A/N: Thank you so much for all of the wonderful feedback! I'm so delighted to hear that people are enjoying this story. Without further ado, here are the next two installments.

36.

It was after passing yet another student in the hallway bearing the same ominous mark Kagome had been seeing over the course of the past couple weeks that she pulled Sango aside hoping for answers.

"I've got a question to throw your way." The raven-haired girl murmured.

Sango rolled her eyes and smacked her forehead warily. "Oh. Great. Yet another ambiguous question of which I will never know the true significance of. I love it when you do this." Was the sarcastic reply.

Kagome pouted and looked at her friend with wide, innocent eyes until the last of Sango's will crumbled.

"Fineee." The pony-tailed girl groaned. "Go ahead, shoot."

Kagome squeezed the girl's arm gently before motioning towards the girl just turning around the corner. "Those spider tattoos that I keep seeing everywhere. What do they mean?"

"Those things? I have no clue." Sango frowned, to which Kagome responded by heaving a deep sigh.

"I swear – are you ever useful?"

Her hands rose as the other girl shot her a dark glare. "Kidding, kidding."

"If you must know, I happened to overhear once that those markings are only given to a select few of Naraku's entourage." The pony-tailed girl huffed. "But if that's the case, wouldn't you know more than me?"

As suspected. Kagome bit her lip. "I'm not exactly being included as part of his so called 'group' yet, if that's what you're implying. Turns out Naraku wants to take me on a test run first, like a shiny new car."

"…Did he really say that?" Sango looked disturbed.

"Not so much in words, but his point was clear. He wants to see how willing I am to repay his 'generosity'."

She was instantly rewarded with an incredulous gaze. "Kagome, you can't! Anything Naraku will want you to do will be-"

"-as morally ambivalent as punting a newborn baby off the Grand Canyon or mugging a blind man with only one leg?" Kagome cut in neatly. She resumed walking briskly, with Sango hurrying behind her to match her pace. "Trust me, I know. One meeting with him is all it takes to know that he probably doesn't spend his free time volunteering at the soup kitchen."

"So you'll…?"

"Don't worry. I'll figure it out." She assured. "Didn't you say you had to meet up with Kohaku? Shouldn't keep the kid waiting."

"I suppose so." Sango grimaced. "But don't think this conversation is anywhere near over!"

"Bye Sango." Kagome drawled, shooing her off. She waved as they parted ways, the other girl muttering softly under her breath. The raven-haired girl gazed after her with a crooked smile before starting to turn, but a shadow stretching out from behind a nearby column caught her attention.

That's a strange place to be conveniently standing in.

Sapphire eyes narrowed. She took a few experimental steps before glancing back to see that the shadow had shifted. A few more steps and it had slipped to the other side of the hallway, masked by an open door.

"…"

Kagome rounded the corner and pressed herself against the wall. Surely enough, light footsteps followed, and the raven-haired girl waited until they were almost inches away before sticking out a leg.

"Oh fu-!"

Her victim fell to the ground with a painful thud and a string of colorful curses as Kagome towered over him with a smirk.

"Well now." She said quietly. "Looks like you've got some explaining to do."