-Chapter 3-

"Signore Boushin? Signore Boushin, qualcuno è qui per vederla." A timid voice spoke into the dimly lit room in Italian, the silhouette of a short petite figure shown from the hall way light behind it.

Within the room Miroku Boushin sat at his desk with a flashlight in his left hand. Various maps and atlases, some aged and some new by the looks of the paper, were spread out before him. He seemed to be thoroughly engrossed in studying them through his pair of reading glasses, only to jolt out of his concentration as sound invaded his world of silent thought.

He sighed quietly then turned his chair toward the person at the door, an annoyed expression reflected in his navy blue eyes. "Lucia, you know I'm only an apprentice in speaking the native tongue here. What is it you want?" He knew that by cultural standards it was a bit bold of him to speak the woman's first name, but as he was staying in her and her mother's home for the time being, he figured it was fine. He was the upfront and blunt type of person when it came to such beautiful women anyhow.

Lucia stepped further into the room shyly, her expression revealing a wordless apology before speaking it. "Sorry Signore Boushin. It isz how you szay forced habiit." Smiling nervously at using a language in which she was not fluent, the Italian woman paused to remember what she had come for. "Agents call and ask forr yuu. It about ah, mission?"

Her heavy accent was a little hard to understand, but when Boushin deciphered what was said, his face became troubled and very serious. Briefly glancing over to the collection of papers he had been reading over, he realized with a disgruntled slouch of his shoulders they would have to be researched to completion at a later time. Pulling off his glasses, he turned his attention back to Lucia, who still stood in front of him awaiting his reply. He nodded in understanding. "Very well. Tell them I'll be down shortly."

"Yes, Signore Boushin." Lucia spoke curtly.

"Lucia, drop the formalities. Just call me by my first name. Miroku." He said, offering her a suave grin.

"Okay, M-Miroku." She responded with a slight blush to her cheeks, then turned and left.

Miroku just chuckled to himself with a satisfactory smirk as he watched her scuttle away. "Still got it."

His lightheartedness faded when he remembered the set task he'd just agreed to, and quickly ran to get his shoes, gloves, and rain coat. With the weather getting so cold and wet outside, Miroku wanted to keep himself as warm as possible. Just a shame he hadn't packed earmuffs before he'd set out to such a weathered discidium as this. 'Now where's my other sock?' He wondered, searching about his things for the item. Not such an easy task, as the room was a complete mess, clothes and papers everywhere.

The meeting place he and the others had agreed on was some ways out from his personal safe house, and the nearest bus stop was at least six blocks away, so it was going to be a nice long walk. One Miroku couldn't help being concerned about given his lack of a 'proper' right arm, in its place nothing but nuts, bolts, and gears put simply.

Pulling his good arm through the coat sleeve, he took a moment to glance at the prosthetic replacement in greater detail, feeling that same raw sensation he always did when he took the time to really examine it. Compared to the newer steel made models mechanics made and sold nowadays it'd managed to upkeep its futuristic style and performance rate quite well over the years. It had only needed a few minor upgrades in the long while he'd had the thing. As it should, considering who designed it. Or, helped design it to be technical. It was extremely durable, flexible, and well-built for combat, but in Miroku's opinion it still had nothing on a real limb made of flesh and bone. Even after all this time it just didn't feel natural.

'Not so ignorant now, am I Ketry?' He thought bitterly with a hard frown, the man's face flashing through his mind with that calculating look in the man's eyes. Miroku abruptly shook his head at the vision, putting a stop to where his mind was heading. Now wasn't the time to go down memory lane.

Slipping on the other half of his rather worn and musty smelling outerwear, he spared a hesitant glance at the clock that hung against the wall by the open doorway. 'At this rate I'll miss the bus!' He realized in a panic, and after shoving his feet into his sturdy combat boots, sprinted out of the room and then out of the house with a small call of farewell to Lucia.

Breathing in the cold and smoggy night air as he began his long trek to meet up with the others, Miroku was suddenly struck with a thought he hadn't taken the time to think about until now. If he was being contacted like this, weeks before the next scheduled rendezvous between he and his subordinates, it could only mean one thing.

After so many months of searching, they'd finally found her.

"Boushin? Hey, Boushin!"

"Huh?" Miroku pulled slowly out of his daze with a blink of his eyes to see Sango standing over his desk waving her hand in front of his face, looking rather amused.

"Some boss man you are, daydreaming on the job when we've got the biggest mission of our lives ahead of us." She chided with a smirk, leaning back on her feet to sit in the small plastic chair behind her.

In that split second he transitioned from past to present, Miroku took in Sango's appearance as if he'd forgotten he knew her. She wore an awfully tight black work suit, complete with pants, a lavender blouse, and pointed toe high heels. Her long but straight brown hair was pulled to the side in an elaborate braid that touched the arm of the chair she was sitting in, and her honey colored eyes sparkled with a dangerous fire in them not many would expect from a technology specialist. The perfect woman. It was just a shame he couldn't see much of her more-attractive assets, as he liked to think of them.

"Ah forgive me my dear Sango, I was simply so entranced by your beauty I lost myself to it." Miroku countered smoothly in a suggestive tone, only to earn an eye roll from the woman he had complimented.

"Spare me. Let's just focus on the task at hand, if you can contain yourself."

Miroku huffed in over exaggerated disappointment. "Very well."

"Did you call Yasha already?"

Sango's work related question had Boushin quickly shifting his disposition, his face becoming much more firm and serious. It was strange to watch. "Yes I did. He should be locating her as we speak, but it's up to the circumstances how quickly he can actually bring the girl in."

Sango seemed a little surprised at this. "You think the Deceivers are already after her?"

Her boss leaned forward with both flesh and metal elbows on his desk, looking thoughtful. "It's better to assume so than act rashly and make things even more difficult than they already are for us. We can't afford to grab their attention right now, with so many other missions going on in their territory."

Sango nodded in agreement, though her face revealed many more questions.

With Boushin once again getting lost in his thoughts, the light's reflection on his glasses blocking her from reading the emotion in his eyes, Sango herself wandered to the rest of their humble headquarters.

To the untrained eye, it looked like any another office floor in the building, with various cubicles and desks. However, if you were allowed clearance into the secret lower floors that went underground, you would see the true rebellion at its core here in the Japanese discidium. Most operations were made there, but the minor things like looking over maps and maintaining cover were done where she and Boushin usually worked. She was sure whoever this Kagome person was, she would be amazed at the complexity once she got the grand tour. Assuming she didn't go insane for what they already had planned for her.

"Boushin?"

"Yes?"

"Why is this Kagome girl getting dragged into everything? I know over throwing the screwed up government is a big honor, but she may not be the type to handle an environment like this, and do what we do as agents. She's just a high schooler, right?"

He didn't answer for a moment, thinking of what he himself had been told by the higher ups after he'd left his safe house just that morning.

'She is the key, Mister Boushin. The key to everything, in every way imaginable. With her on our side, the truth will soon be realized.'

It had been strangely optimistic for such knowledgeable men to say, that was for certain. He sighed. "In all honesty Sango, it makes little sense to me as well. All I can tell you is she is special, unique to our common goal somehow. I'm sure once Kagome is brought here, we'll get some answers."

-[]-[]-[]-

Stepping into that interrogation room had most of the confidence Kagome had spent the last fifteen seconds mustering fly out through the nearest open window, wherever there was one. Here, it just felt like prison.

The room felt small and cramped, smelling of uncirculated air if that was possible. Her footsteps echoed off of all four walls until she took a seat on one end of the metal table in the center of the room. A bright light hung from the ceiling as she expected one would, and looking nervously to her left, she saw the large wall sized mirror window. Kagome could picture a couple other officers staring at her from the other side of it, and just the thought had her stomach doing odd flips.

Sitting there waiting didn't make it any more of a pleasant experience. It didn't matter that she hadn't done anything wrong. Being here, after such a traumatic experience as she had lived through only a short while ago, had her emotions going in all different directions. She was still tired, but it seemed her nervousness had served as some sort of energy boost. Kagome was still debating on whether that was a good thing or not.

Suddenly the door at the right corner of the room opened with a loud creak, and Ayumi's mother walked in along with another officer she hadn't seen before. His eyes were a clear blue color, and he had a mustache. He carried a non-too-friendly air about him as well, almost hostile. Kagome supposed it was to make her feel more obligated to talk, as if she needed any more inspiration to.

"I apologize for the delay." The male officer spoke, his voice slightly raspy with age. "As my partner here has already told you, we need some information if you can offer any about the person who assaulted you."

Taking a small breath, Kagome nodded her understanding. "Well, I can't really tell you much more than Miss Shima, since she saw the guy too. He was big, had darker skin, and yellow eyes."

Both officers perked up with interest. "Yellow eyes? Are you certain Kagome?" Shima spoke.

Maybe she knew more then she'd thought. "Uh, yeah. I can't really describe them as any other color. They were a bright-ish yellow. To be honest, they were pretty animalistic looking. I'm guessing he was wearing weird contacts or something. Maybe a dress code for a gang he's in." It was a fair guess. Not all gangs went by just specific colors and tattoos anymore.

The male officer cleared his throat, and jotted something in his notepad then asked, "What led up to this yellow-eyed gang member attacking you?"

"He was fighting with another guy first, and I was hiding in a nearby alley way so I wouldn't be noticed."

"And he somehow saw you?"

Kagome shrugged. "I guess so. I didn't really see when I got his attention; he just came to where I was hiding and asked who I was. I threw a metal pipe at him after that and ran. Eventually he pinned me down and that's when Miss Shima found me."

"Isn't that a little strange he would just notice you in a well hidden place while he had been preoccupied fighting with someone else?" The male officer asked with a suspicious tone in his voice.

Kagome fought the urge to glare at him. "I know it sounds weird, but it's the truth."

The male officer wrote a few more things on his paper, then closed the notebook altogether. "Thank you for coming in Ms. Higurashi. You can go now, we're done."

Wait, what?

"That's it? That's all you want to know? I didn't even give you a detailed description or anything." Kagome protested, sounding a little baffled.

Officer Shima actually chuckled at her reaction. "Oh we have a good idea who it was that attacked you, don't worry."

"Really? Who?"

Officer Shima and her partner shared a look before a file was placed on the table and a picture taken out to be shown to Kagome on the other side of the table. She stared at the mug shot in both surprise and disbelief as the male officer described the man in the photo.

"His name is Cesar Eglacious. He belongs to a gang called 'The Beasts'. He comes from the Mexican discidium to the East. A known drug dealer and very dangerous."

Officer Shima nodded. "It's almost like a cult, really. He and his gang believe that what we here in the Japanese discidium refer to as youkai, still exist. They wear contacts and fangs to appear like youkai in attempts to draw out these fabled creatures and do all sorts of strange things in name of their beliefs."

Pushing the picture of Eglacious back to Shima to put away, Kagome just scoffed. "Sounds like one messed up group of druggies."

"Indeed, but that doesn't make these people any less dangerous. If Eglacious has come after you like this, there's a possibility he may try to find you again." Shima's partner spoke sternly.

Kagome mulled over the large sum of information, and an idea struck her rather suddenly. "So, why are you telling me all this? You're not thinking of putting me in some kind of witness protection are you? That's a little over kill. I mean I get that this guy and his 'friends' are dangerous, but-"

"Nothing of the sort." Shima interrupted. "We just want you to be aware of the dangers and act accordingly while you recover at home."

That was basically the police's nice way of saying, 'We'd love to protect you, but we don't have the money to pay for it. Good luck though!' Kagome had seen it done many times before. Though in this instance, it wasn't so bad. She didn't think it was very likely this Cesar guy would come after her. If he was such a known criminal, he had his run ins with the law, and knew better than to be too reckless over one victim, if she could call herself one. She'd just make sure to have her cell phone at all times from now on and she would be fine. Right?

Everything sort of blurred out after Kagome left the station. She said a hasty goodbye to her friends and had gotten in her mother's worn down old car in remote silence, an old pair of running shoes put on her feet to replace the ones she'd lost (courtesy of the police). Conversation had been attempted several times over the course of the ride home, but nothing that stuck longer than a question and simple answer. The interrogation had come up once, but Kagome made it clear all she really wanted to do was sleep everything off and get on with life. She hadn't missed her mother's concerned expression when they got home, but chose to ignore it out of exhaustion. Just as they began to walk up the driveway however, something completely unexpected happened.

The house had caught on fire.

With a deafening explosion and shift of the ground beneath them, both Higurashi women gasped in shock as they stared wide eyed at the disaster, smoke rising into the air as the flames began to rapidly spread.

"Souta's inside!" Kagome's mother cried in sheer panic, not even waiting to hear her daughter's reply, darting thoughtlessly toward the house to save the boy.

"No Mom, wait!" Kagome called out, but it was already too late. Her mother had disappeared through the front door and into the death trap beyond. Of all the times not to have her damned cell phone! Then she remembered her mother had hers in the car still, and rushed to the driver's seat to call the emergency line as she jogged towards the front door. In the four times the line rang, Kagome could feel the frantic beating of her heart increase in tempo. Her breathing had picked up and her eyes remained wide as saucers as she saw her whole livelihood slowly turn to ash. She wanted to rush in with her mother so badly, but something was stopping her. She couldn't tell if it was cowardice or logic, but she stayed outside the house against normal instinct.

"This is the police station hotline, what is your emergency?"

It took a moment for Kagome to calm herself enough to speak, her thoughts already racing and making little sense. "House is on fire! Call fire department!" Was all she ended up getting out.

"Ma'am please calm down. I'm sending assistance now. I need you to stay on the line and tell me what's happening. Is there anyone inside the house?"

"Mom just went in to get my brother and hasn't come out yet. I don't know what to do!" Kagome rambled thoughtlessly, now pacing on the front lawn. She could feel her mind slowly unhinging and losing logical sense. The only thing going through her head was 'they could die, oh my god they could die!'

She didn't even remember the rest of that conversation, only recalling what happened after she hung up and the fire department arrived in all its glory several minutes later. By then the fire had spread to the entire house and the thick clouds of blackened smoke had engulfed the entire building. Worst yet, there was still no sign of her mother or younger brother coming back out. Kagome thought the worst, watching the fireman one by one march into the fray to try and find them dead or alive. She began biting her nails from the anxiety welling up in her chest. She was sure she'd start shaking soon enough. After everything else that had happened today, this was just the last straw for her.

"I'm going in!" She declared thoughtlessly, tossing her mother's phone on the grass and starting to charge towards the front door.

"Miss!" An unfamiliar male voice called out. "It's dangerous in there, you'll burn to death without protective gear!" Kagome ignored him and ran out of reach before she could be forcibly stopped.

The first thing she did was burst into a violent coughing fit. The smoke was completely unbearable, not to mention poisonous. Putting a sleeve over her nose and mouth in attempts to breathe easier, Kagome hadn't realized how intense the heat would be (though it should have been obvious).The imminent shock nearly stopped her movement completely. She just felt like everything was burning, her throat, her eyes-she forced herself to ignore it, taking slow and careful steps towards the living room on the first floor. She could hardly see anything through the bright light of the flames that were beginning to pin her in, and at this point her lungs felt as if she were breathing in acid. That small voice in her head kept screaming to turn back, but at the same time another voice said to stay and find her family. This was something she had to do.

"Mom!" Cough. "S-Souta!" Another cough. "You here?" Each yell grew more and more painful to call out, and as Kagome made her way towards the stairs she began to feel faint. She could hear pieces of wood on the railing falling apart and burning away as her vision began to blur, pieces of the ceiling starting to come down around her.

Nearing the direct bottom of what remained of the stairs; Kagome forced her now stinging eyes to peer through the smoke into the area she could no longer reach. What she saw had her stifling a gasp of mortification.

There lying motionless on the steps, were the firemen she had seen earlier making their way inside the house. Not only that, but their oxygen tanks were all split open in strange claw like slashes, and there was no sign they had found anyone. Only their own blood dripped down the burning wood around them, and frozen expressions of fear were plastered on their dirtied faces. It took a full five seconds to realize, but these men were no doubt dead.

Another thought flashed through Kagome's mind at that as she struggled to fit in the pieces. If the firemen had only made it to the stairs, and Souta's room was on the second floor and yet to be reached-oh no.

Forcing her way past, Kagome ignored the intense burning in her lungs as she took the largest breath she could and screamed, darting up the stairs. "MOM!"

Before she could get anywhere near the top, she felt a heavy blow to her head, and fell to her knees with a throbbing headache. There was the sound of glass breaking somewhere behind, then her sight completely blurred and faded to black.