Disclaimer: ...not mine...

Chapter One ~ Demon Reincarnate

Kagome took a deep breath as she stood warily on the stairway leading up to her school. She winced, wondering vaguely what new atrocious disease she'd been rumored to have, and yanked open the doorway.

"Kagome!" three voices chirped happily. Bracing herself, she turned around, smiling wanly at her three friends – or used-to-be friends, anyways; she found the modern humans rather shallow compared to her companions in the Sengoku Jidai.

"Ohayo, Eri, Ayumi, Yuka," she greeted calmly, her placid expression unfaltering. They began to circle around her like predatory animals, and she frowned, confused. "Um...guys, what are you doing?"

"You've recovered really quickly," Eri remarked, "considering that Ebola has a 90 percent mortality rate. We were all so worried about you!"

'Ebola? They thought I had Ebola?'

"There was someone who worried about you more than we did, though," Yuka added, nudging Ayumi slightly, who grinned. "In fact, there he is now!"

Kagome whirled, and groaned mentally. There stood the ever-persistent Hojo, holding out a package wrapped in metallic, sparkly, shiny, glittery, sequined, pink paper.

She *hated* pink.

Putting on her best fake smile, the one she reserved for both Hojo and Kouga – though she infinitely preferred being kidnapped and forced to fight against giant mutated birds than thanking the schoolboy – she began to walk towards him. A flash of silver-white hair caught her attention, however, and she craned her neck to look.

It couldn't be.

"Is there something wrong, Higurashi?" Hojo asked worriedly, still offering his bundle. She flashed him a brief smile, but he clearly sensed that she was preoccupied.

Seeing the confused and annoyed glares her friends were sending her, she murmured apologetically, "It's nothing, Hojo. My...um...arthritis is merely throbbing a bit. I think I'll go take some of my medicine in the bathroom." She practically ran from him, but he called out after her.

"Wait, Kagome, I have your medicine! Your grandpa asked me to pick it up for you after school!"

"Oh...arigatou," Kagome thanked faintly, snatching the medication from his hands and fleeing. Hojo blinked after her, rather surprised.

"I didn't know arthritic people could run like that," he muttered, before shrugging and turning away.

*

Kagome scanned the crowd of streaming students eagerly, trying to catch a glimpse of the white-haired boy she'd noticed earlier. Something about him was vaguely familiar – well, more than vaguely – and she needed to see him again. She was so absorbed in her task that she didn't notice the previously mentioned youth step next to her.

"Excuse me," he interrupted her concentration politely, "but you're standing in front of my locker."

"Gomen," she said hastily, still looking for the boy who happened to be standing next to her.

"Perhaps you didn't understand," he continued. "My previous comment was a subtle request for you to move." His sarcastic tone was completely ignored by the oblivious girl.

"Oh, I'm sorry –" she began, but at that minute she turned to glance up at the intruder, and she froze.

Those eyes – she recognized those golden eyes, the piercing orbs glittering icily from a perfectly sculpted face. Devoid of any emotion, his eyes cut into her with the precision of knives, peering easily into her mind. She felt confused in his presence, as she always did, but this time the confusion was heightened by the sense that he clearly did not belong here.

"Sesshoumaru..." she whispered.

*

He caught her as she fell swooning against him, her silky raven tresses cascading over his arm. She was surprisingly light, though by all appearances she didn't look much like the anorexic preps which made up most of the school. She was beautiful, but not starving; her flushed cheeks gave of the indication of health, along with the cherry tint of her lips and the grace with which she moved.

'She even faints gracefully,' he noted with amusement, but the rare smile on his face was wiped off after he recalled the name she'd spoken. 'So she knows the title which has been haunting me for the past sixteen years. This girl could be the answer to all my queries.'

Handing the girl's limp body over to her concerned classmates, he walked away, his immaculate hair swaying with each step.

*

"Ow..." Kagome muttered, sitting up. She blinked at her surroundings; she was in the dreaded nurse's office, with a raging headache. "My head hurts," she muttered to no one in particular.

"Kagome, you're awake!' Ayumi's shrill screech carried in from the doorway, and the three girls piled in, obviously relieved that she wasn't dead. Not yet, anyways. "You're so lucky!"

Staring at her incredulously, Kagome reiterated, "'Lucky'? Having a headache and completely embarrassing myself before some stranger is 'lucky'?"

Eri smiled triumphantly. "However, to make up for all that, the stranger was Kiyoshi Taisho!"

"...and I'm supposed to care why?"

"He's adorable!" Yuka squealed. "Besides, you weren't there, so you don't know what happened. He reached out when you fainted and he CAUGHT YOU!"

"Amazing, I'm sure," she retorted dryly. "That's not a feat everyone can accomplish. After all, it is so hard to catch someone who's falling right on top of you."

"Stop being so pessimistic, Kagome," Eri scolded in her usual slightly bossy fashion. "He obviously likes you, judging by what he did next."

"And what might that be?"

"He handed you to us! He cares about you so much, he was afraid that he wouldn't be able to restrain his passion any longer, so he relinquished you before he started giving in to his urges and kissed you!"

Kagome blinked. Ok, so her friends were definitely strange and twisted.

*

He swept into his homeroom with somewhat of a flourish, causing all the girls to sigh dreamily and gaze up with adoring eyes.

Well, most of the girls, anyways.

Slipping behind a desk in the front row, he gazed slanted at the girl he was currently trailing. She was toying with a pencil, sketching tiny pictures of some sort of dog-eared freak.

With inhuman speed, Kiyoshi snatched the paper off her binder, inspecting it closely. The resemblance was uncanny; the hanyou portrayed in the drawing was exactly the same as the one in his dreams.

Blushing furiously, the girl grabbed the sheet back from him and stuffed it into a notebook. He watched her incuriously, but her discomfort prompted him to ask one more thing.

"That is Inuyasha, is it not?"

"How do you know about him?" she hissed, immediately reverting to a defensive tone. He shrugged absently, saying nothing.

"Tell me!" she demanded through gritted teeth. "What is a youkai lord doing in modern Japan?"

"The same as a schoolgirl would be doing in the Warring States, I suppose," he answered absently. Realizing what he'd just said, he froze, then reached out and grasped her wrist. "You did not just hear that," he growled. "It was a figment of your imagination."

"Mind telling me exactly *what* was a figment of my imagination, oh almighty psychic?" she retorted insolently.

He glared at her, moving even closer. "Don't say a word about this," he demanded. "I know everything. The well, the hanyou...myself..."

Her surprise was evident as she leaned forwards curiously. "How...?" she breathed...

"HIGURASHI AND TAISHO! This display of public affection will not be tolerated in MY class!" the teacher yelled, and it was only then that the two realized their close proximity. Yanking her hands from his with a startled 'eep!', Kagome buried her flaming face under her textbooks, leaving the astonished Kiyoshi glaring at the teacher.

"Since this is your first week here, Taisho, I will dismiss your behavior for now. Kagome, I will do the same for you, since it happens to be your first day back from another of your prolonged sicknesses, but be warned that this is the last time." Whirling away from the stunned pair, he moved to the blackboard, where he proceeded to send the entire class to sleep using the never-failing power of optimization.

'This is going to be a long day...' Kagome muttered.

*

As usual, when school ended, Eri, Ayumi, and Yuka spent the entire walk back to their houses speaking of the latest gossip – which, in this case, was the supposed love rising between Kagome and Kiyoshi. Throughout this ordeal, Kagome did her best to ignore them, reminding herself that it was only one more day before she could return to the Sengoku Jidai for the weekend.

'How ironic,' she mused. 'I spend hours persuading Inuyasha to let me come home, and now I want to go back. Actually, I'm no longer sure which is my real home anymore...'

"Kagome..." an irritated voice growled, and she found herself looking at Kiyoshi, who'd apparently been trying to gain her attention for some time.

"Oh, it's you," she remarked indifferently, brushing past him. He caught hold of her arm, however.

"I need to know," he pleaded. "I need the truth: why did you kill me?"

"Why did I *what*?" she exclaimed, turning to face him fully.

Perplexed, he answered, "You killed me, you know. At any rate, you killed Sesshoumaru, who is me in a different form. Maybe you haven't done it yet..." He held out his hands hopelessly, and she took comfort in the fact that he was obviously as bewildered as she was.

"You're wrong," she said coolly. "I'd never kill anyone."

"Sure you're not just saying that cause the rumors around the school are true and you really loved Sesshoumaru?" Kiyoshi taunted playfully.

She squinted at him. "Sure you're not really Miroku's reincarnation in disguise?"

He lapsed into a thoughtful silence before replying, "The monk hadn't been sucked into the Kazaana when you pierced Sesshoumaru with your arrow."

"You are Sesshoumaru," Kagome reminded him. "Stop speaking in third person."

He whirled, anger blazing in his usually emotionless eyes. "I am *not* Sesshoumaru," he hissed venomously, and she was astonished at the virulence in that phrase. "Do you understand? I may be his reincarnation, but I am not him."

"Fine," Kagome replied, slightly huffy. "You don't have to get all offended. Excuse me for calling you someone with your exact appearance, same demeanor, and most likely matching DNA pattern."

His eyes filled with pain, but she didn't see. Sighing as he watched her retreating back, he thought, 'How can I make you see that I am not the cold, ruthless killer my predecessor was? How can I explain that my emotional capacities are extremely different? Is there any way to prove that I am someone of my own, not just a reincarnation?

'How can I show you that I can love?'