I don't own Tokyo Revengers or Inuyasha

Chapter 6: It Hurts

It was actually nice out. The sun was shining. Birds were chirping. The leaves on the trees, flipping in the slight breeze, looked like flames. She licked her lip and tasted the iron in her blood and savored the sting from her injury. There was nothing more satisfying than tallying her wounds. Her knuckles were crusted with blood. Her cheek pulled whenever she attempted a smile. It all felt so amazing. It made her feel so full. Violence was what she grew up around. Inuyasha and his fist-fights with uppity rich kids who couldn't keep their mouths shut. Even Sesshomaru's aggression was controlled and smoldering—made visible only in his martial arts tournaments—or beating the shit out of Inuyasha for his loose mouth.

And Keisuke…

Keisuke's violence was raging and full of joy. He used it to protect his loved ones. He used it to protect her. Of all the brutality she inherited, it was Keisuke's who burned brightest in her heart. Love and joy drove her, stimulated her existence. And so, it was with love in her heart that she beat that boy's ass last night. Love for her brother who had been killed. Her brother who was being bad-mouthed by some punk from Valhalla dumb enough to show without any of his buddies. She wondered if Mikey knew who she had fought with? A huge gang that was completely capable of overwhelming her. It was just a matter of time, and she was nowhere near as strong as any of her brothers. She couldn't tell Inuyasha or Sesshomaru. Her father would snatch her up and away in a second. It was only Mikey and Chifuyu-kun that she could possibly turn to.

But Mikey was really weird this morning, and Chifuyu-kun will just follow his lead.

"Kago-tan?"

Blinking her eyes and her awareness tumbling back into the present, Kagome turned to face Emma. The blonde's eyes were full of concern. They were stopped in the middle of a sidewalk and for the life of her, Kagome could not recall where they were or where they were going.

"Emma…" Slowly, the girl blinked back into awareness.

"Are you sure you want to go out? We can go back to my place if you don't want to go home."

"I'm fine. I just got caught up in my head for a second." A tired grin pulled at her lip injury. Emma hummed her doubt. Exhaling a long-suffering sigh, she allowed her friend to steer the conversation elsewhere and agreed that going to grab something sweet would be their utmost priority.

"I'm sorry that Mikey made you change plans to baby-sit me. I told him not to."

"It's fine, I was going to call you today anyway. With what happened to Baji, I couldn't let you be by yourself. When our brother died, I at least had Mikey, but…"

But she had no one. Her other brothers couldn't stand Keisuke. Her father was waiting for a reason to take her. She was alone.

"What's with the face? Emma-nee-chan is here for you!" Crushing the brunette to her chest, Emma nuzzled the top of her head.

"I can't breathe!" shoving her way out of friend's admittedly blessed chest, she glared at her friend. With a self-satisfied smirk, Emma puffed her chest out a little more as if sensing the slight envy radiating from the younger girl.

Freaking boob monster…

"You're only a year older than me Emma-baka-chan! Just because you have the tits of a grown woman doesn't mean you can lord over me! You're not better than me!"

"Kago-tan, your boob-envy is scary. Emma-nee-chan is only here to love and comfort you." The blonde stood akimbo and shook her head with faux disappointment. The silliness of the whole conversation placed a genuine smile on the grieving girl's face. Her cheek hurt and the cut on her lip split open again, but this moment, light-hearted and pure, left her full. And Keisuke's ache waned a bit.

"Kagome you're bleeding!"

Gently probing her lip, she found that blood was indeed dripping from her lip. Licking her lip, she wiped away the rest of bleeding. Emma was reaching into her purse, muttering to herself about tissues. Kagome stood and waited obediently for the girl to find them and stood stock still despite the sting when a tissue dabbed on her lip.

"Does it hurt? Is it a bit better now?" the girl gazed at her with concerned golden eyes.

Did it? Was it?

Brown eyes stared intensely into her friend's eyes. Golden eyes determinedly stared back.

"It does hurt. It hurts a lot."


Thank you for your patience! As always, I would love to hear what you think and any constructive criticism you have for me. I'm super rusty and I'm still trying to get back into writing. Thank you again and I hope to see you soon!