Chapter One
A shrill bell jolted Umi awake from her day dream and she rubbed her steel grey eyes. A soft jingle of her bell around her neck as she lifted her head from the small wooden school desk she had made a temporary bed out of for the main part class. Well that was a waste of time. Now how was she supposed to help Kagome with her homework? Standing up along with the other students dressed in white and green uniforms she grabbed her things and walked to the front of the class where the teacher was busy erasing the lecture from the black chalk board. "Excuse me, might I have Kagome's homework? She's home sick again." The teacher sighed heavily and handed over a packet with Kagome's name written on it. "Here you go. I swear Kagome never used to be so sick all the time. Make sure you hand those back to me when she gets done with them. Also there is a test on Monday over what we learned today."
Umi walked down the empty halls of her school, her long black hair pulled up into a high pony tail and tied with a red string with a tiny bell attached to it. Her slender frame dressed in the usual school uniform, while her cold gray eyes stared straight ahead of her. Alone in the school she was moving at a pace that was faster than what most humans were even capable of visualizing. Her pale arms were holding a heavy stack of books and papers, with even more school work in the black back pack slung over her left shoulder, and sadly none of it was her own. It was the homework that belonged to her foster sister, Kagome. She was never home and her family didn't seem to be the least bit concerned. Umi thought that in this day and age her parents should be at least a little angry that she was missing so much school. Kagome had a bright future ahead of her if she would only stay home every once in a while. But there wasn't much a chance of that. The only time Kagome came home was to take a bath, or because she was dangerously angry with someone. A boy, Umi suspected that Kagome had very deep feelings for. But regardless of how Umi felt about the topic, she kept it to herself out of respect and a little tinge of fear. Umi paused by the windows and looked down at the thin scar that ran across the side of her neck. She wasn't sure where she got the scar, but in a frequent dream she had caused her to believe it was because of a priestess. In Umi's dream, Umi was a famed nine tailed fox demon who lived back in the feudal era. And one day while Umi was running around, she stumbled upon a young priestess and the priestess was not happy with the sight of a demon in her turf. Umi closed her gray eyes as she remembered the sting of the arrow as the priestess shot it at her, her aim was, thankfully, horrible. The young priestess held a striking resemblance to Kagome, not that Umi exactly feared her she just wasn't too keen on the idea of getting shot at again. Especially since Kagome seemed to enjoy archery as of recently now.
Turning away from the window, Umi continued her walk down the empty halls. Maybe Kagome would come home today, it seemed like a possibility. She always returned when Umi gathered her homework, it was like she could sense it or something. She chuckled at the thought of Kagome stopping whatever she was doing to rush home to collect her school work. Charging at super speed from where ever it was that she was at. It was quiet comical in Umi's mind. Using her back to push open the door, as expected there was no one really around out here either. It was the Friday after all and who really stuck around school on a Friday? But it wasn't really the weekend that was on Umi's mind at the moment. She was on a mission, today she would find out just where ever it was that Kagome was disappearing to. That is, if Kagome even came home today. For all Umi knew she could be gone for another week, another month. There was never a pattern to her absences, which made the lies about her being sick all the more believable
Umi let out a happy sigh of relief as she rested against the inside of the door to her home. Slipping off her shoes she walked into the main room of the house and paused for a moment. "I'm home!" She called out before continuing into the kitchen where she gently set the mountain of books and papers down on the table. "Mama Higurashi? Grandpa Higurashi? Sota?" Umi called out as she peeked out of the kitchen door, she received no response. Turning back into the kitchen, Umi found a piece of paper attached to the fridge.
"Umi, Grandpa and I have gone on a trip to visit my sister. She has invited us to stay with her for the weekend. Sota is going to be staying the weekend with his friends. We will see you when we return. There is money for food on the counter, Love you. Mama Higurashi."
Umi frowned as she read the letter. They all left her again, she was more than used to being left alone but that didn't mean she liked it. In fact she couldn't stand being left home alone, or alone in general. And the killer part about this whole situation was that her family knew she hated it, they knew just how much it hurt for her to be alone and yet they were always leaving her home alone on the weekends. Umi dropped her school bag by the kitchen table and stormed out of the house. If it wasn't for the fact that she had no way of getting back to her real home, she would have left years ago. But the thing was, she managed to hit her head at some point after the priestess started firing arrows at her. For all Umi knew she could already be dead and this place sure as hell wasn't heaven. But when she did wake up, she was lying in a bed inside the Higurashi home. And that's where she stayed. For reasons unknown to her she wasn't allowed to go in the bone eater's well, Umi guessed that because it was ancient it was thought to be dangerous for her to enter. Out of respect she stayed away from it. Instead she usually hung out around Inuyasha's tree. There was a scent that surrounded the roots of the tree that made Umi feel like she was at home. Looking around her cautiously to make sure no one was watching, Umi let a small amount of her demonic power loose allowing herself to be engulfed in a bright blue flame. Once the flame was gone, a small black fox sat there calmly for a moment. The fox was about the size of your average house cat, she was black with white tipped paws, ears, underbelly, and all nine of her tails were tipped white. Yes, this small nine tailed fox was Umi. And In her small form Umi quickly ran to the small den that was hidden under the roots of the tree. The den was unnoticed by the humans of this world much to Umi's pleasure. It was her secret hide away, and she preferred to keep it that way. Inside the den the aroma was familiar and comforting; she knew the scent belonged to a dear old friend of hers, one she hoped to see again someday. And even though she was alone, in this den surrounded by the scent of an old comrade, she did not feel alone and that was very important to Umi. Closing her steal gray eyes happily Umi drifted into a light slumber.
After several hours of a wonderful nap she was awakened by the familiar scent of her foster sister somehow appearing out of nowhere. Peeking her tiny head out of the base of the tree she watched as Kagome came out of the well house with her large yellow backpack slung over her shoulder, a relieved smile on her face which had an unusual amount of dirt on it. Umi frowned in confusion. Had she been hiding out in the well house this whole time? No, that wasn't right. Her scent had disappeared and even though she wasn't allowed to go inside the well house, whenever she walked passed it she couldn't discern anybody who was actually staying inside there. A few minutes later Kagome made her way back inside the house shouting out that she was home. Sighing Umi crawled out from the den and shifted back into her human form, also walking into the house. "They mom and Gramps went to visit mom's sister and Sota is over at a friend's house for the weekend." Kagome jumped in surprise as she heard Umi's voice from behind her. "Jesus Umi! Even with the bell you still sneak up on me!" Umi shrugged and took a seat at the kitchen counter while Kagome rummaged through the fridge for something to eat. "Did you get my homework for me?" She asked and Umi nodded. "Yeah. It's in your bedroom on your desk. What were you doing in the well house? I thought we weren't supposed to be in there." Kagome's face went pale suddenly at the question.
"Oh I was just doing some stuff in there. That's all." Kagome laughed in a fake manner that was all too obvious that she was lying about something. "What kind of stuff?" Umi pressed for the truth and Kagome babbled about something incoherent that she couldn't follow before she excused herself to take a shower. Umi lifted her finely sculpted eyebrow in confusion before taking it upon herself to check out the strange scent coming from Kagome's bag. It smelled very familiar to her. The bag smelled of fresh dirt and clean grass. There was even a hint of something else she found familiar. The very faint scent of wild strawberries still clung to a small Ziplock bag that seemed to have once held mixed candies, a letter Y was inked in black on the front. "Hm. Weird." As she was rummaging through the bag she heard Kagome getting out of the shower. In a panic she didn't want Kagome to know that she had been snooping around so she quickly shifted into her fox form and burrowed herself into the bottom of the bag. "Well I guess I should just repack and head back since no one is really here. Besides Umi wouldn't mind being alone around the house." Umi's eyes widened slightly. There was no way she was going to hang out around the house by herself. Wherever Kagome went, that is exactly where she was going to go.
