"Kagome-chan!" three voices called her as she entered the school building.
"Yuka, Eri, Ayumi!" she smiled at them. "How are you doing?"
"How are we doing?!" Yuka asked with amusement in her voice. "Your grandfather told us that you broke your legs!"
"Really?!" Kagome laughed nervously and mentally slapped her grandfather for talking such nonsense. "Well, he... I just... twisted my ankles. Nothing too serious as you see."
"Oh." the three girls nodded.
"And you are alright now?" Eri asked and leaned closer toward her friend. "You're not lying to us, are you?"
"Of course I'm not!" Kagome almost yelled, suddenly feeling guilty for actually, well, lying to them. "I really twisted them!"
"Not that, Kagome-chan." Ayumi laughed, clueless as always and her other friends were currently staring at a passing by boy to notice the suspicious situation Kagome was in. "You're not lying that you're ok, are you?"
Kagome simply nodded and the four walked toward their classroom. For her own good, she decided that she should first think before answering questions. If things continued this way she could accidentally admit everything to her friends, and being so impulsive she too much resembled a certain hanyou.
When they entered the classroom, the math teacher was already there – an about 40-years old man with dark hair and glasses, wearing a black suit. The girls wandered what he was doing there to early but shrugged and went to sit on their places.
The classes were about to begin when the principal entered. She was about 50-years old woman, not very tall – middle height, with grey hair and big round glasses. Next to her stood a boy who seemed to be the same age as the other students. He was wearing the usual boy's school uniform but he had blue-white trainers on, instead of the ordinary shoes. His hair was blonde and its length was to his shoulders, he had dark green eyes and a strange self-confident smirk.
Every girl from the class was like stunned when they saw the boy and the other male students suddenly got really jealous, starting to glare at him. Only Kagome didn't seem interested in him and that immediately caught his attention. She kept playing with her pencil, her mind busy thinking about when she kissed Inuyasha, not admiring the foreign boy. Finally her attention was brought to him when the principal, after saying a few words to the math teacher, left the classroom.
"Listen up everybody!" the teacher started and placed a hand on the boy's right shoulder. "This is Kai Jamison. He is here thanks to our school's student exchange program and will stay for two weeks. Tell them something about yourself, Kai."
"I'm from America, New York." he started and his Japanese was surprisingly good. "If you're wandering how I can speak your language so good, well my father is a Japanese teacher in New York."
"Ok, that's enough, Kai." the teacher said and showed him an empty desk to sit there. "We have a test after all." he smiled and the students all groaned in disappointment. "Oh Higurashi, I want you to come to my office after classes."
"O-Ok." the poor girl stammered out – she was sure that this wasn't going to end well. But what could she do except meet her cruel destiny?
Kagome was walking through the long corridor toward the math teacher's office. Her head hung down in despair, while her mind raced through various reasons of why she was called. Finally she found herself in front of the door and tried to hear if there was someone else inside the room, except the teacher. She could hear faint voices and if her teacher wasn't talking to himself, there definitely was someone else with him.
"Ok." the girl took a deep breath and grabbed the doorknob. "I've fought and killed demons and I'm not afraid of a math teacher." she said and after knocking, opened the door.
"Higurashi, come in." the teacher said smiling, which made her feel a little uneasy.
Like Kagome had heard, there really was a second person inside. It was Kai. He was sitting on a chair in front of the teacher's bureau. The man motioned to her to sit on the chair next to Kai and she complied. She saw the boy's smirk again as he obviously was very well aware of her uneasiness and that made her even more uncomfortable.
"I'll get straight to the point, Higurashi." the man started and the girl frowned – this couldn't be good. "I am very concerned about your wellbeing. I think that because of your illnesses you have lost contact with the world around you..."
While the teacher continued talking about how she should enjoy life, go out with friends, smile more often, be more careful with her health and so on, Kagome almost felt insulted. He was practically saying that she was some stupid little girl that was afraid to even come out on the street. Anger started to rise inside her but she managed to remain calm. But, anyway, how dare he talk like that to her? This time she really wished that Inuyasha was there to give him a piece of his mind.
"...so, in order to bring some joy and diversity in your life, I want you to take Kai and show him the city." the teacher finished with a wide grin and leaned over his bureau, closer to Kagome.
She just stood still and started at him with a look of horror and disbelief. "E-Excuse me?" she almost squeaked. This was not fair! She wanted to be able to go to the Feudal Era every day after school. She wanted to see Inuyasha, not go out with some stranger that was irritating her with his strange looks and smirks.
"Don't worry; I won't bother you too much." Kai stepped in the conversation, placing a hand over Kagome's left, making her give him a strange look of herself. "I'm serious." he said and held her hand a little tighter so she wouldn't pull it away.
She looked at his eyes and felt a little dizzy. Blinking a few times to clear her vision she saw a strange flash in his eyes but thought that she must have imagined it. Then she was suddenly aware that her teacher was talking again and turned to look at him, not really bothering that Kai was still holding her hand.
"I don't accept 'no' for an answer, Higurashi." the man said cheerfully but then the tone of his voice became serious and threatening. "You are one of my best students, despite all your absents. Let's keep it that way."
Kagome sighed deeply and hung her head down in defeat. "Alright." she said weakly and the teacher smiled again.
"Very well." he said and took a sheet of paper. "Here, take this." he handed it to Kagome.
"What is it?" she asked after looking at it closely.
"These are the most important places in the city that I want you to take Kai to." he explained. "I want to see a picture of you two at every place you visit."
"But my house is in the list too?" Kagome pointed and Kai looked too.
"You live in a shrine?" he asked in surprise. "That should be interesting."
"You think so?" the girl looked at him and when he nodded, she smiled. And there it was again – the strange flash in his eyes that seemed to hypnotize her so much and she couldn't resist it this time too.
"Well, you are free to go now, Higurashi." the teacher said, braking the eye contact between the boy and the girl. "I will free you from school for three days. Come back here tomorrow to take Kai. And don't worry about the tests."
Later that night, Kagome was sitting on her bed in her room. The list her teacher had given her was thrown on the floor and Buyo was lying on top of it. She sighed sadly and looked outside of her window. The moon was full and she could clearly see the small well house. And maybe for the twentieth time today she wandered if she should go see Inuyasha, but again decided against it.
There was something strange that she couldn't seem to get out of her head. The night before, after she had come back from the past, she had the strangest dream ever. It had repeated itself over and over again all night – her and Inuyasha just sitting and talking about various things. It was a pleasurable feeling but it somehow bothered her. Feeling her head hurt from being too tired, she finally decided to stop thinking about the bossy, violent, two-timing hanyou and go to sleep, praying for a good day tomorrow.
A good day or not, Kagome was late again. When she reached the school her teacher was pacing back and forth in front of the building's main entrance. Kai was standing at the left side of the main door, his back resting against the wall, his arms crossed over his chest and he wasn't really paying attention to the man's angry muttering. The moment he saw her, the same smug smirk appeared on his lips but Kagome was too far away to notice.
"I am so sorry I'm late, sensei." Kagome apologized and bowed in front of the man.
"It's alright, Higurashi." he said but his voice was serious, showing that he was still angry. "You know what to do. I will be going to classes." with that the two teenagers nodded and he entered the building.
"So, where to?" Kagome asked and hander Kai the list.
"Take it easy, Kagome." the boy laughed and didn't take the sheet of paper. "Can't I first tell you that you look beautiful?"
When he called her by her first name without asking for permission, her well known anger was just about to step in. Her brow twitched in irritation and she opened her mouth, but then... She was beautiful?! Well, she knew that very well – why else would Hojo fallow her everywhere and ask her out on every occasion, if she wasn't beautiful. The problem was that until now, even he hadn't told her something like that just like something ordinary for her.
"You think so?" she asked, her cheeks reddening a little and looking away from him.
"Yes." Kai laughed and took the time to look her better while her eyes were averted. She was wearing a simple light-blue summer dress, a white jacket and white sandals. "Come on, let's go eat something."
"But what about..." Kagome held the list in front of him and he took it just to place it inside his pants' right pocket.
"We don't have to go to all those places." he said and took her hand to make her follow him. "I'll deal with the crazy mathematician."
"Alright, but I want to make one thing clear to you." the girl looked at him serious while they walked away from the school.
"Whatever you say." the boy smiled.
"This is not a date." she said firmly, feeling the need to clear that to him considering his self-confident and provoking behavior.
"And why not?" he asked with amusement in his voice and smirking, again.
Kagome stumbled and painfully bit her tongue, startled from such a question. "B-Because..." she stammered, wincing a little at the pain in her tongue. "Because I have a boyfriend!" she managed to say and was left in even bigger shock when Kai laughed.
"Oh, your friends told me about him." he said and they stopped walking.
"Listen Kai, let's not talk about that right now." Kagome said and after he nodded they continued walking, but not before he wrapped his left hand around her waist and pulled her closer to him. She just sighed and didn't protest.
It was a nice and quiet evening in Feudal Japan. The sun was setting and the sky was very beautiful to watch. At least for the couple sitting on the stairs toward the village shrine it was nice – a monk and a demon exterminator. They were quietly talking about something and laughing every now and then. Suddenly loud and hysterical cries were heard from inside the hut and they both stood up.
"Miroku! Help! Sango!" Shippo was screaming.
Startled by the kitsune's cries the monk and the demon exterminator entered the hut in such a rush that Miroku tripped in Kirara, Sango in Miroku and all landed on the floor with a painful thud. They lifted their heads and saw a worried Shippo in front of a human Inuyasha.
"Why is he human?" the small kitsune asked calmly.
With many annoyed and angry hufs and pufs Sango and Miroku were up and Kirara was freed from the monk's weight. The small cat demon mewed softly and went to her mistress. The demon exterminator took her in her arms and went to Miroku, who had keeled in front of Inuyasha. The monk examined the ofuda on the hanyou's forehead carefully and turned to Shippo and the woman next to him.
"I think that the demon is already dead." he said and sat back.
"Really?" Shippo grinned and jumped on Inuyasha's left shoulder to look at him better.
"Yes." the monk nodded and turned to Sango when she spoke.
"Isn't it too quick?" she asked a little worried.
"Well, yeah..." Miroku said thoughtfully and looked back at the hanyou. "It's been only three days."
"Oh come on, guys, calm down!" Shippo said, trying to cheer them up. "That's Inuyasha after all."
"He's right, Houshi-sama." Sango decided that there was nothing to worry about anymore and even smiled.
"Alright." Miroku sighed and smiled back at her.
TBC