Power & Calming by Elifina
RE.Chapter1
Elifina
Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha, all the original characters of Inuyasha belong to Rumiko Takahashi (Viz Media & Sunrise studio blah blah)
*READ PLEASE!*
Revised Version
Major revision to this story, same plot same characters (so don't worry). I added A LOT more detail into the chapters as well as put in some ideas I had originally wanted to have in this story.
So PLEASE READ the chapters that say RE.ChapterXX in the title. Or just reiread the whole story again.
Reason for revise, was because every time I re-read this story things were dropped off and not picked back up at the proper time and ideas i had wanted to put in were for some reason not put in. So Hopefully you all like the revise, i know i was much more satisfied with it.
Please forgive me
*The End*
Power & Calming
Chapter One
Lawn Flamingo
Kagome gazed intensely at her tall, dark and handsome dance partner who smiled seductively down at her. As the music started and she began to sing, her partner swirled her around, and around, and around…
“Hey, student... Student... Student!”
Kagome’s eyes shot open as she unplugged one of the ear buds from her ears, the song she had been listening to blaring out. Instead of the beautiful ballroom she had imagined herself in, she was brought back to the reality and that the she was still working at a convenience store, and that her hunk of a partner was no more than a broom stick handle.
“Y-Yes!” Kagome practically yelled out in embarrassment while she turned towards who was calling her.
“You’re making a spectacle of yourself, I didn’t hire you to fool around!” The shop owner’s wife yelled at the girl while wiggling her finger disapproving.
“Get back to cleaning!” The woman yelled, her arm snapping straight, finger pointed towards the back of the store.
“Yes ma’am!” Kagome bowed hurriedly to the woman as she grumbled about "No good help these days".
Re-plugging her ears, Kagome stuck her tongue out to the woman's back, grabbed her "partner" and waltzed to the back of the store while sweeping along the isles.
It was no thought to her, when the door opened and a bell rang signaling a customer had arrived, As custom, Kagome removed the earplugs from her ears then went to the end of the isle to greet the customer. Today it was a small flock of school girls from the nearby high school. She bowed, greeting the girls and, typical of that age group, the disrespectful little brats didn't give a shit and walked right past. Honestly she didn't care. As the girls walked passed by huddled and whispering excitedly, Kagome caught a few tid-bits of their "conversation".
"I can't believe Re.Member chose the waterway here to shoot their next VIDEO! AHH! I'm so going to wake up extra early to go and take a picture of Yukio-san." One girl said.
"In the forums they said the band was going to be also shooting in a school somewhere around there. I wonder which one it is! I want to see my Kogya and Pyou!"
Kagome stopped for a moment, thinking that the names sounded vaguely familiar, after a few seconds of not being able to remember she shrugged it off and continued on with the cleaning. She wasn't all that interested into following popular trends of in-and-out celebrities as if her life depended on it, except for Toshi Hatsuna. He was like the Japanese Johnny Depp, unique and exciting acting, tall with a drop dead gorgeous body, and only 5 years older than her.
It was actually Toshi's acting that inspired here to pursue singing, Kagome had been following Toshi's acting career ever since his first debut movie at 11 years old. She remembered that her grandfather had taken her and her three friends to see it for her 6th birthday party. She had decided right on the side walk after watching it, she wanted to be a singer. Her stepfather had put her in a specialty after school program where she learned to read and write music, sing her scales and even landed a couple of solo parts in her school musicals.
Kagome looked at her Mp3 player the clock reading 1:24 pm, almost giddy with happiness she looked up to see her reliever walking through the door. Practically ripping off her smock she ran to the guy dumped the smock into one hand while shoving the broom into the other. Already out the door, Kagome waved goodbye before jumping on her bike and up the street.
"One job down, one more to go!" She said cheerfully while peddling faster up hill and letting gravity roll her down with a loud "weeeee!".
Taking a short cut through the park, she could see spire rooftops over the trees, and as she reached the end gate of the park, spread out before her was a large academy campus. The was a grand academy, tall and intimidating, it was built to mimic the old English Gothic style architecture, with the classic sharp spire rooftops, large windows and vaulted ceilings. It sat on a large expanse that was inclosed by tall brick walls. A large bronze sign mounted into the brick read "Numikura's Academy for The Arts" with a tag line, "Where honor and prestige go hand in hand". It was true, the school was extremely prestigious, from elementary to College students, only those with more then the average skill and even more money were allowed to enter. The academy had been established for two generations and had won award after award since then.
--
When she was twelve, she had gone on a field trip to the forest preserve, the teachers told the children to get into groups of four, and so of course she went with her good friends Eri, Yuka and Ayumi. While they were on a tree treasure hunt she saw the academy. She knew about the academy before, everybody did, but no one from the "outside" had ever witnessed what went on in there. So like any curious little individuals, they slinked over to the wall and climbed a fallen tree to peak over the side of the ledge. The girls were amazed at how much talent even the younger children had as they were having class outside, they could hear their voices clearly from where they were hiding.
On their way back to the rest of the group, Kagome had lagged behind and examined the wall a bit more. Her efforts paid off soon though, in a more darker, hidden part of the border of the forest she found that the tree roots had loosened and grown through the mortar between the bricks. Two years later during the golden week, when she was 14 she went back and saw that the wall had collapsed at the top. The bottom was kept together by entwined roots of the trees.
She climbed over the wall easily and sauntered her way through the beautiful gardens to the school. It was empty of course, golden week being that the schools were closed for seven days. Surprisingly though, there was a window open and she climbed through; successfully infiltrating the school. She found that the wing she climbed into was for private lessons and for the students to use to rehearse and practice. The school so beautiful on the inside, unlike the outside which looked scary, was so classy and well decorated.
Exploring up and down the corridors, she came upon a secluded hallway that led to a small faculty room for janitors. Hanging up along the wall were janitor clothing in different sizes. Suddenly an idea struck her and she mischievously took a small janitor outfit, a large plague leaning on a tripod had all the rules of being a janitor above said outfit on a shelf. She copied the plaque down on paper and left the room, finding her way back to the practice room she has come in from.
The next week Kagome put her plan into action; after school she would make her way over the broken wall and change behind a pillar in the garden area. With a white face mask on she would proceed from the gardens into the academy. Once inside she'd blend in with the shadows and while classes were in session, hang out by the windows and listen to the lesson.
It was wrong yes, so in exchange she would make sure that everything was sparkling for the next morning.
It was that time of year again when the academy put on a musical production, it was such a large scale that the school never held back on making it the best school musical in the district. Kagome watched them as they setup the stage, watched the singing and dancing try outs, observed secretly from over the stage as they rehearsed, and even listened in as they practiced speaking English to avoiding singing with an accent.
One evening after everyone went home, Kagome crept back into the academy and took one of the practice CD’s of the musical numbers. Using the second floor's practice rooms she dance and sang to all the musical acts on the CD. She was so consumed in what she was doing that she didn't notice that someone was there. She didn't know how long he had stood there watching her but she saw him when she stopped on one of her turns. He was leaning against the wall, arms crossed with a strange look on his face. She had stood there paralyzed for a moment, then had run out the nearest door and hadn't come back for a several weeks.
It wasn’t until after the musical had finished, that curiosity got the best of her and she went back and was surprised that the fallen wall was still there. Being extremely caution from then on, Kagome avoided being seen by the teachers. She almost had a heart attack when she passed the same teacher that had caught her in the corridor. From then on, she plastered herself against the adjacent wall until he passed by. She found out that a bit later that his name was Ryura Kiriyama, a professional vocal instructor.
Half a year had gone by without another incident, it was around that time that she was being picked out by some of the students that attended there. One day when she was escaping from a small group of harassers, she made her way to the private vocal practice rooms and locked herself in it. Ironically, it was the room that Ryura Kiriyama taught his classes in, and to be even more ironic, it was occupied by non-other than Ryura himself.
He recognized her and she thought that this was it. She was going to jail. However astonishing to her, he allowed her to stay and practice with him; and even more astonishing was that he recommended her for an impossible scholarship that you could only get if you knew a teacher within the academy.
She had gotten the scholarship and since then Kagome was so grateful to Ryura for everything he had done for her that if there was anytime she heard the girls speaking badly about him she would leave them nasty surprises in their lockers.
Now 4 years later, Kagome still attended always on time, was one of the highest ranking students in her class, and managed to receive two more awarding scholarships. They were not free rides, so she was still working multiple jobs, including various ones within the school, but at least she didn't have to clean toilets anymore.
--
As Kagome rode closer to the Academy, she noticed a that there was a lot of commotion in front of the school. A female dominated crowd lined the streets with signs and cheering something Kagome couldn't make out.
'Best to avoid that.' Kagome thought as she took another side street that lead towards the back entrance to the academy.
The front of the academy wasn't the only place packed with bodies, there were many staff members shouting instructions and running back and forth pulling boxes off the back of trucks. Completely curious now, Kagome locked her bike and immediately began to involve herself in the action.
"What's going on?" Kagome asked one of the cleaning crew members carrying a drum inside.
"Some punk band is filming nearby and will be using the school to film as well." He answered as he hurriedly walked passed her.
'It must be that group that would be filming in the waterway.' Kagome remembered the girls gossiping back at the store.
'Looks like there will be no class today.' Kagome frowned disappointed.
Kagome had self appointed herself to keep watch over the props in the auditorium, she made sure to keep the boxes neat and put away to the side so as not to be in the way of the staff that kept on coming back and forth with more stuff. As the last of the props were being set down, a few items caught her attention. The first was a small, red child size thrown.
Next, sticking out of a box, was one of the strangest things to put in a music video was... A pink lawn flamingo. She couldn't help it if curiosity got the best of her so she was now she rummaging though more boxes.
'This is going to be some video.' Kagome thought as she looked skeptically at the lawn ornament before putting it down.
"Dolls, dead roses, dolls with loli-dresses, a child's thrown?" Kagome laughed, "I wonder what else they got here."
Outside there was the sound of someone coming, hearing the laughing and talking, Kagome knew exactly who was approaching and bolted up to looked around for a place to take cover.
"Hey look at all those props!" Hari a girl with long lilac hair said as she appeared and bee-lined to one of the open boxes.
"Hari wait!" Ruri, sister to Hari whom had dark hair shouted. "Wow look at all this crap!"
The two sisters rummaged though the boxes, fighting over items the other picked up, behind them was a ghost of a girl, Kanna, with white hair and blank, black eyes appeared shyly standing at the end of the stage with a stoic look on her face.
"Hari, don't touch anything! If you brake anything my boyfriend will... be very angry."
Kagome grimace as a girl named Kagura Numikuro made her appearance; completing her posse of dim-witted girls. Kagura was the daughter of the academy principle she was rich, beautiful, had a great voice, while guys dropped like flies around her. But, of course, she was a complete, and total, bitch. There were rumors that she had gone out with famous young singers since the age of 13 and her current boyfriend was a popular singer from a Gothic Visual Kei group.
Kagura glanced, uninterested, at the two squabbling girls then held out her hand to inspect her nails. After which she took her make up mirror out of her handbag and applied a blood red lipstick that mirrored the color of her eyes.
Kagura and her group, except Kanna, always sought out Kagome to ridicule her for being poor and who had to work as a cleaning girl. When she as recognized as an official student they still came after her, getting their kicks by just talking down to her. While Kagome was no push over, and there were countless number of times she imaged just throwing it down with the girl, she just couldn't.
"Hari! Ruri! Let's go, there is nothing of interest here." Kagura turned on her heels and stalked out, Kanna following behind.
Hari and Ruri gave Kagura a nasty look before standing up and hurriedly followed after her.
'If her boyfriend is here than they must be the band that will be filming here.' Kagome figured as she came out from behind the stage curtain. 'I pity the man.'
Kagome sighed as she looked down at the mess the girl's made, kneeling down she started to pick up the items and put them away neatly in the boxes. Kagome picked up the flamingo, wondering what they could possibly use it for in a visual Kei video. Maybe heckling? A flamingo would be kind of hard to throw around in a crowd. Or maybe use the flamingo as a spot of color in a black and chrome video? Kagome let her imagination roam for a bit as she took the tiara that was discarded on the floor and put it on. Sticking out of one of the boxes was a gold scepter with large cubic zirconias close to the top. Pulling it out the scepter lengthened considerably to exactly Kagome's body length.
Holding the scepter in one hand and the flamingo in the other she had idea, smiling she turned and sat on the thrown the scepter in her left hand and the flamingo standing on a tilt holding up her right hand.
"I am Queen of the flamingos! You shall change your feathered downy coats of pink to green just to please me." She laughed at her silly vocal impression.
"What are you doing?" Someone asked in a deep voice as a shadow fell on the next to her.
~*~*~*~*~*~*
It was hell driving through crowd of girls who had made a mosh pit around the limo and banged loudly against the vehicle.
"Oi, why take this way? We should have gone through the back," Pyou complained as a girl practically threw herself onto the side of the limo with a banner that read "I Love You Pyou-Kun! Marry Me, Please!”
Pyou rolled his eyes at the declared statement from the girl, and moved away dark stray bangs away from his face. His deep amethyst eyes shot to the opposite door of the limo as another adolescent girl pounded the window.
"I hope these windows will be able to hold up," Pyou muttered unsure, "I have a hard time understanding women, but this just shows a whole other scary side of them."
"Oh shut it, dog breath, you know you want to hit that, and that, oh and that!" Kogya said smiling, while pointing out pretty girls.
"Whatever Kogya, you can fuck the devil for all that I care." Pyou caught the bottle of alcohol that was thrown at him.
"Your make up is messed up today - oh wait that's your face," Kogya snickered.
"You're the one with the all white contacts you freak!" Pyou retorted back ready to fight.
"Enough," a voice spoke from a dark corner of the limo.
"Tch and the guard of icebergs finally speaks! You know what, now that I think about it, this was your doing. Finally, gave into your girlfriend's request to make the video at her school. Where it so happens to be smack middle of three high schools... I hate you." Pyou finished up quickly as a cold stare turned his way.
"Don't upset the leader man; you'll just lose.. .Ow!" Kogya rubbed his head as a coin-sized imprint marked his forehead. He glared at Pyou but didn't do anything and remained silent.
Yukio ignored both the disturbances inside and outside the limo and went back to reading the filming script. He never wanted to film his video at the academy, it was "suggested" by Kagura and then followed up by her father calling their manager and so there was little choice in the matter.
Kagura had sought him out at a concert and he knew right away what she wanted, and he knew that he could use her, so when she had approached him backstage at a concert he didn't say no or yes to her suggestion to be his girlfriend. She just took his arm and in her mind figured that he had approve. Kagura was smart, crafty, and cunning, her looks were not bad and there were no emotional attachment in their "relationship".
Finally they arrived at the entrance of the school; it was a bit more impressive than the pictures showed as they got a good look at the campus when security opened the large iron gates. Now free to leave the confines of the limo, the band got out and stretched their sore muscles from sitting for so long. They could still hear the sound of the roar of girls at the front gates. Pyou and Kogya stood looking slightly awed at how big the campus was.
"Where is Yukio?" The manager asked as he came out from the school.
"Huh?" Both boys looked back to find the leader of the group missing.
"Now, where did he disappear to?" Hitoro, sighed exasperated.
Yukio walked around the area of the school, studying the hallways and connection walkways while ignoring the stares he received from passing students. He had made it a habit to memorize the blueprints of any building they went into. So when he had to escape a crowd, he knew all the twists and turns. Like now as a small crowd had begun to gather behind him. Not bothering to pause or quicken his step, he rounded a corner, then quickly another and into the auditorium stage doors. The group of followers rushed right past.
A laugh from behind made him turn around, another being was already occupying the auditorium and was unaware of his presence, so he watched the girl pick up a lawn flamingo.
She wasn't wearing a uniform, her clothes were casual so she couldn't have been a student at the academy.
It was slightly amusing watching the girl try to figure out what his group could possibly use a lawn flamingo for in a Visual Kei video. Actually, he didn't really know himself; Kogya just said it would look funny.
He continued to wait until she realized that she was no longer alone, but it didn't look like she would turn around anytime soon as she put on a tiara and picked up a cubic zirconium scepter out of a box. He raised an eyebrow as she looked at the scepter then the flamingo then smiled while turning and sat on the child's thrown, which she could fit in just barely.
Suddenly Yukio had a "vision", he pictured this girl in his video, wearing a brightly colored dress with a semi-sweet, sad facial expression on her face. This would be the missing piece that he had thought had been missing for the video. Yukio decided to make himself known.
"What are you doing?" De asked.
He grinned widely at her reaction. She jumped up, surprised, but because the chair she was on was so small, her hips got stuck so it tipped over and she fell sideways into the open box, the flamingo held straight out in a death grip.
*~*~*~*~*
Kagome wasn't exactly sure what happened, she was on the chair then a voice scared her and now half her body was in a box? So embarrassing.
Her heart skipped a beat as a white make-up’d face with black eye liner accentuating red contact eyes stared down at her.
'Oh my kami, it’s a demon.' She thought as she attempted to scramble out of the box.
"I-I was just, I mean..." Kagome struggled to find words as she broke the box while trying to get out of it.
Her cheeks felt as hot as an oven as she saw the corner of the person's lips twitch upwards. He bent down, took hold of her forearm and pulled her up easily.
Kagome couldn't look into the man's face, it was just too... strange. That’s when she realized that she still had a death grip on the flamingo's neck. Releasing it, she rested the poor lawn bird against the other boxes.
"Care to answer my earlier question?" the man asked.
"I-I was just...I’m so sorry." Kagome bowed, her back at a perfect 90 degree angle before whipping back up.
Turning around quickly out of embarrassment, she managed to take a couple of steps away, and then stopped as she felt a hand rest on her shoulder.
"Not so fast," the man spoke.
Kagome didn't know what to say at first as he began to drag her the other way.
"Where are we going?" Kagome asked, but didn't receive an answer.
"Excuse me...who are you? Hey, answer me!" Kagome got annoyed.
'Boy, he is strong. Who is this guy?' Kagome thought, 'Maybe one of the casts of that video thing. Oh no, maybe he is going to report me to the police?'
"Look, I didn't mean any harm, if we can go back and I can pay if there were any damages," Kagome only received a quick glance from the corner of his eye.
Now Kagome was thoroughly annoyed, whoever this guy was, he had gotten on her bad side for being a jerk. All he had to do was ask, sure she would have run for the hills but he wouldn't have known that. Kagome jerked her arm back breaking free of his hold.
"I asked a question, care to answer it?" She folded her arms just in case he tried to grab her again.
The man turned his head tilted slightly to the side, one eyebrow raised.
"So, that you could plot your escape, force was more appropriate in this case," He said firmly.
Kagome's shoulders dropped slightly as he picked up what she would have done, creepy. Chewing the inside of her lip, she tried to come up with a plan, but before she could extract an idea the man once again had managed to take hold of her arm.
"Really, enough with the pulling! I can walk on my own!" Kagome hissed as his long fingernails grazed her soft skin.
"I don't doubt that," he half ignored her but grinned as she mumbled a couple of colorful words under her breathe in English.
Her English pronunciation wasn't bad; she'll do well in life if she learned more. He glanced at her once more, her angry expression making her blue eyes take on an interesting silvery hue. Her pretty face was appealing to him as well.
They had just rounded a corner and he almost faltered in his stride as a group of girls with their backs turned to them a few yards away stood outside the double doors they needed to go through. In front of the group was a girl who's hair he would know anywhere.
He debated taking a different way when another hallway presented itself, but that way lead closer to the outside, and the girl he had by the arm would most likely try to escape.
"Excuse me," he said and right on queue there was squealing when they saw who it was.
"There he is! Kagura, Yukio is here - who is she?" A younger girl with white hair and black eyes pointed towards Kagome who kept her head down and her free hand in front of her face.
"Yukio, darling... Who is this?" Kagura, the queen of the music school in not only looks but with a gifted voice, looked at Kagome as if she had just stepped on her $1,000 pair of shoes.
"No one to be concerned about, I need to get though those doors." Yukio passed Kagura and opened the door.
Kagome could practically feel the knives stab her back and turned pink as she heard someone say, “Isn’t that the cleaning girl?”
+~+~+~+
"Yukio! There you are! Where have you been we were all looking for you-" Hitoro stopped speaking as Yukio brought forward a girl that was behind him.
Kagome looked around meekly as Pyou and Kogya came over, curious, and Kogya's eyes lit up.
"She's pretty hot," Kogya whispered to Pyou.
Pyou on the other hand looked like he had seen death and didn't respond.
"Who is this?" Hitoro asked, surprised that Yukio would bring forth a girl.
"I want her to be in our video," Yukio declared.
There was a slight pause then, "WHAT?"
*~*~*~*~*~~*
~Approved & beta'd by Dawn Of Roses ^_^/”