InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Reflections of Passion ❯ Fierce Amber [edited] ( Chapter 2 )

Okay! Kagome, her friend Ryuka, and her cousin Kikyou, have been taken captive. This second chapter will be slightly confusing as you guys are introduced to the new interesting story line. I know that it's an AU, and that they're SO BORINGLY COMMON, but I decided to take a break and let my mind flutter for a bit. However, this AU, you'll find, is VERY different from the others.

Disclaimer: I only own the characters outside of the original Inuyasha story line. Other than that, I don't own them! If I did, I would have every anime that's known to man at my fingertips, crazy anime fans banging at my door begging for Inuyasha DVD's, and, best of all, I wouldn't be going to school...

~***~***~

Kagome's eyes fluttered open and she looked around. Realizing that she wasn't in a familiar environment, she shot up, looking around her. "Where am I?" she whispered. Her eyes swept around the room, searching for something to give her a hint on where she was.

The walls were all white, and there was no other furniture in the room except for a bedside table with a phone-like object on it and a small armchair in the corner. The only other thing she saw in the room was what looked like a small kitchen with a sink, a small oven, and a stove. Looking to the left of her, she saw two doors. One of them led to the bathroom (she knew this solely because that particular door was open), and she assumed the other one was a closet. Directly in front of her was a large, metal door, which must have been the one leading out. She rubbed her head and got up.

Cold air rushed over her body and she looked down, surprised to see herself completely healed. There weren't any cuts on her body anymore. Perhaps she was dreaming…?

Tilting her head to the side in a furious blush, she also noticed that she was naked. In a small bout of embarrassment, she ran over to the closet and flung it open, praying to God there would be something in there for her to wear.

Thankfully there was. Upon scanning the items inside, she concluded that there were about seven outfits at her disposal. The first one was a small, blue dress, which was sleeveless and looked very short. ("Ack!") The second outfit was a long-sleeved formal dress, emerald green in color and reached all the way down to the ground. The neckline on it went very low, and Kagome scowled. The third outfit was a crimson red with black and white stripes on it, and happened to be a full-length bodysuit and looked very form fitting. The fourth outfit was a pair of loose, gray sweat pants and a white T-shirt, which said S.T.A.P. on it in grey letters. The fifth was a pair of navy blue pants with a loose, gray, and spaghetti strapped top. The sixth ensemble was a sports bra looking top, with short spandex shorts, and the entire ensemble was all black. The last outfit was the white suit that Kagome had seen the strange alien women wearing, except with blue stripes. She noticed a neatly folded robe on one of the shelves next to the a stack of towels and threw it on without a second thought, glad to find something to protect her modesty.

The young girl sighed, relieved that she was at least close to being properly clothed, and walked to the door and tried to open it. Unfortunately, it was locked. The schoolgirl sat down on the bed and groaned. How was she going to get out of this one?

Realizing that she would probably never see her family ever again, she began to feel tears burn the back of her eyes. She felt the horrible foreboding sensation that she usually got when she was anxious, except thousands of times worse. Was everyone okay? Was Tyoushi okay?

What about Ryuka? She had been abducted, too, she remembered the man talking about taking her, too. The teenager sighed and tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear. How would she be able to find her? She was probably on a huge spaceship or something, so she didn't dare go walking around. One, she wouldn't know where she was going, and two, it was very likely that she would get killed if she ran into the wrong person. "How am I going to get out of here?" Standing up roughly, she yelled to the whiteness of the room, "Is anyone out there?!"

As if someone had heard her, the door burst open and three women rushed in, wearing those weird white outfits like the one she had seen in her closet, noting that they, instead, had red stripes. Kagome gulped, flashes of scenes from sci-fi movies appearing in her head. If any of those freaky alien women came at her with a scapel-

One of the aliens, her skin a pale blue color, yanked Kagome off the bed, while another with white skin and blonde hair shoved an outfit in her face. The third, a bit more human looking than the other two, frowned her cold, ashen eyes and said in an icy tone, "Jibshr hin sheyo."

Kagome stared blankly at the alien. Yeah. As if she knew what the hell she was talking about. Would it kill them to translate to Japanese? That freaky purple-eyed guy from earlier knew how to speak Japanese…

The alien blinked at her, her hands resting on her hips as she gazed at Kagome in annoyance. Finally, the woman reached up behind her pointed ear and twisted what seemed to be some kind of knob. She couldn't make out exactly what it was by her angle. The alien then dropped her hand from her ear and spoke, "This better, human?"

Kagome gasped. She just spoke in-

"Put on the dress," she said, crossing her arms and giving her an impatient glare.

Not wanting to make her angry, she glanced down warily at the clothes that she was holding. Kagome decided that disobeying would only cause more trouble and reluctantly pulled on the outfit. She was just pulling the hem down past her waist when, without a second notion, the alien women threw her back onto the bed and whipped out a what looked to her like a make-up kit, working furiously on her face. She protested, trying to push away the hands applying gunk to her face, but they ignored her. Kagome couldn't even begin to name all of the things they were slapping onto her appearance; she was on an alien spaceship, after all. Or at least she thought she was…

Once done, they jolted her up onto her feet and pointed to a full-length mirror across the room. Kagome sent them a resentful stare, before turning to look at her reflection.

Walking over to the only mirror in the room, she examined it with a furrowed brow. It was very skimpy; a little too skimpy for her liking. It was a black, sleeveless "mini" dress, and, even though it was a turtleneck, it still revealed more than she preferred. There were wide slits in the dress that snaked up her legs, stopping just below the panty line. The gaping slits on the dress weren't too reserved either. There were two on the top half, which revealed the skin on her breast, formed a "U", shape on each one. There was also another one of these slits across her belly, showing off her belly button, and a slit cut across her back as well. Even though the openings were covered by thin, red lace, you could still see what was under it well enough. The red sash rested across her hips, made out of the same red lace that was embroidered into her dress, completed the ensemble.

Kagome grumbled. First of all, she looked like a slut, second, these freaky alien people had horrible taste… and thirdly, how the hell did they know what size she wore?

Her make-up was dark and suggestive, making her look more like a prostitute than a schoolgirl. `Not that the dress helps any…' she added with a snort. The stuff they put on her lips was a dark crimson, and her eyes were dark with some kind of black paint. The burgundy powder the had used to shadow her eyelids made her eyes even darker with the other eye stuff they put on her, making her disapproving frown look even worse than before. "I am NOT wearing this in public," she protested, trying to cover up her modesty.

The Japanese-speaking alien girl laughed. "Oh yes you are," she said, yanking her out into the hallway.

Kagome shivered from the cold air that rushed up her dress as soon as her feet stepped outside the door. Her hands whipped up to her shoulders as she shivered uncontrollably. "It's fr-freezing out h-here!" she exclaimed as her teeth began to chatter.

The woman clasping her arm snorted and continued down the hall, the others in tow. "You'll get used to it. Your body just hasn't adjusted to it, yet."

The blonde shoved Kagome into a room with many other women, dressed in similar outfits. Kagome directed her attention to a woman making her way up to a podium near the front.

She wasted no time with introductions and cut to the chase, slightly surprising Kagome when she, too, spoke in Japanese. "Listen up, wenches. You are to become Taunders, women engineers and pilots. You will be assigned to a pilot. You don't get to choose. We don't care if you like him or not, because he will be your pilot for the rest of your life, unless he dies or you are switched with someone else. Your job is to take care of their aircraft and make sure they are fully operational for every battle."

The woman paused as fear contorted some of the faces of the audience. Kagome, however, did not react, instead listening intently to the rest of her speech, more concerned about finding out what the hell was going on to be frightened about it. "Your pilots will be your masters, and you will do whatever they want, whenever they want, however they want. They are in charge of your punishment, and your rewards. This is not a democracy." There was more silence, and with brown-haired woman wrapped up her oration. "You'll be told more about this tomorrow during training."

Tall, clear tubes appeared behind every girl, and Kagome jumped at the sudden emergence of them. "Step into the tubes." The women complied, and Kagome warily stepped inside. The tube was instantly sealed shut as soon as her body was inside them. The brunette pressed a button on her computer and the tubes disappeared into the ground.

Kagome found herself in a new room, with all of the other girls standing next to her, still in the glass tubes. She was on a stage, looking onto a large group of boys, who looked like their ages ranged from sixteen to eighteen. They all generally resembled humans; some with red skin, some with green skin, some with pointy ears, and some that looked entirely like Homo sapiens. The aliens seemed to not know their presence and continued to busily talk with each other. They were all dressed in the same black shirts and baggy shorts, which said something on them in foreign symbols. `These must be the pilots...' she thought to herself.

Just then, a man approached the podium, holding up a list. Even though she was quite a ways away from him, she recognized the slimeball instantly. It was the man who had attacked her home and abducted her. Kagome couldn't help but glare at him. He stood up and began to speak in some alien language, Kagome left befuddled as she tried to figure out what the hell he was talking about. Unfortunately, he didn't twist a knob behind his ear or anything, so she couldn't understand a word he was saying. Well, whatever he said, a loud cheer erupted from the boys, so she guessed it was something good. The purple-eyed man hushed the crowd with a wave of his hand, before beginning to talk again.

Kagome sighed, giving up on listening and instead looking around the room at its inhabitants. There were a bunch of people crowding the room, probably around twenty or thirty, and they all had fairly human-like appearances., some more than others. Some had orange or greenish skin, while some had pointed ears, tails, and other appendages Kagome couldn't even begin to describe.

Movement to her right caught her eye, and she turned to watch as the bottom of a tube next to her opened up, and the blond inhabiting it tumbled to the floor, landing in front of a boy. He waited patiently for her to stand, then beckoned for her to follow him as he exited the room.

Kagome blinked. What in the hell was going on? The black haired man continued in the alien language, Kagome still trying to sort out what was happening.

One by one, the tubes around her did the same, the girls inside of it walking out of the room with the alien men, some wearing confused expressions, some crying, others emotionless.

Kagome glanced at the symbol on her tube, which, unfortunately, was indecipherable, considering she couldn't read alien. She peered out through the glass at the boys to find many of them looking curiously at her, one or two examining her chest a bit more closely than she would have preferred.

A quiet squeak emitted from her lips as she attempted to cover up as much exposed skin as possible. Grumbling, she realized her attempts were pointless, considering that almost her entire body was on display for the public. "Great." she mumbled, her hands still wrapped protectively around her upper body, "That's just was I need; a bunch of freaks ogling at me…" She fell into thought again. Why were these dresses so revealing, anyway?

Another tube came forward, the man still speaking in unfamiliar tongue. Kagome looked at the woman who fell out of tube and held in a surprised gasp, forgetting her modesty as her hands dropped from her body to press against the glass. "Ryuka-chan?!"

Ryuka's cheeks were stained with tears as she fell helplessly to the ground. The boy standing in front of her rushed up to her aid, extending his hand to help her up. Kagome eyed him suspiciously, noting that he had short, black hair and purple eyes. The boy actually looked very human, despite his pointed ears.

Once Ryuka was on her feet, he stepped forward and smiled at her, whispering a few words to her, words that Kagome couldn't hear over the crowd of boys. Not that she could understand them, anyway. Ryuka only nodded sadly and followed the black haired boy out the door.

Kagome pressed up against the glass, staring after her friend as she walked, miserably, out of her line of vision. "Ryuka-chan…" she whispered desolately.

She felt tears prickle at the back of her own eyes, dropping to the bottom of the tube as her attention drifted from the occurrences on the other side of the glass. She pulled her legs into her chest, resting her chin on her knees. It wasn't enough that Kagome was mixed up in this mess, but so was her best friend. Actually, hadn't her cousin been taken, too?

She glanced up just to see Kikyou herself, her tube dropping her to the floor. Kikyou, being older and far more attuned with her powers, Kagome's cousin was able to levitate slowly to the ground, her feet lightly touching the floor as her longer black dress ("How come she gets the long dress?) fluttered down behind her.

Kagome frowned at her contemptible cousin, and watched with a scowl as she dropped gracefully to the ground. "Show off…" she muttered. Kikyou walked off with an older boy, swiveling to glare levelly in Kagome's direction before exiting out of the double doors and out of sight.

The man continued to speak, pointing at Kagome's tube. Kagome blinked curiously. It would be nice to know what he was saying about her. If she were back home, she most likely would have found it funny, saying he was probably talking about her big butt or something. Suddenly, her eyes began to prickle again at the thought of home. `Don't worry about it right now, Kag,' she told herself, `I just need to find a way out of this mess…'

Kagome's tube moved forward and dumped her to the ground. She used what little energy she could muster to not fall on her back and land safely on her feet, breathing a sigh of relief. Thank God for gymnastics. Kagome slowly stood up, trying to ignore the intense stares from the aliens around her and looked around for the guy that was supposed to wait for her. All the others had a guy there, so it was pretty safe to assume that she would receive similar treatment.

She felt a tap on her shoulder and turned to find herself gazing into fierce, golden eyes, who were, in turn, glaring back at her. A scowl was planted on his face, and his long, silver hair cascaded down his back to his waist. "Are you… him?" she asked timidly, praying that someone knew at least a little bit of her language besides that brunette who dressed her that morning. He just continued to glare at her. Kagome forced a half-forced smile, determined to try and make the best out of her situation. "I'm Higurashi Kagome," she said, her voice a bit shaky under his stare.

He just glared at her.

"Um…" Her initial smile faded, finding herself awkwardly positioned. Great. Just what she needed. A language barrier. "Do you understand anything I'm saying…?"

He continued to glare.

She felt herself fidget. His constant glare was setting her on edge. Kagome's brows drew together in uncertainty as she reached out a hand for him to shake.

The boy's gaze shifted downwards to instead glare at her hand. Kagome sighed, her eyes dropping absently to the side. Well, at least he wasn't glaring at her anymore. He looked back up at her, his expression unreadable. "Um… do you want something…?"

His eyes narrowed in obvious contempt. He turned away from her outstretched hand and sauntered off towards the doors.

Kagome blinked in confusion, following his lead out the door with uncertainty. Whispers followed her as she exited the room and out into the empty corridor. She noticed him striding a ways ahead of her, and she quickened her step so that she was walking a few feet behind him. "So, I…"

"Do you ever shut up?"

Kagome was taken aback by his rude reply. Actually, she was probably more shocked that he said anything. Her mouth snapped shut, not daring to say another word as anger welled up inside of her.

Well, at least he could speak something decipherable. Kagome followed him angrily. Of all the people, she had to get matched up with someone like him. She tried to be nice and he threw it in her face. She followed the silver haired boy down the corridor, hands fisted tightly at her sides.

Sighing in an attempt to calm herself, she distracted her attention to her surroundings. The corridor she was walking down was bare, the walls painted white with a few chips in the paint here and there. Doors occasionally dotted the hall, but other than that, it wasn't much to look at.

As they made their way down the hall, he asked suddenly, "How old are you and what is your name?"

Kagome pursed her lips in annoyance. "I just turned seventeen, and I already told you my name." she retorted, putting her fists on her hip.

"Well, aren't you nice," the boy replied icily. "I could punish you for that, you know."

Kagome's moth dropped. How rude! "Actually, I usually am," she threw back, her strides becoming more forceful and deliberate. "Unless I have to deal with rude, self-centered jerks." Her mood was taking a nose dive as he continued.

"I wouldn't push it if I were you, wench," he ground out through clenched teeth.

Kagome snorted. "I could say the same to you, jerk."

"What do I care what you think, wench?" he shot back, throwing a glare over his shoulder at the irritated girl behind him.

"You're despicable."

"Well, you're ugly."

"Jerk."

"Ugly."

"Jerk."

"Ugly."

"Jerk!"

"Shut up!"

"Make me!"

Abruptly coming to a screeching halt, he whirled around and grabbed the front of her clothes, pulling the shocked girl towards him so he could glare at her eye to eye. "Look, wench, I don't care whether you want to be here or not, you are, so deal with it." Kagome's lips tinned irately. "And second, I don't really care whether you like me or not, because you're stuck with me and I'm stuck with you. I don't like it any more than you do."

Kagome pushed at his hands, but her efforts were cut short when he hoisted her up in the air, her toes barely touching the ground. She gasped and began to squirm in his grip, but his didn't even flinch. "Stay out of my way and I'll stay out of yours."

He released her, dropping her on her butt. For a moment, she was too shocked to say anything in reply. Was that a threat? Kagome glared up and him from her inept position on the ground. "Fine. I will."

The boy growled back and turned to stalk off back down the corridor. It was in this moment, as she was sprawled awkwardly on the ground after just being threatened by her new master, that she had come to realize something. Pointing at his head, she randomly blurted out, "Why do you have dog ears?"

The silver-haired boy flinched and swerved around, crossing his arms across his chest and glowering at her bemused expression. "Yeah? What about it?" he said, the fuzzy triangles on the top of his head swiveling around angrily.

It didn't take the girl long to realize she'd hit a nerve. Kagome gave him an auspicious grin and said, "Nothing…"

His crossed arms dropped slightly as he flinched at implication. "You seem cocky," he sneered, cutting her off and flashing his claws angrily, "Would you like to find yourself much more familiar with my claws, wench?"

Kagome couldn't help the hand that immediately flew protectively to her throat, swallowing slightly. "What's up your butt?"

"What was that…?" he sneered.

"Nothing," she replied, standing and glaring back at him. He walked off, Kagome slowly getting up and following, sending a challenging glare at his back.

They finally reached a long, white corridor, which held dozens of doors. He pointed to the one that, she noticed, had the same symbols as the ones on her tube she was in earlier. "This is your room. I will come for you in the morning to take you to the TTF room."

Kagome hesitated slightly before asking, a frown still on her features from their earlier argument. "What's the TTF room?"

"The Taunder Training Facility. If you haven't noticed, this is a school here, where us pilots are taught to fly our ships and engage in combat." Kagome raised her eyebrow. Oh. No kidding. "You are our engineers, and you will be maintaining our spaceships and telling me what to do during battle. The class you will be going to will teach you how to do it.

Kagome opened her mouth to grudgingly thank him for the explanation, when he continued; "Anything else to bug me about before I go to bed?" he replied, throwing open the door with a resounding bang.

Kagome winced at the loud noise. Obviously, he had misjudged how loud it would be, because he, too, winced at the sound, though he quickly covered it with a scowl. So, instead, she replaced her tense expression with one of defiance. "Yes, I do."

He frowned, his amber eyes flashing. "Then spit it out, wench."

Kagome was silent for a moment. She hadn't really had a question to ask. She was just being defiant for the sake of it. She thought for a few seconds, before smacking her fist into the flat of her palm, making a small "ah-hah!" She smirked disbelievingly. "Will we be in real combat?" she asked curiously. Kagome bit her lip for a second, finding her question to come out a bit too exposed and stupid sounding (not that she could take it back anyways), so she added, "Not that I'm scared or anything… jerk…"

"Of course, you silly woman," he replied with a grunt. "I would appreciate if you wouldn't call me `jerk', wench."

Kagome pursed her lips and faked a hurt expression. "Oh! I'm so sorry!" Frowning, she said, "If I knew your name, jerk, I would use it."

Inuyasha crossed his arms as he contemplated on whether or not to answer her. Finally, he ground out a barely audible, "Inuyasha." She was about to half-smile and say "that wasn't so hard…", before he added, "Any other stupid questions, bitch?"

Kagome's poor smile disappeared at his new pet name for her. "No," she said, "and I have a name as well, you know, Inu-ya-sha," she hissed, making sure she threw in as much contempt in using his name as possible. "I don't really appreciate being called `bitch' either."

He made no sign that he heard her. "Good, bitch," he replied, ignoring her comment and shoving her into the room. She stumbled forward off balance, grabbing onto a dresser and whirling to face him. "I will come for you in the morning," he said, slamming the door in her face.

"Jerk!" Kagome screamed at the closed door and sat on her bed. He didn't hear her. She pursed her lips and looked around the room.

Actually, everything in this room looked the same as the room she was in when she first arose on this ship. "How did I get into this?!" she screamed at no one in particular. Grabbing one of the plain, white pillows lying inanimately on her ugly white bed, she whirled and threw it as hard as she could at the wall, watching it slide down with contempt. "This sucks!"

The pillow just sat there, half crushed on one side from being flung at the wall. Otherwise, the wall showed no damage whatsoever. Kagome glared fiercely at the pillow from her standing position by the bed, minutes slowly ticking by.

She stared at it for a minute more or so before tears began to prick at the back of Kagome's eyes, and raised a hand to wipe a small tear that had begun to track its way down her face. "What… is happening to me…?" she whispered.

Kagome walked slowly over to pick up the abused pillow, a regretting expression lingering on her features. Clutching it to her chest, she leaned her back against the blank white wall, her vision beginning to blur from the threat of oncoming tears. "Oka-san…" she whispered sadly, "Jii-chan… Souta…"

She felt her knees wobble slightly and finally give out, her back sliding down against the wall until she was sprawled out, leaning back against the white wall for support as she buried her face into the pillow and sobbed. "I miss you…" she cried, her voice muffled by the pillow. "I miss you all so much…"

She hiccupped, tears streaming down her flushed cheeks as she sat in the corner, crying and squeezing the pillow even tighter. That plain, white pillow was all that she had left to hold on to.

~*~

A loud banging shot Kagome out of her sleep. "Wake up, bitch! It's time for your class! And don't keep me waiting, either!"

Her heavy eyes drifted close once more, ignoring the banging on her door in hopes of slipping in a little more rest.

"I said: wake up! Hello! Anyone home?!"

Kagome forced her eyelids open, too tired to turn and glare at the door. Too bad he didn't have a snooze button.

Eyes now open and alert, she made to roll out of bed, when she realized she wasn't in one. She was curled up against the wall, a pillow hanging limply from her arms. "I must have fallen asleep here…" she whispered.

"GET OUT OF BED, BITCH! NOW!"

Kagome pushed herself up to a shaky standing position and hobbled sleepily over to the closet. "I'm coming! I'm coming!" she yelled back, grumbling to herself about lack of rest. As she was skimming the wardrobe, she noticed that it was full of the same outfits she had seen in the other room. Finally finding an outfit that looked halfway decent, she shrugged out of the skimpy dress she had fallen asleep in.

As she was slipping on her pants, Inuyasha called from outside, "Hurry up already! How long does it take to get dressed, bitch? It's not like anything you wear is going to change your ugly appearance."

Kagome angrily fumbled with the drawstring, narrowing her eyes and shouting back irritably, "Same to you, you self-centered, egotistical JERK!"

Inuyasha nearly blew up at her comment. It was just too damn early in the morning to put up with her nasty little remarks. "Why you miserable-!" He slammed open the door, the structure almost flying off of it's hinges at his beating. "You'd better take that-" he paused in mid sentence with his fist raised, about ready to pound her when, instead, he found himself walking in on a furious, half dressed teenage woman who was fumbling awkwardly with the slipping straps of her bra.

She was wrestling to put on her grey tank top when he stormed in, fist raised and expression raving, when his features suddenly dropped and his eyes trailed up her body to come to a stuttering halt at her upper body. The only thing covering her chest was her bra, which really didn't cover that much, anyway. Kagome screamed and threw her brush at him, thonking him on the side of his head as it flew by him at an astonishing speed. "GET OUT, YOU HENTAI!"

Inuyasha growled and swaggered out, slamming the door behind him and fighting down an embarrassed blush as he rubbed his sore head. After all, he had gotten a full frontal view of the girl getting dressed on the other side of the now-broken door. "Hurry up! I have a class to go to... wench..." he muttered, finding himself suddenly incapable of coherent speech.

He didn't have to wait very long before the door was forcefully thrown open, an angry human teenager standing in the frame. Inuyasha forced a smirk and turned, walking towards the TTF room with a livid Kagome in tow. "You know, bitch, you look funny when you're mad," he threw over his shoulder, his embarrassment slowly leaving his features.

Kagome's eyes narrowed. "I am NOT a bitch!"

"Well, I could call you 'woman', but…" he turned around to let his eyes flick down to her chest and back up to her enraged face. "…that would cruel of me, since you're about as mature as a child..." he said, the twisted smile on his face growing as he saw the vein in her temple pop. "Besides… bitch suits you perfectly. Is it supposed to be some stupid human tradition to wear black, revealing things under your shirts?" Kagome was about to scream at him when they finally reached her class and he opened the door. "See you later, bitch," he called over his shoulder as he turned to leave.

Kagome was about to throw back an insult, but found her reservoir of witty comebacks suddenly turn up dry. Seething with anger, all she could do was glare furiously at him as he rounded a corner and disappeared from sight.

A lady with blonde hair came up and tapped her shoulder. "It's time for your class," she said with a tight smile, pointing towards the door. Kagome nodded and walked quietly into a large, white (of course) room. The lady showed her to a chair, where she sat down and looked around. Kagome noticed that there were a lot of people busily talking to each other, most with frightened looks on their features, other calmly sitting in their chairs and ignoring the rest of the room's inhabitants.

A lady with light brown hair, wearing the traditional white outfit, stepped onto a podium located in the center of the room. "I trust that you have met your pilots accordingly?" she asked. There was a synchronized movement of heads as everyone nodded. "Okay, this is the only class you will ever have to take. We are going to transfer all the information you need to know into your brain, and copy the information you know. This will help us so that you can suit our needs better. Now please relax, it shouldn't hurt at all."

Kagome leaned back in her chair, finding herself extremely tired. She slowly let her heavy eyelids fall over her eyes as a soft, buzzing sound began to hum in the recesses of her head.

~*~

Kagome's eyes shot open to find herself in the same strange room in that weird chair. `I… must have fallen asleep.' She looked around, seeing that the other taunders were also slowly waking up. She pulled the helmet off of her head and stood up. She felt normal...

The woman on the podium smiled at everyone. "Okay, now, I am going to test all of you to make sure that the transfusion worked. Tests should appear by your chairs; please pick them up and begin."

Kagome reached down and picked up the test booklet lying next to her chair and the pencil lying next to it. `You'd think that being abducted by aliens would exempt me from my exams… I'm probably light-years away from school and I still can't escape testing.' She opened her packet and looked at the first problem. She frowned, seeing a different language other than Japanese on the paper, but realizing she could read it easily.

Quirking an eyebrow, she took a shot at the first problem. How do you fix a broken crystal on an Eon Blaster attached to a Model 23 MSR?

"Replace the Filan Crystal by detaching the Mison energy generator and placing a new crystal in the opening. Once complete, screw in a replacement tetron bolt three quarter turns to the left, push it in and then turn it one full turn to the right for it to begin operating," she whispered quickly to herself. Kagome shook her head; it was like an automatic answer. Furrowing her eyebrows in confusion, she sighed in puzzlement, bringing the tip of her pencil to the paper and beginning to jot down the answer.

Kagome finished the exam in no time, smiling triumphantly and placing the test and the pencil neatly on the arm of her chair. It instantly vanished into thin air, causing her to blink in confusion. `How strange…' she thought. Lying hesitantly back into the contours of the chair, she waited patiently for everyone else to finish.

As soon as all of the tests had vanished, the woman stood up and began to speak once more. "Your pilots should be waiting for you to take you to your new ships," she said flatly, void of expression. "Get working on them immediately; they have a trial in 29 hours, so get busy. If you have any problems, contact one of the assistants. You are dismissed."

The group of women shuffled out into the hall to look for their pilots, and Kagome sleepily slid out of her seat to follow the crowd. Kagome blinked and looked around for Ryuka. She should be around somewhere. Spotting her short, brown hair in the crowd, she ran over to it. "Ryuka-chan!"

The head snapped around to smile at the familiar voice. "Kagome-chan!" she cried, pushing through the crowd and trying to get to her friend.

Before Ryuka could reach her, a hand from behind her reached up and grabbed Kagome by the arm. Her head spun around, finding herself gazing into the fierce amber of Inuyasha's eyes. "Let's go," he said.

Kagome tugged on her arm, turning back to frantically search the crowd for her friend. She wasn't there. Inuyasha's voice came back to her hearing. "…and you need to fix the main thrusters on the ship…" he continued, dragging her away.

Kagome hung her head sadly and followed, slowly. Their stroll towards the hanger was mostly silent; the two of them occasionally throwing insults at one another, Kagome's a bit half-hearted. Inuyasha seemed to notice, but just `keh'ed and said nothing.

Once inside the hanger, Inuyasha wasted no time and brought her up to his own spaceship among the many rows of others. Kagome noticed with a sweeping glance that there were many other girls working on the ship like her. "Here," he said, bringing her back to his attention. "It's a model 253 ST, and the main engine's broken. Begin working, I'll be back in an hour to check on you. Everything you need is in that box," he ordered flatly, pointing to a tool chest.

Kagome shot an icy glare at him before heatedly snatching the wrench out of his hands and turning towards the ship. He said nothing, Kagome hearing the clicking of his boots against the floor resounding in the large expanse of the hanger as he departed. She sighed as she was left to herself to tend to the mechanical problems on the spaceship.

~*~

Inuyasha walked out of the mechanical room and headed down the halls of the spaceship towards the bar. It was the hang out place for all of the pilots after classes, and besides, he felt like having a drink before turning in.

He walked into the dimly lit room and headed up to the bar. It was quite hard to see people's faces in the room, but he could tell who it was by listening to their voice. Sitting at the bar, he called to the bar tender, "One kesa, please." Kesa's were an extremely strong drink, but he felt like he needed one at the time, to wash down the clutter of thoughts swimming in his head.

The bar tender slid the black liquid down the table to Inuyasha, who drowned it in one gulp. His eyes began to water for a second as he enjoyed the feeling of the alcohol burning down his throat. Inuyasha turned to look at the stage, where some women were dancing in scanty outfits, moving their hips to the rhythm of the music playing sounding dully through the room. Letting out a long, slow breath, he turned back around and paid the bartender. As he headed for the door, he was stopped by one of his classmates.

"Hey, `Yasha! Over here!" called a dark-haired man named Kiryu. Inuyasha groaned at his friend's name use and walked over to his classmate. "Yo, man! What's up? Where ya headin' off to?"

Inuyasha rolled his eyes and said nothing. His friend didn't notice.

Kiryu laughed and slapped him on the back. "Hey, I heard you got that black haired, human girl for your taunder. She was a real hottie!" he said, taking a long, drunken gulp of his drink and swaying a bit in his seat. "Did you see the legs on that one? Man!"

Inuyasha could smell the alcohol on his breath, and his lips thinned irately. Typical. "I got a human girl, too. She's fine, and has this real nice hair…" he trailed off, blinking stupidly as he forgot what he was saying. Snapping his fingers slowly, he blurted loudly, "Dude, did you hear? The new taunders just got their memories filed today, they squeezed it in with the Info Trans."

"Oh?" asked Inuyasha, carefully masking the interest in his voice. He suddenly felt like a small conversation would be fitting before he retired to his room. "Today? Will they be on file?"

Kiryu nodded drunkenly. "Yeah. I'd love to chat, man, but this chick wanted me to dance with her. See ya later."

Inuyasha didn't bother to wave to the intoxicated man as he walked out of the bar and headed to his room, shoving his hands into his pockets. `Their memories are on file?' he thought, walking down the corridor, his brows creasing in curiosity. "Hmm… perhaps."

~***~***~

Hmm… Inuyasha is going to find out all about Kagome! Will he use it against her? Okay, I promise the next chapter will be exciting, okay? Stay updated. The next chapter should be out soon, k? And when I say soon, I mean as soon as I finish chapters 4-5 of "Trapped In Between" (I FINALLY changed that title!!!) and chapter two of "Prowler of The Night" Promise!