Disclaimer: I wish..
Chapter One: Today in History
I was fifteen when it happened...I was on my way to school when I saw my little brother, Souta, standing at the old family well house looking in. He was all crouched down, full of fear and nervousness. He said the cat had gone in and that he refused to go in get him. So that's when I came in. The big sister on her way to rescue the cat from it's non-dangerous situation. I didn't know that what would've been non-dangerous for him was insanely dangerous for me, luckily. If I had known I don't believe I ever would've gone near that well. I was too attached to what I had; calm and simple life with a twinge of teenage hormones thrown in. But now...I wouldn't give up my decision for the world. You see for me it opened up a world that no one else could get to, a world where I was miko guardian and demons existed.
Kagome balled up her paper instantly. Not only did that make her sound like she was losing her mind but it also made the event sound so dreadfully fairytale-ish. She smiled at the idea though..Kagome: a Feudal Fairytale.. and she giggled. Miss Kuntz at the front of the room, however, didn't see the humor evidentally, for she glared with that "get back to work" teacher look that made her choke back the remainder of her giggles and put her pen to the paper.
The most amazing event of your life...
She read the title over and over again thinking rapidly. What was she going to write about? Being sucked through the well was the most amazing thing that had ever happened to her but she knew she'd been committed immediately when the teacher read that. Really she couldn't imagine what she'd been thinking to write it in the first place. She rubbed her temples thoughtfully. Just distraction old girl, just distraction, she thought. This constant dark feeling that was looming over her now was what did it. Something somehwere was going to go wrong and she could feel it in her bones that it would be bad.
Concentrate, she mentally berated. If she didn't get as much of this project done as possible she might not get it done at all. She knew good and well that when she was in Feudal Japan there wasn't time for papers and that was where she was heading after school, straight down the well. Which reminded her, Inuyasha had asked for some of those vanilla cookies when she came home. Oh dear, so much to buy so much to remember...how was she doing this? School, home, running for your life, dealing with boyfriend's murderous ex....the list was entirely too long for a girl her age.
Kagome glowered at her paper as though she half expected it to have written itself. What was she going to write about?? Glancing half-heartedly over at Yuka's paper she read the title: "my summer in France". Ooo, exotic. But she didn't have anything like that in her past. The farthest she had ever been from home was down the well. So, door number two, or rather paper number too. Eri's paper was titled enlongatedly as "My Incredible Years as the Only Child". Kagome inwardly laughed, allowing nothing more than a smile on her face. Eri really didn't hate her new little sister all that much, she was making a much bigger deal out of it than it was. Still, Kagome had been much too young when Souta was born to remember being the sole heir to the Higurashi shrine per say..another dead end. The only thing she had anywhere similar to that was her dad's death. Suddenly she considered it. Did she know enough about his death to write a paper?
Kagome glanced at the clock and unconsciously added up the hours until she had to be back at Kaede's for dinner. Marching on toward seven of them. Again she looked at her paper. She could make it up, couldn't she? She could use some creative rights to change the details in case none of it was true, that way it would all be a lie instead of some. The thought was disheartening, but so was not getting her paper written. If she made it up she could get an A, get it done, and the teacher would never know the difference...she finally decided on it and began writing. The only thing she had to remember was to keep it modest, no demons or robbers or anything--just death, tears, and life moving on.
Several hours later Kagome was breathing a sigh of relief. She had finished the entire rough draft of her paper, proofreading and everything and had managed to put as few lies in one paragraph as possible. She didn't like lying, but as Miroku demonstrated..it could be helpful. She slipped the paper into her bag and stood to head for her next class of the day, history. Fortuantely, this was a class she could afford to slack off in. Since her days in Feudal Japan she'd been making A's on all her papers and homework and the teacher had even stopped her to ask a few questions every now and then. It was enough to get her friends interested in her assistance and to give her self-esteem a little boost, so if nothing else, running for her life was worth it.
Yuka stood and smiled at her, rubbing a little droplet of sweat off her forehead. "Wow, that was hard...too much information to put into a measly 1000 word essay," she groaned. Eri nodded agreeingly while Mina, who sat in the front of the room, frowned in rejection.
"Are you guys serious? I wrote about my mom's car wreck and I couldn't even manage 933 words. This is going to be hard," she moaned. Kagome beamed.
"Really? Well I'm already done!" she prined. Her friends gaped at her.
"You're what?"
"Are you for real?"
"How? You're the farthest behind of us all!" Kagome blushed. They were all right, for once.
"Well...I just left out some details and pulled it off with two words to spare," she smiled.
"So how you gonna get those two words?" inquired Eri.
"The end?" she shrugged in response. That roused a good laugh for them all as they headed out the door and down the hall for their next class.
Kagome took her window seat in class and started to unhaul all her books from her bag, the start of class ritual she was following now everyday. She'd been home from Feudal Japan for nearly a week now with no interruptions and it was soothing yes, but it pained her not to have Inuyasha butting in all the time. At first it's nice until you start to expect it and it never comes. You only expect things you halfway enjoy, she realized.
"Man, I hate this class..It's not as easy as Higurashi makes it look ya know," some guy was whispering behind her. Kagome smiled to herself.
"Alright now class today we are getting into the good stuff...the nitty gritty of the feudal times. The start of the war!" the teacher announced excitedly as he came into the room. Kagome's eyes widened. That wasn't what he had planned. Mina, who normally paid closer attention than most students, would surely notice this and point it out so she didn't have to. Right? C'mon Mina, don't make me look like a nerd, please??
"Excuse me, sir, but you said tuesday we were going to cover rich families in the north," Mina soft voice projected. Kagome did a touchdown dance on the inside.
"Yes I know that Mina, thank you for paying attention, but I had a change of plans this morning. Does anyone know what today is?" he asked. The class was silent and stoic, no one daring to move or catch his eye. Kagome even froze, she didn't know, really.
"Thursday," answered the boy who had whispered about her earlier. Kagome laughed along with half the class.
"Yes Hakuno, it is Thursday, but it is also Thursday the 26th of September!" he trumpeted. When no one responded he released his vain hopes of inciting the class to learn. "It is also the day the "emperor" figure in north Japan declared war against the "emperor" figure of south Japan.." he said deadpan, "don't any of you read -this day in history- in the newspaper?" Several kids shook their heads, but Kagome was too preoccupied. The day they declared war?? That meant that in the Feudal Era they were rallying troops to war and training for the military. Oh no, and in those days they had a draft like system. That meant...oh no, oh no oh no. She glanced at the clock, only four hours left. She wondered if things had already started back at the village or if it would even make it that far. Her leg began nervously shaking as she thought about it. This was not good.
"Kagome, please tell me what kind of military system they had during this time?" asked the teacher, interrupting her thoughts. He showered her with a proud look she couldn't refuse and so she stood and answered strongly. As she sat back down, however, rubbing her neck modestly, she felt the chain of the shikon shards under her fingers and a new thought snapped into play. What would happen with Naraku? Would he stop until the war ended? Would they be able to find him without getting snagged? Would he find them and slaughter the troops of men they were with if they did get drafted? Oh dear, this was much worse than she thought.. Three hours and fifty-six minutes until she was through the well...she could wait that long..right? Oh Kami did she hope so.
When class finished Kagome was the first out and the first down the steps of the school. She faintly heard her friends calling for her to stop and tell them what was going on, but she didn't have time to stop. If she ran home she'd be there in little under ten minutes, that shaved five minutes off her time getting back to the Feudal Era. So she raced, she raced down the street, across the street, through traffic and through pedistrians all in hopes of preventing the seperation of her friends. So many people screamed at her that she lost count and stopped trying to apologize. Besides the pounding of her books on her back was harsh enough without having to fain apology.
Finally it was in sight, the stairs to the family shrine! She was up them before she knew what was going on and her mother was in view. There was very little time and a lot to explain so Kagome gave her mother the basics as she throttled into the house.
"Kagome?" called her mother confused.
"Hey sis!" cried Souta happily. She ran past him and up the stairs to her room, leaving what she was sure was a dejected little brother. Her mother's footsteps followed her soon and she appeared in the doorway as Kagome was quickly running around re-packing her bag.
"What in the world?" her mother asked. "You already packed your clothes, dear."
"I know mom but there's been an emergency!" she chirped out of breath.
"What? What happened? Are you alright? Where are you going if there's an emergency??"
"Not that kind Mom! Mr. Zackamoto was telling us today in class that today is the day the north and south declared war. That means things are totally going to change in the feudal era and I have to get there now to warn Inuyasha and the others. Please forgive me for not telling you more," she urgently added as she started to dig through her bookbag. The look of fear and concern on her mother's face was enough to shatter her if she wasn't careful so Kagome resolved not to look at it. Souta appeared beside their mom as she handed her a piece of paper. She went back to packing. "It's all explained in that letter. I wrote it during history because I knew I'd be rushing. Please don't worry and I've got all the food and stuff we packed already..." Kagome suddenly stopped her rushing around to think. Silence engulfed the room as her mother gripped onto her brother tightly. He was going to be her standing stone for a while, Kagome could tell.
"Kagome, are you going to be okay?" Souta asked. Kagome smiled sincerely and nodded.
"How could I not with Inuyasha around? Besides we're going to all be together," she said, though the words were devoided of any truth she could find. This was her fear, that she wouldn't be okay and neither would her friends. But she faked it well enough to fool her little brother and that was afterall the goal.
"Oh yeah!" she finally yelped and began digging fiercely for some jeans. She definately could not go into this kinda situation wearing a dress...there could be mud and blood involved and she did not want that on her skin. In five minutes Kagome had changed clothes (wearing a brown sweater and dark blue jeans), repacked her bag, and sent her mother to retrieve Inuyasha's cookies from the kitchen. Poor Shippo wouldn't get his new crayons and even more poor Sango wouldn't get those bath salts she had promised. Oh well, she'd get them next time, she thought. If there was a next time. Kagome had another mental moment with herself, scolding for that train of thought and promising not to go there again when Souta and her mother hugged her. Kagome couldn't move. Why were they hugging her like this? What were they thinking was going to happen? If she could have, Kagome would have walked into their heads and kicked the shit out of whatever was making them so scared for her. Sadly, though, she could do no such thing and had to settle to wiping away her tears as she loaded her bag onto her back.
"Love you guys...be home soon!!" she waved as she headed back downstairs. She had to admit, she was somewhat nervous now. Her mother had made her cry when she didn't want to and her brother had put the idea in her head that she wouldn't come back. She needed to see Inuyasha, he would put all of these nasty thoughts away with his confidence and protective smirk. All the more reason to get down that damn well.
There she stood...in the darkness of where it had all started... why had she stoppd here? The well was pitch black as always and the walls leaked streams of yellow sunlight as they typically were fond of doing, but something seemed wrong. She wasn't used to coming down these same stairs in such a rush. It didn't seem right, she was always coming up with them this stress, the relief...she was always going down them with anticipation and a business like attitude. Now she was approaching them in a panic, in an absolute terror for something she had no proof of happening. She stopped at the lip of the well and stared down. The sod beneath her was cool and damp, staining her shoes slightly with a darker hue.
She was really losing it, wasn't she? Take it easy Kagome...why are you panicking like this? She did a quick review of her day. Kami this feeling of doom was lingering thickly around her, something she didn't want to happen was going to happen. She took several deep breaths. There was no way the military was already at Kaede's village and really..Inuyasha would be waiting for her at the well anyway and they'd all still be together for the moment. She smiled, relieved now and calmer by a thousand exponents as she lifted her legs up over the lip of the well.
With a flash and swirl of pink light Kagome made the space-like trip through time to the other side of the well. She dropped her bag immediately, settling quickly on Inuyasha to carry it for her, being as he was so chivalrious and all. She chuckled to herself. If that didn't work she'd just sit him until he agreed.
"Hey, you in the rear, catch up!" bellowed a deep and unfamiliar voice. Kagome looked up at the sky above her and listened intently. She hadn't heard it at first but now it was there, clearly echoing off the stone walls. Footsteps...lots of footsteps... Her heart skipped a few beats as she considered rather or not to investigate.
AN: ne? What you think? You like? Review! Tell me!! AHHH! lol I'll have a second chapter up asap.