At first, the man tried to convince her that Inuyasha was part of the yakuza.

"You may not know this, but that person you were with is actually involved in some serious criminal dealings," he said. "It is very dangerous for you to be around him, and for your safety…"

For a moment, Kagome was struck speechless by the utter garbage the man was spewing. Inuyasha in the mafia? It was so ludicrous that for a fraction of a second she actually believed it.

"That is bullshit!" Kagome screamed. "Where are you taking him?" Her rage triggered something, and she felt the pink glow of her power building in her hand.

The man glanced down at her hand and blanched. He took several hasty steps back. "W-w-wait, forgive me Priestess! We thought you were human! He- He's unregistered, and we thought he was a rogue demon, so-"

"What the heck? Unregistered where?"

The suited man swallowed visibly. "At the Hidden Bureau's demon registry, I see now it must have been a technical error, uh, I'm sure the Madame will clear it right up, Priestess!"

As the man babbled, Kagome narrowed her eyes. Hidden Bureau? Rogue demon? Did that mean there was such a thing as non-rogue demons?

Looked like she owed Inuyasha an apology. There were demons in modern Tokyo... and their efforts to fix the well had just taken a great leap forward.

"Then where is he now?" Kagome interrupted the suit's babbling. She was a little concerned by the fact Inuyasha hadn't punched his way out of the car by now. I guess these really are demons we're dealing with.

"He's, uh, being interviewed by my boss, because we thought-"

"Yes, yes, you thought he was a rogue demon. When are they bringing him back?"

"Uh, actually, if this was just a mistake he should have been returned by now." The man eyed Kagome's pink, glowing hand nervously. "Are...are you certain he's registered, Priestess?"

Kagome didn't answer, just narrowed her eyes at the suit until he took another step back. She gathered up the shopping bags that had fallen during Inuyasha's kidnapping. She sat down at the bus stop bench, and then turned to look at man.

"Don't you leave," she commanded, pointing a glowing finger. To her surprise, a string of pink energy shot out and wrapped itself around the man's neck. Is he a demon? Kagome wondered. She couldn't sense any demonic presence, but her powers didn't work on humans. The man made a sad gurgling noise.

"Because if Inuyasha is not returned to me unharmed, you'd better tell your 'employer' that there will be hell to pay."

As the demon squeaked and promised that he was sure everything would be resolved peacefully, Priestess, Kagome noticed a familiar dark car coming up the road. It pulled up to the sidewalk. A chauffeur circled around and opened the sidewalk door. Inuyasha stepped out, looking dazed.

"Inuyasha!" Kagome gasped, running to him and grabbing his arms. "Are you alright? Did they hurt you?"

"Keh! As if. I'm fine. Are you alright?"

"I'm fine, they didn't touch me."

Kagome let out a sigh of relief. "That was so scary, how they just grabbed you like that! And when you didn't bust right out…" She turned to glare at the demon man, glowing pink collar around his neck, who was trying to edge toward the car without her noticing. With a flick of her finger, Kagome dissolved the leash. The demon man dived into the car like a bat out of hell- or a demon bat back into hell, she supposed.

"Hey, you don't need to worry about me. It's my job to protect you," Inuyasha said, but looked back at the car apprehensively.

"We'll see you tomorrow, kid." A female voice emanated from within the car. "And if you're thinking of escape, save yourself- and us- the trouble and don't."

Someone from inside the car pulled the door shut and it pulled away, blending seamlessly into the traffic. As they walked home, Inuyasha told Kagome everything that had happened in the car.

"She put this on me," he explained, holding up a wrist to reveal a simple band made of braided twine. "It's like these damn beads, I can't get it off. She said it's a tracker, and they'll use it to find me and register me tomorrow. And get 'fitted for a glamour,' whatever that means."

"Huh," Kagome said, examining the bracelet. She could feel a strange spiritual pressure emanating from it. She grabbed the twine in her fingers with both hands and pulled. With a little resistance, the braid snapped.

"What! How did you- I can uproot a tree, but I couldn't break that!"

Kagome smirked. "Must be my feminine charm." She tied the bracelet around his wrist. "But it might be useful for them to believe it's still on you, for now."

Inuyasha nodded. "She said as a registered demon I'll have access to all their public records- they might have something about the well, Kagome!"

Kagome sighed. "That's what I was thinking." More research. Great. She really was happy about this new development, but she had enough school work without adding any more...extracurriculars. "I guess we can start looking tomorrow."

Inuyasha nodded, smiling. "Finally! I can't wait to leave this stupid era and go home."

"Hey, my era's not stupid! Or at least no more stupid than yours." Kagome elbowed him playfully in the side. He grinned at her, taking the abuse with a snort. "But if this Hidden Bureau's records are anything like the human government, finding the information we need won't be easy."

Inuyasha's smile faded. "But we'll find it."

"That's right. We'll find it."


By the time the demons came the next day, Inuyasha was prepared. He sat in a leafy tree, Tetsusaiga belted at his waist, watching the entrance of the shrine. When a group of three came just after dawn, two of them smelling like nothing at all, Inuyasha jumped down to block their path.

They looked like normal humans, and one of them even smelled it. The real human took a startled step backwards when Inuyasha landed in front of them.

"Ah, you must be our demon, then," said a demon carrying a large briefcase. He held out his hand. "I'm Seichiro. Pleasure to meet you."

Inuyasha stared at the hand. Seichiro pulled it back.

"...Right. Well then, let's get started, shall we? Can you take us somewhere we won't be interrupted?"

Inuyasha took the group to a secluded area near the Higurashi storage sheds, where they wouldn't easily be seen by worshipers, but was visible from Kagome's window.

"Okay, first you'll need to fill out some basic information." Seichiro handed Inuyasha a packet of forms.

"What the hell is this?" Inuyasha asked, squinting at the tiny script. "It barely looks like Japanese. How'd the scribe write it so small?"

The two demons shared a look. The other one was a stout woman with a short haircut. "You're still sticking with that whole 'from the past' story?" She asked sarcastically. She explained to the other two. "That's this yahoo's excuse for why he's unregistered. Time travel."

"I'm right here, you know," Inuyasha growled. "And it's the truth!"

"...Whatever." Seichiro handed Inuyasha a pen. "Just fill it out."

Seichiro began assembling some machine out of his briefcase as Inuyasha tried to fill out the questions.

Name. Alright, that wasn't difficult. Date of Birth, (Gregorian.) Shit, he had no idea. And what was 'Gregorian?' He put down the name of the Emperor during his time. It was off by about 50 years, thanks to Kikyo, but he couldn't remember anything else. And he really didn't give a crap. Species. Dog? He wrote it down.

"You'll want to add in that you're a hanyo over there." The female demon pointed, looking over his shoulder.

"I don't want to be doing any of this," Inuyasha muttered, and moved so that she couldn't see the paper. He continued filling it out, understanding most of it. (But what did they mean by blood type? Demonic? Red?)

After two pages of stupid questions, the form started over, asking the same thing about both his parents. Inuyasha threw the packet down.

"This is ridiculous! I'm done," he shouted. "Who actually cares about this stuff?"

Seichiro gathered up the papers and browsed through them. "The better our records, the safer we can keep the yokai community." He handed them back to Inuyasha. "You'll need to fill in at least one parent, or data on whoever raised you, if you don't know."

Inuyasha snatched the packet back, grumbling. He'd fill in what he could about his father. Not his mother. "There, I'm done. I'm not doing any more."

Seichiro looked through the papers again. "You left 'address' empty."

"Yeah, because I don't know what that word means."

The two demons shared another look. "It means where you live," Seichiro said slowly.

"Fine. Then write down this place. Higurashi shrine."

Both demons raised their eyebrows and turned to look at the human, a tall, young man in a suit. He shook his head.

"Impossible. Higurashi Shrine is totally unaffiliated with the Hidden Bureau. There hasn't been a priest with real power here in a hundred years."

Inuyasha smirked. In a spiritual powers contest, Kagome could obliterate this twerp in a second. "Well, there sure is now. And I'm staying with her."

The human looked at Inuyasha condescendingly. "The Holy Registry tests all children of shrine families for power, and Higurashi has always been a dud. This bitch of yours may impress you, but trust me, she's nothing to a real priest."

Inuyasha stood up and approached the priest. He growled low in his throat and cracked his knuckles. "What the fuck did you say?"

"You heard me."

The demon woman leaped in between Inuyasha and the man. "Back off, halfbreed," she hissed, shoving Inuyasha backwards.

Inuyasha drew Tetsusaiga. "Half-breed or not, I'll still kick your ass!" The human looked nervous at the sight of the giant fang, but the demon woman just sneered.

"Alright Rei, let's cool it down here," Seichiro said to the demoness.

"No, let's not," Rei said. She took a ring off her finger, and suddenly she didn't look human at all. Brown fur covered her much larger body, and fearsome tusks sprouted from her mouth. She smelled real now, too, and Inuyasha could sense her youki. A boar demon.

"I haven't gotten any real exercise in ages," Rei went on, "and this brat could use some humbling." Inuyasha could feel himself grinning, too. He missed this: tense nerves, rushing adrenaline. It had been a while since he'd gotten real exercise, too.

Rei rushed forward to punch Inuyasha in the stomach. She was faster than the average boar demon, but Inuyasha was faster. When she tried to follow up with another punch, Inuyasha slashed at her face with his claws. She roared with pain and jumped back.

"Iron reaver, soul stealer!" The force of Inuyasha's attack lifted the demon off her feet and sent her tumbling into a storage shed, shaking the building. Her clothing was ripped and bloody but Rei seemed unfazed. She got up onto all fours and charged.

'Alright, let's do it then," Inuyasha murmured. He lifted Tetsusaiga. "Wind S-!"

An arrow shot past Rei and then Inuyasha, landing in the dirt behind him. Rei let out an angry squeal as she turned to avoid it. The arrow's pink force field hit the fang, transforming it into a rusty old katana.

"Hey, you almost hit me!" Inuyasha snapped.

Kagome stood by the shed in her pajamas and slippers, quiver slung over her arm. She pulled another arrow back in her bow and aimed it at Rei. "Sorry about that, I'm out of practice. Who are these...people?"

"Sohei, calm down Rei," Seichiro ordered, standing up from his contraption. He approached Kagome carefully, staying out of the arrow's line of sight. "Please, we mean you no harm, Priestess."

"That's not how it looked to me." Kagome kept the bow drawn, glaring at the demoness.

"I apologize for my associate's behavior. She will be disciplined, I assure you. If you would just put down your weapon…"

"It's alright Kagome, she was pretty weak," Inuyasha said, sheathing Tetsusaiga. He jumped over to stand between her and Seichiro. With one last wary look at Rei, Kagome relaxed the drawn bow. Seichiro let out a sigh of relief.

"Alright, now comes the final and most important part of registration," Seichiro explained. He pointed to his contraption. "This device will capture a sample of your DNA and youki. In the event that you're involved in a crime, this will help us resolve the issue and protect you from human investigation." 'And kill you if you were the culprit' went unsaid, but Inuyasha could feel the words hanging in the air.

"Doesn't that violate privacy rights?" asked Kagome. "He's not a criminal. Technically."

Seichiro looked at Kagome, startled. "You really aren't part of the Holy Registry, are you?"

"I never said I was."

"Well..." he sighed. "Such rights don't apply to demons. Now, sir, if you would just put your hand here..." Soichiro indicated a metal plate on his machine. Inuyasha set his hand on it.

"Ow goddamn it!" Inuyasha pulled his hand back sharply.

"Sorry, that was the blood sample. But the youki part won't hurt."

Inuyasha put his hand back down.

"OW damn sh-"

"Sorry, forgot about the tissue sample. This part won't cause any pain, really."

Inuyasha glared at the demon. "It better not, or I damn sure will."

Inuyasha put his hand down on the metal plate. It didn't hurt this time, but it felt weird. Like his breath was being sucked out of his lungs, but with his entire body. It stopped, and suddenly his cells could breathe again.

"Alright, we're almost done." Seichiro began to disassemble his machine. "Sohei! Come remove his tracker."

The priest, who had been murmuring spells to hold back Rei until she calmed down, now sauntered over.

"Oh, Kagome already did that." Inuyasha held up the broken bracelet.

"What?! But only an A-rank priest-" Sohei began, but stopped at Inuyasha's smug smirk. He scowled. "Alright half-breed, if she's so great, why can't she put a glamour on you?"

"A what?" Kagome asked.

"An illusion, you stupid girl, to hide his eyes and ears from humans. You may be able to break my tracking spell, but you're still just a one-trick pony."

Kagome reached out to grab Inuyasha's arm before he strangled the little prick. "Don't," she murmured.

"You want a ring, bracelet, necklace, or anklet?" Seichiro asked. Inuyasha blinked at him.

"He'll take a bracelet," Kagome answered. Seichiro grabbed a simple silver band and tossed it to Inuyasha.

"What's this for?" He asked as he clasped it around his wrist.

"Hides your scent and youki," Siechiro explained distractedly. "Sohei, the glamour?"

With a sneer at Kagome, Sohei raised two fingers to form a spell. With some muttered words, spiritual power swirled from his fingertips around Inuyasha. The twirling blue energy felt like a thousand tiny ants crawling over Inuyasha's skin. Sudden pain enveloped his body, mild at first, but intensifying. It felt like millions of tiny stab wounds on his skin and organs. He jerked in startled pain. Get it off, get it off,

"Get it off!" Inuyasha shouted. He ripped off the bracelet. The pain and itching stopped. Inuyasha glared at the broken band, gasping, and then whirled on Sohei.

"Th-that wasn't me, I promise!" Sohei held up his hands and backed up.

"Inuyasha, wait." Seichiro said. "He really didn't do it. Some demons just don't take well to glamours." He tossed Inuyasha another bracelet from his bag, sighing. "You'll still need to hide your demonic presence."

As Inuyasha fixed the bracelet on his wrist and Seichiro cleaned up, Rei slowly walked back to them. She had her disguising ring back on, but the front of her shirt was ripped and bloody. Inuyasha rested a hand on Tetsusaiga warningly.

"Hey. You're...stronger than me," she said to Inuyasha. She stared at him intensely, but not angrily

"Uh, yeah. So? You wanna fight again?"

She waved the offer away. "Yeah, but that's not what I was getting at. You like to fight? You good?"

"Uh...I guess."

"You want a job? Pays three thousand yen an hour."

Kagome jumped forward. "He'll take it!" And then, after a beat, "What kind of job?"

Rei took a business card from her pocket and handed it to Inuyasha. "Go there tomorrow night and ask for Abezawa. Tell 'em I sent you…" she grinned. "Or just beat 'em up."

Kagome took the card. It had English words printed in large, sleek letters, with a smaller address in Japanese and a phone number underneath.

"Night...Crimson? What is that?"

"Rei! Let's go, I'm already late enough," Sohei called. Rei rolled her eyes and growled.

"Just go there after nine tomorrow. You'll find out."


It wasn't until after dinner that day, as Kagome finished the last of her weekend homework and Inuyasha fiddled with his new jewelry on Kagome's bed, that she remembered.

"Oh no!" Kagome gasped, dropping her pencil. Inuyasha jumped up, hand on his hilt.

"What is it?!"

"We forgot to ask them about accessing public records," Kagome moaned, dropping her head into her hands. "Did those people leave any way of contacting them, this morning?

Inuyasha slapped his forehead. "Dammit," he whispered. "No, they didn't. Nothing except..." he looked at the business card Rei had given him, now lying on Kagome's desk.

Kagome raised her eyebrows. "Well," she said. "If you weren't already planning to check that place out, I guess we don't have much of a choice now."


On Monday, Kagome could barely concentrate on her schoolwork. All she could think about was the Hidden Bureau. An entire government of demons, in modern Tokyo this whole time! And what the heck kind of job did they want Inuyasha for that payed three thousand an hour? That was more than her mom made.

With a heavy sigh, Kagome forced her mind back to the blackboard. If she was going to tutor someone tonight, she'd need to understand the material.

After the final school bell rang, Kagome stretched gratefully. Why was she voluntarily staying in a chair for another two hours, again? So you can pass ninth grade? Oh right. That.

She got up and went to Yuka's desk, where Eri and Ayumi had already drifted.

"So! How about a celebratory visit to WacDonalds, in order to celebrate Kagome managing to stay in school for an entire week?" Yuka asked, slamming her hands down on her desk like gavels. "Since someone" she mock glared at Kagome, "was so rudely held back by a teacher for several hours on Friday."

"I wish!" cried Kagome. "But that's actually what Hasegawa was talking to me about. I'm going to be staying late every day from now on, to tutor some dude for extra credit."

"Ugh, gross, that sucks," Eri winced sympathetically.

"I know." Kagome glanced at the clock. "I've got to be in room 9-C in two minutes, I'll see you later. I hope you think of me with every WacBite you take."

Eri pantomimed tearfully biting into a burger. Kagome laughed and left the room.

9-C was down the hall from her own classroom. Kagome noticed that the door was ajar; looked like her pupil was already there. She opened the door.

"Hello, Morikaw- Ow!"

A plastic container full of chalk and chalk dust had been held up in the door. It hit her square on the head when she opened it. The dust flew everywhere- in her nose, her mouth, her eyes. She immediately began coughing, so hard she could hardly breathe.

"Oh my g- shit, I'm so sorry! Are you okay? Fuck, hold on-"

There had been a boy in the room. He jumped up from his chair when Kagome came in and got hit by the prank. Now he was hovering in front of her, hands waving uselessly.

"Did you-" Kagome began, but just inhaling to speak sucked up more chalk dust. She coughed wildly.

"Hold on-" the boy said, and raced out of the room. He returned seconds later with wet paper towels from a bathroom. "Here, try breathing through these."

Kagome put the towels over her mouth, still hacking up chalk dust. It was a few minutes before her lungs decided she'd been punished enough, and allowed her to get a sentence out.

"Are you," she gasped. "Are you the one who put that chalk up there?"

"Well yeah, but- I wasn't expecting anyone to come in! I mean, I'm meeting with my tutor now, but he always sees those things. And even when he doesn't, he doesn't practically hack up his lungs, like you did."

The boy froze and held his hands over his mouth in horror. "Oh shit," he whispered. "I completely forgot that Sugou was quitting. Are you my new tutor?"

Kagome wiped her eyes, which were streaming from the chalk dust. "Yes, I'm Kagome Higurashi. You're Natsuo Morikawa?"

"Yeah. Uh...nice to meet you."

"...Ditto."

They stood at the entrance of the room, Natsuo wringing his hands as Kagome wiped chalk from her face. She was mostly successful.

"Alright, we may as well get started," Kagome said, before the awkwardness could solidify any more and suffocate her. She plopped her bag on a desk and pulled out her notes. Natsuo pulled himself onto a desk and sat, swinging his legs. He looked younger than fifteen, despite his lip and eyebrow piercings. His hair was styled so that it was poofy on the top and front, but short on the sides, like a miniature pompadour. His uniform was unbuttoned, and Kagome could see what could have been a tattoo on his collarbone peeking out from beneath his shirt.

"I wasn't expecting a girl. All my other tutors have been guys," he said.

"Yeah, well, here I am. Do you have any notes?"

Natsuo shook his head. "Nah, I usually just make copies of yours. Well, Sugou's. After you explain it to me." He hopped off the desk and went to the window. "Oh, look at that! Man, birds are weird."

"Hey, come on!" Kagome snapped, still irritated by the chalk in her throat and eyes. She slammed her palm down on the desk. "Can you sit down and focus please? The faster we get through this, the faster we can both leave. But if you're always going to be bouncing off the walls like this just let me know now, so you don't waste any more of my time!"

Natsuo, wide eyed, sat down at the desk in front of her. "Sorry."

Kagome huffed. "Alright, let's just get this over with."

She began to explain the day's lessons. He seemed to understand it pretty well when he actually managed to focus, which was about half the time. But between his quick perception and getting distracted, it evened out.

"Wow, you're pretty smart!" she said. He'd solved a math problem with one explanation that she'd needed the whole class to understand.

He leaned back in his chair, smirking. "I know."

Kagome rolled her eyes. "And full of it, apparently."

Natsuo grinned. "One could even say…" he clicked his tongue and made finger guns at her. "Chalk full of it."

Kagome laughed. "No, but seriously. You don't need tutoring. Why are you here?"

Natsuo's grin faded, and he looked coldly out the window. "Let's just say...the school and I have an arrangement." He looked back at her, smiling again. "That, or our meeting was meant to be. We could chalk it up to fate."

Kagome snorted and grinned. "Don't try to pull that on me, your puns are powderless."

Natsuo patted her on the arm. "That was a good try."

By the time they covered everything, school had been out for a little over two hours. Kagome stretched gratefully. What she wouldn't give for a nice, three-day hike across Japan...

"Good work, Morikawa. It was nice to meet you- and I mean it this time."

Natsuo laughed. "I meant it the first time! And you can call me Natsuo, if you want."

"Oh! Um, alright," Kagome said. He was just a very friendly person, she guessed? "Then I'll see you tomorrow, Natsuo."

"Yeah. See you tomorrow, Higurashi."


A/N: Hnyuuurg, almost done with the boring plot stuff so we can get to the fanservicy stuff, AKA the reason I wanted to write this fic!

Thank you to Hyperbolegirl623 for reading and being energetic about this story, and for reviewing, when it wasn't even at gunpoint.

So everybody, what are your thoughts on the story so far? On the Hidden Bureau and its employees? On Natsuo? What would you like to see? What would you not like to see? Your reviews mean a lot to me, and really do make a significant difference on how frequently I write. Even a single one makes a difference.

Until next time,

-TKF