Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha™ nor do I own any of its characters or its original plotline. They are the intellectual property of Takahashi Rumiko and will remain so forever. My small claim on this work of fiction is in its creation of the alternate universe plotline, which I assert to the best of my knowledge to be an original product of my imagination. Any similarity to persons(other than the aforementioned characters belonging to Takahashi Rumiko) or events either real or previously imagined is completely coincidental and please excused.
A/N: First off, let me just let all of you who have reviewed thus far that your responses have helped me a lot. Niamh (and others)--thanks for the heads up on the misspellings. I proofread, but sometimes I get too wrapped up in re-analyzing the plot that I miss things like that--feel free to email me and let me know if I mess up anymore. My parents were both editors for a newswire, so I think I have a genetic tendency to hate spelling and grammar errors (especially by me). Nassau--it would be an interesting turn, wouldn't it? I wonder how I could work that in...
Also, just a quick note so as not to offend anyone: In this chapter I have included a reference to a true life historical character. The reference, however, is not exactly flattering, but in no way represents my opinion of the actual person. The real person was actually a very well accomplished and honorable individual and I wish to express that I mean no dishonor whatsoever to her memory by her role in the story--I just strive for realism as much as I can when dealing in historical fiction, so I thought fit to include her in my story.
Along the same lines, a less than flattering comment is made about American women in general. Once again, this in no way reflects my personal opinion of this group--on the contrary, being from the US, my opinion is in complete contradiction to the statement made in the story. With that said, if you are still offended, please feel free to visit my homepage and send me an email, I will apologize profusely if necessary. Now, on with the show...
He was doing it again.
She tried to hide the emotions building up inside her, and succeeded—for the moment. It was a never ending struggle when he was around. She always had to hide herself, try to remain just business. But she knew better than that.
The swing music played in the background as he continued to stare at her, waiting. Waiting for her to begin, or end, or breakdown—she didn't know. All she knew was that the moment she did anything, all hope would be lost for her. He would make sure of that fact.
Naraku always managed to extinguish even the slightest spark of hope and life in her.
Her weakness was everything about her. He knew exactly where to twist her so that she would break down. The longer she worked for him, the easier it was for him to do. She knew that someday he would eventually break her so completely that she would be gone forever. She just hoped that that day would come sooner, rather than later.
Her life since age sixteen had been one long, drawn out wound. A wound that never seemed to stop bleeding, and bled faster still everyday. In an effort to prolong her lapse of sanity and clarity before she broke down yet again, she thought of her life, and what it would feel like when it was finally over.
Until she had turned sixteen, she had had a perfect childhood. Her parents were loving, they were nurturing to the point of spoiling her, they raised her to be polite and courteous—she had loved her parents dearly, quite sure that no more perfect parents existed anywhere in the world. That is, she loved them until her sixteenth birthday, when she found out they weren't her real parents.
She had been trying to sneak around and discover the secret surprise that was being planned in her honor—she stumbled upon something much more damning instead. As she rounded a corner in the ornate house, she could hear the raised voices of her parents:
"She becomes a woman today! She should know—at least we can give her that…"
"No! Dammit, Kori, we were given specific instructions that we were never to reveal her true parents! If she knew, she'd probably seek her mother out, and then she would die for being what she is. Is that what you want? Do you want Kikyou, the closest thing to a daughter we've ever had, to be taken from us? I won't stand for it—I couldn't bear the guilt. Not from me, not from you, and certainly not from Empress Nagako. Do you want to be the one responsible for Nagako's daughter's death?"
At this point, she had burst in on her 'parents' in tears, demanding to know what they were talking about, or that she would leave. They told her—and that was the first time she was broken. Her true mother was Empress Nagako, who had had a love affair at a young age. Kikyou was the product of that love affair—the illegitimate child that was to have been killed at birth, by the order of the Emperor. No one was to know of his Empress' infidelity. Nagako couldn't bear the thought of killing an innocent child, however, and had her daughter hidden immediately after birth. Very little was known of her father—all she was able to find out was that he was gone. She ran that day, and she had been running since.
She spent the next three years on the streets, almost unwilling and unable to live with the shame of her conception. She vowed revenge against her father for making her what she was. The fires of revenge stoked during the day kept her warm at night—until Naraku found her.
She had been living as a street urchin, lying and stealing from anybody she could convince to trust her. She actually had lived a fairly healthy existence, staying with the people who were gullible enough to take her in, eating her fill until the opportunity presented itself. The next time they left for any period of time, the house was stripped of its most valuable assets. When she became too well known in one city, she would relocate with the help of some 'generous' person's contribution to her wealth. Naraku had caught up with her in Kyoto, and at first she had thought he was the police. He said he had a job for her, but she didn't care—she knew she wasn't worth much to anybody, except maybe dead. She refused to cooperate, so he had kidnapped her, and spent nearly a week interrogating and torturing her. She had become so calloused to pain though, that she'd hardly blinked throughout the entire process.
Until one day, when Naraku came for her with a self-satisfied smile, firmly in place on his smug face. He toyed with her for hours, telling her he knew who she was, that she was finished, he didn't even need her anymore. After all, who would want anything to do with the Empress' illegitimate love child? All she would bring would be death. Kikyou was strong-willed however, and held on to her sanity for nearly a day of Naraku's sadistic psychological torture. Then she broke for the second time.
She would have agreed to anything—it was the thought of her foster parents that finally pushed her over the edge. They deserved no punishment for her dishonor—all they ever were was kind and caring for her. So she did his bidding—anything he ordered, no matter how twisted, cruel, or perverted it was.
And perverted it was. He was currently in the middle of training her to take another girl's place, training her in all the important aspects of being 'American.' She loathed the training. She was forced to smile non-stop, she had to change her normally straight and dull hair into a wavy, silky, nest of full-bodied hair, she had to learn to dance, and more importantly, to sing. Thankfully, months of intensive training before they gone to Germany had taught her both German and English. She had been almost eager in those months to please Naraku because he told her that he knew who her father was and would help her get her revenge. He told her that he would only help her when she was no longer of any use to him. So she became studious and attentive—but that was years ago. His promise had long been forgotten, or at least almost forgotten.
Kikyou never forgot. She was trained not to. She planned on holding Naraku to his promise at her earliest opportunity.
She could only hope that she stayed alive that long.
The dance lesson was over now. Naraku wanted her to start singing, but she was awful. Naraku gave her a look that was all too familiar to her—to any outsider, it was a sympathetic and understanding expression, but she knew better. This look was the one that she feared most; it usually led to some extreme punishment, borne from his pity. His pity always became gentle berating talks, and then violence, all with the same sadistic smile set on his face. To her surprise, he didn't punish her right away.
"Perhaps it is time for a change of pace. We will focus on a different aspect of Americanism for now."
A spark of hope lit for a brief moment, and mistakenly she let it slip onto her face, where Naraku quickly recognized and resolved to snuff it out.
"American women are well known for being flirtatious and promiscuous in the presence of all men. All American women are, in essence, whores."
Her spark of hope suddenly became a 1-ton block of ice, settled neatly in the pit of her stomach.
"And you will learn to be one too."
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He was doing it again.
As he stood there while the music lulled slowly, she could sense his confusion and embarrassment at the situation. If it had lasted less than ten seconds, it would have been cute, and she had thought so, but that was nearly a half of a minute ago. If he didn't do something fast, she was going to have to do something drastic that neither of them would like.
"Inuyasha, is something wrong?" she finally asked.
"N-no," he sputtered. Then he mumbled something incoherent.
"I'm sorry?" she inquired after his last statement.
"I said, 'I don't know how to slow-dance.'"
"Oh, is that all? I can teach you that too—just follow me," she started to reach for his hands, but he suddenly retracted. She looked very disappointed.
"Look, I'm not going to bite, I just want to show you where to put your hands."
"I already KNOW where to put my hands, it's just that I've never done anything like this before…" he seemed more than a little embarrassed, but still kept his gruff, stoic mask on.
"Well, if you're not going to dance with me, I'll just have to find someone else," and she started to walk away.
"Oh no you don't. My job is to stick with you at all times, no matter what. I can't afford to get kicked out of the Army, so I'll dance with you," he stated firmly as he grabbed her wrist. He fervently hoped that his excuse would cover the fact that he was just really nervous about touching her.
A hurt expression came over her face, and he became flustered. "Well, I don't want to get in the way of you doing your job," she said flatly, now serious. He looked away and mumbled something she didn't catch, but took her hand and placed his behind her shoulder, and then waited. While she explained the footwork to him, her thoughts wandered back to her impression of the boy—no, he was a man, but a young one—who stood before her, earnestly learning the dance, almost as if repenting for his rudeness.
'I guess I can understand his unease around strange people, but he sure is moody. One minute he's dancing wonderfully, seemingly having a good time, the next he puts up his wall and goes back to his oh-so-charming tough guy act. I don't understand him at all. He seems pretty worried about his career, maybe I should ask him about that…'
Meanwhile, Inuyasha was working hard on learning the 'foxtrot,' as she had called it, while also silently berating himself. 'Way to go, genius. You almost blew it that time. Did you see the look on her face when you said she was just a job? Boy, what a bonehead you are. Okay, so she doesn't want to marry you, but would it kill you to be a little more humane around her? Besides, she's pretty attractive. Even Miroku said she was 'dish.' You should really try and treat yourself better—be nice for God's sake.' He shook himself out of his internalized chewing-out just in time to catch Kagome look up at him.
"Inuyasha?"
"Yes?"
"Do you mind if I ask you about your, um, demotions?"
He hesitated a moment. "I thought you wanted to wait until later to discuss that."
"If you don't want to yet, that's okay. I just wondered if you could tell me the short version right now."
"If there was a short version, I'd tell you," he gritted, "but right now we don't have enough time, and I think you're due back on stage after this song, aren't you?"
She cursed silently, "Yes, you're right, I should get back up there. But don't think this gets you out of telling me anything," she added quickly as he started to exhale.
"Of course not," he grinned ruefully.
He took his seat next to Kaede, who unbeknownst to him had been watching the whole exchange, starting with their first dance.
"You like her don't you?" she asked suddenly, not making the young man jump nearly as much as she had hoped.
"Keh," he spat. Then, almost a minute later, "I don't know. I honestly don't know what to think. I didn't have a mother, never interacted with girls much, except the nuns at school…" He shook himself visibly, then turned a wary eye on Kaede. "What the hell am I talking to you for? I don't even know you!"
She chuckled softly and shook her head. "I know how to get people to talk," she said simply and left it at that, turning back to the stage, where Kagome was now performing a duet with the male singer: Chattanooga Choo-choo.
Inuyasha sat silently, enjoying the song, but thinking to himself. 'She's right, I do like her. But how do I know if she like's me? I don't even know what to look for, what signals to recognize. ARGHH ! Why are people so infuriating? Why can't things be simple, like in my platoon? Orders given, orders obeyed—simple, no guessing games. I like that: simple. But if she doesn't like me, and I like her and tell her, that'll make my job very difficult.'
He sighed in spite of himself, drawing a curious glance from Kaede. He quickly regained his composure and concentrated on watching Kagome sing. Trying to force out the thought that the shy winks she gave the audience were really for him.
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Inuyasha stood patiently by the door of the hangar, waiting for Kagome to finish talking to Captain Glenn Miller. He shook his head—the guy got to be a captain just because he was a celebrity. Although, he admitted, the guy did wonders for the morale of the troops. Oh, what the hell, let the guy have his rank.
The two women curtsied and shook the Captain's hand, then made their way to the door. Inuyasha straightened and held the door for the both of them, and then followed them out to where the car was waiting to take them back to Kagome's VOQ.
As soon as he stepped outside the hangar he could smell the stale alcohol and scent of vomit. 'Great, not only is he drunk, but the sap can't even hold his liquor.'
A pilot staggered out into the light in front of Kagome and smiled lopsidedly at her.
"Hey baby, you were great. Really, spectacular!"
"Gee, thank you," she mumbled quietly as she sidestepped him. He grabbed her arm and she gasped. She could already hear Inuyasha's footsteps quickening in her direction.
The unknown man pulled her close and whispered, "Ditch the Private, baby. Why don't you come spend the night with me?" He barely finished his sentence before he was roughly pulled away.
"Sir, I have specific orders to return Miss Higurashi directly to her quarters after the dance," Inuyasha spouted with obviously strained patience.
"Get your hands off me Private! You have no authority here!" the man yelled drunkenly.
"Sir, you're out of order," Inuyasha gritted through his teeth. "I am acting on the authority of Major Kusanagi." Inuyasha tried to calm himself, but the man (who on closer inspection proved to be a 'Lieutenant Tanaka') continued to aggravate him.
"That whelp? Ha! He wouldn't do anything about it if she was his own mother!"
Inuyasha's limited control snapped at the mention of 'mother,' and he grasped the man's shirt and twisted it, bringing himself nose to nose with the ill-mannered pilot.
"What's your name?" he growled.
The man seemed unimpressed. "Can't you read Private? Oh yeah, I forgot. They don't teach grunts to read, do they?"
Inuyasha twisted harder, choking off the man's air now. "Your name," he said slowly, obviously commanding, not requesting.
The man gulped for air, then said in a raspy voice, "Tanaka. Kouga Tanaka." Inuyasha released his grip slightly.
"Good. Now, listen up Tanaka." The man started to look towards Kagome who was watching worriedly when Inuyasha shook him and retightened his grip, redrawing his attention. "My orders are my orders, and I will follow them. Don't tempt me to step outside them in order to toss you around. You fly boys have an ego problem. My advice to you is to get over it. Normally I would tell you to visit her during visiting hours, but in this case I'm going to make an exception: if I see you around, I'll break your legs. Clear, sir?"
Kouga nodded quickly, and as soon as Inuyasha released him stumbled off into the darkness.
As he finished helping Kagome into the car, the smell of alcohol and vomit came back to him. 'The bastard doesn't know when to quit,' he thought, and started off after him, but looked to Kagome and thought better of it.
'I really, really hate that guy,' he thought as he got into the car.