Inuyasha Taisho considered himself a simple man. He did not adorn his meals with fancy fixins, preferring things as close to nature as he could have them. Salmon did taste best with just a dash of salt and lemon, after all. He owned six different colors of the exact same shirt (because it was comfortable and the cotton smelled pleasant) and three different colors of the exact same pair of jeans. Inuyasha liked what he liked, and surrounded himself as best he could with those things.
He would arrive at work precisely at 8:58 in the morning, after he walked from his one-bedroom apartment nestled up in the hills. He would then debug his coworker Jaken's code before it was time to push it into the main database. He would have lunch down near Pike's Place Market, where he would request whatever was the freshest catch grilled with a hint of salt, on top of rice. In the afternoon, he would add new lines of code to help make a user's ad experience better as they surfed the internet. He always justified that his choice to give his talent to internet advertising was that it was always a little less annoying seeing advertisements that might interest its target, but someday he dreamed of doing good in the world (or maybe… erasing a couple hundred other people's hospital debts—bastards). But for now, the pay was good and the benefits were sufficient.
On Tuesdays, Inuyasha went out for Happy Hour with his friends Miroku and Sango. They always ordered a pitcher, which they split, on Inuyasha. He then bought himself a bacon cheeseburger with no additional garnishes, because 'everything else fucked with the flavor.' Once in a while, Miroku and Sango would bring a friend of theirs, 'just for kicks' (which Inuyasha would correctly read as a set-up). Those nights always ended early, often followed with an irate phone call to tell the friends to stop fucking with his personal life. His extra-long twin bed was perfect for him. He didn't need anyone else.
(Even if the truth was not so simple; it was easier being lonely when you were the one who chose it.)
On that particular Tuesday, Miroku and Sango had brought a nice wolf demon 'friend' named Ayame; she took one look at him and proceeded to play with her steak for the rest of the night. Not that Inuyasha had any interest in the redhead anyway. He drank about twice what he normally did that night, which promptly ended when Ayame said something about 'mixed' race people that sent Inuyasha to the bathroom to calm the rage.
True, he was used to it.
His mother taught him that it was okay to love himself.
He just sometimes needed to remind himself of that, too.
"You're loved, Inuyasha." He looked at his own golden eyes in the mirror, he looked at the twitching ears atop his head, he looked at the fangs that capped his teeth, and at the skin that looked sprinkled with gold dust. "You're special."
That he is, a shadow in the corner thought, that he is.
When Inuyasha exited the bathroom, something—everything—felt wrong. Like the world around him was proceeding in slow motion. He turned to the table that so recently had housed his friends and the 232nd failed blind date (who would ever want to date a wolf anyway?), but they were gone. In their place was a woman.
Or was she?
Her hair was jet black, but somehow haloed in pearlescent light. Her bangs laid precisely straight just above her dark eyebrows, and the rest of her hair was tied in a ballerina bun. Her brown eyes seemed to glow with the same pearlescent sheen as the halo-that-was-definitely-not-there. Her face was bare of makeup, but still her skin was impossibly smooth and glimmering. She wore a flowing cream silk blouse with a gold pencil skirt and strappy sandals that tied in neat bows at the ankles. Even her clothes looked haloed.
"Hello Inuyasha," she beckoned him. "My name is Kikyō."
"What the fuck are you doing here, and where are my friends?" Inuyasha snarled at the woman, who merely smiled.
"Your friends are headed home. Check your phone." Kikyō gestured to Inuyasha's left front pocket.
Inuyasha yanked out his phone, his warning growl not abating.
Taking Ayame home. Sorry for another terrible evening. Drinks and food on us.
Miroku's message had arrived a couple minutes prior, while Inuyasha was collecting himself in the bathroom.
"See? Nothing to worry about," the woman said, and she gestured politely to the chair across from her. "Please join me?"
"You're not human." Inuyasha crossed his arms; he would not admit it, but the woman in front of him frightened him. True, she smelled human and she looked human, but there was an aura about her that did not quite fit.
"I am pretty much human," Kikyō chortled, "everything but the aura." One more gesture to the chair, which caused Inuyasha to back up. "I'm an angel. Well, technically, I'm a representative of heaven."
Of all the scenarios that Inuyasha had played out: a time-warping demon, a witch, an actual time traveler from the future, space alien… representative of heaven had not even made the top 100. But here she sat, with that strange halo, that serene smile, and looks (good looks) that seemed to defy reality, as if someone sat down to determine those features that could make a perfect woman, and then constructed that woman, step by meticulous step.
"Why… are you here?" Inuyasha was amazed that his voice still worked.
"I'm here for you, Inuyasha," Kikyō said; this time at her gesture, Inuyasha finally came to sit down and join her. "Well, for your soul."
Inuyasha paused. He didn't feel dead. Even as he felt like he and Kikyō were in some strange and warped reality, there was no doubt that he was still present in the bar, still… corporeal… so, what was this all about?
"Don't worry, we have absolutely no desire to collect until you've passed beyond the veil, so to speak." Kikyō covered her giggling lips with her hand. Inuyasha tried not to be mesmerized by the movement, but this was the first time he had ever met an angel, and well, they lived up to their name. "So, would you like to hear what we have to offer?"
Inuyasha tried to take stock of what was happening. An angel was sitting across from him at the bar as he was rejected for the 232nd time by someone, to ask him, a half-demon, for his soul.
"Don't demons all go to… uh… the other place?" Inuyasha asked; surely this was a trick, and the angel before him was a mirage, a trick by the devil to take his soul that very day.
"Well, most of them, yes," Kikyō smiled. "Self-determination and all that. Demons like chaos." Kikyō then leaned in. "But not all of them. You, for instance, have yet to choose your fate." She then rustled through her bag, and pulled out an enormous stack of papers, neatly clipped on the top. "This is just the standard contract, for you to look over as you begin to make your choice."
"Choice?" Inuyasha was not getting it. A choice assumed that there was… well… a choice. "Isn't that stuff sort of… determined by now?"
"In most cases? Yes." Kikyō continued to rifle around in her bag, looking for something. "But you're a very special case. You don't have a predetermined destination. So… well, you're going to get to choose."
"Already pulling out the pen, dear sister?" A new voice appeared in a shadow, seemingly unseen by the rest of the bar patrons, until she plopped down in the chair right next to Inuyasha. She turned to face him, her gray eyes sparkling as she took him in.
If it were possible, this woman was even more beautiful than the angel. Her hair was wild, with obsidian waves that cascaded down her shoulders, like a starlit waterfall. Her bangs, while disordered, framed her heart-shaped face so perfectly that she looked sculpted with them by the creator himself. Her lips were full and painted with lacquered red lipstick. Her cheeks were naturally blushing, and her skin, like her sister's, seemed nearly flawless. But this sister, unlike the other, wore a tight red dress that left little to the imagination, her full breasts nearly spilling from the top.
"I'm Kagome." She leaned forward, inviting Inuyasha to take in her figure, smiling impishly as he gave in. "My sister Kikyō was cheating here a bit."
"W—what are you talking about?" Kikyō scoffed.
"Taking a page out of dad's book I see." Kagome rolled her eyes, enjoying her sister's sputtering far too much. "I know the blood pen when I see it."
"I was merely going to have him look over the paperwork tonight." Kikyō folded her arms and looked away. "And if I recall, you were supposed to wait to talk to Inuyasha until tomorrow."
"W—what—what the fuck is going on?!" Inuyasha pushed away from the devilishly beautiful woman sitting next to him, trying to wrap his mind around the situation.
One called the other sister. One accused the other—the angel—of cheating. Because he had an unclaimed soul. A soul that apparently these two impossibly beautiful women were fighting over.
"I thought Kikyō explained it to you." Kagome leaned back in her seat and crossed her leg. With a snap of her finger a waiter appeared in front of her and handed her a martini. "You're not destined to go up or down; your soul is on the fence. So… we're here to talk you into picking a side."
It was that simple. Inuyasha's soul was as much a child of two worlds as he was. Never quite fitting in anywhere and destined to make a world for himself, to find that he was the only person standing in it.
"Whatever you're thinking, stop." Kagome put her hand on Inuyasha's arm; when had she leaned so close to him again? And why did she smell so good? "It has nothing to do with no one wanting you, because the afterlife rarely chooses the person." Suddenly she paused, and a small inscrutable smile appeared on her face. "And no, I can't read minds. I'm just… intuitive."
"And not supposed to be here." Kikyō snapped her fingers from across the table.
"Then pitch him, sister; I'm just here to observe." Kagome rolled her eyes. "And put that pen away before I snap it in half."
Kikyō narrowed her eyes, but placed the pen gingerly back into her bag. It wasn't like Kikyō was going to make Inuyasha sign the contract; she only needed proof of his having read the contract for Mom. Kagome knew that. And yet, Kagome had twisted that knowledge to her advantage. Just like Kagome always did. But as usual, the fight was not worth it, and honestly, it was extremely unlikely that getting into a tiff about a pen was going to do anything when it came to Inuyasha's soul, so Kikyō let it slide.
"Heaven is a wonderful place," Kikyō started, shooting Kagome a warning 'do not theatrically yawn' look as she continued. "Do good deeds in life? You spend an eternity amongst others who did the same. We sing, and dance; we find joy in an eternity of togetherness. We all wake up together, we all talk together, we all make music together, and we all say our thanks together. You become one voice amongst so so many, a collective of serenity." This was where Kagome scoffed, just like she always did. Kikyō accidentally kicked her sister in her shin. "To be in heaven is to give up the struggles of day-to-day life. You are many-in-one. Living day to day in bliss and…"
"And utterly boring routine," Kagome interrupted, right on schedule. "Do you really want to give up who you are to become an automaton that does the same thing day in and day out for eternity?"
"You'll never be alone again," Kikyō spoke over her sister's words.
"You'll never be an individual again," Kagome shot back.
"I thought you were here to observe," Kikyō snarled.
"I am observing you giving him false information, and felt the need to clarify a few things." Kagome shrugged. "Why do you think I chose to go with Dad?"
"Wait… your mom is God and your dad is the devil?" Inuyasha asked, though his mind lingered on the never be alone again promise.
"Messy divorce," Kagome and Kikyō drawled together. Kagome then piped up. "Kikyō is the rule follower, so she plays harp in the clouds adorned in white, and I am self-determined and like it that way, so I guess I dance in the fires of hell with the damned, or something like that." But Kagome did not stop there; her smokey eyes were studying Inuyasha as if X-raying him. "And you're never alone in hell either. Not if you don't want to be."
"Ugh, here we go again." Kikyō's nose bunched up. "Heaven is the collective and hell is the party. Blah blah blah." She then leaned across the table and stuck one index finger into Kagome's chest. "But you know which one all religions of the world think is the better one—except I guess the Satanists—so... stop telling people that there is some perpetual party down there!"
"You wouldn't know." Kagome inspected her fingernails. "You've never been."
"And you have never been to heaven! Never felt the bliss of all the souls communing with one great goal," Kikyō explained. "United. Many-as-one."
"Inuyasha here probably doesn't want to wait until the afterlife to feel this many-as-one crap," Kagome said, then leaned back casually. Inuyasha had been watching her so carefully all night; she knew she had him on the line. Now all she had to do was reel him in. "He wants things now. While he is still living and breathing. And… that is one thing that heaven can't offer him." She leaned closer, letting her cleavage spill from her dress just enough to see the scowl grow on Kikyō's face, even as the handsome half-demon's eyes widened. "Something hell can offer him."
"Temptations? Are you kidding?" Kikyō sounded shrill; Kagome loved making Kikyō sound shrill.
"Sign a contract with them, and you will learn really quickly that you are going to be spending your long life following an endless number of rules, only to die and keep following an endless number of rules." Kagome smirked. "The main difference between life and death is you get to be with a bajillion other souls who are doing exactly the same thing as you." She almost had him, she knew it. "Sign a contract with me, and we start giving you the things you truly desire here. Now. On Earth."
"You are despicable." Kikyō was shaking her head, because they both seemed to know that Kagome was winning.
Inuyasha though, was not so sure. Even then, he heard the echoes of the words never alone again fading in his mind, but never completely disappearing.
"Three wishes, Inuyasha, that's what I can offer you," Kagome said casually, but the storm in her eyes gave her away. "No caveats, no monkey's paws, nothing. Just three wishes if you sign your soul up to go party with the devils."
Kikyō understood the look in Inuyasha's eyes. She understood that she'd been played perfectly by Kagome in this meeting. That soon, Kagome was going to tie her once again, 101 to 101. Because even though she'd noted the way Inuyasha's amber eyes had ignited at the mention of never alone again, she also saw the wheels behind those eyes turning at Kagome's offer. Half-demons lived for eons, so signing up to follow the rules with the promise of an eternity of togetherness did not sit the same to a half-demon as it did to a human.
"So… you're not gonna trick me with the wishes?" Inuyasha inquired, still bedazzled by Kagome's decolletage as she pulled out a piece of paper from her own bag. It was only a single piece, written in impossibly small print.
"I don't twist wishes," Kagome answered; she didn't. That took the fun out of it. Granting wishes in a straightforward fashion did not diminish the end result, and often people made wishes that twisted all by themselves: no need for help from Kagome. "So… do we have a deal?"
"At least let him think over it for the night!" Kikyō yelled, but in her mind, she had already presumed their game of souls was now tied.
"That is a brilliant idea," Kagome said, as aware as Kikyō was that she had won. She took her own pen out of her purse as well as a business card. She scribbled two addresses on its back. "If you choose Kikyō's bargain, then go to Heavenly Coffee tomorrow morning at sunrise. And… if you choose me, then I will see you at Devil's Brew."
(Leave it to Seattle to have enough coffee houses that there were ones with such on-the-nose names.)
Inuyasha nodded and stood up, scurrying out of the door of the bar and home, the two contracts stuffed underneath his arm. He knew he would not sleep that night. No, he would read, and read, and read. Because he needed to pretend that this was a hard decision, choosing hell over heaven. Choosing wishes during his life instead of… good?...rewarding his death.
So he scoured both documents, trying to take in every word. He already knew how he could calm the crying echo in his soul of never be alone again. The sun was nearly cresting the horizon when he was finally done, when the words of Kagome's contract were all blending together, when it was time for Inuyasha to leave his apartment, and find his way to Devil's Brew.
At exactly sunrise, Kagome was not surprised to watch the half-demon, who wore a red t-shirt and dark blue jeans, his hair tied in a ponytail, march in and meet her.
"Give me the pen," Inuyasha said, avoiding eye contact. "And tell me when I can start makin' my wishes."
Kagome pulled the onyx and mother-of-pearl pen out of her purse, adorned with cloisonne spider lilies: a gift from her father. She pointed to the line, and watched as Inuyasha sealed their contract: his soul for her wishes. Unbreakable in all but the most shattering of circumstances.
Unfortunately for Inuyasha, in the dead of night as the words started to blend together from that impossibly small font, he had missed some of the fine print.
Right above his signature, was perhaps the most important statement of the entire contract: that his soul was to be collected at the exact moment that he was granted his third wish.