Reunion

by Kradvity

Righty... Again, I have to say that English isn't my native tongue ( which you must have already noticed ^^' ). I'm trying to correct all the grammar mistakes I make but I'm sorry if I don't realise all the mistakes. Let's just hope it doesn't make the story messy...

Disclaimer: I don't own Inu-Yasha which is good, because I couldn't have made the characters so good myself.

Chapter 2: The past calls

Mioko Kawahira

It's just sooo boring. I don't even like school! So why is everyone fussing about it? Okay, maybe I don't _hate_ school but I don't love it either. I guess I'm one of those students who wanna be good but don't have enough interest in it. Or something like that, I don't know. Mom and dad both say I'm a smart girl. If it's so, then my brainwork is needed somewhere else than in school. If I just was good at math... Nowadays people appreciate math too much. But hey, it's not my fault, is it? Why can't people appreciate, let's say, cooking skills? I'm pretty good with food. I like to make food and eat it. All my friends wanna come to my place if we're hungry.

So who needs maths? My friend Amber likes it very much. She's one of the best students in my class. It's a pity that math lessons are only ones she can attend. She was supposed to go to a school where they teach everything in English, but it was already full. So now she has a couple of own teachers who can teach in English. She's from Europe, from Scotland, actually. She can't really speak Japanese. I've tried to teach Japanese to her, but she thinks it's a too difficult language. It's weird I haven't noticed that. I'm not so good in English, but we understand each other. I mean I don't talk English well, but I understand it. And she's got that funny accent of hers. It's a real fun when she tries to spell Japanese! I like her 'cos she's able to laugh at herself. My other friend Etsuko is more serious person. She doesn't want to look ridiculous or get into embarrassing situations, but she's got some good advises. If I was in a trouble I could always ask her what to do.

Everything was okay. So why me? Mom and dad wanted to send me to some stupid school in Tokyo. I didn't want to go to Tokyo! What about my opinion?! They didn't even ask me if I wanted to go! And I sure didn't. I had to leave all my friends to Nagano. That wasn't fair.

" We send you a letter every day! " Amber said grabbing my shoulders and tossing me like a doll.

" Really? " was Etsuko's comment. Amber scratched the back of her head. Etsuko is a realist. It was good that one of us was. If I could call it 'us' anymore.

" Or maybe every week. "

I didn't want to leave my best friends. What if I didn't get new friends in Tokyo? I'd be living in a school dormitory. I'd have to share my room with other people. Every little thing that could possibly go wrong managed to pop into my mind somehow. I'm not usually worrying too much, but my friends are all to me, they've always been, so how could I just let go of them? I'd known Etsuko for my whole life. We never even had any serious fights. And Amber's so unbelievable. How can I find anyone else with so much positive energy? I was really really mad to mom and dad, but I accepted their decision. I didn't want to start fight with them. I don't like fighting anyway. I'm usually the loser. If I fight with Jiro I lose every time. And if I say 'every', it means every. Big brothers sure are annoying. They're just causing trouble. Well, actually it's always been Jiro who saves me from getting into trouble. But most of the time he's annoying.

I heard about Tokyo a few days before my fifteenth birthday. I told to Etsuko and Amber right away and we decided to put up the best birthday party I've ever had. It was the best birthday of mine. I don't know if it really was, but it was the last party with them for a while. I was able too see them on summer holiday. If I passed all the subjects, of course. Jiro is better in school than me. He's planning a great career. I think he can do it. He never gives up. I wish I could be like that. If I can't do something and keep failing I usually give up.

Well, we rented a bunch of movies and bought lots of snacks and watched telly all night long. Mom, dad, Jiro and granny were at my uncle's place so we could be alone without being disturbed. When I've got friends at home mom comes to my room and asks if we wanted something and tries to find out what we're discussing about. Etsuko thinks my mom is sweet, Amber doesn't. She keeps her mouth shut if she doesn't have anything good to say. It's weird because Amber looks just like a person who says what she thinks and doesn't think. But Amber doesn't have many bad things to say so she talks pretty much and with incredible speed. Sometimes I have to tell her to slow down. I'm not _that_ good in English.

I still have those gifts they gave me back then. Etsuko's gift was a silver necklace with a tiny dragon character on it. I wear it always. It's my lucky charm. At least I like to think that way. Dragon means great power. Maybe Etsuko thought I needed some power. I didn't ask her. Always when I'm s'posed to do a test I grab that little dragon and hold it in my fist. The first time I tried it I got the best test scores from my class. It was a biology test.

Amber gave me something tourists buy when they come to Japan. It was a little, shining ball with a tag that had words 'Shikon Jewel' on it. I don't know where Amber had found it. I've heard about Shikon Jewel from granny. It's somekind of a legend. My Shikon Jewel wasn't real. The real one would have cost a fortune! I put my diary keys to Amber's gift. I asked Amber about the 'Shikon Jewel'. She didn't know what it was. She haven't even heard about it. She thought it was a brand. We tried to search information about the jewel but with no avail. The Shikon Jewel was a mystery and it remained as one. I promised to keep those gifts forever. You can always promise.

Granny gave me earrings. It was a relief to notice the gift wasn't a fluffy jumper this time. Last year I got an orange jumper with white stripes. She want's to buy something special. She knows I don't like orange. Why did she give me an orange jumper? But mom and dad surprised me with their gift. They took me, Etsuko and Amber to Nagano sport centre where we could try different kinds of sports! Not like football or baseball or running, but bowling and other kinds of great stuff. My favourite one was when we tried bow and arrow. I surprised everyone. Even myself. Their had so stupid look on their faces when I shot to the middle of the target. Other people were applauding. Every arrow I shot flew exactly where I wanted. It was great! Like I was a real master. They beat me in the bowling and I could pay back! Jiro was the best after me but even he didn't get close to my results! They were amazed. I had never even seen a real bow in somewhere else than in telly what made it more amazing. I'm just a natural talent. Etsuko seemed to be a little jealous. She's been doing archery with her parents sometimes and I was better than she.

" So, you can cook and shoot with a bow ", she said staring at me with her eyebrows lifted up. I ignored her comment. I was so happy to be the best even once in my life! It was a pity that there weren't many people to see it. If it only was a physical education lesson... Dad said I must had been a hunter in my last life. I rather thought I was a natural talent.

Cooking and shooting. Those weren't the only things I was famous for. Everyone keeps telling me that I've got a wonderful smile. People like to photograph me because I'm always smiling and posing to the camera. I'm not one of those camera-shies. There are lot more pictures of me than Jiro. He's also posing but in a different way. Photos of him are so... official, and it makes him look older than he is. I wouldn't want to look older than I am. Jiro's pretty proud of himself. And they also say I'm pretty. I don't think about it. I don't want to look stupid but that's all. Etsuko instead... She runs away whenever she sees someone holding a camera ready to take a shot.

I wrote everything into my diary. I wrote to my diary almost every day. I have so many diaries. I started my first one when I was at the first grade. Granny bought it to me as a gift. Jiro was protesting. He hadn't got a gift when he went to school.

" You didn't cry at the first day ", granny reminded him. She didn't have to tell it but the answer was enough to Jiro.

" At least I'm not a cry-baby ", he said. He made a song about me and my first diary and sang it always when Etsuko was visiting me.

There were so many things I would miss after going to Tokyo. It was a big city with lots of great stuff. Except it's not as fun as with friends. I'd been into Tokyo a few times and I had planned to move there with Etsuko and Amber. Now I was going there alone and I was so down. Birthday cheered me up a little. Mom told me to think it as an adventure. She always tries to make everyone happy. Moving to Tokyo didn't make me happy, so I thought it must have been dad's idea. I didn't ask mom's opinion. She is a real benefactor. She takes me to fee market and buys used clothes more than we needed. Her point isn't to get new clothes but to help the sellers. Some times I go with her 'cos she likes to have company.

I remember the last time I went with her. I was seeking for a skirt. Most of them were awful. Too old and too unfashioned. Fashion isn't at my passion list, but I don't want to remind my granny. Dad doesn't like mom's hobby. When it comes to clothes He's like Jiro. Official, official and official clothes are good. They hardly wear shorts...

Then, a dark green skirt adorned with white flowers on its hem took my breath. It was really beautiful. I bought it right away. It wasn't even expensive! I like skirts and that was the most beautiful skirt I had ever had in my whole life. Amber would be so jealous! I could clearly imagine her face when she'd saw me wearing that green dream!

When I got home I tried it immediately. It fit perfectly! I bought a skirt without trying it and it fit like it had been made for me! That's not usual. I spent a lot of time in shops trying to find a piece of clothing my size. It's frustrating! Maybe I should go with mom more often... It had pockets. I put my hands into them to see how deep they were. My fingers met a piece of paper. I almost got scared because I hadn't expected to find anything. Weird. Had the skirt's old owner forgot something in to the pocket or was it just a price tag? Why didn't they check if there was something left in the pockets before selling it?

I grabbed the paper. It was old and all wrinkled. It'd been ripped off from a notebook or something. I opened it, carefully, so I wouldn't destroy it. Was it a shop list? Or someone's address? Or the skirt's washing instructions? It was no-one of them. It was a page from someone's diary. I was surprised. Who would leave a page from her diary to her skirt's pocket? I presumed it had been written by a girl. I knew only one boy who kept a diary. And he called it 'a journal', by the way. Oh, and it was in a _skirt's_ pocket.

I wasn't sure if I should read the page. It wasn't mine. It might contain secrets. But I couldn't hold my curiosity.

18.11.1997

Dear Diary, I'm in a real trouble here. I failed the math test. How am I s'posed to study if I have to run in Feudal Japan fighting demons?! I have a future too! I'm still trying to figure out what I'll do after senior high. I want to set up a café and I'd have my charter customers! When they say ' I want my usual', I'd know right away what to give! It would be named after me like Misa's Café or Misa's something, I don't know. I even know the decorations! Lots of flowers and warm colours! And in the menu I'd have my special something. But now I have to study. See you tomorrow!

- Higurashi Kagome -

I read it many times. This 'Kagome' was talking about Feudal Japan and demons. It must be a joke. There are no such thing as demons. I didn't believe in demons. And how can anyone be running in Feudal Japan? This page can't be _that_ old. I checked the date. The eighteenth of November in 1997. It was twenty years ago. The writer is twenty years older than at the time she wrote the page. It was weird. But I wanted to think it as a joke, it couldn't be anything else, so I put it into my table drawer and decided to forget it. I decided so. I _decide_ lot of things. It's another story do I hold in my decisions. Someone left this piece of diary to the skirt's pocket so the next owner would think about it 'till death. It worked with me.

I was curious but not _that_ curious. It was pretty creepy. I didn't show that paper to Etsuko and Amber. Etsuko would have thought it as a joke and Amber would have dragged me into a library. She never goes to library alone. There are books in English, too, but not as much as in Japanese. It was only a piece of paper. That's all. Next night I saw a dream where I fought a demon looking like Jiro wearing my green skirt. That was when I really forgot about the page.

Along the story about the mysterious page of diary, I told my own diary about my birthday present in a sport centre. It was the first time when I used my diary keys with the fake Shikon Jewel on it. And then it happened. I didn't know what to write next. There were too many things to tell. I always use five or more pages to describe the last day. That's why they get full so quickly. It was ten p.m. and I was a little tired. I was holding the fake jewel in my closed hand. I shut my eyes and thought, what to write next, what to write next? Suddenly my fingers turned hot. Like when you keep hot kettle with bare hands. I startled and dropped the jewel. It made a jingling noise when it hit the wooden floor. I took a look at my fingertips. They were all red and burning hot. Terror was sneaking up on me when I lowed my eyes to the jewel. It looked normal. If it was hot it should have looked different, right? But it had felt like I had just taken it out of boiling water.

I kneeled and stared at the jewel. I was afraid it would do something if I looked somewhere else. Silly, isn't it? But what would _you_ do if your key fob turned mad? It looked like a piece of junk tourists buy. It was white and shined a little. It looked like a very innocent key fob. I sat on my knees for ten minutes. Nothing happened so I decided to forget it. I slowly moved my fingers towards it. Suddenly it didn't look so innocent anymore. It was like a heavy, shrinked white cannon ball ready to break the floor below and sink to the core of the Earth. I gasped. And what really made freak out was that voice.

It was threatening and dark and it made my heart stop for three seconds. I thought my blood started to run to the wrong direction. My stomach turned upside down and I thought I was gonna throw up. The voice was freezing me from inside. It made me shiver with fright. It was coming from somewhere very far and very near at the same time. If you think you've heard the most terrible voice in the whole world in a horror-movie, for example, you're absolutely wrong. That in fact you've seen all the Japan's horror-movies doesn't mean you wouldn't be scared of the voice I heard.

I was so shocked I couldn't make sense of the words. I didn't now if it was Japanese. I was afraid to close my eyes. I didn't know what I might see. But I didn't see anything even though my eyes where wide open. I was gasping. My room disappeared and turned into a mess of brown patterns dancing around. It's the same as when I'm collapsing. I tried to stand up but I didn't feel my limbs. Like I had no body at all. My heart had moved to my head and was bouncing like a giant drum. That's what it felt like. Then I realized what that horrible voice was whispering.

%Ssshikonn Jewel... Kagome Higurashi...%

Shikon Jewel! But that thing wasn't real! Amber had probably bought it from a souvenir shop! This isn't s'posed to happen! It's only a cheap toy!

%Unncompleted... reunionn...%

I tried to convince myself I was only imaging everything. Afterwards I thought it was stupid. A key fob was speaking to me. But when I was kneeled on the floor on the verge of collapsing I seriously didn't think it was ridiculous.

%Kikyo...%

If this headache could just stop. If I could breathe more freely... Mom, where are you when I need you?

%Inu-Yassha...%

And then there was nothing but darkness.

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A/N: Uh oh... I used some odd marks like %. But I suppose you get the idea anyway. I still don't know how to get that stupid... well, that. I hope you liked. I'll try to get the next chapter here soon.

Oh, if you saw name 'Hideki' somewhere up there, it means Jiro. First he was Hideki, but then I realized I had Hideki in two stories so I changed him into Jiro ^^'' Silly me...