by Ironraven
editorial assistance by Lachesis-chan and Celeste-chan
Disclaimer: Inuyasha and company aren't mine. They are the property of Rumiko Takahashi-sama. Any new characters are either my own, or derived from existing ones.
Reposted after fixing the name thing- thanks Katzztar.
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I offer for your contemplation, this theory:
If Naraku seizes the completed jewel, he would be nearly infinitely powerful, and infinitely evil. Therefore, would it not make sense that of those who will face him, for she who can be protected as a child, to be protected?
---
Yesterday had been a fairly nice day. But then again, yesterday was 500 years ago. Now it was raining. Not a happy little one, but dark, heavy, oppressive one that feel in sheets. Like the one from two days and five hundred years ago.
Kagome sighed as she peered out the window next to her bed. No hanyou had woken her in the night. She couldn't sleep any way. When she got home last night, she found that headmaster of her high school wished to speak with her when she was well enough to return to school. She had a feeling that she knew why.
" 'You've missed too much school, Higashuri Kagome, and you are being transferred to a special school. One slightly less prestigious, but one more suited for your special needs.' Just kill me now and get it over with."
Crashing her hand down on her clock, killing the first beep just as it started, she decided she couldn't put it off any more. May as well get it over with. The day, high school, her friends, college, a career, everything.
---
The walk was less than spectacular. Splashed twice, and she almost allowed herself to walk in front of a bus. The last thing she thought she needed was Ayumi's perkiness. "Ayumi-chan, please, I have a headache all ready, and I didn't get any sleep last night."
Sure, like that would ever shut her up. There was a moment of peace and quiet, but only until Eri and Yuka showed up. The three girls laughed and gossiped happily, while Kagome walked ahead, silent, the rain outside matching her mood inside. Eri noticed it first.
"Oy, Kagome, what's wrong? Are you still making puppy eyes at that mean, rude, violent, possessive, two-timing jerk?"
Kagome whirled, her eyes seemingly showing the lightening that had landed behind her, the first part of her response drowned out in the thunder. Or maybe the thunder was from Kagome's heart and mind as she replied. "... and I'm not making 'puppy eyes' at him!" Turning her back on her now silent friends, she stomped off, leaving them to catch up. They never did find out what they hadn't heard, but from the look on Kagome's face, they weren't sure if they wanted to.
---
OK, I was wrong, the day can get worse.
Pop quizzes, one after the other, all morning. And somehow, her lunch had gotten soaked during the walk, despite being in a bag, in her backpack, under her rain cape, under an umbrella. She eyed the "delicacies" of the school lunch with a rather jaundiced eye as her friend's joined her. Western fare, hot dogs and macaroni and cheese. AKA, pig lips on noodles and covered in congealed yellow grease.
"Kagome? About this morning.... We're sorry..." As was so often the case, Yuka was the peace maker, and the first to speak. Eri and Ayumi nodded together. Eri passed over a small plastic container of shrimp puffs, smiling sadly. "Here. That looks pretty bad."
"Arigato. It's ok. Just was in a bad mood this morning." She slid the note requesting her presence in the headmaster's office at the end of the day to her friends. "It was this."
"Oh, wow, I'm so sorry Kagome."
The cursed-feeling girl shrugged in defeat. "Maybe it's supposed to be this way." Pausing to pop one of the puffs in her mouth, the young miko realized two things. "Why are you guys sitting on the other side of the table like that?"
"Your jii-chan said you had 'leaping meningitis' last week, and that you were in a closed environment for a while. That sounds pretty lethal. Are you sure you aren't still contagious?"
Kagome's answer was cut off by a sudden sneeze. When she looked up, her three friends were deathly white. Jii-chan is so dead when I get home.
The other realization was one she couldn't explain to her friends. For a moment, she thought she could sense several youkai, powerful ones, very close, but only for a second, before it was cut off. Her hand brushed the nearly completed Shikon no Tama as she looked about, but she couldn't find it again. A couple of students, the headmaster, and the lunch staff were in that direction. Nothing out of the ordinary, not even someone with a second head or green hair or even scales. Maybe it was a cloud of cold youkai, and she had just sneezed it to death. The thought made her laugh, which pasted a look of abject terror on Ayumi's pretty, but not very bright, face.
"Oh, no, she's gone insane. The meningitis has eaten her brain!"
---
Gym was the last class of the day. For that, Kagome was thankful. Nearly over. Ayumi still refused to believe that she wasn't crazy. Although kami only knows why.
Kanna, a loud mouth from another district, started giving her grief as soon as Kagome got into the changing room. "Hey, Higashuri, your sugar daddy get bored and let you go back to school?"
Eri saw the flush starting on her friend's face. "She doesn't get it. She's just trying to pick a fight with you because she can, Kagome-chan. She isn't worth it."
"Or maybe she really is sick. So, Higashuri, just how many boyfriend's do you have? Which one gave you what ever this is."
"Shut up, Kanna, I'm not in the mood today." Kagome shook off Eri's restraining hand as she finished changing.
"I thought you would be. Oh, I got it, you were in the mood and got knocked up. Guess you really screwed the pooch this ti..."
Kagome, her face crimson, whirled on the big mouth, reaching up to grab the much taller girl by the throat and slamming her back into the wall. In an angry, dangerously low voice, more frightening than any physical explosion, Kagome explained a few things to her classmate. "You will leave me alone. You will not say that kind of thing to me, or about me, ever again. You won't even think it."
"Kagome, no!" Eri grabbed her friend's arm, trying to get her to let go. Remembering how Kouga had brushed her off of him and Inuyasha the last time they had fought over her, she calmly pushed Eri away. When Kanna used that chance to try to grapple with the young miko, she found herself slammed harder into the wall, the force making her throat spasm, gagging as she tried to breath. Kagome's foot tripped her, and the smaller girl dropped, slamming her knee into Kanna's stomach as the bully landed on the concrete floor.
"NEVER SAY THAT TO ME!", she screamed as the coach and several other girls, including Eri, dragged her off, but not before she'd had the chance to snatch a handful of hair.
"Kagome, what the hell has gotten into you?!"
"Higashuri, to the headmaster's office. Now!" Turning to look at the dazed bully laying on the concrete floor, the coach selected several of her cronies. "You, and you, take her to the nurse's office. Don't bother bringing her back today."
Kagome looked down at the gasping Kanna, feeling the tears building in her eyes. Maybe I really have gone crazy.
---
In the headmaster's office, she was told to sit by his secretary, an ugly little toad of a man with bulging eyes behind thick glasses and a loose upper plate. This was the first time she'd ever even been in this part of the high school. It was the first time she'd ever gotten in trouble in school. OK, there was that time when she and Yuka dyed the class hamster bright pink, but that was in preschool, and the fruit punch wore off...
After taking a short phone call, the secretary told her to go in. Doctor Karushiken sat at his perfectly organized desk, talking on the phone, a look of concern on his face. Tucking the phone between his jaw and his shoulder, he motioned Kagome to sit with his hand. His snow white hair was a little longer than normal for a man of his position, and his face craggy and scarred, worn and weathered by age and sun. He was still athletic looking, not yet having developed any of the roundness that comes with age, a powerful body under his tailored suit. Kagome had to remind herself that it was rude to stare, an image of Sesshomaru flashing through her mind as her eye slid over the empty left sleeve. He would be dead, by old age, if Inuyasha hasn't killed him. And I'd be able to feel it he was a youkai.
"Hai, she's right here.... Hai, I was needing to speak with her anyway.... The other girl is not permanently harmed?..."
As she tried to ignore the discussion taking place before her, she looked around. It was very tastefully decorated, personal without being unprofessional. On the wall behind his desk, there was a well done portrait of a young woman, about her own age, next to a window over looking the front entry of the school. The girl in the painting was wearing a very formal kimono, with her hair done in the manner of a noble woman from the Sengoku Jidai. Despite the gravity of the situation, Kagome smiled to herself- it was very, very well researched, right down to the impossible hair. Sango would chuckle if they saw a noble woman with her hair up like that. It looked old, maybe it was one of his ancestors.
Against one side wall, a small table with a truly ancient bonsai stood under a painting of three swords, two katanas and a straight, chinese-styled sword, done by the same hand as the portrait. This painting looked newer, possibly giving lie to the idea that the portrait was as old as it looked. Opposite it, stood a coat tree, with a simple trench coat hanging from it, and an equally simple breifcase under it, both well worn and broken in, without being shabby. On the desk, there were no pictures, no knickknacks, just neatly stacked papers, a pair of glasses, and a rather archaic computer. Karushiken-sensai set the phone down silently, holding his fingers below his nose, as he would to steeple his hands if he had had two of them. Kagome was struck by how much the pose looked one that Miroku would take.
"Higashuri-san, I believe this is the first time you have been in here, and the first real disciplinary mark in your record. Would you care to discuss it?"
"No, sir."
"It can wait. Do you know the reason why I wished to see you earlier?"
"Yes, sir, I think I do." Looking down at the carpet, Kagome was struck by how similar it was to the moss that grew on parts of the Go-Shimboku in Inuyasha's time, but not in her own. "I'm being transferred."
"Do you think you need to be? Your attendance record over the past few years has been less than exemplary." Pausing to hold up his hand to silence her, he continued. "Allow me to finish, please. I understand that there have been documented medical reasons for your absences."
Kagome looked at him, slightly surprised. Documented? Oh, Jii-chan, don't tell me you've been forging doctor's records. Or did you drag someone down with you?
Picking up a folder, a rather thick one, he looked through it for a moment, squinting without his glasses. "Dr. Kitsumori." His eyes flicked to the confused and frightened girl before his desk. "He has also seen the members of my family for years."
"In any case, your test scores prior to your illness were exceptionable. Even with your illness, you've not failed anything, and your tests have been above average. That is why I used one of the few prerogatives of my position to accept you here, rather than following the selection committee's recommendation. When you return to school, it seems to place stress on your body, as you are usually out again in a few days. I have a package I would like you and your mother to look over, concerning home schooling."
Kagome's heart sank. Please, just transfer me to a school for stupid people. Home schoolers never go anywhere.
"It is a modified home schooling program we have used in the past with students with medical and family hardships. You will be listed as a student of this school for the purposes of college applications. You will have the same curriculum and you will need to pass the tests, but you will not need to be here if you are unable to attend class, and tests can be given at special times, depending on your health. That being said, you will still be at something of a disadvantage, but several of the faculty have volunteered as tutors as part of this program. It is not a punishment; you do not need to follow the program, it is only a suggestion.
"I understand your position."
Kagome raised her head, looking at him. "Y-you do, sir?"
"Hai. You probably do not know this, but I had a daughter once." He motioned to the painting behind him, partially turning to face it. "My adopted daughter."
"I'm sorry sir, I didn't know."
"She was very young when we found each other. Her parents had been killed, about the same time I lost my arm, in the wars."
The war? That was over fifty years ago. How old is he? She again searched his face, this time trying to judge his age. Karushiken's face could have been anywhere from fifty to eighty, if you looked hard enough. No, he can't be that old.
I was hiding in the forest, nursing my wound, feverish, when she found me. She brought me food and water as I recovered, and before I knew it, I, a young samurai with one arm, was being followed by a little girl." As he spoke, he turned to face the painting, talking to himself. "What a foolish boy I was then, thinking I had no emotions, only the code of bushido. She let me see that I was more than that....
"When she was a little older than you, she became sick. Loosing your child is something I would wish on no parent." Slowly, he turned back around, "So I want you and your mother to discuss this."
"Now, about this other matter." Karushiken's face was serious, almost angry, and certainly disappointed.
Inwardly, Kagome groaned. That's it, I'm going to be home schooled from prison. I maimed her, didn't I. Or maybe I killed her.
"I was terrified and angry when my daughter died. I understand that you might lash out; I nearly killed one of my closest friends in my grief. But understanding and forgiveness are not the same thing. You will be suspended for a week. Cool off, get your mind in order. Until then, you are not to set foot on these grounds, and will be marked as just passing any tests during that time, with no make up option." Smiling at her for the first time, he showed a set of perfect teeth. "I am also to understand that your bu-jitsu sensei is to be complimented. Kanna is an accomplished bully, and much larger than you.
"Now leave. Your uniform and bag have been delivered to my outer office by your friend."
Surprised, relieved and embarrassed, Kagome stumbled to the door, barely remembering to bow as she left. Eri was waiting in the hall with Kagome's pack and rain cape when the girl left the office. "How bad?"
"Suspended." Looking down at the floor, Kagome walked to the stairs with her head down. "How is Kanna?"
"She'll live, just some bruises, and she's scared." Biting her lip nervously, Eri debated on what to say next. "We are all a little scared, Kagome. What's happening with you? Two years ago, you were a normal girl. Now, you are supposedly sick all the time, and when you are here, your mind isn't." She paused to grab her friend's shoulder, stopping her and holding her stare. "Kagome, what's wrong?"
"You wouldn't believe me if I told you."
"We're your friends, you can tell us. It can't be that bad, can it?"
"What if I told you I was saving the world when I wasn't in school?"
Eri started laughing. "That was one of Ayumi's theories, Bond-chan." Kagome didn't laugh, but only pressed her lips into a thin line and continued walking. For several minutes, only their footsteps broke the silence of the spotless halls.
Pausing before pushing open the door to the outside world, Kagome pulled on her rain cape. "It's true, Eri," the girl's voice was low, quiet, "for once, one of Ayumi's random ideas was nearly right."
As Kagome stepped out into the stormy day, Eri could only stare after her friend. She says it seriously, so calmly. It can't be true.
Can it?
---
From his window, Doctor Karushiken watched Kagome walk into the dark afternoon, the wind and rain quickly sweeping away her foot prints on the walk. As she turned the corner at the gate, leaving the yard, it was as if she had never been. He picked up the phone again, punching in a number from memory.
"Hai, is Kitsumori-san in his office?... Yes, I'll hold.... It's your uncle. She was just in here, I sent her home with that home study package we designed.... Hai, hai, she is well, she just had a fight.... Considering who her sensei were, did you think she could loose against a mortal when really angry.... Something about 'screwing the pooch', I think is what she was told.... No, I can not think of a worse thing to say to her, either.... Yes, the files you prepared were most useful. But she was surprised by them.... Hai, I think it is time for you to move again, my friend. Cancel your appointments and go home, maybe spend some time with your in-laws in America.... I know, I've missed her to. It has been a long five hundred years without the scent of my brother and his mate."
"Maybe this time none of them will die...."
---
Author's notes:
As I understand it, Ayumi is the one with the long wavy hair. She just doesn't strike me as the brightest crayon in the box, if you know what I mean. I hope I put the right name with the right girl.
It seems like everyone does a Sessho/Kagome fic. Well, this is the second half mine, with White Dog being the first segment- he loves her, but more as an uncle, a gaurdian. Sesshomaru needing reading glasses, and too proud to use them, that sounds about right. As for Kitsumori-san, yes, it is the same Kitsumori Hoono from Time Enough. (Yes, I know I need to finish that.) Pesky little Kitsune, isn't he?
Komainu: The lion-dog sculptures, usually of stone, that guard the gates of a Shinto shrine.