A/N: Whee, new chappie! I think this story gets more reviews per chapter than anything else I'm writing. ^_^ Don't disappoint me, and I won't disappoint you- we've got thought-provoking questions, shamelessly perverted humor, and mysterious bishounen ahead, and all for those loyal readers out there on the Information Superhighway!



"Back To School, and Yes- Back In Trouble"



"I can't stay, Inu-Yasha. I have school tomorrow, and I've already missed most of the week," Kagome said in an irritated voice, swinging a leg over the side of the well after the end of their latest brief, unsuccessful Shikon shard quest. "I don't even have my bag with me."

Inu-Yasha was unsympathetic. "Fuck school! Fuck your bag!" he shouted. "Completing the jewel is more important!"

"Only to YOU!" she snapped.

Inu-Yasha glared at her for a moment, practically shaking with rage, and Kagome took her chance to escape into the Bone Eater's Well.

"You know," he yelled after her, "the longer you take on your side of the well, the more people die on this one!"

Kagome looked up at him, paled, and then she was gone.



~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~



The next morning in the schoolyard, Kagome was unsurprised to find Takeuchi Shikako and a handful of her friends waiting for her at the front gate. She was equally unsurprised to find herself being shoved around, threatened, and getting really pissed off.

Shikako, however, was QUITE surprised to be literally lifted off the ground by the back of her skirt and thrown over someone's shoulder in the traditional fireman's hold. She shrieked in outrage and the person holding her winced.

"That's so loud," Hojou complained, plugging an ear with his free hand. "Sei-chan, this sucks."

"Yeah, whatever," Seira huffed, cracking her knuckles and giving the other girls a glare. "What's all this, huh? Picking on Higurashi-san her first day back? That's low, Takeuchi."

"L-let go of me, you freak!" Shikako yelled, struggling rather pointlessly and hammering her fists on Hojou's back.

Kagome's eyebrows raised in surprise. Hojou was much stronger then she'd realized- he easily held Shikako on one shoulder and didn't even seem to notice the weight, much less the bully's curses and blows.

"You LOSERS!" Shikako shrieked in frustration as Hojou gave Kagome a sweet smile and then started towards the front doors.

"Don't want to be late for homeroom, Takeuchi-san," he chirped. "And it's Shindo-sensei teaching after lunch, remember?

"Ohhh . . . "

Kagome blinked as every girl present suddenly got a rather enchanted look in her eyes, save Seira, who just looked resigned. A moment later, she found out why.

"There he is!" Mika squealed, and every eye automatically turned to where she pointed. A startlingly handsome, if rather frazzled, young man in his mid-twenties was getting off the back of a familiar motorcycle and looking remarkably homicidal for so early in the morning.

"Damn you, worthless nephew!" he yelled, and the driver laughed, shucking off his helmet to reveal- who else?- Makoto Obana, the self-declared sex god.

"Makoto-kun?!" Kagome yelped in surprise, and his not-so-innocent little eyes lit up.

"Kagome-chaaan!" Makoto cheered, rushing past his outraged ex-passenger and apparent uncle in a whirl of flowery and unnecessarily feminine shampoo to embrace said Kagome and annoy Seira, the lovely exterminator look-alike. "Ya came back! I was afraid ya'd been frightened away by yer growin' attraction ta me!"

Hojou's sweet smile briefly tightened. "Mako-kun . . . " he said 'kindly.'

"Oh, don't whine; I asked her out fair an' square," Makoto huffed. "Ain't my fault if 'Gome-chan likes bad boys, eh?"

"Is that really what you want, Higurashi?" Hojou was clearly depressed, his big, loyal puppy dog eyes looking absolutely crushed. Kagome nearly died of guilt right there, and Makoto chose that rather inappropriate moment to cuddle up to her chest and let his hands go a-wandering southwards.

The girl twitched. "OSUWARI!" she shrieked automatically, and Seira and Hojou simultaneously cracked up, causing the latter to accidentally drop Shikako on her rather delectable ass, which was the main reason he'd been holding her for so long anyway. Yes, even the naïve and so-sweet Hojou has his vices, and Shikako's tush was one of them. Of course, the rest all belonged to Kagome, if one chose to exclude certain slightly incestuous thoughts about Seira's legs, though admittedly Seira's legs attached to different people.

"Yes, naughty puppy!" Seira of the extremely tempting legs crowed with no lack of mirth, delighting in the reference. "Be good, Makoto-kun, or Kagome will have to tie you up!"

A wicked grin crossed Makoto's face, and between himself and Seira, the two managed to create a detailed outline for an impossibly kinky setting in less than thirty seconds as Hojou slowly turned redder and redder and Kagome tried VERY hard not to relate the oft-repeated term "doggy-style" with a certain stupid hanyou back in the feudal era. Incidentally, she failed miserably.

"Hey!" a voice snapped as the ex-passenger's motorcycle helmet suddenly smacked Makoto in the back of the head.

"Wow, Shindo-sensei! You're so cool!" the fangirls cheered. Makoto was unable to hide his slight pout upon hearing THAT little statement.

His ex-passenger smirked and gave the less-than enthralled Seira, Kagome, Hojou, and Makoto all a very smug look. Kagome frowned slightly. This was the famed Shindo-sensei and Makoto's uncle? He looked mildly familiar . . . Hmm . . .

Long black hair pulled back in a loose ponytail; self-assured, gloating expression; muscular frame and slightly pointed ears; a vague sense of Shikon shards coming from his legs . . .

Kagome nearly fell over. "KOUGA-KUN?!" she squawked before she could stop herself.



* tbc . . . *



c1]ck 7h3 bu77on . . . j00 know j00 w4n7 700 . . .