Disclaimer: Yeah, basically, you guys know what I'm gonna say, so I won't even bother…

Author's Notes: Hey there everyone! Did you miss me? Doubt it. Anyhooo… I haven't really been working on the chapters like I had promised, sorry. I kinda lost the thread that I was using on this story, and it's going to take me a while to pick it up again. The best I can do right now is just finishing this chapter and then move on to "No Such Thing…" and finish it. I'll pick this one back up when the other story is done, I have no clue how anybody writes two stories at once! Gah! Anyway, read… enjoy… and… REVIEW!

Chapter 6: The Calm Before the Storm

"There was a slight fracture in the left side of her skull, right along the hair line, and her bullet wound reopened even larger than it was at first, but she should be ok after a few weeks of r-and-r." Doctor Honogawa looked up from his clipboard at the hopeful faces in front of him.

InuYasha had carried Kagome three miles from her apartment home to the local infirmary desperately hoping she would be ok. Now his fears could be at ease… for a moment.

"Oh thank you, doctor!" Sango said as tears ran down her pink cheeks. She hadn't stopped crying since InuYasha had called them with the news. With the prospect of losing her best friend, the one that had helped her through so much in the past, had not boded well upon her. Now hearing that Kagome was going to be right as rain was like hearing that the hurricane that was headed straight for your house had veered a hard right.

"Don't thank me, thank your friend here," Honogawa said as he motioned to where InuYasha sat, "If he hadn't found her when he did, she would have bled to death." After a few more ducked heads of thanks and some words of advice for care, the good doctor took his leave from the three to tell another family some less than happy news of their own.

Miroku threw himself down onto the hard hospital couch and heaved a great sigh. Sango slowly followed suit and snuggled up securely next to her husband. With his arm draped affectionately across her shoulders, she felt a lot better about the situation. But InuYasha on the other hand… well… he felt worse. Seeing Miroku with his young wife close to him, safe by his side, hurt as though someone had plunged a rusted knife into his already wounded heart. Once before, he had let someone down; they had died before he could say goodbye, and he did not intend on making that same mistake twice. A knock at the waiting room door brought him quickly out of his reverie though.

"Excuse me, but are you family to Ms. Higurashi?" A young nurse said shyly to the group. Sango jumped up right away and nodded her head fervently. "She just woke up, if you wanted to go see her. Just follow me to her room if you would."

She led them through many winding corridors until they reached the intensive care unit and led them to the very last door on that hall. There was a single bed there, with several machines beeping and whirring, an open window, and even a mounted TV. But that wasn't what the group saw. There on the crisp white bed lay Kagome, with three tubes stuck in various places around her face and wrists. Her face was black and blue around the wound, and her wounded shoulder and arm looked limp. But she had a smile on.

"Hey guys!" She said in a weak voice. "I had hoped you all would be here. Did any of you happen to call my mom? I was supposed to have lunch with her today. She's probably worried sick about me."

"Don't worry about it Kags, your mom was here an hour ago." Sango pulled a chair up to the side of Kagome's bed and took her hand. It was cold and unresponsive. "So, how are you feeling right now? I'd think you'd have a huge headache!"

"Yeah, it hurts, but not too bad. The doctor said that I was lucky to only have a fracture. The bad thing is my arm. They're not too sure what's gonna happen with it." She lifted it gingerly from the sheets to verify what she had been told. It felt like she was trying to lift a fifty-pound weight with one arm. It dropped back to the bed with a dull thud.

"Don't worry Kagome, we'll find the (bleep!) that did this to you!" InuYasha fumed from the door of the room.

Sango gave the hanyou boy a stern look. She hated it when people cursed, especially now around Kagome when she was in such a weak state. When she was sure she had made her silent point to InuYasha, she turned back to address Kagome. The young girl looked horrible, in the best sense, of course. The entire left side of her face looked like it had been smashed into a concrete floor a couple times, and the bruising on her shoulder had spread all the way to the base of her slender neck. Inside Sango cringed at the sight. Noticing Sango's gaze, Kagome patted her best friend's hand and assured her that she would be fine.

"Sango, really, don't worry about me. Only a few days in here and I'll be back out on the street snapping pictures at weddings and such without the slightest care in the world!" She smiled a smile that defied the pain she felt. "Besides, InuYasha is going to help me track down the man that's responsible, right Inu-?" She looked past Sango to the doorway were the man had been not two seconds before. He was gone.

xXx

It's my fault! I should have watched her apartment! I should have known something was going to happen! Stupid freakin' idiot! InuYasha sped down the highways and back alleys of Tokyo. After seeing Kagome in that condition, he would not allow himself to be forgiven. He had left the hospital as soon as he knew that she would be safe with her friends. It hurt just to look at her petite form laying the bed so helplessly, the nasty bruises and cuts snaking their way across her arm, shoulder, and head.

He drove on and on until he reached a quiet district of Tokyo. Shrines littered a wide-open meadow peppered with sakura trees and various wild flowers. He parked his bike and strolled slowly towards a shrine nearest to the south wall of the compound. Incense drifted lazily between the outstretched branches and blossoms fell like snow, shaken from their homes by the gentle easterly breezes, birds twittered merrily in their perches. It was by far, the most serene place in all of Tokyo. Over the west wall, the sun had begun her graceful and magnificent decent into the world of darkness. This was the world of the dead. Hundreds of deceased nobles had been laid to rest within the sheltering walls of Mitsubishi Graveyard for the past two hundred years. Even now there was a solemn procession going on in the western corner. There were always people lighting incense cones and sticks in the deceased's shrines, asking for guidance. Now it was InuYasha's turn, something he rarely chose to do.

He finally reached the shrine he wanted. It was similar to every other shrine on the property except that it held the remains of both a youkai and a human, not that anyone else would have noticed, but to him, he could smell the difference in the soil. His father and mother lay here. He grabbed a couple sticks of incense from a box near the entrance of the shrine and lit them with his lighter. Holding them both in prayerful hands, he bowed his head and then got onto his knees and mumbled something before he placed each of the sticks into a two dishes at the base of each of the tombstones. Sitting back on his heels, he placed his hand on his thighs and looked hopefully at the cold polished stones before him.

"Okaasan,chichioyawhat do I do now? I know who did it, and I know why, but (bleep!) it all, I can't do a (bleep!)ing thing about it! I let her down. Now what am I supposed to do? Chichioya,if you were still here, you would have the power and influence enough to get rid of him, but I have nothing."

"What a pitiful sight you make, kneeling here like it will do you any good. What a sad excuse for a son." A cold, hard voice purred behind the young hanyou.

"Sesshomaru! What are you doing here, it's not like you give a (bleep!) about chichioyaanyway!" InuYasha spat out as he rose to his feet and gave a respectful bow to the marking stones. (IB: Come on, you all know that InuYasha would NEVER bow to Sessy!)

Sesshomaru stood tall over his half brother. About the only similarity that the two possessed was their silver hair and golden eyes, after that… nothing. In the middle of the older man's forehead was a blue crescent moon probably signifying his role in the Inu youkai clan, and across both cheeks were two purple markings like claw marks. His well-muscled body was clothed in a white suit with red pinstripes and yellow and purple handkerchief stuck in the breast pocket (IB: I wanted to get all the colours of his kimono into his suit, it's the prettiest kimono! -.-). One well-manicured hand rested on the banister of the shrine as he smiled evilly at his little brother.

"I am paying my regards to the man that put me at the head of this town." He replied coolly.

"Get out of my way, you pansy!" InuYasha pushed past Sesshomaru roughly and would have made off for the parking lot had not a hand with very sharp claws, and very dangerous, grab his arm.

"Not so fast you dirty mutt," Sesshomaru said coldly without even moving from his spot, "You've made a big mistake making Naraku mad. Don't look at me like I'm stupid. I have connections that can tell me your every move. Now I would suggest you leave that bitch of yours to the sharks. She's better off dead, one less human to be bothered with."

InuYasha turned three shades of red before giving his answer by means of a punch to the cold man's jaw, or he would have, if the man had not caught his hand. That was enough for the young hot head though. He spun out of his half brother's grasp, bared his fangs and cracked his knuckles loudly.

"Don't even think for a moment that I'm gonna leave Kagome to the wolves! You're not the one to talk anyway! You got that little human concubine that shadows your every step! So why don't you just (bleep!) off!" He fairly shouted, drawing the curious stares of many shrine goers.

Sesshomaru's eyes flashed with murderous intent for a moment only before his cool exterior fell back into place. He turned his back to the infuriated boy, took a stick of incense from the box, and lit it before he replied.

"Cool your jets, little brother. It is your own funeral. Now if you'll excuse me as I pay my respects to our father."

At just that moment, a short little toad-like youkai retainer scuttled up to the older brother, followed by a beautiful young girl. Must be her, must be his "lover" Rin. She's young! Can't be more than sixteen. The young hanyou thought to himself. The girl looked so innocent with a little of her wavy raven black hair pulled back and her bright orange and yellow formal kimono swishing around her ankles. But he was too angry to stick around and find out. He turned on heel and stomped of through the serene graveyard towards the parking lot, but not before Sesshomaru gave him one last thing to think about.

"InuYasha, she'll ruin you. Just like your mother ruined chichioya, she'll kill you in the end."

InuYasha threw a baleful glare over his shoulder then continued his way to the parking lot and his only chance of escape. He refused to let his brother's words rub him. He had convinced himself that he was stronger than his father had been; he had survived the world when his father had not. None-the-less, he was afraid, something he'd only known once before.

xXx

"InuYasha! The airbrush compressor at station six is busted." Shippou tried hard to get on InuYasha's good side, but it seemed like today, he really didn't have a good side, not that he had much of one to start with.

It had been a week since Kagome's attack and hospitalization, and InuYasha hadn't left the hangout since then. He had sat in his office with the air conditioning turned on arctic and the shades drawn as tight as they would go. Shippou strongly suspected that the stubborn man had eaten nothing since that time, and by the smell of the room, had not bathed either. The very air smelled of depression. Once again, as he had done many times before, the young kitsune boy had put it upon himself to pull the Inu hanyou out of his present state.

"Are you listening…? Of course not, you're too busy being a depressed bone bag! Why don't you call up that downtown brothel to help you out, hmm?" That got the reaction that the boy had wanted.

InuYasha's once dull eyes shot wide open and fixed the boy to the far wall with a hateful glare. His pink lips pulled thin over his pearly white teeth and a growl bellowed deep in his chest. Slowly he got up from his old battered couch and walked over to Shippou, cracking his knuckles menacingly as he went. That did nothing to deter the kitsune though; he plunged right in.

"Look here, whelp, I ain't goin' to no brothel! And I'll have you know that I ain't no depressed bone bag!"

"Well, you're sure as (bleep!) acting like one! Sitting around here like a moping puppy dog, won't do anything and won't even bother with personal hygiene!" To demonstrate his point, Shippou plugged his nose. The stench of body odour had gotten worse with the movement in the room as well as the fact that InuYasha was almost nose-to-nose with the boy. It was impossible to avoid it.

Just then, the sound of a phone went off inside some drawer in InuYasha's massive desk. Without hesitation, he leapt at the desk and rummaged around in several drawers before he finally found the phone. He mashed the green phone and placed the receiver to his ear.

"Moshi moshi, Tessaiga InuYasha speaking," there was a slight pause in which the hanyou's eyes lit up, "Kagome! They told me you weren't supposed to be out of the hospital until Friday! Why the early let out?"

Even with his acute hearing, Shippou could barely make out the other side of the conversation. The only thing he could pick up on was the fact that this Kagome must be the girl that his "big brother" had gotten involved with. InuYasha tended to keep his love life, if you could call it that, a secret, but when he was really involved, it didn't take a lot to understand that. He was acting differently this time though. He seemed to be more patient and maybe even a little bit more caring, but none-the-less a lot more distracted. By the time the phone call was over, a slight smile replaced bared fangs and once fiery eyes had a softer glow. This was definitely new.

"Who was that?"

"Higurashi Kagome. Other than that, there's nothin' more for ya to know. Not right now at least. Anyways, about the airbrush compressor, call the technician on Osaka Street to fix it. I gotta go." InuYasha pulled on a red jacket, walked out the door, and out of the old graffiti covered warehouse. The roar of his motorcycle had already died away before the shock had worn off the kitsune boy. This was the weirdest he had even seen the hanyou act.

xXx

Knock, knock, knock. InuYasha felt strangely that he was in a déjà vu dream while he knocked on Kagome's door, only this time, she would answer it. After a few seconds of waiting, the door opened slightly and the woman peeked outside. When she was satisfied with what she saw, she opened the door wide and beckoned the nervous man inside. The moment he stepped foot inside the house, the strong smell of cinnamon assaulted his nose, drawing tears to his eyes.

"What the (bleep!) are you cookin' that requires so much cinnamon?" He fell gratefully into the soft cushions of Kagome's couch.

"Oh, I'm not cooking anything actually. It's incense. The house smelled really weird when I got back, so I decided to light some incense to get rid of the smell." Kagome's nose wrinkled as she recalled the smell.

"Well, the strength of this new smell is sure to drive away even the most hardy youkai! What did the apartment smell like anyway?" As he started to think about it, tingles ran up InuYasha's spine. He had a feeling he knew what it had smelled like.

Kagome pulled her feet underneath her as she sat down on the love seat and thought back on the smell, fishing for the right words to describe it. "It smelled like… like some dead person had been dragged through every room and little bits and pieces of its body cut up and put into hidden corners each room."

The tingles in InuYasha's spine increased tenfold with this news. He knew now without a doubt who had come into Kagome's apartment. There could be no mistaking that smell. It had been that same smell that had permeated through his mother's castle all those years ago when she had been murdered right in front of him. The vivid images ingrained in his brain from the event returned full force then. His mother screaming in pain and terror, the smell of death, blood, and fear washed over him like the waves of a tsunami. The next thing he knew, Kagome was peering into his face with concern.

"What's wrong, InuYasha? You look like you saw a ghost." She asked as she knelt down at his knees and placed a comforting hand on his knee.

"I did." She looked questioningly into his eyes and cocked her head to the side. There was a lot to this man that she did not know. Layers of intrigue and pain that would take years to peel off and understand fully covered every inch of him.

"Don't worry about me." He assured her as he placed his own callused hand on her's. "For now, I don't think it's safe for you to stay here alone."

"I haven't really got anywhere else to go. I could ask Sango, and I'm sure she'd say yes but I don't want to intrude on them, not when they just got married last week. That's the last thing they need." Kagome rambled as she got up to sit next to the hanyou.

"Well, I hadn't really meant Miroku," InuYasha looked at Kagome as he spoke. "I had thought you could come to my place or I could stay in your guest room."

The look on Kagome's face was one of trepidation. "I don't know that my mom would be okay with that. I could always go stay with her. There's plenty of room in the shrine's compound to accommodate me."

"The reason I suggested for me to stay with you is cause I would feel a lot better if I was there to watch over you, and if someone did try to do something, I'd be there to stop them. When you're at your mom's house, there's no one to protect you, and if you were attacked, you would only be endangering your family too. Now Sango and Miroku could do pretty good at keeping you safe, but I don't like the idea of you being in that lecher's house." InuYasha explained as he got up and made his way back to the guest room.

"I guess that makes sense. I suppose I could just tell momma what you told me… that might set better with her." She said as she followed him back to the bedroom.

The hanyou was paying no attention to her. He stood in the middle of the room, clawed hands resting on his hips. He could still smell the intruder, even under the thick musk of the incense. He could tell that someone had been rummaging through the closets and drawers looking for something, and he believed he knew just what it was that they had been looking for. That is, if it had been someone other than Kagome.

"Kagome, where are the negatives of those pictures you took at the races?"

"They're in a box under my bed. Or, they were last time I checked." Kagome made a beeline for her bedroom with InuYasha hot on her heels.

Upon reaching her room she fell to her knees and started rummaging around underneath her bed. Boxes of pictures and negatives, envelopes with letters and bills, even a few shoes, came flying out on either side of her, her hands digging deep into the mess. InuYasha peered over her shoulder, one eyebrow arched high. This was the one place he hadn't seen so out of order. Finally, a very bedraggled Kagome emerged from the growing piles on either side of her. Her hair hug limp around her face, a few strands caught on the corners of her mouth, others plastered to her sweaty forehead. She looked at InuYasha helplessly.

"They're not there… are they?" He asked, though he already knew the answer. She shook her head.

"(bleep!) it! Kagome, even though they got what they wanted, you gotta stay with me. You ain't staying in this apartment any longer." He pulled her up and pointed towards the closet. "Pack your things."

"Now wait a minute!" Kagome called to him as he walked out of the room. Placing her fists defiantly on her hips, she glared at him. "I see no reason why I can't just stay here. They got what they wanted, like you said, so why the heck would they come back? And I'm not a child you boss around!"

"Wench, this is your life we're talkin' about here! I know more about these guys than you could ever imagine, so don't even try me! Now pack your (bleep!) bags and let's go!" His fists clenched at his sides.

Kagome stood there glaring at him, and he of course, glared right back. She made no move to grab the duffle bag she had pulled out from under the bed in her search. There was no way this cocky biker was going to get her to leave her apartment. When a few minutes had passed and still neither one had moved, InuYasha let out a throaty growl.

"I'm gonna protect you and I can't do that here. Now… pack… your… bags!" He punctuated each word with a jab at the bag at her feet.

Finally Kagome moved to grab the big yellow bag at her feet and throw some clothes in. She slammed open her drawers and grabbed handfuls of various garments and shoved them in then stalked to her closets and tore open the doors. She yanked a few coats and shirts off their hangers and snatched up a pair of sneakers and threw all of it into her bag, jerked the drawstring tightly and threw it at InuYasha's feet.

"My bag is packed. Happy?" She snapped.

Her attitude rolled off him like water off a duck's back. He had seen enough of this from other girls for her reaction to be any surprise to him. He stooped and grabbed the oversized backpack and with one last glance around the disheveled room, he threw it over his shoulder and walked out of the room towards the door. Behind him, as he walked off, Kagome grabbed an empty shoulder bag that hung from the mirror and threw some makeup, her prized camera and its equipment, and a brush in and then stormed out after the hanyou. He stood waiting for her at the door having pulled is boots on while she grabbed the other things. She sat down on the step and pulled on her brown loafers slowly. Taking one last look around the apartment, she got up and walked out the door. InuYasha shut the door and held his hand out to her.

"What?" She asked, still unpleased with the way things had turned.

"Give me the key."

She shoved a hand down into a pocket on the green pleated skirt she was wearing and dropped the keys into his open hand. He locked the door and put the keys into his own pocket and then walked down the hallway to the stairs, Kagome in tow. They walked the next five minutes down to the lobby and out into the parking lot to his bike in silence. He looked between the bike and the heavy bag on his shoulder and heaved an annoyed sigh. He fished through a few pockets before finding his cell phone and flipped it open. After dialing a number he placed the sleek electronic up to his ear and waited for someone to pick up.

"Shippou? It's InuYasha. Call a taxi and get your butt over to Second Street. I need you to drive Katsu." He paused, listening to the kit on the other side of the line. "No! Get over here now!" InuYasha closed the phone and turned to Kagome.

"Where'd ya park your car?"

Kagome pointed over to the big sakura tree. Underneath it, covered in little pink and white petals, sat her car. InuYasha walked over to it and pulled out the keys that Kagome had given to him. After fiddling around for the right key, he jammed the key into the lock and opened the door. He threw the yellow bag into the back seat and slid into the driver's seat. When he saw that Kagome had not followed him he leaned out of the car and called to her to get in the car.

"Kagome, get in the car! We gotta head over to my place to get ya settled in."

"InuYasha, I don't like this! I don't want to leave my apartment, and I especially do not want to go stay at your house! Thanks but no thanks! I'll go to the shrine and stay with my mom." Kagome pulled her phone out of her purse and began to press some buttons.

The young man had had quite enough of Kagome's attitude at this point. Getting out of the car, he headed straight for the preoccupied woman, his boots thudding heavily on the tarmac as he went. Just before he reached her, she started talking sweetly into the receiver.

"Konnichiwa! Is it possible for me to get a taxi to…? InuYasha! What the (bleep!)are you doing with me! Put me down this instant! I mean it!" Kagome's cell phone landed solidly on the pavement and snapped shut.

InuYasha had lifted the stubborn photographer into his arms and was now carrying her in the direction of the car. She struggled viciously to get down but to no avail, his grip on her legs and shoulders was a strong as iron and just about as tight. Once he reached the passenger's side of the car he quickly opened the door and shoved his load into the seat then slammed the door shut again, but not before he had locked the door.

"InuYasha! This is not right!" Kagome shouted through the window as she vainly struggled to unlock the door.

"I said I was gonna protect you and this the only way I can do that properly." He shouted back as he made his way around the car and into the driver's seat.

For once, Kagome sat quietly in the seat and stared out at the traffic ahead of her. An angry scowl was painted deeply into her beautiful features and her arms crossed tightly over her chest, but she said and did nothing to gainsay what InuYasha had told her, she only sat there stewing. They both sat there stewing. That is, until a bright yellow taxi rolled into the parking lot and deposited a young boy with bright red hair and a bushy foxtail.

"Shippou! What took you so long?" InuYasha called as he slid out of the car again and walked over to the kitsune boy.

"Sorry Yasha, the taxi got caught in traffic halfway here. But I'm here now. Why'd you need me to drive Katsu?" Shippou asked as he peered around InuYasha at the car he had come from.

"Long story. Just follow that car," he pointed towards the car in which Kagome sat, "and then I'll drive her back to the warehouse myself. Got that? Easy enough for a runt like you ta do?"

"Yeah. But I'd still like to know why you have too drive a car! You never drive!"

"Stop asking dumb questions and get the bike runnin'!" InuYasha said as he bonked the curious boy on the head.

Shippou nodded obediently as he rubbed the bump that was forming and ran over to the bike to get it started. InuYasha, meanwhile, had gotten into the car and started the engine. When he heard the motorcycle rev to life he pulled out of the parking lot and headed down the street to the neighborhood where his home was located.

xXx

A black car and red and silver motorcycle rolled into the Tessaiga estate's long, winding driveway around two in the afternoon. Just as the car pulled to a stop in front of the grand stairway to the front door a short fat man came puffing down the stairs looking distraught.

"Gomen nasai! The master of the house is out at the moment so if you could… InuYasha-sama!" he pulled up short as InuYasha slid out of the driver's seat.

"Oh, InuYasha-sama! We've been looking all over for you!" Myoga ducked into a bow and tweaked his pointy beak-like sucker happily. Then he spotted the young woman that was just stepping out of the passenger side.

"Myoga, this is Kagome. She's gonna stay with us for a while until things cool down in the city, got that?" InuYasha motioned for one of the servants to attend to the bag in the back seat and take it to a free guest room.

"She is very pretty! I bet she has some sweet blood." Myoga felt his mouth start to water at the thought.

"You keep your flea-nose off of her, you hear?" InuYasha growled as he smacked the short flea youkai over the head.

"Yes sir. There was some business we needed to attend to, sir." Myoga droned out, replacing his happy nature with the subservient mask.

During all of this Kagome stood gazing stupidly at the surrounding compound. The moment InuYasha had turned into this driveway she had been awestruck. The long driveway had been lined with dozens of different flowering trees on either side, their long branches reaching over the drive like a bridge and scattering the sunlight into small patches. The grounds beyond that were perfectly manicured lawns speckled with tiny oriental gardens and ponds filled with koi and lotuses. The house, no, mansion, was just as spectacular. It was built in the English fashion, setting aside the traditional Japanese style. It rose two stories over the grounds with dozens of windows and plenty of flourishes in its stone faces. She was still gawking at the splendour when a strong wrapped around her waist and led her towards the front door. Behind her she heard a young giggle and turned her head enough to see.

"Shippou! Shut it!" InuYasha growled at the teenage kitsune. He reached out a fisted hand to knock the boy's head but just when he would have connected with fiery head he met nothing but air.

"Hahaha! Missed me! Missed me! Now ya gotta kiss me!" Taunted a disembodied voice.

InuYasha forgot completely about his dumbfounded charge and cracked his knuckles menacingly. "Shippou! I'm gonna pound you to a bloody pulp!" He shouted as he sprinted out into the lawn.

From the depths of one of the bushes came a childish giggle and a tell tale bushy red tail. InuYasha spared no time in pouncing on the unfortunate tail. Just as he started to pull the offending boy out of the bush the tail disappeared in a puff of smoke and left a small stone statue of a fox guardian, right over InuYasha's hands. Even as he started to pull his smashed fingers out from under the statue Shippou rushed by and slapped a sutra over the thing's head, thus thwarting any of InuYasha's future attempts to get up.

"You (bleep!)! Get over here right now and get this thing off of my hands! I mean it, pip squeak!" An infuriated hanyou shouted to the slowly retreating kitsune.

"Not a chance! I'll just leave you there and take Kagome for myself! Ta ta, looser!" Shippou replied triumphantly.

Kagome, who had been watching the whole thing intently, was holding her sides in laughter. Tears streamed down her face as she watched the interaction between 'siblings,' she even had to sit down when she found the laughter had drain all the energy from her legs. When Shippou reached her quivering form he too burst into peels of laughter as he helped her to her feet.

"Don't think we've been properly introduced. The name's Shippou. That jerk over there adopted me when I was little." He said as the last of the giggles had left them both.

"I'm Higurashi Kagome. Pleased to meet you." Kagome offered Shippou her hand in a handshake.

"You're really different from the rest of the girls he brings to the warehouse. And he never takes girls home with him. You must really be something."

"Just in a tough spot, that's all." Kagome said as her face went through six different shades of red.

"Mhm. Yeah. Well, I'll show you inside the house, if you want. I know this place like the back of my paw!" Shippou said as he swept his arm out wide across the massive building. Gently he placed an arm around Kagome's thin shoulders and led her inside, completely ignoring the enraged ranting from the lawn.

"Shippou! You freakin' trickster! Get your hands off Kagome and let me up! I'm gonna kill you in your sleep! I swear it!" InuYasha yelled at the two as they made their way up the stairs.

"Don't you think you should let him up now? He sounds pretty mad." Kagome looked at the fox boy at her side.

"Nah! I do this all the time, and he doesn't really mean any of the major threats anyway. Besides, the spell'll rub off in a few minutes, it's only a mind game. The statue isn't really there." He smiled slightly, just enough for Kagome to catch a glimpse of the two milky white canines glittering in the sunshine.

Kagome looked the kitsune from head to toe, or claw, as the case was. Instead of human legs, Shippou had two dog-like limbs, almost as though he could not completely transform into a human form from his original fox form. To add to that, a bright bushy fox tail waved back and forth behind him like a pompom. Two green eyes sparkled mischievously in a jovial face topped with a mop of thick red hair that was pulled back in a loose ponytail. He was the fourth high-blooded youkai she had met in her life. She had met many lesser youkai, creatures that could not change into a human form, but not very many greater youkai made appearances these days. To her surprise, the entire Tessaiga estate was manned by full-blooded greater youkai of every sort imaginable, from the head administrator Myoga the flea, to the lowest chamber maid.

The whole place was amazing. The people that worked there, the immaculate gardens and ponds, the grand hotel-like receiving room, even the bathrooms looked like something out of a movie or book. As Shippou led her through the home from room to room and finally to the guest room she was to occupy, she began to wonder what stories the mystery InuYasha had in store for her.

When her impromptu tour guide had left her to unpack her bags and settle in to her room, Kagome threw herself happily into the cushy softness of her bed and heaved a content sigh.

"Maybe coming here wasn't such a bad idea after all."

End of Chapter

xXx

Translations:

Hanyou: Half demon

Sakura: Japanese cherry tree

Okaasan: Mother

Chichioya: Father

Inu youkai: Dog demon

Youkai: Demon

Kitsune: Fox demon

Moshi moshi: Hello (phone)

Konnichiwa: Good afternoon

Gomen nasai: Excuse me

Koi: Decorative giant goldfish

Notes to the Reviewers:

Due to the fact that my last "chapter" was more of a suggestion starter, I'm gonna answer the reviews of the fifth chapter as well as the suggestions. Here it goes… XxHisLilLoverGirlxX: Thanks! I'm glad you like it! Keep reading and reviewing! Punk Rock Miko2: Yeah, Kags can be pretty dumb at times, or is it tenacity? inufan4ever2591: Thanks! Enjoy the next chapter! IamHermioneGranger: I made this chapter extra long, just for you! I hope you'll forgive the yearlong wait for the next chapter, you know how school goes… jessiskags: I'm glad you liked it! petpeeves12: Yep, she should have listened… Anyway! Thanks for sticking with me and I hope you'll forgive me for the inactivity. Jessiskags: Thanks for the suggestions! angelqt1231: Thanks for your suggestions, it was helpful! Sakura2234: Thank you for your suggestions, which is probably what I will end up doing. And thanks for the compliment (blushes)!

Final Notes:

Thanks to all of you that reviewed and sent in suggestions! Again I apologize for my long absence, and I hope you'll forgive me and continue to read. I wasn't completely inactive during that time though! For those of you who go back through the first five chapters, you'll see I changed and added a few things. Not a whole lot, just sprucing it up a bit. Ok, that's about as much as I can say now. Hope you enjoyed this chapter, please review!