"Well, that was great trial," smiled Inu-yasha, waving for a waiter. He had promised to treat Kagome to a first class espresso once her part in Kikyo's trial was over, and had taken her to a very good (and very expensive) café as soon as he had pried the enraged prosecuting lawyer off her.
"Why, thank you." Kagome grinned. "An espresso, please." This was to the waiter, who nodded and turned to Inu-yasha.
"Make that two, thank you." Inu-yasha smiled at the waiter before turning back to regard Kagome quizzically. "By the way, was that Jakotsu I saw being dragged kicking and screaming into the court room for the next trial?"
"Was it?" said Kagome innocently.
"Charged with assaulting an officer of the law…"
"Really?"
"…possession of illegal weapons…"
"Point of interest – I checked, and hairpins are not allowed to be longer than 10 cm."
"…and finally, I quote, 'just being a downright little bitch'?"
There was a pause, in which Kagome had the decency to look at least slightly embarrassed.
"Well, you can't say you don't agree," she said finally, her tone defensive.
Inu-yasha shook his head and laughed. "Remind me never to get on your bad side. You sure seem to have a lot of power." This was said with a kind of surprised awe. "Just how many did you have following Kikyo?"
"Suffice it to say… a lot," grinned Kagome. "Among others, which you have probably already deduced as the frightfully clever guy you are, Sota. When he dropped in on us the first time, he had just been away investigating another one of Kikyo's little murders up in Nebraska. Since then he's been keeping tabs on her for me. Only when he has time off from his other job, mind you. He has a tendency to stretch himself." She said it with a fond sisterly exasperation, shaking her head. "Well, you finally got him out of your bed, at least."
(A young man who happened to pass by at that moment looked delighted to overhear this. Inu-yasha was later cornered on his way to the men's room and assured that if the space left was too empty, this guy would be more than happy to take Sota's place.)
"Yeah, and thank god," Inu-yasha countered. "I was starting to think it actually was his room – used to knock before I walked in. Waste of time, since he seemed to be in a coma. Thanks, I'll take that." The waiter had appeared again, with their coffee. Inu-yasha took the cups from him and waved him away with an assurance that he would pay later (he didn't want to reveal to Kagome just how much she was costing him today). As Kagome sipped her coffee – the look on her face being well worth the chunk this café visit would bite out of his budget – he regarded her closely, wondering if he would ever understand her completely.
"So," he said, "you really are from the CIA. For a long time there I had you down as an impostor…" This brought laughter from Kagome and a sheepish smile from Inu-yasha. "You know, I'm really sorry for thinking it was the other way around with you and your wayward sis, that you were the crook. But it was all very confusing."
"Apology accepted, on one condition." Kagome tried to look stern but failed, grinning at him. "Buy me coffee here again."
"Sure thing," smiled Inu-yasha. (Not entirely sincerely. His wallet was screaming obscenities at him.) "You want to know what really got my mind twisted up? Why you were always the one running from her. I mean, she said some things that didn't stick as well, but I thought that was because she didn't want to tell me she had an investigation on about you. Turns out I had it backwards, but since she was actually seeking contact with you…"
"She knew we didn't have anything on her yet," Kagome explained. "She was merely gloating. She thought it would be great fun to come and mock baby sister, knowing I wouldn't be able to do anything."
"That was the purpose of the quote she told me to relay to you as well, I guess."
"Uh-huh." Kagome nodded. "It was a warning and a threat to me, a hint to you – she was trying to make you believe I was a fake, remember – and it was also mockery, mentioning Midoriko. She knows I'll never get her for that murder, and she loves to make allusions to it – I mean, I knew Midoriko as well, you know. She christened her little helpers after Midoriko as well…"
"But how come you have so much on her now, if you didn't have anything on her before, I mean?"
"Well, that was only what Kikyo believed." Kagome grinned. "As I said, we've had multiple investigations on her for a long time now, over several years in fact. But not until recently were we able to tie it all into something useful – the Shikon deal investigation (which was at first just a way to see her operate at close range, we didn't think the actual deal was really worth the trouble) turned up leads important to other murder and fraud enquiries. Kikyo, most likely, didn't know just how far we were, and decided to risk meeting me. The reason I chickened out was simply that I wasn't sure I'd be able to contain myself from socking her a good one." She grinned at him. "Which, in the eyes of agent Inu-yasha – already suspicious of the weird girl from New York, alternatively Washington – would register as assault. Arrest and subsequent blowing of cover would not do the investigation any good. And before you have time to mope, sorry. I had to pretend. This was strictly undercover."
"I never mope," said Inu-yasha indignantly. "I occasionally sulk a little. In a proper grown up fashion, of course." He spoke lightly, but was touched that she apologized for not sharing with him. Although all those times he'd wondered about what the hell was the deal with that girl… he wouldn't have minded if she'd explained just a little bit! But with that kind of operations, it was tell all or tell nothing, and it didn't take an idiot to figure out which was the better strategy.
"Maybe she's an impostor, pretending to be from the CIA but in fact out to steal important secrets?" These were the words Sesshoumaru had said to him during their first conversation about Kagome. But not until now did he recall what his brother had then gone on to say…
"Or wait! Maybe she's some sort of secret secret agent, working alongside of us with things we have no idea of?"
"What are you grinning at?" asked Kagome. Inu-yasha shook his head.
"Just thinking that sometimes when he's not aware of it, my brother can be awfully smart," he said, taking a long draught of his (of course excellent) coffee.
"Yeah," said Kagome, her tone considering. "And dead sexy to boot."
Inu-yasha spat his coffee out. Kagome looked disapprovingly at him for such waste of fantastic espresso, and then had the cheek to grin.
"Just jerking you around," she said.
Jerk is the word, thought Inu-yasha ungraciously. He glowered at her (she smirked) and then decided to let it pass. She sure knew how to get to him though. Devious smart-ass.
"So what happens next?" he asked. "Sister in jail, and you back off towards Washington? Or was it New York? And what was the deal about that anyway?"
"I was actually telling the truth about that." Kagome made an indignant sound as he raised his eyebrows, looking incredulous. "Hey! What's up with that expression? When have I ever given you a reason to distrust me? Don't answer that, it was a rhetorical question and I don't suppose you have anything nice like "Never, dear" to say anyway. Alright, I live in New York, mainly, but for the last ten months before I came here investigations had me staying in Washington. That was also where we had agreed it would be best for me to say I was from – less snouts, more anonymity. And I'll be heading back now, yeah. In the next couple of days, probably. My boss will be wanting for me to tidy up, plus some of Kikyo's trials will be held in Washington so she'll want me there to supervise, explain, cajole, threaten, go up as a witness and do whatever else it takes to get sis convicted on all charges in all trials."
"Was that "she" as in your boss? I thought you said your boss was a he."
"So true." Kagome nodded, apparently having expected the question. "Thing was, we're the only CIA department headed by a woman, and you being so devilishly intelligent and nosy to match would have poked around until you realized what department I came from, hesitated over the fact that murders have little to do with a regular drug deal investigation, drawn the conclusion that there were quite a lot of things I weren't telling you, started asking questions and probably blown my cover."
Inu-yasha blinked. It always made him slightly unsure when she spoke like this – unsure whether she was taking the piss or genuinely thought he was the modern Sherlock and Einstein welded in one. He decided that it was probably a mix of both, but with the emphasis on the first alternative.
He then realized what she had been saying.
"Wait – a couple of days? That soon?"
"Yeah. Lots of things to sort now. I'm out of job, remember?" When he looked completely uncomprehending she grinned and explained, "My division has just been dissolved. Kikyo's behind bars and will probably stay there for the next couple of decades. So what we've been working for during these years is now accomplished. I'm practically guaranteed a high-ranking job in any neighbouring department though, so it's not as if I'll be kicked out. But it'll take up a lot of my time after I get back… I have some personal issues to sort as well."
With Hojo, thought Inu-yasha gloomily. He suddenly felt like killing himself, or even better, killing Hojo.
"Hey," said Kagome, and he started guiltily.
"I wasn't going to really do it!" he said quickly. Kagome raised her eyebrows.
"Do what?"
"Er…" Inu-yasha reminded himself that Kagome was not a mind reader, despite hints in that direction. "Sorry, just thinking about something. You were saying…?"
"Well, I talked to Jinenji earlier, just before the trial started," said Kagome, grinning from ear to ear. "About his family."
"Really? Sheez, I must have missed something. I didn't even know he had a girlfriend."
"Oh, he doesn't."
"He has a boyfriend!"
"No!" laughed Kagome, shaking her head. "No, I mean about his family as in his parents. His mother, to be exact."
"What? Why would you – oh," he finished as a light went up for him. "You little devil."
"Mrs Hana Daimen, unchallenged lightweight boxing champion for ten years in her youth. In later years challenged to a match by a certain Inu-yasha, and once again establishing her champion status." Kagome started laughing again, as she saw the miffed expression on Inu-yasha's face. "That was such a funny story! It really served you right, you know."
"What on earth is that supposed to mean!"
"You do need taking down to earth a bit sometimes. And in Mrs Damien's case, she did it literally!"
"Oh, shut up."
"How fast was the knock-out? A minute?"
"Forty-seven seconds, if you want to know… hey!" he exclaimed as she broke into fresh peals of laughter. "OK, OK, so I was maybe a bit too cocky and I learned my lesson. See? I even admit it myself! Can you stop hassling me about it now?"
"Of course." Kagome grinned. "I'm just saying, it's good we only got shot at during the course of this case. If we'd had fist fights as well we could have casualties."
"…You're never going to let this go, are you."
"Something this good? I don't think so!" And Kagome started laughing once again.
Inu-yasha sat back and watched her as she mimed boxing a person to the right of her and then fell off her chair in an impression of his spectacular loss to Jinenji's mum. He found himself smiling, even though what she was re-enacting loud enough for half the café to hear was the possibly most embarrassing day of his life. Something had just dawned on him, something he would have noticed a lot earlier if his detective work hadn't been so completely lousy when it came to his feelings.
He had fallen hard for this girl.
This girl who was leaving for Washington in a couple of days.
This girl who had a boyfriend.
Man, what do I do now? thought Inu-yasha.
………………………………
Kagome spent her last days saying goodbye to everyone she had met during the course of their work, accompanied by Inu-yasha who had taken a short vacation from work. They met up with Sango and Miroku (meeting up with Sango alone seemed to have become impossible, since the two of them were by now practically joined at the hip) and were treated to a free show at The Happy Bunny. They stopped by at the police station for a coffee with Jinenji and were told all about his latest case, an investigation about fraud that had turned out to be very hard to crack. (The next morning the police station received a bag with evidence from the prime suspect's flat that turned out to be just what they needed to land him in jail. Sota swore on his honour that he had nothing to do with it when Inu-yasha asked him about it later, but Sota's honour was of course nothing to be taken seriously.)
Inu-yasha's vacation was luckily not a problem to the YSA. The agency wasn't hard pressed at the moment anyway, and the rest of the guys could without a bad conscience spend one of the evenings at the Three-eyed Bull, having a good-bye party. It was a great night, and Toto-sai finally had to kick them out of the pub at seven in the morning – quite literally. He tried to get the waitress Haroni to help – his foot got sore after a while – but she had decided to attend a Matrix after-party with Ginta and Hakkaku and left him to do his kicking by himself (despite threats of cut pay). The two cousins had after some research been able to prove that the three of them were indeed related (they shared a great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandmother) and tried to use their kinship to get free beers whenever they were at the pub. This was not appreciated by Toto-sai. (Four weeks later the three wolf demons took two months off from the respective jobs and left for Bahamas, to record the fourth Matrix movie, Matrix Goes Tropical. They were convinced it would make millions.)
When Kagome left the Three-eyed Bull that night, or rather morning, she had the phone numbers of both Koga and Hiten in her pocket, and had been more or less forced into a promise of ringing them if she ever came to town again. (She didn't seem to find the idea a terribly bad one though, noted Inu-yasha with a stab of jealousy.)
The days passed all too quickly, and before Inu-yasha had even had time to accept the fact that Kagome would soon be gone, they were speeding off towards the airport in Sesshoumaru's car. While Kagome sat in the front seat next to Sesshoumaru, who was driving, talking with animation about her plans once she got back to New York, Inu-yasha sulked in the back seat. He hadn't had a minute alone with Kagome since the day of the trial, and had been looking forward to driving her to the airport – but of course Sesshoumaru had to come too, the bastard.
However, Inu-yasha had a card up his sleeve. Grinning to himself, he took out his phone and started writing a message.
They arrived at the airport with plenty of time to spare – which was just as well, since it seemed to be rather short-staffed at the moment. Apparently one of their receptionists had upped and left quite suddenly and without notice, to start a tattoo shop or something like that. After waiting for quite a while in the line Kagome finally got her ticket, and walked back to the two brothers.
"Well Kagome," smiled Sesshoumaru, taking her hand in his, "it's been a pleasure. I can't speak for Inu-yasha, but – "
"Sesshoumaaaaaaru!"
Sesshoumaru's features froze. Glancing over his shoulder he paled visibly, and then jumped behind Inu-yasha, crouching down. "Hide me!" he whispered.
One-nil to Inu-yasha! thought Inu-yasha, full of glee.
"There is a good alcove to hide in a bit further off," he then said helpfully, pointing out the direction. "If you run you can probably make it. I'll say you went the other way."
Sesshoumaru gave this some consideration (about 0.045 second's consideration) and then bolted, dodging through airport workers and travelers with the speed of a frightened cat. No sooner had he disappeared than a young girl ran up and stopped short in front of Inu-yasha, trying to catch her breath.
"Sesshou… maru…?" she panted. Inu-yasha pointed in the opposite direction of Sesshoumaru's flight. The girl bowed her thanks and rushed off, scattering innocent bystanders like leaves in her dash.
"What the…" said Kagome.
"Sesshoumaru saved her from a kidnapping two years ago," Inu-yasha explained, trying to suppress a grin and failing. "Rin's been smitten with him ever since. She's like Kohaku, only scarier." And she was also the only hold Inu-yasha had over his older brother. Sesshoumaru didn't know that Inu-yasha had acquired Rin's cell phone number, and thus did not understand how the girl always appeared at the most improbable moments. He saw her as a psychic stalker. Inu-yasha saw her as a good way to get rid of his brother when he wanted.
"So…" he said. "I can't believe you're leaving."
"Me neither, actually." Kagome smiled. "I'll definitely come back to visit though. Among other things, I have to see how you'll do with your new colleague."
"What new – " Inu-yasha started, and then noticed her mischievous grin. "Oh no. Not Goshinki The Bastard."
"You can get him out of prison with your contacts."
"Can, but don't wanna."
"You're going to need him for your new investigation." Kagome grinned, and flipped her badge open. "Because on the authority of the new head of Uncleared Crime – got the call yesterday – I'm ordering you to begin looking into the doings of a certain demon known as Naraku."
"What? But you told us he was completely innocent in the Shikon deal!"
"In the Shikon deal, yes." Kagome nodded. "But he's far from clean. He hid Kagura from us, remember? He didn't want us to question her, because she has information about what goes on at the club and as Hiten and Manten and lots of other people have told us, there's stuff going on there that's definitely not legal. So you're going to look into it and find something to get him for. I still have to look at him behind bars before I can die easy."
"Come on Kagome, what do you want us to do?" Inu-yasha frowned. "We can't build a charge on what a few witnesses say – and that's all we have, you know that. The guy leaves nothing to chance. We could as well try to handcuff smoke."
"Ah, but that was before the help of Kikyo Higurashi," said Kagome with a wink. "I'd like you to investigate all that's been done by a certain Onigumo the past five years. I want to know where he's been, what he's done, what or who he's bought, everything. And then… we'll show Naraku just how nasty we can be." Kagome grinned again. "'Naraku' is an alias. He does everything important in his other name. And as it is today, with there being records of practically everything, you're bound to find something incriminating. Check the Red Cross records and see if they transferred any money to Onigumo's account, for example – you remember what he told us about Sango's father."
"…Wow. I think that's the first good thing about these past days," said Inu-yasha, shocked at first and then slowly starting to grin. The news was very welcome indeed. He had noticed Naraku at Kikyo's trial and he'd had to hold hard onto his chair to prevent himself from jumping at the other demon. Finally getting a lead on him was like having Christmas come early. "I'll get onto Yura immediately… get her to run some feelers out… and I might go and talk to Goshinki as well then, since you seem to like him so much…" He stopped. "It would be much more fun if you'd be there with me to cuff him though."
"I'll have to take time off to be here then," said Kagome.
Silence fell for a while. Inu-yasha wanted to say something more, wanted to explain some of what was moving through his head, wanted to make her see just how much her leaving would hurt him. But words had never been his strong side…
"Well… bye then," he said, hating himself.
"Yeah…" Kagome bit her lip.
"Oy." They both turned and saw the clerk Kagome had bought her ticket from leaning over the counter. He jerked his thumb in the direction of the security check. "Yer plane leaves pretty soon, and we gotta make sure ya ain't a terrorist. Had a gel looked just like ya who hijacked a plane not long ago ya see, ya can't blame us fer bein' careful. So if ye'd hurry it up and say bye to yer boyfriend we'd be real grateful."
"He's not my boyfriend," said Kagome, automatically. She paused, and then turned back to Inu-yasha, frowning. "You know, I'm getting really tired of telling people that."
"What do you want me to do?" asked Inu-yasha grumpily. "Tattoo NOT KAGOME'S BOYFRIEND on my forehead?"
"Maybe." Kagome seemed to consider this for a while. Suddenly her face lit up again as she smiled at him. "If you leave out the 'not'."
She stretched up on her toes and kissed him.
THE END
……………………………………
Waah, it's over:( Can't believe something I've been working on since June last year (that's when I began looking at the story and writing a few chapters to see if it could work) is finally FINISHED! That's so weird!
Aaaanyway… thank you everybody for your lovely support! It's been so much fun reading all your reviews and getting inspiration. I hope to see you soon again, when I start working on something else… got a couple of ideas lying around that I'll be giving some more time now… so I'll be back. (Eventually.)
Ciao everybody!
Elsiey: No matter if you missed a chapter or two, as long as you read the last one:) It's been great having you review this story – really makes me happy when I see your name in the reviews after practically EVERY chapter! (Wow.)
And just because I like you so much, I relabelled this as Humour/Mystery. (I didn't know there was a mystery category. Cool.)
Inu-yasha'smistress: Triplets? Where did I write anything about triplets? …wait while I scan the last chapter… oh yeah. The judge had triplets! (Can't even remember myself what I've written…) Yup, she has triplets. She's a poor, over-worked, single mum juggling her three kids with a desire to build a career and… Christ, if I go on I'll be able to write a whole story about the damn judge.
Thank you for staying with me so long!
glenlightarrow: Yeah, I guess things were very confusing there for a while… heh heh…
luvinukagome: I guess you'll have to reopen the case seeing as I took such a long time updating now…;) I had trouble with the computer, sorry. Good luck with you further CIA career :)
AnimeAngelz: Dry your tears… :) Hope this ending didn't leave you too disappointed.
PUNK-CSI-GIRL: Inu-yasha and Kagome will probably live happily ever after, chasing criminals and drinking coffee to the end of their days. :)
NefCanuck: Alice in Wonderland? Yes, I guess I can see the resemblance… :) By the by, thankyou for pointing out (sometime way back) that Kagome needed her revenge on Jakotsu – I hadn't thought about that, but you were completely right.
Harei sky: Thanks for all the reviews… and happily, there was a little place for you even in the last chapter. Good hey? (And if you ever do make a movie like that, be sure to send me a copy.)
TrickyChicky454, Crazy Tengu, Beloved Rose mouko-star: Well, I haven't got a lot to say except thankyou so much for reviewing! And sorry this is the last chapter… wish this story could go on forever, I've become strangely attached to it… but c'est la vie.