At age thirteen, Higurashi Kagome was something of an anomaly to her classmates. She didn't watch television, read magazines, eat out at restaurants, go to the cinema, or even go to the mall, unless she absolutely had to. She very rarely wore regular clothes unless she was out in public – school not counting as "public" since classes were all held at Shinto shrines – instead preferring to wear beautiful kimono and yukata, and komageta instead of normal shoes. Needless to say, even though her classmates didn't know quite what to think of her, they, their parents, and the teachers all utterly adored her.
It wasn't even just because Kagome was very proper, well-mannered, and dressed like an old-fashioned (as in, like, the Feudal Era fashion) Lady of Quality, either. Because just about everyone in her class knew that that girl had a set of lungs on her, and if you pissed her off badly enough, your ears would be bleeding for an hour afterwards – and you'd be half-deaf for the rest of the day, and you may or may not have a scrambled brain with confusion because of the words she used! Despite her appearance, no Lady actually spoke like that, so it was always a shock if somebody truly pissed her off.
None of the teachers, parents, or adults around her – excepting the man who she called Sesshōmaru (the man who, just a few of the students knew to be the Taishō Sesshōmaru that owned like half of Nihon, but the rest were—probably intentionally—blind of) seemed to know about her wild tongue, though, because she was such a sweetheart and a Lady around them. None of them ever actually pissed her off, after all, unlike the kids with whom she attended school at times. A set of about ten students all rotated out of their classes depending on where they were, what time of the year it was, and what class it was – these ten students were there this year, but it had been twelve last year, seven the year before, etc. There were only eight of them that Kagome had gone to school with since halfway through Kindergarten, and even those eight Kagome sometimes had trouble keeping her temper with. Although, admittedly, it tended to just be two of the group that repeatedly earned her ire.
However, her unmistakeable temper, intolerance for any kind of favouritism (especially directed towards her person, which meant that their teachers were all very careful not to let it show… Not that it mattered. All her classmates knew that for one, Kagome could tell anyhow, because Kagome could read people's hearts like they were the morning news, and for two, their classmate hated the favouritism), and abhorrence of bullying made Kagome more approachable than her differences set her apart.
Especially when people found out she had a very varied sense of humour, loved to listen to people, had an absolutely stunning singing voice (and knew songs from so many languages it was dizzying), could play the flute and the shamisen very prettily indeed, and knew loads of neat stuff – not just old-fashioned stuff, either.
Whenever anyone asked what Kagome-san (she refused to let her classmates call her Higurashi-san; insisting that they might not always agree on things, or be close to each other, but they were still very dear friends to her) did with all of her free time, she simply laughed and said that she didn't have free time, because her grandpa and his friends were very old-fashioned, and insisted that she learn a lot more than she got taught in school.
That just confused pretty much everybody, even the teachers; her teachers all thought her a prodigy, which felt – and in her opinion distinctly was – insulting to the teenager because she wasn't a genius, dammit! She just worked very hard to do her best in absolutely everything that she did, so that she would make her alpha (and Most Important Person Forever And Ever) proud of her. It took a while, but finally one day Kagome got sick of all the questions and went to her grandpa, determined to make her teachers and classmates see that Kagome was a very busy person. One who was learning Very Important Things, that meant she had almost no free time, whatsoever! What little she had was spent reading or learning new songs, thank you very much, which was way more fun than eating out, going to films, watching television shows, or playing video games.
Of course, her classmates and teachers did not need to know that she got lessons even in her dreams, which meant they would probably come up with some more ridiculous theories – but she would have Toga (ever since she had turned ten, he refused to let her keep the -san any more) with her to help her come up with excuses. Then again; honesty really was the best policy – she'd been in lessons of one sort or another practically since she was born – and officially so since she was three. That could explain a lot of it.
Right, time to get formal – this was a big request, after all; they liked their privacy at their home. Even though they only had classes at the shrine once a fortnight (partly due to their distance compared to the other shrines, and partly because of judicious bribery in the way of donations from Sesshōmaru-kun, who, Kagome had learned was an absolute and total sweetheart, filled with love for his family; which he somehow considered her to be, despite only being Toga's littlest pack-mate), Grandpa still had difficulty dealing with it. The more people around him not related with his duty as the shrine priest, the more anxious and upset he got – Kagome was pretty sure he had social anxiety disorder, but was too kind to say that out loud. Mental health problems were stigmatised all over the world, unfortunately, despite how common they were.
He usually left the shrine to go visit a friend on class-days. Then again, they wouldn't be in the shrine, if this worked – they'd be in the forest, and since Kagome would have time to prepare for it, she wouldn't even have to use up much of their supplies. In fact, Kagome wouldn't be using any of their supplies except the traps. She had plenty of allowance saved up that she could use to provide for this outing all on her own. Toga's eyes had shone with pride when she informed him of that fact, which made her heart flutter unsteadily in her chest.
"This Kagome has a request, honoured Grandfather."
Grandpa blinked at that, nonplussed, before looking behind Kagome at Toga, who was smirking, damn it all; that meant he was most definitely not going to like this – but also that it was important to his beloved Kagome, and probably needed to be done, as so often things did with her. "I'm listening, granddaughter."
So far, so good. Kagome took in a deep breath, then let it out slowly, before inhaling more moderately the second time – doing that helped her not talk so fast that people had trouble understanding her; a problem she had when she was nervous, worried, upset, angry, or excited. "I'm having problems with my classmates and my teachers – not in a typically bad way, but in an incredibly frustrating, and worse, distracting, manner. My sensei all have me as their favourite student – and you know how I feel about that, Grandpa! And my classmates are always asking me what I do with my free time, and when I tell them that I don't have any free time they either don't believe me, or speculate the most absurd things, even though I've said repeatedly that I have more lessons than just what I get in school! I'm completely and utterly sick and tired of all this crap and really want to do something to make them all just shut up about it! Or at least talk about it knowing the truth, instead of pretending they know things they have no clue about!"
Despite her precaution, the words had been rushing out of her mouth by the end of her speech, so it took her grandpa a little while to assimilate it all and then take it in. Then he sighed and tilted his head slightly, "So, what exactly do you wish to do to remedy this?"
Kagome sat perfectly still in spite of sitting seiza – most of her classmates couldn't sit seiza for more than a few minutes at a time without squirming and being uncomfortable, but one thing Kagome was inordinately proud of was that she could sit seiza for hours without feeling the slightest bit uncomfortable – and smiled at her beloved grandpa. "I would like to invite my immediate class – none of the others in my grade, or any of the students who regularly switch out; only the eight who always share every class with me – and our four teachers, to go camping in the forest behind the shrine; suitably far back that we won't directly disturb you, but close enough that my more important sensei can all come to the clearing I have in mind and give me my lessons there, in front of my school teachers and classmates."
Before her grandfather could say anything in response, Toga spoke up, his voice filled to the brim with pride. "Our beautiful little Kagome intends on using up a portion of her saved allowance to provide all of the supplies, and to set traps for fresh meat and fish the day before they get here."
The thirteen year old blushed at how obviously and blatantly proud her alpha was of her plan (omigosh he called her beautiful! Maybe Kagome did have a chance after all, like that feeling deep in her heart kept insisting she did even though her mind sometimes couldn't believe it, because Toga was just so perfect, Kami), and smiled a quiet, happy smile to herself – one that her grandpa saw and almost smirked at. He had no doubt that his granddaughter had completely fallen for her alpha as sure as her alpha had fallen for her twice over; and, now that she was getting older, that her alpha was most definitely on – more like barrelling down – his third trip down that road. "You may do this thing, Kagome – but on one condition."
She bounced, ever so slightly, before settling herself back down and chirping out, "Yes, Grandpa, what must this Kagome do?"
"I want Toga supervising this trip; I do not know your school teachers very well, after all. This will also be a bit of a test – I know very well that you can use your reiki to conceal his presence; but this time you are going to keep him solid and opaque for the entirety of the time this is going on. Of course, because he is not related to you and others would find it amiss for you to have an adult male sharing your tent, he will have to be in canine form, excepting when he is being your bow-sensei. Do you think you can do this for me, Kagome?"
Kagome nodded intently, "Definitely, Grandpa! This Kagome will not let you or Toga down. It'll be a little weird sleeping with Toga as a dog again, but I definitely won't need a blanket, because Toga is super fluffy!"
Despite the huff she heard behind her, Kagome knew that her alpha was grinning; the fact that she loved his canine form (especially his enormous, full-sized version, oh Kami it made her want to bury herself in his fur and sleep on him and/or snuggle him forever) made Toga incredibly pleased with her. Even more so when she told him that she liked him better because his real self was that, instead of his (oh-so-incredibly handsome) humanoid form.
Kagome didn't hate ningen as a whole any more (that had been very silly of her to ever do, but she had been a child, and even the smartest children saw the world largely in black and white, instead of shades of grey like it really was), but she still disliked most of their actions, and wished they could live alongside the land like yōkai traditionally did (and even in modern days still tried to do – a huge amount of the nature preserves and national parks all over the world were owned and created by yōkai – the very land she lived on was owned by Sesshōmaru-kun, after all, and it wasn't the only land he owned like this, either).
The mature-for-her-age girl knew that part of the reason she was being given so many lessons and taught so many things was because Kagome had a destiny to fulfil, and from what little Toga had told her about it, it could very well mean changing the future from what it was now into something better. Kagome knew that her alpha only had a vague idea of what would happen – but that he definitely had plans, involving her, and she was ever so incredibly happy to be trusted so much.
Their conversation was over now, though, so Kagome walked to her bedroom, Toga at her side as they reclined on her bed. "Okay, so! First thing's first, I need to ask all my sensei if they mind having an audience, and scheduling the ones that do mind so that their lessons are away from my class. Second, I need to ask my school teachers if they think the trip could be a good learning experience – if I phrase it like that they'll probably do it, 'specially since I am the one asking—ugh. Then once I have their permission I need to invite the eight regulars… and then I need to go shopping.
"Let's see… Eight students and four teachers, two students and one teacher to a tent; excluding me, of course, since I'll have you. So I'll need four additional tents – and since I only have about four dowels for roasting meat on, and I am way too lazy to go search out straight enough sticks for all the meat I'll be cooking, that means I have to buy more of those. I'll also need a bag of rice, a medium cast-iron pot – I can make a couple of stews – and a large cast-iron pot for the rice. Wooden bowls, spoons, and chopsticks – won't need knives, since you taught me how to make all my meat that tender. Besides; I do not trust a group of pre-teens with sharp implements. Especially if some of the guys start fighting over the girls again."
Kagome rolled her eyes with a frustrated huff. "Children, the lot of them. I don't understand why any of the girls are interested in those boys. They are insufferable braggarts, rude, annoying, and vain. Don't get me wrong – they aren't too bad when they're only being friendly; but the past couple months they have mostly stopped only being friendly and are becoming ever so much more annoying… Bleh, sorry for ranting at you Toga. Let me go get this started and call up my important sensei so I can call up my school teachers, and then call up my classmates… Sigh. Work is never done. Oh well, I'd rather be busy than bored!"
With that she dashed off, leaving behind a widely grinning Toga. His little bird was growing up so beautifully – and was definitely attracted to him. If he hadn't taught her how to keep her composure, she would be flustered and blushing practically every time he touched her. Of course, Kagome was, physically, still a little too young for a relationship – he was waiting on her trip through the well (actually, depending on her feelings, he would wait as long as she needed; Kagome was so very yōkai, though, that he didn't think she would want to wait once he felt she was old enough) to actually mate her – but… Soon, he'd tell her about their (tentative – but seeing as it depended entirely on her feelings, practically guaranteed) betrothal.
Maybe next year, when she turned fourteen… He would tell her, already – but he wasn't sure how far the attraction went, and refused to scare her off if it was only shallow yet. That would give her more time to be sure of her feelings – right now they might be simple attraction without much more than admiration, instead of love. Despite being raised yōkai, she was still born a ningen.
Unbeknownst to poor, unaware Toga, up in the heavens, Amaterasu-sama and Her comrades were busy laughing so hard that They could barely breathe. That poor daiyōkai didn't have a chance… Or a choice, either. His little mate-to-be knew herself far too well because of his training her to never lie to herself and to trust and translate her instincts; and would soon have the incentive to officially declare herself, as well.
Oh, what fun it would be!