Under the Pale Autumn Moon

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Kagome walked slowly up the stairs, not floating, she didn't feel like floating. People only floated when they felt lighter than air. She didn't at the moment. Not that everyday people floated or anything.

She only floated when she was happy.

Now she was just damn confused about this situation. Who did this Naraku think he was, and how did he know who she was? And that she was under a curse, and that all she wanted was a human body?

She walked through the wall and stood staring in shook at Inuyasha. He lay sprawled on the floor, belly up, and his dog-ears twitched. She was confused, how could he be so careless as to be caught off guard and not be wearing his cloaking spell? She leaned down franticly and felt for a pulse.

Luckily there was one. Kagome peered around, how had this happened to him?

He gaze settled on a lamppost that was knocked to the ground. She slapped her forehead, leave it to Inuyasha to be a dumb ass and do the stupidest things you only see in an anime. The boy had hit his head against a lamp!

She sighed and poked Inuyasha's nose. It twitched when the familiarity of her rosy smell filled his nose. He cracked open a golden orb and looked up at her sheepishly, "Ow?"

"You're so stupid sometimes, Inuyasha," she giggled and stood, "what did you do, run into a lamppost?"

She meant for it to be a joke, but by the way Inuyasha was blushing, she was pretty sure she'd just hit dead on.

"Oh my god you didn't!" she giggled then burst into a fit of laughter, "that is too much, the great Inuyasha, swayed by a mere lamppost, ha!"

"It isn't funny, Wench," he growled and turned away.

Kagome ignored his insult and continued to laugh, "You're right, it's hilarious!"

Inuyasha growled.

Inuyasha flopped onto his bed at five and stared at the ceiling, after staring at it for a long time he finally said, "What was I dreaming about?"

But the dreams were gone, sent away to the back of his mind. Forgotten and missed.

Suddenly he felt a rock hit his head, he shot up in bed and stared around the room, "What the hell?"

Kagome sat whistling over is bed.

Inuyasha glared murderously at her, "Why'd you do that bitch?"

"Do what?" she asked innocently.

"You damn well what I'm talking about, don't give me the innocence act!"

"Define innocence," she smiled.

Inuyasha sneered, "Innocence is a nun working in a condom factory thinking she's making sleeping bags for rodents, now shut the hell up and tell me why you dropped a rock on my head?"

"For fun and profit."

"I hate you."

"I know."

Inuyasha plopped down on his bed trying to think up a good comeback, it suddenly came to him in a "vision" and he turned around to yell at her, only to discover she was gone, "Damn it."

Kagome took the opportunity of Inuyasha being turned away and floated through the ceilings to the roof. She'd made her decision, she wanted to have a human body, even if it was only for five minutes, she wanted to remember what it felt like to be a human, and not some floating...thing.

When she reached the roof, Naraku was already sitting there, sipping tea from a little cup he'd undoubtedly stolen from the kitchen, which she'd done herself over the years.

"Ah, Kagome-chan, welcome, sit down and welcome to my domain."

"This is the roof of a house, Naraku," Kagome said dryly.

"Ahem yes, well, I feel like it should be my pad, wouldn't you say, the chimney can help me relieve myself, that little roof overhanging the window can be my bed..."

"As much as I want to hear you're home furnishing, I didn't come here for that," Kagome said, the dry voice still taunting him.

"Oh course, Kagome-chan, so have you come to your decision?"

"Yes."

"And what will it be?" Naraku said, trying to suppress the evil grin that was forming at the corners of his cheeks.

Inuyasha banged through the door of the kitchen, "Kagome where the hell are you?"

Miroku and Shippou looked up from the newspaper they'd been reading, well actually they were only reading the comics.

Shippou squeaked and threw a rolled up sports section at Inuyasha, he still had the idea planted into his head that Inuyasha was a peeping tom.

Inuyasha sidestepped and allowed the newspaper to bang against the wall.

Miroku continued to read about Garfield and Peanuts and didn't look up, he only sipped his tea and said smartly, "Wow, Inuyasha, so you decided to leave the domain of your room? Sango and I have become quite worried."

"I'm not alone."

Miroku peered at him from over the edge of Sherman's Lagoon. He sighed and folded the newspaper neatly, each page lining up perfectly, "Oh course, you have that imaginary friend of yours, what was it Kahome?"

"Kagome."

"Yes, that's right," Miroku sipped his tea and shot a glare at Inuyasha, "I don't like you worrying Sango the way you are."

Inuyasha rolled his eyes, "Save it. Kagome is real, you just can't see her for some reason."

"Whatever," Miroku said, still glaring at Inuyasha, "at least try to convince Sango that you're not going crazy over the 'accident' though she refuses to tell me what it is."

"It's none of your business, you pervert," Inuyasha growled and left the kitchen in search for his cousin.

"Wait, Inuyasha!" Miroku came running out of the kitchen and peered at Inuyasha, "This Kagome, is she hot?"

Inuyasha bashed him over the head and continued on his way towards the study, where he was sure Sango would be.

Kagome looked over the horizon, the sun was beginning to set, and only the faint red glow could be seen over the mountains.

"I want to be human."

Naraku smiled, "But of course you do, dearest Kagome-chan, it's been your dream for hundreds of years, has it not?"

"I no longer keep track of time, for I never age, due to my curse, I am not a day older then when Kikyo gave me the curse."

"Yes, about Kikyo..."

Kagome's eyes narrowed, "What about her?"

"Well you see, in order to give you a human body, I have to overcome the power of the curse, momentarily. Therefore, Kikyo's power shines through, and while you're in human form, you'll look exactly like Kikyo."

"What?"

"Relax, Kagome-chan, furthermore, you will have to known as Kikyo, whenever you are a 'human'. And, when Kikyo becomes 'tired', you'll have to do me a favor."

"What kind of favor?"

"I'm sure I'll discover that when the time comes, are you ready Kagome...I mean Kikyo-chan?" Naraku awaited Kagome's response.

Kagome bit her lip, she defiantly wanted to do this, wanted to be human, so maybe she'd actually have a chance with Inuyasha, "Yes, I'm ready."

"Oh and one more thing, Kikyo-chan, no one can know that you're Kagome, you have to act like Kikyo, can you do that? If you fail to do so, you'll lose the human body," Naraku nodded and awaited Kagome's response.

Kagome cringed but nodded. All she wanted to do was become human again.

Naraku grinned and engulfed himself in dark blue flame, surrounding him like a shield, Kagome noted that it looked a lot like Kikyo's flame she used to put the curse on her.

Naraku took a step closer and extended a clawed finger, just lightly poking her in the arm. A piercing pain shot through her and she let out a cry, but no words left her lips, she screamed her silent scream as she clutched her arm. Light was encasing her to the point when she was blinded, she felt her eyes roll back and felt her body changing.

And then as soon as it started, it stopped and Kagome opened her eyes to see that Naraku had disappeared, though his evil cackle still hung in the air.

She stood up and fell to her knees. She looked at her legs and was surprised to see they were longer and more slender than her legs were before. She reached out a hand to touch them but gasped when she saw that her nails were long, unbitten, and they too were long and slender.

She gulped and reached a hand to grab her hair. It slipped through her fingers, it was much silkier and longer then her other hair. Stringier too. She tried standing again and wondered what else about her changed.

She looked around and then cursed mentally.

She was on a roof, how the hell was she going to get down? She started to walk looking for a window when she tripped over her feet, which had grown tinier, and fell off the three story roof.

Inuyasha walked outside, not knowing where else Sango could be, he'd searched the whole house for any signs for Sango or Kagome, but came up blank.

He sighed, "Women..."

Suddenly a high-pitched shriek filled the air and Inuyasha looked up, coming down from the sky was a girl, she was falling, "What the hell?"

Inuyasha caught the girl before she hit the ground and stared. She was panting and grabbing onto him like her life depended on it.

"What the hell?" Inuyasha repeated.

The girl cracked open an eye and stared at him. She smiled, but the smile was cold.

He gasped, "Kagome?"

Kagome paled, 'He can't already recognize me can he?' She quickly shook her head and smiled, aware of how cold it must seem, "Kagome? Who is this Kagome?"

Kagome gasped slightly at how cold and bitter her own voice sounds, 'I really am Kikyo in this form...scary!'

Inuyasha blinked and set down Kagome, "Sorry, I thought you were someone else, who are you anyway?"

"Well, you certainly waste no time."

"Well I think I have a right considering that you came crashing from the sky," Inuyasha shrugged and then awaited her answer, "I'm Inuyasha by the way."

"Kag...Kikyo, my name is Kikyo," Kagome quickly caught herself before she let her actual name slip.

Kikyo. That name sparked something deep within Inuyasha, but he couldn't remember where he'd heard it before, it was annoyingly familiar, but he couldn't place his finger on it.

"Oh, um, so what are you doing all the way out here?" Inuyasha asked, wanting to start up conversation.

"Oh, I was...I got lost, yeah," Kagome said, trying to sound carefree but her voice came out as a cold and uncaring voice. Deep within her she was screaming 'It's me, Kagome! Damn it!'

"Oh, well, do you want to come inside, or something, I would think you'd be shaken after falling from...wherever you came from," Inuyasha motioned to the front door, offering his hand he led Kagome inside.

"Thank you," she smiled, but it was the cold smile again. What was up with this Kikyo lady, Ice Queen or what?

Inuyasha led her to the living room where he flopped down on the couch.

"So, where's your room?" Kagome asked, and slapped herself, now she was sounding like a hooker.

Inuyasha tensed, he didn't want to tell this girl they couldn't go into his room because he was worried a girl who could float and only he could see might do something evil, making him yell at her.

"Uh, we can't go up there," he said quietly.

"Oh...why not?"

"Because...um," Inuyasha's brain went into overdrive thinking really hard for a good lie, "There's a cow living up there."

'Oh damn it, that was so lame, a cow in my room?' Inuyasha mentally kicked himself.

"Oh," Kagome had to refrain from bursting out laughing, that was the worst lie she'd ever heard.

Kagome suddenly felt a weird feeling come over her and felt her legs and arms growing shorter, and her hair started to grow shorter. She let out a surprised gasp, she was turning back into Kagome!

She suddenly stood up, "I have to go now! Bye!"

She rushed out of the house with Inuyasha yelling after her, "Wait!"

Kagome jumped high into the air, and went through the third story wall, she breathed a sigh of relief, Inuyasha hadn't seen her change, only saw her leave.

After she caught her breath she floated into their room. She sat on the bed waiting patiently.

As if on cue, Inuyasha walked through the doorway to see Kagome, "And where the hell have you been?"

"Somewhere."

"I hate you."

Kagome smiled sweetly, "I know."