"Ah, Kagome-chan!" Inu no Taisho's voice boomed in welcome. "Come on in," Kagome and Sesshomaru walked into the house and nodded in greeting. When they all sat he spoke again, "Izayoi, bring us some tea, would you? This is going to be a draining conversation." Kagome looked up at him with a question written on her expression. He made eye contact with her, "You don't get to my age and status without being able to read auras, that and the email that Sesshomaru sent me yesterday. I'm sure that'll come up later."
Izayoi brought the tea and sat down. Everyone grabbed a cup and took a sip before anyone spoke.
It was Sesshomaru to break the silence, "Father, Kagome has not been in contact with her parents in quite some time. And she does not wish for contact with them."
Inu no Taisho widened his eyes a fraction. It was unheard of for an inu to leave their pup behind. "I'm guessing you left them. Would you mind telling me why you left?" She looked in his eyes for a moment.
Something about this man told her that she could trust him. She felt safer, if possible with Sesshomaru, with him. She felt nothing but love and concern rolling off of him. "I've never told anyone before," she looked down at her lap, "Up until I was around ten years, my parents would torture me, and punish me further if they didn't get the reaction they wanted." Izayoi gasped, Sesshomaru growled and pulled her closer, and Inu no Taisho's frame became rigid. Kagome sniffled a little and continued, "They would carve pictures into my flesh, and if I didn't scream loud enough, sometimes if I screamed at all, they would just start over once my skin had completely healed." She took a shuddering breath. "And they constantly told me that no one would want me, especially if I didn't know how to follow simple instruction. Such as dealing with what they put me through. So, one night after they took the chains off of me, because they were done, I laid on the cold, stone floor and I decided that I would not shed another tear over them. I re-set my broken bones, and waited for the blood to stop flowing from me. I stood and walked around the room once and stopped at the door." She shut her eyes, imaging everything she did that night. "I stopped at the door, there were two guards, I called out to them 'Please,' I coughed out, 'Can I please have some water?' They laughed at me. Called me pathetic. I waited for the door to open, and took the cup. I stopped him from closing the door with strength I didn't know I had. I slid out of the door and pass him before he knew what happened. The second guard looked at me and smiled. He lunged at me with his sword, I dodged and jumped over his head, kneeled on his shoulders, and pulled his head off. The first guard looked at me with disbelief and ran toward me with his sword raised above his head. I dodged that blow and saw a window behind him. He swiped at me again and I ducked, darted toward him and slashed my claws across his face." She paused for a moment and stared at her hands, "I felt the bones in his face break under my fingertips." She closed her eyes again, "I jumped out of the window. I didn't know if I'd fall to my death or land in a patch of grass. But at that point, it didn't really matter. I don't know how long I fell before I heard an urgent voice. It yelled at me 'GIVE ME CONTROL!' and I complied. I found myself in a dark room a moment later and I heard that same voice, it was sweet now but gruff. It said, 'You're safe now. Rest.' When I awoke, I found myself in a land I didn't recognize on the footsteps of a shrine. A woman ran down the stairs and lifted me into her arms." A small smile graced her lips. "I could see her speaking to me. I could hear the words, but I couldn't comprehend her caring gestures. She ran back up the stairs and took me into a room to rest. She cleaned and dressed me. When I was finally able to function, I got off of the futon and walked around the shrine. I found the woman and ran to her." She laughed as she continued her story, "She told me, 'No. You shouldn't be moving around. You were so weak.' I looked up at her and said, 'I'm a demon. Thank you for taking care of me.' She pat my head and we walked together. I later found her name to be Kikyo. She was the sweetest woman in the world to me, and she was devastated when I told her that I'd have to leave a week later. But she understood that I was running from something." Kagome reached for her heart. "She gave me a gift to protect me from 'what it is that desires me so wrongly,' as she put it. She also gave me a yukata, some food, and a prayer for safe travels. She also gave me permission to take the surname 'Higurashi,' as I still don't know my original surname or the clan I came from. About a month later, I found a neko village and met Sango and her family. We've been inseparable since. And that was about 200 years ago."
The tension that was present in the beginning of her story was faint. Sesshomaru looked down at her in disbelief. 'She had been through hell and back at such a young age, and still managed to not let that break her.' He vowed that nothing would ever happen to her again.
"So that makes for this to be an extremely non-standard courting, then," Inu no Taisho said and Kagome giggled and nodded her head. He laced his fingers and tapped his thumbs together while he thought. "I'll say give it about two months, and then you can mate." He directed his attention fully to Kagome, "We'll take care of the expenses and I'm sure Izayoi has always wanted to plan another mating ceremony." Izayoi's eyes widened and the biggest smile Kagome had ever seen plastered itself on her face. Inu no Taisho laughed and looked at Sesshomaru, "Now, about what you wanting to know if it's possible for a human to change into a demon. It's not possible for a human to become a full demon, but he or she can become hanyou. And the only way for that to happen is for the soul to be dark enough to even house any demon, and it must be asked for a demon to use the body as a vessel to get what he or she wants. But what a lot of humans don't realize is that, once you ask for that darkness to be a part of your life, it doesn't leave just because you ask it to. It stays until it feels like it wants to go. Why do you ask?"
Kagome spoke up, "This guy, Hojo, I think he may have asked for the power from a demon living within him."
Inu no Taisho nodded his head. "Did he seems different from the last time you saw him?"
Kagome looked at Sesshomaru, "He seemed more dismissive and said that he's always watching."
Sesshomaru continued to stare at his father. "Will he present a problem?"
"He might, if he's infatuated with our Kagome." He looked at Kagome, "And considering what you said about your parents, let's not take any chances with your safety." He pulled out his phone. "I'm going to have InuYasha come back right away. I'm guessing we'll need all the help we can get. You two are welcome to stay here. I actually insist on it." He pinned Sesshomaru with a stare while the phone rang, and Seshsomaru nodded and rose from his spot on the couch with Kagome following him.
"I'll show you to our room," he said as he walked up the stairs.
"What is Inu no Taisho thinking?"
"He's thinking that you being on the yesterday probably didn't help you keeping a low profile." He opened the door for her. "So with your location being known, you'll be staying here instead of your home." She sat on the bed and he sat next to her and pulled her to lay on his chest. "I just wish ou would've told me."
"It's not exactly something that I bring up on a first date," she said as she raised up to look him in the eyes. "Sango doesn't even know the specifics on why I left my parents or why I don't want them to find me." She sat straight up and walked to his window that faced the dense forest surrounding the house. She felt strange for a moment and her beast became restless. She ran out of the room and to Inu no Taisho. "Put a barrier up!" He looked at her and did exactly that before asking why. He never got the chance to ask. As soon as the barrier was up, he felt a strong, dark force slam into it. "It's my father."