Age of the White Dawn

Chapter 3: Good Morning Sunshine!

Wooooooooooooosh. Woooooooooooosh

'…what the hell?'

Unaware of his confused thoughts, Kagome continued to blow annoyingly into Inu Yasha's ears, stifling the urge to giggle at the adorable way his ears twitched in response. Her mischievous mood quickly nose-dived when she suddenly found herself flat on her back with her arms pinned to her sides. With a delayed squeak of fear she reluctantly dragged her eyes upwards to meet with Inu Yasha's own angry-looking ones.

"Uh…heh heh…good morning sunshine!"

"Do all the girls in this school wake each other up like that, or is that just you wench?" he growled, loosening his hold on her.

"Just me." She replied cheerfully, pushing the hanyou away while trying not to blush at the rather suggestive position they were in earlier.

"So, why'd you call me here?" Kagome asked, smoothing out the invisible wrinkles in her school robes. Inu Yasha ignored her and instead proceeded to survey her appearance suddenly making her feel very self-conscious. He arched an eyebrow and sniffed,

"You look like shit."

"Well your no bed of roses yourself." Kagome retorted, turning quickly away from him. Running a hand absently through her slightly mussed hair she tried hard not to sigh. Despite her cheery wake-up call, the truth was that she had only gotten about two hours of sleep and she had humungous under eye shadows to prove it. Composure regain, she turned back around and was about to make a witty ego-blowing comment when she involuntarily stiffened; it just felt like a wave of needles had lightly pricked her arms.

Inu Yasha stiffened as well, slowly falling into a fighting stance. They both remained tense for a moment and, after a while, Kagome thought she was merely being paranoid, but then a tremor shook the school. And then another.

Kagome's eyes flicked over to Inu Yasha, seeking some sort of reassurance but he only served to heighten her anxiety. His bangs cast an eerie shadow over his eyes and a smirk, one a lot more bitter then his trademark smirk, graced his lips.

"He found us."

Momentarily calming her jittering nerves she attempted non-chalance, but only managed to ask in a choked whisper,

"Who?"

"Naraku."

The name caused her to grimace. 'Well isn't this a nice way to start off the day…' she mentally grumbled. As if on cue another shockwave hit the school, not helping Kagome's already wound up nerves.

"What do we do?" she asked, still whispering.

"Well first, we stop this stupid whispering. The son of a bitch's not next to us, you know. He probably isn't even here. He probably just sent one of his pals to get rid of us…the coward." Inu Yasha growled, cracking his knuckles.

"Then what?"

"Then we leave."

"What? Where? I can't just leave!" Kagome cried, forgetting all about Naraku and their situation in the process.

"Why not? That was the original plan." He smirked.

"I've lived here for as long as I can remember. I can't just leave." 'I'm not ready to leave.' She silently added.

"Well if you don't leave there won't anything left in the school where you've 'lived for as long as you can remember.' Actually your friend's skeletons may still be lying around…as well as the youkai who ate them. Feh, whatever, though. I'm leaving." He shrugged and made his way towards the windows.

"What do you mean if I don't leave?" Kagome asked, following Inu Yasha.

"Heh, did you really think," he grunted, attempting to lift the sash of the window, "that Naraku's after me?" The window didn't budge, and he resorted to glowering at it, as if willing it to open. Kagome, on the other hand, was pondering over Inu Yasha's words.

'If I stay, Naraku will keep on attacking the school until we're all dead, but if I leave he'll leave the school alone and no one will get hurt…not much of a choice to make.' With a resigned sigh she asked,
"So, where are we going?"

"The devil's nest," he replied, still glaring at the window; he was very close to just smashing the stupid thing open. Shaking her head in amusement, Kagome rescued the window from its imminent destruction by giving it a small push , causing it to swing open easily.

"Where exactly is this devil's…" she trailed off as yet another tremor shook the school. "Maybe we should check on the other students." She suggested gazing worriedly at the door. When she turned back around there was no sign of Inu Yasha. 

"Hm. He must've jumped out the window." She thought aloud.

…wait. He jumped out the window?! The window was at least five stories up!

"Inu Yasha!" she called in alarm, racing over to the window and leaning precariously out of it.

"Sh. Quiet wench!" a familiar voice barked, filling her with relief.

"Baka! Don't scare me like that."

"Hmph. Why do you care?" he flashed her an arrogant smirk.

"I don't. I just didn't want to risk being accused of pushing you out of a window five stories above the ground. How'd you do that any way?"

He snorted, "I told you already. I'm much stronger then you weak humans are. Now hurry up and jump down."

"No way! I think I'll just use the door…"

"Can't. It's blocked off by youkai. There's only two or three of'em in the school, but everyone's panicking any way."

"We should help them!"

"No," Inu Yasha snapped, "once you leave, they leave. So hurry and jump before they—" the door behind Kagome flew open with warning, causing her to whip around and gasp,

"Yuka!"

Her friends normally immaculately done hair looked, for lack of a better description, like a rat's nest while her eyes were wide with fear and surprise.

"Kagome?" she murmured. Her eyes lowered guilty to the floor and her hands began to nervously twist at the hem of her school robes.

"I'm so sorry Kagome…please, forgive me.." she whispered before shouting, "Ms. Yura! Ms. Yura! I found the one you want!"

"Wench what's going on up there?" Inu Yasha's voice demanded at the same time. Looking between the window and her guilty looking friend she shouted, reproachful eyes locked with Yuka's, "I'm leaving now. You better catch me Inu Yasha." Before pushing herself out of the window.

For a moment she reveled in the falling sensation she was experiencing. It was pleasant to open her arms and find herself embracing nothing but a deliciously cool breeze. Unfortunately, this feeling of indifference only lasted for a tenth of a millisecond and was soon replaced by fear. Scrunching her eyes and first shut, she braced herself for the insane pain she'd be experiencing if Inu Yasha failed to catch her. He caught her though, and with sickeningly little effort, no less.

"You can open your eyes now," he said quietly. Kagome winced; she could practically hear that annoying smirk in his voice. Cautiously opening one eye she immediately wished she hadn't. Yep, that stupid cocky smirk was on his face, but it seemed tempered by another emotion. What was it?

"Why'd you jump?" he asked curiously. Oh, that was it: honest curiosity. Tilting her head to the side she answered his question with one of her own,
"Why wouldn't I?" Now he looked just plain confused. Sighing she added,

"I didn't have much of a choice did I? Uh…you can put me down now, by the way." He snorted and dropped her unceremoniously on the ground.

"Well that wasn't nice 'Yasha-kun." A female voice purred. Looking over her shoulder, Kagome caught sight of a scantily clad woman who appeared to be floating in mid air. Only upon closer inspection did she realize that the woman was not floating but actually balancing delicately on a nearly invisible strand of…

"Hair?"

"Good job, babe." She giggled, "Naraku said you'd be able to see my hair."

"What the hell are you talking about?" Inu Yasha growled, "and who the hell are you?"

"La? Oh, how silly of me! I'm Yura, Yura of the hair. And I'm here to kill you 'Yasha-kun." With a graceful flick of her wrist, millions of strands of hair appeared out of nowhere and shot towards the unsuspecting Inu Yasha.

"Oh! Inu Yasha, in front of you!" Kagome warned. Blindly he clawed in front of him, but the hairs evaded his claws and managed to successfully wrap themselves about his body.

"Stop it!" Kagome cried, running towards Yura. 

"Sorry, babe. Orders are orders!" she sing-songed, using her other hand to somehow freeze Kagome in place. No matter how she struggled, she couldn't seem to move and was forced to watch as Inu Yasha vainly tried to escape the hairs that held him.

"What's the matter 'Yasha-kun?" Yura teased as she slowly drew a blade from the scabbard at her side. "Not comfortable? Let me help you with that," she smiled, darting forward with her blade drawn…just as Inu Yasha finally managed to break free of his bonds. He barely had time to dodge her attack, and even then she managed to draw blood from his chest. The bloody wound didn't seem to effect him, though; in fact, he seemed almost pleased.

"I thought you said you were going to kill me," He drawled with a malevolent glint in his eye. Kagome couldn't help shuddering at the sight of the pissed hanyou. 'Sure glad he's on my side.' She thought just as her eye caught sight of something hanging by Inu Yasha's side, 'A sword? Why doesn't he use the sword?' Noticing what Kagome was looking at Yura laughed,

"You're starting to bore me, 'Yasha-kun. Why don't you use that katana at your side, eh?"

"None of your damn business so shut your mouth!" Inu Yasha growled, placing a hand to his bloodied chest in what seemed to be pain.

"Aw, am I playing to rough for you 'Yasha-kun?"

"Not at all. The scratches you gave me are healing right now. In fact you're way too easy," he snorted.

"La?"

"Feel my claws of blood!"

With a shriek Yura collapsed into a bloody heap on the ground; Kagome soon followed suit.

"Ugh," she gagged, eyes lingering on Yura's bloody, severed form. "That's gross." Inu Yasha didn't respond. Pushing herself off the ground she quietly made her way to his side.

"Inu Yasha, are you okay? She hurt you pretty bad."

"Look." Following his gaze Kagome saw the figure that was silhouetted against the window she had jumped out of earlier that day. 'Yuka…'

"A friend of yours?"

"Yeah." She turned away from the window, blinking away the tears that crowded about the corner of her eyes. She still couldn't believe Yuka would betray her so easily.

"Dammit. We'll have to do triple time now. Let's go, this place'll be swarming with curious dumb asse--er students in a couple of minutes." Inu Yasha explained quietly. Then he turned and started jogging light towards the vast expanse of grassy field next to the school and away from the main roads. Taking one last look at the tall, dark castle that had been her home for fifteen years, she bid everyone a silent farewell before turning away and jogging after him. The light jog turned into a run and then an all out sprint (of course to Inu Yasha, Kagome's "all out sprint" was equivalent to his easy run) so by the time Inu Yasha allowed Kagome to rest, ragged breath and trembling, the dark shadow of the school had disappeared. After a few more minutes of rest they set off again across the vast, seemingly endless of ocean of grass. They continued walking at an irrationally fast pace, even when the sun disappeared from the sky and its rays were replaced with millions of stars. The dreamlike atmosphere and lack of sleep added together caused Kagome to experience not-so-pleasant memories even more vividly then before. When an especially chilling memory, usually from her premonition, flitted across her mind she would freeze and begin to experience the mind-blowing pain and fear all over again. Inu Yasha wasn't much help; since their mad race away from the school he hadn't spoken a word.  

During the first couple of panic-attacks Inu Yasha would impatiently wait for her to recover, then double their walking pace until fatigue slowed them down to the pace they were walking before. The third time Kagome froze it was suddenly so cold, yet she felt her insides being engulfed in a fiery hot wave of magma. Unbeknownst to her, her eyes had closed, her hands were clenched at her sides and her bottom lip trembled uncontrollably. He turned to glare impatiently at her but, noticing her unusually pale face contorted in pain, instead walked back over to her. Hesitantly he reached out and tapped her shoulder, momentarily startling her out of the living nightmare she had fallen into.

"Inu Yasha?"

"Get on." He motioned.

"Huh?" with a sighed he pointed to his back and patiently waited as Kagome clambered on.

"Hold on." He warned and, grateful to finally be able to go as fast as he wanted, sprinted off full speed.

When he had first started running, Kagome instinctively gripped his haori tighter, but, as they sped onwards, Kagome loosened her grip and, for the first time that day, laughed.

"Wow," she breathed. Half of Kagome's fatigued mind was aware that was riding on Inu Yasha's back but the other half of her mind refused to grasp this concept. All it seemed to want to process was that she was traveling fast and that the stars were fiery white and seemed a lost closer then they usually appeared.

"It must be nice to run so fast. If I could run fast I'd just run and run…wow the stars are really close tonight. I wonder if I reach out…would I be able to catch one?" she smiled, voicing her muddled thoughts.

"Better not try." Inu Yasha advised.

"Don't worry, I won't." Kagome replied, snuggling closer to the warmth of his back before continuing her sleep-deprived ramblings.  "Aw man, I'm so scared of this whole stupid situation. I know I shouldn't but everything's changing sooo fast. And I already miss how things were, but things'll never go back now huh? Nope. I can't go back, ever. …Inu Yasha?"

"Hm?"

"No matter what, don't let me go back, mmkay?" she murmured sleepily. There was no reply.

As the night progressed Kagome's nightmares resumed. The occurrences became so common that reality and the dream world melted into one another, and it seemed to Kagome that Inu Yasha tread through a land of grass and fire. She didn't know how but suddenly the grass was replaced by buildings, and even that melted away into a room with chairs lining the wall and a large desk. She no longer rested safely on Inu Yasha's back because he was talking to some man at the front desk. Then she was stumbling up the stairs to the dormitory—no, the dormitory steps weren't wooden. Too tired to fathom where she was and how she got there, she managed (barely) to find her room. Mechanically she slipped off her shoes and took off her outer robes before collapsing into bed and immediately falling into a deep dreamless sleep from which she didn't wake until several hours later.

A/N: Gah! Finally! I have three sisters, one of which is a psychotically-devoted honors student. Why am I telling you this? Because I'm trying to explain why it took me so long. Any way, as a result of my sister's devotion to school and my little sister's quest to learn html, I've waited for four days to use the computer. When I finally do get to use the computer, I have to use it for homework. Yep, I stayed up until four in the morning last night. I don't like doing that. Of course, who does any way? Bah, whatever. I think I might have some time to type up the next  chappy… (which'll be a lot shorter then this one.) Hm…I just re-read my story and it seems to be a bit choppy. Groar. Ah well, standard disclaimers apply.