Kanzen Chinmoku

By Tinkerbell

Chapter 1 Watchful Eyes

Kagome's feet pounded against the pavement. She was tired and hungry, and running home from school didn't help her exhaustion.

Tokyo was baked under hot cloudless skies, and August heat showed no mercy.

Kagome never ran home, usually walking slowly and taking in the mixture of industrial nature that inhabited her neighborhood. Trees sprouting through sidewalks, and greenbelts lining highways.

But today was special.

Today marked the longest time she had ever been away from the Sengoku-Jidai, since she had come across Inuyasha. Normally she would only pop back into the 21st century for a day or so, but now she had been gone for little over a week. Life had been so hectic and demanding, Kagome had forgot.

'Forget?'

No, she could never forget. The Sengoku-Jidai had become a part of her life, hell it was becoming her life.

Yes Kagome lived for going to the past, she lived for the adventure and excitement she found there, and she lived for Inuyasha.

'Inuyasha.'

Kagome sighed. Of course she could never forget, his silly smile and playful eyes had burned in her memory. Even if he sometimes was a baka, he had polluted her mind.

Kagome turned the corner and rushed into the little shrine that was her home. She unceremoniously slammed open the door, flopped off her shoes, and headed straight into the kitchen.

Kagome's mother came down stairs in response to the adolescent hurricane that just entered her home. She shook her head and sighed as she closed the front door.

Souta had been sitting and watching TV, but got up to see what was happening.

Mrs. Higarashi put her hand on the boys shoulder, and plainly stated as she looked directly into his eyes. "Never grow up. Your perfect the way you are, sane."

"I heard that" Kagome's voice rang over the clatter of random kitchen utensils. She was sloppily creating an afternoon snack, and making a mess everywhere. Mrs. Higarashi entered the sandwich war-zone.

"Sweetie are you okay? You seem a little frazzled."

"Oh I'm fine." Kagome mumbled through a mouthful of food. She washed down the roast-beef with some milk and continued.

"I've just never been away from Inuyasha and everyone for so long. I miss them all……even Miroku." Kagome muttered the last comment under her breath, so her mother gave her a slightly confused look.

"Like I said, I miss them terribly, and I am just anxious to go back."

Mrs. Higarashi nodded silently. She was a little sad that her daughter was so "anxious" to be a 500 year distance away from her. Kagome could sense her mother's disappointment, and proceeded to comfort and reassure her.

"Don't worry ma, I'll come home to visit real soon, I promise. You shouldn't worry about me so much, I'm almost 16, and getting pretty good at taking care of myself."

Kagome's mother looked at her with that glazed, possessive, baby-face that parents take on so much

"I know, but I worry because I care. And no matter how big you get, you'll always be my little baby." Mrs. Higarashi placed a quick kiss on her daughters, red, embarrassed cheek.

"MOOOOOM! Why do you have to do that?"

"Because I love you, and I also like to see you squirm." Kagome said nothing, she only glared at her mother from the corner of her eyes.

'Why does she remind me so much of Inuyasha right now?'

Kagome's eyes wandered out the kitchen window. They walked past the little garden and rested on the shrine enclosed well. The gods tree loomed over the little altar, casting an ominous shadow that shone with great contrast to the afternoon sun. Kagome's eyes snapped back onto her mother.

"I really have to go pack, they're expecting me." Kagome was about to rush to her room, when she was stopped by a harsh realization.

"What about your homework?"

Kagome imagined the file case full of unfinished homework. Her grades had been slipping, teachers were becoming annoyed, and her friends, not knowing of her true reasons for missing school, were starting to think they had lost they're innocent friend Kagome to juvenile delinquency.

Kagome sighed heavily, "there's not much, I'll take it with me."

"Good. Now go hurry and pack, before it gets dark."

Kagome bounded up her stairs. If her mother truly comprehended the dangers and evils that Kagome had faced, the peaceful darkness of night, would be the last of her worries.

* * * *

The afternoon brightness was dulling into evening, and Kagome Higarashi stood at the door to the Bone Eater's well, ready to defy all logical science, and making no deal of it.

She decided this time to wear a pair of comfortable Kakii shorts, and a plain blue T-shirt. Sure it was a strange choice of fashion when traveling half a millennium into the past, but her friends had grown accustom to her strange and usually revealing clothes.

She also wore a backpack, stuffed clumsily with: two clean changes of clothes, a hair brush, warm sweatshirt, a second pair of sneakers, some shampoo and conditioner, miner first-aid kit, blank notebook paper, a ball point pen (Inuyasha always found those amusing), English and Math school books, three chocolate bars (Shippou loved chocolate), five cups of ramen, and her old Teen Fashion magazine (they were meant for Sango, but Miroku seemed to like them better).

"Well better get going." But right before Kagome could enter the small shrine, her mother called out to her.

"I love you sweetie, and please be safe. Oh and also tell Inuyasha and all the rest that I said hi."

"Will do ma." Kagome stood facing her mother and smiling sweetly. Mrs. Higarashi looked at her daughter for a moment or two, and realized just how much Kagome really was growing up.

Mrs. Higarashi turned to enter back into the house. She seemed content, but deep within a sense of danger and worry gnawed at her. She suppressed the feeling and filled her head with positive thoughts.

Kagome waited until her mother was back inside, in some ways she almost felt silly and embarrassed, and didn't want people to watch her just hurtle into an old rotten well.

The light of day was fading fast, and she quickly turned around and took one last look at her present surroundings. Content, Kagome entered the shrine.

There was a tearing of the air, and a bullet grazed right beside Kagome's head, with out her taking any notice.