Hero.

*WRITTEN BY CO-AUTHOR HARMONY SUNSINGER*



A/N: Lol, Erin and I are on speakerphone right now, watching “Bride of Chucky” together. We’re so weird and hilarious.





Anyway, this part of the story is kinda hard; me and Erin argued a lot over how to do this, and we decided that, at least with the names and “titles,” that this would be the simplest way. Basically, whenever it’s the normal paragraph, like describing the scene and whatnot, we’ll use their “real names,” like Kagome and Inuyasha and Sango and Miroku and Rin and Sesshomaru and Masaki. But when they’re talking to each other, they’ll refer to each other as their “Hero titles,” which are the only names that they know each other by and are as follows:





Kagome = Suzume (Sparrow, Little Bird)



Inuyasha = Kyouka (Strength)



Miroku = Iyoku (Will, Magick)



Sesshomaru = Yuunou (Skill)



Masaki = Hayashi-sensei or Hayashi (Forest)



Sango = Keiri (Executioner)



Rin = Amai (Sweet)



Souta = Senkensha (Seer)



Shippo = Runt (basically just Inu’s nickname for the kid when he finally meets him)





((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((()))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))





Hero.





Chapter Two:





Kagome giggled as her mate ran his claw slowly down the small of her back. She twitched a little and rolled over, capturing his wrist in her hand. His green eyes glimmered with sleep, and he smiled, amused, at her. The heroine smirked at her hero. “Stop that,” she murmured in a serious tone, looking him directly in the eye. “It tickles.” She rolled back over, pulling some of the blue comforter with her.





After barely a second, she felt Masaki’s strong arms wrap tightly around her petite waist. Smiling faintly, Kagome’s eyes closed, and she dozed off once more. She could hear their son sleeping soundly through the thin wall, in the small room right next to theirs. He was an active boy with plenty of spunk; he reminded her so much of her Masa-chan. They were both a real pair together, the pranksters of Sundown Way. She could barely remember the darker days of her life…





For the first time in a very long time, her life was perfect.





(((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((())))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))





Sighing, Kagome entered the Guild through the tall, oak double doors. Her wondrous, yellow bag had started to become rather heavy, and she was glad to finally be able to climb the familiar steps to reach her room at the Guild. Setting her bag down at the foot of her bed, she looked around the large, changed room, which she shared with several other Heroes. She saw Sango’s bed not too far away; the girls had been very close with one another ever since their first night together in this strange place. She remembered the first night she had ever met Sango, who she knew as “Keiri” and who knew her as “Suzume.” One of the first things they taught when you arrived at the Guild was to keep your true name a secret; based on your skills and demeanor, the Guildmaster would give you a “title,” and that title would be what you would be known to the public and other Heroes as.





Within just a year working for the Guild, Sango had more than earned her title; Kagome knew that she’d gained hers for her gentle personality and quick speed and wit.





After a moment more, her eyes fell on the bed next to Sango’s; that one belonged to that hentai, Miroku, who they knew as Iyoku. Here lately, Sango had told Kagome, no had seen any sign of Miroku. ‘According to Keiri, he’s been gone for months,’ she thought, a hint of puzzlement and worry marring her pretty features. ‘I hope he hasn’t gotten himself into more trouble. We barely made it out of Hollow’s Point alive when he got stuck against that banshee.’





Finally, Kagome looked to the only remaining bed in the room. It was still undone; he’d slept in it just the night before. ‘That’s strange,’ she thought, striding quickly out of the room and down the corridor. ‘Kyouka normally doesn’t sleep indoors with us anymore. He likes it out in the wild too much.’ She bounced a little as she made her way down the stairs, steering toward the courtyard when she heard several high-pitched, feminine squeals of “Oh, Kyouka!” pierce the persevering quiet of the Guild halls.





As soon as Kagome stepped out into the sun, his golden eyes were trained only on her. Despite being surrounded by the many, many fangirls that he had accumulated since his quest to rid Wellings of the damned werewolf the week before, she was the only one he could really see. ‘Suzume’s finally back,’ he thought as her gaze met his. Brown collided with gold, and their eyes locked for barely a minute before someone broke the silence that surrounded Kagome like a cloud:





“Suzume!”





Kagome turned to her right, blinking in surprise at being caught off-guard… even if it was by one of the best Heroes known to mankind. Sango practically fell against her friend, grabbing her in a close, overwhelming squeeze. “Well, hi, Keiri,” Kagome murmured to her friend. “I was just looking for you. How’s everything been going around here?”





“Everything’s been fine, Suzume-chan!” Sango answered, leading her off to the right of the mob of fans around Inuyasha. Looking over her best friend’s shoulder, Kagome snuck another peek at the halfling, whom she had secretly missed while she was away. He continued to watch her, and their eyes met once more… and held.





“Get out of here, now,” he said in a low tone.





Then the fangirls squealed excitedly, breaking the moment. “But you’re Kyouka!” one of them shrieked in a high-pitched voice that forced Inuyasha’s koinu ears to pin against his head in a failed attempt to block it out. “You saved Wellings from a werewolf attack just last week!”





The halfling let out a barely audible “Feh!” before Kagome saw him roll his eyes. “It really wasn’t anything -”





“And you refused to accept any sort of payment for your services there! That was so noble of you!”





Now it was Kagome’s turn to roll her eyes. “Probably did it to become more well-known faster,” she muttered, turning her back on the shameful sight and starting toward the kitchen, which was separated from the main building. Sango had caught the subtle exchange between the two, and she hurried after her friend.





Inuyasha watched as she walked away, leaving him in the clutches of fandom. ‘I heard that, you bitch,’ he thought, his eyes narrowing into slits as he glared in her direction. ‘And to think that I actually missed you while you were away…’ He huffed and turned, silently walking in the other direction, flanked by the massive pack of adoring fangirls.





Finally, Sango thought that were far enough away from Inuyasha to avoid his notorious super-hearing. “All right now,” she said to her friend as they sat down in a corner of the kitchen; the sculler maids and cooks bustled about, but they wouldn’t bother them, the pair knew. They were safe here, and they could speak openly about private matters at last. “It’s time for you to spill, Suzume. Where have you been for the last couple months? It isn’t like you to take so long a leave. I mean, I know that you and Hayashi-sensei were okay-close, but his death shouldn’t have rocked you the way that it did.”





Kagome sighed, covering her eyes with her hand so Sango couldn’t see her tears. “Keiri, there’s something no one ever knew,” she started, her voice barely above a whisper. Her friend had to strain to hear her. “Hayashi-sensei and I… were involved.”





Sango blinked, and, as the other Heroine’s simple yet explosive words sunk in, her mahogany eyes widened in shock. “How involved are we talking here? I mean, I thought that you had a husband? And a son?”





Kagome dropped her hand, looking her best friend full in the face, not caring anymore if she saw her momentary weakness. Sango gasped in sudden realization, sitting back in her chair as thoughts when whirring through her sharp mind. “You and Hayashi-sensei… were married?” Kagome barely nodded, her eyes firmly set on the worn, hardwood floor. She gave Sango a few minutes to come fully to terms with this new information.





After a while, her friend asked her hoarsely, “How?”





Kagome sighed. “His real name was Masaki. He was a forest spirit, and he could take the shape of a fox if he so chose. One night, we were out in the forest behind the Guild, practicing for my Final Examination… One thing led to another, and we ended up confessing our attraction to each other in a most intimate way.” Sango’s eyes widened even more. “Weeks and weeks went by; I passed my Final Exam, and Masaki was so proud of me… He took me out to dinner at the pub in Barsona, the Wild Kitsune. It was there that he showed me what he had been saving for me ever since that first night.” She showed her best friend her left hand, where she still wore the wedding ring with which her Masa-chan had proposed to her. “He asked me to be his wife… and I said yes. We went back to my home village and married; whenever we had the time off, we lived together in the house I inherited from my family.





“When I became pregnant with our young son, I told Masaki that I would retire from the Guild, that I would do no more Hero work. He said no, that it wasn’t fair to me. I was just starting out, and he said that he was ready to retire anyway. So he did, and he stayed home with me while I grew heavy with our son. He was there during the birthing, despite the village healer trying to throw him out. While I returned to the Guild and went on quests, he was the one to stay there at the village, protecting it and our baby.” She hung her head in sadness. “My poor baby… He and his father were so close. He loved his chichi so much. I’m not sure how well he’ll be able to continue.”





Sango rubbed her friends knee empathetically, obviously over her shock. “Don’t worry, Suzume-chan!” she said brightly, trying to cheer Kagome up. “You’ve told me so much about your little one that I feel like I already know him. He’ll bounce back; he’s too much like Hayashi-sensei – I mean… Masaki, not to.”





Kagome nodded, still staring down at the floor, depressed.





“Do you mind me asking… How’d he die?”





Kagome was, of course, shocked by her friend’s question. “Well, um…” she started in a low tone. “Well, you know that he retired to take care of our son in our home village. He also was the Head Guard of the village, its main source of protection.” Sango nodded. “Well, the village hadn’t been attacked in a very, very long time. Not since… Well, not since you know when.





“Anyway,” she continued, “somehow, word had leaked out that Hayashi’s family resided there, in that village. The village headsman told me later that it was a very large group that attacked, made up of bandits and assassins. There’d been a price on my mate’s head for so long…” She couldn’t finish, leaving off and shaking her head instead.





“They finally got him?” Sango asked in disbelief.





“They attempted to get the boy first… Masaki changed into his fox form and butchered whoever touched his child.” Kagome gave a small, proud smile, her eyes shining with unshed tears. “He died protecting his son. Our son.”





Sango nodded, holding her friend’s hand. “Your husband died a most honorable death, one befitting his honorable life.”





Kagome leaned into her friend, who embraced her warmly. “Thank you, Keiri. You may be known as the Executioner, but you’re the greatest friend that I’ll ever know.”





Sango smiled. “I know.”





((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((())))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))





Inuyasha woke with a start. Looking around, it took him a while to figure out where he was. He groaned quietly, holding his face in his hands; he felt his short, stubby fingernails scratch lightly against the back of his head, through his black hair. Shaking his head, he climbed out of the twin bed and started to leave the room, noticing faintly that Kagome’s bed was also empty. Sango snored loudly, twisting slightly in her own. He snorted softly as he passed her; ‘Some legend,’ he thought. ‘Snores like a man. Hmm… Maybe that’s a good thing, though. Snore like a man, fight like a man.’ He shrugged. ‘Makes sense.’ Realizing that he was talking to himself as he descended the stairs, he shook his head, making his way silently to the door that led out into the courtyard.





The wind blew very gently, and the bitch’s scent wafted over to him. He breathed it in, nice and deep, surprised that he could still smell her from so far away with his weak, human senses. He followed the earthy scent all the way to the forest behind the Guild; she sat at the shore of the small, quaint lake that lay deep in the thick woodland. There was a waterfall that Inuyasha had somehow never noticed. Before he could reach her, she stood and stripped away the thin, patched red coat that she normally wore. As it fluttered downward, landing in a crumpled mess at her feet, he found that he couldn’t tear his eyes from the curvy, slender body that he never knew she possessed.





His lips parted just as she reached down, unbuckling her skinny, brown trousers and sliding them down her slim, endless legs. Inuyasha’s chest heaved as he stared at her; grabbing the bottom of her thin, light blue tank top, she gave it was quick yank, pulling it up over her head and releasing it. It, too, sank slowly through the heavy, humid air, joining the trousers and the trademark red coat. Now she stood there, at the bank, dressed only in a pair of white, cheek-baring undies and a white push-up. Her skin was like ivory, it was so light, and from afar it seemed creamy and smooth; Inuyasha had a sudden urge to come closer to her, to cup her perky breasts in his hands, to find out just how smooth and creamy her skin actually was. He wanted to become familiar with her beautiful scent, with all her flaws and strengths, with all her blemishes and freckles.





Kagome turned, diving into the lake with barely a splash; Inuyasha watched for a few seconds more before spinning on his right heel and walking away, his hands stuffed deep into his hakama pockets.





Kagome surfaced, smoothing her long, wet ebony locks out of her face with the palm of her hand. Blinking her big, chocolate eyes at the spot Inuyasha had just occupied, she sighed contentedly, completely unaware of the affection her so-called “enemy” held for her.





After all, she was just a silly, weak ningen, and he was a just a stupid, loud-mouth of an ass halfling. They could never be friends.





Never.





(((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((())))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))





A/N: Ok, Erin sent me the Sneak Peek to put on the end of this chapter. She always writes the danged Sneak Peek before writing up the chapter; so… here it is.





Next Time:





Chapter Three:





“Keiri!” Inuyasha yelled in a gruff voice; he was fighting himself, trying his hardest not to lose control. It was inevitable, though, he knew. The woman ran up, throwing her black coat on as she came closer. “You and Suzume need to get everyone out of here! I’m talking all the Heroes and Heroines, the little ones – hell, even lug Myoga’s ass out of here!”





The older Hero blanched at Inuyasha’s words. “Kyouka -!”





“I don’t care if you’re Guildmaster or not, Myoga!” the halfling roared back as he fangs slowly elongated; his tone became a deep, threatening bass, and jagged, purple markings stretched across his cheeks. “Get the hell out of here!”





Sango grasped the elderly Guildmaster’s shoulders, leading him away from the frightening scene. “Come on, sir,” she said, steering him toward the balcony. As they disappeared through the door, Myoga took one last look at the boy he’d raised from a child, whispering, “Be careful, Inuyasha. Remember your human side.”





The two disappeared over the railing of the balcony as Sango called shrilly for Kagome.



(((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((())))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))



Next:



Chapter Three.



In which the Guild is viciously attacked, several innocents are killed, and one innocent believed by many to be dead foretells of imminent danger.