The Day the Music Died

Chapter 3: A Dish Served Cold

My eyes couldn’t focus on the time when I stumbled into the bathroom the next morning. Brain was still tip-toeing between the world of the conscious and the dream world as I’m standing over the toilet and looked down. My right hand, sporting the large hole in the center, shut the door while my left reached in and pulled out my manhood to release my bladder into the porcelain god below.

Even as I urinated into the toilet my mind was blurry as hell and trying to focus on anything was pointless. For some reason the darkness seemed to get the best of me and I had lost all sense of whether I was still awake or now dreaming again. In that darkness it seemed that I could be teleported to anywhere I wanted. I wanted nothing more than to see that beautifully buxom dame Sango again. Within the darkness, a spotlight emerged far away, and standing before me is that goddess of song once again. She is wearing a slinky black strapless dress that went down to the floor but was slit all the way up past her hip on the left side. Everything she wore from the long satin gloves to her tall velveteen heels was embraced in ebony. Her dark tresses were pulled up into a sort of Spanish rose with a few strands curled to frame the sides of her face. Only her lips were painted the boldest shade of red and the two flamenco flowers woven into her locks, accenting her porcelain skin with all of her dark fabrics.

She looked at me like a panther waiting to strike its prey, her dark chocolate eyes observing my every move as I stepped closer toward her. No longer was I in the bathroom holding onto my dick over a lonely toilet. But now I was on the dance floor with a siren that would go from singing seductress to a dancing diva in a matter of seconds within my mind. As a saucy Spanish song began to play in the distance I couldn’t help but pace closer towards her as she watched my every move while peeking over her shoulder.

I removed my jacket and began to unhitch my cufflinks allowing me to pull back my sleeves to the elbows. Her hips swayed softly to the start of the beats within the music as I continued to loosen my tie and prepare myself for a wild ride. She just barely followed my movements now, allowing herself to merge with the music as I stepped up slowly behind her and took a moment of pause to bring in her scent. Tonight her essence gave off the hint of tropical flowers and rain, and every part of her being tickled my senses from every corner of my own physical universe.

Coming up from behind, my hands, unmarked by years past, find the courage to wrap themselves around her exquisite frame. They glide easily up her abdomen as I close the gap between her back side and my front. Her arms reach up and reach back where they’re able to weave her fingers into my short hair. Sango’s caresses massage any tension I may have had out of my mind as I embrace her firmly by the hips and twist her into a spin just as the tango kicks up its tempo. She spins to face me where my left arm hooks behind her back as her right wraps around my neck. I move forward and arch her into a dip and it is then that her bosom presents itself in full to me as I feel her bare leg creep up my side. The point of her heel travels up behind my own leg and across my buttocks, and the tickle it produces ignite the tension between us even further.

No words are spoken in this dance of passion; they don’t need to be. Our eyes remain locked on each other as we slowly move from one position to the next, like having slow sex on hard wood as cotton and satin bump and grind against each other. The room is hot and humid by now, our bodies trickling beads of sweat as we continue the tango across the floor. My hands yearn to touch and knead her flesh yet she plays coy by only giving me a millisecond of time before we move into the next tantalizing position. Oh heaven forbid this only be a dream to me at this point!

My hands spin her a few times before I catch her once again and her right leg swings around my hip and dip her down again. My pelvis grinds against her own and the two of us lose our breath as we feel each other’s desire in the gancho step before she comes up and I move back a few steps with her leg still up on my hip as I llevada with her across the floor. When her left foot finds the surface she spins out of the move and slides it back in between her legs. Our bodies spoon together as she undulates against my groin and chest. The smell of her lust taunts me constantly as she manages to do everything in her power to touch me in all of the right places. My brain can barely take it anymore as my pants begin to feel damp with the growing erection I have just from dancing with her.

Eventually my hands slide up along the sides of her body until they reach her voluptuous breasts that only have the half moon dress protecting them from exposure. My hands cover each one with jealous greed before my fingers knead into them and I proceed to grope her covetously with every growing desire. Sango elicits a guttural moan at my minstrels while I continue to feel her up, grinding my erection into her backside, gliding it just within the crevice of her posterior. Her arms reach back up and tangle their fingers back into my hair again. The sensations of having my scalp massaged run up and down my spine sending shivers and waves of pleasure beyond my comprehension. By now she has me hungering for more, and her hands pull my head down softly and I place delicate kisses from the back of her left ear down to the bare skin of her shoulder. Her arms react by showing me the little Goosebumps she received as my lips suckle upon her silky skin. As gentlemanly as my ways are, my hands seem to have a mind of their own, and before long they find the edges of her dress top and proceed to weigh it down, forcing it to slide away and expose her bare chest to the darkness that surrounds us past the spotlight. Her breathing slows and becomes deeper as her two mounds are gingerly greeted by my mischievous hands once more.

With dainty pinches from the tips of my fingers, her nipples harden and become flush to match the color on her cheeks. Our dancing loses grace as it becomes a rhythmic grinding against each other while her back still faces me. If it weren’t for our clothes acting as a barrier, I would have long taken her for my own and penetrated her temple a long time ago. If only sex were a form of worship then I would have prayed to her every second of my life. My kisses along her neck intensified as my hands kneaded her fleshy mounds so that I had something to grip when I moved up against her.

Eventually she clutched my hands and spun around so that she could face me fully. Her bosoms squished against my chest and then kneeled up and down methodically. Sango was rubbing against me and even letting her bare chest run over my throbbing erection on occasion. When she stood back up to come to eye level again, I brought my hand behind her neck and pulled her into our first passionate kiss together. My mouth ached to taste her and drink her seduction into my body. Meanwhile her fingers were going to work as they loosened the grip my belt had around my waist. The leather strap clanged against the metal buckle as she pried and pulled it off, throwing it carelessly away in God only knew what direction. I didn’t care. Her hands had found a new place to wander, and I soon found myself at the mercy of her own groping assaults. What I had done over the course of a lifetime, she had perfected. Both of her palms had wiggled under my clothing and grappled the cheeks of my ass into a firm squeeze. I could feel my boxers underneath get damper as she practically squeezed the juice out of me from behind.

By now the dancing had long gone, and we spent more time exploring the terrain of the other’s body to see what we would be claiming as our own in a matter of minutes.

Anything she wanted from me, she could have. If she pulled I would follow, if she pushed I would submit. Knowing this her fingers released their grasp on my posterior and she placed a hand just over my forehead while looking me seductively in the eyes. The top of her teeth combed over her bottom lip before the pressure of her hand gingerly instructed me to get down on my knees. I obeyed her silent command and when she thrust her hips toward my face I got the message loud and clear. The side where her leg was free to roam due to the slit up the side was utilized to wrap around me once again. I now had full view of the temple that was guarded only by the delicate red lace of a rose-patterned thong. I took my time admiring the view, as it would soon be my own hips that would be granted the close-up soon enough. Opportunities of this magnitude were too few and far between to go to waste.

My lips found their mark on her inner thigh, and sighs of contentment came forth from her breath as she leaned her head to the side and closed her eyes to savor the feelings. I found myself being rewarded by gentle combs through the hair as she maintained her balance on one leg as my hot breath crept up her legs until I reached the guardian that would block passage to her fiery gates of heaven. I ran my tongue across the lace before clipping the panties with the tips of my teeth and tugged at them. The elastic bands threatened not to give up, forcing my hands to run up the back of her legs and spread themselves along her buttocks as I groped for those stubborn bands. I could feel the buckling of her knees and had to slow my pace down lest she collapse right on my face…not that I would mind.

Soon I was able to pull them away from their coveted post and, not being the patient type, found the thinnest part and tore it apart. The tattered lace panties fell carelessly down her standing leg, allowing me to embrace her fully and dive into the depths of a very wet temple. A loud gasp escaped her followed by a pleasurable whimpering as my tongue snaked its way along her folds. By now she was biting down on her pointer finger while she continued to communicate her lust through her petting and pulling of my hair. Her erotic gasps fluttered about as I continued to toy with her lower region by sliding myself along her clitoris and flicking at it in unexpected paces. My hands ran up and down her lower back and over her rear as I traveled from her pleasure spot down to the entrance. She tasted like honey to me as I penetrated her appreciatively and she continued to reward me with her cries for more. A few times I even heard her mew parts of my name in no particular order and I couldn’t help but adore her for it. Of all the women I’ve been with, no one could compare to her. Even in my dreams she was beyond amazing; never having provoked such a level of these baser desires in a manner like this before.

My manhood was desperate to take part in what my mouth was lavishing in unhindered quantities. As combined the movement of my tongue with the steady massaging of my hands on her back side I felt another gush of her passion trickled down my chin and her body felt hotter than a furnace set at its highest temperatures. Her fingers reached down and gingerly tugged at my ear, coaxing me to stand up. My taste buds still crying for more, I only gave into the request because my erection had become too painful for my pants’ restrictions. I had to soothe my desire by quenching my thirst from inside of her. As I stood up and gazed down at her she smiled seductively as she took a gloved finger and wiped the remainder of her love off my chin and moved in to reward me with her kiss. My arms wrapped around her body so that she couldn’t wiggle free and with that she leapt into my embrace, wrapping her legs around my body. Her wet pussy rubbing against the front of my shirt was nothing but cruel to my engorged penis that wanted to satiate its hunger for her. Remembering that this was an empty Angelo’s, I managed to make my way down the small staircase and push off the upside-down chairs from a nearby table.

Sitting her down on the table, she took this moment to distract my lower regions with her kisses as her fingers made fast work of my shirt and tie. The few buttons that were refusing to budge were slaughtered mercilessly off of their sewn positions, ripping the rest of them off my body to reveal my upper half to her. The satin fabric stroked my chest up and down, occasionally playing with my nipples as she teased me. In addition to her abdomen play, her fingers would travel down to my pant button and then moved on to the zipper that was the last lock on my carnal instincts. The taught fabric threatened to come loose from being over stretched by my arousal. She decided to play the Devil’s advocate and torture me by unzipping my pants tooth by tooth of the metal prongs. Just for laughs she would move it back up a few teeth before I groaned in agony over her delay of allowing me to ravage her completely. Her intentions were so cruel, and eventually I had no choice but to lean over her and bring my lips to her ear. My soft whispers danced over the microscopic hair follicles that triggered those chills along your neck, “Let me sin.” My hips thrust forward, pushing my erection against her opening with only my clothing to keep me at bay. “Let me sin for you in ways you can’t possibly imagine.” Another flush of heat ran along her body as the words became the key to unlocking the safety mechanism of her play. The last sound of my zipper was opened and her fingers made quick work of my boxers. I would have to unsheathe myself the rest of the way, but having her still partially dressed with the black fabric wrapped around her stomach and her heels still on her feet was as erotic in that moment as being naked.

As I crawled up on the table, she leaned back and almost tried to scoot away from me. Her legs spread open due to my own body’s intervention between her thighs, but her insecurity at this point was adorable as it was endearing. “Sango…” I whispered to her, pushing the tip of my cock against her warmth. I could almost feel myself wanting to erupt right then and there, but I kept my composure as I spoke to her. “Will you bear my children?” For some reason, even in my dreams, this question doesn’t go over so well. For a moment she paused and I could see a quizzical look her in eyes before I egged on a response by teasing her with a soft nudge from my penis. She bit her lower lip as flights of pleasure electrified her body and weakened the strength in her elbows. With a loud thud her upper half hit the table and soon I finally heard the answer I had been waiting for, “…yes…”

The word was softly spoken, but rewarded as I braced myself on the table and firmly pushed myself inside of her. Sango’s back arched up as pain and pleasure of first entry rubbed along the walls of her inner sanctum and filled her tight cave with my full length. When I was completely buried inside of her I paused and allowed the both of us to indulge in the pleasure while her body adjusted to accommodate its new occupant. When her breathing slowed down and her body began moving for some additional action, I slowly pulled my shaft out until the tip was the only thing buried and began a rhythmic pace of slow, methodical thrusts back into her. The friction and movement that enveloped around my cock sent waves of stars to cross my vision from time to time. She was so tight and hot to the touch. As I pushed harder I began to hear the mews of ecstasy from her again. My hands traveled to her breasts once again, and as I kneaded them a bit roughly this time around, I continued to make love to her as passionately as I could muster. With her laying on the table, and me sitting on my knees pushing myself further in, I eventually hit that sweet spot that every man hopes to reach during sex.

Her mews turned into hungry groans of sultry eroticism as I ran my penis over the spot again and again with carnal force. I could feel myself getting too close to the edge, but it wasn’t polite to release first before the lady. I shifted to thrusting with my back muscles instead of the hips so that the sensation wouldn’t be as strong, allowing me to bide a little more time until I got her to that point. With my hands now firmly on her hips, I began grinding our sexes against each other while continuing to run my course over her trigger point. My endurance to keep my own juices in check was becoming slimmer and slimmer as her cries of pleasure were too much to endure. Finally with a few well placed pushes, her walls squeezed down hard on my member as her body tensed with an orgasm. This was my cue to follow suit.

I gripped my dick tightly and groaned in the darkness of the bathroom as I felt the stream of hot semen jut out of my tip in multiple generous doses. I could faintly hear the sound of splattering against the wall and toilet as I forgot about using any toilet paper while beating off my manhood to its complete satisfaction. In the midst of my climaxing glory, the bathroom door burst open as Shippo shouted out, “Miroku, I need to use the bathr-!!”

The sound of my screaming was so loud, I am quite positive that even God himself heard me. I’m also certain that he was probably taking the utmost pity on me and my embarrassing predicament. There I was in my entire Full Monty glory, only to hear the rapid footsteps of two more people racing toward the door.

“Miroku what is i- AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!” I didn’t know what was worse: Shippo’s entrance, or Kagome’s high-pitched screaming followed by her running away with her hands over her eyes. Of course, it’s not humiliating enough to be seen by the kid and Kagome, the hot-tempered gang-boss wannabe was the coup de grace being the last to burst in. While his face contorted into a bizarre reaction, at least he mustered the full sentence of, “Miroku! Get some god damn pants on already! What’s wrong with you?”

My temper had reached its limits on this whole scenario. My lovely fantasy had now been contorted into shame and misery all because the kid couldn’t wait. At that moment I blew my top and shouted back, “I was going to the bathroom! Can’t you guys knock first?!”

Needless to say, breakfast was a completely wordless event that morning. Kagome refused to look at me while the other two couldn’t stop staring. “You know, it’s impolite to stare at people.”

“It’s also impolite to rig your jimmy while you have guests at your place too,” InuYasha retorted sarcastically. Shippo made a whine of disgust at that comment, and Kagome turned red and replied, “Can we please talk about something else besides rigging…jimmies?” Just the whole context it was put in was embarrassing for her to repeat.

It was lucky for all of us that the phone provided a much needed reprieve from the uncomfortable situation we were all now placed in. Getting up from the table, I sauntered over to the phone to answer it, “Hello. Miroku speaking.” One of my informants had contacted me and begins dishing out some new information in soft whispers before he said his quick goodbyes. The conversation was completely one-sided, and all I replied back with as he hung up the phone was a brief, “Thanks,” before I returned the receiver to its proper place.

InuYasha didn’t seem the slightest bit interested, but the other two looked on at my solemn face with curiosity. “What’s wrong?” the kid asked me.

“Angelo’s was hit hard last night. Someone torched the place afterwards.”

“Guess this means we have to get our hands dirty and check it out, don’t we?” the blond asked, still feigning disinterest but knew very well it could be a major lead to Naraku.

“We better go now before the cops investigate all of the evidence.”

“Oo! Oo! I wanna go too!” Shippo bounced in his chair before getting up and running to my bedroom to get his coat.

“No, brat. This could get too dangerous for you.”

“InuYasha, be a little nicer will you?” Kagome scolded him before looking back over, “I don’t think it’s a good idea for you to come this time around. Maybe later, okay? We’ll be back soon.”

“Wha-?” his little face looking completely dejected, “But that’s no fair!”

“That’s life, kid,” InuYasha bonked him in the head and got up from the table, “Deal with it.” Unfortunately it would take another twenty minutes, a hundred bucks, and the promise of ice cream when we returned before he finally agreed to stay home.

--------

The place had that fresh smell of burning wood and blood as the four of them trekked their way toward the building. Cops were all over it like bees on honey and I hoped that they wouldn’t recognize my company lest we all ended up getting arrested. One of them called out to me and rushed to stop me from entering. “Police only,” he scolds, but I flip out my badge to him and reply back, “I was doing casework for one of the victims.”

“Not anymore you’re not.”

I flashed him my most annoyed glare, “If this hit had anything to do with the work I am currently involved with, I’ll make sure to have your job if you don’t let me in. I won’t fuck up your evidence so let my crew and me in already!” The cop slowly hesitated away from us as I made my way past their group and stepped past the police blockades. InuYasha kept his cool and his face away from being recognized as his nose went to work sniffing out any suspicious clues.

As we made our way inside, most of the place had already been dusted here and there for evidence with only a couple of stragglers taking notes and pictures. Trying to ignore the fact that the place had been torched, I looked around and pieced together what would have been remaining if the fire wasn’t part of the equation. I kept my voice low so that only my group could hear us, “The place was a mess before it was burned. There are remnants-,” I point out in several places where nothing but charred bones were left behind, “-of the place being completely massacred. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say the person made it look like your handy work.”

InuYasha growled at the accusation and was about to fire off an expletive but was suddenly stopped by Kagome grabbing his jacket sleeve tightly. Wordlessly he calmed down before replying back to me in a low tone, “I may be messy but I don’t kill innocent people.”

“I know, but luckily they have a new element to play with so I don’t think they’ll try to implicate you off the bat.” I signaled with a nod to move forward and headed into the office. It was the one place that hadn’t been initially demolished by the ambush, but it certainly had taken its share of fire damage. All of us scanned the room before Kagome pointed out to the safe, “Looks like someone opened the safe before they left.”

Leaning in to get a better look, I analyze the surface of it and noticed that the thing hadn’t taken any forced damage. It was opened by someone who knew the code but didn’t have time, or was too lazy, to shut it. “I guess the question is whether or not there were any survivors, and then whether this safe was opened during the attack or before the fire.” I gestured around the front door of the safe, “There aren’t any smoke smudges to assume it was opened after this, and the charred remains inside obviously mark it sometime before the final touch.”

“Which means it’s possible someone might still be alive,” InuYasha growled as he stood back up and went to wander around the main bar room a bit.

“I can’t believe someone would do something like this,” Kagome sighed sympathetically to the people that were left behind in this tragedy, “We’ve got to find out who did this and fast.”

I couldn’t have agreed more, and as the two of us stood up we found InuYasha hovering in a particular spot sniffing the ground very carefully. Curious to see what he had found, we headed in his direction as he wiped that spot with his finger and stuck it in his mouth. “So much for not disturbing the evidence,” I groaned, the other two cops in the place also seemed flabbergasted by what he had done.

“Inu-!” Kagome paused before continuing, “Even you can’t disturb the evidence in here, John!”

Oh yeah…great save there, sweetheart. I went along with it anyway and nodded, but InuYasha didn’t move. His eyes told it all as they went glassy and cold. For a moment he crouched over the spot without saying a word. When he shifted into a standing position he made his way over to us and softly whispered, “He was here.”

Both Kagome and I took in short breaths as we turned to face him and found and extremely serious expression on his face, “Are you sure?”

“It’s a peat-spiced Double Maduro; you do the rest of the math.” The oils are so heavily drenched that even a fire would not be able to completely burn out the flavor of a cigar of that caliber. Nine Lives liked his smokes very dark and almost unbearably flavored. For someone like InuYasha this was an easy clue to pick up on, but would probably be missed by all of the rest.

By this time a voice called out to us from the initial research team, “Hey! We’re packing up for the afternoon. We have to ask you to depart now.” Even if we wanted to we wouldn’t be able to pick up anything as evidence that would lead us to a permanent clue other than InuYasha’s perceptive analysis. I made sure that my foot casually smeared out the streak print that the guy made when tasting the floor. If the police caught his presence here then it would be all manner of bad for the rest of us. “Yeah, we’re coming out,” I called back and we made a sluggish exit out of the place, attempting to soak up the scene one last time before the door was locked and barricaded from further entry.

As everyone was wrapping up their work for the day, I conversed casually with the other police force in order to paint a better picture of what they first started out with. Kagome managed to also charm a few extra notes out of the other weary officers and later bought them a small snack in appreciation. It was always a blessing to have a beautiful woman assisting. If only I had the ability to partake in that charming disposition of hers for myself.

“Hey, you lecherous ex-priest,” a familiar voice snapped me out of my daydream as I came face-to-face with InuYasha again. “Oh! Uh, yes?”

“Don’t even think about it.”

No words could ever describe the heaviness of the sigh that escaped my list, “Yes, yes, I know.” It looked like I would have to imagine myself being able to embrace the young maiden in my arms. The dainty frame pressed up against me, her black hair dark as ebony and smelled of lavender. Her B-cup assets mashed-

“Miroku, are you feeling okay?” Kagome asked me with concern, “You’re drooling.”

Back to reality, my left hand shot up to ward my mouth to find a little trickle of saliva had escaped. Good lord, as if it I could afford to tarnish my reputation with them any further, “Oh! Sorry about that Kagome. I must have spaced out.” The look on her face obviously showed that she didn’t believe me.

“Come on guys,” she said, slinging a purse strap over her shoulder, “Everyone’s gone home already. The chief just left a minute ago; I think we should too and discuss our strategy on how to find Nine Lives. I’m pretty sure Shippo is hungry as well.”

Kagome opened the passenger door and made her way in while InuYasha and I were about to go in as well. It was kind of a blur for that particular second when the ring of a gun shot echoed out in all of our ears. Before I knew what had happened, I found myself laid out on the ground after taking a nasty spill backwards. My chest was throbbing and felt like every bone in my ribcage had been shattered. I thought I heard my name being called out, but everything was a little hazy and my ears were ringing to boot.

“Shit!” InuYasha took a dive into the car as another round fired toward him, “Kagome stay down and don’t move!”

“No kidding, you think!?!” she shouted back, wiggling her body down to the depths of the foot rest areas and tried crawling to the driver’s side where she saw me laying there in a bundle of pain. The driver’s side wasn’t facing the onslaught of bullets directly, so it would be the best cover for the time being. Ironically the shooter wasn’t spraying us with the usual array of bullets that came with a gang hit. The perpetrator had only fired two so far, making sure that each shot would count.

For a while all was silent as I tried to regain my senses as Kagome placed my head in her lap while trying to remain out of firing distance, “Miroku, talk to me.”

“The damn cheater,” InuYasha growled as I felt my coat and shirt being ripped away to reveal a ballistics vest underneath. The bullet was well implanted into the padded vest and even made its way burned partially into my skin. But luckily it didn’t make its way through, even if the pain I was enduring was the worst of the side effects.

“I’m self employed,” I sputtered out, trying to suck in more air for my crushed lungs to revive from, “Do you think I’d go into something like this without some basic protection? It’s not like I’ll have anyone to drive me to the hospital.”

“Quit your whining and get up already!” The blond crawled his way towards the trunk and began picking at the lock while the shooter finally made themselves present. It was a slim figure in a black pinstripe suit with a hat covering their eyes. You couldn’t really make out their features since everything was hidden under the hat. Each hand carried a revolver at their side, and one was still wafting a little smoke and gunpowder into the air as testament of responsibility to the recent shots fired.

“You murdered my family,” the voice finally revealed itself to be that belonging to a woman. But the image InuYasha was seeing before him wasn’t revealing anything effeminate, just cold rage. There was something very familiar about the guns she was carrying, “Colt 45 M1911’s, single action semi-automatic with a .45 ACP cartridge. Both are custom painted as well.” InuYasha was well versed in handguns than myself, so most of it sounded like gobblety-gook to me. Managing to sit up on my own, the pressure on my chest forced a headache to throb along my temples, but I tried to ignore it while I got a better glimpse of the shooter.

“Could that possibly be…” I started to reply as the hat tilted upwards and in that moment my eyes met with hers. Her left arm lifted up and my voice reacted, “Sango!”

“Get down you idiot,” as her finger squeezed the trigger, InuYasha yanked at my shoulder to dodge the bullet that promptly bit into the metal flesh of my poor car. “Do you want her to blow your face off you stupid fool?! I can’t believe you’ve been moonlighting with a hit man!”

I blinked quizzically and even Kagome seemed a little confused, “Hit man?”

“Ever heard of the family that accepts money for hits on mobsters and corrupted government agents?”

Racking my brain for that information, it was a little difficult when my head felt like it was splitting in two, “Vaguely,” I lied in response.

“Does the name Single Shot ring a bell?”

“You mean the one that can usually take out a target with a single bullet? That’s my beloved Sango?!”

“It takes enough physical strength to wield a pistol with two hands and not have the recoil hit you in the face as it is. But Single Shot was known not only for her one hit kills, but the fact that she wields two Colt 45’s simultaneously and shoots with equal precision on both without showing issues with the recoil.”

InuYasha wasn’t much of a brainiac on any topic of conversation, but when it came to guns he was probably the best to talk to. “Which means…?” I asked him inquisitively.

“It means you’re fucked,” he replied before shouting over to Kagome, “Pop the trunk!”

The girl didn’t wait another moment before she dove into the driver’s side and began groping around relentlessly for a way to open it.

“Quit hiding behind that car and take your punishment like the men you claim you are, you damn murderers,” Sango’s voice commanded to InuYasha and myself.

“But I’m a priest!” I cried out.

“EX-PRIEST!” the other two shouted back at me in clarification. Cursing, I retorted back to the sharp-shooting beauty, “Bah, semantics! I would still never hurt a sexy young woman like you!” Maybe my words would soothe her raging heart and bring sense back to the madness that she was currently drowning in.

“Save it for the ferryman to Hell, you damn lecher!” Sango shouted; her wrist cocked at an angle and she fired another round that bounced off the lamp post and ricocheted toward one of the tires of my car. The pop was followed by an extreme amount of air pressure being released and soon the bumper I was leaning against weighed down on my left shoulder a bit more. Okay, maybe the words wouldn’t do the trick after all. By now InuYasha had finished finagling with the trunk which flew open to reveal a large wooden case.

“I’m still baffled as to how a lecher can be worse than a murderer,” I gasped, the pain in my chest still reeling through me. A clicking of metal springs let me know that InuYasha had finally gotten his Tommy Gun loaded and pretty soon he handed me my Colt M1900 which seemed to be an antique of a thing in comparison to Sango’s double M1911’s and InuYasha’s M1928A1. Again, it’s all gobblety-gook to me once more. During this interlude of arming ourselves, Kagome crawled over to us and replied, “She’s just mistaken us for what Naraku did. Don’t kill her, InuYasha!”

“Yeah,” I chimed in, “It would be a waste to kill such a-.”

“Shut up, I know what I’m doing,” he growled back, and having said that, he took aim and fired a round of metal forcing Sango to withdraw back behind the metal dumpster that was hanging out along the side. When he stopped firing, another shot rang out and clipped him along the hand before burying itself into the concrete behind him.

“Damn!” he cursed, reloading his gun, “She’s got a killer aim even when blinded.”

“Perhaps if we corner her from both sides,” I suggested.

“Even if we could, without any cover we’re sitting ducks.”

“Then let’s keep her hiding while we get into position. “

That seemed to be the suggestion that he was hoping for, “Let’s go!” The two of us split off into different directions with him spraying another round of bullets at the trash bin while we ran looking for cover closer to the target. As predicted, there was no movement from the girl as I went right and behind the neighboring business’ dumpster while InuYasha moved left out closer to the street. Using the building now as a side shelter, he had a perfect shot of Sango who realized this and quickly leapt over the trash and into the bin.

The loud thunk had reverberated the metallic noise. Both he and I were stunned silent as her sudden movement would have now left her vulnerable to the Tommy Gun. It was already prevalent that she would be at risk since holes had decorated the entire bin. But the choice of relocation was soon made clear as a shot echoed from the bin and whizzed by InuYasha’s face, clipping his cheek and forcing him back into hiding. “How did she…?” Taking his time, he tried peeking around the corner again only to be greeted by another ball of metal death flying past him. I saw the blond duck back behind the place and soon he called out, “She’s shooting through the holes I made in the dumpster!”

I couldn’t help but chuckle and shout back, “Clever girl,” in the open. Figuring I’d play with fate a little, I reached up into the air with my right gloved hand and see if it was true. The Colt 45 responded instinctively, and I felt the force of the bullet go through the material and bounce off of the brick wall on the other side. Pulling my hand down, I concluded her precision was indeed very remarkable. Had it not been the fact that Naraku had already taken out that part of my hand years ago, I probably would have been screaming in pain right about now.

Instead I received a scolding from InuYasha going, “Quit playin’ around!”

“Sorry, I couldn’t help myself.”

A female voice echoed back, “What the hell is wrong with your hand?”

“Sorry to disappoint you, my dear,” I replied back to her, “But I’m afraid good ol’ Nine Lives beat you to the punch on that last shot a few years back!”

“You mean you were taunting me?”

“I believe the correct words would be ‘testing out a theory’ to some.”

There was a distinct noise that sounded like a growl, but I couldn’t be entirely sure. All that was said afterwards was, “Fine…test this out then!” The chiming sound of multiple coins filled the air as InuYasha and I looked up and found silver metal pieces glittering in the setting sun. While we found ourselves distracted like raccoons that had just hit the jackpot of shiny stuff, one by one each of them flew off in another direction as a hail of bullets bounced off each coin and rained down on the three of us mercilessly like giant hail. All the windows of my car had been shattered to pieces, while InuYasha simply took cover from his onslaught and I was forced to hug the dumpster to avoid my share of the firing squad as well. I counted about eleven shots which meant she probably reloaded a new clip into one of them during her scuffle with us so far. When all went silent I assumed she had run out of ammo and was, perhaps, biding her time at the moment.

Taking this as a signal to move in, I also heard InuYasha coming around the corner and the two of us tried to close the gap that would ensure our victory. By now the pain had muted out due to the adrenaline pumping through my veins. As I rounded the dumpster and my teammate followed suit, two clips jumped into the air before a set of hands with the guns clamped down on the new rounds and locked into place. The arms crossed over each other and it was at this point that I could see the gold cursive “Kotsu” pointing in my direction. Both of us tumbled to the ground as the guns fired simultaneously in each of our previous locations. She took this opportunity to leap up and extend her legs in order to support her body on the edge of the dumpster. Since she had a solid aerial view of us, her hands moved instinctively and now I had “Hirai” attempting to give me a cold kiss of death. My body lunged away from its target and I took the opportunity to fire a single shot back at the weapon.

Despite the fact that my life was in mortal danger, it was still a crime to kill a woman who was obviously misunderstanding the whole situation. For any of us to die over this would be absurd. The seconds seemed to pass like minutes in that moment as I fired a bullet that hit the barrel of Hirai and ripped it from her grip. When the gun went flying away I reached out and tried to get a good grasp on her wrist so that she would at least be immobile from the left side.

InuYasha was about to take advantage of her surprise when there was a sound that finally silenced them all as it rang out, whizzing past InuYasha’s ear and suddenly Sango reacted by tensing up. Her fingers lost grip on Kotsu and it slipped to the ground with a loud thunk on the wet cement. The feeling of her blood trickled underneath the layers of clothing, and she looked up past the group she was fighting with to see where the shooter had come from. In the distance she saw the same red suit she was formerly ambushed with and it appeared to be Naraku at the helm of pistol that had clipped her. I was unaware of this exchange as I reached out to the now falling body despite my own discomforts to catch her. She twisted to the side and slumped into my arms nearly knocking me back had I not prepped my footing. The sudden weakness didn’t seem to be coming from the pain in her shoulder even as she now gripped it with intensity. Instead, it was her eyes that gave it away of her real ailment. “My…family…” were the words she whispered to me through the tears. Clouds that were looming over us finally marked a warning with their rolls of thunder that the rain would be returning very soon.

“I know, Sango,” was all that I could say to her as I held on and embraced her as gently as I could muster. I wasn’t exactly eloquent with words in these situations and found that silence was often the best treatment when dealing with this sort of thing. Her sobs, however, were surprisingly soft and subtle. Even now she tried to maintain enough strength of heart to regain her composition once again.

“Miroku’s been visiting places where Naraku’s been hiding out in order to help us take him down,” Kagome finally interjected as she walked over to us with a small first aid kit that was in the back of my car earlier, “Not even InuYasha would kill anyone mercilessly like that.”

“Hmpf! And I’m not a coward about it either,” he added in for good measure, handing the Hirai gun that I managed to blast out of her hand back. For a while Sango didn’t say anything as she carefully got back on her own two feet and stared at the gun with the cursive gold lettering that adorned it. Letting go of the wound in her shoulder she reached out and took the weapon back from him and put it in its appropriate holster. “I-,” these words were hard to say knowing how she had been deceived by false information, “want to apologize for this.”

“There’s nothing to apologize for,” I said gingerly with all the charisma I could muster. It was times like these when women were most vulnerable and it was the best time to score points in your favor.

Had I known InuYasha was going to ruin it with the follow-up of, “You took the bait Naraku fed you, it was only to be expected I guess,” I probably never would have mentioned anything. Naturally Kagome was good at making up for the guy’s insolent retorts with a, “How could you be so insensitive!” The only thing that began to stop the quarrelling between the two of them was the soft song of police sirens in the distance.

“I think we better get out of here.”

“Wait,” Sango interjected quickly, “Let me come with you.”

I smiled, this was a blessing from God granting me the opportunity of a lifetime once again, “My dear, you needn’t even ask. Come on.”

Unbeknownst to the rest of us, a pair of rouge lips quirked into a smile as she pulled the small binoculars away from her eyes, “Looks like you might have to go with your second plan after all.” Her voice was deep and sultry, and when her rose-colored eyes turned to meet her bosses’ he simply scoffed. “No matter what they do, everything is still going according to plan.”

“I guess with the brat in tow you don’t really care what the girl does?” Putting away her trinket, the woman looked over to the back seat of their black Cadillac to find Kohaku passed out with a bandage wrapped around his left shoulder. “Honestly, what use is the kid to you?”

“Are you questioning my methods, Kagura?” It was icy the way he addressed her. For a moment she thought she felt herself gasp in a bit of fear from it too. Perhaps it was her imagination, but either way she resented being forced to follow this man’s every beck and call. Seeing that he was heading into the car to make his departure, she joins him in the passenger seat and head off to the downtown area.

From that point the game was on between my team and Nine Lives’ entourage. This Shikon Jewel seemed to be only a trinket to me, but when mob bosses were willing to slaughter innocent people just to get to it; it was a cause for great concern. My heart was weighed heavily by this matter that I knew I would have to meditate and find solace somewhere in order to find the answers to our problems.

A growl emanated from Sango’s throat, “Grrrr! Get your hand off my ass you sick pervert!”

The echo of a whip-like cracking noise could be heard from blocks away; and I was now the recumbent owner of a shiny red tattoo of throbbing pain across my face. Despite what you all might be thinking I believe that this could be the start of a beautiful relationship.

“Priest! Don’t you dare make me say it again!”

“Sango, you shouldn’t move so much until we get you to the hospital.”

…Or not…

FIN