The Library
By Anonymous Malink
Disclaimer, I do no own any Inuyasha like subjects in copyrighted form.
Part Three: The 'Kabuto-Sama Deal'
The following days went well.
Sesshoumaru had gotten a new patient, one he got through Miroku. Her name was Sango, and was quite the contrary to Miroku. They were friends save for the disgusting mouth of Miroku which usually earned him a slap across the face.
After a few more weeks the wedding seemed almost dawning. It was only a month and four days till the wedding, and counting. Sesshoumaru still had yet to tell Inuyasha about his special role in the wedding.
"So," Sesshoumaru questioned. Sango was sitting tensely on the couch across from Sesshoumaru's chair. Sango had to come in twice a month for therapy for some odd reason. Aside from obvious anger and irritability issues, she also had a problem with… love. Now Sesshoumaru didn't like to specialize in this kind of… psychological… crap, but he would, he's then one getting paid.
Sango shifted nervously in her seat. She still had doubts about why she had been dragged there by her brother and his weirdo friend Miroku. Psychological problems were not bugging her at all... no, she just thought she could talk to her cat.
"Alright, we have five or so minutes left, so let me get this off your chest," he said matter of factly. "You are in love with my wedding planner."
The silence breaker astonished Sango. She scratched at her head wearily and then recognized what he had said. "We were just talking about wh- wh-… what was that- where did that come from?"
Sesshoumaru rested his chin on his fist and smiled a moment at her, then frowned. "Well," he began, "Every time I see you two together, it's like – a slam!" Sesshoumaru wiped sweat off of his forehead and monitored her actions. He cleared his mind off the fact that he needed to turn down the thermostat, and noticed she was blushing, she was angry, and she was confused. "I scheduled your appointments right after and before each other just so I could see what happens between you two."
Sango gripped and fist and held it in front of her threateningly. "So I'm just an experiment? That's all, not even a patient?"
"Yes," Sesshoumaru said flatly.
Sango gripped tighter and then released sighing and nervously looked at the floor. Her inner battle ceased and she gave in. "Do you think he knows?"
"Yes." Sesshoumaru rolled his eyes and watched as Sango apprehensively got up and looked at the clock.
"Well I have spent my time here well, I have to go." She grabbed her coat from the back of her chair.
"This was fun. May I propose asking him out to coffee?"
"No."
"Well it was just a suggestion."
They had arrived at the door and Sesshoumaru reached out to open the door.
Millions of thoughts flew through Sango's head at once but the ones she truly thought went into her mouth. Sango opened her mouth to speak but words were already thrown from her mouth. Miroku had come in the door.
"Hey Sango."
"Hi Miroku."
Sesshoumaru sighed as he watched Sango fleeting figure exit down the hall and into the open elevator.
Well, three days after the fourth Sango appointment, shown above, it was only a month before the wedding. It also sadly was a Thursday, of which Inuyasha wanted no part of considering he had to go to Sesshoumaru's hou- err, apartment. A quick summary of this chapter would leave you with the impression it was just filler, but it is much more than that.
Filler is a pointless chapter with no core relation to the plot. It holds no purpose but to buy time. What I'm typing now, is filler. But it does have an importance. I am telling you that if you read a summary of this chapter, you would not be intrigued one bit of what you are about to read, but it has the utmost importance to the plot.
A summary would say; Inuyasha is troubled with his math grades and goes to see his mat teacher, Kabuto-Sama for help. Isn't that convincing? But I implore, read with Gusto for the rest of this chapter… anyway…
Right after Physics class, his last period of the day, Inuyasha stood in the doorway of Mr. Kabuto's room. Mr. Kabuto was the Tenth grade Math and Physics teacher, and twelfth grade English teacher. He was well accomplished in everything, but his home of heart was in tenth grade, teaching math. Physics was just that year since the normal teacher, Kaede was on sabbatical. His room was kept in nice order with row tables and chairs in a line in front of the whiteboard with his desk on the side, a normal teacher set-up.
His appearance was a bit frumpish one would say, he had black hair that was short and curly, and glasses that covered his hazel eyes. Hazel… was a weird selection that was made by his genes, since it didn't really suit him. He wore casual clothes to school on normal days, but occasionally, in fact every first Monday of every month he would come to school with a suit and jacket.
"Mr. Kabuto-Sama… sir?" Inuyasha took a step in, looking at Kabuto sitting at his desk.
The teacher smiled, looking up and beckoning him in with a gesture. "Come in, Inu, what did you want to speak to me about?"
Inuyasha gulped and proceeded, "Well you see sir…" He fidgeted with something in his pocket, and then pulled out a slip of paper, folded neatly into eighths. He unraveled it and sighed. "My average in math… is-"
Kabuto got up, looked at Inuyasha, walked over to him, looked over his shoulder, and said casually, "B" before going back to his desk.
"Yes," Inuyasha said. "Is there any way to bring it up?"
Kabuto sighed before he sat down and turned to look at Inuyasha. "Sorry Inu, the quarter ended last week. You should've done the revisions by then too."
Inuyasha opened his mouth to speak, but had difficulty even saying "oh."
The man walked over to one of the tables and pulled down to chairs easily, placing them on either side. He then got his grade book form his desk and put it on one side.
"Sit down for a moment Inu, I want to talk to you." Inuyasha nodded solemnly and sat down opposite the grade book. Kabuto took the seat on the other side. "Inuyasha, your grades are going down because your homework is being turned in days late. You know a day late means half the credit is taken away." Inuyasha nodded. "So why turn it in late?"
"I… don't know." Kabuto looked at the shaken boy. He was so different now then he was in any class he had ever seen him in. In class eh was vibrant, full of energy either passed positively in class, or negatively with his friends. Now he was so broken, a lifeless carcass waiting… to be taken away.
"Your test grade went down the drain this quarter Inu," Kabuto explained solemnly. Inu's head was hung so low the bangs were covering his entire face. Kabuto bit his bottom lip, and then sighed defeated…
"Inu, I'll make you a deal." Inu's eyes suddenly met with Kabuto's after many minutes of separation. He opened his grade book and pointed at his name, where a bunch of zeros and 5/10s were strewn. "You get me every single one of these assignments, and I mean every single one, and in perfect condition, by tomorrow class time, right before lunch, and I will give you an A+." Inuyasha was dumbstruck, and wanted to cry. He was given a second chance.
"Thank you sir-"
"Wait Inu, I haven't given you my part of the bargain." Inuyasha settled back into his chair. "You see, I never want to see another 5/10 or zero in this book again. This means it can be 6/10, just not 5. You need to promise to hand your stuff in on good time, and next quarter we won't need to make another deal. And one more thing." Inuyasha nodded readily. "You need to get your current average signed by your mother or father by class tomorrow as well, or this deal goes down the drain as well."
Inuyasha's raised heart sank. He was so close. So close to being in the clear, but he was hit by a blow so hard… he would feel it in the morning. "Just explain the situation Inu, your parents aren't murderers."
Riiiight, sure they weren't. Inuyasha couldn't trust this.
"Well, thank you anyway Mr. Kabuto." Inuyasha stood and smiled at his teacher. Kabuto extended their hand and the deal was made right there as Inu put his own hand in Kabuto's.
Inuyasha took off, down the hall, out the door, a good few yards away, there stood the library. It was 3:30, he was free now to go to the library and maybe hang out with Kagome for… but wait. Sesshoumaru's car was waiting, parked in the bus turn around.
He had to go home with Sess, thus avoiding his parents completely. Tonight he wouldn't even get a chance to go home, he would stay the night. His parents were gone to some weird fling thing. He cursed life, god, and Sesshoumaru, all at once, as the car wheeled around, and his stupid older brother's big ugly face was smirking at him, his face gesture saying it all. 'haha hahaha.'
Inu climbed in the car as painlessly as possible, before Sesshoumaru said, "I saw your girlfriend in the library today."
"Ka-"
"Jeez I'm kidding; she's not your girl. But anyway, she told me that she didn't see you at all today, not even in the hallway. She looked real disappointed, she told me to say hi to you for her. So 'hiiiii inu." Inuyasha tried not to throw up right there. His brother, imitating a stereotypical girl's high pitched voice was not something you wanted to be around for.
Inuyasha took a deep breathing, noting mentally how long this ride was going to take.
When they got to Sesshoumaru's apartment, Inuyasha realized one thing, and one thing alone. Rin was not there. Rin… was not there… Rin was not…. There. "Crud," he muttered as he walked in the door, Sesshoumaru right behind him.
"Rin should be here by the time you're done with your schoolwork," Sesshoumaru explained irritably. "I know, life is hard, and so are Kabuto's English Tes-"
"Sess," Inu interrupted, "I'm only in Tenth."
"Whatever," Sesshoumaru flatly replied. "Bother, bother, bother, still, his math classes are hard to follow, so bare with me when I say if Rin isn't back to help you by 5:00, you… may bother… me."
"Gee, thanks Sess, you're the best," Inuyasha exclaimed.
Sesshoumaru sighed arrogantly. "So I've heard." With that he walked into the computer room/study, the door open for Inu to see what he was doing inside. Inuyasha dragged his backpack to the kitchen table and set to work.
It wasn't that he didn't have time for homework; it was just that, he had no time for Kabuto's homework. It was so simple that he would save it for last and then forget about it. That one day when he first saw Kagome he had tried something new and began with Math. He hated that so much, found it so frustrating that he gave up on it, but that would have to stop. He needed an A, or his parents would murder him over, and over again. Death was not thing an aspiring musician could afford.
That's right, musician. Inuyasha may not have seemed like a musician, but in band class, wow, can he play. What does he play? Kagome asked that same question…
It was a bright sunny day this time, and Kagome and Inuyasha were once again having a conversation inside about their interests. Kagome had gone on about how much she wanted to be a teacher, since at her old home in Tokyo she lived at her family shrine and often gave tours. Although she was young, twelve, she didn't mind talking to strange adults about the history, which she seemed to know a lot about.
"So Inuyasha," she whispered quietly. "My turn, Do you play an instrument?"
Inuyasha scribbled some things down for English homework while nodding. "Yup."
"What instrument?"
"His views in life were unnessa- huh what? Oh yeah, Instrument." Inuyasha stopped and put the pencil down. "Guess."
"Umm, Piana."
"It's piano, and no."
"Guitar?"
"No."
Kagome bit her bottom lip and pondered on it a moment. She thought about Inuyasha's attitude toward things, then about how he acted towards her. She thought about all the things that made him different, and it hit her.
"Clarinet?"
"Close."
Kagome gave a look of confusion. "How can an instrument be close?"
"Cause it's basically the same instrument."
Kagome 'ooohed' and nodded understandingly. Now she knew what he meant. It was pretty much the same instrument. Just one was made of brass. "Saxophone."
Inuyasha smiled. "We have a winner."
"Then how come I never see you lugging it around anywhere?"
Inuyasha sighed. He had to explain this a lot for some reason. "I have one to practice at home, and one I keep here, at school."
Kagome nodded. "Sounds reasonable."
Inuyasha waited seemingly patient for the clock to say five. He had been struggling with his homework for a while, and it was frustrating him to no end time was not on his side. He tapped away with his pencil at the marble beneath his elbows and the papers. He had fifteen homework assignments to do, and he had only done four. It was going to be a long night.
The clock struck five however, shortly after he was about to drive the pencil into his skull, saving him some hemorrhaging. He smiled gratefully… but after realizing that Rin wasn't there he nearly killed himself. Sure, Sess was a whiz at Math, but he was also a whiz at beating the shit out of him on a normal basis.
He prepared himself mentally and then, shaking, went up to the study where Sesshoumaru was working. "Sess it's five."
Sesshoumaru undaunted kept working. He then looked at the clock. "Rin isn't here?"
"No."
He sighed and cracked his knuckles. "I'll be there in a moment. Just let me finish typing this report. "
Inuyasha nodded, and sullenly he retreated back to the kitchen. He sat down steadily and pulled out the grade sheet with his average. B. He wanted to rip it. He could rip it. He should rip it; there was no use for it after all. His parents were gone, and he needed a parental signature. He was about to tip it when something miraculous happened.
Sesshoumaru had walked up behind him and taken the paper by surprise. He studied it a moment and then pulled a pen out of his right pants pocket. He set it down on the counter and began to sign on the dotted line… a perfect copy of InuTaisho's signature. Inuyasha gaped wide-eyed at Sesshoumaru as he placed it back in his hands.
"Your brother isn't all that much of a bad guy after all," Sesshoumaru said casually.
Inuyasha gulped and looked at him. "Alright, what do you want," Inuyasha finally asked, quite cautiously.
Sesshoumaru snickered. "As soon as I'm done helping you with your homework, we're going to have a little man to man talk. And I want you to answer every question I ask truthfully. Got it?"
Inuyasha hung his eyes and sighed. He had lost the better end of the deal. "Yah, whatever."
"Good."
The homework went so fast after Sesshoumaru was working with him it wasn't funny. He was like a prodigy with Math, and a leader in all his other classes. Death to Inuyasha who destroyed the reputation.
The talk afterwards was a nice talk. A nice long talk. It was very stupid however to assume Sesshoumaru would bring up anything about Kagome. He left her out completely for some reason. He then said that every Thursday he would help with his homework and they would do the same thing again. This was part of the deal that Inu couldn't refuse.
The next day Sess drove him to school, and Science was first that day. Science, not physics, Science. Ms. Kanna, who usually taught that class, was out sick. The students waited patiently for what seemed like forever… and then the unthinkable happened. 'Cheery' Mr. Naraku walked in the door, wearing the official 'Sub' patch on his shirt.
"Alright," he said smirking. "Today we're going to steer away from what Ms. Kanna has been teaching you, and learn about Temperature; more deep though than you could ever imagine. You all know about Celsius and Fahrenheit, right, but what about Kelvin." He wrote Kelvin up on the board. "Yes Kelvin, we'll be studying this in Eleventh Grade.
"Now Kelvin is the SI unit of absolute temperature, equal to 1/273.16 of the absolute temperature of the triple point of water, equivalent to one degree Celsius."
Inuyasha had no trouble following what Naraku was saying, but one thing struck his mind. "Mr. Naraku."
Naraku nodded. "Yes InuTaisho's so-, I mean Inuyasha."
Inuyasha ignored his rudeness and blatant disregard for anything about him. "Does Kelvin have any weird coincidences in temperature, like 0 Celsius is freezing point, and 212 Fahrenheit is boiling point?"
Naraku's light bulb went off. "Yes my boy, yes!" Inuyasha nearly fell out of his seat as a result of the sub's ecstatic ness. He wrote 0 Kelvin on the board. "0 Kelvin is the most indefinite experiment anyone has ever tried. It is the ultimate stopping point, at which molecule movement stops entirely."
"Is there any other time when molecules stop movement?"
"No. Molecules will only stop moving once they reach negative two hundred and seventy three point fifteen degrees Celsius. You cannot restore molecule movement once that happens."
The class ended abruptly after that. There was more conversation, and an experiment, but nothing of great importance to write of. Basically they melted and froze yen.
Now after class was some other stuff. Then orchestra and band practice. Then more stuff. More stuff. Then Math.
Kabuto's class.
Inuyasha smiled. He did it. He got his A. He was happy, the marking period ended this Friday, and report cards were due Saturday. It was all a matter of when he got in the classroom and… wait.
Naraku was standing in the classroom, smiling, and the 'sub' patch was still on his shirt. "Hello Inu, glad to see you again…"
AN. I'm back from the grave. This time I think I'm back for good though. Read and Review please. Another chapter may come before the end of the second week of may.