Title: Experiment 23
Author: Tsubasa Kya
Disclaimer: I do not own " Ouran High School Host Club" or "Inuyasha".
Chapter Two
Something Interesting to Know
Hikaru and Kaoru walked into the Third Floor Music Room, the home of the Host club, confusion and silence hanging heavily on their shoulders. Neither of them could understand why Haruhi had just left so suddenly, and with a man scarier (and admittedly better looking) than anything they'd ever seen.
They'd flipped notes in the form of paper footballs to each other through the rest of the day, both of them trying to deduce why Haruhi had been so glum yesterday, today, and now… who was he?
"You two are late," Kyouya Ootori pointed out to the twins. True, the Host club only entertained for two hours after school, but the hosts met half an hour early to prepare for the afternoon before the ladies started showing up.
The twins looked around the room, noticing the distinct absence of Takashi Morinozuka and Mitsukuni Haninozuka. "Where's Mori and Hunny?" Hikaru and Kaoru asked in unison. Kyouya hadn't even changed yet. They were going to be dressing up as commoners.
Kaoru added, "Why haven't you gotten ready?" Neither twin really cared why, since it did seem as though they wouldn't be putting a show on for the Host club customers. They both were worried about Haruhi, and had every intention of driving by her place to see what was up with her.
Kyouya pressed his glasses further up on his nose. "Hunny got sick this afternoon, and Mori took him home. Where is Haruhi?" He snapped his black folder shut in annoyance.
Hikaru and Kaoru glanced at each other. They decided to tell Kyouya, since he would find out anyway. "Haruhi left early," they said together.
Kyouya shook his head. He knew he should have kept Haruhi in debt, but thanks to Éclair, Haruhi had become very distracted. He'd noticed her distraction. It wasn't because of Tamaki's disappearance either, because even before Tamaki left for France Haruhi had been distracted, constantly looking out the window with a strange twist to her features.
He had to admit, his curiosity was perked. She seemed almost…sad… He would have to research why she left later that night. But with only three Host members, they would have to cancel the evening. He'd already known they would have to, but now it was a sure thing.
"Fine," Kyouya said as he tucked his folder under his arm. He watched the twins' eyes light up and already knew what they planned. As they turned to leave, he said lowly, "Leave Haruhi alone."
The twins turned to glare at Kyouya, but he simply glared right back. After a moment, they agreed they would. Kyouya began preparations to cancel the club as the twins left. Ten minutes later, he was able to leave and he directed his driver to Haruhi's home.
After all… it wasn't as if he was about to listen to his own order. It wasn't long after that, he was getting out of the black car and joining two red-heads who couldn't listen to an order if it meant their lives. He pushed his glasses up again, and then opened his mouth to scold them, but as Kaoru and Hikaru raised their hands to knock on the door, it opened.
There, standing in the doorway, was Haruhi's father with a suitcase in one hand, and one at his feet. For a long moment, there was silence. Then Ranka stepped out, still wearing the suit the twins had seen him in earlier. He tossed a set of keys at the twins and the two fumbled to catch them, but they dropped. He picked up the second suitcase and started walking away.
"Be useful, and lock up when you're done." Ranka said, his tone lonely sounding. All of them remembered him as cheerful, every time they met him—except when he dealt with Tamaki, which didn't really count. Now, the cheer was miles away. As Ranka walked past Kyouya, the boy heard the cross-dresser mutter, "It'll be a while, anyway…"
He'd almost gotten to the stairs before he turned, pinning a morose stare on the three, "Stay away from Haruhi," he added, "if you know what's good for you…"
All three were stunned. None of them knew what to say to that, so instead they crowded the rail, watching Ranka get into a taxi waiting for him in the street below. Once the taxi had driven off and turned the corner, the three immediately went into the apartment. It only took a few seconds to realize that most of both Fujioka members' clothes were gone.
Disturbed by this, Hikaru immediately took off running, leaving the apartment and fruitlessly calling out from the rail, "Haruhi!!" It felt as though with each passing second, Haruhi was getting further and further away and there was nothing they could do about it.
Kaoru went to his brother and this time, he was the one putting his arms around his brother. Hikaru just didn't realize how obvious it was at that moment to know how Hikaru felt about Haruhi. Hikaru also didn't know that Kaoru felt exactly the same way for her… but he wouldn't do anything about it. And he most certainly wouldn't let his brother know.
"You two go home." Kyouya said firmly as he took his phone out, heading for his car. He told the driver to take him home but once he was on the road, he was dialing Tamaki's cell phone. He almost pushed the call button, but stopped himself as a scenario developed in his mind.
No, Tamaki could not know. He dialed Hikaru and Kaoru instead. When one of them answered—knowing who it was just had to be so difficult, even for him—he said immediately, "Do not tell Tamaki."
He was not enlightened to hear, "Oops…" on the other end.
"You told him already?" Kyouya asked in disbelief.
"Actually, Hikaru just left a message on our Lord's voice mail." So it was Kaoru.
Kyouya didn't bother with a salutation. He snapped the phone shut. He only hoped Tamaki didn't leave France for this…
Since the damage had already been done, the next day Kyouya informed Mori and Hunny of what had happened. They would find out eventually, so Kyouya felt it would be better coming from him. He informed them of Ranka's warning, and Hunny refused to even eat sweets hearing it.
Two days after that, the worst happened; Tamaki returned.
-
The piano was an escape from reality for anyone who would listen. The cello brought the listener back to earth. The clarinet stirred dangerous emotions inside the listener. The flute brought the listener to tears. The violin took away the listener's hope for freedom.
But the voice that sang… it did so with faith and the listener could feel as though they had not only escaped reality, but created a new one, a better one.
Still… the song was incomplete. In the corner of the room was a small stand. On top of it lay a piccolo case, and beside that was an oboe case. On the floor was a viola case, a second violin case, a saxophone case, and a guitar case. Still beside that was a xylophone, set up with the sticks lying at rest on the keys. Next to that was a rack with a series of chimes, and a mallet stuck out of the lowest chime's top.
The music group had a small audience of five people. Tears flowed freely down the faces of those present. When the song ended, no one clapped. It wasn't an unusual thing; no one could rejoice. They had all thought they were in the clear. They had all thought that it wasn't dangerous to just enjoy life.
And now, this?
Haruhi lowered the violin, knowing very well that each person's personality had entered that song. They had played their hearts out, poured themselves into the music like milk into a glass. She looked at each of the other players, a sigh in her heart. Truly, the world was unfair.
Miroku Shishuni was at the piano, his eyes closed even if the song was done. His black hair was held in a tie at the nape of his neck, the short strands clumped into a small tail. His gray-violet eyes weren't visible. His slender fingers were massaging his right hand, on a purple cloth wrap guarded by a rosary. His middle finger had a gold ring on it, that contrasted with his tan skin. Since the last time she'd seen him, just like Sesshoumaru it had been in middle school, he'd taken to wearing dark, baggy clothes that made him seem paler than he was.
Sesshoumaru was near Miroku, able to sit in a chair as he played the cello. His sun gold eyes constantly wandered toward their singer, and though his features remained hard Haruhi knew him too well to mistake his concern for irritation or anger.
On the clarinet was Naraku Hubri. He was the oldest of the group, being two months older than Sesshoumaru, both of them seniors at the Public High School. Naraku always wore clothes in gray and black tones, and always looked incredibly pale. His thick, waist length black hair flowed freely, since he never tied it unless he was going out. Long lashes framed eyes as bright red as fresh blood.
Beside Naraku was his fraternal twin sister, Kagura, with her flute in her hands and a fan in her lap, folded up. She kept her black hair pinned against her head in a tight bun, but Haruhi knew it was just as long as Naraku's when left to fall. Her eyes were equally bloody, and a green bead clip kept three feathers clipped into her hair. She wore a colorful, checked tank top and blue jean-shorts that Naraku always argued. Their younger sister Kagura, who was Haruhi's age, was in the small audience of people, dressed in a white spring dress despite it was fall. Her hair was pure snow white, and her eyes were milky. She'd been blind for years…ever since it had happened.
The singer was Kagome Higurashi. Her deep blue eyes sparkled like the night sky, and her clothes hung on her form despite the fact that they were small already. Everyone knew why her clothes hung like that. She was sick, and for the past ten years she had been ill. Periodically she would get better, only to relapse worse and it would take her longer to recover again.
The other members of the audience were Kagome's mother Aris, younger brother—and the head of Higurashi household being the only male in the family—Souta, and older sister Kikyou. The fifth member of the audience was Kagome's doctor, Hojou Negimi. But Kagome was Haruhi's reason to come.
She wondered what the other members of the Host club would say if they knew she could play. It was something she hadn't mentioned to them, simply because she couldn't keep her feelings out of her music.
She knew her father had told her Host club friends that she was bad at music in general when the Zuka club from St. Lobelia had kidnapped her to do a musical number, but it wasn't entirely true. No, she couldn't hold a note if it meant her life. Her voice was awful. But she could play the violin.
Haruhi plucked at the strings of the violin with one finger. Again, misery seemed far too oppressive to the atmosphere. What had been done to the majority of those in the room… from Kanna to Haruhi, from Naraku to Sesshoumaru. None of them were free from a curse. Only Souta, who was too young to know about it, and Aris and Hojou who hadn't been as unlucky, were free. And there were others, bound and chained like the rest of them.
At the moment, they weren't there. But at any time now, they would start arriving from various places around the country. There wasn't a single one of them that would throw away the chance to be by Kagome while she was sick.
It hadn't been a problem when they were younger. They were all growing up together, learning to cope with what had happened… At the time, Sunset Shrine had been filled with people. It had been a safe haven for rape and abuse victims. Most of those women were poor and sometimes they had children, and abortion cost more money than the women who sought their help had.
So the Higurashi family had taken their wealth and used it to take care of the women. They weren't quite as wealthy as the Souh family, or the Ootori family, or really anyone at Ouran. But they had enough money to take care of the women without stressing too badly.
But then, it happened. Haruhi shuddered as she recalled the horrible memories, and the knowledge that each of them could essentially be wasting away just like Kagome, getting worse by the day, and none of them would know until it was too late.
Like walking time bombs… They could all easily be the next to go, and none of them would be able to do anything about it. But Haruhi promised them all… she was the only one who could do it… Sesshoumaru and Naraku were both smart enough, they'd always been better than her at everything, but Sesshoumaru helped Souta and Aris manage the Higurashi estate ever since Kagome's grandfather Tokiro died in the incident, and he also helped Kikyou take care of Kagome as much as possible.
Naraku was also unable to do it, because of Kagura and Kanna. The rest of them didn't have the opportunity to do it… so that left her… That left her to keep her promise, despite the many lonely nights listening to the thunder clapping outside her window as her father worked late nights or the nightmares she always endured both before and after Kagome fell ill.
She smoothed the pink dress she wore. Her father had packed her suitcase and dropped it off at the shrine before he left to go visit some family members in another city. He wouldn't have gone, but she had told him to. She told him to and he went knowing full well that she didn't have the time to worry about him.
A loud bell could be heard echoing throughout the shrine, and the silence was broken by it, shattering it into thousands of pieces. Almost like a calling, everyone in the room began setting their music and instruments aside. They had sat in relative quiet for almost half an hour as Kagome sat in her seat, tired from standing and singing for a seven minute song.
Sesshoumaru set his cello carefully beneath the baby grand piano before he approached Kagome. Haruhi watched as his features softened only slightly before he picked her up as though she were his bride, cradling her so she wouldn't have to walk and wear herself out. It was this action, if no other in the past three days had done so, that spoke volumes of just how ill Kagome was this time.
She didn't even seem to have the energy to protest the movement as everyone moved from the music room to the sitting room down the hall. Kikyou headed for the front door, to answer it and admit the person who begged entrance. In the sitting room, Miroku let Haruhi cuddle up against his side on one of the chairs.
Today was subdued. Miroku wasn't even bothering to try feeling Haruhi up, and he had not asked her to bear his child yet today. He just wrapped his arm around her and she leaned gratefully against him, her eyes on Kagome as Sesshoumaru settled her in a nearby chair.
Twenty seconds later, Sesshoumaru's younger half-brother Inuyasha Iko entered the room, fuzzy little dog ears twitching on top of his head of silver hair. His eyes were similar to his brothers, but more amber than sun gold. He was also far more approachable, wearing jeans and a baggy red tee-shirt, with laugh-lines on his features. He wasn't smiling at that moment though. His eyes immediately searched out Kagome, and he walked across the room to kneel before her chair.
Inuyasha took Kagome's hands in his before asking in a genuine voice, "How're ya feelin'? Not too hot?"
Kagome smiled and reached out to tug on Inuyasha's ears, tweaking the cute puppy-like appendages. His face turned red, but he didn't turn away from her. "I'm okay," she said, and everyone heard her. "Sesshou's taking good care of me."
"He damn well better," Inuyasha grumped, licking his lips. "Um," he started up again, now turning to scan the room. "Not everyone's here?"
Kikyou stepped into the room and their eyes turned toward her. "The rest of them will come. Most of them are driving here, but we do expect them by tonight. I have the cooks preparing a late dinner."
Inuyasha nodded and stood up. "I'll go drop my suitcase in the room then."
Once more, silence and a feeling of dread pervaded the atmosphere as Inuyasha left. It was always like that during the time until everyone had arrived. Haruhi and Miroku had remained in the city, so they were the first to arrive at the shrine, but the rest of them lived from the northern tip of Japan down to the southern islands.
Haruhi felt Miroku's arm pull her closer as Kagome started coughing, but he relaxed again when Kagome stopped and Sesshoumaru offered her a glass of water. To be honest, Haruhi had thought the Host club members would have come looking for her already. She hadn't been at school for two and a half days. They had already proven themselves to panic if she was gone to the bathroom for more than ten minutes.
A part of her was glad they weren't around. Another part was disappointed.
But just as Kikyou had said, very soon people started arriving and all the chairs in the sitting room were soon filled with multiple people. By six o'clock PM, everyone had settled in, and slowly chatter filled the gloomy atmosphere, masking it with false cheer. They all asked what everyone else had been up to the past two years since Kagome's last sickness, and the last time they had gotten together.
The air of depression never left though. Not one of them could forget what happened twelve years earlier. At seven, everyone had arrived and settled into their old rooms. The cooks called dinner at seven thirty. At eight thirty, everyone prepared for bed. At nine, everyone was in bed with the lights out. Not long after that, Haruhi was tossing and turning with nightmares.
-
Tamaki paced irritably back and forth, nearly wearing a hole in the floor. The others just didn't understand, he thought. While he was in France, he did find his mother. Talking to her made him realize that he didn't feel any form of familial relation to Haruhi.
Haruhi's disappearance had stirred something very primal in Tamaki, and her father's warning to stay away from her only made him want to tear up couch cushions in anger. Of course, being the French gentleman he was, Tamaki did manage to refrain from such barbaric actions and instead simply paced alone in his bedroom back at his mansion.
It had been a whole day since his rather hasty return, but since Haruhi's sudden kidnapping it had actually been three days. Whoever this man was who stole Haruhi away… well, Tamaki could think nothing better than dropkicking the man in the chest—right off a cliff. A cliff that preferably had sharp, jagged rocks and a shallow pool at the bottom…
He groaned as he paused by his window, looking out of them and over the grounds his father owned. In the distance, he could make out a shrine atop a hill surrounded in trees. That was the very shrine where Tamaki's father had met his mother. Sure, she was a French woman, but she came to Japan to study abroad. Her parents had been fairly wealthy at the time before Tamaki's mother grew suddenly sick and medical bills put the once-wealthy family in debt.
But, even if it wasn't familial relation he felt for Haruhi… could he face the truth of the matter? Could he, knowing how Hikaru, Kaoru, and even Kyouya felt for her? He wasn't stupid. He was French, learned in the ways of romance and poetry.
Hikaru and Kaoru's love for Haruhi lay in her strange beauty. All of theirs did. There was something about her that simply demanded attention, and to ignore it would be kin to treason. All that time, Tamaki simply thought he felt a father's love for Haruhi, desiring to see her safe and happy. It wasn't true at all.
Another point for Hikaru and Kaoru's attraction lay in the fact that she was the only one who could tell them apart, no matter how hard they tried to play the other. As two people who wanted nothing more than to be individually recognized (but at the same time, contradicting themselves by wanting to be viewed as a single whole) Haruhi provided a certain comfort for them. Someone in this world would always know who was who…
And Kyouya… it was hard to tell with him, but Tamaki was sure he hadn't misjudged his friend. Kyouya wanted to be recognized not as his siblings' younger brother or as his father's son. He wanted to be seen as himself. He wanted to stand alone, in a world where standing alone was difficult with people already at the top.
Haruhi had never seen Kyouya as an Ootori, per say, but rather… she viewed him as something else. She viewed him as an individual entity, aloof from the group. Tamaki had once heard her muttering something about a 'Shadow King' in reference to Kyouya.
In many ways, that was true about Kyouya. He was swift, underhanded, and he liked thinking he was able to manipulate people into doing what he wanted them to do. But Kyouya probably didn't realize what Tamaki had during his trip to France—the very reason why he had turned his phone off in a pit of self-loathing for not noticing sooner.
Kyouya was the first to notice Haruhi for who she was, being a girl. He probably knew who she was long before that vase even broke. And it had been Kyouya who had set that vase there in the first place. No, Kyouya wasn't stupid. He had probably long-since devised a plan to get Haruhi in debt to the club. And with each broken tea-cup… each shattered saucer… he added to that debt because he wasn't about to let Haruhi go.
It was a sad romance. The club had made twice that much money selling Haruhi's mechanical pencils and notebooks. She always thought she misplaced them, but it was hardly true. Kyouya had worked quick damage control when Haruhi found out one of her pencils had been sold, and he'd made her think it was just one…
But it was one, after another, after another.
He returned to pacing, his feet shushing on the floor. "So where the heck do I fit in?" he demanded.
When his phone started ringing, Tamaki threw himself across the room, grabbing it in hopes that it would be Haruhi calling. An image flew through his mind of Haruhi lying bare on a harsh stone floor, naked, bruised and bloodied, the tattered remains of her clothing lying in a soggy heap. "Tamaki, this Haruhi needs help…" the image cried piteously, and his heart ached painfully.
He flipped up the cover. "Haruhi?!" his voice was strained and the image left him breathless and without very much energy to stand.
"No, my Lord," it was Hikaru…or Kaoru… one of them. "Kaoru found something you should look at. We're at Haruhi's apartment. Kyouya is on his way with Mori and Hunny."
Tamaki instantly had the energy to stand again as he screamed, "You better not be going through her underwear!"
He heard laughter. "No, my Lord. Only a closet pervert like you would do that!" The line went dead, and Tamaki hastily got himself dressed (he'd spent the entire afternoon in his pajamas once he got home from the Host club). Even after all the other's assurances that everything was okay, and Haruhi wasn't kidnapped… they were worried too…
End.
