Chapter 1: My Dull, Pathetic, Totally Depressing Life
Heeeelloooooo, ladies and gentlemen! UltimateOtakuGirl100 is back again, with yet another Inuyasha Fanfiction! ^_^
And for the few people who are also reading my other Inuyasha FanFiction, Promises…
DON'T WORRY! I didn't give up on it! :D I just took a break from it to get this chapter out.
And I'd originally planned to have this chapter be, like TWICE as long, but then I got writer's block and was like, "You know what, I don't care anymore, I'm just gonna get the freaking chapter out!" so here we are. 'o'
And… don't hate me, but in order for this story to work, I had to stretch the character's personalities a bit. So don't expect that everyone will have the EXACT personalities. Just a warning.
Okay… JUST READ ALREADY!
*Kagome's POV*
I sighed irritably. My arms dangled limply out of the car's open window, and I felt the forest air blow against my face. I sighed again.
"Stop sighing, Kagome. This is just for the summer, and then you'll be back before you know it!" Mom said firmly and surely from the front seat, pumping her fist into the air.
I just sighed again and turned away from the front of the car, staring at the back. The forest was so… forest-y. All green and unpredictable and… daunting.
I guess I don't really have a good reason to dislike it. But then again, I don't have a good reason to like it, either.
I wrinkled my nose as the strong scent of pine reached my nose. Frowning, I pulled my all my body back into the car and stubbornly rolled up the window.
It was just so different out of the city. Everything made sounds. Like, everything with a capital E. It had sharp contrast to the city, where only a few things made faint little sounds, like a faint buzz of the electronics shutting down fully or the quiet tick-tock of the clock in the living room. Out here, a bug was always making at least fifty times the buzz of electricity, there was always a funny smell coming from something in the trees, and there was always something liable to crawl up your clothes…
I shivered. Thinking like that was just going to freak me out. That was the last thing I needed. Right now, I either needed to figure out a way to convince my mom to let me go with her, or force myself to pretend like everything was just fine and try to deal with living out here in the unsanitary world of the forest for three freaking months.
The former.
"Mooooom," I moaned, lying down on the backseat. "Why can't I just come with you? No, scratch that, anywhere other than here? I don't wanna go! Puuuuh-leeeeeeeaaaaaase?"
Mom sighed. "Kagome, you know that I can't do that. I have to go do business, and you and your brother have to be somewhere safe while I'm gone. Shikon Village is where your father's closest friends live, and they are all good people who can watch over you." Ah, the accursed words: Shikon Village. I glanced, annoyed, at Sota, my brother, who hadn't said a word the entire car ride. He looked a little depressed that we'd have to go to Shikon, but still kept completely silent. Obviously, I wasn't going to get backed up by him anytime soon. Thanks for nothing, little bro, I raged silently.
Ever since our father died when I was eight, Mom's been going all over the world, looking for jobs so that we can still have food and water, and a place to live, and BLAH BLAH BLAH.
It's not like I'm not appreciative or anything. I'm happy Mom cares enough about our wellbeing enough to travel the world looking for work, but now I'm fourteen, nearing fifteen, and Sota's tenth birthday was around six or seven months ago. After so long of going everywhere, learning new languages, being forced to make new friends, and working on school work 24/7 even when we have no idea what the current subject is, it's just so tiring, and you just get fed up, you know?
And then, after all that crap, having your mom force you and your brother alone into the middle of nowhere after living all your life in comfort will just push you over the edge.
Shikon Village is where our dad was born and lived nearly all his life before moving away, meeting and marrying Mom, and, well… dying after Mom had me and Sota. The town is run-down and in the middle of nowhere. It's in a forest and practically no one knows that it even exists. It looks like a medieval camping place crossed with somewhere from the 50's, with dirt roads, cabin houses, and almost NO ELECTRICITY. Sure, the people there are semi-nice, but the town is SO FREAKING TINY… if the old lady across your street got sick, the word would have spread through the entire place in, like, two hours. (They don't even have a SCHOOL BUILDING! The people are HOMESCHOOLED!)
Basically, really small and just plain pathetic.
"But, Moooooom!" I cried again, grabbing my pillow and squeezing hard to get rid of my frustration.
"No means no, Kags, honey," came the reply, using my childhood nickname.
Furious, I tossed my pillow known onto the seat and just dropped onto it, screaming, but using the pillow to muffle the sound, trying to get all my frustration out.
Sota finally spoke up. "Sis, you're acting like a baby. Just be quiet, try to deal with it, and then after summertime we can leave."
I glared from in my pillow. Why, oh, why does he always act so much more mature when I'm not? I thought, despairingly.
Burying my face back into the pillow, I thought with dread, This is going to be a very long car ride…
*Three Hours Later*
Not only was I right, but I was so right that by the time we finally reached Shikon, I had fallen asleep in an awkward position and it took me several minutes to lose the stiffness in my body so I could get out of the car (a delay that I didn't mind at all). That would be when I got a good look at the town.
Shikon had obviously gotten a slight remodeling job done after the last time I'd been here. There were still the dirt roads, grass sidewalks, and log cabins for houses, but in front of two or three of the houses, I saw 60's-like cars. Wonderful. So they got up to date a decade.
I was about to follow Mom, but then I got a strange sensation on the back of my neck and spun around.
I thought I saw a flash of something. Like… eyes. Staring at me. Or maybe it was a face? I don't know.
But as quickly as it came, it was gone. I blinked and squinted and rubbed my eyes. Giving up, I shook my head. Must have been my imagination…
"Kagome! What's wrong? Are you coming?" Mom shouted.
"Coming!" I shouted, turning away from the forest and chasing after my mom. I pushed that weird moment to the back of my mind.
As I followed Mom, she said, "I called before we came here to see if the people here had any way to let you stay."
I nearly fell over at this. Wait, WHAT? You mean they have CELL PHONES? At my startled stare, she clarified, "They use rotary dial phones."
"Ah." Rotary phones are those old-fashioned phones with the weird circle-shaped dialing-numbers thing in the front. In short, not cell phones.
Mom continued. "Anyway, so I called beforehand to see if there was any place to stay, and it turns out there's a great place to stay right in between these two houses here… and here." Mom stopped in front of a particular house (yes, it had a car in front of it) and walked up to the door. She knocked loudly (no doorbell!) and waited. Sota and I hurried after her and reached her side just as the door opened.
A beautiful woman wearing a colorful kimono stepped out of the door. "Why, hello!" the lady exclaimed. "You wouldn't happen to be the Higurashi family, would you?"
My mom smiled. "Yes, that would be us. Kids," she said, gesturing to the woman, "I'd like to introduce you to Izayoi InuTashio. She lives right next door to the house the two of you will be staying in."
The woman—gasp, so old fashioned—bowed to us, and kindly greeted, "It's a pleasure to meet you. Call if you need anything, I'll be right next door."
"Hey, what's—" A boy stepped out from behind a stairway holding something in his hands, but froze when he saw us.
The woman laughed, sounding ever-so-slightly nervous. "Ah… yes. Son, these are Mr. Higurashi's kids that I mentioned before. They are going to be staying next door for the summer, so be nice. And, well," she said, turning to us, "I'd like you to meet my son. His name is Inuyasha."
The boy didn't say anything. He didn't even move. He just stared at us.
No, scratch that.
He was staring directly at me.
The boy named Inuyasha had a white T-shirt and jeans, normal attire—a little too normal, actually, considering this was where he lived. His hair was so… black. As dark as the darkest black. His hair reached down to the bottom of his neck. It glimmered strangely, and it almost looked false.
But it was his eyes that caught my attention.
His eyes… they were a strange cross between chocolate brown and… deep violet. Yes, violet. It looked so odd, and incredibly detailed. They were so enchanting, so hypnotic… Almost… unreal…
"Kagome?" My mom's voice snapped me out of my trance.
"Y-yes?" I stuttered, spinning away from the boy and facing my mom.
"Kagome, you scared the life out of me! You just froze, and I called you five times! Kagome, are you all right?"
I glanced quickly at that boy, Inuyasha, but he wasn't looking at me anymore. He was staring off into the distance, with a far-away look in his eyes. "Yeah… I'm fine… I just kinda… spaced out, I guess…"
Mom still looked worried, but after a moment's hesitation, nodded and turned back to Izayoi. "Yes… as I was saying, this is my oldest, Kagome, and over here is Sota, my youngest."
We both bowed awkwardly as Mom introduced us, since it felt only right to bow back after the lady had. Obviously pleased at our politeness, Mom's smile returned and she turned back to Izayoi happily and began merrily chatting about things I didn't pay any particular attention to and tuned out altogether after the third sentence.
Tiredly, my eyes drifted to the spot Inuyasha had been—and then noticed that he wasn't there anymore. He must have snuck off some time during the conversation. I wrinkled my nose. Sheeh. He's so rude.
And yet… I couldn't help but feel curious. I couldn't help but be mystified by what had happened. And I couldn't stop the rebellious part of me that wondered, But, just who is that boy? Who—or what—is that boy, Inuyasha?
I never suspected that these wonderings would lead to something more incredible then I ever could have imagined. I never guessed that I would stumble upon a secret. Sure, it may have only been one single secret.
But that secret is the secret that changed my logical, ordinary, every-day life into an insane, completely impossible, horrible adventure. It was that secret. That single, simple, solitary secret.
It was the secret that led me to fall in love.
Ooh… Cliffie! YES! I finally pulled off an awesome cliffie! YAYZ!
…Okay, I know it's not so incredible. But just subscribe to the story (if you haven't already) and it'll get better. I promise.
So, just in case you were wondering, in a few chapters (might be next chapter, it might not) the story will start getting into the alternate Inuyasha world. It will begin following (more or less) the basic plot of the series. So don't run away yet! It WILL get more interesting!
So, anyway, I have nothing left to add.
Um… Review, Favorite, and Subscribe, 'k?