A/N: so what is UP with sadistic teachers, anyways? Only the 3rd day of school, and our Spanish teacher decides to give us a sixty-five word vocab quiz Oo ….And oh, don't even let me start on my math teacher. Gack.

Currently, my interest in Inuyasha has been wavering ever since I discovered "Gravitation" (oh, shonen-ai goodness X3) but I'm probably going to finish this fic. Don't know how many chapters, but I know how annoying it is to see a wonderful fic(not talking about mine XD) uncompleted. IT DRIVES ME NUTS.

Yeah, anyways, eenjoy!

And be happy, I'm ditching Spanish and math studying for this XD

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Chapter 15

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Only

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She sung some arbitrary lyrics of a random song under her breath. She fingered some cheap overpriced t-shirts, and examined their ridiculous designs. Her feet, still bare, still sandy, received odd gazes from fellow shoppers and tourists, as well as the pudgy, middle-aged native storeowner. Her hair, disheveled by the harsh wind from the ocean, fell softly about her shoulders. It also contained particles of sand from when she had been lying down on the beach. Her clothes had a fine layer of dust on them, turning her red tank top a shade lighter.

She took no notice of the shameless staring of the other occupants in the small, stuffed shop. The storeowner watched her from the top of his magazine, discerning her as a homeless person, or someone that had been thrown out of somewhere. None of his concern, but he was uncomfortable with her in his shop, afraid she was going to steal his merchandise, or something of the sort. A random shopper snorted as he passed her, a look of scorn on his wrinkled face because of her disarrayed appearance.

She still took no notice.

Her mind was too occupied.

Who knew where her half of the jewel was, now? Maybe it had dropped out of her jeans pocket while she was running, maybe she had left it somewhere in the hotel room.

Who really cared?

It didn't work, so what good was it? Heirloom, shmerloom, whatever.

Everything was so baffling.

A stout American couple gave her disdainful looks while trying to get around her to reach the shirt section. The raven-haired girl in front of them stood rooted to her spot, unintentionally preventing them entry. Her eyes were closed, shielding her beautiful russet hues from the rest of the world. Her cherry-red lips pursed, not parting to even mumble a quiet sorry for blocking the couple's path. Her bangs fell upon her forehead, and as she lifted her head, grains of yellow-white sand fell from them, over her eyes.

The American two-some had got enough of her unintended impoliteness, and angrily pushed past her to gain access to the low-grade yet high-priced Hawaiian shirts.

Yet she still took no notice, and fell on the floor to rest, cross-legged.

What did it all mean?

The owner, finally taking pity on her after he had checked in the American couple's twenty-two Hawaiian shirts, walked up behind her and put a heavy hand on her petite, sand covered shoulder.

"Aloha auinalâ," he greeted hesitantly in Hawaiian, "O wai kou inoa, keiki?"

The girl lifted her head, giving him a blank look. "I don't speak Hawaiian." She said quietly.

"Sorry." The plump man cleared his throat, "What's your name, child?"

She blinked, seeming to finally wake up to her surroundings. She looked around the store, as if realizing for the first time where she was, and ran a hand through her sand-filled bangs. Tears popped up from some hidden spring, and she couldn't stop the sob that racked her insides.

And it was all because of him!

The storeowner looked surprised, yet still didn't lift his hand off her shoulder. "Are you all right, keiki?"

She put a hand to her heart, and nodded weakly, looking the elder man in the eye. "Kagome," she whispered, her voice hoarse from lack of use.

"Excuse me?"

"Kagome," she repeated, touching her hair, trying to get the sand out of it, "ano…that's my name."

"Oh. Well, aloha, Kagome. Is everything all right?"

'No, nothing is all right. The guy I thought I would never meet, but I did all because of a stupid jewel my grandmother gave me, claiming the other half belonged to my "soul mate" turned me down, even though there was all this shit about it being destiny, fate, and fortune, and I'll probably never even know what love is, or how it feels like to be loved, and it's all a bunch of pure, utter, garbage!'

"Yes, thank you," she smiled tepidly at the older man, "everything is fine."

The storeowner lifted an eyebrow. "Oia? It doesn't seem that way to me, Kagome."

The small woman's shoulders slightly slumped. "Hai." She murmured, "How can you tell?"

The man laughed a hearty laugh, one that seemed to come from the depths of his chest, loud and full. "Well, Kagome," he chuckled, "if you have lived life like I have, acting father to many children, you learn to read faces. And it's a pleasure to read one as beautiful as yours!" he laughed again when she blushed slightly.

His cheeriness was contagious, and she soon found herself grinning with him, and by the end of their conversation, one thought had entered and stuck in her mind: Screw him.

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"So where is she?" Sango demanded, incredibly furious. "You drove her away, didn't you?"

Inuyasha glared at her. "I didn't do a fucking thing."

Sango scoffed and crossed her arms. "Of course you didn't." Miroku, standing in the background, watched the quarrel with interest.

"What about you?" The silver-haired man retorted, still glowering at her, "you weren't fucking home when she was upset, you didn't even tell her where you were going! Instead you went to go screw around with the stupid lecher!" his fists were clenched at his sides, and he was shouting as he continued, "did you even fucking think about how she was feeling this whole week? I don't even know her that well, but I can fucking tell if she's upset"

A horrified look settled on Sango's features, and tears pooled in her dark brown eyes. "She…she told me everything was fine…" she whispered, put her hands to her face, and choked back a sob.

"Of course she would say everything's fine!" Inuyasha continued, ignoring the girl's sudden upset, "She doesn't want to worry you! You, being her best friend, you have to tell if she's lying or not, you—"

"I think that's enough, Inuyasha," Miroku cut in firmly, putting a hand on Sango's trembling shoulder. "Instead of standing here and arguing, we should go find her. We only have four days left here, after all."

A sudden BANG to their right diverted them from further discussion. Sango screamed as huge chunks of gravel started to collapse upon their heads, crumbling like dust. Huge clouds of smoke erupted, covering everything in a dark, suffocating fog. It was hard to see, yet alone breathe.

Inuyasha snarled as he grabbed Miroku, who was holding on to her protectively, and dove for cover. Huddling under the dining table, the group waited for the explosion to subside. It didn't help that they were starting to feel a bit lightheaded. The air smelled funny, like someone had added a certain damp odor to it, thickening it, and making simply taking in air a difficult task.

Inuyasha struggled to keep his eyes open, clutching the jewel around his neck with a fierceness he wouldn't let go even in his death.

A name entered his mind.

'Kagome.'

The last thing he remembered before obscurity overtook him was a dark figure, holding something that appeared to be a handkerchief.

The handkerchief was pressed to his mouth and nose, and then everything went blank.

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He smirked. "Shame. It was a nice room."

His assistant's eyes were serious as he surveyed the damage inflicted upon the area from the computer screen. He pushed his wire-rimmed glasses up his nose, and turned to acknowledge his boss.

"The team's been sent in, sir."

"Excellent."

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"So, Kagome," the Hawaiian storeowner finished, "you don't live forever, and as we say; 'pick the coconuts when they are still ripe – enjoy life.'" He gave her one more warm smile, and she returned it as she shook his hand, standing up off the floor of the small shop.

"Thank you, sir. I feel a lot better now."

The man laughed, "It's my pleasure. Mâlama pono, Kagome. E noho me ka hauoli!"

She was at the entrance of the store when she turned back, and grinned. "Mahalo. E pili mau nâ pômaikai me oe." She answered in his language, and beamed when he gave her an astonished yet impressed look.

He chuckled again. "Me oe pû."

'I can continue my life without him; who said I needed him? I'll ask Sango to set me up with another guy when we get back. It'll be easy, so easy!' Her spirits were lifted considerably as she took one last walk along the beach, kicking the sand and laughing as it showered down upon her. First thing, she'd go home and take a nice, long bath. Then she would go out for dinner with Sango and the rest—she could still be Inuyasha's friend—and have a good time.

When it was over, she'd go back to Japan, and meet someone new. Maybe she'd even come across Hojo again! She'd actually get serious with a nice guy, and maybe even start a family! She grinned, feeling genuinely happy for the first time in a while.

Why had she ever bothered herself, worrying about something as silly as destiny? She shook her head and laughed again, feeling ridiculous. Maybe she was actually starting to see things right for once in a while.

Or maybe she was just going crazy. Who knew?

ooo

Upon first sight of the hotel, she froze. Something was wrong, deadly wrong. Smoke was pouring out of the balcony. Their balcony.

Her eyes widened, and she took a shaky step back. Firemen, clad in yellow and black uniform, hosed down the smoldering hotel floor, standing on an extended ladder reaching from the fire engine. No doubt that everything she had in there was extinguished. She gasped hoarsely.

'The Shikon…'

A strangled sob tore from her throat, and she knew, then and there, that this wasn't some sort of a "dream vacation". It was a nightmare.

So she did the only thing she knew.

She ran. Ran to the beach, ran across the shore, ran in the freezing sand, made cold by lack of sunshine. The sun was setting. Nobody was there, not a single soul. Even the seagulls had seemed to fancy another beach, as not even one bird was lazily gliding across the now-orange sky.

The sun was almost gone when the first shot rang out. It grazed her shoulder, and she cried out in pain as she lost her balance and fell.

She fell down, down, and hit the rough sand, and it scratched her arms with its coarse grains. A thin stream of blood wet her tank top, and she tried frantically to get up, to continue running. To continue escaping.

Then the second shot rang out.

And everything went still.

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A/N: … Oh dear. Is it good to listen to creepy alternative music when you write fanfics? Things have definitely twisted in this story cause of them xD

Hope my Hawaiian translations were accurate – I'm not that much of an expert :3 but I had a lot of fun using them

Oh yeah, and remember, Kags is Japanese, but let's say in this fic she took lessons for English, and so did the rest of them (somehow), but yeah, that's why you might be seeing 'Hai', instead of 'yes', and 'ano' instead of 'um'. Comprende? (XP Spanish)

Aloha 'auinalâ: Good Afternoon

O wai kou inoa: What's your name

Keiki: Child

Oia: Really?

Mâlama pono: Best wishes

E noho me ka hauol: Be happy

Mahalo. E pili mau nâ pômaikai me oe: Thanks. May you always have good fortune.

Me oe pû: Same to you.