Prejudice

Written By: FranceGamble

Corrected By: Gigi-chan, and Trinity-33

Chapter Three

The October air was chilly, and the sun had set a while ago. The heat rolled off of the paved streets as they started to cool. InuYasha wrapped an arm around himself to save off the biting cold. His body wanted him to run and bring some of the heat from the days work back to his muscles, but he couldn't do that. He wanted to be on time, not early, to pick up the little kitsune from the after school class. Shippo had been worried about going, and had said he didn't want to go in fear that Y.E.S. would get the inu-youkai. InuYasha and Mr. Takoshi had assured the boy that nothing would happen to either of them, and that InuYasha would be on time to pick him up. And so now the younger Takoshi was trudging through the night air to pick up the new addition to his family.

InuYasha was lost deep in thought. Most of which now landed on the money problem. They had a new mouth to feed, and still barely any income coming in. Sure InuYasha had a job now, but he hadn't been paid yet. He received a bi-weekly check, and so wouldn't be getting the money for a while. He didn't know how they had lived so long with only his father paying the bills. Sesshomaru had refused to get his own job when he lived with them, stating that school was more important than spilling sweat over a grill. InuYasha shook his head as he remembered his older brother's words. 'He's so conceited sometimes. Only doing things that would benefit him,' the boy thought.

He stumbled on an out ridge of the sidewalk, and decided he should pay more attention to walking. Youkai rarely stumble, and it would make all youkai embarrassed to see him fall on his face, not to mention how he would feel. He sighed and continued to walk.

Right as he turned the corner to walk to the elementary school, he heard a voice. His left ear twitched as he came to realize whose voice it was, Kagome Higurashi. He turned his head towards the back of one of the shops that bordered the street.

"Listen, Onigumo, when I say I'll pay you back for the homework, I mean in my own time. I never leave debts too long, so you'll just have to wait," Kagome's voice rang out.

"I want a payment today," a male's harsh voice said. His words slurred, and he sounded drunk. InuYasha sniffed the air, as the wind blew harshly from their direction. 'Oh yeah, he's drunk,' he thought angrily. He started walking towards the two, hoping to stop the situation he knew was going to happen.

"Onigumo, please, listen to me for a minute. I will pay you back, but not like you want me too," she smiled at him. InuYasha watched from the corner as the man pushed the raven-haired girl against the wall.

"I want my payment!" he yelled in her face. Her disgusted look made it sure that she had noticed his drunken state. InuYasha wanted to walk forward and help right then, but he didn't. He stood back and watched.

"Onigumo, you're drunk. Why don't you go home and rest a while. Then at school I'll talk to you, when you're sober enough to talk," she said soothingly. Her smile was now replaced by fear, a fear that radiated off of her. 'So, she does get scared,' InuYasha thought.

The black haired teenager pushed her harder against the stone wall, "You promised me something for the homework, and I want it." The brown eyes took her face all in, and he brought his head down to bite her neck.

"Ah! No, Onigumo! Stop!" she screamed at the boy. Now InuYasha moved. He ran right at the boy and pushed him away from the girl he worked for. Kagome slid down the wall, as she had been being held up by the teenage boy she went to school with. A tear fell down her face. InuYasha looked at her, making sure she was okay. She looked up at him, then back down to the ground. Her whole body shook.

"What the fuck?" Onigumo said as he stood up onto his own feet and looked at his attacker.

"Leave her alone," InuYasha said silently.

"I'll tell the police on you youkai," Onigumo promised as he stumbled away from the two.

InuYasha looked at the girl again. She still sat on the ground, but she wasn't hurt. Not that he could see at least. Nodding to himself, he ran away from the girl. Now that he was late, he had to hurry to the school grounds. He also didn't want a tongue-lashing when the girl came to her senses enough to know she had been saved by a youkai. 'Well, I didn't touch her. She never said I couldn't save her,' he thought with a smirk on his face.

She breathed in another large gulp of air as she slowly made her way up the shrine stairs. Her heart was still racing from what had happened minutes before and the run home she had done. Now she was safe. She looked at her house, wondering why she even wanted to leave it ever. 'This world is horrible,' she thought as she walked through the front door.

"Kagome, where have you been?" Mrs. Higurashi called from the kitchen where she was cleaning up after the supper.

"I went for a walk," Kagome called back just loud enough for the woman to hear.

"Okay, it's time for you to do your homework," Mrs. Higurashi called back to her daughter as the teenager climbed the stairs to her room.

"Whatever," Kagome mumbled as she made it to her room. Opening the white door that had a sign on it saying, 'Kagome's Room: KEEP OUT!' she groaned, the door slamming behind her. She turned and looked around her room. Her mind playing tricks on her as she saw Onigumo's face in the shadows of her closet. She fell to the floor and shook in fear. When he didn't move after her, she stood up. Placing her hands in a defense position, she peered closer at the dark. She sighed when she realized it was only her sweater and gray t-shirt that gave off the mirage. She hit the objects and turned around. Quietly she went to her desk and opened a notebook entitled, 'Daily Entries.'

She started to write in it, her mind wandering to her attack today. 'Why didn't I fight for myself? I'm capable of ripping his head off his slimy shoulders. Why didn't I? Was I really so scared I couldn't even fight back? And why did that youkai help me?'

'Why did I help her?' InuYasha thought as he wrote another bill down into his notebook. 'I mean, why did I take such a defense about the guy touching her like that? He might have been just trying to scare her. No, he wasn't. He meant to do a lot more than scare her.' He sighed. Shaking his head he looked at the notebook.

He had accidentally written Kagome's name in a heart. "Now I know I have to be sick," he said as he lifted his hand to his forehead. "No fever, but maybe I hit my head on something." He took the white out and erased the doodle. Again he picked up his pen and started to write numbers and do that math to keep everything in order. His pen once again started to write words, 'Ka...' He stopped his pen. "Maybe I'm tired. Time for bed," he said again to himself.

He placed his notebook on the floor and reached to turn off the light. Sighing, he listened to the steady breathing of his dad and Shippo in the room next to his.

"Poor Shippo," he said as he shut his eyes and let sleep overtake him.

The sun shined through the window to her room as she turned over and tried to sleep some more. The birds chirped their music making the sleeping girl mutter something in her sleep. "If you don't shut up, I'm going to get my gun," she warned the music makers outside her window. They didn't hear and so continued their morning song. "Fine! I'm awake!" she yelled as she sat up. She swung her legs over the side of her bed and stood. Stretching, trying to reach the ceiling, she yawned. Her bedside clock read in bright red numbers eight AM. "Too early for Sunday," she muttered as she went to her closet to change out of her nightclothes, a blue and white stripped shirt and matching pants, to her clothes for the day. She pulled her bright yellow shirt on and her blue jeans. Looking at herself in the mirror she went to her desk to get her hairbrush.

Looking out the window as she picked up the purple and white hair comb, she saw the one person she didn't want. The youkai who had saved her the night before was outside digging one of the long tunneled holes that was going to hold the new piping for the guest bathroom. Her eyes wandered over his strong arms as they reached high into the air and brought the pick-ax down into the tough dirt. Then again he pulled the work tool out and brought it over his head. This time as it lay in the ground after the powerful swing, he stopped and brought his arm over his forehead to wipe the sweat off. Breathing in deeply he leaned the ax against his legs. His arms went to the hem of his red t-shirt where he pulled the article of clothing off. Kagome's breath hitched as she saw his muscles contract as he once again picked up the ax with his left hand. His right hand threw the shirt to the side where he would pick it up later. She watched him work and wondered if he had a girlfriend. "WHAT! Wait a minute!" she yelled to herself. "Where did that thought come from?"

She quickly tore her eyes away from the white haired youkai and went to her closet again. "Kagome, just for the thought, you're going to train. And anyway, what if he's not there to save you again?" she said to herself as she pulled out her training gear, a short black top and exercise shorts. She grabbed her tennis shoes and went out her bedroom door to change in the bathroom, where she could finish getting ready for the day without the distraction of the youkai worker.

InuYasha was bored as he once again swung the ax down into the ground to break another rock. It was boring work when no one would talk to him, only stared at him. Yes, he knew she was staring at him through the window. He knew she stared at him, but what he didn't get was why she was. Was she really that mad at him to send him murderous glares through a window when she thought he couldn't see her? She moved away and went back to her daily, rich, spoiled life. He shook his head as he once again brought the ax into the ground.

"InuYasha?" Mrs. Higurashi's voice came to him from behind. He left the ax imbedded deep into the ground and turned around to look at her.

"Yes, ma'am?" he asked politely.

"InuYasha, you can have a break now," she said to him. "You've been working since sunrise. That was 5 this morning. I can't work you to death."

"I'm fine, ma'am. I can work a little longer," he said smiling. She shook her head.

"No, go take a half hour break. Don't worry, I'll pay you for the break," she said as she walked away. "If you need anything to drink or eat come into the kitchen through the back door," she called over her shoulder.

He watched her go to one of the shrine houses and then he looked at the ax. 'Work and finish now, or take a break so that I can work better?' he thought. 'Break for a little bit. I need something to drink,' he decided.

He started his way to the back of the main house where the kitchen's back door was. His mind raced through different things as he made his way to the other side of the house. As soon as he reached the backyard his feet stopped. There, right in front of him, was her. The girl who glared from the window, the girl whom he saved, and the girl who hated him entirely. 'Kagome Higurashi,' he remembered. And here she stood, half naked in front of him. Her tight shirt was almost like the black sports bra he could see underneath. The tight pants showed off her legs, and they were extremely short, like they could have been granny panties. He couldn't help but stare at her. His brain told him to move, but his body didn't comply with the order. She was doing some training movements, and it looked like she was killing her imaginary enemy over and over again. In fact, from some of the moves he wondered if her enemy was male. 'Maybe she's killing me,' he thought.

He was about to continue walking to the door, when he saw her turn and look right at him. 'Oh crap,' he thought.

She looked right at him. Her anger flared up immediately. 'How dare he watch me!' she thought. She balled her fist as he stood there. She wondered briefly he was afraid as she lunged at him. Her right fist went right for his face, but he brought up his left hand and caught it. He immediately let it go, and she tried hitting him with her left fist. Again he caught the offending limb and dropped it right away. As though it were a hot potato and he couldn't hold it long.

Her brown eyes narrowed, "You dare even look at me, youkai!" She tried to kick him in his family jewels, but he blocked that with both hands. While his hands were busy she went with a punch to his face, but he brought a hand up and blocked it. She was fast, but he was faster.

With lightning quick reflexes he grabbed both of her arms, turned her around, and pulled her limbs behind her. He held her there, her back to his bare chest. His sweat from the ditch digging mingled with her sweat. He leaned down to her ear and said in a quiet voice, "At least I don't stare through my bedroom window." He was angry; she could tell by the way his voice was scratchy. He was trying to keep his temper, but so was she.

"Let me go, asshole," she said with venom in her voice.

"The name's InuYasha, not youkai or asshole, Kagome," he said. He let her go right after and turned and started to the kitchen. She watched him go. The wind blew harshly at her and she wrapped her arms around herself to keep her arms from the cold air. After he shut the back door, she sneezed.

'Great, now I'm sick. And I blame him,' she thought as she glared at the back door. She sighed as she went to the front of the house to get inside, just so she wouldn't see him.

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A/N: You will have to forgive me for not placing this up last Saterday. I didn't have my computer for a couple of days, then I couldn't open my files for some reason, then my writing club had a party, then someone took me to the local arcade for a day of fun, then my poor friend had to run away from her boyfriend for a really good reason and I was helping her find a safe place where he couldn't find her. So, here I am a Saterday late. So please forgive me? REVIEW!

Answers to Questions:

KatFay: My mother actually lived in America at the time for the Segragation. (She's really old!) She was telling me stories of her schools that she went to and I thought I would love to write a story on it. This story is actually going to be turned into an original and sent to a real publisher hopefully. Also I know someone who is very prejudice, and I based Kagome's attitude on her. I can't tell you who she is though, for safety reasons! You understand, ne?

pensquared: Only some countries have youkai equal to humans. Most countries, though, are just like Okinawa.

lilacks: Y.E.S. is based on many segragation groups. KKK, Skinheads, Nazi's, Taliban, and many more around the world. I didn't want to base them on only one group.

Trinity-33: In old shrines, like the one the Higurashi's have, would have a dojo. A lot of shrines hold monks and they learn fighting as a way to free the mind and body. It's a spiritual thing. One thing about learning in a dojo is you learn that fighting is bad! BAD! You learn to find a way out of it. The Higurashi's use their shrine's dojo to train the Higurashi children to fight. That's why Kagome can fight as in the above chapter.

France 2003