I do not own the characters of Inuyasha

A/N:

InuYasha's Only Kagome-kun – thank you very much for e-mailing me and reminding me about the story. I didn't forget about it I just sometimes get caught up in other things. I promise that I will try to stay a little more focused from now on just for you ok?

To everyone else – thank you much for the reviews I appreciate them!

Now where were we… oh yes I remember…


The Price of Happiness

Chapter 3: Knowing Your Heart


Kagome pulled her knees to her chest and inspected her surroundings. She had no idea where she was, all she knew was that she had died. What other explanation could there be, she was surrounded my nothingness, an endless white void with no up or down. She had lost all sense of time in this never changing place. Was there even time here?

When she pictured dying she had always pictured pearly gates, wings, halos, a warm environment rich with people, old friends and family long since gone. This was nothing like that, no hot or cold, no angels, no Inuyasha, just nothingness as far as the eye could see in every direction.

A faint humming caught Kagome's attention and she twisted and turned to find the noise. That was another thing she hated about this place, there was no noise. Even in the quietest moments on earth there was at least the sound of the wind, bugs scurrying through the leaf-litter, birds taking flight. There was no sound here, and it made Kagome's ears want to bleed.

The humming seemed to be coming from every direction at once, trapping her in the middle of a ring and then closing in on her. That frightened her more than anything; she was being trapped by a freaking noise!

Something against her chest began to move startling her. The Shikon, held on by a leather thong, was pulling away from her body, floating into the void. Finally giving way to the jewel's insistent need to be free the thong broke. The jewel floated some distance away but was still overtly distinguishable when it stopped.

A hazy bluish/white haze became visible against the white void and began taking shape. Before Kagome could even blink the mist took on the silhouette of a human and stopped there. In the place where the heart of this mist creature should be rested the Shikon, glowing a faint pink in color.

"What is your hearts true desire Higurashi Kagome?" The voice was wispy and light, making Kagome slightly dizzy. The voice, obviously from the creature/person, seemed to have no gender being far to high for a male but far to low for a female at the same time.

"What is you hearts true desire Higurashi Kagome?" The creature/person said again this time a little louder.

"I want my friends back the way they were, all of them." Kagome's voice was little more than a whisper but seemed to carry to the farthest reaches of this damned place.

"I can not grant you that wish Higurashi Kagome."

"Why not, it's my hearts true desire?" Tears fell from Kagome's eyes and floated away into the void. She wanted to scream so loud that it would shatter this place, sending it tumbling away. She suppressed the urge though.

"If that is what you think," the creature/person began, taking on an irritated tone, "then you do not know your heart as you should. I will be here when you do."

The mist evaporated and the Shikon fell to the "ground" in front of her. How many times was it going to deny her wish before realizing she did know her heart? Crying harder Kagome pounded her fists against her knees, trying to let out some frustration.

"Im sorry guys, I tried."

Kagome punched the ground as hard as she could, just for good measures. A tiny, inky, crack split the floor where her fist hand landed and extended out a few feet. Tiny droplets of colors floated upward from the crack, like water dripping from a faucet. Only upside down.

Blues and greens, reds and yellows, oranges, purples, pinks, blacks, browns, in every possible shade, hue, and tint, floated slowly upwards. Reaching a hand out Kagome grabbed one and tried to pull it to her. It wasn't solid though so instead of coming to her it split into smaller droplets and continued their ascent.

Kagome pulled her hand back to herself and looked at it. Where her fingers had touched the droplet were stained a rich blue/purple. It was an oily substance, like paint but somehow distinctly different. Whatever it was Kagome knew one thing.

She had found her way out.


Sesshoumaru watched the girl as tears fell from her eyes and she mumbled some apology in her sleep. Sleep. The damned woman-child had been sleeping for near 4 days now. Her life was balancing on a pin point, ultimately it was her choice to live or die.

But why would Tenseiga chose to bring her back to life if she chose to die anyway? She would want to finally be with Inuyasha right? So dying was a blessing and all his sword had done was given her the pain of living through another day?

Sesshoumaru smirked; maybe his sword did have its uses after all.

Not that Sesshoumaru would admit it to anyone but he was hoping, just a little bit, that she would awake. He couldn't help but think of how much fun he would have with this poor tortured soul. She was in love with his half-brother, and he had some of his half-brothers defining traits; the silver hair, the golden eyes, at times they even had that same 'your-going-to-die-and-its-going-to-be-fun' smirk.

There was no doubt in Sesshoumaru's mind that those traits would haunt this girl every moment, waking and sleeping.

He couldn't help, though, but to feel a certain amount of sympathy for this girl, even as miniscule as it was. Here before him was a girl who had lost everything; her love, her friends, even her life once. With a sigh Sesshoumaru decided it was time to leave the human before he became too attached and wanted to keep her as a pet.

He had to kill all thoughts of this woman-child.

Something about the girl intrigued him though, piqued his interest in a way that nothing else had for a long time. Somehow this woman-child, her name is Kagome, had escaped a death that not even his brother had been able to do. Sesshoumaru intended to find out how that was possible for a human to do, even if she was a miko.

There was something else about her though, every time he had seen her in the last 3 years she had been so disgustingly happy and yet when she had looked at him in her haze of fever and half dead state she was sad. Sad because she was going to die? Sad because her friends were dead? Sad because she was going to live?

Whatever her reasons he was going to find out. Sesshoumaru sighed.

He hated his father for doing this to him.

Sesshoumaru didn't even know if this girl would ever wake. His sword had healed her physical wounds and brought her back from death, but it wasn't an easy process. In order to revive someone after they had died you had to rip their soul back from beyond the grave and stuff it back into the body. He had learned, over the last 3 years, that in doing so you risked permanently damaging the soul.

And that's if they chose to live.

For a long time after reviving Rin she hardly said a word, always happy but rarely talked. When words finally did come out of the young girl's mouth they were just small, chopped sentences. That was the reaction of her mending soul.

The woman-child was now the same.

She had a wound of the soul.


Ending Notes: since this chapter took so long to come out with I will upload another one tomorrow to compensate. Oh yea I changed the outcome of this story… its still a Sesshou X Kagome story but the ending is going to be WAY different that your normal 'happily ever after' stories… just wait and see I think everyone will like it! TTFN ta ta for now!