Disclaimer: No, I do not own anything related to Inuyasha. I just watch the anime. The characters of Inuyasha belong to Rumiko Takahashi

Chapter 5: The Registry

Souta glanced at the Boss in confusion, "What wasn't supposed to happen?"

"Your sister was supposed to be safe." Boss explained in annoyance. "This is just great. I've had this job for only a month, and already a priestess has been attacked. The Boss is going to kill me."

"Aren't you the Boss?" asked Souta.

"That's right," exclaimed Boss happily, then his mood soured. "I guess that means the council will kill me." He looked at Souta's confused expression. "The council is made up of the ruling demons, if anything goes wrong I have to be the one to tell them. You try angering multiple powerful demons all at once." He paced around the room in anxiety. "Follow me, maybe we can fix this." Boss turned around and left the room. Souta, Mika, and Taro silently followed him down the hallway. Souta tried to look in rooms as they passed. One was a cafeteria, there were a few classrooms, and Souta was sure they passed a locker room. Boss stopped in front of a door marked 'Registry'; he pulled a key out of his pocket to unlock the door.

"If anyone besides the Boss did that, they would set off a whole bunch of alarms." Taro murmured to Souta.

"But what is in here that is so important?" Souta asked.

Boss answered, "This is the registry of every human with spiritual powers in the world. If an unsavory demon got this information, all these people could be hunted down easily."

The room was filled with file cabinets that went to the ceiling. Some cabinets were labeled with names and dates while others were blank. The room also contained many tables and chairs; some of the tables had computers on them.

"Why are we here?" questioned Souta again.

"Your sister's file is in here somewhere. We need to find it," answered Boss.

Mika walked over to a computer and began typing. Taro wandered to a blank cabinet and opened it. Souta and Boss walked up behind Taro and helped him carry papers from the cabinet to a nearby table.

Souta asked, "What is this?"

"This is part of Kagome's file," responded Taro. "The blank cabinets are temporary systems. They are enchanted to retrieve whatever file the person is thinking of. When we are finished, we can put the file back in and the cabinet returns it to the proper permanent cabinet. This cuts down on the amount of time spent looking for a file. We update the registry every few years."

Souta looked over the mound of papers covering three tables. "What are we looking for?"

"No idea," muttered Taro, "but Boss will know it when he sees it."

"Here we are," exclaimed Mika from the computer. "Forget paperwork, the database works faster. Kagome Higurashi, priestess from the future, and Guardian of the Sacred Jewel. Apparently, directly after defeating the half-demon Naraku, she returned home to her time. She did not return to feudal Japan when she was supposed to, and none of her friends could get through the well after her."

"How do you all know about the well?" asked Souta.

"The founders of this organization made sure to know everything about the monks and priestesses of the time, including Kagome." Boss replied absently. He leaned over to look at the computer screen. "Does it say why she could not return, or why they could not get through?"

"Kagome sealed the well right before she was attacked." Souta responded. "She did not want anyone to get her."

"The only person capable of unsealing the well is Kagome." Boss scowled. "The only way to do that is to wake her up. This is going to be difficult. What kind of spell put her in the coma?"

"A shadow reached out from the well-house, it hit her on the back of her head. She never saw it coming." Souta replied.

"Sounds like a binding spell. It enters a person when their back is turned to immobilize them." Boss commented. "I have to go and meet with the council about this. Mika, you ask Sakura about the details of the spell while Taro and Souta stay here to find someone to break it. Taro, clean this up as well. Good luck, Mouse, this is your first mission."

Souta looked around the Registry, he and Taro were the only people present, and they had a huge mountain of paperwork to put in the blank cabinet. Together they shoved piles of paper they never read into a container that could never fit them all. Once the compartment was full, Taro pushed it shut and opened it again. The cabinet was empty and ready for another load of papers. After shoving the entire file into the cabinet, Souta and Taro took a break.

"Taro, who is Sakura?"

"She is our resident priestess. Sakura knows all kinds of spells and curses. She has a little demon blood, so she has lived along time and learned a lot."

"Why can't she break the spell?"

"Binding spells require a human to exorcise it and banish it. Sakura may be mostly human, but she still has demon blood."

"How are we going to find a specific person capable of breaking the curse?"

"We write down a couple of specifications for the person, then put the paper in the blank cabinet. It picks the best candidate from everyone in the Registry within a few seconds. For example, we need someone with a lot of potential spiritual power; it would be best if it were someone who knew what was going on, so we don't have to waste time explaining about Kagome; someone nearby, so we don't have to transport them here; and someone brave enough to risk the exorcism."

"What do you mean, Taro?"

"If the spell is not properly banished, it can come back and infect the person who attacked it, that can be very dangerous."

Taro labeled a piece of paper 'Break spell on Kagome Higurashi'. The two wrote down the list of conditions and placed it in the cabinet. After a few minutes, Taro opened the cabinet. "It's empty, I don't think that's ever happened before."

"Is it still thinking, Taro?"

"It doesn't think, kid, it just picks."

They waited a few more minutes, and then opened it again. This time there was a piece of paper at the bottom of the cabinet. "Well, Souta, you do the honors. The best person to rescue your sister is..."

"Kagome Higurashi."

"What the," exclaimed Taro, grabbing the paper, "that can't be right. How is that even possible? The cabinet must have made a mistake. Let's try again."

The two rewrote the list and added 'Is not Kagome Higurashi' at the bottom. This time when they placed the paper in the cabinet it took three tries of opening it before a name appeared.

Taro held the paper and read the name, "Souta Higurashi".

Souta was holding his breath, but gasped as he heard his own name. "It must have made another mistake, I can't exorcise a shadow. I don't have any powers."

"Souta, you need to have spiritual powers to be in the Registry to begin with, you just need to train up a bit. Sakura can teach you everything you need to know. If you really want to, we can write another list and find another name."

Souta nodded, so they wrote the list for the third time this time they added 'Is not Souta Higurashi' at the bottom. The cabinet remained empty every time they opened it, for over half an hour, before the cabinet started to shake and blew up.

Taro started at the cabinet in shock. "That's definitely never happened before. Well, kid, I guess you are our only hope."