InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Dancing in the Dark ❯ Part One ( Chapter 1 )

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

Dancing in the Dark
I do not own Inuyasha or any of its Characters.

Her long black hair was sent flying out behind her as the cool breeze lazily brushed past the seventeen-year-old and those who now accompanied her down the lonely sidewalk. She took one step after another, dreading the small progress that was accomplished as each step brought her ever closer to the threatening foundation that had housed her off and on again for the last couple of years. Sighing to herself she pushed her jet-black hair back behind her ears, casting chocolate brown eyes toward the people around her. Sadness hung over her family like a foreboding cloud waiting to pounce on them all. "Mom," she asked softly. Her mother looked at her, her eyes clouded with worry.

"Yes honey?"
"Everything's gonna be okay," she whispered softly, her voice threatening to betray her own nerves. Somehow she overcame her apprehension, managing a small, if somewhat shaky, smile. Her mother gave her a small nod in understanding, yet the sadness wouldn't relinquish its hold over her, over her grandpa, over her small brother. Hanging her head in order to keep the fear that she was sure would soon come out, she went through the door that her grandpa held open for her, open to her fate.
Everything used to be fine. Her life used to be happy, ranging from hanging out with friends to a loving family that always seemed to be there when she needed them the most. Until that day. That day had changed everything hadn’t it. Everything she had known had blown out the window, drifting away to the lands of old where fairy tales were true, waiting for someone else to wish upon. Everything had been fine! Fine, until that one bruise . . . the infamous bruise that had occurred at her family’s shrine.

Temples are known for their steps . . . all of them. When she had taken that momentous plunge down every single, malicious step she had expected some bruises. She had shrugged off the worries of her mother and grandfather, walking to school has she had always done. She had gone through her normal routine, waiting for the bell to ring, the signal for her freedom. Completely forgetting the accursed spot, she had lived her life for a week.

However, everything had changed one night. She was trying on a dress for a friend’s party, when her mother had asked her that one question that now haunted her memory. “Isn’t that the same bruise you had when you fell the other day Kagome?” Mrs. Higurashi looked at the bruise as if it would suddenly jump up and bite her. “And what are all of these red dots?”

“What dots,” Kagome demanded her mother. Sure enough there were pinpoints of red running up and down her arm. Under inspection of her left arm and legs she noticed that sure enough, she was covered.

“How long have you had these?”

“Dunno,” the teenager answered simply.

“Bruises shouldn’t last more than a couple of days,” Her mother mumbled to herself as she pushed herself off the ground. “I’m making you an appointment with the doctor. Anything else you haven’t noticed?”

“No...” That one conversation... now this. The doctor had taken blood samples and, “To be on the safe side,” he had told them, a bone marrow biopsy. Now she was to meet him at the hospital to get the results. Something deep within her was screaming about this, why else had he asked that her family accompany her? “Why else indeed,” Kagome thought biting on her lower lip nervously.
Kagome sat down in the uncomfortable chair, softly humming a comforting song to herself. Her mother sat just to her left, her only pillar of strength at the moment. Her grandpa and Souta had been asked to wait in the waiting room downstairs until the news was given to Kagome and her mother. “Let’s see,” Kagome thought idly. “Uncomfortable? Check. Eerily painted room? Check. Smell? Double check. Doctor? Still waiting....” She continued on checking off her list, knowing that it was the only thing that kept her from facing the bad that could erupt in the room once the magnificently late doctor waltzed into the room.

“Kagome Higurashi,” an older man’s voice asked from the door.

“Yes,” she answered in a shaky voice, she barely recognized. The doctor gave her what he thought to be a very comforting smile. “Get on with it,” she thought furiously.

“Well, we got the results of the two tests. I regret to inform you that Kagome here has been diagnosed with Leukemia.” Kagome’s heart plunged. “To be more specific Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia, a type of Leukemia that suppresses the amount of regular blood cell production.”

“Is it fatal,” Kagome found herself asking in a completely normal voice. Her mother just laid her head in her hands, clearly in anguish.

“Only if left untreated. We can transfer you to a hospital in Tokyo for treatment, however I do believe that the move will have to remain permanent, unless your diagnosis slips into remission...”

“Remission,” Kagome leapt on the word.

“Yes, remission, but not however a cure.”

“But there is the chance that I can overcome this?”

“Yes.”

“Then sign me up for the treatment.”

“You seem overly excited about being diagnosed with a sometimes fatal disease,” the doctor eyed her somewhat cautiously. “Has the predicament sunk in yet Ms. Higurashi? Do you realize what this means?”

“Leukemia, lose of blood cells, remission,” the seventeen year old recited in a somewhat naive state.

“Ms. Higurashi, you do know that there is a mortality rate for Leukemia? That you may never reach remission?” Kagome bit her lip in frustration.

“What are you trying to say, that I’m gonna die?!”

“No... Never...”

“THEN GIVE ME THE TREATMENT!” Kagome’s mother looked up at her startled, as she began recovering her wits. Kagome’s eyes overfilled with tears as the physiological effects of the moment began to finally fester in her mind. She realized that she had jumped up from her chair in her outburst, and sunk back into its protective armrests heavily. “Mom,” she whispered. Her mother enveloped her in her arms giving her the comfort that only a mother could give.

Meanwhile....

Inuyasha Yoshiaki walked down the empty hallways flanked on the left side of him his only ‘close’ friend, Miroku Shibasaburo. The only person in Tokyo High School that he even bothered to trust, other than that girl Sango Miyazaki, whom Miroku had taken a fascination with ever since laying eyes on her back in Jr. High. School. School had been over for about an hour now, but as always he had been called to the counselor’s office during 7th Period. Miroku had been there to lend whatever kind of support a lecherous teenager could, before bolting that is. “So Inuyasha, what did you do this time,” Miroku asked, somewhat bored as they walked past closed doors and walls of lockers.

“Nothing,” Inuyasha replied coldly. That one thing had been bothering him too, the one day he hadn’t tired to kill anyone was the day that he actually got called to that infernal hag’s office.

“You sure?”

“Yes.”

“Sure you’re sure?”

“Yes.”

“Sure you’re sure you’re sure?”

“DAMMIT MIROKU SHUT THE F- -K UP! I’M SURE!” Miroku smiled knowing he had gotten on his friend’s nerves.

“Having a bad day Inuyasha,” a semi-cold voice teased from the office up ahead. Both boys looked up the hall to see a thin, black headed girl sitting in a chair just outside of the door that read, “Ms. Kitasato.”

“Kikyo,” Inuyasha told the girl in a cold voice. Miroku was about to elbow him in the ribs when the office door swung open, revealing an elderly woman.

“Inuyasha come in, Miroku wait outside,” Ms. Kitasato ordered in a somewhat raspy voice. She moved away from the door to allow Inuyasha entrance to her office, then closed the door with a loud slam. “Sit.” Inuyasha sat in the chair opposite of hers, right in front of her desk, eyeing her apprehensively. “Yoshiaki, Inuyasha, you’ve applied to several Universities, I see, but no letters back from them am I correct?” “So this is what this is all about,” Inuyasha mused inwardly. He nodded in a bored manner. “Do you know why Inuyasha?” He shrugged taking a look around her office. Pictures of her and her family lined the walls, some stuffed animals that obviously didn’t really belong in the room, certificates, and a name tag that read Kaede Kitasato. “You need extra curricular activities boy,” she rasped at him growing agitated.

“So?” He smiled inwardly as the woman fought to relent her oncoming anger. She took a deep breath before continuing on with the ‘conversation’. He looked at her curiously as she suddenly smiled somewhat sardonically.

“I took the opportunity of signing you up for an after school program that has been reinstated recently. It will look great on your applications, and so forth. You report to Rosethorn Hospital tomorrow.”

“ON A SATURDAY,” Inuyasha bellowed in outrage.

“Inuyasha,” Kikyo asked Miroku in a bored voice. Miroku looked the girl up and down.

“Yep.”

“Hearing about his new project?”

“More than likely.”

“You joining him?” Miroku smiled as the office door swung open with such force that it nearly ripped the hinges off.

“Probably.”

“So what pissed you off,” Miroku asked as they stalked down the hallways, once again, with Inuyasha in a worse mood than before.

“After School Program,” he ground out through clenched teeth.

“What kind of program?”

“Hospital.”

“Rosethorn? ”

“Yes.”

“Candy stripper?”

“No.”

“Male nurse?”

“No.”

“Entertainment?R 21;

“NO!” Miroku ducked as Inuyasha swiped his fist where it surely would have connected with his head moments before.

“Then?”

“I’m going to be visiting some sick people and help ease their... transition,” he told his friend using the same words Kaede had used.

“Transition?” They both stopped at the student parking lot.

“Whatever that means,” Inuyasha said getting into his car and driving off. Miroku sighed.

“Well... how bad can it be,” he asked himself. Shaking his head he got in the truck and drove home.