By: Lara Winner
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Detective Taro Kobayashi sighed as he flipped open the manila folder on his desk. The picture of a young girl barely a woman smiled back at him from the old photograph tacked inside. He did not look up as his former partner joined him, instead he sighed in discontent.
"Cold case?" the younger, pale-haired man inquired curiously.
Handing over the folder Taro began to recite the young woman?s personal information from memory. "Kagome Higurashi, seventeen, disappeared from her home at Tokyo?s Sunset Shrine June 3, 1999. She was last seen heading off to meet a group of friends at Wackdonalds."
"Ninety nine? That was fourteen years ago." A strange light entered the younger man?s eyes as they skimmed over the contents of the file. "She?s pretty."
"Indeed Matsuo. She reminds me of my own daughter." Taro replied sadly.
"I take it there?s a reason that you dug this out?"
Taro pinned Matsuo with a pointed stare. "I had hoped to find closure for this case before I retired but?" he motioned to the cardboard box sitting to the left of desk nearly over flowing with personal effects, "That?s not going to happen. I?m asking you to keep this case open. It would mean a lot to me if one of us could solve this mystery."
Detective Matsuo offered him a sympathetic smile. "This one really got to you didn?t it?"
"You could say that. There was something fishy about this girl?s disappearance. She had been missing school with the excuse of improbable illnesses, the entire family gave me the gut feeling that they knew more than they were letting on? Something about this just doesn?t add up. It?s the one case that I could never forget about." Taro admitted.
"If it means that much to you then I?ll do it. Don?t worry about it."
Taro smiled feeling slightly more at ease about leaving the force after thirty-five years. "Thanks."
Matsuo brushed away his appreciation with a nonchalant wave of his hand. "No problem old man. Consider this your going away gift. Just don?t start getting too sentimental on me."
"Speaking of going away, " Taro laughed, "You are coming to the farewell party the precinct his having for me tomorrow right?"
"Wouldn?t miss it."
"Good. I?ll expect to see you there." He took the box filled with his belongings and motioned with his head toward the door signaling that it was time to get a move on. It wasn?t until Matsuo was walking beside him down the hall that he remembered something else. "And don?t forget to bring your wife. I?ve been working with you for over five years and I?ve never met the little lady."
Unusual golden eyes twinkled with amusement as Matsuo amended, "I?ll see what I can do. Finding a last minute sitter for the kids is like trying to find a needle in a hay stack but I?ll mention it to her."
"You do that." Taro started to turn away but then stopped. "By the way Yash, what?s her name again?"
Inuyasha Matsuo smirked.
"Kagome."
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A.N. - No point. No plot. Just something that popped into my head as I wondered what would happen if Kagome remained in the past with Inuyasha. Her life in the present would not be forgotten. Her friends would wonder about what happened, so would her teachers. To stop any questions from rising the Higurashi?s would have to play off her leaving as if she disappeared.
And this is the result. :-?
In case you?re confused: I put the year as 1999 because in the manga the year is supposed to be 1997. Kagome and Inu are sort of in their thrities, give or take considering hanyou aging. They are mated and she?s aging slowly like Inu. I thought the idea of him being a cop after five hundred years of helping justice prevail was only too fitting.
Its lame, I know. Blame my sleep deprived mind.
