STARS: To Fly, To Soar

Summary: You can't linger in the past; you must take steps forward. The future, just like the past, is filled with untold stories; you just haven't written them yet. "Don't look away, the stars of our past won't always be the stars of our future..."

Anime: Haikyu/InuYasha

Pairing: Aiming for Kagayama/Kagome/Hinata

Rated: M because I rate everything M. Though right now, it's probably just a fledgling "T."

-x-x-x-

Outside my window, not but an arm's length away, there's a boy. He's really loud, and somehow, he manages to wake me up every morning at four. I should probably be mad, or at the very least, annoyed. Yet, every morning when I hear him, I can't help but stand by the window and watch as he rides off to school on his bike. I'm silently rooting him on. After all, you'd have to be blind not to see just how hard he's been practicing. Every morning, day, and night, always with a volleyball in hand. He's working so hard, so... naturally, it's normal to want to see him succeed, right?

"Alright! I'm off, mom!"

Sitting up, walking to her window, Kagome stared out as a vibrant fifteen-year-old stole away on his bike. "Do your best, Hinata-San." Though he couldn't hear her, she still wished him a good day. "Guess I should get ready for school," eyeing the clock, she closed her eyes and tried not to give in to crippling depression. 'It's early.'

Thinking back to when I moved here, it happened at the end of my travels down the well. When I once considered myself 'different,' I'm now your average high schooler. I couldn't purify a demon if I wanted to. Oh, but I guess I can still heal; it's just that would land me on a one-way trip to a lab. Being tested and experimented on doesn't sound all too appealing to a sixteen-year-old girl. I suppose I also have my archery, but other than for after school activities, I can't really showcase it.

Running around in Sengoku Era, fighting demons, time-traveling down a magical well that leads five hundred years into the past? It all feels like another life. I can't linger on the past; I can only move forward. So, when the well closed, my mom decided that we should move. It would be best for my mental state. That's fine, though. After all, the reason the well closed is that the Jewel was completed. The Jewel that returned me home before I could properly say goodbye. It's okay, though.

I know that they were able to move on too. Happily, ever after's, are possible...

-x-x-x-

"Kagome!"

Behind her, barely a foot through the doors, Kagome heard her upperclassman yelling out for her. Holding open the door, she waited for her to catch up and respectfully bowed her head, "good morning, Senpai. You're early today."

"I am? What about you? You always get here this early?"

"Usually. There's an energetic puppy that wakes me up rather early every morning."

"Oh? Hehe, pets can be difficult to manage, huh. I have a dog too, but he's lazy and sleeps till I wake up."

"That must be nice."

"Have you tried any training methods?"

"...training?" Kagome thought of the spritely volleyball player, entertaining the idea of subjugation beads, telling him to sit and watching him plummet face-first into the court floor. "Well, I'm not sure he'll listen unless some otherworldly force pushes him into submission." As entertaining a thought as it was, she really couldn't see her neighbor acting any other way.

"Maybe you could try treats. Give him treats when he does good and spray him in the face with water when he does bad."

That brought on a fit of laughter, unable to keep the heat from her cheeks. It was too much. "I'll consider it,"

"Oh, just to let you know, we won't have any practice this week,"

"Hm? Oh, for Obon?"

"Exactly, since I won't be around, I was hoping you could let the others know. I've got a meeting with the guidance counselor concerning my choice in universities. I'm "aiming too high." Like I can't get into H University!? Tch, who do they think I am?"

"Senpai, you're yelling," Making it to the end of the hall, she opened the back door of the school and stepped outside. There were two ways to get to the clubrooms. The first, running around the whole school until you came to the clubrooms in the far back, left corner. Or...walk through the school, leave out the door, and it was directly to your left. Kagome preferred option two, but she knew a couple of people who had taken to option one early in the year. A particular carrot top came to mind.

"Ah, sorry. Kagome will be taking over as Captain of the Kyudo Club next year, already you're so level-headed, not to mention your ten times more skilled in Kyudo than I am. I'm only ranked as Godan, but you're ranked as Nanadan. Our last tournament, you really took us all by storm. Are you competing this year in the All Japan Kyudo Invitationals? I suggested it last week, remember?"

"I do," Kagome smiled, stopping outside the Kyudo clubroom, "I will consider it. I've been taking it easy with practice, so if I am going to compete, I'll need to tighten the reigns on my self-training regimen."

"Then let's both work hard! I'll be competing, but this year will be my last chance before University. You know, we say things like "I'm going to be a legendary Archer or renowned Soccer Player, a famous Volleyball spiker or number one Idol"―goals that we followed faithfully from elementary, into junior high and all the way up till the last year of high school. However, when you are sitting in front of an Admissions Counselor, you're forced to realize that the life you always dreamed about isn't the life you will most likely come out of college with. Even if you hold on to that dream until your last breath... the sad truth is, only a hand full of athletes continue through university and long after, well into the twilight years of their life, doing the thing they love the most. That's why, no matter what, I want my last year in Archery, to be the most memorable."

There was a faraway look in her Senpai's eyes, one unmistakable, and yet... mixed in with it, a hunger. "I think this year will be our best yet."

Separating from her Captain, she watched the older student leave back towards the school. She didn't dare tear her eyes away from the upperclassman until she was entirely out of sight. Only then did she turn away and step inside the clubroom. It was true, fewer than two percent of high school athletes went pro. That was only one in sixteen thousand high school athletes that would attain a professional career in sports. With odd's like that, it was amazing that anyone could muster up the energy or persistence even to try and succeed. Placing her bag down, she quickly changed into her Gi. True, they weren't supposed to be practicing this week, but for Kagome, Obon was best spent with a bow and arrow in her hands. Her ancestors, she was sure of it, had a long line of Archery in their blood. There was no truer form of respect or commemoration that she could give.

Outside the club, she stopped and stared out at the sky, holding an arrow up, she lined the tip with a sparkling star that could still be seen in the early morning. 'I am walking on the path of an unknown future, ahead of me, I can clearly see an open sky. While the past is easy to read, the future is messy and chaotic, but for me...it has opened. I'm not afraid of what lies ahead.' She smiled, "as long as I continue to move forward, my arrows...they will fly, and they will guide me."

-x-x-x-

Me: Here is chapter one. I hate myself for starting this, but it's here, so... ~sigh~... just review, I'm going to eat and watch Phineas and Ferb. REVIEW!