AN: Dun dun dun PLOT TWIST! Ah yes, the joys of plot twists and...uh...other stuff XP.

Ok, let's see...notes for this chapter. First the miko classes in this chapter is something I completely made up, so don't believe it to be true (not that anyone would). Next I'm surprised no one caught onto the double Hojo thing :( it made me sad but I'm guessing you either didn't notice, thought it was a typo because I'm a stupid author that would use characters twice in a story (NOT!...well maybe), or just didn't mention it.

Lastly, oh wait there is nothing left. Wow, I guess that's the end of my note. Remember to R and R please!
-Air Angel

Condemn Me for Eternity

Chapter 6 - Imposter

Miroku had attempted to explain to me about said giant fern plant, but I still didn't fully believe him. A part of me did, after all, there had been a few things I didn't believe in before yesterday that I did now. The other part still didn't fully believe what was going on. Damn old 'logical' mind.

Well, it didn't really matter anymore really. We ended up getting interrupted when all our phones rang at once. Still unaccustomed to now owning one, I just sat there blinking as Inuyasha and Miroku almost instantly picked up their phones while my phone remained ringing in the box.

"Yeah, she's here," I heard Inuyasha say nonchalantly into his phone and a moment later my phone stopped ringing.

They both listened intently and I saw their faces turn a bit more serious. Still lost, I reached over to check my phone when they both snapped theirs closed and stood up.

"Wha-what's going on?"

I grabbed my box as I stood up to follow them out of the room.

"Remember the incident back at that Café you used to work at?"

I nodded but realized a second later that they weren't looking at me, "Yeah I remember, you said my...ex-boss was a satanist."

"Yeah well, it seems that it wasn't exactly his fault about that summoning."

A smile broke out across my face, "I knew it!"

The two of them just looked at me strangely.

"Well I met his girlfriend once and there is no way that a satanist could've been dating a bible-packing girl like her," I stated matter-of-factly.

Inuyasha growled a little but continued walking, "Why didn't you tell us that sooner!"

"I would've but I wasn't so sure, you all seemed confident in your assumption."

Inuyasha seemed to be about to start cursing at me but Miroku cut in, "It would be nice for you to give us any seemingly helpful information from now on, we don't want our records to be incorrect."

"Uh...ok but what are we doing?"

"We're going over to the conference hall for a meeting, there we will be briefed on what we had originally in the reports and why they were incorrect. From there, unless they've already found the true perpetrator or perpetrators," he said, stressing that there could be more than one person...or demon that could've been there, "we'll be sent to investigate the café again to see if we can pick up any clues that we may have missed to find who really made that mess."

"Ah...," we took a right corner and suddenly I was overwhelmed by the sight of green everywhere. The whole hallway was like a jungle.

Miroku pushed some leaves around to make a small path for us to walk through, smiling as turned to speak to me, "Now do you understand what I meant about a big fern plant?"

Sitting in the plush chairs of conference room 4, I listened confused on what was being discussed. Sango, who had been in the room waiting for us when we had arrived, seemed to sense my distress and whispered me a brief summary which consisted of my ex-boss being under the influence of another in the summoning and in the end being sacrificed, and that no other demonic presence aside from the spider demon had been around so it was either a human or a demon that could mask their aura that had setup the summoning.

"Kagome, did you see anything out of the ordinary that day? Had there recently been any strange people hanging around the café?"

I looked over at Keade who was seated at the head of the table, "No, most of the costumers at the time of the incident were regulars that had been there since I started working there a year ago."

"I see..."

Feeling at a lose, I racked my brain for any idea that could possibly help them, "Uh...the last shipment of coffee was incorrect, they had sent us some new foreign brand of coffee but we had that returned immediately. Our inventory checks were also wrong, and some glasses and pitchers had gone missing but that probably could be explained by the new klutz of a trainee..."

I froze, didn't I just see Hojo a few hours ago? Why didn't I realize that I had been working with him earlier...and why wasn't he hurt? He had been at the café during the accident, probably cleaning the floor when I went to clean myself. Shouldn't he have been dead then? And if he had survived, why hadn't he asked if I was okay? Why had he seemed like he hadn't seen me since our old class together unless...

I shot forward in my seat, "Kaede, how many survivors were there from the accident and what were their names."

She looked surprised a little, "Only you from when we arrived, if there had been others, they must've escaped just barely before the attack."

No, Hojo couldn't have gotten away then. The main counter where all our equipment had been was in the center of the café. If the costumers sitting near the main entrance hadn't made it, there was no way he could've escaped.

"I think I may have an idea of who we are looking for."

Everyone seemed to be watching me, but I remained undeterred by the attention, "Which rooms had been destroyed from the spider demon?"

"Only the upstairs apartment, the hallway that lead to the main café and main café area."

"Alright, that means that the back office is still intact. Kaede, I uh...need permission to go back to the café to get some files. A single resume to be exact."

"What do you need that for first?"

I bit my lip lightly, "There was a new trainee but he looked exactly like someone I knew, he even took the name of the guy. If I didn't see him earlier, I wouldn't have even thought of him."

"His name?"

"Hojo Akitoki, I had a class last year with him. When we met earlier, he acted as if he hadn't seen me since the end of that class and didn't even mention anything about the café, let alone being there."

"A demon could've taken his form as his own," Sango commented.

Kaede stiffened in her seat, "A shape-shifter perhaps?"

"It's possible," I said, "but why Hojo? Out of everyone in Japan why did it choose Hojo as it's form?"

"Some shape-shifter's disguise themselves so that when you see them, they look like someone you'd know, but to others, they would look differently. We can't be sure though, we'll have to keep an eye on this Hojo guy for awhile just incase," Inuyasha said, "I'm assuming that you want to get a hold of the resume 'Hojo' sent in so we can do some testing on it, just to check if fingerprints match possibly? Or if they show someone else completely."

I nodded.

Inuyasha turned to face Kaede, "I also request permission to go to the café. Had we not gotten this lead, we would've been sent to research the area anyways."

Kaede sat there staring at Inuyasha for a moment, "Request accepted, your team will go and retrieve that resume and any other possible object that may have his fingerprint on it that is still intact. I expect you to report back here tonight by seven with whatever you have gathered. I will organize a separate team to watch over Hojo Akitoki while you are all away."

"Understood."

By the time we arrived at the café it was six o'clock, leaving us with one hour to gather what we needed. Where the time went earlier from when I finished class to now seemed to have been lost, it really didn't seem like I had been with them for that long but lo and hold, seven hours had passed since I finished my class at eleven and I wasn't even hungry for lunch still.

The café was cleaned up considerably from when we were here last, all the table and chairs were back into place, aside from the ones that had been broken. The bodies had been cleared out the very night of the accident so there were no rotting faces staring at me today.

I headed towards the back office, Inuyasha following closely behind while Miroku and Sango went over to the main counter to check everything there.

Slowly opening the door, I sighed slightly in relief when nothing jumped out of me and I saw the office just the way I had last, except without my boss chatting on the phone in his reclining chair.

"Filing cabinet?"

I shook my head, "No, Hojo was only recently hired about a week or two ago. Unless they've been here a month without getting fired, Mr. Hanasai keeps trainee information on or in his desk."

Inuyasha nodded and made his way over to the desk and started going through the piles of papers on it. Mr. Hanasai was never good at keeping things organized.

Fifteen minutes later we finally found the resume, it had been folded into a square and a coffee ring indicated that at some point Mr. Hanasai had used it as a coaster. I guess Hojo hadn't met Mr. Hanasai's standards.

We walked back out into the main café area where we saw Sango and Miroku arguing over what seemed to be a coffee grind package, "Please can I have it?"

"No! I told you already, we're suppose to be looking for clues and you want to steal coffee?"

"But it's GOOD coffee!"

"Uh Miroku?" I cut in, "I have a few boxes of that type at home, Mr. Hanasai used to let me have a few boxes of coffee for free once in awhile, or whenever they over shipped us some. You can have one if you want."

His eyes seemed to sparkle and I took a step back, "You will?"

I nodded slowly, not exactly liking his expression. Maybe because the look he was giving off was almost a perfect copy of my friend Eri's expression whenever she saw a billboard or magazine of her latest favorite actor.

He was in front of me so fast that I almost choked in shock, "Thank you so much!" he said pulling me into a hug.

"Miroku...can't...breath!" I gasped out.

Releasing me, he scratched his head, "Sorry about that," he laughed.

"It's...ok," I said slowly as I noticed the deadly look Sango was sending in our direction, "Did you find anything?"

"Nope, this place was cleaned up really well, even the glasses are lined up perfectly," Miroku said motioning for Inuyasha and I to look behind the counter. Everything looked just like it would've right before opening time, not that the café would be opening anytime soon.

"It's only six twenty now, we've got forty minutes until we have to be back. Should we keep checking the place or head back now?" Sango asked, her deadly stare seeming to have vanished.

Inuyasha shrugged, "We got what we came for, why not head back?"

"Let's stay here for another fifteen minutes."

Inuyasha, Sango, and I looked at Miroku questioningly.

"If we wait, by the time we get back we'll have missed the beginning of night shift meaning we'll have the night off."

Inuyasha wacked his head so hard that he bent over and hit his head on the counter top, "You moron, only a slacker like you would come up with something like that."

Sango just shook her head, "Well now that he's unconscious, we'll have to wait for him to wake up. There is no way that I would sit in the back of the car with him like that, who knows what he'd do if he woke up on my lap. I'd rather not experience the thought."

"Keh, there is no way I'm letting you drive my car."

"How long until he usually wakes up?" I asked, looking at Miroku's limp form leaning against the counter.

"Knowing him, he'll stay unconscious for twenty minutes. Just for good measure."

It was five to seven by the time we got back. We made it just in time to report in and Kaede told us that she had asked for some extra help from another nearby base, as it seemed that there weren't enough people and demons to spare for watching over Hojo at the moment.

We were to brief the team on the situation tomorrow at four in the afternoon, two hours after they were scheduled to arrive. Formal wear was required as they were a 'special' and a 'highly advanced' group that we were to show our complete respect. Inuyasha had snorted when that had been said but made no comment.

I was also told that my testing would be at three fifteen and that it would last approximately thirty five minutes, leaving me ten minutes to get into my uniform and be in whatever place we were suppose to be. Where we were to go, I had completely missed.

By the time we were finished speaking to Keade again it was seven forty and my stomach had finally caught up on my abused feeding schedule. I tried unsuccessfully to hide the gurgling of my stomach, unsuccessfully because Inuyasha was a demon with very good hearing.

"When was the last time you ate?"

"Uh...probably around eight this morning," I replied sheepishly, gathering up my box I had left here earlier for safe keeping.

He sighed, "Come on," he said pulling me out of the room by my elbow and down the hallway towards the exit, "I'll get you something to eat."

We were stopped as we heard Miroku's voice behind us, "Oh Inuyasha, already going to woe Kagome? I never knew you moved that fast."

"Shut up Miroku, it's not what you are thinking," Inuyasha growled heatedly.

"Whatever you say, just make sure you don't stay up too late. We've got work tomorrow," Miroku winked before walking in the opposite direction, probably following the path that Keade had taken earlier along with Sango, who had went back to acting as her assistant once we had returned.

"Pig," I heard Inuyasha say before he resumed pulling me out of the building.

He pulled me towards his car. Once seated comfortably with my seatbelt on and my box on the back seat, we took off out of the parking lot.

"Where are we going?"

"There's a noodle house nearby, I usually go there after work before heading home."

Blinking, I looked at him, "But you work practically everyday, does that mean that all you eat for dinner is noodles?"

He shook his head, "Actually, our teams gets a day off a week...plus a month total of vacation and sick days."

"Why didn't I know this?" I grumbled, "And here I thought I'd learned everything I needed to know. What day do we get off?"

"We get off Mondays, though they'll probably give you a schedule for everything tomorrow when you get tested."

"What is on the test anyways?" I asked as Inuyasha turned a corner and signaled to parallel park in front of a small restaurant sporting the name 'Sakura Island'.

He shrugged as he shut off the engine and opened the door to get out, "I wouldn't know, it's a miko test and I'm obviously not a miko."

"Right...," I said while following his example of getting out of the car and going into the restaurant, "I don't really understand the miko thing also..."

The door swung open and close quickly, ringing a little chime at the same time, "I'll see what I can tell you once we've ordered."

We took a seat near the front windows and were shortly joined by a waitress, I asked for a glass of water and some ho fun, a Chinese noodle dish that I had once when I had been at a sleep over with Eri, Yuka, and Ayumi. At the time we had ordered it, we had no idea what it was as the take-out menu had no translations. We had been happy when it turned out not to be some strange thing like a pig's head.

Inuyasha simply asked for his usual which the waitress had seemed to already be jotting down before he even opened his mouth.

"So explain the miko thing."

He leaned back in his chair, "From what I know, there are six classes of mikos. I don't know the names but I can explain them a bit. The first class is for those who have power but too low of a degree that it could cause damage and because of that, they usually don't get notified but are kept under watch just incase. On the most part they grow up and go into a medical field because they are slightly gifted in healing."

He stopped talking for a moment but I soon realized why as the waitress reappeared with our drinks, water like I had asked and surprisingly, tea for Inuyasha.

He began again as soon as she disappeared back into the kitchen, "The next four classes are based on what a miko's strong point is. The first of this set is healing. Where a doctor would need to do surgery or give medicine to a patient, a healing miko and focus the energy around her which can, if trained properly, heal a person without any outside force."

"How does that work?"

"I guess you could think of having a cut for example. The power for a healing miko would heal a cut by using their power to speed up the cell growth in the area of injury. The next group is those who have a sixth sense. Predicting the future, no matter how many different ways it can be seen or how early. Maybe a minute before the actual accident or even years."

"So would I be that type...?" I asked, remembering the apartment accident and how I had sensed the demon's approach only a moment before it crashed through the wall.

"A bit," Inuyasha agreed, "But the four categories are intermixed. A miko can have all the attributes of them or only one. It all depends on the person. The third group is for those who can see through spells, prevent them, and even break them. You're part of this group also if you relate it to being about to see through my spell. The last of the set is damage-wise. Where the first three groups are mostly defensive, the last is offense. In this group, much like a healing miko, a miko focuses their powers but instead of healing a person, they could kill them. By touch or by filtering their power into an object, it can still be deadly either way, especially to demons."

"Okay...so what's the last class?"

"The last class is much like the opposite of the first. A miko with too much power who has to be isolated away to keep them from doing damage to anyone or even themselves. There aren't many of this type of miko and they usually die within the first year they are born."

I shifted in my seat, "That's so sad..."

We sat in silence until the waitress appeared again with our meals, I watched as she set down three bowls of different flavored ramen in front of Inuyasha before setting down my ho fun.

"That is your usual?" I asked raising an eyebrow.

He quickly grabbed a pair of chopsticks and began to eat his first bowl, "Mwll mwats ma-"

I held up my hand to stop him before getting a picking up my pair of chopsticks, "Swallow first, talk later...or even just finish eating first," I said watching as just when he was finishing what he had in his mouth already, he put more in. Ah, the joys of eating.

"Wow you chew like a cow," I had finished my meal and was waiting for Inuyasha to finish his last bowl or ramen. Now, of course, I was picking on his eating habits.

He just grunted but continued eating.

"Well your not as bad as my Aunt Sayoko, she chews like a camel and my Uncle Rai has an odd, yet unfortunate, fascination with beans."

He swallowed, "Are you trying to make me self-conscious of the way I eat or are you just trying to get me to eat faster," he said more as a statement rather then a question.

"Maybe a little bit of column A and maybe a little bit of column B,"

He grunted again but set his bowl down, "Then you should be happy to know that I'm finished eating, meaning you won't have to watch me chew anymore," he said rolling his eyes.

I was about to speak when the waitress appeared again, "Just as I thought, you just finished," she said while stacking the bowls to make it easier to carry.

"Keh."

She laughed, "And here I thought that maybe because you have company for once, you'd eat a little bit slower."

"Oh," I said, "We work together, I guess you could say I'm his new partner...of some sort."

She pouted a bit, "Really? I thought you might've been his little girlfriend or something. Then again," she said going back to laughing, "With an attitude and eating habits like him, I guess it'd be pretty hard to get one."

"Hey!"

"Sorry, sorry," She apologized but kept on a teasing smile, "Don't worry, you're still a cutey."

I held back a snicker at him being called a 'cutey' but knew that he wouldn't be very happy if I had let it out loud, "Can I get my check?"

"Oh no, I'm not making you pay."

Blinking, I looked at her confused, "Huh?"

"Why would I make you pay if you have to handle working with him from now on starting today?"

"HEY!"

This time I did laugh, "He's not that bad."

"Oh I know," she said ruffling Inuyasha hair a bit, "I just like teasing him. Your meal's on the house also Inu, but that's just because I've been making fun of you in front of your girlfriend here."

He growled, "We're partners. What part of that don't you understand?"

"The part where you're eating together."

He sighed, "Come on Kagome, let's go."

Still laughing, I thanked the woman and followed Inuyasha out of the store, not missing the call of "Come again sometime, it's nice seeing Inu not eating by himself!"

I smiled at Inuyasha as I got into his car, "She seems to know you fairly well, Inu."

"Ugh, don't call me that."

"So how did you meet her?" I asked curiosity killing me, I mean...if I couldn't be gifted with the right to call him Inu, she must to pretty close.

"I've known here ever since I moved here as a child," he stated as he started the car and we set off down the road to my house.

"Since you were a child? But you're a demon and she seemed so young!"

"Keh, it's not like she was a human."

"She wasn't?"

"Nope, and the only reason why she gets to call me Inu is because that's what she's called me since we met. She's much older then I am."

"Well if you don't like it so much, why don't you ask her to stop?"

"I did once," he said pulling into my apartment entrance, "but the consequences of going against her weren't very nice. Just proves to show that the older you are does make a difference sometimes."

I just laughed, "You probably didn't ask, but demand by force instead."

"Oh shut up, wench."

Ignoring him, I got out of the car and grabbed my box of supplies from the back seat, "Are you picking me up tomorrow?"

"Who knows, Sango is supposed to but it all depends on Kaede. Just be ready ahead of time."

"Ah...Well I'll see you tomorrow!" I said cheerfully.

"Yeah, see ya."

I watched him go out of sight before heading up into my apartment. Tomorrow would be a big day, good thing I had no classes.