Later that evening Kagome snuck out of the castle with Wolfram and headed for the stables.

After the initial huff the blond had been in after she woke he had become more cordial with her much to the ravenette's surprise.

He insisted that they only take his horse so that they wouldn't be noticeable as they left the castle grounds while Wolfram explained the situation, "Lord Weller's at his favorite human village. It's in a strategic spot near the border zone and a conflict has broken out. He went there with Gwendal to bring it under control."

Kagome frowned lightly, "What kind of conflict?"

"A nearby village tried to raid them."

"How serious was it? I hope there weren't too many casualties."

Wolfram didn't really have an answer to her question, "Well I've never heard of a conflict without any."

At the sound of multiple horses approaching the two looked back to see four men dressed almost identically to Wolfram ride up, "Is everyone here? Then let's go."

Snapping his reigns to get his horse moving Wolfram felt Kagome's arms move to wrap around his waist tightly as they galloped forward, he was glad that no one could see his face when a light blush dusted his cheeks as he felt her chest press up against his back.

"I take it that these men are yours."

Mentally shaking his head Wolfram felt his blush fade as he answered, "Yes, they're members of my private army. They all have very powerful magic skills. It's a select elite force."

"Impressive, but are you sure it was okay to go without at least leaving a note, Gunter's probably going to freak out when he realizes I'm gone."

"There wasn't a choice, do you really think he'd let you go into a war zone."

Thinking back on what she knew about Gunter as a person she heaved a sigh, "Yeah I guess you're right."

They rode on for hours and in no time the sun had risen high in the sky. Feeling eyes on her Kagome looked around and smiled when she caught sight of a familiar flying skeleton tailing them, 'These guys are everywhere. I wonder if at least one follows every group of Demon Kingdom soldiers that head out?'

"There's the village."

Turning to look over Wolframs shoulder, the smile quickly fell from Kagome's face at the sight of thick black smoke and burning embers rising from the other side of the hill that they were quickly cresting. As they reached the top the village finally came into view and the sight was horrifying. People ran through the village in a panic as the buildings around them burned, 'I didn't think I'd have to see anything like this again.'

"This isn't good, it's been a while since my brother headed over there and that town's still in chaos." Hearing the worry in the blonde's voice Kagome tightened her grip on him in concern.

"Little Lord Wolfram, still as naive as ever." Their heads snapped to the side as Adalbert Von Grantz and two of his men rode up to them, "You really think your brother can triumph over any situation?"

Kagome frowned at the smug man, "Him again. You're Adalbert aren't you?"

A smirk tugged at the man's lips, "Yes I am. I must admit that I'm surprised you know my name your Highness, after all our time was cut short before we had the pleasure of introducing ourselves."

"Yes, well the pleasure's all yours."

Adalbert chuckled, "You've got spirit, more than I can say for them." he gestured to Wolfram and his men.

The ravenette's brow furrowed in confusion as she glanced at Wolfram's soldiers before turning to the blonde himself who had sweat beading his brow, "Wolfram? What's wrong?"

However Wolfram didn't answer her and the look of frustration on his face had her worried, "You must be so disappointed Wolfram. You must have worked very hard to pick your little band of magic handlers and then you fell for the old magic containment trick. Any opponent worth his salt would have brought along at least one soldier who could neutralize it."

Kagome grit her teeth, 'So it's like a specialized seal, it's used to trap those who use magic, and that means...' her gaze moved to Wolfram before turning back to Adalbert, 'they're stuck. This situation just got a whole lot more dangerous, but what I don't get is,' "Why, why are you doing this, you are a member of the Demon tribe aren't you?!"

"Actually I was once and to answer your first question your Highness it's simple really, I hate them."

"You hate them?"

"I despise the Demon tribe down to my core, that's why I've come to rescue you."

The ravenette's brow furrowed, "You said that last time, what are you talking about?"

Adalbert shook his head and nudged his horse forwards, "You were yanked from the world you call home and forced to become the Demon Queen weren't you. The Demon tribe's ruler is the enemy of the human race, don't you think it's evil that they're turning into such a monster, a traitor to your own kind? The Demon tribe needed a scapegoat, they set you up as Queen so the humans could hate you instead of them. That's all they want you for, you know you're just an ordinary human, the containment spell didn't work on you. Make's sense right?"

Kagome managed to keep the smile off of her face as she felt her amusement grow with each word that the muscular blonde spoke, '"ordinary human", that's a laugh. I'm an ex-priestess who wasn't really a priestess, who was trained by a Daiyokai Lord in the art of combat 500 years in my world's past and apparently the chosen Queen of a kingdom of demons in another world.'

Just then she was startled out of her thoughts by Wolfram who managed to shake off some of the containment spell's hold, "Don't believe it, don't listen to him!"

Her grip on his shirt tightened, "Wolfram..."

The blonde continued talking in a rush, "Don't listen to his paranoid babble, he's a traitor to the Demon tribe. He's only trying to convince you to join his side."

Looking at the blonde's face Kagome could see the pain etched there and came to a quick realization, "It hurts to talk, doesn't it. Don't say anything else if it's too painful." she then leaned closer to him, hiding her lips behind his hair and causing the blonde to tense as much as he could in his present condition, whispering, "And don't worry, nothing he says or does will convince me to side with him."

Adalbert, not noticing the exchange closed the distance between them on his horse till he was a foot away from the pair, "That's right honorable third son." he pulled his sword from its sheath and held it to the younger blonde's throat, "It's gotta be tough to be in such a terrible disadvantage, just because your magic power level is too high, you're struggling to relax your conscious mind. If only you could, this would've been more fun. You always say 'What harm can humans do? Their only real problem is they resist us.' isn't that right." Wolfram gasped as Adalbert's smirk grew, "Would you like to take a guess as to who set fire to the village?" Not giving the young blonde a chance to answer he continued, "It was the humans. The humans that you disparaged so much are turning your land into a sea of fire."

The ravenette clenched her fists into Wolfram's jacket and frowned, "But why, why would they?"

"You probably instigated them." Wolfram bit out.

"All I did was advise them." Adalbert corrected, "Their village was struck by famine. The way things were going, they were faced with disaster. A long slow death from starvation, so I helped out and told them where food was available."

Kagome grit her teeth, "If that were true then they would have requested aid from that village, instead it looks like you've whipped them into a murderous frenzy!"

"I'm afraid that's where you are wrong your Highness, the reason that they are going about this the way they are is that while the people down there may share the same blood as the ones they are attacking, the villagers that live here have allied themselves with the Demon tribe and can no longer be considered human."

Kagome's mind flashed back to her time in the Feudal Era, to all the prejudice between humans and yokai and the treatment from both sides to each other and the hanyo, 'It's just like back then, even though I'm in another world they still hold the same problems.'

Suddenly Adalbert moved his sword away and rested it on his right shoulder as he held out his left hand to Kagome, "In any case I've come to rescue you. Now come with me."

"Do as he says." Wolfram struggled out, "It looks like he's not going to hurt you, so just play along and do whatever he says for now."

Kagome's eyes widened, "But what about you and your soldiers."

The blonde took his eyes off of Adalbert and looked at the girl behind him, "Don't worry about us, just go! We'll come and get you, I promise we'll return."

Kagome nodded her head lightly and slipped off of the horse, "Alright. And Wolfram." the ravenette looked up at him, shocking the young Lord with the sheer faith that shone in her eyes as she smiled up at him, "You better hurry." with that she gave a sharp slap to the flank of Wolfram's horse spurring it into action, his soldiers steeds following after him.

"Damnit."

The smile dropped from the ravenette's face as she watched the group race off into the distance, "You never once said that you or your men would leave them unharmed, let alone alive if I went with you, since they were trapped in that containment spell they would have been defenceless."

"Heh, you're smarter than I gave you credit for... that's really too bad."

Kagome turned to the side to avoid the swing of Adalbert's sword, her hardened ebony orbs locking onto his surprised blue ones, "I'm afraid that you're going to have to do better than that."

A smirk twisted the muscular blonde's face as he slipped off of his horse, "You're more than you appear to be. That look in your eyes, I've only ever seen it in the most seasoned of war veterans, and yet from what I understand you were supposed to have lived a peaceful and carefree life back in your world, so that begs the question your Highness, what have you been up to?"

Kagome shifted her stance slightly, not saying a word as she kept her eyes on the man before her while he prepared to attack; however before either of them could make a move the small skeleton that had followed the ravenette's group from the castle swooped down at Adalbert, grabbing ahold of his sword and trying to pull it out of his grip shocking the larger demon, "What the- damnit, I've never seen a member of the Flybone tribe act like this!" he punched the flying skeleton in the head, knocking it off his arm before striking it with his blade, "Ah well, I just killed an odd bird."

Without warning Adalbert found himself flying back a few feet, the breath knocked out of him after Kagome launched herself forward, kicking the blonde in his solar plexus. Pulling himself to his knees he stuck his sword into the ground to brace himself, his other hand pressed to his injury as the ravenette gently scooped up the injured skeleton and glared at the muscular blonde, "How dare you disrespect him like that."

A pitying smirk crossed the man's face, "Listen to you, you're sympathizing with a tribe with no will of its own."

The skeleton's jaw clacked as the ravenette tightened her grip on it slightly.

"Your Majesty!"

A smile spread over Kagome's face as relief flooded her body at the familiar voice calling out to her, though she didn't turn away from Adalbert, "Sounds like the cavalry has arrived."

The blonde grit his teeth, "Argh, not him again. This is getting to be a pain." with that he turned and raced back to his horse.

"You're Majesty, I'm coming!" Deeming it safe to do so, Kagome turned and smiled at Conrad as he stopped his horse beside her, "I found you my Lady."

"Good timing Conrad."

"I find you much more intriguing than I would have expected your Majesty. I'll be sure to see you again sometime soon!" Adalbert called out before he rode off with his followers.

"After him men!" Conrad commanded.

"Yes sir!" they cried and raced off after them.

"Clatter clatter."

Kagome looked down at the injured Flybone tribesman in her arms and smiled warmly at it, "Thank you for your help."

"Clatter clatter."

At that moment Conrad's arms wrapped lightly around Kagome's neck as he pulled her back to his chest, careful of the injured skeleton in her arms, "Ah, what a relief. I was worried you wouldn't make it this time."

The ravenette grinned up at her Godfather, "It's alright, I'm tougher than I look. Besides..." she looked back down at the creature in her arms, "I had my guardian angel with me, right?"

"Clatter clatter."

The sound of approaching horse's had Kagome turning to see Wolfram dismounting from his horse and marching up to her, "You Idiot, why did you do that?!"

The ravenette blinked innocently, "Adalbert never said anything about not harming you if I went with him, besides you and your soldiers were stuck in that trap so he and his men could have easily cut you all down."

"Yeah, well I didn't ask for your protection!"

She turned her head away from him, sticking her nose in the air in a huff, "Fine then, next time I won't bother worrying about you!"

Wolfram was taken aback, 'She was...worried about me?'

A frown graced Conrad's face, "He gets what he deserves anyway. He had no business bringing you out here."

"Well I'm just glad you got here when you did. You managed to find us so quickly."

Conrad looked down at the young Queen and his eyes softened, "During the battle for control of the far side of the village a Flybone tribesman embedded in our army heard the call of a fellow bird in danger. They have their own special means of communication."

Looking down at the skeleton she held, Kagome pulled it closer to her chest in a hug, "He swooped in without warning and tried to help me with Adalbert by disarming him. He was very brave." she then proceeded to gather the bones that had fallen off in the confrontation and piece them together, remembering what Gunter had told her about the flying skeletons when she had asked him about them on the journey to the castle a few days ago.

Conrad and Wolframs eyes widened in surprise, the blonde's soldiers looked between each other in shock at what the young Queen had told them. The brunette glanced at his younger brother, noting his surprise and then stared at the Flybone in curiosity, 'It tried to protect her on its own... without being instructed to?'

"Clatter clatter."

xxXXxxXXXxxXXxx

A short while later Kagome found herself standing beside Wolfram in front of the displaced villagers in a small encampment away from the burning village where Conrad was directing his soldiers in their tasks.

Catching sight of the medical tent in the back, she made her way over to it and peeked inside, her eyes taking in the injured that lay within.

"Please, hold still." turning to the distressed voice, Kagome saw a young woman with dark green hair treating the injuries of a man who was moaning loudly in pain, "I'll be done soon, please bear with me, please stop moving around." once he had calmed slightly she was able to neatly bandage his thigh, "There you go."

Kagome watched the girl's hands as they expertly wrapped the bandages, 'She's skilled and her uniform is different from the rest of the soldiers, she must be a medic.' glancing around at the many other patients in the tent, 'It seems that she has her work cut out for her, maybe I could lend a hand.'

Making up her mind the ravenette stepped inside and approached the medic, "Excuse me. I was wondering if there was anything that I could help with."

The girl turned, her bright green eyes widening in surprise before she smiled brightly and spoke gently, "Help here? Oh my!" she bowed her head lightly, "Why no your Majesty, of course not. There's no need to bother, I can manage it by myself."

Kagome smiled back at her warmly, "It's alright, you don't need to be so formal, my name is Kagome it's nice to meet you."

"It's nice to meet you too your Majesty, my name is Gisela."

"Gisela, that's a really pretty name." the ravenette said, "Anyway, you don't have to worry, I want to help and I do have a bit of medical experience so just point me to whoever needs treating."

"Don't you dare come any closer to me!" the man in the cot yelled startling the two women who turned their attention to him. His eyes locked with Kagome's dark orbs as he glared at her, "Leave me alone, I don't need help from a devil like you! You're from the Demon tribe, my sworn enemy!"

"Alright then."

The man jolted in shock at the calm reply as Gisela looked at the young Queen in surprise, "Huh?!"

"You're not the only injured person in this tent, besides from what I can see Gisela is doing a fine job of treating your wounds herself." Turning away from the man the ravenette stopped short, "By the way, from what I can gather from your rant a moment ago, you must with the group who attacked this village, correct? If the demon tribe are your enemies then why attack a human village?"

"Yeah, that's right, but don't you dare call the people from that village humans! They sided with the Demon tribe and because of that they're not human anymore you hear me!"

'So what Adalbert said was true.' "You sound like a child; 'We attacked them because they are friends with people we don't like!' and yet, despite what you've done, you're receiving treatment from those you wish harm on for injuries you received in the attack that you and your friends launched on innocents who've done nothing to warrent such actions. Even though you've assaulted them and set fire to their homes, you're here being patched up instead of left out there to succumb to either the fire or your wounds. These villagers aren't the ones who've lost their humanity."

Stunned by the wisdom and conviction that the young Monarch spoke with, Gisela was left speechless, 'Your Majesty...'

The man on the bed spluttered before he raged, "Y-you don't know anything about humanity, you're nothing but a soulless beast! Monster!"

Just then a Conrad stepped partially into the tent and glanced around before catching sight Kagome, "There you are your Majesty, I was wondering if I could have a word with you about what occurred earlier."

The ravenette turned to him with a bright smile, "Sure." and followed him out of the tent.

He led them over to where Wolfram sat astride his horse, "I have to say that I'm impressed with the way you handled the situation your Highness in spite of that man's words."

"I didn't take you for one to eavesdrop." She sent him a small smile, "It's like the saying, sticks and stones."

Wolfram turned to her in confusion, "What are you talking about?"

"It's an old saying back on Earth, 'Sticks and stones may break my bones, but names can never hurt me.' It means that while the words of another are meant to cause harm, you aren't affected by them." Conrad explained to his younger brother.

The blonde's eyes narrowed in suspicion, "So you're saying someone insulted you and you just walked away?"

"I've been called worse and his words were childish and ignorant, it felt like he was a five-year-old throwing a tantrum because he was told no."

At that moment Gwendal rode up to the trio with two of his men following behind him with a prisoner held between them, "This man just confessed that Adalbert instigated their actions."

Kagome bit the inside of her cheek at this news, 'So I was right, he did do more than just "advise" them.'

"He also told us that there was a fire wizard among the soldiers, that's why the fire was so intense."

A serious expression settled on Conrad's face at his older brother's words, "Just as I suspected."

"By the way, is she assisting us or just observing?" he questioned them, his eyes locked with Kagome's, "Or will her Highness put out this ferocious fire with her magnificent water magic skills just like she did before."

"You're talking about a few days ago aren't you? My memory is a still a little fuzzy to be honest and I'm not sure how to use that power again, I was so angry that it kind of just reacted." She looked down at her hand, "It's probably going to take me some time before I can use it freely like you and Wolfram."

"If you can't help us with this problem then please, don't get in our way."

The ravenette's gaze shot back up to the grey haired Lord, frowning at his harsh words, 'He's almost like how Sesshomaru used to be when I first met him, except he's a lot more talkative.'

The Demon Lord looked back at his men, "Move it!" Following his orders, they walked the prisoner over to the gathered villagers, urging him on as he wasn't moving as fast as they would have liked, "This is the scoundrel who set fire to your village, go ahead and kill him or do whatever you like to him."

Kagome felt her blood run cold at his callous words, "Now hold on a second Gwendal, while I agree that the people responsible should be punished, you shouldn't be encouraging the villagers to take his life!" She leaped off the ledge and rushed over to stand between the villagers and the man, "Killing him isn't going to solve anything!"

A small smirk slid onto Gwendals face, "I heard about what happened earlier in the first aid station."

The ravenette's eyes narrowed on the smirking Lord, "Is that supposed to sway me? Because if it is then you're sorely mistaken. Besides, how is what they did any different than what you're doing now! Killing him will only add one more body to the pile, hasn't enough blood been shed in this pointless conflict!?"

"Shut you're mouth you foreigner! While you claim that you'll accept the position of Queen of this country you don't understand what that entails! I've been responsible for protecting the Great Demon Kingdom! I don't know about your country, but we do things differently here. We have our own way of conducting business."

Kagome stood tall, her head held high, "Then I'm going to change the way that the Demon tribe conducts 'business', there are better ways than war to gain peace."

At that moment some of the houses from the village collapsed, causing the inferno to rise higher. Taking advantage of the distraction, the prisoner broke free from the guards and launched himself at Kagome, attempting to tackle her to the ground. His attempt was unsuccessful as she simply stepped to the right and the man fell to the ground stunned. His fist clenched down harder on the shard of glass that had been previously hidden in his hand and he growled in pain as the shard cut deeply into his flesh making him bleed, 'D-damnit… how did she dodge me?! She wasn't even looking!'

The ravenette stared down at her attacker blankly, 'Sesshomaru would have my hide if I had been taken down that easily.' "It's probably not the brightest idea to attack the one person who is standing between you and a death sentence, you know?"

The man grit his teeth as he stood and launched once more at the girl, bloody shard in hand, "SHUT UP!" What happened next caught even Kagome by surprise, from out of the bushes a small blonde haired boy charged at the man and tackled his legs causing the man to cry out as he fell back, the makeshift knife finally falling from his hand.

Kagome gasped in surprise and rushed over to the boy, quickly checking him over as the guards recaptured the man. Placing her hand gently under his head she carefully lifted it up to check underneath, her eyes widening as a she caught sight of the small blood covered rock. Her head shot up, her eyes locking onto one of the soldiers she could see from over Conrad's (who was kneeling across from her, on the other side of the boy) shoulder, "Go get Gisela, now!"

The soldier's posture straightened and he bowed his head before turning and rushing to retrieve the medic as his Queen commanded.

"Your Majesty…" Kagome looked down to see the boy's light brown eyes open as he smiled up at her, "Your Majesty."

She gently smiled down at him, "Shush… you don't need to call me that."

"But you're the Queen aren't you? And you're going to watch over us. You'll protect us from now on, won't you?"

Turning from where he was watching the soldiers escort the prisoner away, Wolfram felt breathless at the sheer warmth radiating from Kagome's person as she gazed down softly at the boy, light tears filled her eyes and she said the words that would forever seal her fate to the Great Demon Kingdom, "Yes, I promise you I will."

"And you're gonna teach me baseball aren't you? I really like it, Mr. Conrad plays catch with me."

The young Queen looked up and met the eyes of her godfather in surprise. Conrad said nothing, his smile warm as he gave a single nod. The same warmth from a few days ago filled Kagome as her magic awakened once more. Turning her face to the sky and the young Queen smiled serenely as her tears trailed down her cheeks and the sky darkened. Rain fell from above washing over everyone and putting out the fire in the village.

xxXXxxXXXxxXXxx

The sound of fireworks exploding carried through the air as the bell set above the castle rang in celebration of this momentous day, the Coronation of Queen Kagome Yuuri Shibuya.

Soldiers and Nobles were lined up along the edges of the carpet in the grand hall, Gwendal and Wolfram among them while their mother stood donning a scarlet dress at the top of the stairs at the end of the room, ready to pass on her title to her adorable successor.

With a royal blue shawl that was fastened with a large red jewel drapped around her shoulders the young ravenette walked forward, her head held high as she made her way to the indoor waterfall at the back of the room where she would be crowned Queen, Conrad on her right and Gunter on her left.

Reaching the bottom of the stairs, Conrad and Gunter stopped before them and Kagome continued up the stone steps alone. Soon enough she was standing before the rushng water and paused to take in the sight of the glittering cascade, 'This is it, once again I've been ripped away from everything I know to take on a role that plays a vital part in a world's future. Last time I was the Guardian of the Shikon no Tama and now...'

Cecillia noticing the slight tension that had settled in the young ravenette's shoulders smiled gently and whispered, "Now relax sweetie, all you have to do is reach out and place your hand in the water for the coronation to be official. Easy right?"

Forcing herself to relax Kagome nodded at the blonde's words, "Right." With that she took the last few steps towards the waterfall and steeling her resolve, reached out and placed her hand in the cascading water, 'And now I take my first step in my new role as the Demon Queen.'