Somewhere I Belong
Chapter 2: Join The Ranks
By Eien no Uta
Song: Rise Against – Join The RanksDistractions: Work, Guitar, Playstation, my friend's Prince of Tennis DVD collection, Life.
Buyo was not having the best day of his life.
He did not appreciate being held upside down by his rear legs.
He appreciated it even less when his tormentor was just out of reach of his claws. And the fact that his owner was doing nothing to prevent this cruelty did not settle well with the fat cat.
"Girl, what's wrong with your cat? It won't stop moving." Inuyasha complained from his position seated on her floor. Kagome gave him a look of disbelief before she realised he wasn't joking.
"For a start you could stop holding him up like that. He's not a toy." She forced out between clenched teeth. She had a name, and it was NOT 'girl'.
"Touchy." Buyo was greatly relieved to find all four of his paws back on the ground. The disgruntled kitty considered 'artistically remodelling' the demon's skin but tossed the thought aside as soon as it had appeared. The man had claws longer than his own.
"Touchy? You're calling me TOUCHY?" Kagome screamed, venting the frustration that had been building slowly over the past half hour. "First you stalk me, force me to take you back to my place, and then instead of explaining anything you start to torture my cat!"
"Well when you put it that way…" Inuyasha placated, slowly standing and walking over to where Kagome stood, near the door to her tiny apartment. "You might want to sit down, this'll take a while."
>>>
"So let me get this straight." Forehead furrowed in thought, Kagome mulled over the explanation given to her in the past 5 minutes. "One of the packages I delivered yesterday was to a friend of yours, in it was something to do with a missing person/friend, and you want me to help you?"
"That about sums it up." Inuyasha replied blandly, suddenly nervous at the look the younger girl gave him.
"You're not telling me something! Several somethings! This doesn't make any sense! Why me? Why not anybody else?" She half mused, half shouted, unconsciously wringing her hands.
Inuyasha gave the girl a calculating look. To be perfectly honest he wasn't sure if she was trustworthy yet. They were already taking a huge risk by exposing a member of their group to her, and any information they gave out could work against them later. Voicing his thoughts he waited for her response.
Kagome took a moment to consider before meeting his amber eyes with a glare. They had an amazing depth, and yet concealed his emotions. "You still haven't answered my last question. Why me?"
Inuyasha tore his gaze away from her own. Her grey eyes made him uncomfortable, and he didn't know why. Guilt for dragging her into this mess? Deciding that the ceiling fan was the safest place to look, he focused on the slowly turning wood as he spoke. "What's standard procedure when taking an order at work?"
"At work?" Kagome repeated, confused. 'Of course! I delivered that…whatever it was, and they want me to do something. Maybe look up the sender?' Aloud she said, "I see where you're going, you want me to look up the sender, don't you? Even if they didn't leave a return address we have logs of payment method. Sometimes a name, but that's rare if they didn't give any information to the recipient."
Grey eyes narrowed, and the tone in her voice made Inuyasha wince and take his eyes off his current source of amusement. "But that's classified. Employees don't have access."
"Could you gain access?"
Kagome sat in silence for two full minutes. Could she break into the company records? Risk her job, her life even, for total strangers? The answers she needed weren't going to come by themselves.
"This friend of yours, he's in a lot of trouble?"
Startled by the soft question, Inuyasha glanced at the girl who had been in deep thought since he had last spoken. She was chewing her bottom lip nervously, patting the fat cat that had waddled into her arms.
"If we don't get him out soon he'll die, or at least be wishing he did." Inuyasha answered, waiting to see her reaction.
She froze. 'Die?' She'd been hoping maybe they thought this package was from their friend, or something, and it could help them locate the person. But this was quickly shaping up into something very, very serious. Then it dawned on her, and she couldn't believe how stupid she'd been. 'Of course! This friend of his is probably another demon! And by 'missing' they think this person's been captured by Senjoudai!'
"Is it that bad there, in Senjoudai? I've always wondered, I mean in the news all they say is that you all escaped and they need you back since you're a threat to society." Inuyasha glared at the girl as she spoke. The mere mention of Senjoudai could send him off into a rage, his temper considered his greatest 'flaw' by his creators. However what Kagome said next shocked him; "Nobody says anything about it, but I can't help but think…it must have been horrible for every last one of you to have escaped, or tried. They say you're all evil and horrible and will kill us all in our sleep but…" She caught Inuyasha's fiery gaze with her own. "I don't believe that."
"I don't want to talk about it." The demon snapped, blushing a bit and pulling his hat down a bit to cover his eyes. In a softer tone he added, "It was bad. Leave it at that."
"What's your name?" Kagome asked, her head bowed.
"…Inuyasha."
"Inuyasha I…" Looking up, Kagome couldn't believe she was going to say this. "I'll help you. But if I get caught it'll cost me my job. If I don't have my job, I'm dead."
"You won't get caught. But thanks; it means a lot to us."
>>>
After that, Inuyasha left and Kagome scrambled to finish her work before Hojo got too suspicious. Her brain was almost having an information overload, and to cope she had forced all thoughts of the demon aside. Instead she focused on the all important question: how was she going to get into the backroom, find the slips from the day before, get the information from the one she needed, and leave without being seen?
Normally, employees weren't allowed in the back. However that room also doubled as her boss's office. And her friends were always saying that the shy man had a soft spot for Kagome…
'No!' Kagome argued inwardly, 'I will NOT use somebody like that.'
And so 20 minutes later, after a pitiful attempt to casually stand near her locker and not look suspicious while waiting for Hojo to leave his office, Kagome's luck changed. In the form of a very unsatisfied customer.
"This was supposed to be a rush delivery! I needed it by no later than 2 today! And it came at 3:30! An hour and a half late! And you still expect me to pay for it? Will you reimburse me for the business I lost because of your company's incompetence?" A bald man shouted, flecks of saliva covering the face of the poor girl on desk duty.
'Whoops.' Kagome winced, recognising the man. 'That would be my fault.' However this was her chance. The desk girl had frantically signalled to Hojo through the window to his office to help her now. As the two tried to calm down the raging customer, Kagome slipped into the office. Bending low, Kagome hurried to the file cabinet and opened the top drawer.
'Employee records. Damn.' She thought, shutting that drawer as silently as possible she pulled open the second one. 'Financial stuff. Double Damn.' Moving onto the third she spotted dates. 'Yes! Now then, April 29th, April 30th…' Finding May 1st she tore the folder open and flipped through the slips. 'Shit! What was her name again?' She shouted mentally, giving each one a quick glance to see if the name sparked any recognition.
Finally she recognised the first name on a slip. Sango. Looking over her shoulder and seeing the customer still shouting she folded the slip up and shoved it into her pocket. Replacing the file and shutting the drawer she then inched out of the room and back to her locker.
"Mission accomplished." She whispered. 'Now that wasn't so hard.'
>>>
At 6 Kagome was once again in her apartment, making up a small dinner for herself, and opening cat food for Buyo. In the end she went for the time old classic: instant ramen. Putting a rather beat up looking kettle on the stove she sat on the counter and waited for the water to come to a boil.
Several minutes later she was cursing how horrible the old oven was. She was hungry damn it! Even though she knew it always took at least 15 minutes for the old element to heat up enough to boil water she couldn't help but hope that today would be different. Trying to distract herself from her angry stomach she pulled the slip of paper out from her pocket.
As she had suspected, there was no return address or name of sender. However in the 'payment method' section, Visa had been checked off. Kagome's eyes widened slightly. That was rare. Most things were done in cash these days. Only the very upper crust still used banks. The number was written down next to it in immaculate writing. An indication that Hojo himself had taken this order. That indicated that this had been a very important person, asking to talk to the manager directly rather than let the person on desk shift deal with it.
A knock on the door interrupted her musings. 'Hmm…? That's odd. I don't usually get visitors…'
Opening the door Kagome found herself face to face with 3 men in crisp, black suits.
"Can I help you gentlemen with something?" She asked uneasily. One of them pulled a badge out from his pocket.
"I'm Special Agent Geffen. You're going to have to come with us." The stoic man announced, moving to step into her apartment.
Kagome reacted faster than she ever had in her life. Slamming the door shut and bolting it she ran over to her stove and pulled the kettle off the element.
The agents were apparently armed as she heard two gunshots and a well placed kick. Suddenly her door was lacking a doorknob.
Somewhat clearheaded in her panic, Kagome realised that she had left the element on and turned around and returned the dial to its original position. She then edged towards the door, her back to the wall so that her attackers would have to turn right immediately after entering in order to see her.
After a third gunshot and large crash of a body slam, Kagome Higurashi was now not only minus a doorknob, but the entire door as well. The 3 agents charged into the room and looked around confused, no occupants in sight. Then the inevitable occurred and the agent closest to Kagome looked to his right and spotted her.
Screaming, Kagome threw the kettle at the man with surprising force, causing him to stumble back and scream in pain. Hot water hurts. Hot water + hot kettle hurts A LOT.
Geffen and his comrade reacted instantly. One raised his gun while the other stepped towards the defenceless girl.
"Now, now. That's not very nice. We don't want to hurt you Kagome. But you've been a bad girl, associating with a known terrorist. We just need you to come in and answer a few questions for us." Agent Geffen spoke, his cold voice not at all reassuring.
"I'd really rather not." Kagome pleaded, backing up until she could go no further. Her small apartment was not ideal for things such as this.
As the agent reached out to grab her, Kagome threw her arms up in defence, one facing her attacker.
"GET AWAY FROM ME!"
A blast of white energy came from her palm and sent the agent flying through the air and into his companion, knocking both of them to the ground.
Shocked by her actions Kagome stared at her hand in awe. 'What was that?'
"Don't just stand there you idiot!" A somewhat familiar voice shouted, snapping Kagome out of her daze.
"Inuyasha!"
The dog demon stood in the doorway, looking much the same as he had the day before, with one major difference: the look in his eyes was different. They were hard, burning with anger and something else she couldn't describe.
Inuyasha quickly evaluated the room. One man in a suit near the door, holding his face in hands and screaming in agony. He looking like he had been burned, the kettle and small puddle of water on the floor by his feet showing the cause. Two more were on the floor across the room from Kagome, thrown there by the energy she had expelled. There was obviously more to her than what Miroku had hacked from the government database. One of the two men had taken a hard knock on the head when he landed and was lying dazed. The other, closer to Kagome, was standing up again.
'Holy shit he moves fast!' Kagome thought, unable to see more than blur as Inuyasha crossed the room and delivered a sound punch to the back of Geffen's head.
"Let's go." Inuyasha shouted crossly, grabbing Kagome's hand and dragging her out the door. "Where are the stairs?"
"Left."
"I see it. We're going up."
"Up?"
"Yeah, up. The entire building is surrounded, but they don't have the roof covered, they didn't expect you to be too much trouble." Inuyasha replied with a grin, going up the stairs two at a time, at a jog. Kagome had to run to keep up with him.
"If it's covered, how did you get in?" She panted, tucking a loose strand of hair behind her ears as she bounded up the dirty staircase.
"Same way we're going out." Inuyasha cocked his head in her direction. "Did you get it?"
'It…?' Kagome wondered. 'Oh! Right!'
"Yeah, it's in my pocket. I have a visa number for you."
"Perfect." Inuyasha smirked dangerously.
The two finally reached the top floor and threw open the door to the roof. It was then that Kagome realised something.
"Inuyasha? How do we get down?"
"Simple." Inuyasha responded, turning to the confused girl. In one swift motion he picked her up, one arm under her knees and the other at her back, and jumped.
>>>
"Sango, could you get the door? I'm busy?" A black-haired man of medium height asked, continuously typing on a rather sophisticated computer.
Sango looked up from the book she was reading. Glaring at the man she stood up and walked across the room.
"What am I? Your slave?" She questioned as she looked through the peephole to the hallway. Seeing Inuyasha and Kagome (she had learned the delivery girl's name from Miroku) she quickly unlocked the door and ushered the two in.
"Her apartment was surrounded, had to get her out." Inuyasha stated, answering the unspoken question lingering in the air. Miroku turned from the computer and stared at the two new additions standing in their 'hideout', which was really just his apartment, located in a not-so great area of town.
"Um, hi." Kagome looked drained, her unusually pale skin in contrast with her dark hair.
"It's nice to finally meet you Kagome. I'm Miroku." The black haired man stated, standing up and swiftly crossing the room, brushing past his two companions. He held out his hand, which Kagome shook hesitantly. He seemed like a decent guy.
"Don't even think about it." Inuyasha suddenly stated, pushing Miroku back.
"Huh?" Kagome looked between Inuyasha and Miroku, who had stumbled back a few steps.
"He's a pervert, watch yourself around him." Sango answered, smiling at the younger girl's confused eyes. "You'll be fine as long as you're with Inuyasha or I. He knows better than to try anything when we're around."
This left Kagome even more confused as the three broke off and headed over to the corner of the room, where a couch and a few random chairs were situated.
"Can someone explain what's going on?" Kagome asked, still standing near the doorway.
"How rude of us! Come here and I'll give you the low-down. You are joining up right?" Sango exclaimed, gesturing to the cushion next to hers on the couch.
"Joining up?" Kagome repeated, slowly moving across the room to the proffered seat.
"Didn't Inuyasha tell you anything? I assumed when he brought you here that…" Sango trailed off, sending a glare in the demons direction. Inuyasha didn't notice, he was busy removing his hat and removing his hair elastic. When he finished he sighed and then noticed Sango's look.
"What? Didn't have much of a choice, it all happened so fast."
"So you just dragged her here, no explanation at all? She doesn't know what she's getting into you idiot!" Sango shouted. Inuyasha's ears flattened against his skull.
"It's not like she doesn't know anything, just nothing important. Yeesh."
"Um. He's right. I know that you're looking for a demon friend of yours. And I stole this from work." Kagome spoke up, taking the now crumpled slip of paper from her pocket. "Whatever it is you're doing. I'd like to help."
'She is very trusting.' Miroku thought. 'I'm not sure if that's a good thing. But it is rare nowadays.'
"You're sure about that?" Sango exclaimed, her eyes widened in shock. "That's a pretty big commitment!"
Kagome's eyes narrowed in determination. "I'm sure."
>>>End Chapter 2
Alright, I updated! The fact that I got more than 5 reviews made me feel that there was at least some interest in this story, so I made myself write a page a day until I finished.
Each chapter title is a song name. Each song has a connection, however remote, with the corresponding chapter. Not particularly original, but it's fun.
In answer to a comment, this does not have anything to do with FF7! (Which is coincidentally my favourite PlayStation game. I've passed it at least 3 times and still counting! XD) The only similarities I can see is the idea of a city being divided into sectors, and evil government.
Thanks to all the reviewers!