A voice that Kagome hoped she wouldn't have to hear for another day, or at least a few more hours, growled behind her back.
"Wench, haven't you been here long enough already?!?" it griped.
Rotating around, Kagome discovered Inuyasha hanging around, arms crossed, and attempting to glaring around menacingly in the threshold of the kitchen door.
"Inuyasha!" Kagome exclaimed, surprised at the hanyou's sudden arrival.
An irritable expression had been etched across his face as usual, "Don't see why you're so damn suprised to see me," Inuyasha muttered gruffly, "It's not like I haven't come this way before or anything."
"Well, it's just that I didn't expect to see you here so. . . early," Kagome blinked as she found the right word, "I thought it was agreed I had until Saturday morn-"
"Yeah, well-" Inuyasha blurted immediately, interrupting Kagome, "Turns out I'm here now, and I think you've had nearly enough time to get food and pack up."
Taken off guard, Kagome blinked, her shoulders jumping in shock as she suddenly remembered. . . "Oh yeah, that's right. . . I haven't even thought about asking Mom for more food or supplies. Inuyasha, I haven't even packed yet."
Inuyasha let out a loud scowl. Glaring at Kagome, he spat, "Listen, you! I'm not gonna wait around one more day, for you to just lay around 'freshening up' instead of getting ready like you were supposed to. It doesn't even take that old woman, Kaede, this long to pack bags. Besides, there's no good reason why you can't just 'freshen up' in the feudal era just like everyone else!" he barked.
Kagome sighed, "Well, 'freshening up,' as you so call it, also involves me catching up on my schoolwork, which sorely needs to be done- and soon!" she stated definitely, wagging an index finger at the half-demon boy, "And I do find that I do my Geometry best at a quiet table and not in the middle of a demon invested warzone."
"Look, you can do your Geobotchery or whatever later," Inuyasha dismissed brashly, "What matters now is that you hurry up and come back with me as soon as possible. . . which means now."
Kagome shook her head. 'I really didn't get all that much done as I would have liked,' she thought with a note of disappointment, 'but I guess it'll have to do for now. . . Well, I might be putting off math for just a few more weeks, until finals. I really shouldn't have that kind of thinking, especially with some other things,' Kagome thought,' like my family,' she admitted to herself bitterly, when Souta's case was brought to mind.
Placing a hand on her forehead, Kagome took a seat by the kitchen table.
Noticing this, Inuyasha hobbled clumsily over to her, "What's wrong now?" he sighed.
"Inuyasha, do you think I'm doing the right thing?" Kagome asked softly as she stared out the window into the moonlit courtyard, the Higurashi family tree standing strong, swaying gently with the cool night breeze.
"Wha?" Inuyasha muttered, "What do you mean by that, Kagome?"
"Oh, you know," she pushed quietly, peering down to see her fingers idly draw circles on the kitchen table, "Going off to the feudal era and embarking on long adventures to save villages, vanquish demons as well as the like of Naraku, and recover shards of the Shikon Jewel?" she ventured.
"Yeah!" Inuyasha exclaimed, "There's no doubt."
Kagome smiled bittersweetly, "Well, of course YOU'D say that," she chuckled, before getting up, starting towards the stairs, her back turned to Inuyasha, "But some times I do really wonder."
"Do you think saving people's lives is the wrong thing to do?" Inuyasha asked, skeptically.
"No, not at all," Kagome shook her head, and turned around walking towards Inuyasha, "Ah, don't worry about it, Inuyasha. I'm probably just worked up over getting behind in school, you know me," she smiled, holding her hands up in defense.
"Don't see why you people in the future bother doing it in the first place if it makes you all so crazy and highstrung," he muttered lowly.
"Alright, Inuyasha, I'll tell you what," Kagome proposed, "It's already pretty late, but I want you to know I won't spend any more time studying. First thing the next day, I'll get what we need, and you can expect to see me on the other side of the well by tomorrow morning. Is that a deal?"
"Sounds fine," Inuyasha grumbled, "As long as you hold your word to it. I'm getting bored just hanging around waiting for you," he sighed, getting up, "And annoyed outta my skull with Shippo bouncing about all over the place. What a headache," he moaned, rubbing his head sorely.
"It's gonna to be a great thing to get a move on tomorrow, Kagome," Inuyasha said positively as he slid the back door open and wandered out toward the well, "Finally!" he groaned with much relief.
"See you tomorrow, Inuyasha!" Kagome called out, bidding the hanyou farewell as the red of his robe faded off into the depths of the well with a leaping bound.
Moving the sliding screen door close, Kagome started to wonder, 'If I had never fell down the well in the first place, what would my life and relationships be like- here, in my time. Am I really making the right choice when I spend nearly all my time with you, Miroku, Sango, and Shippo? People in my time start wondering where I disappeared off to, or, if they buy into Grandpa's stories, whether I'm alright. . . but they never know the true story about what's going on in my life. '
'And now I wonder if I really know what's going on in their's anymore,' she thought sadly as she reached her room.
Souta suddenly quitting soccer had been a loud wake up call for her, but she had always more or less acknowledged the fact that she was progressively being in the dark about various aspects of people's lives the more time she spent in the feudal era. It's just that she wasn't nearly as involved in everyone else's lives as she used to be, and thus, wasn't aware of what was happening to them.
She payed virtually no attention to the ever-growing complex soap opera that was her friends' love lives anymore, and had no idea of who was going out with who, and by zoning out for even just a month, she would have missed too much to pick herself back up to speed.
She had no idea that Hojo had led his team to win the finals in the citywide baseball series, with his team ranking number one, until she finally got home, and found a surplus of excited messages and hollerings in her answering machine, but by then, said victory had occured almost two weeks ago. . .
And the sad part was she really didn't seem to care that much. . . Could it be that she was at that much of a distance with the rest of her world?
Snapping her book shut, not unenthusiastically, Kagome put away her schoolwork- maybe for another week or so, to her dismay.
'I don't even know what chapter our class is on right now,' she thought bitingly to herself, 'I've only gone to, what, maybe two or three classes this month.'
She was still struggling to get past a chapter that had been cleared seemingly eons ago.
'Inuyasha must have had a tough past couple of days. . .' she thought to herself, 'Maybe I'll be able to come back and finally catch up on my Geometry, but still-' she sighed, 'There still is something bothering me. Why would Souta suddenly quit one of his passions, soccer? He said he was gaining weight and couldn't keep up with the others, but I know a little pudge wouldn't stop the Souta I know- especially not completely. That can't be right. I don't buy into that- there must be something going on that I don't know about,' she nodded.
'But aren't I supposed to know that something?' she thought glumly, 'Aren't I supposed to know that something so I can find out what's wrong and look out for him? Isn't that what big sisters are for? Well, some big sister I'm being.'
"I have to get to the bottom of this," she told herself, crawling into bed, "As soon as I get back, I'll look into what's going on, and find out what's wrong. And that's one thing I definitely can't put off until later."
* * *
"Hello, everyone," Kagome smiled as Inuyasha struggled to pull her out of the well.
"Damn, Kagome, what have you been eating? You weigh a ton!" he yelled as he pushed off the base with his feet and propelled her out as he plopped to the soft, grassy ground.
"Hmph!" Kagome sniffed as she glanced down at the fallen hanyou, "Nothing at all, as I was rushing to meet you, as ordered," she stated, "But the extra weight would probably be the backpack, if you haven't guessed already," she said, attempting to point to it as she turned around, revealing an oversized, overly stuffed, heavy backpack that came falling to the ground with a big plop, making possibly a crater, "That ought to last us at least a week."
"All food I bet!" Shippo cried, happy he wouldn't have to fight with Inuyasha every night to stake control of any morsel.
"Well, seeing I missed out on breakfast to pack and rush out here," Kagome started, "I was hoping we could set up a little picnic right here and have a brunch. It is a great day, after all," Kagome grinned as she saw the weather was completely ideal; a warm sun, vast, bright blue skies with white fluffy clouds trailing across it, and soft grass to sit upon.
"A whaaa?" Inuyasha urged.
"I would assume some sort of meal," Miroku said plainly as he helped Kagome unfurl and stretch out a rather large picnic blanket.
The two had finished smoothing out the blanket, and now all were sitting more or less on top of it. Kagome had just unzipped the backpack to take out an array of foodstuff, when she absentmindedly peered out onto the rolling hills beyond to the dirt road, and was shocked to see a familiar face strolling down the pathway on their journey.
It was. . .
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