I hope you enjoy this chapter. That's all I want to say.

-Randall Flagg2

(1)

Inuyasha spun around and kicked his opponent as hard as he could. He fell to the mat and got up, but Inuyasha struck him once again and he fell. As soon he did, an old man raised his hand into the air, signaling that the match had ended.

"That's enough. Inuyasha is the winner." he said. Inuyasha wiped his brow with the sleeve of his fighting gi and stepped back, allowing his opponent to get up. As usual, he was the winner.

Inuyasha's sensei, Hayami Totosai, was the master of the dojo Inuyasha went too. He may have been an old man, but he was a very powerful fighter. Totosai's training was rigid and difficult, but it was worth it. Inuyasha had passed it because his determination to not let another thing happen to him had driven him to try as hard as he could, and he had. Now, after a period of time, he was one of the top students in the class.

As Totosai, dismissed his class, Inuyasha remained. He needed to speak with his sensei about something. Totosai may have been a rigid teacher, but he was a good man at heart, and he only meant his students well. Inuyasha in particular, had formed a sort of bond with the old man. In a way, Totosai was the father he never had.

The old man sat down on the ground in traditional Japanese style and closed his eyes. As he did, Inuyasha stepped forward.

"Sensei?" he asked. "Could I speak with you?"

Totosai opened his eye lazily. "Eh? Can I do something for you Masaki?" he asked.

"Yes Sensei. I have sort of a… confession to make."

Totosai's eyebrow went up. "A confession? Are you catholic or something?" The old man chuckled at his own joke.

Doing his best to control his agitation at that, Inuyasha continued. "I wanted to tell you the… real reason why I started this class in the first place."

Totosai stood up slowly, stretching his arms. "Alright then, tell me."

Inuyasha lowered his head. "The reason I took this class was so… I wouldn't be caught off guard if something were to happen to me and my friends… I mean friend, again."

Totosai closed his eyes again. "This wouldn't have anything to do with the article in the paper last year about the murder at the Miyojin house, would it?"

"Yes damn it, it does!" Inuyasha shouted. Totosai's eyes widened a bit. Inuyasha immediately clapped his hands together in apology. "Gomen nasai Sensei, I didn't mean to curse at you like that."

"It's okay Masaki. Go on."

"The reason I joined your class was because as I said, I didn't want anything bad to happen to me or my friend again. To be more specific, something bad happened before I came here. Terrible in fact."

"What would this terrible thing be?" the old man asked.

"The girl who was killed in the house… the Higurashi girl… it was her father who killed her. I tried to stop him but I couldn't."

Totosai nodded grimly. "Yes, I know that. It said so in the paper."

Inuyasha felt his hands curl into fists. "It's a long story, but I'll try my best to explain." he almost whispered.

Totosai stretched his arms again, and listened.

(2)

"Me and Kagome-that was her name- had been friends ever since we were kids. We always used to play together, and later in life, we met two other friends, one of which was the late Sango, who was the child of the single Miyojin man. We all got along so well, but then one day, we made a terrible discovery."

"And this discovery would be?" Totosai asked.

"Her father had been abusing her, and pretty badly at that. When she finally told us about it, we took her into our homes to protect her."

"Don't you mean your 'home' Masaki?"

"I'll clarify. We were planning to switch her around to different houses every few days so her father wouldn't find her. From what she told us about him, he might come looking for her, which he did."

"And her father was dangerous?"

"He was beyond dangerous Sensei. He was dangerously crazy, we could tell, especially me. Every time you looked at him, there was this wild look in his eyes. It reminded me of an animal's eyes. And he was always so soft spoken. He never yelled or anything. He was always so confident and calculating."

"Why was he doing this? Was he an alcoholic or something?"

Inuyasha shook his head. "No, he wasn't a drunk. He wasn't a junkie either. Heck he wasn't even unhappy with his life. He had a good house and a successful career as a physician. He didn't seem like the dangerous kind, but we were sorely proven wrong."

"What happened next?" Totosai asked.

Inuyasha began to tremble. He didn't know what he would do if he lost it in front of his sensei. He couldn't allow that to happen. So with all his willpower, he forced back the oncoming tears and continued with what he was saying.

"He came after us, me and my friend Miroku first. He attacked us and then he backed off, saying next time we met, he wouldn't hold back. Then one day, he did come after us again. He killed Sango and beat Miroku almost to death. He also killed another person related to me, but that person wasn't a friend."

Totosai nodded. "What a terrible man. And how did it turn out?"

"He chased me and Kagome to the Miyojin house and he raped her when I left. He tried to kill her next, and I went after him. We fought, but he was a martial artist too and I only got in one good hit on him. He beat me to a pulp, and then he killed Kagome. And after that, I couldn't control myself any longer. I just jumped on him and killed him with his own scalpel." Inuyasha was trembling so badly he could barely stand. "And then the police came and… I don't want to talk about what happened next."

"You don't have to Inuyasha. You don't have to tell me anything you don't want too." Totosai soothed. "But I do understand what you went through. I can't believe all that happened to you." Totosai shook his head. "It's just amazing the things people do these days. I can't believe how someone could be so heartless."

"But that's the reason I took this thing in the first place. If something like this ever happens again, I want to be prepared for it. I'll never let anything happen to my one remaining friend again." He lowered his head. "It's what Kagome would have wanted."

Totosai nodded again. "I understand now. Well I'm glad that you told me this and at least now I understand why you practice so fervently. And I truly am sorry for what happened to you." Totosai turned away and said "You can go now. Class is dismissed."

Inuyasha bowed. "Thank you Sensei." he said, and walked out of the dojo and towards home.

(3)

When Inuyasha got home, he went upstairs and changed out of his fighting gi and back into his casual clothes. He came out in a pair of jeans, a white shirt, and a black wind breaker. After that, he went downstairs to see Miroku and to check his e-mail.

"Hey Mikage- I mean Miroku. How's it going?" Inuyasha said with a quick wave.

"Hey, you called me by my first name. You decided to stop being formal with me or something?"

Inuyasha shrugged. "No. I just felt it's time I stopped calling you that. You're my friend after all. So how are you doing?"

Miroku smiled. He was sorting through his back pack. "Oh, pretty good Inuyasha. How did your martial arts class go?" he asked.

"It went pretty good. I can't wait to move up to the next belt." He sat down at the computer and turned it on. As he waited for it to load up, Miroku spoke again.

"Inuyasha, why didn't you go to school today? It's not a holiday and you're not sick. What gives?"

"You really want to know?" Inuyasha asked glumly.

"Only if you want to talk about it, otherwise I couldn't care less." Miroku said, lying down on a couch nearby.

"Fine, I'll tell you." Inuyasha lowered his head and said rather quietly "I got suspended from school."

Miroku's eyes widened. "What?" he asked, dumbfounded by this. "I've heard you get into arguments at school, but I've never seen you do anything to get suspended! What did you do?"

Inuyasha was about to speak when he remembered about Nanashi. He couldn't tell Miroku about him. So he made something up instead. He only hoped Miroku would buy it.

"I beat up a kid, and pretty badly at that. He was making fun of Kagome and her death and then he said how she deserved to die if she was with someone like me. I just lost it and… well, its self explanatory." Miroku said nothing to that. Turning back to the computer, Inuyasha loaded his e-mail.

(4)

Inuyasha scrolled through the e-mail addresses. Usual mail, consisting of mostly junk mail, with some things from other people, mostly friends of his one remaining friend. He read through them, bored with how things were going. He was just about to close it when he saw an e-mail from an address he had never seen before.

Inuyasha looked at it carefully. It might be a virus, but it didn't look like one. As he clicked on it, Miroku leaned over his shoulder to look at it.

Inuyasha and Miroku came close to screaming. The e-mail contained a photograph and it was anything but pleasant. It depicted a young woman who had been nailed to a large wooden cross. The arms of the cross were stained with blood, the arms nailed to the cross with large wooden stakes.. Her body was shriveled and bony thin. Ribs showed on the body. Her mouth was twisted in a look of almost biblical agony. Inuyasha tried to tell himself it wasn't real and just a morphed image, but the body was clearly an actual human. But what scared him the most was that the picture did not look dated. It looked as though it had only been taken recently. Furthermore, it seemed to be in a basement of some sort.

Turning his eyes away from the ghastly picture, Inuyasha turned to the bottom of the screen. Something was written there. Inuyasha read it.

She's not the first, nobody knows. She screamed like a fucking pig in a slaughter house and it was fucking enjoyable. I'm coming for you Masaki. I'm going to kill you and anyone in my way. YOU WILL PAY.

Inuyasha stiffened. It had to be from the same person who had written the letter and sent him the box. Nobody else could fit the bill. Doing the best to control his trembling hand, Inuyasha deleted the message. Then he shut off the e-mail.

"M… M… Miroku… are you…?" Inuyasha whispered.

"Inuyasha I think I'm going to-!" Miroku gagged, just before he leaned over and vomited onto the floor. He fell to his knees, gasped for breath, and then vomited again. Panting harshly, he stood up. He had some difficulty he was shaking so much.

Inuyasha helped him regain his balance. "It's okay Miroku. It's okay. I got rid of it." He had to take a deep breath to resist losing his stomach contents like Miroku had. He had seen some gruesome things in his life- most of which dated back to when he had been dealing with Kagome's sadistic father-but this was beyond anything he had ever seen. It was, as some might have put it, an obscenity.

"I'm getting worried Inuyasha." Miroku croaked. He was still in shock from the picture of the crucified woman. "Is this from the person who threatened to kill you?"

Inuyasha's eyes narrowed. "Who told you?" he snarled. He grabbed Miroku by the collar of his shirt and thrust him against the wall. "Who told you?" he roared into Miroku's face.

"Inuyasha, please, you're hurting me!" Miroku pleaded. When Inuyasha slammed him against the wall again he blurted out "Your brother told me! When you fell asleep yesterday he told me the whole thing!"

Inuyasha suddenly felt everything beginning to go black. He was losing consciousness of what was going on around him. "Oh no, not now! Please not now!" he thought desperately.

Everything went black and Inuyasha slipped into an unconscious state.

(5)

Almost as quickly as he had blacked out, Inuyasha came to. He was still holding Miroku by the collar, but he felt calm again. Miroku on the other hand, looked absolutely terrified. He was trembling even worse then before and his eyes were wide with terror. He wasn't moving.

Inuyasha approached Miroku. "Miroku I didn't… just hurt you did I?" he asked.

"No, you didn't hurt me Inuyasha, but you scared me a lot." Miroku met his gaze. "I mean it when I say that. For a second there you looked… you looked as if you had lost your sanity again."

Inuyasha began to lose control of his emotions again. Quickly turning around he said "Excuse me a moment." and fled to the upstairs confines of his room. He shut the door and when he was sure that nobody could hear, he hurled himself onto his bed and began to sob into the pillow. It was amazing how much he'd been crying lately. He was going to go crazy if he couldn't put a lid on the tears.

"Damn you Nanashi." Inuyasha thought. "Damn you to Hell."

To be continued…

Happy summer!

-Randall Flagg2