Disclaimer: I do not own Inu-yasha.

Boys Girls and Demons

By The Gairess

Chapter 01

"Kagome! I don't get it!"

"Yeah! Why didn't you say yes?"

Why do they even ask. I thought they knew the answer. Then again if they didn't they might not have looked so shocked at the time.

"I thought I told you guys earlier, Hojo's a friend, I just don't think of him that way," I repeated for what must have been the millionth time since we came into the malt shop and finally ordered our shakes. Why are they so edgy about me not having a boyfriend?

"But you're always hanging out with boys! You're so lucky! But you don't even want a boyfriend?" Kiki insisted completely astonished at my lack of response.

"They're friends, I can't really think of them as anything else," I explained, "It'd just be weird. It's like asking one of you out or something, just weird."

I shrugged. "You're okay with thinking of guys as girls, or something? Is that what your saying?" Mayru asked, wide-eyed.

"Um... yeah... kind of, I guess," I shrugged.

"Would you at least put in a good word for us then, maybe?" Kiki asked, "Even if you're not interested, we are."

"I'm really worried about you, Kagome, you don't like guys?" Mayru asked eyeing me with almost sympathy. Remind me how these girls became my friends?

"I like guys just fine, just not to date, not right now," I explained, "There's still way too much to do with High school, if I got a boyfriend it might make things more difficult to keep up with all my time being devoted to them. I'd prefer to wait for college or when I'm out of school period."

"That's almost sad," Kiki commented quietly. Then the conversation all but started over all over again, for the million and one time.

They don't seem to get it that I don't want a boy as boyfriend. I'm fine with a boy as friend just not as how they're thinking. I don't understand why they're so anxious for one though. They're pretty, any guy would be lucky to have either of them.

I made it a point to finish my milkshake kind of fast, mostly by throwing out half the entire thing but whatever. "See you guys on Monday, Kiki, Mayru!"

"Bye, Kagome!" they called after me with a pair of waves and smiles. I am Kagome Higurashi, 14 years old, but not for long, my birthday's in just a few more days.

I didn't head home right away, there was an arcade across the street after all, so I stopped in for a couple of plays. I love KFII, that's kenka fighter two; I love it! I'm a champion player with Kikoyu as my fighter. I've unlocked all her secret moves and everything; she's awesome. She's an archer priestess or something, kind of looks like me too.

I own the game she's in, it's good. It's called Shkion No Temaa, it's pretty cool. Her history is a priestess in training, an enchanted Miko to watch over the Shkion no Temaa, jewel of four souls, a type of gem that gives power to demons. Then their shrine and village got destroyed by a demon who stole the jewel, a person she knew even, so she embarks on a quest to retrieve them, and you meet other characters along the way and it's cool. An entire summary might be too long though.

"Beat my butt again..."

"Sorry Miro, you'll do better next time, you've been practicing hard I can tell," I said giving him a pat on the back. Miro's a friend from school. His family owns a shrine like mine, his father was a Buddhist priest and now he's training to become one also to inherit the shrine. The only difference between his fave character in the game, and mine is that it's not some ancient Japan alternate reality and that his character doesn't have to fear an impending evil demon or whatever that will destroy us all, in the game.

His character is some really old game character with something called a Kazana, a wind tunnel that sucks things in, the catch is he can't keep it open for too long otherwise it kill him. I've gotten really good at hitting him and beating him as soon as there's a break in the wind tunnel's attack. He's only unlocked a few secret moves so far, but he hasn't played as long as I have, so that's expected.

I can enjoy the easy wins while they last.

"We're closing up soon, Higurashi, Houshi," the guy at the desk who works here commented, over the comic book he was reading.

"See you tomorrow, Miro," I said as I left the arcade.

"See you, Kagome," he waved as we left in opposite directions for home.

Despite the fact I like in Tokyo, there are so many roads that a lot of people don't use, surprising really if you think about the image Tokyo presents, but not so unusually for someone if you live here. It's a really cool place to live. I don't even have take the trains to school, it's that close.

I have a pretty cool life too, I think. My grandfather's a little eccentric about things to do with ancient Japan and legend. It's so weird sometimes, but I love him anyway. My mom is also really great, she's the best cook I know, and she's always so understanding of my problems, she's so much like a sister in that respect. My brother Souta is pretty cool too, despite the fact he can be annoying at times. Bouyo our cat I think has the best deal of all. Lounge around all day and if you don't like hanging around people you just slink away and go sit somewhere else. And you don't have to worry about your weight. Wish I could drink milkshakes with Mayru and Kiki more often, I really like them, but then I'd get fat while my spending pocket would get so thin...

I do pretty well in school and sports, and I think I'm a pretty good person. I'm not really mean or anything, and nobody's perfect, but we can try. I used to be overweight but I've gotten better and lost a lot so I looked really good when I finally started high school. But whatever, who wants to hear someone talk about how horrible they are. I'm happy, so nothing else really matters.

It's been cloudy today, but suddenly it got darker or something, it's not so late though, and the winds picked up quite a bit. It almost feels like a hurricane, but in Tokyo?

In a narrow street way?

That's impossible!

Now there's this giant like a portal that's appeared a little ways in front of me and above me by a good couple of meters. It's swirling dust and feels like it's blowing the wind and circling it. I try to make my legs heavier and wind up crouching somewhat and it feels like it could suck me right up off the ground and send me to oblivion. Scary. It's so weird...

This must just be a really cool and odd phenomena or something, I've heard of them, though mostly it centers around spontaneous combustion or UFO's and stuff... not other worldly portals, cause that's what it looks and feels like. Like how one might describe standing nearby the entry to a black whole in the depths of space.

You can't breath and you fear to move because you might loose your ground and be sucked in. If you were you wouldn't escape...

All too soon it stopped and this blur of red and white was discarded from the portal and it closed the wind being sucked away with it. For a few minutes I felt I was suffocating, I think I forgot to breathe or something. Then my legs gave away and I hit the ground the shock giving me back my breath. The thing or person I guess was just lying there. I wouldn't have been surprised if they were dead. Thing is, all I could think of then was all the blood that covered this person. It was slowly but surely forming a large puddle in the middle of the alleyway. Whoever it was, the portal must have just gotten them out from a particularly gruesome fight.

The person's unconscious though. I needed to call an ambulance quickly. But before I could the person's eyes shot open staring directly at me. A low snarl started in the back of the person's throat as the person slowly started to try to move from the puddle of blood.

This person's pretty angry right now, and I would be too, but how do they make their eyes glow red like that. Inhuman...

I'll just stay out of reach and observe, the person may be homicidal...

After a particularly vicious snarl the person sinks back down to the puddle again. I should probably call the police... but... that's not what I'm doing, it's like my brain suddenly has no control over what I try to tell my body to do.

Take cell phone, dial 911...

Hmm... body still not taking orders from brain, and oh my gods! Why am I moving towards the homicidal maniac!! Have I gone temporarily insane! No, if I know I'm insane, I can't be insane, because I know it... so then what?

I cautiously approach the person and pick them up, I'm going to have to wash this uniform, It's getting some of the blood on it. Surprising how light the person is, I could lift them probably. I do, and this is a little interesting since I'm carrying some androgynous bloody person bridal style. Yes, interesting...

Now... I'm heading home again... carrying this odd possibly homicidal person... OMG!!

This isn't right...

Anyway, I'm carrying this person home with me... the only thing I can think of is that subconsciously I didn't want to leave them there. Wonder if they escaped from the crazies or something... is that plausible given the wind and portal thing? Maybe I was hallucinating too... do I belong in the crazies?

No way!

Anyway, given how odd this looks, and that I have miraculously gotten the power to control my body back, I stop the bridal style and make it so it looks like the person's awake and just limping beside me, and I'm helping them walk and stuff.

I hope none of my neighbors get any weird ideas about me abducting them or something equally odd but punishable in courts.

My neighborhood is a little messed up that way. There are so many people who love to gossip... I hate it! My mom listens occasionally just to know what's going on but she always tells me never form opinions on gossip. Gossip and talking about things that happened are two different things, and are also actually the same except that gossip has a more negative connotation and is more often referred to not really discussing but rather nitpicking till it results in character assassination.

I hate that when it happens to me...

"Higurashi?"

Aw, crud...

"Who is this with you? They're a mess!" the old woman exclaimed looking at the person I was 'helping to walk' with disgust.

"Ah, Mrs. Mikane, so nice to see you," I greeted putting on a fake smile. The neighborhood official busy body, Mrs. Mikane, she's a trove of info and dirt of people she knows. She's going to probably say something about this later, I know it. "So sorry, this is my friend, from school? She got in a fight at that party, the one I was telling you about last week, it was there and she insisted not to call the hospital so I'm just helping her back to my place to call for a private doctor."

"Kicked out of the party for fighting," Mrs. Mikane sniffed indignantly. Smile must not turn to glare...

"You really have such strange friends, Kagome," she shook her head sniffing slightly at the person still, "Be sure to give her a good talking to for me when she wakes up. Such a reckless young hooligan, inconsiderate and uncouth, so crude."

"I'll tell her that, have a good day, Mrs. Mikane," I smiled as I continued on my way and she continued with whatever business she was attending with at the time before she stopped to 'chat' with me.

I'm so glad she bought my story, I made that one up on the spot. The steps up to the shrine usually can take a while and they took even longer since I was carrying an extra person. Okay, looks aside I picked them up bridal style again and started off. I got to the top faster than I would have otherwise. Past the shrine to our house, I am very thankful none of my family is home yet. Grandpa and mom went with Souta my little brother to see his friend at the hospital; that's what the note on the table says anyway.

I brought the person in and sort of dumped them on the couch before I deposited my back pack and other stuff. Walking back into the room I get a somewhat better look at the person. The blood is still very gruesome and distracted though it's dried somewhat and the blood flow doesn't seem to be too great. I better clean them up and but on some bandages.

Well, I'll get to it then.

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