Kagome walked through the forest, heading for one of the few places that she ever did when she was angry with Inuyasha. Home.

The girl drew a deep breath as she paced down the now well-trodden path that offered her solace from the rigors of Sengoku Jidai so often. She'd go home and take a bath…Yes…A bath in warm water. The whole nine yards. And maybe, she'd take in a movie. Eri, Yuka, and Ayumi would no doubt be thrilled at that…Then again, they'd spend the entire time talking about boys, makeup, and how Kagome should be with Houjou and not her violent, two-timing boyfriend, as they referred to him so often. Perhaps she'd just stay at home and talk to her mother. She always seemed to know what to do with regard to boys, Inuyasha particularly. Just the thought of his name brought back flashes of their argument with a vengeance.

"Y'know, Kagome, I don't know what you're doing, but you're stupid. I don't even see why you stay here with us! I saw you cuddling up to that dumbass wolf again! Why don't you just go!"

The deep gold of his eyes washed through her mind…The angry look in his face. Maybe she had hurt his feelings. Maybe it did anger him when she was civil to Kouga. But the truth of the matter was that they needed his help if they were to defeat Naraku. Not only that, but they needed his shards.

Stupid Inuyasha…He's such a baka! He can't see that I…I…

Kagome stopped dead in her tracks and heaved a great sigh. Why was he so jealous? Kouga had hugged her and went on his merry way. If she hadn't used the big S-I-T on him, the two would probably still be snarling and trying to kill each other.

A rustle in the woods caught her attention. She thought nothing of it. It was probably just some animal or something…Fortunately for her, she'd thought to bring her bow and arrow this time. Inuyasha may be mad at her now, but if he heard that she was traipsing throughout the forest without anything to arm herself with, he'd probably lose his mind. Not to mention hinder any further visits home.

The rustle changed from a slight annoyance to a full-out cacophony of noise. Hoof beats. Yells. Clatters. Kagome took her bow off of her shoulder, drew an arrow from her quiver, and aimed at the tree line. It could be bandits. It could be youkai. But as they were on horses and she was relying on her own two legs for transport, she didn't stand a shot of outrunning them. She didn't want to kill them. The sheer idea of killing a human or demon other than Naraku and his cronies roiled her stomach. Her aim wasn't that bad. Maybe she could scare them off enough to give her a chance to escape.

Yeah right…Me…An eighteen year old girl..Scare off a group of grown bandits who make this their hobby! I wish Inuyasha were here…

The horses and men breached the tree line. They were bandits, judging from their dilapidated armor. There weren't more than seven or eight. But it was enough.

Kagome was suddenly toppled by an overwhelming fear. What if she didn't get out of here? What if she never saw Inuyasha and the others again? She shook her head. With grim determination, she nocked the bow and drew back the string, aiming at the leader. She prayed.

Inhale.

Aim.

Release.

The arrow was enveloped in a glowing pink energy. It streaked towards its target, that being the leader of the group. It missed him by mere inches. Her audacity seemed to encourage the bloodthirsty bandits on. They charged harder and faster, pushing their mounts to the brink of exhaustion. The gap between Kagome and the bandits was closed relatively quickly. She nocked her bow again..Fired..Missed.

What's wrong with me? I can't hit them! I can blow a hole through Naraku but I can't hit a bunch of humans on horses!

That was all the thought she had time for. She pulled another arrow from the quiver. But by that time, the men had dismounted and surrounded her. The leader stood directly in front of Kagome, leering at her with his broken teeth and evil smile.

"Well then, little missy. It seems that you've been caught in the wrong place at the wrong time, no?" The leader gestured to his men with a flippant flick of the wrist. "Restrain her. Lets see if she has anything of value, shall we?"

What the bandits lacked in intelligence, they more than made up for in efficiency. They restrained Kagome's arms, took her bow and quiver, and then tied her hands behind her with a length of rope that one of them produced from his mount.

Her eyes filled with tears. This was all wrong! She'd faced down the worst that demon- and humankind had to offer, but she was being mugged by a couple of lousy bandits!

For that matter, where was Inuyasha?

She closed her eyes and fervently wished for him to break through the forest, dispatching these men with his sword or his claws…To be the knight in shining armor for her that he had been so many times before. Her ears strained. She heard nothing but the muttering of the men as the two who weren't restraining her went through her bag.

The leader approached her, smiling.

"Hmm, little one. Let's see if you are hiding anything on you. I must admit, that clothing is…Tantalizing. Where are you from?"

Kagome glared. The fire that could be seen in her eyes only on few occasions burned brighter than ever. "I'm not from around here. And that's it. I don't have anything else." Where the leader's voice was bemused and morbidly jovial, her own was uncharacteristically cold and detached.

"I think you're lying. But there's a way for me to find out for myself, I suppose."

That was all that he said. It was enough. He kneeled down on the ground , checking her socks (why her socks!) for anything of any value. Then, his rough hands ran up her legs. It wasn't the touching that bothered her. No, Inuyasha had touched her legs dozens of times when he carried her on his back through the terrain of Feudal Japan. It was the way that he touched her. As he worked his way to her thighs, he began to massage them gently. But still, his hands moved higher and higher…They were under her skirt, but still resting on her thighs.

Kagome's eyes grew bright with tears. But she did not allow them to spill down her cheeks. She wouldn't allow this man the satisfaction. Her jaw set in grim determination. She worked at the bindings on her wrist furiously, but they wouldn't slacken at all.

The leader stood and removed is hands from her thighs. He placed them on her hips, under the guise of patting her down, but ran them up her sides. He slid them under her shirt, grinning at Kagome. It was as though he was daring her to move. Daring her to cry out.

He dropped the pretense of "searching for valuables" and pulled his knife from the belt he was wearing. He traced it up her stomach. He allowed the tip to drag itself over her breast, taking especial pleasure in her angry expression. He looked up at his men with a simply sinister expression.

"Men…Hold her down. A beautiful, unclaimed girl like this walking through the wilderness? She's just begging for me to take her."

The bandits did as he commanded. They forced her down onto the ground, flat on her back.

Kagome started screaming, but the leader was bent over her and forced the knife to her neck hard enough to puncture the skin and draw a rivulet of blood.

"Scream and I'll slit your throat as I have my way with you. If you keep quiet, I might let you live."

Inuyasha!

Inuyasha lay on top of the roof of Kaede's hut, content that he had extricated himself from the glares of Sango, the "expert advice" from Miroku, and Shippou's threats/declarations of hatred. He watched the clouds fly by overhead, catching the orange-pink glow from the sunset.

He was mad. He couldn't decide if he was madder at Kouga, for constantly barging in on their group and wreaking havoc between him and Kagome, Kagome for actually giving into the wolf's advances and being nice to him, even, or himself for hurting Kagome's feelings yet again.

The salty smell of her tears still clung in his nose, as though his body were betraying him as well to make him feel even worse than he already did.

"Listen, bitch. If you want to be friends with that fucking wolf, be my guest. But don't come around here anymore. Go off with your lover-boy so you to can have your happy little lives! We don't need you!"

As he played back his words through his mind, he realized how harsh he had been on the girl. He probably shouldn't have said all of those things to her. The fact of the matter was that he cared quite deeply for Kagome and wanted to make her happy. But he didn't quite know how to do that.

He was jolted out of his reverie rather effectively when someone crashed into the wall beneath him. He jumped off of the roof and landed behind the disturbance, hand on Tetsusaiga and ready to deal quick and effective justice to anyone who was a threat.

The source of the noise was a peasant. Her body was torn and mangled, blood dripping from lacerations everywhere. Her clothing was torn and several shiny stains had blossomed upon the rough-spun cloth from the saturation of her blood. Inuyasha was surprised to see her alive in this condition and even more surprised that he didn't smell her well before she had arrived. She didn't smell dead, so that ruled out any probability of Kagura's manipulations. But she was terrified. At the site of him, she fell to the ground in a fetal position, sobbing and begging for him not to hurt her.

"Please…Don't hurt me. They're all dead! I'm begging you, leave me!"

Inuyasha was taken aback. He allowed his hand to fall from his sword and stared incoherently for a moment or two. His eyes scanned the horizon, looking for Miroku, Sango…Anyone. He called for them. They had been occupying a hut two or three down from Kaede's. They both glanced at Inuyasha in horror.

Sango was the first to recover. After appraising the woman's condition, she looked at Miroku with a rather intense expression.

"Miroku," the demon slayer intoned, "Go get Kaede. This woman needs attention immediately."

Rather than argue with her, as he had learned not to do at the expense of more than a few hirokotsu-head-thwaps-of-doom, he turned on a heel and ran to another part of the village, where Kaede had been checking on a child who had fallen sick.

Sango and Inuyasha exchanged significant looks. Sango gently rested a hand on the sobbing woman's back and. The woman flinched away at first, but after looking up and realizing that it was a comforting, well-meaning female presence, she leaned into the contact.

Inuyasha stared at the two, knowing better than to open his mouth. Sango seemed to be able to comfort people much more effectively than he had ever been able to. Maybe it was that "women's intuition" that Kagome harped on about on occasion.

Sango gently lifted the woman's chin with the palm of her free hand and stared reassuringly into the woman's eyes. Her voice was soft and compassionate, a tone that Inuyasha had heard her use very seldom since he had known her.

"Tell us what happened…What can we do for you?"

The woman eyed Inuyasha distrustfully, but her sobs had stopped, although tears were still leaking from her blackened eyes.

"Bandits…They came into the village…They killed everyone! My friends..My family…The children, even! Everyone! The whole village is dead. The-they had their way with the women and killed them! I escaped but everyone else…" she wailed and stopped, dissolved into sobs once again.

Sango rubbed a reassuring hand on her back and tried to calm her.

Inuyasha's eyes widened at her description. His horror wasn't obvious enough that anyone else who didn't know him would understand, but Sango did.

"Where were they headed! Tell me now!" His hand grasped Tetsusaiga's hilt once again. There were few things that could enrage Inuyasha to this point, but this was obviously one of them.

The woman looked at him, suddenly fearful and terrified once again.

"I was running and they are on horses. They're heading this way. You have to stop them now! They can't come back! They can't come here!" She began to scrabble away, trying to escape Sango's clutches. Sango resorted to restraining her in the gentlest way possible. When she looked up to speak with Inuyasha, he had already turned and was bounding off into the forest.

He could only think of one thing.

Kagome…