Oops. Someone reminded me that Kagome lived 500 years in the future, not fifty. wince Oh well. I am officially Inuyasha ignorant.
Oh. Yes. And I completely agree that Stradivariuses are extremely rare. Not that I'm any good at the violin. I keep slaughtering the Mendelssohn, which annoys every musical genius I come in contact with, including my cousin and my sister. Not that they're that good, either. growls The reason that Kagome and Kiyoshi both have Strads is because I wanted to portray them as equals who are both very very talented at the violin. You'll see why later.
But as a warning to those who are considering the implications of them having Strads: No, they are not both incredibly rich. Not even Kiyoshi. Sure, Sesshoumaru was a lord in the Feudal Era, but the main point of this fic is that KIYOSHI IS NOT SESSHOUMARU. Just like Kagome isn't Kikyo. Sorry to anyone that offends...
Thanks for all your reviews. –FlamingDrake
Demon Reincarnate
Chapter Three – Running Away
Kagome paced in front of the door. She was worried.
Well, worried wasn't exactly the word.
More like scared.
Absolutely, completely, terrified.
As soon as Kaede finished treating the struggling hanyou, Inuyasha would come tearing out and begin some sort of rant that would go along these lines...
Inuyasha: WHY DIDN'T YOU KILL SESSHOUMARU, WENCH? YOU WERE A FOOT AWAY FROM HIM AND BLAH, BLAH, BLAH, (use your own imagination here; it's not that hard) BLAH, BLAH, BLAH, BLAH, BLAH, BLAH, BLAH...
Kagome: Sit...
Inuyasha: (crashing to the ground.) Bitch...
And, after that, the hanyou would probably be in a sulky mood for the rest of the week, and, if he was angry enough, would go back to...Kikyo...
The door slid open. Well, actually, it was ripped apart by the force of Inuyasha's charge. "WHY DIDN'T YOU KILL SESSHOUMARU, WENCH? YOU WERE A FOOT AWAY FROM HIM..."
Instead of the following "BLAH, BLAH, BLAH," however, the hanyou froze and sniffed the air. "Why do you smell like Sesshoumaru?"
Oh, Kami-sama. Kiyoshi.
His golden eyes widened. He took a small step towards her. "Is that why you didn't kill him? Have...have you been meeting with him?"
"Not exactly," she replied, backing away and wondering how many steps she'd be able to take in the direction of the well before he killed her. Of course, the phrase 'not exactly' was not exactly the best answer in such a situation, but it was rather hard for her to think quickly in this position.
Inuyasha's eyes narrowed to slits. "You bitch! Do you meet him every night?"
It only took her a second to figure out the implications of that query. Her hand lifted and slapped him, hard, across the face, with all the anger and hurt she felt.
Turning, she raced towards the well, and he didn't follow, his hand still held to his throbbing cheek.
"You told her WHAT?" Sango demanded, her tone turning rather vicious.
Inuyasha blinked morosely at the door. He shrugged petulantly. "It's her fault. She should have killed him..."
Miroku frowned. "Inuyasha, you basically labeled her as someone only I would befriend."
Sango's glare was now directed towards the unfortunate monk, who quickly looked away.
The hanyou stood angrily. "I already said I was sorry," he snapped.
Sensing that there was true grief hidden behind the fury, Sango intervened with a sigh. "You're apologizing to the wrong people, Inuyasha."
Kagome growled to herself as she pulled herself out of the well. "That jerk!" she muttered, heading towards the house. "I mean, he has no right to say stuff like that, what with his whole fraternization with Kikyo..."
Visibly upset, she ignored the placating meows of Buyo and stormed up the stairs to her room.
"Hey, Kagome!" Souta called from below.
"Hmm?" She really wasn't in the mood for her pesky little brother.
The boy scrambled up anyways. "Someone called. Taisho Kiyoshi, I think. He sounded a bit urgent." He grinned mischievously. "You don't happen to be two-timing Inuyasha, are you?"
She flung her pillow at him. "Get out!"
"I was only joking..."
"Out!"
The door slammed behind him. Kagome picked up her phone and stopped, realizing she didn't have Kiyoshi's number.
Perhaps he was online. She flipped open her laptop and realized she didn't have his screen name, either.
Well, all that meant was that she'd have to delve into the network of teenage girls from her school.
Which would probably take about an hour.
"Shit, shit, shit." Lying on the floor of his room, Kiyoshi wondered vaguely if an invisible arrow had sliced through him. That was what it felt like, anyways. It was perfect timing, of course; he'd just finished calling Kagome's house to tell her that the trig stuff was finished, his parents had left for some convention or other, and right when he was about to go online, he suddenly had to start bleeding everywhere.
And, coincidentally, his cell phone had been placed, as usual, back on top of his desk. And...well...he really couldn't move that much without further destroying his carpet. Which was already stained.
He decided that the carpet was a lost cause. He forced himself to his feet and reached for the phone.
Five minutes later, he was in the back of an ambulance, groaning as the idiotic doctors poked and prodded him.
The hospital was rather large, with a huge amount of doctors, but, as luck would have it, he got stuck with the worst one.
"Can you tell us how this happened?" Dr. Kurihara asked politely. She was only a few years older than him, with extremely long hair and even, white teeth.
Ugh. The way she kept flipping her hair around was annoying him. For Kami- sama's sake, this was an hospital, not a fashion show!
In response to her question, however, he mumbled, "I don't know. I was placing my phone back on the desk when I started bleeding."
"Oh." Another toss of the head. He was going to kill her. "Have you had any injuries there before?"
"I...don't think so."
And then he stopped. Half his mind was automatically responding to Kurihara's questions, but the other half...
The other half was connected to Sesshoumaru's mind...
Which was replaying the most current memory...
Kagome, shooting an arrow through the youkai lord's side.
"How old are you, Kiyoshi?"
The doctor's oversweet voice cut into his thoughts. He jerked his mind away from Sesshoumaru's with a subtle curse. "Seventeen," he muttered, growling at one of the attendants, who was trying to take his blood pressure.
"And you've never experienced a situation like this before?"
He stared at her incredulously. "Do you think mysterious wounds appear all over me at random times?"
"It hasn't happened to most people, but then again, most people never even experience one mysterious wound."
Ahh. Point conceded. Still, he needed a plausible explanation. After all, the one he currently had wound lead to a rather strange reaction, perhaps landing him in an insane asylum. He could just picture it: "I'm connected to a demon lord from the Feudal Era. When a certain girl from this age travels to the Feudal era and manages to hurt that demon lord, I get hurt as well, because of some theorem or other which states that someone from the future can change the past. Therefore, once the girl accomplishes her goal and kills the youkai lord, I'll die, too."
At that point, Kurihara's reaction would probably be something along these lines: "Well, that's wonderful, Kiyoshi. Now, just follow those nice men in the white suits who will take you to a wonderful new home. And, while you're at it, GET AWAY FROM ME, YOU INSANE FREAK! Have a nice day."
So...that probably wasn't the best explanation for him to use.
But then it struck him that the last part of the explanation was true. Because if Kagome killed Sesshoumaru, he would die.
And, if his memories were anything to judge by, Kagome did end up killing Sesshoumaru.
Which, he decided as he scanned the youkai's memories starting from where he'd been shot by Kagome, gave him about another...week to live.
This is the reason that one does not like being the reincarnation of a demon lord from the Feudal Era when your friend commonly travels back in time to the Feudal Era and ends up killing you.
But there really wasn't much Kiyoshi could do about that.
He muttered another soft complaint and tried rolling over, but Kurihara frowned and stopped him. "Don't move. We're going to stitch up that gash in your side."
Talk about being comforting. Couldn't she just have said she was going to heal him?
"Kagome, is something wrong?" Eri's voice on the cell phone sounded slightly worried. "You don't seem at all excited about the newest fashion styles."
"Do you have Taisho's phone number?" she asked hesitantly.
Silence. "Can't you use the phone book? Wait, he's not in there, he just moved in. Um...you might want to call Kimika. She's been hanging around him quite a bit."
"Ok. What's Kimi's number?"
"Hold on." Kagome waited calmly. "Here, it's one-one-two-three-five-eight- one. (A/N: Can anyone tell me what sequence that's from? Hint: The last number is only the tens digit of the number that should logically follow in the sequence.) Why are you so interested in talking to Taisho, anyways? You're ignoring me, Yuka, and Ayumi."
"I need to go," Kagome replied absently, hanging up the phone. She dialed Kimika's combination.
"Hello, this is Iveni Kimika."
"Kimi? It's Kagome."
"Oh!" The voice on the other end sounded rather surprised, which wasn't too unexpected, since the two girls had never been close friends. "Hi, Kagome. What do you need?"
"Do you have Taisho's phone number?"
A slight pause on the end. "Um...yes. Two-three-five-seven-one-one-one." (A/N: Yay, what are all these numbers?)
"Thanks, Kimi, I need to go now." Again, Kagome hung up before the other girl had time to ask what was going on.
She dialed Kiyoshi's number and waited hopefully.
Ahhh! The phone line was busy!
She was going to kill someone.
Normally, at this time, she'd be in the Feudal Era, calmly trying to restrain Inuyasha from killing Shippou. She'd also be cooking ramen, a huge bowl of it, and Inuyasha would slurp it up in a matter of milliseconds...
But she wasn't in the Feudal Era.
She punched in the numbers again, viciously. The phone rang.
Once...twice...
"Hello, you have reached the Taisho residence. Please leave a message at the tone."
Hanging up before the annoying beep could be heard, she slumped back on her bed.
Ok, she was going to try one more time. She quickly dialed the numbers. The phone rang.
"Hello?" a voice asked.
Yes! She was through!
"Hi, can I speak to Taisho Kiyoshi?"
A slight pause. "I'm sorry, you must have the wrong number." Click.
Ugh.
Boredom.
She sat down at her desk and wondered what Inuyasha was currently doing. Was he ok? Was he completely healed? Did he miss her? Was he sorry for what he'd done?
She absently began to sketch a picture. Narrowed golden eyes stared up from the page, the silvery hair tumbling around the shoulders. As an afterthought, she added a few details to the face, the slightly doggy-ish nose.
When she finally realized what she was drawing, she crumpled up the paper and threw it into the trash, stumbling down the stairs. "What's for dinner?"
"Oden." Mrs. Higurashi waited for the usual stream of her daughter's overhyper squeals, but even the thought of her favorite meal couldn't cheer her up. She walked languidly into the kitchen and poured a glass of chocolate milk, bolting it down as if it were whisky.
Delicious. From that moment on, she resolved to drown all her sorrows in a glass of the intoxicatingly sweet beverage.
Glancing furtively around him, Inuyasha slid into the well, not noticing that Shippou was perched in a tree, Kirara was carrying Sango in the sky high above the clearing, and Miroku, covered with a blanket of leaves, was, in fact, right next to the well. The hanyou jumped out into Kagome's time and headed for her window.
The room was unoccupied. He leapt through the window and peered around at his surroundings. He was heading towards the door when he paused, catching a glimpse of a picture at the bottom of her trash can.
Reaching furtively in, he retrieved the crumpled sketch and smoothed it out.
It was a picture of a field of flowers, wild blossoms with blue and pale pink streaks. And in the center, two people were embracing. No, more than embracing...they were kissing, deeply, tenderly, lovingly.
One of the people was clearly Kagome. Inuyasha recognized the school uniform, although her face was turned away.
And as for the other...
The half-opened golden eyes in the picture showed sadness and longing. His hands were clasping the girl's waist tightly, his silver hair disheveled slightly. And his bangs were parted just enough to reveal the crescent moon on his forehead.
Sesshoumaru...?
Turning, the hanyou fled back out the window and into the well, running blindly for the solitude of the forest.
Yay, another chapter. Yes, this was really short, but my report card came in, and my French grade proves that je suis tres bete. (That translates to I am very stupid). So...I'm grounded. Which means I'm generally writing these when everyone else is asleep...so if the quality deteriorates, don't blame me. Blame my French teacher. -FlamingDrake
