InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Learning my way... ❯ Chapter 2 ( Chapter 2 )

Mariko spent most of that night online, alternating between chatting with Mary-Anne and Izumi; two of her American friends on MSN and looking up ways that anybody could end up with dog-ears. Unsurprisingly, Keitaro's ears resembled those of the Akita inu breed of dog, native of Japan's Honshu Island. She made almost no progress and called it a night after several hours of searching.

Flopping into bed, she stared up at the dolphin poster that she had tacked to her ceiling. Out the window, despite it being about midnight, the cacophony of the cars and crowds did not fade.

How on Earth am I supposed to get used to this? Urgh… I miss Seattle…it was so much quieter.

Reaching over to her nightstand, she picked up a pair of earplugs and stuffed them in her ears. It dulled the sound a bit, but not enough. Exasperated, she pulled her stereo out of the box it had been packed in and set in on the floor next to her bed. She plugged it in and dug out her headphones and her Enya CD. Turning on the music, she flipped to a relatively slow and relaxing song. Putting on the headphones, she turned up the volume until she could barely hear the noise on the street below.

She was asleep within five minutes.

~

Keitaro waited anxiously around the corner from the school for any sign of Mariko, but it was then that he discovered that she was already inside. Keitaro glanced around the corner. Yukio stood at the top of the steps, arms crossed. Keitaro could smell his anger from where he stood.

Then an idea occurred to him.

Why am I standing here? I should be able to walk past him without expecting anything malicious. I could scare him… not hurt him, but definitely scare him.

Grinning ferally, he rounded the corner and strode down the street a little faster than he usually did. Yukio spotted him immediately and stood taller, thrusting his chest out. Keitaro almost laughed.

Yukio has held me under his sway all this time… by trying to avoid him I let him win… so now I must show him who's boss, or who is the alpha, as my father would have said…

"Hey dog shit!" called Yukio.

Keitaro took the steps in one leap, landing in front of Yukio and ignoring the gasps of his classmates all around him. Baring his fangs, he grabbed Yukio by the shoulder and dug his claws on just enough to create holes in Yukio's clothes, his fingers felt one of his claws go a little to far and a bead of blood rose from Nishimura's skin. Yukio squirmed, his face paling. A feeling of pleasure erupted throughout Keitaro's body as he smelled and enjoyed Yukio's fear.

"I could kill you with ease Nishimura," growled Keitaro, "but you are lucky that I am more like my mother. I do not like killing. Be thankful I am not like my father in that way, He would have killed you long ago and there wouldn't have been enough left of you to bury," Alright, a slight exaggeration…

Yukio shivered and gulped, his face sheet white. Keitaro felt his grin widen. Perfect.

He let go of Yukio and strode past him, into the school. Frowning, he ducked into a corner and set his sights inward, trying to calm to calm his rapidly beating heart. He felt powerful, unbreakable and dangerous. Closing his eyes, Keitaro rested his forehead against the cool wall, trying to calm his raging blood.

My youkai blood liked that…liked it too much. I must never do that again, I do not have a sealing sword like Otou-san did. I do not have Tetsussaiga. I cannot risk losing control. I do not know what my blood rage would be like. I am only one-quarter youkai, but I must not risk it. Ever.

"Keitaro?"

Keitaro jerked up, a snarl on his lips, which he bit back just in time. Mariko stood there, clutching several notebooks, looking at him with a concerned expression. Keitaro mentally kicked himself. He should have noticed her approaching.

"You okay?" she asked, tilting her head slightly.

"Fine…just give me a second," Keitaro took a deep, shuddering breath. Oddly enough, Mariko's smell calmed him slightly.

"Word has it that you nearly killed Yukio," she said cautiously.

Keitaro barked out a harsh laugh. Five minutes. It took five minutes for that to reach the other end of the school.

"Nearly killed? Hardly. Scared him, Yes, but I'm not going to kill him, I don't do that,"

Mariko stared at him, frowning. He seemed to be trembling slightly and his baseball cap was lopsided, so that she could see the bottom of one of his strange white ears peeking through his black hair. He was also hyperventilating, the pupils of his golden eyes wide. His clawed hands braced himself against the wall. Suddenly, Mariko knew that Keitaro wasn't as human as he let on. Yukio was right, but for some reason, this information did not scare her.

"Your not really human are you?" asked Mariko.

Keitaro looked at her, his wild golden eyes suddenly calming. Instantly, he was himself again…yet different, more confident. He was silent for a minute, thinking hard.

"I am human," he said finally, "but I am also something else."

The two of them were silent for several seconds, and then the bell rang.

"See you in class Mariko," and Keitaro walked past her, his back straight and tall. Not hunched and wary like it had been the day before. "See you…" echoed Mariko. A ways away, she saw Keitaro nod, as if he had heard her.

Mariko watched him go, her mind buzzing with possibilities of what he could be. Turning on her heel, she headed off to gym class. She didn't want to be late, as Coach Genji was not a patient teacher.

~

Mariko caught up with Keitaro just after lunch and dragged him to a vacant cafeteria table. Many people watched this with interest. Unwrapping her tuna sandwich, she waited until Keitaro had bought his lunch and had rejoined her at the table.

Keitaro sat and started eating without saying anything. He wasn't going to volunteer anything. Mariko frowned. Around them, the chatter of the cafeteria provided ample privacy of conversation, if one didn't speak to loudly.

"So, what are you then?" she asked straight out. Keitaro gave her a tolerant look.

"I'd rather keep things like that to myself," he replied evenly, glancing up from his bento lunch. "You already know more than you should," he continued, his voice low. Underneath his cap his ears flicked back and forth, monitoring the conversations near them for any unkindly gossip. There was a group of girls three tables away speculating if he and Mariko were going out, but they were too far away for Keitaro to safely tell them to mind their own business.

Mariko fixed Keitaro with a stare that had bent many other boys to her will. Keitaro raised an eyebrow.

"Giving me the evil eye isn't going to make me tell you Mariko,"

…And If I even hint that I might tell her anytime soon, she'll never stop asking…

Mariko glared at him for several more seconds, before deflating slightly.

"Fine," she said sullenly, "You win,"

"I wasn't aware that there was a competition between us," he replied dryly, his amusement obvious.

Mariko scowled at him, her blue eyes hard.

"Oh! I see a smile… twitching right there," Keitaro tapped the corner of Mariko's mouth. Mariko twitched, trying to force her expression back into the scowl, but she was losing the battle. Keitaro stuck his tongue out at her while crossing his eyes and she burst unwillingly into giggles, dropping her sandwich onto the table.

"Not…fair…" she choked out.

"What's not fair about it? You were already smiling,"

"Was not," shot back Mariko indignantly.

"Of course you were, otherwise, you'd never have started laughing at something as stupid as me sticking my tongue out at you…that stuff makes a two-year-old laugh," replied Keitaro calmly, a ghost of a smile on his own face.

Mariko tried to scowl, but started giggling again when Keitaro stuck his tongue out at her again.

"Damn, it's easy to make you laugh," remarked Keitaro.

Mariko grimaced.

"I always lose at Dead donkey because of it," she replied. Keitaro blinked.

"Dead donkey…?" he asked, puzzled.

"It's a game… a bunch of people lie on the floor and one or two people go around and try to make the others laugh without touching them or tickling them. If they make you laugh, you have to get up and help them make the other people laugh, and the person who's straight face lasts the longest wins," explained Mariko, "I suck at it… I can't play poker because of it,"

"Ah," said Keitaro, thinking of the poker games he had participated in with Uncle Souta and his friends. He didn't have the best poker face either, but he nearly always won because he could smell the difference between someone who was bluffing and someone who wasn't. Most of Uncle Souta's friends had given up in disgust at being beaten several times in a row by someone who was twenty or so years younger than they were.

"What's it like in America?" asked Keitaro, changing the subject.

Mariko got an odd, far away look in her eyes.

"Different… and much quieter, I can barely sleep here in Tokyo because there is so much noise and I miss all my friends, especially Izumi, Mia and Laura. They were my best friends…" replied Mariko, looking down at the table, "My parents like it here though, because my father's family is so close… My mother did not have much family back in the US,"

She glanced up suddenly.

"Does all the noise here bother you?" she asked earnestly.

"Yah, it does… I hate the smell too, but I'm used to it," replied Keitaro, wrinkling his nose. Mariko raised an eyebrow.

"How good's your sense of smell?" she asked pointedly.

Keitaro grimaced.

"Good enough to tell me things that I don't want to know," he replied.

"Like what?" pressed Mariko innocently.

"Like… Never mind," said Keitaro, shaking his head.

Trust me on this one Mariko… You don't want to know…

"Come on, tell me!" pleaded Mariko.

"You don't want to know,"

"Please?"

"No,"

"Please?" Mariko fixed him with what he swore was soulful puppy dog eyes. Not a very convincing version of it though, for Keitaro's resolve didn't waver. He sighed.

"No,"

Mariko scowled and crossed her arms. Keitaro laughed at her exaggerated anger.

"You've got a smile in there somewhere…" He said, leaning in and squinting at her twitching mouth, pretending to be looking for it. Mariko broke down once more and started laughing.

"You suck," she gasped out, still laughing.

Keitaro raised an eyebrow and grinned.

"No, I don't, your just mad that I'm not telling you anything," he replied, setting his hat lower on his head. Mariko sighed.

"I'm never going to win am I?" she asked, peeling open a container of yoghurt.

"Nope," said Keitaro cheerfully, "You might as well accept that," Mariko looked as though she wanted to slap him silly. Keitaro snorted at her expression, causing some rice to go up his nose.

"Ack!!!!" he cried

Mariko started laughing at the pained expression on his face as he tried dislodging the rice.

"You… look… like… a …dork…" she gasped, wiping her eyes.

"Gee…thanks," grumbled Keitaro, rubbing his nose. It was sore on the inside, but at least all the grains of rice that had been up it were gone.

Mariko stuck her tongue out at him.

Both were reduced to fits of laughter.

~

Nishimura Yukio arrived at home that afternoon, torn between trembling with fear and shaking with rage.

Higurashi had ruined his reputation at school. Shattered it. No one respected him or feared him, now that Higurashi had shown his true self, so to speak. He had acted like a coward, sure of his own demise. The wild look in Keitaro's eyes had struck fear in his heart and he had acted like a coward!

Yukio had always suspected that Keitaro was not fully human. Now he knew. Now he just needed a bit more proof.

Higurashi Keitaro was going down.