At first their search seemed pointless, they couldn't see or smell anything. Until they jumped to the top of one particular building. Apparently they had been up wind of the blood, because there was a shit-ton of it. Hiei, Inuyasha, and Kurama found two male bodies on top of the roof, both had gaping holes in their chests. Then they smelled the other body, Hiei quickly walked to the edge of the roof and peered down into the alley. Sure enough, there at the bottom was another mutilated body. This time though, no one had found her yet.
"Hiei, you go down and check, Inuyasha and I will see if we can find anything up here." Kurama said while squatting to get a better look at the men. Hiei didn't acknowledge them, but they knew he had heard his friend. He jumped down on top of the dumpster, then to one of the only areas of the ground not stained crimson. Hiei's nose was assaulted by the expected aroma, and this scene looked just like the last one. The poor girl's limbs were everywhere, her head was at his feet, and her torso was the farthest away from the rest of her. Once again, he couldn't detect any scent or evidence of the attacker. Everything was bathed in the girl's blood, and there was nothing for Hiei to find here. Though out of curiosity, he decided to walk the length of the alley and see if there was anything else he might have missed. A little way down, he finds the woman's purse. Opening the thing, he sees that her money is still there, and her wallet wasn't taken either. He checks her ID, and is slightly disturbed to see that she once looked a lot like Kagome. Other than the fake hair color, and brown eyes, she could pass as a relative of the miko's. Placing everything back and wiping his prints off of everything, he continued down the stretch. Almost to the other side, he finds evidence of a struggle, and the smells tell him that the two dead men above his head had fought. Whoever had killed the girl must have been waiting in the alley, and those two had caused trouble. Hiei leapt back up to the roof, ready to see if his companions had figured anything out.
"He was waiting." Hiei said.
"Figures. These two must have been drunk and got into a fight, and I'm guessing that they irritated the guy and he killed them so they wouldn't get in his way." Inuyasha nodded while still sniffing around the area. Hiei cocked a brow at how much of a dog he looked like at the moment.
"Which means that our suspect was lying in wait for the girl specifically, it wasn't a blitz attack." Kurama added while surveying the alley and the surrounding streets. "This is a pretty heavy area for prostitution, and they normally stick to a schedule. It wouldn't have been too hard for him to pick one and know her routine."
"She looked like Kagome." Hiei growled low. That part of this whole thing was what had him bothered so badly. The prostitute lying down there, dismembered, looked like his Kagome and the guy had to have targeted her for that reason. Meaning he had seen Kagome at some point, he knew her.
"What?" Inuyasha asked while standing, he didn't like where this was going.
"The dead woman's ID, she looked like Kagome." Hiei didn't normally repeat himself, but in this instance they all needed to be on the same page.
"Could it be a coincidence?" Kurama asked while looking worried and thoughtful.
"Doubtful." The hybrid replied, the chances of Kagome having the dreams, them coming true exactly, and then the victims looking like her was too far-fetched to be coincidental.
"He knows her then, or at least he's seen her before." Kurama deduces, and they all fall silent. Suddenly Hiei walks over the bodies and looks them over himself.
"I pinpointed a scent that doesn't belong to either of the men, on this one's back." Inuyasha points to where he had found the foreign smell. Hiei focuses and takes in a breath, he smells it, but it's nothing he's smelled before.
"It's something." The other two nod their heads, if it did belong to their guy, then they now knew what he smelled like. If he came anywhere near the shrine they would know it, and he would meet his end.
"Let's head back, Kagome will have breakfast done soon." Kurama says and they leave quickly. All three of them had heard the sirens in the distance, and most likely they were coming to that scene.
oOoOo
They were late, but no one made a big deal out of it. Kagome just raised a brow since it was rare for Inuyasha to miss a meal, but she just shook her head at his shrug and made three more plates. Hiei remained outside but pulsed his aura so she knew where he was, but he didn't feel like being around everyone right now. The new aspects they had found had him angered, the bastard knew her, and even if she knew him she didn't know who was doing this. She was just as clueless as they were, and he didn't want to upset her further by telling her the girls looked like her.
Meanwhile inside, Kagome was introducing Ukaran's friends to Inuyasha and Kurama. She had met them when everyone woke up, and she couldn't decide if she liked them or not. One was named Sumo, like the wrestlers and was slightly taller than her and had short black hair. The other, a much taller and muscled individual, was called Nigo and he was a silent type. He was polite, but he didn't say much otherwise. Sumo liked a good conversation it seemed, he immediately got into a discussion with Kurama about different plant types and their uses. Kagome noticed that Hiei didn't come in with the others, and with a light sweep of her aura she found him in the Goshenboku outside. 'Typical.' She thought with a small smile.
"Hey Kags?" Inuyasha's voice got her attention and she looked up.
"Yeah?"
"Whatcha got planned today?" he asked, he succeeded in sounding nonchalant but Kagome knew him better than that.
"Finish putting up the decorations, work in the garden, and then probably take a nap. Why?"
"Just curious, need any help?"
"Always, but this is unlike you to offer help." She looked at him pointedly, conveying that she was suspicious.
"Can't I be nice?" he asks while acting offended. But Kagome knows he trying to get at something, so she lets it go.
"You can help me put the decorations in the Goshenboku." She says while cleaning the table. Everyone else says they have things to do away from the shrine, and she just waves to them as they leave. Then her and Inuyasha walk outside to get busy. "Ok Inuyasha, what's up?" she asks.
"You know me too well Kags." He sighs.
"I should with how long I've known you." She smiles a little at him which he returns.
"I just don't want you to be caught off guard tonight." He starts and he sees that she's figuring out what he's talking about. She was always good at that, knowing what he meant before he actually said it.
"Is that why you, Hiei, and Kurama were late this morning?" she looks away, and doesn't even look to the tree where Hiei is lounging, listening.
"Yeah, we wanted to see if we could find the next victim before the cops did." He explains knowing she isn't going to like it, but she needs to know before anyone else.
"You did, didn't you?"
"I'm sorry Kags, if that's what you've been seeing every night I don't blame you for not wanting to sleep." He says and pulls her into his arms, "There's something else that you need to know."
"What?" she asks while burying her head into his chest, Hiei knows that Inuyasha is like a brother to her so he doesn't mind the comfort she gets from the dog.
"The girl we found, Hiei saw her ID. She…. she uh…. she looked like you." He feels her stiffen, and only allows her to lean back a little.
"She what?" Kagome's voice is weak, scared more than he could ever remember her being.
"Eye and hair color were different but the face, it was you." He repeated and made sure to have his hands on her arms for the just in case she collapsed. She looked pale, and he could tell she was swaying a little.
"Why? I don't understand!" she was panicking, this was more than she wanted to know, but she knew that she needed to know. It was aimed at her, all of it. But why was the question.
"Whoever he is has seen you, maybe even talked to you at some point. But we're here, he won't get near you." Inuyasha tries to calm her, but it isn't working.
"It doesn't matter; we've been down this road before." She whispers. "He'll get to me whether you're here or not." Then she collapses onto her knees on the ground, so numb and yet in so much pain. She almost doesn't even notice when Hiei lands behind her, pulling her into his arms as Inuyasha kneels in front of her.
"You've got him and his team too, we're a little more prepared now Kags." Inuyasha says, thankful that Hiei was there. He was probably the only who could comfort her now, which in a way irritated Inuyasha, but he was old enough now to accept it.
"Will it be enough?" she whispers brokenly.
"Hn." Hiei grunts then nuzzles her hair, allowing Inuyasha to be the only to see his softer side when it came to Kagome. She visibly relaxes a little, but her aura pulses with despair. Both men know that that probably won't go away, but they can at least be there for her.
"Come on, let's get the ole tree dressed up." Inuyasha says while Hiei pulls Kagome back to her feet.
"Yeah." She nods and they spend the next few hours decorating the only thing there that knew their eternal pain.
I apologize for the short chapter, but I managed to find a little time to put this together and I wanted to get it posted. I'm back in school so updates are unpredictable. Thank you for the reviews guys, I'm glad some of you are sticking around. I hope to read more :)
