InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Safe ❯ Chapter 1

DISCLAIMER: Inuyasha, world and characters, belong to Rumiko Takahashi and not to me. The only things that belong to me are the plot and any additional characters. I make no profit of this story, and am doing it only for my own enjoyment.

 

Warning: mention of school shootings in chapter. I am not trying in any way to make light of what I know to be a very serious subject.

 

Warning: graphic violence contained in chapter.

 

Chapter 1

 

Kagome couldn't believe this. For over two years now, she had been travelling through time via the Bone-Eaters well, back to a world absolutely filled with danger. To a time now called `the Warring States Era', and lived up to it's name. Not only was it filled with constant wars, bandits, and every other conceivable evil humans of the time were able to produce, it was also full of demons many of whom looked at young human girls like her as a tasty treat. Despite all this, she had made it through the last two years with very few injuries and with most of the ones she had received not being too serious. The very worst of her injuries were probably the long slash Kohaku had left on her arm while under the influence of Naraku, and the acid burns she received on her feet that time while she and her friends were trapped inside the belly of that huge stone ogre. But in two years of travelling through the dangerous feudal era, despite being kidnapped, threatened and attacked more times that she could count, Kagome had probably never been closer to death than she was at this very moment.

 

Kagome knew she was going into shock as she lay there on the classroom floor, blood pouring out of her wound as one of her classmates (her eyes couldn't focus enough to tell her who) tried to stop the bleeding, but she could seem to do anything about it. All she could do was lie there, memories of everything that had lead up to this flashing through her mind as she slowly drifted closer to unconscious.

 

She had returned to her time the day before yesterday. She had a math test today, and she had wanted to have at least one full day in her time to study for it. However, she had decided when she woke up yesterday that she wanted to go to school. School went fine for the first few hours, or at least as fine as it ever went these days. She managed to get through all her morning classes, if not without a struggle, and her friends were happily sticking to topics of conversation that although she had not real interest in anymore weren't too annoying. So in all, everything went pretty well for the morning, but it all went downhill fast at lunchtime. The reason being; Hojo, who had of course offered her another gift and asked her out again that Friday.

 

Kagome decided then and there that this couldn't go on any longer. She and Inuyasha had been growing steadily closer the last few months since Kikyo had died, and although neither had yet said in words their feelings for the other or what they would do once Naraku was defeated and the Jewel destroyed, Kagome was more hopeful now of a lasting relationship between the two of them than she ever was. Hojo on the other hand, she had no real feelings for beyond friendship, and even that was barely there anymore she felt. They were just too different for there to be any hope of a relationship between them, even if she wasn't already in love with Inuyasha. And seeing how, as luck would have it, her friends were all in line to get their food and weren't there to accept the date for her (again), Kagome decided it was time she told him that. So, right there in the cafeteria she gave the gift (some kind of bath salts she thought) and told him point blank that she wouldn't be going out with him on Friday or any other day, that she wasn't interested in him and that she was in love with someone else. Immediately after she had said it she had felt better, happy to finally have that off her chest.

 

Hojo, on the other hand, wasn't so happy about what she said. He had immediately flown into a rage, the nice guy she had thought she'd known disappearing in an instant. He had yelled loud enough for the entire cafeteria to here that she was a slut, and how dare she lead him on for the last two years after everything he tried to do for her. The Kagome of two years ago would have likely just stood there in shock, but the new Kagome that had emerged from two years of fighting demons was compelled to yell back and defend herself. And so she did, telling him that she had never lead him on, that she had tried to let him down gently many times over the years but that he had always been two dense to realise what she was doing. That save for the first and only two times she had accepted dates with him, it was always her friends that said yes for her, and that she had tried to tell them too that she wasn't interested but that they had persisted. Hojo had not been satisfied with that and had simply said through clenched teeth that she would regret leading him on, before stalking his way out of the cafeteria, dumping her gift in the trash on the way out.

 

The rest of the day had gone downhill from there. Kagome was glad that she had defended herself from Hojo's accusations, and had done so in such a way that many people heard her. Even as it was, she was still the topic of much gossip for the rest of the day, as whispers seemed to follow her everywhere she went. Her so-called `friends' had tried to corner her several times to demand an explanation as to why she had done that, before Kagome finally lost her temper with them too and told them it was all their fault and that if they had just listened to her the hundreds of times she tried to tell them she was not interested in Hojo things wouldn't have come to this. After that, they started avoiding her too, seemly upset that she had gotten so angry with them. Kagome couldn't have been happier when school let out and she was able to escape the whispers that always seemed to mysteriously stop when she turned to look behind her. Still, everything that happened meant that she wasn't able to concentrate on studying properly, meaning that she was sure she was going to get a lousy mark on her test, which did not help her temper one little bit.

 

The whole time Kagome was kicking herself. Not for telling Hojo how she really felt, but for not doing it much sooner. She couldn't help but feel that this wouldn't have happened if she had just come clean about her feelings and told it to Hojo straight from the beginning. Yes, she had been trying to save his feelings by letting him down gently, but now it seemed that she had just made things that much worse. She also should have been firmer with her friends, and made them stop leading Hojo on a long time ago to. It also got her thinking, was she doing the same thing with Koga? If so, she would need to set things straight with the Ookami as soon as she saw him again too.

 

The next day, Kagome had gone to school still grumpy about everything, and not looking forward to taking that math test. As it would turn out though, math should have been the least of her concerns that day. Five minutes into Kagome's first period Biology class, Hojo had stormed into the room.

 

“You fucking slut, you dare to show your face around here again?” Hojo demanded angrily, shrugging his backpack off and routing around in it for something, all the while not takings his eyes off Kagome. “Why aren't you off fucking that bastard boyfriend of yours like the whore that you are?”

 

“Hojo, I don't know what your problem is with Higurashi, but you need to leave my classroom now and go back to your own class.” The teacher said. He was lying about not knowing what Hojo's problem was of course; the whole school knew what had happened in the cafeteria yesterday. But whatever problems the two had, as far as he was concerned they could settle them on their own time.

 

Hojo ignored the teacher completely. “I told you, you would regret leading me on.” Hojo continued angrily, still looking for whatever was in his bag, still looking directly at Kagome. “Did you think I was joking? Well, did you whore?!”

 

“Hojo, this is ridicules!” Kagome snapped, getting fed up with this. Yes she could understand him being hurt, but this was going too far. “You can't of liked me that much, we had one date in two years, hell it wasn't even a full date I left half way through and we've never been on another one, remember? You don't even know a thing about me, and you still call me by my last name. Really, think about it, why are you getting so damn upset over me when there are plenty of girls in school who would be happy to go out with you?”

 

“You just don't get it, do you?” Hojo hissed. `You think you can just play with me emotions like it's a game? Do you know how many times I've gone over to your house only to be told you were sick? Do you know how many times I've dreamed about going out with you? Do you know how much money I've spent on all those gifts for you?”

 

“Gifts I never asked for or even wanted! Do you even realise how ridicules your being?” Kagome demanded.

 

“Hojo, you need to leave now, or I'll give you detention.” The teacher said firmly and a little angrily. “You and Higurashi can work out your problems on your own time.”

 

“You think I'm being ridicules do you?” Hojo snapped, once again completely ignoring the teacher. “Well maybe I am, but I'm still going to teach you a lesson about playing with people's hearts. You don't treat people that way, and your going to pay for it!” With that, Hojo finally seemed to find what he was looking for in his bag, and brought out the last thing Kagome would have ever expected to see in Hojo's hand. A gun, a revolver although Kagome didn't know nearly enough to tell you more than that.

 

Instantly the class went into uproar as all the other students either screamed, or ducked for cover or both. The teacher instantly started trying to reason with Hojo in a rather scared ands desperate tone of voice, but as with everything else he had said that morning, Hojo ignored it. Kagome had gotten to her feet, although what she was planning on doing she didn't know; maybe run or try to reason with Hojo as the teacher was trying.

 

It turned out she had time to do neither, as the second she was on her feet Hojo had fired. She felt the bullet rip through her gut, but she was in too much shock to feel pain just yet. It was only as she found herself lying on the floor with no idea how she got there that that started to set in. As she felt hands put pressure on the wound she thought she heard a second gunshot but she couldn't be sure. The world was fading around her, as she slowly lost consciousness.

 

Her last thought before she slipped completely under was `this was supposed to be the safe time'.