Miroku, Private Eye

Chapter 3: Lady Callers

The sirens blaring down in the street outside the office provided a welcome distraction to the scratching of the pen in Sango's hand. She'd been filling out reports since lunch and it was already nearing 6, but Jinenji's court hearing was only a couple days away, and every second mattered.

Slapping the pen to the desk as she finished another sentence, Sango leaned back in a long stretch, her old work chair creaking as she worked out the kinks in her back. For once she was grateful her partner wasn't at the office with her – he never missed a chance to ogle her, and right now she was just too tired to smack him for it.

Not that she really welcomed his absence; he was an interesting conversationalist, had a quick wit, and truly cared to listen to her when she had something to share. He just happened to have wandering eyes, and Sango had a short fuse.

She knew him well enough to know he valued her as more than just a pretty face, and honestly, she might not have minded the attention… if only he were more choosy in who he handed it out to.

A sharp rap at the door frame and the clatter of the glass pane as the door swung wildly startled Sango out of her chair, but at the sound of a young female voice calling out her partner's name, she moodily sat back down.

"Miroku! Oh Miroku, I need your –"

"He's not here." In the back of her mind, Sango wondered if perhaps she shouldn't at least try to sound pleasanter; then again, this was the fifth woman to burst into the office today, and their reasons were just getting stupider. "I lost my pocket-book" or "I lost my cat" were tried and true, and the last one to try that day had gone for broke and pulled "I lost my heart and I think I left it with you". Sango was beyond through with handling Miroku's army of love-struck broads. Another perk to him being out? Once they realized their wooer was gone, the girls all promptly left.

This one however was still waiting.

The sound of sniffles reached Sango's ears, and she turned to see a slim young girl with a sad, innocent face softly crying into a handkerchief, her stylish brown curls pulled back with an elegant hairpiece. Sango fidgeted self-consciously, absently brushing away her long, straight ponytail as it fell over her shoulder. She never cared to spend the time other women did with their hair; in her line of work, there wasn't time, and the up-do would never hold through a day's work anyways. Still… she couldn't help but envy how easily other women seemed to carry themselves with such grace and style and femininity.

She'd worked her fingers to the bone to make something of herself in this testosterone-driven world, and held her head high with self-respect in the presence of men of power, but sometimes she felt a little too much like 'one of the gang', and too little like she'd never be someone's 'girl'.

Sighing in exasperation, Sango said as neutrally as she could "Can I help you with something?"

Taking this as her cue, the girl rushed into the room, falling into a chair against the wall as she began to cry harder into the already soaked square of cloth. "Oh I don't know what to do anymore, I just don't know! When will Miroku be back? I'm in desperate need of his help!"

Sango shrugged, saying in an annoyed tone "Who knows? He doesn't exactly hold regular hours." At the continued crying Sango's eyes softened, and she asked with sincerity "Why don't you tell me your problem, and I'll see what I can do in his place? Alright?"

The girl looked up with watery eyes, hiccupping slightly, but eventually she lowered her handkerchief and began in wobbly voice "If you could be of any assistance, it would mean so much to me and my family." She paused, her fingers twiddling as she collected her wits and said in a soft voice "My name is Shima. I've lived in this city my whole life, and just a few years ago I became very sick. No doctors could treat my sickness, or even discover what was wrong. My parents suspected that somehow demons were the source of my ailment, and hired Miroku to investigate the matter. He found the demon, but the cost of his services was so high that my father was forced into debt to pay it! He… he managed to make the money up in a gamble, but the gamble was against another demon, and…" Shima choked on a sob, covering her face with the cloth again as she fought to regain her composure.

Sango tapped her foot impatiently, hoping her partner would get back soon so she could give him a piece of her mind. Once again he had thrown them under the bus with his greedy tendencies. Honestly, sometimes she wasn't sure if his services were actually a help or a hindrance to the poor city.

By the time Shima had calmed herself enough to continue, Sango was only half listening as she plotted ways to teach the flagrant man a lesson. "The demon gave us the money for the case, but in return… in return he asked… that…" Her voice caught again, and all in a rush cried "he asked that I become his wife!"

The hand Sango had been leaning against fell out from under her at the exclamation, her attention now fully back on the crying girl. "You're joking!"

"I wish I was!" Shima cried, tears streaming down her face. She blew her nose daintily, and when her eyes once again met Sango's there was a small glint of hope in them. "There might be a way out of it though!" She whispered, and something in her hopeful look set Sango on edge. It could have been all in her head, but Sango had the sinking feeling that whatever the girl's solution was, she wouldn't like it. "After the case was solved, Miroku came to say goodbye, and he told me that once I was better, I should come look him up." The blush that spread across her cheeks at that set off warning bells in Sango's mind. And here she'd been hoping this girl would be different….

Shima's eyes lowered to the floor, her rosy blush lighting her twitter-pated face, and she finished in a dreamy voice "He said that one day… maybe I could be his girl."

Sango held back a scream. She was ready to punch something. She hoped Inuyasha crossed her path before Miroku did, because while the half-demon could take a beating from her and still be standing at the end, with the way she felt now she'd probably put the detective in the hospital. Emotions boiled up in her: anger, frustration, annoyance, and a little green monster that she didn't want to admit was jealousy.

So the PI had never asked her to be his girl… what did she care? If he wanted to have flings with any dumb broad who crossed his path, let him. It… it wasn't like he'd ever think of her in that way… she shouldn't have wanted him to.

"And what does Miroku have to do with your father's debt? We don't handle that kind of thing you know. Try a broker."

Shima didn't seem to notice the growl in Sango's voice, as a smile crossed her face and she said airily "Miroku is the only one who can help me now! I'm only eligible to marry this demon as long as I'm single and unmarried, and… well… I've come to take Miroku up on his offer! I'll be his girl, we'll get engaged, and eventually I'll be his wife!"

The urge to roll her eyes at the over-simplistic solution was at war with the desire to go hide in the other room and never come out again. But as much as she wanted to, she wouldn't run away. Sango didn't run from anything.

"Like I said" Sango huffed, tapping her pen angrily, not noticing the black splotches speckling the report she'd spent a whole hour writing, "Miroku's not here. I don't know when he will be here. So if you don't wanna wait up all night, I suggest you go home and –"

"I'll wait."

There was small snap, and Sango cursed in her mind to see she'd actually broken the pen-tip this time. "Suit yourself." With resolution she didn't know she had, Sango turned away from the pretty, innocent, love-struck young girl on the chair waiting patiently for her 'knight' to come save her, and turned back to her desk to write.

The ink now covering her report was the last straw, and Sango gave up the desk-work to sit and ponder how best to go about getting a punching bag for the office and in which corner to put it.

*Author's Note:

There's kind of a central story-line to this, but it's mainly gonna be a lot of bits and pieces of different cases and different clients; Detective work isn't linear anyways, right?

So, here's another chapter, out much much sooner than I thought it would be. That's probably how it's gonna go too: I'll get random ideas for story snippets, jot em down, post em, and by the end this won't make a lick of sense. :P

Thanks for reading anyways! ;)