a/n: I do not own Inuyasha or Goblin: the Lonely and Great God

Chapter Four

Kagome hopped down the stairs, trying to distract her attention from her friends' noisy banter. Eri, Yuka, and Ayume all walked in a huddled group around her as they driveled on about their high school's newest gossip. The miko could hardly believe that in the past hour yet another new piece of meat had been exposed for the girls to giggle about. Seriously. It was like they lived in one of those ridiculous reality shows.

"What do you think Kags?" Eri asked, her excited voice bring the girl from her thoughts.

Frowning, Kagome had not a single idea of how to respond. "I...think it's great?"

The girls all gasped and looked back and forth from one another. "But...she's just an underclassman! A first year."

"Oh, then maybe it's not great? Who am I to judge. They can do what they want," she shrugged, not entirely positive she was deflating the situation. In fact, she was pretty sure she was feeding their fire.

Yuka gasped with a scandalized look before she leaned over with a mischievous grin. "Why Kagome, I didn't know you had that sort of mindset."

Okay, abort abort, went the little sirens in her head. Pulling away from her friends, she started to edge toward the opposite direction that they were heading in. "Well, you know guys I'm actually going this way! Mama wanted me to pick up Souta from school."

Before her friends could protest, she gave them a falsely sweet wave and ran off. A sigh escaped her chest when she was far enough from them and she slowed her pace. Honestly, she loved those girls to pieces, she did. But sometimes, they were just a little too rambunctious for her-and not in a good way. That was the modern world though, people lost the quiet reserve that she had gotten used to in the Fuedal Era.

Her feet pulled her towards her brother's school, her mind totally lost in thought. She didn't notice the man edging in closer from behind her. His black bangs bounced on his forehead as he sidled up to her side, his hand gripping her shoulder.

Shocking her back to reality, she pulled away from the light grasp, her eyes completely wide and warning. Her reiki spiked as strong youki brushed against hers in an appeasing way, as if trying to say that the man was non-threatening. When she finally got a good look at him, her mouth fell open into a small 'o' and her eyes blinked in disbelief.

"I…" Her voice caught in her throat for a second before she spoke much more confident. "Inuyasha?"

He was different, that much was certain. His hair was black, like it would have been on the night of the full moon, and he had cut it short enough to wear only a little ponytail stuck out from the back of his head-much like Miroku's. An American baseball cap was clutched in his hand, while he wore a puffy, red leather jacket. It felt strange to see him in a t-shirt and jeans. But it felt strange to see him in general. She didn't question why he didn't have the subjugation beads on, she didn't care.

"Inuyasha!" She greeted again, her arms flying open before she threw them around his neck, hugging him tightly.

The moment didn't last long.

"Oi, wench!" He snapped, easing her off in him a contrastingly gentle manner compared to his tone. "My name's not Inuyasha."

She blinked, her eyes searching his gold ones. "W...what?"

"Keh," he scoffed in such a familiar way. "My name's not Inuyasha."

Still confused, Kagome tilted her head, eyes narrowed as she looked at him. Despite the strange changes to his hair and garb, he was still very much the Inuyasha she knew. His gold eyes. His apparently never changing huffy personality. But that gentle side he hardly allowed people to see.

"Then who are you?"

His scraggly brow lifted and his eyes averted from hers. With a calming breath he returned his gaze to hers, and held out a small pink coin purse clutched between clawed fingers. He shook his hand slightly, as if proving to her that he was offering it.

The miko looked at him with suspicion until she realized it was the coin purse she kept in the pocket of her blazer. Her hand slipped quickly into the left pocket of her jacket before realizing that said coin purse was missing. Immediately she grabbed the item from him and bowed quickly.

"Thank you!"

"You dropped it when you were running like an idiot a while ago," he sniffed, crossing his arms over his chest.

Her cheeks flushed and she almost had half a thought to sit him. But she didn't. Because he still hadn't lost that sense of formality one keeps with strangers. He did not recognize her.

"I'm Kagome," she reached out her hand to shake his, maybe he would realize it was her now.

He stared at her outstretched hand before shrugging. "I didn't need to know that, stupid."

And with that, he walked away with a non-committal wave, goodbye. His shoed feet, shoed feet, carrying him in the opposite direction she had come from. Her eyes followed him and she felt like calling after him. Running toward him. Something to get him to remember her. As Kagome thought about it, she would have bet her heart that was Inuyasha. It could not have been anyone else. But then again, was it like the youki she had felt this morning…

Had she imagined it?

a/n: I'm sorry it's such a short chapter, today was a really horrible day for my career as a writer and...I'm having a lot of issues as a writer. I promise this won't affect this story much since I've just started but...If the next few chapters are short, please forgive. Y'all deserve so much better. This is the last time I will leave such an emotional note about my personal life, since it has nothing to do with my work here. I just...needed to vent I guess, to a face that won't care either way.

Thank you to everyone who left a review.

Have a good day lovelies.