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Good Times

Chapter 10

firefox369

------Kagome-------

I whimpered when I felt the arms around me disappear and I snuggled closer to my temporary fireplace. There was a sigh and the arms wrapped around me again, something resting on my head. Why was I so tired?

"Fuji-senpai! Fuji-senpai!" a voice hollered, knocking on the door. "Practice starts in half an hour! Hurry up!"

I groaned when I felt another sigh and the the arms around me let go.

"Leave and I'll kill you" I grumbled under my breath.

"First, you didn't want me to stay, now you don't want me to leave. Make up your mind, Kagome-chan."

"Stay. Be a good boy and sit" I mumbled sleepily.

"You know that I can easily overpower you if I really want to."

"I don't care... stay..."

"No" he argued defiantly and I growled under my breath, grudgingly releasing him and letting him leave.

"Baka..." I murmured sleepily before falling back asleep. Soft laughter escaped his throat and he poked my cheek.

"I'm leaving now."

"...baka..."

"Hai, I'm a baka, aren't I?" he agreed and I nodded. I felt him ruffle my hair before walking to the door. "Loving someone who's fated to die nine days before my birthday..." he whispered and I groaned, ignoring him as he shut the door.

-------Fuji--------

"Eiji..." I mumbled, surprised, when I saw him outside my door. He had a sadistic smirk on his face.

"So, who is it?" he asked and I looked away, ignoring him, as I made my way to the courts. "Who's the one that's 'fated to die nine days before your birthday?'"

"Don't you ever know when you hit a sore subject, Eiji?"

"I can get away with it, though, so no."

"...Well, I'm still not going to tell you."

"Ahhh? Why not...?"

"Because then you'd get hurt, too, and we don't need you spacing out before nationals."

"Nya...?"

"Just go to practi-" I was interrupted when a scream split through the air.

"Kagome..." I whispered under my breath and was about to return to her but Eiji grabbed my arm.

"Where are you going?" he asked, confused. "We're going to be late for practice."

"I thought I heard someone scream..."

"I didn't hear anything... are you sure?" I nodded, but I was faltering. Had I really heard something? Had I really heard a scream? If I had, someone closer must have heard it and gone to help... "You can go and check, I'll tell sensei where you went. I still don't understand why we have to practice on a saturday, though... can't we get a day off?"

"Iie... I must have been hearing things..." I concluded, following Eiji onto the court and beginning the day's practice. "Wait. I forgot something... I'll be right back."

"Hurry up, then. Sensei won't like it if you're late to another practice and Inui's probably going to give you that one drink again."

"Those don't faze me."

"No, I mean that drink again."

"Oh, yeah... that one... don't worry, I'll be back."

------Normal-------

She was struggling, clawing at the arm that was pressing down on her throat, preventing any and all air from reaching her lungs. She coughed, arms slowly going limp.

"Syusuke..." she choked out weakly, a tear rolling down her cheek. What was going on...? Who was doing this to her? It hurt... so much... "...Syu...suke...!"

"I told you to calm down! You're forcing me to do this, Higurashi" a voice hissed in her ear and she groaned, suffocating. "I'll kill you if I have to, but I won't if you would just keep quite!" She nodded slowly and the person released her, dropping her to the ground. She coughed and gulped down breaths of air, trying to calm down her racing her heart. She looked up but was lifted and pressed against the wall, the side of her head pressed against it. There was a click and cold metal was shoved into her mouth. She gagged.

'Oh, Kami-sama, please save me...!'

The door suddenly clicked as it was unlocked and the person behind her growled menacingly, annoyed. He pressed her into the wall harder, placing a dangerous amount of pressure on her lungs. The door cracked open and light flooded into the room, since the shades were shut and no light could get it from the window, and the lights were also turned off.

"Sorry, Kagome, I forgot some-" Fuji stopped mid-sentence as he raised his head and stepped into the room. "Who are you?" he asked, confused, then noticed that a gun was in the trespasser's right hand, shoved inside Kagome's mouth. "What the hell are you doing to her...?"

"Move and I'll shoot" the man growled, pulling Kagome's head back by her hair. She coughed, panting now. Fuji shifted, trying to think of a way to free her from the man's grasp. Couldn't he tell that he didn't need a gun to kill her?

"Get off of me, demon!" Kagome hissed and Fuji's face clearly showed the confusion that was racing around in his mind. "If it's the jewel you want, you know that I won't give it to you!"

"Kagome-chan...?" Fuji asked, still a little confused.

"Get out of here!" she shouted, but it was muffled by the gun in her mouth. She groaned, squeezing her eyes shut, a drop of sweat rolling down her face. She panted a few times, waiting for Fuji's response. When she got none, she snapped her eyes open and looked at him, a burning gaze in her eyes. 'Sorry you have to see this, Syusuke...'

She focused her ki and shot out, aiming it at the youkai behind her. He cried out in pain and jumped back, avoiding the rest of her attack. He fired the gun at her and she formed a shield, the bullet stopping just before it reached her, and it uselessly fell to the ground.

"Syusuke!" she barked and he tensed. "Go to Ryoma's room and look in my bag for a bow. It should be in there." He ran off, not wanting to know what would happen if he didn't, and barged into Ryoma's room, breaking the door down. Saying a quick apology to no one in particular, he found a bag that said 'Kagome' on it and began to go through all of her belongings.

"For crying out loud, all she has are weapons!" he shouted, frustration sinking in. He hissed in pain when something cut him but he ignored it and pulled out a bow. "This better be it..." Racing back to his room, he saw that Kagome had the demon firmly pinned to the ground as she straddled him, keeping him from moving.

"Do you have it, Syusuke?" she demanded and he nodded. Something began to glow in front of him, changing shape until it had formed into an arrow. "Take it and shoot him, Syusuke, my power can only go so far."

He obeyed, taking the arrow and preparing it, but as he aimed, his hand began to tremble. What if he missed? What would happen if he hit Kagome instead...?

"Dammit, Syusuke! Fire!" she shouted, the glowing energy surrounding her beginning to fade away.

He wanted to fire, but the thought of killing someone, something, even if it had tried to kill Kagome, just stuck out in his mind as wrong. He didn't want to bloody his hands, he didn't want to kill.

The demon shoved her off and Kagome flew into Syusuke, landing on him as he made hard contact with the floor. The arrow on the bow suddenly disappeared and the demon smirked. Kagome yanked something off of her neck, stealthily placing it in Syusuke's hand.

"Forgive me..." she whispered, "I shouldn't have made you try to kill the demon, and I know that this will put you in grave danger, but this is necessary if you want to live to see another day."

"Wait, what are you going to do?"

"Be a good boy and be bait for a few moments."

"Oh... if that's- wait a minute... bait...? I don't want to be bait! Hey! Oi! Kago-"

"Entertain the demon for a few seconds while I do the exterminating" she explained, taking the bow from Syusuke's grasp and standing up. She was suddenly knocked to the side and she hit the ground. Hard. The youkai smiled, making his way over to her.

"Kagome!"

She didn't move.

Syusuke scowled and looked at the glowing jewel in his hand. So this was the jewel the demon was after, huh...? He looked around for a throwable object, and, finding none, took off his shoe and chucked it at the demon. It hit the demon and bounced off, landing on the floor with a soft thud. He hesitated before holding up the jewel.

"This is what you want, isn't it?" Fuji taunted. The demon was on him in an instant, pinning him against the wall and suffocating the life out of him.

"Baka ningen..." the demon growled, raising his clawed hand to make the finishing blow. Fuji flinched, but there was a roar of pain and the hands around his neck disappeared, leaving a panting Kagome in his sights instead.

"Are you alright, Syusuke?" she asked worriedly and he looked around, only finding a pile of ash where the demon had once stood.

"Never a dull moment when I'm with you, ne?"

"I'll take that as a 'yes'" Kagome laughed.

"I'm covered in dust."

"You're bleeding."

"I am? Oh, I am..."

"Here, let me take care of it..." she mumbled softly, falling to her knees beside him and taking his arm in her hand. She held her other hand above the large gash and laughed as she began to wipe the blood away with her sleeve.

"What?"

"Nothing, nothing. Seems like you were being careless and cut yourself on one of my items."

"They're lethal..." he grumbled.

"Always have to be prepared when there are demons after you" she explained.

"You weren't too prepared this time, were you?"

"Don't push your luck, Syusuke, I can make this hurt a lot more if I have to."

"Just saying the tru- ow!"

"Then don't say the truth. Heck, don't say anything." He was about to retaliate but shut his mouth, deciding against it. There was an extremely long, awkward silence that followed.

"...you scared me, Syusuke..." she finally whispered, breaking the silence, and Syusuke tensed at the sudden noise. Kagome rolled up her sleeves, preparing to do the second step. "I wasn't expecting you to come back..."

"I forgot something."

"Yeah. I figured that out when you walked in on us, but you really had me scared."

"Huh, didn't know that the 'Oh-So-Scary Kagome-sama' could be frightened."

"Stop joking, you know I scare easilly."

"Hai, hai..."

"Done, now get to practice! I'll be there in a little bit."

"Hai!"

------Ryoma-------

"Where the heck is he?!" Eiji whined, annoyed. "He said that he would be right back!!!"

"I'm here, I'm here!" a cheerful voice called, walking over and patting the top of my head with his racket. "What did I miss?"

"Inui's rant" I began.

"Okay, then, nothing too horrible."

"-about how he was going to make a new juice just for you."

"Whaaaa? But I'm here!"

"But you're late, senpai."

A tennis ball suddenly hit the back of my head and I turned around, seeing onee-chan's stalker friend standing there, racket in one hand and a tennis ball in the other, glaring at me.

"Hurry up and practice, Donkey!" she commanded.

"I'm not going to listen to you."

She served a ball at me and I was about to hit it when it shot upwards, straight at my face. I grunted as I dodged, but another ball came into view a split-second afterwards and hit me in the face, knocking me over.

"What the hell are you trying to do, baka!!!!!" I demanded, jumping to my feet, and she smirked, bouncing another tennis ball.

"C'mon, Ryoma, start practicing already" she taunted. "Maybe then you won't be beaten by someone like me, baaakaaa."

"Staaalker" I retorted.

Another ball hit my face and I was knocked over once again.

"Just hurry up and serve, dammit!" she shouted, annoyed.

"I can't because Fuji is my partner!"

She glared at Fuji and I heard him let out a tiny, nervous laugh before racing to his side of the court, a barrage of tennis balls hitting him as he did so. There was laughter but it quickly stopped and was replaced by yelps and shouts of surprise.

"Mind your own business, freaks!" Kagome shouted and I glanced over to see the boys' baseball team racing past, not wanting to face Kagome's wrath. I quickly served before I could get pummeled by another wave of balls.

'S-scary...'

To be Continued...

FMH (My bestest friend in the world) says: ...Funny...hehehehe...