"Inuyasha!"
Tears streamed down the eighteen-year-old girl's cheeks as she stood motionless, staring into the void. The ends of her long, dark brown hair brushed against her waist when she collapsed to her knees and began crying into the palms of her hands. The silver ring on her left ring finger shimmered a little.

"No… you can't be gone!" she sobbed, finding it suddenly hard to breathe. "You /can't/ be! Not… not again…"
Just then, when everything seemed to be over, a voice in the back of her head rang out. It told her, in a soft, calm tone: "He's never coming back." The girl's eyes grew wide; she recognized that voice as soon as she heard it. Her heartbeat rose, her mind raced. She felt the blood pulsing through her fingertips.
"Naraku…" she spat angrily, taking her hands from her face and looking up. What she saw when she raised her gaze was exactly as she had suspected; the malicious spider-hanyou known as Naraku, smirking down at her as though his victory was something to celebrate.
"Why, my dear Kagome… why are you crying?" he asked. "It's not as though that dog will be missed." He reached down to help the small girl to her feet, but she swatted his hand away and stood up on her own.
"You!" she cried, pointing at him. He showed no sign of a reaction. "You killed him!" Still, the half-demon only grinned. "You /killed/ Inuyasha!"
This got a laugh out of him. Even that tiny chuckle sent chills dancing up and down Kagome's spine. "I could kill you too, if I wanted to."
Glaring furiously at Naraku through the strands of shoulder-length hair which hung in her face, the miko was tempted to laugh. "There's no chance."

"Oh, but there is, and you /know/ it." Naraku grasped Kagome's chin with his right hand, holding tight, and leaned in so far that he was sure she could feel him breathe. The only reason he couldn't sense her breath on his lips was because she'd held it.
"Let me go," Kagome said sternly. "Get off of me/now/."
Naraku chuckled again and released the girl's face. She rubbed her chin subconsciously as she took a step back.

"You may leave, Kagome," said Naraku, holding his hands out to his sides. "I will open the portal and allow you to return to where you belong."
Thankful for this, she forced herself to nod and even thank her husband's murderer. She took one more look around at the pitch-black void, silently cursing the hanyou who stood before her for ever summoning her to that hellish place. As she did so, Naraku positioned his hands in front of himself with his arms outstretched, and from them, a swirling black-and-gray ball of energy seemed to form out of nothing. As soon as she possibly could, Higurashi Kagome disappeared into that energy, vanishing from Naraku's sight.
But not from his reach.