~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Author's Notes: Apologies for the longer then expected intermission, everyone, but I've had a long, long week. I'll spare you the details, but suffice it to say I've been more stressed out then ever before, and that's saying a lot. Either way, I hope this chapter means you aren't all ready to kill me.
Thanks for all the reviews, you're wonderful. Fanfiction.net had a problem with review alerts, so I didn't even see half of the reviews until a day or so ago, when I signed on to see over one hundred emails in my box, from all of my stories. It was quite overwhelming. But anyway, thank you.
Oh, and as a side note, 'The Realistic Happily Ever After' has officially reached the thousand review benchmark! Yeah! Now it's time to break out the cookies and celebrate (when I have a free moment). Thank you all, it has absolutely made my day!
This chapter is more of a filler, but towards the end it starts to move the plot along again, so I hope you'll be happy with it. I don't know when I'll get out the next chapter, though I'll try to be better about updating then I was for this one. Keep in mind everyone that I am also working on other stories, so sometimes I use my time to work on those too. Sorry!
Anyway, thanks again, and without keeping you waiting any longer, I would like to present chapter five! Enjoy!
Lizzard: I guess the Japanese words are just familiar for me, so I use them. I could write them in English, but I guess I just don't want to. lol Thanks for the reviews!
Miko Sakura-sama: Yeah, I did leave out Shippou and Kirara, but I guess it just felt like if I tried to incorporate EVERYTHING it would get to be confusing even for me, and I already know the story! So, I hope you can forgive me, and it means in no way that I don't like Shippou. He's adorable!
FrameofMind: Yeah, go fellow singer! And thanks for your wonderful reviews, I really appreciate them. I hope you haven't been disappointed with 'Soul Therapy' either.
Matthias: I want to thank you for your reviews, and I also want to let you know that I have not abandoned 'Conflict and Everlasting Love'. There should be an update sometime this week, and I promise to be more frequent from now on. The next chapter is dedicated to you!
Puppiessocute aka Mic Mic: This chapter is officially dedicated to you, my friend! Thank you so much for reviewing all the chapters from all my stories so far! I really appreciate it, you didn't have to. Thank you so much! You're wonderful!
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Title: Soldiers in a Timeless Battle
Author: dolphingirl0113
Chapter: Five
Rating: PG-13 (for language and, at times, sexual implications)
Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha.
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Two weeks.
Kagome couldn't believe that Inuyasha hadn't come to see her once over the course of two weeks! She had told him they would be together once she went on her short break, but for crying out loud, the man could still come and check on her at least once!
Leaning against her hand, supported by her elbow on the wooden desk, she was barely hearing what her English professor was rattling on about before her, though she knew it had something to do with analyzing the tone of Shakespeare.
Her husband's face flared up in her mind, and she exhaled, her nostrils flaring in frustration. Why the hell hadn't he come to see her? She couldn't get away to see him, he knew that. So why wasn't HE making the effort?
Kagome resumed tapping her blue pen against the desk, causing a consistent and soft sound that did nothing to soothe her nerves. All it did was cause her to picture Inuyasha beneath her hands instead as she bashed his head with a mallet.
Ayumi glanced over her shoulder at the frustrated woman and reached out to cover Kagome's frantic hand, thus halting the pen in its endeavor to torture the entire class. Kagome looked up and found Ayumi smiling at her with sympathy, and shrugged, folding her arms and leaning back in her seat like a pouting child.
"Ms. Higurashi, would you care to elaborate on the subject?" Kagome felt her body jolt, and looked up to find her rather handsome professor staring at her with an expectant look.
"Um, I'm sorry Mr. Clancy, what was the question?" Some of the class chuckled, but Mr. Clancy just shrugged with a smile, his blue eyes twinkling. Kagome blushed.
"We were discussing how William Shakespeare uses the speech of Marc Antony as a rhetorical device."
"Oh," Kagome fumbled around briefly in her notebook until she found her notes from the night before. "The way Shakespeare has Antony constantly revert back to stating the phrase 'But Brutus is an honorable man' shows the character using repetition to manipulate the mob."
Mr. Clancy nodded. "Very good." He turned away. "Now, can anyone tell me why Antony would do this?"
Kagome sighed and slumped lower in her seat, having been humiliated in this class for the fifth time that week. For some reason, her professor had something against her, though she couldn't imagine what.
When class was over, Kagome leapt to her feet and scrambled to pick up her book bag, only to stumble slightly as she felt a wave of nausea overcome her senses. She put a hand to her forehead, stabilizing herself with the other by putting it against the counter of the desk.
"Kagome, are you okay?" Ayumi was looking at her with concern, but Kagome did her best to just smile.
"I'm fine Ayumi, you head on to your next class, I wouldn't want you to be late because of me."
"Are you sure?"
"Yes, I'll be fine." Kagome smiled again, and Ayumi nodded, though still not looking convinced, and headed out the door.
Trying to move again, Kagome decided against it and ended up sitting back down at her desk until the room stopped spinning. She didn't know what was going on. She had been feeling this way for the past ten days, and the stomach flu never lasted that long.
But unfortunately, thinking about how long she had been feeling sick led to thinking about how long it had been since she had seen Inuyasha. She grit her teeth, trying to hold back her temper at the thought of what she was going to do when she saw him again.
"Ms. Higurashi? Are you alright?"
"What?" Kagome turned to see Mr. Clancy staring at her from behind his desk. He smiled.
"I asked if you are alright? Normally, you can't wait to get out of this class, so I doubt you're staying because you suddenly like the room."
"Oh," Kagome blushed slightly, "No, I'm just feeling a bit light-headed, but it will pass soon, I'm sure."
"Should I call the nurse?"
"No, that won't be necessary. I didn't have breakfast this morning, and I haven't been sleeping very much lately because of studying."
"Okay, if you're sure."
"I am." Her voice was bright and cheery, yet somehow Kagome had the sense he wasn't buying it. But whatever he was thinking, he must have pushed it aside because he shrugged.
"Well, in that case," he began, sitting down at his desk two rows from where she sat, "I'll take this opportunity to discuss with you your performance in my class."
"Mr. Clancy, I-"
But he put up a hand for silence, and she obeyed. "Ms. Higurashi, I think you're a remarkable student, with a lot of intelligence that you aren't using. And I'd like to know why?"
"Excuse me, sir?"
"Kagome, that paper you wrote for me at the beginning of the year on Nathaniel Hawthorne was incredible. I've been teaching now for ten years and, frankly, I haven't seen a student put out a paper like that their first week before."
"Thank you." Kagome couldn't help but beam slightly with pleasure under the praise. "So what's the problem? I'm not missing any assignments or tests, am I?"
He shook his head, dark bangs swaying before his eyes. If she hadn't already been in love with Inuyasha, Kagome was sure she would be gaga for the English professor like every other girl on campus.
"No, but in class you don't demonstrate your true knowledge of the topic."
"I'm not sure I understand."
"Your fellow students think you are a slacker, Ms. Higurashi, and frankly, if I hadn't seen some of your work, I would think the same thing. Can you tell me what it is about the class you find so intolerable?"
Kagome blinked. "I don't think your class is intolerable, Mr. Clancy, I'm that way with all of my subjects. I'll be honest when I say that while school is a high priority in my life, so are other aspects."
"Aspects such as?" Blushing, she looked down at her engagement ring and wedding band, glinting in the light pouring through the side windows.
"My husband," she replied, still enraptured by the diamond. Looking up, she saw that her teacher had a surprised expression on her face.
"You are married, Ms. Higurashi? Or should I say, Mrs. Higurashi?" Kagome reddened again.
"It's Ms. Higurashi, Mr. Clancy, and yes, I am. It's easier for me to go through college without putting up a big flag that I'm married by calling myself Mrs."
"I understand." He looked at her. "But surely your husband would support you in what you do? I don't see why you cannot give college your full attention."
"Mr. Clancy, my life is, um-" she bit her lip, searching for the right word as an image of her hanyou husband came to mind, thrashing about with his sword, "-abnormally hectic at times. I'm sorry if you don't agree with that, but that is just the way it is."
Her teacher nodded, seeming to understand. A loud shriek from the common area outside broke the moment, and Kagome felt suddenly ridiculous for having stayed in his classroom so long. No doubt she was now late for her history lecture.
"I'm sorry for keeping you," she said, rising to her feet, grateful when the nausea did not return.
"It's no trouble at all. I just want you to understand something." Kagome halted as she prepared to walk through the door with her book bag slung over her shoulder.
"Yes?"
"I'd like to nominate you for an outstanding award at the end of this term, but can only do that if you improve your classroom skills. You have tremendous potential, Ms. Higurashi. Don't let it go to waste."
Smiling, Kagome nodded. "I'll do my best." And with that she took off across campus as fast as her feet could carry her, the compliment from her teacher putting her in a somewhat better mood then before. Too bad her mood would probably turn sour again before she met up with Inuyasha later that day.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
For two weeks Inuyasha had found himself deep within the forests near Kaede's village, sleeping there at night, hunting for anything unusual during the day, and generally becoming more and more frustrated.
Nothing.
That is what they had found.
Absolutely nothing.
Halting in a particularly sunny area for a short rest, Inuyasha leapt into one of the trees and took a seat on a lower branch, so that he wasn't out of earshot of his two companions, who just emerged in the clearing below.
Kikyou set down her bow and arrows before sitting down herself and leaning against the support of a rather large boulder, closing her eyes and soaking in the warmth of the sun. She felt a warm hand cover her fingers, and smiled at Gideon without having to look at him.
"Where did Inuyasha go?" her husband asked, looking around as though puzzled. Inuyasha rolled his eyes, shocked that the man still hadn't picked up on his mannerisms after at least ten days of travel together.
"Where do you think, baka?" Gideon looked up to find a peeved hanyou glaring down at him from on high, and blushed before sitting down next to his wife.
"It was just a question, Inuyasha," Kikyou murmured, feeling the fatigue of several days' travel finally taking their toll on her human body. It was times like these that she envied Inuyasha and his demon stamina. "When will we be moving again?"
"Keh, whenever you want to. I'm not in charge of anything."
His voice was tight with irritation and something deeper, causing Kikyou to look at him more carefully. She observed his tense posture, his neck arched and his eyes alert as he scanned the horizon, seeming to be looking for something.
"Are you alright?" He looked down at her with a trace of annoyance.
"Of course I'm alright. Why wouldn't I be? I mean, other then the fact that I've been wandering around these damn woods forever without finding a thing."
"You didn't have to help, you know," Kikyou muttered, leaning into the arms of the man who loved her.
"You told me you sensed Naraku," Inuyasha retorted, getting that desperate tone that always appeared at the mention of his enemy. "What did you think I was going to do?"
Kikyou sighed, feeling more and more lethargic under the rays of the sun. "You're right, I probably jumped to conclusions. But it's still better to be sure." Choosing not to respond, Inuyasha instead looked away, into the darker areas of the forest.
"You never used to be this cruel to me," Kikyou commented suddenly, and he looked back at her puzzled expression, though her eyes remained closed. "So just because you haven't found what you're looking for, that doesn't mean you can use either myself or Gideon as your means of dispelling anger."
"Keh," Inuyasha looked away with a grunt. It wasn't that he was looking for anything. He'd found what he was looking for. The problem was, she wasn't with him right now.
With a sigh, Kagome's face came into his mind, her smiling eyes and upturned lips as she beamed radiance like the sun in his direction. He always felt so warm in her presence. So loved, like he had never been before in his entire life.
"And she's going to be furious with me," he muttered, thinking about the fact that even when she couldn't get away, he would normally visit her at least twice a week, often surprising her, on purpose, when she least expected it. He hadn't gone at all since she returned to her time, and her absence was starting to take its toll.
Trying to rid the thoughts from his mind, Inuyasha chose instead to debate the current problem of finding out who or what the creature was that attacked Kikyou, mentioning their former relationship and using the old spies of Naraku for eyes. It couldn't be good, and he had to admit all signs pointed logically to the idea of Naraku being alive after all.
But that didn't make sense! He had watched Kagome kill the demon with her own hands, watched as his evil soul was purified and sent on to the other world without a chance of survival. Which then brought him back to the problem of if it wasn't Naraku, then who was living in the forest?
Kaede had tried to bring Sango and Miroku in to help, but Inuyasha had not the heart to drag either into a conflict they had thought to be over. For Sango, to even mention the name Naraku meant to silently refer to Kohaku, her dead brother, and tears would come to her eyes. And as for Miroku, he was finally living the life of a normal man, without the fear of being pulled into eternal darkness by a curse.
Wait.
The curse! That's right, the curse existed so long as Naraku was alive! So that meant it couldn't be Naraku, right? The fact that Miroku's hand was still normal proved that point!
But that still left the question of who else it could be, and more and more that was something that frightened the hanyou. At least with Naraku, Inuyasha knew who he was and what exactly he was up against. With an unknown enemy, he was shooting blind.
The winds shifted, brushing his long silver hair back from his face and eyes, and suddenly his nose caught the familiar scent of spices and vanilla. His eyes lit up at once, and he shot out of the tree as quickly as possible.
"Inuyasha?" Kikyou sat up to see him bounding off into the woods. "Where are you going?"
"Kagome's back!" he called over his shoulder, not caring that he sounded like a lovesick schoolboy. All that mattered was seeing her again.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Grumbling, Kagome pulled herself out of the well after having slipped and fell once, scraping her knee, dropping her bow and arrows to the ground. Indeed, her mood had soured, and possibly even fermented, in the time since her conversation with Mr. Clancy and now. Once more she was a very anger wife and mate who planned on demanding an explanation from her husband after sitting him several times in the dirt.
"Stupid baka," she muttered, wiping some dirt off of her arm, "Can't be bothered to be around when I really need help."
"Hello Kagome, a little help please?"
"Oh, sorry," She blushed and reached down to help lift Nancy out of the well, the blonde woman practically falling over onto the grass, landing on her rear.
"Now I wish I'd gone to the gym all those Saturdays when I had nothing better to do," she commented as she rose to her feet, checking to see that her gray sweatpants weren't too dirty.
Unlike before, Nancy had come a little more prepared for the outdoors, dressed in a gray sweat suit and white running shoes, her hair pulled up and back in a high ponytail, her face scrubbed clean of makeup. For all intensive purposes, she looked like someone ready for an afternoon run.
"You'll get used to it," Kagome replied, noting her own khaki shorts and tank top. She looked around expectantly, and then frowned.
"Something wrong?"
"Yeah," Kagome scowled, "Inuyasha isn't here. Usually he knows when I arrive and comes to greet me in a second."
Nancy smiled that knowing smirk she got whenever she was about to take down an opponent in the courtroom. "Well, don't chew him out without me, there's nothing more entertaining to watch then a guy getting his just rewards."
Kagome couldn't help but smile at that, but her lips quickly turned once more into a frown as she thought about how long it had been since she had last seen the hanyou. "He'd better have one hell of an explanation for not coming," she hissed.
So busy was she complaining about Inuyasha, that at first Kagome failed to sense the presence in the brush behind her. Thus, she was surprised when she heard Nancy shout "Holy Shit!"
Spinning around, Kagome saw an incredibly ugly demon racing toward her friend, it's jaws open to reveal several rows of jagged teeth. Without thinking, Kagome reached for her bow and notched an arrow, firing it off, satisfied when the creature dissolved.
Alert, Kagome could now feel the presence of a dark aura, and turned to look at an ashen Nancy. "Get down, and stay down," she commanded, suddenly all business, and the older woman obeyed, crouching down behind the well.
Satisfied that her friend was at least a little more protected, Kagome reached out with her senses to try and pinpoint the location of the aura, stopping when she found herself looking at an abnormally thick batch of shrubbery.
"Who's there?" she called out, notching an arrow. A low chuckle radiated out from the bushes.
"So, you are Kagome? You're even more beautiful then I expected, and more powerful. That little demonstration with your arrow was impressive. And I'm glad to finally put a face with the name, as I have not seen you personally before now, my spies have not been able to find you."
Hearing her name on the lips of a complete stranger unnerved her, and Kagome pulled back the arrow threateningly. "I ask again, who are you?"
"I can't tell you that," the voice replied, obviously enjoying this little game of guessing. "That would spoil the fun. But perhaps this can give you a hint."
Out of the bushes emerged several familiar bees, flying in her direction, and Kagome instinctively launched her arrow out of fear of the man who used to control such creatures. Crackling, pink light filled the air, killing at least a dozen of the bees, while the rest fled back into the bushes.
"That wasn't very nice," the voice clucked as Kagome hastily pulled out another arrow.
"Consider that a warning," she called, trying not to let her voice shake. "I can sense your presence, and won't hesitate to fire again."
"You're angry about something," the voice commented suddenly, and Kagome felt her mind thrown off balance.
"What?"
"I can sense it, as I can sense all darkness. You are angry about something, so surely that must make you less effective in a fight."
"No I'm not," Kagome replied, unable to believe she was arguing with a strange voice.
"Does it have something to do with Inuyasha?" Kagome tensed at the reference to the man she loved, and felt her strength and confidence return at the thought of defending him.
"Leave him out of anything your mind might be thinking about," she hissed, only to be laughed at.
"What is it about that pathetic hanyou that attracts powerful women to him? First Kikyou, and now you, though I must say you are the better catch."
Fast becoming annoyed with being someone's toy, and not liking the fact that Kikyou had been mentioned, Kagome growled in her throat and pulled the string of her bow taught. "Obviously you want something from me to have waited, so what is it?"
There was a short silence before the voice replied, "I want you Kagome."
"Me?" She couldn't hide the surprise from her voice. Then she smirked. "You must be crazy, considering I have a mate who would rip you to shreds if you came with ten yards."
"Oh, I can handle Inuyasha, trust me."
Defensive rage suddenly returned, and Kagome turned her face into a dangerous scowl. "Don't you threaten him," she hissed, and fired her arrow, watching as it flew into the brush.
Strange, she thought after several seconds of silence, she hadn't heard one sound. Not the dissolving noise of something being purified, nor the sound of the arrow missing it's target and hitting the ground. It was like it had just vanished. Just like when-
"Oh god," she whispered. "It can't be."
The image of Naraku during one battle or another came to her mind, surrounded by a dark energy barrier, absorbing her arrow as if it were nothing.
"You shouldn't have done that," the voice whispered, sounding suddenly dangerous, all playfulness gone.
Kagome didn't even have time to ready another arrow before she was knocked to the ground, the air in her lungs forced from her body upon impact. "Nancy!" She cried, "Find Inuyasha!"
Gasping for air, she felt a hand cover her mouth and a sour smell in her nose before she began to fade into sleep, glancing at the flash of an unfamiliar handsome face just before her body surrendered completely to the darkness.
Author's Notes: Apologies for the longer then expected intermission, everyone, but I've had a long, long week. I'll spare you the details, but suffice it to say I've been more stressed out then ever before, and that's saying a lot. Either way, I hope this chapter means you aren't all ready to kill me.
Thanks for all the reviews, you're wonderful. Fanfiction.net had a problem with review alerts, so I didn't even see half of the reviews until a day or so ago, when I signed on to see over one hundred emails in my box, from all of my stories. It was quite overwhelming. But anyway, thank you.
Oh, and as a side note, 'The Realistic Happily Ever After' has officially reached the thousand review benchmark! Yeah! Now it's time to break out the cookies and celebrate (when I have a free moment). Thank you all, it has absolutely made my day!
This chapter is more of a filler, but towards the end it starts to move the plot along again, so I hope you'll be happy with it. I don't know when I'll get out the next chapter, though I'll try to be better about updating then I was for this one. Keep in mind everyone that I am also working on other stories, so sometimes I use my time to work on those too. Sorry!
Anyway, thanks again, and without keeping you waiting any longer, I would like to present chapter five! Enjoy!
Lizzard: I guess the Japanese words are just familiar for me, so I use them. I could write them in English, but I guess I just don't want to. lol Thanks for the reviews!
Miko Sakura-sama: Yeah, I did leave out Shippou and Kirara, but I guess it just felt like if I tried to incorporate EVERYTHING it would get to be confusing even for me, and I already know the story! So, I hope you can forgive me, and it means in no way that I don't like Shippou. He's adorable!
FrameofMind: Yeah, go fellow singer! And thanks for your wonderful reviews, I really appreciate them. I hope you haven't been disappointed with 'Soul Therapy' either.
Matthias: I want to thank you for your reviews, and I also want to let you know that I have not abandoned 'Conflict and Everlasting Love'. There should be an update sometime this week, and I promise to be more frequent from now on. The next chapter is dedicated to you!
Puppiessocute aka Mic Mic: This chapter is officially dedicated to you, my friend! Thank you so much for reviewing all the chapters from all my stories so far! I really appreciate it, you didn't have to. Thank you so much! You're wonderful!
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Title: Soldiers in a Timeless Battle
Author: dolphingirl0113
Chapter: Five
Rating: PG-13 (for language and, at times, sexual implications)
Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha.
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Two weeks.
Kagome couldn't believe that Inuyasha hadn't come to see her once over the course of two weeks! She had told him they would be together once she went on her short break, but for crying out loud, the man could still come and check on her at least once!
Leaning against her hand, supported by her elbow on the wooden desk, she was barely hearing what her English professor was rattling on about before her, though she knew it had something to do with analyzing the tone of Shakespeare.
Her husband's face flared up in her mind, and she exhaled, her nostrils flaring in frustration. Why the hell hadn't he come to see her? She couldn't get away to see him, he knew that. So why wasn't HE making the effort?
Kagome resumed tapping her blue pen against the desk, causing a consistent and soft sound that did nothing to soothe her nerves. All it did was cause her to picture Inuyasha beneath her hands instead as she bashed his head with a mallet.
Ayumi glanced over her shoulder at the frustrated woman and reached out to cover Kagome's frantic hand, thus halting the pen in its endeavor to torture the entire class. Kagome looked up and found Ayumi smiling at her with sympathy, and shrugged, folding her arms and leaning back in her seat like a pouting child.
"Ms. Higurashi, would you care to elaborate on the subject?" Kagome felt her body jolt, and looked up to find her rather handsome professor staring at her with an expectant look.
"Um, I'm sorry Mr. Clancy, what was the question?" Some of the class chuckled, but Mr. Clancy just shrugged with a smile, his blue eyes twinkling. Kagome blushed.
"We were discussing how William Shakespeare uses the speech of Marc Antony as a rhetorical device."
"Oh," Kagome fumbled around briefly in her notebook until she found her notes from the night before. "The way Shakespeare has Antony constantly revert back to stating the phrase 'But Brutus is an honorable man' shows the character using repetition to manipulate the mob."
Mr. Clancy nodded. "Very good." He turned away. "Now, can anyone tell me why Antony would do this?"
Kagome sighed and slumped lower in her seat, having been humiliated in this class for the fifth time that week. For some reason, her professor had something against her, though she couldn't imagine what.
When class was over, Kagome leapt to her feet and scrambled to pick up her book bag, only to stumble slightly as she felt a wave of nausea overcome her senses. She put a hand to her forehead, stabilizing herself with the other by putting it against the counter of the desk.
"Kagome, are you okay?" Ayumi was looking at her with concern, but Kagome did her best to just smile.
"I'm fine Ayumi, you head on to your next class, I wouldn't want you to be late because of me."
"Are you sure?"
"Yes, I'll be fine." Kagome smiled again, and Ayumi nodded, though still not looking convinced, and headed out the door.
Trying to move again, Kagome decided against it and ended up sitting back down at her desk until the room stopped spinning. She didn't know what was going on. She had been feeling this way for the past ten days, and the stomach flu never lasted that long.
But unfortunately, thinking about how long she had been feeling sick led to thinking about how long it had been since she had seen Inuyasha. She grit her teeth, trying to hold back her temper at the thought of what she was going to do when she saw him again.
"Ms. Higurashi? Are you alright?"
"What?" Kagome turned to see Mr. Clancy staring at her from behind his desk. He smiled.
"I asked if you are alright? Normally, you can't wait to get out of this class, so I doubt you're staying because you suddenly like the room."
"Oh," Kagome blushed slightly, "No, I'm just feeling a bit light-headed, but it will pass soon, I'm sure."
"Should I call the nurse?"
"No, that won't be necessary. I didn't have breakfast this morning, and I haven't been sleeping very much lately because of studying."
"Okay, if you're sure."
"I am." Her voice was bright and cheery, yet somehow Kagome had the sense he wasn't buying it. But whatever he was thinking, he must have pushed it aside because he shrugged.
"Well, in that case," he began, sitting down at his desk two rows from where she sat, "I'll take this opportunity to discuss with you your performance in my class."
"Mr. Clancy, I-"
But he put up a hand for silence, and she obeyed. "Ms. Higurashi, I think you're a remarkable student, with a lot of intelligence that you aren't using. And I'd like to know why?"
"Excuse me, sir?"
"Kagome, that paper you wrote for me at the beginning of the year on Nathaniel Hawthorne was incredible. I've been teaching now for ten years and, frankly, I haven't seen a student put out a paper like that their first week before."
"Thank you." Kagome couldn't help but beam slightly with pleasure under the praise. "So what's the problem? I'm not missing any assignments or tests, am I?"
He shook his head, dark bangs swaying before his eyes. If she hadn't already been in love with Inuyasha, Kagome was sure she would be gaga for the English professor like every other girl on campus.
"No, but in class you don't demonstrate your true knowledge of the topic."
"I'm not sure I understand."
"Your fellow students think you are a slacker, Ms. Higurashi, and frankly, if I hadn't seen some of your work, I would think the same thing. Can you tell me what it is about the class you find so intolerable?"
Kagome blinked. "I don't think your class is intolerable, Mr. Clancy, I'm that way with all of my subjects. I'll be honest when I say that while school is a high priority in my life, so are other aspects."
"Aspects such as?" Blushing, she looked down at her engagement ring and wedding band, glinting in the light pouring through the side windows.
"My husband," she replied, still enraptured by the diamond. Looking up, she saw that her teacher had a surprised expression on her face.
"You are married, Ms. Higurashi? Or should I say, Mrs. Higurashi?" Kagome reddened again.
"It's Ms. Higurashi, Mr. Clancy, and yes, I am. It's easier for me to go through college without putting up a big flag that I'm married by calling myself Mrs."
"I understand." He looked at her. "But surely your husband would support you in what you do? I don't see why you cannot give college your full attention."
"Mr. Clancy, my life is, um-" she bit her lip, searching for the right word as an image of her hanyou husband came to mind, thrashing about with his sword, "-abnormally hectic at times. I'm sorry if you don't agree with that, but that is just the way it is."
Her teacher nodded, seeming to understand. A loud shriek from the common area outside broke the moment, and Kagome felt suddenly ridiculous for having stayed in his classroom so long. No doubt she was now late for her history lecture.
"I'm sorry for keeping you," she said, rising to her feet, grateful when the nausea did not return.
"It's no trouble at all. I just want you to understand something." Kagome halted as she prepared to walk through the door with her book bag slung over her shoulder.
"Yes?"
"I'd like to nominate you for an outstanding award at the end of this term, but can only do that if you improve your classroom skills. You have tremendous potential, Ms. Higurashi. Don't let it go to waste."
Smiling, Kagome nodded. "I'll do my best." And with that she took off across campus as fast as her feet could carry her, the compliment from her teacher putting her in a somewhat better mood then before. Too bad her mood would probably turn sour again before she met up with Inuyasha later that day.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
For two weeks Inuyasha had found himself deep within the forests near Kaede's village, sleeping there at night, hunting for anything unusual during the day, and generally becoming more and more frustrated.
Nothing.
That is what they had found.
Absolutely nothing.
Halting in a particularly sunny area for a short rest, Inuyasha leapt into one of the trees and took a seat on a lower branch, so that he wasn't out of earshot of his two companions, who just emerged in the clearing below.
Kikyou set down her bow and arrows before sitting down herself and leaning against the support of a rather large boulder, closing her eyes and soaking in the warmth of the sun. She felt a warm hand cover her fingers, and smiled at Gideon without having to look at him.
"Where did Inuyasha go?" her husband asked, looking around as though puzzled. Inuyasha rolled his eyes, shocked that the man still hadn't picked up on his mannerisms after at least ten days of travel together.
"Where do you think, baka?" Gideon looked up to find a peeved hanyou glaring down at him from on high, and blushed before sitting down next to his wife.
"It was just a question, Inuyasha," Kikyou murmured, feeling the fatigue of several days' travel finally taking their toll on her human body. It was times like these that she envied Inuyasha and his demon stamina. "When will we be moving again?"
"Keh, whenever you want to. I'm not in charge of anything."
His voice was tight with irritation and something deeper, causing Kikyou to look at him more carefully. She observed his tense posture, his neck arched and his eyes alert as he scanned the horizon, seeming to be looking for something.
"Are you alright?" He looked down at her with a trace of annoyance.
"Of course I'm alright. Why wouldn't I be? I mean, other then the fact that I've been wandering around these damn woods forever without finding a thing."
"You didn't have to help, you know," Kikyou muttered, leaning into the arms of the man who loved her.
"You told me you sensed Naraku," Inuyasha retorted, getting that desperate tone that always appeared at the mention of his enemy. "What did you think I was going to do?"
Kikyou sighed, feeling more and more lethargic under the rays of the sun. "You're right, I probably jumped to conclusions. But it's still better to be sure." Choosing not to respond, Inuyasha instead looked away, into the darker areas of the forest.
"You never used to be this cruel to me," Kikyou commented suddenly, and he looked back at her puzzled expression, though her eyes remained closed. "So just because you haven't found what you're looking for, that doesn't mean you can use either myself or Gideon as your means of dispelling anger."
"Keh," Inuyasha looked away with a grunt. It wasn't that he was looking for anything. He'd found what he was looking for. The problem was, she wasn't with him right now.
With a sigh, Kagome's face came into his mind, her smiling eyes and upturned lips as she beamed radiance like the sun in his direction. He always felt so warm in her presence. So loved, like he had never been before in his entire life.
"And she's going to be furious with me," he muttered, thinking about the fact that even when she couldn't get away, he would normally visit her at least twice a week, often surprising her, on purpose, when she least expected it. He hadn't gone at all since she returned to her time, and her absence was starting to take its toll.
Trying to rid the thoughts from his mind, Inuyasha chose instead to debate the current problem of finding out who or what the creature was that attacked Kikyou, mentioning their former relationship and using the old spies of Naraku for eyes. It couldn't be good, and he had to admit all signs pointed logically to the idea of Naraku being alive after all.
But that didn't make sense! He had watched Kagome kill the demon with her own hands, watched as his evil soul was purified and sent on to the other world without a chance of survival. Which then brought him back to the problem of if it wasn't Naraku, then who was living in the forest?
Kaede had tried to bring Sango and Miroku in to help, but Inuyasha had not the heart to drag either into a conflict they had thought to be over. For Sango, to even mention the name Naraku meant to silently refer to Kohaku, her dead brother, and tears would come to her eyes. And as for Miroku, he was finally living the life of a normal man, without the fear of being pulled into eternal darkness by a curse.
Wait.
The curse! That's right, the curse existed so long as Naraku was alive! So that meant it couldn't be Naraku, right? The fact that Miroku's hand was still normal proved that point!
But that still left the question of who else it could be, and more and more that was something that frightened the hanyou. At least with Naraku, Inuyasha knew who he was and what exactly he was up against. With an unknown enemy, he was shooting blind.
The winds shifted, brushing his long silver hair back from his face and eyes, and suddenly his nose caught the familiar scent of spices and vanilla. His eyes lit up at once, and he shot out of the tree as quickly as possible.
"Inuyasha?" Kikyou sat up to see him bounding off into the woods. "Where are you going?"
"Kagome's back!" he called over his shoulder, not caring that he sounded like a lovesick schoolboy. All that mattered was seeing her again.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Grumbling, Kagome pulled herself out of the well after having slipped and fell once, scraping her knee, dropping her bow and arrows to the ground. Indeed, her mood had soured, and possibly even fermented, in the time since her conversation with Mr. Clancy and now. Once more she was a very anger wife and mate who planned on demanding an explanation from her husband after sitting him several times in the dirt.
"Stupid baka," she muttered, wiping some dirt off of her arm, "Can't be bothered to be around when I really need help."
"Hello Kagome, a little help please?"
"Oh, sorry," She blushed and reached down to help lift Nancy out of the well, the blonde woman practically falling over onto the grass, landing on her rear.
"Now I wish I'd gone to the gym all those Saturdays when I had nothing better to do," she commented as she rose to her feet, checking to see that her gray sweatpants weren't too dirty.
Unlike before, Nancy had come a little more prepared for the outdoors, dressed in a gray sweat suit and white running shoes, her hair pulled up and back in a high ponytail, her face scrubbed clean of makeup. For all intensive purposes, she looked like someone ready for an afternoon run.
"You'll get used to it," Kagome replied, noting her own khaki shorts and tank top. She looked around expectantly, and then frowned.
"Something wrong?"
"Yeah," Kagome scowled, "Inuyasha isn't here. Usually he knows when I arrive and comes to greet me in a second."
Nancy smiled that knowing smirk she got whenever she was about to take down an opponent in the courtroom. "Well, don't chew him out without me, there's nothing more entertaining to watch then a guy getting his just rewards."
Kagome couldn't help but smile at that, but her lips quickly turned once more into a frown as she thought about how long it had been since she had last seen the hanyou. "He'd better have one hell of an explanation for not coming," she hissed.
So busy was she complaining about Inuyasha, that at first Kagome failed to sense the presence in the brush behind her. Thus, she was surprised when she heard Nancy shout "Holy Shit!"
Spinning around, Kagome saw an incredibly ugly demon racing toward her friend, it's jaws open to reveal several rows of jagged teeth. Without thinking, Kagome reached for her bow and notched an arrow, firing it off, satisfied when the creature dissolved.
Alert, Kagome could now feel the presence of a dark aura, and turned to look at an ashen Nancy. "Get down, and stay down," she commanded, suddenly all business, and the older woman obeyed, crouching down behind the well.
Satisfied that her friend was at least a little more protected, Kagome reached out with her senses to try and pinpoint the location of the aura, stopping when she found herself looking at an abnormally thick batch of shrubbery.
"Who's there?" she called out, notching an arrow. A low chuckle radiated out from the bushes.
"So, you are Kagome? You're even more beautiful then I expected, and more powerful. That little demonstration with your arrow was impressive. And I'm glad to finally put a face with the name, as I have not seen you personally before now, my spies have not been able to find you."
Hearing her name on the lips of a complete stranger unnerved her, and Kagome pulled back the arrow threateningly. "I ask again, who are you?"
"I can't tell you that," the voice replied, obviously enjoying this little game of guessing. "That would spoil the fun. But perhaps this can give you a hint."
Out of the bushes emerged several familiar bees, flying in her direction, and Kagome instinctively launched her arrow out of fear of the man who used to control such creatures. Crackling, pink light filled the air, killing at least a dozen of the bees, while the rest fled back into the bushes.
"That wasn't very nice," the voice clucked as Kagome hastily pulled out another arrow.
"Consider that a warning," she called, trying not to let her voice shake. "I can sense your presence, and won't hesitate to fire again."
"You're angry about something," the voice commented suddenly, and Kagome felt her mind thrown off balance.
"What?"
"I can sense it, as I can sense all darkness. You are angry about something, so surely that must make you less effective in a fight."
"No I'm not," Kagome replied, unable to believe she was arguing with a strange voice.
"Does it have something to do with Inuyasha?" Kagome tensed at the reference to the man she loved, and felt her strength and confidence return at the thought of defending him.
"Leave him out of anything your mind might be thinking about," she hissed, only to be laughed at.
"What is it about that pathetic hanyou that attracts powerful women to him? First Kikyou, and now you, though I must say you are the better catch."
Fast becoming annoyed with being someone's toy, and not liking the fact that Kikyou had been mentioned, Kagome growled in her throat and pulled the string of her bow taught. "Obviously you want something from me to have waited, so what is it?"
There was a short silence before the voice replied, "I want you Kagome."
"Me?" She couldn't hide the surprise from her voice. Then she smirked. "You must be crazy, considering I have a mate who would rip you to shreds if you came with ten yards."
"Oh, I can handle Inuyasha, trust me."
Defensive rage suddenly returned, and Kagome turned her face into a dangerous scowl. "Don't you threaten him," she hissed, and fired her arrow, watching as it flew into the brush.
Strange, she thought after several seconds of silence, she hadn't heard one sound. Not the dissolving noise of something being purified, nor the sound of the arrow missing it's target and hitting the ground. It was like it had just vanished. Just like when-
"Oh god," she whispered. "It can't be."
The image of Naraku during one battle or another came to her mind, surrounded by a dark energy barrier, absorbing her arrow as if it were nothing.
"You shouldn't have done that," the voice whispered, sounding suddenly dangerous, all playfulness gone.
Kagome didn't even have time to ready another arrow before she was knocked to the ground, the air in her lungs forced from her body upon impact. "Nancy!" She cried, "Find Inuyasha!"
Gasping for air, she felt a hand cover her mouth and a sour smell in her nose before she began to fade into sleep, glancing at the flash of an unfamiliar handsome face just before her body surrendered completely to the darkness.
