It took Kagome and Sammy three hours to drag the results of the shopping trip up the stairs and to the apartment. Both wondered why the building had no elevator and regretted the fact that it did not have one.
While wiping sweat off her brow from the constant straining effort of pulling the large box that contained the bed up the winding staircase on the way up to the fifth floor, Kagome groaned. "If I had a genie, I'd wish this damn box were up the stairs already." They had been dragging on the box for an hour already and were only just level with the entrance to the second floor.
"Two flights of stairs." Sammy wheezed. "I've never been so exhausted. I sort of wish my boyfriend were here to help." She leaned against the box for a moment and a group of teenagers walked around them on their way down. "I know he'd help if I ever got the guts to ask."
Kagome laughed quietly to herself because of the irony of Sammy's thoughts. She'd just been thinking about how she wished Kohaku were there to help, but unfortunately he was still in High School and had done something to land himself in detention.
Kagome looked up at the winding staircase and groaned. "Three more floors, Sammy." She said lightly. "Do you want to take the top for a while? I can labor the heavier side the rest of the way up."
Sammy nodded and they switched sides, Kagome wondering just what in her right mind made her agree to buy a loft for a bed. True, it would save space in the end, but it was wide and heavy and they were doing the work by themselves.
As they danced their way up the staircase, weaving from one side to the other as the weight of the box dragged them around, Sammy and Kagome both knew that getting the things up in the loft would be near impossible if not completely impossible.
There was only so much that two people could do. Twice Sammy tripped on the stairs, as walking backwards was a rather difficult feat to accomplish, especially when one was carrying half the weight of a loft bed.
Finally they managed to get the loft bed into the apartment and after setting it near the pile of the rest of the stuff, having brought in the lighter stuff in first, they collapsed on the floor trying to catch their breath.
"Get the door Sammy." Kagome joked, knowing very well that Sammy was as sore as she was and that obeying an order at the moment was the last thing a tired girl would do.
"Get the door Kagome." Sammy panted right back at her. She sniffed the air and made a face, reaching up to wipe sweat from her face. "I really need a shower."
As she began to stand up, Kagome muttered, "Did we lock the car?" She couldn't quite remember, but she figured that checking wouldn't hurt and with as hot as her skin was at the moment a bit of cold air would be a refreshing break.
When she received no answer, she looked at Sammy. Sammy was asleep, probably had worked her into and beyond the point of exhaustion.
She decided to just let Sammy get a bit of shuteye and went out of the apartment. She locked it with the key that Mr. Obit had given her and made her way towards the stairwell again. It took longer for her to get out of the apartment building than it should have because her legs felt like jelly and when she did get outside, she let herself fall onto the clean snow that littered the small yard. Her eyes stared unseeingly at the grey-white sky above and exhaustion took her over.
Not even the snow, which melted and soaked into her clothing, could keep her awake. Instead, it lulled her to sleep and made her feel like a nice blanket covered her body. She vaguely registered in her mind that she'd forgotten to check the car and make sure it was closed before drifting off.
"Where is my daughter?" She screamed at her servants. She was more than angry and was in no mood to tolerate insolence, especially when she was so much better than those who were born to serve and fate held no other purpose for. "Where is she? I demand you find her! She is my daughter, my daughter!!"
The servants subjected to her angry temper shook in their place. They were fearful of the woman who was so obsessed with the girl whom they thought was her child. They did not know that the insanity of the woman before them extended beyond reason. There was a point in which a person could never return from lunacy and the woman had crossed the invisible line many years before.
Her eyes were wide and bluer than the brightest blue crayon, purer than a sapphire. Her cheeks were rosy and her skin was a delicate crème color. Her raven black hair seemed to shimmer blue when the light hit it just right. The lips that moved when she screamed were as perfectly formed as her eyebrows were manicured, and they were a delicate pink color.
"Where is my daughter?" She shrieked and her long fingered, professionally manicured hand went up into the air and came down upon the face of one of her servants. Not a wrinkle marred her beauty, not an extra bit of fat marred her lithe form. She spoke in an exquisite soprano voice even if she ranted. "Find her! Find her now!"
The servants ran off as fast as they could to do her bidding. If there was any wish they could have granted, it was that the woman had never married their employer. If it weren't for the woman, they would have quit long ago but she'd ruined them all.
They were not "fit" for work anywhere else. She might have been a mad woman, but she knew everything she wanted to do still, mad or not.
The woman kicked her slipper off at the servants as they ran and a smile spread on her face. The cruel smile managed to make her even more beautiful and when the servants disappeared, she turned to the bookshelf upon which were a variety of different colored books.
There was a single black book on the shelf which she pulled off. She tossed it on the floor and reached into the hole left by the book, pressing a button installed specially behind that one space.
"My daughter... my dear... my precious pearl. I was going to bring you back, but something went wrong with my plans. Now I must again find you!" A person would wonder how the woman was so beautiful on the outside when she was so horrible on the inside but she didn't care.
The wall beside the bookshelf began to swing forward once she pressed the button and she entered the dark room that waited behind it. She closed the door to make sure no one would see to follow her.
She would hate to have to kill again. She'd already done so many. But she was careful when she did it. She made sure no one knew it was her. She knew if someone were to find out about her and what she was doing, everything would end and she would be locked up. That was why she must not let that happen. No one could know.
She flipped a switch on the wall and a whirring sound emitted from the center of the room. Shortly after that the lights came on and she giggled. There was her test subject, lying helplessly on the table. The little boy struggled to get free but by then it was a wonder to her why he didn't realize his efforts were fruitless.
"Oh dear child...dear child, won't mummy be sad to know you're being such a naughty, naughty boy?" She asked him, caressing his cheek with one long, bony finger.
She swiped at a tear and brought it to her eye level, giggling. "Oh, you naughty boy. Didn't I tell you not to cry?" She watched as his eyes filled yet again and emptied towards his temples, the droplets of salty water getting lost in his hair.
"I want to go home. I want my mum and dad." He cried, pulling on the restraints that held him fast to the metal table. Tears wrenched their way down the sides of his face. "I want my mum and dad!" his scream echoed through the room like the echo of a ripple on water.
She smiled and leaned down, kissing his forehead tenderly much like a mother. "Mummy is right here. Mummy wants you to be a good boy now. I am your mummy. Come now; call me mummy." She ran her fingers through his damp hair, one hand on his cheek wiping away his tears.
"You're not my mum." He choked out and turned his head, biting at her fingers.
She slapped him for trying to bite her. "You will call me mummy! Call me mummy!" He didn't understand the woman but she didn't care if he was too young to understand her pain. "Say it!"
He shook his head frantically. "Take me home! Let me go! I want my real mum! I don't want you!"
I shall remove his tongue for such insolence! She thought viciously as she moved to a cart that held surgical equipment of all kinds. She picked up a scapula and twisted open his mouth with her free hand. He tried biting her fingers, but then cried when she stabbed the scapula into his shoulder. His mouth came open in a scream and she dug in with the surgical knife, slicing his tongue off.
Blood pooled in his mouth and the boy began choking on it. She didn't want him to die. She'd done this before. She knew just what to do next. She untied him and he came willingly. She turned him over so the blood would fall from his mouth. So did the tongue.
Blue light flowed from her hand and into his mouth. It was her power of healing. She let enough of the power flow through her and into him so that the wound would close completely. She couldn't regenerate his tongue even if she wanted to.
Next she took the scapula and inserted it into his neck, dragging it around a bit yet being careful not to hit his main artery. She just wanted to destroy his voice box and make him stop screaming.
Blood spilled all over the clothes she and the boy wore yet finally his agonized cries died out and she was grateful that the walls were padded in thick cork. She healed the wound so he wouldn't die and the boy passed out from loss of blood. His tongue slid to the floor with the river of blood, making her laugh.
"You should have called me mummy." She told the sleeping boy in her arms and proceeded with him to the bath that was in the corner of the room. After filling it with water, she bathed the seven year old and herself together. As soon as they were both clean, she took him back to the center of the room and laid him on a clean table, tying him down before moving to clean up the mess.
She didn't bother to dress him, but she did put on her clean clothes. She turned on an android and gave it the order of cleaning up the blood before leaving the room with a vicious smile on her gorgeous face. Inside her mind she was already forming plans on how best to make the boy a Cyborg.
Of course, none of her subjects whom she'd tried to make into a Cyborg had lived, but she wasn't giving up. It was something she would accomplish.
A cackle escaped her mouth, one that was just as malicious as the smile she'd worn. She would never be caught, because she never made a mistake. The children whom had died at her hands, the blood she'd let run through her fingers only made her more willing to try again and again until at last she finally succeeded in making a Cyborg of her own that she could control. She replaced the black book on the shelf and exited the library.
She could keep the boy alive throughout the procedure with her power of course, but she felt that her error had been in using human children all this time. The boy was a demon. This would be her first experiment on demons.
She felt a rush of excitement race through her veins as she remembered the tongue that had flopped to the floor. It made her giggle. She almost couldn't wait for failure just so that she could do that to another child. She wanted to feel the blood running through her fingers again.
She wanted to feel the child's life force racing out of the child. The feel was precious to her and she knew nothing would take it away from her because no one would suspect her. No one would guess that she planned all of this herself.
Even if she was found out, she had plans in place to frame someone else... Someone she hated more than anyone.
"So where is this place?" Kagura asked Yusuke while they were parked in front of a building that read Corner Stone Bar and Grill. Kagura was driving the Rent-A-Car, Yusuke rode in the front passenger seat, and Hiei sat in back.
Kagura and Hiei had just arrived in Sunset late that day and had been following Kagome's instructions to the Shrine when on the way to the Shrine they had seen Yusuke walking and stopped to pick him up.
Yusuke had explained to them that he was on his way to Kagome's apartment since she had called him to help her move her stuff, but since he didn't have a car he had to walk and didn't feel like renting a car. The town was too packed to have everyone have a vehicle anyway and carpooling worked just fine.
Yusuke looked at the paper he'd written the address on and then cross referenced with the map he had folded in his large hooded sweatshirt. He looked at the street sign they were parked near and saw it read Ohanami road, then looked back at the instructions. "Well, if that street sign is any indication, we have to turn right."
He scratched his head for a moment before nodding. "Yeah, turn right onto Ohanami road and"—Kagura turned out into the traffic and turned onto Ohanami road—"then just go straight. She said the building is to the left of Ohanami Park."
"Are we there yet?" Hiei asked for the sixth time in the past twenty minutes. He was impatient, his third eye was drying out and required some attention, and he wanted to eat something before he began dry heaving from lack of food.
"No! Now shut up!" Kagura snapped just as Yusuke turned around in his seat and said, "I'm this close to smashing your face through the back window, Shorty!" To emphasize his words he put his fingers together to indicate just how close he was to seriously doing harm.
"Whatever." Hiei muttered and went back to staring out of the window. His third eye really hurt at the moment and if he didn't get moisture in it he knew he would begin to have some problems that would turn big quickly.
He clenched his right fist and watched in the light from the passing street lamps as the veins in it bunched and the muscles in his arm compressed together. He felt his muscles straining together. As the muscles tightened against each other, he felt pain shooting up and down his arm. He needed more than anything to find a mechanic who was good at their work.
A mechanic instead of a doctor, Hiei thought as his eyes moved back to watch the passing street lamps and buildings. I wonder how long until the band breaks?
When Kagome finally woke, it was because she was half frozen to death. The discomfort she felt was maximized by ten when she moved and found her entire body had cramped up. She groaned and forced her body to move as she wondered what might have possessed her to fall asleep in a snow drift when her original mission had just been to check and make sure the car was locked up.
"At least I had a coat on," she grumbled irritably, "or I might've gotten Pneumonia or an equally horrible"—she sneezed and felt her throat constrict momentarily before she sneezed again—"cold."
Quickly she dug herself out of the snow and felt her body creak and complain as she made her way in the cold air towards the car to make sure it was locked before heading into the apartment complex. She was soaked; her mother's coat was completely wet and generally wool and water didn't blend all that well.
She sneezed several times in the stairwell on her way up to the fifth floor and the apartment that waited her with an as of yet uncompleted bedroom. She'd called Yusuke to come help her build her bedroom and he'd said he'd come and leave Kagura and Hiei directions to her apartment which meant that Kagura and Hiei might also stop by to visit.
Sammy was busy in the kitchen when she entered the apartment. She had a large pot of chili cooking on the stove and the room smelled much like fresh homemade bread. The bathroom was beckoning to Kagome.
She thought a nice long bath would cure her sneezes, though she got the distinct feeling she wouldn't be sneezing if she hadn't fallen asleep in a snow bank like an idiot. Slipping her shoes off at the door, she took off the soaked coat and hung it up on a hanger and placed it in the coat closet in the entry way.
"Would you like some chili, Kagome?" Sammy asked as she wiped her hands on her apron. She beamed at Kagome for a moment before a dinging sound rang through the room and she had to turn her attention to the stove.
She took out a pan of fresh buns, perfectly browned, and began taking them off the tray and setting them in a basket. "My boyfriend is coming over in just a little while; I want you to meet him."
Kagome sneezed again and was barely in time to catch the sneeze in her hands. "Okay." She mumbled and another violent sneeze wracked her throat. "A few of my friends may be here in a little while too. There may be up to three of them." She trudged towards her suitcase, opening it to get out a towel, her bag of bathroom items, and her pajamas.
"I'll let them in." Sammy assured her, watching her for a moment. "You're taking a shower, I'm guessing?"
Kagome could only nod as another violent sneeze took her over though it didn't really look like she was nodding. She trudged on towards the bathroom, her legs frozen from so much snow and cold. The water felt like it was burning her frozen body and for a while she wasn't even sure if she wanted to get in or else be boiled to death.
She heard some commotion out in the living room but rather than paying too much attention to it, she just let the water lull her to sleep. When her body slipped under the water she didn't panic awake but she did wake up. Her eyes shot open and she formed gills on her neck so she wouldn't drown.
Some fish she knew had to constantly keep swimming, but thankfully she wasn't one of those fish. Technically she wasn't a fish at all; she was a shape shifter and that was very different.
Slowly she drifted to sleep again and her eyes closed.
"Catch me papa!" Kagome giggled from atop the monkey bars. She swung her arms out wide and waited for her father to look back at her. He'd been watching Kali at the time, but slowly he turned to give Kagome his full attention.
"Papa!" She launched herself from the top of the monkey bars, a high pitched giggle of excitement escaping her mouth.
"Whoa!" Naraku swung around and caught her at just the last moment and together they began laughing. "You're getting good at that, Kagome!" He told her. "Soon you won't need me to catch you. You'll land on your own two feet!" He planted a kiss on her forehead and she struggled to get away from him. She was still laughing.
"Lemme go, papa! I want to do it again!" He set her down and she began climbing the monkey bars just as she'd done before. She swung herself up to the top of them and looked down at her father who smiled up at her. "Ready papa?" she asked him.
"I'm ready!" He told her. Kali came and stepped up beside him, staring silently up at Kagome. "Jump! I'll catch you!" Naraku promised. Kagome jumped and Kali's face hardened with rage. Naraku began to raise his arms to catch Kagome, but Kali shoved Naraku aside.
"There's no one to catch you!" Kali hissed. "No one to catch you! Die, demon!"
Kagome watched the ground come closer and felt like everything was going slower than Real Time. Then she remembered she wasn't a little five year old any more. She was twenty-one years old. She was capable of taking care of herself.
Kagome sat up in the bath coughing up blood. Each time the blood spurted from her mouth, it hit the bath water with a plop and began spreading through the water like vines. Her mother was not like that. She knew her mother would never put her in harm no matter what she was; no matter if she was a half-demon like her father was.
She found she couldn't breath. It was because she had gills instead of lungs. Quickly she shaped her body back to the way it was supposed to be and stared at the blood dissipating through the water. She thought that the transformation was over two and a half years ago.
Determined to forget about the whole thing, she pulled the plug in the drain and stood from the bath. She hadn't really washed up but at least she was warmer and most of the sweat was off.
After using her towel to dry off, she dressed and ran her brush through her hair she felt lazy so she didn't bother to braid it. Aside from feeling lazy she felt frightened of the dream but that was something she wouldn't admit to anyone even herself.
She heard Kagura's voice out in the living room yelling at someone else; she guessed probably Yusuke because he had a tendency to annoy and get on Kagura's last nerves.
Kagura never really accepted Yusuke, though Kagome couldn't figure out why. Yusuke was just as persistent as she was, if not more on some things. In a way, Yusuke was nearly a male copy of a certain wind sorceress, except the fact that he was gay.
That brought to mind the day Kagome and Yusuke had arrived in Sunset though. First they had nearly had sexual intercourse with one another and second Yusuke had proven he hadn't just been playing around earlier when he'd kissed her. Kagome had chosen to ignore him for the time being, but he wasn't easily forgotten.
He was far too good at what he did and she wasn't sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing. He made her think she had feelings for him while it was going on, but then afterwards she regretted it because she knew she didn't care for him that way.
It had never been that way with Kohaku. Kohaku didn't press her to do something. That wasn't to say that Yusuke was forcing himself on her, but perhaps that he didn't realize just how good he was at doing what he did.
Kagome forced those odd thoughts out of her head. She was back with Kohaku anyway, and she knew that Yusuke at least had the dignity not to interfere. She wrapped her things up in her towel and exited the bathroom. Upon opening the door, Kagura's voice was amplified and she could hear exactly what she was saying.
"—not to be ordered around like some common house pet!"
"Fay, calm down." Hiei was saying repeatedly. Kagome made her way towards the voices and what she saw was the back of a silver haired head and her three friends facing her direction.
Yusuke and Hiei had noticed her, but Kagura was staring so fiercely at the silver haired person that if looks could kill the person would have been dead ten times over. Yusuke had a vice like grip on Kagura's arm and wasn't letting go even though Kagura was digging into his hand with her claws trying to peel him away.
"Let me go, Yusuke." She demanded angrily.
Kagome walked forward with her arms full with the wet towel and dirty clothes. "What's going on here?" she asked as she looked at the island counter. Sammy didn't appear to be very upset about the shouting. She just continued to set the counter with silverware.
"They're fighting." Sammy informed her.
Kagome chuckled. "Thank you Captain Obvious." She eyed the back of the silver haired person's head and a thought came to her mind. It made her curious. "Nokugami?" she questioned. She thought it was Inuyasha, but apparently she was wrong.
Yusuke grabbed a pair of socks from Kagome's suitcase and had jammed it into Kagura's mouth; Kagura was busy making hacking sounds and wiping her tongue on her hand trying to get sock fuzz from her mouth; Hiei was staring at Yusuke like he'd like nothing more than to pound the brown eyed twenty four year old but was holding back.
Sesshoumaru turned around, a quirk to his eyebrow as he looked at Kagome giving her a once-over. Then he cracked a large grin and nodded to her. "Higurashi; interesting pajamas." He told her. Perhaps it was the voice he used when he said it, but there was definitely something that set her on edge.
"Blow me." Kagome growled. She did not like the side of Sesshoumaru that she was seeing, or perhaps she liked it and didn't realize it yet, but either way it was irritating her that he kept changing on her. Three years ago the Sesshoumaru she had known would probably have chosen to keep his mouth shut and not say a single thing.
So what if she was wearing white pajamas that had little monkeys all over it with the words Sock Monkey above each little guy? They were her favorite pajamas and she wasn't getting rid of them. Kagura had given them to her for Christmas and she loved he silk feel against her skin.
Sesshoumaru walked by her, stopping only briefly to whisper in her ear low so no one else could hear. "Gladly." It was all he said to her, but it set her face to flames.
"Come eat." Sammy told Kagome and her friends. Kagome was suddenly no longer hungry. She shoved her things into her suitcase and zipped it up, picking it up and beginning to drag it up to the loft. "Kagome?" Sammy called, but Kagome was too embarrassed to answer.
Perhaps she had created a monster when she hired Medallion to give the Nokugami boys more confidence in who they were because for her the Sesshoumaru who had just spoken in her ear was no good thing.
"What did you say to her?" Hiei asked Sesshoumaru, but he wouldn't answer. His face was straight and he was unresponsive. Hiei, Kagura, and Yusuke sat down to eat. All three knew that if Kagome were hungry she would join them. Sammy didn't know, but she wasn't about to climb into the loft. Her fear of heights held her back.
Kagura was still seething, but the sock-in-the-mouth trick that Yusuke had pulled on her made her angrier at Yusuke than she'd been at Sesshoumaru for telling her what to do the month before. "You jerk." She snapped at him. As soon as they got out to the car and she had her fan, she was going to teach him quite the lesson in pain.
Kagome couldn't believe of all her bad luck, she had to choose an apartment that housed the girlfriend of the Ice Prince. Perhaps it wasn't too late to go back and live with her mother?
As it was, she knew she would have a very difficult time finding an apartment in the city. She'd checked all the available apartments and they were all in such a state of disrepair it was a surprise they weren't demolished to make way for new apartments.
She sighed and opened her suitcase, reaching in to pull out her photo frame of her and Kohaku. She ran her fingers over Kohaku's face and felt a smile tug her cheeks. He was a special man.
"I can't stay long." She heard Sesshoumaru tell Sammy. "I left a few books that I need at the college and I have to work early tonight—"
She tuned him out. She didn't want to hear him. He confused her. A month ago he had acted so cold like he didn't still crush on her, and now he was acting like he still liked her.
The real question of the matter, though, was why did she get so irritated at the sight of him? She should have expected this, as life had a cute little way of shitting on her all the time. This wasn't any different. She had overreacted and she knew it.
August, 2997
"Rainy! Hello? Anyone in there?" Yuri giggled, waving a hand in front of her only friend's face. "Come on, Rainy. Smile! You look absolutely dead!"
Raine glared playfully at Yuri. "That's because I am dead!" she joked. She looked at herself in the mirrored wall of the practice room where the students of the Serenity Ballet Academy were waiting and frowned even deeper. "Actually, I'm just rather tired. I am not sure why, but I just have this bad feeling."
"Stage fright." Yuri answered instantly. "You should be used to it. No one will see your face up on stage, you know." Yuri pulled herself up onto the points of her ballet shoes and twirled around her friend, her blue tutu spinning in circles around her body.
Yuri was the ballerina in the production, which was the star female of a ballet. Raine was a danseuse, which was just a regular dancer.
"Oh, I know I should be used to it." Raine sighed. "It's just that I've got this feeling that something is going to happen and it's going to be really bad. Like, what if I fall right off the stage?"
She pulled lightly on her black bun and a small clump of hair fell out of it into freedom. "Erg!" Frustrated, she tried to fix it but it only got worse.
Yuri stopped twirling in circles and walked over to help Raine fix her bun. As usual, Yuri's silver hair was in a perfect bun with nothing to say she was only a thirteen year old. She could have passed for someone much older if she tried, Raine was sure.
It was because Yuri gave off the air of maturity. The two green lines on her cheeks traced her cheek bone delicately and the dark blue crescent-shaped marking on her forehead stood out regally against her pale skin. Her bright, honey colored eyes were filled with secrets that would never be told.
"There you go." Yuri hugged Raine. "It's stage fright. Its okay; we'll do just fine. I promise you we'll knock the socks off the crowd!"
"You're so confident. I wish I had your confidence."
Raine woke with a start when a hand shook on her shoulder. Instantly the dream was demolished from her mind and she couldn't remember it. "Okuna! Hey, Okuna, wake up!" She looked around for a moment to gather her bearings and found she was sitting at a table in the library.
Her work was spread all around her and apparently she'd been working on it when she fell asleep, or at least that was the indication she got when she saw that she had ink blots all over her hand. She looked up at the person who had woken her up and found it to be Sesshoumaru Nokugami.
"Sorry, did you need the spot?" she muttered, yawning.
"No. The janitor wants to lock the school up." Sesshoumaru looked at Raine with small concern on his face. "Are you okay?" he asked her.
"Yeah, sure. Sure." She told him though not even she could believe her words. As she stood she began gathering up her things, carefully piling it into her backpack. "Time passes so...fast."
Her words were interrupted with another yawn and she tripped on the chair, falling right into Sesshoumaru. He steadied her, grabbing her by the shoulders and making sure she had proper footing before releasing her. "Don't...don't touch me you flirt." She grumbled.
"Are you sure you're alright?" Sesshoumaru asked her once more. "You look really hot." It wasn't until he'd said it that he'd realized how bad that sounded. Her eyebrows rose into her hairline and he tried to fix his mistake. "I meant to say that you look really warm, as in your temperature is making you look like you just ran a mile."
"I've...been working some long hours." She finished lamely. She looked at the floor for a moment before looking at Sesshoumaru again. There were some things she wanted to tell someone but she knew she couldn't tell Relic.
Relic was a Seed for the SPD, and if some of the things she'd been doing were to get back to the police, she would seriously be screwed up the high end. "Can I ask you something?" She also couldn't tell Rin because Rin wasn't interested in hearing about the technology.
"You just did, but sure you can ask me another something." He grinned at her and then looked at his watch. "Mind if we head towards the exit while you ask?"
Raine pulled her backpack on and shook her head. She and Sesshoumaru began walking then, and she posed her question in the way she felt he might best understand.
"Have you ever heard of Cybernetic Evolution?" When he gave a slight shake of his head, she continued. "It's basically what is called when something such as an android gets A.R.T. By that, I'm talking about Artificial Resourcefulness in Tangibility."
He ran a hand through his long hair and sighed. "I'm going to be a doctor, not some computer genius." He informed her and she waved his complaint off.
"Why not just call it art? Wouldn't it just be easier if you did rather than spelling out the letters? By the time you've spelled out the letters it would have been quicker just to say what you were trying to say."
"No, because then it might have been confused with the meaning of the word art." Another giant yawn captured her in its grasp and even though they were walking the cold school temperature did nothing to wake her.
She stopped at a stairwell and he stopped with her, giving her a curious look. "A.R.T. is something scientists have been working on for over a decade now and they have been unable to create it."
"Does this have a point?" Again his hand went through his hair and Raine noticed that when he was getting agitated he tended to sigh and run his fingers through his hair much like when Relic was bored or frustrated. "Because I do have to work tonight."
"Oh keep your pants on, Nokugami. We're both people of the same profession, so I can understand you want to rush off to the hospital. I, too, have to work tonight." The fact that Raine had also gone through college to be a doctor as well as a mechanic-slash-computer scientist wasn't exactly common knowledge, but it was how she knew the human body so well; for Rin's sake she had to know the medical terminology and how the human body worked.
If Rin needed an operation to replace any parts, not just anyone would be able to do it. It took special knowledge to know what you could do without causing Rin's death and Raine wasn't going to take any chances if a part broke down.
"Okuna, will you just—"
Raine interrupted Sesshoumaru by placing her finger to his lips and pointing to the door directly across from the stairs they stood by. It was the exit that he found himself facing when he looked. "My point, Nokugami, is that I have created A.R.T. and I just felt like telling someone. It is a marvelous thing of beauty."
Sesshoumaru was left wondering as she left him at the base of the stairs to exit the college and enter the world of night why in the world he attracted all the weird women. I'm like a magnet, he thought as he left and headed for his car. His eyes searched around for her and he saw her waiting at the transit bus stop.
For a moment he thought about offering her a ride home and then he shook himself. He didn't owe her anything, he had no obligation towards her, and he was late for work because of her. How she got home wasn't his concern, and if it took her well over an hour's worth of riding a bus to get home that was her problem not his.
He got into his car and started the vehicle, driving home. When he got home, he quickly got ready for work and set off on his walk to the hospital. So much for getting to work early.
The bitter thought drained all emotion from his face and he knew that he would be unable to visit his father that night. It didn't bother him that he wouldn't be able to visit his father but some underlying tone in his mind made him guess that something bad was going to happen.
The worst thing he could think of happening would be his father getting out of the hospital and coming home.
"Please no! Kaede run! Get out of here, don't just stand there!" Kikyou yelled, but Kaede did not run in the dream. She stood rooted to the spot while the man in the black trench coat came closer with the gun.
He shot; pulled back the trigger and the hammer sent the bullet flying with the help of the primer. The casing flew away from the gun just as Kaede dropped to the ground, blood spilling from the bullet wound dug deep in her forehead.
Her body dropped directly next to her mother and father's body. Her Grandmother Gytha's body wasn't too far away from that.
The man in the trench coat laughed and the sound of it sent shivers through Kikyou's petrified body. He aimed for Kikyou and shot the bullet; the hammer pierced the primer and sent the bullet soaring through the air towards Kikyou. She was too afraid to move out of the path of the dangerous killing device and the force of the bullet sent her tumbling back into the wall behind her.
He's toying with me! The ridiculous thought came just as the bullet entered her shoulder, grinding through muscle and bone to come out the other side and smash into the wall. This wasn't how it had happened! This is a dream! This is my world; I control my dreams!
The man in the black trench coat hadn't only used four bullets to kill four people. The gun only had seven bullets to a magazine clip; two were used to kill her father, one killed her mother, and three were wasted on the walls trying to kill the frantic daughters of Guy and Floe Motshuria.
The final bullet had penetrated Kikyou's shoulder because she had been trying to protect Kaede from the bullet that would have killed the younger sister.
Grandmother Gytha had not been there. Grandmother Gytha was not dead. Kaede was not dead. Kikyou had saved Kaede, and the two girls had run as fast as they could to get away from their parents' killer.
The only reason they did get away was because their father had not been quite dead after the first bullet and had grabbed the man's leg, stopping him from proceeding further until the shot that ended his life pierced his skull through his eyeball socket.
Her hand went to keep the blood from rushing out of her body but she couldn't help but wonder if this would be the time she lost. Would the man in the trench coat get her this time? What did he look like behind that ski mask? What color eyes were hidden behind those large black ski goggles?
There were two more bullets left and if she didn't get moving she would be as dead as the rest of her family. Strangely enough, though, she found she really didn't care. She was tortured every night by the man in the trench coat; why not end her suffering finally?
The trigger was pulled. The hammer went back. The trigger tripped the latch. The hammer swung in and hit the primer. The primer exploded and released the bullet from the casing.
Kikyou screamed at the top of her lungs as the second bullet drove into her shoulder, same place, through her hand. "MOMMY!"
"Kikyou! Kikyou, wake up!" Kaede shook her sister until she woke up and then slapped her when the shaking proved fruitless. "Wake up! Wake up now!" Kikyou stared at Kaede as though the younger girl was a foreign being and she couldn't understand a word she was saying.
To say that Kaede was unhappy would be the understatement of the century. Kaede had always disliked Kikyou and being woken up in the middle of the night by a person who she didn't like only served to drive her temper further up than it already was by nature.
She marched down the hall, her feet light on the floor from habit, making no noise. Grandmother Gytha had always disapproved of excessive noise and clutter. Kaede and Kikyou had learned that very quickly upon coming to live with the elderly woman in Sunset.
Her intention was to tell Grandmother Gytha about Kikyou screaming at night again and getting Kikyou into trouble. When she neared her Grandmother's bedroom, her fists were clenching and unclenching.
She couldn't help but feel good about how funny it would be to tell all her friends at school that Kikyou was acting like a baby again, screaming at night all because of a dream.
She stopped dead in her tracks when she heard voices. She was grateful she was never allowed to storm about the house or she might have missed the quiet sounds. Instinct told her to stay away, but she was curious.
Her Grandmother was a widow and that second voice was clearly male. What was a male doing in her Grandmother's bed chambers at two in the morning?
She noticed that the door was slightly ajar and the light coming from inside wove its way out into the hall to toy with the wall opposite it. As carefully as she could she positioned herself so she could peek into the room and she couldn't understand what she saw but she knew enough to be scared of it. The scene was lain out like a cut directly from a horror movie.
Her Grandmother was walking around a man who was tied to a chair with a gun in her hand and a vicious look on her face. Kaede couldn't recognize the man but surrounding him were at least six or seven men with guns in shoulder holsters.
Police badges adorned the waists of several of the men that Kaede could see and she recalled that her Grandmother Gytha was a police woman before she became Mayor of Sunset.
There were tear streams sliding down the captive man's face and Kaede felt very much like running away. She knew the scene was not something she was supposed to see and everyone expected her to be asleep but when you share a room with a girl who screams in the night because of nightmares, sleep was often hard to come by.
"Who did you speak to?" Gytha said angrily. Kaede couldn't recall a time when Gytha had ever gotten so mad that a vein stuck precariously out of her neck.
Curiosity kept her rooted to the spot as the man stuttered an answer. "I swear I didn't speak to anyone!" the man choked out. "Please don't kill me; I have a wife and family!" He was shaking badly in his seat and looked like he might have wet his pants. The fear in his voice only served to make Kaede more apprehensive.
"You spoke to someone in the Decoloratio Venalicium!" Gytha yelled at him, her voice raising yet another octave as she brought the butt of the pistol down on the man's face. The force would have knocked him right off the chair had he not been tied to it. "Admit it! You were speaking to a woman named Kitty!"
Kaede jumped when the man was hit, but years of habit kept her from making a sound as she watched the horror film unfold before her. The vague thought surfaced in her mind of who or what the Decoloratio Venalicium was and who in their right mind would name their child 'Kitty' but she had to drag herself away from examining that thought so she could continue watching what was happening.
"I swear I didn't speak to anyone!" The man repeated getting louder by the minute, but apparently that was the wrong answer. Gytha had stopped in front of the man and now her arm came up, dragging the gun up with it.
The barrel was aimed right at the man's forehead and even from the distance Kaede was at, she could see Gytha's finger pulling on the trigger. "Please!" the man cried, "Please believe me! I didn't talk to"—the trigger was pulled and Kaede had to clap her hands to her mouth to keep from screaming out in terror.
The cold look on Gytha's face made Kaede realize she didn't really know her Grandmother as well as she had once thought. She knew she had to get away. Curiosity had just made her see something that she never should have seen.
Her foot slipped on the carpeted flooring of the hall and she knocked into the ajar door, making it slam open. Several of the people in the room jumped, not having expected that, and she quickly got up and raced away from the door as fast as she could.
Kaede now understood why Kikyou had nightmares over their parents' deaths. She felt bad about the hell she had put Kikyou through all that time. "Get her and bring her to me!" Gytha's voice trailed after her.
Kaede was very grateful for all the running she had to do from Public School bullies these days. Since Kagome Higurashi had left, bullies had begun to appear more and more in the Private School District and Kaede was one of the favorites lately. It was probably because she was the Mayor's granddaughter but she didn't want to be related to the Mayor anymore.
The fatter of the 'henchmen' that were chasing her ran out of steam rather quickly, but there were two that were thin and lethal to her because they could keep up with her. She chanced a look behind her and saw that they were nearly caught up to her. They didn't shoot at her most likely because bullet holes in the wall would be questionable but they were police so why would they care if they shot at her? Or at least that was what their badges suggested anyway.
She felt panic take her over and knew that if she didn't hurry she would be as dead as the man who was tied to the chair in Grandmother's bedchambers. It was obvious why it had occurred in the bedroom versus taking place in the Mayor's office. There were security cameras all over the house. The only room there weren't security cameras was in Gytha's bedroom.
As she ran, she felt a ball of panic filing her insides and it curled and uncurled. She felt her skin burning in pure agony and the feeling shocked her badly. She tripped and the momentum of her previous speed sent her sailing into the wall.
When she braced herself for an impact that would probably break several of her ribs, she found herself transparent and could see right through her hand as though it weren't there. She never hit the wall; she went right through it and crashed instead into the standing lamp that was on the other side of the wall.
She had no time to think about what had just occurred and instead passed it off as a miracle by her faith in God that had given her more chance to escape safely. She scrambled to her feet to continue running and found that she was no longer transparent.
Again she threw thoughts away and dashed out of the room and down the hall. The men, unless God decided to hand her over to the Devil, would be unable to ghost through the wall and would have to go all the way around. If she guessed right, that would give her three extra minutes even if they were running.
She had to get Kikyou. She'd been far to cruel to Kikyou for the past nine years since their parents' murder and now she had a chance to try to rectify herself to her sister. Kikyou had saved her life nine years ago, taking a bullet for her; Kaede couldn't just leave Kikyou to someone as horrible as Gytha, who obviously had no qualms with killing a man in cold blood.
She threw open their bedroom door and Kikyou shot up in bed. "Get up, Kikyou! Get up now!" As usual when something bad was going on, she found herself thinking inappropriate thoughts like how her favorite actor's voice would have sounded saying that, but she had less than two minutes to get Kikyou to start running. "Come on, we have to go!"
"Why?" Kikyou began to slowly pull on her slippers but Kaede wasn't going to wait any longer. It was obvious Kikyou was unaware of the rush they were in. Any second, those men would come into hearing distance and would know where they were. They probably already knew because of walky-talkies and communication channels on them, as well as the security camera that was staring down at Kaede and Kikyou as they spoke.
"Just get your ass up and move!" She was in too much of a hurry to care if she swore or not She rushed to the window and threw it open. They were on the second floor, but that wasn't at all a problem for Kaede. Kikyou was afraid of heights though. "NOW!" she yelled and Kikyou gave her a confused look.
"I'm not climbing down that to go to one of your stupid parties and be humiliated again!" Kikyou said firmly. "Just go back to bed!"
Kaede wasn't sure if she would ever get back to sleep after what she had witnessed. She grabbed Kikyou's arm and drug on it. "Listen to me!" she hissed. "I'm trying to save you like you did for me! Get out that window!"
"Oh how precious. Then I suppose it's too bad you're both about to die." A voice said from the doorway. The girls' heads spun about and they could see the shape of a man in the doorway. The nightlight in the room did nothing to illuminate his face, but it did reflect off the gun in his hand.
When he fired, he shot first at Kaede but Kikyou shoved the younger girl out of the way, just as she had done so many years before when the man in the trench coat had shot at Kaede. Kaede felt bad. She was trying to save Kikyou, but Kikyou ended up saving her again.
The bullet hit the wood wall and a sliver of it broke off. Kaede felt something pierce her left eye and blood began to drain down her face like tears. She fell backwards out the window and just barely managed to catch onto the drain pipe about half way down. Her arm popped out of the socket, but she refused to let the pipe go no matter what.
She heard a scream, but it wasn't the scream of Kikyou. It was clearly male and Kaede saw out of her one good eye that Kikyou was clambering out of the window even though her fear of heights was probably capturing her.
Despite the pain she felt at the moment, Kaede began to climb down the drain pipe and fell to her knees at the bottom of it. She was losing a lot of blood and that was no good thing. She could only see out of one eye which made her peripheral vision one sided.
Kikyou helped her to her feet. "Come on! We have to go!"
They ran barefooted through the snow, Kikyou supporting much of Kaede's weight, trying to find some place where they could find refuge away from Gytha and the dangerous men. Kaede didn't know that Kikyou had just drove a letter opener into the man's stomach and if she had a choice to know or not, she would prefer not to know.
They were running for nearly a mile when they came upon a small bridge that crossed the Mill River. Kikyou knew that if they continued for two more miles they would make it to Rin's house, but she didn't want to risk Kaede losing any more blood. "Come on, let's get under the bridge and I can see to your eye."
The healing power that Kikyou possessed wasn't often used, but Kikyou had learned about it nine years before when she was bleeding everywhere because of the wound to her shoulder made by a bullet. The sliver of wood was large and jutted out of Kaede's eye.
It was easily pulled out, but Kaede nearly passed out because of the pain it caused her. As Kikyou's power of healing cooled and scarred the damage, Kikyou knew that she would be unable to make it so that Kaede would see through that eye ever again. She could only do so much with her meager power.
They vaguely recognized the irony of the entire situation. It had been just as snowy out when their parents were killed, and they had been running in just their pajamas then too. The only difference was that this time it was Kaede who had been hurt.
"My shoulder... I think it's dislocated." Kaede gasped when Kikyou automatically moved to pull it back into place. It hurt slightly less when it was put back into place, but Kaede couldn't go on anymore. She'd lost too much blood. They were leaving a trail of blood behind them because of it.
Kikyou knew they couldn't stay where they were. She shouldered her sister piggyback and began walking for Rin's house. She was grateful for Rin being so close but she did hope that Rin wouldn't call her Grandmother.
Whatever Kaede had seen had to have been bad. "I'm trying to save you like you did for me! Get out that window!"
The cold weather on her bare feet and the hard gravel road wore Kikyou's feet raw on the walk to Rin's house, but at least they weren't leaving a trail of blood anymore considering all the blood instead was going onto Kikyou rather than the ground and snow. She had to walk in the road where it was semi-plowed or else risk leaving foot prints to alert to where she and Kaede had gone.
It took a surprisingly short amount of time for Kikyou to make the walk but by the time she was at Rin's house, she felt half frozen and the wind chill kept dropping by the minute.
By the time she was knocking on the door, the snow had begun to fall and the wind gusts were strong enough to bury any foot prints they had left in minutes. It was well after midnight she was sure, but this was an emergency. She hoped someone, anyone, was home.
The door opened, revealing Rin standing in the way, looking rather tired. Her eyes were instantly opened the moment she saw Kikyou's state of duress and she opened the door wide. "Come in." She said calmly, not at all affected by the blood frozen to Kikyou and Kaede.
"We're in some serious trouble, Rin. We'll go away if you want." Kikyou blurted out.
"Raine?" Rin called down the stairs that had been hidden behind a door. It was obviously the way to the basement. "Please, sit down. You do not look fit to be standing all the while it will take Raine to get up here." Rin's twin was already heading up the stairs as Kikyou pulled Kaede off her back, feeling the bloody ice that had glued their clothes together begin to chip.
Raine didn't seem very affected by the blood either as she looked at Kikyou and Kaede, but she seemed to understand Kikyou's situation a bit. "Where are your parents?" Kikyou asked nervously. She didn't feel like she could trust adults at the moment and she hoped against all hopes that they weren't there.
"They went on vacation in West City." Raine said. "They're not here. It's just Rin and me for the time being. What happened to you?"
"I'm not really sure, but I think Kaede saw something that she really wasn't supposed to and now there are some dangerous men after us. We'll go away if you want."
"Oh shut up." Raine said irritably. "You're in no fit state to be traveling. Rin, can you pick up the girl and take her downstairs?" When Rin nodded and moved to pick up Kaede, Raine looked directly at Kikyou. "You're welcome here in this house, so long as you can keep your mouth shut. Come down into the basement."
Kikyou followed Raine down into the basement and found herself in a sewing room. Rin was setting Kaede on a dentist-like chair in another room and Raine beckoned her to follow. What she saw, she somehow found both amazing and curious and at the same time she felt like she should have known that Rin's room would look like a metal jungle. Rin was a Cyborg, after all.
"You will have to hold her down, Kikyou." Rin told her, indicating Kaede sitting on the metal dentist chair. The chair was moving horizontal and reclining back.
"Why?" The night was becoming a blur. Things were happening to fast for comfort and she wasn't sure if she liked that fact but she moved closer to Kaede and placed her hands firmly upon her sister's shoulders.
Raine was inserting a needle into Kaede's arm right into the vein. The tube connected to the needle was filled with a dark colored liquid, though Kikyou could no longer register her thoughts properly and it was hard to imagine what that dark red liquid could possibly be. She couldn't even understand why Raine was inserting the needle into Kaede. Kaede was just fine!
She felt herself falling inside her mind. Once more she was returning to her happy place. Nine years ago she had created a place inside her mind that she could escape to when she was too frightened, and now that was where she was going. She had lived through the scary part, and now time was catching up with her.
"Mommy..." she cried, releasing Kaede and falling to her knees. "Mommy, it's happening again." She felt like a little child. She wanted to be held in her mother's arms and told that everything would be okay when she woke up again. She didn't want to live the horror that seemed to be her life. Did bad fate have a hand on her? Or was God just being cruel?
Kanna hugged her backpack close to her body and shivered out in the cold. It was snowing in Raspuit and school had gotten out early because of that. Her foster mother was supposed to be coming to get her, but Kanna was becoming dubious rather quickly.
She'd been standing in the freezing winter air by herself for over two hours and she was quickly feeling the effects of drowsiness biting at her heels. She wanted to sit down but was afraid that if she did she'd be lost in the snow.
She wondered in the deepest recesses of her mind what in the world she'd been thinking when she'd told her foster mother she didn't need her snow pants that day. She should have listened to her foster father when he protested her wearing her favorite white dress to school.
"You'll be cold and very sorry," he'd told the fifteen year old girl. She was more miserable for not listening.
She couldn't help but wonder if she was being punished by the late appearance of her foster mother, however ridiculous that seemed at first. When she thought about that again though, she realized it wasn't possible. Her foster mother was incapable of any harmful thoughts.
That too seemed a first-rate subject to being ripped to shreds by debaters. No human, or demon for that matter, was completely capable of admitting honestly to never having negative thoughts.
Kanna knew she had bad thoughts. She wasn't going to lie about herself even if she would lie about her mother having bad thoughts. "I'm cold." Kanna whispered to the falling snow.
The white dress shoes she wore had hollows so her feet were pretty completely bare, the hem of her dress only went down as far as past her knees and she'd been standing stock still for those two hours so her feet were surrounded in a foot of snow. Her white coat matched the color of the snow and her pure white long hair blew in the wind.
Her bare legs were the coldest on her body though. Not even her hands which were turning blue beat the cold of two feet surrounded in a foot of snow. She sneezed suddenly and her throat constricted tightly.
"Great; I've caught a cold." She said with false cheer. She decided she wasn't going to wait any more. It wasn't too far of a walk to her home and the parlor was just on the way so she would easily be able to stop there for a few moments and warm up.
As she slogged through thickening depths of snow on the sidewalk, she saw there were quite a few accidents around the streets. The snow had caused slick roads and there was a four car pile-up two blocks from the parlor.
There was a car that had slid on the road to crash into a light post totaling the car. The final accident she saw before she made it to the parlor was a car that seemed to have slipped on an icy patch and ran in through the wall of the unfortunate building.
Hoping no one was hurt but having serious doubts that everyone escaped unscathed; she sneezed and entered the hair parlor. The door made a tinkling noise as the bell hooked to the top of it felt the vibration and acted upon it. "No no!" she heard a crotchety old woman say irritably. "Not there! Must an old woman do everything herself?"
"Sorry." The young lady mumbled apologetically and stepped aside as Miss Nina -the owner of the parlor- took the small painting and hung it on a hook on the wall opposite where the young lady was going to put it.
"Now, hurry along!" Miss Nina told the young lady who scurried off to do whatever was expected of her. Miss Nina turned to Kanna and when she saw that it was she who came in, a bright smile crossed her face. "Kanna! I have not seen you in a while. I take it you decided to grow your hair out these days, hmm?"
Kanna nodded silently and a sneeze racked her petite form; Miss Nina took note of her state of dress, or rather undress. "Kanna, you silly thing! You're wearing a dress on a day like today? Come here, dear girl! Let us get you something warmer! And some hot chocolate will cure those sniffles, I'm sure!"
As Kanna walked over by Miss Nina, the elderly woman called out to the young lady from before to mind the parlor though the young fifteen year old had the strangest suspicion that no one would want a hair cut that day.
Miss Nina led Kanna into the back room; Kanna had been back there many times. It was basically Miss Nina's living quarters. There was a stove, a sink, a small table, a bed, and a dresser. Two chairs sat pushed in by the table.
The restroom was in a second room off the back room and it was incredibly small housing only a standing shower. Miss Nina had to use the restroom for the shop if she wanted to go to the bathroom.
"Sit down, Kanna." Kanna sat down, shivering, and deposited her bag on the floor under the table so it was out of the way. Despite the fact that she was still wearing her shoes and coat, Miss Nina obviously didn't mind or else didn't think the frozen girl would be able to remove the shoes without losing her icy feet as well, Miss Nina draped a warm blanket around the girl's shoulders and she sneezed.
"Thank you, Miss Nina. My mom didn't come to get me at school." In three years, Kanna had gone from being a boisterous chatter box to something much like a quiet reserved person.
She supposed three years of being called "Whitey" had done that to her, but instead of calling her whitey at school, the students had recently taken to calling her "Void" instead because she often gave the students who bothered her a blank stare until they were unnerved and stopped.
"You don't need to thank me!" Miss Nina said without a moment's hesitation. "Let me warm up some hot cocoa; unless of course you want something stronger?" Miss Nina asked after a moment. "I would think fifteen is old enough for tea or coffee, so long as you don't get addicted to the stuff..."
"You're too late." Kanna giggled, but the giggle turned into several sneezes. She pulled the blanket tighter. "Mother has me addicted to honey herb tea."
Miss Nina sighed. "I don't have any of that, my child." She said softly, wistfully. It was also her favorite kind of tea, but she'd run out of it just the day before and hadn't had a chance to get to the store. With the way the storm was going, she doubted she'd get to the store within a few days. "I've orange tea, green tea, coffee, and hot cocoa though."
"Orange tea, I suppose." Kanna said, choosing the first option. While the water heated on the stove, Kanna and Miss Nina talked for a while and then when the whistle on the kettle blew, Miss Nina poured them both a cup of orange tea.
Silence filled the back room for a few moments while both sipped tenderly on the hot liquid. Kanna was very grateful for Miss Nina. The woman had no children of her own and had graciously allowed Kanna into her life. Kanna supposed she looked to Miss Nina almost like a grandmother or something of the sort.
It was not Kanna who broke the reverie, but Miss Nina. She placed a hand on Kanna's arm which was much warmer than it had been before and spoke looking directly into Kanna's pitch black eyes. "Please do not be alarmed, Kanna, but I have a serious matter to discuss with you. It is very fortunate that you are here right now."
"Miss Nina?" Kanna asked, confused at the serious tone Miss Nina's hearty voice had taken on. "What is it?" her black orbs met Miss Nina's brown eyes and Kanna saw how aged the human was. She didn't look much older than fifty five, but she was much older than that. The wisdom she held in her eyes.
Kanna realized she wanted to be like that. She wanted to be as wise as Miss Nina was, even if Miss Nina only put her wisdom to use in a parlor.
Miss Nina took a deep shuddering breath and spoke softly. "I've spoken with my lawyer, Kanna. I know I haven't much time left on this earth, so I..."
"What is it?" Kanna repeated, urging the older woman to continue.
"I made you my beneficiary. You will inherit everything upon my death, Kanna."
"Miss Nina, I couldn't possibly—" Kanna began, but Miss Nina would hear none of it. She cut the young girl off with a stare.
"Of course you can." She promised. "It's not much, but it's something! When I die, this place will be sold, and all my important things and the money from the sell will go to you."
Kanna didn't know what to say. She was speechless. She hadn't realized that Miss Nina thought so highly of her. Instead of speaking, she set down her teacup, let the blanket fall from her shoulders, and moved her cold creaking body towards where the elderly woman sat at the other side of the table, wrapping her arms around the woman's shoulders in a hug. Tears sparkled in her eyes and she cried. She didn't understand why, but she cried anyway.
After a few hours, she called her mother from Miss Nina's house and was allowed to stay the night considering the snow was far too thick for anyone to try to get her. Her mother apologized for forgetting her but Kanna insisted it was over and done with. Kanna slept next to her "grandmother" on the bed, but when she woke Miss Nina was gone. Her physical body was still there, but her spirit had gone to heaven.
The obituary in the newspaper would read, "Miss Oyo Nina, age one hundred three, owner of the Nina Beauty Parlor died of old age on January 31, 3008; on the very same day she was born..."
Miss Nina's death had a huge effect on her, even more than the effect of the death of her foster parents when they came to get her from the police station after giving her statement of the previous evening. A car crash on slippery roads... Irony floated into her veins and she felt like she had become the "Void" that the students called her.
Her foster parents left her everything too. The house was sold to pay off their debts, and Kanna wept. When the police asked her if she had any family he could call, she quietly murmured, "My sister, but I don't know how to get a hold of her right now."
As a tear dripped off her face, she remembered the number Kagome had given her for emergency calls. "I think I know someone who can find her though."
Her voice was monotone and it unnerved the policeman but she just kept rummaging through her backpack until she found what she was looking for. Her small coin purse held the number. She held it out to the man and he looked at it. "Whose number is this?" He questioned, wanting to know the name of the person he was going to call.
"It is my sister's friend and business partner, Kagome Higurashi." She said and coughed, covering her mouth so she wouldn't spread her germs too much.
The man thought about that name and tried to figure out why it was so familiar to him. Perhaps it would come to him as he was talking to the person? He picked up the phone and dialed the number, listening to it ring.
Kagome woke up with a crick in her neck that she couldn't get rid of. She supposed it was from sleeping on the floor at first, but when she looked around she noticed that her bedroom was made up already. Kagura had probably used her fan to show off and assembled everything that way. The wind was an amazing thing when used the right way. Kagome was up on the top of the loft.
She sneezed and her nose felt pained as though the blood was clogged in the veins somehow. Her throat tightened and yet she still pulled herself out of bed. She hadn't eaten the night before, and she was still mad at herself for falling asleep in the snow bank.
As she changed from her pajamas into a pair of loose fitting khakis and a button-up blouse white in color, she looked at herself. The grey khakis and the white top had a nice effect on her she decided.
She saw a note lying on her new desk and walked over to it, noting Kagura's neat hand writing. "Pleased to see you've finally joined the world of the living!" Kagura's note said with a smiling face at the end of the sentence. It then continued and Kagome's brow furrowed.
"I've taken liberty to helping myself to some of your spending cash. Yusuke and I are going shopping for you to get you some delicious clothes, and perhaps something for ourselves too for all the hard work we're doing these days."
It wasn't that Kagura was helping herself to Kagome's money that bothered her; she trusted Kagura would spend the money wisely and not throw it around like a lunatic and Kagura always told her when she took money and made a record of how much she took.
It was the fact that she wanted to go clothes shopping for herself and now she wouldn't be able to. She sighed and continued reading.
It was probably best that Kagura went instead. Kagura knew what size clothes she wore, as the two of them were exactly the same size (when Kagura wasn't on stilettos and both were barefoot) in girth. Both had the same bust size, both had the same broadness to their shoulders, both had the same petite waists. In fact, if Kagome didn't know better, she would say Kagura was her sister but that was impossible.
"Don't get yourself in a bundle, Kagome!" Kagura had written. "You need to go to your mother's house anyway. You've got to be fitted for that dress, if you'll chance to recall. Love, Kagura."
"Pleasant." Kagome drawled, not liking the prospects. Her mother's wedding was too close for comfort. She didn't really like dresses. She never had. She preferred to feel freedom of movement and some gaudy gown would never allow her long legs such freedom because of the way the material would wrap up in her legs.
Kagome looked around for a moment, observing her room. Kagura had placed the picture of Kohaku and Kagome on the wall above her bed so it would always be by her side. The rest of the pictures were on the wall anywhere else was possible. The bookshelf held no books yet, the desk was bare, the closets closed but Kagome already knew that her clothes were hung neatly inside (the clothes she did have).
As Kagome descended the stair, she strapped her phone to her side and her watch to her wrist. It was early morning, not even six yet. She'd always been an early riser. Sammy was not in the apartment with her but she shrugged that off.
She didn't mind really, because she didn't want to have to explain what had happened the night before. She didn't understand why she had gotten so upset.
So Sesshoumaru had told her he'd gladly do things with her. That didn't mean he meant what he'd said. She'd come across plenty of people like that who said they'd do one thing and really did an entirely different thing.
As she looked in the fridge, the prospect of actually cooking something made her stomach retch. It wasn't a pleasant prospect, considering she once had been a great cook but lately couldn't do anything without burning everything.
Instead of cooking, her intentions changed and she decided to go out and find something to eat at some restaurant somewhere. Otherwise she could always get her mother to cook her something.
She sneezed as she was putting on her coat and when she was putting her socks on to put her shoes on, Sammy came into the apartment. She looked like she was trying to be as quiet as possible so as not to wake any "sleeping occupants" but Kagome –the only other person there- was already awake.
Tear stains flowed down her face and she was wiping at them quickly. Her hair was thoroughly disheveled, her coat was rumpled and dirty, and her bare legs were dirty as well.
"Sammy, are you okay?" Kagome asked quietly and watched the other girl jump. Obviously she hadn't noticed Kagome. "What's wrong?"
Sammy swiped at a few more tears that trailed down her face and shook her head. "Oh it's nothing. Don't worry yourself, Kagome." She rushed by and Kagome grabbed her upper arm, stopping her in her steps. Kagome felt herself to be Sammy's friend, and she knew Sammy had tried to comfort her the night before.
"I'll well worry myself if I want to." She said, though it was in a kind voice. "What's going on?" When Sammy showed no signs of running again, she loosened her grip on the girl's arm and put her hands in her pockets. She wasn't going anywhere until she knew what the matter with Sammy was.
"I...I lost my temper at work." When Kagome gave her a small glare, she hastily explained, "I had two jobs; one at the family restaurant and the other at a café." Kagome's gaze lightened and she continued. "Well, I work nights, midnight to four – the shifts aren't very long at the café, and I was working overtime to try to get some more money until I got a new second job and you know how those truckers are."
Kagome held up a hand to stop Sammy momentarily. "You're babbling. Calm down and speak."
Sammy placed a hand fisted by her heart as though afraid her fast beating heart would burst from its confines if she didn't restrict it further. She took a few deep breaths before continuing and her voice took on a much more relaxed turn. "The truckers are awful as the night drags on and they like the short uniform a little too much, I think."
She unzipped her coat and showed Kagome her outfit. The gesture was purely to prove her point; Kagome knew a few people who might find that outfit overly decent and those people consisted of Hiei, Yusuke, Kohaku, and Miroku. "Okay, so what happened?"
"A big guy decided he thought I was a prostitute! The café is an innocent little coffee house during the day but from ten till dawn it's kind of a bar." Her voice had pretty close to calmed down but she was still angry, Kagome could tell. "He placed his hands on me, Kagome! All over me! When I told my supervisor what he did, the guy was asked to leave but he was waiting for me outside when I was on my way home!" A fresh pool of tears was plowing their way down her cheeks.
Kagome felt her anger rising and knew if she were a dog (and she could very well have been if she wanted to be) her hackles would have been up. She felt she knew where the story was going, though she didn't want to jump to conclusions. She hoped she was wrong; if she was right, no doubt Sesshoumaru would notice immediately.
Kagome's sense of smell was only as strong as a human's and she couldn't pick up those subtle hints of intimacy that a sensitive nosed demon would be able to. If she were to change her body around, she could do it but that might unnerve Sammy and she didn't want to do that.
"What happened then, Sammy?" She didn't ask more than she demanded to know, but Kagome just couldn't let the situation ride. She was a private investigator, a protector to those who needed it.
Sammy was silent for so long that Kagome feared the other girl would not answer. When the answer did come, it made a rumble in Kagome's throat grow bolder by the second. "The man... I never stood a chance. But then again, it's not the first time it happened so I guess—"
"Sammy, what did he look like?" Kagome growled. She'd been right. Sometimes she hated being right with a vengeance.
"What can you do about it? Just because you have plenty of money to throw around doesn't mean you can do anything more about it than can the poli—" Sammy's angry voice was cut off by Kagome's phone ringing.
"I am the police!" Kagome told her with a frown, though she softened her tone. Sammy was starting to cry again and Kagome took the elder girl into her arms and hugged her, feeling it was the best way to console her. Sammy cried into her shoulder. "I'm a private investigator, Sammy.
"The friends that I had over last night – though I know I'm a terrible host"—at this, a sound somewhere between a chuckle and a choked sob escaped Sammy's throat—"those people are my partners in the business I run. I protect people, Sammy. Granted, I've only been doing this for a few months, but I consider you my friend and I've always protected my friends, since I was young."
Her phone kept ringing insistently but she ignored it pointedly, figuring it to be Sango or Kohaku. It wouldn't be Kagura or Yusuke or Hiei because no doubt Kagura had all their phones on "off" mode so that Kagome couldn't yell at them for going clothes shopping for her. The phone stopped ringing for a moment, and then started up again. Obviously the person was trying to call again.
Sammy took a handkerchief from her pocket and blew her nose, still crying. Her tears were drying up slightly, but she still didn't seem to believe Kagome. Kagome pressed the issue further. "I even went so far as to beat up my cousin for her hurting one of my friends! I defended that same cousin when another guy tried to touch—no, did touch her inappropriately. Sammy, you can trust me. Please tell me—"
"Answer your phone, Kagome." She whispered with a sniffle. "I'll still be here. I just... I've already been down to the police station and they're not doing anything and I can't talk about it right now."
Kagome sighed. "Promise me—"
Sammy didn't even give her a chance to finish. "I promise, I'll tell you all about it later and you can do whatever you want with this information!" Sammy rushed off to her room and Kagome stood there for a second before answering the phone.
Kagome couldn't figure out why Sammy was so calm about the entire situation; anyone who was just raped should be at least a little freaked out and hysteric, but the girl before her only shed a few tears and calmly said not to worry about it.
She contemplated going after Sammy, but one look at the caller ID on her phone told her she didn't know who was calling. She was torn between wanting to go comfort her new friend and finding out what the person on the other line wanted.
She hated placing Sammy second, but the number was from Raspuit and she knew a few people from there (through Yusuke) who might also have been in trouble and wanted help. Sammy was safe in the apartment at least, but those people might not be. She flipped the cover open on the phone and answered it.
"This is Higurashi—"
She was cut off by the voice on the other line. "Miss Higurashi, this is Hamina Toshu from the child services"—Child services? Kagome thought, I don't have a child...—"department in the Raspuit Police Department. I'm in charge of placing children who have lost their parents and have no family in foster care. I've got a child named Kanna Irri—"
"Yuukaku." A second voice on the other side of the line said quietly. "My name is Yuukaku."
"Sorry..." the first voice mumbled and then continued on as though he'd never been interrupted. "Kanna Yuukaku down in the office. There's been an accident, and we can't find her sister."
A third voice on the other side of the phone Kagome had trouble making out, but she could just barely hear what they were saying. "Hey, Toshu. I ran some scans on Kagura Yuukaku. Might as well search for a new foster home. Yuukaku isn't going to be able to keep the kid even if she does come down. Take a look at this."
Kagome didn't know what they were looking at, and she wasn't going to pretend, but whatever it was sounded pretty condemning for Kagura and Kagome didn't want Kagura and Kanna to lose each other. She bit her lip for a moment as the other side of the line went silent.
Finally the man, Toshu, spoke again. "Sorry to bother you, Miss Higurashi. Have a nice—"
Oh no, Kagome thought angrily, they're not just going to hang up on me. Not when this is about Kanna. "What's happened to Kanna?" she asked into the phone, sure to place her tone carefully so as not to make the other person hang up out of anger at her arrogance. "May I talk to her?"
There was hesitation on the other end of the line for a moment before she heard the sounds of shifting and the quietest voice Kagome had ever heard spoke into the phone. "'Allo?" Kagome couldn't remember a time when Kanna had ever been so quiet.
When Kagome had always seen her, she'd been boisterous and happy; now she sounded like her world had crumbled and there was nothing left to live for. Growing up with a psychiatrist and having to learn to deal with the fact that there were constantly patients around the office, Kagome learned quite well how to notice the changes in the voice.
"Kanna? Baby girl, what happened?" Kagome asked into the phone, using Kanna's nickname given by her. Kagome always felt more familiar with people if she had a nickname to call them by and she'd noticed that often times than not most people preferred the nicknames so long as they weren't condescending.
"There was a blizzard and school got out early." Kagome heard sniffles on the other line. She got the feeling that Kanna had been mostly holding back her feelings until just then. "Mother forgot to come pick me up, and so I was walking home.
"I stopped at Miss Nina's parlor and we were talking a long time and she told me she knew she didn't have long left. Miss Nina has felt like a grandmother to me and well, it was getting late and so I called mother to ask if I could stay at Miss Nina's."
Kanna's sobs made Kagome's hands shake. She looked at the clock. It was nearing eight AM. There was no telling where Kagura would be at that very minute. The city of Sunset wasn't that big, but it also wasn't small enough that if she wanted she could find Kagura instantly. If she were to look for Kagura, she might've spent the whole day looking, and inside her mind plans were already forming to go to Raspuit and get Kanna using whatever means necessary.
"When I woke up this morning, Miss Nina was gone"—Kagome realized Kanna didn't mean gone as in not there, she meant gone as in she'd left the plains of the living—"and I called the police and they came to get me and Miss Nina. Mother and father were called and it was still really dark out and their car slipped and they're gone too!"
Kagome thought for a moment and then nodded to herself, deciding on a course of action. "Kanna, you stay right there, okay? I'm going to get a plane flight and come get you as soon as I can. I'm on my way to the airport right now."
"Okay..." Kanna's voice was anguished, but she seemed a little less tense in her voice. "Is Kagura with you?"
"Sorry, Baby girl, she's not. She's in the city, but I don't know where, her phone is off, and it would take all day to locate her."
"Mr. Toshu wants to talk to you again... Thank you..."
"For what?" Kagome asked, confused slightly. She didn't understand why Kanna felt like she had to thank her. Kagome was only doing what she thought was right. More often than not, doing the right thing hardly rewarded a thank you. This didn't reward a thank you in Kagome's mind, because a person who wouldn't go help the girl would definitely deserve a good sock in the face.
Speaking of socks, Kagome thought inappropriately, I should go see how Karei is doing. Then she shook herself. Now was certainly no time to think of her cousin, but Kagome did wonder how Sesshoumaru got Karei far enough from him to even get someone else as a girlfriend. A thought occurred to her: what if Sesshoumaru was using Sammy to get rid of Karei?
Kanna's soft voice pulled her back to the present. She would have plenty of fearful time on the plane to think about all that. Oh, how she hated planes. Just the thought of it made her want to vomit, but she kept it in her gut.
"Thank you for always being like a mommy to me and Kagura. I know you're younger than Kagura, but I know she looks to you for guidance and a role model just as much as I do..."
Before Kagome could respond to that, the man's voice came through the phone. "Miss Higurashi?" Toshu's voice questioned. The other side of the phone was silent for a moment mostly except a few murmurs presumably from Kanna.
When the man's voice came back, his tone was much different then the condescending tone from when he'd started talking at the beginning of the phone call. "The young girl said you intend to come get her?"
"Yes, I do. What procedures am I going to have to do to get custody of Kanna?" She was guessing that Kagura would be unable to get custody of the newly orphaned Kanna because of a past error, but Kagome would most likely have no problems. Her money was secure, the charges from when she'd beaten Naraku up had expired and couldn't be held against her, and she had a secure place now for Kanna to live – in the apartment with her.
Kagura will no doubt not leave for Raspuit now, which means Yusuke and Hiei will also stay. I will have to find another apartment for the three, because they certainly can't live here, Kagome thought wryly.
"There is the background check we will initially have to perform to make sure you're secure socially, physically, and mentally. Then there is the paperwork. I would think you should plan for at least three hours, maybe up to five hours, of the process."
"The trip there will take me at least seven hours, possibly longer if traffic is bad enough. I will get a hold of my family lawyer and have him fax my information to you. Get as much of that paperwork done as you can before I get there and keep an eye on Kanna." Kagome let her tone take on a commanding air as she talked, looking around for her keys. She was back up in her room and she couldn't figure out where Kagura had put them.
Checking her coat pocket, she blushed when she found them to be there already. So, now with one shoe on and one shoe still by the front door, she went down the stairs and began to put on her final shoe, holding the cell to her ear with her shoulder. It was difficult to do while trying to put on shoes, but she didn't want to waste more time than she had.
"There's not much I can do," Toshu started before Kagome interrupted the man on the other end of the line. "Trust me; with my lawyer, I'd be surprised if you had anything left to do by the time I get there." She winced at saying trust me. She knew what affects that had on people and no doubt he'd be dubious now but she'd already said it and she couldn't take it back. That would make him even more doubtful than before.
"Okay..." Already that doubt was settling in and she could hear it in his voice. Oh well, she'd just have to prove it to him. She liked the new family lawyer that she'd found—he did a spectacular job—she just had to get a hold of him and pray he wasn't drunk off his ass.
"Thanks. With luck, we'll get this taken care of quickly." She hung up and finished tying her shoe before standing. Scrolling through her cell's phone book, she found her mother's phone number. She had to tell her mother she wouldn't be stopping by or else the woman would no doubt worry.
She felt slightly bad that she was still postponing that dress fitting and the wedding was only a few days away. Perhaps she could get Kagura to stand in for her. It would be the ideal thing to do, and she'd then only have to wear the thing once—at the wedding.
"Sammy!" she called, her voice trailing through the apartment. It was nearing nine and she had to get going soon. Very soon. She called out, "I've got to go get someone. I won't be back until really late, but our conversation is not over with. If Kagura and the guys come by, just let them in and tell them I had an errand to run."
There was no sense worrying Kagura over something she would be unable to control. Kagome heard movement in Sammy's room but she got no answer. She had figured she wouldn't.
"Where are you going?" A voice whispered in her ear and she jumped, turning quickly and throwing her fist at the intruder's face. Anyone who was in the apartment other than her and Sammy at this hour—without being invited especially—was no doubt up to no good.
Her fist was caught in Sesshoumaru's hand and he quirked an eyebrow at her. "Jumpy today?" he questioned with a smirk. He'd just arrived and he found it amusing how she had yet to notice him.
"If you feel like holding hands, do it with someone else." Kagome snarled, dragging her fist away from his. Sesshoumaru's eyes drifted to Sammy's room and his nose was twitching slightly as though he were testing the air. "Leave her alone for now." Kagome warned him. "She'll talk about it when she's ready."
"I take it you know something of what happened?" Sesshoumaru inquired quietly. His eyes never moved from the door to Sammy's room. He knew she was in there; it was hard for him not to know. He somewhat wished he'd gone home right after work instead of stopping at Sammy's apartment.
The memory of the scent he smelled—the scent of intimacy whether it was forced or willing was always the same—brought back terribly familiar memories that he wanted to suppress. He was worried about whether or not Sammy had betrayed him, though he completely wanted to believe that it was impossible for her to do so, even if that meant she was traumatized.
"Come into the hall." Kagome told him. She opened the door for him and as he followed her out she closed the door and locked it for double assurance that Sammy wouldn't hear her. Sesshoumaru was looking at her with an expression that told her he knew she didn't have to tell him if she didn't want to. He couldn't make her tell. Kagome felt he ought to know something though.
Looking into his golden eyes, she saw the hidden worry in them. "Don't go barging in there. You're to stay away from her. Right now, a man is the last thing she's going to want to see." She took a deep breath and steeled her body. "Don't go galumphing off trying to find the guy—you'll only land yourself in a deep shit hole if you do—but she was raped early this morning."
"What?" he snarled and Kagome put her hand to his mouth, "Shh! Sesshoumaru, keep your voice down! I realize this must make you angry—"
Sesshoumaru's eyes were dead locked on her as he grasped her wrist tight and yanked it away from his mouth. "Angry? This is Sammy we're talking about! You expect me not to want to go rip his throat out?" He was very angry, and she knew it, but she was also not in the least intimidated by him. She was more annoyed than anything.
"And get charged with murder? Yes, I don't want you to do it!" She took her private investigator's badge—issued to her upon graduation at Wyman University—from her pocket and put it in his eye sight. "Look? You see this? Finding guys like that one is my job."
"What are you talking about? Private investigators can't do anything; they don't have the same rights as a cop!"
"Obviously you don't know much about my job line, do you?" Kagome sneered, "Since thirty o'six us P.I.'s have had much more rights than before. We can carry a gun on the job if we so choose, we can throw criminals in jail, and we don't have to report to the police and have them apprehend criminals. We do just as much now as the police do, if not more than!"
Kagome didn't know why she was standing in the hall debating the duties of a P.I. with Sesshoumaru. She had to get to the airport and she had to get her phone out of her pocket from whence she had dropped it when getting her badge and call her mother and lawyer. "I've got a plane to catch and you're holding me up."
Her voice was an angry snarl, though she still kept it down. "We can debate another day. If you go after him, don't think I'm going to hesitate putting you in jail. You know very well you've never been my favorite person."
A thought spiked in her mind. He owed her a favor for the stunt she'd pulled three years back when she acted as his girlfriend for his mother. "You owe me a favor." Kagome settled her voice calmly, though it was difficult. Her blood was racing and she wanted to give him a nice shiner for being so stupid. Ignorance wasn't attractive in Sesshoumaru—it was more of an Inuyasha thing, not Sesshoumaru.
From the look on his face, he remembered what she was talking about. He was scowling but his mind pulled up a memory of during the "field trip" when he'd let Kagome off the hook and she hadn't had to be his slave for a day. "No. We're even. If you'll recall, I let you off the hook after I beat you at that silly dance." His smirk was back in full effect and as she replaced the badge in her pocket and pulled out her cell phone, she was scowling.
"If you go after him"—her phone rang and cut her sentence short. She felt like smashing the tiny flip phone but knew that wasn't in her best interest. It was her mother on the other side of the line. She answered while Sesshoumaru leaned casually against the wall beside the door, smirking. "This is Higurashi—"
She was beginning to think that everything that day would interrupt her. Two phone calls interrupted her, a child services worker interrupted her, and now her mother did, hastily speaking into the phone so fast that Kagome feared her mother would choke on the words.
"Kagome where are you? You have to be fitted for the dress! The wedding is less than two weeks away; oh Kagome what am I going to do, I'm so nervous!"
Her brow furrowed. She really, really didn't have time to deal with a woman with wedding jitteriness. "I was just going to call you. Something came up and—" Again she was interrupted. She was starting to become really peeved about that.
"Something's always coming up, Kagome! I know this doesn't seem important to you but it's very important to me! Why can't you just accept the fact that I'm having you wear a gown? You'll look beautiful!"
"Mother, that's enough!" Kagome's fist clenched and she had to count to twenty three before she was even remotely beginning to relax. "I'm about to head off to Keysville to catch a flight to the closest place to Raspuit that I can because—"
"Something came up?" Her mother was bitter and it was evident in her voice. "What came up?"
Kagome bristled at the tone her mother used. Kagome knew her mother was very excited to be in the throes of wedlock once more, but Kanna was more important than being fitted for a dress that could be done at any time.
She needed to make her mother understand exactly why she was avoiding her this time, and this time it wasn't just something she basically made up to get out of being fitted for the dress. This time it was important.
"I'll tell you but you have to promise to keep it confidential, mama. Do not tell Kagura. I don't want her rushing off to Raspuit." She'd just given Sesshoumaru the perfect bait to use against her, but she didn't have time to deal with it.
"Kanna's family got into a car accident and if someone doesn't go get her they're going to send Kanna to a new foster home. I'm going to get her, and if people keep holding me up I won't get back until tomorrow night for goodness sake!"
"Kagome...you're not off the hook. But go get that little girl. I'm guessing they probably did a background check and found something they didn't like—anyway, get going. Immediately upon your return, you are to come home. Understood?"
"Er..." Kagome blushed a deep hue of red as she saw Sesshoumaru trying to stop a grin from spreading across his face. So he thought it was funny that she didn't like dresses, did he? Well, he deserved what he got then. But she of course, did not have time to take care of it at the moment. She had to get to the airport. That was a three to four hour drive depending on how road and traffic conditions were.
"Kagome..." her mother's voice held a dangerous warning in it.
"Understood." Kagome muttered bitterly. I'll be sure to drive as slow as I can on the way back. The thought felt as miserable as she did at the idea of wearing a dress. "I'll be there. I've got to go. Call my lawyer and tell him to fax all information pertinent to adoption to the Raspuit Police child services desk. I've really got to go now. Bye."
She hung up before her mother could say anything more, knowing she'd be reprimanded for that later on, but not really having time to ponder it. "Don't you dare go after him," Kagome warned her tone bitter as she headed for the stairs and sneezed. "Oh great. Just wonderful!"
She wondered how healthy the trip would be for her considering she seemed to have a cold from stupidity, but still that didn't give her time to ponder that either.
She wondered as she entered the stairwell whether or not he'd listen to her, but a quick look at her watch told her it was heading onto eleven AM. She didn't have any more time to waste. If she hurried, she'd make it to the airport by three PM if she was lucky.
She had no doubt that her mother would contact her lawyer. Sangofully she'd even catch her lawyer in the middle of a terrible hangover! She'd definitely set him straight. After her mother got through with her lawyer, he'd never touch a drink again.
The pleasant thought brought cheer to her much interrupted morning but it was but a tiny dent in the vehicle of gloom that had settled over her as of finding Sammy raped and Kanna orphaned. Shame mother had never been able to do that for father. That sent her right back into the same mood as before.
As she got into her Rent-a-Car, she felt like bashing her head against the horn, but she knew it would just waste more precious time, so she just started it and drove off heading for Keysville. She wondered how well she'd take the plane ride. She'd forgotten to grab her valium. Sometimes worry made a person forgetful and she wouldn't have time to stop and grab some anywhere. She'd have to deal with it on her own.