Disclaimer: God, just kill me now…I DON'T OWN INUYASHA!
Anyway, I'd just like to thank everybody for reviewing, particularly KiT for being my most loyal and faithful reader. If you guys have been waiting patiently for a month for me to update, thank you. My excuse is…school sucks mondo. I'll try to update sooner next time, but I'm thinking maybe one chapter every two weeks? I'll try to aim for that. Anyway, here comes chappie 11!
Chapter 11: Question and Answer
After getting home, Sango dumped everything she bought next to the fridge, took a shower, and went to bed with her hair dripping wet and Kirara complaining about having to share a sleeping space with something wet. (Complaining meaning hissing and scratching.)
And so Sango woke up the next morning with an extremely bad mood, a small horizontal scratch right smack in the middle of her two eyebrows, and a cold. After sneezing her way through shower, she got to actually putting her groceries away.
"Soup…soup…canned thingy…cat food. Kirara, come here, I got your breakfast." Sango called out to her cat as she crossed her tiny kitchen and looked for her trusty can-opener in her drawers.
Most of her drawers contained useless shit: toothpicks, scissors, "Thinking About Suicide?" pamphlets…Finally she got to the drawer at the end of the row and pulled it open, the first thing that hit her was the necklace that Hiroshima had bought for her the time they went to the mall together. Sango fingered the necklace, turning it around. Black and white…She had almost forgotten where she placed this, Sango didn't want Kirara swallowing and choking on it so she put it somewhere where her cat couldn't get it. In the end, she herself couldn't find it. How lame was that? Very, very lame.
Smiling a little to herself, Sango placed the necklace into the back of the drawer. It was then that she felt a sharp nick at the tip of her middle finger. Surprised, she drew her hand back out, shocked to see a thin line of blood running down a slim digit.
Sango pulled the drawer fully out to get a better look at what had cut her. That was when she saw it and her eyes darkened –the razorblades. Those were her best friends in the past four years. Her real friends may have stopped her from killing herself, but they never found out she cuts herself whenever they're not around.
Slowly, she picked one up in front of her eyes. The edges of the blades were clean and shiny as if it were brand new. As if in a trance, she brought her wrist up and rested the edge of the blade against her wrist. Her heart pounded in her ears. She needed to open her skin; she needed to feel the warmth flow down her arm freely. She had to see the delicious red overtaking her. She-
"Mreow…"
That did it. Kirara's soft meow and nudge against Sango's leg snapped her out of it. The brown-haired girl gasped in shock and with a small clink the razorblade fell to her kitchen floor.
W-what was she thinking! She stopped doing that months ago. Breathing deeply for air as if she had been holding her breath for a long time, Sango gripped her head. This had to stop.
Kirara sat on her hunches watching her master with her unblinking, red cat eyes.
Slowly, Sango's hand dropped and hanged next to her sides. Still breathing heavily, Sango's brown eyes turned and met Kirara in the eyes. Master and servant regarded each other with a stare filled with a thousand words. Without a sound, Kirara padded over to Sango and rested her fluffy chin on Sango's thigh. An animal's affection to her master.
She finally blinked, and Sango patted Kirara's soft head before reaching over to the fallen can of cat food, using the side of the razorblade she pried open the can. Dumping it into Kirara's own special little bowl, Sango gave a small smile.
As Kirara melted away in Cat-Food Land, Sango's smile grew and she scratched the cat behind the ears with affection. "Thank you…"
Kagome's uneasiness grew with each passing minute as she turned the corner to Myelid (pronounced 'Me-ya-lead') Middle School. Sango would always pick up her brother, Kohaku, on Fridays. Was she thinking of suicide again? Kagome shook her head roughly. NO! Sango stopped that months ago, she had to have faith in her best friend.
Right when it was her shift off, Kagome had received a call from Sango, asking if she would mind picking her little brother up from school. Kagome obviously didn't mind, but she just couldn't help wondering if there was an alternate reason behind the: "I just don't feel well today…"
Oh, well, I guess she's just asking for a bubble to think in…Kagome thought as she stopped the car on the curb. When she opened the door and got out, she immediately found Kohaku sitting on a bench with another girl. The boy looked a little harassed and the girl seemed to be pestering him with questions or what not because she was holding a notepad and seemed to be scribbling down everything Kohaku said.
Kagome blinked. Was she a stalking fan girl? A mischievous smile flashed on the raven-haired girl's face. Wow, I had no idea that Kohaku could charm girls already. But it was then that Kagome choked on her thoughts and recognition clicked somewhere in her mind. Wait a damn second…
Kagome's smile greeted a surprised Sango. Inuyasha walked in after Kagome with Shippo behind him. Our silver-haired dude made sure that he didn't walk near Kikyo when he stood next to Sango. Shippo however didn't get a chance to say "Hi." to Kikyo as Momiji and Botan rushed at him with open arms. Literally.
"Who's this? Friend of yours?" Inuyasha asked, picking Flarenii up by the collar of her shirt.
Both Kagome and Inuyasha's eyebrows made like the Rock when they read the girl's shirt.
Sango looked away. "No, I don't know her, but she was starting to annoy me."
"A-annoy you? Oh, I'll fucking annoy you all right!" Flarenii flailed and tried to get out of Inuyasha's grip.
Inuyasha didn't even seem troubled; he gave the girl a shake that made her braces jiggle. "Little brats like you shouldn't be using big words."
"Look who's talking." Flarenii smirked and pulled her Smith & Wesson right in front of Inuyasha's face and pulled the trigger.
There was a large popping noise as a mini-flag with the word' Bang!' shot out which caused our dear Inuyasha to jump and drop our very disgruntled Flarenii on her ass on the floor. The spunky twelve-year-old scrambled onto her feet and slammed a few dollar bills on the counter in front of Koharu's face before taking off calling a, "This isn't the last of me!" over her shoulder.
"Wha…" Kagome started, but Inuyasha yelled over her.
"Hey, watch it, kid!"
Flarenii had ran right smack in the middle of the street with a huge freighter truck coming at her. At the last minute, she turned around and waved goodbye to our lovely heroes with an I-love-to-annoy-geeks-like-you smirk on her face. The truck honked and drove past her, Flarenii out of their sights.
Kagome gasped, believing that the truck had ran her over. Sango was shocked as well, but that changed when the truck passed. There was nobody there, and no still form of a poor kid that got ran over. Then where did Flarenii poofed to?
"Well, that was weird." Inuyasha muttered.
Kagome gasped, that girl was the same person from the Café! Walking as fast as she could in her high-heeled sandals, she made her way past all the other parents that were picking up their kids and the other students. Gosh, darn it! I knew I shouldn't have worn high heels today! Kagome mentally screamed at herself in frustration. Fuck it, her feet already hurt from walking around spraying the flowers in the flower/antique shop that she worked at.
"Sooooo…yer name's Kohaku Taijiya, right? And you're Sango's younger sister, right? And you're13, right? Only a year older…Hello? Say something, dude." The strange girl shook her pen in front of the distressed boy.
Kohaku's eyes looked from the girl and the quickest way away from her and back. "Umm…yeah…Er…who're you?"
"The best match-maker that the world has ever seen!" The girl's outburst nearly made Kohaku fall backwards from the bench he was sitting on and straight into the bush behind him.
A clear sweat drop was forming at the back of Kohaku's head as he laughed nervously, thinking that the girl might be one of the kids from the special-education classes. "Eh…heh heh heh…right…"
"Kohaku!"
The amber-eyed (A/N: I just found out his name meant "amber" in Japanese. Is that cool or what? XD…Okay, I'll shut up…) looked up and when he saw the person that had called his name, he breathed a deep sigh of relief. "Kagome…" Just as Kohaku stood up, he felt a bony hand latched onto his arm, stopping him. Shudder…fucken creepy hand…
"Hang on, dude, I'm not done 'inter-o-gating' you yet!" The Chinese girl glared at him. It was kind of embarrassing for Kohaku, seeing as how he was a year older than her, yet she was just about the same height as him. Maybe he should actually start drinking his milk…
When Kagome finally approached Kohaku and the girl, she doubled over and gasped for air. Man, she had never speed-walked that far and that fast in her entire life. Maybe she's been putting on extra weight or something…NO!
Kohaku noticed that his sister's best friend was panting heavily and he bent down until he was at eye level with the girl. "Um…Kagome, are you all right?"
"Yeah…pant…I'm…pant…fine." Kagome straightened up and looked down (well not really down, the girl was almost as tall as her, jeez, what's with all the skinny people being so tall these days? It's like…DAMMIT!) at the Chinese girl. "I-It's you!" Her eyes went from Kohaku to the girl who still had her arm attached to him.
When Flarenii finally realized why Kagome's eyes were going to and back from her and the other kid, she quickly released her grip on him. "Completely platonic. I don't have any interest in guys at the moment, and I'm not saying I'm lesbian or nothing but I have absolutely nothing against girls who're like that."
Kagome blinked. O…kay. That sounded a little like what the girl was wearing when her and Inuyasha had first encountered the strange youth.
Kohaku looked greatly relieved when she finally let go and shook his arm to get the circulation going. Yes, she had been gripping his arm that tight. Just when he was about to ask why wasn't his older sister picking him up, Flarenii spoke again.
"Ignore what I just said." Stuffing her notepad back into her side bag, the girl's hand suddenly went for her neck. Flarenii winced and massaged her neck as she spoke. "Anyway, do I know you? Just to let you know, my daddy says I'm not allowed to talk to strangers."
Kohaku almost choked, was this girl a fucking hypocrite or what! She was a complete stranger to him and there she comes waltzing up to him and starts asking him damn personal questions. He, however being the nice little boy that he is, decided to keep quiet.
Meanwhile, when Flarenii talked Kagome had followed the young girl's hand up to her neck and it was then that she noticed the red lines and light, little bruises that most likely had been caused by a rough hand. Was this child getting abused or something?
Flarenii had noticed Kagome staring at her throat and she pulled her black jacked collar up hastily to hide the red and bruises with a look on her face like, "What the hell you lookin' at?"
Kagome was confused, why was the girl trying to hide that. Kohaku brought her back down to earth. "Um…Kagome, could we go now? I'd like to see my sister, and uh…I'm kind of hungry." The boy grinned sheepishly.
Kagome nodded and said, "But we have to pick up Shippo and Rin first. It'll be quick okay? Here's the keys, why don't you go wait in the car first." Confused but grateful, Kohaku took the keys from Kagome and started over to the Malibu that Kagome had borrowed from Inuyasha.
"Can I get a ride? I missed the bus."
The girl's question caught Kagome off-guard. "What?"
Flarenii rolled her dark-brown eyes. "Need hearing-aides or something, lady? I said, could I get a ride from you. I missed the bus. If it's going to be no, I might as well start walking the long way home. Oh, the agony." Flarenii turned around, her back to Kagome and started to slowly walk away.
Kagome sighed, this girl really needed to work on her whole guilt trip thing. "I never said no."
Almost instantly, Flarenii turned around with a semi-smile on her face. "Thank you very much!"
As she and Kagome started walking side-by-side to where Kohaku was waiting, Kagome blinked when she realized something. She never got the girl's name. "Hey, I'm just wondering, but what's your name."
Flarenii looked at Kagome out of the corner of her eye. "Not that it's any of your business…"
"Kagome."
"Yeah, whatever. I'm Flarenii."
Flarenii. Kagome blinked. Okay, now that was a weird name. The raven-haired girl shrugged it off, she had heard weirder.
Kohaku was shocked when he saw Flarenii walking over to the car. Flarenii opened the passenger side door and climbed in giving Kagome a look. "I'm old enough to sit in front of the 'dangerous' airbag, aren't I?"
Kagome shrugged and started the car, getting onto the road. Kohaku, sitting in the back was surprised that Kagome was giving the girl a ride. Her black beanie-covered head was right in front of him.
Kagome looked both ways before driving on. Safety first! "We're going to be making some stops before I can drop you off, just let you know."
Flarenii shrugged, obviously she didn't mind. After a minute or so of driving silently, Flarenii pulled out her notepad, clicked her pen a couple of times and turned her eyes toward Kagome, flashing her special business-woman smile. "Sooo…I take it you're Sango's best friend, right, Kagome?"
Kohaku leaned against the headrest of the chair in front of him. I feel sorry for Kagome. This girl is absolutely ruthless; she's been stalking me ever since lunch period.
After about the fiftieth question, Kagome nearly lost it and snapped. Flarenii stopped with the questions and instead decided to "analyze" the information that she had already gathered. Oh, she loved this job; it's almost like being a secret agent. (Being an agent was her childhood dream until being a matchmaker came along.) Chewing the tip of her pen, her dark brown eyes zoomed across the page of her notebook. She narrowed her eyes, she should start writing neater. Kinda sucks when even you can't read your own handwriting…
Test Subject #1: Lame-ass
Cons:
-Still absolutely obsessed with (whatever was written here was completely illegible and it looked like someone had spilt dark brown sauce on it.)
-Still bumps into Abi from time to time.
-Work has plenty of girls to grab.
-Is a completely boring motherfucker that talks like a robot half the time.
-Skinny and tall. Girls have problem kissing him. (Ewww….)
Pros:
-More than 15 girls said he was cute. Most of them being strangers.
Personal info:
Flarenii narrowed her eyes, some day she'll have to fill that page in too. Turingthe page, she focused her attention onto…
Test Subject #2: Sandy
Cons:
-A depress-o-atic.
-Pissed at the moment and threw a right-hook.
(Here is pasted a picture of an agitated Sango and a completely surprised Itachio with a tough fist in the side of his face.)
-Has a boyfriend.
Pros:
-Lame-ass thinks she's cute. (Only said that to about 3 other girls in his entire boring lifetime.)
-Sort of tall. Won't have any trouble making out with him. (Once again: Ewww…)
-Boyfriend passed on to the sunny gates and eternal sunshine. R.I.P. (Miroku-need to get last name.)
Personal info:
-Little brother-Kohaku Taijiya goes to same school.
-Works at Miko Internet Café and shifts are:
M-W
11 A.M. to 3 P.M.
5 P.M. to 7 P.M.
F-Sun.
12 P.M. to 4 P.M.
As the car pulled to a stop in front of an elementary school, Flarenii snapped her notebook shut and looked at the ceiling of the car. If she were to find out more, she would need to review all the video and audio tapes that she had recorded when Itachio and Hiroshima had spent time with her. Yes, she had a bug on Itachio. Hey, she had to find some way to keep an eye and ear on him to make sure he didn't do something stupid.
"Kagome!"
Flarenii turned her head to look out of the driver's window and saw two young kids running this way as fast as their short legs would. Kagome smiled and rolled down the window. "Shippo! Rin!"
Flarenii did a double take when she saw the orange-headed short little boy coming over here. The black-haired girl remained a mystery, but this little booger she remembered.
Shippo tugged at Flarenii's shirt and looked up at her with determination in his eyes. "I want to know what happened last week."
Flarenii scowled and held up her side bag and shook it in Shippo's face. "Look here, little brat, us middle-schoolers have a thing called plenty-of-crappy-homework to do after school. I don't have time to tell some little story to a little pre-schooler like you."
Shippo glared at her. "I may look small, but I'm in fifth grade!" After a minute of glaring at each other, Shippo came up with a resolve. "Then tell me at Chuck E. Cheeses at 6: 30 sharp!"
Flarenii looked at him with blank brown eyes before sighing. "Fine, but it better be quick."
(A/N: Gee, everybody's remembering things today, huh?)
As young Shippo neared the car, his running slowed when he looked past Kagome and saw the dark brown-eyed girl. She looks kinda familiar…
Rin noticed that her friend was a little distracted. "What's wrong, Shippo?"
The orange-head shook his head roughly, "Nothing."
As the two kids climbed into the back with Kohaku, Rin and the older boy instantly striked up a conversation while Shippo focused his attention onto beanie-wearing girl sitting in the passenger's seat. Before he could say anything though, the girl turned around and faced him and ran with an almost business-like smile on her brace-face. Those braces are kinda creeping him out…
The girl cleared her throat and held her notebook out in front of her. "So, kid, what's your relationship with Sango?"
Shippo blinked. "Huh, what?"
Kagome and Kohaku sighed deeply. So this was what déjà vu felt like…
End Chapter 11
All I have to say is…leave a review on the way out. (For whomever is actually reading this anyway.)