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Return to Me

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Visitors weren't necessary unwelcome in their home. They loved to entertain their family and friends. It was unexpected visitors who just dropped by in the middle of the night that irked him.

"Do you even know what time it is?" Shippo groaned as he answered the door, "Dammit Haichi, this couldn't wait until morning?"

"No, it couldn't," the burly man huffed as he muscled his way into the house before immediately transforming into a rotund raccoon dog and turning to face the exhausted looking kit, "Miroku's reincarnation is in danger. Someone has been following him. Sending threatening e-mails. I've been keeping track of scents and the same man who tried to attack him the other day has been near the entrance to his apartment building several times."

"Do you want me to tell Inuyasha?" Shippo sighed heavily as he turned to enter the living room and flopped down on the couch, "What do you need from me?"

"Is there any way you could post a guard?" Haichi asked impatiently, "Or have someone look into it? I informed Sango's reincarnation but I don't know what all she can really do."

"Why don't you look into it?" Shippo asked as he rubbed his temple and sighed, "You know we can't get too involved in human's lives. Especially reincarnations. You shouldn't even be working for him."

"I know," Haichi sighed, "But it seems like Miroku always has a knack for attracting trouble in every lifetime and I've always worked for him. That's what I do. The times I stayed out of it, he gets hurt. He already got hurt again this lifetime and now there's a new villain on the loose."

"So you still consider him your master after all this time?" Shippo asked quietly, "I don't remember you being this fond of him when I was small."

"He's a friend. A dear friend who I also enjoy working for," Haichi replied with a strange smirk, "And yeah, he brought me into dangerous situations but he put his life on the line for me too. He's a good man. Always has been. A perverted loner maybe who can be heavy handed but a good man overall."

"So, you need me to send someone to keep an eye out," Shippo sighed before rolling his eyes, "Consider it done."

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Ryo stared at the printed piece of paper that contained the threatening e-mail as he stretched out across his bed. It was far too late to be up and yet he found he couldn't sleep. It was strange that someone would only start doing this now after so many years of the franchise. It made him want to sift through his father's e-mail and see whether anyone knew anything about similar threats before but…that was why he hired the private investigator.

What would killing him actually achieve anyway? The show would continue on with or without him. The whole corporation was run by a board of directors. He went and spoke at events. He was a frontman.

Glancing over the e-mail once more, Ryo finally groaned and placed it on the bedside table before lolling his head to look at the clock. There was no point even trying to sleep at this point. Speaking of board meetings, he had one in the morning. He could sleep afterwards. Why they insisted on him attending anything was beyond him. So, he signed reports and listened to their plans but they shot down any suggestion or revision he made. Oh, he'd tried. For years, he tried. And then one day, he stopped. If they didn't want him involved, fine. So long as they paid him the royalties, he didn't give a shit what they did.

He heard the elevator ding and the shuffle of footsteps across the tile floors leading towards Haichi's bedroom. There were times he imagined the burly man to be having midnight trysts and there were others when he wondered whether somehow Haichi was involved somehow in his kidnapping. He wasn't sure whether he trusted the man who was now living under his roof. There was something strange about him. From the beginning, he'd been so forward, so familiar with him as if he'd been a friend Ryo had known his whole life instead of the stranger he truly was. At first, it irked him that he constantly spoke to him in such a way but it didn't bother him so much anymore. Still, there was something strange about him. Very strange.

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"There's a man living with him now. His bodyguard," the swarthy looking man whispered quietly into his phone, "And he's hired some kind of private investigator I think."

"Any other developments?" came a quiet reply, "I'd like to have this matter handled by the end of this quarter. You're being too cautious."

"I don't tell you how to do your job, don't tell me how to do mine," the man hissed as he tightened his black glove incrementally around the phone, "It'll get done. That much I can promise you."

"Very well," the man answered, "But I expect results. Soon."

"You'll get them."