Beyond The Wasteland (2nd Edition) by Dana Daidouji

Prologue

Disclaimer: InuYasha and its characters belong to Rumiko Takahashi. I hold no claim on any brands depicted in this story. This is for entertaining purposes only. Please keep in mind that this disclaimer applies to the story in general and every chapter herein therefore will only be written this once.

The Taisho family, listed in Forbes' Top Ten wealthiest, seemed secure in the power and comfort provided by their many economic and political conquests until the day that everything went dark for their littlest member: one adopted girl named Rin Taisho.

It was the twenty-first of November, year two thousand and five when an insistent call on the personal phone of the family's eldest son and heir, a number that only a hand-picked few knew, disturbed the previous monotone conundrum in a conference room.

With half a mind to tell the caller off, the young man neatly dressed in a sharp business suit in the deepest navy blue pressed the capacitive screen to allow the call to pass through and positioned the shiny device to his ear, having first apologized for the interruption and relocated to a private office.

Moments later the sound of cracking plastic was heard in the utter silence of the room as the screen gave in to enormous pressure.

Some would think of it being bad luck, but he did not even dare lower himself into believing such a feeble explanation. Others attributed it to her being at the wrong place at the wrong time but that thought did naught to comfort him as there were only two things held for certain in the blank maze of uncertainties that his mind had become: first and foremost, she would live; and secondly, she had been targeted.

Pocketing what remained of his personal mobile phone, he crossed over the conference room, appointed his junior executive as his stand in and once that was taken care of, he had his personal assistant readying the corporate jet to return him to Japan at once.

[B.R.E.A.K]

The air picked up by the chopper whipped the white lab coats and hair of the attending paramedics at Kameda General Hospital heliport. A stretcher was carefully maneuvered onto land and unadulterated horror gripped at the hearts of the healthcare personnel.

A child who appeared to be no older than ten years laid seemingly lifeless on the stretcher; save by the slight up and down movements of her chest in breathing. Her skin was unnaturally pale as half her blood soaked the erstwhile immaculate white sheets. The dark chocolate hair was matted to her forehead with coagulated blood and her forehead was shiny with perspiration by a shock-induced fever.

Paramedics rushed her down corridors, gesturing and yelling for people to get out of the way; and away she was carried through sliding doors with many a prayer sent on her wake.

The chief doctor in the emergency room and trauma center was immediately alerted of the new arrival and already had a room set up with personnel at standby. It took them all by surprise the state in which their charge was and many marveled at how it was possible for her to breathe unaided.

However, all of that was pushed to the farthest recesses of their minds as they set to work on helping the young girl to survive long enough for the neurosurgeon to arrive.

—Do you think she'll make it, Maria?

Maria, a one year resident graduated in Germany looked on the hapless child with sad green eyes as she performed the assessing tests for neurological functions, —we can only hope.

—Wh-where…?

The new voice startled the physicians, giving them hope and breaking their hearts all at the same time, —you're at the hospital now baby, but don't you worry, you'll be up and about in no time, I assure you… can you squeeze my hand for me?

Anxious seconds ticked by and the hand that Maria held remained unmoving.

—what's your name sweetheart?

A question that went unanswered.

—Can you open your pretty eyes for me?

Nothing.

And as the German resident moved around to pinch the sole of the girl's feet with a needle and assess her reaction to painful stimulus, the girl's body began to turn rigid with a severe arching of the back and with the head thrown backwards.

—Oh no, no no no… we need to take this girl to surgery, now!—, cried out Maria as her partner examined the girl's unresponsive irises and the monitors beeped in low tones with a slowing rhythm.

—The neurosurgery room is ready, the staff is waiting and the neurosurgeon is in the parking lot, lets make her ready—, announced a male resident that had just entered the room and was fully dressed in surgical apparel.

—Thank God!—, praised the foreign doctor, —I just hope there's still time.

[B.R.E.A.K]

Twelve hours and fifty-five minutes later a white jet touched down on Japanese soil and forty minutes after that, a red Ferrari 612 Scaglietti sped down a long winding road next to a rocky beach. 

—How is she?

The man behind the steering wheel kept his whiskey-colored eyes on the road as he answered. Given the break-neck speed they were cruising, he was not about to take any chances, —not good at all. When I got there by five they were setting her up for neurosurgery but they were clear in saying that there wasn't much to be done.

It all happened around four in the afternoon but it was at five in the next morning when he set foot inside the cold confines of Kameda General Hospital.

He went straight to the receptionist’s desk where he was given all the information he needed and was encouraged to wait in the artfully decorated lobby.

[B.R.E.A.K]

It had been one hell of a surgery with two instances of reanimation and four units of blood but the chief neurosurgeon persevered and the little girl pulled through. Now it was only a matter of waiting to see if she survived the next twenty-four hours and then try to asses her cognitive functions.

As she walked down the hall towards the waiting room, a thumb and forefinger pinched the bridge of a perfectly shaped nose in an attempt to ward off the settling headache while the left hand removed the surgical cap off midnight colored hair that previously had been meticulously pinned together in a bun at the base of the neck. However, as soon as the azure eyes opened and she set sight on the relatives of her patient, things went to a standstill.

—Oh dear God, Inuyasha...

The younger of the men in waiting looked up so fast that he very well could have snapped his neck as his eyes zeroed in the face of the newcomer, —Kagome?.

He looked so lost in the waiting room that her heart broke in small pieces. The last time that she had seen him was some eight or so years ago when they were in high-school and the sight that greeted her now was a far cry of what he had been back then as there was not a trace of the cocky and bad-ass boy that he projected himself as being. —Oh my, I'm so sorry—, she said as she hugged him tightly.

The older man looked on the exchange with an unreadable expression, trying to match the face with a name and perhaps pull some memories but he came up empty handed, which spoke volumes of his exhaustion.

—Hello Sesshoumaru—, said Kagome after releasing Inuyasha as she fiddled with a strand of hair that escaped the knot of a nearly undone coiffure.

Inuyasha had a confused look in his boyish face, —but what are you doing here Kags?

The young woman sighed and addressed both males, —I'm the chief neurosurgeon of Kameda Medical Center and right now Rin is my patient—, what she had to tell them were not very good news and she prayed for the heavens to grant her the enlightenment to pull it through, —we've done everything we could to stabilize her and minimize the consequences of brain swelling as the bullet fractured the skull badly and there are particles of bone with unidentified agents inside and deep within the gray matter. On top of that she’s lost too much blood and the electroencephalogram is not encouraging. In the scale of Gasglow I can only give her a three while the score of a healthy person that walks and talks is fifteen. Another thing is that given the delicate state of the brain tissue we've put Rin into a cryogenic coma to minimize the swelling and protect the most sensitive areas from undue pressure which would be fatal.

Sesshoumaru heard everything she said with attention and felt frustrated because nothing seemed to permeate into his brain, whereas the youngest male had a deeply set frown denoting total incomprehension.

—I want you to do anything in your power to save Rin—, said the Taisho heir and it sounded like an order as his whole body language spoke of a resolution that could not be easily deterred.

—But Sesshoumaru, as I already told you, there’s nothing to be done.

Inuyasha could not, for the life of him, understand a word of what she had said but that did not stop a feeling of complete dread to settle in the pit of his stomach, —please Kags, save her.

A sigh escaped Kagome's plump lips, —only a miracle can save her.