Chapter Text
The stairs leading up to the shrine were long, but the climb was far from unfamiliar to him at this point. Upon reaching the top, Yuji paused and glanced around for anyone who might be outside. It was something that didn't take long. Seconds into his search, his eyes landed on a boy with dark brown hair and matching brown eyes. At once, Yuji jogged the short distance over to him.
"Hey, Souta!" he called, holding a hand up to try and help catch his attention. It worked, and the younger boy looked his way, coming to a halt.
"Oh, it's you," he stated. "What's up?"
He paused, thinking his next words over. What if it turned out that she wasn't back yet? What if…-?
He shook his head to clear his mind, choosing to trust those three chatterbox friends of hers. "Is your sister ready to go yet?" Yuji asked. Souta shrugged, turning to glance up at the building behind them. Granted, she probably didn't even know he'd come to see her.
"I dunno," Souta responded. "I think she had to run up and get her bag."
Yuji nodded and stepped out of the way to allow his friend's younger brother to walk by him. After he'd walked past him, Yuji stuffed his hands in his pockets and sighed.
"At least that's better than her being out of the country for medical treatment…" he mumbled to himself. Too many times he'd come by, only to discover from her family that she wasn't around due to health problems. Knowing that led him to check in more often than he used to, hoping he'd catch her on the up. Or that he could, at the very least, see if there was anything he could do to help around the shrine.
"Mew!"
He opened his eyes at hearing the cat, and he turned to search out the Higurashi's family pet- a rather rotund calico named Buyo. He ended up finding a cat, but not the one he was expecting. A small, primarily cream-colored cat gazed up at him with vibrant crimson eyes. A black diamond stood out in the middle of her light fur, and several other accents of black were present along her ears, tails, and feet.
Wait… Tails?
A closer look proved that he hadn't imagined it at all. The cat standing at his feet had two tails. When she didn't seem annoyed by him, he crouched so he could reach a hand out to her. She stepped closer, leaning to sniff at his fingers. Once done, she rubbed short whiskers against his hand.
"You're certainly new," he remarked. "I guess they must've finally got Buyo a companion."
When she abruptly turned, Yuji looked in the direction she had gone off in. When he did, his eyes landed on a girl his age. Long raven hair fell down her back in messy waves, and dazzling blue eyes met his stare.
"Yuji?"
"Hey Kagome!" he exclaimed as he pushed himself back up. "It feels like it's been forever," he stated, setting a hand on his hip as he approached her. "How are you doing?"
Kagome came to a halt, surprise slowly melting off her face. After a second, a smile appeared on her face. "It hasn't been that long, has it?' she responded with a mild laugh.
"Well, yeah, it feels like it," he said. He rubbed the back of his neck. "You were gone pretty much all of our last year in middle school," Yuji said, a small frown weighing his expression down. "You were fine for a little bit, but then you were gone for the first few weeks of our first year in high school."
"Yuji…-"
"I dunno," he shrugged, looking down at the ground between them. "I guess it just really worried me, y'know? It just wasn't like you."
This was the first time in weeks he'd seen her. He made it a point to come by every morning before school to see if she could go, but every other day it was the same thing.
"I'm sorry, but she's not home right now. She's gone to a specialist for her condition."
At first glance, she looked the same as ever, but when he went back for a closer one, he could tell that there was something different about her. It wasn't something he was capable of putting a finger on, however.
She was just different.
Was it a bad thing? He couldn't say yes or no to that.
She offered him an apologetic smile. "I'm sorry for causing so much worry," she said. "It just…" she paused and heaved a heavy sigh. It felt like she was hiding so much, even though she didn't want to. The blue of her eyes seemed to darken with the weight on her shoulders. "So much happened, and I…-"
"You don't have to explain," he cut her off before she could start rambling. "As long as you're okay now, that's all that really matters, y'know?"
She looked at him, and he frowned.
"You are okay, right?" he asked.
She was quiet for several long seconds, but before he could open his mouth again, she'd nodded slowly.
"I…- Yeah," she responded eventually. She brought one hand up to grip her arm, and she kept her gaze downcast. A sinking feeling prodded through his chest. It felt like she was lying. "I'm okay."
"... but are you, though?" he asked. Her expression darkened as she nodded, seeming to brush everything off.
"Of course I am!" Kagome exclaimed, perking up and a considerably bright smile flashing across her face. "After all," she continued with a dazzling gleam in her eyes, "why wouldn't I be?"
Yuji frowned, but he didn't push. He knew doing so wouldn't get him anywhere. She could get a really mean attitude when she got pushed. "If you say so," he said. He let it drop for now, and he searched for something to swap the topic. Soon enough, his eyes landed on the unfamiliar cat. "Say, when did you guys get a second cat?" he asked, motioning to the animal at her feet. She followed his finger to Kirara.
"Oh…" she smiled and knelt to pick her up. "She hasn't been here for very long," she said. "Her name's Kirara."
"What's with the two tails she's got?" Yuji asked, reaching to scratch her behind the ears when Kagome held her out.
"She's… a special breed," she eventually said. Yuji nodded.
"It definitely makes her look unique," he said. He pulled his phone out from his pocket and glanced at the time on the screen. He jutted his thumb over his shoulder. "You ready to go or what?" he asked. "If we hang out for much longer, then we might end up being late."
Kagome nodded and set Kirara back on the ground. She motioned with her fingers, and she soon darted off. Yuji watched her run off, a confused look in his eyes. Before he could ask, Kagome stood back up and turned to him with a smile. "Yeah!" she chirped. "Let's go."
For a moment, she felt a shred of normalcy walking to school with her friend. Sadly, it was a feeling that seemed destined to only be short-lived.
Heavy in her mind and heart, was the influence of the Shikon no Tama. Though its physical form was gone, that didn't mean it no longer existed. It still existed. It was within her body, but not in the same way it'd been before it got ripped free.
Her hand came up, almost absentmindedly to rest over the starburst-shaped scar hidden beneath her uniform top. The weight on her shoulders seemed to almost triple.
It was bad enough luck to be born with a cursed object within your body, especially one as powerful as the Shikon no Tama, but this fate seemed far worse.
"No! I don't want this!"
Her denial came too late, it seemed. By the time she realized what this meant, it was already too late to change what'd happened.
"You'll grow to be accustomed to the feeling," Midoriko's soothing voice carried around her like the wind. She couldn't see her, but that didn't mean she wasn't present somehow. "No one else would be able to withstand it, after all."
How was that supposed to make her feel better about this !?
She hadn't wanted this fate in the first place, yet it seemed like it was decided without her consent. Her hand tightened in her shirt, blunt nails digging through.
Stuck with the jewel within her all over again. After all, it made sense, right? No one else could withstand the force of it. No one else could keep it in a passive state.
Knowing that didn't change the impact of having it within her. It undoubtedly made her feel less human. The jewel impeded all of that, it seemed.
000
Yuji found it hard to ignore the silent girl at his side. She hadn't said so much as a single word since they left. It wasn't like her, not when she liked to fill the silence with whatever she could.
He wasn't sure how to break the silence, or if he even should. Eventually, he pushed himself to do so.
"You know how you haven't joined a club yet?" he asked. She jumped at the sudden question. She looked up at him with a faint nod.
"Oh, yeah," she mused softly. "I still need to join one, don't I?"
Yuji grinned. "I know the perfect club for you!"
She craned her head to the side, and he grinned wider when he noticed her faint intrigue. "Yeah?" she asked. "What is it?"
"The occult club!" he exclaimed. Her intrigue faltered, and a blank expression flashed across her face. "You can join and become the official fourth member!" he added.
"How is that the perfect club for me?" she deadpanned.
"You live on a shrine," he stated in a matter-of-fact tone. "You're used to all the stories and stuff, right?" He rubbed the back of his neck. "Not to mention all those weird artifacts hidden in that old shack."
"Yuji, I'm not so-"
"C'mon, it'll be great!" he encouraged. "It's super lowkey, too," he continued.
She sighed and shrugged, her denial starting to fall apart the more he pushed for it. A moment later, she nodded. "Alright, I'll give it a shot."
After all, he wasn't wrong. She was well versed with the supernatural- even if it wasn't exactly in the way he thought.
Yuji grinned. "It'll be great, just you watch!"
Auroua-chan: Kagome's stuck with the jewel within her soul, and it's certainly altered the way she sees herself. Of course, she's stronger because of it, but that doesn't exactly make her feel better.
In the next chapter, Kagome will become aware of a certain object lingering around their school. Of course, normalcy would never stick around for her.
Anyway, that's it for now! Thank you all for reading, and I hope you all enjoyed. Hopefully I caught all the errors before posting, but if not sorry.
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Bye for now~