InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ A Merger of Hearts ❯ Crumbling World ( Chapter 1 )

A Merger Of Hearts
By TheSoulmater





Chapter 1 - Crumbling World

‘I wonder if there’s any real difference between diet Pepsi, and Pepsi max?’, was the blue-eyed girl’s main train of thought at that precise moment, even if she was meant to be listening to the boring old balding guy’s droning voice about some inane project at the company, like making sure all the sinks in the restrooms were facing north or something equally ridiculous.


Which of course the owner (or rather owner’s daughter since he and Mom were in Barbados at this very moment enjoying there second honeymoon and left Kagome in charge of the whole Higurashi corporation with only a crazy old guy as her only helper, ‘Gotta love old Totosai’ she thought though,) was ‘required’ to attend.


Well okay the meeting was probably a bit more important than that since she had been in the horribly stuffy room for over two hours now, probably the usual end of month session, but she was beyond caring at that point.


The whole lower half of her body was completely numb, and her only other conscious thought was that she needed a long soak in the bath to sooth her aching muscles and possibly a massage, hopefully without her little twerp of a brother interrupting her bubble of relaxation with his shout outs of ‘die evil warrior’ from the games room.


After all she could always get Totosai to fill her in later about anything that she had missed, and the fact of the matter was she couldn’t stand the way that everyone was treating her like a naive child! She may have been only 17 almost 18 but she had been working in the company under her father for over two years now and running it for the last month and half, and she knew her future company like the back of her hand, unfortunately.


But that still didn’t stop the scrutinising looks all the older employees were giving her, who thought that they deserved to be in her seat at the top of the table instead, well if she had it her way they bloody well wouldn‘t even be in the seats they are in now, they are more like a pain in the ass than any help at all, especially Himara-san, a stuck up snobby bastard in his fifties with grey balding hair and stony grey eyes, or at least that was his human disguise, who always looked at her as if she had two heads whenever she made a suggestion, of course this only happened when the presence of her father was absent, he was at least civil to her then, but she could always tell from his aura what his real thoughts were.


Himara-san was luckily distracted from giving Kagome looks of contempt as he was the one leading the meeting, and that was the reason why it had gone on for two hours the man could just drone on and on without hesitation, or encouragement usually these damn meetings only took a little over an hour.


Kagome quickly gazed at the people present at the meeting, most of them were her fathers advisors and board of directors, while the others were head of certain different departments at Higurashi Corp, most of them were human but there were some human disguised youkai, but Kagome never held this against them, she fervently believed in equals rights for all even if half of the human population didn‘t even know youkai existed.


Kagome could easily distinguish who was youkai by their auras, since she had this fantastic ‘gift’ that allowed her to see the swirling colours of magic energy over people. The only thing was the way you could tell what this person was, wasn’t by the colour of aura which many people believed to be of main importance, but rather the shape and brightness.


For instance, humans that had no spiritual or otherwise special powers, only had a thin slight glow around them, then had added colours for their emotions or motives, whereas strong and powerful youkai or monks and mikos, had intense luminous auras that could easily envelop other weaker auras that were in their path.


Also the more powerful the being the more intense was the feeling of fingertips against Kagome’s spine but that was just how she was effected personally, apparently everybody was different, or so her late jii-chan told her.


That was who had trained Kagome in the ways of a miko, that was before she had to join the ‘family business’ though, but Kagome always visited her grandfather’s shrine in the holidays to keep up with her training or rather she did before her grandfather passed away, she really did miss his old folk tales about youkais and warriors, and of course the most powerful mikos of them all Midoriko, that was her favourite tale of all, but the ending always made her sad.


As a child she would always say that one day she would find the shikon no tama herself, and set Midoriko’s soul free from the jewel, of course now she knows that it does not exist or at least any more. When her jii-chan asked her what she would do with the evil youkai that was encased within the jewel also, the six year old innocent blue-eyed girl would always reply ‘I’d set him free too, because no-one should be locked up like that’.


At first her jii-chan was quite unnerved by her statement, but he soon learnt that Kagome was special, she could never hate no living creature no matter how evil it was, her soul was too pure. ‘Yeah right’ she thought ‘he didn’t know what devious thoughts were going through my head at that age’.


She still goes to the Higurashi Shrine every now and then and visits the new shrine maiden Kaede, a woman in her late forties, also a miko but not on the same calibre as Kagome. Not that Kagome considered herself a miko anymore; she gave that up when her grandfather died.


Kagome looked over to her first and only friend in the room apart from Totosai but he was more like her grandfather and the rest of the people were more like acquaintances.


The woman had long dark brown hair pulled up into a large bun at the top of her head, and lovely honey brown eyes that were beautiful outlined with magenta eyeshadow, she had slightly tanned skin and a well proportioned hourglass figure which she complemented at that moment by wearing a gorgeous navy skirt suit that clung to her in all the right places even if the skirt was only knee length.


She also had a beautiful and power aura even though she was not of youkai or miko decent but of youkai exterminators who held a certain unique power within them. No wonder she was so good at sports. She’s scary at the gym, she gets this predatory look in her eye, at those points Kagome truly feels sorry for the punching bags, and Miroku when he gets on her bad side.


When Kagome had first met her she was a little jealous of her exotic appearance but as soon as she had gotten to know Sango Kaori they became immediate best friends, even if Sango was 6 years older than herself. Sango was a wonderful friend, she was more serious and responsible than Kagome, most thought it was just age difference but Kagome doubted this, Sango was a feminist and wouldn’t take any man’s crap either.


She had known Sango for a couple of years now since she had first started going into work with her Father, after all once you had finished your business decree at university at the age of 13, among several others, it doesn’t leave a girl with a whole lot of options, especially since the moment she had been born her life had been set out for her, she had no choice whatsoever, which was one thing that caused her frustration to no end, and caused some very heated ‘discussions’ between herself and her father, which was why she could openly say she wasn’t too keen on the man but he was her father and she loved him, even if he was a total control freak and has repeatedly threatened to disown her when she ‘disappointed him’, all she could say was him and her mother deserve one another, inwardly she laughed.


She had learned it was best not to laugh at random thoughts in your head in the middle of meetings, apparently people tend to think you are a complete nutter if you do so, or at least that’s what their looks look like they are trying to say.


When Kagome looked over Sango she could tell that she was as bored as Kagome was, mainly because of the fact that she was secretly playing games on her phone under the table.


Kagome tried to catch her eye but Sango was enthralled with her monopoly game, ‘at least it was kinda work related’ Kagome snorted.


She somehow needed to get Sango’s attention she looked back up to Himara-san who had now gone on to explain once again the importance of keeping your colleagues motivated and was showing his well known and despised slideshow of it, ‘great’ she smirked the perfect distraction.


Kagome quickly bent down and retrieved her bag from the floor, where she took out her own phone and quickly dialled Sango’s mobile number, the funny thing was Sango never put her phone on silent in case of emergencies, she just turns the game sounds off, well Kagome thought dying of boredom was definitely an emergency situation.


So within a couple of seconds the sound of the Pussy Cat Dolls song Don’t Cha began to play with great volume which was coupled by a shocked squeal from Sango as she dropped her phone on the floor.


All heads turned to Sango in question, as her face began to heat up and a steady blush began to rise.


She looked over to Kagome to find her trying to stifle a laugh ‘Damn it she did it again I am so gonna kill her when we are outta here or rather if’, Sango groaned.


Kagome looked up to her with amusement in her eyes “Well aren’t you going to answer it” Kagome asked seemingly innocently but there was an under lining meaning to it.


“Of course, please excuse me ladies and gentlemen”, Sango replied smoothly recovering from her earlier shock her glare promising death for all as she exited the meeting room.


Kagome smirked, her mission: Bunk boring ass meeting was well on the way.


As the rest of her company returned to the meeting at hand, some faces amused others annoyed at the unnecessary interruption, several people looked over to Kagome as if believing her to be at fault, even though she was it was besides the point, if anything went wrong it was her fault but if anything good happened well of course it was a team effort, ‘bullshit’ Kagome thought angrily.


A couple of minutes later Sango returned to whisper in Kagome’s ear that there was an emergency of some sorts and that she was needed back in her office, which Kagome was only to glad with comply with.


When annoyingly questioned by Himara-san about the meeting she simply replied
“Totosai will fill me in later”.


Once she said this she saw his eye began to twitch ‘good’ she smirked that she had succeeded to annoy him once again, ‘damn backstabbing bastard’, she was only too full aware of his ‘thoughts’ on the company and it’s leadership, that was the only reason she stayed so that bastard wouldn’t get the company.


“Of course Higurashi-sama” she heard him reply as she began to exit the room, but not before throwing over her shoulder,


“By the way Himara-san, your flys are undone”, She heard him splutter and cough from behind her as Sango snorted from beside her, Kagome swayed away with a triumphant grin on her face, Mission accomplished.

~*~*~*~

“When you signalled to me that you wanted to get out of the meeting from hell, which by the way, your evil, I thought you meant so we could go shopping or at least grab a bloody cup of coffee not do more work”, Sango huffed until she was red in the face as she plonked herself down at her desk. Once they had returned to Higurashi-sama’s neat freak office Kagome had gone straight to her laptop and had begun typing furiously determined to finish whatever it was that she had left unfinished.


Not many people knew this apart from herself, Higurashi-sama and a selected few but Kagome was actually a very skilled and determined business woman not just some Daddy’s little rich girl. She may joke around on occasions, or rather every chance she can get, Sango snorted, and she still may be only considered a teenager but not many teenagers could put up with what Kagome has to and succeed. ‘That girl is wise beyond her years’, Sango thought, and Kagome never really seemed to mind that she missed out on her childhood, she would always appear to be her funny and witty self, as if nothing in her life was wrong, which Sango knew wasn’t true but she didn’t like to butt in.


Although it always made Sango seethe with anger when people would use Kagome’s age as a weapon, she knew more about business than half of the Higurashi Corp border of advisors and directors did put together.


In a way Sango was jealous of Kagome not only was she the most intelligent and successful woman she had met, but she had guys swooning over her all the time even though she never seemed to notice. Kagome was one of those rare true beauties. She had long midnight blue tresses which always glowed blue in the sunlight, and deep long lashes that emphasized her unique cerulean eyes, and her milky white skin that a hime would be jealous of.


Not only that but her body was the picture of perfection, even though Sango knew that she herself was quite curvaceous, well Miroku always told her so, but Kagome seemed to go in more at the waist and flare out more at the hips, and her chest area was a size bigger, and she had gorgeous long legs even if she was only 5 ft 5, all this at age 17! She also had an impeccable sense of fashion she could always make herself look like the professional business woman she was and not a teenager, just by putting on a figure-hugging skirt suit and putting her hair up she could gain 6 years. Also Kagome seemed not to know how gorgeous she actually was which made her all the more attractive, she wasn’t one of those totally narcissistic rich bitches like so many girls in similar positions, when Sango once asked how pretty she thought she was she said average, maybe she was being modest or Sango hoped so because if that was average what did that make her!


But the thing that Sango was most jealous of about Kagome was her vivacious personality. She was one of those people that could just light up a room when she entered it, one of her smiles could lift anyone out of the most deepest of depressions, she was the most warm and caring person Sango had met, she would do anything for a friend even if it meant putting herself at risk. Not only that but she had a wicked sense of humour too, she was quick-witted and always game for a laugh. But this girl was no push over either she could be a fiery little vixen if you tried to cross her.


Sango could never forget Kouga’s face when Kagome had retaliated quite violently to his ‘my woman’ comment, his face was priceless, not to mention a very male part of himself would never be the same again. She was also forgiving though as you could tell since her and Kouga were close friends now and even owned a separate business together, it was her and Kouga’s ‘baby’ as she had called it, the only one that they would be having together though as she so quickly reminded him which cleared away that smirk from his face pretty much instantly and any lecherous thoughts, him and Miroku in a same room was always an awful event no woman’s virtue or ass was safe.


“I’m sorry Sango, I just want to finish these reports before Daddy Dearest returns home, I swear I will not be surprised or unhappy if I get a phone call saying him and Mum are gonna spend the next month there too, probably just to see if I’m going to crack under anymore pressure”, Kagome seethed jokingly while she typed away furiously “Anyway I’ll be finished in two minutes, I just couldn’t stand it anymore in that damn room I‘d already looked over the monthly report two days ago, I swear, if murder wasn’t illegal…” she mumbled.


“So I’m guessing your not looking forward to Higurashi-sama’s return” Sango replied amusement written on her face.


“you can say that again, although at least I wont be in charge anymore and I am missing being bossed around 24/7, but hey that’s what you’re here for right to keep an eye on me?” Kagome goaded.


Kagome suddenly saw Sango’s stuffed cat from her desk fly past her head as Sango huffed “Well it was your brilliant idea to put alcohol in the coffee machine last year, so I can kinda see your Dad’s point”.


Sango tried to keep a straight face as she stared at Kagome but her intense gaze was cracked with a smirk.


“You’ve got to admit that was funny though when half the office started doing a sing along to ‘I feel Pretty’ which I must say you have a very good voice Sango” she giggled, “and it just proved my point of how many coffee addicts are in this place, and how easy it would have been to poison the whole floor” Kagome argued.


Sango sighed “Your never gonna let me live that down are you?”


“Nope, and by the way you missed” she pointed out. As she picked the furry creature from the ground.


“I wasn’t aiming for you in the first place” Sango argued as she caught her fluffy cat and hugged it to her chest before placing it on her desk.


“Was to”


“Was not”


“Was to”, Kagome retaliated childishly waiting for her friend to start shouting “was not not NOT!”, just like a little kid but when Kagome looked up from her laptop to Sango, she realised that Sango was deep in thought, and they didn’t look like very happy thoughts at that.


“Sango-chan?” she called hesitantly, “Sango are you alright?”. She was beginning to worry her friend only looked like this when she was thinking about one thing, him.


Suddenly something seemed to snap Sango out of her depressive thoughts and she looked up to Kagome with misty eyes from unshed tears.
“I’m sorry Ka’chan, it’s just we used to be like that all the time be…before…” as she let several tears slide down her face, ‘I thought so, Kohaku’ Kagome thought.


Sango’s brother, Kohaku. He had gotten in with the wrong type of people at high school it was all drinks, drugs, violence, that was until he saw someone being murdered by his so-called gang leaders. After that he changed no longer was he a child but a troubled teenager that bottled everything up inside. He wont speak to his family anymore apart from a few choice words and it was tearing Sango apart, she would always say ‘but he’s only 15, he shouldn’t have to face these kind of things’. Sango was right but that didn’t stop it from happening sadly.


Within seconds Kagome was out of her seat and had enveloped Sango in a big crushing hug, ‘just like my mother’ Sango sobbed. And it was true, Kagome had this lovely motherly feel about her, it didn’t matter how old you or she was that’s just the feeling you got, and that’s why Sango continued to sob into Kagome stomach.


To say that Kagome was surprised that her friend and colleague had started crying was an underestimation, she would have been less surprised if Sango had told her that she was two-timing Miroku with Himara-san, then again maybe not. Sango hardly ever cried so through Kagome’s shock, she had wrapped her arms around Sango’s shoulders, who was still sitting down, and began to soothingly stroke her hair.


“It’s O.K, sweetie. I’m not gonna say everything is gonna be just like it was, but with time he’ll get better, just give it time. And once you both come out of this you’ll both have a stronger relationship, after all these things are sent to make us stronger” Kagome whispered continuing soothing Sango.


“I know but it’s just so hard, he just seems so… empty now. Mum and Dad don’t know what to do with him, they are thinking about putting him into care!” Sango sobbed her words slightly muffled by Kagome’s now soggy clothing.


“shhhhh. When are you next going to see him?” Kagome gently asked.


“In a couple of weeks, but honestly I don’t know whether I’ll be strong enough to see him though, and I don‘t want to burst into tears straight in front of him”


“Of course you will be fine, and if your feeling a bit down, how bout I come with you for support, I haven’t seen your parents in months anyway?”


“You would do that for me?” Sango sniffled


“Of course I would you dope! What kind of friend would I be if I let you go through this on your own and don’t forget about the perv he‘s here for you too?”


Sango chuckled. “Yeah I guess”


“Come on now wipe those tears and we’ll go for Lunch” Kagome said releasing Sango and gently kissing her forehead, as she stretched out her soggy clothes.


“Thanks” she said as she reached for a tissue “And sorry about your top”.


“Never mind that, probably some bimbo in the office will see me wearing this and It’ll become the newest rage to have mascara stains down your clothes”


“True, just like that whole barefoot thing you started last year” Sango giggled her thoughts now considerably less depressing.


“Exactly” Kagome replied as she shut down her laptop.


“How do you do it?” Sango suddenly asked.


“Do what?”


“Make me feel better, become the big sister.”


“It’s because I have the bigger boobs” Kagome joked


“Of course, how could I forget”


“Come on, coffee awaits us, no alcohol this time promise?”


“I don’t know I might need it this time, and what about your reports?”


“Screw ‘em!” she answered over her shoulder as she exited the too tidy of an office “I just need to read through them, and we all now what a waste of time that would be since I’m so perfect!” she jokingly said.


As they passed Higurashi-sama’s secretary Yura, Kagome said “We’re going out to lunch Yura-chan could you hold all the calls for me please.”


The brunette looked up from her computer and replied “Of course Miss Kagome”


“And Miss Kagome?” she asked


“Yes?”


“If Himara-san asks where you are what should I say?” she said with a smile on her face fully expecting the answer…


“Bite me” Kagome responded “As always” Yuri laughed.


“I see you changed it from “Go screw yourself” No wonder he loathes you” Sango giggled once they had entered the lift.


“The feelings mutual” Kagome retorted “by the way, the limousine or the bike?”


“I am not getting on that death trap ever again!” Sango huffed


“The limousine it is then?” Kagome smirked.

~*~*~*~

“Master the pilot has just contacted me and everything has gone to plan we are expecting his next message any minute now once the operation has been completed” came a hollow voice from a white haired woman at the entrance of a dark and ominous office where seated behind the desk of said office, was a being with an aura radiating malice and malevolence.


To any normal human being the man sitting there would just look like a very handsome if somewhat sinister long black-haired man with strangely alluring blood red eyes called Kagewaki but… to the demon world there sitting at the desk was a being of such cruelty and hatred many demons shook from fear in his presence, to the demons this was not Kagewaki CEO of Kagewaki corp. this was Naraku an evil hanyou out to cause as much anguish and agony as possible while constantly looking for ways to gain power.


“Good. And Kanna make sure our assistant is fully compensated once the job is complete”, his voice was smooth but the deadly meaning behind the words were not lost, his ‘assistant’ would be dead within the hour. ‘As they say kill the messenger’ he viciously thought. Finally the thing that he had had his eyes on for years now, was nearly in his grasp and soon so would she be.


His eyes that were filled with malice now glazed over in lustful hunger. Yes she would be his, with her company of course, he would immensely enjoy breaking her fiery spirit and shattering her soul, ‘finally you’ll be mine little miko’ he growled pictures of what he would do to her flicked in his mind, her screams filled his ears, he smirked, yes today was a good day indeed, and he would celebrate.


“Kanna, get Kagura for me, I wish to talk with her”


“Of course Naraku-sama” she soullessly replied as she exited the ominous office her eyes not giving away at all the disgust she was feeling and the pity she felt rising to the surface for her sister, but after all he had their hearts in his hands literally, and she could do nothing but simply wait and pray that someone will one day destroy the bastard even if it meant her demise too. Unlike people were lead to believe she was not a simple emotionless void, she was as passionate as her sister she just hid it exceedingly well. Her pity also went out deeply to the woman that her master’s lust crazed glare was meant for, she inwardly shuddered and went to fetch her sister.

~*~*~*~

“I cannot believe that guy!” Sango huffed as they exited a little café, “He just would not take a hint, what didn’t he understand about “I’m not interested” it’s not that difficult”.


Kagome was giggling behind her it was just too funny watching Sango’s reaction to her ‘admirer’.


“It’s not funny” she shouted as she called the limousine, Kagome’s phone had lost signal.


“It was too! Your face just went all red as soon as he licked your hand” she laughed.


“That was so gross!”


“At least you have choices if you and Miroku don’t work out”


“With the hand-licking guy thanks!” Sango sarcastically retorted.


“Stop having a hissy fit, I doubt he’ll come after you again, he is most likely brain dead now with the way you crashed his head into the table”


“That didn’t stop Miroku”


“That’s because he was brain dead in the first place.” They laughed.


“By the way Sango, has he forgiven us yet for the whole ‘accident’ thing?” Kagome asked.


Sango’s face which had returned to her normal colour began to go red again, obviously Miroku had only forgiven her after they had had a lot of hot kinky sex.


“I’m forgiven” she finally answered.


“Well you can tell him I’m not gonna make it up to him the way you did” Kagome smirked.


“KAGOME!” Sango screamed totally embarrassed.


“Oh come on I can totally tell by your face how he forgave you” she laughed “Was it good?”


“WHAT? Your as bad as the pervert” Sango replied


“I can‘t help it it’s these damn teenage hormones” she giggled as the limousine pulled up and they quickly got in, as Kagome got in suddenly a feeling of dread began to bubble inside of her but she dismissed it as being nervous about her parents return in a couple of hours, how wrong she was.

~*~*~*~

The limo was just around the corner from Higurashi corp. and the driver was about to try and pull up when…


“What the hell! Why are there news van’s parked all outside?” Sango said from the back seat of the limo.


Before this Kagome had had her eyes closed wondering what to get her Shippo for his birthday in a couple of months time, that thought was rudely disrupted as Sango’s words set in.
Her only conscious thought was ‘uh oh’ the earlier feeling of dread had returned 10 fold as she opened her eyes to the picture of dozens of vans parked outside Higurashi corp. and even more reporters.


“This doesn’t look good” Sango whispered next to Kagome. Not only was there the press but many police officers trying to keep them from escaping into the building.


The limo pulled up as close as it could get and by that time half of the reporters had surrounded it making it impossible to escape. They were all banging on the limo doors, obviously shouting questions but at the moment Kagome couldn’t make out any coherent words or sentences.


Sango shifted next to Kagome, she had never been caught up in a press attack this bad before, it made her wonder what had happened.


“We need to get out of here, now” Sango said to Kagome then realised that she was in fact not even listening.


Kagome was frozen, she didn’t now why but all she knew is that something really bad had happened, her heart beat had begun to quicken and she was feeling dizzy, the world seemed to be spinning out of control, her instincts had gone haywire screaming ‘run, run, RUN’, she didn’t like confined spaces, especially ones with maniac reporters outside of, suddenly she heard Sango’s voice calling her.


“Kagome? Look Kagome the police are coming, I think we’re going to have to make a run for it” Sango said.


Kagome looked past Sango to see dozens of police officers begin to force back the reporters, and the fact that the limo was about 20 metres from the entrance of Higurashi corp.


She reached for the door handle seeing a chance to make a run for it “Lets go Sango”, all the time in her head panicking and repeating over and over again ‘ohmigod ohmigod oh please ohmigod let everything be alright’. As soon as she had opened the door a wave of noise had hit her at the same time so did a wave of nostalgia, she leaped from the limo, Sango close to her heels. Suddenly she stopped in the middle of the street as she heard…


“Parents…”


̵ 6;Oh’


“Crash…”


‘M y’


“Dead…”


‘GOD!& #8217;


In those few seconds her whole world came crashing down leaving her buried at the bottom of the rubble.

~*~*~*~