Phoenix Ash
Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha and co.
Another Acquaintance
"Sango! Look!" Kagome gleefully yelled as she tried to take in all of her surroundings at once. After ten days of hard journeying, the duo had finally reached Shikon Capital.
"Yeah!" Sango exclaimed, gazing miraculously at the many finely decorated buildings and vendors on either side of them. The streets were jammed with people and noisy with excitement. Children were running up and down the aisle, heedless of nothing. "It's so big!"
"I know!" Kagome replied. "I knew the capital was big, but I didn't think it was this big!"
"Ditto!" Sango turned to her friend. "What do you want to do first?"
"Go check out the inn and explore this huge place!" Kagome automatically replied.
Sango nodded in agreement. "Me too! Where is it?"
"I dunno." Kagome shrugged her shoulders. Turning around, she noticed a woman and tapped her shoulder. Politely, Kagome asked for directions to the nearest inn.
"What did she say?" Sango asked after the woman had left.
"She said to walk straight until we see a ramen vendor and turn left. Keep on walking and we'll see the inn," Kagome answered.
Sango nodded once. "Simple enough. Let's go!"
"Dammit!" Inuyasha cursed loudly. "Miroku! We're running out of money!"
The two wanderers had stumbled their way into Shikon Capital and were currently situated at a teahouse, counting what was left of their money.
Miroku, calmly seated, sipped his tea. "We would have eight more sticks, but someone here took it………"
"Hey! I needed it, okay!"
"Whatchu spend it on?"
At that, Inuyasha 'humph'ed, lowering his voice. "It's none of your business." He couldn't tell Miroku he'd spent it on a measly necklace. Miroku'd tease him for sure, if not berate him.
"Whatever you say." Miroku looked at Inuyasha indifferently .
"What!" Inuyasha defended himself.
"Nothing, nothing," Miroku casually responded. "So what are we gonna do now that we're out of money?"
"We're not out yet," Inuyasha corrected, pouring himself some tea and downing it in one gulp. "Almost."
"Right," Miroku sarcastically answered.
Inuyasha ignored the last commented. "But lucky me." Grinning broadly, he reached into his haori and extracted a small rectangular box. "This morning, when I was walking around, I found this beautiful baby."
"What is it?" Interested, Miroku leaned over and watched as Inuyasha removed the lid, revealing a healthy black cricket. "By the looks of it, this cricket is a fighter. Can I have it?"
Inuyasha abruptly closed the lid of the box. "Hell no! We only have five gold nuggets left! It's not enough to last us until tomorrow!" Pulling the box closer to him, Inuyasha again uncovered the lid, smiling at its content. "But with this baby, things might change………"
"Uhuh," Miroku replied unenthusiastically, sipping his tea as Inuyasha played with his cricket.
"Hey, is that a cricket?" a boy asked as he and his servant passed Inuyasha's table. He was dressed in elegant attire. Inviting himself, the boy seated himself on the stool adjacent to Inuyasha and held his hand out towards his servant; who handed him a small rectangular box much like that of Inuyasha's. Uncovering the lid, he produced a cricket a little smaller than Inuyasha's.
Meanwhile, Miroku sat bored as Inuyasha just glared at the boy who had just seated himself. Who did this guy think he was, casually sitting down at HIS table like he owned this shop!
The boy ignored the glare. "Wanna have a go with me? Looks like you got a pretty good cricket there."
"Keh!" Inuyasha held his head high, eyeing the boy skeptically. "Like you can beat me."
"I believe it's the other way around," the boy replied arrogantly.
Inuyasha growled. In all the cricket battles he'd had, he'd never lost, not even once. Even Miroku, who sometimes got bigger and healthier crickets than him, never won.
Inuyasha had always possessed the best crickets. No one knew how or why.
Even Sesshoumaru, who usually beat him at everything, couldn't surpass him when it came to crickets………not that Sesshoumaru ever minded himself in these matters………so he couldn't say for sure………
But this boy thought he could? Clearly, he needed a lesson. In the cricket world, no one beats Inuyasha. "Bring it on!" Inuyasha stood up and roughly dropped his foot onto the stool he had just occupied, resting his elbow on it.
The boy smiled an irritating smile.
"Wait," Miroku suddenly butt in. "What's the deal?" He glanced once at both boys. "If this is gonna be an authentic match, there's gotta be a deal."
"Let him have what he wants," Inuyasha answered cockily. "It won't matter, 'cause he's gonna lose anyways."
"It's my pleasure," the boy responded. "Loser hands over all the money he carries on him."
"Deal."
Kagome bit ravenously into her steam bun. "Mmmmm! My god, this is good!"
She and Sango had just checked out of the local inn and were walking around when they came across the teahouse, finding themselves hungry.
Sango nodded in agreement, trying to swallow her bite. "Definitely." She continued enjoying her bun as a waiter approached and set a teakettle and two cups down.
Kagome reached for the kettle and poured herself a cup while mixing some sugar in it. Resting her elbows on the table and raising the cup before her mouth, she blew into the hot cup and watched as the tea swirled around. As she drank, Kagome's eyes drifted around the teahouse she was located.
A noisy crowd was gathering around a table not far from theirs, all of them young men. Kagome noticed this and told Sango.
"I wonder what they're doing over there," Sango marveled.
The crowd was boisterous and people were yelling at the top of their lungs, pointing and almost hopping.
"I bet on that one!" a guy called. "That one's gonna win for sure! Look how big it is!"
"Nah! The smaller one!" another guy yelled.
Kagome turned her gaze back to her table. "What got them up and hopping?"
Sango shrugged. "I dunno." Rising, she pulled Kagome up with her. "Come on! Let's find out!"
"Go! Go! Go!" Inuyasha cheered his cricket on, inattentive to the crowd surrounding him and his table. The heat of the battle was on. He watched worriedly as his cricket cowered from the other one on the side of the dish it was placed on. "Come on! You can do it!"
"Believe, Inuyasha, believe!" Miroku supported. "Bite his leg off! Bite his leg off!"
The boy snickered. "Looks like you're gonna lose."
"Just hang on!" Inuyasha yelled to his cricket, uncaring if it could even understand him. "Stop cowering! Attack him! Attack him! What are you, stupid! Bite off his antenna! Make him suffer!"
Meanwhile………
"Excuse me! Coming through!" Sango shouted over the din as she pushed through the crowd, leading Kagome.
Somehow, miraculously, Kagome had made her way through and was standing behind a boy who was cursing furiously. Straining to see, Kagome stood on her toes and gazed down to the table, which contained nothing but a single dish with two crickets in it, ferociously fighting. It seemed that the bigger cricket of the two had bitten off one of the other's jumping legs.
Luckily, she didn't look across from her………
"Whoohoo! High five!" Inuyasha proudly yelled over the din to Miroku. The two slapped their hands together. "YEAH!"
His cricket had just bitten off that scum's jumping leg! Let's see him hop now! Inuyasha happily witnessed as his cricket lunged itself onto the smaller one, in the process of biting off the its other jumping leg. "Go for it! Go for it!"
"Lower down! Lower down!" the opponent shouted as his injured cricket. "Get away from him! Don't let him get your other leg!"
"Having trouble?" Inuyasha arrogantly addressed.
The boy scowled.
"Whose losing now, huh?" Inuyasha coughed once, it oddly sounding very much like 'Loser.'
"It's not over yet," the boy jeered.
"Whatever." Inuyasha waved him away and returned cheering on his precious cricket when all of a sudden, he heard a familiar feminine voice yell, "Ow! Dang it!"
Searching for the owner of the voice, Inuyasha peered around but couldn't find the source. Shrugging his shoulders, he brushed the matter off.
Kagome angrily cursed as some guy stepped on her foot and pushed her out of her rightful position and occupied her place. And just when the match was getting interesting too!
"Oh look!" one guy cried. "That other guy's cricket just bit off that other one's jumping leg! Look at it limp!"
"Yeah!" agreed everyone else. "My god! It's gonna bite his head off!"
"Hey, I wanna see too!" Kagome protested. Once again pushing through the crowd, she tried to make her way to the table. 'Just one more person to get through…' Kagome lightly shoved a boy aside to make room for herself.
"What the--" The boy, who was standing on one leg, lost his balance and stumbled foreword onto the table, accidentally hitting the dish containing the crickets, sending them flying through the air.
All spectators of the match held their breath and watched as two beautiful crickets—one badly injured—somersaulted through the air.
"WHO THE HELL!" a familiar male voice screamed.
Kagome had no time to decipher as the next second, she was pushed back out of the throng as people began shuffling around, looking for the lost crickets.
"Where are they?"
"Do you see them?"
"Here, crickets! Where are you?"
'Oops………' Kagome thought as she hurriedly scurry to her table. A moment later, Sango appeared by her side; hands on her hips, looking quite unhappy.
"I can't believe it!" she huffed. "That cricket was just about to cream the other one! But NOOOO. Someone had to ruin it all!"
"Hehe………" Kagome nervously laughed. "I wonder who?" She hoped with all her heart Sango did not know.
"Beats me. But anyways, it's time we get going."
"Yeah," Kagome agreed all too quickly as she glanced over to the searching crowd.
Getting up, Kagome paid for her stay and the two headed out of the teahouse. "Oh, wait up, Sango," Kagome said as she dashed back into the teahouse to leave a tip for the waiter. As she walked back out, she heard a small crunch under her foot and walked on, oblivious to the goo beneath her shoe.
Inuyasha looked under tables. He looked under chairs. He looked EVERYWHERE, but he still couldn't find his cricket.
Miroku, also, was looking. Looking at that nice waiter serving a table not far away. Looking at that gorgeous lady dine. Ah………now this is the life………
"Miroku!" Inuyasha shouted at last, fear of not finding his cricket starting to dwell inside him. "Get down here and help me look!" He patted the floor next to him, himself sprawled on the floor.
"What? Did you say something?" Miroku tore his eyes away from the beautiful women and granted Inuyasha his attention. "Yes?"
"I can't find it anywhere!" Not waiting for an answer, Inuyasha vainly continued searching.
"Can't find it?" The offending boy twirled the small box in which his cricket laid resting. Luckily, his servant had found the insect.
Inuyasha rose from his position on the floor and crossed arms, steering clear of the boy's obnoxious gaze.
"What are we gonna do now?" one of the watchers asked. "Now that his cricket's missing and stuff. This match remains undecided."
"If anything, this match is a draw," Miroku defended.
Just then, all heads turned to Inuyasha as they heard a shriek.
"WHO IN THE FREAKIN HELL!" That's right. Who? Who could have been so sadistic, so evil? Who could have the heart to murder such a beautiful creation? WHO?
Miroku hurried to Inuyasha's side, where he was crouched around………a very squished………a very gross………a very dead………
"No, it can't be………" Miroku turned his head dramatically away. "It's………It's………"
"Dead," one of the young men finished for him. Oh woe………
"Ah! Isn't this beautiful, Sango?" Kagome asked as she waved a colorful pinwheel before her friend's face. "I've never seen this thing before. What is it?" she asked the vendor. Indeed, in the small village of Goshinboku, there were no such things.
"It's a called a pinwheel. You blow on it and it spins," the man explained.
"It's quite unique," Sango answered. She grabbed one from the cart they were standing in front of and blew on it, watching in delight as it spun around. "Look!"
Kagome, too, blew on hers and watched in fascination. "How much is one of these?"
"A silver nugget," the man responded.
Taking out her pouch of money, Kagome handed the vender two small lumps of silver.
"Thank you very much."
As she returned her pouch to her kimono, Kagome was struck dizzy as someone rammed into her and tugged her pouch out of her hand. She saw a fox-like boy with reddish hair sprinting away from her. It suddenly popped into her mind.
"Kagome, are you okay?" Sango looked worried.
"No!" she answered. "That kid just took our money! Wait here, Sango, I'll be right back!" Without another word, Kagome sped off after the kid.
"Kagome!" Sango called after her, but she was already gone. "Please get it back…"
"GET BACK HERE!" Kagome hollered, her voice bounce through the streets.
The boy glanced back once, but kept on running. His face was streaked with dirt and his clothes were ragged, she noticed.
"Excuse me! Sorry!" She pushed through the crowded road. "Er………" God, the Capital had a lot of people!
"Gotchu!" Kagome triumphantly cheered when she finally caught the thief. She held him up by his collar. "Now hand it over!"
"As if," he replied. "Let go of me! Now!"
"Like hell I will." Kagome fumbled with the boy and tried to search his clothes.
"What are you doing? Let go of me now!" With that, he kicked her squarely in the stomach.
"Ow!" Dropping him, Kagome gripped her stomach and sunk to the ground. She could do nothing as she watched him dash away, farther………farther…………until he was gone. "Damn you, brat…"