AN: My literary dead brain has just had a revival…and I'm really, really sorry for everything. I know I was supposed to hand this story over and everything, so to those people I've disappointed, I'm very, very sorry about that…
-_-_-_-
So sometimes life doesn't really turn out the way you want it to; certainly not for Inu-yasha, who found himself in quite a dilemma that night thinking about a certain someone that wasn't supposed to even be meaningful in his life. His fumbling awkwardness towards her had quickly grown to modest proposals of turning away from her the minute he saw her; it was, by any means, a technique to avoid her that unfortunately did not quite succeed. Every time he tried to steer away, her cautious eyes suddenly caught on his figure and demanded a conversation instantly.
It was hell on all accounts.
First, he neither knew what to say or do, and his hopes that avoiding eye contact with her would provoke her to leave only brought anger in her mind.
Second, his reputedly red face was something that needed to be explained over and over again with explanations starting from running too much or accidentally dipping his face in hot water.
Third, every time he saw her, he seemed to be falling for her more and more.
By all accounts, the third problem was the worst of them all, and sure, just like any other male that had overcome an astonishing revelation, he tried to deny it at first. Which led him to where he was now, sitting on his bed with a wet towel on his hair and his face looking like stone. He crossed his fingers and hoped for luck, hoping that she wouldn't call him down for dinner any time soon.
"Inu-yasha! Dinner's ready!"
Speak of the devil, he thought, it really wasn't his day.
-_-_-_-
"Ne…ne, Kagome-oneechan, where's that stupid dog boy?" Shippou asked, seriously perplexed at why Inu-yasha had not come down yet.
"I don't know, but his dinner's getting pretty cold, and not to mention, it sort of froze underneath the air conditioner too…"
"Hehe, he deserves it for bopping my head today!" Shippou cackled evilly as he remembered the events of that day. And of course, he knew the reason why Inu-yasha had punched him on the head, it all had to do with Kagome, Kagome, and, Kagome.
"Shippou! Don't be so mean! Call up Inu-yasha again and bite his ears off or something…" Kagome sighed inwardly and prodded the little boy along, not able to see the reluctance in Shippou's eyes. "Come on, Shippou, it can't be that bad, can it? Inu-yasha's not that scary!" Kagome knew fully well, though, how perfectly frightening Inu-yasha could be, but somehow she had managed to live with him throughout her whole life. Too bad now was the only time she'd actually been enjoying it.
'Enjoying' it? Those words struck a cord in Kagome's mind for she had never imagined the assoscciation of them with Inu-yasha, and life, unless it had a certain words called 'destruction' in between them.
"Feh, that's just cause he likes you!" Shippou swore underneath his breath.
"What's that Shippou?" Kagome asked, bewildered.
"Oh nothing!"
She watched with interest as the little boy trotted along manically towards Inu-yasha's bedroom, shaking her head and giggling silently, she sat on the sofa and turned on the TV.
-_-_-_-
"INU-YASHA!" Shipou screamed out at the top of his lungs.
"That hurt you ass!" Inu-yasha said as he covered his ears, squinching his eyes slightly as his eardrums tried to resound themselves.
"Hehe, Kagome's calling you for dinner!"
"Yeah, so?"
"So if you don't go I'll tell her your little secret!"
"What little secret?" Inu-yasha asked, slightly irritated.
"You know, the one where INU-YASHA LOVES K-…"
"SHUT UP BRAT!" Inu-yasha stretched out his arm and pressed his hand onto Shippou's mouth, hoping that it would silence the kid. Instead, Shippou bit his hand with full-frontal force and plucked out a hair from Inu-yasha's head, causing the older boy to retaliate in shock.
"If you don't come down, I'll really tell her!" Shippou ran out of the room and waved playfully towards Inu-yasha's direction, a broad grin on his face. He skipped down the stairs and plodded himself onto the couch where Kagome sat. Looking up towards the girl, he wondered what she might be thinking of.
Inu-yasha loved K…? Kagome thought, who is K? I haven't ever met someone with K as the beginning of their name…Argh! Who is it, who is it, who is it????
By that time, Kagome was already itching with curiosity to find out who 'K' was but after a few minutes of careful consideration, she decided to let the subject go, dismissing "K" for a character in one of Inu-yasha's video games, which he was ironically obsessed with.
-_-_-_-
"Kagome! I'm going, OK?" Inu-yasha screamed out, grabbing his bag and pushing his way out of the door, not even waiting for her reply. He hopped onto his motor cycle and warmed up the engine, speeding away just in time before Kagome could meet up with him and give him a goodbye wave. The situation had just gotten worse for poor little Inu-yasha, and so he decided to take a trip outside of Tokyo to his grandparent's house. God knew how long he hadn't seen them, was it 6 or 7 years ago? They would be happy to see him, especially his grandfather who always wrote to him asking whether he had a girlfriend or not or whether he had managed to 'score it big' with a woman. It was a mixture of sickening agony and ironic laughter that intertwined in Inu-yasha's heart whenever he received a letter from the old man. Not boterhing to think about it anymore, Inu-yasha let go of his worries and continued on driving.
Kagome, on the meantime, was wondering exactly why Inu-yasha was becoming more and more distant. She continued to rub her chin using her forefinger and thumb, making her eyebrows delve in thought.
Could it be yesterday's food? Maybe it was too cold? Or too ancient? Kagome pondered on at these possibilities for a while but dived for a deeper reason.
Could it be Shippou? Maybe she had started to give the little boy more attention than Inu-yasha and that had caused the distance between them. Kagome grimaced and shook her head, Inu-yasha couldn't possibly be jealous of a little kid, that was just…wrong…
After a while of thinking, spluttering out the odd word or two, and rubbing her chin until it burned, Kagome had come to the conclusion that she had no conclusion.
And so she continued on her work.
-_-_-_-
Kagome rested on the couch, holding her broom on the ground to support herself. She had just cleaned the entire house free of annoying dustmites and disturbing, prehistoric trashcans that had been filled with garbage since the beginning of last year. The house looked so empty now, perhaps because she had just rid it of the one meter pile high of soda cans, microwave foods, and stray cat droppings. And the smell was different too. When had she last time smelled the fresh scent of "pinewood" floor cleaner? 2 or 3 years ago probably…which was in it ultimatum, quite sad. A bead of sweat ran down Kagome's forehead as she stood up; leaning her weight into the broom, she carefully exempted herself from falling on the ground due to exhaustion. Kagome looked around the room and found herself staring at one direction. The family altar.
It's so dirty, she thought maybe I should dust it off, then it would still look brand new…
Kagome wobbled over towards it with a cleaning cloth and picked up one of the picture frames that was embedded on the altar. More sweat came running down her forehead and her eyelids closed in pain as the sweat entered her eye. She tried wiping it with her sleeve, but didn't succeed in doing so. Deciding to put the picture frame back on the family altar, Kagome placed it randomly on the table like stand, but to her surprise, it ended up dropping on the ground, causing her attention to immediately avert to the broken glass on the floor.
"Oh no! Not this picture!!!!" Kagome cried out, tears nearly spilling from her eyes.
"Kagome, what's wrong?" Shippou asked, standing behind her, his eyes wandered to the broken picture frame on the floor, "Oh no, it's a bad omen…"
"Now, come on, Shippou! There's no such things as bad omens!" Kagome defended herself poignantly, "let's just clean this up and hope that no-one notices, ne?"
"OK, I promise I won't tell, but if anything bad happens, don't blame me!"
"Thanks Shippou, and I'm sure nothing bad will ever happen, not for a picture frame!" Kagome smiled, but underneath it all, she wasn't entirely sure of what she was saying…
-_-_-_-
On the first day of Inu-yasha's trip, nothing interesting had happened, but the second day had proved to be full of adventures, starting with the appearance of one, very mysterious woman.
The doorbell rang early in the morning, Kagome struggled to wake up as she ran down the stairs in her pajamas, brushing her hair quickly using her fingers. She raced towards the door and unlocked it, pulling open the heavy piece of wood. She came to stare at the face of a woman that was only a few years older than her; a woman that she did not even know the name of.
"If you're selling anything, I don't want to buy it, so bye bye…" Kagome said sleepily, rubbing her eyes and closing the door. She felt slight resistance and her attention immediately averted to the figure outside.
"I'm not selling anything, Kagome-chan," it said.
That voice, when have I heard it?!
"Do you remember who I am?"
Who is she?! How do I know here?!
"My name is Inaida."
Inaida? Wait! Could it be?!
"Inaida, Kikyou."
-_-_-_-
"Masaka? You're Kikyou? It can't be! No! You're supposed to be gone!" Kagome gasped, her eyes widening in shock. It wasn't possible, Kikyou wasn't supposed to be here...
"Ah, yes, but a cruel shock of fate decided to let me live. Do you know how hard it was to reach you, Kagome-chan? And to regain back my memory? DO YOU?!"
[Flashback: 2 years ago]
"Kagome! You know, the new girl, Kikyou, right? Sango asked, her innocent eyes beaming with life.
"Yeh, what about her?"
"Well, I heard, that she has a little crush on Inu-yasha!"
"Inu-yasha? Really? How boring, I feel sorry for her already!"
"Hahaha, and you know what? I heard that he has a little crush on her too!"
"Oh my, well, isn't that just perfect?"
"And you know what," Sango continued on, "what's even more perfect, is that you can get your revenge on your brother this way!"
"What do you mean?"
"Well, if we hurt Kikyou, that's the same as hurting him, isn't it?"
"But Sango! That's mean!" Kagome retaliated.
"Ah, you chicken, come on, let's discuss it with the guys, they'll all back me up!"
- - -
"I agree with you Sango." Miroku said, his eyes fixed on the girl's laughing posture while his hand reared over towards her butt.
"Now, Miroku, just because you agree with me, doesn't mean I agree with you," Sango grabbed his hand just in time, twisting his wrist a little. When she heard the satisfying little crack, she stepped away.
"So what the heck do we do to
hurt Kikyou that's enough to hurt Inu-yasha?"
"Get her to go out with another guy?"
"Too simple."
"Stalk her?"
"Too old fashioned, he'll only like her more, and she the same."
"Kill her?"
"No way, we'd get found out."
"Get her drunk?"
"I like that idea, there's so many possibilities with that."
"Elaborate."
"Let's see, we invite her to one of our parties, spike her drink and lock her in a room with, let's say, a guy, and then, he and she, you know?" Kouga's eyes glinted as he sparked up his plan.
"Hmm, quite simple, yet effective enough." Sesshoumaru commented.
"Hey, why don't we do the party up at your place, Sess, you know, the villa on that mountain, or whatever it is."
"You mean the place we used to go to when we were kids?"
"Yeh! That place! It's awesome!"
"Come on, we gotta get the party starting!"
- - -
Kagome looked around the room worriedly, first at Kikyou, then at the guy she was supposed to be hooked up with. She wasn't so sure with Sango's choice of person, the guy had been known to be one of the worst seductors in the school, he was also part of the 'bad boy' gang that had acclaimed fame throughout the district as being ruthless and bloodthirsty. Naraku. The freak had no human sentimentality, nor any emotions either.
With this, it's going to be quick and easy! Sango's words lingered inside Kagome's mind and she sighed as her brow clenched in anxiety.
"Now's not the time to be worried, Kagome." A voice whispered beside her, she looked up to see that it was Kouga.
"Come on, let's spy on those two!"
Kagome and Kouga ran towards Kikyou's direction as they watched her take big gulps of the alcoholic drink. Kouga grinned infectively as his eyes continued to leech onto the scene Naraku was making with Kikyou.
"Come on, baby, let's go outside," Naraku said to her, holding her hand gently while softly letting his fingers linger onto her waist.
"Are you sure you want a drunk woman with you?" Kikyou asked, pressing her lips against Naraku's own.
"More than anything," he wrapped his arm around her waist as he winked in the direction of Kouga.
Kagome smirked smugly as she saw the effects Naraku had on Kikyou. Seems like the little angel wasn't so hot on Inu-yasha after all. Despite all her happiness however, there was some reason as to why she wasn't so sure about the plan. Something about it was….different than what she had earlier on thought she would feel.
"Come on, kagome, let's dance." Kouga said, taking her hand. But before anything could happen, a loud scream came from outside the house, it was not one of ecstasy, and certainly not one of seductivness, but one of fear. Total, dominating, fear.
"Oh my God, what's happened?" Kagome whispered, running towards the outside air.
- --
"Naraku!" Kagome screamed, "What's happened?"
"I-I-I don't know….she—she fell, off the cliff!"
"WHAT???!!!! And you didn't try to save her or anything!"
"I did! But she managed to hang on to the cliff! My arm's hurt so I can't pull her up."
"OK, then I will, hold my feet for me so I don't fall off too."
Kagome walked over towards Kikyou and offered her hand to help the girl. She watched in fear as kikyou let go of one hand's grasp on the cliff and ascended onto Kagome's hand.
"Don't be afraid, I'll save you, don't worry." Kagome said, as she tried to pull the girl up. Suddenly though, she could feel a heavy metal bar pounding on her head. Trying not to lose consciousness, she screamed in shock as she realized who her attacker was. "Naraku! How dare you!" Kagome spat out, careful not to lose her grip on Kikyou.
"Oh, come on, Kagome, you gotta have learned by now about how I really am! Do you really think I couldn't save the girl? How stupid you are!" Naraku smirked as he saw the fear in both girls' faces. "Don't worry, I'll deliver you to your rightful peace."
Naraku rose his arm up and hauled it over Kagome's shivering body. He crashed it down onto the girl's head, causing Kagome to lose her already wavering consciousness.
A single scream could be heard that night.
A scream belonging to Kikyou
-_-_-_-
AN: OK, well, I guess your perception's changed on every character in this story…please review!