Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters in this story.

Welcome to the YSA

It was another boring day in the life of the Youkai Secret Agency, "You name it, we trace it!" The ones stuck with office duty were the two brothers Inu-yasha and Sesshoumaru. The latter had after a fast but furious fight won the right to the desk and was lounging at his ease in the chair, looking through a few papers, while the former sat cross-legged in the rather ratty armchair in one corner of the room, carving a dragon into one of the arms. Neither spoke.

Finally Sesshoumaru looked up, took a crayon from the pen jar on the desk and threw it at Inu-yasha's head.

"Hey, stupid."

Inu-yasha jerked, then looked at his carving, swore and glared accusingly at his brother.

"Oh, great work, buddy. You just made this guy lose a leg." He cocked his head to one side and regarded the picture thoughtfully. "Actually, it doesn't look all that bad. I'll just carve a moon into his forehead and call him Sesshy."

"That was not funny."

Inu-yasha only gave his brother a big, sunny smile in reply. Sesshoumaru rolled his eyes and held up a file stamped IN PROGRESS.

"Did we ever finish the Mrs. Innards case?"

"The serial killer?" Inu-yasha looked up briefly from the arm of his chair, where he was now slowly and laboriously carving in the word Sesshy. "Yeah, Jinenji found her. She was one of those old, yucky demons you don't even think exist anymore – you know, the ones who look like something the cat dragged in and have roughly the same IQ, too. Apparently she was living in the sewers, underground. Jinenji killed her and exterminated her nest. If her eggs had hatched it could have turned really nasty – she would have started teaching her... kids, or whatever you want to call it, to hunt humans too – so it was lucky he found it in time."

"Yes, of course. So why isn't it recorded in here?" Sesshoumaru tapped a knuckle on the yellow file. Inu-yasha shrugged.

"It was the day before his transfer."

"To the police force? Ah, alright. I guess it's excusable then." Sesshoumaru took a black marker from the pen jar and wrote CLOSED in large block letters across the file. "Since you seem to have all the facts, do a quick report, just for the record, on the outcome and encounter with Mrs. Innards. Cute name, by the way. Who came up with it?"

"I did."

"Really?" Sesshoumaru raised an eyebrow. "You're smarter than you look. Not that that's saying much. Inu-yasha, when will you get a proper dress sense?"

"What?" Inu-yasha looked from his worn jeans with the knees poking out and black T-shirt bearing the words "SAME SHIT, DIFFERENT DAY", to his brother's spotless black jeans and white turtleneck sweater. "What's wrong with my clothes? At least they say something about me, unlike yours. Talk about... well, drab..."

"Better than looking like something found in a trash can. What does that say about you, I wonder?"

"Take that back."

"You know it's true."

"Sonofabitch."

"Bastard."

"Sissy."

"Delinquent."

"Snob."

"Excuse me?"

Both brothers looked up as the feminine voice spoke and saw a young woman standing at the door. She was wearing a neatly pressed blouse and short beige skirt with matching jacket, and had her long black hair gathered in an elegant bun. The overall impression was of a business woman or a lawyer.

"Welcome!" said Sesshoumaru, smiling amiably. "How may we help you? Please, take a seat."

"Thank you." The woman carefully sat down in the chair in front of the desk, looking relieved when she found that it didn't fall to pieces. She looked around herself with her eyebrows raised, taking in the unwashed windows, the pile of pizza cartons in one corner and the dartboard, stuck full as a pincushion with darts, knives and even an arrow or two. One corner of her mouth lifted in a half smile, half sneer. "I had... some trouble with finding your office, I must say. You don't live a very official life, do you?"

"That's what the "Secret" in our name stands for, miss...?"

"Miko. Kikyo Miko. Well, I just hope you're up to scratch."

"Oh, don't worry about that," said Inu-yasha hastily. "I can promise you we're among the top youkai agencies."

"Well, I should think so," said miss Miko with a spark of amusement in her eyes, "seeing as you're the only so called youkai agency."

"What is your reason for coming to us, miss Miko?" said Sesshoumaru, shooting a quick look at his blushing brother that all too clearly said "just be quiet before you make an absolute fool of yourself".

"I want your help with a rather delicate matter," said miss Miko, turning her attention back to him. "I represent the lawyer firm Prada, and we would like you to look into the doings of a demon called Naraku. He is the owner of the Spider Club, and my firm suspects that he is part of a large drug deal. We would dearly like to pin the crime on him, but we don't have enough evidence. That's why we need you."

"Naraku... Inu-yasha, don't we have a lead on him from the case of kidnapping?" Sesshoumaru turned to the other demon, who shrugged.

"Can't remember. Toss me the file."

Sesshoumaru reached into a drawer and rummaged for a while, then threw the file to Inu-yasha, who caught it easily and started to flick through it. Sesshoumaru turned back to miss Miko, picking up his note book from the desk.

"We will go to work on this immediately, miss Miko. Now, if I could just have your firm's contact address or phone number..."

"Actually, we agreed that it would be better if this was all handled through me." Miss Miko gave him a charming smile, showing very white teeth. "I don't have a home address, as I'm staying at a hotel right now, but you can take my cell phone number."

"Alright," said Sesshoumaru, looking surprised for a second but quickly hiding it again. "I'll have that, then." After miss Miko had given him her number he followed her to the door, telling her that they would get to work on the case immediately. He turned around after closing the door behind her and found Inu-yasha glaring at him jealously.

"Smarmy devil."

"Oh, what a sore loser," smiled Sesshoumaru, walking over to the desk and dropping into the chair, looking very pleased with himself. "Have I ever told you that you behave like an idiot when there are pretty girls around?"

"Shut up."

"Looks like an interesting case, doesn't it? Can you find anything in there?"

"Nothing." Inu-yasha heaved an exasperated sigh and ran his hands through his hair. "Looks like it's Koga who handled the paperwork on this one. Just a few handwritten pages, containing nothing of importance. It's a wonder we could even finish the case, with the sad state of this..."

"Now you see how important it is to do your paperwork properly."

"Yeah, yeah. Anyway, the only thing I can find is a small note that says we suspected Naraku might have some connection to the kidnapping, but it seems like we couldn't trace it back to him. The one who was arrested in the end was someone called Goshinki, maybe we should check with him. There was probably a lot more that Koga didn't think worth mentioning, that could have helped us now, but that's just the way he is."

"We'll have to pay that family a visit, then. They might remember something about the kidnapping that will be of use to us now. What was their name again? I remember the boy's name was Kohaku, but I've forgotten the parents' names..."

"There were no parents. We were hired by the boy's sister, Sango Gari. They are orphans. Their father committed suicide, according to the police. According to miss Gari, it was murder, but there was no such evidence. Alright, I'll pay them a visit then?"

"Do so. And then you'll have to pull some strings among the shady parts of town. Meet up with all your little friends and see if anyone has information for us."

"You don't have to sound so full of contempt," said Inu-yasha, feigning hurt. "Thanks to my "little friends", as you call them, many a case has been solved. You should be happy I have such contacts."

"I am, believe me. I just want to know how you got them."

"Are you sure?" Inu-yasha grinned devilishly, quirking his eyebrows. Sesshoumaru hesitated.

"...Actually, never mind."

They worked in silence for about half an hour, looking through all the material they had and trying to find something on Naraku. Sesshoumaru was interrupted in the middle of reading through a dreadfully boring report on drug dealings by a soft knock on the door.

"Come in," he called casually, then smiled as he recognized the face at the door. "Ah, welcome back, miss Miko. Did you forget something?" The woman frowned in confusion, giving Sesshoumaru time to notice something. "Did you change your clothes?"

"Excuse me?" The woman stepped into the room and crossed her arms over her chest. "I'm afraid you're mistaking me for someone else. My name is Kagome Higurashi."

Inu-yasha and Sesshoumaru looked at her in surprise. When they looked closer they could both see the difference between her and the earlier visitor – she was slighter in stature and carried herself very differently, with rather more attitude than miss Miko. She also dressed very differently. Instead of the feminine and stylish suit worn by the lawyer, Kagome Higurashi wore black pants and singlet, and a jeans jacket with worn-out elbows. But the likeness between their faces was stunning.

"I'm sorry, miss Higurashi," Sesshoumaru said finally, remembering his manners. "It's just that you look very much like a customer who came in earlier today. Do you have a sister or cousin called Kikyo Miko, by any chance?"

"Nope, all I have is a brother, and he's not called Kikyo," grinned the woman. "And please, call me Kagome."

"Alright, Kagome. Would you like to sit down? Don't worry, the chair won't break. Probably. Now, what are you here for?"

"I want you to give me a job."

"Say what?!" Inu-yasha exclaimed from his corner of the room. "You want to work here?"

"Yes." Kagome smiled. "I want you to hire me as an agent. I can promise that you will not be disappointed."

"Girl, did you even stop to read the sign on the door?" Inu-yasha asked, now grinning slightly. "It says Youkai Secret Agency. Do you know what youkai means?"

Kagome frowned and looked at Sesshoumaru, who shrugged.

"For once I do actually agree with my brother. We employ youkai, demons, and as far as I can tell you are completely human. Besides, we have no need of another agent at the moment."

"Oh, is that so?" Kagome narrowed her eyes, looking rather angry. "And I, silly me, thought that you had just lost one of your agents when he became a police officer. I must have gotten that completely wrong...right?"

"How did you know that?" asked Sesshoumaru, looking mildly surprised.

"That's of no importance. Will you hire me?" When she saw that he still hesitated – Inu-yasha was looking outright incredulous at the thought – she gave a snort of impatience and started looking through her pockets. Sesshoumaru waited patiently until she finally found what she was looking for and handed him a piece of paper. "That's an order from the CIA for you to take me on. I was hoping you'd hire me anyway, but that's life. Now, I do believe you have no choice but to agree with what that paper tells you."

"What happens if we don't?" asked Inu-yasha rebelliously, but was silenced by a gesture from his brother.

"I see that we have to follow the orders here," said Sesshoumaru, looking not very happy about it. "So, welcome to the YSA. Can you do anything, Kagome?"

Kagome smiled grimly. Before they had time to see what she was doing she had pulled a thin knife out of her jacket sleeve, stood up, taken aim and thrown in at the dart board – straight into the bullseye. She put her hands in her pockets and stared Sesshoumaru into the eyes.

"I have a full education in the CIA and I have worked for three years on the streets. I can take care of myself. As I just demonstrated, I'm rather skilled with knives and I have good aim. I can find out information without being noticed. The CIA appointed me here because they knew that Prada Inc. would hire you to investigate Naraku, and they wanted one of their own on that, too. We have for a long time tried to pin something on Naraku, because we believe he has a lot of illegal stuff going on. Now, we can cooperate on this, or you can decide you don't like me being here and make both my own and your lives hard. What will it be?"

Sesshoumaru was staring at her in great surprise, but regained his senses and smiled.

"I get the point. Well, Kagome, once again: welcome to the YSA. And this time I mean it. If Inu-yasha is finished with those files, maybe you two can run along to the kidnapping family? I think I can manage on my own here for a while."

"And why do I have to go?" Inu-yasha grumbled, rising from his chair and scattering files everywhere.

"Stop sulking. You can take my car." Sesshoumaru reached into his pocket and threw a set of keys to Inu-yasha, who brightened immediately.

"Alright! Let's go, girl."

"My name is Kagome."

"Well, well, just look at the two of you!" said Sesshoumaru as they prepared to leave. "How cute. One might almost think that the YSA had started with uniform." Inu-yasha and Kagome both turned back towards him, wearing identical puzzled expressions.

"What do you mean?" asked Inu-yasha, just as Kagome said "Say what?" Then they looked at each other and simultaneously exclaimed "Hey!"

Kagome's black singlet bore the words "SAME SHIT, DIFFERENT DAY".