deus ex machina by ren

ab inconvenienti

chapter one: ab inconvenienti  

(latin - from an inconvenient thing) 

--DEM--

How does one make a quote on quote, "appealing" blog post anyways? 

Sesshomaru no Taisho, eldest son of Toga no Taisho, decidedly did not enjoy social media.  He'd sat at his desk, in front of his god-forsaken laptop for the better part of his Saturday off, staring into the blue abyss of Tumblr's dashboard background. Contemplating the best way to go about kicking off the semester-long sociology/customer relations assignment his Entrepreneurial Strategies professor had assigned for their marketing strategies unit.  

The unit itself didn't take more than a month and a half at most, but this tediously long assignment lasted the entire semester - five god-forsaken months. The class had be divided into four sectors, by seating order, and given one social media site to work with in order to get a sense for "working with the general public." Sesshomaru's sector had been given Tumblr - whatever that site was. Sesshomaru had only heard of it through his younger half-brother Inuyasha mentioning it in passing - and Sesshomaru rarely listened to Inuyasha, who was a senior in high school.  

Letting out an irritated noise, he leant back in his chair and tipped his head back, long silver-white hair nearly brushing the false-hardwood flooring of his single. He could practically feel the migraine pulsating in between his eyes, pressuring that section of his mind. Taking his glasses off from the bridge of his nose, Sesshomaru held them up above his tired eyes, and massaged the bridge of his nose. He'd literally gotten nothing done today, aside from that problems packet his Calculus professor had assigned them via substitute teacher. The actual professor, a striking woman in her early thirties - she looked to be a college student herself, if Sesshomaru was honest with himself - Professor Akane Saotome, was on maternity leave. The substitute was sub par at best - he could barely get the students to attention half the time.  

Staring up at the ceiling through the slightly smudged lenses of his glasses, Sesshomaru dully realized that his phone was going off. How irritating, he thought. That ringtone is rather shrill. I should not have allowed Rin to choose it. She does not have the best taste in non-disturbing music. I should probably change it...and pick up the phone.  

He made no move to do either thing, but continued to stare up at the ceiling, at count the faint pockets in the ceiling, likely created by previous residents. Perhaps if he ignored the shrieking ringtone, it would just stop.  

It didn't stop.  

Growling, he shot up in his chair, pressed his glasses back onto his face, and flipped the ringing device over.  

"Yes?" 

"You sound grumpy, Fluffles. Unhappy to hear from me, ya' bastard?" His younger brother's rougher tones spilled out from the speakers, and Sesshomaru scowled.  

"I am always unhappy to hear your voice, Inuyasha. Why are you bothering me today?"  

"Nah, don't really want to talk to you - not voluntarily at least. But Mom was looking up some of your syllabuses on your school website, and saw that you have a semester long...social media project? I was roped into teaching your sorry ass how to use Tumblr." On the other side of the line, he could hear Inuyasha snickering, before shouting in pain as Sesshomaru's step-mother trod on his foot. He could practically see it - Izayoi clamping her pale hands over Rin's tanned, elfin ears, glaring at Inuyasha, who was undoubtedly swearing even worse than the previous offense. Oh yes, Sesshomaru could see it rather clearly, such a common occurrence it had become as the younger of the two brother's had grown older. Rin had been adopted while Inuyasha was just finishing his freshman year, and he had been in his senior year of high school - quite possibly the worse language set for an eight year old girl to be exposed to. Inuyasha cursed too much, and Sesshomaru had sometimes slipped back into that embarrassing habit of referring to himself in the third person - only to be attributed to the lack of sleep he'd been getting. She'd sometimes swear with language that could make even a sailor flush in one second, then slip into the sort of sophisticated jargon only ancient Lords spoke in. Or extremely intelligent four year olds that had been a little too exposed to historical dramas.  

Sesshomaru blamed that one entirely on his mother. But on the other hand...his younger half-brother was being a bother, and nothing put him off more than having to listen to the way Lords spoke in historical dramas - which Izayoi so happened to be fond of as well.  

"This Sesshomaru is perfectly capable of figuring out a measly website. None of your help is needed," he deadpanned, clicking through his rather destitute dashboard. He had no messages in the provided inbox, and he hadn't even bothered to begin and create the appearance of the blog itself.  

"You fucking asshole, stop giving me that holier-than-thou attitude, for fucks sake - OW MOM, WHY?" Inuyasha yelped from across the phone line.  

"I do not require your help," he cut in. "So I would appreciate it if you not bother me on a Saturday. Rather, spend this time actually studying, and bringing up your grades, little brother. Good day." And with that, Sesshomaru hung up the phone, taking in that certain brand of pride and pleasure elder siblings often experience upon successfully vexing their younger siblings. 

Setting the phone down onto his desk once more, Sesshomaru turned to the information leaflet the professor had handed out at the end of yesterday's class. There was a postscript - in bold as well, Sesshomaru noted - that reminded all students that they would be judged on the appeal of their blog as well as all the other required points, such as interaction with other bloggers, and appeal to the public. It was essentially a popularity game. Which was an issue for Sesshomaru, who, in all honesty, found a majority of the human population to be quite bothersome. He loathed dealing with the basic population he ran into within his everyday schedule in college. He was rather vexed at the notion of having to deal with the entire internet. Especially if some of them had inclinations to act like his idiotic younger half-brother.  

He'd honestly, rather shoot himself than do this project, if that were an honorable thing to do. As well as the fact that his father graduated from Keio with a practically perfect average, and Sesshomaru refuses to allow his father to best him.  

But first, he would like to get out from this dorm room for a little while. Pocketing his phone, - it was at fifty percent, but Sesshomaru didn't really want to charge it yet - throwing a jacket on, and a pair of shoes, he slipped out from his dorm, having locked the door behind him.  

--DEM--

The air is brisk outside today, Kagome decided. She was on her way back to Keio's campus from a rally in Ueno Park, when the wind suddenly picked up, throwing her hair into a flustered disarray. Sango had left earlier with Kohaku, her younger brother, for monjayaki. Kagome had some leftover assignments to finish from her History professor, so she'd opted out of the trip down to the ever-crowded "Monjayaki Street."  

Truly, transition from autumn to winter was her favorite part of the season, if only because the leaves were so vibrant. The college student stood to the side of the paths winding around Keio's campus, watching the wind tear the ruby red, and mustard yellow leaves from the tree branches, and deposit them in soft, small mounds of bright white snow. Rallies were so often filled with high tensions, and so much ambient energy, that Kagome could almost scream with all that excitement rubbing off on her, and coursing throughout her veins. Just watching the autumn foliage made it easier to calm down, to come down from that high, before she could say or do anything she would regret. It was difficult, being a recognized figurehead of a social revolution - people looked to her and Sango as voices of reason. They both had to watch themselves, because any reckless actions they took would reflect on feminists as a whole.  

In truth, it was all rather stressful.  

Letting out a soft sigh, Kagome drew her knit scarf further up her neck, so that a great deal of it covered her mouth. It was getting dark outside - she'd better head back to her dorm.  

As she began the trek back to her dorm, her phone went off in her pocket, the slow tune from BTS slightly muffled through the layers of denim and cloth.  

Rooting through her pocket, Kagome held the phone up to her wind-bitten ear.  

"Inuyasha? Hey, it's nice to hear from you!"  

"Same to you, Kagome. Hey, you said that you'd be welcome to me recruiting some potential helpers for the online campaign, right?"  

She rose an eyebrow. "Yes...but Inuyasha, you better not be causing too much trouble for whoever you're trying to recruit, got it?"  

"Yeah, yeah," Kagome could practically hear the eye roll from across the phone. "Don't worry, the bastard's got more than enough time for this."  

"If Rin's in the same room as you, I'm going to smack you." 

"She's not! I swear." From behind Inuyasha, Kagome could hear a rustling noise.  

"Then who's moving behind you?" She kept walking, tucking her face further into the soft material of her scarf - was it just her, or had the temperature outside just dropped twenty degrees? 

"Bankotsu. We've got a Chem project with Doctor Hyakuya due in a week or two, and Bank wanted to get it started today, 'cause he's got a date with Jakotsu later this week. If we don't have at least half of this stupid report done by the end of the week, Bank's moms aren't letting him go out." Inuyasha snorted. "Jakotsu has Bankotsu wrapped around his nail polished talons, I swear." 

Kagome let out a soft snort. "Inuyasha, don't be rude! Do you have any idea how long it takes anyone master getting nail polish not to smudge while doing it?"  

"I'm going to assume that it takes a while, Kagome. But don't. So, yeah, that's what I called for. Oh yeah, also, Bank, Jakotsu and I couldn't find you or Sango at the feminist rally today. You were at the one in Ueno Park, right?"  

Stepping into the heated common area of her dorm complex, she let out a soft, contented sigh before pulling her green scarf away from her wind-chapped face. "Yeah. Sango and I got pulled away from our meeting spot though. The high school group that had organized the rally wanted to talk to us. Did you stick around for the rest of the rally?"  

"Huh, oh - yeah. My mom wanted me to film it. Don't really know why, to be honest. I sent a video of the speeches to you. And Kikyo. Is she still in America?"  

Kagome thought back to the last time she and Inuyasha had seen Kagome's elder sister. She was married to her work, it seemed, and had moved to America last year when her boss had given her a promotion. "Ah, yeah. Mom is trying to convince her to come home for the holidays, but I think she has a conference and some conventions over winter break. I'll have to look at the email she sent me, but yeah. Why?" 

"Thought that she'd want to see the speeches, 'cause she's an alumni of that high school that organized the rally."  

Unlocking the door to her dorm, Kagome hung her scarf and jacket on the hooks, slipping off her winter boots. Padding into the kitchen area in her fuzzy socks, she began to root around in the cupboards for her tea packets. "Maybe. I don't know if Kikyo'll remember to watch them. Maybe you should send them to her fiancee instead?" 

"WHAT? Shut the fuck up, Bank, you know I'm not talking about you or Jakotsu. Or whatever the hell Ayame did to Koga during their date over the weekend. Anyways, Kikyo has a fiance? Since when?" Laughing at her friend's response, Kagome set the tea kettle down on the crappy stovetop, and turned the gas on.  

"Fiancee with two 'es,' Inuyasha. And yeah, her name's Midoriko. They're going to get married in the spring. The invitations haven't gone out yet." The slight girl hissed as the boiling water spit out small droplets of heated liquid onto her skin as she poured it into a striped, yet chipped mug. "She and Midoriko have only told their families so far. Isn't it exciting? Of course, Ji-chan's bummed that Kikyo told us through a Skype call, rather than flying down to Japan, but I think she's a little too busy for that."  

"Wow." Inuyasha sounded a little shellshocked. "That's awesome for Kikyo. Thought she wanted a family, though. Are the two of them going to adopt a kid, or use surrogacy?"  

"They haven't decided that yet. I'm pretty sure that Midoriko wants to use surrogacy. Kikyo hasn't said anything on the matter - and they haven't met with a geneticist - and speaking of science-related matters, I think I'd better hang up." 

"Why?" 

"Don’t you and Bank have a chem project? You guys better get to it. If it's the one I think it is, then you guys have a lot more work to do before you're even half-way through it. I'm driving down to Chuo with Sango over the weekend, so we'll see you then. Bye!" Stirring the tea bag around in her mug, Kagome set her phone down, a shivered at the frigid temperatures her room had settled into.  

"Better turn up the heat," she murmured, grasping the cup firmly in her hands. The warmth from the jasmine tea crawled through her skin, and Kagome welcomed it as she ambled over to the thermostat by the front door. "Jesus, sixty five degrees? Why did I leave it like that, anyways?" Mumbling to herself, Kagome set the tea mug down on the stoop, before fiddling with the temperature controls. Satisfied with the heat, she made her way over to her desk, before booting up her laptop. The doc for her history assignment was open, as well as several websites in her browser - Tumblr, Twitter, and an anime watching website. Ignoring the browser, Kagome reached for the packet of reading materials her professor had assigned earlier, and began to paraphrase the information into an outline.  

God, she had so much homework.  

--DEM--

"What the hell are you doing, Yasha?" Bankotsu looked away from their clear container of monoammonium phosphate, and hot water, and at his friend, who was tapping something into his phone. "Do we just leave this jar of mono-whatever it is, and water to sit overnight? Also - why, in all the seven hells, are you texting Sesshomaru?"  

Inuyasha looked up from his phone, setting the device down on the coffee table. He flicked back some stray strands of silver hair, before grinning devilishly over at Bankotsu. His elder brother hadn't "graced him with a reply," but Inuyasha knew that there was a fair chance of Sesshomaru following the blog he'd just recommended - it would, after all, guarantee an interesting project result to report in. Of course, Inuyasha hadn't told him that, only that it would help ensure a high grade.  

If things went the way Inuyasha thought that they were going to go, he doubted it.  

"Nah, nothing. Just 'helping' out Fluffy on request from my mom." 

Bankotsu let out a long, self-suffering sigh, before dropping some green food coloring into the watery mixture, and setting it out of reach from Rin. "For your sake, I hope he doesn't beat your ass halfway to Sunday when this backfires on you."  

Inuyasha shrugged, and went back to his lab sheet.  

--DEM--

Sesshomaru had finished installing an appropriate theme for the blog - which had been ridiculously tedious, by the way - when his phone went off again. Not the annoyingly shrill ringtone Rin had picked out - which upon further examination, was revealed to be the K-On opening, Cagayake! Girls - but the short chord progression he had set for his text message alert.  

He flipped the phone over, and saw Inuyasha's name in gradient white letters, and nearly flipped the phone back onto its face. He undoubtedly would have, if he hadn't caught sight of the opening words Inuyasha had texted.  

"follow this blog - 'shikon-no-kagome'. get more exposure -> which means higher grade right? cya later fluffles gotta get back to chem lab >:P" 

Sesshomaru scowled at the moniker his half-brother continued to use, then went into the search bar on the navy blue dashboard.  

Slowly, he typed in the blog url, and in a new tab, a blog popped open. The theme was pleasant enough to his eyes - hued in shades of sky blue, and spring greens. There was a choppy, eight-bit animation of pink sakura no hana falling from a tree in the right-most corner of the site. The heading read, hit the mark!!, and an emoticon arrow, in bold, black letters. Wondering what his brother could have possibly have meant in making him follow this...teenaged girl's blog, Sesshomaru scowled, and hit the follow button.  

Then promptly switched back to the tab containing his google document.  

What a stupid thing, to listen to his idiotic half-brother.  

--DEM--

A musical ping went off in the silence of Kagome's normally habitated dorm room. Sango had gone home for the weekend already, despite the fact that it was Wednesday - but her courses had let out earlier for winter break. And a week earlier too, lucky Sango, Kagome thought.  

The ping went off again, and Kagome brought up her browser to check her tumblr.  

A notification popped up in the corner of her dashboard, letting her know that she had a new follower - bakusaiga-of the-west. Grinning, Kagome pulled up the blog - which was rather monochrome, sans the crimson hexagon designs that ran throughout the white background of the theme - and opened up their ask box.  

"hey," she typed, "nice to meet you! i'm kag! are you the one inu sent to help out for the next feminist rally? it's nice to meet you - and welcome to tumblr!"  

With a satisfied grin, Kagome stretched, wincing internally at the harsh popping noises emanating from her back, and shut her laptop. 

DEM

On the other side of the screen, hours later, Sesshomaru stared at the message that had appeared in his previously - blissfully - desolate inbox. That teenaged girl Inuyasha had him follow had sent him a message, and Sesshomaru was not pleased.  

Of course, he knew about feminists. It was practically impossible not to - one of the upperclassmen he had gone to high school with had been an avid one. They were rabid, and rather vicious, in his own opinion, always trampling over others, and getting riled up at the slightest of offenses.  

He wanted nothing to do with feminists ever again. Of course, Sesshomaru rarely ever would dignify something he held little care, nor interest in with a response, but at twelve am, with little more than three hours of sleep under his belt, he was more than a little prone to doing things he would regret rather thoroughly in the morning.  

Rubbing his face, while sleepily mindful of his glasses, Sesshomaru banged out a sharp, curt, and quick response to the girl, and hit reply...but publicly.  

--DEM--

Kagome stared at the reply bakusaiga-of the-west had given her well-meant ask, and felt nothing but rage.  

Seriously? This was the guy Inuyasha said would be "willing to help" out with her, Sango, and millions of other people's cause? What a jackass!  

Fingers moving swiftly across her keyboard, Kagome typed out an angry response to bakusaiga-of the-west.  

"excuse me? i must admit that i understand that you may not want to help us in a physical way, such as helping to organize an upcoming rally in azabu-juuban, but that does not give you the right to slander feminists, and our cause in such a manner! mx. bakusaiga, i'm sorry, but i cannot tolerate this sort of slander and hate towards our cause! you were awfully rude, and insensitive, and people like you are the reason why feminists get largely negative reputations. take your slander elsewhere! you obviously do not understand the enormity of the cause we fight for as feminists, so i'm going to ask you to shut up about how we are 'crazy, rabid beasts.' the only beast i see here seems to be you. good day/night, mx. bakusaiga."  

Practically steaming through the ears, Kagome slammed her laptop shut with far more force than necessary, and flicked off the dorm lights. Still fuming, she drew her duvet around her, and fell into a fitful sleep.  

Little did the both of them know, but their actions had much larger repercussions than they could have possibly imagined. 

--end deux ex machina, chapter one: ab inconvenienti--

author's note: hey! i'm ren, and this is my first inuyasha fanfic! i've been plotting out this little fic of mine for a little while now, and i hope that i haven't messed up any character's portrayal! and yes, i did make kikyo bi, as opposed to pairing her up with inuyasha ((more on the reasoning why kikyo'll never be with inuyasha when i write them in my profile)) and yes, i did pair up bankotsu and jakotsu - an idea i took from this wonderful sesskag fic, "running with scissors." i've forgotten the author, but you should totally read that fic. i hope no feminists take offense to sesshomaru's current opinion of feminists - it's pretty temporary for now, and i'm a feminist myself, so im not about to bash feminists. ((though we do tend to get a bad rep due to what sesshomaru has pointed out above - not all feminists do this, but there are cases that turn into the stereotype)) anyways, i really hope you liked this! word meanings down below!

sakura no hana - cherry blossom flowers

mojayaki - runny sort of egg and vegetable pancake-like food. if you've ever had korean pancakes (the kind they have at the bbq restaurants) then it's a bit like that. monjayaki street is a street in tsukishima (which is in tokyo) that is famous for its monjayaki.

azabu-juuban - a district in the minato ward of tokyo. it's also the distric where sailor moon takes place. pretty cool. huh?

keio university - one of the top universities in japan. it's located in the minato ward in tokyo.

chuo - a ward in tokyo, pretty much the center of the city. it's home to the ginza district, where there are a lot of upscale shoppig centers. i've placed the higurashi shrine here, due to the fact that chuo is close to the imperial palace, or at least the ward with the imperial palace, where the emperor - who is the descendant of amaterasu - lives. i figured it'd be pretty spiritual, cause i can't just place the shrine in izumo. that's not even in tokyo!