InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Out of This World ❯ Wishing on a Shooting Star ( Chapter 1 )

A/N: About the costumes and other things... I said that the costumes looked like the Jedi outfits. This is not a rewrite of Star Wars by any means. Heck, this isn't even based off it, actually. The only references that you might see is the general sci-fi stuff that Star Wars (and Star Trek) have taken credit for. (Thank you, George Lucas and Gene Roddenberry). I was simply saying that Inuyasha's clothing at the beginning looked like that. (I'm not overly Star Wars savvy, either. I leave that to the pros).

As for Inuyasha's age when he got on the ship, he was about 14, Sango was 13, and Miroku was 16.

Please read these Author's Notes carefully. I usually have some kind of tidbit in here that is (supposed to be) helpful. Again, working has taken up my time, I have been exhausted, and my eyes hurt right now. I have next week off, so hopefully this chapter will be posted by that time.... I hope...

Dedication: On June 17th, 2005, Kristine Batey, owner of Hero 21, A.K.A. Bachan, passed away. She was a tremendous inspiration and she looked after me as I started out in the Inuyasha fandom. While there might be other dedications throughout this story, overall, I'd like to dedicate this to her memory. Rest in peace, Bachan.

 

Note: I use the manga's coloring for Kagome's eyes (which is blue-grey) as well as the Japanese spellings (`Kouga' as opposed to `Koga,' for example).

 

All questions that you ask that are going to be mentioned in the story, I won't bother saying a thing about in the Author's Note. Otherwise, they'll be answered here.

 

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Chapter One

 

Wishing on a Shooting Star

 

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The sky was a solemn grey stretching endlessly above the city of Tokyo. Waterlogged clouds hung heavily, threatening rain. As a result, most people were indoors, not wishing to be caught in a could-be downpour. But it didn't bother Higurashi Kagome; a little rain never hurt anyone.

Kagome carried her black school case in one hand as she stared rather ponderously at the bleak heavens. While she mused vaguely about the lesson her math teacher had given the class, as it was Saturday, a half-day, her mind turned to crazy daydreams.

Ever since Kagome was small, she had always enjoyed creating her own personal fairy tales. They almost always seemed to involve some sort of amazing feat - dastardly deeds and vicious villains; beautiful maidens and courageous heroes - but, they were always imaginative, taking places in worlds Kagome could only dream up. But most of all, she enjoyed sharing her stories with her family - especially her younger brother Souta.

At the moment, Kagome was walking the two blocks from her middle school to Souta's elementary school to meet up with him so they could walk home together; however, when she reached their meeting spot on the school's steps, Kagome was surprised to see Souta wasn't there.

Kagome sighed slightly. “Now, where could he have gotten off to...?” She gazed around the courtyard she'd just passed through, and, seeing nothing, decided to check around back where the playground equipment was. When she reached the edge of the playground and still didn't see any signs of her brother, Kagome began to grow worried.

“Souta,” she called, pacing along the sidewalk that ringed around the playground. “Souta, where are you? If this is one of your stupid pranks, I'm going to be really mad when I find out....” Kagome's steps slowed when she heard the sound of a child's voice, taunting.

Her body tensed up and suddenly Kagome felt very frightened. Souta... Eyes widening, Kagome ran towards the source of the child's voice. She ended up going around to the other side of the building and then around the back where the dumpsters were.

Huddled against the tall chain link fence with a dumpster on each either side of the alley along with some garbage bags littering the concrete ground was Souta, brown eyes large and face decidedly afraid. Another boy, larger than Souta and most probably a grade or two ahead of him, was standing before of him - effectively keeping him from running away.

As Kagome got closer, she could now make out what the other boy was saying to taunt her brother with. “What - are you gonna cry now? Are you gonna run home and have your daddy come and beat me up - oh, wait, that's right. You don't got a dad, do you, Souta?”

Souta ground his teeth. “Sh-shut up...!”

“Ooo...” the other boy jeered. “Whatcha gonna do, huh? You think you're better than me `cuz your family lives in a shrine or something?” He pushed Souta up against the fence, making the links jangle. “Sissy boy.”

“Hey!” Kagome shouted, now only a yard or so away from bigger kid. “Let go of my brother!”

“Sis...” was all Souta said.

The larger boy released Souta's shoulders to reach over and shove Kagome, saying, “Get the heck out of here.”

Kagome lost her balance and landed on her rump beside a garbage bag. Her school case had flown from her hand, the wind had been knocked out of her, and she was feeling just a bit dazed. She looked up at the frantic cries of her brother as the other boy raised a fist to his face. Kagome felt heat flare through her nerves as the fist started to descend toward Souta's nose, and her gaze focused intently on it...

The boy blinked his beady black eyes in surprise when his fist suddenly stopped moving towards Souta's face. “Huh? What gives?” He stared at his hand a moment more before a garbage bag dropped straight down onto his head, as if it had come out of nowhere. It broke open and spoiled food rolled down his clothes. “Gr-gross!” he stuttered before running out of the alleyway, a trail of rotten school lunches sloshing onto the ground in his wake.

Kagome got up and crouched down to pick up her school case as Souta bounded up to her. “Thanks, Sis! That was so cool how you took care of that bully!”

“It wasn't really all that cool, Souta,” she replied, dusting off the back of her green skirt. “I dropped a trash bag on a guy's head. Anybody could have done that - ”

“But you did it with your mind,” Souta interrupted, gushing.

She shook her head. “It's called telekinesis, Souta, and it's really not that great. If anything,” she mumbled incoherently to herself, “I'm kinda weird because of it.” She looked to her brother. “Are you hurt anywhere?”

Souta shook his head. “No, I'm fine, Sis.”

“Good.” She smiled, relieved. “Then let's go home.”

 

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When the Higurashi siblings reached home, Souta babbled on to their mother about how Kagome had taken care of the bully. Needless to say, Mama reacted like any good mother would - concerned about her son being bullied at school, but Souta had just smiled and insisted he was fine. Mama had reluctantly let it slide, but made Souta promise that if it happened again that he'd tell her; she also wasn't at all angry with Kagome for using her powers - she never was because she trusted her daughter to be careful.

After that, Kagome had trotted up to her bedroom and got to her homework. She was done by the time dinner was ready, and she enjoyed the company of her family, which consisted of Souta, Mama, and Gramps - well, and the family's obese feline, Buyo, who was begging for food from underneath the kitchen table. After some normal dinner conversation - Gramps explaining the legend of the fish they were eating, and Souta rambling on about extraterrestrials - Kagome had gone upstairs to her room to relax, feeling a little lethargic, but glad to be at home with her family.

She was still a bit uncomfortable about using telekinesis in front of someone else unintentionally, so it had been kind of nerve-wracking to use it - even to such a small extent - in front of a stranger. It was a little comforting that the kid probably had no idea that psychic powers were being used around him. (And for picking on her brother, he had that garbage bag coming).

While her family knew of her strange powers, no one else was to know about it. One never knew how someone might deal with learning Kagome had powers - people weren't always the most accepting or kind to things they didn't understand; and they would be far worse than the boy who bullied Souta.

Every so often Kagome would slip up, though - her pencil would fly off her desk when she was annoyed, for example - but it was never enough to make any of her friends suspicious.

Still, no matter how normal she acted, Kagome knew she was undeniably different. Besides having these powers, her family was the keeper of an old Shinto shrine, the Sunset Shrine, and subsequently they lived in a modest home situated on the shrine grounds. Then there was another curious thing - the color of her eyes.

Unlike a normal Japanese person, Kagome's eyes were a stunning sapphire. As far as she knew, she was a hundred percent Japanese. But, she did know where she had inherited the color from - her father; his had been the same shade. She resembled him a lot.

It was times like these that Kagome missed her father the most. He had always been a kind man. Whenever she was upset, her father usually took her aside and would tell her a story or two to make her forget her worries - or at least make her feel a bit better.

And he had never thought her powers or weird. If anything, he seemed proud of her for it, though, like now, she didn't know why...

But that was years ago. He had died in a plane crash when she was nine-years-old. She was fifteen now. All she had left of him, besides his likeness and imagination, was the necklace he'd given her on the day of her birth - a small, round, pinkish gem that she wore everyday. Whenever she really started to think about her father, Kagome would hold the jewel in her palm and this sense of absolute calm would wash over her.

Kagome sighed inaudibly; lying on her bed now and watching the sun fade into night through her window. It didn't take long, yet Kagome still stared out at the night sky. She loved the depth of it, and wondered where it went.

People always said space was endless, but she secretly wanted to see as much of it as she could - to see if maybe there was an end to it. She didn't know how she'd do it, but Kagome was determined to be amongst the stars.

While she was gazing, Kagome noticed a shining spot in the sky, like the twinkling of a really bright star. “What is that?” she wondered aloud, sitting up on her knees and about pressing her nose to the window glass.

It was a deep ocher, and very noticeable against the otherwise starless Tokyo sky. The spot gleamed brighter and suddenly it zipped across the inky heavens, leaving a streak of scarlet in its wake.

“Oh wow... It must be a shooting star! I should make a wish.” Kagome closed her eyes, and thought hard. What did she want more than anything else...?

I wish... Kagome cradled the rosy jewel in her palm, soothing her. I wish to find where I belong...

Kagome gave the gem a squeeze, as if to confirm her wish, before opening her eyes and watching the shooting star disappear through the left corner of her window. Giving a yawn, the girl mumbled to herself as she laid back down, “I'm pooped.... I think it's time for a good night's sleep....”

As she nodded off, Kagome didn't notice the slight glowing of the gem on her necklace.

 

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“Miroku - how are the shields?”

“They're at ninety-three percent and holding.”

“All right. Sango - keep the ship steady as we descend.”

“I am, Inuyasha. Keep quiet unless you want to pilot it through the atmosphere!”

Inuyasha ground his teeth tightly; probably more than Sango's and he could hear the slow grind as she fought with the controls, even over the din of their ship's shuttering descent through the exosphere. He sat back in the captain's chair, letting Miroku and Sango deal with the logistics of maintaining the ship's safe landing; he just kept their objective in mind, praying that what Dark Sky had said was correct.

That on this planet the Teirlon Treasure would be here...

The Shikon no Tama.

A reddish glowing expanse shuddered across the holographic screen; the image was that of their ship breaching the planet's atmosphere, plunging through one layer after another. Finally, a field of grey filtered onto the holo-screen, and Inuyasha knew they were drifting above the planet's clouds. Also judging from the darkened state of the stratosphere, the single sun of this planet was illuminating the opposite side.

It was probably for the best, Inuyasha decided. The people of this planet were still scratching the surface on space travel and exploration. With the sky shadow-cast like this, it would be much easier for their ship to be furtive as it dropped into the troposphere and took cover within the low-hanging clouds.

“Inuyasha,” called Sango from her place at the flight controls, “it's getting harder to control the ship here. I think there's a storm going on...”

“Dammit,” he swore, turning to the console on the right arm of his chair and hitting one of the buttons. Another screen appeared a few feet in front of him, displaying the geography of the area they were over. He tapped a spot on the map, scrutinizing it speedily before shouting back to Sango, “Pilot to these coordinates. We're going to want to drop altitude quickly if we want to land in one shot.”

Sango glimpsed to her left and saw the new coordinates flashing at her on one of the smaller screens, then turned her eyes back to the screen directly in front of her. Gnashing her teeth more tightly than before, and much more audibly now that they were no longer in the planet's outer atmospheric stratum, she held tightly onto the Y-shaped joystick with both hands. Jerking it backwards and then turning it a sharp right, Sango made the ship do half a loop before rotating and heading towards the intended coordinates - an empty field before the base of a mountain.

The ship descended smoothly through the night sky and finally touched down on the soft grass of the meadow.

Miroku scanned the planet's air content as well as the status of their ship. A few moments passed while Sango sat catching her breath and Inuyasha impatiently drummed his fingers, anxious to continue with their mission.

With a short nod of his head, Miroku announced, “The ship seems to be in perfect working condition, thanks to our lovely pilot.” He winked at Sango who merely gave him a halfhearted attempt at a glare even though her cheeks burned pink. “It's perfectly safe for us to go outside and look.”

“So what're we waiting for?” Inuyasha asked, already exiting the bridge and heading down the hall. Miroku and Sango quickly flanked him and all three wound their way around to the cargo hold where the hanyou had pressed the button to begin opening the dual doors.

As the doors parted horizontally, light glittered inward, bathing the trio in wonder, until they realized that they were looking at the unnatural lights of a large city. They stepped out when the lower door dropped onto the ground, creating a ramp.

Soft grass was pressed down by the weight of their footfalls and they stood atop the crest, looking down the darkened hillside to see the city to which the lights belonged. It was massive, even in their eyes, but quite different in look to what the three had seen.

A thick, black band secured a square box to Inuyasha's wrist. The face of the box was smooth metal with a small divide down the center. On the top and bottom of it, there were two small knobs. Inuyasha pressed them and the box face flipped outward; a green-tinged holo-screen sprang out of the opening, detailing information quickly in white print.

Inuyasha's amber eyes simply scanned over the words - it wasn't anything he didn't know before. “This...country speaks a language called Japanese here.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out a white ball that was no bigger than his pinky nail. Tilting his arm, he placed the ball up against the side of the box on his wrist where a tiny beam of light shot out of an unseen hole and scanned over it. Pulling the ball away, Inuyasha held it up to his temple, saying, “I guess I better learn it.”

As soon as the ball made contact with his skin, thousands of words poured into his mind, and in mere seconds, he had learned the language in its entirety. Inuyasha smirked slightly; he probably spoke it better than most of the natives did.

Something that would take people years to learn - entire lifetimes, even! - took him mere seconds with the aid of advanced technology. To these people, it would seem quite wondrous. But to Inuyasha, it was simply habit.

Tucking the ball back into his pocket, he looked at the other two. “Miroku, do you remember what Gregorian said about the Shikon no Tama's energy signal?”

Miroku nodded. “Yes. Since it should be in the hands of the last full-powered Miotas-las, the Shikon no Tama's energy should be quite pure. That is, if the new guardian is as pure-hearted as the last.” He watched Inuyasha tapped another button on the side of gadget on his wrist, frowning thoughtfully. “...Are you going alone, Inuyasha?”

Grunting, the hanyou replied, “Of course I am. I don't want to put you two in danger. Besides, who else is going to watch the ship, eh?”

“Your concern is so touching,” responded Miroku in a rather dry voice, but knowing that his friend had Sango and his best interests in mind. “I just want you to remember that this new guardian may not know who she really is for whatever reason.”

Inuyasha snorted. “I know, I know. I'm not stupid you know.”

“Sometimes, actions speak louder than words.”

Balking slightly, Inuyasha raised a fist with the obvious intent of striking Miroku; he muttered a few choice curse words beneath his breath before lowering his fist again. “Never mind - we don't have time for this. I got to get the girl and the jewel now.”

“We don't know if time's on our side or not,” Sango said, gaze panning over the horizon. She turned to the boys. “But I'm sure once we have the guardian and the Shikon no Tama, we'll have more of it.”

“Agreed,” chorused Miroku.

“Let's hope she's as powerful as Dark Sky said she's supposed to be...” Inuyasha mumbled, tapping one of the knobs on his wrist-gadget. “You two stay here. I'm going to teleport over there...”

“Are you sure that's a good idea?” asked Sango as she stretched and popped the joints in her hands.

“It's the quickest way. If all goes well, I should land pretty close to where she is without being on top of her or something.” Inuyasha stared intently as the machine went about its work - searching out the energies. There had been a sharp spike in the Shikon no Tama's energy only a few hours ago. That was good - it made it all the more easier for Inuyasha as he locked in on the coordinates. All he had to do was confirm his action with another button click.

Sango turned to Inuyasha. “You sure you want to do this alone?”

A finger was poised atop the knob as he thought over her words. “Yeah. Just trust me, all right?”

She nodded. “All right. We'll be here...”

Inuyasha took a deep breath and then slowly pressed the button...

 

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Kagome stretched. She was a light sleeper, and she was only able to sleep in short bouts of four hours, unless she was really tired and then she could sleep the whole day away. Today was one of her four hour spurts.

Sitting up slowly, she felt the slight soreness in her muscles from sleeping on her stomach with Buyo on her back - said lazy feline had just rolled off the side of the bed when she moved, but that wasn't too uncommon. She winced lightly when a particularly nasty twinge went up her spine. “Ugh...I think I could use a hot shower,” she mumbled to herself, swinging herself rather ungracefully from her bed. She sauntered to the hallway and made it to the bathroom.

Kagome ran a hand through her hair as she plugged the tub and turned the hot water on, prepared to take a nice, steamy soak. She idly watched the vapor rise before turning off the hot water and started to feather in some cold. Looking down at her clothes, Kagome realized she was still in her school uniform.

“I better go get my pajamas now...” Shutting off the water, Kagome toddled into her bedroom and found a pair of blue-and-white star-and-moon pajamas in the top drawer of her dresser. As she shut the drawer, she heard a loud `crash!' from the bathroom, like something falling into water. She paused for a moment before rolling her eyes.

“Probably Buyo,” she muttered, sliding on her house slippers. “Kami knows that cat is as graceful as a concrete walrus...” With a shake of her head and pajamas in hand, Kagome made her way back to the bathroom. As she approached the door, she heard some spluttered words.

Pushing open the door, Kagome spotted a wet figure clambering out of her tub. A figure with silvery-white hair, dog ears, gold eyes, curious clothing, and a pissed off look on his face...

He glared at her, shaking the water from his clothes in a fruitless attempt to dry them as he slipped over the edge of the tub. His gold eyes locked onto hers intently, and Kagome gulped, backing up slightly. “Wh-what--?” she croaked before he took a step towards her and, with inhuman speed, moved to tower before her.

The strange boy continued to scrutinize her as his calloused hand roughly cupped her chin. “So...” he said slowly, voice low and gruff, “you're the one then.”

 

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A/N: First chapter out. Sorry for the delay - for the past year and a half, I have been dealing with a lot of family drama, as well as some friend drama. Right now, it's primarily family drama. You're all going to have to bear with me - I will try and update when I can, but this is my final year of high school, so, because of classes starting tomorrow, I need to keep on top of things. Thank you all for understanding. This disclaimer goes out for On a Leash as well, which I will write for next. I'm trying my best folks, and your reviews are very encouraging.

 

I can't think of anything for either the Glossary or the Translations, but let me know.

 

~Moonlight Shadow