Title: Shards of a Memory

Author: NoirRouge

Summary: Kagome is a 15 year old girl with a strange series of dreams about… broken jewels, monks and demons… OH MY! Not only that, Kagome's disease from her child hood has returned. She strives to finish the dream story before her illness takes her life. AU

Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha, I never have, and I never WILL! Omg

On with the show

Chapter three: feeling faint

The next night Kagome was in the dream woods again. A strange series of events had occurred and Kagome found herself somewhat overwhelmed. She had been chased by a demon, freed the boy with no face from the tree, then he tried to kill her, a jewel fell out of her BODY, and what she assumed had been a day later, it shattered. Everything had gone dark except for the jewel, which emitted and eerie glow as it shattered, its shards flying in all directions. The sight would have been amazing if Kagome hadn't felt the overwhelming sense that she had done something terribly wrong.

Kagome's world had then shifted to an old hut, were she sat with an equally old woman. The Old woman looked extremely familiar, but at the moment Kagome couldn't recall from where she had seen her.

'Kaede…'

Kagome could not hear what the woman had been telling her, but she could tell it was extremely important. The boy without a face and she then began to travel, and it appeared to Kagome that they were collecting the shards. One by one, and very slowly, the shards came together.

Things happened in a speedy blur. She saw battles with demons, and humans alike. The group having been originally her and the faceless boy had grown into a group of 5. She watched as a fox demon, a monk, and a demon slayer joined there unconventional group.

Just as quickly as the vision had happened, it stopped. Kagome's eyes opened to reveal that she had been dreaming once again. She slowly rubbed the sleep from her eyes and sat up in bed. The feeling of sadness washed over again just as it had last time; and possibly even stronger this time as well.

After a few moments of contemplating the dream she looked down at her alarm clock.

7:50

Oh no! She slept in a whole hour!

Kagome rushed around her room to gather her things and shouted obscene things that could be heard by the other family members downstairs. No one paid it much attention though. That was just how Kagome was.

After much noise and hustle on Kagome's part, she had made it to school on time, and with time to spare. But unfortunately for Kagome, she hadn't finished her homework. She rushed over to her desk and got to work. She read through the text at a hurried pace, and scribbled her answers down on the answer sheet.

Hojo noticed Kagome's sad attempt at her homework from across the room at his desk. He smirked and shook his head knowingly. It must run in the family; this Kagome was exactly the same as the other. Even with study habits. He walked over to her desk and tapped her shoulder to get her attention.

"Having some trouble Kagome?" he asked already knowing the answer.

"Um, no Hojo sensei. I just—had some trouble sleeping last night and it interfered with my school work." Her excuse was lame, but not a complete lie; her dreams did in fact trouble her.

Hojo had a slightly worried expression on his face. Kagome's condition must have been acting up, she did look rather tired. But then again teenagers had habits of staying up late. "Kagome I need you to be honest with me," Hojo said in an almost whisper. "Have you been having trouble with your condition, because if you have I can excuse you from your assignments for today and let you rest?"

"No, no, no! It's nothing like that!" Kagome reassured. "I'm perfectly healthy, I couldn't be better. I'm just a little tired from studying so much, yeah that's it. You know new school and all." Kagome didn't think she sounded very convincing, but Hojo must have bought it because he nodded slowly and backed off a bit.

"Well if you have any problems just let me know so we can take care of it right away, all right?"

Kagome nodded, and started back on her homework. She needed to get at least half more done before the bell rang. Which it did only moments later. The class all retreated to their designated spaces and did their morning ritual before class was officially begun.

Oh well, maybe if Kagome pretended to be ill she could get extra credit.

Break came a little too late for Kagome's taste, but it did come. She had been forced to turn in the revolting piece of work she called her homework. After that they had been quizzed over last nights reading. And after many other strenuous study activities Kagome was ready for a break.

Hojo had asked her to stay for break so that he could help her with her homework, but Kagome made the excuse that she had to use the restroom to escape her studious fate. As she left the room she felt slightly guilty for running out on her teacher like that, so even if she didn't really need to she went to the restroom and spent a few minutes there before wandering the school grounds.

Kagome had actually hoped to find the girl she had seen from the day before. She had gone to the gym and track field first, but there was no sign of her. Kagome then switched to wandering aimlessly about the school. She had been around the first and second floor as well as the track field and roof. She wouldn't have time to eat her lunch now but that didn't bother her. Kagome decided to change her course a bit and started a path around the outside of the school building. Having never been around the whole building yet, even though she couldn't find the girl, she was actually getting something out of her drifting about.

It was about 5 minutes before the bell would ring, and Kagome had given up. She headed for the school entrance and decided that she could look again tomorrow. As she neared the front of the school however Kagome was very surprised to see the girl she had been looking for sitting on a bench. She looked as though she was studying, her head bowed forward and her shoulders slumped. Kagome made a b-line straight for her at a fast tempo.

Suddenly the girl stood up and made to leave for class, but Kagome was determined to catch up to her before she could disappear. Just as she prepared to call out for her to wait up Kagome felt something very strange. Her head began to swim and her vision blurred. Kagome stopped in her tracks and grabbed her suddenly throbbing head. She had never felt like this before. Kagome could no longer feel her legs beneath her and felt as though she was about to fall over. Kagome looked up and must have made a noise that she couldn't hear, because the girl suddenly turned around and with a loud shout started to run at Kagome. That was the last thing she could remember before her world turned black and she felt the hard impact of the ground.

Kagome felt warm and safe. The girl from her dream was sitting next to her under a large tree. They were talking, but Kagome couldn't hear the words. That wasn't important anyway, what was important was how calm she felt; how this felt so right. She didn't want to ever move from under that tree, with her dream friend. But suddenly she was being shaken from her comforting vision.

Kagome blinked her eyes a few times. The girl that was shaking her looked like the one she had just envisioned. Kagome was very confused, the girl was talking to her, but she didn't comprehend a single bit of it. That was until the girl began to shake her again.

"Please stop that…" Kagome said very weakly.

"Omigosh! I'm so sorry!" the girl said very quickly as she helped Kagome sit up. "You just fainted, and I wasn't sure what to do. I would have carried you but I didn't want to move you unless I knew you were ok. I was so shocked you just sort of fell over! I mean you looked fine one second then the next you look like you were dieing!" The girl rambled, resting her hands on Kagome's shoulders helping to hold her up.

"I need to get back to class now, thank you." Kagome said, she felt somewhat detached, like she was still in a dream.

"The bell rang about 5 minutes ago. You really should go to the nurse's office, maybe even to the hospital." The girl insisted.

Kagome allowed the stranger to help her stand and hold her up right. "I don't know, I feel fine…"

"You are going to the nurse. You don't look fine at all."

Kagome couldn't refuse as she was steered toward the nurse's office. She felt so tired and she just wanted to go back to sleep. That was it, she wasn't getting enough sleep. It was nothing serious.

Once they reached their destination the nurse was so flushed and worried looking; she probably didn't get this sort of thing very often. It took much convincing on both Kagome's and the nurse's part to get the girl to leave and return to class. Kagome insisted she was fine and that nothing had happened and the nurse stated that this office was only for the sick or injured. She bustled the girl off and wrote her a hall pass and an excuse for her absence so far.

Didn't

"Sango, your late enough as it is! Stop worrying, I've got everything under control."

The nurse turned towards Kagome and looked very perplexed and unsure. "And what is your name sweet heart?" she asked, taking out a note pad to write the information down on.

"Kagome Higurashi. I'm fine, I can go back to class now." She was starting to worry that Hojo might think she was skipping his class.

"I'm sorry but I can't let you do that right now." The woman looked very shock when she pulled up a file on Kagome in the computer. No doubt that the woman must have just read about her condition. She turned to face Kagome with a determined look. "Ok, I need you to tell me everything that happened all right. Did you have an attack?"

"No, I don't think so. I feel fine; I was just walking outside when I fainted." Kagome reassured her, really wanting to return to class.

"You look rather tired. You were walking around outside? Did you eat lunch today?"

"Um, no. I was looking for somebody. It just slipped my mind. I think my teacher might be worried about me so I better…"

"Oh that's right!" the nurse started to walk towards her office. "Who is your teacher dear?" she called from the other room."

"Hojo sensei." She called back. At that moment a young man entered the room. He wore the same uniform as Kagome, but he carried himself with such confidence that it was hard to believe he was in high school.

"Ms. Nurse," he called "You see I think my heart is broken, and I need you to patch it back up for me." The line was sleazy and corny as hell, but it still made the nurse blush.

"Miroku you look just fine!" she chastised him "But it's a good thing you showed up. I need you to take a note to this young ladies teacher. She will be in here for a while and I don't want him to worry."

The boy named Miroku suddenly noticed that Kagome was also in the room. He looked over at her and a sleazy smile began to form across his face. He looked her over slowly while the nurse wrote out her note. Kagome really didn't like how this guy was staring at her, she felt as though she was being mentally stripped.

"You're new here. Are you a first year?" Kagome nodded. "Wow, finally one looker out of that bunch. I love fresh meat." Miroku leered.

"Miroku leave her alone. Unlike you she has a reason to be here. Now take this note and get out of my office." The nurse turned back to Kagome after Miroku had left. "As for you, I'm going to get you something to eat. I think you were most likely just in need of some food. I will call your parents to inform them of your faint however, it is required that I do so. And I want you to stay in here and rest for an hour before I send you back to your class room."

Kagome sighed. There was no escaping it.

She ate everything the nurse gave her; which wasn't actually all that much. And she took a small nap until the lady woke her and excused her back to class. She did feel somewhat better and was relieved to be freed from the grasp of the dreaded nurse.

The day passed very slowly for Kagome. After returning to class Hojo did nothing but ask repeatedly if she was all right, or if she wanted to be excused for the day. Kagome could have asked to be excused from the assignments but she would have felt guilty and have fallen behind.

After school Kagome made her commute over to Kaede's office and waited patiently for her doctor to arrive. Only moments later Kagome was called into the office and she sat down for the second day in a row on the couch.

At first it was a lot like it had been the day before. Kaede asked her simple answers which Kagome would reply to the best of her ability. But then Kaede had asked her if anything had happened today at school. She knew. The nurse must have had Kaede's contact information and have called her about the incident.

Kagome decided since Kaede most likely already knew she would tell her what had happened. "I just fainted during lunch, it was nothing serious. I just hadn't eaten enough today. But I'm fine now! The nurse gave me some snacks and I feel just fine…"

"You fainted?" oops, she hadn't known. "I was afraid of that, ever since you told me about your other faint. This is becoming rather frequent. I'm not really sure what to make of it right now, but I want to have you come in during the weekend for a check up. Hopefully it's not related to your episodes."

Kagome felt foolish now, she hadn't needed to tell Kaede about the faint. She knew she needed to tell her doctor important things such as this, but she was so embarrassed by all the attention she received. Like she was some sort of experiment.

The conversation went back to simple questions and conversations about Kagome's eating and sleeping habits.

"You look rather tired today; did you sleep badly last night?" Kaede asked, jotting down notes on her clipboard.

"I slept just fine, and I even had a nap in the nurse's office." Kagome huffed and slumped in the chair. She did feel a little tired, but it was nothing serious.

"Do you have a restless sleep? Or perhaps you are sleeping too much; that can make you lethargic."

"Restless sleep? You mean like, nightmares or something?"

"Yes that sort of thing, or anything that would trouble you while you sleep." Kaede tapped the pen on her clip board, prepared to take notes the minute Kagome would speak.

"Well, I do have this recurring dream. Well, it's not recurring…. it's more like a series, or a story kinda." Kagome spoke quietly and slumped further into the chair.

"Really? It's not a bad dream or anything then?" Kaede asked, her hand moving like wildfire across the paper.

"No, it's a good one I think. It's comforting, kind of like when you listen to an old song you used to like. I do always feel really sad when I wake up though; I feel like I just want to go back to sleep."

Kaede stopped her note taking shortly after Kagome had finished. She set the clip board on her desk and placed the papers back into Kagome's file. "Well, that is a rather common sign of someone under stress or in depression. I imagine that all this business about your condition has you under a great deal of stress. I'm going to make out a very specific sleep chart for you however and e-mail it to your father. I want you to get enough sleep without oversleeping. We don't want you to slip into depression; it could possibly worsen your health."

Kagome nodded and stared at her feet, unsure of what to say. She didn't feel depressed at all, she was sure she was perfectly fine. After a short awkward silence Kagome looked back up to see Kaede putting away her file.

"Well, our session is up for today. The schedule will be in your dad's e-mail by the time you get home. I will phone him and inform him to set your alarm clock for you. Have a good night Kagome."

Kagome left the office and dragged her feet as she made her way home. The last thing she wanted to do was deal with her fathers concern for her. Enough people had fussed over her for today, she just wanted to sleep.

She wanted to sleep, and see the boy's face…

A/n: Omigosh! I'm so sorry about the wait. I'm moving to my mother's apartment this week and it's really busy! Plus on top of that I've been working on a sewing project for Princess Florea, if you don't know her, you suck, end of story. So… I hope to have another update for you when all this moving is all over and I'm all settled in my new home. Plus I will be posting pictures on my Xanga and live journal if you would like to see my new pad. Just e-mail me.

If you read it, review it. It's only polite. And if you don't have any manners I will just have to take you over my knee and teach you some. Have a nice day. Flames not welcome, but constructive criticism is always welcome.