"QUIT BEING SUCH A JERK AND SIT!"

The thud of InuYasha's face being driven into the ground resounded through the bright valley morning. A flock of small birds leapt from their perch in a nearby cherry tree and flew frantically into the sun to avoid the ensuing dust cloud. Kagome huffed as she stalked off toward the well.

Stupid InuYasha. What a jerk. She spent all her time over there; she gave up her entire life in her time where she was supposed to be; she never got to go to school or study; she almost completely failed last year because of him; and now he had the gall to tell her, not even to ask her but to tell her, to miss the first day of her senior year just because he "smelled something weird". It wasn't her fault his nose was having fits!

An unbidden pang of remorse came swelling through her stomach, causing her to slow her straight-backed march. He had seemed really agitated about whatever it was he'd picked up. He'd paced a trench around their campsite all night, refusing to even slightly relax his guard until the sun peaked its first rays over the distant foggy mountains. What could have made InuYasha almost seem to be afraid of the dark? Her breath caught as she ran the scene of his behavior the previous night through her head over and over. Could he have been? No way. But that look he had... yes, she was sure. He must have been. However unbelievable, InuYasha had been frightened last night.

She stopped as she came to the well, old even in this time. She rested her hands on its rough sun-greyed wood and stared down into the dark recesses. This early in the morning the sun was slanted over the mouth of the well like a lid, throwing everything below into shadows so it seemed to be a never-ending abyss. Maybe InuYasha had wanted her to stay because he was frightened. Maybe he had been so callous about it because he didn't want to admit he was scared. What if she had overreacted and turned her back on him when he needed her? Maybe she should go back.

She stood frozen in indecision for what felt like an hour. Her wristwatch apparently decided she'd stood there long enough and started to sound its tiny beeping protest. Her stomach jumped into her throat at the sound, then promptly plummeted back into place and cemented itself there when she looked at the small screen: It was 7:00. Her first day of the most important year of her high school life started in an hour! She'd barely have time to change and grab her stuff if she ran. She hadn't gone back last night like she was supposed to because of InuYasha and his nose and now she was going to be late on her first day. Oh, that boy! She'd given up enough for him, she would not give this day!

Full of resolve once more, she leapt over the side of the well, into the swirl of aura colors that would take her home. Whatever was lurking about, if it had InuYasha so spooked at least maybe he'd have the good sense not to go after it alone. If he didn't, well, the only way to teach a dog to not do something is a good smack on the nose.

Kagome ran to the entrance of her school, panting as her arms swung back and forth. She glanced at her watch and sped up faster; the first day of her senior year would start in less than ten minutes!

"Kagome!" someone called suddenly; her friends were inside the school grounds, waving at her.

"Hey!" She said, grinning and waving back. She met them inside the gated grounds and embraced them. "Kagome we almost thought you weren't going to make it," Yuka said, happy to see her but her face clearly worried.

Kagome arched an eyebrow, but kept her friendly smile in place. What were they talking about?

"Yeah Kagome," Eri said, "we wanted to hang out with you this summer and went to your house to see you, but your grandpa said you had to go to the hospital for your weekly tests for your candidiasis, and then you had eczema for the longest time-"

Kagome's mouth opened in disbelief. Her friends began listing the various diseases she had somehow contracted over the summer break, but she wasn't listening. She didn't know if she was angry, humiliated or just plain stupid; perhaps even a combination of all three.

When was she going to learn? She knew that her grandfather, even in his ancient age, was horrible at telling lies. She grit her teeth, trying to stop the eruption of curses concerning her grandfather and his failure at telling a good lie from escaping her lips. She vowed to make it a routine that before she would leave for the feudal era, she would do some extensive research and compile a list of diseases that would be okay for her grandfather to give to get her excused from her classes.

And she was going to make sure that her mother see that he follow that list.

The bell of the school rang, announcing the start of classes. Her friends began to chatter excitedly as they all walked toward the polished school building. Kagome smiled politely and answered her friends at the right intervals, all the while calculating precisely how much time she had before she could get home and kill her grandfather.

The sunlight streaming in from the windows filled the entire room; someone had decided that the golden sunlight was enough to light the room, since the horrible florescent lights were shut off. The room seemed to be glad of it; as though turning on the lights disturbed the enchantment that naturally occurs. Tiny dust particles celebrated, twirling and dancing gaily in the rays of the afternoon sunshine. The desks swelled with sheer delight; the sunlight slanted across their wooden surfaces, first lighting them and making them glow a brilliant amber before they receded to darkness. The desk beside the window looked more promising than the others; it looked warm and inviting as the sun made it glow bright.

If one would sit at this particular desk, one would have a lovely view of the blackboard, where they could easily make out the swipes of a dry eraser ridding the black of it's enemy: the white mess of chalk, and the constant battle that wages between them. Or if that could not suffice, all one had to do was to turn their head toward the window beside them and gaze just outside down at the dark oak tree, with it's stretching branches; willing the lush green leaves to be closer to the sun where they glowed brighter.

Or the brilliant green grass that lay beneath the oak; it was just as promising, and was guaranteed to be warm or cool, depending on where one would prefer to sit. And the air that hung over both was sweet with the smell of flowers that swayed softly with the wind.

That desk, with all it's magic and lovely wonders to behold, looked like the perfect place to take a nap.

Which was exactly what Kagome thought as she dropped her bag on the floor, climbed in, and sat down. She let out a tired sigh as she lowered her head onto the desk's smooth, polished wooden surface and closed her eyes. No wonders of green grass or dancing particles could make up for the lack of sleep she had gotten the night before. Or for the fact that all the enchantment seemed to take place in her last, most dreaded class of the day: math.

Her first day back had been long and surprisingly tiring; she didn't expect to feel so overwhelmed with just talk of what would be occurring the rest of the year. Only that morning in her first class, she could feel the pressure of maintaining her grades and her priestess duties already beginning to build; like a meter that measured its progress. And just thinking about it all was exhausting in and of itself.

She would have to stay in the present for at least a week, or until she got used to the new routine and settle. Whichever came first; in the mean time, it would be good for her to take a break.

A break, Kagome thought tiredly. It would be nice to take a break from shard hunting; she barely got to see her beloved modern-day Tokyo anymore what with travelling back and forth between times. It would be a wonderful idea to take a break; get the full eight hours of sleep for once, instead of just the usual three and a half she got now-four, if she was lucky. She would be able to sleep in her own comfortable bed, with blankets that nestled and clung to her, and pillows with their cloud-like appearance and promised comfort-instead of a sleeping bag laid on the surface of painfully sharp rocks.

She hoped her senior year would be enough for her to learn to relax and would become an opportunity for her to spend more time with her family and friends. At the rate she was now going, with the rare and very slight intervals between the times, she barely caught glimpses of them. The only time she ever got to speak to her mother these days was when it concerned the riddance of excess demon guts on her clothes. Because she never had the time to talk anymore; there always managed to be something else that demanded her immediate attention.

Kagome scoffed. Ironic wasn't it? To be a time-traveler and not even having enough time to speak to her own mother. She hated that she was having to constantly put her own life on hold while she met the needs of others in the feudal era.

She sighed, sometimes it was so hard being a good person.

Kagome was almost on the verge of unconsciousness when the bell screamed loudly, announcing the start of class and breaking the spell of the recently undisturbed classroom, though none of her classmates seemed to mind, talking loudly as they shuffled into the classroom and took their seats. A few moments later, the door to the class slid open and shut with commanding authority. The class gradually became silent.

Kagome lifted a tired eyelid. Oh was it time for class to start already? She slowly lifted her head; for some reason it felt as heavy as a block of lead. Then her tired eyes widened in shock and her mouth took on the shape of a small O; she was awake now.

And flabbergasted. But mostly just flabbergasted. Her back stiffened, her blood slowly drained from her face as she froze. She froze like a deer in bright, blinding headlights and gripped the edges of her table. She thought that by doing so, she could somehow stop the madness that was taking place before her eyes; her knuckles began to turn a ghostly white from her tight grip.

It was like her mind's control over her body had abruptly stopped working and had gone into "emergency mode" where she could only think: "WHAT THE FLIP-FLIPPING-! WHAT IS HE DOINGHERE?" And if being in InuYasha's time had taught her anything, it was that:

1) The loss of her mind's control over her body was a bad thing,

2) Always be prepared,

3a) Plan for the unexpected,

3b) Expect the messy,

3c) Always pack extra soap and pads (in reference to the two prior rules),

And

4) Act fast.

So far she'd failed the three most important, having been caught completely off-guard by Sesshomaru's presence at her high school.

The man that stood at the front of the class might not have looked like Sesshomaru with his lack of a train made of billowy silver hair, feudal era armor, a gigantic, ridiculously fluffy pelt, or either Tokijin or Tenseiga attached to his hip. He did, however-instead of a long trail of it-have silver hair that was cut to the nape of his neck, with bangs that hung over his eyes, and was dressed in a suit with a thin black tie. She blinked for a moment with confusion as she noticed something odd about his suit. Both sleeves were filled. She followed the line of his left arm and sure enough, there was a magenta painted left hand naturally holding a piece of chalk. How had he managed that?

Seeing the sharp stripes on his wrist blew away all thoughts of curiosity and returned her focus to the obvious danger standing before her. Yes, on the tips of his fingers there were what looked like nails instead of claws, but however good his makeover was, it still didn't hide the fact that the man before her had two magenta stripes slashed across both cheeks, golden orbs for eyes, and a half-moon on his forehead that she caught glimpses of between strands of his messy bangs. This man was indeed Sesshomaru, Lord of the Wests.

Aside from the obvious factors, there was one aspect in particular that made Kagome certain of his true identity: it was the way he presented himself. He stood straight-backed in front of the class, demanding every one's attention as he casually glanced around the room and looked upon it with some mild interest, and the fact that he was not walking back and forth in front of the class, but striding with much determination and eloquence made his true identity that much apparent.

Sure, his elegant grace had always fascinated her and left her feeling amazed and more uncoordinated than usual, as she was sure he was doing to the rest of the class right now-but unlike those idiots, she knew of his dark, cruel nature from years of their rare encounters with each other.

That thought was enough to rouse Kagome from her shock and make her realize that her foolishness for not realizing it sooner had inadvertently put her classmates-not to mention herself-in danger. She needed a plan of attack. She hadn't expected the enemy of her very, very distant past to show up at her school and hurt everyone, so she didn't bring her bow and quiver. And her miko powers had the tendency to come and go as they pleased, so that was out.

Meanwhile the opponent that Kagome was about to face was so powerful that he, in fact, did not need the use of any weapons to defend himself. She'd witnessed enough spars between him and InuYasha to know exactly how deadly his sharp, poisonous claws were.

Which made her come to the inevitable conclusion that she and her classmates were as good as dead.

Kagome tried to not let her current problems phase her; she arched an eyebrow, pretending to show mild interest while horrifying scenarios played out through her mind. She was sprawled on the floor, her eyes gouged, internals spilling out, while she could hear her classmates' screaming as one by one they were slaughtered. The sound of chalk scraping on the blackboard as Sesshomaru wrote his name sounded like the crackling of fire, adding to her hallucination of death. The school was on fire and as firemen rushed through the halls to save people, they were leapt upon and crushed by enormous jaws filled with rows of teeth the size of her head. The disaster would be plastered all over the news and when InuYasha came to get her, all he'd find was her mother sobbing in the living room with a picture of a very familiar red eyed monster on the TV screen...

"My name is Takehiko Hiroto and I am your new mathematics teacher." Sesshomaru said, turning back to look at the students. "Now I want you all to open your notebooks and to copy and solve this problem."

...Now Ayumi was on the floor bleeding her guts out, while Kagome's esophagus was being crushed by his powerful claws. Kagome's irrational train of thought had been merrily going toward it's destined course when it suddenly screeched to a halt. Wait. Did he just say his name was "Takehiko Hiroto"? She looked up and for the first time surveyed the blackboard. Sure enough, instead of an intricate script bearing the seal of Lord Sesshomaru, all that was written there was a simple Mr. Takehiko. All around her students were unzipping their bags and pulling out pencils and notebooks; the sounds of rustling paper filled the air.

Meanwhile Kagome had her hands still gripping the edge of her table and making no effort whatsoever to move and retrieve her things. Why was he calling himself that? What happened to Sesshomaru, Lord of the Wests? Or Sesshomaru, the Great Youkai, or even Lord Fluffy? Did his new look come with a new identity? And did he just say that he was her new math teacher?

Kagome was positive now; there was no other way of looking around it, and she knew for certain that she was screwed. She kept her eyes glued on Sesshomaru. This act of his had to be just that: an act in an effort for her to lower her defenses like the rest of her classmates so that he could exterminate every last one of them. Ha! Well, Sesshomaru should know by now that she was not a force to be reckoned with; that you had to get up pretty early to pull one over old Kagome Higurashi.

She frowned and stared at him with narrowed eyes, noting every movement he made. So far he was just standing at the desk, surveying the rest of the students. After a few minutes of just standing, he began to take a turn about the room. Kagome's eyes followed him as he slowly walked through each row, watching the students scribble and struggle with the problem; and he made no effort to assist them! The bastard, Kagome thought indignantly.

Kagome also noted that more than once, the eyes of one of her female counterparts would wander from her paper and onto Sesshomaru and linger with some longing. Kagome mentally rolled her eyes and scoffed, Idiots.

Finally Sesshomaru moved to the back of the class, where she could not see him. She tried and failed using her peripherals to watch him. She knew it was a matter of time before he would make his way toward her seat. Her heart beat wildly in her chest, sweat slowly rolled down her face in little droplets. Her hands gripped tightly on her table; had she the strength of either of the dog demon brothers, she was sure that that table would be broken in half by now. She kept her posture straight, preparing to spring into action at any moment when it was necessary; she figured her best plan of survival was to attack the demon lord herself and hopefully be able to hold him off long enough for her classmates to escape. She knew they wouldn't have long.

The seconds seemed to slowly drag on; all sounds around her slowed to a crawl. She could hear each pencil scrape as they made words and numbers on the surfaces of notebook pages; she could hear the low murmurs of students as they talked to themselves, struggled to solve the problem; she could even hear the clock tick deafeningly with long pauses in between:

Tick...

Tick...

Tick...

At last she saw him from the corner of her eye and watched. He had stopped to look at her. Kagome held her breath. This was it; he was going to recognize her and attack now. His footsteps started up again. Kagome's heart thumped loudly in her ears as the beats compacted, sounding like one continuous thud instead of many. He stepped in front of her. Kagome tilted her head slightly so that she looked up to see his face.

He glowered down at her: golden eyes narrowed, and eyebrows knit disapprovingly. But instead of swiping her to bits with his claws, or ripping her head off with the use of one hand, he simply said in an obnoxious tone:

"Miss Higurashi were we planning on doing any work today-or were we just going to stare at my face all day?"

Kagome's mouth dropped open again, this time in disbelief. Was...was that it? No glowing red eyes? No poisonous claws? Just...wondering if she was going to do her work?

He continued to stare at her with his condescending eyes, as though challenging her to defy him. Some students were curious as to what her reaction would be, since most of them looked up to get a better view of the scene playing out in front of them. They waited with bated breath, like that of a captivated audience. She still wasn't buying his charade, but Kagome had no other option. She shut her mouth and, without taking her eyes from his, bent beside her to fish out a notebook and a pencil from her yellow backpack.

She flipped the notebook open and began to write down the problem.

He waited a few beats, then when he seemed satisfied, walked back to the front of the class.

"Time's up," he said after a few more minutes, "pencils down. Well, I've looked over all of your answers, and from what I've seen, I'd say I've got a lot of work on my hands." Sesshomaru looked at all their faces, meeting their eyes. Until his golden eyed gaze lastly settled on Kagome's. And lingered on hers for a few moments before he resumed his lecture.

Kagome's breath caught in her throat and her heart stopped. She knew it! That little faker did recognize her! But, and this was what got her, he didn't look like he'd remembered her at all. She frowned.

Kagome drowned out Sesshomaru's voice as he explained to the students the proper way to solving this kind of problem. Instead she pretended to listen, and look absorbed in the lesson as best as she could while her mind was scrambling to understand just exactly was going on in Sesshomaru's mind. If Sesshomaru did in fact recognize her, why wasn't he making any move in attacking her? It wasn't like he'd ever cared if people were watching while he killed someone before, or that he might think someone would stop him. So why wasn't he making a move to do so now? He did know that she was that annoying miko who hung around his half-breed, flea-bitten brother right?

The remainder of the class passed by exceedingly slow, with Kagome's different fearful scenarios of how he was going to kill her resuming in her head, since it was apparent that he did not care about the lives of the rest of her classmates, and wishing he would just kill her already to save her the stress of wondering when and how he was going to do her in.

At last it came to that point where Sesshomaru finally turned to the class from the board and said, "We've got about a few minutes left, so you can go ahead and start packing up. I just want to go over a few of my rules. I only have one rule in this class, and that is none of you leave when the bell rings: the bell does not dismiss you. I dismiss you."

His burning golden eyed gaze slowly worked its way around the room, fixed into the eyes of the students. He had explained that rule very slowly, taking care that each of them understood and leaving it to their imaginations of the outcome should they disobey him.

The bell rang loudly. The halls outside the classroom were noisy with the sound of the students' endless chatter.

Inside the class, no one stirred. The room held it's breath; waiting, watching.

The corner of his mouth quirked up in a barely discernible but satisfied smile, and he at last said "Have a good one," with an air of carelessness.

The students did not need to be told twice; the class was filled with the sounds of chair legs scrapping the polished linoleum floors and the quiet murmurs of the students as they shuffled out of the classroom.

Kagome could stand the tension no longer. As soon as the last of her classmates left, she swung her bag over her shoulders and stomped over toward the desk at the front of the now deserted class where Sesshomaru was placing papers inside a briefcase. As soon as she got to the end of the table, she slammed her hands palms out onto the wooden desk. Sesshomaru looked up from his papers, his golden eyes meeting her with mild astonishment.

"Okay Sesshomaru," she said fiercely, "I've waited long enough and I feel that I deserve an explanation: What's the deal? What the hell are you doing here?"

"Excuse me?" He growled. It was more of a warning than a question.

She couldn't believe this guy! Why was he still acting like he didn't know her? Kagome rolled her eyes and scoffed, "Drop the act, Sesshomaru; I know it's you!"

Sesshomaru took the papers he had grasped in his hands and forcibly slapped their edges with a bang on the table.

He frowned as he said with a dangerous edge to his voice, "Miss Higurashi I don't know who this 'Sesshomaru' is, but I can assure you that I am not him. My name is Takehiko Hiroto. I am your math teacher and I will not take that kind of attitude from anyone. So unless you want to have a very long and difficult year, I suggest you revise your tone."

Kagome blinked, momentarily perplexed. He almost did sound like a normal math teacher. No, she knew those eyes too well; yellow, otherworldly eyes; InuYasha's eyes. She wouldn't let his authoritative voice phase her and opened her mouth in a retort that would more or less imply that he was so full of crap and to stop playing games with her.

But she never got that chance.

Sesshomaru said, "But I am glad that you approached me, I meant to speak with you privately about your grades."

Kagome shut her mouth with a snap, a new wave of shock coming over her. Huh? He wanted to talk with her? Talk? Her? Sesshomaru?

"You see, Miss Higurashi," Sesshomaru said as he picked up a folder and walked around the desk to stand next to her.

Kagome jumped backward. Her eyebrows knit together and her mouth set in a tight line. His elegant eyebrow shot up in bewilderment, then narrowed as his mouth pressed into a thin, very obviously patient, line. But rather than pursue her, he remained where he was, holding the open folder faced down on his chest. He cleared his throat and continued in a dry tone. "Something tells me you haven't looked at your final scores from last year."

He paused, watching her with an evaluating gaze as what he was implying sunk into Kagome's conscious thought process. Once she was looking at him with a satisfying amount of attention, he took one step in her direction, slowly as though he was afraid he would startle her into bolting like the frightened rabbit she seemed to think she was, and held the folder up in front of her so she could clearly read the neat rows of text. "You have a 1.8 GPA." He said flatly.

Kagome's eyebrows knit together. What was he talking about? Her hand slowly rose to grasp the folder in his hands. She took it from him and brought it to her face. And finally forced her eyes from his and looked down at the text. Upon closer inspection, she saw that Sesshomaru had spoken the truth.

The blood in Kagome's veins ran cold. It was like a bad horror movie; like some weird sort of alternate universe! Kagome lost the feeling in her legs and sat back on the corner edge of the desk to stop her from falling. Then her arms felt numb and they fell at her sides, onto the table's surface, her fingers releasing the folder she held in her hand. She felt like the entire room was spinning and compressing her, slowly suffocating her and making her warmer. She felt incredibly empty in that moment; like how one would feel when they heard the sound of glass shattering: like the entire world had been abruptly halted and wouldn't start up again.

"...What should I do?" she murmured to herself.

"Well for starters," Sesshomaru said. "You'll need to get perfect scores in all of your classes, not to mention pass all your exams with flying colors. And if you have any hope into getting into college, you'll need to get into some extra curricular activities. Which," he continued flatly, eyeing her "I really can't see you doing since you barely show up for school as it is. Since that's how you've gotten yourself into this predicament in the first place."

For a moment, Kagome completely forgot that she was talking to the demon Sesshomaru and simply stared at her new math teacher as he summarized her worst nightmare come alive.

"Miss Higurashi," he said with grave importance. "If you continue this downward spiral, you'll be in danger of not graduating."

Kagome's shoulders sagged, her chin dropped, and she stared down at the floor. Her eyes widened in disbelief, she sucked in her breath through her teeth; it felt as though she'd been punched in the gut. Only much, much worse. Her mind felt like an endless desert, his words like a tumbleweed, stumbling across the plain and echoing loudly in her ears: GPA of 1.8...barely show up for school...danger of not graduating...

"...which is why we need to start immediately," Sesshomaru said, shutting his briefcase with a snap.

Kagome was shaken from her thoughts; she had completely, inadvertently tuned him out and had missed everything he had just said. "Start?" she asked, bewildered as she turned her torso to face him.

"Your tutoring Miss Higurashi," Sesshomaru said, standing upright at his desk. He turned his head ever so slightly to look at her. "I'm not having a student of mine fail high school because she didn't get her act together. We'll start tomorrow, meet me here after class. I hope that this year will make us both successful."

His golden eyes locked on hers, but that wasn't what made Kagome's breath catch, her heart skip a beat and make her feel as though she were glued to the spot: but it was Sesshomaru's smile. He seemed to become radiant with it: his eyes shined twice as bright and his face glowed. It was an honest-to-God, genuine smile. All feelings that Kagome had harbored for him in the past melted away; she even forgot what she had been thinking and feeling mere moments ago.

"...you'd better go home now; I'm sure you're quite tired of today," he said.

She didn't need to be told twice. Obediently she shut her mouth, which had become slightly ajar before she could allow bugs access into her throat, jumped up from the desk's corner, quickly spun around to face the doorway and bustled out the door onto the halls filled with student's trivial chatter as fast as she could. Then she practically sprinted down out onto the school's grounds, and totally disregarded her friends calling out for her as her legs went as fast as they could to carry her to her house.

The world was spinning beyond comprehension and felt as though it were boiling over; she just wanted to go home, hide under the covers of her bed and squeeze her eyes shut; maybe even click her heels three times like Dorothy. She thought that maybe by doing so, she could wake up from this horrible, horrible nightmare where nothing made any sense!

It had to be a dream; because there would be no way in hell that Sesshomaru would be her teacher and for some inexplicable reason not remember the little miko who helped his little half-brother cut his arm off five hundred years in the past in order to stop him from getting his father's sword that he would no doubt use for pure evil, that her grades would be in the crapper, and there was absolutely NO FUCKING WAY THAT SESSHOMARU WOULD OFFER-NO, NOT EVEN OFFER, BUT TO TELL HER THAT HE WAS GOING TO HELP HER BRING HER GRADES UP AT TUTORING TOMORROW, AND SMILE AT HER ALL IN ONE DAY!

WHAT THE FUCK WAS GOING ON?