Kagome wiped her palm across her forehead, pushing sweaty hair away from her eyes. She gazed fixedly at what sat in her other hand. "Inuyasha?"

Her companion wrenched his sword out of a steaming demon corpse. He ignored her, choosing instead to start cleaning off Tetsusaiga.

"Inuyasha? You might want to see this." Kagome picked demon chunks off of the jewel shard in her hand, flicking them onto the road. A voice in her mind told her that a car would be along soon, but logic stated that it was very early in the morning, and that she would probably be safe for a while. It was three o'clock in the morning and the lights of Tokyo shown on the crystal she held. "Something isn't right about this jewel shard."

That caught his attention. Inuyasha leaped across the road to land lightly at her side. He immediately reached out to take the shard from Kagome and lifted it into the light. Inuyasha narrowed his eyes and sniffed a bit. "It looks like a shard."

"No, it feels like a shard. It's powerful, and it's pure, but it doesn't look like a shard. I think it's... faceted."

Inuyasha snorted and dropped it back into Kagome's waiting hands and turned away. "Faceted?"

"Yeah!" She twirled it around in her fingers. "It's like it was cut instead of broken."

"It's been around for a long time, Kagome. Five hundred years is long enough for someone to polish the damn thing."

Kagome bit her lip and frowned. "I don't know. Something just seems wrong about this." She brought out her shard jar and had just popped the top when her breath caught in her throat.

"Inuyasha!"

He was back at her side before she could turn around. "What is it? What's wrong?"

She stretched out her hands to show him. "This shard! It's too big! It's- the diameter- it doesn't- it's not right- the thing, it's too- no!"

Inuyasha glared. "Speak, woman!"

"THIS SHARD IS TOO BIG!" Kagome lifted the jar and the new shard, holding them side by side. "This weird fancy shard is bigger than the Shikon Jewel! They're not the same!"

The half demon went still and cold. "It formed wrong in a demon. It must be deformed or something."

"No, it's not." She shook the collected shards in his face. "The jewel is smarter than that. It knows what to do. Shikon shards make a Shikon Jewel." She waved the other jewel back and forth. This is not a Shikon shard. It is not part of the Shikon Jewel."

Leaning forward a little, Inuyasha asked, "Then what is it?"

"I don't know." Kagome looked at it for a moment, then clenched it in her fist. "But I do know that it's way late and I have school tomorrow. Let's go home, okay?"

Inuyasha heard the strain in her voice and decided that now was the wrong time to push the subject. He huffed and stood up. "Fine. I'm done here anyway." He gave Kagome a moment to stow her things before helping her onto his back. Just before he sprang into motion, he grunted, "But you're coming back tomorrow afternoon, got it?"

"Inuyasha, you jerk!"

Silence fell on the messy street corner after they departed. The night settled comfortably on the dead forms of the demons. For a moment, there was peace...

… Until the clatter of high heels broke it. Five young girls in small uniforms rushed into the scene, only to shrink away in disgust.

"Oh, what is that smell?" said the tall brunette as she covered her nose.

"Eww eww eeewwww! I hate Negaverse chunkies!" wailed the blonde in the center.

A girl in blue wrinkled her nose but summoned up a small flip-top computer. "They were definitely sent by the Bureau of Bad Behavior , but all of them are dead! What could have possibly happened?"

To the side, another crossed her arms over herself and shivered. "Something was here. I feel a bad presence."

Another blonde stepped forward to put a hand on her friend's shoulder. "Well, whatever it was, it's gone now. We need to regroup with the cats and tell them what happened to these cronies."

All five of them agreed, and again they were off. Night closed in again on the corner, not to be disturbed until morning came.