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Finding Kagome	By : MetsukiKaraTen Category: InuYasha > Het - Male/Female > InuYasha/Kagome Views: 8806 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 1
Disclaimer: I do not own InuYasha, nor make money from this story.

Chapter List
- 26
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DISCLAIMER: I do not own InuYasha and company, however I
DO own an overactive imagination...

Chapter Twenty Seven

The
ride back to the city was longer than the ride from the
city had been, or at least so it seemed to Kagome, since she made the
trip alone this time. Well, as alone as one could be, being
followed.

Michael hadn't cared for the idea, but Sally had
insisted that he ride with her, promising they would caravan and
keep a close watch on Kagome's car.

Both of them had become increasingly more protective
and she was not so sure she liked that.

Not with her new goal.

She spent most of the drive home honing the plans for
it.

The phone call to make the reservation was going to be
tricky. Especially if the both of them were breathing down her neck
all the time. However. . . she had to do this, she had to know.

Could InuYasha be waiting on just the other side of
that well?

She
glanced over at the old fiberglass bow that she had left propped
against the passenger seat.

Arrows.
. . Need lots and lots of arrows . . .

Going to Tokyo so suddenly was definitely out of
character for her. She was not the most spontaneous person, and
everyone who knew her, knew that about her. The last time she went
she had planned for two years.

She
debated requesting a leave of absence with the school district. Only
three more months until school is out for summer, but can I wait
that long?

She felt a sense of urgency that she couldn't explain.

A gnawing deep in her psyche, on many levels.

First and foremost, she was convinced that InuYasha was
not dead. If he was, then why did she feel a sense of him so
overwhelmingly? It certainly was no ghost haunting her dreams, and no
ghost that was watching over her protectively during her meditations.

She considered that it was perhaps wishful thinking.
She had felt her loneliness more acutely in recent years, her jokes
about finding her “Knight in Shining Armor” were becoming
old, even to her.

If her search for InuYasha were to be unsuccessful,
perhaps she would feel free enough to look for someone . . . to
share her life with. Someone . . . else.

Maybe
she could finally grow up.

She knew that was how her mother saw it.

A refusal to be realistic.

She only wants grandchildren. . .

and I would like to give her some. . .

someday.

Kagome's students had become her children by proxy.
She grew attached to them, and was so very pleased when they would
come to her looking for guidance. Some, having moved on to the next
grade, had come back to see her. She loved watching them grow, and
felt a sense of pride at their accomplishments.

Someday I will have my own. . .

Her mind's eye flashed on Connor with those big green
eyes, wondering about her relationship with Michael. Those eyes . .
. so very much like his grandfather's.

Their time with Shippou had been too short. She had
been too shocked . . . too confused to ask the right questions.
Other than the fact that InuYasha had not 'used' the Jewel, she knew
almost nothing else. Only the legend, and what she felt in her
dreams.

Is it enough? Enough to find him?

She
unconsciously grasped the Jewel, feeling its power in her hand. That
was the second thing gnawing at her psyche. What purpose did it
serve? It strengthened powers she already possessed, but to what end?
Was it fate?

In its appearance she had found something she hadn't
realized was lost.

She had found herself.

She could feel the strength from inside herself,
strength in knowing her power, strength in knowing her. . . past.

So what if it isn't this lifetime, I know who I am
now. I don't remember everything, but I remember. . . enough.

Enough.

Enough for what?

“Enough
to purify the youkai bastards
that screwed up my place. . .” she hissed, suddenly shocked by
the vehemence in the tone of her own voice. Wait and see
how bad it really is. . .

~ooO0Ooo~

Sally
and Michael waited at the car rental dealership for
her as she finalized the
transaction. The final total was what settled her mind on whether or
not to wait the three months, and use her Summer vacation for the
trip to Tokyo.

On seeing her frown as she exited the dealership,
Michael got out of the car.

“Bad, huh?” he asked with concern, opening
her door.

“It's ok. I'm glad I had a little nest egg,”
and she made an effort to smile, not quite succeeding as she climbed
into Sally's back seat.

“Well, think of it this way, 'Gome. . . You get
to save it back up while you stay with me!” Sally interjected
cheerfully, simultaneously starting the engine and the expected high
decibel assault of her music.

“I'm going to be deaf by the time I'm 30!!,”
Michael shouted back to Kagome, as they peeled out into traffic.

“I'll buy you a case of ear plugs for your
birthday!!” Kagome shouted back, with a smirk.

Conversation was impossible, as they drove to Kagome's
apartment. That was fine with her, as she considered her financial
situation, and the impact the round trip plane ticket was going to
have.

The hanyou was going to have to wait a little while.

She hoped beyond hope that he would.

~ooO0Ooo~

As Sally pulled up in front of the converted Victorian
that Kagome had called home for the last four years, Kagome couldn't
suppress a gasp when she saw the broken window.

Turning off the engine, Sally paused a moment, before
turning back to her, with a grim expression.

“It's bad, I told you that . . . brace yourself,
ok honey?” and she exited the car.

Kagome pulled out her keys, and Sally just looked at
them and shook her head.

“You won't need those,” she informed her
grimly, before leading them across the street. “The door was
demolished.”

“My stuff. . .” was all Kagome could say,
and she felt that familiar creeping along her spine as they entered
the building.

Glancing
around for any youkai, or anyone strange for
that matter, she found nothing.

“You can make a list of anything that is missing,
'Gome . . . I'll turn it in for you,” Selene told her as they
climbed the stairs, she knew Kagome was going to flip over those
pictures.

“Oh
. . . Kami!!” Kagome gasped walking up to the door, running
her hand along the splintered frame. She knew it was bad, she hadn't
been prepared for . . . this.

Kagome entered what had formerly been her living room,
her heart in her throat. Her eyes brimmed with tears as she wandered
from room to room, picking up this item, or that, all the while
feeling that familiar edginess that indicated a demonic presence.

“They dumped my food out???” she shrieked
from the kitchen, before spying her first aide kit in the middle of
the floor. Picking it up she wondered why food was dumped but the kit
appeared intact.

Michael also wandered through the apartment, amazed at
the sheer brutality it had taken for this much damage to be done. He
shuddered to think of it happening while Kagome was home and alone.

“Kagome,” he found her picking at the mass
of shredded clothing on the bedroom floor. “You're not going to
come back here.” It was a statement, uttered in a low but
commanding tone.

It was a tone she could not remember ever having heard
come from Michael before.

She gave him a shell shocked look, then bent to pick up
two empty frames near her dresser.

Glancing around for anything near that might have been
what belonged in those frames, or even pieces of them, she found
nothing and that made no sense.

“Where . . .” she continued to look,
tossing around the torn bits of cloth that had been her underwear and
night clothes, “. . . where are my pictures?”

“Kagome, did you have anything of value that
might have been stolen?” Selene joined them in the tiny
bedroom. “Any jewelry, or money stashed somewhere?”

“No.
. .” She stopped picking. “Just sentimental stuff. . .
like my pictures.” She frowned at the empty frames, her eyes
brimming. She had copies of them in her room at home, but why would
someone take them? There's no sign of either of those two
being torn up. . .

“Can you think of anyone that would be angry
enough to do something like this?” Selene asked her. “Someone
that might have an interest in your pictures?” she nodded
toward the empty frames.

Kagome took a deep breath.

“No.”

The destruction was complete. And demons were
involved. There was no doubt about it in her mind. Surveying the
room with a grim expression, she blinked back her tears.

“I'm gonna need garbage bags. And a new broom,
the bastards broke my broom handle,” she looked pointedly at
her friends. “Spackle too, for the holes in the wall. . . The
sooner this is over with, the better.”

“I'll go get some supplies, make that list
'Gome.” Selene turned to go out the door. “I'll be right
back.” She was off and down the stairs.

“Murder is on my mind, Mr. Andrews,” she
growled, looking at Michael with her arms stiff at her side, hands in
fists. “Whoever the HELL did this. . . is DEAD!”

“Your
anger is understandable, Miss Higurashi,”
he put his hands on her shoulders, locking her eyes in his own,
expression grim. “Just promise me. . . you won't try anything
alone, that's all I
ask.”

“I
don't understand, Mikey!! Why did they single me
out??” Her tears finally found their way down her cheeks, and
Michael pulled her to him.

“I don't know, honey. . .” he held her
while she sobbed, his own expression one of indignant rage, before
softening as he tried to comfort her.

Time to let go . . . everything is different now.

He
let her mourn the loss of. . . what? Normal? Everything we
had grown comfortable with?

It had taken the loss of everything she owned to
finally break through that Pollyanna veneer.

She was stronger than he had ever given her credit for,
and yet now, here she was sobbing in his arms. And for once in his
life, he was unable to think of anything intelligent to say.

Nothing that could comfort her.

So he just held her, stroking her hair.

After
a time, the sobs turned into sniffles and hiccups. She pulled back
and as their eyes locked he was taken aback with the lost look in her
eyes. He had never seen that look before. . . not on this
face, not in this lifetime.

“Ready
to scrub the youki outta this place? It stinks . . .” he said,
wondering where that term had
come from.

“You sound like InuYasha,” the lost look
was fading, and was gradually being replaced with a look of
determination. “That's what he called it . . . stink.” A
hint of a smile. A deep breath.

Where ever the term came from, it had worked, and for
that he was grateful.

“I'll start in the kitchen,” and she turned
to leave, then stopped without turning around, her shoulders
squared. “Don't worry, Monk. You can come with me when I hunt
the bastards down that did this . . . and purify 'em,” and she
was out the door.

Michael stood there for a moment, transfixed on the
spot where she had been standing. Kagome was changing, too.

His need to protect her was as great as his need to
breath. His greatest fear was that she would foolishly take action on
her own.

And he wondered if she meant what she said.

Because he had not seen her eyes when she said it.

~ooO0Ooo~
- 26
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- 28
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Finding Kagome