Because I'm a kind and twisted soul, Here's Chapter 3!

Sakura234: I love the story idea too, I actually wrote the majority of it all at once after it bounced around in my head for a few days and wouldn't go away. I'm not so sure the story actually Ends ends, but it does resolve something (all one can ask when dealing with Inuyasha) and when this little story stops, it is on a positive note.

InuB: Heheh, do you actually think Inuyasha is just going to let Kagome get away like that? Sure he was a little down... okay he was seriously depressed at the end of the last chapter, but Do you really think he's going to stay that way? Especially where Kagome is concerned? Rest assured the story does not stay depressing for long despite chapter titles. p I can't stay serious for too long, it's not natural.

And as I cooked up this devious plan last night: Inuyasha, the characters therein, the twisted machinations inspired thereby, will be kidnapped and imprisoned in my basement just as soon as I figure out a way to build one under my building without my landlord ever noticing the difference or construction materials.

And now... Hey Look a Distraction!

Hopeless

It was hopeless, utterly hopeless.

It wasn't just the trigonometry problem that refused to submit to my efforts to solve it. My plan wasn't going as well as I hoped it would. That isn't to say I thought it was a bad plan. No not at all, it had served its purpose. I couldn't hurt any of my friends anymore.

It just seemed that my family wasn't as happy as I thought they'd be. Mama looks sad a lot and I don't understand why.

Mama and I decided it was probably best if I didn't go back to school for awhile. After all, how does one explain an arrow wound in the shoulder? I couldn't very well say I shot myself now could I?

We'd also found that I couldn't handle large groups of people. It was a rather embarrassing discovery to make too. Mama and I had gone out to buy a replacement for my ruined uniform.

I couldn't even set foot inside the train station. My hands shook fiercely every time I tried, so we tried walking.

I was fine until we got to the areas where the sidewalks became more congested with other pedestrians. Then the shaking started again. Oh god, and it got worse from there. Somebody bumped into me and I started to hyperventilate.

Mama just shook her head at me sadly before taking me home. We couldn't figure out why I reacted like that. Whatever it was, I certainly couldn't go to school.

We told my teachers that all my illnesses had caused me to develop a nervous condition that made me unable to attend regularly. Mama forced me down to the school for that visit. They'd gotten to see first hand how bad I was.

Granted mama had been kind enough to set up the appointment an hour after school got out so that the halls would've been as empty as possible. And she borrowed a friend's car to drive me there since I still had trouble with public transit. I'd still had trouble sitting in that room with all my teachers and the principle. I barely made it through the meeting without passing out.

Needless to say, they were convinced. They were actually pretty good about it too. We set up a system where I could do all the schoolwork at home and turn it in on Sundays when I came in to take my tests. My teachers even set it up so they didn't all have to come in every Sunday.

The system worked. So far I'm about a month ahead now. I study all the time. At first I sort of had to in order to catch up, but now I do it so I won't have to think… about everything I'd left behind, so I won't have to hurt. We moved my desk out to the well house. I couldn't seem to concentrate so well as I did there. Souta still brought home my school work and I studied.

I still don't have full use of my arm, but I'm working on it. I've taken to practicing archery behind the shrine. I figure it helps build up the strength in my arm as well as working as a kind of physical therapy.

Mama signed me up for an art class at the local high school. It was close enough that I could walk and late enough for the sidewalks and school to be mostly empty. I didn't want to go at first. After all, a class meant a group of people and having my fits in public was so embarrassing. Mama insisted and so did my friends when they stopped by.

The traitors.

At least Hojou was on my side.

I'd finally managed to convince Hojou I wasn't interested in dating him. He took it rather well. He still comes over once or twice a week and he still brings me gifts for my health. At least he stopped asking me out. That was a relief.

I did actually end up attending the art class. The teacher made me redo the first assignment four times before I got it right. She wanted us to develop a piece that was symbolic of how others might see us. Not exactly an easy self-portrait assignment. I've never taken art before, never having the patience for it some how.

Now I had patience in abundance and it turned out I wasn't half bad at drawing. The first time I attempted the assignment, I drew a picture of my darling Shippou. My teacher said that while it was adorable, it had nothing to do with how someone else would see me. I suppose she's right. I certainly didn't seem to be very happy these days, and I don't think I could ever be that cute.

I tried a picture of Sango and then a picture of Miroku. Sango had been too cheerful as well. I kind of forced myself to remember her that way. Miroku came off as more optimistically resigned, if that's even possible. I certainly didn't seem optimistic anymore. At least I can't see it in myself.

Finally I broke down and drew Inuyasha. I drew him as I had last seen him, with that dejected look on his face. It took me forever to be satisfied with that drawing. When I took it in for my teacher to look at I still didn't think I had it quite right.

She loved it. She even asked me to make a copy of it for her, something about wanting her friend to see it. I thought nothing of it at the time. I let her Xerox it and never gave it a second thought.

Imagine my surprise when my teacher brought in her friend at the next class and it was none other than Sesshoumaru. Made me wonder if my kit had lived this long. I shook my head at that thought. It didn't matter.

Sesshoumaru fairly dragged me out the door before class had a chance to start. I suspect he would've dragged me to the nearest restaurant for a nice long talk, but before that could happen I hyperventilated on the sidewalk.

Talk about embarrassing.

Good ol' fluffy beat a hasty retreat with me in tow. I explained a few things to him and he took me home. He was still a bit confused about the whys and hows of my reactions to the crowds, but he seemed pretty clear about the time traveling. I didn't tell him much about anything else.

After telling me that Inuyasha had not lived the five hundred years to today, I asked him not to tell me anything else. I asked Sesshoumaru to give me a year without knowing how my plan had worked out on their side of the well. He very kindly acquiesced to my request. He'd changed a lot in the last 500 years.

I suppose he kind of had to after his favorite character line died. It's hard to say, "Die, Inuyasha!" when the hanyou is already dead.

Sesshoumaru comes here almost everyday. He helps me with my homework when I let him. Mostly I think he just misses having a familiar face, though he spends more time with my mother than I do. I find that a little funny.

Sesshoumaru, Great Demon Lord of the Western Lands, was dating my mother. Hell, they spend so much time together he's starting to get that look my mama has when she looks at me now.

I still have nightmares of Inuyasha hating me. I don' sleep very well because of them. I can't remember the last time I slept though the night in my room. I always wake up in the middle of the night.

I've taken to walking to the Goshinboku at times like that. I feel closest to him there. My hand always finds its way to the scar on the turnk of it while I lean against it. Some mornings I wake up curled slightly around the base of it.

Then there's the nights I fall asleep studying n the well house. On those nights, I dream he doesn't hate me. Inuyasha comes up behind me and hugs away all my pain. Those dreams, though pleasant while they last, are the most painful. They could never come true and I know it. When I wake up from them I immediately begin studying so I won't think about them, so I won't think about him, Inuyasha.

Actually that's what I'm doing right now, studying that is. Tomorrow's Sunday, test day. Ah finally got that trig problem, twenty more to go. I stretch and look at my watch.

Ugh! It's late. Oh well, maybe I'll stop when I'm done with the rest of them.