Genuine Fake
by Viitoria

Chapter Four: Minesweeper

Inuyasha had wake the butler with the old stone-against-window serenade. It wasn't the most embarrassment-free situation to be in. At first, the man didn't recognize him. But when he responded by demanding at least a cup of Ramen, he was quickly let in. And he got that heavenly food, too.

Now it was morning and he had finally returned to normal. Stretching, he made it way to Kagome's room and pushed open the door easily and began rummaging around her bookshelf. The girl sat up quickly. "Inuyasha, what the fuck do you think you're doing?" With an afterthought, she added, "Again. At this time of the morning?"

"Well, what time is it?" he demanded back in the same tone. He finger a small book with gold-lined pages, but stuffed it back. So maybe she was too sensible to keep password books in her secret bookcase.

In an equally bad mood, the girl pushed herself out of bed, her pink cotton American Power Puff Girls sleepwear bringing a snicker out of him. No matter how she dressed during the day, or how rich she was, it always got the hanyou at why she would wear those things to bed. He expected some lingerie, at the least.

She took a long look at the digital glow of the numbers. "Eight. That's too early to get up."

Secretly, he agreed, but he couldn't let her know that. He snorted as a way of replying. "Just get up. I'm bored," was his lame excuse.

Kagome shook her head and fell back into her bed, pulling the covers over her head. He paused at his useless search and approached her. He poked her tentatively at the area were he expected her stomach to be. A giggle alerted him that he'd gotten it right.

With a barely suppressed grin, he began his masterful art of tickling. Laughter greeted his work and the contorted face of his boss peered from the covers. "Georoff," she screamed at him between hiccupping giggles.

"I found somebody's secret weakness," he said in singsong.

That only made her laugh harder. "Do—haha—you know—stop!—how utterly—hic—gay you sound?"

He paused, just long enough for her to wiggle out of his hold. "Are you implying I'm gay?" he demanded, hands on hip. "You know what that means, don't you?"

She giggled again, catching her breath. Tears stained her face, making her look like a fallen angel. Inuyasha shook his head. What was he thinking?

"Yes," she replied in total seriousness. "It means you prefer men over woman. Which means your this," she motioned a wiggly line with her arms. "Instead of straight."

Her bodyguard opened his mouth to retort angrily, but changed his mind. Instead, a smirk appeared. "What a disrespectful girl!" he scolded. "And disrespectful girl need to be punished."

She laughed at him, but tightened her grip on a pillow. "Like you can," she taunted and jumped him, hitting him with the fluffy headrest. He in turn dived onto the bed with her and restarted his tickling with renewed cause. In all the chaos, the hanyou instincts inside of him alerted him of an object underneath the mattress. If it was what he suspected...

After a while, they both tired of the game and Inuyasha found his opening when the girl pushed him off to go to the shower. It was moments like these that he almost actually liked her. Almost.

He sat on the mattress a bit longer and made sure the water was running before he swept his arm under it and extracted a small book. Flipping through it at random, he knew it was want he was looking for and a whole lot more than he expected. Shutting the book with a snap, he pocketed it and walked out of the room whistling. The waiting maids outside showered him with disapproving looks.

"Don't worry," he assured them. "I didn't do anything to the 'miss'."

They smiled and walked away. Except one. "You know, we won't hate you if you did," she told him with a wink. "We all know you want to." He raised an eyebrow at her retreating back. What was that supposed to mean?

His curiosity was a distraction that whole day. What would someone like Kagome have to hide? Or was it her dad who was using her room? No, that couldn't have been it if the girl had a password book...but there were enough decoding in there for everything in the whole house. He had known for a long that his 'boss' was more intelligent and took notice of more things than she let on, but he wondered just how much she knew and why she hid it.

That day, she caught him staring multiple times, and he wouldn't have been surprised if she was wondering about just how horny he was after the tickling match. He was asking himself that since he'd noticed that his eyes were lingering—without direction from his brain—on the girl's body a few weeks ago.

It was a relief that night when Kagome decided to sleep in her other suite in the west wing. She didn't require him to be in the same room as her at night anymore (she was oddly insecure, so much that he wondered how she got along before he came), so he was free to roam. With booklet in hand, he entered the Pink Room, righteously dubbed. Making sure to close and lock the door behind him, he pushed the side of the shelf.

Nothing moved. Frowning, he felt around for some release clasp. He found one behind the books that had fell on him the previous night. Pushing it out of the locked position, he tried again. This time is slid open with ease. Typing in the code was easy enough, but he wasn't prepared for the ordinary room beyond that.

The room was, of course, much smaller than most in the entire house. A desk was set in the far corner, a sleek new LCD monitor placed on top of it. A file cabinet rested beside the desk, locked and coded. Everything felt oddly empty. He went in hesitantly, musing at an alarm suddenly going off or security suddenly surrounding him.

By the time he reached the computer and sat down in front of it, a claw poking at the on button, nothing had happened. Nothing would happen. But as planned and expected, multiple password boxes popped up. The book handled everything perfectly and before long, folders never meant to be seen was in front of his view.

Diary. Clips. Media. Unfiled. An innocent menu that could have been found on any site on the internet...so why was it in this computer—in this hidden room? He double clicked the Diary folder, and launched some sort of blogging program. Again, it was password protected. Another code took care of that, as well as a coding prompt.

Before him loaded a simple layout, featuring a flower, labeled 'Flos Adonis' and subtitled 'Painful Recollections'. He frowned and scrolled down. Unlike the online journals he'd seen his niece browse through and read, this one had no comments section, no menu, nor even the year in the date. But then again, this wasn't exactly online, nor easily accessed at all for that matter.

January 10th
Untitled.

Diary—if indeed this can be considered one. It's more like a forced assignment on me out of school, as if I don't have enough homework already in the first place. And who gave it to my but the stupid Shrink mom paid by taking the reserved funds that were supposed to be for me to go to college. I'm supposed to write all my feelings here; all my angry thought, my happy ones, my hateful ones. All of them. It's supposed to release my of my anger. At first, because we didn't have a computer, mom wanted me to write everything down. As if I'd do that! But then Souta suggested I go to dad's or something to 'get better'. I'm not sick! But here I am anyway, and what a surprise I've had. Dad's rich. Can you believe...Do I really have to write? It's tedious and annoying.

January 13th
School.

It's so different here. No one treats me like I'm dirt; and everyone's so fun! I went shopping after school with Yuka and Ayumi. My other new friend, Eri, had an appointment with her own Shrink (something about temper tantrums, yeah right. She's like one of the calmest person I know).

Inuyasha snorted. The girl had been here for less than two days and judging people already? And such stupid, frivolous entries they were. He shook his head and continued.

January 17th
Damn it ALL. I hate my life.

I have to go. My damnable mother is making me go back. I even talked to dad and the Shrink about staying longer, and they all agree. But mother. My mother, whose supposed to love me and want what's good for me. She wants me 'back'. I talked to her on the phone the other day, and she mentioned something about my tone, claiming that I had gotten an attitude, and that's what she had been afraid of. She wanted me home right then, back to my old school. —Does she know what I go through over there? I mean—

His ears picked up the sound of someone approaching the suite. With a few more taps of the keyboard, he shut down the computer and dashed upstairs, almost forgetting the book. Returning it to it's original hiding place, he resealed everything and exited through the window he had left through last night. Just in time, too, for below, he heard someone open Kagome's door.

It was all very strange. The girl was trying to hide something; he knew that much.

...............................

Wednesday morning dawn cloudy, suiting the mood of countless returning students across the city. Kagome and Inuyasha were two of them. Mostly Inuyasha, since at nineteen (human years), he was supposed to have been out of school already. Unluckily for him, his dad had forgotten to sign him up for Kindergarten. Twice.

Scowling, he shouldered his backpack, tugging at the neck of his uniform. The black ensemble didn't include a bit of red in in; and that annoyed him above all else. "Hey bitch!" he snarled irately. "If you don't get your ass down here, I'm going to drive off without you."

Mr. Higurashi appeared at the top of his stairs. "What did you call my daughter, Mr. Takagi?"

"Nothing," he muttered, but gave the man the finger as soon as his back was turned. "Just something about your daughter being just like you," he added under his breath. He waited impatiently as Kagome kissed her father good-bye and came down.

"Hold your horses, Inuyasha. If I didn't know better, I'd say you wanted to go to school," she mused aloud, taking her time to bend down and fit on her shoes.

The hanyou licked his lips as he stared openly at her. In the short gray uniform, which was supposedly conservative, but in truth was shorter than even her regular skirts, showed off her well-shaped long legs. The folds of the top was pulled tight over small breasts as she turned around to lift the back. Inuyasha leaned over and pulled it out of her grasp, wanting to get out before he had anymore thoughts about the girl's appearance.

"Hey!" she protested.

"What? You want to carry your own pack?" he threw back at her as he unlocked the jeep's doors. He watched as the girl eyed the new vehicle apprehensively. "I didn't steal it," he snapped.

She gave him a strange look. "I didn't say that you did." She got climbed into the shotgun, smoothing her skirts. She gave no reason to why she had been staring earlier. "When'd you get it?" she asked. He had always driven one of hers in the past month.

"The night before last," was his short explanation. When he gave these replies, it meant he didn't want to talk. Kagome nodded and let the silence go on for the rest of the ride. Inuyasha knew where he was going. And she would have her fun at school. Yura was definitely going to be surprised.

They arrived a full half hour early, due to Kagome's instructions from last night; she wanted to talk to her friends before all the book learning started. Pulling up into the nearest parking space, Inuyasha jumped out, locking the doors automatically. Kagome stayed where, she was, watching him expectantly.

He glared at her, but went around and opened the door for her. "Thank you," she told him smoothly, yet another false smile pasted on her face. She could tell he hated it whenever she did this, so all the more reason to do so.

Inuyasha watched with annoyance as she led him to her group of friends. At least wimpy-wolf wasn't there. He watched the drama play out as Kagome met her friends' eyes and they walked off in the direction of a short-haired woman in an all-too-small uniform. He paused. Was that Yura?

"Hey Yura," Eri greeted non-too nicely as she rounded the girl. That confirmed his suspicions. "And Hiten," she winked at a boy with a long braid talking to her. She didn't even bother to acknowledge the presence of the chubby looking guy with thinning hair. But then again, Yura didn't seem too happy with him around, either.

"Hello," the taller girl replied scathingly, clearly irate at being interrupted. She glanced around at the group, eyes narrowing as she lingered on Kagome. Then she turned to him, and they widened immediately. Her cold smile returned almost immediately, though. "What are you doing with them?" she asked as if he was the only one their. "Didn't Sesshy teach you better?"

He turned away with a snort. "Feh." Then he turned back, studying the tall girl. Did they say her name was Yura?

"Hey, don't—"

He interrupted 'the Miss'. "Yura Oni?" After all, how many people spoke about his brother by names like that? Other than him, of course. But she looked different from the photograph. Not as alluring without the fake light, he thought. Then he brightened. That means I can go back without worry; don't think I want a date with her anyway. He paused. That won't keep Fluffy from stuffing it back into may face, though.

She clicked her tongue. "Forgot me already? We met at that one place, remember? Some sort of Russian ballet or the other..." Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Kagome glaring. He smiled: this was going to be fun.

"Oh yes, the boring one. You were wearing that stunning red dress, right?"

The youkai giggled and nodded. "You have a wonderful memory, Inuyasha. I can call you that, right?" She took his hand and pulled him away, oblivious of the glaring crowd she'd left behind. "I'm going to borrow your friend for a while!" Yura waved and called back to the fuming girl she left behind.

Hiten and Manten continued to stare for a while, but Kagome turned and stormed off in the opposite direction. "The nerve of that woman! Who does she think she is?"

Eri gave her a comforting squeeze around the shoulders. "Don't get too worked up about it, Kags. It's not worth giving your temper for; it's just your bodyguard. They're expendable." Kagome should have agreed with the her and calmed down immediately, but she couldn't.

"Yeah, thanks." She'd get him later.

"Next time, you could get the elder Takagi. I've heard that he's so much cuter."

"Too bad he's way out of your league," Ayumi taunted. The short-haired girl whirled around on her friend.

"What are you saying?" she asked, playfully malevolent. "It's not like you could get him either."

Ayumi tossed her curling hair over her shoulder, nose up in the air. "I don't want it. I'd rather have that yummy guy in that Gatorade advertisement."

"What guy? There's none in there." All things regarding Kagome's lost possession was erased from the girls' minds. Sometimes, Kagome just wished her friends would be more understanding. The one friend she had in elementary school had been. Lost in thought, few noticed the usually outgoing girl's silence that day.

Lunch time at Takagawa had never been and will never be a quiet time. But since Inuyasha had sat beside Yura across the classroom that morning, she was ready to be the cause of some of the usual ruckus. The first thing she decided to do as they announced the break in school was pull Inuyasha to the side.

It seemed as if the hanyou had the same thing in mind, since he pushed Yura away as soon as the bell rung. "Kagome, I just wanted to say—"

She held up a hand. "I shouldn't bother listening to you but I'm in a good mood." Not. "So whatever you want to say, you better say it quick."

"Kagome!" Yuka poked her head into the classrom. "You coming? We're going to WacDonald's for lunch today."

She waved her friend off. "Yeah, I'll be there in a bit. Go without me; I can catch up." She turned back to Inuyasha. "You were saying—?"

"As I was saying," he repeated, emphasizing each word, "Fuck off."

The girl's mask fell momentarily, her face twisting in rage, but just as quickly it came back. She took a deep breath and shrugged. "Be that way. Come on, you're driving me to WacDonalds." As she went out the door, he picked up an added remark. "Bet Yura wasn't much fun anyway."

She probably knew just how right she was. He wondered how he could stand to be in the same school as that girl for the rest of the day. She was even worse than Kagome; and that was saying a lot. Lifting his shoulders in a shrug to nobody, he picked up his jacket and raced out, hoping that Yura wouldn't be found until later.

Luck was on neither of their sides as it turned out, for they didn't even get to the car. Kagome was frowning at a large crowd, circled around some scene of the other. "Let's go look," she told Inuyasha as he caught up. She took his hand and pulled him nearer.

He tensed at the motion, but didn't pull away. She wondered why; she'd done it purposely to annoy him. However, the sight of what was inside froze her inside out. Kouga and his friends were grouped around a boy she knew to be called Jenenji. He was cringing as they threw trash at him. Her eyes widened.

"So, Retard, was it? Why are you trying to come to a school like this?" her boyfriend jeered, prodding him with his shoe. "Homeless people like you shouldn't come to schools like this."

"But I have a home," the boy stammered. Kagome winced for him as she saw Kouga's foot move to connect with his stomach. Without thinking, she took a step forward—someone was quicker than her. Another girl rushed forward and pulled Kouga back, to the complete shock of everyone watching.

"Stop," she ordered him. "It's not nice to do things like that."

The wolf demon turned on her, smirking. "And who do we have here, his little girlfriend?" He looked around. "Okay everybody, on the count of three, say 'awww' together." He raised one finger. "One. Two. Three. Awwww."

People were laughing and taunting both of them. Kagome turned away; this was painfully familiar. But at least this time, it wasn't her.

He turned and spat on the boy. "So you got a girlfriend, huh? You should consider yourself lucky...but you don't deserve a girl." He lifted his foot to kick him again. The girl stopped him by pulling forcibly on his hair. Kagome felt a sinking feeling the pit of her stomach; Kouga hated people who pulled his hair. She watched in horror as the girl commenced to slap him.

In the silence that followed, she proceeded to give him a lecture. "How can you call yourself a person?" She snarled. "Do you know—"

Kouga had regained himself and pushed her by the shoulders. "Girl, I usually make it a standard of mine not to hit girls; but you're really pushing it. And you know, I don't like being pushed by bitches like yourself."

"So? What are you going to do about it?" she taunted in the face of the threats. "Hit me, knock me down? Break your standards? Then you wouldn't even be considered worthy of dirt beneath my shoe. You're a total jackass, you know? You and all your friends deserve to go to Hell!"

The look on Kouga's face told her that he was furious enough to actually hurt the girl. Really badly. Once again, her compassion overrode all thoughts and she stepped forward. "Kouga."

All attention turned to her. "What?" he barked, before realizing it was her. His tone changed to a better one. "I'm sorry you have to see this, Kagome, but—"

"Shut up, Kouga." She smiled at him. He frowned back. "Don't you think that's enough?" She walked closer, unknowingly pulling someone with her. She turned to look at the girl and glimpsed a heartwarming grin. It gave her a little more courage in her dropping stomach.

Her boyfriend's eyes narrowed, and then she realized he wasn't looking at her, but her hand. She remembered Inuyasha all too late, and let go of him immediately. Kouga glared at the hanyou, then looked suspiciously at her. "Now, what did you want to say?"

The crowd was pressing closer now, trying to catch the dropped voices. She saw her friends look at her, disapproval showing in their glances. Still, she wanted to tell him how much of a jerk he really was. And what was that word the girl had used—jackass. Yeah, he was that too. But most of all, she wanted to dump him in front of everyone. But what came out of her mouth was a completely different story.

"Kouga, think about it. Do you really want to stain your reputation by doing this? Why not get someone else? Say...Inuyasha. Go finish this for us." She tone hardened as she walked further into lies she had wrapped around herself. She was a different person now. The Kagome of before no longer existed, and this proved it. No longer would she be the weakling being picked on. Now she could be the one lording over the weak.

Inuyasha gave her a scathing look of pure disgust. Then he spat on the hand that had been holding hers; wiping it on his pants. Then he turned and walked away. The crowd parted to let him through, a murmur rising throughout.

Kouga smiled at her, just as the girl's face fell. No one noticed as she inwardly flinches as Kouga gave her a peck on the cheek, whispering, "That's my women. But now I have some dirt to take care of, excuse me." He left with his group of friends flanking him. One of the boys, though, hesitated, casting a indescribable look at the girl who had defended Jenenji. She wasn't sure, but Kagome thought she heard him whisper Sango.

The girl turned away. "Miroku!" Kouga called. "You coming or what?"

"Yeah," he replied, still staring. "Yeah, I am." He turned and left.

Kagome's friends tugged at her. "You're too nice sometimes, Kags."

She told them to wait a bit. "I want to talk with...the girl." Her friends frowned, but let her take the girl aside. The crowd slowly dispersed; no one bothering to help the boy who had originally been picked on. "You okay?" she asked the girl.

"No, I'm not," she replied coldly. "You're just as bad as that jerk." The girl lifted her hand, as if to slap her. Kagome flinched away. The girl, Sango, laughed bitterly. "No, you're worse. Worse because you know you're doing this despite your conscience. I think you've been through what I'm going through before; but you do it anyway. To feel wanted; needed. Special. Accepted. Accepted by fucking attention-grabbers who put people down just to make themselves feel better. But let me tell you something Miss Reputable, you're scum just like everyone else whose like you in this damn world, and you're going to stay scum.

"Your little toy—Inuyasha, was he?—at least he had some feeling. You don't deserve everything you have now; flaunting your money and lineage. You never did and you never will." With that, she walked away, tossing her long pony tail into Kagome's face. Kagome cringed inside. She wanted to be able to go to a quiet corner and shrivel up. Was everything the girl said true? Was she really that kind of person now? The ones she had hated and despised and ranted against just a year ago?

Yuka rounded the corner. "Kags, don't listen to fools like her. She's probably on some sort of medication or something." She let her friends escort her to WacDonalds, still in a daze. She looked behind her one more time and saw the girl help the Jenenji up, warily telling off those who dared to stare. She never was that brave, even when she had been in that position. No, she never had been in that position, sure of where she was. Instead of standing up to everyone, she had been a coward. But she didn't care anymore. She could be scum, as long as someone accepted her. Unconsciously, Kagome wrapped her arms around herself. Her friends exchanged looks.

...............................

She didn't know where he'd gone, for he didn't return to class for the rest of the school day, but Inuyasha was waiting in his car after school. Still lost in thought, they drove home in the lingering silence. No one banged the door open that day; no one rushed up the stairs. Instead, they separated and didn't see each other until that night.

Inuyasha was brooding in the kitchen, half scaring the cook. He didn't even accept the Ramen the cook had prepared for him. What kind of person was Kagome that she'd help with things like that? True, he might not have been very popular or liked in his old school, but everybody left him alone and he was never involved in anything even remotely like that.

What kind of person am I? he wondered. He searched and found no reason to why he hadn't pulled away when Kagome had latched on to his hand at lunch. He had smelled her shock at first, then fear, then anger. But why hadn't she followed through with that anger? Because the next moment she was all disgust. At herself? At Kouga? At the girl and the boy? Inuyasha settled on the last, convinced by her reaction.

He stayed there for a while, finally eating the Ramen at the cook's worried urges. At the end, he decided to try to get the homework assignments he'd missed that afternoon from Kagome.

The door to her room was unlocked, and he expected her to be done with homework and talking to a friend on the phone or something. But whatever he expected, it wasn't a shriveled girl huddled in the corner, stifled sobs tearing at her. Damn. The maids at the door should have warned me.

He hated when people cried, especially women. So she felt bad after all...Awkwardly, he moved across the room, reaching out as if to comfort her. But as he almost touched her, he pulled back and instead, wrote down the homework scattered on the ground. With one last confused look at her, he left.

Kagome lifted her head as he left, her makeup running horribly. Tears smudged her face, giving her a wild look. She had heard Inuyasha enter, felt his head as he almost reached out to her, but then he had pulled back. Am I really that disgusting? Yes, some part of her answered. You're worse than disgusting.

Outside, Inuyasha leaned his head against the wall. At home, it was only his dad and his brother. His mother never cried anymore; at least not within his knowledge. What was he supposed to do with this human girl? At the end, curiosity won out and he decided to find out more about her in that hidden room.

The same codes were given, the same passwords unlocked. But this time, instead of the Diary, he opened another folder: Clips. The first of the articles shocked him.

That was an emotion-filled chapter to write. Please don't hate me too much, but review anyway, kay? We've pretty much hit the climax of the story...hey, I guess I did manage to fit Miroku and Sango in after all. I wonder if I can recycle Kikyo. Nah. That'd be too much stress on the plot. Wow, I wrote 11 pages today...So we have 4 more chapters left.

Once again, I'm still looking for judges...please?

protege.just-in-dreams.com

-Vii