"C'mon gaijin! Can't do any better than that?"

The boys laughed as Jade stood up, wiping blood away from the corner of her mouth. She was a small girl, with long curly red hair and mixmatched blue and green eyes that didn't match with her Japanese features. With a growl, she launched herself at the nearest boy.

A half hour later, she stumbled out of the alley covered in bruises. She limped, her ankle thankfully sprained and not broken, towards home as groans of pain filled the alley. She was small and couldn't fight well, but she at least was better than a group of bullies who spent their time beating dogs. She was carrying a shivering mass of black fur, though she could still feel its bones. It took an hour for her to stumble home and sneak inside and up to her room. As soon as she walked in, a large assortment of animals greeted her. Many of them were healing from wounds or near starvation, though a few had followed her home and she hadn't had the heart to leave them outside to fend for themselves. She set the newest addition on her bed, careful not to jostle the poor thing's leg, which was obviously broken. Walking to her closet she got out her med kit. "Sorry little guy, this is gonna hurt." She held the dog down and made sure the he couldn't move. Nervous, the dog started to squirm and whimper. "Sorry little guy, on the count of three." She got her hands in position, counted to three as gently and sweetly as she could, then grabbed the dog's leg quickly and snapped the bones back into place. The dog yelped and bit her, but she was already working on putting his leg into a splint. She ignored the pain in her arm and finished working. As soon as she released the dog, it released her arm, ran, and hid under her bed. She sighed and started to treat the bite just as someone started to beat on her door. "JIEIDO ! DID YOU BRING ANOTHER ONE OF THOSE STRAYS HOME?"

"Sorry Dad!"

"IF YOU WERE SORRY YOU WOULDN'T HAVE DONE IT!"

He continued to beat on her door until she finished bandaging herself, got up, and opened it. She carefully let him in, making sure none of the animals escaped to wreak havoc on the rest of the house. Souta Higurashi was young for a man with a fifteen year old daughter. He'd been just out of high school when he had met her up-start model of a mother and gotten her pregnant. Her parent's had never married and her mother had left Jade at the Higurashi shrine when she was just four. After that, neither Souta nor Jade had seen or heard from her. was often away on business, which usually left Jade with Grandma Higurashi who didn't mind all the animals. In fact, it had been three years since the last time Jade had seen her father. He had been in Africa, giving medical care to families who couldn't afford it and had only returned to Japan the week before.

"Jeez! You look more and more like my sister every time I see you!"

"You said that this morning dad!"

Jade had never met Kagome Higurashi, but she had been told about her and her adventures of traveling through time. She often wondered if madness ran in the family, and if so, when it would start affecting her.

"Didn't I tell you last time I came up here that you had to find homes for some of them?"

"I did! Hana went to the family across the street, Kuro went to the Okumura's, Silk went to an American family, Hachi went to my teacher , Suzu went to-"
"Alright! Alright! I get it!" Her father cried as he threw his hands up in surrender. Jade grinned at him as he leaned against her door. "So, Jieido, what in the world did you do to get those bruises, hm?"

"The answer to that is currently hiding under my bed." She gestured toward her bed, which was now currently covered in three cats, seven dogs, and two birds. As one of the birds took a crap, she was glad that she no longer slept in the same room.

"You're not gonna sleep in that now, are you?"

"No!" She quickly shook her head and waved her arms in a negative, "I moved into the attic last year!"

He nodded before going over to the bed and looking under it.

"…That shivering black fur-ball is an animal?"

Jade giggled and walked over to the bed to coax the dog out.

"I'm thinking of calling him Shiver, since he's always shivering"

"Shi-be-ru? How about something easier to pronounce?"

Jade sighed but nodded. Though her father knew English, he wasn't very good at pronouncing it. Heck, he couldn't even pronounce his own daughter's name properly. She suddenly thought of something and started to grin.

"How about Yami, since he seems to like the darkness under my bed?"

Her grin grew wider as Yami finally came out and started to sniff her hand. Her dad reached over and gently picked the dog up, careful of its broken leg.

"You did a good job with the splint, though you're going to have to watch to make sure that Yami doesn't chew it off. Also… this is a girl dog, not a boy. What you thought were her private parts are actually just matted fur. We can't do much now, with the splint on, but once her leg has healed we can cut her fur and give her a bath."

He gently set the dog back down on the floor, before standing up and brushing loose fur off his hands.

"C'mon, the pizza should be here soon."

Jade grinned at her father just as the doorbell rang. "And that would be it," she said as she bounded out the door and down the stairs. Souta, laughing, followed her.

Ten minutes later, Jade and Souta sat at the table with Grandma Higurashi and ate pizza. Jade, being a vegetarian, ate a large deep dish pizza covered in roasted red peppers, mushrooms, pesto, caramelized onions, goat cheese, spinach, roasted squash, zucchini, and thin sliced of extra firm tofu in-between the sauce and cheese all by herself. Her father and grandmother shared a meat-lovers pizza as Jade tried not to shudder at the thought. Jade wasn't a vegetarian because of any belief that people shouldn't eat animals. In fact, she believed in predators and prey and didn't speak against it. But she herself seemed to be allergic to meat, as she become sick for days after eating it. And the thought of eating meat always made her remember, causing her to feel nauseous. Quickly finishing off her own pizza, she excused herself and left the room, trying to get away from the smell of cooked meat.

"… How can she eat that much and still be so small?"

Souta stared after his daughter, before glancing at his mother who was watching him with amusement.

"What?"

"Oh nothing, it's just that even with her being so much shorter as well as being red haired and blue-green eyed, you still see Kagome when you look at that child. Her face may be similar, but that girl isn't your sister Souta-chan. She's your daughter. You've got to learn how to talk to her like a father sometime."

"I know, I know. It's just so hard."

His mother watched him, kindness and love always in her gaze.

"When are you going to tell her?"

Souta Higurashi sighed, slumping as he looked at the doorway that his daughter had exited through.

"…Soon."

"Tell her tonight, Souta. It will give her time to come to terms with the fact before they arrive. You don't want to pop it on her when they arrive, she'll blow a fuse."

Souta winced, but nodded knowing his mother was probably right. After all, she knew Rin better than he did.

Up in her room, the girl they were discussing was feeding her large assortment of animals and making sure that Yami's splint was still secure. As she dropped food into the turtle tank, someone knocked on her door before opening it and stepping in.

"Rin, we need to talk."

Jade glanced at her father, confused at his seriousness.

"If it's about the animals I'll-"

"It's not about the animals."

Blinking, and thoroughly confused, Jade watched her father and sat down in the chair at her desk. As a small calico kitten jumped into her lap, she absently petted it as she continued to watch her father.

"Okay? So what's up?"

Souta Higurashi fidgeted for a few minutes, and just when Jade was about to open her mouth to demand he say what he was trying to say, he opened his mouth.

"How… How would you like a brother?"

Jade stared at him for a few minutes before nervously smiling.

"You mean adopting one of those African boys who…"

Jade trailed off as her father shook his head.

"No… I mean… Jieido, I met someone."
"And you knocked her up?"

"What? No! Her name's Mizore, she has a son a little older then you. And… And I asked her to marry me."

Jade stared at her father in shock. She hadn't even heard he was dating, let alone considering engagement. Before she could speak, her father continued.

"I invited them here to stay for a few days so that you could get used to having a new mom."

"I DON'T WANT A NEW MOM!"

Jade jumped out of her chair as she yelled, scaring the kitten who dashed away and hid under her bed. The other animals, also not liking the yell, hid and all started to growl at Souta.

"Step-mom then! You can get used to having a step-mom! And having an older brother too!"

Jade stared at her father, horrified and feeling betrayed. Her father, who was barely home to even see her, was trying to create a new family and force her in it?

"And I've been promoted. I won't be leaving Japan for any more trips. I can stay in Japan and help raise you and Ryu with Mizore. I'll have less hours, higher pay. We can even go on a family vacation every year!"

As he started to babble, Jade collapsed back into her seat. Her entire body and mind felt numb. After a while, Souta stopped talking and left the room to let her "get accustomed" to the news. The animals, happy that the yelling was done, crowded around her and tried to comfort her. Jade Higurashi, at the age of fifteen, was going to have a whole new mother and brother and there was nothing she could do about it.

Two days later, Jade stood in-between her father and grandmother and glared at the floor of the airport as they waited for Mizore and Ryu. A rustle of fabric drew her attention as her father ran out to greet someone. Rin glanced up and saw her father hugging someone, a teenage boy standing off to the side with a bored expression. He was definitely handsome, tall, dark hair, fair skin, and icy blue eyes. He glanced over, saw her staring at him, and smirked before walking over. When he was in front of her, he leaned down to face her eye to eye, still with that blasted smirk on his face. He reached out and grabbed her chin, twisting her head this way and that.

"So you're my new imouto-chan? You look more like an otouto-chan to me."

Jade glared and smacked his hand away just has her father lead over Mizore. She was beautiful and clearly half-Japanese with blonde hair and gentle sea-blue eyes. She was small for a full grown woman and Rin, with a pang of anger and sorrow, realized that with all of them there, they looked more like blood relatives then strangers who were about to be related by marriage.

"Ryu-chan~ quit teasing her."

"But okaa-san, that's what onii-san's are supposed to do. We're supposed to tease our imouto or otouto. It's how we express our love."

"Really? Hmmm."

Jade's glare grew deeper as Ryu stood up straight and wrapped his arms around his mother and her father. As she gritted her teeth, she spun on her heel and quickly left. They tried to call her to come back, but Jade ignored it and started to run home, not wanting to deal with this new frustration in her life. Within seconds of reaching the shrine, she hid and locked herself in the old bone-eater's well shed and sat in the dark. Time passed and she heard them arrive, her father calling for her. She nearly gave herself away by screaming when Buyo the 3rd crawled into her lap. She sighed and started to pet the pregnant calico cat. Buyo would probably give birth soon, she was so large around. Jade sighed and leaned her head against the well. Just as she started to relax, a jiggling at the door snapped her back to attention. Carefully pushing Buyo off, she crawled over and hid under the stairs just as the door opened. Trying to breathe quietly, she watched as the light from a flashlight swept the room.

"Jieido? Come out. It's supper time… Jieido?"

The creaking of wood caused Rin to hold her breath as she saw someone's feet start to descend down the steps. The person was Ryu. He looked around the well and was just about to leave when he saw Buyo sitting next to the stairs.

"Nya~"

"Well hello there. What's your name?"

He walked over and squatted to greet Buyo. Jieido tried to shift further into the dark, but the movement caught Ryu's attention. Jieido glared at him as he smirked.

"Oh! Jade-chan! There you are! Were you playing hide-and-seek with the kitty?"

Without warning, he reached around the stairs and grabbed her arm, quickly dragging her out of her hiding spot.

"Whelp, you've been found and it's time to clean up for supper."

He picked her up around the waist and carried her like a rag doll out of the shed, her father holding the door open for them. She glared at the ground and tried to make herself as heavy as possible to see if he would drop her, but he didn't. Instead he carried her into the house, whistling the entire way, and then took her upstairs to the bathroom. The tub was already filled with water and, nervous, Jade started to struggle. Ryu chuckled before easily tossing her into the ice cold water. Yelping, she struggled for leverage to get her head above water. Before she knew it, Ryu had her by the hair.

"Look, I don't give a damn what you think about us becoming siblings."

Jade paled as Ryu leaned closer to whisper in her ear.

"But I don't want you messing things up. If your pathetic excuse for a dad is what will make my mom happy, then by all means, I want her to marry him. And if you even try to get in the way, I'll make sure you disappear. Got it?"

Jade gritted her teeth as Ryu shook her by her hair, before pushing her head back under the water and leaving the room. Coughing up water, Jade crawled out of the tub and sat on the bathroom floor shivering. She wasn't sure if it was because she was cold… or if it was because of Ryu. Something warm rubbed against her and she jumped before she realized it was Buyo. Grabbing the kitty, she held the furry creature to her chest as the cat mewled in protest.

"He… He can't really make me disappear… r-right?"