Painful Kisses - Chapter Two
Story: Painful Kisses
Pairing: Sesshomaru and Kagome
Author: Junayli
Word Count: ?
Status: Incomplete
Rating: PG-13, rating will change
Warnings: Slight OOC-ness, angst, upcoming sexual situations
Author Notes: I tried to keep the out of character to a minimum but don’t expect too much out of that. I do hope you enjoy reading this story as much as I enjoyed writing it :) It doesn’t follow something related to the anime or manga, the story just takes place in the Feudal Era and the rest is my imagination, there might be some mentions of things that happened in the anime…might be. The story is unbeta so it’ll be a great help if you could point out all the mistakes I missed.
Disclaimer: Inuyasha belongs to Rumiko Takahashi, not me. God, I don’t like disclaimers, I’m pretty sure we all already know that Inuyasha doesn’t belong to me of all people. XD
Summary: “He looked at her as if she was crazy. After what she was about to do, she might as well be crazy.”
OOxxxxxOOOxxxxxxOOOOxxxOOOOO
Chapter 2- The Deal, Part I
Flashback
“Hell no! You ain’t going anywhere, stop asking!” Inuyasha yelled, forgetting that his comrades were inches away trying to sleep after a long, tiring journey.
“Hush, Inuyasha.” Kagome whispered. She excused herself from the old miko and pushed Inuyasha outside the hut. “Inuyasha, I have to refill supplies, catch up on school work, and most of all, it’s time I saw my family!”
“I said, ‘Hell no!’ What part of it don’t ya understand!?” Inuyasha screamed again, irritated beyond belief. Kagome opened her mouth to retort but closed it quickly, instead, she chose the best way to make him let her go. “Sit! Sit! It’s just a week! Sit!” Her eyes twinkled in pleasure when she saw him drop to dirty floor with incredible speed. By now, it was obvious that he knew it was useless resisting the strong pull.
“Fine, whatever, don’t be late in coming back.” He said distantly, his face smashed on the ground. Kagome smiled and turned her back to him, she went inside the hut. Having forgotten to tell Inuyasha that she was leaving right now instead of in the morning, she opened the door quickly and went outside. Her eyes warmed in sadness and she let out a slow sigh when seeing Inuyasha sniff the air. She watched as his figure disappeared into the dark forest. Deciding once and for all that she wasn’t going to put up with it, she yelled at the top of her lungs, “SIT, SIT, SIT, SIT!!!! SIT!!”
Going once more inside the hut, she estimated that, considering how loud and long she made those five sits, Inuyasha wasn’t going to be getting up in the next ten or twelve minutes. “Ay, child, did ya convince Inuyasha?” The old miko asked curiously while organizing some herbs. She held her chuckle, knowing already that Inuyasha had no choice from the start.
“Yes I did, Kaede.” Kagome said. Sitting cross-legged, Kagome leaned against the wooden wall and, in her opinion, she did not sulk.
Kaede looked at her sadly but with a hint of humor when she saw that Kagome was trying hard not to brood. “I take it you saw him run into the forest, again, before stopping him that is.” Kagome lowered her head, her bangs covering her eyes and part of her nose. “He smelled the air before running, that’s a total give away.”
Kaede chose not to respond and, instead, she sighed. Letting Kagome think through this situation was the best option. “I don’t get it,” Kagome started, a bewildered look appearing in her eyes, “She’s dead, isn’t she? Is he having some kind of smelling problem?” Kaede chuckled quietly, not responding to her questions when it was obvious that she was talking to herself.
“Kaede?” Kagome called, waiting for Kaede’s attention before continuing. “I was thinking, is it possible to change a human into a hanyou or youkai?”
“Child, what are you saying? What makes you ask that?” The old priestess asked with covered amusement and a raised eyebrow. She wondering what brought on the sudden change of subject. She looked outside and watched the yellow and orange colors cover the sky, lost in thought.
“Nothing, it was just a sudden thought.” Kagome answered truthfully. She stretched her legs in front of her and crossed them again, taking a more comfortable position against the wall of the hut. Smoothing her wrinkled, green skirt, she pondered some more on that persistent thought. All thoughts of Inuyasha seemed to have flown out the window.
Looking at Kagome’s curious, brown eyes that stared into space, Kaede sighed in defeat, “There was once a legend,” She started slowly, gaining Kagome’s immediate attention, “it stated that only a witch with a rare power could turn a human into a hanyou. But, oh no, never into a youkai, turning a human into a full-blooded demon was asking for a death wish, but not for the person casting the spell. Once the blood of a youkai mixed with that of a human’s, the bloods end up trying to overpower each other. Normally, one would think that a youkai’s blood will take control immediately, but instead both bloods rage inside the human’s body causing the human to lash out at anything that he considered threatening in a lapse of insanity. Unfortunately, everything was considered threatening.”
Kaede stopped suddenly to take a breath, dimly she noticed that Kagome had lain down on the floor with her elbows supporting her and cupping her cheeks. Kaede smiled in amusement when she noticed Kagome’s eyes were as huge as saucers and twinkling with uncontrolled curiosity.
After feeling that she had enough oxygen, she continued, “Anyway, a normal witch could have never done any of that, and if anyone tried, that would have been the result. Now, a witch with those rare powers attempting to change a human into a hanyou is a whole matter entirely. Instead of the bloods fighting for dominance they balance each other out by containing the same amount of youkai blood and human blood.”
“So, basically, it is possible?” Kagome asked a little confused with the whole situation.
“Basically, yes. But like I said, child, only a rare witch has the ability to make the bloods the same amount and make them balance each other out inside a human’s body.” Kaede answered.
“Why exactly can't a human be turned into a youkai, apart from the whole going insane thing?” Kagome asked while standing up from the hard floor. It was almost time to leave. Kaede arched an eyebrow at her curiously, “Because no witch is strong enough to command the blood of a full-blooded demon.”
“Has this ever been done?” She pondered out loud. Kaede’s surprised laugh filled the hut, “Child, I told you it was only a legend! No one would ever try just a dangerous thing, there are too many consequences.”
Kagome laughed nervously while grabbing her over-stuffed, yellow bag and adjusting it on her shoulder, “Well, you never know, Kaede. I'll see you in a couple of days! Say bye to everyone for me! I don’t want to wake them up.” Once Kagome reached the bone’s eater well, she breathe in the air, took one long look at the Goshinboku tree and jumped into the well that contained skeletons at the bottom and vines twisted around the walls from top to bottom.
She completely forgot about the conversation she had after being wrapped with blue light. In less than a second, she was in Modern Tokyo. She could already smell the polluted air; hear the sound of cars, and her brother screaming loudly, “Mom! Kagome’s here!”
An elderly woman with short, black, wavy hair came out hastily. She was wiping her hands on a blue apron with a huge, happy smile on her delicate face. She opened her arms to welcome her daughter. “Kagome, dear, I've missed you! How are you? Are you injured? Oh my, you must be hungry!”
Quickly, she rushed a laughing Kagome inside. “I've missed you too, mama. I'm not injured, I am extremely hungry, and I'm going to be staying for a week.” Kagome said quickly, smiling non-stop at her worried mother. They've done this a million of times, and her mother still worried like crazy. Her mother stopped abruptly at the mention of how long she was staying. “Kagome, did you really manage to make Inuyasha let you stay for a week? Mostly when the battle is approaching?”
Kagome laughed nervously, “Don't worry about it, let me just say that he had no choice but to let me go.” Kagome laughed silently when she remembered the number of ‘Sits’ she bestowed upon Inuyasha. Before Mrs. Higurashi could comment on how her daughter was a terrible liar, she was interrupted by an old voice, from upstairs, calling for Kagome. She laughed inwardly; it was just like him to always know when Kagome came home.
“Kagome! Welcome home, how long are you planning to stay this time? I was in the middle of coming up with new disease. By the way, where is that demon? He usually drops you off.” Kagome’s grandfather stated as he came down the stairs carrying a bag of sutras to ward off demons, it would most likely be for Inuyasha.
Noticing the bag, Kagome wondered if her jii-chan knew that they didn't work. Shrugging, she stepped closer to her jii-chan and engulfed him in a warm hug. “It’s good to see you too, jii-chan. Inuyasha, unfortunately, can't make it, there’s something that’s holding him…down.” Kagome said, a dark glint in her eyes when she mentioned the last part. Something is definitely holding him down, oh yes.
Deciding that he didn't want to know, Kagome’s grandfather ignored the scary look in her face and, instead, scolded Souta about playing too many video games and standing too close to the TV. He only received a snort and a, “I'll stop when you stop carrying around so many sutras, jii-chan.” followed by a chuckle from his family. With a huff, he lectured Souta about respecting his elders and walked out to check on his possessions.
“Kids these days,” He murmured with a scowl on his face, “They just don't understand.” Same old jii-chan, Kagome thought in amusement. Quietly, well as quietly as she could manage considering the exaggerated amount of times Buyo, her cat, decided to pop out off nowhere and trip her, she headed towards the kitchen.
Mrs. Higurashi’s eyes twinkled in amusement when she witnessed Kagome trip over Buyo, she watched her daughter grab a hold of the couch to steady herself and growl at the yawning cat. “He misses you. You’ve been gone for quite a while.” She said and laughed when Buyo proved her point by rubbing against Kagome’s leg.
“I guess you’re right, but he’s still a sneaky cat.” She said narrowing her eyes when Buyo blinked innocently at her. “By the way, what are you making for dinner?”
“Eh, fried rice with chicken, unless you want something else?” Her mother answered while steering the rice, “How was your trip by the way?” Kagome laughed slowly, “Nah, I love that stuff. I guess it was fine. We just didn’t make any progress. I’ll be up in my room so call me when it’s ready!” She yelled as she went up the stairs. Her mother nodded instinctively, her eyes set only on her cooking.
When Kagome closed the door behind her, she collapsed down unto her pink bed. She grunted indifferently when Buyo jumped on her stomach, moved around a little and finally dropped down, closing his eyes for a quick nap. Exhaustion quickly caught up with her, and she sighed while rubbing her tired eyes. It was always like this, the day’s events would only catch up to her when she was in the safety of her bed. It was then that the strong feeling of exhaustion would finally drop completely on her shoulders like a ton of bricks.
Today they really had made absolutely no progress at all. No Naraku, no hints, they only fought demons and more demons that led up to the exhaustion of everyone. That’s why she left without saying goodbye; everyone was fast asleep when she left, except Inuyasha. She didn’t know where he was, she hoped it wasn’t with Kikyo, but, of course, hoping and knowing the truth in the back of your mind where two different things.
Mostly of all, she didn’t know what she was going to do with the jewel shard, the last one. Maybe, tell Inuyasha! She rolled her eyes at that, of course she should tell Inuyasha, but she couldn’t and she just won’t. It was the last Shikon Shard that Naraku was still looking for; she had to be extremely careful. It was, currently, still inside her, but that wasn’t a safe place, at all.
“Kagome, dinner’s ready!” Souta yelled from outside her door. She opened her eyes when she heard him run down the stairs. Lazily, she pushed her obese cat off her and made her way to the kitchen table. She ignored Buyo’s hisses at being pushed as she arrived at the table and took a seat. While her family took their own seats, her mom placed the food on the table and asked, “How are your Feudal Era friends?”
“We had a long journey with no progress, right now everyone’s just tired and sustaining small injuries.”
“Oh my, I hope they are alright.” Her mom stated. A part of her was relived that her daughter was left uninjured. She shook her head when her daughter just nodded, her mouth full with food. “Eat slowly, I don’t want you choking.” Kagome swallowed and smiled brightly at her frowning mother, “Do you know what’s going on recently at school, any awaiting tests?”
Mrs. Higurashi looked at her daughter sternly before speaking, “Your school friends come once in a while asking how you are. That friend of yours, Hojo, comes more often with gifts. I talked to your teachers and we came to an agreement. After studying, you will have one test everyday, one subject each day.” Kagome dropped her fork in shock and stuttered out. “Wha-? But, but, I-II have no notes!”
“Actually, you do.” Her mom stated, scowling when her son, Souta, jumped from his chair and left to watch TV while leaving his plate on the table. She frowned harder when her father went right behind him. “Mom!” Kagome exclaimed, she sighed when her mom only turned her head towards her and hummed in response.
“Oh, right. Well, I got your friends to give me their notes and they are on top of your desk. Go study, your biology test is tomorrow.” Her mother explained while gathering the dishes. She pushed her daughter out the kitchen with one hand while the other held the dirty dishes.
Kagome complained all the way to her room. How was this possible? Even the thought of so many tests made her feel nauseous. Could she not have one day to relax? She didn’t have Saturday and Sunday for god’s sake! She had to leave on Saturday, and, now, her planned five days of R&R were gone. She really shouldn’t have returned to the modern world on a Monday. On the good side, she had a chance to catch up. Wait, there was no good side!
Entering her room, she found the three blue notebooks on top of her desk. Sitting in the chair located in front of the desk, she sighed, opened one book and resigned to her fate. The next five days were dreadful, for the most part, and became a routine. She would wake up, head to the bathroom, dress in mostly jeans and a sleeveless shirt, rub Buyo’s tummy, and then she would head downstairs for breakfast. After breakfast and, ‘Bye’s’, she would head to school and meet up with her three friends. She would always wonder, for a couple of seconds, on how it was that those three were still friends with her.
Once arriving at school, she would go through her first four classes and spent the remaining school hours sitting on a desk, in a deserted classroom, taking one test. The same thing would happen for every day. Let’s not forget that she also had to do homework apart from studying and, sadly, she was persistently asked on dates by Hojo.
Hojo was a sweet, caring, and cute guy. She liked him, just not in the way that he hoped for. She knew that sooner or later he was going to find someone else, for heaven’s sake she hoped it was sooner. As much as she was flattered by him, there was such a thing called, ‘Too much.’ After having snapped, she told him so, and she didn’t regret it. She felt slight quilt when seeing his heartbroken face, she really didn’t deserve him. Often it seemed like he truly loved her, but it was not the same for her. Indeed she could picture herself with him but that was before the whole Feudal Era appeared in her life.
Thinking of the future, having a family, and love made her thoughts drift to a certain Hanyou. She truly, deeply loved Inuyasha. With all her heart and soul, she wished for his happiness. His happiness just happened to be another woman, a dead one at that. Kagome longed for a love like that, a love that transcended through time. Unfortunately, it seemed that love was not something she could grasp and hold.
Right now, she knew deep in her heart that she did not love Inuyasha like she used to. Her mind still failed to grasp that knowledge but her heart already knew. She was done with waiting and being compared to, now she wished for Inuyasha’s happiness and it was already obvious that it wasn’t with her. Just like her true happiness was probably not with him. Often, it saddened her to think that maybe, just maybe, Inuyasha never really saw her for who she was.
She sighed while stepping outside the walls of her high school. She would wait for her true love, and when it came to her she would grasp tightly. Her true love will come, that she knew. After all, everyone had a special someone, somewhere out there in the world, just waiting to be found. Now, she was just happy that she was almost done with high school, just a while longer.
She widened her eyes when she suddenly realized something. Oh my, four years had passed! She was eighteen years old! How…in the seven hells could she have forgotten that!? Then again, maybe it had to do with the fact that she hadn’t celebrated her birthday in four years. For goodness’s sake, something was terribly wrong with her. Had she truly been that busy to not notice the years that passed?
When she remembered being constantly shower with attacking demons, yelling Hanyous, an evil Hanyou, endless searching for pink shards, and the non-stop traveling from worlds. On one world she had a duty that a Hanyou persisted in reminding her of every time he felt like it. On the other world she was filled with homework, pressure to pass high school and get at least average grades, along with a persistent boy.
Yup, no wonder she forgot she had a personal life and needs. When was the last time she went to the movies? How depressing. Well, at least she still remembered when her birthday was, she thought amusingly, chuckling inside her head. Sighing, she also noticed that nothing, absolutely nothing had changed in her life or in the life of her friends. Well, Sango and Miroku improved…somewhat, they hadn’t exactly confessed to each other but she felt that it was coming soon.
Inuyasha, eh, never mind. Inuyasha was a lost case. He was to be forever obsessed with Kikyo and never look at another woman because he would see it as unfaithfulness to his one and only. She had got to be stop thinking before she turned into a sarcastic bitch whenever the subject of Inuyasha and Kikyo came up.
She did say she wanted Inuyasha happy, but she never said it was going to be with Kikyo. Oh no, she will take Kikyo out of Inuyasha’s head, no matter how impossible it may seem. Kagome and Inuyasha weren’t destined for each other, that was true, and she somewhat accepted it. But, Kikyo was dead and it was time Inuyasha found another love, she will use force if she had to.
An evil glint appear in her eyes when she thought about using force, she chuckled wickedly but stopped quickly when she saw a little boy stare at her weirdly. She sweat-dropped, walked faster towards the Shrine, and adjust her recently bought brown bag over her right shoulder. Her eyes warmed when she thought of her cute, little Shippo. He hadn’t changed, no growth spurt or nothing of that sort, and she was very glad for that because it meant that she could cuddle him all she wanted and not deal with teenage rebellion. The simple though of Shippo acting like Souta made her laugh out loud.
Speaking of Souta, she wondered how he was doing. He definitely had grown over the years. The little eight year old boy was now a tall, handsome twelve year old. He sure was going to be a heart breaker, she sighed at the though. Smiling, she wondered if he had a girlfriend.
When reaching the steps that led up to the shrine, her thoughts seized completely. One more day to go and, if lucky, her test results would be up before her deadline. She would feel so, so much better knowing whether she passed or not before heading to the Feudal Era. When she entered her house, she greeted her mother with a warm smile.
For a few hours, she basked in the silence of the house. Luckily, her brother was still in school. Right now all she did was laze around, help her mom prepare dinner, and enjoy a moment’s peace to read. Hearing her grandpa yell at her little brother about the importance of history, once more, made her realize that it was time she started studying for her last exam. Reluctantly, she headed to her room and dropped her book on top of her pink bed.
While opening a notebook filled with math notes, she hated knowing her moment’s peace was gone.
The next day, after school, Kagome felt a strong sense of relief fill her whole body. Finally, finally, no more tests! No more high school. Now, if she passed, which she hoped she did, she could stay in the Feudal Era for a large amount of time without having to return to her Era unless they need more supplies. Technically, that would only take a little over ten minutes.
Wondering what time it was, she looked at her silver watch. Seeing that it was almost three o’ clock, she decided that she would leave for the Feudal Era after one more hour passed , that way Inuyasha would have no reason to suddenly start yelling and whining about how she was late and there was no way they could go searching at night.
He couldn’t say anything about her being early enough for a quick jewel shard hunt. After all, every time she returned to the Feudal Era, after taking exams, she usually arrived a couple of minutes before the sun went down. When she opened her front door, she was greeted by an excited mom that was very obviously trying hard to not blurt out what she was hiding. Kagome closed the door behind her, walked over to the couch, her mother trailing behind her, dropped her backpack, and waited patiently.
Her mother’s eyes sparkled in happiness. “Kagome, dear, I told your teachers a while ago that you were moving away after your tests were done, and that we would all appreciate it if the results were giving right away. Because of that, I have the results to the four exams you took and I should have your math scores tomorrow!”
Kagome gaped at her mother, her eyes were wide and holding disbelieve, and her jaw threatened to fall. “Mama, I really, really hope you’re not kidding!”
Mrs. Higurashi grinned and held out in front of her the envelop containing the results. Slowly, Kagome grabbed it and opened it carefully. She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, opened her eyes again, and stared at the white, piece of paper that held her future.
Loud, excited squeals rang inside the house. Throwing the paper to the side, Kagome literally jumped off her feet and hugged her mom tightly. “I passed! I passed!” No more high school!
Unnoticeably, the front door opened and two pairs of eyes watched the two woman hug and jump around in enthusiasm.
“Eh, mom, sis?” Souta called out, “What are you guys doing? It’s kinda…scary.”
Mrs. Higurashi looked over Kagome’s shoulder and smiled at her father and son. “Kagome passed!”
“Ignore them, Souta. They’re just being females.” Jii-chan stated as he congratulated Kagome with a big, tight hug before carrying two shed and peculiar looking swords outside. Souta merely nodded, looked strangely at the two women, bypassed hugs, and ran to the safety of his room and games.
Laughing, mother and daughter dislocated from each other. Chuckling slightly when she remembered her baby boy run away, she said, “You’ll think by now he would be used to it, I remember I used to love hugs when I was young.” Kagome sweat-dropped, “Eh, mama, Souta is part of the male specimens. What do you expect?”
Mrs. Higurashi nodded in agreement, “Good point. Well, now that high school is pretty much over, when do you plan to leave?”
Kagome sighed and looked at her mother sadly. “I’m gonna pack in a minute and leave, now that I don’t have other priorities to take care of, I need to focus all my attention on finishing this quest.”
“I wish you would stop going, but I know you won’t.” Mrs. Higurashi smiled sadly, she realized that now she would see her daughter less. A gripping pain fell on Kagome when she saw her mother’s face. She hoped that this quest would come to end, that way she could return home and make her mother happy. Slowly, her mother wrapped her arms around Kagome’s shoulders and whispered, “I’m really proud to call you my daughter. I’m so proud of you, Kagome.”
Without warming, Kagome found herself crying on her mother’s shoulder. She wanted this to end, her heart loved the Feudal Era as much as it loved the present, and it was eating her inside.
Not wanting to keep her daughter from her duties any longer, Mrs. Higurashi stepped away from her daughter, wiped her tears, and said sternly, “Now, now, go on and pack, I’ll prepare some food for you to take.” She gave Kagome a slight push towards the stairs before heading to the kitchen.
Prepared and ready to go, Kagome stood by the side of the well with her family. Her school clothes were long gone. Now, she wore old, white sneakers, simple, blue jeans that hugged her body tightly and comfortably. As for a top, she wore a loose, blue with white stripes tank top.
She stepped towards her jii-chan and gave him a hug and a big kiss on the cheek before whispering, “Goodbye.” When she reached her little brother, she bended, hugged him, and gave him a kiss. Scoffing when he pretended to gag, she flicked his forehead playfully.
Reaching her mom, she looked at her sadly and hugged her tightly. She willed her tears from falling when her mother returned her hug tenfold. Stepping away, she waved at them, knowing that she wasn’t going to see them for a long time.
Saying a final, ‘Sayonara,’ she jumped into the well. Her eyes glowed when she saw and felt the blue light wrap around her. She smiled; she could already smell the air and see the lush grass.
Previous Chapter
Pairing: Sesshomaru and Kagome
Author: Junayli
Word Count: ?
Status: Incomplete
Rating: PG-13, rating will change
Warnings: Slight OOC-ness, angst, upcoming sexual situations
Author Notes: I tried to keep the out of character to a minimum but don’t expect too much out of that. I do hope you enjoy reading this story as much as I enjoyed writing it :) It doesn’t follow something related to the anime or manga, the story just takes place in the Feudal Era and the rest is my imagination, there might be some mentions of things that happened in the anime…might be. The story is unbeta so it’ll be a great help if you could point out all the mistakes I missed.
Disclaimer: Inuyasha belongs to Rumiko Takahashi, not me. God, I don’t like disclaimers, I’m pretty sure we all already know that Inuyasha doesn’t belong to me of all people. XD
Summary: “He looked at her as if she was crazy. After what she was about to do, she might as well be crazy.”
OOxxxxxOOOxxxxxxOOOOxxxOOOOO
Chapter 2- The Deal, Part I
Flashback
“Hell no! You ain’t going anywhere, stop asking!” Inuyasha yelled, forgetting that his comrades were inches away trying to sleep after a long, tiring journey.
“Hush, Inuyasha.” Kagome whispered. She excused herself from the old miko and pushed Inuyasha outside the hut. “Inuyasha, I have to refill supplies, catch up on school work, and most of all, it’s time I saw my family!”
“I said, ‘Hell no!’ What part of it don’t ya understand!?” Inuyasha screamed again, irritated beyond belief. Kagome opened her mouth to retort but closed it quickly, instead, she chose the best way to make him let her go. “Sit! Sit! It’s just a week! Sit!” Her eyes twinkled in pleasure when she saw him drop to dirty floor with incredible speed. By now, it was obvious that he knew it was useless resisting the strong pull.
“Fine, whatever, don’t be late in coming back.” He said distantly, his face smashed on the ground. Kagome smiled and turned her back to him, she went inside the hut. Having forgotten to tell Inuyasha that she was leaving right now instead of in the morning, she opened the door quickly and went outside. Her eyes warmed in sadness and she let out a slow sigh when seeing Inuyasha sniff the air. She watched as his figure disappeared into the dark forest. Deciding once and for all that she wasn’t going to put up with it, she yelled at the top of her lungs, “SIT, SIT, SIT, SIT!!!! SIT!!”
Going once more inside the hut, she estimated that, considering how loud and long she made those five sits, Inuyasha wasn’t going to be getting up in the next ten or twelve minutes. “Ay, child, did ya convince Inuyasha?” The old miko asked curiously while organizing some herbs. She held her chuckle, knowing already that Inuyasha had no choice from the start.
“Yes I did, Kaede.” Kagome said. Sitting cross-legged, Kagome leaned against the wooden wall and, in her opinion, she did not sulk.
Kaede looked at her sadly but with a hint of humor when she saw that Kagome was trying hard not to brood. “I take it you saw him run into the forest, again, before stopping him that is.” Kagome lowered her head, her bangs covering her eyes and part of her nose. “He smelled the air before running, that’s a total give away.”
Kaede chose not to respond and, instead, she sighed. Letting Kagome think through this situation was the best option. “I don’t get it,” Kagome started, a bewildered look appearing in her eyes, “She’s dead, isn’t she? Is he having some kind of smelling problem?” Kaede chuckled quietly, not responding to her questions when it was obvious that she was talking to herself.
“Kaede?” Kagome called, waiting for Kaede’s attention before continuing. “I was thinking, is it possible to change a human into a hanyou or youkai?”
“Child, what are you saying? What makes you ask that?” The old priestess asked with covered amusement and a raised eyebrow. She wondering what brought on the sudden change of subject. She looked outside and watched the yellow and orange colors cover the sky, lost in thought.
“Nothing, it was just a sudden thought.” Kagome answered truthfully. She stretched her legs in front of her and crossed them again, taking a more comfortable position against the wall of the hut. Smoothing her wrinkled, green skirt, she pondered some more on that persistent thought. All thoughts of Inuyasha seemed to have flown out the window.
Looking at Kagome’s curious, brown eyes that stared into space, Kaede sighed in defeat, “There was once a legend,” She started slowly, gaining Kagome’s immediate attention, “it stated that only a witch with a rare power could turn a human into a hanyou. But, oh no, never into a youkai, turning a human into a full-blooded demon was asking for a death wish, but not for the person casting the spell. Once the blood of a youkai mixed with that of a human’s, the bloods end up trying to overpower each other. Normally, one would think that a youkai’s blood will take control immediately, but instead both bloods rage inside the human’s body causing the human to lash out at anything that he considered threatening in a lapse of insanity. Unfortunately, everything was considered threatening.”
Kaede stopped suddenly to take a breath, dimly she noticed that Kagome had lain down on the floor with her elbows supporting her and cupping her cheeks. Kaede smiled in amusement when she noticed Kagome’s eyes were as huge as saucers and twinkling with uncontrolled curiosity.
After feeling that she had enough oxygen, she continued, “Anyway, a normal witch could have never done any of that, and if anyone tried, that would have been the result. Now, a witch with those rare powers attempting to change a human into a hanyou is a whole matter entirely. Instead of the bloods fighting for dominance they balance each other out by containing the same amount of youkai blood and human blood.”
“So, basically, it is possible?” Kagome asked a little confused with the whole situation.
“Basically, yes. But like I said, child, only a rare witch has the ability to make the bloods the same amount and make them balance each other out inside a human’s body.” Kaede answered.
“Why exactly can't a human be turned into a youkai, apart from the whole going insane thing?” Kagome asked while standing up from the hard floor. It was almost time to leave. Kaede arched an eyebrow at her curiously, “Because no witch is strong enough to command the blood of a full-blooded demon.”
“Has this ever been done?” She pondered out loud. Kaede’s surprised laugh filled the hut, “Child, I told you it was only a legend! No one would ever try just a dangerous thing, there are too many consequences.”
Kagome laughed nervously while grabbing her over-stuffed, yellow bag and adjusting it on her shoulder, “Well, you never know, Kaede. I'll see you in a couple of days! Say bye to everyone for me! I don’t want to wake them up.” Once Kagome reached the bone’s eater well, she breathe in the air, took one long look at the Goshinboku tree and jumped into the well that contained skeletons at the bottom and vines twisted around the walls from top to bottom.
She completely forgot about the conversation she had after being wrapped with blue light. In less than a second, she was in Modern Tokyo. She could already smell the polluted air; hear the sound of cars, and her brother screaming loudly, “Mom! Kagome’s here!”
An elderly woman with short, black, wavy hair came out hastily. She was wiping her hands on a blue apron with a huge, happy smile on her delicate face. She opened her arms to welcome her daughter. “Kagome, dear, I've missed you! How are you? Are you injured? Oh my, you must be hungry!”
Quickly, she rushed a laughing Kagome inside. “I've missed you too, mama. I'm not injured, I am extremely hungry, and I'm going to be staying for a week.” Kagome said quickly, smiling non-stop at her worried mother. They've done this a million of times, and her mother still worried like crazy. Her mother stopped abruptly at the mention of how long she was staying. “Kagome, did you really manage to make Inuyasha let you stay for a week? Mostly when the battle is approaching?”
Kagome laughed nervously, “Don't worry about it, let me just say that he had no choice but to let me go.” Kagome laughed silently when she remembered the number of ‘Sits’ she bestowed upon Inuyasha. Before Mrs. Higurashi could comment on how her daughter was a terrible liar, she was interrupted by an old voice, from upstairs, calling for Kagome. She laughed inwardly; it was just like him to always know when Kagome came home.
“Kagome! Welcome home, how long are you planning to stay this time? I was in the middle of coming up with new disease. By the way, where is that demon? He usually drops you off.” Kagome’s grandfather stated as he came down the stairs carrying a bag of sutras to ward off demons, it would most likely be for Inuyasha.
Noticing the bag, Kagome wondered if her jii-chan knew that they didn't work. Shrugging, she stepped closer to her jii-chan and engulfed him in a warm hug. “It’s good to see you too, jii-chan. Inuyasha, unfortunately, can't make it, there’s something that’s holding him…down.” Kagome said, a dark glint in her eyes when she mentioned the last part. Something is definitely holding him down, oh yes.
Deciding that he didn't want to know, Kagome’s grandfather ignored the scary look in her face and, instead, scolded Souta about playing too many video games and standing too close to the TV. He only received a snort and a, “I'll stop when you stop carrying around so many sutras, jii-chan.” followed by a chuckle from his family. With a huff, he lectured Souta about respecting his elders and walked out to check on his possessions.
“Kids these days,” He murmured with a scowl on his face, “They just don't understand.” Same old jii-chan, Kagome thought in amusement. Quietly, well as quietly as she could manage considering the exaggerated amount of times Buyo, her cat, decided to pop out off nowhere and trip her, she headed towards the kitchen.
Mrs. Higurashi’s eyes twinkled in amusement when she witnessed Kagome trip over Buyo, she watched her daughter grab a hold of the couch to steady herself and growl at the yawning cat. “He misses you. You’ve been gone for quite a while.” She said and laughed when Buyo proved her point by rubbing against Kagome’s leg.
“I guess you’re right, but he’s still a sneaky cat.” She said narrowing her eyes when Buyo blinked innocently at her. “By the way, what are you making for dinner?”
“Eh, fried rice with chicken, unless you want something else?” Her mother answered while steering the rice, “How was your trip by the way?” Kagome laughed slowly, “Nah, I love that stuff. I guess it was fine. We just didn’t make any progress. I’ll be up in my room so call me when it’s ready!” She yelled as she went up the stairs. Her mother nodded instinctively, her eyes set only on her cooking.
When Kagome closed the door behind her, she collapsed down unto her pink bed. She grunted indifferently when Buyo jumped on her stomach, moved around a little and finally dropped down, closing his eyes for a quick nap. Exhaustion quickly caught up with her, and she sighed while rubbing her tired eyes. It was always like this, the day’s events would only catch up to her when she was in the safety of her bed. It was then that the strong feeling of exhaustion would finally drop completely on her shoulders like a ton of bricks.
Today they really had made absolutely no progress at all. No Naraku, no hints, they only fought demons and more demons that led up to the exhaustion of everyone. That’s why she left without saying goodbye; everyone was fast asleep when she left, except Inuyasha. She didn’t know where he was, she hoped it wasn’t with Kikyo, but, of course, hoping and knowing the truth in the back of your mind where two different things.
Mostly of all, she didn’t know what she was going to do with the jewel shard, the last one. Maybe, tell Inuyasha! She rolled her eyes at that, of course she should tell Inuyasha, but she couldn’t and she just won’t. It was the last Shikon Shard that Naraku was still looking for; she had to be extremely careful. It was, currently, still inside her, but that wasn’t a safe place, at all.
“Kagome, dinner’s ready!” Souta yelled from outside her door. She opened her eyes when she heard him run down the stairs. Lazily, she pushed her obese cat off her and made her way to the kitchen table. She ignored Buyo’s hisses at being pushed as she arrived at the table and took a seat. While her family took their own seats, her mom placed the food on the table and asked, “How are your Feudal Era friends?”
“We had a long journey with no progress, right now everyone’s just tired and sustaining small injuries.”
“Oh my, I hope they are alright.” Her mom stated. A part of her was relived that her daughter was left uninjured. She shook her head when her daughter just nodded, her mouth full with food. “Eat slowly, I don’t want you choking.” Kagome swallowed and smiled brightly at her frowning mother, “Do you know what’s going on recently at school, any awaiting tests?”
Mrs. Higurashi looked at her daughter sternly before speaking, “Your school friends come once in a while asking how you are. That friend of yours, Hojo, comes more often with gifts. I talked to your teachers and we came to an agreement. After studying, you will have one test everyday, one subject each day.” Kagome dropped her fork in shock and stuttered out. “Wha-? But, but, I-II have no notes!”
“Actually, you do.” Her mom stated, scowling when her son, Souta, jumped from his chair and left to watch TV while leaving his plate on the table. She frowned harder when her father went right behind him. “Mom!” Kagome exclaimed, she sighed when her mom only turned her head towards her and hummed in response.
“Oh, right. Well, I got your friends to give me their notes and they are on top of your desk. Go study, your biology test is tomorrow.” Her mother explained while gathering the dishes. She pushed her daughter out the kitchen with one hand while the other held the dirty dishes.
Kagome complained all the way to her room. How was this possible? Even the thought of so many tests made her feel nauseous. Could she not have one day to relax? She didn’t have Saturday and Sunday for god’s sake! She had to leave on Saturday, and, now, her planned five days of R&R were gone. She really shouldn’t have returned to the modern world on a Monday. On the good side, she had a chance to catch up. Wait, there was no good side!
Entering her room, she found the three blue notebooks on top of her desk. Sitting in the chair located in front of the desk, she sighed, opened one book and resigned to her fate. The next five days were dreadful, for the most part, and became a routine. She would wake up, head to the bathroom, dress in mostly jeans and a sleeveless shirt, rub Buyo’s tummy, and then she would head downstairs for breakfast. After breakfast and, ‘Bye’s’, she would head to school and meet up with her three friends. She would always wonder, for a couple of seconds, on how it was that those three were still friends with her.
Once arriving at school, she would go through her first four classes and spent the remaining school hours sitting on a desk, in a deserted classroom, taking one test. The same thing would happen for every day. Let’s not forget that she also had to do homework apart from studying and, sadly, she was persistently asked on dates by Hojo.
Hojo was a sweet, caring, and cute guy. She liked him, just not in the way that he hoped for. She knew that sooner or later he was going to find someone else, for heaven’s sake she hoped it was sooner. As much as she was flattered by him, there was such a thing called, ‘Too much.’ After having snapped, she told him so, and she didn’t regret it. She felt slight quilt when seeing his heartbroken face, she really didn’t deserve him. Often it seemed like he truly loved her, but it was not the same for her. Indeed she could picture herself with him but that was before the whole Feudal Era appeared in her life.
Thinking of the future, having a family, and love made her thoughts drift to a certain Hanyou. She truly, deeply loved Inuyasha. With all her heart and soul, she wished for his happiness. His happiness just happened to be another woman, a dead one at that. Kagome longed for a love like that, a love that transcended through time. Unfortunately, it seemed that love was not something she could grasp and hold.
Right now, she knew deep in her heart that she did not love Inuyasha like she used to. Her mind still failed to grasp that knowledge but her heart already knew. She was done with waiting and being compared to, now she wished for Inuyasha’s happiness and it was already obvious that it wasn’t with her. Just like her true happiness was probably not with him. Often, it saddened her to think that maybe, just maybe, Inuyasha never really saw her for who she was.
She sighed while stepping outside the walls of her high school. She would wait for her true love, and when it came to her she would grasp tightly. Her true love will come, that she knew. After all, everyone had a special someone, somewhere out there in the world, just waiting to be found. Now, she was just happy that she was almost done with high school, just a while longer.
She widened her eyes when she suddenly realized something. Oh my, four years had passed! She was eighteen years old! How…in the seven hells could she have forgotten that!? Then again, maybe it had to do with the fact that she hadn’t celebrated her birthday in four years. For goodness’s sake, something was terribly wrong with her. Had she truly been that busy to not notice the years that passed?
When she remembered being constantly shower with attacking demons, yelling Hanyous, an evil Hanyou, endless searching for pink shards, and the non-stop traveling from worlds. On one world she had a duty that a Hanyou persisted in reminding her of every time he felt like it. On the other world she was filled with homework, pressure to pass high school and get at least average grades, along with a persistent boy.
Yup, no wonder she forgot she had a personal life and needs. When was the last time she went to the movies? How depressing. Well, at least she still remembered when her birthday was, she thought amusingly, chuckling inside her head. Sighing, she also noticed that nothing, absolutely nothing had changed in her life or in the life of her friends. Well, Sango and Miroku improved…somewhat, they hadn’t exactly confessed to each other but she felt that it was coming soon.
Inuyasha, eh, never mind. Inuyasha was a lost case. He was to be forever obsessed with Kikyo and never look at another woman because he would see it as unfaithfulness to his one and only. She had got to be stop thinking before she turned into a sarcastic bitch whenever the subject of Inuyasha and Kikyo came up.
She did say she wanted Inuyasha happy, but she never said it was going to be with Kikyo. Oh no, she will take Kikyo out of Inuyasha’s head, no matter how impossible it may seem. Kagome and Inuyasha weren’t destined for each other, that was true, and she somewhat accepted it. But, Kikyo was dead and it was time Inuyasha found another love, she will use force if she had to.
An evil glint appear in her eyes when she thought about using force, she chuckled wickedly but stopped quickly when she saw a little boy stare at her weirdly. She sweat-dropped, walked faster towards the Shrine, and adjust her recently bought brown bag over her right shoulder. Her eyes warmed when she thought of her cute, little Shippo. He hadn’t changed, no growth spurt or nothing of that sort, and she was very glad for that because it meant that she could cuddle him all she wanted and not deal with teenage rebellion. The simple though of Shippo acting like Souta made her laugh out loud.
Speaking of Souta, she wondered how he was doing. He definitely had grown over the years. The little eight year old boy was now a tall, handsome twelve year old. He sure was going to be a heart breaker, she sighed at the though. Smiling, she wondered if he had a girlfriend.
When reaching the steps that led up to the shrine, her thoughts seized completely. One more day to go and, if lucky, her test results would be up before her deadline. She would feel so, so much better knowing whether she passed or not before heading to the Feudal Era. When she entered her house, she greeted her mother with a warm smile.
For a few hours, she basked in the silence of the house. Luckily, her brother was still in school. Right now all she did was laze around, help her mom prepare dinner, and enjoy a moment’s peace to read. Hearing her grandpa yell at her little brother about the importance of history, once more, made her realize that it was time she started studying for her last exam. Reluctantly, she headed to her room and dropped her book on top of her pink bed.
While opening a notebook filled with math notes, she hated knowing her moment’s peace was gone.
The next day, after school, Kagome felt a strong sense of relief fill her whole body. Finally, finally, no more tests! No more high school. Now, if she passed, which she hoped she did, she could stay in the Feudal Era for a large amount of time without having to return to her Era unless they need more supplies. Technically, that would only take a little over ten minutes.
Wondering what time it was, she looked at her silver watch. Seeing that it was almost three o’ clock, she decided that she would leave for the Feudal Era after one more hour passed , that way Inuyasha would have no reason to suddenly start yelling and whining about how she was late and there was no way they could go searching at night.
He couldn’t say anything about her being early enough for a quick jewel shard hunt. After all, every time she returned to the Feudal Era, after taking exams, she usually arrived a couple of minutes before the sun went down. When she opened her front door, she was greeted by an excited mom that was very obviously trying hard to not blurt out what she was hiding. Kagome closed the door behind her, walked over to the couch, her mother trailing behind her, dropped her backpack, and waited patiently.
Her mother’s eyes sparkled in happiness. “Kagome, dear, I told your teachers a while ago that you were moving away after your tests were done, and that we would all appreciate it if the results were giving right away. Because of that, I have the results to the four exams you took and I should have your math scores tomorrow!”
Kagome gaped at her mother, her eyes were wide and holding disbelieve, and her jaw threatened to fall. “Mama, I really, really hope you’re not kidding!”
Mrs. Higurashi grinned and held out in front of her the envelop containing the results. Slowly, Kagome grabbed it and opened it carefully. She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, opened her eyes again, and stared at the white, piece of paper that held her future.
Loud, excited squeals rang inside the house. Throwing the paper to the side, Kagome literally jumped off her feet and hugged her mom tightly. “I passed! I passed!” No more high school!
Unnoticeably, the front door opened and two pairs of eyes watched the two woman hug and jump around in enthusiasm.
“Eh, mom, sis?” Souta called out, “What are you guys doing? It’s kinda…scary.”
Mrs. Higurashi looked over Kagome’s shoulder and smiled at her father and son. “Kagome passed!”
“Ignore them, Souta. They’re just being females.” Jii-chan stated as he congratulated Kagome with a big, tight hug before carrying two shed and peculiar looking swords outside. Souta merely nodded, looked strangely at the two women, bypassed hugs, and ran to the safety of his room and games.
Laughing, mother and daughter dislocated from each other. Chuckling slightly when she remembered her baby boy run away, she said, “You’ll think by now he would be used to it, I remember I used to love hugs when I was young.” Kagome sweat-dropped, “Eh, mama, Souta is part of the male specimens. What do you expect?”
Mrs. Higurashi nodded in agreement, “Good point. Well, now that high school is pretty much over, when do you plan to leave?”
Kagome sighed and looked at her mother sadly. “I’m gonna pack in a minute and leave, now that I don’t have other priorities to take care of, I need to focus all my attention on finishing this quest.”
“I wish you would stop going, but I know you won’t.” Mrs. Higurashi smiled sadly, she realized that now she would see her daughter less. A gripping pain fell on Kagome when she saw her mother’s face. She hoped that this quest would come to end, that way she could return home and make her mother happy. Slowly, her mother wrapped her arms around Kagome’s shoulders and whispered, “I’m really proud to call you my daughter. I’m so proud of you, Kagome.”
Without warming, Kagome found herself crying on her mother’s shoulder. She wanted this to end, her heart loved the Feudal Era as much as it loved the present, and it was eating her inside.
Not wanting to keep her daughter from her duties any longer, Mrs. Higurashi stepped away from her daughter, wiped her tears, and said sternly, “Now, now, go on and pack, I’ll prepare some food for you to take.” She gave Kagome a slight push towards the stairs before heading to the kitchen.
Prepared and ready to go, Kagome stood by the side of the well with her family. Her school clothes were long gone. Now, she wore old, white sneakers, simple, blue jeans that hugged her body tightly and comfortably. As for a top, she wore a loose, blue with white stripes tank top.
She stepped towards her jii-chan and gave him a hug and a big kiss on the cheek before whispering, “Goodbye.” When she reached her little brother, she bended, hugged him, and gave him a kiss. Scoffing when he pretended to gag, she flicked his forehead playfully.
Reaching her mom, she looked at her sadly and hugged her tightly. She willed her tears from falling when her mother returned her hug tenfold. Stepping away, she waved at them, knowing that she wasn’t going to see them for a long time.
Saying a final, ‘Sayonara,’ she jumped into the well. Her eyes glowed when she saw and felt the blue light wrap around her. She smiled; she could already smell the air and see the lush grass.
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