Author's Note: Yay, a newand longerchapter! Thanks so much to everyone who's willing to put up with my soon-to-be slow updating. You guys are so awesome! And we're so close to 200 reviews! Absolutely amazing! You guys are the best.

However, I have to do a shoutout for someone in particular. Akiraton, who apparently didn't have a very happy first day back at school. I just want to say that it's always important to look to the future with an optimistic eye, and not focus too much on the past. If you keep trying to make things like they used to be then you're not going to get anywhere, nor learn any new things. So...I don't know. Not to sound corny or anything but try to meet new people, learn new things...be happy I guess. I probably have no idea what I'm talking about and could very well have misinterpreted the whole situation, but neh.

Anyways. That's it. :P Enjoy the chapter!

Chapter 9: Fateful News

When Inuyasha got the call from Sango telling him to get to school on Monday extra-early, he thought that she was just reminding him that they needed to go over their final plans for their revenge on Kikyou before he would use the spare time to discuss it with Arik. And when he entered the schoolyard to find Sango and Kagome smiling their heads off and Miroku sitting next to them looking confused, he just thought that the two girls were happy that Kikyou was going to finally get payback and Miroku was…well, just being Miroku.

He sat down next to Kagome and groaned as she happily poked his ears. "Small things amuse small minds," he said as she poked his ears again, giggling in delight as they twitched.

"I'm sorry, it's just so funny," she said, still beaming.

"You've got to help me, Inuyasha," Miroku pleaded. Inuyasha raised an eyebrow at him. "They're not telling me why they're so happy. They said they'd have to wait until you got here. But they're still not saying!" He crossed his arms over his chest and scowled at the ground. Sango laughed and mockingly patted his back.

"Awww, the poor wittle Miwoku wants to know why his wittle fwiends are grinning," she said, making a puppy face. One look at Sango sent Miroku falling to the ground in laughter.

"You're not good with pouty faces," he managed to say in between bouts of laughter. Sango kicked him absently.

"Why does he want to know why you're happy?" Inuyasha asked. "It's obvious, isn't it? Revenge on Kikyou?"

Kagome smiled and shook her head. "Haha, now Inuyasha's confused too," she giggled. "I would tell you right away but it's funny when you feel annoyed."

"What do you mean, it's funny when I feel annoyed?" Inuyasha growled. This only sent Kagome and Sango into more fits of hyper laughter.

"You, like, radiate anger," Kagome explained, "but it's obvious that you're not really angry. It's just for show."

Inuyasha's frustration deflated as Kagome saw through him like a sheet of glass. "That's not fair! You're supposed to be blind. How come you can see so much?"

"She'll be seeing a heck of a lot more, soon," Sango said enigmatically. Inuyasha and Miroku both groaned and threw their hands up in the air in frustration. Sango and Kagome continued to laugh.

"Should we -make- them tell us?" Inuyasha suggested. Miroku nodded evilly. "Okay. I'll get Kagome, you get Sango?"

"That's not fair," Miroku protested. "You get the blind one and I get the violent one."

Inuyasha laughed. "Would you rather trade?" Miroku paused, then shook his head 'no'. "Then don't complain," Inuyasha stated. "Okay; Sango and Kagome, this is your last warning!" he said, threateningly. "Tell us what's so great or else we'll -make- you say it!"

"Bring it on!" Sango said defiantly, standing up and helping Kagome up, holding on to the other girl's hand. "Kagome, we can beat them!"

"Right!" Inuyasha said. "Miroku, on three! One…two…three!"

The two boys ran at Kagome and Sango, both of them aiming at their previously selected targets. Sango ran back and pulled Kagome with her, the both of them leading the boys on a fast run around the school grounds. However, Inuyasha and Miroku were faster, so they caught up to the girls relatively soon. At the last minute Sango and Kagome stopped in their tracks; Miroku and Inuyasha, who hadn't seen that coming, collided into them and they ended up on a large human pile on the ground. Kagome could feel a heavy weight sprawled across her stomach and she poked at it.

"Okay, who's where?" she asked. Sango laughed.

"Well, I'm sitting on Miroku," Sango said. "He's trying to push me off. You're such a weakling," she added, in Miroku's direction. He groaned in reply.

"Yeah, and you're heavy," he said. "What, have you been eating too many cookies lately?"

Kagome heard the oh-so-familiar sound of Sango's hand coming into fast contact with the side of Miroku's face and smiled.

"Okay, that leaves Inuyasha," she said. She suddenly felt the blood rush to her face as she realized what the heavy weight on top of her must be. Inuyasha rolled over and sat down on the grass, but kept his legs across Kagome's stomach, holding her on the ground. "Inuyasha, get off me," Kagome said, smiling.

"I'm not going to let you get up until you tell me what you and Sango are all happy-smiles about," he said. Kagome tried to squirm out of her position but Inuyasha just pushed down on her. She had no chance, and sighed.

"Fine, fine," she said. "Well, the truth is, me and Sango heard a rumour that Kikyou's leaving the school."

Inuyasha gasped in shock; this answer surprised him so much that he completely forgot about holding Kagome down and the girl got out of his grip easily. Then he realized that Kikyou had paid a full year's tution; Kagome had lied.

"That's so evil!" he shouted, looking around for her. In his shock he hadn't been paying attention to where she had gone. "Kagome?" he asked; he could only see Sango and Miroku. Sango had finally got up and was entertaining herself by braiding an exasperated Miroku's hair.

All of the sudden he felt something poke his ears and he twisted his upper body around, finding himself face-to-face with Kagome, who was beaming again.

"You liar!" Inuyasha snarled. Kagome laughed and poked his ears again. "Come on, tell the truth!"

"Okay, okay, fine!" she said. "But you're not going to believe me," she added.

"Try me," Inuyasha said. "But if you lie again…"

Kagome grinned maliciously. "I'm going to get my sight back."

"Okay, that's obviously a lie," Miroku said. "We could -both- team up on her," he mused. "I could go and fill up a bucket of water to pour over her head while you held her down," he suggested.

"Okay," Inuyasha said. Kagome tried to jump out of the way but Inuyasha grabbed her before she could get herself fully clear, and pulled her in front of him, wrapping his arms around her waist so she couldn't move. "Go get the bucket."

Miroku stood and started to walk towards school. "I'm not lying!" Kagome exclaimed. "Me and Sango went to my doctor's appointment and my eyes are almost healed!"

Miroku kept walking. Inuyasha still didn't let go of her.

"She's telling the truth," Sango said. "Miroku, come back!"

Miroku turned around and gave Sango a funny look. "She's actually going to see again?" he asked. "By the way, Inuyasha told me how…you know…it happened. Sorry, kid. But aren't telescope incidents usually permanent?"

Inuyasha still hadn't let go of Kagome, more out of shock than anything else. She had stopped trying to get out of his grip, instead using him as something of a human pillow, leaning against his arms, closing her eyes, and grinning. "Yeah, they usually are," she answered. "I guess my story's going to have a happy ending."

"Is it just going to happen all at once?" Inuyasha asked. "Like, one second you're completely blind and the next you're seeing everything perfectly?"

"Hardly," Sango answered for Kagome, who looked pretty comfortable where she was. "Apparently she's going to have these weird light flashes for a while, and apparently they could hurt. But after a while they'll be more and more frequent until they're constant, and tah-dah! Sight!"

Kagome nodded her agreement. Inuyasha looked down at the girl he was holding in his arms, absently playing with her hair. "It'll hurt?" he asked.

"Yeah," Kagome said. "But you can't expect your eyes, accustomed to total darkness, -not- to hurt after being exposed to sunlight," she said. "It's like when you're sleeping and then someone wakes you up by turning the light on. Painful."

"That sucks," Miroku said.

"But you're going to get your sight back!" Inuyasha exclaimed. "That's unbelievable! I mean…just…wow!" Now all four of them were beaming.

"I can't wait until I can see what you guys look like," Kagome said, raising her hand to Inuyasha's head and trying to find his dog ears. He pressed them flat against his head, making it more difficult for her, but she found them anyways and began to scratch them. A low rumble of happiness sounded in Inuyasha's chest and Kagome stopped, somewhat surprised. Inuyasha poked the girl's ears as if in revenge. She swatted at his hand, hitting it perfectly. Her aim was getting a lot better.

"You already know a little bit about what we look like, right?" Inuyasha asked, tilting his head against his shoulder.

"Not really," Kagome answered. The three of them stared at her. "Well, I know that Inuyasha's got long hair and claws, and apparently his hair's white and he's got fangs. But I wouldn't know that unless someone specifically told me. I know everything that's important for me to be able to recognize you; the sound of your voice and your footsteps, and that's pretty much it. After all, looks are pretty much only for recognition. I have no problem knowing who's who."

"We should celebrate this somehow," Miroku said. "Like maybe a party or something."

"That's a good idea," Sango agreed. "But when? After the first few flashes? When her sight's completely back? Sometime in between?"

"We can have more than one party," Inuyasha said, smiling. "How about…the first one this weekend? That way we can celebrate the first few flashes, hopefully, as well as our revenge on Kikyou."

"At my place?" Sango offered.

"Sounds great," Kagome said, beaming.

"Oh, here comes Arik," Miroku observed, looking over at the parking lot. The boy was climbing over the fence, dropping himself into the school grounds. He saw the four of them and waved; Inuyasha must have already phoned him or something, otherwise he just would have ignored them. Inuyasha waved back and he began to approach them.

"So let's hear this plan of yours," he said when he got within speaking range, only acknowledging the existence of Inuyasha.

"Mass ignorance," Inuyasha said simply. "You need to find a way to talk to everybody in the school except for Kikyou. For one full day, we need -all- of them to pretend like Kikyou doesn't exist."

Arik fell silent, thinking about this. "Well, it'll certainly mess with her head," he agreed. "But even if we can get the message around the whole school, how are we going to get them all to listen?"

"Most people will follow your word like law," Inuyasha said. "The only people you might have some trouble with is Kikyou's gang. Now, if you told them that Kikyou would leave the school if this was successful…you know, out of shame for being treated like an outcast..."

"They might all grab at the chance to take her place," Arik finished. "Yes, that's brilliant, for an idiot like you."

Inuyasha smiled. "Now, don't flatter me," he said mockingly. "Just get it done and don't mention our names."

"I wouldn't think of it; then people would know I went to -you- for ideas," Arik said. "Forget this ever happened."

"Go eat acid," Inuyasha retorted. Arik left, leaving the four of them sitting together. Kagome looked as if she had fallen asleep against Inuyasha. Sango and Miroku were chatting about something. Inuyasha moved his arm, disturbing Kagome. "What, you tired or something?" he asked. She grinned.

"Yeah."

"Why?"

"Dunno."

She stretched, yawning. "Miroku, I dare you to climb the tree," she said, grinning. Miroku blinked and looked at her.

"Aren't you supposed to offer me the choice of either truth or dare?" he asked. "Isn't that how the game works?"

"Fine," Kagome said. "Truth or dare?"

"Truth."

Kagome sighed. "Why don't you want to climb the tree?"

Miroku's face flushed and Sango began to laugh. He muttered something under his breath.

"What's that? We can't hear you," Inuyasha said, grinning. Miroku glared at him.

"I don't like heights," Miroku admitted. "Happy?"

"Very," Kagome grinned. "Your turn."

"Fine. Inuyasha, truth or dare?"

"Dare," he said, without hesitation. Miroku paused, thinking over his options.

"I dare you to…" he began. "Ummm…" All of the sudden, a flash of evilness flared in his eyes. "Kiss Kagome."

"What!" Kagome and Inuyasha both exclaimed, blushing. Sango laughed at their perfect synchronization.

"You've got to be kidding me," Inuyasha growled. Miroku shrugged.

"You chose Dare," he said, grinning. Inuyasha sent him a death-glare, but Miroku ignored it, unfazed. Inuyasha looked at Kagome.

"Give me your hand," he said. Kagome rolled her eyes and held up her hand. Inuyasha took it in his own, made a disgusted face - but his blush betrayed him - and gave the skin of her hand the smallest peck possible. Both his and Kagome's blushes deepened and Sango and Miroku nearly fell over in their laughter. Inuyasha roughly pushed Kagome's hand, muttering a vivid swear word under his breath.

Sango looked towards the entrance of the school, noticing that the flow of people had grown significantly. "We should probably be getting inside," she said, still beaming. "See you guys at lunch."

"Right," Inuyasha said, grabbing Kagome's hand again, helping her up, still blushing. He stole a brief glance in her direction and saw that she was smiling.

The morning's classes went by uneventfully. Kagome looked as if she were going to fall asleep in each of them. In science class, when their science teacher had stressed the importance of only using the powerful telescopes at nighttime, Kagome had done nothing but smile wryly. Inuyasha was beginning to worry about her.

"Why are you so tired?" he asked her, when he had taken her up to her locker.

"Didn't sleep very well," she said. "As in, I didn't sleep very much at all. I kept thinking about being able to see again. Quite frankly, it frightened me a little bit."

"How so?" Inuyasha asked, confused.

"Well, the mental images that I've formed of the world are all based off of my memories," she explained, while opening her locker. Inuyasha watched her put in the code for her lock, remembering her combination: 15-42-22. He stored the numbers away in his memory, for future reference. "I kept thinking about how it was possible that over time my memories had distorted my perception of the world, and what would happen if I got a glimpse of a world that was completely different from the one I had been surrounding myself in for such a long time." She sighed. "I'm not making much sense, am I?"

"No, it's okay," Inuyasha said. "It's like, if over time your memories had been skewed so that you thought the sky was green and grass was blue, and then when you finally got to see the world it would be like everything was inverted and you'd be all confused. It makes sense to be creeped out by that."

Kagome beamed. "I'm glad you understand," she said. "Come on; they should be waiting for us by now."

"Wait for just a minute while I go get my lunch," Inuyasha said, running down to his locker, entering in his own code, grabbing his brown-bag lunch (courtesy of his foster mother) and running back up the stairs. As always, Kagome was standing there waiting for him. She didn't hear him coming, evidently; she was humming a song under her breath, the same cheery melody that Inuyasha had heard her sing a long time ago, when she was sitting under the tree. Inuyasha stopped moving, not alerting Kagome to his presence just so that he could hear her sing. She really did have a pretty voice.

After a minute or so Kagome stopped singing, looking around. "Inuyasha?" she asked the empty air. Inuyasha mentally kicked himself; she would be getting worried if he took that long to get back.

"Yeah, I'm here," he said roughly. Kagome smiled.

"Well, why didn't you say something?" she asked.

"Just listening," Inuyasha said. "You have a nice singing voice."

Kagome blushed. "Thanks," she managed to say. "You were listening to all of that?"

"Yeah," Inuyasha said. "But don't worry, I liked it." He held onto her hand again and led her outside, towards Sango and Miroku who were playing rock-paper-scissors underneath the tree. When they saw Inuyasha and Kagome approaching, they stopped and waved.

When they reached the tree, Kagome leaned her back against its thick trunk, thankful for the support. She had gotten virtually no sleep the night before, thinking about the possibility of her seeing again. She had tried to form a mental picture of her friends but couldn't; she had no idea what their faces looked like.

She heard Inuyasha chatting with Sango and Miroku as she leaned her head back against the tree. It would be so nice just to fall asleep here, drifting away into nothingness; but she kept her eyes open so she wouldn't actuallyfloat into unconsciousness. She could eat later, but she still had school…

Her thoughts were interrupted by a blinding flash of light cutting across her eyes. There were no colours, figures, or anything; just white light that completely dispelled the customary darkness. With it came atorrent of pain, more than Kagome had felt in a long time. She pressed her hands against her eyes and as she fell forwards the pain blocked out all sounds around her; her world was the sunspots and the fire that was running through her eyes.

From Inuyasha's, Sango's and Miroku's perspectives, Kagome had just randomly screamed, pressed her hands to her face and fell forwards so that her head was in her lap. Their talk immediately stopped as they stared at her; Inuyasha was the only one with the place of mind to stand, walk next to her, sit down again and wrap his arm around her shoulder.

Kagome felt the heavy weight against her and she leaned into the warmth, the pain finally going away. She realized that there were tears running down her face. Someone was saying her name.

"Kagome?" Inuyasha said softly, holding her tighter as the girl leaned into him. "Kagome, are you alright? What happened?"

She felt someone holding her, hugging her, offering her comfort; she couldn't move, couldn't speak. There had been light! She had...seen something! Finally something, -anything-had penetrated the darkness that she had been living in for so long...

"Kagome? Can you talk at all?" Sango asked, kneeling in front of her friend.

"…yeah," Kagome answered weakly. "I saw something!" she said, gaining energy now that she had said something. "I saw...just...white light...but it wasn't dark anymore! And it was...just...amazing!" She pressed herself against whatever was hugging her, and then realized it was Inuyasha; her face flushed, but she didn't move. Neither did he.

"Are you alright?" he asked. She nodded and felt him relax against her. "You scared me," he said softly. She smiled.

"You scared -all- of us," Miroku said. "I gather that it was painful?"

Kagome nodded again.

"Well, that sucks," Inuyasha said.

"It'll hurt less next time," Kagome said confidently.

"Whatever you say," Sango said, relief in her voice. "Just don't scare us like that again."

"Else we'll have to scare -you-," Inuyasha teased, messing up Kagome's hair. The girl laughed.

"As Sango would say, bring it on!" she declared, opening her lunch bag.

Author's Note: And so it begins! When'll the next flash be? Will Inuyasha kiss her again? What'll they do at the party? All this and more will be answered as I continue writing!

...sorry, I just had to get that out of my system. :P I'll update as soon as I can! Thanks for all the reviews, and keep 'em coming! I'm sure we can pass 200 with this chapter. .