Title: Beautifully Imperfect
Author: Tsubasa Kya
Disclaimer: I do not own.

Chapter seven: What is death

"He had your mother arrested?" Kali was very surprised to hear this. Everyone knew about Nekura Nokugami—Inuyasha's mother, but everyone also thought that Nekura was Sesshoumaru's mother as well. Aside from that, no one had ever known that Sesshoumaru had a twin.

"He did." Sesshoumaru's fist clenched and unclenched, though he kept an even tone of voice. "This was before we moved here, and when Yuri and I were nine and Inuyasha was three, we were playing in a park near the mansion. My father's housemaid was watching us—Nekura never really cared about us in that concern."

"Go on…" Kali urged. She did wonder what he meant by 'in that concern', but she didn't bring it up and instead hoped he would clear that up on his own terms.

"I remember liking old Quoni. She was like a mother to all of us, or a grandmother and after losing my mother for reasons my father won't say, I didn't want to lose her. But that day, I remember a loud series of bangs. Yuri, Inuyasha, and I were all grabbed up by strong men and stolen away. Quoni was shot dead that day. My father only paid the ransom for…" He trailed off, his face becoming hard and closed.

Kagome woke up, gasping slightly as the dream faded. She tried to remember where she was or how she got there and then realized that she was in the living room. Souta was standing over her, so close his short hair brushed her nose. She slapped him for being that close—close enough to kiss.

"Ow!" he cried and held his cheek as he backed away. "What was that for?"

Kagome looked around the room, frowning. There was a movie in but it was on the credits. Souta must have watched something while she slept. "Why aren't you at the convention with mama?" she asked of him.

Souta sighed and sat on the wide couch next to her. "Dreaming again, are you? Mama came in about an hour ago while you were sleeping and apologized to me because we were staying home. She said it had something to do with dad, but wouldn't say what." He rubbed his bare back where old, line-shaped scars were, criss-crossing all over the place like he'd been beaten long ago with a hard strip of leather.

Kagome let out a relieved sigh. "I dreamt that you and mama went to the convention, and Karei came for the week, and that one Nokugami boy was here… forgot his name again…" In her partial-wakefulness, it was difficult to remember who it had been in her dream. Karei's boyfriend, but what was his name?

"Sesshoumaru Nokugami, you mean?" Souta offered. She nodded; that sounded right.

"And mama in my dream said that daddy had lost his job and was drinking at the bar. I went to my room and Kohaku was there, though now that I think of it, I should've known it was a dream, since Kohaku can't climb stairs without assistance. How long was I out?"

"You fell asleep almost immediately after you sat on my stomach." Souta said. "You're so fat, it took me ten minutes to get out from under you."

Her only response was to glare at him.

Souta chuckled a bit. "Well, you slept right through the Rave," he went on, "and I went anyway. I couldn't wake you before. You woke up just as I was about to scream in your ear just now." His hand continued to try to massage his back. "Man, I think it's gonna rain soon. It only itches like this before the rain."

Kagome groaned as she sat up, placing her hands on her brother's back to rub the scars. His back wasn't as bad as hers was, and Kagome's back wasn't as bad as their mother's was. While Kali had tried to protect her children from their father's drunken rage, she couldn't keep it up before she ran out of strength and he turned on the children.

Kagome had saved Souta from most of the blows and in turn, their relationship had grown steadily stronger. She'd never felt bitter that he hadn't taken as many blows. "Mine don't itch if it's gonna rain," she muttered.

He turned and looked back at her, grasping her shoulders and forcing her back down to the couch. He pinned her hands over her head with one hand but only because she let him. "Oh no," he chuckled. "They only itch if someone's getting hurt." It was a joke between them: if someone she knew was getting hurt and she could prevent it, she would claim 'My scars itch'. "Well, tell me something," Souta asked, twiddling his free fingers over her stomach. It tickled and she attempted to refrain from squirming. "Do they itch now?"

She couldn't bite back a laugh and pulled her hands free. "Don't do that!" she ordered, grabbing his fingers with her hands.

"But what if I want to?" he quipped. "Trip called and told me to do it, and I would even if he said not to."

She flicked the puffy lip she'd given him earlier in their scuffle. "I'll do more to you than this if you don't back away now!" she promised him.

"Kagome! Souta!" They heard their mother admonish. "Souta, get off your sister. This is very improper behavior. I mean, really! Straddling your sister? I thought I'd seen it all!" Souta blushed at their mother's implying, yet somehow teasing tone, and Kagome felt a laugh bubble out of her throat at the look on her mother's face.

Kali had just been walking by the living room when she'd heard her children wrestling on the couch again. She'd decided to stop them before the furniture suffered for their actions.

Then the two children noticed that their mother was dressed in her usual traveling clothes—she wore the same outfit every time she went to, or came back from, a psychiatry convention. "Mama?" Souta asked, confused. "You said we weren't going."

Kali smiled at her son and stepped into the room, though both children could see the sad look in her eyes. "'We' aren't going. I'm going to pick up your father and go with him this time. I think you two are old enough to have run of the house for five days…"

Souta immediately clamored off Kagome's stomach and looked at his mother with begging eyes. The convention was usually his time with his mother. He really was a mama's boy through and through. "But mama," he dragged out her name into a whine. "I want to go!"

Kali shook her head. "I haven't had a moment alone with your father for eighteen years!" she said. When they both looked at her in disbelief, she sighed and walked into the room, sitting on the arm of the couch to look at them. They were almost always out of the house with their friends, and the house was so big that even if the two children were home, finding a private area to 'be alone' in wasn't hard.

"What's going on, mama?" Kagome demanded. She had a sick feeling in her gut. Something bad was about to happen. Her scars were itching.

"This afternoon I received a phone call from your father… He told me he was fired from his job at Soh-A-Tech and he was drinking again. He did promise me he wouldn't come home tonight, but I hope that if I take him with me to the convention this week, you two will be safe. Perhaps even a little vacation like this will do him some good."

Kagome and Souta's eyes went wide and they looked at each other. Kagome then looked at her mother. "Mama, I had a dream…" Kali tilted her head in concern and nodded to Kagome in a silent urge for the girl to continue. Kali was always curious about what was going on in her children's lives. "You told us about daddy losing his job in my dream, and then took Souta…to the convention…"

"It was just a dream, Kagome." Kali sighed. "Except the part about Naraku losing his job… that was real. I'm leaving now to get your father. Kagome, we have guests for the night, and I'm going to leave you in charge this week. Karei is here for the week, and two of my patients are staying the night in the shrine fasting rooms. Their father will pick them up tomorrow morning or afternoon, I'm not sure when exactly. There are packages on my desk that need to be mailed tomorrow and I left money in the safe for you for the week."

Both Kagome and Souta knew the code to get in the safe.

"I can't think of anything else you'll need to know. Oh, yes! Uncle Hakudoushi and Aunt May," they were Karei's father and mother, "said they'd send you souvenirs of their trip to America. They should be heading for the airport soon, so if you want to call and wish them a happy and safe trip, you can. I'm sure they'd be delighted to hear from you."

And with that, their mother turned heal and walked away without a hug or kiss goodbye from either of them. It would be a sorely missed opportunity on both their parts.

"Who did your father pay ransom for?" Kali urged.

Sesshoumaru didn't hesitate for much longer, but instead he spat out the name, "Inuyasha," as if it were a disease. Kali assumed that was probably why Sesshoumaru didn't like Inuyasha all that much and why they fought, but she was quickly proven wrong when he said, "And me. He paid for Inuyasha and me but not my sister. Not Yuri. He only wanted his sons, but since then he seems to have hated us.

"Good grades? To him, those are menial. Immaculate state of cleanliness—we both keep our part of the house cleaner than the maids do yet he cares not; excellence in music—the fact that I've been called the equal of Mozart with the violin is nothing to him; we can do nothing to make him like us. But it is Nekura's fault because she has shown more interest in us than in him."

This confused Kali because earlier Sesshoumaru had stated 'Nekura never cared about us in that concern'. She assumed that must mean Nekura was an inattentive mother to the needs of her children. The buzzer sounded; she'd set it to let her know when half the time was over so she could speak to Inuyasha.

Sesshoumaru didn't need to be told. He simply stood and walked regally toward the door out, quickly slipping his emotionless mask back on. She wondered, 'Does he really hate his brother, or is it a façade?'

As Inuyasha settled in the chair, Kali's phone rang. "Excuse me just one moment, Inuyasha," she apologized and answered her home phone. She talked for a moment but mostly she only listened.

The President of the JPA, the Japanese Psychiatry Association, stated that she was listed to speak first at the annual psychiatry convention. It made her wonder what she was going to do with her children and husband during that time. The past few years she'd taken Souta with her and left Kagome with Naraku. With him sober, he wasn't abusive and he could be trusted with his daughter and not harm her.

But with him drinking again, it made her nervous to leave. She wanted to say she wouldn't be able to make it to the convention, but if she did that, she might still not be able to protect her children from Naraku. She thought, 'I'll just take Naraku with me…'

She couldn't take both her children because in his drunken rage, Naraku would just follow her, thinking she was running away from him. She also couldn't trust him to stay away from their home while he was drunk. She had to be honest with herself. If she left either of her children with him, he would abuse them.

He would settle to just stay with her, she was sure. She agreed to speak first at the convention, hung up, and proceeded to try drawing information from Inuyasha. He was far less open without Sesshoumaru around. Why was that? He'd been talkative enough before… He simply sat there, grumbling at the floor things that made absolutely no sense. Talk of 'the Rave' and 'Kouga's band'.

That night, Kagome called Kohaku as she lay on her bed. She felt the distinct absence of both her mother and father's presences and it made her lonely. Souta sat at the end of her bed, painting her toenails simply because he wanted to, while she talked to her boyfriend. She didn't understand her brother's behavior sometimes.

"You haven't been in my room in the past twelve hours, have you, baby?" Kagome asked Kohaku. She felt a cool substance being placed on her toenails and looked: Souta had chosen a shiny maroony-purple color. "Oh, Souta, not that color! I asked for red if you have to do it."

She heard Kohaku wheeze a laugh. "Painting your toenails… is he…?"

Souta quipped, "It is red! Sort of."

Kagome didn't want to argue while she was on the phone, but instead she resolved to use nail polish removal later. Kohaku responded to her original question, "I wish I had been. San-chan's got me all but tied to my bed." Kagome heard an indignant scoff in the background and a cry of 'I do not!' "I said, 'All but', which means held in my bed by every means except being tied physically."

Kagome giggled. "So how are you feeling?"

"Lonely," was the response she got back. He coughed for a long moment before she heard Sango's voice. "Sorry, Kagome, but it's really getting late. He needs his medicine and some rest. Call back tomorrow, okay?"

Kagome sighed heavily. "Tell him I love him, will you?" She knew Sango would. Sango was her closest friend, and there were only three people in the entire world who believed that Kagome's relationship did some good for Kohaku: Sango, Souta, and Miroku. Sango and Kohaku's parents believed that Kagome was too wild for Kohaku and made him sicker. Kali believed that Kagome was only setting herself up for heartache later, though she never tried to stop the relationship. Naraku worried that Kagome was going to get herself hurt or catch some strange illness.

The rest of the world? They believed what Kohaku's parents believed.

Kagome wasn't sure what her relationship with Kohaku did, though she was sure she would die if he did. Kagome dropped her phone on the floor next to the bed and let out another sigh. Within ten minutes, Souta had finished her nails and left them to dry. It was noon before either of them woke up and that was only because Karei was shaking Kagome's shoulder urgently.

Souta had fallen asleep next to Kagome. He'd curled up in a ball and at some point in the night he'd found his old security blanket. Their mother leaving with Naraku for a week had him nervous. Karei would never let him hear the end of it either.

"What is it, Karei?" Kagome asked her cousin blearily, trying to wake up yet remain quiet enough so Souta could sleep.

"I think you two need to get up and dress, quickly. There're some… policemen here… they're in the living room." Karei looked like she'd been crying. "Please, get up. Up!"

Kagome shook her brother awake and he looked at her with sleep-filled eyes. "What's going on?" he mumbled.

"There's been an accident." Karei said. "Aunt Kali's car crashed last night."

Both siblings jolted upright and bore down on the helpless Karei. "Mama was in an accident? Was she hurt? Is daddy okay?" Kagome and Souta ticked off question after question, but Karei didn't have the answers.

They raced down the stairs in their pajamas to the first floor, Souta not even realizing he still clutched his blanky in his fingers, and skid into the living room. Their barrage of questions was turned on two somber looking adults. The policemen were silent for a long time before saying in the middle of a slight pause, "I'm really sorry to have to tell you but…" A deathly silence was what filled the air. The policeman didn't even have to finish that.

"We're not sure the cause of the crash yet. Five people died in that crash, including both your parents and the taxi-driver. We believe the passengers of the other vehicle may have been your aunt and uncle, but we need you to come to the morgue and identify the bodies anyway…"

It wasn't unbelievable that they would already know it was Kalian Onigumo in that car. She was famed everywhere from Japan to the U.S. to Europe. Souta fell to his knees, looking like his world had crashed around his ears. Kagome felt only numbness enter her body. Karei wasn't crying, but her eyes remained red. She'd already heard that, though hearing it more than once hardly made things better.

"Mama said she'd be back in five days," Kagome said. "You're mistaken, it isn't her." She did, however, let them tug her off to the morgue with Karei by her side. Souta seemed to have no will to get up, so one of the policemen offered to stay with him and make sure he didn't do anything rash.

The bodies were a bit mangled, naked, and death-pale but it was definitely her mother, father, uncle, and aunt. Now the only family Kagome had left alive was Karei and Souta. It was hard to look upon their faces, knowing she'd never see any of them again except at a funeral.

Karei straightened herself up, suddenly businesslike, though her eyes were haunted yet. "As their only remaining family member, I will take my cousins under my wing."

"Can't," the morgue doctor said. "Not with the CEO of Soh-A-Tech running this town."

"What do you mean?" Karei asked indignantly, and Kagome wondered why she even cared. This was KAREI in discussion and she was ready to fight for custody of two cousins who she barely got along with? Because Kagome and Souta were still in school, they had to go to a foster home.

The doctor shrugged. "That Haru Nokugami has the mayor in his palm. Now children who lose their parents are given to Soh-A-Tech and there's nothing we can do about it."

"But Soh-A-Tech is just an android manufacturing company! What could they want with children?" Karei snapped. "And do you really think the government would allow for such breaches in the government laws?"

Another shrug. "Soh-A-Tech does what it wants. Nokugami does what he wants. There's no stopping it." Kagome wasn't sure what to think anymore. Here was her mother, lying on the cold metal table underneath a white sheet. Kali had tried for years to get Kagome to act like a girl, but she'd been a tomboy from the get-go. Baggy jeans, boxer-shorts, tank-tops, baggy shirts, flannels, anything a boy might wear. Makeup was treason, considered cross-dressing.

Would this have happened if she had acted like a girl all those years?

Here was her father, his usually mischievous face gone and replaced with the harsh look of death. He'd encouraged the tomboyish nature in Kagome and always wrinkled his nose when she took up the bets her friends made for her to wear 'girl clothes'. He'd taught her as a young girl the way of the fighter and to be strong for others. Then something changed and he started drinking.

He abused his family, made them scream and beg for mercy and release. Then he began going to Alcoholics Anonymous meetings and stopped drinking, returning to the old father they'd known. He started up his playful pranks and continued to encourage both children to be strong and to fight for others.

Would this have happened if Kagome never took up those bets?

Why did this have to happen? Did the dream she'd had have anything to do with it? Would it have happened if Souta had gone and Kagome had stayed with her father? Or would she have instead lost a mother and a brother? Could she have prevented it from happening if she insisted her mother stay?

'I didn't even say goodbye,' she thought miserably as she returned that night to her brother's side. She found him curled up in her bed, holding their family picture and his blanky tight in his grasp. He'd cried himself into a fitful slumber.

She lay by him and held his hand, wondering what was to become of them. If the morgue doctor was right and underage children became the dependants of Soh-A-Tech on the death of their parents, then where did that leave them? Would they be separated? Would they get to stay in their home?

Probably not, she thought as she drifted off into as fitful of sleep as Souta was in.

End.