The Fateful Hands of Circumstance by Pluie D'ete

Chapter I

Hey people! This is my first story in a while. It's SessKag and set in our world with no known youkai. This is the disclaimer for the whole fiction: I do not own Inuyasha or any other of Rumiko Takahashi's characters.

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The Fateful Hand of Circumstance

Higurashi Kagome decided to enjoy the cool evening by walking back home instead of taking public transit. The weather was warm but with a slight breeze, cooling her down as she carried her heavy school bag as well as her handbag with her, as she strolled down the street.

Dusk was steadily approaching, bathing the young Japanese girl in a soft violet glow. She sighed faintly, remembering her day.

It was unbearable to be in Professor Katherine Underwood's economics class. She seemed to have some sort of grudge against Kagome, constantly embarrassing her in front of everyone. Kagome actually might understand some of the concepts with another teacher, instead of teetering on the edge of failing.

Kagome stopped in front of her apartment building and walked inside the old fashioned elevator, all without thinking about it. The mechanic sounds of the machine stopped at the eighth floor rousing her out of her thoughts. Kagome was at her door when she stopped.

Oh. Shit.

Lesson number 1. There is no way to get through a locked door with no key without using means of brute force. I repeat, mimed keys do not work.

Oh shit was right. Kagome briefly remembered taking her keys out of her handbag as she rummaged around for her wallet at a phone booth on the walk from her university.

Hopefully they're still there now, she thought momentarily before racing back to the elevator and back down to the ground floor. She ran down the street before taking a shortcut into an alleyway, disregarding the fact that it was now dark.

As goddamned luck would have it, Kagome did not get far before she felt something grab the back of her button down shirt.

"Your money or your life."

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Sesshoumaru was taking a walk in Central Park that day. His appearance was almost the same, now that society was more accepting of such things. The crescent moon and the long magenta stripes on his face were absent, and he was dressed in casual, modern clothing. His hair was still white, though now short and spiky. Sesshoumaru stilled looked barely 25 despite the fact that he was now approaching his 7th century.

He had invested a rather large amount of money in ImClone before it fell. Though it was rather lucky that he had not been informed had Martha had and the sum lost was miniscule in comparison to the rest of his fortune, Sesshoumaru would not stomach defeat at the hands of the fluctuating stock market.

He had decided to take some business courses at a university before setting a course of action to regain the funds lost and increase his wealth.

He was walking back towards his Park Avenue apartment when he heard a voice in the dark alleyway. Without his inuyoukai hearing the sound would have been indiscernible.

"Your money or your life" Said the slimy voice.

Uhh... humans are truly revolting. Sesshoumaru found nearly intolerable to live around humans and have them in such close proximity but it was either this or live in solitude with only a handful of youkai for company.

When he was younger, Sesshoumaru wanted to kill any human he met. They were a reminder of his father's human wife and his hanyou half-brother Inuyasha. Now, 500 years later, he did not mind them as much but still found them irritating beyond belief.

He had absolutely no intention of saving the 'damsel in distress' whatsoever. If a human could not defeat or outsmart a mere mugger, then he or she probably did not deserve what minor sum of cash they had on them anyways.

He was just walking past when he heard the same oily voice make a screech that was way past the endurable decibel level for his sensitive ears.

"AAHHHHH! You bitch!"

That was immediately followed by a female voice brimming with righteous anger.

"Screw you! No one tries to mug me and gets away with it!" She added with some action that resulted in more grunting sounds from the man.

That definitely caught Sesshoumaru's attention.

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Fucking Hell! It was just Kagome's luck that some grimy guy is attempting to rob her right then. Like she hadn't been through way more than necessary today. She could feel a round something at the small of her back. No doubt it was the barrel of a gun.

Kagome's breath caught in her throat. The guy made the mistake of grabbing her shirt, it had rode up somewhat and the thing he was wielding was touching her bare skin. The 'gun' felt warm and slightly scratchy, not cold, smooth and metallic like she was expecting.

The gears in her head clicked into place. The idiot was trying to mug her with a stick! Well, we'll see about that.

Kagome stomped the high heel of her shoe hard onto his foot. The man had an 'oomph' sound in his mouth, but before it could come out Kagome reached into her handbag, twirled around, and brought a can of pepper-spray right in front of his face before she pressed and released the stinging spray.

The man screamed and toppled backwards, clutching his fingers to his eyes.

"Screw you! No one tries to mug me and gets away with it!" Kagome kicked the guy repeatedly. What a son of a bitch! Did he really think she was that stupid?

The thought barely finished before the mugger loosened a hand from his face and grabbed her ankle. That shattered Kagome's balance and she ended up on the ground too.

The delinquent got up first. He was still blinded so he waved his hands about wildly, trying to get Kagome. She was having a hard time dodging off the blind hits. She was backed up against the wall. When it seemed that he was going to get her the man suddenly dropped to the ground, unconscious.

Behind him was another man, a very attractive man with whitish silver hair that looked like they were strands of the finest silk. He looked vaguely familiar.

Kagome furled her eyebrows. Her hand moved of its own accord, stopping in front of his face. Her fingers drew imaginary somethings on his cheeks and his forehead, millimeters away from his skin. She still had a confused look.

Who was he? And why was she doing this?

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If you haven't figured it out by now, this is set in New York. The stuff that happened in the Sengoku Jidai all happened, but Kagome doesn't remember it. I wonder why... hmm... Please r & r.

Anyways, my internet has been cut off and I'll be in China in a week or so, so I probably won't be able to post anything for a while. If I do post anything it'll be a lot longer than this chapter.

Cya...

~Audrey Lee, Pluie D' été