Title: Followed
Author: Tsubasa Kya
Disclaimer: I do not own anything from the "Case Closed" universe, and neither do I own anything from the "Inuyasha" universe.

Chapter Two

"Expelled?" Kagome's knees felt weak. Inuyasha's words echoed in her mind. Somethin' bad's gonna happen if you go back… She should have listened. Now it really was like the boy who cried wolf, because that big wolf finally came.

"Here, have a seat, Higurashi." The principal said not unkindly. He helped her into a seat before his desk and sighed. "I'm being pressured by the school board to do something. I'm terribly sorry. You're not really being expelled, just transferred to a school that can meet your needs."

"But, but that's not fair! I've been working hard, it's just… I get sick…" the lame excuse fell from her lips in a manner that even she couldn't bring herself to believe it. She hung her head, wishing the ground would swallow her up. And after last night's declaration to stay home forever, it was semi-amusing that now she just wanted to go back. Even facing Naraku and Sesshoumaru simultaneously by herself would be better than this.

"Please understand, Higurashi… you're a bright student. I don't know what's happening in your life, but you come to school beaten and bruised, your family makes excuses that you're ill, but you've never been seen in the hospital for these illnesses." She felt herself turning green. 'He followed up,' she thought. 'He looked into it…'

"Please, just give me another chance!" Kagome looked at her principal, a pleading look on her face. "Please, I promise, I'll do better than ever, I really will!"

"Kagome…may I call you Kagome?" she nodded glumly in the pathetic hope that he would allow her to stay at school. "Your friends said they visited your home last month and saw a man there, beating you up and yelling at you. What's going on?" If possible, she turned even greener. She'd forgotten about last month's 'incident'.

Inuyasha had been injured so she used the excuse that he needed to recover to come back. That day, when she got home from school, Inuyasha had been waiting for her. He began complaining that he was bored, so he said he was going to teach her some self defense. They went out to the back yard and she joked that she'd take it easy on him since he was injured. Even injured, he was a good fighter. It was when he was teaching her to block someone trying to trip her that her friends came. She noticed them, and forgot to block the trip attack, thus ending flat on her back.

Oh, how had things escalated to be this bad? "Nothing's going on at home," Kagome said heatedly. She was more than upset at her friends. They'd met Inuyasha on more than one occasion; they knew he was a good guy even if he was a little gruff. Why'd they have to go blabbing their mouths?

"Kagome, I'm sure you're bound to say that, but if something's going on at home… if someone's hurting you…" the principal started, but Kagome found the energy to stand. She gave him her most furious look, but he seemed unperturbed by it.

"No one is hurting me, other than you!" That caused him to cringe. "All I want is a normal life, and to study, and to go to college, but no! Because I'm different, you're punishing me!" she grabbed her backpack and opened it, upturning it so that all the heavy books fell out. "Here's your stupid books! I'll just be stupid for the rest of my life!" she tossed the bag on the floor, on top of the pile of books, and stormed out of the room. She slammed the door so hard that the window cracked.

The principal sighed and looked to a different door that came into his office. It opened, and in walked a tall figure, businesslike, and dressed in black. His silver hair had a moonlight quality shine to it. "There, I did it." The principal sighed, looking at his hands as if they were covered in blood. Perhaps they were, just the blood had yet to show.

"Very good." The man smiled eerily cold. He went to leave the room.

The principal looked up again at the man. "My payment?" he asked.

The cold man turned his strange gold eyes onto the principal. "Ah yes… thank you for reminding me." He stated. He lifted one black gloved hand to his mouth, peeling off the glove using his teeth to show dangerously sharp claws and a pale skinned hand. He held up two fingers, and the principal looked confused. Then, with a downward sweep of his arm, a whip made of noxious green poison light sliced not only through the principal but also through the desk the principal was sitting on, and the floor underneath. The principal didn't have a chance even to scream before dying and his blood washed the carpeting.

The cold man simply used his teeth then to pull the black glove on and left.

Kagome grumpily walked down the street. "It's only nine!" she muttered under her breath. "What the heck do I do now?" Technically she wasn't walking down the street. She'd climbed up onto a wall and was walking on that like Inuyasha usually did. But she was following that, and it followed the streets.

"Wench!" snapped a voice loud enough in her ear that she was startled and ended up taking a dive off the wall. She heard a hissed swear before her upper arm was grabbed and she was steadied on the wall at the expense of a newly made sore arm. Soon as she was steadied, she glared at Inuyasha.

"Did you have to scream? I could have been hurt! Again!" she yelled at him, poking his chest and advancing on him in a menacing fashion that didn't intimidate him. He simply grabbed her hand, raised one eyebrow, and twisted her arm up behind her back. She was so not in the mood for public displays of her training.

She did just what he taught her, ignoring the pain in her arm and shoulder as she shoved her body back into him and they tilted off the wall. "Damn it!" Inuyasha growled, releasing her. She had enough time to save herself from a painful landing, but he landed on his head.

"I thought I was useless to you!" Kagome snapped at him, attracting the attention of pedestrians.

"I was angry!" Inuyasha said, standing. He looked around for the baseball cap her mother made him wear. Kagome picked it up and held it out to him. He looked at it for a second before jamming it on his head. "I didn't mean it, and I want you to come back! I'm the only one who can protect you, and bad things are gonna start happening if you don't come back."

"Geez, Inuyasha! You're like a dog with a"—his glare made her think twice about finishing her sentence. At least aloud… "Look, the only bad thing that happened was my principal expelled me." He gave her a confused look, and so she attempted to explain. "Because attendance is very important, and I'm away from school more than I'm there, I've been expelled. That means, I can't go to that school now."

He cheered up and asked, "So that means you can come back and stay since you ain't got your teaching thing, right?" Sometimes he was too bright.

"No, I still have other things, like family!" she insisted. She sighed when her words went in one ear and out the other. He was walking with his chin held up high. She hurried to catch up to him, a sigh escaping her lips. "Hey, Inuyasha, would you mind if I waited to go back until a little later?" She wouldn't listen even if he told her she had to come back right away.

But asking was nice. "Huh? What for?" he gave her a suspicious look.

"Well, my dad moved up from Osaka. I called him this morning and promised him I'd come visit him. He's still unpacking, so I won't stay there long, but I haven't seen him in almost a year since I missed Souta's last birthday." She saw him go into what she called 'brooding mode'. It happened when he thought of his mother and father. But she watched him nod.

"'Course you can. Just come back to me later then." She nodded and he followed her home. She felt safe with him by her, and regretted when he said a rough 'see ya later' before disappearing into the well house. She made her way into the house to relay her bad news to her mother.

"Mama, I"—she trailed off when she noticed her mother wringing her hands and watching the television in anticipation in the living room. "Mama, what's up?"

Mama pointed at the television. "Your father just called. He said to turn the television on and… oh, look!" Mama grabbed up the remote and turned the television volume higher. Kagome looked at the television and saw a reporter woman with blond hair, red lips, and a red jacket standing in front of what she recognized as her school.

"—as you can see, the recent stream of murders and robberies has extended now to broad daylight and in a school. The authorities are baffled by what's happened. Unfortunately, the authorities will not release the name of the victim, but students are being allowed to call home on cell phones and school lines to assure their families that they're okay. Once everyone has been questioned," the reporter was saying.

Mama rushed across the room and hugged Kagome. "Oh, honey, I thought it was you! You need to call your father, right this minute! Get on that phone, right now, and you call him! He's worried sick for you."

Kagome nodded, and again, Inuyasha's warning rang in her mind. Bad stuff's gonna happen… This was bad… could it have been a demon? She knew she shouldn't have taken the jewel shards to school… but she'd done that before and nothing ever happened. Maybe it was just a coincidence. It had only been an hour since she'd left school too. She'd wandered hither-thither until Inuyasha snuck up on her.

She picked up the phone, searching her mother's posted list of numbers on the wall for her father's new one. A sudden thought hit her. Inuyasha had gone back. What if it was a demon? Should she get Inuyasha? No, it was just a coincidence. She dialed her father.

"Ai, is Kagome okay?" she heard her father say suddenly. Her mouth went dry. She didn't know what to say.

She said, "Dad? I'm okay, but…" she bit back tears—where had they come from?

There was an audible sigh of relief. "But?"

"But I've been expelled, and, and I left the school just an hour ago, and what if something bad really bad happens and what if it's not just a coincidence, and what if someone's really after me, and what if Inuyasha was right, and, and, I'm rambling, like…" she couldn't help but cry.

"Don't worry, love… I'm going to send Heiji to pick you up, okay? I want you here."

Kagome choked back a cry. "Sorry, dad, I just can't. I think I'm just going to jump into the well now." She heard her father protesting that she'd get hurt if she did that as she lowered the phone down and hung up. How disturbing was it that Inuyasha had been right? She needed to talk to Inuyasha. She'd tell him she'd never leave the feudal era again.

A moment later she'd jumped over the edge of the well. Seconds after that, she found out that the bottom of the well was a lot harder than she remembered. Peering up, she saw with no small amount of dismay that there was a roof far up there. It was very disheartening, and made her curl up on her side, holding her ankle. Her tears were as much pain induced as they were from creeped-out emotional trauma. 'Murder, expulsion, the well not working, Inuyasha being right… what next?' she demanded in her mind. No answer was forth coming.

End.