AN: Second chap. Enjoy.

Summary: A/U It's the middle of the school year, yet there's alot of new faces around Kagome's school, but they are all connected somehow. What it is, or if it's good or bad, Kagome has yet to figure out, as she sorts out her feelings, and learn that their greatest secret lies not only in their identity, but in her backyard. The question, why they are here, lies in her, and the and the greatest evil of them all. I/K M/S

Once Upon a Time

by Kumori Ryuuzaki

Last Time: Sango shook her head and followed Inuyasha. Kagome was about to do the same, but stopped, when she felt a strange presence. She didn't know what it was, but she knew it was coming towards her.

And fast.

Chapter Two: Something's Up

Trying to ignore that particular feeling, she truned around to follow Inuyasha and Sango, but stopped. Sango was looking around wildly, and Inuyasha just stood his ground, sharply looking ahead, looking downright pissed.

And she'd bet anything he was.

"Errr...Inuyasha, Sango?" Kagome said softly.

She was taken back when Sango put a finger to her lips and whispered, "Shhh!" and Inuyasha hissed at her to be quiet.

Kagome stood silently behind Inuyasha, wondering what the heck was going on. Before she knew what was happening, Inuyasha had shoved Kagome in front of him, and she saw darkness, but not before she felt a tap and saw something like a mutated centipede in front of her.

~*~

"...once again, the jewel was complete and Midoriko could rest in peace. The End."

"I like that story."

"Mmm."

"..."

"..."

"Otou-chan, was it lonely for him while he grew up?"

"Yes. They were rather predijuce, when it came to his kind."

"He can't help being who he is! It's unfair!"

"Life isn't fair. But you are right, it isn't."

"I like to meet him one day..."

"Who?"

"Inuyasha..."

~*~

Kagome wearily opened her eyes, and the first thing she saw was...amber eyes...?

"Oi, Kagome," Inuyasha said softly. "You're awake now?"

Kagome yawned, and sat up, rubbing her eyes. She then took a look around her current surroundings, and she was definately not home. "Anou...Inuyasha, where am I?"

"Huh? Oh, you're in my apartment," Inuyasha answered, shrugging his shoulders.

"Eh???" Kagome knew she was blushing a bit, her cheeks were very warm. What was she doing in a guy's apartment?? And Inuyasha no less.

"I wonder what happened to Miroku and Sango," Inuyasha muttered, glacing at the door. "They should be here by now..."

"Miroku and Sango?" Kagome asked.

INuyasha nodded. "They're my roommates. They went grocery shopping three hours ago. It doesn't take that long to grab some food and pay for it!!"

Kagome stayed silent for awhile thinking. What the heck happened? She was at a cafe with Inuyasha, Miroku, and Sango, then Inuyasha and Miroku fought over french fries, Inuyasha won by knocking Miroku out, she, Sango, and Inuyasha exited the cafe, and then...it was a bit blurry from there. What happened? She thought hard. Some thing was coming, and then...she was here. No wait...there was a mutated centapede thing...or was it a worm?

"Inuyasha," she said, getting fed up with her blurry memories. "What happened? How'd I get here?"

"Huh?" Inuyasha looked at her. "Oh, we...we got attacked by muggers."

"Muggers?" Kagome asked, baffled. What does that have to do with all those mutated bugs she saw? And then, for the first time, she noticed that Inuyasha had very sharp looking teeth, almost like fangs.

Wait a sec.

FANGS???

"Yeah, we were walking home after me and Miroku's fight over french fries, and we got attacked by muggers," Inuyasha saw, sounding more confidently. "You got knocked out from behind. It seems he found a way to knock you out with meaning to."

"...." Kagome didn't say anything for awhile, then said very, VERY softly, "I felt something coming in when we were fighting and that same presence...is...over on that fireplace!!" Kagome looked at the mantle, on the other side of the room, at the corner of her eyes.

Inuyasha narrowed his eyes in concentration for a minute, before grinning weakly, "That's interesting..."

Kagome blinked. "Eh??" He heard her?? How? SHe could barely hear herself!

Inuyasha nodded and went to pick up the only object on the mantle, a small, slim, pink shard. He took Kagome's hand and placed the shard there. However, Kagome fidgeted when the shard first made contact to her palm. Though she had no idea why.

INuyasha seemed to notice though, but he didn't say anything, but looked at her closely, eyes once again narrowed in concentration. "Kagome, have you ever heard of the Shikon shards?"

Kagome shook her head. "Nope." What was he getting at?

"Mmmm," Inuyasha frowned, and was about to say something, but the sound of a door opening interupted, and Miroku's voice floated in.

"Damn you Inuyasha!! Why do you have to so much ramen?? I think my arms are falling off..."

"Baka! Shut up and hurry!" came Sango's pissed voice.

Both Sango and Miroku came into view--Sango was carring tons of plastic bags filled with food, while Miroku carried several boxes, all labeled ramen.

They must like instant ramen.

"INUYASHA!!" Miroku whined. "Help me~ ~!!"

Inuyasha leapt over the couch to save the ramen when Miroku collasped under the tremendous weight of the boxes combined. Effortlessly, Inuyasha caught the boxes that were falling.

"Stupid bozou!" Inuyasha snarled. "Watch it!"

"Calm down Inuyasha," Sango commanded, after dropping the grocery bags onto the kitchen table. She looked at Kagome. "So, you're awake now." She smiled and looked at her hand. "What'd you got there?"

"Huh?" Kagome lifted her palm up to Sango. "Some shard thing Inuyasha handed me."

Sango shot a look to Inuyasha and he nodded.

Kagome looked back and forth at Inuyasha and Sango, and their little exchange. WHAT THE HECK WAS GOING ON???

Miroku got up, and went into the small hallway in the apartment. "I'm gonna chang..."

"NO!" Inuyasha and Sango shouted together, but Miroku had already opened the door, and something had bounced out and tackled Miroku to the ground, furiously licking his face.

"GAH!" Miroku shouted. "Getitoff! Getitoff! Getitoff!"

"It was your fault!" Sango shouted at Miroku, while Inuyasha effortlessly lifted the creature, which happened to be what looked like a golden retreiver pup, off of Miroku. "You idiot!"

Kagome watched the pup in Inuyasha's arm squirm and cover his face in dog saliva.

"Damn thing," Inuyasha muttered, holding the pup at arm's lengh away. "Stop licking me, damnit!"

Kagome giggled. "I didn't know you had a dog!"

"It's more like Rin's dog," Sango answered. "Sesshoumaru gave him to her."

"And he says I'm growing weak," Inuyasha mutters. "I just save your ass, he gives her stuff and saves her ass. I should be calling him weak.Damn hypocryte."

"Eh..." Okay, so Kagome didn't get alot of things, but this she was flat out confused. What about growing weak?

"DOn't mind him," Sango said. "Happens all the time."

Kagome nodded. And then she abruptly stood up, shreiking, "OH NO!!!"

Inuaysha cringed and accidently dropped the dog to plug his sore ears, and Miroku and Sango stared at her.

"I HAVE TO BE HOME FOR DINNER!!!" Kagome screamed. "AND IT'S EIGHT!!"

"Don't worry, Miroku already told your parents that you might be late," Sango said.

"Yeah, it was easy," Miroku smirked. "YOu got such a carefree mom, I wish I had a mom was like that..." His smirk faded, and he got a far away look on his face. "...yeah...that would be nice..."

"If I had a mom, I guess a mom who doesn't worry too much," Sango said softly, also getting a far away look on her face. "Of course, I dun want her totally careless, but not care too much..."

Inuyasha eyes darted from Miroku to Sango before sighing loudly. "You guys are too damn dramatic."

"Eh? Why are they like that?" Kagome asked, looking from Miroku to Sango. "Is something wrong?"

Inuyasha shrugged. "They both never had a mother. I guess they're dreaming up their own 'perfect' mom."

Kagome looked curiously at him. "What about you?"

"Huh? Me?" Inuyasha shrugged. "I never really had much of a mom. Well, I had more of a mom than a dad."

"SOrry," Kagome felt her cheeks warm and looked down at the floor. She felt..all...wierd...

Inuyasha shrugged again. "I don't mind."

Kagome stood up. "I guess I should be going now."

Inuyasha nodded, and Sango and Miroku snapped out of their trance, and stared intently at Inuyasha.

Inuyasha glared at them "Waddya want, NOW?"

"Escort her, idiot," Miroku answered, unimpressed. "Duh, it's late at night, and, with no offense to her, she can't defend herself very well when it comes to rapists and muggers, ya know."

"Well, I don't know exactly where my home is," Kagome said slowly. "I've never been around here."

"What are you waiting for?" Sango asked impatiently, shoving Inuyasha and Kagome out the door. "Walk her home, you moronic jerk."

The door slammed closed in their faces. Well, Kagome thought, that was...pleasant.

"If you wanted a private make-out session with Miroku, all you have to do was ask!" Inuyasha shouted through the door.

There was a crash, and a scream of "Inuyasha you stupid jerk!".

Inuyasha snickered, and walked off to the elevator, motioning Kagome to follow him.

~*~

The walk to the Higurashi Jinja was quiet, mostly spent Kagome trying to keep up with Inuyasha's fast pace. He didn't seem to notice until, about halfway there, when he turned around to see Kagome at a jogging pace, breathing hard.

Inuyasha sighed in anoyance. "God, could you be any slower?"

Kagome glared at him. He was walking too fast to be walking! "Sorry for trying to keep up! YOu might as well be running!" she snapped.

Inuyasha rolled his eyes. "I was not going fast."

"You are too!" Kagome argued back. "You're walking fast as an average jogging person!"

Inuyasha just snorted and continued walking, but, to Kagome's releif, he was walking alot slower. They continued to walk in silence, until the reached the jinja, where Souta was anxiously pacing in front of the house. He looked up to the sounds of foot steps, and squealed when he spotted Kagome and Inuyasha.

"Kagomeneechan!" Souta shouted, tackling Kagome who would've fell back if Inuyasha didn't catch her with one arm.

Souta let go and stepped back. "Err...sorry..."

Kagome got back her balance and nodded. "S'okay."

Souta looked at Inuyasha. "Who's he?"

Inuyasha stuffed his hands into his pockets and looked away. "Inuyasha," he mumbled.

"Cool name!" Souta exclaimed. He tugged on a lock of silver hair. "Is this...natural...?"

Inuyasha scowled, and tugged his hair away from Souta before glaring at him. "Yes it's natural!" he said irratably. "It all is!"

Souta opened his mouth to say something, but Mrs. Higurashi came running out and and squeezed Kagome to death, sobbing.

"Kagome!" she sobbed. "I'm so glad you're okay! One of your friends called and told me what happened! You're not injured are you?"

Kagome slowly pried her mother's arms off of her. "I'm okay, mama."

Mrs. Higurashi let go of her daughter and turned to Inuyasha and smiled. "You must be Inuyasha the boy on the phone told me about."

"Errr...yeah," Inuyasha mumbled, looking away, looking a bit nervous.

Kagome tilted her head to the side a bit. Why was he acting all nervous? It was a bit of a surprise. She had been expecting him to be more unmodest about it.

"Yeah!" Souta cheered. "Took about dozen of them out single-handedly!"

Inuyasha sweatdropped. "...riiight..."

Kagome eyed him. She felt like he was hiding something. But what?

Inuyasha cleared his throat. "I'll be going now. Bye!" he ran off towards the direction of the apartment he shared with his best friends.

Kagome, Souta, and Mrs. Higurashi blinked. "Well, that was abrupt," Mrs. Higurashi said. She smiled at Kagome. "I'm sure you're hungry?"

Kagome nodded eagerly and ran inside, wanting to be fed.

~*~

The next day was bright and cheerfull, and Kagome somehow managed to get up early. The type of day where nothing could go wrong, but when she got to the school, she knew something was gonna go wrong.

There was a crowd of people. Anxious to see hwat has happened, she pushed her way towad the attractions and stopped dead in her tracks when she saw it. Inuyasha and a boy she had never seen, were fighitng. Miroku, Sango, and Sesshoumaru were watching, Miroku and Sango were pleading with Inuyasha to stop, and Sesshoumaru just stood there.

Kagome shoved her way to Miroku and Sango and asked frantically, "What's going on?"

"Inuyasha and Kouga are fighting," Sango answered worriedly. "Damn, they're gonna kill each other!"

"Inuyasha!" Miroku shouted. "Kouga! Stop fighting, you stupid gits!!"

Inuyasha and Kouga paid no heed to them, and continue to beat the lights out of each other.

Until Kagome felt something. The same presence she felt back before the "muggers" attacked. Only the presence was slightly larger. Not to mention she felt something, it was twisted, and she had impression whatever that was giving off the engergy was pure evil. And it made her feel slightly woozy.

About the same time Kagome felt this, Sesshoumaru, Miroku, and Sango were staring up ahead in the direction of the strange presence, looking slightly ticked.. Inuyasha and Kouga stopped fighting, and said simultaneously, "Shit."

To Be Continued...

AN: I'm on a writer's block on Hardly There. Dammit, I can't think of anything. It really doesn't help when I have three other story ideas just begging to be typed. Dammit.

Reviews:

Morlana: So you noticed! But exactly what they're hiding, you'll find out soon. If not the next chapter, and the chapter after.

Ryasha, Kagome-Chan14: Thank you for reading and reviewing!

Kumori Ryuuzaki