Deja Vu

Thank you so much everyone for your kind reviews.
To answer your questions, Sess sort of appears in this chapter, but I'm still setting things up with the story, so not so much. Also I'm playing around with the idea of having a few members of the regular Inu cast appear at a later point, but I haven't decided yet if that's the way I want to go. I'll keep you posted though.
Thanks again for reading!

I don’t own Inuyasha.

Chapter 2

In the tiny black alley behind her building, Rin paused. It had occurred to her halfway down the rusted fire escape that the bag of blood soaked clothing in her hand may as well have just stayed in the apartment. She had completely forgotten to clean her bloody fingerprints off of everything, but it was too late to go back now. From here on out there would be no question in anyone’s minds that she had been involved.

She weighed her options. She could go to local crime lord, a man named Sakayama, whom she had only seen in passing but never actually met, and plead her case. There was a good chance however, that the approach would fail. Rin, who ran drugs very occasionally, was not intimately familiar with internal Yakuza politics. To turn herself in she risked possibilities that were inherently worse than the type of death she would face were she hunted down and killed. There was no one in the city that she could turn to either. She refused to involve her friends.

Rin felt a deep pang at that thought. She could no longer keep in contact with anyone she knew. Her friends may not have been the most law abiding group of people, but they had been there for her since she was a child. Without them, she would never have survived the brutal reality of the streets, and now she would leave them hanging. If she were caught, they’d know she was dead, and if she weren’t, they’d just assume it after a while. She bit her bottom lip until she felt the coppery tang of blood. The dark eyed girl snapped herself out of that train of thought. She could dwell all she wanted to later. Right now she needed to get out of here.

She quickly walked around the side of the battered building, her shoes making no sound on the dry pavement. As she neared the corner, a yell rang out from the front of the front of the building. Rin immediately stepped back and flattened herself against the rough cement block, straining to hear but trying to keep as silent as possible simultaneously. The frenzied conversation drifted back to her.

“What’s your problem?!” A man called, annoyance making his voice sound unnaturally gruff.

“Fujigawa’s fucking dead!” Another man practically screamed.

“What?! How?!” The first man asked.

“Fucked if I know, that scrawny little whore is dead too.”

“Think she did it?” A third man asked, his voice not nearly as agitated as the first two. The voices lowered and Rin edged toward the front of the building catching snatches of their conversation.
“...saw a girl go in that looked familiar...”

“...no one else in there...”

Something unintelligible was said that ended with ‘check the building.’ Rin formulated escape routes, trying to fight down panic as she realized that any second they could be rounding the corner. The alley behind her building led to a dead end, the only direction was out past the men. The street ended with the building to her right, but there was an alley beyond it that she could get through if she could make it around the corner and down the street without them noticing her. The one thing she did have on her side was that she didn’t have to go directly into their line of vision. Unless they were purposely looking in her direction, they wouldn’t notice her.

Hesitantly she crossed the alley, edging out further towards the street. Her heart pounded in her chest so loudly that she was sure the entirety of Tokyo could hear it. Her breathing was shallow and her mutinous body was wracked with the intense need to cough. She repressed it, slowly moving towards the corner. As she neared it, she could see two of her pursuers-to-be. One was rather tall and stocky, clothed in a ridiculously cliche business suit, and talking on a cell phone in a voice too low for her to hear. The other was clothed in a similar manner, but was of a much slighter build. He was standing across from the man on the phone, tapping his foot with seeming impatience. She figured she had at least a chance of outrunning them, if only by the blessing of being more appropriately dressed for the occasion.

Slowly she edged out around the corner. She was afraid that sudden movements would draw their attention, however she was also afraid that to be furtive about it would have the same effect. She hesitantly waited for an opening, watching their every move. She was nervous about the fact that she couldn’t see the third man, and she wondered if he was inside the building. The man with the phone turned slightly to look toward the building and her opportunity presented itself. Rin casually slid around the corner and walked into the open street in the opposite direction of the men.

Her movement did not go unnoticed. Behind her she heard a yell and footsteps running towards her. Blindly she took off, running as fast as she could. The noise of slamming feet on pavement seemed to grow closer with every second. She knew with certainty that she had never run so fast in her entire life. Desperately she raced for the corner, practically hitting the wall when she got to it. She zig-zagged into the alley, the sound of pursuit still deafening in her ears. There was a slight lull in the footsteps, and just as she thought she had the possibility of getting a good lead on them, a gunshot rang out. She registered the fact that an unoffending dumpster ahead of her took the bullet, the noise of it ringing out in the hazy night.

She dodged into another alley, sending a short prayer of thanks to any listening god for the fact that she knew these side streets and alleys like the back of her hand. That was definitely an advantage. She sprinted through the short alley, swinging on to a side street. Her labored breath was deafening, but her body was flowing with adrenaline, and she barely noticed. Behind her the footsteps were slowing slightly. She took that as a good sign and pushed herself even harder to speed up. Just as she had twisted off into another side street, the noise of a second gunshot pierced the air. Still she bulled ahead through a maze of alleys, the berth between her and her attackers ever widening. Every once in a while, if she was forced to run down a particularly long alley or side street, they’d get a shot in. She began to have a stitch in her side, aggravated with every breath. She bit off whimpers of pain before they could even reach her lips.

A good forty five of running had passed before she noticed that there was no longer anyone behind her. She did not slow down as she took in her bearings. She was nearing the main drag, where she could catch a train out of the city. She slowed, her ears were attuned to the sounds surrounding her in the pitch black alley. She methodically sorted each one, checking for threat. Behind her to the left, a cat was scraping though some rotting trash that overflowed an ancient dumpster, and before her rats fought viciously, shrieking and squealing, their cries blending into the din of the glittering street she was nearing. As she reached the end of the alley she stopped for the first time to catch her breath, chest heaving painfully. Her side was flaming agony, her wounded arm was throbbing, and her blackened eye was nearly swollen shut.

She vomited the contents of her stomach as she slowed to a halt, the pain overtaking her. Feeling better afterward, Rin walked a few more paces then pulled her backpack off and slid into a squat, using the wall of the building behind her as leverage. She removed the small makeup kit and the ugly blonde wig, recalling the times she’d watched Hanako put it on. She twisted her long dark hair up and pinned it against her head with the hairpins in the kit. She then put the blonde wig on her head and pinned it down, the fake hair tickled her chin mercilessly.

She pulled out a stick of black eyeliner and shakily drew it along the edges of her eyes, trying to be a quick as possible. Her body had settled into a fine tremor, which slowed the process even more. She applied a bright green eyeshadow to her eyelids and a deep red to her lips. Her face screamed in protest as she slid the brush over her bruised eyelid. She finished off by dusting her face with a powder that was much paler than her complexion. She was certain she looked like a circus clown, but she hoped that between that and the wig, she would be overlooked at first glance. She shoved the kit back into her bag and lit a cigarette, the nicotine calming her as she walked into the large street.

She made her way through the din of people trying her hardest to blend in and stay close to the shops. She had a good eight blocks until she reached the subway, and if she could make onto a train, she would be alright. Her emotions were still on hold, and she intended to keep them that way until she found a place where she could be even temporarily safe. Her heart felt as though it was made of lead, and her stomach was in a similar situation. The cramp in her side had eased, but was not entirely gone, it twinged every time she took a deep breath.

The girl had only a thousand yen in her pocket, but she remembered that she still hadn’t gone through the contents of the stolen wallet. She wanted to get as far away from the city as possible, and she hoped with all of her heart that he had enough money to facilitate that. If not, however, she was prepared to pickpocket.

While she walked, she thought about the night’s events. This was, she decided, the second worst night of her entire life. Her mind roamed to the number one most painful event of her life, the night she watched her drunken father beat her mother to death. The memory was dulled by time spent mulling over it, but did not fail to make her eyes sting with tears. She forced herself to change thoughts.

Where would she go? Just leaving the city wasn’t enough, she needed a plan of action. She thought about the rest of Japan. Perhaps Niigata, she mused. Her mother had told stories about her childhood there, and Rin thought it was as good a place as any to start. Her well endowed chest and experience would make it easy for her to get dancing work there, at least she hoped so.

She was jarred from her thoughts as she noticed eyes on her. She glanced over to see a man in rather average looking garb watching her across the street. She sped up incrementally, noting from the corner of her eye that he was doing the same. Her heart began to pound rapidly as she dashed for the welcoming sign of the subway entrance. He was crossing the street as she hurried down the stairs, running for the second time that night at top speed. She paid the fare and jumped on a train, not caring where it was going. She didn’t look behind to see if the man was following her until she was on the train. She saw him outside as the train was leaving, though she wasn’t sure if he’d seen her.

She rode the train for four stops, then got off, deciding to switch to a line that was heading out of the city. While she was waiting for the next train, she ditched the wig and the bag of clothing, throwing them into a large trash can with a newspaper she had picked up on the last train placed strategically on top of them. She was relieved to have the ugly hot thing off of her head, but her thoughts were preoccupied with how late it was getting. Within thirty minutes, the subway was going to close down, and she was going to have to find a place to crash for the night.

The next train came and she relaxed into the seat, feeling as though she’d gotten away, at least for the time. She reached into her bag and pulled out the wallet, sifting through it’s contents. There was hardly any money at all, just five hundred yen. There were credit cards, but she wasn’t going to dare to try and use them. Frustrated, she gritted her teeth. She was going to have to resort to stealing to get to Niigata.

She stared at her reflection in the window as the time passed. The girl who stared back was haggard. Her hair was greasy and clung to her equally greasy face. The green eyeliner was smeared, as was the dark lipstick. Her right eye was a nasty shade of purple with unhealthy dark yellow edges. She turned her head from the disturbing image and stared at the subway map on the wall across from her.

Denenchofu was where she decided she was going to get off. She had never been there before, but from what she had heard of it, the people wouldn’t miss the money she took very much. She also found a little humor in the idea of spending the remainder of a night like the one she was having in such an affluent place.

As the train came to a halt, she gathered her bag and stepped off, ignoring odd looks in her direction. She got a quick drink from a fountain, used the public rest room, then took the escalator up and stepped out into the fresh air. Rin closed her eyes for a moment and inhaled. It was so much fresher than San’ya, she noticed. The chemical smell was gone and the scent of fall leaves filled her ill treated lungs. She lit a cigarette and took a right on the street, deciding to find a comfortably secluded place to sleep.

The injured girl walked down the street at a leisurely pace, her backpack thumping gently against her back with each step. Her arm throbbed a constant reminder of the fact that she needed medical treatment. She was lucky that the knife had not pierced anything vital, but her arm needed stitches, of that she was sure. She knew that when she looked at the bandage, it would be soaked with blood. She would need to redress the wound, and certainly clean it at some point soon.

She took in the beautiful homes, feeling envious as she continued her journey down broad, tree lined avenues and maddeningly expensive estates. She walked for three hours into the dark of night as the estates gradually became further in between. She came to a forested area surrounded by an ancient looking, chest high stone wall that appeared to be there more out of decoration than any real attempt to keep someone off of the land. Her legs were aching, and after fifteen minutes of walking next to the wall, she decided that it looked secluded enough to be a good place to sleep without bothering anyone.

With practiced ease only encumbered by the fact that she was favouring her injured arm, she climbed up the wall and jumped over, landing in a crouched position. She stood up and looked around into a serene forest. She would have realized, had she more experience with forests, that what she was actually looking at was an elaborate, gigantic, beautifully landscaped garden. Wind whispered through trees as she walked further into the property. There was no house in sight as far as she could see.

Distantly she heard the trickle of water and sped up her pace, her need for a drink obscuring all other thoughts. She hadn’t gotten a chance to drink anything since the water fountain in the train station a few hours previously. Within a few moments she came to a lazy stream. She bent down and drank for a while, then washed her face of the garish makeup and sweat. She went to a tree a few paces away to relieve herself, all the while wondering why exactly she felt the need to do so behind a tree.

She returned to the stream, intent on washing out her wound, but as she sat down she was overwhelmed with a sense of urgent fatigue. She laid down on the grass, which made a much better cushion than any park bench, and fell into a deep sleep. A short time later she awoke staring straight into a pair of fathomless golden eyes.