Inuyasha POV:

The guy was down before the first round had even ended. Pathetic… I thought as I walked back across the boxing ring and tugging off my gloves. Pulling on my crimson robe over the red shorts, I picked up my things. There was no applause, no excited spectators waiting to talk to me. There never was. The only people waiting by my corner of the ring were Shippo, a red-headed fox demon freshman, and Miroku, my fellow sophomore and best friend. I'm the best high school age boxer in Japan, and an outcast. An orphan, a half demon, and a reject of Sesshomaru Taisho. My older brother is a full demon and the senior that every other high-scholar worships. Sesshomaru doesn't like me, correction, hates me, and because of that, so does everyone else. There are only two opponents I can't put down for good in the ring. Naraku, (that cheating sleaze-ball) and my older brother, who is every bit a match for me. I twitch my ears as I walk out of the ring, noticing Sesshomaru kissing his girl-friend Rin in the corner of the room. Gross. My brother getting together with anyone is weird, if only because he's an emotionless bastard. Whatever. Shippo runs up to me as Miroku watches a girl named Sango. He loves the girl, but she won't give him the time of day, and all I have to say to that is 'Sucks to be you.' Not like I haven't been there before, with Kikyo and all, but…

"Great job Inuyasha! That was awesome!" Shippo's chatter breaks through my thoughts.

"Huh? Oh, yeah, thanks Shippo." I suddenly decide I'm hungry, (not an uncommon occurrence in my case) and yell at Miroku to get his perverted butt in gear so we can go snag something to eat.

He tags after me dreamily, and the three of us walk out of Musashi High and go down a couple of blocks to my favorite restaurant. Probably the only restaurant in history to serve Ramen, Myoga's was one of the only places I felt at home. Besides Myoga, the store owner, being one of my dads' best friends, I could always put on my red baseball cap in public, and no one would know about my half-demon status. Then again, I was lucky. Jinenji was one of the other half demons I knew, and he was more demon-looking than human. There were only three of us half-demons in the school, Jinenji, Shiori and I, and we generally didn't talk much. Jinenji and Shiori hung out together because their shared personality of kindness, but I was… to put it shortly, considered a jerk. I bite people's heads off, am really hot-headed, and tend to use my fist pretty freely. Okay, understatement. You even look at me wrong, and I'm likely to sock you.

"Hey Myoga!" I call out as we entered the hole-in-the-wall place and sat down without invitation. He leaped over to us and apparently felt the need to eat, so he began to suck my blood, the filthy little parasite. I squashed him. It really is amazing that he's still alive, the amount of times I've done that to him…

"Inuyasha!" yelped, springing back up as he recovered from his most recent flattening. "The usual, I assume?" I smirk.

"Yeah Myoga. Just a little victory party between two friends and a nuisance." Shippo pouts in my direction and I half-smile back until he glances back at the kids' menu he had been coloring.

"I'll take you one the match then. Good for you. Ayame!" he shouted, drawing the attention of a nearby waitress who was cleaning tables in the near empty establishment. Her flaming red pig-tails bounced as she jerked upright, her brilliant green eyes falling and Myoga's puny figure.

"What's up Myoga?"

"These people would like three Ramen-bowls, on the house this time!" Her eyes fell on Miroku, who was still daydreaming, Shippo, who was poking Miroku's face with a fork, and lastly on me.

"Inuyasha!" she squealed as if we were good friends, even though I had never met this chick in my life.

"Uh…do I know you?"

"Noooo, but I know you!"

Okay, that's creepy. Extremely creepy.

"You're the half demon boxing champ! You beat the human league, the half demon league and came runner-up to your brother in the full demon league!"

"Um, yes…you know this how?"

"Koga told me how jealous he was of you, but then he decided he was more suited to kick-boxing, so he got over it."

"What, are you like, his girl-friend or something?"

"If only, but…"

"Ayame!" Myoga yelled at the wolf demon girl. "These people need food!"

Ayame huffed and flounced back into the kitchens. Myoga glanced at me as my stomach gave a deafening roar of hunger. "Inuyasha, don't forget your work shift starts at 9:00 tonight!"

"Yeah yeah, I'll be here, alright? Get off my back, I only missed work yesterday because Yura apparently hates me and gave us ten tons of homework!" It's true. While I don't particularly care about my grades, I have to keep them at about a low B average to pass. And trust me, the faster I get out of there the better. Myoga sighed and left as Ayame reappeared with our late lunch…early dinner…ummm…dunch? Whatever, my ramen was here and I was starved, so I did what any normal person would do. I wolfed down the noodles, drank the broth, and for good measure licked out my bowl. Maybe a little too dog-like there, but hey, I was hungry. Miroku hadn't touched his noodles and was still staring off into space.

"You gonna eat that?" I asked. He didn't respond so I took his food anyway. I woulda taken Shippo's but he had purposely spit in it to keep me out. I started to shovel the monk's noodles into my mouth when the door opened and three girls walked in. They strode closer to us and I realized that they were priestesses.

I guess I should explain. Even though most demons live in "harmony" with the humans (so called) there were still a few demons who decided, 'screw society, I'm going to eat humans just 'cause I feel like it.' In which case they get killed by priestesses, monks or demon slayers. Anyway, I recognized one as Midoriko, the young teacher from our school. The other two were students. I knew the older student, Tsubaki, but the younger one was new to me. I could smell fear coming off her in waves and wondered why; until I saw the way she was looking at Shippo.

"Demon!" she growled lowly, but we could still hear her. Shippo and I looked up at her.

"You got a problem with demons?" I snarled.

"Yeah, and so should you, being human!" I gave a guttural sound from my throat at that. She probably didn't know I was demon because I had covered ears, but Tsubaki and Midoriko were giving me wary looks. I stood up quickly and whipped off my cap.

"Don't be too sure wench!" I shouted at her. She gasped and zapped me with some pink priestess lightning-power crap, and I fell to the floor with a yell.

"Nazuna, stop it!" cried Midoriko, but the girl either couldn't, or wouldn't stop. The pain intensified as Tsubaki laughingly joined in.

Miroku POV:

I had been thinking about Sango…her ebony hair, her delicate, pale skin, her chocolate eyes… but snapped out of my dream-like state of mind when Inuyasha collapsed. Two girls from school were frying him as he writhed on the tile floor and Shippo cried for them to stop. Midoriko's hands shot out and grabbed each girl by the arm.

"Tsubaki, Nazuna! That is uncalled for!"

Inuyasha was slowly picking himself up of the ground, twitching occasionally and breathing raggedly. Myoga was on Shippo's shoulder, having been drawn by the yelling, but I don't think Shippo noticed. Inuyasha's eyes began to glint redly in the dim light, and I had known him long enough to know that that was a really bad sign. REALLY bad. As in, going to get us all killed bad sign. I half stood and placed my hands on the table.

"Cool it Yash." I said warningly. Midoriko, who had been chewing out her pupils stopped at my words and looked up at Inuyasha, whose eyes were glowing a dark crimson. Nazuna suddenly yelled out,

"Demons killed my father! I will kill every demon I come across!" and began to shoot more lightning.

"No!" I lunged too late as Inuyasha darted away from the pink light and slashed the air with his claws. The girl erected a weak barrier that gave her some protection from the dagger-nails sailing toward her. Four furrows found their way into her upper arm, but the gouges weren't deep. She cried out and doubled the power that she placed on my best friend. He staggered and fell to his knees howling like a wounded dog. His eyes turned gold again with the force of the pain as he fought to stay upright. His eyes were wild with agony and he began thrashing on the floor again.

"STOP IT!" I yelled and quickly formed a shield of purple-blue energy to block her attacks. Using some of my own energy I shoved her back away from us. Shippo crouched next to Inuyasha beside me and Myoga hopped timidly over to the trio of women.

"Perhaps it would be better if you left…" he suggested. Nazuna snarled.

"As if we'd want to eat here anyways!" She stalked out, closely followed by Tsubaki, and after an apology, Midoriko. Shippo backed away from Inuyasha rapidly as he stood unsteadily, weaving like a drunkard, and barely conscious.

"Inuyasha, do you want me to drive you home?" He looked at me incoherently. I gently led him to my used purple Prius and put him in the passenger side. As we drove his head seemed to clear, the dazed look disappearing from his eyes.

"Damn…" he moaned.

"Feeling better?" I asked. He glared daggers at me.

"Hell. No."

"Well, we're here, so get out of my car."

"Maybe I'll just hurl right here!"

"Ack! Get out! I just bought this, and I'm not having you mess it up!"

"Fine, fine, I'm leaving!" He hopped out of my car and ascended three flights of stairs to his apartment. He looked okay to me… I drove off.

Inuyasha POV:

I dragged myself up the stairs, feeling nauseous. My memory was a blur past the point where those girls insulted my heritage. A few things stood clear in my mind though. Pain, demon blood taking over, I hit something, more pain, Miroku's car, and now I was climbing three sets of stairs to get to my tiny apartment. I…I'm okay. I told myself. I managed to get up two and a half flights of stairs before I collapsed and doubled over. Maybe I wasn't as okay as I thought. I moaned again. Damn, this hurt! Curse Nazuna, Tsubaki and whoever else comes to mind at the moment! A scent suddenly wreathed around me. I hadn't heard anyone approaching, probably because I was wearing my baseball cap. A small price to pay, hearing loss, in exchange for not being treated like dirt. The scent was familiar but different somehow. A girl's voice traveled down to me as if from a distance.

"Are you okay?" a delicate hand stretched out toward me and I resisted the animal-like urge to bite it. I pulled away from the reaching fingers and snarled.

"Don't touch me!" the hand pulled back slightly.

"But I can help you! You're obviously in pain!"

"I said leave me the hell alone! I don't need you or anyone else!" I laboriously pulled myself to my feet and weaved down the hall, leaning heavily on the wall for support. I could hear her following me, but I ignored her. Irritably yanking my keys out of my pocket, I unlocked the door and slammed it behind me.

The apartment that I rented was small. It consisted of a joint living room/kitchen, one bedroom and a bathroom. I threw up a couple of times, which pissed me off because I had paid good money for that ramen, and money isn't something I have a lot of. Slouching back to my bed room I set the alarm clock for 7:00 pm, enough time to get some homework done and walk to work, since I lack a car, or even a bike. I fell onto my red sheets and fell asleep almost instantly, the crimson and white of my room having a soothing effect. That, and I was pretty freakin' exhausted.