Title: Followed
Author: Tsubasa Kya
Disclaimer: I do not own anything from the "Case Closed" universe, and neither do I own anything from the "Inuyasha" universe.

Chapter Twenty-One

On his walk back to the Kudo residence after school, Inuyasha was surprised to come across Shin'ichi hidden in a little niche tucked between two walls. It was barely big enough for two people to fit inside, but at the expense of his school uniform and a few fresh tears in the cloth, he managed to scrabble inside. He wasn't surprised to find Shin'ichi was sealed again in the Conan form.

There was really no room to move inside the niche, and it really was small enough to bypass notice by the common pedestrian. Shin'ichi wasn't happy and it was obvious by the salt rivers flowing down his slight childish cheeks.

For a few minutes, Shin'ichi didn't acknowledge Inuyasha, but he still sat there. He didn't greet Shin'ichi, but he knew the boy recognized his presence. Inuyasha contemplated the possibilities behind the strange seal on Shin'ichi as he sat there.

He'd known from the minute he felt the pulsing of the seal—the seal overworking itself to attempt conquering the powerful emotions Shin'ichi was putting out—that the seal would eventually gain back the ground it lost and he'd return to the form of Conan.

Inuyasha still hadn't extracted the story behind how his adoptive brother ended up sealed, but figured with time Shin'ichi would spill. Humans liked spilling their problems to others, so he had no reason to think that Shin'ichi would be different. But unlike most humans, Inuyasha had come to find that the other boy was rather reserved and kept his problems—and opinions—within his own mind.

Recognizing his vow to not get involved with humans anymore, Inuyasha made an exception for Shin'ichi who had already done so much for him and helped him acclimate to the new world that was his consequence. As Inuyasha waited for Shin'ichi, he pulled out the book assigned for him to read by one of his teachers. He had all night, and patience or not, if he had something to do during the time he waited, he could be surprisingly calm.

The book was a rather ridiculous one, in Inuyasha's opinion. As of the middle of the book, Inuyasha had not yet come across a single realistic occurrence. The class he was reading it for was called 'creative and artistic musings' or something odd like that and the book was a supposed romance novel. Some of the content was rather questionable, but the teacher had given him the book and expected a report on it by Wednesday. Since it was Monday, he knew he had plenty of time.

The work kept his mind off of the well, where it so often wanted to stray. It didn't help that the well-creature kept whispering her amusement in his ears as though he were some funny plaything. Perhaps he was a funny plaything, but he was not amused.

Several minutes and many page turns later, Inuyasha heard Shin'ichi mumble out of his knees where he currently had his head buried, "My sixth grade teacher, Daone-sensei… Shippou Daone… he called me your belonging… what did he mean?"

That had bothered Shin'ichi for days and he'd wanted to talk to Inuyasha about it, but the opportunity never seemed to come up. At present, Shin'ichi felt like hiding from the world as a feeling of helplessness came over him. He couldn't go anywhere or do anything as Conan with a killer loose on the city although he had no clue why this one was so much more special than any other before. And even if he could stay as himself, he couldn't go anywhere or do anything because of the black syndicate.

He was in a terrible rut and all he wanted was out. A new face, a new identity, a new life… If he had one wish, he would make that one. But wishes were out of his control.

Inuyasha closed his book and set it in his lap, his hands resting on his knees. "I don't know much about th' actual way packs are run, but I would guess, if I was looked at as leader, those members o' my pack would belong t' me. But I grew up alone, mostly," he admitted, leaning back in the niche. He looked out onto the sidewalk and could watch as skirts and pant-legs passed by, none noticing the crack in the wall.

"Weren't you a part of a pack?" Shin'ichi asked quietly. He sort of liked to sit and talk to Inuyasha, even in Conan form because Inuyasha treated him as an equal, though he did sometimes call him a 'kid'. However, Shin'ichi noticed that Inuyasha called pretty much everyone kid, so his irritation at the name had faded somewhat.

"No," Inuyasha said bluntly. "My dad died protectin' my mother an' me, an' my mother was human. My older brother never cared nothin' 'bout me, an' I was always a top-priority on his kill-list after my mother died. Ain't had no one t' teach me th' rules, so I just been makin' up my own since. Done fine, I say."

Shin'ichi laughed weakly. "Must've been pretty enlightening to have a brother who wanted you dead…" Even Inuyasha recognized the sarcasm that thickly coated Shin'ichi's voice. "I hope you don't mind my parents. I think they mean well, even though you get in more fights with my mom about 'Conan' than I've ever gotten into with them."

Inuyasha shrugged. "Ya mother ain't all that bad, an' Yusaku ain't awful. They're real weird, but they ain't terrible." Inuyasha really didn't have a problem with either of them—except that they wanted to be called 'mother' and 'father'. Inuyasha couldn't bring himself to doing that. He had family. Dead family (and soon-to-be-dead once he got his hands on Sesshoumaru) but still they were his family. He couldn't abandon them, dead or not.

Silence stretched for a moment, and Inuyasha decided to get the issue over with. "It happens t' me too," he offered, scratching a line in the book cover with a claw. The paper shredded tenderly under his ministrations.

"What?" Shin'ichi asked, startled slightly. The statement seemed too random to him. But he knew it had to have some purpose. "What are you talking about?"

"My emotions. If I have too much rage pent up in me, my head goes all funny and all I can think of is t' kill." Inuyasha picked at the loose shreds of paper from the cover, brushing them onto the ground.

Shin'ichi wrapped his arms tighter around his childish knees. He wasn't sure how good a thing that would be to have Inuyasha's head 'go funny', and he was forcibly being made to realize the dangers that a youkai brought under his roof. Still, for some reason, his trust was growing for Inuyasha in increasing amounts. He said nothing, letting Inuyasha continue speaking.

"My dad made a sword with th' power t' calm my rage, but I lost it, an' stuff's been goin' on an' I'm worried I'll go berserk without th' sword, 'cause I know I have t' see my brother again soon. He's here." Shin'ichi's eyes widened and he finally looked up into those deep pools of gold. His suspicions toward Inuyasha being the thief, was it possible they were misplaced?

Yes, he still thought Inuyasha could be the thief, but only because how likely was it for someone to have gold eyes and silver hair? Inuyasha had the ability to move without making noise, and he could literally jump into an open third floor window without so much as an effort being made. All these things simply made Shin'ichi believe more that he was the thief.

But what if someone else looked like him? Or he looked like someone else? Could he wrap his mind around that? "You have a brother?" he asked.

"Yeah. His name is Sesshoumaru." Inuyasha watched as Shin'ichi's eyes had a sudden curious glow. "Sometimes I can smell him, but then th' scent trail disappears suddenly." Inuyasha sighed; they were getting off track. His brother wasn't the line of conversation he wanted to talk to Shin'ichi about. He wanted to talk about the seal he felt. "But anyway," he said to get them back on track. "I think ya seal inside ya responds t' ya emotions. Human emotions can sometimes be strong as magic, or stronger, an' it reacted, causin' ya t' change."

"So, you're saying I've been sealed?" Like all those youkai? Why would he be sealed? What purpose would sealing have on him? And… if Inuyasha's brother was named Sesshoumaru… could that mean the sealed youkai was his brother?

"I felt th' magic workin'. But not sure why ya been sealed… I ain't never heard o' a miko seal that turns a guy small." Inuyasha put the newly damaged book in his bag before he wrecked it any more.

"If I understand you correctly, you're saying I could harness the emotions needed to work the seal… right?" Inuyasha nodded and Shin'ichi felt almost better again. And then Inuyasha muttered something about being hungry and he couldn't help but laugh. "You eat way too much." Shin'ichi said as they crawled out of the niche. "I don't get where you keep it all."

"I'm a hungry guy!" Inuyasha protested.

Shin'ichi cast a knowing look up at his adopted hanyou brother. He'd been given a lot to think about. He couldn't just cast aside the fact that at present, Inuyasha was a possible suspect in Kogoro's thief case, but still… Inuyasha was a pretty cool guy. It bothered him a lot less now to be called a belonging of Inuyasha's. The youkai term and human term were obviously different.

xXx

Almost two and a half weeks, Kagome had this illness. She groaned as her brother gently guided her back to her bed, which was now in the guest room on the second floor. He was practically her nurse, helping her with everything from going to the bathroom and running her bathwater to bandaging her injuries.

She recalled the first time he'd been bandaging her injuries with her awake and remembered how he nearly had a heart attack over the word 'pet' inscribed deep into her right shoulder blade. That injury and her hand were the worst infected. He wanted to know why it was there, and yet she couldn't tell him.

If she told him about youkai and how she had a stalker in the numbers, well, she feared he might question her sanity. Of course, it was his own fault for thinking her unaware that Inuyasha was a hanyou. They could both have saved a lot of trouble if they just talked about it, but they didn't.

Aside from that, Kagome really didn't feel like talking at all. All she could think about, all her worries, were on her mother and baby brother. What was Sesshoumaru doing to them now? She could hardly move on her own, since her legs didn't seem to want to hold her weight. It was really Sesshoumaru's fault that she was sick, but since she wasn't there as he told her to be at lunch, and didn't get back by four PM either, would he be punishing her mother and brother?

The more she thought about this after coming home from the hospital, the more she felt like retreating into her mind and never coming out. This reality, this world, was not one she wanted to live. So when Heiji left her side, saying he would only be gone a few hours, she struggled out of bed and pulled herself to the door, shutting and locking it.

As soon as that was done, she managed to slide back across the room to the bed where she curled up with the desire of never opening her eyes again. She never wanted to see reality again. She never wanted to find out what happened to her mother. She couldn't bear knowing what was likely to happen to her baby brother.

There, the pain began. It was like a fire burning through her veins, and she felt like she was dying. When she opened her eyes, all she could see was yellow. There was no depth to an object, because she could not see anything. She put her hand in front of her face and could not see it.

She felt the painful fire crashing through her system still, and an end to the pain was nowhere. A whispering told her, the pain will go away if she killed… it was the solution… kill, kill…

But that didn't seem right to her. Killing only brought on more pain, more suffering. She was floating in a sea of yellow and pain. Lots of pain.

xXx

Heiji looked up at the Kudo residence in irritation. For two and a half weeks he'd taken care of Kagome while she was sick, never expecting her symptoms could be at all similar to Ran's before she went berserk and decided to try drowning Shin'ichi in a tub of water.

He hadn't really had time for school while taking care of Kagome, and he'd flat-out refused to let Inuyasha close to Kagome while she was so sick. After finding the word 'pet' inscribed into her back, he was determined that no one but family get close to her.

They'd tried finding her mom and Souta, but Kagome said that Ai had gone north with Souta and left her with a friend. Kagome wouldn't say who gave her the injuries, but Heiji had been sure it was Inuyasha. After all, the guy was likely the thief who Kogoro was looking for, right?

But now, this morning, Kagome had woken up with yellow eyes. No iris, no whites, no pupils… just that sunflower yellow. The same as Ran's were. If Inuyasha was really some magical hanyou, and something odd was about to happen to Kagome, then Heiji knew he had to tie down his burning anger at the injuries his six-day-younger baby sister had sustained and ask the hanyou for help.

He reached out, flexed his pointer finger, and then rang the bell.

He could hear the noise ringing out throughout the entire mansion, and then Shin'ichi answered the door in the form of Conan. "What do you want, Heiji?" Shin'ichi scowled. To have his afternoon bothered by Heiji usually only meant a bad thing, and that was usually to exchange information on the murder cases and the theft cases.

Shin'ichi really hadn't had much information on the theft cases to exchange what with no longer living with Mori, so Heiji had nearly stopped bugging him. Shin'ichi also thought the reason the other guy stopped bugging him was because his sister was apparently sick, and he wouldn't help his dad with the case and leave her side.

"Where's Inuyasha?" Heiji demanded, even as Inuyasha appeared with a bottle of cherry soda in his hands, gulping it down as though it would disappear. "Inuyasha, are ya serious about that youkai stuff?"

Inuyasha choked on his soda, and Shin'ichi immediately began shoving at Heiji's knees, pushing him out of the house. Inuyasha followed Shin'ichi out and shut the door, leveling his gold eyes at Heiji. "Ya mind not screamin' it?" Inuyasha whispered.

Heiji frowned. "What's ya problem?"

Shin'ichi explained, "The problem is that my parents don't know."

"Why not?" Heiji asked, but then shook his head. "Never mind, forget it. Ya comin' with me now. I think Kagome might be a miko too, like Ran." Shin'ichi's eyes went wide, and Inuyasha's eyes narrowed.

"Of course Kagome's a miko," Inuyasha grumbled, capping his soda. "What th' hell ya thinkin' she's not for?" Then it clicked in Inuyasha's brain and he swore violently. 'Like Ran' he said. That was why he didn't smell magic on her at the hospital. She was already well into her transformation to hanyou, which meant that any day now she could become a hanyou and after that it was three to four weeks of being a nise-hanyou.

Really, if it weren't for Kikyou, he wouldn't know as much as he did about miko.

"Well, shit," Inuyasha growled. He took off for the Hattori residence, having found out where it was only a week earlier. All the same, he knew where he was going. He didn't bother with opening the small gate. Instead he launched up over the twenty-five foot fence, leaving Shin'ichi and Heiji to race after him.

"If I didn't believe it a'fore, I believe it now," Heiji scowled. And he was letting that creature close to his sister?

xXx

The pain was so awful. Wasn't there an end? The whispering continued, telling her there was fresh blood below her. She would just have to go to it, she could feast on the blood and the pain would end. But doing what the whispering told her would be wrong… not to mention disgusting…

Her mother would look on her in shame. Her mother was dead, the whisperer breathed. No, she insisted her mother was alive and well, and just waiting for her to come home. Once she had her sight back, she could go to her mother and everything would be alright.

xXx

Inuyasha growled as he had to wait a few minutes for Heiji to catch up. Technically he could just barge into the house and go to Kagome, but he did need the few spare minutes to get his raging blood under control. The youkai half of him knew Kagome was in pain, and if his memory served him correctly which it should then Kagome's pain was probably intensifying.

He guessed by the time he'd gotten to Ran, she was already halfway through being hanyou, and had fought the pain the whole time. It just got to be too bad for her to face alone, and that was where Shin'ichi came in. With Ran taking comfort in Shin'ichi's presence, she was able to fight the pain until the transformation to youkai completed.

Heiji was finally there and he unlocked the front door. Inuyasha pressed his way inside, scowling deeply as he scented his brother on the air. He looked up. A landing, and Kagome was somewhere above. He could hear her whimpering. Then it stopped… her crying stopped… why?

Heiji was on his way up the steps inside the entry hall, three at a time, and Shin'ichi was following. Inuyasha leapt up to the landing and followed Kagome's scent. It was mixed with sickness, but she smelled freshly cleaned, and he knew Heiji had clearly taken care of her.

The door was swinging on its hinges, a forced entry. Inuyasha entered, but Kagome was nowhere to be found. There was a note on a freshly made bed. He went to read it, his blood boiling in rage, his youkai berserker howling to be set free. He could not unleash it. He clung desperately to control it as he picked up the note.

I have my pet. You should have stayed dead.

It was directed at him. He knew it. As Heiji and Shin'ichi came into the room, Inuyasha fell to his knees, leaning on the bed, trying to contain the youkai within him. It wanted vengeance. It wanted blood.

"Inuyasha?" Shin'ichi inquired.

"Where is she?" Heiji asked. "She was in this room. I was only gone twenty minutes!"

Inuyasha turned blood red eyes on the two, even as he fought for control. They stepped back, shocked by an even freakier sight that unnatural gold eyes, or sunflower yellow eyes. Inuyasha whipped the now-crumpled piece of paper at the two. "You tell me! You tell me why this place reeks of my brother! You tell me why he would dare touch what is mine! I will tell you how I will kill him!"

Both humans were too stunned to speak, and Inuyasha sat down on the bed, curling up in Kagome's scent where it soothed his youkai half even though her scent lingered with that of sickness. It helped enough that he could once again contain the youkai's rage.

Heiji immediately went to call his father and tell him what happened. Later that night, Inuyasha and Shin'ichi returned to Mori's place to check up on Ran to find Kogoro fuming. "THAT BASTARD TOOK MY RAN!" Kogoro hollered. They found out that Ran also had been taken by someone that day. Kogoro believed the suspect was Shin'ichi, who had been left with her.

When they got back to the Kudo residence, Inuyasha scowled as he said, "My brother took her. I could smell him everywhere. I don't know what the fuck he's doing, but I damn well am gonna find out." Shin'ichi decided that now was a good time to tell Inuyasha what he'd found out at the museum with his fifth grade teacher, Shippou Daone.

End.