Kyoto Summer
Starring Kagome Higurashi as our fair heroine, the lady protagonist, whose beauty and charm outshines and dulls the great goddess Aphrodite herself.
Starring Sesshoumaru Taishou as our hero, the undeniably attractive male protagonist – sophisticated yet cold, intelligent yet arrogant.
Starring Inuyasha Taishou, our hero's brother, also undeniably attractive, but with the terrible luck of always losing out to the aforementioned brother.
Starring Sugimi Taishou, addressed as Inutaisho, a handsome man in his own right, successful businessman and old friend of Akihiro Higurashi.
Starring Akihiro Higurashi, respected by many, as the wealthy anxious father of our heroine.
Starring Miroku Yoroido and his wandering hand; as the heroine's sole male confidante he takes it upon himself to find out about her latest love intrigues.
Starring Sango Asano, confidante and childhood friend of our heroine Kagome; her loyalty to her friend is only belittled by her dislike of the pervert Miroku.
Starring Kagura Tokugawa, seductive and elegant – as the cousin of our hero Sesshoumaru, she plays the role of his confidante and accountant.
Starring Kikyou Uchida, reasonably pretty; her love for money and more money lands her the role of 'screwed-up jealous bitch'.
Lastly, starring Jaken Sato, belittled servant of the Taishou family – his loyalty to Sesshoumaru knows no bounds. Neither does his dislike of Inuyasha.
Chapter 1: Welcome to Kyoto
In which our heroine meets her hosts
"That was ridiculous." Kagome watched the night scene fly by as their car sped on.
"No, it wasn't."
"Daddy, you promised to take me out for a drink at the country club!"
Akihiro Higurashi sighed at his beautiful, but strong-willed daughter. In all his forty-two years, eighteen of which had been spent with his little Kagome, no one else had tested his patience as much as his daughter had. And no one had brought him as much joy.
Tonight was her birthday, and she was obviously not a happy girl. "I'm turning eighteen, and instead of receiving my first ever alcoholic drink, you take me to a tea ceremony?"
"What nonsense; you've been drinking since the age of five!" pointed out her father.
Kagome huffed. "That was an accident. I thought the wine was grape juice."
Unruffled, her father put on his usual lecturing voice. "Kagome, you have to -"
"Learn to appreciate the fine arts. Yes, you've told me. I drink green tea all the time! I just don't like sitting for two hours on my knees while some ugly woman whisks my tea into a soap mixture."
Akihiro Higurashi watched her horrified look with an amused expression. "Matcha, Kagome, it's matcha. Not a soap mixture."
"Whatever. And the restaurant!" Kagome sighed. "I told you the fish and chips place would be fine. But you booked a table at the Ritz!"
"Honey, you deserve no less than that."
There her dad went again. He couldn't understand her love to be her. She didn't want designer clothes, diamonds or dinners at the Ritz or Hilton, she wanted costume jewellery and fish and chips. And she certainly didn't want anything to do with traditional Japan.
Akihiro took pity on his daughter. "Ok, ok, if it makes you happy I'll play poker with you when we get home, ok?" he said.
Her face lit up. "Would you?"
"Anything for the princess."
She grinned and buried her head in her father's shirt. "I love you daddy, you know that?"
"That I know… that I know…"
Six poker games later, when Akihiro Higurashi was a few hundred dollars poorer, Kagome finally disappeared into her room for the night.
An idea had been playing on his mind for some time, and now, alone in his study, he decided to put that idea into action.
Reaching for the phone, Akihiro dialled a number.
A tired voice answered on the fourth ring.
"Moshi moshi."
He switched fluently into Japanese. "I would like to speak with Inutaisho, please."
"The master isn't awake yet." Right. Damn. Akihiro had forgotten about the time difference – it was barely dawn in Japan.
"Can I take a message?" the person asked.
Akihiro didn't particularly trust servants with messages. "Who am I speaking to?"
"Jaken."
"Ah, Jaken. Wake your master up for me."
Jaken sounded affronted. "I'm afraid that won't be possible, it's -"
"Tell him it's an old friend," Akihiro said authoritatively.
"Sir, I -"
A sleepy voice came on over the other side. "Who the hell is this?"
Of course, when you were bloody rich, you didn't care about who you offended over the phone. Akihiro bit down a chuckle. "Sugimi-san, I need a favour."
Miles away, in a silk-covered king-sized bed, Inutaisho sat up straight. "Akihiro?"
"You guessed right."
He hadn't heard from his old friend Akihiro Higurashi in years. Once they had been school mates, and later business partners, but had gone their separate ways when Akihiro moved to Japan. "What favour do you require? You know I would refuse you nothing if it were in my power."
"That I understand, and would do the same," laughed Akihiro.
This was getting more intriguing by the moment. "Well, the Akihiro Higurashi I know wouldn't wake people up in the middle of the night for no good reason. Please, speak your mind."
"Very well… if you recall, Sugimi, before I left Japan for America I had a daughter."
"How could I forget? Kagome, right? Always smiling, never sad? I used to bounce her on my knee while waiting for you to finish your phone calls. She must be all grown-up now." Inutaisho smiled at the memory. He had always wanted a daughter – though he felt equally blessed with two sons.
"Well, this thing is about Kagome…"
Her father thundered into her lovely dark room.
"Rise and shine, get up, pack up, we're LEAVING!"
"Wha – WHERE?" Kagome squinted as sunlight assaulted her sleepy eyes.
"I'm taking you to Japan," announced her father proudly.
"Wha – WHY?"
"To teach you how to act like a proper young lady of class." Akihiro looked like he was highly pleased with himself. "And to teach you about the tradition. You must not forget your roots, dear."
"I already act like a proper girl!" grumbled Kagome, shuffling out of bed.
"The way you gad about in denim and T-shirts daily? Actually, don't pack up – you need a new wardrobe."
"Out, out," Kagome said, pushing him out the door petulantly. Sighing, she closed the door behind him and started pulling off her night clothes.
Her father's surprise trips were no longer a surprise to Kagome, though this one was rather out of the blue. He had taken her around the world, but she had yet to return to Japan.
Stepping into the shower, she decided to give up trying to make sense of her father.
A couple thousand miles away, another father was abruptly waking his children.
"Get up, we have a day ahead of us!" Sugimi said cheerfully.
"What…" mumbled a lump on the over-sized bed.
"Inuyasha," said his father sternly. "I have a job for you and your brother."
"Does it involve hot naked women and alcohol?" groaned Inuyasha.
"Well, not really -"
"Then no thanks."
Sugimi sighed secretively. "It does involve a hot woman -"
Inuyasha rolled out of bed immediately. "Ok, ok, what do you want me to do?"
His father rolled his eyes, grinning inwardly. Boys will be boys - they just need a little… encouragement. "First off, where's your brother?"
His son blinked. "How the hell should I know?"
"Nevermind… I'll call him…" Inuyasha had never seen his father look so excited. "Let me explain this all. You were a baby then, so I don't think you know Akihiro Higurashi…"
Kagome still couldn't believe two hours ago she had been sleeping comfortably in her room, and now she was on a plane to Japan. For what purpose, her father was still being vague about.
"Remember now, use Japanese…"
"Yes, dad…"
"There you go again. No English!" Mr. Higurashi said, looking at his daughter exasperatedly.
"Got it," Kagome rolled her eyes.
"Be extremely polite; it won't hurt. Thank your hosts for everything. Sugimi is an old friend of mine and he has gone the extra mile taking you in for the summer."
"Yeah… huh… wait. Did you say summer? Two and a half months?" shrieked Kagome.
People were starting to look at them. Few people shrieked in the first class cabin.
"You're leaving me in a foreign country for two and a half months…" moaned Kagome, putting on her most piteous face.
Akihiro grinned. "Actually, Sugimi has two astonishingly bright and good-looking sons… you won't want to come back by the time two months is over, I promise you."
His phone was ringing, most annoyingly too.
What was more, Sesshoumaru couldn't pick it up, because two women on both sides of him were blocking his path to the phone.
"Neh… Sesshoumaru…" whined the one on his right, stretching groggily.
Two naked women. Oh well. At least it wasn't three. Or four. Or five. Six would break his record, though.
Getting the women off his bed and out of the apartment was easy enough. It was only when the phone started ringing again Sesshoumaru could envision his father nearly foaming at the mouth in rage. After all, all his business partners and employees knew better than to call him more than twice in a row. This poor caller had been trying five times, so it probably was dad or Inuyasha.
Today, it was dad.
"I've been calling five times," came a cold voice over the phone.
"You must be impatient to get to the point," Sesshoumaru said with infuriating calm.
Sometimes Sugimi wondered what had gone wrong in the upbringing of his eldest son. Sure, he was top of his class, wanted by all companies as an employee, and wanted by all women as a husband. Yet the boy – actually, man – refused to settle down with a family, refused to show expression on his fine features, and bloody refused to be respectful to his elders.
Maybe he had pushed his son too hard.
"We have a guest coming in from America," Sugimi said, calming himself down.
"And?"
"Well, you and Inuyasha will be showing her around the city."
"Tell me my father didn't call me just to tell me this."
"Tell me my son isn't such a mannerless brat," Sugimi said wryly. "Well, there are other matters to which, as you know, I find it harder to entrust your brother with."
Sesshoumaru found himself agreeing. Inuyasha was considered my many women 'lovable' and 'cute' and 'sweet' but for the life of Sesshoumaru he didn't understand why. He found Inuyasha 'irresponsible' and 'annoying'.
"First, she'll be staying at the casino hotel. We figured it would be easier. We're putting her in one of the suites next to the ones we use for personal use. Please instruct the maids to change everything to a less hotel-like, more -"
Sesshoumaru sounded bored. "Whatever. You want silk sheets and good soap?"
Sugimi rolled his eyes. "Also, there is another task… how good are your manners?"
"Use Japanese…" Akihiro reminded Kagome anxiously.
"Hai…" This bustling airport was starting to unnerve Kagome, and she was only too glad to do whatever her father instructed. Sure, she'd seen many a packed airport.
Not a jammed airport.
"There they are," Akihiro said finally, steering her in one direction.
"Where?" asked Kagome. All she could see was people, people, and more people.
"You can't miss them. Who else has hair like them?" joked her father.
"What?" She was just plain confused.
Then she saw. Three heads of unmistakeably shiny, long silvery hair.
"The silver-haired people?" Kagome quickened her step to match her father's. "But they're not looking in our direction."
"Then we'll take them by surprise," her father said.
"This is all still very confusing to me," Inuyasha muttered. "We have this daughter of your friend coming to stay with us? What for?"
"Stop asking silly questions," Sesshoumaru said, knowing very well what for after his little morning conversation with his father.
"Both of you shut up, they're coming any moment," Sugimi snapped.
"Can't miss the silver hair, can we?" asked a voice from behind.
"Higurashi-san!" grinned Sugimi, turning around.
It had been too long since they'd last met.
"Inutaisho," acknowledged his friend. Standing next to him was a passably pretty but exhausted-looking girl.
"No luggage?" asked Inuyasha, noticing their lack of bags.
"He wouldn't let me pack any," Kagome said, casting her dad the evil eye.
Sugimi laughed. "You must be Kagome."
"Yeah. You must be Taishou-sama. How do you do?" Smiling, Kagome extended her hand.
"May I present my daughter, Kagome, to you?" Akihiro asked. "Please look after her well."
Sugimi was already regarding Kagome with nothing but fondness. "I used to swing you on my lap when you were a year old."
"I know," grinned Kagome.
"You remember?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Nah, dad told me," she said honestly.
"She's guileless and too innocent," remarked Inuyasha under his breath to Sesshoumaru. Maybe if she knew that the person she was laughing so freely with owned half of Japan…
"Go on after her, she'll get lost," Sugimi told Inuyasha and Sesshoumaru, nodding towards Kagome who was already walking ahead.
When they were alone, Sugimi turned to his friend. "I have a feeling you have something up your sleeve with the lack of suitcases?"
"Oh, please…" sighed Akihiro. "Which is why I asked for your assistance – knock sense into her. Kagome's ideal wardrobe consists of jeans, T-shirts, and more jeans. In it's current state, it's something like that. I was hoping you could remedy that." Three new, shiny platinum credit cards appeared discreetly in his palm.
Inutaisho turned serious. "I'm not taking those."
"Why ever not?" demanded Akihiro. "I'm not letting her live off you like that."
"Oh, come on. You know I've always wanted a daughter to spoil."
"Yeah, but -"
"Think of it as doing me a favour. Keep your money, I want to spoil her rotten. And teach her to behave," added Inutaisho hastily with a sheepish smirk.
Akihiro sighed. "Don't be afraid of turning her over your knee and spanking her if she's bad."
"Go home," advised Inutaisho. "I take care of an empire worth millions and two unruly sons. You tell me I can't look after a sweet girl like Kagome?"
"That's exactly what I'm telling you," nodded his friend.
She was nothing like Sesshoumaru had imagined. Surely a girl that warranted his father's personal attention would be rich, spoilt, pretentious and most likely bitchy.
Kagome was rich, but also down-to-earth, ridiculously innocent and far from bitchy.
Well, certainly not from the way she smiled at the most mediocre things like candy in the airport shops, chattered lightly with Inuyasha over meaningless things, and dragged her too-long jeans on the ground.
As the daughter of someone like Akihiro Higurashi, Sesshoumaru would have expected her to ignore the cheap goods in the shops, occasionally throw haughty comments in their direction and be dressed in the most immaculate clothing.
He couldn't really remember meeting her. According to his father, she had been one when she'd left Japan, meaning he could have been no more than four or five. Babies and young children had short memories.
But it was evident now why his father had asked him to teach her about living in society's highest circles. How to act, talk, dress… Sesshoumaru was skeptical though. Kagome looked the meek type of girl who would get fried alive by other envious girls. She was the type who would probably get tricked out of her potential inheritance by scheming suitors professing love. And she was the type who would never show up to a ball in a formal gown or kimono.
It was rare for one to have beauty and not know it. Or maybe she knew, and she just didn't care. Either way, it didn't impress Sesshoumaru Taisho one bit.
Kagome eyed the black limousine speeding away from out of the full-length glass walls in her hotel room.
Her father was gone; he was flying to Tokyo where their family was based, and then visiting some relatives in Osaka before returning to America.
Which left her here, in Kyoto, alone in the company of three men.
Not really alone. The door flew open.
Sesshoumaru and Inuyasha. Didn't they know how to knock? What if she was naked? Then again, that was probably why they hadn't knocked – the perverts.
"Knock?" she asked, though fixing them with a pleasant smile.
"Sorry," Inuyasha said, grinning apologetically. His older brother looked distasteful.
They would get along fine, she and Inuyasha. But with Sesshoumaru…
That icy silence, faultless manners and exceptional looks…
Why did Kagome sense that it was going to be a battle of wills between the two of them?
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