Blood-Stained
A/N: o_0 'Confused' was the word that popped out when I was reading your reviews. =(Weren't you paying attention, or was it really boring? Am I a bad writer? I think I'll just go away… where my HW lies in front of me, calling out my name. Am I a bad authoress? Is this REALLY pathetic as to you having to lie to me about my writing 'ability'? :( I'm feeing squashed and downtrodden right now…. :( Damn my low self-esteem. *goes to corner to cry*
Chapter 5~ Meetings with Strange
… Thump.
… Thump.
… Thump.
… Thump.
The occasional rock along the road stirred the car a bit, shaking everyone and everything inside. Outside, the sun glared down on the moving object, almost directing its unavoidable rays on its roof. The road in front of her blurred, and she almost saw a rise of steam given off by the blacktop.
Convection: movement of heat. Just one of three ways for heat travel.
Kagome unconsciously smiled a bit, proud that she remembered something from her freshman year in college.
Radiation: movement of heat through waves.
She often did this 'Memory Game'; otherwise, how would she pass the time with the excessive amount of road traveling she had on her hand? Other days, when Kagome felt like playing something different for a change, she would pick up food from convenient stores and scan the ingredients, looking for familiar words that would pop out right in front of her eyes. It was really a weird habit she picked up along the way. Science had always been her favorite subject, since she was able to maintain her high score average throughout her education-hood.
But those darn equations….
Kagome decided to not dwell on those velocity solutions; they gave off very evil vibes, in her opinion.
But, nevertheless, she really liked science-related things, especially the human body. She was fascinated with technology and human splicing, not the other type of human body: the dreaded human biology every ninth grader had to endure every year at her former high school. Kagome shuddered at the period where she was forced to memorize details about the sexual systems for female and male as required by her high school.
One word for you: scary.
Snapping back to attention, she noticed Shippo was awake, blinking at her owlishly, with tired, bleary eyes. "Are you remembering something?"
"It's called reminiscing."
"Oh."
There was a short pause of silence as the two stared stonily ahead, one thinking about the loss of parents and the other wondering how much longer the car would press on until it broke down. This looked like another grim day for both, as neither attempted to lighten the stormy mood, unlike all the other days.
"… Are you hungry?"
"Yes."
~*~*~*~
Kagome entered the rundown gas station, a look of disgust briefly flitting across her face, unable to stay behind the fake, placid one.
And they complain about no customers.
The once lovely green-and-white checkered floor was now faded into a terrible green-yellow color, with slightly yellow-orange tiles for accompaniment. Above, the roof was cracked and splintered everywhere; she vaguely felt slight pieces of loose dirt falling on top of her head.
It's not going to fall. Stop being tense, Kagome!
Mint green wallpaper hung around the room, barely sticking to the walls like they did some 50 years ago. The air itself was probably too polluted to inhale, but she'd manage. However, the food there, composed of chips, candy, and all the junk food named on the planet, were decent enough to eat; in other words, they hadn't extended past their expiration dates, so it was 90% safe to digest in her stomach. (The other ten percent was the doubtful part inside her.)
"Need 'ssistance?" a low, bored voice rang out.
Turning around, she saw a fleeting image of an obese man clothed in a two-sizes-too-small manly muscle tank top, dirt and oil clinging to his face and body. Oh yeah, and he was half-bald.
Of course, it was just a stereotypical picture she often linked with these types of surroundings. And when Kagome faced the guy, she found her prediction to not be too far off. Her imaginary fat guy was staring back at her lazily.
Wow… I have the power to make imaginary things become solid. Very cool.
"I said, need 'ssistance?" he drawled out again.
This is so accurate it's ridiculous!
"No, not really," she replied breezily, "Just… where do you keep the food?"
The man's small, squinted eyes popped open a bit in surprise, not full registering the question. It took a few long moments, but he began to laugh. "T-that's a good o-one!" he rasped between the guttural chuckles.
"What's funny?" she asked, raising an eyebrow at his comment. All she had done was ask a simple question: where was the food?
"Food? Are you blind or somethin'? I don't think you're blind, because your pupils don't look dilated or covered with some sorta film. Look around!" he waved an arm around the store, almost pulling off the air of majesty.
Kagome looked around before turning her head once more at him and said, "And…? I'm asking you where the food is."
The man's eyes narrowed all of a sudden. He wasn't exactly sure if she was insulting him or not, but he decided that she was just either extremely nearsighted or retarded.
"The.Food.Is.In.Front.Of.You.It's.Sur.Roun.Ding.You," he made sure to split up the words into one-syllable phrases so she would comprehend its meaning. To heighten the concept, he even picked up a bag of chips at the rack nearest to him and waved around with it.
"That's not food," she said, irritated that he thought she was a retard.
The man's intuition about her mental state was squashed when she said that, and he flared up at the accusation. "Huh? Whaddaya mean it ain't food?"
"This isn't food," Kagome repeated, grabbing a Twinkie from a counter rack, "This… this thing looks half-dead!"
"Of course it is! It can be eaten."
"No it can't! What is this filthy thing?"
The man was very irked by now. How dare an adult younger than him barge into his store and declare all the food, especially the Twinkies, rotten! "Listen," he began, getting off the chair, "It's only looks half-dead because it is DEAD in the first place!"
"That's not what I meant!" she yelled back at him, refusing to believe his outrageous claim, "It hardly looks sanitary, let alone edible!"
"Hey! That 'unsanitary' object has
been sold millions worldwide! I think that's enough proof that people like the
cake you're degrading! And let's not forget; the expiration date on it proved
you wrong!"
Kagome continued to carry on the petty fight; at one point, 15 minutes into the fight, she raised her arms and flailed them around, as if really mad. She stared straight into the person's eyes and glared persistently, insistently implying annoyingly that the Twinkie was a toxic creation if coming from this store. "I don't know where you've been, but this 'Twinkie', as you call it, here gives animal poop a better name!"
This escalated the heated debate, and the man began to argue back even more forcefully. This also meant 100% attention was focused on her.
The two continued arguing, and Kagome flailed her arms once again, wondering why she didn't catch her response.
And she saw at the corner of her eyes, where the door was, Shippo pointing to the bell taped to the door.
Why does everyone do that?
Her stomach growled audibly in her ears and probably externally, but the man was too busy yelling at her to notice. Kagome was struck with a wonderful idea, and she yelled back, this time, extra loud. "No! You listen to me! What kind of person sells spoiled stuff to innocent customers who happen to be wandering into this cruel store by accident and buy the gum?"
"It's not spoiled!"
"I see flecks of green on the chocolate product! If the chocolate has moss growing on it, what about the donuts?" she feigned a look of horror upon her face for extra effects.
"They're mint sprinkles, you idiot!"
"You're lying, you butthead!"
"That was pathetic! Where did you learn that from, third grade?"
"I learn from the best."
"You know they're sprinkles!"
"Liar, liar, pants on fire! And don't forget-you're hanging on a telephone wire!"
As she screamed the last part out, she flailed her arms out for the third and final time, making her resemble a flapping, squawking chicken. Shippo was a little hesitant for a bit, but went on. He opened the door swiftly but carefully, and the bell gave off a melodious tinkle.
The man barely paid attention, let alone turning his head around.
It worked! Kagome's plan had succeeded, and she jerked her head to the side. To the man, she was cracking the joints in her neck, prepared to take him on. But to Shippo, it meant, "Hurry up!"
Shippo scurried quietly across the floor and into a random aisle, barely making a creak due to his lack of weight. He stuffed the duffel bag with him anything his grubby little hands touched. In a few mere seconds, he nodded and gave a thumbs-up while edging towards the doorway, a signal that meant it was time to exit.
"You know what?" Kagome's voice rose several notches, "I don't care anymore! Your Twinkie is stinking rotten, and I refuse to buy or consume this disgusting product!"
"It is not rotten!"
"You probably want it all to yourself, so I'll just leave you alone with the cake and just pray that your digestion can't handle the product. And I hope that as a result of that, you get big-time indigestion!"
"Well, who invited you to come parading into my store, demanding to see top-quality product? Which, by the way, IS top-quality product!"
"The CONSUMER is supposed to make the final decision here! In this mixed economy of this country, YOU have to adjust your products according to MY needs. Obviously, you can't because the stupid Twinkie, which I was supposed to BUY, has already been eaten… by fungi!"
At that point, Shippo had slipped outside, the ring of the bell lost in the sound of her 'passionate' speech. Voice now coarse, she managed a glare before throwing the Twinkie in the man's face and running out of the store, secretly gloating.
Success!
"Why that…" he spluttered angrily, leaving the sentence trailing. If he had finished it, there would be some choicy words included. Never had he seen such subordinate adults in his life before!
He put the Twinkie back into the rack and looked around, muttering, "The food here is fine. It's not bad."
But Kagome had put suspicion into his head, and he couldn't help but walk around, examining the groceries here and there. When he came upon the last aisle, the one farthest from him, there something quite abnormal about the section. On closer look, the man found that a huge portion, smack dab in the middle, of the candy and cakes had been stolen.
"The stupid… aargh!"
Words couldn't describe how he felt right then.
~*~*~*~
"Hey, you want a Twinkie?" Shippo asked innocently, holding the chocolate crème-filled mini-cake.
Kagome wasn't sure if he was making fun of her for picking a fight about a Twinkie, but she left it unanswered. Instead, she took one look at it, turned her attention away, and replied, "No thanks…. You aren't going to puke after you eat it, are you?"
"Nah… I think demonic stomach acids burn better than a human's."
"Wow, never knew that," she responded in return, nodding her head, "If I had demonic stomach acids, I wouldn't have to worry about food poisoning."
"Yep… you'd only get mild, very mild stomachache. But that's only if you eat some rotten things. If you eat non-edible stuff though, like the kitchen pipe under your sink, you would get major indigestion."
"… Have you tried doing that?"
Shippo suddenly found the chips in his hand interesting, and she smiled at the quietness. "You've eaten metal?"
"I was two back then!"
For the rest of the day, the two chatted about their victory and such while eating. And once again, they had no destination in mind.
~*~*~*~
"WELCOME…."
Bolting upright, Kagome punched off the radio button out of pure reflex. The blaring announcement was cut off, and she sat there, staring into space for a moment, trying to recollect herself, before realizing what she had just done.
"Man," she mumbled, leaning over her seat to try locating the decapitated button, "Why does it have to be so loud… especially on a Sunday at 8:30 in the morning?"
Discovering the switch, she straightened up and started for the radio.
All sorts of colorful wire stuck out of the outlet, some looking a bit more dangerous than the others.
On second thought, I'll find a skilled mechanic.
She stuffed the button into the glove compartment, intending to do just that. As Kagome shifted around to find her seatbelt, she finally saw her surroundings; candy wrappers and emptied bags of chips were strewn everywhere, especially on Shippo's side of the car. Crushed soda cans were present, too. Kagome vaguely recalled of the little contest she had with him: who could crush more soda cans on their foreheads. She suddenly felt her ego flare up: 21 cans! Shippo managed to get 19 before stopping, complaining of a headache that had formed. Kagome rubbed her own head a bit, trying to relieve an oncoming one herself; this talent of hers was going to severe her head one day….
Aluminum hurts….
Starting the engine, Kagome slowly wove her way onto the deserted, dusty street again.
~*~*~*~
The first time she heard the familiarly annoying-yet-pleasing-at-the-same-time sound, she frowned, but shrugged it off, thinking it was just a noise.
The second time her stomach growled, Kagome knew she wasn't imagining them. It also came from Shippo, although it was a bit of a squeaky growl.
"No… wasn't yesterday enough?" she moaned.
"We ate yesterday night, and it's 7 P.M. already. Everyone's naturally hungry at this hour."
"Yeah… but a whole duffel bag worth of junk food?"
"Some people are born with fast metalism. Anyways, what happened to your radio?"
"It's called metabolism, and don't touch," she ordered when little fingers began to curl around a particularly frayed yellow wire, "The stupid, cheap button fell off. And remind me next time to never let you be in charge of the food rations. Now we have to do the whole process all over… AGAIN."
"Is that a bad thing?"
"Yes! We're stealing here!"
"But it's food we're talking about…."
"Food or no food, this is going against my very beliefs. We're only stealing here because we have to, not because we want to."
"What if it's not in my beliefs? What if I want to steal willingly?"
"… Don't play smart with me. You know you hate doing this."
"Well, actually…."
"Quiet! You're a little boy… I mean, fox… no… offspring… yeah, that's it, YOUNG offspring. You're supposed to be influential with everything around you, and if I say stealing is bad, then it's bad. It's not wrong to try growing up with some morals, you know."
"What if…."
"Too bad, and suck it up. Include it in your 'beliefs', whether you like it or not."
Shippo pouted a bit at the declared command; he wasn't stealing… just, borrowing for a few hours so his digestion needs would be fully satisfied. "But we're not technically stealing, just borrowing some food. It'll come out, and they'll get their possessions once more."
Kagome pulled the Lemon Face out of disgust and annoyance. "Shippo, don't be ignorant and nasty."
"What? It's true! They will get their food back… almost 100% guaranteed!"
"No, no… don't go there."
"What I'm saying…."
"Shush!"
By this time, the two had entered the limits of another nameless town. Well, to them it was unnamed. They both kept bickering one issue over another; it was the type of debate where one topic would be linked with another, and the debate keeps restarting over and over. Kagome dubbed this type of conversation as the 'Never-Ending Talks', or 'NET' for short. "But…."
"No! We are done talking about things coming out of the anus, stealing, and toilet industries. No more words about it! Oh look, let's work here."
Kagome parked the car in front of another convenient store; they were so easy to pick off! "OK, you know the deal, right? I distract, you grab."
"I thought I wasn't supposed to steal."
"Stop being a smartbutt if you want to eat tonight," Kagome shot back in return, grinning when Shippo didn't reply after that comment, "Remember the signal."
Nodding, he mumbled to himself, "Sure, when I steal, it's wrong. When Kagome steals, the whole world is right again."
~*~*~*~
She entered the convenient store, prepared to carry out her part of the job. Upon entrance, she saw that it was fairly clean, something very rare nowadays. The aisles were positioned in straight rows, and the items were classified according to the Food Pyramid, even rarer. When they began their first few jobs, she usually directed Shippo to search for the health food section, but in most places they've jacked, the foods were carelessly thrown everywhere. It often took so long for him to find the vegetables and fruits that Kagome gave up and ordered him to grab the first thing that he saw, and that included junkies.
Wow… fruits in ONE section and vegetables in the other. Nifty….
"You're not supposed to be eating the food; you're supposed to be selling them!"
A voice echoed throughout the small place, and she looked up to see who belonged to the voice. She saw two people, one male and female, standing at the counter. The man was capable of seeing her, but he was too busy talking to the other girl to notice. The voice came from the girl, and Kagome noticed that the girl was dressed in an army outfit. In other words, heavy, camouflaged coat, neatly pressed, camouflaged pants, camouflaged boots, and a smudged face. She looked very dirt-green and camouflaged, in her opinion.
Army…?
"Yeah, so what?" came the huffy and meant-to-be-witty reply from the male. It came out very dumb and ignorant.
"Are you stupid?"
"No, and can you STOP it with the name-calling?"
"You're eating the products people buy!"
"And your point…?"
"People don't buy half-eaten grocery products, you dimwit."
"First of all, I'm not a dimwit. And I'm checking for pesticide on the apples."
"Please, spare me the hero act. I understand if you took a FEW apples… but a whole section…. I don't think so."
"I'm risking my life at this very second, and all you can do is whine about what a pig I am?"
There was a loud smacking of lips for the following proceeding moments.
"I don't believe you."
"Yeah, well, start believing, because I think I swallowed a worm. Ha! Now what would happen if a customer bought that very apple and started choking on the worm? Then she'd sue, and I'd be outta business."
"You'd be on the floor, chucking or trying to gag yourself from the wiggly thing. Remember two year's ago, when we went to buy pumpkins for decorations for your store? Don't give me that look like you don't remember, because I remember crystal clear, and I'd bet you anything Inuyasha will remember, too. In fact, who CAN forget? So HA back to you!"
"Hey, little girl! I'm not the one trying to enroll in the army, trying to prove that 'feminine power' rules all."
A long, dramatic gasp escaped from the girl's mouth, and she stared at him, stunned. "Are you saying that my enrollment in the army was just to prove something? Are you calling me artificial?"
"No, I'm just saying that manly females like you shouldn't be allowed to roam around the Earth without at least a leash to restrain your explosive tempers."
"Oh, you've done it now. Get your butt over this counter, because I'm going to hurt you so bad, you sexist!"
There was a ruffling sound, strangely familiar with cloth, and Kagome decided she didn't want to witness anything bloody or gruesome. (Actually, she didn't want to witness any more blood and gruesome pictures; she had enough to last her a lifetime.) She cleared her throat a bit louder than normal for their attention to divert to her.
It worked, and the two people whipped their heads around. Rather, it was the girl who whipped her head around; the male just looked up. Grabbing the nearest half-eaten thing she could find, she stomped up to the front of the counter, letting rage slip over her features. "I was going to buy this… this banana! Along with the rest of the pack, too," she added when the two gave her quizzical looks, "And you… you consumed it, you baboon!"
"No, I didn't! I'm allergic to bananas! It was him!"
Turning away from the bewildered girl and at the boy, Kagome shook the banana in his face, yelling, "You marred the beautiful banana! I can't believe this! And to think I was going to eat it, too!"
Beautiful banana? Oh jeez, now I'm really hallucinating.
"B-but miss…" he stuttered through a mouthful of chewed up apple bits, "There are more packs over there."
"I want this pack!" she screamed, furious. Kagome walked over behind the counter and next to the male, forcing both to turn and not directly face the door.
Now….
She flailed her arms around and about wildly, giving on the full impression that she was truly angered at the unholy sight. Kagome saw a long piece of rope inching down the window and Shippo standing on the counter sill of the window.
What? Why is he using Plan B when I cleared the doorway for him?
But she didn't mind, as long as he did his part. She kept along with the charade for 15 minutes before finally tiring from her ranting. Darting a discreet glance at the window, she noticed that the string and Shippo were gone.
Thank God….
With a final act, she threw the banana at the two and stalked towards the door, grinning in triumph at yet another naïve store.
Yes! Success!
As she neared the exit, her celebration was interrupted momentarily. Without so much as a warning, the door suddenly swung open, knocking over the neat pyramid of baby food behind it. Unfortunately, the pyramid was in front of her, and she jumped out of the way and into an aisle, hidden from the stranger, manager, girl, and the offending cans. "Look what I found," the newcomer said with a drawl.
He held up Shippo by his tail, watching lazily as the child tried to chew his hand off.
"Aw, is he lost? Are you lost… at this time, at 2200 hours? It's so late!" the girl had kneeled down just enough to stare at him at eye level.
"I am NOT lost! I'm waiting PATIENTLY for my par- I mean, FRIEND, to return. And there's only 24 hours in a day. Everyone knows that but you."
Shippo tried to free himself again by swatting at the guy's hand, but it was worthless. He only gripped the tail tighter and pounded him on the head. "Stop moving; it's annoying."
"Wow… you used the word 'annoying'. That's a small word for demons, a big leap of vocabulary for you."
"Shut up."
"Wait… where'd you find him?" the girl interjected between the two.
"Outside the window, stringing some cans from your shop, which, I may remember, is supposed to be watched over," the man said rather accusingly.
"Hey! I was busy with another customer, and she was nuts! She threw bananas at Sango and me!"
The guy nearly rolled his eyes, but settled for a snort. "She probably found the banana half-eaten."
"Why does everyone always assume…."
At that point, neither of the three was paying much attention to Shippo, who had noticed Kagome peeking between the cans. She mouthed, "Is the food outside?"
He nodded slightly.
OK… on the count of three… on… two… three!
She took a step back… well, a few steps back, and prepared herself. Then, she ran forward a bit, picking up speed, and rammed her body against the heavy canned aisle. The shift caused the whole shelf to waver and topple over the group on the other side.
"Holy son of a…" the boy holding Shippo had no time to finish his curse, as the cans fell on top of him like they did with the other two.
"Run Shippo!" Kagome yelled, making her way towards the door.
"He wasn't too far behind, since falling cans freed him from his captor. "Where's the bag?"
"Underneath the window. I'll get it."
As they broke free from the disastrous store, Shippo bounded over to the specified location and grabbed the black duffel bag. "Let's go," Kagome urged, already starting up the car. Having no time to waste, he jumped through the window rather than opening the door and getting inside the vehicle.
Quickly, she jammed the stick into reverse and pressed on the accelerator, hard. The two had never been caught before, so it was natural that she felt jittery. Once righting the car and speeding away, Kagome breathed a bit before asking, "How many? Are you OK? Did you get hurt?"
"Almost full, yes, and only little bruises around the tail."
Smiling, she ruffled his head affectionately. "Good job," she complimented, nodding her head, "We nearly failed, but we didn't."
"Thanks!"
Just as she was beginning to relax and wallow in her gloating, her rearview mirror quickly fizzled the party mood.
It was the same guy holding Shippo before, and he was chasing after them on foot. The sad thing was that he was catching up quickly.
Gah… he's Superman in human form! I wonder if Kryptonite will work on him….
"Kagome, uh, I hate to say this, but the grocery boy is after us," Shippo commented nervously.
"How do you know he's the grocery boy?" Kagome asked through clenched teeth while pressing the pedal down further.
"Because… uh, his green apron says, 'Hi, I'm C.S.'s grocery boy, and I'm happy to assist you!'."
She wasn't paying attention; instead, Kagome focused on the approaching predator. She had reached her maximum speed on the speedometer, and it was definitely going to break if she kept it up any longer. Swerving, she drove down the broad, bumpy hill with him still trailing after her steadily.
The boy suddenly jumped, prepared to land on top of the car. Kagome, out of instinct, slammed on the brakes, causing everyone to jolt from their seats. Buyo nearly flew out the window during all of this. The only thing keeping him stable were his claws that were half an inch embedded into the leather interior of her seat.
He landed a few 20-something feet away from her and turned around, ready to start the game all over again. Immediately, her shift stick was in reverse once more, and she slammed down on the accelerator pedal, not caring if it was going to break.
The two started all over again; this time, Kagome found herself on a road and leading into a very busy intersection. "Oh God!" she screamed as her car zoomed through the square. All the cars screeched to a halt, some within a mere inch from her hood, and honked angrily at her, swearing at her in their own language.
She turned her head to see if the boy was still there. He was, and he was within ten feet of her.
Uh-oh….
"Kagome…."
"…."
"Uh, Kagome…" Shippo tried again, voice raised a bit anxiously.
"Not now, Shippo. Can't you see that someone is…."
"There's a wall!"
Spinning her head, she realized it was indeed a wall, and in three seconds, her foot was furiously pressing on the brakes for a change. The car screeched horribly and still kept going.
Throughout the car, a sickening crunch sounded. It took a few seconds for her to get over initial shock that she was alive. Then, the second realization hit her, and she groaned. "No…. The headlights are going to take forever to fix!"
But her worries weren't enough; nope, because at that moment, the boy landed a few feet from the vehicle. "Get out of the car!" he yelled angrily. Obviously, running through traffic at night wasn't a fun activity for him.
"… So, we're caught?" Shippo asked.
There was another groan as Kagome hit her head against the center of the steering wheel… evidently, the horn was there, and she forgot about the object. The car started belting out the off-tune Mexican Fiesta, and the guy smirked slightly, although cringing at the horrid sound.
Why me?
~*~*~*~
"Watch the elbow!"
"…."
"Ow! Watch the tail!"
The boy paid no attention to the two struggling in his hands; instead, he picked up his pace, ending up having to drag one by an arm and one by an extended furry tailbone.
After a while, when he didn't answer, Kagome chided, "It's not nice to be silent when someone's talking to you."
That snapped the boy's first and final nerve. He jerked both of them in front of him. "You steal food from our store, made me chase you halfway across town, and now you expect me to follow your wishes so you would be more comfortable as I drag you back?!?!" he all but screamed at them.
Shippo whispered very loudly into Kagome's ear, "He doesn't like healthy exercise. A few 15 miles wouldn't hurt him, you know."
Kagome nodded in agreement at his words. 15 miles wasn't so bad. In 30 minutes, she could do 1/3 of that number! That only meant… 2 ½ hours. Not too bad….
The boy could only look at them incredulously for a moment before becoming extremely irritated again. Kagome swore if he was an animation character, he would certainly carry a big sweatdrop behind his head.
Stomping along, he dragged the two again towards the store, muttering, "Make me do the dirty work…. There'd better be some big consequences for this…."
Kagome and Shippo both seemed to be thinking what would happen, because they looked at each other and visibly gulped. They had never been caught before, so this was a first.
Kagome hoped the manager there followed the foreign U.S. Constitution's Eighth Amendment: "No cruel and unusual punishment".
*
*
A/N: Wow… the stars look bigger here. *shrugs* Oh well. HAHAHAHAHA!!! I'm finally done with Chapter 5! *does the happy dance* No worries, only had to wait three weeks. ^_^ Anyways, I want to tell you their jobs.
Inuyasha: grocery boy (T_T LMAO! I'm sorry, but I DO think it's funny….)
Sango: Army General
Miroku: Next chapter
Kouga: Manager (*snorts* Hehe… boss of Inuyasha. This looks interesting…. ^_~)
Yes, I believe Inuyasha the Grocery Boy…. *LAUGHS* I can't help it! The sight of him in a green apron. *snickers*
I hope you enjoyed reading this chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it, which was a lot. However, I'm only making this happiness temporary. =)
Now that you've finished reading, I will do an advertisement: ChristyKay!
Her stories are: 'WhoDunnit', 'Why the Caged Bird Sings', and 'Fall of an Era'. Personally, the last one is my favorites; alas, another princess story, but VERY entertaining. ^_^ Waiting for Chapter 9… it was 'Blood Locus' all along, and I kept misspelling it. You'll like it, trust me! (HA! Thought I was going to advertise blood and gore, huh? Well, I don't like gutting. *Audience: WTF?!?! Why you writing about it?* Because I'm gifted in that section. ^_^ Well, you all think I do, anyways. Now, keep in mind, Chapter 6 won't be out for quite some time, you know, with the tests, Finals, and SOLS, along with projects. -_-* But I'm trying!
Next Chapter (Again, it will take some time.): Impressed by His Impressions (*snorts* Guess who's in it? Think purple perverted! ^_^ AH, alliteration, a wonderful tool for literature.)
4/16/03~ Hehe….
Wow! I was able to rewrite this so quickly! ^_^ Well, maybe it came out so quick because I just had to fix some small but noticeable grammatical mistakes. -_-* Yes, I do read my stories over and over again. And I catch some major mistakes. ^_^ Well, at least we all know I was paying attention! Oh yes, and I have a proposition for you. Now, keep in mind that you WILL get Chapter 6, but still…. *shrugs* I don't really know how long it's going to take me. So here is the deal: If I'm able to get to 100 reviews, then Chapter 6 will be able to come out later. ^_^ See, here's the reason why I'm posting this up. My original schedule to post up the next chapter was during Memorial weekend; that's like what, in two weeks? Or if I'm really busy, then it will probably be posted during the weekend after Memorial Day. So that's about three weeks from here. I also have SOLS coming up: NEXT WEEK. Yikes! So I'm going to be studying all next week. -_-* Oh rats…. Anyways, so here's how it goes: If I'm able to reach 100 reviews (Which is HIGHLY slim.), then Chapter 6 will come out probably in one to two weeks. ^_^ Now, I'm not FORCING you; I'm just saying the option is out there. ^_^ Hehe…. Alright? So there's the deal. I think I'll call it the Impossible Deal, since going from 74 to 100+ isn't too common for first time writers out there. =D
Anyways, I have more pressing matters now: Chapter 5. OK, so I understand how it could be a little confusing, so this little A/N here is going to be a wee bit longer than usual. *cough* I have to answer a review AND explain about Chapter 5. Oh, woe is me. ^_^
Chapter 5: Here's what happened in the chapter, to put it simply. (People, people, PAY attention to the story!) Yes, Shippo DID attack Kagome. Yes, he DID transform into a huge, maniacal dog and attempted to rip her to death. Yes, this all happened. Now, then, you're all probably wondering why she woke up suddenly in the middle of the night. Remember how she walked to the bathroom? Remember how Shippo appeared by the doorway? I remember including in there how she was dreaming about her past. OK, you know how she escaped from Tokyo because the hacker was after her? I KNOW I included in there somewhere that the first town that Kagome used as a hideout was Shippo's hometown. Get it? Let me put it this way in a BETTER way: The two parts of Chapter 4 were really a reminiscing dream she had about her past. She was dreaming about the time she hid out in her first hideout, Shippo's hometown. Get it? Good! Now, since the keyboard is becoming defective AGAIN, let's get on to my comment to one of the reviews.
Kagura: I appreciated your review. Thank you for saying that this chapter was great. But, I'm not too happy with one of your other comment. No offense or anything, (You're still considered a regular reviewer with a few other people on here.) but what did you mean by, "Without the gore, it was a lot less confusing and great."? I understand that Chapter 5 may have been a bit leading, but what did you mean that without the gore, the chapter was great? I have faith that my strongest point in writing is suspense so far, and I intend to keep the story that way. So could you please explain what you meant in that phrase? Thank you. (Yeah, I sound so formal and all, but I can't help it. That little statement really brought my spirit down. I mean, all this time I thought I was writing well and all…. T_T I wanted to write something different from the rest of the group and all…. Gah… I don't feel too happy. =() No, I'm not mad at you, and no, I'm not trying to get you to dislike me.
Now that the comment is over, let's see… what else should I talk about? Oh yeah! Hehe… what IS Miroku's job? ANSWER! MWAHAHAHAHA!!!! I want to thank ChristyKay for being the only one to answer my question. Grr… that sucks, since no one took the liberty to do as I asked. Hmmph! ^_^ J/K! But anyways, answer the question!
What is Miroku's job?
You'll never see this one coming…. Hehe, just like you never saw Inuyasha's job coming. Oh yeah, and the reason why Kouga didn't hit on Kagome the first time he saw her was…. Well, if someone stomped up to you and started shouting gibberish about beautiful bananas, would you take the time to start hitting on him/her? -_-* I don't think so. You'd most probably scream back or try to defend yourself from the person's wrath.
Ah… we've come to an end to my extremely long review. Here's one more thing for you (Consider it as an early birthday gift!): Chapter 7~ As time relives itself, so does the fun.
Hehe… think about that. No really, THINK seriously for a moment about that phrase. Hopefully, you don't need to do some heavy thinking. ^_^ Bye!
OK, so not yet, but one more thing: ChristyKay's story is actually called 'Blood LOTUS'. ^_^() I knew that. God… first locusts, then locus. Nghi, it's LOTUS. ^_^ I have it straight in my head now.
