Warning: Story focuses on Akito and Kagome unless there's something about them going on somewhere else.
Chapter 2: Another day, Another Solution
The moment she stepped into her house, Kagome let out a long sigh of contentment. The excess amount of stair steps to her house was outrageous today. And, she had to walk home from the school just now; which, by technically speaking, was what felt like a mile long. But, it didn't matter she was in the best of moods today, and nothing was going to get her down.
Kagome walked into the kitchen where she knew her mom, Souta and grandpa were. [Souta had just arrived moments before Kagome did herself.] They were in the middle of a discussion that she couldn't exactly make out; all she picked up were something about jobs and illnesses… and combat moves? The combat part was no one other's but Souta's input.
Whatever that was about…
But Kagome didn't even get to find out because the moment she stepped into the kitchen area the kitchen was quiet again before being filled with greetings. And Kagome didn't bother to try asking what they were talking about.
"How was your day, Kagome?" her mother asked her as she sat at the table.
"Long… but I have great news!" Kagome smiled. "I'm going to be a volunteer nurse at Kaibara Hospital."
"That's wonderful, dear," her mother beamed at her.
Kagome then launched into the specifics about her job, telling her mother everything that the school counselor had told her, from what doctor she was working under to when she had to meet who she was working for.
And so say that her mother was happy for her daughter would have been an understatement. She was practically glowing from the heavy atmosphere of accomplishment and success.
It was another quiet, but medical day for the medical staff of Kaibara Hospital. The doctors were either in a rush, or on break. The nurses going to and fro their patients' rooms' for supplies that they might need for them. It was just the same as always. There was hardly anyone there; it was ghostly.
Today, though, one black-haired doctor was working conspiratorially with his family head master, Akito. For some reason the sickly man had told him to rid of the Sohma family files from his office. He didn't understand why, though. The only time that he was asked to do that was whenever Akito had told him that they were hiring another Sohma to work as his assistant… another Sohma who wasn't part of the special part of the family; the cursed ones.
So, it made him wonder, why he had to hide his family's files. Unless the hospital was hiring another person who wasn't of the special-Sohmas'? It would only prove in due time.
"Hatori-san," one of his assistants called out to him as he was looking over a medical history file in his hand; that of a Yuki Sohmas… that was the last one he needed to get rid of.
"Yes?" he asked. He didn't bother to look up yet; he has something important to do, if he wants to keep his other eye free of hindered sight… what with what happened the last time he did something Akito didn't approve of…
"We have a new assistant for you; volunteer nurse, to be exact."
"Hm," he hummed in response. That answers it. He was getting another assistant; this time it was a nurse. "Name?"
"Kagome Higurashi…" his assistant read the name off the file. "What are interesting to me, though, are her medical records… they're unlike anything I've ever seen before." the girl mused.
Hatori turned to the aging woman, his assistant, and raised his eyebrows. "Alright; just leave them on the table. I'll get to her files shortly. Thank you,"
"Mhm," the woman left after nodding her head in answer before leaving.
Hatori went back to what he was doing before, before he came across Kyo's file and he dropped it to his desk in realization. Wait, they're unlike anything she'd ever seen before? Could she be…?
Akito wasn't in the mood right now. He wasn't in any particularly good mood at all. This spring he'd felt extremely bitter toward his family; something that he felt truly guilty for. And now, he was only getting angrier by the minute. The fact that Tohru Honda knew his family's secret only served to fuel his anger… even though he'd already accepted her knowing of his family secret, but one false move, and she's getting her memory wiped. That's for certain. But, this one situation where the issues are pretty similar, he wasn't exactly sure what to do about it, that's why he's angry.
Akito had gotten a call for Hatori that he was getting a new high school volunteer to work at his side. Of course, Akito only gotten this message because he required it after Hatori's declaration to get married to a filthy wench that wasn't part of the cursed Sohmas… and naturally Akito behaved as such as he did last time to the fact that it was going to be girl that was his assistant.
Of course, there're the general rules. Don't let a person of the opposing gender embrace him, for then he'd have to erase another unfortunate being's memory for no other god given reason than to keep a forsaken secret. And then there's the rule that he'd given only to Hatori: no getting married.
As unfair as it may have seemed, he needed his family doctor. Doctors mend the broken pieces of flesh, and mind. Therefore, Hatori can help heal the broken fragments of their family that the Tohru-wench caused. Akito was doing a lot of work trying to put his family back together, and he blames Tohru that his family is trying to back away from him. They never used to do this before, so why now?
But that wasn't exactly the problem here, the problem was; The Higurashi Girl; another school girl the same age as Tohru. Though Akito didn't know what she looked like he was fairly certain that she was one of the family members that owned Sunset Shrine. He only knew of this because his parents had taken him there a few times when he was young for him to be prayed for by an elderly woman by the name of Higurashi.
To say that it didn't work, well; let's just say that Akito left the shrine even angrier than when he arrived. What they did felt like they made his sickly condition even worse. He doubted that there was another person in the world who had to suffer as much as he did—and he was alone, too.
That wasn't the reason that he didn't want Hatori to get a female assistant by the name of Higurashi. The reason being was that the Higurashi might be just as nosy as her elders. Everyone of the Sohma family knew that that old woman was trying to figure out what was wrong with them, and find what they possibly could have been hiding from her. The old hag was a nuisance, though she might be dead by now, she was a crone…
And Akito wasn't going to take that from the Higurashi Child. If she steps over the line of knowing, she'll pay.
Kagome got ready for bed after her long bath; she knew that there wasn't much else to do since last year she'd stop traveling to the feudal era. She needed to keep herself occupied otherwise she'd end up thinking about what she didn't have…
Although she missed her friends, it was just a small part of her; because she knew that they'd get along better without her anyways. she knows that if she'd have never met them she wouldn't have been in as much pain as she was whenever she was still with them. It would have helped if she had never fallen down the damned well in the first place.
And they said that time heals all wounds… How? It doesn't; it didn't make her forget. Some part of her knew that the hurt would still be there, no matter how busy she made herself. She would always think of her and Kikyou's first… the one that Kikyou won… But she didn't want to make InuYasha a constellation prize of her love life, oh no. She knew she didn't have him from the beginning. Why she tried was beyond her. This time, she'll try to do something right.
But right now, it should begin with a dream, because tomorrow she's going to have something to at least keep her mind off of thinking of her issues; the best solution to that was always to think about other people's problems.
"And to do that, I'll have to work myself to the bone!" she mentally fist-pumped the air. "There will be no thinking about you tomorrow, Kagome. Other people will need your attention more than you do," she murmured before turning over and snuggling deeper into her pillow as a small tear dried at the corner of her right eye.
The next morning Kagome woke up to the sound of her alarm clock beeping. She raised her hand pretty high, and still half asleep, slamming her hand down on the clock causing it to halt in the midst of its noise making.
Today was a brand new day, another day of school work; work to keep her attention during the morning hours, of course.
She knew that today in Biology II and Health she'd make the best of herself… cause every one of her friends knew that she wasn't going to pass Geometry, despite it being the second time around of her taking it… Those theorems and postulates did nothing to help her case at all.
Knowing that it was now 6:00 and she had to get ready for school, Kagome slowly climbed out of bed before grabbing one of her clean school uniforms and her bathroom necessities before heading off to take a bath.
After she was done taking a bath, Kagome simply brushed her knee-length blue-black hair, and tugged at the hem of her skirt so that it covered a little more of her thighs, and she left the house, with a bye to her family and a rice ball in her hand, "Mama, Souta, grandpa, I'm leaving for school!"
"See you later, Kagome-nee-chan!" Souta shouted back at her, at the same time of her mother's and grandpa's 'See you soon, Kagome!' that they shouted in sync.
"Today, I just hope that Hojo-kun won't pester me for a date again," Kagome sighed, closing the door behind her and setting off for her long day of school.
During her morning classes, Kagome had managed to avoid being accosted by the boy. But now was the time that she really should have been worried. Right now it was lunch time, free for all of her friends to see her.
As she walked through the cafeteria to her friends' normal table with a lunch bento occupying her hands, Kagome looked left and right rapidly trying to avoid being spotted by the persistent Akitoki Hojo. She soon found that luck was on her side after seeing him talking to one of the queer "club girls" about Kami knows what. Though, she never understood those girls; they were always cheering for some reason or other, she figured it had something to do with a boy. It always does.
But whenever Kagome finally made it near her table, her luck ran out as soon as Yuka opened her mouth. "Kagome-chan; did you see that?"
Kagome sighed in response as she sat down at their table besides Eri, across from Yuka and Ayume. "See what?"
"That skank is all over your Hojo-kun!" Ayume answered, taking a bite of her lunch while sending the 'skank', that was all over 'Kagome's Hojo', a nasty glare.
"We completely understand if you want to keep two boyfriends Kagome" Eri said, but she shook her brown bobbed hair. "But, we don't understand why you want to share your man. I bet it was that Two-timing boyfriend that you used to date; you must be depressed over him."
Kagome's eyes blurred a little as she frowned. She thought that she banned that subject from being talked about. Even though they didn't know that InuYasha wasn't ever technically hers, it still hurt to know that she lost it. "No, I'm not depressed guys, really."
Eri rolled her eyes and put her arm around her friends shoulder, not getting a real response from the other girl. "As your friends we're here to watch out for you. We don't want you to go through anything that would hurt your self-esteem…. or break your heart."
And as if on cue, all three of her friends nodded. And Kagome silently thanked Kami that she had friends that cared about her so much… It was almost getting to be too much for her to take advantage of; well, not really. She wasn't exactly taking advantage of it, she was trying to avoid it, and now she realized that she'd have fared better if she just accepted that she had friends that cared for her a year ago, and she wouldn't have had this much of a pain to deal with on her own…
"Thank you," Kagome told them sincerely, "but I'm absolutely fine. I have all that I need right here; three loving best friends that will be there for me through thick and thin. By the way, have I told you guys how much I appreciate you?" she hugged her friend back, finally.
Eri, Ayume, and Yuka exchanged confused glances before Ayume and Yuka joined in to the group hug. They knew that she needed some comforting, they just weren't sure which; she hardly told them anything anymore. And now that was going to change; they're sure of it. And if it didn't, they would be sure that it would.
AN: Just a heads up; this isn't a Hatori/Kagome/Akito pairing. Nor is it a Yuki/Kagome/Akito pairing. So, I'm sorry…
This is strictly a Akito/Kagome pairing. With the occasional crush here and there, but the pairing is remaining a two-way. Not a love-triangle; I'm annoyed with those; you don't ever know who they end up with… :P
