Chapter 9 - Doggone It!

"Has anyone seen Kagome?" Akane asked the gathering of people at the dinner table, Ranma right behind her.

Kasumi shook her head. "No, didn't she go on a date with the Kuno boy?" She frowned and held a palm against her cheek worriedly. "Nothing happened did it? She's not in trouble?"

Akane frowned back at Kasumi. "Ranma made her cry and then she ran away," she bit out.

This statement was met by a range of comments from all the assembled, from "Ranma my boy, how could you?" to "Well, it hasn't taken much to set her off lately anyway."

Glaring at Nabiki, Akane stormed from the room, dragging Ranma with her. "How are we going to find her now?"

#

Kagome sat slumped at the café table, idly stirring her cold tea with a pinkie finger. In the background she could hear a young, male voice claim undying love. Kagome snorted with derision. Undying love…if only. The voice was followed by a crash and the shriek of metal on metal. The voice started whimpering in pain.

"Now get out and start doing Mousse job!" Kagome cringed. She knew that voice…it was that Chinese girl who liked rubbing herself all over Ranma. What was her name…Conditioner? No, Shampoo wasn't it? Kagome glanced down at the menu in front of her. Cat Café. Great, just great. She'd been meaning to escape Ranma and Akane's relationship problems - not run into them.

A shadow fell over her, and Kagome turned to face the intruder with a bleary, world-weary expression. "Is there anything I can get you?" The boy asked. Kagome didn't say anything for a moment, taking in his appearance. He had long black hair, large round glasses, and flowing, baggy Chinese clothing.

"No, I'm fine." Kagome turned to look at her tea again. "Well, no, I'm far from fine." She sighed. "But I'm okay with the tea." It was all she could afford with Nabiki's payments.

The boy looked down at her sympathetically. "You get rejected too, huh?"

Kagome offered him a weak smile. "Something like that." Gesturing towards the café kitchen with a jerk of her head, she continued. "I heard what happened back there. That was harsh."

The boy sighed. "It's my own fault really, if only I could be a better martial artist, then maybe I would have won her heart a long time ago."

Kagome watched him speculatively, withdrawing her finger from the tea and quickly cleaning it off with her tongue. "Why is everyone around here so obsessed with that?"

He looked at her surprised. "To be able to fight is having honour," he said simply, taking the seat opposite her. "I sense some bitterness there. Is your boyfriend a martial artist?"

Kagome shrugged. "It is – was, complicated."

"I see. My name's Mousse by the way." He extended a hand which Kagome shook politely. She felt bad for the guy; he seemed far too sweet for a conniving girl like Shampoo.

"No offence, but I've met Shampoo, and she seems…well, not that nice."

Mousse looked horrified. "Shampoo is perfect! She's beautiful and smart and pretty and strong!"

"Whatever floats your boat," Kagome muttered, accompanying her sentence with an eye roll. How shocking! She'd found another stupid lovesick boy who couldn't see what was clear to everyone else.

"Well what's so great about the guy you're moping over?" Mousse sputtered defensively.

Kagome rubbed a hand over he face. "To tell you the truth, I'm not moping over my ex," she took a breath, "which is an achievement I guess."

"Oh really? You look lovesick to me, and believe me, I know the signs intimately."

"I told you before, it's complicated." She stuck her finger in her tea again, and also again, licked it clean. "My cousin has been promised to this guy, and even though they both deny it, they're pretty much in love-"

"And you seem to have fallen for him too?" He offered.

"No way! What kind of girl do you take me for?" He held up his hands in silent apology. "What actually happened is that while trying to help get them together… I screwed up."

"They hate each other now?"

"No. I started treating their relationship like the one I had with my ex."

"I thought this wasn't about your ex?"

"I thought so too." Mousse looked at her, with a confused expression which clearly stated he hadn't really intended to get into what looked like a deep well of emotional problems.

"Oh okay." He looked around embarrassed, for a moment, before landing his gaze on the Shikon Jewel, which had spilled out of Kagome's shirt and onto the table. "Nice necklace."

Kagome entwined the chain with her fingers, and promptly burst into tears.

#

Shampoo gave an irritable sigh as she watched two depressed teens cry their eyes out to each other. That had to be bad for business. "Great grandmother? What we do about that?"

"Oh just move them somewhere else."

"Hmm." Spotting a large bottle of sake, Shampoo brought it over to the table. "Mousse, you excused for afternoon. Go drown troubles somewhere else."

#

Ryoga smiled to himself, plans springing to life in his mind. If he could keep the girl on the sidewalk drinking…maybe, just maybe he'd have a shot at regaining his place by Akane's side.

Shampoo burst out of the café behind them. "I tell you somewhere else! Take this and shoo!" She handed over another large bottle, anxious to get them away from the customers.

#

Hours later found Kagome Higurashi sitting on the end of a long pier, feet splashing in the water and arms linked with the two boys on either side of her. "And then I said to him 'SIT!" Kagome laughed at that before continuing her story. "And he was soooo confused, because he wasn't him! They're different people!" Kagome moaned such a pitiful sound that it was little wonder that Mousse started crying for his new friend. Ryoga instead clutched his free hand over his heart and declared war on 'him'.

"Who are we talking about again?" He asked stupidly.

Kagome wrinkled her nose in amused disgust. "Ew. You are soooo drunk," she giggled.

"No you are!" Ryoga gave her a light shove. She pushed him right back.

Mousse stopped crying long to enough to face the other two with a solemn look. "I deem us all completely drunk." Kagome and Ryoga exchanged glances before all three of them snorted and burst into childish laughter.

Kagome stood up - pulling the boys with her as she refused to let go of them. "I'm bored," She declared. She scanned the rows of nearby shops, restaurants and arcades till she spotted something that looked like fun. "Karaoke!" She screeched.

#

Akane and Ranma walked along the footpath, tired and depressed. "We've been looking all day, how could we have not found her?"

Ranma shrugged. "Maybe she went back to her shrine?"

Akane shook her head. "No, Aunty would've called."

"It's not like we've been around to accept any calls."

"Her stuff wasn't gone either." The pair lapsed into silence. Ranma was worried. Nabiki had made the weirdest comment as they'd left the house to search earlier.

"You better find her before she gets hurt; she gets drawn to the strangest people…and vice versa."

What the hell was that supposed to mean anyway? Nabiki had only said it quietly, so only he had heard her. He didn't want to worry Akane with it but he didn't have the money to bribe Nabiki into saying anything more, so how was he going to figure that one out?

Akane, was amazingly enough not as worried. She was too busy trying to remember something that had been bugging her ever since Kagome had yelled 'sit boy' at Ranma. She knew it was important, and would bring her that one step closer to understanding the secrets Kagome was keeping – and the root of her hurt – but she just couldn't put her finger on it.

She knew the clues were all there. First, there was the necklace Kagome wore; she'd gotten so upset over it that one time during dinner. Then, there was her enthusiasm for the…Shikon legend was it? Though, Akane wasn't sure how much of that stemmed from an attachment to her passing grandfather. There was also Nabiki.

"I know what you are,"

Nabiki definitely knew something, because it was obvious that she'd blackmailed Kagome into something (probably hefty payments) that day. She'd scared Kagome thoroughly. There was that book Kagome had taken one terrified look at too. From the fleeting glimpse she'd had, all Akane had gathered from it was something about a priestess.

There had been a priestess in Kagome's story too.

Hadn't Kagome shot a, well, magical arrow? Weren't priestesses supposed to be skilled with bows and arrows? But then, that didn't make sense. Kagome seemed pretty unhappy with the priestess in her story, and of course she'd seemed as surprised as the rest of them when the target had disintegrated. But there was the fact that Kagome had grown up on a shrine, so it probably meant nothing, and was just a strange coincidence.

Akane knew there was something she was missing, something glaringly obvious, that had been waved in her face countless times…and she had a feeling it all had to do with the 'sit boy'. So, what was the link?

"Dogs!" She screamed out.

Ranma raised an eyebrow. "Um, what?"

"She said sit boy," Akane said, half-formulated thoughts flying around her head. Ranma stared at her incredulously.

"No kidding!" He rolled his eyes. "Only just get that?"

Akane hit him on the shoulder. "Yes! No! I mean - listen! Kagome said something else, I can't really remember, but it had to do with dogs too I'm pretty sure. She ran off crying then…the story! She was telling her story and said something about…burnt up priestesses?"

"What the hell does that have to do with dogs?"

"I'm not sure." Akane looked stumped, and returned to her pondering.

Ranma looked up at the sky, which glittered with the thousands of stars embedded in it. "We need to find her, it's been dark for ages now – she could be in danger."

Akane nodded slowly. They had ended up at the shore side, buildings shone behind them, while the ocean remained as black as ink and the pier trailed off into nothingness, engulfed by the darkness. She heard shouting.

"Ranma honey! Ranma!" Akane frowned. She wasn't really sure if she could deal with Ukyo right now, even if she liked the girl well enough on other occasions. "Akane!" The other girl now shouted.

Akane waved the girl over with surprise. Ukyo leaned forward, bracing herself on her knees while she caught her breath. "I've been chasing you guys everywhere," she panted. "I stopped by your house to give you back your notes Akane and I heard Kagome was missing," Ukyo straightened, breathing under control. "Anyway, I saw her before, she was drunk and hanging out with Ryoga and Mousse."

Akane gasped. "What? Kagome doesn't get drunk!"

Ukyo shrugged. "Well she is."

"Do you know where she is now?" Ranma interrupted.

Ukyo shook her head. "But she wouldn't have gone far right?"

Akane looked thoughtful, "Well, maybe not. We could check around the bars I guess. But, I can't really see Kagome willingly going into a bar, drunk or not. She's too innocent."

Ranma was staring at something a little way down the street. "How about a karaoke bar then?"

"Might as well check it out." The three raced into the building, and immediately stopped short, stunned by the scene that greeted them.

They had indeed found Kagome; in fact it was quite easy to spot her amongst the screaming, cheering crowd. The reason being that Kagome was the one on stage, with her skirt a lot shorter than Ranma and Akane remembered it being at the mall and the top buttons of her blouse undone. It took them a moment to realise that the crowd was screaming 'encore', but the fact was apparently not lost on Kagome, who had begun singing.

The crowd died down a little, just enough for the teens to make out the words "At first I was afraid, I was petrified…"

"Oh my god." Akane stared at Kagome in shock. Ranma's expression mirrored hers, and even Ukyo who didn't know Kagome so well was surprised.

"…kept thinking I could never live without you by my side…"

Kagome ran a hand up the length of her body, first hitching her skirt up a little, then pushing her cleavage up before flinging her arm out to the side dramatically.

"Oh my god." Akane was horrified. Both Ukyo and Ranma nodded in agreement.

"You said it."

"Took the words right out of my mouth."

"…and I learnt how to get along, and so you're back..." Kagome started to move her body with the music. She bent herself forward, twisting her shoulders back and forth - granting the crowd a panoramic view down her top. This action was met with a string of wolf whistles and hoots from the (mostly) male audience. Where before, Kagome would have blushed and squealed with embarrassment (let alone never be caught acting this way in the first place) this new, drunk Kagome just continued singing and dancing, or rather, flaunting her 'assets'.

As the girl twirled around the stage, the other three went looking for Ryoga and Mousse. They were sitting at the closet table to the stage, cheering Kagome on and making idiotic and nonsensical comments. Several empty glasses and bottles surrounded them, as well as some half-full ones. Ranma smacked them both upside the head.

"I am going to kill the both of you," he growled.

"Why?" Mousse cried, "I didn't do anything except love my sweet Shampoo! You can't have her!" Mousse made a weird half-punch movement – and fell off his chair.

"Because you two got her drunk!" Ranma yelled pointing to the stage, where Kagome had just popped another button.

Ryoga whimpered. "But it was Sh'poses fault!"

"Who?"

"The girl!" Ryoga screamed back.

"Which girl?"

"With the hair!" The boy stood and began gesturing wildly.

"Oh, now I know! Not! You friggin' idiot!"

Akane squealed with terror. Kagome had popped another button. "Ranma! Do something!" Thankfully, Kagome stopped at that moment, all by herself. She turned, giggling and waving to her cousin, her shirt flapping open and revealing her lacy white bra.

"Hey 'Kaa-nie! I looove you! I looove you too Rani!" Akane blushed crimson red, since Kagome was too out of it to be embarrassed for herself. Ukyo glared at Kagome.

"Ranma honey, I thought she wasn't anything to you!"

Ranma didn't even dignify that with an answer. He slapped a hand over his face and dragged it down. The crowd were begging Kagome to start up again, but she ignored them while she greeted her friends. She watched Ranma's tense movements with sadness. "Oh Rani! Are you upset with me? I didn't mean to treat you like my puppy!"

Akane's head cleared enough to recognise her chance. Ignoring the hooting men, she pushed her way to the edge of the stage. "Puppy? Kagome, what puppy are you talking about?" Over her shoulder she hissed a 'told you so' at Ranma. "I knew there were dogs involved."

Kagome giggled. "Why, my very special puppy of course." She gasped, "You mean you don't know him?"

"No, I don't. Come down and tell me about him please?"

"You want to know about him? Well, he's brave and strong and he's sexy too!" Kagome looked around conspiratorially, before yelling at Akane from behind a cupped hand. "But don't tell him I said that! It'll make things awkward!"

Akane looked surprised. "You're talking about…a boy? Why do you call him puppy then?"

"Oh. I don't. He'll get mad. He doesn't like to be treated like a dog...but I can't help it! He's sooo...animalistic..."she purred. Kagome giggled again and leant forward, placing a finger to her lips. "So lets keep that our little secret. Okay?" She leapt back up to her feet, and staggered sideways – before falling off the stage.

AN-Thank-you reveiwers! I'm glad to know you guys got a kick outta that 'sit boy'! Anyway, I wanted to say that I really wrestled with having a drunk Kagome. I had never previously planned for this, but suddenly there she was! Drunk and immodestly clothed. Is immodestly a word? But! Kagome is seventeen now, (a year in the feudal era, then a year moping at the shrine) that coupled with all the stress she's been under lately, is it really so weird for Kagome to get drunk on a whim? I was typing out the story, seeing where this was all headed, and suddenly I had found I'd written another chapter - hopefully the next one is going to come out quickly too, I seem to have finally moved past my writers block. And, to be honest, I had a LOT of fun writing this chapter. So, tell me what you think please?