"Dad…. Dad……" a small voice called out. "Dad… it's time to…. school…."
"I don't want to go to school…" Sesshomaru muttered, flinging the blankets over his head. Rin giggled.
"Not you silly! Me! You gotta take me to school. You promised!"
Sesshomaru groaned. Why didn't anyone mention that being a good single father was difficult? Did his father give him any warning? Nope… just played the grandfather role.
Inutashio should know what it was like to be a single father. He took care of Sesshomaru for a few years before he met Izayoi, Inuyasha's mother. Sesshomaru didn't have a grudge against Izayoi after she married his father and the two had Inuyasha. She treated him as if he was her son as well. It was better than the hostile ground he had with his biological mother. The two hardly speak, though Karei has been trying to form a bond through Rin.
"Ok…ok… I'm up… just let me get dressed…"
"Ok Dad!" Rin ran out of the room. Sesshomaru laid his head back down.
"Don't go back to sleep!" Rin poked her head in again.
"I won't… mom…"
Rin giggled again and went into the living room.
Sesshomaru got out of bed, went into the closet and put on a simple blue button up shirt, jeans, and shoes. He'd have to take a shower after he dropped Rin off. It was the once a week promise he made to her. Luckily, she understood how important his job was so the once a week drop off and one school trip per year worked for the both of them.
When Sesshomaru entered the living room, Rin was sitting on the couch, in her denim skirt, white long sleeve short with a pink tee shirt over it, black and pink converse to match (You often see me in outfits like that…), along with her school bag. She flipped through the TV channels.
"Hm… hey dad… did you know they already started the debates for the political parties of the presidential elections in America?" Rin asked.
Sesshomaru secretly rolled his eyes. Leave it to Rin to catch up in today's world via the news. At least they get the chance to watch sports center later.
"Let's go or you're going to be late…" Sesshomaru said.
"Ok! Bye Mr. Jaken!" Rin called out to the man servant in the kitchen.
About time she left… Jaken thought to himself.
Andy placed her feet on top of her newly acquired desk at Shikon, the fastest selling magazine in Japan. She flipped her pen round and round between her fingers. She then placed the pen down; re adjusted her glasses, and reached for the pen again.
What may I ask… are you doing?Her inner youkai asked.
Nothing that concerns you…
I'd say you were waiting by the phone…. Waiting for him to call…
No I'm not… I'm trying to brainstorm on my next article…
'How to Fueng Shui (Will someone help me out with the spelling?) a new apartment…
For your information… it's a series of how an American can survive in Tokyo…it's not always a how to!
Are we the rising star reporter? What ever happened to applying to Tokyo Times?
Position was filled by the time I got there…
That sucks…
Will you leave me alone now? It's a little weird having a conversation with myself.
Just practicing for when Ayame calls….
…
Are you listening…?
This was rather surprising. She, the queen of creative writing, the editor of the tribal newspaper, was at a loss of words. All day, a certain dog youkai kept popping up in her mind. And… she was staring at a phone all day?
"Geez… what am I doing?" Andy said aloud.
"Um… causing a lot of people to stare at you…"
Andy leaned too far back in her wheelie chair and crashed on to the ground. Sango stood outside of the cubicle, looking a bit surprised, and trying to hold back a laugh.
"Are you always this laid back?" Sango asked, a smirk appearing on her face.
"Um… I was thinking…" More like taking a break on Indian time…Andy added mentally. Natives were always the laid back kind of people, just going with the flow of things.
"Wait!? How long have you been working here!?" Andy asked.
"I've been working here. I'm one of the senior editors in the fashion department." Sango said.
"Oh… Hey, do you know any good subject matter for a hopeless American to use?"
"Is it for your article?"
"Yup. I first started off that the best way to move to a foreign country is to make sure you know people in the country, like I knew Ayame and Koga. Man, they helped make thing a LOT easier…"
"… And you were staring your phone down for information?"
Andy blushed. Ok, Sango may have caught her.
"Ok… I'll admit it… I was kind of hoping that what's his face would call…" Andy said.
"Ok… what are you in? High School?"
"Maybe he might send in a messenger guy and send a package and inside would be a walkie talkie and we communicate that way…" Andy said, recalling the scene from Will Smith's Hitch.
"Oh! I love that movie!" Sango said, as if she just read Andy's mind. "Who's what's his face?"
"Um… six foot something…. Long hair… gold eyes…"
"OH! You mean Sesshomaru!?"
"That's it…"
"So… Miss Williams, how's that article coming?" Mr. Nashi, the editor, asked, making his usual rounds.
"I was just asking Sango if there's any advise for the foreign reader's to know when moving to Japan." Andy said. Sango gave Andy a look. Talk about a smooth lie.
"That's good. Take your time on this one. You got two months."
"Wait… two months?"
"I'm cutting back on you. I sent in your Sudan piece. Someone from the photography department should have also sent in photos to go along with the article. Keep up the good work."
"Thanks…" Mr. Nashi took off.
"An article of mine's already being published!? Wowie…" Andy almost did a repeat of falling out of her chair, but Sango caught her in time.
"And Japanese isn't even my first language."
Sango sighed.
"That ruined my surprise. The release date for this month's issue was today and we had a few extra pages that we couldn't fill with advertisements so…"
Sango placed the magazine on Andy's desk. Andy shrieked as she looked at the table of contents.
Pg. 30: Repeat of Holocaust in Sudan? By Andrea Williams
"I didn't know your name was Andrea." Sango said.
"Oh didn't you know? I was supposed to be a boy when I was born…" Andy said sarcastically. She didn't have a problem with Andrea, but Andy sounded a lot more fun.
"Mr. Takahashi, you're a bit late today…" the secretary said, looking up from her computer screen.
"Did you forget? It's Tuesday…" Sesshomaru muttered, as he picked up his mail off the secretary's desk.
"Oh yes, take care of daughter. It's amazing how you find the time to spend with her when you're not working…" the old woman mumbled.
"Thank you Kaede…" Sesshomaru said under his breath. He sat down behind his desk and had a moment to stare at the number of cases at hand.
Which should I do first? Sesshomaru though to himself. He looked over at the divorce pile, then to the suing pile, then to the wills and financial pile… this was going to be a long day. He decided to go through his mail first before getting to work. It took the less time.
Bill… bill… Case forms… Shikon…
Sesshomaru paused at the magazine. He looked at the cover.
CRISIS IN DARFUR
Are we in for another holocaust?
Maybe I should show off some knowledge to Rin… Sesshomaru thought to himself. He went over to the table of contents to find out what page the article was on. Inside was the usual photo collection of the writers and staff members, but there was one face that wasn't usually there. A pretty woman with her long black hair tied back into a ponytail, smiled at the camera.
Meet our newest writer, Andrea 'Andy' Williams, from Schurz, Nevada, in the United States.
Sesshomaru read the caption twice. He shrugged it off and turned to page 30.
When Did Genocide become All High and Mighty Again?
By: Andrea Williams
This is coming from an American's point of view. It's shocking how a lot of people are not aware that events that led to the attempted genocide of Jews back in World War II, is slowly starting to form again in the country of Sudan? How can we just keep going in day to day life when people else where aren't doing as well as we are, particularly in Darfur…
The Darfur conflict is an ongoing armed conflict in the Darfur region of western Sudan, mainly between the Janjaweed, a militia group recruited from the tribes of the Abbala Rizeigat (Bedouin Arabs), and the non-Baggara people (mostly land-tilling tribes) of the region. The Sudanese government, while publicly denying that it supports the Janjaweed, has provided money and assistance and has participated in joint attacks with the group, systematically targeting the Fur, Zaghawa, and Massaleit ethnic groups in Darfur. The conflict began in July 2003. Unlike in the Second Sudanese Civil War, which was fought between the primarily Muslim north, and Christian and Animist south, in Darfur most of the residents are Muslim, as are the Janjaweed.
After fighting worsened in July and August 2006, on August 31, 2006, the United Nations Security Council approved Resolution 1706 which called for a new 17,300-troop UN peacekeeping force to supplant or supplement a poorly funded, ill-equipped 7,000-troop African Union Mission in Sudan peacekeeping force. Sudan strongly objected to the resolution and said that it would see the UN forces in the region as foreign invaders. The next day, the Sudanese military launched a major offensive in the region.
There are various estimates as to how many deaths have occurred. However they all concur that the range is within the hundreds of thousands. The UN estimates that the conflict has left as many as 450,000 dead from violence and disease. Most NGOs (non-governmental organizations) use 200,000 to over 400,000, a figure from the Coalition for International Justice that has since been cited by the United Nations. Sudan's government claims that 9,000 people have been killed, however this figure is seen as counterfactual. As many as 2.5 million are thought to have been displaced as of October 2006.The mass media once described the conflict as both "ethnic cleansing" and "genocide," and now do so without hesitation. The United States government has described it as genocide, although the United Nations has declined to do so. In March 2007 the U.N. mission accused Sudan's government of orchestrating and taking part in "gross violations" in Darfur and called for urgent international action to protect civilians there.
Right now the most humble estimate of people displaced and currently living in concentration or refugee camps outside of Darfur is 2.5 million people and 3,500,000 people have fled areas that were once their homes. At least 400,000 people have been slaughtered and it is quite possible that the number is substantially higher at around 600,000 people as of March 1st 2007. Not since the Rwandan genocide of 1994 has the world seen such a calculated campaign of displacement, starvation, rape, and mass slaughter…
The article went on more about the UN's attempts to help out, the many protest going on in America…
Sesshomaru thought about the effort that Andy must have put in it to make this interesting piece of work. After sending in a donation to one of the help groups listed, he dug around in his desk for a number…
"Ok… so what's next?" Ayame asked. She finally got back from her meeting with the advertising department and now she, Sango, and Andy were having takeout in Andy's space.
"Hm. I just have to start breaking out in the clubs to find another story…" Andy said.
"Please… if you do that then you're going to turn into a whore… we don't want our sweet innocent Andy to have her soul turn black." Sango said.
"Doll, you clearly don't know me very well." Andy said with a smirk.
"Or the effects that alcohol has on Natives."
"Excuse me Ayame, its called fire water…"
"Oh yeah…"
"Ok… you guys just lost me…" Sango said, holding her head as if she's going to get a migraine. All three laughed. Then the phone rang.
"Whose line?" Ayame asked.
"…Is It Anyway?" Andy added, making Ayame and Sango laugh even more.
"Hello, Andrea Williams, Shikon Magazine." Andy said.
"I never took you to have the ability to sound like a professional after constantly using the word Jerk." A male's voice said. Ayame leaned in a little. She'd recognize that voice anywhere.
"It's Sesshomaru!" Ayame mouthed to Sango and Andy, before she had the chance to ask who it was.
"Well, you know… its part of the job." Andy said slyly. Sango and Ayame leaned in even further. Knowing Andy and her sarcasm, this was going to be one interesting phone call.
"Are you suing me because all I did was tell the truth about you?" Andy added.
"Maybe… but wouldn't that be wrong if neither of us knows the other well enough?" Sesshomaru said.
"Ah, yes, that does put us in a predicament…" Andy smirked at that remark. Ayame and Sango were trying to hold back giggles.
"So before we get the files set in stone, how dinner tonight at eight."
Andy eyes went big. Was he asking her out!? But… she's not that easy to get.
"Oh I don't know. What makes you think that I would fall for that approach easily?" Andy said seductively. Ayame's eyes went big. Andy sure knew how to flirt. "I mean, it doesn't make it feel safe for me at all being with a guy that can't even stand on his own two feet."
Ayame ran out of the room to laugh.
"Oh my god, Andy! You're so bad!" Sango hoarsely whispered.
"I know…" Andy mouthed.
"Playing hard to get?"
"I'm not playing hard to get, I am hard to get…"
"Then how about brunch on Saturday? You can't even call that a date. You do it for relatives you don't even like."
Andy took a look and Sango and Ayame. They were giving her the look that said, you better say yes!
"Um… fine… you win. Where and when?" Andy said, faking defeat.
"All in do time. Goodbye." Andy was left with a conversation with the dial tone.
"The jerk…" Andy said. "He asked me to brunch and doesn't even leave…"
"Andy Williams?" a delivery man said.
"Yes?"
"Delivery, please sign here."
Andy cocked an eyebrow. She signed.
"Ok boys! Bring it in…"
Five dozen white roses came and surrounded Andy. Her entire face turned red.
Then she, Sango, and Ayame started laughing after the delivery men left.
"Read the cards! I wanna hear this!" Andy said, placing a vase near her computer.
Sango took three while Ayame took two.
"Saturday… at 9:30…" Sango read.
"At Kikyo's" Ayame read.
"Fair and Beautiful…"
"Talented…"
"Shakespeare?" Sango read.
Andy laughed.
"That was corny." Andy said. "But no prob…"
"What are you talking about?" Ayame asked.
"Because I just landed a date with one of the top three bachelors in the world!" Andy sang, as she showed them the Cosmopolitan website on their latest article.
Top Bachelors of all time
3. Orlando Bloom
2. George Clooney
1. Sesshomaru Takahashi
Hikaru- San: Ok… about Andy's debut piece. The first part I wrote, the rest came from wikipedia... This is my way of informing the public of current affairs. I'm not trying to push people into my beliefs; just spreading the facts is all. I'm not sure about my bachelors list, but I just threw in a bunch of names. Please R&R…