Inutori: We wish you a merry Christmas, we wish you a merry Christmas…
Inuyasha: Shut up, wench.
Inutori: Well, I guess that rules out the idea that you have any Christmas spirit.
Inuyasha: Like I even know what Christmas is.
Inutori: True. You're only a brainless idiot incapable of coherent thought.
Inuyasha: Look who's talking.
Kagome: Your bantering is completely pointless, now let's get on with the chapter…
Inutori: Hold on a sec! I have to tell everyone that I don't own Inuyasha, but that I do own his sis, Inutori. So…yeah, don't steal her, since if I find out about her being kidnapped again, I'll just not finish any story that has her in it. (which includes this one, mind you). Now you can go enjoy the chapter.
Chapter 13
Kikyou's Role
"Ohayo, jii-chan, where's kaa-san?" Kagome glanced around, noticing the lack of tourists at the shrine.
"In the house cooking lunch. Come inside, Kagome. Souta shouldn't be home for another couple hours." Kagome nodded and followed behind her grandpa quietly.
A strange feeling of evil overwhelmed her mind, and she turned quickly to see where the source of the power was. She could have sworn that she saw something white in the woods, but it was gone the next instant, so she could have just imagined it.
*
Souta came thundering through the door, intent on making the loudest entrance possible. The grin on his face gave way to his obvious excitement, and Kagome couldn't help but smile softly at her teenage brother.
"Onee-chan! Onee-chan!" He jumped and latched onto Kagome, squeezing forcefully.
"Even at seventeen, you still act like a child. Will you ever grow up, itouto?"
"Iie, never." Souta smiled mischievously at Kagome and hugged her slightly tighter than before. "It's good to see you home. Seems like you've been gone forevers."
"Hai, I know." Kagome wheezed, not being able to fill her lungs with the bear hug she was in.
"Souta, let go of your sister. She's turning blue." Kagome's mom walked into the room, drying her hands with a towel nonchalantly.
Obediently, the tall youth released his hold and stepped back, allowing Kagome to gasp a few breaths of much needed air. "Now the only one missing is Kikyou!"
Ms. Higurashi looked at Souta sternly, setting the towel in her hands down on the nearby lamp table. "You know Kikyou has her own family to take care of now. She'll only visit when she can find the time. I'm not going to force her to stay here."
"Hai, okaa-san. It's just that it was nice having her around, you know?"
Kagome slumped onto the living room couch, picking a chocolate out of the candy bowl on the coffee table. "I don't know 'bout that, Souta. Kikyou's always been such a prune."
"Kagome, don't say that about your sister!" Ms. Higurashi lightly tapped Kagome on her head in a mild punishment.
The young college professor just smiled sheepishly at her mother and picked out another candy to eat.
"I have a girlfriend."
Kagome began choking on her sweet with Souta's words. "N-nani yo?" She turned and looked at Souta in genuine surprise.
"I was hoping that I could take her out to eat with us on your birthday so you could meet her." Souta smiled innocently, hiding any devious plans he had concocted well within his mind.
"W-who is this girl?" Kagome was still attempting to recover from the initial shock of Souta's announcement and probably didn't even register anything else Souta had said.
"She's Sesshoumaru's half-sister." Souta's composure was completely calm, obviously having rehersed this conversation many times before. Possibly even with his girlfriend.
"Our brother-in-law's sister? You must be joking."
"Nope. Dead serious." Souta looked Kagome in the eye, proving the truth of his words.
"Well, I guess I'd like to meet her…" Kagome proved that she had heard Souta earlier with her words, and this gave the high school student a large grin.
"Good. She'll be bringing her brother with as well."
"You mean Sesshoumaru? What about Kikyou?"
"No, she has two older brothers. She'll be bringing her other brother that's a bachelor."
"Really, what's his name?"
Souta hesitated a moment. Not knowing exactly what to say. Tori hadn't prepared him for this question. "I-uh…can't seem to remember…his name…but Tori told me that he was a really cool guy."
"Well, I guess I'll meet him next Friday, then." Kagome smiled at Souta and pushed herself off the couch, preparing to head to the kitchen to get a bite to eat. "It's kind of strange, they're our in-laws, but we don't know that much about them. I didn't even know Sesshoumaru had siblings."
"About that…Sesh sort of…disowned them… In the sense that he denies any blood relation to them." Souta smiled sheepishly, hoping not to upset Kagome.
"That's kind of rude…but I guess I'd disown you too, if it were possible." Kagome smiled at Souta before slipping into the kitchen and closing the door behind her.
*
Kikyou rocked Rin to sleep gently, hoping that she'd be able to put the small child down in the crib for the night. Sesshoumaru was still at work and the large house was in dead silence, the only noise coming from Kikyou's careful steps.
It was late and there were few lights on in the house since Kikyou was the only one home at the time, so she was guiding herself through the corridor using her sixth sense. Nothing seemed out of order, but as from past experience, Kikyou knew a moment could be shattered in an instant. And that moment was just begging to be shattered.
A cold shiver ran down her spine and Kikyou's miko powers allowed her to sense another person's presence in the house. She swallowed nervously; having that knowing feeling that something terrible was just about to spring out into the open.
Clutching Rin closer to her chest, Kikyou quickened her pace down the hall towards the nursery. In her mind she was panicking, but her face gave way to no emotion like always.
Her heart was beating faster with every step, and she could barely hear over its pounding rhythm. That is, until a door clicked shut somewhere nearby and her entire body froze. No constant heart beat, no breath escaping her lips. She was stiff as a board.
The baby in her arms shifted restlessly, whining and grabbing onto Kikyou's shirt; obviously wanting to be nursed back to sleep again.
But now was no time for that. There was someone in the house, and Kikyou could sense that person's evil youki.
"Ki-ky-ou."
Her heart started again, but the rate at which it beat far surpassed that of which it had been before. With a throat dry from fear, Kikyou tried to speak calmly as she answered. "Who's there?"
"Come to me, Ki-ky-ou."
The deep voice sent a waterfall of shivers down her back and it took all of her will power to keep her standing up. "Reveal yourself, demon."
She listened to the click of someone's hard boots on the wooden floor, and then a man stepped into the light of a nearby window. Her muscles gave way underneath her and she collapsed to the floor in utter terror.
The face before her…she knew that face…she had tutored him after school when she was still a teacher…he had asked her to marry him…impossible…what was he doing here?
~
Inutori: A little more into the plot now. I'm starting to get pumped for this story all over again. Some of you know how it is to read other people's stories and say, "Man, my stories stink." I do it all of the time.
Kagome: Stop being such a pessimist, Inutori, you write better than some people out there, so just be happy with that.
Inutori: Yeah, but all the special people write a LOT better than I, the idiot, could ever hope to write.
Sango: Somebody shoot her.
Miroku: Ah, but if Inutori is shot, these stories on ff.net will never be completed.
Sango: True. But right now I don't give, she's annoying, I tell ya. ANNOYING!!!
Inutori: No one ever told you I wasn't.
Inuyasha: Everyone shut up! Let's let the readers get on with their lives now.
Inutori: Only after they leave a review!
Inuyasha: Keh, whatever.