Puppet Without Strings

Chapter 1

Sunlight was roasting his exposed behind.

He yanked the sheets up and twisted so as to squash himself right up against the wall of his bunk, trying to seek shelter from the scorching summer sun. Through the thick haze of sleep, his half-conscious mind churned up random unlinked images of sunscreen advertisements and skin cancer. He tried to think back to the last time he'd been able think coherently and found that thinking hurt his brain. Hurt his brain a lot.

'…Fucking UV rays...'

Despite the obvious lack of churning gears in his head, less-than-polished vocabulary still managed to filter from his mouth even in his inept and hung-over state.

The doors to his room slid abruptly open.

'Hey Inuyasha! What'd you go and do this time? Kaede's practically screaming place down.'

'Fuck off, monk. I'm not in the mood.'

This did not deter an obviously elated Miroku. He kept on talking as if the sight of his best friend hung-over and half-nude, save for the blanket covering thelower half of his body, was the most everyday occurrence in the whole world.

'She's picking on every able-bodied male soldier within athree mile radius. I'm thinking its because we all remotely remind her of you. Hate to say it pal, but you'll have made enemies of just about everyone in this unit by the time she calms down. Oh and put some clothes on will you?'

Inuyasha was not listening, while Miroku paced and ranted, he had buried his head under his bunk's lone pillow and resolved to proceed with his plan of ignoring the rest of the world for the next century or two. The monk turned his questionably worried voice on him, then.

'And I suggest you get up soon because chances are she's headed here this very mi—'

The door slid open again. No, scratch that. The door was unceremoniously slammed open, revealing a short and none-too-happy woman.

A voice which could have been described to resemble that of a million wild, angry... territorial lions filled the small five-by-five-square-meter room.

"INUYASHA!"

'Oh fuck,' was the subject's witty reply.

'Don't you Oh fuck me you little mongrel! What the hellwere you thinking? Half the damn juvenile sector is still littered with beer bottles. The janitor is going ballistic about the whole mess! Kitsuno Shippo, who is eight years old, is still too drunk to write his own damn name! Even though I don't see how that's possible since the little brat was still able to hack into the sector's mainframe last night. The guards in the surveillance room had to deal with the pink foxes dancing across their computer screens for an entire hour. If there had been a security breach during that time, it would have gone unnoticed! You would have been held responsible! Honestly Inuyasha, alcohol? Alcohol! In a place like this! You're not even eighteen yet! And you gave some to Shippo too!'

Kaede stopped to catch her breath. Ever since Inuyasha had joined her sector, she had been aging at an alarming rate. She had neither the strength nor the stamina to last through such long rants anymore. She stalked up to the seat Miroku was currently occupying in silence and motioned for him to give room. He hastily obliged, eager to learn more of Inuyasha's daring Saturday Night escapades. After making herself comfortable, she continued. Her voice no longer shrill. Instead, it was tired and irritated.

'There are two women, two women Inuyasha, still being detained in my office after they were caught trying to sneak out through a suspicious hanyou-sized hole in the west wall that hadn't been there last I checked. They claimed that you snuck them in for some,' her voicetook on a disgusted tone, 'fun, and told them to leave before the sun rose. What kind of an imbecile would sneak two women into the all-male section of this division and expect them not to get noticed? You'd have to have a brain the size of a…'

Inuyasha tuned her out. Throughout her long speech, he had slowly been piecing the information together to form a semi-complete illustration of the previous night's events. He remembered vaguely jumping clean over the high outer wall encircling the division. He had done it countless times before. Something like that was no feat to someone who knew the area and the guards' shift changes as well as he did. He had originally intended for it to just be a one-time-getting-wasted thing. The girls had been a bonus. He had acquired the red head after pounding her annoying pest of a boyfriend for partner-abuse. Her perky little blonde friend had just tagged along.

He had not meant to get the brat Shippo drunk either but the little monster had been about to report him! A few bent truths and some very strong sake was all it had taken for the twerp to go limp. He had deposited him in his room! He swore he had! The brat must have woken up and gone all hack-happy with his stupid little laptop. He would have stopped him, had he not been busy doing other things. It was not and never had been any intention of his to get under-aged youngsters drunk.

'Hell, it'd probably stunt his growth. As if the twerp isn't short enough already...'

This guilty thought dissipated the minute Kaede uttered her next sentence.

'Everything from the janitor's salary to the short-circuited computers in the surveillance room to the damn hole in the west wall will be taken out of your pay.'

'What? The hell it will! Fuck, I'm practically working for free as it is!' Came his heated reply.

'And whose fault would that be? You haven't done much around here for a while. You don't train with the rest of the recruits—'

'I can't fucking train with them. I don't get enough of it if I do! And the only reason I've done nothing lately is because there is nothing to do!'

The former point was made with notable arrogance.

'And so how do you cope? You cause trouble for me, that's how! Don't think I haven't forgotten the time you got into that fight in the cafeteria! On top of landing the poor recipient of the beating half-dead in the infirmary, you managed to single-handedly destroy almost every catering machine in the area!'

'Keh! That was so not my fault. The little fucker was just screaming for it-'

At this Miroku, arms crossed and head bowed in reflection, cut in.

'Actually Inuyasha, I'd be inclined to agree with Ms Kaede on the matter. Those were horrible times you put us through. Remember how we'd have to wait in line in front of the call-in catering truck for god knows how long, waiting to be served? Sometimes it'd be raining and the food would turn cold and damp and grow mould even before we got down to eating it. The only machines you'd left intact were the salad ones with the dodgy synthetic vegetables that didn't even have decent dressing and—'

'Zip it traitor.'

Kaede cut in before the argument got too far off topic.

'I could very well list every one of your exploits but I would just be wasting time and breath. The fact of the matter is, Inuyasha, that you owe a lot to this division and currently what little pay you have will be used in repairing the damages that you caused.'

She didn't even give him time to cringe.

'You will be abstained from future assignments until further notice, you will be serving nightly guard duty for the next two weeks and.. '

Inuyasha had never required anything of God. But now, he wanted a favour.

'Kill me.'

But Kaede was relentless.

'-and you will be running errands for me for the next week. Report to my office at half past five each morning, on the dot. I suggest you say your goodbyes to that bed, hanyou, because you won't be seeing it for a while.'

She rose tiredly from her seat, brushing off Miroku's inquiries about her unhealthy lack of facial colouring. She shuffled tiredly towards the door.

'Oh. And you will also be under strict curfew for the next two months. Be prepared to face dreadful consequences if you do not show up at your scheduled duties on time.'

At the sight of the protest forming on his lips she continued curtly.

'Orders from your brother.'

With that, the abused door slid shut once more behind her as she retreated from the now-silent room.

Miroku let out an amazed whistle.

'Not a word, monk. Or I swear I will maim, and I will bite.'

Silence. Miroku fidgeted.

'…I mean it Miroku.'

He twitched. Inuyasha glared.

More silence. A breeze.

'...So. Were they hot?'

'MONK!'