Chapter Twenty: Parking Validation
A blaze of lights bloomed across the city, blanketing the downtown skyline in a diffuse glow that pushed against the cool night. Hanging from the sides of the buildings block-after-block, countless signs beckoned. Their kanji and cartoons blended together, creating an alluring kaleidoscope of colors and patterns. Below them, the streets bustled with people, the late hour reduced to nothing more than a number on a clock. Locals and tourists mixed together, their missions the same. To find the exotic. To embrace the diversions. And to make their discoveries while connecting with each other. With friends. Family. Humanity.
On the third story of a concrete parking structure, two figures watched the street below. At the corner of the intersection, a line of people waited in front of a nightclub. Above the double doors that marked the entrance was a sophisticated electric sign in green font, The K-Lin Lounge.
Kagome leaned forward onto her forearms, her eyes fixed on the nightclub below.
"Are you sure that you can't sense her anywhere?" she asked, her toe tapping anxiously against the pavement.
Dressed in his long white coat that concealed his costume, Sesshoumaru stood beside her, his arms crossed and his expression mildly irritated. "I'm certain that I cannot sense her," he replied dryly.
Her attention remaining mostly on the nightclub, she gave him a sidelong look. The same color as his eyes, his face reflected the amber glow of the city. "So, the doll doesn't help? Which by the way, I'm forever entertained that you, of all people, are carrying around a Hello Kitty doll."
"If it will placate you." Reaching into his pants pocket, he pulled out the old doll. He put it close to his nose and inhaled lightly. The scent of a human girl mixed with detergent, linens, and a decade of places and experiences, creating a unique profile. After tucking the doll back into his pocket, he tested the air with a long sniff, and the muddy crush of the city filled his nose.
"Well?" she asked hopefully.
With his eyes closed, he shook his head.
She sighed, disappointed. Then brightened. "How about if we were closer?"
He sighed. "It doesn't matter. Time is against us. Between the thousands of humans who have passed through here over the last two weeks and the deterioration of any scent that she has left behind in that time, we're at an insurmountable disadvantage. I'm the best there is, and if I say that it's not possible, please accept it."
She blew out a breath. "I can't."
He nodded, unsurprised.
"But, you're right. Time is against us. And the longer this takes, the longer she's wherever she's at and probably not someplace good."
His gaze left the nightclub to rest on her. "Why?"
"What do you mean?"
"Why do you first suspect that this person we seek is someplace against her will? You don't know her, and it's not clear that she wants or needs to be rescued."
She blinked and her tone hardened. "Do you think that she's missing by choice, so you're not taking this seriously?"
His brow furrowed. "Planning and patience will ensure our success over impulsivity. I'm here, so that means that I'm committed. Do not doubt my resolve. Answer my question."
Eyes wide, she stared at him and backed a step or two away.
His expression didn't soften.
The tension broke with her sigh and she rubbed her face. "I'm sorry. I hurt your feelings and that was wrong of me."
He blinked, surprised. Whether it was from her apology or the twinge of acknowledgment he felt in his chest, he couldn't tell.
"I'm just worried," she continued unabated, "So many bad things have already happened to her, and if I can do anything to keep one more thing off that list, then I'm going to do it. She needs to know that someone cares."
"When we find her, she will know."
"If it was that simple then having a social worker like Tora would have been enough to keep her from a place like this. And maybe for some people, someone like him is enough."
"Not everyone can be saved."
"I know that. Believe me, I do. But this is something else. It took me a long time to understand it. When you come from such a supportive family like I do, you don't really think about how others might have a different experience. Or you think you get it, but you really don't."
He looked at her, curious.
"There's a way that not having family leaves you vulnerable and craving acceptance from wherever you can get it. That's how I know Amaya is in a bad place, even if she went there by choice. And if she's there and still okay, I want her to know what it means to be cared about. That it's something that shouldn't come with conditions."
Her gaze fell to the nightclub, and she laughed softly. "When I met Inuyasha, he was so angry and frustrated. It made him dangerous, at least in the beginning. All I was trying to do was adjust to being a reincarnated priestess and that whole thing with the Shikon-no-Tama. But the more time we spent together, the more I realized how important family and being cared about are. He spent so many years being ignored. And when he was seen, it was for the half of him that nobody wanted. He wanted so desperately to become a full youkai or a full human. To be anyone but himself so that the people who were supposed to be his family would accept him. For them to be both family by blood and by heart."
He closed his eyes, her words cutting deep.
"You see, if he could have wished on the Shikon-no-Tama, he would have discarded half of himself. I don't think it was until all of us, myself, Sango, Miroku, and Shippou, formed our group that he understood what it meant to be accepted and cared for as a whole person. To be loved for who he was. That he wasn't the one who needed to change to get that."
She clenched her fists, her voice seething. "Even now when I think about it, a part of me thinks about Souta. He's my little brother, and I can't even imagine being cruel to him. But, Inuyasha endured so much cruelty on the part of his older brother. He endured so much hatred and revulsion. He deserved so… much… better…"
He could feel her eyes on him. He could hear her breathing, shaky with anger that transformed into fear.
A long moment passed, and again the tension slowly dissipated.
"I'm sorry," she apologized. "I forgot who I was talking to."
He felt a twinge in his chest, but it wasn't acknowledgment this time.
"I—" she started, and then stopped.
His eyes opened and he gave the air a light sniff. "Tora is returning."
Crossing the street below, a man trotted away from the nightclub and towards the parking structure. They waited in silence, their gazes on anything but each other. Tora popped up from the stairwell and strode in their direction, waving.
"Did you find her?" Kagome shouted to him.
He raised both hands, palms up. "Nope, she's not there."
Her face fell.
"I did get some information. Maybe from it, we can figure out a plan."
When he reached them, he hopped up to sit on the half-wall she had been leaning against. When he opened his mouth to talk, no words came out. Instead, he glanced back and forth between them.
"What happened?" he asked, pointing at them.
"It's nothing. Don't worry about it," she said quickly. "What did you learn?"
He frowned, eyeing them both critically. And then he shrugged. "So, as I was saying before, The K-Lin Lounge is a gaijin bar. Though I suppose this place isn't technically a bar since it's a nightclub, but the sentiment is the same."
"What's a gaijin bar?" Sesshoumaru asked.
"It's an establishment that caters to foreigners. Typically westerners. There's something inauthentic about them, so I'm not usually a fan, but this place has a different vibe than any of the other ones I've been to."
"How so?"
"Well, for one thing, it's crawling with yakuza."
Sesshoumaru snorted, unimpressed.
Tora shook his head. "These aren't the metal baseball bat guys you've been trashing on your nightly raids. They're much more professional and all of them are packing heat."
He looked at him quizzically.
"Guns. They all have guns." He sighed. "I don't even think they're from the same clan that we're used to, which is weird, because I'm pretty sure this is Kuro-Sakura territory. Maybe they formed an alliance with another clan or something."
"So, the yakuza means that they're doing something illegal here, and Amaya is caught up in it?" Kagome asked.
"It's possible," Tora replied. "At any rate, on the surface it seems like most gaijin bars. A lot of westerners, and I bought one of them a ton of drinks because my English is shit. He told me that if I liked my dates on the young side, then this was the place to be. That the proprietors could arrange something for me if I had the money."
She swallowed.
"Yeah."
"And Amaya wasn't there?"
"No. And I think… I think this place is the key behind why other girls have gone missing too."
"Should we call the police?"
"Yes, but we should make the first move. If the police hit them here, the clan might do whatever is necessary to get rid of any evidence. If this is sex trafficking and those girls are still alive somewhere, they'd be in even more danger."
"What do you think we should do?" she asked.
"How many gunmen?" Sesshoumaru said, his eyes pouring over the building as he reconfirmed the locations of the egresses and the structural weak points that he could see.
"Twenty, but I didn't have access to any of the private rooms, so we shouldn't rely on that being the minimum number. And taking on even that many would be suicidal. So, brute force is not our best option, as badass as you may be."
He gave him a flat look, unamused.
Tora tried his best disarming smile.
"We must isolate their leadership," Sesshoumaru said, "I can then persuade them to share what they know, and we will plan our next move after that."
"And if those twenty gunmen disagree? There has to be a quieter way of doing this."
"If you have money, can you pose as a customer?" he asked.
Tora sighed. "Other than not being a great actor, they've turned a gaijin bar into a front for a reason. What that foreigner doesn't realize is that they don't want local attention, and I'm one hundred percent native right down to my accent. And you're too foreign looking to be honest. I don't think you'd make it through the front door. Though if you ever want to go clubbing, I know some places where you'd kill it. Figuratively."
"What if I go?" Kagome offered.
He laughed. "You're way too young to go to those clubs."
"But that's the point here, right? What if I go?"
His face sobering, Tora looked at her seriously. "No, that's too dangerous. Something could happen to you. They could kill you."
"I spent over a year of my life in danger on an almost daily basis." She thumbed at Sesshoumaru. "How do you think I met this guy?"
He paused, uncertain.
"You said that you could tell that I've seen a lot. Well, I have. I can do this."
He looked to Sesshoumaru.
"You don't need confirmation from him," she said, seizing his attention again. "You need to believe in me. Just like I believe in you both. That you'll be there if I need you."
He stared at her, his mind working behind his eyes.
"You're right," Tora finally agreed, and he gave her a nod. "I believe in you."
"Let's make our plan," Sesshoumaru said, his gaze on the nightclub. "This girl needs our help."