Chapter Three

Kagome sighed as she looked at the bills and papers around her. She felt the cold chill of dread fill her as she knew that the help she wanted wasn't going to happen. It has been a week since then and she hasn't heard from them. She called and was told that they were busy and would get to it when they got to it...Ever since the capture of Stain and all his information was leaked...her life has been hard.

She had been asked by UA, her school, to take a break and hand in all assignments online or email. They were trying to hide her. She was so close to being a true hero...and she was being swept under the rug. They were trying to make her disappear or give up.

Her heart ached at this. She was trying her best...but everything she did seemed to fall on deaf ears. She picked up another receipt and signed, before she threw it back in the pile on her desk.

She was going to have to figure something out unless she wanted the shrine to be taken away. Her mother already took her younger brother to the states, to get away from the press and treatment. She had changed back to her maiden name, having Souta do the same. Kagome refused to go though. She was less than a year from graduating. She could make it. She was so close to being a hero. Her mother sent some money when she could to help, but it wasn't enough to cover everything for the Shrine.

She just had to hold out.

Kagome wanted to do good for the world, but the world seemed to be against her. Taking a deep breath she grabbed the empty tea cup and made her way down to the kitchen. She would give up for the night. There had to be a way...

She was brought out of her thoughts when she heard a sharp knock at her door. Kagome set the cup down by the sink, as she frowned.

'Who would be here this late.' Her eyes glanced over to the clock, it shined brightly as the time displayed shone out. It was one in the morning.

Going to the door, she opened it, expecting a person, but there was none. Tilting her head she glanced around before she looked down. There was an envelope and what looked like a note on top of it.

Grabbing it, she shivered from the cold and closed the door. She stood there for a few seconds before she grabbed the folded piece of paper and opened it. In scratchy handwriting there was one line written.

Kindness should be repaid. I hope this helps-T.S

Frowning at this she went to the envelope and opened it...she froze in shock. There were hundreds and hundreds of bills stacked inside. Bill after bill, she could only shove the money back into the envelope and try to figure out what the hell was going on.

She opened the door again and looked outside trying to see if there was someone around. She even spread her power out to try to feel anyone...but there was no one.

Glancing at the envelope one more time she retreated back inside, shutting the door with a firm snap...trying to figure out who the hell would leave this for her. No one tried to help her before...so why now?

x-x-x-

Red eyes glittered as they watched the small CT footage displayed on the TV that his mentor had once used to contact him. After he had taken care of that bitch who would dare to look at his savior with such contempt he had ordered Kurogiri to look into the woman known as Kagome Higurashi.

And he had not been disappointed.

Not only was she in the hero course at UA but she was also the eldest child of Stain!

Sure, he couldn't stand the older man, having almost come to blows the only time they had met, he still held some respect for the older man. While their tactics were so very different at the very core they both wanted the same thing.

To tear society apart and rebuild it in their image.

And now, now they held one more thing in common.

The more he learned about Kagome the more he knew their encounter had been more then just chance, it had been destiny. They were bound not by just some flimsy red string of fate but by much more and it was his duty to provide for and take care of her.

He would do so from the shadows, until he was ready to show her what kind of impact her words had made on him. He would buckle down, change his plans and become the man his mentor had wanted him to be if only for the sake of being worthy of the words Kagome had spared him.

He would take her words to heart and build upon them, they would be the very foundation of his new empire and when it was ready he would whisk her away and show her that her place was by his side.

His fingers curled in the red fabric wrapped around his neck, inhaling deeply of her scent. Yes, he had a lot of work to do and the faster he did it the faster he could break her free of the chains she had allowed society to place on her.

Kurogiri could only watch from the sidelines, worry settling in his chest, he hadn't expected Shigaraki to come home so quickly. The younger male was quite volatile when he had left, understandable so given the circumstances.

So for him to return only a few days later, a bright red scarf wrapped around the lower half of his face barking orders for him to find out everything he could about a Kagome Higurashi he had become concerned.

The more he dug and the more he found out about the young woman the more concerned he became. Not only was she in the hero course, almost ready to graduate, but she was the daughter of Stain, a man that Shigarki had once been ready to end...

A man who had just been so publicly caught that one could not turn on a tv without hearing about it nor the fall out of the leaking of his personal life and the discovery of his family.

So for him to take such a keen interest in the man's daughter was a bit worrisome...when he had been tasked with setting up surveillance on the shrine grounds he had been ready to give voice to the thoughts running around in his head...yet as he saw the way Shigaraki gazed at the young woman's visage on the screen he could only sigh.

Things were certainly about to get much more interesting around here and he hoped they wouldn't spiral too far out of control too quickly. Already half of the money they had been able to stockpile was in her small hands...what more would Shigraki give the young woman without her knowing how great the sacrifice had been?

Hopefully she would be worth it.