Title: Followed
Author: Tsubasa Kya
Disclaimer: I do not own anything from the "Case Closed" universe, and neither do I own anything from the "Inuyasha" universe.

I am taking a lot of liberties with this story; thanks in advance for not freaking out!


Chapter Three

Kagome pulled her sorry rear over the lip of the well after much struggling. She couldn't rest any weight on her left ankle now, thanks to landing on it like an idiot. "This is me, looking stupid," she muttered. She was sweating already, and all she had done was climb a ladder.

But mama would think she successfully made it through to the other side so wouldn't think to check. Really, there was no reason she should believe that Kagome wouldn't make it through the magical portal. Kagome made the painful journey up the stairs to the door of the well and could go no further. She leaned on the door to the well and called for her mother.

"Mama!" she cried, and after a moment of agony standing there, she realized she was digging her nails into the wood door frame. "Mama, help! I think I broke my ankle!" As her mother came out of the house, Kagome nearly fainted because she shifted her body just slightly.

"Oh, sweetheart, what happened?" she asked as she helped Kagome over to the closest seat. The bench in the courtyard was all Kagome could manage. Mama was confused. Kagome had run off so fast, she'd assumed Kagome would go to the past and argue with Inuyasha then come back for some ramen on Inuyasha's orders.

But this? This was completely unexpected, and definitely did not please her. "The well, I think I broke it, Inuyasha said something bad would happen, and I broke it because I didn't listen to him and I ignored him and it's so stupid because I should have listened but mama my ankle hurts so much!" Kagome cried loudly when her mother took the ankle in question and carefully peeled first her shoe and then her sock off her foot.

Mama poked and prodded the ankle gently, turning it over in her hands. A long time ago, she had been a nurse for a small doctor's clinic. That had been before Souta was born and the divorce, but she still retained the knowledge she'd gained through years of college and work experience. "It's not broken," she assured Kagome.

"Yes, it is! It would have let me through if it weren't broken, but it's broken and I broke it!" Kagome bit her lip to keep from crying out anymore.

Mama felt the need to chuckle a bit at her daughter's panicking. "I meant your ankle dear," she said calmly.

"That's broken too!" Kagome insisted, hissing when her mother put her foot on the ground gently.

"It's just a sprain. Your father's on his way here now. You really scared him, saying what you said. Do you want me to still explain what's going on," Kagome's breathing was coming in pants now.

Kagome shook her head but the violent movement of her body upset her ankle and she released a heavy breath in a long hiss. "No," she ground out. "If it's broke, I can't disappear, can I?" She was more than confused though. She'd seen Inuyasha disappear down that well just a few minutes before she hopped over the rim. And he would be angry that she didn't come back. He'd be so mad. "Dad can remain ignorant to the truth of the world for now, but I have to find out what happened to the well."

Her mother told her to wait where she was—not like Kagome could go anywhere—and she went into the house for some wrap bandage. She came out again with the crutches Souta had used when he broke his leg the year before and a screw driver to adjust the height. She also had the first aid kit and watching her juggle all that made Kagome bite back pained humor.

Several minutes later, her ankle was wrapped and the throbbing had lessened. Her mother had given her a quick tutorial of how to use the crutches. She couldn't find the courage to climb up the daunting stairs to her room, so she made a nest on the living room couch.

She had meant what she said to her mother. She did have to find out what happened to the well. "Mama, will you bring me some of grandpa's old text books?"

Mama peered at her daughter, having to peel her eyes away from the television to do so. It was still as frightening as before when she thought her daughter might have been targeted for the jewel. "What do you want those for, dear?" she asked.

"Maybe there's something in those, like a history of the shrine, and some information on the nature of the well…" It was hard to speak coherently when all she wanted to do was cry and throw a fit and react to the murder like a normal girl would. Unfortunately that wasn't likely to happen. Death was nothing new to her; she'd seen a lot of it over the last four years.

"Sure, dear." She wiped her hands on her apron one last time and grabbed the remote, shutting the television off before leaving the room. The house stilled into silence, the only sounds being that of Mama scuffling around in the kitchen and the brittle pages of old books being turned as Kagome searched for any piece of information about the well. She already knew there was very little hope to find anything.

xXx

Heiji smirked down and who he knew to be his arch rival Shin'ichi Kudo, only Shin'ichi wasn't masquerading as himself anymore. He was now 'Conan Edogawa' and Conan was an eight year old. It was quite confusing for Heiji at first, and he didn't really believe it when he first thought about it.

Figuring out that mystery had been in and of itself a difficult task. Even when he'd figured it out, that the eight year old Conan was really Shin'ichi, it was incredibly hard to believe. But now, Heiji had one up on the 'Great Detective Kudo'. Well, actually he had several feet on his rival…

It seemed the irritated detective could stand the suspense no longer. He snapped, "Why the hell"—Heiji snickered, interrupting the supposed young child.

"Language." Shin'ichi ground his teeth together. Heiji continued, smirk still in place. "Your girl's still not feelin' good, so"—this time Shin'ichi interrupted Heiji.

"She's not my girl! How many times do I have to say that before idiot you can remember it?"

Heiji had been waiting for that. "Good, 'cause then, you don't mind if I make a move?" he smirked and started walking away, his long legs taking him quickly away from the young boy who had to take three steps with every one of Heiji's just to keep up.

"Leave Ran alone!" Shin'ichi insisted, feeling incredibly small. "And why are you here?" It bothered Shin'ichi to have Heiji popping by his school, seemingly to pick him up. It was bad enough that Shin'ichi had to go through elementary school again. To have that seen by his arch rival?

"My pops decided t' move back up here. I used the excuse t' pick you up so I didn't haveta help my ma organize th' house."

Shin'ichi grumbled, "Great, so I'm going to have to put up with you more often?"

"Aw, it ain't that bad." Heiji said. "So, ya scared?"

Shin'ichi looked up at Heiji. The much taller—but not technically that much older—boy was walking with his hands folded behind his head. He was entirely at ease, despite the situation going on in the city. For weeks, the city had been subject to a series of seemingly random robberies, all done by according to witnesses, a man in black. The witnesses also claimed that the suspect had very long silver hair and gold eyes.

The authorities could not find anyone who matched the descriptions given by the witnesses. They all said he had no problem being seen, but when they saw him they could only stare at his eyes and how cold they had been. The man seemed to target only the places that had no security cameras—residential homes, in other words.

Then there had been a string of murders, and this morning's school incident made a total of four. The first three murders had been done in places without a camera. The first victim was Yoi Mana, a housewife taking a shortcut to her house through a dark alley. Through questioning her distraught husband and two children, she took that alleyway home from the store every time she bought groceries. She'd been sliced in two, directly across the middle. The reason the people at the morgue were confused was because their autopsy showed them that the victim had been sliced in half in a single sweep of whatever weapon was used.

The second victim was found one week after the first, but according to the autopsy and coroner's report, she died only three days after the first. Her name was Tea Sumimasu and she was found in an abandoned warehouse. There appeared to be no reason she would be in that warehouse, as far as anyone could tell. She was twenty-three and just before she was killed she had taken time off work for vacation. She had no family, no significant other, and no friends. Her boss had filed the missing person's report when she didn't show for work two days after she was expected back, because she'd never been late a day in her history working there. The manner she had died in was identical to the first victim's, being sliced down the middle with—as the coroner stated—a single slice of the weapon.

The third victim was Akari Gouran, a fifteen year old whose death baffled the authorities even more than the first two. She was skipping rope with her friends in a park when she left them to go to the bathroom. After she'd been gone over a half an hour, her friends decided to go check on her and found that she was dead just outside the men's bathroom door, but this time not only had she been sliced in half, but it had been a vertical cut, straight down the middle, and still the coroner said it was a single slice with a blade that was not serrated.

Despite all this, all of the deaths were to have occurred after sunset, creating a pattern even if it wasn't any sort of lead. Now, with the apparent murder across town at the school, frightened parents were forcing the schools to shut down and children were being picked up. All of the first victims were female, so it stood to logic that the next one would be female as well.

It was a question of whether or not the school would have cameras in the place the murder happened, and if the suspect—they still had no leads on who that could be—had known about the camera.

"I'm not scared," Shin'ichi admitted. "Just confused. Inspector Meguire wants Mori to help on the murder case, but he's so busy with people bringing him cases on things that were stolen from them that he just doesn't have time. And he's not having much luck on the robbery cases either. He's got zilch for a description, other than long hair the color of moonshine, clothes as black as night, and eerie golden eyes colder than ice. When asked for any other information on him, the witnesses start shrieking they could only look at his eyes."

"Damn," Heiji whistled. "Well, the murder stuff is kinda why my pops was paid t' relocate. Inspector Meguire gave pops an offer he couldn't turn down, probably 'cause Mori turned down th' murder case. Apparently pops and th' old fat snub"—Inspector Meguire—"go back a long time, an' the Inspector pulled th' Ai card."

Shin'ichi couldn't ever remember being curious about Heiji before, but he labeled now as the first time. "The Ai card? What's that supposed to mean?"

Heiji grinned. "She's sissy's ma."

"Okay, that helped," Shin'ichi drawled sarcastically. "Who is Sissy?"

"Oh, yeah, you don't know about sissy, do ya?" Shin'ichi shook his head and felt great relief as they turned onto the street that would take them to the Mori's office-slash-apartment. He'd be able to get away from Heiji. Still, he wanted to know what 'the Ai card' was. "Ai's used ta be my ma's best friend. See, my ma and pops got together. Then pops married Ai, and nine months later, both me an' sissy were born. I'm six days older than sissy."

Shin'ichi shook his head again. "Then how are your parents together now? And what's the Ai card?" It sounded like a really twisted version of a premarital affair, but Heiji didn't sound like it bothered him. Well, of course it probably would explain how crazy Heiji was… Personal opinions aside…

"After my little half-brother was born, my pops an' Ai separated and divorced. They were friends, but not happy in wedlock, so they split and pops married my mom. Happy ever since." Heiji grinned at Shin'ichi. 'He's annoyed with me,' he thought with amusement. 'Good. Let him be.'

"And the Ai card?" Shin'ichi emphasized his desire to know by stressing each word.

Heiji's grin widened. "Kids shouldn't be so nosy." He told Shin'ichi and backed away from a kick to the shin that would definitely hurt with those punch packing shoes. He turned to jog off. "See ya later, brat! Ma wants me t' put together Kagome an' Souta's rooms."

Shin'ichi grumpily went to make the climb up to the Mori's place. It wasn't until he'd actually gotten inside that something clicked in his brain. 'Kagome? As in Kagome the Sick?' He shook it off. It wasn't really important, just a student in another district who had a reputation for being sick. There were also rumors about the same Kagome not actually being sick but instead she skipped school to join a gang. 'Well, some of the things people say she's been sick with are rather unreasonable, but rumors do spread uncontrollably…'

His first action once inside the Mori's apartment was to go straight to Ran's room and check on her. He walked past Kogoro Mori who was sitting at his desk with a bottle of whisky in the middle of the day, and files of information he was scuffling through as if he'd be able to make sense of any of it while half intoxicated.

Ran was up and folding the laundry, despite the fact that she looked like a car had run over her, then backed up and run over her again. "Ran! You should be in bed!" he told her, but she just turned to him and smiled. His heart jumped, although the Great Detective Kudo had no explanation as to why it would do that.

"Conan! I'm glad Heiji went to pick you up. I was so worried, especially after dad told me the news." She turned back to the laundry and continued the tedious task of matching Kogoro's socks—each one more identical to the first than the next. "I asked dad to pick you up, but he's busy and said to find someone else. I happened to have Heiji's cell phone number, so I called him and he readily agreed. He's such a good guy…"

'Happened to have?' Shin'ichi wondered where the jealous tone that showed in his thoughts had come from. Surely it had never been there before. He wasn't the type who got jealous, except that one time when… he wouldn't go there… 'And that guy isn't good. He's a sack of lime juice—sour lime juice.'

"You should be in bed," he repeated. If she fell because she was sick, he wouldn't be able to catch her. 'Heiji could,' he thought bitterly and immediately amended, 'not that I care or anything!'

"I feel fine, Conan! You're such a worry-wart," Ran giggled. "Besides. I'm waiting for a call, so I have to stay up." Her eyes took on a distant glaze, and he wondered who she could be waiting for a call from.

'Probably Heiji, damn him, I'll kick his sorry ass!' "Who's gonna call, Ran?" No harm in finding out for sure.

"Oh, no one," Ran said and folded one sock into another with a passion that left a rip in the poor sock. Her face was scarlet colored.

"Okay." He said. 'Damn, damn, that Heiji!' he thought as he left the room and went into the kitchen. He grabbed the phone and redialed the last number called. Since Kogoro had a cell phone—at Inspector Meguire's insistence (also expense)—Ran was pretty much the only one who called from the home phone now, especially since the Mori's had two phone lines aside from the cell phone. Ran never called from the business phone line, so that left the home phone line.

The answering machine on the other end picked up, and he found himself astonished and confused. 'It's not Heiji?' he wondered as he listened to the answering machine message.

"Hello. You've reached the Kudo residence. No one is available to take your call. Please leave a message after the tone. BEEP." He hung up, trying to figure out why Ran would feel the need to call him. 'No harm in finding out,' he thought.

He checked in on Ran again. She still stared dazedly off into space, her illness forcing her to at least sit down while she attempted to fold a sock into a tee-shirt. She was really out of it. Since she was so out of it, he figured he could slip out, race home using the skateboard that Doctor Agasa had given him, listen to her message and see what she wanted, then make it back without her realizing he was gone.

Kogoro was half drunk, so he probably wouldn't notice either. But Ran had instated a 'you do not leave the house except with an adult and even then only for school' curfew on 'Conan' since the girl in the park was killed. It was at times like this that he just wanted to shake her until she saw he was Shin'ichi not Conan.

As soon as his hand touched the front door knob, he was whirled on by the half drunk Kogoro. "And just where are you going?" Kogoro asked in a slurred voice, his eyes half dead from the drink and from lack of sleep. He was under a lot of pressure to find the thief who was robbing everyone.

"To the park," Shin'ichi lied.

To Shin'ichi's agreement, Kogoro nodded. "Jus' you know, stay 'way from murderer… murdererers…? Murderees?"

"Murderers," Shin'ichi provided the drunk man.

"Good. An' thiefes… thiefies?"

"Thieves?"

"Yes!" Kogoro turned back to his whiskey and work. "Stay 'way from murderers and thieves. 'Kay?"

"Okay, Mr. Mori!" Shin'ichi chirped, though he would much rather say, 'Whatever, idiot…' He turned back to the door, grabbing his skateboard from its perch beside the door. A few seconds later, he was skateboarding around civilians toward his parent's mansion.

xXx

"Mama, hey! I found something!" Kagome called to her mother in an excited tone. Her mother was only a few feet away again, but she was putting on her jacket. She had to go pick Souta up from school since it was being let out early, even though it bothered her greatly to leave Kagome alone in the house with the recent robberies. Still, mama would feel much better knowing both her children were in the same house and under her protection.

Ordinarily, she wouldn't have a problem with it even though the robberies were taking place all over. Unfortunately the shrine had been burgled twice while mama and Souta slept. She woke up and found that some of grandpa's favorite ancient relics were missing. She didn't report the losses, since personally they were things she didn't want hanging on the walls, but did hope grandpa wouldn't notice their absences.

Mama walked over to the couch Kagome rested on and peered over Kagome's shoulder. Kagome began reading aloud. "Be thou miko, a test of three. Thy power shall leave ye body, one. Cannot thou survive as humbled human? Thy power shall return if ye survive as humbled human and on its own shall transform thy body to the forsaken nise-hanyou, two. Cannot thou survive with half your foe? If ye prove worthy as hanyou, thy power shall on its own transform thy body to the hated nise-youkai, three. If ye can see life as youkai do, thy power shall return thee to thy normal state of miko, and thy test of three shall have made a gracious, forgiving miko of thee."

"That's wonderful, dear…" mama said uncertainly. "What does it mean?"

"Um, three tests?" Kagome shook her head uncertainly. "I don't know, I just thought it would be something important, since it talked about me. Well, not me in specific, but miko in general, oh and while you're out, will you pick up some peanut butter?"

Mama chuckled, but she didn't feel humored. 'Oh, strong Kagome… you're hurting, and scared, but at least you stopped crying. Inuyasha will return for you, maybe he'll know why the well won't work.' "I'll stop at the store, but you promise me you won't leave this house, and you'll keep the doors locked. Don't let anyone in, okay?" Kagome nodded; she had no intention of getting off the couch.

As mama left, Kagome shifted through the books some more. Mama had given her a notebook, so she wrote down any information she thought could be important. If for some reason, Inuyasha could get through the well even though she couldn't, he might be able to take the information she found to Kaede who could explain it better than the book did.

After several long minutes, Kagome had to struggle to get up off the couch, and use the crutches to make her way to the bathroom. It would be so much easier if she hadn't broken her ankle (her mother's assurances that it would only be sprained didn't help at all, since it still hurt so much). After she managed to finish up in the bathroom, she crutched her way to the kitchen.

"I'm so silly," she told herself humored. She'd told herself she wouldn't leave the couch, and now she was in the kitchen. "That's strange," Kagome muttered as she noticed the kitchen patio door to the back yard had been left open. She closed the sliding patio door, her brow creased, and locked the door. 'That's not like mama to leave the kitchen door open, especially after telling me to keep the doors locked.'

A crutching struggle later, she'd made it to the fridge and peered inside for something to drink. "Tomato juice!" she chirped, able to push the oddly open door aside easily as one of her favorite drinks swam in her vision. It was difficult, but she managed to pour herself a glass and with patience measured in centimeters, she struggled with the cup and the crutches back to the living room. She kept her eyes as much on the full glass as she did on the floor.

That was why after she had settled her leg on the couch carefully with one arm, only then did she notice she had a guest. Her eyes went incredibly wide, all color drained from her face, and some of the tomato juice sloshed all over her as it slipped out of her hand and she struggled to catch it. It was cold as it soaked her uniform, and almost glittered like blood staining the white couch.

He smiled, but her eyes had locked on those cold, merciless eyes. He was as pristine as he'd been the last time she faced him—only then she'd been with Inuyasha, and he'd been looking at Inuyasha not her. It had only been on few occasions that she'd been privileged to feel that stare, and it made her blood run cold. Death was staring her in the face, somehow the phrase fit. The glass trembled with her hand—she couldn't help it; she was very afraid. The last time they met, she called him an arrogant, conceited jerk-face.

He was garbed in his all black, a black dress shirt and black slacks, black shoes, black everything, but it was him. 'Why didn't I feel him here sooner?' she screamed in her mind. She should have, because now that she was concentrating fully on him, she could feel his power swirling in a refined, deadly fashion. He was more powerful now than he'd been back then. There was no doubt that he was the real one; he was not a mere reincarnation.

He sat in the chair just across the room, his hands resting on the arms of the chair, both hands covered in black gloves. His hair was not a strand out of place, braided long, hanging over his shoulder so he wasn't sitting on it.

Her stomach was doing flip-flops that really it shouldn't, and these weren't the 'oh my god, he's hot, butterflies in my stomach' type of flip-flops either. These were the 'oh my god, he's going to murder me, Inuyasha where are you now?' type. Her breathing was quickening with every moment he sat there smiling at her. Why was he smiling? Was he imagining ways to kill her because she called him a jerk-face?

He shifted to his feet and she opened her mouth to scream. No sound came out and she shrunk back against the couch, silent tears flowing down her face as he advanced on her.


End.

Translation: "nise" means counterfeit!