Chapter 2: Investigation with Interest
Kaoru sighed as she heard the doorbell. She placed her knife down and walked to the door, opening it and smiling, "Sango, it's good to see you sweety." Momma Higurashi embraced the girl in a hug. Sango happily returned it. She was like Kaoru's second daughter and truth be told, she would have preferred Sango as her daughter. She was much more tamer.
"Sorry to come on short notice, mom, but this I insisted I come over." Sango laughed lightly, "I take it she doesn't like the guy very much, does she?" Sango was a tall girl, standing 5'7" with long brown hair she kept up in a ponytail. She wore a black wife beater and tight fitting blue jeans that showed off her athletic body. The half German, half Swedish American girl shook her head at the elderly woman as she took off her black Vans before entering the house, "Kagome can be a bitch."
"I know, but what can I do, Sango? Out of all her friends, you are my favorite, whether or not I've known you since you were but an embryo! Would your father let you spend the night? You left clothes last time and I can drop you off at your options when you need to go."
"I'll call later, but thank you for the offer. Don't tell Kagome, but I may be done soon. I think I'm only ten or twelve credits away to being reaccepted into Zenith by the end of the semester." Sango smiled, following the woman into the kitchen.
Kaoru laughed in joy, "That's great! We should celebrate when you get done, just you and me, alright?" Kaoru continued to cut the fat away from the meat she was preparing for dinner, "Tonight we'll have steak, a side of corn, mashed potatoes, and salad. How are your brother and father?"
"Sounds great. And they're doing fine. Right now they're out of town for a baseball tournament." Sango kissed the woman on the cheek, "Well I'm going to see Kagome now and talk some sense into her. A month goes by in a flash, right?"
"Alright, dear. But please, can you two not go to a party tonight with that Kagura chick Kagome has taken a liking too? Anyone else but her, please. Kagome is only in this mess because of her." Mrs. Higurashi sighed, seasoning the meat. She was aware of Kagome's nightlife. "I should pick up Sota now. I think his tutoring is done."
"Not tonight, mom. I have a test tomorrow and going there slightly hung over isn't a good idea." Sango began to ascend the stairs, wondering how she was supposed to make Kagome open up. They were best friends, yet total opposites. While Kagome was the total whore, poor innocent Sango was always teased, since she had more guy friends then girls but was still a virgin. It was hard to figure Kagome out.
Sango and Kagome grew up together since their mother's had been best friends in high school. Their childhood had been rather innocent until middle school when Kagome began to change. Sango partially understood, but at the same time she didn't understand it any better than Kaoru. All she could do was be there to act as an external conscience, do damage control and hope her best friend snapped out of it. When her mother had passed away during while on duty during a police shoot out, it had taken a toll on her family. She was barely fifteen, dropped out of high school to take on a job to supplement her father's income during his depression. It took a year of grieving before he snapped out of it and with the insurance checks finally coming in, Sango was able to make time to go to an options school to make up the missed credits. Since she was close to being shift manager at the mom and pop restaurant she worked at (a promotion they promised her when she got back to school), she decided not to quit, even though she could have been back during the beginning of the year.
She didn't bother to knock as she walked right in, smacking Kagome upside the head where she sat at her desk, doing some homework. She saw Kagome wear some rainbow colored toesy socks along with green booty shorts and an oversized black sweater.
"Hey! What the hell Sango?" Kagome hissed. "That's not a nice hello, you bitch." She removed her head phones and turned to stare at her friend who put her hands on her hips, cocking her hips to the left.
"Neither was yours to the poor kid!" retorted Sango. Both girls glared at each other before laughing. Sango sat on Kagome's bed, her back up against the wall, her feet hanging off the bed. "Seriously though, not fucking cool."
Kagome shrugged, "You know I don't like it when guys look without permission, not that I would ever let him see me naked. Fucker had to learn his lesson." She didn't put her head phones back in, but she resumed doing her homework, "Did you know on the night of June 21, 1791, after two years of virtual house arrest, the King and his family tried to escape dressed as servants? The hell I need to know this for my damn World History final?"
Sango sighed, "Beats me." She got off the bed and stood behind Kagome. While looking at the contents of her desk, she noticed the manila folder. She picked it, leafing through it. "What's this?"
"I don't know. My mom left it in front of my door." Came Kagome's reply, "It's about the weirdo." She looked up from her worksheet and flipped a few pages in her textbook, skimming through a few key paragraphs to look for her answer. "I can't wait till we hit Victorian Era stuff. At least that's more interesting. Jack the Ripper mostly. Guts a bitch like nothing."
Sango ignored Kagome and sat back down on the bed, going through the pages slowly, reading a few things here and there. There was a picture that caught her eye as she turned over a page and she carefully picked it up. Her eyes widen; the guy was handsome! His hair was long, his eyes fully of child innocence, and he was pretty well built from what she saw in the picture.
She turned it over and underneath it was another, but this one was taken years ago. The sides were crinkled and a tear was evident in the left upper corner. What stunned her was the fact that the two little boys were identical.
"Kagome, look at this. Cute mirror trick." she held the photo out for Kagome to take who turned around in her chair. The Asian girl took it and studied the little boys in it, wearing matching uniforms and shoes. She looked carefully and noticed the two were holding hands and one smiled more then the other.
"Not a mirror, but twins. See? They're holding hands and the background isn't symmetric. Who are they? Where'd you find this?" Kagome asked, getting up and looked at Sango. She noticed the folder on her lap and took a page of what looked like a police report. "Kidnapping?" she rubbed the back of her neck to release a kink that was forming.
The girls spent the next hour looking over the things. Little by little they pieced things together, and Kagome couldn't help but feel a little bad in the end. He wasn't born that way…
"The poor guy!" Said Sango, "I take it this would be his brother. This report says… Inu Yasha?"
Kagome gasped, remembering earlier when he called out for someone named 'Inu'. But she honestly didn't want to get involved with the boy. He acted as if he were two and had no sense of privacy.
No, she was going to do things the way she planned, and that was to do absolutely nothing with or for the guy and leave him do things by himself. Kids need to grow up. Her stomach grumbled then, making her moan.
"Let's eat, ok? I have to get back to work, anyways. Have fun reading this shit for me, ok?" She got up, stretching her arms, "My mom should be done." Try as she might to not think about it anymore, she was actually more curious then ever.
The two headed downstairs to find Momma Higurashi already serving dinner. With them was the ever elusive Grandpa Higurashi, and Sota, back from tutoring. Next to Sota, who sat to the right of Grandpa at the head of the table, was Yasu, wearing a red and white striped shirt. His hair was pulled back into a low ponytail and he was chatting with Sota.
"Yeah, I like games, but mommy never let me play anything with a lot of blood." He said when Kagome sat down. He took a glance at the girl and looked away, eyes downcast with a slight pout.
"Yasu, say hi to Kagome's friend, Sango. You'll be seeing her a lot around here." Mrs. Higurashi said, "Sango, this is Yasu, the boy Kagome is going to take care of." She gave a knowing look at Kagome, "Little missy, don't think you're going to get out of this easily. His father is coming to see us this Saturday night, I want you to make it up to him tomorrow after school."
"Mom!" shrieked Kagome, "That's not fair! I didn't do shit, and I don't babysit little idiots!" after she said that, there was a glitch with the lights as they turned off for a split second. Kagome felt cold all of a sudden and could have sworn she saw someone standing in the kitchen behind Yasu who sat in front of her before the lights went out. He looked like the retard…
"That was odd…" said the elderly man as he began to cut some of his meat, "Maybe a squirrel bounced on the wires."
"I don't know gramps. But at least it wasn't a black out." Sota said, taking a sip of his soda, "I wanted to play some games with Yasu before I went to bed. I've always wanted a little brother!"
"He's not little nor your brother!" seethed Kagome, stabbing her steak.
"Chill out Kagome. Seventeen or not, he's a kid at heart." Sango sighed, chewing on some salad, "This is good, mom."
"You like it? I put some raspberry vinaigrette with tangerine juice as the dressing." Kaoru smiled, cutting up Yasu's steak into bite size pieces since she sat right beside him on the other end of the table in front of Gramps.
"Whatever Kagome. You may not like him since he's too innocent to sleep with you, but I shall take full advantage of a gaming partner, whether or not he acts his age." Sota smirked. His brown eyes hid behind his dark colored bangs as he placed a hand over his mouth and yawned, his head bowing slightly.
Everyone but Yasu gawked at him. Gramps cuffed him in the ear, making him yelp in pain. Kaoru told him no video games that night, which left him grumbling as he picked at his salad.
"But it's true!"
"Fuck you Sota!" Kagome said, glaring at her brother from across the table, "I hope you burn in Hell."
"After you." He sneered.
"What's fuck?" Yasu said, held tilting in confusion, "Can I have a fuck?"
Kaoru groaned, "No more fighting children. Yasu, sweetie, that's a naughty word. We don't say that, ever." She placed her hand over his and smiled, "Never repeat it again, ok?"
"OK, momma, if you say not for Yasu to say it, Yasu won't." he smiled at her before diving into his food to eat. "Yummy!"
"I will not have such talk at the dinner table." Gramps fumed, getting up and taking his plate with him as he went over to the stairs, "I will be in my room if you need me. Kaoru, learn to control your children! A monk of our family shrine, I expect better behaved children!" he coughed, shaking his head in shame before heading up the stairs. "Only Sango has the decency to act polite!"
There was silence at the table. Yasu looked about ready to cry as he got up, not liking the tone in Grandpa's voice, taking his plate to the kitchen, "I'm not hungry, anymo'." He sighed, shuffling his feet as he went to the living room.
Kaoru glared at Kagome, "Why can't we be a normal happy family? At least for Yasus sake, Kagome? You have no idea what the boy has been through. Have you even gone through his file, completely?"
"Kidnapped at five, lost his brother… what else is there to it?" scoffed Kagome, chewing her salad. "Doesn't tell me crap, nor do I care for that mattered."
"Kaoru, what exactly happened?" Sango said, finishing of her mashed potatoes. She watched Sota get up from the table and go into the kitchen, putting away his and Yasu's food into containers then washing his plate before resuming his journey up the stairs, mumbling about getting some extra study time in.
The older woman sighed, no longer feeling hungry herself, "How would you feel if you saw your brother die?"
Sango crossed her arms, not liking this at all and berated herself for asking, "I would be… devastated." She said. She and her brother had a closer bond then Kagome and Sota.
"I would be happy!" snapped Kagome.
"Well, imagine being kidnapped, somehow escaping because your brother, a five year old little boy, had the courage to sacrifice himself for his little brother? His body was never found. Yasu is the only one who knows what happened to him. Imagine the fright and horror they went through? And so young at that? Imagine how traumatizing it must have been to leave a young man stuck with a mind like a child because he can not cope with the loss?"
The girls were silent, slowly eating their dinner as Kaoru Higurashi began to tell the tale of what Yasu's mother told her. At the end of it all, Sango felt pity for the boy while Kagome was indifferent, thinking it was only a sad pitiful excuse for the boy.
The girls finished up and got ready for bed, Sango had already texted her father about her sleeping over which he approved. Both girls shared Kagome's bed; it was a full size and left enough room for each of them.
Sango was the first to fall asleep, having had long day working out despite her day off when Kagome called. Kagome on the other hand couldn't sleep. She felt as if something was watching her. One by one, the occupants of the house began to settle in for the night, and once all was silent, Kagome heard small almost inaudible foot steps in her room. There was something in her room…
She turned to the sleeping Sango and pressed herself against the stronger girl, thinking that her imagination was just sparked by all the horror movies she watched the previous weekend and the story her mom told her. Inu Yasha was dead… and Yasu was nothing but a nuisance.