A Killer In Hindsight

Prologue

Disclaimer: Don't own Inuyasha and Co. Never have and I never will.

'Thoughts'

"Speech"

OOO-Flashback

XXX-break in scene or POV

Author's Note: This is the edited version I received from my Beta.

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A small, frustrated, sigh escaped the tiny woman currently hovering over the daily newspaper, pen in hand, she circled, yet another, want ad. She, Kagome Higurashi, was out of yet another job. She had something of a knack for losing jobs just as quickly as she got them. This was the third time this month that she had reluctantly pulled out the newspaper, opened it to the want ads with red pen in hand.

Kagome had really thought that this last one would be the one she would stick with for a while; however, she had lost her temper with her boss. For some insane reason, he had this silly little idea that she would sleep with him. Boy was he ever wrong, she had slapped him silly and high-tailed it outta there. If there was one thing that always got to her it was a perverted co-worker.

She guessed she was kind of pretty, she never really thought about it, in her opinion she was a bit on the average side, nothing really special. Her co-workers seemed to think otherwise. They had groped, hit-on, and basically all around demeaned her for being a woman in a man's world. See, Kagome was a chef, a damn good one at that, but in a profession overrun by over-bearing chubby little men, who thought she really didn't have the guts to survive, and with her being so shy as it was, she herself wasn't really sure she had what it took either.

Years of people around her telling her she would never make it in the culinary world had made her incredibly self-conscious. Even though she did have a nasty temper when provoked, she usually kept to herself. It was sad really. Kagome had a kind heart and a beautiful smile. She loved children and animals, but during high school she had never really kept with the latest fashions, she was too busy working on mastering the art of cooking, and if you weren't up with the latest in clothing trends, you were out. Sure a couple of the boys had asked her out, knowing that underneath her some what geeky exterior lay a pretty girl, but she had turned them all down, much to her mother's disappointment.

Her cat Buyou rubbed against her leg, causing her to jump a little. "Stupid cat" she murmured, as she turned the page of her Tokyo Times newspaper. She had made it about halfway down the column when one particular ad caught her eye:

Wanted

Decent cook for small fishing vessel.

Preferably male.

Must have some experience.

Apply ASAP to:

Turtle Shell Marina

Dock 13.

Kagome had rolled her eyes a little at the "preferably male" part of the ad and shrugged her shoulders 'best one I've seen yet,' she thought. It had, in fact, been the best one. Most of the one's she circled so far had been for cleaning houses and what not. It wasn't that she didn't like to clean, or she was lazy, she just knew she wasn't very good at it. Kagome would take anything she could get with cooking, it was what she loved to do and it was what she was best at.

The timer on the oven dinged and she temporarily left her post at the table to take the cookies she had been baking out of the oven. Truth be told, they smelled heavenly and even though it was only nine in the morning, she couldn't wait to have one. Kagome had gotten up especially early to make her famous 'Kitchen-Sink Cookies', she was particularly well known about the apartment building for them. She often gave them out as little Christmas gifts to her neighbors. Setting the pan down on the island counter in the middle of her small kitchen, she left them to cool before going off to take a shower.

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