AN: This story absolutely tortured me last night. I think I was awake, lying there in bed, until three in the morning. Just writing out scenes and progressions in my head, and not being able to fall asleep. It was infuriating, honestly, it was.
Then, of course, the first thing I did when I woke up this morning was check on the stats for this story. I live for those climbing numbers, I swear.
Well, not really- they do bring me immense joy though.
In the five minutes between looking at the number of hits it had gotten, brushing my teeth, and checking the numbers again- it occurred to me that people were reading this while I was scrubbing the nasty out of my mouth.
It was an exceptional thought for me. An exceptional thought, and an exceptional feeling.
So I just want to thank anyone who is reading. You all have a special place in my heart. It seems like a small thing. I don't know any of you. I don't need to… but the idea that my words might be bringing a little bit of positivity to your day; it's indescribable.
Thank you all.
~Ele
ALSO! I said in chapter one that I wouldn't write any more long author's notes. I guess I lied about that. I guess it just shows that never is an unattainable ideal.
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Disclaimer: I claim no ownership. I don't. Maybe one day I'll have my own novel published, but it won't have anything to do with the Inuyasha universe, seeing as I don't have any rights to it and only do fanfics for fun.
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Posted: 1.14.2020
Edited: 12.28.2020
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Paradigm Shift
Chapter Ten: Pressure
… … …
So as not to get lost or obliterated in the coming destruction of what will be the old that follows the Chaos, new inputs are held apart from the rest of the self- in stasis, fresh and nerve-searingly felt as though they were still currently happening, until the moment that the old ideals are crushed and the new can begin to settle. It's painful and fraying- but nessacary.
… … …
It was blessedly quiet in the stables. Sesshomaru stopped at the entrance and gestured her forward, but she didn't move from his side. Her shoulders shook as she tried to repress her sobs. She didn't do a very good job.
"There is no-one to hear you here, Kagome." He said to her softly. She hung her head and tears fell from her even as she shook with the stubborn refusal to let any more cries or sobs come from her.
"You're here." She replied brokenly, unsure if the words were in defiance or in search of reassurance. She stood in front of him without looking away from the sodden floor at her feet and reached out one hand to grasp the index and middle fingers of his hand in her fist.
"I am."
"Why are you here, Sesshomaru?"
He shook his hand slightly, trying to dislodge her from his fingers as he stepped around her and into the stables. He failed, sighing in resignation of being accosted. As he walked, Kagome readjusted her grip so that she could walk with him into the darkness, sliding her hand around to hold his hand properly. He didn't wrap his hand around hers in return or acknowledge the gesture, but he didn't try to remove her again, either. They stopped in front of a beautiful black stallion.
"We are here." He shook his hand again. She gripped tighter, and he sighed. He curled his thumb around her knuckles and lifted their hands to rest on the stallion's silky neck. He rubbed the back of her hand across its coat. "Because sometimes you need to talk to someone who will not judge you. Who cannot judge you."
She started as the horse shook his head and snorted at her, but released Sesshomaru and replaced her palm on its neck as it calmed. Her other hand came up to scratch its nose.
"I imagine that your taijiya takes comfort from her feline in the same matter."
"Kirara is smarter than a horse though. She can understand what Sango talks to her about."
"Indeed. Ah-Un is very similar in that regard. It stands that they do not have the same capacity as us to relate to someone in need."
"I guess." She stood there for what seemed like seconds but could have been hours, before looking back at his pale figure.
"You didn't answer my question." He pointed to the stallion.
"That's not what I meant."
Kagome looped her arms around the soft neck of the horse and rubbed her cheek against his.
"Why are you here?" She asked again. "Why do you care now, all of a sudden? Why did you decide to come with us, like that?"
"You."
"Me?" She spun to face him, shocked. "What..?" Her conversation from the afternoon before invaded thoughts.
""What's that about anyway? He's being so weird"
""You don't know why?""
"It's more accurate to call him protective.""
""… … implications to his station… …""
"This is about me and Kouga telling you about the panther youkai?"
"Yes and no. My presence with you, here, is very similar to my presence in Rin's life."
Her face scrunched up in confusion.
"I don't get it."
Kagome felt the stress and excitement of the past weeks weighing on her, and she just wanted to go to sleep for days; alone, in her room. She needed a break from all of this intensity. She just wanted it to stop. Everything was so much simpler before she had made that fateful decision to be responsible.
Sesshomaru placed his hand on her back again, steering her to the end of the row and into the last stall. He handed her yellow, worn out, backpack and lifted Ah-Un's saddle and its burdens onto his shoulder.
Kagome followed him back the way they had come, perplexed.
"Rin came to me while I was injured. When Inuyasha took my arm. I was, as you might imagine, rather perturbed at that time. The wound was fresh and painful. Still, the girl only showed me compassion and kindness; though I did my best to deter her efforts."
Kagome scrubbed at the itchy, tight skin on her cheeks where her tears had dried, listening intently as she watched Sesshomaru settle the burden onto the dragon's back. She had only known the little girl for a short time, but the story definitely sounded like something she'd expect from her.
"Rin tried to help me in the only ways that she knew how. She was unaffected by the warning of the violence that I presented to her, only seeking to give me comfort and aid."
Kagome nodded to herself as she listened. They left Ah-Un and the stables, rounded the corner of the building, and the main house was in sight. She could see the subject of his story laughing and playing with Shippou.
"Kagome."
She made a noise of acknowledgment, still watching the playing trio and the two servant girls nearby.
"Stop and look at me, Kagome."
"Eh?" She did as he asked, a little dazedly from her emotional exhaustion. He was a few paces behind her as he forged ahead.
"Rin tried to save my life in the only way that she was able." Kagome nodded. "You tried to save my lands and everyone who lives in them, and myself, with your warning."
She gaped at him.
"I…
"While neither of you stopped to consider the implications of your actions, I'm sure,"
""You don't understand the implications to his station…""
"I do not take those implications lightly. That you would put yourself in the position where you now stand; it demands my respect, my consideration, and my reciprocation. Your message could either prevent or ease dissensions in my territory. It is not an action that I can simply let pass, Kagome."
Kagome was at a loss for words. As the full impact of her split-second decision seeped into her mind, she was stunned. None of it had occurred to her at the time, or after. She had just latched onto a feeling of wrongness and done her best to set it right.
"Oh."
"Oh, indeed."
Kagome dropped her backpack and ran to him, trying to wrap her arms around him in a hug.
Unfortunately, her cheek bounced off of his chest plate, the spikes narrowly missing her.
"Ow." She still did her best to hug him. "Thank you." She said.
"Why do you persist to thank me without reason?"
"There's a reason."
"I am simply upholding my honor, Kagome."
She shook her head and looked up into his face intently, and put her little hands around the spikes that had nearly impaled her.
"No! I mean, yes, but… thank you. For making me feel like something about me… is important to someone."
"Inuyasha…." He sighed. "Is an idiot, Kagome."
Sesshomaru decided to humor her, and bent over to place his arm behind her knees, lifting her up. She readily took the opportunity and wrapped her arms around his neck.
"You are undeniably infuriating. Rin has never sought this level of physical attention." Despite his words, his face fell to her neck, and his nose ran back and forth over her skin.
"Yeah, well, you're acting like a dog so I'm allowed to act clingy."
"I am a dog, miko."
"And I'm needy. Deal with it, it's your problem now. You said so."
He set her down abruptly and raised an eyebrow at her. She giggled.
"So. This all means that you're going to be protecting me from now on, like Rin?"
"Hm."
Kagome jogged back to her fallen bag, scooped it up, and ran toward the steps of the main house. She scooped Rin up and twirled her cackling little body in a circle.
… … …
As the sun began to wake and stretch its arms to push aside the darkness, the group tiredly readied themselves to set out. Lord Kuranosuke was warned about the shade, and how it would reappear if given time to regain its strength. He was told about how he needed to find what the bear youkai was using to ground itself and keep itself from true death. He was thanked for his hospitality, and his insistence on payment; though they had not been the one who had rid the compound of the malevolent spirit in the end.
Aki and Chiyo were thanked for all that they had done to make them comfortable.
Sango was pulled away for another private conversation with Lord Kuranosuke.
Miroku was sitting on the steps, leaning against his shakujo and falling asleep.
Kagome, Rin, Shippou, and Kirara were huddled together in the circle of Ah-Un's legs, covered with a blanket and trying to sleep.
Inuyasha was hiding from the resident healer.
Kouga and Sesshomaru, however, were standing near the gates, talking.
"I'd like to know how you did that." Kouga said, fixated on Kagome's relaxed face.
"I did nothing other than tell her the truth."
"Well, whatever you said to her, it snapped her out of the mood she was in pretty damn fast."
As they observed, Kagome gave a pleased sigh and pulled Shippou tighter against her chest, turning onto her side. The motion jarred Rin, and she slipped down, ending up almost completely laying on top of Kagome. Kirara slipped off her perch on Rin's head, jumped onto her back and pawed at Rin's shoulders before settling at the pinnacle of their little pile.
"I must return to the west, shortly." Sesshomaru gave his full attention to the wolf as he spoke. "You need to as well."
Kouga grimaced at the reminder.
"I do need to. The wolf tribes were in an uproar before I left. The western packs are hesitant to accept us into their ranks as easily as I had hoped."
"Yet you left them?"
"They'll fight it out and get over it without me there. It's how we are." Kouga waved a dismissive hand. "The western prince and I have settled matters and we expect everyone to calm down soon, anyway."
"That is… reassuring." The tone in Sesshomaru's voice suggested that he was anything but reassured.
"You taking Kagome with you?"
"I expect you to inform prince Kazuo that he is to accompany you to the Western Hall."
"Yeah. I'll tell him that we're all gathering."
"What do you know of the Panther Tribe? As I was aware, they resided near your previous settlement."
"Not much, really. They kept to themselves. There aren't many more of them than what we saw a few weeks ago. Maybe a dozen of them in all? They didn't pick many fights with other clans in the east, but they're strong. My pack had a run-in with one of them, once. The stinkin' cat ran off after pissing us off, and then some of them tried to attack us that night."
"Opportunistic of them."
"Yeah."
… … …
They had left Kuranosuke's compound about an hour ago. It was raining again. After all of the reds and pinks in the sky at sunrise, nothing but grey could be seen above their heads now. When Kagome's foot sank, ankle deep, into a puddle that turned out to be much deeper than she had estimated and her left shoe filled with water, she reached her limit.
Everything had been non-stop chaos for weeks, she was trying to adjust to too many new shifts in the normal that was her life in this era, and the people in it. Her body was tired and sore and her emotions had been toppling her head over heels since it all started. Sesshomaru was being possessive. Inuyasha was being distant. Sango was preoccupied and couldn't listen to more than her first sentence when she tried to talk to her. Miroku was Miroku. She needed a break. She wanted quiet. She needed a real bath and time to think and process and it was almost her birthday and graduation was soon and she has worked hard to graduate and it was hell and there had been appeals and she felt like hell... and… and… she wanted to go home.
"Inuyasha!" She yelled, hands balled at her sides.
"What!"
"Take me home!"
"WHAT!? No way! We haven't found any shards since you've been here!"
"I've been here over a month! I want to see my family and I have things to do!"
Sango sighed at the familiar argument, and let Kirara down so that she could phase into her larger form. She didn't blame Kagome for wanting to go home, she wouldn't mind a break either. They hadn't searched non-stop like this in a long time, and she could use some time to make repairs to her suit and armor.
"We could all use some time to get back up to par, Inuyasha. Kaede's village is only a few days away, let's just take Kagome home and take care of some things while she's gone."
Inuyasha turned to Sango with a glare.
"If she didn't leave all the time, we'd have all of the pieces by now! Nothing that she has back there could be as important as getting the shards before Naraku!"
The chunk of the Shikon twisted around in Kagome's fingers as her anger started to fade, and the hurt from Inuyasha's words washed over her. It felt like he was getting more and more single-minded, focusing in on the shards. Their conversations were few and far between, lately. When they did talk, he was distant or terse with her.
She could understand it a little, what with Kouga and Sesshomaru getting on his nerves, the weather forcing them to stop constantly, and Kikyo.
She knew that she would never measure up to Kikyo in his eyes. She had been trying her best to accept that ever since Kikyo's arrow had destroyed the shade, the experience hung over her still- so intense.. Her emotions couldn't seem to settle or dull about anything lately and this was just one more thing she seemed unable to really process.
It stung that Inuyasha could barely separate them in his mind. Kagome would always be the one that came after. After Kikyo loved Inuyasha and Inuyasha loved her. She came after Kikyo had died. After the jewel. Always one step behind the important things.
"I should pay a visit to Mushin's Temple. Check-in on the old drunk."
"I have business in the Western Hall that needs to be attended to."
Kagome wondered whether she should just have asked Sesshomaru to take her home this time. He seemed to be taking it seriously when he had said that he would protect her. 'That used to be Inuyasha's job. I guess that comes after Kikyo, too.'
She was just too done with dealing with everything right then to work up any indignation when Kouga swept her up into his arms bridal style. The most she could manage was a sigh.
"I can take you home before I go check on my tribe, Kagome. We could be there in no time. Less than a day."
"Don't even touch her, bastard!" Inuyasha shouted at him. He was ignored.
"That would be nice, Kouga. Thanks."
"You will stay with your family for at least two weeks while I am in the west." Sesshomaru's matter-of-fact speech patterns didn't usually bother her anymore, but she'd had just about enough of never having a say in anything. She struggled up in Kouga's arms enough to glare at him over one shoulder.
"I'll stay however long I stay, Sesshomaru!"
"No less than two weeks."
"UGH!" She slapped at her kidnapper until he put her down, and marched herself over to him. She huffed and sputtered and the only thing she managed to get out coherently was a strangled, "BULLY!" Maybe he would have taken her more seriously if he wasn't so tall and intimidating… or if she wasn't so small and useless. He bent over her and their noses nearly touched.
"Two weeks."
"You! AHHHHH! Kouga! Take me home!"
… … …
As soon as her foot crossed the threshold, Kagome was in heaven. Dropping her bag felt like she was just tossing all of the stress from the past few weeks of insanity on the floor.
She was tempted to stomp on it.
There were hurried footsteps and soon, she was swept into a tight embrace by her mother and it was exactly what she needed. Warm and familiar. She sighed into the hug, finally feeling relaxed.
"Hi mama."
"Welcome home, sweetie."
"Thanks. It's good to be back."
Kagome was forced into a chair at the table in the kitchen and watched contentedly as her mom bustled about the place. When a bowl a fresh, sliced fruit and whipped cream was set down, her mother dropped into the chair next to her.
"I was starting to worry about you, Kagome! You've been gone a long time, this time."
"I'm okay mama. I think the days just started blurring together and I lost track."
The older woman nodded sagely and plucked a strawberry from the bowl, mirroring her daughter.
"So what in the world have you been up to for the last five weeks?"
The strawberry stopped on its sinful journey.
"Eh?"
"Oh! That reminds me!" An envelope was pulled from the nearby counter and pushed across the table into Kagome's waiting hands.
"What's this?"
"Your diploma came in the mail a few days ago! You made it! All that Higurashi stubbornness."
"I missed graduation?"
"Oh! No, sweetie. They just mail the official diplomas out early. The letter said so."
Kagome bit her strawberry in half and chewed as she laid her upper half across the surface of the table. Can't she escape the heart attacks here, either?
"Wait.. did you say five weeks?"
"Mhm. You haven't stayed in the feudal era for so long since you were fifteen. Grandpa, Souta and I were getting really worried."
"Sorry. I didn't realize it had been that long. I thought I'd been gone for almost four. The days really did blur together with everything that's happened."
"Why don't you tell me about it?"
"After a shower?"
… … …
The loose thread in her pajama pants was utterly fascinating. That's why she wouldn't look at her mother sitting there next to her on her big, soft, warm, welcoming, clean bed. Maybe she would just fluff this pillow and have mercy on the thread. She'd missed the pillow and it shouldn't be feeling neglected.
"You really have had quite the adventure, dear. This Kouga boy is the one that's been asking you to marry him for so long?"
"Yeah."
"What does your Inuyasha have to say about all of this?"
"Not much. He doesn't have much of anything to say at all lately."
"Ah. His brother is with you now too? I thought you said that they don't get along."
Kagome laughed, despite the frustration of trying to tell her mother about what had been happening in the past, without telling her what had been happening in the past. She knew her mom would worry no matter what, which is why she had always sort of glossed over the near death experiences and overly affectionate encounters that her daughter went through when she was away.
"They still don't get along."
She curled her fingers around the corners of her pillow, not knowing what to say. Or not knowing what she could say without making her mother call someone to drive a bulldozer over the well.
"That can't be entirely comfortable, then."
"It really hasn't been, mama."
When her mother laid her hand on the poor pillow that was busy being abused and Kagome looked up at her, all of the everything rushed back up to swallow here again and she felt the first tears fall at the same time as she felt her mother's arms wrap around her shoulders. She wished that she could say she wondered when she had grown distant from her mother, but the truth was that she knew. It had happened when she had fallen through the well, through time, and landed in a place that her mother couldn't reach her- a place that she somehow felt that she needed and wanted to be, somewhere she belonged… somewhere that her mother couldn't follow and where her mother certainly wouldn't approve of if she had been given the details and full truths of her adventures.
Now though, all she wanted was to have the closeness that had been missing for so long between them, and it all came pouring out in between sobs and gasping breaths.
"It hasn't been comfortable at all, mama. It's been so confusing and so hard since they came with us and I just don't know how to feel about any of it! What am I supposed to do?" Kagome pulled away as she spoke, looking around herself hor the towel she had used to dry her hair with. The air-cooled dampness on the cloth felt nice on her face as she wiped at her eyes. "It hurts and I don't know why or what to do about it. I love Inuyasha, you know that. I've told you that so many times and it's true, mama. It hurts when I try to get closer to him and it hurts when I try not to get close to him and then there's Kouga, there, too. He's there now and I think he might love me, mama."
She wiped her eyes with the towel again, letting herself catch her breath and feeling her mother's hand slide across her hair.
"I really think he might and I don't know what to feel or think or do about that either. He's everything that I wish that Inuyasha would be, but I just don't feel the same way and sometimes I really wish that I would. That I could… I do love Kouga, too, but it's so different…"
A flush colored her cheeks, thankfully still concealed behind her towel as she spoke and remembered the cave… the bath… her almost-actions.
"I… except when it's not… different." She traded the towel for her pillow and hugged it tight to her chest, not meeting her mother's eyes. "I sort of like it when he flirts with me sometimes, now. That's just as confusing too, though. I can't do that to Kouga! I care so much about him and I don't want to be that girl that leads guys on just to get…what…she wants…" Her voice quieted gradually as the words tapered off haltingly. Is that what she wanted? What Kouga was offering her so readily? If that was what she wanted, then which part? He really did offer her the world- his world.
"It's okay, Kagome. Trust me, most of us feel the way you're feeling right now in these situations. It'll get better, I promise. You're just catching up with yourself, I think." She brushed her daughter's hair away from her face as their eyes met. "You've spent so long growing up while off on adventures in the past that you haven't realized that you've grown up."
"What do you mean…?"
"I mean that everything you're feeling is perfectly normal. Don't worry, honey. It'll all sort itself out as long as you don't run away from it forever. And Higurashi women don't run away from anything, do we?" She delivered the last part with an exaggerated wink.
Kagome felt a half-smile on her lips as she shook her head.
"Well, enough about that for now! You need some time to rest and think about it all! Your birthday is almost here. Would you like to spend it with your friends?"
"But mama! I just got back!"
"Oh, dear. I was… talking about your friends from school, here."
Kagome flushed and hid her face in her pillow. Nowhere was safe, it seemed. Just when her mother's evasion of the past and its problems seemed to offer up some hope for normalcy and stability, she was reminded of another looming cloud of issues. She had been trying to salvage her childhood friendships for the past year and it didn't seem to be working.
She was doomed to watch everything around her blow up into some alternate reality, and she was helpless to stop it.
Could she even really call Ayumi, Eri and Yuka her friends anymore? How can you be friends with someone who knows nothing about you or your life? Not that she knew anything about theirs…
… … …
Her birthday flew by in no time. It wasn't particularly happy. Sure, she had a good time being with her family and she smiled and said thank you at all the right times…but …what did it really matter that she was eighteen now? She didn't get a license to drive when the time had come around, she wasn't going to put in any applications for a job, and now she was surrounded by presents from the people that she loved most… all practical for hiking through the wilderness five hundred years ago.
This is where her life had led her?
She wondered whether she would have been happier if she had never pulled that arrow from Inuyasha. What kind of person would she be now? Would she have kept up good grades, stayed at the top of her class, maybe be looking into prestigious universities, now?
Would the stability be worth the boring?
What if she just decided to stay here?
She knew she wouldn't.
She stood in her room and looked down at her old school uniforms. They were laid out on her bed, torn, stained, and devastating in a way. This was who she had been, who she couldn't be anymore. She admitted to herself in the privacy of her mind that she had used the uniforms as a way to separate herself from Kikyo- something that was drastically different about them and screamed out to the world that she wasn't her- she was herself.
It was a silly and childish thing, she could now admit- thinking that her stubborn insistence on wearing the school uniforms would separate her and Kikyo in everyone's- Inuyasha's- mind. As she scooped them off of her bed and tossed them roughly at the trashcan by her desk, she frowned. It was childish, wasn't it? Clothes are clothes…but she still wore Kikyo's face. She couldn't change that. All she could do is resolve to be different and act different than Kikyo, and try her best to get Inuyasha to see that she was different and that she loved him just as much- maybe more, than Kikyo.
She certainly didn't want to drag Inuyasha to hell over a misunderstanding.
She huffed and crossed her arms, looking back to her bed where lots of other things were laid out. She chucked the empty, worn, yellow backpack across the room to join the uniforms and unzipped the sturdy, new, lavender-purple one that her brother had given her the night before.
The projection night-light was set on her desktop, the linen sack of trash from modern food was emptied, folded, and shoved into a side pocket. Presents for her friends were unpackaged and neatly wrapped in brown paper and string. In went threadbare sheets, jeans, shirts, pajamas and other miscellaneous clothing articles.
She packed slowly, wondering how long she'd be gone this time. She wouldn't be going back for a while, but maybe if she got it out of the way now, maybe, she could still have that time to relax and forget about her troubles across the well that she had wanted.
… … …
Graduation seemed empty to her. Mostly, she was just glad that it was over and she wouldn't have to make up excuses to awkward questions anymore. HerMom, Grandpa, and brother had all come to watch her walk across the stage in a silly outfit and get a piece of paper that didn't matter one bit where she would be going soon.
The dark cloud that hung over her head must have been pretty obvious- even her three old friends kept their distance. Maybe that distance was just five hundred years, though.
She made a beeline for the door, dragging her family behind her, as soon as possible.
… … …
"Kagome?"
Her mother's soft voice startled her in the darkness of the room and she twisted on the couch to look at her.
"Hi, mama."
"Is everything okay? It's so late that it's almost morning. Can't sleep?"
Kagome smiled and tucked her legs under her on the couch as her mother came across the room and sat with her.
"No. I can't get myself to stop thinking for long enough to fall asleep, I guess."
Her mom nodded and hummed a noncommittal sound.
"I just… remember what we talked about before? In my room when I came home? I still don't know what to do about it and I'll be going back in a few days."
"Like I said, I know it doesn't help you any and I know it doesn't seem like it will, but it has to run its course on its own. These things sort themselves out, honey."
"Yeah…"
Her mother's face turned away and her hand came up to rub at her mouth.
"On a…related note, honey…" She coughed into the hand at her lips. "I'd, ahm.. I'd like it if you spent the day out with me tomorrow. There's somewhere I'd like to take you…" Another cough. "Just with everything that you seem to be going through in Inuyasha's time and well, with you being…" She moved the hand away from her face and gestured up and down Kagome's body from head to toe. "Being all grown-up now and all. It's a mother's prerogative to make sure her daughter is… prepared…"
Kagome frowned in confusion at the words but she agreed readily enough. A day out with her mom sounded like just the thing she needed.
… … …
The stained once-white walls of the waiting room did nothing to ease Kagome's nerves. This was not what she had expected when her mother had invited her for a day out together. At least everything she had said had fallen into place and made sense now.
She examined a stop-smoking poster that was taped to the wall in front of her. There was a picture of a smiling, heavily pregnant, woman looking back at her and her anxiety spiked a little bit higher. Next to it was an anatomical representation of the stages of fetal development and next to that was a poster of another smiling girl, not at all pregnant who was holding up some weird silicone-looking circle for the camera.
"Higurashi!"
The nurse's loud shout startled her and she dropped the handful of pamphlets that her mother had gathered up and thrust at her before sitting in the chair beside her. She scrambled to pick them up and power-walked, stiff-backed through the open door with her mom following, and into room number three so that she could talk to a doctor about birth-control.
NOT what she had expected for the day. Not at all.
… … …
The brand new lavender backpack that Souta had given her was filled up with everything that she thought she needed, and she sat on the lip of the well in a pair of jeans. The heavy boots that Grandpa had given her felt too heavy. Everything felt too heavy.
She shifted and let herself fall into the stream of light.
… … …
… … …
AN: So. I'm just going to apologize now. Two reasons
I had the worst time on this chapter, trying to transition from the series and into the real plot. I feel like this chapter is disjointed and jus… Sorry guys.
I didn't get to where I really wanted to, but it's nine minutes until midnight and I'm really liking that I'm getting a chapter up every day.
Guest Reviewer: You asked about the pairing.I'm really hesitant to reveal that right now, I don't want to spoil that for anyone. It's sorta part of the fun, I guess? The hints are there though. Subtext and all. I really hope that me not saying won't put you off the story.
Mishi: Woo! A name! Thanks for commenting again. Poor Kagome, right? I feel bad that I'm going to be torturing her so much.
Buzzk97: I'm so very flattered that you take the time to check up on Paradigm Shift every day. It means a lot that I'm able to give you and the other readers something to look forward to.
~Ele
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