Chapter 2: A Flick of the Wrist

"Well, that spider seems to be gone now," Inuyasha told Kagome after a thorough inspection of the area around the window she had indicated. "But if you're worried, I can sleep outside your door tonight, and if you need me, all you'll have to do is call. Of course, if you're really worried, I could sleep in here."

"No, I think I'll be fine now, you can go back to your own chambers," Kagome said with a nervous laugh.

When the soldiers and Inuyasha had left and she was sure no one was lingering outside her door should she need help, she let Sesshomaru out of the closet.

"I think you should leave for the night," Kagome said. "It's too risky for you to hang around here."

"And here I was hoping to see a steamy love scene," Bachiko whined, appearing with the normal bong, sitting on the wall above the door, once again displaying her disregard for the laws of gravity.

"No way!" Kagome hissed at Bachiko.

"Well, your loss I suppose," Bachiko replied as she stood and began walking up the wall, until she turned to hang from the ceiling and started heading for the window. A few moments later, she swung out the window and a loud bong gave away her exit.

Kagome turned around to tell Sesshomaru to leave again, but found he was already gone. "What is going on?" she whispered to herself. "This is completely wrong. I don't like Sesshomaru, but Bachiko thinks I do, so she modified everyone else's memories. And I'm stuck in this nightmare with Sesshomaru being the only one who knows it's not real. This is a huge mess." She changed into sleeping clothes while muttering all this and deciding that, tomorrow, she would tell Bachiko that this 'fantasy' had to end immediately. She sank back onto her fluffy bed, pulling the blankets up over her shoulders and drifting off to sleep quickly.

"C'mon girlie, get up," a voice rang out loudly.

Kagome jerked awake, sitting upright in bed. Kaede was standing in front of Kagome's closet, apparently picking out Kagome's clothes for the day.

"How are you this morning, miss?" Kaede asked.

"Uh, fine," Kagome replied.

"Sleep well?"

"Yeah," Kagome continued. "Um, what's"-

"No more time for pleasantries, milady, you have a busy day today," Kaede said sternly.

Kagome got out of bed and walked over to the closet, ready to take the outfit Kaede gave her and put it on, but Kaede would not give her the clothes. She had even laughed at Kagome when Kagome suggested that she could dress herself. Kagome realized that Kaede must have been her governess, and was now her lady-in-waiting.

Rin suddenly flew into the room, carrying a kimono with her. "I wanna wear this one today, Kaede!" she exclaimed, holding it out excitedly. Kaede finished with Kagome's obi and proceeded to help Rin get dressed. "Sister, isn't it pretty?" Rin asked, showing off her kimono for Kagome as Kaede pulled Kagome's hair into a bun, securing it with hair sticks.

"It's lovely, Rin," Kagome said, giving the girl a smile.

Together, Kagome and Rin walked down to breakfast. When they entered, they found Miroku and Sango opposite each other at the table, with Inuyasha on Miroku's right. A place was set next to Inuyasha, and another was set on the other side of the table. Luckily for Kagome, Rin ran forward and took the place next to Inuyasha, leaving Kagome free to sit across from him. He was really creeping Kagome out. Inuyasha was looking at her, studying her frame and her movements.

Breakfast was rather awkward, to say the least. Miroku kept trying to get Inuyasha engaged in a conversation, but Inuyasha would quickly end the conversation and try to start a new one with Kagome. Kagome, for her part, feeling it extremely rude to just shut out everything Miroku was saying, would try to add to or reiterate the last thing Miroku said.

Finally, breakfast was over. Thank goodness, I can finally get away from Inuyasha. Kagome stood and started to head towards her bedroom. Inuyasha rose and came over to her, taking her by the elbow and guiding her outside.

"Um, excuse me, Inuyasha-sama, what's going on?" Kagome asked sweetly, trying to hide her nervousness.

"We're going riding," he told her casually, leading her to the stables. Once there, he picked out mounts for the both of them.

No big deal, Kagome thought. I can ride, it's not that hard. That confidence was shattered when she discovered she had to ride side saddle. "I'm not feeling well, maybe we should go riding another day," Kagome said, trying to lie her way out of this excursion.

"Nonsense," Inuyasha replied, grabbing her around the waist and practically throwing her up onto her horse. He mounted his own and started out of the building at a trot. Kagome sat there, gently nudging the horse's side with her foot, afraid of hitting it to hard lest she hurt it, or fall off. Her balance was precarious at best, and she really didn't know how she was going to manage riding in this fashion. Finally the horse started to move. And shortly after it began moving, Kagome lost balance and fell off.

Thank goodness Inuyasha's ahead of me, he'd've laughed himself to death if he'd seen that. Kagome scrambled to remount, but couldn't seem to get herself up on the horse to save her life. Her hair had come loose and one of the hair sticks fell to the ground, Kagome snatched it up and tucked it into her obi, figuring it was a waste of time trying to pull her hair back until she managed to get back on the horse.

"Princess Kagome, is something wrong?" Inuyasha asked, having stopped to locate her when he realized she wasn't right behind him.

"Oh, uh," Kagome stuttered. Think, Kagome! "I had to stop because my hair came down." She quickly whipped the hair stick out of her obi and started to make a bun with her hair. As she finished doing her hair, she could've sworn she heard Inuyasha mutter something about women and their obsession with their hair. "Alright, got it now." Now to get back on the horse…

Inuyasha, figuring she'd be up on the horse and in step with him in no time, turned around and started moving again. Kagome, for her part, was seriously considering going back inside and letting him go riding by himself.

"You know, you're supposed to ride the horse, not stand next to it," Bachiko said politely as she appeared with a bong, sitting in the saddle. The horse seemed not to notice her presence whatsoever. Bachiko slid off the horse easily. "Come on, I'll help you." She laced her fingers together and held her hands out for Kagome to step into.

I guess I might as well. Maybe I can talk to Inuyasha and get him to realize that this is all just some sort of dream. Kagome put her foot in the girl's hands and pulled herself up onto the horse's back.

"That's it," Bachiko said brightly, giving Kagome a smile. "Now don't fall off again, okay?" Bubbles fluttered to the ground as the bong sounded yet again; Bachiko was gone.

I'll just have to talk to her later, I guess. She didn't give me a chance to tell her to end this fantasyland game she has us playing. Kagome managed to catch up with Inuyasha, though she had several close calls where she almost fell off of the horse again.

They rode side by side in silence for several minutes, and Kagome felt extremely awkward, as though she was out with someone she didn't really know at all. "Um, Inuyasha-sama," she said tentatively, hoping to break the silence.

"Hm?" he said in response, as though he wasn't really paying attention to what she was saying.

"I was, uh, just wondering…do you ever feel like, maybe all this is just…a dream?" Kagome continued, hoping that he'd answer with a firm yes.

"What do you mean, a dream? Are you out of sorts today, Princess Kagome?" he inquired, looking at her worriedly.

At that exact moment, she lost her balance and started to slide off the horse yet again. Inuyasha quickly caught her, pulling her up onto his own horse. "I guess I am out of sorts," Kagome replied. "I can't even ride a horse today to save my life."

"You should've said something instead of trying to up on an act for me," Inuyasha scolded.

"Well, I did say that I wasn't feeling well," Kagome reminded him.

"I certainly don't recall that," he returned, giving her a glare that told her not to question him.

Kagome gave a nervous laugh; his glare had been rather threatening, and quite frankly it frightened her. "Guess I just thought it to myself then."

They returned to the stables and Inuyasha insisted on carrying Kagome back to her room, even though she repeatedly told him she could walk just fine. Once alone in her room, tucked in bed by Kaede (who had promised to return shortly with tea), she called to Bachiko.

"Something wrong?" Bachiko asked, appearing with a bong, sitting on Kagome's chest.

"Get off!" Kagome gasped.

"Are you implying that I weigh too much?"

"Get off!"

"It's not very nice to imply that people are fat, you know," Bachiko muttered, a soft chime sounding as she disappeared. She reappeared immediately right next to Kagome's head, leaning over Kagome with a rather curious look on her face. "So what's up?"

"This has to stop! Now!" Kagome demanded.

"Yeah, you really shouldn't call me so much, you're supposed to be making out with your lover," Bachiko agreed.

"That's not what I'm talking about, Bachiko," Kagome snapped. "You've got it all wrong, I don't love Sesshomaru, that's absolutely ridiculous!"

"What? You're absurd! Sesshomaru's the better looking of the two!" Bachiko shrieked. "How could you even think of liking Inuyasha? Can't you see the truth? He's the evil prince you'll be forced to marry, and then at the last possible moment, Sesshomaru'll sweep in and defeat Inuyasha, then carry you off into the sunset. That's how the story goes!"

"It's not a story," Kagome stated. "This is just some weird fantasy you've made up, a dreamland of sorts."

"Yes, a dreamland," Bachiko agreed. "And when in dreamland, you have to play by the rules. And the rules say that you'll hate Inuyasha and Sesshomaru'll rescue you from Inuyasha's evil clutches. Whether you like it or not!" Bachiko whipped out her wand and flicked her wrist. An ominous red spark shot out of the wand and then zoomed out of the room. With a loud bong (which sounded right next to Kagome's ear), the trademark bubbles floated around briefly before popping on Kagome's face and pillow.

What in the world was that? Well, so much for convincing Bachiko to end this nightmare…