Akiko held a small bundle of washed uniforms in her arms as she reached Kagome's room and rested her hand on the door slightly opening it a crack so she could see inside.

The sun wasn't quite up yet so her daughter's room was bathed in a hint of blue light. There was a form sitting up against the wall on the bed with the pink comforter wrapped tightly around. White hair fell around the shadow of her face and Akiko smiled. Did Kagome sleep like that again?

She tip toed inside the room around the dirty laundry and looked on the table filled with various books and papers stuffed in the pages. Kagome had been working so hard to catch up with everyone in school, she was proud of her daughter for her effort.

She noticed the tray of food she had brought up last night, the chopsticks were broken, the spoon was bent and the bowl was licked clean. Akiko smiled at the sight happy that this time Kagome didn't break the dishes and the tray.

Even breaths could be heard as Kagome slept lightly in an upright position, she really should wake the girl it was almost time for school. She turned around and rested the neat pile of clothing on her white dresser making sure everything was crisply ironed. Kagome's clothing had to be washed with only soap and water it was the only thing her sensitive nose could stand.

She turned around about to wake her daughter when she froze seeing Kagome standing a few inches away from her towering over her form looking down at her. Akiko could barely see her face in the shadow but the hint of blue light from outside caused her eyes to almost glow.

"Hey mama, are those washed?" Kagome grinned ear to ear. One of her favorite things was socks out of the dryer, they smelled warm and fresh and she couldn't wait to put them on.

Mrs. Higurashi nodded giving Kagome a small smile staring at the very sharp fine points of her canines.

"Cool. Thanks!" Kagome grabbed a few clothes and a rolled pair of clean socks and walked into the bathroom shutting the door behind her.

Akiko finally let out the breath she was holding when she heard the shower turn on. She placed her hand on her dresser and leaned against a wall with a hand over her heart.

Chapter 11) The Other

Kagome rested both hands on the sink and miserably moaned. As soon as she walked through the doors she'd always made a bee line to the bathroom to hurl. The girls thought she was bulimic, she'd even gone to the councilors once to get a lecture about how she shouldn't be going to such extremes for her body but Kagome had those wonderful diseases to fall back on.

She wiped the edge of her mouth with a fist and stood straightening her uniform that consisted of a red skirt with a white band at the bottom close to the hem and a tight white shirt with a red and white sailor collar with quite a low cut front she didn't quite care for. Some part of her was relieved the change of uniforms, another was still longing for the past.

Kagome let out a sigh and muttered to herself, 'here goes anything' before walking out of the pink tiled bathroom into the hallway.

She could feel eyes on her and even hear the whispers from her classmates all the way down the hallway.

'She definitely got plastic.'

Kagome rolled her eyes knowing what person that comment was directed towards. She said nothing to the group of girls that were staring at her as she walked by.

'I wish she would go to another school, she needs to take a shower.'

'She stuffs major.'

'Have you even seen her, she's like… stupid.'

'I heard she was a…'

Kagome turned her head wondering who they were talking about this time. Her eyes spotted a figure with ratted hair and clothing at a locker. She could only watch as the herd of girls walked over to her and shut the locker door while she was still using it. The girl stared forward a moment as they passed by, laughing amongst themselves before reaching down to open it again.

Among the things Kagome caught in the whispers of the hallway she found out that the girl had a nasty temper putting someone in the previous school in the hospital. Kagome didn't listen to things like that the girl seemed meek and quiet. She shrugged at the nonsense talk that went around the school.

"Kagome-san your grandfather explained everything to me." The principle rushed towards her wrapping her arms in a loose embrace. Was she… was she crying? Kagome was stunned before the woman un-wrapped her arms giving her a pitiful look. What the hell did her grandfather say? "You poor dear, you are taking the whole premature white hair so well."

"It's not prematurely grey!" Kagome had to keep her sanity before her grandfather gave it away like free pizza on a school night.

"I know how you feel. When I get a few strands of white I just wanted to dye the whole thing white, but I stuck to my natural color." She placed her hand on Kagome's shoulder, "I can give you the number to my stylist that can work wonders."

Kagome wanted to snap her fangs at her grandfather! She was so dumbfounded she took the stylists phone number stuffing it into her pocket just so she could be done with it. 'That's it my sanity's gone down the toilet.'

Kagome walked into homeroom before the chime and watched as everyone turned towards her and stared. She nervously averted her gaze to her feet shifting the pack on her shoulder as she walked passed Eri and Yuki's desks. The two girls stopped talking to each other to stare at her.

"What happened to your hair Kagome?" Eri and Yuki stood up and pointed at her as though some squirrel just landed on her head.

Of course that was the million dollar question this morning.

"It… ugh… is prematurely grey." Kagome wanted to DIE saying those words.

"Was that during the weekend?" Eri reached out and took one of her strands. "It's been looking rather off since you got back I can't believe it would just turn grey overnight."

"Hey I saw black spray dye in your pack about a week ago." Yuki folded her arms, "You've been keeping your grey hair from us."

"It's embarrassing enough Yuki." And boy did she know it. Kagome nervously rubbed the back of her neck with a hand and the three girls stood in awkward silence.

Eri cleared her throat, "You didn't call last night to go over the next assignment."

"Oh… I'm caught up."

"Already, wow."

"Thanks for helping me." She smiled mutely. "I don't have to bother you guys anymore for this stuff I know I've been imposing since I got back and you have to think about your own studies and your own lives and we're in high school and that's hard… and here you are helping me out… and I'm sorry for that." That declaration caused both girls to stare at her wide eyed as Kagome used almost the same dialogue they did when they were complaining about having to help her when they thought she was out of earshot.

Eri looked away and Yuki looked down to her feet. "Goodbye Eri, goodbye Yuki." Kagome whispered before heading to her own desk the double meaning in that word was heavily set on her two friends that were still to awestruck to say anything to her. Each step felt like lead as she dropped her pack to the ground and sat. She set her elbows on the desk and rubbed her temples as she closed her eyes tightly trying not to cry.

Kagome had just ended her friendship. Maybe they'd call her, maybe Yuki would apologize and they could start over… but she honestly doubted that after having seen a dramatic change in her best friends. And did she even feel comfortable anymore after that outburst the other day? 'I guess only time could tell.'

The teacher came into class and all the girls immediately swooned. He was a handsome younger man and by the absence of a ring on his left hand was terribly unmarried. He had dark features and slightly too long hair. She remembered the three girls would swoon over how he did his hair or what cologne he was wearing. It was too potent for Kagome's liking and she voiced that opinion quite frequently as she fought the urge to pinch her nose at his aftershave.

"Ok class, everyone take out a pencil its time for a pop quiz." The teacher walked in and froze mid stride to his desk to stare at her.

Kagome groaned out loud and lowered her head wishing she could crawl in a hole and die.

She had decided when returning to school she would do any make up work possible so she could graduate with her own class. It was hard considering how poorly her grades were since she had started going to the warring era to study for these sorts of tests. It was even harder to makeup the tests she had missed since being gone for months.

But she made a resolve and if Kagome was one thing it was utterly stubborn. All the while she felt the eyes of her classmates on her. Kagome heard the light shift in the air as someone turned and looked her way. She looked up finally and caught a young man's eyes and he blushed and looked away.

Kagome hadn't been too forthcoming to her friends when they asked about what illness had forced her grandfather to un-enroll her from school. Of course her grandfather had all sorts of diseases lined up with forged doctor's notes from some cousin of theirs in the mainland, something about pituitary spurt along with some skin disease and high fever that could account for her change in appearance and eye color.

So she was like a foreign object to them, something to look at and examine. Kagome didn't even want to imagine what they would do if they found out exactly what she had become. Would they turn her into some sort of test subject to be studied, poked and prodded? Kagome knew the hearts of humans she knew that they were easily frightened of things they did not understand. Demons weren't real this society turned away from the fantasy of their ancestors embracing technology and scientific explanations for everything.

She had white hair, fangs, elfish ears and claws. These were all things that she covered up with hair color, hair and filing her nails coloring them. Yet these little masks she had couldn't hide the fact she stuck out like a sore thumb, or maybe her demonic nature could manifest itself in other ways even she didn't know about. What would they do to her then? For the millionth time since her mother had brought up school Kagome questioned whether it was a good idea to even return at all.

'It's for your future.' Her mother told her. Well she wasn't too keen envisioning her future in a cage being poked by needles. There was only so much she could hide people weren't that dumb to figure it out eventually.

She shivered realizing she was surrounded by humans.

And they were all staring at her.

As soon as the chimes went off she gathered her things and walked up to the teacher's desk earning a glare from several of the girls in the class. "Mr. Yamamoto I have a couple chapter's worth of work for you." She placed her pack on the desk and grabbed a stack of papers neatly stapled together placing them in the middle of his desk.

"Ah Higurashi." He put his glasses on and looked down at the stack flipping through the pages, "Wait a moment, does this mean you are caught up?"

"Yes sir." She had slaved over the makeup work for weeks on end. Last week she realized she couldn't ask Eri for help anymore so she just did it all on her own hoping she got some of the concepts along the way.

"I'll get these graded when I can, you need to makeup two tests and you'll be completely caught up." He gave her a charming smile. "How about staying late tonight?"

Kagome sighed accepting her fate with damn tests. She hated tests, she didn't always used to hate them this badly. Maybe it was the fact that Inuyasha hated them and never let her study in peace for them in the Sengoju Jidai so she eventually learned to hate them as well. It was then she realized what he had said and the obvious innuendo in his words laced with the spiciness of his scent that suddenly hiked. She narrowed her eyes at his devilishly charming smile not buying any of it today. "I can just do it in the library during lunch."

"Are you sure? It would be so much nicer to do it in peace here."

He stood up and in an overly slow motion ran his fingers through his hair. The action somehow reminded her of cologne commercials, in them though the men wore less clothing or their shirts were unbuttoned. She found herself actually taking a good look at him whatever possessed her to do such a thing clearly wasn't impeding her mind from drawing the oddest conclusions. 'He is lean and muscular therefore he is strong physically for a human, aside from the lecherous look he is a rather handsome man I would be lying if I said he wasn't. All in all… a possible human mate.' She blinked, reaching up to pinch the bridge of her nose squishing any of those fucked up thoughts from invading her mind. What was she thinking! "Mr. Yamamoto, I don't want to place any burden on you."

"Really… it would be my pleasure."

Kagome looked up to see him another step closer to her invading some very personal space. She wanted to squirm back but something inside seethed in anger, a rage she had never known. In a flash she caught his wandering hand that had been inching along the desk towards her thigh gripping it at the wrist. "Really, you don't have to."

His charming smile faded and his eyes widened in realization, she was hurting his wrist and he wasn't about to press the issue lest she snap his wrist entirely. His forehead felt hot and he began to sweat as his wrist was slowly being crushed by a teenager. "Well I can have that set up with one of the librarians."

Kagome smiled sweetly, "That would be perfect." She let go of his wrist and swung around walking out of the class. Before she stopped she threw over her shoulder, "It would be a shame if I wasn't equally graded as my peers." When she heard him gulp she walked out.

She was quite honestly through with perverts, through with little boys that didn't know what they wanted and especially through with baka's… and men in general. It was best for their sakes to just stay the hell away from her considering she had urges to… well. There were times she would wake up gripping the covers feeling completely empty, a sudden urge or want that burned like fire aside from the chaotic dreams. Then whenever she knew someone was interested in her, or felt a male aside from her brother or grandfather brush past her, or a man stare at her with obvious want or lust she had darker urges, not the lust filled nightmares that would make her blush but an indescribable anger that would have her taking cold showers to get over it. It was for this reason she was a bit glad that Hojou had Eri for a girlfriend, because even though she was serenaded by demon princes and human warlords alike she still sort of had a little crush on him.

She rubbed her temples walking along the hall dodging running into anyone she knew. She stopped at the cafeteria door looking inside. She spotted Ayumi, Eri and Yuki sitting down eating their lunch discussing various classes sometimes laughing amongst themselves. Kagome took a step back out of their vision when Hojou came up to the girls and Eri slid over so he could sit next to her. He smiled at the others and glanced around just briefly probably trying to find Kagome among them. When he turned his head her way Kagome turned around and walked out of the cafeteria into the halls.

Kagome wanted to go inside the lunchroom, she longed to sit down with her friends as before and swoon over boys and classes and giggle with her friends. Aside from her physical changes they changed as well. Would they be so mean and cruel if she wasn't so absent all the time? Kagome liked to think she had a bit of good influence on her friends but that's something not even time could tell. Even if she was Kagome the mortal girl as before she felt as though they would have still resented her, maybe they would have masked their disapproval of her better but what was the use of having empty friends. It was passed… she clapped her hands in front of her… that was all she could do about it. She was a demon now, she couldn't have friends anymore.

She longed for her life back, longed for her raven black hair and brown eyes. Kagome wanted to be short again she didn't like having to look down at people. She wanted things she just couldn't have anymore… things she should have had for the rest of her life.

'You're a demon now… live with it.'

It was all taken away because of a choice. Kagome chose to stay with Inuyasha, she tried to leave but even if he wouldn't allow her to return Kagome was stubborn enough to find a way to return home just like she kept finding a way to return to the past. Sango could have helped her plan her escape, even Miroku if he knew what had really been going on but Kagome had kept it to herself… she had allowed him to break her spirit, allowed him to darken her soul and allowed herself to fall into despair…

So why a demon?

Even she had no answer to that one. This was his wish not hers. She would have rather given in to the darkness than taken this form. From her grandfathers studies it says that demons can be born of strong emotions… so was this creature born from her sorrow using the body of someone that had been human? Kagome shook her head. No, she now carried Inuyasha's wish and it would be a constant reminder to her of how close she was to losing everything and everyone she held most dear for even a chance at his love.

And Kikyou's scar would be the reminder of how foolish she was to trust again.

Kagome wandered the deserted hallways at the top floor of the school and saw a door that was partly open. Kagome sniffed the air lightly finding the scent of grass she found out of place. She put her hand in the crack of the door and shoved it open lightly walking up the steps to the roof of the school.

Kagome stilled when she saw someone standing on the lip of the plaster roof. The girl was still as a statue her hands limp at her sides standing there with no shoes on and her hair a ragged mess staring out towards… something. Her dirty shoes and various books were resting neatly on the ground behind her.

It was that girl, the one people talk crap about.

There was something different about the girl, something she couldn't place. Maybe the girl stuck out like a sore thumb like Kagome.

It began to rain very lightly and Kagome could not hear her breathe. She began to feel nervous at how close she was to the edge of the school with her toes curled over the edge. Should she call out to her, no that would frighten the girl and Kagome didn't want her to fall over. Maybe she should just back away…

Kagome stilled when the girl looked over her shoulder through long strands of uncut hair and stared back at her. Her lips parted open when Kagome took a good look at her shell shocked at what she was seeing. She opened her mouth but nothing came out. 'Who is this girl?'

"Go away." The girl muttered looking back to the city.

Kagome felt possessed walking towards the girl standing right behind her. The girl noticed and stiffened.

"You're one of them… the ones that talk shit aren't you?"

"No, I'm not." Kagome whispered. "I think you know that."

"Are you going to tell me to put my shoes on?"

Kagome blinked at the odd question. "Not unless you want to. You shouldn't be up here like that people will stare." The girl turned around looked her up and down and shrugged a shoulder looking back out to the city. 'It's like the pot calling the kettle black.'

Kagome looked at the door wondering if she should just leave but she tentatively stepped forward and took a step up where the girl was standing. Kagome turned and looked out to the view of the city and smiled a bit at the thousands of buildings as far as the eye could see. Kagome's nose wrinkled when she smelled something foul in the air… "What the… you're smoking out here!"

The girl turned to look up at her with 'did you just figure that out' look. She took a deep puff before flicking the cigarette with two fingers out on the lower level roof. From the looks of the small pile it appeared she was a regular visitor up here. Kagome cringed at the smell.

The chime rung loudly echoing off the outer buildings and Kagome took a step back onto the ground of the roof. "Class will start soon."

"Sure it will."

"We should go back in don't you think?"

The girl turned her head fully and stared at Kagome in a way that made her nervous. She seemed mad and annoyed for a moment before letting out a sigh and getting off the edge of the roof sitting down to put her shoes on.

"Did they send you to get me?" She asked.

"No, I came up here to be alone." Kagome muttered.

"They didn't send you?"

Kagome shook her head, "No one sent me."

"So… I'm not in trouble?"

"Not that I know of." She let out a sigh of relief and stood up. Kagome was struck at how tiny she was, she was about a foot shorter than Kagome with a curvy generous figure that caught the jealous attentions of the girls in school calling into question 'other professions'. She watched as the girl gathered her books clutching them to her chest walking back into the school. Kagome hurried in and caught up to her. "Gomen I never told you my name. It's Higurashi Kagome." Kagome tried to smile despite the girl's appearance.

The girl nodded once and whispered her name a few times smiling at the sound of it. "Kagome, Kagome. I like your name it's in that nursery rhyme.

"Well… its nothing." Kagome felt silly feeling embarrassed about someone liking her name that much. No one ever said it right, or attempted to. Hell in the warring era she was always referred to as 'woman' or 'bitch' or even 'you' sometimes.

Kagome got off her little high of having someone really like her name. "Well you know mine, what's yours?"

The girl smiled broadly, "Kikyou…. just Kikyou."