InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Little Stone of Secrets ❯ Chapter 12
[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]
By: Tae girl 
Anime/Manga: InuYasha Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Comedy / Drama / Romance / Angst | Type: Alternate Universe | Uploaded On: 08.16.2010 | Pages: 3 | Words: 4.3K | Visits: 159 | Status: Completed
Anime/Manga: InuYasha Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Comedy / Drama / Romance / Angst | Type: Alternate Universe | Uploaded On: 08.16.2010 | Pages: 3 | Words: 4.3K | Visits: 159 | Status: Completed
Rolling over, I missed as my foot painfully throbbed in its boot. “Guess this wasn’t a bad dream after all…” I dug under my pillow and pulled out my cell phone and checked the time. It was around 9 and I wanted to be over to the Tashio’s by noon. Good God. Even thinking about him made my heart painfully twist in my chest. There was a pair of crutches leaning against the wall so I undid the Velcro straps and slid my foot out. I wobbled around the room gathering clothes and then headed to the bathroom. Sango’s bedroom door was still closed which meant she was still sleeping. I literally remember nothing about getting home. I don’t even have the slightest memory of Inu Yasha showing up. I really hope Sango didn’t see anything…
As I walked into the bathroom, I was careful not to look at the mirror. No need to give myself a heart attack first thing in the morning. The hot water covered every inch of my body temporarily replacing the cold feeling that was filling my body. I gently ran my fingers over my neck and gasped. It definitely was still very sore.
Stepping out of the showed I mentally prepared myself for what was to come. Taking a deep breath I wiped the steam from the mirror and looked at my self. The bruise was a deep, ugly, black, purple and blue color with slight green peeking out. My eyes looked hideous, of course. What would you expect after a night of crying? Raising my finger, I poked at the deep bags under my eyes. “Good Lord, can you say ‘Puffy…?’ ”
I toweled the off the best I could while standing on one leg before pulling on a light blue sleeveless turtle neck and a pure white peasant skirt. No matter how much I wanted to wear the cute pair of brown strappy sandals, I settled for a pair of Nikes which means one foot for a shoe and the other got the ugly heavy boot. I pulled my hair up after making sure the turtleneck properly covered everything and used all the makeup in my arsenal to cover up the poor state of my sickly looking face.
I crutched my way into the kitchen just as Sango finished pouring hot water into two bugs. One mug had a tea bag in it and the other had hot cocoa mix in it. This wasn’t a good sign. ‘SHE KNOWS.’
She handed me my mug with black cats dancing on it. “How are you feeling?”
“Great,” I smiled brightly for her and took a seat at the table exhausted from all the balancing. “Thanks for the cocoa,” it slid warmly down my sore throat. “Mmmm”
“Last night when Inu Yasha brought you home, he left something for you from Jakotsu,” she handed my a brown box and took another drink from her tea.
It was getting rather difficult to ignore the pointed looks she was sending my way so I pretended to busy myself with opening the box. I removed the lid, pulled the tissue paper back and was greeted with a beautiful shade of dark blue. I fully removed the very flowy floor length satin halter top dress. There was a lot of silver beading on the bodice that slowly started to decrease the lower it went on. It gave the dress and over all look of stars falling from the midnight blue sky. It was magnificent.
“Jak has out done himself, once again, I thought you said ‘he wasn’t going to be able to make you a dress because he was to busy?’ ”
I was speechless which rarely happened. “I had no idea.”
She lightly laughed. “Well, with how well that boy knows your body, I bet its going to fit like a glove. Aren’t you going to try it on?”
I checked the time and sighed. “I wish I could but I need to head over to the Tashio‘s house.”
“Is Sesshomaru Tashio going to be at the Tashio house?” the bitterness in her tone did not go unnoticed.
“Not to my knowledge,” I gritted my teeth and carefully put the dress back in the box.
“Good. Listen, Kagome…”
“NOT NOW,” I hadn’t meant for that to come out as loud or sharply sounding as it had. “Just, not right now.”
“Alright,” She walked over to me and kissed me on the forehead. “We’ll talk about it tonight. Good luck, today,” she walked into the bathroom and shut the door.
“And the award for ‘Biggest Bitch’ goes to,” I threw my hand in the air and pointed at myself. “This girl.”
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I rang the door bell and the next thing I knew I was being hugged by a very pink Izayoi. She was wearing a pink sun dress with matching high healed shoe’s and headband.
“WOW, Izayoi, you look..” I gestured my hands up and down.
She twirled to give me the full affect. “I know, it’s wonderful, isn’t it?” her smile faltered as she took in my crutched and the evil boot of hell. “What on Heaven’s Earth, happened to you?!”
My heart skipped a beat. Even without Sesshomaru telling me, I knew how much he thought of her. I wouldn’t want her to think badly of him when it was my fault but at the same time, I really didn’t want to lie to her. “I mean, come on. Who doesn’t know how epically clumsy I am? It’s not broken, its just on its way to a bad fracture. Give it some time to heal and not get hurt, anymore. I‘m wearing the walking boot. This way, when I have the urge to kick your son, I don’t break my foot.”
She shook her head and laughed. “You might not believe this but I did my fair share of kicking back before Satoshi and I got together. He broke my toe the day of a big runway show for me. It was horrible. Anyway, come in and take a seat.”
She lead me into a very large office with a large oak desk in the middle of the room that had a state of the art computer sitting on it as well as a phone. The walls were lined with book cases that where filled with books. There were a couple chairs in front of the desk and a very large official looking desk chair pushed in behind the desk which is ware I was told to sit.
She powered on the computer. “This is Satoshi‘s office but he‘s out for work and said that it was alright for you to work in here,” she typed in the password and pulled a couple binders off the shelf and sat them on the edge of the desk. “Okay, what I need you to do is go through this binder and call the numbers. Say, you’re from the ‘Founder Society’ and ask them if their coming to the Founders’ Day Ball. If so, do they want to buy a seat or a table? There are six seats at each table.”
“A seat?”
“In order to come to the ball, you have to have a seat at a table unless you’re part of the Founders’ dance thing you’re doing.”
“Oh…”
“Anyway, they can buy a chair which is $50 each or they can buy a table for $300.” She flipped open the binder and did a very good impression of a Inu Yasha growl. “Kira, that bitch… I‘m talking about that girl, Kagura‘s mother. She did this the last couple years and just to spite me, she made a complete mess out of all the lists. I‘m so sorry.”
“Well, we’ll just have to make sure we do a better job then she ever did,” I winked at her.
“You’re a doll. I don‘t know what I would do without you and if you need to look anything up on the internet, feel free to use the computer. Well, I‘m going to leave you to it. I have to go have words with the people who are suppose to be doing the catering and also the decorators so I should be back in like three-four hours, okay?”
“Sounds good to me!” she gave me a quick squeeze and was gone in a flash of pink.
I scooted the binder so it was in front of me, straightened the pages up and grabbed a pin. I looked at the first name which on the list which was Mark Kirk. Okay, so its obviously not alphabetized. Picking up the phone, I dialed the number.
The phone finally answered after the sixth ring. “What the fuck, do you want?”
“Hello ,I‘m Kagome and I‘m from the Historical Society and -”
“Fuck the Historical society!” and he hung up.
“So we’re just going to put you as a ‘NO,’ ” I marked the paper and moved on to the next name. I worked my way through the first page and a idea crossed my mind to help out Izayoi in the long run. I opened and excel page and typed in the information AND alphabetized it. In a couple of hours I had all 13,154 residence of Crescent Falls interred so it was time to start making phone calls again. I burst out laughing as I read the next name which was one Hiro Banryu. It was odd though because there was a asterisk and a check next to it. Dialing the number I put my business face on!
“What do you want, Old Dog? I’ve no time to play fetch with you, right now,” I couldn’t help it, I burst out laughing. “Kagome, is that you!?”
Gasping for air, I tried to get my mind back on work. “Yes, sir. I‘m helping Mrs. Tashio out with the Founders’ Day Celebration and I was calling to ask if you wanted to buy a chair or maybe a table?”
“Aw, I see. Well, let’s see. I think, we have some out of town relatives coming so I think two tables will do!”
The water I was drinking went down the wrong pipe as I gagged. “Excuse me, did you say two tables?!”
“is that a problem?”
“NOPE! No problem,” my mouth dropped open as I interred the information dumbfounded. “Well, thank you. I hope you have a nice day!”
“You, too. I can’t wait to see you dance,” he disconnected
I paled. “Well, that makes one of us!” flipping to the next page where the B’s continued the next couple names where very thoroughly crossed out. I scribbled a note out of a sticky pad to remind me to ask about it later. In the next couple pages, I couldn’t help but laugh as I called Professor Booth who reminded me a have an art project due soon. He would take two seats and Mr. Debunce who also said “he would take two seats.” I called a few more people and then came to Keith and Sally Hoshi who’s names had a single line run through them. That I knew what it meant. Those were Miroku’s parents that had passed away however that was that asterisk next to Keith’s name just like it was next to Mr. Banryu’s. For some reason, those asterisk where really bugging me. Flipping through the pages in the binder, I found two more names with asterisks by them and five more names with check marks next to them.
Digging in my purse, I pulled out a small note pad and wrote down Banryu, Hoshi, Tashio and Kuro. Then I wrote Banryu again and added the other five names, Blake, Kay, Lee, Night, Wolf. I bit my bottom lip and looked the list over a couple of times. My phone buzzed to life.
“Hello?”
“Hey, Kagome? It’s me, Izayoi. Sorry this is taking longer then I thought I just wanted to call and see how you were doing?”
“I‘m doing fine. Slowly but surely. Actually, I have a question. There‘s a name that was pretty well but in the B‘s there was a name pretty thoroughly crossed out. What’s that about? Some names have marks next to them, what that about?”
“Well, with that damn Kira running things, who knows!” I could hear her yelling at a chef that got one of the dishes she wanted wrong. “I swear, these people need help finding their own behinds. Anyway, listen I need to go but I‘ll be back soon and my husband said that he was going to bring you dinner!”
“Alright…” she disconnected and I set the phone on top of the desk and stared at it. I sat there staring at the list for a while. Something didn’t add up and I was getting the very clear impression that I was the only one without the formula for this math problem. A soft knocking came from the door of the office as Mr. Tashio interred carrying a bag of food.
“Well, look at you hard at work,” he sat in one of the chairs in front of the desk setting the bag of food on the desk. Pulling off his suit jacket, he laid it on the other chair. “So, how are you feeling?”
I felt horrible. How could I possibly think they were hiding anything from me? These people had always been there for me. “I‘m feeling a lot better. Thanks!” God, how could I even think anything like that? I really am a fucked up person.
“I called Inu Yasha and asked, ‘What kind of Mongolian stir fry you liked’ He said just to make sure I put a lot of broccoli, beef and noodles in there and you would be a happy camper. That boy of mine sure is fond of you, isn’t he?” he lightly chuckled.
“He‘s a good friend. I don‘t know if I could have made it if I didn’t have him and the others!” I took the container of food and the fork he handed to me then pulled the bottle of water out of my purse, I had brought, with me. “Thanks!”
“I talked to my wife and she said that you were curious about some strange markings that Kira must have made in the lists when she had it?” he took a bite of some of the food in his container.
Little alarms sounded in my head as I felt his eyes on me. “I didn’t think anything of it at all… so she called you, again after she called me?” the bag that had held the food was directly in between Mr. Tashio’s line of vision of my note pad where I had written down all the names. Picking up my purse, I sat it on top of it to keep it out of view and pretended to be looking for something. But, damn, now he would expect me to pull something out…I found a hair tie. Quickly, I used it to put my hair up in a bun.
He gave me a dazzling smile, “No, I called to see if she wanted some, too, actually. Which reminds me, make sure I put hers in the refrigerator or she‘s not going to be a very happy woman!”
I smiled, “Very wise!” This was bad if I didn’t put on a better act he is going to know I know something’s up. What I know, I’m not sure but I’m absolutely sure there’s something. “Actually, whoever was doing this before just sucked so I thought it was about time we modernized the system. I put all the names and other data in an excel power sheet and I‘m about half way done with the calls.” I turned the computer screen so he could see what I was talking about.
He enthusiastically shook his head in approval, “I would expect nothing less then this from a future Tashio. I can already see how amazed my wife is going to be with you. You ever want to come work as my secretary, you tell me and it’s your job!”
“It’s an honor you trust me so much!” I dragged my purse on the table till it and the note pad fell into my lap. Once it was out of view, I slid the note pad into my purse.
He checked his watch and sighed. “Well, I‘ll put this in the refrigerator then I have a meeting with a client so I‘ll see you later!”
“Alright, have a good night, Mr. Tashio!” I watched him walk out of them room and almost fainted as my nerves finally gave out.
I shook my head clear and put in another hour or so of calls before calling it quits for the day. People were cranky enough during normal hours, no need to push my luck when they’re tired! Izayoi finally strolled in a little before nine and plopped down in a chair.
She kicked her high heeled shoes off. “It’s official, all the food issues are dealt with and the decorators know exactly what I want. So as long as they don‘t mess anything up, we should be golden!” she lightly sniffed. “Oh my God, what are you eating? I‘m starving.”
“It’s Mongolian,” I silently studied her. “Mr. Tashio left your‘s in the refrigerator.”
“Bless that man, he is a mind reader!” she snagged a piece of my broccoli, “So, how was today?”
“I thought it was about time we modernized the system so I put all the names and other data in an excel power sheet and I‘m about half way done with the calls,” the computer was still turned from when I was showing Mr. Tashio so she looked it over and smiled brightly at me. “And, um, actually, it’s like almost nine so I should probably get going but I‘ll stop by tomorrow and work some more on this if that’s alright with you?”
“Of course!”
I picked up the stuff and saved the data on the computer before shutting down the program . Picking up my food, setting it inside my large purse then shouldering my purse, I crutched my way out.
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< br> “And why are you in such a pissy mood this morning?” Britt asked as she sank her teeth in a large blue berry muffin.
I wiggled my finger at her to come closer as I whispered. “I came home last night and my computer was totally freaking giving alerts that someone was trying to hack in. The only files they were interested in were linked with my online magazine. If it wasn’t for all the protection crap Shippo put on there, I would have been screwed!”
She laughed. “That must be Hitan Night. He‘s our residential computer wizard. He‘s the one I told you was given your story. Don‘t worry, he‘s not that good. I gave him the Knights of Tama’s website to break into a year ago and he still hasn’t made any progress. How sad is that?”
I stopped mid sip of my apple juice. “What did you say his name was?” Digging through my purse, I pulled out my note pad and flipped to were the names were.
“Hitan Night, why?”
I scribbled down Hitan with a question mark next to the name Night I had written down. “Oh, nothing. I just like to know my enemies. What’s the url for that site? Maybe I can get Shippo to look into it for us.”
“Sure,” she scribbled down the address and handed it to me, “And why don‘t you just tell people you’re the one who‘s doing the magazine?” she finished eating her muffin. “Everyone loves that thing!”
“I value my privacy. Why don‘t you tell everyone you secretly investigating the Knights of Tama?!”
“Point taken,” she sighed and shook her head. “We really are a sad pair,” laughing she threw her trash away, “So where‘s Sango? With lover boy?”
We both burst out laughing. “Their not ‘dating’ and she’s working on another art project as were I still haven’t finished mine!” I threw my trash away, too.
“Might want to work on that!”
“You’re probably right!” we waved goodbye and I headed to philosophy early since I had nothing else to do. Right as I rounded the corner and I saw Sesshomaru walking out of are philosophy class holding a handful of papers. “Sesshomaru?” he turned his head away as walked past me then continued walking down the hall towards the exit.
Walking into class Mr. Shaw smiled at me. “Don’t tell me, you’re here to tell me you’re taking an extended leave of absence, as well?”
My body went cold and my heart felt as if it didn’t even have the strength to beat. I hobbled back into the hallway and followed after him as fast as I could with my crutches. He was already out the doors. Bursting through the doors, my heart felt a slight beat again. If I could catch up to him, put my arms around him and make sure he didn’t hate me that would be good enough. My heart started beating even faster. I dropped the crutches and my schoolbag and purse and limped as fast as I could. “SESSHOMARU!!!” I screamed.
The boot caught something sending me sprawling to the ground. Pushing myself up I looked to see Sesshomaru had stopped walking and was standing completely rigid and facing away from me. “Even if you hate me, please, please go to class!” curling my hands into fists I pushed them into the ground. “PLEASE!”
I sat there on the ground and watched him walk away until he was out of sight. Biting my lip, I ground my fist into the ground and focused on the pain. If I focused on it then all those feelings and tears trying to break free can go unnoticed. I raised my right arm into the air with my hand still fisted and put all my anger and pain into it and brought it down.
“WOW, now!” I hand shot out and stopped me from smashing my fist into the ground. “That doesn’t seem like it would be a good idea. I mean you already have a big old honking bruise peeking out of your scarf, you’re in a walking boot and now you want to break your hand?” His dark crimson red eye’s hid behind a pair of glass’s that he used his finger to push back up into place. “What’s your name?”
My stomach turned from the feeling of his touch. “What are you doing?!” I snatched my arm out of his grasp and took a closer look at him. He was tall probably in the 6 foot area and he had long ink black hair the was shockingly beautiful with the contrast of his pale white skin. Even though I was almost positive he was around my own age it was hard to imagine with him dressed in black slacks and a blue button down shirt.
“In all fairness, I did ask you first!”
“Kagome,” I replied on guard.
He smiled, “Well, Kagome, no last name?” he pointed to the stuff I had dropped. “Is that your stuff?”
“Yeah,” my face reddened as he walked over and retrieved my stuff for me, I can only imagine what an idiot I look like right now! What the hell was with me wanting to throw up from him just touching me? God, today is not my day!
He helped me stand up and I had to fight the repulsion I felt for this kind person who was willing to help a looser like me. “Thanks,” I shouldered my purse and schoolbag then slid the crutches back into place.
“Hey, don‘t be sad. Isn’t today the start of a festival, or something?” he dug in his pocket and pulled out a cherry flavored sucker and handed it to me. “Celebrate new beginnings. I‘ll be seeing you, Miss No Last Name,” he turned and head off.
“What’s your name?” I couldn’t help but be curious as I twisted the sucker between my fingers.
“You can call me, Naru.”
As I walked into the bathroom, I was careful not to look at the mirror. No need to give myself a heart attack first thing in the morning. The hot water covered every inch of my body temporarily replacing the cold feeling that was filling my body. I gently ran my fingers over my neck and gasped. It definitely was still very sore.
Stepping out of the showed I mentally prepared myself for what was to come. Taking a deep breath I wiped the steam from the mirror and looked at my self. The bruise was a deep, ugly, black, purple and blue color with slight green peeking out. My eyes looked hideous, of course. What would you expect after a night of crying? Raising my finger, I poked at the deep bags under my eyes. “Good Lord, can you say ‘Puffy…?’ ”
I toweled the off the best I could while standing on one leg before pulling on a light blue sleeveless turtle neck and a pure white peasant skirt. No matter how much I wanted to wear the cute pair of brown strappy sandals, I settled for a pair of Nikes which means one foot for a shoe and the other got the ugly heavy boot. I pulled my hair up after making sure the turtleneck properly covered everything and used all the makeup in my arsenal to cover up the poor state of my sickly looking face.
I crutched my way into the kitchen just as Sango finished pouring hot water into two bugs. One mug had a tea bag in it and the other had hot cocoa mix in it. This wasn’t a good sign. ‘SHE KNOWS.’
She handed me my mug with black cats dancing on it. “How are you feeling?”
“Great,” I smiled brightly for her and took a seat at the table exhausted from all the balancing. “Thanks for the cocoa,” it slid warmly down my sore throat. “Mmmm”
“Last night when Inu Yasha brought you home, he left something for you from Jakotsu,” she handed my a brown box and took another drink from her tea.
It was getting rather difficult to ignore the pointed looks she was sending my way so I pretended to busy myself with opening the box. I removed the lid, pulled the tissue paper back and was greeted with a beautiful shade of dark blue. I fully removed the very flowy floor length satin halter top dress. There was a lot of silver beading on the bodice that slowly started to decrease the lower it went on. It gave the dress and over all look of stars falling from the midnight blue sky. It was magnificent.
“Jak has out done himself, once again, I thought you said ‘he wasn’t going to be able to make you a dress because he was to busy?’ ”
I was speechless which rarely happened. “I had no idea.”
She lightly laughed. “Well, with how well that boy knows your body, I bet its going to fit like a glove. Aren’t you going to try it on?”
I checked the time and sighed. “I wish I could but I need to head over to the Tashio‘s house.”
“Is Sesshomaru Tashio going to be at the Tashio house?” the bitterness in her tone did not go unnoticed.
“Not to my knowledge,” I gritted my teeth and carefully put the dress back in the box.
“Good. Listen, Kagome…”
“NOT NOW,” I hadn’t meant for that to come out as loud or sharply sounding as it had. “Just, not right now.”
“Alright,” She walked over to me and kissed me on the forehead. “We’ll talk about it tonight. Good luck, today,” she walked into the bathroom and shut the door.
“And the award for ‘Biggest Bitch’ goes to,” I threw my hand in the air and pointed at myself. “This girl.”
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I rang the door bell and the next thing I knew I was being hugged by a very pink Izayoi. She was wearing a pink sun dress with matching high healed shoe’s and headband.
“WOW, Izayoi, you look..” I gestured my hands up and down.
She twirled to give me the full affect. “I know, it’s wonderful, isn’t it?” her smile faltered as she took in my crutched and the evil boot of hell. “What on Heaven’s Earth, happened to you?!”
My heart skipped a beat. Even without Sesshomaru telling me, I knew how much he thought of her. I wouldn’t want her to think badly of him when it was my fault but at the same time, I really didn’t want to lie to her. “I mean, come on. Who doesn’t know how epically clumsy I am? It’s not broken, its just on its way to a bad fracture. Give it some time to heal and not get hurt, anymore. I‘m wearing the walking boot. This way, when I have the urge to kick your son, I don’t break my foot.”
She shook her head and laughed. “You might not believe this but I did my fair share of kicking back before Satoshi and I got together. He broke my toe the day of a big runway show for me. It was horrible. Anyway, come in and take a seat.”
She lead me into a very large office with a large oak desk in the middle of the room that had a state of the art computer sitting on it as well as a phone. The walls were lined with book cases that where filled with books. There were a couple chairs in front of the desk and a very large official looking desk chair pushed in behind the desk which is ware I was told to sit.
She powered on the computer. “This is Satoshi‘s office but he‘s out for work and said that it was alright for you to work in here,” she typed in the password and pulled a couple binders off the shelf and sat them on the edge of the desk. “Okay, what I need you to do is go through this binder and call the numbers. Say, you’re from the ‘Founder Society’ and ask them if their coming to the Founders’ Day Ball. If so, do they want to buy a seat or a table? There are six seats at each table.”
“A seat?”
“In order to come to the ball, you have to have a seat at a table unless you’re part of the Founders’ dance thing you’re doing.”
“Oh…”
“Anyway, they can buy a chair which is $50 each or they can buy a table for $300.” She flipped open the binder and did a very good impression of a Inu Yasha growl. “Kira, that bitch… I‘m talking about that girl, Kagura‘s mother. She did this the last couple years and just to spite me, she made a complete mess out of all the lists. I‘m so sorry.”
“Well, we’ll just have to make sure we do a better job then she ever did,” I winked at her.
“You’re a doll. I don‘t know what I would do without you and if you need to look anything up on the internet, feel free to use the computer. Well, I‘m going to leave you to it. I have to go have words with the people who are suppose to be doing the catering and also the decorators so I should be back in like three-four hours, okay?”
“Sounds good to me!” she gave me a quick squeeze and was gone in a flash of pink.
I scooted the binder so it was in front of me, straightened the pages up and grabbed a pin. I looked at the first name which on the list which was Mark Kirk. Okay, so its obviously not alphabetized. Picking up the phone, I dialed the number.
The phone finally answered after the sixth ring. “What the fuck, do you want?”
“Hello ,I‘m Kagome and I‘m from the Historical Society and -”
“Fuck the Historical society!” and he hung up.
“So we’re just going to put you as a ‘NO,’ ” I marked the paper and moved on to the next name. I worked my way through the first page and a idea crossed my mind to help out Izayoi in the long run. I opened and excel page and typed in the information AND alphabetized it. In a couple of hours I had all 13,154 residence of Crescent Falls interred so it was time to start making phone calls again. I burst out laughing as I read the next name which was one Hiro Banryu. It was odd though because there was a asterisk and a check next to it. Dialing the number I put my business face on!
“What do you want, Old Dog? I’ve no time to play fetch with you, right now,” I couldn’t help it, I burst out laughing. “Kagome, is that you!?”
Gasping for air, I tried to get my mind back on work. “Yes, sir. I‘m helping Mrs. Tashio out with the Founders’ Day Celebration and I was calling to ask if you wanted to buy a chair or maybe a table?”
“Aw, I see. Well, let’s see. I think, we have some out of town relatives coming so I think two tables will do!”
The water I was drinking went down the wrong pipe as I gagged. “Excuse me, did you say two tables?!”
“is that a problem?”
“NOPE! No problem,” my mouth dropped open as I interred the information dumbfounded. “Well, thank you. I hope you have a nice day!”
“You, too. I can’t wait to see you dance,” he disconnected
I paled. “Well, that makes one of us!” flipping to the next page where the B’s continued the next couple names where very thoroughly crossed out. I scribbled a note out of a sticky pad to remind me to ask about it later. In the next couple pages, I couldn’t help but laugh as I called Professor Booth who reminded me a have an art project due soon. He would take two seats and Mr. Debunce who also said “he would take two seats.” I called a few more people and then came to Keith and Sally Hoshi who’s names had a single line run through them. That I knew what it meant. Those were Miroku’s parents that had passed away however that was that asterisk next to Keith’s name just like it was next to Mr. Banryu’s. For some reason, those asterisk where really bugging me. Flipping through the pages in the binder, I found two more names with asterisks by them and five more names with check marks next to them.
Digging in my purse, I pulled out a small note pad and wrote down Banryu, Hoshi, Tashio and Kuro. Then I wrote Banryu again and added the other five names, Blake, Kay, Lee, Night, Wolf. I bit my bottom lip and looked the list over a couple of times. My phone buzzed to life.
“Hello?”
“Hey, Kagome? It’s me, Izayoi. Sorry this is taking longer then I thought I just wanted to call and see how you were doing?”
“I‘m doing fine. Slowly but surely. Actually, I have a question. There‘s a name that was pretty well but in the B‘s there was a name pretty thoroughly crossed out. What’s that about? Some names have marks next to them, what that about?”
“Well, with that damn Kira running things, who knows!” I could hear her yelling at a chef that got one of the dishes she wanted wrong. “I swear, these people need help finding their own behinds. Anyway, listen I need to go but I‘ll be back soon and my husband said that he was going to bring you dinner!”
“Alright…” she disconnected and I set the phone on top of the desk and stared at it. I sat there staring at the list for a while. Something didn’t add up and I was getting the very clear impression that I was the only one without the formula for this math problem. A soft knocking came from the door of the office as Mr. Tashio interred carrying a bag of food.
“Well, look at you hard at work,” he sat in one of the chairs in front of the desk setting the bag of food on the desk. Pulling off his suit jacket, he laid it on the other chair. “So, how are you feeling?”
I felt horrible. How could I possibly think they were hiding anything from me? These people had always been there for me. “I‘m feeling a lot better. Thanks!” God, how could I even think anything like that? I really am a fucked up person.
“I called Inu Yasha and asked, ‘What kind of Mongolian stir fry you liked’ He said just to make sure I put a lot of broccoli, beef and noodles in there and you would be a happy camper. That boy of mine sure is fond of you, isn’t he?” he lightly chuckled.
“He‘s a good friend. I don‘t know if I could have made it if I didn’t have him and the others!” I took the container of food and the fork he handed to me then pulled the bottle of water out of my purse, I had brought, with me. “Thanks!”
“I talked to my wife and she said that you were curious about some strange markings that Kira must have made in the lists when she had it?” he took a bite of some of the food in his container.
Little alarms sounded in my head as I felt his eyes on me. “I didn’t think anything of it at all… so she called you, again after she called me?” the bag that had held the food was directly in between Mr. Tashio’s line of vision of my note pad where I had written down all the names. Picking up my purse, I sat it on top of it to keep it out of view and pretended to be looking for something. But, damn, now he would expect me to pull something out…I found a hair tie. Quickly, I used it to put my hair up in a bun.
He gave me a dazzling smile, “No, I called to see if she wanted some, too, actually. Which reminds me, make sure I put hers in the refrigerator or she‘s not going to be a very happy woman!”
I smiled, “Very wise!” This was bad if I didn’t put on a better act he is going to know I know something’s up. What I know, I’m not sure but I’m absolutely sure there’s something. “Actually, whoever was doing this before just sucked so I thought it was about time we modernized the system. I put all the names and other data in an excel power sheet and I‘m about half way done with the calls.” I turned the computer screen so he could see what I was talking about.
He enthusiastically shook his head in approval, “I would expect nothing less then this from a future Tashio. I can already see how amazed my wife is going to be with you. You ever want to come work as my secretary, you tell me and it’s your job!”
“It’s an honor you trust me so much!” I dragged my purse on the table till it and the note pad fell into my lap. Once it was out of view, I slid the note pad into my purse.
He checked his watch and sighed. “Well, I‘ll put this in the refrigerator then I have a meeting with a client so I‘ll see you later!”
“Alright, have a good night, Mr. Tashio!” I watched him walk out of them room and almost fainted as my nerves finally gave out.
I shook my head clear and put in another hour or so of calls before calling it quits for the day. People were cranky enough during normal hours, no need to push my luck when they’re tired! Izayoi finally strolled in a little before nine and plopped down in a chair.
She kicked her high heeled shoes off. “It’s official, all the food issues are dealt with and the decorators know exactly what I want. So as long as they don‘t mess anything up, we should be golden!” she lightly sniffed. “Oh my God, what are you eating? I‘m starving.”
“It’s Mongolian,” I silently studied her. “Mr. Tashio left your‘s in the refrigerator.”
“Bless that man, he is a mind reader!” she snagged a piece of my broccoli, “So, how was today?”
“I thought it was about time we modernized the system so I put all the names and other data in an excel power sheet and I‘m about half way done with the calls,” the computer was still turned from when I was showing Mr. Tashio so she looked it over and smiled brightly at me. “And, um, actually, it’s like almost nine so I should probably get going but I‘ll stop by tomorrow and work some more on this if that’s alright with you?”
“Of course!”
I picked up the stuff and saved the data on the computer before shutting down the program . Picking up my food, setting it inside my large purse then shouldering my purse, I crutched my way out.
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< br> “And why are you in such a pissy mood this morning?” Britt asked as she sank her teeth in a large blue berry muffin.
I wiggled my finger at her to come closer as I whispered. “I came home last night and my computer was totally freaking giving alerts that someone was trying to hack in. The only files they were interested in were linked with my online magazine. If it wasn’t for all the protection crap Shippo put on there, I would have been screwed!”
She laughed. “That must be Hitan Night. He‘s our residential computer wizard. He‘s the one I told you was given your story. Don‘t worry, he‘s not that good. I gave him the Knights of Tama’s website to break into a year ago and he still hasn’t made any progress. How sad is that?”
I stopped mid sip of my apple juice. “What did you say his name was?” Digging through my purse, I pulled out my note pad and flipped to were the names were.
“Hitan Night, why?”
I scribbled down Hitan with a question mark next to the name Night I had written down. “Oh, nothing. I just like to know my enemies. What’s the url for that site? Maybe I can get Shippo to look into it for us.”
“Sure,” she scribbled down the address and handed it to me, “And why don‘t you just tell people you’re the one who‘s doing the magazine?” she finished eating her muffin. “Everyone loves that thing!”
“I value my privacy. Why don‘t you tell everyone you secretly investigating the Knights of Tama?!”
“Point taken,” she sighed and shook her head. “We really are a sad pair,” laughing she threw her trash away, “So where‘s Sango? With lover boy?”
We both burst out laughing. “Their not ‘dating’ and she’s working on another art project as were I still haven’t finished mine!” I threw my trash away, too.
“Might want to work on that!”
“You’re probably right!” we waved goodbye and I headed to philosophy early since I had nothing else to do. Right as I rounded the corner and I saw Sesshomaru walking out of are philosophy class holding a handful of papers. “Sesshomaru?” he turned his head away as walked past me then continued walking down the hall towards the exit.
Walking into class Mr. Shaw smiled at me. “Don’t tell me, you’re here to tell me you’re taking an extended leave of absence, as well?”
My body went cold and my heart felt as if it didn’t even have the strength to beat. I hobbled back into the hallway and followed after him as fast as I could with my crutches. He was already out the doors. Bursting through the doors, my heart felt a slight beat again. If I could catch up to him, put my arms around him and make sure he didn’t hate me that would be good enough. My heart started beating even faster. I dropped the crutches and my schoolbag and purse and limped as fast as I could. “SESSHOMARU!!!” I screamed.
The boot caught something sending me sprawling to the ground. Pushing myself up I looked to see Sesshomaru had stopped walking and was standing completely rigid and facing away from me. “Even if you hate me, please, please go to class!” curling my hands into fists I pushed them into the ground. “PLEASE!”
I sat there on the ground and watched him walk away until he was out of sight. Biting my lip, I ground my fist into the ground and focused on the pain. If I focused on it then all those feelings and tears trying to break free can go unnoticed. I raised my right arm into the air with my hand still fisted and put all my anger and pain into it and brought it down.
“WOW, now!” I hand shot out and stopped me from smashing my fist into the ground. “That doesn’t seem like it would be a good idea. I mean you already have a big old honking bruise peeking out of your scarf, you’re in a walking boot and now you want to break your hand?” His dark crimson red eye’s hid behind a pair of glass’s that he used his finger to push back up into place. “What’s your name?”
My stomach turned from the feeling of his touch. “What are you doing?!” I snatched my arm out of his grasp and took a closer look at him. He was tall probably in the 6 foot area and he had long ink black hair the was shockingly beautiful with the contrast of his pale white skin. Even though I was almost positive he was around my own age it was hard to imagine with him dressed in black slacks and a blue button down shirt.
“In all fairness, I did ask you first!”
“Kagome,” I replied on guard.
He smiled, “Well, Kagome, no last name?” he pointed to the stuff I had dropped. “Is that your stuff?”
“Yeah,” my face reddened as he walked over and retrieved my stuff for me, I can only imagine what an idiot I look like right now! What the hell was with me wanting to throw up from him just touching me? God, today is not my day!
He helped me stand up and I had to fight the repulsion I felt for this kind person who was willing to help a looser like me. “Thanks,” I shouldered my purse and schoolbag then slid the crutches back into place.
“Hey, don‘t be sad. Isn’t today the start of a festival, or something?” he dug in his pocket and pulled out a cherry flavored sucker and handed it to me. “Celebrate new beginnings. I‘ll be seeing you, Miss No Last Name,” he turned and head off.
“What’s your name?” I couldn’t help but be curious as I twisted the sucker between my fingers.
“You can call me, Naru.”