InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Cursed ❯ Chapter One ( Chapter 1 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

Well I was in sort of hurry to post it so I over looked some mistakes but now it is corrected and next update would not be till 20 march as I have my career deciding exams in January and March. But after all that it will be a monthly update. Once again happy birthday my sweet_inu_girl

Top of Form

Bottom of Form

CHAPTER ONE - FAMILY BUSINESS

Rin Yamato had a choice: do what her father wanted and join the business of making wealth over the corpses of other companies or pursue her own artistic dream of being a photographer.

If she chose option one, her father and two older brothers, already in the family business of corporate raiding, would lavish her with praise and money. But if she chose option two, she would be cut off entirely and not only from financial support, but even from their paltry emotional support, too. The money that had taken her through three years of college would have to be paid back - with interest like Dad always threatened - and Rin would have nowhere to call home as she wouldn't be welcome back at the family house.

But I'm going to do it anyway. Poor, homeless and an orphan here I come!

Rin slipped into the rotating doors of Yamato International's lobby. Her reflection in the glass gazed back at her. Raven hair, high cheekbones, wide brown eyes and a slightly fey look as if she wasn't quite seeing what was before her looked back at her. She blinked and tried to make her expression firm and certain, but it seems useless.

Her father's business only took up two floors of the entire black, steel skyscraper, but their name was on the building because of the amount of money that Yamato made and the prestige that went with it.

Money we've made from buying and then picking apart other people's businesses.

But Rin felt a frission of guilt from the judgment. As her father had pointed out many times, she had enjoyed the fruits of her father and older brothers' raiding.

But that stops now.

Rin was going to make it on her own. She had already scrapped together enough loans, grants and work-study to get through her last year of school. She even had a paying gig taking photos for her friend Kagome Higurishi's E-Bay business. She would scour every estate sale, pawnshop and garage sale for antique clothes, jewellery or whatever else had value. She would photograph her purchases in the most attractive way possible. She claimed that her photos caused her to sell twice as much if not more. She gave her a percentage of her sales.

Shooting for her was fun and profitable, but her true twin passions were ruins and nature. She lovingly photographed any ruins she found, the more overgrown and remote the better. She would make up stories in her head about the people who must have lived there. Her ultimate desire was to travel all over the world and record the past with her camera. But she wasn't naïve enough to think anyone would necessarily pay her way for that. She would have to get the money herself and convince people of the beauty and value of her work by showing it to them after she had created it.

Or I'll have those photographs for myself if no one else appreciates them. Either way it's in my soul. I have to do this.

Rin's footsteps echoed loudly as she walked through the cold chrome and marble lobby to the elevator bank. Her father and brothers' offices were on the forty-sixth floor. She nodded in passing to the security guard named Erin who nodded back in recognition.

Rin adjusted her grip on the duffle bag that was slung over her right shoulder. Inside were a week's worth of clothes and her prized Nikon D7100. She was already planning on staying at Kagome's apartment that night and getting the rest of her stuff from the family home after she had found a place of her own. But she couldn't leave the duffle with her motorcycle so she had to carry the bag with her. The duffle alone would key her dad into her decision before Rin said a word.

Dad's going to be so pissed. He really thinks that withholding money and love is going to make me heel to his every command. He's going to find out that I'm the one thing he can't buy.

The elevator's doors whooshed open with a cool hiss of air. As she was visiting her father at nine at night to tell him of her decision to continue with her photography, Rin was alone in the car as she pressed the sleek silver button for the forty-sixth floor. The elevator doors whispered shut behind her and rocketed her upwards.

As each successive floor was lit up on the elevator panel, Rin drew her worn leather jacket tighter around her slender frame. Her hands were slick with sweat and there was the bitter metallic taste of fear on the back of her tongue. She knew she was making the right decision for herself.

And for Dad, Jake and Steven! I'd never be any good to them in the business. I couldn't bear to do what they do!

As corporate raiders, they took over various companies when they were at their weakest. Then they loaded the companies up with debt then bailed out. Leaving pensions unfulfilled and workers suddenly without jobs.

Vulture capitalists. That's what they are.

The elevator slowed as floors forty-four and then forty-five were highlighted. Finally, it stopped altogether on forty-six. There was only the slightest shudder before the doors opened and the sterile black-tile reception area of Yamato International was revealed.

Now or never.

Rin stepped out of the elevator. The lights were dimmed to save energy during the evening hours. The office felt like it was sleeping. Sarah Westwood wasn't manning the reception desk with her perfectly coifed hair, red-lacquered nails and frosty smile. She had automatically known what her father and brothers hadn't, she was going to be an artist and, unless she struck it big somehow, she would never be making anywhere near the type of money that the corporate raiders, financiers, and attorneys who floated through this office made. She was, therefore, uninteresting even if she were the youngest daughter of the owner.

Rin passed by the glass and chrome receptionist desk and padded into the hallway beyond. This hallway led to her father and brothers' offices. Her father had the largest office on the right. It was the ultimate corner office with floor to ceiling windows facing towards the glittering downtown of Summer Haven. Jake, aged twenty-eight, was a near clone of their father with his shark-like smiles and ultra tailored suits in dark blues and blacks like bruises. He had the office next to their father's. Steven, aged twenty-five, had an office the farthest away from the hubbub of his father's space, but Rin sensed she liked it that way. Steven's passion was numbers and statistics. He was more at home reading a balance sheet than most people were reading a restaurant's menu.

Rin wasn't surprised that all three offices had their lights on despite the fact that it was a Friday night in June when the air was warm and sweet and the bars and restaurants were filled with the rich and beautiful people of Summer Haven, eating and laughing. Her family lived purely for business and from their whispered, almost incomprehensible conversations since she had returned home from college last weekend, Rin had picked up that they were in the middle of some big deal.

Something to do with a company - or maybe a person - called Sesshoumaru.

Rin could tell from the sounds of their voices that all three of her family members were in her father's office. Her stomach clenched a little as she realized her father would force her to make her decision known in front of her brothers. She could already hear Jake's sneer that Rin wouldn't last a week without their money. Steven would push his wire-rimmed glasses up to the top of his nose and tell her the costs of living on her own in Summer Haven, the likelihood of her making any money from her photography and so on and so forth. Part of Rin was tempted to sneak away then, to put off telling her father altogether. But she had to get it over with.

As she neared her father's office, she realized that there was something off in the way everyone sounded. She frowned. She had never noticed that shrill tone in Steven's voice before. Jake sounded like he was near pleading. Her father's voice, too, which normally was so authoritative that if he said the sky was red, people would have to think twice to remember it was blue, had a note of disbelief in it. Rin couldn't yet make out any of the words yet.

Maybe I shouldn't go in there. Something is clearly wrong. It's got to be business related. There's nothing else that would make all three of them this on edge.

But just as Rin had that thought she stepped into the warm pool of light that spilled out of her father's office and into the hallway. Rin actually froze in place as she took in the scene.

Her father was standing up, leaning against the front of his desk as if for support. Jake was to their father's right. His blood red tie, the one he always wore when they were going to close a deal - or make a killing - was half undone as if he had tugged at it out of anxiety. Steven was to their father's left. He was staring down at a tablet in his hands as if he couldn't believe whatever he was seeing on the screen.

Then there was the fourth man. Rin guessed it was a man from the size of him, because he was actually wearing a cape with a hood. Even for Summer Haven, which had its share of eccentrics, this was unusual. He was a big man though. His shoulders were huge and he stood over six feet tall. He was standing by the windows, back to Rin, looking out at the glittering city of Summer Haven. There was something in his stance that had the air of command. Rin shivered.

Who is he? And is he the cause of my family's unease?

Just as Rin was about to back-peddle out of the room, certain now that she was interrupting a business, meeting, her father's head lifted and he looked directly at Rin. Her father was a robust man of fifty-eight. He still had a thick head of blond hair so light it was almost platinum. He had a handsome face even if his jaw was a little too square giving him the appearance of crunching rocks between his molars. He swaggered rather than walked. His expression was normally one of conquest as if all would fall before the force of his personality or the dollars in his wallet. But now, he seemed shrunken and gray. His suit was rumpled. Lines creased his face that Rin would have sworn hadn't been there this morning.

A prickle of unease went through the young woman. What's going on here?

“Rin,” his father said, his usually booming voice was just a whisper now. Cracked, dry, and pale as paper.

Jake looked over at Rin then and threw his arms into the air. “Fuck, Rin, what are you doing here?”

Steven had let the tablet fall to his side. His pale brown eyes scanned Rin then lingered on her bag. “I believe she's here to bid us adieu. As it so happens, she has the right idea though not the right cause.”

The cloaked man's reaction to Rin's being there was to stiffen slightly. But he did not turn around. Instead, Rin realized that he was watching Rin's reflection in the glass. The hood of the cloak mostly obscured the man's face so other than a powerful jaw and sensual mouth, Rin couldn't see much more than that.

Rin stepped into the office. “What's going on here?”

“What's going on here? What's going on here? We're fucking ruined is what's going on here!” Jake's voice rose up into almost a shriek.

“Normally Jake's hyperbole would cause me to correct him,” Steven said, his voice more robotic than usual. “But Jake is correct. We are ruined.”

“What?” Rin breathed. Her gaze darted from one man to the next until she focused on the cloaked man. She knew that whatever had happened here, he was clearly the one behind it.

Her father pushed off of his desk. His legs seemed to totter underneath him for a moment. Rin dropped her bag and hurried over to him, steadying her father with an arm around his waist. She led her father over to the sitting area in the corner. Her father practically collapsed on the black leather sofa, nearly dragging Rin down with him.

“Thank you, Rin. I - I feel a little unwell,” her father breathed. His skin was still so gray and there was sheen of sweat on his upper lip.

“Dad, what is going on? Who is that guy?” Rin asked the last very softly as she tipped her head towards the cloaked figure.

His father went greyer. He rubbed the back of one hand over his mouth as his gaze flickered over to the cloaked figure. He opened his mouth and shut it several times, but nothing came out. Rin's unease grew greater and greater.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck, this can't be happening!” Jake paced. His hands worked convulsively at his sides. The whites of his eyes were showing.

Steven took off his glasses and polished them with a linen handkerchief from his pocket. “It is happening.”

“What is happening?” Rin straightened up. She knew that her father and brothers wouldn't come to the point so she approached the cloaked man. She stalked over to him, hands on hips, anger flashing in her eyes. “Who are you?”

“My name is Sesshoumaru,” the figure said. His voice was low and smoky. Under other circumstances it would have skated over Rin's spine and left a pleasurable tingle. But not this time. Her family was in pain and Sesshoumaru was the cause.

Sesshoumaru? That's who they've been talking about this whole week. A deal gone wrong?

“What have you done?” Rin asked her voice going soft and deadly.

The cloaked man's shoulders began to shake. At first, Rin thought he was having a fit, but then the gales of laughter broke out. Rich and velvet laughter that caused her father to hold his head in his hands and her brothers to shrink down. Anger suddenly burned in Rin's belly.

“What the hell is so funny? I don't see anything funny!” Rin snapped. She was tempted to grab the man and spin him around. Though Rin was probably three-fourths Sesshoumaru's size, she wasn't afraid of a fight.

The laughter subsided to chuckles. The cloaked man shrugged the cloak more firmly around his large form. “Forgive me. I can see that you truly do not understand the irony of your question.”

“What irony?”

“Your family attempted to take over my business. They failed.” Sesshoumaru answered simply.

“It was a trap.” Jake added. “A damned dirty trap.”

“Yes, it was.” Sesshoumaru agreed. “But you did not have to take it. You could have acted honourably. Instead, you let greed lead you. And now … you have nothing.”

Jake dropped down onto his haunches and wrapped his hands behind his head. “You were waiting for us.”

“He's taken our company over, Rin,” Steven explained dryly, but his hands were trembling as he continued to clean his glasses.

“It's all gone,” their father whispered. “We put all we had into acquiring Sesshoumaru's company and … we were acquired instead.”

Rin blinked. “I don't understand.”

“I own Yamato International,” Sesshoumaru said simply. “More than that … your family has overextended itself. They are broke.”

“We're not broke!” Rin scoffed. “We have other investments--”

“No, we do not. I should say that our investments have gone terribly south. We invested in real estate,” Steven said. “We were running in the red for some time.”

Rin couldn't quite believe this. She hadn't noticed things being leaner at home. In fact, they had seemed more luxurious than ever before. A new car for Jake. A fabulously expensive new sound system in the house for Steven. Her father had indulged in his wine collection extensively that past year.

“What about the house?” Rin asked. Their house in Summer Haven was worth at least a few million. That might not seem a lot to her family or to Summer Haven residents, which was ridiculous in her mind, but it would make them incredibly wealthy to the rest of the world.

“Mortgaged to the hilt,” Jake said with a mirthless laugh. “The bank owns it.”

“What about your accounts?” Rin struggled to find something that her family had left.

“A few hundred dollars at most,” Steven answered.

“We're done, Rin,” their father said.

The words seemed to sink like stones into a still pond. Silence fell for long moments. Rin didn't pretend to understand how it had happened, but she realized with a sick lurch that it wasn't just her who was poor. Her father and brothers were, too.

“It's much worse than that,” Sesshoumaru suddenly said, breaking the silence with his smooth as molasses voice. “I intend to make sure that your family will never prosper again.”

“What? Why?” Rin knew her expression was taut with shock and dislike.She could see her reflection in the glass just as Sesshoumaru could since he continued to face away from all of them as if they were not worthy of his notice.

“I've watched your family's business. For years. Vultures circling around and around. No mercy. No compassion. Just pick, pick, pick. Until all there is left is bones bleached under the sun. The more workers displaced the better.” Sesshoumaru said. “Haven't you, yourself, seen them celebrating their accomplishments? Over rare beef and wine? Like lions over a kill. Except that they are bottom feeders.”

Rin swallowed shallowly. She had seen that. It had disgusted her. But to have a stranger state it so bluntly had her back up. “Save your judgment! I don't want to hear it!”

“Of course, you don't! You are a spoilt, beautiful girl! You don't want to know what has funded your fun and free lifestyle! Who cares at what cost it has come?” Sesshoumaru nearly spat.

Rin reared back as if she had been physically slapped. “You don't know me! You don't know anything!”

“Don't I? It seems to me that who and what you are is written in that pretty face and body.” Sesshoumaru taunted.

Rin spun away from Sesshoumaru. Her heart was thundering in her chest. Her anger spurted adrenaline in her veins. She wasn't sure what she would do to Sesshoumaru if the other man continued to speak to her in this way. She kneeled down in front of her father. That arrogant yet boisterous man seemed so small and insignificant now.

“Dad, it'll be okay. It can't be as bad as it seems!” Rin clutched her father's broad hands in her own. She could feel the rough hair on the back of her father's hands. Her father was trembling.

“It won't be.” Sesshoumaru said and his voice seemed to suck all the oxygen out of the room.

Rin scowled. “Talking about wanting to lord it over people, why the hell don't you leave? You don't have to stay here! You can go!”

His father clutched Rin's hands. “No, Rin, no. Just - just be respectful.”

“Dad, don't you see what he's doing? Hear what he's saying?” Rin cried.

His father's shoulders curled inwards. “It doesn't matter.”

“It matters!” Rin yelled. Her voice seemed to echo. No one apparently agreed with her.

“Still hoping for mercy, Charles? Still hoping that things can be turned around?” Sesshoumaru asked, using Rin's father's first name.

“Is there any way?” her father's voice was hoarse.

“Dad!” Rin gasped. To her, asking for something from Sesshoumaru was like asking the Devil for a favor. He'd just as soon laugh in their faces as assist. And there would always be a price.

Sesshoumaru slowly turned around. His cloak swirled around his long legs, revealing a well-cut dark suit underneath the thick, black material. Rin found herself looking immediately up to Sesshoumaru's face. This time instead of just the slice of jaw and mouth, Rin saw far more. The hood fell back for just a moment. Sesshoumaru had silver hair that fell in waves to his shoulders, striking Siberian golden eyes, a noble nose, as well as expressive full lips and a strong jaw. But that perfect beauty was horribly marred. The right half of his face had the imprint of what almost looked like a hand print burned into his flesh. Puckered skin, reddened and coarse marked that terrible injury.

What happened to him? It looks horrible and painful!

Sesshoumaru noticed Rin's gaze and he stiffened. For one moment, shame coursed through those liquid golden eyes. It felt like just the two of them caught in that moments like insects in amber. Sesshoumaru shuddered, but then anger took over and subsumed any other feeling he had. A mocking anger.

“What would you do, Charles, to save yourself?” Sesshoumaru murmured as if talking to only himself.

“He won't do anything!” Rin cried.

“Let your father answer,” Sesshoumaru hissed. He pointed a gloved finger at her father's chest.

“Dad has nothing to say!”

But then her father lifted one hand and Rin found her heart tumbling into her feet even before her father spoke. Sesshoumaru's lush mouth curled into a smile as if anticipating success.

“What - what are you offering? There's always an offer, isn't there? We're businessmen after all,” her father said with a strained smile.

Rin's hands dropped down onto her knees. She felt numb as soon as her father said those words. Her father had just failed a test that he didn't know he was taking until now.

“An offer?” Sesshoumaru tapped his chin.

Jake rose up on shaky legs. “Yeah, what are you offering? You want something to give us a chance again?”

Sesshoumaru's golden eyes narrowed. They were locked on Rin. The young woman felt a trill of deep unease run through her as if she were in the sights of a gun.

“It is logical that you would want something. Mere censure could not possibly be your goal,” Steven said, always logical.

Rin felt like they had once more stepped into another trap. But her family kept forging ahead as if they didn't see it or didn't care.

Which is worse?

“Yes, I suppose you would think of that. An offer. A bargain. Something - anything - to keep going. For you know I intend to destroy you. You'll never get work anywhere. You'll be out on the street.” Sesshoumaru purred.

“You can't do that! You don't control everyone and everything!” Rin scoffed.

“Oh, but I do. You see your family has made a lot of enemies. A lot of people looking forward to their fall. One word from me and they will close any doors that might have just cracked open." Sesshoumaru chuckled.

Rin burned with anger and hate even as she had to acknowledge what Sesshoumaru said. Her lithe body shook. Her family had earned the enmity of many people as Sesshoumaru had said. Sesshoumaru was using her family's weakness against itself. She saw how the cloaked man was playing them, but none of the rest of them did.

They're desperate. They're in shock. They're fooling themselves.

But a part of her knew that maybe this wasn't the whole explanation for why her brothers and father were willing to believe Sesshoumaru.

“He's not going to help us!” Rin yelled as a last ditch effort.

But they were not listening. They didn't even look at her.

“What are you asking for?” Her father rose up from the leather sofa.

Sesshoumaru's expressive mouth widened into a toothy smile. “I will make you a deal.”

“What is it?” Jake asked.

“Yes, what do you want?” Steven chimed in.

“We'll do whatever you ask,” her father gasped.

Sesshoumaru's gaze swung to Rin again. A cruel smile crossed his beautiful yet marred face. “I want your daughter. I want Rin.”

……………………R 30;…………………………&# 8230;………………………… …………………………̷ 0;………………………… 230;………..

I have corrected some he/she ,him/her mistakes done on my part.

R and R as you like.

Bottom of Form