Chapter fifteen: Exposed - Part 2

Sango sat up all night, softly crying. Not only had she lost the only job she was good at, but the trust she once had for Miroku, whatever feelings she had been ripped from her, and were now lost, and shattered. 'Why?' Sango asked herself mentally. 'How could he? How?' She sniffled.

Kagome had gone to bed hours ago, well, tried to. Sango's sniffing, and sobs kept her up all night, she wanted to walk over to her friend's cot so badly and just hold her, but she thought it was best if she pulled through this mainly on her own. That meant, Kagome would help her when she needed it most, not every waking moment. Kagome herself had been incredibly shocked at Miroku's response. She had thought he would have sided with Sango almost instantly. He had even said he really wanted Naraku gone, so why hadn't he used the opportunity? This whole matter confused Kagome to no end. She finally fell asleep at about 3:00 in the morning, or so she guessed anyways.

XxXxXx

Kagome woke to hearing Sango still sniffling. Kagome sat up, propping herself up with her elbow, and rubbed her eyes, trying to get some sleep out of them. When she finally could see straight, she hobbled over to Sango, and gently hugged her. Sango rested her head on Kagome's shoulder, seeking comfort.

"Were you honestly up crying all night?" Kagome asked.

Sango nodded.

"Come on Sango, cheer up, the Sango I know wouldn't let this get to her! She'd find one way or another to fix things, or at least deal with it, not cry all day." Sango was silent.

"Come on girl, we'd better get going, don't want to be late for our first job! You even get to wear a new dress." The two stood up, and picked their undergarments from the clothes line outside the shack, and began to dress.

Kagome tried to think of something to get Sango to cheer up. Maybe she could go to that small city she had seen a ways away from their shack. She could get Kaede to come with her. She wondered what there might be there, and how to buy the stuff, they were slaves after all, and thus had no money. Maybe she could borrow some from Inuyasha, and repay him later. But she already owed him so much… She decided to just let it drop, and deal with it when the time came.

The two walked in pure silence to the bus stop. This time, there was no one there at all to say 'Hi.' Or anything. Kagome pondered the situation at hand. She really didn't know what was going on. She hadn't been there that long, and didn't know if there were any holidays or anything. However, she highly doubted they got days off. Maybe they were just early. For the life of her, she couldn't find a reasonable enough answer. Maybe Kaede would know.

The bus pulled up about ten minutes later, and still no other slaves had come to the bus stop. Kagome decided to just leave Sango be, and not question her she was still fairly upset. The two boarded the bus, with some difficulty, credit being Sango's crutches. She couldn't fit them through the isle way. Kaede was very patient however, so there weren't any problems. Kagome was thoroughly crept out there weren't any people on the bus besides them! What was with this? Not being able to take the emptiness any longer, Kagome burst out,

"Where is everyone!" She shouted.

"Child, please. There is no need to yell! I may be old, but that does not mean I am deaf, far from it actually."

Kagome laughed. "Sorry Kaede, but really where is everyone?"

"What do ye mean? It is 9:00, everyone is at their jobs now!"

"Excuse me!"

"So in other words, we're just beyond late."

"Pretty much, I'll hurry child, but it won't do ye much good, you'll just be slightly less late."

"Whatever is fine, Kaede, thank-you."

Kaede whispered so only Kagome could hear.

"Child, is Sango still mourning the events of last night?"

"Yes, and I don't know what to do to cheer her up! I was thinking maybe I could get something in that city down in the other castle grounds." Kagome said, also whispering.

"That is a wonderful idea, child! Do ye need me to drive ye?"

"Yes Kaede, that would be very kind of you."

"Okay then, but ye will need to get to the bus stop no later than four, and I will drop ye off there, and pick ye up at five, is that alright?"

"Yes, perfect, thank you Kaede!"

Kagome bid good-bye to Kaede, and Sango and Kagome got off of the bus. They opened the door to the maid sector, with Kagome's key card again. They crept down the halls, seeing just how late they really were, about three hours!

Kagome ran to Jaken's office, and quickly explained why they were late, which was a complete lie, but Jaken wouldn't have known. They had said that Sango had broken her ankle, and the doctor who specialized, had been busy, and they used a different doctor, and her screwed it up, so they had to wait another hour, and then got it fixed. Jaken reluctantly excused Kagome and Sango, remembering what his lord had told him. His glowing red eyes still gave him nightmares.

Sango was assigned to the kitchen, and was to help clean, carry orders, and cook, if at all necessary. Kagome thought that was weird for a maid's job, but then again, she also thought it was weird how there was a city in the middle of the castle grounds. And the fact that slaves could wear whatever they wanted to.

Kagome gave a good-bye hug to Sango, and then walked off quickly to her supply closet, and then Inuyasha's room.

Kagome lightly knocked on the door to Inuyasha's room, and opened it, expecting a real mess. However, for one of the many times today, she was surprised. There wasn't a speck of dust in his room. Spotless. Kagome sighed happily, and decided to look for Inuyasha and ask him what was going on.

"Lord Inuyasha! Lord Inuyasha! Where are you?" Kagome shouted. She walked all over the room, looking for him, and hit a dead end. Man, his room was almost like a maze, there was one door after another! She decided to turn back, because the hallway was getting dark, obviously, had he wanted to see her, he wouldn't have been all the way back there. Still, she wondered what was behind that door, or even if she could find her way back. She finally convinced herself it would be rude to go any further, and seeing as how she was on thin ice, turned around. Creak! Kagome spun around. She could have sworn that the door had just opened. But, it was closed tight. She heard a soft, and low growl from behind her.

"Who's there?" Kagome turned again. She quickly thought it best to get out of there right away. She ran down many different chambers, opening and closing the doors tightly behind her. She kept hearing that creaking noise behind her. What was going on?

Kagome's toe hit, a crack in the floor, and she fell to the cold, cement ground. Where was she? There was no possible way she was still in Inuyasha's room, was there? Kagome snapped herself out of her own thoughts as she heard another low growl, she couldn't pinpoint the location, but she sure as hell didn't want whatever it was get to her.

Kagome ran into a dead end. She heard footsteps nearing her, accompanied by that same bone-chilling growl.

"Inuyasha…where are you?"

The slave girl decided to chance it, and run out of the ended hallway. She noticed a large green door at the side of a wall, and she also saw giant claw marks on it, taking her chances, she ducked into the room, hoping to get out of that dank hallway.

Bewildered, she found herself back in Inuyasha's main room.

"What the…?"

Kagome suddenly felt strong arms wrap around her waist from behind, and she let out a shriek. Still not knowing who had grabbed her, Kagome grabbed for the nearest thing and hit her opponent square upside the head with a baseball bat.

"Ouch! What the hell was that for!" Inuyasha yelled.

"Inuyasha! Oh, I'm so sorry! There was just this thing, it was chasing me, and I was scared so I…"

"Hit me?"

"Yeah."

"What were you doing back there anyways? Or I should phrase this, how did you get back there?"

"What do you mean? I was just looking for you, and there was a door, so I figured you might have gone back there, I had no idea there were so many doors! And I didn't know I wasn't supposed to go back there."

Inuyasha rubbed his head where there was a bump forming.

"Man, you hit hard!"

"I said I was sorry!"

"So was that you chasing me back there then?" Kagome asked.

"Yeah, although, I didn't know it was you." He said.

Kagome sighed, and relaxed a great deal. She looked around the room, and suddenly remembered what she had meant to ask him in the first place.

"So, why is the room still clean?"

XxXxXx

Sango had a difficult time going back and forth through the kitchen, cleaning, or taking orders, so the chef just gave her a cooking position. Sango was grateful; she wouldn't have done a very good job at cleaning, much less taking orders. Buts she could handle cooking. Everything was going fine, until Miroku came in. Apparently, he and the head chef, Hachi, were very good friends. Sango paid no mind to him, she wouldn't even glance his way. He had actually said 'Hi,' to her, but she just limped over to get another cooking utensil.

Miroku walked over to Hachi, and said,

"I thought she was supposed to be a maid?"

"Yes, she was, but we have enough cleaning in this kitchen, and she seemed like a great chef, she has quite a knack for it, you know." Hachi said.

"I see."

"Miroku, why so melancholy?"

"Come, I will tell you."

Miroku led Hachi out into the hall, and then to his office.

"Sit."

Hachi sat down, eager to hear what his master had to say.

"Hachi, you know how she got to your division, right?"

"Yes sir, wasn't it because she attacked Master Naraku?"

"Yes, that's what I thought. But after the building's debris had been cleared, they found a video camera, however, a lesser demon took the tape. It seemed to be a bee-like demon, very oddly colored if you ask me."

"So, what is the point here, Master Miroku? I am afraid I don't understand."

"Hachi, why would anyone want to get rid of that tape? There is a theory that those specific types of demons can be controlled. And those demons are not native to the Western Kingdom Lands."

Hachi thought a minute, putting two and two together. "So you mean to tell me, that you believed Naraku's story, over Sango's? So that's why she has seemed so tense lately. You know, she butchered that roast and even cut through the bones like they were butter, and this was with a regular knife!"

Miroku sweat-dropped, before he could do any apologizing, two things had to happen, one would be that Sango would have to calm down, and the second thing would be that Miroku needed to recover that tape.

XxXxXx

Naraku sat in his chambers, watching a mirror. The mirror belonged to a completely white child, who seemed to glow in the dim light. He laughed manically. Watching the two couples was most amusing to him. Their life was like one giant soap opera. And he would be the one to stir up the tragedies.

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A/N: Well, there you have it! Another chapter! So sorry for the long wait. I got quite a few e-mails about it actually.. Sorry again! It's just that I have this all saved in one document, and I really HATE having to separate and save it just to load one chapter... Dx Well, hopefully I'll get back into the swing of things and update!