Caesar's Rome by RavenSilverKat

Nani

Caesar's Rome

by RavenSilverKat

disclaimer: *sleeping*

summary: Executions at the Coliseum were always a favorite source of entertainment for the people of Rome. Their current dictator only went because it was his duty--nothing and no one ever caught his attention. That was until a fiery young girl beat everyone and everthing that was thrown her way! AU

AN: I woke up one day with the begining of this fic in my head. It was this morning but, by the time this is posted, it'll probably be a week ago that I woke up and thought of how to start this. But now that I know and can write it (had to help Aunt move), that's exactly what I'm going to do! ^.~

ch1: Nani?

Kagome blinked and looked around. Where was she? She looked down and realized that there was a book in her hand. Oh. That's why she couldn't figure where she was. Whenever she read a book, she was absorbed in it till something snapped her out of it. This time, it was the growling and pain of the hunger in her stomache. When she was done eating, she could go and explore the secret place that only her and her best friend knew about. She had just found a legend that described something similar to her and her best friend's secret place and she was always a curious one and one for exploring the unknown.

She placed the brown leather bookmark into the book and set it down on the table in front of her. The girl stood up on the table and then hopped up onto the top of the bookshelf. From there, it was a straight line to the library door. All she had to do was jump from bookshelf-top to bookshelf-top, her dark blue hakama and haori fluttering slightly. When she got to the end, Kagome slipped off and landed gently and without a sound on her bare feet. Her wavy, black, floor-length hair thumped on her back when it followed. It was currently braided with blood-red wire that her best friend had given her to keep her hair straight: she just wrapped one piece around each of the three sections of hair that she would then braid to her feet. There was also a stone ring of the same color and, strangely, the same properties as the wire, braided into the very bottom of her braid. Her best friend said that he choose those because it kept her hair straight, the color made her look beautiful because it stood out against the midnight color, it formed a weapon, and because it made her look dangerous. But then again, she was dangerous. Nobody knew it though, and that's what was the biggest danger in itself.

Her best friend loved to give her gifts. And they were always expensive looking ones, too. She appreciated them, she really did, it was just that she didn't want her friend to be spending all of their money on her or even spendeing it on her at all. She was a commoner and it wasn't fair that nobody else could get things this wonderous. Her best friend would never not let her take the gifts and, when she refused to take the gift he was attempting to give her, he always had to force them on her and had even had to resort to pouncing on her once or twice to get her to take an especially expensive gift. She always took the gift in the end though, if no other reason to please her friend. Her friend always seemed happy when she got a gift. What she didn't know was that it was the happiness on her face that made her friend happy.

While she was thinking, Kagome had made it to the kitchen and the loud noise of the people inside preparing for meals had snapped her mind from her thoughts.

"Kagome!" the everyone in the kitchen shouted loudly at her entrance.

"Hey!" she cheered back. "How you all doing?"

"Good!" came the loud reply.

"Ok, get back to work people! It's not like we won't see the pest again," called a clear, moving voice. Everbody laughed and got back to work.

"Good afternoon, Kagome," said a warm voice. An elderly woman was walking towards her in a traditional miko outfit. They smiled at each other and hugged.

"Hello, Kaede," Kagome replied.

"What brings ye here child? What do you want to eat now?" Kagome laughed.

"Kaede!" she cried. "You make me sound like a pig or something! You know I only eat when I get hungry! And that's how it should be," she grumbled. Kaede laughed, too.

"I kid you, my child," she smiled. "Now, what is it that you wish to eat."

"I'm about to go swimming so, something that's good to eat before you go swimming," Kagome replied, shaking her head.

"Well, how about some fish?" the elder woman asked cheerily.

"Sounds good. I look forward to it," Kagome answered and walked over to the door frame which she leaned on to wait it out. It didn't take long. A young maid named Mia came to her with a plate of fish, cheese, and green grapes a few moment later. She thanked her with a smile and sat down with the plate right next to the door frame.

A little while later found Kagome returning the plate to the kitchen and then heading down to the palace swimming pool. It was a natural pool, carved from the side of the mountain that was right next to the castle. It was filled with cool, clean water. It was there that Kagome was now at. When she reached the pool, she stripped off her clothes till all she was wearing was a loincloth, a long strip of cloth wrapped tightly around her breasts, and black leather arm warmers that extended to her elbows and had the fingertips cut off (another gift, one that would protect her arms and was waterproof). Breathing deeply, she dived in, making not a single ripple. It always marveled her friend that she could jump in like that. Her friend, on the other hand, could never dive in with such finese, but not for lack of trying.

It was only a second before she reached the deepest corner of the pool and slid right through. It seemed that the corner was only an illusion, hiding a pasage running deep into the mountain. And even though others seemed to have been down in that area, it seemed only Kagome could go through the illusion. Her friend could never go through without touching her though. After their discovery of the illusion and that only Kagome could go through, she had made a thorough search of the entire pool for anything else that was not as it seemed. After nothing else showed up, they had taken a deep breath holding hands and dived off the corner and through the illusion on the pool's floor.

It was a beautiful tunnel. The floor was carved flat and the walls and ceiling were carved in and arch. The two friends, still holding hands, marveled at the blood-red walls. Despite the color of the walls though, the water remained crystal clear and had a blue-green tint. Her friend noticed that Kagome had taken a particualr intrest in the tunnel and its color and it was after that discovery that she had been given the blood-red wire and stone ring. She never knew how or where the gifts where obtained but, it was that particular gift that puzzled her the most. A moment later, she arrived in a large cave and propeled herself to the top of the water from the flat bottom of the tunnel.

The cave was a beauty in itself. The blood-red stone of the tunnel ended where the tunnel did. And where the blood-red ended, the opaque began. It was the most beautiful thing she had ever seen. Well, unlive thing anyway. There were some pretty beautiful live things in the world, but some of these creatures beauty was only skin-deep. There were carving on the walls of the cavern. Carvings that seemed to explain why only Kagome could go through the illusion. The carvings seemed to depict Kagome herself.

The carvings on the wall were many and continued on past the surface but there was only one that stood out: the woman that was the exact image of Kagome and was surrounded by a blue light. The carvings were colored. Every carving was colored. And the image that looked like Kagome, was her exact image, down to the floor-length midnight hair, bright blue eyes, and white skin. Neither her nor her friend could ever figure out what it meant. Almost every day when her friend was home, they would swim to the cavern. Every day, the two would swim down deeper into the cave. Every day, their lungs would grow deeper and they could fill them with more air, allowing them to go deeper in the cave.

All the carving seemed to be the same. Ancient text flowed smoothly across the opaque walls occampanied by carvings that all seemed to depict ancient beings, all of their looks similar to Kagome's own with a few changes: they all seemed to have short blue hair and black, the exact opposite of Kagome.

But today wasn't about the carvings and about the writing. Today was about a theory about how to reach the bottom. Ever since they discovered the illusion and the tunnel and the cave, they had tried to reach the bottom. They had found steps leading up to the tunnel that were carved into the side of the cave in a spiral that also had handholds carved into them that allowed them to haul themselves down the stairs. Upon discovering the steps, they spent every bit of time trying to follow them to the bottom. They had only been able to go down a hundred steps as their top score. But Kagome had thought of a way that they could reach the bottom: she could put a bubble on their heads to sustain their air. And when or if they ran out of air, her best friend and her could propel themselves to the surface using the steps etched in the side of the cave. But if this works, she would have to wait till her friend came back. They had both made a promise to each other that if one of them found out something, they would wait till the other could accompany them till they would explore it. Together from the begining, together to the end. It was a shame that her friend was not here today. 'Here we go.' she sighed, a shiny blue bubble appearing around her head right before she dived under the water and towards the first handhold.

'Wow!' she thought, amazed. Her theory had actually worked! It was amazing! Since she was strong naturally and made even stronger by training, her time to the bottom was short. When she did reach the bottom, she could look up and the top of the cavern was only a small dot miles above her. Now that she knew that it could work, she just had to wait till her friend came back. After finding out about the illusioned corner, she didn't want to explore and accidently go through a wall or something. She crouched down and gripped the very last handhold and then pushed up with all of her might with her legs. It only took a few moments for her to break the surface and the bubble disappeared when she did.

Now that she knew that she could get her friend and her down to the bottom, she would just go back to the library and read till she needed to go home. Or she could "accidently" fall asleep in the library. It's not like she'd done it before. Although, her friend did get mad that she had spent the night in a "drafty, cold, all wood room". Her friend had had a fit and had made her promise to spend the night in an actual room the next time she decided to sleep over.

She was an orphan without siblings. She didn't remember anything about her parents, or even why they were dead but, it didn't matter--she didn't care about something that she couldn't even remember but, she did miss having parents sometimes when she would watch other families being happy. She lived alone in a cave off in the mountains but she had a shortcut: the fastest way is always through the hidden pathes of the trees. She made an honest living doing odd jobs: paintings requested or not, sculptures and figurines requested or not, translating, cleaning or organized. Whatever job that existed in the city and out of it, Kagome had worked it. And she couldn't be happier wit hsuch a nomadic lifestyle. Her friend, needless to say, was always worried about her and the trouble that she could get into so easily. She took a deep breath and dived under the water and through the tunnel. She sprang off the buttom of the blood-red tunnel and up through the illusioned corner of the pool. There was so much force behind the jump that she sprang out of the pool water, too, and onto the side of the pool, just as she had intended. She grabbed her giant, blue, fluffy towel that had also been a gift and buried her face in it.

"Woo....hoo....hoooo!!!!" she cheered, throwing a fisted hand into the air and jumping up as well. She proceeded to make up a dance on the spot that involved the shaking of the booty and turning in circles while singing, "I did it, I did it, I did it!". After her first few though, she bumped into one of the guards, the chief guard, and he also had quite a party around him. She smiled warmly at him as she wrapped the towel around her body at top speed.

"Good afternoon, Leo. Or good evening. To which either applies," she said cheerfully. "But could this wait a moment? I'd really appreciate standing here with my clothes on, rather than off," she said good naturally. The guard only nodded at her and him and the others left. Not technically because they were still around the corner (the pool was surrounded by a wall of bushes with one arch for entry for secrecy because of the usual lack of clothing while swimming) but, oh well. As long as they weren't watching. She dried herself and her clothes with a quick spell before putting her clothes back on. It was odd that Leo hadn't smiled at her or replied. Non of the other guards did either. That was a mystery in and of itself. She usually got some sort of greeting and Leo usually gave her a hug when they met for the first time each day. Today, though, him and the others all seemed depressed and a little angry at something. And now that she focused on it, there was something going on in the castle, as well. The castle seemed a little paniced and, as she looked up in the sky, wondered what had happened and how long she'd actually been in their secret place. With a sigh, she walked out of the bushed-in pool area with a skip in her step and a smile on her blood-red lips. They were natural, as was everything about her but, people always thought she wore face paint--how she loathed, hated, and overall refused to even touch face paint. She was was fine with painting paint though.

"Kagome," Leo started.

"Yes?" she questioned, looking up at him. His face and the guards' faces were cold and hard, but sad at the same time. "What's wrong?" She was starting to feel panicked. As long as she had known these guys, they had never given her this look.

"Kagome, you are under arrest for the attempted murder of his Lord Emperor Inutaisho and her Lady Emperoress Hakuchoo. You are sentenced to death which will commence tomorrow evening at the monthly Coliseum execution. Should you attempt to fight back or run, we will be forced to take measures to ensure the safety of others." Leo continued on but his words fell on deaf ears.

'Lord Emperor? Who's that? Why is his name familiar? Why is this happening? I don't even know anybody associated with the Emperor, much less the emperor himself? What the fuck is going on?! Fuck this. I'm not be blamed for something I didn't do."

With those thoughts racing through her mind, Kagome turned and bolted back through the bush archway. She raced around the pool and scaled the bush wall resulting in plenty scrapes. When she reached the top, she felt her body tingle and a cool sensation run over her body, as if she had just passed through a wall of water, except she wasn't wet, but she just ignored it and continued with her momentum over the wall. The bush, being ten feet high, would've made any normal person's legs shatter. But demons can't shatter their legs at such a minimum height--and neither could Kagome. Which is why she shot off towards the palace wall as soon as her feet hit the ground. She could hear the shouts of the gaurds behind her and a quick glance told her that they wouldn't catch her as long as her legs worked. She ran up a tree right next to the palace wall and across a branch and then jumped the few feet to the high wall. A second jump tossed her over the high wall and down the side of the mountain it sat on. Shouts of palace guards and screams of palace ladies echoed through the air as Kagome's body hurled down the hundreds of feet of mountain. She could hear shouts of "Stop that girl!" and "How the fuck?!" as her slim body streemlined through the air faster than lightning. She knew no one could catch her now. No one was stupid enough to hurtle themselves down a mountain hundreds of feet off of the ground. Not even demons. And if anyone were listening to her thoughts just then, they would've thought that she was stupid as well. Shame she wasn't or else she'd be dead as soon as she hit the ground.

A simple spell slowed her down so she was only going the speed of hoping down from the bush wall aroung the pool. That spell allowed her to grab the branches of the tree to stop herself completely without tearing her arms out of their sockets. Her legs swung freely for a moment before she placed them on the branch beneath her and let go, letting her feet slide off gently so she landed on the branch with her butt. Her body froze--her instincts were still in high drive and screaming at her. She glanced around restlssly and then below her. There was something wrong wtih the ground: it seemed like it was shimmering. She concentrated and saw a large group of palace guards below her, looking up and searching the trees. She quickly hid herself in the foilage.

'How the hell did they get down here so fast?!' she yelled in her mind. She sighed in her mind--out loud could've caused her capture and she wasn't going to take the chance that these demons could hear her. There was a strange feeling in her mind and she quickly put up a barrier of the same blood-red substance in her hair and of the secret tunnel, but harder. The feeling left but was replaced by a stronger feeling pushing up against the barrier. She pushed the barrier out fiercely and then retracted it just as quick as she fell down the mountain. The mind trying to invade hers retreated entirely. Quiet as darkness, Kagome slid from the tree and jumped onto the side of the mountain. Using the roughness of the rock, she scaled the rough rock sideways, down onto the dusty road all the way on the opposite side of the mountain.

Her head swiveled swiftly to examine the surrounding area. It was clear but she could hear people coming down the mountain-side road as well as up it. She sprang forward and hopped off of the road down into the next set of trees. Her arms caught the branches and she continued that way down the rest of the mountain till she hit the market road. It was easy to hide herself in the crowd of buyers, sellers, and stealers. First, she thought about heading towards her home but decided against it because running her path would waste needed energy and if she went any other path to her home, well, there was no other path. She decided to just walk around.

She knew nothing about what was nothing about what was going on right now because adrenalin was still coursing fiercely through her body, making her thoughts a little crowded. She headed towards her favorite ramen stand. With any luck, there would still be a free seat at this time of the day. It took no time at all to get to the little ramen stand, well-hidden by the other shops. It was the kind of shop where you could walk in, get greeted by name, and say "The usual, please." with the server's name tacked on the end. The owner of this little cart was named "Hector." The two were good friends, partly because they grew up together, and partly because her and her best friend were his most avid custumomer's. They came there for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, but not always every day. But what surprised her was that there was somebody new sitting at the opposite end of the bar, in the darkest corner of the room, eating ramen as if his arms were made of lead.

"Hey, what's up, Hector?" she greeted the man behind the bar. "The usual, please, by the way."

"Hey, Kagome," he greeted back. "The usual. You?" Kagome watched him closely. There was something wrong with the way Hector was acting. It hit her like a concrete wall. .

"What did they threaten you with, Hector?" she sighed. "Wait, let me guess: they'll kill you and everyone you're related to. Am I right?" She sighed again as the man broke down. "It's ok, I know that you have no other choice. I'm sorry that you had to get involved." She stepped forward and reached out to hug the man when her instincts screamed at her that she was being attacked from behind. She reached behind her with another sigh and caught the club that was about to hit her skull. "I can do it myself," she said cooly and without a moment's hesitation, reached deep inside and put herself into a medatative trannce.

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

'It is time,' someone whspered to her in her mind. 'It's time to get up and show your innocence. Time to show them what you're really made of,' it continued.

'Yes,' she replied to the strange voice. 'Time to kick some ass.'

Kaogme opened her eyes and looked around. She already knew she was untouched. She couldn't be touched by anyone she didn't want to touch her. Another spell. Had even saved her life on more than one occasion. She stood up and looked around. She was in a bare cell of dirt with at least 50 other men, women, and children. They all looked worn out, strewn about the dirt floor. There were a few cocky teenagers being rebelious by leaning against the wall. But she could tell that their spirit was gone, just by looking at them. All of them. It was like their soul had been sucked from their bodies. It made her sick to look at. She spread out a healing spell that sought those who were sick. It healed all of those in this cell and all of those in the cells scattered randomly below the Coliseum. Within moments, people were standing up and blinking, as if they had just woken from a deep sleep. Then the noise started.

It was a tremendous noise. One of those rejoicing. Celebrating their newfound liveliness. The noise attracted the guards in no time flat. They came running from every where, shouting at the prisoners to shut up and some even tried to attack the prisoners from outside the bars.

"Hey!" a new guard shouted. "Stop fucking around!" he continued yelling at the others. "It's time!"

A deathly silence fell over the prisoners and they walked out of their cages, one by one, so they could go die for some assholes' entertainment. She was the very last to walk out of her cage, and the very last to exit the cell-filled room. A guard reached forward and groped her ass.

"A fine body, this one's got," he commented to his comrade. "Shame she's going to die."

Kagome qhipped round, raising her right foot as she did so, and high-kicked the right side of the guard's face. She followed up by grabbing him by the throat and pushing him up the wall.

"Don't ver touch me again!" she said softly, her voice full of promises of things worse than death. "And I refuse to die."

The man's eyes were dark, wide, and full of fear. She tightened her grip and pushed his body further up the wall using his neck. The guard started to gag and cough as his lungs tried to fill with themselves with the necessary air they needed to sustain the body. A harsh pain filled her head as a dull object slammed against the back of her skull and a sharp pain stabbed her back: some bastard had just stabbed her in the back and, above that, hit her on the head with a club! What was the deal with these sadistic bastards. While her mind was clear, her body felt odd. She also felt dizzy. Wasn't good to lose this much blood. With another club to the head, she let go of the man, causing him to crumple to the ground, gasping for air. She turned and glared at the man who'd hit her. He shrunk back a little but then shoved her towards the doorway where the other prisoners were gathered together.

"Get over there, bitch," the guard said scathingly and shoved her again. It was at that moment that the door opened and the prisoners just flooded out of the doorway and out into the arena. Kagome glared at both of them before following the crowd of prisoners into the stadium.

It was a large oval-shaped place, covered in dust as was the rest of Rome. There were at least 200 people standing inside, looking drained because of their iminent death. She knew what would happen know. Gladiators and wild animals would be released and the pisoners would be forced to fight for their lives. Most of the prisoners would die as would some of the animals and gladiators. She was sad for all of their deaths because the all three groups were prisoners, in their own different ways.

Being as she wan't paying any attention and she was losing a lot of blood from the stab wound, she didn't notice when the others stopped, therefore she promptly ran into the man in front of her. He didn't even turn around. Kagome righted herself with an apology and looked at the people in the stands.

As usual, such a big crowd had come to watch that some people were forced to stand in the isle. 'There's a hazard right there.' she thought absentmindedly. As she slowly turned, a shock of silver caught her attention and her eyes shot towards it. Yes! Her best friend was finally back! It was good to see him again.

"Inuyasha!" she shouted at the top of her lungs. The silver-haired head jerked.

"Kagome?!" a familiar voice shoted back.

"Welcome home!" she continued. "You'll never guess what I found behind the illusion!"

She felt someone come up behind her and she turned swiflty. A gladiator was charging towards her. Odd, she hadn't heard anything. Damn audience. Too noisy. She dogded his sword gracefully and caught his thick nick in her slim, pale fingers.

"Now what the fuck do you think you're doing?" she asked in a deadly and soft voice. "Don't you know that it's rude to sneak up behind a lady?" She didn't wait for an answer because she knew she wouldn't get one--it's hard to talk when someone's choking you. She threw the air-deprived man at the wall behind her and then turned back towards her best friend. She waved her hand as if to say, "Don't worry, I'll be fine." even though he was the only one who could understand what it meant. To most people, it seemed as if she was saying goodbye. With it, she gave a soft smile that almost seemed to be sad. With that done, the girl turned around and began to fight.

Inuyasha watched helplessly as his first and best friend fought away all of the gladiators around her and turned the ferocious creatures into pets. Soon, the animals turned on the gladiators and began attacking them instead of the prisoners. The prisoners were soon ushered back from where they came by Kagome and soon, all of the live prisoners had disappeared from the arena.

Kagome looked around. The arena floor was spotted with the bodies of gladiators, prisoners, and some of the animals. After discovering that the animals had turned on the gladiators and were now helping the prisoners, somebody below ground had retracted the platforms on which the animals were chained to. So now, it was just her and the gladiators. Being the cowards they were, they all attacked her at the same time.

Shouts rang out from the crowd when it seemed that Kagome was suddenly buried underneath the mass of guards that had rushed her. A loud laugh rang out through the stadium. All of the guards untangled themselves and looked over at the source of the sweet, musical sound. The braided-haired girl was sitting on the wall completely opposite of the mess of guards laughing so hard she was doubling over.

"Oh, shit," Inuyasha whispered. His family looked at him. 'Kagome, what the fuck is wrong?' he asked through the mental connectioin they shared. They never did figure out why it existed but, they had some suspicions: like the rosary he wore around his neck, for example. It was a simple rosary with about 5 white fang-beads spaced evenly between 10 round black beads. She had put a little bit of her esscene in it so that he could go through the illusion when she wasn't around or so that he didn't need to touch her when they went through. But if she was with him, he always held her anyway--she never minded. The only time they couldn't communicate was when one was asleep. They could appear in dreams but, they couldn't really talk because there was always the possibility that the sleeping one wouldn't remember the dream. 'Kagome....' his gentle voice whispered across her mind softly. "What happened? Why are you so tired?" he whispered softly out loud. For she was indead tired. It was in her posture, it was the way her mind touched against his, the way her aura sat so close to her body that it was like a second skin (she always kept it at that amount so she never caught attention--her aura and her power were more than even she knew) but still seemed small to him, but, most importantly, it was in her eyes. It made him feel ill. But he couldn't help her--she wouldn't let him in more way than one.

'Tired?' Sesshomaru wondered, studying the laughing girl thoroughly. He couldn detect nothing wrong with her but, his brother appeared to know her. She was beautiful, for a human. Large, bright blue eyes, a long braid of midnight ran down her back to her feet, wires of a blood-red color wrapped around each of the three sections of hair and a stone ring of the same color was braided in at the very bottom of the braid. Her body was slight, tall, and lean, every inch as graceful, if not more, than a high-class demon. Her lips were plush and as dark a red as the wires and stone ring in her hair. Her skin was paler than the full moon and contrasted greatly with her dark blue hakama and haori. There seemed to be black leather gloves on her hand with the finger tips cut off but, with closer inspection, they reached up to her elbows.

Inuyasha was shocked when she pushed his mind away from hers but she ammended it with a 'Leave it be, Inu-chan.' He watched her anxiously and then sat down on his seat, restlessly continuing to watch his laguhing best friend.

Inuyasha was trying to talk to her. She couldn't let him in right now or else he'd stop her immediately. She had to prove she could take care of herself. She didn't want him taking care of her all the time, not that she didn't appreciate it. She pushed him out gently with a small explanation that wan't really an explanation at all.. Kami, she was so tired. She wanted to just lay down and sleep. 'After you've beaten these assholes.' she promised herself. 'You can sleep when you've finished kicking their asses.' was the promise she made to herself. She slowly stopped her laughter (for she had never stopped laughing) and looked up at the puzzled gurads.

"Boy, you guys are sloooow...." she drawled with a smile. "And lonesome little me, a poor defenseless lady sitting all by herself on the wall of a slaughter ring. What's a girl to do?" The people watching roared with laughter. "I think they like me," her voice whispered into the ears of each guard, even though she hadn't yet moved. They grouped together and rushed her again. No matter how many times the gladiators rushed her, she always managed to end up at the opposite end of the ring. And every time the men untangled, one man was left laying on the ground, bleeding from a stab wound left behind from some other gladiator's weapon. A little later, there was only one gladiator. After a few had been struck down by each other, Kagome had started to go in and actually fight them. A little while later, there was only one left. And he, like the rest of his comrades, was a youkai, more specifically, an ookami youkai. A wolf demon. Wolves were of the wind, making him exceptionally faster than the others. (I actually found out that the elements that I assigned to each cardinal direction for my fics actually belong to those directions: Earth of the North, Air of the East, Fire of the South, and Water of the West; how damn cool is that) But he was wounded as well. He was well built and had the usual brown hair, which was short and spiky, and brown eyes.

The ookami and Kagome circled each other wearily. Kagome appeared just as alert as she had when she first entered the ring. The ookami was tense, wary, and breathing heavily. He was heavily wounded and he kept faltering, stumbling. She smiled.

"You're not going to win this," she taunted. She was still smiling, he was panting heavily. "Come and get it," she sang.

The wolf growled and charged at her. She stepped aside easily.

"You're getting sloppy. There was absolutely no tact in that move whatsoever. And your guard is extremely sloppy. I could kill you right now," she corrected him. The man growled and turned around. He was still slouched over with a bowed head. His eyes were now red and glaring up at her. He growled and attempted to charge her again. She stepped aside easily once again and whapped him lightly on the back of his head as he passed. "Sloppy," she sang.

"Just fight me, damnit!" he growled at her.

"As soon as you straighten up and fight for real, instead of this sloppy, no-guard, style," she replied.

The youkai stood up striaght and looked her dead in the eye. His own head regained their brown and all traces of red were gone. He smiled at her.

"You are a goddess," he whispered. "An angel....sent from hell," he finished, and then keeled over. kagome just watched him, her face like marble. She knew what he meant: sometimes, she was so nice, it could kill.

God, she was so tired. She wanted to go to sleep so bad. The hole in her back was still bleeding profusely and there weren't any signs that it was going to stop. It had slowed down a little bit since it had started but, if she didn't at least start to heal it a little, the results could be hazardous. She groaned as her mind fuzzed over. She needed to leave now. Kagome's mind became so weak, Inuyasha was finally able to get through.

'Kagome,' his voice whispered softly.

'Inuyasha?' her voice asked weakly. 'I can't see anymore, Inuyasha. Inu....yasha?' It was then that she keeled over. Gladiators and guards began to flood the arena.

"KAGOME!" Inuyasha shouted at the top of his lungs. Everybody within the Coliseum turned and looked at him. Even people outside of it turned to find the source of the noise. The dog-eared boy shot forward and landed on the floor of the arena next to his best friend. He crouched down next to her and swept the loose strands of hair off her face. He slid his arms gently under her knees and back and lifted her up efortlessly. The guards and gladiators surged forward.

"Nobody TOUCH her!!!!" he snarled harshly, his once-gold eyes now entirely a deep, dark red. They were jagged red stripes developing below his eyes. One on each cheek. His nails were growing longer and his fangs were starting to protrude from between his snarling lips. His aura shone large, fierce, and a deadly red as he walked out of the Coliseum, even to those who couldn't normaly see/sense them. To those who were watching him walk in their diection to the exit beneath them, it was a beautiful and deadly picture: a hanyou so mad that he turned youkai holding a pale tenshi in his arms; the contrast was so striking, it almost tore out the hearts of those watching, if the hanyou didn't do it first. And if looks could kill, everyone would be dead, even though his own red eyes were focused on the exit. The last sound Inuyasha would remember hearing from that moment, before his soul completely surrendered to it's full-blooded and dark side, was the sound of the audiene, standing up, and applauding loudly and wordlessly.

TBC

AN: Oh, Kami! It's finally finished! Did anyone notice that I never mentioned what sex Kagome's best friend was till I introduced Inuyasha? I'd hoped that no one would know that Inuyasha was her best friend till I introduced him. I tried not giving away any clues that would show that Inuyasha and Kagome were the best friends but, some people might've figured it out, just based on the anime and manga. Oh well. Anyway, also look for my new story "Calling All Orphans". I don't know when for sure but, I think I'll have "Visions: ch 5" done next weekend, as well as the very first chapter for another new fanfic, "Sex, Lies, and Drugs". So, hope you're looking forward to them and don't forget to review please, even is just a "Please write more!". Arigato and jaa ne! If you'd like to jion my mailing list, click on the link below:

http://rsk.notifylist.com/sesskag_fics.html

finalized: 2005-08-11