The Halloween "Nothing Special" Happened

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"Yawn." Kagome said lazily, unnecessarily illustrating how bored she was. It was Halloween and, like a complete idiot, Kagome had agreed to take Souta trick-or-treating. He was dressed in an impressively stupid costume that even Kagome simply had to tease him about. Higurashi Souta, Kagome's own younger brother was going trick-or-treating as Prince Eric from Disney's The Little Mermaid.

He had, of course, been conned into it by his 'girlfriend' whom Kagome would also be escorting around the neighborhood (she was dressing as Ariel, in her wedding dress). Now, this was Japan so Halloween wasn't exactly like it is in the US, and in Kagome's neighborhood (which seemed to be teeming with shrine families) many children wore traditional festival garb for the evening of merriment. And just for fun, Kagome had decided to dress up as well. Only her costume wasn't as elaborate as Souta's or Meimi's. She was wearing her mother's old school uniform.

It was much like her own uniform, in it's sailor-esque style, only it was blue themed with a mid-shin length, pleated skirt and a red bow instead of a sash in the front. Kagome had tied her hair up in odango's and found a lovely heart-shaped brooch to place in the center of the bow. Have you guessed yet? Hopefully you have. Kagome was dressed as Tsukino Usagi, AKA the pretty soldier of love and justice, Sailor Moon. BSSM ha been her obsession when she was younger and now that she was the correct age, Kagome decided to pay homage to the show/comic that had influenced her so (Why do you think her room is still pink, eh?) by dressing as it's main character.

"Too bad your boyfriend isn't here to be your Chiba-san, Higurashi-kun." Meimi giggled as she slipped her shoes back on and opened the door. Kagome blushed and brushed off the girl's comment saying, "I'd never force anyone to dress as Mamo-chan, even if I had a boyfriend." While she grabbed her new, black messenger bag and slung it over her shoulder. On Monday, if she was still in her time, it would be her school bag, but today, it was a candy bag.

They had just eaten and were preparing to leave. Midori, Kagome's mother, was upstairs putting the finishing touches on Souta's costume and Souta was… well, psyching himself up in his bedroom, "Oh yeah! King of the candies!" he'd call to his reflection. Kagome and Meimi, who could hear him quite perfectly downstairs, giggled.

"Sometimes, I don't know how you deal with it, Meimi-chan." Kagome said, smiling serenely at the young girl.

Meimi smiled back and said, "I think I should be saying that to you!"

"Have a good time kids! Be safe! Kagome, do you have those extra batteries?" Midori called as the trio neared the shrine steps. "Yep!" Kagome shouted back. Gahd, she wanted to get out there, snag the candy and get back home! They were playing the Japanese version of 'Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas' at 11 and she did not want to miss it! "Oh! Kagome!" The familiar, strained voice of her grandfather stopped her just as she was about to head down the stairs.

He hobbled towards her and held out a small charm. Kagome sighed and began, "Um… Ojii-chan this is…"

"An ancient amulet for protection."

"Right. Thanks, can we go now?" she said impatiently. He must have mistaken it for enthusiasm because he smiled, chuckled and said, "Alright you eager beavers, you go have fun!" before nearly pushing the poor 15-year-old down the stairs.

"Geez!" Kagome thought as she regained her balance, "I wanted to walk, not fall, thank you very much. Oh well, at least we're out of there."

Souta and Meimi waved good-bye and they set off down the street.

--

"I hope they have a good time!" Midori said with a reminiscent sigh, "Do you they will, Hakuchou-san?" she asked the old man that was standing beside her. But before he had time to answer there was a whoosh-like sound from the well house. The door was thrust open by, as Midori and Hakuchou noted, a very angry hanyou clad entirely in red.

Neither of them were entirely surprised. In fact, they had both just been wondering, "I wonder if InuYasha is going to show up and ruin Kagome's Halloween…" and lo and behold! InuYasha looked around the shrine quickly and sniffed the air, "Where is she?" he demanded, his voice naught but a low growl.

"How nice to see you InuYasha!" Midori chirped, "She's just gone to take Souta and Meimi-chan trick-or-treating, she's probably still on this block, you can catch her if you-"

And he was gone.

Hakuchou made a small noise and turned towards the house. "What was that Hakuchou-san?" Midori asked, a misleadingly shallow smile playing on her lips. She was wise. Oh, so very wise.

"I said nothing." Hakuchou grumbled shortly. His daughter-in-law began following him momentarily.

--

"Damn that wench!" InuYasha snarled as he bounded over the wall and landed on the street. There were small children running about laughing and parents following them, smiling peacefully. They. Were. Everywhere.

Instantly InuYasha thought, "Oh sht. My ears!" But then a man and his three young charges walked by. The first boy, who was dressed as a nine-tailed fox (with four tails), said, "Nice sword, mister!" InuYasha looked down and the trio, a bit puzzled. The little fairy girl chirped, "I love your ears!" and the third child giggled and said, "Where'd you get your wig?" as he fixed his lop-sided pirate hat. The man who was accompanying them pushed them forwards said, "Nice costume buddy!" with a smile and left.

"C-costume? What in seven hells is going on here!" The exceedingly confounded hanyou shouted as he jumped back onto the shrine wall, his silvery hair falling neatly down his back. His golden eyes scanned the street. No Kagome. InuYasha closed his eyes and concentrated on filtering out her scent from the millions of others that were distracting him.

After about three minutes, InuYasha had almost convinced himself that he wasn't going to find her when he heard a semi-familiar voice call out to him, "Hey! Up there!"

His eyes opened and darted to the figure that had called to him. It was one of Kagome's friends. "Oh." He said as she jumped down and landed with a soft thud.

"Hey there! Remember me?" the girl said, a friendly smile shone on her face.

InuYasha sifted through his memories. Nope. He didn't have their names down. "Kagome's friend, right?"

"…Close enough! I'm Ayumi!" She sang, as she stuck out her hand. InuYasha shook it. Ayumi was dressed in a beautiful kimono with elaborate, decorative pins in her hair. "What're you supposed to be?" he inquired. He'd picked up the phrase from the frolicking children. "Actually, I'm not too sure. I was going to be a geisha but," ("Geisha?" InuYasha thought, "Why would anyone dress up as a geisha? I'll ask Kagome when I find her.") "then I figured, 'Hey! Why not be Kaguya-Hime! You did that report on her not too long ago!'" ("Kaguya… That rotten bitch." He said to himself, as he looked Ayumi over again.) "So I guess I'm kinda both. What about you?"

InuYasha snapped to attention, "Me? Wha? Oh… Nothing in particular."

Ayumi nodded, "So, have you seen Kagome?"

"Nope. I was just looking for her."

"I was just about to do the same thing! YUUUKA! ERIII! COME OVER HERE!"

Suddenly Ayumi turned into Ayumi, Yuka (in a Victorian dress) and Eri (who was dressed as a bag of instant-ramen). "Oh hey! Look who it is! How are ya?" Eri asked. Yuka was staring at InuYasha's ears intently and hadn't even bothered to say hello.

Ayumi snapped her fingers to get Yuka's attention then said, "We're all gonna look for Kagome together, okay?"

"Oh sure!" Eri squeaked.

"Fine by me!" Yuka said, her gaze once again returning to InuYasha's ears.

"Let's hope she's not getting into any trouble." InuYasha chimed as he turned towards the street corner. "God damnit, how'd I wind up baby-sitting these three giggling girls?" he thought bitterly as they rounded the bend.

--

"ACHOO!" Kagome rubbed her nose.

Meimi looked up at the meatball-headed girl, "Are you alright Kagome?" "Are you getting sick?" 'Prince Eric' said as he thanked a woman that had just complimented his costume.

"Yea!" Kagome said, a bit bewildered, "Someone's probably talking about me."

"I wonder what they're saying!" Meimi squealed. She was a very informed little girl, and she was a killer secret-keeper, thus, she had a hunger for knowledge. But she was an odd girl in the way that she also wanted to know every secret so she could keep it. And to throw the wrench in, Meimi hated gossip.

Souta grinned slyly, "Horrible, nasty, vile, sick, disgusting things, I bet!"

Kagome whacked him on the head, "Shut up, squirt!"

"Maybe… I wonder if InuYasha is… No! Silly, stupid! Of course he's not here! I told him I'd come back... eventually…" Kagome shook her head and her thoughts dissipated.

"You coming Nee-chan?" her younger brother asked as he grabbed his sister's hand. Kagome nodded and began walking.

As they left another house, Kagome overheard part of an interesting conversation between a mother and her three children.

"So kids, did you see any awesome costumes tonight, besides you own?" she asked, a kind, inquisitive tone in her voice.

"Oh yeah!" The girl chirped and jumped up so high that when she landed her crown and fairy wings were knocked askew. "What was it?" the mother asked. The children then proceeded to describe a tall, handsome young man with silver hair and golden eyes. Kagome's attention was instantaneously seized. They continued saying that he was wearing a big red, old-fashioned outfit and had fuzzy looking ears, not to mention a cool sword!

"I-InuYasha?" Kagome said quietly, not thinking of what she was doing.

A moments pause.

"Yea? What about him Nee-chan?" said Souta as he tugged on her skirt.

The schoolgirl shook her head and smiled at her younger brother, "Nothing. Nothing at all."

--

"We've been walking for ten minutes!" one of Kagome's friends whined. It might have been Eri, but InuYasha was really bad at remembering their names. "Yeah! And we'll keep walking until we find her!" the hanyou exclaimed, his patience was wearing thing. In a last attempt to save them from his own rage, InuYasha turned to them and said (as calmly as he could) "Why don't you three go back to the shrine and wait? I'll find her, I promise."

The three girls looked at each other then formed a circle and began whispering amongst themselves. "Hurry it up ladies!" InuYasha said to himself as he cracked his knuckles and looked around the busy street, tapping his foot impatiently on the ground.

After about two minutes, the girls broke their circle and said (in short), "Ok. We'll trust you to find our Kagome."

"'Our Kagome'? What's that bullshit?" InuYasha scoffed after Yuka, Eri and Ayumi had walked away.

Now it was once again, time to sift through the scents. Only this time, it was really easy! Not to mention totally unnecessary because right as he closed his eyes he heard a very familiar voice call out to him, "I-INUYASHA!"

His eyes snapped open. A girl was running towards him. But it didn't really look like Kagome. In fact, InuYasha was so confused it took him until he could see Souta to figure out that it really was Kagome! "What the hell are you wearing, Kagome?" InuYasha sneered, a small smile flicked on his face.

"It's called a Halloween costume, InuYasha." She said, her chocolate eyes narrowing into slits. They glared at each other for a moment but then Souta ran over and jumped towards InuYasha squealing, "InuYasha-o-nii-chan!"