Chapter 10 The Downside

It was late-afternoon by the time her stomach had calmed down enough for her to venture outside the bathroom, where she'd been sitting and groaning on the floor between heaves. Thank god it was the weekend.

She slipped back into Akane's room, shivering in delight at thought of the comfy bed that awaited her, only to find (female version) Ranma and Akane waiting for her. It was ambush, plain and simple.

"Here to tell me how bad I screwed up last night?" She asked them wearily. She knew getting drunk was bad, and she didn't intend to ever do it again – but a part of her had relished the freedom and activity. After months of nothing, letting go had been…exhilarating.

"Yes…and no," said Akane. "We'll get the first part over and done with shall we? Kagome, it was not good of you to disappear and worry us like that. Be thankful that we got to you before you took off allof your clothes. And now for the next part; who's puppy?" Kagome hadn't revealed anything more since she had fallen off the stage in the karaoke bar - and into unconsciousness.

Kagome looked at Akane, eyebrow raised and completely confused. "Puppy? I don't know anyone called Pup – what?!" Kagome shrieked, half way through her own sentence. "My clothes? What happened to them? What did I do last night?" Kagome breath became short, violent huffing as she panicked. Last night was a near-complete blur for her; she could remember the café, and Shampoo's rather large bottles of sake, bits and pieces of what happened at the pier…and not much else. Having blanks in her memory frightened her, considering it usually meant there was some sort of demonic plot going on.

It was Ranma's turn to raise an eyebrow. "You were practically stripping on stage at a karaoke bar. You were giving the crowd quite a show."

"No way would I do that!" Kagome screamed, blushing furiously.

"Yes way!" Ranma hopped to his (or was it her?) feet. "Mm-hmm, first you were tugging at your skirt…" Ranma pranced around the room giving a fairly accurate impression of a drunken Kagome.

"Ranma! Shut up!" Akane whacked him.

"You know…" Kagome started to say shakily, "you're very disturbing Ranma."

"Who me? How?"

"You are far too good at acting like a promiscuous female."

"Well so are you!" He/her retorted, looking murderously angry.

"So I hear." Kagome spotted one of her favourite skirts hanging over the back of a chair. Picking it up, her jaw dropped open. Someone had cut at it messily, so it was just a quarter of its previous length. "I think I'm going to go back to my calling as a priestess." Kagome sighed and stuck her head in her hands. "Wouldn't Gramps be proud?" There was a tell-tale sniffling sound, and Akane and Ranma exchanged upset glances.

Kasumi entered the room then and looked worriedly at the two and a half distressed girls. "Is this a bad time? Kagome has a visitor, but I can send him away…"

Kagome rubbed her damp face and looked up at Kasumi. Believing it was just Kuno again; Kagome waved away Kasumi's assumption, almost glad for the distraction. "No, no, I'll come see him."

Kasumi smiled gently at her. "Well, okay, he's waiting in the living room." She picked up a few stray items of clothing for the washing basket at her hip and left.

"We'll let you get ready." Akane hurriedly left the room, dragging Ranma with her.

#

"Who do you think it is?" Akane asked Ranma as they walked down the hall.

"It's probably just Kuno." Akane slipped into the room with Ranma following.

The guest wasn't Kuno at all. It was in fact, a boy about their age with short, cropped brown hair, a soft voice and who was holding a wrapped gift.

"So you came here to court our Kagome?" Akane heard her father ask the boy.

"Umm, well I really just wanted to make sure she was okay…" the boy mumbled, blushing and scratching the back of his head.

Her father continued speaking as if he hadn't heard the boy. Akane cringed. She could recognise his expression, the posture…the imperious tone of voice…he was acting the over-protective father for his niece. "You must know that everyone here is very fond of the girl. Hurt her, and you will pay the consequences." The boy gulped. "Why, our martial arts school is formidable, and our boy Ranma here," he pointed Ranma out, "is virtually undefeated!"

The boy, pale and frightened, spared a glance at Ranma.

"But she's just a girl!" He said, seeming relived.

Ranma growled. "Well this girl is gonna kick your ass!" Akane elbowed him/her in the gut. A short scream prevented Ranma from retaliating. Kagome stood in the doorway looking like she'd seen a ghost.

"Hojo? Wh-what are you doing here?" He really was the last person she wanted to deal with right now. She'd rather be seeing Kuno than him, and that was saying a lot.

Hojo stood, scraping his foot against the ground nervously. "Kagome, I wanted to check up on you…I uh…my birthday and I saw, last night…at the um…karaoke bar," Hojo was beet red.

"Oh." Kagome squeaked out, understanding what he was getting at. "Um, well I wasn't really myself…things were, were kinda…crazy and um…"

Hojo interrupted her. "Maybe we could, uh, talk privately, maybe?" He asked, just as embarrassed as she was.

Akane took it upon herself to clear the room, which she did with much gusto. The door slid shut, leaving the stumbling pair alone finally.

"If you know you wanted to talk…" Hojo trailed off, not really sure how to talk to the girl who hadn't spoken to him willingly for a year.

"Oh that's okay…I'm, um, well you see I think Akane's first in line for that." Kagome was watching the ground. Her already damaged reputation at school must be beyond repair by now – because if Hojo had seen, who else had?

"Oh well, I wanted to give you this." Hojo handed her the present that was tucked under his arm. Kagome took the package and unwrapped it, to find a few boxes a tea. "It's a herbal remedy, supposed to be good for well…curing hangovers," he finished sheepishly.

"Oh, okay thanks." This would have been good a few hours ago. "I don't know what you must think of me, but I don't really do … that… often. It was the first and last time, I swear." Kagome still couldn't meet his gaze.

"I um, didn't think so…what I mean is I wouldn't have expected…I mean – never mind."

"Okay." Kagome squeaked. Hojo left soon after that, and Kagome collapsed to her knees, wishing the floor could just swallow her up.

#

Everyone sat around the dining table as usual, happily digging into yet another of Kasumi's brilliant meals. Everyone except for Kagome that was. She sat at the head of the table in a stupor – not having moved since Hojo had left.

"Do you think she's okay?" asked Akane.

"Does she look like it?" Countered Ranma, as masculine as a man could be.

Akane latched on the water jug, but before she could anything with it, Happosai burst into the room.

He barrelled into Kagome, sending her falling across the ground with a surprised 'eep'. "Oh Kagome so good to see you again sweet," he leapt onto the table after a quick nuzzle into Kagome's prone form. "Ranma my boy, suit up! We've got us some work to do."

Ranma looked unimpressed. "Better not be a panty raid," he muttered.

"Actually, a hotel near by is being plagued by a demon." Behind him, Kagome sat up in one smooth motion; blinking her wide, innocent eyes with an expression on her small face that neither Akane nor Ranma could place.

"As a martial artist, it is our duty to protect the defenceless from wretches such as these. Go to it Ranma!" shouted Mr. Tendo.

Kagome paid no attenion to him. Demons. In her time, threatening the safety of modern day Tokyo. The idea was enough to make her head spin, even though she'd faced demons on this of the well before. But that had been during her dark fairytale era. The idea of facing a demon once more was exhilarating…freeing. In short, it was a feeling akin to being intoxicated – minus the disappointment and the hangover.

After so long of nothing…well, she really wanted that rush again. And with that in mind she quickly lost all reason. "Can I come?" She asked.

"No!" Ranma yelled. As the following argument wore on, she found he was dead set against her coming. In fact no-one was on her side. No-one wanted fragile, cry-baby Kagome facing something as terrible as a weasel demon.

"If you don't let me, I'll just come anyway! You can't stop me!" She eventually threatened. Ranma muttered something underneath his breath. "Please! It's not like its some big powerful demon or anything!"

"How would you know?" He shot back.

This stopped her short. After a moments pause she yelled, "I grew up on a shrine, demonology was compulsory!" She lied. Her secret was still her secret after all. And her story seemed true enough anyway. "I can take care of myself!" She continued, changing the subject.

Akane sighed. "Let her come Ranma, I'll come too and look after her."

Ranma snorted. "Oh yeah right, like that's going to happen." But once Akane had given her approval, things went quickly in Kagome's favour.

Once her going had been finalised, Kagome leapt from the room and disappeared into the Dojo. Quickly she found a bow and a quiver full of arrows. They weren't her sacred arrows, but they'd do. She ran out the front door, where Ranma, Akane, their fathers and Happosai were waiting.

Ranma gave her an odd look. "Whadd'ya need those for?"

Kagome huffed. "To fight the demon you idiot." Ranma groaned.

"Arrows? But I thought you didn't know how to use them…you said that time in class was just a fluke." Akane seemed more reserved than usual, watching Kagome quietly and biting her lip every so often.

Kagome shrugged. "Well then let's hope I get lucky again." When no-one said anything more, Kagome turned and started down the pathway, and onto the street. "Let's go!" She yelled over her shoulder.

Worried and slightly unnerved by Kagome's latest attitude change, the rest of the group followed.

AN-Well, I'm glad that everyone enjoyed drunk Kagome - as I've mentioned before i wasn't sure i should stick that in...but your responses have reassured me! Thank you for the great reveiws everyone! And I'm sorry, this chap was a little shorter than usual, but i had to cut it in half cus it was getting too long, and this was more of a transistion chapter anyway. I'm really hanging out for when i can move onto the next bit of plot...sqeuals Maybe its not that exciting...but still! Squeal!! Anyway there has been something i had wanted to say to some reveiws a while back...argh cant remember...nabiki.! Yes! a few people seemed to getupset with Nabikifor black-mailing kagome. i just wanted to say, that this isnt nessecarily a terrible thing...well, yes it is, very mean in fact... But Nabiki is Nabiki, cold, manipulative (but not as bad as say Sesshomaru or Naraku) but what im getting at here is...i dont know. just dont hate her too much. personally i wouldnt love her any other way. but anyway.

Thank-you for the reviews and keep telling me what you think, I love hearing from you guys!