Chapter 3

"Momma! I'm home." Kagome yelled once she took that final step off the stairs that wanted her dead. She had been born on this shrine, and still she sometimes got winded by the steps leading up to her home. Who needed that many steps in the first place?

"Over here, Sweetie." Hitomi shouted from behind the well house. Kagome quickly went to her, finding her raking away the falling leaves. The weather was changing, and soon, snow would be upon them.

Hitomi was getting older in age, her hair graying along her hair line. She was still fit and healthy, but Kagome knew she was tired. She could see it. Could see the way her shoulders slouched, the way she sighed once they sat down for dinner and how Hitomi would sometimes fall asleep wherever she sat.

She was working far too hard.

"Do you need help?" Kagome asked, throwing a thumb over her shoulder, pointing at the house they lived in. "I'll go change into my priestess garb and help you with whatever you need."

"You just got off of work, Sweetie. You should go rest." Hitomi waved her off, but Kagome saw the tension in her shoulders. She wouldn't ask for help. She was strong and independent, and she had been taking care of their family since Kagome's father died. It was hard to step back.

"All I do is swim. I'll come help." Kagome turned on her heel, quickly running into their silent house. Now that Souta was away at college, their house was always quiet. He wasn't yelling at his games anymore or picking fights with Kagome whenever he could.

If she was being honest, she missed him. He was her brother, and while they fought a lot, she loved him. Family meant so much to her, and now that her brother was away, she was going to cherish her mother even more.

Dressed in her miko garb, Kagome went back outside, stopping at the temple where an incense was burning. She bowed twice, clapped twice, and then bowed once more. "Gi-chan, Oto-san, I need help. I know momma needs help, but she doesn't want it. She won't even let me hire someone and there is so much to do to keep this shrine running. I've been… I've been thinking of quitting my job to stay home and help her, but I… deep in my heart, I feel as if that is the wrong move. I don't know what the right thing to do is."

Her gaze dropped to the wafting smoke of the incense. For a moment, it fluttered, shaping itself to look like a crescent moon, but then it was gone. A flickering premonition. Her eyes narrowed, trying to think of a moon, but nothing came to mind right then. When she finished helping her mother, she would have to look up when the next crescent moon was.

"Excuse me."

Kagome turned, smiling as she noticed a well-dressed man standing a few feet from her. "Konnichiwa." She gave a bow just as the man did. "Please don't let me get in your way. The gods are listening if you wish to speak."

"Thank you." He gave a nod of appreciation, and Kagome turned, taking three steps before the man stopped her. "Priestess? Can I ask why you have a separate smaller shrine?" His thick finger was pointing towards a shrine tucked away in the corner, the only place Kagome and Hitomi could put it. It was smaller in stature, but still served a grand purpose.

Kagome hated that shrine, but only because she didn't believe there needed to be separate shrines in the first place.

"That shrine is for the demon's who wish to pray-"

"Those disgusting vermin don't deserve to pray to our gods. They don't deserve the mercy or the grace of our god's eyes on them." The man spat, his face flushing from anger.

Kagome crossed her arms in frustration, shaking her head. "They are living beings with feelings just like we are. If you want me to remove the separate shrine, then I will allow the demons to use this one as well." She motioned to the main shrine, and the man's eyes nearly bugged out in outrage.

"You would dare?!" He shouted, taking a step towards her. Kagome didn't falter or step back. She wasn't scared of him, and if he threatened her in any way, she would take him down. She was trained to, after all.

"I would. I don't believe there should be segregation at all. I personally would love to get rid of that Shrine and let them live peacefully alongside us. They shouldn't be treated so poorly when they have done nothing wrong." Kagome would not back down on this. She didn't care how many people she angered. She wanted love and kindness for all, not just for once species.

"It's disgusting. They tarnish this shrine by even being near it. The bamboo is meant to keep evil out!" He threw his hand to the bamboo lining the fence of the shrine, and Kagome just raised a brow.

"You're right. It does protect against evil. The fact that it allows demon's into the shrine tells me they aren't evil." She shrugged a shoulder, and the man was left spluttering, unable to formulate a single thought with his irate little brain turning wheels. She pointed to the shrine once more. "If you wish to pray about it, I'm sure the gods, the ones who created the demons, will listen."

Kagome could have sworn she saw steam coming out of the man's ears.

"I won't ever be back to this Shrine. You are nothing but a bunch of crooks. You are a demon's whore. I am going to tell everyone about you and your barbaric thinking. No one will ever come to this shrine again!" He finally yelled, and Kagome rolled her eyes as he turned to stomp off.

"If I was a whore, I would have to be getting some dick, which I am currently not. Maybe I can pray to the gods for some." She shrugged, having to fight her laugh as the man nearly stumbled over himself. He didn't even look back at her as he picked up his step, nearly running away as if he was going to get burned. "Good riddance. Now I need to go and help momma."

…

"I don't want to go back to school." InuYasha grumbled, throwing his bag on the floor as he stomped to the couch. "It's pointless. We don't learn anything in class anyway."

"My teacher called me a half-breed today." Rin was somber, her head down. Sesshomaru shut the door behind them, resting his forehead on it for a moment to calm himself. When it rained, it poured.

"First, Rin, do not listen to that teacher. She is cruel and her words don't matter." He pushed away from the door, taking the mail tucked under his arm and walking to the kitchen. He made sure to avoid stepping in the places where the floor had gone soft and sagged. He didn't need another foot going through the floor. He had already patched enough.

He turned his gaze to InuYasha. "Second, you know school is a requirement. You must go." The human's claimed they wanted demons to learn as they did and have the same opportunities. So they made it mandatory for all demon children to attend school from the moment they were three and up. It was a pretty little lie wrapped up in thorns.

The demons knew the truth. It was how the humans kept an eye on the demon race. Once a demon was registered for school, the government knew exactly how many demons there were. They knew how large a family was, what type of demon that family was, if they were breeding with humans, and even their abilities. They knew everything.

If a child wasn't registered in school, it was taken away and given to a human family to care for it. Punishments like that didn't happen for humans. They got fined at most, but their children remained theirs.

"They don't even teach us anything, though. The teacher just makes us sit at a desk and read a book. We aren't even allowed to talk." InuYasha's ears went back, flat on his head. "She threatened to hit us today."

Sesshomaru wished he didn't have to send them to school, but there was nothing he could do. "Just do as she says InuYasha. Do not give her a reason to even look at you. Remain invisible." Because that was how a demon stayed safe in this world.

"Easy for you to say. You're just a demon. People hate you because you're different." InuYasha spat, jumping to his feet and pointing at Sesshomaru. "Everyone hates me because dad fucked mom. He should have just stayed with your mom. At least then I would have a chance."

"InuYasha." Sesshomaru warned, but InuYasha took off, running to his room and slamming the door.

"Is that a half-breed?" Rin asked, her amber eyes big and wide with confusion? "Because mom was a human and dad was a demon, I'm bad?"

"No. Never. You are not bad, Rin. You are good and pure. Those people, humans, they just… they don't see how good you are. Ignore them and their words. Like I told InuYasha. Stay out of their way." He wished he could say more, but this was their life. InuYasha was right. Demons were hated, but hanyou's were considered abominations. It was why he would never lay with a human. He wouldn't want to bring a hanyou into this world and watch them live in a world that hated them because they were born of two different species.

"Oh. Ok." Rin muttered. Slowly she left, going into her own room. She shut the door softly, but Sesshomaru knew he wouldn't see either of them again until dinner.

With a tired and weary sigh, Sesshomaru sat on the couch, which was also his bed, and ripped open the single piece of mail he had received. A letter from his landlord. Sesshomaru already knew what it said, causing his hands to shake, and his stomach to clench.

It was no surprise when he read the words eviction notice. He was a month behind on his rent, and he had no money to pay it. He had gone out every day looking for a job while InuYasha and Rin were in school, but no one would hire him. They took one look at him, realized he was a daiyoukai and sent him away. He was a liability to them, and they wouldn't risk it.

Sesshomaru's savings had dwindled away to nothing, and now his rent was due. His rent, which cost more than a human's. In fact, a human wouldn't even be allowed to live in the shambles that he called home, but he was still forced to pay more. There were fee's for being what he was. He had the basic renter's fees, but also the demonic fee's that he had to pay for all three of them. It nearly doubled his rent.

Letting the paper drop to the floor, he held his head in his hands, hunched over. He wasn't sure what he was going to do. This was the cheapest place he had found, and now he couldn't even afford this. He had two weeks to get a job and pay his rent or he would lose their home.

He kept Rin and InuYasha because he thought he could give them more than the system could.

Now he was wondering if he was wrong.

...

Things are getting really bad for Sesshomaru, but I promise it won't stay like that forever. Soon enough he will get the help he needs, and then we can start getting into more that I have planned for this story. Things are going to start happening quickly.

I have a question for those of you who read my authors notes. I have been thinking about working on another fanfiction between Sesshomaru and Kagome. However, if I decided to go this route, I wouldn't be able to promise when I would be able to update. With Siren's Song, you can be sure to get an update every week or so. If I did this new story on top of Siren's Song, I can't give you that guarantee. Would you all still be interested in reading it? It's set in an alternate universe. Sesshomaru is a ruthless king and Kagome is a mute woman he meets in a forest. Would you want to read that despite me not being able to guarantee an update schedule?

Also, I have had several people message me about my older stories, like Changed Body, Changed Heart. A lot of people want me to finish that story and the others. The problem I have with that is, my writing style has changed since I started writing those. I feel like if I were to work on those stories again, I would just do an entire rewrite. Things like that take time, and it isn't a project I want to jump into right now. Eventually I will, but I'm not going to lie. It is going to be a long time before I even look at any of those story's. So be patient with me if you can.

Anyway. I hope you all enjoyed.