The tape recorder clicked on as a young girl no older than seventeen took a deep breath.
"Hi. My name is Kagome Higurashi...I'm doing this for my mother's sake. She doesn't get to see me very often...and I want her to know what went on during the period she thought I had died." There was shuffling in the background as she pulled on her sleeve.
"You see....from the moment I rejected Hojo, my stalker as I so fondly called him, I realized how much further my life would plummet. Hojo was in a gang. Not just any gang...The Bloodied Daggers."
Hojo smiled at Kagome as they walked. "It was sure nice of you to go out with me like this. I know you're not feeling so great anymore with your disease."
Kagome inwardly sighed. Why. Why couldn't Grandpa just say she had the flu or, Hell, left the country to reunite with some long lost family member. "No, it's fine Hojo...you're a real good friend."
She saw him freeze. "Is...that all I am to you? A friend? Even after I brought all that stuff to you when you were ill...dying even?" He turned to her. "Hell, I probably saved you with that stuff and you're treating me as a common friend?"
She winced. "Look, Hojo....I didn't mean for it to get this far but… I don't want to ... date you, you know?"
"No! I don't know. You know what, Kagome? This is bullshit. I'm gonna remember this next meeting."
Kagome's face filled with confusion. "Meeting?"
Hojo's once calm, kind face turned uncharacteristically malicious. "I'm in a gang that you'll wish you didn't cross bitch. You're done." He dropped his nice boy act and turned to walk away. "I'll leave you to quake. Be ready to die, Kagome."
The voice began to shake on the tape. "I'm sorry Mom...I know you thought he was such a great guy...and you wanted me to be around him...but...I couldn't. So I ran. I went to the past. Hoping Inuyasha could help me...but..."
The familiar warmth that the well's blue light provided calmed Kagome as she tried to rationalize the situation. "Inu..Inuyasha?" she said into the wind as she pulled herself up. Her regular uniform abandoned for a pair of jeans and a checkered shirt. The clothes she wore with Hojo.
As she heard nothing she sighed. Raising her voice she looked for the familiar red cloth jumping. "InuYasha! Where are you?" She moved quickly as she heard cursing.
"What in God's name do you want, wench?" Kagome ran in for a hug.
"Hojo is going to kill me... I needed comfort and…help..." Her voice hopeful and yet full of fear.
He began to laugh. "Let the bastard kill you. If you can't defend yourself, what makes you think I would protect you? You're pathetic. Kikyou is a million times better than you!"
Kagome stepped back shocked and clutching her pained chest. "Wha--what?"
"You heard me. It's about time I told you. She will always be more attractive. Kinder. Her ability to control her powers will always be better than you. You're pathetic." With every word the knife of her hopeless dream plunged deeper. "You should just die and let her live with me. I love her and you'd be proving your stupidity if you stayed pursuing me and denying our happiness.
At this point Inuyasha had cornered Kagome against the Sacred Tree, her only real tie other than the well to her future life. "This is where you die." He didn't even take the time to pull his sword out as he extended his claws and sliced her gut open. Her scream echoed through the forest. "You know you don't belong here. You caused all this havoc. You're the real person who should die."
As her life fled from her body she stared up at him, salty tears welling in her eyes. With her last breath she asked, her eyes blurred out and thoughts jumbled, "How...could you..."
Kikyou smiled down at the hanyou with contempt. "Well done, dear Inuyasha." She jumped down from the tree she had been left in. "Let's journey to the seven layers of hell together my love." Inuyasha gave a look of confusion. "Why can't we stay? I thought when she dies, you get your soul back."
Kikyou shook her head. "The soul never was mine. I lost it the day I died. It will stay with its owner, which is no longer myself..." He seemed to think that fact over. "Then let's go. I'm sick of smelling her blood."
A brief melody carried Kagome through this new darkness she felt trapped in. She was afraid of anything and anything that might appear in this darkness. Suddenly, a light shone down on a door. Curious, she walked toward the door, opening it to find herself in a room bursting with life. Everywhere her eyes could touch she saw plant life. Flowers blooming and trees thriving. It was so green and full of colour, she lost herself to it.. " My dear Kagome..." She spun to see the door was gone and was replaced by a female draped in a solid white cloth. "Who...?" The woman smiled beneath the robe.
"Who I am does not matter, love. Who you are, or rather what you are, is a more pressing matter." Amusement rang through the white figure's voice.
Kagome shook her head. "What do you mean who I am? You just said. I'm Kagome..." A shot of pain coursed through her body.
The woman growled inhumanly. "That boy never knows when he should be tampering with the dead or not!" She looked to Kagome again. "Remember who you are, child." As her vision faded out in a very confused state of mind, she heard the woman plead. "Remember what you are..." Remember what I am? I'm a...priestess...a human. Aren't I?
Kagome's voice sounded strained. "Mama...I was so confused. I knew you wouldn't understand. Hell you'd probably throw me in the psych ward if I told you that...but here is where it gets....strange. You see, Inuyasha has that older brother..." Another voice slowly corrected her. "Oh, sorry. Half-brother. He has this sword that can revive the dead..."
The brightness of the day had blinded Kagome's newly opened eyes. It was a cold autumn day and she shivered as she made her first attempt to get up. As her abdomen bunched in on itself, she cried out in pain. She lay back down on the grass, her hand reaching out to cover her eyes.
"Pretty lady is hurt. Please don't move pretty lady. Rin-chan will help you."
Rin. Why is that name familiar?
"Don't touch that bloody woman, child! She is probably carrying a disease!" A loud screeching voice reprimanded the child.
And that voice...didn't it belong to that toad demon...
A deep voice full of venomous malice interrupted her thoughts. "Human wench. You will wake up and answer this Sesshomaru's questions immediately."
A/N Well there it is. The first chapter revamped. What do you think of the changes? There's been a bit of alteration to the plot. And a few childish ideas, though cute have been cut until further in the story line. Review. Give me your thoughts.