Shall we continue… I think we shall.

I don't own Inuyasha or Bleach. T-T

xxXxxXxxXxx

Chapter 3

Kagome shook herself out of her thoughts and noticed that the water had gotten cold.

Turning it off, she stepped out and grabbed a towel hanging from the rack and dried herself off.

Once satisfied she pulled out her hair dryer and got to work on her long thick silver locks.

When she finished she secured it into a high ponytail leaving her bangs to fall above her eyes.

When she was finished, she wrapped the towel around her body and grabbed her pajamas before heading back to her room.

Once she was back behind her closed door she placed her sleep-ware in her hamper and walked silently to her dresser pulling out a pair of panties, a bra and a pair of spandex shorts for the day and slipped them on.

She then walked over to her wardrobe, tossing her damp towel into the hamper to join her pajamas and grabbed her skirt from the first hanger.

It took her a couple of minutes to pull on the full ensemble and when she was done she looked over at her clock to see that it was seven.

She made her way over to the still slumbering Rukia and gently shook her awake, "Rukia it's time to wake up."

The small Soul Reaper groaned, her eyelids fluttering open before she shot up.

It was only because of Kagome's fast reflexes that neither of them ended up with a bruised forehead.

Rukia looked around in a bit of a panic before her eyes landed on Kagome and she calmed down, the events of last night came flooding back.

Kagome raised a brow slightly, "Are you okay?"

Rukia calmed her breathing, she gave a small smile before she spoke, "Yes, I'm fine."

Kagome grinned, "Well that's good, now come on, my dad should be finished with your gigai now."

Kagome grabbed Rukia's hand and helped her up before dragging her downstairs where she could smell Tessai cooking.

xxXxxXxxXxx

Kagome sat at her desk taking notes as the teacher droned on, only half listening as she recalled how smoothly Rukia had situated herself in the class with a 'wide eyed innocent girl' act that they had worked on before bed; it was passable for those who had never met her before.

Absently her eyes drifted over to look at the empty seat a few rows ahead and to the right where Ichigo sat; he was very late.

'Looks like he stayed behind to help clear up, it's almost lunch so he might not come in today.'

Her gaze then went to Rukia who sat in the desk next to his, playing the role of hardworking student.

She seemed to be doing well so far; however Kagome was a little worried about English as it was doubtful that the soul reaper knew any, 'We might just be able to scrape by until she heads back to the Soul Society.'

Finally, after what felt like hours the bell rang, signaling the end of class.

After closing her note book and putting it away, Kagome pulled out her bento, walked over and sat in Ichigo's empty desk, "So what do you think about your first day of school so far?"

Rukia turned to her with a small smile as she pulled out her own bento that was prepared for her by Tessai, "It kind of reminds me of my time in the soul reaper academy. Tell me, do all professions in the world of the living really require such a range of knowledge?"

"Not really, in fact most of what we learn in high school isn't even used in most of the students future careers, it's just general knowledge that we're expected to know." the silver haired girl explained as she pulled the lid off of her lunch and picked up her chopsticks.

"I see."

Lifting the lid of her own bento Rukia inspected the food inside catching sight of something odd she used her chopsticks to pick up what appeared to be an oddly shaped, tiny octopus with only four tentacles, her eyes sparkled at it's cute appearance, "What is this?"

Kagome smiled as she spied the morsel the awed soul reaper held up, "That's an octopus weenie. It's made from a western food called a hot dog and cut to look like an octopus. It's really tasty." she said as she popped one from her own lunch into her mouth and chewed happily.

Looking back down at the octopus weenie, Rukia lifted it to her lips and took a bite.

Her eyes widened in surprise and she quickly placed the rest of it in her mouth, quickly devouring the cute fake octopus.

The two then passed the rest of their time talking about the different foods that were in the bentos.

xxXxxXxxXxx

It was almost the end of lunch when Ichigo finally showed up, Kagome and Rukia watched from the silver haired girl's desk as he talked to his friends about the 'truck accident' at his house.

Kagome lightly nudged Rukia's arm with her elbow to catch the small soul reaper's attention and get her to start walking as she leaned against her desk to watch their interaction.

"Hello, you're Ichigo aren't you?"

The carrot topped teen turned to see who asked and when he did his face was dumbstruck, "Wha…"

Rukia smiled pleasantly, "I'll be sitting next to you from now on, my name is Rukia."

Snapping out of his shock Ichigo let out a startled noise as he suddenly stood from his chair and pointed at the small soul reaper, "It-it's you!"

"Hey Ichigo, what's wrong with you?" his friend Keigo asked.

"You two know each other?" Chad, another of his friends as well as the residential gentle giant asked.

"Course not, we've never met before isn't that right Ichigo."

Kagome stepped forward and clasped a hand over Rukia's shoulder catching the groups attention as she smiled, "Rukia's my cousin from out of town, she just transferred to our school."

Keigo's cheeks flushed when he caught sight of Kagome before he directed his attention back to her 'cousin', "Nice to meetcha'."

Rukia raised her hand to Ichigo, "It's a pleasure."

He looked down warily at her hand like it would bite her and watched as she turned her palm over to reveal the message she had written on it, 'Make a scene and you are so dead.'

xxXxxXxxXxx

A few minutes later after he had gotten over his shock, Ichigo was standing outside in front of Rukia and Kagome, "All right you freaky little nut job, what the hell do you think you're doing?! And you what the hell is with this cousin bullshit!"

Rukia quickly slipped into the role of innocent school girl while a mocking smile slipped onto her face, "How scary, you big brute. Jeepers you're not gonna hurt us are you?"

Kagome's hand pressed to her lips to muffle her giggles as Ichigo's ire rose, "First of all you can knock it off with that goody-two-shoes act okay."

"To be honest it is pretty good considering it only took her a few hours." the silver haired girl piped up after she finished giggling.

"All right forget it. So tell me just what you're doing here and why you're both pretending to be cousins, weren't you supposed to be heading back to your soul society or whatever it was?"

Rukia's face turned serious, "I can't. Only soul reapers can go back to the soul society. I haven't the power to return anymore."

"What do you mean?"

"Last night I lost almost all of my powers as a soul reaper, I'm afraid they were all absorbed into you Ichigo." the small reaper looked down sadly as Kagome placed her hand on her shoulder and gave it a reasuring squeeze.

Ichigo looked away from the two, "Huh? I wouldn't know anything about that."

"Thanks to you for the time being I'm stuck in this ridiculous gigai form."

"What do you mean by gigai?"

"It's a temporary body that serves as a vessel in an emergency. If the soul reaper is drastically weakened they reside inside of a gigai until their powers come back."

"Oh now I get it, so that's why the others were able to see you, but that still doesn't explain her." pointing at Kagome as he finished.

The silver haired girl smiled brightly, "I've been involved with the supernatural since my fifteenth birthday and have been able to see spirits since that day, and while I was taking my evening walk I came across Rukia who had a bit of a problem dealing with your dead weight, so I offered my help." at this point her smile became a little too bright, "Really though Ichigo, white boxers? I never would have guessed you'd wear such an innocent color."

Ichigo's face flushed a deep red as he staggered back, shakily pointing at her, "Y-you were the one who ch-changed my clothes?!"

"Oh calm down. It's not like I stripped you naked." she snickered at his expense before she quickly sobered up and taking a strong stance she pointed her finger at his face, startling him, "Besides, you need to take responsibility for what you did."

"What I did?"

"That's right, and so until all of my powers come back it's up to you Ichigo to perform the duties of a soul reaper. It's only natural, you now possess the strength of a soul reaper. You do not have the right to refuse your calling-"

"No way!" he cut Rukia off.

"What?"

"My monster fighting days are over, that was a onetime deal." he told her.

"Don't be ridiculous Ichigo, you did just fine yesterday." Rukia argued back.

"That was only because my family was in danger, but it's not like I'm ready to go and fight for complete strangers or anything. Sorry to disappoint you." he turned and began to walk away but was stopped short.

"Oh I see how it is."

He turned back to see Kagome plant her hands on her hips, "You readily take advantage of everything Rukia offers you when she's at her most vulnerable, but when it comes time to take responsibility for your actions you refuse too even though it's your fault she can't go home. And she even said that you didn't do badly for it being your first time too." she sniffed as she stuck her nose in the air.

Ichigo's blush returned with a vengeance as he glared at the silver haired female, "Shut up! And stop making it sound like I did something despicable would ya!"

As he continued his rant Kagome handed Rukia a padded red fingerless glove with a skull surrounded by black and blue flames printed on the back.

Understanding what Kagome was doing, Rukia pulled the glove on and rushed at the unsuspecting Ichigo, thrusting the palm of her hand into his chin and pushed his soul out of his body.

After his brain caught up with what just happened, Ichigo looked to see his body face down on the ground next to the two girls, "Aw crap, what happened to my body?!" he then looked down at his hands, "What in the world did you do to me?!"

Kagome turned to Rukia, ignoring Ichigo's question, "Good luck." and walked off, back to class.

xxXxxXxxXxx

Kagome took a deep breath as she stretched lightly and basked in the afternoon sunshine; it was the weekend, the only time of the week that her dad let her take a complete break from training and studying unless she felt the need to burn some energy or hit the books (the latter was something she rarely felt the need for anymore, her days of late night cramming and stressing over tests far behind her), and so today her ensemble consisted of jean shorts with leggings underneath, a green tank top, a denim jacket and green converses.

She was startled out of her basking by a loud exclamation of, "JEEZ, WOULD YOU SHUT UP ALREADY?!"

She turned to see Ichigo glaring down at Rukia as she held a small book that Kagome's dad had given to her close, "What is your problem? I am studying contemporary language."

A sweat drop appeared on the back of Kagome's head as an image of her father's mischievous grin from that morning flashed through her mind, 'I had a feeling that he was planning to mess with her in some obscure way.'

Ichigo stuck his hands in his pockets, "You're off by a couple centuries. So tell me, how long do you both plan on following me around."

"Until you answer your calling as a soul reaper." Rukia answered

"Yeah right, whatever."

He turned and began to walk away, the girls following behind him when the screeching of car tires sounded.

Turning around, Kagome felt her blood freeze when she saw the familiar form of Orihime lying on the crosswalk as an SUV drove away.

She took off in a run to her downed friend, "Orihime!"

Hearing the voice, the ginger haired girl sat up on the crosswalk and looked over, "Kagome, Ichigo!" she exclaimed in surprise.

The silver haired girl crouched down next to her, "Did you just get hit by that car?"

Orihime looked down in thought, "Oh. Maybe."

Kagome's brows furrowed in concern as Ichigo asked, "What do you mean maybe? Are you gonna be okay?"

Kagome helped Orihime up as the ginger haired girl smiled and placed the knuckles of her fist to her head, "Mmhmm, it was just a little bump on my head, don't worry. I'm fine, I swear!"

She flinched as Kagome bopped her lightly on the head, "Don't just brush it off like it's unimportant. Jeez if Tatsuki heard about this she'd flip. Probably chase down the driver too after making sure you were okay."

Orihime's eyes widened as she waved her arms in front of her face as the image flashed through her mind, "Oh no, please don't tell her! I really am alright!"

The priestess sighed, "Fine, fine. Just be careful."

Orihime's bright and carefree smile returned, "Okay!" it was then that she noticed the dark haired girl standing behind Ichigo and Kagome, "Rukia?"

"That's right and just who are you?" she demanded.

Kagome sighed as Ichigo whispered, "Hellooo, she's in the same class as you! Her name is Orihime! Get your head out of your butt!"

Realising her mistake Rukia took hold of the skirt of her dress and curtsied as she smiled, causing Kagome to sweat drop at the old, western greeting, 'That's it, my dad is definitely messing with Rukia. He's the only one who would have taught her about curtsying.'

"Oh, of course Orihime how are you?"

The ginger girl quickly copied the action, "Oh I'm fine, thank you."

"Well now, it appears you've been shopping."

Orihime gasped as she remembered her grocery bag that was still lying on the floor, "Oh that's right, dinner!" she quickly gathered up everything that fell and twirled the leek in her hand, "My leeks, bananas, butter and bean jam seem to have made it to."

Kagome shook her head with a sigh, "I've said it before and I'll say it again. You have a cast iron stomach Orihime."

A puzzled look crossed her friend's face as she tilted her head to the side, "Is that a good thing?"

Kagome smiled wryly, "For you my friend, definitely."

Before they could continue their conversation, they were cut off by Rukia, "How did you get that bruise on your leg?"

"What bruise? Oh, I guess that happened just now when that car ran into me."

They all looked down to see what Rukia was talking about, and there on Orihime's left leg was a huge dark bruise that looked suspiciously like a huge partial handprint to Kagome and had a familiar and dangerous faint energy coming from it, 'Definitely not the type of bruise you get from being hit by a car.'

"Jeez, does it hurt?" Ichigo asked.

"A little bit, but I'm okay."

Kagome watched as Rukia got closer to examine the bruise on Orihime's leg as she and Ichigo talked, "You sure?"

It was then that Orihime noticed Rukia's close observation, "Umm, what's the matter Rukia?" the small soul reaper looked up in surprise and saw a concerned Orihime staring at her, "Is anything wrong?"

Rukia quickly scrambled for something to say, "Uh… right, well… You take care!"

The ginger girl smiled, "Thanks. Oh that's right." She turned to Kagome, "Do you want to come over for dinner tonight?"

The silver haired priestess smiled apologetically, "Sorry Orihime, I can't. I promised my dad I'd cook tonight. Maybe next time."

Orihime looked a little sad before she bounced back, "Okay then, next time!"

"Do you want me to walk ya home?" Ichigo asked.

"Oh, uh, I'm okay, really. See ya!" she cheerfully called as she turned back to the crosswalk and made sure to look both ways before she made her way across.

"Man, she needs to be more careful." Ichigo stated.

Kagome and Rukia locked eyes as a silent conversation went unnoticed by the carrot top.

xxXxxXxxXxx