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Inuyasha
stood in front of a huge, sweeping apartment building. The graceful balconies and large, clear windows stretched above his
head, and he frowned slightly as his eyes caught site of a broken window. It looked like a gaping wound in the building, baring
it's inside for the entire world to see. It was only six floors up, with a balcony to the same apartment perched beside it.
With a grunt, Inuyasha crouched down and leapt into the air, gracefully landing on the guardrail of the balcony. He hopped
down from his precarious perch and pushed the glass balcony door open.
It was exactly the same.
That
was the first thing that came to his mind as he softly crept into the apartment. The pictures on the walls hadn't been touched;
the pillows on the couches still leaned against their arms. The answering machine's small red light blinked quickly, on and
off, on and off. Three messages were there, none of which would ever meet the ears of the one they were meant for. It was
as though she could walk through the door at any moment.
But
she wouldn't, and slight differences, seen only by the half-demon's incredible senses were there. Her scent, which had once
been so strong, was now mellowed and faded. A fine layer of dust, one which most probably wouldn't notice, lay on all the
stands and knickknacks, something Kikyo never would have allowed.
He made his way into her bedroom; her scent was strongest here. For a moment, her smell surrounded
him, making him relaxed and lethargic. He sat down on her bed, silently imagining that she would come home. He lay down, facing
where she always lay on the bed, and tried to picture her there. His breathing slowed, and he drifted into sleep.
* * * * * * * *
"Kiera Hiffelton. . . 96%. . .Kagome Higurashi. . .61%. . ." Mr. Snider droned.
"What?!?" Kagome shrieked, interrupting the teacher and startling the other students. "Are you joking?
That can't be my grade!"
Mr. Snider frowned, twitching his mustache irritably, "Perhaps if you spent more time studying than
impersonating dead celebrities, Miss Higurashi, then you would do better!"
"That can't be my grade! I know I did better than that!" Kagome argued, the entire class staring at
her.
"Please take your seat, Miss Higurashi." He remarked and continued his droning of the grades.
Kagome put her head in her hands. Everything was going wrong recently, and she knew, beyond shadow
of a doubt, that she had done better in this class. Mr. Snider had had it in for her since the day she walked through the
door, almost as if he couldn't wait to make her life into a living hell. At least he was being more successful at that than
she was at getting through this class. She'd failed the class, and now. . .she would have to take it over. College classes
weren't cheap, and she couldn't keep shelling out thousands of dollars for classes, already her savings were going to be tight.
When their parents had died in an electrical fire at the factory where they worked, the families of
the victims sued the company. Though there was no way for them to get their parents back and the money would do little to
heal the pain of loss, the company had offered a settlement of several hundred thousand dollars to the victims. The lawyers
had taken nearly half of what the Higurashi daughters would have gotten, and then the rest went into a savings account. With
her half of the money, she'd put it into school, while Sango donated a great deal of hers to the police department.
However, the money was running low, with less than a hundred thousand left, and Kagome and Sango were
living, for the most part, off Sango's paycheck from the police department. Not that money was tight, there was plenty, but
still. . .
* * * * * * * *
Sango pushed the door of the apartment open, dropping the keys into the evidence bag in her jacket
pocket. Something was telling her to go back to Himoda's apartment and to look around again. "They've looked at everything.
You're not going to find anything, stupid!" she scolded herself fiercely. She flicked on the light switch, but no light came
on. "I guess they cut off the utilities." She remarked, drawing her flashlight out of her belt.
Something. . .something. . . What was it? There was something that they must have missed in the apartment.
There were too many holes in the story, and the only piece of evidence they had, in Sango's opinion, was no evidence at all.
She made her way through the apartment, peering in the doors, and hoping to see something someone had
missed. When she came to Himoda's bedroom, she was startled to find someone inside. Inuyasha Kimadora lay on the bed, sleeping
heavily. "Hey!" Sango yelled, startling Inuyasha out of his sleep. He sprang out of the bed and landed on the carpet with
a dull thud.
"Kikyo?" He muttered, shaking his head to wake himself up.
"Try Officer Higurashi." Sango remarked dryly.
"Sango? What are you doing here?" He questioned, glaring at her in surprise.
"Me?" Sango retorted, "I'm legally allowed to be here! What are you doing here? And sleeping in her
bed, too?" She demanded. A fire-red blush swept across Inuyasha's face and he mumbled some incomprehensible reply, which Sango
chose not to press. "Kimadora, what are you doing? Don't you realize that you could get in serious trouble for being in here?"
"Feh, let me alone, Higurashi." He replied wearily.
"Kimadora, I - " Sango started, but stopped, and looked at him for a moment. "Hey, is it true that
demons have exceptional senses?"
"Huh?"
He grunted, not expecting that question to appear when she was in the middle of berating him.
"Is it true?"
"Uh,
yeah. . ."
"So. . .half-demons would have similar abilites?" She continued.
"Yeah. . ."
"Can
you smell anything?" She inquired quickly.
"Feh,
I can smell lots of things." Inuyasha remarked evasively.
"How
about in here. What do you smell in here?" Sango questioned.
Inuyasha
looked at her skeptically. "You want me to tell you everything I smell?"
"Please?" Sango implored, "There's got to be something missing in here."
With a sigh, Inuyasha complied. At first, all he could smell was Kikyo, and now Sango's scent. "I smell
Kikyo. . . and you. . ."
"Obviously."
"And
perfume. . . Leya Roanna. . .I got that for her for Christmas. . ." Inuyasha remarked.
"And. . ."
"Ink,
like from a permanent marker. . .and blood. . .just a little. . .like from a pinprick. . ." he continued, furrowing his brow
in concentration.
"Blood? Whose blood?" Sango questioned.
"It's . . .Kikyo's. . ." he told her with a frown.
"And what else?"
"Chemicals.
. ." he told her, his eyes flying open, the amber orbs filled with trepidation.
"Chemicals? What sort of chemicals? That's no help. You can't just say chemicals!" she demanded, but
Inuyasha didn't answer her.
He pushed past her and began intently sniffing the wall. Chemicals. . .he could smell them. . .where
were they coming from? That mixture, he recognized it, but he wouldn't admit that it was what he knew it was until he saw
them for himself. He stopped before a large, old painting with a heavy antique frame. He lifted it off the wall and dropped
it on the bed.
"Inuyasha! Don't touch anything!" She scolded. "Your fingerprints!"
Inuyasha ignored her and carefully peeled away the layer of paper covering the back. With a hoarse
cry he jumped back, tripping and landing on the floor against the wall. "Oh my god!" he groaned.
"Inuyasha! What is - " Sango started, but upon looking into the frame, she mirrored Inuyasha's expression
of surprise, though to a lesser degree.
Inside,
in a specially hidden compartment inside the frame, there were three tiny glass bottles, a long syringe, and a rubber hose
that people use to make tourniquets. These were all the components of a drug addict's stash. Sango touched one of the bottles,
a brilliant purplish-pink substance sparkling inside. "This. . .this is Shikon!" she gasped.
"My God!" Inuyasha repeated, "Kikyo. . .what were you thinking?"
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