Disclaimer: I've said it before lawyers are idiots if they fool themselves into thinking I own Inuyasha and if so I don't ever want one on my side.
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Breaking the Pattern
Chapter 2 Routine
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Great I have to somehow steal from the Higarashi family not only that but from the Higarashi. Inuyasha's bitter thoughts whirled around in his head, he had no problem with stealing from or assassinating those who deserved it but the Higarashi family was famous, well known for being charitable and loving not shady or cruel or even a little dodgy, stealing from them and especially her seemed wrong somehow and did not at all sit well with him. Well at least I got plenty of background info Inuyasha glanced loathingly at the now disheveled file on Kagome Higarashi which he held in one clawed hand, not that it'll help much. He'd skimmed (okay riffled) through the entire file twice on the way to his rooms without finding anything that would be considered worth stealing. What's this girl got that Sesshomaru would want, sure she's rich but Sesshy has very specific tastes. Oh well. Inuyasha dismissed his thoughts opening his bedroom door and tossing the Higarashi file onto the cluttered desk turned coat rack that took up the corner.
Heading to the adjoining bathroom Inuyasha stripped off his sweaty t-shirt, deciding to burn it later rather than live with the stench of wolf, it went into the overflowing hamper with the rest of the clothes intended for the stacks; it'd been a while since he'd actually done any laundry, or burning. While turning on the hot water and waiting for it to heat Inuyasha returned to the main room. (Okay so his bedroom was more of a five-star apartment complete with kitchen, office space, and living room, yeah it would be pretty sweet if it wasn't in the same building as Sesshomaru's business, yup, that was a downer.)
Reaching for a cup of instant ramen he turned on the stove and went to the now steamy shower before the kettle whistled. So Kagome Higarashi huh? I guess I'll be seeing you soon.
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"Kagome!" A sweet voice sang attempting to wake the girl who insisted on sleeping in until noon. When no reply came the woman went to wake her adoptive grandson, the only one capable of waking his adoptive mother.
Pushing open the door to the young boy's room, she sighed softly when she saw the empty bed. Shaking her head Mrs. Higarashi headed back downstairs to the one person she knew would be awake.
"Morning Mom!" Souta smiled knowingly at his mother as she returned to the kitchen after the normal morning routine, Sundays were always the worst.
"Good morning Souta, Jii-chan," Gendou Higurashi gave a grunt of acknowledgement as he continued reading the paper, "have either of you seen Shippou?" Mrs. Higarashi asked the usual question, starting to toss together breakfast. Souta merely raised an eyebrow as if to say 'where else?' His mother understood as always, "could you go wake them please?" Chuckling Souta nodded heading up to his sister's room, toast in hand. It was after all the little brother's job to both admire and irritate his older sister, and nothing annoyed Kagome more than getting up on a Sunday.
As expected his log of a sister was still out cold with the tiny red haired kitsune curled under her arm, seeking warmth from the young woman. He walked over the plush pink carpet to gently tug on the orange tail of the fox youkai. Shippou yelped in response, leaping out from under Kagome's arm and landing lightly on her stomach as he snatched the sensitive appendage away from Souta. His growl subsided and his glare softened to a pout when he saw who stood there smiling lightly down at him and his 'mother'.
"Morning Shippou" Souta chuckled, "mind waking up that lump you're sitting on." He said pointedly looking at the still sleeping girl, she hadn't even budged.
With a yawn the kit nodded prodding the young women between two ribs. The girl who had been poked groaned sleepily rolling on her side toward the direction of the offending kit, who, wise from experience, jumped out of the way and into Souta's waiting arms. Kagome continued to roll, right off the edge of the bed, landing on her backside with a dull thud.
Mrs. Higarashi smiled at the sound, as light-hearted argument ensued the murmur of voices drifting down the stairs, only to be halted as the door bell chimed. Still smiling, at the squawking above as all three children fought to make it down the stairs and to the door, Mrs. Higarashi called to the young woman she knew was waiting behind the door. "Come on in Sango she's just getting up."
The door swung open revealing a young woman with dark brown hair and eyes shadowed by heavy magenta mascara. "Good morning Mrs. Higarashi!" she chirped happily, letting herself in and sitting comfortably in a free chair, just as always a plate was set before Sango almost the instant she was seated. Right on cue Kagome bounded down the steps Shippou in her arms and Souta in tow.
Raising the usual eyebrow, Sango gave her the usual questioning stare. To which Kagome sighed and took a seat next to her, pulling her own breakfast plate toward her. Mrs. Higarashi smiled at the familiar routine this was her favorite part of the day when everyone was still light and care-free, before Kagome pulled away and reverted back to her public persona.
The two teenagers were arguing lightly about how dense Kagome was in the morning, Shippou was naturally joining in putting his two cents worth in both defending and berating his adoptive mother for her sleeping habits, which of course turned the attention to his habit of sneaking into her bed at night.
Okay quick recount, Kagome, arguing with Shippou and Sango, Shippou in Kagome's lap and Sango to her right, Souta shoveling food into his mouth as Grandpa Higarashi went on one of his famous lectures of historical significance, and Mrs. Higarashi watching them all with a smile as she continued to fry bacon. Pretty ordinary Sunday, right? A family living in their shrine eating a late breakfast together with close friends, yeah it would have been normal, if not for the fact that Kagome's manager burst through the door (without knocking) at that very moment.
"Darling!" the woman exclaimed rushing foreword to kiss Kagome on either cheek, not bothering to close the door behind her. Holding Kagome, who's expression had blanked, at arms length she chastised "Vhy are vou no dressed, ve 'ave busy schedule tovay, 'urry and change I vill vait." Kagome's mother sighed inwardly, she sounded French or maybe German, though they all knew the accent was fake, as a mother Mrs. Higarashi couldn't help but dislike her daughter's 'manager' especially considering how she always managed to turn Kagome into her own life-sized stone Barbie doll.
Sweetheart why do you do this to yourself? You hate that game, I can see it, just fire her honey. No she couldn't say that, as much as she wanted to, she couldn't, Kagome would make her own choice, if she could handle being the richest teen in Japan and the other responsibilities she was forced to bare, then she could handle the stinking manager that came with it. Besides she'd already been down that road and had long accepted her daughter was simply too noble to escape what she hated when it meant putting others in danger.
Fake smile firmly in place Mrs. Higarashi turned to face the new arrival. "Cecile, lovely to see you." The same lie every morning, "come eat, there's plenty to go around." As expected the offer was refused, rather rudely with a scoff, as Mrs. Higarashi watched her daughter rise from the table and silently head back upstairs to change. Both Sango and Shippou followed after her, the former pausing to send a deadly glare in Cecile's direction, the latter suppressing the urge, with difficulty, to stick out his tongue.
It wouldn't hurt if she meddled a little would it? Forget it; it's for the good of my daughter, as a mother I'd be remiss if I didn't meddle, it's my right. "You know…" Mrs. Higarashi started planning carefully what to say, "Kagome hasn't stayed home for a while, and with Sango here, I think she would appreciate a day off." Trying to sound casual wasn't working too well, her voice sounded devious and her manners forced even to her own ears.
Cecile scoffed "She es celebrity, vhy vould she vant a day off?" Not waiting for an answer the 'French' woman continued. "Besizes her vittle friend can come along too, after all if she es to be attending zhese events too she vill need zhe proper attire." The perfect solution in Cecile's mind, if Sango was with them the less she'd have to talk with her so called employer.
Again, Mrs. Higarashi sighed to herself, Well at least Sango will be with her. It was a small condolence but at least it was something.
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At near noon Inuyasha was sitting with a bowl of ramen reading the Higarashi file. Man this girl's busy, and always surrounded by people, at least meeting her won't be too difficult.
He had almost finished reading her personal records, the last of which was her school report. All A's damn, is this girl even human, no one's this damn perfect. Goes to a private school, wait isn't this one of those specialty schools for 'gifted' teens? Huh, that's new; she's not a demon that's for sure so she's either a priestess or a slayer. I'm betting priestess, makes sense if the girl lives at a shrine.
As he turned the page a single slip of paper fell into his lap, he had a sneaking suspicion of what it was, it would be just like Sesshy to pull that trick and he was right. Damn brother makin' me go to school. It didn't really bother Inuyasha that much, in all his time working with Sesshomaru he'd been in and out of school systems on missions and had never stuck around longer than a month, he just wouldn't pay attention in class and hey it would get him out of the training room for a while, but since it was Sesshomaru's idea naturally Inuyasha would complain, it was after all his duty as the younger sibling, not to mention a shit load of fun.
What most concerned Inuyasha was the target, beneath the numerous background sheets on Higarashi was a hidden a flash drive (which of course he hadn't noticed as it was stapled to the manila folder as if anticipating being tossed around), with a post-it note attached. Said post-it note had written on it only two words separated by a hyphen: dog-shit. Inuyasha's eyebrow twitched in annoyance; leave it to Fluffy to come up with a professional way of insulting him, without actually even being there to do it.
After popping the flash drive into his laptop Inuyasha's curiosity grew, all the files were encrypted, asking for a password to get the file list in the first place. Hating his brother's skewed sense of humor Inuyasha typed 'dog-shit' into the password box and wasn't disappointed, though several veins in near his temple throbbed in irritation, in a flash the files became legible and accessible. There were dozens of documents but one caught his eye as it was titled in all caps: READ THIS FIRST INUYASHA. He clicked on it twice; a word document popped up, a short note typed across the top:
Target is extremely sensitive handle with extreme caution; this Sesshomaru need not remind you. The following is an encoded document of extreme value, do not let it fall into unauthorized hands or I will personally remove a rather sensitive piece of your anatomy that you will sorely miss.
Subtle Sess, very subtle, despite the resentment he felt at the implication his brother had made about his apparent lack of care when dealing with classified information, no matter how justified those implications may be, Inuyasha got the message loud and clear; do not fuck this up, got it.
A second password box under the note, which Inuyasha quickly typed in the 'password' Sesshomaru had given him. Words and charts and maps on end appeared on the document. As Inuyasha scrolled down his eyes progressively widened as he read the detailed report containing every move the target had made, it went back for generations. Some sense of humor you got Sesshy, but it makes sense it's not the first time I've gone after the Shikkon no tama, this case just got a hell of a lot more interesting. Below the map and listings of sightings was medical report that looked vaguely familiar. Inuyasha shuffled through the paper files on Higarashi to her medical history and there it was the same report; identical expect for a line that had been blacked out on the paper copy, but was clear as day on the screen:
Unidentified object was found obstructing Higarashi Kagome's left lung, object has been removed. However it disappeared from storage shortly thereafter.
Well I'll be damned the jewel was actually inside her. Three guesses where it is now. Across town a young woman sneezed, rubbing absently at her chest.
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