disclaimor: I neither own Inuyasha or Ouran.
Warning: There will be a bit of bashing around of some characters in this chapter.
Haruhi was just sitting there when the same guy from earlier walked into the room. She was surprised to learn that he was in her class. But to learn that he was related to the richest man in the world, that knocked her socks off. She had knocked over a Taisho! Her heart sped up at this. She actually flushed when he winked at her. What was this guy thinking? He couldn't possibly be interested in her. She was too plain for a beautiful guy like him. Especially one related to one of the richest men in the world.
Why would he wink at her? Was he teasing her about knocking him over? Was he upset about that? Maybe there was something wrong with her appearance. Looking down at herself, she decided that her outfit looked meticulous. Maybe it wasn't her but one of the twins behind her. That could be it. The two of them were always causing trouble.
Her thoughts were interrupted when something landed in her lap. Looking down, she noted it was a folded piece of paper. Looking back up and to the desk next to her, she saw Taisho-san grinning at her before she looked back down at the paper in her hand. Looking back to her side, she saw that Taisho-san had fallen how someone could fall asleep in a mere matter of seconds, she decided to open the paper. What she saw was a note written on it.
Haurhi-chan, it read. Boy was I surprised to run into you in the hallway. The last time we had seen each other was in middle school. But to find out that we are in the same class, it was like another blessing from Midoriko-chan herself. Did he actually mean that Midoriko? Shaking her head, she continued. Anyway, I wanted to talk to you after class. There is much that needs to be talked about that cannot be said on paper. - Your beloved cousin.
Haruhi was shocked, to say the least. Had that really. . . Looking down at the note again, she confirmed that yes; it did say the word 'cousin.' How could he possibly be her cousin? The only cousins that she had were a girl her age and a boy ten years younger. And that was because her mother had been the sister of their father. This guy was a male! There was no possible way that he was her cousin. She would just have to see what it was that Taisho-san wanted.
Haruhi waited outside the classroom, her nerves completely shot. Not only did she have a load of homework to do, but she also had to get down to the Host Club. Kyoya-sempai would add onto her debt again because of loss of business, otherwise. It was bad enough that she still had to pay it off, but what was worse was that it was still about the same amount after an entire year. She had been told that she would have paid it off by now several times.
She began to tap her foot. If Taisho-san didn't show up soon, she would just leave. Why would he call himself her cousin and ask to talk to her if he wasn't going to show up? How could that unearthly, beautiful guy was her little cousin? She remembered her cousin being pretty and cute, but this was completely different. This guy looked to be too perfect; too owner of the voice. There was no one around. Who could it be? The voice sounded somewhat familiar. Then she felt a tap on her shoulder.
"Haruhi-chan," said a soft and musical soprano's voice. Haruhi looked around to find the owner of the voice. There was no one around. Who could it be? The voice sounded somewhat familiar. Then she felt a tap on her shoulder.
"Haruhi-chan," the voice said again giggling in a soft tinkle. "I'm right behind you." Turning around to see who it was, she was surprised to see who it was standing there. It was Taisho-san?
"You haven't changed a bit, Haruhi-chan," he said while giggling in a soft tinkle. "Don't you recognize your own cousin? We went to middle school together." Now she was officially confused. Middle school? There was only one cousin she had went to middle school with. He couldn't be it, could he?
"Kagome?" she asked hesitantly. As soon as she answered, she was enveloped in a huge hug. She was hugged so tightly, she could definitely feel a pair of bound up breasts. This person was a remember! Kagome exclaimed with a squeal. I didn t think I looked that different. Why are you going around as a male? What happened to your hair? It used to be so pretty. Did you happen to get gum stuck in it like you did when we were five? Haruhi was floored. Here was her little cousin and dearest friend she hadn t seen since she had stopped attending school when she was getting really sick, and all she could ask was why she was dressed as a male? She herself looked like one.
"You remember!" Kagome exclaimed with a squeal. "I didn't think I looked that different. Why are you going around as a male? What happened to your hair? It used to be so pretty. Did you happen to get gum stuck in it like you did when we were five?" Haruhi was floored. Here was her little cousin and dearest friend she hadn't seen since she had stopped attending school when she was getting really sick, and all she could ask was why she was dressed as a male? She herself looked like one.
"The uniform is just more comfortable than the other one," Haruhi said looking into her cousin's ice-blue eyes. "As for my hair, some kid got some gum stuck in it, not me. So I had to cut it. It's much more convenient to keep it short." She took a look at her wrist watch before doing a double-take. She was late! Kyoya-sempai was going to have her hide. She needed to get to the music room, she decided as she began to panic.
Kagome, on the otherhand, frowned upon hearing her cousin's thoughts being projected so loudly. Who was this Kyoya-sempai? Why was he terrorizing her cousin? And why did he have her in a debt? All of this would not do. This male would need to be confronted about his actions. He sounded like a very conceited male.
"Let's go," she said. "I don't want you to be late. This Kyoya needs to be confronted about his actions. I don't like the sound of him." Haruhi went through several emotions: Confusion at how Kagome knew; Surprise at her attitude towards Kyoya; and protectiveness at the idea of her little Kagome going up against scary Kyoya-sempai. She did not want to expose her sweet cousin to someone like him. He could do terrible things to her and that was unacceptable.
Kagome just giggled at her cousin's thoughts. She really was too much like Ranka-san. "Do not worry," she said. "I can handle my own against him. I know about him because I am telepathic. I will be able to know if he was going to do something. There is very little he can do to me if I know his every thought. The story behind that is too long to tell right now. What I can tell you is why I've been going around as Aokori Taisho."
Coming to a stop in front of the music room, Kagome took Haruhi into a tight hug as she started to weep. Tears started to stream from her eyes as her body began to shake, surprising the young brunette. Haruhi stood there holding her cousin wondering why she was weeping so strongly. It had to have been something terrible to have caused such a reaction from her normally tough cousin.
"Kagome," she said softly. "What is wrong? Why are you shaking so hard? Are you scared? Tell me, please." Kagome lifted her head from Haruhi's shoulder and looked with her waterty eyes at her cousin before speaking.
"I'm scared," Kagome said in a trembling voice, nearly a squeak. "Someone slaughtered Oka-san and Jii-san. If Souta-kun had not been staying at a friend's, I would have lost my ototou as well. I fear that they will come back for the two of us. I don't know what to do."
To say that Haruhi was shocked would be an understatement. She was completely blown out of her mind. Several emotions began to rage through her as her thoughts ran rampant. Fury at the idea of someone trying to hurt her little Kagome. Protectiveness at the prospect of her Kagome in danger. Sadness at the news that the wife of her mother's brother, her favorite Oba, and her only remaining grandparent were dead. And finally, determination at the need to protect her little cousins.
"I will not let anything happen to you," Haruhi said with vindication as tears fell from her eyes at the sadness she felt for the loss of her family and from the fury she felt from the idea of her cousins in harm's way. "Nobody will be getting to you. My friends in there are all very tough. We will protect you from anyone that wants to do you harm. I promise you. No one will hurt my little cousins!" She took a hold of her hand and dragged Kagome through the doors into the music room.
Kagome was taken completely by surprise when she entered the room. She stopped in her tracks within three feet of the entranced. Her spiritual hackles were rising upon the powerful auras she was feeling. There were four over-all that were really powerful, though there was a fifth that was present that she felt held some power. Three of the four were apparantly youkai, two of them being the very same pair of red-headed kitsunes she had met earlier.
The other one, though, was nearly as powerful as her Sessho-nii. This aura belonged to a very tall Tengu. This Tengu, who seemed to be about 6'4", was sitting in an armchair in the back of the room clicking away at a laptop. His small, thin rectangular glasses sat upon the tip of his straight and pointy nose in front of his narrow, onyx eyes. These set to compliment his defined features on his face while his thin mouth was set into a straight but firm line. His smooth coal-black hair was cut neatly as is hung slightly in his eyes and against his cream-colored skin strikingly just like the uniform he was wearing did, though it was still the very same that she and everyone else in the room was wearing. Kagome immediately knew that this was the Kyoya-sempai that Haruhi had been thinking of based upon past Tengu interactions.
'His aura shows how conceited he is,' Kagome thought. 'There are slight traces of boredom and there are larger traces of annoyance. He really needs to get out more. Someone really needs to shake him up a bit and knock him off his self-imposed pedestal before he fully gets lost in himself.' She started to grin as a thought came into her head. 'What if it I did that? It would be a lot of fun and would give me something to do while I'm in all of these unnecessary classes that Sessho-nii insists I take while toning down how much of my knowledge I use. I could very well test out of all these classes to the point where I could start going to university.'
She focused on the fourth strong aura that she felt. It belonged to a short blond-haired male that looked to be the exact same height as her. When he turned to look at her, she noticed the sky blue eyes that he had. 'This must be my cousin, Mitsukuni," was the only thing she could think of when she saw him. 'I recognize the family eyes anywhere. Why is he carrying around a stuffed rabbit, though?'
Behind her blond cousin, Kagome noticed a dark haired guy about 6'6" tall. The only thing that ran through her mind was how much he reminded her of someone from the past. His hair was a dark- chocolate color and his irises looked to be almost black, exactly like someone she was trying to remember. 'Who does he remind me of? Ah! Kohaku! This guy looks exactly like him, just a bit older and a bit taller. I can even feel his aura slightly. It isn't nearly as strong as the others I noticed. I wonder if he's descended in any way from him.'
Just as she came to that thought, Kagome felt the small aura of someone closing in on her fast. She hadn't taken the time to bother with this one because of how small it felt in comparison to the rest, even Haruhi's. Out of pure instinct and centuries of being trained by Sessho-nii, Kagome did a round-house kick, knocking the unfortunate, indigo-eyed blond square in the underside of his jaw. He was sent hurdling across the room before he face-planted right at the feet of the Tengu who continued to type away at his computer.
'Woops. I need to learn to stop doing that,' Kagome thought as she stood there while everyone else (except the Tengu), including Haruhi, gawked wide-eyedly at what had just occured. They all stood stalk still in amazement. The only thing to be heard Kyoya's continual clacking of the keyboard on his laptop. This was what annoyed Kagome the most. She pointedly marched over to the blond that she had kicked before crouching down in front of him and holding out her hand to him.
"I apologize for doing such a thing to you," Kagome said in her low, deep version of a 'guy's voice' while staring straight into the blond's eyes despite her face still being slightly red from the crying she had done minutes ago. "I am Taisho, Aokori. My Sessho-nii has me so trained, that I just react purely on instinct. I hope that you can forgive, especially with it done right in front of my cousin Haruhi." She did not fail to notice the spike in the aura of the demon in front of her who finally took notice at the mention of who she was. This further ticked her off. The blond looked at Kagome before reaching up and grabbing her hand, allowing her to pull him to his feet. Once he had stood up and dusted himself off, he finally turned to her.
"That's alright," he said with a bright and wide smile on his handsome face. "My name is Suoh, Tamaki. How exactly are you related to Haruhi? Why is your face so red?" This caused Kagome to raise a single eyebrow at what he asked. It would have been quite obvious to much more intelligent poeple as to why her face was red. Having moved out of the way and to the side, she was able to note that Kyoya had finally put down his laptop and was standing right behind Tamaki. Before she could answer, though, Haruhi had come up behind her and placed a hand upon her shoulder.
"Taisho-kun's father was the brother to my mother thereby making us first cousins," she said before Kagome could get in a word otherwise, her face equally as red. "The reason why our faces are red is because we just found out that my Oba-san and our last remaining grandparent were murdered. We both were crying because of this. You would probably cry if you had something like this happen to you." Kagome just nodded her head to this slightly while taking note of how the guy behind the 6'3" tall blond reacted. His eyes took on a weird glint as he resettled his glasses upon the bridge of his nose causing them to flash in the light of the room. He stepped in front of Tamaki before the blond could get in a word.
"If the two of you are cousins," Kyoya demanded, his voice a smooth and rich tenor causing chills to spread down Kagome's back, "How exactly are you related to the Taisho, Sesshomaru? As far as I know, he has not married nor has he any children." Kagome raised another brow at this. She smirked.
"Oh," she said. "You mean Sessho-nii? I happened to save his life a few years back. He has been a very dear friend to my family and I ever since. He took in my otouto and I as his official siblings when he found out about my Oka-san, though I considered him my aniki before then. I am his official heir, if you must know." She enjoyed the looks of pure shock that came across their faces, though in the case of Kyoya, it was the brief and slightest widening of his eyes.
Kagome could hear several things within her mind going on at once. If she hadn't been trained by Sesshomaru, she would have gone insane from all the thought processes she was picking up. Instead, she was able to block out certain ones while focusing on others. She narrowed in on Haruhi's first where she got a good laugh from the stuttering going on in there.
The other one, though, that she had any interest of listening to was Kyoya's. Within his mind, she found various plans and schemes he seemed to be batching up just to see how much he could use the knowledge she gave him to his benefit. Some of them involved using Haruhi to get what he wanted. Kagome narrowed in on this thought. It made her mad that someone would do such a thing to her dear cousin. The very idea caused her to clench her fists. She marched her way right up to Kyoya and dragged him down to her eye-level by way of his tye. She glared straight into his eyes as she heard several of the people around her hold their breath.
"You will be releasing Haruhi-chan from this so-called debt you are holding her to," Kagome demanded while Kyoya raised a brow at the tone of voice the smaller 'male' was using with him. "You know the only reason she had knocked over that blasted vase in the first place was because of the buffoon standing behind you like a turkey during a rainstorm. If he hadn't charged towards her with the ferocity of a bullet train, she wouldn't have tripped while trying to avoid him. You should have known that with this neanderthal around, you wouldn't have been able to keep anything valuable safe." She gave a pointed look towards Tamaki who was currently standing oblivious to what was being said about him. The two redheads in the room were currently trying to smother their laughter while her two cousins were standing with their mouths gaping open. The tall dark-haired boy standing between the two just stood there, giving off a very distinct "hnn," reminding her of her mostly emotionless aniki whom she had been trying to rid of that very annoying habitual response. Now she had another to work on.
"Really now," Kyoya responded sarcastically. "Why should I do that? She broke the vase herself, unless you would want to help her pay off her debt yourself?"This just made Kagome's blood boil even more. He actually thought her to be a weak and powerless 'ningen' as Inuyasha used to call her. This she didn't stand for at all. Her fury caused her eyes to change to a sky blue, closer to her cousin Mitsukuni's eye-color. She flared about a quarter of her miko ki, which was enough to make any of the people in the room who had any spiritual ki, whether youkai or ningen, to feel extremely uncomfortable. This caused any of these people to gasp at the weight of her ki to gasp. For those who were youkai, it caused there skin to continuously tingle because of the strength of the purity in it. The ningens just felt extremely nervous from the feeling of it. It caused Kyoya's eyes to widen in obvious shock. Leaning forward, Kagome whispered into his ear in what appeared to be an intimate way so that only he and those with youkai hearing could hear her.
"Because," she ground out venomously, "I do not appreciate anyone trying to use my loved ones to their advantage. Especially if it is to get anything out of me. That was only just about a quarter of my ki. If I did indeed release another quarter of it, you would slowly begin to burn on the outside. Another two quarters, and you would begin to burn from the inside-out. If I released the all of it, you would be a pile of ash within a few miliseconds. You would not want to make me angry. When I get angry, my Aniki gets very upset with those who urked me. You WILL suffer if you do so. Besides, you would not want my Sessho-nii to use all of his connections to make you and whatever company of yours to fall, do you?" For the first time in a long time, Kyoya's mind had come to a stand still. Nobody had ever done or said something like this to him before. He did not know how to respond. All he knew was that if what this guy said about his ki was true, then he would not stand a chance at all. All he did was nod his head in an affirmative while he tried to wrap his mind around all of this. "Good," was her only response before she shoved the Tengu to the ground before turning around and marching out of the room. On her way out, she made sure to grab both of her cousins by their arms.
Note: Hey. I am undeniably sorry for taking so long to update. I had completely lost inspiration for everything that I had been writing, a complete writer's block. I just hope this chapter does not disappoint. I technically think that this copy is most undeniably better than the other dozen or so copies that I had created before it. Please read and tell me what you think. Criticism is completely welcome. If you do not like the format of this chapter, it would be because it is typed up on notepad because of the virus that invaded my computer a couple months ago which caused me to completely reboot my computer afterwards. I am still looking for my microsoft stuff around my home. Also, I am still in need of some really good prank ideas, as well as some funny situations to happen to some of the characters in this story. Thanks.