My Number One
By: Kyuketsu Hime
Email: lilkurohyoucharter.net
Rating: PG-13
Summary: AU: "You have an amazing voice.....what about living with me for a while to be my student?" the silver-haired man asked Kagome politely.
Disclaimer: Nope, these wonderful beloved characters sadly do not belong to me
Pairings: Sango/Miroku, Kouga/Ayame and I'm sort of leaning towards a Sesshoumaru/Kagome rather than a typical Inuyasha/Kagome, but we'll see.
Yes, this is an AU, the time setting being now as if this was happening during this year in Japan. It might seem like a typical High School AU fanfic, but I assure you with the twists I have planned in here, it should be different. I'm not sure though how different it is, but you be the judge of that.
Also, I'm sorry if it is an inconvenience, but due to the fact that most people in Inuyasha have anonymous last names, I'm not really going to name them unless it's necessary, which means not being formal most of the time.
My No. 1 is the title of a song by BoA.
Chapter 1: Who do they think they are?!
"23…24…25! Ready or not, here I come!"
Kagome Higurashi opened her eyes and beamed brightly as she commenced her search for her rambunctious younger brother.
The sun had just begun to set a few minutes earlier, signaling it was about time to depart the beloved ocean. The soothing sounds of the waves as they pounded rhythmically on the shoreline and the smell of the ocean was hard to leave behind for Kagome. She felt that it provided an escape from the usual hustle and bustle of Japan's city life.
"Souta! Come out, come out wherever you are!"
A far off giggle didn't escape her, and Kagome immediately ran along the deserted shoreline, the waves washing away her footsteps.
Closing her eyes, Kagome followed echoing sound, carried by the wind.
'The ocean is so serene at this time, peaceful, quiet, tranquil…'
THUMP
'Eh..? What is a wall doing here on the shore..?'
Her hand just gently brushed the receding wave but surprisingly, as she completely lost her balance, she didn't fall. Someone had prevented her from falling by catching her other wrist rather easily.
"Ah! Sorry! I wasn't expecting anyone else to be here," Kagome said hastily, as she regained her balance and bowed.
"You! What do you think you're doing! Watch where you're going you pathetic girl!"
Kagome glanced up with a full out electrical glare as she finally met her savior who was now looking at her with a glower. Her eyes widened as she noticed his long coarse silver hair, and golden eyes.
'Who is this guy? He's so cute!'
Her cheeks flushed red as she shook away this thought, still wanting to give him a piece of her mind.
"What do you mean pathetic? You don't eve-"
"Oneechan! Where were you! I told you you wouldn't be able to find me!" Souta had come running up to Kagome and joyously took her hand not knowing he had just saved the poor boy from a verbal thrashing.
"Keh. Stay out of my way."
The boy turned around and stared off into the distance before Kagome could say a word.
'Mou...what a jerk! How come all cute guys are jerks!'
Kagome grabbed Souta by the hand and all but dragged him away from the unruly teenager.
"Oneechan, you're hurting my hand!"
"Sorry," she apologized.
Sighing deeply, she ran her hand through their mass of dark night black hair, tinged with a bit of blue, exasperated with the attitude she had just received.
"Let's go back to the beach house ne?"
"Okay! Race you!"
Kagome's spirits lifted a little as she saw her innocent brother run away from her. She went out into a full sprint, catching and passing her brother, laughing as they ran back towards the house. She didn't notice that the insolent boy had turned around after he heard her leave, and stare after her with a thoughtful, longing glance.
The nearby red alarm clock began its daily ring at 6:00 waking up the peacefully sleeping Kagome. She yawned and rubbed her eyes slowly, blinking several times before reaching for the button that would hush it up. Shivering in the chilly morning air she hurriedly washed up splashing cold water on her face many times as well. Dressing in her new high school uniform she went over her daily morning list.
'Books? Check. Hair combed?' Kagome glanced in her bedroom mirror and set the few errant strands back in place.
'Double Check. Am I missing anything?' she thought as she glanced around the room quickly.
"Oh who cares!" she huffed as she shouldered her book bag and ran downstairs. Only to rush back up to her room and search for her forgotten items and then zoom right out the door. And then going back up to the kitchen to grab her breakfast to eat on the way.
"Ah! I'm going to be late!" Kagome almost screamed as she ran down the steps to her bicycle, parked right outside her house.
"Kagome!"
Kagome neatly parked her bike into the rack and after locking it securely she turned around hoping to seek the speaker out in the crowds of people chattering aimlessly around the school yard. The aura of calmness around her suddenly evaporated as she hurriedly ran to the entrance, embracing her long - time friend Sango.
"How was your trip down at the coast?" Sango inquired in a composed voice, only her eyes imploring Kagome for details.
"It was amazing! You wouldn't have thought that there'd be somewhere so naturally stunning here in Japan."
"Well...did'ya take any pictures?" Sango pressed on, eager to see the landscape.
"Yup! I'll show them to you at lunch," Kagome said just as they slipped their school shoes on and made their way through to classroom 1-A.
She winked at Sango before they made their way to their designated seats and hesitantly stuffed her over-weight textbooks in the table's empty pouch leaving the first class of the day's assigned book on her desk. Her hands delicately fingered the glossy cover, her eyes quickly reading the title, English Grammar: It's Proper Usages. She had already taken brief notice of its contents before, and it had amazed her with the ridiculous fact that the whole grade was going to be spending a chapter on the proper usage of "if". As if there weren't anything else more important to cover first.
"Stand…bow," the class president instructed them as the grammar teacher walked in briskly. With a slight smile and nod of his head they were seated, their animated prattle having stopped for a moment.
Kagome sighed deeply as she opened the page the class was instructed to read. It wasn't that she hated school, or even remotely had a dislike for it, but things were always in routine, the same things repeating every day, if she was just living the same day throughout her life.
'It'd be nice to be wondering what will happen next, having surprise, danger and adventure in my life, like in all the books I read,' Kagome thoughtfully added to her simple expression of discontent.
The poor girl had no idea how much trouble she had just wished upon herself.
Kagome leisurely got up and stretched before almost skipping over to Sango's desk, their first minute of lunch ticking down. In her hand she held the fragile diminutive pack of precious pictures.
"C'mon Sango, can't we eat outside just for today?" she half cajoled as she pulled the reluctant Sango to the door, grabbing her obento on the way.
"Fine, but only because I want to see those snapshots."
Kagome slid the door open to the nearly crowded hallway, grinning victoriously.
Mingling with the many people in the hallway also departing to the picnic tables, she turned slightly to where shouts and protests were being hurled behind her.
Her eyes widened slightly as the same silver haired, golden eyed teenager she had met on the beach was apparently running after something he was not about to let go from his grasp. Shoving people rudely aside, at least for those in his way, he made his way down the hall wrecking havoc upon the many people.
Some remarks and outbursts of displeasure were keenly voiced, but his menacing scowl shut them up quickly. Tripping over Kagome's immobile figure he slammed her down into the floor, eliciting a shrill yell from the girl, the valued pictures scattering in the air.
His quarry was getting away!
Without any move to help the staggering girl on the floor, he tore out of there, leaving her pictures to be crushed into the floor as the students came to help her up.
A single tear escaped her eyes as she gasped with indignant anger, her shoulders trembling visibly. Sango rushed to her side with a look of anxiety, so she did her best to smile and reassure her inquiring questions.
Just about the last of the students from the top floor had gone down or stayed in their classrooms, leaving the hallway empty except for the littering of smashed and tattered pictures which Kagome and Sango were gathering.
"Ah! Look! Here's one in perfect condition!"
Sango came rushing over to look at the picture in supposed pristine condition. There was a slight dusty footprint over it, but compared to the state of the others they picked up, it was the best so far. The picture was of a golden reflected wave, crashing down just on the shore kicking up foam, the blood red sun setting in the background.
"Wow! It looks like some professional photo! Are you going to insert it in the newspaper?" Sango praised.
"It's not that good, besides, I don't think the newspaper would want to display something like this," Kagome said frowning slightly.
Silence spread across the hallway as Kagome and Sango finished picking up the dilapidated pictures.
"Who was that guy?" Kagome muttered silently to herself still a bit peeved about both incidents.
"Inuyasha."
"Hm? Did you say something?"
"His name is Inuyasha," Sango repeated again, glancing over her shoulder to Kagome as they headed down to eat their much delayed lunch.
"Is he normally that rude? I met him before but," Kagome paused, not sure if should tell Sango what happened earlier at the beach.
"What? You guys met before? When?" Sango pressed.
Kagome quickly relayed in a short précis account of what transpired that day at the beach. Sango stifled a giggle as Kagome finished relaying the story.
"Inuyasha is the youngest son of the most affluent family here in this city, it's a shame that you don't know them, since their the owner of many different business companies a like, hence the amount of money they have. Their father Inutaisho tries to take care of both him and his older brother Sesshoumaru, but it's a bit difficult since he has so much business to take care of. I heard that Inutaisho was a very popular singer in his time, and enjoys teaching personally those that he believes have incredible voices. His last student went off to college, so he's looking for another accomplice," Sango dictated from the many rumors and gossips she had heard about the family.
"Geez, you didn't have to give me their whole family history. I don't want anything to do with THEM. Yet about why Inuyasha is such a jerk, if he's so wealthy that probably explains the reason, don't you think? Spoiled rich kids." Kagome added thoughtfully answering her own question.
"Actually, Inuyasha isn't that bad once you get to know him. It's his older brother Sesshoumaru that you have to be careful of. He's a cold, emotionless person that would rather not waste time talking to people because he believes its not worth wasting the air to talk to someone as low as you are'," Sango added.
"How do you seem to know so much about them?" Kagome asked a bit suspiciously.
"Oh well, I have a friend who knows their family, at least their friends with Inuyasha, same grade, 11th."
The bell rang throughout the campus signaling it was about time to get back to class and continue studying their other classes. Cleaning up the picnic table of their refuse, Kagome and Sango made their way back to the classroom cautiously.
"Ah! What a beautiful day for archery, doncha think?" Kagome winked at Sango smiling cheerfully, as if nothing had happened before.
"You mean, what a beautiful day for tennis!" Sango exclaimed with a grin to match Kagome's.
"Well, see ya tomorrow!" Kagome waved to her friend before disappearing down the many steps, leaving the assigned to finish cleaning up the room.
'The one thing good about school is the clubs, it's something both enjoyable and exciting, its always new! I know grandpa will be overjoyed once he learns I've gotten so much better at archery,' Kagome thought wistfully as she rounded the corner near the school to a large extra building with an attached archery yard.
Due to the amount of limited space, both the kendo and archery clubs shared the building, but being as one was inside, the other outside, there were no complaints at all. When Kagome had joined the archery club last year for her first year in the school, she had had little practice, but that was soon amended. The most experienced archers had discovered she had a very exceptional talent, and they had taught her exclusively after school hours as well as during them.
Actually her main teacher was a calm, collected, and formal older student named Kikyo Kitahara, a teacher that Kagome enjoyed being with despite the level of strictness Kikyo taught with. But Kikyo was always there for her, helping her in archery, and with other problems as well when she could afford the time. Kagome had never been close to Kikyo, but she also saw the way Kikyo was with young children, including her sister. She would always give up precious time to play and teach the younger children, and they all adored her.
Kagome and Kikyo had two things in common, one that they almost looked like identical sisters, two that they were both shrine mikos, their family having inherited ancient shrines down a long family line.
Kagome knew that she couldn't compete with Kikyo's level at archery, but she was the second best in the club. Maybe this year Kikyo wouldn't mind teaching her again. "Higurashi-san!" a voice called out joyfully greeting her as she stepped in for the first day of the year. "Hojo- kun!" she replied just as happy, smiling and bowing gracefully to each of the senpais from last year. "Is everyone here? Okay let's get started!" Amari Nobunaga, the cheerful, upbeat, president said as he held the roll call of the list of names.
"Aiko!"
"Hai!"
"Kagome!"
"Hai!"
"Kaoru!"
Kagome's jumbled thoughts drowned out the banal task of calling roll. Thank goodness it only happened once. But, where was Kikyo? Glancing around the room, she noticed that the numbers in the club have dwindled much to her dismay, but Kikyo was never late, nor was she here.
Soon roll call was finished, and a blanket of silence fell over the club, the noise from the kendo club seemingly loud.
"Well since we've gotten that taken care of, let's start with the practice shall we? Newcomers and those who are beginners at handling the bow, go with vice president Aiko who will be your instructor. Intermediate archers, go with Hojo. Advanced archers, come with me!" Amari said as cheerfully as possible, trying to dissipate the prolonged silent atmosphere.
"Amari-kun, where is Kitahara-senpai?" Kagome asked a bit hesitantly as she followed him.
"Last I heard of her was that she involved in a horse accident. She was at the Kanesaka's household and they have an obsession with horses. After a while, Inuyasha offered to let her on his, forgetting that the horse was still not quite broken in and had a temper, as most stallions do. Actually it's quite amusing how the horses' personalities reflect on their owners. But anyways, as Kikyo tried to ride it, the horse decided she was on for enough time and started to buck her off. After she flew off, one of the hooves brushed the top of her skull. I hear she's still in a coma," Amari answered, sighing sadly and shaking his head as if the thought was too painful to bear.
The words hit Kagome at last as she finally realized what Amari said. She stopped in tracks, looking up with a dull shocked expression, as her thoughts swirled in turmoil once more.
'Kikyo? In an accident.it's not possible, it only happens to people who deserve it. She was too kind to be involved in something like that...it's....it can't be.'
Amari looked at her sympathetically stating, " We are all hoping for the best for her, but the only thing we can do at the moment is keep on going."
He held out a hand to Kagome to help her up while continuing with, "We have the festival this year too, and since Kikyo isn't here, we're going to have to hold auditions for the best archer in the group."
As they reached the farthest end of the practice grounds, he held out the school's bow and arrows to Kagome who took them gratefully lining up in front of the target.
"But being as there's less people, the only person in the advanced group is you, we are all hoping you'll take her place instead. Besides you were her latest pupil, and she told us that you were getting close to even surpassing her," Amari said smiling brightly, alleviating Kagome's sorrows for the moment.
Kagome grinned mischievously as she slung the quiver on her back, and strung an arrow expertly.
"Care to find out?"
"Bring it on!"
Kagome's eyes closed briefly as she visualized the target, drawing the arrow's fletching back to her ear. Snapping them back open, she released the taut bowstring, the arrow flying straight towards the target.
A distinct thump could be heard in the distance and Amari looked at her with some surprise showing on his face.
"One more."
Kagome again repeated the procedure, remembering what Kikyo said about removing all obstacles from the mind.
Another distinct thump was heard and this time Amari looked at her a bit mystified.
"Wanna find out how good my aim is?" Kagome asked, the mischievous twinkle back in her eyes as she almost skipped down to the target, Amari trailing behind her.
The first arrow had hit the bull's eye directly, but the second had spilt the weak school arrow in the exact same place. If it was down the middle or not, no one could tell for sure, but it was still an amazing feat for one so young.
Without a word, Amari quickly went inside the building gathering the other officers as well, leaving behind a puzzled Kagome.
"What is going on here?" she muttered to herself a bit frustrated as she turned to watch the few novices and amateurs try to hit the target. She sat down on the building's steps and sighed as she propped one elbow up to rest her chin on.
Ten minutes later, Kagome got the courage to walk in the building and find out what was going on. Amari, Hojo, and Aiko were talking in low voices, their eyes excited and animated as they made erratic gestures.
At the sound of the door sliding closed, they turned back to Kagome, revealing a tall silver haired man glancing down at her with slight indifference.
"Inuyasha?" Kagome asked quietly, the others wincing at her question.
Gracefully, he walked over to her staring down at her in a condescending manner, his cold golden eyes giving her the notion of what a mistake she had just made.
He grasped her chin firmly with one slender hand and looked at her closely before releasing her, sending her tumbling to the ground.
"Hey, the-" Amari started to say as he helped Kagome back up.
"Wait a minute you insolent jerk! I don't care much for you OR your immature brother, but you had NO right to do something like that!" Kagome snapped as she stepped forward back into his line of sight.
She opened her mouth to say more, but Amari wisely covered it up preventing her from talking.
"Ah, if we could continue." Hojo said uncertainly glancing back up at him.
Amari released Kagome when she ceased struggling and introduced both of them formally.
"Kagome, this is Kanesaka Sesshoumaru, Sesshoumaru, Higurashi Kagome."
Kagome gave a slight formal bow, but Sesshoumaru didn't even take the time to look back down at her.
"Show me a demonstration of her skills," he said as he stepped outside never once removing his cold stoic mask.
"What did you do that for?!" Kagome whispered furiously to Amari as the others trailed after Sesshoumaru.
"Well, even if you are a girl, that wouldn't stop him from hurting you if you continued."
"That doesn't tell me what he's doing here and what sort of demonstration he wants!"
"Well, I....uh. As a connected group, we were deciding to do something together, with him being the mastered swordsman, and you being the mastered archer, but he wants a demonstration of how well you can do."
"Did you even ASK me if I wanted to do this?"
"Please Kagome?" Amari said hopefully looking at her with pleading eyes.
Giving up, Kagome threw her hands up and shook her head walking outside to the target.
Aiko was already there at the target site and placed a very indistinguishable something on the middle of the target.
"There is a small blue dot that she drew. See if you can hit it." Sesshoumaru's voice cut in. His voice could freeze hell, Kagome was sure of that.
His hardened gaze on her back didn't help her concentration either. Taking a deep breath she knocked an arrow to the bow and drew it, imagining the dot on the target.
'He's so handsome, unlike his brother who's only cute....such nice, pretty silver hair. Eep!' Kagome quickly pushed that thought away and emptied out her mind. Fear, dislike, temper, everything went into it so as not to distract her.
Her arrow had successfully landed on the center circle, but it was very hard to tell exactly where it was.
Aiko went in and looked at the still quivering arrow point and waved back to Sesshoumaru.
"It's hit the middle of the dot."
He went up there himself and looked at critically, his stoic expression never changing before turning to Kagome.
"Wow! You hit it right on the center!" Amari gushed, his eyes bright with admiration.
"Amari, you will conduct her practices. Before the time starts, I will practice with you occasionally, our performance. I will also monitor some of your practices," Sesshoumaru stated before turning around and walking off back inside.
Kagome gave Amari a particularly nasty glare since she didn't have Sesshoumaru there to glare at before stomping off as the clubs ended for the day.
Walking back home, she fumed at the thought of having to spend a whole two months with that jerk, trying to come up with something that that nitpicky idiot would consider doing.
"Probably something too hard for me to even do, such a perfectionist," Kagome said wryly.
"Oi! Wench!"
She turned around at that derogatory female name glaring for all she was worth, ready to unleash her rage at the guy.
"What are you doing with Sesshoumaru?"
"It'd none of your damn business you jerk! How dare you KNOCK ME DOWN and run off? You didn't even apologize! You ruined ALL the pictures that I had from my trip and I spent WEEKS on making them!" She angrily spat out.
Her eyes widened immediately as she saw his usual expression turn to one of hurt, and then back quickly again.
'I didn't mean to...take it out on him.' she thought although she was still angry about his actions earlier.
"Then why don't you watch where you're going!" he shot back before shoving her off the sidewalk and stomping off.
"This has GOT to be the worst day of my life! Who do they think they are?!"
AN: Like it? Hate it? REVIEWS PLEASE?! Not a big fan of flames-.-