AN: Well, this took a long time to update. I rewrote some of these scenes multiple times, before I figured out how I wanted to go. And…RL happened. So it goes. As an unimportant note, I've started using trademarked names in this chapter whereas before I was modifying them ala WacDonalds, because it was starting to get silly. Sorry for the wait :-)

Disclaimer: InuYasha belongs to Rumiko Takahashi. Nyquil and I-Pods belong to their respective owners. This is a work of fanfiction, and a fairly far-fetched one at that :-)

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Detectives Sandra Ivanova and Mitch Makenna were both well over six feet tall, dwarfing both Kagome and her client. In their respectful manner, they were far more intimidating than the confrontational interrogators. Now that Inuyasha was viewed as a potentially valuable source of information instead of just as the only suspect in a virtually closed case, they had requested a meeting. The jailhouse had a room specifically designed for less formal interviews with prisoners. It was comfortable, with two couches and carpeting, but the windows were reinforced with steel bars.

Inuyasha found himself blinking at the sudden exposure to natural lighting, albeit the watered down sunshine of a cloudy Vermont morning. He was seated on one of the couches as Kagome introduced herself to the detectives and claimed a perch on one of the couch's arms. She had advised him that the detectives were effectively looking out for his best interests; once they found the real killer, he would be released. It was to his advantage to answer their questions as completely as possible, including as many details as he could. Private or trivial information could prove to be very relevant; they would want to hear everything he knew about Kikyou, and her experiences in the week or so prior to her death.

"Let's jump right into things", Detective Ivanova began. "Mr. Maru, to the best of your knowledge, was Ms. Takani suffering from an eating disorder?"

"No. A lot of people thought she did, but no."

"Allright. Did she do drugs?"

"No!"

"Think about this very carefully—was she addicted to anything? Other than Nyquil?"

"How the fu…" Inuyasha caught himself, and made eye contact with Kagome before continuing. "How do you know about that?"

"We searched her apartment", Detective Makenna answered. "The autopsy didn't reveal any drug use, or any Nyquil for that matter, but the woman carried enough of the stuff to knock out all of Burlington."

"She had trouble getting to sleep", Inuyasha snapped. "It's not a crime."

"Here's how we see it: everyone tells us this girl is a saint, but no one seems to know her personally except her pastor and a homeless man. For someone so involved, that's abnormal. Suggests she's hiding something. She's always on the go, doesn't eat and doesn't sleep. Now that's not likely unless you're on something. We already know she was abusing over–the-counter medicines, and your average churchgoing preps don't get murdered unless they've got drugs connections. Some kind of designer amphetamines, maybe?"

"We're not suggesting that you were connected", Ivanova interrupted, "But if you two were close, you might have seen signs."

"Look, where do you think she'd have gotten the money?" Inuyasha shook his head. "She was a student, and pretty much broke. She couldn't even cross the street without a fricking crosswalk, no way she'd break a real law. I mean she was a bit of an oddball, but that was Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, not drugs or anorexia or…whatever."

"OCD", Ivanova said meditatively, and traded a glance with a her partner that clearly said, Why didn't we know about this? "Like, hand-washing? Rituals?"

"No", was Inuyasha's short response.

"Was she diagnosed by a medical doctor?"

"I don't know. That's just what she told me, but she didn't have insurance, so she didn't spend much time with doctors."

"If not rituals, what was the extent of her illness?"

"Look, how about you go check on her medical history, and then come back if you have any more questions for me, yeah?"

A glance was exchanged between the two detectives, before Makenna agreed, "We can live with that."

Kagome escorted Inuyasha and his guard back to his cell in silence. She and her client were both lost in thought, and the guard never seemed to talk much. She idly wondered if he minded being treated like armed furniture, and resolved to learn his name at some point. In the meantime, there was something else on her mind.

"Inuyasha, there's something I need to ask you about."

"None of your business."

She met his yellow gaze with a puzzled look. "Maybe not, but it would help. And you don't even know what I was going to say." The cell door closed.

"Her problems are none of…"

"Your social security card?"

He shot her a glare, as though she'd set him up on purpose, and seated himself on his cot.

"There are some irregularities with your social security card", she said mildly.

"Irregularities? What're you going on about? I just don't have one."

"I'm sorry, but I refuse to believe that. Just because you don't know where it is doesn't mean it doesn't exist."

"If it does, I've never seen it. I was born on a reservation; I don't think I've got one."

"That doesn't make a difference", Kagome insisted. "And we have your social security number, we got it from your high school. It's just the paper that's missing." She shrugged. "I'll try and track it down for you."

"Don't bother. It's not your job."

That would probably be a thank you… "You know", Kagome mused out loud. "You haven't sworn, or called me any names, all day." She realized belatedly that her observation could easily be taken as an invitation for continued bad behavior.

Instead of the stream of four letter words she'd expected, he frowned up at her and said, "You asked me not to, yeah?"

I did? "Thank you, then. I'll see you tomorrow, Inuyasha." Disproportionately pleased, it took a phone conversation with Sesshoumaru Segihara to wipe the smile off her face.

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It had been another very long day, but she could now say that Sesshoumaru definitively did not have Inuyasha's social security card. On the other hand, the Juvenile Hall in Tallahassee did. Kagome yawned as she sorted through the diverse collection of tea she kept in her kitchen, retrieving a box of fruity, herbal blends. She shut the cupboard door and put a kettle of water on the stovetop burner. The cupboard door swung silently open again, as did all the other cupboard doors.

No longer sleepy, Kagome froze in her actions. Just a fluke of the air circulation, she reassured herself. The doors simultaneously swung shut, making a sharp clap. Kagome gripped the counter top to prevent herself from jumping, took a few deep breaths, and proceeded with her evening routine. If it was a freaky air current there was nothing to be upset about, and if her apartment was haunted there wasn't much she could do.

A few minutes later, washing her makeup off in the bathroom, she looked into the mirror to see someone else looking back. "EEEEEEEEP!" This time she couldn't restrain the jump-reflex, and she found herself colliding with the wall.

The intruder in the reflection looked around the bathroom with mild interest, before focusing on Kagome. "Hello…hello."

"Um, hi", Kagome replied, with a hand pressed to her still-racing heart. "Ghost of Kikyou Takani?" It was an easy guess; the young woman in the mirror could have passed for a slightly younger version of Kagome. Her hair was pulled into a loose ponytail, and her U of V sweatshirt reminded Kagome that this girl in the reflection was just that; a girl. A college-kid with an unusually strong personality and terrible luck.

"That would be me", Kikyou agreed. She placed a hand up against the glass and asked, "Let me through the mirror?"

"Was that you in the kitchen?"

"Yes", Kikyou admitted. "I was testing how much I could influence physical things. Also, the more I do, the farther I can get into your reality. If I hadn't done the trick with the cupboards, you wouldn't be able to see me now. If you let me through, I can talk to you for longer."

Ignoring the dire warnings coming from her recollections of innumerable horror movies, Kagome followed her instincts which were telling her this girl is harmless, and touched her fingertips to the mirror.

Kikyou grasped her hand (or at least appeared to; Kagome couldn't feel any physical contact) and pulled herself into the bathroom, where she seated herself rather primly on the countertop edge. "Thank you", she said. "I'm not sure I'd have trusted me, if I were you."

"Uh huh", Kagome replied, looking with alarm at the mirror, where her actual reflection was still absent without leave. "Don't make me regret it."

"I need you to tell Inuyasha for me that I'm sorry."

"Why don't you tell him yourself?"

Kikyou made a face, a surprising change from her previous, overly serious poker-face. "I tried. I tried for hours, but the man doesn't have a spiritually intuitive bone in his body."

"That somehow doesn't surprise me."

"Anyway, I said some really awful things to him. When that creep got really close to me I could see that he wasn't Inuyasha, but it was too late. So…" She reached behind her neck to unclasp a thin, gold chain. "Give him this, tell him I'm sorry and I love him and wish him the greatest happiness in life…and tell him to follow his heart, and when he comes to die he won't regret it."

Kikyou handed her a small, locket, engraved with two interwoven K's. Kagome noted that unlike the ghost, it seemed to have a solid weight.

Kikyou's expression suddenly turned very sour. "Also, there are three different men watching your apartment from the parking-lot, through the kitchen window. You should take care of that. Be careful, Kagome; I wish I'd known you when I was alive, but I don't want to see you over here anytime soon."

The fluorescent light flickered, and Kagome realized with a start that her reflection had resumed its normal position in the mirror, and the ghost was gone. Three men in the parking-lot, hmm?

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Slamming the window open, Kagome peered into the parking lot. She was afraid she was going to end up waking a few neighbors, but felt that under the circumstances she was entirely justified. "Hey! Assholes! I know you're out there, come into the open where I can see you!"

Nothing moved.

Hoping that Kikyou hadn't been playing a prank, Kagome listened to the crickets chirping in the still night air. After a few minutes, she heard a faint scuffle from behind a parked minivan that belonged to one of her neighbors. "Hey!" she shouted again. "You behind the minivan, if you don't come out now, I'm calling the police."

A very sheepish, sweatsuit-clad Kouga Davis emerged with his hands in the air. "It's really not what it looks like, I promise…"

"What the fuck, Davis!"

"I was out jogging, and I realized that this was your apartment complex, and then I saw you in the window completely at random. Obviously I didn't know which room was yours until then, and I was somewhat surprised so I watched you for a moment, and yes I hid when you came to the window because I knew if you saw me you'd freak out exactly the way you're freaking out right now…"

Feeling like she was playing a very weird, scary game of "Where's Waldo", she noticed something odd about one of the trees next to the street.

"Your friendship is very important to me…" Kouga began, but was promptly interrupted.

"You in the tree, your shoelaces are untied. I can see the laces hanging. Same story; if you don't come down now, I'll call the police."

For the second time that night, a dumbfounded Kagome found herself hearing the words "It's really not what it looks like…" It was Hojo, the sweet boy from the forensics lab. Or not so sweet—he was wearing a pair of binoculars around his neck.

"Oh, good God, kill me now", Kouga muttered.

"Did either of you two notice anyone else out here?" Kagome asked.

"I didn't even know he was there", Kouga complained.

"I got here before he did", Hojo confirmed. "And he seemed like he was only passing through. I haven't seen anyone else, so I guess that makes me the real pervert here tonight…" Kagome didn't entirely buy his shamefaced act. How many times had this supposedly upstanding young man spied on her while she cooked herself dinner? At least the architect who'd designed her apartment hadn't put any windows in the bathroom.

Kagome wasn't sure how much of the story was true; Kikyou had said that three men were watching her window before she'd entered the kitchen. She'd been making tea earlier, but that had been some time ago. For Kouga to have continued watching indicated more than the casual, accidental curiosity he would have her believe. However, he was at least dressed in clothes appropriate for exercise, and there were more important issues at hand. Like the other two men still hidden in the parking lot far out the window as she could manage while maintaining balance, she checked the fire escape, and scanned the rest of the parking lot but didn't notice anything else out of place. The third peeping tom had apparently already left. "Okay. Kouga, go home. I'll talk to you tomorrow. And Hojo, if I ever catch you anywhere near my apartment ever again, you'll be looking at a restraining order. Understood?"

After the two men had left, she closed the window and again checked all of the locks in her apartment. She mused grimly that she should count herself fortunate. Kikyou's stalker had been a criminal with murderous intent, whereas Kagome's pet perverts seemed to be principally smitten boys with cooking fetishes.

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The next morning, Kagome cringed as she noticed the blue sports-car in the office parking lot. She didn't normally take notice of her coworkers' vehicles, but Kouga's was unmistakable. She'd come to work early in the hopes of dodging him; she was not looking forward to the conversation she'd scheduled the previous evening. She wasn't entirely sure what she was going to say, and dreaded the inevitable awkward mess.

She opened the door slowly, and observing that the coast was clear, walked down the hallway as rapidly as her high heels would allow. Kouga was at the copy machine, and didn't notice her passing by. She would collect her computer, drop by Sango's cubicle, and be on her way. There were no laws prohibiting a lawyer doing paperwork in her client's holding cell, and even Inuyasha's company would be an acceptable tradeoff for delaying unpleasantness. Kagome had no qualms fighting her hardest in court, or taking on the most aggressive of prosecutors, but personal conflict was not her area of expertise. She generally preferred to ignore problems, or avoid them.

Kagome dodged Kouga no less than three times before she made it to Sango's, once having to duck into a bathroom. It was amazing; she'd never run into him so many times. Once or twice she'd only caught sight of him from behind, so it was possible someone else had just adopted a similar hairstyle, but she wasn't taking any chances.

"Hey Kagome!" Sango greeted her cheerfully. Loudly.

"Shh! Keep it down, I'm trying to avoid Davis."

Sango muffled a giggle. "Bad date?" She whispered conspiratorially.

"Something like that."

"I haven't seen you. You should try to straighten it out, though. You do have to work with him."

"Yes, but not today. I just need to think about some things a little longer. Anyway", Kagome pulled a small bundle from her purse. "On a somewhat related matter, I might have a solution to your Miroku-difficulties."

Sango accepted the proffered object with a puzzled frown. "An I-Pod?"

"My mom gave it to me last Christmas, but I never use it. It might not look professional long term, but for a little while I think everyone will understand. Next time he starts serenading you or similar nonsense, just turn this on. Sooner or later he'll get bored, and leave you alone. "

"Huh. Thanks, I'll give it a try." Kagome noticed that Sango looked less than thrilled, and realized it was possible that her friend was starting to enjoy Miroku's attentions.

On her way out, she took a chance by stopping at the break room to pick up coffee. As she was pouring some of the brew into a Styrofoam cup, the sound of the door opening heralded the arrival of one of her coworkers. With a sense of foreboding, Kagome turned.

"Hey, Davis", she said a little sadly. He didn't acknowledge her greeting, and walked closer as the door closed behind him. Kagome noticed that something about his gait was wrong. Actually, something about his face was wrong. And in his left hand he was carrying a knife…

"Kagome! I have a bone to pick with you!" Miroku swung into the room, just she grabbed her purse off of the counter and the strange man took a swing at her head. She ducked and threw herself to the side, and the blow glanced painfully off her shoulder.

She heard the sound of a surprised exclamation from Miroku, but knew he was on the other side of the room and wouldn't be able to help her in time. Fortunately, she was a devout believer in the Scout Motto. She felt a hand grasping her hair, and twisted to face her attacker, Mace in hand.

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AN2: I've known several people with OCD, and none of them behaved at all like the media portrayal of obsessive compulsives. I hope I'm not offending anyone… I realize it's wildly OOC, but my rendition of InuYasha as a thirtyish human is probably even worse.

Anyway, I hope people are still enjoying this. If you have comments, complaints, or suggestions, just leave a review or message me. I've got more free time now, so I'll be responding to reviews :-)