The first sign that showed Miroku, Sango and Shippou that something was wrong was InuYasha's refusal to partake in breakfast. Normally, the hanyou would have devoured his share-and then some-of food, but today he snapped irritably when Shippou, a large portion of food in tow, approached the trunk of the tree he'd been resting in since he had returned from his 'outing' the night before, Kagome in tow. The sleepy group had stared in confusion as InuYasha pushed Kagome to the ground (not hard, of course) before jumping into the aforementioned tree.

"Houshi-sama," Sango murmured as she poked the remnants of a small boar she had successfully killed and roasted that morning. "What do you think is wrong with InuYasha?"

Miroku looked from Sango's concerned face to the tree that Shippou was circling, trying hard to find a low branch while still holding InuYasha's portion of the boar, to Kagome, who was sitting at the easternmost edge of the camp, hands in her lap, looking at anything that wasn't the group sitting in front of the boar.

"Maybe," he said slowly, eyes moving back to the fire as he spoke, "Maybe Kagome-sama's...condition...has hurt him more deeply than we can see. Remember, Kagome-sama is very important to InuYasha, and she hasn't really shown much improvement since InuYasha brought her here."

"She seemed to remember Kikyou's name, though," Sango pointed out.

"Maybe she did, and maybe she didn't. All we can do at this point is show her friendship and hope for the best." Even as he spoke, Miroku fervently hoped that Kagome would begin to show signs of improvement, signs that she was at least beginning to trust them a little bit. Maybe, when she had started trusting them, she would remember them.

'You need to remember us, Kagome-sama,' the houshi thought, slanting a glance over at the miko who was staring at the distant sky, an unreadable expression on her face. 'Not just for our sake, but for InuYasha's sake, for your family back on the other side of the well's sake, and, I fear, the world's sake, as well.'

InuYasha listened to Miroku and Sango's brief conversation with only a vague sense of what they were actually saying. Most of his mind was still aching with the...discussion he and Kagome'd had the night before. When Miroku said "Kagome's condition has hurt him more deeply than we can see" InuYasha had let out a small snort of wry amusement.

'You don't know the truth of it, bouzou,' he thought, clutching his Tetsusaiga like a small child might clutch a favorite toy.

What Kagome had said last night...about not wanting to give him another chance...those words had cut deeper into his soul than he thought it was possible to go. The fact that she didn't know what she was doing did not lessen the pain, as one would think it would. In fact, it made the hanyou's heart ache all the more to know that Kagome didn't know what she meant to him...what her hastily screeched words had done to him...

For the fifth time that morning, InuYasha's eyes unwillingly went to Kagome, who was sitting with her back to his tree. Ever since he had brought her back from her little 'outing' in the forest, she had been avoiding him like the plague. Kagome did avoid him sometimes, but it was never like this. Never did she sit with her back to him, her face averted like she would die if she so much as looked at him. But there she was, her back facing his tree, her hair blowing almost tauntingly in the breeze as she looked at something only she could see.

Snorting weakly, the hanyou turned his face away from her. Just looking at her made the horrible sentence come back to him in a thundering wave.

"I don't want to give you a chance, you monster!"

Worse still was that one statement Miroku had stated-casually, which made it all the worse for InuYasha: "If the memory loss goes deep enough for her to forget her love for you, then maybe it wasn't as deep as we thought it was."

Kami, he thought he had felt the height of pain after he'd woken from his fifty year seal and had come to terms with the fact that Kikyou had sealed him to the Goshinboku after her 'betrayal.' But that pain was a mere shadow, a laughable joke compared to the hurt he was feeling now. The thought that whatever Kagome felt for him was so shallow that Naraku's memory loss whatever-it-was had wiped it from her mind hurt him, to use Miroku's words, 'more deeply than we can see.'

'Not only that, but she trusted that mother fucker, even though HE was the one who kidnapped her and put that...that...whatever-it-was on her! Kami dammit, HOW could she trust Naraku?' InuYasha howled internally, teeth gnashing together so hard that it actually hurt. 'What the FUCK could he do that would make him look like the fuckin' good guy?'

The short flare of anger faded as abruptly as it had come to him, receding into the darkness of the hanyou's depression as he sighed and leaned back against the tree. His eyes went to her back again, unwillingly studying the soft lines of her shoulders as she continued to study the sky.

'What could he have done that could have made her choose him over us...over me?'

Kagome toyed with some of the grass that was growing beneath her folded legs as she tried hard to ignore the sensation that had been plaguing her since she had woken up that morning.

'He's staring at me again,' she thought, trying hard not to shiver as she fixated her gaze on the sky overhead. 'Why? What is that hanyou after?'

Ever since that rather unpleasant confrontation in the woods, Kagome had been thinking about InuYasha's reaction to what she had said...about Naraku's involvement with her memory loss.

'The look on his face,' she thought, repressing another shudder, 'He wanted to kill Naraku then...I know he did.' Her brow furrowed slightly as her mind went down the same circular path it had been running around all night.

'Did Naraku do something to anger him? That's probably not too hard to do...he does seem to have a bit of a temper.' Kagome resisted the urge to turn around and study the hanyou as she thought about the reasons for his reaction to her words last night. 'But even a little thing like angering someone isn't a reason to want to kill them. So...does it go deeper than just a few insults and lost battles? Is there really a reason so terrible as to warrant death? And, if there is, could Naraku be capable of doing it?'

Kagome thought back to when she had first woken up after she'd lost her memory, thinking hard about Naraku; about the cold glint in his red eyes, the smug superiority in his smirk, the eerily confidant way he'd held himself...like there was nothing and nobody that could get in his way...

'Yes,' she realized; well, not really realized...more like remembered, like she had always known-'Naraku is capable of doing great evils. I was just too frightened and confused by what had happened to me that I was willing to overlook the obvious for personal comfort.'

'So, I've determined that Naraku is probably capable of great atrocities...so where does that leave me?' the miko wondered. 'I still don't really know if I can trust these people. They won't tell me anything. Is it because they don't trust me? Or...'

Following on the heels of her previous realization came another epiphany: these people knew who she was. And if they did, wouldn't it be hard for them to accept that she didn't know them now? Kagome knew that if one of her friends had lost their memories, she would find it hard to believe that they weren't still the same person that they had been before losing their memories.

With that epiphany fresh in her mind, Kagome made her decision. 'If I want to find out who I am, I should go with the people who know me. They might want to kill me, but then again, they might not. It's better for me to try than to never know who I really was for the rest of my life.'

With all that mess out of the way, Kagome's mind turned down the other avenue it had been stuck on; what she was to the hanyou currently staring at her back.

'Thinking back now,' she thought, 'he's had several opportunities to kill me...some more convenient than others. Each time, though, he hasn't killed me. I think...in his own way...he's trying to be nice to me. Not only that, but when I said I didn't want to give him a chance last night...he looked at me like I had just slapped him, or something. Then he looked...I don't know; hurt, maybe?'

Kagome shook her head and slapped her cheeks. 'Oh, well, I can figure that out later. What's important is that I've decided to trust these people, and come hell or high water, I'm gonna figure out who I am.'

Just as that thought ran through her head, the houshi looked over at her and asked, in a loud voice so she could hear him, "Don't you want to eat anything, Kagome-sama?"

Kagome stiffened slightly, but then relaxed as she reminded herself of her epiphany. 'They might not want to kill me...and they were kind to me, even though I wasn't exactly civil to them.' A trickle of shame ran through her soul as she smiled at Miroku before getting up and heading over to the fireside.

'I...I think that, whoever I am...I'm a nice person. I am not mean on purpose, and I trust people if I think they're friendly. I won't try to be standoffish anymore,' she told herself resolutely, 'I'm going to go to them, apologize and agree to go with them; no matter what the cost will entail later.'

Kagome settled quietly into a sitting position beside Miroku, who smiled widely at her before handing her a strip of meat. "That's the spirit, Kagome-sama," he told her, looking quite pleased with himself. The warm glow in his amethyst eyes made Kagome's timid smile become wider as she accepted the strip of meat.

"Thank you," she said as she took a small bite out of the tender boar flesh. "It's really good."

Sango smiled as well, the concern in her eyes dimming behind a curtain of relief as she took in her friend's appearance: the fear in Kagome's eyes had dimmed somewhat, replaced by a more familiar, if still off-kilter, kindness. The smile on her face was one that Sango had not seen in almost a month, and the sight of it almost drove tears to the eyes of the youkai taijiya.

'Maybe her memory isn't back yet,' she thought, 'but it looks like Kagome-chan has decided to trust us again.'

The group waited until Kagome had consumed the strip of boar before asking the questions that had been bottled up inside of them since the morning had dawned.

"Kagome-chan...have you decided that we aren't going to hurt you?" Sango asked, her voice almost hesitant. Kirara, who was sitting beside her, mewed as she fixed her bright red eyes on Kagome's face. Shippou also stared at her, his emerald eyes intent on her face.

"Not exactly," Kagome admitted. "However, I've decided that if it'll help me get my memory back, I'll tag along with you guys, and take all the good and bad that comes along the way. If you trust me, then I'll trust you...for the time being. Which reminds me-"

Here Kagome looked at her hands, hiding her eyes behind her bangs.

"-Gomennasai for...for last night. I know you guys have been trying to reason with me and have been showing me incredible kindness, but I was too...too blind to see it. Maybe it's because you want to kill me, but then again, maybe it isn't. Maybe I am your long-lost friend who has miraculously reappeared. I don't know, so I won't assume the worst any more. And...and I won't trust what he says any more." Kagome let out a long sigh as her little speech came to its conclusion.

"You don't have to apologize!" Miroku exclaimed. "It was perfectly understandable that you acted the way you did; you were confused and frightened. We in no way hold that against you, Kagome-sama."

"Yeah, we know InuYasha practically kidnapped you from that inn!" Shippou added in eagerly.

Kagome looked at him, a blank look on her face. "Inu-Ya-Sha?" she spelled out, sounding confused. "Oh-is that his name?" As she spoke, Kagome pointed to the tree where InuYasha was sitting.

Miroku flinched slightly. 'Ouch. I do not think I want to be InuYasha right now.'

"Oh, Kami-we forgot to tell you our names!" Sango realized, her eyes quickly becoming ashamed. "We-"

"I know," Kagome interrupted. "Since I knew you before I lost my memory, you just assumed that I knew your names."

Miroku wasted no time making introductions after that. "My name is Miroku," he said. "The lovely lady over there is Sango," he pointed to the taijiya, "the kitsune is Shippou," he gestured to the kit, "the nekomata is Kirara," he stroked the fur between the fire-cat's ears, "and...as you are probably already aware...our hanyou companion currently roosting in the tree is InuYasha."

Kagome sat in silence for a few seconds, looking carefully at each person in turn as she committed their names to memory.

'Miroku...Sango...Shippou...Kirara...'

Her eyes turned to the tree where she knew the hanyou was sitting.

'...Inu...Yasha...'

Why did those names sound so familiar...?

"...It's nice to meet you," Kagome finally said, her smile still firmly fixed in place. "I hope I remember who you all are."

Then, Kagome got up from where she had been sitting, and slowly made her way to the tree where InuYasha was sitting.

All actions by the fireside immediately ceased as houshi, taijiya, kitsune and nekomata focused their attentions on Kagome, watching her as she placed a palm on the trunk of the tree, her eyes moving until they were fixated on the darkness of the upper branches.

"Um...InuYasha-san?" she called, her voice hesitant.

There was a beat of silence. Nothing moved. Nothing breathed.

"What the fuck d'you want?" came the reply.

"I...I just wanted to say that I was sorry," Kagome said softly. She took her hand off the trunk of the tree and backed up a few paces, still keeping her eyes fixed to the place where she knew the hanyou was.

There was a pause, then a creaking sound could be heard. Kagome caught a flash of gold winking amidst the dark branches. InuYasha must have leaned forward so that he could see her properly. She fixed her gaze onto the gold flash, willing herself to do this.

"What the fuck are you sorry for?" InuYasha asked rudely, though his eyes and his words did not match, if Kagome thought she was reading them correctly.

"I'm sorry for what I said last night," she replied, ignoring the rudeness of his previous statement. "I...I don't really believe that...I..." Kagome swallowed as a lump moved into her throat. The seriousness of what she had said was now descending on her shoulders.

'Kami...I hurt him last night when I said that, didn't I? It was cruel of me to not say that I would give him a chance. Don't all creatures want a chance, no matter who, what or where they are?'

Kagome swallowed again, blinking back the tears that threatened to spring into her eyes as she took a deep breath before speaking again. "I...I want to take back what I said last night," she told him. "I'll give you a chance. I want to give you a chance. I hope you can find it in your heart to forgive me for what I said last night...I was cruel, whether I meant to be or not, and I apologize. Now, will you come down from there? Your friends have some food for you, and it's probably all cold now."

The silence that fell on the clearing after that was thicker than congealed blood. Miroku, Sango, Shippou and even Kirara were waiting with bated breath, hoping against hope that this meant that Kagome was remembering, if only slightly, the love she felt for InuYasha. Or, at least, the enormous amount of trust she put in him.

They were also waiting to see what InuYasha's reaction to Kagome's apology would be.

For a few fateful seconds, nothing happened. Kagome's eyes filled with tears as she slowly turned away from the tree, sniffling slightly as she wiped her eyes on her sleeve.

'Why am I so sad?' she wondered.

Before she could figure the reason for her sudden sorrow out, a soft whoosh sounded from behind her, followed by a sharp intake of breath. Kagome whirled about, her hair forming a black halo around her head as she tried to see what had happened.

InuYasha looked back at her, his golden eyes shielded. He was standing at the foot of the tree, having just jumped out of it. His red-clad arms were crossed, his face set in a fierce glower. All the same, Kagome was glad that he had heeded her words.

"Thank you," she told him. "And I'm so sorry. You deserve better."

She didn't know why she had said that last statement, but Kagome knew it was true.

InuYasha's stance did not change, but his golden eyes softened somewhat.

"Whatever," he scoffed before turning away and sitting down beside the fire, seizing his portion of the boar and sinking his fangs into it with great gusto.

The others looked at each other, bewildered smiles slowly sliding into place on their faces.

Even if Kagome didn't remember them, it seemed that she could still do her peacemaker thing just fine.