Chapter 7: - When in the Trinket Box
If it hadn't been once, it hadn't been just twice. Jaken hobbled around on a twisted ankle, relying on his handmade cane with two grotesque heads that he'd carved himself onto the top. He grew more and more fragile by the day, too fragile to keep up with the likes of a young boy of ten, who had curiously inherited his adopted mother's penchant for getting into things that were very much so avoidable and his adopted father's persistence to keep working on broken things. It had been so long ago since Izayoi had decided that she wanted to adopt a child, a specific child. It had shocked authorities to see Takahashi Touga's second wife so belligerent in public and so bent on getting her way. The boy had been caught stealing her belongings and instead of being furious and disgusted, as much of the upper society would've been, she demanded the boy's parents be found.
I'm an orphan, lady!
He'd spoken a different language to her heart with his foul mouth and she'd crushed him to her chest with all the adoration only a mother could possess.
If you have no parents, then by all means I claim you as mine you foul, dirty, handsome boy.
His green eyes had shot up into his messy hair and had begun to wail incessantly inside of the police station. Touga could not believe his wife, but made no move to stop her. The authorities kept the boy for a week, searching high and low for the boy's parents but only met with dead ends. Soon enough they met with Izayoi's triumphant gaze as she grabbed the young boy's hand and led him out of the detention center. Child services tried to stop her and she glared them down with a quick speak to my lawyer imbecile. He thought he'd died and gone to heaven when they got to the entrance of her property, he knew it when they reached the front door. She led him by the hand and soon enough, the true horror began.
No filthy boys will run rampant in my house.
She'd shoved him into warm water, filled to the brim with white foam and scrubbed him from head to toe. He'd blushed and sputtered the indecency and she glared him down, as she seemed prone to do when contested in her way.
Got something to say? No boy of four has decency when in his mother's presence!
She'd pinched his cheeks, clothed him, given him a room, and then presented him to his brothers. The oldest looked at him with curious eyes, silent as the dead; the younger two seemed ready to burst. Once she let go of his tiny fingers, they'd attacked him. He'd been pulled a million different ways for days. InuYasha wanted to show him how well he'd done on his math test and his new video games. Miroku wanted to show him the posters of nude women he'd sneaked out of his parents' bedroom and to retell the tale of just how he'd sweet talked his way out of groping an older woman at the day care center earlier. Then came his sister, slightly younger than he, whom had gotten it into her head that he was her latest present who'd come to play tea party.
Rin, if you don't get that Barbie dress away from me I'll scream for Izayoi-mama!
He'd been crushed, to say the least, when his father decided he should study abroad with Miroku for a while. They'd returned for Izayoi's funeral and he'd refused to be cooperative after that. Miroku had been in college and transferred back to Japan to take over the family business. He'd vaguely heard part of what had occurred with InuYasha, but he held no grudge against any of his brothers. After all, his family was better than the lack of family he'd had before his Izayoi-mama.
***
It hadn't been too long since Kagome had finally decided to blast his mind to Neptune before she decided it seemed to be a nice enough, habitable place for him. She grabbed his suitcase and set it next to her and yanked him down forcefully. That in itself had been rather amusing.
"Sit. Down."
She'd yanked on his hand incessantly without any type of success.
"Takahashi Sesshomaru sit down!"
To his ever growing chagrin, she imitated him rather horribly in a small voice, "Why yes Higurashi-sama, that sounds ever so lovely!"
At that point she'd kicked the back of his knees and he'd toppled over like the leaning tower of Piza was due to do quite soon, he was sure.
"It was a pleasure helping your popsicle ass."
He glared at her through narrowed eyes, wondering just why she was being so mouthy when she'd been so ashamed of being in his presence less than twenty-four hours ago. Again, she read his mind.
"What? Are you going to tell on me? Lower yourself to writing it on paper? No sir, you are much more proud than that. I'm sure you'll find some other way to get back at me and I'm ever so curious."
She unlatched his briefcase and his hand shot out to yank it away from her. She proved to be sneaky and yanked it to her chest. She turned away from him and huffed.
"I've been deprived my usual standard of productivity. So either you let me at whatever you have in here or you tell a joke buddy!"
He didn't remember the last time he'd been so bloody annoyed by somebody. Not when the mime had excitedly pointed at him and then at himself signaling we are one and the same. Not when InuYasha had written do you love me, circle yes or no. Not even when the stupid, bumbling maid had come into his room asking him questions expecting answers from an obvious (though by choice) mute! He tried to snatch it out of her hands again and she made a biting motion with another glare.
An hour later the elevator creaked slightly and they both looked up from the papers Kagome had weaseled out of Sesshomaru's briefcase. It felt like the bottom of the world had decided to move to the side and let them drop into the abyss as the elevator springs let go all at once. Kagome screamed and dove for Sesshomaru. They flew up and banged against the side of the elevator as it came to a screeching halt at the first floor. The doors opened to a crowd of very worried spectators.
"I think they got it to work again," Kagome sputtered.
No shit.
Rin watched them all silently at dinner. All her sarcastic remarks and beautifully laid out plans had gone to hell when the awkwardness decided to prevail. Touga seemed awfully pensive, not speaking a word and eating without paying any attention to the food at all. Miroku seemed very at ease and confused, although Rin couldn't quite figure out why because Hime was sitting at his side. InuYasha kept looking at Kagome and Kikyou had pinched him repeatedly, but it didn't seem to deter her husband. Last of all, Sesshomaru was present at the dinner table with their guests. He hadn't glared at InuYasha at all. Instead it seemed he'd found a new target worthy of his speculating stares: Kagome.
Breaking the reigning silence were some awkward footsteps and the bickering of two voices.
"Tell him I failed, dropped out, transferred. I don't care! How is it that everybody else gets to come home except for me?"
Rin shot out of her seat.
"And get off your bloody ankle you idiot, I told you oof!"
"You're back!"
The entire dinner table stopped their current actions and looked towards the hallway door. Rin came back with a young boy. Kagome had found that the wine they'd set in front of her had loosened her professionalism as she found herself kneeling in front of the boy, cocking her head to the side.
"Well aren't you just the cutest thing I've seen so far."
The men at the table puffed out their chests in indignation and Sesshomaru quickly caught himself before he too felt offended. Shippou looked at her with the most curious look in his eyes. She pinched his cheeks and he almost cried with how much she resembled his adopted mother, Izayoi. Touga must've seen it because he laid a hand on his shoulder.
"Higurashi-sama, this is my youngest son: Takahashi Shippou."
Kagome stood up, "This is the most heartbreakingly handsome of your boys Takahashi-sama."
"He sure is," Rin added. "He's the baby of the family, or at least until another family member decides to bring us a new addition!"
Hime smiled, "I hope to aid in that aspect."
Touga smiled half-heartedly and Rin gave her a sarcastic smile and flipped her the middle finger. Kagome snatched her hand down as Touga turned back to them.
"Be that as it may, Shippou what in the world are you doing back in the mansion? Surely your studies have not led you back home yet?"
Shippou crossed his arms and lifted his chin, "I'll study here."
Kagome stood up slowly and looked at the oldest Takahashi, "Well Takahashi-sama, he sure did take after all of you in that aspect."
***
They'd all gone to their respective rooms and Shippou had followed Rin out of the dining room for reacquaintance. Sesshomaru let his reading glasses rest on the bridge of his nose as he looked down at his papers. She'd stolen them in his face and then scribbled nonsense everywhere. He peered closer: well, perhaps not all nonsense. Some of it made sense. Perfect sense, in context, and not at all gibberish.
"Doesn't look like your handwriting much."
He concentrated his glare on Miroku's reflection in his window.
"No, doesn't quite match his usual handwriting at all."
Then leveled the same intensity at InuYasha, who was peering over his right shoulder. Both brothers slowly moved closer to his work on either side, pointing at the obvious difference and how obviously feminine the writing was.
"I bet you Kagome got her hands on his work."
Miroku nodded quietly, "That's good, she's being more involved with the company."
"And such good ideas too, look at what she pointed out about those graphs and numbers on Kudoshi's company. It's quite obvious why Hime is here, Amaretsu is getting ready for shit to hit the fan."
Miroku nodded, "She circled so many loopholes that I missed out on. It's very intelligent of her."
Both brothers looked up at Sesshomaru's annoyed gaze.
"If he could talk-."
"If he would."
"Yeah, whatever. He'd so would've torn us a new one by now. Look at his expression."
"You see how his brow is just twitching? I've never seen that before."
They'd see so much more if they didn't get up and out of his face. That girl seemed to have an infectious idea of toying with him. His incapacity had turned into their weapon of choice in a matter of hours.
If you won't speak, then you might as well make up for it by listening more.
His eyebrow twitched again just thinking of how she'd snatched his reading glasses from his pocket and placed them on her face. The same reading glasses that had rested askew on her face when they'd landed ungracefully before a large crowd of spectators.
"Honestly, I came by because I'm leaving in the morning."
His attention caught and he came out of his daydream to look at Miroku. No wonder he'd been awfully calm during dinner, despite his wife's presence next to him. When faced with freedom in a matter of hours, then he too would've gained the patience of the Gods.
"And guess who's going with him," InuYasha said with a glare. "You'd better not touch a hair on her pretty head."
Sesshomaru rolled his eyes. Somehow, it had only taken hours for InuYasha to fall into his role in the household once again. It had always been Miroku and InuYasha, side by side in deep conspiracies. Honestly, it had been much easier to forget and, passively, forgive InuYasha back into their family. They all knew that they would've done the same thing and Sesshomaru, more so than anybody else, knew that if he had courage enough to forgive himself after so many years then InuYasha would've never been made to make such a decision. For once, he felt like speaking his heart to the world and there were none but deaf ears among him. All he had was his vain desire to hear himself speak.
***
Kagome sat in a chair, tucked into a corner of Sango's room. Her assistant was walking back and forth, putting things back into her luggage. Thankfully, she hadn't had much of a chance to take much of anything out in the first place.
"Are you sure you want me to go Kagome?"
Kagome cocked her head to the side, "Do you not want to accompany him?"
Sango blushed, "That's not quite it, I mean, I haven't been away from you for years. Are you sure you'll be alright without me?"
"I'll be fine," she said affronted, "I can take care of myself!"
Sango sighed, "Fine, fine. Don't work yourself too hard and make sure to call me if you have any questions."
Kagome watched her friend, wound up and jabbering on when something else was so obviously on her mind. Sango could not, for the life of her, trust herself around Miroku. She'd felt something the minute she'd met the man and his cocky smile had graced her vision. Kagome giggled and disrupted Sango's stroke of speech.
"What?"
"It's quite clear to me that you are all caught up with a certain Japanese man that likes his tea in black mugs."
"Cappuccino," Sango corrected quickly, with a dazed look.
Kagome shook her head, "My point exactly."
"He's married, the idea that I would even think to think of him in that way is preposterous, horrible."
Kagome shrugged, "I don't know. It was an arranged marriage out of convenience that he obviously has some negative feelings about. He tricked his wife into sleeping in a completely different room."
Sango looked at her and zipped up her luggage, "Oh?"
Caught.
"Changes rooms every night, just to make sure she doesn't sneak in during the night with one of the maids skeleton keys. I overheard Takahashi-sama talking to his family lawyer about an annulment. Since the marriage was never, you know, made official."
"Imagine that."
"This trip is for more than just business," Kagome turned a serious look on her friend. "If Touga's company can prove that Amaretsu not only lied to them on an official, binding contract, but also meddled in the black market… The contract will be nullified and as such, Miroku will seek his annulment first thing that night or morning. The duty that forced him into that marriage will be gone and he will be free to cut her off. Touga's company will be much better off."
***
Conspiracy. She'd deeply considered officially adding it as her middle name at some point. Right when she'd hacked into the Japan Registry during her rebellious years in high school. Of course, as a deep believer in conspiracies, she knew that perhaps that was the point. They'd allowed her to gain access knowing she'd do something that stupid and get caught. So she'd strayed away from it, didn't even look at her own registration.
"Shit. Fuck. Whore."
Rin rubbed the end of her pencil into her hair and adjusted her glasses, which were there merely for fashion purposes. She felt more focused and intelligent with them on the bridge of her nose. She didn't have much time, a small window of time in which to investigate and destroy. Miss Homewrecker had to have messed up somewhere. A lot of times.
Hime Amaretsu. Amaretsu Hime.
And then Rin remembered. Hime's father dealt in the black market and had to have his entire family's dirty secrets covered up unbelievably well. There had been others, before Rin, to have hacked into the Japanese Registry, government files. The black market had no registry, no files. They were invisible.
But not invincible
Listening to Kohana earlier made her realize just what girls in their society feared the most. Poverty, or at least their definition of. Why would Hime be any different? If anything, it was Hime's biggest fear. It jolted her into action. It pumped adrenaline and determination into her system. It put the stupid idea of making her husband fall in love with her into her head. It pushed her into abandoning her father. Rin could see the theatrics in her head now!
I didn't know until it was too late. As soon as I caught on I came home to my husband and confided in him. I trusted Takahashi-sama to do the right thing.
The perfect picture of an innocent, distraught wife left bewildered by her father's actions.
"Ugh, whore! Suck my invisible-!"
***
Shippou glanced at Rin's door. He raised his eyebrows, stuck his fingers in his ears and continued his walk down the hallway. He'd forgotten that perhaps, just perhaps, Rin's vocabulary had grown as well during his extended stay.
"I wouldn't have to pay her!"
Shippou put a little more effort into his speed walking in an attempt to keep himself from hearing more than he already had. He had a curiosity itching at the tips of his fingers, much like when he saw an electric gadget with wires patiently waiting to be tinkered with. His new gadget with frayed wires in different colors was an enchanting addition to his family. The same family that seemed to be on its way back to unity, even as their father seemed to slip further and further into his state. Everybody seemed to ignore the obvious, shoving all of their personal problems and perhaps offering their father an illusion of continuity. He felt his feet lift off the ground.
He gasped at the feeling of gravity pulling at the pit of his stomach and turned his head just enough to catch her smile, "You scared me."
"Yes, well, you're out wandering the halls. Something tells me you're the true trouble maker in the family."
Shippou looked appalled at her accusation, "I am easily the most innocent!"
"Virtuous, yes, but my statement still applies."
She put him down and extended her hand out to him. He took it and they continued their trip down the hall. He didn't quite know what he'd been searching her out for in the first place. He usually came upon his puzzles by sheer coincidence and perhaps a small amount of hints from the gods of mischievousness. This puzzle, however, he'd sought out consciously.
"So you were tired of studying abroad?"
"I didn't like being kept away," he answered automatically.
"Makes sense," Kagome responded without skipping a beat. "They're a unique family and treating you like you don't have a say-so can be quite challenging."
He eyed her out of the corner of his eyes, "Did you study psychology?"
Kagome turned to look at him with a smirk tugging at the corners of her lips, "Nope, but I can't help but be curious sometimes."
"Do you end up tangled with no way of knowing how to get back to the beginning so you can start again?"
"Always do."
Kagome looked ahead and realized this had to be the most intelligent conversation she had with anybody in this family thus far into her stay. Her eyes widened slightly as she felt him pull her out of the hallway and into a room. The walls were covered in maps, the surfaces with photographs, and she could see a small corner with fine pencils and sketches of buildings and circuitry.
"Architecture will suit you well," she said, pivoting on her feet to look around the entire room.
Shippou frowned, "That wouldn't quite fit into my father's plans for every one of his children."
"Oh? I can't see how it wouldn't fit, if that were your choice. Sesshomaru would control the headquarters, InuYasha and Miroku would give him individual reports on different aspects of acquisitions. Rin would then research all potential threats to the company and you, my man, would design the buildings when they decide to take the company international. It would be a great deal of stress, but I'm sure you would cope rather well."
She turned around and met his expectant emerald eyes. What a heartbreaker this boy would be! He stretched out his arms and held out a box to her. She took it from him and unlatched the small lock dangling from the front. She opened the lid and let out a breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding. A rather haunting melody, recognizing it from Schindler's List of the top of her head, resonated from within the small trinket box.
"I've got so many things I can do. I can't quite decide which is my true calling."
Kagome closed the lid and opened her arms. He hesitated for a second before he melted into her arms, feeling her satin skin brush against his until he met with her stomach.
"For now enjoy whatever calls to you in the moment. Someday, you will see that all things can be enjoyed in a lifetime with a bit of patience."
She could feel his questions teetering on the edge of an eruption.
"I am a businesswoman. I have devoted myself to building a corporation from the ground up, but when I was your age that was not my dream."
She walked him towards his piano on the opposite side of the room. She sat down and he watched her curiously. The first few notes struck a chord in him as he recognized the Moonlight Sonata by Beethoven. Slowly the notes faded into something more heartfelt. It brought tears to his eyes out of pure emotion. He felt an insurmountable need to do something, to accomplish something as he watched her fingers float over the keys of his majestic instrument.
***
His ears had caught the haunting melody that he'd heard for days after Izayoi had left. It belonged to Shippou's music box. The boy had used that music box to lullaby himself to sleep at nights when he missed her the most, when her presence was missed the most. His feet had led him away from his work and the beginnings of another classical masterpiece kept him in constant motion. He felt a slight pause in the music and he stopped right in front of Shippou's door. The song that struck up a half second afterwards was equally riveting, Yiruma's River Flows in You. It would resonate within him for days and make him wonder if he was lost amid a torrential sea with no idea where to begin.
In fact he felt that way the moment she'd jabbed a finger into his chest. He looked up and found InuYasha sitting across from him in the hallway. Sango and Miroku stood on his left, looking as if they were on their way out. Rin was leaning against the wall on his right, lost to the sounds of the music wandering to their ears. Their senses were heightened, sensing that perhaps they'd stumbled upon something slightly forbidden.
"Who-."
Sesshomaru glared InuYasha into silence as the last chords slowly echoed in the room. They heard Shippou quietly ask for another. They looked around and deduced that, out of the four missing, only one could possibly be in that room.
"I've learned this one recently. It's called 'Nearly Home', it was composed by Roy Todd."
Sitting there in the hallway they wondered just how long they'd wandered until they met in their current spot.
"Kagome?"
"Yes Shippou?"
"Would you mind playing until I fell asleep?"
Kagome's face split into a smile, "I wouldn't mind at all."
Sesshomaru rested his head against the wall and stared at the ceiling. What kind of enigma threw everything out of balance into balance?
***
Being utterly devoted to something as enigmatic as music brings about much inspiration.
-Mishi Kawaii.