A/N: Ugh, I still can't think of anything to say in these things.
Brainery
Chapter 2
Ayame grumbled the whole way back to the apartment from the postal office, muttering under her breathe of the unfairness of being the pack mule for the group and them being ungrateful and other such nonsense. They actually learned to tune out Ayame's rambling and her whining nature.
When they finally got home, and Ayame had placed the two big boxes on Kagome's bed, the grumbling stopped but now questioning voices arose.
The two boxes looked capable of holding two thirty-six inched televisions in each and weighing just as much. Of course, for a youkai it should be no problem. The three long and thin ones were laid right next to the other ones.
She was about to leave to get some food in the refrigerator, or to at least see if there was any scrap of food in there, when Ayame, fed up, pushed her back towards the bed.
"Oh, no you don't! You make me carry them and make me wonder what's in those boxes but you won't open them? You're going to owe me some major cash if you take one step from there!" She went back and locked the door to Kagome's door and stood in front of it, arms crossed.
Kagome was staring at her black satchel that was still on her bed, tempted to use the money that Mr. Ito gave her, when she thought better of it. With a resigned sigh and a flip of her hair she turned to the boxes and held her hand out. All she got were curious stares and raised eyebrows.
She huffed before dragging Shippo onto the bed and grabbing one of his claws to gently cut through the first long thin box. She cut through the tape with his claw and tilted the box upside down to make the black case slide out without difficulties. It landed on the bed with a soft thump.
She grabbed the innocent case and threw it over her shoulder to the surprised wolf demon. She repeated the same thing with the other thin cases, throwing the second brown case towards Inuyasha, where he clumsily caught it. The third blue case, she left it on the bed.
Ayame took a big intake of air when she opened up the case given to her. There inside of the case was a new looking Tiger katana; the sheath was made with carved wood with black lacquer inlaid with brass bamboo leaves and a cap of buffalo horn. The hilt was a wood core wrapped with dried ray-skin and six meters of dark blue silk. Two bamboo pegs kept the handle and blade together. The blade: folded ASSAB K-120C Swedish powdered steel with wide groove and copper collar. The hand guard was black painted steel in the "mokko" style. It was beautiful.
Inuyasha opened up the slightly larger but still thin case to see two regular sized bokkens. One with a white hilt and the other in black. He took the white one out to inspect it closely and then swung it around, careful not to hit anything by accident.
Ayame and Inuyasha put them back in their cases and left them on Kagome's bed, and when Kagome moved to open up the larger boxes she was stopped by Shippo, who stopped her hand from moving to the big box with a small paw. He pointed to the blue case with his other hand.
"It might smell, so you can't say I didn't warn you." She opened the case slowly; the smell of blood engulfed their senses and left the two youkai to stumble back and the hanyou to cover his nose immediately.
Inuyasha looked up at her, his voice sounded clogged with his hand plugging up his nose, "I thought you said you don't kill with it?" He said taking his hand away from his face when she closed it.
Kagome made sure that all of them were secure in their cases before turning to them. "I don't. The smell comes from all the training I did." She coughed into her hand to forcibly tamp down all the dreary memories that wanted attention.
"That's some violent training you did, Kagome." Shippo murmured carefully. The blood came from various people and he wondered just how serious the wounds got.
Kagome gave him a weak grin in return. "Yeah…it wasn't exactly a walk through the park."
"Can we move onto the other boxes, please!" Ayame whined, her lips pulling out in a pout. Kagome nodded before taking Shippo's paw once more and slicing through the tape on both boxes.
Ayame moved quickly, opening them wide to see a big black suitcase in each one. She pulled one out and unzipped it to see many, many CD's of various artists and genres. Ayame squealed in delight when she came across one of her favorites. Shippo and Inuyasha looked in, their faces left disinterested before settling back onto the bed.
"Wow, Kagome!" Ayame said loudly, hurting both Shippo and Inuyasha's ear. "I can't believe you have this one." She brought the CD up to Kagome's face. Kagome jerked back in surprise, not getting enough time to even see which one Ayame was so happy about.
She quickly put it back before rummaging through the rest, squealing ever so often and pulling them out while praising Kagome in her fine tastes in music in the same breath.
Quite a feat, even for a youkai.
Ayame flopped down on the gray comforter, sighing dreamily. Kagome had most of her favorites in those boxes of hers. Inuyasha and Shippo left earlier, seeing no point in losing their hearing at such a young and tender age. Kagome was outside on the terrace, saying something about meditating in tranquility and enjoying the fast descending sun and ascend of the moon while the stars flickered and shone brightly.
Ayame pulled herself up to join Kagome in stargazing. She saw Kagome resting heavily on the rail with her forearms and her head was tilted to get a better view of the ocean of blue above them. 'Not a usual meditating position…' She off-handedly thought.
"Aren't you supposed to be meditating?" Ayame asked. She leaned her left hip against the rail beside Kagome, crossing her arms in front of her chest. She stared at Kagome as she drew a slow breath in.
Everything about her was always calm and although her aura was a jumble of emotions right now, she was still as cool as a cucumber. She envied that in her. Having the ability to not get swamped by emotions and thoughts easily, where as her, her emotions were there for the world to see and her thoughts were never processed fully.
You had to look closely at Kagome, or more specifically her azure eyes or her beautiful aura, to get the whole picture of what really goes on inside that head of hers.
Like right now for example. The melancholy look in her eyes and the conflicting colors of her aura told her of her inner turmoil. Although she was not privy to those thoughts resounding through Kagome's mind.
"There wasn't much to think about." Kagome replied looking into the concerned face of the wolf demon with a weak grin. Kagome turned over towards to the sky again.
Ayame could smell the lie in her, and although it hurt her to think that she didn't trust her yet, it made sense. Was Kagome supposed to trust her so easily within hours of knowing her, enough to spill her guts out? She'd be surprised if she did.
"Wanna talk about it?" She asked in a soft voice, concern underlining her soft tones. She leaned in closer when she caught the smell of salt in the wind. Kagome's head was bowed, her soft raven hair creating a curtain around her face, hindering Ayame's sight of her beautiful features, especially those expressive blue eyes that gave her a hint of what Kagome was actually thinking.
Kagome's shoulders shook with suppressed sobs, her sleeves used once more to absorb the wetness from her smooth cheeks. She drew in a big shuddering breath before turning to look at Ayame with red puffy eyes; her lips were pulled into a friendly grin, meant to disarm. "It's not something I'm comfortable talking about just yet." It had the opposite effect on Ayame.
She said it in such a soft and shaky voice, that if it weren't for her demon hearing, she probably wouldn't have been able to catch it. She wasn't about to pull teeth to get information to something Kagome wasn't able to talk to herself. And although she was concerned for her human friend, whom she only knew for a little more than a couple hours, she'd step back to give her space when she obviously needed it.
"Ya' know, school starts this Monday." It was Saturday, today. "I heard there are more flights coming in. One from Australia, I think." Ayame put her finger to her lip thoughtfully. She snapped her fingers in realization. "And another is from Japan."
"And?" Kagome said in an uninterested drawl. She shifted to a better position to look at Ayame closely. Her frustrated growl made Kagome giggle, her tail twitched behind her, and that rebellious tail always told Kagome what she needed to know. Like when she was happy, Ayame's furry long and red tail would puff itself out and wag incessantly from side to side. It was so cute, more so because Ayame remained clueless to it. When she was angry, furious, or whatever related emotion, her tail would flick whatever it was that got her in that mood, sort of like a whip.
"And! That's all you got to say?" Ayame's tail flicked out at her and she was hard pressed not to stop it from reaching her. It thumped against her jean-covered thigh. Ayame still remained clueless, venting out her frustration by growling to the sky before coming back to her and taking hold of her shoulders before promptly shaking her.
Kagome didn't mind, knowing she could get out of the hold anytime she wanted, but her tense muscles were getting to her, in that moment when Ayame took that aggressive step towards her, years of training came back at her all at once. Her instincts she developed over the years told her to eliminate the threat. In one fleeting thought, she actually thought of hurting Ayame, decapitating her with her swords.
With the sword that her father gave her, the first day she was actually able to land a hit on him with the bokken. The sword that held the taint of blood in it, the one that in her lust for blood, injured many disciples to the point of near death.
She'd be doing some extra training in the morning. That was a given.
"Aren't you worried at all?" Ayame continued. Ignorant to the evil thoughts her friend had, involving her. "What if we get stuck with some jerk? Huh! What then?" Ayame thought angrily, pacing around the terrace having long ago let go of Kagome's shoulders.
She turned to Kagome again. "Or worse! What if we get some pervert? Or a lesbian that has some weird obsession with red-heads!" Kagome came up to the near hysterical wolf demon, before promptly slapping her, hard.
Her hand stung, and she was pretty sure Ayame's cheek felt the same way. She looked calmly into the shocked emerald eyes of the wolf demon. "If we have a jerk in our midst, then we'll teach him not to mess with us. If it's a pervert we got, then we train like any common dog."
Kagome grinned wickedly at this point, setting the wolf on edge. "If you got a lesbian attracted to you, then…you're on your own." Kagome laughed at the horrified expression she got for her efforts. The earlier slap she got from her was forgotten in her moment of horror.
'She would actually leave me to fend for myself!' She thought incredulously. She sputtered helplessly, opening and closing her mouth without words coming out. She looked so much like a fish, that Kagome found herself giggling her way to bed.
"Make sure that you don't get frostbite before you go to sleep." Kagome waved over her shoulder at the stunned demon, before closing the terrace doors behind her and called Inuyasha to sleep.
The morning came with a vengeance. For Inuyasha he got the full brunt of the radiant sunshine and Kagome was not in her bed. Their room along with Ayame's and Shippo's faced the sun while it rose.
Kagome was gone along with one of her swords. The one that smelled heavily of blood. He cringed when the memory of that horrid smell came back to him. He wasn't about to doubt nee-san's character just because she trained hard, very hard. 'Plus, she promised me she'd train me.' And that in the world of Inuyasha justified her actions enough for him to be able to overlook them.
He got out of bed and headed for the kitchen to get something to eat. He was still clad in his dinosaur pajamas and his feet were bare. It was a bit cold living in the northern part of America, but his toes were curling and he shivered momentarily when he placed the first foot on the tile floor of the kitchen.
He stepped back retreating back to his room before taking Kagome's slippers from underneath her bed, he didn't have any warm fuzzy slippers as cool as Kagome's, and slipped his smaller feet into Kagome's slightly larger pair of slippers.
He headed towards the kitchen once, his ears twitching to the Ayame's door opening, and out stepped Ayame in her full morning glory, wearing a very big navy shirt that made her look like she could swim in it and black and gray flannel pajamas.
She yawned, stretching her arms above her head, following Inuyasha to the refrigerator where, there on a post-it note, told them of Kagome's training and when she'll be back. Which should be in ten minutes.
She ruffled Inuyasha's hair, giving him the note and stepped over to open the refrigerator doors. There inside the refrigerator…was nothing. Except for a small slip of paper that was taped on one of the top shelf. Her jaw dropped, her and Inuyasha's stomach grumbling at the unfairness of it all. She turned when she heard another grumbling stomach behind them.
Shippo stood pouting on the threshold of the kitchen. From where he stood he could see the barren innards of the big silver box.
On the small slip of paper told them of the cafeteria that's open near the administration office. It had a small menu with the prices right next to them.
Ayame groaned into her hand before pushing her hair back with the same hand. "I don't have any money!" She whimpered. Ayame's ear twitched, having heard the slow footsteps coming from just outside the door. She sniffed, finding the familiar scent of sakura blossoms and a fresh spring with underlining hint of sweat. It was the familiar scent of Kagome.
But the thing that caught her off guard was the massive smell of blood, recent blood.
Inuyasha and Shippo were both transfixed with the door, hearing the audible 'click' and the door 'swooshing' open. In stepped Kagome, a sweaty mess covered in dirt and suspicious green stains. Her hair was intertwined with twigs and ruffled. Small cuts and forming bruises appeared along her long and slender legs and arms.
Her white tank was covered in blood, 'From demons' Ayame concluded. Her black short shorts had a small tear that showed a bit of her hip and the small bleeding wound. Her sword was still strapped on her waist with a red leather cord.
Ayame quickly ran into her room coming back a after a short while with a first aid kit in hand. Inuyasha and Shippo had launched into getting answers from her.
"What happened?" Shippo squeaked leading Kagome to the nearest chair to have Ayame look at the wounds more carefully.
"Are you okay?" Inuyasha asked, worried beyond belief. He pushed Ayame along, finding her to be taken to long for his liking.
Ayame looked over the wounds more carefully, before setting her first aid kit onto the table, not even bothering to open it. "You need to take a bath. The wounds are minor, they're not life threatening." Ayame concluded.
"You haven't answered our questions, 'Gome." Inuyasha whispered softly, his worried amber eyes held her saddened azure eyes.
Kagome stood up turning to Inuyasha with a small smile. "I had a run-in with a couple demons. And yes, I'm alright." She said simply. She turned towards their room to go take a shower.
"I'll meet you in your room." Ayame called to her. Her hunger forgotten, she set out to clean up the muddy tracks that Kagome left behind.
"We still have to get some food for snacks and don't you know how much that cafeteria money will add up to?" Kagome rationalized. All four of them were setting out to search for food. Shippo had earlier suggested going to the principle to ask if there was some nearby store or something.
Ayame argued that they could just simply get their meals from the cafeteria. So, they headed out to the principles office.
Ayame had long age treated Kagome's wounds, and although some of the wrappings were itching the hell out of her, she told herself she wouldn't scratch. That's why she found her hands twitching from time to time.
When they reached the administration office and were told to wait for the people that were already in there, they sat in the lobby with Inuyasha in Kagome's lap and Shippo in the seat adjacent to Ayame. Having only three seats in the lobby.
They stood when they heard the door to the principles office open and two youkai females came out. Kagome tensed, pushing Inuyasha behind her and receiving a surprised squeak for her efforts. Ayame growled when she smelt Kagome's blood on these bitches. Or more specifically, on their claws.
The two female youkai turned with a vicious smile in their direction, one having enough gall to reach for Kagome's shoulder. "So we meet again, you pedophile." She whispered in her ear.
Inuyasha growled at the offending person. Ready to take her down with his claws when he saw any movement of a strike.
Kagome took it all in stride, looking over at the secretary and pointing towards the principle's office, with a meaningful glance.
Kagome took a big soothing breath, to try and calm her tensed muscles and more so her instincts to run the presumptuous kitty down with her katana. 'Funny how this tiger youkai, thinks she could take me down.' Kagome thought off-handedly.
"Inuyasha, hush." Kagome commanded, the growls from Inuyasha stopped, but Ayame's were still heard crystal clear, the warning evident.
The female tiger youkai grinned sadistically. "Yes, you hanyou filth, listen to your bitch." She said in a hiss.
In a move to smooth and quick to describe Kagome had shrugged of the offending hands off of her shoulders before tackling the tiger to the ground football style. They landed in a heap, Kagome being on top took the advantage to sit up and pummel this audacious face with a strong flurry of punches.
Ayame grabbed the other youkai by the shoulder when she made a move to jump in. "You fight with me, or you don't fight at all." Ayame growled out. The youkai stepped back, looking on to the unfolding scene in front of her.
The tiger youkai pushed the human of her with a strong kick, jumping up and took a fighting stance. Kagome landed on her feet, shifting to the toes of her feet and taking a loose fighting stance.
The tiger made the first move by lunging at her with her claws raised for a strike. Kagome sidestepped, grabbing the other youkai's hand and using the youkai's momentum to push her down to the ground with fluid grace. She grabbed the arm tighter and tensed her knees to move at any time, her arm lock was strong. She stood on her feet, having them on either side of the tiger's hips. She delivered a harsh back blow with an open palm. Just for the hell of it.
Strong hands wrapped around her arms and they pulled her up and off the unconscious youkai and unto a muscled chest. The arms didn't loosen until she forcibly relaxed her tensed muscles. She saw no point in attacking someone who had the advantage in their positions.
The arms led her into the principle's office, her feet dangling a foot off the floor. The strong muscled arms set her on the chair before letting go. Ayame, Shippo and Inuyasha were walking close behind them. Shippo closing the door behind them and Inuyasha once more in Kagome's lap. Ayame took the other seat in front of the wooden desk.
The principle walked around them to his seat, his silver hair swaying back and forth in a fluid movements that it had Kagome and Ayame envious.
"I do believe someone owes me an explanation." He looked pointedly at Kagome but Ayame decided that she rather answer the handsome dog demon.
"Well…it started off with that who-female demon coming up to Kagome and whispering some awful things in her ear" She was cut off by the low growl coming from the dog demon commanding her to silence. She instantly shut up.
'He's gorgeous.' Kagome thought in wonder. She coughed into her hand, a blush blossoming on her face. "Inuyasha can you get my bag from my room, and Ayame can you accompany him." She said a smile. Inuyasha nodded and Ayame stood up, Shippo taking her seat.
She turned to the principle the smile instantly dropping. "It started off yesterday, when those girls decided that they would have a nice conversation involving a certain hanyou." She said with a heavy dose of sarcasm. "They obviously don't like me, because in the morning they ambushed me from my walk back from the woods." Shippo remained silent, listening closely to what she was saying.
She sighed deeply. "Of course, I was caught off-guard and didn't have enough chance to go on the defensive. I got a nasty scrape on my back before I was able to pull out my sword. And from there they didn't have much of a chance. And you know the rest." She said with a small hand gesture towards the lobby.
"But that wasn't the reason we came for." Shippo quipped. Kagome finally took the chance to read his nameplate on his desk. Her eyes widened considerably, looking up to Sesshomaru Ito and noticing the distinctive and obvious similarities. She had the urge to just slap herself silly.
"We wanted to know where the nearest store was." Shippo said bluntly.
A/N: I am so glad that all you like the story so far! I really appreciate the reviews, those few that there are.
Chapter 1:
waining-moon: My first reviewer for this story! Hope you're not confused on her origins, anymore? Treat? As in like those KFC biscuits? Those taste soo good! And to think you compared my story to one of my favorite fast-food side dishes. Thank you!
granhermi: Haha, so very funny! You blonde! As if I wouldn't know who you were with all the times you talk to me about Harry Potter and whatnot, but thank you, anyways!
rose: Awesome? How tight is that! Thank you for your kind words!
Chapter 2:
granhermi: I hope you found out in this chapter. If not, then you're beyond blonde…you're platinum blonde! Bwahahaha!
waining-moon: I know! I like it when Kagome punches anything; it is so out of character for her. Lol! Aren't they? How adorable!
kawaiikitty: I'm sorry, but I can't tell you how Sesshomaru fits into this yet. Later on, in the chapters, you'll be able to tell, even if you are a little dense. Hahaha! No offense!
Anyways, you know the drill, read and review. Thank you to all those wonderful reviewers!
-Celestial Fox