Disclaimer: Um...duh. I don't own it. If I did I wouldn't be writing fanfiction. Lol.

Chapter Three

(I)

Souta stumbled tiredly into the door, his eyes drooping as he slid the apartment door closed and took off his shoes. He took one sniff at himself and grimaced.

"I smell like old french fries and butt," he grumbled sourly. He tugged his uniform shirt over his head and wadded it into a ball before hiding it behind his back and venturing further into the house. Souta peered into the living room and sighed in relief to find it empty.

Souta had not been hanging out with his friends as Kagome thought for the past two weeks. His late evenings 'hanging out' were behind the counter of a local burger palace. He loved his sister more than anything, so he couldn't allow her to constantly worry over the bills and his tuition.

'Kagome has an old samurai's way of thinking,' Souta mused and stepped through the threshold of his room. 'She thinks she's supposed to protect and provide for the whole family since she's the oldest.' He was touched that she wanted to help him pay for what his scholarship didn't but he couldn't just sit back and do nothing.

'She already thinks that I'm ashamed of this place,' Souta said as he took a look around the small apartment. In truth, so long as it had a TV to hook up his game systems, a fridge to dig through when he caught the munchies and a toilet for ...well, you know- then he was a happy camper. As a matter of fact, he intended to take care of all three of his younger brother priorities as soon as he took a well deserved bath.

He opened the bathroom door, ignorant of the pink glow that shone from the space between the bathroom door and the floor, and stepped in. He blinked at the pretty rosy hue around him and frowned in manly indignation. "Man, Kagome, this is wrong," he grumbled as he approached the bathroom mirror. "How's a man supposed to take a d-" He looked into the mirror, then turned around and gaped. The pretty pink glow wasn't coming from some new light bulb Kagome was trying out but from the small shower/bath on the opposite side of the wall.

Souta approached the water slowly, his eyes trained to the still waters and gaped at the shimmering pink bubbles on the surface. They glowed like jewels and looked just as solid, but it was when he reached to touch them that they decided to float out of his reach and reveal his sister's face. He gawked and jumped back, his eyes practically burning at the idea of nearly seeing his sister nude, and scrambled away from the tub back to the sink.

"Gah Kagome, I'm so sorry!" he practically shrieked in embarrassment. He ducked his head and tore from the room, his arms protecting his head from the various projectiles that he knew she would start flinging at him. He slammed the door shut and leaned against it, relief painted on his face as he waited for his sister's screams and threats to end his life early.

Imagine his surprise when none came.

He opened the door again, this time cautiously, and peered into the room toward the tub. The bubbles continued to shimmer under the pink light, some choosing to float from the water's still surface into the air around him. The bathroom smelled of some sort of exotic flower and the more he sniffed the more he felt that the scent would soak into his skin and bond with him, leaving him smelling like this permanently.

'Better than old burgers and BenGay,' he grumbled to himself as he walked up to the tub again. Kagome was still there, her eyes closed and her lips in a peaceful smile that radiated her happiness and comfort from underneath the water's surface.

'Wait a sec...'

Souta immediately panicked and reached into the tub, his hands finding purchase around Kagome's slender waist, and tugged her out of the gelatinous water. He frowned down at the gooey substance but wasted little time in wrapping Kagome in the nearest towel and racing out of the bathroom toward her bedroom.

"Kagome," he called as he rubbed the towel over her face and nose. He grimaced at the pink water, once so pretty and harmless, now seeping out of her nose, eyes, mouth and ears like runny Jell-O. Her silence worried him and he continued to wipe the stuff off of her as he called her name. "Kagome, wake up. Kagome are you ok?" He secured the towel around her and listened to her chest, shocked beyond all reasoning to find her heartbeat still strong. His head rose and fell with her breathing and Souta nearly cried in relief.

"Gah, Kagome," he said as he stepped away from the bed. "You really scared me you know. Just what do you think you're..." He stopped, the words dying in his throat as she began to glow. What he thought was the aftereffects of his attempts to dry her off quickly became the same glow as what was in the bathroom. Kagome sighed pleasantly and rolled over, the smile on her face the perfect contradiction to Souta's rising panic. She tucked her legs closer to her and fell back into her deep slumber, leaving Souta to wonder as to what to do.

'How long was she in that stuff anyway?' he wondered as he went back to the bathroom. The pink glow was gone, leaving the sterile white bathroom, harmless bubbles, and clear bath water. He glanced around the tub's side, wondering to himself what on earth she could have used, and came to a small glass jar. He held it up and peered inside at the remaining pink fluid left inside and grimaced to himself. 'It's got a Endo Laboratories barcode on it. Maybe it's some sort of experimental...something, but why would they ask Kagome to test it? Don't they have professionals for this sort of thing?'

He left the room and went back to Kagome, and immediately rushed to her side when he found her sitting up and looking at him through glowing hooded lids. "Kagome, are you alright?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," she answered with a smile as she crawled toward the head of her bed and her pillows. "Why? What's the matter Souta? And why do you smell like old food?"

Souta laughed at that one, but decided as he tucked her in not to tell her about how he found her, nor that she practically shone like a morning star. "Don't worry about how I smell. You don't smell too hot yourself."

"The heck you say," Kagome yawned tiredly. "Man, I don't know why I'm so tired. Will you be alright while I get some sleep?"

"Yeah," Souta snorted and rolled his eyes. "I can feed myself you know. I'm 18 Kagome, not 8. I know how to use a stove."

"Just don't burn the house down, 'kay."

"OK Kagome," Souta whispered as she slipped further away. "I won't." He stayed by her side until she fell asleep, then slid down the side of her bed to the floor. He sat and stared at the wall, his mind flying at a hundred miles a minute as he tried to figure out what to do.

'If she's still knocked out in the morning, I'll call an ambulance. If she's still glowing, I'll call a houshi. Yeah,' he nodded to himself. 'That sounds like a good idea.' He moved from the floor to a nearby chair, his bath, his game and his food long forgotten as he settled himself in for a long night.

(II)

Inuyasha paced the halls of the hospital, the third shift staff on edge with each step as he mulled over what he was about to do. He'd asked about Sesshoumaru's hair loss and their sensitivities to light and scents, but received little more than shrugged shoulders and clueless glances. In truth it was really beginning to piss him off and it took a lot of his lesser known self control to keep from maiming someone.

'Not that I wouldn't do it gladly,' he growled to himself as he passed the nurses office once again. The three behind the counter gulped when he glared at them, the fear in their eyes sharp to his sudden sensitivity. He glanced away and their collective sighs of relief teased his sensitive skin. 'These people have no idea what's wrong with us,' Inuyasha realized. 'So what's the purpose of paying them when they don't have a clue what to do? Hell, they're doing here what old Chief Stick-in-Ass's servants do already.'

Decision made, he quit the hallway and returned to Sesshoumaru's room, taking a moment to glance over his brother's silent form before going toward a nearby linen closet. He pulled out a pair of white hospital issue pants and a pair of blue bedroom slippers. The doctors came in just as Inuyasha was slipping the pants over Sesshoumaru's narrow hips, his eyes screwed shut and his head turned a near 180 degrees.

"What are you doing Endo-san?"

"I'm getting my brother out of here," Inuyasha replied as he pushed a nearby wheelchair toward Sesshoumaru's bedside. Through this his brother slept on, completely unaware of the tension in the air around him (or the fact that Inuyasha left him hanging half off the bed).

"We do not encourage such action, Endo-sa-"

"I don't even remotely care!!" Inuyasha shot back angrily. "You people can't help us! You don't even know how to begin helping us."

"Yes, but what if-"

"What if what?!" Inuyasha growled at them, his blunt teeth bared and his eyes narrowed, and was just as surprised at his primitive, animalistic behavior. He lifted Sesshoumaru easily -far easier than he was sure he was meant to-and placed him into the wheelchair. He draped a blanket over Sesshoumaru's legs before pushing him out the door towards the nurse's office.

"Endo-san, there is something you must understand," the doctor shouted to him as Inuyasha signed Sesshoumaru out. "If he becomes worse then you will be blamed."

"And what happens if he becomes worse here?" Inuyasha glared menacingly. "I'm getting him out of her and I'm going to find us some help."

"But Endo-san-"

"I don't want to hear it. Thank you for what little you've done, but we-Are-Leaving." Inuyasha turned the wheelchair around easily and pushed his slumbering sibling down the hallway, the ends of his coattails and his low slung ponytail the last the doctors saw of the pair before they turned the corner and disappeared.

(III)

'This land is so...new...' The Stranger said to himself as he stared in wide eyed wonder at the city of Tokyo. 'Never in all my years have I seen anything so wondrous...' The lights attracted him, the smells enticed him and the throngs of people passed by him with little to no regard as to who (or what) he was.

'The freedom here is undeniable, but I must not allow it to sway me.' He growled softly, yellow eyes briefly hidden behind bronzed lids, and began his journey anew. In the pockets of his coat held his only clue to his prey: a single glass jar with a company's barcode and emblem. He stopped a nearby native for directions, her distraction to his ruggedly handsome face more than enough to gain the information he needed and the ability to fluently speak her language once he touched her hand.

"Onigai, please," he beseeched with a hopelessly lost look on his gladiator features. "I am new to the city and I am lost. My friend works someplace nearby but I don't remember the name of the company, nor how to get there. Will you help me?"

The young woman blushed heavily, her scent alerting him to her willingness to help him in more ways than he intended, and accepted the little jar. She looked over it and nodded, then proceeded to tell him the name of the company. She pulled a scrap sheet of paper out of her coat pocket and began to scribble down the address. She handed it to him with a beaming smile, the blush she sported on her cheeks blossoming to the rest of her face when he lightly caressed her hand, and apologized for her horrid handwriting.

"Nonsense my dear," he assured her with a winning smile. "Your directions are more than adequate. Graci-Arigato." He kissed her hand, his male pride practically bursting at the seams when her heart skipped a beat and her scent twisted on itself, and began his journey toward the business district on the other side of the city.

(End Chapter)

SF: I'm really sorry about how short this chapters are. I don't know why they end up this way. Everything else is always 12 to 16 pages.

Kagome: Don't worry about it. I'm sure that as the story goes on, you'll get longer chapters.

SF: Really? You think so? Cause it's not lack of inspiration on my part.

Sango: Kagome's right. Don't worry about it.

SF: Thanks you guys. I really appreciate it. Where are the guys?

Kagome: They went to get 'wasted beyond imagination' or something like that. That's what Silver said anyway.

SF: And that fox wasted is never a good thing. The next chapter's summary is below. Come on girls, we've got a couple of bulls to wrangle.

Chapter Four: The Endo brothers endure changes of their own, and none of them are nearly as happily received. Who do you call when doctors can't tell you what's wrong with you? The Stranger meets Sango, but not the reason for his visit.