Three

Kagome walked home and poured her self a glass of Yadkin Valley's best red wine. She sat on the floor contemplating the sword. Fuck it! What the hell. Isn't that what Inuyasha would say.

Let's do it! I will sooner or later anyway. Might as well be now.

Hmmm. How do I release him?

That was the question of the hour. She grasped the sword and called. "Inuyasha! This is your Kagome! I order you to my side."

Nothing. She wasn't surprised. Following orders or instructions had never been his forte.

Okay, what next girlie? Well just for kicks…

"Sit!"

Kiki whined and fell to the floor in a disgusted pile of fur. Then she audibly sighed, "Humph".

Kagome was gone a bit from the wine and she laughed. "Don't like it either do ya girl? He really hated it." She stood with the broken sword in her hands.

"Watch this Kiki! Iron Reaver, Soul Stealer!" She howled and waved the sword about her den before remembering that was a power Inuyasha possessed, not the sword.

"Whoops! That wasn't it. How about this? Backlash!"

She spun around and fell over on to the soft plush carpet.

"That wasn't right either. Hmmm…." In her hazy alcohol induced cloud Kagome was careless and she cut the palm of her hand on the end of Tetsusaiga's rough blade.

"Shit! Blood. Kiki where do I keep the Band-Aids?" Kagome stood and stumbled up the stairs to her master bedroom. She stood in the bathroom and ran cold water over her hand. Then she dried it and wrapped a bandage around her palm. Tomorrow I am going to feel so stupid.

And that was when she heard it.

The soft noise of a foot step on her stairway. Ever since she was forced to live alone she was careful to note every little noise. Just in case. This one was human. Or at least human sized. She shook her head to clear it. What had she just read in the Charleston Post and Carrier? A man was breaking into the homes of single women and raping them? Yeah, that was it.

Where was Kiki when you need her? Hmph. That was easy. She was either helping her new friend steal me blind or was cowering in the corner somewhere. Golden Retrievers were simply the WORST guard dogs.

Kagome reached behind her door for the baseball bat she kept handy. She'd wanted a gun but remembered something Hojo had told her. "Women with guns are more often over powered and killed with their own weapon than not."

She griped the bat so tightly her knuckles turned white. She listened with all her might. The footsteps stopped. She quietly entered her bedroom but it was empty. Okay good. It's all clear in here. She wiped the sweat from her brow and turned to face her bedroom door.

The door was clear. She proceeded with caution to the door way and peered out.

The hall was empty as well.

But she spied a tall shadow on the stairs. Whoever it was probably thought they were hiding but she knew the stairway well enough to recognize what didn't belong. It looked as if the intruder had the Tetsusaiga. Kagome smirked. The joke was on him. That broken sword was no match for her wooden bat.

She backed into her bedroom and slunk along the wall until she felt the door to the old servant's stairway. She quietly opened the door and slid silently down the stairs to the kitchen. She was wearing socks without shoes and this was to her benefit as she padded across the tiled kitchen floor. She peered out the kitchen door and slipped into the den, stealthily slipping up on her intruder from behind.

She was in the den and had her back to the wall and crept up on the front staircase. She saw the man's shadow and knew he had not moved. She took one more step and he was in plain view.

Kagome's breath stopped. She dropped the bat onto the newly refinished wood floor and fell to her knees. The man with his back to her was wearing a red kimono made from the fur of a fire rat.

Her head spun. She should have known her blood would be the key. It's always about the blood isn't it? I can only pray I did not make an egregious mistake. With that, she fell face first to the floor and Kagome lost herself in a temporary void of blackness.


"Witch! How dare you imprison me in my own Tetsusaiga?"

Oh, my skull will never be the same. I really should give up alcohol all together.


Wait. Tetsusaiga?

It's really him and he's really pissed. Well no big surprise there. He was pissed the last time I freed him by pulling the arrow loose that held him to that damned tree.

Kagome heard the sound of his bare feet against the wood floor as he approached her. Good. I must have only been out a moment. I'd hate for Inuyasha to see me faint. I'd never hear the end of it. Damn her! She was reacting as if she'd seen him only yesterday. Girl, get a grip! She scolded herself.

She could almost hear him sniffing the air. He knew something wasn't normal. Then it happened. What she had spent the last thirteen years waiting to hear.

"Kagome? Is that you?"

His feet stopped right before her nose and she was happy to note they were a bit fuzzier than the last time she'd seen him. Maybe he'd been older than twenty when he was sealed into his own sword. She drank more than she had first realized and the fall to the floor hadn't helped.

She moaned slightly and started to push herself up from the floor. But Kagome needn't have bothered. He was right there and rolled her over onto her back.

She gazed up at him and squinted in the light trying to get a good look at him. The face that swam above hers was not bearded but it was not that of a youth either. She remembered Sesshoumaru and realized he never seemed to have any beard or stubble either. Maybe yokai don't have to shave?

"Inuyasha?" She whispered.

"Kagome!" He pulled her to him and hugged her against his chest. She sat limply in his embrace.

"Hojo…" She said.

"What?" He asked without bothering to move her.

"Hojo found you. He brought you to me."

He stiffened. "Kagome, is Hojo here?"

She sniffed. "No, he's dead."

Then all her worst nightmares came true and she broke down into a sobbing mess. He held her in blessed silence while she cried.


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