Rach: Hee hee! I got in first today, Bec's not even here yet:p #Rach scans the area# She went to Hokkaido, came back and still doesn't own Inuyasha, sad huh? #She sees Bec coming and runs off#
Bec: I'm baaaaack:p Just in case anyone was wondering! ;) I arrived back on Friday wee hours of the morning…Hokkaido was awesome! So good! ) #Bec cracks her knuckles# However now to get back to work…firstly, as ever!
Moonmagicks: My faithful reviewer! How I love your reviews! #Bec grins widely# I'm glad you're enjoying it (and you're not hurt are you? I've fallen off my chair before…luckily I now use my laptop on the ground…:p) Oh, and I found a pun the other day, one of my friends sent me an email about being on a ship and whilst standing on the deck she said she 'watched the sea-nery go by' (works as both scenery, and the fact that it's the sea, same pronunciation, just written differently)…I don't know if that helps at all…:s Anyway, enjoy! D
Ebony Princess: Glad you like it! Thanks for the review, enjoy the next chapter!
To all my readers: I write for my own pleasure and for that of my readers, please read and enjoy! Here is chapter seven!
From Chapter 6…
Hey, 'Roku, who was that girl you were 'talking' to this morning?' he asked, 'and don't try feeding me that brother/sister line, because I don't believe it.' He finished. As Miroku was about to answer he heard an 'Ow!' come from somewhere down the back and turned in his seat to see poor Kagome's predicament…
Chapter 7Kagome emerged, her hand holding her head where a lump was already beginning to form. 'Gee, what do they make those drink holders from? Metal?' She thought grimacing in pain. 'Oh, great now I have everyone's attention' she mentally cursed. 'I know I'll do a jig, that'd really give them something to look at' she thought sarcastically. Kouga looked at her, his shining eyes, shifting to concern when he noticed she was still holding her head. 'Did it hurt?' he asked, his eyes searching hers. 'No, you moron, I just thought it'd be fun to draw everyone's attention to me, and I'm holding my head because it's fun.' She thought in a scathing mental voice, however she gave a reassuring smile and lowered her hand, 'No, I'm fine, it was just the 'metal',' her mental voice intruded, she stubbornly ignored it, 'drinks holder.' She finished.
Kikyou had already gone back to her magazine but her voice still easily pierced the conversation. 'Pity really.' She said, idly turning the page. Kagome's eyes widened slightly, but she kept a check on her anger. 'Why's that?' She asked, 'No, wait don't tell me, you don't want people saying that my brain power is equal to yours too, as well as my looks?' Kikyou stopped reading, and lowered her magazine. 'What is that supposed to mean?' She hissed. 'Oh nothing really.' Kagome smiled at her. Kagura's eyes however were shooting sparks. 'How dare you insinuate that you are smarter than Kikyou?' Her voice rang out, Kikyou froze and turned and glared at Kagome. 'No one insults me, no one back chats me. No one fights back. I'll show her this time.' Kagome however appeared oblivious to the last remark, and was looking out of the window, listening to her discman and singing silently to herself. Kikyou then smiled evilly, and picked up her drink. Kagome watched with interest in the reflection as Kikyou's malice filled expression never wavered as she slowly lifted the bottle of lemonade up and unscrewed the lid. 'If she's planning on doing what it looks like she's going to be in so, so much trouble.' Kagome seethed, but waited patiently focusing on making it seem like she had no idea what was going on. 'Ok, I've got two choices I can either turn around at the last minute and catch her…not that it'll make any difference, or I can wait, knowing that I have a change of clothes and make sure my discman is out of the way. Either way she'll pour it over me, and then I can at least move seats' with this Kagome's thoughts brightened considerably…despite the fact she was about to get lemonade tipped all over her. 'Maybe I can sit with Rin' She almost scanned the bus to look for her, then remembered she was sitting with Sesshoumaru… 'Then again maybe not,' she thought ruefully.
Kikyou took a sip and then, little by little, she slowly tilted the bottle over Kagome's head, unaware that she was being watched. 'Finally, this is what you get for showing me up,' she thought, her mind relishing the thought of Kagome sitting in sticky clothes for the rest of the trip. Then suddenly the bottle was gone from her hands. '…' 'W-w-what the?' She spluttered incoherently. Kagome however said absently, 'Kouga give Kikyou her lemonade back, she might actually want to drink it and not throw it all over me, however unusual that may seem.' Kouga's bewildered face appeared over the back of the seat. 'How did she…?' He thought, while mutely returning the bottle to Kikyou. 'How could she have seen me? Even Kikyou didn't and she's the most powerful Miko in our school!' She shouldn't have been able to, is she really a demon?' He sniffed the air delicately making sure he didn't over do it and shatter his human disguise. 'Nope, she's definitely human…' 'What are you thinking?' Another mental voice sounded a little amused, 'You've known her since pre school, you would uh, know, if she was a demon by now, don't you think?' Kouga growled, and then quickly stifled it. Looking to see if anyone had noticed, 'Phew,' he thought, 'that was close.'
Kagome watched in mute surprise as Kouga whisked the bottle out of Kikyou's hand with almost inhuman speed. She could hear Kikyou spluttering in the back ground, what was she blind? Seriously Kouga was fast 'But not that fast' she thought, not so fast that you couldn't see what he'd done. Oh well, best return the property to it's rightful owner, however repulsive said owner might be. 'Kouga give Kikyou her lemonade back, she might actually want to drink it and not throw it all over me, however unusual that may seem.' She looked at Kikyou's stunned face and gave a little grin. She then heard a low growl come from Kouga, and frowned slightly. Why did he do that? 'More accurately' her mind corrected, 'how did he do that?' Looking once again in the reflection she could see two very, very angry faces glaring at her. 'Oh help, they're looking at me,' she thought sardonically, wondering if they actually believed that looks could kill.
Kikyou grabbed her bottle back, mutely fuming, and glaring daggers at Kagome. Her dark orbs glinting with spite, her hands drawing together a ball of energy, which contained all her hatred towards the girl. She would feel it this time.
Ayame had been slowly becoming angrier by the minute from when Kouga had shown obvious concern over Kagome's 'injury'. 'Although she's obviously just faking it to get his attention, I saw that smile she gave him.' She was trying to keep a damper on it, if she got too mad she might lose control and then her human disguise would be blown again, and she'd have to move schools once more. Seeing Kouga take the bottle that was destined to do justice to Kagome for her ills, made Ayame see red. She might have done something drastic if she hadn't noticed Kikyou's hands glowing slightly. Duly noted she simply sat back with an almost growl and settled for glaring at the girl instead.
-----Meanwhile-----
'Yes I understand that,' he answered courteously, listening intently. 'I assure you it is of the utmost importance,' he continued, 'their powers must be nurtured so that they are not a danger to others or themselves' He seemed the voice of reason and he smirked wickedly. 'I most certainly will see to it they keep up their studies,' he paused, 'no you don't need to worry about a thing I'll take care of everything, transport the works.' He stopped and the voice on the other end spoke for a moment. 'I'm glad you agree but I see your concern, maybe just pose it as a competition of sorts?' He listened again. 'Yes I can arrange a competition too if you like, and rest assured the group will return to you in control and ready to learn.' He paused one last time before saying 'Thankyou for your time, I'll be in touch when the competition is ready…yes it should be by Saturday, thankyou once again, farewell.' He hung up the phone with relish and set to creating a suitable competition, one that would achieve the required results.
-----Back on the bus-----
Rin was once again covertly studying Sesshoumaru, he seemed distinctly annoyed with himself, she knew most people would have wondered how she concluded this, but it was all in little signs. The way he had almost let out a sigh as he turned away, the look in his eyes that told her he was having a mental dialogue with himself. Even the way he sat conveyed he was displeased with himself, but why? 'I hope it's not because he thinks he upset me,' she thought, wondering slightly what his name was. Ah well, best to leave him be, she took a quick normal look at him and then heard an 'Ow' come from the direction of the back of the bus. 'If I didn't know better…' she thought and looked around. She was right! It was Kagome, and the poor thing was stuck with the 'fabulous four' (Kagome had shared her new nickname for the group with Rin the night before) and, Rin's lips quirked up in a slightly evil smile for a moment, as she saw that none other than Kouga was seated in front of her. The smile immediately faded as she noticed that Kikyou was once again having a go at Kagome, who seemed to brush it off and look out of the window. Although Rin could tell she was really watching the four behind her. She gasped in surprise as Kikyou began to tip the bottle over her friend's head, 'What can I do?' Then she realised that Kagome had to have seen, so she simply waited, watching the scene play out in front of her. The drink bottle suddenly disappeared from Kikyou's hand, and her hands flew to her mouth in shock, and then she noticed Kouga return the bottle…what was going on? She thought. She then saw Kikyou murmuring and Ayame looking murderously at her, and decided that she ought to do something, at that very moment Miroku walked past to the back of the bus, stopping here and there to flirt, but all the while his eyes fixed on Kikyou.
'So you are feeling now?' The voice was irritating to say the least. 'Will you silence yourself? I am not feeling, I am Sesshoumaru, Lord of the West, and I'm here only for one thing, and that involves nothing but hatred.' 'You may have been here for one thing before, but now you're feeling' the little voice stretched out the word in a sing song way, 'SILENCE,' he thundered in the depths of his mind, almost causing himself to jump at the intensity. He saw the girl, Rin, take a look at him and then get distracted by a voice down the back. He could hear exactly what was going on and when Rin gasped in surprise he almost laughed. 'Laugh?' the little voice said mockingly, Sesshoumaru ignored it, quelling, with it, the feeling that he had lost control of something, and wondering what had gotten into him. 'This Sesshoumaru, laugh' he thought loftily 'not likely' 'You were going to' the little voice muttered sullenly. He watched with amusement as the wolf prince took the bottle out of Kikyou's hand. All for what? Love? He scoffed. The girl was mortal, and as such lower than dirt. He was surprised the youkai even deemed her worthy to talk to. He once again found his eyes drawn to Rin as her hands flew to her mouth in surprise. He idly noted that it didn't take much to surprise humans, and his attention wandered back to the back of the bus, things looked on the verge of exploding, he noted. Kikyou and Ayame both glaring and Kikyou preparing some Miko magic no doubt, yes there it was. He inwardly smiled a cold smile. Humans were so predictable. Well except this Rin, she seemed odd, for a human. 'So 'Rin' now is it? Not that girl anymore?' Sesshoumaru didn't deign to reply and instead watched the next part of the entertainment unfold before him.
-----With Sango-----
She could feel her brother hot on her heels, and marvelled inwardly at his speed. She was fast; she trained hard and had honed her natural abilities well. It seemed it was in their blood, though as he seemed to have the same natural ability as her, for a moment she pictured hi in her minds eye running through a forest a sort of scythe in hand. She smiled and noticed the gap between them was closing. 'Darn it' her mental voice cursed, 'Concentrate' she continued in an easy stride, and sees the green sign up ahead signalling the park coming up in 1km. She smiled and lengthened her stride slightly, not far now. Her mind started running over the possibilities for lunch, and her stomach had just rumbled, and she knew there were a few places around the park. She made up her mind to see what Kohaku wanted and turned to check on him only to find that he was right on her heels. With a start, she saw him draw level as the park came into view. He put on a spurt that did her proud and slipped through the gate half a second before her. She was both surprised and happy, her brother beat her! 'You just wait til we go home' she warned. A smile on her face, 'I wasn't concentrating, and I'm out of shape, but I guess that's what comes from holidays!' They both wandered over to the play park and sat down on the roundabout. 'Mo matter how old I am I'll always love play parks' Sango thought with a smile. 'So, mister "I-can-beat-my-sister-at-her-sport", what do you feel like for lunch?' Kohaku looked back up at her and grinned, sticking out his tongue before answering, 'Don't think I don't know those were excuses, I beat you fair and square. And I hadn't really thought about lunch,' his stomach gave a growl, and Sango laughed lightly, 'It seems your stomach didn't like that answer', she teased. 'So what'll it be? I know there's a Udon bar across the way, and a pizza place, not to mention, of course the convenience store.' Kohaku thought for a moment, what would Sango be wanting to eat? Not pizza, that was too heavy and greasy for lunch, especially if you were at the park! He thought some more and answered 'Let's go convenience, they've always got a good variety…I wish there'd been more like them back home in Oz!' Sango frowned, 'I wish there was a Subway around here though, that's one thing I truly miss!' Her face cleared, 'But you're right the convenience stores here are great!' Kohaku grinned again knowing he'd made the same choice Sango would have herself. They got up and headed towards the other end of the park, and entered the convenience store just down the road. Sango immediately switched to Japanese mode, 'you'd think I'd be permanently in it, having lived here over a year now,' she thought. But to be fair her parents didn't want her or Kohaku forgetting their English so, they still spoke it at home. She smiled to hear the ever present 'Irrashaimase' uttered as they walked into the air conditioned shop. Sango wandered down to the onigiri section of the refrigerated foods and picked out two tuna mayonnaise, and then turned to call to Kohaku who was picking out a drink, 'What do you want?' 'Get me one of those cool seaweed ones and another one I haven't tried' She rolled her eyes 'one of those cool seaweed ones, I ask you!' Luckily she knew just what he meant. 'Hmmm, another one he hasn't tried, boy he's adventurous' she looked around and grabbed one marked 'Tarako', then she went over to him and he dropped a bottle into the basket. 'Not Pokari Sweat again?' She asked, with a slight laugh, as she grabbed a peach tea off the shelf and dropped it in too. Kohaku looked at her 'And why not? It's nice', 'The whole "sweat" thing turns me right off.' Sango replied with a grimace. 'Aw come on, its not really sweat,' Kohaku protested. Sango however pointed to the bread section. 'Coming?' She asked raising her brow, 'or did you want to discuss your sweat some more?' Kohaku just looked at her and started towards the bread.
After paying and heading back to the roundabout they sat down and pulled out their lunch, chatting while they ate. In the end Sango, despite being torn between 'melon pan' and 'choco pan' had chosen 'melon pan', while Kohaku had decided on an apple turnover. Sango had long since decided that referring to 'melon pan' in English as melon bread was just too weird, and so used the Japanese word 'pan' for bread usually when talking about it even in English. When they had finished they lay back and looked at the clouds. Then Kohaku asked a surprising question. 'Sango, do you like that guy at your school?' Sango's eyes flicked to her brother in surprise, 'Which guy would that be?' 'The one you talk about all the time…oh what's his name?' The boy scrunched up his face and thought hard, the name came back to him, 'Miroku?' Sango's amethyst eyes darkened for a second, and she looked back up at the sky. 'Absolutely not.' She answered shortly. 'How come?' 'How come what?' 'How come you don't like him?' 'He's a pervert, end of story.' She responded. 'And why would you think I like him anyway?' she asked, the hint of an edge coming into her voice. Kohaku immediately noticed it and smiled to himself, 'No reason, it's just you always talk about him, and never about any other guys.' 'Well other guys don't tend to grope me, do they?' Sango said in a dangerous voice. 'No, I suppose not.' Kohaku answered meekly. 'You'd think he'd get the picture after I knocked him senseless the first time,' she muttered to herself. 'You what?' Kohaku looked at her in shock, 'I knew you hit him, but I didn't realise you used your pressure point training.' Sango shrugged, 'He deserves it.' They sat in silence for a moment before 'So you wanna play tag?' Kohaku asked, looking out at the near empty park. 'Sure, you're it.' Sango laughed and tapped him before running away. 'Argh! I'll get you for that!' Kohaku sprang after her and the game was on. After a fun filled hour of dodging each other (including Kohaku's failed attempt to escape by climbing a tree), Sango sat down on one of the swings and slowly pushed herself back and forth, just a little. As her feet scuffed the spongy asphalt her gaze travelled past Kohaku and away, her mind a jumble of thoughts. Kohaku was now happily just running around, and climbing trees so she allowed herself to slip into her mind and confront the issue lurking. Kohaku's not-so-innocent question had gotten her thinking. Did she like the perverted monk? She had long ago given him the nickname monk, which in Japanese was houshi-sama, due to his temperament, his manners which were beguiling to many, hence the perverted preceding it, although the cries of hentai, tended to follow after him, she conceded. 'No' she told herself firmly, 'there is no way on this planet that I like the houshi.' She pictured him in her minds eye his dark hair, always pulled back in a ponytail, and his sparkling blue eyes, that belied his manners. Always planning some mischief, however she had seen them ring with sincerity when explaining to a teacher he really didn't know what had happened to his homework, it had been on his desk the night before. To her astonishment the teacher had bought the lie and he had gotten off scot-free. 'Ok, if I admit it to myself maybe I do find him a little attractive…physically.' She quickly added before her brain started going crazy at her for admitting to liking a known pervert. No, that was definitely his strike. 'Maybe if he could control his roving eye and wandering hand…no! What am I thinking?' The next thing she'd know she'd be one of the girls who hung off him. She shuddered, 'No that's enough.' She thought repressing other thoughts that were sliding through the tiny gap she had allowed in her defences. She was not going to fall for the houshi. No way! She smiled, it would all be fine, she didn't even hang around anywhere near him. Sometimes she even thought Kags avoided him, although that was an absurd notion. In fact the only time he was near her was when he was trying to grope her, and he usually ended up unconscious when he did that, true in the year she'd been there he'd only managed to grope her, she mentally counted the number of times she'd knocked him out, seven, seven times. Thank goodness for not having friends that drooled over him… 'Crazy girls' she thought, ignoring a little voice that said she might not be that far away from that herself.
-----Back on the bus further up the front-----
Miroku spun round when he heard Kagome's voice and saw her sat in the corner with 'yeurch…' he mentally sighed, Kikyou, and to top it off it looked like Kouga was in front of her too. He suppressed a smile as he thought of the years of primary, even then Kouga had thought of her as 'his woman' even though Kags had never even said a word to him. Junior high he didn't know, he'd been at a different junior high school to them. As for Kikyou, he didn't flirt with her, for one thing up until recently she'd been Inu's girl…but for another he really had an odd feeling about her, like something just wasn't quite right, and had been glad when Inu had finally called it off. 'Spent way more time with her than was ever necessary' He thought watching as her face grew malevolent. 'Are you going to answer my question or keep staring in her direction?' He heard Inu ask, he was about to give a snappy reply, when he saw Kikyou about to pour her drink all over his unsuspecting sister and he got annoyed. Ignoring Inu, he thought, 'I'm not going to sit here and leave Kags stuck there with them' for he saw that Kouga helping her out had not in fact helped the situation. In fact if anything it had made it worse. He suddenly noted worriedly that Kikyou was building up her power, that was it, he was going up there and 'and what?' His mind asked, intrigued, 'You can see a ball of Miko power that she knows nothing about how are you going to explain that?' 'I'm not I'm simply going to offer to swap seats with her, as she is my sister and I don't want to see her stuck there much longer to be zapped really.' He responded. With that he got up from his seat like a man on a mission…he made sure he looed natural as he wandered back, flirting here and there, but his blues eyes, flickering dangerously were focused on Kikyou, how dare she try and hurt his sister? Especially after what she had done the previous night. He could almost feel Inu's eyes on him speaking louder than words, 'WHAT ARE YOU DOING, YOU MORON?' He continued walking and when he got to the back all faces turned to him and he took a deep breath. He leant over and whispered in Kagome's ear. She smiled back at him nodded and got up, picking up her bag. Kikyou looked back in shock as she walked away her Miko powers now ebbing away even as she fought to hold them together. Then her eyes widened and lit up, and she smiled, she saw that Inu was in the seat next to Miroku, and assumed that Kagome would be taking his seat. 'Inu baby, come back to me, you know you want to.' She thought. Now checking her reflection in the window, then from down the bus she heard a 'WHAT?' And swung back round.
Bec: Ok, I think that's where I'm going to end it, as the next chapter's plan looks a bit sketchy and this chappie seems to work with a stop there! I'm not too happy with the start, but hey, I'll leave it! Enjoy people and leave me a message if you like! Love you all whether you respond or not! )
