Summary: AU It's becoming a little strange when Kagome starts hearing voices. It gets even weirder when a person no one can see but her starts following her around... and he's not making her life any easier. He's trying to what? She's only got a few weeks to live, it's inevitable. Will Sesshomaru go against everything to save someone he barely even knows? This girl is a lot more trouble than he deems worthy.

Disclaimer: As you know, I do not own the greatly appreciated, Inuyasha.

The Undaunted

Chapter 1: Unexpected Occurrences

"Sometimes you're not really as alone as you think you are."

Truthfully, she'd rather be anywhere but school today.

She groaned and rested her head on the palm of her hand, tilting her head to the side to look out the window.

"Kagome, did you hear?" one of her friends asked, nudging her elbow.

She perked up, groggily staring up at them. "Say what?"

"Are you not feeling good again?" her friend Eri asked her. "You've been out of it lately. But anyway, we're getting a new student! I heard he's coming all the way from America, isn't that crazy?"

"I heard he's really handsome, too," Yuka sighed happily.

"That's great guys," Kagome mumbled, resting her head on her desk. Her friends were always talking about the latest gossip, and sometimes Kagome didn't actually mind listening to it. Today was different, though.

Her other friend, Ayumi, lightly shook Kagome. "Hello, earth to Kagome. Are you listening? Do you know what all of this means?"

Kagome slowly shook her head; she really didn't want to know what all of this meant, especially if it involved her.

"Hojo might have some competition, huh?" Ayumi said grinning. "Maybe this new guy will catch your interest? I heard he starts tomorrow."

"Guys, me and Hojo aren't even dating. We've been on a couple dates, that's it." She started to blush at the thought. He was the cutest guy in school, and he did pay more attention to her than any other girls in school. She sighed thinking about it, he was just too nice though.

Her friends continued to chat away as Kagome once again laid her head down and looked out the window. For only a second, she thought she saw someone by the window. It looked like a guy with long silver hair, and he had a crescent moon in the middle of his forehead. She blinked, only to find him gone.

"Hey, guys, did you see that?" she asked, still mesmerized.

"What are you talking about?" Eri asked.

"That guy by the window," she replied, pointing to where she saw him just seconds before.

The three girls glanced over, but saw nothing. "You must be getting sick again, there's no one there," Yuka said.

But I swear I just saw something,' she thought. Maybe I really am getting sick.

The bell rang signaling the end of the day. Kagome got up and quickly left, not in the mood to walk home with her friends.

It was a nice day out, and excluding her gloomy mood, she was going to try and enjoy it.

She walked down the street holding onto the strings of her backpack as she walked. The street was crowded with people walking home from school or just getting off work.

Her mind wandered to what she was going to do when she got home. She decided she was going to eat, take a nap, and then do some homework. What an eventful day.

She came across an intersection and waited till the walk sign lit up.

"Watch out," a voice whispered to her.

She gasped and looked around, but it looked like no one was paying attention to her or even looking at her. She shook her head to shake off the thought. Probably my imagination... The walk sign appeared and everyone started to walk.

A little boy ran past her screaming," you'll never catch me." Seconds later she feels someone push into her and sent her falling down onto the pavement.

Beep Beep!

She looked up to see a car swerve around her just in time.

"What... just happened?" Her heart was beating fast in her chest. Did I almost get hit? It didn't seem like anyone noticed her almost getting hit. The light was flashing signaling it was almost time for everyone to stop crossing.

She pushed herself up off the ground and ran across the intersection safely to the other side.

No one asked her if she was okay, no one helped her up, no one bothered to even look at her. She didn't understand what was going on. In her mind, she was contemplating whether it really happened or not. People just continued to walk by her like they didn't even see what happened.

In the distance, a flash of silver hair made its way through the crowds of people. Kagome squinted her eyes, barely noticing it.

Something weird was going on. That, or nothing was going on and she was really going crazy.

"Mom, I'm home," she yelled as she walked in the door. She took off her shoes and made her way into the kitchen to fix herself something to eat.

Her mom turned around and smiled. "How was school?"

"The usual." She took out bread and peperoni from the fridge and started to make herself a sandwich. Her mom continued to clean the dishes, not bothering to ask anymore questions.

"Ah, Kagome, you're back," her Grandpa said as he took a seat at the table. "I have something important I want you to do."

She looked at him quizzically. "Like what?"

"Clean the shrine, my dear."

If this was an anime, she'd fall over. "Are you serious? Can't you do it?"

"I'm getting a little too old to be doing that kind of work! My bones are fragile and-"

She glared at him and cut him off, "When did sweeping ever become hard work?"

"It's not easy work, why back in the day it took one person hours to sweep the whole shrine. Before they had vacuums, it was all manual labor, and my poor back can't take it anymore." He held his fist up and looked at the ceiling. It looked like tears were about to from in his eyes. "You see-"

"All right, all right, geez. You win, I'll go do it." She stomped off to go clean, clearly annoyed that she gave in to his ranting.

Finally done doing all her Grandpa's ridiculous chores he made her do, which included: sweeping the shrine, cleaning the litter box, vacuuming the house, and making him dessert. She didn't know why she even listened to him.

She made her way up to her room and laid down on her bed, exhausted from all the chores.

"I'm so done today," she said to no one as she threw a pillow over her head and closed her eyes.

"Very soon," she heard a low voice whisper. "Very soon..." It was so faint, it sounded like the whistling of the wind outside her window.

"Huh?" she jumped up out of her bed and surveyed the room.

No one was around.

"Maybe I am going crazy." She turned over, cuddled up with her stuffed animals, and fell into a deep slumber. Not noticing that someone, somewhere, was keeping a very close eye on her.