InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Secrets of the Dark ❯ Chapter One ( Chapter 1 )

Hello. Yes, as you can see, it is ANOTHER Inuyasha story from little ol' me. I bet you can't tell that I've read the entire Ranma manga, can you? With the way I'm churning out new Inuyasha fics (and there're more than what is up here, trust me), you'd never guess I was totally into something else. This one, I'm going to try to keep fairly serious.

 

WARNINGS: I plan on having at least one fight in this, and if all goes to plan, I'm not skipping on detail. There will also be offensive language, and possibly a lemon or two on MediaMiner. If I edit anything out, I'll post a link, I promise. As of now, though, nothing has been edited out.

 

Now that that's over with, lets just take care of the standards, and then you can enjoy the premiere of this new story!

 

Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha or anything associated with it. All rights to Inuyasha and affiliated products belong to Rumiko Takahashi-sama.

 

Summary: In a world where demons exist only in stories told to frighten little children, a young secretary stumbles onto a living demon community deep in underground society. Trapped in a world of lies, power and secrecy, she cannot escape the secret world of that which does not exist.

 

Rating: M

 

Pairings: InuKag, MirSan, SessKagu, NaraKik

 

Genre: Drama/Romance

 

Secrets of the Dark

 

Chapter One

 

“'Nee-chan!”

 

A small boy clambered down the stairs at seven in the morning, clad in only his boxer shorts due to the extreme heat of summer. He was still drowsy, the heat of the morning still affecting his little brain in such a manner that he was unable to properly awaken. Still, he managed to get down the staircase without tripping over his little legs, and plopped himself down on the couch with the remote in his clutches. By the time the girl he was calling had entered the room, the television was already on, with children's cartoons splashed across the screen.

 

“Morning, Souta.” She yawned, taking a sip of her ritual morning coffee. Souta turned to his sister. She may have still been tired, but she was already fully dressed with hair and makeup done. Higurashi Kagome, twenty-one year old secretary, watched her five-year-old brother with an air of amusement. “You hungry?” Souta shook his head in the negative. Kagome raised an eyebrow at him in a disbelieving manner. “You sure?”

 

“I'm sure, Nee-chan.” He insisted.

 

At that, Kagome went back out into the dining room, to continue reading the morning paper. About the time the clock ticked over to seven thirty, her eyes automatically scanned the staircase in the hallway. Baka, she thought to herself, you know they aren't coming down. Get it through your thick head already!

 

Closing her eyes for a moment to gain her thoughts, she retuned to her newspaper. Her mind ran away with her as she mindlessly scanned the small print on the broadsheet, instead focusing on other thoughts as she sipped her coffee. These thoughts rested mainly around her parents. They had died in a horrible car crash eight months ago, leaving a then twenty-year-old Kagome in charge of her five-year-old brother and sixteen year old sister, Higurashi Kikyou. She had been obliged to move back home, since their parent's will had stated that, as the oldest, she would inherit the family home, to care for her younger siblings.

 

Speaking of Kikyou…

 

“Kikyou!” Kagome called up the stairs. “Are you awake yet?!”

 

“Yes!” Came the snippy reply as the water came on in the upstairs shower. Kagome sighed and returned to her paper, this time keeping half an eye on the time and half an ear on the shower upstairs. Kikyou had been nothing but trouble for her since their parents had died, getting into trouble left right and centre. There had already been three pregnancy scares, a car accident that nearly gave Kagome an arrhythmia, four suspensions from school, and five brushes with the law. But, no matter how hard Kagome tried, she just couldn't keep her sister in line. The Department of Children's Services had been looking into removing Kikyou and Souta from Kagome's custody, until Kikyou's counsellor had supplied that that would have been the worst possible thing for her patient at the moment. Kagome had been lucky that time, but if things kept going the way they were, she'd be forced to put them into foster care while she collected her bearings.

 

It was an hour later that Kagome and her siblings piled into the car. Kagome had dropped off Souta at his kindergarten first, before driving Kikyou to the high school on the other side of the neighbourhood. It was about halfway there that she started preaching to her younger sister. “I honestly don't know how you can be suspended three times in six months, Kikyou!” She started tersely. “One more time and I'm sending you to some sort of boarding school. I've had it up to here with you. You're my sister, and I love you to death, but I can't take it anymore!”

 

“You said that last time.” Kikyou shrugged, taking out a cigarette and lighter. In the middle of lighting up, Kagome reached over and snatched the cancer stick out of her mouth and threw it out the window. Kikyou looked affronted. “Hey!”

 

Kagome's eyes were back on the road and her hands on the wheel. “That's a filthy habit.”

 

“So?”

 

“So, I won't be having it in my car. Or in my house.” She added, having recalled smelling the smoke coming from Kikyou's room more than once. “You're not even old enough yet. Give it two years and then you can move out and start.”

 

Kikyou opened the car door as Kagome pulled up in front of the school at the end of her little tirade. Before slamming the door in Kagome's face, she stuck her head back in, popping a stick of mint gum in her mouth and beginning to chew. “You think you're so great, just because you're the oldest. You think you can take Okaa-san and Otou-san's place, but you can't! Well, news flash, you're a bitch and I hate you!” And with that, Kikyou slammed the door and ran off toward the school doors.

 

Kagome sat numb for a few moments. As if on autopilot, she shook her head to clear it, and stated the car again. She drove across town to her workplace; a large stone building in the middle of the business district. She wasn't sure exactly what it was the business did, but it was good pay and reasonable hours. She didn't ask questions, she just did her job.

 

Kagome huffed as she rushed through the doors and up the stairs. If she were late again, her boss would have her head on a silver platter. She'd been late three times in the last month, and that was `simply unacceptable'. She was warned last time that if she were late one more time, she would face losing her job.

 

She breezed past the secretary at the front desk, signing in without a word. She glanced at the clock and frowned. She was a minute late. Ah well… it never hurt to tell a little white lie… right? She cast a nervous eye around and jotted down a time that was two minutes previous, and smiled at the secretary as she signed her signature. Kagura wouldn't snitch on her… she hoped. Kagura gave her a wink as she entered something on her computer. Kagome smiled gratefully, no longer fearing being caught, and began the trudge up the stairs.

 

It was an old building, so there wasn't any elevator. They would have to stop work for the entire month - at least - to put one in, which would give their competitors an edge in the market; something her boss was not willing to risk. The business was already on shaky enough grounds, and they didn't need the setback of stopping for even a day. Sure, most of the people could work from home, but who would keep it all going and make sure everyone was up to speed? It was all much better if they were all where everyone could find them easily.

 

Kagome set her binder on her desk with a sigh. She perched herself in her stiff chair, and began to leaf through the files that were placed neatly in the `IN' tray. Most of them just required a signature or two from her boss before she could pass them on to the next poor sucker to deal with. There were a few memos for her boss - they could wait for about half an hour, she decided - and a few contracts with some old and new companies that hired them for their advertising campaigns. She sighed. She was in for a busy morning.

 

“Glad to see you're on time today, Higurashi.”

 

Kagome plastered on a fake cheery smile before looking up into the deep brown eyes of her boss, Taishou Inuyasha. “Good morning, Taishou-san.” She said cheerily, with a hint of sarcasm. “There's some memos here for you, and a few documents you need to sign - I'll bring them in for you in about a half hour so you can set up.” She jumped right into the professional side of things. He was always sneering at her for her punctuality, and she didn't feel like putting up with him that morning.

 

He nodded his approval. “Make sure you don't forget anything, Higurashi.”

 

She rolled her eyes in exasperation as he swept past her and into his office - coffee in hand. “I won't, Sir.” She assured him in an unconcerned tone, only pulling a face as he snapped the door shut behind him, making sure to pull his long dark hair out of the way. The amount of times he'd caught his hair in that door was hilarious. She was often red-faced from trying to control her laughter. Unfortunately, though, he'd learned not to do it anymore. “So long as you stay in there all day and I don't have to look at you.” She grumbled under her breath. She shook her head to herself and booted up he computer.

 

After typing up half of her boss' schedule for the next week, she leaned back in her chair, her fingers aching. So she'd been working there for a year - her boss had only been there for about two months. She could swear the man was ten times busier than her last boss - he was everywhere and yet nowhere. The brothers were nothing alike. Her previous boss, Taishou Sesshoumaru, had been fairly lax on her, preferring to instead do everything himself. This guy piled it on. He could never be found unless you had his schedule memorised; a feat not even she, as his own secretary, could manage. And all the typing that he had her do was killing her hands. She thought she might be developing RSI - Kami she hoped not.

 

Gathering her thoughts, she leafed through the files on her desk again, finding the ones that were urgent and signed where necessary. Tucking them in her arms, she gathered the memos, and knocked on his door. After hearing the grunt that signified permission to enter, she stepped in, making sure to leave the door open behind her - it would not do to have people think too much of a closed door. And tongues tended to wag in the office block.

 

“Sir, your paperwork.” She deposited the small mountain on his desk. He gave her a look as if to say `are you serious?'. She continued on, reading out each memo to him. “Your lunch with the Ookami's is today; they're seriously trying to get on board with us. It's at one in the plaza…” She read off, shifting her folder to read another memo. “Ah, your brother called yesterday afternoon to set up a meeting in three - well, two - days; he asks you to confirm as soon as possible.”

 

Taishou accepted the two post-it notes without a word. Kagome balanced her folder to read a third. “Research and Development are having technical glitches all over the place and request a new virus scanner; they think someone's kid got on one of the laptops at home and downloaded a virus that spread through the email system and was opened here. So the computers there are going down one at a time…” He took that paper, too. She grunted, shifting her folder to reach the last one. “…And Onigumo Industries are having their annual fundraiser. They want us to be in on it, too - all the paperwork is there, so I don't know why this is on a memo.” She rolled her eyes and handed it to him anyway.

 

He leafed through the paperwork she had given him with a low whistle. “We're gonna be busy for the next couple of weeks.” He murmured, more to himself than to her. Kagome took his lack of attention to mean that he was done with her, but she had to ask… just in case. She'd learnt very quickly that he often forgot things unless he was prompted to remember them. Usually important things.

 

“Will that be all, Sir?” She asked lightly, fidgeting uncomfortably.

 

“Ah!” He nodded, holding a finger up at her question. He turned his chair and shuffled around in his filing cabinet for a second, before withdrawing a folder and opening it. Deducing that it was indeed the right one, he handed it to her. “That goes to Hirose on the floor below. Tell him it needs to be done by lunch.”

 

“Yessir.” She took the folder and left the room, shutting the door behind her. She lugged the thing all the way downstairs, just as her boss had instructed.

 

OoOoOoOoOoO

 

Kagome collapsed into her chair at the end of her lunch break, rubbing her temples in protest to the migraine that was slowly making its presence known. She'd been running around like a madwoman all morning, taking paperwork from one place to another. There were three different deals taking place that she was supposed to be keeping an eye on, as well as tending to her boss' every whim - including running out to get him a coffee in the middle of typing up an important document.

 

Needless to say, she was dog-tired.

 

Thank Kami it was Friday, was all she could say. While most people took the day off on Saturdays, she, Taishou, and a few others remained behind to tie up the loose ends from during the week. Only one more day at work, and then she could relax! …or she would have been able to, she thought grimly, if there wasn't so much paperwork to do. Her eyes looked as if they could incinerate their target - a mountain of hand-written documents and status reports that had to be typed up.

 

Grumbling, she pulled the shortest one to her and read it over. “Boring, boring, boring…” She sighed to herself, tugging her hair back and out of the way as she opened up the word document on the computer. She was just about to start when her boss came back from his lunch with the Ookami's. “I assume it didn't go well, then?” She raised an eyebrow at the man's scowl. A scowl that was soon thrown her way.

 

He grunted. “Lunch went fine.” And with those words, he disappeared into his office, slamming his door closed behind him.

 

Kagome rolled her eyes. “Well, excuse me, Princess.” She grumbled, beginning to type up the document. She'd barely finished the second of the six pages before her boss slammed his door open again, causing her head to snap up and stare at him, throwing on his overcoat and grumbling to himself. Pulling his long dark hair back into a lax ponytail, his dark eyes settled disapprovingly on her. She quickly dropped her gaze back to the computer screen and resumed typing, hoping that he hadn't read too much into her stare.

 

“I'm heading home.” He grouched. “Anything that needs doing just leave on my desk.” He griped out before disappearing down the stairs. Kagome watched after him out of the corner of her eye with a bewildered expression. That was certainly bizarre.

 

OoOoOoOoOoO

 

Kagome did her best to ignore Kikyou's tirade as she desperately tried to finish up the last of her paperwork in their father's old study. He'd been a university professor, and had a small private library in the spare bedroom, which was deemed `the study'. When he'd died, Kagome had boxed all his private materials, and donated them to the university where he'd worked. She, and her siblings, had no use for the materials, and the two eldest decided that it would be better off if they were taken away. That left the entire room bare. Kikyou had wanted to install a games room, similar to an arcade, for her friends, but Kagome had put her foot down and had said that it would be her office for work-related things. Kikyou had sulked for weeks afterward.

 

“Why can't I go?!” Kikyou shrieked from the doorway with her hands on her hips.

 

Kagome sighed and pulled down the LCD screen of her laptop, regarding her younger sister over the top. “You and I both know that you're only going to get into trouble if I let you go.” She cut Kikyou off as she opened her mouth to speak. “But, we also both know that you're only going to sneak out and go anyway.” She paused. “Be back by midnight. And no alcohol. We're going to see Jii-chan tomorrow, and it wouldn't be good for you to have a hangover.”

 

“Yeah, yeah, whatever.” Kikyou waved it off as she flounced down the hall.

 

Kagome bit her lip. She had a bad feeling about letting her sister go to this party.

 

So… um… yeah… um… not much to say…

 

Feedback is appreciated.