InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Secrets of the Dark ❯ Chapter Five ( Chapter 5 )

Secrets of the Dark

 

Chapter Five

 

Kikyou watched television as her sister ran around the house at ten past five on Sunday night, wondering just what the hell was going on. She'd shouted something about listening for the door - not that Kikyou had any plans to actually answer it - while she got ready. Kikyou scowled. The last time Kagome `got ready' for something, she was going to see her principal regarding the fire in the science labs that had cost forty-thousand yen to fix. She was still trying to pay the debt off.

 

Watching some kind of cartoon show with her kid brother, Kikyou's frown became all the more pronounced. She could hear the hair dryer going in the upstairs bedroom; something that only happened, on a Sunday, when she was using it. Kagome usually threw her hair up into a ponytail when it was wet and was done with it on Sundays. It was only for the office that she made any real effort to look presentable. She was bumped out of her musings as the doorbell rang.

 

“Answer the door!”

 

The sound of the hairdryer was replaced with the sound of someone rushing around upstairs. Grumbling, Kikyou ignored her sister. Looking at Souta as he peered up at her with shock for disobeying Kagome, she fixed him with a potent glare, making him whimper and clutch at his teddy bear all the more tighter. Cringing from her, he returned his attention to the television, shooting Kikyou wary, frightened glances every few seconds. The doorbell rang again.

 

“I thought I told you to answer the door?!” Kagome's exasperated voice came floating down from the stairs as she descended. Kikyou actually had to do a double take at the sight of her. Getting up and peering into the hall as Kagome answered the door to greet their grandfather, Kikyou's eyes widened. Where the hell was Kagome going, anyway?

 

Her black hair was dried and without hairspray, hanging down to her waist in waves and held off by her face by a rhinestone headband. Her face was very lightly done up, with subtle pink lipstick and eye shadow, dark eyeliner and mascara to make her eyes look larger, her cheeks left without concealer or rouge. Her outfit consisted of a purple off-the-shoulder undershirt that reached just under her navel, with an unbuttoned white blouse over it, and white dress pants, which she guessed were to be matched with the two inch white pumps that were sitting by the door. With a kiss to Souta's forehead and Jii-chan's cheek, she shot Kikyou a firm look, and fixed said shoes to her feet.

 

“Just remember, Jii-chan, Souta's bedtime is seven thirty.” Kagome was reminding the old man. “Dinner's in the oven; it should be ready about five thirty. And you,” she shot a wary glance at Kikyou, “behave.”

 

“Don't you worry about a thing, Kagome.” Jii-chan assured the eldest Higurashi daughter. “I've got everything here under control. You just go out and have fun.”

 

“Call me on my cell if you need anything!” Kagome shot over her shoulder, grabbing her purse and slipping outside. Kikyou peered out the window to see her climb into the car and drive off.

 

With a small “Huh.”, Kikyou let the curtain fall. Wondering where the hell Kagome was going, Kikyou plastered a smile on her face, and rushed to embrace the grandfather she so rarely saw. No matter how disrespectful she was to her sister and parents, she loved her Jii-chan more than anything, and would do anything he asked… except obey her sister.

 

She'd point-blank asked Kagome why he couldn't live with him, scowling at her sister's answer. Kagome had said that he was too old, and would likely be living with them before too long anyway, since he couldn't take care of himself properly. As horrible as the circumstances would be for Jii-chan, Kikyou couldn't wait to have him living with them - even if she would have to cut down on some of her activities.

 

OoOoOoOoOoO

 

Kagome pulled up at Kyoko at five twenty five, seeing Sango pull up a few parking spaces to the left of her. There were a few other people from their office dotted around the parking lot, but the bar in question was a rather popular haunt for her colleagues. She'd only been there once before, when it first opened; but that was only to collect her boss' lunch order. She'd yet to actually step foot inside for herself. Smiling, Kagome nervously made her way over to the other woman, making a conscious effort not to gnaw on her bottom lip.

 

“Kobayashi-san!”

 

“Higurashi-san!”

 

The two women gave slight bows to each other in greeting, closer to simple nods of the head. Fiddling with themselves for a moment, they took a moment to appraise the other's outfits. Kagome was relieved to discover that she had not underdressed; Sango was wearing a simple yellow halterneck with a knee-length black skirt, her shoes being black flats and her hair up in a high ponytail. She noted that, even with her heels, she was still a good inch shorter than the twenty seven year old.

 

Motioning to the door, Sango suggested; “Shall we?”. Nodding, Kagome made her way toward the door at Sango's side. Sango's eyes seemed to be fixed on a particular group of people waiting at the door; one of whom waved at them.

 

Recognising the man who was waving as Hirose Miroku, Kagome offered him a small smile as they drew closer. She had not forgotten he'd been one of those people with her sister. She had half a mind to question them as to the other three, but pushed those thoughts aside as she was introduced to several other people. There was Watanabe Keiko from Marketing, Kikuchi Kunio from Tech Support, Shimizu Madoka from Miroku and Sango's own department, Administration, and Arai Koji from Communications. “Pleased to meet you all.” Kagome nodded to them.

 

Silently, they all followed Miroku, who had done all the introductions, into the establishment. The inside was rather impressive; mahogany framework and furnishings decorated the red-walled room, the entire South wall of the restaurant area made of reinforced glass. The open bar was also made of mahogany, the stools that surrounded it being cushioned with dark red vinyl. The lights on the walls were fashioned to look like medieval torches, with fake flames flickering up the walls and casting a merry glow across the floor. The wooden light fixtures dotted along the ceiling also had false flames flickering upward, illuminating the room in a warm atmosphere.

 

The seven of them were seated at a round table, Kagome being between Sango and Miroku, and across from Keiko. It wasn't long before everyone had ordered their drinks, before people started losing themselves in their own conversations. Feeling very out of place, Kagome merely stared at her lap and twisted her napkin, not having anyone with whom to talk to about anything pleasant. She was started out of her self-pity when Sango and Miroku both leaned forward, to include only the three of them in a conversation. “It must be very demanding to work for Taisho-san.”

 

“Yeah, “ Kagome nodded at Miroku, “it is. You saw that huge pile of paperwork I lugged down to you on Friday.” She chuckled, remembering the pile that she had gone through that day at home in the solitude of her study. It had taken her five hours to get through it all. She pitied Miroku, who she knew to have a small mountain of his own; he'd delivered most of it to him herself.

 

“Sometimes I consider myself lucky to not be a direct subordinate.” Sango laughed as their drinks approached. Kagome's was regular lemonade, Sango's some kind of soda, and Miroku's plain old water. It wasn't that Kagome didn't want alcohol; she would have one drink with dinner, maybe, so she wasn't wasted. She did have to drive home, after all. So, apparently, did Miroku and Sango. Keiko, being noticeably pregnant, wasn't drinking for obvious reasons, and must have been the designated driver for the other three, since they downed half of their alcoholic drinks instantly.

 

“You are!” Miroku and Kagome blurted at the same time, laughing at each other. While Kagome was a more direct subsidiary to the boss, Miroku was often required to be in personal contact with him to discuss certain deals and fiscal matters that had been brought to his attention by the Finance department. “He's a real slave driver.” Kagome added with a sour face. “I can never find him when he's in meetings, and then he blames it on me when he doesn't give me the proper information!” She huffed. The three of them laughed.

 

The next half an hour was filled with pleasant chatter. Miroku told them stories about growing up with his maternal grandfather, since his parents were too young to care for him properly when he was born. Apparently the man was a drunkard, but was a lot of fun. Miroku had only just finished telling the story of when he was five, and fell into the pond on his grandfather's property, when he suddenly lapsed into silence, leaning backward in his chair to see past Kagome toward the door. Confused, Sango and Kagome followed his gaze.

 

Kagome's stomach went cold, before completely dropping out from under her. A policeman was striding into the establishment, making straight for the bar. After a few moments, the soft music that was playing over the speakers was cut off, to be replaced by the barman's voice calling “Can Higurashi Kagome please come to the front bar? That's Higurashi Kagome to the front bar.” before returning once more.

 

Numb as everyone in the place stared at her, Kagome apologised to her colleagues for having to leave early and picked her way through the tables to the bar. Unable to ignore the feelings of dread slowly crawling up her spine, Kagome's only thought was; `What has Kikyou done this time?'.

 

OoOoOoOoOoO

 

Knuckles white on the steering wheel as she drove home, Kagome's mind was a jumbled up mess of thoughts. Sparing a glance toward the back seat, where the small boy had finally cried himself to sleep, her heart bled; her anger surfaced. Did the Kami enjoy making a mockery of them?! Were they out to make the lives of as many people as possible miserable? It certainly seemed so.

 

Kagome knew and liked Kuroki Tsuneo and his wife, Akemi. Her parents were their son's godparents and designated guardians if anything were to ever happen to them. Now, as with everything else that Kagome had inherited from them, she had inherited that duty too.

 

Tsuneo and Akemi had been found in their kitchen, fatally stabbed multiple times in the chest, and ultimately beheaded, their heads absent from the room, only to be found upstairs in their bedroom. Kagome's stomach churned at the thought of seeing her parents' best friends sans body or head. She was only thankful that Shippou had not been home that night; instead out at a friend's slumber party. The neighbours had heard the attack and had called the police, but it was too late. The police had burst into the house, only to find that they had already been killed, and the killer had escaped. Since the family was of some importance, a special squad had been assigned to investigate the murder. Kagome really hoped they caught the bastards.

 

Pulling up at her home at eleven fifteen that night, all the lights were out in the house. The stop had roused the small four year old behind her, who began whimpering immediately. Hurrying out of the car and toward the backseat, Kagome gathered him up in her arms, whispering comforting words and stroking his hair. She picked him up and carried him inside, taking him directly upstairs to Souta's room. Normally, she would have objected to waking him, but felt that it was necessary to keep Shippou at any sort of peace. Souta and Shippou, barely a year apart, had always been good friends; Kagome hoped that being with a friend could calm the child a little.

 

“Souta?” She knelt down by the bed, one arm supporting the child clutching at her, the other hand gently shaking her brother to wake him.

 

Sleepily, Souta rolled over to face his sister. Groggily seeing the red-headed child in her grasp, he sat up and asked “What wrong, `Nee-chan?”, rubbing his eyes sleepily.

 

“Shippou-chan is very scared and upset.” Kagome said softly, still stroking his hair. “I need you to look after him for me tonight, ok?”

 

“Ok, `Nee-chan.” Souta yawned, scooting over to make room in his bed for the smaller boy. Kagome gently coaxed the now-sleeping child in next to his friend, stroking his hair and smiling appreciatively at her brother as he wrapped his arms around Shippou in friendly support. Whispering something about coming back in the morning, Kagome stood and left, quietly closing the door behind her.

 

Downstairs, she found her sister and grandfather asleep in front of the television; the glow from said appliance was drowned out as Kagome flicked the light on, starting the waking process of the two people on the lounge. Kagome shaking each of them by the shoulder and calling their names completed the process. Once they were both wide-awake and fully receptive, Kagome launched into her explanation, telling them of the murder and that Shippou would now be living with them. Sitting in silence for several minutes, Kikyou eventually stood up quietly, excusing herself for a glass of water and then bed.

 

As Kikyou's footfalls disappeared up the stairs, Kagome slumped back in the armchair, her grandfather's gaze fixed upon her. Oblivious to the attention, the dam that kept Kagome's emotions in check finally crumbled; she had not cried since the night that her parents had died. It felt strangely calming to finally let it all out and become a blubbering heap of flesh as her grandfather held her. All the tension, all the anger, all the stress of the past few months had finally unleashed itself. Jii-chan, knowing better than to say anything, simply holding her as she blubbered nonsense.

 

Kagome dragged herself up to bed when she had finally settled down. Finally, emotionally drained and completely exhausted, she drifted off to sleep.

 

OoOoOoOoOoO

 

Inuyasha bristled at the scene.

 

From what he could tell, this wasn't the first of many killings that the Japanese Government had merely covered up. There were no plans to release the real circumstances to the media; the details of what had happened being completely altered from what had actually occurred in order to be released in the news to the human public.

 

Kuroki Tsuneo and Akemi were good people, he thought with a glare as he stared at their desecrated corpses. They had yet to be removed from the premises as he, Sesshoumaru, Kaede, Miroku, Sango, and Kohaku scoured the scene. As far as they could tell, they must have done something to anger someone. Tsuneo had been subdued first, trying to protect his mate from their assailants, only to be bound using youki-enforced leather straps and forced to watch as his mate had been raped repeatedly. Inuyasha could smell the anger and the horror that Tsuneo still smelt of, even several hours after his death. Akemi still reeked of fear, pain and shame, with the stench of her attackers still all over her.

 

“Was it the same attackers as the last lot?” Inuyasha nodded to Miroku's question, still staring at the kitsune in his true form. They had spent five hours at the scene, and neither Inuyasha nor his brother had been able to identify which direction the attackers had sped off in. It was almost as if they could fly. Inuyasha scowled. It would be just his luck that they could.

 

“Where is their cub?” Sango asked cautiously, not have had found any sign of him.

 

Inuyasha checked the notes that he had been given by the youkai police that had originally assigned them. “With his new guardian. She took him home shortly after… oh, fuck.” He glanced up at Kaede. “You, me, Sango, and the bouzo are making a house call tomorrow, Kaede-baba.” He left no room for argument. “The woman that has him doesn't know about our world.”

 

“Then why allow her to care for the cub?” Kaede frowned. “Surely there are other youkai families that are willing to take him in?”

 

Inuyasha checked the notes again. “It was their wish that he go to this woman's parents, but since they died and Tsuneo-san and Akemi-san hadn't had time to change the will yet, the responsibility automatically fell on their eldest daughter's shoulders. Apparently they were his godparents or whatever.” He grumbled, flipping through the notes once again. “Her name's Higurashi Kagome.”

 

“Your secretary?” Sango squeaked.

 

“Yes.”

 

Miroku frowned. “That means he's living in the same house as Kikyou-sama, yes?”

 

“Yes.”

 

All three of them contemplated each other. It was Kaede that eventually broke the silence, stating, “Well, then we must ensure that the rest of the members of their household know of the youkai world. I have heard much on the subject of Higurashi Kagome from Kikyou-san. I only hope that none of it is true. I fail to see how someone so horrible could have cared enough about her siblings to take them in and raise them after the untimely demise of their parents.”

 

“Trust us, she'd nothing like Kikyou-chan makes her out to be.” Sango commented, her ears turning red. “I am ashamed to have listened to a single word Kikyou said about her.”

 

“Everyone knows where the Higurashi Shrine is, correct?” Inuyasha barked. Startled, the three of them nodded. “Right, well, we'll all meet there at seven in the morning. I've gotta get outta here; my nose is starting to get irritated.” And, with that, Inuyasha stalked out of the house and into the fresh air.

 

“Higurashi-san is going to freak out.” Sango commented.

 

“I agree.” Miroku nodded.

 

“Perhaps it would be wise to keep Kikyou-san nearby while we explain. Perhaps she would have more luck than we.” Kaede suggested.

 

“No,” Miroku shook his head, “that's possibly the worst mistake we could make regarding her.” He sighed. “I am weary; I shall see you at the shrine in the morning.”

 

With goodbyes said, the group parted, on their way home. In their absence, the cleanup of the house began.