A/N: Chapter three and still no reviews. Wow, do I feel unloved. Is it that bad? Is it confusing? Am I totally missing something? Can I do something to improve it or is it a lost cause? Tell me something! Even if it's a bad review! Even if you are telling me that you can't stand to read it, at least tell me something. Give me some clue as to why it's so bad and what, if anything, can be done to fix it.

Please?

I'm on my knees begging here.

Chapter Three

Rainbow Valley Psychiatric Facility

Tokyo, Japan

He looked up at his reflection in the rearview mirror and heaved a huge sigh as he slammed the door of his car then leaned his forehead against the rubber of the steering wheel. How was visiting that old witch supposed to help him? This was pointless.

"Life is meant to be lived, Inuyasha, not spent hidden away. It's been nearly ten years and you still haven't come back to us. Why is that?"

He scowled and raised forcefully from the steering wheel, jabbing the key in the ignition and giving it a hard turn, nearly ruining his motor. Hadn't come back to them...he was awake, wasn't he? He had graduated high school, right? He'd gotten into college. He was living a normal life. That should be enough for her...for all of them. But it wasn't.

"I'm awake, aren't I?"

"You have no longer shut yourself off into the recesses of your own mind, but you continue to shut the world out despite the fact that you are awake and seemingly functional. Tell me, have you made any friends at the university?"

Friends? What the hell did he need friends for? That was just an accident waiting to happen. He was a freak of nature and he knew it. Not only was he among the small minority of the hanyou population - as if that wasn't bad enough - but he'd spent three years of his life in a coma. No...not a coma. If it had been a real coma, it might have been peaceful. Kaede called it a catatonic coma. Inuyasha called it hell.

"I don't need friends."

"Everyone needs friends. Inuyasha, you have to come back into the world of the some time. You'd might as well make it now, while you have the chance at a fresh start before the world leaves you behind.

What did it matter? He'd already been left behind. Didn't she get that? He'd told her before. Every week, actually. His parents had left him behind that night thirteen years ago when his parents and he had had the car wreck. They'd left him alone in that suffocated car. His half brother had abandoned him a long time ago, even after he had to keep the unwanted hanyou in his care. He had been embarrassed to have such a disgrace as a hanyou to mar us up-till-then flawless family tree.

"Try and attend class regularly. Make friends. Regain some semblance of a normal life. You might find you actually like it."

He growled and threw the car in reverse, speeding back towards the co-ed dormitory on campus, where he could be alone...or at least he hoped he'd find the cocky and arrogant wolf youkai he shared the dorm with gone, hounding some female or doing whatever it was he did in his spare time.

Unfortunately the youkai was sitting at the computer desk, scrolling through pages on the Sengoku Jidai. Must've been a history assignment. Damn. Why'd he have to skip that class today? He might have hated school, but he managed to keep his grades up. Ridiculed for being a half breed, people had called him many things but weak and stupid would not be one of them, of that he was determined. Besides, it was what his parents wanted. He owed them that much, even if he was a disappointment with everything else.

"Hey mutt-face." Koga's usual harassing greeting flew to his ears and his scowl deepened. The damn wolf was always so cheerful when he was insulting Inuyasha and it made the white haired hanyou despise him even more. "Try and keep it down. I got a history report to do. There's this cute girl in my class and I think a few good grades will really impress her. She seems to like that kind of thing."

Kami, he hated to have this wolf for anything but he needed that assignment. "What's the report about? When's it due?"

"You'd know if you'd been there." With that Koga replace the head phones he'd draped around his neck and went back to reading the computer screen.

Higarashi Shrine

Tokyo, Japan

Kagome slid the door open and walked in, enthusiastically greeting her family by kissing her grandfather on the forehead and her mother on the cheek. "Don't make too much for dinner. I won't be here. My Trigonometry teacher is way hard and is always planning a major exam. Sango and Miroku and I are crashing with pizza and math problems in Sango's dorm all night. I may stay with Sango if it gets too late. Her roommate went home yesterday, sick, so there's a free bed."

Her grandfather made a face. "Nani? I thought that the boys weren't allowed in the girl's buildings."

Kagome giggled. "You're so old fashioned, jii-chan. The boys can't go into the girls room at the all girl apartments, but Sango is staying in the co-ed dorm. She thought it'd be an interesting experience or something."

Her mother laughed when the old man walked off muttering something about society going down the drain. "So how'd your appointment with Kaede-sama go today?" The elder woman fixed a glass of milk and handed it to the girl who was already diving into the fresh baked cookies.

"Same as usual, I guess. We really just talked about school. She's really glad I'm going into child psychology. Even offered me an internship at the Rainbow Valley Retreat. She said I was really good with the kids last summer. Of course, I was. I used to be one of them."

Keiko smiled and took a cookie herself. "That's great honey. How many people get offered jobs before they ever really get started in school."

"Not many," Kagome agreed around a mouthful before taking a drink of milk. She swallowed and broke off another bite. "Oh, and Kikyo-san came by while I was there. If she calls, give her my new cell number will you, please? She said she'd take me out to lunch next week." She finished the cookie and the milk before starting to the stairs and her room to pack an overnight bag. "Oh! Mama, I almost forgot, there's an extracurricular archery class offered at the school. I was thinking about signing up. What do you think?"

"I think you would enjoy it, if you can manage to balance it with the rest of your schedule," she said gently.

Co-ed Dormitory

Tokyo University

"Ugh!" Sango's exasperated groan woke her with a start and she sat up straight. She had been laying on her stomach on the opposite bed from where Miroku and Sango sat. She was supposed to be reading over the instructions to a particularly difficult equation, but her eyes had drifted closed and the mattress had felt so good...

The sound of a loud thud woke her fully and she saw Miroku lying on the floor with a slightly shocked look.

"I swear if you can't learn to keep your hands to yourself, I'll -" She broke off, still fuming. "Ugh!" She threw her hands in the air and tried to count to ten...it wasn't working.

Someone next door banged on the adjacent wall and yelled for them to keep it down. All three had the decency to blush as they called out apologies.

Kagome yawned and stretched out closing her Trig book. "I say we call it a night. We're never going to make it through our morning classes if we don't get some sleep soon."

Miroku gave them a mischievous grin and stretched out on the floor. "I'm quite comfortable here. Perhaps I should stay and keep you ladies safe while you sleep."

"No!" Kagome and Sango exclaimed in unison and received another knock on the wall to which they exchanged worried glances. A female wolf youkai and a human girl shared that room. Ayame seemed nice enough, but they really didn't want to put her in a bad mood.

Miroku was drug from the floor and roughly pushed out of the door, enjoying every second of it, and the girls giggled as they shut and locked the door.

"You like him, don't you?" Kagome asked as they readied for bed.

"What's not to like?" Sango pulled her night shirt on and took the holder out of her hair. "Besides his infatuation with girl's bums?"

Kagome grinned and pulled the sheets of her bed down. "The only bum he seems to be obsessed with that I can see is yours."

"Ugh! Go to sleep, Kagome-chan."

Dark blue eyes widened again and refocused so that she could see the body that lay limp and covered in a thick red liquid just in front of the red-eyed creature. The creature of her nightmares. "…pa…pa…" It was barely even audible, just a mouthed word that hitched in her throat when those innocent eyes unclouded and saw the ghastly sight before her.

Blood...there was so much blood...it covered her...it covered him...everything was coated in it. Everything was red...just like those eyes...

Her own screams woke her up along with the rest of the floor. There was a tortured moan from next door and Sango glanced at the connecting wall as she sat up in bed, throwing the covers back to check on her friend.

Kagome sat up, breathing hard and tried to stop the tears that had started to fall. She gasped back another sob and Sango sat on the bed next to her, putting an arm around her shoulder.

"We're trying to sleep in here!" Was the complaint from next door. It was the human, not the youkai.

Sango frowned, wait till she saw that girl... "Shh...don't worry about her, Kagome. It was time to get up anyway..." She rubbed her friend's shoulder. "It was just a bad dream."

"No...no it wasn't just a dream." But before she could explain further, the dorm phone rang. Sango leaned across the distance to the computer desk and snatched the cordless phone. Kagome could hear the concerned voice over where she sat.

"What was that? What's going on up there? Is someone hurt?" Miroku questioned. "Sounds like someone was being murdered...is that Kagome crying? What's wrong?"

Sango winced and glanced at the other girl. "It was Kagome. She had a bad dream is all. It really scared her."

"I could come up and comfort her..."

"Can't you be serious for one minute? Now is hardly the time."

Kagome was managing to get a hold of herself just fine now. "It wasn't just a dream. It was more like a memory really."

Sango just looked at her curiously while Miroku was on the other line getting agitated. "What'd she say? Sango...Sango? Hello? Anyone there?"

"What was it about Kagome? Can you tell us? Why'd you scream like that?"

When the scream resounded through the halls on both the first and second floor, Inuyasha sat up, ears twitching, nearly banging his head on the ceiling as he was in the top bunk. It rang in his sensitive ears and brought back painful memories of the screams that had haunted the cottage of his past, screams filled with terror and the sensation of death as the people emitting them ran within the dark corners of their minds trying to escape some unknown and unseen predator. Those days were over, he told himself. He was in the land of the living now , forced from his short lived peace and into this harsh reality of everyone who'd ever wanted him or loved him having been taken from him before his very eyes.

He'd been whimpering he realized too late and swore under his breath when Koga's sleep filled command reached him from the bottom bunk. "Go back to sleep, mutt-face. 's just some girl upstairs. Prob'ly dreamed the mall burned down or somethin'."

Inuyasha laid back, hands laced behind his head. What the hell was going on upstairs? Ugh! Why'd he have to apply for the co-ed dorm? These girls were going to be the death of him. As if the wolf staying on the phone till all hours of the night with his girlfriend, who was just upstairs, wasn't bad enough now he had screaming chicks. Great. Just great.

The sun was already starting to stream in through the curtains and blinds, alerting them that it was indeed morning and a glance at the clock told him that if he was going to attend his morning class, he had better get moving soon before the showers were all occupied.

Well, he had nothing better to do. He'd might as well go to the Chem. Lab...they might let him make something explode...That'd be cool.

As he descended the ladder and dug through the closet for his towel, robe and other bathing supplies, he heard the wolf shifting in his bed. "Pull the shade down on your way out, will ya? 's too bright in here..."

Inuyasha yanked the shade down and walked out, purposefully slamming the door just to irritate the youkai.

Miroku had joined the girls up stairs in Sango's room to talk to Kagome when she decided to tell them what she'd neglected sharing before. She only wanted to say it once and she wasn't even sure she'd be able to get through it then. But she had, barely. Her sentences were broken and she cried violently for several minutes after she'd confessed to witnessing her father having been murdered for no apparent reason, but she had continued after Sango's embraces ad soothing words had helped to calm her.

"I was out of it for several years...three, actually. I was awake, but I wasn't aware," she explained. "Mama said my eyes were open most of the time and I would trash about, screaming and crying, but that I also slept. That isn't like a typical coma and that's what had had them so worried. I hadn't really been injured that night besides some glass in my foot and there was no evidence of physical trauma which is usually the leader into a comatose state. She said it was just like I lost my soul. My body was there, but my spirit was gone. It's a condition that Kaede and the doctors at Rainbow Valley Psychiatric Facility called a catatonic coma. My physiologist, Dr. Kaede Ten'nou owns the clinic here in Tokyo as well as a large estate in the country called Rainbow Valley Retreat where most of her 'in-house' patients stay during their care. I've been seeing her once a week since I woke up. It was her older sister, Kikyo, who saved me that night."

Miroku sat across from her, legs crossed Indian style and wearing only Scooby Doo boxers and a blue robe. His short hair, usually worn in a pony tail, hung loose round his face in a messy mop as he leaned forward, intrigued. "Catatonic coma? As in parapsychology? Most experts don't even classify it as a valid condition. Most don't even believe it exists."

Kagome harrumphed under her breath. "Trust me, it does."

"I've read a little about it," Sango told them quietly. She sat next to Kagome, her arm still wrapped around her friend. "There isn't much documentation on the subject. Your doctor seems to be the most published at the moment." She tapped her chin, thoughtfully. "From what I've read, no one seems to really know what happens during the 'darkened' period."

Kagome made another face. "I'll write a book one day. Hell, maybe I'll be a millionaire afterwards."

"But, will you have proof?" Miroku leaned closer towards her and she instinctively pulled the sheet closer to her chin feeling exposed in the thin tank top that she wore. The boy was a pervert after all.

"I'll donate my brain to science and maybe they'll be able to pull my memories out or something."

"I just think it's amazing you remember being under when most patients who come out of a coma report that their last memory is of the thing they experienced just before the coma set in," Sango mused with that 'I want to study you' look that Miroku had been giving her earlier.

"Well, now I know I'm a freak." Kagome rolled her eyes. "A catatonic coma is way different from the normal kind. We've been over that." She sighed and let the blanket fall, getting over her wariness of Miroku. "I know what I experienced and I know now how much time elapsed between my escape and my return, but in that place it was just one or two really long days. I was four when I ran. Though my body was that of an seven year old when I woke up, I was still only four in my mind."

"We are really going to have to discuss this more in depth -"

"If you want to, Kagome," Sango interrupted. "If you don't want to talk about it we will understand and we won't ask anything else. Will we, Miroku-kun?" The boy looked at her for a minute and then nodded. His friendship with Kagome and Sango was more important than his curiosity.

Kagome shrugged. "I talk about it every week with Kaede-san. There's no reason why I shouldn't tell you guys. I don't tell people usually because they'll think I'm weird and start backing away from me, not wanting to get infected with my oddness." She smiled finally. "You guys wouldn't do that?"

"Of course not!"

"You're no stranger than Miroku..."

"Hey!"

"Well, it's true..."

Kagome cleared her throat to end the argument she knew could go on for at least an hour if allowed. "Besides, there's not much to tell. I don't know how I kept from getting bored to tears except that I was just to afraid to notice..." She glanced at the blue flower shaped clock on Sango's wall. "But, right now we should start getting ready. I have Chem. Lab in like half an hour and I look like crap."

Chemistry Lab, Room 204

Tokyo University

"Glad you could finally join us, Mr. Takahashi," Professor Aino greeted the white haired hanyou as he entered. Kagome only briefly glanced up from her doodles to regard him, not really taking much notice of him. "Now, if you would just take a seat, I'll continue with class." Once the students seemed to give her their full attention once again she cleared her throat. "As I was saying, we spent our first class meeting reviewing the assignment outline and what I expect of you this semester. Today you'll be given our lab partners. I want no arguments, no complaints, and no asking for trade offs. In the medical field, as well as any other field, you may be going into, you will have to deal with many kinds of people..."

She'd lost Kagome's attention by that time. Her sleep the night before had been fitful even before she'd woken up screaming and little bit little her muddled brain was starting to drift off...

"Ahem...Miss Higarashi, would you like to go meet your lab partner or just continue to sit there, staring out the window all morning?" Professor Aino's voice brought her back and she blushed brightly.

"Honto ni sumimasen," she stuttered, gathering her things. "Umm..."

"Mr. Takahashi, will be your partner. Raise your hand please, Mr. Takahashi."

He just barely did so and she practically ran to the station where he sat, falling into the stool next to him. "Konnichiwa, I'm Kagome Higarashi,' she said quietly but with a bright smile...until she got a look at his face and ears. Then her eyes widened and she gave him a nasty, scolding look. "You!" she hissed. "You're the boy from Kaede-san's office! You could've at least apologized, you know."

"For what?" He obviously hadn't recognized her. "What'd I do?"

"You shoved me into the wall, practically ran me over even. Most civilized people would have waited for me to step aside or even held the door open for me."

"I was in a bit of a hurry."

She gave him an indignant look and turned her nose up at him. "That's hardly an excuse."

"Are you gonna dwell on this very long?"

"I'll make lab a nightmare for you until I get an apology."

"Fine. Whatever. I apologize."

She scrunched up her nose in a way he couldn't help but find himself thinking was cute. "That wasn't very sincere."

He shrugged. "You requested an apology. You didn't mention sincerity. You should really work on being specific...not that I'd ever really mean it."

"Well, that's nice to know. You know I get along with almost everyone. I can't think of one person that I haven't liked or at least respected...till now. I really don't think I like you."

"The feeling's mutual." He found he was enjoying the annoyance he was causing her.

She rolled her eyes and picked up the beaker the professor was indicating. This was going to be a long semester.

Hanyou - half youkai/half human

Youkai - daemon

Nani - what?

Jii-chan - grandfather