It took a little longer than I would have like to update, but here I am. I haven't quite figured out where I want to go with this story yet, but within a few chapters I will likely have the entire thing plotted out to some degree. I am really sorry if I don't update as quickly as you would like, but I am nearing the end of my novel. So close…

Okay then, here is what you've been waiting for (at least I hope you've been waiting for it)…

Once Upon a Time

Chapter 3

By: Allore NightShadow

"I thought you were supposed to be here three hours ago."

And standing before her was Taisho-san. He didn't look happy.

"Um… I called yesterday to inform you that I would be late upon coming today." Even to Kagome's own ears, it sounded a meager excuse much like the ones she remembered her classmates giving when they didn't feel like doing their homework.

"I don't care whether you are dying. If you are supposed to be here at 9:00, you will be here at 8:30. Do I make myself clear?"

Kagome glared at the man before her, but wisely kept her mouth shut. She didn't try to force an assent past her lips because once her mouth was open, she didn't know if she would be able to control it. She was often too blunt, one of the downfalls she had recently become concerned with. It had cost her many a job in the past few years.

He glared at her.

She glared at him.

He glared at her.

"Foolish ningen." Kagome shook her head at the wayward thought. Maybe he reminded her of someone she had once seen, a character from a movie or television show.

"What exactly would you have me do here? I was not informed." Kagome recalled the phone call she had received five days prior.

"Good afternoon. I would like to speak to Higarashi-san."

"This is her." Kagome had replied, half expecting the person on the other side of the phone to be a solicitor who she would promptly hang up on.

"This is Saiko from West International. Our company president asked me offer you a position in our company." Kagome had no idea what was going on. She had not sent an application into West International, not yet anyway.

"I don't understand." Kagome replied.

"Look," said the woman on the other side of the line, more exasperated than rude. "I don't understand either. The president tells me to do something and I do it or I get fired. He told me to call a Miss Kagome Higarashi and offer her a job and that's what I do. I don't know what goes on in his head. Now, do you want it or not?"

Kagome had no reason not to. "Alright. I'll do it."

"You will have papers delivered to you by the end of the day giving you phone numbers and information you might need. Please enter the building, you will find the address in the papers, at 9:00 on Monday morning. Thank You very much."

"But wait," Kagome said, "What am I supposed to be doing?" She heard only the dial turn in return.

Later that day, the papers had arrived. It was more like one paper with her name, a telephone number to the front desk, and a floor number.

"What are you going to do?" Taisho-san repeated back to her as he began to walk towards a set of double doors.

Kagome nearly had to run to keep up with him.

"You will be heading my special projects department."

Kagome nearly tripped, but managed to catch herself. A job like that should go to someone who had been in the company for years, not someone like her. Why? Had he just picked her at random to do this. The only thing that managed to get out of her mouth was "Why?"

Taisho-san stopped and faced her causing Kagome to nearly collide with him. He had his people research the best prospective for this job. The applicant had to be able to accept the stranger of people and events, had to be intelligent and had to be very strong willed. For some reason this girl's name kept coming up. Kagome Higarashi, her files went, telling how she lived on shrine grounds, had degrees in Japanese History, Japanese Literature, Japanese Mythology, and the list went one. She had managed a nearly impossible number of degrees in the few years she had went to school. She took so many classes that he was sure that she had not even time enough to sleep.

"You were chosen for this position," he said, carefully weighing what information he could give to her, "because you are human." It was the greatest truth.

Kagome's eyes widened, not sure what that meant. She looked towards Taisho-san in order to demand he explain his statement, but he was gone.

"Higarashi-san?" Asked a women peering out of the double doors.

"Hai." She responded.

"Please come with me." The woman, a nameless beauty, led her through the bustle of the room to the end where yet another set of door lay. They opened to reveal a beautiful office.

Kagome was shocked. Things were not supposed to be this easy. Nobody was supposed to find her and give her a job. She was supposed to work her way through the ranks until she died just below the position that she wanted. She was sure she was missing something, that something was just evading her sight.

It had to be something important. Kagome just didn't know what it was.

(o)

It was easy to hate. After those years that Kagome spent ignoring the hateful words that Inuyasha sent her way, ignoring the way that he always chose Kikyou over her, how she was always just what was left of Kikyou. Kagome was able to hate him.

When push came to shove, she had thought that staying by him would have been enough to show him that, hey, I am Kagome. Here I am. Here I am. But no, he never saw it.

They were fighting Naraku. Sesshoumaru and InuYasha side by side, creating a deadly dance that the brother were always meant to dance. Kagome fighting with all the skill that she had managed to gain during her journey in the Edo Judai.

They fought side by side as Allies should when the final battle came.

And then Kikyou joined, not for good and not for evil, but for her soul. All she wanted was her soul. It wound up being only Kikyou before the demise of Naraku and when she attacked Kagome and Kagome responded with the holy arrow that none of the tainted could deter, Kikyou fell.

Had Naraku not fallen when that holy arrow pierced through Kikyou's body and hit him, he may not have been defeated. Inuyasha stopped fighting when he realized that kikyou had fallen.

Kagome gather the last of the Shikon no kakera and when they were all held in her hands, they melded.

"What is your wish?" The long lost voice of Midoriko voice in her head. But Kagome didn't answer with the pure wish that everyone knew she could make, she gave the now whole Shikon no Tama to Inuyasha.

"I want you to have it, Inuyasha. I love you." It was the final trust of her love.

He took it from her, refusing to meet her eyes. His body was stiff and had she seen the red bleeding into his eyes, Kagome never would have given the Shikon no Tama to him.

"I love Kikyou." He growled. "You killed Kikyou."

Kagome felt as if a hand had clenched her heart and squeezed. "Kikyou died fifty years ago, Inuyasha. That wasn't Kikyou."

Inuyasha wasn't listening. All he seemed to see was Kikyou felled by Kagome's arrows, over and over and over again.

"Kikyou should be here, not you. Go away Kagome, and never come back. I don't want to be forced to kill what is left of Kikyou."

The Shikon no Tama answered. Shippou cried out. Sango concealed the hate for the creature that would take the only family she had left from her. Miroku was always silent. Sesshoumaru was walking away as if he didn't care, but his attention was trained on what was happening behind him.

"But I'm Kagome." She whispered as she began to fade from existence in that time. "I'm Kagome. Can't you see me. Here I am. I'm Kagome." And then she was gone.

It plagued her dreams.

She never remembered.

Try to grip a handful of sand within the confines of your hand and it trickles away as freely as if you had no hold on it. The pieces left are always the ugliest.

(o)

Allore NightShadow

Once again, not as long as I would have liked, but I really wanted to get this out to you. Please tell me what you think so far. Please forgive me for the spelling errors of the previous chapters (and this one if I didn't check it thoroughly enough) I'm off to take an SAT and don't want to make wait.

Thanks to all my reviewers:

Spirit-Wolf25

Gothic ember

Toxicollipop

Scruffy Wolf

Kris

Trouble In Shangri-La

Obsessed-anime-lover

And any others if you weren't mentioned.

Please Review, I love to know what you think, even if it's not so good.