Author Note at bottom.

Survival Is Only A Game

Chapter VIII

If there was such a thing as echoing silence, Shippo was positive there would be one right now. Nothing moved, nothing made a sound, hell, nothing even lived except him it seemed. That could necessarily be true because right now Kirara was acting like a workaholic robot, staring at a blinding white screen littered with small font words never varying there black colour. What ever happened to picture books? He missed them dearly ever since the Child Care Center was disowned for the time being until Renkotsu took over the company by default. Then again, he never would have considered Renkotsu a child person, like Kagome had been, so he guessed the program would just stay down. Pray to God, not, because then he would be out of a job.

Why didn't Kagome make some sort of decision as to whom the company went to? Renkotsu, though very organized and brilliant when taking the form of a leader, did not seem like a good boss of a major company in his eyes. The look in his pitch-black eyes made a shiver run up his spine, thanking the Lord for having Shippo meet the cold man in an office rather than a dark alley. He was cut off by his disturbed thoughts as the tap of the scroll button was heard and Kirara started to read again.

He studied Kirara's features, like he would do with any other person when he was bored and wanted to try and guess what they were thinking about. She kept tucking and loosening strand of her cream-coloured hair behind her left ear, the rest of her flawlessly straight black streaked hair never moving an inch. The movement of her face resembled that of a stone's – it didn't move at all. The blood-red colour of her eyes flickered from word to word, always in a straight line as she reviewed the document. Shippo didn't know whether she kept that colour of contacts after she became a lawyer because she was too busy to get a new pair, she wanted to intimate the other lawyers into messing up their case with her radical eyes, or she just liked them. He never brooded on the topic, as he never really brooded on any topic about looks with the exception of Kagome, since he loved teasing her about how she never used them to her advantage. Then again, Kirara could also use her looks to lure men to her but wasn't sure if she ever had.

All and all, Kirara was a beautiful twenty year just as Kagome had been. Also, he couldn't get a single clue as to her thoughts from her expression. Stupid poker-face.

He was also able to gather one more thing. He hated this room. It reminded him too much of the late Kagome Higurashi and the fact that Kirara was reviewing over the funeral arrangements didn't help much either. Why did he choose to meet at Kagome's old office for this kind of thing again?

Oh yea... evil villain...

With a tired sigh Shippo plopped his carrot-toped head on Kagome's desk, wishing he was anywhere but here. Stressed, he thought. I've been too stressed lately; can't even sleep anymore.

Shippo didn't know that he had started too doze off until the sharp slapping of paper on the desk made his head jerk up. While peeling an old post-it note off his cheek he stared at Kirara who was running a thin hand through her hair. She fed him a weak smile and motioned to the papers in front of her.

"I'm exhausted," she explained. "Do you think you can take these papers to Renkotsu's office?" Nodding, Shippo gathered the bundle in his arms while Kirara continued to talk. "He probably won't be there so just leave them on his desk. Maybe leave a note with them saying what they are.

"They're forms for his accepting the company. He has to review them, sign them and give them back to me. " She told him with a slurred voice before he could ask. Noticing that she started tipping over slightly, shifting her weight from foot to foot a little too heavily, he slid behind the desk and wrapped one arm around her shoulders like a father might have for his sleepy daughter.

He peaked at the corner of the computer monitor for the time, cursing himself for sleeping so late and letting her do all of the work till ten at night.

"I think you should go home now, Kirara. You do look really tired." She peaked at him from the side, curious as to what he would do after he delivered the papers. "I'll be right out after I give these to 'the boss'." He threw in a sly smirk as he said boss for her benefit. He made sure she was completely balanced before letting go of her then gathered the documents once again. As he was just opening the door Kirara spoke up.

"I threw in a part just for you, basically telling him he couldn't get rid of the Child Center." But when he looked over his shoulder Kirara was already gathering her things so he smiled to himself and walked out the door. Good old, Kirara.

OOO

"Hey, you two! Cut it out, over there!"

"It's not my fault that this guy doesn't know how to build worth shit!"

"I suggest you watch what you say, because as far as I can tell you're not helpin' either!

"Yea, right! I've basically been carrying out this whole thing a-"

Sango stood frozen in place, as did Inuyasha, surprised by Miroku who had become fed up with their bickering and slapped a hand over each of their mouths. After giving them meaningful glares, he dropped his hands at his sides and nodded towards a log near by a pile of charred wood gesturing for the pair to sit.

Many things had happened within the week Inuyasha and Kagome had met the two known as Miroku and Sango. Kagome had found out that, by nearly impossible chances, Sango and Miroku's plane had crashed into the shore due to a malfunction of the engines. Only six people were in the plane – Miroku, Sango, a psychologist, scientist and of course the pilot. No one on the small plane knew anything about each other except they were offered a handsome amount of money to fly to North America to aid a deathly sick man who was extremely wealthy. Only Miroku, Sango and the pilot had survived. Soon after the pilot went into the forest to scavenge for food... and never came back. Sango said she shudders at the thought as to what happened to him.

No one really knew the current status of Miroku and Sango's relationship, not even them it seemed. At times they seemed like they were more than friends, while at other times they seemed like Sango hated Miroku. But, with his 'habits' it would be fairly hard not to hate him at times – If you were a woman.

Miroku had a very odd behavior. Though on the outside he seemed like a polite, unusually well-mannered gentleman on the inside he had a large perverted side. But Miroku, the man who made groping seem like a sport, had not backed down from Kagome. He had backed down from Inuyasha. That day of awakening had been fairly interesting.

"You lay so much as one finger on her head and you'll never be able to again because I will rip them all off." Inuyasha growled under his breath so only Miroku could hear.

"You misunderstand, Inuyasha. I, being a doctor, was merely checking to see if everything was okay. I would do that to anyone." The other man laughed nervously. "Ask Sango, I checked her after the crash- it's just instinct for me."

In return Sango had snorted. "Yea, he check me alright. He does it every time I'm not looking." Miroku gapped at the pair who had started to glare at him. Looking around for something to help support him on the subject he spotted Kagome.

"Ah! Kagome, you believe me, right? It was only for your best interest!" Miroku became really desperate when she avoided the question by claiming to go find some driftwood along the beach for fire. Kagome never did find out what happened to Miroku when she was away, but there was a rather large hand print and a goose egg on his head when she returned.

And now, Kagome was asleep due to Miroku's commanding that she should rest her ankle. Even through Inuyasha and Sango's constant bickering and the intensity of the sun she managed to stay sleeping proving that she was exhausted.

"Now look, everything here is hard enough and we really do not need two children to deal with. We only have three people to search for food, three people to build a shelter for Kagome and Inuyasha, three people to do everything and arguing is going to get us nowhere. We are in the middle of nowhere physically, but mentally we do not have the time to be. So, whatever problems you two have you can sort them out on your own time – time which you will not have unless you get to work."

Miroku was known for his randomly mature speeches, something you would not expect of someone like him. Inuyasha had heard two of these talks already, on different subjects, and both times they managed to do their jobs. This time was no different, because Sango stood up and stretched, grumbling something under her breath about how he could always change her way of thinking. Miroku threw her retreating form a tired smile before he looked expectingly at Inuyasha expecting him to follow the woman's example. Inuyasha did something he hadn't done in a while – he gave in.

"Well," He groaned as he worked out a kink in his shoulder. "I can't really argue with logic like that." And it was around this time Kagome began to flail her arms around and mutter in her sleep.

OOO

Short- yes. Late- yes. Retarded – probably. Do you remember when I told you not to trust anything I say? Well, I'm adding something to that. Never trust what I say, especially when it comes to dates when I'm supposed to update. I know I told a few of you that I would update as soon as I got my new writing program but I didn't because I didn't expect a few things.

One – I didn't expect to be told we were holding a science fair (worth 25 percent of our grade) as well as a geography project (25 percent), French project (10 – 20 percent) and a novel study worth 50 percent all at the same time due around the same time.

Two – I, at age 14 because I'm a total square with a capital s, got my first boyfriend and lost my first boyfriend. I really didn't expect this, not adding the fact that it was totally awkward because it was one of my best guy friends. No, I didn't get dumped but I didn't dump him. Call it cheesy or a cover up but we both decided it would be better to be friends. Yes, so while you were all (or some) were wondering 'Is she ever gunna update?!' there was a little me inside my mind running around screaming as if I was on fire "OH MY GOD, OH MY GOD, OH MY GOD!" basically.