Sorry for the long gap, school is getting so much harder this semester! I have at least one test and 2 quizzes a week, sometimes more. I just had 3 tests in a row last Friday, one after the other. I've spent most of this weekend sleeping in an attempt to get some energy back.

Ch. 6

"Hey guys, can I sit here?"

The girls at the table said nothing, they didn't even pause their chewing. I took this as a yes and plopped next to them. As if on cue, every kid at the table stood up, walked to the nearest open one, and sat back down again. In seconds they were eating their lunches as if they'd been sitting there the whole time.

Days passed and everyday I sat at their table hoping their joke would eventually blow over. Boy was I wrong.

"Excuse me, I never got the worksheet," I said, notifying the teacher.

"Satomi, I thought you said everyone got one," the teacher said to the student assigned to pass them out.

"Sorry, I didn't notice she was even there," she stated innocently before dropping one carelessly on my desk.

The days became warm and we were once again able to eat outside. This was when I decided to confront them.

"Why are you all doing this? I don't get it."

"Guys, do you hear it? I keep hearing this annoying buzzing sound. I think it's a fly."

"Aah, don't let it get on our food!"

The girls started waving frantically at the air, giggling constantly as they chased their imaginary fly.

"You're only making yourselves look silly you know, it's not like I care," I attempted to sound nonchalant.

"There it is again!"

"Quick, smack it!"

I sighed and walked away.

I tried again for a few days, getting a similar response each time. Finally I decided to try a different approach. In books they're always saying how hard it is for some one to be mean to you if you're always nice back. This sounded pretty reliable.

"Satomi, your shoes are really cute, they suit you," I complimented as I passed her and her groupies in the hall. I was afraid she'd ignore me again, but no. Whether she'd just gotten bored with having the whole class ignore me or schemed this up on the spot I'll never know. But at that moment her tactics of making my life miserable made a turn for the worse.

"And what would you know about shoes? If you're going to go around giving your opinion like that with no thought about other's feelings then thanks but no thanks. I swear you only think of yourself. My day feels practically ruined now," Satomi bent down and slipped out of her shoes. She tossed them in the trashcan and and walked off in her socks. Her friends glanced back at me with dirty looks, as if I'd just told her she had resembled Godzilla instead of liking her shoes.

When I returned to the classroom the whole class had already been briefed on the new rules of the 'Torture Shizune' game. Over the course of the next couple weeks I was wishing that they would just ignore me again.

During class if I answered a question right the students would give me dirty looks and whisper, "Why do you have to show off so much?" "You're just trying to make the rest of us look bad aren't you?" "Why do you have to be so selfish?"

So I started answering them wrong, but this only made them snicker and whisper "Did you hear her?" "Yeah, how can she be so stupid, my cat could have answered that question."

Every word uttered was immediately flipped and turned against me. Either I was an idiot or a selfish jerk.

One day I was taking my time getting from lunch to class when I was suddenly slammed into the dingy metal hall lockers. The breath was knocked out of me and I crumpled to the ground gasping. Nobody apologized for accidentally bumping into me, instead I just heard laughter and footsteps walking off to class. The bell rang and I sat staring at the grungy, white tiled floor. A drop of water dripped down on it. Seconds later it became blurry and I could feel teardrops racing down my cheeks. Afraid people would see me I dashed blindly through the hallways and to the courtyard. I found some tall bushes and sat in the middle of them, completely camouflaged. Sure that no one could see me I let the tears fall freely. I sobbed long and loud, until no tears were left to shed, leaving a red, salt encrusted face. Knowing I couldn't possibly show myself for the rest of the day I headed home.

I never lingered long in the hallways after that, I always got to and from class as fast as possible. Even so I still got slammed at least once a day. I would go home with bruises on my arm. They always healed by the next morning, but new ones would blossom by school day's end.

I once asked them to stop doing this.

"Can you believe her?" "Yeah, accusing us of that?" "I mean. It was an accident!" "What a crybaby!" was their answer.

Summer break came soon after their new form of bullying. When fall came and school started back up I'd hoped that they'd finally outgrown me. But on the first day of school, naive idiotic me walked calmly through the hallways until SLAM! I rushed the rest of the way. In class they laughed at me for saying "here" when called on for role. I didn't utter a word for the rest of the day.

Crazy rumors were passed on about me. I started showing up less and less at school. But this only caused more rumors. My grades started slipping. I started getting frequent stomach aches and head aches. Sometimes I couldn't eat for days. I took to running. I ran as far as my legs would take me, as if to get away, if even just for a second, from my misery.

"Ah, I see you've decided to join us today Izimiki. It's been while."

I walked to my seat, but the more I walked the farther it drifted away. I started running for it and fell flat on my face. Hundreds of legs were stretched out before me, all attempting to trip me. I frantically ran and leaped over them. Finally arriving at my desk I dropped my bag and sat down. The seat dissolved below me and I fell to the floor on my butt. Laughter erupted around me. The faces surrounded me. Started closing in on me. They became shadowed forms, with glowing red eyes and menacing smiles.

"Look at her."

"I know."

"She's such a klutz."

"What an idiot."

"She just wants attention."

"I wish she'd just disappear and end our misery."

"She's just a nuisance nuisance nuisance nuisance nuisance nuisancenuisancenuisance.........

"YAH!" Reality whacked me in the forehead and I tumbled roughly to the ground. Oowww....

"What's your problem? I thought you were unconscious! If you're going to wake up and slap me upside the head then let me know first! Sheesh, you're lucky I didn't drop you when we were above the forest," chided Inuyasha as he tenderly felt the red hand mark on his cheek.

"Sorry," my hands slapped over my mouth with lightning speed. It had just slipped out.

Silence stilled the air as Inuyasha stared dumbfounded at Shizune. "Uh...don't worry about it, let's just get you to Kaede, we're at the village anyway."

Inuyasha felt like he had to treat the situation very carefully. The fact that she had spoken made him feel like he was balancing a stack of antique porcelain cups on the tip of his pinky. One wrong move could break it and make her go silent again.

They found the group waiting for them back at the cabin. Kagome walked up. "I'm glad to see you're okay Shizune, here's a towel so you can dry off."

Shizune stopped short, realizing that she was soaked. That her hair was soaked. She dashed for the door.

"Don't even think about it," Inuyasha warned as he stood blocking her escape. "You shouldn't be doing anything right now in your condition anyway. And stop that, you look silly covering your ears with your hands."

Reluctantly she lowered her hands. She accepted the towel from Kagome and draped it over her head. Inuyasha just gave an exasperated sigh and sat before the bristling fire. Unfortunately for her, everyone had now noticed her ears, and they wanted some answers.

"Shizune, are you a half-demon?" Kagome asked.

No answer, Shizune just stared at the dirt floor.

"Answer her. I know you can talk. You have no reason not to."

Shizune gave a pained glance at Inuyasha, as if he'd betrayed her. This made him feel slightly guilty.

Just then he realized he'd never gotten a good look at Shizune's eyes before, since she was always looking at the ground. There had always been something odd about them. It wasn't just that they were yellow, unlike Kagome's chocolate brown eyes, but now that he was paying attention he noticed her pupils were two black slits in the center of her amber spheres.

Kagome tried a different approach. "Here, let me fix up your wound, we wouldn't want it to get infected."

Shizune waved her offer off and pointed at her back. The demon's claw had pierced a hole in her shirt as well and through that hole you could see that the bleeding had already stopped and the wound was starting to close up.

"Right, I forgot that half-demons could heal up faster than humans c-"

"Stop calling me that!! I don't even know what you're talking about!"

Once again silence was what followed the event of Shizune's words. Her voice was small, as if uttered by a mouse, even with that last outburst. It was a bit raspy too, as if it were a rusty bike that hadn't been used in a while. They stared dumbstruck at her. She tugged at both ends of the towel on her head and and lay her chin gently on her knees. They were scraped and dirty but she didn't seem to care.

"I don't know what you're calling me but I'm not it, I'm a normal-human-being," she forced out, clutching tightly at her towel.

"No you're not, and you might as well face it, because denying it isn't going to do you any good. You're a half-demon. You are half-human and half-demon. Got it?" Inuyasha whipped the towel off her head. She didn't attempt to get it back.

Her right ear twitched. The towel in Inuyasha's hands caught on fire. He yelped and dropped it, stomping on it until it went out.

"Does that count as part of being a half demon?" she asked in a low voice, refusing to make eye contact.

"Uh yeah, I guess," Inuyasha answered, staring at to towel on the ground as if it might suddenly combust again, "How'd you do that?"

"I'm a black cat. I give good or bad luck depending on the mood, though usually it's bad."

Her voice got lower and lower with every word, with 'bad' as a barely audible whisper. She nervously pushed her black ears forward repeatedly, like a cat would do when cleaning itself. So that's why she's always patting her head, Inuyasha realized.

"Can you control this ability?" asked Miroku, interested.

In response Shizune stood up and walked out calmly. A light thud could be heard from above as she landed on the roof. Looked like she was done talking for the day.

I was running again. Why was I always running?! To desperately try and fail escaping from yet another problem in my life. As if I wasn't enough of a freak already, let's make me half demon! Oh yeah, those girls at school would get a kick out of that.

Anger and hate consumed me, coarsing through my veins and going to head, turning into blind rage. WHY ME?!

The was a loud series of cracks and crunching leaves, finally ending in a loud wallop that shook the earth. I stared dumbly at my hand, then at the large fallen tree on the ground. It was about 2 feet thick and broken in half. My hand barely had a scratch.

I did that? I had the power to do that?

I punched the nearest tree trunk as hard as I could. There was a quick second of silence, followed by a loud snap and boom as if fell back. I could see the millions of little splinters sticking up from the trunk. My fingers gently ran over them, feeling all the sharp little points that could easily cut me. Fury welled up within me again. I hit the nearest tree and listened it to fall. I punched another one, and one more. I hit every tree I could find. One by one they crashed down. The cracks and rumbles started to sound like the middle of a thunder storm.

As if on cue rain began to poor from the inky clouds aloft. Thunder now came from the heavens as well, echoing my own.

I screamed, my yells blending into the thunder. I didn't scream anything in particular, I just screamed. I hadn't let out any sound in so long, and now it was just bursting out all at once. Deep and definite.

If someone were to look at my mind right now it would probably be red. A blind, buzzing, raging red.

At some point I aimed my fist and hit only air. Letting my head clear, I looked around and found myself surrounded by fallen trees. It looked like there had just been a stampede. My hands stung and I raised them to my face. They were raw and bleeding.

I was soaked from the rain, but I hadn't noticed till now. Usually I hated rain, too much water, but at this point I didn't care. I didn't care that my ears were showing or anything. It just didn't matter right now.

A single tear rolled down my cheek. I barely felt it against the rain, but I tasted its saltiness as it hit my lip. A moment later another one followed it. Then another. And another. They wouldn't cease. I raised my hands to wipe them away, but they mixed in with the precipitation. Soon they poured out mercilessly, as heavy and constant as the raindrops. I brought both hands to my face and slowly sunk to my knees. I had always wondered why people did that in the movies, now I know it's because when you cry like this you have no strength to stand up. My hands were soar and wet, the ground was slick and muddy, but it all just washed away with the constant pattering surrounding me.

I could barely hear it against the crackling thunder, but I was sobbing loudly, not silently like I had that night before, but resonantly.

A hand rested gently on my shoulder. I gave a small jolt and looked back in surprise. It was Inuyasha. His usually annoyed or tough exterior was gone. He looked concerned. Was Inuyasha worried about me?

He said nothing as he observed my crying pathetic form. He bent down before me, indicating that I should climb on his back.

"You'll catch a cold out here in the rain."

I stared dumbstuck as his red back, but too worn out to object I climbed on. His kimono was as soaked as me, but it felt good as I lay my head against the cool wet cloth. He started walking past the fallen trees and back into the forest, on the lengthy walk back to the village.

Long and loud I bawled in the storm on his back. Once they came they wouldn't stop, and Inuyasha didn't object to my loud sobs. He just let me weep.

"Inuyasha," I said meekly between sobs, "Thank you."

There was a pause. Lightning lit the sky for a split second and was replied by an earsplitting crack of thunder. I wondered if I he had been able to here me against the storm.

"Don't mention it," he practically mumbled. I couldn't really tell from my position, but I think I saw a hint of scarlet on the side of his cheeks. He must not be used to showing the softer side of himself.

When the tears had run dry I just lay there, feeling strangely at peace, like when you're half-sleep. You're aware of what's going on around you, but yet unaware. You feel nothing, you think nothing. I was in the now, this moment, with not a single thought of the past or future, neither of us making a sound as we both melted into the rain.

I know, its a bit mushy, but we're gonna get into some real action soon! I'm also editting chapter 2 since everytime I look at it I wanna crush something with a hammer.