Tenchu's angel here with my first fic ever! Please do me the kindness of reading and reviewing. It will be much appreciated. Even criticism is welcome as long as it is constructive. As for my disclaimer I don't own Inu and the crew (a girl can dream though). The Inuyasha series and all its characters are the sole property of the manga-ka genius Rumiko Takahashi. Now, on with the story!
I never realized how creepy it is here at night, thought Kagome with a slight shudder as she wandered through the empty, darkened halls of the biotech lab she served as an intern at. She was working here to learn the tricks of the trade necessary to become a certified biotechnologist. Unfortunately, she had forgotten her purse and apartment keys in the lab today, and had been forced to sneak back in to retrieve it. She silently cursed her forgetfulness as she walked through the deserted, mournful looking hallways.
A floorboard creaked loudly as she put her weight on it. Kagome, already on edge, gave a shriek that echoed loudly and jumped about a foot.
A light suddenly went on in a room a few doors down from her, yellowish light seeping out from the crack beneath the door. The door swung open and a head peered out.
"Who's there?" called the person from the doorway, voice quavering a little bit. Kagome, recognizing the man, sighed in relief at not being all alone anymore.
"It's Kagome, Dr. Tanaka," she called. She jogged over to stand in the light coming from the room.
"Higurashi, what are you doing here so late?" the old, stern looking doctor asked disapprovingly, miffed at having been frightened like that.
"Sorry, Doctor," Kagome apologized sheepishly. "I forgot my purse during the lab today and it has my apartment keys in it."
Dr. Tanaka shook his scornfully and made that annoying 'tsk-tsk' noise that Kagome hated. He then proceeded to go into one of his infamous lectures about blah, blah, blah. Well, that's what Kagome heard when he spoke, anyway.
Quite used to getting these lectures and quite skilled at tuning them out, she merely nodded and tried to look properly ashamed. Glancing surreptitiously over his shoulder, she attempted to see what he himself was here working on so late. There had been rumors going around among the interns that he was on the verge of finding a cure for cancer…
Kagome's eyes went wide and she was so surprised at what she saw that she forgot to pretend like she was listening. Dr. Tanaka, seeing her expression, paused in his long winded lecture. When he saw what Kagome was looking at he quickly stepped in to block her view.
"Let's go get that purse of yours," he said, continuing to block her view as he hurriedly shut the door.
"Dr. Tanaka, what was-"
"That is none of your business," Dr. Tanaka cut her off, a steel edge to his voice that scared her. "It is best that you forget whatever you think you might have seen."
He led her in silence to the lab where her purse had been left and led her in equally stony silence out of the building. Kagome, for her part, was in a bit of a daze at what she had seen.
"Goodnight, Higurashi," Dr. Tanaka said coldly before slamming the door closed in her face.
Kagome, shaken from her daze by the slamming of the door, walked slowly to her car. Thoughts buzzed around in her head so rapidly that she felt a bit dizzy. She took a deep breath and put a hand to her head, willing her chaotic thoughts into a reasonable order.
The thing she had seen had been human in form at least. It had been unconscious within it's cryogenic chamber. It could be another experiment in the field of cloning. But Kagome was forced to dismiss that idea. After all, what clone of a human had ever had dog ears?
She got little sleep that night. Thoughts of the silver-haired, dog-eared creature in the capsule plagued her the entire night. What was he? What was he being created for?
Why all the secrecy about him?
The thoughts refused to leave her alone all the next day as well, and she was absent as she went through the motions of her internship at the lab. By lunch time it was too much. She always had been much too curious for her own good.
After giving her friend and fellow intern Sango the lame excuse of having to go feed Buyo to get out of having lunch with her, Kagome retraced her steps to the lab room she had seen the boy in last night.
Luckily the corridor leading to the room was in was empty. Pulling out the access code card she had swiped from Dr. Himura's desk (they were necessary to get in to the more top-level experiment rooms), Kagome slid it through the scanner beside the door and was pleased to hear the slight beeping that told her she'd been allowed entrance.
Pushing the door open just a crack she scanned the room to make sure it was empty. To her relief it was, and, with one last look up and down the corridor to make sure no one was coming, she slipped in. Monitoring machines filled the room with various beeps and clicks, the machines all centered around the cryogenic chamber.
Kagome walked towards it hesitantly, apprehensive despite the fact that she knew the inhabitant of the pod was fast asleep and would not be waking up any time soon. Peering through the glass window, she studied the boy in the chamber.
He looked young, maybe in his early twenties she would guess. Though really, because he had probably been engineered rather than born, he was only a couple of years old at most. His hair waist length was a unique silver in color.
Much prettier than mine, Kagome thought a bit enviously, touching her own mid-back length black tresses.
He was wiry in build. Not overly muscular or extremely skinny, but covered with a thin, corded kind of muscle. His face was very masculine, with heavy, dark brows and a strong, slightly stubborn looking chin. His fingers were tipped with long nails that ended in a sharp point.
Like animal claws, thought Kagome, her apprehension about the whole thing growing a notch.
But his most unique feature had to be his ears. Two silver, pointy dog ears on the top of his head. Vaguely Kagome wished she could rub them, but she quickly shook that thought away. Stooping down, she read the label on the front of his chamber.
Experiment #319 in the U.B.W. Project, she read, and then, beneath that, Code Name: Inuyasha.
"So Inuyasha's your name, huh?" she said aloud, without much thought.
The whooshing noise as a cold gust of air escaped from the chamber told Kagome that she'd just made a big mistake. Following this the glass lid slid open and all the monitors shut down simultaneously.
"Experiment #319 activated," came the automated voice of the computer monitor sitting on a nearby table.
"No, no, no!" hissed Kagome, waving her hands frantically. "Deactivate! Deactivate!"
But there was no response and the girl was forced to wait breathlessly to see what would happen.
Nothing occurred for the first few heart pounding seconds. The boy did not stir in the least despite his freedom from the cryogenic chamber.
Maybe the experiment was a failure, thought Kagome, a bit disappointed somehow.
But she wasn't disappointed for long. The boy suddenly inhaled deeply as if he couldn't get enough air, then gasped and choked as if he had gotten too much. He slumped forward in his chamber, coughing and spluttering. Kagome half moved forward to pat him on the back, but stopped herself. She didn't know if this thing was dangerous or how it would react to a human.
The coughing and spluttering ceased after a few moments, and the boy looked up at her, blinking blearily.
Golden eyes, Kagome thought, finding herself entranced.
His eyes finally came into focus and he gave a weak smile at the sight of her.
"Kikyou," he breathed voice hoarse from lack of use, "You came back for me." And then, stumbling his way out of the chamber, he promptly fell unconscious into Kagome's arms. Completely nude.
Oh my, was Kagome's only coherent thought on the matter.
End! Sort of a cliffie! Please review and let me know what you think. Thanks for reading!