This is ongoing, and the prequel to the first chapter. Hope you enjoy this as much as I am writing it :)
Trigger warning: Death/Violence, smoking/drug/alcohol use, sex/nudity
Yasha and the Demon Slayers
Chapter 1: Meeting the Band
I stood outside my dorm room, I only brought two suitcases figuring I'd just buy whatever else I needed throughout the semester. Girls were streaming in and out of rooms and the hallway. Reminding me of that day that still had me experiencing panic attacks at random.
I tried calming my breathing.
I thought about how I would be close enough to see Sota on the weekends. I was selfish enough to not want to sacrifice my college life by staying at the mansion.
I was nervous to go in. What if I didn't get along with my roommate?
I could afford to live in an apartment off campus, but wanted to get the real college experience. I tried not to use my fathers wealth, unless it was for my brother's benefit.
It felt wrong to rely on a stranger who I knew only from sporadic phone calls, often at odd hours of the night from whatever country he was traveling for business.
The door opened and a gorgeous girl looked down at me with one hand on the door and the other on her back pocket. She wore large headphones, a backwards baseball cap and her long hair was in a single loose braid down her back. She had on a green tank top, black biker shorts, and a pink flannel tied around her waist.
"Hey, you must be my roommate. I was about to go to kickboxing class. Want to come with?" She asked, leaning her shoulder against the doorframe.
Was I … a lesbian?
I blushed and the cool girl laughed, patting me on the back and leading me inside and taking one of my suitcases for me.
"Sorry, I can be a little much. I'm Sango, what's your name?" She smiled, taking a seat at the small table in the kitchen.
I briefly glanced at the empty living room which I was excited to decorate.
The kitchen was also empty except for a few dishes in the sink and a box on the counter. There were two unopened boxes in the living room and an old tv with an antenna. They still made those?
"It's Kagome. I uh- also brought a TV. It's being delivered later-"
"Goodness Songo, did you finally take that sugar daddy advice to heart?" Two men appeared at the door behind us.
The first was the delivery man looking confused with the flatscreen from my old room securely packaged on a dolly.
The second man was a gorgeous rocker, with dark hair and brows quirked with mischief. Both his ears were pierced with small silver hoops in them, and his belt and bracelet were both studded and leather. He wore a purple misfits skull shirt and a weird glove wrapped in a beaded rosary on his right hand. His jeans were black and distressed, he had on big black combat boots and a chrome chain dangled from his jean pocket.
His soft relaxed voice was at total odds with his punk appearance. He immediately approached Sango with familiarity and hugged her to his side.
"Hands off, Monk." She huffed, but didn't move his arm from off her shoulders as the good-looking boy lazily watched the delivery man unpack the TV in the living room.
He reminded me of an oversized panther as his handsome gaze finally came to rest on me and his dark blue eyes widened appreciatively.
"Well, well, well. What do we have here?" He smiled slyly at me.
"Better call dibs, she's totally Yasha's type." Another boy appeared in our kitchen, he had red hair and was small in stature. He was cute in a boyish way, and sat on the kitchen counter cross legged, helping himself to my water bottle.
"What's your name, sweetheart? Aren't you just a little lost lamb." The one Sango had called Monk cooed at me, I noticed a glint in his mouth.
A tongue ring?! My face went red.
"Ew." I blurted out unintentionally when he caressed my hand vulgarly. This sent Sango and the boy on the counter into fits of laughter. The red headed boy actually fell off the counter, which only intensified their laughter.
" I'm wounded." He pulled me to his side with faux sincerity, clasping me around the waist and holding my hand. "If I've offended you, I apologize. Let me make it up to you, a massage perhaps?" His beaded hand groped me, like really slipped under my buttcheek and gave me a good squeeze. I screamed, slapping him hard across the cheek, this sent the boy in kitchen into another round of laughing.
"Jesus, Miroku. You'll never learn." Shippo said, who I later learned was a freshman like me.
This was my first introduction to the Demon Slayers. Sango and I spent the next few days fixing up our apartment.
Our tastes were decidedly different, but her style was unique so I often went along with her new perspective.
I was in awe of her. She was tough, and confident. Her style was completely her own but often reflected her interest in punk rock.
"I'm in a punk band with the boys." She told me at the store. We'd just picked out a cool zebra print rug I never would have considered, but she declared it too "rock and roll" to pass up.
The boys were Miroku and Shippo who dropped in unannounced. Sometimes even using the large flatscreen we set up in the living room while we were out running errands.
"Really, do you sing?" I asked, dazzled by her once again. Sango was the type of girl who couldn't sit still. Her social life was thriving, someone was always waving at her in the hallways or at the store trying to engage her in a conversation.
Men and women stared at her when she walked past with her athletic figure and confidence. She loved working out, saying it helped channel some of her energy when she wasn't on stage.
"Back up vocals sometimes. But I play a bass called Hiraikotsu. It's dumb but we name all our instruments. Yash is lead vocals and lead guitar. Miroku drums, and Shippo is on harmonica. We're looking for a keyboard player." She informed me. Yash or Yasha I hadn't met yet, but had been mentioned often.
I got the impression that everyone looked up to him, while simultaneously talking about what a jerk he could be. I wasn't exactly excited to meet him, but my curiosity grew with every casual mention of him in conversation.
"Well I play piano, I could fill in until you find somebody. It can't be too different right?" I shrugged but Sango looked ecstatic.
"Oh my god! That would be so perfect. There is this competition at the end of the semester that we are dying to win. It's the battle of the bands, there is a huge cash prize and vacation, and a record deal to the winner!" Sango was shaking me by the shoulders, her voice loud with excitement.
Others in the store stared at the commotion we were causing and I blushed at the attention.
"Ok, ok! Calm down Sango, people are staring." I laughed and she joined in, hugging me unexpectedly.
"I knew I liked you, I'm so glad. I was scared we wouldn't get along, but you're actually great." I blushed deeper and squeezed her back.
I think you're great too, Sango." I smiled, content with the start of my life at college.
I was an idiot to think that my dreams of a perfect college experience were going to occur without something getting in the way.
Shippo and I got close surprisingly fast. I liked Miroku but he was obviously involved with Sango even though she would never admit it.
Shippo was upside down on my bed, tossing a hacky sack in the air as I updated my planner for the week. Classes were starting next week and I wanted to make sure the apartment was finished, and I had all my books and supplies.
"So, Kag, you got a boyfriend?" Shippo asked and I scoffed.
"Yeah right, I'm beating them off with a stick." I muttered sarcastically. Penciling in assignments from the online syllabus.
"God you're such a nerd, who prepares for classes before they even start." Shippo snickered. We sat in silence except for my music which I usually had playing low in my room.
"I think you're really pretty Kagome, I think any guy would be lucky to date you." He said with a seriousness I'd never heard before in his voice.
"Thanks Shippo, but I've only ever been asked out by one guy and the date was disastrous." I groaned at the memory, trying to change the uncomfortable subject. Shippo let the topic drop, but the ease I felt around him wasn't prevalent after.
That weekend Sango asked me to go with her to meet Yasha and talk about joining the band officially. We went over to their dorm which was two floors under us but in the same building.
"Hey Miroku,this is his roommate-slash-lover Yasha." Sango said, tossing her leather jacket on the back of the chair before plopping down herself. Miroku and Yasha were sitting at a table covered in playing cards, ashtrays overflowing with cigarette butts, and empty beer bottles piled on the table.
"Hey Sango," Miroku tossed over his shoulder, finishing his conversation. They seemed used to people coming in and out of their room. Yasha was balancing on the shabby chairs back legs as he took a sip of his beer, he spotted me over the rim and gagged, falling back in the chair and knocking over the table and all its contents clattered loudly to the floor.
"Kagome?!" He yelped, looking up at me from the floor with damp bangs from where his beer spilt on him.
"Mr. Tashio?" I couldn't believe it was him. I hadn't seen him all summer, he'd mysteriously been replaced with another guard two weeks after the incident. My father hadn't said anything when I asked for Sota's benefit about the bodyguard's sudden disappearance. I hadn't ever expected to see him ever again after he'd saved us.
I hadn't even been able to properly thank him.
"You know each other?" Sango asked at the same time Miroku spoke
"Mr. Tashio?" He repeated mischievously, before laughing at the state Taisho was in. Mr. Taisho jumped up, shaking his loose hair like a wet dog.
"Shut up, Miroku. Kagome, what are you doing here?" He demanded, the casualness he had embodied before spotting me evaporated. I felt my cheeks heat both in embarrassment and the familiarity in which he said my name, I didn't even know he knew my first name, he'd only ever called me Miss Higurashi.
"I-uh, I go to school here." I answered, a little flustered by the way he was glaring at me. Had I done something wrong?
"Here?!" Taisho looked lost in thought a moment before aiming a disbelieving look at me. "You're so supposed to be at that ritzy college overseas." He half asked, half barked. I blinked at him, starting to get offended by his aggressive demeanor.
"I didn't want to be around those types of people for another four years, so I changed schools last minute." I answered tartly.
"So you do know each other? An ex-girlfriend? You definitely have a type." Miroku chuckled, rubbing his chin and eyeing me up and down appreciatively. I blushed at his look, and Taisho shoved him hard.
"I worked for her family." He answered his friend, before whirling on me.
"Tch, only someone with more money than god could change colleges so easily." He snorted dusting ash off his black clothes. He was dressed completely differently than I'd ever seen. His professional tailored suit was replaced with well worn black jeans that were starting to fray at the knees. He wore a black studded belt and a matching, leather and studded metal bracelet on both wrists. He wore a black shirt that had the sleeves jaggedly cut off to reveal more of his tattoos. He had the same small silver hoops earrings as Miroku.
"Kagome, you never told us you were well off." Miroku said to me, I tore my gaze away from Taisho, or Yasha. I didn't know his first time. He saved my life and I didn't even know his name.
"Princess is beyond loaded, I'm out of here. I'm going to the garage to blow off some steam." He huffed, snatching a ring of keys off a hook near the door and storming from the room.
What an asshole!
"Hmm, so maybe we should press pause on bringing up the whole joining the band thing." Miroku told Sango who was chewing her lip nervously.
"We really need a keyboard player, and where are we going to find someone else so short notice? Even if we practice non-stop till the competition it might not be enough." Sango was worried, she really wanted to win the battle. She planned on using her part of the winnings to get an apartment after college so she can get her kid brother out of foster care. Her parents had died two years ago in a horrible car accident.
"My dear Sango, I promise you we will win that competition with Kagome on the keyboard. If anyone can convince Inuyasha I can, leave it to me, I'll bring him around." Miroku promised, embracing her in a polite side hug as he looked down at her with genuine concern.
Miroku had a large birthmark on his hand, apparently almost all the men in his family were born with it and it inevitably turned cancerous. His grandfather and father had both lost their lives to this cursed birthmark, and Miroku worried he would share the same fate which is why he kept the mark covered in an attempt to limit sun exposure until he could afford the surgery to get it removed. If they won the battle, he would use the money to get the surgery that could save his life.
For them this competition had life or death stakes, while I was just joining for fun. I felt silly and privileged, and wanted to join the band with sudden fervent determination.
Screw Inuyasha, if I could help my friends he was just going to have to deal with having me around.