"Noise…strange noise…what the…what is that...?"
Kagome opened one sleepy eye only to snap it quickly shut again as the bright light flooded her now present reality. Using a pillow as a shield from the cursed attacker of sleep, she wildly flung her hand around in an attempt to vanquish the buzzing until she realized after a few minutes that this strategy was getting her nowhere. Reluctantly she opened her eyes again and shut off the alarm.
"Darn it, why does it have to be the most perfect, gorgeous morning ever?"
Absently she stared out her bedroom window to the bright blue sky and two fluffy clouds that sat fat and heavy in the middle of her view. Peaking out, Kagome could see the top of the God Tree, its leaves motionless in the stillness of the morning. Immediately her mind shifted to her other life. Her friends were probably waking up to the same beautiful morning, getting ready to start up their searching again, and her heart ached to be with them. "This is just temporary," she reminded herself, "You still have a mission to complete."
In the meantime, the faint smell of eggs and bacon was beginning to creep upstairs and into her bedroom, dragging her attention away from her daydreams and back to reality. Finally finding the proper motivation to get up, she stretched and flung her feet over the edge of the bed and spotted her school uniform sitting on her desk, neatly folded. A sudden warm feeling spread from her chest as she remembered how much she missed her mother during the long periods venturing through the Feudal Era, how her mother always seemed to unconsciously know just what she needed to keep her comfortably connected to home.
Jumping quickly into her uniform and running a brush through her hair, she ran downstairs to be met with the warm aroma of cooking as it floated up the stairs to greet her. Suddenly the morning didn't seem quite so daunting, and smiling she entered the kitchen and kissed her mother on the cheek as she flipped the omelet one last time before placing it on plate and handing it to her. Sota and her Grandfather were already seated and eagerly chowing away at the food in front of them. They gave a nod of greeting in between mouthfuls but never stopped the continuous shoveling of food. Typical morning. Nothing had changed while she was gone, and she felt a peace engulf her at the familiarity of it all.
"Did you sleep well Kagome?" her mother's bright voice floated over the noise of the kitchen.
"Yes Mom. My bed never felt better." It had actually taken her a long time to fall asleep, her mind full of Inuyasha and his confession to her regarding Kikiyo and their new plan of attack. By this time the group was probably already out searching for leads as to the whereabouts of the priestess. She couldn't imagine Inuyasha would want to hold off on starting based on how passionate he was in his explanation of his current experiences. Although she fully understood the importance of the mission, there was a tug of doubt in the back of her mind. Once they found Kikiyo, what was her role going to be for the group? Would they even need her any more, or would she truly be in the way from this point on?
"Kagome?" Her mother's voice brought her back to the kitchen and she looked up to see her mother's attention fixed on her.
"I'm fine Mom," she reassured her quickly. "I'm just mentally preparing myself for all this new stuff. It's kinda a big shift from what I've been doing."
This seemed to satisfy her, and Kagome's mother returned to her kitchen duties as Kagome sat at the table with her meal. With a sigh, she began picking at her food. "Mom's so happy that I'm taking time away to do this school thing, but now that I'm committed to it, it couldn't be at a worse time. What's it going to be like when I go back? Will Inuyasha even give me the time of day with Kikiyo constantly around? No, don't be silly, of course he won't ignore me completely. Besides, I have the jewel shard with me. They're going to have to come for me eventually, and if they don't then I guess nothing is getting done anyways."
"Hey, are you going to eat that?" Sota's eyes were intently focused on the eggs and toast in front of her. Because if you're not, I'd be happy to take it off your hands."
"Didn't you get enough already?" Kagome snapped, giving her brother the best "older sister evil stare" she could currently muster.
"Hey, I'm a growing boy," Sota smiled, standing up to take his empty plate to the sink. "I can't help it if my stomach keeps making demands."
Kagome couldn't help but stare as her brother crossed the room. "He's right, he has grown," she thought in amazement. "How could I have missed it? Have I been so preoccupied with the past that I've been completely neglecting my own family?"
With so many thoughts swimming through her mind, Kagome found she no longer had any appetite despite the spread of her favorite breakfast foods. After ten minutes of pushing the food around her plate, she humbly asked her mother to wrap it up for her to take along to school. Kagome's mother asked no questions, but smiled and nodded her head to which Kagome was extremely grateful. But as she rushed back downstairs after brushing her teeth to grab her backpack and the lunch her mother had packed for her, her mother stopped her at the door.
"Why don't you walk Sota to school?" she asked with a smile, clearly more an order than a request.
"But Mom, I'm too old for that!" came Sota's reply from halfway across the courtyard, but the argument was obviously just for show because he stopped to wait for his older sister to finish gathering her things. Kagome smiled and hugged her mother who whispered, "He really missed you lately. I thought you might want to spend some time with him before you got too busy again."
"Thanks Mom."
The two took off down the long flight of stairs towards the city streets, Sota's mouth running a mile a minute. At first he talked about school, new friends, and a kickball game where he had scored the winning run. Kagome listened, inwardly beaming at her younger brother's enthusiasm, but also dreading what she knew was coming. Sota did not disappoint.
"So how long's it going to be before Inuyasha comes to get you this time? I bet he'll be pretty mad that you have to go to all this school."
Leave it to Sota to hit her top two touchy subjects in one hyperactive question.
She decided to be blunt. "Inuyasha won't be coming because I told him not to come. I'll go back when I'm done catching up with all this schoolwork."
Sota's look clearly illustrated his skepticism. "Did you two have another fight? You two are always fighting!"
"No, nothing like that…" For once that was close to the truth. "He's just got his own task he has to do right now."
Sota wasn't convinced. "Sure. So what's he doing? I didn't think he'd ever stop looking for those jewel shards he's always talking about."
"If you must know, he's looking for someone to help put it back together. It's become somewhat of a priority."
"Oh." Sota walked along quietly for a moment as he processed this information. "So does that mean Inuyasha won't be coming for visits anymore?"
"Well…" She hesitated, not wanting to upset her brother who she knew clearly idolized the half demon, but not wanting to lie to him either. "I don't know," she said finally as if admitting it out loud made it official somehow. "It defiantly won't be as often as it was before."
"You two did have a fight, didn't you," he said, eyeing her suspiciously from his position next to her.
Kagome hung her head, knowing that even her most perfect response would leave her bested by her younger brother. He was right. Even though it was completely unspoken, the two had left with more silent conflict than she ever remembered before, and despite the fact that there had been no verbal exchange this time, the emotional weight that had remained with her was crushing. Most battles with Inuyasha left her with an anger that fueled her activity until she was ready to go back and resolve things. Today her body felt heavy and thick, like it was fighting her every move. If this was how it was going to be for the next three months, she was in for a major struggle of will.
But then suddenly she felt a brush against her hand, and as she looked down she saw Sota's hand slip into hers as a blush crept into his cheeks. "It's okay, Nee-Chan. I'd rather see you more anyways."
It was all she could do to keep herself from becoming a blubbering idiot in the middle of the public street, but somehow Kagome held it together. She smiled at her younger brother who stared at the ground as if mortified that someone might see them like this, but at the same time unable to bring himself to let go. "Hey Sota," she said softly, "let's walk to school together every day, just you and me. That way even when it gets crazy we'll have a little time to spend with each other."
Sota's face lit up, and a huge grin spread instantly. "I'd like that," he said quietly. "But you have to leave before we get to the corner by school. I'd never hear the end of it if my friends thought I had to be walked to school by my sister."
"Are you kidding?" Kagome shot back. "Walking to school with an elementary school kid is like social suicide." She held back a sigh, wondering if she even had a social ranking left to destroy. Something told her it had plummeted to around the level of her grades.
Sota announced that they had reached the point in which she could safely remain in his presence, and the two parted ways for the day. Kagome spent the rest of her journey pondering just how far ahead her classmates now were in the curriculum, how many late night study sessions it would take to catch up, and whether her now extensive knowledge base of Feudal Era demonology would be of any good use to her in these next few months. She quickly decided not to spend too much time thinking about any of these topics for her sanity's sake. By the time she walked up the front steps and down the hall to her classroom, she had resolved in her mind to accept the fact that she was going to be okay with being the freak of the class as long as she passed geometry. And history. And definitely chemistry.
The classroom was bustling with excited students broken off in clusters chatting about some event that Kagome couldn't quite discern. It didn't matter. Within seconds of entering the classroom, Yuki and Eri were in her face, bright eyed and wide grinned, instantly talking a mile a minute with Ayumi right behind, waving a greeting of hello. In the midst of all the other activity, Kagome's already overwhelmed mind barely clasped on to the choice words of "dance," "formal," and "date." She opened her mouth to speak, but Yuki's excitement was overwhelming.
"They only announced it a couple of weeks ago, but a lot of people already have dates."
"Yeah Kagome," Eri pipped in, "you'd better get to work getting the word out that you're available and looking."
"What are you guys talking about!" Kagome finally blurted out, cheeks growing pinker every second. "Why does anyone need to know that I'm available?"
"Oh yeah, that's right," Yuki snapped her fingers. "Kagome's already got a boyfriend. She can just take him."
"Ooh, I bet he'll look great in a tux!" Eri squealed.
If any area of Kagome's face had not been absolutely scarlet, this was no longer the case. "I don't think he would tolerate formalwear for very long," she squeeked, a vivid image of Inuyasha clawing at a bowtie jumping to the front of her mind. Geez, if he thought the prayer beads were bad… "Besides," she continued, "I don't think I'll be seeing much of him these days."
Three jaws fell to the floor. "Kagome, you guys broke up!"
"But he was so cool!"
"How are you holding up?"
"What happened?" Eri demanded. "It was you that broke up with him, right?"
"Er, well…sorta, I guess."
"I always said there was something strange about him," Yuki announced, stamping her foot on the ground as if that made it the final word. "And that whole two-timing thing…"
"Was that it? Did he go back to that other girl?" Ayumi asked quietly.
"Um, it's a bit complicated…"
"Well, you did the right thing, and good riddance to him," Yuki said firmly. "He was nothing but trouble from the beginning." Three heads nodded in unison.
Kagome marveled at her friends' ability to shift opinion so quickly since three seconds ago they were ogling the thought of Inuyasha dressed up for the evening. "It's okay, I really don't think I'll have much time for anything these days anyways, what with all the studying I'll be doing in cram school."
But her friends weren't listening. The three were huddled together talking in rushed voices, no longer even looking at Kagome.
"Well of course we're going to have to work fast to get her an appropriate date."
"Right, before all the acceptable ones are taken."
"The best thing for her is a good rebound relationship to take her mind off things."
"Look, what is all this fuss about anyways? Why is it so important that I have a date!" Kagome blurted out finally, unable to take it anymore.
"Weren't you listening!" Yuki huffed. "The school is throwing an American-style formal dance at the end of the year for graduating students."
"With dinner and dancing and pretty dresses and everything," Ayume added.
"The whole class has been talking about it non stop," Eri chimed in.
Yuki looked serious. "It's going to be the social event of the year! You can't miss this Kagome. Your reputation is borderline as it is with all the time you've been absent this year."
"Although the stories about your exotic boyfriend did redeem you a little bit," Eri admitted with a proud smile.
Kagome choked slightly upon hearing that. She silently prayed the rumors weren't too over the top.
"I know!" Eri snapped. "It's so obvious that Hojo has always liked Kagome. We'll just slyly suggest it to him that she's finally interested and we're set."
"Uh, I think Hojo already asked Suki to go with him." Ayumi said quietly.
"What!" Eri screeched. "When did that happen!"
"I heard her talking to Yoko about it yesterday."
Kagome sighed, not horribly upset that Hojo had already found a date for this dance , but at the same time stunned and a little horrified at how much things had changed in all aspects of her life here in the present since she had last been here. Had she really been spending so much time in the past that her own time had moved on without her and left her behind? "Look," she said finally, "I'm sure it will be fine, but I need to be thinking about studying right now, not dances. Failing the entrance exams would probably be more detrimental to my social standing than missing one dance."
As if agreeing with this final statement, the bell rang, signaling the start of class, and the students scrambled to be in their seats before the instructor entered the classroom. Finally released from the blockade of her three friends, Kagome made her way towards her desk only to stop short about three steps from it. She stared for a moment, not quite knowing what to do as a slight sense of panic started to rise up her spine.
Someone was sitting in her desk. Someone she'd never seen before.
For a brief second she stood frozen, not knowing how to respond. Had the school finally dismissed her for being absent too much? Had her classmates forgotten about her and offered her desk to a new student weeks ago? Should she say something?
"Get a grip Kagome. It's not as if he's a demon or anything."
She took another step forward and cleared her throat. "Excuse me, I think you're sitting in my desk."
The boy's head turned toward her, and Kagome instantly couldn't move as that same strange feeling ran down her spine. Her eyes were locked into a pair of bright blue eyes that seemed to grab her and demand her attention. Somewhere in her sense of boggy reality she became aware that his hair was a glorious shock of gel-spiked white that was so unique yet so familiar at the same time. She also became aware that he was looking at her, an unreadable expression on his face.
"I'm sorry. The students over there said that this desk belonged to a sickly girl who never came to class. I didn't expect someone would come almost immediately to claim it." He candidly slid the chair back and stood up, never averting his gaze or the slight smile focused towards her.
Instantly Kagome felt slightly guilty for attacking the new student, but the sickly comment threw her back on to the defensive. "Well, I have been gone a while recently…but I'm back now," she quickly threw in. His sudden attention made her slightly nervous. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to be rude…"
"Not at all." He picked up his bag and moved easily to a seat towards the back of the room. Kagome sat down, still feeling a little guilty for her abrasiveness. The boy was new, after all, and she had been gone for a while. She wondered how long he had been sitting there, if she had come across as stuck up, and if he really thought she looked sickly. She was so absorbed in her mess of thoughts that she barely noticed as a wadded piece of paper hit her square in the forehead. Beside her, Eri grinned. She opened the paper.
"Who's that? He's cute! Get him to ask you to the dance!" jumped out at her in bubbly handwriting. Kagome groaned.
"Higurashi?" The instructor's voice rang clearly in the now silent room.
"Yes sir," she replied sheepishly, standing up slowly to face him.
"It's good to see you back. Now hand over that paper please."
………………………………………………………………………………………………
Her day was only half over, and already she was ready to crawl into bed.
Kagome slowly made the final leg of the walk to the cram school, dreading each step along the way. She had just spent the entire day finding out just how behind she had fallen in school, and her reward for this was to be piled up with more work in order to catch up on the work she had missed. Somehow the process wasn't quite adding up, and thinking about it was giving her a headache. For about the hundredth time that day she seriously considered turning around and heading straight for the well, even just to hide from the mountain of geometry that threatened to crush her at any moment.
"No, you can't go back. You've got to do this."
Silently in her head she calculated the days left in her sentence and tried not to cry.
"You're so far behind. You need to do this to keep up," the voice in her head continued.
Her feet, on the other hand, seemed determined to move as slowly as possible.
"Think of how disappointed your mom will be if you don't pass the entrance exam and have to repeat a grade."
She sighed and picked up her pace, wondering how a voice in her own head could out argue her.
As she rounded the final corner she noticed a small crowd of young people milling around the entrance to a large gray building, some chatting excitedly, some looking annoyed, others quietly standing around with a sick look that Kagome was sure her own face mirrored. Ever since she had reached the age where cram school became an option, rumors had flown amongst her classmates regarding it. It was full of brainiacs. It was a haven for thugs who were forced back to school after being expelled. It was a last chance for the truly stupid to prove they could cope in an intelligent society. Looking around, Kagome decided there was an inkling of truth to all the stories.
"How did I end up here?" she groaned silently.
She really didn't need to go into details for herself regarding that question.
Glancing up again, Kagome noticed the students were starting to funnel in through the large front doors. Quickly deciding it was not in her best interest to be late on her first day, Kagome picked up her pace to join the cluster. As she muscled through the crowd, she found herself being swept down the hallway in an unceasing wave of students of all ages including an overwhelming number of elementary age children running at high speeds around the older students. Twice on her way down the hall she was nearly knocked down, but after the third child nearly sent her to the ground, she decided it was time to take a stand.
"Hey! Little brat, why don't you watch where you're-"
She froze, a creepy chill running up her spine setting her body into a defensive mode she had only ever sensed in the Feudal Era, and for the split second after the final child bounced into her sending her on a direct pathway towards the hard floor, time seemed unwilling to move. She shut her eyes, preparing herself for the inevitable pain that was to accompany her collision with the linoleum. From somewhere she heard her books hit the ground with a loud thud as her body hit something slightly soft but sturdy at the same time. Just as her mind processed the fact that she was still in a more or less upright position, she felt something wrap around her body, giving her an extra bit of security that she really was going to be spared some bruises today. Shocked, but slightly relieved, Kagome peeked out to see the light flesh tone of an arm sitting just inches from her face. "Inuyasha?" her mind instantly flashed, but her sense of reality broke through, dismissing the potential. This was the present. There was no way.
"Are you okay? You're not hurt, are you?"
The voice registered a hint of familiarity, and Kagome finally brought herself to look at her savior. Her eyes glanced up to meet a pair of striking blue eyes and spiky pure white hair. At the realization of who it was, her stomach continued to do flips. It was him, the new boy from class that she had kicked out of her desk, and he was looking right at her from about six inches from her face, a small smile touching his lips. Her jaw just couldn't seem to stay closed.
"Those kids should learn to dodge a little better if they're going to be running in here."
"Uh, yeah, really," Kagome managed, finally somewhat finding her voice. She stood up and brushed off her uniform a couple of times. "I'm so sorry for knocking into you like that."
"No problem," his grin seemed to grow ever so slightly. "I mean, if it had to happen…"
"Well, still, thanks for preventing a worse disaster. A nice bloody nose would have been a great way to start my first day here."
"Yeah, kinda like adding insult to injury…or maybe injury to insult. Depends on how you want to look at it."
She giggled, feeling a little better. Still, her stomach was refusing to settle.
"So, since we seem to be fated to meet on multiple occasions now, it would be nice to know your name," the boy continued.
His grin just wouldn't go away, and it was mesmerizing. Kagome couldn't help but think that Eri was right- he really was good looking. He was taller than her by a good three or four inches with a slender athletic build that reminded her of the boys that ran track at school. From her encounter with his upper body, Kagome was aware that he definitely did something to keep himself in shape, a fact that she probably didn't really need to know already having just met him this morning for the first time. His face was lean and angular with a touch of color as if he's been out in the sun recently, but his most striking feature was without a doubt the contrast between his clear blue eyes and the carefully sculpted mess of short clean white spikes at the top of his head. Out of habit, Kagome found herself looking for a pair of pointed ears amongst the hair, but quickly found a pair of standard human ears placed right where anyone would expect them to be. She shook her head.
"I'm Kagome," she spouted, finally focusing back to the present.
"Well Kagome, it's nice to meet you. I'm Kanota," she heard him say as she realized that she was no longer looking at him because at some point he had bent down and started picking up her spilled books. "If you don't mind me asking," he continued as he stood up with the offering and handed it to her, "you don't seem like the type of girl who needs to be attending a cram school, so what brings you here?"
There was no use straying from the well-known story that had been circulating around her classmates from the beginning. "I've had, uh, a bit of a long spell of illnesses and missed a lot of school. I tried keeping up at home for a while, but it just got out of control." She was amazed at how easy this particular lie was becoming for her to repeat time after time. "My mom thought it would be a good idea to get a heavy intensive review before the entrance exams."
Kanota nodded. "I suppose it's not a bad idea, but you can't be looking forward to all the extra class time." He smiled that dazzling smile that Kagome was finding herself absolutely mesmerized by. "I would think you'd rather be out shopping or eating at WacDonalds or pretty much anywhere else but here."
She wasn't about to tell him that she would rather be off hunting demons about five hundred years in the past, but given the option of a burger or an afternoon of geometry, only a vegetarian would really be struggling with the decision.
Especially if Kanota was offering to come too.
Instantly Kagome was appalled by her own mind. What was she thinking! Wasn't her life complicated enough already without adding another boy to the mix?
"So what about you?" she asked instead. "How did you end up here?"
"My dad travels a lot for work, often for extended periods, and since my mom is gone, my siblings and I have to go with him. I guess I'm kinda like you. I tried to study on my own, but now I need a pretty good review or I'll be repeating this year too."
"Wow, that's rough, but all the places you've been must have been exciting."
"It's alright, but sometimes it gets pretty frustrating having to leave as soon as it seems like you've finally settled in. Pretty hard to keep any friends."
From all around them an alarm sounded, and the crowd in the hallway started to focus direction on their individual destinations. Kagome felt a slight bubble of disappointment that the conversation had to end here. Stupid cram school just seemed to be getting in the way of all the more decent things in her life these days. Still, just because he was nice enough to pick up her books and chat for a little while didn't really mean anything. Passing the entrance exams on the other hand was quickly elevating to a panic-level crisis, especially after her first day back at school.
Kanota stopped in front of one of the doorways and turned toward her as he looked at a piece of paper in his hand. "I think this is my stop," he said in a mellow tone as if he could handle anything beyond that door.
"Yeah, I'd better get going too," Kagome nodded, "even though my first five minutes here were almost a total disaster."
Kanota let out a small laugh. "I hope it's improved a bit since then. It probably can't be any worse."
"It certainly did improve," she thought, praying silently that her face didn't look as red as it felt.
"Good luck Kagome. If you survive, I hope I'll see you in class tomorrow."
"We'll have to compare notes sometime to see who has it worse," she replied with a wave.
Kanota's eyes seemed to flicker with something she couldn't quite read as he said, "I'm looking forward to it," and disappeared through the classroom door.
For a brief moment Kagome couldn't seem to move, nor could she explain the strange shiver that ran up and down her spine that was unlike anything she'd ever felt before. She pondered the strange reaction until she realized that she was about ten seconds away from being shut out of her first day of class. Frantic, she took off down the hall, nearly taking out a few small children lingering around before slipping in through the classroom door as the final bell toned the mechanical ring that signaled the start of class. Kagome quickly claimed a seat toward the back of the room next to the window. It became the perfect spot for allowing her mind to daydream about white-haired boys.
………………………………………………………………………………………………
Inuyasha was quickly growing irritated.
So far their searching had led them absolutely nowhere. For the last two days they had traveled amongst the last known whereabouts of Kikiyo without finding so much as a trace of the priestess. Naraku and his minions hadn't bothered to show their faces either. It was if they had all fallen off the face of the earth somehow. As if that wasn't enough, Shippou just wouldn't seem to shut up about Kagome being gone, even after receiving a few clobberings to remind him his comments were definitely not appreciated. Especially since he knew the fox demon was right. It just wasn't the same without Kagome in the mix.
Inuyasha quickly dismissed the thought. There was no point in dwelling on it since there was nothing he could do about it at this particular moment. Right now they were getting close to sunset, and needed to find a secure area where they could spend the night since there were no towns anywhere nearby. Miroku had mentioned a while ago about needing to find food and-
Suddenly, without warning, Inuyasha froze as a strange feeling ran though his body, a feeling unlike anything he'd ever felt before, yet strangely his mind had no problem comprehending the reaction. Kagome. She was in danger. But it made no sense to him.
"Inuyasha, is anything the matter?" Miroku spoke from behind him.
"Nah, it's nothing," he replied, feeling almost like he was trying to convince himself just that. He shrugged the feeling off as best he could, wondering what in the world could have caused the strange sensation. After all, Kagome was back in her own time. What danger could she possibly be in there?