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Disclaimer- I'm not the creator/owner person of Inuyasha. Nor, I'm I getting any profit from this... This story is only for entertainment purposes or whatever... Nor, do I own Frogger, Twinkies, Cole Blade or Ms. Youkai... So, um, on with the third season!

Chapter Rating: PG-13 (For language, violence and sexual implications!)

Warning- (Extremely) Mild YouXDaken, mild angst and feeble alcohol abuse

Beta-readers- Not beta-read… Yet…

Chapter 17

The Ruthlessness of a Biting Snowflake

"F-f-fa-fa-" You stammer in horror at the person as they slowly approach you.

"Long time no see, (your name)."

The person stops before you and pulls you into a gentle hug. You don't know how long the hug lasted, but when you finally recover from shock, you roughly shove the person away with a grimace.

"Y-you're not supposed to be here!" You yell backing away from the stranger.

"But, I am… In the flesh, (your name)." The person says and grins cheerfully. "Aren't you glad to see your father?"

"I-I have no father!" You hiss glaring at the man before you. "How? Why are you here!"

"It's a little something called parole, Tadpole." Your former father says sticking his hands into his pockets casually. "For good behavior, too, now speaking of behavior… That's why I'm here."

You glower at the man's gentle smile, and sparkling eyes… You know it's all a façade, you always knew, though if he's really on parole for good behavior the judge obviously didn't. The stranger wears a tired looking brown suit, and a darker brown, scrappy jacket. His complexion, which used to be the same as yours, was now pallid as the falling snow. Wrinkles now creased his, past smoothed face and five-o-clock shadow slightly darkened his chin.

"You see, Tad-(your name), you never liked it when I called you that, did you?" He questions and shrugs. "I heard-a little birdie told me that your behavior hasn't been very pleasant lately, and I was just wondering if we could talk it out." He says smiling hopefully.

You stare at the man incredulously, before chuckling slightly and soon bursting out loud with laughter.

"… (Your name), please tell me what's so funny! I'd like to laugh, too!" Your ex-father says over your laughter, worriedly.

Your laughter just as soon dies down; you smile darkly at the man. "My behavior is none of your business! I have no father!" You chuckle. "And I am not, certainly not, your daughter! I'm an orphan, a bastard!" You stare directly into his eyes. "My mother died in a car accident 6 years ago and she took my father and baby brother with her."

He stares at you in shock, silently, before suddenly the back of his hand comes crashing against your cheek. On impact you tumble to the ground in shock, and stare at the ground in confusion.

"I told you to never speak of it again… You disappoint me, (your name), I thought what I was told wasn't true, but now I see what you truly are, (your name)… You're nothing like your mother! Your mother spent all her time helping others, she excelled in her schoolwork, came out on top, she never put aside family ties for men… She wasn't a tramp, (your name), and that is what truly saddens me, somewhere along the line we did something bad to you as parents, (your name), and we're sorry, but you're practically an adult, you should have more self-control… I bet your mother and ancestors rolled over in their grave when they found out about you and that-those… Demons, how could you, (your name)?" The man spat nastily.

You sit frozen on the ground, as you touch your bleeding lip with wide eyes.

"I have to go, but when your ready to see me I'll be back, (your name), maybe then you won't be so disrespectful." The man slowly walks away from you as you hear crunches from the snow.

You stare at the blood on your fingertips vacantly, and suddenly you hear more crunching snow and pants behind you.

"Ms. (your name), are you ok? I left school as soon as I heard you jumped off the roof!"

You slowly turn to the boy and his eyes widen suddenly when he sees your bleeding lip.

"Ms. (your name), are you-" You ignore the boy's oncoming question.

Looking into the boy's eyes you see bright lime eyes, full of concern and sympathy… Like a wimpy, little brother or friend, like the little brother you never had. So innocent, so cute and so concerned. How can so much concern and sympathy be in a stranger's eyes? And so little in a father's?

"D-daken…" You whimper quietly and sniff.

The mop-head's brows rise at your sudden change of mood. "…Ms. (your name)?"

You stare at the teen sadly, as tears start to build up in your eyes. When the teen's mouth opens again to speak, you just as soon sling your arms over his neck and let out a muffled sob in his shoulder, as tears pool over your eyelids and spill. The teen stays tense in your embrace, but slowly relaxes…

"It's alright, Ms. (your name)… Everything's is going to be alright…" He whispers softly, patting you on the back.

You heave a heavy sigh and slouch on the couch. Slowly bringing the beer bottle to your lips, you guzzle the liquid, and toss the empty bottle to the freshly carpeted floor. You frown, when your thoughts are interrupted by a phone ringing, which soon stopped. You sigh, noticing you had finished off your grandfather's carton of beers and slowly stuff your face in the arm of the couch.

The mop-haired teen, Daken soon rushes out of the kitchen, and shakes your shoulder gently, to which you push away.

"Ms. (Your name), we have to go! Your grandfather is in the hospital!" He says urgently.

"Yeah… So?" You ask irritably, glancing up at the boy and he stares down at you in horror. "He's probably there for a check up; he's been bitching about "his aching back", for quite a while now…"

"No, Ms. (Your name)! Ms. Naomi called and she said that he's actually has a sickness and the doctors don't know what it is! She says he's… Dying, (Your name)..."

"D-Dying?" You repeat with a surprised face and the mop-haired boy nods. "Why? How! He was fine this morning!" You say to the boy dubiously.

"I know, Ms. (Your name), but Naomi said the doctors don't know what's wrong with him… A bunch of patients just came in yesterday with the same problems, and the doctors are still checking up on them!"

You scowl at the teen, before standing up and briskly walking to the door, grabbing your coat. "Lets go already, we don't want him to die before we get there do we?" You ask walking out the door and the mop-haired boy, frowns following you.

The strong stench of sterilization loiters in your nostrils as you walk down the hospital hall, following your mop-headed ex-pupil, Daken and friend, Naomi to your grandfather's room. Being away from the modernized world and hospitals for more or less than 2 years must have done wonders to your sense of smell, since you outwardly winced when the smell hit your nose or maybe it was because you just hated hospitals.

The motivation of your growing hatred for the large white building with the fat red cross sticking to it was because of 6 years back at the point of your mother's failed rehabilitation… Though, it was in the past, you still harbored a grudge against these kind of places. And though it is good to chew over the past, and get over it, you shouldn't think about your mother, especially right now, since when you think about your mother, you can't help, but think about your f-fa-fath- and when you think about that person, you have a tendency to crave an alcoholic beverage, and since this is a hospital… In the end, lets just say, you aren't a happy person when you don't get a drink or two.

You three finally reach "Room 605", where Naomi stops and turns to you, with a tired smile.

"(Your name), Mr. Daken, please be quiet while you're in there, alright? He just went to sleep twenty minutes ago and it's really hard to get him to. It took quite a while for him to submit before the doctors could take him into surgery, too." She says quietly, as if the old man could hear her on the other side of the door, if she spoke too loud.

Surgery? He needed surgery? You and Daken nod, and she carefully opens the door and leads you both inside. The room is tiny, and of course, painted white… It's like hospitals know no other color than white! Frowning you step farther into the room, walking up beside the bed that your grandfather now lay in. The old man lay pale, an oxygen mask covered his face, hooked up to several tubes and machines.

As you feel a pair of lime eyes gazing intensely at your face, you stare down at the man indifferently with shallow worry. It's not like you'd be very attached to this man, after like a half a week! No way overnight were you going to suddenly grow a father-like bond with this man, and turn into a weepy pile of mush in Daken's arms again… Daken would be a fool if he thought that… Oh, right, he doesn't know about your escapade in the feudal era.

Frowning you trail a blood vessel that was in plain site under the old man's pale skin, up his arm. It's not like he'd die, so soon anyway… He just beat at sparing yesterday, there was no way, something like a little flu could kill this abnormal old geezer. You pause from your thoughts when you notice a wide, dirty pink, strip discoloring the man's skin above his elbow. Noticing it to be too big to be a blood vessel, you lift up the rest of the sleeve. You gape in slowly approaching dread at the mark that lay on your grandfather's arm.

In all of its wicked glory, a spider-shaped mark lay swelled on your grandfather's arm.

"Oh my god…" You hiss to yourself, though not going unnoticed by the other two teens in the room.

"What's wrong, (Your name)?" Naomi asks softly, walking up besides you.

You glance at her tensely before pointing to the mark. "N-naomi, what is that? Do you see it, too?"

She glances over your shoulder at the spider-shaped mark, before nodding grimly. "Yeah, I don't know what that is, (Your name). The doctors don't know either, and all the patients that came in this week have the same mark." She says, starting to shift your grandfather's tubes. "However, most of the patients have a different sickness. Such an odd thing like this has never happened before."

She finishes, as you stare nervously at the mark. Something about this is just wrong… There's no way, such a weird mark would appear on more than one person's arm, without any of the doctors knowing shit about it! You hesitantly reach out and touch the swelled skin…

Just as you are about to pull away, you gasp as darkness suddenly swallows the room and yourself whole. Have I gone blind? You think as you frantically look around the room, to see nothing, but darkness. No, and I'm not dead either, you answer to yourself nervously. Trying to move you find yourself paralyzed in that position. You gulp, when you feel something slowly sucking your energy away from you, this is way too familiar…

"-but I will still give you the honor of merging with me; you seem to be very worthy." A dark, creepy voice whispers in your ear and you gasp. No, it couldn't be!

An electric jolt suddenly flies threw your body, and the numbness seems to be suddenly willed away. You open your eyes to find yourself back in the hospital room, sitting in a fold-out chair, and a pair of amber and lime eyes staring down at you with concern.

"(Your name), are you ok? You just spaced out; you're not feeling sick are you?" Naomi asks.

"Uh, yeah, I'm fine… I just need to get out of here. I hate hospitals…" You grumble, getting up from the uncomfortable fold-out chair.

"Ok, just don't stress yourself out…" She says as your half-way out the door. "I'll call you when your grandfather wakes up!"

When you get half-way down the hall, you become aware of the short, mop-haired teen trailing you. Why? Who knows! He should have left a long time ago; the kid must be crazy... You pause looking from a straight, left and right hall before you… Now where was the exit again…? Oh yeah, elevator, then straight down the left hall to your right. You turn to the elevator which was conveniently right beside you and press the button, with the image of an upside down arrow on it.

"Ms. (Your name), are you ok?" Daken asks besides you and you shrug impassively. "What were you thinking about? When you spaced out, I mean. You look sick now, was it something bad?"

You give the boy a glance and shrug again. "Don't worry about it, hospitals make me sick."

You both walk aboard the elevator when it opens, and before the teen can ask a few more questions, he politely holds the elevator door open for two other doctors rushing to get in. As the descent to the ground floor, seems to be going by like a turtle swimming through peanut butter, you disinterestedly start to listen in to the doctor's conversation.

"-Yeah, all the patients. Though, Ms. Takeshi seems to be getting along rather well lessening the pain with morphine." The male doctor, wearing glasses and a tradition white coat says.

"Yes, but if we give her and the rest of the patients morphine until we find a treatment for those marks, they'll become too dependant on the drug." The lady doctor says, also in a white coat. At the mention of "the marks", a queasy knot forms in your stomach.

"That's true, but there maybe weeks, months or possibly years until we find a treatment! Odd marks, each and every one shaped like the same, identical spider are hard to come upon today, Kina! And how else are we going to help the patients until that day!"

The shiny, silver elevator doors open up, to Floor 2, and the two arguing doctors walk out, ignoring the both of you. In return, you ignore the departing doctors, but gasp sharply at the site before you. Everyone… Everyone in the whole sitting room, whether patient, nurse, doctor or visitor… Everyone has the spider mark, though they didn't seem to be worrying about it. They're all going about their daily business, just ignoring the big, swelling, obvious, ugly mark on their foreheads or arms. You unnervingly back up against the railing in the elevator, when a passing nurse waves at the two of you, with a polite smile. A swelled spider mark sticks to the side of her forehead like a frightened octopus… You scowl darkly at the nurse… Disgusting… The elevator doors slides close…

Turn to page: 19

Author's Notes

Wow, this is one of the shortest chapters in the story. Only seven pages? Maybe I'm getting rusty… Not! Heheh, the angsty fun is only just beginning! At least I think so, seems to be getting that way…

Heheh, well stay tuned for another drama packed episode!

Review, please!

Later!