A/N: Sorry if the couple of A/N after this one seems random. I pulled them out of the story because they are rather long, and I didn't want to disturb the flow. You can ignore them if you want to; they're just my attempt at humor. One important note though: this story is very Americanized. All my stories probably will be. I'm going to leave names without the –kun, -sama, -chan, what-have-you, because while I know the correct way to use them, I still don't want to mess up. It's just better this way, less frustrating for both of us, trust me. I'm also going to be putting first names first and last names last. I'm really sorry if this all bothers you, but it is fanfiction, and not all fans, especially me, know enough about proper Japanese culture and language to incorporate it correctly into the stories. And of course all this is me contradicting myself since I'm using a few Japanese words, like youkai. I guess I'm so use to reading those words that they sort of seem like English. I don't know--I'm weird.
Random A/N:
Heh, according to my translator, Yasha means female demon. That would mean the translation of InuYasha sort of means female dog demon, if you mix the words around a little. So, InuYasha is literally a bitch. Ha!
If you can guess both the jokes meant by giving him that last name, I'll give you a cookie. I am the pun master!
I have no idea what Kagome's mother or grandfather's names are, so this chapter may get annoying when they're having conversations and all I can say is "Kagome's grandfather/Kagome's mother said." Sorry about that. If they do actually have names and you know what they are please email me! Then I can go through and edit this story at a later date as well as use their names in other stories.
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Arriving at school, Kagome faced the same giggling friends; only today she didn't have to try so hard to put on a pseudo grin. If she didn't know any better, she might have thought it was real. Once the teacher came in and settled the class in his usual manor, he gestured towards the doorway.
"Today I have a treat for you class! Not only for today, in fact, but for the entire month. I have invited a renowned professor from America to lecture and lead discussions for the rest of the week. After that, he will be staying for the rest of the month to help with projects and papers. We are fortunate that he does not have any classes this month in order to prepare for his dissertation. He is a history professor with a special interest in mythology; please welcome, Professor Inu-Endo!"
A handsome looking man stepped into the doorway. He had long black hair that was tied loosely in the back, with wild bangs that almost covered his beautiful dark brown eyes. He seemed young for a professor, and smirked as he made his way to the front of the room.
"Well now, though I am renowned, I'm not officially a professor yet—although I do teach my own classes. As you mentioned, I've still got my dissertation to get through after all; and you can call me Mr. Yasha."
That was about the time Kagome passed out.
000
When she woke up, she found herself in a stiff bed directly under a bright fluorescent light.
She groaned and muttered "What happened," absently to herself. Kagome was surprised, however, to receive a response.
"You passed out, so a couple students dragged you into the nurse's office. Are you alright? Is the prospect of me teaching you for a week really that repulsive?" Yasha said down to her from his chair beside her bed, a smirk clear on his face.
"I've seen this face before. He looks just like InuYasha did when he was in his human state, just a bit older. Could this really be his reincarnation? He looks so much like him, same face and build...but surely good karma doesn't just come all at once does it?" Kagome thought.
Could it be that she realized the hope of being reunited with InuYasha, and then became reunited with him all within mere hours? Kagome was starting to feel dizzy again as she looked over the man's face. He was InuYasha physically, but what about his soul, his personality? Was this the same man she had left behind?
"No, no, not at all; I must have had too little to eat this morning or something. I'm sorry I ruined your first day of class."
"Feh, you didn't ruin anything. I'm not going to stop teaching just because one girl has an episode. You've been in here for the entire school day and I just thought I would stop by to see if you were still among the living before heading off. Good to see that you are, but I suggest you get notes for today's lecture from one of your classmates."
Well, he seemed to have a similar personality anyway, and Kagome had been longing to here the word "feh" for 6 months. She had a feeling it was him and quickly grew confident that this was in fact the reincarnation of InuYasha. Now several questions started to swarm her mind. How big was the age gap? Did he have a significant other? Did he feel any familiarity with her from his past life? Would he growl if she rubbed his human ears? Kagome's mind was running so fast that she almost didn't hear what the man next to her was saying.
"Hello in there? Kagome was it? You sure do space out a lot. I can give you a lift home if you'd like. Your friends mentioned that you lived in the same shrine that I'm going to be staying in for the next month. I figured it would be great place to stay since one of the stories actually takes place in a shrine just like it. I'm very interested in ancient enchantments and wards, and your grandfather—I'm assuming he's your grandfather—assured me over the phone that he had many ancient texts to peek my interest during my stay. You won't feel intimidated having your teacher living with you, will you?"
"No." Kagome managed to squeak out as she sat up in the uncomfortable bed.
"It figures grandpa would let a mythology professor stay in the shrine. He just wants to gloat about the wards that I helped him with, the ones that actually work." Kagome spitefully thought. Well, if Yasha was going to stay for the month, Kagome would have to put on her charm to win his heart again. It took her 3 years to win over InuYasha; hopefully Yasha would be less resilient.
000
Seeing the ride home as the perfect chance to get a couple of her questions answered, Kagome tried to keep the casual small talk going as soon as she opened the door to his car.
"So, Mr. Yasha, you seem to be rather young for having such high standing. How old are you? How did you become so renowned without even officially being a professor yet?" Kagome asked in her sweetest voice.
"You can drop the titles outside of school Kagome; Yasha will be just fine. I just turned twenty five last month. The reason I'm so young is that I was in a special program in high school that allows students to take college classes for both college level and high school level credits. By the time I had graduated high school I was already a third year student at my university. I was accepted to the graduate program right after I graduated and I've been working my ass off for the past five years to be able to get my PhD this fast. That's one reason I'm "renowned". The other being my theories on mythological beasts, I wrote a book on those theories if you're interested."
"Yes, I'll have to go look it up. Your girlfriend must be very proud of you."
"Girlfriend? Keh, I haven't had time to put up with a girlfriend. Getting a PhD ain't exactly easy you know."
"You speak very casually for the level of education you're at."
"Why should I have to speak like a snob? I save the big words for my papers; outside of class work I'm happy to be grammatically incorrect self."
Kagome's smile brightened with each sentence. He was only about 6 or 7 years older than her (depending on the time of year), he was single, and he didn't let his social status get in the way of his personality. If he hadn't been InuYasha's reincarnation, she would have fallen in love with him after this conversation anyway.
The car ride to the shrine was short since it was relatively close to the school. When they arrived Kagome helped Yasha with his bags and they climbed towards the shrine. They found Kagome's grandfather at the top, waiting for them outside the door.
"Mr. Inu-Endo! I'm glad to see that you've made it here alright. I see you've met my grand-daughter Kagome. I was very pleased to receive your call and hear about your interest in our shrine. Kagome can help you get your bags into the guest room and then we can get started right away on looking over some of those wards and artifacts."
Kagome's grandfather said as he ushered them inside. He had the biggest grin on his face that Kagome had ever witnessed.
000
Once inside Kagome led Yasha upstairs and into the guest bedroom. She set down his things and managed explained where the kitchen, bathroom, and living room were before being accosted by Souta demanding to know if Yasha knew how to play games on any of his game systems. Kagome was about to send Souta off with a sharp reprimand until Yasha actually expressed an interest in the conversation.
"Maybe that's something he retains from his past life, I'm pretty sure Souta showed InuYasha how to play a few of those games." Kagome thought as she backed away from the odd conversation and headed towards her room. "Let Souta distract him for a while. It will give me a little time to plan my attack."
Kagome managed to get some homework done in between her plotting, and soon it was time for dinner. She had changed out of her school uniform into a red skirt that hugged her hips and flared out towards her knees and a red tank top. "I bet he likes the color red, he did wear it for all those years after all." Kagome thought, leaving her bedroom and climbing down the stairs.
She could hear Yasha and her grandfather discussing an old family spell and mildly wondered how much effort it took for him to drag Yasha away from Souta.
Kagome walked into the dining room and sat next to Yasha. He had traded his more formal school clothes for a blue t-shirt with a red design stretching across the front and baggy jeans. He glanced over at Kagome when she sat and threw a comment over his shoulder. "Red, that's my favorite color."
Kagome smiled to herself, happy at how perceptive she was. Her mother brought a banquet of food to the table and they began to eat.
"You know, you look a lot like Kagome's old boyfriend." Souta told Yasha, keeping a wary eye on his sister incase the comment made her feel sad about not being able to go see InuYasha anymore.
Seeing that Kagome looked more nervous than upset and attributing this emotion to the fact that Kagome was sitting next to a cute boy, Kagome's mother put in, "yes, the resemblance really is uncanny."
"Old boyfriend, huh?" Yasha answered looking over to Kagome.
"Uh, yeah, I guess you do look a lot like him." She nervously answered.
"So, what happened between you and him?" Yasha asked, curious as to why she seemed unsettled about the subject.
"Oh, well, he, uh, he passed away about six months ago." Kagome stammered, looking down at her plate of food. Even though she was sitting next to InuYasha's reincarnation, and had hope that the others would find her as well, Kagome couldn't help but feel the familiar pain in her heart.
Yasha donned an apologetic look and started to open his mouth when Kagome cut him off. "I'm not very hungry tonight, mom. I think I'm just going to go up to my room and study." She stood up and hurried out of the dining room, running up the stairs to her own bedroom. Once she closed the door she let a stream of tears run down her cheek.
000
"Oh dear," Kagome's mother said at Kagome's retreating form. "We really shouldn't have brought it up."
"I don't see what the problem is," Kagome's grandfather cut in. "I don't think he looks a thing like that youkai she was so fond of."
"Youkai? Was he really that bad to her?" Yasha asked.
"Oh no, dear, he was very kind. They had a few tiffs now and again, but they really did love each other. It was hard on us all to lose him." Kagome's mother said.
"Speak for yourself! I don't like to see her unhappy, but she didn't belong with the hanyou! They were from different times!"
"Yes, but love knows no boundaries..."
Yasha was now thoroughly confused by the conversation Kagome's mother and grandfather were having. Hanyou? Different times? He didn't know what to make of it.
"Maybe I should go up and apologize for bringing it up." Souta said, bringing the adult's conversation to an end. It wouldn't do them any good for Yasha to hear about the feudal era and think they were all crazy.
"That would be very nice of you Souta." Kagome's mother said, smiling at her son.
"Wait, why don't I go up and apologize? I'm the one that asked about him and prompted her to tell me he died." Yasha said rising from the table.
Kagome's mother nodded with a smile on her face. "Go ahead. Her room is up the stairs, at the end of the hall on the right." When he had disappeared up the stairs, the family continued their conversation.
"Hey mom, do you think that's really InuYasha? He was a hanyou, so he could live for 500 years, right?" Souta asked, eyes sparkling at the thought of getting his mock older brother back.
"Impossible," Kagome's grandfather cut in, "if he were the hanyou, he would have been affected by the ofuda I was showing him earlier. I suppose Yasha could be his reincarnation. I'm not sure that youkai actually can be reincarnated, but InuYasha was half human, so at the very least the human part of his soul could have been reincarnated."
"That must be it! It's InuYasha! Kagome and him will get together and I'll have a big brother again!" Souta cried happily. He may have grown up physically, but on the inside he was still the same kid that loved having the hanyou around to play with.
"Now, now, let's not be rash. Even if that is InuYasha's reincarnation, he's Yasha now, and he lives in America. I just don't want you to get your hopes up honey." Kagome's mother put in, but she couldn't keep the happy smile off her face.
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A/N: I watched InuYasha and Kagome's kiss from the second movie like 5 times to try and squeeze out some inspiration for the end of the fourth and the entire fifth chapter...hopefully it'll all come together and I'll be able to post the third chapter within the week. I like to stay a head of the game, so I'll post the third chapter when I finish up the fourth.
I just got tired of keeping this one offline, even though I originally intended to finish it before posting it. Let me know what you think of the first two chapters! I'm hoping reviews will give me the inspiration I need to continue!
