• 1-How It All Started
• 2-The Abduction of Higurashi Kagome
• 3-What Happens From Here?
• 4-The Beginning of the Prophecy Fulfilled
• 5-Waiting
• 6-Shadows Against A Screen
• 7-A New Evil
• 8-The Prophecy's Spell
• 9-Canine Nature

Disclaimer: I hold no rights to Inuyasha in any way. I simply own the characters that I create for the progression of my fics.

Chapter 2: The Abduction of Higurashi Kagome

The next morning, Kagome could feel the slightest twinge of shards nearby, so after breakfast, they packed up their stuff and headed in the direction she sensed them. Kagome felt like she was being watched the entire time, but didn't know where from or by whom. She could sense no youkai nearby, with the exception of the one that had the shard, but that one was still in front of them. She knew it wasn't a human watching her or else Inuyasha would have at least grumbled something about it by then.

Kagome tried to shake the feeling off, but it still lingered at the back of her mindt let letting her completely forget about the creepy feeling of someone watching her. A few hours after they had stopped for lunch, she got distracted from the feeling of being watched when the sensation that she received from the shards started moving closer to their group.

"Inuyasha, the shards are coming towards us," Kagome called up to the front of the group to the inu hanyou. "Fast," she added as an after thought.

Inuyasha paused in mid stride and looked back at the young miko. "Are you sure?" he asked. Seeing her nod, he grinned and cracked his knuckles. "Good. Now we don't have to keep chasing the bastard," he said placing a hand on the sheath of the Tetsusaiga. He flicked the hilt of the sword with his thumb, causing the demon sword to slide from the sheath and into his waiting palm.

As a large, ugly youkai ran full speed into the clearing, Inuyasha pulled the demon blade completely from its sheath and held it in front of him and the traveling group of friends. As the youkai went on with the usual 'give me the shikon shards or else' speech, Inuyasha assessed his opponent, deciding that it was a snake demon. The youkai had slightly green tinted skin, cream white hair, and lime green eyes.

Kagome could sense two shards coming from the youkai, from his right arm. She let Inuyasha know about the location of the shards and then moved behind the protection of Sango and Miroku with Shippo held tightly in her arms. She watched as Inuyasha and the snake youkai exchanged a few more insults and then saw the snake youkai get mad and lunge at the inu hanyou. Shippo jumped out of her arms and went to stand between Miroku and Sango's legs so that he could see the fight. Inuyasha had managed to cut the arm off that contained the shard, but the youkai was still putting up a good fight.

Kagome moved to where the arm lay, still moving about, groping for something to dig its claws into in revenge. She avoided the claws and extracted the shards from the arm, causing it to disintegrate into the air. She felt relieved for a moment as she put the now purified shards with the rest of the Shikon no Tama that she had in her possession.

Then she looked back to the fight and saw the Tetsusaiga lying on the ground some distance away from any of them and Inuyasha trying to fight the youkai with just his claws. Even though he had lost one of his arms and his jewel shards, the snake youkai was still quite strong.

Kagome was so worried about the fight taking place in front of her that she had completely forgotten about the feeling of someone watching her. Well, at least, she had forgotten about it until she felt an arm wrap around her waist and another hand cover her mouth.

She tried to struggle until she felt claws from the hand on her side press into her skin in a warning. At the feel of the sharp claws on her side, she stilled instantly. Kagome felt herself being dragged backwards by her captor, but didn't make a sound or move for fear of the lethal claws just above her hip. She tried to look down at the hand over her mouth, but only caught a glimpse of a crimson mark on the wrist before she was knocked unconscious.

Once Inuyasha had defeated the youkai and picked up the Tetsusaiga, he and the others turned to where Kagome had last stood; they saw nothing there. Inuyasha could pick up no strange scent and he couldn't even pick up her trail so that he could follow which way she went. Inuyasha punched a few trees, completely shattering the trunks with each blow, in his frustration. He was suppose to protect her and make sure nothing happened to her and now she had been kidnapped and he couldn't even figure out what way she had been taken.

Shippo was bawling his eyes out in Sango's arms as she tried using everything that she had learned as a youkai exterminator, but felt it was useless since even Inuyasha with his heightened senses could detect nothing.

After a moment of silence, Miroku spoke up. "I sense an aura quite similar to Kagome-sama's in this direction," he said, pointing to the southwest.

Everyone perked up at that, especially Inuyasha. "Good. We aren't going to find her standing around here. Let's go," he said as he jumped off through the trees in the direction Miroku had pointed.

Kirara quickly transformed into her larger form and allowed Miroku and Sango to climb on her back with Shippo still in Sango's arms. Kirara leapt into the air and followed the trail of downed trees that Inuyasha had left in his hurry to get to Kagome. He hadn't even bothered to jump around them; he had just jumped straight through them.

Several hours later, Kagome woke up laying on a large futon with silken sheets covering her. She tried looking around, but the room was completely darkened and she could barely see the edge of the bed, but she knew someone was sitting there. She could feel their weight causing a dip in the futon towards her right and therefore moved to her left, hopefully away from the person she assumed was her captor. Kagome felt the person on the edge of the futon shift and turned fearful eyes in their direction.

"Who are you and what do you want with me?" she asked, her voice quivering with fear.

"That is for me to know and you to find out," said a cold voice from the direction of the dip in the futon.

Kagome didn't like her situation any better now; if anything, she disliked it even more. She could definitely tell now that her captor was a male and the tingling coming from the back of her neck told her that he was also a youkai. Not just any ordinary youkai either, this one was extremely strong and his aura was familiar to her. She tried to remember whom she had encountered with that kind of an aura and when she did remember, she almost wished she hadn't.

"Sesshoumaru?" she asked, nervously. Kagome wanted to disappear when she saw the golden eyes appear out of the darkness that confirmed her suspicions. "What do you want with me?" she asked again. She got no reply, and watched as the golden eyes were elevated, signally that Sesshoumaru had stood up. She watched as the eyes turned away from her and she could no longer tell where he was. "Why did you bring me here?" she asked, her voice trembling as a few tears slid down her cheeks.

She once again didn't get an answer from the stoic youkai lord. She decided it was pointless to try to get any answer from him until he was willing to tell her, so she buried herself under the silken sheets and cried herself to sleep, reasoning that it was safe since she was still alive at this point.

Sesshoumaru stayed in the room until the girl had finally fallen into a restless sleep and then quietly left the room. He almost felt bad for making her cry, but wouldn't allow that to affect him. He had a plan and was going to go through with it, no matter what. As he walked to his study to think, he decided he would have Rin wake her in the morning. No need to scare her out of her wits by having Jaken wake her. He reached his study and sat down in a meditative position with a large, ancient looking book sitting on his lap. He began reading a section that looked like it had been read several times before. His face took on a worried expression as he read the passage once again, wondering why he had to be the one to deal with it.

The next morning, Kagome woke up when a weight landed on her chest. At first, she thought she was in her sleeping bag under a tree with Inuyasha sitting on a branch above her and her friends sleeping around her, and Shippo was just waking her, but the weight was to heavy to be the small kitsune kit. Then she remembered what had transpired the previous day and night and felt the tears begin to build behind her closed eyelids.

"Sesshoumaru-sama said that you would be my new okaasan. Are you really?" a young voice asked Kagome.
Kagome slowly pulled the sheet off of her eyes and saw a small girl sitting on her chest. She didn't know what to say. Sesshoumaru had brought her here so she could care for this girl? This human girl, no less. She had thought before that Sesshoumaru hated humans, but she had seen this girl with Sesshoumaru before.

Kagome racked her brain for a moment; trying to remember the girls name from the time Kagome had rescued her from Kohaku while he was under Naraku's control. A memory of the small girl waking up and smiling at the youkai lord as she called out his name, running after the stoic youkai and then walking next to him like it was nothing. Then it came to her.

"Rin, right?" Kagome asked. The little girl in her lap smiled widely and nodded. She couldn't help but smile back at the little energetic girl that sat on her stomach.

Kagome sat up, moving Rin to her lap, and looked at her toothy grin. "I don't know," Kagome told her. "I can be your okaasan, if you want me to," she said, brushing her fingers through Rin's still sleep tangled hair.

Rin lunged forward and wrapped Kagome in a surprisingly strong hug. "Yay, I have a new okaasan." Suddenly, she pulled back and looked at a stunned Kagome. "Sesshoumaru-sama wanted me to take you to the hot springs so you could take a bath before breakfast," Rin said, jumping off her lap onto the cushy futon.

Kagome nodded and followed Rin toward the edge of the bed, and after getting off the bed, realized for the first time that she wasn't wearing her clothes anymore. Now she was wearing a powder blue silk sleeping kimono. She turned to where the young girl still sat on the edge of the futon. "Rin-chan, do you know where my clothes and bag are?" she asked the young girl.

Rin nodded. "Yep. Sesshoumaru-sama had your clothes burned. He didn't like them. Sesshoumaru-sama said you could wear clothes from in there," she said, pointing to a large oak door. "Your bag is in there, too."

Kagome looked at the door and walked over to it. She pulled the large, but surprisingly light door open and saw several shelves lined with beautiful kimonos, as well as her bag setting on the floor. She would have to check later to make sure everything was still there, but right then, Rin was waiting for her. She lightly ran her fingers over the material while looking the outfits over. Kagome allowed her hand to settle on top of a dark blue kimono with a black obi. She pulled it off of the shelf and folded it over her arm, then turning to Rin spoke.

"Okay, let's go take a bath," Kagome said as she walked to Rin and took her small hand in her own. "Lead the way," she said, a bright smile covering her fears and worries.

Rin led Kagome to a set of shoji doors and then opened them, revealing a room with benches and a tile floor. Towels sat on the benches, as well as a few cotton robes. Kagome looked to her right and saw an area that had various soaps, some buckets with warm water in them, though Kagome wasn't sure how it stayed warm, and a small drain.
"You can wash over there and then you can relax in here," Rin told her, opening another set of shoji doors.

A small gasp escaped Kagome's mouth when she looked into the next room. There were five hot springs set in a V-shaped waterfall, surrounded by sakura trees and various other plants and flowers. The water from the top spring over flowed into the two springs below it, causing those springs to flow over into the lowest two springs. The lowest springs over flowed into a little brook that ran back up to the highest spring.

"You want to take a bath with me?" Kagome asked Rin after she had overcome her shock. She nodded and they got undressed and quickly washed up, then soaked in one of the smallest springs for a while. After a while, they got out and went back into the other room, dried off, and got dressed.

Rin led Kagome to the dining hall, where there was a large table set with various types of food. Suddenly, Kagome realized how hungry she really was and that she hadn't ate since lunch the day before. She managed to not dive bomb the table, and walked slowly over to the table and sat down with Rin. Just before they began to eat, the doors opened again and all the servants bowed with their noses to the floor. Rin stood up and ran over to the person that had walked in with a scream of delight as Kagome turned to see who it was that had walked in.

Kagome nearly gasped, but instead, only turned back to face the table. She spoke no greeting to him, only stared blankly at the wooden surface of the table. She would save it all for later, when they could be alone and she wouldn't upset Rin. She knew that if she said one word to him now, she would not be able to stop once she started. She waited until he sat down and began to eat himself before she picked up her chopsticks.

After breakfast, Sesshoumaru sent Rin outside to play, with Jaken to watch her, and then told Kagome to follow him as he left the room. He walked down the hallway until he came to a thick, shoji door, and sliding it open, motioned for Kagome to walk in, and followed after her, closing the door behind himself.

"You wish to speak to me?" he asked as he sat down in the same place as he had sat all of the previous night, the old book still open, setting on the floor.

Kagome didn't look at him or the open book as she kneeled on a cushion opposite of the youkai lord. She folded her hands in her lap and kept her head down. "Why did you bring me here? What do you want with me? I know it can't just be to take care of Rin. She seems happy enough with just you," Kagome said, not looking up, but keeping her blurring eyesight on her hands.

"You're correct, miko. You are here for more than just Rin, though I am afraid I cannot tell you the exact reason as to why," Sesshoumaru told her.

"If you are going to force me to stay here and not tell me why, thest yst you can do is to use my name when speaking to me," Kagome told him, no emotion showing through in her voice. "But, I suppose you don't even know what my name is, do you?" she asked.

Sesshoumaru smirked, knowing she would not see the small display of emotion. "Of course I know your name," he said, pausing a moment before continuing, "Kagome." He reached a hand out to her chin and raised her eyes to meet his, and was taken aback when he saw the tears shimmering at the corner of her eyes. He watched, mesmerized, as a tear escaped her eye and slid down her cheek. Sesshoumaru cautiously moved his thumb to wipe to tear from her skin.

"Why are you doing this to me?" Kagome asked, her voice filled with her sorrow.

"What am I doing to you?" he asked, his voice quiet and almost caring.

"You're being nice. You're normally trying to kill me. Why the change?" she asked. She moved her right hand up to his that cupped her chin, though his grip wasn't even tight.

"I was acting foolishly," Sesshoumaru said, moving a bit closer to her and placing a gentle, chaste kiss on her lips. He pulled back to look her in the eyes, gauging the shock he saw there. "Now I act with all seriousness," he said, his warm breath gently caressing her lips.

"Are you serious because you care or because you need something?" she asked, another tear slipping down her cheek only to be swept away by his thumb. She had allowed her eyelids to slide shut while they had been talking, but now she opened her eyes again to stare intently into Sesshoumaru's golden eyes.

Sesshoumaru moved forward until their knees touched and raised his other hand to cup her cheek. He desperately wanted to kiss her again; her mouth tasted so sweet, but he needed to tell her, at least in part. "Both," he said the word barely above a whisper. Kagome's expression was one of confusion, and Sesshoumaru knew he would have to explain further if he ever wanted her trust. He released her cheek and moved back so that they weren't as close, but retained his hold on her chin.

"You and I are part of a prophecy, written hundreds of years ago, and there is nothing that either of us could do to give reason that we are not the two beings that the prophecy revolves around. I have had to watch you for some time, along with several others, to determine whom the other being would be, and by your acts, you have proven yourself to be my partner that the prophecy foretold. But something happened while I was watching you," Sesshoumaru told her, watching her face for any sign that could be unfavorable towards himself. "I began to care when that hanyou would you you with his words and actions; I cared when he left you for that once dead demoness." Sesshoumaru stopped there, feeling vulnerable with what he had already told her. He’d already told her more about the prophecy than he should have.

Kagome pulled back, causing Sesshoumaru to lose his loose grip on her chin, and dropped her chin back down to her chest, thinking about what he had just said. She raised her gaze back up to his eyes to ask him a question. "How do I know that you aren't just lying to me to get what you want?"

"I do not lie, I have never had any need to do so and I do not have a need to start now," Sesshoumaru said. Using his youkai speed, he moved so that he was seated behind Kagome and had his arms loosely wrapped around her waist, and his mouth right by her ear. "Stop trying to think everything through for once and do what your instincts tell you to," he said quietly, his every breath a gentle caress of her skin.

Kagome tried to shrug out of his arms and move away, but he kept her where she was. "I need to think about things," she said, turning her head towards him a bit.

"As you wish. Just remember, I am offering you a place where you can be happy," Sesshoumaru said. He placed a soft kiss on her cheek before he released her from his arms and left her. Before he opened the doorway to the hall, he stopped. "I will send a servant in to show you back to your room." With that said, he opened the door and left Kagome to her thoughts.

Kagome sat there, just thinking. He cared about her, which was more than she could say for Inuyasha, who was always reminding her that she was nothing but a shard detector and a reincarnation of his true love, Kikyo. The same woman that had tried to kill her quite a few times, just to get 'her' soul back. And each time, Inuyasha sided with Kikyo, never bothering to notice the scrapes, cuts and bruises on Kagome's body, but noticing within an instant any small, imagined mark that may have marred Kikyo's skin after one of their encounters.

At least with Sesshoumaru, she had a chance at being happy. The only thing Inuyasha offered her was heartache and pain. But she had told Inuyasha that she would stay by his side and help him gather the shards. But he had hurt her time after time, and never once considered her feelings in anyhis his actions. She wanted to be happy, and Sesshoumaru was offering that happiness to her.

'But he is using you as well,' said a small voice in the back of her mind, ‘to complete that prophecy.’

'True, but at least he has told me about it, and he said that he cares about me,' she thought in rebuttal to herself. 'I wish I knew what was involved in the prophecy he was talking about, though,' she thought with a sigh. Kagome was brought out of her deep thoughts when a knock sounded from the door. She turned towards the door and saw a young youkai woman of about seventeen years standing there. She had long blonde hair that, even braided, went down to her lower back. Her electric blue eyes were directed towards the floor, glancing up at Kagome once in a while, and there was a bright blue teardrop shape just below her right eye.

"Kagome-sama," she spoke, her voice as soft and gentle as the wind. Kagome nodded for her to continue. "Sesshoumaru-sama told me to escort you back to your quarters. Sesshoumaru-sama has also told me that I am to care for you, so if you need anything, you are to ask me," the servant said.

Kagome nodded slowly as she processed the information she had been given. "What is your name?" she asked.

"My name is Ainokami, milady," she said, bowing. "Would you like me to show you to your room, now, Kagome-sama?" she asked.

Kagome stood up and nodded. "Yes, I would like to rest for a bit," she said, following Ainokami out of the room, then thought of something. "When is lunch being served?" she a.
.

"Lunch will be served in a few hours. Sesshoumaru-sama said that he would escort you," Ainokami said, turning down another hallway.

Kagome nodded and then fell silent the rest of the way to her room. When they got there, Kagome dismissed Ainokami until after lunch, and then entered her room and sat down in the middle of the floor. She looked around the room, observing her surroundings. Her gaze landed on a portrait that took up a large section of the south wall. It was positioned just right so that the entire portrait was lighted by the sunlight coming in through the windows.

There was a beautiful youkai woman, sitting on a small bridge over a koi pond. The woman had long steel gray colored hair, piercing silver eyes, and a midnight blue crescentn onn on her forehead that reminded Kagome of Sesshoumaru's. The woman also had two dark gray, almost black, streaks on each cheek. Then Kagome noticed the small boy standing by her side, a big smile showing off his little fangs. He had long silver hair, golden eyes, a midnight blue crescent moon on his forehead, and two crimson streaks on each cheek.

'This must be a portrait of Sesshoumaru with his mother when he was younger,' she thought with a gasp. 'He looked so cute. He should smile more, he would look much more handsome if he d'