InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ The Price of Freedom ❯ Alone ( Chapter 16 )
[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]
By: RozeFire 
Anime/Manga: InuYasha Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Adventure / Action / Angst / Suspense / Romance / Police / Drama / Comedy | Type: Alternate Universe | Uploaded On: 03.31.2003 | Pages: 4 | Words: 3.5K | Visits: 2.2K | Status: Completed
Anime/Manga: InuYasha Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Adventure / Action / Angst / Suspense / Romance / Police / Drama / Comedy | Type: Alternate Universe | Uploaded On: 03.31.2003 | Pages: 4 | Words: 3.5K | Visits: 2.2K | Status: Completed
Disclaimer: I DON'T OWN INUYASHA!!! HAPPY????!!!
(A/N: if you couldn't tell by my disclaimer: I feel a little stressed out. So after this I plan to chill and lie on my bed for a little while and listen to whales screech at each other on my stereo. J/K. But remember! I did warn you about how this chapter ends. BTW: I experienced my first earth quake last night - not huge - but it was quite weird!)
The Price of Freedom
Alone
Kagome entered through the glass doors and nervously looked around the layout of the foyer. It was rich looking... lots of glass and shiny marbles floors, with an emblem of the agency in a mosaic pattern on the floor before her. There were an awful lot of people dressed in suits and formal wear... and here she was in her little white summer dress with a denim jacket.
She made her way straight to the desk. She was impressed that the receptionist had one of those cool little earpieces to talk into so it looked like she was talking to herself instead of actually on the phone. She looked up as Kagome approached and just stared at the younger girl with a little surprise. "May I... help you?" she offered.
"Hi, I've got some information that's vital for national security," that always had a ring to it.
The woman opened her mouth, obviously about to say something to that, when sudden recognition flicked in her eyes as she noticed Kagome's bruised and battered face. "Hey - aren't you that girl from the six-o'clock news?"
Kagome nodded glumly. Yep, her mangled face had been splashed over TV screens everywhere - and they were all calling her crazy and mentally unstable. Probably knocked silly after a bitch fight or something.
"Didn't they say that you were crazy-"
"But I'm not!" Kagome interrupted. "Central Science Laboratories ARE using test subjects for their research and they DID do this to me when I went to grab some evidence!"
"Can I see the evidence."
Kagome handed over the second set of photocopied images to the woman, mindful that she had a third set back with Inuyasha at his mother's house, just in case what happened at the police station happened again here.
The receptionist leafed through the images, her eyes growing a little wider. "Wow..." she handed them back to Kagome and cleared her throat. "I think it's best if I took you to one of the agents."
"I want confidentiality as well." Kagome said as the woman came around the desk.
"Of course."
"I only want to speak to one or two agents - I don't want everyone here to know." Kagome said quickly as she jogged after the woman who seemed to be power-walking away.
"Of course."
"Of course." Kagome muttered and allowed herself to be led down a corridor to one of the top agent's offices.
^_^
"So how is it that you are the only one to have escaped?" Yashira asked her son across the kitchen table.
He stared glumly at his cup of tea, not understanding why he was so edgy around this woman. "I learnt that if I slipped a bit of cloth between the lock on the door before it closed then it wouldn't lock completely and it could be opened. It was fairly easy to escape after that."
That was a major understatement.
"How did you find Kagome?"
"She found me, on a beach..." he didn't want to go into all the details of his problems back then. "She helped me recover from my wounds and everything."
He looked up, noticing that she was staring at him. "What?" he asked bluntly.
"Nothing... it's just..." she smiled and reached out tenderly to touch his jaw. "I never even imagined you would grow up so fine... until the first time a saw you yesterday, I had always pictured you as my baby son that I'd lost..."
Inuyasha's brow wrinkled in a frown. "Of course I'd grow up." He remarked.
"But you could have died when you were two and I would never had known, would I?" she dropped her hand, her eyes still warm and smiling at him. "I couldn't bring myself to have another baby after... after all that had happened..."
Inuyasha's face softened a little. "I'm sorry."
"It wasn't your fault - it was never your fault, Yasha." She'd been dropping the 'Inu' part of his name for a while now... but strangely he didn't seem to mind. It probably reminded her too much of what his real purpose was to be. She probably wanted to forget.
"What happened after I was taken away from you, then?" Inuyasha asked suddenly.
"Well... they shipped me off the island and handed me my fortune and told me never to breath a word... and told me about one of my fellow surrogate mothers who had mysteriously passed away as soon as she'd gone to the police." She shuddered. "I was scared... I admit it... so I just took the money and moved away from the coast and into the city where I hoped they would never find me."
Inuyasha watched the play of negative expressions on her face as she spoke.
"I toyed with the idea of telling someone about what had happened... and I imagined that somehow, I would be able to hold you in my arms for the first time." She sniffed and at once Inuyasha started to have another panic attack. Why did girls have to be so wimpy?! "I was verging on going to the agency myself... but then they came round, telling me they were checking up on me... and they could see what I was doing every minute of everyday... the scared me... so I just gave up hope... but here you are..."
She was struggled not to cry, but her chin was wobbling and her eyes with shinning brightly. Yashira suddenly got out of her chair and went to embrace him strongly, clinging to him like he was her lifeline. He was taken a bit by surprise and fought to urge to pull back. She was still a stranger to him. He'd never much wondered about who his mother had been... after all... he'd had several mothers... why would the surrogate mother stand out.
But he realised... she'd been the one to give him life... he wouldn't be here if it wasn't for her.
"I've missed you so much... my heart broke when they took you away from me... I loved you so much..." she sobbed onto his shoulder. "And here you are...all grown up and strong and handsome... and... and free... and alive and..."
She broke down into sobs and Inuyasha felt a lump forming in his throat. 'No... I won't cry... I won't cry... I won't cry...' it was a close call, but he managed to push the prickly feeling in his eyes away and embraced his mother back who just broke down into even more heart wrenching sobs.
^_^
Kagome sat patiently at the end of a large mahogany table, tapping her fingers against the wooden surface slowly. She'd been sat in what looked like a boarding room where meetings took place... and had been told by the receptionist to wait for the agents. Apparently she'd be meeting with the top agents in command, with little chance of them being moles. There were only five of them anyway.
Suddenly the door opened and four men and a woman entered the room and started taking seats without so much as a smile in her direction. Kagome scanned each face... each looked ordinary and very business like... but then her gaze froze on the end man's face.
It was Dr Naraku.
The receptionist entered after the five agents had taken their seats at the opposite end of the table. "Kagome Higurashi this our the leading agents in our organisation." She introduced them one at a time. "Agent Yasuro, Agent Sesshomaru, Agent Sakutaro, Agent Kagura and Agent Naraku."
Kagome couldn't take her eyes away from Naraku who was regarding her casually, like he'd really never seen her before. So... he was a spy...
"I hope they help you in whatever way you need." The woman smiled and left the meeting room.
"So Miss Higurashi," Agent Sesshomaru started off at once, apparently leader in this little organisation. "We hear you've been having a little trouble with a little science institute off the coast."
Kagome kept right on staring at Naraku. Though they seemed oblivious to where her attention lay.
"We'd like to introduce, Agent Naraku - he is also a Doctor in science and head of the institute you are referring to." Agent Sesshomaru didn't even crack a smile. "And he assures us that there is nothing of what you refer to going on in his institute."
Kagome narrowed her eyes at the challenging look Naraku sent her. He couldn't hurt her here... not with so many good guys around... and it gave her more courage than she normally would have summed up alone in his presence. "He's lying." Yep. That's as far as Kagome's courage went right then.
A few wry smiles passed across the agents faces before her, all except Sesshomaru's. "We are fairly sure he is not, Miss Higurashi. We have been down to the island many a time and we assure that technology and science just hasn't gotten as far as even cloning humans or engineering sheep. It's just impossible... and may not ever be possible - no offence Naraku."
"None taken."
Kagome didn't miss the arrogant little smirk in his eyes though, and narrowed her own in response. "He's a spy. He's lying to you - he knows that if you know the truth you will shut them down and sent him to prison."
"I am offended, Miss Higurashi. I have never met you before, and you are already saying rather crude things about me." Naraku said coolly.
"You want crude - I'll give you crude!" Kagome stood up.
"Sit down." Agent Sesshomaru said at once.
Kagome flopped back down onto her seat like her legs had just obeyed his orders without asking her first.
"I think..." Sesshomaru stated slowly, almost apologetically. "That there's been some sort of misunderstanding here. Miss Higurashi... I don't know how you learnt of the Science labs off the coast... but you appear to be a little concussion... perhaps your injuries-"
"I know what happened." Naraku interrupted, as Sesshomaru shot him a dagger glare. Kagome noticed at once the friction between to two top agents. "There was an explosion on my island... an accident... I assume some debris floated across the waters to the mainland where Kagome Higurashi - currently on holiday at the time, found it. She must have injured herself later on and seems to have found her own deluded story."
There was a moment before the female agent spoke. "Seems a little far fetched." She said icily, regarding Naraku with what could have been taken as contempt. Kagome was willing to suspect it was a deep-seated loathing.
"So far fetched it could be true though." One of the other male agents shrugged.
Kagome gaped at them. "I'm not lying! I've seen it all with my very own eyes! Look!" she dumped the pictures on the table for them to look at.
They picked them up at once and Naraku snorted. "Falsified!" he declared.
"They're not!" Kagome protested.
"Any five year old with access to an editing program would be able to forge these - and I suspect you're fairly good with computers, aren't you." He told with acid in his tone only she seemed to have heard. He was only saying that because she'd been good enough to learn how to print the images of surveillance off.
"But these people... creatures in these pictures..." Agent Kagura frowned.
"Just kids in Halloween get-up is all." Naraku dismissed.
"You're only saying that because you don't want to be found out." Kagome hissed.
"That's enough!" Agent Sesshomaru suddenly stood up. "Our agency is not to be made a mockery out of, Miss Higurashi, and neither is our fellow science research facility of Agent Naraku's."
Kagome quieted. They weren't going to listen to her.
"I think it's best if we end the discussion and investigation here and now before someone gets humiliated." Sesshomaru gave her a pointed look here. "I think we should all call it a day."
Naraku looked triumphant as he left the room, and the agents filed out one by one, Sesshomaru going last. Kagome looked up... but just couldn't let this one fly. "Agent Sesshomaru?!"
"What is it?" he turned uncaringly back to face her.
"Of course Naraku would say he's innocent no matter what... you can't dismiss this just because of something he says." Kagome said urgently. "Please... He just said that he's never met me before, let alone heard of me, then how come he knew that I was on holiday by the coast? And how come he knew I was good with computers?"
It made sense, and a light frown creased Sesshomaru's perfect face. "Yet the evidence you sport is not conclusive."
"But it's not forged." She thrust something from her bag under his nose.
The older agent took the sheet of paper and unfolded it. It was another one of the images she'd given them... but it held something more shocking. Even though it was ripped in half and had been carefully taped back together, it was still fairly obvious what it was showing. It looked like a delivery room... of a hospital. A child was being whisked away from a mother who was straining to get up and follow... and in the background stood Naraku, by the door, with a sign almost hidden behind him saying 'Central Science Laboratories'.
"What is this?"
"It's what happens down there." Kagome said stiffly. "Why else would a baby be being born in a laboratory... and look... it has scales."
Sesshomaru took this in silently before folding it and putting it in his pocket. "You put a strong case forward... and I believe... that maybe your fears are not just fears after all." He pulled a card from his pocket and wrote on the back with a pen. "This is my private number... call me if you need anything. Meanwhile, I shall launch a private investigation on the lab... I won't inform anyone else of this."
Kagome breathed a shaky sigh of relief. "Thank you... I can't express how much I-"
"Then don't." he said shortly, looking half bored. "You better be getting off to wherever you live now. It's getting dark."
"Thank you." She repeated again and left, her spirits higher than they had been in a long time.
For the first time she felt that she was getting somewhere... she'd finally found someone who held a power over the man she'd thought had no equal in power. Maybe now she was on the road to freeing Inuyasha for good.
She walked past an office and heard a familiar voice from within. She paused and backpeddled a little to peek inside. She gasped and hid when she saw it was Dr Naraku... apparently on the phone... or just talking to himself. But she had a feeling he was into those hand free kits.
"Yes... yes... I am serious... no... a warning... and the Inu... good... and the surrogate...?... even better... yes... yes..."
Kagome could only hear one side of the conversation... and so far it didn't make a lot of sense. She didn't want to hang around Naraku too long either... the evil just seemed to radiate off him in powerful vibes... so she left quickly and started on her way back to Inuyasha's mother's house.
Sesshomaru was right, seeing as it was growing dark fairly rapidly. And at first she had trouble navigating her way home because the streets looked so different when it was dark. And what was even worse... she had this spine tingly feeling that someone was watching her - which was ridiculous because she was alone.
She took the tram - which was far less crowded in the evening then it was during the day at rush hour and kept looking around. But the carriage was completely empty... yet she still felt uneasy. An unwanted feeling when she felt so enlightened now.
She got off at the right stop, and headed towards the house she would be staying at, eager to see Inuyasha and tell him the great news.
She heard a scuffle of boots on paving stone behind her and glanced over her shoulder to see two lean men following unerringly close behind her. She ignored them, and carried on her way, resisting the urge to speed up because she was scared. She was being silly. And besides, they were going to pass her anyway.
But they didn't pass her.
Two sets of hands grabbed her roughly and shoved her hard against the wall so fast that she lost her balance and nearly fell from the grip - which wouldn't have been a bad thing under those circumstances. "I don't have any money!" she said quickly.
"We don't want money!" one said coldly.
Another terrifying though occurred to her. "And don't even think about raping me because... because I'm really a man!"
One snorted. "We know you're not a man."
How did they know? She suddenly felt very queasy and the urge to throw up was strong. But she told herself to not be a complete wuss and to hold it together a little longer.
"We've been sent as messengers." The other told her.
"From Naraku himself."
"It better not be a valentines message." She said lightly. "I hate those..."
"Now we're going to ask you one question. And if you get it wrong, we're going to slit your throat right here, right now."
Kagome gulped. "Just as long as it isn't about maths... I can't do math..."
"Are you Kagome Higurashi?"
"Uh... yeah..." though maybe she shouldn't have said that.
"Good. Naraku wants you to stay away from the agency. He says if you continue then you'll do yourself more harm than good." One gripped her throat tightly. "Got that?"
She was suffocating, so she nodded quickly.
"No running to the police now, you hear? Cause he'll know the minute you enter the authorities building."
Kagome nodded fervently again until they released her. She began coughing violently for air as the two men scampered away.
At times like this she wished that Inuyasha could be her bodyguard twenty four hours a day, seven days a week, three hundred and... she couldn't quite remember the number of days in a year at that moment.
She straightened, rubbing her bruised throat and began to make her way back home... she wasn't far now. At least then she would be safe with Inuyasha again.
When she got there, she ran up the steps to the front door and knocked on the door... but the second her knuckles touched the wood, the door creaked open... it hadn't been securely closed. She frowned and stared a moment before going inside. "You better be more careful about shutting the door, you two..."
She entered the small living room and frowned... they weren't there... "Hello?"
There was no answer, whatsoever, and then she suddenly realised the state of the house.
Everything was a mess.
The furniture was ripped and tipped over and the pictures on the wall were either crooked or smashed on the floor into the carpet. Books and magazines were strewn everywhere, the pages ripped, and the contents of drawers had been tipped out onto anything and everything. Kagome quickly ran from room to room, trying to find Inuyasha or Yashira, but all she found was more destruction... until she came to a very horrifying sight in the kitchen...
There was blood... a lot of it... and it was everywhere. Hands prints had streaked it across the walls and it lay in pools on the floor and on the cupboards and table. But whose was it? Yashira's or Inuyasha's?
They were gone... there was nothing but blood and destruction in their wake. Kagome could feel her heart squeezing painfully and thudding maddeningly against her rib cage. Then she saw a little white note that had been carefully pinned to the fridge, it had fingerprints of blood in it. She snatched it up and read it at once. 'This is the price he paid for freedom'.
"No..." she could feel her insides trembling with fear. Her hands were shaking violently and she couldn't see the words properly anymore... mainly because he eyes were glazing over with tears.
She let out a strangled sob and sank to the floor with more emotional pain than physical. "No!" she slammed her fist against the ground and screamed. Her fist splattered against the blood, causing flecks to stain her dress and face. But she didn't care... she'd never mind Inuyasha's blood... not ever...
(A/N: I'm so sorry...)
(A/N: if you couldn't tell by my disclaimer: I feel a little stressed out. So after this I plan to chill and lie on my bed for a little while and listen to whales screech at each other on my stereo. J/K. But remember! I did warn you about how this chapter ends. BTW: I experienced my first earth quake last night - not huge - but it was quite weird!)
The Price of Freedom
Alone
Kagome entered through the glass doors and nervously looked around the layout of the foyer. It was rich looking... lots of glass and shiny marbles floors, with an emblem of the agency in a mosaic pattern on the floor before her. There were an awful lot of people dressed in suits and formal wear... and here she was in her little white summer dress with a denim jacket.
She made her way straight to the desk. She was impressed that the receptionist had one of those cool little earpieces to talk into so it looked like she was talking to herself instead of actually on the phone. She looked up as Kagome approached and just stared at the younger girl with a little surprise. "May I... help you?" she offered.
"Hi, I've got some information that's vital for national security," that always had a ring to it.
The woman opened her mouth, obviously about to say something to that, when sudden recognition flicked in her eyes as she noticed Kagome's bruised and battered face. "Hey - aren't you that girl from the six-o'clock news?"
Kagome nodded glumly. Yep, her mangled face had been splashed over TV screens everywhere - and they were all calling her crazy and mentally unstable. Probably knocked silly after a bitch fight or something.
"Didn't they say that you were crazy-"
"But I'm not!" Kagome interrupted. "Central Science Laboratories ARE using test subjects for their research and they DID do this to me when I went to grab some evidence!"
"Can I see the evidence."
Kagome handed over the second set of photocopied images to the woman, mindful that she had a third set back with Inuyasha at his mother's house, just in case what happened at the police station happened again here.
The receptionist leafed through the images, her eyes growing a little wider. "Wow..." she handed them back to Kagome and cleared her throat. "I think it's best if I took you to one of the agents."
"I want confidentiality as well." Kagome said as the woman came around the desk.
"Of course."
"I only want to speak to one or two agents - I don't want everyone here to know." Kagome said quickly as she jogged after the woman who seemed to be power-walking away.
"Of course."
"Of course." Kagome muttered and allowed herself to be led down a corridor to one of the top agent's offices.
^_^
"So how is it that you are the only one to have escaped?" Yashira asked her son across the kitchen table.
He stared glumly at his cup of tea, not understanding why he was so edgy around this woman. "I learnt that if I slipped a bit of cloth between the lock on the door before it closed then it wouldn't lock completely and it could be opened. It was fairly easy to escape after that."
That was a major understatement.
"How did you find Kagome?"
"She found me, on a beach..." he didn't want to go into all the details of his problems back then. "She helped me recover from my wounds and everything."
He looked up, noticing that she was staring at him. "What?" he asked bluntly.
"Nothing... it's just..." she smiled and reached out tenderly to touch his jaw. "I never even imagined you would grow up so fine... until the first time a saw you yesterday, I had always pictured you as my baby son that I'd lost..."
Inuyasha's brow wrinkled in a frown. "Of course I'd grow up." He remarked.
"But you could have died when you were two and I would never had known, would I?" she dropped her hand, her eyes still warm and smiling at him. "I couldn't bring myself to have another baby after... after all that had happened..."
Inuyasha's face softened a little. "I'm sorry."
"It wasn't your fault - it was never your fault, Yasha." She'd been dropping the 'Inu' part of his name for a while now... but strangely he didn't seem to mind. It probably reminded her too much of what his real purpose was to be. She probably wanted to forget.
"What happened after I was taken away from you, then?" Inuyasha asked suddenly.
"Well... they shipped me off the island and handed me my fortune and told me never to breath a word... and told me about one of my fellow surrogate mothers who had mysteriously passed away as soon as she'd gone to the police." She shuddered. "I was scared... I admit it... so I just took the money and moved away from the coast and into the city where I hoped they would never find me."
Inuyasha watched the play of negative expressions on her face as she spoke.
"I toyed with the idea of telling someone about what had happened... and I imagined that somehow, I would be able to hold you in my arms for the first time." She sniffed and at once Inuyasha started to have another panic attack. Why did girls have to be so wimpy?! "I was verging on going to the agency myself... but then they came round, telling me they were checking up on me... and they could see what I was doing every minute of everyday... the scared me... so I just gave up hope... but here you are..."
She was struggled not to cry, but her chin was wobbling and her eyes with shinning brightly. Yashira suddenly got out of her chair and went to embrace him strongly, clinging to him like he was her lifeline. He was taken a bit by surprise and fought to urge to pull back. She was still a stranger to him. He'd never much wondered about who his mother had been... after all... he'd had several mothers... why would the surrogate mother stand out.
But he realised... she'd been the one to give him life... he wouldn't be here if it wasn't for her.
"I've missed you so much... my heart broke when they took you away from me... I loved you so much..." she sobbed onto his shoulder. "And here you are...all grown up and strong and handsome... and... and free... and alive and..."
She broke down into sobs and Inuyasha felt a lump forming in his throat. 'No... I won't cry... I won't cry... I won't cry...' it was a close call, but he managed to push the prickly feeling in his eyes away and embraced his mother back who just broke down into even more heart wrenching sobs.
^_^
Kagome sat patiently at the end of a large mahogany table, tapping her fingers against the wooden surface slowly. She'd been sat in what looked like a boarding room where meetings took place... and had been told by the receptionist to wait for the agents. Apparently she'd be meeting with the top agents in command, with little chance of them being moles. There were only five of them anyway.
Suddenly the door opened and four men and a woman entered the room and started taking seats without so much as a smile in her direction. Kagome scanned each face... each looked ordinary and very business like... but then her gaze froze on the end man's face.
It was Dr Naraku.
The receptionist entered after the five agents had taken their seats at the opposite end of the table. "Kagome Higurashi this our the leading agents in our organisation." She introduced them one at a time. "Agent Yasuro, Agent Sesshomaru, Agent Sakutaro, Agent Kagura and Agent Naraku."
Kagome couldn't take her eyes away from Naraku who was regarding her casually, like he'd really never seen her before. So... he was a spy...
"I hope they help you in whatever way you need." The woman smiled and left the meeting room.
"So Miss Higurashi," Agent Sesshomaru started off at once, apparently leader in this little organisation. "We hear you've been having a little trouble with a little science institute off the coast."
Kagome kept right on staring at Naraku. Though they seemed oblivious to where her attention lay.
"We'd like to introduce, Agent Naraku - he is also a Doctor in science and head of the institute you are referring to." Agent Sesshomaru didn't even crack a smile. "And he assures us that there is nothing of what you refer to going on in his institute."
Kagome narrowed her eyes at the challenging look Naraku sent her. He couldn't hurt her here... not with so many good guys around... and it gave her more courage than she normally would have summed up alone in his presence. "He's lying." Yep. That's as far as Kagome's courage went right then.
A few wry smiles passed across the agents faces before her, all except Sesshomaru's. "We are fairly sure he is not, Miss Higurashi. We have been down to the island many a time and we assure that technology and science just hasn't gotten as far as even cloning humans or engineering sheep. It's just impossible... and may not ever be possible - no offence Naraku."
"None taken."
Kagome didn't miss the arrogant little smirk in his eyes though, and narrowed her own in response. "He's a spy. He's lying to you - he knows that if you know the truth you will shut them down and sent him to prison."
"I am offended, Miss Higurashi. I have never met you before, and you are already saying rather crude things about me." Naraku said coolly.
"You want crude - I'll give you crude!" Kagome stood up.
"Sit down." Agent Sesshomaru said at once.
Kagome flopped back down onto her seat like her legs had just obeyed his orders without asking her first.
"I think..." Sesshomaru stated slowly, almost apologetically. "That there's been some sort of misunderstanding here. Miss Higurashi... I don't know how you learnt of the Science labs off the coast... but you appear to be a little concussion... perhaps your injuries-"
"I know what happened." Naraku interrupted, as Sesshomaru shot him a dagger glare. Kagome noticed at once the friction between to two top agents. "There was an explosion on my island... an accident... I assume some debris floated across the waters to the mainland where Kagome Higurashi - currently on holiday at the time, found it. She must have injured herself later on and seems to have found her own deluded story."
There was a moment before the female agent spoke. "Seems a little far fetched." She said icily, regarding Naraku with what could have been taken as contempt. Kagome was willing to suspect it was a deep-seated loathing.
"So far fetched it could be true though." One of the other male agents shrugged.
Kagome gaped at them. "I'm not lying! I've seen it all with my very own eyes! Look!" she dumped the pictures on the table for them to look at.
They picked them up at once and Naraku snorted. "Falsified!" he declared.
"They're not!" Kagome protested.
"Any five year old with access to an editing program would be able to forge these - and I suspect you're fairly good with computers, aren't you." He told with acid in his tone only she seemed to have heard. He was only saying that because she'd been good enough to learn how to print the images of surveillance off.
"But these people... creatures in these pictures..." Agent Kagura frowned.
"Just kids in Halloween get-up is all." Naraku dismissed.
"You're only saying that because you don't want to be found out." Kagome hissed.
"That's enough!" Agent Sesshomaru suddenly stood up. "Our agency is not to be made a mockery out of, Miss Higurashi, and neither is our fellow science research facility of Agent Naraku's."
Kagome quieted. They weren't going to listen to her.
"I think it's best if we end the discussion and investigation here and now before someone gets humiliated." Sesshomaru gave her a pointed look here. "I think we should all call it a day."
Naraku looked triumphant as he left the room, and the agents filed out one by one, Sesshomaru going last. Kagome looked up... but just couldn't let this one fly. "Agent Sesshomaru?!"
"What is it?" he turned uncaringly back to face her.
"Of course Naraku would say he's innocent no matter what... you can't dismiss this just because of something he says." Kagome said urgently. "Please... He just said that he's never met me before, let alone heard of me, then how come he knew that I was on holiday by the coast? And how come he knew I was good with computers?"
It made sense, and a light frown creased Sesshomaru's perfect face. "Yet the evidence you sport is not conclusive."
"But it's not forged." She thrust something from her bag under his nose.
The older agent took the sheet of paper and unfolded it. It was another one of the images she'd given them... but it held something more shocking. Even though it was ripped in half and had been carefully taped back together, it was still fairly obvious what it was showing. It looked like a delivery room... of a hospital. A child was being whisked away from a mother who was straining to get up and follow... and in the background stood Naraku, by the door, with a sign almost hidden behind him saying 'Central Science Laboratories'.
"What is this?"
"It's what happens down there." Kagome said stiffly. "Why else would a baby be being born in a laboratory... and look... it has scales."
Sesshomaru took this in silently before folding it and putting it in his pocket. "You put a strong case forward... and I believe... that maybe your fears are not just fears after all." He pulled a card from his pocket and wrote on the back with a pen. "This is my private number... call me if you need anything. Meanwhile, I shall launch a private investigation on the lab... I won't inform anyone else of this."
Kagome breathed a shaky sigh of relief. "Thank you... I can't express how much I-"
"Then don't." he said shortly, looking half bored. "You better be getting off to wherever you live now. It's getting dark."
"Thank you." She repeated again and left, her spirits higher than they had been in a long time.
For the first time she felt that she was getting somewhere... she'd finally found someone who held a power over the man she'd thought had no equal in power. Maybe now she was on the road to freeing Inuyasha for good.
She walked past an office and heard a familiar voice from within. She paused and backpeddled a little to peek inside. She gasped and hid when she saw it was Dr Naraku... apparently on the phone... or just talking to himself. But she had a feeling he was into those hand free kits.
"Yes... yes... I am serious... no... a warning... and the Inu... good... and the surrogate...?... even better... yes... yes..."
Kagome could only hear one side of the conversation... and so far it didn't make a lot of sense. She didn't want to hang around Naraku too long either... the evil just seemed to radiate off him in powerful vibes... so she left quickly and started on her way back to Inuyasha's mother's house.
Sesshomaru was right, seeing as it was growing dark fairly rapidly. And at first she had trouble navigating her way home because the streets looked so different when it was dark. And what was even worse... she had this spine tingly feeling that someone was watching her - which was ridiculous because she was alone.
She took the tram - which was far less crowded in the evening then it was during the day at rush hour and kept looking around. But the carriage was completely empty... yet she still felt uneasy. An unwanted feeling when she felt so enlightened now.
She got off at the right stop, and headed towards the house she would be staying at, eager to see Inuyasha and tell him the great news.
She heard a scuffle of boots on paving stone behind her and glanced over her shoulder to see two lean men following unerringly close behind her. She ignored them, and carried on her way, resisting the urge to speed up because she was scared. She was being silly. And besides, they were going to pass her anyway.
But they didn't pass her.
Two sets of hands grabbed her roughly and shoved her hard against the wall so fast that she lost her balance and nearly fell from the grip - which wouldn't have been a bad thing under those circumstances. "I don't have any money!" she said quickly.
"We don't want money!" one said coldly.
Another terrifying though occurred to her. "And don't even think about raping me because... because I'm really a man!"
One snorted. "We know you're not a man."
How did they know? She suddenly felt very queasy and the urge to throw up was strong. But she told herself to not be a complete wuss and to hold it together a little longer.
"We've been sent as messengers." The other told her.
"From Naraku himself."
"It better not be a valentines message." She said lightly. "I hate those..."
"Now we're going to ask you one question. And if you get it wrong, we're going to slit your throat right here, right now."
Kagome gulped. "Just as long as it isn't about maths... I can't do math..."
"Are you Kagome Higurashi?"
"Uh... yeah..." though maybe she shouldn't have said that.
"Good. Naraku wants you to stay away from the agency. He says if you continue then you'll do yourself more harm than good." One gripped her throat tightly. "Got that?"
She was suffocating, so she nodded quickly.
"No running to the police now, you hear? Cause he'll know the minute you enter the authorities building."
Kagome nodded fervently again until they released her. She began coughing violently for air as the two men scampered away.
At times like this she wished that Inuyasha could be her bodyguard twenty four hours a day, seven days a week, three hundred and... she couldn't quite remember the number of days in a year at that moment.
She straightened, rubbing her bruised throat and began to make her way back home... she wasn't far now. At least then she would be safe with Inuyasha again.
When she got there, she ran up the steps to the front door and knocked on the door... but the second her knuckles touched the wood, the door creaked open... it hadn't been securely closed. She frowned and stared a moment before going inside. "You better be more careful about shutting the door, you two..."
She entered the small living room and frowned... they weren't there... "Hello?"
There was no answer, whatsoever, and then she suddenly realised the state of the house.
Everything was a mess.
The furniture was ripped and tipped over and the pictures on the wall were either crooked or smashed on the floor into the carpet. Books and magazines were strewn everywhere, the pages ripped, and the contents of drawers had been tipped out onto anything and everything. Kagome quickly ran from room to room, trying to find Inuyasha or Yashira, but all she found was more destruction... until she came to a very horrifying sight in the kitchen...
There was blood... a lot of it... and it was everywhere. Hands prints had streaked it across the walls and it lay in pools on the floor and on the cupboards and table. But whose was it? Yashira's or Inuyasha's?
They were gone... there was nothing but blood and destruction in their wake. Kagome could feel her heart squeezing painfully and thudding maddeningly against her rib cage. Then she saw a little white note that had been carefully pinned to the fridge, it had fingerprints of blood in it. She snatched it up and read it at once. 'This is the price he paid for freedom'.
"No..." she could feel her insides trembling with fear. Her hands were shaking violently and she couldn't see the words properly anymore... mainly because he eyes were glazing over with tears.
She let out a strangled sob and sank to the floor with more emotional pain than physical. "No!" she slammed her fist against the ground and screamed. Her fist splattered against the blood, causing flecks to stain her dress and face. But she didn't care... she'd never mind Inuyasha's blood... not ever...
(A/N: I'm so sorry...)