When the tape was played for Kali, she burst into tears. Her children were kidnapped, somehow. She didn't have the kind of ransom money that these people were asking for.
Ten million dollars for each child. Sure it was a lot of money, but it wasn't that she was thinking her children were not worth the money. It was that she didn't have the money. Several other children from Sunset had been kidnapped as well.
The total was enormous; gathering into the sixties or seventies. All the students who had gathered for the field trip were missing.
Then, not only were her children kidnapped, she was getting sued because other people's children had gone missing while they were at her shrine. Her niece, Lea, was getting sued as well. It hadn't taken long for people to find someone to blame.
"Here, doc. Take this." The detective said, handing her a mug of coffee. He was a tall handsome man in his late thirties, divorced already but with a son.
He had black hair, slicked back, and was muscular, with pink lips, a well-rounded face with high cheekbones and dark brown eyes. Had she not been so distraught, Kali thought she might have found him striking, but she had not the time to think about men in such a manner when her children were missing.
The thought that she was married never came to mind. She hated Naraku and his abusive nature. She thought of him as little as possible.
She smiled brokenly at the detective. "Thank you." She whispered. She'd watched the tape over and over, but it was still hard to believe. Her whole shrine, even the sixteen mile garden, was the crime scene.
It would not have been all that hard for the kidnappers to get in to the garden and kidnap the children. They had left tracks in the dirt all over the shrine, and those vehicles had been found already in Sunset at a warehouse on the west side of town. There were traces of the children in the warehouse, but they had disappeared from there afterward.
"Doc, I know it's hard and everything, but you should go home. You need some rest." The detective told her.
She looked up at him. Shino Takai he had said his name was. "Who could rest at a time like this?" She asked him, and then looked away from him, standing slowly, but with a sturdy grip on her emotions now. She needed to be strong for her children. She could not break down. "Mr. Takai, please, find my children..." She whispered, but he heard her. Lord, please keep them safe.
Shino nodded. "We're doing our best." He told her. Anyone could see that this woman was hurting, perhaps more so than most of the other parents. Children of more wealthy families tended to be neglected, their parents 'too busy' to do anything for them or with them.
He watched as she left the room and then hurried out after her when she burst into tears outside the room. He put an arm around her shoulder, and allowed her to cry. That was the bad part of working on cases like this. He was the one who had to tell the parents the bad news.
At least he had yet to tell a parent that their child was dead. That was never pleasant, and he hated to do it. He hoped that this woman's children would be safe, but didn't dare let his hopes get too high.
When he saw her securely into the taxi, he moved back into his office, picking up the phone and calling Haru Nokugami. All the tapes had been sent to SPD or Sunset Police Department, in other words. With this new case and it so large, the entire department was swamped with work and backed up for weeks.
They had to take their real forces off the traffic department and put volunteers on it. Shino had been put immediately on the case, and he had not given a single argument. His own son, Medallion, had been kidnapped, and he wanted to find the aggressor and bring them to justice.
"Hello?" A voice came on the other end of the line. The voice was slurred, as though drunk. "You call in the middle of the night...my head...Sesshoumaru, come get the phone!" The person yelled.
Shino looked at the clock, then outside the window of his office, then again at the clock. It was three in the afternoon. His clock was not wrong, because the autumn sun shone brightly outside.
"Hello, I'm Shino Takai calling from the Sunset Police Department." Shino started. "Is Haru Nokugami around?"
"No. Call his cell." That was pretty much it for the conversation. Whoever that was, hung up on Shino. He sighed and hung his phone up, going into the records to see if they had a phone cell phone number where Haru could be reached. His eyes widened slightly when he saw a summary report in Haru's file.
It was a case that Shino had worked on ten years before. The mug-shot picture attached to the file was of a girl who looked to be about eight or nine years old. She had silver hair up in a ponytail with two clumps of hair left to frame her face.
She had gold eyes and pale skin, two identical green lines adorned her cheeks and a dark blue crescent shaped marking on her forehead. She had pointed ears and her eyes were angled. She was smiling, her fangs showing in that bright smile of hers.
He scanned the report under the picture.
Name: Nokugami, Yuri Sada
Age: 9
Classification: Demon
Hair: Silver
Eye: Gold/Yellow; changes green when upset
Skin: Pale White
Identifying Facial Marks: 2 green lines on each cheek; 1 blue crescent shaped marking on forehead
Identifying Bodily Marks: 2 green lines on each wrist
Kidnapped on Saturday, August 27, 2994 from Sunset PlayGround Park (West) at approximately 12:37. Witnesses say there was no struggle. A woman with long silver hair, who looked to be Yuri's mother came to the park while Yuri and her two brothers, Inuyasha Jiro Nokugami and Sesshoumaru Tamasine Nokugami were playing away from their sister, and left with the little girl. Two days later on Monday, August 29, 2994 SPD received a recorded video of the little girl, with the voice of a woman demanding ten million Martian dollars for the safe return of the girl. Haru Nokugami refused to pay the ransom. Yuri is suspected to still be alive. Body not found, no word of death.
Suspects
Name: Nokugami, Haru Kana
Age: 36
Classification: Demon
Hair: Silver
Eye: Gold/Yellow
Skin: Pale White
Identifying Facial Marks: None
Identifying Bodily Marks: None
Relation to victim: Father?
Alibi: On business trip to France at the time of kidnapping
Motive: Pays little attention to his children; could want them gone
Notes: Showed no remorse that his child had just been kidnapped. Found that quite odd
Name: Nokugami, Nekura Dai
Age: 33
Classification: Human
Hair: Black
Eye: Brown
Skin: Tan/Brown
Relation to victim: Stepmother
Alibi: Getting drinks from drink stand in park.
Motive: Seems to dislike daughter
Notes: Laughed when told of missing child. Said "The brat deserved it."
Name: Onigumo, Naraku Kyle
Age: 30
Classification: Half-demon
Hair: Black
Eye: Red
Skin: Pale White
Relation to victim: Failed business partner of Haru Nokugami
Alibi: In bar at time of kidnapping
Motive: Lost job in 2990; could still harbor aggression towards Haru Nokugami
Notes: Said he had his own children to take care of, wouldn't need to kidnap another
Name: Asirana, Chika Inari
Age: 29
Classification: Demon
Hair: Silver
Eye: Green
Skin: Pale White, light tan
Relation to victim: Birth Mother
Alibi: At home, alone, in apartment
Motive: Lost custody of twins, Sesshoumaru & Yuri, to Haru; wants them back
Notes: Seemed lost when received word that child was kidnapped
Extra Notes: No real leads found, other than woman in park. No woman of that exact description found in database. Chika Inari Asirana arrested for kidnapping Yuri Sada Nokugami. Closest suspect to woman in park. Will serve fifteen years in prison. Case Closed.
Shino scanned the papers a few extra times. The dates and the money amounts matched up. On August 27, 2994, Yuri was kidnapped. Now, exactly ten years later, on August 27, 3004 the students of SPS and SPES ( Sunset Public School and Sunset Private Education School) all went missing.
On August 29, 2994, SPD received the tape portraying Yuri as kidnapped. On August 29, 3004 the tapes came to the SPD, showing the kidnapped students. Among those students were the remaining Nokugami children. This was just a summary file though. Shino stood, going towards the SPD's hall of records.
Perhaps now was the time to reopen the Nokugami Kidnapping Case. If Shino was right, then he condemned Asirana to jail on false pretense. She could not possibly have gotten out of prison. He would have gotten word of it if she had.
Naraku Onigumo sat on the bar stool, watching the strippers slowly do their dances of seduction. He was one of the few people who came to the strip club at three pm. He sighed, but he couldn't seem to find interest in his drink, or the women on the bar.
He felt the urge to hurt something welling up in him and knew it would burst soon. He couldn't find his daughter or his son to beat on them and release that pent up anger. They were always his escape. He couldn't remember already when the last time he'd hit them was. It had to have been at least a week before.
He hated his marriage with Kali. There was a time that he thought he was in love with her, and the marriage was a sweet thing indeed, but a year after they'd married, he'd fallen out of love with her.
He'd been doing everything in his power to get her to hate him enough to divorce him. He didn't want to break it off, not if it would hurt her. He didn't think about how he was hurting her just by harming her children physically.
After so many years of abusing them, he found that he couldn't stop from doing it. When he saw them, something in him got angry and he wanted to beat them and did. He would lash out at them with his belt, and he was much stronger than them so no matter how they would try to fight back he was always the one who won.
Eventually, they gave up trying to stop the beatings and just let it happen, and Naraku found that he didn't need to beat them as much if they didn't fight it. If they fought, then the anger in him burst forth and he just couldn't stop himself from continuing the beating.
But it was that girl...his daughter... who he beat more often. She always protected her brother. Naraku knew he'd created more than enough scars on her back, and the sound of the belt across her back ringing in his ears always made him want to laugh.
She used to cry out each time the belt hit her, but she didn't anymore. She once bit her lip so hard she bit a hole in it just so she could keep from crying.
Naraku didn't understand himself, anymore than he understood anyone else. Kali was the one who was the psychiatrist. Naraku had gone to college to be an office assistant. He'd had to learn to type using the computer at a speed of 130 words per minute.
He'd exceeded that, going as far as typing 156 wpm at an average. He'd promised Kali that when she owned a psychiatrist's office, he would be her assistant and help her out. A fine job he'd done keeping that promise.
The day that Naraku had walked in on Kagome and that friend of her's lying naked together in Kagome's bed, Naraku had been furious. That someone would defile his daughter other than him made him angry.
He'd beaten her for being the very thing that he took home every night. When the boy had tried to help her, he'd tossed him aside.
After that, there proceeded a beating unlike any that Naraku had ever given anyone. All that anger was directed at her; at Kagome. He hadn't really listened to Kagome or the boy when they'd tried to explain that they loved each other and were going to marry each other. He wouldn't hear of it.
He hadn't told Kali about what had occurred, but she'd found out, he knew. She'd found out that her daughter and the Ichiro boy had fraternized, yet she had not reprimanded Kagome.
She'd just calmly spoke to the girl, and then the boy, and things were 'smoothed out'. Naraku had been furious, though. He'd just gone off, beating Kagome.
He still got mad when he heard of it. He gulped his whisky. He wanted nothing more than the best for his children, so this was the only way he knew how to achieve that. If he knew another way, he might take that route.
That his daughter had fraternized with someone made him very upset. He wished he could have turned back time and stopped her from doing it, but a fine role model he was, wasn't he? Having a new woman in his bed every night, in a shrine no less!
He stood, a bit tipsy on his feet, and then sat back down. He would change tomorrow. He would make things right tomorrow. He still did not know how, but he would try... tomorrow.
Shino looked at the school before him. It was a place to start at least. He'd not gotten a hold of Haru Nokugami yet but he would try again later that afternoon.
So far it had been three days since the actual kidnapping took place, one day since the tapes had come in. Shino had gotten a hold of all the other parents, but Haru was in France and his wife didn't have a way to reach him.
She'd said that the elder son, Sesshoumaru, knew the number to reach Haru, but she didn't call Haru because she didn't want to interrupt his business meetings. She'd been rather suggestive about the meetings, that they were more of 'one night stands' than meetings with business partners and clients.
From what Shino could tell, Haru was hardly ever home. It had been the same way ten years before. Haru had hardly taken any interest in his children, allowing Nekura, the mother of the younger son Inuyasha, to raise the children alone, along with the servants who tended to the house.
Shino found that there were fewer servants around the house now; it mostly was just Nekura and the two sons in the house.
Shino couldn't understand why anyone would leave their family and just go like that. Of course, he himself had left his ex-wife, taking his son with him because his ex-wife had had relations with someone she'd just happened to meet at work.
His ex had been a bartender at the local casino. Shino had thought that she was bringing home far too much money than she should from all those late nights of working.
Of course, because he'd found out about his ex's prostituting, he'd turned her in and she'd served three months in jail for it. After that, it was easy to get custody of his son. The court sided with him.
Shino walked towards SPES ( Sunset Private Education School), assurance in his step. His partner, Lea Saeko, was already in the building.
She'd gone in undercover to try to root out the problems with the SPES gang that was rumored around to be causing mischief. Lea was having problems though, because of an error in judgment. She was walking on very thin ice. She'd sent the kids on a field trip, and the students had been kidnapped.
Her original plan had seemed good; send the kids all into an environment where they have to act and coordinate with each other to find who the trouble spot is.
Of course, the androids monitoring each group, as each group had an android equipped with a camera behind the eyes so that whatever the android heard, and whatever the android saw was heard and seen by the monitoring station.
The androids were controlled by remote from the SPD, using volunteers from the community. They talked through voice converters and were almost like walky-talkies.
Shino chuckled at the thought. They were walky-talkies. They walked, and they talked. But no one had expected that a criminal mastermind would be able to enter the shrine especially with the owner, Onigumo, Kali, being a priestess.
The barrier around the shrine prohibited 'evil spirits' to enter the shrine. Perhaps they should update the shrine barrier. Shino thought. He did believe that Kali had power not normal to find in humans. In his line of work, he'd long-since learned to believe that anything is possible.
Shino entered the office of the building, noting that there were a crowd of students in the cafeteria who should have been in class. The school headmistress was most likely going to give a speech of what had occurred now that most of the families were alerted. Lea was waiting for him in the office.
"Hey." Lea said. She looked tired. She'd probably been up late answering countless phone calls from raging parents. She'd not done her make up today yet. Her suit-skirt was slightly wrinkled which meant she'd not had time to iron it that morning as she tended to do.
Shino quirked an eyebrow at her. "Hey back." He said. "Get much rest last night?"
She shook her head, speaking quietly so that the office people would not overhear. She had no worries about that since only humans worked in the office.
"No. Parents were calling and raving at me. Some of them said that I should pay the ransom. This has turned out to be a mad case. I hadn't thought that some psychopathic kidnapper would infect my plans. How are the Seeds doing on the images the androids sent, and the voices on the android recordings?"
The Seeds were what the cops liked to call the computer technicians. The reasoning behind the name was because the computer technicians were constantly at computers, sitting all the time so a running joke was that one of them would sprout roots like a seed in the ground. The name just stuck after that. The Seeds were real cops. They'd gone to college for it.
"The images are distorted in all of them, so they're trying to clear the fuzz out." Shino told her as she led him to the headmistress's office. "They've got a voice from one. It's the same voice as on every one of the tapes that came in yesterday. That's as far as we've gotten though."
Lea opened the headmistress's door for him and then followed him in. "I've not been able to get much information out of the students yet. They won't talk about either the Ichiro's, or the Higurashi's. That Shishuni boy either. It's almost as though the students are afraid to talk about them to me. I know they're talking about them when I can't hear."
Shino nodded and looked at the headmistress. She was on the phone at the moment. "Hey, you do what you can." He said, and she knew he meant that she shouldn't do anything to risk her being undercover.
She was new to the SPD, so not many knew about her being a cop and that made it perfect for her. Plus, she didn't grow up in Sunset. She grew up with her mother in West City, her parents having divorced when she was a child.
The headmistress hung up the phone and stood from her seat. "Close the door, Ms Saeko." She said quietly. She waved to the seats in front of her desk after Lea had done as she was told. The two took a seat and she sat back down.
"Have you anything yet?" She seemed tense. Of course, anyone would if they were on the verge of losing everything. The headmistress had powerful parents on the school board and if she angered just one of them, she could lose not just her job but her house, her car, her marriage, her children, and her freedom all in one swift blow.
Such a case as this ricocheted off the walls and back onto everyone else. Parents felt the repercussions just as did everyone else who either knew the victim or suspect.
Shino shook his head. "Not anything real to go on yet. I'd like permission to speak with your students freely." It was a private school, so Shino could certainly not just barge in and demand answers. He couldn't do that at a public school very easily either, but it was much simpler to get answers from students at a public school than at a private school.
"Perhaps one of your students might have information and not really know of it."
The headmistress nodded slowly, uncertainly. "You may ask questions, but that is all. I can not grant that you search the students—"
Shino smiled warmly at her. He knew how hard things could be. His thoughts roamed to his son for a moment. He wondered if Medallion was okay, but shook himself mentally. Medallion needed Shino to focus his attention on his work.
"I do not need to search the students." He said, interrupting her. "I just need to ask them a few questions."
The headmistress nodded and Shino got up. "I will get you a list of the students' names and what classes they have."
He nodded in return and walked out of the room, intent on finding someone who could give him any hint on whether or not the kidnapping was spontaneous, or if it was indeed connected to the one that took place ten years before, as he suspected it did.
While he waited for the student list, he still had work he could do. He went to the jail to inform Asirana of the kidnapping. She probably wouldn't like to know that her son had been kidnapped, just like her daughter ten years before, and it would be a gruesome thing to tell her, but he had questions for her that had to be answered.
Kali had given herself the day off. She'd cancelled all her meetings with clients and spent the day trying to gather herself. She'd done the same the day before. She had yet to stop crying, and hadn't slept at all the previous night. Naraku had come home and he had slapped her, but she'd been far too stressed out to deal with it at the moment.
She threw a vase at him and yelled at him and threw several other of her family heirlooms at him, things that were very fragile and had been passed down from generation to generation, some of the things worth millions of dollars and dating back to the 1400's or even further back.
Naraku had gotten the point that she wasn't to be messed with just then, but he, in his inebriated state, couldn't understand why she was upset that her children were gone.
After he'd left, she'd tried to concentrate on cleaning up the mess she'd made, but after making several lacerations on her hands, she'd given up. Sure, she had hundreds more family heirlooms, some so expensive that she daren't keep it out of a safe house, things that she could sell for more money to get her children back, but she couldn't sell the heirlooms until she'd reached the age of forty.
She'd had Kagome at age nineteen, having graduated college quite quickly, in fact much quicker than she should have since she'd been a 'genius child' and had already graduated high school by the time she was fourteen.
She'd married Naraku just out of college, and thus, Kagome came along. Ten months after that, Souta came along. The two were her world. They were what she lived for, they were her happiness, and now someone had mercilessly ripped them away from her, angering her.
Three years until she was forty. Three years until she could sell a single heirloom. Until then, she had no money with which to use to get her children back, and she had to be honest with herself. Even if she paid the ransom, she might never see her children again. The kidnappers might just kill her children.
Ai, one of the gardeners who worked for Kali, put an arm around the distraught woman's shoulders. Ai did not know what Kali was going through, but she knew that if it had been her daughter who had just turned five, she would be unable to handle the strain. She comforted the crying woman.
"There there...I'm sure Detective Takai is doing his best to bring them home." Ai and the other gardeners did feel some loss at the news of Kagome and Souta's being kidnapped. The two siblings were a source of everlasting amusement when they worked together, but that wasn't what was lost.
What was lost was a feeling of completion in the Shrine without them around to fill the hole. Ai figured that feeling must be amplified about a hundred fold for Kali, considering the woman birthed the two and watched them grow up.
Sango sighed and leaned back in the stifling room. The room they were all in was by no means small, but it was filled with enemies and friends alike and that was what made it seem stifling and small. She glared across the distance at Medallion who was smirking at her.
Kagome lay a few feet away, tied up so she didn't hurt herself when she had a seizure. Souta lay by her, watching over her. Kagome's friends all took turns watching over her. Souta was always watching over her though.
He slept by her, woke by her, ate by her when food was provided...the only time he really left her side was when he had to use the rest room.
Though none of the students except Kagome was tied up (for safety to herself) the students were by no means free. The room was built in stone and the door was like a vault. Sango had tried to open it several times, but it was almost impossible from the inside.
On the outside, she could have gotten it easily she was sure. There was two bathrooms leading off the room but that was it. There were no windows, and the walls, made of stone, were probably at least two feet thick.
Not easily broken. Some of the students who were demons had tried to use their demonic power to break out, but that proved fruitless.
Even Karei was worried about Kagome and if you could get Karei to worry about her cousin, then something surely was wrong. Kagome wasn't doing too well. She hadn't woken up since her first seizure.
When the creepy men and women came with their food, Souta often yelled at them to call the doctor for Kagome. He knew it was useless, but he did anyway.
The plane trip had been frightening for Rin. Kohaku had defended her when the kidnappers had laughed at her weak stomach – she had vomited right after take off – and Sango had taken care of her throughout the flight.
Miroku, Souta and Kikyou during the flight had taken care of Kagome, who'd been unconscious. The two boys would hold her if she started to seize up, and Kikyou would carefully bandage any wounds that Kagome inflicted unknowingly upon herself.
All in all, it was a rather trying time. It seemed that even the flight attendants were in on the kidnapping. Karei had been the one who found that out.
Medallion kept saying things about how his father would find them all and would bring the kidnappers to justice, but Sango wasn't so sure. She knew that his father was a detective for the SPD and usually worked on cases involving children; murders, domestic disputes, kidnappings, the like, but she wasn't so sure this case would be solved.
She knew that his father had solved many crimes and she had hacked into the SPD's mainframe before, reading about a case that he'd solved involving Sesshoumaru's birth mother. Apparently she'd been convicted of kidnapping her daughter, Sesshoumaru's twin, because she'd not been allowed to see the two since the moment of their birth.
Sango had read every report pertaining to the crime carefully and to her, things just didn't seem to add up right. She sighed, watching Kikyou place a cool washcloth from the bathroom on Kagome's forehead.
The room was not air conditioned. With students numbering somewhere in the sixties in the room, the body heat made it incredibly hot. She worried for Kagome. She wasn't doing all that well. She hoped that Medallion's father would pull his job through and find them soon before Kagome was seriously injured.
"You can't help but wonder what is happening to Kagome." Miroku said quietly, sitting down next to Sango. He was slightly disheveled, the wool uniform sticking to him. None of them had gotten their clothes back.
Sango knew that if they pulled out of this and Kagome was okay after it all, Kagome would be furious because they'd taken her 'Ice Princess' tank top. That was one of her favorite shirts, Sango knew.
Sango nodded glumly. She didn't even want to know what was happening. She just wanted to know if Kagome would be okay.
Hakudoushi Taisei worriedly paced his living room floor. "We haven't paid enough attention to her. We should have watched her closer." He grumbled. He was unkempt in the way of his appearances slightly from lack of sleep and too much stress.
Of course, his wife looked no worse for wear, as she was always cool and collected, but he could see in her eyes that she was worried for their daughter, who they'd just recently found to be kidnapped.
May Taisei smiled thinly at her husband. She loved him dearly, but the pacing had to stop. She couldn't allow him to wear himself out with worry.
She'd been raised to keep a level head when bad things happened, and now was a perfect time for him to practice that art. "Hakudoushi, sit down." She told him firmly, her tone leaving no room for argument.
Hakudoushi looked at her, surprised that she could even talk in such a clipped voice. She'd always been mildly-temperamental, but if this was mild, he was a woman wearing a man's privates.
He sat down heavily on the couch in their expensively furnished living room, tossing his legs up on the sofa seat. "I'm worried." He admitted.
May laughed lightly, able to ease the situation with just her laugh. The tense atmosphere became liquid smooth. "Anyone with half a brain could see you are worried, love. Just relax. Worrying won't bring her back; action will. Now get yourself ready. We're going to visit Kali. She needs to be comforted too."
Hakudoushi sighed and moved to stand. May knew he could hardly stand the thought that they would go visit a friend with their daughter missing, but what could they do that was not already being done by the police?
They had already gotten the money together for Karei, but there was no way to contact the kidnappers yet, or if there was, the police was not giving it to them yet, probably needing time to find out a bit of who the kidnapper might be.
Shino sighed and rubbed his weary eyes. He was getting nowhere. He'd talked to pretty much all the students at both SPS and SPES and all he'd gotten was that the Higurashi siblings, the Ichiro siblings, and the Shishuni boy hung out a lot at the Rave.
The five were almost inseparable. In talking with one boy at the school, he'd found out that Shishuni, and the two Higurashi children were 'marked'. Whatever that meant. He wasn't sure he liked the sound of it though.
"Shino, are you okay?" Lea asked him. It had been nine days now since the kidnapping had taken place; seven days since the tapes came. They were able to get a head start on the case right when they'd been kidnapped because of the distorted images coming through the androids cameras, but not much of a head start.
They'd figured something was going wrong when all of a sudden all the cameras started distorting, one after another. There was too much of a pattern interval between the cameras for it to be a coincidence.
There had been tracking devices placed in the androids, but the androids were found with the vans that had gone onto the shrine grounds.
"Yeah. I'm fine. Just a little tired, I guess."
Lea smiled faintly. She was surprised he was even working on the case. He'd been asked if he wanted to take a voluntary leave, but he'd just shook his head at the captain saying, "I'm going to find my son."
"Come on, let's get some lunch." She said.
"No. I better get back to work."
Onigumo, Kali knocked on the door to his office. Kali was surprised to see Lea wearing a gun and a badge, but she just smiled faintly as though things were finally becoming clear to her.
She had a small envelope in her hand. "I've got the money." She said. Kali didn't even have to beg Hakudoushi and May for their help. When they'd come, they just whipped out their checkbook and wrote the check. Kali would of course pay them back as soon as she could sell the family heirlooms, but she was grateful to them for their help.
Lea walked over to Kali and rested a hand on her aunt's shoulder. "You don't have to push yourself. We'll find them and they'll be safe."
Kali sighed. "I just want my babies back, Lea." She said. "You wouldn't understand what it is like to lose your children; you don't even have children yet. I can't live without knowing they're as safe as I can get them."
Lea looked at a loss for words. "I'm sorry, Kali. I'm really sorry."
Shino's phone rang. He picked it up. "Hello, Sunset Police Department, Detective Takai speaking." He said, his voice clipped short.
"Detective, this is Haru Nokugami. I got back from my business trip to France and my sons are not home. My wife said they haven't been home for days. I'd like a search warrant out for them."
Shino sighed. He waved to Lea, indicating that she should leave with Kali for a moment. The two left and he was alone in the room. "Mr. Nokugami, I'm afraid I have bad news for you. If you would please come down to the station?"
"Fine." Haru didn't sound very pleased that he had to come down, obviously thinking something along the lines of his sons were in jail for something or other. Or perhaps he was thinking that his sons had been kidnapped, just as his daughter was. Either way, he didn't sound happy, but he didn't sound particularly sad either.
Haru didn't live far from the station. He was there in less than five minutes. He entered Shino's office and sat down, obviously not in need of permission. Shino didn't think that Haru looked too well in health. He seemed a bit malnourished.
"You could get right to the point. I don't have all day." Haru said.
Shino nodded, grabbing a tape from a shelf to the left of his desk and putting it in the VCR. "This was sent to us via snail mail from a non-descript Tokyomail post." He said. He pushed play and let Haru watch the tape, also watching it. This was the last one, and Shino had not yet watched it, though the captain had.
The screen showed complete darkness. "Haru Nokugami, if you are watching this now, that means that I have your sons as well as your daughter."
The voice overlay was that of a woman, just as in the rest of the tapes. "Will you abandon them like you did your daughter?" Then, just like in the rest of the tapes, the screen turned fuzzy for a moment and then cleared and there was color.
First it showed Sesshoumaru Nokugami, then Inuyasha Nokugami, then finally it showed Yuri Nokugami. All of them were unconscious. "Ten million dollars for their safe return." The woman's voice said.
"I suggest you pay it, Nokugami." She said, and then the screen went black momentarily, and then changed to white and gray fuzz indicating the end of the tape.
Shino's eyes widened. He had wrongly accused Asirana. He'd been suspicious that he had the past few days, but had no evidence to prove her innocence. Now that he knew, he couldn't let this continue on. A woman was serving time for something she never committed.
Haru stood. "I refuse to pay any ransom." He said and then headed for the door.
Shino sighed then as Kali entered after Haru had exited. "Here... please, get me my children back." She whispered, handing him the check nervously.
It was paid out to the SPD. The SPD would have to go to the bank and get the money. Shino sighed again. It seemed that, with so few clues to go on, he would have to set up a trade, somehow.
"Takai!" Someone called. "The Seeds got something!"
Shino stood quickly, taking the envelope and pushing it back into Kali's hands. "You keep this. I'll find your children." He rushed towards the shouting. The Seeds were cheering, egging on another Seed who was busily hacking away at the keyboard, the screen continuously changing until finally an image was on the screen.
The woman was unrecognizable, but it was a woman indeed. She was wearing scant clothing and seemed to be ordering something around.
"Haven't got sound yet, but I've got picture." The Seed said. He grinned widely, proud of himself. As well he should be; some of the Veteran Seeds had been unable to do anything, and he, fresh out of college, had done something they couldn't.
"Something's better than nothing." Shino replied, vaguely remembering seeing someone with that face recently. He rushed off. "Keep working!" He called, going to his office and searching through his stack of recently filed paperwork.
He'd thought it was odd when someone just left six semis out in the middle of nowhere, then when the lab technicians matched the DNA from a hair follicle to that of a woman named Xera, Li and no other history available, well, now was the time to look closer at her records and see for sure if there isn't any other history.
Kagome groaned and sat up. Immediately Souta threw his arms around her, knocking her back down. "Kagome, you idiot, you scared the crap outta me!" He yelled at her. Around the two were sleeping students, but a few of them were awake and they glared at Souta for disturbing the silence.
"Change your pants then, Souta, and get off'a me. I've got to pee really bad." She looked around, and then realized that she wasn't at home. "Wha-where are we?"
"How do I know?" Souta said, releasing her and leaning back on his heels, crouching next to her. He'd been really worried for Kagome. "We got kidnapped by some insane woman with gold skin. I think she painted her skin though."
Kagome smacked her legs. "How long have we been here? I feel like I've been out for days." She felt her legs begin to get that prickly feeling to them that always happened right after you wake them up from their 'sleep'.
Her legs were punishing her. If she moved them, the feeling would intensify and she would laugh until she cried, which would probably make her pee her pants. She didn't want that.
Souta smiled at his sister, glad that she was alright again, but not sure she really was. She looked alright, but he couldn't be sure. He ran a hand through his hair.
It was growing longer than he usually kept it, making it messier than usual. He rarely ran a comb through his hair, but now his hair was really bad. It was greasy too, since the bathrooms didn't have baths or showers, none of the students could bathe.
It was reasonable that his sister had to go to the bathroom. She'd been out cold for ten days already. He was actually surprised that with her having her period she didn't just leak all over. Of course, it was fully possible that she'd just gotten over her period the day they were kidnapped.
"You have been out for days." Souta told her. "Ten of 'em."
"No wonder I feel like I'm going to explode."
Souta pointed to the door to the bathrooms. "There's two of 'em. SPS students have been using the one on the left; SPES students have been using the one on the right. I'm guessing the intent on using two bathrooms in here was so that girls could have one and guys could have one, but no one wants to intermingle with students from another school. Even Miroku's held his hands ten miles away from anyone from SPS."
Kagome nodded and scrambled to her feet, walking awkwardly on sleeping legs towards the bathroom. She heard Souta laugh at her. "Shuddup." She muttered.
She went into the bathroom on the right and closed and locked the door. She had the painful feeling of releasing her excess waste that you always have when you hold it in too long and wasn't surprised to find that her period was over.
Her last day to deal with it was the day of getting kidnapped. She washed herself up as best she could using the sink only, washing her hands and face.
When she was finished in the bathroom, she went out again and sat by Souta where she had been before. She noticed that the rest of her friends were nearby as well. Kikyou, Sango, and Rin were to her left, Miroku, Kohaku, and Souta were to her right.
Kohaku sat up and looked at Kagome. "Hey babe. How you feelin'?" He asked. His brown eyes were in shadow in the dark room. There were no windows, Kagome noticed.
There was light coming from the bathrooms, but other than that, there was no light in the room. He moved to sit on her left, between her and Sango.
Kagome looked at him, rubbing the back of her neck, then looked at Souta. "Wonderful." She said. "I'm surrounded by two of my favorite men."
Kohaku leaned closer to her, nuzzling her earlobe with his nose. "Hey, we've been worried." He whispered.
Kagome sighed and leaned into him, he wrapped his arms around her. She wished sometimes that she hadn't had to break up with him, but her mother had insisted that they separate for a while.
She knew that whatever small feelings she held for Sesshoumaru were nothing compared to the sense of completion she always got when she was with Kohaku.
Yeah, he might be weird sometimes, but she loved him, for everything he was. Sesshoumaru was just a minor infatuation. She hardly knew anything about him. He was just 'the cute guy'.
Souta threw his lip out in a pout, creating more of a shadow around his mouth. "What, don't I get any attention?" He said, but his voice was filled with amusement.
It was rather amusing to him to watch his sister melt into Kohaku's arms. Sometimes she didn't, but almost always she did.
Kagome chuckled and reached out, grabbing Souta's arm and pulling his head into her lap, running her fingers through his hair. "That what you wanted?" She whispered, forcing back a laugh.
She felt Kohaku's chest rumble from his laugh. Kagome's back was to Kohaku's chest and Souta was lying with his head in Kagome's lap. Souta had fallen asleep already, Kagome noticed. She smiled slightly.
"He was really stressed." Kohaku murmured in her ear. "You had to have had at least two seizures a day." Kohaku ran his hands up and down Kagome's arms. He also wished that Kali had not asked them to separate for a while, but both of them respected Kali far too much to disobey her request.
They knew she was right, especially after Kali had talked to them about her and Naraku's relationship. Naraku and Kali had just jumped right into it, not thinking about what might happen later on. Kohaku and Kagome didn't think that their relationship would end up like that, but Kali had insisted.
Kagome and Kohaku, dressed in the clothes they'd worn the previous day once more, sat on the futon on Kagome's bunk bed. They were both on opposite ends, blushing and staring at anything but Kagome's mother, Kali. Kali looked at her daughter, frowning.
"You could be pregnant, Kagome. What would you do then?" Kali asked.
Kagome crossed her arms over her stomach. "Kohaku and I already plan to get married." She said. "I showed you the ring the other day. Or were you too busy with your stupid clients that you couldn't pay attention to me?"
"Just because you're engaged to someone doesn't mean you can let your guard down, sweetie." Kali said quietly. She walked and knelt in front of the two, taking one of each of their hands.
"I love you both dearly, but you have much to think of. Your futures, the future of your children whether you have children with each other or with someone else, your careers... you have to be able to take care of your children you know. If you have a child and are still in High School, what would you do? I could not take care of it. Kohaku-kun, your father could not take care of it. I am not just a stay at home mother. I have patients, and a child is very demanding."
Kohaku and Kagome both looked at each other. Understanding was in their eyes. They knew what Kali was saying, however subliminally. Kagome's eyes filled with tears and she threw herself into Kohaku's arms, sobbing as he held her.
Kali nodded at them, speaking quietly but knowing both of them were listening. "You know what you should do... at least for a while. Kagome, we can find out if you are pregnant easily enough, but you both need to do this for your own sake. You know I wouldn't ask it otherwise."
Kohaku nodded. "I'm sorry, mom." Kali nodded. She too hoped that someday Kohaku would be her son. She already felt like Kohaku was her son. He spent enough time with her and her children. Kali walked out of the room, a sigh escaping her lips as she saw Naraku fuming in the hall.
"Naraku, you will not go in there. If you do, I will have you thrown into jail." She warned him, and then went into her son's room. He was not there and she remembered that he'd stayed at Miroku's house the night before because the two were assigned to a school project together. She headed down to her office after that.
Kagome turned her head towards Kohaku, kissing his chin. "I love you, Trip..." She whispered.
Kohaku kissed the back of her head when she turned to look down at Souta again. "And I you." He whispered. Both had decided that they could not be together after that though. They had promised each other that they would hook their parents together; Kali with Mich.
They both knew that soon judgment day would come for Naraku and he would be out of the picture. It wouldn't be hard to put Mich into the picture, and if their parents were married, then they couldn't be together.
Sesshoumaru listened to the declaration between Kagome and Kohaku with a heavy heart. As much as he hated it, Kohaku and Kagome seemed to be perfect for each other. They had grown up together, seemed to know everything about each other.
So he couldn't understand why his heart couldn't get over her. For heck's sake, the two had even had intercourse! Sesshoumaru wished he had his journal. He just wanted to write everything down.
Shino balled his fist up, slamming it down on his desk to emphasize his anger. "There is no time!" He yelled at his partner, his voice carrying through the open door to attract the attention of fellow co-workers outside his office.
It was rare for him to lose his temper, but the case he was working on and the fact that his son was also one of the numbers who had been kidnapped had gotten to him more than a little bit.
Lea leaned calmly on the arm of one of the chairs in front of Shino's desk, looking at the bright red nail polish on her manicured nails. She'd cleaned up her appearance once more, her suit-skirt perfect and unwrinkled, and her black as night hair in its usual tight bun.
She pursed her lips, the only sign of her agitation as she stopped looking at her nails to put her hand on her hip and glance at Shino. "There is time, Shino." She told him firmly, her bright blue eyes blazing with fierce determination. "There is plenty of time."
Shino fisted his hands in his hair, pulling on it roughly, and groaned miserably. "There is no time! The contact wants the money. Twenty two hours until trade off, what could we possibly do?"
Shino hadn't even been able to round together much more than ten-thousand dollars, contribution of most of his family.
Lea frowned. "You were the one who was so gun-hoe about this!" She snapped finally irritation getting to her. "With the amount of money Xera is asking, she isn't going to be doing anything stupid! Six hundred forty million dollars, is enough to have thought this through carefully! We've got nothing – zilch on who the people who helped her are! We wouldn't even know who Xera is; in fact we really don't know who Xera is! All we've got is you guessing."
"The Seeds got something again Takai!" someone shouted.
Shino stood so fast his chair tipped over, one of the wheels having got caught on a knot in the wooden floor. He rushed towards the door, tripping slightly over items that had gotten scattered from where they were supposed to be in his lack of sleep.
Lea was right on his heel as he rushed towards the large room the Seed's occupied, their desks and computers scattered in the disorganized room.
"What is it?" He snapped in his eagerness to know.
"Ereh revo! I mean, over here!" called one of the Seeds. He was dyslexic to the point where he even sometimes spoke everything backwards. Shino and Lea quickly closed the distance between themselves and the man.
Another Seed, standing nearby, spoke for the first. "It appears one of the androids had gotten mixed up with the students. We only tried to look for the vast majority of the tracking devices, and our range stuck to the city, not going much further." He explained. "Opiwa, hone in on the android."
Opiwa, the dyslexic Seed, nodded and typed away at the computer, swearing sometimes both backwards and forwards when he did something backwards, then erasing and starting over.
"Ere-I mean here." He pushed enter and a large map of Earth came onto the screen. Using the up arrow on his keypad, he zoomed in as far as he could, pinpoint the area somewhere in West City.
"We're guessing they used the airport by Keysville or something and landed somewhere around West City, then drove into West City. Something is disturbing the frequency so we can't hone in any closer though."
Lea frowned. "Can you get any picture from the android?"
"No, it's offline for the most part. Opiwa, try to turn it on remote."
Nodding again, Opiwa started typing in numbers using the number keypad. Shino scratched his not-so clean shaven face thoughtfully. He'd given up trying to shave for a while, his hands being so shaky with frayed nerves that his son was still missing.
"Ti tog," Opiwa said, too distracted to bother noticing he'd spoken backwards.
"Right, now bring up the frequency tables. We can try to change frequencies and maybe get a stronger signal." He began pointing out where Opiwa should click with the mouse, as several hundreds of tiny codes pulled up on the screen. "Get the-"
Shino blocked out their technological talk. Quickly he went to his office, Lea again following him. "If they can get the android working again, we might not have to trade off, if we move fast enough."
Lea nodded her agreement and Shino continued, shifting through papers on his desk. "Lea, get a hold of the Tokyo police. Tell them to close their airports for the next twenty four hours to groups with more than three children. Send them the pictures of the students we're looking for too."
"I'm on it." Lea said, walking briskly out of the room, her previous idea now lost among thousands of other thoughts.
Kali looked at her client, nodding at her words, but not really listening. Her mind was encased in worry for her children. She knew Detective Takai was trying his hardest, but it had been almost an entire month.
She didn't have to be a brain surgeon to know that Takai was hiding something from her. She just wanted her children back.
Naraku sighed, staring at his whiskey, once again his rear planted firmly to a chair though this time it was in the casino at the bar. He was in major debt at this place. He'd racked up a bill to the owner of this place of a debt of three hundred fifty thousand dollars.
He knew that Kali would not have that kind of money to pay it so he always gambled, trying to lower the debt but only managing to raise it.
"Bartend, 'nother whiskey." He called. The bartend didn't answer. Of course, he wouldn't be served anymore that night. He was already smashed. He didn't need a reminder, so he drank away the thoughts until his drink was gone, then got up off the chair and walked home, humming to himself.
"Intriguing..." A voice said from somewhere nearby. "And you are sure?"
Naraku looked around for the source of the voice and saw some people conversing in an alleyway. He pushed his body up against a wall, into the shadows and out of view.
Of course, they were humans so they wouldn't smell him as easily, but even in his drunken state, he knew if they walked by they'd smell the alcohol. Still, he wanted to know why these voices sounded so like conspirators. He could almost taste the deception.
"Positive. Nokugami's health is declining rather rapidly. He hasn't taken care of himself in a long time. Some people say he's had two strokes and a heart attack just recently. Of course, it runs in his genes, or so I'm told, but he might've avoided it if he'd taken care of himself." The other person, both female, said.
"So he's not going to pay the ransom?" The first female seemed shocked.
"No." the other female answered.
"But I like those boys! They're so polite every time they come to visit the shop!"
Gossip. Naraku thought, leaving his hiding place. That always sounds like conspiring. He headed for home. When he got there finally, he allowed himself to collapse on the living room couch. He sunk into the bliss of unawareness.
Kagome scowled, glaring at Medallion. He'd dared to make a pass at Karei, and however much Kagome disliked her cousin, she wouldn't let her cousin be defiled. Kagome stood in front of Karei who was crying at the indecency that Medallion had touched her in a private area.
Sure, Karei would cling to people, but she wasn't as bad as a lot of people thought. She held herself in high respects and would never think about touching someone were they didn't want to be touched.
Karei sat on the ground, sobbing into Maren and Chrisa's arms. Maren and Chrisa were also in their own states of shock, but they didn't dare to look at Medallion. Kagome growled as Medallion's friends involved themselves into the ordeal, going to stand at their backs. So far it was just Kagome and a few of Karei's friends who stood between Medallion and his new 'prey'.
Kagome knew why her friends did not stand with her and respected them for their wishes, knowing that if worse came to worst, they would undoubtedly involve themselves.
"Can't get any from me so you got to go to my family?" Kagome spat at him. The atmosphere was already tense because they'd been holed up in a room for days on end with little food.
Medallion smirked and leaned slightly on one leg so he could see the sobbing girl. "She liked it." He said with assurance to his voice.
"I'll rip your throat out if you touch someone from Private again! Especially her!"
Medallion laughed, his voice sending shivers up Karei's spine. I've been violated... she thought, horrified. He touched me... She hid her face in Chrisa's shoulder, sobbing and soaking the other girl's gray wool shirt.
"What's the deal, Higurashi?" Medallion asked. "I thought you hated her."
"Whether or not I like her doesn't matter!" Kagome told him, clenching and unclenching her fists. "She's a part of my territory, so back off!"
Souta moved to join Kagome, standing in front of his cousin, hands loose at his sides. Kohaku, Sango, and Miroku didn't hesitate much longer than Souta to join Kagome. Kagome was the leader of their gang but they had the choice to either get involved or not.
She would not force them to do something they didn't want to. Souta looked back at his cousin. "Stand up Karei." He told her. "Or he'll walk all over you."
Silence reigned through the room; no one dared to move, not even breathe. The tension between the two gangs – Medallion's and Kagome's – was thicker than pea soup. Sesshoumaru watched raptly, not daring to get into the fight. If he did, Karei might get the idea he liked her but he knew how she must feel, being touched somewhere private by someone you don't want touching you.
Every muscle in Kagome's body tensed further with each second. She was furious. "Apologize before I beat the living tar out of you."
Medallion leaned walked forward until his face was just scant inches away from Kagome's and his lips quirked in a sinister leer. "She. Liked. It." He said slowly, as though she hadn't understood him before.
Kagome balled her fist, pulled it back, and smashed it forward into his face. His lip began bleeding profusely, split open as though sliced with a knife.
"Medallion, I'll kick your ass if you don't apologize to my cousin right now!" Medallion smiled, his lip splitting open even further. Blood from his lip began to pool on his chin before dribbling off. Kagome was beyond angry. She was so mad she was swearing.
Karei stood, wiping her eyes. "Higurashi, stop this immediately! That is no humane way to behave."
Kagome's lips quirked in disgust, her eyes portraying the hidden anger as well as the anger she let show. "Karei, what would you know about human behavior? All your damn life you've snubbed me and everyone else into the background. You've gone as far as running students out of the school. If anything, I think I should slug you too."
When Karei made to say something again, Sango stomped on her foot 'casually'. "Ahh!" Karei cried.
Murmurs went through the crowd about how this was getting out of hand – members from both schools were saying it. Medallion waved his hand dismissively at the students from his school and immediately they hushed, their silence bringing with it the silence of also the SPES students.
Kagome and her gang stared at Medallion and his gang angrily. "Where are your bells now, Hell's Bitch?" Medallion sneered.
A clanging sound of a giant lock being undone was heard and all the students, SPS and SPES, looked towards the door. Slowly it began to swing outward and then suddenly a girl was pushed into the vault like room.
"Worthless!" The golden skinned woman's voice called. The woman with gold skin walked into the vault, glaring down at the girl on the floor. The girl was struggling to get up, her entire body littered with bruises.
She was stark naked and the black and blue bruises stood out in contrast to her silver hair and pale skin. Her face was hidden from view by her hair, her breasts and crotch also not visible because her hair was long enough and thick enough to cover the places.
The girl's body shook –with anger or fear Kagome didn't know- as she turned to the woman defiantly. It didn't seem like she could speak, but all that you needed to know to see she was defying the woman was her posture.
She held herself proudly erect. Blood caked her body, any part that you could see, and her hair was slightly matted. The woman slapped the girl, knocking her back to the ground. "You have no use for me! I might as well just have my men kill you!"
This time the girl did not, or could not, get up. Her whole body shook and it looked like she was trying to get up, but she couldn't. A man walked into the room with a pistol in his hand. He aimed it at the girl, but Kagome moved quickly and stood in front of her. "I don't think so." She said. She knew it was stupid to do, but she knew she had to do something. She couldn't just let blood be shed.
"You can shoot her too." The woman said dismissively.
Souta, Kohaku, Sango, and Miroku didn't hesitate. They immediately stood in front of Kagome, all in a line. "Shoot her; you'll have to shoot us too." Sango said with a scowl. Kikyou and Rin weren't that far behind the other four, standing even with Kagome.
The woman quirked an eyebrow at them all. "Shoot them as well."
Slowly people drifted to stand by Kagome and her friends, safe guarding the girl even if they didn't get along with Kagome and the others. Sesshoumaru and Inuyasha moved, becoming the breaking point of tension between the two schools.
Medallion moved, and with him trailed his hesitant gang, then Karei moved, with her coming her friends. Several other students moved too.
But not everyone moved. Several students from both schools didn't participate. Hiten didn't participate, the Graeme triplets didn't participate, Naomi –Inuyasha's girlfriend- didn't participate.
There were some from SPS that stood aside, but with the majority of the students standing around the girl –nearly fifty of sixty four students- the woman was faced with a decision.
She pursed her lips in a frown. "That's fine. I'm just going to kill you all after the trade off anyway." She stormed out of the vault, the man trailing after. The vault door was slammed shut and Kagome turned to look down at the still shaking girl, ignoring that the students were spreading out to find someplace to sit and chatter uselessly to try to ease their fears that they were going to die.
"Get moving, Medallion." She heard one of her friends threaten. She didn't pay attention to which it was that said it, or pay attention to the little argument that ensued afterwards.
Kneeling down next to the girl, she noticed Sesshoumaru and Inuyasha making their way closer than they'd originally been, to kneel down next to the girl. Sesshoumaru took his gray wool shirt off and though it wasn't much to provide to the girl, it was some cover and would stop students from staring at the girl so hungrily.
"Here." Sesshoumaru said quietly. "Put this on."
The girl struggled to sit up, and when she couldn't, Kagome reached to her and helped her. The girl nodded her thanks though her face was still hidden from view by her hair. She slipped the shirt on over her head and pulled it down. Since she was shorter than Sesshoumaru the shirt went just past the bottom of her rump.
"Let's get you cleaned up, hmm?" Kagome asked the girl. She helped the girl to stand and walk into the bathroom, nodding to Kikyou and Rin to come help her.
When Kikyou and Rin got into the bathroom, Kagome closed the door for privacy, and then walked to the girl, pushing aside the girl's hair. She saw golden orbs that flickered with green specks staring back at her, underlined by black and blue bruises. Her entire face looked like a big bruise.
The girl's hair looked like it hadn't been very taken care of in years. Two maroon stripe markings grazed the cheekbones of the girl, a blue crescent shaped marking on the girl's forehead. You could just barely make out the makings of maroon colored markings on the girl's eyelids.
"She looks like Sesshoumaru Nokugami's double..." Kikyou whispered. "Only, without the markings."
Kagome grabbed a washcloth from the cabinet. Every three days the men would come and get all the dirty laundry, washing it, then bringing it back and refilling the bathrooms. Getting it wet with warm water, she put soap on the wash cloth. "Rin, fill the sink up with warm water would yah?"
Rin moved to the sink, plugging it up and turning the hot water faucet on. Kikyou didn't even have to be told what to do. She immediately went and searched the cupboard for peroxide.
Of course, there was none so she just got a clean washcloth like Kagome had, using that with warm water and soap to scrub dried and caked blood from the girl's arms. The girl tried to pull her arm away when the warm water burned a particularly infected laceration but Kikyou frowned at her.
"That's enough." Kikyou said sternly. "I'll not stand for that."
Rin looked the girl over. The girl looked to be about nineteen or so, but her eyes held the look of a child's fear deep in their depths. "What's your name?" Rin asked.
The girl just looked at Rin, as though not knowing how to speak.
Rin tried a different approach. "Can you talk?" The girl cocked her head as though confused. "I'm guessing no..." Rin murmured. The girl winced when Kagome began scrubbing another of the infected cuts on her face.
Using her free hand, the hand that Kikyou wasn't currently cleaning, she drew her finger across the top of the sink like a pen. Rin looked down at the finger, watching the fingers move.