Mandy: The much expected fourth chapter is now here~! Thanks for 101 reviews! This is my first fic to have gotten over 100 reviews. That makes me sooo happy! I still have to update "Confessions of a Shadow King", however…
L: Finally. You said the ideas were flowing, so why post the chapter so late?
Mandy: … to be honest, it started flowing for like 2 handwritten pages and then I got stuck. But I managed to write about 3-4 more pages (I write the fics in a notebook first, then put little notes in the margins and edit while I type them up ^^)
Light: Mandy doesn't own DeathNote or Inuyasha. She wishes she did, though. So then she could take all of the… bishies? … Like me, perhaps?
Mandy: Eeeww, no. Bishies like L and Bankotsu, Sesshoumaru, and Koga, of course!
Sesshoumaru: Leave this Sesshoumaru out of this.
Bankotsu: -sharpens his Banryu threateningly-
Koga: … o_o;
L: … -noms on sugar cubes-
Mandy: Anyway, here's the long-awaited chapter! Please enjoy~!
Chapter Four: Annoyance and Frustration
"Kagome, what are you–" Inuyasha said upon entering (more like bursting in), but froze when he saw her and another man standing really close to each other. He would've been speechless… if he wasn't so incredibly and terribly hot-headed and impulsive, that is. In a flash, Inuyasha pushed Kagome back to get between her and the strange man. His claws extended, and he brought them up to his opponent's face. "Who the hell are you and what are you trying to do to Kagome?" Ryuk laughed at the site in front of him, obviously enjoying the conflict. Unfortunately for Kagome, she was the only one who could hear it.
L blinked at Inuyasha. "My, what strange ears you have." Ryuk began to laugh even harder, nearly starving for breath because of his mirth. Kagome was distracted by that laughter, getting more and more annoyed and frustrated, not knowing what to do. Looking down at his new adversary's hands, L said, "And what strange nails. Don't you ever cut them? What if one of them snags and rips your fingernail off? You would have a lot of blood all over if that happened."
Ryuk gave another roar of laughter, causing Kagome to snap. Almost as if on auto-pilot, she did what she shouldn't have done in front of one of the world's greatest detectives.
"Inuyasha, SIT, BOY!" She yelled, and his silver-haired head crashed to the floor and out of her immediate eyesight. Kagome glared down at him. "Sit, sit, sit, sit, sit, sit, sit!" Inuyasha cringed on the floor, his dog ears twitching from the pain. When she noticed this, she finally realized her mistake. She revealed something suspicious in front of the L – who, if history didn't already tell her, was extremely disbelieving in nature and would start asking questions. And a lot of them.
Kagome slowly took her eyes from Inuyasha's form to gaze at L, who stood watching the half dog demon with interest and amusement. "Sota's hero, I presume. You must be cosplaying for the young boy, right?"
Kagome was suddenly so relieved; it was hard to hide the emotions from her face anymore, especially from L. Inuyasha started to protest, but Kagome stepped on his head, preventing his words from being spoken. She kept her eyes on L, smiling. "Yup, that's right! This is… my friend, Inuyasha! However, he likes to portray me as a villain to my brother, so every time I tell him to sit, he pretends I'm sapping his energy from him." Kagome was surprised how easily she was lying to L. It was as if the old, stuttering Kagome – the one who had said "sip" as in sip vinegar, not sit – was replaced. However, it was no time to be proud of herself for lying to a detective, because, sooner or later – hopefully later, but most probably sooner – L would find out her secret.
"Inuyasha!" Sota cried as he walked in. "Sis, can you get off of his head? He needs to breathe, I think." Kagome forgot that she still had her foot there, and removed it; she stood firmly on the floor, knowing a fight between her and Inuyasha was most likely to start again. Oh hell, who was she kidding? There was going to be a fight. Inuyasha was just the kind of person who would want to pick a fight over something so small, too.
Inuyasha got up off of the floor, facing Kagome, not even bothering to wipe off any residual dirt he might have on his pants. "What the hell was that for, Kagome? I come in, and I find some weird guy getting close to you – what am I supposed to do?" Inuyasha yelled at her.
"I'm not just some weird guy. I was just asking what was–" L tried to explain.
"Be quiet!" Kagome and Inuyasha both snapped at him simultaneously, causing them to glare at each other even more. L was undaunted by their anger, but, nevertheless, stayed quiet.
"That was for being impulsive! And rude! Couldn't you have handled that a bit more calmly?" Kagome admonished Inuyasha harshly.
"Feh. Whatever," Inuyasha said, pulling on Kagome's arm as he headed to the door. "We have to go. Miroku and Sango are in trouble." Kagome pulled her arm away from him.
"Why didn't you say this before? Baka!" She said, "You go on ahead, I'll catch up." Inuyasha grunted, giving L another nice, long glare before he left.
"I'll get your backpack around, Kagome," Sota said, wanting to be helpful. He ran out of the room before Kagome could stop him. Ryuk's laughter was slowly dying as Kagome turned to L.
"I'm really sorry about Inuyasha," She said, bowing. Kagome stood; she watched him hesitantly, scared that he would ask something and everything would instantly become worse.
"What's happened to your friends that Inuyasha mentioned?" He asked, sounding concerned… which lightened her heart for some reason. "What kind of trouble are they in?"
"With the way Inuyasha puts things, it's probably just Miroku being a pervert." Kagome hoped that was all, anyway. Funny, that.
"I'll come with you." L stated, taking one last sip of his now cold tea before setting it aside, standing in front of Kagome.
"Oh, no, I'll be fine," Kagome tried to reassure him, waiting for Sota to come with her backpack. 'Dang it, Sota… hurry so I can get out of here and away from this guy!'
"You didn't seem fine when a criminal had a gun to your head." He said, staring at her intently, making her want to squirm under such a soul-searching gaze. She made the mistake of looking at him eye-to-eye, and now she was enraptured by his dark, almost pupil-less eyes. He kept her attention so well she didn't realize that he had moved closer to her again. "Ka-go-me… what's your secret? Why are you such a… my-ster-y?" The way he whispered it near her ear gave her shallow shivers down her spine. Her name sounded like something else when he spoke it, but what that was, she didn't know. He didn't seem to notice her shivers – or, if he did, he chose to either ignore it or store it in the part of his brain as something he could use against her later.
"Kagome." Sota said, startling his older sister, and causing L to step back enough that she could think a little bit more. Sota dragged her hefty, bulging bag to Kagome. "Everything's there, but I couldn't find your bow and arrows." She laughed nervously; she was too jittery because of the confrontation only a moment ago to look at L's face.
"I don't need those, Sota… I'm not going to archery practice. I left them there anyway." Kagome quickly covered, trying to usher her brother out of the room. "Well, I have to go now, alright, bye-bye–" She fled to the nearest door, leaving two exceedingly confused individuals behind her.
Ryuga and Sota exchanged glances. "… Your sister's a terrible liar, you know that?" Ryuga said. Sota sighed, nodding.
"I'm really sorry, mister. I don't know what to do with her." He said as if he was talking about his own child instead of his older sibling, shrugging. He paused only to sigh again.
"Anything I should know about her?" Ryuga fished, hoping to get a few answers out of Sota before he had to leave and work on "important" things.
"Well, she's a klutz, and hates surprise tests and anything math-related. She really hates math." Sota began, "She's also a little oblivious, like with this Hojo guy who comes around a lot. He brings her stuff all the time and asks if she's here… most of the time she's out, though."
Ryuga's eye twitched – a result from too much sugar, perhaps? "Oblivious… really?"
"Oh, and you know that dense, rash guy you just saw, Inuyasha? My sister's had a crush on him for a long time. I keep wondering when they're gonna realize that. Those two are so much alike, they kind of scare me sometimes." Sota said, "Anyway, my mom will be home soon, so…"
"Alright, thank you for the hospitality." Ryuga said, patting the little boy on the head in an awkward manner.
And then he just walked out the door.
"What took you so long, Kagome?" Inuyasha yelled at the distressed miko as he helped her climb out of the well. He handed over her bow and arrows, setting Kagome's bag aside. "We've got to hurry!" He ushered her onto his back, and he leapt through the trees.
"Inuyasha, what's going on, anyway?" Kagome shouted over the rushing winds. Tree branches whirred by at startling speeds; speeds that Kagome was almost used to by now. All that could be heard now was the rapid thump-thump-thump-thump of Inuyasha's feet as he ran at full steam.
"I told you – Sango and Miroku are in trouble! I sent Shippo back to Kaede to make sure he stayed safe," he answered before she had the opportunity to ask about her little adopted fox demon. 'Why is it that… he's only dense most of the time, but still manages to care for Shippo, who he usually despises and abuses?' Kagome wondered as they reached a clearing.
In the clearing, she found the strangest sight. Well, she would've described it as that, if she hadn't already seen stranger things. To Inuyasha and the rest, it might have looked completely different. They would have been seeing projectile apples being thrown at them out of nowhere, instead of just out of the hands of a trickster Shinigami.
"Hiraikotsu!" Sango unleashed her large boomerang, trying to hit the source of the projectiles – however since the Shinigami seemed unaffected, it merely passed through him. Not that Sango knew this. "Coward! Why don't you come out and show yourself!"
Miroku was just flailing his staff around, trying to block apples before they hit him. Some of them were deflected with his weapon, but most were deflected with his head. "Ouch! What kind of demon are you?"
"The easily bored kind," Ryuk said, picking up an apple and taking a bite out of it. He spotted Inuyasha coming right into the clearing, his eyes lighting up with glee as he aimed his half-eaten apple…
… Only to have Kagome shoot it right out of his hand with a bow and arrow, steadying herself on Inuyasha' back. Ryuk's eyes widened (even more, if possible) upon seeing the miko again. In a flash, he picked up all of the apples and set them in a basket, which happened to be by Sango's feet, trying to look innocent. Kagome clambered off of Inuyasha's back, hands on hips as she glared at the Shinigami. He held his hands out as if to say "Look – you caught me red-handed!"
"Ah, I'm sorry, Kagome. Ya know 'ow I am... can' give up on mischief, can I?" Ryuk said, floating towards the miko. "I wasn' gonna hurt 'em."
Kagome raised her hand to yank on his earring, using her miko powers to make him visible to her friends. This was difficult to do, and required a lot of energy, so she doubted she would be able to do something like this again. She only managed to stand upright because she was hanging onto Ryuk's earring. However, they both fell to the ground from the sudden pressure Kagome had put on his ear.
"Kagome!" Inuyasha cried, taking her arm in his arms. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah, I'm fine. I shouldn't try to make Shinigami visible again though." Kagome said, disappointed at that fact. 'I could've proved to L that Shinigami existed this way…'
Inuyasha let her stand on her feet, letting her lean against him for support. Ryuk floated back up, rubbing his ear. "What the hell is that?" Inuyasha said, pulling out the Tetsusaiga with the hand that wasn't holding Kagome upright. Miroku and Sango got into a battle position with their weapons, as well.
"That's Ryuk, a Shinigami. He's harmless." Kagome answered, looking up at Ryuk. "Isn't that right, Ryuk? You wouldn't want to lose that ear, would you?"
"Not meh ear! I need dat!" He said, still massaging his precious ear, swearing to himself to avoid contact with the miko unless absolutely necessary. "I'll be good, really! I promise!"
"Could you hand me that basket, Sango?" Kagome asked suddenly. The demon slayer blinked, strapping her boomerang to her back. She picked up the basket of apples, handing them to the miko. "Thanks." She pushed Inuyasha's arm off of her, and managed to stay standing. Great. Ryuk watched her curiously, fingers itching for the apple basket.
"I said I was sorry… now yeh wanna take meh apples? Anything but dat! … Or meh ear!" The Shinigami begged. Kagome smirked.
"Well… I could give them to you…" Kagome said, "But I don't think I should give these potential projectiles to you." The horrified look on the Shinigami's face was enough to make a small child cry.
"Ya don' understand! If I don' get mah apples, I'm gonna get withdrawals!" Ryuk said, his legs beginning to make a strange movement, "It ain't gonna be pretty." The group watched with growing dread as his body began to convulse and twist parts that shouldn't bend in places that weren't that flexible.
And it dawned on Kagome… she would never once "forget" to give Ryuk his apples ever again.
L sat facing a computer screen, staring at it, unblinking. It wasn't uncommon to find him like this, looking as if he was in a coma… if it wasn't for the fact that he was shoving sugar kebabs into his mouth, that is. He had never been so frustrated in his life. He had never wanted to throw something through this annoying feeling he was getting. The mystery that was the elusive – and, he had to admit, beautiful – Kagome Higurashi was consuming his time when he should've been working on the Kira case.
"Ryuzaki," Watari said, startling L, who turned to look at him, "Ah, excuse me. I was just wondering if you've made any progress with your new, eh… friend." L stared at him blankly. Watari chuckled quietly. "No need to give me that look. This is eating up your time faster than you downing those sugar kebabs. If you take a break and come back to it, you might come up with something new." Watari seemed to smile knowingly, leaving L bathed in the light of his computer screen.
Taking his mentor's advice, L set aside the issue to focus instead on the Kira case. He used his annoyance to further himself into the solving of the case. He was hoping that Kira might slip up and give another large clue like he did when L found out he lived in the Khanto region, but the only clues he had were the ones about Kira's "powers" and the note about the Shinigami. He doubted Shinigami were involved – he thought about Kagome when he told her that it was impossible that they were real. And then he was suddenly setting aside his work to pick back up where he left off on his… other issue.
"I-nu-ya-sha…" he said with bitterness, remembering the strange dog-eared man and what Sota had told L. He didn't know what cloth his haori was made out of, but he did know it was a style of clothing from the Feudal Era. Maybe he could track Inuyasha through his clothing, to find out more about Kagome and maybe why she liked this obviously dense man. L glanced at a few sites about the Feudal Era, and quickly scrolled down each page, reading at a rate that would put even Einstein to shame. He was about to move onto another page, but he paused upon glancing at one of the pictures. He sat, staring.
It was an old painting, but that wasn't what caught L's eye. It was the people depicted in it. Standing on a cliff facing some form of demon was a man clad in a red haori, sword in hand. He had long silver hair and dog ears – but that wasn't all that tipped L off.
There was a girl in a short green skirt and white shirt with a bow and arrow aimed at the demon standing by the man's side.
L had read the page in less than 10 seconds – it was the legend of the Shikon no Tama. The painting was from more than 500 years ago. So why were people that he met more than five hours ago in a painting that was made more than five centuries ago?
The detective narrowed his eyes at the picture. "Kagome, you just became even more interesting."
Mandy: Ahaha. Plot twist? Or just a deviant way for the author to give you another cliffhanger?
L: I deduce that it is neither, and you're just making stuff up.
Mandy: OMG, how did you know! -flees-
Kagome: Ahaha, anyways, read and review!
Remember – I like bribery/update cookies. Feed the writer – leave a review!
Updated/Edited 12/1/10