Chapter 3: Crosses To Bear

A dark haired woman walked down the street on autopilot, not caring about the world around her. She payed just enough attention not cause any accidents, but asking for anymore than would've been too much. She was like this on days like today. She stopped in a small flower shop, the owner had come to know her well, and handed her the usual bouquet she picked up. She quickly payed and continued on her monotonous journey, stopping only when she reached her destination.

She pushed open the familiar iron gates, and followed her routine path. Soon she stood in front of a small headstone. She pulled away the already withering flowers she had placed there last week and replaced them the fresh ones she bought. Kneeling, she lit a candle and said a small prayer for the girl's soul. Her dark eyes pooled with tears and her throat burned with the effort to hold them back. This girl didn't deserve to have her final resting place tainted with her tears, she didn't deserve to even be here. She should've been alive, living her life, finding a husband, starting a family and being happy. She should've graduated high school.

"Kikyou...can you ever forgive me?" The salty product of her guilt flowed down her cheeks, and she quickly wiped them away. Kagura Fujiwari had never been one for weak displays of emotion. Her father had taught her early on that emotions were for the weak. He told her that the world was a cruel, evil place, and in order to survive you had to be twice as cruel and twice as ruthless.

Naraku was her only parent and she liked to think that he cared for her in his own, twisted way. As a child and well into her teens she'd been desperate for his love and approval, willing to do anything just so he would pay attention to her. So when he started teaching her the ways of the underground drug trade when she was ten, Kagura felt special. Her father trusted her with something very important to him and she didn't want to fail him. So when he told her he needed more foot soldiers on the street, she readily agreed when he asked her to recruit kids from her high school.

Her father quickly skilled her in the art of people reading, teaching her how to find their weaknesses and exploit them. He was a master manipulator and soon his daughter was following in his foot steps.

Kikyou Hayashi had been her first victim.

She watched the girl for weeks, trying to gain as much info about her prey as possible. She looked up Kikyou's address in the school directory and doubted the ritzy neighborhood listed was where she truly lived, especially considering Kagura had witnessed her paying for her lunch in quarters the previous day. She trailed Kikyou home that day, and followed her all the way to her dump of an apartment. She lived in a pretty sketchy neighborhood right outside the school district, but Kagura watched the girl greet walk in and a young girl, no more than six years old, she knew she'd found her ace and approached Kikyou at school the next day.

XXXX

"Kikyou! Hey, Kikyou wait up!" Turning at the sound of the her name, the dark haired freshman was greeted by her fellow classmate Kagura Fujiwari.

"Hi Kagura, what's up?" The two girls had homeroom together, but they had never said more than two words to each other.

"Nothing much. I saw you walking and was wondering if you wanted to have lunch together?" She smiled brightly, wanting to appear friendly and inviting.

"Uh, I usually have lunch with my friends." Kikyou let her sentence trail off, not wanting to seem rude and tell her no outright.

"Well there's nothing wrong with having more friends ya know! Come on just have lunch with me today, I promise it'll be fun." Finally she relented and the two girls were off. In the end Kikyou did have a good time. Kagura was witty and funny, definitely more mature than other kids their age.

"Is that all you're gonna eat?" Kagura said munching on her sandwich, while Kikyou took a dainty bite of the apple in front of her.

"Yeah, I'm not very hungry today." Kikyou said, blushing when her growling stomach contradicted her. She'd given the last of her money to her sister Kaede, so she could eat lunch at school. The apple had been the only thing in their apartment that hadn't gone bad.

"Do you not have any money to buy lunch?" Kikyou stared down at the half eaten fruit, ashamed at her low financial status.

"No, not today. But don't worry about me Kagura." She looked up again when she felt Kagura grab her hands from across the table, sympathy shining bright in her dark eyes.

"I can help you, if you want." Kagura said lowly. It was time to drop the bomb.

"I don't know what you mean."

"I can help you get money silly! My dad is a business man and he's looking for...interns. I can put in a good word for you, and I promise you and your sister will never go hungry again."

Kikyou eyed her suspiciously, "How did you know about Kaede?" Kagura simply shook her head at that.

"Does it matter? I can help you if you'll let me." Her grip on Kikyou's hands tightened, and she rubbed her thumb across the girl's knuckles in comfort. She saw the internal war raging inside the girl, and for a moment was worried Kikyou would turn her down.

"Fine, what do I do?" Kagura smiled happily but the dark glint in her eyes marred the bright expression.

XXXX

Kagura covered her mouth to quiet her sobs as the memory slowly left her. She stared at the dirty graduation cap sitting on Kikyou's headstone, and it made her heart lurch. She'd ruined the girl's life and everyday the guilt ate away at her. Kikyou had been good at her job and soon became just as important to Naraku as Kagura was. They did many jobs together and after months of working together, they had become legitimate friends.

It'd been five years since Kikyou's death, five years of shame and disgrace sitting on her shoulders. Though Kagura had been raised to be heartless, Kikyou had shown her that she could have the best of both worlds. By night, she could be the ruthless daughter of the biggest drug lord in their state, but during the day she could simply be a teenage girl. One who wanted to be the best swimmer her school had ever seen, go to the movies with her friends, and excitingly wait for the guy of her dreams to ask her to prom.

She could be happy.

"I was wrong that day to turn you away. I chose be loyal to a man, who has done nothing but ruin my life since the day I was born, than to trust you. For that, I truly am sorry."

XXXX

Kagura watched from behind the bleachers as Inuyasha ran after Kikyou. The girl had missed several days of school and she looked an absolute mess. Everyone had simply assumed she was still hurting over her and Inuyasha's devastating break up. They'd been so happy no one saw it coming. Everyone thought they were something straight out of a Nicholas Sparks novel.

She watched Kikyou slap Inuyasha and storm away, swiftly moving to follow her.

"Kikyou! Kikyou, hold on!" Kagura called out. Kikyou stopped, hands balled at her sides and her shoulders shaking.

"What do you want Kagura?" Her tone was low, resigned. She sounded tired, not physically but emotionally. She turned around and gone was the young, vivacious spirit Kagura had come to know. The light had dulled in the young girl's eyes, as if she'd lived in a thousand lifetimes in the last few days.

"What did he do to you?" Kagura whispered more to herself, but the girl in front of her looked up at that and the rage that settled in her eyes was palpable.

"You...you knew?" Kagura took a step back from the enraged girl, not sure how their thirty second conversation had taken this turn.

"Well, yeah everyone knows. Look Inuyasha's a dick for dumping you, but you look like hell Kikyou. You gotta start taking care of yourself again." The dark chuckle that escaped Kikyou's lips sent a chill down Kagura's spine, and she wasn't sure how to help this twisted creature that had once been her friend.

"To hell with Inuyasha, this isn't about him anymore. No, this is about your sick bastard of a father." Kikyou spat.

"What are you talking about?" Kagura said, her own ire rising. She knew her father was a shitty guy, but she'd defend him till her last breath and she didn't appreciate Kikyou bagging on him.

Kikyou didn't look as if she was going to tell her at all, her eyes shifted back and forth as the internal battle raged inside of her. She released a long sigh, finally deciding that Kagura was indeed her friend and if she could save her from the shit storm that was brewing...she would.

"I'm going to the police tonight. I'm turning Naraku in. I'm only telling you as a warning. Get out while you can, hide out until everything blows over, but I'm taking Naraku down. I intend to fully end his life, the way he ended mine." Kikyou said. Kagura's eyes widened at that. Was Kikyou fucking stupid? White hot rage bloomed in her belly, and Kagura had to mentally restrain herself from harming the girl.

"You selfish bitch! What did my father ever do to you? End your life? If anything he saved it! His money is what keeps that shitty roof over your head, his money is what keeps your belly full at night, and it's his money that keeps your sister from dying of the common cold!"

She was breathing hard by the end of her tirade. Kagura knew throwing the fact that Kikyou's sister had HIV back in her face was vicious, even down right evil, but her father had always taught her to hit her enemies right were it hurt. And she was her father's child after all. The absolute look of betrayal on Kikyou's face made her inwardly cringe, and she hoped it didn't show on her face.

"He raped me Kagura. He tricked me into coming to the house and he attacked me. Do you know what I've been going through since then? Your father took something from me that day, something that I'm never going to back. He broke me, and I'm getting my revenge...whether you like it or not."

"You're a liar! I know my father, he would never do something so underhanded and disgusting."

"Then I guess you don't know him as well as you thought. I'm leaving town after I go to the police, goodbye Kagura." The look of pity and sympathy Kikyou sent her as she turned to walk away set her blood on fire. How dare she look at her like that, like she was a victim!

That night when Kagura returned home, she warned Naraku of Kikyou's intent to betray him. He shook his sadly, stood from his desk, and grabbed a coat from the closet.

"And I really liked this one too." Kagura hadn't understood what he meant by that. Kikyou was as high in his chain of command as she, so she simply figured he meant he now had the burden of finding someone else to groom in her place. He walked out the door and was gone for several hours, not returning until well after dinner.

She wanted to ask him what he'd done to her friend, but the look on his face as entered the house made her bite her tongue. He was in a bad mood and she certainly didn't want to be on the receiving end of that.

All weekend, Kagura couldn't shake the sick feeling in her gut. She'd chalked it up to the stress of graduation finally getting to her, but she knew it was something else. Something bad was coming her way and she didn't know how to prepare or avoid it.

XXXX

When they received news that Monday morning of Kikyou's death in the auditorium, her blood ran cold. The police had ruled it a suicide, but Kagura knew better. She should have known what ratting out Kikyou would've cost her. In her father's line of work, there was only one way to handle traitors.

You silence them.

Somehow she had hoped that Kikyou would be the exception to that rule. Laying her hand on the tombstone Kagura, bowed her head silently asking for forgiveness once more. Though she truly didn't deserve it.

"I've battled with myself for a long time, trying to figure out how to do the right thing. I always knew, but I was just too much of a coward to face you...and my father. But not anymore. You were my friend Kikyou, my only friend, and I betrayed you in the worst way. I let you down when you needed me most, but I promise you...I'm gonna make him burn."

Kagura walked down the street, stopping at the first payphone she could find. Stepping into the small box she brought up her hood to cover her face and made sure her sunglasses were secure in place. There were cameras everywhere and she couldn't afford for anyone to recognize her. She wiped her sweaty palms on her jeans and reached into her purse for the appropriate change.

She dialed the number she had been memorizing for the last five years. The phone rang and rang and she had half a mind to hang up and bolt. But that would be spitting on the promise she'd made to Kikyou and she couldn't do that, not again. So patiently she waited, and just when she actually thought no one would answer, the ringing finally stopped.

"Sacred City police department, this is Officer Jones, how may I help you?" Kagura gulped down the lump that had settled in her throat. She took a deep breath to steady her nerves, but every time she got ready to speak she choked.

"Look the police department is very busy, if this some kind of joke-"

"A murder." She finally said cutting off the irritated officer.

"Excuse me?"

"I'd like to report a murder."

This story is probably going to be pretty short, maybe 10-15 chapters?

Anyways, don't forget to REVIEW if you're enjoying so far!