Ai ga subete – Our era starts from here

Hello everyone! Isn't it a great day? I declare today the best day of this week!
Chapter 10 finished, my fic has more than 30.000 words, only one test at school, nearly no homework… sigh
Just enjoy reading this chappy, it's my second longest so far.

Mysterium

(Nope, don't own Inuyasha, don't own Kagome, don't own Sango, don't own…uah! I don't own anybody whom Rumiko Takahashi owns!)

Ai ga subete – Our era starts from here

Chapter 10: Sword-fight


"Are you ready, Inuyasha?" Kagome asked when she exited the bathroom again, wearing her school uniform like usual. Much to Inuyasha's dismay. Actually he liked seeing her in that uniform-thingy. It was at least a little shorter than that peace of cloth she'd worn the day before. He thought he'd heard how she called it a 'mini-skirt', even if it wasn't as mini as the one of her uniform.
(A/N: Just wanted to make sure you know that Japanese school uniforms actually aren't as revealing as in manga or anime. But since Kagome's skirt is really short I chose to use it. And it seems to be shorter than her other skirts. At least in the beginning of the manga. Don't you think it gets longer in time? I mean, if you compare vol. 1 with the newer ones…
Or maybe it just looks like used to be shorter, because her shirt is getting shorter and you can see more of the skirt?)
But he wasn't sure if he'd like those other guys in her time to see her like that. Of course he knew that all girls were wearing the same clothes as her, and that her classmates had already seen her in those clothes every time she went to school. But who said there weren't such lecherous guys like the monk in her time? He tried to shake the thought off.
"Hey, I was the one who had to wait!" he said, quickly getting to his feet and heading for the door.
"Stop!" Kagome yelled excitedly, just when he wanted to open the door. He stopped dead in his tracks.
"What is it, wench?" he snorted.
"Y-you can't take it with you!" She pointed on the Tessaiga in his hand.
He looked down on his sword. "Why not? Of course I'm taking it with me! What if we were attacked?" he shot back.
Kagome huffed, setting her arms akimbo.
"Nobody will attack us! I already told you that there aren't any demons in my time!"
Inuyasha narrowed his eyes on her. "No demons, huh?" he snarled once again. "So what was that thing that attacked last night? Don't wanna tell me that was a human being, do ya?"
She gulped. He had a point in that. They didn't know what had happened the night before yet, and probably never would. But should they really worry about it now? He was demon again, so even if that thing was dangerous in any way, he would be able to deal with it, wouldn't he? "I already told you that I don't know what that thing was! Besides, it wasn't that strong, was it?" He frowned. "But there could be stronger ones, whatever it was. Remember that Noh-mask? Besides, how do you think you could keep me from taking it along?" he asked provokingly.
Kagome sighed. "SIT! Simply like that." Once again he hit the ground, face first. She bent down and tried to pull the sword out of his hand, without success.
"Listen, people aren't allowed to carry weapons like that in my time. You'd cause a lot of trouble. And we're only going to another room! Now give it to me!" She shouted, still trying to loosen his grip on it.
"No way! I'll take it with me!" he stated contrarily, tearing it out of her hand when he was able to get up again, causing her to fall to the ground.
"Fine!" she replied angrily, while getting up and tugging her skirt back into place again.
"If you want to take that sword wherever you go then go home!"
"What!" he shot back. "But you said I could stay!"
"And I meant it." Kagome's voice softened at the angry and somewhat hurt look on his face.
"But if you want to stay here, you have to act like a human in my time would. Including the keeping of laws."
He couldn't contradict her, could he? After all that was exactly what her mother had told him, and annoying her would be rather unwise.
"So if you want to come with me now you have to leave your sword in this room" she continued.
The only thing he answered was "Keh". Unwillingly he went over to the bed and placed the Tessaiga under it again. (A/N: Bet you already wondered where he kept it during the last night.)
When he came back, his arms folded in a very typical Inuyasha-style, Kagome simply smiled at him. "You see, it's not as bad as all that" she said happily. He only pouted in response.

-

Ayumi jumped to her feet when she heard somebody knocking at the door. She hurried over to it as quick as possible and opened it. Only slightly, though, just in case a teacher wanted to check up on them. "Oh, Kagome, it's you!" she cheered, letting her friend in.
Kagome blushed slightly at her classmates puzzled looks. Yuka, Eri and Miyuki, the girl Ayumi shared her room with, sat on one bed. They'd obviously just stopped snickering and talking about something in their typical way. Takuya and Hiroshi, two of her classmates, lounged on the other one. The boy Kagome'd recognized as Toshi leaned coolly against the cupboard while Noriki and Shota, two other classmates of hers, sat on the ground. All of the boys wore their uniform. And so did Yuka and Miyuki. Only Ayumi and Eri were still wearing normal clothes.
Toshi was a rather big and muscular boy with shoulder-length black hair. Kagome didn't really know him since he was in the same class as Miyuki and Hojou, but every time she'd met or seen him he'd acted tough, arrogant and unapproachable. Oh, and from what she'd heard about him he had a…well, very Miroku-like weakness for women. She only hoped he wouldn't try to make a move on her or something, since Inuyasha would totally freak out. Shota, who sat on the ground next to him, was a really nice guy. She had known him since kindergarten and had always gotten along with him well since them. He had a quite hansom face and short dark-brown hair and was quite good-looking. The only reason he wasn't a success with girls was his shy and cautious behavior. Kagome had been really surprised that he'd gone on the 'little trip' with her friends. But on the other side…she'd always guessed that he had a crush on her friend Ayumi. He'd probably regarded this expedition as a chance to show off a little to her. Noriki, who sat opposite him, was his best friend. He was quite thin-faced and had freckles. His hair was short, wavy and nearly auburn, what's quite unusual for Japanese. He liked to play tricks on everybody and always talked fancy, but basically he was really nice and always helped his friends out of the jam. Hiroshi was a stockyish, chubby-faced boy with small eyes. His hair was always trimmed right above his ears, giving it the shape of a turned up bowl. Kagome knew that other students often picked on him because of his appearance and his unathleticness and he tried to make up for it with good grades. And he really was a good student. But still she was kind of sorry for him since he didn't really have friends. Well, at least he hadn't had any when she had still gone to school all the time. But now Shota and Noriki seemed to look after him. He was always very kind and never kept his knowledge to himself. But unfortunately his goodnaturedness had often been made use of.
As far as she knew he liked animals and spent most of his time with taking care of his dogs.
The other boy, Takuya, was one of her last favorite classmates. He always acted like he knew everything and was a total computer freak. He was quite tall, had light-brown hair and wore glasses. In Maths he sat right behind Kagome. And he was really irritating her because he kept playing with his mobile or exchanging messages with his girlfriend during class. The only reason none of the teachers dared to punish him was the fact that he was the principal's nephew. Speaking of his girlfriend…That was Miyuki. They'd been going out for a while now. Though Kagome'd only heard about it from Ayumi, who was friends with Miyuki. She was quite beautiful, had a round face, rosy cheeks and (at least for a Japanese) quite tanned skin. Her hair was black, straight and always held in place with two barrettes. Kagome barely knew her, but she seemed to be nice.
"Hey, Higurashi! Who's that guy?" the boy named Toshi asked.
"Oh, he…" Kagome began. But to her surprise Ayumi cut her off immediately.
"That's Inuyasha. He's a friend of her family who stays at this hotel as well. I asked him to join us for now" she stated quickly. Kagome released a breath she hadn't known she'd been holding. Just for a moment she'd feared Ayumi would tell them the usual stuff about him being her 'mysterious boyfriend' or something.
"Well, Inuyasha, this is Toshi. Over there are Hiroshi and Takuya, the guys on the ground are Shota and Noriki. On this bed are Miyuki and…well, you already know Eri and Yuka" she quickly continued. Everyone bowed slightly at the mentioning of their name. That is except of Toshi who just glared at Inuyasha in a very scrutinizing way. Some of them even replied something like "Hi", or "nice to meet you".
He blushed slightly and mumbled something that sounded like "pleasure's mine".
Kagome couldn't help smiling on his awkwardness.
'Maybe that won't turn out as bad as I thought…' It seemed that Inuyasha at least tried to observe the (or rather her) regulations.

-

The time with her friends passed quicker than she'd thought. And to her relieve it passed without incidents. After the Introduction she and Inuyasha had taken a seat on the ground next to each other. Actually Eri'd wanted her to come over to them, but Kagome thought it would be better to keep an eye on him. Fortunately her classmates and co. didn't ask too much. Of course they were curious about his hair and eyes, just like Yuka, Eri and Ayumi had been. But when they asked him about it Yuka was the one to quickly explain that he was 'half'. Surprisingly they didn't ask further questions about it.
Most of the time Kagome just sat there and watched how they managed to have a conversation. If you knew Inuyasha, well really knew him, not just like her classmates did now, it was quite amusing. He was carefully weighing each word he wanted to say, obviously trying not to mess up with Kagome. And more than one time he threw helpless glances at her, as if to ask whether he should answer a question with yes or with no.
On the whole everything went well. But there were some questions of her friends that caused her to panic at least slightly. When Miyuki asked where he lived Kagome's heart nearly skipped a beat. Well, she had told him to say that he lived at a shrine. But he didn't even know the names of any towns in her time, so how could he answer that question?
"Err, the shrine of my grandpa is near a small village called Edo" he said. Miyuki just shrugged her shoulders and replied that she never heard of a village like that. Edo – yeah, actually that was where he really came from. Fortunately her friends didn't even think about 'a small village called Edo' as the huge city they all were living in. (A/N: Edo was the former name of Tokyo.) But now that she thought about it again, would she ever have thought that he could mean the capital of modern Japan before she'd traveled to his era the first time? Probably not.
Anyways, Inuyasha somehow managed to answer all the questions like that, and sometimes Kagome was quite surprised about the ideas he had to answer without obligation. Even when he was asked about his age he simply replied that he was one year older than Kagome, even though he wasn't sure how old she was. He'd never thought about it. In her time she seemed still to be some kind of kid, going to school, living at her family's and things, but where he came from most of the people (and especially Kouga) saw her as a woman. Well, he couldn't tell her friends that he was older than their parents, could he?
(A/N: I think I remember that in a Shonen Sunday special it was said that Inuyasha was 17. But you would have to add the time he was pinned to the Goshinboku. So he's at least 67 – in human years. Doesn't mean he's old. I guess '17' is his age in Inu-hanyou-years. I think that's the most plausible explanation, since it was said that Sesshoumaru's age was 23. And he can't be 23 in human years.)
And Kagome was really thankful that he was that careful with what he'd said.
She had to answer for him only one time. And that was when Shota, who was now sitting next to Ayumi, asked why he stayed at that hotel. "His grandfather sent him on a 'secret mission'. He even doesn't want to tell me about it. Right, Inuyasha?" she through in quickly, trying to sound as if she wanted to make fun of him. "Right" he growled back with a smirk.
Fortunately nobody asked about how the too of them met. She knew it would be really hard to cook up a story about that. And fortunately nobody asked about the relationship the two of them had. Of course Inuyasha wouldn't know what a 'boyfriend' is. In his era you could only live together like husband and wife. And most of the parents engaged her children at a rather young age. Such not binding relationships like in her time didn't exist. At least not between humans. With demons…well she wasn't sure about it.
Be that as it may, Inuyasha and she weren't a couple after all - at least not in the way Ayumi, Yuka and Eri expected them to be – and she was glad that she didn't have to explain it to the others. Well, what could she have told them? If she'd said Inuyasha and her were only friends he would be probably sad or maybe even mad at her. But if she would claim that they were a couple he would certainly get mad and deny everything.
She was still thinking about what she could say if somebody asked her about this, and she was sure somebody would ask during the week he'd stay here because he'd try to be by her side as often as possible and it would be only naturally for the other to get suspicious; well, while she was still thinking about all this she noticed something touching her leg.
"Inuyasha!" she hissed toneless when she noticed that the 'something' was his left hand.
He sat to the right of her, leaning at the bed Yuka, Eri and Miyuki were sitting in, just like she did. Only that he had crossed his legs Indian-style and she had hers drawn up to her chest. She blushed furiously when she recognized what he was trying to do and slapped his hand away, tugging her skirt into place herself. She wasn't sure if she should be angry with him for doing something like that in front of the others or just thank him since it had really been sliding up a little too far. So she didn't say anything and just hoped none of the others had seen them. Well, her hope was shattered the instant she heard the three girls on the bed behind her giggle, causing her to blush a deeper shade of red. And even if she didn't dare to look at Inuyasha, who'd turned his face away from her, she was sure he was blushing as well.
From then on they stayed silent for most of the time, trying not to meet each others gazes.

-

"So are you coming to that castle, too?" Miyuki asked him when it was nearly 10. They had been talking about the trip during the last minutes and decided that they should better get ready for it soon.
"I don't know, yet" he replied with a side-glance at Kagome. For sure she didn't want him to consent without asking her. He had done before, though. But it seemed that she'd been tenser since they'd gone to celebrate with the others.
Now that the 'celebration' was over he wondered if there was anything festive about it. They'd just sat there and talked in a cheerful way about different things like teachers, school, 'tee-wee', other students, the food in the restaurant and many other things, including the lucky escape they'd made the night before. Then Ayumi had given a mug-like thing made of that plastic-stuff that was filled with some dark brown, really sweet liquid that tingled on his tongue, and they'd drunk to the events of the previous night.
He had to remember to ask Kagome if celebrations in her time were always like that. If they were, he'd think her time even more odd than he already did.
"Well, maybe" she added. "See you guys at the bus!" With that she dragged Inuyasha out of the room. The others, except Eri and Yuka, had already left to change or do whatever they needed to do before they could go on their trip.
When Kagome and Inuyasha were finally out of sight and (at least apparently) out of hearing, three of the four girls couldn't suppress their laughter anymore.
"Did you see that look on his face?" Yuka got out under giggles.
"Yeah, man, I'd never thought Higurashi would ever have a boyfriend who's that jealous!" Miyuki, who hadn't heard about Kagome's 'violent, selfish, overprotective, two-timing' boyfriend yet, managed to say still laughing.
Unlike the two of them Eri wasn't even able to get a word out.
Only Ayumi stood there in wonder. She hadn't had the luck to watch the 'little scene'. "Huh? You alright? Did I miss anything?" she asked, already expecting that her friends had become insane.
'There wasn't anything wrong with the coke, was it?' she thought, wondering if she would also start to act like the other girls any minute.
Yuka stopped laughing, well as much as possible, and tried to look serious. She wasn't really successful in the beginning, though. Finally she cleared her throat.
"Ehem! Ok, I guess we should initiate you into the secret of what a certain person's boyfriend is doin' if he thinks other guys could get an eyeful" she said jokingly, accidentally proving Miyuki's suspicion right. Ayumi only looked puzzled at her friends. "Yeah, I too think you should! So what's that funny?"

-

Kagome was still dragging Inuyasha along, trying to get to her…or rather their room quickly. She knew that he'd want to follow her to that castle and she would need some time to either make clear that he couldn't go with her – what probably wouldn't work unless she'd 'sit' him often enough so he wouldn't be able to get up until she'd return in the evening, and that would probably brake the floor- or to give him further instructions what to do or not to do at the castle. The latter would also mean convincing him to not take Tessaiga with him, too.
Even thinking about the argument they might have about it caused her head to ache.
She sighed. Day Two at the hotel and she was already feeling like she'd soon need a vacation. Strange thought since she'd actually thought that trip as a kind of vacation.
Yeah right, actually she'd thought that trip would be nice because she wouldn't have to fight demons or look for shikon shards all the time. And she'd been so thankful that her mother had sent her on this trip. Her mother…right. She'd been the one who'd sent Inuyasha with her. And she was still not sure if she should be mad at her or thank her for what she did.
Of course Inuyasha being here seemed to make things a lot harder, but it wasn't his fault at all, was it? Well, it was his fault that he was as stubborn, jealous, overprotective and everything. But it was definitely not his fault that he didn't know about certain things in her time! And that was the main thing causing trouble, wasn't it? Well, he could simply follow her orders without arguing or something, but since he was Inuyasha… Besides, Kagome knew that he was confused about all those modern things and rules. And sure it was hard for him to understand the modern humans' habits!
She knew exactly what it was like to be stuck in a time that was so much different from her own one. But she had already known at least something about that time before she'd been there for the first time. And since she'd already seen original clothes, weapons, buildings, books and other things that had remained from the Sengoku Jidai most of the things hadn't been new to her. That is except of the demons.
But to Inuyasha everything was new! So much strange clothes, signs, new inventions, words, smells…
It had been hard enough for her to make him believe that cars and planes weren't demons who wanted to attack them.
And the trip would probably not have been any better when he hadn't come too. After all she'd already started regretting that she'd come when Ayumi, Yuka and Eri had started bugging her, and now that Inuyasha was here she would certainly not have to go out with Hojou. Even if he'd ask her out although her 'boyfriend' was staying with her, and she was sure at least Yuka would tell him, she'd have the perfect excuse. Besides, Inuyasha wouldn't allow her to go out with 'that Ho-ho guy' in any case.
They went around a corner. For a second she had the odd feeling that there was a strange sound behind them. But she shook the thought off and tried to listen again…
'Only a mistake.' She sighed again. 'Guess we're out of earshot now' she thought, stopping and looking up at Inuyasha.
Kagome was surprised to see that he was blushing, making her wondering what the reason might be.
The reason was of course his superhuman sense of hearing, which allowed him to hear the giggles and laughs of Kagome's friends. And he knew exactly what they were making fun of.
"Uh, Inuyasha? Are you ok?"
He turned to look at Kagome, his blush deepening slightly.
"Yeah" he replied, lowering his gaze to the ground.
"Well, we should talk about it now, ok?" His face got a deeper shade of red.
"You want to come to that castle with us, don't you? But I don't know how…
Inuyasha? Hello? INUYASHA?" she shouted.
He snapped back to reality, his cheeks still as red as a tomato.
"Err…what did you just say?"
She blinked in disbelieve. Inuyasha not being able to hear what she was saying? Of course he could act like he didn't hear certain things, but then he wouldn't ask, would he?
'He must have been really deep in thought…I just wonder about what!'
"I-I was just going to say that if you want to come to the castle as well, we have to think of a way to get you there. You won't be able to go there by bus like we do, so…"
"Yeah, right…" He said, obviously still far-away. In fact he was still fighting the urge to turn around, go back to where they'd just come from and shout: 'I didn't stroke her thighs, you bitches!'
What was wrong with those guys in Kagome's time? Did they always have to walk around in bunches, giggle at stupid things and make fun of guys?
And did they have to get everything wrong?
Well, if they thought they'd seen him 'stroke her thighs' before he'd started tugging at her skirt, it would be ok! Even if it was embarrassing enough. But did they really have to tell somebody else!
He didn't even dare to think about what would happen if they'd tell the other guys, who'd apparently not seen anything.
Inuyasha shook his head in order to stop thinking about those annoying girls.
He was really glad Kagome wasn't like them! Or was she? At least he'd heard her chatting with the girls while they'd been on the bus or coach, whatever it was. It hadn't been that bad back than, but he didn't know if she was acting like they did.
He shook his head again. No, not Kagome!
"Listen…" he went on when he noticed the puzzled look on Kagome's face. "I guess I could just follow the 'bus' like I did when I got her, couldn't I?" He waited until she nodded in agreement and wondered why she hadn't thought about it herself.
"So didn't ya want us to go to your room first?" he asked.
She blushed. "I guess we don't need to. Let's just go downstairs" she said nervously.
He scrutinized her for a moment, then suddenly got why she didn't want to go back there.
He plastered a smug grin on his face.
"You know, I don't mind going there first. After all I'd like to take Tessaiga with me. Remember, we won't only go to another room this time" he said teasingly.
She sighed. 'Damn! That's exactly what I tried to prevent!'
Her plan to talk to Inuyasha and get going before he'd be able to take his sword, her attempt to avoid another argument had failed.
'How am I supposed to make it through that week?'

Whooo…finally finished. I know it took me too long, but I couldn't help it. I have to play nurse for my parents and my younger brother! They all caught a flu and are staying in bed all day (yes, it's really bad) and I have to run the household on my own + SCHOOL.
Since I'll probably not be at home this weekend, I won't be able to update until next week.
Sorry guys. I hope you'll review nevertheless.

Special #3: How do I name the characters I think up?
I know I haven't done a special since chapter 4, but I just didn't know about what I should write. Well, this one is about the characters I…err…kinda own. Yeah, guess you could say that I own them.
Anyways, some of you might have guessed how I chose the name Yamaguchi for Kagome's teacher. Yamaguchi is the name of Inuyasha's original (Japanese) seiyuu (don't know what it's called in English. It's the person who speaks Inuyasha in the anime and movies).
Actually I wanted to use only names of the seiyuu for Kagome's teachers, but when I had to write what the math teacher I didn't have time (or patience) to read the credits of one Inuyasha movie. So I simply looked at my bookshelf and found Yamamoto (he wrote 'hagakure').
As for Toshi: I'm not sure how I came up with that name. But I remembered that I once knew somebody who used to act just like he does and his name was Toshi, too. Though I only realized when I re-read the chapter. Guess I did it subconsciously. As I already said, I didn't think of something special, but 'toshi' could mean 'city', 'age' and others.
Noriki and Shota are the names of two friends of mine. But they don't really look like I described them. Takuya and Miyuki are a married couple I read about, I'm not sure where, though. Besides, their last name (not in my fic but in reality or the novel in which I read about them) is Yamamoto, too. Don't know why, but it seemed to match perfectly.
I didn't really think about why I chose Hiroshi, but 'hiro' could mean 'large' or 'spacious' and 'shi' is the suffix for city (though that's only one meaning).