Chapter One

January

Tokyo, Japan

She hummed while she pushed the pebbles around. She'd gone outside for a short time and had found several things to make play toys from. It had been a quick trip. To leave the hollow of the tree was to expose herself and she never knew when the red eyed monster would come back, but inside the tree, she was completely safe...

A twig snapped feet from where her door was and she looked up startled. "Get away from me!" She threw a pebble as she screeched.

"Ouch!" The voice was more like a growl, but it belonged to a child, she could tell, and it sounded male. "That hurt!"

"You can't come in here! You can't come in here! The spirit of the tree will protect me," she shouted and backed up farther against the rough bark. "Jii-chan said so, so you can just go away!" She threw another rock out of the hollowed door.

"Oww! Stop doing that!" The voice had more of a whiney tone this time. "That hurts! I don't even know you!"

"Get out of here! This is my forest!" She threw another rock but this time it hit nothing but the leaf covered ground. "Mine!"

There was a growl of agitation. "I didn't want to be here anyway! What'd you bring me here for if you're just gonna beat me?"

At that the girl paused, dropping her next missile. "Brought you here?"

Kagome woke with a start and sat up in bed, looking at the clock...That was the forth time this week she'd had the same dream and it was beginning to frighten her. Why do I need sleep anyway? I had three years of it... she slid from the covers and stretched, preparing to meet the day, her first day of university. Yawning from another night of restless sleep, she looked out her bedroom window and across her grandfather's shrine. Look out world...here I come!

"Mama! Have you seen my blue sweater?" Kagome called down from the stairs of her families shrine. "The fuzzy one?" She frantically searched for the aforementioned sweater, tossing countless others to her bed. She'd pick those up later, after she got back from class. Finding a thin bathrobe, she threw it around herself to cover the exposed upper half of her body while she searched outside of her room.

"I washed it yesterday!" Her mother called back up. "It's in the bathroom! If you don't hurry up you're going to be late!"

Kagome's musical laughter drifted down to her from the upstairs hallway. "No need to worry about that Mama! That would break my promise!"

Higarashi Keiko laughed and shook her head, going back into kitchen to rush the poor fourteen year old boy who had not made such a promise.

"She's way to happy to be up this early," the aforesaid fourteen year old grumbled into his egg.

Keiko only smiled. "Well, if you had spent three years lying in a bed, you'd be ready to get up and stretch your legs too." She turned her back at him and sighed trying not to go back to the depressing memories of having lost her husband to a thief only to find out that she had lost her daughter too, though not to death...for Keiko it had been much worse than if the burglar had killed them both.

Upstairs Kagome grabbed the fuzzy blue sweater off of the hanger that had hung from the shower rod and pulled it over her head, tugging her long black hair from the neck of the shirt and shook it out until it fell back into place. Racing as not to be late, she grabbed her shoes, sliding them on as she ran and her purse from the hall table. "I'm gone Mama! I'll probably stick around a little after my last class just to get acquainted with the campus so don't expect me home before dark…later if I can find someone to hang out with," she told the elder woman and practically bolted out the door for the car that would carry her to the campus of Tokyo University.

Keiko chuckled and pulled the plate out from under her son's nose as further inspiration for him to get going. At twenty her daughter had more energy than she could possibly know what to do with. But then she does have three years of a missed life to make up for…

She'd made it to class just before her professor showed up and now Kagome sat at a desk in the back of the room fiddling with the small pearl necklace that her father had given her when she four…only weeks before he died…

Stop it! She scolded herself, trying to listen to the professor as he droned on about the course outline for that semester. Focus, Kagome…life…life is what is important now. There is so much to do…so much to make up for…

"And now, as a reward for your rapt attention during that little lecture…and because I had a little to much fun this weekend, you're free to go."

Books were grabbed and feet shuffled as students hurriedly got up and went for the door, muttering a thanks to Myouga-sensei for letting them out so soon.

Kagome bent to pick up her backpack just in time as a spiral notebook went flying over her head.

"Ugh! Miroku-kun! I'm gonna kick your ass if you don't keep your hands off of mine!" A female voice screeched out and was followed by the stinging sound of skin contacting skin as her hand flashed across his cheek.

"Alas, dear Sango," a boy with short black hair said with a shake of his head, "such a task is impossible for me when confronted with such a lovely one as yours…"

The girl, tall and slim with long black hair currently held in a high ponytail, turned beat red and clenched her fist in an attempt to keep from reddening his other cheek. Kagome giggled and picked the forgotten spiraled notebook from the floor and held it out to her. "I think this belongs to one of you?"

The girl's face reddened even more as she took the notebook. "Hai, arigatou…Gomen ne…I didn't mean to throw it at you…He startled me…" She stuttered the apology and then gave the dark haired boy an icy glare while he simply flashed Kagome a charming smile.

"It's alright. You missed, so I'll forgive you." Kagome giggled again. "I just hope I don't have to duck at the end of class every day to keep from being clobbered."

Miroku wiggled his eyebrows. "I'll try to make sure she's not armed the next time."

"There shouldn't be a next time!"

"I'm Higarashi Kagome, by the way." She bowed to both of them, distracting them from the argument for the moment. "Is this your first semester or have you been here?"

Sango shouldered her backpack and bowed to Kagome slightly. "It's nice to meet you, Kagome. I'm Sango Miyazaki and that's Miroku Takeuchi. Keep an eye on him, though, his hands tend to wander to places they are not wanted." She sent another glare at the boy and then started waking out of the classroom with Kagome and Miroku in pursuit. "I started here last semester. That's when I had the unfortunate luck of meeting Miroku-kun."

"It's also my second semester. However, I think that our meeting was the pleasure of a lifetime, Sango-chan," he said trying to charm her back into a good mood.

Sango rolled her eyes. "I'm stuck with him for another three years…maybe longer than that. We're both med students."

Kagome's dark blue eyes lit up. "Really? So am I…well, sort of. I'm going into child psychology." She smiled sweetly. "Maybe we'll have more classes together."

"Ah…two beautiful women to grace my presence…it's a dream come true…Kagome would you…ump!" He groaned as Sango's elbow connected with his ribcage before he could finish his statement.

"Pay no attention to him, Kagome. When's your next class? There's a break room in this building where we can grab a cup of coffee if you have time…"

A/N: Tell me if it's any good or if it's really confusing. I promise the next chapters will be more in depth and I'll back post some connecting history…Please review and let me know if it's worth continuing! Thanks!

Glossary

Sensei - an attachment for those who are teachers of any sort.

Hai - Yes

Arigatou - Thank you

Gomen ne - Sorry