I'm back again!!! Yay! Here's the new chapter:
Apparently her job consisted of the most mundane tasks imaginable. It was an entire day of making copies, typing up emails and memos – sending copies of these emails and memos to Susan for filing in Mr. Takamatsu's super-computer – and listening to Jaken's squawking orders. She also fetched files and folders.
"Ms Higurashi, I will need the MacInbury file from room 1213, now."
Kagome sighed and hit the intercom button. "Of course, Mr. Takamatsu. Yes, Mr. Takamatsu. Right away, Mr. Takamatsu."
She stood was a few feet from the desk when her boss' belated response came through.
"As reassuring as your assertions were, Ms Higurashi, they were unnecessary."
Kagome lazily followed the hallway on the twelfth floor as she halfheartedly searched for room 1213. She'd already been working for three hours straight and was ready for a break.
Not to mention she'd been rudely woken so goddamn early.
It was strange that this building was as busy as it was on a Saturday. In fact, now that she thought about it, the activity was bothering her. Why?
"Do you want me to break your fingers? Will that make you type the code in better? No? Then do your job correctly, you retarded SOB."
Ah, Kagome sighed – the lovely voice of someone familiar.
Just as Kagome reached the room she'd heard the abrasive instructions from, Susan stepped out, not missing a beat as she brusquely greeted Kagome.
"Hey, Ms. Kriffold," Kagome returned as she stepped into pace with the woman. Her eyes looked a little red and her brown hair was starting to fly away from the wavy bun on top of her head.
"It's Susan," she corrected the girl.
"Right," Kagome nodded, not really feeling comfortable actually addressing the older woman as such. "Can I ask why this place's so busy on a Saturday?"
Susan shrugged. "Go for it."
Kagome clasped her hands in front of her and imitated a schoolgirl's voice. "Why's this place so busy on a Saturday, Ms Kriffold?"
The corner of Susan's mouth lifted just the tiniest fraction as she replied. "We're having a merger finalized this week. Life's hectic whenever that happens in any company. This just happens to be a somewhat major corporation."
Kagome's brow furrowed. "But aren't mergers bad? Don't people jobs and stuff?"
Susan snorted. "Yeah, they do. But that only happens in the company that's being taken over – though that technically doesn't happen, at least not at the surface level." She glanced over at Kagome, a smirk on her face. "But did you really think we were the losing company?"
Kagome shrugged.
"I don't know anything about this company," she answered honestly. "Up until this morning I just sat at the lobby desk for a few hours a couple of nights a week. You guys could be dealing crack for all I know."
A man they passed lifted his head out of his cubicle and looked eagerly at the passing women. "Crack?" he asked brightly. "Dealing? You wouldn't happen to have any meth, would you?"
"Shut up, Jonathon." Susan didn't even look to the man as she scolded him. "If we sell you anymore, we'll have to send you to the hospital on overdose and then we'd lose an employee we need."
Kagome couldn't be sure (but it made her smile anyway) as she thought she heard the man Jonathon mutter darkly as he sat back down: "Right now, overdose seems like a blessing compared to this."
"So," Susan began again, snapping Kagome back to the conversation they'd been having before. "This company started out advising other companies in investments but it mostly deals with gaining assets of other companies. We could be a lot bigger and stronger if Sesshoumaru would get off his ass and go in for the kill, but he considers it unnecessary-" Susan sneered as she said this last word, her disdain evident. "-and says he can't be bothered. In addition to that, we're an NGO and an MNC with offices in Tokyo and New York."
"Wait," Kagome shook her head. "The abbreviations?"
"NGO is non-governmental organization and is self explanatory," Susan explained. "MNC is Multi-national Corporation and that means we have offices in more than one country with production and/or something something." She waved off the end of the definition nonchalantly and Kagome didn't care enough to press.
"If Mr. Takamatsu has offices in Tokyo and New York, shouldn't he be there?" Kagome asked. "New York seems like more of a hub than Boston."
"He doesn't like the smell."
"Oh."
Kagome walked on, thinking to herself about the company. So it was doing well then? That was good. At least she was likely to keep her job. And if Mr. Takamatsu wasn't about to go gallivanting around the world while she worked for him, all the better! She had work to do, goddamn it!
"Oh crap!" Kagome exclaimed under her breath, looking around. "Where are we? Where's room 1213?"
Susan was about to answer when a dark head with piercing blue eyes stuck itself out a door.
"Is that the dulcet tones of my fair Kagome, I hear?"
"Mr. Okada…" Kagome laughed nervously, surreptitiously looking around for an exit. "How are you… I'm a little busy at the moment…"
"Why, my dear," Mr. Okada admonished, swooping down to grab Kagome's hand and managing to make it look graceful. "It seems you were looking for me, for you see-" he gestured to the office he had just left. "- the room you are looking for is mine."
Sure enough, the plate that said Kouga Okada also read the number 1213.
"Heh heh heh…" Kagome couldn't help feeling cheated. Curse you, Fate!
"What's this?" Susan demanded, her arms crossed in front of her. "Kouga, if you don't let her go now, you will be in a shitload of trouble."
"I'm not afraid of you," Kouga snorted. "Blow wind all you want, bitch, I like the breeze."
Kagome gasped, shocked at language she'd never heard from the "charming" man in front of her. And he was still holding her hand!
Susan imitated Kouga's snort, still managing to sound somewhat feminine. "It's not me you'll have to worry about, you idiot – it's Sesshoumaru. You think he'll let you touch her? She's his."
"Wha-!" Kagome was about to protest when she was snatched forward and drawn into a bone-crushing hug from Kouga.
"I don't smell him on her!" he snarled.
"Wh-?"
"Of course not – he just got her today!"
"Hey!"
"I saw her first! I've been talking to her for weeks! He can't just step in and take her!"
"Now, just a-!"
"He can do whatever he wants. He's the fucking leader."
Kouga made a fist in Susan's smirking face. "He's not my leader!"
"He's your boss, runt." (Susan looked inordinately pleased with dispersing this information.) "It doesn't matter if he's leader of your mangy pack or not – he can fire you."
A noise that sounded suspiciously like a growl emanated from Kouga's throat as he stepped forward once again, both fists clenched at his sides.
"That son-of-a-bitch doesn't have my respect. I'm leader of my people and he can't tell me what to do! You can barely even consider him to be the same species as-"
Susan held up a single finger and cocked her head to the side. "Nuh, uh, uh uh… Are we forgetting about a certain female present?"
Color drained from Kouga's face as Susan's words took affect. He spun around to look at the woman he had been holding in his arms only moments ago.
"Ah," Susan said in a half-hearted attempt at surprise. "It looks like she left a while ago."
Kouga growled again, his hands flexing near his thighs. Susan flipped her head as she sauntered away, her hips swaying confidently from side to side.
"You're lucky she did, because if she'd been around to hear the things you were saying, Sesshoumaru would kill you."
Kagome panted as she rested her hands on the edge of her desk.
Dear Lord, what was that?
She'd left before the end – as soon as Kouga had let her go. She was pretty sure Susan had been goading Kouga on purpose so she could get away but with that woman it was hard to tell. She seemed like a real free spirit. She was the only person Kagome had met so far who wasn't in complete awe of Mr. Takamatsu. (Except for Kou- Mr. Okada. But then, he just seemed like he didn't get a lot of things in general.)
Kagome groaned as she realized she was still in possession of the MacInbury file that still needed to be handed in to Kou- Mr. Okada.
She glared at the accordion envelope filled with papers. "This is all your fault," she told it.
Kagome swore it tried an innocent pout but she was not fooled. She flipped it over so it could not look at her. (All the while wondering if accordion envelopes actually had eyes in real life and not her delusional daydreams – where would they be?)
It was few minutes later when a hapless intern walked by that inspiration struck.
"Hey you!" she called, leaping from her seat and around her desk, making sure to grab that seductress of an envelope as well. The intern stopped and looked back at Kagome curiously.
"Take this to Mr. Okada in room 1213," she instructed. "It's very important, from Mr. Takamatsu. Now."
The intern nodded and scurried off.
Ha ha, Kagome thought triumphantly. I win, you evil envelope! No more embarrassing situations for me today!
Suikotsu couldn't keep the smirk from his face as he ran his fingers down the polished metal of the magnificent sword. It had taken him much too long to track down this sword – to have finally gained enough evidence that proved its existence in more than mere fables and then to finally locate it. It was wonderful and frightening and he got such a lovely chill in his spine when thought about what he would do with it and its twin when the time finally came.
While the sword was indeed beautiful and well-cared for, there was more to it than just a fine piece of metalwork. The steel was tempered with the pure blue streaks of quality and a deadly edge that never needed to be sharpened. The hilt was red and rounded at the end, bound in dyed leather and plain. This was a sword that didn't need an ostentatious presentation to awe – one could simply feel its power radiate off in waves.
The last man who had been holding this sword was severely incapacitated, nearly dead, and in such a coma-like state that he was unlikely to awaken any time soon. Suikotsu had done that to him, even while the man had the sword – such was the power of Suikotsu and his legion of demon lackeys – but it wasn't until the lesser-skilled man was disarmed of the powerful sword that Suikotsu overcame him.
And it was mere fortune for Suikotsu that the man had been so poorly trained. The next man who held the other sword was not. That man was a powerful swordsman who would not take mercy or pity on Suikotsu in the final confrontation.
Suikotsu scowled as he lifted the heavy sword with both hands. He would need to train with this sword before he confronted its brother, but once he did… once he did, he would have both swords and a stronger man would never exist.
Suikotsu could feel the sword purr underneath his hands.
Yes, Tetsusaiga, he soothed it as he called it by name. We will soon conquer your brother sword.
So exciting, I know. Who were you expecting to be the bad guy (if you were even suspecting one at all?) Naraku? Please. I am sooo much more creative than that. (Which is why I write fanfiction instead of my own original stuff... aheh heh heh...)