Wow. I was just reading through some of these chapters, and I can't remember writing any of them at all. It scares me. And my writing was so bad! Especially the punctuation. It's quite embarrassing, actually. I think my writing has improved a lot since then. At least, I hope it has. It had better…I don't want to embarrass my self again :p. I've also forgotten quite a bit about Inuyasha. I haven't watched the anime or read the manga for the longest time…hopefully I did a fairly decent job of writing this chapter.

One last note before reading: there will be some vocab in this chapter that not all of you will be able to understand. They will be listed at the bottom of the page for your convenience.

Ok, that's enough of my babbling. I hope you enjoy this!

-augustsunset

Chapter 6

Despite how much better the weather had gotten over the past few days, or how she had gotten more rest than she had had in over three years, Kagome still could not get her mind off her present situation. She had been taken, against her will by Sesshoumaru, who intended to have Kagome come to his castle to nurse Rin back to health, and then teach her the basic calligraphy she needed. Kagome scoffed at the idea-she, a teacher? It was preposterous. At eighteen, she was one of Japan's most successful actors. Constantly stalked by photographers and her fans, she didn't have time to focus her devotion on some silly seven year old girl.

But Rin was much more than that. She warmed the hearts of whomever she met, and took delight in pleasing the people around her. She never had a single selfish thought, and that, if anything, made Kagome want to stay around her, just to see her evolve. Kagome smiled in remembrance, thinking back to the time when Rin had made her her first flower chain. It had taken her an awfully long time, but she had finally gotten it. Rin was so proud of herself that she had but the daisy chain on top of Kagome's head, that she actually stayed still for over a minute. Then, after receiving much praise from Kagome, she had ran around to find more flowers to satisfy her needs.

'It's amazing how much energy a little girl can have,' thought Kagome. 'I wish I had more time to myself.' But here she was, following Sesshoumaru through the deep, dark woods. She could see slits of sun peeking in from the tops of trees, but it was still dark enough that she had to watch the ground when she walked. The forest floor was terribly bumpy, but Kagome did her best to maintain her balance. 'If only I could hold onto Sesshoumaru while I walked…that would make this a lot easier," Kagome thought. 'As if he would allow that. He probably would just start complaining about how much I was slowing him down.'

Kagome sighed, wishing that she had her car with her. Her favourite Lexus wouldn't be giving her this problem. Kagome had actually come home so tired one night, that she had been too exhausted to walk up the steep steps to her house. Instead, she had settled for the comfortable leather seats in her car. Snapping out of her daydream, Kagome focused and speed walked to keep up with Sesshoumaru.

'Why can't the warring states era be more like present day Japan?' wondered Kagome. 'I mean, you don't have to work hard to get what you want. Everything is pretty much laid out for you.'

Kagome continued stumbling through the forest, trying to keep up with Sesshoumaru's fast strides. 'But then again, you feel better about yourself when you do something yourself. It may be hard and painful at the time, but it's definitely worth it in the end.'

With that thought in mind, Kagome straightened her posture, lifted her head slightly up and fastened her pace.

Sesshoumaru noticed the quick change in her, and turned his head slightly back so he could see her from the corners of his eyes. He was quite impressed with how Kagome was able to cope with this era. She scarcely complained, let alone pity herself. Sesshoumaru would rather die than admit it to her, but Kagome had made quite a little impression on him.

When they arrived back at his castle, Kagome nearly fell over from exhaustion. She had over exerted herself, as usual. For some reason, she always outdid herself in this era. Perhaps it was because she felt she had the need to convince others that she was not the young, weak girl from the so called "future".

Kagome didn't want Sesshoumaru calling her worthless, or any other insult like it, so she kept her ground. It was truly remarkable how demons like Sesshoumaru never ran out of energy. She almost envied him. Except that she wouldn't want to live forever. People you knew would die when their time had come, while you would continue living on against your will, all by your lonesome self. It sounded like a terrible life. Well, to Kagome, anyway,

Then again, her life wasn't all that rose coloured, either. There were so many auditions to try out for parts in dramas or movies, press conferences, avoiding possible stalkers…and even with all that, she still had to find time to spend with her family and friends.

She hadn't been in a relationship in…well, ever. Although Hojo had asked her out countless times, she just felt that he wasn't the right one for her, and Inuyasha…she supposed he had been her first love.

At age fifteen, she had fallen head over heels in love with somebody who could not choose between her and his past love, Kikyo.

It had broken her heart, naturally, but she had not let it show. She had kept her wits about it and slapped a big smile on her face whenever she spoke to Inuyasha. She knew this was the wrong thing for her to do, but she didn't know how else she was supposed to act around him without breaking out in tears.

She had even pretended everything was alright with Sango and Miroku, who were sincerely worried about her. They had probably expected something to be seriously wrong, but they didn't want to pressure her into talking about it. Shippou, too, had been supportive. He slept close to her every night, and was always cracking silly jokes to make her smile.

Kagome had been comforted by their efforts, but it just wasn't the same. She could tell that Inuyasha was thinking about Kikyo all the time. Sometimes even before he would drift off to sleep. She imagined he dreamed about her as well.

So once and for all, she decided she would do something about it. She returned home to her era after much protest from her friends. Inuyasha seemed more calm about her leaving than usual.

"What, you're going home? Alright, but don't be gone for too long. We'll need you for detecting the jewel shards, and…I'll miss you. So you better come back soon!"

He looked away as he said this last part, blushing slightly. Kagome had been somewhat comforted by this, but was still annoyed that he was "two-timing", as Shippou would put it. He could be so possessive when it came to her going away, but when she was around, all he could do was worry about Kikyo.

She promised to come back and visit as much as she could, but told then she had a lot more responsibilities to take on now that she was older.

Before she knew it, she hardly went to see them at all, and her interest in acting had come as a great surprise to not just her family and friends, but to herself.

They were happy for her, though. They had noticed her sudden change in behaviour, and welcomed this interest as an opportunity for Kagome to get on with her life.

It had been surprisingly easy for Kagome to forget about her worries. She loved acting and, to her surprise, she turned out to be quite good at it.

It was only when Sesshoumaru spoke that Kagome snapped out of her little daze.

"Rin is waiting for you up in her room. You will give her her first calligraphy lesson. You may require these-" he pointed to a stack of calligraphy paper, some brushes, and some ink "As you do not have your own at hand."

Kagome fought down a laugh. She had neglected to tell Sesshoumaru that everyone in the twenty first century no longer relied on the use of a brush and ink to write the odd fact down. It must have just slipped her mind.

Kagome muttered a quick "thank-you", and went on her way to Rin's room.

Within a minute, she had come back and was relieved to see Sesshoumaru was still standing near where she had left him.

"Um…Sesshoumaru-sama? Where was Rin's room again?"

After been given straightforward instructions on how to find Rin's room, Kagome finally stumbled away and headed for the staircase on her right.

"I can't believe he had to explain that to me five times," groaned Kagome. "I never used to be so stupid. And he looked really, really irritated with me, too." She buried her face in her hands, nearly bumping in a wall while she did.

Startled, she looked up and continued walking.

"I think he said after I went up those stairs, I would have to turn right and go up another set of stairs. Damn it! Why are there so many stairs in this place?!"

As Kagome descended the second set of stairs, she looked more closely at her surroundings.

'I could never live in a place like this. I mean, it's way too big to be living on your own...even if you do have servants! Ok, now I'm supposed to turn here, and I should be in Rin's room!'

Except she wasn't. In fact, it looked nothing like a little girl's room. The instructions had been to Rin's room, right? Not some weird looking room slightly resembling a dojo with a fair sized desk in the middle of it.

"Kagome-oneesan!"

At the sound of Rin's voice, Kagome whipped around.

"Rin, this isn't your room, is it?"

"Nope! It's a room that Sesshoumaru-sama said that I could use to practice my caliphry."

"You mean calligraphy."

Rin grinned and skipped around a little. "Yeah, that's it! Calligraphy!" she skipped some more around the room and finally settled at Kagome's feet, as if waiting for some sort of instruction.

Kagome shifted her eyes. "Umm…well, let's get started then. You can sit over there, at the table, and I'll sit next to you."

"Ok!"

Kagome hoped that this would be easier than she expected this to be. She had never really learned calligraphy, except when they had a few lessons at her high school. She couldn't remember disliking them much, but also couldn't remember being very found of them, either.

While Rin was looking at the wooden brushes, Kagome got everything else ready. She laid out the other materials needed for the lesson, including the suzuri, the heavy, black container for the ink. She took out the sumi, dipped it in water, and began to scrub it against the suzuri.

Soon, the ink was ready. Kagome then pulled out the shitajiki, and brought out some paper. She didn't want Rin to use the hanshi yet as she had never written before, so she found some scrap pieces and laid then on top of the shitajiki. Then she took the bunchin and placed it at the top of the page.

Lastly, she placed two fude's on the table. "Ok, Rin. This is what I want you to do. I'm going to write out your name on this piece of paper, and I want you to copy me, ok?"

"Ok!"

Kagome dipped the fude into the ink, and dabbed at the sides of the brush a little to let some of the excess ink come out. Then, with her figure very straight, and her brush also very straight, she wrote, very slowly and carefully the letters of Rin's name.

Two very simple but elegant characters (or so they seemed to Rin) spelled out her name.

Kagome sighed, relieved that she was still able to write adequately. Although she knew that this standard of writing was not up to her past teacher's expectations, she figured that this would be good enough for Rin's first lesson.

"Ok, Rin, now it's your turn."

Rin held out her fude very delicately, doing her best to impersonate Kagome. She slowly slipped it into the ink, and wiped the sides of the brush just as Kagome had done. Then she paused.

"What if I can't do it, Kagome-oneesan?"

"What do you mean? Of course you can do it. If you concentrate, you'll be fine. And if you're so sure that you're going to mess up on the first try, you can trace mine. Just slip my paper under yours."

"Ok…I'll try it."

Rin put Kagome's paper underneath hers, and then placed hers on top. She slowly placed the tip of her brush onto the paper, and mimicked Kagome's movements.

"There, Kagome-oneesan! I did it!" Rin exclaimed enthusiastically. "How do you write your name? Rin wants to know!"

So Kagome taught Rin more and more words to write. She even introduced Rin to katakana, with which Rin was thoroughly puzzled. Next, Kagome even started showing her some kanji characters, but this time, Rin grew excited.

"How do you write Sesshoumaru-sama's name?"

"Err…I think it's like this…"

Kagome paused for a moment, and then scribbled three complex characters with her brush. "That should be right…" she nibbled on the end of her brush. It wasn't perfect, but you could easily distinguish between all three letters, which you should be able to do, even with messy writing.

It was sad that such a beautiful name could mean such a terrible thing. To kill, or dressing it up a little: the destruction of the centre of life, made no difference to Kagome. In fact, this only scared Kagome into realizing how much harm Sesshoumaru could actually cause. He stopped at nothing, and took no orders from anyone. It frightened Kagome, and at this exact moment, she felt like she would like nothing more than to get out of this room and out of this era.

All of a sudden, the sliding door opened, startling Kagome. She looked up, only discovering to see that it was Sesshoumaru at the door.

No words escaped her; she was speechless. He had caught her off guard and was apparently aware of it. She could see this because of a small upward kick at the corner of his mouth.

'He has impeccable timing,' Kagome though to herself. 'He nearly scared me half to death.'

Sesshoumaru sauntered into the room and slid the door shut. "It seems as you are making progress, Rin, although this Sesshoumaru does not approve very much of this work."

He was gesturing to the piece of paper in which Kagome had scribbled Sesshoumaru's name rather hastily.

"Rin didn't write that! Rin's not good enough. Kagome-oneesan wrote it!"

'I think he's gathered that much already, Rin-chan…otherwise he wouldn't have commented on it, the pompous bastard!" Kagome thought angrily.

"Indeed. You have not written to fit this for my standards."

Kagome looked up at him from where she sat, half pouting, half glaring.

"What else could be missing? Unless you spell your name differently?"

"This is the messiest writing that this Sesshoumaru has ever had the misfortune of reading."

"Inuyasha! How could you let Kagome be taken away by your brother? I thought she meant more to you than that, you stupid dog!" wailed Shippou.

For this comment, he was rewarded with Inuyasha's strong fist connecting with his head.

"Shut up, kid! Do you think I just stood on the side while she was taken? No, you moron! His fucking hand was around my fucking throat, for kami's sake!"

"Inuyasha…don't swear." Sango sighed, and sat down with her chin in her hands. "So, what are we going to do to get her back?"

"How the hell should I know?"

"Well, do you now where Sesshoumaru's castle is located?" inquired Miroku.

"Not really…but…I'll be able to find it, sooner or later. I can still smell his scent lurking around here. I don't care what it takes. I'll do anything to get her back."

After the lesson was over, Kagome was called down to dinner about half and hour afterwards.

"You'd think that he'd give me a little time to relax, but no!" Kagome grumbled, trudging her way down a flight of stairs. "It's like I have no privacy whatsoever."

She continued down the hallway. 'At this rate, I'm going to forget all the lines for the next drama I'm in…I shouldn't have agreed to do it at all. I hate my character. She's such a whiny ditz! But in the end of all these dramas, the small, defenseless girl ALWAYS ends up with the boy. Always.'

Kagome was just about to turn around and go back the way she came (as she was still unaccustomed to Sesshoumaru's big castle), when she heard a shuffling noise beside her.

She turned around, and there, to her surprise, was Jaken. She hadn't seen him in awhile. She kind of felt sorry for him; he was always doing Sesshoumaru's bidding, no matter what it was.

"Jaken?"

Jaken looked up, as if surprised to see her there. "What are you doing here, human? Sesshoumaru-sama called you down to dine with him ages ago!" he snapped.

"Well, err, I was just on my way…, but I got lost. Again" Kagome blushed.

"Hmph! Typical humans…they can never do anything right. They always require some sort of instruction. Pathetic."

Kagome narrowed her eyes. "You have no right to take that tone with me! Just because you're Sesshoumaru's servant…"

"This gives me the right to tell you so! Sesshoumaru-sama relies heavily on his servants to reinforce…," Jaken babbled, completely unaware of how Kagome's mind was drifting elsewhere.

Kagome's eyes landed on a door just to her left. The door was slightly open, and the room was unlighted. Ignoring Jaken completely, she started walking towards the door.

So, how was it? I hope it was up to your standards. As you may have noticed, this chapter is significantly longer than the past chapters. I guess I just had more ideas than in the past.

Here's the vocab in the chapter that may have been just a tad bit confusing:

Suzuri: The heavy black container for the ink.

Sumi: The solid black material rubbed in water to produce the black ink which is used for writing.

Hanshi: Special calligraphy paper. It's very thin.

Bunchin: The metal weight to keep the paper down while writing.

Shitajiki: A soft, black mat. It provides the writer with a soft surface to write on.

Fude: The brush. There is one big one for writing the main characters, and a small brush for writing the name of the artist. However, since Kagome didn't get a chance to write her name, I chose not to mention that above ;)

I think that's it. Remember to leave a review! I love reviews, but I love constructive criticism even more )