InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ The Sweetest Escape ❯ Brick Wall ( Chapter 6 )

Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha, Rumiko Takahashi does.

 

 

Author's Notes:

 

Yeah, this is gonna be pretty much based off of a basic American English (literature) class. I know, the Japanese probably don't learn about this kind of stuff…I'm not even sure it would even apply to Japanese lit (whatever it may be), as I've been told it's a `syllabic' language but, hey….No tomo japones! Tomo español! (I don't take Japanese! I take Spanish!) LOL

 

 

Okay, I'm done.

 

 

 

Chapter 6: Brick Wall

 

 

 

 

“Anaphora.”

 

 

 

 

“Dunno.”

 

 

 

 

“At least try.”

 

 

 

 

“But I don't know.”

 

 

 

 

“But you should at least try.”

 

 

 

 

“…”

 

 

 

 

“Come on…just one little guess?”

 

 

 

 

“It's…a scheme of…omission?”

 

 

 

 

“Wrong.”

 

 

 

 

“I told you I didn't know!”

 

 

 

 

“It's a scheme of repetition. It's where there's the repetition of the same word or group of words at the beginning of successive clauses.”

 

 

 

 

“I don't get it.”

 

 

 

 

“Okay…if I were to say…um…okay I got it! If I were to say `You shall pass with flying colors, you shall pass with my help, you shall pass because these tutoring sessions are working.' That would be an example of anaphora, see? Because of the repetition of the words `you shall pass' at the beginning of each clause. Understand?”

 

 

 

 

“I guess.”

 

 

 

 

“Alright then, you try.”

 

 

 

 

“I hate Lit with a passion, I hate Lit with all of my soul, I hate Lit completely and utterly.”

 

 

 

 

“Um…”

 

 

 

 

“It's repetition, ain't it?”

 

 

 

 

“Yeah…yeah, it is. Um…good job, you got it.”

 

 

 

 

“Keh.”

 

 

 

 

“Okay…next one…what kind of scheme is…epanalepsis?”

 

 

 

 

“Did you just make that up?”

 

 

 

 

“No.”

 

 

 

 

“Are you sure?”

 

 

 

 

“Yes.”

 

 

 

 

“Well, then you must be trying to confuse me, because it sounds like a disease.”

 

 

 

 

Kagome bit her lip to stifle a laugh and a groan. She knew her example of anaphora was a lie: This wasn't going well. Not well at all. And it wasn't working. It was their third day of tutoring, and they hadn't gotten past basic rhetorical devices yet. They only had about two weeks until the mid term, and at the rate they were going, Inuyasha would be lucky to maintain his fifty-eight average.

 

 

 

 

He was stubborn. He was impatient. He was grouchy, mean, spiteful, and nonchalant. She had never met a more infuriating person in all of her life. With this type of person, Kagome would normally be quite short. She'd usually shoot back with her own fiery temper in response, not backing down for a moment, and matching their barbs with her own.

 

 

 

 

But it was quite difficult for her to be cross with him for too long when she was so unexplainably intrigued by him. Because for all of the spiteful silences, the hard glares, and the not-so-subtle accusations, every so often his eyes would look so mournfully sad to her, that she couldn't help but wonder why. He was such a paradox. Caustic and rude, yet…heartbreakingly somber. He absolutely puzzled her.

 

 

 

 

It had amazed her that he was such a stickler for time, when he was the one that hadn't seemed to care for the tutoring idea in the first place. She'd gotten held up in her fourth hour class, and consequently, had been late to the school's library, where she and Inuyasha had agreed to meet.

 

 

 

 

She sighed heavily and looked at the boy across the round table from her. He was staring down at the list of rhetorical devices, his mouth set in a puckered frown, hands propping his head up on the table, yet covered by the long sleeves of his jacket. She'd yet to see any trait of his that would set him apart from the rest of the human population, though she knew that his Lit class did on a regular basis. `He obviously wants as few people to know as possible,' she pondered. `He wears that big sweatshirt and hood everyday.' He made sure to keep his hands securely knotted in his sleeves, even when he wrote.

 

 

 

 

Kagome searched the catalog of rumors that she'd been privy to, mostly through Eri, and couldn't remember hearing anything about his hands being out of the ordinary. But…he obviously had something he wanted to hide… `Damn this infantile, never-ending curiosity of mine,' she thought dryly.

 

 

 

 

“Okay…let's try something else. Look at this passage…and underline and label all the rhetorical devices you can find, okay?” she instructed, sliding a sheet of paper towards him, pointing the tip of her pencil at it. “Maybe if you can't define them, you can at least recognize—“

 

 

 

 

“Kagome!” an excited voice interrupted.

 

 

 

 

“Quiet in the library!” the stout, indignant librarian reprimanded, quite loudly herself. The girl in question quickly quieted, giggling to the other who followed with her. The duo weaved their way from a table near the entrance to the table where she sat.

 

 

 

 

“Hey, Harumi, Rei. What's up?” she greeted the two. They weren't exactly close friends of hers, but she'd known them through several school functions and extracurricular activities, and they were decent girls. `Always in the library, aren't you girls?' Kagome thought with a smile.

 

 

 

 

“Just getting some books for Takeda's class. He's got this big research paper going. Anyway, Kagome, we didn't see you at the last photo meeting. What's up with that?” Rei asked, pouting playfully.

 

 

 

 

“Oh, yeah…I had this big family thing I needed to take care of, plus I had to help out at the shrine. No big deal. I just couldn't go. I'll be there next week, though, I promise.”

 

 

 

 

“You'd better be! We need your input for that project, since it's your brain-child,” Rei said.

 

 

 

 

“Count on it. I won't miss it, okay?”

 

 

 

 

“Well, just remember, the next meeting is on the last day of school before Winter Break, okay? Tomo can't meet next week, `cause he's got an orthodontist appointment. So he moved it,” Rei reminded her.

 

 

 

 

“Yeah, I won't forget. I promise.”

 

 

 

 

“Sure, sure…but my question is, what are you doing in the library? We never see you in here!” Harumi questioned, giving her a sly look.

 

 

 

 

“I'm tutoring. Hey, girls, this is Inuyasha. He's new here, so—“

 

 

 

 

“Wait…you're tutoring him?” Harumi asked, pointing quite rudely at the boy who'd yet to say a word. Kagome frowned.

 

 

 

 

“Yeah, I'm helping him in—“

 

 

 

 

“He's got Akuran's class, right?”

 

 

 

 

“Um…yeah…but, you know, he's right there, you can ask him.” Harumi and Rei exchanged worried looks. Harumi tilted her head her head and pretended to scratch her ear in a way that Inuyasha couldn't see her mouth, as if she thought that action would make her words any less audible.

 

 

 

 

“You, um…you do know what you're doing, right?” she murmured in a low voice, giving Kagome a pointed look.

 

 

 

 

“What are you talking about?”

 

 

 

 

“Kagome…” Rei started, shifting nervous eyes over to the other side of the table. “He's…you know…” she said leadingly, her eyes widening suggestively. Kagome's frown deepened and her mouth set in a hard line.

 

 

 

 

“I think I understand completely—“

 

 

 

 

“No, I don't think you do,” Harumi said seriously. She gave Inuyasha a brief, condescending look. “I don't think you understand the magnitude of what you're doing.” She leaned closer to the girl. “He's the half-breed, Kagome. You know! You've heard—“

 

 

 

 

“Enough. I've heard enough,” she said in a voice that booked no room for argument. “Rei, Harumi. It was very nice talking to you. But, if you don't mind, Inuyasha and I have some studying to do, so goodbye,” she said tightly. The two girls shot each other worried looks, and with one last ogle at Inuyasha, they shuffled meekly away. Kagome watched them go, feeling slightly detached.

 

 

 

 

“Sorry about that…” she said weakly. What could she say? What else could she possibly say? This was the second time something embarrassing like that had happened while she was in his company; the second time someone she associated with had badmouthed him in front of him. `What does that say about me?' she wondered. Inuyasha said nothing for quite some time, his head bent down over his papers so that Kagome couldn't see his face.

 

 

 

 

“Friends of yours?” he asked evenly.

 

 

 

 

“Yeah…no…well…kind of. They're in Photo Club with me,” she explained.

 

 

 

 

“Well, if you wanna keep them as `kind of' your friends, you'd better move away from this table,” he warned darkly.

 

 

 

 

“They're not really friends. They're more like…close acquaintances, I guess.”

 

 

 

 

“Whatever. They ain't gonna be shit to you if you keep this up,” he snapped.

 

 

 

 

“Why?”

 

 

 

 

“Are you absolutely dense?” he asked, finally looking at her. He shook his head, and smirked nastily, as if he suddenly understood her. “Ah! There you go again…that little `innocent' act. Touché. Well done,” he sneered.

 

 

 

 

“You are so confusing,” Kagome mumbled, rubbing her temples. “Honestly, Inuyasha…I'm not pulling anything here. I don't know how to convince you of that…”

 

 

 

 

“Hope your stupid little prank is worth losing all your friends over,” he muttered. “Unless they're all in on it anyway and they're just playing the part of…Never mind. Whatever.”

 

 

 

 

“Yeah, whatever,” she shot back lamely. With a heavy sigh she leaned absently fingered the tiny camera charm on her bracelet, twisting it back and forth. “Do you want to try and cover something else? Maybe…literary terms or essay construction? We can do whatever you want. Whatever you think you need to work on most,” she said timidly. He shrugged.

 

 

 

 

“I don't care.”

 

 

 

 

“Well, maybe that's half the problem. You need to care. You have to care to pass,” Kagome said exasperatedly.

 

 

 

 

“Whatever. Don't matter to me. Whatever's easiest for you to teach,” he muttered.

 

 

 

 

“Okay then,” she said absently, her eyes scanning her pages of notes. She could feel his eyes on her, studying her with a breathtaking intensity. He did that from time to time. He'd stare unrelentingly at her, not saying a word, not even moving much, just openly staring. It was quite nerve-wracking, with those intensely bright golden eyes, and Kagome couldn't focus on the task at hand. “What?” she finally snapped, looking to meet his gaze.

 

 

 

 

“Nothing!” he snapped back with a frown, defensive. She turned back to her notes, but could still feel his eyes on her. She followed his line of sight to where her fingers laid against her bracelet.

 

 

 

 

“My dad gave it to me,” she offered her quiet explanation. He gave her an inquisitive look, and then glanced back down at the silver links, lips pursed slightly.

 

 

 

 

“He dead?” he asked suddenly. Kagome gasped at the abrupt, stark bluntness of the question.

 

 

 

 

“Um…y-yes…he-he passed,” she said, flustered at his stark bluntness, a faint blush spreading across her cheeks. `How can he ask that so…carelessly?' she wondered. No, carelessly wasn't the word. He didn't sound careless…just…graceless. Her heart thundered inexorably in her chest, as it always did when her father was the topic of discussion. “H-how did you know?”

 

 

 

 

“The way you talked,” he explained with a small shrug. He hadn't taken his eyes off her wrist, and Kagome shifted uncomfortably. `Kami, doesn't he know it's rude to stare?' she thought. “And you keep playin' with that thing,” he added.

 

 

 

 

“Mm,” she murmured her understanding.

 

 

 

 

“You miss him?” he asked, just as abruptly as before. Again, Kagome was shocked at the questions he was asking; such personal and intimate questions. She could have quite easily told him to butt out, to mind his own business, to shove off. But…there was a look in his eyes that she couldn't quite decipher. Kagome thought herself fairly adept at reading people, at reading faces. She could usually deduce the mood a person was in with a fair amount of accuracy. But she couldn't quite put her finger on the expression in those intense eyes; whether it was remembrance, wistfulness, or something akin to nostalgia, she couldn't say, but whatever it was, it compelled her to answer.

 

 

 

 

“Yeah. Yeah, I miss him a lot,” she said softly. His nostrils flared ever so slightly, and his eyes narrowed, studying her.

 

 

 

 

“Every day?” Kagome frowned a bit. That was an odd question. At this point in a typical `condolence conversation', the person would just say “Oh, man, I'm so sorry for your loss,” and quickly change topic. No one had ever asked her if she missed her father everyday. Perhaps she misunderstood.

 

 

 

 

“Huh?”

 

 

 

 

“I said, do you miss him every day?” he repeated, still murmuring in a low voice. Kagome's frown deepened and she wetted her lips tentatively.

 

 

 

 

“Well…I mean, I do miss him. I don't think about him every day, but…I do think about him often. Man, it's been…what…four years now? Yeah. He died when I was thirteen,” she elaborated quietly, knowing that it was only the raw, open look that she'd never in his eyes before beckoning her to continue. “It was very difficult for my family and I.”

 

 

 

 

“Killed?” he questioned, and then pressed his lips together tightly, as if he hadn't meant to ask that question. He quickly averted his eyes, then glanced guiltily back at her. She stared at him, taken aback by his question.

 

 

 

 

“Um…no…he—he wasn't killed. He got sick. Lupus,” she explained.

 

 

 

 

“Oh.”

 

 

 

 

“Why do you ask?” she pressed, her brows drawn up.

 

 

 

 

“No reason.”

 

 

 

 

“There's got to be some reason…nobody just asks a question like that for no reason at all.”

 

 

 

 

“Let's just study, alright?” he said exasperatedly with a tired frown. At Kagome's bewildered expression, his face softened a bit. “I need to pass, remember?” he added. She nodded slowly, still at a loss for his strange behavior.

 

 

 

 

“Yeah…yeah, okay,” she relented reluctantly. She wasn't going to get anything else out of this stubborn boy. He'd promptly sealed up whatever small opening he'd so briefly allowed to lay bare. It couldn't be helped. “So. Epanalepsis is…?”

 

 

 

~*~

 

 

 

Inuyasha cursed his runaway mouth. `It's really none of your fucking business,' he told himself. `You just had to go and practically bury your fucking nose in her personal life. You jackass,' he berated himself.

 

 

 

 

He hadn't been able to take his eyes away from her bracelet, though. The silvery, delicate piece of jewelry kept catching the light overhead and flashing in the corner of his vision. Not to mention…the Lit was thoroughly boring, and any distraction from the material was a welcome one. She'd reached down to rub one of the five charms, a habit he noticed she had. In that one tutoring session, she'd rubbed at one of those charms seven times, mostly when she was thinking about how to pose a question to him.

 

 

 

 

The tiny charms clinked together quite often, and the soft sound reached his ears, and for some reason he couldn't understand, it wouldn't leave him be. He kept staring at the damn bracelet, until finally she'd snapped at him for staring.

 

 

 

 

The questions that had spilled forth…well. He couldn't stop himself. The way she had said that it was a gift from her father…that tone. He knew that tone. The one full of lilting regret, sadness and fondness. He knew that scent as well…the one that dampened the smell of a person ever so slightly—the scent of sorrow.

 

 

 

 

She'd lost someone too. Someone close to her. He didn't know why he cared. It wasn't as though she was the first person to have ever lost someone. She wouldn't be the last. He couldn't find an acceptable reason, even for himself, why the fact that she'd lost her father mattered to him in the least. Why it had sparked the desire in him to ask her a barrage of personal questions, he could not say. Whether it was a feeling that he'd found a kindred spirit in the girl, or that he could simply sympathize with her having lost a parent at a young age as well, he wasn't sure.

 

 

 

 

All he knew was that for a brief moment, he felt as though he'd found a kindred spirit in the girl, only for a moment. After all…he'd really been rather nosy. He'd asked things that were absolutely none of his business, and she'd answered most graciously. `Wonder why she did that,' he pondered absently.

 

 

 

 

So, perhaps he felt a little gratitude to her for that, for indulging his curiosity.

 

 

 

 

But he'd still hold her at an arms distance.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Author's Notes:

 

 

Okay, so here's the deal. I'm going to camp for four weeks. So, it's gonna be really hard for me to update. I mean, I'll have my laptop, so I'll still be able to write, I just might not get the opportunity to update, because we're not even supposed to have our own computers, much less be on the internet. But if I can, I'll try to sneak (hehehe).

 

Sorry if this isn't my best chapter…I feel like it's rushed. I'll make sure the next chapter is extra um…extra-better… But I really wanted to get this Author's Note out to you guys, so people wouldn't think I'd fell off the face of the planet if there wasn't an update for that long. Yeah, so I know this chapter kind of sucks, and it kind of sucks. But I'll make it up to you guys. Where I am right now (relatives' houses) I'm not getting a lot of privacy or quiet, something I require for writing. So I'm a bit scatter-brained right now.

 

So, maybe I won't be able to update, but just think: if I can sneak away and write, then when I get back, I'll have like four or five chapters at one time! (maybe—if I'm really sneaky…) that'd be nice, wouldn't it?

 

 

Wowzer313 <3