AN: Okay, so here's the stats. I haven't been able to finish chapter 5 yet, mainly cause of homework. Who knew all these projects would take so freakin long? Anyway,
I only got three reviews (hooray for 3), so for the three that replied, thanks a bunch and I'm sorry you have to wait so long for a chapter that's already finished. It's all about the time! School's fun and all, but... it's still school...

hEyKyRa13

Protect Me

Chapter 2

The Death of Kagome Higurashi

SMACK

"I can't believe it! We almost had him!"

"Chill out. We almost had nothing. Don't take your frustration out on the steering wheel. It didn't do anything."

Eyes snapped to glare at the speaker. "Are you kidding? This is the first time we've caught him in the act! We should have gone in for the kill! Man to man! Mono e mono!"

A second pair of eyes rolled exasperatingly. "Right, and after his cronies popped out of the black van across the street and dismembered you, it'd turn into Man to Bucket o' Man parts."

The first speaker chose to ignore the statement in favor of throwing his partner a sly glance. "So, was that a hint of concern I heard in your voice, dear Sango?"

Chocolate brown eyes bore into him, making him shrink back despite himself. "Miroku, if this guy weren't just a few spots above you on my hit list, I'd be one of his next customers, begging him to do the female population a huge favor by castrating you."

The young man named Miroku grinned sheepishly. "At this point, I'm not quite sure of who's more dangerous."

Sango smirked satisfactorily before returning her attention to their third party lying on the backseat next to her. "As long as we keep that clear, I'm happy."

Miroku couldn't help but smile and shake his head, returning his gaze to the road. "Anything to keep you happy, my love."

"Miroku," Sango began, but was unable to continue due to the newcomer starting to stir.

Kagome groaned, as she was first aware of the pounding between her ears. Her hand reached to cup her forehead and shade her eyes as she cautiously opened one. The first thing she noticed was the lovely woman leaning over her, her long, dark tresses spilling over her shoulder and her pale, sandy skin scrunched in concern. Her first response was to shy away nervously.

Sango had expected as much, and tried to smile reassuringly. "Hey, don't worry. I'm a good guy."

"Don't you mean we're the good guys?" Miroku spoke up.

Sango rolled her eyes. "I know what I meant, and I know you know it, too. To any woman, you are the bad guy!" she hissed. Smiling again at Kagome, she winked. "Ignore him," she advised, tilting her head in his direction. "It'll save you a lot of trouble."

Kagome's head spun around, but she instantly regretted it as her mind swirled in whirl of pain. She slowly turned back to Sango, groaning again.

"Are you okay?"

Kagome opened her mouth to speak, but found herself surprisingly void of speech. With a frown, she cleared her throat and tried again.

"My head," she whispered hoarsely.

"See!" Sango cried, looking up angrily at the driver. Kagome slowly swiveled her head around, this time successfully making the effort without too much consequence, but could see little more than a short, black ponytail and a slim, silver stud in one ear. "I told you you were too rough on her! She's too tiny for you to be slamming your hulk into!"

Kagome noticed a pair of cool coffee colored eyes glancing back at them from the rear-view mirror, brows furrowed. "Hey, I saved her from being shot in the head, didn't I?"

Sango snorted. "You couldn't really call it 'saving' if you winded up killing her in the process."

"But I didn't kill her," Miroku pointed out stubbornly.

"Hmph," Sango replied noncommittally, returning to Kagome with a smirk. "I'm afraid you can thank that," she jerked her thumb up at Miroku, "idiot for your headache."

Kagome allowed a small smile and sank her head back onto the seat. "Thank you, Idiot," she muttered.

Miroku simply threw his head back and laughed. Sango grinned and clapped Kagome's shoulder approvingly. "I knew I'd like you."

It took a while for Sango to stop smiling and notice that Kagome wasn't joking around with them. Her hand covered her face, blocking her off from view.

"Hey, are you alright?" Sango asked, gingerly peeling her fingers back from her face. She gasped in shock. Kagome's face was stained with tears.

"What's the-"

"I'm the idiot!" Kagome screamed, rolling to her other side to hide her face from the others. Sango glanced up at Miroku who was able to offer little more than a supportive look. Sango sighed and tried resting a hand on her shoulder, which was trembling terribly.

"You're... you're not an idiot-"

"Yes I am!" Kagome insisted, sobbing uncontrollably. "I'm such an idiot! H-Hojo... how could he... he's dead! Hojo's dead! Because I'm an idiot! I'm such an idiot! He's dead! He's gone! Gone forever... because... cause of me, oh Hojo!"

Finally, Kagome gave in to Sango's calming back rubs and soft, comforting words and leaned up enough to collapse into the woman's arms, weeping and moaning incoherently into her shoulder. Sango only knew to allow her tears to flow and to continue rubbing her back.

"Sure wish I could help," Miroku mentioned from the front.

Sango threw him a glare that forced Miroku's gaze away from both women. Shaking her head, Sango merely sighed and waited for Kagome's tears to subside. "I know there's... nothing... absolutely nothing I can do to... to ease your pain, but-"

"Can I just go home, now?" Kagome begged softly, sniffling.

Sango couldn't speak, looking up to Miroku for support. She heard his deep sigh before he spoke. "I'm sorry, Kagome, but I'm afraid you can't go home."

Kagome sat up, tears frozen on her face, looking wildly back and forth between Sango and Miroku, not believing what she was hearing. "What!? What do you mean I can't go home! After everything I've just been through, who are you to tell me I can't go home? To my family? And how do you know who I am? Who the hell are you!?"

Sango tried to calm her down. "Please, settle down! I'll explain everything, I promise. You deserve to know that much, at least."

Kagome had to force herself to sit back, but her fear and concern still showed plainly on her face and her hands clenched the fabric of her skirt apprehensively.

Sango figured this was about as calm as she was going to get, and so began with a sigh. "My name is Sango. Miroku and I are undercover FBI agents that deal with some of the sneakier criminals that are too big a case for regular law enforcements."

"You know the guy you saw?" Miroku jumped in. "The tall, dark, bony guy?" Kagome nodded. "Well, we've been tracking this guy down for years. You should consider yourself lucky that you got out-"

Sango abruptly kicked the back of his seat, silencing him immediately. "His name is Onigumo Naraku," she continued. "The Wall Street Journal knows him as Bill Gates' rival, owning several of the world's biggest corporation and at least a third of the stock of everything else worth his time, but that's just his day face."

"Yeah," Miroku replied heatedly, "you should see his entertainment interview. 'Yes, Barbara, in my spare time I like to do a little golfing, maybe some camping with a few of my billionaire buddies up in the Swiss Alps, a bit of moonlight murdering...'"

"Murder?" Kagome gasped.

"It's true," Sango admitted, nodding. "We've been suspecting for some time now that Naraku's been using his big shot connections to take down a lot of important people. People including business presidents, political senators, even big shots in our division. We've lost a lot of friends on the force because they got too close to cracking this guy's defenses."

"He works by using and abusing people," Miroku added. "He manipulates them through deception, and he's got the goods to do it, too- money, power, fame, a name spoken to the right people- anything a person could want he's got access to. Once he's done using them, they become what he likes to call 'dispensable'."

"Like the woman from the alley," Kagome said.

Sango nodded. "We didn't have time to identify her when we came in. Frankly, we were more concerned with the living girl than the dead one."

"And even though he never intended on letting you go alive, by concentrating on you, we gave Naraku the opportunity he needed to get rid of the body and any evidence linking that girl to him," Miroku added gravely. "That's what he does. If someone gets too close, or he's done using one of his people, he disposes of them quickly and quietly, then completely erases his trail, making him nearly impossible to snag."

"Nothing we have is hardcore enough to pin him," Sango replied angrily. "Our superiors say our stuff is too theoretical, and that we need something to solidly prove he's guilty."

"Something like what?" Kagome asked.

"Something like you," Miroku stated bluntly, watching her from the rear-view mirror.

"Me!?" Kagome squeaked, jumping up in surprise. She spun around to look at Sango, who confirmed his comment with a nod. "B-but why m-me!?"

"More specifically," Sango corrected, "we need a witness to testify against him in trial, which is exactly what you are after kind of being an audience of one to Naraku's murder of that girl and... Hojo."

"See," Miroku continued, "like we said before, you're the first we've managed to snatch from Naraku alive."

Sango snorted. "Heck, you're the first we've managed to snatch from Naraku, period."

"B-but," Kagome stammered, trying to make sense of all this at once, feeling her headache return with the effort, "I-if I'm so important t-to getting him in t-trouble... w-well, w-won't he... you k-know..."

"Try to get rid of you?" Miroku filled in. "Yup."

"Miroku!" Sango exclaimed, appalled.

"But hey!" he replied cheerfully, throwing Kagome a cheerful grin. "That's what you got us for, right?"

"S-so that's... that's why I can't... go home?" Kagome asked, already predicting the answer.

Sango nodded sadly. "I'm afraid so. Right now, Naraku knows you're alive, and with us, and will do everything in his power to change that. So, for the time being, you have to stay absolutely as far from your home as possible."

"Remember, Kagome," Miroku added, "this isn't just for your safety, but for the safety of your family as well. Naraku is not beneath torturing a victim's family to get what he wants, which, in this case, is your life."

Kagome stared at him with wide eyes. The thought of her family being affected hadn't even occurred to her yet. She thought of her mother, her grandfather, little Souta, and suddenly closed her gaping jaw, brows set. She nodded solemnly. "I... understand."

Sango smiled, squeezing her shoulder comfortingly. "Good."

Kagome looked up at her curiously. "So... what'll happen to me now?"

"You've heard of the witness protection program, right?" Miroku asked. "Well, that's pretty much what we're left with."

"I have to leave my family?" Kagome asked, a little nervous. "My friends? My school? My-"

"Life?" Miroku put in. "'Fraid so."

Sango leaned forward to smack the back of his head loudly.

"OW!"

"You don't know the meaning of the word 'tact', do you?" Sango hissed.

Miroku continued rubbing his head tenderly. "Yeah, well, according to you, there are quite a few words I need to know- 'personal space', 'shut up'... 'No, Miroku', just to name a few."

"Buy a freaking dictionary!" Sango growled.

"But Sango-"

"No, its okay," Kagome interrupted quietly. "I understand."

"You do?" Sango repeated, surprised, purposely ignoring Miroku's smug expression.

Kagome nodded, an almost thoughtful expression on her face. "Well, it's true, isn't it? I really can't go back... not if I don't want anything to happen to Mom, Grandpa and Souta."

"That's true," Sango agreed. "And don't forget, Miroku and I won't let anything happen to you until the day of the trial."

"How long will it be until the trial?" Kagome asked.

"Well," Miroku began, "with you in our hands, we finally have enough solid evidence to propose a trial, all the way up to the federal courts, but the people up there are nothing but a bunch of stiff-collared pencil pushers," he added bitterly.

"Miroku!"

"It's true," he protested stubbornly. "They're a bunch of ancient asses who get rich off of the people they're supposed to be representing and think that because they've existed since the beginning of time, they know better than the populace what the people need in terms of safety when they've never had to lift a finger to a trigger before."

Sango frowned, but did little to correct him. "He's not wrong," she confided to Kagome under her breath. "But if the sups were to hear his ranting, they could book him just because he gets on their nerves."

"Really?" Kagome repeated.

Sango sighed, slowly rubbing her temples with her index and thumb. "It certainly wouldn't be the first time," she muttered.

"Anyway," Miroku continued loudly, switching the subject, "back to your question, Kagome, knowing them, it could take some time before we can bring Naraku to court."

"Like how long?" Kagome wanted to know.

Miroku shrugged. "Practically anywhere between three weeks to three years."

"Three years!?" Kagome cried, her hopes of seeing her family soon crushed before they were born.

Sango noticed the girl's crest-fallen expression and nodded forcefully. "No matter what we do and what evidence we bring them, it's still all up to them."

"But why so long?"

"The real reason?" Miroku answered sourly. "Money."

"Money?"

Miroku gritted his teeth, gripping the steering wheel a little tighter. "When you come down to it, they're about as patriotic as a gumball, with about just as much brain. Naraku's one of their primary financial sources during election years, and they don't want to risk their cushy seats in the Capitol building over Naraku's rightful sentence."

"So," Kagome began, recapping what she had just heard, "you don't know when the trial will be held? Will I really have to be... protected... for a few years?"

"Most likely not," Sango replied reassuringly. "I figure more like several months."

"Best case scenario," Miroku added under his breath.

"But what about my family?" Kagome asked cautiously. "What'll happen to them while I'm... away?"

Sango's face fell, and Kagome gulped. "Well, for the sole reason of security and absolute secrecy, for the next few months, you'll pretty much have to be dead."

"Dead!? What do you mean, dead!?" Kagome squealed.

"Not literally, of course. While your family will think you're dead, you'll be in another part of the country with a new identity and, for the time being, a new life. Kagome Higurashi, for the next few months, will cease to exist. Nothing'll get by me and Miroku, of course," Sango added quickly, noting Kagome's pale face. "No one but us will know who and where you are. Not even our sups have authority to know."

"All for the sake of your safety," Miroku spoke up heroically.

Kagome's face fell, her bangs covering her eyes. She chuckled lifelessly. "Hojo died for the sake of my safety. Wonder how this one'll work out?" she wondered aloud.

Miroku opened his mouth to speak, but Sango silenced him immediately with a stern glance. Her partner nodded understandingly and focused on the road. Sango gave him a small smile of gratitude before returning her attention to the overwhelmed Kagome.

AN: Okay, so there's chapter two! Trying really hard to find the time to work on the rest, but so far, no luck. But, as Dory said, you gotta "just keep swimming, just keep swimming, just keep swimming swimming swimming..."