Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha. That honor belongs to Takahashi-san.
Of Spirit and Spice
Prologue: All the Difference
Three years had passed, and still no end in sight.
Sure, the jewel was complete. Yes, Kouga-kun had moved on, from the quest for Kagura's death, and from her when he finally outwardly (she'd had a suspicion for some time now, from how easy it seemed for him, that it had been a ruse from the start) acknowledged her preference for a certain someone else. Huzzah, Kikyou had finally passed away peacefully too. Oh, whoop-de-doo, she'd managed to graduate high school despite her frequent absences.
But she wasn't going to college. Kikyou had died more or less in vain. Kouga had never gotten his revenge on Naraku. And now the Shikon no Tama rested in his twisting tentacles.
She was 18, and she'd made no more headway romantically than she had when she'd started the quest. The shards had been collected—by their enemy—and Inuyasha, while he didn't mention Kikyou or Kouga, ever, still seemed to cling to the preconceptions he'd had while they were around: namely, that any affection towards her beyond friendship was a betrayal to the other miko, and that Kouga was just biding his time before swooping in to carry her off.
All in all, not a very productive three years in her book. Granted, three years ago staying alive this long in this situation would have seemed an accomplishment—but she wasn't the same girl that she was three years ago, now was she?
And that would make all the difference.
A/N: Yep, amazingly, the chapter fic still lives with me. I was reading an AU, like it loads, but the thing wasn't finished. So sad. So I decided to come up with my own little ending for it...which morphed into something entirely different somehow...and you see the result (or the beginnings of it) here. I know I advertised some other fics at the end of I'm Listening, but those other ones...well, they're taking time. I have a one-shot that will probably come out in a month (it's long), but other than that, I haven't had the time for much writing. A trying few months for me, you could say. And, most unfortunate of all (for me, anyway), it's going to get worse before it gets better...
Edit: Ha. Here I am posting this at the end of those 'trying months'. It's comical to think I thought I could post this before...Ah well. At least it means I'm ahead; I've just finished the last major edit on the third chapter of this particular story. I'll try to use my head start to update regularly (every week, every two weeks), but no promises, sorry. I'm not going to lie and pretend I'm not still busy as hell.
Ah well. Hope you'll like this.