Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha. Inuyasha and characters are property of Rumiko Takahashi. I'm just borrowing them for my own amusement.
Inuyasha's ears flattened and his hair stood on end at the magnitude of spiritual energy surrounding him. He could barely move, every twitch of a muscle excruciating. He could still hear his father's booming voice above him, telling him to keep low and out of sight as he stood there, covered in blood.
Inuyasha had been afraid to see his father like that. While he had known his father would be okay – as a Daiyoukai, his healing powers were second to none – he couldn't help but worry. He had found his father this way but had barely managed to greet him before the energy blustered around him, knocking him off his feet.
He could see his father, see his opponents from where he was, unable to move, feeling as though he was being smothered by the very air. He gasped for breath, trying to pull himself forward as he looked towards his father again to find he was no longer there.
"No!" Inuyasha glanced around, seeing nothing of his father other than the fire rat robe he had worn for centuries, floating towards the hanyou. "Father!"
"Inuyasha!" Inuyasha's eyes snapped open, a snarl on his face as his claws swiped at whoever dared to wake him. His gaze settled on Sesshomaru who was halfway across the room, knowing the viciousness of Inuyasha's reaction when forcibly woken.
"Gah, Sesshomaru! Don't do that!" He pressed a hand to his forehead, noting that he was on the couch in Sesshomaru's apartment, covered in a blanket, obviously placed by Sesshomaru.
"You were having the nightmare again," the elder Inu stated simply.
Inuyasha sighed, pulling his leg up and resting his elbow on his knee, his fingers fisting in his hair. "Yeah, I was." He whispered, glancing at his older brother. "Probably from seeing that woman again."
"Possibly." Sesshomaru nodded, sitting gracefully in an armchair near to the sofa, a wary eye on his sibling.
"You think it might be something else?" Inuyasha snapped and Sesshomaru just sat there and watched him. "Quit staring!"
Sesshomaru couldn't help but smile. When aggravated, Inuyasha was entirely predictable. At least to Sesshomaru. No one else could sense the change in the hanyou but having watched him grow from a newborn pup to the adult he was, Sesshomaru knew how to read his body language and tone. He had mellowed out a lot when his mother died, the human woman's death in the second world war, hitting the hanyou hard.
She had been in the wrong place at the wrong time, being killed by American soldiers. Sesshomaru had half expected Inuyasha to lose it - as their father had – and head out to enact revenge against the men that had taken her from him.
His father had attempted to use Tenseiga to revive her but it had been too late after they had found her. The imps had taken her soul and she could not be brought back.
InuTaisho had lost it and was just about ready to destroy the American troops that were surrounding Japan and its surrounding islands but a single grief-stricken noise from Inuyasha had stopped him. Hearing the pain-filled whine from his youngest pup, he had frozen, turning to see his son curled in on himself, trying to keep his emotions in check as he looked down on the lifeless body of his mother.
InuTaisho had wasted no time in abandoning his split-second decision of revenge before scooping his son up and encompassing him in the knowledge that he was not alone, that his father was still there, rumbling low in his throat to soothe his pup.
While he was nearly three hundred by this point – his human mother's life having been extended through her mating to the Great Inu-Daiyoukai – he had needed his father's presence.
Inuyasha hadn't been the same since then.
He had become withdrawn, less prone to overreaction than he had been previously. While he had started to return to how he had been before his mother's death over the following twenty years, their father's death had all but broken the hanyou.
Sesshomaru had kept a close eye on his brother after that, seeing the hanyou become lost in himself, clearly blaming himself for not being able to act when their father had passed. No matter how many times Sesshomaru tried to get it through his head that he was not to blame, the younger Inu would not believe him.
Until the day Inuyasha came to him, a steely resolve in his liquid gold eyes and told him of his plan. What he wanted to do.
And now they were doing it.
It was obvious that it was taking a toll on Inuyasha. He hadn't had a nightmare in twelve years – that Sesshomaru knew about, anyway – and going through with the plan to bring down the Shikon Organisation was affecting Inuyasha. He wouldn't bother trying to get the hanyou to give it up, it wouldn't do any good. Inuyasha wouldn't give up. He had spent the last forty years planning, gaining allies and building up his vast knowledge of the organisation he had committed to bringing down.
No.
They weren't going to bring them down.
They were going to obliterate them.
Sesshomaru had been angry and distressed by their father's death but unlike Inuyasha, he wasn't given the opportunity to grieve, the mantle of Lord of the West falling to him. He had had his brother's support behind him and thankfully, it had only taken ten or so years and one attempted kidnapping of his younger sibling to stabilise the west.
And after that one incident, no one ever attempted to kidnap Inuyasha again.
It had been during the tumultuous time where Sesshomaru was having to assert his command of the lands that Inuyasha had come to him with his plans. Sesshomaru had thought it over and agreed, leaving the planning to his brother.
This was Inuyasha's baby. This was something that gave the younger Inu a purpose. And the more he discovered the pain the organisation had inflicted, the more he threw himself into his project. Once the computer had been invented, he had quickly taken to using it, adapting the machine and refining it. The internet quickly became Inuyasha's playground and nothing was safe from his hacker brother's invasion.
It had been these inventions that had really spurred Inuyasha's drive into action.
"You're doing it again," Inuyasha grumbled, pulling Sesshomaru out of his musings.
"Hm?"
"Staring at me like you used to." Inuyasha's voice was soft as he turned his golden eyes to his brother. "After he died."
"I can't help but think about it. Especially if you're having nightmares again." Sesshomaru stated honestly. Inuyasha didn't like it when anyone sugar-coated anything. He preferred honesty over anything else, no matter how brutal.
"This is the first one in a decade." He said softly. The last one he'd had had been after they had finally discovered where the Shikon's headquarters were in Tokyo. Part of him had wanted to destroy the building and everyone in it the moment they had discovered it but, as he had told Kouga, he didn't want to just bring down the Tokyo branch, he wanted to bring down the entire organisation.
And he was close to doing it.
Watching his older brother, he knew he worried. He couldn't help but wonder exactly what was going on inside his brother's mind. He, just like his brother, was an expert at reading his sibling. Sesshomaru had a reputation for being cold, stone-faced and unfeeling but Inuyasha knew that he was anything but. His big brother had been the only constant since that night, the only thing Inuyasha could rely on.
"You think I should give up." Inuyasha stated softly and Sesshomaru looked to him, his eyes questioning. "You think I should give up on the whole thing."
"No." Inuyasha's eyebrows shot up, not expecting that answer. "I don't think you should give up. You have worked too hard to give up now. And I know you don't want to." He was right there. Inuyasha didn't want to let go of what he had been working for. "While I may have been there and supported you since you sunk your teeth into this plan of yours, this is your baby. This is your show, Yasha. You're the one that has worked towards this for the last three and a half decades, you're the one that has brought everyone together and made all the plans. You have put so much work into this, you can't give up."
"I wasn't planning to," Inuyasha responded with a devilish smirk on his face. "It was just the look on your face."
No, Inuyasha wouldn't be giving up.
Not a chance in hell.
*I*I*I*I*I*I*I*I*I*I*I*I*I*I*I*I*I*I*I*I*I*I*
Kagome swallowed as she walked into the intimidating building one street over from her own place of work. While she had known the building was there, she had never actually been up close to it. The metal work gleaming in the sunshine and her heels clicking on the marble floor of the lobby.
She let out a breath, walking towards the reception desk, biting her lip slightly.
"Can I help you?" A perky receptionist asked, a cheery tone in her voice as Kagome approached.
"Um, yes, I was hoping to see Isamu Nakamura," Kagome kept her voice steady as she spoke, the receptionists eyebrows raising minutely.
It had been a week or so since she had dropped Isamu back with his brother and she hadn't heard anything from him. She hadn't expected to but she couldn't help but worry about him. He had had a hard day at the Organisation and she knew that the events of the day had to have been troubling him. It had troubled her when she had first joined. She had seen the same look on his face that she knew adorned hers when she had learned what dwelled in the world.
"Mr Nakamura?" She sounded slightly confused.
"Yes," Kagome nodded, wondering what was odd about her request. Maybe it was because she didn't have an appointment? She wasn't sure. "Is he in?"
"Yes," she once again sounded confused.
"I'd like to see him, if he's free, please." The last word was tacked on to be polite but she didn't really feel like it anymore.
"He doesn't see people without an appointment," the receptionist had lost some of her peppiness as Kagome spoke and she wondered how unusual it was that someone asked to speak to either of the Nakamura brothers. Couldn't have happened too often.
"I'm a friend. You can call up if you don't believe me," Kagome's smile was challenging and the receptionist accepted, picking up the phone. "Kagome Higurashi." The girl nodded as she waited for an answer.
"Yes, I have a Kagome Higurashi wanting to see Mr Nakamura," she glanced at the woman standing on the other side of the desk. She knew immediately that she was from the Shikon Organisation. All the youkai in the building knew that the organisation was on the next street but she had never imagined someone from there walking into the building.
Kagome bit her lip to hide a small smile as the receptionist's eyes widened at the answer before thanking the person on the other end of the phone.
"He'll be right down," she smiled at her, gesturing towards the plush chairs that littered the lobby. "If you'd like to sit while you wait. He may be a little while."
"Thank you," Kagome nodded, sinking into one of the chairs and finding that they were more comfortable than they looked. The brothers clearly spared no expense when it came to their business's luxury.
Hell, if they could afford it, why not?
She didn't have to wait too long for him to appear. There were a couple of people milling about around the lobby but none of them held her interest for too long. Her attention was drawn to a set of elevator doors the smoothly slid open, revealing Isamu. She stood as she saw him, walking towards him. He smiled as he saw her and she noticed the stitches on his forehead, Miroku's work on display.
"Kagome," he stopped as they met not far from the elevators, "to what do I owe the pleasure?"
"Um, I," all of a sudden, she felt herself feeling nervous. She didn't understand why. Maybe it was because she was on his turf, she was standing in the lobby of the grand building he owned with his brother whereas before, they had been in the organisation, her home field. "I was worried about you."
"Worried? Really?" He looked confused and she nodded, feeling her cheeks heat up slightly. "Why were you worried about me?"
"Um," she glanced around, noticing that the people that had been minding their own business before, were now staring aptly at one of the CEO's of the company, bolding standing in the lobby in front of them.
Obviously, the brothers weren't usually seen down here.
He noticed her reluctance to speak with people paying them so much attention and gave her a small smile. "You wanna go get coffee somewhere?" He asked and she looked up at him, slightly taken aback. "I'm gonna go out on a limb and guess that what you want to talk about isn't something to be overheard?" She nodded, glad he understood.
He walked over towards the receptionist and Kagome heard him tell her to let his brother know he was stepping out and would be back in a little while. The girl nodded, glancing at Kagome with a small knowing smirk on her lips. Kagome wasn't sure how to take that but was a little happy it wasn't a death glare.
"Come on," he led her out of the lobby, turning right down the street. They walked in a comfortable silence for about five minutes before he gestured towards a small café. He held the door open for her and Kagome gave her a small smile as she walked through, thanking him softly.
"Ah, Mr Nakamura!" The small woman behind the counter grinned as he walked in. "It's been too long since you or your brother were in here. What happened?" Her expression darkened slightly as she took note of his forehead.
"A little accident, nothing more." He held up his hands, chuckling lightly. "And how many times have I told you to call me Isamu, Nishi?"
"Always once more." She noticed Kagome standing beside Isamu and beamed at her. "And who are you?"
"This is Kagome. She's a friend." Isamu introduced her and Kagome couldn't help but smile at his thought of her as a friend. He motioned towards a table which was set slightly away from the other patrons of the café.
"Your usual?" She asked and Isamu nodded. "And what would you like, dear?"
"Um, just a regular black, please," Kagome smiled, finding herself liking the older woman as she smiled and turned to prepare their drinks. "How did you find this place?"
"My brother comes in here regularly." Isamu explained, removing his suit jacket and setting it over the back of his chair and sitting down himself. "I was in desperate need of coffee and no matter how brilliant the food in our building may be, the coffee leaves much to be desired. Satoshi recommended this place and I've been coming in here ever since. Granted, it's only been a few weeks but this place is great. And the pastries here are amazing."
"I may have to try some then," Kagome smiled.
"Kagome," Isamu's expression turned serious as he said her name, "you said you were worried about me." He thanked Nishi as she gave them their coffee's requesting two chocolate croissants, giving Kagome a questioning look. She nodded quickly, happy to take his recommendation. And chocolate croissant was one of her favourites. "Why?"
"Well, for one, your injuries," she said softly, her eyes flitting to the cut on his head. He would most likely have a scar. "You were pretty badly hurt from the oni attack. The stitches prove that."
"Miroku does good work," he smiled and she snorted in a most unladylike fashion, making him laugh. "And Satoshi made me go to the doctor. Twice. The doctor says the concussion is gone. I'm okay. Yeah my head is still a little sore and my arm hurts when I move it wrong but I'm healing." They paused again as Nishi placed the pastries in front of them. "It's not just the physical stuff you're worried about, is it?"
Kagome sighed, tearing off a piece of her croissant stuffing it in her mouth and almost moaning at the taste. Isamu was right. This pastry was amazing. Isamu grinned at her reaction, taking a bite of his own pastry.
"It's not just that, no." She sighed softly, watching him. "I was worried about how you were going to be after what had happened sunk in. After you were away from the organisation and back in your own environment."
"Well, I'll admit, to begin with I thought it was some kind of messed up dream. My head quickly set me straight on that." He chuckled and Kagome nodded. "I don't really know what to think to be honest. It seems real but . . . not at the same time. I mean, I know that it happened but connecting it in my mind is difficult. I'm getting there, though."
"I know how that goes." Kagome nodded and Isamu leaned forward, clearly interested. "When I first joined the organisation, it took a while for it to feel like reality. There are still times where I sit back and think "this is my life". It's still strange sometimes."
"Would you change it? If you could make the decision to join again, would you? Or would you turn it down?"
"I don't know," Kagome whispered, looking down at the steaming beverage in her hands and taking a sip. "I really couldn't say."
"What would you do if you couldn't do it anymore?" Her eyes shot up and he shrugged. "As much as I hate to think about it, there's a chance you may be injured. And in a way where you couldn't do what you do for the organisation. Or you could choose to leave."
"I don't know." Kagome thought for a moment. "The organisation has been a part of my life for so long. I don't know what I'd do."
"Means that much to you, huh?"
She nodded and he sat back. "I still worry about you though. I mean, you never really got any answers from us."
"Honestly, at that point, I don't think I could have handled any more information." He ran a hand through the strands of the long ponytail he wore. "What happened down there? With the lights and the youkai and stuff."
"There was a slight malfunction in the system." She couldn't let him know that someone had managed to get into the system without leaving a trace. They had no idea who it was or how they had gotten in. They had beefed up their security system in the last week to stop it happening again. It had shaken them a lot.
She had no idea that the one responsible was sat right in front of her and all of their new security systems would have no effect on keeping him out. He was already in and they had no idea.
"It's all been sorted now so there's no need to worry." Kagome tried to reassure him and she had to wonder how well it worked seeing as he had seen some of the creatures they had held below. She didn't let on that some had escaped. It would most likely freak him out.
They sat for another half an hour or so, conversation steering away from the organisation and more towards their personal lives.
"I should be getting back," he sighed, letting out another chuckle at the story she had just told about her brother and their cat when she was younger. She checked the time, noting that he would probably be missed by now.
They parted ways outside of the café, Kagome turning away from Isamu as she walked towards the organisation and Isamu heading towards the Nakamura building, feeling slightly pleased with the way the afternoon had turned out.
Little did she know, Inuyasha was also feeling pleased with himself. He had been slightly cautious when his assistant had called through, letting him know that Kagome was waiting down in the lobby, heading down to meet her, his human façade slipping into place, the "injury" on his forehead materialising as he walked to the elevator.
Walking out of the elevator on his way back in, he walked past his assistant's desk and to his brother's office.
"You're back, brother." Sesshomaru stated and Inuyasha rolled his eyes. "What did the human want?"
"Get this, she was worried about me." Inuyasha smirked, sitting down. "She was worried that the events of last week may have affected me in some way."
"I wouldn't get too comfortable brother." Inuyasha stood up, walking over to him. "We may have found something incredibly useful."
"Hm?"
Sesshomaru had enlisted others that had joined with Inuyasha and himself and were almost as computer savvy as his sibling to look for weaknesses in the organisation.
"What did you find?" Inuyasha stood behind Sesshomaru, leaning down slightly.
"These," Sesshomaru pointed towards large tanks that were showing on some schematics that had been sent to him by one of said enlistees. Inuyasha had glanced over these same schematics when he had initially gotten his hands on them after first hacking into the organisation. He hadn't had a chance to properly scrutinise them as these people had. "These are linked up to the cells that you saw on the basement level. They appear to hold rather large amounts of ether."
"Sleeping gas." Inuyasha murmured, his ears creasing back slightly as he pondered the new information. "What about the other sites?"
"They seem to be structured in the same way." Sesshomaru pulled up the information that had been sent through, confirming the initial schematics of the Japan branch.
Inuyasha sat on the edge of the desk, his finger wrapping around his chin as he thought to himself. Sesshomaru sat back, letting him work things through. He had no doubt Inuyasha would work to use this to his advantage.
"Hm," he turned, leaning over Sesshomaru and clicking other pages that had been sent through, bringing up various other schematics that had been sent through. "Ventilation system." He said softly, a wicked gleam him his eyes.
Sesshomaru knew that look. They were going to be in trouble.
"How long before we can have everyone assembled?" Inuyasha asked quietly, still clicking and comparing images at rapid speed.
"Two hours at most." Sesshomaru leaned forward, knowing what his brother was planning and smirking along with him.
"Make the call." Inuyasha grinned, his golden eyes shimmering with accomplishment and excitement. "We do this tonight."
Sesshomaru grinned, his youkai fangs breaking through and denting his bottom lip as he leaned forward, getting ready to make the first of a series of phone calls that would be the culmination of almost four decades of work.
*I*I*I*I*I*I*I*I*I*I*I*I*I*I*I*I*I*I*I*I*I*I*
Kagome had been subjected to a multitude of questions when she had returned, most of them, surprisingly were from Miroku. The man seemed to be far too interested in Isamu and if Kagome didn't know that he was stuck on Sango and had been for years, Kagome would have suspected that he felt something for their little visitor.
She reasoned it was most likely to find out whether he had let anything slip.
She didn't believe he had, sticking with the story that he had been attacked and that they had a doctor closer than the hospital for. She believed Isamu when he told her that he'd explained to Satoshi that there was no point in reporting it because he didn't have any idea who it was.
It seemed that their secret was safe.
"Miroku, give it a rest!" Sango growled and Kagome giggled.
"Now, Sango, I can understand why Miroku is interested to know what Kagome has found out from the young man," Kaede smiled down at the three young hunters in front of her. She glanced at the others gathered in the room. The only ones that had not left for their own branch were Kikyo and Damien, the head of the American branch. "Isamu Nakamura is an unknown quantity that we must keep an eye on."
"Why do we keep him around?" Damien asked, not liking that there was someone outside of the organisation. "Why not deal with him and be done with it?"
"Because doing so would cause ripples that we will not be able to control. He is a powerful figure, one of the heads of one of the largest technological companies in Japan, if not the world." Kaede reasoned and Damien grunted, unhappy.
"Kaede, wh-"
Sango was cut off as, for the second time in a week, and ever, the alarms of the Headquarters of the Shikon Organisation went off, the red alarm lights taking the place of the bright overhead lights.
"Not again!" Kagome snarled, standing up and making her way to the door, stopping when she heard it latch locked. She grabbed the door handle, attempting to open the door but it wouldn't budge. "How has this happened again? How did someone get into our systems? Again!"
"I thought that everything had been upgraded." Damien snarled, walking to where Kagome was, joining her in trying to open the door.
"It has." Kaede moved towards the emergency phone that linked to security, lifting it off the cradle to find it dead. "We are cut off."
"How is this happening?" Sango stood up, trying to see if there was another way out of the room. As far as she could recollect, this was one of the only rooms in the building that didn't have more than on exit. The room they were in acted as a stronghold in case of attack. The windows didn't open and the door, once locked, couldn't be opened by force. Even though Kagome and Damien were giving it a good try.
The seconds seemed to drag by.
Kagome stood back, knowing that they would get nowhere other than to tire themselves out. It had only been thirty seconds at most but the alarms seemed to have been going on for hours in Kagome's mind.
Kagome blinked, her vision blurring slightly as she started to feel heavy. She noted that the others were drooping slightly, Sango sitting down and leaning her head in her hands. Kagome dropped to her knees, her mind faintly registering that they should not be feeling this way.
Sleeping gas, her mind whispered before everything went black.
*I*I*I*I*I*I*I*I*I*I*I*I*I*I*I*I*I*I*I*I*I*I*
On the next street, two Inu's were watching on their monitors as one by one, the employees and agents of the Shikon Organisation dropped like flies into sleep, demonic grins on each of the brother's faces, turning to look at each other.
"Show time."