This is the first AU ending to this story. It is really just helping me get over a major writer's block. It picks up right where the story left off in the previous chapter


Later on that night, as Kagome's mom was washing the dishes from their meal, the phone rang. Drying her hands, she quickly answered the phone.

"Hello?" She asked into the receiver. A few guys' voices could be heard in the background as a girl spoke.

"Yes, is this the Higurashi residence?" The girl asked.

"Yes. Who are you looking for?"

"Kagome Higurashi. We're friends from school, and we want to meet with her tomorrow." Kagome's mother thought for a moment.

"She hasn't been feeling well lately, but if you could stop by the house tomorrow sometime, I'm sure that she'd talk to you."

"That will be excellent! Is it all right if we stop by around noon tomorrow then?"

"Perfect. I'll make sure she knows about it."

"Thanks." The girl said before hanging up. Kagome's mother replaced the receiver on the base, walked up the stairs, and knocked lightly on her daughter's bedroom door.

"Kagome, some friends from school are going to stop by the house tomorrow at noon. I want you to at least meet them, even if you don't talk to them." After several moments, Kagome opened her door. She nodded to her mother before shutting it and going back to her desk, where she was writing a letter.

---

Even though she agreed to meet her friends, Kagome was very reluctant to actually meet them. She was very depressed, and she looked horrible. It was one reason her mother wanted her to meet her friends so badly; she hoped they would cheer up her daughter, even if it was just a tiny bit. So, at noon, her mother made her come outside to wait on her friends. Kagome sat on the small stone bench underneath the Sacred Tree, and, while she waited, she stared blankly at the branches above her head. There were blossoms on the tree again, and they looked close to blooming. Kagome's mother was inside, preparing their noon meal, but she managed to look out the kitchen window at her daughter every now and then.

Kagome was thinking about whether or not she should go inside when she heard voices. There were several of them, and they seemed familiar to her. They weren't the voices of the friends she was expecting to show up. There were at least three guy voices, and a few girls. Kagome looked over to where the voices were coming from, the stairs leading up to the shrine. She stood waiting in the shade of the Sacred Tree. After a minute, the voices started hushing each other, and Kagome guessed they were near the top. Not a few moments later, a teenaged girl could be seen at the top of the stairs. As soon as she reached the top, she turned and looked back down the stairs.

"Hurry up! We're already late as it is." She said in a very familiar voice. After a few more seconds, four guys stood at the top of the stairs, one bent over breathing hard. After another few seconds another girl showed up at the top.

"Sorry. My clocks are always slower than yours." She said, a little out of breath. The first girl smiled at them.

"It's all right, Rin. Try to leave earlier next time." It seemed as if none of them noticed Kagome, who was not that far from them. She certainly didn't hear them. Her eyes were locked onto the tallest boy. He had long black hair pulled back at his neck, strange violet eyes, and was wearing loose black pants, a loose red T-shirt, and a pair of black and silver combat boots. His longer-than-normal fingernails were painted black, and he had several silver earrings in each ear. Around his neck hung a golden chain, with an old, tarnished heart-shaped locket on it.

He looked exactly like Inu Yasha on his human night. He too looked like he wasn't paying attention to his friends. He was looking directly at Kagome, a slight smile on his face.

---

Later on, Kagome couldn't figure out how she knew. It was in those few seconds that she realized it was Inu Yasha. His friends, who she later found out where Sango, Mirouku, Shippou, Kohaku, and Rin, noticed where he was looking, and saw Kagome. They had a tearful reunion, and Kagome started talking again. After all the reintroductions were finished, they sat outside under the Sacred Tree, telling Kagome how they survived the five-hundred year difference.

"After I realized what had happened, I stopped speaking for a few weeks." Inu Yasha started.

"Four months, actually." Shippou added.

"We had to find the Jewel, and then we had to convince Inu Yasha to use it."

"When I did, Midoriko's spirit was released from the Jewel, and she spoke to us."

"She told us that when you purified the Jewel, you actually just strengthened her spirit, so she could overpower the evil in the Jewel."

"She said that because of your power, she could use it to help us."

"She said that she would make it so we could all see you again!" All of these lines were spoken very fast and from different people, but Kagome managed to understand what was going on.

"She also gave me the power to change my appearance, so I could fit in with the humans."

"We've enrolled in your school next year, and we're all in the same grade."

"Inu Yasha's the best out of us at math, go figure."

"We have an apartment a few blocks away, but we haven't stayed in it lately, that's why we were late."

"Inu Yasha forgot what day he wrote on the well."

"Did not!"

"We just got back from America, where we've been staying because Dad needed our help with the company." Rin said.

"Who's your dad?"

"I call Sesshoumaru my dad, because he did raise me. And, that's what it says on my birth certificate." She added the last with a giggle.

"He's the owner of this big company that organizes trade between America and Japan. Anytime we need something, we go to him, because he has the money to make it happen."

"Why were you in America?"

"A small company run by demons over there were attacking the headquarters set up over there, so we had to go protect it for a while."

"What happened to everyone else? Keade, Kouga, Myouga, Shiori, Royukan, Jinenji?"

"Keade was included in the wishes."

"She runs the day care you went to when you were little."

"Kouga's the owner of that big record company out of Sapporo."

"Myouga died about a century ago."

"Shiori has become some big government official."

"We never heard what happened to Royukan."

"Jinenji found a wife and had five children, the oldest he named Kagome, and the second oldest Inu Yasha. They're the founders of a hidden corporation that negotiates peace treaties between demons."

"Inu Yasha, did you mean to show up three weeks after I came back?" Kagome asked suddenly, thinking of the date. He looked shocked.

"No! I meant to come back on the day you got back. You mean that you've been here three weeks already?" The other's were almost as shocked as him.

"Are you ever going to get a date right?" Shippou asked in amazement.

"Hey! I was depressed and I didn't care too much about anything anymore, so I didn't both keeping up with the dates back then." Inu Yasha said in his own defense. Kagome smiled at him.

"It's all right. We're all together, and that's all that matters." She said lightly.

"Kagome! Lunch's is done!" Souta said, running out the back door. He looked around before spotting the group. He ran up, a little out of breath. "Momma said that your friends can come in and eat with us too, if they want."

"What about it guys? Are you gonna stay?" She asked them, and Souta looked at her in shock, because he hadn't heard her talk in three weeks. The gang gave their various 'yes' replies, and they all stood up and followed Kagome inside her house.

End AU 1
So, there's the alternate ending to Ended in Tragedy. I hope you all enjoy. Actually, there's another ending that expands on this chapter. I'm not happy with the current ending, so I'll have to think something up. Actually, I could continue the other ending as a story in it's own right, but I don't know if I will as of now or not.

Shadow Kat