Inuyasha in Happier Days

Disclaimer: If you just can't take it any more, curl up in the fetal position and cry.

The sun rose happily on Smallville. Some may say that if you looked directly at it, there was a smiley face drawn on it. But, of course, it remains a very stupid thing to look at the sun. You'll hurt your eyes. Inuyasha yawned and sat up in bed. He swung his legs over the side. His feet did not reach the floor. A pair of much longer legs swept off the top bunk.

"Good morning, O thorn in my side."

"Good morning to you, too, big brother!"

Sesshoumaru made a disgusted noise and dropped to the floor. He wore nothing but a pair of Scooby-Doo boxers. As quickly as he could, he pulled on a pair of white jeans, a white T-shirt, and slung his tail over his shoulder. Inuyasha yawned and dropped to the floor himself. He was three feet tall. Perhaps things would be greatly simplified if we mentioned that Inuyasha is nine years old. That would explain the Dragonball Z briefs. He dressed and ran to the bathroom. Sesshoumaru beat him to it and slammed the door in his face. "C'mon, big brother, I need to pee!"

"No! I'm only staying in here to make you suffer."

"You're putting on mom's makeup again, aren't you?"

Silence.

"No! This is my own!"

"Why do you have to wear black lipstick?" "Because I'm chronically depressed!"

"Aren't you supposed to be taking pills, older brother?" "No! Go away! Pester someone else!" Perhaps things will be even further simplified if we mentioned that Sesshoumaru is fifteen.

Sesshoumaru sat at the kitchen table.

"Good morning, mom!"

"Good morning, son!" Sesshoumaru began devouring a bowl of Fruity O's. "Did dad leave for work already?" "Yes. He's very busy this time of year. It's almost tax season, and there's so much business at his office." "All right. Well, I'm going!"

"Have a nice day, dear!"

Sesshoumaru stood at the bus stop. Same old people every day. Miroku. Sango. Sesshoumaru ignored them. Their expressions of affection...

"Mmmf-mmm... Good Mmmmf morning Sesshou-MMmmmmmm..."

"What he said." Sango quickly said before going back to what she'd been doing.

... Were meaningless in so bleak a world. That was it. The world was bleak and empty and he hated it. Sesshoumaru hated the world. The bus pulled up. He hated the bus. He hated the steps that led onto the bus. He hated the bus driver. He hated the seats. He hated the seat he was going to sit in. He hated the people on the bus. Gatenmaru, Gaten, Yura, Burasure and. Kikyo?

Sesshoumaru's heart fell to his sandals and most of his blood rose to his face. He began to stutter unintelligibly. He grabbed onto the nearest support. Sango pushed his arm off and put her tongue back where it had been. Miroku moaned something like a thank-you. 'C'mon, just put one foot in front of the other...' He struggled to her seat and sat next to her. "Umm. g-g-g-ood. um..." "Good morning, Sesshy!" The bus drove away.

Elsewhere...

Kagome, who was also three feet tall and nine years old, waited at the bus stop. She knew what was coming. Whenever there was snow on the ground, it happened. She waited. She waited some more. She had a split second of warning, a whistling noise coming rapidly toward her... FWAP!

Inuyasha broke into laughter. Kagome brushed snow out of her hair and picked herself up off the ground.

"Sit!"

BAMF.

At school, Sesshoumaru's day was terrible. It had gone from being terrible at home and at the bus stop to unintelligible until Kikyo was no longer visible. Then it became terrible again. He hated the school. He hated Mr. Naraku. He hated the hallway. He hated his locker. He hated the things in his locker. He hated the graffiti. 'I hate...'

He bumped into Kikyo.

'Abbubbaba...'

He shook his head to clear it.

'These things I hate...'

Assistant Principal Naraku sat in his office, at his desk. Deep shadows were cast across his face, almost completely obscuring it. Yura sat in a chair on the other side. Of course, when one considers it, this scene could work just fine if Naraku was sitting on the visiting side of the desk and Yura sat behind it, but for the purposes of simplicity, we'll leave things how they are. "Yura."

"Yes, Mr. Naraku?"

"There is a certain item that I need." "What's that?" "A certain student, a Ms. Kikyo, has an article of jewelry."

He slid a sheet of paper across the desk.

"This is a new rule forbidding all pink gemstones on school property. I'm sure you know what to do."

Yura stood and bowed.

"Yes sir!"

Perhaps things would be even more simplified if we said that Yura was a hall monitor. She turned a quick about-face, straightened her sash, and left the office. Naraku turned his high-backed leather chair, ridiculously over the top for a high school assistant principal, and looked at a blank, dark wall. Though looking at the wall seemed pointless, it was very creepy. And if there was one thing Naraku enjoyed, it was being creepy. 'Soon, yes, soon, the jewel will be mine, and the secret of Ultimate...' Yura opened the door.

"Um, sir?" "What?!" "That doesn't apply to my earrings, does it?" "No! Read the memo! It specifically applies to Shikon jewels!" "Oh."

"Get out!"

"Yes sir! Right away!"

Sesshoumaru ate lunch. He hated his lunch. He hoped that perhaps he could cause it to suffer before it was digested. Perhaps someday he would be eaten, consumed just like his slice of pizza. He watched Kikyo from across the cafeteria. At these distances, his hate was not affected by her radiant beauty, her perfect personality, her...

Sesshoumaru shook his head to clear it, and began watching her again. Today, his eyes focused on the only article of jewelry she wore: A large pink jewel around her neck. It radiated some strange aura. A body passed between them, obscuring his vision, but passed quickly, joining the throng of friends that surrounded her. It seemed that the entire school was somehow attracted to her, almost as though in a trance, or under a spell.

Sesshoumaru opened his locker. It was sparsely decorated, a large mirror for admiring himself on the back and a poster of Marilyn Manson on the door. "But, don't I get a warning?"

Sesshoumaru's ears twitched. 'That's Kikyo's voice...' He thought. "No! Hand over the jewel!"

"But..." "Surrender the Shikon jewel!"

Sesshoumaru sprang into action. He slammed his locker closed and ran to Kikyo's side. "No! You'll never gain the power of Ultimate-" Kikyo pleaded, before he cut her off. "What's going on here?!" Yura looked at him like she would a little human. "Go away. This doesn't concern you."

"Everything that's an injustice concerns..." He looked at Kikyo. "Umm..."

"Sesshoumaru! Stop standing there and help me!"

"Umm..."

Yura snatched the jewel from around Kikyo's neck. "Gotta' go!"

She turned to run. Kikyo turned Sesshoumaru toward the direction she had fled and gave him a kick in the butt. He took off after her. "Hey, come back with that!" Yura stopped. Numerous demons recognized the auras and surrounded the two. "Yeah! Fight Fight Fight Fight!" The students continued chanting.

You may think that this is the part where school officers, teachers, and other people capable of doing so. Unfortunately, fighting is not against the rules at the Beelzebub Memorial High School. The school board has given them huge amounts of flak over the suspension of this common rule. Assistant Principal Naraku kindly led the representative to the nearest battle, a rather vicious one between a giant centipede and a bunny-girl, and asked him to break up. It seemed that the giant centipede's boyfriend had broken up with her, leaving her for the bunny-girl. Since the giant centipede was captain of the school cheerleading team, she had the bunny- girl cut from the roster, and thus all hell ensued. The school board representative happened to step in just as the fight neared it's climax. All they ever found was the charred remains of his tie.

Hence, fights happen to occur quite often at Beelzebub Memorial High School.

Sesshoumaru struck his profile combat pose, the sheer badassity of which had sent many hundreds of demons running with their tails between their legs, whatever number of tails or legs they may possess. Yura was completely unfazed. She leapt at Sesshoumaru. He lashed out with his claws. Yura sidestepped them and kneed him in the stomach. He jumped back, winded. He struggled for breath. She had hit him square in his solar plexus, and suddenly exhaustion filled his body. He had to breathe...

Yura performed a flying roundhouse kick worthy of the World Tae Kwon Doe performance competition, sending Sesshoumaru to the floor. She laughed. Dozens of humans, demon, and mixed-breeds yelled and catcalled at the fallen badass. Yura did a neat back-flip over the crowd and, once she landed, dashed away, still laughing. Kikyo fought her way to the front of the crowd and knelt by Sesshoumaru. He opened his eyes. His vision was still swimming from the blow. He closed them again.

"seeeeeeeeeeeeshyyy" "aooooouuuuur yeeeeeeeeeuuuuu aawwl hriiite?"

There was silence for a while.

Then, there was that smell! Everything cleared, every defense turned on. His entire body tensed. Every nerve screamed ALARM! ALARM! Sesshoumaru's eyes snapped open and he looked around the room. He sneezed. The school nurse mopped his brow with one hand, withdrew the broken smelling salt capsule from beneath his nose with another, and used a third and fourth arm to take notes on a clipboard. He had been out cold. How long had he...

Crimson pain shot through his head. Sesshoumaru decided to take it slowly. His name was Sesshoumaru. That was all right. He lived in Smallville- Ouch. He lived in the U.S.A. That went well. He lived in Minnesota. Smallville. Okay. He'd been unconscious for Ow! He went to school this morning. He got in a fight. He was knocked out. He was in the nurse's office, stretched out on a cot... His headache was dissipating. "Sesshoumaru!" Kikyo was there! She was sitting right next to... Abbubaba... Abaaa... Wait a second. Sesshoumaru could still tell his left from his right. He could still recite the alphabet. He even remembered it hurt to tie his tail in a knot. What was wrong? Kikyo was here, this girl he had feelings for that defied his description, but logic retained it's meaning! Black was still black, and white was, well, white. Kikyo... had she changed? Her hair was no longer the perfect midnight black that fell in curtains like a gentle waterfall. In fact, a strand or two of frizz had reared it's ugly head(s). Her eyes seemed darker, her posture less perfect. And she seemed completely heartbroken. "Kikyo, what's wrong?" He asked her.

"My jewel! It was taken up."

Sesshoumaru said the same thing that every male throughout history had said when this sort of thing came up:

"Can't you get a new one?"

Kikyo did the same thing that every female did when a male said something to that effect:

"Of course not, you lout! How could you even think of such a thing?"

Sesshoumaru swung his legs over the side. "Well, what's so special about it?" "You idiot! That's the Shikon jewel!"

Sesshoumaru looked at her blankly. "The jewel of ridiculously immense and invaluable power!"

Blank look.

"The jewel of the four qualities?"

Blank look.

"The secret to Ultimate-"

"Excuse me, dear but you need to go." The nurse interrupted. Sesshoumaru popped his neck and stood. "All right." He said, stretching other body parts before letting out a sigh. He walked out into the hallway, Kikyo following closely behind.

"So..." He evil-eyed his ex-girlfriend as she passed. She shuddered and walked faster.

"(That'll teach you, Sango, never dump a demon.)"

"What?" Asked Kikyo. "Oh, nothing." "What are we going to do?" Sesshoumaru stopped suddenly.

"Wait."

He looked around him. It was passing period. People passed, talking to friends, gathering into groups, making out, but... Ssomething was wrong. Something was missing.

"Something's wrong. Something is missing." Sesshoumaru verbalized.

He couldn't put his finger on it... Wait! Kikyo wasn't buried in a throng of admirers! That was it. He looked at her, and only now realized that it had been the only thing on her mind since the bell had rung. Tears formed in the corners of her eyes.

"Hey, it's all right. What's wrong?" Kikyo sniffled.

"It's gone. The Secret of Ultimate..." She trailed off. "Oh, Sesshoumaru!" She wrapped her arms around him, crying.

"Oh, Inuyasha!" Kagome wrapped her arms around him, smiling. Ah, yes, recess, that magical time of day when children love, lose, love again, and fall out of trees.

"Hey! Get off me! Girls are yucky!"

Inuyasha pried the girl off and leapt to the top of the monkey bars. "Hah! I'd like to see you get me from down there!"

Kagome giggled and struck the incredibly cute smiling-leaning-over-slightly pose only young anime characters can do. She dropped her backpack to the ground and withdrew a small red box. Inuyasha's nose twitched.

"Is... that..."

"Inuyasha?" She giggled, and shook the box seductively.

"DOG BISCUITS!" Inuyasha made a dive to the ground ten feet below and snatched the box out of her hands. He opened the box and immediately began munching on the contents, content to sit in one place. Kagome scratched him behind the ears, her smile even wider. Inuyasha turned the box upside down and shook the last few crumbs into his mouth, then tossed the empty container away. Kagome glomped him the moment his hands were free. He sighed and endured it, still maintaining his 'girls are yucky' face, Kagome smiling as she held her head tightly against his little chest.

End Chapter One

To Be Continued, ufortunately.