InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Tree Messaging ❯ Chapter 9 ( Chapter 9 )

 

 

Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha.

 

A lot of you have been asking how Inuyasha will get free from inside the Goshinboku. Good question...um...who's Inuyasha?

And as for Kikyo....you'll just have to wait and see.

 

Please review.

 

 

 

Chapter 9

 

 

"Higurashi-jou is in a meeting with Ninku-san. She'll be here for awhile, so why don't you call her later?"

 

Taiko sighed, "I guess. Thank you." The girl left the office and headed down the hall to her locker and grabbed her books. Summer recess was next week and Taiko couldn't wait. The month long break would give her enough time to catch up with the rest of the class and let her explore the city more. She also wanted to spend time with her friends...

 

I hope Kagome-chan is okay... she slammed her locker closed and walked down the mostly deserted hallway. She hadn't seen her friend ever since lunch.

 

"Kagome-chan looked so dazed before, almost like she was seeing something that wasn't there. Maybe Giman-sensai knows what happened..." Without a second thought, the girl ran down the corridor to the Biology room. When she got there, the room was dark and the door was locked.

 

"If you're looking for Giman-sensai, he's long gone."

 

Taiko turned around and saw a girl in the same uniform that she wore leaning against the wall. She had long black hair with traces of red in it. Her cold black eyes locked with Taiko's and refused to look away.

 

"Isn't it against school code to dye your hair, Amaya?" Taiko asked dryly.

 

"So? Why are you looking for Giman-sensai, Taiko-kohai? Did your little slutty friend put you up to it?"

 

The girl looked confused, "What are you talking about?"

 

Amaya had a smug grin on her face, "Oh, you didn't hear? Giman-sensai left because Kagome forced herself on him."

 

"You're lying; Kagome-chan would never do such a thing!" Taiko yelled at her.

 

The other girl stood up straight and walked over to her, "Since you're new here, I'll give you a quick summery of whose whom. You see, this school is run by the food chain. Only those who can succeed can make it to the top. Now, Kagome is near the bottom of that chain because she doesn't have good grades and isn't involved in any school activities. I, on the other hand, have excellent grades and am in several school clubs, giving me a spot near the top. Being new here, you'd want to make friends with those on top, so why settle for someone at the bottom?"

 

"I don't care what you say; I'd rather stick with Kagome-chan."

 

"Do whatever you want to do, but I'm telling you that Kagome is a slut."

 

"Why you...!"

 

Amaya turned away with her smug look still in place, "Do me a favor and tell Kagome to stay away from my Hojo-sempai."

 

Taiko's hand's balled into fists. 'Why that little....How dare she talk about Kagome like that. If we weren't in school right now...'

 

She slammed her fist into the wall. She knew Amaya hated Kagome, but why did she have to start crap like this?

 

 

~*~

 

 

The amount of youki in the room was almost unbearable. She was in some sort of youkai meeting and it seemed Kagome was the only human there. Why did Ninku-san want her here, anyways?

 

"You okay, Kagome-san?"

 

The miko smiled at Moriko. "Never better," she croaked out. The two girls were sitting at a huge oval table in the school's conference room. At one end, two men sat talking together. One looked rather cute; he had his long hair tied back into a braid and had strange red eyes. The man sitting next to him on the other hand...looked almost like a toad. He had no hair on his head that was as big as his body. His little beady eyes looked around the room, landing on her several times.

 

Suki could be seen going around conversing with everyone while they waited for Sesshomaru and Moriko's grandfather to arrive. At the moment, she was talking to a short raccoon person. Or was it a dog…a fox possibly?

 

The young kitsune placed a hand on her shoulder, "This all must be hard for you to handle... I mean, I would feel like I was insane if I just found out the existence of youkai..."

 

"Moriko, stop babbling child; it'll do you no good."

 

The kitsune's head shot up and looked at the door, "Ba-chan!" She bolted from her seat and ran towards the elderly woman. She had her grey hair tied up into a bun and looked rather short. Kagome couldn't get a good look at her eyes because her head was bent down.

 

"Hello child, mind showing this old soul to her seat."

 

Moriko nodded and lead the woman to her seat. "Do you mind introducing me to your friend?"

 

"Ba-chan, this is Kagome-san, she's a miko." The woman finally lifted her head towards Kagome's direction and took a sniff. The schoolgirl gasped when she saw that her eyes had filmed over. She was blind...

 

"I may be blind dear child, but my nose works just fine. Hello darling, you my call me Azami." Her white eyes seemed to study the girl for a moment, "So your the one Sesshomaru-sama is having a fit over? I can see why. Such power for a youth..."

 

"Sesshomaru-sama?"

 

"He's the headmaster of the school. Surely you knew that."

 

"Grandma, be nice," Moriko chided as she turned to Kagome, "Many of the...older youkai call Sessho-san Sesshomaru-sama. It was his name back in the feudal era. He changed it so humans wouldn't pin him to the old legends."

 

"Um...excuse me ma'am," Kagome paused, "Are you also kitsune?"

 

The woman's chest puffed out, "Of course I am! What do I look like, a stinking wolf?!"

 

Moriko sighed, "Ba-chan, your spell is still up..."

 

"I heard that, old hag!" came a stern voice from the door. A woman in her mid-thirties walked in, soon followed by two men of the same age. The woman had long red hair with piecing winter green eyes. Both men had white hair, though one had his in a mohawk while the other had it cut short with a grey streak through it. They sat across from them.

 

"You can never trust wolves. Just look at what happened to-."

 

The woman slammed her fist against the table, "Finish that sentence old woman and I swear to the kami that I will..."

 

"That's enough, Ayame."

 

All heads turned to the inu youkai standing in the doorway.

 

“If you two are done with your petty argument, we will start the meeting.”

 

 

~*~

 

 

Yasuo looked at Taiko with concern, "You mean Kagome was attacked at school?"

 

The girl nodded, "Yes, and I think the school's trying to hide it. Kagome-chan fainted, yet authorities weren't called." After her little chat with Amaya, Taiko had come straight to the Higurashi shrine. She figured Yasuo would listen to her, even though he was a lecher. They were standing near the shed, where Yasuo had been working when she had arrived.

 

The young priest placed a hand on his chin, just below the red hand print on his cheek. "That does seem odd. And she is still at the school?"

 

"Ninku-san, our headmaster, said she was being inducted into one of the school's organizations or something. He looked rather nervous when I talked to him."

 

"Are you sure Kagome-san was hurt? I mean-"

 

"Monk, I know what I saw. She had cuts around her neck and was bleeding when I found her in the hall."

 

"Do you have any clue who did it?"

 

Taiko paused and looked at her feet, "I...I have a hunch, but you're going to think I'm crazy and disrespectful." Yasuo nodded, ushering her to continue, "Our Biology teacher, Giman-sensai, asked her to stay after class, and then he left the school early today..."

 

The ground started to shake violently. The schoolgirl fell forwards into Yasuo, who caught her.

 

"A-an earthquake?" the girl gasped out.

 

Yasuo led the Taiko away from the trembling shed, just in case it crumbled. His eyes narrowed and he looked towards Goshinboku, "Can you feel that?" The quakes got stronger, causing them both to fall to their knees.

 

"Yes..." Taiko cried out, "And you'd better move that hand or so help me..."

 

He shook his head, "No, not that. Something doesn't feel right."

 

The shaking suddenly stopped and a loud crash sounded throughout the shrine. Yasuo got to his feet and ran to the sacred tree, with Taiko not far behind him. They were near the torii at the top of the shrine stairs when they both stopped abruptly. In front of the Goshinboku was a crouching figure clad in red.

 

“W-What…?”

 

 

~*~

 

 

A/N:

 

-jou is used for unmarried women

-san is used for occupational titles (Mrs., Mr., Miss, etc)

-sempai is used to address those of higher status, mainly used in school or at work

-kohai is the opposite of -sempai, and is used to address those of lower status, like a high school senior would address a freshman or a new student, as in Taiko's case

 

I just realized I never put the name translations down for this story, so here they are:

 

Isamu Taiko - Isamu is 'warrior' or 'couragious', Taiko means 'light pink'

Tadao Yasuo - Tadeo means 'loayl man'(sorry, couldn't resist) and Yasuo is 'peaceful one', or 'one of peace'

Amaya - 'night rain'

Moriko - 'forest child'

Azami - 'thistle flower'

Giman Shin - Giman is 'deceit', Shin is 'true'

Mitsu(Taiko's cat) - 'light'

Masurao(school's name) - 'warrior'

Ninku - 'stoic'

 

And to continue my Japanese lesson, I'll talk about the torii. It is a trditional Japanese gate usually found at the enterance of a Shinto shrine although it is also used at Buddhist temples. They are painted vermilion and are traditionally made out of wood or stone, though more of the modern ones are made of steel or stainless steel. Torii are used to mark the transition from sacred ground(the shrine), to the profane(the outer world).

 

 

Also for anyone who is looking for Japanese terms, try out this website, which I again have to thank kokoronagomu who suggested it to me:

http://rut.org/cgi-bin/j-e/dict

 

Or a simplified version here: http://www.trussel.com/f_nih.htm

This has a lot of Japanese sources as well, which rather come in handy.

 

That's gotta be the longest A/N I have....well, ja ne.