Author's Notes: This chapter was revised on January 24, 2006.

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-June 8th-

Entry at 10:33AM

Bracing myself for trouble, but hopeful nonetheless, I decided I would ask about this reporter, "Bankotsu, did you see what the reporter looked like?"

He blinked, wondering why the strange question, then with a shrug replied, "Long black hair worn in a ponytail and he was wearing a brown suit, that's all I noticed."

I sighed, that was Kouga all right.

"If it's that stupid Kouga, I'm going to kick his puny ass out of here," Inuyasha muttered between bites of his food.

"How did some reporters already find out about everything is what I'm wondering," Sango spoke up, after smacking Miroku's hand away from her leg.

"Probably paid off someone down at the police station. Their kind has no shame," Kagura remarked handing Sesshoumaru his coffee. "I swear those wolves of society would sell over their young if it got them a good headline."

I laughed a bit nervously, "I'm taking it you aren't fond of reporters, Kagura."

"They made a case Sesshoumaru and I handled awhile back on a drug bust out as if we were just in the right place at the right time. Pretentious assholes, we worked long hours to bring those two men in." She fumed, balling her hand into a fist.

"Kagura," Sesshoumaru stated simply, and she seemed to relax. Apparently there was something in how he said her name that was enough to calm her down.

"Sorry about that, I still hold it against those reporters for making that whole case into a minor little coincidence."

"It's understandable," He stated calmly, taking another sip of his coffee and looking down to Rin who was doodling something on her coloring pad. He raised an eyebrow as he tried to decipher what the drawing was of.

Noting Sesshoumaru's gaze shifting, Kagura too looked in that direction and then knelt down to Rin's level, "What are you drawing there, Rin?"

She smiled, "My new family now that Mr. Naraku's gone," Holding up a rough doodle, I was from my position able to decipher the various people in it.

Towards the middle, was Rin with Sesshoumaru and Kagura standing behind her. Each of them had a hand on the little girl's shoulder and Kagura was leaning towards Sesshoumaru. Beside that small group, stood Miroku and Sango with Kohaku in front of them, looking towards Rin. And to the other side, were Inuyasha and I. It might have been simplistic, but something about it brought a smile to my face.

"That's really nice, kid," Kagura remarked.

The little girl looked over to Bankotsu who was leaning against the wall, "I wanted to draw Mr. Bankotsu with his special friend Mr. Jakotsu, but I don't know what Mr. Jakotsu looks like yet. I'm sorry," She apologized with a bow of her head.

Glancing up from the spot he was staring at on the floor, Bankotsu smiled and then walked over and sat next to Rin, "That's all right. I can help you draw him if you want."

"Okay!" She responded cheerful.

The entire room seemed to watch as Bankotsu reached into his pocket and pulled out his wallet- producing a photo with slightly tattered edges. He pointed, "That's Jakotsu. I know, he looks a bit effeminate through the face, but I guarantee he's even more muscular than I am."

"Really? He must be very strong then," The young girl replied, looking between the picture and Bankotsu.

"Yeah, Jakotsu's a very strong guy," He muttered almost reflectively.

"Okay! I'm gonna try and draw Mr. Jakotsu now, but I might need you to help me Mr. Bankotsu," She said, fidgeting with her dress.

He smiled, and shifted to a more comfortable sitting position beside her, "That's fine. I'll just sit here until you need my help then."

"Okay, Mr. Bankotsu!" Her bubbly voice replied, before picking up another crayon and beginning to add the other two characters into the picture.

Sango walked over quietly, and I looked up as she gently touched my arm, "It's nice to see him like this. He really is like a big kid deep down it seems."

I nodded and replied, "Yeah, I'm glad to see he's feeling a bit better. I just hope we can find Jakotsu soon so he doesn't end up depressed again."

"I'm sure we will. If you want, Miroku and I can go and try and meet up with Musou if you guys don't have the chance to get down there right away due to the police and the reporters."

"We might have you do that after awhile, but since I'm not sure of the situation completely, we might also need someone to watch Rin."

"That's okay; just let me know, Kagome," Sango said with a smile.

"I'm gonna need help now," The little girl's voice caused me to look back over in that direction.

"May I?" Bankotsu questioned, lifting up a crayon himself.

"Sure!" She responded cheerfully.

I couldn't help but laugh a bit to myself. It's not everyday you see a notorious gang leader sitting and coloring with a little girl.

He explained as he drew, "See, Jakotsu's hair is twisted up like this and he always wears a hairpin in the twist to secure it."

"Oooh, what color? What color?" Rin asked, bouncing up and down.

Bankotsu reached into his jacket and gently handed the ornate blue and red hairpin to the little girl. She cradled it in her two hands.

"It has butterflies on it," She remarked, Bankotsu smiled.

"Yeah, Jakotsu always liked the butterflies."

"Can I draw a pretty butterfly on Mr. Jakotsu's shirt?" She questioned.

He nodded and handed her a crayon, "Use this color. Jakotsu likes purple and pink a lot."

"Okay!" Came the cheerful reply as the girl went back to drawing on the picture, the young leader watching over her shoulder.

I looked back over to see if Inuyasha was still glaring at his brother from his place against the wall or if he was just being uncharacteristically quiet. Instead, I noted him looking out the door and down the hallway.

"He's coming," He spat, crossing his arms.

"Who is coming?" I asked walking over.

Before my partner could reply, the person he spoke of walked in through the door.

"Keh. I should have known it was your scum-ish smell that was coming from down the hall," Inuyasha said smugly as none other than Kouga entered.

And wasting no time in picking up the usual fight, the black-haired man stormed over and got right in Inuyasha's face, "Shut up, you freak of nature- at least I don't have animal ears coming out of my head!"

"Oh yeah!"

"Inuyasha, Kouga- calm down!" I said, trying to keep them from starting a fistfight here.

Kouga paused, then pulled me into a hug, "Oh Kagome- I haven't seen you in forever. I got a new job down at the station and I thought I'd never see you again. You poor dear, being left with this science-project gone wrong must be horrible."

"Eheh…."

"You forgot one thing, Kouga," A new voice spoke up.

"Huh?" He blinked, looking to the doorway.

"You got a new job down at the station- and a fiancée," The red-haired woman stated with a bit of irritation as she entered.

"Ay…Ayame… I didn't forget, it's just I haven't seen Kagome in a long time and…" He attempted to reason with her.

"Kouga. Let her go," She said with a sigh.

"Oops," He muttered, relinquishing his hold on me.

"Fiancée?" I questioned.

With a smile, the woman walked over, "The name's Ayame Shoubu. Kouga seems to keep forgetting he'd proposed to me awhile back," She said, holding up the hand with her ring on it. Then, she extended a hand.

I reached out and shook it, noting the excess amount of pressure she used as if to tell me to back off her man. Honestly, I had no interest whatsoever in Kouga. Sure, he was nice- and hopelessly infatuated with me- but well, that over possessive type doesn't go over well with me.

"You better stay away from Kagome, you stupid stinky reporter!" I heard the ever-familiar voice of Inuyasha retorting and began to rethink my theory on men.

"Well at least I'm better than some low-rank private-eye!"

I ran a hand down my face. The second you got these two within a mile of each other, this always happened.

"Kouga! We have business to do. Fight with him later," Ayame said placing a hand on his shoulder.

"But he's insulting me!" He reasoned.

"And you probably deserved it. Now, we have a deadline to meet- where's Ginta and Hakkaku with the camera?"

Kouga blanched, "You mean they weren't following you?"

"Kouga…." She said with a warning tone.

"I'll…I'll go look," He replied, dashing out the doorway.

"You'll have to excuse him. He can be a little- irritating at times," Ayame stated with a nervous smile.

I was about to reply when I heard something from the hall.

"Did they go this way?" A voice echoed down the hallway.

"You should have been watching!" Another voice retorted.

"No, you should have!"

It went silent for a moment, before both voices yelled out, "Kouga! Kouga! Wait up!"

Without a word, Ayame walked over and looked out the door- calling out to those out there, "Ginta! Hakkaku! Down here!"

"Miss Ayame!" One of the two men said, skidding to a halt outside the doorway, "I'm sorry, we got lost."

The other man ran a hand through his white-mohawk and leaned against the doorframe catching his breath, a camcorder was under his arm.

"Did you two see Kouga on your way up here?" She asked, pulling one of the rolls of cords off the gray and black-haired man's shoulder and sitting them on the floor.

"Nope, I didn't, did you Hakkaku?"

"Sure didn't Ginta. We just happened to turn this way."

"That Kouga, he's completely…." Ayame began only to be cut off as Kouga appeared in the doorway.

"Ayame, I…." He grinned on seeing the two there, "I found them."

"Right. Okay, let's get this started so we can still get it out by the noon show time."

With that, she picked up the cords and tossed them to Ginta, he staggered as he felt the impact of the weight and tilted slightly off-balance due to it.

Ayame straightened out her skirt, fixed the small purple iris in her lapel and turned to Kouga, "How's my hair?"

"Um… okay?" He said, clearly unsure as how to reply.

She grabbed him by the collar and pulled him forward until they were nose to nose, "Kouga. I asked- how is my hair? Now what are you going to tell me?"

"It's fine?"

"Better than the usual I suppose," She sighed, releasing her grasp on him.

"Wow, you two fight almost as much as Kagome and Inuyasha," Miroku murmured from the side of the room, earning himself two glares and a pillow thrown at him. A pillow, might I add, that someone yanked out from under the head of their half-brother.

"Inuyasha!" Both Kagura's voice and mine berated him.

Sesshoumaru simply frowned, and as expected, said nothing but retorted in his own silent manner by pushing the unsuspecting Inuyasha from behind, causing him to stumble forward.

"Hey! What'd I do?" He retorted.

His brother glared, "If I have neck problems due to your lack of intellectual brain mass, I won't be pleased."

"Keh," Inuyasha stormed over and picked up the pillow, tossing it back at his brother, "There's your stupid pillow- I hope you're happy."

"Jubilant," Sesshoumaru replied entirely deadpan.

Switching my attention from the typical brotherly squabble, I noticed that Ayame was helping the two crewmen set up the cords while Kouga fidgeted with something on the camera itself. I took a deep breath and walked over to stop Inuyasha from getting too violent while Sesshoumaru was still recovering.

"What?" He exclaimed as I held back his arm, trying to act innocent.

"Not now, okay?"

"Fine. Whatever…" He muttered.

"Okay," Ayame spoke up, notepad in hand, "I need to get some of the facts sorted out before we begin. You're Mr. Sesshoumaru Taiyoukai and you're his partner, Miss Kagura Nishikaze, am I correct?"

The two in question nodded in reply, and Ayame jotted down some quick notes, then she turned to Inuyasha and me.

"And I take it you are Mr. Inuyasha Taiyoukai, the younger half-brother of Sesshoumaru and you must be his partner, Miss Kagome Higurashi."

Knowing Inuyasha wouldn't reply, I did, "That's correct."

She scrawled a bit more down then with a smile look at all of us, "Okay, just going to ask some questions about how you captured Naraku, your feelings on the matter- that sort of thing. Just try to act natural and don't get to close to the camera."

"You're interviewing us, live?" Kagura questioned.

"It's a big story and if we don't go live, I'm certain every other station in the city will beat us to it."

"A live interview…" I thought to myself. This was going to be interesting to say the least- very interesting.

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Preview for Chapter 20:

Interviews, clues, drawings and new clothes- hopefully amidst this mess the case will be closer to it's end, but considering the people involved, it might take awhile.