InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Strange Wishes ❯ A Date With Destiny ( Chapter 1 )

Kagome awoke to a tickling in her nose from the scent of her mother’s excellent cooking that had wafted up from the kitchen to fill her bedroom. Sweeping her dark, sleep-tousled hair from her face she blinked at the sunlight permeating her window, catching sight of the time. It was nearly twelve o’clock. Kagome grimaced and rolled out of the sheets, heading for the bathroom the second her feet hit the carpet.

Why hadn’t anyone woken her up? Of course, it was Saturday, but didn’t her family know that she had things to do? If she wasn’t going through the well to the Sengoku Jidai then she had something else that she’d be late for if she slept until all hours. Her lunch date for example, Houjou would be arriving to pick her up for any minute.

Not that I wanted to go with him or anything, She thought as she leapt under the water fountaining from the showerhead, but he’s not causing any harm by liking me, and I can’t just say ‘sorry Houjou, you’re nice and all, but you have no chance with me because I’m in love with an inuhanyou and if you tried to take his place in my heart you’d always fall short’.

In a race against time Kagome shampooed and washed and dried and dressed and brushed and combed, but even as she glanced away from her perky reflection in the mirror the clock spoke that Houjou had been made to wait for ten minutes.

Snatching up her purse Kagome bolted from her room and down the stairs. Her mind halted its worrying for a split second when her nostrils were bombarded once more by the intense smells of cooking and her eyes by the scene in her kitchen.

There her mother was, bustling around, no less than ten pots and pans demanding her attention. Some simmered on the stove while others awaited her on the countertops clustered with bowls of food. Some of the steam snaked out of the open window but most of it had gathered about the ceiling and hanging plants, transforming the tiny kitchen into a sweltering jungle.

“Oh, Kagome! Good to see--”

“What are you doing in here Mom? It looks like you’re cooking for a dozen people!”

Her mother smiled as she bent to open the oven, “Twenty-five actually. I’m having a dinner party tonight. Invited some old and new friends.”

“Oh, that’s cool.” Kagome remarked dazedly as she eyed the sparkling cake that was born from the oven by her mother’s orange mitts.

Kagome was only shuddered out of her fascination with the mountains of unprepared food when her mother mentioned InuYasha.

“Sorry, what?”

“I was just saying,” Her mother looked across the table at her fondly, “That you’ve been home longer than usual. Did something happen with InuYasha?”

Kagome huffed, smirking, “Please Mom, I don’t need InuYasha to watch out for me every time I come to visit my family. It’s not like there are demons attacking me wherever I...go....”

Kagome trailed off, hit by a sudden epiphany. No, she never had been attacked by a demon in modern time. In fact, she’d never actually seen any proof that the youkai that were so commonplace in the Feudal Era still existed. Sure, there was the Noh Mask and the Soul Piper, but those were a fair stone’s throw from being youkai, who supposedly lived out five-hundred years like a day and a half. She must have been pretty lost in thought, because next thing she knew her mother was shaking her shoulder.

“Kagome? Houjou is waiting for you out by the Goshinboku you know,” She intoned, stirring her daughter from her reverie.

“Oh, thanks Mom! Bye!” She called, hoping he wasn’t too angry about her punctuality, and quickly following that up with another thought, Who am I kidding? This is Houjou, not InuYasha!

“Have a good time, Dear!” Her mother’s farewell faded away as Kagome slid the front door shut and headed past the gate and through the main shrine toward where Houjou sat, his short brown hair clean and moderately styled, observing his surroundings amiably.

“Hey, Higurashi!” He waved, removing himself from the bench he’d been occupying, “Glad to see you’re feeling well.”

Glancing only once at the well house, Kagome strode to his side feeling idly confident outside of her usual school uniform, brushing the hem of her new green sundress as she followed the youth to the steps of the shrine and down to the sidewalk where they started toward the cafe.

The spring day was breathtaking. A hint of wind sluiced past the blossom-laden branches of the trees, and the grass was patched with sun and shade, butterflies fluttering with the bees beside the abundant flowers. Present-day Tokyo was not nearly as beautiful as the Sengoku Jidai, but then again there weren’t so many streets, buildings, and cars five-hundred years ago. Kagome enjoyed it all the same, and was almost sad when they left the fresh air in favor of the indoor cafe.

Kagome sat herself demurely, facing Houjou in the seat across the table from him as he gazed at her, questioning her occasionally and commenting on the perfect weather. She wiped her brow in thanks when a waitress came to take their order, successfully peeling Houjou’s ingratiating eyes off of her.

She supposed she really should tell Houjou that she didn’t return his feelings, whatever ilk of affectionate they might be. He didn’t have a clue, and he was so determined in his as-of-yet fruitless efforts at courting her. Why Kagome didn’t like him in that way confused even her, but she knew for a fact that she felt nothing between them, and that she only went on these dates with him out of respect for their friendship and the goodness of her heart.

Her food arrived paired with a drink, which she sipped at gratefully, not removing her mouth from it until it was all gone, only to reach for the meal on her plate to fill the void in her mouth with rather than converse.

Her plan was foiled however, by Houjou’s innocent rambling, “Hey, aren’t those your friends over there?”

Kagome balked, her vivacious brown eyes descrying the three schoolgirls at once. The threshold was crossed by none other than Yuka, Eri, and Ayumi, the three of whom flounced over to a table near the entrance and only exit.

Kagome grimaced, knowing that soon enough they would spot her and then spot Houjou and all manner of girlish squealing and interrogation would take place. What Kagome wouldn’t give to avoid that.

She made a move for Houjou’s arm and stood up from the table, relaying in a tremulous whisper, “Um...let’s leave. I don’t feel very hungry all of a sudden....”

“Higurashi, is something--?”

“Shhh!” Kagome shushed his loud voice, pulling him slowly along a route that she prayed was not in the line of her friends’ peripheral vision.

“Higurashi,” Houjou said a little more firmly, “If you really want to leave I have to pay.”

“Okay,” Kagome let go of his arm as he got out his wallet, keeping her eyes trained on her friends’ table as they whispered amongst themselves.

Kagome couldn’t help but overhear as Yuka commented rather loudly, “Kagome’s seventeenth birthday’s coming up you guys.”

“I say we throw her a surprise party,” Ayumi suggested.

“We can’t forget to invite Houjou,” Eri put in. “I just hope Kagome doesn’t insist on her two-timing boyfriend coming too.”

Yuka smirked, “That’s why it’ll be a surprise birthday party.”

Mercy arrived in the form of a waiter just as the yen in Houjou’s hand floated down to the tabletop, and all the three heads of her friends swiveled away from Kagome and her date and onto the man mentally jotting down their orders.

Kagome wordlessly grabbed Houjou and yanked him along with her as she all but ran out of the cafe, her dark hair swishing behind her until she stopped on the sidewalk, panting.

Houjou’s hand found her shoulder, “Would you like to take a walk then, Higurashi?”

“Yes,” Kagome answered breathlessly, “Yes, that would be great.”

Houjou walked alongside her as they gradually put distance between themselves and her friends, every now and then trying to start conversation while tacitly telling her how much he liked her through his eyes. Kagome couldn’t really comprehend enough of what he was talking about to say anything back; she was too busy trying to work up the courage to tell him, politely, that she didn’t like him like that.

“That’s too bad,” Houjou said forlornly, his nose turned skyward, “I thought it was going to be a nice day.”

The sun had been covered up when the sky had clouded over, and the beauty of the world around them became shrouded without its light.

Kagome uttered a nonchalant ‘Oh’, and turned away from him, his kind voice and boyish demeanor having shattered her resolve to crush his dreams of being with her. She stopped in her tracks as her eyes lit upon the gate they were passing.

“Higurashi?” Houjou questioned, following her gaze.

It was the cemetery. Kagome hadn’t been paying attention to how far they’d walked. She let her hand rest on the stone wall as she peered past the bars of the gate at the many grave markers, one of them her father’s.

“Would you...like to go in there?” Houjou asked.

“Yes.” She said simply.

Houjou opened the gate for her, trailing along behind like a puppy at her heels as she stepped inside, weaving through burial plots. Little square gravestones had been erected every few feet along the hillside, green and spacious compared to the clogged city beyond its mortal world. Tall sticks marked with Kanji had been staked alongside the graves, honoring the memories of dead souls by standing over the bones they’d left behind.

When Kagome’s awareness came back she found her feet had taken her to her father’s grave, small and plain and made of stone like the rest, but she knew that described nothing of the man who was her and her brother’s father, her mother’s husband....

“I haven’t been here in a while,” Kagome said with a smile more to herself than to Houjou, who shuffled his feet beside her.

“This is your father? I’m sorry....” He said heavily.

“No need to be sorry Houjou,” Kagome sighed as a menacing wind ruffled her dress, “It happened forever ago, I guess.”

The two kept their eyes on the grass around the stone, devoid of flowers or anything remarkable. Kagome barely registered Houjou’s silent discomfort, more intent on removing the bracelet on her wrist as her mind replayed old memories, reexamined past feelings and experiences. She knelt down, placing the string of colorful beads before the gravestone, then stood up again, still lost in half-faded memories of her deceased father as her eyes wandered across the boneyard.

Her heavy lids lost some of there weight when she saw what must have been the largest gravestone in the whole cemetery not far away. She remembered it from the last time she’d visited there the previous autumn and all the times before that, but had never taken time to give it much thought. Glancing fondly at the bracelet once more she departed from her father’s grave and wandered off to the colossal memorial located at what seemed to be the nidus of the tombstones.

Kagome stopped before it, amazed at its sheer height and width. It looked terribly ancient, but still retained most of the statuesque beauty that it was meant to present when originally crafted.

“Wow, big headstone,” Houjou lauded from her side, “Whose is it?”

Kagome searched the planate surface for a name, half-expecting not to come across it. When she found it however, her hand flew to her mouth in shock which she was unable to hold in.

“What is it?” Houjou asked concernedly, finding the name just as she had, “Do you know this ‘Sesshoumaru’ person?”

Kagome couldn’t speak, couldn’t tear her hand away from her mouth nor her eyes from the name that had been so clearly inscribed upon the stone at the time it was stationed above the inuyoukai’s bones. She scanned the surface of the tombstone of InuYasha’s half-brother frantically, failing to decipher any more of the weather-eroded Kanji, still not truly believing what it said. She eventually found the epitaph she desired in the form of a fairly new plaque near the base.

Lord Sesshoumaru of the Southern and Western Lands, son of a great and fearsome Warlord, rests here. Legend tells of his death early sixteenth century (from ailments unknown). His grave was the first to be placed on this empty plot of land which would become home to many more dead, and stands today as one of the oldest gravesites in Japan. It is said that the mystical power the Lord possessed still guards and resides in his tomb. His wife was buried alongside him not long after, and since then his bloodline’s graves have accumulated here over the centuries.

Kagome stood up suddenly, making Houjou jump as she ran around the tombstone, feasting her eyes on the grave beside the inuyoukai’s. Kagome read the faded Kanji, moving onto the next one as soon as she saw that the memorial named the deceased as Sesshoumaru’s wife and mother to his children. Their graves she quickly spotted, all the while not able to keep her astonishment from showing nor the steady flow of fear that began to shake her limbs.

Please don’t let InuYasha’s grave be here, She pleaded with the deities as she crept through the monstrous graves of the inuyoukai’s family. Her hands shook as she turned the last corner, finding nothing more than Sesshoumaru’s so-many-greats grandchildren. A wave of relief swept over her, the fear escaping her body in a few quivering breaths as she pushed away the wonder at such a discovery for another minute.

“Higurashi?” She whirled to face her date when he spoke, unaware up until that point of exactly how strangely she must’ve been acting, “Are you...I mean do you feel alright?”

“I-I’m fine Houjou, don’t worry,” She swept her bangs out of her face as he approached her concernedly.

“Really? Are you sure?” He asked as he placed his hand softly on her shoulder.

She felt it would be impolite to withdraw from what he meant to be a comforting touch, “No really, I’m fine,” She took a steadying breath, “I’m sorry, I just got a little carried away.”

She glanced around at the graves once more as Houjou’s face broke into a grin, “Oh good. Higurashi, I’m...I mean, you’re--”

The schoolgirl shifted her gaze back to him, confused at his apparent struggle with speech.

“Higurashi,” He nearly yelled, possibly to ossify his resolve, then requested in a smoother tone, “Would you do me the honor of going to the White Day Dance with me?”

The words took a millennia to hit her brain, and when they did her body seemed to turn to goo as the reactions went back and forth inside her, little shocks of lightning, all telling her what to do at once. She ended up gaping in front of him like an idiot, totally at a loss for what course of action to take.

I should have crushed his dreams back at the cafe when we were still basically just friends. Now I have to destroy his reality and possibly scar him for life by refusing to go with him! She thought as she attempted to speak, her vocal cords only uttering little nonsensical rasps of sound, making Houjou deflate a bit more with each passing second. I could always say yes.

She shook the offending thought away, “Houjou--uh...” Kagome lowered her head so that she saw only feet. This was going to be a lot more difficult than she thought. He’d asked her so abruptly!

“Yes, Kagome?” He said her name tenderly, succeeding in lodging a lump of poisonous dread in the girl’s stomach.

She expelled her next sentence with abnormal haste, her heart beating so furiously she thought it might explode, “I’m sorry Houjou, you’re a very nice guy but I can’t go with you.”

She looked up at him, telling herself she was prepared for anything, but singed down to the soul at the look on his face. Almost without thinking she added, “I’m already going with someone else.”

Her salve had worked. the older boy’s face brightened considerably, shedding its depressed skin for a more disappointed one. Kagome chided herself silently, Great; I lied. I can’t back out of it now.

“Oh. Guess I should’ve asked you earlier,” He sighed and chuckled at the same time.

“I’m sorry,” Kagome reiterated, trying to banish her own guilt as well as his sorrowful dejection.

The silence persisted for a minute until Houjou looked back up at the dark sky, the near setting sun obscured by fat gray rain clouds.

“If you’ll allow me to walk you home, Higurashi?” He extended his arm with a smile.

Kagome nodded, casting one last look at Sesshoumaru’s as well as her father’s grave as they exited by way of the gate and made in the direction of the Shrine. -* - * - *-

Rain began to pour not ten minutes after Houjou had seen her home and then left with a slightly less jubilant smile than the one he had displayed for her when he picked her up around noon. The sun had yet to set, but it might as well have been nighttime already; the unpredicted storm was announced to be something of a squall. It was a good thing her mother’s dinner guests had already arrived; the weather was growing rougher every minute.

Kagome’s thoughts rattled around in her brain as she lay in a heap on her bed, still wearing the green sundress from earlier. Thoughts of Sesshoumaru’s death four-hundred years ago interlaced with Houjou’s disheartened expression haunted her mind, leaving scarcely any room for other activities.

She shifted her head wearily, searching the calendar for the date of the infamous White Day Dance. She had told Houjou she had a date already, but what when he found out she’d only said that to get out of going with him? She didn’t want to imagine his expression then; she’d crushed his spirit sufficiently as it was. Kagome groaned into her pillow, taking a minute to register the sound of her window sliding open and movement beside her.

“I thought you said you were coming right back?” An all-to-familiar voice accused.

“InuYasha?” She sat upright with a smile, which was quickly wiped away when the soaking wet hanyou began to shake himself dry, “No, don’t!”

It was too late. The shimmering beads that had previously soaked his red haori and hakama and dripped down his long mane of silver hair were now splashed all over her bedroom and herself. He flicked his fuzzy ears happily. Kagome seethed.

“InuYasha! Get out!” She yelled, pushing him toward the door.

“Hey!” He groused, stopping her progress by latching onto the doorframe with his claws.

“Thanks to you I have to get changed, and you’re not staying in here while I do that!”

“Don’t see the point. I’ve already seen you naked more times than I can count,” He mumbled, claws still clinging to the walls.

“Go and get some ramen or something!” Kagome shouted vehemently, giving the inuhanyou a final shove and successfully sending him into the hallway, slamming the door behind him before he could spy her deep blush.

She tore off her wet sundress heatedly, plucking fresh clothes from her drawer. She froze in the process of pulling on the last article of clothing, a short yellow skirt, her eyes fixing on the calendar as an inchoate and slightly frightening idea manifested itself in her brain.

What if...what if I asked InuYasha to take me to the White Day Dance? She stared at the date in nervous wonder, hardly believing the coincidence, It’s on the night of the new moon!

Her thoughts were pierced by a scream from downstairs, and all too painfully the flood of reality crashed down on her in a tidal wave, and she coupled InuYasha’s presence with her mother’s dinner party to form a cruel plight.

“Oh no!” The girl breathed, pulling on her skirt and dashing out of the door, nearly tripping over Buyo who sat lounging in the middle of the floor as she flew haphazardly down the stairs.

The scene that met her as she skidded to a halt took her so unawares, she was surprised she didn’t die laughing or something else; she hadn’t ever seen that many people so adamant about touching InuYasha’s ears. The men looked on in abject disgust at the women queuing up, boxing him in as his cheeks burned red and he frantically tired to escape with the furry white appendages intact.

“I’m next!”

“No, I get to touch them next!”

“Mrs. Higurashi, your daughter’s boyfriend is adorable!”

Kagome yelped with a blush as she decidedly dove into the crowd of guests her mother had invited, fishing InuYasha out from the center. He looked more than relieved as Kagome pulled him away from their greedy hands, apologizing as she left the room with the silver-haired half-demon in tow.

The pair had just reached the stairs when Kagome stopped upon seeing Souta, her younger brother, barreling toward them.

“Great...,” She heard InuYasha groan as Souta drew nearer the red-clad, red-faced young man, his eyes aglow with respect for the hanyou.

“InuYasha!” He cried, grabbing onto his billowing haori sleeve and sticking like glue, “You’re here! How long are you staying?”

Kagome looked to her brother, then to her friend, then to the window, and sighed, “I think he’ll be staying here tonight Souta.”

InuYasha’s grunt of disapproval was drowned out by Souta’s enthusiastic whoop and a roll of thunder that shook the walls.

“I thought you said I could have some ramen, Kagome,” InuYasha growled, acknowledging his staying the night in his own way.

Kagome let go of him, “Okay, just wait up in my room and I’ll make it for you--unless you want your ears pulled off by Mom’s friends.”

InuYasha was up the stairs in a heartbeat with Souta following behind him as she made her way toward where they kept the ramen, rolling her eyes. -* - * - *-

Kagome assumed InuYasha had lost her smitten little brother some way or another; when she entered her bedroom with the hot cup of ramen in hand she found InuYasha sitting on her bed alone, cradling his Tessaiga. His eyes opened and the deep gold shone onto her as soon as she entered, making her feel things that she was always confused about when she was with him. Quicker than she could comprehend he had taken the noodles and begun inhaling them back on the bed.

The unexpected memory of the cemetery floated across her brain, and she found herself ogling the calendar. Thankfully InuYasha was too occupied with the ramen to notice her nervous squirming as she contemplated asking him about the dance right then and there.

He wouldn’t say yes. He’d think it was weird, she told herself convincingly. Shyly, she sat down next to him and drew her legs up onto the bed, And more importantly, he’d say no because it would take up precious time that could be better spent collecting jewel shards.

InuYasha must’ve caught her at the exact moment the bitter thought was on her mind, because the ramen cup was lowered from his mouth as he eyed her warily, “What’s the matter with you now?”

Kagome started, “Ah...nothing! So, how is everything on the other side of the well? Good?”

InuYasha narrowed his eyes at her, scarfing down the rest of the ramen before answering, “Yeah...Miroku and Sango have been acting really weird though--weirder then normal I mean--since they got back from that trip to the Slayers’ Village. The furball misses you too.”

Kagome assumed he meant Shippou, but his cold tone was ignored as she smiled inwardly at the fact that he hadn’t gone into a tirade about jewel shards, Maybe there’s hope.

A sudden burst of thunder that followed a flash of lightning caused Kagome to jump. InuYasha smirked, “It’s just the weather, it’s not a youkai.”

“I know,” She frowned at him, reminded indirectly of Sesshoumaru’s grave once more.

Why am I so concerned about his death? If he found himself in an early grave he sure deserved it! For all the innocent people he killed and all those times he nearly killed InuYasha.... But then again, it can’t be denied that he’s changed. Otherwise he wouldn’t have been able to wield Tenseiga.

She couldn’t keep herself from wondering about it. What of his marriage? She hadn’t been able to discern the name of his wife in her frantic search, but she had a hard time picturing Sesshoumaru with children. Kagome wondered if he’d been killed, or if InuYasha himself had killed him. That was the only explanation for his death so long ago. Aside from wondering why his grave was there at all, she was puzzled at its size; their father’s bones would have taken up the entire graveyard and then some. She contemplated whether or not to ask the hanyou sitting beside her.

There were so many things she wanted to ask him, wanted to tell him...but so much of it she couldn’t. What was stopping her? Was it him? No, it was her. Her and that damned Naraku and the Shikon no Tama. So much had changed in the near two years they’d been together, but still she didn’t have the courage to tell him what she wanted, just like she hadn’t had the courage to tell Houjou...and look where that had gotten her.

She was stirred out of her trance-like train of thought rather forcefully when she felt the pressure of InuYasha’s soft head on her lap and looked down to meet his tranquil gaze. She opened her mouth to speak but she had lost the ability to form words, and had to fight the urge to cover her swiftly flushing cheeks when she saw him flick his ears, realizing what he was doing.

“Uh--InuYasha...,” Kagome began, trying to inject some composure into her voice.

His eyes softened, but the tone in which he spoke held his customary gruffness, which helped to steady her dancing nerves slightly, “Well you...I mean, you did it before...so...feh--”

Kagome couldn’t have said why she did it--it was beyond her control--but just as he made to get up her fingers went to his ear, allotting tender touches across the velutinous expanse. He looked surprised for a hot second before his eyes fell closed and his head settled on her legs as the rain continued to pound on the roof outside.

She couldn’t help but notice that the experience wasn’t all that bad, and remember all the feelings of softness and closeness she’d had not a few weeks prior when she’d rubbed his ears in the same way, his head warming her legs. She had a hunch that the only reason InuYasha allowed himself to linger in this position was due to the fact that they were completely alone, but all the same, Kagome enjoyed it a little too much.

Perhaps it was that which spurred her next action when she saw his content expression and processed the soft whining sound originating from what could only have been the boy in her lap as another crack of lightning broke the dark sky outside. She let go of his ear with a soft gasp and all but leapt from the bed, hearing his head fall back onto the mattress as she backed away from the bed.

She felt her heartbeat take on an unnatural rhythm when he spoke in a markedly husky voice, “Kagome? What--?”

It all happened so fast, but not too fast for an inuhanyou. Kagome was backing toward her desk when her foot connected with an irregular bump on the floor, causing her to overbalance. She squeaked in surprise when she found herself falling and would have hit the floor face first had not two strong arms broken gravity’s baneful pull on her. She was pulled upright and given a once over by an anxious InuYasha before she could do anything besides scream inwardly that his hands were around her and holding her so close that she could feel the heat radiating off his skin and onto her own.

“Uh--I-I have to go...to the bathroom,” The fib tumbled out of her in a rush as she was loosed from the warmth of his arms. Her feet propelled her out into the corridor and she shut the door behind her, half-relieved but also half regretting her decision to escape his grasp.

InuYasha stared at the knobbed strip of wood that separated him from Kagome with a bemused expression. He lowered his gaze down to the hands that had caught her mere seconds ago. With a scowl he clenched his fists and looked away, his eyes unwittingly lighting upon the ramen cup the miko had tripped over. With a complimentary “Dammit” the silver-haired boy hurled it into the garbage can.

Kagome’s thoughts were disoriented and aflutter as she perused her red face in the bathroom mirror while willing her heart to calm down. She felt embarrassed at her behavior, and yet confused at his actions. Didn’t he love Kikyou? Hadn’t he decided to keep his delirious promise to be dragged down to hell with her? Oh how she wished that it all were false, but just because she’d wished something hadn’t ever made it happen. After many sighs and slumping of shoulders Kagome crept back to her room, hearing the carefree sounds of her mother’s dinner party as she plied the hallway. She opened her door to find the hanyou asleep under the window that shielded her room from the torrential tempest.

Kagome didn’t give it a second thought as she hopped into bed fully clothed. The last thing she saw was the clock announcing the time as 10:35 pm before her world disappeared, overtaken by slumber. She didn’t see aureate eyes watching her for hours afterward as she wandered the land of dreams.