My Will

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It was past noon by the time I got back home. I scurried along, knowing Keiko had probably driven my grandfather insane by now. I could only hope Souta was home to help him out.

As I ran beneath the under pass, I didn’t notice the whistles from the group of guys sitting in the drunk bum’s usual spot. Nor did I notice when they began to follow after me, keeping my hurried pace.

It was only when I took the shortcut through the vacant lot behind my complex that I realized I wasn’t alone.

I stopped short as I felt a strong hand grab my shoulder.

“Hey cutie. Where you running off to?”
I spun around, trying to pull away from his grasp. He smirked at my struggle, and his two friends chuckled.

“Looks like she don’t like you too much. How bout me, baby? You like what you see?”

I did in fact glance at him, but didn’t mean to make the face I did. He growled at the horrified look I gave him when I caught sight of him. I had never seen eyes bulge like that before.

“What the fuck was that look for?!” He demanded. I tried to reply, but found my voice had all but disappeared.

“Please…let me go.” I cried hoarsely.

This drew more laughs from the two I hadn’t offended, and the boy holding my shoulder, pulled my body flush against his.

“C’mon baby, have a heart. I just want to spend a little time with ya. Why don’t you come back to my place and we’ll have some fun?”
I swallowed hard, and images of Hiten flashed in my mind. I felt tears welling behind my eyes, and I did everything I could to pull away from him.

“Let me go! Don’t hurt me, just let me go, and I won’t tell anyone.” I promised. That didn’t seem to mean anything to them though. His bright blue eyes twinkled mischievously, and I felt a sinking feeling in my stomach.

I was surprised when he wrinkled his brow and then grabbed my face, roughly tilting my chin up.

“I know you…I’ve seen you at school before. You’re the one with the kid, aren’t ya?”

I nodded, and searched my memory to try and place his name. He did look a little familiar, but I didn’t socialize much at school anymore.

“That’s what I thought. Kinky Kag, that’s what they call you. Did you know that? They write all kinds of things about you on the bathroom walls…You know what…” He drew my face closer to his, and then brought a hand up to squeeze my left breast. “I wouldn’t mind finding out if some of them were true.”


“Let her go.”


His head shot up suddenly at the voice that spoke calmly from behind me. I tried to turn, but he held me tight.

“What the fuck do you think you’re doing? You wanna die, asshole?”

“Let her go.” was the only reply. He growled and then turned to the other two who seemed just as stunned at the newcomer’s audacity.

“What the fuck were you two doing? You’re supposed to be watching out, not dicking around. Get rid of this fucker!”

They both nodded and a second later, charged at whoever my attempted rescuer was. I heard a scuffle behind me, as well as a few sharp cries, and two separate thuds. Then the leader’s grip on me grew painfully tight as he growled in pure rage. Before I knew it, he had thrown me roughly to the ground, and went to do the job himself.

I hit the ground hard, face first, and I laid there stunned for a few moments. Vaguely, I could hear sounds of a fight behind me, as well as few curses, and finally another thud. Then there was silence, except for the sound of heavy breathing. I froze, fearful of who had come out the victor.
Footsteps approached slowly, and I waited, holding my breath for whatever would happen next. I watched the shadow fall over me, and prepared myself for the worst.

“Are you…okay?”

My heart leapt with pure joy when I heard the stranger’s voice, and I barely chocked out a reply.
“Yes I’m-” I turned to face him and stopped in the middle of my sentence.

And much like my new neighbors son had done the other day, I simply stared.

His hair was jet black, not unlike my own, with long unruly bangs framing his face. His skin was lightly tanned, and a few beads of sweat rolled from his temples as I watched. Perhaps the thing that really caught me off guard were his eyes. They were a breathtaking, Elizabeth-Taylor-eat-your-heart-out, violet, filled with concern and a touch of something else I couldn’t quite place.

He was so close to me, I could feel his labored breath against my face, and inexplicably, my heart began to pound. For a second, his eyes flicked down to my slightly parted lips, and then back up again.

Just then, I caught movement from the corner of my eye and realized that the punks were still around.

I started to yell a warning when my mystery rescuer was kicked in the back, knocking him forward onto me. He managed to brace his hands against the hard ground before his entire weight came crashing onto me, then quickly rolled to the side.

I could see the blue eyed boy, seething with anger, and a river of blood running from both nostrils. Both took a defensive stance, ready for a second round.

“You fucking fag! You picked the wrong fucking time to be a hero! Now I’m gonna really fuck you both up!”
The stranger furrowed his brow furiously, and barked back.

“You won’t get a chance!”

The words were barely out of his mouth before he lunged at my attacker. I watched, wide eyed as they fought, and felt the fear rising back in my body as I realized they were pretty evenly matched. I felt a tear run down my cheek as the violet eyed boy took a hard right punch to the face. As he stumbled backwards, he threw a glance my way and yelled.

“Get the fuck out of here, Kagome!”

It didn’t take much more than that to get me back on my feet and running, but I headed towards the street instead of the safety of home. There was no way I could just leave him there to fight on his own.

When I reached the road, I ran to the first car I saw at the stoplight.
As I rapped frantically on the window, a forty-something woman rolled it down.

“What the hell is wrong with you, are you on dope or-”

“Please, do you have a cell phone?! I need the police!”
Her expression changed as she took a closer look at my face and she nodded.

“Please hurry!” I prompted as she reached for her purse.
When I got confirmation that the police were on their way, I started to run back towards the vacant lot where I’d left the two boys fighting.

When I reached the lot again, I stopped short in surprise. The stranger was kneeling, holding his right fist and panting hard. I noticed the other two were not in the places I had left them, instead haphazardly collapsed next to the now unconscious blue eyed one. I gasped when I realized that all three must have ganged up on him…

Suddenly, his head snapped up, and hazy eyes focused on me. This time the wail of a police siren broke my trance, and I ran over to him.

“Oh my God, are you okay? You’re bleeding.” I gushed, as I placed my hands on his face gingerly. He winced once, but did not pull away.

I pulled down the sleeve of my jacket, licking the material, and wiped away the blood from a small cut on his cheek. I cleaned his face as best I could, barely noticing the commotion behind me as the police took control of the situation.
He placed his hand on top of mine, stopping my hand and making me jump in surprise. I looked into his eyes, and once again, saw concern.

“Hey, I’m okay. I’m not dying…you don’t have to cry, okay?”

Confused, I touched a hand to my own face, and it came away wet. I quickly wiped away the tears, and sniffled, a bit embarrassed.
“I’m sorry…it’s just that you got hurt for trying to help me, and I’m just…I got scared…”

I looked down, and noticed he hadn’t taken his hand off of mine. As I stared at that, I whispered softly.
“Thank you-” I was about to ask him his name, when a stray thought suddenly hit me.

He had called me…when he told me to run, he had called me by my name.

“I hate to interrupt, kids, but we need to ask a few questions.”

We both jerked our heads towards the police officer standing right beside us. I felt my face go beet red, and quickly drew away from my rescuer, forgetting the revelation I’d just had.

“Yes sir.” I mumbled. Yash stood with a hand from the officer, and he lead us over to the ambulance where a paramedic began checking over his injuries.

We both gave a brief description of what happened, and the EMT bandaged up my battered hero. As he spoke, giving his statement, I shivered unconsciously.
What would have happened if he hadn’t shown up? Would I be still be at the mercy of the blue eyed asshole and his two cronies? What would they have done to me? And would I have made it out alive?

“I‘ll need your names and addresses as well.”

“Kagome Higurashi.” I said absently. “I live right here, Apartment 416.”

“Yash Sengoku.” My head shot up at his answer. “I live here too. 413.”

The officer scribbled down the information, then told us we were free to go. Even after he walked away, I continued to stare at him, having realized how he’d known my name. The paramedic gave him the ok as well, and he finally realized I’d hardly blinked.

“Does that run in your family or something?”

I started to speak, but embarrassment drowned out any coherent thought. I settled for blushing, and looking away. I heard him chuckle, then groan.

“Shit…”

“Does it hurt?” I asked timidly, once again bringing my eyes to his. He smirked, in a confident sort of way.

“Keh, it’ll take more than that to put me down.” His expression turned serious then. “Are you sure you’re alright, though? You look kinda pale.”

“I’m fine…just a little…you know. And I’m kinda surprised to find out you’re my poor sneezing neighbor. Couldn’t really see you with the whole dust-fighting getup.”
It was his turn to look away sheepishly as he stood.

“Yeah, well…I have a really sensitive nose.”

“I know, your father told me,” I said standing as well.

“Old man isn’t lying. I’m sorry if it was bothering you all.”
I gave him a look of disbelief.

“You pretty much just saved my life and you’re apologizing for your allergies? You’re a funny kind of hero. I should be the one apologizing, for getting you involved.”

“Keh. It’s not like I had a choice. You really think I was just gonna let them hurt you? Not a chance.”

I felt an odd pang of something shoot through me at his words. The look in his eyes was so serious, and even though I was still shaken up from what had just happened, I had never felt so safe in my neighborhood before.

“Let me walk you home. Though I don’t really have a choice in that either, do I?”
I caught the good-natured tone in his voice, and smiled. We started the walk to the front door of our building, with a shaky, but comfortable silence.

“So…um…you know you and your dad look a lot alike. Kinda like twins almost.”

“Oh. Yeah, I get that a lot. He likes to tell people he’s just my older brother. Doesn’t usually work though.” I laughed softly, and reached into my purse for the key.

“I don’t suppose you have your own yet, do you?”

“Nope. Actually, I was locked out for a little bit. I thought there might be a back door, so that’s why I was there…just now.”
I nodded, my mind still reeling from the amazing luck.

“Well, you can have mine if you want. I have a few spare, since I tend to lose things a lot.” I pressed the key into his hand as we waited for the elevator.

“Thanks. You don’t have to-”

“It’s the least I can do. Please take it.”
He nodded, a faint smile on his lips. As we stepped in the waiting lift, I took another look at his face. A few bruises were starting to form, but aside form the cut on his cheek and his lip, he seemed okay.

“You know…you don’t seem too phased about what just happened. Have you been in a fight before?”

“I’ve lost count.” He said absently as he touched his fingers to his lip, then checked for blood. “I’ll tell you, this isn’t the worst place I’ve lived.”

“I’m sorry to hear that. You’re…you’re really good though.”

He beamed at my comment and he flashed me another grin.
“Yeah, I know.”

The doors opened, and another silence enveloped us as we walked down the hall to our apartments.

He passed his own, and walked me all the way to my door. When we stopped, we both shared a timid glance, then looked away.

Inside, my heart had begun to pound again, and I was almost positive he could hear it in the quiet hall. I opened my mouth to speak, and struggled to find something to say.

“I uh…I know that I umm, already said this but…thank you, Yash.”
He half-smiled, then shrugged sheepishly.

“You’re welcome. Just be more careful from now on. I’d rather not do this again.”

“I know, I’m so sorry-” I began, but he cut me off with a dismissive wave

“But if I have to, I will. So don’t be sorry, because it wasn’t your fault. Just a couple of assholes trying to take advantage of a pretty girl and-” He broke off suddenly and went about twenty shades of red before he mumbled something else. “Well, you should get home, and I should too, Pop’s probably back by now. See ya.”

Before I could say another word, he turned on his heel and half-ran back to his door. After he’d gone inside with only a swift glance back at me, I continued to stand there, wondering what the hell had gotten him so flustered. Shrugging, I heard my grandfather calling out Kay’s name exasperatedly, and I realized I had to go and do some rescuing of my own.

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