Thank you for reading the…what is it, third chapter of Lovely Mask? Yeah, that's it. And in this story, there are no demons, priestess, and people with inhuman powers.
Twinkle, twinkle masquerade,
Hidden beneath the charade,
Twinkle, twinkle, simple shade,
When the price of love is paid,
Do we quit this dance we've played?
Beneath the guise of a masquerade.
Kikyo could see the vague shadows cross the pavement as she moved through the city, alone as her bag bounced at her side. She could feel the cool breeze of the autumnal season sweep her; create an invisible steam as it fanned her burning flesh. Everything was hot. Everything was hot.
This must have been how Kagome felt in her thick sweater all the time at school. But…even if it was to herself only…Kagome was beginning to change, something stirred, some life of the deal they had made.
Even if it was so minor, so soon that it could not be detected or felt, Kikyo knew that some life stirred in Kagome in the form of her true form as the deal began to run its course, like poison through the body or two twin sisters. It was beginning to make its way, through Kagome, through the people she encountered.
What about me? Thought Kikyo as she passed the people on the pavement and the cars and bicycles in the street beside her.
"Don't run forever, Miss Higurashi."
Kikyo stopped in the middle of the sidewalk, feeling the cool zephyrs of the autumn wrap themselves like gauze around her. Unconsciously raising a hand to her chest, she could remember those words drift through her memories.
"I wonder," she said aloud in nothing more than a whisper, "what sensei meant."
She left, her back turned to the road around her as her dark hair wafted around her in the breeze, beginning her walk down the road of the deal…but she knew the road would extend more and more, with the people she met and realized, until she reached the end.
…
She looked exactly like her…no, she was different somehow. Not by just how she looked, but in the air in which she moved, the atmosphere was different then the one of Kikyo's.
As she looked silently at her, Sango felt her legs give way beneath her and sent her crashing to the cement grounds.
"Hey!" Kagome gasped, running towards her as she collapsed on her folded legs, tucked beneath her bag fell to the ground and her skirt scattered itself in folds around her.
Kagome reached for her and said, "are…are you okay?"
Sango merely stared at the ground for a moment where Kagome's knees were placed and, opening her mouth numbly, felt hands on her shoulders. They were ungloved, soft against the thin fabric of her light coat and shirt. And the face above her…was concerned, but warm. A kind face…kind hands on her shoulders, and warm eyes looking down at her.
Sango opened her mouth dumbly and, feeling angry at herself, she staggered to her feet, grabbing her back and turned away from Kagome as she said, "hey, wait—!"
Sango could feel the heat of her body burn into her senses as she said to the Kagome looking worriedly at her back, "Its okay, I'm fine…"
But then Sango felt the numb realization and was once again sent to her knees, crashing weakly, numbly. Kagome hurried to her aid as she fell to her hands and knees, her hair falling out of its band and tumbling down to hide her face.
Stupid, stupid, stupid—! She thought angrily as she clutched the floor for weak support, her body still trembling. Why are you so weak…? Stop trembling and—!
"Hey, are you okay?" said Kagome as she reached her. Through the curtains of dark hair over the sides of her face and ears, Sango could insensibly hear her words. She could feel her gaze and her presence beside her.
Kagome watched as she saw this girl tremble and barely support herself. She couldn't help it, but reach out and drop her mask to reveal herself. Seeing this girl so helpless and weak as she barely kept herself from lying atop the ground…reminded her of Kikyo so much.
Sango tried to stop the trembling, reducing it to barely quivering flesh as her figure seethed. And she turned her profile beneath the curtains of hair to see Kagome looking at her pitifully.
She tried to open her mouth to tell her that she was okay, to lie to her and herself that nothing was wrong, but as her lips parted, her breath stuttered in her throat and tears appeared in her eyes.
Kagome's eyes widened as she began to helplessly watch this girl stream with sudden tears as she shook, not crying, but the salty tears falling down her cheeks and flecking the cement with the sound of raindrops.
She couldn't help it, she didn't even understand why, but tears rolled down her cheeks effortlessly, cutting her breath to jagged gasps and stunning her thoughts of, No, why the hell are you…stop being so weak…get a grip on yourself…stop it…! The tears wouldn't stop even though she tried so hard to stop their flowing; they continued to flow without any thought. They wouldn't obey her thoughts, her mused commands as they continued to stream down her pale face, nor would her shaking body.
She gave in…to the tears flowing down her face…to her quivering body…and to the arms of the girl beside her.
…
"Are you sure you're—"
"Yeah…don't worry about it…I'm fine."
Kagome and Sango sat on the bench by the café, the smell of the baking goods wafting from the opened window. Kagome could see the glazed breads and frosted treats lined by the glass windows to entice customers within the establishment to purchase a product. The street light flashed by intersection away from the open corner of cement by the shop, where a tree nearby from one of the many that lined the streets shook its wondrously colored foliage. Kagome could see the children playing hopscotch on the cement corner of walkway.
Kagome had purchased both her and Sango a Chinese sweet from the nearby café, a delicate confection of steamed, glutinous rice meal, sprinkled with colored sugars, strands of candied peel and rose-petal jam.
She watched as Sango sat quietly with her hands holding the rice-paper wrapper in her lap in which a slice of the confection laid, her scarf thrown carelessly around her neck and over her shoulders. She had stopped crying for a while now and sat currently silent on the bench with Kagome at her side.
She was beautiful with dark brown hair that looked nearly black and magenta lining over her dark eyes. She reminded Kagome of Kikyo in several ways, as with her mature air and appearance. But she was different too, very different from the sister she had grown up with and known.
Then her eyes met Kagome's as she turned her head to see her staring at her, causing Kagome to blushingly turn away and pretend to be considering her treat.
"Um…" said Sango, surprising Kagome as she began to speak, "...thanks for what you did back there."
"Oh, it was nothing!" said Kagome earnestly.
Sango looked at her for a moment silently before she said softly, "…it was pretty pathetic back there, wasn't it? That sight…me…"
Sango stopped, continuing to look at her confection-supporting hands until Kagome said, "No, it wasn't…"
"Thanks for saying so," Sango cut in, still not looking at her as Kagome continued to watch her, "…but it was pathetic. Truly…pathetic…"
Kagome saw Sango's figure tightened and was quite for a moment with the girl with whom she sat. Then she said, looking at her, "your name's Sango right?"
"Oh!" said Sango, turning to her and momentarily forgetting her musings. "I didn't tell you my name, did I? Well, I am Sango Ikehara, first year in high school."
"I'm Kagome Higurashi, also a first year," said Kagome. "It's…um, nice to meet you,"
"Thank you," said Sango kindly and for the first time, Kagome could see a smile across her face. She truly was beautiful, even more so as she smiled, "you as well,"
Kagome was silent for a moment, considering deeply whether to ask this question or not as she held her treat. Sango apparently could tell of her worrying as she saw her expression change, her body tighten and the silence pursue.
"Ask your question," she said to her, bringing Kagome out of her thoughts.
"Hmm?" she said as she snapped into reality.
"You have a question, don't you?" said Sango, looking at her. "I can see it on your face. If you do, please, ask."
"But," said Kagome, "I'm not really sure if it's my bu—"
"Please, ask," Sango encouraged her.
Kagome looked at her silently for a long time, her expression changing as it strained and she worried. She considered the question, but…
"I really shouldn't—" she started, but Sango cut her off as she said, "No, ask, its fine."
Kagome, trying to grasp her courage, said, "Um, can…can I ask…why you were…"
"Crying?"
"Um…yes," said Kagome quietly.
Silence ensued as Sango looked away for a moment into the colored tree beside them, its leaves quivering in its top. As the silence continued, Kagome said hastily, "but, you don't have to answer if you don't…"
"No," said Sango quietly. "It's not that I don't want to…it's just sort of hard to explain." Then she looked away from the tree and back to Kagome saying, "I…can't really say that I know why I was crying either, the tears just came, I couldn't control them. I know it sounds stupid, but—"
"No, it doesn't," said Kagome honestly and she remembered when she had encountered (literally bumped into) Inuyasha in the halls and the tears that had come, unexplainable and overflowing, "I understand…"
"Yes," said Sango and continued with saying, "…I don't really know why I… why my heart felt painful. I guess…I guess…well, when you care about something and give yourself up to them, you're bound to get hurt and you're bound to break."
As Kagome heard her, she could feel her own confusion. Her words were quite but emotion surged through them.
"Giving yourself away is a careless thing to do, but…sometimes you have no choice, for it is your own heart that gives itself up without control. And it will break, for it is so fragile, those hands that hold it is bound to hurt it or damage it. That's why…it's so stupid to do that, to care for something or to love something and let yourself get hurt. A foolish way to get hurt or to get broken…when you give your happiness up that way. But…"
"So you gave it away and got hurt?" said Kagome, trying to comprehend.
Sango considered this thought for a moment and then said, "…I don't know, but something was hurt by someone. A part of me that gave its happiness away and let itself become shattered."
She let out a bitter laugh, saying, "Its…a foolish way to get broken, a foolish way to get hurt, isn't it? Pathetic…but I don't think it was this persons heart that hurt me…not more than my own. I am pathetic; I don't even really know what I'm trying to say."
Kagome silently looked at Sango as she stopped, a small, bitter smile played across her face. Depending on another's happiness for your own…a foolish way to get hurt when you give your happiness away…when you give a part of yourself away.
"Did you love this person?"
Sango's eyes widened with the abrupt question addressed to her and saw that Kagome's had snapped full open as well. Kagome quickly clamped her hand to her mouth, feeling color and heat in her face.
She looked helplessly at Sango for a moment, stammering through her finger-barred mouth, "No—I…I didn't—I mean, I d-didn't mean to ask…"
The question had popped into her head so suddenly that it had as well raced from her lips. Kagome frantically tried to explain, still wondering rapidly what in the Seven Hells had possessed her to ask 'did you love this person' so bluntly. As she continued to stammer, Sango continued to look curiously at her.
"Um…I'm not usually this blunt…the words just—just sort of slipped out…I mean," Kagome tried to explain, "Usually…usually when you care about someone, you give yourself away to their happiness and their affections, no matter the risk. Even when you sometimes don't want to."
Kagome stopped, trying to stop herself from saying anything else she'd regret. She just continued to look at Sango, who looked in consternation back.
"Its…okay," said Sango after a while and continued, "I…think I sort of get what you're trying to say. In a way…well, I don't know what I really felt for this person except…"
As Sango said these words, her face began to glow with color and she shot up from the bench, saying quietly, "…um…thanks again for what you did for me, Kagome. Really, thanks."
Kagome watched as the girl began to walk away from the bench and towards the intersection, her hair billowing softly and her flat heels clopping against the pavement. Then she said, turning back to Kagome one last time, "You're very kind. I'll see you tomorrow."
Kagome sat as she watched Sango leave the corner and travel on the islands in the thick roads, disappearing from sight as she rounded a corner on the sidewalk. Getting up herself and tossing the rice paper into a nearby garbage can, Kagome held the strap of her back pack and wondered as she left back to the house;
'I'll see you tomorrow'…that's new.
…
The streets flashed in the colors of the nearly colorless pavement, black asphalt of the streets, the brick and metal buildings, and the trees lining the roads in the colors of brilliant scarlet, auburn, and drying brown. Inuyasha could see the colors flash by him, the people walking along the road and the vehicles within it as he walked past.
He shook his head vigorously, sending his silvery hair into the sunlight, catching very strand in a blinding light.
He wasn't observing the people walking past him, registering their stars or glares of whispering or mutters, he was barely thinking except for one thought.
I'm conceited as hell.
He was thinking that one single thought the entire time he was walking through the city, eventually making his way past the cramped buildings, hoards of people in to the more suburban parts. Where houses still lined the asphalt street that forked into many directions, where the trees grew in more abundance, colored with the autumn season.
He could only think of two things: her face and that single sentence.
When she cried he had wiped away her tears, he hadn't lashed out at her for bumping into him, for speaking to him, for being in his presence. He hadn't, had he?
He tried not to think about it as he continued to walk through the suburban area and he tried not to care. He had only cared for two people in his life; his mother and Kikyo. His mother had died and what remained of him and Kikyo he didn't know…nothing, barely any feelings of affection of caring touched him. He had learned to stay away from those emotions, to brush them off.
I'm just conceited! He thought savagely as he shook firmly his head, I don't give a damn about her, I don't care!
I don't care, I don't care, I don't…
"Wake up, Puppy!!"
Inuyasha was brought out of his thoughts as he felt the sharp heel of a shoe slam into his head, sending him skidding back on the pavement on his hands and knee. He could feel the ache of the blow at the side of his head, causing his head to whip up to the presence of whom or what had hit him, his golden eyes fierce and glaring.
"What the hell do you think you're doing, damn wolf-boy?!"
There stood a boy, about the same age of the silver-haired Inuyasha crouching on the pavement. He had thick, nearly black hair tied up into a ponytail at the back of his head and icy blue eyes. His body was clad in a black school uniform, opened in the middle to show the white shirt covering his chest beneath. Koga Okami stood before Inuyasha, grinning to reveal his wolf-like fangs and his blue eyes narrowed.
"Waking you up, puppy, with all the faces you were making there." said Koga in his rough, masculine voice, "daydreaming back there?"
Inuyasha grinned maliciously, springing to his feet and saying, "Yeah, but I'll be putting you to sleep for good!" And he sprang at him, his hand bawled into a fist. As he leapt at him, Koga crouched down to his knees on the cool ground, barely avoiding Inuyasha's blow as his fist touched the top of his head. Inuyasha leapt back as his blow met the empty air a couple of feet away from Koga as he straightened up.
"Nearly got me there," said Koga, a sigh of relief as he threw his bag back. As his bag met the ground, Koga leapt forward quickly, drawing back his fist and saying, "But it will be me putting you to sleep!"
The footsteps barely made a sound as they crossed the empty pavement and approached Inuyasha, sending a strong fist at him. Inuyasha, now on guard, leaned to the side as the blow grazed his cheek and caught Koga's arm in his hands.
"You're the one daydreaming now, wolf-boy!" He shouted and, Koga watching in unmovable horror, drew back his leg and then sent in up with the knee digging into the boy's jaw. The sharp sound of the blow echoed in the empty air as Koga was sent flying back on the pavement, skidding across it sharply with the power of the buffet.
Inuyasha grinned as the pavement unveiled through the clouds of dust the figure of Koga Okami atop it, lying with his upper torso heaved up from the ground by the support of his elbow. Koga, gasping slightly, drew a hand over his mouth, wiping away the free saliva speckled with blood from his lip and chin.
"Dreaming yet, damn wolf?" said Inuyasha arrogantly, looking down at Koga's state.
Koga glared up at Inuyasha, his ice blue eyes narrowed beneath his dark brows. Carefully and slowly, he heaved himself up form the ground with his arms dangling at his side and the bloody line wiped free from his chin.
"Koga!"
Koga didn't turn but could hear them coming and Inuyasha saw them arrive behind him, gasping for breath. Hakkaku and Ginta, both the cousins of Koga, clad in their school uniforms looked at him blankly as he stood slightly lopsidedly on the ground.
The two both turned form Koga to see Inuyasha, standing with a sharp but short line of blood across his cheek and dirt on his clothing.
"Koga!" gasped Ginta and him and Hakkaku began to run towards him but were stopped as Koga shouted at them;
"No, stay out of this you two! Get lost! This is my battle!"
Hakkaku and Ginta watched silently as they froze on the spot after Koga's words, watching him stagger up to his feet with the back of his hand brought to his mouth and his lips curving and parting to reveal his straight row of sharp teeth as he grinned.
"Got me there, cur," he said arrogantly, drooping his hand from his mouth to before him as he poised to resume his fight. "But this time you won't be so lucky!"
"Luck had nothing to do with it!" said Inuyasha and the two suddenly pounced at one another, bringing their fists and kicks at one another in the air of the empty pavement.
Hakkaku and Ginta watched anxiously as Inuyasha threw blow after blow at Koga, often grazing him but never landing a hard blow, and Koga buffeted him, never managing as well to land anymore than a scratch on the silver-haired body.
"This isn't good," Ginta muttered as he watched, sweat beading his brow.
"What do you mean?" said Hakkaku, whipping his head from the battle for a second to turn at him. "This is great; those two are like professional fighters or something the way their connecting and defending blows!"
"I didn't mean that they weren't good!" said Ginta. "I mean, that it isn't good that they are fighting like this. They've been competing for years with one another who's the strongest and that's why Koga's all banged up like this all the time."
"Ah, it's nothing, Koga's never really injured." said Hakkaku airily. "Besides, as you said before, they've been fighting for years, and it can't help another one or two more."
Ginta looked at Hakkaku, opening his mouth as if to retort, but decided against it and continued to watch the two fight.
Koga and Inuyasha had fought many times before in their pasts, insulting one another, disagreeing, and lashing out at anybody who tried to stop them. It was because of the reputation Inuyasha had eared before, before he met Kikyo and after the death of his parents. He had nowhere to call home, no one to care for, to give a damn for. His own brother couldn't bear to look at him but forced himself to give him enough money to survive so that his image would not shatter.
People thought of him as a menace, a dirty mongrel forced to live in the dirt. He was hated because of his state and he hated them for it. All of them. For calling him dirt, for telling him about the pathetic father and unworthy mother he had once had. He hated them all. For mocking him, being near him, kicking at him, for even looking at him with their cold, merciless eyes. He was no better than dirt to them.
"Go to hell!" he'd tell them as he lashed out at them, attacked those who attacked him and destroy those who approached. "Die and go to hell, all of you!"
After Inuyasha had entered middle school, with the help of Kikyo, things were no different. His reputation as did his temper and tendency to lash out, remained. Like all the other, Koga thought of him as dirt, as the bloody dirt that he looked upon.
And a fierce rivalry developed and flourished between them. They fought against one another, in the school building as they toppled over desks and sent chairs smashing against walls.
"Stop it, both of you!"
Koga lay on the floor, against the wall with Hakkaku and Ginta gathered around him and a ring of students and teachers at the scene. The students whispered as a teacher barely restrained the struggling Inuyasha, his arms holding his back.
"Not so tough now, are you?" Inuyasha shouted as the teacher barely held him back, his lip bleeding and his face scratched up, "Are you so tough now, damn wolf?!"
It was pure hate that now existed between them, a hate that forced them to fight to prove the one who was better, who was superior, who deserved a right to exist. And the hate had only with held, endured through the past fights, yelling teachers and muttering and shrieking students, and the breaking school building and where ever the fight was held.
Inuyasha sent a blow at Koga with his fists, missing him as he leapt up into the air and sent numerous blows back at Inuyasha. A silvery garbage can was sent crashing down, the metallic crash emanating through the air through the many punched and kicks whistling in the air. They continued to punch and block, to kick and dodge as Hakkaku and Ginta watched helplessly.
A huge smashing sound rose from the dented telephone post beneath Koga's kick, a footprint stamping the wood. Inuyasha continued to kick Koga and Koga continued to fight back until the both of them were far apart, breathing heavily with sweat pouring down their flesh and scratched marking their figures.
"It's time to end this, wolf-boy!" said Inuyasha, breathing jaggedly.
"Koga, you can't—"
"Shut up, Ginta, this is my fight, now leave! Go away, now!"
Ginta and Hakkaku helplessly watched Koga glare at them and then turned to leave, their footsteps echoing in their wakes until they could no longer be heard. Koga turned away from the spot where they had once been and said, breathing hard and grinning, "Now, no more distractions…!"
"You shouldn't have sent them away, Koga, who'll carry back your corpse?" said Inuyasha and leapt at him.
"I should be the one telling you that!" said Koga and leapt at Inuyasha as he sped at him on the pavement. They could barely hear their footsteps. The air was fast and swift, carrying the scent of the flowers of autumn, burned away by the scent of the sweat and blood and steaming flesh. As they sailed at one another, the sound of a blow hitting its destination echoed through the air.
Blood specked the pavement, so softly like the sound of raindrops and Koga and Inuyasha both stood fists in one another faces as they both met their destinations.
They both skidded back on the pavement on their backs, dust rising beneath their sliding bodies and they stopped on the ground. The blood on the pavement looked like drops of darkening red liquid, like the colors of the autumn leave dusting the road. They both lay on the ground.
"…."
"….."
"……"
"….d-damn…."
"Damn…it…"
Inuyasha could feel his body burn, the side of his face ache and throb as if his jaw had been broken. He could see, as he got up, Koga heaving himself up as well on the cold pavement. His eyes were partly closed, as if pained by the blinding, un-existent sunlight drowning him. His whole body burned and ached painfully, too painful, too hard.
All too painful.
Damn, I…can't move well, thought Inuyasha angrily and wearily as he endeavored to raise himself from the ground. He barely managed to stagger to his feet, trembling and leaning. His arms and legs felt like lead, his lower limbs unwilling to move from the ground and to break the position in which they were poised. He could walk forward, but his body was weak.
Inuyasha looked before him, feeling the ominous shadow of Koga over him as he poised to fight yet again, but was too weak. Koga looked at him, grinning bitterly, and saying, "It looks like a win for me, puppy."
Koga drew back his fist and Inuyasha, knowing he hadn't the strength to block or counter it, poised his arms crossed over his face and chest. And as he sent this fist forward—
"Stop!"
Koga was stopped a he heard a girls voice reach him and he turned his head over his shoulder to see black hair, hazel eyes, but not the figure of the girl he could recall. She was the same age, but her air was different, fiercer, fresher, and stronger. Her eyes were set determinedly into her soft, peach face and she approached the two boys, at their fights end.
"You…" said Inuyasha, recognizing her after a while for the girl he had encountered in the halls, seen in the garden, and knew as Kikyo's twin sister.
Kagome placed herself a few feet away from the two, knowing it wasn't her place to halt this tousle and not even knowing why she had stopped it. She couldn't stop herself when the recognized the silver-haired boy she had known scouring the gardens and leaning in solitude against the walls of the school. She couldn't help the impulse that set itself upon her.
Koga's fist dropped to his side and he looked straight into the face of the girl who had stopped him from destroying the boy he had long thirsted to beat, who had beaten him, who he had developed a fierce rivalry.
She was beautiful.
Koga froze as he looked at her, feeling her scared but intent face upon him and then turned away, retreating into the empty streets with a slight stagger in his step, his hand in his pocket as he leaned only barely to the side. Kagome, feeling her heart rapidly beat, froze as she looked at him leave, not even turning away as when he was lost from sight until—
"What do you think you were doing, girl?!"
Kagome's face whipped around to see Inuyasha behind her, glaring down at her. She didn't answer, paralyzed still partly by what she had done.
"I'll repeat, 'what do you think you were doing, girl?'" said Inuyasha angrily as he looked at her.
"What do I think I was…?" said Kagome slowly as she looked at him.
"Interfering in our fight like that," said Inuyasha, not waiting for her to finish. "What did you think you were doing?"
"I was helping you." said Kagome simply as he glared at her, thinking it the obvious answer.
Inuyasha looked for a moment at her, his eyebrows shooting far into his thick bangs. She had come…to help him? He could feel her gaze on him and his own body burn by the realization of her words. Then, whipping his head around, said softly, "I…didn't need your help, you interfering in our fight like that. You should…mind your own business."
"What do you mean?" said Kagome, "of course you needed my help; Koga was going to kill you there!"
"What—he…he wasn't going to beat me!" said Inuyasha angrily, forgetting his feelings towards Kagome's earlier comment. "And I didn't need your help, wench!"
At his last sentence, Kagome felt a sudden feeling hit her. As he angrily shouted at her, called her 'wench', saying he didn't need her help…emotion suddenly boiled in her words.
"You can't say that you didn't need my help!" said Kagome suddenly loudly, catching Inuyasha off guard as his eyes dilated. She didn't even know why the sudden anger boiled in her, a feeling beginning to grow, "…and don't insult me after I tried to help you!"
"I told you, I didn't need your help!" Inuyasha angrily responded as he heard her shout and felt her glare upon him.
With her unknown and newborn anger Kagome said heatedly, "Well, I'm telling you, you did need my help, if you wanted to survive Koga that is."
"I didn't need you interfering in my fight and I didn't need your help!" said Inuyasha angrily still, clenching his fists at his sides. "Besides, I wasn't going to lose to that mangy cu—"
"It didn't look like that to me, Koga drawing back his fist and you not even defending yourself!" Kagome shouted.
Inuyasha glared angrily at her, her equally enraged face looking back at him with narrow eyes, tightened brow and bawled hands at her sides. "Well, it doesn't matter how it looked like to you because it wasn't your battle, wench!"
"I know that!" said Kagome hotly, her anger burning more as he called her, yet again, 'wench'. "I know that, but I'm sure anyone would have thought you needed help in their right minds!—"
"Which I didn—"
"Which you did!" Kagome interrupted angrily.
"Your opinion doesn't matter, it wasn't your battle to interfere with!" said Inuyasha, anger burning at his voice.
"Well I did interfere with it, to help you!" Kagome shouted, her voice rising drastically.
"Well, I didn't want your help, wench, just looking makes me angry!" said Inuyasha angrily. The words left his lips and he stood, still trembling from weakness and anger as he glared at Kagome. She didn't respond at first, merely glaring weakly at him with wider eyes and, feeling them sting without realization why, shouted as she turned, "Fine, this wench wont help you anymore!!"
Kagome bumped past Inuyasha, her body burning and her eyes framed with fuzzy stinging, and ran as fast as she could past him towards her house through the empty streets.
Inuyasha stared after her, looking at her run through the streets filled with trembling light-speckled shadow and angrily turning away himself, trying to brush away the slightest regret at his words and anger at himself.
Kagome ran, feeling the wind rush around her as she continued forward through the streets that were never passed through with cars at this time. Shadows of treetops feel over her. She could feel her eyes sting and anger roil in her. She didn't even know why she was angry. She didn't have the slightest clue except the irrational emotion burst like wildfire in her and flourished, spreading and painfully burning her. The anger didn't make sense, and thinking about it only caused the wildfire to spread in her heart.
Stupid Inuyasha! Stupid, stupid, stupid…!
But…as she thought this angrily, the rage burning inside her, another thought chimed in her head, one so soft she couldn't even hear it;
Stupid Kagome, for being so weak to get so angry, for getting so weak to burn with rage and tears…
She fled into the streets and soon met the house she had so long known the door slightly ajar and sent it flying open. She considered slamming it, but thought to herself, God; you must look really infantile right now.
Instead she kicked off her shoes and threw her bag onto the floor. She could see Mrs. Higurashi in the kitchen retrieving a pan and a bag of rice, saying as she noticed her enter and pass, "Oh, hello Kagome, you're home late, how was everything…?" But Kagome couldn't help but pass her and climb the stairs to the upper level hurriedly. She could feel her socks slide against the smooth wooden steps, but ignored that and raced up the steps. As she reached the upper floor, she headed through the hall and passed Sota and Kaede's rooms, the two playing in the boy's room with chopsticks.
"Hey, Kagome!" said 6-year-old Kaede, turning her head to the door as she passed. "Wanna play chibi-katana with us?"
But Kagome passed her without looking into Sota's room where the two were playing and, as she entered her own room, stepped over to her bed and dropped into the thick comfort of the sheets and pillows.
"What's wrong with her?" said Kaede, sticking her head into the hall that ended into Kagome and Kikyo's room where she saw Kagome's feet sticking from her bed.
"Dunno," said Sota as he looked beside her with his chopsticks pocking out of his mouth, "but it's probably nothing, don't worry about it."
"Okay…" said Kaede, slightly concernedly and the two resumed their chibi-katana showdown, in the form of swinging around their chopsticks to see who could touch the other hand and disable the opponent first.
Kagome lay on her bed, her cheek melting into the comfort of her pillow as she stared angrily at the wicker cabinet beside her bed. Her body melted into the comfort of her bed and her body burned with anger. She wasn't even aware of why she was so angry, or why she could not open her mouth in fear of breaking into tears.
Stupid, stupid, stupid Inuyasha, that's the last time I'm gonna even look at you to spare you from getting angry!
Kagome lay on her bed, holding her pillow to the side of her face as she lay and thinking of the boy she had seen earlier, who had aroused such anger and rage. And for a moment as she thought, her mind raced with a word that didn't even find itself in her thoughts, bringing on a different question than the ones she were thinking before but with the same beginning;
Why?
…
Kikyo sat in the garden, her gloves thrown at her side and wearing jeans as not to get her regular skirts dirty. She held the dying plant in her hand, the dying plant of a hagi that had not made it for the autumn's time. She could feel the long, wind-tangled, dry fronds in her gloved hands, so gentle and fragile.
The sky was dark, the horizon still bright with the color of pale blue slowly ascending into the atmosphere in the color of dark navy. As Kikyo looked up into the sky, the own darkness crushed her slowly; the beautiful darkness, the paralyzing sweet and sad cynical realization of it; streaked with the lightest clouds, tainted with the darkest twilight.
Kikyo dropped the dying flower in her hand and lay back, leaning against a slope of air as she looked into the sky, past the side and eaves of the house where lights flickered in the windows.
Like that plant…would she fade away in the beginning of the change, of the deal, or would she come into bloom? It was so beautiful but so fragile and it had died.
"Where will I go?" said Kikyo in no more than a whisper. "Inuyasha…where will you take me?"
But as she said these words, a vision flitted in her mind, so vague it could hardly be seen. It was vague and it flitted, like carp in the waters; a vision of dark hair, midnight black…
Kagome tucked her head in the pillow but she felt the emotions fade slowly…slowly fade. She was thinking of him…but why?
Where would she go was what both of the twins were thinking, as Kikyo looked up into the darkening sky and Kagome at the window where the horizon still appeared bright.
And where will this deal take me?
Okay, that's the end of this chapter, a shorter chapter that starred much more of Kagome and Inuyasha then Kikyo. We have also been introduced to Koga, Hakkaku, and Ginta.
Next chapter will be focused more on Sango (and what happened between her and Miroku), Ayame, Rin, and the teachers, so please read and review!