InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Secrets of the Dark ❯ Chapter Two ( Chapter 2 )

Secrets of the Dark

 

Chapter Two

 

It was well past midnight before Kagome noticed that her sister had not come home yet. Giving a small growl of annoyance, she called Kikyou's cell, getting no answer. She'd turned it off. She didn't want to leave Souta home alone while she went to look for her sister, but she couldn't sleep knowing that her sister wasn't home. It was this thing she'd had since she was a kid; everyone else in the house had to be home and inside, safe, before she could nod off.

 

The end result was a paranoid Kagome sitting up in the study until two in the morning, when her sister's drunken yelling alerted her to her arrival. Deciding that she would yell at her sister in the daylight hours of the morning, she headed downstairs to help her to bed. She didn't want Kikyou waking up Souta, or worse, the neighbours. What she found was definitely not what she'd expected.

 

Kikyou was a mess. Her makeup was running down her face, her hair sticking up at all angles, and her clothing was ripped in several places. Kagome gasped, rushing to her sister's side to make sure she was ok. Closer inspection revealed that she sported a black eye, several gashes on her back that looked like they were cut with a serrated knife, she was limping on a swollen ankle, and had a nasty-looking bite mark on her arm that would definitely scar. Forcing Kikyou into an armchair, she rushed over to the phone.

 

“No!”

 

“What?” Kagome blinked over at her battered sister, one number off finishing the emergency number.

 

“Don't call the police!”

 

Kagome was aghast. “Kikyou, you're hurt! You've been bashed!” The way that Kikyou had flinched when Kagome had touched her was all the proof she needed. “I wont let whoever did this to you get away with it!”

 

“Please.” Kikyou whimpered, looking utterly forlorn. “It was my fault. I deserved it.”

 

“No…” Kagome cooed, sitting down next to her, “…you didn't deserve it. No one deserves it, Kikyou … it's not your fault…”

 

“Yes it is!” She sobbed. “I lost my temper and hit her first.”

 

“Shhh…” Kagome soothed her, snaking an arm around her and rocking her gently. “It's alright Kikyou … let me call the police.”

 

“No! If you do, I'll lie to them!”

 

Kagome knew enough about her sister to tell that she was completely serious. So, biting her lip, she sighed in resignation and helped Kikyou up the stairs. “C'mon, Kikyou. Lets get you a warm bath and let me look at that bite mark. I'll get you some painkillers.”

 

Ten minutes later, Kikyou was soaking in the tub and crying on Kagome's shoulder, who kneeled at the side and helped her clean herself. Kikyou flinched every time Kagome's hands touched her, and she tried to shy away, but Kagome held fast and gently washed her, cleaning out various bruises and lacerations on Kikyou's person. Helping Kikyou swallow the pills when she was done and helping her into bed, she stood up and went out into the hall, her mind in a daze. She slumped down against the closed door, sliding to the ground.

 

Her head was so heavy. She remained slumped at the door for a few minutes before her mind, in a state of shock, began to shut down. She fell into a deep, dreamless sleep within moments.

 

OoOoOoOoOoO

 

“…Kagome-nee-chan! …Kagome-nee-chan! …Kagome-nee-chan!”

 

“Go back to bed, Souta-kun…” Kagome swatted at the annoyance, trying to turn over in her bed. Except, she wasn't in her bed. Bolting upright, she remembered what had happened the previous night and fixed her gaze on Souta. “Souta!” She exclaimed. “What time is it?!”

 

“It's late in the morning, Onee-chan, Pokémon is already finished.” Souta held out the telephone handset in his pudgy little hand. “There's a strange man asking for you on the phone, `Nee-chan. He sounds mad.”

 

Kagome groaned, taking the phone and shooing Souta back down the stairs. If Pokémon was over on a Saturday, that would make it… after ten thirty?! Shit! She lifted the phone to her ear. “Hello?”

 

“Where the fuck are you, Higurashi?!”

 

Yup. It was her boss all right. “I'm so sorry, Taishou-sama! My-”

 

“I said; where the fuck are you?!”

 

“I know I'm late-”

 

“Late does not cover it, Higurashi!” Her boss raged. Kagome could almost see the tick in his eye spasming. “I told you last time you were late! You have one hour to get here or you may officially consider your employment terminated!”

 

“But Taishou-sama-”

 

“No buts! Half an hour, or you're fired!”

 

The dial tone sounded. Kagome grit her teeth, trying to decide what to do; she couldn't very well leave her sister alone now, and they couldn't go to their grandfather's house. She didn't even realise that she'd had to hold the phone away from her ear, or that his yelling had carried into the next room, loud enough for Kikyou, who hadn't slept a wink, to hear. She didn't hear as Kikyou padded across the room. The next thing she actually noticed was falling over backwards as Kikyou opened the door she was leaning against. “I'll be fine.” Kikyou murmured, avoiding her eyes. “I'll look after Souta for the day while you're at work.”

 

“No, Kikyou …” Kagome shook her head, trying to protest.

 

Kikyou shrugged. “Life goes on, right? Look, I'll take it easy, I promise. I don't want you to get fired `cause of me.”

 

Kagome crumbled at the sight of her sister. Much as she hated to admit it, she really, really wanted to get to work today. She needed the job, and she needed time to sort herself out. She couldn't really do that at home. “All right. But if you need me, you call. Understood?” Kikyou nodded.

 

Ten minutes later, Kagome was pulling out of the driveway, on her way to work. Zipping through all the shortcuts that she couldn't normally take while getting her siblings to their respective schools, she managed to arrive outside her workplace within fifteen minutes. Mentally wincing, she pushed the doors open and stepped inside the vacant lobby. Her footsteps echoed off the stone walls as she hurriedly climbed the staircase, knowing that when her boss had said `half an hour', he meant to be sitting at her desk. Collapsing into her chair, she'd made it by all of ten seconds.

 

“Explain.”

 

The single command, spoken in such a low and cold tone, indicated that he didn't care what her excuse was; she was in big trouble. At least she had a reasonable hope that she still held her job - he'd said he'd fire her if she didn't make it by his deadline, and she had; albeit barely. She mentally cringed before answering, refusing to allow her boss to know that he intimidated her, though she had every reason to suspect that he already knew.

 

“I… I had personal issues.” She muttered, almost too low for any ordinary person to hear - though he'd realised long ago that her boss could not be considered `ordinary' - hoping to leave it at that. However, it appeared her boss wasn't going to be so kind, as he impatiently growled, sounding frighteningly similar to a dog as he did so. Kagome even briefly imagined his eyes flashing red, as the demons on television shows tended to do. “My sister… my sister was attacked last night. I had to care for her.”

 

Her boss' expression finally softened into one that could almost be mistaken as a kind of understanding. “Be that as it may, you're still required to give notice when you plan on being late or absent.” Kagome's temper raged as she watched her boss, arms folded across his chest as he leaned against the doorframe like King Shit, eyeing her expectantly. Shaking his head, he stepped backwards and made to close his door while adding “Just get to work.”

 

OoOoOoOoOoO

 

Inuyasha absolutely loved pushing Kagome's buttons.

 

According to his older half brother, his secretary was quiet, kept to herself, and was diligent. Inuyasha had found, though, that she also had a temper when provoked the right way, and the spike in her scent indicated that he'd pushed just the right button to set off her internal spasm, as he liked to call it. He could still smell her through the heavy oak door that separated them, as well as feel her aura pulsing.

 

The concealment charms that he and other youkai and hanyou wore in no way hindered their natural abilities, still enabling them to leap higher, run faster, tear other people to shreds using their claws, or scenting if one was truly human or demonic. It would, however, appear extremely weird for the humans of the world to see other, supposedly human, people do such things, though any youkai would know them for what they were, even though they seemed human enough to their eyes. It was only the youkai of higher intelligence that had survived this long anyway, with the occasional tame nekomata, lower-level inu, or similar animal-like youkai that had been taken in by more intelligent youkai as pets.

 

Inuyasha found himself wondering, as he removed the hair tie that concealed his true appearance, just how many humans were aware that there were true youkai walking amongst them. As far as he knew, it was only the occasional Miko or Houshi that knew of their existence. Shaking his long, silver mane out of its ponytail, the band being the concealment charm he wore, his ears twitched. He hated his ears. They were what marked him for what he was; a dirty, filthy half-breed. At two centuries old, he'd certainly had his share of prejudice directed at him and, he admitted, though the community around him didn't know what he was, he found that he enjoyed the acceptance of the mortals. Even though the youkai of the world harboured no more prejudice toward his kind, he found it hard to let go of all the torment that he and his mother had suffered when he was a pup.

 

He also wondered, not for the first time, if Kagome - he always referred to her by her first name in his mind, never really being one for formalities - knew of her spiritual abilities. It could only prove to be a problem if she didn't, as her stronger-than-average holy powers could make a youkai nervous enough to attempt to take her out as a precaution. Many miko and Houshi - though not all, he admitted, his friend Miroku coming to mind - were still under the impression that all youkai were evil, that all hanyou were tainted, and that they should be exterminated. The one thing that stopped them from attacking the youkai they came across the street was that, again, how would it be explained to the public?

 

As usual, the soft knocking of his secretary at his office door prompted him to tie his hair back up, his canine ears disappearing as his hair darkened to black and human ears reappearing at the side of his head. Some would say that it was ridiculous to remove the charm only to replace it a few minutes later, but Inuyasha absolutely loathed his human appearance, the night of the new moon being the only time he really had no say in the matter. Yes, he hated appearing human, but he hated actually being human even more.

 

“Enter.”

 

Kagome pushed the door open, carrying a stack of freshly printed paperwork for him to sign. Leaving it on his desk, he waved her off after the customary “Is that all?” and sent her out. He crinkled his nose as he removed the charm, hating the smell of so much fresh ink, but ignored it for now, signing where appropriate and dating. Shoving the now completed paperwork into a manila folder, he leant backward and rested his arms behind his head. He really had nothing to do on Saturday mornings, thankful that his friends, were supposedly taking him to a bar in the demonic district that night.

 

There were still areas where youkai could show their true forms, being known as the `bad areas' to the humans. Most humans would not go near the places, the only ones who were unaffected by the charms set up being either those descended from the taijiya - though the profession was now obsolete - or spiritual people, though the latter did not usually enter due to the high amounts of youki that permeated the place.

 

Inuyasha smirked, thinking of the taijiya that had caught his friend's attention the other week. Her name was Sango; a fierce woman of twenty-seven, just a year younger than Miroku himself, and a year older than Inuyasha himself appeared under his human guise. Inuyasha had been given the pleasure of meeting the young firecracker once before, being introduced by his brother. Sesshoumaru's young human ward Rin was a cousin of Sango's deceased first cousin once removed. Inuyasha often developed a headache trying to work out the relationship, until Sesshoumaru and Sango had outlined to him that it meant that she and Rin's cousin had shared great grandparents. He just took their word for it, stating that he didn't really care.

 

It was Inuyasha himself that had introduced Miroku to Sango, warning the girl to be wary of the Houshi's wandering hands. Sango had laughed, as if he were joking, but as the night wore on, Miroku had taken it upon himself to palm her behind several times. She later, after slapping Miroku senseless, apologised to Inuyasha for not believing him and swore that, if Miroku had ever touched her inappropriately again, she would castrate him. Three months and several dozen gropes later, she had yet to make good on that threat. Inuyasha secretly mused to himself that she liked the attention.

 

As the day wore on, Inuyasha found himself more and more bored with nothing to do. So, at three, he retied his charm, collected his things, and told Kagome that he would be leaving and to lock up when she left. Hearing her murmur in the affirmative, as well as other derogatory statements that he was not supposed to have heard, he chuckled to himself and descended the stairs, looking forward to his night out with his four friends. He would meet Miroku, Sango, Kouga, and Ayame at his place at about six, and they would all head out to a demon's hangout on the other side of town, wearing their true appearances.

 

Stepping into his bright red sports car, he drove off home, wondering what antics his friends would be up to tonight. Every time was different, since they never hit the same place twice in a row. It was Ayame's turn to choose tonight, and Inuyasha hoped she didn't choose some prissy place like last time. She was as rough as the rest of them, it was the club's reputation that had tricked them. He'd just have to wait and see.

 

OoOoOoOoOoO

 

It was with great delight that Inuyasha pulled up outside a run-down building that looked as if it had seen its share of demonic brawls. He could hear the music pumping from inside, not so loud as to harm demonic hearing, but loud enough that voices needed to be raised to enable humans to hear properly. Pushing through the steel doors at the entrance, he flashed a thankful grin at Ayame, who was arm in arm with her courted. Kouga, meanwhile, was watching her as she looked around the club appreciatively. Yes, this was just the rough-and-tumble place they wanted.

 

There were youkai everywhere, with the occasional taijiya and rare Houshi or miko scattered in between. They could all immediately identify the spiritual humans amongst them, their auras almost visible with the instinctive urge to defend themselves against the youki that came at them from all sides. There was one miko, though, that he found himself looking for amongst the throng. She was powerful, though she lacked any of the skill that most possessed. She was well aware of the spiritual powers that flowed through her veins, though he doubted she'd told anyone else in her family.

 

She was badly beaten up. He could see her on the other side of the room, favouring the arm that looked as though it had been bitten. He couldn't really tell from this far away and so, elbowing their way toward her as she sat alone in the corner, they made their way over. After everything that they had heard that day, they weren't expecting the sixteen year old to show up tonight, even though Ayame had told her where they'd be.

 

“Inuyasha!” She spotted them from the other side of the dance floor, waving them over. “Miroku! Sango! Kouga! Ayame! Hi!” One word came from all of them, simultaneously, as a greeting;

 

“Kikyou.”