InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Zero-G ❯ Time Gentlemen Please ( Chapter 12 )

Author's Notes: Purple monkeys have stolen my brain and are holding to ransom. The following chapter is the result of a penniless girl without a brain - please excuse the craptastic-ness of it. (Oh come on, no one ever reads these things!)

 

 

Zero-G

Chapter Eleven

Time Gentleman Please

 

 

 

 

 

It was a miracle that Inuyasha hadn't dropped the brat off the motorcycle with the way he was wiggling and straining to get loose. The hanyou kept the boy locked under his arm, ignoring his endless stream of verbal abuse as he dragged Souta up the stairwell of his flat.

“-and then they'll put you on trial - and then they'll execute you - and then you'll go to Hell - but they won't like you there because you're way too evil for even them - and so you'll go to Hell-Hell, you big paedophile!”

Inuyasha groaned. “Will you please stop saying that?”

“I will if you let me go!”

“No deal.”

Just as he was reaching out to enter his apartment, the door across the hall creaked open. “What's all this screaming?” croaked the old, batty neighbour who held a cat under her arm in a similar fashion to the way Inuyasha was holding Souta.

“Just bringing my little brother home, Mrs Saito.” Inuyasha clapped a hand over Souta's mouth to keep him from screaming for help. “You know how kids these days just love school.”

“Your brother?” the cat woman echoed. “I thought you said that your brother died in the-”

“Yes, that was the other brother.” Inuyasha backed towards his apartment, gazing longing at the door.

“You don't look much alike,” she noted.

“Yeah… my mother was a busy woman,” he murmured while struggling to find a third hand to open his door. “Uh, Mrs Saito - do I hear Stinky yowling for you?”

“Stinky?” The old woman blinked at him, confused, before pottering back into her flat. “Stinky?”

Breathing a heavy sigh of relief, Inuyasha relaxed his hold on the small boy and opened the door. Souta wasn't even given the chance to throw another expletive at Inuyasha before he was shoved into the flat. Inside, a teenage girl jumped up from the sofa with a gasp.

Souta gaped in shock. “Kagome?”

His sister swallowed hard. “Souta…”

Inuyasha looked at the kitchen worktop. “Orange juice!”

Kagome graced the hanyou with an irritated glare as he abandoned her to face Souta alone. Looking at her brother, she could see the shock imprinted on his face. He looked like he was torn between the urge to scream and the urge to run away as quickly as possible. Did he believe what he was seeing? Maybe he thought he was looking at a ghost, and that was why he seemed so pale? What did she do now?

“Souta…?” She tried to ignore the distracting sounds of Inuyasha helping himself to juice as she held out her arms. She smiled nervously at her little brother. “It's me, Kagome.”

Souta shook his head, staring at her with fascination. “Kagome's dead.”

“No - no, I'm not!” Kagome patted herself. “See? I'm fine. I'm standing right here.”

“I went to her funeral.” Souta continued, as if talking to someone else. “I saw her body. My sister is dead.”

“Souta!” Kagome laughed in disbelief and began moving towards him, intending to embrace him and show him the truth. But the boy took a hasty step backwards, glaring at her like a stranger. Kagome frowned. “It's ok, Souta. There's been a mix-up… but it's alright. I'm alive and fine. Look at me.”

Souta looked, but wasn't sure what he was looking at. She looked like his sister - she even talked like her. But he'd been to the funeral, he'd seen the body, and everyone had said that his sister was dead. He'd even been warned to hold onto that memory of her pushing him through the school gates on Wednesday morning because that was the last memory he'd ever have of her being alive. His sister was an urn of ashes, and that was that.

So who was this girl?

She wore a short, straight-cut dress with white and grey horizontal bands stretching across the material. Kagome had never worn such clothes. This girl smelt of jasmine and soap, but Kagome had never owned perfume like that before. Waves of black curls settled on the girl's shoulders like she'd simply stepped out the shower and let it dry naturally, but Souta was sure that Kagome always used an iron to control her hair.

This couldn't be Kagome.

But it couldn't have been anyone else either…

She moved towards him again, kneeling down in front of him. With mixed feelings, Souta allowed her to draw her arms around him to pull him into a loose embrace, even though he could sense that she was holding back. She touched the back of his head the way Kagome always did when she held him… however, it was the beauty mark beneath her left ear that gave her away. How many times had Souta glimpsed that small brown dot when his sister had pulled him into an embrace? He'd never dwelt on it till now.

It was as if someone had just pulled the bones from his body, and with a flicker of his eyelids, he relaxed into her arms. They tightened around him with the same fierce protectiveness that his sister always offered, and it was strange… because he'd already adjusted to the fact that his sister would never hold him again.

Wobbling a little, Souta pulled out of her arms. “Kagome…?”

She beamed at him with tremulous eyes. “Yes?”

“I'm going to be sick.”

……………..

Souta was sick. Several times, in fact. Inuyasha had only just managed to aim the child over the lavatory before he'd started honking up his school dinner. Kagome hovered over her brother the entire time, wondering if revealing herself to Souta in such a fashion had been such a good idea after all. She seemed to have shocked him to the point of physical sickness.

It didn't last long though, and soon he was happily guzzling down orange juice while relating everything that had happened to the family since Kagome's disappearance.

“Then Uncle Shinsui kept offering us money, and I said that we should take it but Mama kept saying no, but he went ahead and bought me a Playstation 4 anyway.” Souta paused to take breath. “And Kikyo was always around, talking to Mama and that, and she was sleeping in your room so every night she kept telling me off for playing my games too loudly because she wanted to sleep, but I don't know why she was even staying with us because, you know, she already owns that hotel, doesn't she?”

“Mm.” Kagome wasn't really paying attention to what he was saying. She just basked in his presence and absorbed his familiar voice like a sponge that had been deprived of moisture for too long.

Souta set his empty glass of juice back down on the table. “So why didn't you come and tell us that you were ok?” he demanded, a new tone of reproach entering his voice. “Everyone's been such a pain to live with recently because they're all moping around. And maybe I wouldn't have to put up with Kikyo all the time…”

This was the hard part. Kagome took a deep breath and examined her hands awkwardly as she tried to think of the best way to get the message across to him. “It's complicated, Souta,” she began slowly. “You do know that someone tried to kill me, right?”

Souta frowned in confusion. “But I thought it was a mistake - that other girl got killed, didn't she?”

Kagome shook her head. “The night that I went missing… someone attacked me and left me to die. By some… freak misunderstanding… that other girl was mistaken for me.” She shrugged helplessly. “I don't know who she was, she was just unlucky to die the same night I was attacked, I guess. Inuyasha here was the one who saved my life.”

Souta turned a doubtful gaze on the hanyou that was watching television and meticulously trying to avoid getting involved. “Him?” the ten year old muttered in disbelief.

“He found me in the canal and brought me here. He basically nursed me back to health… although `nursing' doesn't seem very accurate.”

“You wound me.” Inuyasha drawled from the sofa, admiring a pair of scantily clad actresses on the television screen.

Kagome dismissed him with a flick of her hand. “Anyway… where was I? Oh yeah - Inuyasha was the one who saved me, so you can trust him. He's a good guy.”

Souta looked more guilty now. “Right…” He glanced at Inuyasha briefly. “Sorry about that whole… calling you a paedophile thing…”

Inuyasha shrugged. “The damage has been done. He gave a tormented sigh. “Life is so cruel to me.”

Souta followed Kagome's example of ignoring the hanyou's dramatics. “But that still doesn't explain why you couldn't come back to us,” he pointed out. “In fact - why did you bring me here to tell me all this? Why couldn't you have come back to the shrine.”

There was only one way to say it. “Because Kikyo was the one who tried to kill me.”

Souta stared at her. Inuyasha's eyes were still on the TV, but Kagome had the feeling that his ears were trained on their conversation entirely. She watched her little brother anxiously, waiting to see his reaction to this news. But Souta had always been on the sceptical side…

“Are you sure?” He pursed his lips. “That sounds kinda… well, kinda stupid.”

Kagome pressed her fingers hard against the kitchen table as if she could let her tension and nerves soak away into the wood. “It's the truth,” she told him shortly. “You know G-Force? Well, it's actually Zero-G. Kikyo ordered people to kill me so that she could take the research and the formula and claim it as her own.”

Souta gasped. “Kikyo would never do that!”

Kagome stared at him hard.

“Ok…” He shifted self-consciously. “That is the kind of thing that she does a lot… but this is way beyond what she's done in the past.”

“Yeah, well, all killers and megalomaniacs start small before doing the big stuff.” Kagome muttered. “But the point is: I can't go back home because the moment Kikyo realises that I'm alive, she'll quite possibly try and kill me again just to keep me quiet. I may not be so lucky next time.”

Souta had gone terribly pale again, and Kagome wondered if he was going to throw up for a fourth time. But the boy managed to steel himself. He gazed at the table with a hard stare, probably trying to sort out all the new information Kagome had given him. “Ok…” he finally breathed. “Ok, so if that's true… then what are we supposed to do about it?”

“Go home and tell Mama.” Kagome caught his hand in hers and locked eyes with him. “But you have to make it clear to her that this does not go beyond you, her and Grandpa. Kikyo can't find out that I'm still alive because she'll kill me, do you understand?”

Souta still didn't seem convinced. In fact, he was looking at her as if she'd lost her marbles. He spared a quick glance in Inuyasha's direction, only to see the hanyou watching him just as closely as Kagome. With a gulp, he turned back to his sister. “But this seems too weird… what if you've just bumped your head and gone all crazy?”

“I'm not crazy!” Kagome gripped his hands more tightly.

“Yeah - well you sound like you're reciting some stupid plot from a movie!” he shot back, pulling his hands free. “Things like this only happen to movie stars and other people! That's what you told me, remember?” He suddenly began mimicking her voice. “Things like that only happen to other people, Souta. Trust me!”

“Well, I was wrong!” she exploded. “It has happened to me, and I need your help!”

“How am I supposed to help you?!” he shouted.

The lampshade on the ceiling light clattered as someone banged on the floor above them. A muffled voice could be heard yelling, “Keep the noise down!”.

“You might want to listen to that guy,” Inuyasha told them idly, sipping his orange juice. “Rumour has it that he owns a gun.”

Instantly, the two siblings hushed their heated debate.

“You have to believe me, Souta.” Kagome told him evenly. “Kikyo killed me to steal Grandma's formula. Haven't you noticed that G-Force does all the things that Zero-G is supposed to do? Don't you think it's odd that I was killed by some random mugger a few days before Kikyo announced that she's come up with a miracle anti-wrinkle formula?”

“Well, I knew you were working on Grandma's formula,” Souta admitted thoughtfully, “but I don't know about beauty and stuff… it's all the same to me. Kikyo's always coming out with new products for her company.”

“Yeah, and I wonder how many of those were ripped off other people as well?” Kagome sighed and stood up to move around the table and fold her arms around her brother, needing to feel his warmth and smell the same old sickly sweet smell of chocolate that he always seemed to carry around. “Tell Mama that I'm alive. Tell Grandpa. And make sure that they know about Kikyo, and make sure that they don't tell anyone else. It could mean all our lives if the truth finds Kikyo. She's already tried to kill me, so I doubt a few more family murders would smear her conscience.”

Souta looked pained. “I think you need a doctor, Kagome…”

She let loose a frustrated gasp. “I'm fine.”

“I can see the bruise on your scalp from here,” he said, staring at her hairline.

Kagome raised a hand to her head awkwardly. She could still feel the lump from where she'd been hit by that rock.

Rock? The teenager blinked for a moment as she tried to understand how she knew it was a rock that had brained her. She wasn't at all sure just how she remembered. She only had the strong sense of a rock coming down upon her head from the front - as if she'd been facing her attacker. Kagome tried to recall more detail, but her mind drew a blank.

Shaking her head, Kagome smiled weakly at her brother. “Don't worry about it. I'm fine.”

“Are you sure?” he pressed. “I watched this program on TV the other night about this woman who had been hit over the head with a steel pipe, and she seemed fine, and she was walking around all day like normal until suddenly she keeled over and died because there was blood in her brain, and it had only been a matter of time before it killed her because-”

“Alright, I get the picture!” Great… now she'd be waiting for an aneurysm to hit her for the rest of her life. “I'm perfectly fine. Inuyasha took good care of me and-”

“And why are your legs burnt?” Souta pointed out.

Kagome looked down at her calves. “Oh… a bomb went off with me standing next to it,” she shrugged.

Suddenly, Souta gasped. “Wait - you're the Kangaroo Lady!” Then just as quickly, he was outraged. “You came to your own funeral pretending to be an Australian!”

“I went to see you guys and to spy on Kikyo!” Kagome shot back before giving him a sound clip around the ear.

“Ow!”

“And that's for being rude to an Australian,” she admonished. “Anyway, I'm glad I went because I found out lots of interesting things about Kikyo - like the fact that she's threatening people over the phone.”

Souta rubbed his ear. “Are you sure?”

“Yes!” Kagome wanted to wrap her fingers around his scrawny neck and wring common sense into him. In retrospect, she wondered if this was how Inuyasha felt when he'd been trying to convince her of the truth as well. “Kikyo is out to get me, and the only reason I'm talking to you is because I don't want to see my family suffer needlessly.”

Souta looked down, humbled a little.

“Do you understand?” she demanded sharply. “You can't tell anyone else about this.”

“I-I…” he stammered a little before clearing his throat. “I understand. I won't tell anyone expect for Mama and Grandpa.”

“Good.” Kagome glanced at her watch. “You have to go back to school now so that no one knows you've been here. If Kikyo found out-”

“She'd kill everyone. Got it.” Souta said drolly, as if he'd been told this a hundred times.

“Right.” She helped him down from the chair as Inuyasha dragged himself reluctantly off the sofa, jangling his bike's keys in his hand.

“Wait.” Souta stopped short. “And then what? What happens after I tell them? You'll come back to us, right?”

Kagome frowned slightly and gave her brother a helpless shrug. “I don't think I can… not now anyway. We have to sort out the matter with Kikyo first.”

Souta seemed unsure. “But…”

“I will come home again, Souta.” Kagome squeezed his shoulder with a smile. “But until I do, you guys have to keep looking like you're grieving.”

Souta sighed loudly, expressing his annoyance. “Fine. But don't be too long.”

“Time's up, brat.” Inuyasha broke between them and grabbed Souta by the scruff of his clothes to steer him towards the door. “Kagome, I'm going to work after I drop your brother off, so feel free to go out - but just remember what I said-”

“No going where anyone will recognise me.” She caught Souta's eye and raised her fingers to her head as if aiming a gun at her temple with the `kill me now' joke that they often shared whenever their mother lectured one of them. Souta giggled, but Inuyasha didn't see Kagome's gesture and proceeded to drag him out of the flat.

After a moment, the front door had shut again and Kagome was alone. She pressed her fingers against her mouth and collapsed on the sofa with a shuddering breath, feeling drained and empty now that her brother had gone. To fill the void, she turned on the television. The only mildly interesting program on the air was a news bulletin, but at least it kept Kagome from feeling totally alone.

While the droning voice of the newsreader filled the apartment, the teenager attempted to busy herself in order to take her mind off her family. She wasn't totally successful, but at least it spurred her to finally clean out Inuyasha's fridge.

As suspected, there was indeed some form of fungal civilisation growing in the depths of the bafflingly warm refrigerator. Half of the food was contaminated with mould while the rest was withered and slightly soggy. Kagome threw everything away - save for the milk she'd bought that morning - and set to work scrubbing the glass shelves.

Meanwhile, the television continued to twitter behind her. “Twelve people were killed in the terrorist attack on a police station…”

Kagome sneezed as she inhaled some of the fungal spores she was trying to clean out.

“Sango Hara remains missing. Her father, chief of police, is asking for anyone with any information to come forward. No group has admitted to the kidnapping, but Coalescence involvement is suspected.”

A sigh escaped Kagome's lips. There was never any such thing as `good news' anymore.

“The two owners of the Mori & Morita chain of restaurants were murdered earlier this morning. Both men had apparently borrowed money from the Coalescence three months ago. Police suspect that the terrorist group had a hand in their deaths.”

Was this what her death had been? Just another name on the list of people dead by Coalescence hands?

“Police Superintendent Daisuke Hoshi, father of the recently deceased Miroku Hoshi and close personal friend of the chief of police, was found murdered in his home late last night.”

Kagome's attention clapped onto the television, her hands freezing in their work.

“Daisuke Hoshi was heading the investigation into the Coalescence, but late last night he was found dead by his wife. Hoshi died from multiple stab wounds to the throat and torso, but the perpetrator is still at large. Police suspect Coalescence involvement.”

The glass shelf from the fridge that Kagome had been scrubbing was dropped promptly into the sink with a clatter. Without thinking, she shoved open the window with slimy hands and threw the shrivelled flowers and their pots out of the window box in her effort to find what lay beneath them.

She snapped the black book open to the last page and stared blankly at the list of names.

Someone had crossed out Daisuke Hoshi.

It was only when Kagome's chest began to ache that she realised she'd been holding her breath. A million thoughts, ideas, and feelings seemed to rush through her head, crowding the clarity of her realisation. She was in a daze as she flicked more slowly through the rest of the book, smudging each page with her wet fingers.

There. Her name. Her address. Her salon.

They were in this book of murdered people.

Kagome set the book down with trembling fingers, staring like it was a sensitive bomb waiting to go off. She tried to find another explanation for why her name was in that book… and why a hundred other dead people's names with in it as well. Not to mention how the latest one seemed to have been `predicted'.

Swallowing hard, the girl knew that she couldn't avoid it any longer. The book said it all for her.

What had she gotten herself into?

………………………&# 8230;……

Naraku was, more often than not, a very calm and collected individual who only ever got passionate about the quality of the canteen dinners and sea monkeys. It was rare that he ever became visibly zealous over his work. Today was one of those rare occasions.

“YOU LET HER GET AWAY?!”

And it was also one of those rare occasions where Inuyasha wouldn't have minded an umbrella. Judging from the expressions of the faces of his fellow agents who were lined up before their boss, suffering from the same rain of spittle, they felt the same.

“This is a disaster!” Naraku continued to rage. “Sango Hara has escaped and now knows the location of our headquarters! It could only be a matter of time before she rejoins her father and gives us away!”

The group of gathered agents hung their heads with a suitable amount of guilt. These were the agents who had been involved with Sango Hara's abduction and/or torture. But only one of them was guilty of having lost her…

“And who was the bright-spark?!” Naraku demanded. “Who was in charge of the girl when she escaped down the drainpipe?!”

All fingers simultaneously jabbed at Inuyasha, who in turn pointed a finger at Kouga. The wolf spluttered with indignation, but Naraku wasn't fooled and turned narrowed eyes on the hanyou. “I thought I could trust you, Inuyasha. You're always so careful.”

“Don't blame me.” Inuyasha shrugged and folded his arms haughtily. “I was doing quite well with her until those two lunkheads let her escape.” He jerked his chin towards Hiten and Manten who were sweating nervously halfway down the line.

Naraku slowly stalked towards the two brothers. “Is that so?”

“H-He told us not to check on her.” Hiten stammered.

“Y-Yeah.” Manten agreed.

Their fear was as good as guilt, and within moments their testimony had sealed their fate. “You're all dismissed,” Naraku barked. “Except for you two.”

A mental cackle accompanied Inuyasha as he filed out of the boss' office with the rest of the agents, leaving Hiten and Manten to whatever fate Naraku had decided for them. Whatever it was, it was probably the last they'd ever see of the `Thunder' brothers.

Someone barged past Inuyasha, throwing their weight against his shoulder. “Well done, hanyou.”

“No problem, wolf.” Inuyasha shot back, narrowing his eyes as Kouga suddenly moved to intercept him. The other agents dispersed ahead of them, but Inuyasha's path was blocked by the wolf. “What now?” he demanded.

Kouga smirked with a slow inclination of his head. “You've got a commissioner.”

Inwardly, Inuyasha groaned. Great… more work. “Why me?” he said sullenly.

“Who knows?” Kouga shrugged with an uncaring sniff. “I can't understand it myself, but you are getting a lot of commissions these days. Anyone would think you're getting famous… in certain circles. But hey, you're not alone. He's contracted me, too.”

The hanyou grunted. “So where's the specs?”

“At the front desk with the kitsune woman.” Kouga began skulking away. “Some bozo seems to have made a few enemies and wants to pay us to get rid of them for him. I get the loan shark, you get the gambling king.”

Kouga disappeared out of sight down another corridor, but Inuyasha stayed where he was, digging his fists deeper into his jacket pockets. Another contract, another death. I'd rather go home, the hanyou thought glumly.

But then again, he was running a little short on cash recently.

……………………..

Her first instinct had been to return to her father, but Sango knew she wasn't to take her captor's words lightly. If she returned to her job and her family, the Coalescence would hunt her down and eliminate her more efficiently next time. Everyone knew that the Coalescence had way too many spies within the police force, and it would only be a matter of time before news of her return found its way back to her kidnappers.

But where else was there to go?

The streets didn't take kindly to weak, homeless individuals - even more so for weak, homeless individuals with police badges and ribbons across their sleeves. Sango was forced to tear these off and dump them in an alley before another pug-ugly street felon decided he didn't like a cop wandering around his territory. Sango had already fought off three such angry brutes in the past day, each of them underestimating how much strength she had left.

By noon on the first day of her freedom, the young police officer was wondering why she had even bothered escaping in the first place. She had nowhere to go, no one to contact, and no way to get money. The logical solution would be to leave - to hitchhike out of Tokyo and settle somewhere quiet and out of the way to preserve her identity. However, everything within her was longing to return to her family and return to her post as a law enforcement officer. She was a sergeant, for crying out loud. Sergeants didn't abandon their posts at the first hint of danger.

But what did that matter now? Her hard-earned badges were now gone, and all she had was herself and the clothes on her back. She knew firsthand that she would be better off alone than with a whole district of police officers to protect her. The police were useless.

It was hard to sit down with stiff, cramped legs, and Sango made a valiant effort to contain her pain as she slid down the wall at the end of a godforsaken little alley. She was hidden behind a rather foul smelling dumpster and a tall chain link fence topped with barbed wire. No one would find her there unless they knew exactly where she was…

For the first time in three days, Sango allowed herself to close her eyes and drift off.

The clatter of a bottle on the pavement made her start awake. She looked up quickly and flinched upon seeing the looming blur of a figure beside her. She nearly panicked until her eyes adjusted to the bad lighting and she saw the blur was simply an old, homeless woman dressed in several tattered rags and scarves. Sango relaxed. The woman was on the other side of the fence, unable to reach her, even if she was staring at Sango with a bizarre amount of curiosity.

“Stop staring at me,” she bit out half-heartedly, turning away to try and find peace enough to sleep again.

“Y-You're that police lass, a-aren't you?” the woman stuttered, and Sango realised that it was out of poor education rather than fear. “Someone's l-look-looking for you.”

Sango turned sharply to face the beggar woman again. “Who?” she demanded. “Who's looking for me?”

“D-Demon lad…” the woman responded jerkily. “Strange eyes and a n-na… bad smile.”

The Coalescence, Sango realised. They know I'm gone and they're looking for me…

“Thank you.” She nodded appreciatively to the woman. “If he speaks to you again, please don't tell him that you saw me.”

“C-Course…” The woman nodded several times before turning away, still nodding, to continue scavenging scraps of clothing and pipes from the skip on the other side of the fence.

Sango watched her for a moment, before realising that she probably couldn't trust the old woman to remember the promise. She would have to keep moving… preferably under the cover of night to avoid being seen and recognised.

But… she was just so tired. One more short nap couldn't hurt, could it?

The moment the back of her head touched the wall, she was asleep. A light nap turned into a deep slumber. Nightmares plagued her, but it was worth it just to regain the energy that she'd steadily been losing since she'd been kidnapped. It must have been several hours before she awoke, because by the time she opened her eyes and looked up at the rectangle of sky that topped the alley, it was evening. Pink clashed with the darkness, telling her that tomorrow would be a better day with bluer skies.

She nearly believed it until someone stepped into her light.

“Sango Hara.” A disarming smile shone down on her, too charming and feral to be human. “I believe we lost you for a while there.”

Sango closed her eyes with a sigh, neither having the energy nor will to fight back. “I knew it was too good to be true.”

………………………&# 8230;………………………… …………….

Being a contractor was nothing more than a pain in the arse sometimes. Why was it that when someone commissioned an assassination, it was always at the most inappropriate time? Why was it that the commissioners always picked the worst targets - the targets more likely to put up a fight or leave a messy trail for the police to follow back to the commissioner and ultimately the contractor?

I need to stop using that word, Inuyasha thought as he finished polishing another beer glass and set it down beneath the bar's counter. I'm not a contractor… I'm an assassin. No fancy language can change that.

“Hey! Barmaid!” A rather drunk patron waved a wad of cash at the end of the bar. Inuyasha glared at him narrowly for the `maid' comment. “Give me another round of tequila shots for me and my buddies here!”

“Certainly, sir.” Inuyasha moved forward to take the money and tucked it into his pocket. If anyone noticed that he should have put it away in the till, they said nothing. Unceremoniously, and without really knowing what he was doing, Inuyasha grabbed four likely looking glasses and slammed them on the counter along with a bottle of tequila.

“Hey - this ain't tequila! This is whisky!” the patron protested.

“Same thing,” Inuyasha shrugged. “We're out of tequila.”

“There's a bottle right there - I'm looking at it!” The patron and his three friends eagerly pointed out the bottle that was beyond their reach behind Inuyasha.

With a pained sigh, Inuyasha handed them the spirit before mooching off to serve other customers.

And why was it that this commissioner insisted that the murder take place in one of the district's busiest bar? Pub crawlers had been crawling in off the street for drinks for the last half hour without rest. Occasionally, some of the more regular customers posed a good question. “Where's the normal barkeep?”

To this, Inuyasha would just shrug and respond, “On holiday.” While in actual fact, the Governor was tied up and gagged down in the basement. “I'm looking after the bar while he's gone.” Then Inuyasha would proceed to mess up their orders magnificently.

But other than his slightly amateur approach to serving drinks and his less than enthusiastic manners, Inuyasha was doing a fine job of blending in. With his hair stained black using `wash-in-wash-out' hair dye for the grey and balding, a knitted black skull cap for the ears and a pair of light shades to hide the exact tone of his eyes, Inuyasha was almost indiscernible from normal humans. He only had to remember not to smile too much in case someone spotted the fangs (not a dire problem) and to keep his hands out of sight. Already he'd caught a few people giving his claws odd stares, but they seemed to have put it down to wearing beer goggles more than anything else.

Eight o'clock had the alarm on his wristwatch beeping insistently, and no sooner had the noise stopped than the door to the bar opened and three smartly dressed men entered.

Inuyasha contained his smirk. Bang on time.

Their descriptions matched the ones given in his instructions. Three business men with matching green ties were easy to tell apart from the other slobs who were lolling around the various tables and chairs. Inuyasha gave them no more interest than a passing glance as he continued to polish the counter.

“Barkeep,” the leader of the three men sat down at the bar first, hailing him with a raised hand. “I'd like an Archers. Peach flavoured. The others will have Gin and Tonics.”

A business man with a green tie and a lady's taste in drinks, Inuyasha noted as he took the offered money and slipped it into his pocket. This is the guy…“Hold on. I'll have to get some from the basement.”

Inuyasha plodded away down the bar, past the four patrons who were now on their sixth verse of “One tequila, two tequila, three tequila, floor!” and down the steps leading to the basement below.

“Having fun?” he asked the real barkeep. The man simply screamed back behind his gag, tears streaking his face and red welts marring his wrists from the too-tight bonds. “Good.” Inuyasha smiled emptily as he proceeded to pick up the packet of white powder that he'd left on a crate earlier that evening. A six-pack of Archers lay on the floor nearby, and Inuyasha only had to choose a bottle, crack open the cap and pour the powder into the fruity drink.

The poison would kill a human within five minutes of consumption and only a vague sense of nausea would warn the victim of his impending death. An autopsy would easily reveal the cause of death… but if the police ever bothered with that, Inuyasha would be long gone with a loaf of money for his trouble.

Raising the poisoned bottle in a mock toast to the bound barkeeper, Inuyasha grinned. “Cheers!” He then pounded back up the steps to carry out the final stage of his mission.

The businessmen looked a little impatient at having to be kept waiting an extra thirty seconds for their drink. Inuyasha schooled his expression as he handed the drinks over to the men, placing the bottle of Archers on the counter for the leader to help himself to. From the moment the victim took his first sip, Inuyasha began timing.

Unfortunately, he had to stick around until he was sure that the man had died rather than just passing out - as was the case in some missions.

With four minutes left till the businessman hit the floor, Inuyasha was busying himself by transferring the rest of the money from the till into his pockets while the bar continued to hum with idle conversation and the occasional outburst of laughter.

With three minutes to go, the businessman was beginning to stroke his stomach as if he was getting a cramp. Inuyasha was too busy arguing with the tequila patrons to notice. “Not in my bar there's no Happy Hour!”

Two minutes till ETD, and the businessman had gotten over his cramps and was readily discussing a business trip to Las Vegas. Inuyasha kept a discreet eye on him as he was paid to hand over another bottle of tequila to the patrons.

When there was only one minute left till the man was supposed to drop dead… he dropped dead. Inuyasha glanced at his watch in surprise as the victim simply toppled off his stool and hit the floor with a muffled thud. He must have had a fast metabolism.

Gasps and cries of surprise and horror went around the crowded bar and soon everyone was out of their seat to gather around the fallen man. Inuyasha did his duty as a member of staff to take control of the matter. “Back off - give him some air!” Inuyasha shoved the spectators aside to crouch down beside his victim. He pressed two fingers against his throat and pretended to observe a nonexistent pulse. “He has a pulse, but it's weak,” he told the hushed crowd. “I think he had a heart attack.”

“Someone better call an ambulance,” a voice called from the mob.

“I'll do it.” Inuyasha volunteered instantly. “In the meantime, don't move him.”

He wasn't a doctor or any kind of professional, but people still obeyed him without question. It was amazing what he could make people do simply from the tone of his voice alone.

Slipping away through the crowd, Inuyasha pulled his phone from his pocket and began dialling the customary emergency number. As he waited for someone to pick up on the other end, Inuyasha quickly went through the rest of his plan.

He would simply explain to the ambulance that someone had collapsed from a heart attack at Hideki's Bar, and while everyone was distracted he would make his getaway. It was a flawless plan. By the time anyone realised that it had been a murder and that the real barkeeper was tied up in the basement, Inuyasha would be curled up at home in front of the TV, watching the news report on his mission. Just one more tally mark on the chart outside Naraku's office, and just another meaningless smudge on Inuyasha's conscience. But of course, Inuyasha had come too far to start feeling guilty now. He felt nothing but a satisfied sense of achievement as he pushed his way out of the crowd towards the exit.

But then something happened that blew all his plans to hell in one swift blast.

Kagome was standing in the doorway.

 

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Fackyews (back due to popular demand)

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What happened to the fackyews?

You're the kind of person who doesn't real the top A/N, aren't you?

Well that seems to be it for today…