Please give a shoutout to my amazing beta sassybrat9791, who is currently in the process of moving to a lovely new home! Best wishes!

Mitama House was founded by a warrior-monk named Goryōmaru roughly some 460 years ago in what used to be Mikawa prefecture. He picked up children—orphaned by war, famine, disease, or some sad combination—and trained them as gyōja, formidable ascetics in their own right, in order to further the spread of the Ikkō-Ikki monks' school of Shin Buddhism throughout Japan. He even claimed to have made them into yōkai slayers.

Eventually tiring of the seemingly never ending cycle of conflict that was typical of the Warring States period, Goryōmaru closed his temple after the Battle of Azukizaka and relocated his wards to the outskirts of what was then the sleepy fishing village of Edo. Despite the man's relatively early death, his legacy continued through the children he saved: countless generations of orphans, as well as discarded children, dōwa, women pregnant with illegitimate babies, and runaways found refuge in Mitama House. After the War, the orphanage was reorganised to also become a rehabilitation shelter. Today, they worked closely with the government to help poor families stay clothed and fed, keep rough sleepers off the streets, and help the homeless find jobs and housing.

At least, that was from what the rather dated looking pamphlet said.

Sango squinted through the early morning rays at the building. It certainly looked like it was made in the Feudal era, with its temple architecture and vermillion colouring. Even with 20th century additions such as the intercom gate, Sango felt as though she'd stepped into a historical reenactment of some sort.

But there were some charming details too: a colourful, childishly painted sign on a bulletin board advertising adoption days; shabby but neatly labelled toy bins kept under the awning closest to the small playground; and a tall Sakaki tree that was undoubtedly as old as the complex stood next to a plaque that also looked as though it had been decorated by children.

In spite of herself, Sango smiled a little at the sight.

"Glad to have you here, officers," an elderly greeter wrapped in a white and lavender uniform unlocked the gate for them. "How can I be of service?"

"Good morning. We're here for the interviews like we agreed to on the phone with Morinaga-san," Sango replied politely.

"I apologise…Director Morinaga still has a lot of calls to attend to…but I'm sure he'll finish them straightaway once he's heard that you're here!"

"No worries," she reassured the old woman. "We have all day."

The greeter let them in and trailed nervously after them as the team made its way to the entrance. The rush of heat as she opened the main door for them was a lovely sensation after the snap of cold morning air they experienced on the way to the orphanage.

The interior was a welcome sight. Though visibly worn and aged, the place was suffused with warmth and cheer as adults said their goodbyes before leaving for work. Behind the wall separating the genkan from the rest of the complex, children's laughter could be heard, and the delicious scent of breakfast wafted over to the officers.

"Aw man," Oda whined. "I forgot to eat before heading out…"

The adults murmured cautious greetings to the police, bundling themselves against the October chill before exiting. The greeter led the team past the closed off dining area and a series of rooms before stopping at what were evidently the main offices. She bade them to wait as she knocked timidly on the door and poked her head in.

"Director," she said, "the police are here."

The response was muffled, but whatever was said was apparently enough as the old woman bowed in response and closed the door. "He'll be with you in a moment," she assured them. "Would anyone care for something to drink? Hot tea? Some cake?"

"Tea is fine." Sango spared a glance at Oda when his stomach growled a little too loudly at the mention of food.

"I'll be right back with it," the woman bowed to them and set off in the direction of the dining rooms.

It wasn't long after her departure that the office doors opened once again; a man, evidently an addict judging by the sores and pocks marking his face, clutched what looked to be a medical slip and was uttering a thousand thanks as he shuffled back in the direction of the entrance. A younger man wearing Mitama's white and lavender colours stepped out to say his goodbyes before he noticed the officers.

"Good morning—I admit that I was expecting you all a little later, but no matter. I am Morinaga Goro, Mitama's current director," he introduced himself.

"Inspector Tachibana Sango," she replied in kind. "I'm here with a team from East Shinjuku's eighth precinct to ask about an employee of yours."

"Higurashi-san," Morinaga sighed sadly. "Yes, as you've said on the phone…please, come in."

His office was at the back of a small anteroom that was divided into two other offices, and they all piled (more like squeezed) in as he took his seat behind a desk that looked as though it was bought before the Bubble crashed. Even his computer looked dated, which made quite the contrast with his modern looks; with his smart glasses, full lips and short, wavy hair, Sango thought back to the young male idols featured often on the front pages of supermarket tabloids and gossip websites.

Just as they managed to position themselves somewhat comfortably, the greeter was back with a steaming pot of tea and a chipped plate of freshly made onigiri.

"Thank you, Okawa-san," Morinaga nodded in the woman's direction as she bowed back and left. He graciously ignored Oda's incredible rudeness as the officer began to scarf down a rice ball and slurped his tea noisily.

"So," Sango took out a notepad and clicked her pen in anticipation. "Please tell us about Higurashi-san. How would you describe her?"

"A good, patient woman. She's a hard worker and is always so happy to be with the children, and was always ready to help everyone out here. She was—is very dedicated to her job, so I was very surprised when her husband called in sick for her."

"So this would be the first time she missed work?"

"Correct," Morinaga confirmed.

Sango tapped her pen thoughtfully before continuing her line of questioning. "Was she acting differently the day before she went missing? Anything odd in her conduct that stood out, or was otherwise out of character for her?"

"Not at all."

"So what happened to her…did it comes as a shock to you? Any reason to think that someone might have targeted her, or just an opportunist who happened to choose her home?" This edit looks great!

"I can't say for sure," Morinaga sighed again. "On one hand, the neighbourhood they live in…not to say it's unsafe, but it's just not a very well-maintained part of town. Her husband complains all the time about it whenever I see him. And, well, there have been increased reports of robberies in the city overall."

Sango took all that down diligently. "But on the other hand?"

Morinaga cracked a tiny, wistful smile. "I was told by Kaede-san that before Higurashi-san went off to university, she was quite the nosy girl."

Sango's pen stopped in its tracks.

Now that certainly sounded interesting…

"Higurashi-san was part of her high school's newspaper club, so I was told. It started off normally enough: covering school events, club activities, the cultural festival…until the year Higurashi joined, that is. She decided that wasn't enough."

Sango raised an eyebrow. "What isn't 'enough' about a school paper?"

"Apparently the school administration was looking the other way when it came to illicit activities being carried out on campus."

"What kind of activities?"

"A mix. It varied between bullying, taking money in exchange for test results, what you'd expect at a high school. However, harder things such as an affair between a teacher and a student as well as drug sales were also discovered."

Sango sucked in a small breath and expelled it slowly. Now that was certainly an unprecedented piece of news. "So she made enemies back then?"

"Most likely. I didn't hear much about that from Kaede-san, except that the administration eventually got the club banned." At this, Morinaga chuckled. "Not that it did much good; Higurashi-san just picked up a few classmates and continued it outside of the school. She was quite the little muckraker all right."

She pondered the statement very carefully. What Morinaga was essentially saying was that he had a reason to believe that Higurashi's past activities made her a target of angry people out for revenge. But who? And over what? What exactly did a high school student and a gaggle of teens manage to uncover that Morinaga was at least somewhat convinced that it played a part in her disappearance?

"Help me try to understand this," Sango said. "What you're telling us is that a group of teenagers somehow got involved in something serious?"

"Indeed." The director steepled his fingers and leaned in closer to the officers, almost as if sharing something confidential. "In fact, a fair amount of children were brought here thanks to her and her husband's efforts."

Oh? Sango spared a quick glance at her team, pleased to see that they were all hard at work by taking down notes of their meeting; Awara-san had even brought a tape recorder. "What do you mean by that? As in, the Higurashis rescued them, or—"

"Correct." At this, Morinaga stood, and, seeing their confused expressions, beckoned them to follow him outside.

By then the breakfast hour had finished and the dining area was being cleared out by staff and volunteers. They greeted the director and his impromptu entourage before getting back to work. Morinaga took them past a sitting area sparsely populated by a few elderly residents, dozing lightly in the couches, before continuing into a hallway overlooking the gardens.

"You're lucky you made the visit on a Sunday. The children mostly stick to the playground around this time, unless they don't have any prior engagements with friends or school." He checked on the scene of shrieking boys and girls and nodded to himself, apparently satisfied with what he saw. "I see that all of them are here, so I think that it's best you have the chance to ask them yourselves."

Opening the door to the outside momentarily flooded the hallway with brilliant morning light, blinding them all for a second; when the light subsided and their eyes adjusted, the team found itself in the playground.

Like the rest of the complex, it looked rather outdated and rough around the edges—no amount of paint or sanding could possibly hide the scratches on the metal slide or fix the way the jungle gym sagged into the earth. But the kids didn't seem to care much either way. They ran around with wild abandon. They passed balls, played hopscotch, and chased each other around the shrubbery under the watchful eyes of the staff and a few other adults.

It certainly didn't have the feel of an orphanage, Sango thought.

"I've already informed them of your visit," Morinaga added suddenly after a long pause. "But I cannot allow you to question them alone. A staff member or another adult must be present with them at all times." There was a subtle, but visible hardening to the fine wrinkles around his eyes. "Do you understand?"

"Yes," Sango readily acquiesced.

"Good." The director then called out to the playground, his calm voice surprisingly loud enough to catch the attention of all those present. The mood changed from joyful and exuberant to sombre, hushed even, as the children gathered around them obediently.

"Hello, everyone. As you can see, we're all police officers," Sango announced carefully. "I'm Inspector Tachibana, and I'm here with a team from East Shinjuku's eighth precinct to ask you all some questions about Higurashi Kagome."

Whispering rippled through the throng, dying out almost as quickly as it started.

"Each of us will make sure to talk to everyone just so that we can make sure to be as thorough as possible before heading back. I hope we can cooperate to finish this case and find Higurashi-san as quickly as possible."

Director Morinaga and Sango assigned the officers to child-staff pairs and saw them off to any room nearby where they could carry out the interrogations in private: Oda, then Awara, and then Koharu with a set of twin boys who insisted on staying together. Finally, Sango herself turned to Morinaga to discuss who she would best be suited to question, until a sharp "hey!" grabbed her attention.

A skinny teen with messy orange hair, a green shirt too big for him, and patched jeans stood before them. "You're the one in charge, right?" he demanded.

Sango raised her eyebrow at such a forward attitude. "…Yes. My name is Tachibana Sango."

"I'm Shippō. I want you to interview me."

"Oh, well, no problem. I'll just have to see about who can—"

"I can supervise you two!"

The new voice belonged to one of the most unusual people Sango had ever seen in her short life. He couldn't have been less that three meters tall, with an elongated chin and a browline and nose that bulged forward from his face; his skin had a peculiar café-au-lait tint to it, which was not even mentioning the thick scars that criss-crossed his body, and his small, protuberant eyes were a very pale blue. Everything about his appearance reminded her of the monsters seen in the ancient scrolls housed in temples or museums, and he looked as though a giant or an oni had come to life from one of those and decided that it wanted to live in the modern world with normal people.

"You sure, Jinenji?" Shippo asked the newcomer.

Jinenji's smile was wide and gummy. "Yeah, I'm old enough. I think I can do it well, can't I, officer-san?"

Sango was so taken aback by his appearance that she was caught staring—Morinaga's subtle prodding brought her back to earth and she cleared her throat in an attempt to sound important and not like a person who just did something extremely unprofessional. "Well, I thank you for your helpful offer, but I was hoping that a sta—"

"I'll do it. They did say staff, boys."

The newest addition was a woman who looked ancient enough to be knocked over by a stray breeze, yet she carried herself just as well as a middle-aged lady in spite of her hunchback. She wore a very dusty apron over her uniform and a kerchief over her gray hair.

Jinenji reached for her hand. "Can I still come, ma?"

Wait, she's his mother?

"I don't see why not; unless the kind officer—" the woman's steely gaze made Sango feel acutely embarrassed "—says otherwise."

"O-oh no, it's fine," Sango stammered. "More testimonies means more help! I-I appreciate your cooperation with us."

Morinaga began leading them away from the main building's entrance. "I hope you don't mind using the gardening centre for your interrogation, Tachibana-san. Your colleagues have taken up all the other available spaces, I'm afraid, and I would rather not have our residents questioned in their private rooms."

The 'gardening centre' was really more of a glorified shed with a little porch out front and an awning; a few potted plants were displayed on the balustrade and a bird feeder hung from the roof.

"It's perfectly suitable for this. Thank you, Morinaga-san." She bowed slightly in thanks.

"If anyone needs anything, please, don't hesitate to call on us."

The four arranged themselves around a cramped metal garden table, trying very hard not to bump into the crates of fertiliser and seeds stacked all around them. Sango took out her notepad and clicked her pen in anticipation. "I know I've introduced myself before, but there's nothing wrong with a little clarification now and then; my name is Tachibana Sango, and I'm an inspector leading this team from East Shinjuku's eighth precinct."

The teen raised his hand high in the air. "I'm Shippō."

"Just 'Shippō-kun?'"

He shifted uncomfortably in his seat. "My parents were Himura…but I prefer not to be called by it if I can."

"…I see," Sango replied cautiously. "I'll keep that in mind."

"Tsuchida Kaho," the old woman said. "And this is my son, Jinenji." She jabbed a bony thumb in his direction. He smiled and waved shyly.

"Thank you. Now that introductions are over with—please tell me what you know about Higurashi Kagome."

"He didn't do it," Shippō interrupted.

Sango swallowed. The boy was giving her an intense, single-minded staredown. "I…pardon?"

"Let's just start from the beginning, Shippō-kun," Tsuchida chided him gently, in that rough, weathered voice of hers. "We can get to that later."

The three shared a glance between themselves, and Sango wondered.

"You came to know Higurashi-san through her working here?" Sango finally asked after a prolonged silence.

"No," Shippō shook his head. "I knew her and Inuyasha since way before—she was still in high school, and I was still a kid! I was eight when I first met them."

"I'm Kagome's age, actually," Jinenji added. "I met her when we were both 15."

The lack of honorifics was an interesting detail that Sango added to her notes as she dutifully took down their statements. When she finished, she nodded at them, prompting them to continue.

"Inuyasha and Kagome—" Shippo abruptly fell silent; the subject was an apparently hard one to broach, as Sango saw him fighting back tears.

"Take all the time you need," she said reassuringly. In spite of his attempts to look steely and composed in front of her, he wore his closeness to the pair on his sleeve, and Sango's heart ached for the poor boy.

"You want me to go first, Shippō-kun?" Jinenji placed an enormous hand on his shoulder.

Shippō sniffled hard and wiped his face with the back of his hand. He opened his mouth to reply, and then decided against it in order to fully compose himself.

"Ain't no shame in waitin' your turn," Tsuchida added her hand to Jinenji's.

"…Ok," Shippō accepted.

"We met Kagome-chan and that lunkhead of a husband when they were out travelling the sticks," Tsuchida said. "We used to live in this backwater dump of a village before they convinced us to move to Tokyo some two years ago; haven't looked back since! Good riddance!"

The bitterness in the woman's tone surprised Sango. "What were the circumstances behind your meeting?"

"Said they were looking for a scoop. Some brainless idiot told them a murderer was out prowling the fields and had those poor, simple farmfolk locked up in their homes at night. Of course, once they got there, the neighbours dropped the innocent act real quick and immediately told them my Jinenji was to blame."

Jinenji was definitely not a pretty sight to look at, what with his intimidating stature and his facial deformities. And though Sango was ashamed to admit his looks frightened her, there was really nothing about him that pointed to a violent and aggressive personality: his behaviour so far had been nothing but patient and kind to Shippō and friendly to her. The young man had gone very quiet in his chair and was looking to the side as he twiddled his thumbs nervously.

"So there were killings—" Sango began.

"Two women died," Tsuchida interrupted. "Violently. Both were found torn to shreds in the woods; nevermind that we lived nowhere near where they were found, and it would've taken us at least half a day to get to where the bodies were, but it didn't matter to those folks—they already decided that Jinenji was the culprit."

"Was it because they were afraid of his looks?"

"Oh, it went deeper than that," Tsuchida muttered darkly. "His looks just confirmed their biases."

Jinenji began to curl in on himself and held his upper arms as though suddenly cold.

"I'm dōwa," his mother's admission was frank and matter-of-fact. "Been treated like a walking piece of shit since I can remember; the other villagers hated us and said we weren't allowed in 'their' part of town or else we would contaminate it. When I was younger I kinda agreed with them, since my old man worked leather and had the most awful smell hangin' around him constantly." She sighed deeply. "I was always so embarrassed in front of the other girls growing up. But then I got older and wisened up, and I learned to stop hatin' myself because I wasn't the problem: they were."

Sango was stunned. This woman was basically laying out her life story to her in what was supposed to be a simple interrogatory session—instead, she was hearing this awful tale of discrimination and hardship.

Just what exactly were the Higurashis involved in?

"I met Jinenji's father right after I finished high school," Tsuchida continued. A misty look suddenly came over her eyes. "I was picking herbs up on the mountainside but I twisted my ankle and fell. I was stuck there for hours…when night came, I thought I was a goner for sure. But a miracle happened, and he found me!"

"Ma—" Jinenji's distress suddenly became acute embarrassment.

"He was the most handsome man I'd ever seen!" she ignored him, sighing rapturously. The sudden swing in mood from dark and pessimistic to utterly ecstatic threw Sango for a loop. "He looked like one of those idols and actors in the magazines the girls brought back from the city, but even more handsome. He was so kind and gentle…said he was studying medicine at Tokyo University and came to our dinky little village as part of his social service assignment. He treated my ankle right then and there and carried me all the way down the mountain back to my house, just like a prince rescuing his princess!"

Jinenji covered his face with his giant hands and groaned. In spite of his display of being ashamed of his mother's reminiscing, he peeked at her through his fingers with a smile.

"I got pregnant almost immediately," Tsuchida beamed. "He said he was gonna take us back to the city with him, where we'd all live happily ever after. Even though medicine is a hard career, he said we'd be taken care of because his family was rich, and we married soon after I told him we were gonna have a baby. Even the other villagers stopped bullying us." She sighed again; this time, there was no happiness in it. Only deep pain. "We were happy. For a while."

"What happened? Sango prompted gently.

Tsuchida shrugged helplessly. "He died."

"…How?"

Tsuchida shook her head sadly. "He was off on this medical conference in Spain the university organised for the top students in his year. He wanted to stay with me since I was real close to giving birth, but I could tell how badly he wanted to go, so I told him to have fun and—and bring back a present for our baby." Her breath quavered. "I'd never been outside the country before and asked him to take lots of pictures for us both."

Jinenji reached out to his mother and squeezed her shoulder reassuringly.

"It was a car crash. I was told he died immediately and that the driver responsible was drunk," she sniffed. "But that's as much as I got outta them," she resumed the dark tone she had at the beginning of the conversation.

"From who? When they informed you of his death?"

Tsuchida's laugh was loud, short, and extremely caustic. "No one from the government came to tell me, even though we went to the registry to put his name down as the father's before he left. It was through his bitch of a mother."

Sango had a sudden flashback to her paternal grandmother's rants about the criminal cases they saw being broadcasted on the TV, or when her son—Sango's father—discussed his work with them at the dinner table.

"Said she was ashamed that her son chose a low-life piece of trash like me," she spat, "and that I was a stain on the family name. I dunno what kind of strings she pulled, but that bitch had the registry in her hands and burned it in my face." Tsuchida's face was torn between a mix of deep loathing, pain, and anger. "Said she was gonna fix his mistake and keep my name as far away from her family's as possible so I wouldn't dirty it. And she made sure that not a single cent of his insurance went to us, because she said my half-breed son would only taint their reputation."

Fat, silent tears began rolling down Jinenji's face. Shippō immediately produced a packet of tissue paper from his pocket and offered them to him, which he accepted gratefully.

"After Jinenji was born," Tsuchida sighed a long-suffering sigh, "everyone decided that we deserved it. That because of who we are, it was only natural that we had it coming. That we were tainted to begin with." She fell silent before resuming her train of thought. "Didn't matter that I moved us all to the damn edge of the village after my old man died—they came by, every day, without fail, to throw rocks and insults at us."

Sango glanced at Jinenji's scars with a pang. "And that's how you met the Higurashis?"

"Yeah. Inuyasha-san was ready and raring for a fight since their trip all the way from Tokyo didn't go so well and it put 'im in a right foul mood, but he lost it quick once he saw how harmless my Jinenji is."

"Ma brained him over the head with a log when she saw him yelling at me," Jinenji said. Shippō snorted.

"Kagome-chan was lovely right from the start though; she talked to us real nice and even helped me make some tea and stayed with Jinenji as he tended to the field for the day. We asked her to stay the night while Inuyasha-san went back down to the village to yell at 'em for telling lies about us."

Jinenji blushed a pretty, subtle red. "Kagome wasn't scared of me when she saw me…it was the first time anyone talked to me so nicely. She was more afraid of the worms in the field than she was of my ugly face…"

"Only bad people are truly ugly," his mother reassured him.

"Ah, wait a moment," Sango stopped her rapid-fire note taking. "You mentioned that they came due to hearing about some murders that had taken place there and the villagers were blaming Jinenji for. What exactly happened about that?"

Jinenji made a small noise at the back of his throat. "Turns out…someone from another village at the edge of the forest was illegally breeding dogs for fighting…she let them out often to hunt animals in the woods. And they killed the women who went there to pick mushrooms. They were so violent they tore out their guts to eat…"

Sango gulped. "And how did you find out?"

"They came at night to attack us," Jinenji explained, shuddering at the memory.

"But you were so brave, son!" his mother crowed. "He fought them right off like they were nothing!"

"But they were something, ma! They bit me real bad! Kagome was in danger because of them!"

"He saved her," Tsuchida said, very proudly. "Grabbed one of the little bastards by the neck and BAM!" She made a tearing motion with her hands.

"Inuyasha followed the trail the dogs made since he got there, though. Ma said he's like a dog himself 'cause he's good at following a scent."

Shippō giggled at that. "That's not the only way he's like a dog, though."

"Aw, be nice, Shippō-kun," Jinenji frowned.

"I am, I am!" the teen laughed, his tears forgotten.

"Anyways," Jinenji went back to the topic. "They didn't have any collars on them or anything that said where they were from, but Inuyasha found out somehow and went right to the lady's doorstep to tell her off! I'm pretty sure she went to jail over it and had to pay a big fine for what those dogs did."

"We stuck around a while after the whole saga, since the villagers saw we weren't the real culprits. But they went right back to their old ways after they decided that they liked being nasty, so we left," Tsuchida said. "Kagome-chan got me a job here and we've been here ever since."

Sango finished her notes and leaned back into her chair, steepling her fingers. She didn't ask for their life story, but then again, she couldn't complain; it certainly provided a lot of information about the Higurashis' lives prior to their unfortunate circumstances.

Not to mention it told her more about what Morinaga meant by nosiness…

"Would you like to go next, Shippō-kun?" she asked him.

"Yeah," he replied, a bit more steadily than before. "I'm ready now."

"Take all the time you need," Sango reassured.

"I was eight when I first met them," Shippō began. "My parents moved here from Kyoto and then I was born; they managed a shrine to Inari before they were murdered."

Sango's pen stopped with an abrupt, ugly scratch against her notepad. "They—"

"The Thunder Brothers did it."

She remembered the late-night broadcasts she saw on the news: the fear in her grandmother's tremulous voice as she reminded them to be home before six, to give away any valuables they might be carrying and not make a fuss if they came across the deadly duo. The gossip in her last year of high school when it was reported that both brothers had died in a gas explosion during another one of their attempted robberies; the shame brought upon their rich and high-profile father when it was discovered he let his sons run amuk without a single care over the victims they racked up during their short-lived spree.

"Wait…you're saying that they were involved in the Thunder Brothers' case?"

"Inuyasha and Kagome were the ones who brought them down."

Sango shook her head vehemently. "That's not possible—I saw the report on TV. I would've remembered them being mentioned—"

Shippō scoffed. "They were the ones who followed them and got those two bastards to blow themselves up in the warehouse. They were the ones who made the call to the police; I was there with them. I remember it like it was yesterday."

"Wait a moment," Sango held her hand up, trying to process this stunning new piece of information. "How did you say you met them again?"

"The Thunder Brothers burned my family's temple down in retaliation for my dad trying to report them for stealing some shrine treasures when they visited. I didn't have any family except for them and the Thunder Brothers threatened to kill me too if I called the police, so I was left living on the streets for a while," Shippō explained.

The poor thing, Sango thought.

"I was so hungry that I decided that stealing to eat would be better than starving in an alley somewhere, and well," he shrugged sheepishly, "Kagome was my first and only victim. I tried to take her backpack when she and Inuyasha were having a picnic in the park."

"And how did that work out for you?"

"Badly. Inuyasha gave me a lump on my head that took weeks to disappear. I pissed him off right off the bat."

Sango rubbed her chin thoughtfully. "And how did such a…poor first impression somehow turn into them finding the Thunder Brothers?"

"Kagome wanted to help me—it's what she does. They had a big fight over it, but she got to him in the end and they decided it would be their next big scoop. They spent like two weeks trailing the bastards, but it wasn't very hard to find them, in the end." Shippō clenched his fist hard. "They always did like to brag and they left a pretty obvious trail."

If that was the case, then why didn't the police catch them sooner? The thought troubled Sango.

"After that," Shippō continued, "I lived with Kagome for a while before they brought me here. They visited every single day, and then Kagome got a job here."

Sango finished recording his testimony almost as soon as he stopped talking, and set her pen down with a soft sigh. So all three of them had a close relationship with the Higurashis and had known them for some time now, to which Sango could presume that they had intimate knowledge on the couple, what their relationship was like…and who might be the one responsible for the violence enacted against them.

But how to go about it in a way that wasn't so blunt? Shippō had been immediately defensive of the husband as soon as she'd shut the door behind them.

Could that point to something…unsavoury about the man?

Sango picked up her pen again. "So," she said as casually as she could. "I can see that you're all very close to the Higurashi family. That's good—it means we can gather a lot more information on the case."

"Let's cut the crap, officer: he didn't do it."

There was a fire to Shippō's words that took Sango aback, a vehemence that spoke of a maturity far beyond his years. She set her pen down and leaned forward, choosing her words very, very carefully. "I didn't come here to make accusations, Shippō-kun. This is just the first part of the investigation and it's still too early to tell whether we've got a suspect or not. But please, by all means, tell me your reasons. Tell me if there's anyone we should be looking out for. And, not to sound rude, but a lot of cases point to the husband being the culprit, so I also need to know why we shouldn't be looking into him too."

"They made a lot of enemies with their work," Shippō replied immediately. "The Thunder Brothers have a sister who swore revenge for them. The Birds of Paradise gang still have members out on the streets. Sasakagami no Yura—"

"You're going to have to slow down so I can list all of that," Sango tried to jot down more notes as fast as she could.

"Gimme your email so I can make a better list for you," Shippō said blithely. "The point is that I know a lot of people who have plenty of reasons to hurt Kagome. I'll admit that Inuyasha is an asshole and a jerk, but he would never, ever do this."

Sango checked her wristwatch surreptitiously. It showed that their questioning was almost coming to a close, but with so much more that they obviously wanted to say, Sango was feeling pressed for time. "Let's swap emails then," she accepted, quickly writing down the station's address and passing the notepad to Shippō. "But please, elaborate: why doesn't he have any reasons for this? And why are you so afraid of us investigating him?"

Shippō became very, very quiet. Jinenji squeezed his shoulder comfortingly. Sango was hoping, waiting for an answer before the clock ran out on them, and it would mean leaving without a satisfactory answer.

"Because," Shippō finally said, "he's run into a lot of trouble with the law before. We've had our bad days together, but I care for him, okay? I don't want to see him get hurt." He stopped to wipe a tear from his eye. "And even though he and Kagome have had their rough moments, they really do love each other too much for me to think this could be his fault."

Sango's watch beeped loudly, signalling the end of their questioning and time for her and her team to pack up their results and head back to the precinct. She gathered up her notes and stood up, her metal chair skidding back with an awful, metallic shriek. "Thank you, everyone, for cooperating with us today." She waited patiently for Shippō, Jinenji, and his mother to stand up and leave the gardening shed before her. Once outside, she took the time to shake their hands in thanks. "We'll be back again to continue our investigation, but what we've gotten so far is a great help to our work. It'll really help us get through this much faster and catch the culprit soon."

"Thanks, officer-san," Jinenji sniffled. "Please bring back Kagome safe and sound to us."

"I promise."

The Tsuchidas having excused themselves, Sango was just about ready to head back to Morinaga's office to reconvene with the rest of her team, but was stopped at the last second by Shippō seizing the back of her shirt.

"Please give me your number too?" he asked, subdued.

Sango blinked, utterly perplexed, but was able to pull herself back together. "I can only give you the precinct's number—personal cell phone communication is strictly off limits, especially in cases like this." Nonetheless, she held her hand out to receive his phone (a rather nice smartphone model, she mused with a touch of envy) and dutifully punched in the number before giving it back to him.

"That's okay. I just need to know that I have some way to call you. I need to know how the case goes."

"We can give you the basics, Shippō-kun, but I'm afraid that a lot of details will be confidential and we aren't free to share them with the public."

"Alright…"

She gave him a brief, polite bow and started off back into the house's interior. She was stopped in her tracks again by Shippō calling out to her.

"Officer!" he yelled.

"Yes?" she was becoming a bit anxious to return to her team with her results. What else could Shippō possibly have to say?

The fire was back in his eyes again, only this time, there was something akin to aggression: something positively furious that shocked Sango to her core.

"I hope you catch the bastard and make them pay for what they've done."

For those wondering:

The Battle of Azukizaka took place in 1564 and was a conflict between the Ikkō-ikki and their allies (farmers, peasants, and some samurai) against Tokugawa Ieyasu's forces and retaliating against the samurai for taxing temples; the official cause of the battle is said to be due to a Matsudaira retainer confiscating the rice of Jōgū-ji Temple to feed his men. The Ikkō-ikki themselves were an offshoot from the Buddhist monks of the Jōdo Shinsū sect of Pure Land Buddhism (today the largest branch of Buddhism practiced in Japan, popularised through the doctrine of everyone being eligible for salvation and through the armed conflict of the Sengoku period), Shintō priests, and other low-class peoples who rose up against the daimyō.

Poverty is a difficult subject in Japan because the government is very reluctant to admit they even have more than a few homeless and poor people who depend on government assistance to get by; it's said that the official reports on the subject are downplaying the recorded amount of people. It contradicts the image of Cool Japan that is exported to the rest of the world and many rough sleepers often depend on the good will of volunteers to help them. A good point of reference for people new to the subject would be the videos by the Youtuber MyLifeinJapan, where he interviews homeless people, shelter volunteers, and even a university professor for his scoop. I will be sure to add more information on this in the future.

As for the dōwa…they are the closest thing that Japan had to an "untouchable caste." If peasants and farmers were low, then the collection of grave and ditch diggers, tanners, executioners, butchers, and any one else deemed to be "tainted" by dirtiness and death was lowlier and grouped into this term. "Dōwa" is the polite term for them (assimilated) as opposed to the far more offensive "burakumin" (hamlet people) and the even worse "eta" (an abundance of filth). Dōwa were the ony peoples denied social mobility in the history of Japan due to their birth, unlike others who could buy their way in to the upper classes through striking it rich, marriage, or distinguishing themselves in battle; dōwa were segregated into specific living areas and were forbidden to leave them, and today many places in Japan are still associated with them. Coming into contact with a dōwa individual was taboo and necessitated ritual purification to cleanse the "victim." They were seen as so worthless that they were declared to have 1/7 of the worth of a normal person and samurai were permitted to murder them with no consequences. As an added note, it was alleged that the dōwa were one of the biggest supporters of the Ikkō-ikki revolt, as the Jōdo Shinsū was the only Buddhist sect that didn't shun them. Many dōwa became tied to the yakuza as a way to get by in life; this issue will also be discussed in later chapters.

Though the caste system was officially abolished during the Meiji Restoration, "dōwa mondai" (assimilation issues) continued to be of concern well into the 20th century. It used to be legal for families, individuals, and companies to look into the backgrounds of potential employees, suitors, and even neighbours to check that they weren't dōwa-a controversial book that circulated in 1975 listing places of dōwa majority had to be officially investigated by the government. Several human rights and social progress groups sprang up to campaign for dōwa rights in the 20s, 60s, and 70s. In 2001, politician Tarō Asō objected to the nomination of Hiromu Nonaka for the post of prime minister, saying "we are not going to let someone from the buraku become prime minister, are we?" Nonaka subsequently withdrew from the race. Asō lost to Jun'ichirō Koizumi but became prime minister later anyways and cultivated a long career of racist, classist, xenophobic and ableist statements during his time in and out of office.

And though "dōwa mondai" were said to be "officially resolved" in 2004, it is noted that discrimination of them is still concentrated around the Kansai area.

And that's not even getting into Japan's issues with other minorities.

Next time: Miroku's team visits a certain family shrine to gather intel…maybe they won't like what they find…