Disclaimer: I do not own Rumiko Takahashi's InuYasha.
Chapter 3 - Frustration
"Good morning Taishou-sama." His secretary bowed in respect as Sesshoumaru passed by her into the double doors that opened to his office.
"Where's my coffee." He growled in annoyance. The secretary hastily stepped towards her desk and retrieved the still steaming cup with the spoon still inside from the tabletop.
"Here you are Taishou-sama." She offered, with her head bowed low. Sesshoumaru wrenched the cup out of her hands, opened the door with his left hand and entered, without a word of thanks. His secretary walked meekly back to her desk, continuing the schedule planning.
A few seconds later, a sharp crack was heard inside his room. The sound of something breaking caused the secretary to jump. She cautiously peered towards the double doors when she heard a beep from the phone. Her boss was calling her into his office.
She reluctantly opened the door, but before she could step in it, she heard the frigid voice of her boss.
"See to it that the mess is cleaned." Was all he said before returning to his typing. The secretary's gaze landed on the shattered mug by the door, with coffee staining the carpet. What a horrible demise for such a lovely mug. She can still make out the words "Cold" on one piece, half of a heart on another shard, and the picture of a cute white puppy on another particularly large shard. The spoon laid alone some ways away from the remains of the mug.
She sighed. She'll have to get another mug for him. She closed the door before calling for the custodian.
Sesshoumaru closed his eyes warily. The cup of coffee seemed worse than usual. Though he had slept the minute he got home from the hospital yesterday, three hours is not nearly enough. He sighed, hoping that his team of scientists in the Research and Development department would come up with a miracle drug for allowing one's mind to feel refreshed despite a lack of sleep.
He growled. He really needed a decent cup of coffee. He speed dialled his favourite coffee shop and ordered his usual before resuming his work. He really needed to get better coffee beans.
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"Why won't this work", a frustrated Kagome growled as she attempted to re-enter her body upon return from her little escapade with a certain silver haired male and his car.
Come on… she thought as she laid on the bed where her body was, hoping that the next time she sat up, her body would also obey. However, no such luck. After doing so multiple times, she began to feel stupid, so she abandoned her quest and opted instead to get off the bed and sit on the sofa by the window.
"Sango? Here, French Vanilla, your favourite." A male voice was heard immediately after the door opened. Sango, who was still watching her comatose friend from her perch at the side of the bed smiled gratefully.
"Thank you, Dr. Miroku." She blushed as she accepted the cup.
"It is nothing special. Has her family been notified?" He asked as he sipped from his own beverage.
"Her entire family passed away two years ago in a fire… except for her brother, whom she's convinced is still alive somewhere. But so far, there's no sign of him." Sango sighed as she reminisced to two years ago, when she found out from her friend the unfortunate demise of her family.
It was two years ago, on Christmas eve. Kagome was spending the day with Sango and Shippou, and they were in the process of watching the third instalment of the Lord of the Rings trilogy when she received that fateful phone call.
"Moshi moshi?" Kagome chirped.
"Hello? Is this a Kagome Higurashi?" The male voice on the other end asked, his sound muffled by a loud siren in the background.
"Speaking…" Kagome said, her earlier happiness dissipating.
"I regret to be the one to inform you… but your family are dead." The male voice on the other end said, so softly that Kagome nearly didn't catch it.
Kagome gasped before dropping her cell phone onto the sofa. Sango and Shippou paused the movie before they turned to their stunned friend in concern.
"What is it Kagome?" Sango prodded.
"Mama… Grampa… Souta…" She said in a daze as the truth sank in. Shippou immediately retrieved the phone from the sofa and conversed with the man on the other end.
"A fire you say… two bodies… are you sure? Thank you, we will be there as soon as possible." Shippou said before hanging up.
"Kagome? They said they only recovered your mother and your grandpa's body, but your brother is nowhere to be seen…" Shippou started before being hushed by Sango, who was hugging her crying friend tightly.
"We have to go to the station to identify the bodies…." Shippou said softly. Sango nodded before relaying the message to Kagome, who was still sobbing loudly.
At the station, Kagome broke down in the sight of her family members in the morgue.
"They were supposed to be… singing happily… Mama was supposed to be preparing for the Christmas dinner tomorrow… Grandpa was… supposed to be… berating Souta for… not helping… Souta… Grandpa… Mama…" She sobbed uncontrollably.
"And since then, she's been searching for her brother?" The doctor inquired, after the little anecdote delivered by Sango. She nodded mutely, the grief of the situation sinking in again.
"Kagome Kagome… why does everything bad seem to happen to you? First your family dies… then you get left at the altar… now you get hit by a car and left in a coma…" She sobbed at the unfairness of it all. Her friend deserved happiness… The doctor placed a hand on her shoulder in comfort again. Unbeknownst to Sango, he was about to ask her to bear his children to lighten the mood, but he swallowed his words as he saw the tears appear in her eyes again.
And they remained in their positions for a while, until Sango calmed down again. Kagome stared on at the duo the entire time with eyes glazed with unshed tears, the memories evoking emotions that she thought she had buried a long time ago…
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"Where are you." A gruff voice asked on the phone. Kikyou smiled.
"In a place far far away" she said in a singsong voice.
"I'm not in the mood for games woman." The gruff voice replied angrily.
"What do you want?" She asked, cutting to the chase.
"Information." He plainly stated.
"Thank you for stating the obvious." Kikyou replied sarcastically.
"The location of Kagome Higurashi's body." He stated after a few seconds of silence.
"What makes you think I know?" She asked, curious.
"You have your underground network, so do I." She sighed. She inwardly cursed, the underground network again. Always popping up in her life at the most inopportune times.
"Look I'm on vacation in a place far far away. Which means I'm also far far away from said network. Find someone else to do the job." She grumbled into her phone, clearly irritated.
"Name your price." He calmly stated, oblivious to her previous comment.
"You son of a…" She began to say before he interrupted.
"I expect the information in a day." He said.
"…gotta pay me double for the long distance fees." Was all he heard before he hung up. He smirked while twirling his cell phone in his hand.
In some place far far away, Kikyou was seething in anger. They always called at the worst times to ask for the most ridiculous favours… She swallowed her anger before proceeding to call her first informant.
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Sesshoumaru sighed as he finally finished his pile of work. He closed his eyes, enjoying the relaxing atmosphere when he felt a slight tingle. He opened his eyes a mere second later, frustration showing in his eyes as he stared at the offending person who dares to open the door to his office.
"Ano… Taishou-sama…"
Ah, the female responsible for the deplorable coffee.
"There appears to be a problem in Laboratory S-1…" She started to say but stopped in fear at her boss' deep growl.
"Hn." Was all that indicated that he heard.
Is he destined to live on three hours of sleep? He cursed the fool that was responsible for the glitch. When this Sesshoumaru gets his claws on him, he's going to wish that he's dead already, Sesshoumaru thought as he walked past her towards the elevator that will take him to the bowels of the earth.
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A/N: Thank you for reading so far :)! Special thanks to Hirono for proofreading the story thus far, and to my reviewers =) I'll try to update as much as possible in between studying for the finals. I will try to keep the Japanese terms to a minimum, because I myself am not a speaker of Japanese, so I don't want to unknowingly butcher the language by accident XD.