Chapter One: The Second Chance Academy
Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha
A/N: This will be a human story, no demons.
A woman with long black hair and gray stormy eyes woke up in a pure white room wearing a red hospital shirt and pants. She looked around, everything was white except for the word Kagome H. written in red on the wall across from her. She looked behind her and let out a startled scream as she jumped out of bed, it was a woman lying unconscious in the bed.
'Is that me?' She thought to herself as she took a slow step towards the woman in the bed. 'Am I dead?'
Just then the drawer in the nightstand opened by itself, making Kagome jump with another scream. She took a deep breath before walking to the drawer and looking inside it, it was a picture of a gun.
"What's this?" She whispered to herself as she took the picture out of the drawer to look at it closely. For some strange reason, it looked incredibly similar, like she's seen it before. Pictures and shouting flashing through her mind, but they moved so fast that she wasn't able to figure out what she was seeing or hearing. Shaking her head to clear it of the flashing pictures in her mind, she folded the picture up and placed it in her pocket.
She moved around the room to see if she could find any more pictures or anything to be able to tell her who she was and what happened to her. She couldn't remember anything, not her life, her name - which had to be Kagome according to the wall - or what events that happened that wound her in this room.
However, before she could really start looking for anything, a bright light shone from behind her. She turned and gasped when she saw something that looked to be a portal. She walked slowly towards it before reaching her hand out to touch it, however, once her fingertips touched the portal, an invisible force dragged her in.
Before she knew it, she was standing right outside of what looked like a glass door, she could still see the woman lying in bed. However, she was no longer in the same room as her, she was in a room that seemed to be a long, wide hallway that was completely red. There were other people there, all wearing different color hospital gowns - though - it seemed that there was a system going on here. She could tell that four other people were wearing the same color as her while there were five other people wearing blue, another five people wearing yellow, another five wearing green, and finally another five wearing orange.
"Welcome to The Second Chance Academy." A voice sounded from above them causing everyone in the room to look up to see a man with long black hair and bright red eyes standing on top of the staircase. There were four people, two women and two men, that stood on his left side, and a man and an older woman that stood on his right. "These will be your teachers." The man continued as he pointed to the people on his left. "Kagura, Byakuya, Tsubaki and Renkotsu." He introduced before pointing to the two on his right. "And these are Ms. Kaede, your nurse, and Dr. Suikotsu, your doctor. And I am Naraku, your dean of this academy."
"What the hell is going on here!?" A man with long black hair and deep brown eyes asked, sounding very irritated. He was also wearing red.
"That was rude, Inuyasha." Naraku spoke as he started walking down the stairs. "That will be five points against you, I'm afraid."
Another man with short black hair and violet eyes, who also wore the color red, raised his hand indicating that he had a question.
"What is it, Miroku?" Naraku asked as he looked at the man.
"What does it mean that he has five points against him for speaking out?" Miroku asked.
"The way that things are graded here is a point system, if you do well then you'll have points that go towards the ultimate goal. If you do bad, then you'll have points against you that will make it harder for you to achieve your goal."
A man that had long black hair that he kept in a high ponytail and icy blue eyes, who wore the color yellow, raised his hand this time.
"Yes, Koga?" Naraku called out to the man.
"Two questions; the first, the word that was written in red in the other room, is that my name?" Koga asked as he pointed behind himself in the direction of the hospital room that his body lay.
"That is correct. The words that were written in red in each of your rooms are your names." Naraku nodded in confirmation. "What's your second question?"
"What is the ultimate goal? What is going on here?" Koga asked.
"What's going on here is that you all are on your death beds." Naraku replied in a cold voice. "The ultimate goal of The Second Chance academy is for you to prove that you deserve a second chance at life."
Everyone started freaking out and trying to talk over each other asking questions so fast that no one could understand what anyone was saying.
Kagome bowed her head, her eyes went wide, her stomach dropped with dread as thought ran rampant in mind. 'Death bed? Second chance? What is he talking about? Why can't I remember anything?'
"Okay, okay." Naraku called out with his hands raised up with his palms facing out. "Settle down now or risk getting points against you." As everyone settled down, he lowered his hands back down to his sides. "I will be happy to answer any questions that you may have, however, only one at a time." He looked over at Kagome who was still looking towards the ground and took a few steps closer to her. "What about you?" He asked, gaining her attention as she jumped before looking up at him. "What questions do you have?"
"Oh, um," Kagome mumbled in a small voice as she took a step back away from Naraku and shrunk into herself, "w-why can't I remember anything?"
"Great question, Kagome." Naraku praised as he walked away from her, making her relax the further away he walked. "I erased all of your memories because each of the tests here at the academy you have to prove that you care about your life and remember what you've done with your life. Next question." A bunch of hands raised up and Naraku walked around looking at each of them.
"Sango." Naraku called on a young woman that had long brown hair and brown eyes.
"How are we supposed to remember?" Sango asked as she placed her hand back down at her side.
"With each assignment there will be some clues to help you along with each assignment. You might also remember some things on your own along the way. You all have actually found your first clue for your first assignment, which is figuring out what happened that ended you up on your deathbed. I am going to go around and ask each of you what happened to you by the end of the day. You have three more clues in your rooms. Any more questions? Bankotsu?"
"So, are we basically dead while we're here?" Bankotsu asked.
"You all are still very much alive, though you all are in a coma. While you're here, you'll still get tired, hungry, hurt, sick and could even die. If you were to die here, you'll lose your second chance, and your body will die." Naraku informed as he walked the length of the hallway before turning around and walking back to the staircase. "Who else has a question? Shippo?"
"Um, where are we?" Shippo asked in a small voice.
"We are in the 'In Between'. It's a place that souls go to before either going back to their body, if you succeed here, or moving on to the afterlife if you fail." Naraku explained as he continued his walking. "Next question, Inuyasha?"
"Yeah, what's with the clothes?" Inuyasha asked as he tugged at the bottom of his shirt.
"Ah, yes." Naraku nodded as he started walking back down the hallway. "You may notice that there's five different colors: red, blue, yellow, green and orange. You have five different people on your team. Points that either go towards the ultimate goal or against your ultimate goal doesn't only affect you, it affects your entire team. So, be diligent and work hard towards your goal at your second chance at life." He turned around before walking back towards the staircase, picking up a box that was on the staircase and walking to each person placing a key in each person's hand. "Each floor is a suite with five bedrooms that will have your names on the door to your bedroom, your bedroom comes with a personal bathroom. Each floor will also have a living room and a small kitchen area that you can keep snacks in that you can get in the cafeteria, you can only get two snacks per person in your group a day. The cafeteria is on this floor, down the hall and to the left. Breakfast is at eight AM sharp; lunch is at noon and dinner will be served at six PM. The first floor is for the orange team, second floor is for the blue team, third floor is for the yellow team, fourth floor is for the green team and the fifth floor is for the red team. Go to your rooms and get settled as well as look over all your clues and figure out what happened to you before the end of the day. The first team that everyone figures out what happened to them will receive thirty points towards their goals, the second team will gain twenty-five points, the third team will gain fifteen points, and the fourth team will gain ten points, and the last team will gain only five points. However, if one or more people in your team cannot figure it out before the day is out, you'll receive fifty points against your goal. One more thing, you want to be the team at the top because only one team will be able to receive the second chance prize."
*X*
Kagome and the others were standing in their living room with their room keys in their hands, none of them really wanting to figure out what happened and why they were there. However, it didn't matter how much they didn't want to, they each knew they had to do this. None of them were ready to die. Still, they decided to push out the inevitable and introduce themselves to each other before they went into their respective room.
"Um, hi, I'm Kagome - at least that's what the wall said when I woke up." Kagome mumbled, feeling a little embarrassed and a lot lost. She didn't know what to do or how to feel about their current predicament.
"Inuyasha." The man with the long black hair grunted.
"Sango." The woman with long brown hair mumbled as she lifted her hand in a small wave.
"Miroku." The man with short black hair replied as he lifted up his pointer finger.
"My name is Shippo!" A little boy with ginger hair and bright green eyes chirped as he raised his hand above his head.
"So, um, we're on our deathbeds?" Kagome took in a sharp breath as tears gathered in her eyes.
"Yeah, it seems like it." Miroku responded with a small nod.
"I wonder what happened to us." Sango muttered as she looked down at the floor.
"Do we even want to know? I mean, it's a little scary, right?" Shippo asked in a small voice, losing his chipper tone.
"Keh," Inuyasha scoffed as he walked to the door that had his name on it before sticking his key into the keyhole and looking back to the other people in the room, "we ain't got much of a choice, do we?" He barked out before walking into his room and slamming his door shut.
Miroku sighed loudly as he ran his hand through his hair as he looked down at the key in his opposite hand. "He's right. Might as well get the inevitable over with." He spoke softly before heading to his own room and disappearing inside.
"Yeah." Shippo mumbled before walking slowly into his own room.
"Right." Sango whispered with a nod before slipping into her room before closing the door.
Left alone in the living room, Kagome stood still looking down at her hand, knowing that she needed to go to her room but not being about to move her feet towards the door. A few more tears dripped out of her eyes before she wiped at her and forced her feet to move in the direction of her door. She stood outside her door for a few more seconds before sighing and sticking her key in and opened her door. She stood frozen in the same spot as she looked in her room. Inside there was a queen-sized bed with red bed clothes, a bedside table, a desk with a laptop on top, a walk-in closet with several uniforms that had the school's emblem with a red background and her name on the back. The uniform was a black jacket and a short black puffy skirt with black heeled boots that came up to the knee. Kagome wrinkled her nose at the choice of the uniform then let out a sigh before leaving the closet knowing that nothing she did would change the uniform. She walked to the bedside table before opening the drawer thinking that the clues would most likely be in there. She was right and took the objects out of the drawer and laid them all on the bed, including the picture of the gun she got from the hospital room.
Clue number one: picture of the gun.
Clue number two: an empty alcohol bottle.
Clue number three: a picture of a wedding dress with blood on it.
Clue number four: a picture of a man that looked familiar to her but couldn't put her finger on who he was.
Kagome stared at the items on the bed in slight confusion, none of this was making any sense to her. She knelt down next to the bed as she buried her hand into her hair as she studied the pictures desperately trying to remember what happened to her.
After a few minutes of trying to figure it out, Kagome let out a frustrated grunt before gathering up all her clues, stood up and left her room. Walking to each of her teammate's rooms, she knocked on each of their doors, told them to grab their clues and meet in the living room.
"Has anyone remembered what happened to them?" Kagome asked as she sat down on the couch before placing her clues on the table in a neat pile.
"Yeah," Inuyasha grunted as he looked down at what he could only see the picture of the gun and the empty alcohol bottle, "I'm in the army and was on active duty when a bomb got thrown where we were hiding. I threw myself over it to protect my teammates. It was somewhat of a dud, it still hurt like hell though, until I passed out from blood loss." He explained as he placed his clues where everyone could see them.
Clue number one: a picture of his teammates.
Clue number two: a torn piece of his uniform that had a partial of his name on it.
Clue number three: a picture of the American flag.
Clue number four: a picture of Army boots.
"I could do without this memory, though." Inuyasha mumbled with his eyebrows furrowed as he shook his head as if to shake the memory away from his mind.
"Shit, dude." Miroku murmured as he took a step closer. "That's tough."
"Keh." Inuyasha scoffed but didn't say anything else as another sigh escaped past his lips.
Kagome felt bad for him, she really did, however, there wasn't enough time to mourn over what happened with each of them. They could do that later once this assignment was over, right now, they needed to focus on getting everyone's memories back before the other teams did.
"Okay, does anyone else remember?" Kagome asked as she looked at the others.
"Yeah, I do." Shippo mumbled in a watery voice as he laid his clues out for the others to see.
Clue number one: a picture of his father's car.
Clue number two: a magic book.
Clue number three: a picture of his parents.
Clue number four: a picture of a school gymnasium full of people with an empty stage in the middle of the room.
"That's my papa and mama." Shippo whispered with a hiccup as he pointed to the picture of the man and a woman, tears started to run down his face while his finger moved from the picture of his parents to the picture of the car. "That's my papa's car. This is a picture of my school's gym set up for the talent show that they were having. I was a part of that show." He went on as he pointed to the picture of the full gym before picking up the magic book. "This is my magic book where I learned all of my tricks from. I was so excited to show everyone what I've learned and win first place. I was the eighth one to go on and I was so nervous, everyone that was ahead of me was so good and I was starting to doubt that I would even win third place. When it was my turn to go, I got lost in the show, everyone loved it, and I won first prize. On the way home, I was so excited and couldn't stop talking about it and laughing. It was storming really bad and a car in front of us lost control and caused a major pile up. Papa tried to avoid it but couldn't." He paused with a sniffle before continuing. "I looked at every one of the people that were in the hallway when Dean Naraku was explaining everything to us, but they weren't there. Does that mean that they're okay or are they de-de-" He couldn't finish what he was trying to say but everyone in the room knew what he wanted to ask.
"Oh, Shippo." Kagome whispered as her heart broke for the little boy while she stood up from the couch so could kneel down before gathering him in close, hugging him tightly as he cried on her shoulder. "I am not sure how to answer your question but maybe Dean Naraku will be able to. We can ask him when we see him at the end of the day, okay?" She promised as she pulled away to look him in the eye.
Shippo took a deep breath before nodding and wiping his eyes dry. "O-okay."
"Who else knows what happened to them? We're running out of time." Inuyasha grunted as he sat down on the couch.
Miroku didn't say anything as he stepped forward to place his clues on the table for everyone to see.
Clue number one: a picture of drugs.
Clue number two: a briefcase filled with something but with no key.
Clue number three: a list of about twenty different girls.
Clue number four: a picture of what looked like a basement wall with multiple different weapons displayed on the wall.
"I was one of the biggest drug lords alive, a 'Kingpin' if you will. I was getting all the money and had all the girls that I could ever dream of in my bed. Life was great for years until the girls started to get jealous of each other and instead of taking it out on one another, they decided they'd take it out on me. They made me my meals like they normally did, however, this time I started to feel sick. This happened for multiple days before I was too weak to do anything about it. They realized that I was in and out of consciousness and I vaguely heard them freaking out and calling for the dirty doctor that I hired before passing out again and waking up here."
Sango scoffed as she rolled her eyes. "Sounds to me like you deserved it. They should've just let you die."
"Ouch, my dear, your words wound my heart." Miroku replied overly dramatically as he held his hand over his heart.
"Whatever." Sango scoffed again before laying her clues out on the table.
Clue number one: a little slip of paper that had a different name than hers.
Clue number two: a wet rope that had been cut in two.
Clue number three: a picture of a disguise; a short black wig, a black long sleeve shirt, black skinny jeans and black sneakers.
Clue number four: a picture of a man.
"I remember not being able to breathe and someone being there with me. I think it was the man in this picture, but I don't remember who he is." Sango explained as she picked up the picture of the man and looked at it closely. "It's so weird, like I feel like I should know who he is, but I just can't put my finger on it." She sighed as she placed the picture back on the coffee table.
Shippo walked up to look at the picture before looking back at Sango. "He's here." He spoke as he pointed at the picture.
"What? He is?" Sango asked as she looked at Shippo.
"Yeah, he was standing across from me in the long hallway." Shippo nodded as he looked back at the picture. "I'm sure of it."
"Keh." Inuyasha scoffed as he stood up and walked around the coffee table to stand in front of Sango with his arms crossed over his chest. "It doesn't matter if he's here or not! What matters is who he is and why you're here." Inuyasha said gruffly as he looked down at Sango. "We're running out of time, so hurry up and remember."
"Do you have to be so rude!?" Kagome asked angrily as she shoved Inuyasha's arm while she glared at him.
Inuyasha looked from Sango to Kagome before turning to face her instead of Sango and angled his body to tower over her with a smirk on his face. "Sorry, doll face, I don't sugar coat things - it just isn't who I am."
A glower formed on Kagome's face as she looked up at Inuyasha, not backing off. "My name isn't doll face, jerk, it's Kagome. Ka-go-me!"
Inuyasha scoffed again before moving his face closer to Kagome's with a smirk still in place. "Well, Ka-go-me, do you remember what happened to you?"
Kagome faltered some as she backed off before looking at the floor and biting her lip.
"I'll take that as a no." Inuyasha responded as he straightened his body and moved toward the coffee table to look over Sango's clues. "Okay, we need to help Sango figure out her almost death before moving on to help, doll face."
"It's Kagome!" Kagome growled as her hands balled into fists, but she was ignored by the man as he looked over the clues on the table.
"This rope is wet." Inuyasha informed as he picked up the rope and held up the rope for everyone to see. "You said that you weren't able to breathe, right?"
"That's right." Sango nodded as she looked at the rope dangling from Inuyasha's fingers.
"Well then, it obviously means that you were trapped in water and couldn't get out." Inuyasha went on as he placed the rope back on the table before looking back at Sango with a raised eyebrow.
"Trapped in... water?" Sango mumbled as her eyes got a faraway look in them as if she were remembering something. "That's right. It was Kohaku's first mission in the agency that I worked at." She continued as she pointed to the picture of the man. "It's a family business and Kohaku had finally passed his training course and was able to go on his first mission. We were like the C.I.A but something different. A new organization that's only about four years old. We work with the police, and they are grateful for our help. Anyway, I was so nervous because Kohaku was going up against some pretty dangerous people. I begged my father to be able to go with him to back him up, but my pleas were declined. My father told me that he would have his partner as backup and that would be good enough. However, I put a disguise on and went anyway." She went on as she pointed to the picture of the disguise. "By the time that I got there, Kohaku was doing an okay job. I was relieved, however, I accidentally knocked something over and made a noise. They demanded that I come out and when I did, Kohaku couldn't keep his composure. He was pretty mad that I showed up when I wasn't needed and messed up his cover. The bad men put two and two together and figured out pretty fast what was going on. They roughed both of us up pretty good before tying a rope around each of their ankles then tied the other end to a couple cinder blocks and forced us in a motorboat. They drove the boat into the deepest part of a lake before throwing the cinder blocks into the water and watched as they dragged both me and my brother under. I remember the panic I felt as I tried to get both of us free but not being able to. That's all I remember." Silent tears were running down her face at that point.
"Sango." Miroku whispered as he took a step towards her. He could only imagine how that actually felt, he's done that same exact thing to people that tried to screw him over and not pay him what they owe him. He silently vowed to never do that ever again, which kind of surprised him. He didn't know who this girl was, what made him feel so compelled to change his punishments to his clients?
"Anyway," Sango mumbled as she took a deep breath while she brought her hands up to wipe at her tears, "we need to help Kagome remember what happened to her." She sighed as she looked at Kagome. "Put your clues on the table."
Kagome let out a breath before nodding and walking to the coffee table and placing her clues on the table for everyone to see.
Clue number one: a picture of a gun.
Clue number two: a picture of a wedding dress with blood on the front.
Clue number three: an empty alcohol bottle.
Clue number four: a picture of a man.
"Do you have any idea of what might have happened?" Sango asked quietly as she and the others looked over the clues.
"Everything is going in flashes so fast that I can't focus on what they are." Kagome answered with a sigh as she looked over the clues as well. "It's like I'm missing something that will slow it down so I can see what the pictures are."
"Well, there's a wedding dress, maybe you or someone you were close to was getting married?" Miroku suggested as he pointed at the picture of the wedding dress.
"Yeah, I figured that too, but I don't know, I feel like something is still missing. Something isn't connecting that will allow me to remember." Kagome sighed as she looked at the clues before picking up the empty alcohol bottle. "Are the clues trying to say that I was an alcoholic and shot myself on my wedding day? Is this man supposed to be my fiancé?" Kagome asked as she picked up the picture of the man. "But then when I look at this picture, I feel my blood boil and I don't know why."
Inuyasha plucked the photo out of Kagome's hands as he studied the picture closely. "Maybe he's the one that shot you. Maybe he was drunk and mad about something and took it out on you."
Kagome gasped as her eyes went wide.
Kagome stood in front of her body length mirror wearing her freshly altered wedding dress. Twisting her body side to side to see herself at every angel with a happy smile spread across her face. She was marrying her dad's boss's son, he was very handsome, though, the longer she spent with him the more flaws started showing themselves. At first it was small with little negative remarks about her appearance then grew into accusing her of cheating on him causing huge fights to break out between them. However, she ignored all of the red flags and thought that she could show him somehow that she was in fact faithful to him and always had been. She was convinced that if she figured out how to do that then everything would get better. She sighed, she hoped so at least. It was a week until their wedding and she prayed that she could find some way, somehow, to get Hojo to listen to her and actually believe that she hadn't been unfaithful towards him.
Liking the fit of the dress and approving the alterations with a satisfied nod, she started walking towards her closet with her mom right behind her to help her get out of her dress. However, the sound of her bedroom door opening stopped the both of them in their tracks as they looked back at the door.
"Hojo?" Kagome's mother was shocked as she stepped in front of Kagome and the man. "What are you doing here? You know it's bad luck to see the bride in her dress before the wedding day."
"Move out of the fucking way, woman, your whore of a daughter and I need to have a little chat." Hojo spat as he threw his empty alcohol bottle to the ground before wiping at his mouth with his shirt sleeve. Seeing that the older woman did not move out of the way, he scoffed before stumbling towards her and pushed her out of the way.
"Hojo, what are you doing here?" Kagome asked with a terrified voice as she backed away from him. She knew he'd been drinking, and he was always at his most violent when he spent the day at the bar.
"I fucking know what you've been doing, Kagome!" Hojo yelled as he stumbled off to the side before regaining his balance.
"What are you talking about?" Kagome asked as her mother snuck up behind him before jumping on his back to make him stop advancing towards her daughter.
"Ugh!" Hojo grunted in aggravation as he threw Kagome's mother off his back, making her crash into the wall and fall to the ground unconscious.
"Mom!" Kagome screamed as she started running to see if her mom was okay.
"Don't fucking move, bitch!" Hojo yelled as he pointed a gun at Kagome, making her stop and place her hands up in hopes of making peace somehow.
"Okay, Hojo, I'm sorry - I won't move." Kagome said in a small hesitant voice as she stopped moving.
"Shut up!" Hojo screamed as he cocked the gun and stepped forward. "I already know you've been cheating on me, you nasty, disgusting, dirty whore!"
"Please, I have never cheated on you, I swear it." Kagome replied as she took a step back.
"I said shut the fuck up!" Hojo yelled before pulling the trigger.
The last thing Kagome heard was the loud bang of the gun before darkness took over her mind.
Kagome gasped as her hand flew to her chest while she tried to regulate her breathing and her heart rate.
"What happened, Kagome." Shippo asked softly as he took a step towards her.
Her heartbeat stopped racing by fear and started racing with pure unadulterated anger. "That mother fucker!" She screamed at the top of her lungs making everyone in the room jump in shock. She jerked her body around and stomped towards the door.
"What are you doing, Kagome?" Inuyasha asked as he jogged to catch up to her before placing his hand on her shoulder to stop her. "What happened?"
"Don't fucking touch me!" Kagome snapped as she slapped his hand away. "I'm going to fucking kill him for what he did to me!"
Inuyasha pulled his hand back before rubbing a slight stinging away. That weirdly hurt him in more ways than one when she told him not to touch her and slapped his hand away. "What's going on, Kagome? Talk to us!"
Kagome took a deep breath before letting it out. "My fiancé shot me in the chest a week before our wedding because he was convinced that I was cheating on him when I wasn't!" As she finished her sentence, she had tears running down her face.
"Oh damn, that's rough." Miroku mumbled as he thrusted his hand through his hair.
Sango's heart cracked for her, she wanted to do something for her to make her feel better but didn't know what. She doubted that anything she could try wouldn't even come close to making her feel better right now. Inuyasha's blood boiled when he heard what Kagome said, he wanted to kill the bastard himself, however, they needed to finish this assignment and hopefully get the most points.
"Since everyone knows what happened to them now, let's start walking back to the hall to tell Dean Naraku." Inuyasha grunted as he started towards the door.
Everyone nodded as they silently started following him.
Hope everyone enjoyed this chapter! Until next time, bye!