Well, we've finally reached chapter five, it's quite good, and contains a large cast of characters some of you might be familiar with. Those of you who aren't can fix that with a quick google search, as neither of the mangas are licensed.
Chapter 05: Waking up to reality.
Note: the following chapter contains characters from Bremen and Hareluya II Boy mangas, both of them belong to Haruto Umezawa. The characters don't play significant roles in the story, so it's not required to know them, but for those of you who do, it'll be an added bonus of fun. I assume. Of course, this paragraph is a disclaimer, for those of you who couldn't figure it out on their own.
Kagome woke up, her back was sore from sleeping on the park bench, her eyes were swollen from crying in her sleep and her mind was aching from over thinking and remembering.
"Why did I dream about him?" she asked herself, Benkei was the only person she tried to seriously date since she came back to her time. Calm, smart, mature, he was everything Inuyasha wasn't and everything Hojo strived to be. When she felt down, he would comfort her, when she needed someone to complain to, he was there to lend her his shoulder. Four months after they've started seeing each other he died, and with him the small pieces of innocence she had left.
He didn't die in a work-related matter; he was mugged in the middle of the night, stabbed to death by some punk who couldn't afford his drug fix that night. Later, the police investigation reveled that the punk was seen throwing up and some other gang members said that Benkei told them that he would take the boy to the hospital. On the way to Benkei's car the boy stabbed him, five times. When Kagome visited his family, a week after the murder, Benkei's mother revealed to her that the police found a receipt on Benkei's body. It was for a diamond ring.
"What would you have done in this situation?" she tried thinking, the moment the boy, "Shippo, not just a boy", she corrected herself, mentioned Inuyasha's name, the puzzle started solving itself, fragments of yesterday's events became more clear.
Shippo, Sesshomaru, Kagura and even Kikyo, she remembered meeting all of them last night, they talked about Inuyasha, said something about him escaping from Kikyo.
She tried once again to figure the jigsaw in her mind, if Sesshomaru was the head of the Night Hounds, it meant that Inuyasha was also related, if not part of. In that case, Kagome couldn't help but wonder whether she was invited to join the organization because of her past, it seemed possible, perhaps they feared that someone might use her again to search for the shikon no tama? If Kikyo was alive, it meant the jewel was still present in the world. Then was she recruited just so that other won't use her?
There was only one way for her to verify her suspicions, Kagome decided to go back and discuss it with Sesshomaru himself, it felt like a reasonable course of action for her, she would get some answers from the people best suited to give them.
"She's coming back, finally" Shippo breathed in relief, standing next to the front window, he was able to see Kagome walking slowly towards them.
"we've noticed it, you know… can we make it to the flight?" Kagura looked at Sesshomaru.
"I believe we could, if you two would find the car keys already" he replied, he too noticed the change in Kagome's aura, just as Kagura has, the girl's power has awakened.
A knock on the door was heard, Kagome was on the other side.
"Kanna, Kagura, Sesshomaru, Shippo" she looked at the four youkais, letting the realization of their identities slip into her mind, "What's going to happen now?".
Shippo was the one to answer, "Take your stuff" he passed a suitcase to her, "we're going to Europe" he said. She looked at him with a blank stare, "Inuyasha is there, waiting for us, for you to come" he explained, hopefully, it would be enough.
About an hour later, they were boarding the plane, nothing more than three biology students following their professor in his research of New Zealand wild life. At least that was the cover story for the three of them, who were obviously too old to be on an 'end of high school' vacation.
"how did they get me a passport" Kagome asked Shippo, who was sitting next to her, both of them felt relived boarding this plane, which the only similarities he shared with Kagura's one was the fact they both had wings and the name.
"That's easy, he had someone steal your ID card, and then I transformed into you, we went to one of our men in the ministry of interior affairs, and he produced one for us. Have you really never left Japan?" he asked her.
"Never had the chance before, I was too busy with studying to do anything, and then I got accepted into the NH and that was about it…" she answered, it took her a moment before she realized what he's done. "Wait a second, you guys stole my ID card and impersonated as me?" she almost yelled at him, but since this was a public plane, she only raised her voice a little.
"We didn't plan to do so, but things got messy on our end, we had to get everything done quickly, see the date on the passport?" he pointed his finger on the small letters.
"It's from yesterday" she realized, "really, what happened that made everything so messed up?"
"I don't know much, Inuyasha came by to Japan a month ago, it was just for an hour, but Kikyo sensed it and came to Japan as well, then she went into hiding for a week, we thought that she just stopped to restock on her herbs or something. But we were wrong, our intelligence couldn't spy any action at the herbs stores or the botanic gardens… so we figured that we should get you out of Japan as soon as possible, just in case. And the rest, well, you know the rest."
"yes, I do know it" she said, "how's your shoulder, I hope I haven't hurt you too bad" she remembered what happened just a few hours ago.
"Don't worry, we youkais heal much faster than humans, I barely feel the stab anymore"
"I guess I should've seen that one coming" she said, remembering that was the phrase Inuyasha used so many times, she couldn't stop herself from asking, "where is he now? I mean inuyasha"
"he should be waiting for us somewhere, we can't be sure where, he's too worried that Kikyo might find out to leave us any solid clues" Shippo answered.
"and the full moon night doesn't make things any easier, I guess?" she said, looking through the airplane's window, the moon was nearing it's complete form.
"I believe Agent Higurashi might have noticed a point that I missed" Sesshomaru said, removing the book from his hands.
"I did?"
"actually, Sesshomaru's right, we didn't consider that option, do you know of any rock concert going on at Europe? Maybe the live 8 or something of the sort?"
"Live 8 should be coming to France soon, it's nice, but too short" Kagura murmured from her near sleep state.
"What do rock concerts have to do with anything?" Kagome asked, Inuyasha didn't seem like the type who'd like rock music, then again, she thought, 500 years were enough time for someone to acquire a new taste in music.
"oh, I guess you didn't know it, are you aware of the spiritual power surrounding us?" Shippo asked her.
"Of course" she stated, Miroku and Sango always talked about it "Jaki is usually red and black, holy powers are purple and white, normal people are blue and.."
"Stop it" Shippo interrupted her, "we don't need to hear your version of sensing, it's quite dangerous actually"
"It is? How come?" she asked.
"Hard to explain, but spiritual awareness is a very suggestible power, you should ask Kanna about the exact details, she's a master in it. I've seen her brainwashing someone, she didn't allow me to listen to her, and I've stopped reading her leaps after two sentences, but still, the guy came in quite sane, and after three days, was so messed up that even his mother could recognize him…"
"what happened to him?" she asked, leaning closer to hear the rest of the story.
"not much, he went back to America and started a new-age religion, thanks to him, we've got a few more million dollars into our bank account each year" Shippo smiled a menacing smile.
"Still, what about Inuyasha?" she continued, she tried to ignore the fact that the organization she worked for showed more and more signs of being a criminal organization.
"oh, anyway, as I've been saying, when humans are excited and in emotional turmoil, their energy takes form of youki, or something similar to it. Are you following my point?"
"yes", the years she spent in NH weren't for nothing, it kept her mind sharp, "it makes real youkai's harder to detect.. and since rock music has tendency to get people excited, then youkais are naturally going to gather in rock concerts if they want to meet each other and still conceal themselves. And that's why we are going to look for Inuyasha in the live 8 concert, right?"
"almost" Shippo patted her on the back, "usually, it'd be true, but we're speaking of Inuyasha, live 8 will be crowded with TV cameras, and if Kikyo sees him on the screen she'll know where he is"
"Then what good is the live 8 in that case?" she asked, "you just told me that he's not going to be there..".
"indeed, it's true that my brother won't be in the live 8 concert, but he chose to meet us in Europe for a reason, the fact that the concert is here is a proof of that, he'll be following the concert closely, and hide in a close perimeter of it" Sesshomaru spoke.
"Then, what are we talking about? I don't know many cities in France other than Paris…" Kagome spoke again, for the first time, she was now taking remorse in the fact she decided to study ancient history over geographic.
"No, the live 8 performs only in capital cities, and Inuyasha told my sister that he'll waiting for us in the capital, that means he'll be in a small country next to France, somewhere the live 8 concert won't be in." Kagura explained, being the head of international affairs, world geographic, politics and site seeing spots were her expertise.
"Then, it's either Holland or Belgium? Right?" Kagome inquired.
"It is so" Sesshomaru concluded, "Now, silent, I would wish to view this movie" he said, it kept them silent for the entire flight.
---------------
Somewhere in hag, inside a small club in the outer parts of the city, stood a man, he wasn't the only one there, but he was the single person who helped placing the chair without pay.
At least not material pay, what he was hoping to get was far greater than any amount of money, people would call it fulfillment of his destiny, but Inuyasha has stopped believing in fate long ago, now he believed in getting what he wanted.
"Dog demon, listen" someone whispered in his ears, it took Inuyasha a moment to calm his heartbeat; there was only one person in the club who knew that information.
"Stop calling me that way, dammit! What do you want?" he looked at the man, no matter how many years they knew each other, Iwaseki was still quite a mystery, though currently Iwaseki was nothing more than the head of the GBN production company, in the past he was of 'Brainnation' an American outlaw organization with terror-like activities, the proof was the glass eye beneath the sunglasses.
"don't be so tense, you know I quit the business years ago, it's just that we have a situation which I need you to attend to" Iwaseki said, keeping his tone exactly the same, as if he was ordering breakfast.
"If you have quit the business, then you should stop speaking that way, can't you get it?" Inuyasha asked him.
"I guess you're right, anyway, you're Japanese, right?"
Inuyasha nodded.
"Great, the translator called in sick, the bastard, I bet he'll be going to the live 8 concert, so we don't have anyone to get the bands from the airport, and I can't leave the stage, so can you drive and get them?" Iwaseki asked.
"Keh! You shouldn't worry about the live 8, rocking is for people who like the music, it doesn't matter to us if there are five people listening or five thousand!" Inuyasha said, forgetting to answer the question.
"And…" Iwaseki continued
"And yes, I'll get the bands, its Fire Gunz and Bremen this time, right?" Inuyasha smiled, the two bands had good energies, and with the new moon coming up, nobody could tell he was a youkai, even if they directly touched him.
Kagome was standing in the ladies room, apparently Kagura wasn't well versed in antics of human behavior as she said she was, or perhaps she didn't care, at any matter, Kagome was there, in Heatrow airport of London, 'freshening up' her face.
The door slammed, a young, extremely tall woman entered, screaming to the outside "Yes, I'm sure I should enter here!" the shouting was in Japanese.
"oh, soo-orry abbout thaat" she said, in very disturbed English, she then turned and looked at Kagome, "Oh, my mistake, cutie-chan, I'm sorry, my friends and I are in a hurry, but it doesn't mean that a girl shouldn't be allowed to take care of herself" she went back to speaking Japanese. It occurred to Kagome that something was wrong in the girl flow of energy, but she could quite put her finger on the exact thing.
"Oh, never mind me; are you here with your friends?" Kagome asked.
"I'm here with my band, Romio booked us a wrong ticket, we should be going to Holland, not Britain. So we need to catch a flight to Hag now, it's such an annoyance" the woman answered, taking off two 40 cm heels from her feet.
"A band? What kind of band?" Kagome asked, now actually facing the girl's eyes.
"I'm part of Berman! We're going to be known as the kings of rock!" she screamed, "my name is Ryo, and I'm the drummer queen of the stage".
"It's an honor meeting you, Ryo-san, my name is Kagome" Kagome said, slightly bowing down.
"The pleasure is mine, Kagome-chan, come and see us play sometime, if you ever get a chance" Ryo laughed.
A minute later, Kagome went out of the washroom towards Shippo and Sesshomaru, "I've come across some information" she said, "There would be a Japanese band playing in Hag in the next few days, do you think it's just a coincidence".
Sesshomaru's eyes lit up, "I'm surprised that I haven't though of it myself" he said "My brother does own a business in Hag, so it might be possible, we should check this matter at once" he pulled out his cellular phone and started talking, for Kagome great surprise, his speech was quite gentle this time, she knew who was on the other side of the call.
"yes, please order four tickets"
"…."
"Don't worry about the passports, I will come there shortly"
"…."
"Of course you can put it on NH account, that's why you have that credit card"
He closed the phone, "move it" he returned to barking orders, "our presence is required elsewhere".
It took Inuyasha a few hours to find the EU driving license, it was hidden somewhere in the safe inside his office, along with the clubs ownership deed and a few other documents of identity verification.
The now black haired human heard a knock on the door, "what do you want?" he shouted, he hated not being able to smell who was next to him.
"It's about time you leave for the airport; the flight seemed to have left Heathrow earlier than expected. You need to leave, now" Iwaseki said.
"I was on my out, anyway, anything I should take special notice of?" Inuyasha asked.
"yes, Bremen are quite a band of weirdoes, you should especially be careful of Romio and Ryo" Iwaseki said, half demons were present in America as well, so inuyasha's black hair wasn't anything special, as far as he cared.
0000-000-0000
"I believe you have established a connection with one of those performers, haven't you, Agent Higurashi?" Sesshomaru looked at Kagome and asked.
"I did speak to the drummer of the band" She answered, "why are you asking?"
"Good" he threw an object at her direction; she easily caught it, Shippo's cellophane. "I went over your files earlier, it seems that you do not speak French, is it true?"
"Yes, I don't speak as many languages as you three do" she answered, "what's the point of asking?"
"I'll explain this one" Kagura took over the conversation, Sesshomaru didn't say a word of protest, "he wants you feign ignorance and ask that Ryo girl where are they playing and how to get there, cry like a baby if you must, but get her to take you with her. Once you've gotten there, establish us a place to stay for the night, a Japanese band should have someone that takes care of their traveling, and you could use that person get us a place as well. Don't be afraid to use some of the womanly charm you've got floating, ok?"
"How can I use any woman charm on Ryo? She's a woman too, you know" Kagome asked the wind youkai.
"Then use the 'big sister' trick, whatever goes, we can't have you failing this mission"
Kagome sighed and walked away, obviously, Kagura wasn't about to listen to anything she had to say, and it seemed that nor Sesshomaru or Shippo were about to jump in the conversation and help. She sadly walked away from the group, trying to find the Japanese woman known as Ryo.
"Damnit, why can't I remember anything of her?" she asked herself in anger, she remembered every bit of the girl's behavior, but she didn't pay much attention to her physical appearance. Though the fact that in Japan a woman with her clothing style and hair would stand out, in a international airport such as this, she blended in with the crowed, 'only a basketball player could be seen in this mass of people' Kagome thought to herself, then it hit her.
The 40 cm heels.
Considering that the woman was already taller than her, the heels had to make her stand out even in this crowed, so Kagome simply started looking around, it didn't take her long to spot the mass of hair moving above the rest of the heads.
She started walking, trying to build up the act, Kagome decided her story to be that
Her passport was stolen, along with her money and personal belongings, and that she would need a place to stay until her family could mail her money.
"uhmm, excuse me, r Ryo-san" she said, biting her tongue to create the pained expression, Kagome figured that once she'll convince the girl she's in trouble, Ryo would suggest help to help her on her own.
"oh! If it isn't you, Kagome-chan! I was just telling the guys about you!" Ryo quickly embraced Kagome, who, in turn, felt that something was incredibly wrong, but she decided it was more important to pay attention to the rest of the band.
The first thing she noticed was that all of them had a very strange energy flow, not that of a youkai, but extremely close to it, probably what Shippo and Sesshomaru meant when they talked about 'rocking',
Their physical appearance wasn't any better, of course, among the six, five seemed to be younger than her, and only two seemed be able to pass as normal in a Japanese street.
"let me introduce you, Kagome-chan! The three over there are Ichijou-kun and his two sidekicks, and they're the opening band – Fire Gunz" Ryo pointed at three man, Ichijou had an extremely point hair, while the other two seemed almost insignificant.
"and these are my friends!" she pointed at three other men, "the one with the Mohawk is Reiji, the old one is Ran, and the cute one is Romio-tan" the three man looked at her, the first to speak was apparently Ran.
"I'm not old! I'm only four years older than you guys!" however, his voice was overtaken by the questions of Reiji and Romio.
"are you alone here?" one asked, "are you single?" someone said, "what are you doing in Hag?", "it's been a while since Romio has talked to a woman, forgive him for his rudeness", "shut up! You're the one with the hand inside his underwear all the time!" they continued.
By this moment it was quite clear to Kagome that using the band would be easy, no matter how freakishly they acted, they seemed to be quite the innocent helpful type.
"I'm… I was robbed" Kagome started saying, "they took everything I had, my wallet, my money, my documents" she continued, readying herself for the big tear jerking conclusion, "I, I just don't know what to do…". Perfect.
As Kagome expected, Ryo was quick to invite her over to the club where they would be performing, "Iwaseki knows how to deal with stuff like this" she said, and promised her that nothing would happen to her.
----()()()()()----
"Seven male humans, seven male humans"
Inuyasha kept that description in mind as he looked over for the band, night time came and he was in his human form, it meant that he didn't have much means of identifying them, so he had to drive back and forth in the parking lot in hope to see the group.
After a few rides he saw a large group of people, around seven or eight, if he could count right, but two seemed to be females. Again, it was one of those times he wished he would have paid more attention to what was happening with his eyes and not just his nose, smell identity verification was good and well as a youkai, but in his human form, it was useless.
He stopped next to them, "have you seen a band of Asian people around here? They call themselves Bremen and Fire Gunz" he called them in English.
"That's us! We've been waiting for you" one of them said, he was already walking to the vehicles door. The rest of them followed, "is that all of you?" he asked in English again.
"uhhm, yes" a girl answered.
At that time, Inuyasha paid no mind to her, his mind was too strangled in the thoughts of whether his brother could actually think hard enough to notice all the clues he left for him to follow. Inuyasha felt that hoping was a waste of time, though, as his brother never learned to actually consider what other people may do in his calculations.
"hey, our driver is pretty cure, I wonder if he's single" one of the girls said in Japanese, two of the males were quick to respond.
"What the hell are you doing, Ryo? We can't have you scaring him, so leave your claws of him" the Mohawk guy said, "Ryo, leave him alone, he's doing us a favor" the other one said, and then turned to Inuyasha and started speaking in English, "don't be tricked, Mr. driver, it might look like a woman, but Ryo is actually a man".
Someone in the back shrieked in surprise, which in turn, almost caused Inuyasha to drive the vehicle right into the opposite lane, not from the yell itself, but because of a memory it provoked in him, but he pushed that memory aside.
"sorry about that, fellows, I don't know what took over me" he said in Japanese, they all turned to him, "impressive, so you can also speak our language, and with such an accurate accent" one of them said, but Inuyasha was more focused on the shrike which came again from the back seats, it seemed so familiar to him.
At the back of the vehicle, sat a lonely girl named Kagome, the attention around her has dawned, perhaps because Ran has asked them to leave her alone, or perhaps because of their excitement about the upcoming show. Thanks to that, she was left with more time to inspect them, Romio, Reiji and Ryo were busy insulting each other, and apparently Romio was said to be a stray dog, a name which almost made her smile. Reiji was called a rooster head, obviously because of his Mohawk, Ryo was a pussycat, probably because of her neko-like expressions, and Ran, he was called a donkey for some reason, which seemed to have something to do with cars, though Kagome has never really taken any interest in that field.
"Don't be tricked, Mr. driver, it might look like a woman, but Ryo is actually a man"
The comment by Romio caused Kagome to release a weak yell, though it did seemed to explain the girl's, uhm, guy's abnormal energy flow, the sudden turn of the car didn't leave her much time to think about the subject any further. Instead, she was now focused on the driver's energy flow; it was almost non existent, very subtle shade of gray, as if all color has vanished away from the man. Kagome couldn't imagine a mental state that would cause such a change, and asking him to tell him of any past traumas was completely out of question, not only because it would ruin her cover, but mostly because doing so would be considered extremely rude.
Despite that, his voice was something else; it reminded her of something, of a man's voice. "Remember what you're supposed to do", she told herself, "just be calm and silent", however, the voice still bickered at her head.
"We're here, the 'Dark path of the moon' club" the driver, said, it wasn't very far from the airport, in this time of the night, it took them less than twenty minutes to get there. But judging by the amount of building next to it, and the amount of people walking by, it was in the center of the city, and in daytime, it would have taken them over an hour to get there.
"great, come on, Kagome-chan, I'll talk to Iwaseki, he's a good guy and he can take care of you until your back on your feet again". Ryo started saying, he pulled Kagome hand and began to leave the car, he suddenly felt a strong grab on his hand.
At most cases, Ryo would have used his transsexual sex appeal to flirt his way out of any situation, but this time, he didn't even have the chance to begin his 'if you want a girl so badly' speech. Before he knew it, he was already thrown out of the vehicle.
"Hey, just what are you doing!" he shouted, but the car was rolling away, and Kagome was alone in it.
"What the hell are you doing?" Kagome leaned over to the driver, ready to slap him, and if that didn't work, to assault him.
"It really is you" he said, the voice seemed even more familiar than before, they were already two streets away from the club.
"What do you mean?" she asked. His voice stopped her from moving; the energy around him began to swirl wildly.
"Kagome Hirugashi" he said, "it really is you".
"Have we met earlier?" she continued.
He stopped the car and turned to her, "I guess you've forgotten already, maybe you don't even believe what happened was real".
The moment he turned to her she recognized him, the black hair was styled differently, and his face have matured a little, but his eyes were still the same, Inuyasha.
It then occurred to her that she didn't think of what she will do once she met him, before, she believed that she'll just spit in his face and walk away, hurting him as he hurt her. This option didn't seem valid now, she saw him beginning to move towards her. "I'm not going to hug him, I can't let him dominate over me like that" she told herself, she felt her lips starting to move, it was even worse, "don't do it! Don't kiss him!" her mind screamed. Her lips, apparently, listened.
"SIT, SIT, SIT, SIT!"
Inuyasha felt an old sensation coming over him as his face met with the car's chairs, again and again, it reminded him that there was one thing he could do without in this reunion.
A moment after Kagome stopped screaming, he stood up, and immediately felt a pair of arms wrapped around him, he did the same.
End of chapter 05
Woot, a big chapter, ending with the usual gag. Got to love the gag. You also got to love Bremen, they're so easy to write, Fire gunz aren't, I only know tiny bits about them, seeing as they hardly do anything in Hareluya II Boy… but the most fun to write is Iwaseki, he's a really cool guy.
Despite what I said earlier, I might actually be able to write chapter 06 in time to release it, so this isn't necessarily the end, but it's the most 'complete' ending you'd get to see. Yes, next chapter will start a completely new arc, without Sesshomaru and Shippo, but filed with Inuyasha and Kagome, and lots of other crazy antics.
Naturally, I would like to know what you guys think about it, but since 75 percent of the reviews I've gotten were done by SlummyRedDragon, I can't expect to hear many opinions, it makes me wonder whether he is the only one reading or rather everybody else is just purely lazy…
Well, if I've started ranting, I might as well finish:
I never expected to get 100+ reviews, I don't write any "new girl in HS Kagome with HAWT boy Inuyasha and neurotic ex Kikyo" stories, nor do I write "Kagome saw IY kissing Kikyo and goes back to her time, and then he comes back and marries her" fics. I'm aware that I write fairly complicated plots, lots of lies and miss information, but even so, this isn't a random crossover between inuyasha and some obcsence anime like mobile shinsengumi unit (which would be "OMG! Kagome and Inuyasha go into the well and end up in the meiji era, and then they join to mobile shinsengumi!"), like the crossover I did with Naruto a year ago (which also racked less than 10 reviews).
Just statistically, I should have at least one or two guys who read a chapter and decided that I'm a "poopy head" and sent a review with that opinion, and then a few who read two chapters and decided it was too complicated and boring for them to read. But no. I feel as if nobody actually notices the story, is it possible that I update a few mintues after the page refreshes? And so my story gets pushed back to the second page by newer updates before it's even out?
Anyway, I'm bitching about a lot of stuff, it's most likely just nervousness about the army, pay no real attention to it.