Subject: [FFML] [Inu-Yasha] [Revised Draft with additions] College Bound Part One
From: Michelle Biggs
Date: 12/11/1999, 1:56 AM
To: ffml@fanfic.com

I added the last half of this since the last post.
This is the completed Part One pending any minor
revisions.

Previous Chapters: http://obsession.iwarp.com




     Inu-Yasha woke several hours before dawn to find
himself strewn across a tree limb. His injuries from a
few hours before had healed. He sat up straddling the
branch and shook his head.
 
     "Ugh. Kagome! Where's Kagome? And the jewel!
ARG!!" He sniffed the air. He could barely find the
slightest hint of blood. 'Kagome's blood,' he thought.
Inu-Yasha increased his speed as he leapt through the
trees. 'Stupid girl. She had better be all right. She
almost got herself killed . . .  and then the jewel.
What did she do to the Jewel of Four Souls? She used
its power? But she's human. The jewel is powerless to
humans.'

     He stopped when trees became burnt and opened
into a clearing (now larger than it had been
previously). Inu-Yasha could smell her blood strongly
now, but the scent that defined Kagome herself was not
present. He swept across the clearing to the crater at
its center. He blinked. She was there! She was
sprawled across the ground . . .  asleep! 

     "Kagome!" he jumped down the slope and kneeled
beside her. "Kagome! Kagome, wake up, girl! Are you
all right?" He leaned down and sniffed across her
chest and abdomen. This didn't smell like Kagome. 'But
it has to be her! It looks just like her! No one else
could have such ridiculous clothing.' He nudged the
body gently at first then roughly. Getting no response
and not being the most patient of people Inu-Yasha
growled, "WAKE UP, GIRL!"

     She shot up almost instantly and took in her
surroundings. 'She . . .  she has yellow eyes!'
Inu-Yasha thought immediately. 'They're just like
mine! And . . .  and fangs! She's got fangs! Oh no.'

     "Kagome?" he asked cautiously. Her eyes finally
focused and turned to him. A smile spread across her
face- he loved that smile. It made his heart ache.

     "Inu-Yasha!" She threw herself into his arms.
"You're all right! And I'm alive! I thought for sure I
was going to die! That demon slashed my neck open!
Almost no one survives from that."

     Inu-Yasha blinked and wrapped his arms around the
girl. This was her. His Kagome. And she was . . .  she
was . . .  a demon? 'It can't be. The Jewel of Four
Souls doesn't work this way. But then again, who
knows? No one has ever used its full power, obviously,
or it wouldn't have been here. He sighed and softly
said, "Agh, girl, what have you done?"

     "What was that, Inu-Yasha?"

     "Nothing, Kagome. Ah . . .  Kagome . . .  where's
the jewel?"

     "The jewel! Oh my Gosh! I completely forgot about
it! Where is it?" She started looking around
frantically for the familiar glow. "Inu-Yasha, I don't
see it! I... I... Is it gone? Did something get it?
The whole jewel . . ." Inu-Yasha was looking at her
strangely, almost sadly. "What? What's wrong?" 

     "Kagome . . . " He took her hand. 

     "Inu-Yasha!" Kagome began to blush. Inu-Yasha had
. . .  they had never . . .   He brought their
entwined hands in front of her face. 

     "What do you see, Kagome?"

     "I..." She looked at their hands. Then she looked
at her hand. The glow. "Oh no." Releasing Inu-Yasha's
hand she looked down at herself. "My body! It's
glowing! My whole body! The jewel's back inside me?"

     Inu-Yasha sighed and tilted her chin back up.
"C'mon Kagome." He swung her onto his back and was
off. 

     They stopped at a spring.

     "Why are we here, Inu-Yasha?"

     He took her hand again receiving only a slight
reddening on Kagome's part. "Come here." He led her to
the water's edge. 

     Kagome peered in to see herself staring back. She
gasped. "My eyes! My teeth! Inu-Yasha, I have fangs!
What has happened to me?" 

     The dog demon could see the tears in her eyes as
he predicted. 'Typical. Stupid human.' 

     She turned to look at him. "Inu-Yasha, what
happened to me?"

     He sighed. "You used the Jewel of Four Souls and
turned yourself into a demon. I can smell it, Kagome,
your demon half. It didn't even make you full-blooded.
You're a halfling. A freak like me," Afterwards he
flinched at the stupidity of his own words. 

     He could see Kagome's bottom lip tremble and her
eyes swell with tears as she tried to restrain
herself. "Sorry," he grumbled. 

     Kagome lost it. She buried her face in her hands
and sobbed. Inu-Yasha watched her shoulders wrench. He
bit his lip. 'Gyah! What do I do? What do I do? Eh . .
. ' He obviously wasn't one who could deal well with
strong emotions, since he had refused to acknowledge
for many years that he had any compassion at all.  

     Inu-Yasha did the only thing he could think of.
He remembered Kagome comforting Shippou after he had
fallen and hurt himself. He turned and squatted next
to the girl and put his arm around her. "Uh... there,
there. It's ok." Surprising the dog boy, she wrapped
her arms around his waist and buried her head in his
shoulder continuing to weep.

     'I knew it,' Kagome thought. 'I was dying. And I
would have, had I not been able to use the jewel. Now
I'm a demon, a monster. I'm supposed to protect the
jewel from demons and now I am one. How can I go home?
People will be scared of me. I still lost everything
even though I didn't die.'

     Inu-Yasha sat cross-legged and pulled Kagome into
his lap. "Shhh . . . " he soothed. "You'll be okay." 

     'I have Inu-Yasha,' Kagome thought. "I still have
you," she whispered. 

     "You'll always have me," he replied uncertainly.

     Her sobs started to reside. "You are my best
friend, Inu-Yasha."

     He felt a stabbing in his heart. Friend. "And you
are mine."

     He tightened his arms around her and laughed. "At
least we will never have to fight over the Jewel of
Fours Souls."

     Kagome lifted her head and smiled at him. "So you
thought about it, too? I... I think I would have given
it to you Inu-Yasha, but I don't want you to become
like your brother."

     "Sesshoumaru?"

     "A full demon. Think about it. Have we ever
encountered a friendly full-blooded demon? Shippou
doesn't count."

     Inu-Yasha frowned. "Feh." 'I couldn't hurt you.'
"I will just find another way."

     Kagome just smiled and snuggled back into
Inu-Yasha's chest. He was surprised, but didn't push
her away. 'This isn't comfort anymore, is it? Is this
possible? Could she? No. No! Just forget it. You're
her friend.'

     He rested his chin on Kagome's head. "Well, look
at the bright side . . .  at least you didn't get the
ears."

     "I don't know," Kagome sniffed. "I kinda like
your ears."

     "Feh. Come on, girl. The old hag will want to see
this."

     Kagome took a deep breath and let it out slowly.
"All right. Let's go."



     "Kaede!" Shippou called "Kaede! Kagome and
Inu-Yasha just came into town. Want to go meet them?"
	
     "Hush, child. Something's amiss. We will wait."

     As soon as Kagome entered the hut, Kaede poked
and prodded Kagome in a drawn out examination.

     "Your body has yet to consume the entire jewel,
but you are certainly becoming a demon."
	
     "Does that mean we still have time to knock it
out of her?"
	
      Inu-Yasha received several glares. "What? That
jewel is rightfully mine! I killed the demons who held
the shards. It's not like you want to be a demon, is
it?"
	
     Kagome shook her head. "Is there anyway we can
reverse this, Kaede?"

     The priestess frowned. "No. Unlike before when
you were simply carrying the jewel, now it is a part
of you. Take that away and previous injuries would
return and you would die." She continued thoughtfully,
"I don't suppose this could have happened to just
anyone. You carried the jewel within you for many
years and your blood is soaked with it's aura. It must
have made it easier for the transition to take place."

     Kagome fought back a strangled sob. "What am I
going to do?" she whispered. "How can I go home? What
will Mom say? And Gramps? He'll probably try to
exorcize me!" 

     Shippou bounced into Kagome's lap. "You can stay
here and live with us! Then you'll never have to
leave!" He smiled hopefully at his friend.

     Inu-Yasha raised an eyebrow.

     Kagome smiled at the bundle of energy. "This
isn't my home, Shippou-chan. This isn't my time. I
couldn't possibly live here."

     "You don't want to?"

     "Oh, Shippou, my family isn't here, or my home.
My life was... is just now truly starting. I got
accepted to TouDai."

     "What is 'TouDai'?" Shippou asked.

     "It's a university, more school, where I can
finish my education. It's very hard to get into a good
university. I was going to tell you guys... this will
be good-bye for awhile."

     Inu-Yasha straightened. "What? Why?"

     "I have to go away for school. I'm living on
campus."

     "But you can't!" Shippou cried. "You're leaving
us?"

     Kagome's eyes swelled. "Well I was going to." She
looked at her hands. "But this kinda changes
everything. If my appearance doesn't change too much
more maybe no one will notice."

     "Hmph." Inu-Yasha exited.

     Kagome sighed.

     "He will cope," Kaede said. "He is after all a
demon at heart."

     Kagome flinched and looked through the open door.



     "Why does she have to leave?" Inu-Yasha thought
aloud from his tree limb. "It's probably not that
important. Feh. What does a girl need with an
education?"

     "Things change, Inu-Yasha." Kagome looked up into
the canopy of his tree. 

     "He swung his feet over the side of the branch
and glared down at her. "What do you want, wench?"

     "Life is different in my time Inu-Yasha. Women
don't have to just marry and live by their husbands. I
told you before, I have to go to school. This one's
just farther away. It's not like I'll never see you
again. You're my friend. I'll come back. I  have
vacations."

     Inu-Yasha jumped down beside her, jabbing angrily
with a finger. "Why would I care if you come back? I
care that you think I'm going to sit here while you go
gallivanting around another time with my jewel!"

     "Your jewel?" Kagome started, falling into their
familiar pattern of arguing, "It's my jewel,
Inu-Yasha, and my time! Not yours. I don't want to be
changed like this. I don't want this to happen, but it
is. You need to stop whining about your fantasies not
coming true when my entire life may be ruined! I'm
sorry," she said sarcastically, "you can't become your
true demonic self, but I'm not going to wait here for
you to find a way to drain the damned thing out of
me!"

     "You know that's not how it is."

     "Then how is it?"

     He crossed his arms and sniffed smugly. "You
don't want the Jewel of Four Souls and I want to take
it off your hands."

     "And you *know* the only way to do that is to
kill me!! So what are you going to do, dog-boy? Kill
me?" she cried shoving him harshly. "Come on, go for
it!" Inu-Yasha grabbed her wrists to keep her from
lashing out again. "What have you got to lose?" She
sunk to her knees crying.

	Inu-Yasha looked down at her shaking form, still
holding her wrists. He sighed. 'What a weak being.
She'll never be more of a demon than me.' He rolled
his eyes and pulled her up. "Snap out of it, girl." He
heaved her to her feet, but learned she wasn't ready
to support herself as she fell into him with
continuing sobs. 

	With a sigh he surrendered and held her to him while
she drenched his shoulder with tears. "Come on,
Kagome, come on. Why are you crying? What's wrong with
you? Haven't you run out of fluids yet?" Kagome
thumped his chest lightly with a fist. "Alright!
Alright! I was kidding. Hey." He lifted her chin to
look her in the eyes. "Stop. Crying," he ordered.

	Kagome wiped away her tears and took a step back.
"Sorry," she said softly.

	"You can't go, Kagome."

	She sighed. "I can go and I have to... for as long as
possible at least. It's pointless to argue, Inu-Yasha,
and I'm sick of it. My eyes are finally dry and my
throat is sore." Pushing back a burning from her eyes,
she spoke, "That is the last time you will ever see me
cry. From here on out I will not cry because you're
right, it doesn't help and I don't feel any better."
She hugged him tightly then backed away. "I'll come
visit in a few months for winter break. Good-bye." She
smiled faintly then jogged out of view.

	"Oh, pleh . . . " Inu-Yasha released a breath he
wasn't aware he had been holding and flopped onto the
ground.



	Kagome took her shoes off at the door and set her
backpack down next to them.

	"Kagome?" her mother called from the kitchen. "Is
that you?"

	Kagome looked down and wrung her hands. "Uh, yeah,
Mom! I'm home!" She took a light, tentative step
forward.



Disclaimer: No characters are mine, of course

Previous Chapters located at: 
http://obsession.iwarp.com


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