Pepsi display as I lay on my back in the center of the aisle. He nodded and helped me to my feet. My head began to swim, however, and I fell into his arms.

"Are you sure?" He steadied me, and searched my face. There was that worried look again.

"Yeah, just lift me up there and try not to get blood all over you." I turned and faced the mountain of soft drinks. I balanced my weight on my injured right leg, while he grabbed the left to elevate me. I balanced myself on the rows of bottle tops and waited. I prayed that he would come soon. My vision was beginning to tunnel and my head felt like it weighed fifty pounds. I was going to be unconscious soon, and then I wouldn't be able to save any body.

"Manten? What the hell?" A skinner version of Baldie, with a lot more hair, ran underneath me, gun pointed in front of him as if he knew what he was doing. "How'd you let this happen? I honestly can't leave you to do anything." He pointed his gun accusingly at his partner. "All I ask you to do is watch these people while I get the cash." He paused as he noticed the handcuffs. Bringing his gun back to defensive mode, he asked "Where are they?" "Hiten, I…" Manten cried as I dove.

My elbow connected with the back of Hiten's head. I wedged my Glock in between his ribs as my body sandwiched his to the ground. I heard his gun go spinning across the floor. I looked up long enough to see that my handsome partner had retrieved the gun and was now pointing it at Hiten's head. .

…………

A/N- I'm in the process of revamping this story a little. I've changed the title to something a little more mature, and hopefully made this story flow a little better. And hopefully I'll keep on this story and actually finish it. I've also changed my pen name…just for kicks.