Miroku paced. He placed one foot in front of the other, then the next, then the next crossing the room several times as he waited for his mother to exit the bathroom. Miroku was the reason his eight younger brothers were lined up in the kitchen, primped and prodded into at least half wakefulness and dressed in their finest outfits.
Unfortunately, the "finest" outfits consisted mostly of oversized dress-shirts and pants that were hand-me-downs from older siblings (mainly Miroku) and shabby tennis-shoes, but that was what happened when a person came from a poor family.
Miroku stopped in front of the youngest brother and glanced down his nose at him, taking in the youngest child's appearance. Miroku was glad he was not his brothers.
His mother had been so chalked up on pain killers when she had given birth to each and every one of the eight kids that they had been given names like food.
Chocolate, the youngest, wore a white tee-shirt and black pants too big for him. The tennis shoes he wore were falling off his feet because they were so big but he couldn't keep his hair flat on his head.
Miroku sighed and went to get a comb. Knocking politely on the bathroom door, he said, "Mother, can I get a comb?" A freckled hand reached out from the bathroom holding a comb which he took and made his way back to Chocolate; a whopping four feet.
"Stop touching your hair." He ordered, and Chocolate obeyed. The twenty two year old spat on the comb and tried to make sense of the tangled mop. He might have used water, if the apartment had any.
When the hair had some semblance of order, he stood again from his kneeling position and looked along the line of eight children with a speculative look.
It couldn't be helped that the children were ladled with bruises thanks to their mother's abusive drunk habits, but Miroku didn't exactly have a solution for their situation without them all getting separated. He cared for his little brothers even if he tried not to admit it.
"I have rules," he said, quietly so their mother would not hear. "Stick by me during the wedding ceremony. Mushroom, Sausage, Pepperoni, and Cheese, I want you to each pick one younger brother to stick with after that and keep an eye on."
He winced, recalling the singular middle name for each of the four older kids. Pizza was the middle name each of them had. He was glad his was at least normal: Miroku James Shishuni.
Well, he supposed it wasn't so bad to have Pizza for a middle name when they could have had something worse like IceCream. The set of younger children consisted of Chocolate, Fudge, Caramel, and MintChip; all of them harbored the middle name IceCream.
Miroku had just confused himself...he didn't know which was worse. To be called MintChip Icecream, or Pepperoni Pizza. Even worse were the contradictory personalities to their names. None of the children liked the particular thing that their name described.
And to top that off, Pizza and Icecream was basically all they could afford for dinner and desert every night but with the two jobs Miroku had been working, there was usually enough to get multi-mix Icecream and Pizza with every topping.
"Yes, Miroku." The eight children chanted and he blinked a few times, staring at them. Had he taught them that? Yes, he believed he had...when had that happened?
Scratching the back of his neck he looked at the eight children whose ages ranged from seven to fourteen. It would not be the nine Shishuni boys who made fools of themselves. Money or not, Shishuni was a noble name in history.
Chocolate, being the very youngest at age seven, couldn't keep his hands off his head and kept messing up his hair while trying to smooth it down. Miroku didn't bother trying to stop him. Chocolate was at least decent compared to their mother who had just come out of the bathroom dressed for a night out.
She wasn't going to celebrate the beautiful union between two people; she was going to get drunk off of the free alcohol. Miroku wouldn't deny his brothers some fun at the event, but knew that he would have to be on edge for his brothers' sakes.
It was hard, what he had to admit later that night. But he wanted to know if it was going to be alright and the person he would ask would know best.
"Put the shoes on, Kagome! Let's see how you look!" Kagura insisted and Kagome shook her head viciously. "Oh come on, Kagome!" Again, Kagome shook her head so hard that her hair threatened to come out of its elaborate 'do.
Kagome was not stupid; while she did grow up to believe wearing your shoes in the house would bring in evil spirits, she didn't hold heart to that quite as much since she'd worn her shoes for three years in and out of the temple in Snowsville. She wasn't going to put the shoes on and then walk down the stairs to get to the waiting limo.
That would have just been silly especially since she hadn't worn high heels for three years and even then she had hardly been perfect at it needing three weeks of practice in Yura's house before she was ready to be the slutty girlfriend of Sesshoumaru.
"Be reasonable, Kagura." Sammy stated simply. "Only in movies does the girl walk down stairs in high heels because it's a romantic scene in which the boy rushes to catch her and save her from potential harm." She plucked a loose hair from Kagome's dress and let it fall to the floor.
It was surprising that Sammy had actually come up the stairs to the loft with her fear of heights, but it proved she thought highly of Kagome and that made Kagome feel really good. Sammy was doing far better about the situation in which she had gotten raped.
While Kagome would have preferred it be something else that had brought Sammy closer to her in a friendship, the attack on Sammy had indeed brought something about. Kagome made a face at Sammy and Kagura as she looked at her appearance in the mirror. "I feel like..."
"A girl?" Kagura supplied and Sammy and Kagura began to laugh. "Go down then. Sammy and I will bring Shuichi and Kanna in a little while."
Kagome went down the stairs carefully, minding the dress so she didn't get it caught on the railing. It was one of the slowest stair descents that she'd ever had in her life and that included the time she slipped on ice going down the stairs at the Shrine and bounced down each and every step like a rag doll.
When she was finally on flat ground, she checked the dress for rips and was pleased to find none. A smile on her face, she looked towards Sesshoumaru and Kohaku and was pleased to find Kohaku wasn't the only one of the two with DJS, or in strung out terms, Dropped Jaw Syndrome.
"Kagome...You look...good." Kohaku finished in a breathy voice, his eyes wide as he drank in her form. She felt a blush stain her cheeks under his chocolate brown stare and self-consciously her hands went to smooth the skirt of the dress.
The dress was modest and had a long sleeved jacket but she had wondered if the v-neck showed perhaps a bit too much cleavage and the open back just a bit too much skin. The jacket would cover that cleavage and open back while she wore it, but she wouldn't wear it all night.
None of that mattered once Kohaku had approved though. The silver of the dress and jacket brought out the stark raven color of her hair and reminded her of the moon. Its strong light never wavered during the night even if she couldn't see it. It was there still and she knew it was, even during the night of the new moon.
"Um...thanks."
Sesshoumaru chuckled at the two. "You're going to be late for your magic carriage." He said when the two couldn't seem to part their locked eyes. Kohaku and Kagome seemed like such a perfect couple that Sesshoumaru wondered why he had ever bothered to wish that he could steal Kagome away from Kohaku.
The very idea was preposterous! But Kagome did look very good in her dress and he couldn't help but see how much of a woman the young girl he used to crush on had grown into before he had realized it.
A few weeks earlier and he would have laughed at the idea of Kagome ever being more than a girl he had crushed on at one very long point in his life, but now she was so much more than that and he found he actually hoped she ended up with a man who would treat her right and give her what was due to her.
She was a special woman and he could see that now. Strangely enough, he wanted once more to be that man, but he pushed that away instantly. Would he ever truly get over her? What sort of spell did she work on his heart?
"Kagome, your shoes." Kagura called from above, looking down on the scene. Sammy was sitting on the steps and inching her way down to the floor step by step, the shoebox in her lap, her eyes squeezed shut as tight as she could make them.
Kagome took the box from Sammy and thanked the two of them when there was a knock on the door. She answered it to find Yusuke, Hiei, Sango, and Souta there waiting for her.
"Kagome, wait." Kohaku said, digging in his jacket pocket for something. Just as he had pulled out a little black velvet box, Kagome had bent down to lace on the high heels. "I have to ask you—"
"Ask me later." Kagome said, looking at the clock on the wall. She didn't see the box or his disheartened look as he replaced it in his jacket, but Sesshoumaru saw this.
Was Kohaku going to propose? It seemed likely, but why on the day of his father's wedding? Didn't that seem a little cliché? It seemed like asking to share the joy of another wedding unbidden. But Kohaku was a good man even if he was rather clumsy and he would treat Kagome right.
Souta, Sango, Hiei, and Yusuke were all complimenting Kagome on how she looked and she was returning the favor for Sango. Sesshoumaru knew things had gotten back to normal; the world was back to its old self where he was ignored in Kagome's eyes and she left to go to the wedding with Kohaku's arm around her waist for support as she walked unsteadily on her high heeled feet.
"Back to normal?" he muttered. "And I actually care..?"
"Did you say something, Sesshoumaru?" Sammy asked as she closed the door. Yusuke and Hiei were up in the loft talking to Kagura in whispers and from the sounds coming from Tea's room Shuichi and Kanna were waking up.
"No," Sesshoumaru shook his head. "Just thinking." So if Sesshoumaru felt like he wanted to be the man to treat Kagome right, why the heck was he dating Sammy?
The first thing Shuichi saw when he woke up was the close up of the beautiful well taken care of platinum blond hair that belonged to Kanna and he felt a blush creep to his face.
Kanna had curled up next to him in the futon—literally curled up next to him. One of her legs was between his two, and one of her ghostly hands was across his chest.
He was so embarrassed he shoved her off of him rather rudely. She jerked awake looking confused. She obviously didn't realize that she had been laying on him. Did that make it worse, or better? Either way he had to explain some reason as to why he had just shoved her across the futon!
Curinrin Legume gave her tight bun a pat as she sat in the chair of the brightly lit room. Her thoughts wandered to why James would call her so often for their meetings. What was going through James' head?
She stood after ten minutes of waiting and paced over to the window of the high building, looking down at the street. The building looked like a lawyer firm and while lawyers did work on the first floor, that was not the true intent of the building.
The Decoloratio Venalicium, also known as the D.V., was a wide-spread operation throughout the entirety of Japan and had a headquarters in nearly every important city, Sunset being one of the important cities all thanks to Sunset's Shrink. Curinrin was not ignorant to the D.V. and had in fact grown up to it.
She was very good at lying, stealing, computers...but she was getting older in age and couldn't do everything she used to. Her daughter, Raine, was far more observant than she had thought originally and was beginning to get suspicious of her.
With her upcoming fifty-seventh birthday and the fact that she was married to a cop (of sorts) she wanted to be able to relax. James was putting her on edge once more. She couldn't tell if she hated him for that, or liked him as much as she liked a cockroach in her spot-free kitchen. She hated cockroaches with a vengeance.
"James..." she snarled, seeing his reflection in the window. The tall, wiry man who called himself her younger step-brother was smirking at her. With the wedding only an hour away, no one would know they were meeting yet again in the office.
Everyone in the town was watching the wedding take place in the Shrine from any vantage point that they could. The Shrine would be packed with thousands of people left and right, up and down, backward and forward.
"Yes," he said, his black eyes darting to each corner of the room as though checking the shadows made by the lack of light. No one would be there of course, but it was habit—one which Curinrin knew all too well. The bald man walked closer to her and she took a step back, bumping into the window ledge.
His chuckle was low and humored, his eyes never left hers. Of course, she was afraid; she would be mad not to be. James Hiatz was a simple but feared name in the Decoloratio Venalicium.
"I have a family, James." She snapped, trying to regain control of her emotions. It was impossible not to have emotions at all, but to show her fear was going to soon lead to her death. "My daughter is getting suspicious of my disappearances, and my husband is bound to notice the lacking in my cooking! Why must you drag me away from my home life? I am too old for this!"
He laughed outright at her. "You know as well as I, there is no retirement. If one calls another, they must answer the beckoning." His lean figure towered over her stocky small one and yet still she defied him by looking in his eyes. She did not see the eyes of the kind history teacher, but instead saw the truth behind the man's mask.
She saw the hardened killer for who he really was. The 'suicides' that he caused, the unexplained deaths; it was him who had done it all and he had done it loyally.
She had heard he had been employed again after sixteen years without missions but who the mark was, she had yet to know. After days of meeting with James, Curinrin had yet to talk about the mission with him and it was making her even more agitated because she knew he wanted to speak of it. "And if I ignore you? Because I will if you call me one more—"
James cut her off mid-sentence, smiling down at her, his pearly whites showing off brightly. He was intimidating her, forcing her to lean closer to the window. She wanted to know of her grandbabies before she died and being rebellious might not be the right way to do that, she realized.
If her father had not been second to the current leader in the underground, she might have had more of a chance of a normal life.
"The window..." James smirked and she heard the sound of the window straining under the pressure. James' voice was heavy with the accent of years learning many languages and not being quite sure which accent to take as his own. "Jon Eccard, do you recall that name?"
She nodded and he continued, "I believe he fell out of a window. So did Melanie Tobilik, Serena Franz, Yerome Warb, and Raoul Bernard. Those are only a few that I can recall off the top of my head."
She felt her face get hot as the blood rushed to it and she knew he was lying. He could recall every name, face, and profile of every single man and woman he had killed. She could see it in his eyes.
Age was getting her head fuzzy; age and a lack of continued exposure to the D.V. There had been one point in her life when she would never have shaken in fear from a death threat but that time was long gone.
She pulled herself instinctively a few centimeters away from the groaning window and found she was so close to him that her nose was just inches from touching the tall man's chest.
"You're afraid, Curinrin? Where is the fighter you once were? There had been a time you would never have—oh, what's this?" She felt a brush against the tops of her breasts and gasped indignantly, her arms instinctively moving to cover the offended body parts, and then she felt a tug on her neck and heard a snap.
Seconds later, he had moved away from her and was leaning against the desk, a small gold locket in his hands, the broken chain dangling towards the ground as he opened it and looked inside. He saw two girls inside, both identical to the other except for their hair styles. "Ahh, Rin and Raine Okuna. Yes, I know of Rin, but tell me about Raine. She is not in high school?"
Curinrin gulped and looked determinedly at the carpet. "Raine is in college, James. Why must you frighten me so? You know I fear you, anyone in their right mind would if they knew who you really were!"
"No, Curinrin." Again, he shook slightly from laughter. "Not everyone fears me—you're an exception to the rule because I dislike your kind. Marrying into the police was the most forward mistake you could have made. Should he find out, do you not realize what potential danger you put us all in?" She heard him clucking his tongue on his teeth.
"I know the danger! Father knows, and so does Master Nokugami! The arrangement was made by father, and I only grew to love him!"
He continued as though she had not just shrieked at him at the top of her lungs, unheard by the rest of the town because of the lack of people within hearing range to hear. "You also don't seem to realize the potential danger that I could be to you. I could easily destroy you, more than just by taking your life. For instance, Rin... such a pretty girl, is she not?"
Curinrin gulped and nodded her agreement though she didn't like the way the odds were against her. "Yes...she's very pretty..."
"A girl's heart, whether artificial or organic," he knew about Rin being a Cyborg, he had done his research on the young child, "is easy to toy with. I know the perfect boy who would easily be able to crush Rin's heart and confidence, leaving her an empty shell to live the rest of her days in an institute."
He would not do that, of course. He liked Rin, and her charming wit never ceased to amuse him, but he wouldn't tell Curinrin that. "And Raine, poor girl, following the dangerous treads of her mother and falling for a dangerous Seed. I know quite a few delightful rapists, including the taxi-driver who I have watching her. They want to play, and with the snap of my fingers, a ring of my cell phone, she's left in a gutter."
"You wouldn't!"
"I would... but I won't if you do something for me. Someone must die today, but it needn't be Sunset's Shrink. Madison Saeko wants Mrs. Onigumo dead, but I happen to have my own reasons to keep the woman alive. I have found a suitable replacement, but I need the woman brought to Mrs. Onigumo during the reception to take the bullet for her. At seven fifty-eight PM, Atlanta Shishuni must be brought there. Do you understand?"
Curinrin nodded and watched him pocket her locket. He would keep it because he knew the loss would remind her of her duties. "Don't forget, or you will be the one taking the bullet, whether I have to bring it to you, or not."
He pulled an envelope out of his pocket and handed it to her, his long fingers brushing hers. Seemingly out of nowhere, she felt a sharp pain in her upper arm. A horizontal slash rested there and his other hand was holding a small knife.
"A little extra incentive, dear sister. I will personally do such to your husband's throat if you fail, and I'll make you watch. And then, I'll give you the bullet, personalized with your name on it so they can I.D. the body."
He was as quickly gone as he had come and she wondered at how silent he moved. She had never heard a single noise from him except when he wanted her to.
She rushed as quickly as she could to the wedding, trying to stop the bleeding from the deep gash in her arm. Tears from fear and pain rushed down her cheeks and she wondered if she was the only sane person in her family.
Several people around her could smell the blood she was trying to stop, but she could do nothing for it. She pushed her way through the thousands of people, trying to find her daughters and husband. Blood dripped down her arm into the snow on the Shrine steps but she could do nothing for it.
When finally she had pushed far enough to the front to witness the scene, she stopped in her tracks and admired the simplicity of the wedding and the beauty of it.
The God tree was like a halo of icy beauty and underneath it in a small clearing surrounded by people were Kali and Mich, their two children on either side of them, the monk behind them. They were holding hands and speaking to each other.
"I swear to be happy with you, to love you unconditionally, to share my secrets with you as well as my not-so secrets. I will always honor your decisions, and yours will be just as important as my own. My love for you will remain unwavering, as will my trust in you. My devotion will be your passion; my tolerance will be your intelligence; my ingenuity will be your communication. I will not blame you, I will not harm you, and I will not ignore you. You will be my heart, my soul, my present, and my future."
It was so romantic as they said the words together in unison that Curinrin almost forgot about her arm entirely.
Kali's wedding was stunted with the death of Naraku. Whether or not he had been her true lover, he had still been her friend and she respected him. It was unfair that any disease could take him away when he was only in his forties. He had been young, too young to die.
Kali was smiling on the outside, but it was just a performance. She was not as happy as she could have been, knowing that the man who had promised to walk her down the isle had died only days before he could see his children and her again.
She wanted to know so bad if he was happy when he died or if he had been in pain. She would feel so guilty if he had been in pain because she couldn't please him enough and he had felt he needed to get his kicks elsewhere.
Mich wasn't the man that Naraku had been, dark and mysterious, but he had a kind light to him and as a stable woman she had to keep from being too wild and adventurous.
As she spoke her vow, in unison with Mich, she allowed a single tear to course her cheek. It was the first she had shed in a long time, since the kidnapping where she had thought her children had been lost to her and she had failed them. It was not a tear of happiness, but a tear of remorse for the things she had lost.
Naraku had been a good man and she hoped he had gotten peace in his final moments. It was important to her that he had not felt guilty for the pains he had put her through. He had been her strength, her will to continue going. Both he and her children had been her strength, and she hoped he knew this.
Kagome had plastered a smile on her face as she stood out in the cold in a silk dress that did nothing to ward away the harsh winds. She shivered and knew her lips would have been as blue as her eyes had they not been so loaded with bright red lipstick.
She did not share in the joy that she was positive her mother felt. How could she? It had originally been that Naraku would walk Kali up the 'isle', or more accurately he would wheel his wheel chair up to the God tree while holding Kali's hand.
Unfortunately, the Grim Reaper had decided to mock Kali and take Naraku over fifty years too early.
Kagome clenched the bouquet of flowers tight in her fist and took a deep breath. Who would have thought thirty five years ago that Kali would be marrying the boy who had been her neighbor and who she would play with as a child?
But Kagome found she didn't care about any of that. She just wanted to block Naraku from her mind at the moment and enjoy her life. That only served to make her feel guilty. She didn't want to forget Naraku; she just wanted the pain at his memory to stop.
The maid had been so cruel about how she broke the news that every time the words echoed in Kagome's mind, she just wanted to break into sobs.
"Well, at least I saw him leave in a body bag."
Kagome closed her eyes, forcing the tears back. She took a deep breath and let it out. She would not be the one to ruin Kali's special day! It was her mother's day to be happy!
But why, why did Naraku have to leave Kagome? He had always kept his promises and he had promised that he would not leave her just like that. He had said he would always say goodbye.
It was your own fault he couldn't say goodbye. You should have gone to visit him. He was a paraplegic and you knew this. Mobility was not as easy for him as it was for you!
The snide voice in her head was right and its words made it even harder to keep from crying. She didn't hear the vow being exchanged in unison. She was locked inside her mind, fighting with herself.
When she opened her eyes again, the wedding seemed to be over and she found herself staring at an ethereal version of herself. Something was off about her and she just couldn't figure out what it was.
She recalled seeing this same girl in Raspuit, the first time she had gone there with Kagura and Hiei. She had seen the girl when they had stopped temporarily because of the lights being red.
As soon as she blinked, the girl was gone. She looked every which way for her, but she was just gone and didn't seem that she would be coming back. Disappointed, she shivered and looked at the dispersing crowd of Sunset civilians.
She had no idea that her mother was as famous as having the entire day called off for the sake of a wedding, but apparently there was at least one person in every family in Kali's care and they all wanted to honor her with their presence. It was touching to see.
Kagome watched Kohaku walk over and offer his arm to her, taking it with a smile. "Thy beauty enthralls this poor man's eyes. Such charms as rumors do thee hardly any justice."
Kagome gave him a half-smile. Had he seen her sadness? Was it that apparent that he wanted to cheer her up with aged speech? She didn't know, nor did she try to understand. She was grateful for the excuse to get away from the thoughts of mysterious hallucinations and dead fathers.
"Be careful what you say, Kohaku. You might make her feel important." Sango joked, tossing an arm over Kagome's shoulders, keeping her from taking Kohaku's proffered arm.
"You know, someone might think you're actually a girl if you stay in that dress." Souta said, walking over and grinning at Sango. "Now, now, Sango. I thought you were here with me!" He faked a sob. "I thought you loved me!" He drug out the word loved and threw in a few sobs of hysterics between the words.
Sango snorted heavily out of her nose and said, "Yeah well, too damn bad. Kagome's really my lover. We've been having an affair." It was just the way she said it, so matter-of-fact, that made Kagome burst into laughter.
This was what she had been missing; the teasing, the taunting, and the all-around good time that she had with her friends, who were now her brother and sister.
"Thy hateful words scorn this poor man!" Kohaku sniffled. "And ye give no word to thy lover?"
"Nope." Sango said before Kagome could say a word, or even stop laughing. "That's what an affair is, dear brother. It's a secret relationship, usually kept away from the third party. Besides, you're an idiot anyway. Kagome could do way better. Like Sesshoumaru for instance!"
It was at this point that Kohaku became silent and thoughtful. The courtyard was empty. Everyone had gone with the bride and groom to the city hall or else went back home or to work depending on where they needed to be. Unlike the wedding, not quite everyone was invited though there still was a good deal of invited guests. Only a few birds littered the place here and there, pecking at the ground hopefully.
Kagome made a face, though she felt her heart racing at the thought of being with Sesshoumaru and his avalanche kisses. The majority of her felt completely repulsed at the idea but there was this tiny part in her that told her she did like him at least a little.
"Sesshoumaru's got nothin' on Kohaku." Kagome said. "For one, Sesshoumaru is taller than me by six or seven inches and Kohaku's just right." She kissed Kohaku's cheek and he brightened up.
His hand went to his pocket and began fiddling with something there as they walked toward the Shrine steps, to walk down them to get into the waiting limo. Kagome and Sango stumbled every so often, more used to the feel of flat tennis shoes not lace up stilettos with skinny heels. "Kagome, stop making him feel important. He might trip." Sango said knowingly.
To emphasize that, just as they reached the top of the Shrine stairs something happened and it made Kagome's eyes widen and a horror stricken look crossed her face. Kohaku, who had been dubbed Trip so long ago because of his lack of grace, slipped on a spot of ice and went tumbling down each and every stair.
"Kohaku! Oh heavens, Kohaku!" Kagome called when he didn't move at the bottom of the stairs. He was in quite the awkward position, with his feet over his head in a backwards arch, his face smashed into the ground.
When Kohaku stood, it was with slow and mechanical movements. Kagome, Sango, and Souta stood at the top of the stairs with wide eyes, each of them wondering how Kohaku's head could possibly be so thick that a trip down over one thousand steps would not harm him.
Of course, Kagome had gone tumbling down those same stairs when she was younger and had not been affected much more than a few scrapes and bruises. It was, at least, not as dangerous a fall as falling off the wall surrounding the shrine was.
"I'm okay!" he called up. "Just a bit dizzy." The proof was that he was staggering back and forth, holding his head. He looked drunk, Kagome thought, but he hadn't had anything to drink.
After the three had descended the stairs to join Kohaku at the bottom, they surveyed the tottering man. His state could have been worse at least. He had a scrape on his forehead and his clothes were a little torn but other than that nothing looked very doctor-worthy.
"Geez, you look horrible." Souta told Kohaku.
"Yeah well, you're no beauty queen yourself, buster!" Kohaku snapped and leaned on Souta's arm. "I feel like I've been hit with a can opener several times, with the can attached."
Kagome began smoothing the fabric on him, dusting it off with her hands. "You don't look like you feel, if that makes you feel better. You're still the same handsome man I love."
Kohaku seemed to stand a little straighter and his hand went to his pocket but just at that moment Kagome heard her name being shouted out. She looked to see who was calling her and saw Miroku, dressed in his finest dress shirt and pants with his jacket on hurrying over to them. When he reached them, he bent double and his breath was wheezing. "I was hoping to catch up to you guys." He huffed.
"Hey, Miroku, what's up?" Kagome asked the panicked twenty-three year old. He looked dangerously pale even for the cold weather like he had just witnessed a cold blooded murder, and Kagome knew what people looked like after they just witnessed a cold blooded murder too.
It was impossible to forget the look of the child in Tokyo who she, Kagura, Hiei, and Yusuke had helped the police take care of and keep alive after the child had witnessed a murder. She wondered if that young girl still had nightmares about the event, which was possible—it had only been a few months since it had happened.
"My mom just took off with my brothers, so I was wondering if I could hitch a ride with you guys?" He ran a hand through his disheveled hair and found the hair tie was missing so it was no longer in the usual dragon's tail at the nape of his neck.
Instead it flowed freely around his head whipping about in the wind and gave him a more rugged look. Kagome noticed that same had still worn the purple sleeve and the rosary around his wrist and hand. She wondered if he ever took it off, because she could not recall a single time seeing him without it.
"Dude, why ask?" Souta scoffed. "You know you can. Besides, they got champagne in there! Come on, Kagome, let's go! Tonight, I'm gonna get you drunk."
"I've been drunk before, Souta. It's nothing great, really. It's overrated." Kagome promised him as she let him drag her to the waiting limousine. Once they had all clamored into the vehicle and the driver drove off, Souta looked in the ice freezer in the back for the supposed bottle of alcohol. He groaned and flipped sideways down on the seat, his head landing in Sango's lap.
"No champagne, no alcohol...no nothing!"
Kagome sighed and said, "I told you, being drunk is really overrated."
"Okay, tell me what your first drunk experience was like." Souta demanded and Kagome complied.
She smoothed the fabric of the skirt to the dress nervously before she did, not sure if she wanted to tell him the messy embarrassing time she'd had at her 'college graduation' party. Deciding that she didn't want to keep secrets from her oldest friends she sighed and began.
"Well, I graduated college about three months ago and Keiko Yukimura, a fellow graduate, had thrown this really big party at her parents' mansion. I honestly had never met any two people more conservative than her parents. They didn't want to house the party but Keiko managed to get them to do so and Kagura and I were invited to the party. We of course had to bring dates, so I brought Yusuke and Kagura brought Hiei.
"Well, after the first eight drinks, I was beginning to get tipsy. And then after three more, I hopped into Keiko's pool and tried to drown myself. Yusuke and Kagura were really drunk and both were on couches with two different of my classmates, but Hiei dove in and pulled me back out of the water, cursing my idiocy the entire way." Kagome sighed.
"After that, Hiei drug me, Yusuke, and Kagura back to the temple and then the police came and busted the party up. But hey, I didn't make as much of a fool out of myself as Keiko did.
"She hopped up onto a table and began stripping and when she was naked, she screamed at her parents that they couldn't control her anymore, that she wasn't a little girl. Her parents had the police arrest her for causing a Domestic Disturbance and she spent three months in jail."
Instead of the chuckles she had expected, she got silence. The four of them were staring at her and she rolled her eyes, crossing her arms over her chest. Miroku only made the evening tenser by what he had said right after her story.
The silence created by Miroku's admittance of a very peculiar subject made Kagome wonder if the world was ending, if pigs were flying, if Jack's beanstalk had just grown a thousand feet tall, and if Goliath had just been felled by David a second time.
"You're what?" Kohaku had asked the question they were all thinking. It just didn't seem possible that Miroku was...that. After all, the man was a pervert! "Wait, please, correct me if I'm hearing this wrong. I thought I just heard you say you're—"
"I did!" Miroku said embarrassedly. "Guys, I know this is a shock and everything, but please don't hate me. I'm still me, I'll still grope and everything just...being er...that...I can't have kids. That's the only real difference! And I'm not even really there yet."
Kagome couldn't believe it. "How long have you been...that?" She didn't even want to say it. It seemed like a dirty smutty word to say when in terms of Miroku. He had always been a womanizer, constantly groping someone or other though never a guy, with a bruise on his face somewhere from groping a woman.
"Just about er...two years...But I have to say, it feels really good having that off my chest." He smiled meekly. "I'm seeing someone too, learning so much about them. They're really nice."
Kagome, Kohaku, Souta, and Sango just stared at their friend. It just seemed impossible for him to be...that. Who would have thought that Miroku would choose such a path in the end?
James carefully pulled on his gloves as he stood in the rafters of the building. He had to be careful in the process. Curinrin would do her duty he knew, and the job would be pulled off expertly; no one would know who was involved in the murder and the reason James had chosen Curinrin and Atlanta Shishuni was because the two had absolutely no relation to each other so Curinrin would not be pinned with the motive to kill.
Before Curinrin opened the envelope, she would not have even known what Atlanta looked like except perhaps at a rare glance at the supermarket.
They do say that weddings are the best place to meet another. He thought and looked at the locket he had snatched from Curinrin. Rin and Raine were smart indeed. They could stomach the sight of blood. He knew this because Raine and Rin had immediately set to work cleaning the cut on Curinrin's arm.
Curinrin had said it got caught on the stone entry way to the Shrine but it had appeared that her husband Harvey, simpleton he was, was the only one to believe it. The cut was far too deep to be an accident and the girls would question Curinrin later on about what really happened. She would be forced to tell, though he was positive she would not mention who it was.
James settled in the shadows to wait for seven fifty eight. At seven fifty nine, he would pull the trigger and Atlanta would be dead. The bullet would go through Atlanta and into the ground between Kali's legs because of the power of the bullet, but Kali would remain alive and the little girl would not be torn. Atlanta was also the perfect subject because the little girl would feel no loss for a woman who beat up her friend and his brothers.
Yes, James had worked out every angle of the replacement. Atlanta had apparently made his employer very upset in high school and so his employer would be glad to reap old debts. Things would work out, though he was making himself look slightly incompetent. But the little girl would remain happy, so he was happy.
The smirk on her face was irreplaceable as she climbed onto the banisters up above the City Hall's main floor. She could feel the adrenaline flowing through her veins as she walked across the platform directly above the stage.
Her cloth shoes made absolutely no sound against the metal drop-staging, but her small weight made the metal creak and groan. That noise went unnoticed as the band below was playing music and the sounds of the music made it impossible to hear the quiet noise.
Her odd white eyes made no difference in her movements across the platform. Being blind did not hinder her progress, as she used her nose, hands, and ears to move.
She found it strangely ridiculous that so many people thought of thieves and assassins to be people who wore combat boots, but that went completely against the code of stealth, as combat boots made an obvious clopping sound that cloth shoes did not.
She also found it ridiculous that people had thieves wear fashionable clothing such as baggy pants, as those types of clothes would make a swishing noise as they brushed against each other. She didn't have to be able to see in order to hear what other people's opinion on a "classy" thief was. It made her roll her eyes in exasperation more often than not, even though she could not see that she was rolling her eyes.
She made her way across the heavy beams after climbing off the drop-staging platform, following the scent of James Hiatz along the ceiling reinforcement bars.
Too many in the Decoloratio Venalicium, it seemed strange that a blind girl could do so much with such ease and grace that a person who could see could not hope to manage, but to her it was just reality.
She said nothing as she settled down next to James who she could tell was startled by her appearance by his sudden intake of breath. She did not know what James looked like personally, but she liked to guess what he looked like in her head. He looked pretty gorgeous in her mind's eye.
"Zephyr, why are you here?" He asked her, and she heard a nervous edge in his voice that no one else would be able to recognize. "This is no place for—"
She could feel her eyes rolling. She let her hand grope her surroundings until it hit his hand, then took his hand and slipped her fingers with his. "You judge me because I am blind? James that is the worst misconception you could ever make."
She kept her voice low and knew that up as high as they were, above the lights, no one would see them. The music would cover their movements and voices, but she still kept her voice practiced as usual.
James was shocked that she had so quickly located his hand. It was not the first time that he had been forced to wonder if she was really blind or if it was just a rouse. She had probably done it purely to prove a point: blind people were just as capable of doing things as people with sight, if not more so.
"If you slipped—"
Again, she cut him off, placing a gentle finger to his lips; her blind eyes seemed to stare right into his soul. James was in his forties and not used to being unnerved, but the young sixteen year old was quite able to throw him off his rocker with her uncanny ability to be so proficient at everything she set her mind to.
He wondered if anyone else other than her father knew of her distinct talents, setting him aside of course.
"That is why I won't slip. James, you're sweating." She deftly changed the subject, her finger tracing his upper lip collecting the small beads of sweat that had formed there. "Sweat would leave a trace."
"Sometimes, it might be better to get caught by the enemy." He muttered and not to his surprise did he hear the sweet melodious sound of her quiet chuckle. As high up as they were, the sounds of Kouga's band were not as loud. "You're here to watch me, aren't you?"
Again, she laughed at him. "In a manner of speaking; yes." He watched her shift herself into a more comfortable perch on the heavy iron reinforcement bar. "Of course, how much watching I really do is entirely up to you?" She giggled mischievously and leaned forward, careful not to fall from the great height, to press her lips to his, her intent clearer than window pane.
While James did feel rather uncomfortable with their current position, he had no choice in the matter. They were sitting on a re-bar well over eighty feet above any ground matter, which meant that pushing her away could result in some sort of disastrous outcome.
He was quite literally three times her age and though she was rather mature for someone of her age, she was still young and he got the distinct feeling that she knew not of what she truly wanted.
A bead of sweat made its way from his forehead down to his ear and dripped off his earlobe. James was no beginner at playing with a heart, but for all his experience, nothing could prepare him for her. She was far too good at what she did.
His cell phone began vibrating in his pocket, shaking against his thigh. Zephyr seemed to notice that and she reached deftly into his pants pocket and took the tiny flip phone out, pressing the connect button before placing it to her ear.
"Stop fooling around up there, Hiatz! I want it done now!" the voice on the other end of the line snarled. "Stop stalling!" Even James could hear her from the distance he was at and with his meager human senses.
"Oh, Mady, you silly girl." Zephyr giggled into the phone. "You know, I have the power to overrule you...taking into consideration just who my papa is. And I don't like that you're trying to kill her. So I convinced daddy around. I was waiting for you to call, just so I could tell you."
It was clear that Zephyr's condescending tone did not roll over well with the woman on the other side of the line. Her voice raised an octave and even from above, James and Zephyr could see that the people around the particular person who they knew was on the other end of the line were staring at her with varying expressions ranging from amused to confused. "Don't take that tone with me, young one. Oh ho ho! I think there is more than you realize..."
"Oh poor Mady... I think you should know that you're attracting attention." Zephyr hung up the phone and smirked at James who she could just sense was giving her a confused look. "No time to talk conversations, James." She told him. "Quickly, we must leave. She won't leave us alone you know."
James couldn't help but be amazed as he watched the blind girl make her way back towards the drop-staging. She never missed her footing once but he noticed that she crouched low, her hands ready so that should she fall, she could catch herself.
He wiped away the memory of her lips with his glove and quickly disassembled the sniper rifle, replacing it in the bag and made his way to the drop-staging as well.
There, he watched Zephyr climb a rope to a small ledge by a sun-window above that was partly open. Slinging the duffle bag over his back like a backpack, he began to climb the rope, rolling it up on his ankle as he went along. His muscles bunched and rippled beneath the clothes and he could feel them screaming in agony from the long climb.
He wouldn't ever complain about it, but he knew he was slightly out of shape. Zephyr was able to easily climb the thirty feet of rope with only the problem of slight shortness of breath and her muscles a bit numb at the end.
He knew this was a fact. The duffle bag had nothing to do with his exhaustion. At one point in his life, he would have been able to carry a person on his shoulders up this rope with no trouble.
That part of his life was over, he realized as they began to climb down the outside of the City Hall. After all, they couldn't exactly walk out the front door, not looking like they did and not with a bag of very suspicious ammunition. Wouldn't that seem a bit sketchy?
"I knew it couldn't be done. I knew that he would fail... Oh ho ho, at least you'll do your job, won't you? Make her...miserable..."
Medallion felt his heart burst with several thousand different emotions as he watched Kagome laugh and talk with her friends and family.
Kagome would periodically go dance with Kohaku if there was a particularly sweet song playing by Kouga's band, but more often than not she was standing beside Kohaku and her family and friends would make their way over her from time to time and chat with her on various things: the weather, her stay in Snowsville, her new adoptive children, her emotions about the wedding and whether or not Kohaku and Kagome would stay together because of it.
When asked about the stability of their relationship after the wedding of their parents, Kohaku and Kagome would just shrug and Medallion would see one of them say, "We'll see." That would be all they would say on the matter and then the subject would be dropped.
Medallion held the hand of a little boy with stubbly red hair who refused to leave his side. The boy was a demon and wasn't afraid to show it either. His cute little monkey-like tail twitched eagerly with excitement as he enjoyed the fun he was having at the reception. It was because of the boy that Medallion had yet to approach Kagome and give her what was rightfully hers, then fulfilling his vow to Naraku by doing so.
He felt bad for Kagome and wondered if she even yet knew of her father's death. Naraku had confided in him of all that Kagome had to endure growing up and that made Medallion completely awed at her strength to continue going despite the circumstances.
It also made him feel slight guilt at the memory of the hell he had put her through as well. It was during a stage in both of their lives when they were rebelling against the authorities and having out-of-chaperone fights.
He was always recruiting new members into the school-zone war, but she always stayed with the same numbers: herself, her brother, and her three friends.
No one else ever joined to his knowledge, and after she had left for Snowsville, there really was no longer a challenge against the Private school, so Medallion had left his little "gang", especially after Kohaku, Sango, Souta, and Miroku declared they no longer were going to bother helping out rich kids who were ungrateful for their help and did not even acknowledge their existence.
The only time to Medallion's knowledge that any of the four had joined a fight was when their newer friends—Rin, Yuri and Kikyou—had been attacked and cornered by bullies. Medallion had not been a part of that fight, having already denounced his "throne".
He looked down at the young boy tugging on his arm and watched him point eagerly to something. Upon following the line of the boy's vision, Medallion realized it was a buffet table filled with foods of every variety, though this particular table held mostly fruits in chilled containers.
Nodding to the boy who he still did not know the name of, Medallion watched him release his hand for the first time that evening and race towards the table.
Medallion kept a strict eye on him and began heading after him. He didn't want the boy to get lost. He saw Kagome break away from her small circle of current friends to stop the boy from digging his entire hand into the bowl of fruit salad.
It was at this sight that Medallion couldn't help a small smile from forming. She was a great woman. Unfortunately, as the boy was seemingly won't to do that evening, his charge shunned away from Kagome just as he had done for any females who had approached Medallion inquisitively, backing up against the table with a frightened look as he tried to wrest his hand free from her light grasp.
Kagome instead kept a light grasp on his hand until he found he was holding a plate, napkin, and silverware. Instead of a frightened look staying on his face, he seemed to realize that she wasn't there to harm him, only help him, and a smile upturned in a bright smile. When Medallion was close enough, he heard Kagome speaking to the boy and felt the usual stirrings of emotion tug inside him when he heard her voice.
"—want something to eat you really shouldn't dig your hand into the main bowl. It's not polite. Now what was it you wanted?" Her melodious voice seemed to only have gotten more beautiful over the years the longer he yearned to hear it yet could not.
She was the first woman that evening that the boy had smiled at and Medallion was forced to wonder if Kagome was enchanting the boy somehow but he shook that off as impossible.
While since his death he was seriously considering the truth about witches having magical power—after all, he had been a ghost, and stared down at his body, so it was logical to believe that he couldn't believe such things did not exist—he still did not think that Kagome herself was one of many such blasphemous creatures.
The mute and tongue-less boy pointed to the fruit salad and Kagome helped him scoop some food onto the plate, walking him to the nearest table to help him sit in a chair. Yuri and Kanna were sitting at the table, their heads half-hidden behind a laptop as they poured over something on the screen, silently debating it through writing on a writing sheet program.
As soon as the boy was settled, Kagome looked at Kanna and Yuri. "You two want to keep an eye on him and help him get food if he needs help? I'll go find his family."
"That won't be necessary." Medallion told Kagome, watching Kagome turn towards him with a startled look on her face. Slowly her beautiful—for he could only describe her as beautiful, godly—face smoothed and in place of the startled look, she was smirking.
"Medallion!" She exclaimed. "Long time no see." Her hands smoothed her gown distractedly and for a moment, he just stood there, staring at his old mutual enemy. When he saw Kohaku making his way over out of the corner of his eye, he just shook his head and gave her a smile.
Again, Kagome was struck by how handsome he was. She could never deny that he was a rather good looking man, but there was an undertone in his eyes depicting lust and hate at the same time when he looked at her and that threw off his good charm.
"Indeed. I have something for you, if you would mind... In a few days or so, stop by my dad's apartment?" Instead of demanding her to come by, he knew it would be best if he just asked. Kagome was never one to take orders from enemies and he knew this well.
She had taken several beatings from his gang because she had not done as asked, but that did not mean she had just lain down and allowed the thrashing; instead she had given them hell about it.
She looked at him for a long moment as though sizing him up before Kohaku slipped a hand around her waist. "What do you want, Medallion?" Kohaku asked his voice underlined with malice. To Kagome, it was quite clear that Kohaku had never gotten over Medallion's behavior during the kidnapping and in fact directly before it.
"My business is not with you, Ichiro." Medallion sneered. "It's with—"
Screaming filled the room then, blocking out what he might have said. As thousands of people hastily made their way towards the exit, the sounds of gunshots could be heard just barely over the din. "Get down!" Kagome shouted towards the people nearby. They ignored her, figuring her to be a stupid girl if she thought they would listen to them.
Kagome grabbed the boy from the chair and pushed him under the table. He looked very frightened. "Yuri, Kanna; get under the table and stay there!" She shouted over the screaming and then realized she didn't have to worry about them; they had already gotten under the table though they looked very frightened.
Medallion and Kohaku had knelt next to Kagome; both were looking around, trying to pinpoint where the shots had come from and who they had been aimed at. Kagome looked around and saw Shino nearby, crouched down next to a table trying to pinpoint the shooter.
"Dad!" Kohaku shouted just as Kagome noticed the bloodied man lying on the floor. Kali was kneeling beside Kohaku's father, a faint glow pulsing around her and the wounded man. She was trying to heal his wounds despite the fact that staying in the open was quite hazardous.
When Kohaku tried to run towards his father, Kagome grabbed his wrist. "Kohaku, wait here!" she yelled, but he didn't listen to her, dragging her grip away. He never made it halfway there. A gunshot rang through the air that was quickly becoming quiet as more and more people shoved out the exits, and Kohaku fell like a stone in water, his eyes wide in shock as his blood pooled around him.
Kagome was angrier than she had been years before when she and Souta had walked in on Naraku unleashing a terrible rage on Kali's body. The hair on her arms and neck prickled as goose bumps formed beneath them. She had a single thought racing through her head and that was "Kill, kill, kill..."
Her fist clenched and unclenched angrily. Someone had harmed her family, and they were going to pay dearly for doing so. A hand on her shoulder interrupted her angry reverie and forced her to peel her eyes away from Kohaku's limp form. He didn't look to be alive, but she could hope.
"Kagome, do you see the perpetrator?" Shino asked her. "Medallion, get under the table." Shino, of course, was off duty so didn't have his gun and neither did she. No one had expected anything would ruin the day.
Shino's voice brought her back to reality and she tried to think calm and collectively, but it was very difficult to do so. Kohaku was injured, possibly dead, and her mind was on one of her oldest friends at the moment. She surveyed the area, including up near the ceiling.
"There!" She said, pointing to the shadow above the stage. Her hands went to the dress she was wearing and she used her extremely sharp nails like knives and cut the bottom of it to above her knees so she had mobility in her legs.
Discarding the extra cloth, she made to move away from the partial shelter when Shino grabbed her arm. "Wait. He's moving!"
Where's he going? Kagome thought, watching the shadow dart along the beams. Her eyes followed his trajectory path and saw a rope leading up to a window. She couldn't let the shooter get to the window. She knew in her blood that if she let him get there, she would most likely never see them again. Whoever they were, they weren't stupid.
Kagome yanked the shoes off her feet and raced towards the wall below the window. She allowed her body to change as she ran, the ability of wall climbing inspired by a spider she'd seen earlier that day, quickly shimmying up the wall.
She knew she had to move quickly, because undoubtedly the shooter had noticed her. She was assured they had noticed her when a bullet pierced the wall just next to her and so forced her to quicken the pace even further.
Several gunshots missed her as she was climbing the wall and her vision began to fog with strange silver light. When she was nothing but a shadow to those below on the floor, she felt pure agony creep through her side. She knew she had been hit but couldn't stop if she wanted to. She might have escaped death a few months before, but she had been prepared then and this time she wasn't quite as prepared.
A daring glance around told her she was near the rope that led to the sun window which was slightly cracked above. The assassin was near there as well. She couldn't see his face, but she knew they had to be smirking as they aimed their laser sighted sniper rifle at her. She could feel the red light on her forehead.
Just as they pulled the trigger, she jumped down away from the wall. She could hear gasps below at her daring plight but it was nothing new to her. She had to do such moves in College at Wyman from greater heights than the one she was at.
She grasped onto a thin support bar and pulled herself quickly on top of it, straddling it and then standing before the shooter could so much as blink. She was not the greatest acrobat, but she knew that lives were counting on her and that made her feel more confident in herself.
Racing along the thin support bar, she looked for a way up to the bar he was on. She might have become something resembling a bird, but that would have slowed her down and made her an easy target for deadly bullets.
"Higurashi!" Kagome heard her name shouted from nearby and saw that Keiko, resplendent as always in whatever she chose to wear, was barefoot on the beams just a few feet away, straddling the beam with blood dripping from her side between the hands clutching it. She flaccidly held her gun in her hand, which looked more than broken. "Take my gun!"
Kagome heard the shooter's gun fire a last time before the resonating clicking sound was heard, saying that there was no more ammunition in the rifle. Keiko had been the target, and the bullet hit its mark. Keiko screamed as the bullet penetrated her thigh and her balance slipped. She was falling off the beam.
Kagome raced for Keiko, for no matter how much she did not like Keiko she knew the girl didn't deserve death. Keiko had risked her life coming after the shooter.
Kagome grabbed Keiko's broken arm and the girl screamed in pain as her muscles were torn by her own weight. "Please, don't let me die." She begged. "Don't let me fall."
"I'm not going to." Kagome promised wrapping her legs around the bar; the edges of the square re-bar digging into her thighs. She heard angry gasps as the man was getting away and no one was able to do anything about it. It was either let Keiko fall to her death and get the man, or save Keiko and go after the man.
"Drop her!" Kagome heard Kagura's voice over the angry shouts below. "I'll catch her!" Kagome looked down and saw the form of Kagura grabbing a paper plate from a table, throwing the contents away and waving the paper plate much like she did her fan.
Keiko screamed, "Ahhh! My arm!" The pain was obviously making Keiko fall in and out of consciousness. Tears coursed down the girl's face and reminded Kagome of the wound in her own side. A brief glance proved that it was nothing more than a small scratch.
"Keiko, I'm going to let Kagura take you." Keiko gasped and nodded as much as she could. Kagome took the gun from Keiko's hand, surprised that it had not fallen to the ground, and released the girl. She did not fall to her death, but instead floated to the ground as though she were on an invisible feather.
How or why Keiko had thought to bring her gun, Kagome didn't know, but she would be able to question the other girl later. At the moment, there was a man with an empty gun climbing out of the window.
Kagome stood on the bar and raced towards the wall, using the wall as a partial boost to jump up to the next bar up towards the window. She ignored the frightened sounds below and just as suddenly saw a sling of plants racing up the wall, vines mostly, born from the wood that created the floor of the City Hall.
She didn't know what made the vines burst up so suddenly, nor would she find out, but was grateful that the plants made a bridge for her straight to the window, as the assassin had taken his rope with him.
Once outside, she found herself on a flat roof. The perpetrator was racing towards the opposite end of the roof. Once he had gotten there, he vaulted across the gap towards the next building. Kagome's feet burned as she raced across the snow and ice covering the flat roof but the pain she ignored.
Her mind was on the creature currently running away from her, trying to escape her. From his movements, she was guessing he was getting tired.
She didn't waste her breath trying to yell at him to stop because she knew it would be fruitless to do so. She sprung across the gap between the City Hall and continued as fast as she could, feeling her feet being skinned upon her landing on the next roof. Three houses later, she caught up to them and she helped them topple to the ground. She snarled, pinning them face down.
They went limp in her grip and she noticed there was a distinct difference in height and girth of the one who had been shooting and the one whom she was pinning down. She chalked that off as a difference to the lighting. She did wonder where the gun had gone, but guessed he probably chucked it so he could run faster.
As the moonlight washed over the two figures on the roof, one began to use the other's rope and tie them up. Meanwhile, several roofs away, a shadowed person was climbing down the outside wall of the City Hall, an empty gun slung over their back.
In the middle of the screaming and turmoil, while everyone was distracted, the android LI XERA made its way towards a group of children huddling together under a table. These children varied in age and size.
Her mistress had not given her specifics in what age to take, so she simply coaxed one child to come with her, a young impressionable ten year old.
Chocolate huddled in a corner, hidden underneath several coats. He had no clue what was going on, or why people were screaming and racing around like chickens with their heads cut off, but he knew he was scared and he wanted his big brother Miroku to tell him that everything would be alright.
Unfortunately, his big brother had been busy trying to find his other brothers and had instead hidden Chocolate underneath the coats and told him to stay put. He was not stupid and knew that he needed to stay where Miroku had placed him or else his big brother would not be able to find him again.
When he saw Miroku coming towards his hiding place with a young frightened girl holding a teddy bear tight in her grasp, he felt like jumping out of the pile into his brother's arms but didn't do so when Miroku hid the girl next to him.
"Stay here, both of you. Everything's going to be alright." Miroku assured them, racing off to find other children in need.
As soon as Miroku had disappeared from their line of vision, the girl began to cry. "I'm so scared!" She sobbed.
Chocolate knew he had to do something to get the girl to stop crying or else hiding would be useless and they would be found so he just did what his big brother Miroku always did to get Sango to stop talking. He kissed the little girl, whether or not he knew her and held her hand.
"My big brother will save us!" He said quietly to assure the girl.
She gave him an angry stare and said, "Are you going to marry me?"
Unsure of what brought marriage into the conversation, though he did know what that meant, Chocolate gave her a confused look. "Do you want me to marry you?"
"Mommy says that when two people kiss, they have to get married! And you just kissed me!" The little girl never stopped glaring at him and he just shrugged.
Chocolate said, "Okay. My name is Chocolate Shishuni. Will you marry me?"
The little girl smiled brightly and gave him a hug. "My name is Tea Johnson, and I'll marry you!" What startled both of them was when the bear the girl had been holding so tightly began to move. It seemed to crawl out of the blankets and look at them, its little arm waving for them to follow. "Mister Bear wants us to follow him!"
Curious, the two children followed the strange walking bear, neither having seen a bear that could walk on its own before. The bear led them towards a back door, mostly unnoticed, and they walked outside. What they found waiting them there was a woman with a sack.
They cried, kicked, and screamed, trying to get away from the lady who carelessly threw them into the back of a van and tied them up beside several other children, all of which neither young child knew.
The two were frightened and would have said as much, had they not been forced to breathe in something that rendered them unconscious.
"The count of dead bodies found in the City Hall numbered in the twenties, sir." Relic said quietly, wondering if he should point out the significant similarities between those who were dead or chalk the facts off as mere coincidence.
His nerves were affray, but he had yet to know of his daughter's disappearance, or the fact that his ex-girlfriend had also disappeared in much the same fashion.
Called into work, he found himself faced with a new promotion signed to work directly under Shino Takai in the Odd Cases department. Shino had been likewise promoted that evening when it appeared the previous man, Kora Neko, had committed suicide, jumping off the roof of his apartment building to be run over by a semi in the street below.
"How quickly this case got to assignment was surprising, don't you think, Relic?" Shino questioned peering around his new office, which was distinctly larger than his previous one. The room was messy beyond belief making it impossible for the two to even see the four desks that were supposed to be situated in the room.
"Yes, sir." Relic muttered. He felt uncomfortable with his new promotion and with the knowledge that he was closer to the Mayor by being there, but Shino appeared not to notice or care either way.
"We need to clean this place up before we can star—" Relic clapped his hands together once and watched as the inborn magic began to flow out of his hands and make the disorganized room orderly. Papers began to file themselves, trash began to dispose itself, and the desks and floor began to appear. At the back of the room were a cork and pin board and a wipe board next to six large filing cabinets.
Shino turned his body so that he could get a good look at Relic, more than surprised at the sudden appearance of magic in the young man. Relic merely shrugged and said, "My mother made me learn it and my ex-girlfriend never cleaned so it would come in handy."
It was after this that the two settled themselves down for a long silent night of examining the details of the case which were brought in by the forensics team. Neither Shino nor Relic spoke a word to the other, preferring to just remain silent as they organized the details and memorized each part known of the case.
City Hall was still being examined but it wasn't Shino or Relic's job to examine it, so neither was allowed to be there. The injured were taken to the hospital to recover, and the dead were taken to the morgue to be examined. Mich Ichiro had been among the numbers of dead.
Finally, Relic pulled away from the work and looked at Shino who was busily rustling through some papers. He knew he had to say something, but it would have to be phrased carefully. He wasn't sure why, but he got the feeling that it wasn't just coincidence.
Licking his lips, he cleared his throat, attracting Shino's attention. Shino looked at him, but said nothing in acknowledgement. "Shino, I know it's strange, but don't you think it's rather odd that, besides the two Ichiro men, the only ones targeted were the men and women who Doctor Onigumo had hired to keep an eye on children?"
Shino appeared to be giving that full thought. Finally he wrote it down and stuck it on the cork board using a push pin and they continued working silently.