May 09 2007: Author's Nonsense: Okay, I like this story so I wanted to spend my free time to work on it some more. Yay for working on my story. I might change this chapter in the future.

End of Chapter 24:

"Please." she answered, relaxing as her body needed it after it's expenditure of energy. "If the shards are back as these cards…maybe I can go back through the well again…to all my friends there…"

Chapter 25: Bittersweet Release

Kagome had to enjoy the way Kaiba dropped his brother off at the house before following her over to the shed where the well was, the concern in his stunning blue eyes when he grabbed her arm and stopped her from entering, it was touching how much he could effect her with that cerulean gaze.

"Kagome…what are you going to do?" he asked, he hid it well but she could pick out the slight worry leaking into his deep timbre.

She smiled gently and settled her hand over his to brush it with her fingers. "I need to try to see if the well works again…it's…complicated."

"You could get hurt jumping down that old thing." Kaiba replied, holding her hand where it was. "I don't want to see you get hurt."

"I need to test this Kaiba." she answered with a level of determination he knew he couldn't argue against. "I want you to come with me."

"To the bottom of the well?" he raised a brow at her as she moved inside and over to it's edge, climbing onto it while still holding his hand.

"Just jump over with me." She requested seriously as she looked at him. "Have faith in me."

"I do Kagome…but…your well being is important to me." He explained his hesitation to jump down several yards to possible injury. "What is this about."

"I told you this well connected my time to the feudal era - well it was because of the jewel and the shards - and now that I have them as a part of the game I might be able to use them to cross back into the feudal era again." she answered seriously. "I'm not actually sure it will work if you are with me…but I don't want to face all of it alone."

"Kagome…" he frowned a little at her and then reached after her when she pulled free of his grasp and hopped down the old well, falling several feet before she slammed harshly into the bottom where she scraped up her knee and one of her hands. "My god Kagome, are you all right?"

She could heard him but she didn't want to give in to the feeling that she'd failed to pass back through, she missed her old friends and even if Inuyasha had stayed with Kikiyo she still missed him as well. There was a scraping and several thumps as she heard Kaiba climb down the ladder left her by her family from when she was constantly traveling between the two times. His hand strong and warm as he set it on her back, making her want to cry all the more at the futility of what she was trying to get to.

"Kagome?" he asked again more quietly noting that she wasn't so injured that she couldn't stand as well as the slight moisture on her cheeks as she buried her head into his shoulder, starting to sob and leaving him all the more shocked by her actions. "It's okay Kagome. Are you hurt?"

"I don't know." she shook her head against him as she stated it, squeezing herself close as she'd finally learned her passage to the past had closed indefinitely behind her last return to this time. "I'm sorry Seto."

"Shhh." he comforted as he nuzzled into her hair, pulling her closer and embracing her so she didn't feel like she was being awkward (even if she was). "Don't apologize Kagome. It's okay. I'm just worried about you."

"Thank you Seto." She answered as she clung to the young CEO as he allowed her to sob into his shoulder. Half-laughing in her sorrow when he handed her a handkerchief after she'd left a slobbery/snotty stain on his black turtleneck, accepting it and wiping at her face as she started to quiet down a little.

"Are your hand and knee okay?" He finally asked, not asking why she was breaking down just yet.

"They'll be okay…I should probably clean the scrape on my knee." she answered. "Can we not tell my family though? I'd rather wait until we got back to your house."

"If you would prefer it." he answered. "I want you to climb ahead of me in case you slip."

She smiled softly and nodded, moving to climb back out the well with a feeling of finality as she knew she had finally left that part of her life behind her for good. Making her way out and wincing a little at the damage to her knee that was worse than she had expected. Kaiba joined her a moment later and lead her out of the small shack and away from that part of her life.

It was sad but somehow also refreshing to know for certain that it was something she could finally stop concerning herself with - it actually felt complete for the first time sense she'd gotten back to her time and she was glad that Kaiba was with her for it, a sort of transition into how she had chose to have her life now.

She waited for him to get Mokuba in the car so she could hide her hurt knee and hand while they drove back this time, falling asleep with the youth as they were on the way to Kaiba's mansion. Drifting off with a bittersweet sense of finalization…

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There was a series of clangs and crashes as pots and pans fell from their place in the kitchen where Nicole was having a small fit of frustration with how things were going. Just what was she going to have to do to get that horrible woman away from her Seto Kaiba?

"What the hell does that damn girl have that I don't?" she cursed as he kicked another pot into the wall, sending several others scattering across the tiled floor. "I'm prettier than her, smarter than her, I have more money than her easily. Just what do I have to do to get her away from my sweetheart? Even trying to get her killed hasn't helped so far. I have got to hire better hit men in the future. And I want those cards of hers and then maybe Kaiba will like me as much as he does her. I've never been that bad at the card game. Maybe if I could defeat her and take the cards that a lot of people seem to be after then my blue eyed angel will start paying attention to me again."

She was still kicking pots and grumbling while she paced in the large kitchen. Her father might have been only a principle but her mother was on the board of one of the other large corporations of the city involving jewelry so she didn't have to worry so much about money - her allowance easily covered her obsession with the famous Seto Kaiba.

"And here with how much this damn woman is suppose to cost I thought she'd at least be capable of being on time." finding something else to complain about as she stepped out onto the balcony. "I outta take it out of her pay."

"Not if you plan for me to get the job done right." the female voice was behind her on the balcony, making the younger teenager swirl around in surprised at being snuck up on so easily.

She looked at the woman that was recommended to her, she didn't appear to be much of anything - a small thing; shorter even than she was at 4'5" and likely not weighting more than ninety pounds. She had pretty but not exceptionally beautiful features with long brunette hair and simple brown eyes; wearing black dress pants and shoes with a simple gray sweater set. She looked more like a secretary than an assassin for hire.

"I hope you are as good as I hear then." Nicole commented rudely. "Don't be late again, I have other things to do."

"I'm sure I've kept you from your pan abuse long enough." was the calm reply, the simple answer even more mocking. "So get to the point. I have other appointments to get to and I only work when I'm interested in the job."

"Don't get rude with me." Nicole narrowed her eyes on the woman in annoyance. "I don't have to pay you for anything."

She didn't get an answer other than a slightly bored look, as if the hit woman was considering just walking out on her despite the offer of a job.

"Fine…" the girl huffed. "I want you to kill Kagome Higurashi and pin it on the student Joey Wheeler so he'll be the one blamed for it."

"Some reasoning?" the woman asked as she swept up a pot and put it on a counter.

"My reasoning doesn't matter." She bristled at the nerve of this woman. "Can't you just do your job?"

"Thirty-thousand US dollars for the kill, and extra twenty-thousand for your perfect little set up that you want." The woman quoted the prices off as if she were listing meals at a fast food joint instead of speaking of screwing with people's lives.

"That's a half-million US dollars!?" the girl exclaimed in disbelief. "You have to be kidding me."

"I want half the payment in advance, the other half will be given when the job is completed." the woman seemed unconcerned with the comments. "Yes or no. I have somewhere else to be. I expect the first half by the end of next week. Nothing starts until I get it."

"Fine." Nicole pouted at the price - she would have to be careful with her allowances for some time if it was really going to cost that much. "How do I…"

She blinked in surprised when all that was left was a piece of paper - the girl had disappeared.

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Kagome was stirred from her slumber where it was fairly dark, blinking in surprise at Kaiba and wondering how long she'd been asleep as she jumped a bit, hitting her head on the top of the car and then pouting at the amused smirk on his face.

"You fell asleep on the way back." he explained. "I had someone put Mokuba to bed while I parked the car. I figured I should wake you up as opposed to trying to carry you. Are you feeling better now?"

She nodded a little nervously and accepted the hand he held out as help out of the low-to-the-ground vehicle, gaining her balance and smiling at him for the help, following him back into the house and into the dining room where she waited for him to get the peroxide and other medical supplies she would need to clean her small wounds up with.

"I…sorry that I got hurt like this…and that I keep dragging you away from your work." she apologized again with her eyes downcast upon his return. He didn't answer her and instead bent down to look at her knee before he began to clean it.

"My work will be there when I get back." he assured after a moment of putting peroxide on a cloth and pressing it to the wound, speaking to try to keep her distracted through her hiss of pain. "Stop worrying about it, I've already hired a promoted a couple of the closer workers so they can help me with things and I'm planning on putting at least one more up which will free a lot more of my time."

"It just feels like it's my fault." she replied as she tried to not think about the painful liquid burning at the wound. "I always manage to get you into trouble somehow."

"I get into more than enough trouble on my own Kagome." Kaiba reminded. "Besides, you were shot because of me, I think I'll survive a few days of not working, torturous as it is."

That made her smile a little more and she watched as he carefully wrapped her knee in bandages all the way around so they wouldn't have as easy a chance of coming off. Then he moved up to take her hand and start tending to it, she had managed to work up a thin blush while he was doing first aid on her and she had the chance to just watch him.

"Thank you." she managed to barely whisper after he finished with her hand. "I should probably head to sleep soon so I'm not overly tired at school again tomorrow."

"A good idea, come on, I'll drop you off at your room, don't want to slip down the stairs again." he teased before he waited for her to rise and started to take her back upstairs.

"Just rub it in." she stuck her tongue out at him for a moment and then fell into step as they moved up to her room and the hallway there upstairs.

"Are you sure you are okay Kagome?" he turned to ask her seriously, making her pause and flush a little more at his unexpected concern. "Do you want me to sit with you for a while?"

"Could you?" she bashfully nodded. "I would like that."

He opened the door for her and pulled out his laptop to work some while she moved to change for bed, glad for his company after the exciting but exhausting day. She had managed to win her first really large duel and while it seemed like this whole game was something more than normal she felt proud. Then she had learned that her connection to the past was gone but that was both relieving and sad.

She looked at herself in the mirror and had to smile anyway, her life was good even with all the scary things going on. She had someone else in her life that was harsh sometimes but still nicer to her than Inuyasha had been. She thought about her brother and that kiss and paused to wash her face with cool water before heading back into the main part of the bedroom he'd afforded her.

"I can't believe he just started making out with me in my mom's house." she thought as she watched him be oblivious and stuck in the pile of work that probably stacked up because of her drawing him away. "but then I can't be overly cross with him. I did kiss him back."

She crawled under the covers and smiled back to him when he glanced to her, he raised a brow and shook his head with a small smile in return despite himself as she snuggled close to his side while she looked over his shoulder. Looking at all the foreign text of the programming he was typing out - to her it may as well have been gibberish.

"What are you doing?" the predicted question came.

"I'm working on the computer programming in one of my new systems for one of the dueling arenas that's being added to my amusement park." he answered as simply as he could for her. "It's a lot of getting out small bugs in the code."

"Sounds boring." she observed with a glance back to him. "No offence."

"None taken, most people feel that way." he answered, he was used to that. "It's just a good thing I enjoy it."

"True. It's nice to like the work you do. Though I think it'll be good for you to get more of a break from it. You haven't been as cross sense you've been working less." she replied as she nudged him.

"Have I?" he raised a brow at her in mock seriousness. "I suppose I'll have to fix that oversight."

She giggled a little at him then set moved her pillow around so she would be more comfortable, nearly falling over and into his lap as she did. Shifting to get off the beeping computer but ending up closer to Kaiba's face than she was sure she was comfortable with, the scene from earlier in the evening flashing through her mind as she flushed and then quickly moved to lay down.

"Sorry…did I mess anything up?" she asked nervously.

He clicked a few things then shook his head in the negative. "No Kagome. Goodnight."

"Goodnight Seto." she replied, closing her eyes to rest while he worked next to her.

End Chapter

Whee, I actually had two versions of this chapter where I originally thought to have her go into the past and stuff but then I decided against it to instead close off that part of her past and I might sometime in the future write a separate ending where it diverges at this chapter. For now I'm happier with this choice.

-Aura

To my reviewers:

Darkened Purity - Well now you got to see what's happening next - well through this chapter anyway. I liked leaving the past in the past for the time being.

Sesshomarukagomeforever23 - Continued.

S.T. Nickolian - It's a little skill and luck - Kagome always was pretty lucky with games after all. I am still pondering doing that sub-version where she did get accepted back to the past but for now this is it.

Kagome Lady of Darkness - Updated : ).

Natsumi Tsuchi-Ookami - She did have the shards in her deck when she fell into the well but it still didn't seem to matter. Kouga should be fun to have around now that he knows Kagome is there.

LadyKagometheinyoukimiko - Here I updated twice in two days! I deserve a cookie. And stop burning trees bap how can I write notes on paper if you keep killing the trees they make it with?

Lady Akina - Yeah I sort of thought about having her go back at first but then decided it didn't really fit what I wanted to happen with the fiction.

KuroxTenshi - Thank you, hope you keep reading.