A/N: Chapter Three of what I hope to be...not so many.

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Chapter Three: Diabolical

But it wasn’t him. This person had white hair, cascading past his shoulders nearly to his waist. Bright yellow eyes stared at her like molten fire. She clenched her fingers around her purse, suddenly stiff, afraid of this stranger and his unfamiliarity.

He stepped towards her and she shrank back, making herself smaller, as though that would save her.

“Who are you?” she asked, her eyes narrowed with something – dislike?

Inuyasha stopped walking, suddenly aware that she didn’t know him like this.

“No one,” he said and she suddenly stared. His voice was the same but why did he look so different?

“Why do you look like that?” she asked, lowering her purse and standing up. He shrugged, abominating the topic. Her eyes fell upon the cat-like ears atop his head and she gasped, opening her coffee-colored orbs wider.

He decided just to come right out with it. “I’m a youkai – or well – hanyou.”

Kagome blinked. She didn’t believe in demons. “But...” she began.

Inuyasha rolled his eyes, “Yes, we exist. It’s not like we’re all servants of Satan trying to ready the planet for the apocalypse! I’m just like you...but like sixty times stronger.”

“It doesn’t make sense though!” she said, standing up now and backing away, suddenly afraid. Fear had never been something that haunted her often but now she was terrified. Of him, of this unfamiliar being that she had come to like. “Why were you human yesterday? Or human looking anyways?”

He looked dejected, though she couldn’t tell in the dark night. “Half-demons have a night once a month where they turn human, the new moon.” He didn’t add about the full moon.

Kagome stopped moving away. She didn’t know what to think. Jii-chan, her grandfather, had always spun off tales of how the youkai were evil, but she never believed they existed. She ruled out, however, that this wasn’t indeed happening. It was not a dream.

Inuyasha stepped forward, extending a clawed hand. She stared at him, confused. “Shake my hand and I’ll prove you no harm.”

Kagome couldn’t move. She stood there, shaking, for a few minutes before finally forcing herself to hold out her hand. He took it, his hand surprisingly warm.

“Well now that’s settled,” he said, snorting and turning to look at the dog she had abandoned.

“Who is this little fellow?” he asked, kneeling down and reaching out to touch the dog’s nose. Kagome sat down as well, petting its fur. “My new friend, I just met him today. I think it’s a he, anyways...”

Inuyasha smirked. Lifting up the dogs front legs he said, “Yeah, definitely a he...and definitely not neutered.”

Kagome rolled her eyes. What a pleasant surprise, a perverted half-demon.

He looked at her, smiling. She stared at his pointed fangs.

“What?” he asked, reaching up and feeling his teeth. “Never seen fangs before?”

She shook her head.

“Not unless they’re attached to an animal.”

“Who says I’m not one?”

“You can talk,” Kagome pointed out.

“Parrots can talk.”

“Yeah, but they have no idea what they’re saying. It’s called mimicking.”

“Oh really? I saw a bird tell some guy to fuck off once. It was freaking hilarious,” Inuyasha said, smiling at the memory. Kagome rolled her eyes.

“That’s probably all its old master said.”

“Even so that doesn’t make it any less funny,” Inuyasha said, scratching that the stray dog’s ear with one hand.

“What should we call it?” he said, staring down at the dog, and switching the topic rather blatantly.

Kagome stopped and stared, “We? As in the both of us? And another thing - who says we get to name it? The Human Society will probably come around and inject the poor thing in a couple of days anyways...”

“Not if I take it with me,” Inuyasha said, now petting the dog with both hands.

“And where would that be?” Kagome said suspiciously.

Inuyasha didn’t answer.

“How about Baka? For a name, I mean...”

“You want to call the dog ‘idiot’?” she said skeptically.

“Why not?”

“’Cause he might not be an idiot!” she said, casting a glance at the dog as to make it prove its intelligence. It snorted and licked up a few straw bugs on the ground. Kagome winced.

“Fine. ‘Baka’ it is. I should call you that as well,” she muttered, rolling her eyes at Inuyasha. She paused. “Wait a minute...I don’t even know your real name.”

He stared at her, yellow eyes and all.

“So?”

“It might be nice to know the name of the person I...”

“...just met two weeks ago?” Inuyasha finished.

Kagome nodded. “You know my name,” she said.

“Yeah, Kagoya, right?” he said, smirking when she grimaced. “Don’t be stupid, I know its Kagome.”

“You remember that after two weeks?” she said.

“Yeah, why not? That was an interesting day. And besides, you remembered what I sounded like,” Inuyasha said.

“What’s your point?”

“That we both remember the strangest things about each other,” he said.

“But we barely know each other. So of course the only things we’ll remember are the weirdest ones,” Kagome said.

“So we’ll make new memories,” he said.

“What are you? You sound like some crappy-ass romantic talking to his wife who just found out she had amnesia.”

“And that’s bad?” he said, frowning.

“Yes, because I barely know you and last time I checked I didn’t have amnesia,” she said. He smiled.

“But that’s my point, love; would you remember if you had amnesia?”

Kagome shook her head. Inuyasha smiled broader.

“So you can’t prove me wrong if I told you you did...unless you went back to your house and actually proved it...”

She blinked, and so did he. “Confused yourself even, did you?” He nodded. “I got lost after the amnesia bit.”

“Of course.”

“So where are you headed this fine evening?” he said, changing the subject to one they could actually remember.

She shrugged. “I honestly don’t know. Tonight’s my last night out for a while since I made myself a promise that I wouldn’t do anything bad.”

“Ah...so what would be considered ‘bad’ in your book? I was thinking of having a repeat of the last time we met,” he said, smirking. She blinked. “You want me to throw ice cream in the middle of the street?”

He stared, completely bewildered at how oblivious she could be sometimes. Her face turned crimson after a few minutes.

“Oh...that...”

He sighed.

It was hopeless sometimes...

...Until she said, “Sure why not?”

---

Perhaps not so hopeless after all...

School dawned bright and early the next day. For Kagome unfortunately, this early brightness was lost as she dragged her way through her classes. Dropping her books a record four times in the hallway she bitterly made her way towards the cafeteria for lunch.

“So Kagome, why are you so tired today? Have a busy night?” Yuka said in that if you know what I mean sort of voice. Kagome glared at her friend, swallowed her mouthful of ramen noodles, and said, “Oh yes Yuka, that’s exactly what I was doing.”

Eri dropped her fork, “Really?”

“No, of course not! What kind of whore do you think I am!” Kagome shrieked, in a burst of that I had no sleep last night hyper-ness.

Yuka blinked. Eri blinked. Ayumi just sat there and ate everyone else’s food while they were too busy staring at Kagome. Kagome blushed, her cheeks flaming from the force of everyone’s stares.

“I didn’t get any sleep, so sue me!” she said rather loudly.

Eri chewed a bit of bread before answering, “So where were you last night? I called your cell like six times and I just got voicemail.”

Kagome sighed and pulled out her cell-phone, careful to keep it out of the sight of the hawk-like monitors. “Oh...” she said softly, staring down at the flashing MISSED MESSAGES button.

“How many times did you call?” she said, noting with disbelief the 18 missed calls. Ayumi smiled, “Well after you didn’t answer Eri’s six calls she called us both and told us to do the same thing.”

“And you listened to her?” Kagome said.

Yuka shrugged. “What else was I supposed to do? Friends was a rerun yesterday.”

Kagome bit back a scream of rage. Ayumi and Eri stared between the two, unsure of whom to be more afraid.

“Yuka,” Ayumi said, “there haven’t been any new episodes of Friends for two years!”

“Really?” Yuka said, her eyes widening. The other three nodded. “Oh...that explains a lot...”

“Like why you keep seeing the same sixty episodes over and over?” Kagome said, exasperated.

Yuka glared.

---

Inuyasha sighed. There was only so much trash that littered the streets of the Musashino Plateau. It was only six o’clock and already his job was done. Dusting off his hands and tossing another white bag into the dumpster he took a look around. He hated this city, this industrial black hole, but something kept coming back. Okay...so maybe it was the black-haired vixen that kept eluding him...but why not?

The week before, when they had first found ‘Baka,’ she ran off three seconds after she kissed him; when he went down to tie his shoe and he looked up and she was gone. This being the evil polluted city it is he couldn’t follow her scent and like hell he remembered where she lived. And two days after that he caught a glimpse of her – or he thought it was her anyways – during the daytime and she just vanished.

Of course...it was not like she could find him either.

You would think someone with blinding white hair and golden eyes would be easy to find. No, it’s like finding a needle in a bloody haystack: impossible unless you have fifty people looking. And since Kagome didn’t have fifty people willing to go youkai hunting during the day she was out of luck.

He didn’t say where he lived, not that she would ever find out where he was anyway. He was like a horror movie monster, popping up in the most unexpected places and never there when you went looking for him. Always at night too. Maybe she should read the horror movie survival guide and find out what he’ll do next. Hopefully NOT on the agenda is maiming her and scattering her entrails throughout the countryside. Not in this century, anyways.

Inuyasha groaned, one hand reaching back to tie back his hair, the other shielding his eyes from the blinding sun. Something caught his eye, a girl. Long black hair.

“Oi!” he ran over and grabbed her shoulder. She turned around. It wasn’t her.

“Oh shit,” he said bluntly. “Thought you were someone else.”

She smiled darkly, a strand of black hair falling in her eyes. “I get that a lot, surprisingly...I wonder if those people ever find whom they’re looking for?” she said, staring at him through eyes darker than mahogany.

He blinked, unsure of how to answer that, “Er...”

“Does the person you’re looking for know you’re looking for them?”

Inuyasha stepped back, unsettled by this new person and their questions. She still stared, waiting for an answer.

“N-No. Not that I know of anyways.”

She sighed. “That’s how it usually is...”

He blinked. “Am I supposed to answer that?”

She laughed and shook her head. “No, I’m sorry. I get bored sometimes, and think of these things.”

“Oh. Okay. It’s fine. It’s just not everyday you get asked stuff like that.”

“I’m Kikyou,” she said, holding out her hand. He shook it.

“I’m Inako,” he said, using a fake alias he had thought of instantly. Creative, eh?

Kikyou smiled, brushing back a long piece of hair that fell into her hairs. Checking her wrists for a moment she asked if he had any rubber bands. He shook his head before he remembered he had one in his hair.

He handed it to her.

“Thank you,” she said, trying her hair back.

“No problem.”

“Kikyou?” someone called. They both turned, forgetting for a moment that there were other people in this world besides them. A thin woman walked towards them, wearing the starch white clothes of a nurse.

“Are you ready to go back?” she said.

As she walked closer Inuyasha was able to make out the label on her pin. Crystal Lake Mental Facilities.

Inuyasha stared. Kikyou merely smiled calmly.

“I’ll be there in a minute,” she said, and the nurse nodded and walked away. Kikyou turned back to Inuyasha, who was still staring.

He said nothing, so she decided to talk for him.

“So...” she said.

“Are you going to kiss me like you did her?”

---

A/N: Yes, I know, I made you all wait 5 months for that. It could have been better. But hey, keep in mind that it also could have been worse.

Hope you liked it.

The next update (to this and 'Something to Hold Onto') should be coming out soon...er than last time.

Later,

Miko-chan