::Author's Note::
Ah, here's a good question -- is the a/u fic related to the regular story-line -- sorta. I think you'll find that I like to play with fate and destiny and all that fun stuff. The musings about her dreams ... well, I'll tell you one thing, one of your guesses is almost dead on ^_^;;. The truth behind Kagome's "dreams" (plural, for that was not the last) will be revealed a bit later though. ::cackle, cackle::
Thank ye all for the reviews! I hope you keep reading!
Rumiko Takahashi (and not I) still owns "Inu-Yasha" or any of the related characters. I don't foresee any change in that at this present time.
Fate's Ways
Chapter Five
"Getting Nowhere"
By Jann
"Look, Inu-Yasha, I don't think it's wise for neither of us to be present when the police arrive. I'm going to stay down here and see what they have to say about the . . . er . . . body-napping and if they've heard anything. I will also inform Director Myoga, or rather his secretary, he's probably still at *lunch,* of this," Miroku suggested.
"I'll stay as well then," Sango said. "I need to know where my brother went."
Kagome refrained from reminding Sango that her brother was incapable of "going" anywhere and that "taken" was probably the proper term. Evidently Sango Zackow was a few bricks short of a full load and it would do no good to correct her anymore.
Inu-Yasha eyed Miroku skeptically and tapped him slightly on the head before whispering, "If you touch her, Ash, you will die at my hand. She's our only witness."
"Yes, sir!" Miroku replied cheerfully with a salute and an obvious intent to do no such thing as obey his partner.
Evidently, Inu-Yasha saw that. "Miss Zackow, I'd like to inform you of Miroku's, ah, itinerant hands. That's your only warning."
Sango merely scowled at Inu-Yasha.
"Suit yourself," Inu-Yasha muttered. "Coming?" he asked.
Kagome jerked herself out of fairy-land. "Yes. This way," Kagome said, opening the heavy door to the suite. She led Inu-Yasha out of the autopsy suite and down the hall.
Hojou's previous call to the police would be answered shortly. Kagome only hoped whatever incompetents were sent after the body wouldn't get into her and the Agent's way. Police with warrants could be tricky like that with their "now duncha dare let no one in thar room but me"'s and "well, I didn't know the FBI was assigned to this case! I'ma hafta talk to my superiors"'s. The hatred between the morgue and the department was at least understood; the forensic pathologists were there to help. The war between them and the FBI was quite different. The two were known to hoard information from each other like ten-year-olds with candy.
It didn't help Kagome much, to say the least.
They entered the elevator at the end of the hall and once they were both inside, Kagome pressed the button for the top floor, which happened to the be the second. The autopsy suites were all in the basement, filework on the first floor, officials and security on the top. There were cameras in every room in the basement and in most rooms on the first and second floors. The network was big and if something like a napping had been missed, either someone wasn't doing his job or they lacked a large enough force.
Kagome opted for a little of both. The elevator stopped soon after departure. Evidently, when the plans had been made for the building, it was meant to be a much bigger morgue and therefore much taller, but things hadn't worked out with the owner and it had passed hands a few times before becoming Fairview. That was long before Kagome's time, though. So she used the elevator and didn't ask questions.
With Inu-Yasha walking directly beside her, no doubt in some passive-aggressive attempt to prove her his equal, at the very least, Kagome trepsed another hallway and cut right the first intersection. At the first door on the left, she knocked firmly and stepped back.
The door opened and a man in his late fifties greeted them in black slacks and a gray polo with a patch that read "Fairview Security."
"Afternoon. My name is Matt Ripely. How can I help you?" he asked, stepping aside to let them into the dimly lit room. It was quite small, containing a single desk, a few overflowing file cabinets and three chairs, the more worn of which was behind the cluttered desk.
"I'm Dr. Higurashi from Suite Four," Kagome said, producing the identification tag on her lapel. "We're looking for the room with the monitor for the camera to my cooler."
"Ah, Suite Four, you say?" Ripley asked, picking his way through the mess on the desk. "Suite Two, I see, five," he mumbled. After a moment or two, he came upon a thick file folder with a four on it. "Ah. Let me see. All of Suite Four's cameras are in room 213."
"Thank you for your help, Mr. Ripley," Kagome said, turning again and opening the door.
"Shouldn't you know where your cameras are already?" Inu-Yasha asked as they resumed their journey down yet another hall. "You'd think someone would know where their own security cameras lead."
"This doesn't happen very often," Kagome responded, stopping front of another door at the end of the hall. "Only once before. And we didn't need the cameras then." She knocked on 213.
This time, response came with a bit more delay. Kagome had to knock twice more before the door was opened to reveal the inside, lit in errie colors from the t.v.s covering the south wall.
"Bernie Lautner," the man greeted them. He didn't look a day over thirty, nor pleased at the interruption. "Come on, move it long, I have a job to do."
"Dr. Higurashi," Kagome said with a raised eyebrow, showing her lapel. This coming from the man that must have missed a break-in?
"An' you?"
"Special Agent Inu-Yasha Oniiyoukai," Inu-Yasha said, flashing his badge and looking slightly surprised that he cared.
"Come on in," he said, stepping aside and closing the door behind them.
+++
"I don't believe we've had chance to properly introduce ourselves," Miroku said. "My name is Miroku Ash and I would be very honored if you would do me the honor of bearing me a son."
Miroku was met with hard smack to the same cheek that had suffered the blow from the maid, but he didn't even flinch. "Well. I don't suppose you'll at least tell me your name?"
"Sango Zackow," she snapped. "Though I don't think you deserve the knowledge."
Before Miroku could attempt to smooth things over with his latest challenge, the door opened and two policemen stepped in, uninvited. Miroku turned from Sango to greet the intruders for Hojou, who was in the office still trying to track down Kohaku.
"Hello, boys," Miroku said, offering his hand. "Special Agent Miroku Ash," he added, producing his badge in his left hand. "Dr. Miller will be out soon. He's busy right now."
The younger one, gangly and no doubt just over twenty-five, shook Miroku's hand with a grin. "Officer Douglas Shelton."
His partner, however, was obviously more experienced, given his more pronounced build and reluctance to look Miroku in the eyes without a measure of suspicion. "Officer Krit. We're here about the body-napping."
"Of course, Officers, I live to serve," Miroku said, turning and leading them to the cooler. He winked at Sango on the way and shook his head slightly as they passed. "You'll find the crime scene untouched. After you take your pictures, I'll be happy to take my blood samples and be on my way."
"Now just a minute," Krit said. "I'll have to clear it with my super before you touch anything."
"Very sorry, Officer, but I already have total amnesty in anything pertaining to this case. I was assigned to the death of Kohaku Zackow before his body was taken and I'm afraid I'll be following him until he's found. I have work to do, so if you'll try and get your job done, I'll be able to complete mine," Miroku informed him.
"Now wait just one --" Krit began, but his partner was already snapping photos. Krit sighed and began to survey the scene as Inu-Yasha and Miroku had already done.
"Oh, and I'll be taking the door to the cell as well," Miroku told Krit. "Hey, Dr. Miller!" he called.
"Yeah?" Hojou asked, returning to the cooler.
"Do you have any boots, shoe-coverings or something to the like so I can get the cell door?" Miroku asked.
"Agent, you hang on, I know I wanna talk to my super --" Krit began again, his face beginning to redden.
"Officer, I already told you. The FBI has priority on this case. The only reason we had to call you was so you could make a report," Miroku told him. "Please refrain from making this difficult."
"I have my pictures, Krit," Shelton said, returning to his partner's side.
"So the scene is clear for inspection?" Hojou asked.
"Yep."
"Well, wait!"
"Okay." Hojou put on a pair of gloves and walked to the middle of the room where the cell door lay. He picked it up carefully, touching only the edges and as sparsely as possible at that. "I don't know what kind of evidence bag you plan on using for this, Agent Ash, but you better get it soon."
"I'll get right on that Dr. Miller. Uh, you don't happen to have anything just lying around, do you?"
+++
"You're *kidding* me," Lautner said, his eyes not faltering from the televisions in front of him.
"No. The napping was only a half an hour to forty-five minutes ago. What were you doing at the time?" Inu-Yasha asked. His pencil and pad was already out and he was taking notes.
Lautner smacked his forehead. "That's just perfect. There was an problem in Suite Three, Agent."
"What kind of problem?" Kagome asked. She knew Gina Perry and Sheila Achter quite well.
"It was a spill. They were in the middle of an autopsy at the time, so I had to look up one of their pagers. Didn't know what it was or if it was dangerous," Lautner explained. "It's procedure."
"I see," Inu-Yasha said, scribbling something in his notebook before closing it. "You didn't see *anything?*"
"Sorry, you two," Lautner said.
"There's no alarm when the window is broken?" Inu-Yasha asked.
"Nope. Not a very big window. The building's built into a hill, if you didn't notice, and the autopsy suites are all in the basement. In that part of the floor, the window's at least four feet from the floor and not all that big. Someone getting in would have a pretty bad lacerations, after busting through the glass, going through the moral equivalent of a meat grinder and landing in a pile of shards," Lautner pointed out.
"But it's possible," Inu-Yasha said, putting the little notebook back into his coat pocket. "Thank you for your time, Mr. Lautner. The FBI will be in touch."
"Sure," was his offered farewell.
"I can't believe you don't have an alarm on those windows," Inu-Yasha grumbled once they had left room 213. "How irresponsible is that."
"Well don't look at *me,* *I* don't make the security system. Anyway, Mr. Lautner's right. They couldn't have gotten in through the window," Kagome said, putting her hands in her pockets.
"Why?" Inu-Yasha asked. "How can you prove it?"
"Remember the cooler? Listen; no one thought to look at it because we were all so caught up in the napping. I didn't even think of it until a few minutes ago. But there was no glass on the floor under the window. Sure as gravy, the window was broken [::A/N:: did I forget to mention that? A million apologies], but there wasn't any glass on the floor. That means no one broke in, they broke *out,*" Kagome said smugly.
Inu-Yasha thought about it a moment. When he had obviously finished going over it in his mind, he granted her a simple, "Feh."
"The question is," Kagome began as they started down the hall, "how the hell did the bugger get in, then?"
"So basically, we've gotten no where."
"Basically."
"That's fabulous."
"You didn't expect immediate information, did you Inu-Yasha?" Kagome asked incredulously.
"No, but I expected more competance in the morgue officials," he mumbled.
"Ugh. Forget you."
::Author's Note::
I noticed an error in a former chapter -- the window was broken. ::Bows::
Beyond that, I began another fanfic called "The Hanyou Project." So of course I'll have to insert here a little teaser:
The most eyecatching things by far were the freezing compartments. There were dozens of them, each giving off an eerie, soft white glow, the inhabitants hanging almost peacefully in their suspended animation. The most abundant were rats of course, each mutated in some grotesque way, but the further back Nyoko went, the more pronounced their features became and the bigger the animals got, the cycle starting all over again from distorted figures to smooth ones. The deformations seemed so . . . almost *alien* in nature that Nyoko couldn't quite place what the scientist was trying to prove.
"Uh, I don't think you want to do that," the colonel began, but he didn't stop her as she unstacked the freezing stations until she finally came to a huge one, taller than she was, and she gasped when she saw it's occupant. "Dr. Higurashi, those experiments are not . . . Dr. Higurashi!"
"What the hell did that woman create in here?" Nyoko murmured. "And what hell will be wrought from it?"
"Dr. Higurashi, I don't know what project you've been assigned to, but --" the colonel sputtered.
"I think I do, Colonel. The Hanyou Project -- this is it, isn't it? Who could have predicated such a series of experiments . . . It seems so unethical that I didn't even completly believe the abstract when I read it." Nyoko looked the colonel in the eye. "This was Kikyou's lab, Colonel. And this half-alien soldier was her flower of life."
If you read, *puh-leeze* tell me whatcha think!
Ah, here's a good question -- is the a/u fic related to the regular story-line -- sorta. I think you'll find that I like to play with fate and destiny and all that fun stuff. The musings about her dreams ... well, I'll tell you one thing, one of your guesses is almost dead on ^_^;;. The truth behind Kagome's "dreams" (plural, for that was not the last) will be revealed a bit later though. ::cackle, cackle::
Thank ye all for the reviews! I hope you keep reading!
Rumiko Takahashi (and not I) still owns "Inu-Yasha" or any of the related characters. I don't foresee any change in that at this present time.
Fate's Ways
Chapter Five
"Getting Nowhere"
By Jann
"Look, Inu-Yasha, I don't think it's wise for neither of us to be present when the police arrive. I'm going to stay down here and see what they have to say about the . . . er . . . body-napping and if they've heard anything. I will also inform Director Myoga, or rather his secretary, he's probably still at *lunch,* of this," Miroku suggested.
"I'll stay as well then," Sango said. "I need to know where my brother went."
Kagome refrained from reminding Sango that her brother was incapable of "going" anywhere and that "taken" was probably the proper term. Evidently Sango Zackow was a few bricks short of a full load and it would do no good to correct her anymore.
Inu-Yasha eyed Miroku skeptically and tapped him slightly on the head before whispering, "If you touch her, Ash, you will die at my hand. She's our only witness."
"Yes, sir!" Miroku replied cheerfully with a salute and an obvious intent to do no such thing as obey his partner.
Evidently, Inu-Yasha saw that. "Miss Zackow, I'd like to inform you of Miroku's, ah, itinerant hands. That's your only warning."
Sango merely scowled at Inu-Yasha.
"Suit yourself," Inu-Yasha muttered. "Coming?" he asked.
Kagome jerked herself out of fairy-land. "Yes. This way," Kagome said, opening the heavy door to the suite. She led Inu-Yasha out of the autopsy suite and down the hall.
Hojou's previous call to the police would be answered shortly. Kagome only hoped whatever incompetents were sent after the body wouldn't get into her and the Agent's way. Police with warrants could be tricky like that with their "now duncha dare let no one in thar room but me"'s and "well, I didn't know the FBI was assigned to this case! I'ma hafta talk to my superiors"'s. The hatred between the morgue and the department was at least understood; the forensic pathologists were there to help. The war between them and the FBI was quite different. The two were known to hoard information from each other like ten-year-olds with candy.
It didn't help Kagome much, to say the least.
They entered the elevator at the end of the hall and once they were both inside, Kagome pressed the button for the top floor, which happened to the be the second. The autopsy suites were all in the basement, filework on the first floor, officials and security on the top. There were cameras in every room in the basement and in most rooms on the first and second floors. The network was big and if something like a napping had been missed, either someone wasn't doing his job or they lacked a large enough force.
Kagome opted for a little of both. The elevator stopped soon after departure. Evidently, when the plans had been made for the building, it was meant to be a much bigger morgue and therefore much taller, but things hadn't worked out with the owner and it had passed hands a few times before becoming Fairview. That was long before Kagome's time, though. So she used the elevator and didn't ask questions.
With Inu-Yasha walking directly beside her, no doubt in some passive-aggressive attempt to prove her his equal, at the very least, Kagome trepsed another hallway and cut right the first intersection. At the first door on the left, she knocked firmly and stepped back.
The door opened and a man in his late fifties greeted them in black slacks and a gray polo with a patch that read "Fairview Security."
"Afternoon. My name is Matt Ripely. How can I help you?" he asked, stepping aside to let them into the dimly lit room. It was quite small, containing a single desk, a few overflowing file cabinets and three chairs, the more worn of which was behind the cluttered desk.
"I'm Dr. Higurashi from Suite Four," Kagome said, producing the identification tag on her lapel. "We're looking for the room with the monitor for the camera to my cooler."
"Ah, Suite Four, you say?" Ripley asked, picking his way through the mess on the desk. "Suite Two, I see, five," he mumbled. After a moment or two, he came upon a thick file folder with a four on it. "Ah. Let me see. All of Suite Four's cameras are in room 213."
"Thank you for your help, Mr. Ripley," Kagome said, turning again and opening the door.
"Shouldn't you know where your cameras are already?" Inu-Yasha asked as they resumed their journey down yet another hall. "You'd think someone would know where their own security cameras lead."
"This doesn't happen very often," Kagome responded, stopping front of another door at the end of the hall. "Only once before. And we didn't need the cameras then." She knocked on 213.
This time, response came with a bit more delay. Kagome had to knock twice more before the door was opened to reveal the inside, lit in errie colors from the t.v.s covering the south wall.
"Bernie Lautner," the man greeted them. He didn't look a day over thirty, nor pleased at the interruption. "Come on, move it long, I have a job to do."
"Dr. Higurashi," Kagome said with a raised eyebrow, showing her lapel. This coming from the man that must have missed a break-in?
"An' you?"
"Special Agent Inu-Yasha Oniiyoukai," Inu-Yasha said, flashing his badge and looking slightly surprised that he cared.
"Come on in," he said, stepping aside and closing the door behind them.
+++
"I don't believe we've had chance to properly introduce ourselves," Miroku said. "My name is Miroku Ash and I would be very honored if you would do me the honor of bearing me a son."
Miroku was met with hard smack to the same cheek that had suffered the blow from the maid, but he didn't even flinch. "Well. I don't suppose you'll at least tell me your name?"
"Sango Zackow," she snapped. "Though I don't think you deserve the knowledge."
Before Miroku could attempt to smooth things over with his latest challenge, the door opened and two policemen stepped in, uninvited. Miroku turned from Sango to greet the intruders for Hojou, who was in the office still trying to track down Kohaku.
"Hello, boys," Miroku said, offering his hand. "Special Agent Miroku Ash," he added, producing his badge in his left hand. "Dr. Miller will be out soon. He's busy right now."
The younger one, gangly and no doubt just over twenty-five, shook Miroku's hand with a grin. "Officer Douglas Shelton."
His partner, however, was obviously more experienced, given his more pronounced build and reluctance to look Miroku in the eyes without a measure of suspicion. "Officer Krit. We're here about the body-napping."
"Of course, Officers, I live to serve," Miroku said, turning and leading them to the cooler. He winked at Sango on the way and shook his head slightly as they passed. "You'll find the crime scene untouched. After you take your pictures, I'll be happy to take my blood samples and be on my way."
"Now just a minute," Krit said. "I'll have to clear it with my super before you touch anything."
"Very sorry, Officer, but I already have total amnesty in anything pertaining to this case. I was assigned to the death of Kohaku Zackow before his body was taken and I'm afraid I'll be following him until he's found. I have work to do, so if you'll try and get your job done, I'll be able to complete mine," Miroku informed him.
"Now wait just one --" Krit began, but his partner was already snapping photos. Krit sighed and began to survey the scene as Inu-Yasha and Miroku had already done.
"Oh, and I'll be taking the door to the cell as well," Miroku told Krit. "Hey, Dr. Miller!" he called.
"Yeah?" Hojou asked, returning to the cooler.
"Do you have any boots, shoe-coverings or something to the like so I can get the cell door?" Miroku asked.
"Agent, you hang on, I know I wanna talk to my super --" Krit began again, his face beginning to redden.
"Officer, I already told you. The FBI has priority on this case. The only reason we had to call you was so you could make a report," Miroku told him. "Please refrain from making this difficult."
"I have my pictures, Krit," Shelton said, returning to his partner's side.
"So the scene is clear for inspection?" Hojou asked.
"Yep."
"Well, wait!"
"Okay." Hojou put on a pair of gloves and walked to the middle of the room where the cell door lay. He picked it up carefully, touching only the edges and as sparsely as possible at that. "I don't know what kind of evidence bag you plan on using for this, Agent Ash, but you better get it soon."
"I'll get right on that Dr. Miller. Uh, you don't happen to have anything just lying around, do you?"
+++
"You're *kidding* me," Lautner said, his eyes not faltering from the televisions in front of him.
"No. The napping was only a half an hour to forty-five minutes ago. What were you doing at the time?" Inu-Yasha asked. His pencil and pad was already out and he was taking notes.
Lautner smacked his forehead. "That's just perfect. There was an problem in Suite Three, Agent."
"What kind of problem?" Kagome asked. She knew Gina Perry and Sheila Achter quite well.
"It was a spill. They were in the middle of an autopsy at the time, so I had to look up one of their pagers. Didn't know what it was or if it was dangerous," Lautner explained. "It's procedure."
"I see," Inu-Yasha said, scribbling something in his notebook before closing it. "You didn't see *anything?*"
"Sorry, you two," Lautner said.
"There's no alarm when the window is broken?" Inu-Yasha asked.
"Nope. Not a very big window. The building's built into a hill, if you didn't notice, and the autopsy suites are all in the basement. In that part of the floor, the window's at least four feet from the floor and not all that big. Someone getting in would have a pretty bad lacerations, after busting through the glass, going through the moral equivalent of a meat grinder and landing in a pile of shards," Lautner pointed out.
"But it's possible," Inu-Yasha said, putting the little notebook back into his coat pocket. "Thank you for your time, Mr. Lautner. The FBI will be in touch."
"Sure," was his offered farewell.
"I can't believe you don't have an alarm on those windows," Inu-Yasha grumbled once they had left room 213. "How irresponsible is that."
"Well don't look at *me,* *I* don't make the security system. Anyway, Mr. Lautner's right. They couldn't have gotten in through the window," Kagome said, putting her hands in her pockets.
"Why?" Inu-Yasha asked. "How can you prove it?"
"Remember the cooler? Listen; no one thought to look at it because we were all so caught up in the napping. I didn't even think of it until a few minutes ago. But there was no glass on the floor under the window. Sure as gravy, the window was broken [::A/N:: did I forget to mention that? A million apologies], but there wasn't any glass on the floor. That means no one broke in, they broke *out,*" Kagome said smugly.
Inu-Yasha thought about it a moment. When he had obviously finished going over it in his mind, he granted her a simple, "Feh."
"The question is," Kagome began as they started down the hall, "how the hell did the bugger get in, then?"
"So basically, we've gotten no where."
"Basically."
"That's fabulous."
"You didn't expect immediate information, did you Inu-Yasha?" Kagome asked incredulously.
"No, but I expected more competance in the morgue officials," he mumbled.
"Ugh. Forget you."
::Author's Note::
I noticed an error in a former chapter -- the window was broken. ::Bows::
Beyond that, I began another fanfic called "The Hanyou Project." So of course I'll have to insert here a little teaser:
The most eyecatching things by far were the freezing compartments. There were dozens of them, each giving off an eerie, soft white glow, the inhabitants hanging almost peacefully in their suspended animation. The most abundant were rats of course, each mutated in some grotesque way, but the further back Nyoko went, the more pronounced their features became and the bigger the animals got, the cycle starting all over again from distorted figures to smooth ones. The deformations seemed so . . . almost *alien* in nature that Nyoko couldn't quite place what the scientist was trying to prove.
"Uh, I don't think you want to do that," the colonel began, but he didn't stop her as she unstacked the freezing stations until she finally came to a huge one, taller than she was, and she gasped when she saw it's occupant. "Dr. Higurashi, those experiments are not . . . Dr. Higurashi!"
"What the hell did that woman create in here?" Nyoko murmured. "And what hell will be wrought from it?"
"Dr. Higurashi, I don't know what project you've been assigned to, but --" the colonel sputtered.
"I think I do, Colonel. The Hanyou Project -- this is it, isn't it? Who could have predicated such a series of experiments . . . It seems so unethical that I didn't even completly believe the abstract when I read it." Nyoko looked the colonel in the eye. "This was Kikyou's lab, Colonel. And this half-alien soldier was her flower of life."
If you read, *puh-leeze* tell me whatcha think!