Gah, sorry this took so long to get up, but broken computers will do that to you. If there's any moral to my stories, its this: Mountain Dew + CDroms drives equalsnot good things.

Anywho, despite almost going three hundred dollars into dept, I also had a nasty bastich of a programming assignment to do, thus the late chapter.

Anywho, I'm gonna give some quick comments to you people, and then give you want you really want. Thanks!

The Masked Mistress: Hehe, yeah, InuYasha's going to rock when he comes into his prime in this fic, but I can't really tell everything, so just be patient. I'll get to it eventually.

Fantastical Queen Ebony Black: Don't worry, Miroku and Sango are both going to be coming in soon. Sango, however, is going to have a very different role than Terri. She should be here within the next two chapters.

TheFanaticInTraining: Whoa! Monster review of all destruction! Hehe, thanks for all the compliments. I am in fact a relatively 'computery' person, but I try to keep it simple enough for the technologically inept to understand. And yes, I was wondering if anyone would notice the three MB download in three seconds thing, and there is a reason for that. I'll get to it later. Thanks for all your kind words! Thanks!

Everyone Else: Thanks for all your compliments! I love you all! Hugs

Oh, and one quick note, the actual name of this fic is Hanyou.EXE, not HanyouEXE. There's supposed to be a dot there. It's just wont allow periods in fic titles.

Anywho, on with the fic!

Kikyo was, for lack of any better words, screwed beyond all belief.

The elevator ride up to Taisho's office was a long, lonely sojourn, seeming to take hours.

She was fired, of that she was sure. There was no way employment would continue after that phone call. She had just completely ruined Taisho Corp's relationship with the American contractor. She had all but insulted Naraku directly, and had certainly hurt any deal that might have been reached with him.

She was walking into certain unemployment.

No, even worse than that. She had worked in Mr. Taisho's underground operations for almost three years now, since she was eighteen. She knew just about every secret Taisho Corp had. Was she going to be allowed to walk away with all that information? Of coarse not.

She was walking into certain death.

The elevator arrived at the appointed floor of the building, twenty four, and gave a little ring like a church bell. The heavy metal doors slid open like a gothic iron gate, revealing the long road to her own personal Golgotha.

Almost numbly, she stepped out of the elevator, and walked down the hall, one foot slipping in front of the other. She reached the Mr. Taisho's office after what seemed an eternity in purgatory. Lifting one pale hand, the girl rapped on the door.

After just a moment, the response came: "Come in." Blunt and direct.

She cracked the door, and sidled in, hands clasped in front of her grey business skirt.

Mr. Taisho was sitting at his desk, inspecting his computer. He didn't seem to notice her in the slightest. She waited a suitable amount of time for him to look up, but he showed no sign of removing his eyes from the monitor. As softly as she could possibly manage, she lifted her hand to her mouth and cleared her throat.

Taisho glanced up, and raised an eyebrow. "Can I help you?" He asked, expression genuinely curious.

Kikyo almost gaped, but stopped herself just in time. "Y-you asked to see me sir?" She stuttered.

"Did I?" The man asked, cocking his head to the side. "I don't remember…" He glanced more closely at her, then his expression brightened. "Ah, yes! Miss Kikyo, welcome!" He rose from his seat, nodding to her.

The girl looked down on t looked down to the floor. "What was it you wanted to see me about, sir?" She asked softly.

The man shook his head, his strong features smiling. "Don't be so formal." He commented, patting the back of his chair. "Come, have a seat."

Teh girl looked up sharply What was that? Kikyo had come up to get fired, but here she was being invited to sit in her boss's chair? There had to be some sort of mistake.

Taisho patted again, eyes still fixed on her.

Then again, maybe it was better to follow orders. She stiffly moved behind the desk, and eased herself down into the chair, not knowing what to expect.

The chair itself was heavenly. It was heavily padded everywhere, and both the back and the seat gave gently under her weight, cushioning her into a nice, fluffy heaven.

"Comfy?" Taisho asked politely.

"Yes sir." Kiyo answered as honestly as possible.

"Wonderful." The man said, quite near the side of her head. "Now listen to this." He leaned forward and hit a button on his keyboard.

'Hello, this is Taisho Corp, how may I help you?'

Kikyo's heart skipped a beat as she recognized her own voice.

'Who is this?'

The second voice belonged to Naraku. Oh, god, it was the phone call. Her phone call. Her breathing started coming harder, and she stared strait forward with a grim sense of horror.

"Miss Kikyo…" Taisho began, slowly walking around the desk to face her, speaking over the recording. "Are you aware of how very insulting you sounded in this given conversation?"

Kikyo nodded, listening to her own voice inform Naraku that he couldn't talk to Mr. Taisho. Her voice sounded infinitely more derisive than she had thought shehad beenspeaking. She started wringing her hands in her lap. "Yes, sir." Her voice sounded pathetically miserable.

"And are you aware that up until now Mr. Naraku has been one ofthe leading buyers of our AI software?" Taisho pressed on, his voice becoming harsher.

Kikyo's heart was hammering in her chest, and her hands tightening till her knuckles went white. "Yes sir."

"You must, therefore, know that if Naraku was to become dissatisfied with our services we will lose a large source of revenue?" Taisho demanded of her, pacing across the office.

Oh, god, she was gonna die… "Yes, sir…" She whispered.

"And are you aware what will happen to you if you caused our relationship with Naraku to turn sour?" Taisho asked, this time his voice dangerously quite.

"I am aware of that, sir." Kikyo squeaked, barely audible. Oh god, oh god, oh god...

Taisho glared at her for a moment. "What do you have to say for yourself, then?"

Somethign snapped suddenly, and the girl's hands slammed down against the desk. She rose furiously to her feet. "I told you I wasn't trained to do that sort of thing, dammit!" She yelled at him, face flushed.

Taisho raised one eyebrow at her, and crossed his arms.

Kikyo, horrified, fell back down into the chair, eyes fixed on the powerful man. What the hell had she been thinking? Oh, god… she was dead. She was gonna die. She really didn't want to die.

Taisho leaned forward, glared at her with his eerie amber eyes, reached forward slowly.

Kikyo scrambled backwards away from the hand, half falling out of the chair. She let out a fearful whimper, raising one hand to defend herself, but the blow she was expecting never came. Instead, the man hit a little red button on the phone near her desk. "Koga?" He said into the phone.

"Yes sir?" Koga's confident voice came back over the intercom.

"Please begin moving Miss Higashi's things from her cubicle to her new office."

Kikyo blinked. Had she just heard correctly? That didn't sound right for some reason… "S-sir?" She stuttered.

The manglanced up. "Congratulations on your promotion, Miss Kikyo."

"Promotion?" Kikyo gaped. "What… umm…" She sank deep into the cushioned chair. "Huh?"

Taisho smiled slyly, clicking his fingers on the desk. "I just gave you a promotion," he remarked, seeming to enjoy her astonishment. "You see, Koga does a wonderful job handling the business end of things in our…" He paused for just a moment. "How shall we say… less scrupulous endeavors, he doesn't have the know-how to make sure all my technical staff are working to the best of their abilities. Therefore, you are going to serve as the director and chief of our AI programming divisions."

This wasn't happening. This couldn't be happing. She was supposed to be dead right now. She had ruined a relationship with a valued client! This didn't make any sense!

"But," she sputtered, shaking her head, "why?"

Taisho raised one thin eyebrow. "You don't want the promotion?" He asked, seemingly surprised.

The little red lights started going off in Kikyo's head, yelling at her to look grateful. She shook her head vigorously, rising from the chair and darting from behind the desk. "No, sir," she blurted out in a jumble. "I mean, yes! I want the promotion! Thank you sir!"

The man's eyebrow arched even further, lips curling off to one side. "Well, let's hope I didn't just make a mistake, hmm?" He didn't sound terrible convinced. "Now, you have a department to run, so you should get downstairs and start working, don't you think?"

Kikyo, feeling almost like a yes-man, nodded again. "Right," she said sharply, and began heading out towards the door.

"Oh, and Miss Kikyo?" Taisho called after her, bringing her up short. She turned around again, blinking. The man was once again seated at his desk, and looked very formidable in his chair. "What is the current project the programming division is working on?"

"An expansion on our Hanyou project, sir. A program we're calling Youkai.EXE," Kikyo answered automatically, not bothering to think about the question.

"Excellent," Taisho grinned at her from around the desk. "I want it done by the end of the week, okay?"

Kikyo's eyes bugged out of her head. By the end of the week? They barely had it eighty percent done! "But Sir…" She started, shaking her head. "There's no way-"

Taisho held up a hand. "I would advise you to have it finished by the end of the week, Miss Kikyo," the man said evenly. "If I were you, I wouldn't want to make Naraku any angrier than he already is."

His smile was that same, knowing, half comical grin, and his weird eyes simply stared at her until she simply nodded, and eased herself out of the office.

'InuYasha?'

'Yeah?'

'Remind me why we're here again?'

'We're checking out webcams, remember?'

Kagome sighed, and rubbed her temples, cheeks flushed with embarrassment. 'InuYasha, this site doesn't actually sell webcams.'

'The hell are you talking about, wench?' The text on her screen demanded derisively. 'This site is loaded with stuff about webcams.'

Kagome rolled her eyes, and tried to avoid looking at anything on the monitor but InuYasha's text. 'Yes, but this website still doesn't sell webcams.'

'Oh, yeah?' InuYasha jeered. 'I bet we could get one of the girls on here to sell her webcam.'

Kagome rolled her eyes. "They'd sell you something…" She muttered, face turning red. If her mom came in and found her on a site like this, then her beloved computer would end up in the trash faster than she could blink. 'Listen, InuYasha, the girls on this site are not interested in selling their webcams. Their webcams are their main source of income. They are only interested in selling shows to horny guys, okay? Now can we leave now?'

There was a short pause before InuYasha responded. 'Well they have really good resolution, see?' A picture maximized itself on her screen, sure enough, it did have wonderful resolution. Kagome wasn't sure she had ever seen so much silicone in one place.

'InuYasha, just get off the site, NOW!' Kagome typed angrily.

'Fine, fine.' InuYasha typed back. 'You'd have to be pretty pathetic to have to meet a girl through the internet anyway.'

The window closed, and was quickly replaced by another, this one not quite so risqué. This site, on the other hand, seemed quite intent on selling computer based cameras, as opposed to thepeople who use them. Kagome was amazed at how easy surfing the net was with InuYasha. He could just pour through one site after another, without bothering her computers processing power. All Kagome had to see was the useful (and sometimes indecent) stuff.

InuYasha's little face appeared next to one of the cameras for sale, and smiled. 'Hey Kagome, what about this one?' The text read. 'It looks like just what I need.'

Kagome glanced over the specs, and nodded speculatively. It had a good resolution, a very high frame per second rate, and the ability to auto track, meaning InuYasha could probably move the camera enough to actually be able to look around. Then she glanced at the price: ouch. InuYasha apparently noticed the same thing she did, at almost the same time.

'Kinda pricey, though. I bet we can find something better.' The little face looked somewhat disappointed, though.

Kagome shook her head, and chuckled. 'InuYasha, your forgetting that I stole you,' she reminded him. 'I make it a policy to never pay for anything online, okay? Now, just sit back and watch me work.'

The face lifted one eyebrow, and grinned in approval. 'Okay, wench, show me what you can do.'

Smiling slightly, the thrill settling in one again, Kagome hunkered down to look at the screen. It didn't look like this was an alone sort of job: she would need some help. 'Hold on, InuYasha…' She typed. 'I'm going to go call someone.'

'Whatever´ the response written on the screen read.

Kagome swept over towards her dresser, snatched up the phone, and quickly dialed up Terri. After just a few rings, the phone picked up. "Hello?" Terri's voice echoed into the phone like a siren's. "Lorensen residence."

"Hey, Terri," Kagome chirped into the phone happily, messing up her hair just a bit as she talked. She made it a strict policy to never go into a hack job with neat hair. "You feel like stealing something for me?"

It was a few seconds before the girl responded. "What do you have in mind?"

"Well, I'm trying to set up InuYasha with some extra hardware," she explained. "But the bits I need are really expensive, so…"

There was a pause. "He came out of his little shell since I left, did he?" Terri asked. "And what does he need?"

Kagome was silent for a moment. "A webcam..." She said finally, slightly embarrassed. After all, they both knew what they were used for most of the time.

Terri chuckled. "Ooookay?" Terri muttered. "No comment there. So are we talking now, or later tonight?"

Kagome reached into her skirt pocket, pulled out her gloves, and pulled them on. "Now," she said into the reciever. "I'm already at my computer, so hurry up, would ya?" She sat down in front of her screen, and began typing again.

'What's going on?' InuYasha asked, his little eyes blinking in curiosity. 'Are we gonna get the camera?'

Kagome grinned, "The site isCameraKingdom dot net,kay Terri?" She muttered into the phone, "Get there fast." She turned towards the keyboard, and began typing to InuYasha. 'I've called up Terri, okay, and she's gonna help us out.'

'Terri?' The program demanded. 'That pervert? Why do we need her?'

'Well, for starters, she has a high speed connection, and what we're about to do requires speed.' Kagome wrote.

"Kagome, go ahead and get set up," Terri's voice rang in her ear. "I'll be ready by the time your done with your part. Gimme a signal when it's time."

"Right." Kagome nodded, and put the phone on her desk, hunkering down over the computer. 'InuYasha, can you be quiet for just a second?' She typed. 'I'm going to need to concentrate for a little while?'

The face looked sulky. 'What'cha gonna do?'

Kagome input a few commands, bringing up an extra window, and then returned her attention to InuYasha. 'Watch carefully. This little window tells me when someone clicks on the link to buy the camera, and when it goes off I tell Terri.' She put in a few more commands, bringing the window into focus. 'When I give Terri the signal, she snatches the purchase information in mid-transaction, and changes the address to ship to too mine.' She grinned, leaning back. It had taken her and Terri a while to figure out how to do that routine. They were very proud of it.

'Well what happens when the person buying finds out that they didn't get the product?' The program responded immediately, one eyebrow lifted. 'Won't the company find out when they complain?'

Kagome shrugged. 'True, but that's what E-mail is for. As soon as I get the camera, I'll mail the customer service of the company, saying that I got a package that wasn't supposed to go to me, but I've already opened the packaging and voided the warranty. Ninety percent of the time, they'll let me keep the product.'

The program didn't respond for several minutes, but eventually spoke up again: 'Not bad,' the program admitted, 'Looks like you aren't as useless as I thought you were. I might manage to get what I want within the century.'

Kagome scowled at her computer, thinking less than polite thoughts at the program. 'Listen, you little ingrate!' She typed, preparing to give him an earful.

'Hey, stupid, someone's about to buy. You'd better watch your little window.' The program interrupted, the little face smirking at her.

She blinked and glanced up at her window. Nothing there… was the little bastard trying to be smart with her? 'Nothing there, InuYasha,' She typed sarcastically.

'Just wait.' The program responded. 'There's someone else in this server, and he's checking off some specifications on it. He'll buy it soon.' Kagome gaped, eyes widening. 'Oooh, he's going with the hi-res option. Goody goody.'

What the- He could see what other people were doing on the site? 'InuYasha, since when could you look at other people's computers?' She hammered on the keyboard.

'You don't think very much, do you?' The program typed back at her, face derisive. 'I'm a program, remember? I see things in terms of code. The Website's source-code is changing, and I can read that to find out what other people are doing.'

Kagome's gape slowly turned into the grin. It was like she had just won the lottery for hackers. Oh, god! This would completely revolutionize her world. The sheer amounts of stuff she could do with a talent like that boggled her mind.

'Kagome, you'd better get ready. Here one comes.'

Sure enough, the little window she had set up suddenly started flashing some data at her. She snatched up the phone, and spoke into it. "Terri, we've got one. Get ready."

"Right," her friend's voice echoed back, dripping with predatory hunger. "Call you back when I'm done."

"Right." Kagome hit the off button on the phone, and went back to her console. 'InuYasha, are you telling me you can tell what people are doing on this site, right now?' She typed quickly, heart quickening. 'You can tell what everyone's doing?'

'Slow down, wench,' the software wrote back at her. 'I can pretty well tell what's going on if I look at one aspect of the code, but if I try to look at the entire thing my circuits practically fry. I can only do so much.'

'Can you find Terri?' Kagome typed. 'She'll be hard to find because of her security, but she's here somewhere.'

'Gimme a second.' The text read, and didn't respond for a few seconds. 'I think I've found her. Why do you ask?'

Kagome wasn't sure she liked how fast InuYasha had found her friend. 'Can you tell if anybody's looking at her? You know, trying to find out what she's up to?'

'Heh, I can do better than that, wench,' InuYasha typed back at her. 'Watch this.'

Kagome watched: nothing happened.

'What did you do?' She typed, confused.

'If anyone was looking at her, they aren't anymore.' The program typed back, the little face looking proud. 'I disguised what she was doing as part of the websites basic function.'

Kagome found herself gaping for what seemed like the eighteenth time that day. Oh, dear lord, she had stumbled upon the goose that laid the golden egg. If what he was saying was true, he had managed to completely hide Terri. Someone would look at her, and think she was just a normal browser. All her activities would look completely normal, or wouldn't be connected to her at all. It was like winning three lotteries in a row. She was practically drooling.

'How did I ever live without you?' She typed dreamily.

'You're so stupid I wonder how you even stay alive now,' InuYasha wrote back.

Okay, maybe he wasn't all that great, but still pretty cool. She would definitely have to inform Terri about this. Speaking of Terri: Kagome reached out, and snatched the phone off the desk a split second before it rang. "Hey, Terri," Kagome muttered without even bothering to check who it was.

"Hey, Kag," Terri's laughing voice echoed back through the phone. "Mission accomplished. The thing should arrive at your house within the week, kay?"

Kagome nodded happily, and passed that information on to InuYasha. He didn't give much of a response, but his face revealed that he was pleased too. "Sweet." Kagome muttered. "I'll take care of the rest, thanks."

"No problem." Terri chuckled back. "And tell that stuck up program of yours that he better be nicer to me next time I come over, okay?"

Kagome decided not to mention that line to her easily annoyed program. "He thinks you're a pervert, you know." She mentioned.

Terri just scoffed. "You should just delete him, you know."

Kagome shrugged. "I dunno, he's pretty useful," she admitted, "like, he… can…" She trailed off, glancing at the screen of her computer. "Terri, I'll call you back, okay?"

"Kagome, what's going-" Kagome hung up, and tossed the phone aside, still looking at the screen.

The single line of text read: 'Kagome, someone's watching us.'

"Shit!" She swore aloud, leaning down towards the screen, glaring at it furiously. 'What do you mean someone's watching us?' She typed swiftly, fingers flying over the screen.

'There's been another user following us around,' the program responded. 'I thought it might have just been coincidence these past few sites, but he just showed up on this one. And he's just sitting there, not doing anything. I'm pretty sure he's been shadowing us since we logged in.'

Kagome swore again, and started checking her security nets, looking for anything weird. 'InuYasha, I can't find anything,' she typed. 'Are you sure?'

'Trust me on this one, Kagome,' InuYasha responded. 'I'm trying to find out where he's coming from now.'

Find out where he was coming from? How the hell was InuYasha goign to do that? Her best security couldn't even pick the intruder up!

'It's some server based in Japan.' InuYasha typed. 'But he's onto me, and I can't get a fix on him anymore.' A few more seconds passed. 'He's gone.'

Kagome let out a breath. 'What did you do?' She typed, thumping a fist on her chest to get her heat going again. 'How could you tell he was following us?'

There was a pause. 'Intuition I guess,' the program responded finally. 'I had noticed the same computer address on every site we had been to today. I thought it was coincidence for a little while, but then I decided he was definitely looking for us when he showed up on the last site. And after that, I dunno, I just… sorta… chased him.'

Kagome nodded numbly. 'Right… but how?'

Another pause. 'I dunno. It was instinctive, I guess.'

The girl shook her head, and rubbed her temples. What the hell had she gotten herself, here? This thing could sift through websites like a bloodhound, and after a few days on the internet, he do stuff that she had never dreamed. He had just gone through a frickin' high speed chase in cyberspace!

'He's gone now, though,' the program typed dismissively. 'And I'll know him if he comes back, so let's go ahead and look for the next thing we need, okay?'

Kagome nodded slowly. 'Yeah, let's do that.'