Perhaps he should have come earlier. Fighting off mild disappointment Kurama hit his knuckle against the door several times with several very satisfying cracks. But the instant the sharp retorts faded silence set back in, unnerving him slightly. Kagome had said that the others would be joining her, if they had there would not have been this quiet here, he should have been able to hear them even through the door, but there was nothing, not even a whisper of sound escaped from the hushed interior. Still he waited.

It was probable that he had simply been late and missed them, had they chosen to go somewhere else. But Kagome had gone out of her way to invite him, surely she wouldn't have left without at least leaving him a note? His green eyes swept over the surrounding area, quickly checking every detail, and found no scrap of paper, no sprawled message, no sign of anything having happened. With a thoughtful expression he placed a hand on the door knob, closing his fingers tightly around the metal he paused for a moment, wondering if maybe they were planning some kind of prank on him, or if maybe she'd left him a note or something inside, or if there would be some sign of where they might have gone. A quick twist of his wrist was stopped as the door's lock slammed into place, refusing to disengage the mechanism and allow him inside. Kurama sighed to himself, hesitating for only a moment before deciding to fall back on the skills of an old habit.

XXXXX

"How can you two just sit here playing video games? Kagome is really upset right now."

"Really? She seemed fine." Kuwabara dropped his hands from the steering wheel and stared down, concentrating on his thoughts to keep from focusing on the game again. Kagome had been smiling when she left, so how could she be upset, but on the other hand Keiko was a girl, so there was a chance that she might know something that they weren't picking up on. He cringed as Yusuke gave a shout of victory beside him. "Hey, Urameshi…"

"Yeah, what's up?" He turned away from the flashing victory on the screen, pausing with his hand only a fraction away from inserting another coin for another game.

"We may have really screwed up this time."

"What are you on about?" Yusuke brought his hand up away from the slots to rest his elbow against the mock steering wheel, temporarily abandoning his quest for another game.

"Keiko's probably right we may have really hurt Kagome's feelings." He pushed his large frame out of the bucket seat attached to the machine, "We've got to go apologize and make it up to her."

"Oh, come on." He scoffed a little and turned back to the game, eagerly plugging coins into the waiting slot, "She's fine. You know Kagome, if she was mad she'd have told us. It's not like she shy about it." Although they mostly got along he'd gotten into at least a few fights with the girl, and Kagome's temper on occasion was enough to scare even him.

"Yusuke, she isn't mad." Keiko murmured looking down in disappointment, shaking her head gently, "She's probably feeling lonely and abandoned. I bet she's home crying right now."

"Yeah, right, I bet she's hanging out with Kurama talking about math or something." He shrugged as the fame started and slammed his foot into the pedal by his foot.

"No she isn't. Kurama didn't show up either."

"Wait… Kurama didn't show up? Do you mean…" Kuwabara looked down again, "Did anyone show up?"

"No, other than us she doesn't really know anybody. I mean she's only been here about a week and a half, and… it seems like Kurama's the only one who's nice to her, or she really talks to at school." Keiko was still looking down. It wasn't something that Kagome had said, it was just something she'd sort of noticed. They'd walked past more than a few girls in uniforms like the one Kagome wore to school, who merely scoffed at the girl and walked away from her.

"What do you mean Kurama's the only one who's nice to her at school? Did she say something? Is someone bothering her? Just tell me, I'll kick all their asses." Yusuke was on his feet suddenly, his forgotten video car sailing off the edge of the track as he looked almost frantically between the two of them.

"Yusuke…" Keiko shook her head again, but she was smiling this time, "Come on, let's go try to cheer her up."

XXXXX

It was an odd feeling that had him moving, something coiling somewhere inside that he would rather have ignored having. He had ignored it at first, but now it had practically his entire body trembling with it. Something was wrong, and it probably required his attention if this… strange instinct was washing over him. It had only happened before when Yukina was being held hostage and he'd finally figured it out, learned that she was in danger. But Yukina couldn't have been in any danger, and there was no other explanation for it that he could think of. Still Hiei couldn't stand still any longer, he had to move. So he allowed his feet to carry him, not choosing a path just going the direction that seemed right.

He was nearly to the apartment building when he finally stopped, and scoffed to himself. His habit of coming to see the girl was starting to become bothersome. At first he'd come to hear the story she'd promised him, but then he'd continued to come, simply to watch her he assured himself. Clearly she was drawing the attention of demons and wasn't all that good at looking after herself. She was too kind for her own good, even seemed to enjoy his company, and that was one of the many things that would have gotten her killed. She'd displayed a flash of self preserving intelligence however, and it was that one thing that kept him from labeling her a lost cause. He had seen through her story, the lie by omission that she didn't have that stupid jewel she'd avoided telling him everything about. It was obvious that this jewel was what the demons were after not only the girl. He'd briefly considered taking it from her, not because he desired its power but because it hardly seemed that she was really able to protect the thing and taking it away seemed to be the only way to keep it from becoming a problem in the future. But what would he have done with it? Hiei had no desire to be challenged constantly by demons that weren't worth his time and Koenma and spirit world were even less reliable than Kagome. So he had abandoned the idea, choosing instead to merely keep an eye on her in case she got in over her head. She seemed to have mistaken this interest as a desire for friendship, for now he wouldn't correct her mistake; it wasn't worth the time it would take.

So why was he here now? His eyes sliding slowly up the side of the building to her dark room? Why did he wonder where she was and have a strange uncomfortable feeling in her stomach? Hadn't she been planning some ridiculous gathering tonight? Then why was every light in the apartment off, shouldn't they have been here?

Mildly annoyed he moved closer to the building, considered actually going up there, but held back for a moment. If she was having some sort of party he definitely didn't want to get stuck becoming involved.

XXXXX

He felt a stab of guilt as he took in the surroundings a final time. Streamers rested on the table, and small plates of untouched food had long since gone cold on the counter. Kuwabara and Keiko were supposed to have helped her with those, but there was no sign of them having been there. They must not have come… and he had been late. That stab of guilt returned more fiercely. It was no wonder that she had gone off somewhere else.

He resolved to go find her as he exited the apartment, leaving the door carefully locked behind him. Kurama paused for a moment in the hallway, wondering where to even start searching for her. Kagome was new to town, he doubted that she knew that many places, but the city was big, and she'd wandered away without knowing where she was going before. But there was always the chance that she wasn't going to want to see any of them, so perhaps it was best that he leave her alone and explain the following day, apologize for being late.

He turned to the stairs, made his way quickly down them, still trying to shake the hope that he would walk into her around the next corner, or see her standing outside the door, but the sidewalk found him alone.

"See, look, you guys were all worked up for nothin', there's Kurama, old Mr. Reliable showed up. You were yelling at me for nothing Keiko."

"Yusuke?" He turned down the sidewalk toward the small group walking toward him.

"Hey, Kurama!" The larger of the three ran up to him, orange-red hair flopping slightly with each step, "How's Kagome, she's not too mad right?"

"I wouldn't know." He murmured. He'd hoped that she was with them, not off somewhere alone despite his assumption that that was the case.

"Oh, she give you that I'm fine smile thing too? I know it's kind of confusing huh? But Keiko says that she's really upset because none of us showed up on time… but you're here so I guess she doesn't have any reason to be upset anymore huh?"

"No Kuwabara, I do not know how Kagome is because I haven't seen her, she isn't here." He explained loudly enough for the others to hear as well.

"What do you mean she isn't here?" Keiko stepped forward, "But she said she was coming home, and she left at least a few minutes before us… she should be here by now…"

"Yeah, and we took the long way, knowing Kagome she probably took one of the shortcuts I showed her. You sure she didn't just slip by you Kurama?"

"Fairly certain, when she wasn't in the apartment I was looking for her to apologize for my lateness." He glanced up at the still dark windows.

"So… Kagome is… missing?" Keiko's eyes widened as she turned to grab Yusuke's arm, "We have to find her, it's really late she shouldn't be wandering around the streets alone… we should have come with her instead of letting her walk alone… and none of this would have happened if you two had shown up on time!"

"Hey, what about Kurama, he was late too." Yusuke clapped a hand over his ringing ear to avoid more damage from another scream.

"I doubt Kurama was sitting in an arcade somewhere. He probably has a very good excuse." Keiko turned on her heel, "Now let's go find her."

XXX

He felt his eyes narrow at the group moving away. She should have been with them, she should have been safe. Mildly annoyed he turned away from where they were shouting about arcades and the missing girl. They were wasting time, if Kagome was out there it would only be a matter of time before she received unwanted attention, and as her own brother seemed to be as incompetent of protecting her as he was of everything else he would have to take on the responsibility for the moment, just to ensure that the jewel didn't become a problem of course. After all the fools would undoubtedly be unable to find her in time, they hadn't the last time after all.

Turning away from the building he stalked away into the darkness, the eye in his forehead already glowing slightly with the efforts of finding her.

XXXXX

"I still say you're all worried over nothing. She probably just took a wrong turn and got lost or something." Yusuke grumbled as the others rushed him back down the sidewalks he had just passed over minutes before.

"Yusuke, we weren't that far away." Keiko looked down for a moment, her hand tightening on his arm, "Kagome knows her way home, she would have beaten us there if something hadn't happened to her."

"Nothing happened to her, she's fine." Because if something had happened to her it was his fault for not looking after his sister, his fault because he hadn't just humored her and gone to her stupid party, because even after he'd screwed up he hadn't walked her home and had let it happened. Nothing could have happened to her.

"I'm sure you're right Yusuke, but we should still locate her, just to be sure nothing does happen to her." Kurama's eyes were scanning the crowds around them, hoping to see her fumbling her way toward home through the throngs of people. But each group left him hoping. "Yusuke, which alleys did you show her to walk through?" Kagome wouldn't have branched too far off the usual path if she was just walking home after all.

"Well, we usually only use the next one…" Yusuke froze for a second as the others raced past him toward the dark opening, hesitated until he saw them freeze only a step inside before running full speed to get to them. "Alright, alright, what's got you all so…?" He shoved between them, his eyes sweeping the ground before he found them widening and air freezing up in his lungs.

Blood was spattered across a concrete wall, pieces of flesh sliding down the smooth surface with the quickly drying liquid. Several gobs of matching flesh were sprawled across the ground, like pieces of a goopy puzzle, if pushed together they might have formed a body. Yet somehow the cuts were clean, smooth, yet somehow curved in a way that made it unlikely a blade had done the job.

"Alright… what the hell happened here?"