InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Chronic Condition ❯ Shaken, Not Stirred ( Chapter 5 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

Title: Chronic Condition
Author: tru_tiger
Rating: PG-13 (T) – for supposed premarital relations, false (?) teen pregnancy, and lots of other
unforseen events in future chapters.
Summary: As Kagome's absences from school grow longer and more frequent, her twentieth-
century friends begin to suspect that her grandfather's excuses are merely cover for a single
chronic condition. With no more diseases springing to mind, the eldest Higurashi proclaims his
granddaughter PREGNANT! With Miroku (in)conveniently around, the situation becomes more
complicated . . .
Note: This chapter tries to summarize the previous chapters and tie up lose ends while leading up
to a big cliffhanger. Kagome is trying to make sense of everything that has happened.


Chapter 5: Shaken, Not Stirred

Kagome imagined herself as one of those numbered balls in the Takara-kuji1 lottery drawings,
bouncing all over the place at high speed with no control over where she went. Between having
her life planned for her by her family and friends and the jumble of thoughts in her own head, she
felt more discombobulated the last couple of days than if she were going over Niagara Falls in a
wooden barrel.

Yuka, Eri, and Ayumi hurried everyone to the nearest Tokyo Metro station to catch the next train
to the Shibuya2 shopping district across town. They pushed and shoved everyone aboard upon
one of the cars like cowboys herding cattle. Kagome, Miroku, and Inuyasha were too
overwhelmed to protest much among the bustling crowds of people. Miroku was fascinated by all
the unfamiliar sights that he silently gaped in awe as he was ushered about, unable to form a
coherent thought or question. Inuyasha, on the other hand, was so overcome by the noxious odors
and sounds of the station that he could only manage to put one hand over his nose and the other
over his ears in an attempt to fend off an inevitable headache. Fortunately for Kagome and
company, this preoccupied him from launching into a barrage of complaints or destroying the
place. Also to Kagome's relief, Miroku and Inuyasha happened to get seated next to her on the
train, instead of next to her friends. Even in her state, Kagome still had enough where-with-all to
worry what would happen if her friends inundated either of them with questions. Heaven forbid
if Miroku or Inuyasha accidentally made reference to the well, demons, or Naraku! The three
friends managed to sit together a few rows away, no doubt strategizing on what would happen
next in the shopping expedition / journey to meet Hojo.

The ride across town gave Kagome a few moments to reflect on all the crazy things that had
happened since her eventful return home. She tried not to have a panic attack as she worked to
make sense of things. She mentally compiled a list of facts and unanswered questions, and what
she was able to come up with was that:

1. Miroku somehow was able to magically go through the well to her time. The significance,
if any, of why this happened now, and not before, remained unknown. Did Buddha intend
for Miroku to remedy Japan's declining birth rate by asking all the young women of
modern Tokyo to bear his child? 3

2. Grandpa came up with the ridiculous idea that she was pregnant to explain away her
frequent (and anticipated) absences from school. Her mom, surprisingly, was going along
with it instead of being freaked out that her daughter was going to be the shame of the
family -- not to mention a grandmother herself at so young an age! Mom had some kind
of device that would make Kagome look pregnant. No thought yet on what was going to
happen nine months from now when she needed a baby to show everyone. Would she
pretend the "baby" was stillborn, or would she dress up and parade Buyo as her child to
all the friends and neighbors?

3. Inuyasha supposedly was the father of this "baby." How in the world were they going to
tell him about this outrageous plan, especially since she couldn't hide the fact she would
be wearing the "pregnancy belly" every time she came home to her time? She didn't think
he'd buy it if she told him she was gaining weight from eating too much Pocky. On top of
that, how were they going to keep him from going ballistic once they told him?

4. She had the weirdest dream last night! Involving Miroku! Barely clothed and feeding her
oden! And it was surprisingly . . . not unenjoyable. What was that about?! Kagome
quickly tried to dismiss it as just her subconscious trying to deal with Miroku's
miraculously appearance in her time and his serving as the surrogate father to her "baby."
Part of her felt disloyal to Inuyasha for having such thoughts, and she had enough on her
plate as it was without trying to figure out why she was having sexy dreams about the
monk, no matter how intriguing said dreams were. Why was it so difficult to stop
thinking about this?

By the time the train reached their stop, Kagome bit off all her fingernails and gave up any hope
of ever having a beautiful manicure. As if fighting demons day in and day out didn't do enough
to ruin that, she thought.

Once at the Shibuya station, Yuka, Eri, and Ayumi excitedly appeared again in front of their
companions and shuffled them off the train. Yuka and Eri took charge of Kagome and Miroku up
front, while Ayumi escorted Inuyasha from the rear. On the way to the street, Ayumi, ever the
smart one, tried to make small talk and managed to make an astute observation.

"Inu Taisho. That sounds an awful lot like the name of Kagome's ex-boyfriend. Isn't that a
coincidence? Wasn't his name Inuyasha?"

Inuyasha managed to uncover his nose and mouth long enough to say, "Inuyasha IS my name. I
don't know this Inu Taisho you're talking about."

Ayumi gasped, "You're the father of Kagome's baby?"

As everyone suddenly stopped dead in their tracks, Kagome wished she could run home and
jump back down the well into the Feudal Era. Forget about breaking the news to Hojo -- how was
she going to break the news to Inuyasha? In front of everyone?

— — —

Author's Notes / References:

1) Takara-kuji is the name of the lottery in Japan. Read more about it at www . lotteryinsider .
com / lottery / japan . htm.

2) Shibuya supposedly is a shopping district in Tokyo popular with young people. My feeble
attempt at developing the setting of the story. I imagined the group going across town on the
subway, and the Shibuya district seemed like it was across town from the Asakusa district, which
has a lot of shrines like the one Kagome lives in. You can check it out on www . japan-guide .
com / e / e2164 . html. I've never been to Japan, so I know I'm treading on thin ice here. Forgive
me.

3) It's true – women in Japan aren't having enough babies. To read the latest, see http : / / news .
bbc . co . uk / 2 / hi / asia-pacific / 5273282 . stm .

— — —

Ahh, many thanks to tru_tiger for sending in her RR chapter! ^^ I know that all of these chapters
are a little slow in coming, but they're all worth the wait, yes?

Also, on another note, I'd like to give personal thanks to t_t for adding a title to her chapter. Not
that it's mandatory for a RR author to include a title for their chapter, but I appreicate not having
to do it for them all the same ^^

For those of you interested in looking at t_t's links, be sure to take the extra spaces out when you
copy-and-paste the address(es) into your browser. Since ff.net doesn't allow actual links to
appear in stories (for some reason unknown to me) I had to edit the links with extra spacing just
so they would show up at all. Sorry about that.

Megami