Disclaimer: Oh boy. I don't own Inu Yasha or Kagome or Sango or any of Rumiko Takahashi's wonderfully developed characters.

Light and Shadow

Chapter 1

The boy walking down the street didn't talk much to many people. One of those people happened to be dead. Kind of. They had never found her, so he had never found out if she was dead. The boy's name was Inu Yasha; the girl's Kikyo. He had people to talk to besides her, but he didn't open up to other people too often. He did talk, but he never told anyone anything about himself.

He stopped next to a small "shrine" to Kikyo and sat down, making clinking sounds with the chains on his baggy blue jeans. He rested his elbows on his knees and faced the photo of the black-haired girl with blue eyes. He sadly took in every detail of the photo and suddenly thought, 'It's been two years to the day since she disappeared.' He got a little more saddened by the fact that she was probably dead anyway, but pushed those thoughts away.

"Hey, Kik. What's up?" He asked the picture quietly. "I haven't made any new friends at school recently, but I did meet my new neighbors. It's a family with too many kids. Miroku finally asked Sango out on a date, and she slapped him when he rubbed her ass." He laughed and added, "The little pervert." He was silent for a while as he thought. After a few moments he got up and stretched a little bit.

He didn't say anything else, but promised to come back after school to tell her more. As he walked off he heard a noise behind him that sounded like a dog rustling in the bushes. As he turned to look he saw a flash of orange the color of a fox. He just cocked an eyebrow and continued walking. He heard the rustling again and just blew the noise off this time. Suddenly he felt someone behind him and turned fast enough to catch it.

A little fire-headed boy covered in dirt hung from his grip. Inu Yasha arranged his hands on the boy's shoulders and looked him square in the eyes. After glaring at the little boy, he finally started.

"Who are you, kid?" The little boy just stuck out his tongue. "Oh, come on you little brat, why were you following me?" The boy was silent for a moment before answering.

"You can call me Shippo, and get your hands off of me. What are you doing talking to a picture?" Inu Yasha growled.

"That's none of your business, brat! Besides, you didn't tell me what you were doing here."

"I don't have to tell you what I was doing here, I'm a little kid. Now let me go!"

Inu Yasha flashed him an evil grin, "Alright…" As soon as he had finished saying it Shippo's butt had thumped as it hit the ground. Inu Yasha turned and went back to walking as soon as he heard it. He was satisfied. He didn't worry about the little boy anymore as he walked to school.

Once at school, he sat in the corner of the gym furthest away from people. Miroku sat at his side, smiling at every female who passed and happened to go to school.

"Would you stop being a perv for 5 seconds? It gets annoying…" Inu Yasha put down his friend's hand as he waved at a group of giggling ninth graders. "Besides, it's clear that not all women like you, look at Sango; she doesn't fall for your tricks. And whenever you try to use them, she hits you."

"Love can hurt sometimes," Miroku said in an all-knowing voice. "Especially if you're in a relationship with Sango." Soon a frying pan abruptly came down on Miroku's head and the black-haired girl walked up with a smirk and lifted the frying pan from the twitching boy's head. She sat down in front of them and glared at Miroku for a short while before talking.

"Yeah, love hurts, but only when you deserve it, you pervert," she said matter-of-factly. "Love could be less painful if you didn't cause yourself so much trouble. So you better stop going for other girls if you truly wish to date me." She finally stopped glaring.

"Do they actually let you bring a frying pan to school?" Miroku asked, rubbing his head.

"Yes, yes they do. So what's up with you Inu Yasha?" When the boy just shrugged, she heaved a sigh. "Come on Inu Yasha, you have to start talking sometime. I mean, everyone else has gotten over it already."

Inu Yasha hesitated before saying: "Everyone else didn't love her like I did. Everyone else didn't even really care for her. She was 'Kikyo, the school goddess,' to everyone else, but she was a person to me. No one else saw that." He turned so that a black wall of hair stood in the way of Sango's making up. She just sighed again, and wondered why Inu Yasha still held hope of any kind. It was no use, Kikyo had to be dead by now.

Inu Yasha got up and just walked to another unoccupied corner so he could be alone. "They just don't get it," he told the wall hopelessly. "I loved her before she left, and I love her now that she's gone. I don't know if I could love anyone else. Not that you care, you're just a wall; you don't worry about your brothers and sisters, your friends, your family. You don't have fears because, no matter what, you're still a wall… A stupid wall without thought."

He said nothing else and didn't move until the bell rang. He walked to class thoughtfully, knowing full well what Sango had meant and that he shouldn't get mad at her. But it wasn't her problem, even if she was trying to fix it. Lots of people tried to help him, but nobody ever got through. 'Soon,' he thought, 'people will start giving up. They'll have to when I don't respond.' He remembered being happy before Kikyo had gotten kidnapped.

He couldn't get rid of memories of her, that's why he visited her shrine every morning. He remembered that she would always come back for him. She had promised.

School was uneventful for Inu Yasha, and he liked it that way. He hadn't said another word to Miroku or Sango, but he figured he would apologize tomorrow. He stopped off at Kikyo's shrine and told her what had happened that morning. He picked a small yellow weed from beside the compilation of candles, flowers, and photographs and twirled it in his fingers.

"I guess I'm not who I used to be, huh?" He dropped the flower at the bottom of the shrine. "They don't understand why I can't get over you; why I don't talk to anyone." 'I don't think I know either', he thought suddenly to himself. 'I just cut myself off from the world when she left. Like I was trying to disappear as well. Pulled a disappearing act in front of everyone. Like a freaking magician.' He stood and left, heading to the park. No one would be at the park, so he could do whatever he wanted.

He walked in and went to lie on top of the monkey bars. As he stared at the sky, he didn't think. He just sat there. Soon everything was receding into the background, his own mind clearly taking over. He watched the sky, but it seemed bluer, and the clouds a more vibrant white. He felt a darkness trying to consume him and looked over his shoulder.

Nothing was there; when he looked back toward the sky, it wasn't. He had receded into an area free of color; free of life. He was inside his mind. There was color around, but he could feel it more than see it. He couldn't see anything. No dark, no light, no gray areas. No color, no people, no sky, no ground. He was floating in nothingness. He felt a strange satisfaction to have found this.

Suddenly there was ground beneath his feet and sky above his own, but not the sky and ground of the playground. Here was another world entirely, a world inside his mind. There were no other people, just him. He saw something in the distance and walked up to it. Standing before him was a fifty-foot-tall dragon with gray-blue scales and light brown eyes matching his own.

He hadn't gotten the chance to talk to it at all before he came back to reality. A fine line had been crossed and now he could feel that other world there. The dragon seemed to be the only thing there for now. He might be able to add people and decided to try that later. He hopped off the monkey bars and began walking home when he noticed something odd. There was a girl on the other side of the park.

He ran over there to see what she was doing but stopped when he got close. She was the spitting image of Kikyo, but her clothing was different. Instead of wearing blue jeans, the girl wore a green knee-length skirt, and instead of a T-shirt, she wore a white button-up blouse. Inu Yasha stared in utter confusion. "K… Kikyo?" The girl looked up confused.

"No… Who are you?" She seemed hospitable. Inu Yasha was dumbfounded.

"Is your name Kikyo?" He was sure it was Kikyo. It had to be!

"No, it's Kagome. Who are you, anyway?"

"I… I'm Inu Yasha. I could have sworn you were this girl I knew." He turned to walk away.

"You can sit down if you want; it's not like I have many friends." He stopped and came back. He sat down, blushing. "Hey, isn't Kikyo the name of that girl that disappeared a couple years back? Were you friends with her?" He sat silently. Now that he looked at her, she looked very different from Kikyo in many ways. Her hair was not as straight-edged as Kikyo's had been. Her eyes were also bigger and a different, lighter shade of blue. She was still just as pre… No! She'd never be as pretty as Kikyo!

"No thanks. Now that I think about it, you look nothing like her." Inu Yasha stood and began to walk away, but was stopped by a clear-toned voice.

"Who is she?" Kagome yelled across the field. "Get back here! You have no right to just leave me here when you walked up to me in the first place!"

"What do you mean, 'no right'?" Inu Yasha turned back. "You don't know me, so how can you claim any right on anything that has anything to do with me?"

"Oh, I'll claim something…" Kagome muttered dangerously under her breath. "Stupid boy." At that she stalked off angrily.

"Yeah, I'll bet." Inu Yasha turned and began walking back to his house, head held high. He almost didn't see the police officer at his front door. Stopping mainly out of confusion, he stared at the cop for five minutes before walking to join him at the front door of his house. "So, who are you looking for?" he asked casually.

"A possible suspect to a murder. May I ask you your name?" The policeman had such an air around him, Inu Yasha just had to poke fun.

"Why yes, sir, you may. That doesn't quite mean I'll answer. What's the name of this suspect you're looking for?" The cop flipped a couple of sheets of paper on the clipboard before answering.

"An Inu Yasha. He may have vital information on the murder of… Aw, heck kid, why do you care?" Murder? Concerning someone he knew? Who?

"Well, I live here and it would be nice to know what murder I'll be helping you with sir." The policeman gave him a stunned look before turning toward Inu Yasha.

"Could we go inside and sit for a moment?" The police officer looked surprised to see that the victim had even touched this vile creature. At this Inu Yasha smirked.

"Show me your badge and it could be a possibility." The officer flashed a nice, shiny official police badge before Inu Yasha even considered going indoors. "How about we sit out here on the porch and talk? It's a nice day and I guess I could enjoy it more with company." Inu Yasha gestured at two wicker chairs. In truth the officer would be safer outside the house than in. Sesshomaru, Inu Yasha's older brother, did not care much for authority. In fact, he hated police officers, FBI agents, and, more than those, conspiracy theorists.

The officer looked confused for a moment before replying, "Well, I guess so." They sat down in two well-used wicker chairs and got comfortable. "I'd like to ask you a few questions."

"Whose murder are you going to ask about?" Inu Yasha leaned forward, surprised to find himself interested in this murder investigation. When he caught himself, he suddenly leaned back and acted like a teenage rebel, pretending not to care until he heard the name of the body found. His eyes widened and he repeated in disbelief. "K… Kikyo?"

A/N:

Dark Angel: Oh, my. This will just not do! Kikyo's dead, Inu Yasha's a rebel, Miroku's a letch, Sango's violent, and Kagome's already fighting Inu Yasha! This is so different from the series! rolls eyes Anyway! I hope you liked this first installment of Light and Shadow, an Inu Yasha fan fiction.

Teddy: You know it's my job to be evil and sarcastic, not yours. You're just supposed to be sarcastic and say PG-13 language.

Dark Angel: Who gives a rat's ass? The mutt deserves a dead ex! Besides, he has to fall in love with Kagome, you numbskull.

Makila: You need to get laid.

Dark Angel: And you need to get a brain, but that's not fixable.

Extraterrestrial: runs up in Chicken suit Stay tuned for Chapter 2 folks! I hear it's better than Chapter 1! 574Y L337!!!!1!!11! Y0 r0x0rs!!!!11!!1!!11!!

Alien: For those of you who can't read l337, she just said stay cool and you rock. Ph34r teh l337ne55! I think that's how you say it anyway…