Chapter Nine:

And so…it was now the night of the Winter Ball.

Kagome was in her room, packing for a girl's night at Sango' s house. 'I hope Miroku had time to find a better date. But I still can't believe I gad to go and get my dress ruined right before the Ball.' She sighed.

She knew that whether or not she could believe it, it did happen: and now she wasn't going to the Ball.

She looked at her reflection in the mirror. Her ebony hair was in a knotted bun, her jeans were torn, and her cotton sweater was a faded yellow. 'Maybe I just wasn't ment to go. That's probably it. It's not like I was Miroku' s REAL date. What was I even thinking? I wouldn't belong there. This is just the way things were ment to be. I'll have fun with Sango, and all my classmates have fun at the Ball. I guess I'm okay with that.'

She packed the last item into her small suitcase, the Shikon Jewel.

The Shikon was a pink crystal sphere. Inuyasha had given it to Kagome, but that was a long time ago. Now he gave Kikyo things. She held the silver chain between her fingers and stared at the jewel. It gave off a faint pink light. Just holding it, she felt something warm inside. She smiled, and put the jewel in the bag.

She picked up her bag of clothes and silently walked into the hall. It's not like her mom ever knew where she was but Kagome never wanted her to find out. It just wasn't worth it. Whenever she wasn't at school or at home her mother would explode on her. That was it, end of discussion. It didn't matter what Kagome did, but she almost always got in trouble for something. So tonight she had decided she would quietly sneak out and then she would come back early in the morning. No one would notice she was gone, no one in her pitiful family. And so she waited at the bus stop.

She sat on the bench, waiting for the vehicle. She looked down the street at Inuyasha's house. 'I wonder if Inuyasha and Kikyo will have a good time tonight.'

Inuyasha had just put on his tux. (A/N Now I know what you're thinking, 'A tux! It's not like this is the prom or anything!' And I say to you, 'No it isn't the prom, but the Winter Ball is VERY formal, get over it!') It was a black coat and pants with a dark red vest. As he tied up the necktie he looked up at his reflection. 'Wow, this looks pretty good, I hope Kikyo likes it!' He smiled and walked down stair to the kitchen.

He opened the refrigerator and picked up a plastic box. In the box was a corsage, delicate red roses surrounded by baby's breath. Kikyo had told him about her red dress earlier. She said it was the exact same color as a red rose. He thought she would look so beautiful.

"What are you doing Inuyasha?" Came the smooth voice of Sesshoumaru.

"Getting ready to leave."

Sesshoumaru nodded. " Do you think she will like that?"

"Uh…yea, it is what she asked for." He raised an eyebrow at such an odd question.

"Good, but personally, I wouldn't know. Humans confuse me."

"How so?"

"Well for instance, Kagome."

Inuyasha felt a sudden pang in his chest. He put the strange pain aside and began to ask. "What about her?"

Sesshoumaru looked Inuyasha in the eye. "Well, she is one of the few humans I know the slightest thing about, she seems quite likeable too. I just don't understand how her mother could be so mean to her. I would have guessed that demons were a lot crueler to each other. We can kill each other without regret, but we would never harm our own kin."

Inuyasha was silent. "I guess, whatever." He quickly left the house to go get Kikyo, no use lingering on such a depressing topic. He opened the front door and looked towards the neighboring house, Kagome's house. The kitchen light was on, but as far as he could tell, no one was inside or at least no one was awake. Whatever, it's not like it really concerned him…

Bring!

There it goes again, the familiar Lord of the Rings theme song. Kagome picked up her phone. "Hello?" She was on a bus right in front of Sango' s apartment complex.

"Hey Kagome, it's Sango. Where on earth are you? You're supposed to be here!!"
Sango sounded pressured.

"Chill out, I just got of the bus, I can see your apartment from here."

"Oh, okay well then hurry up!"

"Okay…"

"Bye."

"Bye." Kagome turned the phone off and walked up the staircase leading to the second story. It was a cute complex, the apartments had yellow siding and it was mostly single women living there. Kagome walked up to 3B and proceeded to knock on the door, not that there was any real need to. As soon as she got there the door was open and Sango was beaming.

"Uh?" 'Why does Sango look so…happy?' Kagome's confusion was clearly visible to Sango. "Sango, what are you so excited about?"

"Well, you're almost late!"

"Late for what?" Asked Kagome, feeling tension even though she had no idea what was going on.

Sango pointed to the hall entrance and she saw Miroku in a tux holding a…dress box?
"What's that for?"

"For you to wear silly." Sango lightly jabbed Kagome in the side.

"What, you thought I'd let you get out of going with me?" Teased Miroku as he presented the box to Kagome. Kagome looked at the golden box and slowly reached out to it.

"What? Are you afraid it will bite you?" Sango laughed at Kagome. "Well if you're going to take so long just to grab it, maybe I should just take it now. Come on to my room we have to get you dressed!" Sango took charge of the situation. "I hope you brought the jewel, it will make a nice match to the dress…" Sango continued jabbering as they walked to her room.

They walked in and shut the door behind them. That's when they heard someone trying to open it. "MIROKU! Kagome is getting dressed buzz off!"

"Aw." He grunted. They could hear him walking back to the living room and giggled.

Inuyasha was leaving to get Kikyo when he heard a strange noise…screaming? He ran back to his porch and changed forms in the shadow.

He stood still and listened. He heard the noise again, though it seemed amplified by his hanyou ears.

He couldn't decide what it was, though he knew it was his duty to save the person.

He jumped to his roof with one jump and listened for the screams. Once he found the direction they were coming from, he started making his way there.

She had just finished getting dressed and was waiting for Inuyasha. Her friends were already at the restaurant. 'Where is that worthless bastard?' She tapped her heel on the wooden floor of her apartment and peered out the window. 'I can't go without him!'

When he finally found where the noise was coming from, he quickly evaluated the situation. Some teenage delinquents were bullying what appeared to be a seven-year-old child. 'Those bastards!' This situation reminded him of Kagome, just like everything else this evening.

He pounced down from a roof and used his special attack, 'Iron Reaver Soul Stealer'

If this situation was a little different, he would have just taunted the teens, but he was mad. Inuyasha strongly disapproved of abuse. It touched too close to home, reminding him of his closest friend-besides Kikyo that is.

So, in this case, he actually aimed at the boys, the attack not only surprising them, but scaring them as well. When they looked up to see their attacker, they saw the enraged face of Dogman, the new town hero.

Inuyasha laughed to himself, 'I can see the fear in their eyes, these bastards will pay!' He grabbed each one and punched them so hard; they all fell to the ground with a thud.

He looked at the teens and smiled…serves them right.

But then he looked at his blood stained hands. He began to tremble. "Oh no! What have I done?" 'I'm a hanyou, I'm stronger then any human. I beat up the defenseless! I've become what I hate! Kagome got beat up because she doesn't want to hurt her mother; she is defenseless as well. That's why I hate her mom. But me- how could I do that? What's wrong with me?'

He then remembered the little girl who he was saving, the reason he was there in the first place.

He had expected her to be scared, frightened of what she just saw, but no. She gave a toothy smile and ran up to him. He felt her small, bony arms wrap around him. "Thank you mister! You and your brother have been really nice to me today." She spoke into his tux. He could smell wolf on her, but he was currently more focused on what she had just said.

'Wha? Sesshoumaru and I? How would she know?'

"…And his hair was just as shiny and silver as yours too, he was also really strong, and he-" Inuyasha then realized she had been speaking to him. 'How does she know this?'

"Little girl, how do you know my brother?"

She looked up at his face. "Oh, because he saved me today and brought me to the orphanage. But I don't want to go back there, that's where I came from in the first place."

'Oh, well if my 'brother' saved her, a human, than it had to have been someone else.'

"My name is Rin." He looked down at the girl again.

"Rin? Well that's a pretty name. Would you like me to bring you somewhere? I don't want to leave a little girl like you out on the street like this." (A/N: jeezum…Inu sure is irresponsible with kids huh?)

"Well if you could, sir, please bring me to the closest bus."

"Bus?"

"Well I have to go somewheres else before I go to your house."

"Where is that?"

"To the orphanage, to get my stuff. You see, I left without getting my things."

"Oh, well then why don't I just take you there." He bent down and told her he'd give her a piggyback ride.

After he had dropped the young girl off he then remembered, "Oh Shit! Kikyo! I'm late and she'll be so pissed…"

Sango had just put the last touch of Kagome's makeup on. "Wow, I'm impressed with myself." She stared at the younger girl for a moment. "Kagome you look so beautiful in that dress." The two women stood up. Sango forced Kagome into a bear hug. "Have a good time tonight hun." She whispered into the girl's ear. Kagome nodded and smiled.

Miroku, who had been watching TV in the living room, turned his face as soon as he heard the door open. He looked at Sango, able to see all her teeth through the wide smile. And then at Kagome, He smiled. 'Wow, my date looks pretty good.'

Okay...so...yea I know, that was a pretty crappy chappie, and it's really short, but I thought it would add to the suspense and that's always a good thing, right? O well, please review. Don't just read this and go off on some other story! I need reviews...I'll give you candy! well, j/j...I'm broke at the moment...