Author's Note at bottom!

Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha.

Ordinary

Chapter Nine: Bad Girl

Fucking bastard. That bitch. That wretch.

The fucking bastard.

I hope he's rotting in hell right now.

It just had to be the day that he ran out of gas. Then he interrupted me.

Interrupted us.

Fucking bastard, rot in hell.

He was pissed. Yes he was, when he saw her like that.

Frowning gets you nowhere. So I gave him a permanent smile on his neck.

Fuck, fuck, fuck.

Someone has to die.

Now.

"And then he fainted?" Kagura asked incredulously. "Did he fall completely unconscious or just flustered?"

"Gone," Kagome answered, shaking her head. "Sango's with him in the hotel room now. They're going to leave early. She figures Miroku will want to go back with her and since he got attacked, he hasn't been doing much anyways."

"It makes sense," Menomaru concluded, and then muttered to himself, "One less asshole to deal with."

"I can hear you," Inuyasha growled. "You want our help or not?"

"Bodies have been piling up since you arrived," Menomaru growled.

"Because of this sicko that's on the loose, you bastard," Inuyasha shouted, standing up in front of Kagome. "Not because of us. We haven't done anything but given you leads."

Menomaru was about to say something when Sesshomaru burst through the doors. "You two done squabbling?" he asked in a bored tone. "We have work to do."

"This fucking bastard–"

Kagura cut Inuyasha off with a wave of her hand and her deep authoritative voice. "How was the preliminary?"

"Interesting. I managed to deal with forensics too. We're more or less caught up on everything, with the exception of the husband's murder. He'll be victim zero, while the rest are one through eight."

"Did you hear what happened with Miroku?" Kagome asked suddenly, throwing the group off.

"Unless he caught the killer – no." Sesshomaru posted a few more papers and pictures on the corkboard. "Going through one to eight, we'll discuss victims," Sesshomaru ordered. "All were female. Four blondes, two brunettes, one with black hair and the final with red."

"So he prefers blondes, most likely," Kagome suggested, shrugging.

"Who doesn't?" Menomaru asked dryly. "Their weight varied as well, I assume?"

"All of them. None of them are even close to the five pound range," Sesshomaru replied.

"Their status ranges too. One poor girl was saleswoman for a low-end clothing store, while another was the CEO of a major corporation," Kagura told the group. "He seemingly doesn't pick for any particular reason, other than them being female."

"And to-be, or already engaged," Kagome added. "This leads to the questions as to why he's targeting females and why he's targeting to-be married women."

"He's targeting females in the general consensus," Kagura answered, pulling out the profile. "This could be due to an absolute hatred for the female race. Chances are he was abused or ignored by his mother during childhood, and the female role models around him all disappeared out of his life while he came to these conclusions.

"Any female that attempted to get near him couldn't and then he would blame them for leaving him," Kagura continued. "As for marriage, all of these women were probably getting married or already tied. This way, his general consensus would spread to that characteristic."

"What else is on there?" Sesshomaru asked; coming over to see passed Kagura's shoulder.

"The deep hatred of women definitely classifies him as a male. He's probably between the ages of thirty to forty-five and in great physical condition. The knife wounds are very deep, according to all of the past preliminaries, which means that upper body strength is a must. He's disorganized. He doesn't seem to plan his killings other than fantasize while stalking them. Due to the fact that his M.O. has changed to one kill every two to three days, it means that he's stalking his victims shortly. He learned when they're alone in their rooms and then finds a way in. He wasn't watching our eighth victim – Momiji Kikuchi – enough to know that her husband was always low on gas and never filled the tank until the end. Something he would have learned if he watched for at least week, since all the neighbours knew of his vice."

"Stalking, disorganization and upper body strength," Menomaru thought. "Briscoe isn't large but it's certainly big enough that any male could fit the profile well."

"Which is why we have Kagome," Inuyasha interrupted. "Kagome can communicate with our killer, though he's the only one that can open the link between them."

He looked over to Kagome, as did every other person in the room, and she shrugged. "I've tried to get information out of him, but he only talks in riddles or sings. He's going to kill again."

"He's told you?" Sesshomaru asked, his amber eyes watching her tightly.

Kagome nodded. "I'm a potential victim, and that changes his M.O. again."

No one had to say anything, they all understood. Kagome wasn't engaged or to-be married – that she knew. Inuyasha clamped him mouth shut and suppressed the boiling rage that spilled through him.

"He told you that?" he asked, his voice coming out in just barely a whisper.

"Yeah, a long time ago," Kagome answered. "So that's more you can add to the profile. He's evolving. He's stalking his victims in shorter amounts of time. He's taking longer to kill them. Soon, his M.O. will have one slight change per kill."

"But how are you connected to his killer?" Menomaru asked. "I don't...know what to believe. However, all I've been told is that you can hear the dead. But our killer can't be dead."

"I had to have made contact with him. Inuyasha, Miroku and I already made a list. All of them you ruled out. I made contact with more women than men."

"This is confusing," Menomaru sighed, shaking his head. "The paranormal crap just makes it worse."

Asshole, I'll kill him. Kagome heard Inuyasha's voice enter her mind, the deep masculine sound filling her ears and temporarily deafening the voices of the dead.

She stared at Inuyasha. Did he just talk to her in her head?

"Kagome?"

Kagome turned around to face Kagura, who looked at her questioningly. "Did you?"

"Yes, we did," Inuyasha answered for her, looking at his girlfriend and putting an arm around her shoulders. "It's in our room. I'll get it for you later."

Kagura nodded but didn't take her eyes off of Kagome. "We should also try looking at his radius. How far were all the killings?"

"Far enough that there's no connection," Sesshomaru concluded, shaking his head. "Our killer has to have been here for a maximum of twelve months. The last killing was in New York."

"That's a good few hours away," Menomaru added. "And a twelve month gap between killings."

"We can't even be sure of that," Sesshomaru said, looking at the sheriff. "He must have stopped along the way, and we can't be positive where he stopped or if he killed during travel. It's more than likely."

"Bastard," Menomaru said suddenly.

"Really?" Inuyasha added sarcastically, only his gaze was directed at him.

Inuyasha, calm down, Kagome thought, staring at Inuyasha with intense eyes. Did he hear her?

Suddenly, Inuyasha's ears pricked up and he whipped his heard around. "Did you...?"

"Can you two stop making googly eyes at each other and focus please?" Sesshomaru demanded, his amber eyes glaring.

We'll talk about this later, Kagome thought and then said to Sesshomaru, "Your choice of words isn't exactly appropriate or correct."

"But continuing," Kagura interrupted. "Were all of the bodies placed in their beds before they were found?"

"They all died in their beds," Sesshomaru corrected. "He killed them either prior to sleep, during or just waking – regardless if it was an actual bedtime snooze or a nap."

"Any possible connections between the victims?" Menomaru asked, going back to basic police work.

"No connection that anyone has been able to find. Even with Sasara and Momiji, who were killed here, one was from out of town on one side of the city and the other lived there permanently on the other side," Sesshomaru answered. "Their work, jobs, co-workers... No connections."

"Which is strange, isn't it?" Kagome asked. "I mean, when I write murders for a book, there's always a connection."

Menomaru rolled his eyes. "But there's always a happy ending," he added dryly.

Kagome glared at the sheriff, her lips curled in. "I don't know what problem you have against me but it needs to stop. I'm trying to help. And it is obvious that you have never read my stories. Out of all the books I've written, very few have happy endings. Do not, and I repeat, do not judge me."

Inuyasha smirked.

"Enough!" Sesshomaru hissed, his face blank. "We need to work together. Menomaru, grow the fuck up. Inuyasha and Kagome, stop stoking the fire."

"What fire?" Inuyasha grumbled under his breath, but didn't comment loudly.

"Going on with the investigation," Sesshomaru said sharply. "We need to find a place that we can find this bastard at. I mean, does he keep his knife in a drawer with all of his cooking knives? Is he a permanent residence or at a hotel?"

"On the profile, I'd say he lives here," Kagura said, giving out information. "He's evolving, like Kagome said earlier, which takes a great deal of comfort and confidence. If he was working from a place that was unfamiliar, he wouldn't be evolving so quickly. With that said, I believe he's single. Relationships for him are either non-existent or short-lasting. His hatred of women is clear, so no woman in her right mind would stay with him – in turn, adding more fuel to the fire. I'd say he lives alone but..." Kagura shrugged. "He's a serial killer. A major outcast. He's killed eight women and he hasn't been caught. Police departments from everywhere have barely been able to find a viable suspect for his crimes. I think he has more property to keep all of his tools."

Inuyasha nodded. "That makes sense. As much of an outcast he might be, he still has to blend in or else he'd stick out like a neon sign." Turning to look at Menomaru, Inuyasha asked, "Are there any storage facilities nearby? Any properties that are abandoned?"

"I'll get Ruri and Hari on it," Menomaru replied and left the room briefly to tell them. When he came back, the conversation resumed.

"So let's talk about number eight," Sesshomaru declared, turning towards the corkboard. He grabbed a bunch of papers that were held by a pin under the picture of Momiji Kikuchi and placed them on the table. "What went wrong?"

"A lot, apparently," Menomaru said. "Husband ran out of gas and walked back to the house. Killer didn't expect him to come back and just when he finished killing her" – he looked to Kagome to make sure he was correct – "the husband walked in."

"And he thought of something funny," Inuyasha added. "We still don't know what he was thinking."

"Is it pertinent?" Sesshomaru asked.

Inuyasha shrugged. "It could be."

"Or it could mean nothing," Kagome said. "We should focus on the little that we know. Finding the second location is a good start."

"And the clues on the husband," Sesshomaru said. "I went to the preliminary this morning. His throat was slit, from one side to the other. He was nearly decapitated. There are two sources of blood DNA, but assuming he used the same knife, I'd say it's safe to say it's his wife's."

"So what can we go on from the husband?"

"There were skin cells under his nails," Sesshomaru replied. "It's been sent in and will be search through CODIS. Maybe we'll get lucky and get a match."

Kagura sighed. "As if we were that lucky."

"What about the profile on victim zero's death though?" Menomaru asked, shifting slightly in his chair. He stared at the corkboard and at the picture of the husband, which sat right beside the picture of his wife.

"Out of character, for one thing." Kagura rearranged the papers on her desk and looked back at the profile. "He's disorganized but he completely changed the COD on the husband. From stabbing to slitting... It's a big difference. There was rage. A lot of rage. Did you pick up anything from it?" Kagura then asked, looking at Kagome.

Kagome shook her head. "No. Nothing besides the story I wrote. It was a short story sequel."

"Well, we need to look into everything again," Sesshomaru concluded. "We need to recheck all of our sources, even if they led to dead ends. The problem with the victims dying in their own beds is that there's usually no one there with them. No witnesses usually make an investigation more difficult.

"And the bleach came back," the demon continued. "There were very small traces but they were able to abstract it. It's generic bleach and can be bought at any store, so that's out of the question."

"So what does that leave us with?" Menomaru asked. "Hope that we have something to search in the morning?"

A knock at the door startled the five sitting in the conference room. Suddenly, Officer Maiho walked in, a grim expression on his features. "Sheriff? We've got a missing persons."

"Shit," Menomaru growled and left the room, Sesshomaru and the group following after him.

Officer Maiho walked towards his desk at the front, where a couple waited impatiently. The male was tall and lanky, with black hair and startling blue eyes. His face looked almost green, as if he was sick, and it was obvious what he was worried about. The woman beside him was either a girlfriend or a close friend, their features not even remotely similar. Although she had short black hair, her green eyes were large on her small face, and she looked so delicate that touching her would make her break.

"Is she here?" the man demanded.

"Who?" Menomaru asked, looking at Maiho confused. "Are these the people filing the missing persons?"

"They're going to be," Officer Maiho sighed. "Sheriff, this is Nobunga Kobayashi and his girlfriend, Tsuya Atsuko. Nobunga is Minori's brother. She was supposed to take work off today, but she told me that she was just going to help out anyways. When she didn't come in, I thought she changed her mind." Maiho shrugged. "Mr. Kobayashi says she's answering at home and her phone is off. They were supposed to have dinner late last night."

"Officer Minori?" Sesshomaru asked but Menomaru didn't answer. Instead, he walked towards Nobunga and Tsuya. "When's the last time you heard from her?"

"Yesterday afternoon," Nobunga answered, his voice shaky. "We were supposed to be having dinner last night and she had called to let me know that work might keep her late, though she promised to still make it. When she didn't, I assumed she was just too overloaded. At around eleven I called her, just to ask if I should keep some food warm for her, but her cell was off. She's not answering her home phone, and I've left messages. She doesn't do that. Minori never does that."

Tsuya, his girlfriend, walked up close and held his hand tightly in her own. She gave a small smile and rubbed his arm. "We'll find her," she whispered. "She probably just passed out and didn't hear the phone."

"I want to check it all out anyways," Menomaru demanded. "Did you go over to her house?"

"No, I didn't yesterday because I waited for her at my place. Tsuya did though," Nobunga said, looking at her. "You said the house was dark, right?"

Tsuya nodded and looked at everyone that surrounded her. "I knocked a few times and rang the doorbell. Nobunga told me that he couldn't get a hold of her and she lives on the way, so I stopped by. The house was completely dark on the outside, but I could see a small light down some hall."

"Do you know what's down there?" Menomaru asked, looking at the couple.

Nobunga shook his head. "She usually comes to my place, since it's a bit bigger."

"But there was light," Kagura cut in. "She could just be resting."

"But there's more," Tsuya pressed, raising her voice. "Later that night, around one this morning, when I was driving back, it was the same thing. Everything was off, but that light."

"And Minori doesn't not come into work," Menomaru added. "I always have to kick her out to go home. Her not coming today, especially after finding the car, is huge."

Looking at Maiho, Menomaru ordered for him and others to take cars down to her house. "We need to get there, pronto."

"Oh no." The soft whisper was almost so quiet that it was barely heard. But Inuyasha turned around and grabbed her hand, which made everyone else turn.

Kagome's body shook beside his and she grabbed Inuyasha's hand. "Hold me," she murmured and everyone watched in horror as Kagome's eyes dilated. Her pupils altered to an unrealistic size and Inuyasha's changed much like hers.

"What the fuck is happening?" Menomaru barked.

"She's psychic," Tsuya murmured. "Nobunga, she can help!"

Kagome felt the voices surge around her, deafening her. She felt them complete her body and take over, much like they had when she saw Sasara's ghost.

"He's watching." Kagome's voice was deep and the sounds of millions of little voices filled her mouth. It wasn't her talking anymore. In her own mind, Kagome screamed, determined to be heard but terrified to be lost.

"Fuck," Inuyasha muttered, watching the same scattered memories that Kagome saw flashing in her mind.

I've found you, the dark voice, the evil man whispered menacingly in her ears. Kagome fell to the ground, her body shaking uncontrollably. She tried to force herself to be calm, unmoving, but the voices had control. The voices wouldn't be pushed back.

"He's going to kill her. Kill her, kill her, kill her," Kagome's mock voice chanted hauntingly. The room spun and Inuyasha choked, as if he was being strangled.

"He's got...Kagome," Inuyasha coughed. "He's trying to make me let go." Inuyasha growled loudly and Sesshomaru held his arm roughly.

"Inuyasha, you can't go as deep as her. She's struggling to survive."

But it didn't matter. Inuyasha wasn't as deep anyways, Kagome wouldn't let him. Inuyasha watched, almost like watching a film in the very back of the theatre, standing against the wall. At first, he was just a bystander but then, a dark presence appeared. He couldn't see him, couldn't smell him, couldn't tell if he was real or not. All Inuyasha could feel was hands around his neck and the sensation that he couldn't breathe.

The deep voice was the only thing he heard, until Kagome screamed.

"Minori! Minori! Minori!" Kagome shouted repeatedly, her body thrashing around the room. She crashed into desks and crawled like her life depended on it towards the couple. Suddenly, as if someone jumped on her, Kagome's body fell flat to the floor and a whimper of pain could be heard. Kagome was trapped as a prisoner within her own body. She screamed, and felt relief when she heard the sound come out of her mouth. She surged forwards, drawing every aspect of the room closer and closer to her until she felt like she was almost there, almost back to normal.

And that's when she heard the killer.

I've found you. I've found you Kagome. I've found you.

He was laughing and chanting and even though his voice sounded so close, she watched as tiny images flashed across her mind of a shadowed body holding a long bloody knife, walking towards a door.

"He's going to kill her!" Kagome shouted. Her voice was still laced with the voices of the dead. She sounded mechanical, unreal.

But everything was disturbingly real.

Found you.

Found you.

Found you.

Found you.

Kagome, still on the floor, rolled her body into a tight ball. Her knees at her chin, she wrapped her arms around herself, her eyes wide and vacant.

"Kagome?" Tsuya asked, kneeling beside Kagome.

Kagome stared at her, her eyes unseeing. And then she started to sing. "And when I see you again, it'll be with arms wide full of love. And I'll see you again; it'll be the day I live for, even when I'm dead. With arms full of love, I'll hold you and kiss you. Love you forever until death do us part, and death will do us part, for I am long, long dead. I am the dead. And you, the living. Breathe me back my soul and I will take you to a faraway place called home."

Minori woke up, groggy. Her head pounded like jackhammers and her arms tingled painfully.

Where am I? The thought raced through her mind like wildfire, and instantly she looked around. She was in her bedroom. She was stripped to her bra and panties. She was chained to the bedpost, her arms and her legs unable to move.

You've been a bad girl.

Slowly, it dawned on Minori what was happening. "No," she whispered, unbelieving. "No, no! No, oh god, please no." But then she saw her murderer, a bloody knife telling Minori that everything was not going to be okay.

A bad, bad girl.

She didn't even have time to scream.

Let's play a game! Who wants this to end happily but with a twisted ending? You know, like the horror movies? There are two options: There is a twisted ending or there's an alternate ending (where basically the story ends the same but there's an additional paragraph or two that I will post as a separate chapter).

Please vote and let me know. Thank you for all of your reviews!