Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha.
Once again I'd like to thank everybody that reviewed my fanfic. You guys really make me feel special. (-ed…). Nah, just kidding. But anyway, my thoughts and ideas are all in scrambles so I'll need to do a good job organizing them. (Whatever thoughts and ideas that I have at the moment…) So, if this chapter is a bit confusing just tell me in a review and maybe for the next chapter I'll actually write down my ideas.
What're you doing?
Psyche: (shuffle) Nothing…
C'mon, let me see!
Psyche: Alright, alright, shut the fuck up. (steps aside)
(Big Q in a bright pink tutu and dancing the can-can with her eyes crossed.)
Big Q: (in high squeaky voice) CAN YOU DO THE CAN-CAN! CAN YOU DO THE CAN-CAN! CAN YOU DO THE CAN, CAN, CAN, CAN, CAN!
0.0
Psyche: (snicker) Two and a half pounds of sugar in her morning tea and BAM! Entertainment to last me at least half a day!
She'll kill you when she wakes up. You do know that right?
Psyche: 0.0 Oh, shi…
Chapter 12: Flying Dog-Monkeys
"Uh…"
"ANSWER THE GODDAMN QUESTION, PIPSQUEAK!"
"Why should I! It isn't any of your business anyway!"
"I'LL MAKE IT MY EFFING BUSINESS!"
"You can't do that!"
"YES, I CAN!"
"No, you CAN'T!"
"YES, I CAN!"
"No, you CAN'T!"
"Um, guys, stop arguing?" Kagome asked, a sweat drop already rolling down the back of her head. This was getting really old; not to mention annoying.
Ever since they had picked up Shippo and Rin from the elementary school and Flarenii began integrating Shippo, the two had bickered almost endlessly. At first it started out okay, Shippo was answering the questions, but after a while, it just became agitating just listening to the annoying twelve-year-old. Even Rin and Kohaku found it hard to hold a conversation when two of the other occupants in the car were having a screaming match.
"YES, I CAN!"
"No, you CAN'T!"
Kagome knew it was no use telling the two young kids to stop, but hey, if at first you fail; try, try, and try again, right? Besides, all their yelling at each other was distracting her from her driving, and Inuyasha wouldn't like it if she were to return his new car back to him with a repair bill in tow. He did have insurance covering his car, right? "Stop arguing, please?"
"YES, I CAN!"
"No, you CAN'T!"
Suddenly, Kagome's shoulders started trembling slightly, and her grip on the steering wheel was so steel-like that Kohaku and Rin could even hear the material squeak over the screaming. Kagome was gonna blow in the car any minute now. Seeing as how he was the only man in the car, Kohaku had to take charge of the situation.
With his most manly voice, Kohaku tried to make himself heard over the childish yelling. "Um, Shippo, could you mayb-"
Too late.
"I've asked countless times and I'm getting seriously tired from all your yelling."
Kohaku gulped loudly from somewhere in the back while Rin, who was sitting right behind the driver's seat couldn't exactly see Kagome silently seething; not that the child had actually ever seen Kagome go nuclear. Shippo had stopped yelling and was looking at Kagome. One look was enough for him to go quiet.
But dear old Flarenii never listens to anyone (or anything for the matter) and was right in the middle of shouting back a "YES, I CAN!" when the car suddenly stopped moving with a loud screeching sound and Flarenii, who was facing the back of the car, was only kept from hitting back first into the dashboard because of her seat belt, felt herself fly back, - and then smack her face into the headrest on the seat. Ouch.
The next thing her brain could register was the passenger door suddenly opening and her flying out into the residential sidewalk ass first. Double Ouch.
Kagome drove on as if nothing had happened. Putting on a cheerful smile Kagome managed to somewhat convince the two boys in the car that the raven-haired girl had a split-personality disorder. Meanwhile, Rin just sat there confused as to why Shippo and Kohaku were pissing in their pants scared. Well, the 'pissing in their pants' part sort of only applied to Shippo. Kohaku just looked like a dead piece of wood, - that was scared of course.
"Now then, let's go visit Sango and Grandma Kaede at the apartments shall we?"
"…"
Meanwhile on the sidewalk with your brilliant little matchmaker-to-be:
"Ow, ow, ow, I swear I broke my fucken ass-bone." The Chinese girl grimaced and squeezed her eyes shut as she used a nearby tree for support.
After finally managing to stand up, the girl pulled her face into an angry and ugly look. The bitch and me are SO not gonna get along. (A/N: And that was exactly what I thought when I first saw Kagome in action. But, alas, no Kagome-bashing in this fic. Too bad.) As soon as she stood to her full height without the aid of the tree, the girl immediately doubled over and groped her rear (In a non-wrong way I tell you!). "Bitch, mother..!"
In that bent over, ass-groping position, the girl searched for her cell phone. "Damn it! Where the hell is that shit phone of mine…," Flarenii searched in every pocket that she had on her and the only things she could find were house keys, lunch money that weren't hers, pocket lint, pocket lint, and more pocket lint. "Oh, yeah, I left them in my side bag. Silly me." With a smile her hand reached for her side, - only to find air.
Her smile disintegrated as she panicked. Where the fuck was her fucken side bag!
"…"
Damn, this is SO not good. Her side bag must still be in that bitch's car. Flarenii head-banged the tree trunk and was awarded with a sharp pain traveling from her skull all the way down her spine and tingled her tail bone. Err, ass bone. Whatever.
"DAMN!" Gritting her teeth, Flarenii looked around, there was no one around and she was in a neighborhood she wasn't exactly familiar with.
Okay, first things first. She had to somehow find the bitch and get her side bag back. Kagome had said that she was going to take Kohaku to see Sango so that they would be at the apartments. Great, so not only does she have a broken ass, she had to walk all the way to Lame-ass's place. Could things get any worse than this?
After taking a few small steps, still bent over, Flarenii could hear a car pulling up behind her and before she could turn around to see who it was, a voice called out.
"Hey, Flarenii, doncha know that masturbation eventually leads to depression."
And it just got worse.
With a ferocious string of colorful words and insults just at the tip of her tongue, ready to fly out in the face of the bastard that dare say that to her, Flarenii spun around as quickly as her injured butt would allow her, just about to snarl when her anger contorted face fell blank. "Heeeeeeyyyyyyyy, it's you!"
After tossing out the screaming Chinese girl, the car had gotten awfully quiet until Kagome felt that since she was in really high spirits that here had to be some music. So, the raven-haired girl flipped to the classical music station and started humming to the tune of Beethoven's Ode to Joy.
Kagome usually falls asleep whenever she hears this station. Shippo's emerald eyes zoomed over to see the back of Kagome's head. This is really weird.
It wasn't long before they pulled up and parked next to the sidewalk. It was a sunny afternoon and the kids that had just got home from school were playing outside on the lawn in front of the apartment. Kagome got out followed by the young three. Rin, being the young youthful child that she was, skipped around the now-cheery Kagome while the two boys stayed behind her, fearing that she might all of a sudden snap.
It turned out that Sango was not her room when Kaede stepped out of her room (which was on the first floor near the entrance) and gave an old wrinkled smile. Rin and Shippo ran to hug the grandmotherly lady while Kohaku beamed at the old woman.
"It's so nice to see you again, Grandma Kaede!" Kagome gave her a hug as soon as Rin and Shippo ran into the room to steal cookies from the cookie jar that the landlady had in her kitchen.
Kaede gave a light laugh. "It is the same here, child." She stepped aside from the doorway and invited Kohaku and her in.
"Sango!" Kagome sent a near-crushing hug to her best friend as soon as she saw the brown-eyed girl in the living room drinking tea.
As soon as Kagome let go, Sango felt another tight hug from her younger brother. "Sister!"
Sango gave a small, tiny, almost non-existent smile and ruffled Kohaku's hair. "It's great to see you too, Kohaku." She turned to give that same small smile to Kagome. "And you too, Kagome."
Kagome returned a huge smile before taking a seat on the sofa next to Sango. "So, feeling any better? You sounded pretty bad when you called me."
At that, Sango's face dropped. Whatever cheer that was on her face a second ago was gone now. Oops, wrong thing to say, Kagome.
"I'm sorry for the trouble, Kagome."
Kagome nodded understandingly. "Don't worry about it. It wasn't much trouble." She had a feeling that Sango was hiding something from her when she called and now she confirmed it: Sango was having tea with Kaede with the SPECIAL tea set which meant that the two of them must have been discussing something really (x100) important.
Well, whatever it was, Kagome was fine with not knowing about it. Even though she wanted to help her best friend through her troubles, if Sango didn't want to talk about it now, it would do no good to force her to tell her.
"Sister," Kohaku spoke up over the two girls' chatter. "We made something in art class and uh…" The boy's face went red with embarrassment. "I wanted to show it to you."
Sango smiled at her younger brother, a smile slightly bigger than her last one, and ruffled Kohaku's hair again.
"Ah, I forgot! I left my backpack in the car."
"Here." Kagome handed Kohaku the keys and the boy took off to Kagome's car. As soon as he reached the silver Malibu and unlocked the doors, he bent in and grabbed his green Jansport when he noticed something lying on the passenger's seat. It was a dark black side bag with many key chains hanging randomly and little things sewn on.
Shutting the side door, Kohaku opened to the passenger door and grabbed the bag and nearly dropped it due to the weight. What was in here? Bricks? Looking around to see if anyone was around (if anyone was around it would have made him look even more suspicious). He flipped the top open and was shocked to see all the junk, papers, and other things that were mashed into the bag. He dug his hand into the bag; no doubt about it, this was definitely that crazy girl's bag.
What shocked and scared Kohaku the most was when his hand brushed against the cold metal of something. Pulling it slowly, his eye's widened; in his hand he was holding a Smith & Wesson. It had to be a toy. But…the way it felt and looked, it was just too real to be fake.
Kohaku's hand dropped to his side along with the gun.
Just who was that girl?
"Jesus, lil dog-monkey, you didn't have to get that mad. I was only joking. Can't take a joke can ya?"
"Oh, shut the fuck up. AND DON'T CALL ME DOG-MONKEY!" Flarenii shouted, giving Hiroshi another whap on the arm. That was a mistake, as soon as her arm moved her ass bone started giving her some major pain.
"Hey, watch it! I'm driving, brat!" The blonde-haired waiter shouted, trying to correct the slightly old and beat-up Nissan.
"Like you have a real driver's license!" Flarenii shouted back as she tried to get into a comfortable position in the seat.
Gold eyes took a glare at the Chinese girl before returning to the road. "So what were you doing screwing yourself over there?"
"Fuck it! How many times to I have to tell you? I WASN'T MASTURBATING, YOU SICK SONOVA BITCH!" Flarenii huffed and crossed her arms in front of her. "If the bumblebee head really wants to know, I was kicked out of the car, okay?"
Hiroshi looked at her questioningly out of the corner of his eye. "Kicked outta the car? Whose car?"
"Someone you don't know." Flarenii answered, looking out the passenger window. "Anyway, just drop me off at Lame-ass's place."
Hiroshi settled back into his seat more. "Itachio's place? You know he's still a lil pissed. Well, as pissed as that ice-block can get. I swear, if it weren't for that one guy…Sessho-what's-his-name; you know the one that tipped me like fifty bucks, I would say that Itachio was the biggest ice-block on the face of the entire stinkin' planet."
"Damn right."
The two were silent for a minute before Hiroshi spoke up, his voice oddly serious. "You, uh, know that that institute or whatever called in today at the restaurant."
Flarenii's dark brown eyes bolted over to stare at the blonde. "So, what'd they say?"
Hiroshi shrugged. "They wouldn't tell me. They said they were looking for Itachio."
"Wouldn't they call his house or his cell?" Flarenii asked, all her former anger gone.
"Yeah, like he'll ever decide to answer his friggin cell for once." Hiroshi replied.
Flarenii rolled her eyes. "Yeah, well that's beside the point."
Hiroshi turned and grinned at her. "And guess what else they told me, kid."
"What?"
Still grinning, the blonde returned his gold eyes to the road. "He didn't answer his house phone or his cell phone. And they tried a couple of times too."
Hiroshi's car pulled up next to the curb, right behind Kagome's car, and the blonde kept his eyes straight ahead, as did Flarenii.
"Anyways, just tell Itachio that he's behind on his payments."
Flarenii stepped out of the car without a word; her hand reached up and massaged her neck. Right.
Standing there in that same spot, stock-still for maybe about twenty seconds, the boy shoved the Smith & Wesson back into the bowels of the bag and slammed Kagome's door shut, locking it hastily, and ran back into the apartments. Maybe he should tell them about the gun. Nah, 'cause then maybe Kagome might have a panic attack and call the cops. Then, the cops will come and start questioning everybody.
No, he'll hide the gun deep into the bag where they won't find it.
Stopping right outside Kaede's door, Kohaku's hand reached for the doorknob, the voices of the people inside drifting towards his ears. He let his hand drop before opening the side bag again. His eyes scanned the interior of the messy bag and stuffed the gun underneath some junk and a wrapped piece of foil paper that smelled suspiciously like old pizza. Ew.
Nobody really noticed much when Kohaku came back in and walked into the living room. Shippo and Rin were playing Candy Land on the floor next to the coffee table where the Kaede, Kagome, and Sango were sipping tea and talking quietly.
Sango looked up to see her brother's uneasy expression. "Is something wrong, Kohaku?"
The boy's eyes were serious and somewhat afraid as he said not a word and dropped the bag on the table.
"This isn't your backpack," Kagome pointed out, setting her tea cup down and reaching for the backpack, but stopping halfway. "What's that smell?"
"I believe that would be old pizza," Kaede replied without looking up from her tea.
"…okay…"
Kohaku swallowed. "I think this might be Ms. Joming's." Being the polite boy as always, his eyes looked over at Kagome, who was supporting a guilty look.
"Oops. I must've forgotten to throw it out after her."
Sango looked at Kagome, confused. "Throw it out?"
Kagome quickly shook her head, all the while laughing nervously. "Oh, heh heh heh, don't worry 'bout it. Forget what I said!"
"M-maybe we should call her to let her know that we have her bag." Kohaku stuttered out, avoiding the women's eyes.
"Kohaku, is there something ye would like to share with us?" Kaede inquired.
Kohaku shook his head vehemently. "No…"
Sango and Kagome shared a disbelieving look before Kagome cautiously placed the bag in front of her and opened it, never know when something bad might come falling out. The more Kagome dug threw the contents, the worried look on her face grew.
At last Kagome gave up and told the others, "There's no contact information."
"Let me see." Sango started looking into the bag before with a grunt; she turned the bag upside down and emptied out all the junk onto the coffee table.
"Oh, my." Kaede remarked at the sight that laid before her. It looked as if somebody had dumped a garbage bag and all of its garbage on her table. Not to mention the slight greasy smell.
The two kids had stopped playing and were picking through the junk curiously.
"Look, Shippo, look!" Rin cried as she picked up an old photograph. The others gathered around the wrinkled picture.
The image was slightly ruined due the fact that it had been crushed at the bottom of the bag for so long, but they managed to make out some of the people in the photo.
The picture, as far as they could tell, had been taken outside a restaurant, quite fancy from the looks of it. On the far left was a young Chinese girl making an ugly face and sticking her thumb out at the camera, it was without a doubt a younger Flarenii. A silver-haired young man had his arm round her shoulder and was grinning at the picture and the other two people were unidentifiable, but it was sure that whoever in the middle of the picture was a girl and on the far right was a guy.
Kaede leaned in closer to inspect the picture of the young man. "My, this young man sure looks like Mr. Jaamaru."
"No."
The other five looked at Sango with surprised looks on their faces.
Sango kept her eyes on the man's face. There was no way that was the Itachio that lived across from her. "I highly doubt that's him, he doesn't smile like that."
When she looked up, she was met with embarrassment as Kagome smiled at her slyly and Kaede looked thoughtful, Kohaku was confuzzled and Rin was giggling. Shippo looked just as confused as Kohaku, but he returned to digging through the mess.
"Hey, I found a cell phone." Sure enough, the young boy held up a silver Samsung phone.
Sango leaned on her arm. "So even if we found a number, we couldn't have contacted her."
"Maybe we should call her house and let her parents know. Provided that they don't think we stole her backpack or anything." Kagome said, reaching for the cell phone and planning to search through the phone's address book.
Suddenly, something caught the eye of Kohaku as he reached a hand for a plain looking notebook. After he opened the cover, his eyes reached Bambi-size and he held out the notebook in front of Sango. "Maybe, you should look at this, Sister."
This time everybody gathered around Sango as she took the book from her younger brother. The first few pages were either blank, doodled on, or scribbled on hastily. Sango flipped through the pages and she could feel something going on. After a few more blank pages, there were pictures of other young, rather cute-looking women, and little fragments of information about them. Looking at it was just adding fuel to the mystery.
"I wonder if she's some kind of stalker." Kagome thought out loud as her eyes followed the pages.
What had shocked Sango the most that she almost dropped the notebook was she came to a page that a picture clipped out from a newspaper glued to the page. It was taken a few years ago when Kikyo's café won the annual "Best Café Award" and the photographer asked to take pictures of all the employees standing together. There was Kikyo in the middle and Sango, Koharu, Momiji, and Botan standing on either side of her.
After turning another page, Sango snapped the book shut surprising the others.
"Is something wrong?" Kaede asked.
Just that moment, Kirara, who had been napping peacefully and unnoticeably underneath the coffee table, suddenly bolted out next to Shippo, knocking the young boy over.
Sango stood up quickly when Kirara ran toward the apartment room door and started growling softly.
Outside, the dog-monkey had come to collect what was hers.
End Chapter 12
Finally done with another chapter, please don't hate me. Things kept on coming up and up, so yeah. But, hey, at least I updated right? Right? Right? Right? …Please read and review. (Flames welcome.)