Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha

In a World of Demons

Chapter 1: Rescuer

"Are you certain the girl still has no idea?"

"That girl?" he began, rolling his eyes, "she is a clueless teenager girl. I still don't see how she has so much power. Are you sure you aren't making some sort of mistake because—"

"Never doubt me!" He yelled, slapping his servant so hard that the servant fell to floor. He continued calmly, "that girl is the one. She could change everything… the balance between good and evil could be changed…"

"Because of that little girl?"

"Yes, that girl. That girl could be the end or the beginning of us. She can change everything…"

Kagome hummed as she walked briskly toward her high school. With a big smile on her face, she had a strong urge to skip and sing out the words of the song, but settled for just humming contently. Today had started off just like any other day, but she couldn't help being happy. She had a wonderful life living with her mom and younger brother, Souta, in a small house in the middle of town, an irreplaceable best friend, Sango, good grades and a good job. There was nothing else she really needed, at least, not at that moment.

"Hey, Kagome," she heard some on behind her call.

Speak of the devil. Kagome turned around slightly and her smile grew when she saw Sango running up to her.

"Sango!" Kagome cried out, giving her friend a big hug, startling Sango slightly.

"Hey," the athletic girl said to her, hardly out of breath even though she had been running for some time. "I thought you were going to wait for me so we could walk together."

"Oops! It must have slipped my mind," Kagome said, offering an apologetic smile.

Today was the first day of their junior year in high school. Since Sango's parents were divorced she always spent the summer with her mom, making it so Kagome hadn't seen Sango all summer and she had missed her friend desperately. It was one of the reason she was glad school had started. During the school year, Kagome was able to hang out with Sango all the time. The three of them did almost everything together.

Kagome began to grin evilly, thinking of their other friend, making Sango look over at her suspiciously.

"What?" Sango asked warily.

"So Sango… have you seen Miroku yet?"

Sango expression darkened and Kagome had to try to refrain from laughing. Sango hadn't exactly left on good terms with Miroku. When the two of them had been saying goodbye to Sango before she got on the plane to see her mom, there had been an ahem groping incident, worse than normal. It had taken weeks for the handprint on Miroku's face to completely fade. Although he had told Kagome with a big sigh that he had cherished it because it was his last reminder of her. Feeling bad for her depressed friend, Kagome had tried to comfort him, only to end up being groped herself. That earned him a slap on the other cheek, creating a red handprint on each. She had not been particularly offended though, because Miroku made a pass at almost every girl he could find.

She had mostly hung out with Miroku that summer, as she normally did every summer when Sango went away. Kagome did not have many other close friends at school. She was friendly enough, but she must have given off some type of certain aura or something because her fellow classmate had always seemed skittish around her. Not Sango and Miroku though, they were her closest friends. Although it seemed as though Sango and Miroku did not always get along, they did care for each other. Kagome could tell, even though Sango liked to hide it and Miroku also didn't seem to notice he did he chased after other woman half-heartedly when Sango was gone. They really did miss each other; at least Miroku missed Sango a lot. It was both adorable and frustrating to watch them at times.

Speaking of Miroku…

"How are my two most lovely ladies?" a voice said behind them as an arm was draped on each one of the girl's shoulders. Miroku stepped in between them, giving both girls' shoulders a squeeze but still did not remove his arms from around them.

Sango groaned but Kagome only smiled. There had been a time when she would have blushed at his flirtatious ways but after knowing him for so long, she was use to it. Sango and Miroku both had moved into her town when she was in middle school. First had come Sango, and they were instant friends, and not soon after, became best friends. Miroku came about a year later, and, it was sad to say but, yes, Miroku was always a class A pervert. Sango warily excepted him and although it seemed that she was displeased with him most of the time, she could often see a blush crawl up Sango's face when Miroku spoke sweet words to her. Of course, neither girl was going to tell him that, he would become too smug.

"Get off me, Miroku," Sango snapped. Without waiting for a reply, she removed the arm from her shoulder and moved away from him. Kagome did the same.

"You wound me. After so much time away and so cold a response…" Miroku told Sango, clutching his chest in mock pain.

Sango rolled her eyes but her lips quivered upward.

So she did miss him, Kagome thought, interesting.

"So Kagome, how was your summer?" Sango asked.

"Oh, it was great! I worked a lot at my job and got a lot cash to help my mom pay for bills and stuff like that. Apart from that I was mostly in my room, reading, on the computer, you know the usually, unless I was out with Miroku here, though I didn't see much of him." Kagome then decided to chance it and said slowly, feeling herself smile as she said it, "… you know, Miroku was very depressed this whole entire summer when you were gone…"

"I'm sure he was," Sango said dryly, although Kagome could not help but notice the faint blush that was creeping its way onto her face.

Miroku seemed to notice too. He immediately took Sango's hands in his, and clasped them close his chest.

"Oh, my dear, dear Sango. These past two months have been dreary without you…" Kagome wasn't sure whether to be offended by his statement or not. Miroku continued, "You only need to say the word and we can make up time for all those cold and lonely nights we were without each other…"

He did not have a chance to continue after she slapping him across the face, hard.

Kagome could only sigh. Would Miroku ever just act civilized around Sango? Or did he like getting slapped over and over and over… you catch the drift.

"You know he carried that last slap mark you gave him before you left for weeks," Kagome murmured to Sango. Miroku was too busy rubbing his cheek to notice.

"Good," Sango said with a smile, as if the news had brightened her day.

"There is no hope for the two of you," Kagome told her with another sigh.

"Hope for what?" Sango asked darkly, giving Kagome a deadly look.

Knowing she couldn't get out this one, Kagome took off running, half-yelling, half-singing back to Sango, "noootttttthhhhiiiiinnngg."

"Kagome," Sango said warningly behind her. Kagome only sped up and Sango began to run after her yelling, "KAGOME!"

Kagome began to laugh as she ran away from her friend. Already it seemed like she had never left.

"You won't be laughing much longer!" Sango called to her.

Kagome knew it was true too. Sango could run a lot faster and longer than Kagome. She would have her down in no time. Sango did almost every sport imaginable and always stayed in shape. Kagome just did whatever sport they were doing in gym class at the time.

Kagome glanced back and saw Miroku walking normal pace behind them. Kagome frowned at this. Usually when Kagome and Sango ran like they were now Miroku also followed suit. Sango seemed to notice this too and called back in a taunting, "hey Miroku, what's wrong? Too slow?"

Miroku smiled wickedly. Uh-oh, that was never a good sign. "No thanks! I got a perfect view from back here. With those short skirts your wearing and the wind, I'll be seeing something very interesting from under those skirts very soon."

That stopped both of them dead in their tracks. Kagome began to blush furiously and smoothed down her short skirt. Stupid school uniform, she thought, they just had to make the skirt so damn short. Looking at Sango, Kagome could tell she was doing the same thing except….

"MIROKU!" Sango yelled, all the while advancing on the walking Miroku.

Kagome hit her hand against her forehead, shaking her head slightly. She turned to walk back to her two friends, hoping they didn't do anything too violent. They really would never learn.

They arrived at school, all of them bubbling with laughter. Kagome had to lean on Sango for support; she was laughing that hard. This was how it should always be, the three of them together, joking and laughing, and just together. Every day and every night should start with this feeling of totally happiness.

When they finally stopped laughing, they slowed down their pace, trying to delay having to go to into the school. Kagome walked slightly ahead of them, but she did notice when her friends began to act strange. Not again, she thought silently.

Sango suddenly took Miroku's arm and he turned to face her. He would have teased her right then if it hadn't been for the ever so serious face Sango had on. Miroku's grin also faded as he returned the serious face. They both looked to the girl that walked in front of them nearly bouncing around with a big smile on her face, not noticing that she knew something had changed. They began to talk cautiously, thinking that she wouldn't hear, but they were wrong.

"Did anything… strange happen over the summer?" Sango asked quietly.

"No, everything was perfectly quiet. Dully quiet, actually," Miroku answered.

"You're sure? Nothing… suspicious?"

"I'm very sure. Nothing changed, everything's normal. The only thing that's strange are the things we do Saturday nights."

Sango sighed in relief. "Do you think anything will ever happen? I'm starting to doubt it after all the time we've been here and seen nothing…"

Kagome abruptly turned around, still smiling, and pulled Sango along toward the school building, leaving Miroku to trail behind them. Mentally, Kagome frowned. She had caught them talking in similar ways before and it always confused her. Exactly what were they waiting for to happen? The first couple of times she had heard them talking, she had inquired about it but they both had sweat dropped and covered up for it, badly she might add. Now she only listened and got more confused but she had learned to shake it off and think of other things.

But the Saturday night information was new. Exactly what did they do on Saturday? Did they have some sort of relationship? Maybe they had finally gotten together. If they did, Kagome was happy for them, but was a little hurt they hadn't told her. Taking it out of her mind for further thought later, she turned toward Sango to talk.

"So, what did you do over the summer?" Kagome asked trying to cover up for her still puzzled mind.

"Nothing really. There's not much to do at my mom's except sleep, eat, you know that sort." She then brightened. "But my brother lives with my mom full-time, so I did get to spend a lot of time with him."

Kagome sympathized with Sango. She missed her brother a lot after their parents had gotten a divorce. Sango was sent to live with her dad and Kohaku stayed with their mom and not soon after the divorce, her dad moved her here, and she still missed her little brother. It was the only reason she looked forward to going to see her mom for the summer vacation.

"That's great!" Kagome said cheerfully, obviously still in her good mood. "So let me see your schedule, and I'll see what classes we have together."

Sango took her school schedule out of her backpack and handed it to Kagome who immediately started to compare Sango's with hers. They had five out of the eight classes together, which Kagome was happy about. She handed her list back to Sango.

"We don't have first period together, but I guess I'll see you second," Kagome added on the bright side.

"Sango, it looks like we have first period together," Miroku contributed, with a smile, "we have so much time to make up for."

Miroku's arm slid around her waist while Sango slapped his hand until he let go. She rolled her eyes and mouthed the words "save me" to Kagome as they walked away toward their first class. Kagome just laughed and waved bye to them and then headed towards her first period class, science.

"I don't like us leaving her alone," Sango began, "last year at least one of us was in every class of hers…"

"You worry too much. You're in five of her classes. If you can't do math, that's more than half. And I might be some of her classes too," Miroku told her.

"It's just that—"

"I doubt something is going to jump out and eat her during the three periods were aren't with her," he joked, then seeing the glare she gave him, he continued, "this is a school remember. It would make quite a scene if something really did jump out at her."

"But she's so young and innocent…"

"Young? We're the same age as her!"

Sango glared again at him. "You know what I mean."

"Yeah, I do. But don't worry about her so much."

"I won't, as long as he stays far away from her. He's the only real threat in this school…"

Miroku put an arm around her and gave her shoulder a comforting squeeze like he had done that morning. This time, though, she let him.

Kagome slid into the last seat available in the back of the classroom. She had had trouble opening her new locker, causing her to be late to her first class. She tried to keep her cheeks from burning red as the teacher scrutinized her for walking in late. Not looking directly at the teacher, she grabbed a notebook and a pen, trying to do anything to avoid eye contact.

She glanced around the room, seeing who was in her class. For once she was nervous about it. Before Sango was in almost all her classes, again like this year, but in the classes she wasn't in, Miroku was in, so during project and class time she always had a partner to work with. She never really had time to get to know the other students in her grade well.

Looking through the classroom, she recognized few people. She immediately saw what looked like the "popular group" and decided to stay away from them as much as she could. Another girl wrote notes furiously, and Kagome wondered if she should do the same. She also saw Hojo and that eased her up a bit. She use to be really close with him when they were kids and had always gone to the same school so maybe they would be able to work together. That way, she had at least one familiar face to work with.

One person stood out in the classroom though. He had never been in one of her classes before but she knew him anyway. Not that she knew him personally, no she had never actually talked to him before, she just recognized him. She wasn't sure he had talked to anyone before. He was a loner, always preferring to be by himself, but just the way he looked made him stand out. He had long silver hair, golden eyes and a tall, muscular body… not that she was staring or anything. He was also the only guy in school, besides Miroku, who refused to wear the tie that went with the boy's school uniform. She did not even know his name. All she knew was that almost everyone in school was terrified of him and the punks that had not been afraid of him when he arrived… well let's just say one of the guys had a arm cast for months.

He had just come to this school in their freshman year so everything about him was mysterious. It was not like anyone knew where he came from or knew him at all. He seemed to have no friends here and neither did he want any. She had run into him a few times but he had always ignored her, like he did everyone else, but he seemed even colder toward her. He insulted other people when he felt like it, but never her. In Kagome's mind, she always saw him as a dog for some reason, but that could have just been from his strange eyes and the long silver hair.

As if sensing her watching him, he turned to face her and Kagome quickly turned back to her to her notebook, writing frantically. She copied what the teacher had written on the board, although her cheeks began to turn redder and redder as she noticed out of the corner of her eye that he was still watching her. She noticed he wasn't writing anything down and neither was he paying any attention to the teacher. Finally, he turned away and Kagome let out a breath she did not even know she was holding.

First period could not have ended fast enough. She quickly gathered all her things, still a little unnerved by the strange boy, and rushed to her locker to put away the new science textbook she had just received. Kagome practically through her textbook in and grabbed another notebook. She closed her locker and began to walk away, in a rush to meet Sango and not really paying attention to where she was going. She ran into someone forcefully causing herself to drop all of her books and causing their books to fall to the ground as well.

"Sorry," she murmured, not really thinking the person heard her. She crouched down on the floor, gathering her things together while only balanced on the balls of her feet.

"You should be, wench. Watch where you're going next time," the boy snapped at her.

She looked up and her breath caught in her throat. The silver-haired boy towered over her, scowling down at her. She lost her balance and fell on her rear still staring out at him in slight shock.

"What are you staring at?" he growled. He still made no move to pick his things.

"Uh… nothing," was Kagome only reply. She gathered his things up for him and handed them up to him while still sitting on the floor. "Here, I'm sorry."

He snatched them out of her hands none too gently and began, "yeah, well—"

"Kagome!" she heard Sango shout in alarm from down the hallway.

Sango and Miroku sprinted down the hallway toward Kagome. They only stopped when they both stood in front of the sitting, bewildered Kagome, as if to shield her from the golden-eyed boy in front of her. They were both in a defense position. Were they… were they going to fight the boy? For running into her? Kagome was extremely confused.

"Real protective friends you got here, wench," the boy sneered as he looked the two up and down, as if measuring them up. He had emphasized the word friends, which had confused Kagome.

Kagome could see Miroku and Sango stiffen at his remark. What did the boy mean? Of course they were her friends! Why else would they be here? They were just a little over-protective.

"Leave. Now," Sango said.

"You idiots, it's not what you think," Inuyasha informed them in a don't-really-care manner.

"I think we understand perfectly," Sango responded.

"You will stay away from her," Miroku said confidently.

Kagome snapped out of it and gathered her fallen books from where they were scattered on the ground. She realized they were making a scene and the students around them were watching, wide-eyed. They could not believe anyone was messing with the loner kid. He had beaten up some very powerful kids when he had first come and now no one dared stand in his way. So what were the girl and boy thinking? Were they insane? That was what the students murmured to each other as they watched from a safe distance. Cowards, thought Kagome.

The golden-eyed boy looked exceedingly ticked off by the moment as they spat insults back and forth. Did the two really think they could stand up to him? They had to be insane or way too protective of the little wench.

Kagome tugged at Miroku's arm and said, "please, it was my fault. I ran into him." Miroku just glared at her, though he began to ease up. "Really, he didn't do anything."

The boy seemed surprised by her statement. Was she… helping him? Not that he needed the help; he could take the two on easily, but…. Didn't she know who he was? By looking at her innocent, wide eyes, he realized that she didn't. That made him smirk suddenly. She had no idea what was going on in the world.

Miroku finally eased up entirely and got out of his defensive position. He smiled at Kagome and said, "well it has all been a big misunderstanding then, hasn't it?" His tone was friendly enough but Kagome could tell he was staring daggers at the other boy as if telling him to remember his warning.

"But, Miroku—" Sango started. She still had not moved an inch. Her eyes were locked with the golden ones in a death stare.

"Let us go, lovely maidens," Miroku said, ushering them down the hallway, "we have class to attend."

The silver haired boy rolled his eyes and turned around with a last word that sounded like "feh". Meanwhile, Miroku began to break up the crowd that had gathered, charming all the ladies while he did it. Sango looked rather annoyed at this so Kagome tried to distract her from Miroku's flirtatious attitude. She also seemed usually tense, even after the boy had left. Kagome began to lead Sango towards the gym, their next class, telling Miroku they'd meet him later. He was too preoccupied to notice.

"Are you sure he wasn't hurting you?" Sango asked for the umpteenth time.

"I told you I just ran into him by accident," Kagome replied for the umpteenth time.

"Is that really what happened or is that what he told you to say because—"

"Sango!" Kagome cried out, frustrated, "It's fine really. Nothing happened. You are way too over-protective."

"I'm just looking out for you. I mean you're too weak to do anything yourself…" Sango joked.

"Hey!" Kagome said in mock hurt.

Sango laughed and Kagome quickly joined in too. They ran toward the gym while laughing, seeing that the bell that began class had rung sometime ago. It was alright though, since it was the first day of school, all they had to do was pick what they wanted to do in gym for that semester. It wasn't like they were missing anything important. Kagome and Sango sneaked into the back of the room carefully so that the gym teacher did not notice and sat down behind the other students on the floor. It would not have mattered if they had saw them though, because all the gym teachers loved Sango because of how good at each sport she was. Kagome on the other hand… well lets say they only liked her mostly because she was Sango's friend. It wasn't that she was bad in gym, it was just that she was not the best.

Kagome grabbed the papers that were being handed back and handed one to Sango too then tossed them at another student. She looked to see what courses they were offering in the fall of the year.

"Let's see… soccer… football… track… self-defense…" Well that last one sounded interesting. Maybe she would take a self-defense class. Maybe then Sango and Miroku would not worry about her so much. Then the last course caught her eye. "Archery?"

Sango, who had been leaning against the wall with her eyes closed now, opened one eye lazily. "Hmm?"

"Look, they have a archery class," Kagome stated, clearly interested.

Sango then looked over her sheet and said, "why not take self-defense? It might be useful for you."

"Won't it be useful for you too?"

"I already know self-defense."

"Oh." Of course she knew self-defense. She had seen her use it against Miroku constantly. "Well, then I wouldn't want to take something you already knew how to do."

Kagome and Sango had always taken the same class. This way, it helped with her argument for taking archery. Archery was something that the school had never offered before and she was curious to learn how to do it.

"I really think we should take self-defense. There are some weird creeps out there. It could come in handy," Sango told her.

"Yes, but if we take archery then I can shot all the creeps with my bow and arrow," Kagome told her cheerfully.

"That you'll just happen to bring with you wherever you go," Sango replied dryly.

"Of course," Kagome said with a smile.

"What happen when the creep is two feet in front of you and decides to break your bow? Of course, this is after the fact that you happen to have the bow and arrow with you at the time," Sango said.

"Okay, so I haven't thought this all the way through, but come on, it'll be fun! And they won't offer archery in the winter but they do offer self-defense so we take archery now and self-defense later."

Sango sighed in a defeated way and Kagome knew she had won. Kagome gave Sango a quick hug and Sango held up her hands in an "I surrender" way.

"You won't regret it. It's not like you haven't taken every other sport they offer here. It'll be good to learn something new." Kagome saw Sango still grumbling and quickly added, "and the instructor is that hot guy over there."

Kagome pointed to a new gym teacher and Sango perked up. "Oh, well, when you put it that way…"

"You don't know how much your words hurt me," Miroku spoke as he sat down next to Sango who immediately shifted so that she could see all of him, making sure a hand did not appear from nowhere and end up making Miroku get slapped from his dastardly deeds.

"And we obviously ignore the fact that you were flirting with half the girls in the school just minutes ago," Sango told him.

"Obviously," Miroku agreed.

"You two sound like an old married couple," Kagome added.

That shut up Sango within seconds and Miroku stopped talking but had a smug look on his face.

What they did not know was that the whole conversation and conversations to come while in the gym class were all being heard by a certain silver-haired boy.

The rest of the day went by in a blur. Miroku was hardly in any of her classes, which Sango was ecstatic about. She said they saw him too much anyway, which was true enough. They had ended up taking archery in gym while Miroku had decided to take soccer. Miroku said he rather not make a fool out of himself at archery saying he had tried it once and had little success. Sango was actually a little disappointed then, saying she would have loved to see him make an idiot out of himself.

She had walked home with the two, lugging a heavy bag of textbook behind her. Miroku had oh-so kindly asked to carry Sango bag for her and she agreed, which shocked them all. So Miroku was stuck dragging two full backpacks home and was having a lot of trouble with it. Sango later told me that besides the textbooks, she had also filled all the free spaces with bricks. Kagome and Sango could not stop laughing the entire time while watching Miroku struggle until they reached Kagome's house.

"You can drop Sango's bag here, Miroku," Kagome told him, "she's going to stay over for a while."

Was it just her, or did Miroku look extremely relieved? Sango's house was actually a couple of blocks past Kagome's house and he had no problem dropping the bag on the ground and leaving for his home as quickly as possible.

As they saw him scurry away, they broke out laughing again. Sango opened her bag and dumped out all the brick onto Kagome's lawn before picking it up again.

"I could not resist when I saw some bricks next to the school. It was perfect revenge," Sango said between gasps for air after laughing so hard.

"Revenge for what exactly?" Kagome asked when she herself had enough air.

Sango gestured her hand in the air and said, "everything."

The two hung out in Kagome's room for some time, doing the little homework they had received on the first day. They swapped stories of their summer vacation while snacking on some foods. By the time Sango went home around five, Kagome's stomach hurt a lot from all the laughing they had been doing. Just bringing up the image of Miroku scurrying away sent her into a fit of giggles.

She ate a quick dinner with her mom and brother before rushing upstairs to put on her work uniform. Between wearing her school uniform and her work one, she hardly ever wore normal clothes. She called a goodbye to her mom as she ran out the door toward her job at the department store. She had to be there by six and…ugh… it was already five forty-five. It was just enough time to get there, if she hurried. It was still light out and would not turn dark until around nine.

She practically ran all the way there and could not breathe until she finally stopped inside the department store. She swore she thought the other clerks there thought she was dying or something. One was even about to call an ambulance before Kagome stopped her.

When she calmed down a bit, she took her place behind the register and began to serve the customers. The night was long and boring, just like every other night, but the money they paid was good so Kagome stuck with her job. She was only suppose to work until nine, but they were short a few people so she offered to stay until eleven. Even though she would be tired tomorrow, she figured it would be okay since school just started and she really did not have to learn anything yet. She might as well get some extra money while she could.

The whole while she was there she kept seeing strange men walk around her section of the department. Not that the men were strange on their own, it was just weird to see so many grown men wearing mostly black in the young girl's section of the department store. The other clerks thought so too. Kagome could hear them muttering to each other has they hung up clothes that had been left in the fitting rooms.

After about ten o'clock, though, the men disappeared from the store. For that, Kagome was grateful. The men had unknowingly given her goosebumps all over. Now she would not have to worry about going past them when she went home that night.

Eleven o'clock came and she said goodbye to the other women who were closing up. She considered calling her mom for a ride but decided against it. Her mom was probably sleeping already and Kagome was not even sure she had a quarter to call with. Wrapping her arms tightly around her, wishing she had brought a coat, as she walked outside into the chilly night's air.

Okay, maybe it was not that chilly, seeing how it was still part of summer, but it was still fairly cold. She debated with herself which way to go home. There was the long way, which would take a half an hour to walk home or the shorter way, which would take roughly ten minutes. The only thing was, the shorter way lead mostly into dark places, out of the town's lights. But what was she a little girl? She could just as easily get jumped on the long way home, seeing as any attackers had more time to get to her and she was tired. All Kagome wanted to do was collapse on her nice warm bed and get there as soon as possible. Making her decision, Kagome walked into the darkness of the shorter way.

She did not realize how fast her pacing was until she tripped and fell to the ground and a little yelp escaped her. She hated to admit it, but she was scared. She jumped at every sound she heard, making herself more nervous by the minute. This is stupid, she thought to herself, I shouldn't be so afraid. Who would attack me?

Right about now she was regretting not taking those self-defense classes with Sango. Not that they would have done her any good at the moment since the actually class had not started yet, but it would at least given her some peace of mind.

It was always how it started, right? The pretty girl would start to walk through the alley and then a guy in a hockey mask and a chainsaw would come. The girl would scream for her live and start to run down the alleyways and just when she thought she lost him he appears in front of her, the chainsaw now up and running and all you hear is her last scream before the camera fades out.

Stupid, stupid, stupid, Kagome thought, thinking about girls dying in alleys not really helping at the moment.

That's when she actually heard it. There were footsteps behind her. Could she be imagining it? As long as she did not turn around, it wouldn't be really. That's what she kept telling herself anyway. She quickened her pace and the footsteps behind her quickened. Kagome ran and the people behind her ran too. From the sound of it there was more than one person. Cross out the hockey mask guy theory, though she was not sure if that was good or bad.

She turned out of the alley into another alley and stopped dead in her tracks. In front of her were two other men, both wearing all black. She noticed they were the same men from the store, not that that knowledge could help her at all. She spun around only to see three other men from the store turn the corner until the alley where she stood.

She was trapped.

"Hello, little missy," said one of the men.

He stepped forward toward her and she took at step back, then realizing that only brought her closer to the men behind her, she took a step forward again. The man, obviously the leader of the five, laughed at her attempt.

"What do you want?" Kagome asked, trying to keep her voice from trembling. Obviously, she failed because the man only laughed again.

"Why, I thought that would have been obvious," he said as if he were talking to a small, small child.

"I don't have any money…" Kagome began.

"No, not money. We want you. Come to fetch you, we have."

He kind of sounded like a pirate as he said that last part. That amusing thought gave her some courage. "What, so you're just someone's lapdog? Who sent you?" Who would want her was the only thing circling around her head again and again.

He seemed anger at her statement. "I'll teach you some manners. You shouldn't be asking any questions here." He seemed to think for a second then said what he was thinking out loud. "The boss never said we couldn't have some fun with you though. Only said we needed to bring you. I think we have some time for a little fun and a teaching of manners, don't we boys?"

The "boys" all laughed in unison while a shiver ran up Kagome spine and the blood drained from her face. She backed up against one of the walls while they advanced on her.

"No," Kagome whispered.

What was she doing? No, this could not happen, it just couldn't! Taking in a deep breath she thought fiercely, Even if I go down, I am not going down without a fight.

Suddenly determined, she took all the strength she had and with a cry of fury, she punched the leader, who was the closest one to her, in the face with all her might. The leader, obviously stunned, stumbled backward and tripped over something, falling to the floor. Kagome meanwhile pulled back her injured fist. Why did no one ever tell her punching someone actually hurt! In the movies, it always seemed so easy! Not pausing for another moment she began to run for it.

One man leap at her as she began to run, meaning to grab her by her waist, but missed, although he still managed to get a hold of one of her ankles and she fell with a large thud. The man held on tight to her ankle while she thrashed around wildly trying to get out of his grip. She started to scream wildly in frustration and panic. She ended up kicking him hard in the face and he instantly let go of her ankle to put his hand on his injured nose. She thought she might have broken it.

She tried to get up but only made it to her knees when another man kicked her in the back of the head. She fell back onto to the floor, completely dazed. Two men came and picked her up each grabbing one elbow. She could hardly stand on her own two feet that was how dazed she was, so the men held her up with their own strength.

The leader stormed up to her and backhanded her across the face and Kagome began to see gray dots in her vision that went along with her newly acquired headache. She was sure he would have killed her there if it had not been for their boss wanting to see her. Kagome went completely limp and the two men almost dropped her. Her bangs covered her eyes, making the men unsure if she was still conscious or not. The leader cautiously stepped forward and Kagome quickly kicked him in the family jewels with all the strength she could muster up.

Kagome promptly took her arms out of the two men's grip, them being too shock for a moment to notice. She tried to leave but she was stumbling as she walked. Her head ached from the attack on the back of her head and her vision had not entirely cleared yet. A hand to the back of her head revealed a sticky liquid, blood. One man took her arm forcing her to turn around though she quickly yanked her arm out of his grip. Another man took out a knife and made a swipe at her. Kagome jumped back but the knife still made contact with her arm, biting deep into the skin of her upper arm, causing her to scream in pain.

He lifted the knife again but the leader screamed, "NO! We need her alive."

The men took her to the ground then, as she was distracted by her wound. Two men took hold of her legs, each man having one to hold down, while two other men did similar with her arms. She still moved around wildly though it was harder now with four men holding her. The men began to tear her clothes making her scream even louder then before.

"Someone shut that fucking girl up, someone else might hear," the leader hissed at them.

But the men could not put a hand over her mouth because the men holding her legs were too far away and the men holding her arms would have to try to hold her arm with only one hand and she could get that arm free than, so none wanted to risk it. One of the men had a brilliant idea of grabbing her wounded arm to make her shut up but that only made Kagome scream even louder, if that was possible, in pain.

"Somebody help me! Please!" Kagome screamed. "Please! Help me!"

"Nobody going to help you. Nobody cares," the leader whispered to her as if it were a comforting thing.

"Please," she whispered hoarsely, her voice finally strained to the max. No! Somebody… Sango… Miroku… Somebody help me! Kagome thought over and over again knowing no one would come. Nobody would save her…

"You know, it's really sad that five demons can't take care of one human girl, one wimpy human girl in fact."

Kagome stiffened as she heard the voice. Had someone… had someone come to save her? But she did not recognize the voice. Did that mean the person was part of the other five and just joking around with them? Or had he come just to kidnap her himself?

"What's it to you?" the leader growled at him. He got up from beside Kagome where he had begun to tear her shirt apart and he walked toward the stranger.

She could not see either of them, but she could tell the person who just arrived was male because of his voice. The man was in the darkness of the alley and Kagome could not lift her head without it aching though she could not see much because the men holding her down were blocking most of her line of view.

"I think you should let the human girl go and let your boss go fetch her himself… unless he's too much of coward to do his own dirty work," he sneered.

"You're not one to talk, hanyou," the leader spat back.

He laughed bitterly. "That's all I need to take you wimps out."

A hanyou? Wasn't that some sort of demon? What were they talking about? Maybe it was a name of a gang or something, though that thought did not ease Kagome's mind at all.

All Kagome heard were grunts from each of the two as they fought, a scream of pain, then silence. For a second no one moved, including Kagome who had not really moved since she had heard the stranger's voice.

The men holding her abruptly let go and charged at the stranger. She tried to watch the fight while crawling backward but her vision kept blurring making everything seem like double in her sight. The stranger also wore all dark clothing but she could tell him apart from the other because of his silver hair and amber eyes. Silver hair…? That seemed familiar in her mind but her head was too muddled to remember.

She definitely knew something was wrong with her when she could not keep track of everyone's movements. They all seemed to be moving and punching too fast, faster than any human could. The stranger especially seemed to be moving way too swiftly. To her, he was just a blur of speed and long silver hair flying behind him.

Soon the rest of the men were gone, dead or dying on the floor. The ones that were dead began to dissolve away. First their skin melted then the tissues and organs and finally the bones too began to dissolve until all that was left was ash on the floor. Kagome knew she was really losing it. Since when did humans dissolve?

The stranger brushed off his shirt, she supposed he was trying to get the men's blood off him. He then looked over at Kagome and stomped over to her, saying sternly, "get up."

She did not respond only stared up at him. She felt exhausted from lack of sleep and the events of the night. She found her hands gave way and she fell onto the ground, lying down, not having the energy to get up again. She had fallen and could not get up.

"Hey! Are you stupid or something? Get up!" he snapped.

"You… you saved me…" Kagome told him softly.

Her vision was getting darker and darker by the second and her head felt muddled. He crouched down next to where she was lying on the ground, frowning down at her. She saw his lips moving but could not make out what he was saying no matter how much she tried to focus. She brought one hand up to rest against his cheek to try to confirm he was really there and this all wasn't some dream.

The last thing she remembered was two small golden orbs in front of her. Then there was only darkness.