Disclaimer: I own neither Inuyasha nor Hellsing and make no money from these writings.

Like the Dawn

Chapter Two

Supper was finished, the dishes were washed, and Rena Higurashi was finally sitting down to check her email. She didn't use their family computer often, but she was on a few mailing lists to receive coupons for local stores. She would go grocery shopping in the morning, and she always liked to save what she could here and there. A few coupons had been printed out when an unfamiliar email address caught her eye. She was about to delete it thinking that it was junk when the subject line made her stop.

About Kagome

Rena felt a small shiver run down her back. Who would be contacting her about Kagome? And, more importantly, how did they know her daughter's name?

Clicking on the email, her eyes widened in shock as she read over the message. She leaned closer to the screen to make sure that her eyes weren't playing tricks on her as she read it again and again.

Rena,

I believe the time has come. Kagome needs to learn about her birthright. I do remember that I contacted you some years ago to say that I was releasing my claim on Kagome, but circumstances have changed. I apologize for that. How you wish to tell Kagome is up to you. If you would prefer that I explain the situation, I won't object. Upon your reply, I will make all of the travel arrangements and pay for Kagome's relocation.

Make no mistake, I cannot convey the depth of my gratitude to you for raising and taking care of Kagome for all of these years. I also regret having to take her away now, but as I said, circumstances have changed. I'm growing older and a possession I had thought to be lost has recently returned to me. I cannot leave this to just anyone.

I await your prompt reply.

Best regards,
Sir Integra Fairbrook Wingates Hellsing

Rena let out a shuddering breath. Integra Hellsing was the last person that she'd ever expected to hear from again. She'd only met the woman in person twice. Once when she'd approached Rena and her late husband about surrogacy and again when she returned to the fertility clinic in Japan to donate her eggs for the procedure. Rena's husband had always been the one to keep in touch with Integra. The blonde woman had always seemed very intimidating to Rena.

But after her husband passed, the task of keeping Integra informed on Kagome's life and development fell to her. They only ever communicated through email and even those were rare occurrences. Then one day she'd received an email from Integra stating that she no longer needed an heir and that she wanted Kagome to stay in Japan with the family that she knew and grew up with. Rena didn't have any complaints. After all, who wants the child that they love taken away to live halfway around the world?

She had been relieved to know that she would be able to keep her daughter with her and give Kagome a normal childhood. Well, as normal as she could manage. None of them saw the incident with the jewel and the well coming. But Kagome had pulled through it. She had saved the world and kept her grades up enough to get into a good school. She had become so strong and independent. But when she came back from their final battle, she was different. She still smiled, though not as brightly. She still laughed, though not as freely. She often daydreamed, and Rena knew that her mind had wandered back to a place five hundred years in the past. Kagome had experienced a different way of life, and she seemed bored with the normal life she lead in the modern era.

That was why, when the well had finally opened up after three years of lying dormant, Rena had let her little girl go. It hurt more than she would ever be able to put into words, but knowing that Kagome would be truly happy made the pain more bearable.

The Higurashi family had gradually moved on with their lives. They kept a picture of Kagome on a bookshelf, and it wasn't unusual for any of them to stop and talk to her for a little while. They kept her alive in their home in their own little way. They eventually adjusted to Kagome not being in the house anymore. That was why it had been such a shock when, three years after she'd left them, Kagome was returned to them once more in a flash of light that left her sprawled out and more than a little dazed in the well house.

None of them knew what had happened, not even Kagome. She'd later told them that one moment she was picking herbs with Kaede and the next she was back in the well house. Kagome had cried for several days upon her return and finding out that the well was closed to her once again. Rena had listened to her daughter's heart wrenching sobs and cursed the gods that seemed to be more cruel to Kagome than other people. She'd been ripped from her friends and the world she loved twice, and she had nothing to show for it but some scars and a broken heart.

But time had passed since then. Kagome had been home for about ten years. She had been living at home on the shrine even as Souta grew up and moved out to attend college. Kagome's days were filled with shrine duties as a priestess and helping her mother and grandfather in whatever ways she could. Though even when she was living an ordinary life in the modern age she was born into, Kagome's life was still anything but normal.

It had been subtle, almost unnoticeable for several years, but Kagome, at thirty-one years old, looked exactly the same as she had upon returning from the past when she was only twenty-one. No fine lines, not a single blemish. She was all supple skin and rosy cheeks. They had no explanations for her stand-still. Kagome had a couple of theories, all involving the supernatural, but none of them could be proven one way or the other. And Rena wasn't sure how much longer she would be able to stay at the shrine where their regular visitors knew her. So far it had been dismissed as graceful ageing, but there was only so long that particular lie would keep working.

Biting her lip, Rena took a deep breath. As much as she didn't want to let her baby girl go, maybe it was best if Kagome went to meet her biological mother. She could experience a new life, something different from her current monotony. She would be around new people which would buy her at least a few years at least before they would also begin to question her never-changing appearance. And Rena had a feeling deep in her stomach that Kagome might be able to find what she was looking for with Integra. Her late husband had never said outright what it was that Integra's family did, but at times he had hinted and joked that it had something to do with the paranormal. She, of course, had never believed a word of it and thought that he was being silly. She had laughed off his words. But now, after everything that she had seen with Kagome's adventures through time, she wondered if he hadn't been telling her the truth all along.

Rena closed out her email, left her coupons on the printer, and stood from the computer chair before slowly making her way up stairs. Her right knee ached and popped every couple of steps, and she smiled sadly. If there was one thing Integra was right about it was that they were both growing older, both of them in their fifties. The years of going up and down the shrine steps had taken their toll on her knees, and she wasn't sure how her father-in-law still managed.

Knocking on Kagome's bedroom door, Rena waited until she heard Kagome's call to come in before pushing the door open. She smiled as best she could as she stepped into the room.

"Hey, Mama," Kagome greeted as she finished putting away the last of her folded laundry. When she finally looked up and saw the look on her mother's face, she paused. "What's wrong?"

"Come sit down, Kagome," Rena spoke gently as she sat on the edge of Kagome's bed and patted the spot beside her. This wasn't going to be easy.

Kagome moved to sit beside her mother, but she watched the older woman carefully the entire time. Something was wrong. Her mother was smiling, but her eyes were sad. "What's going on?"

Rena took a deep breath and let it slowly in preparation for the conversation that they were about to have; a conversation that was probably long overdue. "Kagome," she started as she reached over to hold both of Kagome's hands in her own. "I am your mother. I carried you for nine months. I raised you. I watched over you the best that I could as you grew into an amazing young woman. And I love you very much. You know all of that, don't you?"

"Mama," Kagome paused to give her mother a serious look. "You're scaring me. What's wrong?"

"I have something that I need to tell you," Rena answered as she looked away from Kagome's blue eyes, Integra's eyes. "I should have told you this a long time ago, but I didn't think it would ever matter, and I was never really sure how to say it." She paused to swallow and steel herself for whatever reaction Kagome might have. Looking Kagome in the eye once more, she continued, "When your father and I decided to start a family, we had trouble conceiving. It was a fertility issue on my part. But your father had a friend, a woman who lives in England, who offered to donate healthy eggs for in vitro. And that's how we were able to have you."

Kagome blinked before opening her mouth only to close it again. It took a moment for the information to really sink in, and when she finally spoke she wasn't really sure where to begin. "So I...you..." Clearing her throat, she tried again. "So my...biological mother is from England?"

"Yes," Rena said with a sigh. "I've only met her a couple of times, but your she and your father were good friends. She lives in London. From what I understand, her family is very old and wealthy with a large estate."

Nodding along with her mother's words as the tried to wrap her mind around everything, Kagome asked the question that was at the forefront of her mind. "Why tell me all of this now? I'm already thirty-one. What does any of it matter?" Then another thought struck her and it was a little jarring. "Does she want to meet me? Now? After all this time?"

"That's actually exactly why I'm telling you this now," Rena answered. "She just got in touch with me. And please just hear me out before saying anything, okay?" When Kagome nodded, she continued, "When your biological mother, Integra, offered to donate her eggs to us, there was a deal that came with it. She knew that we wanted a family, but she needed an heir to her family name and estate. So we accepted. Your father and I agreed to raise you until we all decided that it was time to tell you this. But then your father passed away and something - I'm not sure what - made Integra decide to let you live the rest of your life here as a Higurashi. But apparently something has changed and she needs an heir. She wants you to go to London so that you can live with her and learn about that part of your family."

"No," Kagome said almost immediately after her mother finished speaking. "No, I don't want to go live in London. I want to stay here with you and Grandpa. She's gotten by just fine all this time without me. Why can't she find someone else?"

"She doesn't have anyone else, Kagome," Rena explained. "She doesn't have any other family. Even though you've never met, you're the only family that she has left."

Kagome shook her head and extracted her hands from her mother's grip. She lifted her hands in front of her as she spoke, as though they would defend her from what she was being told. "I still don't want to go."

Rena smiled sadly as she watched Kagome look at her with a slightly panicked look. While she hated to see that look on Kagome's face, it warmed her heart a little to know that she didn't want to leave her home and family. Reaching out, she tucked a stray bit of hair behind Kagome's ear. "I think you should go," she said simply.

"Why?" Kagome asked in surprise. Why would her mother, the mother that raised her, want her to leave home to live in a foreign country so far away?

"I'm not clear on all of the details," Rena began, "but your father always hinted that Integra's family, the Hellsing family, was involved in the supernatural." When she saw Kagome's eyes widen a little, she smiled. "I think going to London and at least meeting Integra would be good for you."

"You want me to leave?" Kagome asked softly.

"No," Rena replied almost immediately. Though after further thought, she amended, "And yes. Of course I don't want my baby to leave and be so far away from me. But at the same time, I want you to be in an environment that would make you happy. You got used to a different kind of life than what I can give you here. I watch you around the shrine every day, and I can tell that you're bored. You never complain, but you've become stagnant and I don't think it's healthy. Kagome, you're the type of person who needs a challenge. You need to be somewhere that will give you variety and new opportunities to learn and grow." Rena had to pause so that she could blink away a few tears. "I wish I could provide you with that, but I can't. I firmly believe that Integra can, though."

"But what about the shrine?" Kagome asked. "What about you and Gramps? What about Souta?"

"We managed to take care of this shrine just fine when you weren't here," Rena smiled slightly. "And your grandfather and I will be just fine. The shrine inheritance will fall to Souta and it'll be up to him what to do from there. He never seemed that interested when he was little, but I think after seeing everything that you went through and understanding the history behind this place better, he'll probably stay and become a priest. You were always his hero, you know."

Kagome smiled at the thought of her little brother. Well, not so little anymore. He was already twenty-four and was close to finishing up his college degree. "Do you really think I should go?"

"I do," Rena nodded.

"What if I don't like it?"

Rena actually laughed a little at that question. "Kagome, you have always been one of the most stubborn and willful people I've ever met, child or adult. If you go to London, meet Integra, hear what she has to say, and you still don't want to be there, I don't think there's a force on this earth that could make you stay someplace that you don't want to be."

Kagome smiled at her mother's words before taking a moment to think about everything that she'd been told. She had a biological mother in England, she was the heir to a wealthy family, and her mother wanted her to go to London to meet this Integra woman.

Even though Kagome had settled into a nice routine at the shrine over the years, her mother wasn't entirely wrong either. She was bored, so bored at times that she could cry. Her life had become the definition of monotony. And she would be lying if she said that the opportunity, even just the slightest chance, to get involved again with a more supernatural element didn't light a small flame of excitement in her soul. "And I can always come back if I want?" She asked again just to be sure.

"I doubt Integra would try to keep you there against your will. But even if she did, I'm sure you'd find a way home some way or another," Rena smiled at her daughter.

Kagome took a deep breath and tried to ignore the slight tremble in her hands. At first she thought that it was from nerves, but that wasn't quite right. She wasn't nervous. She was excited. Something deep inside her, something she would never be able to explain if asked about it, told her that this was the right move. This was what she'd been waiting for. There was something in England that was meant just for her. So, looking her mother in the eye, she nodded. "Okay," she agreed finally. "I'll go to London."