A/N Super Ceech edited this for me. It'll never happena gain so don't get used to good grammar and correct sentence structure! You may or may not notice a large percentage of these characters are OOC! Cough cough! Anyway! So I hope you like it. It's about twelve pages or something, so it's a decent length right? Well... enjoy!

Rin looked down on her Japan as her plane took off. She clutched Fluffy tightly to her chest. Soaring among the clouds the plane was taking her to her new life in Canada. Rin never thought she would see the day where she would be glad to leave her home behind. After last night though.... she wasn't sure she'd ever feel safe again. At least not until she was far away.

Rin snuggled down into her seat.

She stroked her cheek in Fluffy's softness.

Uncle Jaken was snoring away loud enough to disturb the other passengers. She gave her uncle a look, but otherwise chose not to pay him any attention. Rin cast a look around the plane. No one seemed to be paying the small child any notice. Carefully she snuck the pretty little container out of her pocket.

It was oval, about the size of her palm and it was golden with a strange, muted sheen. There were letters etched into the metal, glittering a strange purplish pink. As Rin watched, certain points glittered brighter then others, winking in and out like stars.

She kept it hidden in her lap so no one else would see it.

A flash of guilt washed over her. She knew she shouldn't have taken it, but she didn't want to go back to the cemetery to return it. Even though her parents were buried there, she didn't want to go back ever!

.:V:.

"I'm a fox!"

Kagome sniffed and rolled over in bed to regard the small child standing proudly in her room. Dressed like a little fox spirit in a story book, Shippou refused to take off his Halloween costume. Including the large powderpuff fox tail.

Kagome sniffed and dabbed her eyes with a Kleenex.

"You sure are, Shippou," she agreed. She gave a watery smile and hoped it was enough.

She should have known. Ever since she'd stumbled across the poor little orphan last year Shippou had been her shadow and her friend. Despite the vast age difference, Shippou knew her better then anyone else. Except maybe for Buyo.

Remembering her fat cat, she stroked his fur.

The feline only purred and closed his eyes.

"God, I envy you Buyo!" Kagome gasped, a fresh wave of tears taking over her. She lay her head down on her cat's side. Wishing that his rumbling purrs could drown out the sound of her newly awakened tears and could dispel the awful pain in her heart.

Shippou jumped onto the bed beside her and lay down next to her as he stroked her hair with big sad eyes for her pain.

Kagome had to smile through her tears. Not even Shippou could make this better though. Nothing could make this better.

.:Flash back music! Wee-ooh! Wee-ooh! Wee-ooh!:.

"Look at that bracelet!" Eri gasped, eyeing Kagome's wrist. "Wow! A charm bracelet!"

Kagome blushed and nodded as Eri and Ayumi crowded around her, trying to get a better look at the bracelet around Kagome's wrist.

It was a silver charm bracelet. So far the only charm was one of a heart. But that didn't matter. Hojo had given it to her. And that was all that mattered.

Every time she thought about Hojo she got a warm glowing feeling. He made her feel so special and cared for, constantly worried about her and always listening when she had something to say. He was definitely the cutest boy at school, but it wasn't just empty good looks. He had a really sensitive face and large innocent eyes, like a child's.

She felt like she could really bare her soul to him.

"So what's the occasion?" Ayumi asked Kagome.

"Our three month marker," Kagome answered proudly.

Eri and Ayumi smiled.

"Wow!" Eri said impressed. "I mean in the scheme of things, that's not long, but for highschool..." she shook her head and laughed sheepishly for getting too technical. "And you guys seem like you're as into one another as you were when this whole thing began!"

Ayumi sighed noisily and glared at Eri.

"Dating someone is not a 'thing!'" she said in exasperation. "It's a relationship! You meant to say when this relationship started!"

"What's wrong with calling it a thing?" Eri demanded. In self defense she added. "It is a thing!"

Ayumi gave Kagome a look that said Eri just didn't get it.

"She is so hopeless sometimes!" Ayumi muttered to Kagome. "Everyone knows dating is not a thing! It's a fling at its most casual. Marriage at its most serious. In no way shape or form is it a 'thing!'"

Eri sighed just as lustily as Ayumi had moments before.

"Ayumi you need a hobby!" she declared to her friend, giving her a stare. "I mean who cares one way or another?"

Ayumi looked down right insulted. Planting her hands on her hips she responded,

"I care. And so does Kagome!" Ayumi turned to the third girl who was giggling helplessly over her friends' arguments. "You care, right, Kagome?"

"Sure," kagome laughed.

She shook her head.

She just felt so buoyant! Even Eri and Ayumi's petty squabbling could only amuse her on a day like today. It was her three month mark with Hojo. Three months since they had first gone steady and he told her he had a surprise for her today.

She smiled blissfully.

"I'm going to go find Hojo!" Kagome said.

Eri and Ayumi stopped in the middle of their little spat. Looking a little surprised. Ayumi's face cleared first and she nodded.

"Sure thing!" she agreed. "We'll see you tomorrow!"

"And we want all the sordid details!" Eri agreed with a laugh.

Kagome laughed, her face heating up a little, thinking to herself. 'There won't be any sordid details. Hojo respects me too much for that!'

Kagome waved to her friends and began to trace her steps back to the school.

After class had ended, she, Ayumi and Eri had clustered outside the school, but Hojo hadn't walked passed them, so Kagome knew he must still be in the school.

Kagome's mind was elsewhere, on Hojo in fact, so she didn't realize how late it was. She wrapped her hand around the door handle and tugged firmly to yank the door open.

She blinked in surprise as she met resistence. She tugged a second time. Sure enough, the door would not budge.

Kagome frowned and checked her watch. Rolling her eyes she made an exasperated sound in the back of her throat.

"Locked the doors!" she muttered to herself. "Fine!" she muttered with a sigh. "I'll go around!"

It was a well known fact that the door by the custodian's office was never locked. Hardly anyone every went there though, unless they were a smoker.

It was the unofficial smoking court and had been for years. The pavement of the entire area was littered with cigarette butts from possibly years ago. They were never cleaned up. Everyone just ignored this little expanse of blacktop behind the school.

The faculty, the janitors and all non-smokers pretended it never existed. It was however quite useful if one wanted to get into the school a little later on. If one forgot a book, say.

Kagome was still thinking of the date planned with Hojo. Still dreamily thinking of her hunky boyfriend. Wondering what surprise he had in store for her tonight.

She rounded the corner and stopped, blinking in surprise.

Hojo was standing with his back to her. His hands shoved in his pockets. Kagome stifled a giggle. He was completely unsuspecting. She held her breath and prepared to sneak up on him and grab him.

She heard the door swing open. Kagome winced and ducked back behind the corner. She didn't want to get caught after all. That would totally ruin the fun of sneaking up on Hojo.

After a second she realized how this must look to any bystanders. Taking a deep breath Kagome stepped out around the corner, hoping that Hojo was still looking away and that she wouldn't collide with whoever had come out the door.

'So that's where Yuka has been,' Kagome thought to herself as she watched Yuka, one of her best friends shift her backpack to a more comfortable position, chatting with Hojo. 'I was sort of wondering...'

Kagome took a deep breath to call out their names.

Hojo moved and Kagome stopped breathing all together.

In slow motion she watched as her boyfriend reached out and grabbed her friend around the waist. Pulling her tightly against him and capturing her mouth with his.

It was like the world stood still.

All she could see were two people locked in a passionate embrace. Two people who she was supposed to be able to trust.

Kagome felt her heart rip in two and tears burned her eyes. A thousand questions banged themselves against her skull, giving her a slight headache. How could they do this to her? How long had it been going on? When were they going to tell her? Were they going to tell her?

Slowly the questions ebbed away, as did her strength. She closed her eyes, trying to fight back the treas. Trying to tell herself that it didn't really hurt as much as it did.

She gasped raggedly.

There was a startled gasp.

"K-Kagome!" Hojo whispered. "Kagome it's not...!"

Kagome slowly, painfully opened her eyes.

She looked at him, unable to meet his eyes. She couldn't even look at Yuka.

"You were right," she whispered hoarsely. She swallowed heavily. "It was quite a surprise!"

.:End Flash Back! Wee-ooh! Wee-ooh! Wee-ooh!:.

Kagome let her tears dry on her face. Buyo's purring had stopped a while ago and now the large cat was merely sleeping. Shippou shifted against Kagome, clearly bored, but unwilling to leave her so sad.

Kagome stroked his head.

"You're the only one I can trust, Shippou," Kagome whispered. "You, Mom, Grandpa, Buyo and sometimes Sota. I can't even trust Eri and Ayumi anymore. I mean I thought I could trust Yuka, but...."

She choked and fell silent. She closed her eyes, trying to block out her pain.

Distantly she could hear a doorbell ring. She wondered who could be visiting at this hour. Especially unannounced.

Distantly she could hear her mother answer the door.

The soft male voice who replied could not be mistaken.

Hojo!

"Can you please get Kagome, Mrs. Higurashi?" he asked quietly.

Kagome pushed herself up violently.

"Hey, Kagome!" Shippou protested. Even Buyo was startled awake and meowed in curiosity. "What's wrong, kagome?" Shippou demanded.

Kagome didn't answer.

Shock and betrayal coursed through her. Not only did Hojo do that to her! With one of her best friends no less, but he actually had the gall to show up to her house the same day and ask her mother if he could talk to her!

"I don't think so, Hojo," her mother said with distant politeness. The same voice she used on door to door salesmen. "Kagome's quite upset. I think she needs time to calm down before she'll want to see you."

"Maybe if I could talk to her, I could make things better!" Hojo said anxiously.

"I'll tell her you stopped by," Kagome's mom said firmly. There was the faint sound of a door clicking shut and being locked.

Kagome smiled in fierce triumph over her mother's action.

Her happiness promptly evaporated when she realized her mother was right. She didn't just not want to see Hojo, she couldn't handle seeing him right now.

That sound filled her with even more sorrow.

Just a few hours ago, her heart had swelled with joy at the thought of seeing him. Now she cringed when she even thought of him.

With a frustrated shriek she grabbed her pillow and pressed her face into it. The horrible image of Hojo and Yuka kissing burned into her mind. Her broken hearted tears burned her eyes, but more importantly, her checks burned with shame.

What had she been doing wrong? Wasn't she good enough for Hojo? Was Yuka prettier then her or something? What was wrong with her?

"Kagome?" Shippou said in a panicked voice.

She felt his small hands on her back, but she couldn't stop her violent sobs long enough to tell him she was okay.

"Kagome?" Shippou whimpered. He tugged on her, but she couldn't stop. The sounds that escaped the pillow were muffled and tortured.

Shippou was obviously terrified for her. The little boy threw himself off the bed and ran to her door. He flung it open and it hit the wall with an echoing thud.

"Mrs. Higurashi!" Shippou screamed. "Kagome's dying!"

Kagome couldn't even corrected him. Because as terrible as she felt, for all she knew, she was dying.

"Oh, Kagome!" her mother sighed brokenly from her door. "Shippou, why don't you and Sota go play Smuchy Boys TV?"

"Smash Brother's Melee, Mrs. Higurashi!" Shippou corrected, with the exasperation of a child who can't understand why adults had such problems with concepts, so easy for him to grasp.

"It's mom now, Shippou," Kagome's mother corrected with a sigh. "You're adopted and officially part of the family!"

Shippou let out a happy hum and dashed off, presumably to play with Sota, or with grandpa.

Kagome was still rocking back and forth on her bed, sobbing as if to cry an ocean's worth of tears.

"Oh, Kagome!" her mother sighed again. "Off you go, Buyo," she said, setting the large cat on the ground.

Mrs. Higurashi sat down beside her daughter and pulled Kagome into her lap. Tugging the pillow away from her face.

Kagome was reluctant to let the pillow go but her mother would not let her keep it. Without anything to muffle her sobs, Kagome's own racked wails echoed around her bedroom.

"Oh, mom!" she blubbered as her mother wrapped her arms around Kagome. "Why does it have to hurt this much?"

"I don't know, Kagome," her mother whispered, stroking Kagome's hair gently as if Kagome was still a child. Her mother gave a wavering sigh. "I don't know why it hurts so much."

"How did you deal after dad left?" Kagome asked, managing to master her tears long enough to ask a simple question.

"Oh, Kagome, this is hardly like when your father left me," Mrs. Higurashi said. "After all, we'd been married fourteen years and had two children together."

"But I loved Hojo, mom," Kagome protested, wiping her eyes angrily. "How can you say it's not the same? You loved dad and I love Hojo! And they both... just..." she broke off with a ragged sob.

Mrs. Higurashi wrapped her arms tighter around her wounded daughter, murmuring gently. "I know this pain is all you can think of right now, Kagome," her mother said. "But you don't love Hojo. Not really."

Kagome tried to find her voice to protest to that violently.

"I know it feels like love!" Mrs. Higurashi said quickly. "But it isn't. Real love is based on not only on emotions and hormones, but time spent together."

"But we did spend time together!" Kagome moaned. Pressing her face into her mother's shoulder. "We did spend time together! And I thought...." she broke off with a suppressed sob choking her. "I thought he really cared for me too!"

"Oh, Kagome!" her mother sighed. "Sweety," she pushed Kagome back so the teenage girl looked into the loving eyes of her mother. "Sweety, I know it can feel like love and I know what it's like to feel like someone cares for you. But..." she shook her head. "If Hojo could do this to you, then maybe he didn't care enough about you!"

That was not what Kagome wanted to hear. Her sobbing became louder and she buried her face in her mother's shoulder.

"I'll be okay, Kagome!" her mother assured her. "I swear to you. It gets better then this!"

Kagome cried herself into an exhausted state. Finally her mother left her. Kissing her and telling Kagome how much she was loved by the members in her family.

Kagome smiled weakly because she knew it was what her mother wanted. But hearing her family say they loved her wasn't what Kagome wanted. She wanted Hojo to say it.

And though she was loath to admit it, hurt as she was, her pride was bruised. That someone could do that to her, like she wasn't good enough. It was like Hojo saying she was only a second class girl and didn't deserve all his loyalty and his love.

With a groan she buried her face in her pillow and screamed in frustration. The pillow muffled her scream as effectively as it had muffled her sobs. She couldn't seem to get the image of Hojo and Yuka in a passionate, heated lip lock, out of her head.

Kagome tossed and turned in aggravation. Trying to banish the image. Counting sheep, daydreaming about hot guys from movies and even going over algebra concepts. Anything and everything to fill her mind so there was no room for the image of her former boyfriend and former friend playing tonsel hockey.

She rolled over onto her front and dug her fingers into her scalp in growing agitation. She let out a discontented sound before whispering, pathetically, "He never kissed me like that!"

Kagome was suddenly angry she could even think such an unimportant thing. She pushed herself to her knees with one decisive gesture.

"Men are all dogs!" she said out loud with force in order to banish that pathetic whispered statement. Her room echoed silently. Kagome could almost hear her own voice whispering back, 'He never kissed me like that.'

She grit her teeth and repeated "Men are all dogs!" Something inside her twisted as her mind conjured up images of Sota, Shippou and Grandpa. With some measure of guilt she decided they didn't count because Sota and Shippou were boys and grandpa was grandpa!

Some of her conviction left her as she remembered her grandmother. A woman she had never met. Just as Kagome's own father had left Kagome and Sota with their mother and just walked away, Kagome's grandmother had walked away from grandpa decades earlier, leaving him to raise their daughter all by himself.

Kagome closed her eyes in shame, for thinking that only men could break hearts. All her strength left her limbs and she fell back into her bed sniffling pathetically. Her crushing sorrow wrapping around her once more.

"Hojo left me. Dad left mom," she moaned, fresh tears trickling down her face. "And grandma left grandpa! I guess my family is just cursed!"

Before she could sink to deeply into her own private pit of despair, a thought began to unfold slowly, like a puzzle gradually gaining shape. Suddenly the pieces joined. Grandma? Cursed?

Kagome's head snapped up. Her tears immediately forgotten.

"Grandma's spell book!" she whispered reverently in the darkness.

She was out of bed and hurrying down the hall before she knew what was going on. She carefully crept down the stairs. It was dark outside and it was mostly dark in the house. Shippou and Sota had probably been sent to bed early because of Kagome's little fit. Mom and grandpa, she could hear from the clinking of china, were in the kitchen, drinking tea and talking.

Kagome looked like other girls, talked like other girls and acted like other girls. However, she was not like other girls. Not only did she live on an authentic Japanese shrine, built in Canada for worship purposes for immigrants, but her grandfather was the chief supplier and go between for most of the serious magic practitioners in the area.

But that was only Kagome's environment. Kagome could be placed in a completely boring home, with normal, golf playing grandparents and she would still be different. Kagome, like her mother, and grandmother before them was an ancient kind of Japanese sorceress. Referred to most commonly as a miko, or priestess.

That meant not only was Kagome more sensitive to certain things then other girls her age, but with the right words, the right ingredients and the right intent, Kagome could do magic. Not just the wimpy magic of TV witches; hers was real, raw, ancient power. Honest to Buddha mumbo jumbo that could kill if she so willed it.

Not that she would, naturally. Her mother had raised her better than that. Besides, there was a threefold rule. Any bad energies out there that she released would come back and bite her in the ass three times as bad.

Her mother had terrified Kagome for years with tales of everything that could go wrong if Kagome tried black magic until the teenager was so terrified of the thought of black magic, she was loath to touch grandma's book. It hadn't been until Kagome had nightmares about that book that her mother had relented.

Her mother was kind of funny that way.

Kagome held her breath and tiptoed to the front door. She slipped her shoes onto her feet. Straining for sounds until her ears were ringing, she slowly and painstakingly turned the handle of the front door and gently edged it open. She then slid through and shut it carefully.

She looked around to get her bearings. Seeing grandpa's storage room off to the side of the house reaffirmed her purpose. Nodding to herself, she strode towards it, determination evident in every firm step, the way her arms swung and the tilt of her chin. There was something fierce, maybe even dangerous in her tear washed eyes.

She slid into the storage shed. She winced at the darkness. She fumbled around a bit for the light switch and flicked it on. The room before her, lined with shelves and stuffed with packing crates, was illuminated by the flourescent light bulbs above.

Kagome moved to the back of the room where there was a book shelf with grandpa and mom's personal stores of magic books and memorabilia.

Taking a deep breath and stealing herself, Kagome reached out to touch her grandmother's worn old book, leather bound with the title burned into the spine and cover. She touched two finger tips to the spine of the book and winced, holding her breath. When nothing happened she relaxed and grabbed the book and pulled it out.

She knelt down and opened it. Her heart skipped a beat as the covers fell open, but again nothing happened. Her mother had done her job well.

Carefully Kagome poked at the open book with the toe of her shoe. The old tome was easily three hundred years old, but it was enchanted with spells to be more durable to remain usable longer. It looked almost perfectly preserved.

Kagome began to flip through the spell pages written in archaic Japanese. Kagome had been given lessons by her grandfather, but she didn't think her Japanese would be completely flawless with modern Japanese, much less a three hundred year-old version of the language.

She sighed but ignored that fact. There was simply no helping that. She was too bent on her task to even consider putting the book back and return to her room. Like a sensible girl would. Like she normally would.

Complicated emotions warred inside her, and the only thing that made them fade to a dull buzz was this book. The feel of the bumpy leather in her hands, the sound of pages turning. That was the only thing keeping her sane.

She hated Hojo, and yet she loved him! She was so hurt by what he and Yuka had done she felt like they'd truly wounded her physically. She was torn between sorrow and anger, pride and shame. She was ashamed to feel this way, ashamed she'd been cheated on. She was angry that they'd done this to her, angry at her shame and angry at them. She had her pride, she couldn't let them get away with this, she was proud of her skills as a miko. All these emotions, half conceived feelings, warred inside her and so Kagome stayed.

"God," Kagome whispered.

She flipped through a few more spells and groaned in frustration.

"Oh man! Does my Japanese suck or what?" she demanded with some ire. She'd have to get that fixed sooner or later if she was going to make a habit of casting spells on people.

As she leafed through the book, one particular page caught her eye. On each page, in the topmost right corner was a crescent moon. Either white for white magic, or black for black magic. When she stumbled across one that was grey, she felt her interest pique.

Grey magic was neither bad nor good on it's own. No karmatic repercussions and it would have a little more oomph to it then white magic spells.

Her interest piqued, Kagome turned her attention to the spell itself.

Rolling her eyes, Kagome had to struggle to remember what the words of the title meant. Not promising.

"Inu yasha?" she frowned. She looked up from the book, chewing on her lower lip in contemplation. "Inu means dog but what does 'yasha' mean?"

She clicked her tongue absentmindedly as she thought about it.

"I think it means mischievous," Kagome said out loud. She shrugged and turned back to the page. Maybe the ingredients would give her a better clue.

Sadly they did not. Fairly basic ingredients. Five candles, two blood red, three black because it was grey magic with a slightly darker intent. Some incense and of course chalk to draw the spell circle to contain her magic.

"What would a spell like 'dog mischievous' do?" Kagome wondered to herself. She frowned. There was no description of what the spell would actually do. Kagome shrugged. It was after all only grey magic and what kind of trouble could she get into with a spell that has 'mischievous' in it?

'That is if you're reading it correctly,' she thought darkly. 'Yasha might mean something else entirely!'

Kagome shook her head angrily and banished that thought.

"It's only grey magic!" Kagome said firmly. Trying to banish her doubts. "Some dog will probably pee on Hojo's leg!"

She giggled at the thought. There was however some satisfaction in knowing that something would happen to Hojo, probably humiliating and it would be by her hands. Reassured that something embarrassing, but not life threatening was going to come of this, Kagome decided to continue.

Kagome nodded to herself and reread the list several times to make sure she was missing nothing. There were no other ingredients, but there was a spell. Kagome said it aloud several times to make sure she could pronounce it, even if it was badly.

Then it was time for her preparations to begin!

Kagome went on a little expedition around the store room, first gathering everything she would need. She found most of it painlessly enough, but it wasn't until she started moving boxes to clear a large space she realized she'd forgotten the chalk.

Sighing in aggravation, Kagome then had to try and find the chalk in all the relocated boxes. "Aha!" she said finding a piece of chalk.

It was white and innocent looking like something you'd see kids playing with on the sidewalk. Except for the golden roach-clip around it's bottom and the plastic bottomless cylinder which clipped into the roach-clip. The clip, enabled the spell caster to draw the required runes without getting to much chalk dust on their hands and the plastic lid kept the chalk dust from brushing off onto something without the spell caster's knowledge. Because, innocent as it looked, to a miko like Kagome, it thrummed with power. She could see it's silver veins of energy shifting beneath the exterior.

"Chalk!" she said proudly.

She set it beside her other ingredients.

She looked at the circle she was supposed to draw. There was a diagram of it in the book. She nodded and examined the space she had to work with.

Kagome nodded and took a deep breath.

"Time to light the incense, or senko," she murmured, grabbing a stick of it. She set it in it's holder and lit it with a match, also part of grandpa's supplies. She smiled happily. "Mm! Sandalwood!" she breathed.

Next it was time to start drawing the protective circle.

She carefully twisted the plastic lid and lifted it out of the roach-clip. Kagome felt a thrill go up her spine. The book in one hand and the chalk in the other Kagome slowly knelt down. She took a deep breath and set the tip of the chalk against the wooden floor.

Taking a deep breath she dragged the chalk against the floor, making a white line which shimmered to her miko's sight.

Kagome shuddered again as her blood began to sing, her powers joyously waiting to be released. Kagome hadn't done any serious magic in over a year, not since the scrying spell to find Buyo.

Kagome smiled faintly and began to work.

As she drew, Kagome was very careful to keep the burning incense in the center of her circle at all times. It took her over forty-five minutes to draw the circle alone. A pentagon ringed by two circles, about a foot apart.

A pentagon had always looked like a person splayed out on their back to her. The two most bottom points were legs and feet, the two middle points were arms and hands while the topmost point was of course the head.

After completing the pentagon and circles, careful not to smudge it, Kagome began to fill in the blank space.

In the empty areas formed by the pentagon inside the inner most circle she drew runes and magical symbols, filling it till the only real space of unchalked floor was in the pentagon itself. Inside the space between the circle Kagome painstakingly drew the moon in all it's phases murmuring each to herself.

"Nozomu. Full moon," she whispered. She felt almost like she was in a trance. Her magics thrummed beneath her skin, but her mind was set on the task before her with a single mindedness which managed to drive Hojo and Yuka from her thoughts. "Akira. Harvest moon. Misoka. Day before the new moon. Oboro. The hazy moon."

After drawing it, she swiped her fist across her drawing or oboro, smudging the chalk and making a haze around it.

Finally, the entire ring between the circles had been filled with the moon in all her phases. Next, she lit a black candle.

"Akai rosoku," she said, setting it down. "Black candle!"

Another black candle went beside it at the pentagon's other 'foot.'

Her two red candles went at the pentagon's 'hands' and the final black candle went at the pentagon's head.

As soon as Kagome set it down, the flames of all these candle's lengthened considerably, standing perhaps two inches tall and flickering constantly. Kagome hurried to shut off the flourescent lights, relying only on the five candles with the eerie long flames. She walked around to the spell book and knelt before the circle. Stationing herself between the two 'feet' of the pentagon she began to read the archaic spell carefully.

As her chanting began, her miko powers started to swirl inside her until she could no longer hold the book. It tumbled from her nerveless fingers and fell shut. But it didn't matter now.

Something had seized Kagome till all the girl could do was chant the spell. She hadn't memorized it, but something, maybe a primitive miko instinct, drove her onwards, chanting and casting.

Her head snapped back and her eyes went very wide. She could feel her powers rage inside her violently, demanding release. It began to build inside her; a delightful pressure just waiting to be let loose.

The spell circle began to glow with pink fire. Every chalk line ignited with this strange hued flame. The room, previously illuminated only by five candles, began to brighten and brighten until it was like standing outside at noon. It was as bright as day.

Her mouth continued to say the words, repeating them over and over again. The exquisite pain of her building energy forced her voice louder and louder, until she was shouting with all her might in a vain way to release the thunderstorm which had gathered inside her skin.

This was like nothing she'd ever felt before.

Every nerve was electrically charged. She felt raw, pure emotions swirl through her; it was chaotic and thrilling. Her skin twitched and tingled with the feeling. Her heart hammered until she thought it would burst. She was locked in a kneeling position, head titled back, staring up at the rough roof of the storage shed, her wide unseeing eyes staring passed it.

Finally the climax of the spell came. It built and built and built inside Kagome until she thought she'd go flying in a thousand different directions. Until she thought she'd shatter. Sudden instinct drove her to do something crazy.

She spread her arms and pressed them down on top of the candle-tops, dousing the flames with her palms.

As if a giant palm had pressed down on the circle, the other candles and the pink fire extinguished itself. Kagome was thrust into darkness.

She slumped forward, the black candles her only support.

Her own final, shouted words echoing in the darkness around her; Inuyasha. Inuyasha.

Kagome wrenched her palms free from the candles and stared at her palms. They were both smeared with black candle wax and burned, right in the center of each palm.

Whimpering in pain, Kagome cradled both hands in her lap. She bit her lip as tears of actual physical pain burned her eyes.

She became aware of a growing light as she fought with her tears. Looking up though her eyelashes, head still bowed, Kagome watched as beams of pure white light traced themselves along the spell circle in the same order she'd drawn them in.

Kagome couldn't look directly at it. She had to shield her eyes with her arm from the burning white light. She watched, stupefied as something began to solidify in the center of the ring.

Only a dark shadow surrounded by so much white light, it began to take on a human shape. Kagome could only watch, though she knew, somewhere in her mind, that this was not right.

The form began to walked towards her, towards the edge of protective circle. As it moved towards her, Kagome was able to make out more detail.

It was male, she decided, judging by the width of the shoulders and chest. Kagome hissed as it stepped into the ring made by the two circles, she waited for it to take the final step outside of the circle, but it did not. He merely stood, just within the ring and looked down on her.

She returned his stare, trembling in awe.

His hakama were tapered at the ankles and the same shade of crimson as his kimono. His long, wild silver hair fell like a thick, soft waterfall to his knees. His bangs didn't quite shadow his smooth, handsome face.

His stance was casual. Cocky even. Over one shoulder he rested a sword almost as tall as him with a thick, curving blade. The sword's edge shimmered in the incandescent light of the spell circle and by the way the light danced upon its smooth surface, Kagome knew it was sharp; razor sharp.

It wasn't the intimidating sword with the razor's edge that made Kagome's heart skip a beat. It was his smile. Slow and just as cocky as his stance. Arrogance in every plane of his face and body.

Kagome's oddly thudding heart stopped completely a second later. His canine teeth were too long. The hand that held the sword was a clawed. Her eyes were drawn to his shimmering silver hair by a slight movement. A twitch. Kagome was almost blinded by the bright shimmering light and they were almost obscured by his hair, and still she couldn't believe she'd missed it. Perched on top of his head were two triangular, silver dog ears.

Kagome's mouth went dry as she closed her eyes and swayed as the full implications of what she'd done filled her mind.

Claws, fangs, pointed ears? It could only mean one thing!

Youkai!

.:V:.

Inuyasha felt the room dip slightly, but his smile didn't waver in the least. He knew, like any youkai worth his salt, what this was.

A summoning!

He was nearly blinded by the white light, contrasting too heavily with the dim shadows beyond it. He'd managed to make out the shadowed form of someone, which he'd approached.

Looking down on the terrified young maiden, strangely dressed, he felt a slight twinge.

She was shaking and pale, cradling her hands to her chest protectively. Terrified.

Inuyasha was momentarily confused by her appearance here. Curiously he sniffed faintly. With so many magical energies swirling in the room, mingling with the mundane scent of incense he had trouble reading the power signatures.

There was a faint hint of an old man, he didn't have much of a gift, but he came from a line that did. Another smell, fainter still, a young boy with the same story as the old man. Not much of a gift, but there was something there.

There was a powerful scent here. A woman, perhaps a year or two past her prime. She was powerful. And trained!

Unease began to fill Inuyasha.

With a miko that powerful and a freshly summoned demon, Inuyasha didn't need to be a genius to realize what was going on.

The girl in front of him. The trembling young woman who looked as if she'd collapse at any moment, she must be a sacrifice. The virgin sacrifice to bind him to this plain, and to his master so he could never return home.

He had no intention of spilling her innocent young blood so he would be bound to a powerful miko as a slave.

He didn't see anyone in the shadows, but that didn't mean that they weren't there. A wise miko would be cloaked in an invisibility spell and silently waiting for their demon to devour it's meal before issuing commands.

Well, he had no intention of that!

Opening his mouth to reassure her, without thinking he took a step forward. She gasped as white hot fire coursed through his body, searing him.

The fire was doused suddenly.

He growled. This wasn't good. In the dim light, he watched in growing disbelief as a glowing blue ring began to form in front of the young girl. It was forming a necklace that every demon learned from a young age to fear.

The beads became black, alternating with white teeth, only for a split second before flaring white with the same intense illumination the spell circle had been giving off. The necklace shattered into it's separate pieces and dozens of glowing beads flew at Inuyasha, forming a ring around his neck.

He grabbed the glowing beads, even as they formed a rosary beneath his fingers. Ignoring the burning pain that washed through his arm, he tugged frantically, but to no avail.

His eyes snapped up to the only person he could see in the room.

Howling in senseless youkai rage, he hefted his sword, grabbing it in both fists and brought it down with a vicious swing.

.:V:.

"What was that?" Rin bolted up in bed and stared at her wallpaper.

Her terrifying dream about the night in the cemetery had been broken by a terrible sound of rage.

She hurried to her window and peered out. She loved her little room with the window looking over the Sunset shrine, an authentic Japanese shrine, right next door to her. Usually this view made her feel calm, and more at home.

As she watched, one of the storage huts disintegrated as if a bomb had been set off inside it; however, she was filled with anything but calm.

A dark shape ran out of the shattered ruins of the building towards the house. Another dark shape seemed to fly after the first. A girl's scream pierced the night.

Rin's trembling legs finally remembered how to move. Turning back to her bed, she snatched up Fluffy, her constant companion, and ran out her room.

"Uncle Jaken! Uncle Jaken! Uncle Jaken!" she screamed bursting into his room. "Uncle Jaken, something's happen at the Shrine!"

.:V:.

Kagome felt a wind zip over her head as she tripped on the uneven cobble stones of her shrine's courtyards. She rolled over onto her back and watched in dizzy horror as a large silver form began to descend on her, glowing like a sliver of the moon.

A part of her mind, a distant, unimportant part of her mind screamed and screamed. Sobbing, begging not to die. She ignored it though. In a morbid, detached way, she watched breathlessly as the handsome boy, his eyes now glowing blood red, brought the sword down in a sweeping motion.

It would cleave her in two. Right down the middle.

"So this is how I die?"

A/N I'm sorry I made Kagome Canadian, but as I said before, wouldn't you rather I change her nationality then shred everything? The translations for the Japanese words that are part of the ingredients for the spell are courtesy of Calum the Angel by the way. The moon names are from Super Ceech's manga. So yeah. I wanted to throw enough Japanese in there to at least give the illusion Kagome's fictional spell book might know what it's talking about. Besides, the spell is in Japanese and I think throwing in random Japanese words in the English section makes me look smart, don't you? Oh by the way! Please check out Super Ceech's and Calum the Angel's stuff. For every person that reviews them and says I sent them, they'll refrain from beating me for one day! So PLEASE review! Brusies hurt!