A/N: I am now over 300 reviews. Readers and reviewers, you all absolutely
rock. I'm very glad everyone (or at least, everyone writing me reviews)
still likes this story. And I finally fit in a little exposition for you.
There's more in this chapter. Thanks for the feedback.
And I apologize if I seem to dwell on cooking in this chapter. There is a sound scene construction principle behind it, but I was also hungry when I wrote it.
Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha.
Synthetic Emotions
Kagome volunteered to cook a late lunch for everyone, since neither she nor Sango had eaten since early that morning and it was pushing four in the afternoon. Much as she wanted to go continue her. . . 'conversation' with Inuyasha, she knew they couldn't leave yet. Miroku had just confessed that some crazed youkai was out to kill him, for heavens' sakes. She couldn't just leave after an announcement like that.
She saw Inuyasha watching her and unconsciously licked her lips. When she realized what she was doing, the girl blushed and hid her face in one of Miroku's cupboards under the pretense of searching for something edible. Not surprisingly, what she found was mostly instant. The young man had never been able to handle cooking something that required more than two steps. However, Kagome didn't find two-step curry rice and Poptarts too appetizing.
Finally she settled on a few packages of stovetop chicken ramen and a bag of frozen mixed vegetables. It wasn't ideal, but Kagome was pretty sure she could work some magic with it.
At least her cheeks were now approximately the right color.
"You were saying?" Kagome prompted Miroku, who had fallen silent after telling them about his 'curse'.
The young man shook his head and a faint, humorless smile turned his lips. "So now I'm looking for Naraku, to kill him, before he gets to me. I don't think he knows where I am yet, but it's only a matter of time."
Kagome put a pot of water on the range to boil. She thought about adding a little salt to speed it up, but decided against it when she remembered how much sodium was in ramen noodles.
"So," the activist asked, her anger forgotten. "You think that Naraku is the youkai that killed my family, or something like that?"
"Something like that," Miroku agreed. "Though I doubt it was actually Naraku who killed your family. Probably some youkai in his network."
"Hey," Inuyasha said from the dining room. Being a machine, he wasn't hungry, and the kitchen was crowded enough with three bodies in it anyway. "How do you know it was Naraku?"
"I don't know for sure. But I've found a pattern to his killing."
For a long moment, the only noise was the faint, tinny sound of the water just beginning to boil. Kagome froze opening one package, the little packet of seasoning forgotten in her fingers. Her attention was fixed on the young man next to the refrigerator, looking smug and solemn at once. She didn't even breathe as they waited for what he would say next.
"Are you going to say something?" Inuyasha abruptly broke the tense air. "Or are you just going to wait there like an idiot?"
"You have no sense of the dramatic," Miroku accused the hanyou.
"Keh."
"Get on with it," Sango said, rolling her eyes and adding something else Kagome didn't catch under her breath.
The girl went back to making lunch. If she were Miroku, where would she keep a wok?
The young man sighed. "Alright, since none of you appreciate timing, Naraku has been killing employees of Inutaiyoukai."
"He's been what?" Sango gasped.
"You're father was the chief of security, right? That's why I think it was Naraku." He crossed his arms over his chest. "Many of Inutaiyoukai's employees have died over the last fifty years. Not so many that most people notice it, but it's made the tabloids a few times. Most people blame anti-youkai activists." Miroku grimaced at the irony of that. "But at least three of them were said to have been killed by rogue or unregistered youkai. 'The Star' suspected corporate espionage."
"But, why? He didn't have anything to do with the products. Why do you think this thing would kill him?" The young woman asked, her tone caught between skepticism and hope. She couldn't believe what Miroku was telling her, but she desperately wanted to. Kagome felt a stab of sympathy for her.
"Where's your cooking oil?"
"Huh?"
"Cooking oil," Kagome repeated, and Miroku blinked once, seeming only then to notice the pans on his stove. Then he waved at a cabinet. "Thanks!"
"What was I saying?"
"Why Naraku killed people who worked for Inutaiyoukai, moron," Inuyasha reminded him harshly.
"I don't know that yet. All I know is that he is." Miroku made a helpless gesture. "I can't figure out why he attacks where he does. If I knew that, then I might've been able to stop him. If I knew what he was after. . ."
"So he just kills people at random?" Sango asked.
Miroku nodded. "As far as I can tell, there's no rhyme nor reason to it. He murders a designer, then a janitor, an engineer and a programmer, then the kid who works in the parking garage. It doesn't make any sense."
Kagome frowned. Something was tickling the back of her mind. Something she couldn't quite remember, but couldn't ignore. She dumped the dry noodles into the sauce pan, then returned to the frozen vegetables in the wok. 'What was it. . .?'
"You don't have any theories at all?" Sang asked grimly. "He just kills them for no reason? First a supervisor, next a copy boy, without any clue as to why he did it?"
"I think, maybe, he's looking for something," Miroku said. "I just wish I knew what."
No one spoke for a while after that. The ramen cooked quickly, and Kagome strained the noodles and dropped them in the wok with the vegetables and the pre-mixed seasoning, pan-frying them in silence. She couldn't put her finger on what was bothering her. Something, something, something. . .
"Hey, Miroku," Inuyasha said, interrupting the girl's thoughts. "You said Naraku was responsible for offing a whole bunch of these Inutaiyoukai people. What about a secretary?"
'Oh god.'
"I don't have the list memorized," Miroku told him, brow furrowing, "and I couldn't tell you if some of the deaths really are Naraku or just bad luck, but it's possible."
'Kikyo.'
Kagome dropped the chopsticks she was using to stir her pan-fried noodles. Kikyo, who had died fifty years before, had worked at Inutaiyoukai. She had been killed. Kagome could almost hear Kaede again, telling her in her no nonsense way ". . . not so much older than you. . ."
'Oh god.'
"Kagome?" Sango said, passing a hand in front of the other girl's eyes. "You there?"
"What? Oh, yeah. Fine," Kagome answered, realizing as soon as the words were out of her mouth that the response didn't make sense. Hastily she recovered her chopsticks and stirred the ramen.
"Lunch it ready."
*~*~*
Sesshomaru stood at the Nakamura compound's front gates, staring at the exit as though the wrought iron barrier held all the secrets of the universe. The day was slowly fading from late afternoon to evening, the sky turning that suggestive shade of pale blue that comes before a long sunset. The security lights were already beginning to flicker on one by one.
There was nothing in the youkai's codes that kept him from leaving, provided he came back. There was nothing that said he couldn't do whatever he liked while his mistress had no use for him, and the woman was currently wrapped up in a haze of opium smoke. She would have no call for him until the tomorrow morning at the earliest, he was certain of it. There was nothing keeping him here.
Except for the fact that he shouldn't be considering leaving. Except for the fact he was a youkai, and youkai weren't supposed to motivate themselves into personal errands, like tracking down some prodigal hanyou.
Except for Rin who was playing a video game when he left her. Except for the fact that she wouldn't be able to protect herself if Nakamura Kyosuke decided to come after her again.
Except the fact that a strange, bitter tightness constricted his chest when he moved to leave, and thoughts of the mute girl as she sobbed tearlessly into his shoulder.
The gate didn't shine any light on Sesshomaru's dilemma. Perhaps, if he found that worthless hanyou, perhaps then he would understand.
He wasn't even sure where that thought had come from. It made to logical sense. Sesshomaru had no reason to believe that Taisho last and favored creation should know anything that would help him.
There wasn't even a reason to think he needed help.
Rin's bruises surfaced in his memory, lurid and gruesome in a way no amount of overt violence could match. He felt his expression soften. He had promised her that he would protect her. He wouldn't go back on that word. It was every bit as binding as the codes that compelled him to obey Ryoko. Perhaps more so because he had chosen this, instead of having it installed.
But why Inuyasha?
To that, Sesshomaru had no good answer, save that the thing in his had responded to seeing the footage of the hanyou's fight. He just. . . felt. . . that he should seek out Inuyasha. Almost as though he had something the youkai needed.
'Is this your doing?' Sesshomaru wondered, thinking for the first time in decades of Taisho. The man's rough face lit up with incongruous delight in his thoughts. Sesshomaru remembered that time. It had been the first time Inuyasha's neural units were activated, with the monitor gages all green to show everything functioning within normal parameters. 'I wouldn't put it past you, tricky bastard.'
Sesshomaru sighed. If this was the legacy of his maker, then there was no fighting it. That man had always managed to win out in the end when he was alive. Why should it be any different now that he was dead?
With a smooth leap, Sesshomaru cleared the fence and found himself outside his owner's property when he hadn't been told to go there. That thing in him gave a shiver; the first time it had ever moved without provocation.
It was the freedom, he realized after a few unhurried steps. It was the fact he could just leave, go anywhere he wanted, and never come back. He didn't know how, but he was sure he could do it. Or he could have done it, if not for his promise to Rin.
It wasn't his programming that was stopping him. Suddenly he knew that it hadn't been holding him that tightly for a long time now. And today it had grown so loose he could slip it. The only thing that held now was his word, and the fact he had nowhere else to go.
The youkai blinked, his only outward sign of surprise, but inside his mind went totally blank with the revelation.
'When did this happen?' he asked himself as the shock faded. 'How?'
'Is this what happens when youkai turn rogue? Do they just one day look, and discover that there's nothing keeping them?'
Sesshomaru resumed his walk, still at the same leisurely pace, but now resolved to find Inuyasha and find out what Taisho, or whatever other forces were at work within him, had planned.
*~*~*
A/N: There you are. That's all for today. Hopefully everyone enjoyed themselves.
Until Next Time.
And I apologize if I seem to dwell on cooking in this chapter. There is a sound scene construction principle behind it, but I was also hungry when I wrote it.
Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha.
Synthetic Emotions
Kagome volunteered to cook a late lunch for everyone, since neither she nor Sango had eaten since early that morning and it was pushing four in the afternoon. Much as she wanted to go continue her. . . 'conversation' with Inuyasha, she knew they couldn't leave yet. Miroku had just confessed that some crazed youkai was out to kill him, for heavens' sakes. She couldn't just leave after an announcement like that.
She saw Inuyasha watching her and unconsciously licked her lips. When she realized what she was doing, the girl blushed and hid her face in one of Miroku's cupboards under the pretense of searching for something edible. Not surprisingly, what she found was mostly instant. The young man had never been able to handle cooking something that required more than two steps. However, Kagome didn't find two-step curry rice and Poptarts too appetizing.
Finally she settled on a few packages of stovetop chicken ramen and a bag of frozen mixed vegetables. It wasn't ideal, but Kagome was pretty sure she could work some magic with it.
At least her cheeks were now approximately the right color.
"You were saying?" Kagome prompted Miroku, who had fallen silent after telling them about his 'curse'.
The young man shook his head and a faint, humorless smile turned his lips. "So now I'm looking for Naraku, to kill him, before he gets to me. I don't think he knows where I am yet, but it's only a matter of time."
Kagome put a pot of water on the range to boil. She thought about adding a little salt to speed it up, but decided against it when she remembered how much sodium was in ramen noodles.
"So," the activist asked, her anger forgotten. "You think that Naraku is the youkai that killed my family, or something like that?"
"Something like that," Miroku agreed. "Though I doubt it was actually Naraku who killed your family. Probably some youkai in his network."
"Hey," Inuyasha said from the dining room. Being a machine, he wasn't hungry, and the kitchen was crowded enough with three bodies in it anyway. "How do you know it was Naraku?"
"I don't know for sure. But I've found a pattern to his killing."
For a long moment, the only noise was the faint, tinny sound of the water just beginning to boil. Kagome froze opening one package, the little packet of seasoning forgotten in her fingers. Her attention was fixed on the young man next to the refrigerator, looking smug and solemn at once. She didn't even breathe as they waited for what he would say next.
"Are you going to say something?" Inuyasha abruptly broke the tense air. "Or are you just going to wait there like an idiot?"
"You have no sense of the dramatic," Miroku accused the hanyou.
"Keh."
"Get on with it," Sango said, rolling her eyes and adding something else Kagome didn't catch under her breath.
The girl went back to making lunch. If she were Miroku, where would she keep a wok?
The young man sighed. "Alright, since none of you appreciate timing, Naraku has been killing employees of Inutaiyoukai."
"He's been what?" Sango gasped.
"You're father was the chief of security, right? That's why I think it was Naraku." He crossed his arms over his chest. "Many of Inutaiyoukai's employees have died over the last fifty years. Not so many that most people notice it, but it's made the tabloids a few times. Most people blame anti-youkai activists." Miroku grimaced at the irony of that. "But at least three of them were said to have been killed by rogue or unregistered youkai. 'The Star' suspected corporate espionage."
"But, why? He didn't have anything to do with the products. Why do you think this thing would kill him?" The young woman asked, her tone caught between skepticism and hope. She couldn't believe what Miroku was telling her, but she desperately wanted to. Kagome felt a stab of sympathy for her.
"Where's your cooking oil?"
"Huh?"
"Cooking oil," Kagome repeated, and Miroku blinked once, seeming only then to notice the pans on his stove. Then he waved at a cabinet. "Thanks!"
"What was I saying?"
"Why Naraku killed people who worked for Inutaiyoukai, moron," Inuyasha reminded him harshly.
"I don't know that yet. All I know is that he is." Miroku made a helpless gesture. "I can't figure out why he attacks where he does. If I knew that, then I might've been able to stop him. If I knew what he was after. . ."
"So he just kills people at random?" Sango asked.
Miroku nodded. "As far as I can tell, there's no rhyme nor reason to it. He murders a designer, then a janitor, an engineer and a programmer, then the kid who works in the parking garage. It doesn't make any sense."
Kagome frowned. Something was tickling the back of her mind. Something she couldn't quite remember, but couldn't ignore. She dumped the dry noodles into the sauce pan, then returned to the frozen vegetables in the wok. 'What was it. . .?'
"You don't have any theories at all?" Sang asked grimly. "He just kills them for no reason? First a supervisor, next a copy boy, without any clue as to why he did it?"
"I think, maybe, he's looking for something," Miroku said. "I just wish I knew what."
No one spoke for a while after that. The ramen cooked quickly, and Kagome strained the noodles and dropped them in the wok with the vegetables and the pre-mixed seasoning, pan-frying them in silence. She couldn't put her finger on what was bothering her. Something, something, something. . .
"Hey, Miroku," Inuyasha said, interrupting the girl's thoughts. "You said Naraku was responsible for offing a whole bunch of these Inutaiyoukai people. What about a secretary?"
'Oh god.'
"I don't have the list memorized," Miroku told him, brow furrowing, "and I couldn't tell you if some of the deaths really are Naraku or just bad luck, but it's possible."
'Kikyo.'
Kagome dropped the chopsticks she was using to stir her pan-fried noodles. Kikyo, who had died fifty years before, had worked at Inutaiyoukai. She had been killed. Kagome could almost hear Kaede again, telling her in her no nonsense way ". . . not so much older than you. . ."
'Oh god.'
"Kagome?" Sango said, passing a hand in front of the other girl's eyes. "You there?"
"What? Oh, yeah. Fine," Kagome answered, realizing as soon as the words were out of her mouth that the response didn't make sense. Hastily she recovered her chopsticks and stirred the ramen.
"Lunch it ready."
*~*~*
Sesshomaru stood at the Nakamura compound's front gates, staring at the exit as though the wrought iron barrier held all the secrets of the universe. The day was slowly fading from late afternoon to evening, the sky turning that suggestive shade of pale blue that comes before a long sunset. The security lights were already beginning to flicker on one by one.
There was nothing in the youkai's codes that kept him from leaving, provided he came back. There was nothing that said he couldn't do whatever he liked while his mistress had no use for him, and the woman was currently wrapped up in a haze of opium smoke. She would have no call for him until the tomorrow morning at the earliest, he was certain of it. There was nothing keeping him here.
Except for the fact that he shouldn't be considering leaving. Except for the fact he was a youkai, and youkai weren't supposed to motivate themselves into personal errands, like tracking down some prodigal hanyou.
Except for Rin who was playing a video game when he left her. Except for the fact that she wouldn't be able to protect herself if Nakamura Kyosuke decided to come after her again.
Except the fact that a strange, bitter tightness constricted his chest when he moved to leave, and thoughts of the mute girl as she sobbed tearlessly into his shoulder.
The gate didn't shine any light on Sesshomaru's dilemma. Perhaps, if he found that worthless hanyou, perhaps then he would understand.
He wasn't even sure where that thought had come from. It made to logical sense. Sesshomaru had no reason to believe that Taisho last and favored creation should know anything that would help him.
There wasn't even a reason to think he needed help.
Rin's bruises surfaced in his memory, lurid and gruesome in a way no amount of overt violence could match. He felt his expression soften. He had promised her that he would protect her. He wouldn't go back on that word. It was every bit as binding as the codes that compelled him to obey Ryoko. Perhaps more so because he had chosen this, instead of having it installed.
But why Inuyasha?
To that, Sesshomaru had no good answer, save that the thing in his had responded to seeing the footage of the hanyou's fight. He just. . . felt. . . that he should seek out Inuyasha. Almost as though he had something the youkai needed.
'Is this your doing?' Sesshomaru wondered, thinking for the first time in decades of Taisho. The man's rough face lit up with incongruous delight in his thoughts. Sesshomaru remembered that time. It had been the first time Inuyasha's neural units were activated, with the monitor gages all green to show everything functioning within normal parameters. 'I wouldn't put it past you, tricky bastard.'
Sesshomaru sighed. If this was the legacy of his maker, then there was no fighting it. That man had always managed to win out in the end when he was alive. Why should it be any different now that he was dead?
With a smooth leap, Sesshomaru cleared the fence and found himself outside his owner's property when he hadn't been told to go there. That thing in him gave a shiver; the first time it had ever moved without provocation.
It was the freedom, he realized after a few unhurried steps. It was the fact he could just leave, go anywhere he wanted, and never come back. He didn't know how, but he was sure he could do it. Or he could have done it, if not for his promise to Rin.
It wasn't his programming that was stopping him. Suddenly he knew that it hadn't been holding him that tightly for a long time now. And today it had grown so loose he could slip it. The only thing that held now was his word, and the fact he had nowhere else to go.
The youkai blinked, his only outward sign of surprise, but inside his mind went totally blank with the revelation.
'When did this happen?' he asked himself as the shock faded. 'How?'
'Is this what happens when youkai turn rogue? Do they just one day look, and discover that there's nothing keeping them?'
Sesshomaru resumed his walk, still at the same leisurely pace, but now resolved to find Inuyasha and find out what Taisho, or whatever other forces were at work within him, had planned.
*~*~*
A/N: There you are. That's all for today. Hopefully everyone enjoyed themselves.
Until Next Time.