Disclaimer: Inuyasha belongs to Rumiko Takahashi.

Chapter Five: August 14th

"So, I hold my hand up like this?"

"It's got to be stiffer. Your hand's going to take some of the blow too, it's gotta be ready for it."

"No, okay, okay, I got it…"

I sighed and rolled my eyes as Kagome-chan threw her whole body into the punch, her small fist colliding painlessly with Inuyasha's open palm as she spun around and fell backwards into his arms.

Inuyasha laughed mockingly as he pushed her back to her feet. "If you're going to put that much force into it, try to channel it into the punch. Otherwise, you're just going to knock yourself over again."

Kagome-chan blushed prettily and nodded, straightening herself back up and resuming the fighting posture Inuyasha had taught her moments before. "Okay. I got this. Show me again, Inuyasha."

This is what my life had been like for the past three days since arriving at the safe house. With nothing else to do, I'd resigned myself to sitting on the couch in the front room and watching as Kagome-chan rolled out every trick in the book to try and get Inuyasha to pay attention to her. It wasn't all bad though; I'd been able to devise a sort of game out of watching the two of them. Whenever Kagome-chan unveiled a new trick, I awarded her ten points. Those points would be slowly docked one by one until Inuyasha caught on. If he responded appropriately, ten points for the each of them. Each time Inuyasha lead her on unprovoked, he got twenty points. His rewards were generally higher since I discovered he had kind of a thick skull when it came to romance.

Yeah, I was pathetic.

I stood up from the couch and stretched, awkwardly announcing my departure from the room. I was ignored, as Kagome-chan had so conveniently fallen into Inuyasha's arms again from an overly-energetic punch.

Inuyasha laughed at her again, never tiring of teasing her for her apparent clumsiness. I shook my head in bemusement. It was very interesting to see the lengths that Kagome-chan would go to get his attention. Had I not known how persnickety she could be when it came to the opposite sex, I might've mistaken her behavior for being desperate.

But no, Kagome-chan was never desperate, and if being flirtatious to an overbearing degree was the only way to get those same gears moving in Inuyasha's head, then I knew she was going to ride that strategy to hell and back to get it to work.

She held onto Inuyasha's shoulders tightly, using him to steady her balance long after she'd found her feet. "Sorry," she said softly, coyly avoiding his gaze, "I guess I messed up again."

Ah. Using false embarrassment to edge him into giving her a blind complement. Risky, but it just might work. Another ten points.

"Yeah you did," Inuyasha snorted. "I'm beginning to think that fighting's not really your thing, klutz."

Poor Kagome-chan. One point docked.

Her hands still hadn't left his shoulders, even after she'd stopped using him to lean against. "Maybe not," she agreed genially. Finally, those big brown eyes of hers slid to meet his, unabashed. "Thanks for having the patience to try and teach me, though."

Point-blank sincerity. My, but she was a risk taker. Ten points again.

Almost subconsciously, Inuyasha's hands moved to hold onto her as well, hovering around her ribcage. "We'll try again later. You look pretty tired; we should give it a rest for now." It wasn't exactly endearing, but I was quickly learning to read his genuine moments.

Well done, Inuyasha; twenty points.

Apparently, Kagome-chan had detected his hidden candidness as well as she smiled up at him, almost approvingly. "I'd like that," she admitted girlishly. She went on to say something else, but I interrupted her as I cleared my throat.

"Hey," I said from my post in the transition point from front room to kitchen. "I'm going to make some dinner. You guys want something?"

At the mention of food, Inuyasha turned at looked at me with interest. "What're you making?" he demanded.

Kagome-chan burned with anger as she scowled at me for interrupting them, though I ignored her as I walked further into the kitchen.

"Well let's see," I mused with fake thoughtfulness. The police officers in charge of stocking our kitchen with food were not the best grocery shoppers. Our food supply was pitifully limited. I opened the cupboard with no surprise. "Looks like ramen's the winner. Again."

Inuyasha shrugged, unbothered. He leaned against the countertop's bar. "I'll have roast chicken flavor," he said, watching me passively as I dutifully prepared our dinner.

With all three of us having instant ramen, dinner was ready in less than ten minutes. I set the three Styrofoam cups on the small circular table, momentarily wondering when I had become everybody's maid.

"Itadakimasu," Kagome-chan muttered reverently before reaching for her chopsticks and pulling the paper lid the rest of the way off her cup. We ate in silence, only broken by the occasional slurp as we sucked the long noodles into our mouths. I was grateful for this short reprieve, as Kagome-chan's affectionate campaign with Inuyasha was beginning to wear on me.

There was a sudden, loud noise sounding off from Inuyasha's pocket and Kagome-chan jumped while I scowled in bitter jealousy. It was his phone. The fact that Inuyasha was allowed to keep his phone on him and use it while in the safe house bothered me more than perhaps it should have. There was a smaller chance of him leaking confidential information to the outside world, apparently. Even so, his phone only went off with the occasional text message alert, as Inuyasha would restrict actual calls to members on the force who knew of our location, and even then he would use his radio.

Inuyasha leaned back in his chair to fish his phone from his pocket. He glanced at it briefly, then smirked quietly to himself as he read his message.

"Who is it that always texts you?" Kagome-chan finally inquired, asking the question that both of us wondered every time he looked at his phone like that.

Inuyasha finished reading the message and typed his response before he answered Kagome-chan. "My niece," he said shortly.

Kagome-chan and I exchanged a look of surprise. The fact that Inuyasha had a niece wasn't nearly as shocking as the realization that Sesshomaru-san had a kid. I grimaced, unable to help myself. Him having a daughter meant someone had to have slept with him, possibly even be married to him. The fact hit me as strange and slightly unbelievable.

Kagome-chan recovered first. "What's her name?" she probed of Inuyasha.

Again his answer was short. "Rin." He looked up at us briefly, as if trying to determine whether or not we were worthy to receive more information. He eventually continued, "She's in middle school."

"Oh!" Kagome-chan showed a heightened interest. "So is my younger brother! What school does she go to? What year is she in?"

"Edo Public," Inuyasha responded, looking a little perplexed at Kagome-chan's sudden interest. "She's a second year."

Kagome-chan nodded, her excitement still evident. "That's the same school that Sota, my brother, attends, though he's still a first year."

I frowned. Once again, I was left out of the conversation. I was an only child, with no nieces or siblings still attending middle school. I huffed indiscreetly. Even when they weren't flirting, I couldn't join the discussion. Was there nothing that the three of us could talk about that didn't involve trying to get into each other's pants or our similarly aged family members?

"Maybe Rin and Sota know each other?" Kagome-chan continued earnestly, and my frown deepened. Might as well just give up all hope now, Miroku.

I cleared my throat again, drawing both Inuyasha and Kagome-chan's attention as I stood up from the table, my empty ramen noodle cup in hand. "I'm kind of tired," I explained lamely. "I think I'm going to go to bed early tonight." Feeling slightly foolish under their blank stares, I hurriedly threw my cup away and traipsed off to my room, which thankfully was on the far side of the cabin.

I shut my door and leaned against it, desperately wishing they'd allowed me a lock. Still, I was more than happy to escape the kitchen, to get away from the perpetual flirtatiousness. I found myself missing Koharu-chan again, if only for her benefit as a woman.

Sighing, I pulled my shirt off over my head and tossed it uncaringly in the corner. I retrieved my suitcase from underneath my uncomfortable and small metal-framed bed and rested it on top of the thin mattress. I still hadn't taken the time to unpack yet; I felt a little reluctant at admitting to myself that I was going to be here for a while and therefore tried to make myself at home as little as possible.

I flipped it open, digging around for some pajama bottoms to replace my jeans when I paused. I suddenly felt like I was being watched. Paranoia dripped down my spine like ice as I mentally prepared myself to turn around to check. Moving quickly, I spun around, my eyes shifting wildly around the room until I at last focused on the door.

It was closed, just as I had left it. I tried to talk myself down from my fright, telling myself that I was just stressed and overly tired. Despite my pep talk, I was unable to rid myself of that creepy, persistent feeling that I was not alone in my room.

I laughed out loud, using the sound to further calm my nerves. "Get ahold of yourself, Miroku," I scolded quietly, pulling the elastic out of my shoulder length hair and rubbing my neck in self-comfort. "You're going to make yourself crazy going on like this."

"You know, people are going to think you're crazy regardless if you keep talking to yourself like that."

I froze, my mouth open in a silent shout of terror as I felt something cold and hard pressing up against the base of my skull. I didn't need to be told it was a gun.

There was somebody in my room after all, but how did they get in? I'd made sure that the door was firmly shut only moments ago. In my burning curiosity, I relaxed a little from my stiffened pose and made to turn around again to look at the door.

"Don't move!" they warned, and the stout barrel of the gun pressed harder into my skull. "Let's not be sneaky now, put your hands where I can see them."

I did as requested, throwing my hands up in surrender as my mind reeled over the past five minutes in a numb shock. My mouth opened and closed stupidly, trying to sort out some kind of sense in all this.

"How long have you been in here?" I finally asked, making sure to keep my voice quiet and submissive.

"Shut up!" the intruder demanded, jabbing the gun painfully into my neck as I moved again. "And don't even think about turning around."

In my catatonia, I was able to make out that the intruder's voice sounded strange, as if muffled by something. Were they wearing a mask? If so, did that mean that they feared being recognized? My suspicions that Hakudoshi-san was behind all of this sharpened some, but somehow that explanation didn't make enough sense.

The barrel of the gun was pushed against the base of my skull, almost aimed at my neck rather than my head. This gave me the impression that the intruder, whoever it was, was several inches shorter than I was, and had to stretch considerably to get the gun aimed that high on me at all. Again, my brief deduction that this could be Hakudoshi-san didn't match up with this description; Hakudoshi-san was my height, and could easily aim a gun directly at my head.

The voice of the intruder also still threw me for a loop. It was muffled, yes, and I was almost certain they were wearing a mask, but it also sounded like they were deepening it for some reason, as if they were trying to sound more menacing. I was dying to turn around to verify all of my conclusions, though no matter where the gun was pointing, I wasn't moving as long as it was aimed at me.

The intruder seemed to be pleased as I obediently stiffened again, my arms still held up in surrender.

"There," they mused to themselves, the smirk evident in their voice. "I think we'll be able to behave quite civilly now."

I pinched my eyes shut as I felt the gun drag through my hair, nudging the bottom of my earlobe as the intruder circled around me. They angled the gun; it was now jammed painfully up under my jaw. I swallowed hard, daring to open my eyes just a crack to view the assailant.

My eyes immediately flew wide open as I realized that the assailant was, in fact, a woman.

She had dark brown hair, pulled back on her head in a smart looking bun with straight-edged bangs that framed her round face perfectly. She did have on a mask, a ventilated, metal mask that covered everything from the bridge of her nose down. I was right about guessing her height too; she stood just under average, and she had to tilt her head up some to be able to look me fully in the eye.

I braved a quick scan down her body, marveling in what I saw. She was very voluptuous, though her prowess was not hindered by this; she looked highly capable of thoroughly kicking anyone's ass. Her clothes were almost entirely leather and skin-tight, and unbelievably, I found myself admiring her figure in them.

I really had cracked. I was ogling a woman who currently had a gun aimed at my jugular.

"I'm not going to kill you tonight," she revealed, and my eyes quickly flicked back up to meet hers. I found I was most captivated by her eyes; they were a golden brown that inexplicably looked almost magenta, accented by a similar pink color on her eyelids.

She was glaring at me, and while it was very easy to feel frightened under such a look, there was still something else in her eyes that drew me to them, something I couldn't quite put my finger on.

I remembered her statement.

"You're not?" I dared to ask.

"No," she replied, and again I could hear the mischievous smirk in her voice. "You see, I'm going to have a little fun with you first."

Was it sick that I was slightly turned on by the wording of her sentence? Probably.

She removed the gun from my neck and walked towards the door nonchalantly. Placing her hand on the knob, she turned back to me. "I'll see you around, Tsujitani."

I swore she winked as she slipped through the door.

I remained rooted in place, staring stupefied at the door and almost wishing she'd come back in. Realizing what I just thought, I shook my head vigorously before bolting out of my room and down the hall.

I checked every nook and cranny of the back of the cabin, finding no trace of her. I looked towards the front of the cabin, where I could hear Inuyasha and Kagome-chan still talking in the front room. I shook my head again, this time in disbelief. There was no way she could've slipped passed them for her escape. Then I frowned. How had she gotten into the cabin in the first place? The only entrance I was aware of was the front door, which was locked at all times and guarded with a coded alarm.

I let out an impressed whistle as I slowly meandered back to my room. She must've been good. I almost wanted to leave my door open for her, in case she came back, though my small remaining shreds of sanity quickly decried this.

I moved in a sort of trance, my mind too occupied with the unexpected female intruder to fully care that I was climbing into bed with my jeans still on, or that I had left my suitcase still open on the mattress and had inadvertently kicked it to the floor, scattering all of my clothes. I stared at the ceiling for a while, still too pumped with nervous adrenaline to sleep. I replayed the events of the entire night in my head, starting with my pathetic game involving Inuyasha and Kagome-chan all the way up to the intruder's confident walk as she left me to stew in fear and wonder.

I remembered her eyes, my own sliding shut as I fought to determine what I had seen in them that had made them stand out to me. She looked angry, of course, though as a hired hit man, I supposed that was to be expected. There was confidence and poise, that much was certain, but it wasn't what had drawn my attention. I clutched my bangs in frustration as I willed myself to stay focused and figure out what I'd seen in her eyes before I gave up entirely and just concentrated on falling asleep.

Right before I surrendered completely to the night, it occurred to me; what I had seen in those deep, golden brown pools of pure emotion.

It was pain.

AN: "Itadakimasu," loosely translated, means "thank you for the meal."