Chapter 3.

"So? Did you find anything?" Inuyasha asked while his eyes followed Shippo entering the cave. He looked at Inuyasha with sadness in his eyes.

It had been hours since Kagome's disappearance. The night was chilly and Inuyasha wondered if Kagome was doing fine. The clothes she wore weren't the best ones to keep her warm. That's why she always had that silly thing she was sleeping in, the sleeping bag as she called it.

"I didn't find Kagome", Shippo said first, obviously not to raise any hope in Inuyasha. "But there is a tiny village some distance away. I think I should go check it right away."

Shippo added some firewood into the fire. He went closer to Sango, Miroku, and Kirara to check on them if they were fine. All of them were asleep.

Inuyasha closed his eyes in pain. He heard Shippo's footsteps at the entrance of the cave, he was leaving. "Don't worry", he heard Shippo say. "I will bring something to ease the pain. Perhaps the villagers have some herbs."

Inuyasha mumbled a sort of "yeah" in response. He was feeling his body going from hot to cold. He felt feverish. He had very shattered thoughts of Kagome and the pain he felt.

It would be new moon soon. Inuyasha knew it would slow down his healing process if he turned into a human. If Kagome was in danger Inuyasha probably couldn't save her. It made him feel sick of himself.

"Inuyasha?" he heard a voice coming from the back of the cave. He opened his eyes and turned his head enough to see that Sango had awaken. She was leaning on the walls of the cave, breathing heavily.

"Yeah?"

"Did Kagome return yet?"

Inuyasha didn't respond. He could hear Sango inhaling painfully.

"Didn't Kagome return?" she asked, not giving up. Inuyasha avoided looking at her. He was staring at the ceiling, not wanting to show her the painful look in his eyes.

"She's gone off somewhere and there's nothing I can do", he said after a little silence. "I can't move my body properly, Sango. I can't fucking move at all."

"Kagome..." Sango whispered to herself. "Where did you go..."

Inuyasha felt a weight in his chest. He didn't have memories of spending time with Kagome in the past few days. He had been so lost in thought about Kikyo's death he had ignored everyone, especially Kagome. "I would do anything", he said surprisingly softly. "Anything to see her again. To know shes' fine."

"I'm sure she's fine", Sango assured.

"You can't know that. I can't stop these images in my head where... where Kagome no longer lives."

"Stop that", Sango spat. "We can't lose hope yet. It hasn't been that long since her disappearence. Besides, we need to get better as soon as possible. The stress will only slow down your healing."

"Kagome is too good for me", Inuyasha said out of nowhere with hopelessness in his voice. "I've done nothing but ignored her and still she helps me get into a safe place and on top of that, she goes straight off, with no rest, to pick up some fucking herbs for me to help me heal."

"But that's what friends are for, Inuyasha. I'm sure Kagome understands. Don't you think you would have done the same for her?"

"Of course I would've!" Inuyasha yelled. "And right now is the time to prove it. She might be dying out there and I'm here lying selfishly, being completely useless. I'm gonna go look for her straight away." Inuyasha attempted to get up. He managed to roll on his stomach and tried to push himself up. Despite Sango's protesting shouts he got up. The willpower could only carry his body for two weak steps forward until he painfully collapsed on the ground, only hearing Sango's faint voice screaming his name.

"Shit..." he whispered. He was on the verge of passing out. "Kagome... I will not forgive myself if you're hurt."


The air had an oppressive feel to it. The sky was dark and the moon and the stars were hidden by thick clouds. To an outsider it was probably a nice, silent night. However, the beauty of it was unknown to Kagome who had her head full of alerting warning signs.

She was sitting still on the grass by the river. Koga was standing some metres away from her, looking dangerous.

"Koga", Kagome said with a shiver in her voice, "Why...?"

Slowly, Koga walked over to her, his eyes focused on Kagome's, and knelt down beside her. Kagome attempted to back away but Koga made a sudden move and pushed her to the groundby her shoulders . He had his hands on either side of Kagome's head. His face was way too close to Kagome's for her liking. She put her arms around her chest in a protective way.

"What happened to you", Kagome whispered while shaking her head. Her whole body was trembling in fear and she could feel traitorous tears starting to form up in her eyes.

Koga simply ignored her and kept staring at her face, smiling to himself.

Kagome felt so humiliated that she couldn't bear it any further.

It all happened very fast. Koga seemed lost in the moment. After all, he had Kagome so close to him after all this time. Taking advantage of his mesmerized confusion, Kagome somehow managed to roll out of his grasp. She didn't look back as she got up from the ground and started running.

"I am a demon, you know", she heard him say behind her. She took a tentative peek behind her and saw him standing at the spot where they had just been. She immediately turned hed head away from him. "You can run... But what difference does it make when you stand no chance in the first place."

Kagome stopped running. She knew he was right. She couldn't escape him by running like this.

She wanted to feel sorry for herself. For being so stupid for going with him like that. But at the moment she needed to aim all the negative feelings at Koga. She could deal with her own feelings later. She started fuming inside. She wasn't going to let that man destroy her in any way. She needed to get away. Besides, she thought bitterly, Inuyasha is waiting for the herbs.

So she confronted him. But as she turned to him she was shocked to see him standing right beside her. She took a step back, as she was puzzled by the sudden closeness. Fear took her over as she realized that she hadn't heard him approaching at all. She had ran a good distance away from the river. She hadn't heard him coming to her at all. He was a youkai after all. There was nothing she could do.

Except maybe buy some time.

"Look", she said tentatively, trying to calm herself down and keep Koga off. She was backing away slowly. "I'm sure we can talk about this. You... You wouldn't-"

"Kagome", Koga said, cutting her off. He had a dangerously excited look on his face. "I didn't bring you here so we could talk."

"I won't forgive you", Kagome fumed. "Stay away from me."

"You don't seem to understand my nature at all", Koga smiled. Something animalistic flashed in his eyes to which Kagome reacted the worst way possible. She ran, after all.

End of Chapter 3.

I've been gone... for too long lol... Thank you MadamScorpio for you PM. You woke me up from hibernation.