Chapter 8: Noh Mask Part 1


"I already told you, I'll be back as soon as I can!" Kagome shouted as he was on his bike being chased by Inuyasha but stopped when she jumped in front of him.

"What about the Shikon Jewel?" Inuyasha asked, standing in between Kagome and the Well, arms crossed.

"I have exams this week, that can wait." Kagome replied, he knew that he had missed about a week of school and being a third year middle school student, High School entrance exams were coming in a few months so he wanted to be prepared. "Besides, didn't we get a shard the other day?" He recalled to their encounter with Amari Nobunaga and how they helped him rescue Princess Tsuyu from a toad demon who had a shard of the jewel.

"Two measly shards aren't enough!" Inuyasha countered.

"I can't let my grades slip up because of you, my attendance is already poor and if I don't keep up my grades chances are I won't make it into a good High School." Kagome explained, starting to lose his patience at her stubbornness.

"I'm not letting you leave until we find more jewel shards!" Inuyasha barked

"Tell you what, if you let me go back, when I return I'll bring you more of those chips you like." Kagome said

That seemed to do the trick, Inuyasha's ears twitching a bit at that. "Really?" She asked with slight intrigue.

"Of course, we're gonna need more food, since you already ate most of the food I had brought from the last trip ." He said while wondering how someone like Inuyasha could eat so much.

"Alright, but you better bring back those spicy ones" Inuyasha said as she stepped out of the way.

"Thanks, I'll be back in three days, so don't come until then." Kagome shouted as he jumped into the well and vanished in a flash of light.


"Hey Grandpa? Is that prayer really gonna work?" Sota asked his grandfather as they were both inside the well house.

"Of course it will! This is an authentic prayer that has been passed down through generations!" His grandfather exclaimed as he threw some papers into the well and began chanting.

"But you've been at it for three days and Kagome hasn't come back…" Sota said bored.

"Now for the sacred rice wine…" the elderly priest said, dumping a bucket of it down the well at the same time Kagome appeared at the bottom of the well and got splashed with the liquid. "Ahh! Kagome, you're back!" His Grandfather exclaimed.

"What a welcome this is…" Kagome remarked sarcastically, sniffing his clothes. "Is that sake…?"


A while later, after he had taken a quick shower, Kagome was sitting at the table, eating dinner.

"Thanks mom, I haven't had a good meal like this in a while."

"Of course, dear," replied Mrs Higurashi, holding up a new school uniform. "And don't worry, I got you an extra uniform while your old one is in the wash."

"Thanks, again," said Kagome as he began to eat.

"Hey, bro?" asked Sota. "Where's that dog-eared girl?"

"You mean Inuyasha?" She's back on the other side of the well." Kagome replied after he finished chewing.

"Come to think of it, you didn't really introduce your new friend, properly, now did you?" His mother asked

"Well, the circumstances were pretty...umm...serious," Kagome answered. "There wasn't time for a proper introduction."

"I see," His mother said with a slightly amused smile. "Well, maybe you ought to bring her over, sometime."

"Bring Inuyasha here?" He asked and then imagined what would happen if he brought her over to the modern world, an image of a confused Inuyasha formed in his head and he let out a small laugh. "Maybe one day." He answered, finishing his food and after washing the plate, he walked up to his room and laid in bed finally having some time to himself as he set down the glass bottle containing the two Jewel shards they had collected so far on a desk.

Something had been bothering him ever since their encounter with Seshomaru but he hadn't had any time to thing about it until now. 'Saved by a girl...how embarrassing...' Kagome thought to himself. Traditionally, it was supposed to be the other way around, with the guy rushing in to rescue the girl from danger. However, during their confrontation with Sesshomaru, he had been utterly ineffective, relegated to a mere spectator on the sidelines unable to help Inuyasha. True, Inuyasha was a half-demon, and logically, that made her stronger than him, but he didn't want her to take on every enemy by herself. They were supposed to be a team, after all. 'She even said she had to protect me... I don't want to be a burden, I need to become stronger if I want to be of any use in this jewel hunt…and so she can stop calling me useless too!'


The next morning after they had finished eating Kagome and Sota got into their uniforms and left for school. The older sibling stopped at the shrine and looked at the well, before running to school. At school he found his three friends, Guy, Daisuke and Kenji, standing out in the front.

"Hey guys…" Kagome said and they turned and looked at him in surprise.

"Long time no see, Kagome, you sure you're okay enough to be at school?" Kenji, the one with glasses, asked . When Kagome looked at him in confusion, he elaborated "Your grandpa told us you didn't come because your back had given out. "

"I thought It was because he had Rheumatism?" Guy said

Kagome could only groan as he facepalmed. When he told his grandfather to make up excuses for his recent string of absences, he expected him to make up things like 'Oh, he's away on a trip' or 'I'm afraid he has a cold', not to tell the school faculty that he has the kind of diseases that an old person would have.

"Kagome! You're here!"

"Huh?" Kagome muttered before he turned to see a teenage girl with long, light brown hair wearing a school uniform akin to the ones that female students on campus were wearing. Her name was Haruka Hojo but everyone just called her Hojo.

"Oh, hey Hojo." Kagome greeted her

"Hey, Kagome," Hojo greeted back. "How are your bunions?"

"My...bunions?" asked Kagome. "Oh! Right! My bunions…they're all better now." he then chuckled, sheepishly.

"What about your gout?" asked Hojo. "Is that okay, too?"

"G-gout?!" Kagome questioned before he shook his head. "I-I mean, yes! Yes, I've recovered from that, too..."

'Just wait until I get home gramps'

"Here you go," Hojo said as she handed Kagome something that was wrapped up in blue paper, tied up with a little red ribbon. "This is from our family's shop. My Mom wrapped it up for you. Hope you like blue."

"Thanks…I guess?" said Kagome while his friends stood nearby, watching. "Umm...what is it?"

"Open it and see," said Hojo, which prompted him to unwrap the present and see that it was a pair of large sandals with some sort of bumps inside them.

"Oh...how nice," Kagome said with a forceful smile. "They're...sandals."

"Therapeutic sandals for your bunions," said Hojo before she turned and left. "Well, see ya later! Get well, Kagome!"

"Uh...yeah, sure." Kagome replied, awkwardly.

"Kagome?!" Kenji asked as he, Guy, and Daisuke gathered around him. "Are you going out with Hojo?"

"What?!" Kagome questioned, surprised. "You know I don't have time for...girlfriends." he added trying to hide his embarrassment

"Man, Hojo is totally crushing on you!" Daisuke commented.

"I'm glad for you man, just be sure to tell us how it goes down." Daisuke said, elbowing Kagome.

"Come on you guys!" Kagome complained.


Sometime later, Kagome was now sitting in the classroom with his friends sitting around him talking.

"What?!" asked Kenji. "You mean Hojo has never talked to you before, at all?!"

"Not once," Kagome confirmed.

"You're kidding me, right?" Guy asked. "Aren't you even just a little excited?!"

"Or it could be that you've already got a girlfriend." Daisuke suggested

"That's not true!" Kagome snapped, not intending for his voice to get as loud as it did as the entire class's attention turned to him because of his outburst.

'I don't have a girlfriend…'

"...Higurashi, stand in the hall," the teacher said sternly, not amused.

"Yes sir…" Kagome responded looking embarrassed as he walked out the classroom.


Meanwhile, back in the Feudal Era, Inuyasha was lying on Kaede's roof with her arms behind her head and one leg propped up. She looked up at the clouds as they drifted by, then heaved a small sigh. The only problem was...she was bored.

"Man..." she muttered. "What am I supposed to do, now? I can't really look for the jewel shards without him since he's the only one who can sense them." She then yawned and stretched out a bit. "Oh, well...guess I'll take a nap."

As she began to close her eyes, she was startled by someone calling her name.

"Inuyasha!"

"AAAAAAH!" Inuyasha screamed as she almost fell off the roof before she looked down and saw Kaede, who stared up at her.

"Stop lazing about!" she called. "Get off ye duff and seek out some information on the Sacred Jewel shards!"

"And if ye hadn't noticed," Inuyasha began, "Kagome ain't here! How am I supposed to find the shards without his help?!" She sighed and leaned back against the roof again.

"These three days are gonna be longer than I thought…" she grumbled.


Back at the Higurashi Shrine, Kagome's Grandfather was just finishing up the long, hard task of sweeping up the steps. His daughter was out shopping at the store, so she wouldn't be back for at least three hours, thus leaving the old shrine-keeper to do the chores on his own. However, as he made his way back up the stairs, his nose suddenly caught the smell of burning wood. He gasped before he hurried over to the shrine's storage shed and gasped upon seeing that flames were beginning to grow from it.

"Oh, no!" he cried. "This is terrible! The storage shed is on fire!"

That's when he noticed the box on one of the shelves, and strangely enough, it seemed that that was where the flames were originating from as the sutras began to burn away and the box broke open, revealing some sort of wooden mask that looked like a woman's grinning face with scars all over it.

"Ah!" cried the old Shinto priest. "The Mask of Flesh that had been sealed inside the box has burned through the talismans that have kept it bound for generations!"

"...A...body...!" the Mask droned. "I must have...a body!"

The old man grabbed a bucket of "sacred" sake and doused himself with it, then reached inside his robes and pulled out several talismans.

"My great-great-great-great grandfather exorcized that mask, long ago!" he exclaimed. "The Mask of Flesh was said to have possessed terrifying malevolent! I must do everything I can to seal it away, again!" He then threw the sutras at the mask, but the paper slips burned away!

"I need...a body!" the Mask demanded as it flew around the room, spreading flames everywhere. "I must have a body!"

It then landed on an old suit of samurai armor, which rattled and shook as the Mask began to take hold of it...only for the armor to crumble and fall apart.

"Must have...a human body!" the Mask shouted.

a burning rafter then fell on top of Kagome's grandfather, causing him to scream in pain.

"Give me, FLESH AND BLOOD!" the Mask yelled as it flew toward the old man.


Kagome had just gotten out of school and was on his way home when all of a sudden, he heard the wailing of a fire engine, and sure enough, one sped right by him from behind. At first, he didn't think much of it...until it turned to the left, the direction in which the Higurashi Shrine was, causing him to look puzzled before he went after it. There, he saw that a large crowd of people had gathered below the shrine's steps, being held back by police officers while several firefighters were heading towards the grounds with hoses. He could also see an ambulance with two paramedics carrying a gurney down the stairs...and Kagome gasped upon seeing that it was his grandfather.

"Grandpa?!"

"Everyone, stay back!" shouted one of the officers. "For your own safety, please stay behind the tape!"

"Lemme through!" Kagome shouted as he pushed his way past the crowd and under the tape, but was stopped by a policewoman who grabbed him by the shoulder.

"Wait a minute!" she said. "You can't go up there!"

"You don't understand." Kagome replied. "I live here." he then pulled his shoulder out of the woman's grip before he hurried up the steps, where he found his mother speaking with a policeman.

"Thank you so much, officer," His mother said while the officer saluted her.

"Mom!" Kagome shouted as he ran to his mother's side. "Is everything okay? What happened?"

"Everything's all right, Kagome," his mother assured. "The storage shed caught on fire and they found your grandfather under a support beam."

"What?!"

"Don't worry," his mother said reassuringly. "He's on his way to the hospital right now, and they're going to treat him there. I'm actually about to go with them."

"I'll go with you too," he said looking at the ambulance.

"No, Kagome, your brother's going to be home soon, and he'll need someone here to look after him and explain things to him while I'm gone. Please, just do that for me, okay?"

"...Okay, Mom," Kagome said reluctantly before he looked over to the burnt remains of the shed.

'How in the world did the shed catch fire, anyway?'


Meanwhile, inside the shed, the firefighters had managed to finally stop the fire and were trying to find the source. So far, however, they found nothing: just drenched wood from the hoses. However, as one firefighter looked around, he could've sworn he saw something moving around in one of the puddles.

"Huh?" he muttered before he looked inside. "What's that?"

A pause...but then something leaped out of the water and latched itself onto his face, causing him to scream in pain as he grabbed his head.

"Huh?" one of the other firefighters present noticed and ran over to check on him. "Hey! What's the matter?! Are you all right?!"

Suddenly, the screaming stopped...then the firefighter pulled his hands away, revealing the Mask of Flesh, somehow plastered on his face!

"W-what is that-" the other firefighter asked before he was suddenly pinned to the floor! "AAAGGH! HEY! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?! LET GO!"

"I need a body..." the Mask hissed. "I must have a body!"

To be continued…


Notes: Honestly I didn't wanna leave it off at this but I didn't want to write something that was over 2.5K words since usually I try to make each chapter about 2-3K words and this arc wouldnt be completed within that wordcount. Anyways the Kazuki/Kazuo name changes I mentioned last chapter will be starting next chapter and the previous chapters will be changed accordingly as we'll, probably gonna start naming these chapters as well.