A/N: I love all you people! (hugs you all) Thanks a ton to all who put Rose on story alert, favorite stories, put this unworthy one on favorite authors, and to all who reviewed! And I hope that encompasses everyone, because if it doesn't do something so it includes you too! And yes, I am doing my very best to make you all scream in exasperation every time Hojo-kun turns up. Please tell me in a review if I'm doing a good job.
:Kagome:
I couldn't sleep. I just tossed and turned. The last few days had been awful. To my relief, Hojo-kun made it back alive. I could have never lived with myself if Inuyasha had killed him.
Which brought me back to the question of honorifics. Try as I might, I felt immeasurably strange using any honorific for him. It just felt...odd. Inuyasha-sensei was probably the closest I had come to, but I dismissed that as too formal.
Hojo-kun on the other hand, I couldn't come to give him any less honorific. I wanted to break off our engagement.
However, it wasn't that simple. It never was that simple. Breaking off my engagement would leave a stain on my reputation that could never be removed. Gossips would say that I was toying with Hojo-kun, and everyone would take his side. Of course, if he broke off the engagement, it would be him who's reputation was tarnished. But that would never happen for three reasons. Firstly, Hojo-kun would never break it off. Secondly, his brother would never let him. Thirdly, since the de Chagnys were one of the richest families in the entire city, everyone would say that he broke it off because he discovered my true nature in time.
Divorce was completely out of the question. The damage to my reputation would be so horrible then that I could never leave the opera house, and even then I would have to lock myself in my room when not performing. People would call me a whore, and if there is one thing I will never, ever, allow myself to be called, it is a whore.
So it seemed I was stuck.
Hojo-kun was just too naive. How could I have been so stupid as to allow him to believe us in love? I had told myself I was not doing that, but I had been wrong. Why else do people agree to marry one another? I had been a fool, and there was no way out.
Suppose I told Hojo-kun. Then what? He would, of course, agree to break off the engagement, and try to repress the gossip. It wouldn't help. People would say I still had him under my spell, and refuse to believe him.
Or maybe he wouldn't even do that! I thought with a sudden horror. Perhaps he would ask me to try to learn to love him. Was he really that foolish? Yes, he was.
Even were I to marry him, what would such a life hold for me? I would be eternally bound to man I did not love, and expected to give him sons. Even were I to bear the healthiest, most perfect boys in the entire world, gossip would still flutter throughout the branches of the de Chagny family- silenced everywhere else. Did you hear the story, you know she was an opera girl.' Yes, isn't it shocking?' Poor Hojo, I always thought the boy was a bit daft, marrying a girl like that.'
And would I ever be able to exist like that? Unable to sing, except at family recitals, and the like. Never to hear Inuyasha again...
Oh dear.
I sat up. The dawn had broken hours ago, anyway. I needed advice- advice from the one person I could not get advice from, an impartial.
I swung my feet over the bed, slipping my cloak over my shoulders. I slid my feet into my slippers, and left the room.
I smiled wryly at Hojo-kun's prone form. Poor boy, he had tried to stay up all night watching over my room, but fallen asleep. Clearly, he had no idea what trouble he had brought me.
I walked down the stairs, where Kikyo's carriage and horse waited.
Slipping a few coins into the driver's hand, I quickly muttered, To the cemetery.
The driver nodded, and got up into the seat.
I returned once I had dressed, in a traditional mourning gown of black. Getting in the carriage, I added, My father's grave, please.
There seemed to be something...off, about the driver this time. His eyes in particular had an uncanny familiarity. I dismissed it as a mere coincidence.
I thought more about my situation, as it were, with my head on my hand during the carriage ride. I could not marry Hojo-kun, and yet I couldn't not marry Hojo-kun. I could not live without Inuyasha and yet I had to.
I held my head in my hands in exasperation. This was not going well.
Feeling a little crazy, I started to sing. In sleep he sang to me, in dreams he came. That voice which calls to me, and speaks my name...: (the punctuation hog)
I yawned and stretched. Ah, what a lovely morning! Hmm, but it was early, wasn't it? I looked around me, figuring out my bearings. Oh yes! I was outside the Fukuru's rooms in the opera house, watching over Kagome-san to make sure that madman did not find her again. I carefully opened the door. Fukuru-dono was apparently in the other room, as the connecting door was slightly ajar.
I paused to ponder that sentence. Ajar? A jar? How could a door be a jar? Whoever invented that word (or words) was clearly out of their mind!
Then I noticed that Kagome-san's bed was empty!
I gasped, running down the stairs, not bothering to change from my slightly frilly nightshirt into something more manly.
There, Fukuru-dono's personal driver was slowly getting up, frowning as he rubbed the back of his head. But the carriage was gone!
I grabbed his collar (obviously not very hard, so that I wouldn't hurt him). Where did she go!
The cemetery. he grunted. Didn't have to knock me out, tho-
I ran back inside, grabbing a random pair of pants and pulling them on, stuffing the bottom of my nightshirt in as well. I also grabbed my boots, and yanked each one on.
I skidded to a halt outside the stable, rushing in to find a horse.
There, standing in front of me was a pure white horse!
Perfect! This exactly fitted in with my Fung Shui, since I was good, and Kagome-san might be captured by evil (probably on a black horse).
Although it wasn't saddled, there was, mysteriously enough, a bridle on it. I decided to ponder the mystery later, hopping on bareback, and smacking the horse's sides with my boots, urging it into an urgent gallop.
My only hope was that I wouldn't have to ride the horse again when it was old, since white horses have yellow posteriors in their old age.
As I galloped along, my hair ribbon flew away. I would have yelped, but then I realized that with my hair flowing in the wind, I looked even more manly!
:Kagome:
I climbed out of the carriage, sighing as I did so. It had been years since I had visited here. Coming back to the graveyard...well, it brought back memories.
I could hear the solitary cemetery bell tolling for seven AM. I really had gotten up early, hadn't I?
I passed graves as I went, none of them familiar. I supposed that a lot more people than I though died every day. It was a morbid thought, but this was a morbid place, after all.
The nostalgia was overwhelming, and I soon began to sing. You were once my one companion, you were all that mattered.You were once a friend and father -then my world was shattered .Wishing you were somehow here again, wishing you were somehow near. Sometimes it seemed if I just dreamed, somehow you would be here .Wishing I could hear your voice again, .knowing that I never would . Dreaming of you won't help me to do- all that you dreamed I could . Passing bells and sculpted angels, cold and monumental, seem, for you, the wrong companions -you were warm and gentle .
I bitterly remembed the time back right after my father died- endless, overwhelming misery and confusion.Too many years, fighting back tears ,why can't the past just die?Wishing you were somehow here again! I screamed. Knowing we must say goodbye...Try to forgive, teach me to live! Give me the strength to try! No more memories, no more silent tears! No more gazing across the wasted years! Help me say goodbye. Help me say... goodbye!
I sunk down into the snow before his grave, playing with the hem of my dress.
Wandering child, so lost, so helpless, yearning for my guidance... An all-too familiar voice echoed across the graveyard.
I looked up. Angel or father, friend or phantom, who is it there, standing? I sang dully. I knew exactly who it was, but didn't have the heart to say-sing so, rather.
Have you forgotten your angel?
Angel I could not ever forget you, you who taught me to sing. I responded.
Too long you've wandered in winter, far from me and my song.
How I wish I could but see you-
You ask and I will obey!
I stood up, beaming. So perhaps he wasn't angry again! I listened to him sing-
Angel of music, you denied me! Turning from true beauty!
Er, well, perhaps he was still a little miffed about the incident with Hojo-kun.
Angel of music, do not shun me! Come to your strange angel!
I walked forward towards where his voice seemed to be coming from, a nearby tree.
I am your angel of music, come to me angel of music...
:ÇǧÇ∂ÇÂǧ:
As I galloped into the cemetery, at the far end I saw a small figure in black that had to be Kagome-san. I kicked the horse's sides, urging it on.
Oh no! The monster had her in his grasp again! She was smiling, and walking forward while he was singing.
I am your angel of music, come to me angel of music...
I shouted. Whatever you think, no matter what you believe, this man- this thing is not your father!
:Ç©Ç≤Çfl:
I spun around at the sound of Hojo-kun's voice. Of course he isn't! I snapped.
:Inuyasha:
I leaped out of my tree, landing with ease in between Kagome and the git. That asshole! What, did I think I was some sort of pedeophile? Come on, I was closer to her age than he was!
Drawing my sword, I swiped at him. Barely dodging, the fop rolled away, pulling out his and sloppily returning my stroke. I let him get up, only to attack again. He parried the strokes, mostly out of sheer luck. When he tried to go offensive, it was really quite sad. He swung the sword wildly around, yelling out loud 's and 's. Obviously, he was trying to put on a show for Kagome- and not counting on the fact that I actually knew what I was doing, while he did not.
What the doofus didn't know was that she actually knew quite a bit about swordplay.
I might add that when she expressed an interest in weaponry I taught her quite a lot of what I knew myself. Who says that an angel of music can't teach other things?
I parried each of his strokes easily, although most of the time it wasn't even nesscary. If he wants to show off, I can show off too! I began to slip into the far fancier sword tricks, such as switching from hand to hand, and occasionally using my cape as a shield, something which only worked on amateurs. I think my opponent qualifies as one, don't you?
Sometimes I even left myself wide open in favor of a particularly dramatic flourish- the viscount, instead of striking at the weak point as a good swordsman would have done, shouted another and did an extremely pointless parry.
I soon tired of the idiotic boy, and decided to end the battle. I feinted, and he fell for it, reaching out to parry- I struck, and his white sleeve was bleeding. He fell to the ground, and I held my sword at neck point.
The scream was Kagome's. she added.
I looked at the pitful heap in the snow, practically whimpering. It seems you won't die today, de Chagny. I said coldly, sheathing my sword. Now get up.
:Kagome:
He spared Hojo-kun, to my amazement. I had not expected it to work, quite honestly. It wasn't that I loved the viscount. Far from it. I simply had no desire to watch my dearest friend kill again. I wanted to do what I could to keep him innocent- stupid of me, I know, but I can't control myself.
I hurried over to look over Hojo-kun. Perhaps Inuyasha was rubbing off on me, but I almost rolled my eyes when I saw him. What a wimp. Inuyasha had purposely given him little more than a flesh wound, and yet his eyes were filled with tears. I turned around to find that the silver-haired man was gone, to my disappointment.
When I looked back at Hojo-kun, he was standing up, with his hand over his arm, clutching it and gritting his teeth as if he were some brave hero in great pain.
Ha. I had seen the fight, and this was clearly the first fight in which his opponent had not lost on purpose (and I'll bet not even a double-digit fight).
T-that monster! he stuttered. He ruined my new shirt! He will pay!
I will not laugh. I will not laugh.
I will not snicker either. I will not snicker.
A/N: Happy birthday to me, happy birthday to me, happy birthday dear Kagomeeee, happy birthday to me!
Yup, today is my birthday and I am not telling you how old I am (except that I am still too old for the children's chorus at the Metropolitan Opera -slumps- Damn.)
Sorry this took FOREVER.
Next chapter shall be muuuuuuch faster because of two reasons.
One- It's the Don Juan Triumphant and Twisted Every Way chapter! How could I possibly have writer's block?
Two- I get to see Phantom on Broadway for my birthday! I'm so excited! Box seats! BOX SEATS! Hugh Panaro!
Yes I am insane. I also get to see Swan Lake tomorrow and Twelfth Night after that.
Review Responses:
Ami Kuroneko: I liked it too. I dunno why either...I'm probably just morbid.
angel-tears-16: Ironically, it'll be finished in a few chapters...and then an epilogue. Yes, I'm no Rozefire on the chapters, but maybe Theoretically will go as long as Rozefire's stuff? (looks hopefully at her muses)
SilverShadowKitsune: Well...he almost died. But I'm afraid he has to hang around so that the rest of the cast can laugh at his antics. He's going to almost die in another chapter soon also.
TsukiOhkami: Ah, I love your reviews! I fixed the bit about the ears (sweatdrops)...I was hitting myself when I noticed it and then screaming to my friends about it at recess (but nobody really cares TT. They are so mean!) Well, I did mean to make him turn full demon when he killed the guy- but Kikyo didn't really see him when the gypsy died, so let's say he did, and she didn't see it. Also, he's kind of meant to look like a full demon all the time except for his eyes, but I screwed that up. Ah well, me try to make up for it in next chapter.
E.J.A Roberts: Thank you!
KIgirls: Yay! Thank you!
Koda-san: Whoa, you're reviewing? My, I feel honored (blushes). Me loves your fic! Thank you very much. As it turned out, neither of us were done before July 4th...oh well.
Now, if everyone will please review, we can all be very very happy people! And with any luck, soon the parent-people will remember to give me my presents so I can get me Inuyasha CD!
Review please! Thank you in advance!