BlackieCat: I returned, finally! -crycry- Not only that, I've learned a little bit more about writing. I'm so sorry I didn't get to the sequel of this story sooner, but I'm sure that surprises, cliffhangers, drama and romance are about to ensue! Hold onto to your underwear, everyone. The sequel is about to start! -woooooosh!-
Kagome and the School of Four Souls: The Jewel Within
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Foreward…
"What is it, Holly?" he asked her, sitting down on the ground and pulling her into his lap.
"I'm in love with you…" she said meekly, resting against his chest. He hugged her gently and stood up, carrying her bridal style.
"I love you too, Holly," he murmured to her. After kissing her lightly on her forehead, he turned to the rest of the group. "Everyone, I need your attention," he announced. Everyone turned towards him, questioning in their eyes.
"I have heard some of that before, somewhere in the library. And, I think I know what it means."
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Kagome fingered with the jewel that was held by the black choker necklace around her neck, looking at Sesshomaru in confusion, "Know what it means?" she asked. She thought about what the voice they all heard said carefully.
"Yeah, know what it means," his expression was serious and slightly non-existent, he was being normal again. "Today we go home and rest, that battle was stressful though easily won. I'm sure our training had paid off greatly. Some of us need to heal as well," he said looking down at Holly, "but if we are all well enough tomorrow we shall go to the library and search for the book I must have read it in."
With some mumbled agreements from the rest of the gang, Sesshomaru turned and led the way back to his and Inuyasha's house. They had a personal doctor in the mansion, so to him it seemed like the safest place to go. Today, they would not attend school.
Koga followed swiftly behind Sesshomaru, dragging Jaguira along by the hand. Miroku and Sango after them, Kagome and Inuyasha lagged in the back. Everyone was conversing amongst themselves quietly, their conversations all slightly different yet the same. They were speaking of the words the voice had spoken, sharing their ideas of what it could have meant.
After around ten minutes of walking, Sesshomaru turned into the pathway that led to the mansion. Reaching the door he kicked open the door and carried Holly through, the rest following quickly. "Kaede!" he called out. She came down the stairs as quick as her elderly legs could carry her
"What is it, Sesshomaru? Your voice carries urgency, I sense a great—oh my!" she exclaimed, seeing Holly and the others, "What has happened?"
"We had the battle today," he explained, "Holly was struck down by one of Naraku's bolts. She needs a rest bed, for recovery. Her demon blood should do the rest, so there is no need for your awful herbs. We do have open guest rooms, yes?"
Kaede nodded, "Yes, the first room on the left of the top floor is open. The rest of you, come with me and I shall over look you to be sure that none of you have any wounds that could become infected." Turning her old hunched back, she led the rest of the group to another room on the first floor—a room containing all her helpful herbs and other modern medicines and disinfectants.
Meanwhile Sesshomaru carried Holly up the stairs quickly, soon at the second floor. He took her into the first room on the left, and gently laid her upon the bed.
Kaede turned on the light in the first aide room, having them all sit down in a chair. "Who wishes to be first?"
Sango sighed and stood up, following Kaede into an attached room. Checking for wounds, all she found were minor bruises. Her armor had protected her well. Moving on to the others, no one really had any serious wounds as they had avoided all of Naraku's attacks. Miroku had a cut from Kagura's white crescent blades, but he was the only one to lose blood on the battle ground.
Kaede sent them all upstairs for rest, servants would bring dinner later. They needed to rest.
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The next morning, Sesshomaru was first to awaken. He had fallen asleep by Holly's bedside, but seeing she was sleeping peacefully just yet he stood and exited her room. Looking around, he went upstairs to wake up his brother. They were going to make breakfast this morning—he wanted pancakes and Kaede's were absolutely horrible.
Arriving at the fourth floor, he walked down the hall and turned in to the second room on the right. He observed his brother's room, with its red walls and black bed sheets. It was a total mess, he had a guitar on its stand in one corner and that had to be the cleanest, best treated thing in there.
He also had a computer against one of the walls, and a bookshelf against the other full with all of his favorite mangas and animes. Clothes were scattered along the floor, and a dresser was stationed against the wall opposite the bed. He saw another door to his right, and it must have been his brother's walk-in closet.
Rolling his eyes and stepping across the black carpet, avoiding all the strewn objects he shook his brother awake by one shoulder. "Brother, wake up, we're making pancakes this morning."
Inuyasha just rolled to face the other way and groaned, "Only dandelions may be fed to the dishwasher clan…"
Resisting the urge to laugh at his brother's stupidity, he retained a stoic face and shook his shoulder again, "Wake up you moron!" Inuyasha sat up suddenly, looking from left to right before his eyes landed on his brother. He figured everything out right there.
"Oh… what are you doing waking me up so early? It's only ten o'clock!" he whined, glaring at Sesshomaru. He only rolled his eyes and explained himself again.
"We're making pancakes. You know just how bad Kaede's are, so we're doing it. And absolutely no arguing, or we'll wake up the others. Now come on." He turned away and walked through the door, dragging his Inuyasha along.
"You're one to speak, brother," Inuyasha said, "You're the one who starts most of our arguments."
"What did I just say you moronic puppy, shut up…" he whispered the last part as he let go of Inuyasha's arm and walked silently past the room containing their friends. Some of them had demon hearing, so they had to be silent.
Grumbling a little, Inuyasha followed suit. Soon they were at the bottom of the stairs, and onwards into the kitchen. Sesshomaru picked up the skillet and placed it gently onto the gas stove. Just as he did so Kaede walked into the kitchen.
"What are you doing, child?" she asked, "You know that I do the cooking!"
"Making pancakes," Sesshomaru answered shortly, "All of us know how bad yours are."
"Oh pish-posh, but whatever, I'll wake up the others," she turned to exit the kitchen. Inuyasha stopped her quickly.
"No," he said quietly but sternly, "It's a surprise breakfast, you can't wake them up yet!" Kaede just nodded and left as quietly as she had come. Inuyasha sighed with relief and opened the door to their rather large walk-in pantry. Pulling out the pancake mix, Sesshomaru had already gotten the mixing bowl, a whisk, and the measuring up.
Working together they made the mix, and started the pancakes. Inuyasha pulled up a second skillet, which resulted in their cooking being much faster. In around thirty-five minutes or so, they had cooked enough pancakes to sooth all of the appetites. Even Jaguira's, which we know by now is as big as the house they all rested in.
Piling the pancakes onto three large serving plates, they set the table. Neither of them had exchanged a word in the whole process, but this is how they were most of the time. If they worked together, they did it without communication or they knew there would be an argument. Technique was key to succeeding for these two, and they were willing to use it.
Once the table was fully set, Sesshomaru nodded to Inuyasha and they both headed up the stairs to wake everyone up.
Kagome groaned as Inuyasha gave her a rather rude awakening—a shaking of the shoulders, "Kag! Kag, wake up. It's almost noon, I think you've slept late enough!"
"Fiiine! Fine…" she whined, sitting up and rubbing her eyes. Inuyasha smiled.
"C'mon, here are some clean clothes," he grabbed the kimono a servant had left in the room from her end table and handed it to her. "Get dressed and come downstairs, you have a bathroom here in the room to use if you want to shower."
She nodded and stood up, entering the bathroom. Shutting and locking the door, Inuyasha continued to smile and left to get the others. Once everyone else was awake he went downstairs and sat in front of the very large double-door that was the entrance into the dining room.
He saw that Miroku and Koga were the first to come down, wearing the clothes the servants had left for them. He smiled, they were from early Japan. Koga was wearing the armor and fur of a wolf demon's tribe, and he seemed to be bearing it rather proudly. Miroku was wearing a monk's robes, which was fitting for his status. Only, they were dark and lighter blues with a small white crescent near the shoulder tie. He also had his staff, "Inuyasha, why are you blocking the entrance into the dining room, where the food is located?" he asked tiredly.
"To keep you from getting inside," he answered bluntly. "This morning's breakfast is a surprise, so you two have to wait for the others."
Soon Sesshomaru came down the stairs, guiding Holly who was still on the fritz thanks to the lightning magic that was coursing her system. He had waited for her to get out of the shower, having woken her last so he could help her out. Sitting down by Inuyasha with her in his lap, the others all arrived within the next ten minutes.
Inuyasha stood up right away, Sesshomaru close to follow because he had to help Holly to her feet.
"Kagome, I think you should get to open the doors," proposed Inuyasha, "because you are the one who finished off Naraku. You deserve the honors."
Kagome smiled as the two brothers stepped aside. Walking forward, she put her hand on the handle then with rather little open pushed the two doors open. The pancakes, and other small side dishes the two boys had prepared sat there waiting for them. Kagome's tired eyes widened exceptionally, and she squealed with joy. It seemed that the sight of the breakfast had woken everyone up, even Jaguira who was finally dragging herself around the others to see.
"Okay everyone," grinned Inuyasha, "Pick a seat and dig in!"
The mass of highschoolers scuttled forth, choosing their seats. Sesshomaru sat next to Holly, the two of them being the last to sit down. Holly snatched up about eight pancakes, while Inuyasha just grabbed a mound.
Jaguira almost grabbed a whole plate to herself, but she was stopped swiftly by Sesshomaru who sat at one of her sides, and thus she picked up quite the number for herself.
Once everyone had served themselves, there was no conversation. They were all too hungry to bother with speaking. After everyone was mostly done eating though, they all struck up conversation. It happened to be about music.
"So Kagome," Inuyasha asked, "Do you play an instrument?"
"Yeah… drums," she said, grinning wickedly. "I started teaching myself in middle school, and I caught on pretty fast. Not to difficult at all!" Kagome looked at Holly, "Holly, do either you or Jagz play an instrument?"
"Yeah!" she answered, "I play keyboards. Jagz knows bass," she grinned a little, "Sometimes we play together, but it's really hard without a drummer or an electric guitarist OR a singer."
Inuyasha smirked, "Yeah? Well I'll have you know I play electric guitar, write, and sing."
"Hey, cool!" commented Jaguira, "Maybe we could pull together a band or something?"
"Sounds cool," Sango cut in, "I don't play an instrument, and I don't think Miroku or Koga do either..?" she looked at the both of them, who shook their heads no. "What about you Sesshomaru?"
"Muh…" he said, "I like to use a turntable. Get into the disc jockey kind of thing. Formerly… it was a private hobby," he looked to the side a little bit. Inuyasha only smiled a bit, while the rest of them quirked their eyebrows.
"Secret? Hell no, I heard you messing with that thing from the first day you got it. And to tell you the truth brother, you aren't half bad at using the thing."
Sesshomaru didn't say anything, but Holly did. "Turntable? Those things are like, soundboards plus," she grinned, "If we pulled a band together, we would have to have someone with soundboard or turntable knowledge…" here she looked at Sesshomaru pleadingly, who just gave her a slight eyebrow rise.
"Oh please Holly… lower myself to playing in a garage band?"
"Lower!" she exclaimed, coughing a little, "Lower my ass! If anything, it would only bring you to higher status." Sesshomaru just made a 'feh' noise, allowing her to figure she'd somewhat won that one.
"Hey wait a second," thought Jaguira, "Why is Kaede, the principal, living in your house? Why is she here at noon!"
Inuyasha blinked a bit, "Eh… aside from being the principal, she lives here with us as the cook and caretaker. Both of our parents died a while back, inheriting to us the fortune. They had long back ties with Kaede, who moved in with us to take care of us until we were old enough to live on our own. We never kicked her out, we never could. She's too close to us to do something so cold. As for her being here at noon… it's Saturday."
"Oooh… I see," said Jaguira. "Okay!"
Sesshomaru cut in, "Well anyways, since everyone seems to be feeling better and we've eaten breakfast, how about we get a move-on to the library?"
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Kagome pawed through the bookshelves, searching for the book that Sesshomaru had described to the group. He said it was very large, and old as well. It had a soft brown leather cover, and it was soft. There were gold inscriptions along the binding, and cover but they were in another language. She sighed, letting the breath out roughly as she continued to paw through all the books on the shelf of the large public library.
No one else seemed to be having very much luck, either. They were only hoping no one had checked out the book, leaving them on a wild goose chase. Jaguira was looking rather hard herself, until she stopped and squealed.
"Fruit's Basket! I love this anime!"
Holly scolded her almost immediately, "Jaguira! Shhh, this is the library! And stay on topic!" she snatched the manga, "Hey… I haven't read this one yet! Oh well, manga is meant for other times!" She replaced it on the shelf, and went back to her search.
"Aww…" Jaguira whined, looking crest fallen a moment before buoyantly returning to the search like nothing had happened.
Suddenly Koga stopped, gasping slightly as he slid a huge leather-bound book from the shelf. It had gold inscriptions on the binding and the cover, and it looked old and worn just as Sesshomaru had described, "Is this it?" he asked, handing it to him.
Sesshomaru looked at the cover, the binding, then the inside cover. He nodded, an odd glint passing his eyes for just a moment, "This, is the book."
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BC: -Gasp- I've left you with the cliffhanger of cliffhangers! xD laughs Well, I felt that I should stop the chapter here. Please read and review, I'll update the story again once I receive seven reviews. I hope you liked the first chapter of the sequel!
