Disclaimer: Not mine...*sniff*
Chapter Two ~ Seeing Truth
Kiyoshi was waiting for her when she groggily stomped out of her house, his golden eyes scanning her weary face. "Ohayo, Kagome," he said quietly; she nodded absently at him, preoccupied in doing her math homework.
His amusement showed clearly as he asked innocently, "It may simply be a habit of yours, but isn't homework supposed to be done at home?"
"Yes, well, no one ever does it at home," she snapped sharply, struggling with optimization. "Sesshoumaru was just a perfectionist, that's all."
Kiyoshi's smile faded reluctantly. He glanced down at her paper doubtfully, but said nothing. Tired of his constant peeks at her homework, Kagome finally looked up at him. "All right, Taisho, what is it?"
"You forgot to take the derivative of the volume before you set the equation equal to zero," he replied lightly, ignoring the way she gaped at him.
"You know how to do this stuff?" she squealed, shoving her papers into his arms. "Please do my homework! Please? I'll do anything!"
He laughed, but accepted her pencil, scribbling across the packet. She blinked as answers magically appeared under his skilled fingers, graphs of parabolas and hyperboloids alike. "How'd you get that?" she demanded, gesturing at a series of number lines marked with various arrows.
"Well, once you solve for x, after rejecting any impossible answers, you can use either the second derivative's concavity or the first derivative's sign to determine whether x is a maximum or minimum," he explained patiently.
She blinked.
"I've decided," Kagome mused slowly, "I am never going to ask you how to do anything again."
He smirked triumphantly and handed back her papers, completely finished. She threw her arms around him in a brief hug, shrieking, "Thankyouthankyouthankyou" at the top of her lungs, and then, apparently embarrassed at the short display of insanity, scrambled on the bus. He followed leisurely, sliding in next to her.
Whispers broke out among the occupants of the bus as the students did their best to steal peeks at the pair without either Kagome or Kiyoshi noticing. Kiyoshi had inherited more than Sesshoumaru's looks, however; turning, he veritably growled at the others, all of whom squeaked in fear and subsided.
The doors swung open and everyone hopped off the vehicle. Kagome scanned the swarm anxiously, suddenly giving a soft scream and hiding behind Kiyoshi.
He peered down at her, confused. "What are you hiding from?"
"He's holding it," she whispered, terrified.
"Who is? Kagome, what's wrong?"
Trembling, the girl's hand extended, pointing directly at someone standing across from them.
"Kuso," Kiyoshi whispered, truly in awe at the revoltingness of the thing. Behind him, Kagome gave off a small whimper, still attempting to shield herself.
The boy across the hall looked anxious, still holding his gift. Frowning, Hojo caught a glimpse of Kagome's yellow backpack which, no matter how Kiyoshi tried to obscure it, would not be hidden. He marched over triumphantly.
"Higurashi, there you are! I bought this for you as a get-well gift, since your grandfather mentioned that you were having bouts of dizziness and would most likely not be in school for the next few days. Here!" He held out his present, expecting her to be delighted.
A tremor spread through her body as she gingerly took the thing with two fingers, desperately trying not to retch. Hojo beamed, pleased with what he thought was happiness on her part. "Thanks, Hojo," Kagome lied, desperately kicking Kiyoshi in the shin to keep him from exploding with laughter.
"I thought you'd like her. Her name's Sakura; isn't she pretty?"
"She's...unique," the girl replied eloquently, avoiding looking at the repulsing doll. The toy's scraggly straw-yellow hair fell out in clumps, and the string of cranes around her thick neck, which was supposed to help heal the sickness, appeared to be more ostriches than cranes. She was dressed in a faded piece of what might have been wool after being shredded in a food processor.
"You're too kind, Hojo," Kagome murmured prettily, smiling at the suddenly speechless boy. "You really should stop bringing me such...wonderful...gifts."
At this, Kiyoshi could no longer restrain his mirth, and burst out laughing, drawing fearful looks from the people around him, who slowly began backing away. Kagome blushed, grabbed the crazed reincarnation by the hand, and dragged him down the hallway to a deserted classroom.
"KIYOSHI..." she intoned wickedly.
He stopped laughing instantaneously as she advanced. "Uh...Kagome?"
"Yes?"
"You know how you mentioned you'd do anything if I did your homework?"
"..."
"Don't kill me!" With that, Kiyoshi sprinted out of the room, gaining a few more wary glances from the teachers, and bolted into his chair just before the bell rang.
'Hmm. I wonder how Kagome will be able to excuse herself from this one. After all, I was barely on time...'
The door swung open, and Kagome sauntered arrogantly in, flicking her hair as if she owned the school.
"Higurashi! That's a detention for you! You've gone too far this time, being almost five minutes late!"
"I'm sorry, sensei, but my headaches are becoming more frequent," Kagome apologized, pretending to stumble as she passed Kiyoshi's desk. Her heel ground into his foot for one second before she 'recovered' and walked over to her own chair.
The teacher nodded curtly, but remained cold. "You are excused, Higurashi, but next time you feel sick, be sure to check with me before wandering to the nurse's office."
"Of course, sensei," she acknowledged, pulling out her textbook and laying it on the desk. Kiyoshi grinned faintly as she pulled out the homework and laid it on top of the cover with a defiant glance at the troublesome boy, who merely smirked.
"Who would like to demonstrate the first problem?" the professor asked, gazing eagerly around, expecting a volunteer. When no one replied (big surprise there) he indicated Kagome. "Well, Higurashi, since you've been out so often, let's see if you know how to do these."
She stood, clasping the homework sheet like a lifeline, and moved to the board. Scribbling down everything as Kiyoshi had written it, she sat triumphantly back down.
The teacher nodded as he examined her (or, in this case, Kiyoshi's) work. "Very impressive, Higurashi. Now, if you could explain it to us...?"
"Well...um...the number over here is set equal to...um...I think that's an x. And since you know that 3x/4 is equal to 2y+1, you can solve for y in terms of x, using some proportional thingy or other." She paused, scanning the board.
Kiyoshi placed his head on the desk. The girl was hopeless.
"Okay, then you find the interval, and moving a few of the numbers around randomly, you get something with x on the interval (0, something). Then you want to maximize – oh, wait, that says minimize – the area, so you want to minimize xy, which equals x times the other thing which I can't read, because of my bad handwriting."
By now, the entire class was snickering, with the exception of Kiyoshi, who was doing his best not to jump out the window at this complete lack of mathematical skills.
"Right. So you get this equation, and you set that equal to zero because...um...just because. And you solve for x, and get this other number I still can't read, and then you stick it on a number line, draw funny arrows, find that x is indeed the correct x, and that's all," she concluded, sitting back down.
The teacher looked about to faint, and no one in the class could blame him. With a sigh, Kiyoshi stood, knowing full well that his next action would probably send even more rumors spreading. "Sensei," he explained, "she was tutoring me yesterday on this topic and I was wondering whether I could demonstrate it to the class, seeing as her mind's obviously overworked along with the dizziness she's been experiencing."
"Very well," was his answer, and Kiyoshi swept to the board, easily explaining the problem.
"I get it now!" Kagome chirped gleefully, and everyone turned to stare at her, again excepting Kiyoshi, who was now contemplating the fire escape.
'How stupid can someone get?!'
*
Kagome was still perplexed as to why her new companion kept giving her dubious looks as they walked home from school. "What is it?" she demanded finally, getting slightly pissed.
"How did you manage to stay in honors classes with your abilities?"
She glared at him. "My skills are impeccable!"
"Hardly," he countered, not fearing her wrath. "That explanation you gave earlier today..."
"Excuse me if your handwriting looks like mongoose tracks!"
"If your skills are so perfected, you should have been able to manage the homework without me!"
Snorting, both charged off in opposite directions.
*
Pulling herself out of the well, Kagome smiled at the sight of Inuyasha trying to hide. He'd obviously been just about to go 'kidnap' her again, though he was trying to act normal.
"Inuyasha!" she called. "You can come out now! I see you!"
He slunk out furtively, but his expression brightened when she tossed a package of ramen at him. "Have fun," she said sarcastically, as he raced off to show his prize to Miroku and Sango.
Shippou bounced joyfully out at her, the kitsune's delight evident in his hyperactive squeals. She bent to pet the fluffy tail, but a call from next to her caused her to whirl.
Sango was standing there, panting, Kirara nowhere in sight. "Kagome!" she yelled. "Miroku and Inuyasha are in trouble!"
The miko raced after her friend instantly. Stopping before the clearing, she froze. Miroku was leaning against a tree, blood dripping from a slash across his forehead, his amethyst eyes closed. Inuyasha was wounded as well, though the damage inflicted on him was more minor.
Kagome looked at the antagonist and froze, her arrow poised on the bowstring. Kiyoshi was lashing out at the hanyou with poison-dripping claws.
She couldn't release the arrow.
'It's Sesshoumaru, not Kiyoshi!' she told herself, but her fingers wouldn't loosen the tiniest bit.
'Inuyasha's going to die!' she screamed mentally, and at this she finally let go of the bowstring, but jerked away at the last second, so the arrow arced gracefully to sizzle through the youkai lord's side. It was not a mortal wound, and of that Kagome was glad.
"I will keep my promise to Kiyoshi," she whispered as Sesshoumaru soared away. "If he dies, it will not be at my hands."
Chapter Two ~ Seeing Truth
Kiyoshi was waiting for her when she groggily stomped out of her house, his golden eyes scanning her weary face. "Ohayo, Kagome," he said quietly; she nodded absently at him, preoccupied in doing her math homework.
His amusement showed clearly as he asked innocently, "It may simply be a habit of yours, but isn't homework supposed to be done at home?"
"Yes, well, no one ever does it at home," she snapped sharply, struggling with optimization. "Sesshoumaru was just a perfectionist, that's all."
Kiyoshi's smile faded reluctantly. He glanced down at her paper doubtfully, but said nothing. Tired of his constant peeks at her homework, Kagome finally looked up at him. "All right, Taisho, what is it?"
"You forgot to take the derivative of the volume before you set the equation equal to zero," he replied lightly, ignoring the way she gaped at him.
"You know how to do this stuff?" she squealed, shoving her papers into his arms. "Please do my homework! Please? I'll do anything!"
He laughed, but accepted her pencil, scribbling across the packet. She blinked as answers magically appeared under his skilled fingers, graphs of parabolas and hyperboloids alike. "How'd you get that?" she demanded, gesturing at a series of number lines marked with various arrows.
"Well, once you solve for x, after rejecting any impossible answers, you can use either the second derivative's concavity or the first derivative's sign to determine whether x is a maximum or minimum," he explained patiently.
She blinked.
"I've decided," Kagome mused slowly, "I am never going to ask you how to do anything again."
He smirked triumphantly and handed back her papers, completely finished. She threw her arms around him in a brief hug, shrieking, "Thankyouthankyouthankyou" at the top of her lungs, and then, apparently embarrassed at the short display of insanity, scrambled on the bus. He followed leisurely, sliding in next to her.
Whispers broke out among the occupants of the bus as the students did their best to steal peeks at the pair without either Kagome or Kiyoshi noticing. Kiyoshi had inherited more than Sesshoumaru's looks, however; turning, he veritably growled at the others, all of whom squeaked in fear and subsided.
The doors swung open and everyone hopped off the vehicle. Kagome scanned the swarm anxiously, suddenly giving a soft scream and hiding behind Kiyoshi.
He peered down at her, confused. "What are you hiding from?"
"He's holding it," she whispered, terrified.
"Who is? Kagome, what's wrong?"
Trembling, the girl's hand extended, pointing directly at someone standing across from them.
"Kuso," Kiyoshi whispered, truly in awe at the revoltingness of the thing. Behind him, Kagome gave off a small whimper, still attempting to shield herself.
The boy across the hall looked anxious, still holding his gift. Frowning, Hojo caught a glimpse of Kagome's yellow backpack which, no matter how Kiyoshi tried to obscure it, would not be hidden. He marched over triumphantly.
"Higurashi, there you are! I bought this for you as a get-well gift, since your grandfather mentioned that you were having bouts of dizziness and would most likely not be in school for the next few days. Here!" He held out his present, expecting her to be delighted.
A tremor spread through her body as she gingerly took the thing with two fingers, desperately trying not to retch. Hojo beamed, pleased with what he thought was happiness on her part. "Thanks, Hojo," Kagome lied, desperately kicking Kiyoshi in the shin to keep him from exploding with laughter.
"I thought you'd like her. Her name's Sakura; isn't she pretty?"
"She's...unique," the girl replied eloquently, avoiding looking at the repulsing doll. The toy's scraggly straw-yellow hair fell out in clumps, and the string of cranes around her thick neck, which was supposed to help heal the sickness, appeared to be more ostriches than cranes. She was dressed in a faded piece of what might have been wool after being shredded in a food processor.
"You're too kind, Hojo," Kagome murmured prettily, smiling at the suddenly speechless boy. "You really should stop bringing me such...wonderful...gifts."
At this, Kiyoshi could no longer restrain his mirth, and burst out laughing, drawing fearful looks from the people around him, who slowly began backing away. Kagome blushed, grabbed the crazed reincarnation by the hand, and dragged him down the hallway to a deserted classroom.
"KIYOSHI..." she intoned wickedly.
He stopped laughing instantaneously as she advanced. "Uh...Kagome?"
"Yes?"
"You know how you mentioned you'd do anything if I did your homework?"
"..."
"Don't kill me!" With that, Kiyoshi sprinted out of the room, gaining a few more wary glances from the teachers, and bolted into his chair just before the bell rang.
'Hmm. I wonder how Kagome will be able to excuse herself from this one. After all, I was barely on time...'
The door swung open, and Kagome sauntered arrogantly in, flicking her hair as if she owned the school.
"Higurashi! That's a detention for you! You've gone too far this time, being almost five minutes late!"
"I'm sorry, sensei, but my headaches are becoming more frequent," Kagome apologized, pretending to stumble as she passed Kiyoshi's desk. Her heel ground into his foot for one second before she 'recovered' and walked over to her own chair.
The teacher nodded curtly, but remained cold. "You are excused, Higurashi, but next time you feel sick, be sure to check with me before wandering to the nurse's office."
"Of course, sensei," she acknowledged, pulling out her textbook and laying it on the desk. Kiyoshi grinned faintly as she pulled out the homework and laid it on top of the cover with a defiant glance at the troublesome boy, who merely smirked.
"Who would like to demonstrate the first problem?" the professor asked, gazing eagerly around, expecting a volunteer. When no one replied (big surprise there) he indicated Kagome. "Well, Higurashi, since you've been out so often, let's see if you know how to do these."
She stood, clasping the homework sheet like a lifeline, and moved to the board. Scribbling down everything as Kiyoshi had written it, she sat triumphantly back down.
The teacher nodded as he examined her (or, in this case, Kiyoshi's) work. "Very impressive, Higurashi. Now, if you could explain it to us...?"
"Well...um...the number over here is set equal to...um...I think that's an x. And since you know that 3x/4 is equal to 2y+1, you can solve for y in terms of x, using some proportional thingy or other." She paused, scanning the board.
Kiyoshi placed his head on the desk. The girl was hopeless.
"Okay, then you find the interval, and moving a few of the numbers around randomly, you get something with x on the interval (0, something). Then you want to maximize – oh, wait, that says minimize – the area, so you want to minimize xy, which equals x times the other thing which I can't read, because of my bad handwriting."
By now, the entire class was snickering, with the exception of Kiyoshi, who was doing his best not to jump out the window at this complete lack of mathematical skills.
"Right. So you get this equation, and you set that equal to zero because...um...just because. And you solve for x, and get this other number I still can't read, and then you stick it on a number line, draw funny arrows, find that x is indeed the correct x, and that's all," she concluded, sitting back down.
The teacher looked about to faint, and no one in the class could blame him. With a sigh, Kiyoshi stood, knowing full well that his next action would probably send even more rumors spreading. "Sensei," he explained, "she was tutoring me yesterday on this topic and I was wondering whether I could demonstrate it to the class, seeing as her mind's obviously overworked along with the dizziness she's been experiencing."
"Very well," was his answer, and Kiyoshi swept to the board, easily explaining the problem.
"I get it now!" Kagome chirped gleefully, and everyone turned to stare at her, again excepting Kiyoshi, who was now contemplating the fire escape.
'How stupid can someone get?!'
*
Kagome was still perplexed as to why her new companion kept giving her dubious looks as they walked home from school. "What is it?" she demanded finally, getting slightly pissed.
"How did you manage to stay in honors classes with your abilities?"
She glared at him. "My skills are impeccable!"
"Hardly," he countered, not fearing her wrath. "That explanation you gave earlier today..."
"Excuse me if your handwriting looks like mongoose tracks!"
"If your skills are so perfected, you should have been able to manage the homework without me!"
Snorting, both charged off in opposite directions.
*
Pulling herself out of the well, Kagome smiled at the sight of Inuyasha trying to hide. He'd obviously been just about to go 'kidnap' her again, though he was trying to act normal.
"Inuyasha!" she called. "You can come out now! I see you!"
He slunk out furtively, but his expression brightened when she tossed a package of ramen at him. "Have fun," she said sarcastically, as he raced off to show his prize to Miroku and Sango.
Shippou bounced joyfully out at her, the kitsune's delight evident in his hyperactive squeals. She bent to pet the fluffy tail, but a call from next to her caused her to whirl.
Sango was standing there, panting, Kirara nowhere in sight. "Kagome!" she yelled. "Miroku and Inuyasha are in trouble!"
The miko raced after her friend instantly. Stopping before the clearing, she froze. Miroku was leaning against a tree, blood dripping from a slash across his forehead, his amethyst eyes closed. Inuyasha was wounded as well, though the damage inflicted on him was more minor.
Kagome looked at the antagonist and froze, her arrow poised on the bowstring. Kiyoshi was lashing out at the hanyou with poison-dripping claws.
She couldn't release the arrow.
'It's Sesshoumaru, not Kiyoshi!' she told herself, but her fingers wouldn't loosen the tiniest bit.
'Inuyasha's going to die!' she screamed mentally, and at this she finally let go of the bowstring, but jerked away at the last second, so the arrow arced gracefully to sizzle through the youkai lord's side. It was not a mortal wound, and of that Kagome was glad.
"I will keep my promise to Kiyoshi," she whispered as Sesshoumaru soared away. "If he dies, it will not be at my hands."