Hm… there's not much to say in terms of the story, except that this is the point when the actual "plot" of the story kicks in… I guess you're also wondering where the comedy is coming in, huh? (Well, Naraku showing up for breakfast WAS some of my comedy, but, bah...) This chapter will certainly lighten up the mood of the story, so I hope you enjoy it.

Disclaimer: I only own the characters outside of the original Inuyasha story line. Other than that, I don't own them! If I did, I would have every anime that's known to man at my fingertips, crazy anime fans banging at my door begging for Inuyasha DVD's, and, best of all, I wouldn't be going to school...

Reflections of Passion

Chapter Two: White Walls and a Miniskirt

By: Kaji-chan

Kagome's eyes fluttered open. Everything seemed groggy; her memory was fuzzy and her vision a blur. It took a few blinks to get the room into a clearer picture. She was laying on her back, starin1010„g up at the blank white of a ceiling, confusion lingering in the recesses of her thoughts. "Where am I?" she whispered. She slid her hands up to her waist, pushing herself into a sitting position, staring blankly forward. Her eyes swept around the room, searching for something... what was she searching for...?

Perhaps she was dreaming…?

The walls were all white, and there was no other furniture in the room except for a bed she happened to be lying on top of, which, in the architect's horrible taste, was also white. Looking to the left of her, she noticed two--consequently white--doors. One of them led what appeared to resemble some form of bathroom or washroom (she knew this solely because that particular door was open), and she assumed the other one was a closet. Directly in front of her, adjacent to the closet door, was a large, metal door, which must have been the main exit leading out into... whatever resided behind it--most likely a hallway. She rubbed her head and s101010wung her legs over the side of the bed, her feet lightly touching the icy surface of a concrete flooring. She stood shakily.

Cold air rushed over her body, causing her to gasp. Kagome glanced down, surprised to see that the bruises and cuts she was sure to be there from tripping over herself the other day were completely healed. All that was left was a light scar raking across the side of her hip... but that was just an old childhood scar. She didn't really expect that would be gone as well.

Tilting her head to the side in a furious blush, she also noticed that she was bearing no clothing other than her underwear. With a muffled cry of panic, her hands clasped over her shoulders in an attempt to cover her chest, a bit horrified upon her discovery that her bra was not accompanying her panties. In a small bout of embarrassment, she covered herself with her hands, despite the fact that she was the only one in the room. Swallowing uncertainly, she made her way over to what she believed to be the closet 1010 and slowly opened it, praying to God there would be something in there for her to wear.

Thankfully there was. Unfortunately, however, the selection seemed to be limited to a simple black gown of sorts, greyed and worn, along with a white shirt/black pants ensemble, neatly folded upon the hip-level, bare white shelf. Her eyebrows pinched, a bit wary of the absence of undergarmets among the selection... She noticed a neatly folded robe of some sorts on one of the shelves next to a stack of... towels? She 1010reached for it awkwardly, slipping it off of the shelf and letting it fall open to hang from her hands, her eyes running up and down its length. From her inspection, it seemed to be fairly clean and normal... It would have to do.

Sighing and wrapping herself within the confines of the rough cotton-ish robe, she stepped back from the closet, glad to find something to protect her modesty. She closed the closet doors, her hands lingering upon the white dorrs as she once again took in the scope of the room. Hm... her robe was also white...

There was some kind of trend here...

And then she noticed a more colorful piece of cloth hidden beneath the black gown, peaking out from underneath it. She blinked, reaching forward and removing the black garmet.

She gasped, almost dropping it as her eyes fell upon the clothing underneath it. "My... uniform...101010?" Her fingers brushed over the familiar highschool uniform, a light smile on her features. How did this get here? The last time she had it, she was going downstairs for breakfast...

Wait...

Suddenly, she remembered everything. That woman was in her kitchen... and that man...

"You have ten seconds, Kagome."

"Onee-san, what's going on?"

"Kagome! Open the door, Kagome!"

Mama...

Her fingers brushed up to her neck, finding it bare. She peered down to where her hand rested upon her chest. The necklace was gone, and the jewel shard with it.

That man had tried to kill her... no... he had blackmailed her into something. Where was she? In his house? In some kind of laboratory! She glanced around her, expecting to find some kind of window from which a bunch of weirdos were watching her, a bit disappointed when she found none. It didn't mean that the strange man wasn't nearby, though.

Maybe, if she could find him, she could find out where she was. Not only that, but with a little intimidation--th1010Cough she wasn't exactly sure how she would go about intimidating her captor--she couls get him to answer some questions for her. The sooner she found information, the sooner she could get away and back to her family.

She turned to face the room, her eyes landing on the tall metal door. Maybe it was open? She made her way over to it, tip-toeing across the cold floor and reaching out, tugging on the handle. Unfortunately, it was locked, as she had probably suspected. Kagome bit her lip, sinking down to the floor in a crumpled heap, her legs sprawled out to either side 1010Åof her. She was stuck here.

She began to feel tears burn the back of her eyes. She felt the horrible foreboding sensation that she usually got when she was anxious, except thousands of times worse. Was everyone okay? Was her family okay?

The teenager sighed and tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear. How would she be able to find her family? Kagome assumed that she was probably in some large building, judging by the size of the room she was in... or something along those lines... so she didn't dare go walking around, even if the door was open. One, she wouldn't know where she was going, and two, it was very likely that she would get killed if she ran into the wrong person. "How am I going to get out of here?"

Her question fell heavily on the silence.

Her sobs soon followed.

She must have been lying on that cold floor for hours, crying herself to death. But now1010f it seemed that she had no energy left to cry, nor did she have any tears left to shed. She had drifted off for an hour or so not too long ago, exhausted by her tears. She now stared blankly at the closed metal door, dried tracks of tears running down her face and her eyes so dry that they were burning.

What was she doing here?

The question circled in her head, finding no meaning and no constraint upon her conscious. She drew her legs into her chest, closing her eyes and resting her chin against her knee.

What was she doing here?

A light clattering outside of the door alerted her attention. Her eyes shot open, turning to focus upon the door, pausing her breath. Was someone out there? Her heart began to race as the handle rattled for a few moments, and then, her breath caught, it turned, the heavy metal door swinging slowly open, a figure darkenin1010g the doorway.

The figure appeared to be, as she stepped through the door, a woman, smiling oodly and shutting it behind her. "Did you rest well?" Her tone did not convey any more concern than the twisted humor upon her features, cold and plainly stated by the thin smile of her red painted lips.

She immediately recognized her. Her lips thinned as she returned the cold smile with a frown. It was Kagura, the woman sitting at her table this morning. Or... was it yesterday morning? The morning a few days ago? She didn't know how long she had been sleeping for before she awoke in this room.

Only, this Kagura was oddly dressed; it seemed she had changed out of her blouse and black skirt and into a strange, multi colored kimono. It was certainly light enough to be a yuk10105ata, but the long sleeves and expensive looking silk material beneath it revealed otherwise. It was basically white, with a few burgandy stripes scattered across it in pattern, a simple yellow sash--as it was too haphazardly ties to be called an obi--across her waist. There were two layers beneath it, as they barely peeked out from beneath the collar, of blue and green. An eyebrow rose. Why was she wearing such odd traditional clothing? Especially such expensive traditional clothing?

"Are you ready to accept?"

Kagome's confusion melted into a odd form of irritation, almost sprouted from some foreign sense of anger. "Accept...?" she repeated.

Kagura crossed her arms, shifting her weight to one side as if in impatience. It was then that Kagome noticed she was holding a fan of some sort, eyeing it with 10104a bit of puzzlement. Why did she have a fan with her? "Accept your... fate, I suppose I should say," she replied. She sounded a bit bored. Kagura sighed, tapping the edge of her fan against her chin. "Ah... that sounds so cliche, doesn't it?"

"What do you mean, 'accept my fate'?" Kagome questioned. Her legs slid out from under her arms as she braced her hands against the floor in preparation to stand.

"Oh, you know, prepare to devote your life to a horrible drama of sorts; accept that there's no way out but to do what we say." She smiled, though a bit more pleasant as she found some comedy in Kagome's strange situation which, she, consequently, appeared to be partially responsible for.

She, however, failed to see the humor. "So you expect me to just do as you say!" she rebuted, standing shakily, h1010Ãer hand pressed against the wall for support. She was still a bit shaken up from her crying, and her energy was still, it seemed, drained.

Kagura shrugged. "That's not really my problem, is it? I think that's something you should take to Naraku, don't you?"

Kagome eyed her uncertainly, not trusting. She did need to ask this Naraku a few questions, as she certainly had a heap of them unanswered. But if she followed her, who knew where this woman would take her. Then again, the fact that she wasn't lying in an alleyway somewhere probably meant that she was of some importance to them, especially when they went through all of that trouble to come and take her away from her family. "Fine, I'll speak to your husband," she replied, her tone strained.

Kagura blinked at her, uncrossing her arms. "Husband?" she repeated, looking almost confused for a moment. "Oh..." The confusion faded. "You still believe that charade, girl?" she asked, the humored smile1010˙ returning to her lips.

Kagome, once again, failed to see why this was funny. "What are you saying?"

"I'm saying that we were lying to you. You need to be a bit more observant or you'll never survive in the real world." Kagura paused, tilting her head a bit. "Well, this would be the real world, now, wouldn't it?"

Kagome's lips twisted into an irritated frown.

"Are you still interested in questioning him, then?" she prompted, moving towards Kagome with slow, even steps. She was certainly impatient.

Her frown faltered, replaced by a bit of alarm as she took a step back. "O-of course I am."

Kagura was a step away from her now, a smirk replacing her flippant smile. "Well, then," she said, reaching out towards her with the fan. Kagome flinched, turning her head away. Kagura merely chuckled coldly, flicking the collar of her robe with the tip of the fan, shaking her head. "Though you probably don't want my opinion, if you want to be serious, perhaps you should change clothes, hm?"

Kagome gulp1010˛ed, flashes of scenes from sci-fi movies appearing in her head. If this women came at her with a scapel—

"Oh, please," Kagura sighed, grabbing her arm and turning her around to face the closet. "Just get out of the robe and put on some clothes. You do know what clothes are, don't you?"

Kagome pulled her arm out of her hold, glaring at her over her shoulder, quickly getting over her initial alarm. "Of course I know what clothes are! I was wearing a nice enough set before you took them away from me!"

Kagura blinked at her, raising an eyebrow. "Take them from you? There weren't any left. Unless you want the pieces of them."

Kagome didn't understand, mirroring her bewilderment, except her surprise lacked the irritation of Kagura's. "What...?"

"Look," she said, cutting off her question, "He was even nice enough to steal a set of clothes for you." She pointed to the school uniform, hanging a bit haphazardly from the shelf, stilled from Kagome's earlier shifting.

"My uniform?" she asked, reaching o101010ut for it.

Suddenly, Kagura grabbed her wrist, jerking her away from the closet. "No," she said sharply, snatching the uniform from the shelf with her other hand and tucking it under her arm. Kagome was too confused to question her as she pointed to the black and white ensemble in the corner.

"That...?" she inquired, rubbing her wrist as Kagura released it.

"Yes. That. Put it on," she ordered blandly, picking it up and dropping it into Kagome's arms. "I'll wait outside for you to change, then."

Not wanting to make her angry, she glanced down warily at the clothes that she was holding. Kagome decided that disobeying would only cause more trouble, and with a bit lip, she reluctantly nodded, shuffling into the bathroom as Kagura waited outside the door.

The bathrobe slid down her shoulders, falling with a light thump to the floor. Kagome pressed a hand to her chest, feeling a bit open and exposed without the common comforts of her bra, which was, unfortunately, absent with the rest of her clothing. 1010 She reached down and picked up what seemed to be the top, gazing quietly at the white cloth with a bit of confusion.

This was no ordinary outfit with just a shirt and pair of pants. It actually appeared to be some form of old style dress, for, unless her eyes decieved her, the top in her hands resembled a five hundred-year-old hakama of sorts. She knew this because her grandfather commonly wore such when tending to the shrine grounds. It was some form of ceremonial garb, but why would it be here, and why101010 would she be wearing it...? (or why would she be about to wear it, for that matter?)

She pursed her lips, frowning at the garmet with frustration. This was ridiculous. Why were her abductors forcing her to wear such old fashioned clothing? Surely they had a T-shirt lying around somewhere. Maybe they were meandering around her house looking for a set of clothes and went into Grandpa's room first. But good God, if they were going to abduct someone, they should have been prepared...

"Hurry up, will you?" she heard on the other side of the door.

She muttered an apology, which Kagura probably didn't hear, then glanced back at the top. Kagome made a note to fold it right over left; she didn't want to be giving anyone the false impression that she was dead or something... not that she would be seeing someone she knew. A sigh passed her lips as she shrugged on the top, folding it across her chest and tieing it.

Kagome did the same with the pants, pulling them up and tieing them securely across her waist1010
line, taking a few moments to make sure the top was tucked into the pants correctly and fixing any awkward bulges. A frown paused on her features again. She felt so uncomfortable wearing pants so high up, as wasn't the style these days, especially when the sides hung so loosely from her hips, rather than the snug, tight jeans she was used to.

She glanced down at herself. Yes, this was definately what her grandfather wore... how embarrassing.

She sighed, staring at the white ribbon in her hand. It was probably meant for her hair, but she had no idea how to fix it in the traditional way her grandfather had once tried to teach her. Oh well, who cared if her hair was down anyway? She absently wished for a brush as she touched the mass of tangled strands, her finger101010s attempting to run through them and catching abruptly in frequent knots.

She sighed, turning to peer at where she expected a mirror to be, frowning as she realized that there wasn't one. Who made bathrooms without mirrors? Another sigh pressed against her lips as she turned away from the blank wall, bending down to pick up the heaped robe and lie it across her arm.

She heard an irritated tapping on the other side of the bathroom door, followed by Kagura's irritated words. "Kagome... if you're looking for a window to climb out of, or a rat hole to widen with a spoon, I'll save you the trouble and tell you that there isn't one."

Kagome immediately flattened against the wall, covering a shriek with her palm and darting widened eyes around the bathroom. "Rats!"

There was a tight sigh from the other side. "Oh, for--! There are no rats in there!"

Kagome eyed the toliet warily.

"Please don't tell me you're afraid of rats..." Kagura sounded a bit more irritated then humored, however.

Kagome glared a1010 t the door. "Of course I'm not!" she cried indignantly, her hand tightening upon the robe draped over her arm. She shakily peeled herself from the wall, her hand reaching over and twisting the doorknob, her eyes still trained on the toliet with suspicion. She knew that as soon as she turned her back--

"Kagome, there are no rats in the damned bathroom! Just get your ass out here!"

Though she didn't necessarily appreciate her tone, Kagome pushed open the door and walked out slowly, adjusting the robe on 1010jher arm and looking up at Kagura; she stood a few feet away, staring blankly at her for a few moments. Well... her expression was a bit taut, but Kagome assumed it was because of the rats in the bathroom. Kagome paused, feeling a bit awkward under her scrutiny.

The tense twitch of her eyebrow slowly faded away as se observed Kagome's new state of dress, though a bit of irritation still lingered in her tinned lips. "No, no," she said finally, tapping her fan against her lips again. "You forgot the hair."

Kagome felt her own lips thin. Who cared about her hair! "So?" Kagome asked indignantly, her hand tightening a bit upon the hair tie with a hint of defiance.

Kagura snorted, lifting the fan from her lips. "Oh, stop complaining already," she muttered, snapping the fan open. Before Kagome could question, Kagura held the fan before her, sharply flicking 1010∑her wrist back. A sharp wind picked up suddenly, and the ribbon flew from Kagome's grip as quickly as she could gasp in surprise, hovering before her. Kagura did a small circle with her fan, smiling with amusement as Kagome watched in what seemed to be halfway between amazement and terror, a coarse wind whipping around her.

Her hair lifted from her shoulders underneath the swirling of a harsh breeze and untanged, twisting into a ponytail of sorts. With another movement of Kagura's wrist, the white tie circled around the long strands of ebony, curling over itself and entwining into a loose tie. Kagura snapped the fan shut with a smirk and the wind instantly died, the hair tie pulling painfully tight upon her hair, Kagome wincing as she did so.

Bewildered, her hand reached behind her to touch the back of her head, a bit shell-shocked to say the least. Suddenly, the rats in the bathroom didn't appear to be as alarming anymore. "My h1010pair..." she began, turning her eyes to Kagura. From the small smirk on her lips, it seemed that Kagome's bewilderment was returning her lost humor. "Y-you... the fan... how did you..."

"Don't hurt yourself, Kagome," she said, tapping her on the head with the fan. "I think I've been babysitting you for a bit too long. Time to go." Before she could argue with her, Kagura grabbed her by the arm and lead her out the door and into the hallway, Kagome stumbling behind her.

Kagome shivered from the cold air that rushed up the baggy legs of her pants as soon as her feet stepped outside the door, a strong chill numbing her bare feet. Her hands grasped her shoulders as she began to shiver. "It's fr-freezing out h-here!" she hissed as the hairs on the back of her neck stiffened.

"You'll get used to the cold. Your body just hasn't adjusted to it, yet."

She bit her lip1010, feeling goosebumps rise all over her body, the material of her clothing thin and open to the frigid air. Kagura slammed the door shut behind them, and it was then that Kagome decided to peer around her, her hands still tightly cluching her trembling shoulders.

The hall was not exactly what she had expected. Instead of the plain white walls in her room, these walls resembled nothing of the inside of a home. The walls of the outside hallway were, alternately, a stark grey and metal; braces of a similarily steel-like quality jutted out of the sides and curved up with the bend of the ceiling to create countless arches down the length of the corridor.

Rather than the short, white hallway she had imagined, it was grey, narrow and long; the hall only continued for about ten meters to he10105r right, ending with a large set of metal double doors, but the left end of the hall curled around and extended beyond her sight. The bright florescent lights above her only followed to the left about halfway down, and beyond that, there either weren't any at all or they had all blown out somehow.

Her eyes gazed down the fading hallway, its curve disappearing into a sudden darkness, feeling a shiver run up her spine as her eyes stared into the hidden shadows of the hall, spontaneously illuminated by a softly flickering light in the darkness. Somehow she knew the chills weren't from the cold of the hall.

"I wouldn't venture down that ways, if you know what's best for you," Kagura commented, approaching Kagome. She swallowed thickly, unable to pull her eyes away from the murkiness beyond the lights.

"Where1010S is this?" Kagome breathed, momentarily forgetting the ice prickling her fingertips.

Kagura did not reply, only tightly grasping Kagome's arm and turning her right, pushing her towards the double doors.

"Where are you... t-taking me...?" she chattered, convinced that her lips were turning blue now that she was thinking of the cold again.

"Haven't you been paying attention?" Kagura complained, her expression loosing its humor to a high irritation. Kagome felt a bit uncomfortable, attempting to pull her arm out of this woman's grip. She was definately a whimsical individual, wasn't she? "You're going to 'accept your fate'. I suppose you could say that you really don't have a choice in that, though. Maybe you're going to understand it, rather?"

Her words didn't offer much comfort. But they probably weren't intended to.

Without anot101010her word, Kagura raised her hand before the towering doors. At this point of the hall, the ceiling seemed to rise, the extent of the doors reaching to the full height of the corridor. She swept her hand across the crease, taking a step back and waiting. Kagome blinked, a bit confused. Shouldn't she just push them open?

Before she could inquire the pause, the doors swung open, pushing away from them just enough so that the crack was large enough for them to walk through. Kagome furrowed her brow as they stepped through the opening, peering around them for some sort of opening lever. Either she was going crazy or those doors opened on their own. Speaking of which, doors that large were never so eerily silent when opened...

The doors swung closed soundlessly behind them as Kagura snatched her wrist, dragging her inside. They were met with a juncture. Kagome looked around the square room; with the double doors behind her, there were three doors before her, one to the right, the left, and her front. Ka1010∏gura reached forward and turned the doorknob of the one directly in front of them, opening the door and pushing Kagome inside.

She stumbled forward, finding herself in a tall, wide room, much of the same architecture of the first hallway. Huge metal arches grazed the walls, stretching upwards to meet each other in a point upon the spherical ceiling. The entire room had a circular shape, and was large enough to fit about four of those white bedrooms inside of it.

This room, though, appeared to her to be some sort of computer central, like something off of Star-Trek. She had seen some of the old American TV series when her brother caught the movie marathons on some of their English channels. The walls were covered with screens and blinking lights, and computer panels stretched the line of the walkway, circling around the room. One screen, in particular, stretched almost half of the wall's length, but didn't seem to be producing any m1010Ìore than a black, softly glowing picture. The hum of electronics filled her ears, computers buzzing all around her. "What is...?"

"Kagome."

She spun, her eyes locking on the figure standing in the far end of the room, facing the wall. Of what she could make out of him, he was clothed in odd, loose fitting cloth, perhaps--as she couldn't quite make out in the shadow--the same style of which Kagura was wearing, and had long, curling hair, reaching far below that of Kagome's. He stood fairly straight, his hands clsped behind his back as he stared at the black, picture-less screen adorning the wall before her.

She opened her mouth to speak, but wasn't quite sure what to say. There wasn't much to say, but there was certainly much to question... Why was she here? Who was this man? What happened? Why was she naked when she woke up!

"I'm glad you are here," he said smoothly, readjusting her focus back to his turned back.

Wait...

She knew that voice.

He turned, slowly, to face her.

Hmm... is right! To answer a question on something in the original story I ended up sending to the "shit pile"... I orginially had her dressed in this weird, slightly skimpy dress of sorts--that was solely for my own amusement (and Naraku's, haha) and had nothing to do with the plot... which is why it was shot to hell. I decided that her wearing clothes much more like the style of the "villians" (cackle I love that word!) was much more appropriate, since she's going to be rooming with them anyway.

Onward with editing! waves flag and skips off10101010