AUTHORS NOTES:
Fine, don't reply! Still posting next chapter… where the drama begins! Have fun with it. And replying would be nice…
DISCLAIMER
I don't know InuYasha (though I'm asking for him for Christmas. Santa, I've been a good kid! Can I get a boyfriend for Christmas?! One with doggy ears?), but ravyn89 and I do own the characters in this fan fic you don't recognize… and the story, of course! So don't steal.
Chapter Two: A Dead Girl's Life
"'Interesting. She came out of a well? Oh, wow! Well, she's definitely not a reincarnation of anybody but there's defiantly something spiritual about her! Maybe she should stay a while!' How about not!" muttered InuYasha later in the day after they had all visited Kaede in the village.
"I didn't ask to fall down the stairs, you know!" said Sueko huffily, arms and legs crossed.
"Feh"
"Is he always like this?" Sueko muttered impatiently to Shippo, who seemed to have taken a liking in her.
"Um… pretty much," said Shippo, shrugging. "Did you know Kagome?" he added, as if to start on a conversation they had had before, but she hadn't really spoken to Shippo yet.
"No, I didn't," said Sueko. "But I have her bedroom. Does that count?"
Shippo found this very funny. Sueko didn't get why, but hey, he's happy, so that's okay. She was never exactly good with little kids…
"Are you going to stay?" Shippo asked suddenly.
"What do you mean?" said Sueko kindly.
"Well…" Shippo attempted to explain, "are you just going to go back into the well after a while?"
"Maybe once and a while…" said Sueko. Though she really just wanted to cry out "Duh! Of course not! I'm STAYING!" but found that would be a bit of a rude thing to say. This was a totally new place, and Sueko hadn't even begun to explore it. She'd defiantly be here a while…
"Are you going to bring any rowlan back?" asked Shippo excitedly.
"What?"
"Rowlan! That noodle stuff that cooks with only water in five minutes!" cried Shippo, standing up with his excitement. Though Sueko didn't get why he was excited—perhaps for talking?
"You mean ramón?" hinted Sueko with a small smile. This kid was so cute!
"Yeah, that…" said Shippo, waving a hand aside as though how to say it correctly didn't really matter.
"Sure, I guess…" said Sueko.
"Good!" said Shippo, sitting back down and looking quite accomplished for not really any reason at all.
"Okay…" mumbled Sueko. Little kids really confused her.
There was a moment's silence in which the two tried to find something to say. Then Shippo blurted out, "Will you have to take a lot of those 'tests'?"
"Huh?" said Sueko, but a second later her brain started working again and she got what he meant. "I hate school. You think I'd go back for school? Nah… I'd just go back to pass the final exam with a C and live with that!"
Shippo sighed in relief. "Kagome always went back to take those 'test" things. I'd always miss her afterwards…"
It was a bit too quite after that last comment, but what could Sueko say? She was sorry about everyone's loss, but she didn't know what to do about it! It's not like she could bring Kagome back or anything… she didn't even know the girl, only her family, and Sueko was quite sure that didn't count.
"I have something to cheer you up!" said Sueko, suddenly inspired by an idea. She had already gone back to her time to try and explain to her parents what had happened in five minutes (she had been eager to come back). Okay, they might think she was slightly insane, but her mom was fine with it, and so Sueko had crammed a few things in her book bag in case she needed something in the next few days, and one of them was her Game Boy. Which was actually in her book bag anyways (something to do in class), but whatever.
"Ooh!" said Shippo, grabbing it out of Sueko's hands and staring at it. "What is it?"
"A Game Boy. You play games on it. See, you turn it on…" Sueko switched the power button on, "and wait for it to load up and all that crap, and then you push the little buttons to play!"
After another five minutes of explaining how to work it some more, Sueko smiled down at Shippo with satisfaction as he eagerly played her Pokèmon game. Okay, so it's probably wrong to introduce people from the past to things from the future, but he'd looked so sad earlier!
Now Sueko was left with nothing to do. Sango and Miroku had gone off to… somewhere—she hadn't paid attention to where exactly—Shippo was playing with her game so she couldn't exactly use that, and as for InuYasha… well, he was off in dream world somewhere. Which Sueko was always staring off into space, but InuYasha didn't seem like the type to do that sort of thing. Maybe she'd only known him for a couple of hours, but she usually had a pretty good judgment of other people's personalities. It was a gift. And sometimes a curse…
Sueko got up and walked over to InuYasha, who was leaning next to a nearby tree.
"Hey," she said, sitting down beside him.
"What do you want?" he said, not looking up.
"You've been awfully quiet…" started Sueko.
"Yeah, so?" snapped InuYasha.
"Well," said Sueko, "Is anything troubling you?"
"Nothing's wrong with me, okay?" said InuYasha rather quickly.
"You don't have to tell me," said Sueko. "It'd just be rather nice and all…"
"What's your problem anyways?" cried InuYasha, turning his head to look straight at Sueko. "There's. Nothing. Wrong. With. Me! Do you have ears?!"
"Oh, come on!" snapped Sueko impatiently. "It's totally obvious!"
"You just met me!"
"So? That just shows how obvious it is," said Sueko smugly, crossing her arms.
"What are you two doing?"
"Huh?" Sueko looked up to find Sango and Miroku standing before them. Apparently they were back from… whatever they were doing before.
Automatically Sango looked from Sueko to InuYasha and seemed to register what had been going on. She sighed then tried to look as friendly as possible.
"Sueko," said Sango seriously, "I want to tell you something."
"Okay," said Sueko. But then she realized Sango meant to talk in private. "Oh, whatever…" she mumbled, standing up and following Sango.
They walked a distance from everyone else before Sango found an "appropriate" place to chat. She sat down underneath a tree, and Sueko did the same. They sat there silently for a minute until Sueko started to get uncomfortable.
"Um… okay," said Sueko, picking a small flower nervously. "So… what do you want to talk about?"
Still Sango said nothing, staring off into the distance. Then her eyes flicked to the side and noticed Sueko slowly picking the petals off the flower. She smiled sadly and turned to Sueko.
"You see, InuYasha took Kagome's death very seriously and he still hasn't quite gotten over her," Sango explained.
"Uh huh…" said Sueko.
"She didn't die of leukemia, Sueko," said Sango. "She died from a demon."
It took a few moments for her brain to process this. Sueko supposed she should expect just about anything here, but…
"A d-demon?" stammered Sueko.
Sango nodded. "I understand where you come from demons don't exist, but… well… here they do. They control everything and attack innocent humans just for the fun of it."
"All right. I'll believe you," said Sueko. "So what exactly are demons supposed to be? Spirits? Monsters? What?"
"Some of them are giant centipedes and spiders but my father use to say that the most frightening were those that took on human form, because then you can't tell whether they're friend or foe, which has led many people not to trust strangers. Sometimes not even their own family," said Sango. "Of course, not all of them are bad. InuYasha isn't, for example…"
"InuYasha is a demon?" asked Sueko.
"He's only half demon. He's got a soft side too because his mother is human. But, you see, demons believe humans are weak and humans fear demons so neither side would accept him. For a long time he was all alone."
"InuYasha's lucky then, huh?" said Sueko, smiling slightly. "That he met you guys, I mean."
"Yes, he is," said Sango. "He was especially lucky to meet Kagome because she seemed to understand him better than anybody else. She also had this special charm where she was able to make him feel better. Just being around Kagome made you… well… happy in a way, no matter what."
Sango paused as if remembering times back when Kagome had still been alive. Sueko was just thinking that maybe she should leave and let her be alone when Sango turned back to her. This time her face was dark as if angry.
"But not all demons are good, and there was an especially evil one that loved to watch us suffer. His name was Naraku. In short his name means hell and that's what he was too, hell. He forced InuYasha and this women that he loved fifty years ago to fight each other. He cursed Miroku's grandfather with a wind tunnel in his right hand that was passed down through the generations. And…" said Sango, her face softening slightly. She almost looked ready to cry. "Naraku turned my little brother against me and made him kill our family and some of the best warriors in the Demon Slayer village. But we soon caught up with Naraku and InuYasha was able to defeat him. Though he was injured in the process, his biggest injury was that Kagome had died… protecting him."
All Sueko could think of saying after that was, "Wow."
"InuYasha and Kagome were in love with each other," continued Sango. "Sure, they were always bickering and fighting with each other, but you knew that they both loved each other very much. Which is why you probably shouldn't mention it in anyway to InuYasha again!" Sango said quite seriously.
"Sure…" said Sueko, who couldn't think of anything better to say.
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Sueko had never sat on a tree before. She'd never really been near trees where she lived—it had always been some sort of city. Well, she managed to climb the tree without falling down, but Sueko wasn't sure how she'd get back to the ground.
'You know, the tree didn't look this tall from the ground…'
Heights were never Sueko's thing… but she was in the sort of mood where she wanted to be away from everyone else—it's much easier to think when there weren't people trying to talk to you. She realized they were trying to get to know her, but she wasn't in the talking mood! Besides, there was a nice view of the night sky from up here…
The thing was, ever since Sango's "chat" Sueko had been feeling the same way she felt right now: guilty. At first she didn't quite get why, but now she did.
Kagome died, and her family moved away. Sueko was the one who moved in. Sueko was the one who took her old bedroom. Sueko was the one who went to Kagome's old school. Sueko was the one who feel into Kagome's well, stepped into Kagome's life, and ran into Kagome's friends. She was walking all over some dead girl's life! It was obvious everyone liked Kagome better! They were still getting over her being gone—Sueko couldn't just show up now! And InuYasha obviously hated her for showing up because he loved Kagome.
There was only one solution to this problem. Sueko was surprised she didn't think of it in the first place. She didn't belong here! She'd just have to go back down that well and back home, because this wasn't her world! It was Kagome's, not Sueko's… She was just trespassing into an "Out of Bound's" territory, that's all.
But how to get down? It took about fifteen minutes, but eventually Sueko managed to slide down the trunk back to the ground. And, grabbing her book bag, which had been lying nearby, she headed towards the well, making sure no one was looking. Not that it mattered. They wouldn't care whether she was here or not!
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"InuYasha, have you seen Sueko lately?" asked Miroku, poking at the small fire with a long stick.
"No," said InuYasha. "Did you expect me to baby-sit her or something?"
"Just wondering…" said Miroku. "I haven't seen her around lately, that's all."
"Me neither," said Sango. "Where could she be, though?"
"I know where she went!" said Shippo quite suddenly, jumping up.
"Where?" asked Sango and Miroku simultaneously.
Shippo glared at InuYasha. "You made her go down the well, didn't you?"
"What?" said InuYasha, looking at Shippo. Seeing the expression on his face, InuYasha cried, "No I didn't! What makes you think I did?"
"Well, you obviously don't like her," started Shippo, crossing his arms.
"So you think I made her go down the well, eh?" snapped InuYasha. "Well, I haven't seen her all evening, so don't go pointing fingers at me!"
"I know you made her go down the well!" cried Shippo, pointing an accusing finger at InuYasha.
"That's enough, Shippo!" said Miroku.
"Why do you even think she went down the well in the first place?" continued InuYasha. "She probably just went off somewhere. She's certainly foolish enough…"
"Okay, InuYasha," said Sango. "No one said you made Sueko go down the well."
"Feh."
"Maybe we should all split up and look for her," suggested Sango.
"Maybe InuYasha should go through the well and get Sueko back!" snapped Shippo.
"She didn't go down the well, okay?!" said InuYasha.
"Enough!" said Miroku. "How about we just go with Sango's idea and look for Sueko."
"I'll look in the village," said Sango, standing up. "She might have gone there."
"I could go look back there," said Miroku, pointing to the area behind him. "InuYasha, how about you go into the forest and look for her there."
"Fine…" said InuYasha, who immediately stood up and walked into the forest. Sango and Miroku went their separate ways too, and Shippo was left standing in their little "camp ground" with nothing to do. So he decided to follow InuYasha.
"What do you want?" snapped InuYasha, who didn't even have to look down at his knee-level to know Shippo was there.
"I want to know why you made Sueko go back into the well!" cried Shippo.
InuYasha stopped walking, closed his eyes in annoyance, sighed, and then said quite clearly, "Look, I don't know where Sueko is, okay? I don't want her to go back to her own time, so why would I send her down the well?"
"Because you've sent Kagome down the well before!" cried Shippo. "Why not Sueko?!"
That did it. All he had been thinking about for the past month was Kagome. He missed how she'd get annoyed at him, how the two would argue every time she went back to her own time to take those… test things… he missed how she could get happy so easily, he missed the way she looked… he even missed how she used to say, "Sit boy!" and make him lay face down on the ground, no matter how frustrating and irritating that was. Thinking about Kagome was one thing. Being reminded of her from someone was a totally different story.
"Go away, Shippo!" InuYasha cried.
"Wh—what?" stuttered Shippo.
"Go—go follow Miroku or something. Just leave me alone!" he yelled, pushing Shippo away with his foot.
"Eh… don't touch me!" cried Shippo, jumping out of the way. Ignoring Shippo, InuYasha started walking away.
"InuYasha!" cried Shippo. But he didn't respond.
'What is up with him lately? Say one little thing and he just snaps!' thought Shippo bitterly as he wandered back to the campsite.
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He had just met her. He didn't even like her that much, but InuYasha found himself desperately searching for Sueko. Maybe he just really wanted a distraction from his thoughts of Kagome… Whatever the reason, InuYasha was fine with it—there wasn't much else to do, after all.
But where on earth was this girl? If she was trying to hide, she was doing a damn good job of it! InuYasha didn't smell or hear anything in the forest that would suggest Sueko had been nearby.
'The others will find her. She's probably in the village or something.' But what if Sueko really was down the well and back in her own time? It was a ridiculous thought, but maybe Shippo had yelled at him so much the idea was drilled into his head.
InuYasha sighed. There was only one way to find out whether or not Sueko did go down the well, and that was by him going down there himself. He wouldn't need to tell the others—he'd be quick.
So, taking a last whiff of the air for the scent of Sueko, InuYasha headed grumpily towards the well, cursing Sueko for making him go through this wild goose chase.
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12. 2x(x-3)7(x-1)2 What is the property of x?
"Oh, who gives a damn?!" muttered Sueko, pushing her math homework aside and sighing. She kept getting lost in thought, and it was quite difficult to do her make-up homework that way. 'How about I just go find something to read?'
So she got up off her bed and headed over towards her bookshelf. None of the titles jumped out at her, though.
"Fine, I won't read," she said to herself irritably, sitting back down and crossing her arms. Trying to think of something to do, Sueko couldn't help pondering, 'I wonder what InuYasha and the others are doing right now?'
Sueko shook her head. Why did she care? They obviously didn't care about her, so why should she care about them?
'They're probably glad I'm gone, I'm such a burden to them,' she thought miserably, though she couldn't help thinking, 'What about Shippo? Shippo likes me! But now he's probably mad at me because I left even though I said I wouldn't.'
Tap-tap.
'Now what could that be?' "Oh, it's probably the wind," muttered Sueko, picking up a book from her nightstand and opening it up, though not really reading it.
The taping noise grew louder and more persistent.
'What the heck?' thought Sueko, snapping her head around to get a good look out the window, and then falling off her bed in surprise.
"InuYasha?!" she cried, jumping up and opening the window.
"Hello to you too," he said bitterly, glancing around the bedroom.
"What are you doing here?"
"Oh, you know, I was in the area…" muttered InuYasha.
"No, really!" cried Sueko.
"Well," sighed InuYasha, "Shippo wouldn't shut up, and everyone was all looking for you, and I was just thinking there might be the slightest chance you were here, so… you know…"
"They're all looking for me?" said Sueko, immediately feeling guilty.
"No, they're not worried, they just had nothing else to do, so they decided to go looking for you," said InuYasha, rolling his eyes. "Can I come in now?"
Sueko's response was picking up the book from her bed and hitting InuYasha on the head with it.
"OW! What was that for?!"
"Oh, I don't know," said Sueko, a small smile appearing on her face, but she moved out of the way so InuYasha could come in.
"Sueko?" cried her mom from downstairs. "Is everything all right?"
Sueko's face paled. "Um… Oh, everything's fine!" she called back in a false-cheerful voice. But then, getting an idea, her face really cheered up and she cried, "Hey, mom, can you come up here for a minute? I want to show you something!"
InuYasha moaned.
"Oh, shut up," said Sueko. "I have a book."
"Yeah, I can see that," said InuYasha, rubbing his head.
"Besides," stated Sueko, "I have to prove to my parents that I'm not going crazy."
"You're not going crazy," said InuYasha. "You already have been for a very long time."
"I have a book, you know!"
"Honey, is everything all right?" said Sueko's mom, opening the bedroom door. Spotting InuYasha, she went, "Oh… my…"
"Hey, mom!" said Sueko cheerfully, waving a hand brightly.
"Uh…" said her mom.
"Here's my new friend, InuYasha!" said Sueko, gesturing at InuYasha.
"Yeah, yeah," said InuYasha, rolling his eyes.
"Now shake hands!" Sueko ordered, glaring at InuYasha. "And, oh yeah, this is my mom."
"I see that…" muttered InuYasha, though shook her mothers' hand.
"So… what are you, anyways?" said the mom once they were done.
"Oh, just your basic average half demon," said InuYasha like this was nothing of importance and he just wanted to move on.
"D—demon?" stammered her mom.
"He's a half dog demon, mom," said Sueko. "I fell down the well and met him!"
"You already told me that…" said her mom wearily.
"Yes, well, just making sure you didn't think I needed a straight-jacket!" Sueko cried cheerfully.
"Yeah…" muttered InuYasha.
"Don't mind him, he's really quite nice once you get to know him," added Sueko.
"Feh."
"Is that a sword?" cried Sueko's mom, pointing at InuYasha's scabbard.
Sueko laughed nervously. "Let's go meet dad…" she muttered, grabbing InuYasha by the sleeve of his robe and dragging him to the next room over.
"Hey, daddy?" said Sueko timidly, knocking on the bedroom door.
"Hi, sweetie," said her dad, not looking away from the computer monitor he was working with.
"Here's my friend, InuYasha, that I told you about," continued Sueko.
"All right, dear," said her dad distractedly. He looked up suddenly and, seeing InuYasha, took his glasses off and hurriedly wiped them clean.
"You're seeing correctly, dad," said Sueko, sounding both amused and tired at the same time.
"Is he one of those punk kids from school?" asked her dad.
"No!"
"Does he go smoking pot and stuff?"
"NO!!!"
"But the ears…"
"Aren't they so cute and fuzzy?" cried Sueko, rubbing one of them lovingly.
"Don't touch the ears…" mumbled InuYasha.
"Is that a sword?"
'Why are they noticing THAT!?' "Yeah, well, he has to go fight demons and stuff. Hey, I'm kinda hungry, I'm gonna go hit the fridge…"
"Now wait just a minute!" said her father, standing up and walking up to InuYasha and Sueko. He looked as though he found InuYasha threatening but was trying really hard not to show it.
"Hi," said InuYasha, noticing the expression on his face.
"I don't—erm—think you should be hanging around with guys like—erm… that," started Sueko's dad.
"Oh, he's not dangerous or anything!" started Sueko. "Unless you're his enemy. Then I suppose you should watch out or he'll kill you."
"I only kill demons, okay?" said InuYasha, who seemed like he just wanted to leave the room.
"I know what I'm doing, dad!" said Sueko. "I'm not stupid or anything! Really!"
"All right…" said the dad. "I'm keeping my eye on you though…" he said, pointing a finger at InuYasha.
"Yeah, sure, whatever," said InuYasha, waving a hand.
"Okay, I'm hungry. Let's go!" said Sueko, pulling InuYasha out of the room.
"Your parents are weirder then Kagome's were," said InuYasha outside the room.
"Yeah, I kinda got that a long time ago," said Sueko. "But I was being serious when I said I was hungry."
InuYasha shrugged, as if he didn't care whether they ate or not.
"Do you like ramón, or is that just Shippo?" asked Sueko.
"It's okay," said InuYasha, shrugging again.
"Oh, whatever. I just moved, so I don't have much else. Not even chocolate…" said Sueko sadly.
"I take it you like chocolate," said InuYasha.
"Uh huh," Sueko said, opening the many cupboards in the kitchen to find something edible to eat.
"Hey, can you make this quick? I kinda wanted to get back, because I bet everyone's all afraid I died along with you by some demon," said InuYasha. Then he laughed at the thought. "Feh, like I'd get myself killed by some silly demon…" But then he stopped abruptly, as if saying that made him think of some experience he really didn't want to think about.
Sueko let it slide, too busy with her food-hunt to start asking what was bugging him. Eventually she found a package of ramón and, waiting for the water to boil, she said, "So."
"Huh?" said InuYasha, looking distracted.
"What's up with you?" asked Sueko, though she already sort of knew what it was. Well, she had a hunch…
"Nothing…" said InuYasha.
"Oh yeah, so this 'nothing' of yours really upsets you?" said Sueko sarcastically, not really in the mood.
"If I say it's nothing that means I don't want to talk about it, okay?" snapped InuYasha.
"But that still leaves me with none of my questions answered," said Sueko.
"So?"
"So, I just want to know, okay? How am I supposed to make you feel better if I don't know what's wrong?" she snapped.
"Why do you want to make me feel better?" asked InuYasha, startled by the idea.
"Because you're upset and it makes me upset, okay?" cried Sueko.
"Feh."
"Don't start that!" cried Sueko.
"Your water's boiling."
"So? I don't care about that—"
"If you don't do something about it, it's gonna start of overflow, which would probably cause a fire, and I don't think your parents would like me that much after that."
"I DON'T CARE!" bellowed Sueko.
"I'm not going to say what's wrong, so it's rather pointless for you to keep asking," said InuYasha, who didn't seem startled at all by Sueko's outburst, and had crossed his arms.
"Oh, fine then!" yelled Sueko, pouring the water into the cup of ramón and slamming the kettle back down.
"I'll wait for you upstairs…" mumbled InuYasha, walking out of the room.
"Be that way…" muttered Sueko angrily to herself and, despite the fact that it hadn't even started cooking yet, tried to eat the noodles. Which just frustrated her even more, them being hard as rock and all, so she just threw the whole thing in the garbage and marched back upstairs, ignoring her unsatisfied stomach.
"Um…" said InuYasha as Sueko opened her bedroom door and started throwing things into her book bag, not caring whether or not she'd need these things in the Feudal Era or not. She didn't even wait for InuYasha as she left the house and headed toward the well.
"What is up with her?" muttered InuYasha to himself as he hurried after her.
If Sueko could hear him, she obviously wasn't showing that she cared.