InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Woodin Cylinders And Red Herrings ❯ Identity Revealed ( Chapter 10 )

Disclaimer: I don't own InuYasha or any characters there in.

Identity revealed

"But perhaps Dusty would like the honor?" Tora grinned at their anxious faces.

Dusty shrugged "It doesn't matter to me. I figured it out, just close the deal already."

Tora bowed her head slightly to Dusty before standing and moving towards the door.

"Hey, wait!" InuYasha jumped up, "Tell us who ordered the curse, bitch!"

Tora stopped, and turned slightly to face him, "I always meet my clients face to face InuYasha. This is the first time I've done it after the fact. It was a pleasure working for you and I hope you enjoy the out come of your request." Tora bowed low to InuYasha and walked to past him to her desk. Once she was seated in her high backed chair, she picked up the scroll, "The spells are complete and the contract is paid. We won't be needing this anymore."

She held the scroll near the oil lamp on her desk and it went up in flames.

"It was me?" InuYasha blinked in disbelief, "I wanted revenge? On Kagome?"

"Yes, and no," Tora smiled, "first I want to know how Dusty figured it out."

Dusty put on a serious expression, "Um, lets see, should I start at the beginning, or strength of the clues…"

"Just get on with it!" InuYasha growled lowly.

Dusty gave him a dirty look, "From the beginning then. The first thing that I noticed when I started to investigate the case was the similarities between InuYasha's rosary and the spells on Kagome. At the time I thought that that was due to the similarities of the spells, and the fact that they each owned each other's spells. But I kept it in mind, just in case it went deeper then that.

"When I got a chance to look at the physical manifestation of the spells on Kagome, I noticed how well the two spells, the one we knew was meant for Kagome and the one we thought was for the Ogre, were weaved together. I was amazed that it could have been an accident. But everything up to that point made me think that it must have been.

"The next clue to surface is even weaker then those two, but should be mentioned. The form of Kagome's mark. I presumed that the client didn't know what the mark was, that they just wanted to Kagome embarrassed or for the spells mark to go unreported to her friends. I thought one thing suspicious though, Why "InuYasha's comfort"?"

"W-What!" InuYasha sputtered.

Miroku grinned, "Kagome has "InuYasha's comfort" written across her hips? No wonder she didn't tell us what it said."

Dusty gave the boys a sour look, "Why "InuYasha's comfort" in order to prevent her from telling? Sure it's embarrassing, but why not up the stakes? Instead of "InuYasha's comfort", write "Miroku's Comfort" instead. That would definitely keep Kagome from revealing the mark to anyone, even Sango, who she might otherwise confide in. Of course there is always the possibility that the client did know what the mark would say. But why would anyone, other then InuYasha or Kouga, or possibly Kikyo, care about whose name was in the mark? And if it was Kouga or Kikyo they wouldn't be likely to choose InuYasha's name. So this was a confusing and possibly misleading clue. But a clue non the less."

"InuYasha didn't know the form of the mark." Tora interrupted quietly, "But he did express an interest."

"There you go." Dusty shook her head, "Next we started to sort out the suspects. I'll skip every one who didn't do it and go straight to InuYasha. I really didn't know enough about him and Kagome and their relationship to come up with a solid motive. All I knew at the time was nobody knew what was going on with them, them least of all. I did know that InuYasha had a rosary spell that Kagome owned, and that he wanted the Jewel they're looking for, for himself. And again the similarities of their spells popped up in my mind. I filed it away with all the other motives.

"When I began to suspect a dream weaver of being involved, InuYasha became more suspicious. Surely he harbored bad feelings about his rosary. I didn't know what his spell was exactly, however as an asocial young man the dream weaver theory did cast him in a suspicious light.

"The next, and I must say biggest clue I got, was Kagome's hiss. When she got mad she hissed at us. Eventually I found out that she was actually hissing at InuYasha. I thought this was a suspicious action, Kagome didn't seem like the kind of girl that would hiss at some one.

"I was very confused about this, until the next phase when Kagome actually got to use her subduing powers on InuYasha. With a resounding SSSIT!" Dusty paused to look at the stunned group, "I realized that that was very likely what the passive part of the spell was affecting. Kagome was unable to subdue InuYasha when she was angry, but otherwise the spell was intact. Why?" Dusty questioned Tora.

"I will explain myself later Dusty," Tora answered calmly, "Once you are finished."

Dusty nodded, "I didn't want to implicate InuYasha at that point, because we were almost here, and I wasn't positive. Though the earlier clues made it seem like it was him, I couldn't figure out why he wouldn't have had the word blocked out completely. And I didn't think that he would want revenge on someone he nursed through this whole thing. It just didn't seem right.

"I was beginning to suspect Tora too. She knew we were coming, and she was the only revenge demon from our region, former or otherwise in the area. This troubled me.

"Then InuYasha suggested the subject that ended up revealing the word spell over Kagome. And it was a sharp order, comparable to SIT! And one that many young men would like to have over their young girlfriends. That or "Shut Up".

"When Tora recognized you and pulled you into her home without me there to baby-sit you, I knew one of you must have been the client. Tora is a very private person usually. I also realized at this time that the motive wasn't revenge, sugar is wonderful brain food." Dusty confided, "See Tora isn't a vengeance demon anymore. Part of the spell kept pestering me, what kind of revenge is perfection? So I thought it wasn't. But it was. Whatever Tora was hired to do wasn't really revenge. Perfection meant perfection!

"I felt much better after that. InuYasha was the client, but he wasn't trying to hurt Kagome."

"What do you mean I wasn't trying to hurt Kagome!" InuYasha yelled, "Didn't you see what she went through?"

Dusty tilted her head to the side in thought and Tora looked slightly confused, "But," Dusty said slowly, "She wasn't hurt."

"I think we have different opinions of what constitutes "hurt"." Miroku sighed.

Tora tilted her head to the side now, "She did not suffer pain, not even when her body returned to normal. I made sure of that. No damage was done that was not undone. She was not hurt."

InuYasha scowled and started to move towards Tora, but Miroku stopped him, "I do not believe we can make them understand, InuYasha. Kagome will recover, let's leave it at that for now."

Reluctantly, InuYasha stopped.

"Dusty is done," Tora said, she decided to ignore most of what InuYasha did anyway since she had little patience with youth, "Now I must explain myself, as well as you I guess." She indicated InuYasha.

"Our mutual friend, a Dream Weaver as Dusty thought, came to me with your problem. You see, I am not a vengeance demon," Tora smiled darkly, "and you didn't want revenge. But you did want to get even. That's what I do now. Instead of blinding a whole family and their dog for putting out an eye, I just put of the eye of the one that did the damage. But I don't hurt people any more, I arrange things so the playing field is even. It is much more … challenging." Tora whispered, allowing the word to drip from her tongue, "And you InuYasha, were quite a challenge."

"You went to our friend shortly after a spat with the butterfly." Tora leaned back in her chair in a regal sort of casual way, "Apparently you were very upset when she used your rosary to subdue you at what you thought was an unfair and uncalled for time. That was the last straw. So you called on a Dream Weaver, the Dream Weaver called on me. And here we are."

"I don't understand how the things you did to Kagome `evened the playing field' between them." Sango glanced back at Kagome, who was still asleep.

"I'm getting to that." Tora said dissmissively, "See if this sounds familiar; loss of bodily control, helplessness, fear of unpredictable elements causing bodily harm for apparently no reason, public humiliation at the utterance of a single word, and barring, publicly, the symbol of that humiliation. I think that's everything…. Kagome had a lot to catch up on."

"But it was more complicated then just the spells." Tora stood and began to pace the floor as she explained, "I had to figure out how to get even and then keep it that way. I couldn't harm her or compromise her humanity." Tora shot InuYasha an annoyed look before continuing to pace thoughtfully, "I looked into your `relationship', or rather Dream Weaver did. But I had to think on that one. I found that Kagome used the spell when she got angry, especially to escape from fights. That was an unfair advantage. InuYasha was then unable to pester what he did out of her, like other males might do. But the spell was too helpful to block out entirely. So I blocked out the control word when she was angry, but in any other state she can still access it.

"A control deserves a control in return. InuYasha wanted the same power over Kagome, but that was hardly fair. After all, he is stronger and faster then she ever could be as a human. So I settled for him getting his questions answered. Now if he really want's to know what's wrong with her all he has to do is ask." Tora smirked.

"But that was easy to take care of, and fairly obvious. The mark was by far the hardest thing to come up with. Believe it or not, coming up with where to put it was harder then what to make it say. I thought about putting it on her collarbone, like a necklace, and not having it say anything. But that would have been difficult, and dangerous, to deliver. And any mark on her face, neck, hands, or legs, would be considered disfiguring and ugly, not just humiliating. A much worse fate then InuYasha's rosary. It suites him, you see. So I made it a phrase that would embarrass Kagome simply by being there. And placed it where it would be the most suggestive. I thought of making it a necklace too, but that didn't seem bad enough for Kagome and I would have had to fool someone much more powerful then that ogre.

"Then Kagome had to go through catch up. I came up with combining the helpless and fear factors of InuYasha's past experiences with his spell, with the long term effect that I came up with to even Kagome up with him. Simply slow down the process of optimizing Kagome's body to twenty-four hours. Easy as that."

"But," Sango asked hesitantly, "why optimize Kagome's body? How does that help InuYasha?"

"It doesn't," Tora announced, "but if I hadn't then they wouldn't be even, InuYasha would still have a major advantage over her, in addition to all my spells. I wanted to make things as equal as possible. But InuYasha didn't want me to compromise her humanity in any way. So I had to work within those limitations. Really annoying."

"So InuYasha did this because Kagome "sat" him in front of Kouga?" Dusty asked. She was watching InuYasha, who had gone pale and was staring at Kagome with a blank look on his face. "I think he's in shock."

"He'll get over it." Tora leaned against her desk, "Kouga wasn't just an enemy, he is a rival for Kagome's affection. He claimed that Kagome was "his woman". And, as they are adolescent boys living at this level of "civilization" InuYasha had to fight for both of their honor. He had to show every one who the bigger male was. Think about it Dusty. Kouga steals a woman that is under InuYasha's protection, a woman that InuYasha has an interest in, he puts her in danger, he claims, in front of his pack and InuYasha's group that she will be his. InuYasha saves the day. Kagome sides with her kidnapper. Refuses to let them fight, subdues him in front of this enemy, this now rival in love, and aids in his escape. InuYasha was pissed. Then when InuYasha inquires as to what happened while she was Kouga's prisoner, she runs away home without answering him. This was the last straw. His resentment took hold of his unconscious mind and summoned a dream weaver. Any questions, InuYasha."

InuYasha shook his head, "Kagome's going to be pissed."

*

A/N: Dusty only had access to most of the clues, a full list of the clues at the bottom. Any questions? I need filler for the epilogue.

The count now stands at:

Shikon No Tama- 1

Keade- 1

Kouga- 1

Kagome- 1

Just a test- 1

Thank you for playing, now for the honorable mentions:

No one got it right… it was a tough mystery I guess.

Wellll. Cursed jax would have been right but then changed his mind.

These people may not have been right, but they almost made me doubt myself with their deductions:

Cursed jax

Ranae

Also gave reasons:

Avarinnia

Morlana

Also played along:

Nemisis

And Thanks to all the reviewers that didn't guess. I hope you all enjoyed the mystery.

The complete list of Clues ranked from 1 to 3. 1 being rock solid, 3 barely even counts as circumstantial.

(1)Right before Chapter 1 - the proximity to the first Kouga event

(1)Chapter 1 - InuYasha's unusual fatigue in the swamp

(3)Chapter 1 - InuYasha's reluctance to fight(I realize that he acts like that usually when faced with charity acts, but was he having second thoughts?)

(1)Chapter 1 - the Ogre recognized InuYasha's youki

(3)Chapter 2 - InuYasha's insistence that Kagome's sudden recovery wasn't important and that they move on. (again not unusual behavior anyway)

(2)Chapter 3 and 5 - Dusty's remarks on the rosary connection

(2)Chapter various - the ogres spell for perfection

(2)Chapter 4 - Dusty's amazement at the accidental weaving of the spells

(3)Chapter 4 - the form of the mark

(3)Chapter 5 - InuYasha's "motives" as seen by Dusty

(2)Chapter 5 - the use of a dream weaver suggests a subconscious desire

(1)Chapter 6 and 7 - Kagome's hissing when angry

(2)Chapter 8 - the similarities of the word spell, InuYasha's suggestion of the subject "talk"

(2)Chapter 4 and 9 - Tora was not a vengeance demon any more, but she was the caster of the spells

(2)Chapter 9 - Tora looked at InuYasha before forwarding Kagome to the next phase, asking for permission perhaps?

Well that's that. And remember I'll answer any questions you ask in the epilogue. Please? I need the filler.