Kagome gasped in awe as she stood in front of the castle—the home of the Taiyokai of the West was quite impressive. She hurried along, though, when she heard Sesshoumaru push open the great doors and enter it. She had barely caught her breath when she was once again awestruck by the impressive beauty of the castle—this time on the inside.

Even though there was little thought to the interior decoration—sorry, Christopher Lowell and Martha Stewart weren’t there to help—the mere structure of the castle was breathtaking. The first room was large enough to fit Kagome’s entire house, with twin staircases slowly curving around the room, opposite one another. At the top of the staircases, precisely centered between the two was a long hall, with a few doors visible from the first floor.

Kagome’s only dislike to the castle was the eerie silence that overlaid it. That silence, however, was broken with the sound of a child’s excited shriek. The little girl ran down the stairs to examine Kagome. She was hesitant to speak but finally, "Who are you?"

Kagome shot a questioning look to Sesshoumaru, whom answered for her.

"Rin, This is Kana." He answered stoically, recalling the name that Kagome had told him that she told Naraku.

Rin giggled happily as she continued circling around Kagome, looking over her every detail. "Kana-chan, you look different than Sesshoumaru-sama."

Kagome smiled as she knelt down in front of the little girl, a sparkle of mirth in her orange eyes. "That’s because I’m very different from Sesshoumaru-sama. See, you’re human, he’s yokai, and I’m just in between!"

Rin’ chocolate eyes shone with excitement as she listened to the elder girl speak. It had not been since her family had passed that anyone spoke to her in such a tone. That was not to say that Sesshoumaru did not treat her well or speak to her with kindness, he just did not speak with such happiness and understanding in his tone. She turned her gaze to her surrogate father, hope swelling in her little chest. "Sesshoumaru-sama, is Kana-chan going to stay here?"

Sesshoumaru hesitated, looking into the child’s eyes. He could not deny the child the first possible playmate that she had since she had began to stay with him, and he also knew that Kagome would take some time perfecting her aim. "Yes, Rin."

"For forever?"

Sesshoumaru shrugged as he began heading up the stairs. "For now. She needs to be shown to a suitable room to sleep in, though."

Kagome nodded, understanding that she would indeed be staying in this castle for some time and that she doubted that she would be able to sleep on a couch for the duration of her stay. She threw her backpack over her shoulder as she followed Sesshoumaru up the stairs and down a hall, seeing dozens of rooms on either side as she passed through.

Finally Sesshoumaru stopped, opening a door, gesturing Kagome to enter the room. She gasped as she did, looking over the elegant decoration of the room, noting that it did seem to have a certain femininity to the style of décor. She slowly dropped her backpack as she looked around in the room, then looked back at Sesshoumaru. "This—this room is for me?"

Sesshoumaru scowled as he stepped away, heading to another room. "Why else would I take you to such a room? I have no need for it—do with it as you may."

Kagome murmured a quick ‘Arigato’ as Sesshoumaru shut the door behind himself, leaving her alone in the room. Kagome was quick to open one of two other doors in the room, the first revealing a large, walk-in closet, filled with kimonos of every color and design Kagome could imagine. She stepped back out of the closet and walked across the large bedroom to the other door. She paused as she opened the door when she heard sounds coming from the other side, but her curiosity got the best of her and she pulled the door open.

Rin looked up from her futon to see the elder, hanyou girl. "Kana-chan! You have a room next to Rin!"

Kagome managed a faint smile and briefly wondered whether she was brought there to prepare to fight Naraku or if she was spared in order to be a babysitter.

~ ~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~ ~

Inu Yasha slowly pulled himself out of the well and sighed. [I wonder where Kagome really is…] He shook the thought as he sprinted into the village, finding that Miroku, Sango, and Shippo were all waiting quietly in Kaede’s hut. He flashed a quick smile at the three, but saw that none of them looked anywhere near being able to smile. "What’s wrong?"

Miroku glanced down at Shippo, who was staring blankly at a wall, his young face stained with tears. "Inu Yasha, is it true? Is Kagome-chan… is she really gone?"

Inu Yasha paused, remembering what Kikyo had told him. "It is true…"

Sango stood, glaring at Inu Yasha as a new series of tears ran over her cheeks. "How can you be so calm? How can you? Kagome is gone!"

Miroku pulled Sango closer to himself, wrapping his arms around her shoulders comfortingly as she pressed her face into the fabric of his kimono, letting her tears soak through to his shoulder. "Inu Yasha, could you explain?"

Inu Yasha quieted, his eyes downcast as he answered, "Kagome had just gotten back from her world, and she was still mad—I didn’t want to walk with her at first… and then it came… Naraku sent an assassin… Kagome was killed in cold blood…"

Miroku nodded as he felt Sango grip his arms even tighter in anxiety. "But, why is it that you are so calm?"

[That’s right… why am I so calm? How do I know what Kikyo said is true? She could have just been giving me false hope—after all, I did see what happened with my own eyes… I know that Kagome was dead… but…] Inu Yasha turned around so that Miroku could not see his face as his bangs shadowed his features in sorrow. "I cannot believe that she is gone—even if I saw it happen with my own eyes—I won’t believe it!"

Shippo trembled as he heard Inu Yasha’s words and caught the smell of tears from Inu Yasha’s eyes as well as everyone else’s. "Inu Yasha, if you hadn’t have gotten her mad at you, this wouldn’t have happened!"

Inu Yasha shook his head as he pushed out the door of the hut and ran into the forest. [No! Kikyo told me that she was alive! She had no reason to lie… I had convinced myself of that truth… but… I still can’t forget what I saw…]

Inu Yasha paused as he reached the one place in the forest that he could remember—where Kagome had been slain. He knelt down and sniffed the ground, sifting through all of the scents that had been left over the past several days. [Kagome’s blood… That son-of-a-bitch Naraku sent… death… and… no… it couldn’t be… why would he be here? Maybe… maybe he… that could explain it…]

[It’s true…] Tears began to fall from amber eyes as Inu Yasha leaned against a nearby tree and looked up at the starry sky. "So she is alive…"