Yu Yu Hakusho Fan Fiction / InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Feelings for a Fox ❯ Chapter 1

Hey all! I'd like to give a quick thanks to all my readers so far! So thanks to: Fire Elfglow, Kaguya , Maggie M., and AkanexRanma Forever

Kagomi's POV

~~Chapter 1~~

Getting ready for school this morning was sheer hell and the thought of doing this every morning for the next year of my life is making me internally cringe and whimper at the headache that I have a horrible suspicion is one of those parent of the future things that will never leave. Honestly, I don't know how my mother does it.

The morning started out ok if you look on the positive side. After all my alarm didn't go off so I should be grateful that my overly hyper kit decided to wake me up…except he did so by jumping on me- repeatedly. If I were being really positive I'd be grateful he hasn't grown at all. Still looking on the bright side here, I should also be thankful that by the time I had joined the living world he had already eaten- pancakes flooded in syrup and hot chocolate. Thank you mother, his teacher is going to sue us. I guess now would be a bad time to point out exactly what sugar does to Shippou?

Finally I convinced him to go bug Souta while I take my morning shower. I don't believe it. We're out of my favorite brand of shampoo… and who the hell picked a rose scented replacement? It was probably Shippou unconsciously choosing something natural to remind him of the Sengoku Jidai. Speaking of Shippou, as if we hadn't been for a quite a while… we're going to have to come up with a solution to his shedding problem. My bath tub is covered in red fur and I don't even want to contemplate what it's doing to the drain. And his toys. I nearly killed myself on that rubber ducky!

Who am I kidding here? I adore my little fox, minor issues and all. I've been living my life waiting to mother him again. Admittedly I missed my family as well but at the center of my mental image of family was my cub's mischievous grin and his bright green eyes. Honestly I wonder when he became so important to me? Still, there's no reason he should be able to get away with murder…

Murder is exactly what I had on my mind when I came down stairs to find Souta and Shippou jumping off the walls. Literally in my demonic son's case. It looked like they had started a game of war with those ridiculous toy guns that shoot those colored bits of Styrofoam with suction cups on the ends. Both sides of the conflict seemed to have received heavy damage as the two boys were both covered in the colorful projectiles, some were even tangled in Shippou's tail. He seemed to come out the worst though as he was had also been hit by some lime green post it notes. The walls of the living room had also fallen, innocent victims in a meaningless battle.

Actually I take that back… I didn't have murder on my mind until I found myself staring cross eyed at the bright yellow arrow that was dangling over my nose from the center of my forehead. Both sides were forced to surrender under my wrath, and the deadly aim of my own bright bits of Styrofoam! Bwuahahahaha! Take that, you insolent pups! Oh man! We're gonna be late!

Shippou used one of his leafs to transform into a slightly older and, more to the point, human boy and he and Souta walked off to school. I grabbed my books bags and ran out the door and hurried in the other direction toward my own new school. And I didn't even have time for breakfast this morning. Remind me again why I felt I should be excited to finish my last year of high school out in my proper time period?

Honestly I almost would have been on time to my first day if I had ignored the scream coming from the side alley. Idiot that I am I rushed toward the sound and saw a group of punks surrounding a girl about my age. Heh, well not my age 'cause man. But she looked as old as I appear to be. And a glance at her blue sailor uniform showed that she goes to my school. Great. If I save her then I'm going to have to worry about running into her again and maybe her even trying to be my friend out of some warped sense of gratitude.

Don't get me wrong I think friends are great and all, it's just after five hundred years it gets hard to watch them keep fading away and dying. Also with the way society is today it's hard to find people who would believe in the kind of stuff that is the norm for me, which means if I make friends I have to hide a part of myself. Inconvenient if not outright painful in certain circumstances. Still I can't just let these wannabes pick on a little girl. Tsk, no honor these days. That's the problem with all these whippersnappers.

Hehehe.

What? After so many decades you have to find ways to amuse yourself. I'm convinced the majority of senior citizens that people think are senile are just trying to come up with new methods of entertainment. Oh yeah the girl in trouble. Guess I should do something about that. Sigh.

"Hey! Looks like somebody didn't teach you lowlifes any manners! " I called out as one of the guys reared back in preparation to hit the poor girl. I'm surprised that caught their attention. I wasn't even trying all that hard to be insulting. Maybe they didn't understand some of the big words I used? The thugs immediately forgot the girl as they rounded on their new target-me. I smiled.

I could feel my eyes narrow the slightest bit, considering the threat posed by the four boys. They were fairly average, maybe a bit bigger in the case of the muscled one on the far left. They had no real power behind them, only their size and skill at intimidation. Common street brawlers, and probably not very high on that level either. My stance relaxed as I quickly took that impression in. I know, I know. Never underestimate your opponent no matter how weak they appear. But these are just regular Joe Shmoes, and they needed an ass kicking if they thought they could get away with bullying the defenseless. After all, if I didn't kick their ass now, the next person they might go after could be Souta or Shippou. Now that thought annoys me. I'm kinda looking forward to this now.

The first guy charged toward me. And right past me as I step to the side and give him a swift kick in the derrière to help him along. I only watch him long enough to see that he lands in a tangled heap in the trashcans along the wall. I turn and shift my head to the side to avoid the fist aiming at my head by the second guy. Of course this gives me the perfect opportunity to plant my knee in his crotch.

Ok who is with me when I say that the look you get when you do that to a guy is priceless? Don't get me wrong, I don't mean just go around doing it to any guy. But if a male really deserves it, don't you think that's a great look? It's this rather comical mixture of pain and disbelief. And ironic as well. I mean he was the guy who was about to hit some random chick on the side walk and then attacked me while my back was turned. Now he's giving me this look like 'I can't believe you are so evil, you maniacal bitch!' Call me crazy, I think it's funny.

But since he's falling foreword to clutch himself, I decide to take a step back and raise my knee again. Now he's falling backwards. Isn't physics fun?

I have to dance back out of the way to avoid the next guy who tries to swing at me with a tire iron. Where did that come from? It's like the thug equivalent of a giant wooden mallet for some anime girl. He just pulled it out of thin air. Oh well, he's not very skilled with it either way. He lunges at me with it again and I dodge before catching it when he swings again. I use his momentum to twist around and slam him into the wall behind us and wrench it out of his grasp, swinging it around behind me without even bothering to look. The bigger guy gave a satisfying yelp of pain as the tire iron connected with him. I glance back to see him clutching his side. I spin around, bringing the weapon up and knocking him-lightly, mind you- in the side of his head, rendering him unconscious.

The guy in the trash cans is getting up by now. I just glance over and give him 'the look'. He seems to understand because he scrambles away yelling something about dealing with me later. Yeah, yeah. I toss the chunk of metal away. Cheap talk. I straighten my uniform and readjust my backpack before going over to help the dazed girl up. The fight hadn't lasted more than a couple of seconds and it hadn't been much of a fight but she seemed shaken up by it. She looked up at me and I withstood her scrutiny in silence. Then she gasped, and I could feel my eyebrow wing up in an involuntary inquiry.

"You're a girl!" She seemed shocked. Huh? Oh yeah… the guy uniform.

"Come on we're going to be late," I say inclining my head in acknowledgement. Really what can you say to such an obvious statement? She agrees and we continue on to school. When she asks I tell her that yes I am a new student and I'm wearing the guy's uniform with special permission from the school board. I can tell she's curious about that one, but thankfully she's too polite to ask. Keri, as I've learned her name is, keeps chattering about random stuff and periodically stops to thank me for saving her. The whole gratitude thing is starting to get annoying really, but she does seem like a nice girl. Right now she's going off about some guy named Shuuichi. Wipe the drool from your chin there dearie. Finally the building is in sight! Thank Kami!

We head to the office, me to get my schedule and Keri to check in and explain why she was late. Again with the gushing about how I saved her. The looks the principle gives me while she's speaking are making me uncomfortable. He, Mr. Yotaru, asks me if it was true that she was attacked and I helped her to school this morning. I nod. The man's kind of creeping me out, and I can't quite put my finger on why.

He doesn't say anything else about it, just hands her a note to excuse her and me my schedule. Mr. Yotaru asks Keri to show me around a bit today, in that adult 'you are going to say yes whether you have other plans or not' type way. She chirps her agreement and we leave. She looks over my schedule to see where I go first. The only class we have together is our final period, art. Something about that principle though…

"Hey Kagome! Over here!"

It's lunch time and Keri is sitting underneath a tree waving me over. I mentally shrug and walk over to join her. She glances up at me to smile but I see her eyes wandering over to the front doors of the school. What's so interesting about the front doors? I didn't realize I said that out loud until she blushed and looked at me with a nervous giggle.

"Shuuichi-san will be coming out soon. This is the best vantage spot to observe him from before his fan club descends upon him."

"Fan club?" I can't help sounding amused. I was never in the popular group to begin with, but I can't believe I totally forgot that happens to some poor souls. Although some of them actually enjoy the attention, some are just well liked. That was the kind of impression I got from her rambling earlier, that the guy was just well liked. At least I hadn't heard any stories about him abusing his rank in the school yet. I turn my head as she gives a tiny squeak of excitement.

When I saw him I stopped breathing. Long red hair, the color of an angry sunset with eyes that were so brilliant you could see that they were a deep emerald green even from this distance. He wore the pinkish red uniform of the upperclassmen of the school, exactly like the one I had on. Although I am strangely jealous to admit, the slender male filled it out much better. I started feeling dizzy as I continued to stare at him.

Don't give me that look. It isn't why you think, although admittedly that was part of it. There's not a woman alive who wouldn't feel attracted to him. Hell, Kikyo would have been attracted to him! But that isn't why I was dizzy.

It was because behind the pale face of the strange male were the features of an equally gorgeous youkai. For some reason the impression of the youkai kept flickering, sometimes becoming stronger, overlaying the boy's face, while at other's he would recede completely. Then both would be visible at the same time. I've never seen anything like it. Then again that's probably a good thing. The shifting occurred too often and without any discernable pattern, and my eyes weren't able to stay focused. It was starting to make me feel sick watching it. Which is a shame because he was darn pretty. Both of him…

I quickly shifted to the side, so that the tree would obscure the view between us and turned away to start eating my lunch. Oh shit! Oh shit! Oh shit! My shield! It slipped for a second there, I'm sure of it! What if he sensed my powers? What if he knows it's me?!

"Oh my Kami! He's looking over this way!" Keri squealed breathlessly, then she groaned in disappointment. "Ohh, he's looking away now. Hey, it seems like he's searching for someone. Wow, whoever it is must be pretty important. He hasn't even acknowledged any of the girls flocking around him." I breathed a grateful sigh of relief that he didn't seem able to pinpoint me. I'm going to have to be more careful, and I'm going to have to investigate this guy to see if he'll be a threat. He's obviously been attending school here for some time so he's not here because of me. But still…

And what is up with that flickering thing?! It's driving me nuts!