A/N: Thank you for the lovely reviews! Only five so far, but hey, I didn't really expect any. Happy me. I wrote the first chapter because a friend of mine asked me to write something I was inhibited to write. The thing was, I couldn't think of anything I was reluctant to write about, until I realized that I was terrified of writing Sci-fi. I don't know a damn thing about science, or computers, or any of the other Sci-fi staples. Then I got this idea, and went with it. Since a few people seemed to like it, I decided to keep going, and here I am now.

Disclaimer: I still don't own Inuyasha.

Synthetic Emotions

Chapter Two: Simulated Anger



Kagome pulled her hands away from the youkai, and found herself looking up into blank amber eyes. The expression on his face was one she'd never seen on a machine before—if she didn't know it was impossible, she would have called it betrayal. Anger and hurt drew the boy's brows down, and the corners of his mouth were pulled into an almost pained snarl. If not for the dead eyes, she would have believed he was actually feeling it. But why would anyone program a youkai (or a hanyou) to simulate anger?

"You've got a lot of nerve, I'll give you that," the gritty voice continued. "Waking me up after more than fifty goddamned years. What the hell did I do to deserve that, Kikyo?"

"Who?" Kagome asked, backing away slowly. "Who's Kikyo?"

"Don't play games with me!" the boy yelled. "I know you're there, bitch. I can smell you."

Shippo was trembling against Kagome's leg. Kagome was trembling, herself. This youkai was starting to scare her. Weren't these things supposed to have fail-safes and innate commands that kept them from being violent? Maybe, fifty years ago they didn't. Or maybe hanyou prototypes didn't. "I'm not Kikyo!" she cried, a little hysterically. "How can I be, if she shut you off fifty-odd years ago?"

"Kagome," Shippo said, gulping. "I think you turned off his optics when you were fiddling around in there."

"Fiddling around," the hanyou snorted, then proceeded to curse fluently, leaving Kagome only more baffled. "Fiddle-lee-fucking around! What the hell did you think you were doing?"

"I was trying to turn you back on, you ingrate," the girl muttered defensively. The dog-ears twitched toward her words, but the rest of the boy seemed to ignore her as he reached inside his own chest and began righting whatever it was she had upset when she was trying to start him up again. His lack of attention did not stop him from giving vent to his frustration though. He mumbled and cursed, and accused her of 'never knowing a damn thing about machines.'

"I'm trying to tell you, I'm not her," Kagome said again, and this time her claim was answered with a grunted 'Keh.' She swallowed hard, suddenly wondering how she was going to get out of this.

After a moment of adjusting and readjusting, the boy seemed satisfied. He closed the metal door of his sternum, and smoothed his skin back over muscles made out of polymer. The skin slid back into place seamlessly. When he finished, only the small scar along his ribs remained. Finally he blinked, and his dark yellow eyes came into focus. The look in them matched the rest of his expression, which turned from anger, to confusion, to suspicion when he looked at her.

"You're not Kikyo," he said, almost accusingly.

"That's what she's been saying," Shippo shouted from his relative safety huddled behind his master. "If you listened, instead of mouthing off like an idiot, you would've known that."

The boy's gaze landed on Kagome, and she felt her insides turn liquid at the threat written on his face. In a low, barely audible voice, he asked, "Where is Kikyo?"

"I don't know," the girl told him, her own voice hardly more than a whisper.

Faster than the eye could follow, the boy closed the distance between them. His clawed hand wrapped around her throat, and suddenly Kagome hit the wall behind her. Her head struck the sheet rock with a sharp crack, and lights danced through her vision. She gasped, fighting for breath, and found that she couldn't draw enough air into her lungs. The pressure on her windpipe increased, and black dots joined the lights swirling before her. Kagome coughed and choked, tears burning her cheeks.

"I'll ask you one more time, bitch. Where is Kikyo?" the strange youkai growled, his nose inches away from hers.

"Get away from her!" Shippo screamed.

"Shippo, no," Kagome told him, or tried to. Her words came out as a croak. He didn't listen, anyway. All youkai had the same final default programming: The life of a human master came before the self-preservation of an automaton. Even if the youkai wasn't designed to fight, like Shippo. The little fox-doll didn't stand a chance against something like this boy.

Shippo threw himself at the white haired boy, baring minuscule toy fangs, and bit down hard on one soft dog-ear.

"Shit," the youkai hissed, and swatted at the fox child with his free hand. It connected, and Shippo sailed through the air. Kagome tried to see where he landed, but she couldn't turn her head. She might not have been able to see him, even if she could; the edges of her vision were turning black and receding. She gasped, struggling for oxygen. "Kikyo?"

"Kikyo. . ." Kagome tried to think, but she couldn't even form a coherent prayer. Her mind went blank but for the knowledge that she did not want to die. "Kikyo is Kaede's… sister… right?"

The grip on her neck lessened fractionally. Enough for her to breath, but not enough to move. "That's a start," the boy said sardonically. "Now where is she?"

"She…" the girl's courage faltered. He's going to kill me, her mind screamed. She squeezed her eyes shut. He was definitely going to kill her if she didn't say anything. "She's dead."

Kagome waited for the pressure on her windpipe to return, slowly forcing her out of reality; or for a blow, to end it all quickly. Neither came. After a long, frozen instant, the hand holding her abruptly disappeared.

Relief flooded her body, and she slid down the wall to the floor. She was alive! For a moment, all she could do was assimilate that one beautiful fact. Then she became aware of her sore throat, and the reason for it still standing not a yard away from her. She rubbed what were sure to be ugly bruises, and looked up at the boy, who no longer seemed concerned with her at all. His face was a mask, unnaturally calm and still. His attention seemed focused inward.

"You mentioned Kaede," he said, not looking at her. "What does she have to do with this?"

"She's my landlady. She owns the lease on this building," Kagome explained. His ears shifted. That was the only sign he heard her. A little braver, she pressed on. "I'm renting this apartment.  I was just cleaning out the stuff left over from the…last… I mean, Kikyo's stuff. It's all been sealed since she died. I suppose you've been in here the whole time?"

"Fifty-three years, four months, twelve days." His eyes slid shut, and his face grew lax, as though he were sad. "Six hours and forty seven minutes."

"How do you know that?" Kagome asked, bewildered by mood swings from a youkai.

The boy's eyes flew open, and his expression settled into one of annoyance. "I do have an internal clock, you know."

"Oh."

"So does Kaede own all of this?" He crossed his arms over his chest and looked away from her. For the moment, Kagome was willing to accept indifference as an improvement over homicidal intent.

"Yeah," she told him, hoping it was the right answer.

He sighed. Could machines sigh? If not, someone had failed to inform this one. "I guess we go talk to Kaede then."

*~*~*

Kagome gathered Shippo, who was dazed and now in need of repair, but more or less intact. The youkai waited for her, standing in the open front door. The sunlight did not find any flaws in his illusion of life that artificial light had hidden. Even in the bright afternoon sun he looked nothing less than alive and 'real.' If it weren't for his inhuman features—dog-ears, slit pupilled gold eyes, clawed fingers and ivory hair—he would have been in violation of the Replica Act, which forbade youkai manufacturers from making realistic humanlike androids.

He grew impatient when Kagome started doting on her broken youkai. He shouldn't have been impatient, couldn't be really, but Kagome was already growing used to this hanyou doing things regular youkai ought not to. She picked up Shippo and followed the boy out the door.

"I'm Kagome, by the way," the girl said when the silence became too uncomfortable.

"And I care, why?" the boy asked, shooting a bemused glace over his shoulder.

Jeez, whoever designed his emotion simulations went a little over board, Kagome thought, meeting his condescending gaze. "Well," she said aloud, "if you know my name you can stop calling me 'bitch.'"

"Keh," he grunted, which Kagome took to mean that her last statement wasn't even worth a response.

"Hey, you don't have to be so rude about it," she snapped, then shut up when annoyance returned to the boy's distinct features. She resisted the urge to smack herself in the head. "I must be crazy," she muttered under her breath, "this guy just tried to kill me, and I'm picking a fight with him."

"Inuyasha," the boy said without warning as they neared Kaede's apartment.

"What?"

"My name is Inuyasha, bitch," he told her arrogantly. "And if I'd tried to kill you, you'd be dead."

Kagome's stomach clenched into an obscene shape at his flat declaration, and she rubbed her throat. It's alright, she told herself. He's not going to kill me. I'm still alive now, right? And once we talk to Kaede, this will all be cleared up. Then I won't have to deal with any more moody, electronic dog-boys.

Inuyasha knocked on the door with more force than was strictly necessary, shaking it on its hinges. Incase the occupant chose to ignore the pounding on her front door, he also shouted, "Hey, open up in there."

Kagome patted Shippo reassuringly. The little fox clutched her arm. Now that the danger was past, he was back to his normal cowardly routine. He'd glared at the other youkai as though Inuyasha were evil incarnate since they left Kikyo's apartment, but hadn't said a word. "It'll be okay," she soothed quietly, tickling Shippo's tiny fox feet. When she looked up, Inuyasha was watching her incredulously.

"You are aware he's not actually scared, aren't you?" he asked her slowly, as though he wanted to make sure a remarkably stupid child could follow. "He's not really…real."

"Great, then you're not 'really' an asshole," Kagome shot back. She'd been defending herself to her friends for years, and now she had to do it with this creep to.

Inuyasha's eyes narrowed, and he probably would have said something if the door had not opened at just that moment. Framed in the doorway was a woman in her mid sixties, short and square, with a weathered, natural looking face. Unlike some, Kaede had let herself settle into old age with out the aid of cosmetics. Kagome liked the face. Inuyasha wrinkled his nose.

"You got old," he stated tactlessly.

"And you did not," Kaede replied, not rising to the bait. "I see the girl reactivated you."

He huffed and brushed past her into the apartment. Kagome glanced at Kaede apologetically. "I didn't know what he was like."

"Don't worry," the old woman said, her no nonsense tone immediately putting Kagome at ease. "We'll get everything sorted out. I suppose you might as well come in."

Kagome obliged, following Kaede into her home. Inuyasha had already taken a place leaning against a vacant wall, his arms crossed, and his head bowed. He looked rather like he had when the girl found him, except for the scowl. It was harder to appreciate his maker's work when his face was twisted down like that.

"Well, hag, I gather you own me now?" he growled.

"No," Kaede responded sourly. "That privilege belongs to Kagome."

"What!" Both Kagome and Inuyasha shouted.

*~*~*

That's it for chapter two. What do you think? Questions? Comments? Suggestions? I've already got a lot of ideas for this, but that doesn't mean I'm not flexible.

Thanks for reading!