One: Meet Cute
"Any last words before I gut you and slit your worthless fucking neck?"
The centipede whore lunged for Inuyasha again, but she was restrained by the collar of glowing spiritual energy around her neck. He snarled and backhanded her, unafraid of her gaping maw with its sharp teeth and toxic, slimy saliva.
"Wait!" she cried when she saw him flex his claws. "You want to know about the jewel, yes?"
Inuyasha quirked one dark brow. That wasn't part of the mission. But yeah, he wanted to know. Mistress Centipede took his silence for what it was, intense curiosity.
"It's out there, hanyō." Her long tongue flicked out, tasting the air. "Can't you smell it? Feel its call pulse through your veins? It's come back to us."
"Keh, that fuckin' bauble burned up fifty years ago. Besides, that's no reason to eat an entire fuckin' bus of miserable, helpless humans."
"The more I eat, the stronger I get. The stronger I am, the better chance I have at competing for the jewel." Her too-wide mouth cracked open in a hideous attempt at a smile, green drool oozing down her chin. "This false peace the rest of you made with the humans will not last when more of us are aware of the power that lies within reach. One of us will be victorious, and then things will return to how they were in the days of your father's rule before your whore of a mother spread her filthy human legs—"
That was enough of that. Inuyasha fulfilled his promise of killing her, but instead of cutting her open and making her watch her own guts spill out before he finished the job, he just cut her head off to shut her up. He cringed as he yanked her head from the ground, the long black hair of his prey greasy with her vile blood. A small thrill ran through him when he thought of how his prissy bitch of a boss would react when he dropped it right on his desk.
"Come in, Inuyasha. What's the status? Over." The staticky voice in his ear was unexpected and he almost dropped Mistress Centipede.
"The bitch is dead. Said somethin' about wanting to eat more and get stronger." The part about the jewel he kept secret. There was no need to worry headquarters. Not yet, anyway. Not over the words of some nobody low-level demon.
A sigh. "Remember to say 'over' when you're done, over."
He grinned and there was no one there to see that it was just as terrifying as Mistress Centipede's had been. Maybe even more so.
"I've got a nice present for you, boss. Over."
O\o/O
Kagome tried to keep the pleasant Mona Lisa smile on her face even when the make-up artist was using a way too rough brush and the hair stylist was using so much hair spray that she feared her hair would break off if she dared touch it. What was the point of all this, anyway? It was a short radio interview and what was filmed wouldn't be broadcast on television, just across the station's social media. They didn't have to go all out like this.
Her manager was somehow able to stick her head into the ongoing war on Kagome's natural looks. "Remember, Kagome, when they ask which celeb you're dating, what are you going to say?"
She smiled just as coyly as she had practiced and fluttered her eyelashes. Her cheeks were flushed from all the coffee she'd had, something she'd done on purpose.
"I don't plan on settling for any one man while I'm still so young. Don't you think it's time girls had fun like the boys do?"
Sango clapped her hands. "Perfect! Exactly the kind of line to go with your new image."
Kagome snorted and allowed herself to slouch. "What, sexy baby?" Her voice was noticeably deeper now, no longer the sweet and breathy kitten-like purr that insinuated so many things her innocent face denied. "Don't you think that's kinda played out already, Sango?"
Her manager had already moved on. "Push-up bra or no bra?" she asked the person in charge of her wardrobe.
"No bra, yes tape."
Just like that, Kagome was helped to her feet and undressed by several pairs of strange hands. At least none of them ventured to touch her inappropriately this time. When the whirlwind of movement had passed, she was finally able to look at herself in the mirror.
The white halter top was somewhat conservative after all the outrageous outfits she had been photographed and filmed in so far in anticipation of her solo album's release. There was no cleavage and it only showed a little of the sun-kissed skin of her stomach. But if you stared for longer than a second, you noticed the barest outline of her nipples. Kagome knew that Sango would order the air conditioning to be cranked up in the studio, too, which would leave so little to the imagination that she wondered if going topless would be any real difference.
Then there was the pink skirt. Tiny skirts had been her trademark back before she went solo, and it was a plaid print, calling to mind both her girl group days and the always uncomfortable fact that they were dressing up like minors to appeal to dark male fantasies. This particular pleated little number did show off the toned legs she'd always had thanks to having to walk up all those stairs to the shrine, but they also showed off the rounding of her ass as well. Thank the gods she'd be sitting down for the interview.
"Where are her knee-highs and mary janes!?" Sango yelled, causing the wardrobe people to run around like chickens with their heads cut off in a frightening flurry. "Come on, people! This is the Kagome Higurashi, and she is the biggest fucking star you will ever have the privilege of sharing air with. Move your fucking asses!"
Kagome had her hosiery and shoes on before she could even blink. Tottering in the high shoes, she wondered how she could dance in platforms inches taller than these and still have a hard time walking in such heels. You could take the girl outta the shrine, but you couldn't take the shrine outta the girl.
"You're up, Kagome," Sango said. "Tease, but don't flirt. We left cute behind with The Four Souls."
Hearing the name of her girl group brought her a pang of sadness. "Oh, he's going to ask about them, Sango. I don't know if I can handle that." Tears threatened from the mere thought of having to address the rumors.
Sango rolled her eyes and sighed. "No one cares about those harpies anymore. It's all about you, now. Well, it always was, but this time you're not dragging around that dead weight."
"They're not dead weight! They're—they were—my best friends." Her lips formed a pout. "And they still would be if your dad hadn't focused only on me."
Her previous agent, Sango's late father, was still quite a sore spot even though he had died a year before. Kagome saw that she had hurt her friend in the way her eyes hardened and her lips pursed.
"He did what would bring us success, and in that case, it was to showcase the only real star power that group had. The others wouldn't have even been welcomed at a karaoke bar if it wasn't for you and they know it. Everyone knows it."
"But what do I say? What if the girls listen to the interview and hate me?"
Sango took a deep breath and put both hands on Kagome's shoulders. "Kagome, dear, they already hate you. Now you go in there and when he asks about The Four Souls, tell him you all decided to strike out on your own. Maybe even hint at a reunion. Nothing's really over as long as there's still money to be made."
"You're such a bitch, Sango," she said, smiling a little to show that she didn't totally mean that in a bad way.
The much taller woman patted her on the head in a way that she knew would annoy her client, careful not to alter the work of the stylist.
"So they can keep seeing you as a pretty little kitten, I'm more than happy to be a tiger. Let's just hope your temper doesn't get the better of you again until at least your next concept."
That made her laugh. "Hey, it got the paparazzi off my back for a whole weekend!"
"We're still paying for his physical therapy."
Kagome scampered off to the studio, ushered in by an employee who, to his credit, had tried very hard not to stare at the T and A she had on display before breaking down and fixating on them. When he gave her the rundown of rules and topics and everything, he was addressing her nipples, and she nodded along like she hadn't done this a hundred times. Finally, she was in front of a mic and the giant headphones had ruined all the hard work that had been done on her hair.
"We are sitting here in the studio with Kagome Higurashi, formerly the frontwoman of The Four Souls. Her first solo album, Sweet Pink Cherry, is dropping in only two more weeks."
He held up a poster of her album cover which had been signed by her, directing it at the camera. The photo was something that would have embarrassed her just one year ago, a lewd pose she would have outright refused to do before. But there she was, in glossy print, topless with only a convenient few falling cherry blossoms obscuring a view of her nipples. She was in a little plaid skirt and knee highs like she was now, only one of her hands held the skirt up, giving a peek of her panties, while the other was suggestively running up her thigh. Her hair was artfully messed and she was biting her lip.
"We're giving out signed posters to the first five callers after our interview." He turned to face her and his unnecessary sunglasses weren't quite dark enough to hide where his gaze went first. "It's so great to have you in the studio, Kagome."
"It's great to be here! I love K-WAP and listen to it all the time." That was a lie. Who even listened to radio anymore?
He went on to ask her all the normal stuff. Her inspiration, where she'd gotten her tan, her date to the last awards show, her love life. Kagome dutifully parroted back the lines Sango and she had worked on before, wondering if the sexiness she'd put on like any other costume had crossed the line into comedic territory yet. When he finally asked about The Four Souls' split, she only faltered a little.
"W-we decided to each strike out on our own. It's hard to share the spotlight, y'know?" She smiled big enough that hopefully he'd be distracted from how nervous the question made her.
"In my opinion, you never had to worry about that. Even in a group full of beautiful girls, you were always the one who stood out."
"That's quite the compliment," Kagome returned. She thought of saying something to positively shift the attention to her former group members, but what was the point? They already hated her and never wanted to see her again.
"You're the luckiest audience in the world since you're going to get the first ever listen of Daddy's Lap, the first single off Kagome's solo album and sure to be a smash hit. After that, we'll find out who our first five callers are who will win the signed poster of Kagome Higurashi. Thank you so much for coming in on what I'm sure is a crazy busy schedule, Kagome. We'd love to have you back any time."
"That would be so fantastic!" She just barely held back a lisp. Damn, she was taking this role a bit too far. The bass note-smack-moan pattern began to play and she recognized the intro of her hopefully soon-to-be hit song.
"Wow, it was really so great meeting you," the radio show host whose name she had already forgotten said. "I mean, I get to meet so many amazing talents here but you really stand out, like I said. Me and my buddy are actually hosting a party tonight, and if you'd be down to chill and hang out, maybe have a smoke sesh—"
"Kagome has another interview right after this," Sango said, smiling toothily like the predator she was. "We're auditioning a male lead for the Daddy's Lap video if you want to see her again soon."
He laughed uncomfortably. "Uh, I think I'm still a bit too young for that yet."
"Don't you have daughters around Kagome's age, though? It wouldn't be that far-fetched." She flicked her business card on the desk. Kagome recognized it as the one with the general number and not her personal one. Those ones were only handed out when someone wasn't too important but Sango still wanted to preserve the relationship. "Think about it and give me a call."
Kagome waved a hurried goodbye and walked arm in arm with her manager on the way out of the building.
"Thanks for that," Kagome said, voice low. "I just wish these creeps would stop."
"I don't," Sango said frankly. "That means your career stops, too, and mine along with it."
"…I guess."
"Your personal items are all in the car. I think your outfit is just fine for auditioning, don't you?"
She shrugged. "It's pretty much like what I expect to wear in the video, so yeah."
Sango frowned. "You seem down, Kagome. That guy really got to you, huh?"
That wasn't even close to her problem, but she just shook her head, not even noticing when she slipped on her stage smile.
"No. Everything's fine."
Her manager came to a stop and crossed her arms, giving her an assessing up and down look.
"Kagome, I was your friend before I was your manager. Talk to me."
"It's not a big deal, okay? Let's just go to the auditions. I don't want to be late." She turned to continue on her way out, but mostly so that Sango wouldn't see her face.
"It's Hojo, isn't it?"
Just his name filled her with a kind of guilt and sorrow that left no room for air in her lungs. Kagome turned on her heel and faced her only remaining friend, fire in her eyes.
"Don't."
Sango took a step back. "Okay. Yeah, okay." She cleared her throat and followed Kagome.
When she wanted, the girl could be pretty darn scary. After a single phone call with her, the unfortunate photographer who had infiltrated her birthday party had agreed not to press charges or publicize what she had done to him. Her father had always said Kagome took after her grandmother, and Sango had thought he meant how her grandmother was once she had settled down, the kind little woman who liked to cook and bake and tell stories. But more and more she was seeing how true the Higurashi bloodline remained even after the days of legend and war.
"No old men," Kagome grumbled, mostly to herself. "It's already all 'daddy, daddy' rapey child proxy Melanie Martinez shit, so the least I can do is choose someone age-appropriate and not a fu—"
Sango saw it happening and didn't even have time to process it before all hell broke loose. Just as Kagome touched the gleaming brass door handle to finally go back outside, a horde of demons burst in through the floor-to-ceiling window to their right. Sango reached for her hiraikotsu before she remembered she had left it in the car. But demons like this never fucking came out in the day! Oh shit, and they weren't dispersing, they were all headed right for Kagome.
"Ugh!" Kagome rolled her eyes and stomped one foot. "Can't I just have one thing go right today?"
Pouting her pink-glossed lips, Kagome Higurashi, girl group leader, sex symbol, and A-list performer, put one hand on her cocked hip and held up the other in a talk-to-the-hand gesture. The demons roared and continued on their path toward her.
All of them exploded in a blast of pink sparkling light.
Sango gaped at her. "Sometimes I forget you can do that." There had to have been over a hundred of those bastards.
Kagome flipped her hair over her shoulder and pulled out her sunglasses. "Make sure the security footage is wiped. I'll be in the car."
The other half of her job duties kicked in and she sprang into action, marching over to the desk. She kept her resting bitch face on, but inside, she was scared. Nothing had ever happened like that, not in fifty years. And the demons hadn't even gone for the easy human prey in the building. No, they had all bee-lined right for Kagome. That couldn't have been an accident.
They were going to need help.
O\o/O
Inuyasha tossed the head on the desk.
"Direct deposit the bounty and don't call me for two weeks. I'm gonna go on vacation." He didn't take vacations, but he did need to investigate what the crazy old bitch had been talking about when she mentioned the jewel. He had personally seen it disappear fifty years ago.
The young human stared at the open-mouthed head with quickly decaying skin, blood and grime-coated forked tongue ribboning out across his precious paperwork. To his credit, he merely paled a little.
"Um, thanks, Inuyasha. But I'm afraid that isn't possible." Delicately, he pushed the head to the corner of the desk using a pencil. "We're having a mandatory team-building event. You'll like it, it's very competitive. And the winner gets a special prize."
"The only special prize I want is a fuckin' break," he said, just barely managing to keep from growling at him. "C'mon, I've got over fifty years of vacation time that I haven't taken. I think I deserve a little time off."
The boss smiled at him, looking so young and pure that he wanted to punch him in the fucking face.
"It's just a week, Inuyasha. And all you have to do is lose and you can do whatever you want."
Inuyasha glared at him and crossed his arms over his chest. The bastard knew he wouldn't be able to do something so lame and cowardly like losing on purpose, no matter what.
"Who's competing?"
"Our top ten percent of agents."
He felt his blood begin to tingle with the urge to be freed and cut into the flesh of an enemy. The top ten percent might even offer him a tiny bit of real challenge. It had been decades since his last struggle. He almost forgot what it felt like.
"What's the prize?"
"A secret." The smile on his face was strange. Like it was something he didn't want to give.
Fuck, it must be awesome.
"So, you just wanna know who the best is, right? The team-building thing is bullshit?"
"You're sharp," he said. Reaching inside his desk, he pulled out a map. "We'll be meeting at one of our retreat lodges. It's very posh, you'll hate it. And everyone will have a roommate, so there will be some team-building going on. Camaraderie is important, you know, especially when working with a partner or group."
Inuyasha sneered at the very thought. "I work alone. Didn't your old man tell ya before he handed you the reins?"
"Oh, I know all about you, Inuyasha. That's why, if I were a betting man, I'd place my money on you to win."
He grabbed the pamphlet, ignoring the way the compliment stroked his ego. "When?"
"Monday. Get there by dawn."
Inuyasha nodded. "I'll be there."
Before the boss could say anything else, he left. After he kicked everyone's ass and collected that sweet cash bonus prize, he'd go to the streets and find out if anyone else had heard about the jewel. His father's name still held a lot of weight in some circles, and his own paralyzed others with fear. The information shouldn't be hard to get, though the more he thought about it the more he felt the centipede was crazy.
And since the new boss was just a kid, he couldn't trust him with the news about the jewel. Hojo was mostly okay in his position as the technical head honcho, but he was as green as they came. Good for paperwork and not much else.
By the time the competition rolled around, Inuyasha was more than ready. For the first time in half a century, he had not taken on a new assignment immediately after the last one. That left him antsy and itching for a fight. He'd even gotten into a minor altercation with the ramen delivery guy when he waited around too long even after getting his tip. What the fuck did he want, more? Fuckin' worthless piece of…
Inuyasha was still stewing over it when he checked into his room at the lodge. What he saw when he arrived didn't make things even remotely better.
"You," he hissed, dropping his backpack on the floor. It had taken every remaining ounce of restraint he still possessed to avoid throwing it at his roommate's face before tackling him with punches.
"Dog shit?" Kōga sniffed exaggeratedly and frowned. "Ugh, who the fuck assigned these room pairings?"
"New regime, new problems." Inuyasha lay down on the bed. Maybe he could get a quick nap in before breakfast and the event kick-off.
"He ain't that bad." Kōga took a rolled up poster from his weekend bag and carefully attached it to the wall with command strips. "His grandpa was a helluva lot worse."
Inuyasha snorted. "His grandpa inherited an entire fucking war. Shit was unprecedented." He could have gone on, but his eyes were glued to the nearly naked woman on the wall. Her heart-shaped face was familiar enough to be disturbing.
"She's not for your eyes, dog shit!" Kōga said, covering the poster with his hands. "Kagome-chan is my woman."
He blinked. "You do know that's a piece of paper, right?"
Kōga was off in another world, staring adoringly at the two-dimensional temptress. "I was the first caller for her latest interview on K-WAP. I beat out hundreds of others. This is just another sign from the gods that we're meant to be together."
It had been clear to the half-demon from the day they met that the wolf was fucking looney tunes. Now he was caressing the paper over where sakura blossoms just barely covered the girl's nipples. The lack of assignments must have affected him more than he thought, since he wanted to put the fucker's annoying head through the wall just for that.
"Calm down, wolf. She ain't that great."
Kōga turned and snarled at him. "Not that great? Not that great!?" Gesturing wildly at the poster he continued, "Kagome-chan was a straight-A student and maintained a perfect 4.0 throughout high school and university even with her hectic performing and touring schedule with her first group, The Four Souls. Kagome-chan was discovered at only fifteen when pressured by friends to perform at a talent show as the super group that would later be called The Four Souls and wowed the crowd so much someone filmed it and posted it online where it gained over five-hundred thousand views in under twenty-four hours! Kagome-chan is only one-hundred fifty-three centimeters and forty-nine kilograms yet she holds two world records for archery and—"
"Enough!" Inuyasha barked. "Memorizing her Wikipedia page is creepy, not cool. That bitch has no idea you even exist, and for that, I'm incredibly fuckin' jealous of her."
"She does know I exist! I had front row seats and backstage passes every single time they performed in Tokyo." His eyes glazed over as he looked back at the poster. "Kagome-chan remembered me the fifth time I met her and even asked how Ginta and Hakkaku were. And I already made sure my upcoming assignments wouldn't interfere with her tour schedule so I can see her as many times as possible."
A chill ran down Inuyasha's spine. Kōga needed help, and whoever this bitch was needed help too with him as a fan.
"Uh, speaking of assignments, whaddya think this whole thing is for?" Anything to get him to shut up about the idol with the clear gray eyes that brought to mind the sun breaking through the clouds on a dismal day made unexpectedly beautiful.
"Stop looking at her!" Kōga yelled again. Once he was satisfied Inuyasha wasn't going to mad dog his piece of paper, he relaxed a little. "Who gives a fuck. I'm just glad we finally get a chance to compete against each other so it's not just about numbers on paper and the pencil-pushers can see who really is the greatest."
Inuyasha grinned. They never gave them an official ranking, always wanting to keep them hungry for something, but with all the assignment offers he received, he knew he had to be up there. Top of the top ten, probably. And that was all by himself. Meanwhile, Kōga had what he assumed were his two boyfriends working with him every step of the way and still wasn't as busy or as quick as Inuyasha was.
An alarm sounded in the hall and they jumped to attention. Other agents he vaguely recognized were filing out of their rooms and they grunted greetings at one another. Most of the other demonics had been a part of the association for at least twenty years, the humans for half that. He was one of the longest-serving agents that hadn't moved on to management. Truth was, he didn't want to, but more than that, he just wasn't suited for that kind of life. Inuyasha needed to be out there where all the action was, moving and fighting and improving and forgetting.
"Welcome! Good to see you all." Hojo stood in the lodge's main dining room. All the chairs and tables had been put away and it was just a bunch of hardened men and women standing there, staring at him, the shortest among them topping him by a good three inches. "You all know why you're here. Welcome to the Spiritual Combat Association's first ever team building luncheon conference and arena-style battle."
Hojo was a little out of breath after that. After a glass of water handed to him by one assistant, he turned back to them with that same dull smile on his blandly handsome face.
"Every day there will be a competition. There is one specific goal per day that will be announced before the action, and those who accomplish it will move on to the next round. Once eliminated, feel free to retire to your rooms and enjoy the lodge's luxuries, such as the buffet and expert massages and entertainment center. A free vacation for all your hard work in making it to the top ten percent of combat agents."
He paused for applause but there were none.
"Uh, we're having our first competition before breakfast. We expect half of you to be eliminated. We've designed a fairly straight-forward race through the woods. The first agent to make it back to this room wins."
While everyone else was looking around and asking questions, Inuyasha breezed past the boss and the rest of the crowd and made for the clearly marked start at the edge of the forest. Kōga was right on his heels.
"He didn't say start, dog shit!"
Inuyasha ignored him and bounded upwards into the tree branches. Now that he had left, everyone else was following suit. Kōga sped away, the fastest agent he knew, and immediately fell into a pitfall. Inuyasha continued to leap from tree to tree, snickering as he kept an eye out for any possible traps, attacks, or obstacles.
Winning that prize was practically going to be a vacation in itself.
O\o/O
"I don't understand why we had to reschedule everything and bother everyone with this," Kagome huffed in the back of the limo. "It's not like I can't handle it."
"You're being targeted, Kagome," Sango patiently explained for what felt like the tenth time. "We don't know what they're capable of and I have so many duties as your manager that I'm afraid I can't fulfill my others as your guardian."
Kagome crossed her arms over her chest and pouted, staring out the window. Since she had been allowed to dress herself today, much less of her skin was on display. The lavender sundress was still short, but she wore a daffodil-colored embroidered cardigan over it. With no false lashes and stage make-up, she would have been all but unrecognizable to everyone but her most die-hard fans.
"But do we have to go to Hojo, of all people?" Her plea was just short of a whine.
Her manager put down her phone and took a deep breath. "Kagome, I don't know what exactly went on between the two of you, but I do know it's well past the time you should have put it behind you. Look at this!" She opened her arms and gestured to the complimentary champagne and chocolate-dipped strawberries that came with the car. "Look where you are and what you have. The male population of the world would kill their family just for the opportunity to wait in a long line on a summer's day to be slammed in the face with a pie you threw."
Kagome gave her a look. "That's just weird."
"But accurate." She picked up her phone again and sent yet another apology email to reschedule a television interview. "He's a nice guy, I get it, and exactly that cookie-cutter prince charming type everyone wants when they're fifteen. But you're not fifteen anymore. Maybe real Kagome should take a look at stage persona Kagome and have a little fun."
Her cheeks flushed at the mere thought and she nervously tucked one of her naturally exasperating wavy strands of hair behind an ear. For so long, she had thought of Hojo as The One, even after he pushed her away without a word of explanation other than his duty to the Association. He was the first boy she had ever dated and the only one who knew her from before her music career. He had seen the real Kagome and he had liked her enough to talk about marriage at one point. No one else could even begin to approach her anymore, not now that she was a celebrity. They expected her to be that smilingly seductive sex toy when she was really just a cat person who liked romantic movies and spending time with her family.
"Real Kagome and stage persona Kagome are opposite poles," Kagome said. "Stage persona Kagome wants to steal your man and leave him in the dust. Real Kagome wants a grilled cheese and a nap with a nice warm big spoon that doesn't mind being my little spoon."
One side of Sango's mouth quirked in a smile. "You know, Kohaku still asks about you. He's coming home from college for the summer and wants me to host a nice dinner just the three of us and promptly skedaddle."
Kagome laughed but then felt bad. Kohaku had been crushing on her since he was twelve. "As much as I'd love for us to be real sisters, he's just not my type."
"Meaning he's not Hojo?" It was phrased like a joke but her tone was just a little too sharp. The siblings were very close and Sango especially was protective of her brother.
"Meaning he's just not my type. I want someone…" She hadn't thought about this in a long time. "Someone strong. Not necessarily nice, but kind. Someone I can talk with and fight with and live with and laugh with. Someone who actually wants me." Tears pricked at her eyes and, to her great embarrassment, Sango noticed. They picked up their glasses and clinked them together in a toast. "With a big dick and kinky tongue."
Sango snorted champagne out of her nose. "Kagome! Was that you or stage you?"
She smirked. "We do share a couple things. Where are we even going, anyway?" she asked, finally biting into one of the strawberries.
"Hojo's assistant gave me the address of some retreat center outside the city. Shouldn't be too much longer."
Kagome tried not to make her sadness obvious. His assistant? He hadn't even taken the time to reply himself? She could have been killed! She felt her power sparking inside of her, wanting to boil out and purify something. Kagome took a deep breath and held it, just the way her grandma had taught her at the beginning of her training. It took the edge off, but she didn't have the lung capacity for a situation this stressful.
She sighed and went back to looking out the window since Sango was back to texting manically. At least she would see Hojo again. Maybe this time he wouldn't do that thing where she was sure she was done with him and started to feel comfortable but then he pulled her aside and reeled her back in like the stupid fish she was. Kagome downed the rest of her champagne and reached to fill her glass up again.
Sometimes she wished a real princely type would come along and sweep her off her feet so she could stop thinking about her classically attractive and charming yet emotionally unavailable friend.
O\o/O
Inuyasha's whooping laugh triumphed over the arena as he stood on top of the hill of decapitated demon prisoners.
"Number one-fuckin'-hundred!" he yelled. "Who's next? Who else wants to fuck with death!?"
There were few remaining agents participating but they all stayed far, far away.
"There's no one left, asshole!" Kōga called out, the only one brave—or was it stupid?—enough to do so. "You went on a fuckin' rampage and massacred them before they even told us the goal!"
Inuyasha tossed the head up in the air and kicked it, watching it sail through the trees.
"They brought us demon criminals. What the fuck else could the goal be but to thin the prison population? Too fuckin' expensive."
"Ya ever think that they were held for a reason? Like information that's valuable to the Association?"
Inuyasha paused and then shook his head. "Nah. Then they wouldn't have brought me to deal with 'em."
"Uh, actually, Inuyasha, the objective was to apprehend and cuff as many as you could in ten minutes." Hojo's voice came from the loudspeakers he had only briefly noticed on the way in. "Since they were all scheduled for termination, however, this works too."
"So I win, right?" Inuyasha said. "It's the last day. Where's my fuckin' bonus?"
"Everyone, please report back to the dining room. Thank you!"
With a growl, he clambered down from the sloping pyramid of corpses. Couldn't they just hand him the prize so he could be on his merry fucking way already? He and the other participants went back to the room where it had all started, dirty and tired and no longer having fun. Hojo, of course, was as pure and preppy as ever. Fucker never got his hands dirty.
"Congratulations to our top agents!" Hojo said, clapping his hands. He was met with silence and hardened stares. "Inuyasha, while you did win the last round, I've decided to include a winner-take-all final challenge. You will all compete against the already eliminated agents who have spent their time resting and being pampered. Whoever is the champion of this final round gets the special surprise."
"This is bullshit!" Inuyasha groaned.
Hojo ignored him. "I'll be heading to my room while that clock counts down five minutes. After those five minutes, whoever is the first to reach me in room 212 is the winner. Good luck!"
And he walked away.
The agents who had earlier been eliminated were excitedly going over strategy plans, some of them teaming up. Kōga was stretching, an annoyingly confident look on his face. The clock counted down.
It was Inuyasha who threw the first punch.
"What the fuck!" Kōga said, flat on his back. "This ain't a fuckin' melee, dumbass, we're supposed to—"
He punched him again, this time knocking him out.
Once everyone else realized what he was doing, panic ensued. Some tried to run, but he went after those first, dragging them kicking and screaming back into the dining room, demon and human alike. Inuyasha had come here to win, and he had, gods fucking dammit. If they needed him to take out the trash to prove he deserved this, then he would. And he'd grab his prize and take his fifty-plus years of vacation time and maybe even track down and destroy the thing that he thought he'd taken care of way back when.
A few of the craftier ones had headed for the balcony overlooking the dining room, and he left the chaos he had created to run after them, easily overtaking them. It wasn't hard to do with his reputation preceding him, and also maybe the fact that they had all just watched him tear apart a hundred demons in ten minutes while still taking the time to enjoy it on the gigantic big screen in the dining room.
He kicked and hit and clawed his way through the halls, a couple times mistakenly getting shifty-looking lodge staff by mistake, and then he finally stood in front of 212's front door.
Inuyasha kicked it down and sailed his way inside.
"Where's my fucking prize, you little prick!?" he demanded, grabbing his boss by the collar.
A barrier came up between the two of them and he hissed, clutching his burned hand as he sprang back. Barriers and spiritual objects. The only things the Hojos were good at other than paperwork.
"Inuyasha. Somehow, I knew it would be you. An agent who doesn't follow the rules would be ideal." Hojo didn't appear the least bit ruffled at being assaulted by an employee, instead just smoothing his hair and fixing his shirt back into their immaculate place.
He crossed his arms and glared. Behind him were two women, one of them frozen with an open mouth and a chocolate-covered strawberry halted halfway to its destination. The other was giving him a look like an old maid school teacher would when she wanted to drag a misbehaving kid in from recess.
"Inuyasha, these are two very dear friends of mine, Sango and Kagome."
"Prostitutes, Hojo? Really? Not even your old man woulda pulled shit like this, and if he did, they'd at least be expensive."
"Sango Taijiya and Kagome Higurashi."
At the revelation of their last names, Inuyasha looked them over again, heart beating quicker. The Taijiya family were the only strictly human members of the Association, fighting with magical objects they crafted themselves. And the Higurashis…
"And?" Inuyasha asked, remembering just in time to look arrogant rather than taken aback.
"You must recognize Kagome," Hojo said, looking over at the smaller girl. His smile was almost invisible, the slight curve of his lips sad somehow. Inuyasha realized it was the first genuine smile he had ever seen on the boy.
"Can't say I do," he said, avoiding looking at her. She was too much like her. Gods, even that gorgeous fucking smell. Was it even better than hers had been, or was he just not remembering it right after so many years?
"She's very famous and her following is only going to grow with her latest project. Because of that, she's going to need a bodyguard."
Things were beginning to make sense now. Inuyasha felt his blood rush with anger so fast that it made him wonder if it was possible for life to imitate art when it came to cartoon characters with steam coming out of their ears.
"So you brought me out here to the middle of fuckin' nowhere without pay, denying me the one break I've wanted in fifty years, for an entire fucking week just because some dumb fucking actress is scared of a psycho stealing her panties?"
The five-foot-nothing little gumdrop of a human being shot to her feet and charged over to him, hand outstretched until it was wrapped around his much higher neck. He could have moved, could have gotten away, could have avoided being touched by her entirely, but Inuyasha was paralyzed by the fire in those gray eyes and gods, he wanted to know how it felt to be touched by that flame.
Until the purifying power crackled down to his very bones and he was suddenly a smoking, stumbling mess of a human.
"You big stupid idiot!" The Higurashi girl watched him slide down the wall and fall to his knees at her dainty little sandaled feet. "For your information, I'm not an actress, I'm a singer. And I also outrank you!"
Hojo's real smile was a lot wider now. "Kagome here is our strongest spiritual agent. What you did today with those hundred demons she did last week, only they burst into ash on contact." There was a little more than pride in his voice. It made Inuyasha like him even less. "But while Kagome is far from helpless, she's not invulnerable. When she expends a lot of energy, it takes her at least an hour to recover. Sometimes, it even zaps her regular strength and she has to take one long nap. Our little sleeping beauty."
The way Kagome fluttered her eyelashes up at Hojo made him wheeze.
"So you made the strongest agents you have leave the field and fight each other for a solid week because this moron wants to keep exploiting her mediocre and already fading looks to make money on a massive scale while being targeted by an anonymous villain that rivals the evil of fifty years ago. I'm supposed to put my life on the line for an even more selfish version of Taylor Swift?"
"I'll zap you again, idiot, I don't care!" Kagome hissed.
"I'm already human, idiot, you can't do shit." Though he was already quickly back on his way to being a half-demon.
"Kagome will be embarking on a world tour. While I and the rest of the board have advised her against it, for her to cancel everything now would mean at best bankruptcy for her and everyone on her staff, and at worst bankruptcy and forfeiting her career entirely, so she's understandably reluctant to do so. This necessitated a compromise. Kagome will travel only on SCA-owned buses and planes and be accompanied everywhere she goes by our strongest agent. That means you."
Inuyasha was about to run his mouth again but then he reconsidered. A world tour.
"Would we be traveling across the country first or immediately going abroad?"
The other woman spoke up for the first time. "First all the major spots here and then on to the rest before coming back here again."
It would be the perfect cover for hunting down information about the jewel. Nobody would suspect a dumb pop singer's entourage member of being willing to kill to find the jewel.
"Fine. I'll do it."
"Who says I want you?" Kagome said, glaring at him with her hands on her hips.
"You want the best, right? I'm the fuckin' best."
"In your case, second-best is more than good enough."
Hojo piped up, "I could always call Kōga Ookami up here. I think he did pretty well, too."
Kagome blanched at the name. "Um, you know what? I think Inuyasha will be fine. As long as he watches himself so I don't have to turn him human again."
"Great! I'll make the announcement." Hojo cleared his throat and brought a microphone to his mouth, flipping it on. "Thank you, agents. Our winner has been chosen! Inuyasha Taisho placed first in every single challenge and has won our secret prize, the honor of being Kagome Higurashi's personal bodyguard. Thank you all for participating and please continue to enjoy the lodge."
There was a prolonged scream of absolute anguish and they made uncomfortable eye contact with one another, each of them recognizing Kōga's voice.
"Is there a back door we can use, Hojo?" Kagome asked.
"Yeah, right there—"
"Great," Inuyasha grunted and grabbed Kagome's wrist. "Take me back to your place and give me a list of venues so I can plan out security. Then you need to tell me every even remotely weird thing that's happened to you ever since that fuckin' talent show."
Kagome looked up at him, eyes sparkling with surprise. "You do know who I am!"
He stumbled on the stairs and silently cursed himself for being drawn in. Fuck, but it was too easy for her. Kagome didn't even have to try. She had laid the groundwork for this one and Inuyasha wasn't sure he could avoid the trap this time.
"Get on," Inuyasha demanded, crouching down and pulling her on his back. Kagome yelped as they took off. "Which car is yours?"
"The limo!" she said, laughing as one of her sandals flew off. "But we can go back to the city like this, I don't mind."
When Kagome curled her arms around his neck and he felt the warm press of her body against his, he didn't mind either.
Note: Yayyy new story to distract me from my other stories! Major heart eyes directed at heartrush for beta-ing this chapter and twinning with me.
New TTC chapter is being edited and I'm restraining myself from adding a ton of more stuff because I know an update is more important than another 40-pager.
