Disclaimer: If I owned Inuyasha/Beauty and the Beast, why would I be writing fanfiction?

12 Years Later

One morning in the middle of nowhere, two 18 year old women walked down the street with their arms around each other. Of course, normally this would be a normal event except for two things. The one to the right had a huge boomerang on her back, and the one to the left had a shimmering silver aura around her and a book. The book wouldn't have been so strange had it not been that every woman in the town had been illiterate except for the two.

The girl with the aura's name was Kagome Higurashi. Kagome was a beautiful young woman, with long black hair and sapphire eyes. Thought of by many women as 'peculiar', Kagome was forever warding off the affections of men, lately a handsome and egotistical wolf demon called Kouga.

The girl carrying the boomerang was Sango. Sango and her younger brother Kohaku had joined the Higurashi family after Kagome's mother had passed away some years ago. Her town had been attacked by some out of control demons, and Sango and Kohaku had been the only survivors. Kohaku now worked with Kagome's inventor of a father, shunned by the men and women for a long scar that ran down his entire back. Sango, however, was quite popular with the men, although thought of as a slut by the women, and was currently seeing Naraku. Of course, this was nothing new, since she dated at least one man a week, possibly more. And as of this moment, Sango and Kagome were discussing how she should dump him.

"Oh, come on Sango, you've never had a problem with dumping anyone else, what makes Naraku so special?" Kagome asked skeptically.

Sango shivered. "Well, Naraku's kind of creepy. He's totally obsessed with spiders, plus his dad's really rich so I don't want to mess up my chances of getting married someday, you know?"
Kagome giggled. "Sango-chan, I really don't think you have to worry about that. You've taken every guy's heart in this town and broken it at least twice. I don't think the 'third time's a charm', if you know what I mean."

Sango shoved her slightly off the road. "Oh, well, there's one guy I haven't managed to capture at all quite yet, since he's oh so busy wooing my friend. Don't look now, but here comes Kouga."

Right on cue, the demon appeared, shoving Sango aside as he made his way in front of Kagome. Kneeling on his right knee, he flourished a petal pink rose. Kagome smiled bashfully, with a hint of slight exasperation.

"Oh, Kouga-kun, it's beautiful. Thank you so very much," Kagome offered politely.

"And how are you, my fair Kagome?" he asked in a very knightly tone.

"Fine, thank you. But please, Kouga, it's just Kagome, I'm not promised to anyone yet. Good day." With that, Kagome dragged Sango to the bookstore, oblivious to all the stares she was getting, for Kagome Higurashi had just left the town's most eligible bachelor on his knee in the dust.

Kouga, however, took no notice of the brush-off. Must be a bit busy today, he assumed, failing to account for the fact that she did this almost everyday. And you will be mine, Kagome, you just don't know it yet. He fingered the slight bulge in his pants pocket, and pulled out a tiny velvet box. Oh yes, Kagome, you will be mine.