Disclaimer: I don't own YYH or Inuyasha.
Nearly the Same
Chapter 5: A New Mission
"The skies in Tokyo today are going to be partly cloudy with a high of 16 degrees Celsius. No rain is expected-"
"Are they blind? I can predict the weather better than these clowns," Keiko grumbled after shutting off her TV set with the remote. Beside her, Kurama grinned in amusement at her comment just as she leaned her head on his shoulder.
"Would you like to go for a stroll through the park? As I recall, there's one just a few blocks away," Kurama suggested softly. In response, Keiko lifted up her head and squealed happily.
"Absolutely! I'll go grab an umbrella," she began, an all-knowing expression crossing her features. "Because it WILL rain."
Kurama nodded and watched as his girlfriend left the room to retrieve the item.
And, just as Keiko had so intelligently predicted, it DID rain, though that being said is somewhat of an understatement. Lucky for Keiko and Kurama, they had been prepared for such an event and the bright pink, daisy covered umbrella saved the couple from the falling precipitation.
The walk to the park was rather short and enveloped almost entirely in silence, which is one thing that the both of them appreciated. It wasn't an awkward, uncomfortable silence; it was a peaceful, silence. Keiko knew it was never something that Yusuke would be able to provide. In fact, he had proved it to her on numerous occasions. All of their 'encounters' usually ended up in Keiko's uniformed skirt being flipped up or with her behind pinched. Despite it all, she knew that there was some girl out there that would tolerate his badass and sometimes perverted antics. In fact, she very much wished that Yusuke would find that girl, sooner or later. The aforementioned being the preferred.
"What's going on?" Kurama said softly, shaking Keiko from her thoughts. She looked up and was surprised to see that they were at the park… just not one that either one were used to.
Yellow police tape was strung around a large area of the park with a generous amount of officers surrounding it in an attempt to keep curious citizens back. And man, were there a lot of curious citizens.
Keiko had seen her fair share of investigation and murder mystery shows, so immediately she knew that someone was dead.
"Would you please excuse me? Kagome's grandfather has fallen ill and he's requested a bowl of soup," Shiori said with a sad smile. Yusuke immediately obliged and Kagome's mother disappeared into the kitchen.
"Don't you sense that, Urameshi?" Kuwabara whispered. Yusuke rolled his eyes.
"Yeah, I know. But concentrate a little bit more and you'll realize it's not an evil demon. Besides, it's not even a full demon," he informed his friend. Seconds later, Kagome entered the room, looking quite flustered.
"Where'd your 'friend' go?" Kuwabara asked, using the title that Shiori used to explain the shouting down the hallway.
"Uhh… What?" Kagome tried to play dumb.
Kuwabara rolled his eyes. "Don't play blonde with us, missy. We know you were doing the naughty with some guy in your room!"
Kagome's eyes widened. "We were not… Yes, I had a friend in there. But we weren't… doing that!"
"Well, where is he, so I can confirm this story!" Kuwabara shrieked dramatically. Kagome sighed, and gave up.
"He left the same way he came in. Fire escape," she supplied easily. Yusuke quirked an amused eyebrow. "He's not exactly what you call 'normal'." Just as Yusuke was about to respond with what would probably be an insulting comment, Kagome spoke again. "I'll be out of the shower in a few minutes."
"School won't be open past five, ya know," Yusuke informed her just as she had turned. She gave him a confused look. "You still wanna pick up those uniforms don't you?"
Realization finally dawning on her, Kagome nodded and departed as well.
True to her word, the teenage girl returned a few moments later, her hair still damp and a new bandage covering her head wound.
"Okay, let's go!" she exclaimed with fake cheerfulness. In the back of her mind, there was only one thing gnawing at her and it had nothing to do with her concussion or her school, and had everything to do with her good friend Inuyasha.
The trio walked into the high school and Kagome gave a sigh of relief when she saw that a clock read exactly 4:45. Surely that was enough time to pick up a few uniforms from the office. After all, Shiori had already called in with her sizes a few days prior.
"Can I help you with something?" a snide voice rang. It was an elderly woman, probably in at least late sixties who was wearing a pair of glasses and glaring at Yusuke. Apparently, they had met.
"Yes, I'm Kagome Higurashi, I'm here to pick up my uniforms."
"Oh, yes, Mr. Kineo requested that he speak with you when you arrived. He's in the office just down there." She pointed a skinny, wrinkly finger at a doorway. She gave Kagome a smile, but Yusuke received the worst frown that the secretary could muster.
Kagome nodded in thanks at the woman, but as Yusuke walked past to follow her, he gave the woman the finger.
"Yusuke!" Kagome scolded loudly.
"Are you hoping for another detention, Urameshi?" the old woman asked angrily. Yusuke smirked and stuffed his hands in his pockets.
"You honestly think I would show up for it, you old hag?"
Kagome's eyes widened a little, but even she could see the humor in the situation. Though she did allow a small smile to appear, she decided it best to go see this 'Mr. Kineo' while Yusuke argued with the 'old hag', Kuwabara watching in amusement.
She stepped into the office and mentally cursed the man for having the air conditioner on in perfectly nice weather. But when she saw the man's expression, the cold air seemed to say quite a bit about his character.
He wasn't quite yet middle-aged, but he wasn't exactly young, either. He had short black hair and thick glasses that covered his cold looking eyes. He wasn't the epitome of friendly looking.
"Ms. Higurashi?"
She nodded.
"I do believe that you were expected yesterday."
Kagome frowned and lowered her head slightly. "I'm sorry, I've been assisting my mother around our home from the move," she lied easily.
"Hmm, it's no matter, I suppose." His eyes drifted out the doorway and into the main office where Yusuke was still arguing with the secretary.
"Friends of yours?"
She nodded. "Yes, sir. They were kind enough to walk me here."
The man grunted. Kagome mentally noted that he hadn't cracked even a hint of a smile since she entered the room.
"I don't suppose Urameshi was the one that was kind enough to give you those bruises was he?"
Kagome's jaw dropped. 'What is he talking about?' she thought. 'Honestly, my rescuer being accused of the crime.'
"No."
Mr. Kineo raised an eyebrow at her quick and straight answer. It didn't seem to be the one he was expecting.
"Is that so? Well, I can assure you that if you keep friends like that, your time here will not be at all enjoyable. You really should choose your friends wisely, Higurashi."
Kagome frowned and clenched her fists together tightly, but kept her mouth shut. Was he testing her, or something?
"I came here for my school uniforms," she informed him, purposefully changing to subject.
He nodded to Kagome and pulled a garment sack from a rack beside of his desk and handed the item to her. For the first time since her entrance, his gloomy expression changed to a wicked and twisted looking smirk.
"Welcome to Saryaski High."
"Yeah, he doesn't care for me much," Yusuke explained with a grin. Apparently, much of the Saryaski High staff wasn't too fond of the teen and Kagome could easily guess why.
The trio had just boarded the city bus, due to the precipitation that had just begun to fall from the sky.
"That's 'cause you're a jerk, Urameshi," Kuwabara informed him. Yusuke ignored the comment and sat down on one of the plushy benches that lined the side of the walls, while Kagome sat down beside of him, and Kuwabara next to her.
"Well, I wouldn't go that far, but you should be nicer to old ladies," Kagome informed him with a small smile.
"That woman is the devil in disguise! I refuse to be nice to that wench!"
At this comment, Kagome immediately thought of her half-demon friend. She was getting a horrible, wretched feeling in the pit of her stomach and she clenched her hands tightly around the top of the garment bag containing her uniforms.
"You alright?" Yusuke asked beside her, a dark eyebrow raised in what seemed to be a hint of concern. She nodded furiously.
"I'm fine. I'm starting to get hungry is all!" She gave a shy smile to match her perky sounding comment. Luckily, neither of her new companions saw through it.
"Now that you mention it, I'm starting to get a little hungry too," Kuwabara mentioned.
"But, I should probably head home. My grandfather hasn't been feeling too great so I should probably be there to help out."
Kuwabara nodded in understanding while Yusuke smirked.
"Well, since I saved you and all, the least you could do is make me some cookies."
Kagome sweat-dropped. "… Cookies?" Yusuke nodded in response, his smirk still plastered firmly on his features.
"Yes, cookies. And the full use of your TV, of course. I don't have cable so I get about four channels," he explained. Kagome laughed and turned to Kuwabara.
"You're free to come over too, if you want. It's the least I can do." Kuwabara's eyes lit up.
"Will they be chocolate chip cookies?"
For the second time that day, the trio arrived at the apartment complex, but this time had to dash inside to get away from the rain.
"Mom! I'm home!" Kagome shouted when they entered the apartment. She received a friendly response almost immediately and she sat down on the newly placed couch in front of the television set.
"Hey, what about the cookies?" Yusuke asked. Kagome stuck out her tongue and tucked her legs under herself as she flicked on the television with the remote control. Kuwabara on the other hand, didn't really seem to care as he made himself at home and sat down as well. "I was promised cookies."
"No, actually you weren't. You pretty much demanded the cookies. I never actually responded," Kagome reminded him. Sighing in defeat he plopped down next to Kagome. He knew that he would never win this one because Yusuke knew she was right.
"Hmm, strange. Same thing on almost all of the channels," Kagome muttered. She finally quit her channel surfing and settled on one channel where a news caster was speaking quite seriously.
"Officials decided to close down local schools until further notice after discovering a student's body in Saryaski Park. Here's Daniella Nita with the latest."
The screen blacked out for not even a second until it was focused on a completely different location. Saryaski Park. A fancily clad news reporter was directly in middle of the shot after the camera had panned around the area several times to show the viewers what seemed to be the crime scene.
"I'm here with Tokyo Police Chief Brand Rowena. Can you tell us exactly what has happened here, sir? And do you have any leads on the case?"
A microphone was thrust in the middle-aged man's direction for his reply, which was received almost immediately.
"We're not exactly sure what we're looking for at this point. But whatever did this, does not seem to be human. The victim had several claw marks or fingernail marks, we're not sure at this point, on his neck. This could be a murder, this could be just a brutal animal attack. If there was any evidence at all, it was washed away with the rain."
The camera was switched back to the first reporter and then to a large picture of a very familiar face.
"The victim was 18 year old Ken Mikamoto-"
"Fuck," Yusuke swore loudly. He scooted up further in his seat, listening intently to every word that was coming out of the reporter's mouth. He was curious before, now he was concerned and rightfully suspicious of Kagome's demonic friend. This was definitely no random killing.
As soon as the picture had appeared on the screen, Kagome's heart seemed to sink lower and lower. But, when the news anchor said Mikamoto's name to officially confirm it, her heart completely plummeted.
"Is the dumbass that did this dead?"
"No, he's not dead, but he got the crap kicked out of him."
"Then it's not taken care of."
His words haunted her to her very core. Why hadn't she stopped him? She must've known that something like this would happen! Well, sure she knew, but it was simple denial and disbelief. Never in her wildest dreams had she actually pictured Inuyasha killing a human being, an innocent one or not. But, now, it had happened and it didn't seem real.
She could feel that every bit of color had left her face long ago and she could feel herself becoming disgustingly sick. Kagome stood up and dashed for the bathroom.
"Kagome-!" Yusuke called after her, but she completely ignored him. She really didn't think she'd be able to answer him at the moment anyway.
Yusuke swore loudly again and mentally cursed Koenma straight to Hell when the toddler rang in on his communication mirror.
"What is it!" Yusuke whispered loudly, so as not to alert the members of the Higurashi household.
"I don't know what crawled up your ass, Yusuke, and quite frankly, I don't really care. I've got a new mission for you and the others."