CHAPTER 14
THE ACCIDENTAL SEDUCTION
Dusty Mirrors
Setsujin entered into Seito Taisho's office, his face was sullen, ashen even. The news he carried was grave at best and definitely something Sesshoumaru didn't want to hear. Sesshoumaru removed his reading glasses and told the person on the other end of the phone that he had to leave for an important meeting. The phone clattered to the hook with little ceremony.
"Report Setsujin," the cold voice came.
"Her apartment is empty. It is as if nothing ever lived there before, completely sterile," Setsujin replied. "Everything was washed down in bleach, even the roof."
He stood, advancing on the Fire Demon. Setsujin did not move, or flinch.
"You lost her," he said coldly.
"Yes sir," he replied sternly, admitting failure.
"Do you realize what you have done?" he snarled.
"Yes sir," he replied even toned.
"I do not tolerate failure, Setsujin," his face and eyes were cold enough to burn.
"Yes sire," he replied again.
"Leave my sight, and do not return until you find where she is," he snarled.
"Yes sire," Setsujin turned and left before his Lord had time to rethink things.
He touched the button on his desk.
"Keria, bring me Kanna, and tell her I need the mirror," he said sharply.
"Right away Mr. Taisho," the voice chimed on the other end.
She was furious. Without consent, moments after the attack they were at her house. The were removing everything, packing it and hauling it out of the house. She had been through this twice before. Muteki and her were moved from the apartment into a safehouse, where they would be moved into their new identities, and she would resume her work. For a while she would resume it just from her desk, cold case files.
Once the heat was off, she would be able to pursue full fledged profiling again. The phones in the room didn't connect to anywhere except the guards outside the room. She felt trapped in her own skin. Muteki was resting again. He was completely healed, just exhausted. The threat was made by the Mansur family. That much they knew. They knew that for some reason, the yakuza member found on their property was directly tied to Kay. Thusly, "Kay Nishichan" had to be erased.
Suddenly that offer to go back to Japan looked better than ever.
She sat on the side of the bed, her hands resting and cradling her forhead in deep thought.
"Mom, once they settle us, and we get our stuff back..." he started.
"We're going home," she replied. "I'm finished with their games."
He sighed. He knew how much she hated, no not hate. She feared Japan. He couldn't pinpoint the scent that was in the house when he awoke, although he did let Li Sensei know it definitely displeased him that he slept through the encounter. Then suddenly rain was splashing on his face, and the goddamned MIB's showed up on their doorstep, again.
He decided that shows like "The Profiles of Dayne Hinman" and "Cold Case Files" were just bullshit. You don't get to go home and just forget a case, you don't get to just have a bad day at work and soak it away in the tub. His mother never did. He would never shirk his responsibilities, it just wasn't the way he was raised. And watching his mother for years, fighting against strong mobs, serial killers that just kept killing, and the like was something he had watched take it's toll on her.
"Mom, you got to get out of this buisiness," he said softly.
"Yeah, I know," she said. She flipped out her cellphone.
"Mom, their gonna get pissed if you call someone from our old life," he said whispering his warning.
"What are they gonna do? Fire me?" she whispered back and went into the bathroom.
"Sir, there is woman on the phone for you. Do you wish me to take a message?" the voice chimed.
"Who is it?" he said coldly.
"She says her name is Higurashi-chan," she replied. He quirked a brow.
"Put it through," he sighed boredly into the intercom. Meanwhile his angry face changed none.
"Seito?" she said quietly, whispering into the phone.
"Where are you?" he replied.
"I don't know. The Mansurs made threats against Mutekimaru," she whispered.
A growl was her answer to that comment.
"Seito, I want to go home now," she said shakily whispering.
She obviously didn't wish to speak normally. She was either being watched or worse. This wasn't the Mansurs doing obviously. Apparently the FBI felt this move necessary. It was too precise to have been anything else.
He hung up before they traced her call. She was not calling from a safe place or she would have called him Sesshoumaru. The implications of her words were not lost on him. He knew she would never go home willingly without serious concern for herself or her son's welfare. Well, probably more for her son's welfare, afterall Kagome was the essence of selfless. Even angry, she would give her life for those she cared for. Or in his case, those she didn't.
Kanna walked in, her mirror in her hands as he remembered when she was a child. She still wore all white, but it was a white business suit with stunning white pumps. Her hair was bound professionally.
"Kanna," he said with a sharp nod. "Show me Kagome Higurashi."
"I cannot see the Miko, Sesshoumaru-sama," her whispery voice came.
"Show me Mutekimaru Nishisan," he said changing his target.
"Yes Lord," her response came. The mirror smoked and the boy came into focus. He was laying on a bed, a hotel room. A worried expression on his face. His claws itched at the covers on the bed.
"Where is that?" he asked.
"Newark, New Jersey. A Holiday Inn. (Newp, don't own that either)." Kanna's voice chimed gently. "He is not alone there. I sense many others. One is Li."
Sesshoumaru rubbed between his eyes. He could feel a headache coming on. He nodded with eyes closed to Kanna, who turned and walked from the room without another word. His phone rang again. Looking at the number it said simply Newark, NJ. She had found a payphone.
He flipped it open and said nothing.
"Seito, track this number. It's outside the hotel I'm in. I have to get back before they notice I'm not getting soda," and the line went dead.
-
He watched the fire lick up the side of the building. History lost, history gained. Too bad. So sad. An evil chuckle erupted from his chest. Yes, this would set the wheels in motion. This would cause worry and concern. The fire department was having a hard time getting the hoses up all of the those steps. The house would surely be decimated before they got their pitiful human acts together. Too bad there were tourists visiting, or the well house and the tree would be joining in the banter of the party of fire. Then she truly would never escape. Ever.
The entire street was shut down. Prayers from all around him made reference to the evil of the Shikon No Tama playing it's cards upon the Higurashi family once more. It amazed him, no matter how technilogically advanced they became they were still so superstitious. Weak and pathetic hopes at prayers. And what did it get anyone? It gained nothing.
Now she would pay for betrayal. Now she would pay for leaving. Now she would pay for failure. And most of all, she would pay because he wanted to hear her scream.
It had been two days, two days of hotel room service, which sucked. Inability to go out and move about, that sucked. Dealing with an over wary mother, that sucked. Watching the channels on the damned TV that only got the main stations and maybe one other that had stupid anime on all the time, that sucked. Muteki would have given his left arm for something to do, which also... sucked. Cabin fever didn't even begin to describe how he felt right now. Which also sucked.
Mutekimaru's eyes flashed, he had heard the commotion in the hallway, sensing the danger he moved to the closet where his mother stood already loading her gun. There was no sense trying to escape the room. Better to baracade ones self and keep the alertness of the room, and to know the lay of the room. That way the enemy was the one surprised. Muteki moved the bed against the door, along with the small dresser.
Kay checked the fire escape, there were a bunch of men at the bottom of the ladder, but none of them were coming up. They were all in black suits, which meant one of two things. Seito's people were here, or the MIB's decided she was too much of a problem to be placed. Either way she got ready for the worst.
"Officially, we've been erased," she said to Muteki. "We've got to get out of here."
Muteki suddenly felt like a caged animal. What was he thinking, he was a caged animal. He let the poison into his claws. Ready to deal with whatever may come through the door.
"Be ready to break through that wall if we need to Muteki, we'll get out one way or another," she said. The first crack of the wood giving way on the door let them know they were coming in uninvited. They weren't the MIB's. They would have had the key and wouldn't have had to fight the guards outside. And if it were Sesshomaru's people, they would have been more likely to take out the outer guards and then lure the guards that might be in the room. No, this was more than likely the ones that attacked her house. No good at all. That means they probably had a helicopter ready in the air to follow them on foot or if they got in a car.
"Take out the wall as quietly as you can Muteki, I'm going to give them something to think about," she said. Muteki nodded and moved to the wall to the adjoining room. With a hiss he let the poison over the wall causing it to start melting. Kay covered her nose and mouth with the cuff of her shirt and took aim at the crack in the door. Lowering herself behind the couch she started firing. The unsilenced weapon was sure to attract the police, and she was sure they didn't want that right now either.
The banging on the door stopped for a moment, and yelling occured outside of the room. Italian... Kay thought to herself. Fucking great. Now I gotta deal with demons, yakuza, stupid human cops, the FBI and the freakin' MOB! Only you Kagome, only you could get yourself in so much trouble by doing so very little! She dropped the empty clip, and reloaded a fresh one into her still smoking gun.
There was a louder crack at the door, it still didn't give way completely because of the furniture up against it. Muteki pushed through to the next room and hissed at his mother. She ran through and joined her son in the next room.
"Now what?" he said.
"Do it again," she said pointing at the next wall. Muteki didn't argue, he just set to work. The next wall led to the stairwell. The elevators were beyond that. Mom was quick, and was trying to get them out of there.
Another thundering crack came from the next room with a big "OOF!" to match. They just realized the door was blocked. Next they would have to shove the furniture out of the way with the force they could apply to the broken door. It bought them another minute before they realized they weren't in that room anymore.
Muteki went to touch the melting metal wall again, the one to the staircase was far better reinforced than the ones between the rooms. He hissed and jumped back shaking out his hand. The wall was HOT!
"Houston, we have a problem," he whispered looking at the wall started to smoke the paint off of it.
"What?" she turned and saw the wall was so hot it was about to catch.
"Muteki, we may have to run for the door. If we do stay in front of me and run to the emergency exit at the end of the hall," she said sternly.
"No way mom, a bullet is a bullet. I can handle it better than you. You stay infront of me," he hissed.
"No, I can fire back at them and I can't do it with you behind me. Got it? No more questions," she said heading for the door that led from the hotel bedroom into the corridor. The enemy would only be one bedroom's length down the hall. And if she knew the FBI, and she did know them, they had rented this whole floor. There was no way to get out with the rest of the panicking occupants of the room.
The wall to the staircase fell inward, the smell of brimstone and soot filling the air. She whippped around at the sudden feeling of a youkai flooding the room and her senses.
"No time, move it!" the fire demon exclaimed.
Muteki growled low in his throat, only to yip when his mother grabbed his ear and shoved him at the fire demon.
"Take him and go! I'll catch up!" she said as she was hearing the furniture being pushed aside in the next room. She let a hailspray of bullets fly out of her weapon blindly into the room next door. Taking cover in the bathroom doorway of the unoccupied room she was in. She glanced and saw that Muteki and the fire demon were gone.
Her greeting of bullets was met with a blind hailing of bullets from the next room into this one. She responded in kind, firing to force them to take cover she booked for the hole in the wall. She felt her gun click, and knew they heard it too. She lept for the hole as she heard the shots that were aimed at her already flying in her direction. She rolled down the first flight of stairs. Oh GODS that HURT! She didn't have time to examine her injuries. She just booked down the stairs four at a time. She knew her son and the other demon had gone up. She would lead them away.
It was working, they followed her down the stairs. There was no mention from any of them about going upward. Down a flight, turn, down another flight, turn and pass door to next floor. Down another flight, turn, down one more, turn and... get grabbed over the mouth and pulled into the door? Ah shit.