A/N: Alright. I learned my lesson. I will no longer tell my readers
what's interesting and what isn't. Thanks for the all the reviews.
Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha.
Synthetic Emotions
Kaede took an involuntary step back, making room for the doppelganger to slip past her. The old woman could only watch, dumbstruck, as the image of her dead sister glided easily across the room to settle on the couch. A heartless smile shaped Kikyo's mouth, unlike anything she had ever worn in life.
"Sister, I. . ." She what? Kaede had no idea what she meant to say. She was facing someone who had been buried more than fifty years ago. For all her experience, Kaede had no idea how to deal with this.
"You remember me then," Kikyo said, bowing her head slightly so she eyed her younger sister through her lashes.
"How could I forget?" the old woman asked, sitting down heavily. She could see now how her sister's skin shone faintly, reflecting the light in a way human skin never would. She sat too still, not even breathing. Kaede's sister had always been composed, but the mask this thing wore was beyond stoic.
Kaede realized with a slow, seeping horror what sat before her.
The Replica's painted on smile softened a little, taking on a hint of the life it mimicked. "Good. I'm glad to hear I haven't been completely forgotten."
"Why would you think you had been forgotten?"
The smile failed entirely. "I have seen the girl."
"The girl?" Kaede repeated blankly, trying to imagine what this false Kikyo could mean. She didn't like the answer that came to her. "Kagome?"
"Is that her name?"
"Kikyo," the old woman said, fighting down the vague rush of disgust that came with calling the Replica by her sister's name. "What do you want with her?"
"What do I want? Nothing that isn't mine, dear sister," Kikyo replied, that ghostly cold smile once again coming to her lips. "Nothing that isn't mine by right."
"You cannot have you're life back," Kaede said.
"I never said I wanted it." The Replica's words offered no reassurance. "Now, tell me of this Kagome."
*~*~*
Kagome's mother made lunch, navigating her kitchen with an efficiency that left Inuyasha slightly in awe of her. As she worked, she and her daughter chatted easily. Yesterday might never have happened. Kagome smiled and giggled behind her hand, and her mother teased her gently and talked about her week. There was no tension. No scheme. No rogue youkai.
But. . . did their kiss still exist, or was it cleared away as well? Just part of a bad memory?
Humans didn't always act as they normally would when they were under pressure. They did things they normally wouldn't. The hanyou believed she had meant what she said when she told him she didn't think he was fake, but that didn't mean that she would let kiss her again if she had the opportunity to stop it. She hadn't given any indication if their relationship had changed or not.
Inuyasha did not like the course his thoughts were taking. He pushed them aside, focusing instead on the two women's conversation.
"Inuyasha," the older Higurashi said, seeming to feel his attention. "You've been quiet. Don't you have anything to say?"
Caught off guard, the hanyou gave a feeble, "Not particularly."
"Oh, come now," Kagome's mother pressed, undeterred. "You must have something to say. If you like, I could tell you embarrassing stories about Kagome when she was a little girl."
Inuyasha blinked. Was that some sort of bribe?
"What kind of stories?" he asked cautiously.
"Mother!" Kagome protested, but the older woman just waved one hand in a placating motion.
"Don't worry, dear," she soothed, "I won't tell him about you're little nudist phase or anything. Oops." The woman laughed as her daughter's face reddened again in the same, rather unflattering blush.
"What do you mean, 'nudist phase?'"
"Don't you dare tell him, Momma," Kagome whined.
"Oh, but it was so cute," Kagome's mother said, still chuckling. Then she turned toward Inuyasha and whispered in an exaggeratedly conspiratorial tone, "When Kagome was a toddler, she decided she didn't want to wear her dresses. We couldn't keep her in clothes at all. There was this one instance at the supermarket--"
"Actually, we should be going," the girl interrupted. "Busy day and all."
"I didn't know we were busy?" Shippo commented, looking up as though he was trying to remember something, and the information he wanted was written on the ceiling.
"Yeah, I want to hear the story," Inuyasha said, and was rewarded by seeing Kagome turn even darker. Her cheeks were almost more purple now than red.
"Well, we are busy, so you can't hear the rest of the story," the girl insisted.
"Don't worry," Kagome's mother said, giving Inuyasha a wink. "I'll tell you the rest next time you visit."
"Yeah, sure, Momma," Kagome agreed, hurrying to get her things. "Sorry we couldn't stay for lunch!"
"Alright, dear," she was still laughing. "You take care of yourself and-- oh! I just remembered. Wait here just a sec." She snapped her fingers and marched into the other room. Kagome shot Inuyasha a dangerous look behind her mother's back, then followed the older woman to the doorway.
A moment later, the woman reappeared carrying a stack of neatly folded clothes. "You forgot these last time you stayed here."
"Thank you, Momma," Kagome said quickly, collecting her laundry. "See you later."
"Bye bye, dear," Kagome's mother said, and watched as her daughter scrambled out the door.
Inuyasha shrugged, picked up Shippo and followed after his fleeing owner. On impulse, he turned and waved to Kagome's mother as he left. The woman beamed, waving back.
*~*~*
Kagome didn't slow down until she was nearly a block away from her mother's house. Her face still felt like it was on fire, and she could only guess how red her cheeks must have been. Was there some book that they gave parents telling them how to embarrass their children? Was there a quota that they had to meet? Or did they all just get some sick thrill out of telling stories like that to people who. . .
Why was she embarrassed in front of Inuyasha? It was Inuyasha who she didn't want hearing those stories. Shippo already knew most of them anyway.
And if that fox youkai had any sense of self-preservation, he was not telling them to Inuyasha right now.
Kagome stopped, letting her youkai catch up. Neither of them was speaking, which she took as a good sign. Some of the heat finally drained out of her face.
"Hey, Kagome," Shippo said innocently, "why were you in such a hurry to leave?"
The girl spun on her heel, about to yell at the small youkai for his curiosity when she felt something in the pocket of the pants she was carrying.
'What?' she wondered, stopping to look at the clothing in her hands. 'What did I leave in my pocket?' It felt like a folded piece of paper.
She was peripherally aware of Inuyasha and Shippo watching her as she pulled out a scrap of paper that had the fuzzy, abused look of a note that had gone through the washing machine without being noticed.
"What's that, Kagome?" Inuyasha asked, peeking at the folded paper.
"I don't know," the girl told him honestly. For the life of her, she couldn't remember what it might be.
Unfolding the paper she found herself looking at three four-digit combinations. 4-3-4-7, 7-8-1-3, and 2-6-5-2 were written in a cramped, rather elderly hand, the ink bled out a little from its trip through the laundry.
"Kagome?" Inuyasha asked, interrupting her thoughts. "What is it?"
"Oh." She shook her head, finally placing what she was looking at. "Are there any number locks around the apartment other than on the youkai storage unit?"
"There wasn't even a lock on that when she turned me off," the hanyou replied impatiently. "Now are you going to tell me what you're looking at, or am I going to have to see for myself?"
"I thought you were going to ask him about those days ago," Shippo complained from Inuyasha's shoulder.
"Ask me about what? What are you talking about?"
"Sorry, Inuyasha," Kagome said, her gaze drifting back to the fragile piece of paper in her grasp. "Kaede gave these combinations before we started cleaning out the apartment. She didn't say what they were to. I was hoping you might know."
"Keh. Don't have a clue," he grumbled, then snatched the note out of her hands.
"Careful!"
"I'll be careful." He said, rolling his eyes. "I just want to see the damn thing."
"Just don't rip it, alright?" Kagome told him.
"Fine, fine. I'm no--" he cut of midsentence.
"Inuyasha?"
No response.
*~*~*
"Come on, come on. Pick up the phone," Miroku muttered as Kagome's line rung for the fifth time. "You have to be home."
The speaker clicked, and Miroku breathed a sigh of relief. The response turned out to be premature, however, when Kagome's cheerful voice recited, "This is an answering machine. I'm sure you know what to do."
Then that obnoxious beep. The young man made groaned. "Listen, Kagome. This is really important. Call me as soon as you get home. Okay?"
Miroku sighed. Where the hell was she?
'It's not like you can just expect the girl to sit by the phone waiting for you,' he told himself, shaking his head ruefully. With another sigh, he dialed Sango.
After two rings, the activist's voice appeared over the speaker, followed an instant later by her face on the screen. Her eyes were puffy, her hair mussed and she wasn't wearing any make-up. Sango yawned into the back of her hand, blinking sleepily, then said, "What?"
"Sango, I figured it out," Miroku said quickly, pushing away a brief pang of guilt for waking her. She looked fresh from bed. Not bad for first thing in the morning. . .
"Figured what out?" She yawned again, looking like she was about to drift back to sleep. Through an effort of will he kept his mind from pursuing that train of thought. Unfortunately, there were more important things to think about than the pretty young woman in bed. Less pleasant things.
"I think I know what a youkai would want."
"What?!" Sango was awake now, all blurriness falling from her cinnamon brown eyes.
"I'd rather tell you and Kagome at the same time, if you don't mind," he explained. "But I haven't been able to get a hold of her yet. Can you be over here in, say, two hours? That should give me time to track her down."
Sango nodded quickly, her expression now stonily serious. "I'll see you then."
Then her image vanished.
*~*~*
4-3-4-7. . . 7-8-1-3. . . 2-6-5-2. . . 4-3-4-7. . .
The numbers spun through his head meaninglessly, each set chasing away the one before it.
7-8-1-3. . . 2-6-5-2. . .
There was something there.
4-3-4-7. . .7-8-1-3. . .
And there was something missing.
2-6-5-2. . .
That wasn't the whole series.
4-3-4-7. . .
There were more parts to it than this.
7-8-1-3. . .
The number span faster, and his circuits began to hum softly with the strain of keeping up.
2-6-5-2. . .
There was something missing.
*~*~*
A/N: Ah he. . . that wasn't how that chapter was supposed to go. Oh well, that's the way it goes now. Hopefully you guys liked it. If not, tell me why.
Things should start picking up here soon, so I hope you all enjoyed the peace and quiet while it lasted.
Until next time.
Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha.
Synthetic Emotions
Kaede took an involuntary step back, making room for the doppelganger to slip past her. The old woman could only watch, dumbstruck, as the image of her dead sister glided easily across the room to settle on the couch. A heartless smile shaped Kikyo's mouth, unlike anything she had ever worn in life.
"Sister, I. . ." She what? Kaede had no idea what she meant to say. She was facing someone who had been buried more than fifty years ago. For all her experience, Kaede had no idea how to deal with this.
"You remember me then," Kikyo said, bowing her head slightly so she eyed her younger sister through her lashes.
"How could I forget?" the old woman asked, sitting down heavily. She could see now how her sister's skin shone faintly, reflecting the light in a way human skin never would. She sat too still, not even breathing. Kaede's sister had always been composed, but the mask this thing wore was beyond stoic.
Kaede realized with a slow, seeping horror what sat before her.
The Replica's painted on smile softened a little, taking on a hint of the life it mimicked. "Good. I'm glad to hear I haven't been completely forgotten."
"Why would you think you had been forgotten?"
The smile failed entirely. "I have seen the girl."
"The girl?" Kaede repeated blankly, trying to imagine what this false Kikyo could mean. She didn't like the answer that came to her. "Kagome?"
"Is that her name?"
"Kikyo," the old woman said, fighting down the vague rush of disgust that came with calling the Replica by her sister's name. "What do you want with her?"
"What do I want? Nothing that isn't mine, dear sister," Kikyo replied, that ghostly cold smile once again coming to her lips. "Nothing that isn't mine by right."
"You cannot have you're life back," Kaede said.
"I never said I wanted it." The Replica's words offered no reassurance. "Now, tell me of this Kagome."
*~*~*
Kagome's mother made lunch, navigating her kitchen with an efficiency that left Inuyasha slightly in awe of her. As she worked, she and her daughter chatted easily. Yesterday might never have happened. Kagome smiled and giggled behind her hand, and her mother teased her gently and talked about her week. There was no tension. No scheme. No rogue youkai.
But. . . did their kiss still exist, or was it cleared away as well? Just part of a bad memory?
Humans didn't always act as they normally would when they were under pressure. They did things they normally wouldn't. The hanyou believed she had meant what she said when she told him she didn't think he was fake, but that didn't mean that she would let kiss her again if she had the opportunity to stop it. She hadn't given any indication if their relationship had changed or not.
Inuyasha did not like the course his thoughts were taking. He pushed them aside, focusing instead on the two women's conversation.
"Inuyasha," the older Higurashi said, seeming to feel his attention. "You've been quiet. Don't you have anything to say?"
Caught off guard, the hanyou gave a feeble, "Not particularly."
"Oh, come now," Kagome's mother pressed, undeterred. "You must have something to say. If you like, I could tell you embarrassing stories about Kagome when she was a little girl."
Inuyasha blinked. Was that some sort of bribe?
"What kind of stories?" he asked cautiously.
"Mother!" Kagome protested, but the older woman just waved one hand in a placating motion.
"Don't worry, dear," she soothed, "I won't tell him about you're little nudist phase or anything. Oops." The woman laughed as her daughter's face reddened again in the same, rather unflattering blush.
"What do you mean, 'nudist phase?'"
"Don't you dare tell him, Momma," Kagome whined.
"Oh, but it was so cute," Kagome's mother said, still chuckling. Then she turned toward Inuyasha and whispered in an exaggeratedly conspiratorial tone, "When Kagome was a toddler, she decided she didn't want to wear her dresses. We couldn't keep her in clothes at all. There was this one instance at the supermarket--"
"Actually, we should be going," the girl interrupted. "Busy day and all."
"I didn't know we were busy?" Shippo commented, looking up as though he was trying to remember something, and the information he wanted was written on the ceiling.
"Yeah, I want to hear the story," Inuyasha said, and was rewarded by seeing Kagome turn even darker. Her cheeks were almost more purple now than red.
"Well, we are busy, so you can't hear the rest of the story," the girl insisted.
"Don't worry," Kagome's mother said, giving Inuyasha a wink. "I'll tell you the rest next time you visit."
"Yeah, sure, Momma," Kagome agreed, hurrying to get her things. "Sorry we couldn't stay for lunch!"
"Alright, dear," she was still laughing. "You take care of yourself and-- oh! I just remembered. Wait here just a sec." She snapped her fingers and marched into the other room. Kagome shot Inuyasha a dangerous look behind her mother's back, then followed the older woman to the doorway.
A moment later, the woman reappeared carrying a stack of neatly folded clothes. "You forgot these last time you stayed here."
"Thank you, Momma," Kagome said quickly, collecting her laundry. "See you later."
"Bye bye, dear," Kagome's mother said, and watched as her daughter scrambled out the door.
Inuyasha shrugged, picked up Shippo and followed after his fleeing owner. On impulse, he turned and waved to Kagome's mother as he left. The woman beamed, waving back.
*~*~*
Kagome didn't slow down until she was nearly a block away from her mother's house. Her face still felt like it was on fire, and she could only guess how red her cheeks must have been. Was there some book that they gave parents telling them how to embarrass their children? Was there a quota that they had to meet? Or did they all just get some sick thrill out of telling stories like that to people who. . .
Why was she embarrassed in front of Inuyasha? It was Inuyasha who she didn't want hearing those stories. Shippo already knew most of them anyway.
And if that fox youkai had any sense of self-preservation, he was not telling them to Inuyasha right now.
Kagome stopped, letting her youkai catch up. Neither of them was speaking, which she took as a good sign. Some of the heat finally drained out of her face.
"Hey, Kagome," Shippo said innocently, "why were you in such a hurry to leave?"
The girl spun on her heel, about to yell at the small youkai for his curiosity when she felt something in the pocket of the pants she was carrying.
'What?' she wondered, stopping to look at the clothing in her hands. 'What did I leave in my pocket?' It felt like a folded piece of paper.
She was peripherally aware of Inuyasha and Shippo watching her as she pulled out a scrap of paper that had the fuzzy, abused look of a note that had gone through the washing machine without being noticed.
"What's that, Kagome?" Inuyasha asked, peeking at the folded paper.
"I don't know," the girl told him honestly. For the life of her, she couldn't remember what it might be.
Unfolding the paper she found herself looking at three four-digit combinations. 4-3-4-7, 7-8-1-3, and 2-6-5-2 were written in a cramped, rather elderly hand, the ink bled out a little from its trip through the laundry.
"Kagome?" Inuyasha asked, interrupting her thoughts. "What is it?"
"Oh." She shook her head, finally placing what she was looking at. "Are there any number locks around the apartment other than on the youkai storage unit?"
"There wasn't even a lock on that when she turned me off," the hanyou replied impatiently. "Now are you going to tell me what you're looking at, or am I going to have to see for myself?"
"I thought you were going to ask him about those days ago," Shippo complained from Inuyasha's shoulder.
"Ask me about what? What are you talking about?"
"Sorry, Inuyasha," Kagome said, her gaze drifting back to the fragile piece of paper in her grasp. "Kaede gave these combinations before we started cleaning out the apartment. She didn't say what they were to. I was hoping you might know."
"Keh. Don't have a clue," he grumbled, then snatched the note out of her hands.
"Careful!"
"I'll be careful." He said, rolling his eyes. "I just want to see the damn thing."
"Just don't rip it, alright?" Kagome told him.
"Fine, fine. I'm no--" he cut of midsentence.
"Inuyasha?"
No response.
*~*~*
"Come on, come on. Pick up the phone," Miroku muttered as Kagome's line rung for the fifth time. "You have to be home."
The speaker clicked, and Miroku breathed a sigh of relief. The response turned out to be premature, however, when Kagome's cheerful voice recited, "This is an answering machine. I'm sure you know what to do."
Then that obnoxious beep. The young man made groaned. "Listen, Kagome. This is really important. Call me as soon as you get home. Okay?"
Miroku sighed. Where the hell was she?
'It's not like you can just expect the girl to sit by the phone waiting for you,' he told himself, shaking his head ruefully. With another sigh, he dialed Sango.
After two rings, the activist's voice appeared over the speaker, followed an instant later by her face on the screen. Her eyes were puffy, her hair mussed and she wasn't wearing any make-up. Sango yawned into the back of her hand, blinking sleepily, then said, "What?"
"Sango, I figured it out," Miroku said quickly, pushing away a brief pang of guilt for waking her. She looked fresh from bed. Not bad for first thing in the morning. . .
"Figured what out?" She yawned again, looking like she was about to drift back to sleep. Through an effort of will he kept his mind from pursuing that train of thought. Unfortunately, there were more important things to think about than the pretty young woman in bed. Less pleasant things.
"I think I know what a youkai would want."
"What?!" Sango was awake now, all blurriness falling from her cinnamon brown eyes.
"I'd rather tell you and Kagome at the same time, if you don't mind," he explained. "But I haven't been able to get a hold of her yet. Can you be over here in, say, two hours? That should give me time to track her down."
Sango nodded quickly, her expression now stonily serious. "I'll see you then."
Then her image vanished.
*~*~*
4-3-4-7. . . 7-8-1-3. . . 2-6-5-2. . . 4-3-4-7. . .
The numbers spun through his head meaninglessly, each set chasing away the one before it.
7-8-1-3. . . 2-6-5-2. . .
There was something there.
4-3-4-7. . .7-8-1-3. . .
And there was something missing.
2-6-5-2. . .
That wasn't the whole series.
4-3-4-7. . .
There were more parts to it than this.
7-8-1-3. . .
The number span faster, and his circuits began to hum softly with the strain of keeping up.
2-6-5-2. . .
There was something missing.
*~*~*
A/N: Ah he. . . that wasn't how that chapter was supposed to go. Oh well, that's the way it goes now. Hopefully you guys liked it. If not, tell me why.
Things should start picking up here soon, so I hope you all enjoyed the peace and quiet while it lasted.
Until next time.