Thank you to everyone who reviewed last chapter, it was my highest review count to date. And as promised we check in with the Inu gang. Enjoy!

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The Reluctant Gladiators

Chapter 7: Stabbed

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September 23, 2004: 11:00 PM

22 Students Remain

Recently Deceased: Mayu Kuronaga

Miroku and Inuyasha, taking a break, sat down and pulled out a map. Both of them had their weapons out. Inuyasha had received a sword, he thought it was cool at first but then he realized he had never held a sword in his life. So he had stuck it between his belt and his pants and looked longingly at Miroku's weapon. Miroku was fortunate enough to get a .22 pistol. Like Inuyasha he had never held a gun in his life, but then unlike a sword you didn't really need to practice to know how to use a gun. And he had seen enough movies and tv shows to know how to work a gun. Take the safety off, aim, pull the trigger, and BOOM! Miroku currently had the gun stuck in the waistline of his pants. At the moment they were looking at the map, for a couple of minutes it was silent.

"So, if you were Sango and Kagome where would you go?" asked Miroku breaking the silence.

Inuyasha pointed to the houses on the southwest of the island. "In one of these houses," he answered sounding completely sure of himself.

"Why those houses?" asked Miroku. "Why not these houses?" He pointed to the cluster of houses on the northeast of the island.

"They're too close to the law office. Kagome and Sango would assume other students would head there because it's in close proximity to the office. The houses in the southwest are farther away and so would be harder to get there unscathed. But Kagome and Sango are hoping that if they can get there they'll be safe. They're assuming most people will not try that dangerous trek."

Miroku whistled softly. "And there goes my buddy again, managing to impress with his surprising intelligence. Never thought you had it in you to ever sound logical," he teased.

Not missing a beat Inuyasha punched Miroku in the shoulder. He snickered in amusement when Miroku fell over. "And I didn't know you were so weak. Sango could beat you up with one hand tied behind her back."

Miroku grinned and sat back up while brushing the leaves off his shirt. "Yeah, well then Sango is pretty tough. I think she could beat almost anybody. But I was serious before, it sounds like you're right in their mind or something. Do you and Kagome have some sort of mind connection thing going on?"

"No, me and Kagome don't have a mind connection. I've just known them for so long I can guess what they would do in this situation. I'm sure if you stopped being an idiot, hard I know, you would come to the same conclusion."

Miroku squinted his eyes in concentration. "Wait!" he exclaimed, "I'm feeling something here." He moved his head a few inches to the right and stuck his hand up over his head. "Got it! I've got a connection with Sango. Let's see...hot damn! She thinks my ass is hot!"

Inuyasha groaned and stuffed the map back into his bag. "Are you done being a moron yet?"

Miroku jumped up. "Yup. But I did hear her say they were heading for the southwest houses. So let's go."

Inuyasha pulled out his compass and once he got his bearings he snapped it shut and popped it back into his pocket. "Let's go."

"Yes sir!" said Miroku while giving Inuyasha a mock salute. He laughed at his annoyed friend, slung his bag over his shoulder, and followed Inuyasha. I'm coming Sango. So stay alive.

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"How much farther do we have?" gasped Sango sliding to the ground. She leaned against a tree trunk and pulled out a bottle of water. They had alternated between walking and jogging for the past three hours. Unfortunately they had gotten lost in the woods and wound up going back in the direction of the law office. Kagome had managed to get them back on track but now they were exhausted.

Sango glanced down at the boomerang that she had in her lap. When Sango was busy recovering from killing Hiten Kagome had taken it upon herself to rummage through the dead twin's bags in hope of finding something useful. She knew Kagome felt sick in doing it, but she knew it had to be done and she wouldn't allow Sango to do it. Luckily Kagome hadn't come up empty handed. She had found a boomerang in Mantan's bag.

Sango now ran her fingers over the smooth wood. She felt comforted by its presence. She knew how to use it. The first time she saw a boomerang was when she was five. She immediately became intrigued with the oddly shaped piece of wood that could be deadly. Her father caught on to her interest right away. He had signed Sango up for boomerang lessons. Sango soon discovered that she had a hidden talent for the weapon. She excelled in her lessons and was told by her instructor a countless number of times that she was his best student. Now Sango was silently grateful for her curiosity as a child and the ability of her father to pick up on it. She now had a weapon she could use; she wouldn't be forced to use the rope again.

For the game had become an even bigger reality for Sango. Within three hour she and Kagome had been shot at and then attacked by an insane student. And Sango had killed someone. No matter what Kagome said all Sango could think about was her killing Hiten. Even though Hiten didn't bleed Sango kept getting images of his blood staining her hands. She knew it was only in her mind, but that scared her even more than if the blood was real. She felt like she was slowly losing her mind. Her subconscious couldn't handle her being a murderer and so was trying to make her go insane. She didn't tell Kagome any of that as she didn't want to worry her friend. But she was constantly fighting to keep Hiten's murder in that back of her mind. She had been constantly clenching the boomerang in one hand, almost as if trying to squeeze out the presence of Hiten in her mind. And so she had managed to keep Kagome in the dark over her battle in her mind. She looked up when Kagome copied her earlier move and sat down against a tree.

Kagome sighed in relief when she sat down. Her legs and feet were killing her, her school shoes were definitely not made for running through the woods. When Sango handed her the water bottle Kagome took it gratefully. She drank several deep gulps then handed it back to her friend. "Thanks," she said.

Sango nodded her head in reply then let her eyes close. She was so exhausted. She knew that if she lay down right now she would be asleep a minute later. It wouldn't matter that she would be on rough ground. She quickly pinched herself before she could relax too much. She had to stay awake and alert. If not for her sake then at least for Kagome's. She stood up and began stretching out her sore muscles.

"We should almost be there," said Kagome looking intently from the map to her surroundings. "We should get to the first set of houses shortly. From there we can decide whether to hole up in one of those or go further south."

Sango nodded and offered a hand to Kagome. "Guess we should get going before we both fall over from fatigue."

Kagome grabbed Sango's hand and was soon hauled to her feet. She stumbled a few feet but quickly regained her balance. She stifled a yawn and reached down for her bag. "How will we decide who gets to sleep first?" she asked.

Sango grabbed her bag and slung it over her shoulder. "Rock, paper, scissors?" she suggested.

"That words. But I must remind you that I was the reigning champion of 'rock, paper, scissors' in first grade."

Sango grinned at her friend. "Well that's been eight years. I'm sure you're a little bit rusty."

"We'll see," replied Kagome with a smile. The situation she was in was horrible. But she couldn't think of anyone she'd rather be with then Sango. Together the two friends once again set off. They had no clue what lay around each corner or turn they took. But as long as they were together they would make it.

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Miroku and Inuyasha had entered the woods to the south of the law office not five minutes ago. Inuyasha led and they continued to make their way steadily to the southwest of the island. Miroku stopped for a second to stretch out his tired back. Releasing a great yawn he looked around him. With a start he saw a shadowed figure dart to the trees in front of Inuyasha. He realized with great fear that Inuyasha hadn't seen it.

"Inuyasha!" he yelled in fright.

Inuyasha looked over his shoulder but continued walking ahead. "What do you want? Have another connection with Sango?"

"NO!" shouted Miroku. "Get back here!"

"Miroku, we've stopped too many times already. We can't continue to delay, Sango and Kagome need us."

"Dammit Inuyasha, I'm serious! There's some..." Miroku watched in horror as the mysterious figure jumped in front of Inuyasha. In one fluid motion it slammed it's hand down. The person was a holding a weapon but Miroku couldn't tell what it was. Miroku saw Inuyasha jerk in surprise. Miroku's clenched up in fear and a second later ha had thrown his bag down and was charging.

The assailant looked up in surprise after Inuyasha had fallen to the ground. Without time to properly react against Miroku's charge the person simply lowered their head and crossed its arms tightly over its chest.

Miroku slammed ruthlessly into the mysterious assailant's chest. They both fell to the ground. Miroku pressed his left hand down on the person's throat and with the other pulled out his gun. He clicked off the safety and replaced his left hand with the muzzle of the gun. He pressed it without pity into the person's throat. Only after he had down that did he notice who had attacked Inuyasha.

It was Nazuna Sakaki, a quiet girl with few friends. One of the main reasons she had so few friends was the fact that she was highly superstitious. One time in fifth grade Inuyasha had accidentally broken a mirror. Ever since then Nazuna had refused to speak with him. She didn't want to have anything to do with his seven years of bad luck.

Miroku took his eyes off of the girl for a second to look at his fallen friend. His heart froze when he saw no movement from Inuyasha. "Inuyasha?" he called frantically. "Inuyasha? INUYASHA!"

With a jerk Inuyasha's head moved. He moaned in pain and tenderly sat up on his hands and knees. He leaned back and fell onto his butt. He brought one hand to his chest and could feel the thick liquid running down his body.

Miroku stared in distress at the screwdriver sticking out of Inuyasha's chest. No, he desperately thought, Inuyasha can't...he can't die! Not like this!

Unconsciously Miroku pressed the muzzle of the gun deeper into Nazuna's throat. He ignored the pained squeaks that came from her. All he noticed was the blood staining Inuyasha's chest.

Inuyasha slowly crawled forward until he was right in front of Miroku. He placed one hand over the hand that was holding the gun. With as much strength as he could muster he pulled the gun out of Nazuna's throat.

When Miroku became aware of the steady pulling on his gun hand he shook himself awake. He renewed the force pressing on Nazuna's throat.

But Inuyasha was persistent. He once again pulled against the gun. "Don't do anything you'll regret later," he whispered in pain.

Miroku closed his eyes tight. "No. I won't let her get away with this! She stabbed you Inuyasha! She stabbed you for no reason! You could die because of her! I won't let her get away!" he screamed, his finger dangerously close to the trigger.

Nazuna looked on with wide eyes. She didn't dare say a word for fear of Miroku pulling the trigger. She grimaced in disgust when drops of Inuyasha's blood rained down upon her face. Damn, he's not dead. How could he still be alive? I must have missed his heart.

Inuyasha, ignored the torrents of pain flowing through his body, grabbed both of Miroku's shoulders. "She didn't kill me. And she's not going to! She hit my shoulder. There's nothing fatal in that blow."

Miroku's eyes trailed to Inuyasha's left shoulder. And sure enough the tool was firmly imbedded in the soft flesh between the shoulder and the collarbone. Inuyasha would live. Miroku slightly loosened his grip on Nazuna but made sure to still have full control over the prone girl. "What should we do with her? We can't just let her go."

Inuyasha sighed in relief and sat back down. Miroku wouldn't commit murder because of him. He raised his right hand and lightly pressed it around the imbedded weapon. He winced in pain but kept his hand in place. "I don't know," he sighed, "but I don't want to kill her. I don't want to kill a girl."

Miroku looked at Inuyasha in fear. The screwdriver couldn't directly kill his friend but the blood loss would weaken him. And the last thing Inuyasha needed was to be weak. He had to get the weapon out. Which meant he had to think of a solution to Nazuna quickly. His eyes landed on Inuyasha's bag. Or more specifically the bag's straps.

"Inuyasha? Buddy I need your help for a second," said Miroku. He hated himself for making Inuyasha work but it couldn't be helped. He had to stay with Nazuna.

"What do you need me to do?" asked Inuyasha softly.

"Could you possibly use your sword and cut off one of your bag's straps?"

Inuyasha barely nodded and crawled to his bag. He drew out his sword and started sawing at one of the straps. Two minutes later he dropped the sword and held up the freed strap. He painfully crawled to Miroku and handed his friend the strap.

"Thanks Inuyasha. You can rest now. I can do the rest."

Miroku cautiously got off of Nazuna while making sure to keep the gun pointed at her. He knelt beside her. "Roll onto your stomach," he demanded gruffly.

Nazuna started at him, hate clouding her eyes. "And what if I don't?" she retorted.

Miroku moved his gun until it was pointed between her eyes. "Then I pull the trigger," he said coldly.

Nazuna gulped and rolled over. The last thing she wanted to do was listen to her captor. But that changed when he threatened to kill her.

Miroku roughly grabbed her hands and jerked them until they rested on her lower back. One part of him couldn't believe how he was treating someone, especially a girl, so roughly. But that part paled in comparison to the part of him wanting to get revenge for Inuyasha.

Miroku kneeled on the back of Nazuna's legs. He ignored her yelps of pain. It was the only thing he could think of to keep her still when he put his gun down. When he was positive Nazuna couldn't move without hurting herself he put his gun down. He grabbed the strap and tied Nazuna's hands tight. It wasn't tight enough to cut off the circulation but she definitely wouldn't be removing her bonds anytime soon. When he was done he grabbed his gun and stood up.

"Now get up and leave," he said. "Maybe you'll be lucky and run into a friendly person who can free you. Or maybe you'll run into a much less forgiving person then Inuyasha. I seriously hope for the latter. You tried to kill Inuyasha, in my book that's worse then if you tried to kill me. You don't hurt my friends and get away with it. So you're lucky Inuyasha has a good heart. Because if he didn't you would be dead right now."

Nazuna glared up at Miroku and unsteadily rose to her feet. "I don't give a fuck what you hope. I'll fee myself. And then I'll find you again and finish the job I started," she spat before turning on her heel and walking away.

Miroku pointed the gun at her back. His hand trembled in anger but he was able to recover and lowered his arm. He had more pressing at hand then an idiotic girl.

He turned back to his friend and rushed to his side. He dropped to his knees beside Inuyasha. His gun dropped to the ground, forgotten for the time being. "Inuyasha, are you with me?" he asked worriedly.

Inuyasha opened his eyes. "Yeah. You can't get rid of me that easily. Where did Nazuna go?"

"I don't know. I tied her hands behind her back and let her go. I still don't know why she attacked you."

"Miroku, don't be stupid. You know as well as I do why she tried to kill me. She's playing the game. She wants to live. The only way for her to win is to kill everyone."

"But we all want to live. Hell, I really want to live. But we're not going around killing people."

"I think it's because we have someone to care about. We care deeply for Kagome and Sango. We don't want to turn into monsters for their sake. We're holding onto our sanity by thinking about them. I don't think Nazuna has anyone like that. The only person she was fighting for was herself."

Miroku nodded in understanding. "You're right. Now that you say that I feel sorry for her. Sorry that she has no one to fight for. Do you think we did the right thing by letting her go?"

"We had no choice. She tried to kill me, we wouldn't be able to get through to her. We did the only thing we could." Inuyasha groaned in pain and raised his hand again. Before he could press it against his shoulder Miroku had grabbed.

"We need to get that screwdriver out of you," said Miroku. "Until it gets out there is no way for the bleeding to stop." Miroku placed his hands on Inuyasha's shoulders and gently pushed his friend to the ground. He looked around the ground and finally picked up a stick that was about a 3/4 inch thick. "Here, put this in your mouth."

"Why?"

"Because I don't know how much it will hurt when I pull the screwdriver out. The last thing we need is for you to bite your tongue off."

Inuyasha, not liking that idea, opened his mouth. When Miroku placed the stick in it he clamped his mouth tight.

Miroku sighed shakily and moved until he was kneeling by Inuyasha's injured shoulder. He placed his left hand around the screwdriver. He looked at Inuyasha, silently seeking permission to pull the tool out.

Inuyasha nodded to Miroku. He couldn't disguise the fear that was plainly evident in his eyes.

Miroku took a deep breath and grabbed the handle of the screwdriver with his right hand. Then while pressing firmly down with his left hand had pull up with his right. The screwdriver didn't budge. Miroku heard Inuyasha scream around the stick. He clenched his teeth and once again pulled, but this time he put all his strength into it. The screwdriver slid out. Miroku looked dazedly at the bloody tool. Then he dropped it as if it burned him.

Inuyasha, eyes closed tight, spit out the stick. "Is it out?" he asked shakily.

"It's out," replied Miroku.

Inuyasha opened his eyes and painfully sat back up. His left arm hung down lifelessly and his right hand pressed against his open wound. "Now what?"

"Now we bind it."

"With what?"

Good question, thought Miroku. There was nothing in their bags they could use. But they could use the bag itself. "Stay here," he said.

Inuyasha laughed unevenly. "Don't worry, I don't think I'll be running off anytime soon."

Miroku ran to where he had dropped his bag. He grabbed it and ran back to his fallen friend. He quickly threw all of Inuyasha's stuff into his bag. Then taking the sword he sliced up the empty bag.

Grabbing the makeshift bandages Miroku went back to Inuyasha.

Inuyasha took one look at the bandages and groaned. "Do you have any idea what you're doing?"

"Nope!" said Miroku.

"Great."

Miroku folded up one cut piece until he formed a 3 by 3 inch square. He placed it over the bleeding wound. Then deciding to be safe he folded another piece of cloth, this time in a 5 by 5 inch square. He set the bigger square over the smaller one. Taking one of the strips he had cut he wrapped it over and under Inuyasha's shoulder. He tied it in a crude know in the back of Inuyasha's shoulder. Then taking the longest strip he had he tied Inuyasha's left arm close to his body. The strip went from the upper arm to his opposite side.

"Hey!" cried Inuyasha indignantly. "I can't move my arm!"

"Yes, I know. That's the point. The more your arm moves the harder it will be for your wound to heal."

"I thought you didn't know what you were doing," said Inuyasha crossly.

"Oh don't worry, I don't. But what I said sounds logical, right?"

"Why am I not comforted?" grumbled Inuyasha.

Miroku grinned and stood up. He held out a hand for Inuyasha. Inuyasha grudgingly accepted it and was hauled to his feet.

"Want to resume our search of the girls?" asked Miroku.

"More than ever."

Miroku swiftly stuffed the extra bandages into his bag. He picked up his gun and Inuyasha's sword and stuck them both into his belt. He threw his bag over his shoulder and looked at Inuyasha. "Ready?"

"Ready as I'll ever be."

"Then let's go play hero."

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Sigh, it seems like each chapter gets progressively longer. What's sad is that I was going to add more to this chapter, but when I looked it was already 9 typewritten pages. I figured that was enough for today. I would probably the say the next chapter will be out this weekend. See you then!

Review Responses:

Chaoticxsky: Heehee, was the eye description a little sick? Well glad you thought it was a good description! If you thought it was disgusting then I guess I did all right!

Guardian of the Hell Gate: Heehee, glad you like the disgusting chapter! And I'm glad you like it that I don't pull any punches, and I don't plan on starting! And if you felt sick then I guess I did a good job, since that's what I was aiming at!

Draconic ban-sidhea: Haha, don't worry about not reviewing for chapter 6. I wouldn't want you getting caught because of my story! And I don't know how far the Kouga group will get in their escape plans, or if they'll even think of any! Since right now there are sort of walking around completely clueless.

Tanoliko: I agree with you, I think it would be weird to be in a mall during and have the lights flicker. It just seems so un-mall like. Heehee, yes, the world can always use a few good sensitive men. And I guess Hojo fits the bill! And I would hate to stumble on the mangled remains of Mayu. Who knows how bad she would smell...hmm, maybe I'll have someone do that! Well hope you had a fun time in school! I start in 6 days so I'm getting sad. And don't say you're only a halfway decent reviewer, you're awesome! I love getting reviews from you!

Somone: glad you like it!

TLC Kitsume: Oops, I'm sorry. I meant to email you, I swear I did! And I think I wrote your address down like three times. And every time I would go to email you someone would either IM me or my dad would say "get off, I need my computer now" and so of course every time I would lose the paper I wrote your address on and it would all start over. Sigh, I'm sorry! And to be honest, I have no clue where you can find this book. My brother bought it a couple of years ago and I have no clue where he got it from. But if you buy stuff online then amazon should have it, they have everything! And don't worry, Naraku will die. How could I let such an evil person live? That would be horrible! But as for how I'll kill him, well you'll just have to wait and see!

Mewie: Yup, I figured that anything could be used as a weapon. Which is why I don't get airline security. They'll take away fingernail clippers (which IMO is stupid) but they'll let you keep any pens and pencils you have. You could very easily stick a pencil through someone's eye. But oh well, some things I'll just never understand! Glad you liked the Yuka scene, it is sad when you think how they'll probably end up but I won't think about that until it's time to write it!

Rae-wolf-demon: Yup, it sure is a small world! I can't believe you know where Eau Gallie is, that's pretty cool! But seriously, there was a guy in my physics class last semester and I found out that we were both military brats. And talking to him further I found out that we were born the same year and month at the same air force base in the same hospital! And he was only born 5 days before me so it was highly likely that both of our mom's were in the hospital at the same time. And also possible that they even walked by each other. I thought that was sort of cool.

Lady-of-the-darkness: Heehee, that would put a strain on dinner, picking up your food and then imagining an eyeball on it! And I'm glad you liked the gory part, see? I try to listen to my readers. You wanted some gore, so you got some gore! Aww, you started school? I go back to class on Monday. It's going to suck because I have the schedule from hell. Sigh.

Animecutie: That's ok about the lack of reviewing. I know fanfiction can be a pain in the ass! And no promises about whether or not more than one person will win, you'll just have to keep reading!

Moonglow gal: Thanks! I decided to take it as a compliment. And are you happy to see what's going on with the Inu gang? Inu got stabbed! How could I do that to him? Bad author, bad author. Well here's your update, hope you enjoyed it!