Mission Completed - Chapter 5
By: Sakura Katsana
Disclaimer: If you think, even for a minute, that I own Inuyasha . . .you shouldn't be operating heavy machinery.
Sakura's Note: Hi everyone! There are always excuses, but I think the fact that I'm incredibly swamped by things to do is always overused. So, please just accept my apologies about it, I wish I could just sit and type half the time. I'm going this weekend with my best friend to Hershey Park on Saturday so I wanted to post this before I left.
Also, even though I took forever to get this chapter out, it was partially from lack of inspiration (commonly known as writer's block) and so it is a short chapter. I promise to try and make the next chapter longer. It probably will be due to action and long awaited Inu/Kag fluffy goodness.
Thanks to: TaintedInuShemeeko, chandra16, firehottie, Dragon Man 180, eX Driver Liz, swimchick1614, WhiteRaven040, msih-serenity, trixie-trix, and Queeney. The reviews, as always, made me smile and giggle like a lovesick girl. (yes, I know, odd)
Enjoy!
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Chapter 5: Thank Her Later
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Inuyasha drummed his fingers on the leather steering wheel. "Your turn."
They were working together, something she never thought would happen again. Kagome thought that when she saw him in Japan would be the last time she ever laid eyes on his face. She didn't even think that she would hear his voice again, save for the time when Miroku told her Sango wanted to talk to her on the phone, and Sango tricked Inuyasha the same way.
Neither of them had talked to their partners for a week.
He loved Kikyo. What reason would he have had to tell me? I've had boyfriends, but he doesn't know about them . . . I was just jealous, and I took it out on him because, once again, Kikyo got the best first.
Kagome came out of her thoughts, "I got one. Worst assignment."
There was a pause, and although Kagome could pretty much guess which one he'd chose--this one--she still wanted to know. He might list a few before narrowing it down and she could learn something about him.
For example, she already knew, that despite what most probably thought about him, that he enjoyed doing things like 20 Questions. Personally Kagome thought it was cute, the way he'd awkwardly brought up the game and found it was one of her favorites. She felt closer to him now that before and that was one of the things she secretly longed for.
Inuyasha seemed to be thinking, sifting through the multiple cases he'd had since he could drive. "I'd have to say . . .the time when Sango and I were stripped down to our underwear and shackled in a dungeon for about three weeks," he answered coolly.
Kagome gave him a blank stare that made him to a double take.
"What? It was cold in there!" He insisted indignantly, annoyed that she had burst out laughing. "You always laugh when I tell you things like this. The time Sango and I dived into a garbage truck . . .the time when I had to pretend I was a gynecologist--"
"What?!" Kagome gasped, erupting in another deadly wave of laughter. "You never told me" --she gasped--"that!"
"Hey, leave me alone." Inuyasha sported an adorable pout, although Kagome had a feeling he didn't mean it to be. "Do you know how terrified I was when they actually gave me a patient? The agency was supposed to take care of that until the crime lord and his wife came in."
Kagome had stopped laughing, but barely, and a dopey smile stayed on her face as evidence of her efforts. "I'm sorry . . ."
"You're the one that asked."
"Compared to the gynecologist one I would think the one being stripped down to underwear wouldn't be a big deal." Kagome pushed the sight of him in just boxers out of her mind, cursing Miroku for his bad influence.
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"Now tell me what you know!" Sango growled, "Or Miroku will drop you."
"I don't know nothin'!" The man swore under his breath as Miroku loosened his grip on his shirt. "Alright, alright, I'll tell ya!"
Miroku sneezed.
"Someone must be talkin' about yas."
"Shut up and tell us what you know!" Miroku commanded, shaking the man over the side carelessly. "You're getting heavy."
"Ok! Ok! Boss got called an' got an offer from someone. Dunno the name, but boss didn't take it. Said something about the risks being suicide. He always traces his calls, came out to be somewhere nearby. Like near some coffee shop or somethin'. The boss told us he'd asked us to get the Shikon Jewel for him. 'Minded us of that dead guy, Naraku. 'e used to have some people come get trades from us. He called again, traced 'em to the ocean."
"Why did he want the Shikon Jewel?" Sango asked, grimacing when Miroku tossed the man back on top of the roof.
"I don't know! Boss didn't tell us everything. He jus' picked up a gun an' shot a hole in the wall, a few sparks flew out. Said there was a bug."
Miroku let the man go, watching as he threw open the door and ran down the staircase. "That's all we're getting tonight. Everyone that knows anything has been asked the same thing and declined. If we have a fake one, does that mean that he doesn't have the real one?"
"You would think it would already be in his possession."
"He said that it would be by some coffee shop. Let's go see how many are still open." Sango nodded. "You know . . .Sango. You look really sexy when you yell at people--Ow! What was that for?"
"Is that all you ever think about?"
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"No, I didn't have to do anything. They sent in a real one."
"I would have thought this one would be the worst one you'd ever had."
"Why? This is one of the best."
"But Naraku--"
"Is a hula skirt sissy, as Kagura once said. It's exciting. And the case itself isn't the only reason I like it, either." Inuyasha glanced over to see her reaction, unknowingly making her heart beat overtime.
Inuyasha's car came to a stop in front of a dimly lit pool hall. "I should have just walked, Fang can't put up with late night traffic this bad."
He looked for a spot on the side of the road to find none. Typical. They'd lucked out with just the back road bars up until now. Just when all his hope was about to leave him someone was tossed out onto the pavement. With a yell about injustice the young man straightened his jacket collar and jammed his key into the lock.
The man ripped down the street, almost running into a poor pedestrian and a lamp post.
Kagome smirked at the sound of sirens.
"Come in five minutes after me." Inuyasha ordered. "If they think I'm a cop then we still have a chance."
"I can get the guys to talk." Kagome stuck up her chin, getting out before he could close the door. "You come in five minutes after me.""Kagome--"
"Look, I'm a woman."
"Oh really?"
"Which means that I can…seduce them and get them to get all starry eyed and loose-lipped." Inuyasha looked slightly bothered by this, and he looked like he was about to object. But, being a girl, and being one who almost had a bachelor's degree in Inuyashology she knew how to soothe him.
Boost his ego.
"If I get in a jam I know that you will come to my aid." Kagome beamed at him with trust. "I think I can count on you. You've done it enough times already for me to know." Silently Kagome walked into the bar, a catcall coming from her right.
Inuyasha found himself growling as he leaned onto the passenger side door with a frown on his face. A woman gave him an appreciating smile, but distanced herself at the sound. It would only be a fling, so what good did it do anyone to play along?
He needed to wait for Kagome to come out, or for the sound of something slamming into a pool table to reach his ears.
"Hey baby, want a drink?"
"No thanks."
"Ooh, I like 'em hard to get."
"I like mine educated. But call me when you finally graduate seventh grade."
Ooh, I like 'em fiery…"
Inuyasha smirked at the girl's smart attitude. He had to admit, Kagome was fiery. He listened a while longer, hearing the same thing they'd been hearing all night coming from someone with an accent.
They might as well be talking to parrots for more variation.
And the night was still young.
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"So . . ." A man around the age of twenty nine strode up to the pair at the bar, sliding into a red barstool next to the girl. "I lost my number . . ."
"Really?" She rose her eyebrow, resting her head on her knuckles and batting her eyelashes flirtatiously.
"Yeah. So I was wondering . . .can I have yours?" He waggled his eyebrows suggestively, making her stomach turn over on its side.
The man next to her kept his eyes on the glass in front of him, waiting for her answer. He would not growl. He would not growl… He believed, deep down, that if he kept saying this it wouldn't happen…
Hey, it'd happened when Sango'd repeated 'I'll find ten dollars' over and over last Thursday..
"Sure." She pulled out a sleek pen, grabbed his hand, and scribbled down a number. "Call me." She ended it with a wink.
"You can bet on that, sexy." He slipped off the stool and headed to the back of the bar, selling her number for twenty bucks to the man next to him. The oily, fat, big-nosed drunk man next to him.
Kagome only smirked, turning back to an irritated looking hanyou. "No fair, you drank my soda!"
"Why don't you go ask the guy over there if he can buy you one?" Inuyasha rebuked, downing the rest of his own drink.
"He probably already realized I gave him an eight hundred number . . ." Kagome muttered flippantly, confusing the other agent. "So I don't think he'll like treating me to anything."
"Eight hundred number?"
"To Best Western." Kagome shrugged, "Selling numbers to others should not be rewarded in any way. Except maybe hotel prices."
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Sango breathed in deeply, taking in the scent of her car with an at home kind of feeling. There was that smell of old paper, from the six year old magazines lying haphazardly over the back seat, but she could live with that.
They had already taken care of their last stop and were just sitting there in silence, Sango scribbling down every café name she knew.
Miroku had decided to voice both their thoughts and call the two people that they were the most worried for and afraid of.
The cell only rang once before someone answered. "Inuyasha."
"Hey, Inuya--"
Sango jumped from her spot at the easily understandable obscenities passing through into the cell phone's receiver. Miroku held the phone out about a foot away from his head, eyes squinted together in silent agony. He could vaguely hear Kagome's soothing voice on the other side, trying to calm the hanyou down. Thank the gods for his best friend.
"Breathe, Inuyasha… You might rip the seat that way…"
"Kagome?"
"I think the damned hentai wishes to speak with you."
"Miroku?"
"Kagome, Sango wants to say hi." His girlfriend shot him a shocked and icy look before grabbing the phone away from him.
"Hello? Kagome-cha--"
The yelling started again.
"Um…Kagome-chan…Let me explai--"
More obscenities and a brief 'Keh' from Inuyasha. It was obvious that he could hear every word.
"Let me talk to her! No! Kagome--Damn you wench…Ow! What did my fake ears do to deserve that?"
"Shhh! It's my turn to be angry!"
"Kagome! Let me explain--!"
"Not on this phone, you won't!"--the girl lowered her voice down a few notches, although she still had a feeling it wouldn't help anything--"Inuyasha will hear you!"
"Hear what? What are you two talking about--"
"Nothing!"
"It's never nothing when someone says it's nothing. That only means that nothing is something that they don't want the person they're talking about to know about so they call it nothing!"
"…Just let me talk to Sango."
"Keh. You're trying to talk about me behind my back! I knew I shouldn't turn my back on you--"
"Oh shut up… You've been listening this entire time, have you heard anything about you?"
"…feh."
There was a pregnant silence as both sides waited for the other to speak. Finally Sango sighed, rolling her eyes up to the roof of her Mazda, "I accept your thank you in advance, Kagome-chan. Relay the message to Dog-boy. Ciao."
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"…og-boy. Ciao."
"Sango--wait!" Kagome was met with a dead silence, showing the girl was already gone. "That girl…"
"What does she mean by 'thank you'?" Inuyasha scoffed, trying to hide his understanding. Seriously, it couldn't be for what he thought, right? Their friends were oblivious to everything about his feelings, at least in that department…
Kagome blushed, shrugging away her understanding as well.
Both were in denial, which only gave them that much more in common.
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"What's the news?" Ayame rushed into the room, looked slightly flushed. She was dressed in one of her usual business suits, having abandoned her heels to get there faster. "Shippou said you were back--Where's Inuyasha and Kagome?"
"Right now they're probably coming back to rip us apart." Sango muttered, looking guiltily at Miroku.
"Good…that's good…" Both agents gave her a dry look before saying an 'oh thanks' in unison and collapsing onto one another on the couch situated in the middle of the room. "Oh, I'm sorry. I'm just tired."
She sure looked it.
For the first time since they came both Miroku and Sango noticed Ayame's appearance. Her suit was a bit wrinkled, her hair disheveled, and her brilliant green eyes void of most of their usual spark.
"Are you ok, Ayame? You look like hell swallowed you and then spit you back up," Sango asked bluntly. Miroku was a bit hesitant, but he nodded in agreement.
"It's ok, I'm fine." Ayame said, although her words belied her aura immensely. "What news do you bring?" She asked, sitting down as straight as she could across from them.
"Everyone we talked to said they had received a call from someone reminding them of Naraku asking them for a favor having to do with the Shikon Jewel. When tracked, it was always traced underwater."
Miroku watched Ayame's expression carefully, noticing a perplexed look find a place on her features. "The most important is, whoever this person is, he doesn't have the jewel."
"If he doesn't have it… Then why was Kagome given a fake? Who would it be with?"
"Obviously this 'SJH' person wasn't the one who got it when Naraku croaked. He was supposed to, apparently. Based on what you found in the chopper…it would seem he really wants it and it fell into the wrong hands."
"What if Naraku was only leading us on some false hunt for something that doesn't even exist anymore?"
"The jewel isn't easily destroyed. Little is known about it with the common people but it's as strong, if not stronger, than diamonds. It has to be out there." Ayame put a hand over her forehead, hiding her eyes from view. "Naraku, that bastard… Everything is so cryptic with him!"
Miroku noticed how on edge the girl was. He'd known he a while, ever sense he asked her if she would bear his child at the tender age of thirteen. Well, maybe not so tender, but he knew when she was pushed to her limits.
This was one of those times.
"Ayame, maybe you should take a rest. You're taking this harder than the rest of us…"
"It's not just this project. And I'm the head of this division. I'm not going to hand this over to anyone just because I'm…" she trailed off, deciding it was better not to say. "The Shikon Jewel will be located, and when it is we'll all be able to go back to our daily lives without and worries about who is going to decide to hold the entire world for ransom. It will be here, and the world will be safe again without knowing they were ever in danger."
"And if the Shikon Jewel was destroyed?"
"Then there is one less thing good has to protect from evil."
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His groan echoed throughout the dim hallway and faded almost instantly. This place was so small… the size would have made claustrophobics go crazy by now. The room was about the size of a bathroom, and smelled like one too.
There it was again. That incessant dripping that never stopped… The man struggled against his restraints for the third time that day. Morning, evening, he couldn't tell. No light came through except the small lamp in the corner, half covered by a discarded newspaper.
What day was it, anyway?
The prisoner dragged his feet towards the end of his cell, getting an idea. He had lost most of his sense of time by now, so accustomed to never being told anything but insults and murmurs, along with the occasional conversations coming from above. But, he did know that it had been five days ago when that newspaper had been left on the lampshade…
With careful examination he could make out a six and what could be either seventeen or nineteen. Therefore, it must have been the twenty-first or third of June.
Was that how long it had been?
The was a moan from another part of the vicinity, not gruff like his own, but more of a feminine cry. He knew it was her, coming from upstairs. There was a sound similar to that of skin hitting skin and then another cry.
"Damn woman…Get her out of my face, send her down with Naraku. The two fancied each other for a while, maybe they'll stir up some old flames, eh?"
Him…the damnable bastard that had brought him here. He couldn't just let him die, could he? He couldn't just take over the business like he had been asked to. This…boy had to hold him prisoner!
Not like he wanted to die at all. But considering the damnable options the first was better. If he ever got free he would kill that disloyal assassin Yura, the bastard hanyou, and everyone else that had wronged him.
Including Kagura.
Oh yes, she would be first.
Suddenly the door opened, for the first time in three days, and allowed a painful glow to enter the basement he was in. A silhouetted figure stood at the top of the steps, hiding his face from view. His long hair was pushed from his face by a headband and something limp in his arms attracted Naraku's attention.
Kikyo…
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Inuyasha burst into the room, having used his sense of smell to detect where they were instead of just asking someone. Kagome peeped out from behind him, not finding any other way to see inside. She nudged Inuyasha out of the way when he still didn't move, annoyed with him forgetting she was there so quickly.
"Kagome, don't--!"
"Oh…" Kagome's stormy orbs widened more so than she thought they could. "Um…excuse us…" With catlike reflexes the agent had grabbed Inuyasha's collar, all but throwing him from the room, before slamming the door. The moment it was closed she blanched, "…what was that?"
Inuyasha gave her a deadpan looked, amazed she didn't know. "Well, Kagome…when a man and a woman love each other very much…"
"Oh shut up, Inuyasha!" Kagome blushed, ignoring the laughter now coming in waves from the hanyou. "I know what they were doing! It's just…arrgh! Just shut up."
Inuyasha put on his most innocent look before turning back around. "Come on, obviously they left that room already…"
"Obviously."
The two scurried through the halls, Kagome using all her strength to keep from laughing at the adorable look on Inuyasha's face. He so reminded her of a puppy! His ears swiveled to the side, catching something similar to a slap to his left. "I think I found them…"
"This from the guy who thought a couple having an intimate moment was them fifteen minutes ago…"
"Hey! It was two minutes ago!" Inuyasha turned back around, fighting the blush on his cheeks. Yes, he admitted it. He had barged into a room not even paying attention to the fact he had been zoning in on Miroku and Sango's scents. Not anyone else.
Damn his temporarily one track mind!
Inuyasha was about to barge into the room, but decided it was better to knock first.
"Yeah, come in, Inuyasha." Ayame's voice flowed out like an off tune melody. He could tell she was troubled.
When he threw open the door and sent the two agents sitting there a glare. They seemed a bit uneasy with the look. Keh, like they shouldn't be…
"Hello…Sango." Inuyasha smiled devilishly, crossing his arms over his torso. Kagome entered a moment later, her eyes looking at Miroku in basically the same manner.
"It was all Sango." Miroku pointed to his girlfriend, knowing he would pay for it later. Sango gave him a surprised look, but only shrugged.
"Yes, it was." She looked oddly proud of herself, "Don't worry. I know about both of your ungodly hard heads so you can each thank me in private whenever you feel it necessary."
Even the cricket that had been driving Ayame crazy had gone quiet.
"I'm not even going to ask…" the wolf demon muttered, continuing to draw something on her notepad. "Just tell me what you learned."
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"You guys, I'm really worried about Ayame-chan…" Kagome took another sip of her milkshake, looking around the booth. "She looked worn out, like she got dumped or something."
"Or cheated on." Inuyasha muttered darkly, picking up another fry and sticking it in his mouth.
"How can you say that?!" Kagome shrieked, blushing until the intense stares of other customers. She laughed nervously, lowering her voice down a notch. "Kouga-kun would never do that to her, he loves her!"
"Keh."
"Yes, 'keh'." Kagome mocked, flicking the tip of the fry she'd just eaten at him.
Her aim, although all but perfect, still managed to miss the hanyou. Instantly a childish disappointment appeared on Inuyasha's face. "Hey! That landed in my McFlurry, wench!"
Kagome only rolled her eyes, oblivious to the amused looks of two of her friends.
"Oh my god!" Everyone whipped around to look at Inuyasha, a shocked look on his face. "It's Hello Kitty!"
It obviously didn't take much to dupe this girl…
"Oh my god! Where?!" Kagome's head spun around at an unnatural speed, looking out the window at all the bustling people outside.
Inuyasha quickly switched his dessert with hers. Sango rose an eyebrow and Miroku snickered as Kagome turned around bemused. "Hey…Hello Kitty isn't--"
"I always liked Badtz-Maru more though…" Inuyasha interrupted, taking a big spoonful of his McFlurry.
Sango couldn't help but smirk. She had struggled against adding her comment until she heard Miroku's.
"I don't know…I liked Pekkle."
"I thought the Little Twin Stars were the best."
The Sanrio conversation of the century ensued.