InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ This Year Might Just Be A Little Bit Different ❯ Revenge Is Always The Sweetest ( Chapter 7 )

 

Naturally, after that little `incident' outside, Kagome stood in her kitchen, slightly dazed, and very confused.

 

“What was that?” she asked herself. “Was I just kissed?”

 

“Yes, yes you were,” the little voice in her head returned.

 

“Can you count that as a kiss? It was an accident,” Kagome thought.

 

“Oh come on!” The voice became indignant. “You know you liked it!” Kagome blushed.

 

“I did not!” she thought, the blush already working its way down her neck.

 

“Whatever you say,” the voice said, and then dissipated back into the recesses of her mind. Kagome shook her head a few times. First things first, she would have to give Sango a piece of her mind for her little fiasco.

 

“Earth to Kagome!” Sota said suddenly, exercising his annoying habit of breaking up Kagome's thoughts. “You've been standing there for five minutes! Sango's on the phone right now, she wants to talk to you!” he said as he tossed her the phone.

 

“Hello?” Kagome asked, trying to make her voice sound light.

 

“Have a nice time tonight?” Sango asked, trying to keep the laughter out of her voice.

 

“Yes I did,” Kagome answered, hoping that Sango couldn't hear her clenching her teeth. A giggle escaped Sango.

 

“Did you like your blind date?” Sango asked again, fighting back peals of laughter. By this time, Kagome had begun to lose her anger and instead found it replaced with humor as well.

 

“Oh, he was such a gentleman,” she replied, in exaggerated falseness. It was the straw that broke the camel's back. Sango dissolved into laughter, and soon enough, Kagome joined her. After five minutes of intense giggling, Kagome recovered enough to ask, “Did Miroku-kun help you with this?”

 

“Yep!”

 

“So it's a conspiracy!”

 

Laughter. Then, “Yeah it is!”

 

“How does that line go again? With friends like these…what was the last part?” More laughter from Sango's end reached Kagome's ear, and she smiled. With a little luck, Sango would forget about her little prank, and then it would be time for revenge.

 

“I have to go Kagome-chan,” Sango said. “Call me tomorrow!” They hung up. Kagome looked at the phone for a few minutes and then at the clock at the wall. Half an hour had passed already. That would have given InuYasha enough time to get home. Kagome looked around to make sure no one, especially Sota, saw her and began to flip through the yellow pages to find InuYasha's number.

 

There were about twenty Toka's in Tokyo. Kagome gaped at the page in dismay. She would be up all night looking for his number! The first three were wrong numbers, and the fourth one didn't answer the phone. Kagome vowed that if the next one was wrong, she would give up until morning. She dialed the number. A very familiar voice answered on the second ring.

 

“Hello?” The speaker sounded bored.

 

“Sensei!” Kagome yelled in shock. “Well at least I got the right number,” she thought. There was silence on the other end of the line.

 

“I don't take private calls, Higurashi,” he said finally, a hint of amusement in his voice.

 

“No, no, no, no, no, no!” Kagome yelled, while the little voice in her head returned with the commentary of, “Ewwwwwwwwwww!” “I wanted to talk to InuYasha! Kun!” she added at the end, remembering her manners. There was more silence, some shuffling like noises, and then something that sounded suspiciously like `your human wench.'

 

“So that's where he gets it from,” Kagome thought. InuYasha's voice broke her out of her thoughts.

 

“What do you want?” he asked gruffly. Kagome frowned at his tone of voice.

 

“To ask about your plan of revenge,” Kagome said.

 

“Why do you want to know?”

 

“Because I want to,” Kagome stated matter-of-fact.

 

“I'll just beat up the stupid pervert,” InuYasha said, as if it were obvious. Kagome sighed.

 

“You're so violent,” Kagome told him. “You know,” she started, a plan forming in her head. “They way what goes around, comes around right?”

 

“Yeah,” InuYasha said, wondering what exactly Kagome had in mind. “What of it?”

 

“Why don't we set Sango-chan and Miroku-kun up?”

 

“Stupid. They'll know if we do the same thing to them,” InuYasha said.

 

“There's a new store opening up in a week at the mall,” Kagome said. InuYasha stared at the phone.

 

“So?” he asked, confused.

 

“Well, we can have them meet up there!”

 

“Why would they want to go to a store that hasn't even opened yet?”

 

“Let me finish!” InuYasha could almost hear Kagome's pout through the phone. “You can tell Miroku-kun it's one store and I'll tell Sango-chan it's something else, and then the two of them can meet up!”

 

“And knowing that pervert,” InuYasha said, beginning to understand. “He won't let her leave.” Kagome nodded.

 

“Exactly! And they won't suspect a thing!” Kagome finished triumphantly. Her plan was foolproof. “You talk to Miroku-kun and I'll talk to Sango-chan, okay?”

 

“Yeah whatever,” he said. “Next time you call, call this number.” Kagome quickly wrote down the number he gave her.

 

“Why?”

 

“So I don't have to hear that bastard after I get off the phone,” he answered. He hung up before Kagome could ask anything else. It made her a bit sad that InuYasha seemed to hate his brother so much, even if they were only half-brothers.

 

After Saturday, life returned to a somewhat normal routine for Kagome. InuYasha gave her a ride to school, she ignored Ayame's stupidity and learned absolutely nothing in geometry, dressed quickly in gym to avoid Shigure's perverseness, tried to keep InuYasha from killing Koga at lunch, and then tried not to fail the rest of her classes. After school, InuYasha drove her, Sango, and Miroku home, and Kagome trained for a while, did her homework, and then slept from exhaustion.

 

Training was difficult. Midoriko made it very clear that she expected a lot from Kagome.

 

“You're not holding the bow right,” Midoriko told her. She would not let Kagome progress any farther in training until Kagome was able to shoot an arrow decently. “Hold it up higher.” Kagome gritted her teeth.

 

“Midoriko-sensei, I can't feel my arms,” Kagome said. They had been practicing for an hour and a half, with Kagome making no progress. In fact, Kagome had been at a standstill for five days with archery. “Can't we stop now?”

 

“Not until you hit the inner circle of the target,” Midoriko said firmly.

 

“But that's impossible!” Kagome moaned. “I can't do it!”

 

“It's not that you can't do it. It's that you're unwilling to try,” Midoriko countered. “Now hold the bow a little higher and aim for the mark!” Kagome sighed. She was beginning to tire of this very quickly. She fired the arrow. It shot forward for a few feet, and then it dropped to the ground a few inches away from the target. Kagome moaned in frustration.

 

“You see,” Kagome said.

 

“Channel those feelings into the arrow and you might be able to hit it,” Midoriko said. She could sense something about Kagome that she hadn't sensed for years. She had noticed that whenever Kagome's emotions reached a high point, her aura would begin to grow around her. Midoriko was a bit discerned. Kagome had great potential, which could possibly be good, and which would inevitably cause problems later on.

 

“I hate this,” Kagome mumbled under her breath as she notched another arrow. “I wish I could live a normal life!” Kagome couldn't help but a feel angry about her present situation. She was cut off from all her friends, she was constantly exhausted, and she had no time to herself anymore. As the feelings of animosity grew within her, Kagome fired the arrow.

 

It didn't hit the target. It decimated it instead. Even Midoriko wasn't prepared for that. Her eyes widened, and she showed shock for the first time in years. Never, had she ever trained a priestess in waiting who could fire a Sacred Arrow in the first five days of training. Especially at the tender age of eighteen.

 

“How did I do that?” Kagome asked, fear hinting through her voice, and snapping Midoriko out of her thoughts.

“I truthfully don't know,” Midoriko answered. “All I can tell you is that you just fired a Sacred Arrow.”

 

“That was a Sacred Arrow?”

 

“Yes.”

 

“Are they that powerful?” Midoriko thought for a moment.

 

“It depends. You emotions were being channeled, so the stronger your emotions are, the stronger the arrow is,” she said, slightly disturbed. “I think that's enough for today, Kagome-san. I need to talk to your mother.” Kagome looked at her. Midoriko seemed agitated about something. Had she done something wrong?

 

“She's very powerful,” Midoriko told Kagome's mother at the kitchen table. Midoriko's tea sat on the table, untouched, the steam becoming evanescent.

 

“You sound upset about it,” she replied back. Midoriko sighed and rested her chin in her hands.

 

“Saiya, how old were you when you fired you first Sacred Arrow,” Midoriko asked. Saiya thought for a minute.

 

“Twenty-eight,” she said at last. “Why do you ask?”

 

“Kagome's only eighteen and she can already fire a Sacred Arrow with enough force to mortally wound a powerful demon,” Midoriko said with a sigh.

 

“Isn't that good?” Saiya asked, concerned, putting down her tea.

 

“It will attract demons' attentions,” Midoriko said at length. “Her aura is hard to miss.”

 

“But they can't do anything. They don't know that the Shikon No Tama even exists,” Saiya said, her worry growing. Midoriko's eyes became shadowed.

 

“There's rumor going around that a demon does know about it,” she said darkly, causing Saiya to gasp.

 

“Who?”

 

“We don't know. He calls himself Naraku,” Midoriko said. “He's a half-demon of the worst kind. No one even knows what he looks like.”

 

“You don't know what he looks like?” Saiya asked incredulously. Midoriko smiled, but it didn't reach her eyes.

 

“He wears a baboon pelt all the time. All I know is that he has red eyes. And he has an accomplice,” she finished.

 

“Do you know who the accomplice is?”

 

“No idea. Only that it's a woman.”

 

“Is Kagome in danger?”

 

“If he becomes alerted to her presence, yes,” Midoriko said, her eyes becoming shadowed again.

 

“Should we tell her?”

 

“Why make her worry? She doesn't deserve it. We'll keep searching for him,” Midoriko said, knowing all to well the enormous weight that Kagome was carrying on her shoulders. Saiya didn't look convinced, but a cool look from Midoriko told her that arguing was pointless. And the subject of their conversation, Kagome, remained blissfully unaware of how much danger she was truly in.

 

Of course, Kagome couldn't deny that strange things were happening. Being as most of her friends were demons, or had demon blood, or were specially trained to notice these kinds of things, Kagome couldn't hide the fact that her aura was becoming that of a priestess.

 

“Why are you examining me,” she asked InuYasha with a deadpan look.

 

“You're different,” InuYasha said. They were in geometry class, and as usual, were not paying strict attention to their teacher, who happened to be flaunting around the room, telling the story of how he kidnapped the school mascot for the up most time. Most of the class had given up, and had taken advantage of forty minutes of extra sleep.

 

“What do you mean I'm different,” Kagome asked him, annoyed. She was starting to panic, and she couldn't tell InuYasha that she was in training to become a priestess. It would raise too many questions.

 

“Something about you has changed,” he said. He too was annoyed. Besides the fact that he could barely look her in the face because of their accidental `kiss,' he hated it when he couldn't figure something out.

 

“You're imagining things,” Sango said, coming to her friend's defense. Since she was the only outside person who knew of the jewel's existence, Sango also considered herself a sort of protector too.

 

“What do you know,” InuYasha snapped.

 

“Now InuYasha. You need to learn to keep your temper,” Miroku chided him.

 

“You shut up. You're lucky I haven't killed you yet for your little stunt,” InuYasha pointed an accusing finger at him.

 

“You're still mad about the blind date thing?” Miroku asked him. “You need to learn to forgive and to forget.”

 

“I'm not mad about that,” InuYasha snapped. “That stupid coupon you gave me was fake!” Sango giggled. Kagome looked confused.

 

“What coupon?” she asked.

 

“It was InuYasha's reward for going on a blind date,” Miroku explained.

 

“So you gave him a fake coupon?” Kagome asked.

 

“No, I gave him an expired one.” Kagome giggled. InuYasha glared at them.

 

“Stupid pervert,” he grumbled.

 

“The cashier thought you were the stupid one,” Miroku remarked. “You were the one who came in demanding your free ramen with an expired coupon.” Kagome's giggles turned into full-blown laughter, which was hidden behind Ayame's own insufferable laughter.

 

“You're an idiot,” she remarked to InuYasha. He refused to talk to her until lunch.

 

“Kagome, do you have any sweets?” Shippo asked her at said time.

 

“No, I forgot to bring some. I'm sorry Shippo-chan,” Kagome smiled apologetically.

 

“It's okay. It's not your…” Shippo broke off, looking tense. “Quick hide me!” he yelled as he ducked under the table.

 

“What?” Kagome asked. The answer came soon enough.

 

“Have you seen Shippo-san,” a young girl said. She was relatively younger than those at the table, probably only a first year. She had black hair pulled into two buns and reddish-brown eyes. She wasn't exceptionally beautiful, but she was cute.

 

“And who are you?” InuYasha asked rudely. She glared at him.

 

“I'm Kamijyo Souten. One of the last of the Thunder Demon Tribe,” she said proudly.

 

“Your Hiten and Manten's little sister, aren't you?” Sango asked. She nodded.

 

“Why are you looking for Shippo-chan?” Kagome asked her.

 

“He's supposed to take me out to dinner tonight, but I haven't seen him all day,” she said. InuYasha rolled his eyes.

 

“I saw him in the library,” he said. Souten flashed him a smile and then took off in the direction of the library.

 

“Thanks, InuYasha,” Shippo said when he deemed it safe enough to crawl out from under the table.

 

“Now you owe me one runt,” InuYasha said. Shippo was about to make an angry retort, but as soon as he opened his mouth, Sango threw her water bottle at Miroku.

 

“Pervert!” she yelled.

 

“It's the hand, not me!” Miroku protested, rubbing his nose. “I keep telling you it's possessed!”

 

“They have so much energy,” Ayame (the red-haired one) said almost wistfully. “I wish I could be that forward.”

 

“You should tell Hikato-kun how you feel,” Kagome ventured. Ayame and Kagome had finally gotten over their misunderstanding about Koga. At first, Ayame was reluctant to believe that Kagome did not enjoy Koga's repeated attempts of making her his girlfriend, and it wasn't until Kagome figured out that Ayame was in love with him, that they were able to clear the whole mess up and make amends.

 

“I can't. He won't listen. He's so stubborn sometimes,” she said, putting for effect. Kagome laughed.

 

“My life is somewhat normal,” she thought, as the bell rang.

 

Since neither Ayame nor Shippo had commented on her being `strange,' Kagome thought she had managed to escape from it for the rest of the day. She was partly right; no one seemed to notice anything until she got to her history class. All through class, Kagome could feel Sesshoumaru watching her. She hadn't caught him staring at her yet, he was too quick, but every time she went back to her reading, she could feel him staring at her, as if trying to place what exactly was going on. It made her very, very nervous. She sighed in relief when the bell rang.

 

“Oh, you're so lucky Kagome!” Eri squealed as they walked out.

 

“What for?” Kagome asked, snapping out of her prayer of thanks.

 

“Toka-sensei was staring straight at you the whole class!” Ayumi piped up. InuYasha choked on the water that he was drinking. Kagome moaned and banged her head against her locker.

 

“So much for being normal,” she thought. Sango smiled in pity. She knew exactly why Kagome had attracted his attention. Her aura was unavoidable. And yet, Kagome could say nothing in her defense.

 

When Kagome arrived home, her mother informed her that Midoriko was busy and that she would be back in a few days. Kagome took this rare opportunity to call Sango.

 

“Sango-chan!” she exclaimed when her friend answered the phone. “Did you hear about the new store that's opening up in the mall?”

 

“No,” Sango said, only mildly interested.

 

“Yeah, they sell a lot of sports stuff and karate things,” Kagome said, playing to Sango's preferences. She could almost hear Sango perk up.

 

“They sell karate equipment?” Sango asked, excitement creeping into her voice. Kagome grinned wickedly.

 

“Yep! It's opening this Friday! And they're having a sale that day!”

 

“Count me in! Do you want to go with me?”

 

“I can't. I have to go shopping with my mom for Sota.” That was a lie. Kagome's Friday was free from everything.

 

“Oh that's too bad. Do you want me to get you anything?” Sango asked.

 

“No. Listen, I have to go. Sota needs help on his homework,” Kagome lied again. They hung up. Kagome jumped around the stair landing for a little out of sheer joy, much to the disbelief of her brother. Then she called InuYasha.

 

“What?” was how he answered the phone.

 

“You have no manners,” she greeted him.

 

“Why are you calling me,” InuYasha asked.

 

“I got Sango to go the mall. I told her a karate store was opening up. She's going on Friday,” she informed him. It took several minutes for InuYasha to figure out what she was talking about. Then he remembered Miroku and Sango's little joke.

 

“Okay, I'll get Miroku to go too. Let me call him now,” and with that he hung up. Kagome sighed. Even after they had gone on a date, he still acted as though…Kagome shook her head, trying to block out the events of that confusing night.

 

Miroku, did you hear about that new place at the mall?” InuYasha asked him.

 

“No, what about it?” Miroku replied. He was busy reading a swimsuit magazine. Well, not exactly reading, more like looking at it.

 

“It's a swimsuit modeling place,” InuYasha said tactfully. He heard Miroku put down his magazine.

 

“Really?” he asked, becoming interested.

 

“Yeah, they're looking for judges.”

 

“Is that so?” InuYasha tried not to snort.

 

“It opens this Friday. You need to be one of the first twenty people in line to be eligible,” InuYasha told him. “I'm not coming with you, so don't ask. I'll give you a map.”

 

“You're such a good friend,” Miroku said, forgetting that it was the middle of September, and that no swimsuit-modeling agency would open in a mall.

 

So both Miroku and Sango were excited Friday, and both rushed out after school for personal reasons that neither would share.

 

“You want to follow them?” InuYasha asked Kagome. “They followed us.” Kagome nodded. She had already planned to follow them, and having InuYasha along was an added bonus, though Kagome wouldn't admit it to herself. Once in his car, however, an uncomfortable silence over them that dampened their fun. Kagome didn't know what to say, and she gave a start when InuYasha spoke. “Those friends of yours think my brother's interested in you.” It was something that had bothered them since they had said that, and repeated questioning hadn't helped matters. He knew his brother's sudden interest in her came from the fact that there was something different about Kagome's aura and nothing else, he had even gone as far as to tell InuYasha to watch her. But it made him upset that others would misinterpret it, especially to the extent that her friends had taken it.

 

“Don't mind them, they're crazy,” Kagome said. “They like to exaggerate things and turn things into something from a romance novel.” InuYasha snorted.

 

“It would be more like a horror novel if you ask me,” he said, watching Kagome shake with suppressed laughter out of the corner of his eyes.

 

“You're mean,” Kagome, teased him. She felt better now, that InuYasha was joking about it. He didn't realize the true seriousness of the issue, but Kagome had the feeling that he would probably shrug it off even if she told everything. She could tell him one thing though. “I'm taking archery lessons,” she told him.

 

“So?”

 

“That's why I'm `different,'” she explained. “Frustration must be swirling all around me constantly. InuYasha grinned.

 

“Frustration is always swirling around you, wench,” he said, adding the insult for fun. Kagome pulled a face at him.

 

“If you weren't driving me to the mall, I'd tell you to let me out of the car,” she said, grinning too to show InuYasha that she was only kidding. She knew that he was also joking; he had long grown out of the habit of calling her wench to make her angry. “We're here. Let's go,” Kagome said, jumping out of the car, and sprinted to the entrance.

 

Miroku had only arrived five minutes ago, but he was already lost. He tried to follow InuYasha's map, but to follow the map meant to find the directory board, hence his confusion. There was something else that was bothering him too. He had the slightest feeling that he was being tricked. He looked at the map again.

 

“Turn left when you get to the directory board,” it read. “In case you don't know, your left hand is the one on the other side of your writing hand.” Miroku had to smile. InuYasha could be quite the handful when he wanted to be. The map went on. “When you pass that Victoria's Closet thing or whatever it's called, make a right. That's your writing hand's side. Then keep going straight until you see that hentai manga store. It should be right next to it.” Miroku followed the direction carefully, but when he got to the hentai manga store, he didn't see any thing that resembled a swimsuit-modeling agency. He checked the directions again, but couldn't find anything wrong with them. He wondered if there were two hentai manga stores and that he had gone to the wrong one. He was so intent on finding it that he didn't see the person behind him until she bumped right into him.

 

“I'm sorry,” Sango said, as she crashed into the person walking in front of her. She had been searching the mall for half and hour trying to find the store that Kagome had told her about, and frustration was starting to set in, causing her to be oblivious to the world around her.

 

“Sango-chan, is that you?” the person asked her. She looked up in surprise. Only one man her age ever dared to call her `Sango-chan.'

 

“Houshi-kun? What are you doing here?” she asked him in surprise.

 

“I was looking for a store that InuYasha said was around here.” That was a lie, but Miroku was sure that Sango would find no humor in his looking for a swimsuit-modeling agency.

 

“Really? I was looking for a store that Kagome-chan said was here!” They both stared at each other as a switch in their brains clicked.

 

“Clever, they were very clever,” Miroku said, shaking his head. Sango laughed.

 

“We should have known they would want revenge,” she said. “We thought we were safe.”

 

“Since we're here, and this store that we're looking for probably doesn't exist, do you want to get something to eat?” He didn't wait for an answer; he just took Sango's arm and steered to a restaurant.

 

“Houshi-kun!” Sango protested. “Let me go!”

 

“You don't want to eat with me? I might get lost,” Miroku said. Sango sighed. She knew he had a point, and she knew when she was defeated, so she gave up struggling and told him he was going the wrong way.

 

“You know Sango-chan,” he said, once they were seated. “You could call me by my first name.” Sango blushed and ducked her head, mumbling something unintelligible. “You're mumbling Sango-chan,” Miroku teased her.

 

“Don't call me Sango-chan,” she said in false agitation. She didn't mind hearing him call her that, she quite liked it in actuality. She was just afraid. Afraid that if she opened her heart to him, he would break it. She knew that he was a bit of playboy, and she couldn't tell if he could be faithful to only one woman.

 

“What's the matter?” Miroku asked her concerned. He had noticed the shadows that had passed across her face. “Did I do something?”

 

“No. You didn't do anything,” Sango said quickly.

 

“So you don't mind me calling you Sango-chan then,” he said. When she looked at him confused, he explained. “I called you Sango-chan, then you got upset, so I thought it was because you didn't want me to call you that, but now you just said that I didn't do anything, so therefore, you don't mind me calling you that,” he finished pointedly. Sango stared at him in shock.

 

“You really are an idiot,” she said, grinning despite herself.

 

“You know, Sango-chan,” Miroku started. “You're very pretty when you smile like that. You should do it more often.” Sango blushed. She wanted to say something, but her mind had gone into a blank haze.

 

“I…” she couldn't finish. Her mind was not working properly.

“Of course Sango-chan is always very pretty,” Miroku continued, either oblivious to or enjoying her deepening blush. “You're pretty even when you throw me down the stairs!” At this, Sango's head snapped up, embarrassment forgotten.

 

“I only did that once!” she protested. Miroku laughed.

 

“Fine. You're very pretty even when you slap me,” he said.

 

“You deserved it all those times too,” Sango reminded him. He only smiled and reached across the table for her hand, which he pressed to his lips in a gentleman-like manner.

 

“There are no other hands I'd rather be slapped by than yours, Sango,” he said. Sango was so shocked that she reacted with her first initial instinct: slapping him, hard.

 

“That's it! I'm leaving!” Sango said, quickly getting up and walking away. She heard Miroku get up and run after her. And then she did something that was completely out of character for her in that kind of situation. She smiled. She wouldn't admit it to anyone but herself, but she was beginning to fall for the pervert, and she was falling hard. Just this once, she would forgive him. But just this once.

 

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