Thanks again to all of you who take time to read, review, follow, favorite, etc. Y'all are awesome.

This chapter wound up being a little bit of a beast, but there really wasn't any other way around it.

Quotes:

"In the short term, it would make me happy to go play outside. In the long term, it would make me happier to do well at school and become successful. But in the VERY long term, I know which will make better memories."
–Bill Watterson, It's a Magical World: A Calvin and Hobbes Collection

"Walkin' down this rocky road
Wondering where my life is leadin'
Rollin' on to the bitter end
Finding out along the way
What it takes to keep love living
You should know how it feels, my friend"
–Bad Company, "Ready for Love"

Pipe in hand, Rikuo sat in his usual spot on the branches within the sakura tree. As he smoked, he watched nightfall blanket the town and mulled over his earlier conversation with Ryūji.

"Word on the street is they're vampires… You of all people should know not to discount rumors entirely."

He exhaled, and the wispy white smoke floated and curled until it dissipated completely. No matter how much I try to convince myself it could be some sick, twisted human…something tells me this is a yokai. Or more than one yokai.

Rikuo sighed. Ryūji was mistaken—Rikuo did know not to discount rumors. And though his instincts told him it wasn't a Nuragumi ayakashi, and he had serious doubts about it being vampires, the fundamental problem remained. Whether they were vampires or not, someone in his territory was claiming Fear that belonged to the Nura clan, to him.

A specter from his past rose unbidden in his mind, taunting him. "Fear makes us strong. Isn't that right?! A yokai's strength is something…to be feared and talked about…like ghost stories…urban legends…like the Hyaku Monogatari." (1)

While what Toryanse had spoken of was only a part of Fear, he wasn't wrong about yokai gaining strength from the Fear that ghost stories and urban legends about them generated. After all, it was what had made Enchō and the Hundred Stories clan such a threat. At least Kurotabō had finally tracked down Yanagida and killed him seven years prior, so Rikuo wasn't concerned about this being a revival of the Hundred Stories clan.

No, if anything, right now he was annoyed by someone attempting to pilfer his clan's Fear and weaken the foundation of his Hyakki Yakō. Currently, according to Karasu Tengu's preliminary investigations, it was a negligible amount, hardly worth noticing.

And that's the problem. It's a subtle yet persistent drain that, if unresolved, will only fester and grow larger, destabilizing our strength and authority in our territory.

He ground his teeth on the end of his pipe—to hell with the possibility of it cracking—his prior annoyance growing closer to anger. Fortunately for the integrity of his pipe, a voice from the base of the tree drew him out of his rage-inducing thoughts.

"Yo, kid, got room for another up there?"

Without waiting for a reply, Rikuo's grandfather leapt gracefully up into the tree, sitting down on the branch nearest to Rikuo, his back pressed up against the trunk like Rikuo's was.

"Oi, jiji, I'm not a kid anymore," Rikuo said, frowning.

Nurarihyon cackled. "Hah! You're not even a hundred yet. By yokai standards, you're but a wee babe."

Rikuo's brows pinched further together as his frown deepened.

"You might want to stop that." Nurarihyon poked the bowl end of his pipe in between Rikuo's eyebrows, promptly retracting it when Rikuo moved to swat it away. "Otherwise you're gonna wind up prematurely wrinkled, and then what girl will want you?"

"Shut it, old man," Rikuo said without heat.

"Well, now, you'd seemed better, but I see you're back to acting all brooding and pensive again. That pretty miko turn you down?"

"Jiji…" Rikuo warned. True, she hadn't texted him yet, but that wasn't his foremost concern at present.

His grandfather affected a look of benign innocence, taking a pull on his pipe and exhaling slowly. Then, his tone marginally more serious, he asked, "What's wrong?"

Although Rikuo knew Karasu Tengu had likely kept his grandfather apprised of the situation, Rikuo explained all he knew. As he did, Nurarihyon listened closely, intermittently nodding and making "Mmm" noises.

"…and human or yokai, it doesn't matter. I can't just let someone steal Fear on our turf, tarnish our reputation," Rikuo finished.

Nurarihyon was quiet for a moment. "Yes, I can see why this is bothering you. However, have you considered that maybe it isn't as big of a deal as you're making it out to be?"

Rikuo crossed his arms and leveled a glare at his grandfather. "No, jiji, what a novel idea."

He earned a pipe poking him in the face again for the comment, with the added remark, "There's that irritability again. You didn't mention that miko in what's going on. How's she factor in?"

Good damn question. "Hell if I know," Rikuo spoke aloud. "I do worry about our meeting being something other than a fluke, given the timing of it all."

"Tch," his grandfather scoffed. "That's not what I meant at all. I want to know if something happened with her to make you so damn angsty again."

Rikuo raised an eyebrow. "You're not taking any of this seriously, are you?"

Nurarihyon sighed. "Look, Rikuo, you've been on edge lately, so maybe as a result you're perceiving this infringement on Nura territory as some sort of personal insult." When Rikuo started to argue, his grandfather held up a hand. "Also, while being cautious and protecting the clan certainly isn't a bad thing, take care not to let the past cloud your interpretation of current events. Sometimes what seems like a grand conspiracy could be nothing more than coincidence."

Rikuo contemplated his grandfather's words. Then, he said reluctantly, "I suppose…it's possible…you could be right…"

"Of course it's possible. Who do you think I am?" Nurarihyon gave him an arrogant smirk before lifting his hand and wobbling his thumb and index finger positioned in a half circle. "Sake?"

At Rikuo's nod, ceramic cups and a thin-necked bottle materialized from within the folds of his grandfather's kimono—a fairly common occurrence within the yokai community, and an inexplicable mystery to non-yokai observers.

The two lapsed into comfortable silence as they drank, and Rikuo gazed upward at the moon, a waning crescent sliver in the inky night sky.

Things had been a bit quiet, I was restless, and now there's a problem that needs fixing. I should really be happier.

Tendrils of smoke rose and vanished as he blew out a sigh along with his exhale. Happiness could wait. His responsibility to the Nuragumi came first.

And if looking out for the best interests of the clan meant spending time with a pretty miko… Well, he'd just have to take one for the team.

Okay…maybe I'm a little bit happy.

As much as she'd wanted to race home and immediately delve into the materials Ryūji had given her, Kagome kept the reins tight on her self-discipline, completing the most pertinent assignments for her classes and then taking care of some chores. It was torturous, and her distracted state of mind caused everything to take longer than it should have.

By early evening, Kagome deemed the conditions met and settled at her kitchen table with her laptop. Then, she pulled open the packet and riffled through till she found the database information sheet, only briefly glancing at the few printed materials since she figured their online archives would have the lion's share of the information she sought. She'd review the physical resources when she'd exhausted the digital ones.

She entered the personalized log-in and password she'd been provided and then paused, biting her lip.

As the cursor blinked in the search field box and her fingers hovered over the keys, the devil on her shoulder tempted her to type in the names of her friends. But with the meeting with her advisor on the horizon, Kagome disciplined herself to stay focused, searching first for "shikon no tama."

There were surprisingly more results than she'd anticipated, but she started with the main database entry on the topic.

"The shikon no tama: also known as the sacred jewel or jewel of the four souls, a gemstone purported to have granted the bearer unparalleled power, said to have been created from the merged souls of many formidable demons and Midoriko, a powerful miko."

The story overview about the sacred jewel was virtually the same as what she'd grown up hearing from her grandfather, not to mention experienced some of it firsthand, so she skimmed over the section, taking a few notes here and there if she thought they might be applicable for her independent study. A comment near the end of the overview, before it got into more lengthy discussion, caught her attention.

"The core information surrounding the shikon no tama legend originates at the Higurashi shrine in Tokyo, which is thought to have been built on the site of the same shrine that once housed the jewel during the Sengoku era. Interestingly enough, though passed down in the family from generation to generation, the legend seems to have been relegated to little more than a bedtime story or marketing gimmick."

Oh, is that so? She scrunched her nose up in annoyance. That's just insulting.

Jii-chan would have been furious to read something like that in official onmyoji documents. She was already put off by her interactions with Ryūji, but now her distaste for the Keikain onmyoji was expanding to the organization as a whole.

Kagome noticed hyperlinks to, ostensibly, information about the Higurashi shrine as well as Midoriko, but she resisted the urge to see what they had on her family. She could check that out later—right now, she needed to stay on task.

She continued reading.

"Most folklorists believe the tale of the shikon no tama to be simply that—a story, one designed to teach about the corruption of power and the dangers of greed. Onmyoji researchers, on the other hand, do believe such an item existed, and that there was indeed a war over it. However, the abilities attributed to the jewel are likely grossly exaggerated as the only sources available regarding the jewel's powers are in the yokai community, and they are hardly credible resources."

Kagome's lip involuntarily curled into a sneer. While it wasn't entirely unexpected, the researcher's definite anti-yokai bias irritated her.

"The battle over the sacred jewel, which the average human was unaware of, has become known as the Shikon War, and scholars agree that though it had already been ongoing, the war reached its peak when the enigmatic shikon miko broke the jewel into myriad pieces, each of which allegedly had immense power on their own. Historians can only hazard a guess at the reasoning behind her decision to break the jewel; the action was certainly shortsighted and foolish, particularly given her and her companions subsequent quest to collect the shards."

Kagome glared at the screen. "Oh, you sanctimonious prick. Is that kind of commentary really necessary?"

It was an honest mistake—how was I supposed to know the damned thing was going to shatter? Feeling less than sure she really wanted to, Kagome pressed onward with the reading.

"Information about the shikon miko is unreliable at best and nonsensical at worst, with some claiming she was a mysterious miko from another realm or dimension, whereas others say she was the reincarnation of Kikyō, a local miko from Edo, who was rumored to have died around 1500 yet was found alive and dwelling in Edo following the destruction of the jewel in 1550 (archivist's note: date estimated by scholars, not definitive). These inconsistencies make it difficult to know just what exactly transpired or who actually was the shikon miko. Some researchers speculate Kikyō was the shikon miko—unlikely given the purported age of the woman residing in Edo around 1550—and that the rumors were started to protect her identity or perhaps even to hide the ludicrous error in decision-making that led to the fragmented shikon no tama."

"Okay! That's it—next topic!" Kagome snapped, having endured enough criticism during the events themselves. She hardly needed judgment from some faceless onmyoji asshole, for at this point, they were all assholes in her book.

A grumbling stomach reminded her she hadn't really eaten much that day since she'd woken up late, and knowing that if she waited, she'd be far too engrossed to even think about eating, she took a short break to sate her insistent hunger.

Afterward, Kagome plopped back down in the kitchen chair. Then, she clicked on the link to the Shikon War, skimming over the vague and repeatedly qualified events, as the onmyoji historians seemed insistent on reminding whoever was reading that little was "substantiated" or could only be validated by those "unreliable" yokai sources. It was all she could do not to roll her eyes.

"Details surrounding the final battle and the elimination of the shikon no tama remain unclear. Unsubstantiated—there's that word again, Kagome thought—sources indicate that the fight against Naraku to reclaim the jewel, which was back in one piece, consisted of the shikon miko, a taijiya, a hōshi, and several yokai [see Keikain Akihiko personal documents for additional details]. Whether this is true or merely part of the shikon no tama legend and a way to teach listeners the power of teamwork, scholars may never know.

"The defeat of both Naraku and the shikon no tama left a power vacuum in the yokai world, and many yokai rushed to fill that position of power. Thus, as the human wars raged leading up to the establishment of the Tokugawa shogunate, so did battles between yokai. The human warfare also inadvertently led to an increase in yokai numbers and/or strength, with yokai both feeding on and being created from so much death and carnage. Historians believe this may have been a catalyst for Hagoromo Gitsune's swift rise to power under the guise of Yodo-dono."

Kagome couldn't say she was surprised by the power void that had formed; nevertheless, she did feel a little bit guilty. Still…it wasn't like they could have just let Naraku and the shikon no tama do as they pleased!

And although she doubted the Keikain had any knowledge about Naraku that she didn't already have, she clicked on the hyperlink out of curiosity.

"Naraku: an extremely powerful hanyō born of the fusion of many yokai with a human vessel, one with a corrupt heart. The exact identity of the human remains unknown. Instrumental in collecting shards and reforming the shikon no tama. Killed during the final battle of the Shikon War prior to the jewel's destruction."

Hah! Kagome thought. This barely scratches the surface. Who's superior now, assholes? Not that they would've cared, but she definitely felt a sense of self-satisfaction in knowing far more than they did on the topic.

She went back to the Shikon War entry, a small aside at the end having piqued her interest, and she clicked on the link.

"Hagoromo Gitsune: A formidable reincarnation kitsune and originally the mother of Abe no Seimei (Nue). In the incarnation of Yodo-dono, she was defeated by Nurarihyon using Nenekirimaru in 1615. In…[Access restricted. Contact archivist for more information.]"

The mother of Abe no Seimei… I thought legends listed the kitsune Kuzunoha as his mother… Are they one and the same? Kagome made a mental note to look the folklore up in her textbooks later. And Toyotomi Hideyori's mother a yokai? Did that mean he was a yokai too? Those were certainly details omitted from the history books if so.

And Nurarihyon defeated her… Holy hell, that means the historical records of her suicide aren't right either… Plus Nurarihyon? I know some lore calls him the yokai supreme commander…but isn't he the dine-and-dash yokai? Is he really that strong? Damn, I have so many questions!

Visiting the hyperlinks within the snippet only led to more teases, followed by the same "Access restricted" message.

"Oh, come on," Kagome groaned. Had they seriously limited her access to their databases? Just when it was getting interesting, too!

Well, I guess it's for the best…I'm getting distracted. On the other hand…

She knew she really should remain focused on the materials she was gathering for her independent study, particularly since she had a meeting with her advisor in less than forty-eight hours, but her curiosity was making her positively twitchy.

She simply couldn't wait any longer to see if there was anything about her friends. Besides, Kagome reasoned, it was sort of relevant to research on the shikon no tama's lore.

Her initial searches for "Miroku" or "Sango" yielded no results, which was more than a little frustrating. Deciding she was probably starting too narrow, she typed in "taijiya."

Bingo!

The article started with information she was extremely familiar with. Kagome scrolled impatiently. "Demon slayers, trained from childhood, skilled with weaponry, blah blah blah, please tell me there's something here that I don't already know!"

It referenced the possibility of a taijiya giving the shikon no tama to a priestess, ostensibly Kikyō or the shikon miko—if the two weren't one and the same, but probably not, the historian made a point of noting…again. Kagome remembered Sango telling them about her grandfather finding the sacred jewel and then enlisting Kikyō's help because it had become tainted and she had the ability to purify it, which the article briefly mentioned.

Kagome had to wonder if they doubted that fact as well.

"The aforementioned demon slayer who found the jewel reportedly hailed from one of the most famous taijiya villages, once located in the mountains of Hida Province, northern present-day Gifu, its name now lost to history. This village was supposedly the birthplace of the shikon no tama itself [for more, see Midoriko]. The slayers trained in this village were renowned for many centuries, but unfortunately, during the Shikon War, all of the taijiya, save two, were slaughtered by Naraku's faction."

Interesting… So whether they acknowledge the "credibility" of yokai sources or not, they do seem to accept Sango and Kohaku's survival, though the onmyoji scholars don't appear to know their names.

She kept reading.

"Shortly after the shikon no tama's destruction, a school teaching, among other things, demon-slaying techniques was founded a short distance from the remnants of the prominent Hida taijiya village. Some unproven personal accounts claim this last-known taijiya school was founded by some of those directly involved in the defeat of Naraku and the shikon no tama [see Keikain Akihiko personal documents for additional details], allegedly the taijiya and the hōshi.

"Few details are known about the early curriculum of the school. What historians do know, however, is that following a smallpox outbreak in 1571 and then a widespread drought in 1573, the school's population was decimated. In addition to this, perhaps capitalizing on the weakness of their enemies and a country rife with turmoil due to war, attacks in the region by both bandits and yokai were more prevalent.

"As a result, the school's membership had dwindled greatly by the early 1600s when it was destroyed in a fire. The school did not reform, and the surviving members disbanded, a few of whom joined the Yaso branch of the Keikain onmyoji, their knowledge of both yokai and anti-yokai weaponry being a valuable resource. What became of those who did not join the Keikain is unknown. [Note: scholars suspect possible Gokadoin involvement in early 1600s; conversely, random yokai, bandits, or collateral damage from the ongoing war is also highly probable.]"

Kagome's breath caught in her throat, and a tightness gripped her chest as her vision blurred. "No…" she whispered hoarsely. "It can't be true…"

Intellectually, she knew something like this was extremely plausible. Life expectancies weren't especially high during the Sengoku era, and it wasn't like Miroku and Sango had access to modern medicine, at least not once Kagome had returned to present day. Not to mention that the taijiya village area, Hida Province, would eventually become a center of conflict in the late 1580s when Kanamori Nagachika was sent to conquer the region under the orders of Toyotomi Hideyoshi. It would not have been a particularly peaceful place to live.

It felt surreal—she knew they were dead, had been for centuries, and she'd mourned the loss of her friends years ago. Yet somehow, the knowledge of how they'd died, or possibly how, was a new wound, one that hurt far worse than she'd ever anticipated.

Shoving her laptop back a few inches, Kagome cradled her head in her arms on the edge of the table, hot tears trickling down her face.

Smallpox? Or famine? Bandits? Kami, tell me that's not how they died… Damnit, they deserved so much better.

The trickle of tears threatened to turn into hiccupping sobs, but before they could, she sat up and slapped her palms against her cheeks. "No. Snap out of it, Kagome. It's too vague, and there are other avenues to investigate first before you accept this."

She scrubbed at her eyes and face with the back of her forearm and pulled her laptop closer, refocusing on the screen. Starting with "Yaso," she clicked on it, then Keikain, and Gokadoin, yet all yielded the same result.

Access denied.

DENIED? No snippet, no little "contact archivist," just "denied." Just what are those assholes trying to hide?

Searches for "Kohaku," "Kirara," and "Inuyasha" generated no results, and Kikyō's entry was essentially repetition of content she'd already read, so on a whim, she tried "Sesshōmaru."

"Sesshōmaru: legendary inu daiyokai of influence during the Sengoku era. Supposed member of shikon miko faction in the Shikon War…[Access restricted. Contact archivist for more information.]"

WHAT?!

At this point, indignation had overshadowed grief at being denied potential leads to information about her friends. Kagome massaged her temples and tried to relax her jaw, which was aching from clenching it.

"Hmm…" she mused out loud, gaze running up and down the taijiya article that she'd returned to. "Wait! What's that?"

"See Keikain Akihiko personal documents for additional details."

The page that the link took her to nearly had her screaming in frustration—it was merely an informational entry with the Keikain archives' equivalent of a call number, presumably to a physical resource in the collection.

Physical resources…!

Kagome snatched the packet Ryūji had given her off the floor, groaning and shaking her head at her own stupidity. She'd asked them to make copies of any relevant archival materials that weren't already digitized. Why didn't I think of that sooner?

Flipping through, she found the Keikain Akihiko document. A cover page held, in addition to identifying the document, a note.

"Archivist's note: please be advised that the contents of this journal cannot be substantiated by Keikain historians due to a lack of concrete evidence supporting all of the claims made by the author."

Damn if these people aren't like a broken record…

The scanned and printed pages were faded and foxed with age, somewhat difficult to read, and in places completely illegible. But she would have recognized the handwriting anywhere—it was nearly identical to Miroku's, and had it not been labeled as the personal account of Keikain Akihiko, she would have assumed it was Miroku's.

At the top of the first page of the journal, was a separate handwritten note, one that appeared to have been added after the journal itself. The handwriting style was similar, but spidery and more faint, as though written by a hesitant or shaky hand.

"Author's note: The journal that follows was intended to be a rough draft and therefore lacks cohesive organization and is more stream of consciousness than anticipated. As I am now going blind, revisions are no longer possible. However, I am eternally grateful to my older sister, Tomiko, for pestering me to get these stories down on paper so they will not be lost forever. –Keikain Akihiko, 1617"

Underneath the scribbled note began the personal account:

"My name is Keikain Akihiko, though I was not born into the Keikain family. My sister, Tomiko, and I, as well as our cousin Ryōichi, were 'adopted' into the Yaso branch of the Keikain onmyojis in 1601, when our family home and adjacent school were destroyed—adopted may not be the correct term since we were adults. We had knowledge and skills [ink blotches or holes made the next few sentences unreadable].

"I digress [a scribbled note in the margin says to work on structure]. I am the son of Hideaki, grandson of [spots of discoloration, perhaps due to mold, obscured the writing] …ngo, who were comrades to the shikon miko and helped bring down Naraku and destroy the shikon no tama. A fact that we have had contested repeatedly by the onmyoji, all save Keikain Hidemoto, who with my sister encouraged me to record our family's history and stories."

Kagome's heart pounded, and her hands trembled slightly. There's no question. The handwriting…the last three letters of presumably Sango's name, them being part of our group to destroy the jewel… She grinned happily, a combination of relief and elation washing over her.

With no small amount of satisfaction, Kagome noted that Akihiko seemed as annoyed as she by the Keikain's tenacious disputing of so-called unproven claims.

She returned to reading, rubbing her chest absently with the heel of her hand, the tightness from earlier having changed to a dull ache.

"Sadly, I was only a few months old when my grandparents died, and therefore have no recollection of them. My sister's remembrances are few and more impressions than concrete memories. Consequently, the stories in this journal shall rely upon narratives told to me and my sister, as well as a few from my cousin, by our parents, relatives, and others who knew my grandparents. As such, I cannot be held accountable for, nor am I likely to even be aware of, any embellishments to actual events.

"According to my father, my grandfather met the shikon miko before he met my grandmother, when he 'liberated' both the shikon miko and some sacred jewel fragments from some yokai she was traveling with…"

Kagome spent the remainder of the evening and well into the wee hours of the morning poring over Akihiko's retelling of her and her friends' journey, though after the first fragment of Sango's name, there were no other uses of their first names—just "my grandparents" or "my great uncle." She supposed it was possible their names were used in some of the segments that were either too damaged or smudged to read. As it was, the deterioration of both the handwriting and condition of the journal caused her to take much longer than she'd expected. Still, it was what she'd been looking for, information about her friends, their story…her story.

Oh, there were some minor alterations of course—the largest being the glaring absence of her identity, plus little about Sango or Kohaku's involvement with Naraku, not that Kagome could blame them for avoiding the painful subject. And apparently Miroku had edited out some of his more lecherous behaviors. Reliving moments of her time in the Sengoku era was bittersweet and cathartic, and as she read, Kagome laughed and cried, but more than anything missed her friends desperately.

She'd just begun the section discussing the final battle against Naraku. Turning to the next page, she froze and her mouth fell open.

There was nothing else. The journal just…stopped.

Added to the multiple "access restricteds" and "access denieds" she'd gotten, it was more than her patience could handle. Clenching her fists until her fingernails bit into her palms, she closed her eyes and took a deep breath, letting it out slowly while counting to ten. It wouldn't do to scream incoherently and wake the neighbors at 2:00 a.m.

Successfully containing a screech that likely would have made a banshee proud, Kagome rose from her chair and stalked across the room, yanking her phone off its charger.

Forget texting. I'm calling him—I want to talk to that bastard in person. I don't give a rat's ass what time it is.

Unsurprisingly, he did not answer, and she left a terse voicemail asking him to contact her. Then she tapped out a text furiously.

Kagome: I need to speak to you. In person. Now.

A moment or two later, a reply appeared.

Onmyoji Asshole: That so? You know, most people only want one thing at this time of night.

Do not throw your phone, do not throw your phone…

K: I'm serious.
O.A.: Wow, I didn't know you felt that way. Awkward. Sorry, but I'm just not interested in you that way.

Kagome wondered if it was possible to grip a phone so hard it cracked.

K: Not in the mood for your games. What the hell is up with you all giving me incomplete information and limiting my access in the databases?
O.A.: What is it you need to know that we didn't provide? Besides, you still owe me a TRUE story not some redacted bullshit
K: Redacted? Are you kidding? You're one to talk with your "access restricted" and "access denied" messages to articles like Sesshōmaru or the Gokadoin… Kinda suspicious the Keikain entry was one of those…
O.A.: It's blocked to prevent nosy little girls like you from getting involved in things you shouldn't.

Seething, Kagome's final strand of patience snapped, and she hurled her phone across the room into the sofa.

Then, she proceeded to review every morsel of information available with a fine-tooth comb until she fell asleep on top of her computer.

When he received no reply to his comment about nosy little girls, Ryūji snorted. It was too easy to push her buttons.

Then, because her questions had raised internal red flags, he called Masatsugu.(2)

"Do you have any idea what time it is?" a sleep-tinged voice answered.

"Yeah, don't care. You know that Higurashi girl you had me bring materials to? The one doing an independent study for college?"

A yawn came across the line. "Seriously? This warranted waking me up at 2:00 a.m.?" When Ryūji didn't reply, Masatsugu sighed heavily. "Yes, I remember. What about her?"

"Send me a copy of everything she asked for, was researching, plus all of our 'unofficial' or 'off the books' materials on those topics. Also, I want everything we have on her, her family, and her shrine."

"Yura didn't send you there to research women, Ryūji, and she's not going to be very happy if you get distracted and don't resolve this soon," Masatsugu said reproachfully.

"Don't recall asking for your opinion. Not that it's any of your business, but the case has shit for leads. I'm working on it, but it's going to take longer than we expected." An idea sprang to mind, and Ryūji grinned to himself. "And, I'll have you know, the stuff about Higurashi and her research is for the case. Turns out she's a miko, a cursed one. Don't you think it's prudent to confirm she's not connected?"

"Have you tried asking her?" Masatsugu countered.

"Is water wet? Of course I did." Or will…eventually… "Are you going to get what I asked for, or should I call and wake up Yura?" And in 3…2…1…

"No, I'll do it." Masatsugu gave a loud sigh. "I'll email it to you by tomorrow afternoon."

"Perfect. Hey, Masatsugu…get some sleep, will ya? You sound like shit."

"Ryūji, I swear to—"

Before Masatsugu could finish, Ryūji hung up and lay on his back, examining the ceiling of the hotel room as he mused about the miko who'd become simultaneously more intriguing and more suspicious.

Just who…or what…is Higurashi Kagome?

Footnotes:
1. Nurarihyon no Mago, chapter 140
2. In case you forgot the poor guy (I had to go back and reconfirm he was still alive LOL), he's one of the Keikain "brothers"—given that he's not from the main branch like Yura and Ryūji, I doubt he's a full brother. I'd speculate more like cousins, if at all blood-related.

Author's Note: I hope y'all enjoyed the chapter! Admittedly the chapter was a little "history" dense—don't forget that our girl is a history and comparative lit major. So that's right up her alley. Some things are canon from either series, some things are actually historical, and some things are a bit blurred to work with the crossover. No, we still don't have a clear picture of what precisely happened in the past. All in due time.

Coming soon: cats, cat sanctuaries, and meddlesome cat-eyed friends