InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ The Centre ❯ Assignments ( Chapter 9 )

Chapter Nine: Assignments

 

 

They made it back just in time… well, sort of.

 

Inuyasha, panting slightly, turned sharply and skidded into the lavish waiting room, nearly dislodging Kagome from his back as he abruptly stopped. Trying to peer over his wind-tangled hair, Kagome wasn't prepared for him to suddenly dump her unceremoniously to the floor.

 

“Gah! Inuyasha, you—”

 

“Kagome!”

 

The dark-haired girl scrambled hastily to her feet as Arika bounded over and grabbed her in a fierce hug. “Arika—! Hi! Um… what are you doing in here?”

 

Arika pulled away from Kagome and gave her a strange look. “This is where all the Bonded partners go,” she said slowly, her eyes taking in her friend's disheveled appearance. “Just where exactly were you?”

 

“Oh! Uh…” Kagome mentally kicked herself for making Arika suspicious. “We were…”

 

“Changing,” Inuyasha finished, unexpectedly coming to her rescue. He glared at Arika as though daring her to contradict him.

 

“Oh, right.” Arika's customary smile returned as she swallowed the lie easily. “We had trouble finding the bathrooms too.”

 

“We?” Kagome looked around the room for the first time since entering and saw several other students lounging in the heavy wooden chairs, their gazes fixed on her and Inuyasha. She gave a nervous smile, which most of them returned.

 

“Yeah,” Arika continued happily, oblivious to Kagome's nerves, “me and Nari!” She turned to look over her shoulder. “Nari, come here and meet my friends!”

 

One of the sitting demons moved sinuously to her feet, her long braid swinging as she walked over to the small group. Pale lips tilting politely upwards, the demon nodded to Kagome.

 

“It is a pleasure to meet you.”

 

Kagome smiled back, awed by the inhuman beauty of the woman before her. “Nice to meet you too!”

 

The demon's half-smile vanished as she turned to Inuyasha. “I thought I smelled a half-breed.”

 

Inuyasha smirked. He could tell the thunder demon was remembering their weapons practice and her less-than-graceful defeat. “Get used to it. I'm going to be around for a long time.”

 

Nari sniffed and turned her attention back to her partner, who was currently chattering away to Kagome about the Bonding process.

 

“—was really difficult, going into someone else's body and finding their spirit, wasn't it? I almost got lost halfway through, but then I just forced myself to relax and feel for the resonance or whatever. I can't believe you were the strongest miko of our year, Kagome! You must be so happy!” Arika paused, gaze darting to Inuyasha and back before adding, “For more reasons than one, that is.”

 

“Arika!” Kagome hissed. She could feel her cheeks turning pink and determinedly kept her gaze away from the hanyou beside her.

 

Inuyasha merely looked puzzled by all this girl talk, while Nari—who, despite being a demon, was still female—looked faintly disgusted by idea of anyone looking at Inuyasha in that way. Suddenly, both demons stiffened.

 

“Here come the rest of them,” Inuyasha muttered, just as the door leading to the Room of Divine Unity swung open and a flood of mikos and demons poured in.

 

Kagome instinctively shrunk in on herself, her claustrophobia threatening to return as people pressed against her, crowding together in order to fit into the smaller room. She knew her fear was irrational, but it wasn't something she could help, especially when she was still feeling the adrenaline from their little detour into that office. Trying to focus on breathing, she jumped when a hand came down on her shoulder.

 

“Sheesh, calm down, will ya? You're making me twitch.” Inuyasha's fingers tightened around her shoulder and Kagome instinctively straightened. “This Bond thing is gonna be a frickin' pain if even your nerves get passed on to me.”

 

Right, `cause you're not scared of anything, Kagome thought sarcastically, glancing up at the hanyou's impassive face. If I so much as created a spark with my powers, you'd go running with your tail between your legs… Still, the phobia that had been slowly growing in her chest died away as his hand continued it's reassuring pressure.

 

Inuyasha, feeling her gaze on him, looked down with an eyebrow quirked. Kagome forced herself to meet those intense golden eyes, determined not to blush and look away this time, but was secretly relieved when Kagura's distinctive voice allowed her to break the staring contest and turn to the doorway.

 

“Alright, quiet down. I said quiet!” A sudden blast of cold air shot around the room, knocking down several unwary students as the rest hurriedly shut up. Kagura snapped her fan shut, coolly surveying the mass of bodies packed into the waiting room. “That's better. Now, normally after the Bonding ceremony comes the traditional celebration—” her mouth twisted contemptuously around the word “—but since this particular graduation was put together in less than a day, I'm afraid there will be no feasting or dancing for you unfortunates.”

 

Most of the girls in the room let out disappointed sighs, while the boys exchanged relieved glances—anything to avoid awkwardly shuffling around a large hall with crazy females.

 

Kagura flicked her fan lazily and the murmurs dissipated. “With all of the formalities and ceremony out of the way, we can get straight to business,” she announced. “Each Bonded pair will be assigned a superior officer who will act as your informant, instructor, and occasionally teammate. You will report back to him or her at the end of each mission given to you.”

 

The wind demon's crimson eyes suddenly grew hard. “You will never release information about your missions to anyone other than your partner and superior. You will not interact with other Bonded pairs beyond what is necessary. You have been trained here at the Centre for one purpose, honed and sharpened until you are ready to perform the task required of you. Granted, you would normally have spent several more years in training, but we cannot alter the circumstances we find ourselves in. Your youth and inexperience are no excuse for failure.”

 

Again, a grim silence descended upon the crowd as Kagura paused. Kagome was glad of Inuyasha's warm hand on her shoulder.

 

“That is all for now,” Kagura concluded. “Those of you who have not already done so, change out of your student clothing. Your superiors will contact you sometime before tomorrow and give you your first task.”

 

There was a miniature stampede as everyone rushed towards the opposite door, eager to escape the tense atmosphere that pervaded the room. Kagome didn't protest when Inuyasha shoved his way through the crowd, leaving a people-free path behind him that she quickly followed. They didn't speak until they were in the long corridor outside the waiting room.

 

“So… now what?” Kagome asked, watching the others drift off to various parts of the Centre. Arika and Nari had disappeared.

 

Inuyasha shrugged, shifting restlessly. He didn't seem to want to stand still, perhaps unsettled by Kagura's words.

 

“Please forgive my intrusion, but I have been instructed to show you to your new quarters.” The voice was quiet and male, belonging to a slender man of about thirty. His clothes were the spotless, plain grey tunic and leggings of the indoor servants—no field labour for this one.

 

“New quarters?” That seemed to have caught Inuyasha's attention. “What d'you mean?”

 

“You are no longer a student, sir. You and the lady now receive new quarters together,” the man explained patiently, never removing his gaze from the floor.

 

“Together?!” Inuyasha began loudly, but Kagome wisely cut him off before he could really get going.

 

“Come on, Inuyasha, there's nothing we can do about it. We're soldiers now—adults, in the eyes of everyone here. Or are you too immature to handle something as stupid as sleeping arrangements?” she added, purposely digging at his ego.

 

“Wha—? I'm not immature!”

 

“Then come on,” Kagome said, grabbing the hanyou's arm before he could protest. “Please, show us the way to our rooms,” she added to the servant, who nodded and began walking down the corridor.

 

Kagome followed the quiet man, half-leading and half-dragging a spluttering Inuyasha after her.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Their new room was much larger and more luxurious than their old ones, Kagome thought happily. She was lying on one of the two beds pushed against opposite walls, having exchanged her kimono for comfortable drawstring pants and a loose sleeping shirt. The discarded clothing lay folded on a nearby armchair, next to a simple wooden chest. Warm candlelight shone softly throughout the room from several wall sconces, bathing Kagome in a gold-orange glow and sparkling along the surface of the crystalline shard in her hands.

 

“I wonder what it is,” she mused aloud, mindful of the fragment's sharp edges as she turned it over with the tips of her fingers.

 

“Who cares?” came the bored reply from the other side of the room. Inuyasha put his hands behind his head, moving until he found a comfortable position on his bed. He was clad in the same dull-coloured pants as her, with a baggy white t-shirt covering his lean torso. Unlike Kagome's neatly folded clothes, his red fire rat garb had been tossed carelessly into a corner. “It's probably just some worthless old relic,” he continued nonchalantly, crossing one leg over the other so that his foot stuck out in the air. “I mean, look how easily it broke.”

 

Kagome bit back the retort that sprang to her lips. She could tell that this was a sensitive subject for Inuyasha, after the way the orb had shattered at his touch. “It's definitely old, but I don't think it's worthless,” she said, moderating her tone; the last thing she wanted was to start another stupid argument with her new partner.

 

Inuyasha made a disinterested sound and rolled over onto his side. “Whatever. I'm going to sleep.”

 

“But we haven't heard from our superior yet!” Kagome protested, alarmed at the prospect of meeting some unknown authority on her own.

 

“Yeah, well, it's been nearly six hours since the Bonding ceremony. I doubt that anyone will bother contacting us in the middle of the night, since they're obviously too lazy to do it during the day.”

 

Kagome threw a narrow-eyed look at the white-haired form draped across the other bed. “Fine then, go to sleep.” She flicked her fingers in his direction irritably and the candles positioned around his half of the room flared and died out in a small puff of blue light.

 

Inuyasha let out a stifled curse and flinched away from the wall sconces, almost falling off his bed in the process. He turned to eye Kagome balefully over one shoulder, his golden gaze the only part of his face visible in the weak moonlight shining through the window. For some reason, the sight caused a weird twist in Kagome's stomach that wasn't altogether unpleasant.

 

“Partners or not, the next time you pull something like that I'll get revenge,” he warned lowly, his tone light but his eyes serious.

 

“Oh yeah?” Kagome replied, the knot in her stomach tightening and making her voice just a hair more breathless than it should be.

 

“Yeah.” Inuyasha held her gaze menacingly for a moment longer before rolling back over.

 

Kagome made a face at his back but quickly wiped her expression blank when one of his ears twitched in her direction. Sighing loudly, she squirmed around under the covers until she was comfortable. The shard glinted purple-white in the patch of moonlight sprawled across her sheets, and she let her eyelids drift downwards in sleepy contentment, watching the light swirl inside the crystal. With her eyes half-closed, Kagome suddenly frowned as an odd shape drifted across one of the shard's jagged edges. She squinted and the shape became clearer.

 

“ `Courage'…?” she read hesitantly, watching the character swirl in front of her eyes again.

 

“Now what are you babbling about?” Inuyasha asked irritably, shifting to face her in the semi-darkness.

 

“There's a word in the jewel shard,” Kagome said, immediately realizing how foolish that sounded. She glanced back at the shard but the character had disappeared as soon as she'd fully opened her eyes.

 

“A word, huh.” The hanyou snorted. “That's the stupidest thing you've said since… well, since the last stupid thing you said.”

 

“It's true!” Kagome said defensively. Knowing he would never believe her unless she showed him, she pushed off her covers and padded over to his bedside. She made sure the shard was visible in the moonlight before saying, “You have to squint to see it.”

 

Inuyasha seemed edgy with her proximity—some weird byproduct of the darkness and their loose clothes and the beds, perhaps—and for some reason it made Kagome feel superior. She instinctively leaned closer and had trouble stifling a girlish giggle as the hanyou quickly focused his gaze on the glowing fragment in her hand, squinting so hard that his eyes looked closed.

 

“You're right,” he said after a few seconds, sounding surprised.

 

“You don't have to sound so shocked,” Kagome retorted, insulted.

 

Inuyasha didn't reply, still focusing on the shard. “There's something about this… the shard and the word… I remember hearing about it before.” His voice was distant, as if he were speaking from far away.

 

Kagome slowly drew in her breath, not wanting to jolt the half-demon out of his reverie. He looked like he had kneeling in front of the fireplace, in front of those swords.

 

“A fairytale… or a legend, maybe? I can't remember. Something about a jewel, and a princess… no, a priestess, that's it. There's a demon army, and a battle…”

 

Kagome leaned closer, listening intently. The story did sound familiar, now that she thought about it. Maybe it was something her grandfather had told her as a child; he was always spouting off legends and myths, wanting his granddaughter to be proud of her ancestry.

 

“Courage,” Inuyasha mused, staring through the glittering shard into some hazy memory.

 

They both jerked when a cold gust of wind rattled its way through the window, thwacking their foreheads together painfully. The remaining candles went out in a whisper of smoke.

 

Rubbing her forehead and listening with a certain fascination as Inuyasha reinvented a few swear words, Kagome wasn't prepared for Kagura's voice to sound right next to her.

 

“Well, isn't this an adorable picture.”

 

Kagome twisted around, her eyes searching through the soft blackness of the room to latch onto Kagura's slender form. Beside her, Inuyasha's mutters cut off with a sharp hiss.

 

Kagura's smirk was only visible through the white flash of her teeth. “I see you two didn't waste any time getting to know one another. I don't know why Naraku—sorry, the Headmaster—insists on the Bonded partners bunking together, but who am I to argue?” The thin smile suddenly vanished. “What's that?”

 

What…? For a split second, Kagome's mind was a blank. Then a small glimmer caught her eye. The shard! Instinctively, she blocked the fragment from Kagura's sight with her body, grabbing it out of Inuyasha's hand as discretely as she could.

 

“Miko, what was that light?” Kagura repeated, impatience threading its way through her tone.

 

Kagome somehow managed not to stammer in her reply; she'd never been very good at lying. “Magic. I was showing Inuyasha… showing my partner something I had learned.” If she finds out that we broke that orb, we're dead…

 

Surprisingly, Kagura seemed to accept her answer, although her expression had gone curiously blank for a moment. Idly fanning herself, she looked the two of them over. “Well? Do you have any idea why I'm here?”

 

“You're our handler,” Inuyasha said lowly. He sat up, keeping his eyes on the wind sorceress.

 

“Very good,” Kagura said mockingly. “No wonder you two were the best of your group.” Her tone became more serious, though it never lost its harsh edge. “And that means I'm here to give you your first assignment. You are to deliver this to a man named “H” in the lower east side of the city. Ask any of the residents and they will tell you how to find him. Do not open the package. Do you understand?”

 

Kagome stared uncertainly at the thick, brown envelope Kagura produced from somewhere in her sleeve. She didn't like the sound of any of this. Inuyasha must have picked up on her nervousness because he reached past her to take the envelope with a terse, “We'll do it.”

 

“Of course you will.” Kagura's smile was as hard as her tilted crimson eyes. “Report back to me within the next three days. And remember: don't open the package.”

 

This time Kagome was expecting the blast of wind, and was able to cover her face as it gusted around the room. When she opened her eyes again, Kagura was gone. She turned to Inuyasha, who was examining the unmarked envelope with long, clawed fingers.

 

“I don't like this,” Kagome told him, deciding to be blunt. “This isn't the kind of assignment I was expecting.”

 

Inuyasha gave her a scornful look. “What, were you expecting a tea party? We're soldiers; adults, as you so kindly reminded me earlier. We get the jobs that the higher ups don't want to dirty their hands with.”

 

“Are you saying we're criminals?” Kagome asked, shocked.

 

“Does it matter what it's called?” Inuyasha smiled bleakly. “We're sure as hell not normal people. What else is there?”

 

Kagome stared at him, feeling her conviction crumble in the face of his hollow words. “It… it can't all be black and white like that. There's got to be some kind of middle ground.”

 

Inuyasha lay back, eyes fixed on the roof. “In my experience, people are either bad or worse. Those that aren't haven't had to face reality yet.”

 

“Inuyasha—”

 

“We've got three days to deliver this package. Let's get some sleep and then start out tomorrow morning. Who knows how long it'll take to find this “H” person.” The hanyou slid the envelope under his pillow before shifting onto his side, his back to Kagome.

 

She sighed, slowly standing and going back to her own bed. As she pulled the covers up to her chin, she felt something sharp bite into her palm and remembered she still had the shard. So much to think about, she thought wearily, watching the colours filter through the glittering crystal. Her gaze slid past the purple fragment to rest on Inuyasha's back. He's so bitter… something, or someone, must have hurt him. Letting her eyes drift shut, Kagome's fist tightened around the shard. People aren't all bad. I know it. And I'm going to prove it to him.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

A/N: It's been what… a year since I last updated? Sheesh, I gotta be the laziest person around. I don't suppose “sorry” would work…? T_T Didn't think so. Anyway, for anyone still following this fic (though I don't blame you if you gave up long ago…) I hope I can start updating semi-regularly(ish) again. More action next chapter? God, I hope so >_<