DisclaimerI own nothing. All rights belong to the proper owners of Fruits Basket and InuYasha. I merely write this story for amusement. I make no profit from it whatsoever.


Name: Kokoro

Pairing: Kagome Higurashi/ Hatsuharu Sohma

Chapter Ten: Suspicions Arise


Written: 29/08/12

Finished 02/09/12


Kagome groaned and sat up. "That hurt," she said and rubbed her back.

Shigure sat up, too, watching her carefully. "I suppose that was rather painful," he agreed.

Kagome stood up and brushed herself off. Shigure mirrored her actions but stopped. Lying on the ground was a bright and shiny pink jewel. He bent down to retrieve it. The jewel glistened. Shigure noticed that it was attached to a thin cord. "Kagome-chan, is this yours?" He asked.

"Huh?" She turned around. When noticing the jewel, her eyes widened. "Yes!" She cried and snatched it out of his hands. Shigure jumped back, surprised.

"You're quite possessive about it, aren't you?" He laughed meekly.

Beads of sweat formed behind her head. "Let's just say… I've put a lot of blood and sweat into getting this gem." She laughed uneasily and licked her lips.

Shigure titled his head to the side. Her choice of words confused him. What did she mean by that exactly, he wondered and blinked, dumbfounded.

Kagome clapped her hands together. "Shigure-san, what about that tea you were talking about?"

Shigure watched her slide the jewel back into her bag. "Would you still like to get some?" He asked, his eyebrows rising.

Kagome sighed. "Sure, why not." She rocked back and forth on the tips of her feet. Idly, she glanced around her, surveying the park. No longer did she maintain an air of composure and calmness, but instead, one of anxiety and concern.

Shigure's eyebrows shot up. "If you would like, we can push it off until another day."

"That would be better." She agreed and inched the bag closer towards her. "We can arrange a date later-on." She started on jog on the spot. "Well, I'm not yet finished my run. I'll be seeing you later." Waving one last time, she continued with her run, leaving Shigure behind.

The dog watched her with calculating eyes, both perplexed and interested. "It looks like there is more to her than meets the eye," he realized and rubbed his chin, "How interesting."


Kagome round another bend and glanced behind her. No one was around.

Perfect!

She darted towards a cluster of trees. She pushed her feet to move faster than usual and leaned against a random pine for support. Breathing in and out, she shakily withdrew the jewel from her bag.

Stupid, stupid, stupid! Why did I have to think of bringing this with me?

The jewel should have remained back at her apartment, sealed up inside its magical box, protected by many wards and sutras.

Instead, I just had to bring it with me… How stupid of me!

She hissed with displeasure. She balled her free hand into a fist and resisted the urge to punch the tree. Raising the jewel up towards her, she began to inspect it. Her eyes widened.

The jewel is… glowing. Why?

Usually, the jewel retained its dark, opaque colouring. It only glistened and glimmered when someone with magical powers touched it (1). However, the jewel was unaffected by her own abilities, since she was the Shikon Miko. Thus, it did not sparkle around her.

No one else got close enough to me to touch the jewel. Since I am around the jewel – and I had placed sutras inside my bag – no one would have been able to detect its presence… it should have been safe.

"But then it fell out of the bag when that jerk pushed me down." Kagome gasped in realization.

A flash of Shigure formed inside her head. The memories of the event slowly came to mind. Her mouth dropped and her face paled.

Shigure… Impossible!

It could not make sense. There was no way Shigure possessed any magical abilities. If he did have any, then she would have noticed them long before.

Why is it that I never noticed?

She pursed her lips together and sat down. The pines and needles from the pine trees rustled, and a few dug their way into her skin. She merely ignored them and continued to think.

Maybe… the jewel was concealing his power from me.

Whenever Kagome carried the jewel around, her magical abilities weakened – sometimes, they even wavered. It had always puzzled her. Even the others back in the Feudal Era. No one understood why Kagome's powers weakened whenever she held onto the jewel.

Maybe I should pay them a visit, she thought. That way, I can talk to Kaede-san about this, and perhaps determine the truth not just behind the jewel, but also behind Shigure-san's abilities to mask his powers.

She shut her eyes. "There are two weeks left until break. Dance classes will also be cancelled. If I talk to Heidi-san (2), I might be able to negotiate a few days off from personal training." Kagome stood up and dusted herself off. "I've been putting in a lot of hours into training recently. I'm sure she won't mind me taking a few days off."

The miko smirked. "But in the mean time, I'll need to do some investigating of my own. I'll need to check in on Shigure-san and find out just exactly he is hiding."


The next morning, Kagome headed off to the library. Before deciding to pay a visit to Shigure's home, she opted to head to the library to do some investigating. She wanted to look a little bit into the Sohma family's history.

There's something different about them, I just can just feel it. She thought, scanning through a book.

"You just don't know how this family works, that's all."

"There's a lot about us that you don't know about, and should never know about. It would be best actually, if you stopped seeing us altogether."

Haru's words resurfaced inside her mind while she sat at a desk, scanning through a large book. She stopped reading and pursed her lips together. "Just what did you mean by that?" She wondered.

"Just what did who mean by what?" Someone asked.

"Huh?" Kagome jumped. She looked up and saw Momiji standing just above her, watching her curiously. She glanced down towards the book and quickly shut it.

"Momiji-kun," she smiled nervously, "How, um, good to see you."

"It's good to see you." He replied and sat down on the table. "What are you reading?" He leaned over, attempting to read the book's cover. But Kagome reached out and pulled it towards her before he could.

"Nothing interesting," she said and tucked it away inside her bag. Thankfully, she had already checked the book out and had the paper with its return date safely tucked away in her back pocket.

Momiji pouted. "That's no fun."

"Momiji, where are you?"

Kagome's face blanched. Momiji jumped to his feet. "Over here, Haru."

Haru grunted and rounded a corner. When seeing Kagome, he stopped walking. "What are you doing here?" He asked. "Kagome-san," he then added a minute later.

"Just checking out some books, Hatsuharu-san," she nodded and stood up.

"You find anything?"

She nodded and patted two other books lying on the table. One was a small red book about genetics and the other was a large blue one about astrology. "I already signed these two out. I was going to read them now, but I guess I'll just read them later."

"That sounds like a plan." Momiji exclaimed and reached for her hand. "We were just looking for some books we need for an English project. Want to help us?"

Kagome shrugged her shoulders. "Sure, why not."

Haru sighed. "The book we're reading is titled Moonlit Wars (3)."

"It sounds interesting."

"Is it ever interesting," Momiji gushed. "If you want, I'll tell you all about it." Kagome laughed and nodded. "Sure, go ahead." While Momiji summarized the story to Kagome, Haru stood off to the side and watched them carefully. He analyzed Kagome's posture and studied her closely.

Meanwhile, hiding in the shadows, a group of girls whispered amongst themselves. They pointed towards Haru and had hearts floating above their heads.

"Haru-san," they murmured affectionately.

The leader of the group cracked her knuckles and smiled venomously. Her eyes wandered towards the sole female of the group across the way: Kagome Higurashi. She balled her hands into fists and suddenly snapped her fingers.

"Remember the plan?" She whispered, catching all of their attention. The girls looked towards her and nodded, their eyes sparkling with freshly grown flames of pure, undeniable hatred.

"Operation: Embarrass-Higurashi-san-in-front-of-Haru-san-is-about-to-commence."

The girls smiled. "Get into position," their leader commenced, "For we're about to start." Her eyes narrowed. "Higurashi-san will never know what hit her."


Author's Note

(1) Added on for the sake of the story – it might not be true, but just believe it is, okay?

(2) The first name of the owner who runs the dance studio

(3) The title just randomly came to mind. I do not know if it's an actual book.

I know the Shikon No Tama is supposed to increase people's powers, allowing them to become unbelievably strong, but I know what I'm doing. It might not make much sense now, but in the future chapters it will. Don't doubt me on this, okay? I know what I'm doing. :3

~TFSA