"Come on grandpa! Tell me another story about the demons!"
A group of giggling teenaged girls passed an elderly man, slightly bent from old age with a small boy talking a hundred miles a minute in tow, trailing behind in the old mans wake.
One of the four girls slowed, her attention sufficiently netted by the pair, before she eventually paused, letting her friends pass her. The small boy, around eight, grabbed his grandfathers hand as he begged with his big brown eyes for another story.
The old man rested his free hand on the boys head of thick dark hair and smiled down at him. "It's best if we forget about the demons. All of that is over. Now, you wouldn't want your mother getting mad at your old grandpa for telling you such stories, would you?"
The boys eyes grew huge and he shook his head furiously. "No grandpa!" He assured. The old man put his index finger to his lips. "Then lets keep it down, shall we?"
The girl watched as the little boy smiled as he put his own finger to his lips before they walked past her. The small scene triggered a reservoir of memories birthed at childhood. She got a far off, glazed look in her eyes as she began to remember a particular scene. Climbing into her grandpas big, soft bed along with her little brother. The two positioned themselves at the foot of the bed and spread themselves out over the comforter, laying on their bellies, chins resting casually in their hands so that they could be told ancient stories of demons that used to co-exist with humans.
Stories about demons were often favorite bedtime stories for children all around Japan, and this was especially true for the siblings now waiting patiently for their grandpa. Her grandfather owned a shrine that tourists frequently visited to learn about the time when humans and demons lived together. Until demons became much to dangerous and were... outlawed as the textbooks so nicely put it.
But no matter what the law said, it couldn't stop her grandfathers passion of telling legends about the abnormal beings. And she and her brother always found time to listen to the tales that were shrouded in so much mystery. When she was younger, anyways...
"Hey, Kagome?"
Kagome snapped out of her daydreaming, crashing all too suddenly to earth where she was standing in the middle of a lightly crowded side-walk, with cars and busses speeding passed her.
"What are you doing just stopping like that? We're gonna be late for school." A girl with shoulder length black hair said, tilting her head at her friend.
"Oh, sorry Yuka. I was just thinking." Kagome smiled sheepishly at her friends as she jogged a little to make up the distance between them.
"Thinking about what?" One of them inquired. This time is was a girl with curly dark brown hair.
"I heard a little boy and his grandfather talking just now, something about demon legends and it just made me remember something." Kagome explained as they resumed their walk to school.
The three other girls flinched at the word demon.
"Oh, yeah? That's kinda weird." Yuka said stiffly. Talking about demons made most people uncomfortable.
"I guess." Kagome responded with a shrug.
"Anyways, you guys want to get together tomorrow and get a pizza or something?" Eri asked, changing the subject swiftly.
"Oh! How about a movie?"
Kagome fell easily into the normal almost-the-weekend-talk. She loved her friends for their normality. Growing up she had always felt a little different since she lived at a shrine, so her friends acceptance was a welcomed relief that she enjoyed.
Listening to all the stories about demons taught one that different was bad. That's how it had always been. Maybe the reason that those stories were still whispered to eager ears was because everyone wanted a little taste of something that differed from their everyday life, something that tasted discreetly of mystery and unknown, but not so much that they would actually be pushed into the category 'different'. Rather like people admired the beauty of the night, but never cared much to venture out in it.
A boy with long black hair falling messily to his shoulders, framing a youthful face stood with his back resting against a brick building with his arms crossed across his chest as he glared at people walking down the opposite street. A group of four girls wearing matching school uniforms caught his attention.
His gray eyes hardened on them as they walked cheerfully down the sidewalk, giggling and chattering without a care in the world. The usual image you might conjure in your minds eye when you think about teenaged females.
He hated people like them. Always doing what was expected, never questioning their pathetic places in life. They were just like their uniforms. No different from anyone else. They were drowning and didn't have the slightest clue about the water suffocating them. Had no awareness of their appending doom.
If only they would open their eyes instead of hiding behind lies. It was their fault!
He sighed, disgusted. Suddenly one of the girls looked across the street and met his glare. She had long ebony hair that curled passed her shoulders and what he guessed was brown eyes. He was to far away to really tell.
She locked gazes while seemingly studying his lanky profile with such scrutiny that the hairs on the back of his neck prickled. Every cell in his body warning him. Then as suddenly as she had looked up she turned back to her friends and started laughing cheerfully with them.
She was pretty, he guessed. Very easy on the eyes but nothing special. Just another teenaged girl with out a care in the world, except for her hair. She must spend a stupid amount of time on her hair. He could see how healthy and shiny it was from here.
Gag. Was it to much to ask for one of those busses to swerve off the street and run the stupid little bimbos over?
He waited to see if it would happen, but the busses stayed strictly on the road. Maybe a bird would relieve itself on her as it flew past, then?
He waited to see if that would happen, giving the sky a once over, but no birds seemed to be out that sunny morning. Before he could think up other scenarios for the poor unsuspecting girl they rounded the corner and disappeared from his sight.
He felt strangely relieved.
Now unoccupied, he went right back to glaring sourly at random strangers. Without really thinking about it, his hand drifted to the necklace he wore around his neck. His long fingers found purchase on the smooth glassy texture of the beads. He clenched the necklace in his fists slowly and resisted the wild urge to break it, sending the numerous dark purple beads scattering across the street. But he couldn't. Not here.
Taking the necklace off meant revealing more of himself then he needed to know if he wanted to live.
He whispered curses under his breath obscene enough to get a few surprised stares from those walking near enough to hear.
"Hey mutt face."
He whirled around, mouth set in a tight lipped scowl, ready to tear the throat out of...
"Miroku?" He stated bluntly, blinking confusedly.
"Who did you expect?" A young man with long black hair fastened back in a low pony tail asked, a amused look taking over his features that always reminded the surprised boy of a coy cat, about to pull something naughty off.
"Well, Koga's the only one who ever calls me mutt face." He frowned giving Miroku a disapproving glare.
"I know. I hear it all the time, Inuyasha. It does have a bit of a ring to it, no?"
"No."
Inuyasha still wasn't used to being around a human as much as Miroku was around. It was actually extremely rare, he thought, for a human to know that demons even existed any more. Miroku was near, and in the loop for a very specific reason that was very crucial. And if he were to ever let any information slip...he would be killed. Simple as that. Maybe even he would have to be the one to do it.
"Alright, then. Shall we be on our way?"
"Yeah." Inuyasha pushed himself off the wall, and began walking. Miroku soon followed.
"So, Koga and I found all the shrines on the other side of town. What about here?" Miroku asked conversationally as they headed downtown, blending into the steadily thickening crowd of people.
"Just one." Inuyasha sighed. "I'm going to check it out tonight." he said over his shoulder.
"Good. Remember to get as much information as you can.."
"I know! I've done this a hundred times before." He spat.
Miroku watched Inuyasha walk, eyes focused unseeingly ahead, with something in his eyes akin to understanding.
"Perhaps things will be better for you when this is all said and done, my friend." Miroku inquired, sliding his hands into his jeans pockets.
Inuyasha scoffed. "Maybe for you." His eyes narrowed, his mind obviously somewhere other then with Miroku. "Things will never be easier for me." His voice was uncharacteristically unfeeling, Miroku noted.
He wondered briefly what was up with him today. He was usually much more animated then this, usually yelling and making scenes...today he was simply not himself.
"And you know that." He said firmly.
Miroku was quiet for a moment. "I don't really believe that, Inuyasha."
"Then your more of a damned idiot then I thought." Inuyasha responded immediately with a little fire that was more like himself.
"Maybe I am..."
Kagome stood at the top of a concrete mountain of stairs where she waved goodbye to her friends. She was glad to be home. The schoolgirl had stayed late, getting the material she would need for a upcoming test that was a good percentage of her grade. The sky was just beginning to be tinged with the darkness of the oncoming night and a pale ghost of a crescent moon could be seen hanging overhead.
She stepped into the warm familiarity of her home, good smells that promised dinner rushed her nose as she slipped her shoes off.
"Is that you, Kagome?" A kind maternal voice echoed throughout the house.
"Yeah, mom!" Kagome shouted back.
"Dinner will be ready soon, dear!"
"Mmkay." She mumbled, her thoughts, surprisingly somewhere alien. Throughout her whole day her mind kept coming restlessly back to the image of the boy she had seen that morning on her way to school.
Something about him captured her interest and refused to let go. Something seemed so... different about him. He had made her awfully aware of everything around her, and strangely enough she could almost feel the raw emotions emitting off of him. He almost scared her. But she could tell that she scared him too. Of course, he looked like just another teenager. Close to her age, maybe a bit older with dark hair and eyes and a long lean figure. Normal...except for his eyes. Even from a distance she could see the anger welled up in those dark orbs, and something like a secret was locked behind them...she could feel it.
Puzzled, she had nonchalantly questioned her friends about him. All she received was a unsatisfying "Oh? That boy? I guess he was pretty cute. Looked like trouble, though." From Yuka.
Eri had then spent her free time picking on Kagome about liking the trouble makers.
Perhaps it was just in her mind?
"All this studying is getting to my head." She joked to herself as she passed Soutas room.
"Well, talking to yourself isn't a good sign." Souta called from the depths of his room.
As she walked by she casually slammed the door shut.
Climbing the stairs to her room, she decided to just let it go. Chances were she would never see the boy again.
She dropped her bag onto her carpeted floor and jumped onto her bed, sprawling out eagle style on her back. All the extra studying was starting to ger to her. Maybe she would just rest for a minute...
Nearly an hour later, Mrs. Higurashi poked her head cautiously into Kagome's room, and spotted her daughter out like a light.
She smiled, her eyes laughing, as she tiptoed across the room so she could scribble ' dinners in the microwave. Didn't want to wake you. Hope you slept well, you looked so cute. (Here she added a little heart)
Love,
Mom.
On a small light purple notepad residing near the alarm clock
Nearing midnight, an obese calico ball of fur stalked Kagome's sleeping form before bouncing onto her stomach. She was jolted awake, and nearly all the air had been suppressed from her lungs.
"Oh my god, Buyo!" she moaned, pushing the cat off of her. "That could of killed me." She said, glaring at the cat as she stood slowly so she could stretch.
In the middle of a yawn she caught sight of her alarm clock..
"Oh my god!" She repeated threw her yawn. Buyo glanced up at her as if to say "What? I didn't do it this time."
"I can't believe I fell asleep for so long." She picked up the clock to examine it further, searching for, Perhaps, the true time. As she set it down she spotted the note her mother left.
As if on cue, her stomach growled. Deciding that she would get to work on her homework after she got herself something to eat, she padded down softly to the kitchen, buyo following at her heels.
Everyone, save for Buyo who had very keen kitty hearing, was oblivious to the dark figure that was now standing on the roof of the building, extremely close to Kagome's room, long hair dancing freely in a cool nights breeze as his hard hunter gaze surveying the grounds he had just invaded.
I'm back! Did you guys miss me? I missed writing SO much, I just could NOT find the time to do it. But now, I've rearrange my schedule so that I should be able to get one chapter out a week. I'm only sorry that this is what I've introduced you to after being gone for so long. . My apologies for the poor writing. I'm just getting back in the groove of things, and after being away from writing for so long, the only way to throw myself back in was to start a new story. Thats why I started a new one instead of working on one of my others. . Fragments will be my main priority. For now. .
Thanks for reading! I can't wait to hear from you guys, even if the comments might not be very nice;
As always, reviews are loves, appreciated and doted upon.
Much love,
SilversqueakyInuEars.