#We see Bec's eyes glowing# Wow…people are reading my story and liking it…(sorry if I sound slightly shocked…it's probably because…well…I am:p) Ok, now to thank you wonderful individuals that have had the courtesy to drop me a line!


Erika: I laughed when I read your review…please don't growl at me…#Bec cowers in the corner and reaches tentatively for her laptop to type some more and stop the growling…# Thankyou muchly :)

Kagome Lover: I'm smiling now! And I'm glad you like Kags…I do too…and hey who doesn't like scrutinising? #Bec looks around# Ok, maybe it's just me…;)

moonmagicks: #Bec smiles in appreciation, and blushes# Thanks…:D I also don't need reviews to keep going…but it's a nice kick-start to remind me to keep writing:p I've come to the conclusion that people seem to generally prefer other people's stories to their own…my only consolation is that I can look at some of the pathetic ideas I abandoned and feel happy! I'm glad you like the flashbacks…it kinda makes it messy cos my chapters are a little short…but I can't resist!

Allora: #Bec sighs# Yes, I made Kikyou mean…I had to struggle with myself for a while with it, because I don't strictly hate her…but for this story it works so…I kind of pity her…I have made her cruel huh? I'm glad you think it fits though, I know I sometimes think she'd be very like this…glad you're enjoying it!

allorish elf: Thanks for the review :) Glad you read the whole thing, and hope you enjoy the next chappie!


Phew…#Bec wipes her brow# Done…now we can…#Bec younger sister pokes her, and Bec closes her eyes momentarily to keep her composure# What? #Rach whispers something in Bec's ear then grins deviously, Bec sighs (I seem to do that a lot huh?)# Fine, fine…I've been informed that apparently I have to make a disclaimer again…so in the interests of saving time in future…Rach will just butt in at some point with a random string of words which I shall (very successfully, I may add) ignore and block out…#Bec's eyes glaze over and Rach takes a bow# Yay…Bec doesn't own Inuyasha…well she might, but if she does she's kept it pretty quiet and didn't write it in her dia…umm…nothing, bye! #Rach runs off, and Bec snaps to attention…# I trust all is now well? On we go then…:D
From Chapter 4…

As Rin took the photo she saw the back, the writing flashing in the firelight. 'I will remember those who have gone.' Followed by four names. Kagome looked quickly around and realised Kikyou and her minions had gone.

Chapter 5

Once inside the tent Kagome turned to Rin, who still seemed to be on autopilot. 'Are you ok?' Kagome queried, looking at her new friend. She was worried, 'she still looks totally out of it…I don't think she even knows she has the photo back.' Kagome sent a slight glare at said photo, which had been the catalyst, she felt, of Rin's breakdown. She looked at Rin again 'Man, she didn't even hear me I don't think…what should I do?' Then to her surprise she heard a small voice, 'I'm alone.'

The voice sounded so broken, so old. As if it had seen years and lifetimes, only those in sorrow can imagine. 'Why did you leave me too? Tatsuro…' the voice trailed off and Kagome became aware that Rin's unseeing orbs were fixed on her. 'Oh dear…now what? How can I help?' Kagome offered up a slight smile, and that, coupled with the concern in her eyes, finally seemed to get through to Rin…she blinked, and, as if dragging her voice from the depths of a well pushed out, 'Kagome?'

-----Rin-----

Alone. The word echoed in her mind. Even now it still did. Alone. I am, and always will be alone. Rin tried to pull her mind back to the present, 'The Photo!' Her present mind was screaming…She simply sat there, staring, as doctors bustled around, and nurses checked drips, monitored conditions, and noted things down on their pads. They seemed so unconcerned, as if this was normal. Rin stared blankly. How could they go on, with sound and bustle, when Tatsuro had just died? 'I'm alone.' The words escaped her lips unbidden and drove home the awful truth. She buried her face in her knees, but had no more tears, just a yawning emptiness. She looked over at Tatsuro as they wheeled him away, 'Why did you leave me too? Tatsuro…' Her voice trailed off, and she curled into a ball and slowly rocked herself to sleep. Alone. Wait, what was that? A face intruded into her memory and it faded away to be replaced with…

-----Present-----

'Kagome?' Rin slowly blinked and her eyes adjusted to the dim light of the tent. She saw the concern in Kagome's eyes and tried to return the slight smile, but her face wouldn't agree with her. Her lips started to tremble, and tears began to run down her face. 'I'm sorry,' she stammered, before sitting on her camp bed and burying her head once again in her knees. This time however the tears were hot, trickling down the side of her face. 'It's ok. You can go now. I'm fine. You can leave.' 'And then I'll be alone again…as always'.

Kagome looked on in shock, as she heard these words. Rin was sitting on her camp bed, crying, in genuine distress and she really expected her, Kagome to leave? 'I really need to find out what's wrong with her…I can't believe she thinks I'd leave after everything that's happened.'

Rin started when she felt Kagome sit down next to her, and stroke her back, 'she's staying? Trying to clam me down?' 'Do you mind if I sit here?' Kagome asked…remembering Rin's words earlier. Rin managed a small smile this time as she looked at Kagome, hardly daring to hope that maybe she had found a friend who would possibly understand. 'Sure,' was her response.

Kagome relaxed a little when she saw the small smile on Rin's face. 'Wow, this girl must've had it tough, to react the way she did…I'm not going to ask now, but I'll find out somehow.' Kagome decided that she'd reassure Rin about the picture. 'Oh, by the way, we got the picture back…' she said, not sure if Rin even remembered anything that had happened outside.

Rin's eyes widened and her hand tightened on the picture still in her hand, she released a breath in a whoosh, and looked down at it. Smiling back at her was her family, the way she liked to remember it. Whole. Complete. She noticed the tear and remembered it had been that that had torn through her normally impenetrable barrier, which kept her most painful memory at bay.

Kagome noticed her looking at the tear. 'I'm sorry about that…I didn't mean for it to happen.' Kagome winced, feeling that she had touched a nerve, as she heard a sharp intake of breath.

'No, it's not your fault,' Rin replied her voice steady, although her trembling hands gave away how she felt about what had happened. 'I should've been more careful with it…I guess really I shouldn't have brought it, but it's all I have left…' She trailed off again.

Kagome turned to her, and said in a voice that was at once laced with surprise, and sadness, 'Is that your family?' Rin nodded, a slow, small nod. Kagome thought back to what was written on the back of the picture… 'I will remember those who have gone.' 'And…is that all you have left of them?' She asked, hardly daring breathe. Rin once again nodded slowly. Kagome's mid reeled. She had lost her father when she was a child, so she knew the pain of losing one that you love, at a young age. 'But her whole family? And that the only remainder? No wonder she reacted the way she did, it would be like someone trying to take my father's parting gift from me.' With this thought she pulled out the small bluish purple bead and rolled it around her palm. The silence stretched for a while, as both sat lost in thought. 'I…' Kagome began then stopped, and took a deep breath, 'I know what it's like.' Rin looked up, and straight at Kagome, who was, at this point determinedly looking away, staring into space, at the small bead in her hand. 'My father died when I was young, and this is all I have left of his,' she continued her voice steady, as she rolled the bead around in her hand. 'I understand,' she suddenly looked at Rin, 'and I can get another copy of that photo for you if you like.'

Rin stared back, in shock, 'How?' she murmured, not that she'd ever get rid of the one she now held in her hand, 'but it would be nice to have another pristine copy safe somewhere'.

Kagome shrugged before continuing, 'My mum is really into photography, it's kind of a hobby really, but she's done it before.' The bead rolled out of Kagome's palm and onto the floor, Kagome quickly scooped it up and tucked the bead back into her pocket, and turned her blue eyes to Rin, 'So, how about it?'

With that Rin, blinking back tears, thanked her and the memory once again idled behind the invisible barrier in her mind. After that the two girls sat up late, with the glow of the firelight shining on one side of the tent, and talked, until exhausted from the day's hiking and the evenings 'excitement' Rin fell asleep, and Kagome, in no better state, crawled to her own tent and slipped into the abyss of slumber.

-----Meanwhile-----

Far off, in a house in the city, a youkai scented the air for a second. He knew he'd felt it, if only for a second. He'd know that aura anywhere. The Shikon no Tama. He'd traced it for years, following leads, until he'd finally found it almost 12 years ago, he had still been a child then and yet, he'd traced it to this town, even followed the 'protector' around for a while trying to figure out a plan to retrieve it. Then suddenly it seemed the protector had gotten wind of him, and the Shikon no Tama had disappeared as surely as if it had fallen off the face of the planet. Despite his youth, his rage had known no bounds, and he took care of the protector, and because of his youth, he had failed to find out from the protector, where he'd hidden it before he killed him. So he had been left to wait, wait in this city. And wait he had. Finally, it had paid off, true it had only been a flicker, but, he was sure of it, the Shikon no Tama had come to light once more. He smiled evilly, and then suddenly the smile faltered. No, it couldn't be…

-----Back at camp-----

Another youkai had also sensed the Shikon no Tama, however despite being in the vicinity, he simply narrowed his eyes slightly, and relaxed again as the aura disappeared. He had no need for such a thing as that. However, it would have proved bothersome to have to deal with others who came after it, assuming he possessed it. His only annoyance was at the thought that despite his proximity, he still could not tell who held it. In the brief flash of location he had simply known it to be here, at camp.

However any of his class mates, 'class mates' a voice in his head sneered. 'I don't know why you're even here.' He smirked, 'That is because you, unlike I, are not blessed with my intelligence.' He responded to the voice, despite knowing that it was simply two sides of himself, one expressing impatience in his chosen course, the other knowing the conclusion would be worth the wait. Any of his classmates could be the protector. With this thought, and the knowledge that the other youkai and hanyou were sleeping and so had not felt a thing, his mind span back to the scene earlier in the evening.

He had been surprised, at this he felt his insides writhe uncomfortably, he should never be surprised, he was a youkai, superior, nonetheless he had been surprised by the revelation of miko powers in that girl. He began to suspect something when, being slightly bored he had decided to see what all the fuss was about, using his youkai speed he had darted in looked at the picture, and darted out again. Not really any the wiser, but it had given him something to do. No one should have seen him, the other youkai were busy, and his idiotic half brother…well, he growled, enough said. The miko Kikyou, wouldn't have seen him either, despite her thoughts on being terribly powerful, only truly great Mikos could sense youkai movements, Sesshoumaru had long since found she was not one of them. However he had rather thought that the other girl's eyes, the one, who loudly proclaimed something about the new girl, her eyes had flickered to him. This had puzzled him at the time, although he should have seen it beforehand. When her pure white powers blazed into light, all those around with any sensitivity were shocked, well, he amended, except the miko Kikyou, she simply looked dismayed, as if finding that the shark you had convinced yourself was a dolphin, was really a shark all along. However the thing that had astounded him most was that it had disappeared as soon as it had come. As if…no, he thought, Mikos can only consciously shield their powers, and she obviously has no knowledge of her powers, if she has any. However, he was still puzzled, and the more he thought about it the more confused he became. 'See, now you're just giving yourself a headache, that's all that comes from this foolish plan of yours.' The voice sneered again. He pushed the troublesome thoughts away. 'Silence.' He ordered in his cold, indifferent voice. 'This is the only way I can get what is rightfully mine.' He smiled coldly, the other voice subdued, and pondered the new girl, mostly to get his mind off the strange non-miko, what was her name? 'Rin' the other voice supplied sulkily. Ah yes, for some reason she intrigued him, she had seemed completely in another plane during the entire of the evenings 'festivities', and he wondered idly what could have happened to make her that way.

All these thoughts running through the impassive Sesshoumaru's head, and not one of them made it's way onto his face. His face remained as cold, and icy as ever, his eyes also masked. It was a trait he prided himself on, and one that served him well. No one got beneath that mask, and no one knew his thoughts. He was a youkai, and not just any youkai, the Lord of the Western Lands. His interior face twisted, once his plan was over he would once again rule them with an iron fist, and purge it of those who made his human disguise necessary: the humans themselves.

-----The next morning-----

'EVERYONE UP AND AT 'EM, I EXPECT YOU READY TO GO IN HALF AN HOUR.'

Kagome winced, waking up to that yell every morning for the past week, she was starting to fear her alarm clock would never do when she got home. She looked down and realised she'd slept in her clothes, and grinned imagining Sango's exasperated look, 'Again Kags?' She'd say, and she'd be right, Kagome, or Kags, as Sango called her, had found herself on more than one occasion waking up in the clothes she'd been wearing the previous day. 'Ah well, at least I never find myself in clothes different to what I was wearing the previous day, which'd be more worrying.'

She stretched, and rolled out of her camp bed, grabbing her towel and heading to the only source of water, the teachers tent. She arrived and dipped the corner of her towel into the basin left outside and cleaned her face. 'Yuk, I can't wait to get home today…shower here I come!' She then returned to her tent, and grabbed another set of clothes, got changed and then set to finding breakfast. She liked being up early and watching everyone else gradually wake up, and scramble around when they realised they had about five minutes until they had to leave. She hummed 'Dreams' by the Cranberries as she looked through her pack for her bowl. She pulled it out, and poured her last packet of instant corn soup into it. She then added boiling water (taken from the teacher's supply, whilst thanking them profusely), and stirred it for a few moments, taking in the tranquillity of the setting. She saw Rin emerge bleary eyed from her tent and give a slight wave. She waved back, and then the tranquillity was broken. A shadow grazed her leg, travelling up her body until it covered her face, she looked up and all she could see was a silhouette. When she realised who it was, she let out a small groan.


Bec: Ok…I'm spent for today…did I leave enough things in cloudy mist for you liking:p I do try and keep things not too obvious…anyway when you've finished reading, (and then subsequently cursing me, either for my evil writing, or for the little cliff…) Please feel free to drop me a line, gnashing your teeth, and the like! ;) Byee!