Treacherous Games and Fate

By TriGemini

Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha or any of its characters, Rumiko Takahashi does.

Chapter 1: Past Present

(Present day: In San Francisco, California)

"Shippo Mashita, its 7:30 a.m. it is time to get ready for school," yelled a young raven-haired woman from downstairs. She looked as if she was trying her hardest to get her young charge to school before she headed off to class herself.

"Awe, come on Kagome do I have to go to school?" said the eight-year-old kitsune.

"Shippo, you already know the answer to that question. Besides, you promised me you wouldn't give me any trouble in the morning if you wanted me to leave you at school. Unless, you would rather have Rin take you instead. If that's so, you can wait for her to get ready. However, I have to go right NOW!" Kagome emphasized to the young kitsune.

The young kitsune on his part scrunched up his face and frowned. He hated going to school since all the kids were mean to him and he didn't have any friends. Even with the promise that Kagome had made about putting him in a different school in the next fall. In the hopes that it would be better then the one, he was already attending. Nevertheless, he hated going but realized he didn't have a choice but to go upstairs to get his backpack and go to school today.

Overall, this was a typical morning in the Oshiro-Mashita-Ihara household.

Kagome Oshiro was only twenty-years-old and was soon going to be turning twenty-one in a few months. In spite of that, she already was taking care of a child, holding down a part-time job, and attending classes at the local university. Even though, in Kagome's mind her situation could be a lot worse. Yet it wasn't seeing as how she'd been able to manage it all very well. She always assumed it was because it wasn't just Shippo and her living by themselves in the house. No! There was also another person living with them, as well.

Rin Ihara was also a student at the local university with Kagome. Even though, the other young woman was only nineteen-years-old and had only known Kagome for such a short time the two of them were close like sisters.

As for, Shippo he was a different story completely.

Both Kagome and Rin knew Shippo's mother, Sari Mashita from school. The poor young woman worked so hard to support herself and her son. She did everything she could to give Shippo the life he deserved. Regretfully though it wasn't enough. The two young women befriended the young mother early on in her first semester at the university. In helping Sari out the two girls took turns in looking after the young kitsune while his mother went off to work.

After a short time of knowing, one another Kagome thought that the four of them should move into a place together. Since both girls wanted to move off campus and Sari needed someone to watch Shippo while she was away at work. In the end, this accommodation suited everyone.

However, it wasn't very long since they'd moved in together that tragedy struck. For Shippo's mother was killed in a car accident leaving him without any family. When that happened, both Kagome and Rin promised to raise him together since they believed that Sari would have wanted them to do. Given that, both women really loved the young kitsune very much.

In the present moment, Kagome waited patiently for Shippo to get his things so she could take him to school. She knew the reasons why Shippo didn't want to go to school and hated the idea of having to send him there knowing full well that he'd only be upset at the end of the day. However, there wasn't anything she could do at the present moment about it. For one both she and Rin had classes in the early morning until midday. Afterwards the both of them had to go to work for at least a couple of hours. Besides, neither of them knew anybody in the neighborhood well enough, that was able to care for Shippo until they could get home. Therefore, there wasn't really anyone to leave him with during the day.

In addition, even though both girls had flexible schedules they still led very hectic lives. To begin with, they both had classes daily and then they had to work some of those days, as well. Furthermore, they also had to make sure that one of them was always available to pickup Shippo from school and was able to stay with him afterwards. What's more, both girls had to put time aside to not only spend time with Shippo, but for studying, and for other work that needed to get done. Therefore, it wasn't easy for either of them, but somehow both girls had managed it as best as they could and to this point, they had been able to get along fine doing it.

As Kagome continued to wait for Shippo in the kitchen, she began to think on the day so far. 'Day after day, it's the same old story with Shippo. With him not wanting to go to school and I wind up having to convince him, he doesn't have much of a choice. Who'd ever thought I'd end up with this kind situation? Even I never imagined my life taking this turn. My life certainly has changed from the one I had before…' at that last thought, Kagome snapped out of her reverie. Because in an instant she realized that, she was thinking about her old life.

It'd been awhile since she thought about it until now. Seeing as how she promised herself that she wouldn't think about it again, since that part of her life was completely behind her. Once again, she caught herself, 'Stop it Kagome! Don't start thinking about it,' she told herself. Since thinking about the past would only make her upset and so far, she had managed to move on without having to look back. However, there was always apart of her that still held some sort of recollection of back then. Seeing as how it was memories like that, that haunted her endlessly. For she always feared that her past would catch up with her.

It may have been a simple solution to just run to the furthest corner of the world and disappear. Always hoping…no praying never to be found, for she didn't want to be dragged back into that life again. There had been many reasons as to why she left her home, her family, her friends, and her previous life behind. Nevertheless, that was all over with now because she had a new life, a new family, with new friends and she didn't need the past to haunt her anymore. Then again, those past memories still haunted her and she still remembered as if it was like yesterday when it all happened.

(Three years ago: Tokyo, Japan)

A young raven-haired girl was hurriedly packing her belongings in her suitcase and backpack. The reason for her rush was because nobody was home and it was the perfect time to leave without being noticed by anyone. She knew what she was doing was probably wrong. Nevertheless, this was her life and she didn't want to live like this anymore. She was already taking a big risk by leaving Japan. She also knew that if she didn't cover her tracks well her father would probably find her and bring her back home. That of course was the last thing she wanted to happen.

At first glance, one would have to wonder why she was leaving her family in the first place. However, she did have her reasons to do so. It wasn't that she didn't love her family; it was just that she couldn't understand how her father could live with himself when he constantly put his family in danger.

For Kai Higurashi was a very well known man throughout Asia and other parts of the world. His doings were the root of all the problems and Kagome felt that if he could leave that lifestyle behind and move onto something worthwhile perhaps she would reconsider leaving home. Unfortunately, that was going to happen anytime soon.

Kagome on many occasions had begged and threatened her father to change his ways. Her mother at one time had done the same. However, she gave up when she realized that her husband wasn't going to change no matter what she did. Therefore, Kagome tried again. She really did. It just got to the point where she had enough and couldn't take it anymore.

She got tired of the death threats against the family, the attempts on her life, the attempts on her father's life, and the attempts against the other members of her family. She also hated being followed by bodyguards wherever she went. Overall, she was tired of not being able to live a normal life, because her father was quick at making enemies, and knew just how to anger people that would like to kill him, or at least destroy his business. She also despised the lies her father would tell her mother and to the rest of the family. Even if the lies were meant to protect them from something dangerous, she still didn't like it.

In general, she just couldn't deal with it anymore. She tried talking it out with her parents, she kept giving her father second chances to change, but every time it just turned out the same as always. Therefore, she got fed up with the entire situation and wanted out. Because it was obvious to her that nobody understood how she was feeling about what was going on. Her family thought that she should be used to this sort of thing by now and her friends weren't much help since they got a thrill out of living the high life of being related to people like her father.

As a result, Kagome Higurashi had decided to leave Tokyo, Japan…leave and never come back. To Kagome this was the only solution available at the moment, especially if she wanted to start over. She was going to change everything about herself, her appearance, her lifestyle, and anything else that would help her get away from the life she was living now.

Perhaps in someway she was being a coward and taking the easy way out. In the end, though she didn't care. Because all she wanted was to be free and to live her life without the interference of her father's influence. Besides, in the end she was going to miss her mother, her little brother Souta, her Grandmother Kaede, her Grandfather Miato, and her cousin Kikyou. She even was going to miss her father. Despite the fact that he was the main reason, she was leaving in the first place.

Therefore, after a few months of planning she decided that today was the day she was finally going to run away. She believed that the best time to leave would be when everybody would be gone from the house. This was basically easy, seeing as how everybody had his or her own to-do list for the day.

Her father would be the first to leave the house at 8:00 in the morning, after having breakfast with his family. He would then head out to one of his establishments to see how they were doing. For Kagome's father owned various businesses that were both legal and illegal. The legal part of his business mostly consisted of a multi-national corporation that dealt with import and export of goods. The rest of the other legitimate businesses were a bit smaller, but they still brought in a huge amount of earnings. Not to mention, some casinos that he invested in with a couple of business partners. In general, the respectable façade Kai Higurashi played so well was only to keep the police away from his 'other' dealings. Such as smuggled goods, which consisted of illegal arms, drugs (like cocaine, heroin, marijuana, etc); at times, he'd use his importing and exporting business as a front for that and other such contraband.

Her mother, Akiko Higurashi had always kept herself entertained by doing many things. For one she ran the family household, which included preparing the family meals, house cleaning, the laundry, etc. Since she always believed that, a woman should be taught how to maintain a household with and without the help of servants. Otherwise, she'd go out to luncheons with some of her friends, volunteer for some kind of charity work, or she'd spend time doing errands for herself, her husband, or her children. So basically, each day she had something to do.

Her younger brother Souta was eight-years-old and he had school each day, except for the weekends. Every now and then, he'd stay after school for tutoring, or else he had baseball or soccer practice. Furthermore, there were times he'd just be hanging out or spending the night at one of his friend's house.

Her Grandmother Kaede and Grandfather Miato were normally home during this time of day. However, they had both decided to go and visit an ancient shrine that was located in Kyoto. Since her grandfather retired from his job both Kagome's grandparents had taken up traveling to various places around the Asian continent and other parts of the world, as well. Yet when they were in Tokyo both of them could usually keep themselves entertained.

This typically meant that their grandmother would visit with old friends, family, or she'd spend her time with her grandchildren. She would even sometimes join Kagome's mother on her outings, anything to keep herself busy. Kagome's grandfather would usually spend time either at the ancient shrine that belonged to the Higurashi, the city library researching the history of the shrine and family, visiting old friends, or spending time with his grandchildren, as well.

There was also Kikyou, Kagome's cousin. She did what most eighteen-year-olds did at her age. Like Kagome, she spent her time going to school, going out with friends, spending time with family, or doing other fun stuff.

Today though everybody had gone off and left the house empty. For Kagome this was the perfect opportunity to pack her stuff and leave before anyone got back. Seeing as how she had everything prepared for her departure ahead of time. In her purse, she had a plane ticket to New York City and from there she would decide where else to go. She also had all the proper documents necessary to change her name in her backpack. Even though, she was only going to change her surname to Oshiro instead of keeping it to Higurashi. She also had previously opened a bank account under an assumed name so that she could have money for when she got to New York. Not to mention, she planned to live a very simple existence. Given that, she didn't want to be reminded of her past.

After stuffing the last thing into her backpack, she zipped it up and headed out the door of her bedroom. Once she rushed down the stairs and out the front door to the taxi that was waiting for her. She realized that this was it…there was no turning back. She knew that she was doing the right thing and that was what mattered in the end. Therefore, without a single glance back to the house she got into the cab and was ready to leave behind her past. It would be hard at first she realized to be on her own but in the end, she knew that she'd be able to move on ahead without having to look back.

(End of flashback)

(Back to the present day)

Once again, Kagome just sat there thinking about the past. Especially, since the day she left. She always wondered how her family had taken the news of her departure. Seeing as how she hadn't even left a note behind explaining why she had just picked up her stuff and left.

There had been times when she had wanted to pick up a phone or even send an e-mail at times. Just to tell her family that she was all right. However, in the end she was too afraid to do so. She was always afraid that somehow they'd find her and make her go back home. For that reason, she never was able to do it.

Still lost in her thoughts about the past, Kagome felt a sudden tug on her sleeve. Thus, snapping her out of her reverie. She then realized that Shippo had gotten his backpack and was ready to go. Putting the past in the farthest back of her mind, she grabbed her car keys and tugged on Shippo's hand so that they could get going.

Not realizing that in time, the past was going to catch up with her and the fact that she wouldn't be able to hide from it any longer.

A/N: Here is chapter one officially. Tell me how it is…if it is good…or bad? So plz review…thanks!