Green eyes swept longingly down the street, glazed over with want as they fulfilled partly the wish of their owner and followed the girl he was practically dreaming of going after. He wanted to follow her, wanted to brush this all off as coincidence and rejoice in her safe return. But his decision had been made when they'd come from this place, when he'd gone in search of those powerful, and very attention getting auras. But he wanted so badly to go after the girl. He already would have been, if he hadn't been actively forcing himself to remain where he was standing. Reluctantly, hesitantly he forced his eyes away from her and to the far less appealing sight of a shattered window near the top of the large building. That had something to do with it; glass didn't break out of its frame for no good reason. Any evidence as to what might have happened would be inside that broken window, and that was where he needed to go now. Finding out what had happened was important his thoughts assured him. He only hoped that Kagome's presence here had been just a coincidence that perhaps Hiei had been nearby and realized she was in danger when she was as well. He hoped that there was a reason for her to be here that had nothing to do with the dead demon that had been found in the alley only a short time that felt so long ago, he hoped that her being with Hiei was merely for her own safety, for however he might have denied it Hiei would protect the girl, whatever the relationship between them was, and he didn't want to get drawn into his ponderings on that subject at the moment. He hoped that she was as unharmed as she looked; he hoped she'd merely wandered off and gotten lost. Oh Kurama hoped a lot of things; he just wasn't enough of a fool to believe any of his hopes were reality without evidence.

XXXXX

"What is your problem now?" If she started crying he was going to leave, that was all there was to it. He did not currently have the remaining patience to deal with a crying girl. "You said that you were fine."

"I am." Kagome looked down a little, "Just… worried."

For a long moment he was silent, certain that she would tell him whether he wanted to know or not, normally she did. This time however she remained silent, and he felt his annoyance growing. He wasn't going to ask. He didn't care.

"Well?" He glared at her from the corner of his eye, waiting for the explanation that he'd been certain that he didn't want.

"It's just… I thought Sesshomaru would know what was wrong with Inuyasha, well I guess, I hoped he would." She stared down at her feet for a moment, "Once I knew he wasn't going to kill me I was hoping he would be able to tell me something about it, but…"

"You're still wasting your time on that?" He nearly rolled his eyes as he looked away, "If the fool can't help himself he doesn't deserve to be saved."

"Hiei… that's cruel."

"It's how the world works." He looked away from her, "Start thinking of ways to save yourself from him, instead of ways to save him from himself."

"No!" She stopped suddenly and turned to stare at him, "He's my friend Hiei. I have to help him, it's what friends do." She fixed her attention on his eyes even as he stared away from her. "It just isn't as easy as I was thinking it would be. Before answers just sort of came, but… now… I can't go back there, I don't even know when it started happening to him, and I can't ask Miroku or Sango, or anyone who might know. It's… frustrating."

"And you expected these answers to just fall into your hands? It's Pathetic."

XXXXX

Kurama chose not to dwell on several things as he crept along through the shadows of the alley. He chose not to dwell on how the stink of the dumpsters filled the air here, though it wouldn't have bothered him nearly as much if he hadn't possessed a heightened sense of smell. He chose not to think of Hiei and Kagome wandering away in the opposite direction, chose to ignore the continuing desire to follow them. What he did choose to focus on he deemed to be more important, though only for the moment. He had put himself in a potentially dangerous situation, though he hadn't realized it at the time, he hadn't known the demon's energy, not as he knew Hiei's or Yusuke's, how could he have, never having actually crossed paths with this infamous demon lord before? And however hard he tried he couldn't come up with an explanation for what Kagome been doing with him. Though not openly murderous to them it was no secret that he was not fond of humans. And it was likely a death wish to be following him now if he was caught. But even as he knew that he could not help following along the path, straining all of his senses for any sign of what might have passed happened moments before.

"My lord?" The human fallowing the tall man spoke almost hesitantly, but there was no real fear coming from him, "I hope you don't mind my asking, but how does that girl know you?" The question was met by only silence, "I wouldn't have asked except that… well… when you stopped the car so suddenly and demanded that we bring her with us I couldn't help wondering why… and with how she spoke to you… it seemed obvious that she at least knows of you, but I'm not sure how, I've been with you since my parents di… for nearly my whole life, and she's obviously younger than me…"

"That's enough Daisuke." The low voice was barely a whisper but carried easily through the small space of the alley. Kurama felt himself stiffen, at least partially certain that he'd been caught from the lack of response and the momentary silence, "That woman has no connection to myself, nor does the matter call for any further discussion."

"Yes my lord, but… well we haven't discussed it at all." The human paused, "She… my lord I understand that you don't want to talk about her, but she was asking for your help… shouldn't you help her?"

"No."

"But…"

"Daisuke, there is nothing even I could do to help her in this situation. Whatever that human has chosen to entangle herself in this time is none of my affair."

He watched from the shadows as the demon continued forward, the human called Daisuke stopped a few feet behind watching. The silence stretched, broken only slightly by the noises of the city at night in the distance. It was only a few seconds that seemed like nearly an hour, "My lord… who is Inuyasha?"

Sesshomaru stopped nearly mid-step, but did not turn back. "You were eavesdropping?"

"I… didn't intend to my lord, but I heard her say the name…"

Flicking his long hair back Sesshomaru turned slowly toward the human, "Inuyasha is no one for you to be concerned over and this is nothing to do with myself nor will I be pulled into it." Golden eyes flickered past the human for an instant into the shadows, "Come Daisuke, I've grown tired of this city." His hardened gaze burned into the darkness for an instant as if daring the shadows to do something and once the human began walking he turned with him and started walking as well leaving the alley in silence.

Kurama remained frozen for a moment under the scrutiny of yellow eyes that had turned away moments before then smiled ruefully to himself as he stood and stepped out of the darkened space he'd been attempting to conceal himself in. He should have known better than to think he'd be able to remain undetected. At this point he should consider himself lucky that he hadn't come to blows with the volatile demon who's reputation as a ruthless and indiscriminate killer was well known. It would appear Hiei hadn't been all that lucky, though Hiei would probably consider himself lucky to have gotten to fight him. It was a wonder with those two that they had both left alive, and with the building still standing. But there were more important things for Kurama to be thinking about now, which he quickly reminded himself and forced his brain into considering. How did Kagome know a demon like Sesshomaru, and who was this Inuyasha?

XXXXX

"Urameshi, we don't even know where we're going."

"We're going to find whatever the hell that was and Kagome, and if she happens to be near it, whatever it is, I'm gonna kill it. That good enough for you Kuwabara?" He turned a corner, pushing himself to go as quickly as he could, and not for the first time cursing himself for not keeping track of Kagome better. Why did she have to keep disappearing like this? Why couldn't he have a sister who just stayed out of trouble? But no, it was just his luck that he got the sister who liked to get lost in forests, and attacked in alleyways and just vanishing off the face of the earth.

He was kicking himself now, knowing that he should have watched her, but it had been so long since they'd had trouble, everything had been quiet for a while now, and he should have expected trouble to come, it always did, but… it was the energy signals they'd picked up that were bothering him now, those had been strong, and it worried him further that Kagome was out there, and if she had luck like his, which he was beginning to suspect she did, she was probably right in the middle of everything… and that was bad. He turned back over his shoulder to his friend, "Kuwabara pick it up, it's not like they're just standing around waiting for us." Something flickering in the corner of his eye, bringing his head around just as something collided with his body, slowing him as it flew backward. Nearly tripping over himself Yusuke skidded to a halt, barely keeping himself from falling forward onto his face.

"Hey… watch where you're go… Yusuke?" She blinked up at him from the sidewalk where she'd landed, "What are you doing out here?"

For a long moment he could only stare at her, relief washing through him to see her okay. It took a second for her question to register, about the same second that it took him to steel himself again, "What am I doing out here? What about you? I thought you were going home what are you doing out here wandering around in the middle of the night?" For a long moment they glared at each other, then Kagome climbed slowly to her feet.

"For your information Yusuke, I haven't been wandering around." She brushed at her clothes forcefully, knocking invisible dust away with force real dust wouldn't have warranted. She could already feel her temperature rising as her temper began to slip out of her control. "I had plans tonight, it's not my fault that they were ruined, none of this was my idea."

"Kagome…"

"And it isn't like I even went looking for trouble… it always come to find me, and I get all the blame."

"What kind of trouble? What happened?"

"What happened? First…" She stopped herself with a mental slap. She'd done it now, another word and everything she'd been trying to keep him from finding out would have been spilled like a can of soda dropped on concrete, because this wouldn't have been one of those slips that could have been repaired, "It just hasn't been the best night okay."

"Yeah well whose fault is that? If you hadn't gone running off on your own…"

"Oh, and who was I supposed to go running off with? In case you'd forgotten Yusuke, you are the one who ditched me!"

"Yeah, well it was just a stupid party, nothing for you to get all mad about."

"A stupid…" She took a steadying breath trying to regain control of her slipping temper once again, "That's it… I'm going home." She pulled herself up to her full height and pushed her way between them before marching past them down the street.

He considered following her for a moment, but decided against it. Yusuke knew that his own temper was formidable, and that was something that he and his half sister shared. There were very few girls he was afraid of, not that he would ever admit it, but Kagome was one of them. The few glimpses he'd gotten of her angry were enough and he definitely didn't want to be squarely in that line of fire. He might not have been the brightest guy in the world, but he wasn't that stupid. There was someone he could question though, and however annoyed he might have gotten over it fighting with him wasn't something he minded that much. "Okay, Hiei, what the hell?"

Sorry it's been so long since an update, the sight kept glitching out on me and wouldn't let me publish any new chapters. Yay it's working again.