INADEQUATE
By
Ava365
Chapter 3. Coping
It had been many days since Sesshomaru and Kagome broke up and Inuyasha had not heard from her. He was worried, especially because he had never spent so many days without either hearing from her or seeing her. He had talked to Miroku, Sango and Shippo and what he learned from them made him decide to visit her. The three of them told him that she never answered her cell phone, all the calls went straight to voice mail and she never returned the calls. They had also called her mom's home and she was never available. Inuyasha had offered to visit her and to tell them of her.
He climbed up the stairs to the shrine Kagome's mother administered. He reached the top and began to look for either Kagome's grandfather or her mother but the area was very quiet. He walked past the goshinboku tree and to the house when he heard some sounds coming from a small wooden construction that was used as storage room. He approached the building gingerly and soon found who he was looking for.
"Kagome?"
The said girl turned around startled to hear a sound different than the ones she was making.
"Inuyasha?"
"Hey girl, what are you doing all covered in dust?"
She brought the back of her hand to her forehead as if trying to smudge some dirt. Inuyasha looked her over, she was wearing old clothes that were worn out from use, her hair was covered by an old shawl and her face and clothes were covered in dust.
"Well, you see. This storage room was all dirty and my grandfather is too old to clean it properly. Besides all the stuff was in disarray and it was impossible to reach all the things in here properly."
"Yeah, right." He picked up a clay vase that had a crack going from the bottom to the opening. "I'm sure this vase could be useful for..."
He put the vase down not caring that Kagome didn't seem to pay attention to what he was saying kept talking nervously while running the palm of her hands through her dusty pants.
Inuyasha just knew why she was doing this, but it was ok to show him her pain so he did the first thing that came to mind to shut her up and allow him to talk to her. He hugged her tightly.
"It's ok, Kagome. Everything will be alright. You are not alone. You have friends if you let us in. Why don't we get inside, you get changed and I treat you to lunch."
Kagome looked at him with teary eyes and smiled at him with trembling lips.
"That sounds great. But I don't really feel like going out. Why don't you stay and I cook ramen for you? Real ramen."
"Well, that sounds even better. After you my lady!"
And he bowed at her making her giggle. His eyes lit up, that was much better than the busy Kagome and the teary one.
As they neared the house Inuyasha looked at the top a near tree and frowned at what he sensed. So it was true, what he had heard a few days ago. But he didn't show his concern to the girl, she already had too much on her shoulders.
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"Hello Inuyasha! I didn't know you were coming! It's been awhile since you've visited."
"Mrs. Higurashi. Yes it's been some time."
"I'm glad you've come. I know she's been pushing all of you away, but that is not what she needs right now. She needs her friends and I'm glad you are here for her."
"I should apologize for my brother's behaviour."
"Nonsense, you are not your brother and thus not responsible for his actions."
"Mrs. Higurashi, I want you to know that I'll be there for her."
"I know Inuyasha. Thanks for being her friend. Where is she by the way?"
"She is having a shower."
"Thank god she left the storage room alone!"
"What do you mean?"
"Inuyasha, she has been cleaning since she broke up with Sesshomaru. At first we thought it was her way of dealing with the pain. If she was busy then she had no time to feel the pain of breaking up with Sesshomaru. I really thought that at some point she would begin to mourn. But I don't think she has even cried. I'm afraid she is not accepting the brake up."
Inuyasha frowned and looked at the glass of water he had got himself after Kagome had left him in the kitchen to go have a shower.
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Inuyasha walked down the stairs with a smile on his lips. She was far from over his brother but at least she smiled and laughed while he was with her. Perhaps Sango could get her to talk, girls did that, they liked to chat, preferably to other girls; it was some kind of girl therapy, one that he didn't understand. He preferred to keep to himself; his problems were his damn business and no one else's. Good thing he wouldn't be there to see her cry her eyes out, he couldn't stand it when she cried.
He got in his car; he needed some help in order to put the plan into action. He wouldn't have high and mighty contacts like his father and his brother had but at least they were loyal. He could trust them to the point of putting his life in their hands. He shuddered at the memories of last night. After what he had learned about his aunt Hanae he understood many things and he would make sure to keep his distance from her, not that she would notice. He never liked her but now he had a reason.
He would make some phone calls on his way home and he would start by him, no matter how far away from Kagome he wanted him to be he needed him in the plan.
After the third ring the call was answered.
"Inu koro. What's up?"
"Teme, listen, meet me in an hour where you know. Make sure your are not being followed. Bring who you know."
He had said what he needed to say, so he hung up.
Koga stared at his cell phone long after the line had gone dead. He couldn't believe that inu koro had hung up on him! It better be important or he was a dead dog.
After hanging up on Koga he called Sango.
"Hey Sango, I just left Kagome's. She is bad. She has this obsession with cleaning things. Her mother told me she has spent the last days tidying up and deep cleaning the whole house. When I saw her today she was cleaning the freaking storage room!"
"Oh my, that's bad. Don't worry Inuyasha. I've been cleaning my schedule so that I will be free the next three days. I'm arranging for us to spend some days in an onsen."
"Few! I'm glad you can be there for her. Thanks Sango. I'll leave Kagome to you. I have some things to attend to. Talk to you later!"
He was glad Sango would take Kagome out of the city for a while. It would make things easy for them to make a move.
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The woman hissed as she submerged her body in the warm water.
"Sango that was the best idea ever!"
"Yeah, well. You know how I've always wanted to go to an onsen, I'm glad you accepted to come with me though, I didn't want to come alone and coming with Mirkou ... well, it wasn't an option."
Both girls giggled.
"Oh, cut the crap Sango. I wasn't born yesterday, you know? I know why you did it, and I appreciate it. I needed to get away. I was tired to cry myself to sleep at night and clean until I got so exhausted I stopped thinking about that hell of a morning."
"I'm sorry Kagome; I didn't mean to offend you. I didn't want you to think I was doing it out of pity."
"Well, you know what a good friend would do?"
"No, but I have the feeling that I will know soon."
"I can't decide on a chocolate massage or a shiatsu massage. Which one would you like to try first?"
"Mhm! I don't know... shiatsu?"
"Shiatsu it is." After a quiet moment Kagome added. "Thanks again Sango, you are a great friend."
"You know you can talk to me about anything."
"Yes, I just don't know how to start. Right now I feel like damaged goods and I don't think I will ever want to get involved romantically with a man. Was I that awful that I made him go away? He could have told me what he wanted, what he liked, I don't know, I thought we were meant for each other, that he was the one."
"Kagome, it's not your fault, he is a jerk. First of all you need closure, perhaps he has a reason for what he did, you should talk to him and ask him and if there is no way to fix your relationship then you need to move on, forget about him."
"Yeah, you're right. I feel I need to know what made him be so cold to me that morning, everything was going great. I just don't get it."
"All right, girl, now, this is our moment, time for us, to get spoiled. No more thinking of bad things. We can talk more after and we will deal with everything when we get back, OK? Remember I'm here for you, girly!"
"Yes, Sango, I promise I will enjoy myself. I think we should get out of the warm water, we have spent long enough in there."
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Inuyasha entered the bar; it was a mucky place, in a slum of the city. No self respected youkai or ningen even approached that side of town, hardy the police ever did. So it served Inuyasha's purpose perfectly.
"Hey Hitten, is everyone here yet?"
"Yes, they are in the pool room. The usual Inuyasha-sama?"
"Sure thing."
"Go ahead, I'll bring your drink to you."
"OK"
Inuyasha swiftly walked to the back of the local and descended three stairs, then walked down a partially illuminated corridor that led to a room. In the middle of it stood a big pool table partly covered by some people seating on it.
"About time Inu koro. What was so important that you are so secretive about?"
"Teme, you are ending my patience!" Inuyasha was about to lounge when he heard a clinking sound close to his ear and after something hit his head he automatically dropped to the floor.
"Stop it already. It was funny at first but now it's tiresome."
From the top of the man's shoulder appeared a red haired head seemly mocking the prone hanyou.
"Miroku is right Inuyasha. Stop playing with Koga and tell us why you've called us."
Inuyasha glared at Miroku and Shippo and stood up dusting his pants.
"Well, let me see if everyone has come"
Just then Hiten entered the room with a cold beer in his hands and handed it to Inuyasha.
"Hey Hiten, make sure no one enters this room until we are ready to go, OK?"
The thunder youkai nodded and left the room. Inuyasha downed the beer in three gulps and then run his sleeve through his mouth to clean the foam from his lips.
"Ah! I needed that. What an awful week!"
"Well, just start already!" Koga couldn't keep his clam around Inuyasha.
"All right, all right. Everybody in this room knows about Kagome breaking up with my brother?"
Koga perked up. "They are no longer together?"
"Shut up teme, you are not allowed near her even though she is single!"
"The hell I'm not!"
Miroku intervened this time hitting Koga on the head with his stuff effectively shutting them up. "Please go on Inuyasha."
"Well, apparently there is more to it. First of all I want you to guarantee that if you don't join me in what I will tell you right now, at least you will not tell anyone. The exit of the plan resides on the loyalty of the ones involved."
Several heads nodded in agreement.
"All right. Most of you are Hanyou." Again several heads nodded. "As such you've subject to violent and degrading attacks at the hands of what they call themselves 'pure'". Some heads turned down in shame. "Some of you are despised by the same people for being weak". At that Shippo looked down with teary eyes. "I know what you've gone through because you all know I've gone through it myself, not by strangers but by my own family."
"What does Kagome have to do with it?"
"I'm getting to it, Miroku. My brother was about to marry her, you all know that. You've all been holding to that in hope that things would change, if one of the pure and powerful were to marry a human girl and have hanyou offsprings things would change for you too. We never knew that he would break up with her." Inuyasha looked down to the floor and run a clawed hand through his hair, how was he going to explain it to them, what could he tell them to convince him that his family's business was also their business? He raised his head and looked around the room. He knew them all, some of them he had saved while being attacked, some of them he had sheltered after they had lost their parents. But he didn't want them to participate in the plan out of duty to him but because it would make a difference for them and for the ones to come.
"Look, I don't know how to start. I've already told you that our only hope for things to get better went down the drain early this week. But there is more to it. Apparently the 'pure' got mad at Sesshomaru and they've been threatening him, they started with his company, but he didn't relent and finally they went for Kagome." There was turmoil in the room, everyone demanding explanations, and Inuyasha had to stand on the pool table to get their attention." Listen everyone, this is not all. Let me tell you what happened the day Sesshomaru broke up with Kagome." Everyone went silent. "That night I had a family gather, so I had to go home. There I met my father and Sesshomaru."
TBC