Chapter 2: Maybe We Can Glue It Back On

Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha

Slice.

Silence.

Only silence followed as everyone in the room watched as Kagome's long, beautiful raven black hair fell uselessly to the floor.

"I will be going to the Elite School for Archers in my brother's place." Kagome said in confidence breaking the silence as she held her head up high, silently daring her parents to object.

"Wha-what did you do?" Kenji asked as big tear streams poured out of his eyes. He walked to where Kagome's hair laid on the floor before kneeling down to gather clumps of black shiny hair in his hands. "Why would you cut your valuable hair!?" He sobbed as he held the strands to his cheeks before his eyes got wide and a gasp left his throat as he stood up. "Maybe we can glue it back on! Yeah, that could work." He said in almost a manic type of way as he looked over at his wife. "Hunny, find some glue. Everything will be right as rain once I glue her hair back on."

Kagome and Sota looked at their father as if he'd grown a second head, neither of them being able to say anything as they watched their father cry over cut hair.

"Dear." Kagome's mother, Ai, hissed as she folded one arm across her midsection to grip her elbow, her other hand pinching the bridge of her nose with her pointer finger and thumb, her eyes closed and her head shaking back and forth.

"Look in my desk, there should be some super glue in one of the drawers. That should work right?" Kenji asked as he held the cut ends of hair to Kagome's head and held his free hand out waiting for the glue.

"Kenji!" Ai snapped as she jerked her hand from her nose and held it a few inches in front of her face with her fingers spread out and stiff. "No amount of glue will fix this mess up that your daughter got herself in!"

"And she calls me un-lady like." Kagome muttered under her breath but instantly regretted it when her mother sent her a truly bone-chilling look.

"You, young lady, are already on my bad list - so don't make it worse!" Ai yelled, pointing her finger towards the teenager as she charged to stand in front of Kagome making her daughter flinch back. "How dare you cut your hair off when you know the Ito family are coming over in just a few short days to talk about the engagement between you and their son!"

"This is more important than some engagement that I never wanted!" Kagome shouted as her father continued to try to find a way to reattach her hair. "Can't you see that I cut my hair for a reason! So that I can dress up as Sota and go in his place to the archer school!"

"You're not going and that's final!" Ai shouted, beyond agitated at what her daughter just did.

"But-"

"No buts! You are a young lady, it's time you started acting like it!" Ai demanded as she pointed a Sota. "Sota is the boy so therefore he is the one that's going to the archer school." She said before pointing at back at Kagome. "You are a girl; you will continue your etiquette schooling and you will make a good impression on the Ito family! Do I make myself clear!?"

"The Ito's won't want anything to do with me now that my hair is gone! And if you send Sota to the archer school it wouldn't matter if they did or not because we will be banished! Is that what you want!?" Kagome argued, trying to get her parents to see that this was the only way. "The only way for us to remain in this house is for me to go instead of Sota."

"Over my dead body!" Ai screamed at the top of her lungs.

"Then you've doomed us to be banished!" Kagome screamed back as she balled her hands into fists, her arms held stiff and straight at her sides. "It'll be your fault that we lose everything!"

"If I allowed you to go, who would continue your etiquette studies?" Ai asked as she bowed her head with her eyes closed as her hand came up the rest the pads of the pointer and middle fingers on her forehead.

"Oh, Sota can." Kagome chirped with a smile.

"What!?" Sota shouted, his eyes wide with shock. "That wasn't part of the plan!"

"The plan was to switch places, what did you think that meant?" Kagome asked looking at her brother.

"I didn't think I'd have to learn how to be a wife!" Sota loudly said.

Kagome grabbed Sota by the ear and dragged him closer to her so she could whisper in his ear.

"Ow, ow, ow! Kagome that hurts, let go!" Sota complained.

"Listen up, if you don't want to get banished then you'd better just go along with what I say and be the best damn wife that you can be!" Kagome hissed into his ear.

"Okay, okay, just let go!" Sota said then rubbed his sore ear when his sister let go.

Kagome elbowed him in the ribs.

"ngh!" Sota grunted as he switched from rubbing his ear to rubbing his side." Ouch! Fine! I-I'll take Kagome's etiquette classes." He grumbled under his breath while rolling his eyes.

"This is never going to work!" Ai said still adamant that Kagome wouldn't go to the archer school. "Kagome you will get caught, and then what?" She asked as she threw her arm in the air before letting it fall down and hit her leg. "We'll most likely get banished anyway! No, we're not doing this! Come, Kagome, we will run into town and buy you a wig and we'll just go with the plan of you meeting the Ito family and marrying their son. There's still a chance that someone at the school will be worse than Sota and then their family will be banished!" She said as she grabbed Kagome by the bend of her elbow and started to drag her to the front door as she called for one of the servants to get the carriage ready.

"Mom, stop." Kagome tried to protest as she tried to stand her ground and not let her mom pull her out the door. However, as she stumbled, she grunted as she tried to get her footing. "No, mom - ah!" She let out a startled yelp when Ai gave her a rather strong tug on her arm.

"Hurry up now, Kagome, not a minute to lose." Ai said completely ignoring anything her daughter said.

"No, mom, I said stop!" Kagome said as she found her footing and was able to yank her arm out of her mom's grasp. "Just stop! I can't do this anymore!" She said as she stomped her foot with tears in her eyes

"What are you talking about Kagome?" Ai asked as she took a step towards her and grabbed her arm once again. "Of course you can, now let's go and get that wig!" She said as she tightened her hand on her arm and gave her a look that told her that she'd better listen or else.

"No!" Kagome said standing her ground.

"What did you say?" Ai said with fire in her eyes.

"I said no, mom!" Kagome said as she jerked her arm out her mother's grasp once again. "I'm done trying to be the perfect housewife! That isn't me!" Kagome exclaimed as she placed her hand flat on her chest. "I want to go to the archer school! Please, I don't want to be banished! I don't want any other family to be banished! If I am top of the class, then maybe I can talk with the royal family and stop the banishing all together!" She said with wide hopeful eyes before they turned dim and a scowl painted on her face. "And I don't want to be 'sold' off to some guy's family!"

"Hunny, we are not selling you off, we just want to make sure you're taken care of." Kenji said, finally done crying over Kagome's hair.

"Oh, you're right! How could I forget?" Kagome said with a humorless laugh as she looked at her dad. "You have to pay them for their son to marry me!"

"What are you talking about?" Ai asked acting shocked.

"Oh, don't give me that mother!" Kagome sneered as she looked back at her mother. "I heard you talking to them about my dowery! I don't want that! I want a man that wants me for me! Not just for what you're willing to give to their family for them to take me!"

"What were we supposed to do, Kagome!?" Ai yelled as she took a step towards her daughter. "No one wanted you! We've tried everything! They all said that you were to manly what with you doing archery and all! God, I knew I should've thrown that bow and arrows your father gave you on your fifth birthday away! The only way that we could make sure that you were taken care of and happy was for us to go to a neighboring kingdom and offer someone your dowery!"

"Archery makes me happy! And if the men here or in neighboring kingdoms can't see that then I don't want them!" Kagome yelled tears rolling down her face. "If you want me to be happy then let me go to the archery school! Let me help this family not be banished! Help me to stop the banishing process permanently!"

"I don't think this is a good idea, Kagome!" Ai continued to argue.

"Ugh!" Kagome growled before turning on her heel and stomping out the back door before slamming it shut.

"Um, maybe we can glue this back together too?" Kenji asked uncertainly as he watched Ai storm out the back door after Kagome.

"It's going to take more than glue to fix this, dad." Sota said with a shake of his head.

*X*

"I don't see why I have to go to this archer school." Inuyasha grumbled as he sat at the dining room table with his elbow resting on the table and his head in his hand looking quite bored of his surroundings. "I'm already good enough without going."

"We've been over this numerous of times, Inuyasha." Toga, Inuyasha's father and king of Auriel Kingdom, said exasperated as the servants brought out their breakfast plates and set them in front of them. "Your great-grandfather did, you grandfather did, I did, Sesshomaru did and now you will too. It's a tradition that will not be broken by you! You are going!"

"And since Sesshomaru chose to lead our troops instead of taking the crown means that you are now the crowned prince, and you will start acting like it!" Toga demanded as he sent a glare towards his son's less than appropriate posture and eating habits as he watched him chew with his mouth open while shoving more food in when there was still food in his mouth. "Sit up straight, elbows off the table and - for the love of God - chew with your mouth closed and stop shoveling food in there as if you've haven't had anything to eat for days!"

Inuyasha grumbled something under his breath that sounded suspiciously like 'keh, whatever' but did as he was told. He never wanted to take over the kingdom, was happy that Sesshomaru was older, so he didn't have to worry about it, but when his older half-brother announced that he would not be taking over as King - that he'd be leading our troops into battle, all the pressures of being king and ruling the kingdom fell on his shoulders.

Ever since Sesshomaru's refusal of the crown, Inuyasha has been thrust into class after class, lecture after lecture, of the do's and don'ts of being a king and ruling an entire kingdom.

"A servant has already packed your bags; you leave in the morning." Toga said in a voice that dared Inuyasha to argue about it.

"Keh, mom! Tell him that I don't need to go to this stupid school!" Inuyasha complained. "I already have lessons up to my ears, what about them!"

Izayoi, Inuyasha's mother, opened her mouth to say something, however, before she could - Toga answered for her.

"Your kingly studies will be put on pause while you're at school." Toga said matter-of-factly. "The schooling last four yearly semesters, once you graduate your kingly studies will continue where you left off. Though I suggest that you put in place what you've already learned about being a king while you're at the archer school."

"Yeah, whatever." Inuyasha grumbled as he rolled his eyes. "May I be excused?"

"Yes, dear, go ahead on to your room." Izayoi said with a small smile as she watched her son stand up and storm out of the room. "Are we sure we're making the right decision for him?"

"He is a Takahashi; he must follow the Takahashi tradition." Toga replied as he finished up his breakfast.

"Yes, he might be a Takahashi but he's not you, he's not your grandfather or your father nor is he Sesshomaru. He is his own person that wants to do things his own way." Izayoi said gently trying to get her point across to her husband.

"This is out of my hands! Everything has been set up already, he's going whether he likes it or not." Toga said, fed up with this conversation.

"But-"

"End of discussion, Izayoi! He's going and that's that!" Toga said standing up from the table and storming off.

Izayoi sighed, she should have known, Toga was all about following tradition as well as following in his father's and grandfather's footsteps. That's why absolutely nothing changed in the kingdom, no growth, no light at the end of the tunnel, no nothing. He chose to continue to have a male teenaged member of every family - and if you didn't have a teenaged male then the father, no matter his condition, would have to go back to the school, as long as someone from each family attended every year it didn't really matter how old you were - just as long as you were at least sixteen. Then by the end of your four years, if you were at the very bottom then that entire family got banished. It didn't sit right with her, none of it did, not having to go through the four years of archery school having to stress throughout the whole thing, worried that you might be the next one to get banished. It wasn't fair. If she had it her way, the school would still be a thing, she liked the school part. However, the whole banishing thing would disappear, forever.

Toga was blinded by what was happening outside the palace walls. They had, had fights over it before with her argument being that they were supposed to protect those that were weaker than them, not to send them away to fend for themselves! And his argument was that it was the way things were done for hundreds of years, and it will continue to be the way things are done for hundreds of more years and that he'd do everything in his power to make sure there were absolutely no hole, no point of weakness that demons or other threats to sneak their way into the kingdom and do damage.

His way of thinking never made any sense to her, how could he think himself a great king, a great leader, and still throw out the ones that needs his protection the most? However, there was no reasoning with that man, and with great reluctance - she gave up the fight. She never attended to any of the banishing ceremonies, neither has Inuyasha, she was hoping with all her might that when he took over the kingdom - she'd be able to change his mind on the matter.

Inuyasha was always such a sweet boy when he was younger, so full of wonder, so loving of everything and anyone that was around him. Always willing and ready to do whatever he could to help and protect anyone, be it her, his father or even the servants. However, his father always reprimanded both him, for him to stoop himself low enough to help the servants, and the servants for allowing such a thing to happen. He got in trouble so much that the helpful Inuyasha ceased to be, the only person he cared to help when needed was his mother - and that was only when his father wasn't around. He protected her, still to this day, no matter what anyone said or did - he always made sure she was good and protected her, even if it meant fighting with his father over her.

She just hoped that when it came time for Inuyasha to take over the throne, there will be enough of his helpful and protective side left to help fix this broken kingdom.

Hope you enjoyed this chapter! Until next time, bye!