You Can Call Me Daddy.
Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha all credit goes to Rumiko Takahashi!
Note(s): OK! There are some changes to the character attitudes in my story. Firstly, Kagura and some of Naraku's creations are alive.
Meet Kagewaki Izu (Naraku), the President of an international hotel chain, privately a man who is torn between freedom and ending his marriage with his wife, a decision that could potentially cause him more grief. Can he forgive his unfaithful wife, or will he return to his exclusive bachelor lifestyle?
Chapter one.
Broken Vows
After Naraku's escape...
Five hundred years had passed since the prolonged battle with the weak Hanyo, Inuyasha and his party. Naraku had barely escaped a crushing blow from Inuyasha's Tessaiga in their final battle together and left the Shikon jewel shards behind.
The feudal era had come to an end long, long ago. . .
Humans ascended up the food chain with sheer numbers, forcing the demons to recede and cover their existence. One demon watched with cruel eyes as the human race tainted the world he and others like him had once ruled. Their greed, violence, and lust polluted everything around them. Each dynasty and era had fallen one after the other with countless battles fuelled by their lust, domination, and rage.
Both daimyo and samurai became obsolete once European militia tactics and other worldly religions were introduced to Japan. Fresh blood stained the earth mercilessly after the Americans had so ruthlessly dropped radiation in a war. It hadn't been until some hundred years later when it had settled into the air that demons were able to mix into the crowds of humanity, concealing their identities from the world. Humans, like nasty little vermin, plagued the land by bringing illness and disease with them wherever they went.
Pollution enveloped the world after a time, so much so that it reminded Naraku of the Black Miasma that once poisoned the hand of a monk that had traveled with the half-breed Inuyasha. Now buildings nearly touched the horizon, cars bred and expelled smog, but the icing on the cake was that the humans struggled to survive by murdering, torturing, and raping each other. The mortals were like roaches stuck inside a jar that was too small for them. Without knowing it, they were breeding far to quickly and had far too much waste for their small world to hold that soon they would run out of breathable air.
The judgmental ruby eyes of the demon studied them from behind the glass window of a towering office building, scrutinizing the dirty humans below, insects was more fitting a term. The lone demon moved away from the window and returned to his large leather chair where his desk awaited him. It was cluttered with proposals, contracts, and deadlines but his thoughts kept going to his own problems. Problems that had one solution.
With a heavy sigh he turned his eyes to his surroundings and looked at the symbols of wealth and power he had surrounded himself with. His lengthy office was in the shape of an oval and held three singular doors and one set of doubled doors. The walls were a deep gray color with a fine finish. Gaunt white windows complemented by silver curtains. The entire office floor was adorned with black marble, marble with a surface so smooth that any pair of heels that met its surface gave off a graceful "click" instead of an obnoxious "clack."
The blood-lusting eyes of the male demon glowered at the ray of sunlight that shone down on his right hand, illuminating the wedding band on his finger. His eyes dropped in distaste at the golden white ring that infested his hand, thinking of her. Inside he was angry, at his mind for remembering those stained sheets, the pungent odor, and the dark marks on various parts of her body. He pulled the ring off and tossed it on the desk.
Clack, clack. Clack. Clack!
He visibly tensed and winced each time the noise ripped into his ear canals while his fingers tightend around the stack of papers in his hand. The noise echoed within the walls of his office and coming down the hall heading toward his way as the large black doors creaked open in an almost eerie way, came the aggravating clacking of heels that morphed into a soft clicking that made him relax within his chair with a thankful sigh.
Click, click. Click ...
Then the silence returned to the room, until the woman who had entered spoke, she walked toward his desk.
"Good afternoon President Kagewaki-san, you have an important call, it's from your wife. Would you like me to tell her you're in a meeting or transfer her to you via the private line?"
He watched as the woman's hips swung fluidly with each step, heels pausing sharply in front his desk, her face brightened with a greeting smile. Her faded black hair was presented in a tight bun, held with two grey feathers in the clip. Rectangular glasses hung above her cheekbones and her angled eyebrows made her seem devilish and attractive.
She looked regal dressed in a gunmetal gray suit in its entirety. She was thin at the waist s it accented her slender form, along with gold buttons spiraling down the mid leading under the collar. The collar of her suit was asymmetrically folded so it showed the upper part of her pale neck and curved around her breasts comfortably, the slender shoulders of her suit were accentuated cleanly by the color of fabric against her skin. The pencil skirt she wore ended just above her lovely knees with a long slit running up the back, ending with black flannel Bianca's on her feet.
Naraku's eyes turned to meet hers invigoratingly, he sat back in his chair with his hands in his lap. The light from the window stoke a soft glow on his face but it was contrasted by a malevolent under-shade.
"Kagura, put her through," came the thoughtless reply.
Kagura flinched visibly, stunned at his words for they had been so-
She realized her expression and straightened up nervously as she waited for his "Why can't you just page me like everyone else instead of showing your face?" rant but it never came.
"Very well, Mr. President."
She sobered up in front of her employer with a smile spread across her lovely face, and bowed accordingly at the waist. She turned to leave for the door but stopped a few clicks shy, and turned back on her heel, as if she had something else to say. He narrowed his eyes at the papers in his left hand before bringing them up to meet her concerned expression.
"Sir, let me just say this, you look terrible. You're definitely lacking in appropriation, opposed to how I remember you to be, before the legal separation. Maybe taking some time off will benefit you and you know that I'm always ready to fill in where you cannot, it is my job as the COO of this company! I apologize. You deserve more respect than this, but I implore you to put your trust into me, and the company, as your dau-,"
Naraku himself had sprang up out of the chair at her nativity. They were not allowed to mention their relation to one another in the workplace, and she knew it. Caught by her own mistake she swallowed her words and allowed a minimal smirk to cut through her masked expression. Of course, where did she think she was.
He reminded her wordlessly that she was not allowed to call him father, completely oblivious to the pain settling behind her eyes. She closed them, fixed her glasses turned to storm out of the doors with her heels clicking heavily on the reflecting marble, she gave him a curt bow before she shut the doors with a bang.
It occurred to Naraku at that moment as he sat down defeated that Kagura was right, too right for his liking and it irked him. His life wasn't the same, it had changed somewhere, but where?
He tried to remember the old days and how his life had been back when he had it all: money, fame, power, and all the women he could wish for.
But now . . . where had his old self gone?
He looked at the picture frame on his desk, his fingers reached for the border, grasping the frame he lifted it gently for his eyes to gaze over, his memories. It was her, a woman standing next to him in an expensive white kimono. It was supposed to be one of the happiest days in a man's life, but it wasn't one of his.
He was Izu. A human, a married man with three children, two his own and the other belonging to his spouse. The demon called Naraku now existed as his shadow, cut from his glory centuries past. He would do as the human Izu would do, all while shrouding himself in the darkness of his hollow carcass.
He knew love wasn't everything in the marriage, there were many other factors that acted as the glue to keep them together. Trust and faith were equally important. Then again it seemed clear to him that his ties with his wife were the problem.
A woman that was delicate and sweet had become tainted. Everything happened so quickly into their marriage that he could not stop it. Trust had been broken not as a fault of his own, but hers.
"It was never a marriage, only the overdue hell I have waited for. Ku-ku-ku," He joked dullfully, letting his shoulders droop as he sunk into his chair, followed by the soft creaking of the leather. He knew he was lying to himself right then, internally he was drowning within his own success and trapped within his marriage. He thought it was amusing that Kagura had the nerve to say what she really felt to his face, admiring how thoughtful she was for the company.
"Izu" glanced down at the black phone and waited for the green button to flash, when it did he picked up the phone, brought it to his ear and hissed-
"Katsumi."
"Hello Sweetie, it's nice to hear your voice. Have you missed me, as I have missed you?" asked the woman. He could hear that the voice was willowy and hopeful on the other side of the line. He closed his eyes, letting her words wash over him, strangely he didn't miss her.
"You know the rules, I warned you about calling me in the middle of work, did I not?" he replied coldly and as forcefully as he could muster before hearing a cough. His blood-red eyes shot down to the phone lines to see who else was on the line. Naraku snapped the pen that was in his hand in half at the sight of Kagura's line lit up in yellow.
"Bitch," he whispered.
"I don't care about that! I miss you so much! Honey I want to come home", she paused," Without you, I feel like the world is crashing down on me. I called thinking we could- make up. What do you think Izu, if I came back home? Would you like if I drew you a hot bath?"
Naraku screwed up his face with a disgusted expression at her request, and flatly declined.
"Afraid not, I've gotta finish this paperwork, get it done tonight. And it's my house now, we agreed that with the lawyers after your father passed," He stated firmly, making the woman on the other end of the line sigh.
"Izu, what is it that you want me to say? I've told you that I'm sorry for all those things I've done to you! I want you, it's been a year and a half since we've seen each other! I'm begging for you to come back! Dammit am I not your wife Izu?! I feel like you don't understand the emotional torture I'm going through, everyone is treating me like I'm some kind of demon! I'm a woman Izu and I need my husband to support me...before it's too late."
Naraku sighed painfully, glancing out of the window, feeling like he'd be a fool for believing a single word she was saying. Demons such as Naraku had impressive senses, and it was those senses that exposed her deception, when she failed to properly cleanse the traces of another's essence on her body. He recalled scenting different males in their bed, also in twelve different locations inside their house. There were times when he could have caught her in mid act, but he'd chosen not to for her sake.
Shutting his wife out was hard, but he felt that there was just no reason for her to be allowed back into his life. Their marriage had fallen apart and he didn't want to pick up the pieces, unwilling to cut his hands for her sake. She was just too far gone from his once perfect image of her.
He saw himself, standing in their bedroom as she sat at her vanity dressed in a scarlet robe, brushing her hair. He asked her if she'd slept around with other men, though he already knew the answer. She lied to his face, smiling at him through the mirror telling him that she loved him too much to do something like that. It was on that day that his love for her died.
"You're not a child Katsumi, nor are you a prisoner. You are a woman, and you've done what you wanted like some reckless teenage girl. You have no respect for me, our marriage, or yourself. When I said I never wanted to see you again, I meant it. You're the face of a deceptive, heartless bitch."
"Don't- YOU DARE SAY THAT TO ME!" Katsumi yelled.
"SHUT THE HELL UP! I'm talking now, so you just shut your damn mouth and listen. You did that shit to me, but you regret it at the same time? What good man in his right mind could forgive that?! I hate that I ever called you my wife," he sneered.
"Yes all those, sexual escapades I wished I hadn't done them, but I did. In our bed," Katsumi paused before whispering into the phone, "and I liked them. Every time, because those men, weren't you."
"Oh-you're a greedy whore, asking me to overlook that shit? I don't have time to waste my life on a slu-," He paused to take a breath, "Now I want you to hear this and hear it well "lover", the snake is eating its own tail, and it won't stop. Soon it will be gone and your world will shatter and rip out the rest of the sanity you have left intact." He whispered coldly, spinning his finger in the air to form a circle, listening intently for a response from the woman on the other line.
"You're- right... I know," She said with short feigned sobs.
"This is the beginning of your draw back Katsumi, and you do have a choice to do the right thing. Here, I'll make it easy for you. Do yourself a favor and find a new city to stay, to live in even, someplace where you can live with your vices freely. A moving company will be dropping off the rest of your stuff this week. Isn't great Katsumi? You're free to pick up where you left off. I'm saying this once so hear it well. IT'S OVER! "
He'd done it, finally. He wished that he'd done this sooner in the morning so he could see her face; praying that just maybe, she'd kill herself. She couldn't bleed him dry of his assets thanks to the early prenup, she was basically a free woman. He didn't think twice as he made his decision, whatever was fine with him as long as she stayed away.
"If that's how you want to play it, fine but I just want you to know, you're just as guilty as I am. I have little flies of my own on the walls, trust me you'll regret this lover, I promise."
*Click*
". . ."
Naraku slammed phone on the hook with a low growl. Rubbing his temples heavily (for she had given him a gigantic migraine), he looked over some documents sent from an associate from Reykjavik, they seemed to describe some sort of a building plan. Naraku hoped that dealing with this shit would take his mind off Katsumi.
All he had to do was file for their divorce, and that was that. He considered the option, but it would make more sense if she just dropped off the face of the planet. Died, of some unknown cause or was found in a hotel bathtub floating in the water with a needle in her arm, something that would make everyone shut their mouths and let the dust be swept under the social carpet of life where it should be.
Naraku rubbed his face as he stood from his desk, he paged one of his five below, telling her he was on his way down to look over some "documents".
Kagura quickly slammed her phone on the receiver with her free hand cupped over her mouth as tears filled her eyes. She couldn't believe what she had just heard as she folded her hands and rested her head against them, letting the tears run freely.
End.
Author: Oh man, Naraku has problems. Hopefully things will get better in his life. Sorry for the vulgar words!
Editor: Niary C.