"I don't want to go! God damn it! Why the hell are you making me go to school?" Kagome groaned and shoved her pillow in her face. She hadn't gotten much sleep the night before because of an uncomfortable couch and the next door neighbors, and now Shuichi was going to be ridiculous.
Souta had—as agreed—come to pick up Kanna and Shuichi for their first day, and he was sitting at the counter while Kagura—in a green robe that Kagome recognized as one of her old ones—served him oatmeal and rice patties.
"Souta, bring me a rice patty." Kagome muttered, trying her best to ignore the screaming teen. She felt the rice patty land softly on her stomach and then it disappeared and she felt cheated. Shuichi had stolen her rice patty and was throwing it into the garbage. She stood and walked over to the boy, patting him on the back consolingly.
"You're a cute kid. But guess what? You're also annoying and need to learn manners." She bit back a yawn and watched Kagura pad barefoot around the kitchen. Kagome wondered where Yusuke and Hiei were, but figured they were probably at the Shrine.
"I'm not going!" Shuichi insisted. "The uniform is itchy and ugly and not my color, and—"
"Fine, don't go. But when child services come to get you and mark me an unsuitable parent, taking Kanna away as well because you wouldn't go to school, you can bet your ass you're going to regret not going."
Kagome took the new rice patty that Kagura was offering her and sat next to her brother, leaning her head on his shoulder. She wondered what she would do that day or if she would do anything.
She couldn't think of anything she would enjoy more than just laying down to sleep and never awaking again, joining her father in heaven or hell or where ever he had gone after death.
Shuichi cried out as he felt a nail digging into the cartilage of his ear. "You're going! There is no way you're making me leave my mum, now get the uniform on!" Kanna wouldn't take no for an answer.
Kanna may have been much smaller than him, but she could still reach up and grab his ear. Soon as she had it, he had to bend over to keep her from pulling on it too hard, and he found that standing at the odd angle made it very difficult to free him.
Kagome ignored them as Kanna dragged him up into the loft and began yelling at him to get changed.
"How much you wanna bet those two are going to be sleeping 'together' someday in the near future?" Souta muttered earning a laugh from Kagura and a startled glance towards the ceiling from Kagome. Souta slapped his hand down on the table, laughing at Kagome's 'motherly' behavior. "Relax Kagome, I'm only joking."
Kagome blushed. "Whatever." She muttered, shoveling food in her mouth to hide her embarrassment. Only when she felt that if she ate another rice patty she would vomit did she stop. It didn't take long to get sick of them; she had never been into rice patties much.
By the time Souta had left with Shuichi and Kanna, Kagura was cleaning up the breakfast. "Where is Sammy?" she asked, noting the fact that the girl's door was open but she didn't appear to be anywhere in the apartment.
That was not to say that the apartment was all that large to lose her, just that she took note that Sammy appeared to be gone.
"I took her to that one guy's house that she's seeing. If you see him with a black eye, it's from me." Kagura said quietly. When Kagome gave her a sharp look, Kagura raised her hands in defeat.
"I knew you wanted the story, so I questioned her for you. She told me everything from the number of gum wrappers on the man's table to how many nostril hairs sticking out of his nose."
Kagome made a face, trying to make light of the situation and she could say it worked but only marginally.
Kagura began the story as the two looked through Kagome's clothes for something to wear for the day. It was Kagura's intent to make Kagome take her around the town and show her the hot spots and Kagome's intent to show Kagura the police station, Ohanami park (where many of the fights broke out), and the Madison's Labyrinth just to let Kagura get lost and laugh.
She needed laughter. She also needed to try talking her mother out of the dress again, but that was beside the point. She somehow got the feeling her mother had made herself too busy to see her daughter until the wedding Wednesday.
"Oh! Is this your dress?" Speak of the devil—the devil here being the godforsaken dress that she had to wear. Kagome nodded miserably and her mind wandered to how many different deaths she could put the dress through. She doubted it would fit down the toilet, but taking a crap on it was still prospective.
"And no, I'm not trying it on." Kagome told her before she could say anything. "You'll get to see me in it on Wednesday and that's far enough."
Kagura chuckled and shook her head, pulling on a pair of jeans. Kagura liked to wear tighter pants than Kagome, but she did wear lose clothing as well. Kagome and Kagura surveyed each other skeptically.
Kagura was wearing her hair in the usual tight bun with the green feather and bead hairclip on the left side of her head, blue jeans, and a red tank top; they weren't going to do anything very important so they could easily wear less ornate clothing if they wanted.
Kagome, on the other hand, wanted to look nice because while they weren't really doing anything important she was thinking about going to see Kohaku at SPES and she wanted to look good for him.
She pulled on her old baggy black pants with the double set of silver stripes up the outside of the legs, the black wide strapped tank top with the inlaid bra, and her "Hell's Bitch" shirt.
Kohaku had always mentioned he liked that particular outfit on her more than the most elaborate gown she could wear, but in some deep part of her mind she couldn't wait to find out what he thought of her in the gown that Rin had made.
She would be walking up the aisle with Kohaku; Souta would be walking up the aisle with Sango.
Her gun was on the desk next to her badge, but she left it there. She wouldn't need it and she fully intended to spend the day as a civilian. There was no reason for her to take her gun and badge around town, lugging around the responsibility of the police when there seemed to be plenty of them to do that.
Briefly she wondered if she should drag out her bell jewelry, but shook herself mentally as she put her hair in a braid. She hadn't worn them since before graduation at Wyman.
She felt that the bells symbolized a responsibility to the community of Sunset and she wasn't sure if she wanted to prowl the streets at night with her friends keeping the streets safe; that job was for the policemen and women of the community and whether or not there was turmoil inside the police station with the Mayor acting funny, she was still confident they could handle what was out there.
Honestly, she couldn't wait until the wedding was over. Her mother and Kohaku's father did not expect her to stay away from Kohaku in "such a way" after the wedding and that was the plus.
Her mother would be happy, and so would she. Unfortunately, she would be very unhappy while her mother was being wedded...she still had to wear that dress!
Shuichi felt his blood boiling by the time lunch had come around. He always hated to be picked fun at, of course who didn't hate it, but for some reason he had always been subjected to more teasing in school. Kanna was the only familiar face but only because he'd gone to school with Kanna for a year and a half in Raspuit.
Kanna had never known him then, but Shuichi had noticed that even in Raspuit and even aside from the fact that she hadn't known him, she had always stuck up for him when people tried to pick fun at him. She did that for everyone though, which made people go out of their way to pick fun at her too.
Shuichi watched Kanna's face fill with emptiness as she listened to the taunts of the other students at the other tables around them. The two had been readily welcomed at Souta's table at lunch but that obviously did nothing to ease their status of "immediate outcast".
For some reason, being adopted by Kagome did not bring peace with the local students he noticed. Kagome wasn't widely liked among the students.
He wondered if Souta and the others at the table did not hear the taunts and teases of the students around them because many of them were about the others too.
Some people suggested that the girl with silver hair—Yuri was her name, if Shuichi remembered right—was having sexual relations with Souta since the two were living in the same house.
Other people suggested that Rin had multi-personality disorder because she wore the school uniform but would not join a normal group of students—non-outcast in other words.
Then there were the quickly spreading rumors about Shuichi and Kanna—the newest members to the table. Shuichi was actually a girl in disguise, which would explain why he kept his hair long and why his face was so feminine looking.
Kanna was given the lovely name of "Whitey" because of the fact that she looked more like a ghost in the school uniform than anything.
These things were hardly offending, but Shuichi was so used to being revered by the people around him for having such profound knowledge in technology that it was a serious matter and he was bordering on getting out of his seat and knocking some teeth out.
" Chiba was a second away from getting a shiner. I swear; I would have beaten him to death." Souta was saying. The others were engrossed in their own conversations and they didn't notice the angry look on Shuichi's face, or the fact that he was clenching and unclenching his fists.
Kanna was staring endlessly at the door that would take her outside the school should she choose to walk through it. Shuichi wasn't even sure she really was inside the school; she looked soulless at the moment.
Inside his mind, Shuichi heard the demon spirit speaking to him. Sometimes Youko could be an annoyance always being around him (or inside would be a better way to verse it), but other times he wasn't so bad to have around.
Shuichi, just ignore them. Youko told him quietly. The demon spirit was a whisper in his mind, no one else would be able to hear him. True is the fact that we could easily string them up by their toes from the ceiling of this outrageous institute, but we're better than all of them.
"But—" Shuichi started and Kanna looked at him as though his voice had interrupted her reverie.
No, Shuichi. There is no reason for complaint; there is no reason for question. Teasing is what an insecure person does. Back in twenty-six sixty-two, when I joined the demons to fight in the 100-year war, everyone laughed at me and suggested a pretty boy would never make it past a day.
Instead of fighting them for what they said, I fought beside them and made them realize their mistake when I saved them from death, several times over, with my magic control over plants. Give it time; they'll come to respect you soon enough.
"I don't want to be you." Shuichi told the demon and clenched his fists miserably. He could feel the eyes of his table companions on him, not just Kanna but everyone else as well, and felt his face redden. His statement would seem very random to the others and it was that fact that made him feel embarrassed.
Youko seemed to have left him alone to deal with his embarrassment but Shuichi didn't want to deal with it. He just wanted to go back to Kagome's apartment.
He didn't want to hear the whispers, he didn't want to be a rumor, and he didn't want people to be so instantly judgmental of him. He pushed his tray away from him and placed his head down in his arms. He wanted more than anything an escape from the real world at that time.
Blocking the demon spirit from seeing his thoughts as he always did when he was depressed, he closed his eyes, waiting for the time when the bell would ring and he would be forced to go to his afternoon classes.
Shuichi and Kanna had been signed up for classes based on the grade percentage that they had gotten on the placement tests the day before when they had come to the school with Kali to enroll.
Shuichi and Kanna had been given the same schedules so Shuichi hadn't even looked at his. He had no idea what classes he would have.
He jumped when he felt someone touch his shoulder and sat up abruptly, turning to look and see who was there. Kanna yelped and the others laughed at the two who had been so disconnected with the world they hadn't noticed Kagome enter the school, or notice that whispers were spreading quickly about Kagome's return and questions of who Kagura was.
"Mum!" Kanna squealed excitedly and clutched Kagome and Kagura in a hug. "Fay!"
"Hey, Baby girl." Kagura said with a grin, returning the young girl's enthusiastic hug with a slightly less excited grip. Shuichi returned his head to his arms, not particularly animated about the fact that the two women were there.
"Wow, Kagome; you weren't lying when you told me you weren't liked." Kagura said and laughed. "I haven't heard a good thing said about you since we walked in here. It's like asking for death just hanging out with you."
Kagome shrugged. "Eh, I'm not too worried. There's a long enough waiting list and everyone near the top is no where closer than a hundred miles away." Shuichi tuned her out and concentrated on trying to find the closest plant source around with his mind; thanks to Youko's magic, the task was relatively easy.
It was just something to pass the time with, and it worked fairly well keeping his mind off of what he didn't want to think about: the rumors and how unfair it was that they were starting up again about him. He hated to be teased!
When the bell rang signifying the end of the lunch period, he sat up and found that Kagura and Kagome had gone. The fact that they came and went and hadn't said goodbye to him made him feel bitter; he didn't realize that they had said goodbye to him but he hadn't responded and instead had just ignored them even when they shook his shoulder. He hadn't felt the touch he was so wrapped up in his mind.
"Shuichi, come on." Kanna's quiet voice pulled him back to Earth from his place in another dimension. "We have study hall now in"—she took out the piece of paper upon which the schedule was printed and glanced at it—"computer room one hundred four."
He was startled when she took his hand and a blush crept to his face; blocking Youko out of his thoughts didn't work after that. Do you like her, Shuichi? She is a pretty girl, and she's only a little younger than our physical body.
Shuichi felt his face turn even redder and Kanna stopped pulling him towards their next class, giving him a small stare. "You're all red, Shuichi. Your face is putting your hair to shame!" She then noticed their clasped hands.
Her face turned a bright red and almost as though she'd touched a hot burner pulled her hand free of his and held it to her chest, seeming determined not to look at him as she continued walking.
"Kagura is going to apply for the school psychiatrist position; isn't that good news?" she seemed to be struggling to find some normal grounds between them after the hand incident.
"V-very g-g-good." He stammered. You sound like a bumbling fool. Youko informed him, whispering in his mind again. The worst part was that he knew that already; he didn't need the demon spirit to point that out.
Sometimes hormones could be a rollercoaster. He was finding out quickly that he didn't like to be last, and it seemed that at last his hormones were going to change from boy to man.
It was a job to take seriously. When he had received the phone call he had been startled by the person on the other end of the line. He hadn't heard from her in years, but he supposed he shouldn't have been so surprised; she never forgot a face or a name or a profession and his was renowned in the Decoloratio Venalicium.
He also supposed he should be worried about this, because the woman was not exactly the most stable person in the whole world and he didn't need to be a rocket scientist to realize that.
Her eyes had held that sort of distant insanity ever since her sister had been kidnapped by the government and turned into the first Cyborg of Japan—unofficially of course.
The government would most certainly not admit to any such illegal dealings and he worried that even though the woman's sister had been returned to her, the woman had not quite realized that the government no longer held her captive in a large round room made entirely of sanitary stainless steel.
As he loaded the plain black duffle bag with the necessary items that he would need to complete the task given him, he wasn't surprised to see his hands shaking. He hoped they wouldn't shake so badly when he was aiming the gun; he was very nervous about this job in particular while it seemed strange considering he was no amateur in the matter of assassination.
He had killed hundreds of people with a single bullet and still only one had eluded their death by his hand—a mere child of five years old had struck a note in his heart and he found he could not do as he was ordered and kill the girl like asked.
But now? He had come to realize that what he was going to be doing was betraying that little five year old girl who had seen him in the tree from the tops of the monkey bars in the park and waved at him before jumping to her father's awaiting arms.
Her father had thought the little girl was waving to him, but he knew better. The girl's eyes had clashed with his own, and since then he had considered himself retired in the field of killing even if he could not exactly retire formally.
Because it had been so long since he had last killed, the bosses in the Decoloratio Venalicium were pressuring him to take the job or be "fired" and he did not want to be "fired".
The term fired had many definitions, and in the Decoloratio Venalicium, it is a term that a man hoped he never had to hear in his life. If you could evade that term, you would be alright; if not, death by guillotine would be more graceful than what the executioner's squad had waiting at the end of the red carpet.
He wrapped a pinch of powdered Portaculant in rice paper and set it beside his computer desk. He knew the amount was deadly but if worse came to worst his chosen death would be far more inviting than torture and then death because he had failed his mission.
Someone had to die on Wednesday and as he zipped the bag up, he wondered if he ought to value that person's life over his own. He had been raised to value his life over the lives of every other being on the planet but surprisingly it had been a little girl who changed him though she didn't even know it.
She probably didn't remember seeing him in the park that day, or waving to him, or recall the glare the sun had sent her from the scope of his rifle. With a sigh, he resigned himself to two days wait. He wouldn't be going back to his normal job.
He had already called himself in sick and until the event was over, all he had to do was sit back and contemplate how it might all turn out. Of course, his mind could only fall back on one thought: that little girl would be torn apart by his decision.
There was nothing to do about it for what could he do? It was his job; he only hoped that she never found out the 'who-dun-it'.
As he walked towards his bed and sat down at it, his long wiry fingers found their way to the glass on the bedside table filled half full with the strongest brandy that money could buy. He stared into the golden depths of the liquid before tilting his head back and taking a large gulp of the alcohol.
Usually the liquid burned on the way down but this time it was a smooth course down his throat. The taste was a delight to his senses and the aroma of the liquid made him unable to help himself from smiling.
Letting the glass fall to the carpeted floor, the man let out a sigh and ran his hands over his shaved bald head. There was a reason for the lack of hair on his body.
Not only did he not look good with hair, he couldn't risk leaving any condemning hair follicles behind to point fingers at himself. Finally his hands came to rest over his eyes. He was contemplating shooting himself in the head or perhaps just taking the raw dose of Portaculant. That would work!
He still didn't know why his previous employer had wanted the little girl dead, but it was far too long ago to question it now.
He stood and shouldered the duffle bag with a grunt. He was careful not to handle the thing roughly. If the bullets fell free of their holders, he would find the bag to be jingling and he didn't want that. Noise was his worst enemy on the job.
It was time to take the bag and put it in the City Hall in someplace safe where no one would see. He would have a long maintenance ladder to climb so he could get up to the rafters, but at least everything would soon be over.
For him anyway... He almost couldn't wait, but when he thought about it further, he was still going to disappoint that little girl.
He could feel the stares as he walked down the street towards City Hall; he could sense the joyful air that hung over the town for the coming event Wednesday.
Everyone would be attending the wedding which would take place in the snowy courtyard at the Shrine. The vows would be given under the tree named the God Tree for reasons unbeknownst to him, and the reception would be held in the City Hall.
No matter which family you were from, it would just seem treasonous if a person did not show to support Sunset's Shrink on her day of happiness.
Did they realize that he was supposed to kill the very woman they were all going to celebrate the marriage of? The city Mayor herself had decreed that no one was to attend work on Wednesday from noon until five PM so people would be there for the exchanging of the vows.
Though this was not what made him uncomfortable it was still rather odd that a woman could possibly be held in such high respects that work would be called off for an entire half day. He had never thought he would see the day when a woman would be so...noticed.
Kouga had felt so bad when he woke up that morning that he had not even left his bed, much less called himself in sick. He could recall waking up and finding himself and the woman stark naked in bed but then had passed back out, too hung over to care much. Now, though, he realized his mistake.
He had been with a woman, for the first time, in such a way and the only thing he could recall about her was that her name was Keiko. He didn't even remember her last name or her appearance and that made him feel more than ridiculous and embarrassed.
He completely wanted to believe that she was not just a stranger that he had only known for a few short hours before ending up in bed with her.
He didn't go to school, obviously since he had not left his bed, and that fact made him feel depressed slightly. He had ended up in the sack with a stranger—What if she had AIDS? Or worse, that android disease that made men mad?—and he hadn't used protection either. He doubted she used birth control.
Finally he pushed himself out of bed, groaning when his muscles ached. She was long gone, and he was left to his thoughts all by his lonesome. He still had to take the music equipment to the City Hall or the band wouldn't be able to practice Tuesday night. After showering he felt a little better but the feeling was marginal and he still felt like (to put it simply) crap.
Kouga dressed in a pair of black pants and a loose tee-shirt, wanting to have the ability to move easily as he set up the instruments on the stage.
He didn't mind that there was a large rip in one of the pant's knees or that the pocket that used to be on the left breast of the shirt was ripped off; the clothes were still comfortable whether or not they were over-used.
He figured humorously that Jesus would love such clothes in their holiness. He wondered what the "buzz" was about religion. That brought him another chuckle but he wondered of his sanity if he had so many inside jokes with himself and basically none with anyone else.
He himself did not believe in such nonsense as faith; it wasn't going to get him a contract with a music company. He believed in hard work and luck. Shrugging on his jacket, he searched for his van keys and found them discarded on the floor by the front door.
When he left the apartment at two o'clock in the afternoon—he'd slept all morning—he saw someone familiar walking with someone not-so familiar down the hall towards him and he could swear he felt his jaw clunk on the floor.
Blinking a few times to make sure he wasn't dreaming, he snapped his jaw shut and had the fleeting feeling that he should say something. She probably didn't recognize him after so long being away.
He didn't know what it was about her but he had a crush on her since before pre-school. He used to make regular trips to her house because his mother had been ill and needed help from her mother.
It had been then that he had fallen for her and ever since then he had devoted himself to her. Unfortunately she had never looked at him as much more than a friend though so he had to back down after she had left.
As soon as she had come, she had gone and he was sore about the missed opportunity. He wondered if she was back for good or if she was just around to visit. He'd heard news that she was traveling the world.
Shoving her from his mind he left the building after her and found that she was, unsurprisingly, gone. When his rusted old van did not want to start, he got Mr. Obit to jump the battery and then drove across town to the City Hall.
It was not considerably far away but it took ten minutes to drive there with the two o'clock traffic buzz. His radio in the van did not work, and there were parts in the side that were rusted through inside and out, but at least he had a jacket on.
To take his mind off of the woman he hadn't known, he began humming a few verses from one of the many songs that the fourth band member had written. It worked, marginally, and when he got to the City Hall he found that carrying all the instruments and equipment up a giant stair took all of his attention so he didn't have to think of her or his mistake. When he was moving the large speaker boxes around on the stage, he saw one of his teachers, Mr. Hiatz, walking over to him.
"Kouga, don't you belong at school?" Mr. Hiatz asked with a small grin towards his student. Kouga stood and wiped his brow on his shirt. He had long since discarded his jacket from his body; the work he was doing made him sweat even in the cold City Hall.
Kouga looked at Mr. Hiatz and sat down on the large speaker, glad for the excuse to take a break, though why Mr. Hiatz was not at school was beyond him. He looked at the large clock on the wall and noticed that it was after four o'clock.
Mr. Hiatz was known for not staying longer than he needed at school, so he supposed it was reasonable. Kouga, on the other hand, normally had Chorus lessons Monday evenings at the school and then right after that he had band practice.
"I have to set the stage up." He told Mr. Hiatz, though that really wasn't his reason for not going to school. If he hadn't been so hung over from getting irresponsibly drunk, he would never have skipped. "Anyway, what'cha doing here?"
Mr. Hiatz shrugged slightly and said, "I was a bit late on my rent."
Kouga nodded his understanding. "You live in that apartment building owned by the mayor don't you?" Kouga's father lived in that same apartment building, so Kouga knew from experience that a late payment on rent needed to be brought directly to the City Hall and given to the Mayor's secretary, Johann Quip, a young bald man in his thirties.
"Exactly. But strangely enough, Quip wasn't in his office. I stuck the rent on his desk though, so it'll be there whenever he gets back. You're playing for the wedding, aren't you?"
Kouga felt his cheeks poke into a smile and he nodded. "Yeah. Hiten and Joel are psyched about it. We're giving up Wednesday night at the Rave this week so we can play for Mrs. Onigumo and Mr. Ichiro after they become Mr. and Mrs. Ichiro."
Mr. Hiatz chuckled and nodded. "I'll see you Wednesday then I suppose." Kouga nodded and waved, standing again to get back to work. He felt much better after his talk with Mr. Hiatz.
Not even the memory of his wasted virginity would wipe the smile off his face. Mr. Hiatz was his favorite teacher; he was as understanding of problems as Sunset's Shrink was. He didn't even have to speak of his problem to Mr. Hiatz.
With a grunt, he began moving things around on the stage again. Wednesday would mark a day in history for the town of Sunset. He was already sure that Mrs. Onigumo was going to be a legendary figure.
He did not know or realize, nor could he fathom, the type of person who would be more famous than Mrs. Kali Onigumo. It just didn't seem logical or plausible.
"I admit; I've complained a lot throughout my life. I spent my entire sixteenth birthday whining about how my sister dyed her hair pink. I'm not immune to the woes of mankind just because I am a bit more heard of than the average psychiatrist, nor do I pretend to be so. I am as eccentric as"—Kali scribbled out the writing on the page and sighed.
Her speech for the Annual Psychiatry Convention was not going well. She could feel her muscles aching and screaming in protest with every movement she made. She supposed years of neglect to her body made her this way. She needed to find a doctor, but knew that none in Sunset would be able to help her with her strange condition.
"Well, well, if it isn't Sunset's Shrink." The drawling voice brought her head up immediately and she stared at the skeptical man in front of her for a moment before registering who it was in her mind.
A broad smile crossed her young features and she stood, walking over to the man in the doorway. He held his arms out to her in an informal greeting and she walked into them, embracing him carefully.
When they parted, she surveyed him and noticed that he looked exactly the same he ever did. His dirty straw blond hair was, as usual, pulled back at the nape of his neck and his bright green eyes were laughing even though his tone sounded as happy to see her as a person was happy to be stung by a swarm of killer bees. He had gained more weight, she realized, though it was only in muscles not fat.
Hidden deep in the depths of his eyes he harbored a tormented past of which she knew everything about though it was no worse than her own past she knew. Half of the reason she spent the nights in the library after a nightmare was because of the past—one of which she had told no one about; or at least no one except the man who now stood in her office door.
"Toshu, what a surprise! I was unaware you were coming!" She said happily and gave him a second hug.
He chuckled, very much a different man than when he dealt with Lea Saeko or Kagome Higurashi or the children who came into the Child Services department in the Raspuit Police Station. "I found a doctor for the creak in my leg. I'm tired of limping because of the pain and worrying about the band breaking. Coincidentally, she's here in Sunset."
Kali gasped and her fingers clutched his arm harder than she had meant. Her excitement at those few words made her feel very happy indeed and she said to him, "You found a doctor?"
Raine sighed and tapped on her knee, sitting in the sewing room with Kikyou, Rin, and Kaede. She wondered what in the world had possessed her when she had agreed to protect the two Motshuria girls.
She hadn't thought it would be so time consuming making sure the two girls were not noticed in the house but there was no bathroom downstairs and the girls couldn't very well piss in a bucket either. Not only was that unsanitary, but it was unconventional after the delightful invention of the toilet.
Keeping Harvey out of the basement had also proven to be very tasking lately. He seemed to be as suspicious as the Mayor was, constantly popping in at a moment least suspected.
Raine knew it was only a matter of time before the secret was found out, but Raine also had a plan in mind for when he did. Harvey was easy to handle, but it was Curinrin that worried Raine.
Curinrin seemed to have her own agenda the past few days, doing strange things in the middle of the day. Normally she slaved over dinner for the coming night all day to make sure everything was perfect so there would be no left-over food.
Since the night of the raid, she had been gone for long hours at a time. Where she disappeared to was unknown, but it made Raine nervous and edgy. She didn't like being nervous and edgy either; it was an unknown emotion to her.
She lived life on the edge in the Decoloratio Venalicium, and never before had she felt nervous. She had always been confident in herself. How long had Curinrin known about Rin being a Cyborg?
How long had Curinrin known about Raine's illegal career choice? How long was it before Harvey found out too and threw Raine into jail?
Finally Raine couldn't take it anymore. She got up off her cushion and began pacing nervously. She felt the eyes of the other three girls following her progress back and forth until Rin stood and forced Raine towards the staircase. "Go get some fresh air, sister." Raine heard Rin hiss irritably.
With a sigh, Raine looked at the two other girls in the room. Kaede was wearing one of Rin's yellow sundresses and Kikyou was wearing a tank top and pants that belonged to Raine. Kaede had her hair hanging down half of her face so the cloth covering her dead eye was not seen.
Kikyou was drawing a diagram of memorized parts in one of Raine's textbooks on androids and labeling it with the book closed beside her on the floor, only opening it when she was unsure of a certain part.
Finally she turned and walked up the stairs, closing the door at the bottom of the stairs behind her and then heading through the top door. Curinrin was not in the house and Harvey was at work.
Raine's intent was to skip class and just go shopping or something relaxing, but when Rin came out of the stairwell with her backpack, she knew she would have to go to class. Shouldering her backpack with yet another sigh, she looked out the window at the winter wonderland that lay beyond the glass.
"You'll call me if there is something?" She really didn't like to be so nervous, having to jump and shove the two girls into the hidden room at the first sign of trouble. Another thing she really didn't like was snow.
It happily bit at her toes as she stood outside waiting for the taxi that Rin had called. Five minutes went by and her toes were frozen inside her tennis shoes.
By the time ten minutes had passed and she was thinking about abandoning going to school—she was wearing a skirt for gracious sakes, though why anyone wore tennis shoes and a skirt, she had no idea (yet was doing it)—the taxi pulled up to her house and, shivering from head to toe (why had she not gotten a coat?), she was on her way to the college.
The taxi slid dangerously on the road as they turned some corners even though the driver was going extra careful. Raine didn't know him, but she could find out who he was had she so desired.
She wasn't normally one to miss things such as details and no matter how distracted she was by the problem of the Motshuria girls in her house and the need to get them out and fast she didn't miss the frequent glances the man made at her in the rear-view mirror, as though he were trying to remember where he had seen her before.
Finally after six long minutes of trying to ignore his glances, she snapped and it was not pretty. A dragon ripping apart a man and slurping up his intestines like spaghetti would have been a nicer sight.
"If you have something to say, say it!" Her dark chocolate eyes never looked away from the scenery passing by outside but she knew she want to glare at him. There had never been a time she had wanted to glare at a man more, or perhaps seek the D.V. dogs on him and let them do their own form of glaring!
She imagined the man dead; shoved in the trunk of his taxi with his head and body two separate entities and then felt sickened at her self for even thinking to retrieve the D.V. dogs. They were killers in the Decoloratio Venalicium; what was she thinking?
The man, however, made her more annoyed than before by saying, "I'm jus' tryin' to...er...recall wh're I seen yah b'fore." He said in his atrocious accent. Raine narrowed her eyes at the supposed accent.
If she had been stupid she might have missed the fact that the normal taxi driver never talked like a brainless thug from the Decoloratio Venalicium; she had always complimented the driver on his educated speech and she knew very well that he had continued onto college after graduation and only drove the taxi to earn a few extra dollars here and there.
As he stopped in front of the college, she pursed her lips and opened the door. Stepping one foot out of the vehicle, she threw a look at him and said, "Whatever! I don't have time for this. You drive me to the college every day so of course that would be where you saw me!"
She stepped out into the bitter winter air and pulled her backpack out after her, sending a warning glare at the man before slamming the door shut.
Her mind was whirring as she opened the main door, entering the college as the man drove off. Whoever that was, it certainly was not the normal driver. She knew from experience that androids could easily take on the form of a living human.
She had created several of her own that were doubles of Rin and herself. But then the question that needed asking was: Is he a double?
If the Mayor would go to the lengths of hiring men to kill her granddaughters, then certainly she would have no qualms of hiring the ones to kill those protecting her granddaughters. As if it wasn't painfully obvious that the two were in the Legume house.
Raine slid into the cluttered classroom, slightly late though with three hundred students, her entrance went fairly unnoticed. Why would anyone want to notice her? She kept herself out for many obvious reasons.
She didn't like the attention, but her mind then went to observe the details of how being out of the attention could be dangerous. She could be easily purged from the world and no one would notice. She needed to make an impression on someone somewhere. The thought came quickly and stung as much as getting slapped in the face by an extremely large swordfish stung.
"—and the battle of Shishuni hill waged. The monks in their varying ranks, though outnumbered ten to one by the attacking demons and faced with impending doom, won the battle, though they sustained the worst possible damage.
"There remains only one line of the Shishuni blood in the world; there are no hidden remains and no women have been born to it for centuries.
"A demon on his deathbed cursed the Shishuni monks and most died of this curse. It is an irrevocable curse. After that, the monks remaining chose to live their lives out in—"
Raine listened to the teacher drone on about the history of the 100-year war, but she couldn't concentrate on the words completely. Her mind was split between how screwed up her life and the lives of those who depended on her were, and the class.
Her hands were, as usual, writing the words he said with considerable speed but she wasn't taking in anything that she was writing. She would no doubt be very confused later on when she tried to study the notes, having no clue what the heck they meant because she hadn't listened to him speak but at the moment that seemed trivial.
When class was over, she was embarrassed to find that her trained hand had written down several unrelated things that neither needed to be in her notes or pertained to her notes whatsoever.
According to what she'd written down, a girl named Teesh had broken up with her boyfriend so the guy was free for the taking; the bathroom on the third floor of the West Dorms exploded and there was like like like like way so much water and the plumbers had to actually swim under all the water to get to the toilet to fix it but no water had gotten into the hallway when the plumbers opened the door (which was illogical to Raine and she couldn't understand why the had to say "like" four times); and the holographic model on Cybernetic Evolution and Artificial Resourcefulness in Tangibility won the Gold Cup First in the Annual Technology Fair.
Raine sat up abruptly when she read that and she had to re-read it twice before she could convince herself that her hand was a liar and it had heard wrong. Of course to her it wouldn't seem plausible that she, yes she, had won the Gold Cup First in the Annual Technology Fair.
She had never won any awards in anything else for what she had submitted so why would she have won after so many years of trying? There were tons of people smarter than her! Of course, this year had been so much more productive than any other year, as the years did tend to be as you grew.
Sparing an excited glance around, she found she couldn't contain a nervous giggle though there was no one in the large angled classroom except the many rows of desks, the wipe-board down in the front, and the many garbage wrappers from littering students.
Up in the rafters there were a few birds who had chosen to make the classroom a home during the winter—being natural garbage disposals for the fallen food on the floors were their permits to live indoors—but Raine wouldn't be able to talk to them and ask them if what she had written was true and even if she did want to make a fool of herself, it wasn't like they would answer!
After jamming her things haphazardly into her book bag, she hastened to exit the room and up the nearest stairs to the second floor, skipping as many steps at a time as her skirt would permit. As was usual during the month of February—the month of the final scoring of projects—people littered the second floor which usually remained empty of people otherwise.
People came from miles around and from every Province to view the projects. The best that Raine had ever gotten in the Fair was a bronze ribbon. But if her lying hand was telling the truth, she had entered an entire new level of life—the high life.
Her heart started beating as she walked through the halls, heading towards the room that housed the category she had entered under. "Cybernetic Evolution" was pasted to the door and she nervously reached for the handle.
Not only had she never gotten so much as a red ribbon second before but there was also no history of the Gold Cup First being in the Cybernetic Evolution department.
"Congratulations." The voice startled her when it was whispered in her ear and she could have sworn she jumped twenty feet into the air out of fright.
Then there was laughter and she finally registered whose voice it had been. She whirled about to glare at Relic—or she would have done so if her backpack had not got caught on another student's backpack string.
The effect, though she would find it humorous later on in life, was rather drastically embarrassing for the six parties involved at the time. The boy whose backpack she had caught on to toppled into her, and she toppled into Relic; Relic, in turn, toppled into two other people, who both fell on the sixth party (though Raine was sure that was intentional).
The term "monkey pile", normally used only between playful siblings, was being graciously tested out and Raine felt if any more heat flew to her face she would be able to easily warm the house of a family of twenty.
When the six were finally disentangled from each other, she found it much easier to repress the memory of where exactly her face had landed and the reason for her flaming cheeks. Relic was laughing and using her for support.
"Honestly, Relic, I have never in my life seen a twenty three year old act as you often do! My gosh!" Raine complained, though didn't stop him from taking her hand in his. She liked the warm feeling she always got in her gut when he played out his game of romances.
She could easily play with a man's heart and knew from experience how easy it was to destroy a man's confidence in his self, but Relic was something special.
Her face flamed even more when she felt his lips brush her cheek, right in front of everyone else, and she could tell several females nearby were pursing their lips with what looked to be something akin to jealousy.
Relic was one of the "hotties" to the majority of the feminine population, not just females in other words but both genders. Raine wouldn't disagree that there were indeed men who were more feminine than their women counterparts.
She had seen them herself and actually preferred feminine males to feminine females because they tended to be far more realistic on what the word beautiful meant, not overdoing the makeup so they looked like clowns in a circus.
"I know," he admitted, lacing his fingers with hers. "You often tell me that. But for every ounce of formality that is you, I'm your lucid counterpart. So what's up? Why are you so jumpy today?"
He pulled her off to the side so that people could enter the room and she found she wanted to run from him and to the room to find out whether or not her hand was a liar. The wait was only proving that she could become more anxious than before.
"I heard that the...um...model on," she stammered, trying to find her voice and her thoughts. It wasn't working. In between every word she found that she was thinking "Gold Cup First" and she certainly didn't enter the Gold Cup First as her project! That would be ludicrous! So then if she didn't enter the Gold Cup First, what had she entered? She'd be damned if she could recall.
He laughed and let go of her hand to favor putting his arm around her tiny shoulders, leading her into the room. Out of the eight entries on the tables, she found that the press had congregated to the seventh table upon which sat her holographic model and next to it was a small statue of a gold computer with the screen on the monitor made out of silver on a desk made completely out of gold.
She gasped when she got close enough to see that it was her information inscribed on the computer's silver monitor screen.
Gold Cup First
Rewarded to
Raine L. Okuna for the
Holographic Model on
Artificial Resourcefulness
in Tangibility in
Cybernetic Evolution
It was tiny print, but that was her name and her information. Suddenly the world seemed to lighten around her. She could easily take care of the Motshuria girls if she could go from a bronze ribbon all the way to the Gold Cup First.
She hardly registered the questions that the press was asking her, though she knew that somehow she had answered them all.
After they had all left, her energy to wait had left her and she darted forward towards the pyramid that looked much like pyramids of ancient Egypt. She pulled open the side panel and started the holographic sequence, watching the beam of green holographic light shoot out of the top.
There was the image she had recorded weeks before and it developed itself, showing precisely how A.R.T. worked. She wouldn't have told anyone how to create it, because who would believe that a twenty year old could have made it?
Smart or not, no one would believe her and she would be thrown into a mental institution and then someone with more "credibility" would steal her knowledge for their own.
She did not want that and she already knew that soon she would be officially instated as a member of the Decoloratio Venalicium and she would have more ability to prove herself to the world than she ever thought possible.
She was so happy that she won she threw her arms around Relic's neck and kissed him soundly. She was delighted when he returned the special moment; embracing her waist with his arms to be sure she was as close as they could possibly be without being a single entity.
The holographic model's voice, which was the voice of Computer, Raine's computer, kept on speaking for a moment before it, like the rest of the world, decided to interrupt the beautiful moment.
"Miss Okuna, if I may speak freely?"
Raine paled at the sound of Computer and immediately felt the difference. Relic's arms had become slack on her waist and his head had swiveled to the model. Even if it was a model on A.R.T. he knew it was most certainly not supposed to be able to register who was or was not in the room.
Raine had thought that if she had just ignored Computer, the computer would get the hint and say no more; Raine could have chalked it off as fingerprinting in the key panel. She had no such luck, as the computer—which she was sure she was going to destroy!—continued to speak.
"Miss Okuna, I beg forgiveness most humbly," Raine wished she hadn't activated the model, because it was connected directly with the computer she had made at home and that computer had greater Artificial Intelligence than anything else, though reaching the home computer would be impossible from the model (which was another of Raine's ingenious creations, even if she did say so herself). "You are ignoring me, Miss Okuna?"
Relic had completely released Raine by then, his body turning to stare at the model, his jaw dropped so far that it was almost as though it would break if it went any further. "What the fu—"
Computer hadn't even given him a chance to finish his sentence before it spoke again and her tone was very demanding—yes, Raine considered Computer a female.
"I will excuse your brash language as a form of observation of your lack of intelligence, though for one to be allowed to touch Miss Okuna I should hope she chooses more wisely of a future prospective husband. She is very far out of your league as the saying goes."
This time it was Raine's turn to be shocked. Never before had Computer spoke further without permission from Raine or Rin and Raine was not sure how to gauge this new detail.
"Furthermore, you are a dilapidated American unworthy of Miss Okuna's attention and valuable time. I suggest you be on your way, you impertinent man-creature."
Raine could have sworn her face turned several undiscovered as of yet shades of red but she couldn't have been prouder of Computer. Her computer had exceeded all expectations that she had placed for it.
The recorder whirred ever so slightly as it recorded the conversation onto the tape. The spindle continuously spun in a clockwise motion and the tape on the spindle moved from the left to the right, the right spindle loading slowly while the left spindle emptied at the same rate.
There sat a man in his chair in a dark building, listening to the conversation as it was recorded. His smile was broad across his pale face and there were the definite markings on his face; two maroon colored lines crossed horizontally towards his nose across his cheekbones and a right facing—to the viewer—blue crescent-shaped marking hovered on his forehead, half-hidden by his striking silver bangs.
Some men called him a fool for not getting rid of his long silver hair, which hung precariously down to his knees, and perhaps he was a fool. This information, however, did not perturb his insistence on keeping the hair.
Soon, he would return to his throne. Soon he would not just be a prince. The half of a second that his sibling had on him, the half of a second which made him not the heir, would be rolled around.
"I've always been barren."
"Have you, Haru? Or was it your choice of wife?"
"No, I am the one unable to conceive. My brother, my twin, is the real father of all three of my children."
The listener smirked at those few words and continued listening with glee. Haru Nokugami had not been born with the mark of the heir in the first place, so it would not take a rocket scientist to figure that Haru was indeed not the father of his supposed sons and daughter. The very fact that his sons took after him, the listening man, was proof enough.
Inuyasha had the same ears as the listening man, though he hid them under a concealing spell. The ears could still be felt on top of Inuyasha's head if he chose to alert anyone to their existence; the ears that looked human on his head were fake, mere illusions. A hand trying to touch those ears would go right through and would instead feel the start of the puppy ears.
Sesshoumaru harbored the mark of the heir—the crescent shaped marking and the striped marks in various places on his body. It appeared he hid them and his pointed ears behind the concealing spell, but Yuri, sweet child, did not hide herself.
She instead chose to separate herself from Sesshoumaru and Inuyasha, rightfully angry at them for hiding what they truly were. She also had the mark of the heir which stunned the listening man.
Never before had two been born with the mark of the heir; but she was the first female born to the family in several centuries.
"You have a twin?"
"I do."
"How do you know you are not the father?"
"My second wife got pregnant a second time; my son, it appeared, was messing around with her heart. He got her pregnant and so I had her shot in the head with a shotgun. I made sure to make it look suicidal. I could not be wrong about this—though my son denies."
The listening man bit back an indignant scoff. Nekura, the woman who had done only one thing right in her life and that was to conceive Inuyasha, had been molesting her sons for years. Did Haru not know?
Sesshoumaru and Inuyasha would never have sexual relations with Nekura willingly, and the listening man knew that it was not either of his sons to get Nekura pregnant; because Nekura had sexual relations with many random men—in the very bed she shared with Haru.
"And how does this make it so you are infertile?"
"My first wife went running back to my brother and he got her pregnant. Do you get it now?"
"Yes, oh ho ho! I get it now. This is so much fun, Haru, I have a plan! Do you want to get back at your brother? Do you, hm?"
"I do. I do."
"Oh ho ho! Let us turn the children, my dear Haru! Your brother, oh ho ho, he would be mad?"
"He would. He tries to keep in contact with them, but I have so far managed to impede him from doing so. I fear I have not much time left alive, my health."
The listening man felt the frown cross his face. Something was going to happen to his children? What was going to happen to his children? He did not like the woman's voice. She sounded like a mad woman, but what was the plan?
"I shall contact you, Haru. It shall be, as we speak!"
The listening man turned away from the recorder and began writing down the contents of the recording. Finally, someone would get what was coming to them! Something would go right in his life. He wouldn't be second, and his children would learn the truth.
Kagome found a sigh building in her throat as she had Kagura help her into the beautiful gown, though she wasn't exactly one to appreciate the delicacy of the silk brushing her legs. She preferred the rougher material to something so feminine, but that was just her.
Kagura, also, mentioned how she probably wouldn't be caught dead wearing silk if she could have the rough feel of leather. But then again, it wasn't Kagome's wedding; it was her mother's and she would do anything to make her mother happy (though not without complaints!).
Kagome was, needless to say, very nervous. Kohaku looked cool and collected, talking with Sesshoumaru below the two females, wearing a tuxedo with a green tie to match Kagome's green and silver gown. Sammy was fixing Kagome's make-up for the long evening ahead. Kagome had been up since an ungodly hour of six preparing for the day.
"You look sexy." Kagura promised her with a smirk. Kagura was relaxed while Kagome was tense. She had a very bad feeling about the evening. Something was making her edgy and she wanted to know what it was. She didn't want to be nervous or jumpy or anything of the sort because it made her irritable.
Monday and Tuesday had been filled with running errands to make sure she could be in college again and showing Kagura the town, making sure that Kagura, Hiei, and Yusuke would have an apartment, and making sure that Kanna and Shuichi were comfortable and had what they wanted.
Kanna and Shuichi were still sleeping, lying together on a futon in Sammy's daughter's room on the floor and would continue to do so for an hour or so.
Nothing really interesting had happened on Monday and Tuesday except that Kohaku had been sleeping over, which was why Kanna and Shuichi were moved into Sammy's daughter's room.
Kagome and Kohaku hadn't done anything with each other, but it was nice to have the private space to be together. They still had only had intercourse once and it would probably remain that way for quite some time; Kagome intended to hold back on sex until she was married and Kohaku was quick to understand that.