Hey people, thanks to the wonderful Kestre, who helped me revise this chapter, I now have a better plot with a less unrealistic events so here it goes and please comment on the changes. Now on with the disclaimer; I do not own Inuyasha or Yu Yu Hakusho so please don't sue me.
A Kitsune Change
Chapter 1
Not many people or demons would consider the lives of others to be important. Someone I knew and loved told me that, and it has echoed in my heart ever since. Then again, not many people know that demons even exist, so they obviously don't think that demon lives are important. After what I went through, I believe that they are, all of them, demon and human, and that we have to cherish them. The sacrifice of oneself for others is a rare trait and may be considered a weakness, but it isn't. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise. It is a sign of true strength. My name is Bella, seventeen-year-old Australian, Japanese exchange student, lover of fantasy and other things besides.
My adventure started with these thoughts . . .
Everything was set into motion the day I received the news. Well, all right, technically, it began long before that. Almost two hundred years to be more precise. My part of it probably began when I decided to take Japanese as a subject.
I'd always loved Japan. The language, the country, the culture – everything about it seemed so exotic and wonderful. As though it were another world altogether. When I was little, my mother told me that we'd go to Japan some day. We'd visit Mount Fuji and see the sakura blossoms and eat sushi together. I don't know what happened to my father – as long as I could remember, it had been just Mum and me together.
Until that day. It was a Friday, I think, not that it was really important. I'd been glancing impatiently up at the clock for the last half-hour, just waiting until the bell would finally ring and I could go home. I'd be able to see Mum again. Then, just as we were getting ready to leave, the door opened. It wasn't with a bang, or with a cold gust of wind like you'd expect in a movie. There was nothing to tell me I was about to receive some of the worst news in my life. Of course not - I was only seventeen. Life had been pretty good to me so far and I wasn't used to bad things happening.
The person who entered was our principal, Mr Harrison. He was a nice guy, who was always friendly and tried to look out for his students as best he could. A small unassuming envelope was held firmly in his hand. As we all glanced up at him, wondering what he was here for, he looked over at me and said, "I'd like to speak with Bella for a moment, if you don't mind."
Our teacher was pretty flustered, to say the least. Mr Harrison was nice, but he didn't make trips down to the classrooms unless it was something serious. The butterflies started up in the pit of my stomach and no matter how hard I tried to sooth them, they wouldn't leave. Maybe they liked it down there. Now I'm trying to delay myself from telling you. You idiot, Bella. If you don't tell them . . . well, anyway, let's just keep going, shall we?
My friends gave me funny looks as I stood up and walked forward. I grinned back at them reassuringly, but the butterflies were tap-dancing now and I think it must have showed. As I drew closer, my legs slowed of their own accord until I was barely moving, a mechanical robot with rusted gears. "Sir?" I asked, quietly, fearfully. "What is it?"
"Let's step outside, Bella," he said gently. The sun warmed my face, and I felt a little better. But something still seemed wrong. "Bella. This letter is from the hospital. It seems that last night, your mother, Rose, was in a car accident. She was taken to the emergency ward immediately, but she . . . didn't make it. I'm sorry, Bella."
He kept talking, his soft voice droning at the back of my mind, but I didn't hear him. Everything was focused on those words – 'car accident' - 'emergency ward' - 'didn't make it'. They whirled in my thoughts like leaves in a cyclone, up and left and forwards and right and backwards and down and start again. "Mum," I whispered, just as my eyes started prickling with imminent tears. Then they fell. Salty, scalding, they coursed down my face like a burning river in full flood. I cried and cried, sometimes sobbing more for breath than for sorrow. Mr Harrison moved forward awkwardly and put an arm around my shoulders, trying to comfort me the best he could.
Finally, the tears dried a little, and I looked up at him warily. "What's going to happen now, sir? Mum's side of the family all live over in England and I have no idea on Dad. Who's going to look after me?"
He hesitated a minute, then plunged in.
"Bella, again I'm sorry, but we've tried to contact your other living relatives," I hated the way he said that – 'other living', like now that we were past Mum's death we could just ignore it, "and it seems that Rose . . . didn't get along too well with her parents."
"What do you mean?"
"Well, she ran off with your father, and then later split up from him but kept the child. You." Ouch.
He looked incredibly uncomfortable telling me this. "Her parents don't want to take you in because they think that you're exactly the same."
"Don't I have any aunts or uncles? Cousins?"
"A few, but it's a similar situation to your father in that none of them really know who you are. Your mother hadn't been in contact with them for years and so only some even knew that you existed, let alone what you're like. I think the general opinion was that they have enough problems with their own kids to think about taking in another."
Ouch again. Bloody ungrateful relatives. Though I don't know why they should have been grateful to me, given that to them I was just some bratty kid they'd need to look after. Maybe bloody annoying relatives was closer to the mark.
"There is one option, though." There was? What? "In her will, Rose stated that if she died and no other guardian could be found for you, you were to ask the Higurashi family to look after you."
Hmmm . . . I thought I knew about Mum, but her past became more confusing with every step we took. "Higurashi? That's a Japanese name, isn't it?"
"Yes. Apparently, when Rose was younger, she lived in Japan for a while and became good friends with Higurashi Haruko. That friendship continued all the way through university and they agreed to keep in touch when they went separate ways. Haruko also has a daughter about the same age as you, Kagome, and a son, Souta, who is a few years younger. You should be fine."
Well, that all sounded dandy, didn't it? I'd just go live with some strange family my mother had known. Actually, I wasn't that upset about it. I was going to Japan, wasn't I? My lifelong dream. But half of it was missing – the dream had always been to go with Mum. There was another concern though. "What about my school-work, sir? I've nearly finished my exams – I only need a few more weeks," I pleaded.
"All right," he relented. "We'll allow you to board here until you've finished school for the year. Rose has left you a reasonable sum of money, but we'll lower the cost a little so that it's not dipping into the money too much."
"Thank you, sir." I rubbed at the tear-marks on my cheeks and gave him a quick hug before I left.
I can never decide which days were the hardest to live through. The first couple of days after I found out, I kept expecting it all be some sort of sick joke. I'd hear footsteps in the corridor and think, 'She's back, Mum's back, she's come to see me!' But it'd be one of my classmates or they'd keep walking, and I'd remember. Oh. That's right. Mum's dead, isn't she? She's never coming back.
But the days after that were just as hard, when it had finally sunk into my mind that she was really gone. Those days were shrouded in a grey pall that coloured my every thought. I didn't want to move from my bed – all I wanted to do was sleep and hope that the pain would go away. I hadn't sunk to the point of wanting to kill myself – if I had, I wouldn't be here talking to you, would I? But it hurt, a deep ball of pain that lodged itself in my chest.
Finally, I recovered a little. The pain was still there, but I could push it aside just enough to be able to get through the day without thinking about it. Amazingly, I had somehow managed to scrape a pass through my exams and the school year had finished. Care of me had been handed over to Higurashi Haruko and a plane ticket had been booked immediately.
I was on my way to Japan.
Please review or no more chapters and I will not complete this story.