A/N: T.T Only one chapter left...T.T I'm so sad! I swear, I'm going to cry while writing the final chapter for this story. It's like my baby's all grown up, and it's been less than a year. So depressing...

Anyway, before I get into a little funk that I can't get out of, I should move on. News is that I'm probably going to finish this by tomorrow. More news is if I don't, I won't get an update in until next week. Why? Because ANIME DETOUR IS TOMORROW! X3 Yes, I get to go to an anime convention with my friends and my sister and her friends...I'm so excited!

Enough of that. I'd like to say that this chapter is longer than normal because I couldn't stop too early...I mean, if I did, the next chapter would be Truth length!

But the next chapter should be close anyways. I have a lot planned, and I'm going to cram it all into the final chapter as a thank you to anyone and everyone who has read my stories.

Also, like I've been saying, if you haven't answered the question of a sequal, please do. I really do have one planned if you want one, but I'll only do it if I get enough people going for it. Say...around ten people. 'Kay?

Well, enough of this. I'm sure you're all on the edge of your seats awaiting the next chapter, so I shan't disappoint you!

A week had already gone by. After being checked by the doctors, Kagome had gone back into her normal routine. Of course, that was excepting the presence of a certain fox.

She still couldn't believe that he hadn't told her. There were plenty of times where Suuichi- Youko- Yuuki- whoever he was- could have walked up to her and said 'Hey, I'm not only your pet fox, but I'm a human with a demon's soul residing in my body. You've also met every one of my personalities. Hope you don't mind'.

Kagome rolled over in bed and buried her face in her pillow. An entire week, and she still couldn't stop berating herself for not seeing all of the clues. Like the fact that Yuuki was always gone when I met one of the others, or that the others only came on one of the moon cycles.

It didn't help at all that, as angry as she was, she still missed them.

Kagome took a deep breath and screamed. Every time she closed her eyes, she could see one of their faces. It didn't make sense, she should be furious! She should want to rip off their heads and put them on pikes in her front lawn. She should want to do sacraficial rituals in the darkest hours of the darkest nights, making offerings to one of the mythalogical gods in the form of a fox. She should chew them out and walk away from them, never regretting anything she did except agreeing to take them in.

As her voice died out, she knew she couldn't do it. Somehow, that theif had stolen one thing that she had refused to give up to even the sweetest person. And it irked her.

Why her? Why not one of her friends? Why couldn't they have been honest people, hard working and kind and sweet and... She stopped that train of thought, as it was just reminding her of Suuichi.

She bit her lip. Kagome hadn't even had the courage to let him try and get out of trouble. She had fled like a little girl, like a coward. She had never done anything like that before, even when Naraku had went after her. Even when her boss had tried to blackmail her. And look how that turned out, she growled to herself.

She turned her mind to what the investigators had found out. According to them, the building had collapsed from poor upkeep. They had found two dead bodies buried deep under the rubble. Somehow, they also found evidence of Shippo and Kagome's kidnapping.

It was only recently that Kagome discovered why Shippo had kept visiting her. And it made her stomach churn from the sheer inhumanity of it all.

She should have read the signs of abuse wrought on the young boy's face. She should have gone to visit him, checking up on everything where he lived. She should have pressed when she began having suspicions about his well-being. She should've...

Enough with the 'should have's'! she screamed. I wouldn't have done anything different!

But thinking about Shippo, and him being in the hospital, she couldn't help but feel guilty. She felt it was her fault that he was unable to walk anymore, strapped to a hospital bed in Sango's ward with hostile demons surrounding him. She felt it was her fault that he lost his only home that he had ever known. She felt it was her fault that his only family, Kanna and Chinchou, had gone out looking for him and disappeared without a trace. And there was nothing she could do to lighten the guilt that plagued her every minute of her existance.

Knowing she had to get up, for she had work to do, Kagome reluctantly turned over. She had recently been transfered to Sango's hospital, as her old one was closed for investigation. Himitsu was working all the way across town, and it made work very lonely. Sango was way too busy to hang out with Kagome, and the young brunette hadn't had a chance to meet anyone yet.

The only thing that kept her at her job was the fact that she had been put in charge of Shippo's rehabilitation program. She was going to be able to work at helping him adjust to being a demon in a wheelchair, and regardless of how much she deserved to rot in a jail cell for things that she had done, she felt like this would help atone somewhat to her crimes.

Standing, Kagome walked into the bathroom and began to mechanically get ready for work. She would go to the hospital, visit Shippo, then throw herself into her responsibilities and spend the entire day not thinking about the demon theif that had somehow stolen her heart.

After Kagome had ran away, Kurama had just stood there. His arm dropped to his side as he stared after the woman who had captivated him in such a short time. Youko was completely silent. Neither knew what to say to the other, even though they could both feel the pain that was so unfamiliar to the two entities.

An eternity seemed to stretch before they were snapped out of their funk by a certain short demon. Hiei was standing next to them, his gaze seeming to bore through their very existance. The police swarming the place seemed to pick up on his hostility towards humans (however vague it had become over the years) and left the two demons a rather large area to themselves.

Kurama just turned to him, his face going completely neutral. He nodded in acknowledgement.

"Yuusuke sends his regards. What happened?" Hiei wasn't trying to meet his eyes, which Kurama was thankful for. He didn't want to have to see anything else. He wanted his last sight to be the eyes of the woman he cared for.

"Nothing much. A building collapsed and the two demons are dead." Kurama had a certain finality to his tone that spoke of wanting to be alone.

Of course, Hiei had never left anyone alone when he didn't see an absolute need to. So he asked "What did you do to break the enchantment?"

Kurama shook his head. "I don't know. One minute I was a fox charging a demon, the next, I was in my demon form."

"And you didn't bother to try and find out why that happened?"

"I didn't see a need to."

Hiei frowned slightly. "That isn't like you, fox."

Kurama turned his back to the building. Somehow, it felt like he was turning his back on everything that had happened to him in the past few months, and that was not something he wanted to do. Yet it wasn't his choice and so he was left with no way to continue forward. "I haven't been myself lately."

Hiei nodded and watched Kurama leave in the direction of his apartment. The fox could afford a week or so of time to himself, but after that Hiei would have to report to the brat, as loathe as he was to do it. His friend really needed time away from everything to sort things out. As much as Hiei knew that, Koenma wouldn't buy it.

And so Kurama had returned to his apartment and locked himself in his room for a few days. It wasn't like him, but he really hadn't felt like himself since he had met Kagome. Just the thought of her made him sink into a new wave of depression, though he would never admit to being that down.

He made sure to contact his mother, letting her know that he had gone 'on vacation' and was back. He apologized for not telling her, then arranged for them to meet in a month or so for lunch. It was the only contact he had had with the world outside his room for one entire week.

Now, while he was sitting on his bed, he wondered what he would do. He would have to return to work, catch up on his bills...no matter how he felt, life went on. He knew he didn't have a lot of time left to return to the society he had been absent from. He was reluctant to return alone.

He had hardly slept at all in the week since Kagome had ran away from him. He couldn't seem to get comfortable. After sleeping next to the young woman every night for over two months (was it really only that long that he had lived with her?), he missed her comforting presence.

Kurama shook his head, telling himself he needed to get his mind off of her for a while. As soon as he turned his mind's eye away from Kagome's glowing face, his mind immediately siezed on the image of the young fox he had grown to like.

He hadn't visited Shippo in a while, and the last time he had seen the boy was when he was in the warehouse. It would be nice for him to visit, especially since they could talk normally now that he was back in his human form. The boy had already known Yuuki was Youko, so it wouldn't take much to stretch his mind to accomidate the fact that Youko was also Suuichi.

It will be much easier than if I had tried to convince Kagome of it, at least, he told himself. Making the decision, he stood and began to dress for a hospital visit.

End Chapter
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