Author's Notes: Okay, a few things before you start reading…

1. Warnings- This fiction does contain mild-to-strong shounen-ai/yaoi overtones (Bankotsu/Jakotsu) at times, if that is not something you feel comfortable reading, then this story isn't for you. Also, seven of the major characters in this are the 7 members of the Shichinin-tai (featured in volumes 24-28 of the manga and episodes 102+) if you are unfamiliar with these particular characters it will be hard to fully enjoy reading this fiction, and you might come across inadvertent spoilers involving character interaction.

2. Point of View- The story is written from Kagome's viewpoint.

3. This story (chapters 1-29) was revised on January 24, 2006. As such, some changes have been made to those chapters that may affect your reading of later chapters. If you have the time, feel free to re-read.

4. Sit back, enjoy, and see if you can solve the mystery first!

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The Case of the Missing Kotsu

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------June 5th------

Entry beginning at 10:01AM

It was a quiet day, as I sat in my office- the rain pouring down outside making the whole outlook a little dreary. Ever since our run-in with the Kotsu gang about a week ago, things here at the Shikon no Tama Detective Agency were awfully quiet. True, the Naraku case was still wide open, but we had our agents Miroku and Sango out looking for any leads on that one. Well Sango is most likely looking for clues, and Miroku- he's most likely looking at Sango's ass. Good help these days is so hard to find.

"This sucks," the voice caused me to look over at the person sitting nearby- or should I say "on top of the furniture"?

"Inuyasha, what have I told you about sitting on my desk?"

"Keh! Well you won't give me my own desk, so where else am I supposed to sit?"

"Well, maybe if you actually did something around here, then we'd have the money to get you a desk. And even a chair for it," I noted, aptly glaring at the unoccupied chair and couch we had.

"Hey, I beat up some of those gang members last time!"

"We were trying to question them about their connection with Naraku, not beat the shit out of them."

"...oh..."

Before I could attempt to pound some sense into my slightly irritating partner, a knock was heard at the door. I glared at Inuyasha.

"Can't you even answer the door?"

He mumbled something under his breath, got up and unbolted the door. Then, all I could hear was a slur of cuss words and something about, "Didn't I already kick your ass enough the other day." At that, I decided perhaps I should handle this.

After pushing Inuyasha out of the doorframe, I discovered why he was upset. It was Bankotsu, leader of the Kotsu gang- but something was different. Instead of the strong-willed leader we'd faced the other day, he looked like a wreck. His eyes were red, his normally neat braided hair was mussed and his clothes were a mess. That's when I noticed him holding a pink shirt and an intricate hairpin.

Grabbing Inuyasha forcefully by the arm, Bankotsu leveled with him.

"Look, I know you probably don't wanna help me- but you're the only ones I can turn to. He's missing, all I can find is his hairpin and…"

"What about the pink shirt?" Inuyasha asked, cutting him off.

"Hmph," The dark-haired man crossed his arms, "He left it my house last night, not that it's any of your damned business!"

"Please- Bankotsu, right?" He indicated yes, and I continued, "If you'd sit down over here, we need to ask a few questions first before we can get started on investigating this situation," I said attempting to get him calmed down. He just nodded and sat in the indicated chair.

Inuyasha sulked, "And why in the hell are we helping him again?"

"Inuyasha, a case is a case. And we already have proven that the Kotsu gang knew nothing of Naraku's previous deeds when they'd agreed to assist him. In fact, they never even came into contact with Naraku himself, just his henchmen."

The white-haired young man grumbled and plopped down in the desk chair.

"Fine."

I smiled weakly at our current client, hoping it would ease the tension my partner had just created. "Okay, I understand that you're upset, but can you please tell me what exactly happened?"

I saw him inhale a deep breath and clutch the hairpin closer before he began, "It started early this morning..."

I snatched up a notepad (after prying it out from under Inuyasha's foot) and listened closely.

"Do you know the time?" I inquired. Details were always very important.

"About three this morning."

I nodded for him to continue.

"Jakotsu had come to visit me. After he left, I realized that he'd left his shirt behind; so I went to go give it to him, but I couldn't find him anywhere. I asked everyone- Mukotsu said he'd been out getting some chemicals for some new elixir of his, Ginkotsu and Kyoukotsu were asleep, Suikotsu said he'd seen him walking towards Renkotsu's, and that's when- when I found this." He said holding up the hairpin.

"And then you talked to Renkotsu, I assume?"

"Yeah, I saw Renkotsu in the alley looking around at the ground- like he was trying to pick up something small."

"Where's this alley at?"

"The one off 162nd street, with the warehouses to the left"

I wrote it down and then looked back to Bankotsu, "Okay, what then?"

"Then he picked up the hairpin. When I asked him about it, he said that Jakotsu was supposed to meet him at 3:30 am and when he didn't show up- like me, he'd gone out to look."

"So the last person to talk to him, was you, right?"

"Yes," Bankotsu hung his head, his voice growing softer, "I had a really bad feeling when he left. I told him he could stay, but he insisted on going back to his place. He didn't want to get me in trouble and now he's...he's..."

He stopped short, as he noticed the tears that had begun to fall.

"Shit, I'm crying," He murmured, quickly wiping the tears away.

For a moment he went silent, almost as if he was composing himself. Then with a deep breath, he looked back up at me; piercing blue eyes saying more than his words ever would.

"Sorry about this, I'm just…worried."

Reaching inside his pocket, he pulled out a handkerchief of sorts. Bankotsu caught sight of something wrapped inside it and I could see that whatever it was seemed to upset him only further. Mumbling to himself, he looked at something on the side of his lighter.

"That was just two days ago- now this."

As his hand dropped into his lap, I finally saw the reason for his reaction. On the side of the silver lighter he held, was a one of those small pictures on a sticker. Bankotsu was towards the front with Jakotsu smiling and leaning up over his shoulder. They both looked so happy together and it only confirmed my prior suspicions about the two. This wasn't just an issue of a missing comrade and friend. No, Bankotsu's relationship with Jakotsu ran much deeper than that.

"Um...well, is there anything else you think that could be important?" I figured if I tried to keep his mind from dwelling on it, it might ease a little of the worry.

"Not that I can think of right now."

"All right then, we'll start on the case right away. Perhaps you should get some sleep."

He smiled a bit at the offer, and then shook his head. "I am a little sore from last night, but I'd rather do what I can to help find him. I don't think I can sleep without knowing he's okay."

Inuyasha just twitched and muttered under his breath, "I didn't want to know about what or who you did last night."

I frowned at him (glad that Bankotsu didn't overhear) and nodded to the young gang leader. I'd had a feeling he wasn't going to leave so easily, but luckily I had an idea there.

Pulling out a small tape recorder from my desk, I handed it to him, "Take this, and go ask your friends again. Tape what they have to say, without them knowing it if you can. We might be able to find some clues that way."

He looked down at the recorder, then forced a smile.

"Here. It's my cell phone number..." He said quickly scrawling it down on a scrap of paper from the desk. "Call me if you find out anything at all about Jakotsu's whereabouts and I want your number so I can contact you."

I nodded, wrote the number and handed it to him. "Just see what you can find out, and we'll do the same." He took the paper, thanked us, and walked out the door.

Once he was gone, I picked up a few pens, pencils and notepads, and prepared to go out and search for clues myself.

"Inuyasha, please get the gun out of the safe."

"What?"

"162nd street. isn't in the nicest part of town; I want us to have it just in case."

"Fine fine."

"And hand me the whistle."

At that, he scowled at me. I knew he wasn't too fond of me using a dog-whistle to call out to him when in a desperate situation, but with hearing like his it actually came in quite handy.

"Keh! What do you need that whistle for?"

"Just in case I need your help and we get separated."

He glared, "You use it when it's not an emergency though."

Okay, so there was that time I used it to get him to shut up. And that time I used it to keep him and Miroku from arguing, and that time I... maybe he was actually right.

"... but..."

He dropped the small silver whistle into my hands. "Only emergencies...okay? It hurts my ears."

The little white dog-ears twitched at their mentioning. I remember at first, I wasn't quite sure what to make of a guy with white hair, let alone dog-ears, but Inuyasha swore that it was due to radiation and that they couldn't be surgically removed unless he wanted to be deaf the rest of his life. Honestly, I think that perhaps he's just one of those freaks of nature- like those three-eyed cows and things of that sort. Then again, from the few times I've encountered his elder half-brother, maybe it's just their family that has the problem.

"Are you coming or not?" His voice snapped me out of my inner thoughts, and I nodded to him.

"Yes, of course, just help me carry a few more things."

We managed to get the various items needed for a proper investigation all loaded into the car and we headed out to the Shichinin-district.

As we drove, I looked over at Inuyasha, "So what are your thoughts on this whole issue?"

"You do know that this Jakotsu guy is gay right?"

I blinked- that was definitely not the answer I was expecting.

"Yes, I do believe you mentioned that to me last week when we dealt with them."

"Well, when I was fighting them back then, that Jakotsu guy was- you know- hitting on me," He cringed at the memory, "But that Bankotsu guy kept going out of his way to help Jakotsu fight."

"They do seem really close."

"The whole group did from what I picked up, but there was something about that one guy."

I stopped my writing and looked up. This might be a clue.

"What guy?"

"When I had Jakotsu cornered once, Bankotsu kept yelling at this guy- um, I think his name was Renkotsu- to help. Renkotsu just yelled back that Jakotsu should get himself out of his own problem."

"So this person openly disobeyed the gang leader's orders even when a fellow member's life was on the line?"

"That or he was just irritated that Jakotsu had gotten," Inuyasha coughed, "- distracted and figured that it was his own fault for getting trapped."

"Could be as well, but until we know more about the group's dynamics I think that it's highly suspicious. Can you describe him?"

"Bald."

Silence followed, "Is that all?"

"Hey, I was kind of trying to keep the others from killing me and that gay guy from kissing me- I was a bit too busy to be writing down some bald-guy's stats!"

I rolled my eyes, I should have known better than to think Inuyasha would pay attention to details when he was in the middle of a fight. I looked over the notes I had so far- so this Renkotsu doesn't seem to find Jakotsu's fighting style conducive to the group, disobeys orders from the leader, and then- he was the one in the alley looking for something when Bankotsu went to look for Jakotsu. There's got to be some connection here- but what?

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After pausing only to get some food for lunch, we continued on our mission to the Shichinin-District. We got out of the car at the corner of 161st St and slowly looked about the area. That's when we heard another car pulling around the bend.

"Quick, hide!" I stammered and pulled Inuyasha behind the side of our car.

A fancy black car stopped right next to ours and a tall figure got out. I blinked, he looked...familiar. As he removed the sunglasses he wore, I then knew for sure; but before I could say anything, Inuyasha had jumped up.

"Aha! I knew you were working against me! I bet you're in with Naraku- you low-life, good for nothing..."

The man looked over at us, and raised an eyebrow. The rest of his face entirely calm.

"Well well brother, I see you still aren't any closer to catching Naraku, eh? Then again, you did send out those other agents to find clues. But if I know that Miroku, he's looking at his partner more than he's looking for clues."

Inuyasha just glared, and I attempted to hold him back.

"Sesshoumaru, what are you doing here anyway?" He said storming forward.

"I am working on my agency's case. As for you, I can only assume that you are out trying to find some meager clue to base a case off of."

"For your information we have plenty of clues!"

I sighed, he always bragged before thinking.

"Really now little brother, you shouldn't lie about things."

"Aw, shut up! You stuck up..."

"Oh, and just so you know. I've already got my partner disguised within Naraku's ranks, so don't go exposing her whereabouts, got that?"

"You what?" Inuyasha exclaimed at the same moment as I did.

"A good detective agency always has an inside man. Or in this case- an inside woman. After a few more tapes that she's rigged, I'm sure that I'll have all the evidence I need."

"But how did you…" I stammered.

"We aren't the best Detective Agency in the city for no reason. Now if you two little league private eyes would excuse me, I have a real case to attend to."

With that, and not a word else, Sesshoumaru walked off down the street.

"Why I oughta--"

I placed a hand on Inuyasha's shoulder. If there was one thing that always pissed him off, it was his elder half-brother always beating him at everything.

"Inuyasha, come on. We have a real case to worry about as well."

"Keh! I hate that jerk," He muttered before following me towards the alley at 162nd St.

We started looking all around area. The alleyway was small, fairly narrow with a dumpster at the end. After finding nothing much, I began to analyze the alley itself. The only way in was from the street or...I paused- there was something white caught on the rusted fire escape on the right side. I hadn't noticed it before, it was very small and almost blended in.

"Inuyasha...there's something over here." I said walking in that direction.

Upon closer inspection, it appeared to be a small piece of fabric- obviously torn off by the rusted metal. I pulled the camera out of my bag and took a few shots before using some tweezers to lift the fabric into a plastic bag.

"Well, we've barely been here and we already..."

"Yah- just four hours!"

I frowned at the interruption and continued, "And we've already found our first clue!"

"Make that-second clue."

I turned to where Inuyasha was hunched over the ground. "What? What did you find?"

"Look" He pointed to a small gold ring barely visible through the dirt it was submerged in. After following proper procedure- it too was placed in a plastic bag.

"A piece of white fabric and a gold ring," I mused to myself.

"We should be going Kagome, it's getting dark."

I nodded, gathered my things and loaded it into the car. On the drive back, I pulled out my cell phone and dialed the number Bankotsu had left for me. I wanted to tell him about the clues we'd found. But...there wasn't an answer.

"Inuyasha- drive faster."

"What? Why?"

"Bankotsu's not answering his phone. Maybe...maybe he's at the office," I replied, evident worry in my tone. Inuyasha knew right away what I was concerned about.

"Or maybe he knew too much, and someone..."

"Got rid of him," I finished solemnly.

The engine revved as we sped back to the office. My mind was racing too. Where could Bankotsu be? One missing Kotsu was bad enough.

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Preview for Chapter 2- Jakotsu's missing, and now, Bankotsu can't be reached. Will another member of the Kotsu gang be of help? Or will they just cause more problems for our detectives?