Alright, this is chapter one! obviously i don't own any Inuyasha character. i definitely recommend that ya'll read the next chapter or two before deciding whether you want to keep reading this fanfic or not. unfortunately i had to spend

most of this chapter setting things up, explaining the demon system and introducing the main character. R&R if you like! enjoy :)

xoxo

xoxo

xoxo

The twang of my arrow echoed through the streets, which were dead at this hour of the night. The white spiritual energy the enveloped my arrow lit up the dark section briefly until it hit its target. Tonight it was an unidentified demon.

That's how it works in this city, and every other city, town, village, suburb, and country side through the world. Humans and demons coexist together. Just as there are several different races of humans, there are just as much if not even more 'races' of demons. There is a huge difference between humans and demons though, and that is that there truly are inferior races. Many a human war has been fought over the poorly formed theories that one race, culture or religion is better than another. I personally think that is just due to man's natural tendencies to compete with each other combined with insecurities we all carry around.

The demons, on the other hand, are a whole different story. While 'inferior' still isn't even the right word, there is a drastic and vital difference between them all. Organizations like the one I work for, DECO (Demon Extermination and Control Organization), even have a pretty little code of class that each registered demon is neatly categorized under. Class A Demons are the ones that you'll see working side by side with humans. Working in corporate offices, running companies, mowing their lawns in a developed neighborhood. Some can even pass for human, only those with trained eyes are able to identify them as Demon. Class A Demons are actually more well behaved than your average human citizen. You never hear of a Class A committing major crimes. You'd be hard pressed to find one that has even gotten a speeding ticket. It's basically all due to the fact that the justice system in any county is a lot quicker to condemn a Demon felon to death than they would a human. Also, the more trouble Class As get into, the less respect and credit they'll all get.

Then there is Class B. These Demons are more obvious, having characteristics pertaining to their race being the giveaway. For example, animal Demons may have tails, claws, fangs, their specie's ears, etc. Class Bs are also usually living and working alongside humans, however due to discrimination and a close eye being kept on them by the government, Class Bs are almost always in much lower class jobs, living in cheaper houses, and being overall discriminated against a little more than what is politically acceptable. I've only had trouble with a Class B twice in my 5 year career.

Class C is next, if you couldn't have figured that out yourself, these being where the trouble starts. Basically, as a Demon goes lower and lower down the alphabet, the more animalistic they are, baser instincts taking over. The higher they are, the more 'human' they are. Class Cs aren't going to be walking throughout the local park in broad daylight. While not always doing something illegal, these are the demons that spend the majority of their time in ghettos, doing whatever they do. As long as they aren't hurting other humans we don't interfere. It's only when they start effect 'our species' that we apprehend or exterminate the Cs.

Class D is what was now lying of the floor of the alley before me, only bits and pieces covered in his blood being all that is left of him. I walked over and inspect my handiwork, making sure all the important parts and destroyed. I can leave guts and intestines be, it's the things like entire heads, arms and hearts that I'll need to double back and shoot.

Class Ds are in most cases unidentifiable, but not all. This demon, for example, was so beyond humanity that my coworkers that assigned me to him couldn't even tell what kind of demon he was. I honestly wasn't sure myself. All I knew was that he spat acid out of his mouth like he was something out of the Exorcist. These Demons have no control of their innate urges to kill. Cannibalism is common. Obviously, these are the demons we just kill, court systems not even being considered.

There is another class, Class F, but that's not important. I've never even been assigned to one of them. In all honesty, I couldn't explain that group even if I wanted to. I wasn't experienced enough to know anything about them, and if they're that bad, I'm honestly okay with that.

I slung my bow over my shoulder, and with a sigh turned on the heel of my black, knee high steel-toed boots and headed for the exit of the alley. There were other people hired for clean up. My only job was to make the mess.

I had to walk 3 blocks before I came to my apartment. I had to jiggle to key violently to unlocked the chipped door for the building. Yeah, Demon Exterminators don't get paid much. Go figure. You'd think legal murderers would be making bank.

After shutting the door to my apartment room on the third floor, I dropped my bow and arrows on the floor and flopped down on my sectional couch. My eyes felt heavy, and without even bothering to kick my shoes off I felt them sliding shut.

My cell phone buzzed violently in my leather jacket, the shrill ring snapping my eyes open. I sat up, cursing colorfully as I dug the phone out of my pocket and answered. "Hello?"

"Kagome?" Miroku's voice came through the phone.

I frowned. "Do you know what time it is?" I snapped. I heard a chuckle from the other end. "Yeah, I also know you had an extermination assigned to you just an hour ago. You're already done?" I grunted in confirmation, rubbing my eyes. "That's why you're the best." I could hear him smiling through the phone. I mentally visualized him winking as he said that, because chances are he had. God, I've known this womanizer for far too long.

"What's up, Miroku?"

"Kaede assigned me to a Class B."

"Yeah, so? Is it an extermination or apprehension?" I asked. This is was weird. Miroku wasn't usually squeamish about his job.

"It's an apprehension…" The other end of the phone was quiet.

"What's wrong then?" I pressed, my sleep deprivation making me impatient.

"It's a kid." He stated flatly. Now it was my turn to be quiet. "Kagome? You still there?"

"A kid? Seriously? I've never had to deal with kid demon's before… or if I did I couldn't tell."

"Oh no, you can tell with this one. I have his folder right here. He's a little fox demon. Tiny fella with a big fluffy tail. He's been stealing from human's left and right. Fox's specialty is trickery and illusions, so you can only imagine how much he's gotten away with, robbing ignorant humans."

I sighed. "Right. So you want help?" I offered out of the goodness of my heart.

"You're the best, Kagome, really. You're truck's still in the shop right? I'll come pick you up." Click.

Five minutes later Miroku's Prius pulled in front of my apartment building where I was standing, fighting off sleep. His driver side window rolled down, revealing Miroku staring at me through his sunglasses, one eyebrow raised. He tilted his noise down and lowered his shades enough to eyeball me. "Looking good as always. Leather suits you." He smirked, looking me up and down.

I rolled my eyes, walking to the passenger side. "It's nighttime you idiot. Take the sunglasses off."

He sighed and pouted, but took them off and headed through the city. We pulled into a fairly nice neighborhood, stopping in front of a pleasant looking house. There weren't any mansions, but definitely upper middle class lived here.

"Is this his house?" I asked. Miroku nodded. Walking up to the door, I knocked, hoping this could go smoothly. Alas, there was no reply. I kept knocking, which became a bound against the door, until Miroku grabbed my wrist to stop me.

"Out back." He mumbled quietly. Releasing me, he headed down the front steps and slithered to the backside of the home. I followed closely behind. The reason I was a Demon Hunter was because of my spiritual energy. I was an offensive player. Bullets and other average human weapons don't always work on demons, so that's how I got my gig. Other than that, I had no cool abilities.

Miroku was a sensor and defensive player. He could set up wards against demons, but he could also sense auras, meaning when he said there was a demon in the backyard, there was a demon in the back yard.

Sure enough, we turned the corner to see a large fluffy auburn tail scurrying across the lawn. I sprung forward, diving to the ground and grasping a handful of fur. The little tike starting whining and addressing me as several creative titles, including smelly wench and wicked bitch. My my, this toddler had a mouth on him.

I stood up, holding the little fox upside down by his tail. I'd be lying if I said he wasn't cute, even flailing around like a stuck pig. "Chill out, kid. You're too young to get into any serious trouble. Just tell me where you're parents are and we'll have a nice long conversation about him sticky fingers."

"My parents are dead, you bitch." He cried out.

My eyes snapped up to Miroku, who was giving me the same look saying, this just got serious. I looked back at the fox as Miroku walked up to stand closely behind me. "What do you mean? What happened to them? Who's taking care of you?"

"They were murdered by the Thunder Brothers, and no one, I'm taking care of myself." He flailed and cried some more.

The Thunder Brothers were a well known Demon Gang that has been causing a lot of trouble under the radar. DECO hasn't been able to sick any hunters on them yet because no one has been willing to convict them of doing any crimes, no doubt having been threatened by the Thunder Demons themselves not to squeal. We may be murders, but we do things by the book.

The Thunder Brothers were two siblings that hovered over the Class B and Class C line. Officially, they were B, because they had complete control over their actions but were obviously demons, however actions are those of a Class C that gave into his baser instincts. I would just say they're Class B criminals that needed to be executed, but hey, I'm not running the company.

"Alright, Shippo." Miroku talked calmly, usually taking the role of good cop to my bad cop. "We're here to help you. Kagome here is going to put you down so we can talked about this as civilized people, but if you run then we'll have to use force, got it?"

The fox nodded, and I looked over my shoulder at my partner sending him a 'are you sure?' look. He gave me one brisk nod.

The fox amazing didn't bolt when I set him on the ground. Instead he sat down and told up the story of his parent's death. It was a tragic one. Apparently the brothers had been causing chaos through the neighborhood, mostly populated by Class B demons that didn't want to get the cops involved. When the brothers had gotten too close to Shippo, his mother had ran out to grab Shippo, followed by his father who came out to protect his wife and child. From there it's pretty self explanatory.

"Well you can't stay here by yourself." I stated after hearing his story. I look back at Miroku. "I don't suppose you know of any Demon Orphanages?"

He shook his head. "I don't think there are any."

Sighing I placed my hands on my hips and looked back down at Shippo. "Alright, we'll take you back to headquarters and find out what the best thing for you will be. They might be able to track down relatives you could live with."

He started crying again, despite his obvious effort to hold back his tears and be strong. "No! I can't leave! Not until I avenge my parent's deaths!"

"Listen kid, that's my job. I'll track down the Thunder Brothers and personally execute them. I'll even make sure they know I'm doing it for your parents. But I can't do that unless you go back with my partner here and straighten out you life a bit, got it?" I asked sternly.

He gaped up at me with large watery eyes before nodding and wiping tears off his face. We all walked back to the car, Shippo hopping in the back. After shutting the door after him, I turned to Miroku. "I'm gonna hang around here a bit and see if I can get any leads. The Thunder Brother's hangout isn't too far from here. You just take care of the kid."

Miroku placed his hands on my shoulders and squeezed. This was one of the few times he got serious. "Kagome, you don't have a contract from headquarters yet. If you go and perform an execution without permission first, you could lose your job. I don't know who the head of this organization is, but I do know that he is a hard ass. You don't want to piss him off."

"I'm tired of this." I said quietly, glancing into the window at the little boy that lost his family.

Miroku sighed, pulling me in for a quick hug before pulling away and walking to the driver's side of his car. "One of these days you have to tell me about your past, Kagome. It's the least you can do for all this worrying you're put me through."