Disclaimer: Inuyasha is sooo not mine.
Chapter 16
Six days after leaving home, a very rested and contented Kagome was stretched out on the beach in the resort town of Atami. On this beautiful Wednesday morning, the only thoughts in her head consisted of choosing which of the many onsens in the area she wanted to sink her body into next. She had only stayed in Shizuoka a couple of days before she got bored of it and feeling restless, she headed east over to the Izu Peninsula and straight to Atami, which sat looking out over the Pacific Ocean.
It was still too cool to swim in the blue waters but that did not stop a few brave souls. There were many families and couples walking along the beach, enjoying the bright spring sunshine and who could blame them? It was so beautiful out here! She was very happy glad she came.
Somewhere off to the right of her, a cell phone went off and automatically, Kagome reached for her side where she usually kept hers. When she couldn't locate it, she looked down and remembered that her phone was back in her hotel room. During the entire trip so far, Kagome kept the ringer off on her phone, so she wouldn't be tempted to answer whenever someone called. Although she wouldn't have known if anyone had called, since it was buried somewhere in her duffel bag. 'Oh well,' she thought and and shrugged. Her phone was probably dead by now anyway, since she'd forgotten to bring the charger with her.
Just before leaving Shizuoka, she sent Sesshoumaru a letter, telling her guardian that she was okay and that she would return soon, but said nothing more than that. She knew that he would be upset at her leaving without a word to him and he would immediately come down to retrieve her. Hopefully, he would understand that she needed to get away and that he would trust her to be out on her own. After dropping the letter off at the post office, she went off on her merry way.
As she lay there on the beach, contemplating on those deliciously warm waters of the onsens, she felt suddenly like leaving this place. For some reason, she knew that she had somewhere else to be, but just where, she didn't know. Somewhere... to the west...
Her stomach growled noisily, interrupting a vision in her head of a mist covered mountain. With an amused little chuckle, she got to her feet and stretched slowly, relishing the feel of the warm spring sunshine on her face and the gentle sea breezes that ruffled her clothes. It was funny, and she knew Sesshoumaru would be proud, but ever since she'd been in Atami her appetite had vastly improved. Perhaps it was tranquility of the ocean, or the absence of the pressures in her life, of no one worrying about her poor eating habits.
Brushing the sand from her legs and shaking it out of her clothes, she walked off the beach and headed back to her hotel with a little skip in her step.
oooooooooooooooooooo
Back in Tokyo, Sesshoumaru was about to receive Kagome's letter. He was eating breakfast with Souta as usual when his butler came in with many apologies and a frightened look on his face.
"Excuse me, sir, but this letter came in the mail two days ago. Apparently the new maid managed to misplace it and we only found it a few minutes ago."
Sesshoumaru set down his glass of orange juice with a slight frown. "Oh, that's alright, Jaken. No harm done." He held out his hand for the letter.
Jaken placed the letter in his employer's hand and scuttled back hurriedly. He knew the moment he saw the handwriting on the envelope that Sesshoumaru would not be pleased.
His master glanced down at the letter. Delicate brows immediately snapped downwards and blazing golden eyes shot up to glare at the trembling butler. "What the hell is this?" he snarled at the man.
"I... I... don't know... sir," Jaken stammered.
Making an attempt to calm himself, Sesshoumaru glanced again at the postmark. It was dated three days earlier from Shizuoka in the Chubu region. Carefully, but with trembling hands, he opened the envelope and removed the letter within. With his heart pounding like a jackhammer, he read it. It was from Kagome, telling him that she was doing fine and that she would return soon. His heart froze and grew heavy in his chest. She was gone? He hadn't even known she'd left Tokyo to begin with.
He looked down at the postmark again. Shizuoka. Two hours away using the Tomei Expressway...
But what really bothered him was that he hadn't even taken time from his busy schedule to check on her. The very least he could have done was call her. One phone call just to make sure she was okay... but he hadn't and now she was sending him letters from another city. Once again he'd failed in his duty to her...
Unless... unless something had happened to her.
What if someone had snatched his beloved and was holding her hostage? And thanks to some silly, stupid little maid, he'd gotten the letter two days late. An idiot housemaid, paired with his inability to keep track of the woman he loved, sent his already boiling temper shooting through the roof and he surged to his feet, grabbing hold of the ends of the table. His vision had darkened and his chest heaved painfully. Something had happened to her, he just knew it!
He also knew that Kagome wouldn't always tell him if something was wrong or if she needed help, but if she had planned to go somewhere, she would tell him that at least. No, something terrible must have happened to her and she had been forced to write this letter.
With a herculean effort not to sweep the his breakfast dishes off onto the floor, he carefully brushed them aside and lay the letter down on the table in front of him. It was all he could not to take the entire table and throw it across the room. "Jaken," he said with forced calmness, "get me the phone."
When the phone was retrieved, Sesshoumaru put through a call to an old friend of his who had relocated to Shizuoka several years earlier. "Naraku, hello. This is Sesshoumaru. I have a very great favor to ask of you."
The man on the other end chuckled, his deep voice filled with amusement. "Sure, Sesshoumaru. Anything for an old friend. Tell me, what can I do for you?"
"I need you to find Kagome."
"Hmm. She's your ward, right? Yes, I remember her. Pretty little thing she is, too. Gone missing, has she?"
Sesshoumaru's eyes squeezed shut. He did not want to hear that word used in connection to her. "I... don't know for certain. I just received a letter from her this morning... it actually arrived a couple of days ago, but one of my new housemaids managed to lose it. From what I gathered so far, Kagome was in Shizuoka up until Thursday, where she posted it."
"I see." There was some clicking sounds on the other end from a keyboard. "I'll get my people on it right away. Oh, I have a question."
"Go ahead."
Naraku chuckled softly. "About Kagome. By any chance, is she still single?"
With a menacing snarl, Sesshoumaru quickly hung up the phone, but an overwhelming feeling of helplessness swept over him and he flung the phone across the room where is broken into several pieces. What if she had been kidnapped? Was her kidnapper was hurting his angel? What if she was in pain and there was no one around to help her? Oh, god...what if she was being... raped?
"Jaken!" he roared, his pulse pounding like a stampede of wild horses in his head. "Get me another goddamn phone in here now!"
"Yes, sir!" Jaken cried and ran off.
Bringing his fists down with a loud, impatient bang on the table, he glared off in the distance, his mind imagining the worst happening to his precious girl. But a gentle hand on his forearm made him pause and he turned to look at the young man sitting calmly beside him.
Souta, he thought for the millionth time, looked exactly like his sister. Right now, his enormous chocolate-hued eyes stared up at him and for a moment, he felt as though it was she who was looking at him.
"Perhaps she wanted to get away," said the young man reasonably. "From what I hear, a lot has been going on in her life. I think she's fine, Sesshoumaru. If she wasn't, I would feel it. Please, don't worry so. She's a grown woman and knows how to take care of herself."
The boy's presence seemed to soothe his rage and he hung his head. "I know but... I can't help but worry about her."
Souta sighed and shook his head. "I'm telling you that you really don't need to worry. My sister is just fine."
There was a commotion outside the breakfast room and a second later, Jaken burst in, carrying in a cordless phone and handed it to his employer. "Who are you going to call, sir?" he dared to ask.
Sesshoumaru angrily snatched the phone out of his butler's hand. "Someone who wasn't doing his job."
oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
Hiro was rushing home, feeling pretty upset with his brother. He really hated being roused from sleep.
Yuki had called him at his hotel room in a state of alarm, asking him where Kagome was and why she hadn't been to see him in almost a week. Hiro told Yuki that he had no clue as to where she was and would have gladly hung up on the blond pest if Yuki hadn't burst into tears about how he never should have asked her to marry him so soon. He believed that she'd run away because of him.
That woke Hiro up straight away and he demanded when this new bit of outragousness occurred. Through the sniffling and the sobs, Yuki told him and that when he tried calling the very next day, she didn't answer her phone. He'd called and called her every day, but he always got her voicemail.
"Maybe she finally got wise," Hiro had remarked unkindly. Yuki called him a heartless bastard and hung up.
Now as Hiro was turning into the driveway, he saw Kagome's car. So, she was home. Kagome probably didn't want to answer the phone. Poor girl was most likely really confused and didn't know what to do with herself after receiving two offers of marriage in the space of a week.
He pulled up next to her car and got out, grabbing his suitcase. Then he went inside the house, tossed his keys into the container on the table and after shutting the door behind him, went upstairs. "Kagome?" he called out. "Kagome? Are you home?"
No answer.
After putting his baggage in his room, he went to her bedroom and found it empty. Going in, he flipped on the lightswitch and saw that her empty suitcase lay open on the bed.
At that moment, his cell phone went off. Once he'd dug it out of his pocket, he looked at the caller id. Damn! It was Sesshoumaru. What could he possibly want? Taking a deep breath, he answered the phone.
"Moshi-moshi."
"Hiro! Where is she?" demanded Morikawa in a tightly controlled voice.
All at once, a disturbing thought hit Hiro. First Yuki, and now Sesshoumaru, calling him to find out where Kagome was. "I don't know," Hiro answered, snapping off the lights and exiting the room.
"What do you mean you don't know?"
"I'm sorry, Sesshoumaru, but I really don't know. I mean, her car is still here."
"Is she in the house?"
Hiro went downstairs and looked around. "No, I called out but got no response. The house is very quiet."
"Damn! That must mean she's still in Shizuoka."
Hiro frowned. "What? Shizuoka? What's she doing there?"
"I received a letter from her this morning postmarked in Shizuoka three days ago."
"No way, that's ridiculous. She would have said something to you or me if she planned on leaving Tokyo. Besides, her car is still here. What, do you think she rented a car for the trip?" Hiro went to the foyer to retrieve his keys from the table.
"It's beginning to look like it. I'll ask my credit card company to watch for any transactions on her card."
"Okay. Hopefully she's using it," Hiro said, reaching blindly into the bowl for his keys. There seemed to be less than three sets of keys in the container and he peered in. There were indeed only two sets of keys... but he knew there should be three. "Oh, no," muttered Hiro and ran outside, ignoring Sesshoumaru completely. He dashed off to the shed where kept his Harley, but even before he opened the door, he already knew what he would find. Or rather, what he would not find...
Raising the phone back up to his ear, he caught the tail end of Sesshoumaru's rant. "...damn it, Hiro! What's happening?"
Sesshoumaru is going to kill me, Hiro thought, swallowing hard, feeling sweat roll down his back in icy streaks. "My... motorcycle. It's gone. Kagome took my motorcycle."
There was a deafening roar on the other end and sounds of things breaking. Sesshoumaru let up just long enough for Hiro to catch the phrase, "I'll slice Kouga's throat open while he sleeps!" or something to that effect.
Hiro sighed and hung up. If he didn't know better, he'd think that Kagome bided her time until everyone who watched over her was distracted by other things: Sesshoumaru with work, Kouga being out of town on business, Yuki indisposed with his bad leg. As for himself, he was spending time with his girlfriend. But Kagome was incapable of doing anything devious, so he nixed that idea. So how did she do it? How had she managed to slip through everyone's fingers so easily?
More importantly, where was she now... and just why did she leave?
ooooooooooooooooooooooo
There was someone who knew of Kagome's whereabouts. Well, technically, there were three: Miroku and his two favored henchmen, Kanako and Hachi. The latter two had been personally assigned to Kagome by Miroku and their only assignment was to watch over Kagome as often as possible.
However, on the day of the blackout, Kanako and Hachi were off, but Ginta, who agreed to take their place as Miroku's eyes on the young woman, was on his way to her house. On her way to see Yuki, Kagome had stopped for gas and like before, Ginta was also filling up when he happened to look around and see her. His first reaction was to call Kouga, but then he remembered that both Kouga and Hakkaku had gone north to Niigata on an errand for Yuki.
He followed her in his car as she headed downtown. As he began to wonder just where she was leading him, he saw her turn into the parking garage of Yuki's apartment. Grabbing his phone, he called Miroku and told him where he'd followed Kagome to. Miroku thanked him for his diligence and asked him to wait there until his men arrived.
Little did Kanako and Hachi know, they would have a very long day ahead of them. First, with the blackout and then having to wait through those long dragging hours while rain came constantly down, making them sleepy. They were glad when she finally came out and drove home. When they watched her enter her house and shut the door, Kanako sat back against his seat as Hachi shut off the car's engine.
"Well, it looks to be another long night," Kanako muttered to Hachi, linking his hands behind his head. "I don't know why Miroku insists we watch her. Nothing ever happens." He sighed heavily. "I'd tell Miroku where to get off... if I wasn't so fucking scared of him."
Hachi shivered. "I know! He can be so scary! But he must not be that bad. He has a girlfriend, right?"
"What difference does that make? She might be into torture and punishment. He's certainly into handing it out like it was Halloween candy. I'm telling you, the guy is twisted."
"If you say so, Kanako. But I think, for the most part, he's a nice man."
Kanako shifted his gaze to look upon his partner. "Oh my god. If I didn't know any better, I'd think you had a crush on the bastard. What, do you call him dan'na-sama, too?"
A look of guilt flashed across Hachi's reddening face and he looked away. Kanako was shocked. "You're kidding me! You call Miroku that?" He burst into laughter.
While Kanako continued to ridicule the furiously blushing Hachi, neither of them noticed Kagome locking the front door behind her before heading around the side of the house with a duffel bag in her hand. Needless to say, both of them were startled at the sound of a motorcycle engine coming to life and revving up. They were even more shocked to see a slim figure, clad in a leather jacket and blue jeans on the seat of a black motorcycle come shooting out from the backyard of Kagome's house and out onto the street.
As the girl they were supposed to be watching drove away down the street, Kanako had visions of coming home to finding his wife with her throat slashed open. "Damn it, Hachi! Follow her!" he cried, his voice full of terror.
The car roared to life and Hachi put the pedal to the metal, sending them flying after her. When Kanako had recovered enough to speak several minutes later, he got on the phone and called Miroku, who apparently was about to head home from his office. "She's got some sort of bag attached to the seat behind her. It looks as though she might be going out of town, sir."
"Then stay behind her. It's getting dark and Kagome is a careful young woman. She'll stop before it gets too late. Which way is she heading?"
"Okay. Um, it looks like she's heading south on the Tomei Expressway."
Miroku was silent for a moment. "Hmm. She'll make it to Shizuoka in a couple of hours and most likely she'll stop there. Well, whenever she stops, call me."
Just as Miroku predicted, Kagome did indeed stop in Shizuoka. When Kanako informed Miroku of this, he was already on his way heading south. Miroku called Sango and told her that he had to take a business trip to Nagoya and would call her later.
An hour and a half later, Miroku pulled into hotel parking lot where his men were waiting patiently outside in their car near a black Harley Davidson motorcycle. "Thanks boys, you can head back to Tokyo now. I'll take it from here." As soon as they drove off, Miroku grabbed the tracking device he'd brought with him and attached it to an inconspicuous place on the Harley bike. After ascertaining that it worked properly, he got in his car and drove to the hotel lobby to request a room.
Once he parked on the opposite side of the building, he went up to his room and straight to bed.
He followed her around the next day. Tracking her was pretty easy; he soon caught up with her at a small diner where she ate breakfast. The day passed quickly, but there were many times he wanted to alert her to his presence so he wouldn't need to sneak around like this.
When she checked out the next day, he wondered where she was planning to go next. Back to Tokyo, he presumed. But when she mailed the letter, he'd begun to wonder again. By the time he was following her as she traveled east toward the Izu Peninsula, he knew she was taking a much longer trip than he had expected her to.
And when she drove straight into Atami, Miroku knew that this was the perfect opportunity to pop up out of the blue. He waited three days to encounter her and it was Saturday morning when he watched as she was walked back to her hotel from the beach. At last... no more prowling around. And besides, he had an overwhelming urge to head west...
"Kagome? Is that you?" he called out.
She whirled around and shot him a brilliant smile when she recognized him. "Miroku! How are you?" She ran over to him and threw her arms around him. "What are you doing here? How's Sango? Is she with you?"
He squeezed her tightly. "I'm doing great. Was a bit lonely until I saw you, though." He winked at her and she giggled. "Um, let's see if I can remember your other queries. I'm here on business, Sango's fine and no, she isn't with me. Did I answer them all?"
"Yes, I think that was all of them." She linked her arm through his. "Were you going somewhere right now?"
"No, why? Oh, Kagome! Were you planning to seduce me?" He waggled his brows suggestively at her.
Kagome looked shocked and wrenched her arm away. "No! That's absurd, Miroku. Why should I wish to do that? I could never do that to Sango-chan!"
Miroku laughed and reclaimed her arm, slipping it through his again. "I'm kidding, Kagome. Keep your hair on, short stuff. I'd never do anything with you like that... unless of course you begged me to--" He laughed again as she tried pulling away from him, but his hand grasped hers and he pulled her along the street. "I'm joking, Kagome, really. Come, I'm starving. Let's go eat. It's on me."
"You're not going to...grope me, are you?" she asked warily, allowing him to lead her to a small restaurant she'd eyed on the way to the beach.
He stopped walking and turned to look at her. "Not unless you want me to, Kagome," he said seriously. When she began sputtering, he put a hand up. "Look, you never let me properly grope you back in college and I'm still waiting for that chance. Besides, Sango knows how I felt about you back then. I told her right before we started dating and she understood. She didn't like it, of course, but she told me that if you ever agreed to allow me to grope you then I should. You know, to get it out of my system. She promised not to say anything about it if you allowed this poor man standing before you to touch your bum lovingly with his cursed hand..." He held up his right hand for her inspection. "It is cursed, Kagome. I swear it is."
Unable to help herself, Kagome laughed and rolled her eyes. "Of course it is, Miroku. But um, I'm a bit hungry right now. Could you attempt to grope me some other time?"
"You mean I get to? Really? Is that a promise?" Miroku smirked as Kagome groaned and clapped a hand over her eyes. "Or are you just telling me something to shut me up?"
Hearing the 'wounded' tone in his voice, Kagome looked quickly back up at him. "I'm sorry! I didn't mean..." Her lower lip began to tremble.
Seeing her face fall, Miroku suddenly felt like a heel for talking this way to her and he gathered her into his arms. "No, I'm sorry. It's not your fault that I possess less than admirable scruples about touching women's rears."
She rested against him for a moment, then her body stiffened in his embrace and she pulled back to look at him. "But Miroku, you did grope me before."
"Huh? No, I haven't. Believe me, I would have remembered something like that."
"Yes, you did. Remember? That night we all went to Netsu. You grabbed me and your hands went roaming everywhere..." Miroku's dark blue eyes shifted uneasily away and she laughed. "Hiro grabbed you by the neck and Sango threatened to do something cruel to a certain part of anatomy."
Miroku's lightly tanned face paled. "Oh, yeah. It must have slipped my mind." He laughed uncertainly.
Kagome shot him one of her heart-stopping smiles. "I guess that means you've already fulfilled your mission to grope me. You don't have to lay a finger on me now, huh? Isn't that great? I mean, you couldn't actually want to touch me, right? In that way, I mean. Perhaps your hand just needs something to do without Sango around." She patted his arm and walked into the restaurant, leaving a rather disappointed Miroku outside.
She was completely wrong. He did want to grope her. It would be the very last grope on a woman who wasn't Sango and he realized with some consternation, that even though he loved Sango more than anything, a tiny part of him had never been able to let Kagome go. He wondered why that should be. Sango filled his heart and his mind, but something drew him to Kagome that didn't allow him to release her.
But then again, Kagome had been the first woman that had ever wanted to get to know him, showed an interest in him and his thoughts and ideas. She was also the first and only woman who had refrained from slapping him when he was on the grope.
Shaking his head, he followed her inside.
ooo
They spent the rest of the day together and as the sun was setting, they sat side by side on the beach. Kagome had been very quiet for the past hour and Miroku was concerned. Reaching for her hand, he asked her what was wrong. Her small fingers instinctively interlaced with his while she stared out towards the sea. The sun was behind them and its weakening rays highlighted her black hair with shades of red.
"I need to move on," she said quietly, "to another place. I keep getting the feeling that I should head west. There is something I feel I need to do." She frowned slightly and turned her head to look at him. "But I don't know what it is."
As her eyes studied him, Miroku suddenly a vision of a mountain... and temples. He too, felt that there was something... important... that he needed to do.
"K-yoto?" she asked, almost to herself. "No... that's not right..." Her eyebrows drew together in a puzzled frown. "Earlier, I saw... a misty mountain..."
Stunned that she saw what he was seeing, Miroku felt that Kyoto was close, but like her, knew that that was not the correct answer. A moment later, he knew. "No, not Kyoto. Osaka."
Her large brown eyes blinked up at him and soon comprehension filled her eyes. "Yes, Osaka. That's right. How did you..."
Miroku shrugged and shook his head. "I don't know; it just came to me. Come on, I have something I need to give you."
He saw her to her room and since he was staying in the same hotel, he went down to the next floor to his room. After finding what he needed, he returned to her room and scribbled something down on a piece of paper. "Here," he said, handing the paper to her. "Tomorrow, check out and drive to Osaka. Go to that address; I've drawn a little map for you. I'll meet you there in the afternoon." Reaching into his front trouser pocket, he pulled out a wad of bills. "Here, take this, just in case."
She tried to push his hand away, but he pressed the money into her hand. "Look, if you don't use it, then you may give it back to me if you wish. I just want to make sure you have plenty of cash in case of an emergency. I have to go now. I'm going to check out tonight."
"What? Why? Where are you going?"
"Back to Tokyo, Kagome. I have something I need to get before I join you in Osaka." He leaned down and kissed her on the forehead. "Good night, sweetie. I'll see you tomorrow. Be careful on the road." With that he was gone.
ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
Sesshoumaru wasn't alone when he received Naraku's call that evening. Hiro, Jaken, Kouga, Hakkaku, Ginta and Souta were all in attendance. After several long hours of waiting impatiently for news of Kagome, the phone finally rang. Everyone except Souta jumped.
"Yes?" barked Sesshoumaru into the phone before putting Naraku on speaker phone.
Naraku chuckled. "My, that was quick. Been waiting with bated breath by the--"
"Cut the crap, Naraku. Where is she?"
"Alas, that is not known."
There was a chorus of groans and the deep-voiced man at the other end laughed. "Are you having a convention, Sesshoumaru?"
Morikawa looked ready to destroy his second telephone of the day with his bare hands. "What is known, Naraku?"
Clearing his throat, Naraku was now all business. "Kagome was here. She arrived Thursday night and was last seen here on Saturday, early afternoon. It appears that she then traveled eastward. My guess is that she headed to Atami. It's a good sized city, easy enough to get lost in the crowds. I sent my people over there already, but I doubt she's still there. I have a feeling that she doesn't want to be found, Sess."
"Yes, it's beginning to look that way," murmured Sesshoumaru, who had begun to pace. Hiro and Souta knew that he wouldn't be able to sleep until Kagome was found. "Her credit card hasn't been used since last Thursday afternoon."
The sound of hopelessness in Sesshoumaru's voice must have moved Naraku, for he said firmly, "I'll find her, Sess. Don't worry about it. I have my best people working on this. I'll call you when we get any new developments."
When Sesshoumaru hung up the phone he walked to the window and stared out into the darkness. "How could I have allowed myself to get so wrapped up in work like this? She's been gone for almost seven days and I only find out today that my little girl's been missing for a whole week." He bowed his silver head and he leaned heavily against the window frame. "Why didn't she tell me she was going anywhere? Am I that terrible of a guardian that she must hide things from me?"
Silence fell over the group and Souta got to his feet in order to make his to Sesshoumaru's side. Taking the pale man's hand in his, Souta leaned against him. "You're an awesome guardian, aniue. Although sometimes I think you're a little too overprotective when it comes to Kagome. She isn't made of glass, you know, but I see your point of view. Kagome nearly died when you weren't paying attention to her, but she and I both know that you were still getting used to being in control of a company worth billions."
Sesshoumaru shook his head dejectedly. "That's still no excuse, Souta." He lifted a hand and ruffled the boy's dark hair gently. "A responsibility is a responsibility. The care of you and your sister were, and still are, my responsibility."
Souta, in an uncharacteristic display of affection, threw his arms around Sesshoumaru's waist, hugging him tightly. "Yes, and Kagome is aware of that. She's fine, aniue, I swear to you that she is. She just needed some time to herself, that's all. If you think about it, Kagome is rarely alone except at night. But during the day, she's usually got either you, Hiro or Kouga always with her."
"Souta's right," Hiro spoke up. "Kagome never really has a chance to be by herself. Taking a trip by herself is something she'd always dreamed about, but never felt she should go through with it because it would worry you too much." He looked at Sesshoumaru, whose arms had tightened around the teenager.
Kouga got to his feet and went to pour himself a drink at the wet bar. "You probably would have told her she couldn't go anyway," he said into the glass before tipping it back. When everyone except Souta glared at him, he stared back at them innocently. "What? It's true. It took him forever to get used to the fact she had a boyfriend."
"I'm still not used to it," grumbled Morikawa's testily.
"Hmph."
"Silence, Matsuno." Sesshoumaru released Souta and kissed the top of his head. "Hey you, it's time for bed. You've got school tomorrow."
"Okay. Night, Sesshoumaru."
"Good night, Souta."
When the boy had gone, Hiro rose. "I should go home now. It's getting late."
Ginta and Hakkaku also got up and Kouga joined them. "Yeah, we should leave too. Call me in case something comes up."
"Me, too," Hiro added with a yawn.
Anger darkened the fair skin of Sesshoumaru's perfect face. "Fine, you may go, but know this. If something happens to my girl, I will blame the both of you just as I already blame myself." He plowed ahead ignoring their protests. "Hiro, you should have checked in on her more, seeing as how I placed her in your care. And as for you," growled Sesshoumaru, leveling an even darker glare on Kouga. "You should not have taught her to ride a motorcycle in the first damn place."
"Why the hell not?" Kouga shot back angrily. "She had every right to learn if she wanted to and believe me, she wanted to!"
Sesshoumaru leaned forward and brought his hands, palms down, on the top of his desk with a loud bang. "But that's not what I wanted!" he roared, golden eyes ablaze.
"What you want and what she wants are two different things, Sesshoumaru!" Kouga yelled back at him. "Why can't you let her live the way she wants to?"
Blood seemed to fill Sesshoumaru's eyes, causing him to look demoniacal. "Why? The last time I left her alone, she weighed about 75 lbs and nearly died of heart failure at the age of twenty," he hissed through tightly clenched teeth. "Do you honestly believe I would dare to take such a chance with her life again?"
Kouga blinked, took a step back and said nothing.
"Now if that's all," Sesshoumaru muttered, his voice tight with anger. "I wish to be left alone now." He sank down heavily onto his leather swivel chair and swung around to stare out the window behind him.
As Kouga and the Kawase brothers left in silence, Hiro stayed behind for a moment. He knew he should say something comforting to the man. "I'm sorry, Sesshoumaru. You're right; I should have checked in with her while I was gone."
There was silence for nearly a minute, during which Hiro suspected that Sesshoumaru was composing himself before he replied. He kept his back to Hiro and Hiro wondered vaguely what expression Sesshoumaru had on his face. If it was anything like the one he had directed at Kouga...
"But?"
Hiro frowned. "But... what?"
"You should have checked in with her while you were gone, but--?"
"Kagome wanted me to go out of town with my girlfriend. The last thing she said to me was for Connie and myself to have fun--"
The chair whipped around and Hiro found himself caught in the deadly rays of Sesshoumaru's eyes. "So you just left her? All by herself? In your rush to be with your woman, did you forget that Kagome was just recovering from a nasty cold?"
"Sesshoumaru, I--"
"You are correct about me being overprotective of her; I know I am. Very much so. And even though I have been incredibly busy of late, I was still well aware of her illness. You know as well as I do that Kagome's health hasn't been good for the past five years. What if she'd gotten sick again while you were gone? It's happened before, when she had an illness that wouldn't go away. You've seen it first-hand, Hiro. She's weak and she refuses to eat..." His face tightened with silent rage.
Hiro watched as Sesshoumaru desperately reined in his emotions as best he could. The older man shut his eyes and lay his head back against the leather chair. "I love her, Hiro, more than you could possibly imagine and the last thing I want is for her to get hurt. Therefore, I have come to a decision. I'm sure you will have very little objection to it."
Eyeing Sesshoumaru warily, Hiro sat down and waited for him to speak. "Yes? What is it?"
Sesshoumaru's eyes slid open and he stared passively over at the younger man. "It will give you the opportunity to spend all the time you wish with your young lady." He sat up straight in his chair and assumed a very business-like pose. Hiro knew from the man's posture that he would not like what was about to come out of Morikawa's mouth.
"Yes?" Hiro asked again, trying to keep his hands from shaking. He felt like a student under the whip of a cruel headmaster.
Cocking his head to the side, Sesshoumaru eyed Hiro with an unwavering, unblinking stare. "I will find you a place in my company best suited to your talents, set you up with an apartment which will be rent-free for one year if you move out of Kagome's house by next week."
"You want me to leave?" exclaimed Hiro, shocked. "But why?"
"It should be obvious, Mr. Yamadera. Your girlfriend has taken precedence over the young woman I had asked you to take care of. But it seems that you are no longer interested in doing so. You have done great things for my little one and for that I shall be eternally grateful. However, I do not wish for you to have charge of her any longer, so I am dismissing you. Do I make myself clear?"
"Sesshoumaru--"
"Do I make myself clear?" Sesshoumaru repeated, this time adding a little something extra to his voice that seemed to dare Hiro to contradict him.
"Y-yes, sir. Perfectly clear."
"Good. By Friday, I shall have found something for you. I'm sure you'll do just fine working for me. After all, you are already used to me. That is all for now. You may leave," he said with a dismissive nod at Hiro, who sat, still stunned.
After a moment, Hiro got slowly to his feet and left.
Sesshoumaru watched the young man go. It was a very great pity, for he liked Hiro alot. No doubt he would make a fine regional manager one day.
Leaning back in his chair, he sat staring up at the ceiling. He would not get any sleep this night...or any night after this. At least, not until Kagome was found...
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oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
Early on Thursday afternoon, Kagome drove into Osaka. After spending an hour following the directions on Miroku's makeshift map, she finally found the place she was looking for. Pulling up to the address that Miroku had directed she go to, Kagome raised the visor of her borrowed helmet. It was a family shrine, very much like the one she had grown up on.
Parking the motorcycle on the shrine grounds, she had just removed her helmet when someone brushed past her. Someone wearing purple monk's robes.
"Oh, gomen nasai!" Kagome cried, bowing low to the houshi. "I didn't realize--" A familiar laugh startled her and she straightened, frowning. "Miroku? Is that you?"
Miroku stood before her, resplendent in the purple and dark blue of his robes. "Yes, it's me. Surprised?"
Kagome nodded and reached out to touch his sleeve. "Very much so. But... why are you wearing these? You aren't a houshi."
"I am, actually," he informed her with a smile, "and this shrine belongs to my family. That man over there is my father." He pointed in the direction of a tall, imposing looking figure in white robes, talking with a mature couple. The elder houshi was saying something to the couple and all three laughed.
"He heard a new joke today concerning chickens and road crossings," Miroku said with some amusement and shook his head. "My father loves stupid jokes for some reason. He loves sharing them even more."
"I see. Well, what do we do now?"
Miroku looked at Kagome and handed her a package wrapped in brown paper. "This is for you. You'll need it."
Puzzled, Kagome opened the package. "Miroku! This is...!" She shot him a startled look. "Where did you get this?"
He nodded, reaching in and pulling out the red and white clothing. "It certainly is and I got them from your grandfather. He was... hopeful. He said he had been praying that you would return to your family shrine and continue doing what you were born to do."
"But its been so long," she whispered, staring down at her miko clothing.
"You won't have forgotten a thing, I promise."
oooo
Later that day, after putting the motorcycle in a shed on the shrine grounds and leaving her bag in the hands of the elder houshi, Miroku introduced Kagome to his father, who was delighted to meet such a lovely young miko. Miroku and Kagome both had cleansing baths and then traveled to Mount Koya to stay at one of the overnight lodging temples.
At the base, they took a cable car up to the mountain. Once there, they walked until they found a particularly lovely temple surrounded by mist. They knew this was the one they had seen in their visions and went in. The head monk greeted them both very warmly and expressed his delight in having a miko visit his humble temple. They were soon shown to their quarters, which were side by side and then given a small tour of the grounds.
"We have been expecting you, Kagome-sama, Miroku-sama. Stay as long as you must. I know you will discover what it is that you seek." Silently, he withdrew, leaving the houshi and miko alone to meditate, surrounded by the sounds of nature flowing peacefully about them.
ooo
When Sunday rolled around, Kagome and Miroku were kneeling before a small shrine, praying. It was a lovely, overcast day with a sweet, fragrant, misty spring rain falling gently about them. As they lifted their heads and lowered their hands at the same time, they looked out over the mountain side, which sloped gently downwards towards the earth. They could just see the little village below from where the cable cars came peering tentatively out from the light fog.
"It's a magnificent day," Kagome said softly, not wanting to disturb the peacefulness of silence around them.
Beside her, Miroku nodded. "That it is."
They turned to look at each other and smiled. How strange it was to be in tune with someone so well that each movement, each thought was almost perfectly synchronized. Kagome knew what Miroku was thinking and she knew that he knew what she was thinking. "I am happy to have found my peace," she told him, although it was unnecessary.
"As am I." He held out his hand to her and smiled when she took it. "When we return, I shall ask Sango to marry me, as I should have done a long time ago and apologize for all I've put her through. I am excited to end this unprincipled life I've led up until now. I can't recall how many times my job had managed to pull me away from Sango."
Kagome nodded and squeezed her hand. "When you ask for forgiveness, she will readily grant it. She's in love with you, Miroku."
"I know. I'm the luckiest man on earth. As for you," he said, bringing her hand up to his lips for a quick kiss, "Your grandfather will be overjoyed that you have returned to him. Its time that you took up your place as the shrine's miko once more."
"Yes, and I am happy that you will join me and we will learn from the wisdom of my grandfather. He will be excited to have a young monk working for him, willing to learn."
They looked away from each other and once again stared out over the misty scenery below, fingers still entwined. Kagome's mind had never felt clearer. She knew what she wanted to do and what she needed to do. It was terrible, having to admit that at one time she had wished to have both Kouga and Yuki, for she could not decided which she loved more. But now it was clear that though she was physically ready for a relationship with either man, her heart and mind were not prepared for it. She had a childish wish to keep the two men at her beck and call, knowing that they would do whatever it was she asked of them.
What she needed to do, therefore, had to take precedence over what she wanted to do. Right now, she needed to keep her distance from them until her mind and heart had grown... matured. Perhaps when that happened, she would know which man to choose, if she decided to choose one at all.
As they continued to sit there, allowing nature's power to wrap around them, they suddenly felt disturbed. Someone was looking for Kagome.
Their clasped hands tightened their grip. They did not want anyone to disturb the peace they'd spent nearly three days trying to achieve. But they knew, eventually, they would have to leave this place and return to Tokyo.
"They'll come for me," Kagome whispered. Closing her eyes, she tilted her head back to allow the soft drizzling drops to fall on her face.
"He wants you back," Miroku added, pulling her to him. She followed his lead willingly and her body sagged almost gratefully against his. "It will be difficult to part from you, Kagome, even if it's for a little while. I've never felt such peace before and it was because of you that I found it."
"I feel the same."
"I know."
Miroku smiled as his gaze fell on the top of her head. Her face turned up to his and just as it had from the moment the peace came upon them and enveloped them, she felt his soul and hers dance about each other happily.
"Soul mates," the elder monk had informed them when Miroku had asked about it after experiencing it for the first time. "You two are soul mates but have been separated for a long time. You had the same visions of this place, of coming here because you needed to discover each other and to seek answers for your unanswered questions. Your souls have finally awakened from their long sleep."
"But I'm in love with another woman. How can Kagome and I be soul mates?"
"Easily. Not every soul mate falls in love with each other. They're like... cosmic identical twins really. Soul mates can also come back as best friends of the same sex for instance, without any romantic relationship taking place between them. You never know where you'll meet the other, or when, or in what form."
"Come," Miroku said, getting to his feet. He helped her up. "Let's tell the elder we must leave soon. I want to return to Sango."
They strolled off into the mist, anxious to return home.
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A/N: Hey guys, its me again! I don't know why the story took a weird turn. All I know was that around 3am this morning, Kagome and Miroku being soul mates seemed like a really cool idea. I know the mind connecting thing is probably pretty lame, but trust me, it will come in handy later on.