InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Purity 10: Anomaly ❯ Frustration ( Chapter 10 )

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]

~~Chapter 10~~
~Frustration~

~o~

The most unpleasant buzzing sound tore through Madison's slumber like a sledgehammer, shattering the silence that had enveloped the room only seconds before with all the finesse of a chainsaw in a forest, and she whimpered quietly, instinctively turning her head, trying to bury herself before the bliss of sleep faded entirely.

Beside her, Mikio jumped and grunted, and even if she had been able to ignore the alarm, there was no way in the world she could ignore the unexpected 'crack' and thud as the hanyou brought his fist down on the offending device.  With a startled yelp, Madison jerked back, blinking in surprise as bits of plastic shot out from under his hand, as more of it crumbled harmlessly and helplessly amid the abrupt silence that followed the feeble whine of the interrupted sound as it faltered then faded away.

She lifted a hand to flutter her fingertips over her lips as she watched him sit up with a disgusted sigh, only to roll to the side so that he could reach the plug and jerk it from the wall.  "Damn," he muttered, sparing a moment to survey the carnage that used to be a perfectly good alarm clock before he swung his legs off the bed and scooped the junk together to drop in a nearby trash can.

Something about the entire situation amused her.  Maybe it was just that Mikio had always seemed so calm, so careful, that the almost impetuous reaction caught her off guard.  That amusement only grew, however, when he strode over to the dresser to yank open a drawer.  Even from where she was still sitting on the bed, she could see, though, the array of meticulously stacked boxes inside: at least fifteen of them?  Maybe more?  Brand new alarm clocks that suggested that what she'd just witnessed was not simply an isolated occurrence . . .

Tamping down her amusement since she really wasn't sure how well he'd take that, given the situation, she cleared her throat, wrapping her hands around her ankles as she rested her chin on her raised knees.  "I take it you're not a morning person?"

He started then shot her a quizzical glance over his shoulder, like he hadn't realized that she was still there, and maybe he hadn't.  The blush that shot to his cheeks wasn't unexpected despite the entirely endearing quality of it, and he shrugged.  "Not really," he admitted with a sheepish kind of grin.  "Sorry about that . . ."

She refrained from further comment as she watched him slip the new clock out of the box and unravel the cord, letting the packaging fall to the floor as he concentrated on his task.  He didn't need the instructions as he programmed the time and alarm—something that didn't go unnoticed by Madison, either.

'Gotta love a man who is well versed in setting a clock,' her youkai-voice remarked rather wryly.

The statement amused Madison, all the same.  'He's got that down to a science, doesn't he?'

'And yet . . . it's kind of . . . hot, don't you think . . .?'

Breaking into the vaguest smile, Madison lifted a hand to hide her little smile, lest Mikio look at her.  'In a weird kind of way . . . yes,' she allowed.

Oblivious to her errant thoughts, Mikio sighed and pushed the new clock onto the nightstand and made quick work of plugging it in before slowly turning to glace over his shoulder at her.  "I, uh . . . I didn't mean to wake you up like that," he ventured.

Letting her hand fall away, Madison braced herself on the mattress and scooted forward, untangling her legs as she uttered a soft laugh.  "No harm done," she assured him.  "I'm going to go start a pot of coffee—if you want to share it, that is?"

"Okay," he allowed.  "Sounds good."

She headed out of the room, all too aware of a certain man's eyes following her until she'd stepped into the hallway.

'Should we make breakfast for him?  After all, he was kind enough to allow us to stay here last night . . .'

Wrinkling her nose as she descended the stairs and headed for the kitchen, Madison snorted inwardly.  'Sure,' she allowed, pausing long enough to brace her hands against the small of her back so that she could stretch.  'If I knew how to cook, anyway.'

'Eh, we're smart enough to cook a couple eggs,' her youkai-voice insisted.  'We've seen Evan do it often enough, haven't we?  You crack the eggs and drop them in a hot skillet.  Nothing to it.'

Madison wasn't nearly as inclined to agree, however, and busied herself in measuring coffee into the ridiculously fancy coffee maker on the counter.  Besides, she liked Mikio.  She liked him a lot.  Giving the poor man food poisoning or something else on that level?  No, she figured that wouldn't bode well for her campaign.  It'd be better to stay inside her comfort zone, and for her, the extent of her cooking ability was making coffee, and that, she'd only learned because necessity dictated it.

As it was, she still couldn't quite credit, just how well she'd slept the night before.  She wasn't one of those who had trouble sleeping—quite the contrary—but the level of contentment that she'd felt—after he'd startled her awake, anyway—was almost crazy.

It was absolutely surprising, actually.  Madison wasn't exactly fond of sleeping with people, after all.  She usually made it a point not to allow anyone into her bed for extended stays.  It wasn't that she had any weird hang-ups about mates or any strange preconceived ideas, though.  Madison simply preferred not to have to deal with someone else's snoring or blanket-hogging, middle of the night kicking, being knocked upside the head when someone else turned over . . .

Mikio, however . . .

'It's too bad that we can't just stay here indefinitely, huh?'

Heaving a little sigh, Madison hit the 'start' button and leaned against the counter to wait.  'Yeah,' she allowed almost wistfully.  'Yeah, it is . . .'

 

-OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO-

 

"'Police responded to yet another home invasion last night.  According to authorities, the apartment on the eighteenth floor of the Reindouge Skyplex—a building well known for its state of the art security system—was broken into around four a.m. when they responded to a 911 call from the apartment next door.  The invaders managed to disengage the building's security systems, and when the officers arrived, they found the homeowners dead from gunshot wounds . . .'"

Sipping the fragrant coffee as a thoughtful scowl surfaced on his features, Mikio reached for the remote control to turn up the television.

'The Reindouge Skyplex?' he mused, glancing around to see if Madison had slipped into the kitchen.  She hadn't and was very likely still in the shower, which was fine, as far as Mikio was concerned.  'That's not far from here . . .'

'It's about a block away, isn't it?  About mid-way between this place and Madison's apartment . . .' his youkai-voice supplied.

Mikio set the remote aside as his frown deepened into a scowl.  'That's . . . too close for comfort.'

'True, but she lives in a pretty secure building.'

'And the Reindouge Skyplex was, too, or so they said.  Just how secure is 'secure', anyway?'

'Well, I guess that nothing in the world is really impenetrable, if you want to think of it that way.  Want to call oji-san and ask him about the security here?'

'I'm not concerned about me,' he countered.  'But Madison . . .'

'Madison's youkai—and she's smart.'

'Yeah, which doesn't mean much, either, not really.  She's also a beautiful woman.  If someone saw her, followed her . . .'

'Okay, point taken.  So what do you want to do about it?'

Idly fiddling with his twitching left ear, Mikio sighed.  'I just . . . I'm just concerned, is all.'

His youkai-voice was quiet for a moment, as though it was considering Mikio's quiet assertion.  'Do you want to be her hero or something?'

Pushing himself to his feet, Mikio grunted in reply as he shuffled over to the counter.  'Keh!  I'm hardly hero material,' he argued.  'I'm . . . I just wonder how safe her apartment really is.  It sounds like whoever's behind these break-ins are stepping it up, right?  It's the first time they've killed anyone, that they know of, anyway.  It's . . . It's dangerous.'

'And that's the only reason . . .?'

'What other reason could there be?'

'Dunno, Mikio.  You tell me.'

That didn't deserve an answer, as far as Mikio was concerned.  Taking his time as he poured himself another cup of coffee, he sighed.

"Thanks again for letting me stay over," Madison said, oblivious to Mikio's conflicted thoughts as she slipped into the kitchen, toweling her hair dry.  She'd dressed in the clothes that she'd worn last night, and Mikio had to wonder in a preoccupied sort of way if that wasn't some kind of faux pas in her line of work.

"Oh, uh, you don't have to thank me," he mumbled, feeling his cheeks warming when she smiled brightly at him.

She giggled and shook her head.  "You'll have to let me take you out to dinner.  There's a great little place a couple blocks away that has the best crème brulee," she insisted.  "Anyway, I'll call Bas today and see if he's got access to Evan's place."  Flicking her arm to glance at her watch, she sighed.  "Crap, I'm late," she muttered, shaking her head as she turned on her heel to head back to the bathroom.  "I've got a ten o'clock with Jenny O'Malley, which I would skip if I possibly could, but she's sent so many of her people in and she plugged the spa on the Today Show that it would seem wrong to do that . . ."

Mikio followed her, leaning in the bathroom doorway while Madison fussed with her hair.  "I could call Bas if you want," he suggested.  "I mean, I was going to, anyway."

She shot him a quick glance.  "Are you sure?  I can, but . . ."

He waved off her concern and smiled.  "Sounds like you've got your hands full already," he said.  "It's not a big deal.  He mentioned at the wedding that he was going to be spending a little time in the city, so I was going to see when and if he's here."

"I appreciate it," she assured him, her smile widening.  "Now, what are the odds that you have a blow dryer around here?"

 

-OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO-

 

"Zelig."

Letting the accounting reports drop from his fingers onto the table top where he'd been looking them over, Mikio cleared his throat.  "Bas, hi," he greeted.  "It's Mikio."

"Mikio, hey.  How's the case going?"

"It's slow.  There's a lot of paperwork involved," he admitted.  "Actually, I'm calling for Madison.  She was wondering if you had access to Evan's house?  She locked herself out of her apartment, and he's got her spare key?"

Bas let out a deep breath then chuckled.  "That's not surprising," he allowed.  "I do, but I won't be in the city till next week.  I could call, but I don't think he's got any security detail out there right now . . ."

"She mentioned something about that.  Evan gave his security team some time off while he's on his honeymoon."

Bas sighed.  "I guess I could see if I can't make it down sooner," he said slowly, as though he were considering it as he spoke.  "I'm not sure, though.  I mean, Sydnie's got an appointment with that preschool for Bailey later this week, and she said they would like to meet us both.  I don't know why she wants him to go to such a snobby place, anyway—did I tell you that they require uniforms?  For preschoolers?  Seriously?"

Mikio chuckled and shook his head.  It amused him to hear Bas, of all people, grumbling about things like that.  "She can stay with me," he said, struggling for a nonchalant tone of voice that he hoped Bas didn't see right through.  "I-I mean, you don't have to change your plans or anything . . ."

"Yeah?  Well, let me know if you need me to change things around some," Bas said.

Mikio nodded, not that Bas could see it.  "No, it should be fine . . . but I was wondering . . ."

"Shoot."

"Do you know anything about the security in Madison's building?  There's been a rash of break-ins in the neighborhood, and they've apparently been able to bypass security in the Reindouge Skyplex.  Killed a couple people."

"The Reindouge?  The owners were bragging that it was harder to breach than Fort Knox," Bas muttered.  "Damn."

"That's what I thought," Mikio allowed, fingering his ear as he slowly, aimlessly, wandered around the living room.

"The Reindouge is . . . really close to Maddy's apartment building.  What about the other robberies?  You said that there's been a rash of them, right?"

"I don't know for sure," Mikio said.  "The reports on TV didn't give a hard number, but I know there have been at least four since I've been here."

"And all there in Lenox Hill?"

"Yeah."

Bas sighed again.  "You haven't asked Madison about her building?"

Mikio made a face.  "I didn't want her to worry too much, so no . . ."

"Yeah, I get that," Bas agreed.  "Let me make a few calls.  I'll see what I can find out about it, and I'll call you back."

"Okay," Mikio said.  The connection ended, and he made a face as he slipped the phone into his pocket.  On the one hand, he hoped that he was worrying for no reason.  On the other, the more he thought about it, the more he disliked the idea of Madison being alone if someone decided that they needed to get into her apartment.  True, she was youkai, and yes, her father was one of Cain's best hunters.  That didn't mean much when it came right down to it, either.  After all, even if someone tried to break in, Cartham was in Maine, too . . .

Heaving a sigh, he scowled at his own thoughts.  Something about the situation just didn't really sit well with him, but damned if he knew why that was.  Crimes happened every day, sure.  He was from Tokyo, and it was larger than New York City, and, along with that size came the crimes, too.  If he were to turn on the news now, there would be more reports of other crimes in the area, so why did this string of incidences bother him more than the others?

The trill of his cell phone interrupted his thoughts, and he dug it out, sparing just a moment to see that it was Bas.  "Moshimoshi?"

"According to the databases, Maddy's building ranks as a level five for security," Bas said, foregoing the pleasantries.

"A five?" Mikio echoed, a surge of relief washing over him as he paced across the floor.  "So, it's good, then."

Bas grunted.  "A five out of ten," he reiterated.

Mikio stopped in his tracks.  "That . . . bad . . .?"

"It was renovated shortly before Maddy moved into her apartment," Bas went on.  "When it was, the outdated surveillance equipment was replaced and updated in all the common areas—hallways, entrances, exits, exterior, but the owner opted not to implement per-unit security because . . . Well, you probably didn't hear about it, but there was a criminal thing that came up, an apartment manager that used the building's security cameras to spy on and record the residents.  It wasn't Maddy's building, but it freaked a lot of people out.  Anyway, I don't know what Maddy's actual security set up is, though with a dad like Cartham, it's safe to assume that she's got something in place."

Somehow, Bas' off-the-cuff statement didn't really offer Mikio the peace of mind he'd like.  "But you don't know."

"Nope . . . Don't worry about it, though.  I'll give her a call and—"

"I-I-I'll do it," Mikio cut in.  "Thanks, Bas."

Bas was silent for a long moment, then he sighed.  "So, uh . . . You seem really concerned about her—Maddy, I mean."

"Don't . . . Don't know what you're talking about," Mikio muttered.

"Eh, but she is a family friend, right?  And it's perfectly normal to worry about someone like that."

Mikio didn't miss the entirely too-casual tone in Bas' voice.  "Y-Yeah.  She's shown me around a little, and when she locked herself out . . ."

"Uh huh.  That's pretty much what I figured," Bas went on.  "Anyway, let me know if you need me to try to rearrange things . . ." he paused for a second.  "Then again, I guess she'll be safe enough if she's staying with you."

"I'd better go," Mikio said suddenly.  "I need to finish looking through these reports Jamison-san sent over."

"All right.  Call you when I get there next week."

Mikio muttered something completely unintelligible and ended the call before letting out a deep breath as his thoughtful scowl deepened.  Bas' commentary didn't bother him nearly as much as the things that Bas had found out about the place that Madison called 'home', and for reasons that Mikio didn't dare delve into, the idea of her, going back to a place that was not nearly as safe as it ought to be . . .

That was completely unacceptable.

 

 

 

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A/N: 

This story is officially going on hiatus.  I have a plot bunny that's driving me nuts right now, but hopefully it's something that y'all will enjoy!  Look for it soon or stop by the forum to read the teaser/prelims!

I'll pick this story up as soon as I rid myself of the crazy notion that must be written down! 

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MMorg
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AO3
TimeWandrer ——— MJ ——— Blank ——— iheartinuyasha ——— airen2

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Final Thought from Mikio:
So, what now …?

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Blanket disclaimer for this fanfic (will apply to this and all other chapters in Anomaly):  I do not claim any rights to InuYasha or the characters associated with the anime/manga.  Those rights belong to Rumiko Takahashi, et al.  I do offer my thanks to her for creating such vivid characters for me to terrorize. 

 

~Sue~