InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ 'life' and 'death' ❯ Chapter Fourteen ( Chapter 14 )

Disclaimer: I do not own anything regarding Inuyasha.

Previously:

Tai didn't push her to reveal any more. This was good enough for him-to know that he and Kagome were starting things over again. Maybe things could actually work out between them. `I hope. I wish.'

They spent the rest of the drive in a comfortable silence listening to Beethoven, Mozart, Schubert, and Whitacre before pulling up to the gates of the Shalini Estate.

*************

Chapter Fourteen:

"Okay, I think that's everything," Sango told the movers as they carried the last of the boxes out of her apartment. She looked around and the barren place. `It's so empty.'

It had been five hours since her talk with her uncle. He had told her that it wasn't safe for her to stay here alone. She tried to argue but it was futile. And now here she was five hours later, moving out of the very place that she had known as "home." `Why couldn't have I been born into a "normal" family where it would actually take time and planning to get things done your way.' Sango smiled to herself. `You have to take the good with the bad, I guess.

"Miss, can you sign here please," the mover said, wiping the sweat off of his brow. He took Sango out of her thoughts as he handed her a pen and the clip board along with the document in need of a signature.

"Yea sure, no problem." `Gross, his sweat is all over everything.'

She gave him the signature along with the papers back and turned around, taking one final look at everything. With a sigh she walked out pulled the door shut. Sango locked the door for one last time and made her way down to the town car and escorts that were waiting in front of the building. Uncle Dai wouldn't even allow her to take her own vehicle.

"Mother's house, here I come… Ugh, I'm not going to survive this."

*************

Tai sat on the suede olive colored couch near Kagome looking around the safari themed living room. He whispered in her ear, "Who were all those people? I thought that we were going to be the only ones here besides your uncle." He whispered incase any of them overheard even thought there were several walls standing between them.

Kagome giggled, visibly relaxed as she put her feet up and over the couches arm rest. "Just some uncles and other people who work for us, are you nervous or something?"

"Of course not, just curious. You must have one gigantic family tree." He grabbed the remote control off of the glass coffee table, trying to figure out how to turn all of the equipment on.

"We're not all `related' so to say; of course I didn't know that when I was little. I thought it was normal for people to have thirty to forty uncles." She giggled a little before turning her attention from the plasma TV that was mounted on the dark green wall and looked over at Tai. "I went to public school for a several years-I don't remember what grade it was but we actually had to make a drawing of our family so I drew everyone that I knew and labeled them. Needless to say at parent teacher conferences my parents found out because the teacher was questioning it. The whole school thing with other kids didn't last too long and soon they gave me private tutors with several other "Family" kids instead."

"Cute," Tai replied, while flipping through channels. "You're lucky you didn't have to go through the tortures of junior high and high school."

"I guess so," she said with a yawn. "Thirsty."

Tai looked at Kagome. "Does that mean that I am supposed to go get you something to drink?"

"Mmmmhmm!" Kagome happily replied. She spun around on her butt and put her feet on Tai's back, pushing him off the couch.

"What am I, your servant?" He said as he picked himself up off the floor.

"Pretty much," Kagome replied smugly.

Tai threw the remote control back at Kagome and she gladly took it. She resumed the flipping threw of the channels as Tai exited the room.

She was relaxed, even though there were other people around, at least for the time being.

*************

"Gentlemen, ladies," Tai greeted as he walked into the kitchen which was filled with smoke from various imported cigars. It was apparent that a poker game going on. Around the table sat a group of men and a few women.

A few of the guys nodded their heads in acknowledgement to his presence as they were engrossed in their poker game. Several ladies looked him up and down. It didn't take too long for them to forget that he was there and they resumed their play and their talk.

"As I was saying, Jimo and I bought that new prototype from Suju Technologies that they've been promising, but they didn't want to sell. So with a little coercive persuasion we got it bought and sold it to Mr. Mamabe. He's giving us twenty-five percent of the profits plus a ten percent interest rate on the money he borrowed. Life is good gentlemen."

"Not bad Tony. So has Nori ordered an investment in Mr. Mamabe's company?" Li said.

"Of course, standard procedures, gavone, try not to act so stupid. I call." Jei, a short, chubby man in his early sixties said in retort to Li as he laid his cards out for everyone to see.

Tai chuckled, his back turned to the table, understanding the slang that Li had been called.

Everyone else had put their cards on the table. Li turned around in his chair and gave Tai a dirty look. `Stupid pretty boy.'

"Full house, read em' and weep boys!" Sámi stated proudly after seeing that he had the best hand at the table.

The others groaned as Sámi pulled his winnings towards him. They didn't play for poker chips. Hell, half of the time they didn't even play for cash. Tonight's game was a mixture of cash, valuable "rocks," and claims in the stock market.

Tai walked by carrying two bottles of water in one arm and was stopped by Li. "What are you laughing about, boy."

Tai held up his free arm, "Nothing at all." Of course he was lying; he spoke perfect Italian and understood the slang they used perfectly well.

"Lighten up Li, the boy is part Italian, can't you tell?" Sámi said as he held up a stone, examining it. It was one of his many winnings.

"How did you know?" Tai asked Sámi. He was only about one-fourth Italian, one eighth each Ukrainian and Russian, respectfully, inherited from his absentee father. His mother was one-hundred percent Japanese which left Tai with a mixed heritage and a very exotic look to him.

"Yea, how the fuck does you know that, Sámi?" Li said while running a hand through his light brown hair.

"I did my research." Sámi said with an annoyed voice. He turned his attention away from the poker game and focused on Tai. "Ever seen a black diamond, Tai?" Sámi asked, placing the stone in Tai's hand which Tai examined. "Boys, this is Tai Kage, a friend of the Family. Tai, this is my crew. The bald guy over there," he said pointing, "is Atsumori the bloody, and those are his two sons Aki and Jaku. Then we have Li, the complainer, and that broad is Hana. Next to her is Shippo, we just call him Red, and next to Red is Jei, some of us call him Grandpa because he's so old."

"Younger than you Sámi!" Jei said with a grin before taking a sip of his drink.

"Prove it old man," Sámi said with a chuckle, his rounded belly moving with each laugh. "And then we have Asami, Leaee, Tasha, and Tasha's son, Jimenji. Ehken is the guy with all that facial hair. That's Jimo, my right hand man, and next to me is Tony. His boy Hojo should be here any minute."

"Nice to meet you all," Tai said respectfully. `I already forgot all of their names, shit,' he mentally cursed. They all nodded to him.

Li decided to speak up once again. "So what's with that piece of metal under your lip on your chin and that thing in your eyebrow Are you some sort of homosexual?" he asked, laughing at his own joke. A few of the guys laughed lightly along with him. They were used to cracking jokes about one another. It was as natural as gambling with each other.

"The opposite actually, ladies really seem to like it. You should try it sometime… looks like you need the help," he added, his eye brows lifting up, the last part dripping heavily with sarcasm. A large majority of the group laughed at Tai's come back.

Before Tai and Li could continue of with their testosterone contest Sámi decided to interrupt. "I like you, kid. Come on, sit down, have yourself a real drink; we're waiting for the other crews to get here and dinner won't be till later this evening… around ten I think?" One of the girls stood up from her chair around the large oval-shaped table, giving up her spot to Tai.

"Sorry, I can't, but maybe later. Never seen one of those before," he said, returning the attention to the black diamond. Tai handed it back to Sámi carefully. "Are they rare?"

"You could say that," Sámi said with a smile. "But then again it doesn't hurt if you control eighty-seven percent of the words diamond supply." Sámi took one last look at the rock and tossed it back at Tai who just barely caught it. "Keep it kid. You'll be earning it."

"Why's that?" Tai asked.

Atsumori chose to answer this one. "You'll be working for Kagome." Several of the newer men shuddered at the mention of Kagome's name. They might be full grown men but they were afraid of what that twenty-one year old was capable of. The others looked down at the floor, their heads bowed in respect for all the girl had endured. Most of the ladies exchanged looks with each other, agreeing silently that Kagome was crazy, insane even. "You have your work cut out for you. That is, if she doesn't kill you before you can finish your job." Atsumori started to chuckle and the other men and women followed in suit.

"She's not that bad" Tai said in defense of Kagome, he was ready to say more but then someone barged through the doors carrying ten medium sized paper bags.

"Hojo!" several of the guys chorused, knowing that his arrival meant the arrival of their pre-dinner snack.

"Hey guys. Hey pops," he said, greeting everyone."

Tony took the paper bags from his son while Tai remained standing, observing the scene. From what he could tell, Hojo was a baby faced boy who was no older than twenty years old. Tony emptied all of the bags and was passing around sandwiches to Sámi`s crew.

"Hey uncle Sámi, I was wondering… I want to step up. I have a handle these low level things, is there something else that I could do?" Hojo looked at his uncle with pleading eyes.

"Hojo," Sámi said slowly, "You brought us the sandwiches, what else can you do?" This statement earned a hardy laugh from everyone at the table, including Tai. Hojo became red in the face as he watched everyone laugh at him. "Who's that?" He asked, pointing at Tai.

Tai extended his hand out to Hojo, "The name's Tai, I'm Kagome's right hand man, I guess." He shook Hojo's hand and mentally cringed. `If you can tell a man by his handshake then I think that this Hojo is a girl, a very weak girl.'

He picked up the two bottles of water and tucked them under his right arm. "I see you gentlemen later, the lady waits. Thanks again for the rock, Sámi." With that, he made his exit towards the living room.

"Kpshhhhhhhhh!" Li made the noise of a whip cracking as Tai left.

"Oh come on Li, you're just jealous that you were never such a looker in your day," Jei said.

"Yea, what's with the vendetta against the new guy? Aki asked."

"I just don't trust that pretty boy, that's all. And why did you give him that rock, Sámi?"

"It's once measly fucking diamond Li, and if you don't stop getting on my nerves I will personally show you the mine in which that rock came from, do you understand?"

"You still didn't answer my question. I don't see why we should be walking on fucking egg shells over this guy. I think Hojo is right. He should be stepping up and this Tai should be getting our sandwiches. That's just what I think is all, but hey, what do I know? I--"

A man had slipped into the kitchen noticed by everyone except Li who was too caught up in his speech. Li silenced himself as soon as he felt the hand on his shoulder. He turned around and looked up. "Oh, hey there Don Daichi," He said respectfully.

"Please excuse us, ladies," Daichi said. The ladies all got up and exited the room. Daichi was already stressed enough. The day had been long and what he didn't need right now was some wise guy trying to give his two cents every twenty seconds. "You were saying something about my judgments, Li?" Daichi waited about a minute before talking again. No one had the balls to say a word. "Do you run this Family…are you the fucking head of this fucking household?" Once again, silence filled the room as the group nervously waited for Daichi to speak again. "Is your last name Hiragarshi because last time I fucking checked this was the Hiragarshi Family!" His speech was slow, stressing certain words, talking in that manner that made people uneasy.

"N-n-noo, sir." Li cowered in fear.

"Get the fuck up, Li."

Li obliged, afraid of what would happen. Usually you ended up dead or demoted if you pissed off the right people. Li was praying for the latter.

"Hojo, take his seat." Hojo happily listened to Daichi as Li watched Hojo sit where he had once been seated. "No go back into Tokyo and get me a fucking sandwich, Li. I don't want any of these."

Li obeyed. He grabbed his wallet from the table and made his way toward the back door.

"And it better not be cold!" He added.

The room fell deadly silent as they watched Daichi slip off his sports jacket and loosen his tie. He placed the jacket on the back of the chair and snapped his fingers. Within seconds, a cold drink was in his possession.

"Does anyone else feel like arguing with me?"

*************

The TV turned on with a click of a button and Inuyasha sat down on his bed, resting his head on an assortment of pillows. `Feh, might as well watch this.' `It always makes me laugh with its ridiculously fake stories and cheesy tactics.'

"Welcome back to E-Nightly, your number one cable news program on the stars and the elite. I'm Aimee Sken and this is Ron Yukse. In our top story tonight, rumor has it that something big is going down, perhaps a mob war."

"That's right Aimee, our credible sources, who wish to remain anonymous for their protection, have testified of a bloody, gruesome fight that took place a few days ago at the opening of a new club right here in our city of Tokyo. And now we go live to police headquarters where special reporter Yumomiro Haka waits trying to get official police comment on this breaking new story!"

"Thanks Ron, I am here, live, at police headquarters. Excuse me, sir, could I get a brief statement from you please!" Yumomiro trapped a young rookie in the corner, holding the microphone up to his face while the camera crew crowded them even more. Sir, is it true that known members of the Hiragarshi Crime Family were involved in the MASSACRE that occurred several days ago?"

The rookie paled. He had been warned by his superior officer that if he wanted to work in this department and get paid, he had best leave the Hiragarshi affairs to the Hiragarshi family. "Ummm," his voice squeaked. "There was no disturbance at Club Elite-"

The rookie was soon cut off by Yumomiro. "That he knows of! After all, he is only a rookie officer and we know that only top notch investigators are in the know-all" he said, covering his own ass, in attempt to make the news story seem credible. "Back to you, Ron and Aimee."

"Thanks, Ron. It has also been reported that other closely related people have been deserting the city and leaving for places unknown. What are they running from? Time can only tell."

"You're absolutely right Aimee. Before we move on I would just like to point out that we never said Club Elite. Actually, we agreed not to mention the clubs name so that it wouldn't affect their business…Opps... In other news, rock and roller Rhen Sage has been abducted by aliens…"

"What the fuck?!?!?!"

Inuyasha all but fell off his bed. He reached over to his night stand and dialed up Sango's number. He waited and no one picked up. The answering machine didn't even take the call. Next, he tried her cell phone. He was greeted with the message that the number is no longer in use and if he had reached the call in error, to re-dial the number and try the call again.

*************

After discovering that both Sango and Kagome's apartments had been abandoned, and threatening the doorman for information, Inuyasha started to believe the tabloid news show. They got the fight part right, well, some of it at least. So maybe there was half an ounce of truth that Kagome and Sango had left town--Maybe permanently.

`I'm Inuyasha Taiyouki. My friends don't leave me… I leave them!' He thought to himself. `Okay, I probably have no chance in hell finding Kagome but I need to see her again.' `Odds are Sango went to her mothers.' `And Sango can lead me to Kagome.'

An arrogant smirk played across Inuyasha's face as he dialed Sango's mother's phone number.

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A/N: Thanks for your lovely reviews. They were very much appreciated.