InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Dot Org ❯ Personification ( Chapter 4 )

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

Disclaimer: I do not own Inu Yasha or any of his rights. I am not gaining anything off of this. I'm just writing this as a devoted fan. I also do not own anything pertaining to any search robots online including Smarterchild.

Summary: Is it possible to befriend a robot? Is it possible to depend on a robot? It is possible to fall in love with an online robot? Kagome did. Inu.Kag PG-13 R&R!

Tsuyoku: Chapter 4 is finally up!! *cheers* I know that I said I was typing it now and that I would have it up after this last chapter

Dot Org

Chapter 4

(Review)

Her brother, who was the source of most of her stress at the moment walked into the kitched past her in the living room and got something to eat. All the while, he seemed pretty merry, not having worried about the situation a few days ago since it happened. Didn't he understand the situation that he had put himself in?! Gosh, boys were so stupid and hard to understand sometimes. She swore that she should've sworn off all men a long time ago, being that they can be the source of so manyproblems with their egotistical and competitive nature.

And it wasn't until a few days later, whence came a knock on her door, that she was forever cursing men.

(End Review)

The day was average. It was a Sunday, so everything closed early, including the library. The weekend was winding down, and so was Kagome in a kitchen that seemed to be devoid of anyone but herself, which wasn't a problem as far as she was concerned. The grilled cheese sandwich in front of her was only half eaten and had long ago lost any appeal to her. Well, what was she to do now? Going out anywhere would be pointless, not to mention her lack of energy to spend was very low. The TV was out, Sota had called that long ago. And Inuyasha seemed to be offline all day. Her few hours at the library had been boring, to say the least. Kagome hadn't been typing away with Inuyasha, so restocking books took her time, and when those ran out, the hours past slowly by.

It was funny how her life had become dependant on an online robot. When did she loose her social life? But then again, Kagome had never really had one. Maybe years ago in highschool when she was dating Hojo; that ended when they graduated. It seemed he had found out how boring she really was and moved on to more wild pastures.

Why wasn't he on anyway? She thought online robots were supposed to be there, that was their purpose. To search, to help navigate the web, to help her through her day... Not fun. So not fun. She had no one to talk to.

And this grilled cheese sandwich was starting to smell funky.

Boy, she could throw up with how bored she was.

And then there came a knock on the door.

"Finally something interesting. I hope it's a salesman. They talk a lot." Kagome was desperate for attention. "Can I help you?" She opened the door, expecting a 'You've won the lottery' or a 'Can I interest you in this lovely vacuum today?'

But no. She got a man at the door, looking worn out, out of breath, and absolutely rugged. "I'm sorry, Sir, I don't have any spare change." Yes, they'd come to her door for that before. Kagome considered giving him the other half of her sandwich.

"No, that's not what I'm here about. I'm looking for a girl named Kagome. I believe that she lives at this address." Now he had her interest. Kagome gave him a good sweep. Hair: light, almost foreign. Body: nice, er... stout. Clothing: washed, clean. He really ddn't seem poor now that she looked at him. "Ma'am?" Yes, he'd seen her looking him over. He was used to it by now. There was nothing that drew peoples' attention more than a gaijin with long silver -- almost white -- hair.

"That depends. May I ask who wants to know?" Kagome was at a loss for who this could be. She didn't know any foreigners, and she hadn't entered any contests lately.

"I'm Inuyasha."

She almost fainted. Wait, scratch that, she did faint. But only for a second. Kagome was jerked to her senses when she felt the man looking at her, and suddenly she was lifted up, only to be carried into the kitchen and sat on a stool with a glass of water suddenly placed in front of her. How he knew where the glasses were was a mystery to her.

"Look, I know that you won't believe me unless I prove it to you, and kami only knows how I'm going to do that, but you have to trust me. I'm here about your brother."

"What do you want with Sota?" Kagome asked, almost choking on the piece of ice melting in her mouth. "He hasn't done anything."

"Oh, I think we both know what he did. And he used my robot to do it, which means that along with your brother, I'm in trouble too." He looked at her, and for the first time, Kagome was aware of his eyes. Now she knew he had to be a foreigner. His eyes were gold, like a diamond ring that you couldn't stop starring at. Beautiful.

"Look, it was an accident. He didn't really mean to do any harm, he was just seeing if it was possible." A thought entered her head. "What are you here for? You're not here to take him with you or anything, are you? Because I won't let you."

"I'm not on their side!" His voice filled the room. Noise was heard from the living room where her brother was, thankfully it stopped as they heard to television volume rise. "Look, the government has had me working for them for years. I hacked into the government computers myself once. And I haven't been able to get away from them since. But I got a call a few days ago, and my informant told me that someone had used my robot to get into the same department computer that I had." He took a seat on the bar stool next to her.

"Then how did you know where he was, or that I was his sister? Wait, how do you know who I am?" Kagome stopped drinking her water, parched or not.

"Kagome, I have an online robot that is programmed to say certain responses, but did you ever get the feeling that you were actually talking to another human being? Well, sometimes you were. I do talk to people sometimes, and the best part is that they think they're talking to a robot, so I don't get involved." What he meant by 'involved' was lost on Kagome. "But when I traced the computer, I recognized the IP address as the one that you use sometimes. At first, I thought I was mistaken, but I'm never wrong. Not about computer science." Boy, he and Sota should meet. They were just like each other, each with their own cocky attitude.

"So I have been talking to you..." The sentence was meant only as a thought. But it made more sense than anything she'd heard in a long time. Of course, the robot had seemed so real to her sometimes. To think that all the times she talked to the robot, all the times that she depended on it for a good day at work, all the times that it had made her laugh... it was really a person on the other end. Kagome was pleased that this could be construed as a social life.

"Yes." He looked at her for a minute, studying her, finally knowing what she looked like. It had been so nice talking to her. She was different than all the people that thought he was a robot. Most of them played games, asked silly questions, used the search engine because they knew it was a robot. But Kagome, yes, Kagome had known that he was a person somewhere inside -- she recognized that the robot was at least made by a person. The moment broke. There were more inportant things that he should be thinking about. "Look, I have to talk to your brother. We have to do something before he ends up like me."

"What do you mean... 'ends up like you'?" Kagome wondered if his life was really that bad.

"If he ends up a slave to the government. In history, there have been countless hackers that have been caught. One man was even forbidden to ever own or use an electronic device of any sort again. When hacking and worms first came out, goverments all over freaked out at the intensity and power of these viruses. People were accessing private data, which was in turn used for their own selfish reasons. I myself was one of those." Inuyasha sighed, his memories were like videos that played in his beautiful eyes. The powers above should be banned from making a sight that alluring. "I'll admit. I had a good lifestyle, and it was mostly because I stole that lifestyle. But now I've paid the price. The guys that got caught were either put in jail, had their lifestyles completely destroyed by the government, or... " Inuyasha paused as if he wasn't sure about telling Kagome the last part.

"Or what? Come on, you've come this far, at least finish." Kagome had an idea of what was coming, but she had to hear it to believe it.

"Or they were secretly murdered." Kagome gasped. "Yeah, but those were only a select few -- when the subway computers crashed a few years back, that was the work of a friend of mine. We'd gone to school together, we'd played in the underground LAN gatherings together. It was amazing, and the government couldn't do anything about it. They had no proof that it was he who did it, but everyone knew. So they had the yakuza put a hit out on him. I was there the night a bounty hunter took him out."

The government hadn't been kind to him or his friends. It was a controlling system, if you didn't conform, you were different, which meant you were dead. It was the way of controlling people. The activists' actions were stumped by fear of retribution.

"So, what... you think my brother's going to end up like this? You think he's going to be caught and have his life destroyed like yours? For goodness sake, he's barely a teenager. He's only a kid, they can't do that." Kagome's eyes brimmed with tears. She did not move back to the house just to have her brother taken away from her. To see him go to jail, or worse, because of something that he thought was harmless.

"I think that the government will come take him to question him. That's what they do. They see how dangerous you are to the system, and then your fate is decided out of that." Inuyasha could only remember his time with them. It was short, but less than sweet. They had told him that he was going to be living in hell for the rest of his life... if he didn't start working for them, that is. And now, as he looked back on it, Inuyasha couldn't help but wonder, as he usually did, what his life would be like if he hadn't chosen this life. What would life be like it he was to be living poor on the streets, wandering free.

"So they'll just come and take him? Can they do that?" Inuyasha gave her this 'they're the government' look, which set her mind straight. The government could do whatever they wanted in this modern day Japan, politics were bitches. "What am I going to do. How can I tell mom, grandpa, he's already sick."

"I'm here to take him."

"What?!" Kagome turned to Inuyasha, looked him straight in the eyes and ignored the urge to fall deep into the pleading nature of his eyes.

"Look, they're after me too. It was my robot, which I designed for them, that helped him hack into the department computers. Therefore, I'm faulty, and this time, for sure, they'll find something more... well... I've got to go." Inuyasha hopped off the bar stool and walked from the kitchen to the living room, instantly spoting the young boy sitting on the couch engrossed in an episode of some crazy show. "Come on, Sota. You're coming with me." Inuyasha then grabbed Sota's hand, which of course struggled to get out of his locking grip just as the boy attached to it struggled to maintain some sort of footing.

"Now look here, Inuyasha! I'm not--"

"Inuyasha? What the hell?" Sota screamed, having temporary stopped his fighting. "You're real? Sis, do you know anything about this?" But Kagome hadn't really payed attention to what Sota was saying; she only saw Inuyasha, someone that she thought she knew, but Kagome still had so many things to learn about him.

Where had she gone from her small apartment and top job? Her life used to be great, jealousy inspiring, full of fun, but then it took a turn in a direction that Kagome didn't recognize: no man's land, forbidden trails. Suddenly, Kagome wasn't so desperate for attention anymore.

"Inuyasha, please. You can't take him." She grabbed Sota's other hand. "I can't let you." Her lower lip was quivering, an action that did not go unnoticed by her robot-man. It pained him to see it, but there were more important things going on than her, so many other important things.

"Kagome, you have to understand. If I don't take him with me into hiding, then they will take him somewhere much more..." He stopped just like he had in the kitchen.

"More what?"

"More frightening. More terrifying. Appalling, dreadful, pick any of them that you want Kagome! I just know that you wouldn't understand what our government can do, what they are capable of. What they do to people everyday just because they stepped out of line just once!" Inuyasha was yelling, barey seeing the effect that it had on Kagome. She looked down, her white shirt and jeans becoming blurry with the unshed tears that she'd been collecting for the past few minutes. What do you do when you get teary eyed? You look down, blink the tears away, and hope that whoever's looking at you doesn't notice.

Inuyasha was out the door, she could hear his footsteps. And wordlessly, Sota followed. He didn't know exactly what was going on, but Inuyasha's words sounded... dreadful. And he wanted to go with him, to meet Inuyasha. It wasn't everyday that you got to meet an online robot personified!

"Inuyasha! You're not taking him... without me," Kagome didn't care, tears fell -- stressed and worried -- while she screamed at Inuyasha that she was going with him whether he liked it or not. And all Inuyasha could do was wait there, back turned, while she wrote a note to their mother -- lying saying some vacation came up -- until she walked out the door wordlessly beside him.

#$%^*%&*&%^@%@$

About and hour later, we find the uncanny trio walking down the street, having taken a few buses and back roads to get where they were.

Kagome had already used most of her energy complaining about his lack of vehicular transportation and that he should tell them where he was leading them.

"Well, you didn't have to come along. If you're going to complain, then you can just go back home, I'm sure the suits will be very anxious to talk to you when they show up at your doorstep," Inuyasha retorted.

"Oh no! I didn't think about how mom and grandpa would react when they find some men from the government looking for us." Kagome hung her head, hands going up to her cheeks, red with embarassment.

"Me. They're looking for me." Sota spoke up for the first time since they had left the shrine. "I-I... I don't know what t-to do." His shoulders shook, head down, obviously crying. "It's my fault, I shouldn't have be-been so... so eager to impress my friends."

"Shhh." Inuyasha quieted the boy. "Look, that's how it usually starts. You want to impress your friends, or you just get bored one day, or you get curious. It happens to all of us." Sota grabbed his hand; he was only a kid inside, and Kagome, fallen behind the two, saw that Inuyasha was going to take care of Sota, he knew what to do. Inuyasha lent his head down, whispering in Sota's ear.

"Trust me." Sota could only nod.

Inuyasha led his two companions to a back street in a suburban neighborhood, nocking on the door to a garage twice with his bruised knuckles. It opened and the welcoming sight of a few small people sitting around on the garage couch watching TV filled Sota's and Kagome's heads.

"Um, Inuyasha, I thought secret hide outs were in back alleys of run down neighborhoods or something like that."

"Kagome, what do you think we are, a bunch of thugs? We're geeks, we sit around where we can and tap at the computer. You watch too many movies, Kagome." Inuyasha said, as he trotted into the building. "That's Miroku, you don't need to know the other two."

"Hey, everyone needs to know me. I could run ths whole country if I wanted to, so you want to know me. I can hook you up when I'm big." When only a scoff came from Inuyasha, the guy picked himself up off the couch and walked over to where Kagome and Sota stood by the door, feeling a bit out of place. "You the kid that got into the system?" Sota nodded, still not able to talk without getting upset. "Good job, man. And you're so young too. Ah, they're getting younger every year." He shook his head of bright red hair.

"What are you talking about, he's only a year younger than you are, Shippo."

"Shut up, Inuyasha. No one asked you." The guy turned his head towards Kagome. She took in his sight, about to her shoulders, looking much older than Inuyasha described him to be. Bright red hair flared from beneath a blue hat that went well with just an orange shirt and jeans. "And just who might you be, miss?"

"My name's Kagome." Shippo looked her up and down.

"Not quite what I imagined from what you said, Inuyasha. It's nice to finally meet you Kagome." Kagome shook his hand, then looked towards Inuyasha for an explaination, but only found his back. Little did she know that his cheeks were just as red as his t-shirt.

"On to the people that you do need to know, I'm Miroku." Before Kagome ould blink again the other guy was standing in front of her and she was being looked over by his man. He wore jeans like the rest of them, but with a nicer button up shirt, even though it was a darker shade of purple. Not the manliest color of all, but oh well. "Now, you are very attractive, Miss Kagome. Why are you hanging out with such a character as our Inuyasha here?"

"Now wait a minute! Kagome's not some piece of tail. Stay away from her, she's only here because of her brother. He's the one we need to focus on." Inuyasha was doing this for Kagome, only neither of the two really acknowledged that fact yet. "Kanna, come here."

"Yes, Sir." The young girl was wearing white, like she was, but her hair, her eyes, everything matched in this white void.

"Kagome, this is Kanna. Years of working for the government and having their computer technology at our disposal has paid off. Kanna is a working android computer. She's a piece of art." Miroku piped in. "Inuyasha has been helping us by transfering information from the department to our computers where we have buid a master computer in half the size, with human characteristics."

"But about the same personality as the computers they have." Inuyasha bopped Shippo on the head. "Ow! Oi, Inuyasha, what did you do that for.

"You little punk. Be nice to Kanna, she's more of a hacker than you will ever be." Inuyasha stood there with arms crossed over his chest.

"Maybe that's because she's made out of machines; she's a freaking computer herself!"

"Hey, how about we stop arguing and get some work done. I'd really like to get everything settled with the government so that Sota and I can go home, " Kagome interjected. She was still a bit reluctant to sit down on the couch or any of the furniature for that matter. Everything seemed so foreign and weird.

"I'm afraid it's not that simple, Miss Kagome." Miroku rubbed the back of his head, a sheepish look on his face. "We're actually not sure how long they'll look for Sota. Maybe for life."

"Life?" "Life!"

This didn't sit too well with the siblings.

End DotOrg Ch. 4

$#%@%(%*(^&!#$

Tsuyoku: Well, hope you enjoyed this chapter. I really got rolling when I was writing this, and it's un-beta'd -- except for my proofreading that is. If you have any questions... ask, they might be answered in the next chapter if you do. I hope it wasn't confusing for you. Stay tuned for chapter five, which I really hope is coming soon. R&R Please!