Alright. Here is Chapter One. I would have made it longer, but I wanted to get it out soon and I had reached a mental block. Here it is. I hope you like it.

Once Upon a Time

Chapter 1

By: Allore NightShadow

Kagome woke with the dawn covered in a sheen of sweat she was used to waking with. It was the fault of her dreams, her nightmares, that she woke like this each night without fail.

She dreamt of the past, the past before the past, the dream that she lived, but never would again.

His words sounded in her head again and again, that last conversation she had.

Don't be selfish, Kagome. You knew I never loved you. I love Kikyou.

I love Kikyou. You killed Kikyou.

But that was never Kikyou. That was the part of me that was like her. That wasn't Kikyou. Kikyou died.

You killed Kikyou. She should be here, not you.

Not you. I want you to go away and never come back.

And she never did go back.

Kagome shook her head to rid it of the thoughts that had filled her mind for the past three years. Three years she lived in the past, three years she struggled to live in the present, and three years she had to forget. Their faces were already fading from her memory. She couldn't even remember what any of them looked like. They were simply figures with no face. Even Inuyasha had faded from her memory. That might be a good thing, though.

Everything was so faded that she began to doubt whether it had ever happened. Maybe she really was sick during that entire time. Maybe her trips to the past had just been fever induced dreams that her mind refused to forget completely.

It was not so far beyond belief that everything was a dream. Like a dream, the longer she was awake, the harder it was to remember.

By the time she was up and ready to leave, Inuyasha and the Edo era had completely faded from her mind until they were nothing more than a dream she couldn't remember.

Kagome didn't want to remember anymore.

(o)

Kagome seemed a confident girl. She had long black hair, hair longer than most deemed fashionable in this age, that was tied back at the nape of her neck. She walked down the street and into a large building labeled Tokyo University.'

Upon entering, she approached a information desk.

"Excuse me, I'm looking for a mister…" She paused a moment, looking at a piece of paper in her hand. "A mister Taisho."

The person behind the desk, a fairly attractive woman of about thirty, sniffed as she heard the name.

"Oh him." She let a not of displeasure sound. "You can find him in the third auditorium, that's the end of the hall to the left. He's lecturing right now, but you can go in and listen to the end of the lecture, miss…"

It was a moment before Kagome realized that she was being asked a question. "Higurashi. My name is Kagome Higurashi."

The lady behind the information desk handed her a visitors pass and sent her on her way.

Kagome went down the hall that she remembered all to well. She had gone here three years before, during a time of depression. She remembered devoting herself so greatly to her work to forget about whatever it had been that was bothering her that she had managed to graduate in three years rather than the usual four.

Kagome pushed the doors open and entered the back of a great room.

"…the legends say, and the miko raised her hands and…" Somebody near the back of the room snickered softly, so softly that Kagome had to strain to hear the noise.

Mr. Taisho didn't seem to have that problem. His head whipped around to focus on the boy in the middle of the room.

"It there a problem, Mister Alexander?" He asked sharply and the boy, overconfident as the younger generation tend to be, answered.

"Yes, there is. This is supposed to be a history class, not story telling. I'm here to learn what happened, not what the legends say happened." The man lecturing glared at the boy and he immediately forgot the rest of what he was planning to say.

"The best way to examine history is to examine the legends and piece together the truth. Every legend has its roots in truth. Who are you to say what is true and what is not true?" He glared at the boy when his mouth opened as if to respond. Mr. Taisho closed his eyes and without opening them, ordered the class to leave, looking up the particular legend and writing down their interpretation on the truth that it was stemmed from.

As his eyed were closed Kagome examined his striking appearance. He had hair that was the lightest white she had ever seen and a complexion that was even paler. She would have thought him a foreigner had he not looked so Japanese. His features were so pale that it was possible he was albino. When he opened his eyes to look at her, he found them not red, as an albino's eyes would be, but the lightest brown she had ever seen, almost golden.

"Speak." He ordered.

Kagome walked a bit closer to him and had a sudden shock to her system. With each step she took towards him, the feeling got stronger and stronger. It was a feeling that she knew, but couldn't identify.

Catching herself and hiding the grimace as she felt the familiar throbbing of her head that happened whenever her bound powers got overactive.

"Sir…" She began, but was unable to get any more words past her lips.

She grasped at the first thing she could find to keep from falling to the ground. That thing, unfortunately, was the man in front of her.

The moment she touched him, the throbbing became blinding, not a pain, per se, but a pressure, an incredible pressure pushing down on her entire being.

"Remove your hand from my person." Kagome heard vaguely, but listening to the man was not important to her at the moment.

She grasped for something to stay in consciousness, but nothing came to her.

Kagome's world went black.

(o)

Allore NightShadow

Okay, another short chapter. I'm sorry, my chapters are usually two to three times longer, but I wasn't sure where to go from here and wanted to get the first chapter posted. Please tell me what you think so far.