Disclaimer: Lord Almi- everytime *sigh* I do not own Inuyasha nor have any plans to. I simply write for fun adn that is all

The After (part 2): Shikon City — 1 yr, 365 days, 8,766 hrs, 529,949 mins, and 31,566,926 seconds ago

Kagome's POV

I opened my eyes slowly and winced as I felt a pain in my shoulder. I moved my hand to feel what was wrong when I felt a sharp tug on my wrist. I blinked and gasped as I tried to move my arms. I looked up to see my wrists in shackles and started to thrash wildly.

"HELP! SOMEONE HELP ME!" I screamed out in the darkness as I felt the metal bite into my skin. The blood trickled out and dripped down my arm as I called for someone. A familiar chuckle echoed out and I froze as a light came towards me.

As it came closer, it revealed the bars in front of me and the cold dungeon floor below me covered in bones and a stange red paint. I watched my blood drip into one of the paint stains and opened my mouth to scream when a chilling voice commanded,

"Silence!"

I looked up into the eyes of my sister and watched as she smiled at me. I was about to ask what she had done to me when I felt something snake out and strike my arm. I screamed and slumped as the thing dug into the flesh almost slipping against the bone. The chains held me up in an agonizing grip and it felt as if someone had just severed my arm.

"That's better," Kikyo whispered and lifted her hand. I felt the thing slip out of my body with a pop! and watched from hooded lids as something white curled its way around her arm.

"My pet thanks you for the meal," she said as she lifted a hand to pet the white tentacle. I moaned in pain as the chains kept me up and watched Kikyo open the door and step in front of me.

"You are now my slave Kagome. If you speak out of term I will punish you. Do anything that displeases me and you shall also be punished, is that understood?"

I nodded my head dumbly and almost sighed in relied as she moved away from me. She slammed the bars shut and walked away without another word, leaving me in the dark once again.

It had been 15 days since I had started working as a slave; not once did I see him. I had learned that I was in one of the tall buildings that surrounded Shikon City. I worked as a body disposer after executions. When I had finally been let out, I had almost cried at the horrific scenes before me.

The demons had taken over; our beautiful city was no more. The ground lay in blood and rubble; the clouds had darkened the skies to a dull gray. The slaves were all made to wear the same clothes except for me.

Kikyo made me wear the same clothes every day and no matter what I did, she tortured me every day. She would pull my nails out one by one slowly one night; the next, whip me countless times on my back until I collapsed from the pain.

I was one of the lucky few. Some had been turned into the demon's bitches and were raped on a daily basis, others were just tortured day in and day out until they died or the demons ate them out of boredom.

The world that I had once knew was gone and everything with it. My family was nowhere to be seen although Kikyo assured me that they were alive and being treated very well. Kikyo said if I was lucky I would encounter them at my job. I was forced to watch as humans were killed and as their loved ones watch them be killed

The worst one was of a young woman and a boy with brown hair. Their whole family had been forced on their knees in a circle then been tortured to death until their heads were finally chopped off. The boy and the young woman had to watch the whole time as five of their family members were slain, then, they were ushered off to help me dispose of the bodies.

"Your name is Kagome, right?" the woman asked as we threw the bodies into the pit. I only nodded and she took my hand in hers before declaring, "I am going to get you out of here."

I only stared into her brown eyes before she turned away and walked back to the demons that had escorted her here. I flinched as a demon called my name and scurried back to finish my job.

I jumped as a felt something being thrown through the windows and clatter against the rocky floor. My chains rattled noisily as I looked up to see another one fly through and land next to me. Once I had begun working for Kikyo, she had moved me to one of the higher level dungeons that had a large window and a sharp, hard floor. The chains were longer but still attached to my wrists which had been cut many times and the skin was now rough.

"Kagome?" I heard a voice whisper and moved to look out of the window. I stared down to see the woman whom I had met a few days ago, then frowned.

"Kagome," she said with a smile, "I'm going to get you out of there, stay put!" I only rolled my eyes at the absurdity of her words when a second later, she was right in front of my face.

"Okay Kohaku, throw me the tools," she whispered down. I looked down, again, to see the boy from below and paled when I saw the large demon cat that the woman was riding on. I fell back away from the wall and watched as the woman pried the bars loose.

"Come on!" she yelled as she held a hand down to me. I moved into the light and rattled my chains for her to see. She frowned before brightening into a smile again and pulling some sort of tool out.

"Here, use this to pick the locks," she said and tossed the tool to me. I caught it with ease and leaned down to undo the locks. I rubbed my hands as they clattered to floor, then walked over to the woman and grasped her outstretched hand.

She hauled me through the window and onto the large demon which then flew down to pick the boy up. I grasped onto the demons fur tightly as the young woman grabbed the young man by the wrist and heaved him on. The demon cat pushed off the ground and into the sky with a mighty leap towards the prison gates.

"Go, Kirara!" the woman yelled as we flew fast past the demons. Suddenly, a loud alarm sounded off as we bounded into the city.

"Don't let them escape!" we heard the demons yell behind us. The woman urged her demon to go even faster as we sailed down familiar streets that had been torn down. We dashed in and out of alleyways to lose the demons on our trail.

"Now Kohaku!" the woman yelled and I turned to see the boy nod and throw small little pebbles behind us. They exploded into smoke and the demons all fell to the ground coughing as we made our escape.

The demon cat flew away and down towards a hidden tunnel. It was covered in a thick, green moss and I shook it out of my hair as we passed through it and headed inside. We then landed and I clutched the fur tightly shaking in fear. The woman jumped off, as did the boy, and then helped me off. She then turned and began to make her way deeper into the tunnel and we followed behind her, the cat's flaming paws our source of light.

"Nee-chan where are we going?" the boy, Kohaku, asked. I only tilted my head and watched her continue down without answering and stopped when we reached a dead end. She then squatted down and I felt my brow furrow at this sudden act. I walked around to see what she was staring at when she reached down and began to lift something up.

The sewage lines? I thought as she pushed the lid over and dropped down. The boy followed quickly and I looked up at the cat demon before she whined and burst into flames. I fell backwards onto my butt as she jumped out of the flames into a small little kitten.

She walked in front of the hole and mewed at me before jumping down. I sighed, swinging my legs over and jumped in after them. I almost screamed when I fell into a pile of green slime and looked to see the woman walking down the tunnel in the direction that we had been walking before. I hurried to get up and chase after her as she marched her way down.

I wondered how she could find her way when I noticed a faint, glowing hand print on the wall ahead. The woman rushed forward with Kohaku and I followed close behind as she went to press her fingers against the marking. Her face broke out into a wide grin as she cheered and ran down the tunnel.

I scrambled to keep up as she laughed and ran faster down the hall where more and more of the glowing prints were located on the walls. I faltered when I saw a small light flicker in the darkness of the tunnel and almost laughed along with the woman.

We all ran with all of our might towards the light as it grew with every step and the two broke out in smiles as we saw humans by a fire roasting some meat. It was an old woman and a young man. The old woman had grey hair and wore a dirty, torn up blue jacket with black, stained, sweat pants; her left eye covered was covered by a black eye patch.

The man next to her had no shirt on and grey sweat pants. His chest was covered in tiny nicks here and there and he wore no shoes. His violet eyes pierced ours and his black hair hung down to his shoulders in a wild fashion.

"And who are ye, young ones?" the old woman spoke up. The young woman next to me straightened up and said,

"We just escaped from one of Kikyo's prisons. I heard of you from my father. He told me to come seek you out. I am his daughter Sango and this is my brother Kohaku."

The old woman's eyes light up and she smiled warmly at us and motioned for us to sit down. She then looked at me and said, "And who might ye be? Ye looks are familiar I see."

I gulped and looked down into my lap. It had been fifteen days since I had used my voice. It wasn't the same. I had refused to talk ever since Kikyo had taken me and tortured me.

"Come on child, ye not need to be afraid," she said kindly, but I shook my head and let my bangs drape over my eyes to hid them.

"Well then, ye may confide in us when you are ready. I am Lady Keade and this is Miroku," she said gesturing to both her and the young man. He smiled warmly at us and I took a deep breath as I pushed my voice to work.

"…I…" everyone stopped to look at me. My throat was weak and sore from my refusal to use it and I took a deep breath before continuing, "I…I….Ka…go…me….Ka-kagome. My name is….Kagome," I whispered out shakily.

I looked up to see wide, peaceful smiles. For the first time in fifteen days, I really opened my eyes and truly smiled.