InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Dogs in Tokyo ❯ Chapter 12 ( Chapter 12 )

Chapter 12

Ryosei finally came back to herself out of a deep and disturbed darkness. Her mouth was terribly dry and her tongue and lips prickled as if she had been chewing on something caustic. She rolled weakly onto her side and opened her eyes to a dim light. She groaned a bit and then her eyes snapped wide as she focused on her surroundings.

Not her room! This was, she raised her head and brushed oddly sticky hair out of her face, slowly sitting up to look about her. This room wasn't her pricey suite at the Four Seasons Tokyo. It was small and done up as an undersea grotto. Even the TV sported a surround of pastel colored starfish. It looked like this was in one of those sleazy love hotels! She choked and spun to look down beside her. There was someone lying there. Whoever it was, was lying very still, face down, and was mostly covered by a twisted sheet.

She stared her companion with dilating eyes seeing a line of red soaking through the sheet. Her immobility lasted only a moment then she scrambled out of the shell-shaped bed and backed away from it. This couldn't be real! She couldn't have left the bar with some dead fellow for a place like this! Her head pounded and she brushed at her hair with shaking hands noting it's sticky texture again. She spotted a mirror and went to it to examine herself. There was a rusty red streak across her forehead. It seemed to be dried blood. But she could feel no injury; a sob escaped her as she realized that the mirror was angled so she could not avoid seeing the still body on the bed behind her.

She unwillingly crept to the side of the bed and twitched aside a corner of the sheet. Male, young, about twenty-five, and he might have been attractive if the face weren't so pale and the eyes so fixed and congealed looking. She stumbled into the bathroom and vomited convulsively. From there it was an easy step to the shower where she scrubbed with her eyes closed, trying to convince herself that the water swirling down the drain wasn't tinged so pink. No matter it was necessary. Ryosei finished rinsing and stepped carefully out of the shower to dress in the clothes she'd worn the night before. She decorated her mouth with a red slash of lipstick and prepared to make her escape.

The staff. You must bring us. Ryosei turned mechanically and re-approached the bed. The staff? Here? Yes, she'd had the staff with her in the bar. She had been upset because things had gone wrong, and it seemed it had bitten her. But that wasn't right, the staff was only good. Only there to help. They just needed a little food. Where could it be? In the bed…Yes under the covers, next to him. Don't worry; we are waiting. We're good together. Just slide your hand under the sheets, that's it…we're here, we're waiting for you.

She touched the staff and drew it forth; it had grown from pencil size to about two-and-a -half feet long. The hair on the woman's head had a bluish gloss. Both faces had a tinge of pink. The woman's eyes opened slowly and a gentle smile curved her lips. There you are dear. You look very nice today. Now just come this way, and we'll just stop all those pesky cameras.

Ryosei walked out of the room leaving the door open behind her, the staff of heads held up in front of her eyes.

~*~

It hadn't taken very long for Inuyasha to decide that the only person he knew to ask for information about his brother was Jukuryo-San himself. Jukuryo, at least, was looking for Ryosei and had the greatest likelihood of having some information on who her associates were. So, it was as Inuyasha trotted down the shrine steps, a querulously inquisitive Kagome in tow, that he encountered the next link in an increasingly tangled chain of circumstances.

The link arrived clinging to the back of a powder blue scooter with an ill-fitting helmet hanging by its strap around his neck and grubby raincoat flapping in the wind behind him. The gangling driver of the bike toed the kickstand down and hit the kill switch letting the continuous thin wail of his passenger fill the suddenly quiet street.

Kagome and Inuyasha stopped in their tracks to stare as the scooter driver dismounted from his bike and doffed his helmet to reveal matching powder blue hair above the beaky face of a westerner. "Hey, folks, the little dude here is look'n for someone at the Higurashi Shrine. Is this it? He's kind'a freaked out by the events of the day and his directions suck totally."

Kagome blinked and cleared her throat before admitting that the address was correct trying not to stare at this bizarre gaijin. Inuyasha ignored their exchange to take a couple of steps over to the scooter and its moaning passenger to peer into his face. "Jaken? You shitbird, is that you?"

Jaken, for it was he, looked up to find himself face to face with a human appearing Inuyasha and gave a shriek as he tumbled off of the back of the bike. Inuyasha almost let him just hit the pavement but caught him by the front of his coat at the last instant and hauled the pudgy little man to dangle nose to nose with him. "Where the hell is my brother? And why are you a human?" he snarled into his wailing captive's face.

The bike's driver looked on in interest as Kagome hurried to intervene. "Inuyasha, Koi, maybe the middle of the street is not the best place to ask these questions!" she glanced back at their audience of one nervously and was not comforted by the other's toothy grin.

"All the more for the grist mill, Sweetie. You go right ahead."

Inuyasha's attention immediately switched and he lowered Jaken's weakly struggling form slightly. "Sweetie?" He frowned, "Kagome, did he just call you a food?" Jaken skittered his toes across the ground in an attempt to gain purchase and emitted a hopeless gurgle as Inuyasha gave an abstracted shake, never taking his attention away from his new focus.

"Hey, go easy on the little dude there, man." the other spoke in a soothing tone but with a ludicrously alarmed expression. "He's the only one I got and if you don't like 'm I can always take him away. 'Sides, his face is turning blue."

A quick glance verified this and Inuyasha eased his grip enough to allow for air exchange. Jaken spluttered and cursed sounding remarkably like the little toad youkai we all know and love.

"You! I knew this was a bad idea from the start." Jaken's fishy eyes swiveled over in the direction of his companion. "This unworthy brother of Sesshoumaru-Sama's is violent and unreasonable. He will be no help!"

Inuyasha's hard knuckles made a lightning swift crack against Jaken's head. "Who's violent and unreasonable? Tell me what Sesshoumaru is doing here! And since when did you ever ask me for help?"

"I have no choice! Sesshoumaru-Sama will not listen! Oh, Sesshoumaru-Sama!" Inhaling a deep breath the little man commenced weeping and carrying in a manner that had Kagome and the blue-haired gaijin by his side in an instant.

"Inuyasha, that's enough." Kagome stated firmly. "We'll never get any answers from him if you keep being so hard on him." She placed a hand somewhat gingerly on Jake's shoulder and began guiding him up the shrine steps with assistance of the tall foreigner leaving Inuyasha to follow in her wake.

"I still want to know what Sesshoumaru thinks he's up to." He muttered to himself.

~*~

The black Bentley moved smoothly through the late afternoon traffic of central Tokyo. Inside the passenger compartment a dispassionate voice spoke into a phone. "He did?…I see…and this was a co-detainee that signed him out?…No, no. I do believe I would like to speak to first shift myself, keep them there for me." Sesshoumaru sighed faintly and cut the connection. The Bentley slowed at the end of a street barricaded by cement pylons to block it to all but pedestrian traffic. Sesshoumaru looked up and flicked an elegantly clawed hand at the two bulky males sitting opposite him. The pair got out promptly and circled around the car to the front. The pylons were sharply wrenched out of the street and placed out of the way with all the apparent difficulty of moving sawhorses. The car proceeded leaving several bystanders studiously minding their own business. Tokyo may be a very civilized city, but some things are better left ignored..

Soon the vehicle was easing itself through the extremely narrow streets of one of the few remaining sections of the old city of Edo. Few of the buildings rose above the second story with the exception of one narrow storefront. It was of almost arrestingly poor proportions and stood towering over the area, its façade of crumbling sooty brick tottering forward in a threatening manner.

The car slowed to a stop in front of this edifice completely blocking the alleyway and disgorged four passengers: the two hefty young thugs, a man from the front seat talking into a headset and the elegant form of Sesshoumaru resplendent in a white Armani suite.

Sesshoumaru lowered his sunglasses and surveyed the shop sign, raising his eyebrows faintly over the name before proceeding into the shop. He checked for a moment on the threshold feeling the faint shock of crossing a barrier as the severe opulence of the shop's interior made itself known. It brought to mind the underside of an abalone shell, treasure hidden under an unattractive outer covering.

"Irashaimase." Soft feminine voices spoke in tandem as the females on either side of the door bowed in greeting. Sesshoumaru gave a good impression of ignoring them as he focused on the darkly suited store manager presented himself with a bow before him. There were traces of his origin as some sort of bird youkai there for those who could to see, but by and large the disguise employed was more effective than those that Sesshoumaru had seen used until now.

"Sir, very happy to see you here. This store is at your disposal for any purchases you may wish to make. Our treasures supply collectors worldwide."

Sesshoumaru studied him silently for a moment, peripherally noting that his communications officer was covertly tapping on his headset and fumbling for the base pack located on his belt. "I am here to speak with your master Junkuryo." He said finally, "I trust he will make himself available."

The other hesitated for the barest instant before replying. He swiftly smiled and bowed from the waist, "At your orders, Sir." and, straightening, led the way to a discreet door in the side wall.

Sesshoumaru looked about him as he followed. There were quiet pools of activity in the display area, oblivious to his arrival. A young upscale couple at one counter were examining lacquered boxes attended by two white-gloved assistants. Beyond, a small knot of businessmen was gathered about a freestanding display, obscuring it from view as he passed by on his way to the door.

His guide stopped at a desk just beyond the door and spoke briefly to the over-permed young woman behind it. She, in her turn, rose and led them down the hall towards an elaborate door at the end of it.

Sesshoumaru gestured briefly and his bodyguard stepped off to either side of the hallway to assume poses of attention. The door was swung open and Sesshoumaru glanced over one more time to exhibit just the shadow of a frown and shake of a head causing his communications officer to step aside at the last moment as he entered the room.

What confronted him was not really quite what he had expected. The office was large and elegant. The partially disguised bird-youkai behind the desk was very old but not so venerable as his father had been before him. When Sesshoumaru had last had any occasion to have words with that particular opportunistic creature it had been in a rocky eerie above Hakuba Gorge and the subject had concerned the matter of a land dispute which was now some 500 years in the past. This time, Sesshoumaru suspected stolen allegiance and that was something he would not tolerate.

"Jukuryo-San," he intoned with the briefest of nods and tendered his card. Jukuryo accepted the small rectangle and examined it closely, glancing up at Sesshoumaru with a carefully neutral expression before placing it on the desk before him.

"Nishigawa-Sama," he said slowly, "to what do I owe this unexpected pleasure?"

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Revue! Revue! I find I really enjoy them even when they're complaining about something. At least I know someone actually read it.

Of course, there is my theory about people just printing out each successive chapter and then shredding it to use as litter box filler…Hmmn… Not that bad an idea really…