Welcome to my latest fanfiction that as just a little bit farther from cannon and just as different from all the rest as they are from each other. I wrote this story in about 14 days. Yeah I know I said I wanted to focus on original work, but this idea hit me and it was fairly therapeutic to write it. There is no happy ending (as if, happily ever after sucks). I guess I really enjoyed writing the darker parts of Chronicles and White Alchemist Taya's wish for an "angst" piece might have spawned this.

It is dark. I'm warning you now. There is abuse in many forms. You don't have to actually read it first hand though. Most of this is observing it from the outside after the worst of it has happened.

Sesshoumaru does not appear in the first few chapters, but trust me...He will. Think how Chronicles started. Sesshoumaru didn't appear for several chapters, but he was one of the main plot movers.

Lastly, I'd like to put a few notes about terms.

Feral in this fic is applied to youkai who have, for lack of a better analogy, gone crazy. In humans, many mental ailments are not identifiable before puberty. I've stretched this to cover youkai as well. but again, humans can go batty after puberty too. and so it is in this fic.

I'm going to have to cut this short. I don't have internet in my apartment, so My time on-line is limited. I should have a fairly regular update schedule, but again my time is limited, so bear with me.

Oh and only the characters you don't recognise from the anime are mine. There's a handful of them like always, but this is a short piece.

Enjoy!

Apprehension

The sky was one of those amazing unblemished blues that seemed to stretch into forever. Such days of perfect blue were rare and enchanting, or perhaps it was rare that people took the time to notice the color of the sky, the feel of the sun warming the air and the sweet taste of every breath. Truly, it was a magnificently fair day. A perfect day for homecomings.

Kagome reveled in the wind fingering through her long dark hair even as her mood refused to match the loveliness of the day. She rode shotgun beside her best friend of many years, Sango on their way to the station. The only thing that could possibly brighten her mood and alleviate her anger was if the right people were in the car with them. Not that there was anything wrong with Sango… "I still can't believe every single one of the Taishous were too busy to pick up Akemi." She grumbled to the woman skillfully driving the magnificent car Kagome's tantrum had bought them.

"I'm sure they had their reasons," Sango muttered absently.

"What reasons?" Kagome demanded over the roaring wind streaming over and around the baby blue convertible. "The Taishous are Akemi's guardians. She hasn't been home in nine years. They betrothed her to Sesshoumaru when she was six and sent her away when she was ten." Something that still bothered Kagome. "They're the only family she's got and they haven't visited her or let anyone else visit her since she left."

"I know," Sango replied as she carefully maneuvered through traffic.

"They didn't even check on her when I begged them to four years ago," Kagome sighed. Actually she'd been really worried about Akemi for the last four years. It was a feeling in her gut she just couldn't shake. And she couldn't ignore it, she was genetically geared towards premonitions and sensing bad vibes. Even half-trained she knew better than to disregard something that felt this bad, especially when back by evidence.

But the great Inu no Taishou had dismissed it. Informing her it was normal for youkai females to be sent away to school for several years; offering the school's reputation for comfort and it's policy forbidding visitors for reason. He'd said the same thing every time Kagome brought it up again; four Christmases ago, every summer vacation, and every spring break. The old dog had finally forbidden her from asking again.

"Kagome, you have to understand," Sango tried to reason with her friend. "Akemi had to be sent away to protect her from Sesshoumaru until she was old enough to mate-"

"What!" Kagome screeched. "Are you trying to tell me Sesshoumaru is going to attack her?"

Sango winced, "No, Kagome. I'm telling you that Sesshoumaru is older than Akemi – "

"Of course he's older than Akemi," Kagome snorted.

"Kagome, listen to me," Sango ground her teeth. Sometimes Kagome was impossible to reason with. "Sesshoumaru was reaching his age of maturity. You know how weird he got around that time. His hormones were kicking in. Instinct comes incredibly close to the surface during that time. Many youkai go Feral. They become insecure and possessive. Like humans in puberty, in pain or undergoing change, they seek to have as much control over what's around them as possible."

"Especially Sesshoumaru," Kagome muttered.

"Exactly," Sango nodded as she exited the expressway. "Akemi is his betrothed which, in his state, would have translated to property. Best-case scenario, he would have just marked her before she was ready and very likely without her consent. He would have tried to control her. You know what Akemi was like. It would have been a very bad situation."

Yeah Kagome knew Akemi, she'd known her longer than Sango even. "Okay fine, Akemi needed to be sent away, but for nine years? Come on Sango, that's stretching it. Sesshoumaru's been fine for years. And why to a school that won't allow visitors?"

Sango didn't have an answer for the number of years Akemi had been kept away. "All the Taishous are male. Females are usually sent to all girl schools, barring males is normal. Besides, Sesshoumaru would have had a fit if any male he knew got to see her when he didn't."

"I didn't say male visitors," Kagome snorted. "I said visitors, as in any."

Sango blinked, "What?"

"I asked to visit her four years ago, then that Christmas and several times after that. The Inu no Taishou said it wasn't allowed."

"Well, I'm sure he wouldn't send Akemi to-" Sango tried unsuccessfully to reassure her friend.

"Don't even start," Kagome scoffed. "My mom gave me that one until I stopped accepting it two years ago. My gut won't accept it, never accepted it. I don't think it'll start now."

"Wait a minute, your gut?"

"I've had a really bad feeling every time I think about Akemi for the last four years."

Sango had seen how Kagome's "bad feelings" usually turned out. The first bad feeling Kagome had ever had was just before the car accident that had killed Sango's parents and Kagome's father. They had disregarded her terror, her begging for them not to go. Sango would never disregard one of Kagome's feelings and couldn't fathom how anyone else could. "Four years?"

"Just before I stopped receiving letters from her," Kagome nodded.

"Did you tell-"

"A half trained miko, such as I, probably misinterpreted it," Kagome scowled at the passing cars. "She didn't die, hasn't died yet, so what could I possibly be worried about?"

"But you are," Sango commented softly.

"I've lived with this stabbing in my gut for four years. What do you think?"

"That the Taishous are great fools!"

"I only told Inu Taishou," Kagome shrugged. "He's the only one who knows where she's at. Sesshoumaru and Inuyasha couldn't have done anything about it. She didn't die," Kagome scoffed. "There are worse things than death."

Sango swallowed painfully. Indeed there were worse things than death. Things a female alone and far from home were extremely vulnerable to. "God I hope you're wrong!"

"I hope so too," Kagome glanced down to the passing lines on the road. "But four years is a long time to be wrong."

Sango sighed solemnly. She was right. Kagome's feelings, no matter how short-lived, had always proven true.

"Which is why I'm so pissed non of the Taishous could take time out of their lives to come with us to pick her up," Kagome growled. "Something tells me the moment is critical and everybody ignores me."

"How do you mean critical?" Sango asked curiously. This was something new. Kagome's feelings had never been so specific.

"I don't know," Kagome shrugged. "I just know that they should be here. Even if I didn't have a feeling about it they should be here. She's been gone a long time. If I'd been gone a week my mother would have dragged the whole family out to see me off and to welcome me home again."

"Sesshoumaru couldn't come," Sango answered.

"So?" Kagome snorted. "Inuyasha and his father certainly could."

"No they couldn't," Sango sighed. "If Sesshoumaru couldn't' meet her no male of his acquaintance could. The situation is full of pitfalls. Any male to meet Akemi before Sesshoumaru gets to her is playing with fire because she's of age now."

"But Inuyasha is engaged to me," Kagome protested.

"And Miroku is marrying me in two months," Sango shrugged. "It doesn't matter. They're both male. In Sesshoumaru's view, Akemi is better than both of us because she is betrothed to him. If she's better than us any male can see that, therefore every male on the planet is untrustworthy."

"Absolutely ridiculous," Kagome scoffed.

"It's instinct Kagome," Sango tried to reason with her.

"It's stupid insecurity is what it is," Kagome growled. "I don't know why he even cares. He never even wrote to Akemi."

"I thought Sesshoumaru didn't know where she was," Sango blinked.

"His father did," Kagome leaned against her side of the car with a sigh. "How did you think I wrote to Akemi?"

"I guess I didn't think about it."

"I did."

Sango shook her head as she pulled into the first available parking space outside of the train station.

"Why do youkai travel in trains again?" Kagome asked without much interest.

"Sort of a universal nervous allergy to planes," Sango shrugged. "We're a little early."

"And they think we're the weak ones," Kagome snorted.

"You're in a really bad mood about this," Sango chided the miko. "Akemi may not have her family here to greet her, but at least she's got us. If you don't lose the dark clouds, she may wish she didn't have to meet anybody."

Kagome sighed, "I know, and I do want to see her, it's just…"

"Your bad feeling," Sango sighed.

"It doesn't just go away if nobody pays attention to it."

"Well, I'm not ignoring it," Sango declared firmly. "We just have to wait until Akemi's train arrives before we can properly assess the situation and figure out what to do next." She thought for a minute. "I say we treat her to lunch at the little café over there and catch up. Since nobody else could come with us, I don't see why we can't take our time getting her home. If nobody feels a particular urge to see her right away…"

Kagome grinned, "I think we should take her shopping and then dinner afterwards."

"That's the spirit!" Sango smiled.

"Teach them to ignore what I say' Kagome lifted her chin and marched purposely off to determine just which café in the station would appropriately fit the bill. She was determined to find a half way decent one with outrageous prices on everything. The Inu no Taishou had given her free reign over his credit card and she intended to punish him financially for the last four years of worry and disrespect towards her abilities. Stupid youkai!

Sango shook her head with a smile. Hopefully, whatever had befallen their long absent friend wouldn't make her against lunch, dinner and a buying spree because Kagome now had a mission.