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Chapter 14, Allegro

I woke up to the click of a lighter. My neck and back were stiff from falling asleep in the chair with my head on Inuyasha's bed, but a shiver coursed down my spine and all my discomfort vanished as I met those familiar golden eyes. "Inuyasha!" I breathed.

"Mornin'," he said coolly, exhaling a puff of grey smoke.

I slapped him soundly across the face. His cigarette flew out of his mouth and careened across the room. It scattered cinders as it hit the ground and I put my heel into it before I turned back to him. "You idiot!" I shouted, shoving my finger into his chest.

Inuyasha did not even blink.

"Baka! Baka, baka, baka!" I cried, grabbing a fistful of sheets to keep myself from crying. "Inuyasha, you almost died! You should have stayed away. You shouldn't have come when you were like that. You—you almost died and it was all my fault!"

Inuyasha narrowed his eyes. He reached into the jeans that were sitting on a stool near the bed and pulled out his cigarettes. He placed one in his mouth and lit the end. The tiny flame danced and illuminated his golden orbs. "Shut up," he said.

I blinked. "What?"

"I said shut up," he advised. "I don't want to hear your whining. Get over yourself."

The air was knocked out of me as though he had punched me in the stomach. I stood staring at him, motionless except for my pounding heart.

Inuyasha looked away from me, off into one of the darkened corners of the room. He closed his eyes, thus breaking the spell that intense gaze had cast over me. I stepped away from the bed. "You never asked where I'd been."

"What?"

"I was gone for three months, and you never asked me where I went." Another stream of smoke spilled over the delicate curve of his lips.

"I figured you'd tell me…if it was something that I had to know," I said slowly.

"What did your father do for a living, girl?" Inuyasha asked suddenly.

"I don't follow," I said.

"Just answer the question."

"I don't understand what that has to do with anything."

"It has everything to do with it!" Inuyasha spat, rounding on me. I jumped back in surprise. The claws of his left hand were imbedded in the mattress.

"He was an accountant," I said when I had found my voice once more. "He worked from home."

Inuyasha flinched. "What was his name?"

"Higurashi… Kimihiro," I managed.

Inuyasha got up out of bed and walked across the room. I bolted forward to grab his arm.

"Stop it," I pleaded. "You should be lying down. You almost died last night and I-"

Inuyasha slapped my hand away. When he turned to me, his handsome face was pulled taught and dark folds had formed between his eyebrows. "So you are his daughter." His voice was somewhere between a whimper and a growl. I shivered. He turned and began to walk away.

I stood frozen, watching his retreating frame. It felt like my soul was sinking, dropping down to pool around my ankles. My knees shook, and my head fell against my chest. And then my soul crested, sharply, in furious indignation. I leapt in front of Inuyasha, blocking the door.

"Get out of my way," he hissed.

"No," I shot back. "Not until you explain to me just exactly what you mean." I narrowed my eyes and took a step forward. "No more secrets."

Inuyasha looked at me, and the glimmer in his golden eyes suggested admiration and something else…something like pain. He closed his eyes, and went to sit on the bed. He hung his head, his arms resting on his knees. He looked so small sitting there.

"I'm going to tell you a story, Kagome," Inuyasha said in a tiny voice. "And when I'm done…" He looked at me with weary eyes.

"Inuyasha…"

He looked away. "Thirty-eight years ago, there was a boy who lived with his father and mother. They loved him very much, and because they had had him late in life, he was an extra joy and treasure to them. One day, this boy went out to run a favor for his father. But the little boy never came home. His mother and father called the police, there was a search party, but nothing more was done.

"Because the truth is that children had been disappearing lately. This was the first child to disappear in Tokyo, but children had been disappearing from the countryside for the past year. Everyone wondered where the children were being taken, but no one was brave enough to challenge the Government to go and look for them."

Inuyasha looked at me. "It's not a new story by any means. As long as the Government as been around, people have disappeared inexplicably. Those who get too close, those who show an especially obstinate nature, they are swooped up by the Government and never heard from again. Some are sent to their deaths, but most are sent to work in mines and factories. The special ones, those that show certain talents or special intelligence, however, are usually broken down mentally and turned into Government pawns."

I shivered and had to look away. In second grade, I had a beautiful young teacher named Fusae-san. Fusae-san took a special interest in me. One day she invited me over for dinner. The next day, she stayed home sick. The day after that, the headmaster came in to tell us that Fusae-san had moved, and would not be returning. And then there had been my neighbor, an elderly man named Nubito-san who had a kind smile. Nubito-san gave me one of his dog's puppies. He told me to look after my father. That night, Nubito-san committed suicide.

"These children were being adopted into a Government program that was designed to test their effectiveness in completing Naraku's plans. They were stripped of their pasts, and given numbers instead. If any of them spoke of home, they were beaten. If they tried to call each by their names, they were sent into solitary confinement.

"They were taught to carry guns, taught advanced mathematics, taught how to break codes, diffuse bombs, whatever. The Government was training an army that would obey its every whim.

"They boy I mentioned before, though, he was special. He was called Number 432, and he had average math scores. He was of average height and weight. He did not seem to be anymore intelligent than his peers. He disliked artichokes. But there was something very peculiar about him. It was obvious, even though he'd only been there for three months. The President was alerted, and Naraku himself came down to observe Number 432's training."

Inuyasha leaned forward and crushed his cigarette against the ashtray. The ashes crumbled and hissed, and put forth a weak ring of smoke. "What Naraku and the others found in Number 432 was the key to their dreams; they had found someone with latent spiritual powers and the ability to seek and find what they were after."

"What were they after?" I asked after a long pause in the narrative.

"A wishing-granting jewel from the ancient world: the Shikon no Tama," he said at last.

"Shikon no… Tama?" I repeated slowly, trying the words out on my tongue.

"Anyway, Naraku adopted Number 432 as his son and named him Kimaru. From that day onward, Kimaru was separated from the other children and given extensive and rigorous training. When he was twelve, he was sent into the field as a weapon, winning numerous shards of the Shikon no Tama for the Government. At eighteen, he was given a mate." Inuyasha's lips curled as he said the world. "She was a young agent named Ayashi. Nine months later, Ayashi had a daughter. She was named Kikyo."

I gasped so suddenly that I thought I would choke on the air. I had to grab onto the edge of Inuyasha's bed to steady myself.

Inuyasha closed his eyes. "That very night, Kimaru disappeared beyond the Government's detection. He disappeared for twelve years. The Government has no record of what happened to him during that time. But he was located, and it was Kikyo who tracked him down and delivered the fatal injury."

My stomach was twisting.

"He was rushed to the hospital, of course. His wife appeared, and his two children. Their blood was taken under the pretense that it would be used to revive their father. Their blood was tested for the crucial similarities, and the girl was found to be compatible. Her name was…" Inuyasha's voice trailed off.

My head hurt. I fumbled for something to support me. Inuyasha fixed his golden eyes on me. I couldn't read the expression there.

"Her name was Higurashi Kagome."

(-)

"Hold on, Kagome. Hold on. Don't let go."

I shut my eyes against the memory.

"You know, if it was up to me, I'd have killed you a long time ago. I don't care how valuable you are," Fukouka says. He tucks his gun under my chin, as though he expects me to flinch. I look at him coolly.

I really need something to eat.

"Go ahead," I say.

"Hmm," he muses, tapping the barrel of his gun against my cheek. "While I admit that's tempting, it'll have to wait until you tell us what you know."

"I want to see my family," I say wearily.

"Don't you trust us?" Fukouka says, cackling. "Don't you believe us when we tell you that they're alive? Why, just the other day, I could have sworn that your little brother's screams could be heard all the way to your cell."

My body jerks sharply against the verbal attack and I strain against my bonds.

"That's enough, Fukouka."

Fukouka goes pale behind his sunglasses and whirls around. "P-President Naraku!"

I look at my feet, pretending to be disinterested in the President's visit. The truth is that this is the first break of protocol in…days? Weeks? How long have I been shut up in this hellhole?

"Good evening, Kagome-san," the President of the Government oozes. Then his clammy, cold hands are examining the curve of my cheek. I can feel him smile. "It's true what they say, isn't it? You really do have your father's eyes."

I meet his eyes, those pale soulless puddles. He recoils sharply as my cheek resonates with violet energy. My bonds respond by shocking me. I black out momentarily, and when I blink the pain from my eyes, Naraku is grinning.

"How cheeky," he observes. "You dare to try and purify me?"

"That's not all I'll do when I get out of here," I threaten, struggling against the tight cords that secure me to the chair.

"Really, that temper of yours…" Naraku comments, clicking his tongue. "I remember a similar violent streak in your father. Your sister, however, was much more submissive." He lifts my chin, but he has learned from his previous lesson, and uses his cane.

I'm up to the challenge, though. I prepare to send my power along the length of the cane, but something goes wrong. Like a match that fails to ignite, my spiritual powers create nothing more than a brief spark. At once, I feel like my head is filled with bricks. I try to shake the feeling, but it persists. I slump against the chair.

"Do you like it, Kagome-san?" Naraku coos. "I had my technicians work on it just for you. It repels your purification powers. Sorry, it may leave you feeling a little light-headed, but it's a risk I'm willing to take."

He leans in so that his face is just inches from mine. I shiver as his foul breath breaks upon my face. "Now, we talk as equals, hmm?"

"What do you want?" I moan, drowsy and hungry and feeling broken all over.

"Hang on, Kagome."

"The same thing as you, I imagine," Naraku says, smirking.

"You have no idea what I want," I shoot back.

"No? Well, I thought that surely what you want more than anything is to be with your family, back in that life, away from all this," Naraku says. He reaches up to smooth my hair back from my face. He pets me like a child. Humiliation rumbles in my stomach, but I'm just too tired to summon the resistance. "You would like that, wouldn't you, Kagome-san?"

I look away from those piercing blue eyes.

"Kagome!"

"So I'm willing to offer a trade."

"Kagome-chan!"

"Kagome-sama!"

"What kind of trade?"

Naraku's lips curl back to reveal a hideous smile full of pointed, bestial teeth. A cold hand closes around my heart as though to stop its beating. "Your family, in exchange for Inuyasha."

"I will definitely come for you."

- Ichimu