A/N: Thanks for all the reviews, everyone, and for putting me on your
favorites lists, and basically just for reading. I was very glad to hear
that some of you like the way I'm writing Sesshomaru. I will explain more
later on how youkai turn rogue, so just be patient.
Alright, I think it's only fair to tell you all that I MAY not be able to update as often as I like in the near future. This is not for sure, and I will certainly try to get up two chapters a week, which has been my goal from the beginning, but I my life is probably about to get far more complicated and more stressful, and I'll very likely have to try to get more hours at work. In any event, consider yourselves all fairly warned.
Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha. If I did, I'd get rich pimping him out to fangirls and then I wouldn't have my current problems. Oh, I'm not bitter or anything. . .
Synthetic Emotions
Kikyo knew this building. The stained off-white exterior. The narrow stairs. The levels of apartments, each just like the one on either side of it, but each also with tiny flashes of personality to set it apart from the others. Her blank eyes took in potted plants and chained bicycles without any flicker of response, finally coming to stop on one door in particular.
She had lived here once, long ago. She knew decades had passed since then. Now she watched from the outside, seeing the life that ought to have been hers through the glass. She felt a cold whip-strike of anger through her insides as she remembered the girl she had seen through the window. That happy, silly little girl who was living in her home, who had moved out her things and replaced them with her own. The girl who had somehow come into possession of Inuyasha, along with everything else that had belonged to Kikyo.
Another flash of anger, this one frigid enough to shatter her bones, if she still had them. The feeling coursed through her like a flood, overrunning all its banks and freezing her to the core, but her metal endostructure remained unaffected.
What had happened between she and him? She couldn't pull it out of the broken pieces of her memory. She recalled numbers. . . something. . . a man, his name escaped her. . . and this unreasoning anger toward Inuyasha. He had said he loved her, once. A machine capable of love; now she new just how unrealistic that was. She shook her head.
She would make Inuyasha pay for lying to her and for betraying her, but first she had to know what she was missing.
That girl would have to disappear as well. It wouldn't do for her to continue living Kikyo's life.
*~*~*
Sango ate slowly. She had to admit, Kagome had done very well considering what she had to work with. It was not a culinary masterpiece by any measure, but then, Miroku's kitchen wasn't precisely well stocked. Miroku was eating with enthusiasm, and the younger girl was obviously preoccupied with something. She played with her food more than she ate it and her can of Diet Coca Cola had been forgotten long ago.
The youkai watched the humans as they finished their meal. The activist found their attention unnerving. If she didn't 'know' better, she would have sworn both of them were impatient. Shippo was fidgeting with his tail, and Inuyasha was staring at Kagome with an unconscious intensity.
Sango didn't blame Kagome for picking at her food. If someone had been watching her like that, she wouldn't be able to eat much either.
"You don't have any idea what Naraku wants?" Sango asked when the silence became too much for her.
Miroku set down his Dr. Pepper and sighed. "I truly wish I did," he said seriously. It was hard to tell if he was really that solemn, or if it was all for show. "I hoped you could shed a bit more light on the subject."
Sango shook her head. "I have no idea why anyone would want to kill my father. He didn't have anything a youkai might want. Assuming for the moment that youkai 'can' want anything."
"What would a youkai want, though?" Kagome joined the conversation.
"A youkai could want anything," Inuyasha said grimly. "It just depends on its programming."
"What would a youkai like Naraku want?" Kagome finally set her chopsticks down.
"If I knew that, I'd know where to start," Miroku concluded, then finished his drink.
"Um," Shippo poked in. "You said he was made to network youkai, right? Do you think he wants more youkai in his system?"
Sango felt as though her eyes would fall out of her head, she was so surprised to hear the little fox speak. Judging from the other expressions she saw around the table, she wasn't alone either. None of them had expected the smaller youkai to speak up. It made sense, though. If a computer were capable of desire, why not want exactly what it was made for? If Naraku was made to control lesser youkai by putting them in his network, why wouldn't he try to do just that?
"That's not a bad thought," Miroku ceded once he recovered from his shock. "But that leads us to another troubling question."
"And what's that?" the Companion youkai asked sardonically, but his ears perked up to catch the young man's next words.
"What did Naraku's buyer intend to do with all those youkai once he had them all organized under Naraku's control?" Miroku pinched the bridge of his nose in a tired gesture. "I'll have to look into it."
Shippo was smiling smugly, his fox tail swishing from side to side with excitement.
'Youkai don't get excited,' Sango reminded herself firmly. They didn't get excited or depressed. They didn't feel hurt over their failures, nor pride in their accomplishments. They didn't feel pain, or bite their lip while someone fixed them, and they didn't display contradictory emotions. They didn't look sad. And they didn't come upstairs looking homicidal because some pervert had unwittingly interrupted a conversation (?) between them and their owner.
'I need some aspirin,' the young woman thought, her brain trying to find a way to keep the behavior of these two youkai consistent with everything she already knew about them, and failing miserably.
"Changing the subject entirely," Kagome's voice broke through Sango's thoughts and she looked up to see the girl addressing Miroku. "Have you found anything else out about Inuyasha?"
"Not really. Why?"
"Well," Kagome shifted uncomfortably in her chair, then continued, "I was wondering how he could beat that other youkai. No offence, but you're not made to protect me from that." The last was directed toward Inuyasha himself.
No offence? These people just got weirder and weirder didn't they?
"Keh," the white haired youkai grunted, turning up his nose. "If you wanted to know that, you should've asked me."
"Alright, how did you beat that youkai?"
Sango did not like the grin that crossed Inuyasha's face. His gold eyes gleamed just a little manically, and one fang actually caught on his lower lips. It wasn't that the expression was exactly frightening, but it was disturbing.
The youkai held up one hand, flexing the fingers so his knuckles cracked. It might have been the young woman's imagination, but it looked like his claws grew longer. The tiny ribbons of light that began playing along the tips were not her imagination, though, nor was the sudden, oppressive scent of ozone. It wasn't electricity. Sango didn't know what it was.
"With this," Inuyasha told Kagome, the tone of his voice matching his smile.
"Companions youkai aren't supposed to have energy weapons," Miroku said, eying the trails of light that followed the slight movement of Inuyasha's hand. He turned toward Kagome then, "I'll see what I can find. I'll be checking out Inutaiyoukai anyway."
Kagome sighed. "Call me if you find anything out, alright?"
"You can count on it," the young man told her.
"Call me, too," Sango interrupted quickly, scanning the area for something to write her phone number down on.
Both other humans were suddenly staring at her as though she'd suddenly sprouted a third arm or an extra head. "Well," she said defensively, "Naraku might have killed my family. I have a right to know."
"Of course," Miroku said smoothly, the first to recover. "Of course. If you'll just write your digits down over here. . ." He crossed the space between them and lead her to an organizer on the counter, his hand resting lightly on her shoulder. Sango cast a glare at the offending appendage, then leaned over the little electronic pad to enter her home phone number.
She had just finished when she felt something touch her hip lightly, only to then caress the curve of her ass with greedy fingers. Sango clenched her fist so hard that the thin plastic stylus she held in her hand snapped cleanly in half. She spun around quickly, hitting the man with her elbow and knocking him back to the ground.
"I told you not to touch me!" the young activist fumed.
*~*~*
The sky was turning pearly yellow when Kagome finally led her youkai out of Miroku's shop. The sun was still well above the horizon, but it was already sinking below the artificial city skyline. The pale light reflected off the mirrored windows of the tall buildings downtown, lighting up the dark glass. Thin, high clouds were already starting to blush a faint pink.
The girl paused for a moment to appreciate the view. Sunsets like this one were rare. She almost wished she had a camera.
When she turned away from the sunset, she saw Inuyasha watching her, a surprisingly mellow glow in his amber eyes. The light touched his hair with color, as though the strands had never really been white at all, but were really made out of spun crystal. The sight got under her skin in a good way.
The girl shook her head, laughing at herself internally. Her thoughts the hanyou had all been far too romantic since that kiss, and the sunset wasn't helping any. If Shippo hadn't been perched on her shoulder, she wasn't entirely sure she could have been held responsible for her actions.
'Damn robot. How does he do this to me?' she thought, but without any venom. Kagome smiled at him tiredly. "Are you two ready to go home?"
Inuyasha nodded, while Shippo clung to her neck and cried, "I never want to leave home again!"
Kagome had already walked a lot that day, and she felt it. Her feet were sore--she would have worn different shoes if she'd known that she'd be on her feet most of the day--her knees ached, as did every muscle between her toes and lower back. The first thing she'd do when she got home was take a nice, hot bath.
Unbidden, her 'shower fantasy' of Inuyasha popped back into her head. Wet hair and water streaming over smooth skin. . .
'He kissed me.' Kagome realized for the umpteenth time, and without thinking about what she was doing, she raised a hand to touch her lips. 'I wonder if maybe, eventually, he'd be willing to do that. God, am I willing to do that?'
'I wonder if he's waterproof?' It was a stupid thought, and it broke her line of thought entirely. Inuyasha was giving her a strange look, and the girl felt all the heat in her body rush to her cheeks, undoubtedly turning them bright red.
"Would you like a ride?".
"Are you sure your up to it?" Kagome asked nervously.
The hanyou smiled an unexpectedly gentle smile. "Of course I'm sure."
The girl nodded and let Inuyasha pick her up piggy back. Shippo yelped in protest as the hanyou took off, running quickly home. The sky turned from pale yellow to lavender, the pink clouds growing brighter, and the eastern horizon turned indigo.
Kagome saw when the first star peeked out. Except, it wasn't really a star. The brightest light in the night sky was the planet Venus. The girl closed her eyes tightly and made a wish.
*~*~*
A/N: That's if for today. Sorry this one took a while to get up. I'll try to finish the next chapter this weekend, so it will hopefully be up by Monday. Inuyasha and Sesshomaru meet. Finally.
Until next time.
Alright, I think it's only fair to tell you all that I MAY not be able to update as often as I like in the near future. This is not for sure, and I will certainly try to get up two chapters a week, which has been my goal from the beginning, but I my life is probably about to get far more complicated and more stressful, and I'll very likely have to try to get more hours at work. In any event, consider yourselves all fairly warned.
Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha. If I did, I'd get rich pimping him out to fangirls and then I wouldn't have my current problems. Oh, I'm not bitter or anything. . .
Synthetic Emotions
Kikyo knew this building. The stained off-white exterior. The narrow stairs. The levels of apartments, each just like the one on either side of it, but each also with tiny flashes of personality to set it apart from the others. Her blank eyes took in potted plants and chained bicycles without any flicker of response, finally coming to stop on one door in particular.
She had lived here once, long ago. She knew decades had passed since then. Now she watched from the outside, seeing the life that ought to have been hers through the glass. She felt a cold whip-strike of anger through her insides as she remembered the girl she had seen through the window. That happy, silly little girl who was living in her home, who had moved out her things and replaced them with her own. The girl who had somehow come into possession of Inuyasha, along with everything else that had belonged to Kikyo.
Another flash of anger, this one frigid enough to shatter her bones, if she still had them. The feeling coursed through her like a flood, overrunning all its banks and freezing her to the core, but her metal endostructure remained unaffected.
What had happened between she and him? She couldn't pull it out of the broken pieces of her memory. She recalled numbers. . . something. . . a man, his name escaped her. . . and this unreasoning anger toward Inuyasha. He had said he loved her, once. A machine capable of love; now she new just how unrealistic that was. She shook her head.
She would make Inuyasha pay for lying to her and for betraying her, but first she had to know what she was missing.
That girl would have to disappear as well. It wouldn't do for her to continue living Kikyo's life.
*~*~*
Sango ate slowly. She had to admit, Kagome had done very well considering what she had to work with. It was not a culinary masterpiece by any measure, but then, Miroku's kitchen wasn't precisely well stocked. Miroku was eating with enthusiasm, and the younger girl was obviously preoccupied with something. She played with her food more than she ate it and her can of Diet Coca Cola had been forgotten long ago.
The youkai watched the humans as they finished their meal. The activist found their attention unnerving. If she didn't 'know' better, she would have sworn both of them were impatient. Shippo was fidgeting with his tail, and Inuyasha was staring at Kagome with an unconscious intensity.
Sango didn't blame Kagome for picking at her food. If someone had been watching her like that, she wouldn't be able to eat much either.
"You don't have any idea what Naraku wants?" Sango asked when the silence became too much for her.
Miroku set down his Dr. Pepper and sighed. "I truly wish I did," he said seriously. It was hard to tell if he was really that solemn, or if it was all for show. "I hoped you could shed a bit more light on the subject."
Sango shook her head. "I have no idea why anyone would want to kill my father. He didn't have anything a youkai might want. Assuming for the moment that youkai 'can' want anything."
"What would a youkai want, though?" Kagome joined the conversation.
"A youkai could want anything," Inuyasha said grimly. "It just depends on its programming."
"What would a youkai like Naraku want?" Kagome finally set her chopsticks down.
"If I knew that, I'd know where to start," Miroku concluded, then finished his drink.
"Um," Shippo poked in. "You said he was made to network youkai, right? Do you think he wants more youkai in his system?"
Sango felt as though her eyes would fall out of her head, she was so surprised to hear the little fox speak. Judging from the other expressions she saw around the table, she wasn't alone either. None of them had expected the smaller youkai to speak up. It made sense, though. If a computer were capable of desire, why not want exactly what it was made for? If Naraku was made to control lesser youkai by putting them in his network, why wouldn't he try to do just that?
"That's not a bad thought," Miroku ceded once he recovered from his shock. "But that leads us to another troubling question."
"And what's that?" the Companion youkai asked sardonically, but his ears perked up to catch the young man's next words.
"What did Naraku's buyer intend to do with all those youkai once he had them all organized under Naraku's control?" Miroku pinched the bridge of his nose in a tired gesture. "I'll have to look into it."
Shippo was smiling smugly, his fox tail swishing from side to side with excitement.
'Youkai don't get excited,' Sango reminded herself firmly. They didn't get excited or depressed. They didn't feel hurt over their failures, nor pride in their accomplishments. They didn't feel pain, or bite their lip while someone fixed them, and they didn't display contradictory emotions. They didn't look sad. And they didn't come upstairs looking homicidal because some pervert had unwittingly interrupted a conversation (?) between them and their owner.
'I need some aspirin,' the young woman thought, her brain trying to find a way to keep the behavior of these two youkai consistent with everything she already knew about them, and failing miserably.
"Changing the subject entirely," Kagome's voice broke through Sango's thoughts and she looked up to see the girl addressing Miroku. "Have you found anything else out about Inuyasha?"
"Not really. Why?"
"Well," Kagome shifted uncomfortably in her chair, then continued, "I was wondering how he could beat that other youkai. No offence, but you're not made to protect me from that." The last was directed toward Inuyasha himself.
No offence? These people just got weirder and weirder didn't they?
"Keh," the white haired youkai grunted, turning up his nose. "If you wanted to know that, you should've asked me."
"Alright, how did you beat that youkai?"
Sango did not like the grin that crossed Inuyasha's face. His gold eyes gleamed just a little manically, and one fang actually caught on his lower lips. It wasn't that the expression was exactly frightening, but it was disturbing.
The youkai held up one hand, flexing the fingers so his knuckles cracked. It might have been the young woman's imagination, but it looked like his claws grew longer. The tiny ribbons of light that began playing along the tips were not her imagination, though, nor was the sudden, oppressive scent of ozone. It wasn't electricity. Sango didn't know what it was.
"With this," Inuyasha told Kagome, the tone of his voice matching his smile.
"Companions youkai aren't supposed to have energy weapons," Miroku said, eying the trails of light that followed the slight movement of Inuyasha's hand. He turned toward Kagome then, "I'll see what I can find. I'll be checking out Inutaiyoukai anyway."
Kagome sighed. "Call me if you find anything out, alright?"
"You can count on it," the young man told her.
"Call me, too," Sango interrupted quickly, scanning the area for something to write her phone number down on.
Both other humans were suddenly staring at her as though she'd suddenly sprouted a third arm or an extra head. "Well," she said defensively, "Naraku might have killed my family. I have a right to know."
"Of course," Miroku said smoothly, the first to recover. "Of course. If you'll just write your digits down over here. . ." He crossed the space between them and lead her to an organizer on the counter, his hand resting lightly on her shoulder. Sango cast a glare at the offending appendage, then leaned over the little electronic pad to enter her home phone number.
She had just finished when she felt something touch her hip lightly, only to then caress the curve of her ass with greedy fingers. Sango clenched her fist so hard that the thin plastic stylus she held in her hand snapped cleanly in half. She spun around quickly, hitting the man with her elbow and knocking him back to the ground.
"I told you not to touch me!" the young activist fumed.
*~*~*
The sky was turning pearly yellow when Kagome finally led her youkai out of Miroku's shop. The sun was still well above the horizon, but it was already sinking below the artificial city skyline. The pale light reflected off the mirrored windows of the tall buildings downtown, lighting up the dark glass. Thin, high clouds were already starting to blush a faint pink.
The girl paused for a moment to appreciate the view. Sunsets like this one were rare. She almost wished she had a camera.
When she turned away from the sunset, she saw Inuyasha watching her, a surprisingly mellow glow in his amber eyes. The light touched his hair with color, as though the strands had never really been white at all, but were really made out of spun crystal. The sight got under her skin in a good way.
The girl shook her head, laughing at herself internally. Her thoughts the hanyou had all been far too romantic since that kiss, and the sunset wasn't helping any. If Shippo hadn't been perched on her shoulder, she wasn't entirely sure she could have been held responsible for her actions.
'Damn robot. How does he do this to me?' she thought, but without any venom. Kagome smiled at him tiredly. "Are you two ready to go home?"
Inuyasha nodded, while Shippo clung to her neck and cried, "I never want to leave home again!"
Kagome had already walked a lot that day, and she felt it. Her feet were sore--she would have worn different shoes if she'd known that she'd be on her feet most of the day--her knees ached, as did every muscle between her toes and lower back. The first thing she'd do when she got home was take a nice, hot bath.
Unbidden, her 'shower fantasy' of Inuyasha popped back into her head. Wet hair and water streaming over smooth skin. . .
'He kissed me.' Kagome realized for the umpteenth time, and without thinking about what she was doing, she raised a hand to touch her lips. 'I wonder if maybe, eventually, he'd be willing to do that. God, am I willing to do that?'
'I wonder if he's waterproof?' It was a stupid thought, and it broke her line of thought entirely. Inuyasha was giving her a strange look, and the girl felt all the heat in her body rush to her cheeks, undoubtedly turning them bright red.
"Would you like a ride?".
"Are you sure your up to it?" Kagome asked nervously.
The hanyou smiled an unexpectedly gentle smile. "Of course I'm sure."
The girl nodded and let Inuyasha pick her up piggy back. Shippo yelped in protest as the hanyou took off, running quickly home. The sky turned from pale yellow to lavender, the pink clouds growing brighter, and the eastern horizon turned indigo.
Kagome saw when the first star peeked out. Except, it wasn't really a star. The brightest light in the night sky was the planet Venus. The girl closed her eyes tightly and made a wish.
*~*~*
A/N: That's if for today. Sorry this one took a while to get up. I'll try to finish the next chapter this weekend, so it will hopefully be up by Monday. Inuyasha and Sesshomaru meet. Finally.
Until next time.