A/N: Hey guys! Here's another chapter for you!
If you're interested in more of my work, please check out my oneshot story Battle of Togenkyo. It's a bit intense but there's been good feedback on it from the good people who read my stories.
Thanks AriaBelikov for helping me get past my writer's block on this chapter!
15
Izayoi and Kitori sat poised on the couches of the parlor. From the outside they looked like the perfect image of ladies, but if you looked closely you would see the lines of fatigue and worry on their brows. Even in the privacy of their own parlor they were determined to stay composed.
Tea and biscuits sat on the coffee table between them, but they lay untouched. The water in the kettle going cold.
The agents in the hallway outside were still milling about even though there were no surfaces left for them to inspect. It was as if they were waiting for something that would never come.
A bellowing voice in the hallway caused both women to jerk their heads up. "You have done enough here. Leave."
"But Sir!" They heard an agent protest.
"Go!" His voice held a tone of authority that rang through the halls of the wing. There were a few murmured 'Yes, Sir's as noises of the agents packing up their equipment reached the women's ears.
The had just stood up to see what was going on when the Emperor stepped into the room. "Inu no Taisho." Izayoi said softly.
"Those agents are taking advantage of our predicament." He strode to the table against the wall that held the decanted alcohol and poured himself a whiskey. Drinking it in one go, he slammed it onto the table.
The women stared at him, confusion marking their faces. "What are you doing here? You were meant to be in Hakodate for the rest of the week."
When he turned to face them, Izayoi saw the unmistakable lines that marked her face on her husband's. He was troubled by the girl's disappearance, but she didn't know if it was because of their safety or the risk he might lose an heir.
"I couldn't stay there in the blistering cold while our heir was kidnapped! Onigumo will go to no ends to take control of this Empire. I couldn't just sit back and watch from the other side of the country." He paced the far wall, his highly bound white hair swinging behind him.
The women gasped. "It's been confirmed they were kidnapped by the mob?" This was the first news they had; they hadn't even been told directly that they had been kidnapped! In the panic of the discovery, the boys had been so caught up with finding them that they hadn't even bothered to wake them.
Kitori had taken it the hardest, which wasn't surprising considering it was her daughter and granddaughter who had been taken. Luckily, Izayoi had been the one to break the news to her before she had even stepped foot out of her bedroom that morning. Izayoi had seen the realization hit Kitori that the girls had been taken by the people who they had ran from, and in a place that was supposed to be safe! She knew the woman would never say anything, but that she was thinking about how they had all been better off outside of these walls. At least there no one was getting hurt. Everyone had been safe, even if they were moving frequently.
Izayoi was starting to wonder it too. Her family's presence had only made things worse for the poor girl. No heir was worth putting anyone in that much pain.
Inu no Taisho continued to rant around the room. "Not completely, but who else?" He sounded positive, and with no other suspects, the women could see his point.
They sank back into their seats as the watched the Emperor worry. He would never admit that he was concerned, but Izayoi could tell the more she watched him that he had grown to care for the two girls. Even if he hadn't spent any time with them, he had heard about the warmth that little Ileana had brought into the cold walls of the Palace.
"The boys will find them." Izayoi said reassuringly to them, but it was mainly to herself.
00000
Silver white hair spun round and round, creating fan around a tiny body. Giggles filled the room as dark haired man watched the little girl try to make her new dress spin. In the night, it had rained across the city his office looked down on making it sparkle in the morning sun.
The little girl, dizzy from her twirls, stumbled to the window, her tiny hands leaving imprints on the glass. Smiling, she pressed her nose to the glass. "Look Mister!" she pointed at a skyscraper that caught the morning light, causing tiny rainbows to reflect on the wet glass.
"It's pretty, isn't it?" He said, turning his office chair around to face the glass. Gently, he lifted the girl back up into his lap. She smiled up at him warmly, her fear from last night gone in the morning light. Her childish innocence winning out.
"Mister Oni, when can I see my Mummy?" Her hair spilled down her back and across his pants, providing on stark contrast of light and dark.
"When she's awake you can see her. For now though, how would you like to go play? There are some toys for you in the other room." He smiled warmly. She nodded up at him. "Miss Kanna will take you to them. There might even be some chocolate in it for you." He winked at her, his purple eyes mischievous.
Excitedly, she ran toward the woman with platinum blond hair who stood in the doorway. The young woman gently took the girls hand and fixed her with a small smile. Before they could get to far down the hallway though, the girl broke off and ran back to the entry of the office. "Mister Oni." She called. "Will we play more later?"
He smiled at her; it was warm compared to his typical cold ones. "I hope so, Ileana."
00000
There was pressure on the bed when she began to come to. As she opened her eyes, a dark figure next to her started to come into focus. "Good morning, Miss Higurashi."
She tried to jerk out of the bed and away from him, but found her head too heavy. Her eyes cleared quickly though, giving her the first look at the man who had chased her for so long.
He wore an all black three-piece suit and rested casually on the bed next to her. Even relaxed he held an air of authority. His ink black hair hung to the middle of his back, making him look larger than he was as it created a dark shadow around him. "Don't try to sit up, it won't do you any good. You're highly sedated. I can't have you making a ruckus like you did the last time you got out of bed. You caused quite a scene there." He laughed. "Scared one of my nurses clear out of here."
She wanted to glare or fight back, but she was only worried about one thing. "Where's Ileana." She croaked.
He turned to look at her, a smile on his thin lips. "She's safe. I've kept her close to me all night."
His words didn't comfort her, far from it. She would have preferred if he had stayed far away from her. Other side of the world far.
She didn't give him the satisfaction of reacting, even though her heart of screaming. She wanted to claw that smug look off of his face. What had he done to her little girl? Was she scared?
But her thoughts were getting foggy again. "You're going to stay down here for a while. Nurse Kagura will make sure of that." Kagome's eyes flitted to the other woman in the room. Her face was pinched, but she knew the woman could be pleasant.
"What do you want with us?" She finally asked, forcing herself to push past the drugs.
"Oh, dear Kagome." He chuckled. "Your precious daughter is the key."
She barely had time to process his words before the darkness enveloped her.
00000
He had almost made it to the door when a black SUV cut off his path. The door to the vehicle swung open before it had the chance to stop completely. Sesshomaru's tall frame escaped the seat faster than should have been possible and cursed.
"Inuyasha, stop!" He grabbed his brother's arm as he moved to get around the vehicle. Inuyasha jerked away from his brother and turned on him.
"Back down, Sesshomaru." He growled in a low voice. His eyes were dark and his features full of fury; he looked like a man on a warpath. Sesshomaru put a hand on Inuyasha's shoulder to try and redirect him again.
He snapped.
With a swift punch, Inuyasha connected with his brother's chin. He was breathing heavily and willing to fight through anyone who stood in his way to get to his girls. Even his own brother.
Sesshomaru swung back, taking Inuyasha by surprise. It was so far out of what was normal from his brother that he hadn't seen it coming. He recovered quickly though. He swung back, trying to hit Sesshomaru in his stomach, but his brother grabbed his arm and spun him around, using his own momentum against him. As quickly as Inuyasha had struck out, Sesshomaru's JBI training had him pinned to the ground with his shoulder screaming in pain.
"Let me go!" He yelled, struggling underneath of him.
"You need to use your head, you imbecile!" Sesshomaru dug his knee into his brother's back. "What do you think rushing into that building is going to prove? Onigumo is probably expecting you to do just that! You'll be held hostage like the girls or better yet, shot. That mob wants nothing more than to see you dead! You are one of the only things that stands in the way of them taking control of the Empire and I will be damned if I let you just run straight into their headquarters!"
Inuyasha struggled a bit more, but he didn't say anything else. Finally, he let out a huff of frustration and quieted. Feeling satisfied he'd gotten through to him, Sesshomaru let him go.
He didn't try to get up, though. Inuyasha rolled onto his bottom and sat up. He was a pitiful sight with his hair thrown about wildly; his suit was rumpled beyond repair with his tie hanging loose and crooked. Sesshomaru looked down at his brother with empathy. "I've failed them, Sesshomaru." He hung his head in grief, his anger winding down.
"No you haven't. You've only failed them if you leave them again, which none of us plan to let happen." He offered him a hand up. Inuyasha looked at it for a moment before sighing and taking it.
"Now, when you snuck into my office pretending to be, you missed something."
00000
The Don stood in the heart of his operation. A giant control room of sorts spread around him. His men milled around him typing on computers, hacking banks, and managing men in the field. Their operation rivaled that of the JBI and America's CIA. They were better than both of them though.
"Pull up surveillance for the front of the building, Hokodoshi." A teenager that was a prodigy on computers, obliged. On the main screen at the front of the room, the scene between the Takahashi brothers played out like a cinematic clip.
"Seems they've realized where we are, doesn't it boys?" Don Onigumo laughed at their sheer stupidity. "Bring a car into the loading bay and ready my car. We're going to move the packages to one of our safe houses."
Hokodoshi looked at him questioningly. "That probably isn't the best idea." He was cocky, but generally right. Don Onigumo turned to him, a calculated look on his face. "They have no proof that we have those two here, worst case they saw Bonnie and Clyde over there bring in the linen, a stupid maneuver in the first place." Two bulky men in all black that stood against the wall bristled. "No offense guys."
"You can bet though that the Emperor is going to have all roads surrounding us conducting checks of every vehicle coming through. Not to mention there's been an air traffic warning. There's no way to move them out of here without implicating ourselves. They can't storm the building, legally at least, and even if they get a search warrant they'll never find them in the hidden rooms. Sir, you're covered from every angle in here." He pointed toward the walls vaguely. "Out there you're in their court."
The Don was impressed. The boy may be a brat, but at least he was smart. "All right. We stay in the building. Good work Hokodoshi." The boy smiled smugly. "But don't you ever interrupt me again. You may be smart, but you need to learn to keep that mouth of yours in check." The smile evaporated from his face as his boss scolded him in front of his coworkers, his face turning red in embarrassment.
There was a vibration in the Don's pocket as he stepped off the platform in the center of the room. He answered his phone with his usual demeanor, "What is it?"
His face changed though as the person on the other side of it delivered bad news. Anger and frustration at the incompetence of his men rose inside of him. "How did that happen?" He asked with a deadly calm.
"Find her." He finally said. "And find her fast or it's your head I'll be taking."
A/N: Remember to review! And please check out Battle of Togenkyo!