InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Demonology ❯ A New Plan is Hatched ( Chapter 6 )

Author's Note: A chapter a day? I must be crazy. Please review if you like it! I'm always looking for suggestions!

Disclaimer: Inuyasha and all of its characters are owned by Rumiko Takahashi. I don't make any money on this. I swear.

The sun was peeking through the windows when Kagome opened her eyes. She squinted, her head feeling fuzzy and she was unfamiliar with the surroundings. As the room came into focus, she found two amber eyes staring intently into her own.

Her look went from confused to pure anger.

“You!” she screamed, throwing pillows at him. “You did this to me!”

“No I didn't! If you would just listen to me, I can explain everything!” he yelled back, dodging the pillows.

She was out of the bed, but the rush of moving caused her to become severely dizzy and she collapsed, holding her head as she sit on the floor next to the bed.

“Please tell me nothing happened last night,” she begged, trying to hold on to her anger.

“Nothing really happened last night, but if you'll let me explain, it will make a lot more sense,” he told her. He lifted her under her arm pits and sit her back down on the bed.

“Can I get something to drink?” she asked him, still glaring.

“Sure. I'll be right back.” He left the room, returning a few minutes later with a tray of food and a tall glass of a green liquid. He motioned for her to get back under the covers, arranging the pillows behind her back so she sat more comfortably while sitting up. Begrudgingly, she agreed, but not without giving him dirty looks.

“What's that?” Kagome asked, pointing to the green liquid.

“It's a potion to help you recover. Jinenji sent it over after you fell asleep last night. He said you'd be pretty groggy this morning.”

Kagome eyed it suspiciously, giving him a strange look. Inuyasha rolled his eyes and took the drink, taking a large gulp.

“Trust me, if it's poisoned, I'll be throwing up in a minute.”

A full five minutes passed in silence and Inuyasha was unaffected. She was feeling worse with each passing moment. Her stomach was growling at her in protest, her body was weak. Finally, she caved in and drank it. It tasted putrid, but after she got the glass down, her body began to regain strength quickly. Her stomach settled, her head cleared.

“I told you it would help,” he told her. She glared at him, taking a bite of the toast and staring at the bowl of… she had no idea.

“What is that?” she said, pointing to the bowl of white goo.

“Oh, it's rice porridge. It's easy on the stomach. I have miso soup too if you want any.”

Kagome shook her head, taking a bite of the bland porridge. Inuyasha fiddled with his hands for a minute. She finished the food in front of her and he took the tray, putting it on the dresser across from the bed. He returned to the bed, sitting on the edge as he hunched over his knees, trying to find the words to explain without giving away too much. He was realizing that this was on a need-to-know basis, and he really didn't feel comfortable telling her anything. At this point, however, she was too involved. He needed to tell her.

“What I'm about to tell you is top secret and you cannot repeat it to anyone. Sango knows, but only because she's been helping me with the case. However, I don't want you two discussing it because you never know who is listening.” Kagome stared at him with an unreadable look. She didn't know whether or not she could trust him. He sighed, got up and moved to the dresser, digging through the top drawer until he found a black wallet and sat on the bed. He opened it to reveal a silver badge.

“You're a cop?!” Kagome half shouted. He could see the confusion on her face, which gave him courage to continue.

“Kind of. I'm actually an undercover detective. I work in a special division for demon crimes. Since I blend in to both, kind of, I can gain intelligence that most people would never be able to obtain. The fight club is my alias, although I make quite a bit doing that too. Jinenji is also on the task force, he provides disguises for me when I'm really deep undercover, like last night, as well as other intelligence as to what demons buy which potions.”

Kagome didn't know what to think. “You weren't in disguise last night, I saw you. I remember you at the rave! You were shacking up with---,” Kagome started to yell, but Inuyasha interrupted her.

“That wasn't me. That was a friend of mine disguised as me.”

“So you didn't kiss me in front of everyone last night?!” she screamed. She felt tears well up in her eyes. She felt completely disgusting now. She was a ploy in his case. A piece in his games. He was using her only to get information for a case. She felt like she was completely played and used.

“No, that was me. I was trying to make you mad so you'd avoid me later in the night. I switched into the disguise after the fight was over. At the rave, I was the tall red headed guy who was staring at you.”

Kagome tried to remember, but nothing came to mind. She felt completely and utterly betrayed. “I don't remember a red headed guy.”

“That's because you were making out with some blonde guy,” Inuyasha growled. Kagome turned red.

“We were just dancing… He found me after I saw you, well, who I thought was you, making out with a demon. I confronted you and you pretended not to know me and told me to back off. I started dancing with him, he kissed me… then I woke up here,” she muttered. Why couldn't she remember anything? Finally, she noticed that her arms were covered in bandages.

“What happened to my arms?” she asked. For some reason she had the feeling that there had been bugs crawling all over her body. She thought that she had had a nightmare of bugs under her skin in an alley. At least, she thought it was an alley. It was a dream, right?

“You were forced to take LSD and you overdosed. You were literally ripping the skin off your arms and ripping your hair out. Jinenji gave you a potion to stop the LSD and put you to sleep. He's the one that wrapped up your arms. If he did it right, you won't even have scars.”

Kagome took the bandages off and her arms were baby soft and pink. She moved her hands to her head and felt a small bald spot under her hair. She realized that her hair was completely matted and there were literal chunks of hair missing.

Inuyasha saw her face go from curiosity to full blown horror, and she began to sob. “My hair…” she cried. She pulled her knees up to her chin and began sobbing, hugging her knees to her chest. He could hear her wailing, trying to figure out a way to comfort her.

“You can't even tell,” Inuyasha assured her. She continued crying. “But my associate was specifically told to avoid you, I guess he took that to mean to shack up with other girls,” he growled, but Kagome was preoccupied. She barely heard him. All she could think about was how messed up her hair was going to look. She was thinking how foolish she was, letting herself get drugged at a rave. She had been warned about that, and now it had happened.

“What else happened?” Kagome asked, sniffling quietly.

“I can't divulge too much information about the actual case, but you are in danger,” he told her. He regretted telling her that, but he had no other option. Then again, the wheels in his head began turning. He began to think. What if he did divulge more information? What if he brought her in on the case? His thoughts were interrupted by Kagome's shaky voice.

“I wasn't... raped, was I?” There was a sinking feeling on her face. He saw that her face was completely ashen, scared, tears streaming down her face.

“Oh no, nothing like that. I got you out of there shortly after you first passed out. You were alone with another girl who was drugged and two demons for maybe five minutes. I was listening outside the door to make sure it didn't get that far. I had to be cautious to not blow my cover.” She let out a sigh in relief. At least she wasn't attacked.

“What am I going to do?” she asked him.

“Well I can't tail you all the time, but I do have someone who can. I'll introduce you to him later. Are you feeling more yourself now?”

She let the covers drop and stretched her legs out. She wiped her eyes and let out a small sob. “I'm okay I guess. I do feel better. But I feel really grimy.” She was lying and they both knew it. She was in terrible shape. Her body ached, her emotions were on high alert. She had just learned far more information than she could digest.

“How about you go take a shower and I'll get you some clothes. Take your time. I'll call my guys to introduce you and we'll work from there as to what to do next,” he said gently, reaching over to squeeze her hand.

She gave him a weak smile and stood up. Her dress was horribly stained with dirt and possibly blood. It was probably ruined. She felt tears well up again.

“Don't worry, my housekeeper can get stains out of anything,” he told her. “Go get in the shower.”

Kagome walked over to the bathroom and locked the door. She stripped down and saw a set of towels and a large fluffy bathrobe. There was a small basket of assorted soaps. She looked in the mirror and saw just how bad she looked. She gave raccoons a run for their money with the dark circles. Her hair was everywhere and patchy. She had scratches on her shoulders that she assumed Jinenji didn't see. Her body was bruised badly. She felt the tears well up again, but she bit them back. Crying wouldn't solve anything. She saw that he had a large bathtub with jets and she figured that a long bath was in order.

When Inuyasha heard the water running, he called Sango.

“Is she okay?” Sango asked frantically. She answered on the second ring and didn't even say hello.

“She's' fine, she's in the shower. Could you bring some clothes over for her? I need to fill you in about the case. Bring Miroku. I'm calling in Myoga and Shippo as well. Possibly Jinenji.”

Sango was quiet for a moment. “This sounds serious.”

“I have an idea and I need full cooperation.”

Inuyasha called down the list. Jinenji was the first to arrive. The potion he used made him look exactly as Inuyasha had looked the night before. Once entering the apartment he ate a sugar cube and turned into his giant self, giving Inuyasha a reluctant smile.

“How is she this morning?” he asked gently, sitting down on the sofa, taking up two cushions.

“She's pretty beat up. There were some other scratches that looked bad and some bruising showed up this morning. She's taking a bath right now. I've filled her in on a lot of what has been going on and I think I have a plan to get the information I need, so I'm bringing in a few people working the case.”

Jinenji pulled out an old leather bag and looked through. He pulled out a small vial of a green liquid and a small bag of tea leaves.

“I have some tea that will make her feel much better and will help heal her faster. The vial will finish healing the scratches so they don't scar. Unfortunately you have to walk off the bruises, but the tea will help the bruising go away faster.” Inuyasha smiled. Jinenji was possibly the kindest demon he had ever met, a bleeding heart for those around him. He took the vial and the tea and brought them to the kitchen, turning on the stove for the tea kettle.

Another knock at the door, Inuyasha opened it to let in Sango and Miroku. Sango had a bag of clothes for Kagome and looked relieved to see Jinenji there.

“She's in the bath still. She might let you in,” Inuyasha told Sango, which she nodded and began to head towards the bath, but Jinenji grabbed her arm.

“Wait, here,” he said, pulling out a bath bomb. “Tell her to put this in the bath, it'll help her sore muscles.”

Sango smiled. “What would we do without you, Jinenji?”

He blushed as Sango walked away.

“So Inuyasha, what all have you told her?” Miroku asked, getting right down to business.

Inuyasha sighed. “I told her I was a detective and that I'm investigating a case that causes me to go undercover quite a bit. I didn't tell her about the actual case yet, but I think I may need her help in order to get this case closed, which is why I'm calling everyone here today.”

The door opened to Myoga and a tall red headed man. The man was Japanese, but his hair was bright orange and he had green eyes. His ears were pointed, and except for the bushy fox tail, he looked completely human.

“Shippo, long time no see,” Inuyasha called out to him. Shippo rolled his eyes.

“You think there was a reason for that?” Shippo called back. “I'm not a kid anymore, I don't need you to babysit me like in the old days.”

“Whatever, runt. I saved your skin more times than you can count.”

Shippo looked visibly angry and pulled out a green leaf, sticking it to his head. There was a loud “poof” and suddenly he was a large wolf, growling at Inuyasha. Inuyasha jumped over and punched him on the head, creating another loud “poof” and Shippo turning back to normal.

“You know I hate wolves,” Inuyasha spat. The tea kettle began whistling and Inuyasha excused himself.

“You know Shippo, if you stopped picking fights with him, you might get along better with him,” Miroku suggested. Shippo shrugged.

“We've always had more fun beating each other up,” he replied coolly. “However, we've been seeing each other more frequently because of this case. It's frustrating as hell.”

“Oh really? Inuyasha didn't mention it,” Sango replied as she walked into the room. “Kagome said thank you for the bath bomb, she'll be out in a few minutes. She said she's feeling much better now.”

Jinenji replied with a kind smile. Inuyasha had a cup of tea in his hand when Kagome came out of the bathroom. Her eyes were a little blood shot from crying, but she looked far better now that she was cleaned up. He cringed when he saw the patches of hair missing, a couple of small bald spots. He saw that she tried to hide them, but it was completely useless.

“Here,” Inuyasha said, holding out the tea. “This will help the bruises heal faster. Also, take this vial. Shoot it. It's good, but it tastes terrible.”

Kagome wanted to ask about why there were so many people there in the room, but she shrugged and drank the potion and started to sip the tea. Her strength was returning far faster than she had anticipated.

She sat down on an overstuffed chair near Jinenji, with Sango on the floor next to her. Myoga stayed standing and Shippo was standing with his hands behind his back, watching the room.

“Kagome, this is Shippo. He's a fox demon who I've known for quite a number of years,” Inuyasha stated, addressing Shippo.

“Four hundred, to be exact,” Shippo corrected. Inuyasha rolled his eyes.

“A fox demon?” Kagome asked. “I've read about fox demons. They're tricksters, aren't they?”

Shippo smiled. “We're illusionists. We can also change the surroundings.”

“They're very good at finding out information since they can change shapes so easily. Shippo is particularly skilled in gathering information. He's been working this particular case with me.”

Shippo smiled, showing off his fangs.

“This is Jinenji,” Inuyasha said while pointing his hand at Jinenji. Jinenji bowed his head in response. “Jinenji is the potions master, so to speak. He is extremely skilled in creating antidotes for poisons and drugs, as well as making disguises for humans and demons alike.”

“Mostly I try to make cures for ailments, but the disguises was a bit of fun. I didn't expect to be so good at it,” Jinenji confessed. Kagome gave him a warm smile.

“And this is Myoga, he's actually a flea demon. He's the associate you saw last night. He's also quite skilled at changing forms, particularly into me.”

Myoga bowed his head. “I'm sorry if I caused you distress, I was unaware that Lord Inuyasha and you were so well acquainted.”

There was a knock at the door and Inuyasha rolled his eyes. He opened the door to see Rin with Jakken.

“Did you have to bring the toad?” Inuyasha grunted as Rin walked passed. She was wearing a floral dress and her hair was in a bun.

“You know the answer to that, brother,” Rin said in an annoyingly upbeat tone. She tugged on his ear as she walked passed, causing Inuyasha to give her a scowl.

“I think you remember Rin, my brother's mate,” Inuyasha scowled.

“Hi Kagome. Never mind Inuyasha, he's pretty sweet most of the time,” Rin said, shaking her hand. She gave her a warm smile and sat down on the love seat across from Kagome.

“I should also explain that Sango is not as young as you either,” Inuyasha confessed.

“I got this Inuyasha,” Sango said. “I'm actually seven years older than you, working undercover on campus.”

“What?! You told me that you did inspections at the clubs!” Kagome exclaimed.

“I do that too, but I said I was the assistant. That was a lie. I actually run the department. Since I look really young, I was asked to move to New York City after closing a high profile case in Seattle a few years back. Inuyasha and I were assigned to each other. He's part of a demon task force that goes undercover, I give the assignments and relay information for him. Currently on campus I'm watching if there's any disappearances. That's why I'm always gone, but never doing homework.”

Kagome's jaw dropped. “So what about…”

Miroku cleared his throat. “I'm a forensic specialist working on my master's at NYU. I actually am a student, but I help with crime scenes as needed. Sango and I met when I was helping her with a murder case.”

“So why did you take such a special interest in me when I first moved into the dorms?” Kagome asked.

“I read about what happened to your family in San Francisco. You're the ideal target and I thought that warming up to you, I could get a clue as to what's going on. I didn't think we'd hit it off so well. I was just trying to be a friendly roommate at first.”

“I told you about what happened to my family,” Kagome corrected.

“No, I read the police file. You barely scratched the surface. Don't even try to lie to me.”

Kagome bit her lip.

“Anyway,” Inuyasha interrupted, looking rather annoyed. “The reason I called everyone here is I think Kagome may be the person to finally close this case,” Inuyasha stated.

There was an audible gasp from everyone in the room.

“Last night I heard Hiten and someone named Kagura say that Kagome or the other girl were perfect for what they were looking for. If that's the case, we can have Kagome go undercover and get the intelligence we need to put it to close.”

“Are you out of your fucking mind?” Miroku half yelled. “She could be killed!”

“She's not trained!” Sango screeched.

“We can train her,” Inuyasha countered. “We can protect her, that's why everyone is here!”

Everyone began to yell over one another, arguing about how competent Kagome would be. Finally, Rin stood up and climbed on top of the coffee table.

“What about Kagome? Doesn't she have a say in this?” Rin called out. Everyone grew silent and stared at Kagome.

“What say you, Kagome? Would you be willing to go undercover? You would be compensated, obviously. But it would be dangerous,” Myoga asked. “You could be killed.”

“Well, what exactly is going on?” Kagome asked.

“Humans have been disappearing. First it was just the homeless population. Some demon clubs have back rooms where they sell drugs since it's difficult for a demon to get a job in the first place. The black market is mostly run by demons now,” Shippo explained.

“Demons discovered a few years ago that a human high on a drug causes psychedelic reactions in them as well. Human blood gives a natural high to most demons anyway, which is why demons were eating humans for so many years. Drugs however, do not have any effect on them. When the drugs are in the blood of humans though, they get high as humans would, which has caused a huge black market for human blood tainted with drugs,” Miroku continued to explain.

“Demons were willing to pay a steep price for it, so homeless people could make a king's ransom selling their blood. However, demons caught on that most of the people would use the money that they made selling their blood to buy more drugs, so they made it equal priced. People began wasting away in these dens, so the homeless problem disappeared. Demons started needing more variety so they would find people who were on the brink of it and force drugs into their systems,” Inuyasha picked up. “The trafficking problem just increased tenfold. Now children in foster homes, disabled individuals with no families, sometimes rotten parents selling their kids on the black market… The trafficking is becoming heavily fueled by demon's wanting a good high. However, in the past year, it's gotten completely out of hand. It's not even predictable anymore.”

Kagome's jaw dropped.

“Of course, you know all about the trafficking, don't you Kagome?” Sango said smugly. Kagome gave her a dark look.

“How about when we get to know each other better, we'll sit down with a bottle of wine and I'll tell you everything,” Kagome replied coolly.

“Anyway,” Sango interjected. “The problem now is that usually people who weren't really missed were going missing, so the police weren't on top of it like they should have been. Hard to find people who were hardly in the system to begin with. Now more people are going missing and at an alarming rate, so for the past year Inuyasha and I have been working on finding out why these people are going missing. The pattern we discovered was young girls from age 12 to 24. People over thirty rarely disappear, and really young kids don't disappear. We haven't even found bodies of anyone missing recently, which is more concerning. I'm afraid that their flesh is being sold by the pound on the black market.”

Kagome covered her mouth. “What?!”

“Demons will gladly pay a high price to have human flesh to eat, its part of why demons were so reluctant to come into the open again. Humans thought we died out, when really we just went underground. All the paranormal species came together and decided to come out all at once so there would be less panic. You know the history from there, world peace was achieved nearly instantly when the military began enlisting vampires and demons into secret agencies,” Inuyasha added off handedly. Kagome's face held the utter look of horror.

“I was thinking of sending you into one of the dens, but you'd be wearing a wire and you would be heavily guarded,” Inuyasha stated. “You would be protected, but we would have to do some basic training with you to ensure that you wouldn't get killed.”

The group began to argue amongst themselves. Inuyasha was insisting that Kagome would be able to handle the operation with their help, Miroku was arguing that it was far too dangerous, Sango agreed. Shippo just watched with a smile, Myoga was yelling over everyone that protection would be easy enough. Jinenji just kept his head down, refusing to speak.

“Alright ENOUGH!” Kagome yelled. “Let me think about it. This is a lot of information to take in. I'm exhausted. I just want to go to my dorm and sleep.”

“How long do you need to decide?” Rin piped up.

Kagome thought about it. She didn't want to put a time limit on it.

“Let us know by the end of the week. If we don't hear anything, we'll assume you're not interested. Shippo, I need you to discretely tail her so that if any of the guys slink around, we'll know. Also fucking protect her,” Inuyasha snarled.

“Don't get mad, Inuyasha. You're not the greatest at protecting. I remember when Kikyo---,” Shippo began to say, but Inuyasha punched him right in the jaw.

“Do what I say,” he said point blank.

“Kagome,” Rin began to say, reaching over and grabbing Kagome's hand. “You can say no, it is okay. If you ever feel like you're in danger, come find me at Taisho's, Sesshoumaru and I can provide protection if you ever feel unsafe.”

Kagome stood up, and walked towards the door.

“You'll know by Friday.”

Author's note: AAAAAAH! Writing bug won't stop biting me. Tell me what you think!