Chapter two – I hate you too
All in all, it wasn't that bad though. I have to mention that I managed to make friends too. You know the silver lining-thing. Seeing Inuyasha 24/7 and being the object of colonel Hidaka's hate was the big bad dark cloud, but the few friends I managed to get were that silver-lining. Even though every bond did not start with good terms...
"WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU ARE DOING!"
He just shot me with that dazzling grin of his.
"I'm getting to know you, sweetie", he answered innocently, squeezing my butt for the second time.
Vein pop.
I turned around, punching him with all of my might. That taught him a lesson all right!
"Cadet Higurashi, what did I tell you about quarrelling with the others", colonel Hidaka's bored, cold voice drawled into my ears.
Oh shit. Just what I needed.
"That fucking pervert grabbed my butt, sir."
He raised his eyebrow.
"Cadet, what did I tell you about the quarrelling", he asked again in a little harder tone, ignoring my comment completely.
"No quarrelling", I bit out between my clenched teeth.
"That's right", he said smoothly. "Now you run 10 extra laps and then go to the kitchen to help peeling the potatoes as the other cadets spend the treasured spare time they have."
I glared at him, trying my best not to tell him what exactly I thought of him and this whole damn training.
"Is there a problem, cadet Higurashi?"
"No, colonel Hidaka, sir!"
"Then, why aren't you running already?"
Boiling inside I saluted him, and ran off.
"Cadet Kouda", colonel Hidaka said to the pervert lying on the ground rubbing his temple, watching my retreating form with a grin.
"Yes, colonel?"
"If I find out that you touch her one more time, I'll make personally sure that that wandering hand of yours shall be removed. Do I make myself clear?"
"Sir, yes, sir", Miroku said now looking straight at the icy colonel, getting quickly up from the ground. He seemed to be a bit paler than before.
"Good", Hidaka said, then raised his voice. "Now everyone will run sixty laps before you will have your pathetic little break - the faster you run the laps, the longer break you'll have. Save for Higurashi, who'll run extra ten laps and have no break at all. Dismissed."
"SIR, YES, SIR", all the cadets bellowed and soon joined me at the track.
'Bastard', I thought bitterly as I glanced colonel Hidaka's retreating form from the corner of my eye.
'Jackasses..' I muttered in my thoughts as I was on my way to the kitchen-building. Inuyasha had run next to me for the whole time, trying to make up a conversation. But actually there was a person I disliked more than him at the moment.
Colonel Hidaka. Peeling potatoes wasn't so hard punishment, I admit. The only thing about it is that it's the dullest job one could get. But when you were supposed to be peeling the potatoes during your break... Breaks weren't that frequent around here. I would have wanted to use mine resting, especially when my feet were sore from running. I had ran as fast as I could, trying my best to shake off Inuyasha. Well, of course I knew it was impossible for me to outrun him. Still, it was worth trying...
But now, I would not be resting my poor little feet. I didn't even blame the pervert – much. I blamed the most of it on the colonel. He had to be a sick sadist or something. I didn't know what I had done to earn the overwhelming weight of his wrath but I think I don't even want to know. In my mind I decided to loathe him back and well, just try to survive this hell.
Kami, why hadn't I come up with any normal way to get over with Inuyasha and the divorce?
They were so right, life was a bitch.
"Cadet Higurashi?"
With a start I awoke from my musings, to see black-haired, brown-eyed young man, wearing a pink apron with a white heart-print.
"Yes?"
"I'm Hojo, the cook. Hidaka-sama came earlier to tell me about your penalty."
"Great."
"This way, please."
As I followed the cook into the kitchen I couldn't help a mental image coming into my mind. A puppy. This cook Hojo was a puppy kind of a guy. Rather cute, but so not my type.
"Here you go", Hojo smiled, giving me a knife.
"There's the potatoes. Put the peeled ones into that kettle."
I started my work. It wasn't that bad, once I imagined the potato to be either Inuyasha or colonel Hidaka. I hoped that my little voodoo would work and that the colonel would loose at least a bit off that perfect pale skin of his. The thing that bothered me was the cook. Poor Hojo-guy seemed to have a hard time trying to keep his eyes off me. Had he never seen a woman before, or what? Well, of course he had, but I had to be quite a sight too.
My raven hair was on a long thick braid. I hated to keep my hair tied, but it was either that or no hair at all. And I was so not giving up my precious hair. I was wearing the same training outfit as every cadet, a white tank top and black pants. The usual outfit had to look a bit different on me though. The tank top fit perfectly, but the pants were a bit baggy. There wasn't quite my size available.
"Would you mind", I snapped when I grew tired of him gawking at me. Here I was just another cadet and I seriously hoped he gawked at me just because I was a woman. Because, well, if he'd gawk every cadet with the same devotion... He did have a pink apron, you know!
"Sorry", he averted his gaze quickly and I saw a blush stain his cheeks.
"No, I'm sorry", I apologized. "I didn't mean to be so rude; your staring just made me nervous."
"No, I didn't mean to be so rude and just stare like that.. I hope you can understand, being stuck here.. You're new, right?"
"Yeah, I came here yesterday", I replied.
"I must be hard of you to be here, the only woman..."
"I try my best to survive", I said dryly. "Is there any other woman around?"
"Well, there's the Hidaka's girl, she's the head of the medical squad."
Wow, hold on. Hidaka's girl? That stuck-up, sadistic colonel who seemed to have some serious issues actually had a girlfriend? So miracles do happen.
I then decided to take a look at her as soon as I had the chance.
"Ahh, I see. How did you end up here anyway?"
"Me?" Hojo asked, puzzled.
"Yeah. You don't seem to be the kinda guy who would volunteer to cook for big bad special troopers."
He chuckled.
"Well, I just... Found myself from here. I did dream about having my own restaurant but well.. Dreams don't just always come true.
"Tell me about it", I sighed.
I had dreamed about having a husband and three kids. Now, the kids had been lacking but I had already had the husband-part. Now I had nothing. I had been slightly tomboyish when I was little but now it had got on a whole different level. On such a level that it was already too much. I doubted that anyone would find me attractive once they had learned that I had gone through the SAF-troop's training. I would practically be on a higher military rank hence I had gone through the hardest special troop training that was possible. If that didn't get on a man's ego, I didn't know what would. Yay. I was doomed to be single and then slowly grow into an old bitter spinster.
Unless...
Unless, I'd get myself a guy from here, the SAF-troops. Let's see. There was this sweet cook. No, too much of a little puppy and goodie goodie guy. Then there was my ex-husband, the jackass who had cheated on me for Kami knew how long. Hell no. Then, there was this one pervert whose name I didn't even know but who already had squeezed my bottom. Twice. Never happen. Then, there was the drop-dead gorgeous colonel with a tiny personality problem. Sure he was a sweet guy, he just happened to hate everyone and everything, especially me. Depressing. Oh, and he apparently already had a girlfriend.
'Gotta check the medical squad', I reminded myself.
"Kagome..."
I groaned, squeezing my eyes shut. No. everything but him.
"What do you want, Inuyasha?"
"Sesshoumaru told me to come to inform you that the martial arts practise starts in five minutes. You better be on time."
"Fine." I put down my knife and there the last potato into the kettle.
"Thank you for putting up with me, Hojo-kun", I said to the cook, flashing him a smile. Then I walked out of the kitchen, ignoring Inuyasha completely.
Sesshoumaru wasn't there yet, so I stood where the other cadets were. Inuyasha followed my trail from the kitchen. Since I didn't feel like talking to him I tried my best to look busy as I adjusted my long raven black braid.
"Higurashi?"
I turned my head to the side and saw a young red-headed man.
"Yes", I replied, frowning. The only guys this far who had tried to make a contact with me were Inuyasha and that pervert.
"I'm Yamamura Shippo. I'm a good friend of Miroku's and I'm terribly sorry of what he did to you this morning."
"Miroku? Ahh.. You mean that perverted guy."
He flashed me a smile.
"Exactly. Don't take it personally, he does that to every girl he sees. At least he didn't ask you to bear his child."
"He does that too?"
"Unfortunately."
I shook my head, having a hard time believing my ears.
"Attention!"
It took less than a second for us cadets to form a neat row and salute colonel Hidaka.
He nodded curtly in approval.
"At ease."
We clasped our hands behind our backs and moved our feet shoulder-length apart.
"Now you have been here for three days, cadets. It's time to stop playing around."
So we had been playing around until now? Oh Kami. Besides, I had arrived later than the others; this day was my first actual day here. That's it. I was screwed.
"We will now start training the martial arts. And, before one of you idiots has time to ask why, I will remind you that we are the Special Attack Force. We are expected to know how to defend ourselves and how to attack even if we had no weapons at all. I will show you how the moves are done and you will repeat them. But now, I'll divide you into pairs."
I stood quietly in my place, watching as everyone else got paired up.
Finally he called my name.
"Higurashi, you'll pair up with me."
Why me?
I clenched my teeth and walked up to him.
"We will start with the basics. Higurashi, punch me."
'With pleasure', I thought, and sent my fist flying to his direction. He brushed it off with ease.
"And this is how you block a strike. Now, you try."
He turned to look at me. All the cold blaze of those amber eyes was on me, but I willed myself not to flinch. I glared back at him.
'This one's interesting', Sesshoumaru thought to himself, watching the deep blue eyes before him.
Then, without any warning he punched me. I know I was supposed to block it… But sheesh he could've warned me at least a bit in advance! I took the hit fully, it send me crashing the dirt.
"You didn't even try. That was pathetic, Higurashi", he said in a mocking tone.
I damn well knew that it had been pathetic to take the hit like that, not being able to block it at all. I did not need him to tell me how bad I was. My day had been quite bad to begin with, now, thanks to my dear colonel, it turned to worse.
"Up, cadet", he commanded.
I got up, brushing the dirt off from my clothes.
"Such a pretty girl", he mocked me.
I was very close to spit right at his feet as to express my thoughts of him – but I knew that would only have got me into deeper trouble.
"For your information, Higurashi, you were supposed to block the punch, not take a hit."
"I know that, colonel, sir!"
"Then why didn't you block it, cadet?"
"I.. I wasn't prepared, sir."
"In a war your enemy will not pause to ask whether or not you are prepared, cadet Higurashi! Thirty push ups, now! Then we will try again."
My fingernails dug into the soft skin of my palm. I tasted the warm, coppery flavour of blood in my mouth. I threw myself onto the ground and then started to do the push ups. From the corner of my eye I saw his self-satisfied, arrogant smirk. That sight made me even angrier. The sudden flare of fury was rather uncharacteristic for her, but there was something in the demonic colonel that made her blood boil.
"Twenty-seven", the colonel counted, "twenty-eight…twenty-nine... twenty-nine… twenty-nine… twenty-nine…twenty-nine…thirty. Get up, cadet."
I got up, sweating and inwardly swearing. Swearing wasn't either a habit of mine, but you heard it quite a lot here in the army, and hey, I had been married to Inuyasha. I suppose that I had picked it up at some point.
Colonel Hidaka was looking down at me, the same self-aware, arrogant smirk on his lips.
His hand was a blur as it rushed forward in a punch aimed at my way. I brushed it aside with my hand.
"Still pathetic, Higurashi, but at least you tried this time. Fifteen push ups."
"Sir yes sir…!"
"…Thirteen… thirteen… fourteen… fourteen…fourteen…fourteen… fifteen. Get up. Now it's your time to try to punch me … You call that a punch, Higurashi? That was pathetic. Fifteen push ups."
Sixty push ups later a guard clad in black came to have a word with the colonel. I was down on the ground, doing wearily the push ups. I didn't know what bad I had done, but I knew that something I had done had ticked the colonel off, because clearly he was at me, all the time. None of the other cadets were any better than me, but I didn't see them doing push ups. I then came into a conclusion: It was because of my gender. I was a woman, and he did not want to see a woman in his troops. That was why he was harder on me than on everyone else; he could not tell me to fuck off because of the senate. That was why he was doing his best to make me quit.
'I'll play your game then', I muttered in my own thoughts. 'You'll see that it requires a whole lot more than just petty push ups to make me quit. I'll show you…'
"Colonel Hidaka sir, there are some guests that just arrived on the plane and –"
I listened the guard's rambling on half an ear. I saw Hidaka frown. He didn't seem too pleased.
Sesshoumaru's attention snapped out of the displeasing news as a shrill shriek came from straight below.
I lied on the ground and my eyes were tightly squeezed shut as I panted.
"Cadet Higurashi, everything all right?"
"I'm fine", I replied stiffly. A grimace on my face I braced myself onto my hands. I hovered there for a while, until, with a wince my left hand failed me and I fell onto the ground. Colonel Hidaka immediately crouched down next to me, pulling me gently into a sitting position.
"Give me that" he pulled my left hand into his own and examined it closely.
I tried my best to fight a blush. Even though my mind kept telling me that he was an ass, my body was rather startled at the sudden close contact and kept telling me that he might be an ass, but he sure was a damn hot one.
"How long has your wrist been sprained, cadet Higurashi", he asked sharply.
"Sometime", I replied. "I suppose I sprained it at some point while peeling the damn potatoes."
"Then why didn't you say anything?"
"It was of no importance, colonel Hidaka. There's no use to complain about such a petty sprain."
"Go to see the medical squad, Higurashi. Now."
"Sir yes sir!" I saluted and got up.
As I walked toward the building in the distance, a smile arose to my lips. Medical squad… Finally I would see the Hidaka's girl Hojo had told me about!
When I looked straight into the brown eyes of the woman who was smiling at me rather mockingly, I was ready to give everything I possessed, just to get something long and not too sharp so that it would hurt more when I'd force it to sink deep into her dead-like flesh…
"Kagome", she greeted me. Her tone was at least as mocking as her annoying smile.
"Kikyo", I spat out.
How much could things go wrong? Wasn't it enough that I had to endure a colonel from Hell and seeing my traitorous ex-husband, was I really forced to stand to see that zombie-looking bitch that Inuyasha had been fucking behind my back…!
"So, what brings you here?"
"The fate which seems to have a very twisted sense of humour."
"Ahh… You must be the guinea pig of the senate. What a coincidence. It must not feel very fair to you… You must feel kind of…used."
"At the moment I only feel bloodlust."
"Oh, sweet! Are you playing a vampire, eh?"
"Fuck off, Kikyo. I didn't come here to be mocked by you; neither did I come for the questionable pleasure of seeing your ugly face."
"Then why the hell are you here?"
"Because unfortunately for me, you happen to be the head of the medical squad. And I happen to have a sprained wrist. Do I have to make myself clearer so that even you could understand?"
"Shut up, wench, and sit down."
After another nerve-wrecking fifteen minutes I marched out from the medic-building muttering a rather formidable variety of curses, my left wrist wrapped tightly in bandages.
Only one question was on my mind.
WHAT THE HELL DID THAT COW DO HERE!
"Higurashi?"
"What!" I snapped, not even bothering to look who had spoken to me.
"Hey, take it easy now, no offence…"
I turned my head. It was the red-headed young man, the pervert's buddy.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to snap at you that hard", I apologized, rubbing my temple. "I'm just having a rough time now."
"I figured. Actually, I came to ask you whether you're quite ok. You did a lot of push ups over there."
"Well, the colonel doesn't want to see me here. He's tying to make me quit. Like a few push ups would scare me."
"I know.. You must be pretty mad at him, aren't you?"
"Hmmh? Oh no, the colonel's cool… now. I think he didn't intend to hurt me and therefore will leave me alone for a short while at least. At the moment I'd want to kill the doctor bitch though."
"The doctor bitch?"
"Kikyo. She's the head of the medical squad."
"Ohh… Inuyasha's girl. I've heard about her."
"Inuyasha's girl indeed", I said, clenching my teeth.
"Uhh.. Did I miss something, or…?"
"I was married to Inuyasha for two years. That was, of course, until I found out that he had cheated on me with that fucking cow for the whole friggin' time!"
Shippo blinked.
"Well that explains – a lot."
"I'd just like to point out, that I'd never cheat on such a beauti –"
PUNCH.
"Ouch, what was that for, Shippo?" The black-haired man said, rubbing his head.
"Miroku, do try behave. Higurashi's having a hard time right now."
"Uh, thanks guys for your concern, but I'd better hurry back before the colonel eats me alive or something…"
"Not to worry, sweetheart", the pervert said flashing his dazzling grin. "Hidaka's busy now; he won't be eating anyone at the moment."
I turned my head and saw him. He was standing away from the cadets, talking in a low tone with a tall, black-haired woman.
"Who's she", I wondered out loud.
"That's Kagura, Sesshoumaru's ex-wife. Though I can't understand why in the hell that bitch is here."
I closed my eyes for a short moment, bracing myself up for the confrontation.
"I didn't ask anything from you. Besides, Kagura being here doesn't bother me. What bothers me is that wench who's playing the doctor here!"
Inuyasha paled and it seemed that he felt a bit uneasy under the furious glare of Kagome.
"Kikyo's been here for five years already… It wasn't because of her that I came here."
"Yeah right. You were never that good at lying to begin with", I hissed and stomped away.
"Kagome…" he took a few involuntary steps after me, but Miroku's arm stopped him.
"Leave her alone. You've hurt her enough. You don't need to explain anymore."
Sesshoumaru glared coldly at the woman standing before him.
"Why are you here, Kagura? Interrupting my work. I have to turn those lousy cadets into the elite soldiers, and that task is difficult enough without you here messing up everything."
"Don't be so unkind, Sesshou-dear. I bring you good news."
"I doubt that any news coming from you would be good ones", he muttered coldly.
"Oh, but these are. The court made its decision, finally."
"What are you talking about?"
"Jaken", she called sharply.
Soon a short man, most likely a servant, arrived, tightly holding a hand of a young black-haired girl, who was smiling brightly and chatting lightly with the servant who had a suffering expression on his toad-like face.
"Kagura, why did you bring Rin here?"
"Because she's the good news. The court made its decision. It commanded Rin's custody to you. You're her guardian now."
I was sitting on the dusty ground, holding my bandaged wrist in my lap. I saw the young girl there, briefly wondering why she had been brought to this kind of a place. Then I heard her delighted squeal.
"Daddy", the little girl yelled, snatching her hand free from the servants grip and taking a sprint. The colonel had kneeled down and wound his hands around the girl who threw herself into his arms. He got up, holding the child protectively in his arms.
Seeing him like that, holding the child so gently, only added to the suspicions that had started to dwell in my mind when he had showed concern to my injury. No matter how tough, emotionless side colonel showed to the world, he still was a human, like we all. Underneath that thick barrier of ice, even he had a heart.