Chapter Four

Kimiko stared at the documents spread out before her. Her eyes narrowed as she pinpointed certain consistencies. A small smirk curled her lips as she swiped the documents back into the folder that had been sent to her and started a communications line with an old…acquaintance. As she waited for the line to connect, she sat up straighter in her chair and did a quick cursory glance in the far mirror at her appearance. Perfection, as usual.

A small chirp brought her gaze back to her screen as a well-known face stared back. "Well, well, well." She cooed softly, her smirk widening a bit. "We have been busy, haven't we Inu no Taisho." She allowed a pause as the stern face briefly cracked into guilt. The man never could hide his feelings well.

"I don't know what you're talking about." He answered shortly as he regained control of his facial expressions. Kimiko allowed her eyes to narrow even as her smirk stayed in place.

"Tell me, Inu no Taisho," She continued as if he hadn't even spoken, "how it came to be that Kagome Higurashi has been paired with my son."


Kagome rolled her shoulders back and stretched her arms slightly. It was only five, but she figured she could get in some time at her lab before going to the psychic meeting at ten. Her feet padded softly on the carpeted flooring to the small bathroom put in every single personnel's unit. The small door whooshed open and she blearily stumbled into the shower jammed in the corner. Pressing the on switch the shower started up at the prerecorded temperature she preferred.

As she woke up fully in the shower, Kagome was startled that her thoughts swung immediately to memories of the linking escapade of yesterday. Thinking of Captain Taisho, brought shivers of recollection about his voice. The low timbre that, if he wasn't such a narcissistic ass, could bring many a girl to their knees. Determinably pushing those thoughts to the back of her mind she instead analyzed his energy structure.

When they had first linked she had been slightly surprised at the amount of energy the captain had to work with. Due to the fact that she had read exactly what his station was, she wasn't expecting anything great. Even the notes from the previous psychics that had linked with Taisho hadn't made any remarks to the amount he could control. If anything many of them had labeled him as rather average.

Now, Kagome admitted, she hadn't joined up with the linking psychics, so maybe she didn't have enough experience in actual combat. However she had linked with several volunteers in school. None of them had ever come near what Sesshomaru Taisho had. At the time of her link with Taisho, she had made notes and pushed them back to think about later. When she had gotten out of the pod and made her report to Wallace, she had still been distracted by her irritation with the man to question anything.

But here, in her bathroom, under the soothing hot water, Kagome allowed her mind to roam. Clearly, Sesshomaru Taisho was extremely powerful. Any psychic should have been able to deduce that, the operative word being should. Why didn't any of the previous psychics pick up on his energy properly? Sure it ran to a darker place on the spectrum than usual, but it was still able to ping on her radar. Not to mention, the man was highly skilled in weaponry. Briefly joined to his mind when he was losing himself during the spar had allowed her to grasp the fact that, even though he was running on instinct, he never stopped thinking of the perfect time to use what move.

This brought up the question she was almost afraid to think, simply because of the implications of what it could all mean. If Sesshomaru was so highly skilled in weaponry and battle tactics, not to mention who his father was, than why was he relegated to clean up work on a backwater battle cruiser on the fringes of the main fleet? Regardless of how little energy another psychic could pull from him, any energy, combined with his skill, could be lethal in a battle. The excuse of his attitude and reluctance to work with anyone didn't fly for her either.

There were specific jobs in the military factions that were practically made for him. She wasn't really supposed to know that though. Each branch of humanity taught their own principles and job coding. Civilians learned what they could do, but weren't told what psychic's or those in the military were fully able to do. It was the same in all classes. Psychics learned through their courses that, not only were they able to link with someone in the military, but that they also had individual abilities that set them apart even from themselves.

While some of those abilities were widely known by the public, there were a few kept hidden, even among the psychics. There were those that could communicate with others with their minds, those that could create physical manifestations in the right conditions, such as fire or water and even wind. Those that could connect with machinery and flow along electrical currents. Kagome was positive that she didn't know the half of it.

In the military, there were jobs that were also hidden. The one that Kagome had accidentally been given knowledge of hadn't really surprised her, but she could guess why they would remain hidden from the public. After all, no one wanted to know that the military trained and employed assassins. Stumbling upon that revelation during her third linking trial run had startled Kagome to the point she had almost dropped the link.

The elderly volunteer had spoken softly and seemed like such a kind old man. While manipulating his energy, Kagome had commented that despite his age, he was still rather fit and his muscles tightly coiled. The old man had chuckled back and said that every assassin kept in top shape, even the old ones. Kagome had thought he was joking and when she had laughed about it, the old man had let it pass. But as their training had gone on, Kagome had started to doubt herself. The way the man moved and how he had wanted to direct his energy wasn't like the other two soldiers she had linked with before.

'My apologies, Miss Higurashi. I thought for sure you would have been debriefed before our linking.' He had said soothingly when Kagome had hesitantly brought it up again. 'I was told that due to the level of success in your manipulation of energy, they had wanted you to train with many different types of military personnel.' He explained and Kagome had dropped it to think on it further.

After she had cut the link and left her pod, she had sought out Kitakawa-sensei. The older woman had looked slightly guilty when she admitted that, yes, there were many different kinds of military out there and the majority of them technically didn't exist. So again, Kagome wondered why Sesshomaru Taisho wasn't put into the assassin category when he clearly should have been.

Drying her hair absently and putting on her laboratory uniform, Kagome decided that ruminating on it wouldn't do her any good. Besides, she was on her way to check on her baby. She wondered if any of the bulbs would show signs of blooming yet.


Rin Inoue bit into her thumbnail as she stared at the strange plant before her. It was only her second day interning in the small bio-lab and her mentor had called in sick. The researcher that had taken the night shift had transferred three different biopsies into her screen and had left mumbling something about purple roots and strange smells. There was no one else in the lab and if she was to believe the roster posted by the door, no one would be in again until four… except her and what should have been her mentor.

"Dang it, Micah. Why'd you pick today of all days to be sick!?" She exclaimed quietly to herself as she again looked from the plant to the rather long report in her hands. The fifteen year old glanced nervously around the room again and shuffled her feet slightly. 'Maybe I should just leave for today?' She asked herself as she slowly headed back to the doors leading out of the room. Just as she was reaching her hand up to the biometric lock, the door whooshed open and Rin met with startled blue eyes.

Kagome looked down into the scared face of the girl in front of her and laughed sheepishly. "Ah, sorry to scare you!" She smiled and offered the girl her hand. "Kagome Higurashi. I'm the researcher currently growing the plants in this particular hothouse."

Rin's shoulders drooped in relief and she grasped onto Kagome's hand as if it were a lifeline.

"Oh, thank you." She muttered looking up at the ceiling before she directed a smile at the young woman in front of her. "Rin Inoue. I'm an intern from the learning center. My mentor, Micah Rozzen, called in sick and I was just thinking I have no idea what I'm doing!" She shook Kagome's hand in both of hers up and down as she continued on rambling. "I really like working with flowers so I was so excited to get this internship in this lab, especially because this lab is devoted to new kinds of growth techniques and different ways to terraform inhospitable planets! It's only my second day and the guy that was here last night just gave me the reports and left and I had no clue what I should be doing! The militia guard, Mr. Kohaku, didn't know what I was supposed to do either, so I thought I should look at the plants first, but the reports were so confusing!"

Kagome knew her mouth was hanging open, and the fact that her shoulders were jerking due to the shaking of her arm, but she couldn't help but stare at the little chatterbox in front of her. Ignoring exactly what was being said, Kagome instead studied the excited teenager in front of her. Large sparkling brown eyes and a wide smile, even at the rate that words were dropping from it. Kagome dug into her talent a bit and examined Rin's energy. A stab of disappointment hit her before she shoved it away when she realized the girl didn't have a psychic imprint. A civilian then.

Though Kagome wasn't biased like many psychics she knew, it would have been easier to show a psychic how to take care of the particular plants in her lab. The fact that Micah hadn't told her she wouldn't be in to take care of her babies irritated her. Finally extracting her numbing hand from the exuberant girl, Kagome shook off all negative feelings and grinned at Rin.

"Well, I planned on being in here for a bit to check on my babies, so if you're alright with a sub, I can show you how to check the progress of each plant."

Rin let out a small squeal and bounced in place. Kagome took that as an affirmative and held up her screen to the girls. "Here, transfer what you got to me and we can start going through what Jess was up to last night."

"Jess?" Rin asked, quickly transferring the reports over.

"Yeah, Jessup Rodgers. He's the guy that had night shift last night. Everyone just calls him Jess." Kagome answered absently as she looked over the readings that Jess had taken of the vined plant she had been hoping to experiment with in the new deoxygenating chambers. 'A strange odor from the roots?' Her eyebrows scrunched as she walked around the teenager and approached the purple and green plant. As she got closer, a cloyingly sweet smell reached her nose and Kagome immediately covered the lower half of her face. Putting a hand out, she told Rin to head out the door.

"Miss Kagome? What's wrong?" Rin asked as she backed toward the door as she was told. Kagome backed up with her and both females exited the lab. Turning quickly to the double doors on the other side of the detox chamber, Kagome pressed on the intercom button to call the guard stationed outside the lab. Rin pressed slightly against the wall as the door to the lab shut.

Kohaku Taijya's face appeared in the small screen above the call button, his face scrunched slightly in confusion.

"Is there a problem, Miss Higurashi?"

Kagome nodded her head slightly, but allowed a tight smile. "Just a small one, Taijya. One of my plants is releasing poison from its roots." Kagome ignored the gasp from Rin, "While it's not toxic as of right now, it will be if it's not taken care of right away. Would you do me a favor and get ahold of the engineer in charge of the growth pods? I think one of them malfunctioned last night and the regulations I had put on the plant are not on right now."

Kohaku gave a sharp nod and the screen went blank. Kagome turned to Rin. "Alright. Now we need to suit up." She said cheerily and Rin stared at her blankly. Kagome turned to the masks and overly large hazard material suits hanging on the side of the room. Starting to put on the suit, Kagome glanced up and gestured for Rin to do the same.

"Come on Rin, the fun starts from here!" Kagome said brightly and Rin gave her another weird look.

"The fun?" She asked hesitantly as she stepped into her suit and then zipped the back of Kagome's suit up, turning so the same could be done to hers.

"Yep. This is the part where we go and find out why the plant is producing poison from the roots."

"And that's fun?" Rin asked disbelievingly and put the large mask over her head. Kagome checked over both of their suits and nodded in satisfaction.

"Well, not in the literal sense." Kagome allowed, "But I like it when I get to check over things like this." She smiled reassuringly at the nervous teenager. "Don't worry, the toxin this plant produces is not strong enough to seriously harm a human being."

Rin nodded her head in understanding and both turned towards the door to go back into the lab. Kagome headed in first, and Rin didn't know why, but she was expecting to see a purple miasma floating around in the place, now that she knew there was poison. Or alarms to be going off, or something. Instead everything was just as they had left it a few minutes ago. For being an emergency about poisonous fumes, this was surprisingly anti-climactic.

Kagome glanced to the girl beside her and laughed. "Not as thrilling as the movies, huh?" She asked and watched as Rin blushed. Both headed down the row of strange plants to a plant that was sitting by itself in a separate block from everything else. Its long purple and green vines extended over the sides of the machine, known as a growth pod, nearly touching the floor. On each of the ropey vines were a handful of what looked to be bulbs growing at random intervals. The vines themselves looked to be attached to what Rin thought was a large blue mossy rock.

As they got closer, she was startled to realize that the blue moss was actually really small blue leaves, almost like a bunch of small three-leaf clovers. They were so densely grown together they looked like a solid object.

Kagome lifted one of the vines on the side and shifted it over so she could read the monitor attached to the pod. As she had suspected, some of the readouts were off. Letting out a small sigh she glanced to the vine in her hand.

"What is this exactly?" Rin asked after a few minutes and Kagome looked up from the bulb she had been inspecting.

"Ah, it's a kind of fruit plant." She answered hesitatingly. Rin turned from staring into the blue leaves to look at Kagome.

"A… fruit plant?"

"Yes. Although, it hasn't grown any fruit yet. That's why I want to put it in the deoxygenating chamber sometime this week. I think that it will bloom, and thus grow fruit, once the oxygen levels are lowered." Kagome explained as she gently set the vine down and stood from the crouch she had been in. Just as she was opening her mouth to further explain, a sharp chirp rang from her screen and Kagome lifted it to her face.

Kohaku's face looked back at her before he announced that the engineer was here and would be entering the room momentarily.

"Thanks Taijya. Sorry for the trouble." Kagome answered and ended the communication line. Rin looked back to the plant.

"How do you know it will bear fruit?"

Kagome stilled as her mind raced over how to answer her question. She generally went with vague responses like research or some such thing. But the truth was, she could see what this plant was capable of due to her ability to read and manage energy. However, Kagome had never told anyone, not even Kitakawa-sensei, about how she could manipulate all energies around her, not just a human being's energy. A little voice inside her, that she was sure was her intuition, told her to keep it all to herself. After all, she had enough talent in other areas to hide this one ability of hers. Besides, it wasn't like she was using it for anything illegal or heinous.

Kagome breathed a sigh of relief when the door opened and saved her from having to reply. Her head swung in the direction of the door and she took in the fact that the small figure heading towards them in the same kind of suit as the both of them was the engineer. As the engineer got closer, Kagome realized this person was a lot shorter than either of the girls.

"What happened to my pod?!" A high pitched voice reached Kagome's ears and she realized that even though it was high in anger, it was a male voice coming from the suit. Kagome waited for the short figure to reach them and stared into bright green eyes. Her eyebrow rose in irritation and she leaned forward slightly, her hand on top of the pod next to the plant.

"I have no idea. I was hoping you could explain what your pod has done to my plant."

The green eyes behind the plastic mask widened slightly and then narrowed again. Small grumbles came from the short boy, and Kagome was sure it was a boy, as he stepped around her and crouched to look at the monitor near the floor. He made a few tsk-ing sounds as he opened another panel on the floor and set to poking around the wires. Kagome held herself back from making any comments and instead gave him his space.

No need to heckle the boy, she told herself as she went to stand by Rin to watch him work. After a few minutes, there was a soft beep and the pod beside them whirred to life. Kagome watched as the soil her plant sat in churned slowly and then settled. The boy closed the panel and stood up. "There. Fixed." He said shortly and started to stomp out of the lab.

Frowning darkly, Kagome followed. All three of them entered the detox room and kagome removed her mask, shaking out her hair slightly. Rin followed her example and backed away from the look on the older girls face. Kagome waited for the boy to remove his mask and blinked at the long tail of red hair that spilled out over the back of his suit. He turned around, as if sensing her stare and Kagome realized that he was just a kid.

"Geez, how old are you?" She asked before she could stop herself and the boy's frown turned into a scowl.

"Look, lady. It doesn't matter what my age is! I received all my training and I know what I'm doing!" He nearly shouted as he turned and jammed the mask onto its peg. Kagome put her own mask on the wall and scowled right back.

"I never said you didn't!" She shot back and presented her back for Rin to unzip her. "I was asking because you are really young to be working already."

The boy snorted and yanked off his suit, hurrying to hang it back up so he could leave. Kagome grabbed his shoulder before he could get to the biometric scanner. "Wait, I'm sorry." She sighed. "It's been a long couple of days and I was really worried about my plant." She let go of the fact that he had snapped at her first.

The boy turned to scrutinize her expression, trying to see if she was sincere. He let out a breath and dropped the tension in his frame. "I'm sorry too." He admitted grudgingly and looked away from her sudden grin with a blush. She was a very pretty girl, after all.

"Great! I'm Kagome, and this is Rin. What's your name?"

"Shippo. Shippo Shiruba."

"Alright then, Shippo. I've got a couple questions for you! Do you mind coming to grab breakfast with us while we wait for the toxin to dissipate?" Kagome asked benignly as she input the correct passcode for the alarms in the lab. Once the oxygen was purified to safe levels, she would be notified on her screen.

"Breakfast?!"

"I already ate."

Both Rin and Shippo answered at the same time and looked toward each other. Kagome chuckled to herself and placed a hand on both of their shoulders, steering them out the doors and into the small reception room that connected all four labs in this sector of the ship. "Well, I haven't eaten yet and we can't do anything until the labs purified." Kagome pointed out to Rin. "And you can just tell your supervisor that you were fixing the pod this whole time." She said to Shippo and ignored any balking he did.

Both looking like they were run over by ponies, Rin and Shippo found themselves marched into the cafeteria.


Kagome looked up from the plant she had been observing with Rin at the sound of someone clearing their throat. Leaning in his customary position by the door, Miroku raised any eyebrow at the bemused expression on his friends face.

"Don't tell me you forgot we have a meeting with the other members of our team." He said lifting an eyebrow and Kagome let out a low groan. Beside her Rin let out a small giggle, trying not to stare at the attractive man in the doorway. She blushed all the way to her ears when he winked at her. Kagome straightened from her stooped position and placed a hand on her lower back, soothing the aching muscles.

"Dang. I did." She said as she glanced to the girl beside her. "Well, Rin. Guess we're ending the lesson here for today. This was the last we had to check on anyway."

Rin smiled up at the older girl and nodded her head. "Yeah, it's been pretty exciting today. I sure did learn a whole lot. Thanks again, Miss Kagome!" She chirped brightly and Kagome couldn't resist mussing her hair.

"Exciting?" Miroku asked as he stepped out of the way so Rin could leave the lab. Kagome groaned again and swiped the reports on her screen into a separate file and placed them into the outgoing screen on the wall by the door.

"Yeah. My baby got sick and started secreting poison from its roots."

Miroku stared down at her blankly and Kagome laughed. "Never mind! Come on, Miroku! We're gonna be late!" She teased as she pulled his arm with her out the door. Miroku shook his head and followed with heavy feet.

"I don't know what's more worrisome about that sentence. The fact that you refer to the plant as your baby or that it was secreting poison." He mumbled to himself as Kagome hung up her lab coat. She let out another laugh and walked with him out into the reception room.

"Yeah, yeah. Lead on, oh fearless leader." She said imperiously and Miroku threw his arm around her shoulders.

"As my lady commands."

The both of them continued their banter all the way to the conference room set aside for their meeting. Kagome hesitated briefly in front of the doors and Miroku quirked an eyebrow at her. "Are you nervous?" He asked incredulously and Kagome elbowed him in the side.

"So what if I am!" She growled back at him and Miroku chuckled.

"The great Higurashi scared of a room full of people she doesn't know?!"

"Not a room full of people. A room full of projections of people." She corrected with her nose in the air and then let her prissy image fade.

Miroku hooked his arm around her again and jostled her into his side. "Aw, c'mon Kags. You know me. And I told you Kikyo was gonna be here." He said consolingly and Kagome let out a sigh. At the mention of her cousin, Kagome felt butterflies in her stomach. She hadn't talked to Kikyo since before her cousin's graduation…

Shrugging his shoulders Miroku pushed the girl into the room before himself and directed her toward one of the chairs at a long semi-circular table. Both sat down and Kagome nearly jumped out of her chair when the door opened again and Wallace came bustling in. She sat down in the chair next to Miroku and grinned over at the both of them.

"Phew! Just made it!" She exclaimed and both were saved from having to comment as the projectors flared to life and Kagome found herself staring at five other people. Her eyes scanned over and quickly met a pair of brown ones set in a nearly identical face.

"Hello, Kagome. It's been a while."

Kikyo's voice was still cool and calm, just how she remembered it to be. Smiling back awkwardly, Kagome folded her arms on top of the table. "It's good to see you, Kikyo." She said almost bashfully back and kicked Miroku's ankle when he snickered.

Hakaku wasn't afraid to admit that the girl projected in front of him was not what he was expecting at all. From what he had felt and witnessed when he had been linked to Kouga, he had been expecting some sort of body builder. Which, in hindsight, was completely ridiculous. She was a psychic, not a militaristic, protein guzzling, freak. Hell, it had even said on what little of her profile he could hack that she was a botanist. If anything he should have been expecting a frazzled, bespectacled, little mouse. Neither of which could have prepared him for the blue-eyed vision of loveliness that shyly introduced herself to the rest of them.

Beside him, Hakaku heard Naraku shift as he swung his gaze toward Kikyo sitting on the far end of the table.

"Why, Kikyo. I didn't know you had a twin sister. I thought Kaede was your only sibling." His voice came out like an oil slick and Hakaku also swung his gaze to the quiet psychic. His brow scrunched as he looked from the poised woman sitting to his far left and the fidgeting beauty in front of him. Sure they had some similarities, but he wouldn't have called them twins.

Kikyo looked over at the smug grin painting Naraku's face and allowed a smirk of her own to tip the corners of her mouth. "She's my cousin, Mr. Hadani." She said softly and inclined her head to Kagome. "Though we were as close as sisters once." She looked away from her blue eyes and down at the table. The rift between them had been her fault, but she knew Kagome would blame herself for it.

Clearing his throat loudly to dispel the sudden tension in the room, Stephan Mallory looked to the new member of their team, however temporary. "I must say it is rather nice to meet you, Miss Higurashi!" He said a little too cheerfully and he winced slightly when many of the rooms' occupants jumped. "I was especially impressed with the remarkable way you and Captain Taisho managed to get on." He continued, lowering his voice a decibel.

All eyes swung to Kagome and she had the sudden urge to swallow, regardless of how dry her mouth had gotten. "Ah." She said noncommittedly and glanced over at Miroku. For his part, the idiot was staring at her like the rest of them. She kicked him in the ankle again and he sat up straight looking over to Hakaku.

"So, how's Wolfe doing?" He asked quickly and Hakaku scratched the back of his head glancing at Kagome.

"Well, after you and Taisho kicked his ass," Hakaku grinned at the wince Kagome sent his way, "he spent the night in the infirmary. Jakotsu was so excited to get to watch over him all night." Every male in the room and Miroku flinched slightly and crossed their legs uncomfortably. Kagome blinked and looked over at Kikyo, the only other female psychic on the team. Kikyo shook her head and covered the smile threatening to creep over her face.

"Ha. Ayame felt it was just desserts." The last psychic leaned forward and grinned at Kagome. "Hi, I'm Ginta Kaiyo, Hakaku's older brother. I'm Ayame Shiro's psy-link partner. Naraku Hadani over there is Kagura Kaze's psy-link partner. The both of us are on your immediate team." Ginta explained and Kagome smiled back at him.

Hakaku felt a brief stab of jealousy as the pretty girl smiled at his stupid older brother and kicked him in the leg when it looked like he was going to hit on her. Miroku, also catching the flirty look on Ginta's face, shifted subtly closer to Kagome's side, narrowing his eyes when they met with dark brown. Ginta straightened in his chair and looked over at Mallory to start the meeting.

"Ah yes. So to start off, we would like to do a small exercise tomorrow morning. Wallace, if you would like to explain the regimen we came up with this morning?"

"Of course!"


Kouga held his screen close to his face and tried to keep from growling. This was the fifth time he had attempted to call Hakaku on a communications line. If he didn't pick up this next time around he was gonna-

His threat cut off as the screen flashed and Hakaku's bleary eyes came into focus. He yawned and rubbed at his right eye as he squinted with his left into the screen. "Kouga is that you?" He asked in a voice that told Kouga the guy had been sleeping.

"You idiot! You forgot!" Kouga nearly yelled and Hakaku jumped staring at his angry partner in confusion.

"Forgot what?" He asked slowly frowning at the flaring nostrils on Kouga's face.

"What were you supposed to do after the meeting, Hakaku?" Kouga asked slowly in a falsely helpful way. Hakaku slapped a hand to his forehead and stood up, taking the screen with him.

"Oh man! I almost forgot to send my uniforms in for cleaning! Thanks for reminding me, Kouga!"

Kouga stared blankly down at his screen as the communications line cut off. For a few minutes he couldn't seem to make himself react to what had just happened. He raised a shaking hand to his screen and just as he was about to call Hakaku again, the acceptance message flashed and he swiped his hand over it.

Hakaku's wide eyed stare connected with his and a litany of apologies and excuses came through the line. "I'm sorry I forgot! A lot happened! I was going to call you right away but-"

"Enough!" Kouga growled and rubbed a hand over his face. "Just tell me how it went. Did you meet this chick?"

There was only silence that met his question and Kouga peeled his hand off of his face to look down at his screen to make sure Hakaku hadn't disconnected again. His eyes narrowed and his nose wrinkled when he was met with a weird glassy-eyed look. Hakaku let out some sort of strange sigh and seemed to deflate onto his bed.

"Ah, she's an angel, Kouga." He said in a creepy dreamy voice and Kouga felt goosebumps crawl up his arms.

"Hakaku! Focus!" Kouga snapped and shook his screen, imagining it was his partner's neck. Hakaku blinked leisurely up at his screen and a weird smile pasted his lips. "Ah, Kouga. She has the prettiest blue eyes I've ever seen." He whispered and Kouga felt the goosebumps crawl up his neck.

"Hakaku! You weren't supposed to be flirting with some chick! I told you to check out Taisho's new partner so we could bait him with stuff he doesn't know! Now how ugly was she? Was she a body builder like we thought?"

Hakaku, now completely out of his daze stared at his screen in consternation. 'Oh yeah.' He thought to himself. 'It was Kouga's idea that she was a body builder.' Shaking himself slightly he looked back into Kouga's face.

"That's what I'm trying to tell you, Kouga. Kagome Higurashi is a babe! And, oh man, her voice! And that pretty little blush!" Hakaku quickly descended back into fantasy land while Kouga absorbed exactly what it was his partner was telling him.

"Well, shit." He mumbled to himself. "Did you get a picture?" He couldn't stop himself from asking and Hakaku shot him a disbelieving look.

"With what? My invisible camera?" He snorted and rubbed his eyes. "I'll share the memory of meeting her tomorrow. We got early morning drills tomorrow, Kouga. Can I go back to bed now?"

Kouga let out a snort of his own and then scowled when Hakaku let out a parting shot.

"After all, I'm gonna need to get all the energy I can if we're gonna get our asses handed to us by Taisho again."

"Like hell!" He exclaimed, but his screen was already off and his connection with Hakaku gone. "Ain't no way that's happening a second time." He muttered darkly to himself as he sat back in the desk chair he was seated in. Tomorrow's training wasn't going to go like yesterdays, even if he had to play dirty.


Sorry its late. But here it be.