So sorry for the delay! Hope you enjoy!
"I fucking knew it." Sango grumbled, attempting to console her friend on the couch beside her. She had just gotten off from work, when Kagome had called but she had immediately rushed over after grabbing Miroku. "Nothing came up when I tried looking for their company, Kagome."
Miroku leaned over as InuYasha slumbered lifelessly, now moved over to the living room. Sango had filled him in on the ride over and Kagome brushed up on the details upon their arrival. This definitely fell out of his department's capabilities, but he was trying to figure out his best course of action.
"Sweetheart, we would have a lead if one family stepped forward and claimed him, but there's two and that's not adding up." Miroku speculated. "There isn't a pulse. Are you sure there ever was?" There was hesitancy in his question, but naturally he was a skeptical person.
Kagome slowly shifted her sad eyes to the ground, tears still occupying her lashes. She didn't know anymore. Was it possible she breathed life into him and it was nearly nothing more than a façade? No, his smile was real. His laughter was real. His concern for her wellbeing…why wouldn't he be real? Sango darted her eyes at her husband; he wasn't doing a great job at helping the situation.
"You guys, I can't even pronounce him dead. This happened what, a couple of hours ago and his face has yet to grow pale? Kagome, I know you don't want to, but we have to contact Urasue." Miroku tried to ration.
"I can't bear the thought of never seeing him again. We were actually gonna run." She scoffed softly, amazed that the thought actually crossed her mind. Did she really love InuYasha that much?
"He's not just gonna spring back to life without the company's help. I'll go with you. We'll figure everything out rationally and in a safe manner."
Sango's heart ached for her friend. This beta project had gotten too out of hand. She knew Kagome was vulnerable to falling for anything, anyone, after what she had been through. Kagome simply nodded. What other choice did she have?
()()()()
Urasue had ordered some of her employees to retrieve the malfunctioned Shikon the following day. She had a light-hearted tone of shock at what happened, seeing as this hadn't happened to any of her other Shikons that were also being beta-tested. Urasue told Kagome that her trial period was seized by default, apologetic that it happened mere days before the anticipated retrieval. She promised she would still be compensated for the full period.
Kagome watched helplessly as they placed her prince in a crate similar to the one she received him in. If she would have known she would have felt this shitty after the beta testing, she would have never signed for it. She wondered childishly if she could kiss him and he would awaken like Snow White and Sleeping Beauty, but in fact, the opposite happened. Would he still be functioning right now if she hadn't done what she did? It killed the moment, that's for sure.
Luckily for her, she didn't have to go pounding on Urasue's front door, she had invited her to collect her final notes although she didn't know how valid that was considering she had labeled him "malfunction."
Kagome insisted she was fine and had Miroku wait in the lobby for her, promising it wouldn't take too long.
Once again she found herself back in Urasue's flower-adorned office, still no better dressed than she was the first time she had been there.
Before her mind could wander endlessly, Urasue made her way to her desk.
"Hi Kagome, how are you?" She curled a smile, her lips obviously freshly painted red.
"Fine thank you." She simply replied.
"So sorry about your beta Shikon, that took all of us for a whirl. My main engineer is taking a look at it as we speak. So, overall what do you think about our product?"
"They're amazing, to put simply." Kagome paused briefly. She didn't know why she was so nervous. Urasue, if you don't mind, I'm quite interested in how Shikons are manufactured. Its unsettling how realistic they are."
"We might be here all day with the science talk—" Urasue began, clearly not wanting to get into all of it with a simpleton.
"Urasue, you don't understand. When I first received InuYasha, he seemed confused with the unfamiliar surroundings. He bleeds and quickly heals. his strength is incomparable. It was like every day he was trying to remember who he was, is there something you're not telling me?"
It was a lot for Urasue to take in. Usually her beta testers were content with the money compensation
And were on their way.
"Well Kagome, if you sign these contracts for me that nothing we show you leaves this building and that you don't run off and attempt to steal our idea, we will be more than happy to tour you through the process."
Kagome eagerly reached for the nearest pen.
()()()()
"Kagome, this is Tsubaki, our main microbiologist that helped start up this company. She'll be able to explain better than I ever could. If you two need me, I'll be in my office."
Tsubaki had jet black hair, similar to the woman Izayoi they had recently met. She was endowed with a sleek white laboratory coat and heels that clicked lightly on the freshly polished tile. She wasted no time describing the process to Kagome.
"We start with human DNA from a donor recipient, giving us the main structure for human anatomy. We also incorporate—"
"Donor recipient?" Kagome interrupted. Tsubaki stopped in her steps.
"Yes, like a regular one. UNOS decides which donors can be contributed to science technology so we work with what we get." Tsubaki smiled, continuing down her line of petri-dishes and microscopes. "We then incorporate demon DNA for longevity purposes. I am quite jealous of their lifespan."
"I thought demons weren't able to be donors?" Kagome asked.
"Under normal circumstances, you're right, they aren't. The youkai district works a little differently though, and on the science side we use donors strictly for science purposes. Our donors in specific come from those that received the death penalty in the youkai district. A good way to make use of their worthless selves, huh? Their bodies inevitably owned by the justice system."
Kagome took a second to process things. It made sense if the human dna came from Aisha who died in the event of a car accident. Sesshoumaru did mention that he thought InuYasha was in jail, so perhaps his body was donated? But how on Earth were memories passed over from both of them?
A metal door opened up like a giant vault beside them, interrupting Kagome's thought process. Out from the steam came a scrawny old man with a mask to protect him from debris. He had bug-like eyes and black gloves that covered his bony hands probably riddled with arthritis.
"Oh, Totosai! Hello!" Tsubaki bowed. "Kagome this is Totosai, our main engineer of the Shikons. Combining biology with physics and engineering does wonderful things."
Kagome held out her hand, but Totosai just looked at her dumbfounded. He looked back into the room he had just emerged from.
"Huh. Well that's strange." He said in a voice, which clearly needed throat-clearing. "That's the name written on the Shikon I'm working on right now."
"Well it's quite a popular name in J—" Tsubaki started to say.
"Here, I'll show ya." He grabbed Kagome's hand into the steam vaulted room, the door shutting behind them. Once Kagome's eyes adjusted, she saw what she imagined a morgue room would look like. In the center was InuYasha on an examine table. Her eyes welled up once more. She wasn't sure if she was going to be able to see him again. He was lifeless, just like before they had boxed him up for repair.
"From the look in your eyes, it seems to me you've met before." Totosai stated. His bug-eyed appearance gave her the impression he wasn't good with social ques and was awkward.
"I was his beta-tester and he crashed." Kagome said sadly. "You said my name is written on him?"
Totosai walked over to InuYasha, picking up his left hand. "Yup. It's written on the inner portion of his ring finger in marker. You didn't do it?"
Kagome's heart skipped a beat. She didn't quite know what it meant, but it made her happy nonetheless. She merely shook her head.
"What happened before he shut down? Did you try and give him a bath or something?" Totosai joked, examining in one of InuYasha's ears with a medical instrument.
"I um-" Kagome's face tinged a beautiful shade of pink across her nose. Totosai was looking at her now, not sure if he wanted to know the answer anymore. "I kissed him." She admitted. Totosai found it quite interesting that she kept referring to the Shikon as him.
He rose his brow at her, scratching his head. "That's it? That's why it malfunctioned? But we designed them to—" His gears were grinding against each other in his brain and then it finally clicked for him. "Remarkable. Could it be-"
He unlatched the vault excitedly. "Tsubaki! Tsubaki!" He screamed like a chicken with its head cut off. Unfortunately, she was still on the other side of the door, so he rammed right into her. She looked irritated that he left her on the other side of the vault, but his intelligence was incomparable, so she tolerated him.
"What is it Totosai." She grumbled.
"I figured it out! Our shikon didn't malfunction-it fell in love! We must tell Urasue; my experiment, it all makes sense!"
Tsubaki just looked it him like he was an idiot. Kagome tried to stifle how touched she was to hear that. Did that mean he was going to be okay?
She finally noticed the vibration of her cellphone in her pocket. It was Miroku.
"Hello?"
"Jesus Christ, Woman! I thought they had kidnapped you and I was gonna have to go Sango Demon-Slayer on their asses! It's been a half hour, where are you?"
Next Update: I'm currently working on it now, so I'll post it as soon as it's finished cause I feel bad for missing my last deadline. But at the lasted: 1/04/19.