Concrete Angel

Kagome ran up the steps to her home, the ancient shrine.

A long day of school was finally over and she was ready to relax. Her legs seemed to defy the tiredness of her body, and she had not even broken a sweat as she climbed the endless stairs.

Flashes of lightning dawned the colored sky, looking almost aloof to the green grass and the dimming snow banks.

"Spring!!" Kagome cried when she reached the top, twirling in a frenzy, laughing, as her favorite season was now about to begin. Thoughts of past springs floated in like a great dream. Images of her mother watching her brother. The parts of her past that were great comforts in the middle of the night, to turn back to and fall into a peaceful slumber.

"I bet in the feudal era, spring is ten times prettier." She said out loud, walking to the God tree and leaning against it. A small clump of snow fell from the great tree that once held the even greater Inuyasha and Kagome glared at it.

Finally, getting over her small lapse of bad luck, she leaned against the tree and hummed to herself. Kagome momentarily forgot there was a care in the world.

She heard the faint sounds of a person walking up the shrine steps, a little 'tip, tap', and twirled around, expecting the face of her mother, brother, or grandfather.

She was hoping mostly it was her mother, because Kagome was hungry for her mother's awesome cooking.

The schoolbag she had been holding in her left hand dropped to the ground with an awkward 'thunk.' Her eyes widened in fear, and she stepped back.

"F-father?!" She stuttered, glancing around nervously, trying to find the quickest route to her house. The man who stood before her was tall, and rather burly. His thick neck had a small cross on it and he was wearing an average day shirt and dirty blue jeans. He had no trace of emotion on his face, and she could hear the faint sound of him cracking his knuckles.

Tears welled up in Kagome's eyes, and she turned and ran as fast as she could into the house, slamming the door and locking it.

She waited a moment, and soon heard pounding on the door, and her father's deep voice; "Kagome! Let me in! I was released! I came back to apologize!!"

"Yeah Right!!" She screamed, her voice high and cracking with fear. "You probably escaped!!"

Her mind whirled as she remembered the things her father had done to her, done to her family. The things she long kept buried in her past. The things one would always wish to forget, but the pain in it never fades.

"Father! No!!" A nine year old Kagome screamed, as she was hurled down the steps. Her back landed at an awkward angle.

Trembling, she whimpered at the bottom and saw her drunk father pound down, shaking his fat pointer finger at her.

"You've been a naughty girl Kagome. and now you must be punished." He reported to her in a sickly taunting voice as he jumped the stairs, and gave her a rather harse kick in the stomach. "YOU BITCH!" HE cried in her face, kicking harder and harder.

Kagome spit up blood slightly, couching so hard, trying to catch her breath. Her father walked over to the kitchen, smiling with an almost hated grin, and grab a small cutting knife.

Kagome sensed this, and again screamed with all her power.

That scream was silenced.

Young Kagome laid, holding her hip where a knife lay imbedded in her flesh. Blood wasn't pouring from it yet, but all she could feel was pain. It seemed every uneven breath she took just gave her body more pain.

Her father started to laugh drunkenly, and that is when her mother chose to come home.

"Tajika! What have you done?!" Her mother's voice called out. Kagome looked out of the corner of her eyes and saw her father was towering over her mother. He saw her father's fist come up to punch her mother.

"MOMMY!" She screamed, pointing her hands at her father were a surprisingly warm yellow-white light shot out of.

If Kagome had been of straight mind, she would have mused as her nine-year- old dream that it was angelic power. But instead Kagome called out 'Mommy' one more time, before closing her eyes and falling limp.

Kagome was in a coma for 3 months, and her father was put into jail for attempted murder and child abuse. Kagome's mother would never forgive him for what he had done, and when Kagome woke up, they tried in vain to regain the pieces of life her father had destroyed.

Her mother had never once visited her father in jail, but fear of him returning caused Kagome to be a mute for almost a year after the incident.

It was when Kagome had started high school, and was 13, she was able to start her life again.

Her father had now managed to break down the door, where he tumbled in sharply. Falling to the floor with another large 'thunk' he glared at her. "After all I have done to come back! You little bitch!!" He lunged for her, but because of the little training she learned from Inuyasha, she was able to dodge it.

Catching her breath, it gave her father enough time to punch her sharply in the face. Kagome flew back and fell to the floor. Taking no time, she gathered her backpack and started running towards the school.

The thought didn't even occur to her that she could jump down the well.

Her father grabbed her leg, and a knife appeared, as if out of nowhere. Kagome screamed as she felt it jabbed into her leg. Kicking her father in the face, she jumped and again ran to her school, this time out running him by a long shot.

Each long stride she took made her whole body tremble, literally.

Tears began to form in Kagome's eyes, yet again. The tears hurt her face. A bruise was forming on her cheek, and it stung. Every step she took another bad memory was pounded into her brain. When she finally got to school it started raining, as it had been threatening to do for a while.

Everyone was gone.

She stumbled into the school and hit the floor hard. One of the teachers rushed into see what the noise was. "Miss Higurashi?" a voice came; her mathematics teacher. She looked up to see Mr. Yusotua's worried gaze.

"I'm sorry Mr. Yusotua. I, um, injured my leg in a fall."

He looked at the bleeding leg, and her swollen eye, giving her a sullen look. "Come on, Miss Higurashi. We will have to go and clean that up." He told Kagome, stretching out his hand. Kagome was pulled up and limped behind Mr. Yusotua with a steady face.

Inside her mind was breaking down.

"She walks to school with the lunch she packed nobody knows what she's holding back. Wearing the same dress she wore yesterday, She hides the bruises with the linen and lace, ohh.

The teacher wonders but he never asks. Its hard to see the pain behind the mask, Bearing the burden of a secret storm, Sometimes she wishes she was never born.

Through the wind and the rain She stands hard as a stone In a world that she can't rise above But her dreams give her wings And she fly's to a place that she's loved

Concrete Angel"

Kagome winced slightly as her teacher bandaged up her leg, and she dully remembered how her mother had to do the same thing when her father gave her a 'punishment.'

She wondered why she never ran to the Feudal era, but deep inside she new the exact reason. 'If Inuyasha knew of my past, he would probably think I am a lot weaker than I really am.' She told herself, sighing. Her teacher asked her if she need a ride home.

"No, Mr. Yusotua. I will be quite fine. Thank you for your help!" She told him, giving him her usual 100% smile. He nodded, giving her a meek smile of his own, and she walked out of school.

It was getting dark now, and the moon was starting to show in the sky, along with some stars.

Her mother would no doubt be home now, so she would jump inside, grab her shards of the Shikon Jewel, and run down the well as fast as her legs could take her.

She would think of a good excuse for Inuyasha later.

Kagome got home about 10 minutes later, walking up her shrine steps with her bookback dragging behind her. Se saw the lights in her house were off, and finding that a bit odd, she opened the door cautiously.

Seeing no one, she glanced around nervously before running to the steps with a quickness she never knew she possessed.

Kagome found out a moment later it obviously wasn't quick enough.

A hand was now over her mouth, the smell of liquor filled her mind, and she was bent in a weird angle against the wall. Her father's voice filled her mind and she felt him kick her leg- in the same area he had shoved the knife in.

"Now you little bitch, you hear me this once." He snarled in her left ear.

"I'm going to give you one last punishment. And your going to damn well like it." He whispered, pulling her over to face his eyes. Fear was radiating off Kagome, and all she could think was, 'Inuyasha! Please come!!'

"Somebody cries in the middle of the night The neighbors hear but they turn out the lights A fragile soul caught in the hands of fate When morning comes it will be to late.

Through the wind and the rain She stands hard as a stone In a world where she can't rise above, But her dreams give her wings And she fly's to a place where's she loved,

Concrete Angel"

Her father was now beating her with such a passion, Kagome highly doubted she would survive. Even if she had kind of gotten used to being punished like she used to, this beating was worse than any he had given her in the past, or any such a demon could give her in the Feudal era.

Her father again reached for a knife in the kitchen.

Such a look crossed his face; excitement, joy, pure bliss that he was going to end her life, it scared her. Kagome again screamed, calling out Inuyasha's name with all her might to come. And he did.

The night in not-so-shining Haora came. But so did darkness.

"A statue stands in a shady place And angel girl with a upturned face Her name is written on a polished rock A broken heart the world forgot."

Inuyasha sat by Kagome's sid till the very end, holding her on the floor by her father's corpse. He held the like he had so dearly tried to protect. He had came to late.

He had found her on the floor screaming for him, below a man who distinctly smelled related to her. She had been trembling and crying. So much blood was already pouring from her small body, he doubted even then he could save her.

He had killed the man with his own hands, but Kagome was still dying.

She was still leaving him.

Tears ran down his cheeks, and he rocked her body back and forth. Kagome's eyes flickered open. "Inuyasha." She whispered. "You came." Her tone sounded both happy and sad.

"Kagome! You cant die!" He told her in a pleading tone. The smile she gave him was haunting. "Don't worry Inuyasha." She told him, her voice fading. "I'm sure you can find all of the Shikon No Tama on your own."

More tears ran down his face and he pressed his warm lips to her cold ones. "You Idiot!" He called, once he could breath. "I really don't give a damn about the sacred jewel."

She was blushing, but she grabbed his hand in her own. "Goodbye Inuyasha. Aishrietu."

His eyes grew dark as the last of life left her body. "Aishiteru Itoshii. I love you, Beloved. It wasn't suppose to be this way."

Her mother had found both of them on the floor four hours later. Inuyasha was holding Kagome, who looked like she was in a ghostly sleep. He was in such a state of sorrow, Kagome's mother knew he tried to save her.

Inuyasha stood up, Kagome still in his arms, and asked if he could take her body with him. Her family obliged. They were full of sorrow too, but not as close as to the broken heart of Inuyasha.

After saying goodbye, He went back across time, for his last time. He sat by the god tree for a long time, before taking the Tetsusaiga and taking his own life.

And that is how their own concrete angel's were born.

This was how the whole legend began, of the famous Inuyasha with his two loves that were so strong, of the demon slayer who lost her brother but fell in love with a perverted monk, and of a small kitsune who lost everything when Kagome, his mother, died.

"Through the wind and the rain She stands hard as a stone In a world that she can't rise above But her dreams give her wings And she fly's to a place that she's loved.

Concrete Angel."