"How nice - to feel nothing, and still get full credit for being alive." Kurt Vonnegut


Walking into his living room to find his best friend once again crashing on his couch caused an audible groan to leave Inuyasha's throat. He'd woken up on the wrong side of the bed as usual, and while it wasn't uncommon to find Miroku loitering, he wanted to find the peace and quiet that only solitude could give him. It looked like his wish wouldn't be granted.

Inuyasha sauntered passed his slumbering guest and into the sectioned off kitchen, heading over to the console that sat near his dining booth. As he approached it, the console booted up, loading with a plethora of options for him to choose from. Taking his pick and confirming the transaction, he waited as the fabricator to the left of the console went about its work. Seconds later, a melodic ding went off, and the front panel slid open, revealing the black coffee he desperately needed and a cup of rehydrated noodles that always did the trick.

He needed to work on his stealth because not a moment later, Miroku entered the kitchen, hair mussed and clothes askew from sleep.

"Yo," he said, shuffling over to the console Inuyasha had just used a moment ago and helped himself.

"Yo. You ever gonna start living in your own place? Ya know, the one that is three floors below mine?" necking the rest of his coffee, Inuyasha tried in vain to not look as annoyed as he felt.

"Not when you're the breadwinner." Miroku mumbled, tapping 'Confirm' on his choice and draining Inuyasha's account of more money.

"We literally have the same job."

"Uh...right. Yeah," Miroku slid into the nook across from Inuyasha with his breakfast, rubbing his hands over his eyes aggressively to try and fight off the fatigue that plagued him.

"What?"

"What?" Ah, but Miroku's face was the picture of innocence at that moment. They stared at each other for a beat before Miroku turned back to his food, leaving Inuyasha to watch him perplexed. Miroku would never be considered a morning person, but he usually made sense at the very least.

Still, not the weirdest thing to have happened in the last few days.

"You got any plans today?" Miroku inquired, taking a massive bite out of the sandwich he was holding and pointedly keeping his eyes away from his friend.

Inuyasha kept quiet for a moment, pondering if he should just be honest and tell Miroku to get the fuck out so he could breathe for once or make up some excuse to get rid of him. The latter always won, the former usually ending in an interrogation he couldn't be bothered with at the moment.

"Got a few errands to run."

Miroku looked up from the food that had occupied him. A moment passed. If he didn't believe him, he kept his mouth shut.


A few hours later, Inuyasha decided his aimless wandering around was sufficient enough and he could head back to his apartment, free of company. Finding things to do in Angel City wasn't hard for the average citizen, but he was anything but average. He barely took in the sights and sounds as he travelled, letting the thump of his feet hitting the ground set a rhythm he could focus on. Fortunately for him, no shady street cops seemed to take notice of him this time.

Once he was safely tucked away in his home, away from the hustle and bustle he was hardly aware of, Inuyasha walked the short distance to the window that took up the far side of his home. It was the one feature of this place that he would miss if it were suddenly taken away from him. While he didn't much care for the endless structures that coated the landscape, he loved being able to see the slivers of sky that sneaked through overhead even if they weren't all that nice to look at.

His apartment was located relatively high in the complex that housed many of his co-workers, as luck would have it. He wouldn't have complained otherwise, but he certainly wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth. Finding accommodation that wasn't falling apart and didn't cost an arm and a leg was a rarity, and he'd been bestowed it without much effort on his part.

Again, there was that uncomfortably raw guilt that he felt whenever he compared his situation to the masses. It wasn't that he was an outlier- far from it. It wasn't as if he was living in the lap of luxury. He was comfortable. And he just felt bad.

Slumping ever so slightly, Inuyasha went to move onto the couch to vegetate for the rest of the night when a gleam in the corner of his eye stopped him.

Peeking out from behind a towering building ever so slightly, was the sun. He marvelled, a small rush of excitement building in him that he relished. He was never excited about anything these days, so he took that feeling and grabbed onto it with everything he had. Seeing the star their planet orbited was definitely something to be revered.

With Earth's climate in utter disarray, the skies were often grey and clouded over with endless rain that left the streets damp and the people miserable. The sun that provided them with life didn't show itself often, a muted glow taking over the skies during daylight hours before disappearing unnoticed. The neon lights of Angel City were constant, staining everything they touched. He'd once read that people could tell the time by the position of the sun in the past. He couldn't imagine living in a world like that.

He wondered what it would bee like to see the world around him without the all glaring lights as he watched that bright ball of fire retreat beyond the obtrusive horizon. Wondered what it would be like just to turn the lights out and enjoy these small glimpses of nature that now seemed to be the makings of a fantasy world. He'd never seen a blackout before. Not a real one anyway.

Embittered, he mourned; the small moment of joy disintegration as fast as it has appeared. He didn't have to wonder what that was like since his brain did enough shutting down for him. He watched as the lights never faded, the perpetual illumination from the world outside his window lulling him into a thoughtless drowse.


"Watch it."

Jostled, Inuyasha turned his head towards the girl hanging from his arm to gauge the interruption as they made their way down the halls of their high school.

"S-sorry," a meek little voice croaked as he craned around Kikyou's head to peer down at the offender.

A slight sneer crossed his girlfriend's face as she stared down at the petite girl who had bumped into her. It was a face he didn't like seeing on her. It didn't suit her.

"I didn't mean to-" The girl began before being cut off.

"Leave it Kikyou. It's not a big deal." The young girl looked up at him then, and he absent-mindedly noticed the striking blue of her eyes, widening as she looked up at him. Cute.

Kikyou turned to him, remembering her place at his side as she graced him with a smile that always had his gut clenching and his knees weak. She plastered herself against him once more, and they carried on down the corridor, leaving the flustered girl in their wake as they clung to each other ardently.


An acute awareness of his surroundings brought Inuyasha back into the land of the living as he tried to get his body to catch up with his mind. Fuck if he wasn't feeling sluggish today. He didn't quite remember going to bed last night, but that wasn't unusual. The grogginess was what threw him. It seemed waking up would be a slow process for him on that particular Monday.

After what felt like an eternity, Inuyasha was showered and in the process of getting ready for work when he noticed the open pill bottle on his bedside table. The lid was lying idle next to the bottle, completely useless. Rushing over, he grabbed the bottle and emptied the pills onto his palm, counting and recounting. Shit.

If he wasn't mistaken, a few more than he was prescribed had made it into his system last night. He slid on heavy legs to sit on the bed, trying to recall some sort of imagery from the night before. But he couldn't. He never could when he actually needed to remember something, like how many of these stupid mind-numbing pills he had taken. They were supposed to help and yet, here he was.

It was the snake eating its own tail.

Inuyasha surged to his feet, feeling a foreign sense of anger that had him reeling on the spot.
He tossed the pill bottle and it's contents, a resounding smack echoed off the walls as they scattered around his bedroom. He was so fucking tired of it all.

He was faintly aware of the light rolling of a pill that had made it further than the rest. The tickticktick of the little oval bastard suddenly deafening him, drowning out every sound and sight other than itself. An ear flicked once, twice.

He acted impulsively, launching himself forward and slamming his closed fist into the wall in front of him. He hung there, breathing heavily, eyes unfocused on the floor. He was just so fucking angry. Angry at his situation, angry that he couldn't get a decent night's sleep without medicating, angry that he could barely remember anything long term about his stupid mundane life. He had a name, a job, an existence goddammit and he couldn't say anything about it other than what could easily be found on any network.

Inuyasha was slowly drowning, and there was nothing he could do to stop it.

He pushed himself off the wall and baulked when he felt his hand scrape against something sharp. Looking up to see what had caused the sudden pain, he blinked. And blinked again.

Where there used to be the smooth, shiny metal that made up the walls of the majority of his home, there was now a hole. A big, glaring fist-sized hole where his hand had slipped through it like butter in his rage. The twisted metal that had bent inwards snagged at his wrist, the dark red of his blood tingeing the jagged edges. He knew he was strong but...nothing like this.

In disbelief, he raised his hand to his face, staring at the trickle of blood that made it's way slowly down his wrist and towards his elbow. The coppery scent burned his nose on each inhale, bringing an intense feeling of something he couldn't name to the surface. His other hand raised to catch a droplet that had escaped and to trail over his palm, the dull thud of his heart intensifying as his senses honed in on the warm liquid that seemed to consume him entirely.

Perhaps, if he just held his hand like so...

Before he could explore whatever it was he was doing, a sharp pain blossomed behind his eyes that had him clutching his head and stumbling back onto the bed. Unceremoniously he collapsed, willing the pounding of his heart to steady as he ground his teeth through the pain.

Was he having a fucking heart attack or something? He was far too young for that; he knew that medical records showed perfect health regarding his physiology. What little they knew of it anyway. He didn't get sick per se...

Cursing every living entity under the sun that blessed him with his fate, Inuyasha threw himself from the room. He shoved his feet into his shoes and barely waited for the auto-laces to engage before heading to the front door. He smacked the panel that opened it, failing to notice the sparks and smoke that burst from it upon his exit.

He didn't know what was happening to him lately, but like every Monday, he had to get to work.


The commute to Taisho Corp. was short, the complex that housed a good chunk of its employees only a few short metro stops away. It was convenient as most things were in his life, allowing him to leave at the very last minute when he needed to get moving. It wasn't that he necessarily hated his job. It was boring yes, but it was a good position that offered a lot in compensation. It was unfulfilling, yes, but he knew when he chose to study Computer Genetics and Ethical Hacking that any career path he took would likely be stale at best. And it was a far cry from what he wanted to be doing, but he didn't even know what that was. Wanting had left him in the lurch countless times before, a fickle feeling that he dutifully ignored, even if he didn't do it very well.

The doors to his right opened smoothly, breaking him from his thoughts as he exited the metro and moved amongst the crowd. Faces he didn't recognise surrounded him, scents that conflicted with each other assaulted his nose from every direction. Human, demon, metal, plastic and silicone were a nauseating mix at the best of times, but these few minutes each time he came to and from work, sardined in with the endless people that filled the terminals had his stomach turning with a force that nearly had him doubling over.

Inuyasha brushed past a few people with a little more force than he should have, letting the breath he always held out as the sight of the exit barrelled towards him. Breathing slowly through his mouth, he walked briskly towards the direction of his office building, counting the steps in his head as his feet lead him. Only a few more and he'd be in the clear.

Approaching the monstrous entryway to his workplace, Inuyasha paused briefly as a scanner bot threw itself in his path, a faint light emitting from its bulbous eye as it scanned his retinas to identify him.

"Welcome back, Mr Takahashi. Hope your weekend was a pleasant one." The robot hovered smoothly to his side, the light twinkle of its automated voice offering pleasantries it didn't mean. Path cleared, he proceeded through the huge glass doors, a massive sigh of relief leaving him as he went to the elevator that would take him to his floor.

If his sense of smell weren't so damn strong, he'd have an easier time making it into work every day. But that wasn't the case, because he took in every single nuance of the scents around him in excruciating detail. He wasn't sure exactly how strong his demonic heritage was, but it had to take up a good chunk of the blood in his veins; if his ears were anything to go by. Or, the name that he bore, the only thing he had of his life before Totosai. That and the dusty red robe that sat in a box at the back of his closet shunned away for all the terrible feelings it brought him.

It was unusual for Inuyasha to be reminiscing like this on his way to his work station, the commute usually a blip on the radar of his day as he moved from A to B. But if the weekend he'd just endured was anything to go by, usual was hardly something to be expected at the moment.

Kicking the leg of his chair out from under his desk and plopping down on the synthetic fabric, Inuyasha went about setting up his workspace for the day ahead. He tapped the icon on the lip of desk, a hologram lighting the space before him as his dashboard loaded seamlessly. Tapping another icon, a smooth slab of acrylic shifted from his desk, tilting up at an angle and lighting up with his keyboard. Logging into his account and glancing half-heartedly at the day's tasks, Inuyasha set about getting his work done.

He was on company time after all.


"Who the fuck are you?"

The tiny brunette sitting in the chair that was usually occupied by his therapist was an unwelcome sight. It was bad enough that he had to take an hour out of every Monday to talk to someone, especially at work, but the idea of someone new being brought into the fold caused his heckles to rise and discomfort to swirl in his gut. If something could just go right for once...

"Oh, Mr Takahashi!" The petite woman rose to her feet, tone bright and unmoved by the rude interruption. "Hello, my name is Rin Aoki, and I'll be taking over for Dr Fujiwara. He discussed his departure with you last week?" A placating smile graced her features, one that had him wanting to wipe it off her stupid, unfamiliar face.

"When the fuck did that happen? He hasn't said shit to me about it!" This was bad. He couldn't handle the stress of letting a stranger in when he'd only just become somewhat comfortable with his unwanted therapist. Ex-therapist.

"He spoke with you about it at your last session, Monday last week?" The lilt of a question hung in the air at the end of her sentence. He didn't like this girl. Not one bit.

Monday last week. When he'd come into work and the rest of the week was just gone. Fuck. He'd completely forgotten about his extended blackout with his strange encounters from the last two days. He shouldn't have, considering the entire point of these weekly meetings were to get to the root cause of said issues.

"R-right. Uh..." He scratched at his scalp, looking for an escape that would mean he wouldn't have to go into detail, wouldn't have to overshare with the pitying woman before him. "Must've slipped my mind."

Convincing.

Her gaze warmed to him then, a reaction he was sure her profession had imprinted upon her. For all the advancements in the world, the hurdle of understanding and healing one's psyche was still wrought with uncertainty. The state of the world they were living in had seen to that.

"If you'd like to take a seat, we can get started. I don't expect you to feel comfortable with me immediately; anything you'd like to talk about is up to you. Or, we can just chat and get to know each other. Whatever works best for you, Mr Takahashi." She settled herself back into her seat, waiting for him to take his place on the lounge opposite from her.

He hesitated for a moment, considering sprinting from the room and getting as far away from the unassuming creature that had barged her way into his life. The thought was fleeting, the time he took out of his day to come to the upper floors of Taisho Corp. a gracious gesture from his employers to see that his health remained a priority.

He gingerly sat on the chaise, awkward in his own skin as he thought about what to do with his legs, his hands...fuck, how do you sit on one of these-

A giggle ripped through his internalising, drawing his attention back the presence of his shiny new therapist. Grumbling in embarrassment, he arranged himself in what he was sure –what he hoped- was the picture of nonchalance. He could pretend, at least.

"So...how has your day been so far?"

And thus started the longest hour of his life, a mixture of awkward 'getting to know you' questions that had him hating every moment and little hints here and there that she knew more about him than two strangers would have under normal circumstances. It was apparent she'd looked over his files, getting every detail of his time recorded with Dr Fujiwara. Every nitty-gritty detail of his constant memory loss, dissociative behaviours, and an inability to deal with the repercussions without pumping his system full of drugs.

Despite the nurturing attitude of the woman -girl, really- that would be taking up an hour of his time every Monday as well as her careful avoidance of anything that might trigger him, he couldn't help the feeling of being on display. That she was analysing every little move, sound and possibly even thought he made to an almost offensive degree.

The nagging feeling of being watched tickled the back of Inuyasha's mind, the unease of the situation lighting his nerves on fire. He willed the feeling away as he made his way back down to his floor and away from that woman, knowing that paranoia wasn't a symptom he was looking to add to the already long list that he owned.

Settling himself back into his position at his desk, he glanced to the left in Miroku's direction, only slightly unnerved to find his friend was already staring at him. A look he couldn't decipher passed over Miroku's face before the telltale friendly smile he'd come to know blossomed across his features.

It was doing him no good questioning every little thing around him. For nearly a year and a half, Inuyasha had managed to keep his head down and do his job without fuss. He'd be able to do that again, he was sure of it.

Putting his metaphorical blinders back on, Inuyasha logged into his account and went to work, tapping away at the keyboard and slowly sinking back into obscurity.


He saw them before anyone else, it seemed. The wide elevator doors opened up onto the floor that held the open-plan office, and three dark figures stood at attention; a stark contrast from the suits milling about in front of them. They stepped out with purpose, heads held high as they took in the picturesque scene before them.

Inuyasha gaped at the trio from his place at his desk. His eyes gravitated to the one on the left, widening comically as if he couldn't believe what he saw because he couldn't.

There was Kagome, decked out in a plethora of combat gear the likes of which he had never seen, a giant bow slung across her back and a huge ass gun held firmly in her arms. Glasses covered a large portion of her face, but there was no mistaking it -that was her. If only his brain could process what his eyes were seeing.

The one in the middle –he recognised her as the girl that blew the tiny shop to pieces before high tailing it- raised her gun above her head. Without preamble, she shot a round of energised bullets into the ceiling above her, effectively putting a stop to any work that may have been going on.

Chaos ensued.


Fin