Just a Little Rivalry

a/n: Here's my latest. I am starting another story under the Koga/Kagome category if anybody wishes to check it out.


Disclaimer: Nope, not mine. Never will be. Wouldn’t accept my five bucks for it. (I thought they would like deer, but apparently…not.) LOL

Chapter 5

--The Next Morning--

“I at least have a last name now. Inu Yasha said her name is Kikyo Maynard, and she is from Skyler as well. Now that I know, I don’t know what to do,” Kagome paced around their room, playing with her lower lip with her teeth.

Sango was watching her sister (well, practically) waiting for her to calm down so she could find out about what happened with them last night. “Kags, we could just drive over there and find out ourselves what you are trying to find out. Why are you so determined to find out anyway? Just cause you are interested in Inu Yasha; do you think he is dangerous?”

“You know I don’t,” Kags snorted, “I just need to know. I care for Koga and would hate to loose him as a friend, but I feel something for Inu Yasha. This is so screwed up. Wait, you said we could just drive over there. Today is Monday. We have class! We can’t just leave. Our moms would sooo just kill us. It would be nice just to look it up and find out what happened. They said that she was in a hospital, and the way they described her, she would be able to really answer any questions. We could go to Skyler and look through the library’s collection of newspaper’s database. There would have to be something there that would tell us something. Good idea. Your car or mine?”

Sango’s eyes widened as she listened to her friend’s monologue. She let out a short, huffed laugh. “We can take my car. Are you sure you want to go? You just started telling me that we couldn’t and then completely talked yourself into it. Besides, we haven’t really missed any days so far and we do share a room, so it is feasible that we could both be sick, if you catch my drift. We just need to e-mail our professors and you can call Koga so he’ll know to take good notes for us to copy later.”

Huge smiles passed across the faces of both girls. “ROAD TRIP!” they cheered. Sango turned on Kags’s laptop as Kags pulled out her phone hitting the buttons to call Koga.

“Hey, Koga *cough* *cough*. Sango and I are both feeling ill today. We won’t be in class.”

“Kags, are you two ok? Is there anything that I can do?” Koga’s voice was laced with concern when he heard Kagome’s crackly voice. (She pulled out her “I’m sick, so I can’t go to school voice that always worked on her mom.)

“We don’t want to *cough* spread this, so we *cough* will just get our notes from you when we feel better. Is that okay? Sango is *cough* *cough* e-mailing our professors. No offense, but we really don’t *sniffle* want to give this to anybody and we have enough *cough* chicken soup, so we are just going to hideout *cough* in our room. See you probably *cough* by tomorrow. Thanks so much. You really *cough* are the best of friends. Love *cough* you.”

“Okay, take care. I’ll see you later.”

“*sniffle* Bye.”

Sango fell off of her chair as she finally let go for a full belly laugh after listening to her friend beg off from their normal Monday routine. “So that is the reason why you were able to stay home whenever you forgot to do your homework. Why aren’t you in Theatre Arts?” She was now holding her sides and swiping at the tears that were rolling down her cheeks.

“That is how you are supposed to fake sick. Most people forget to cough at the right intervals and do not vary between coughs and sniffles and possibly other sounds. You have to seriously practice to be that good.” She crossed her eyes and stuck out her tongue in Sango’s direction that renewed her hysterics after listening to Kagome’s defense of her acting abilities.

“We *gasp* had better *gasp* hit the *gasp* road soon if we *gasp* are going to make decent time today.” Sango had calmed down from her chuckles. The girls ran around to start getting prepared. Both dressed in jeans and tees with running shoes. Grabbing money, cell phones, credit cards and checks, they shoved their ‘necessities’ into a small gym bag along with an extra set of clothes each and their phone chargers. They were prepared for anything.

“We need to gas up and I need some caffeine,” Sango announced. “Skyler is about an hour away. We can also buy a map when we stop.”

They were off.

--During the Car Ride--

“What did you and Inu Yasha do last night? You did come in kind of late,” Sango finally got to ask the question that had been bugging her since she woke up.

“We ummm went to the library and coffee house just like we said. Well, then we did decide to go for a walk since our last one was disrupted. Ummm. We kissed, and wemadeoutthenhegavemeanorgasmitwassogreatIcan’tbelieveIlethimdothatbutIdid.Ialsodidn’treturnthefavor,buthepulledawayandstoppedinsistingontakingmehome.” Kagome took a deep breath finally looking over at her sister. “Sango, close your mouth and look at the road. Why didn’t you call me last night? Normally you would have freaked at me being out late.”

Sango took a few minutes answering her sister. ‘I can’t believe what I am hearing. This is Kagome, she doesn’t make out with guys even guys that she has known for a while. Hmm. This guy could be good for her. I hope that she is careful. Maybe I should tell her why I didn’t go looking for her last night. Wonder what she’ll think…’ Sango kept her thoughts about her friend and opinion on the new guy to herself, but opted to tell Kags about what she ended up doing last night.

“Miroku came over last night. I can’t believe I am starting to like that pervert. He has rubbed off on me quickly. We played cards. I let him talk me into playing strip poker,” Sango said, turning red because she knew Kags was gaping at her. “We also kissed. That guy can kiss too. These guys are something else. We’ve only known them a few days. Here we are, checking up on them, messing with our routines and even being fast.” She shook her head and let a small laugh of disbelief. “But, I think they are worth it. I know we both feel something.”

Kagome remained silent, but had a huge smirk on her face. “Were you planning on telling me about your rendezvous?”

“Duh, we are SUPPOSED to tell each other this stuff. That way we can help keep each other straight or least from getting too screwed up.”


--Skyler Public Library in the Resource Room--

“Augh, we rode for an hour and now we have been staring at these films (a/n the microfilms that you feed through that machine not movies) for an hour and a half. I feel exhausted.” Kagome exhaled in frustration. She was normally very patient, but at the moment, she felt anything but. Just at that moment, Sango reached over and grabbed her forearm and tugged.

“Look at this shit. It’s her, but this picture looks seriously screwed up. Says that the girl was identified at Kikyo Maynard of Skyler by her boyfriend…remaining under observation…the picture is of her seeing her family…This has to be a follow up, but we found something. Kagome moved her chair over to Sango as she rolled the pages back to the previous paper. They stared at the headline.

“Girl Found Beaten on Hwy 707” ‘An unidentified girl found beaten yesterday afternoon on highway 707, just 1 mile outside of Skyler… Police suspect two assailants… No leads… Requests for someone to identify… Girl taken to Western Pacific Psychiatric Hospital…’

Kagome and Sango slowly turned toward each other after looking at the picture that was published. It showed a young woman that almost didn’t look human she was so cut up and swollen across her face. Kagome swallowed past the lump forming in her throat while Sango looked as if she was going to loose anything that may have been in her stomach.

“No wonder Koga reacted to Inu Yasha being anywhere near us if he really thought there was a possibility that Inu Yasha did have anything to do with this. How did she survive? You can’t even tell what her face looked like before. What should we do? We really don’t know too much more than we did before,” Kags was looking toward Sango while she spoke softly.

Sango exhaled, then took a few deep breaths. “You’re right, we don’t know much more than when we started. Although, we do know where she is. May as well go for the whole enchilada and visit her.”

The girls went over to the computer area and looked up the Western Pacific Psychiatric Hospital. They were fortunate enough to find an address and phone number, which meant that they could look up driving directions and call if need be. Unfortunately they would be later than they anticipated going home, the hospital was an hour and half in the opposite direction of campus.

--At the hospital--

Two tired jelly-legged girls made their ways up the massive stone steps that led the way to the entrance to the hospital.

“Ugh, I am going to need a day off from our ‘sick’ day at this rate. Thankfully you told Koga not to come over because we are contagious. That was quick thinking,” Sango complained and commented on her way up.

“I would love nothing more right now than to just drive home-to our mom’s house-and be babied for a while. I am beginning to feel sick and tired,” her whined reply was emptied of emotion. The sound of her friend’s voice caused Sango to perk up and put on her protective attitude and cheer up her friend.

“At least we will soon meet this girl face-to-face. You will be able to comfortably start a relationship with Inu Yasha after this. If not, we get ice cream and the chance to break into our chick flick collection tonight.” Sango’s smile turned dazzling.

At the front desk sat a red headed black haired woman with red eyes.

“May I help you?”
“We are here to visit Kikyo Maynard. We’re friends, but haven’t visited in a long time,” Sango smoothly fibbed.

The inattentive receptionist just handed over a sign in sheet and instructed the girls to sign their names, phone numbers, addresses, and time in and remember to check out when they left. Her eyes never left her computer.

Walking down the hall, Kagome exhaled and said, “Wow, that was easier than I thought it was going to be. I figured that we would not be allowed anywhere near her until we passed some kind of security clearance.”

They walked until they saw a nurses’ station so that they would be able to get a room number and directions to Kikyo’s room. Once they accomplished their goal, they stood outside of the room unsure of what to say once they knocked.

They rapped on the door, and found themselves in front of a woman that was similar in build as Kagome; in fact she strongly favored her. Black hair, blue eyes, similar shape, but it was the expressions that made them look so different. Kagome’s face was warm, welcoming and very expressive. Sango had to say that anybody could read Kagome just by watching her face. Kikyo’s, on the other hand, was blank but held a childish quality, not to mention the scars that must have come from the attack. Those scars were the only lines on her face. She didn’t smile and her voice and face didn’t match.

“Hello, I’m Kikyo. Who might you be? Are you here to talk? I love the garden, let’s go sit in the garden.” Her voice was almost melodic in the way that a young girl would sing everything that she said.

The three walked outside with Kikyo leading the way.

“It has been a long time since I made a new friend. You are not here to hurt me, are you? You would not hurt someone like me. The spiders are bad; the spiders like to come during the hot afternoon and bite.
(Singing)

The spiders are coming out
You better not be out
Because they like to bite
If you fight
When the spiders come out.”

Kikyo’s prattle sent shivers down both Kagome and Sango’s back. The girls silently decided not to ask any of the questions that they wanted to know, but instead just ask about how she has been doing and the other questions that are discussed between acquaintances.

After talking for about two hours about flowers, jewelry, and other meaningless topics, the pair made their goodbyes. Kikyo made them promise to come back and visit so that they could see the flowers that she had been planting. Before they left, though, Kikyo repeated her ominous song

“The spiders are coming out
You better not be out
Because they like to bite
If you fight
When the spiders come out.”

On the drive home, neither could stop wondering about the spiders that Kikyo had been talking about.

“I know that when she is talking about spiders, she is referring to her attackers. She uses the plural, so that just backs up the theory of two or more assailants. I wonder what possessed her to refer to them as spiders. Was the attack random, and what happened during the attack?” Kagome’s mind was whirling. Both she and Sango loved mysteries, but this was plainly baffling. The more they discovered, the more complex the mystery became.

Sango left the similarities between the two go because it was only superficial.

When the two girls made it home, they found something that scared the hell out of them. Standing in front of their door in the hall were three guys.

Two growls were issued and a very terse, “Where the fuck have you been?” on the heel of a growl was all that was heard.

I hope you guys like it. Everybody have a good day. LOL