Chapter 3

"Ah!" Kagome screamed at the top of her lungs, slamming the palm of her hand into his chest, knocking him to the ground, butcher's knife sliding a few meters out of his reach. She gripped her throat with her shaking hand, lightly, feeling a graze and something warm on her hand. She moved her hand away from her throat and looked down. Blood… My blood… Kagome shook with a fear she had never felt before. Her knees gave out and she fall to the floor staring at her hand pointedly. She blinked back the tears threatening to fall from her eyes and started at her hand then the knife sitting a few meters away.

She started at the knife, thinking about what could have just happened to her and before she knew it, she blacked out and fell to the ground.

"Kagome, Kagome look!" a girl's voice very familiar to her called out. "Look its Mr. Tashio-Sama!"

"Mr. Tashio-Sama?" she questioned herself and looked around. She couldn't see anything, only hear it.

"Mr. Tashio-Sama! Mr. Tashio-Sama! Can I please speak with you?"

"Kagome, Look I found the perfect thing to make our friendship last forever… See, I just saw these beautiful little necklaces and could not resist, See, See?" the girl cheerfully laughed. Kagome laughed along with her.

"Yes, they are beautiful, what does it say on them?" Kagome asked looking at the symbol writing engraved on them; 永遠に親友.

"They say Best Friends Forever, I even got you a blue angel wings because I know how much you love the color," the girl spoke happily. "And a green ones for me, because I absolutely adore the color,"

"I'll never take it off, Rosette as long as you don't either,"

"Alright but on one condition,"

"What's that?"

"If either of us happens to die or anything like that, the other much takes the necklace and put it with one of our most treasured photos,"

"Which photo is that?"

"When we went to the beach house last summer and we're standing knee high in the ocean and the waves are rising up behind us and we turn to run away, when you're mum took the picture and we had those goofy child-like grins on our faces, that one, alright, but if such evens to happen and we take the other we still have to keep ours on, deal?"

"Deal," she felt herself smile. They locked pinkies and loudly called out "Best Friends Forever!" they laughed and put their necklaces on before heading off somewhere, she wasn't sure.

-Beep… beep… beep-

What's that, Rosette? What is that beeping I can hear? Kagome wondered softly.

-Beep, beep, beep, beep-

Why does it sound like a monitor? Kagome sighed and looked around, it was black and there was nothing in view. Kagome scrunched her eyes up and they fluttered open, to a bright light shining in her eyes.

"Oh thank the heavens, she's awake!" her mother cried loudly, bending over and hugging her.

"Mum," Kagome said, barely just hearing her own voice.

"No, no Kagome, you don't talk, you need to keep your strength up," Kagome blinked at her mother slow, wondering what she was talking about. She gave her mother the look asking 'can you tell me what happened?' "What happened, you don't remember?" she gave a look confirming she had no clue. "You were attacked, Mr. Tashio's eldest son brought you here, telling them that someone had attacked you with a butcher's knife and had nicked your neck with it and that you blacked out… he didn't give anything pacific as to what happened," her mother was blabbering on and on, though Kagome had stopped listening when her mother said butcher's knife.

She closed her eyes and flashes when past the backs of her eyes about Becca and Damien, Sesshomaru and herself, then Damien getting the butcher's knife and coming after her. Kagome slowly brought her hand to her throat and felt a bandage wrapped around it.

"Mum, where are Becca and Sesshomaru? Are they alright?" Kagome started to panic and was raising her voice to where it hurt. "Mother," Kagome snapped at her, sitting up in her hospital bed, glaring at her mother, who stopped pacing and ranting and looked at her daughter. "Where are they?"

"They are just outside, would you like to see them?" she asked a little afraid of Kagome's glare.

"Yes, I would and would you stop your babbling?" Kagome asked softer, lowering her voice.

"Of cause dear," she walked out of the room and looked to Kagome's new friends. "She would like to see you," then turned and walked off. Becca looked after her but didn't ask anything before running into Kagome's room and jumping onto the bed hugging her friend tightly.

Sesshomaru watched Mrs. Higurashi until she was around the corner and smell salt coming from her, she was crying, he stood and walk into the room finding Becca babbling on and on, Kagome stared blankly at the white wall, irritated. He smirked at her and sat in the chair that was in her direct vision and pointed at Becca. Kagome glared at him hard, than glanced at Becca still talking, she wasn't getting any of it.

*.*.*

Two weeks later, Kagome walked out of the hospital with Becca laughing at one of her jokes. She could talk on all volumes again though it still hurt a little but not enough to keep her from having a long chat with anyone.

"So what happened to Damien?" Kagome finally asked the question when they reached Becca's car. Becca frowned at her friend but shrugged it off as they climbed into the car.

"He was taken away from the apartment, I'm not sure where they have him holed up but I hope they keep him there forever,"

"Don't worry, I'll make sure next time I have something to defend myself with," Kagome smiled and then frowned. "Did he hurt you at all?"

"No…" Becca dragged it out into silence.

"Becca, what did he do to you?"

"He… uh..."

"Becca," Kagome said in a warning tone.

"He cut me across my arm and stomach with the butcher's knife, I would have been able to stop it from happening but he knocked the baseball bat out of my hand before I could use it,"

"Are you alright, though?" Kagome softly asked her friend.

"I've been in a little bit of pain but not much at all, just when I try and sit up too fast or bump into the wall or counter,"

"Is it infected?"

"No, I got it checked and cleaned when we brought you in, it wasn't infected but they cleaned it just to make sure it didn't," Becca smiled softly. "As soon as we said your name was Higurashi they called your mum and she came running, she sat there all night making sure you were alright, she was so worried about you,"

"Yeah, worried that I'll die before she can give me her wretched fortune and marry me off to some creep,"

"She wouldn't do that, would she?" Becca swallowed hard, as she parked the car in the parking lot out front of the apartment.

"She's been trying for years, but since I moved out, she hasn't been able to get into contact with me, she's probably found some guy for me and is just waiting for an opportunity to get us to meet and all that other shit to go with it,"

"Do you know the name of this guy she's trying to marry you off too?"

"Some guy named Hojo, I can't remember his last name, but I really could care less because I'm not getting married to him," Kagome growled, walking to the door to their home. "I would rather die,"

"Hojo," Becca said to herself, tapping a figure to her chin. "I know someone with that name but I can't think of where I have heard it before,"

"Oh well, I guess we'll just have to find this guy and murder him before anything,"

"Very much agreed, you don't need to get tied down with some creep you don't know," Becca smiled at her friend, Kagome laughed at her as they walked into their home.

*.*.*

"Hojo, have you heard anything from her mother yet?" a very irritated, malicious voice growled.

"No, big brother, I haven't heard anything, but have you seen her? She is so beautiful," he said dreamily.

"I wouldn't go that far but she does have a fine look to her, though even if she did marry you, we would have a lot on our hands to deal with,"

"I can take care of her myself, I don't need your help," Hojo growled back at his brother.

"You do make me proud when you aren't being such a wimpy little kid,"

"Shut up, brother!" he snapped, clenching his fists. "It's not my fault I have to be the goody-goody out of the two of us and make them proud to get married to a Shrine Maiden,"

"Well if that is what you call it then what do you really think of her?"

"I stick with my first comment but she seems like a little girl who's lost and has nowhere to go, I would rather go with her friend, at least she wouldn't put up a fight,"

"Bu I thought you like girls who put up a fight?"

"No, I don't, they annoy me because they don't listen,"

"Just take her friends and family out and she'll do anything you want her too," the voice laughed evilly.

"You know that's not really a bad plan," Hojo smirked and walked out of the room deep in thought.

"And soon that girl will be mine to take from you little brother; you do not have the right to take it from me,"

*.*.*

"Hey Sesshomaru," Inuyasha called up the stairs of their house. Sesshomaru walked out of the bathroom, toothbrush in hand, half in his month as he scrubbed. He arched an eyebrow at his brother, in question. "Why do you have Kagome's thing still in the back seat of your car?"

Sesshomaru blinked at him and thought back to the night she was injured. He never did give her belongings back, he screwed up his face and growled, turning around and walked back to him private bathroom connected to his bedroom, he finished washing up and then through on a baggy top over his bare chest and slipped into some shoes with his grey tracksuit pants hugging his waist, then grabbed his car keys and headed out of the door without saying a word to anyone and headed to his car.

Inuyasha stood at the door watching as his brother got into his car and drove off, Inuyasha laughed to himself at his brother's misfortune of forgetfulness, closing the door he headed to his room and went to his computer, logging onto his website with all his friends on it.

He strolled down his friends list till he found Kagome's picture and clicked on it. He started at the page for a minute trying to take everything in that was on it… it was so colorful and bright, she had more than at least one-hundred photo's on it, her info had everything filled out and written in some kind of cursive writing. He friends list had more than one-thousand friends and it seemed she knew all of them; he wall was full of comments and other things.

He checked to see if she was online and grinned, she was. He double clicked the chat box and started typing.

Hey Kagome,
Just to let you know Sesshomaru's heading over with your things from work, he forgot to give them back.

He only had to wait a second before he had a message back from her, she typed damned fast.

Thanks, Inuyasha,
I'll keep a lookout from him, I'm guessing he won't be happy and he'll be in his sleeping wear =L

Inuyasha smirked at her humor. She wasn't so bad, she was actually pretty cool, he really needed to talk to her more.

So how are you and Kikyo going?

He blinked at the screen then smiled at it.

We're great, you should meet her sometime… I'm sure you two will get alone great.

Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha… Yes, I'm sure I'm going to get alone with your girlfriend; I don't think so, Inu-boy. Be back in minute, I think I head your brothers car... Later!

And then she was offline before he could say anything else. She types really fast, she must spend her spare time on here… he thought and started laughing at the thought of Kagome spending her spare time sitting on a computer when she had better things to do... Yeah right!

*.*.*

Kagome got up off her bed, leaving her laptop where it was and walked out of her room, she looked across the hall into Becca's room, with her sleeping soundly. Kagome smiled and silently closed Becca's door, then headed down the hall to the living room, she sighed. She really needed to clean that broken glass up; she wouldn't even let Becca clean it when she was in the hospital.

Kagome half smiled, with a soft sigh and headed into the kitchen. She walked around the counter to the draws and opened the bottom on, taking out the dustpan and brush, setting them down on the counter top she looked to her fridge and saw something poking out from under the cupboards and knew what it was immediately; it was her metal baseball bat. She walked over and bent down, picking it up, then headed over to the fridge and stood it up next to it in, on the side.

She walked over and picked up the dust pan and brush and went back to her living room, sitting down next to the glass she started cleaning it up silently. A few moments later someone knocked on her door, startling her, she shook her head and stood up leaving the pan and brush where they were. Looking out the peephole on her door she saw Sesshomaru's scolding face looking at her door.

She bit her lip, so not to laugh but when she opened the door to find him in his sweats, a baggy top and a random pair of shoes, she couldn't help but laughed out. She smiled sheepishly at him and stepped aside to let him in, he glared at her and walked into the living room. Kagome closed the room, calming down then walked in after him. She was in her tight long, silver night gown and blue lace around the edges of it.

"Sorry about laughing but I have never seen you look so… casual," Kagome smiled softly, leading him to the sofa. "Sit, sit, I'll get you some tea," she said walking out of the room. He sat down with a soft sigh, setting her things down next to him and looked to the floor. There was blood on the ground from both Damien and Becca.

Sesshomaru looked around the room seeing if he could find any family photos or anything but the only ones he could see where of her and friends or her and family excluding her mother. I wonder why there is no photo's of her mother, he thought looking back at the floor.

"I hope I made it right because I wasn't sure how you liked your tea," Kagome chuckled nervously and sat the drink down on the flower stand next to him. "Sorry about the mess, I wouldn't let Becca clean it up; it's not her job to do even if she does live here,"

Sesshomaru nodded and picked up the tea, as Kagome knelt down and started cleaning again… her night gown slipping up enough to show him her little silver underwear. He choked on his tea and looked away, lightly putting the cup on his lap.

"Can I ask you something?" Kagome asked over her shoulder, glancing at him, he looked back at her and tilted his head. "What's it like to have a mother that cares about you?" he blinked a couple of time and took a sip of his drink, and put it on the flower stand.

"What do you mean by who cares about me?" he was truly curious and confused.

Kagome sighed and sat back on her heels, turning around to face him. She put the dust pan and brush down in front of her. "You live with your mother, don't you?" she asked a little saddened. Sesshomaru nodded slowly. "She fusses about you and makes sure you're alright and all that, right?" he nodded again even slower trying to figure out what she was getting to. "So what's it like to have her do that?"

"Annoying, irritating, frustrating…"

"Be positive not negative, Mr. I hate everything around me," Kagome sarcastically said in an imitating deep voice. He smirked at her and though for a moment.

"I do not know what is needed to be said because I do not know what it is you mean," he replied, sliding off the couch and onto the floor in front of her. Kagome looked up from the ground and jumped, startled by his move.

"It's just most girl's love their mothers more than fathers, no matter what by really I don't see how," she sighed, looking to her wall, Sesshomaru followed her gaze. It was a portrait of Kagome, her brother, Sota, her father, Mr. Higurashi and her grandfather. "My mother and I never got along; she only cared when I was sick or injured, when it come to boys or anything else she didn't care what I did or what happened to me," her voice creaked not with sadness, it sounded more like anger.

"So she did not care for you?" he questioned, confusion written all over his face. Kagome just nodded then went back to cleaning, turning her back to him again. "And what of your father, did he care?"

"He cared, he cared for me and Sota both, so did grandpa… mother, she didn't care what happened to any of us. She didn't care if we go kidnapped or raped or anything, as long as she could take care of herself and yet my little brother, father and grandpa have to live in that shrine with that disgraceful women, who doesn't care for any of them," Kagome growled loudly, slamming her flattened palm into the ground, where glass was still, getting glass cut into her skin, sinking in each time she hit her hand against it. "The witch has the ordacity to keep them away from me and treat them like dirt just because she doesn't have me there to take everything out on!" she cracked and punched the floor with all her force behind it, glass dug right into her hand and draw blood.

She didn't even feel it... or maybe that was because it wasn't Kagome anymore and that evil laugh was coming from her other half.

"Katsumi," Sesshomaru greeted calmly, staring at her back.

"Wow, I'm surprised this girl has so much anger built up to last her life time and my own, it's hard to find anything but anger in her mind," Katsumi smirked. "For such a sweet, innocent little girl, she is sure a crazy one, she could really do some damage to someone, if they ever hurt her,"

"You like to hear your own voice do you not?" Sesshomaru grumbled.

"I do actually, it's all I have been hearing for centuries," she laughed and turned around. "Why is it that every time I get out, you're around?"

"You come out at the wrong times," he replied solemnly, his voice to its usual baritone.

"Aww, don't be like that and go all cold and heartless on me," she wined, pouting. Sesshomaru glared at her. "At least she can't feel the pain from punching all that glass and getting it jammed into her hand,"

Actually I can, what are you me again? Kagome grumbled, wanting to pull all the glass out of her hand.

"Never mind she can," Katsumi conformed. Because you little one has too much anger to handle and I take over when you lose your cool, so thank you, she smirked inwardly.

You're very NOT welcome and you leave him and Becca alone, Kagome growled.

Don't worry I'm not going to do anything to anyone yet, little one, Katsumi laughed at Kagome.

Sesshomaru stared at her blankly, but it seemed she had gone mad; talking to Kagome in her mind, yeah that would be about right, right? Oh how he was confused. Deciding it was time to leave, Sesshomaru got up and headed for the door, when he reached for the handle, a hand lay on top of his, tangling their fingers between them.

"Where are you going, Sesshomaru?" Katsumi whined, a flirtatious smile on her face.

"Leaving," he replied, pulling his hand away from hers and putting it to his side. Reaching with the other hand he twisted the handle and opened the door, walking out before she could stop him, but she just followed him out the door.

"Why?" she asked innocently. "Did I do something wrong?"

Did I not tell you to leave him alone, Katsumi, give it a rest, Kagome growled at her, she could feel the frustration rolling off Sesshomaru in waves; all he wanted to do was go home and go to sleep. All she wanted to do was go to bed and lock Katsumi back up in her cage. She needed to get a better lock on that. Getting up from the ground, she walked over to the cage and looked at the lock, it was fried. Whoops, she said aloud and made another lock, much stronger. Walking back to where should could see what was going on, she grumbled and slapped Katsumi mentally.

Ow, that hurt you know, Katsumi grumbled.

Yeah, well, it's your own damned fault for not getting out of my body and leaving me and everyone else alone, Kagome grumbled back.

If you don't stop with your annoying childish behavior I will do something you will not like and I'm sure your friend Sesshomaru here, won't like it either, Katsumi threatened.

Do your worse, I could really care less right now but when you get back in here, I'll fried you're damned ass to hell! Kagome snapped at her, growing tired of her constant annoyance.

You asked for it girly, Katsumi laughed evilly and walked up to Sesshomaru.

"Hey Sesshomaru," Katsumi sang out, wiggling her fingers and batting her eye lashes at him.

"What?" he growled impatiently.

"I have a little present from Kagome," she smiled sweetly. He arched his eye brow at her in question. "You have to come here if you want it,"

"I'll pass on it," he growled, turning around and started walking off.

"Are you really going to hurt poor little Kagome like that? Turn away her present to you? You really are cold and heartless, aren't you, Sesshomaru?" Katsumi complained to him as if he was a child.

He sighed inwardly and turned around but didn't make a move towards her, he didn't trust her any more then he trusted his brother's witch.

"Oh stop being such a sore-puss," Katsumi grumbled at him. He just stared at her emotionlessly, getting rather sick of her.

*.*.*

"Kagome," Becca steered in her bed, looking to her door, which had been shut. "What is that girl doing? She never closes the door unless something's happening outside, I wonder what's happening?" Becca wondered aloud, pulling the blankets back, she slipped her feet into her fluffy turquoise slippers and made her way to the door, taking her sleeping gown off the hook and putting it on, tying the string around her waist before opening her door and walking out.

Walking to the living room she noticed that it had started getting cleaned and walked into the kitchen to make a cup of hot chocolate. Wondering what time it was, she looked to the clock hanging on the wall and it read: five fifty-five A.M.

Looking out the kitchen window she could see the sun starting to rise. Walked back to her room, she opened the curtains and slid the window opened, letting the morning air rash through. She walked to Kagome's room and did the same thing before heading to the bathroom and other rooms, opening all the curtains and windows in the apartment and went back to the kitchen and opened its curtains and window, smiling happily.

While making her hot chocolate she noticed that the apartment was too silent for the morning, normally Kagome would be fussing with breakfast or having a shower, but she wasn't doing either and if she had started cleaning she wouldn't have stopped unless something interrupted her.

Deciding to figure out what was up; she picked up her drink and made her way to Kagome's room where her laptop sat opened on her bed with at least ten chats going off but she hadn't replied to any of them. Setting her drink down on the bed side table she scooted over on the bed and started flattering through Kagome's profile to see what she had been doing.

At the bottom on her screen there was three other windows opened. Becca thought she better not look but she was too curious and clicked on the first one. It was an email to one of her friends overseas, who lived in the United Kingdom, though Becca had no idea what their name was. She put the window back down and went to the next one and brought it up.

It looked to be some kind of story Kagome was writing, she scrolled to the top of it and tilted her head to the side reading the title out loud: "The Haunting Tale of a Young Girls Life" reading on a little more on the cover page she read the description about this story. It read:

"This tale is about a young girl named Katsumi Higurashi. Her mother, Kayome Higurashi, Lady of the South and mother of two, her father, Soga Higurashi, Lord of the South and father of two and of cause there was her dear little brother, Sora Higurashi. Though I can't tell you much about what her life was like I'll give you a clue throughout my tale, a very haunting tale of this dear little Princess who couldn't tell her own story to the world. And I am writing this for her because she is my long lost ancestor and I want the world to know of her brave and courageous efforts to save the lives of her friends and family. This addition is written to you by Kagome Higurashi."

Becca could feel the sting of tears pooling up in her eyes and scrolled back down to where Kagome had stopped. Minimizing the screen she opened the last one and gasped. It was Sesshomaru's profile, she had been reading his information but there was also a small blog on the page but Kagome had somehow blocked it so no one else from her profile could get to it without hacking it. Becca couldn't be bothered to try and hack it because she knew Kagome had very weird passwords and it would probably take a pro hacker at least a month to get it.

Putting the window back down she shifted back through Kagome's, finding all different kinds of things there, she wasn't really paying attention to anything, only when her eyes skipped over a poem on the page did she stop and read it. This poem said:

"Through Life and Death we tell our tale,
from Day to Night we speak a story,
Past to Present we live our life,
but from Darkness and Light we trap our souls.

Twists and Turns we take the path,
walk through not knowing what to do,
run away from everyone we know,
turn away from everything we are.

But living a life as a Princess of the South,
or Prince of the West, there is no stopping,
What the paths of Time have in store for us,
So take your chances, feel the rush,
and do the dares you wouldn't,
Because really you only have one life to live,
and you should take what you have before it's gone."

*.*.*

"What are you doing girl?" Sesshomaru growled lowly to Katsumi who was advancing on him, cornering him so he couldn't get away.

"I'm giving you Kagome's present to you," she smirked and jumped at him and in a second flat, her eyes changed back to hazel, arms around his neck, on her tippy-toes and their lips locked in a soft moment, that neither could pull away from. The only reaction from Sesshomaru was his arms around her waist pulling her as close to him as possible. No space even for paper to fit between them.