"I'm going to tell you a little story, Sesshomaru Koizu. I'm going to tell you how a small purple marble has put our necks in danger."

Maybe he shouldn't have gotten the phone. It was never a good sign when it rung at three in the morning.

Crisscross

Chapter Six

The red numbers of the elegant digital clock on the wall changed its numbers to announce the current time. He was having some difficulty falling asleep that night. Not that he ever did get a good night's sleep.

He stood in the balcony, looking down at the quiet Tokyo view in front of him, ignoring the cold wind passing by. He felt uneasy and a bit frustrated for no reason. Maybe this was why Kouga always smoked.

That was when his cell phone started vibrating on the coffee table. He couldn't recognize the number. It could've been anyone. His father trying to get contact with him for the twelfth time of the day, his blasted female workers asking if he wanted company, or that obnoxious client who's been bothering him for the last few days. He didn't feel like getting it. He grabbed the bottle of gin he had been working on and took a small sip.

The vibration didn't stop.

Slowly the numbers of the clock began to switch and the humming sound abruptly came to a stop. He gave his still phone another glance before turning his gaze back to the dark scenery.

And again the small communication device buzzed to life.

It was picked up with a smooth motion of a clawed hand.

He paused, looking at the alien number, and slowly pressed the call button.

The sound of water splattering onto a hard surface reached his ears. He could barely hear the heavy breathing over the splashing of water.

"Geez, I thought you were never going to get it."

He recognized the voice. Why was he acquainted with the most bothersome people?

"Kouga, do you know the time?" He walked over to his bed.

"If I'm reading my watch correctly...It's three in the morning."

"Come by my office twelve hours later." He placed his liquor onto the bedside table.

"I'm at Osaka."

He paused. He silently listened to the splashing droplets of water on the other line as he wordlessly looked out the window to see the clear night sky.

Something was up.

"What is it, Kouga?"

"I'm going to tell you a little story, Sesshomaru Koizu. I'm going to tell you how a small purple marble has put our necks in danger."


The soft chime of the bell on the door woke up the dozing employee in the small jewelry shop. He hastily wiped the wet ends of his mouth and plastered on a smile as he straightened his golden name tag on his uniform.

"Welcome, sir. Hojo Takenaru at your service!" He cheerfully greeted.

'He's going to be a tough one,' Hojo thought as he recognized who his first customer of the day was. The silver hair, the markings on his face, the clean attire and the impassive mask. He didn't need a sign to broadcast that he was the number one conglomerate of Japan.

"Congratulations on your wedding Koizu-sama," he smiled, "I knew your bride in high school, had a little crush on her too, but don't worry I won't steal her away!"

He gave out a hearty laugh before his smile became crooked and changed into a thin line of nervousness when he received a cold glare from the man in front of the counter.

"So, uh... Here for the ring for the lovely bride?" He asked as his hand fumbled on the keys for the counter.

Sesshomaru said nothing but eyed the gleaming trinkets through the glass. He detested every single one of them. The glittering diamond, the pale sapphire, the elegant jade, the whole lot. He turned his gaze back to the sweating young man holding a crimson cushion where a few rings were laid.

"Um, well, uh," he stammered as he pointed at the first ring. "This is the finest one we have. It's diamond with pure gold embellished on the metal and..."

He stopped with a mumble when a single credit card was slid onto the counter.

"But, er, don't you want to know the price first?"

A menacing glare was all Hojo needed to know that he had better get moving if he didn't want his fingers to be amputated. He almost tripped over his feet as he stumbled to the cashier.

"The Shikon no Tama is a legendary object from the heavens...So says the thick history book I smuggled out of the library. And here's the interesting part. It can revive the dead."

"Here's your ring, Koizu-sama," Hojo tentatively said as he placed the container and card onto the counter. "Um...I hope you have...A very nice day."

He grabbed his belongings without another word and swiftly left the jewelry shop with another chime of the bell, not missing Hojo's mutters of cranky customers.

"Not only that, it can open the gates of Hell, purify demon blood, offer eternal life, and all this other shit that I'm not going to read off the thick chapter of this unpleasantly smelling book."

"The Shikon no Tama was a legendary jewel, Kouga. A myth. It was an unexplainable phenomenon when the jewel came into existence and there's no actual evidence that proves its powers."

"That's what I thought, but apparently it's the most dangerous piece of shit ever to be created in this world according to this miko..."

Mellow music was heard through the chatters of the crowd. Customers were busy traveling from store to store, engaged with trivial conversations, laughing as they weaved their way in and out the crowd, soaking in the warmth of the light that poured into the building through the glass dome ceiling. Not many noticed that there was someone standing in front of the railing, silently staring at the ceiling above him.

"Kouga, I thought I told you not to engage yourself in-"

"I didn't. Sesshomaru, we got ourselves in deep shit the moment we saw that glistening purple light."

He could just imagine the peace dove monument. Yes... It was a massive beautiful glass ornament that glimmered under the sunlight as it hung from the dome ceiling.

The blasted piece of art.

"This nutter called me up and offered to take in the Shikon no Tama. He has a museum in the Takashimaya mall just a few streets from here and his name was uh... Toto...?"

"And what about the miko?"

"The miko apparently helps Mr. Nutter at the museum. She says she knows about the Shikon no Tama and hell, all the things she told me about this damn marble were bad...Real bad..."

He surveyed the interior of the mall. Whoever planned it out was quite a creative architect. The shopping complex was divided into three main buildings, two of them as high as twenty two floors. The main building only consisted of seven floors, each of them a few good meters above or below the other. The floors above the third was made in a circular shape with golden railings prevented people from falling through the huge space in the center where one could view the third floor of quaint cafes that were located as a haven for those who needed a place to rest their legs. The seventh floor was also where anyone could view the magnificent glass dove so close, that the delicate trace of each feather, the thin frangible fern that was held in its beak, and the twinkling pair of clear eyes could be observed.

The blasted piece of art.

"This bastard called me up a few minutes after Toto did. We got into a nice little conversation and then everything turned ugly when he started bribing me. I told him to fuck off and the next moment he's threatening me."

"Did you trace the call?"

"Oh yeah, did I ever trace it. Sesshomaru, the call was from Hokkaido."

He could still hear the panicked screams of passersby, the hissing of the lynx demons, and the concerned voice that echoed through his ears.

He had opened the door to find his dripping wet friend offering him a wry smile before trudging into his home. He was holding a thick book in his hand and a large scroll in the other. After dropping everything in his hands on the kitchen table, he quickly unrolled the damp scroll he had brought along to reveal a blueprint of a few buildings. Hastily fishing out a thick marker in his pocket, he pulled off the cover and circled the bottom part of the right building. Sesshomaru merely watched him from behind.

"All right, our destination is right here," Kouga briskly said as he vigorously scribbled on the map. "But Toto's museum is actually here." His hand moved upwards of the yellowish scroll. He scribbled on the third floor of the center building. "But..." His damp hand swerved downwards to point at the first shape he made. "Toto's going to be waiting for us here."

"Ginta suspects the bastard doesn't live in Hokkaido. Apparently he called by a public phone in the suburbs to throw us off track," Kouga growled as he scratched his head. "Osaka, Kyoto, Hiroshima, Yokohama, Nagasaki, and last but not least, Tokyo. He's in one of these cities, but our best guess is the big apple of Japan."

"'A certain delicate bird can slip and plummet right over your head approximately next Friday'", Kouga scoffed. "You call that a threat? He's talking about the peace dove monument."

He slipped a hand into his pocket to fish out a wrinkled cut out newspaper article. He handed it over.

"You didn't go to that peace movement auction, didn't you?"

"Business does not have direct connections with such organization," Sesshomaru coolly answered as he accepted the article. He didn't need to read it to be informed that the grand monument worth almost thirty thousand dollars was bought by a "generous" Japanese conglomerate in the World Auction as a donation to the impoverished people. He obviously did it for the sake of his name as a kind philanthropist.

Kouga smirked at his answer.

"Thought so. Cold hearted Fluffy wouldn't do such a thing."

He ignored the small scoff from the demon as he started tugging onto the silver chain that was hanging from his neck. A purple glint caught his eye as the Shikon no Tama was pulled out from the neck of Kouga's shirt. He held the chain up to reveal a barely visible crack at the bottom of the smooth surface of the rock.
He then reached into his pocket to retrieve a single purple shard, placing it between his thumb and index and bringing it up to their eye level.

"The only shard," he said as he placed it onto Sesshomaru's open hand. A pair of golden eyes studied the harmless piece before turning its gaze back to the intense wolf demon before him.

"The Shikon no Tama is almost no use if it is not in one whole piece," Kouga explained. "This single shard can make a big difference and that's why I'm giving it to you."

"We pretend like we're innocent people just trying to do a good deed by dedicating the most valuable artifact in some nutter's public museum and we trigger off his bird booby trap of his."

An eyebrow shifted upwards.

"We?"

"Yes, we," Kouga repeated, refusing to give in, "Kaede suspects the bastard has this weird green stone things that detects the energy radiating off the Shikon no Tama. Since I have the jewel, they'll focus on me, giving you a chance to take the long route around to trigger off the dove. However, Ginta and Hakkaku will be positioned up on the top floor and they'll ambush anyone near the cables. I suspect there will be someone actually on the dove, most likely a demon of the reptile sort. When he isn't suspecting anything, my two loyal men will pop out of nowhere and...Voila!"

Sesshomaru looked at the ecstatic wolf demon, whose arms were spread wide in the air and quite a large grin on his face, and felt another migraine coming up.

"Kouga, not only is your plan too risky," he started with a slow voice, "But I see it unnecessary. You can easily ask the curator to-"

"He knows about my father, Sesshomaru." Kouga interrupted with a quite voice. The smile was already replaced by a hooded glare. "I'm going to find out how he knew and then rip his obnoxious mouth into two. Now... Are you with me?"

He looked at the single shard on his palm that was still giving off a light purple glow. It was hard to imagine that this thin piece of rock could cause any harm.

His fingers slowly closed themselves over the glowing shard.

Kouga gave him a wry smile.

"You were always a good friend."

He remembered hearing the audible click of the gun, even through the growling and screeching of demons. Why he had acted like he did the next second, even he had no idea.

It appeared that Kouga had underestimated his enemy.

He cursed as he swerved sharply to the left, causing the lynx demon to crash into the wall. The others bounded over his unconscious body and streaked after him.

There was way too many. Kouga had expected three or five lackeys to ambush each of them, not a whole herd of demons. He could hear the scrambling movements of the lizard demons traveling across the ceiling and slammed the door open to reveal a staircase. Skidding slightly as he rushed onto the stairs, he slashed out his venomous whip at the stampede behind him. An ox demon howled as blood poured from his eyes, but the rest crackled louder as they gained on him.

Jumping in great leaps, he reached the final staircase and sprinted out the exit. He whammed the door shut behind him and took off, cursing when he heard the door being smashed down. A shop window shattered with an ear-piercing sound, a leapord demon leaping out through the brutally man-made hole with a hiss, but was soon rammed into the concrete wall as he whipped by. A few more leaps and he was out of the deserted hallway in no time, but soon realized that he had nowhere else to go on the circular floor. He had known that Kouga's plan of sprinting across the third floor to trigger off the dove wasn't going to work from the start, which was why he lured the demons up to the fifth floor, but now that he was facing a dead end and wasn't able to catch the scent of Ginta or Hakkaku, he vaguely wished that it had.

A snarl told him that his unwanted guests have arrived and once again he was engaged into a bloody fight.

If it weren't for the demons bombarding him, maybe he could have noticed the two figures on the glass monument.

A small girl dressed in white with a pair of empty eyes was holding a mirror in her hands. The hunched chameleon demon next to her was mumbling as he peered into the green shards on his palm. They were a dull empty colorasthey gaveoff a very weak glow.

"Master," the demon croaked. "The shards do not seem to respond."

The child nodded and slowly turned her stiff wrists to the right. Smoky tendrils swirled on the surface of the mirror, revealing a dark room through the fading fog.

"The cables has been loosened, Master," he continued. "The mutt does not seem to carry anything."

"Well...It would be a waste to disintegrate such a beautiful piece of work."A smooth, cool voice flowed out of the mirror. "Kill him."

He was snapping the arm of a screaming lizard when he heard the click. The sound was as if the safety switch had been undone right next to his ears. It was then he noticed the hunched form on the monument, the small metal weapon in his hands aimed right at him.

It wasn't exactly fear that erupted inside him. It was rage. The same emotion that surged in his blood when he had seen his mother being pushed ever closer to the end of the precipice. The golden color of his eyes turned into a deep red as he let out a low snarl. He grabbed the unconscious lizard demon by the scruff and flung him over the railing.

But why he chose that moment to look down, he was still not sure.

He saw her, the woman, standing in the middle of the exposed floor below, oblivious of what was happening four floors above her. He saw her looking at the mall map, lightly trailing her finger over the picture and something inside of him snapped.

The reptile demon didn't even have time to react. The limp body collided with his much smaller form, making him slide backwards on the slippery glass. The sudden addition of weight made the monument swing slowly as it hung from its loose cables, causing the demon to stumble towards the narrow tail feathers. He barely managed to hang on before he noticed his weight was causing the monument sink towards its tail. He could hear the creaking of the hooks and the loud snapping noises of the cables he himself had loosened and frantically tried to climb back on until he noticed the lizard's body sliding towards him.

"Shit."

The last feeble cable snapped.

Sesshomaru looked down the railing, now fully noticing the outstanding height between the third floor and his present location.

He didn't remember climbing onto the railing nor jumping off of it as he heard the loud snap, but he soon found himself plummeting towards the bottom at an amazing speed. He didn't recall hearing the screams of the people below nor the challenging howls from his foes above him, but he did remember seeing her looking up. He did remember that she had a shocked look on her face when he threw himself over her the moment he landed. And oh, did he ever recall the unbelievable surge of pain on his shoulder when the glass statue crashed with a strenuous sound behind him.

Then he saw black. He was in a dark abyss, his soul floating around helplessly. He saw nothing, felt nothing, heard nothing.

"Somebody call the ambulance, please! No, he is NOT dead!"

"Oh shit, Ginta... Kouga's going to kill us."

"Damn it, come on Hakkaku!"

"Holy lord! Look at his arm!"

And then he saw a light. And then he felt cool water drops against his cheek. And then he heard her voice.

"Please, don't die..."

Maybe if he had against her wishes, he wouldn't have hurt her so much like he did right now.

Maybe if he hadn't opened his eyes to see her sleeping face in that hospital, she wouldn't be crying for him right now.

Maybe...


"Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit."

He could hear himself cursing loudly even as he took sharp turns around parked vehicles, desperately trying to shake off the intimidating buzzing sounds behind him. Of course, he did expect a few cronies to bother him from getting to his destination, but he didn't expect a whole swarm of overly large wasps with venomous stingers to be chasing after him.

"Go and make yourself some honey you damn..."

He flung his body to the left and rolled over, just in time to avoid the sudden attack of a swift stinger. Again letting out a string of invectives, he took off, reminding himself that his final station was just a bit further away.

He couldn't help but to feel relieved when he whipped around the corner to see the colorful advertising wall. Huge radiant words were written on the yellow mango background, announcing the date of the grand opening of some restaurant. However, it wasn't the grand words nor the fruity picture on the wall that made him shout inwardly with excitement, but it was the small, camouflaged door that swung open as he sprinted across the slippery floor. An elderly woman held the door open, her face filled with anxiety as she shouted.

"Quickly!"

"I'm getting there, damn it!" He yelled back.

Mustering all the energy he ever possessed, he flung himself through the open door and into the dark room as the woman swiftly slammed the door closed. She let out a surprised gasp when loud crashes were heard just outside the door along with angry buzzes.

"I'll take care of it."

He could barely move his head to look at the owner of the voice. Instead, he lay prone on the floor, panting as he suddenly felt a blast of heat behind him.

"Tawamura-san?" The woman asked as she kneeled beside him.

"No, it's Santa a few months late," he growled.

"By looking at your dry attitude, I guess you really are him," the woman replied. "Do you have it?"

"Damn it woman, give me some time to catch my breath," he grumbled as he pulled the chain over his head with clumsy fingers.

She accepted the silver chain and brought the jewel that was dangling on it up to her eye level. She let out a sigh of relief, but soon her eyes went round.

"There's a crack in it!" She exclaimed.

"Oh yeah, forgot to tell you about that," Kouga said as he got up from the floor. He looked around at his surroundings, only to realize that they were in a dimly lit, empty room. He blinked his blue eyes several times to adjust to the dark and finally got to see why he had felt the sudden heat.

An old man, even more ancient looking than the woman, was leisurely emitting flames of fire from his mouth towards the door. The stingers had already made several large holes and some of the buzzing insects were trying to stick their heads through to tear down the door. The blast of heat was leaving a few charcoal bodies to crumble towards the ground, but the number just didn't seem to be reducing. Red flames reflected off the pair of unusually large eyes of the man and judging by the way his green robe was limply hanging on his shoulders, he had a rather bony structure.

"So...What in the seven hells, are those things?" Kouga asked as he pointed at the door.

"Saimyoshyo, but that's not the point!" she shouted angrily. "There's a shard missing!"

"Oh, right, that. I used it as a bait."

"You WHAT!"

"Calm down," Kouga smoothly replied, "A friend of mine is carrying it so he can lure the bastard out. I've got two of my side watching guard near the dove and they're quite responsible and I assure you that you will get your last shard of the purple thingy back."

"You don't understand!" the woman cried out, "The jewel can't be purified if it isn't in its full form! I told you that over the line!"

"Relax, woman! He's much faster on his feet than me and if I got here in one piece, he certainly can!"

"If he doesn't get here before sunset, the ritual cannot be performed!"

"What ritual?"

"Kaede, I think the fire's going off," a wheezing voice interrupted.

The two whipped their heads to the right just in time to see the charcoaled door crashing down.


"Kouga. Kouga!"

"Urgh..."

Miroku let out an exasperated sigh as he realized that his fellow friend had knocked himself out with alcohol. He tenderly placed his hands under Kouga's limp shoulders and heaved. He slowly dragged his friend across the kitchen floor, wondering how he even got in this situation in the first place. Finally managing to reach the couch in the living room, he slowly heaved his friend's limp body onto it. Miroku looked down at his unconscious friend as he ran a hand through his raven hair.

"Kouga, if you don't wake up in the next three seconds, I'm going to call Ayame," he said threateningly.

A mumble escaped Kouga's lips. Miroku leaned closer and poked him in the arm.

"What ritual..."

He waited for more, but all he heard was a loud snore. Giving his sleeping friend an incredulous look in response of his sleep talk, Miroku sighed once more and took out his phone.


"Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit."

He wished he could stop saying that for the day. It was bad enough he had been in a quite a big tussle with a few overly large wasps, but now he was sprinting through the pristine halls of an hospital, which he wasn't even sure was the right one.

"We were attacked, Kouga."

"There were just too many."

"His arm's in a bad shape... This lady went with him in the ambulance..."

"No, we don't know which hospital, we were busy looking for you!"

Why wasn't anyone on the goddamn floor? He swiftly ran along the slippery surface and made a sharp turn around the corner, the hasty action almost causing him to crash into someone. A nurse, by the look of her uniform, let out a short gasp of surprise as he tried to regain his balance.

"Sorry... " He panted through ragged breaths. "But I'm looking...For...Silver hair... Just came in..."

"Oh, if you're talking about the patient with the severe cut on his arm-"

"Yes, that's him!"

"You'll have to wait for a few more hours, he's still in the surigical room," she concluded.

"Will he be all right?"

"It appears so," she said with a smile. "A friend of mine is in there and she seemed to look quite relieved through the screen."

He let out a deep sigh and his knees almost gave out. He staggered slightly, surprising the woman in front of him, and leaned on the wall. She laid a hand on his arm and peered at his face under his sweaty bangs, her brow furrowed in mild concern.

Absent-mindedly letting his eyes to swiftly take in her features, he felt his lips curl into a small smirk when he found that she was quite pleasing to the eye. She was a few inches shorter than him with a slim figure, her dark red hair reaching her mid-back. Dainty pointed ears stuck out from the flaming strands of her hair which happened to contrast with the color of her emerald green eyes.

"So..." He lazily said, a smile still playing on his lips. "Do you happen to know which room he's going to be in?"

"Are you family?"

Her question was not what he expected. His smile faltered.

"...Family?"

"Yes," she replied with quizzical eyes, "Are you not his brother?"

"Uh...No."

He later regretted saying that.

Her brow furrowed, this time in mild annoyance as she looked at him.

"Cousin?"

"No."

"...Father?"

"Hell, no!"

"Then how do you know him?" She asked with a small frown as she straightened herself, "You do know acquaintances are not allowed inside until the patient is fully conscious, don't you?"

"...Of course, I do," he slowly said as he stood on his full height.

She raised her left eyebrow, questioning him.

"Well, I'm not exactly his brother...But uh..."

She waited.

"I'm actually...His... Brother-in-law."

He immediately regretted what he had just said as he received a skeptical look.

"Brother-in-law." She repeated.

"...Yes."

"So, your...Wife... Would be his only sibling...Which would be his half-brother."

He stared at the smirking woman before him as he realized his mistake.

"I happen to be a devoted reader of newspapers and I see Koizu-san's face quite often in the business section."

"Does this mean I can't see him before he wakes up?"

"Since I know his half-brother is straight, quite possibly," she said as she gave him a wry smile.

He gave her an irritated look before he slumped on the floor, leaning himself against the wall. He felt relieved now that he found out Sesshomaru's whereabouts and welfare, but the thought of having to wait for another few hours was just too overwhelming. He had just spent the last half an hour running around place to place to find which hospital he had been taken to and an hour or so fighting off countless Saimyosho. Oh, yes. He couldn't possibly forget Kaede's loud tirade that had also took him another half an hour.

He was silently moping his abhorrent reality when he felt her kneeling beside him. He paid no attention to her until he felt a searing pain on the side of his face.

"Hey!" He growled as his hand instinctively reached for the pained spot.

She caught his hand with a stern grip before it reached its destination. She had a red bottle of antibiotics in her other hand.

"Hold still," she insisted as she took off the cover of the bottle. "There's a deep scratch on your cheek."

He grudgingly obliged to her orders and merely winced as the stinging liquid was applied onto his cheek. The close contact had allowed him to take in a whiff of her scent. It sent tingling sensation down his nose as he strained to remember where he had smelt her scent before. She smelt like...A flower.

'Ayame...' He thought.

"There," she said in a satisfied voice. He broke out of his thoughts and realized that a Band-Aid had been applied on his cheek as well.

"You carry this stuff around in your pockets?" He asked in a teasing tone.

"Yes, as I am a nurse," she responded with an equally warm smile.

"So... Am I going to get the name of my beautiful healer?" He questioned with a smirk.

She blushed a pretty hue of red before answering him.

"It's Ayame."

His eyebrows quirked upwards.

"Hm... It fits you," he blandly commented.

"And may I get yours?" She smiled.

His baby blue eyes twinkled as he answered her.

"Kouga."


"Kouga? Kouga..."

He strained to part his eyelids, but they were just too heavy. He let out a groan as he felt a migraine coming.

A smooth hand swept his bangs away and he soon felt a pair of lips on his forehead. He recognized the scent.

"Ayame?" He drowsily called. He finally managed to open his eyes to see her blurry figure. It took him a while to focus his gaze to be able to see her concerned face staring down at him.

"Are you all right?" She whispered.

He looked at her and didn't answer as he noticed her slightly red eyes and her shaking hands. He looked over at Miroku, silently asking an explanation with his eyes, but only received a confused look from his friend. He sat up heavily, not caring to straighten his disheveled hair, and pulled her into a tight hug. She accepted and wrapped her arms around his neck, quietly crying into his shoulder.

"I told them, Kouga..." Her voice was muffled by his shirt.

"It's all right Ayame..." He rubbed the small of her back, trying to soothe her.

"She's not even crying, Kouga," she sobbed. "How can she take that in? Why is she doing that to herself?"

He didn't say anything as she cried. All he could do right now was inwardly cursing his best friend for causing pain to everyone by being a selfish asshole.

"Don't leave me, Kouga," Ayame whispered into his neck. "Please don't ever leave me."

He closed his eyes as he buried his nose into her hair.

"I won't."

Miroku watched helplessly at the door, once again pondering how everything became such a mess.

He figured that not everybody was having the best day of their lives.


Flunked exams.

Has anyone noticed Hojo's first name does not appear in the manga nor anime? Poor guy. Doesn't have much of a role.

Oh, yes. Ayame is also the name of the purple flower the wolf demoness uses to decorate her lovely hair. That might help you understand why Kouga had thought of her name beforeshe even said it(No, he is not psychic).

If the chapter was a bit confusing, please let me know.I'll explain it on the next update.

Reviews would be nice.

...Very nice.