A/N: I know. Another story. I swear it's not my fault. My peeps from the KogKag fandom have made me do it. Yes, that is the story I am sticking to - I was beaten and forced into writing thing (HA!). Also, the title. I owe it to Suki! The summary idea too!

I'm sorry if this chapter is a little slow. I promise the next one is way more entertaining.

[Redacted]

Part 1

"And then you know Mom…" she began, a ghost of a smile tugging at the corner of her lips. Her glance was focused on the white lilies she was rearranging—her grandpa's favourites. As her fingertips glided across the green stems, she heard a shuffling noise, stopping her in her tracks, freezing her in time. Her mouth dropped downwards as she gazed upon her grandfather's figure, his focus elsewhere as he stared through the nearby glass window. It did not take her long to spot the blue plastic cup on the floor, rolling around by his feet, clinging on the wooden floor. Water was gradually covered the floor boards and her eyes widened as she threw herself to her knees. She reached out for the navy rag on her grandfather's comforter and scattered across the floor in an attempt to limit the damages.

"Are you okay gramps? Did you get any on you?" she asked while rising to a standing position.

As expected she received no answer from him.

It was more difficult each day to see him like this. Her grandfather had been a force of nature, an explosive personality … and now. Well, now he was mostly confused. Her mother, her brother and her had all moved into the old shrine with him when he had begun to get sick. The idea was to let him live at home as long as possible so that he could keep his autonomy. Plus, it was not like he was about to let anyone put him in a home while his mind was still sharp. After a while, the care became too much and her mother could not look after the children, work and help her grandfather. Since they could not afford a private nurse, they were forced to move him to a home. Her mother came most mornings and Kagome tried to visit every couple of days. Her course load had university made it difficult, but she always did her best. Most of the time, he would eventually talk to her but not a lot of it made sense. Yet, she took comfort in the fact that she was still able to see him and talk to him.

"I'll get you more," she said as she held the now empty cup in her hand.

"Did you do it Kikyo?"

Kagome stopped in her tracks, a soft smile adorning her face. Kikyo. Her grandmother. He often mistook the two of them; apparently they looked alike. "Did I do what?"

She rarely had it in her to correct him anymore. He always seemed so happy to be talking to his wife that she did not want to break his heart. What was the point? He would not remember this and for a brief moment it made him happy. There was no harm.

"Did you get the youkai?"

He often spoke of a time where things between youkais and humans were a little difficult—to put it lightly. The cohabitation between the two kinds was more peaceful now than it was then and the conflicts were minimal. Once the proper conduct for both of humans and youkais had been established, things had proceeded in the right direction and they had managed to build a society that welcomed the both kinds. Still, she kept up with the charade and illusion her grandfather was living in at the moment. "I did." Why upset him over nothing?

"Good. Put the knife back in the attic."

Wait. What? This time, she had to stop in her tracks. The knife? Usually once she answered him the conversation would stop or stir in another direction—he was no longer the chatty person he used to be. The knife in the attic? She had so many questions and yet, she could not find her voice. Was her grandfather talking about actually killing a youkai? There was no way. He was not—he could not. Would there even be a reason to ask him about it? Would he answer? Her heart hammered in her chest as she licked her dry lips before exhaling loudly. Maybe he was getting confused. "The attic at the shrine?" she tried to clarify. As far as she was concerned, her grandparents had always lived in that shrine—it had been passed down from generation to generation through the centuries.

"That's where we keep them," he answered, never once making eye contact with her.

She had gone in that attic a few times but it was a long time ago. There was not much up there except boxes of old stuff and charms her grandfather had collected along the years. Oh and a knife apparently? A youkai killing knife? No one had gone back up there since he had been moved to a home. Well—they had, but only to put away all the stuff that he could not take with him into his new living quarters. She popped her lips. No, it was—just rambling. No matter how bad the situation might have been—including his little youkais outburst—she highly doubted that her grandfather spent his youth killing youkais. And even though she had never meant her grandmother, she was certain that the same could be said about her. It was just the rambling of an old man and she needed to stop paying any attention to it.

"Then that's where it is," she added with a quick breathe. "I'll be back with more water for you, gramps."

She tightened her grip on the glass, shaking her head as though to refocus herself into the present and to chase away any thoughts and doubts he had planted into her mind.

There was no knife. There was no killing.

-R—

"Has Grandpa ever said anything weird to you?"

"You're gonna have to be more specific than that," Souta said as he raised his head from his homework. The few times he had seen his grandfather, he had not made a lot of sense. He loved his grandfather but he had lost his marbles a long time ago.

Kagome offered him a shrug of the shoulders. "I don't know—just weirder than usual… I guess?" Did he mention being a murderer did not quite sound like the right way to ask this.

Souta tilted his head to the left, twisting his lips as he tried to recall his past conversations with the man. "I don't think so … why?"

"No reason," she lied as she continued to dry the wet plate in her hands. Maybe it was a fluke. Maybe she was over thinking this. He had told her plenty of strange things over the years and she had never been bothered by them before. Why this one? Perhaps it was the potential murder aspect of it that had her hanging on longer than she should. There was an easy way to get over this; she could search the attic. But that meant that she was giving an old man's ramble the benefit of the doubt. It meant questioning everything she thought she knew.

Determined, Kagome put the white porcelain plate down on the counter, tossing the red rag on top of it and began to head upstairs. She could feel Souta's eyes on her as he called out her name in confusion, but she brushed it off. There was no reason to share this with him—especially since she had nothing to go on. Once she made it up the stairs, she tilted her head up, staring at the rope hanging from the ceiling. Despite how stupid she felt, she grabbed it and slowly pulled down the ladder stairs so that she could make her way into the attic. As expected, once she was up there, she found herself surrounded by years of dust. She grabbed her blue hair tie from her wrist and quickly ruffled her hair into a messy bun. Now, she would focus on ignoring the million of spiders that were probably crawling over every inch of her skin. Ew. She crawled her way to the metal string that was attached to the one and only light bulb and pulled it on.

It was not shedding much light but it would do. Around her were a ton of boxes, most of them darkened by the years. Where was she even supposed to start looking? It was not like once of them was going to be labelled youkai killing knife. She sighed, her head dipping forward in defeat. One at a time it was.

Time ticked away slowly as she sat down, going through the boxes, scratching her skin off every once in a while as she was convinced some sort of bug was crawling all over her skin. At some point, she had to shout to her brother that she was not crazy and simply looking for something for their grandfather. She fed her mother the same lie. She was glad that they could not see her face because they would have spotted the lie right away. Minutes turned into hours and there she was, squinty eyes in a near darkness as she moved out of the way, yet another box. She was above to give up, tired of staring at the same old stuff, the same cardboard boxes, when a glimmer of pink caught her eye. She moved forward, trying to find its source, but she could no longer see it. All that was there was pure darkness. Still, she patted the ground, trying to wrap her fingers around something—anything.

Suddenly, she felt something cold beneath her touch. She gripped it, realizing it was a box. Since it appeared to be dark—almost black—she could not make out the edges of it. So, she threw her arms around it and dragged it towards her chest. She brought it with her near the light source, noticing it was covered in dust. Gently, she wiped it away with the back of her hand, revealing a strange engraving in it…. It was sphere? She frowned. Why a sphere? It was detailed as though it had a shine and an inner and outer layer. She allowed her glance to move downwards, noticing a word at the bottom of the box. Shikon. Where had she heard that word before? Shikon, shikon… It sounded like something her gramps had talked about. Yes. The Shikon Jewel. It was an old tale he used to tell them—but for the life of her, she could not remember it. Maybe it would explain the box. Maybe it was filled with replicas he used to sell the poor tourists who ventured to the shrine back when he used to run it. Still, she opened the box, wanting to satisfy her own curiosity.

And then—she could not breathe.

It was definitely not a replica of the jewel.

Inside was—a knife.

The handle was beautiful, made in wood, carved by hand with intriguing patterns along the edges and a small pink shard embedded in the middle. The blade was long and thin, shining despite the lack of light in the attic. So there was a knife. Her fingers were shaking as she dared to wrap them around it, lifting it from its protective box. As she carefully scooped it with her left hand, she found an unpleasant texture brushing against her skin. Curious, she turned it around only to see that the otherwise clean blade was covered in something black. She used the short edge of her blunt nail to try to see if it was coming off only to notice it peeling away. What was that? She lifted her hand, looking at her thumb and wasted not time in realizing her nail now had a red tint. Red.

The moment the realization dawned on her, she tossed the knife as far as possible, its metal clinging against the flooring. Blood, she had chipped away blood. Her heart was thundering, echoing in her ears as the blood surged through her body fast enough to make her dizzy. She smacked her lips together, thoughts racing through her mind. It had seemed insane from the second he had uttered the word knife and—yet, there was. There had to be another logical explanation for this. It could not be that her grandfather just so happened to own a knife—covered in blood, hidden in the attic, right? Her brain was scrambling for answers, the taste of bile was rising up in her throat and she did not know if she had to be scared and horrified.

She knew she came from a line of monks and priestesses who did not have a history of getting along with youkais but—this was different. And this was her grandfather. She refused to believe that decades ago he used to go around killing youkais. He could not possibly be this barbaric. No, no. She would not jump to conclusion—she would talk to him, she would try to get some information that might help make sense of this. Maybe there was a perfectly logical reason as to why his grandmother and him would have killed a youkai. Yes. That was what she would do.

She would breathe.

-R—

Kagome's entire body was trembling as she sat in front of her gramps. Black circles were digging into the flesh beneath her eyes, a proof of the sleeplessness night she had just gone through. How had she been supposed to sleep? She had rushed out of the attic as fast as possible, knife in hand, and she had hidden in her bedroom. Of course, she had promised herself she would not jump to conclusion but it had been too difficult to resist the temptation. Since her options had been limited, she had resorted into using the internet. Despite the fact that she had stayed up all night researching the words shikon and knife had not gotten her very far. She did manage to re-read the story behind the Shikon jewel, but it had not helped her piece back together the story or find out how the knife and the jewel were connected…

"Gramps, do you remember the knife you were talking about?" she whispered. "The one in the attic?"

For the first time since her arrival, he turned his head to look at her, forcing her to hold her breath. "Why did you bring it?"

How did he know she brought it? "I - to use it?" she tried in vain.

"We haven't decided the next target yet."

She gulped; target? She did not like the sound of that. "What do you mean?"

"Next time we meet. Don't forget your necklace."

Necklace? One thing at a time… "But what about the knife?" She had brought it but she did not dare show it to him. What if he got confused? What he mistook her for the enemy and things ended badly? It was best if she kept it hidden away. Bringing it had been a bad idea in the first place.

"You know we have to use it. It weakens them."

Kagome felt sick to her stomach; he was talking about killing youkais. Her grandfather murdered a youkai - youkais actually from the sound of it. And her grandmother had a part in it too. None of this made sense. She had heard the many stories; they ran a shrine. He was a monk - she was a priestess. The shrine had stopped serving a real purpose, but tourists still visited it and events were organized from time to time. They led a simple life. Then one day, when she was still very young, her grandmother died. It happened long before Kagome was even born, before her parents were even married. And then, her grandfather kept the shrine going by himself. That was the story. That was the narrative. Not this - bloody murdering crap.

She slouched in the chair, despair growing in her chest. Could she see a reason why her grandfather might have been murdering youkais? She knew they had been less than kind to humans but… to kill them in return? How did that fix anything? And why was there no records of it. Surely her grandfather could not have been going around killing youkais without ever being detected. None of this made sense. She was not looking at the full picture. Something was missing.

There was one problem though.

Did she even want to know more?

Could she even find out more?

-R-

"You know, I think even your grandfather hasn't touched this since her death," Miyu said as she put down a white and gold square jewelry box on the bed, a sad smile on her face. "Too many memories I think," she said with longing eyes. She could understand the feeling. She had been faced with the same dilemma when it came to her husband's belongings. It had taken her a while before she had the strength to browse through parts of his life. "Did he ask for it?"

Kagome swallowed hard—great … more lying. As if this was not difficult enough. "No, it's just, he calls me Kikyo so much… I thought it might be nice to bring him something of hers." There was nothing she hated more than lying to her mother but … what else could she do? Tell her she had reason to believe her grandparents used to be murderers? No. She could not.

"I think he really misses her. I hope you can find something in here."

It was a long shot; all he had said was a necklace, but she figured it might be something her grandfather kept after Kikyo died. It was not too crazy; he had kept a bloody knife in the attic for God knew how long. Once her mother was out of view, Kagome gripped the edge of the box and opened it. Unfortunately for her, it was filled with the brim with different kinds of jewelry—including a lot of necklaces. How in the world was she supposed to find the one? Her neck corded while her toes curls as she rummaged through the pile of tangled chains. After a few minutes, she was almost willing to give up, her throat dry from her rushed breathing, when suddenly, her finger glided across something smooth and she found herself staring once more at a bright pink light, much like she had been in the attic. She pushed aside the silver chain blocking the light from emerging through. Once the view was clear, she realized she was looking at a tiny pink shard, just like the one on the handle of the knife. It could not be a coincidence. She fished it out of the pile, lifting it. The glow slowly stopped and she frowned.

What in the world…

-R—

It was a lost cause, it had to be.

Once more, Kagome was lurking around her grandfather's building. He could not provide her with the answers she wanted and yet, she kept coming back. It was insane. How she wished she had ignored his comment about the youkai—she wanted to go back to not knowing. She could drop it but—well no. She could not. Her fingers were clutched around the sash of her purse as she hopped onto the small sidewalk leading to the entrance. As she lifted her gaze, she noticed two young men she had never seen around before. One of them had white hair shaped into spiky Mohawk, the shaved sides of his head covered in tattoos and his black t-shirt did nothing to cover up his arms, filled with scars and tattoos. The other one had short hair, the sides white and the middle dark black. His arms were also covered in ink from top to bottom. They did not look like the type of people she was used to seeing around here.

But who was she to judge them on their appearances? Anyone was allowed to be wherever they wanted, right?

Still, there was something deep inside her that was ringing—telling her there was something else.

It was not until she saw their fangs poking through their mouths that she realized they were youkais. And now it made less sense. She had yet to see youkais at old people's home. They did not retire to die the same way humans did. She slowed down her pace, leaning to the left, hoping to catch a few words of what they were saying.

".. a shard…"

"Impossible … ain't no way."

"Can't tell him…"

"I ain't lying … there was…. Shard … yesterday."

It took every inch of herself control for her to not stop dead in her tracks. Too many common words for it to be a coincidence. Shard. Yesterday? The knife … could it be? It did glow. Did it mean anything? Why did they care? And how did they know? Why had she brought both the knife and the necklace with her today? Why? Fuck. As she got closer to the youkais, she noticed one of the tattoos on the back of the Mohawk hair guy's arm; it could not be mistaken. The Shikon jewel. Why did he have a tattoo of that? Her head was spinning, her blood was racing and her mouth felt like cotton as she took wobblier and wobblier steps. She could feel the sweat dripping down the back of her neck, making its way down her spine and forcing the cotton fabric of her t-shirt to glue to her skin. She was not going to make it inside, was she? She knew that youkais had very sensitive noses and she did not even want to think about what kind of scent she was giving off right now.

Focus on walking, she told herself. She only needed to get away from them.

"Oi."

The harsh sound of the foreign voice startled her and she came to a halt. Oh for the love of God. That was directed to her was it not? Fudge. Mohawk guy stared right into her, as though he was piercing through her soul, and he began heading her way. "What are ya lookin' at?"

Was it that obvious that she had been staring? She swallowed the saliva that had been pooling in her mouth and did her best to stretch her lips into a smile. "I-I, hm, sorry." Part of her wanted to drop her purse to the ground and make a dash for her car. Would she make it? Could she outrun a youkai? Maybe enough that he would think that she was not worth it? But then what if he did not know anything and her running away made him suspicious and he came after her even harder? Her heart palpated as she cleared her throat, trying to come up with better words—an explanation … anything. Unfortunately, before she could do so, she saw his nose twitch as he got closer to her—too close. She could feel his warm puffs of air as he took in her scent.

"Ginta, come here. Smell her."

Okay what now? She took a step back, creating a distance between herself and his body. Nobody was going to do anything kind of smelling around here. "Excuse me?" she asked, her voice louder than she had intended.

"Sh," he said with a wave of the hand.

Did he just shh her?

The one he had called Ginta also seemed to completely ignore her as he closed the distance and began smelling her and her vicinity. Her grip on her purse weakened as the sweat pooled in her palms. She needed to get out of here. She took another step backwards, her eyebrows furrowing. They might be able to harm her easily but she was not about to stand there while they sniffed at her like a group of puppies.

"Miss, you alright?"

The sound of a fourth voice added to the mix seemed to stop all current actions as both youkais took a step back from her. Kagome was able to see the tall security guard behind her, throwing glances at the two men. He took another step forward, his hand on his belt. "Is something the matter?" He recognized her from the many times she had come over to visit her grandfather.

"Nah," Ginta said as he wrapped his fingers around the other youkai's arm. "We just leaving."

His companion did not seem to agree with that decision, and yet, after a few tugs, he followed his friend. However, despite the fact that they were walking away did not prevent them from staring at Kagome, a fire shining in their eyes. Was it the necklace? Was it her? And why would they know about this? Was it—revenge? Had her grandfather hurt someone they knew?

"Miss?"

She could hear his voice but it sounded far away. It was like she had stepped into a new dimension. A few days ago, her grandfather was just a senile old monk and now? Now she did not know anything.

"Sorry—thank you," she said before turning around to face him.

"Let me know if they bother you again."

"Will do," she said with a smile, the corner of her lips twitching as she tried to compose herself enough to walk inside. As soon as she passed the door, she turned around and smacked her back into a nearby wall, her knees wobbling, threatening to buckle under the sheer amount of stress she had gone under. What the fuck. She closed her eyes, trying to slow down the pounding of her heart. This would have to be the last time. If she could not find out anything now, she had to let this go. Either something bad was going on or nothing was going on and she was about to lose her mind over this. Neither of the options was good. It was time to back away.

She tilted her head slightly to the right, catching the sight of the retreating figures into the distance.

What the fuck.

-R—

Another wasted moment.

She had shown her grandfather the necklace, more determined than ever to obtain some answers, but it had led nowhere. Actually, he had gotten slightly upset at her for pulling it out in public. That had forced her to keep the knife hidden. She had hoped to know why two youkais had been ready to take her down over a shard but, he had no answer for her. Usually her visits lasted an hour or so, but today she stayed for about three hours; she wanted to make sure that they were gone. Once in a while, she would take a peek through the yellow curtains, trying to see if she could catch a glimpse of them. She did not see them. One would think it would make her at ease but she could not shake off the bad feeling that lived within her.

After her mother called her a few times, asking when she would be home, she had no choice but to resign herself; she would have to leave the building eventually.

To her surprise, the security guard was still there as she headed downstairs. She could not help but wonder if he waited to make sure she would make it to her car safely. At least if someone else was watching out for her, it did make her feel a bit safer. She managed to offer him a smile and a slight wave of the hand before she forced herself to face the doors. Maybe this entire thing was making her overly paranoid. Maybe there was nothing to worry about. Kagome took a deep breath in a futile attempt to give herself some courage, and walked outside. The door slammed behind her, echoing through the quietness of her surroundings. The silence was almost eerie; surely she would hear someone if they were coming her way.

Kagome kept her gaze focused ahead as she blindly fished for her keys inside of her purse. Once she felt the cold metal of her keys pressing against the palm of her hand, she held them firmly. Every couple of seconds she would allow her glance to scan the vicinity, looking for any suspicious movement. There was nothing.

Only her footsteps against the cement pavement.

One.

Two.

One.

Two.

Kagome was deafened by the sounds of her own heartbeat as she walked to her car with only one goal in mind; making it in one piece. The slightest ruffle of a leave or the creaking of a metal pole was enough to make her jump. Once her car came into view, she found herself running to it and once she reached it, she nearly slammed herself into it, desperate to get inside. Her stomach was knotted, her heart was in her throat and she was unable to shake off the feeling that something was wrong. She fumbled with her keys, the thundering of her heart against her rib cage making her clumsy. Finally, she managed to get the key inside and she turned it, unlocking the door. Phew.

But the relief was short-lived. Before she could slide her body into the car, the air was knocked out of her lungs as a strong, massive arm wrapped itself around her waist. Panic darted in her eyes, a scream bubbled in her throat, but it never made it out as a hand palmed at her mouth, covering both her lips and her nose. Fear settled in as no more air could fill her lungs and she began flaying her arms and legs around, hoping to break free from the steel hold.

"Not so fast," a deep voice whispered in her ears. "We just have a few questions for ya."

She could not see the face of her assailant but she did recognize the voice and the tattoos that covered his arms. Suddenly, she could not see anything. A rough fabric was being pulled way too tight around her eyes, blocking her view of the world. She tried screaming against the hand, but all that came out were muffled sounds.

"Now, we can't have you screaming, can we?"

As quickly as it had appeared, the hand was removed from her mouth. She saw it as an opportunity to make herself heard, but she was wrong. It was replaced by a wet cloth—as soon as she inhaled it, she knew what was next.

Darkness.

-R—