A/N: Hey guys! Here's the final set-up chapter. I was going to take a
little longer with it, but then decided to just plow through it so I can
start getting to the interesting stuff. Next chapter: Jailbreak!
Disclaimer: Don't own Inu and Co.
8. Preparations
Inuyasha was in the gym, getting his prescribed hour of physical activity for the morning. Sango was sipping a black coffee in her apartment, toasting a bagel. Miroku was still asleep, dreaming dreams that it is perhaps best not to inquire about too closely. None of them were consciously thinking about the conversation of the previous evening, except for Kagome.
Kagome was spending her lunch break standing outside Kikyo's office door. She needed to get time off for spring break, or springing Inuyasha, as she called it to herself. Kikyo was, not surprisingly, making her wait.
"No respect," Kagome was grumbling to herself just as the door in front of her swung open.
"Kagome?" Kikyo's familiar chilly tones iced their way out into the hallway, like a vanilla milkshake being poured slowly into a frosty glass. "You wanted to see me about something?"
Kagome took a deep breath and stepped into the den. Or ice cavern. She greeted her supervisor with a small smile and pulled up a chair in front of the large desk.
"Hi Kikyo," she said and then paused. Crap. She was going to have to come up with a better start than that. Kikyo just stared at her silently, one eyebrow delicately lifted.
"Umm," Kagome continued in her smoothest manner, "I wanted to ask you a question. See, our spring break is coming up next week and I wanted to talk about the possibility of getting some time off."
Silence fell, blanketing the room, as Kikyo swivelled a bit in her chair. A lone dust mote floated briefly into Kagome's line of sight before disappearing below the desk.
"You realize that you are generally expected to give a two week notice when you want to adjust your schedule?"
"Yes, I do, and I'm sorry about that," Kagome twisted her fingers together. "See, we've just barely made plans to leave town. I only found out about it this morning myself." Kagome sighed internally. She was going to be a hardened liar by the time she was finished with this little episode in her life.
Kikyo looked about as inviting as a glacial lake on the top of a mountain in January is to a California nudist. But as she stared at Kagome, her expression flickered, a ripple of emotion running like a small wavelet over her features. "Very well," she said, "we will re-schedule you next week. How long were you planning on being away?"
Now that, Kagome realized, was the million dollar question. She'd no clue how long everything was going to take. In fact, her plans were incredibly vague. She hadn't thought about the long-term goal for Inuyasha. Rehabilitation into society? Although she wasn't sure that society was ready for him. "I won't be able to come in for the next two weekends," she said. Hopefully that would be enough. Spring break didn't last forever, either. And it would give her some time in which to introduce Inuyasha to the world, at which point hopefully he would figure out his own future.
"Right," the note of dismissal was plain in Kikyo's voice. "Next time, please don't be so late to inform me of any changes in your schedule."
"Thank you, Kikyo," Kagome backed out of the room. It could have gone much, much worse. Somehow it had all seemed a little too easy.
Of course, she still had to face her mother.
After work that day, Kagome Higurashi placed a very important phone call.
"Eri?" she spoke into the receiver.
"Kags! Hey! How's it going?!" Kagome had forgotten about Eri's tendency to speak in exclamation points. She held the receiver a little further from her ear.
"Hey, Eri, you trust me right?" Kagome spoke quickly, before the other girl could race off into some enthusiastic rant about the benefits of shopping on long-term memory, or something.
"Of course I do," Eri's enthusiastic voice came, innocent as a lamb, over the wire.
"Good. In that case, I have a crazy story to tell you."
The small bedroom echoed with the sound of a young girl's voice, talking quickly and a little breathlessly.
An hour later, a nervous Kagome was wandering down the stairs, a small piece of paper clutched in her hand. She had not, of course, been entirely honest with Eri. These days she was not entirely honest with anyone. It was just another lie piled onto the already teetering pile which had become her life.
"Hey mom," she called, drifting into the living room where Mrs. Higurashi and Souta were busy at a game of battleship.
"C-7!" Mrs. Higurashi said. "Yes dear? What is it?"
"Miss!" crowed Souta.
"I was just on the phone with Eri, "Kagome said, waving around the little piece of paper, "and she says everything is fine on their end. I can go and stay with them, no problem."
"And work?" said her mother.
"D-4," said Souta.
"I talked with Kikyo today, and she gave me the next two weeks off."
"Miss," said Mrs. Higurashi. "Hmm, she just gave it to you, no fuss? C- 3."
"Erm, well, I sort of told her it was a family vacation." Kagome shuffled her feet.
Mrs. Higurashi frowned, but was interrupted by Souta. "Hit."
"Ha! I knew you had one there somewhere!" she exclaimed, grabbing a small yellow peg.
"Anyhow," Kagome said, before her mother remembered her lecture, "I'm thinking of taking a train. Here's the list of ones available for next Saturday." She shoved the paper at her mother.
"Okay," said Mrs. Higurashi, "you're old enough to be doing this on your own. As long as you make sure to let me know when all your plans are set. And I want numbers that I can contact you at, and dates as to when you'll be back. Understood?"
Kagome nodded. "Yep," she grinned at her mother, who had just inexplicably turned into a reasonable person, before heading back up to her room. Things were beginning to fall into place.
That Friday, Kagome could be found in her room, having a chat with Bob, the ceiling terrier. He was just such a good listener.
"Alright, Bob, everything is set. I got the tickets today, I've arranged an alibi, I even packed already." Bob looked impressed.
"Thank god Eri is so boy-obsessed," added Kagome. Luckily her friend had swallowed the heavily edited version of events that Kagome had told her. Actually, heavily edited was probably a slight exaggeration. Other than saying she wanted to see a boy ("So hot, Eri!") in the city, Kagome had not really told her friend anything. Somehow she didn't think that Inuyasha, not to mention Sango and Miroku, would appreciate her telling the entire story to a girl that they didn't know.
Eri probably wouldn't have believed it anyway.
"Besides, Bob," Kagome finished her thought out loud, "it was for her own good." Bob still looked mildly accusatory. "I can't tell anyone!" Bob was silent. Not that this was an unusual state for him. Kagome pulled her pillow over her head.
Ok, so she was feeling a little guilty, all right, a lot guilty, and maybe a bit nervous as well. Tomorrow was the day when all her plans would go into action. She hoped she was ready.
Then she laughed, "Ha, but Bob, seriously. You should've heard Eri's voice. I think she's so relieved that I've finally got a boy that she's not going to ask any questions. She nearly pierced my ear drum when she screamed like that."
Somewhere in a very tall building, a thin man was seated behind a large wooden desk. His expression, as he looked at the man in front of him, was similar to that of a pop diva who'd just been told that she had to do her own make-up.
"You mean to say you haven't done anything at all?" he said. A close observer, hell, any person with eyes, except apparently the young man standing in front of him, would have easily sensed his displeasure.
"Well, but, you said..." Kouga stuttered to a stop, "And, plus...wrap up.... my old case...?" Hey look, eight knots on the board! Same as the last time he had stood there, almost two weeks ago. If he'd been the knots, he would rather have been in a piece of firewood. A brief life followed by an agonizingly painful death would be preferable to living in Naraku's office, a place that Kouga was rapidly coming to hate. Somehow, he never seemed to shine his brightest when he was in there.
"I said what?" Naraku's voice had gotten even softer. Kouga gulped, now he was in for it.
"You said, umm, not to rush things?" He hated it when his voice squeaked like that—he was no longer 13 years old, dammit.
"Ah. Yes. I did say that, didn't I?" Naraku's yes followed the nervous twitching of his subordinate's fingers. "Fair enough. But I did intend for you to start clearing the way, making plans. He is very strong, and, while not the quickest bunny in the hutch, he does possess some rudimentary intelligence. He's not going to allow you to just walk up to him and pop him one. You understand now?"
"Yes sir," Kouga answered, straightening a little. That was far milder than he'd anticipated. Naraku's new girlfriend must be some babe, he decided.
"Now go. And try not to be incompetent."
"Yes sir, I'll try sir, thank you sir," Kouga backed out of the office. It looked like he was going to have to do some work this weekend after all.
At least he could tape the cartoons so it wouldn't be a complete waste of time.
Disclaimer: Don't own Inu and Co.
8. Preparations
Inuyasha was in the gym, getting his prescribed hour of physical activity for the morning. Sango was sipping a black coffee in her apartment, toasting a bagel. Miroku was still asleep, dreaming dreams that it is perhaps best not to inquire about too closely. None of them were consciously thinking about the conversation of the previous evening, except for Kagome.
Kagome was spending her lunch break standing outside Kikyo's office door. She needed to get time off for spring break, or springing Inuyasha, as she called it to herself. Kikyo was, not surprisingly, making her wait.
"No respect," Kagome was grumbling to herself just as the door in front of her swung open.
"Kagome?" Kikyo's familiar chilly tones iced their way out into the hallway, like a vanilla milkshake being poured slowly into a frosty glass. "You wanted to see me about something?"
Kagome took a deep breath and stepped into the den. Or ice cavern. She greeted her supervisor with a small smile and pulled up a chair in front of the large desk.
"Hi Kikyo," she said and then paused. Crap. She was going to have to come up with a better start than that. Kikyo just stared at her silently, one eyebrow delicately lifted.
"Umm," Kagome continued in her smoothest manner, "I wanted to ask you a question. See, our spring break is coming up next week and I wanted to talk about the possibility of getting some time off."
Silence fell, blanketing the room, as Kikyo swivelled a bit in her chair. A lone dust mote floated briefly into Kagome's line of sight before disappearing below the desk.
"You realize that you are generally expected to give a two week notice when you want to adjust your schedule?"
"Yes, I do, and I'm sorry about that," Kagome twisted her fingers together. "See, we've just barely made plans to leave town. I only found out about it this morning myself." Kagome sighed internally. She was going to be a hardened liar by the time she was finished with this little episode in her life.
Kikyo looked about as inviting as a glacial lake on the top of a mountain in January is to a California nudist. But as she stared at Kagome, her expression flickered, a ripple of emotion running like a small wavelet over her features. "Very well," she said, "we will re-schedule you next week. How long were you planning on being away?"
Now that, Kagome realized, was the million dollar question. She'd no clue how long everything was going to take. In fact, her plans were incredibly vague. She hadn't thought about the long-term goal for Inuyasha. Rehabilitation into society? Although she wasn't sure that society was ready for him. "I won't be able to come in for the next two weekends," she said. Hopefully that would be enough. Spring break didn't last forever, either. And it would give her some time in which to introduce Inuyasha to the world, at which point hopefully he would figure out his own future.
"Right," the note of dismissal was plain in Kikyo's voice. "Next time, please don't be so late to inform me of any changes in your schedule."
"Thank you, Kikyo," Kagome backed out of the room. It could have gone much, much worse. Somehow it had all seemed a little too easy.
Of course, she still had to face her mother.
After work that day, Kagome Higurashi placed a very important phone call.
"Eri?" she spoke into the receiver.
"Kags! Hey! How's it going?!" Kagome had forgotten about Eri's tendency to speak in exclamation points. She held the receiver a little further from her ear.
"Hey, Eri, you trust me right?" Kagome spoke quickly, before the other girl could race off into some enthusiastic rant about the benefits of shopping on long-term memory, or something.
"Of course I do," Eri's enthusiastic voice came, innocent as a lamb, over the wire.
"Good. In that case, I have a crazy story to tell you."
The small bedroom echoed with the sound of a young girl's voice, talking quickly and a little breathlessly.
An hour later, a nervous Kagome was wandering down the stairs, a small piece of paper clutched in her hand. She had not, of course, been entirely honest with Eri. These days she was not entirely honest with anyone. It was just another lie piled onto the already teetering pile which had become her life.
"Hey mom," she called, drifting into the living room where Mrs. Higurashi and Souta were busy at a game of battleship.
"C-7!" Mrs. Higurashi said. "Yes dear? What is it?"
"Miss!" crowed Souta.
"I was just on the phone with Eri, "Kagome said, waving around the little piece of paper, "and she says everything is fine on their end. I can go and stay with them, no problem."
"And work?" said her mother.
"D-4," said Souta.
"I talked with Kikyo today, and she gave me the next two weeks off."
"Miss," said Mrs. Higurashi. "Hmm, she just gave it to you, no fuss? C- 3."
"Erm, well, I sort of told her it was a family vacation." Kagome shuffled her feet.
Mrs. Higurashi frowned, but was interrupted by Souta. "Hit."
"Ha! I knew you had one there somewhere!" she exclaimed, grabbing a small yellow peg.
"Anyhow," Kagome said, before her mother remembered her lecture, "I'm thinking of taking a train. Here's the list of ones available for next Saturday." She shoved the paper at her mother.
"Okay," said Mrs. Higurashi, "you're old enough to be doing this on your own. As long as you make sure to let me know when all your plans are set. And I want numbers that I can contact you at, and dates as to when you'll be back. Understood?"
Kagome nodded. "Yep," she grinned at her mother, who had just inexplicably turned into a reasonable person, before heading back up to her room. Things were beginning to fall into place.
That Friday, Kagome could be found in her room, having a chat with Bob, the ceiling terrier. He was just such a good listener.
"Alright, Bob, everything is set. I got the tickets today, I've arranged an alibi, I even packed already." Bob looked impressed.
"Thank god Eri is so boy-obsessed," added Kagome. Luckily her friend had swallowed the heavily edited version of events that Kagome had told her. Actually, heavily edited was probably a slight exaggeration. Other than saying she wanted to see a boy ("So hot, Eri!") in the city, Kagome had not really told her friend anything. Somehow she didn't think that Inuyasha, not to mention Sango and Miroku, would appreciate her telling the entire story to a girl that they didn't know.
Eri probably wouldn't have believed it anyway.
"Besides, Bob," Kagome finished her thought out loud, "it was for her own good." Bob still looked mildly accusatory. "I can't tell anyone!" Bob was silent. Not that this was an unusual state for him. Kagome pulled her pillow over her head.
Ok, so she was feeling a little guilty, all right, a lot guilty, and maybe a bit nervous as well. Tomorrow was the day when all her plans would go into action. She hoped she was ready.
Then she laughed, "Ha, but Bob, seriously. You should've heard Eri's voice. I think she's so relieved that I've finally got a boy that she's not going to ask any questions. She nearly pierced my ear drum when she screamed like that."
Somewhere in a very tall building, a thin man was seated behind a large wooden desk. His expression, as he looked at the man in front of him, was similar to that of a pop diva who'd just been told that she had to do her own make-up.
"You mean to say you haven't done anything at all?" he said. A close observer, hell, any person with eyes, except apparently the young man standing in front of him, would have easily sensed his displeasure.
"Well, but, you said..." Kouga stuttered to a stop, "And, plus...wrap up.... my old case...?" Hey look, eight knots on the board! Same as the last time he had stood there, almost two weeks ago. If he'd been the knots, he would rather have been in a piece of firewood. A brief life followed by an agonizingly painful death would be preferable to living in Naraku's office, a place that Kouga was rapidly coming to hate. Somehow, he never seemed to shine his brightest when he was in there.
"I said what?" Naraku's voice had gotten even softer. Kouga gulped, now he was in for it.
"You said, umm, not to rush things?" He hated it when his voice squeaked like that—he was no longer 13 years old, dammit.
"Ah. Yes. I did say that, didn't I?" Naraku's yes followed the nervous twitching of his subordinate's fingers. "Fair enough. But I did intend for you to start clearing the way, making plans. He is very strong, and, while not the quickest bunny in the hutch, he does possess some rudimentary intelligence. He's not going to allow you to just walk up to him and pop him one. You understand now?"
"Yes sir," Kouga answered, straightening a little. That was far milder than he'd anticipated. Naraku's new girlfriend must be some babe, he decided.
"Now go. And try not to be incompetent."
"Yes sir, I'll try sir, thank you sir," Kouga backed out of the office. It looked like he was going to have to do some work this weekend after all.
At least he could tape the cartoons so it wouldn't be a complete waste of time.